text
stringlengths 316
100k
|
|---|
Share
Apple is known for its crazy patents, but some of them are much more realistic. On Tuesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted the company a patent for a special construction process that involves LiquidMetal and sapphire glass displays. The patent approval occurred right after Apple announced that it has exclusive rights to LiquidMetal’s unique alloy until 2015.
In scientific terms, LiquidMetal is a bulk amorphous alloy and is considered an exotic metal. It may look like a metal in liquid form, but it moves like molten plastic. So far, LiquidMetal has only been used to make a SIM card ejector, some military equipment, and medical devices. The technology has been put to the test, but it has never been used to create a consumer smartphone or tablet. Nonetheless, it seems that Apple may have plans to forge its future iPhones and iPads using the LiquidMetal technology.
Apple’s patent describes the new use it has in mind for LiquidMetal and how it will aid in stabilizing the sapphire glass displays in future iDevices. Stabilization is necessary, so that when you inevitably drop your iPhone, the glass doesn’t shatter or simply pop off. Back in 2007, Apple used a plastic chassis and a rubberized gasket to protect the display from sudden impacts. This technology is still used in all other iPhone models up to the iPhone 5S.
The new patent aims to avoid all these annoying in-between steps and go directly from the metal chassis to the display, using LiquidMetal in a new metal injection molding process. That way, Apple can form sapphire glass directly into the iPhone or iPad’s metal bezel. The patent indicates that plastic can also be used, but the emphasis is on the idea of using LiquidMetal to ensure the strongest bond and protection between the glass display and metal chassis.
Clearly, this technology is very cutting edge, but its application is untested in mobile devices, so don’t get too pumped up, thinking LiquidMetal will debut with the iPhone 6 this September (or August, depending on which rumors you believe. Read our roundup here). However, given Apple’s agreement with GT Technologies to manufacture enormous amounts of sapphire glass, it’s probably safe to assume that a sapphire glass display is forthcoming on the long-awaited iPhone 6. |
“It is better to know how to learn than to know.” – Dr. Seuss
At no point in history were you more capable of teaching yourself anything than today.
Picking up new skills has become as easy as firing up Google, doing some research, practicing in the right ways, and pushing yourself through the plateaus. But despite this incredible access to information, few people take full advantage of the opportunity they have for self-directed learning.
We’re stuck in the myth that to learn something you need to be educated on it when you’re perfectly able to educate yourself. It’s no longer necessary to get a college degree to be qualified to do something, and while big, old companies haven’t realized that yet, it’s common wisdom in smaller, more forward-thinking startups. Plenty of successful people today got where they are today by teaching themselves the skills, and there’s no reason you can’t do the same.
Self-education can free you from a job you hate, from a college major you aren’t excited about, and it will be a core skill for the 21st century. Your ability to respond to changes in the landscape of work and technology will be dictated by how skilled of a self-educator you are. How well you can take full advantage of the information available to you to grow your skillset.
I started studying how to learn outside a classroom around my sophomore year of college and primarily focused it to marketing and writing. Over the years of teaching myself new things, and now interviewing other people who have done the same, I’ve honed in on a method for educating yourself on anything.
If you follow this process, there’s no reason you can’t take yourself from novice to expert in any skill or topic without a college’s help. It starts with rethinking how we actually learn.
This is one part of a 7-part masterclass on teaching yourself anything. If you want the other 6 parts, you can get them for free here.
How We Learn
In high school, college, and most forms of higher education (in the United States, at least) the model of learning you operate in trains you to stop figuring things out for yourself and expect information to be handed to you.
How “well you do” in school is based on your grades. Your grades are based on your test scores, papers, and projects, which are based on how well you apply information that was handed to you. For at least twelve years, you’re trained to regurgitate and apply information that’s pre-packaged for you but never trained to find that information on your own.
There are no classes where the professor shows up and says “figure out how to build a website by tomorrow,” and then leaves. It’s more likely that you’ll be taught one way to build a website (probably using some awful tool like Dreamweaver) and then expected to follow the steps you were shown.
But that’s not how learning works in the real world. If you want to do anything remotely independent (entrepreneurship, creative work, freelancing, writing, lifestyle businesses, etc.) then you have to be able to figure things out without being handed the knowledge beforehand.
The way we’re taught to learn:
The way you really learn:
If this sounds like “guess and check,” the process that some teacher probably told you was “bad” at some point, that’s because it is guess and check. And it’s a magnitudes better method than expecting to know the solution to your problems beforehand.
When you teach yourself something on your own, there’s no curriculum, no playbook, no textbook, no professor to walk you through the steps. You move from one problem to the next slowly getting better at guessing and checking. You don’t need a formal education in a subject, you just need the ability to experiment, push your abilities, and respond to feedback.
But after years of having knowledge spoonfed to you, starting to learn this way might be intimidating. You have to train (or, retrain) your ability to be self-taught first. And the easiest way to start getting into that habit is to follow a technique I’ve developed called the “Sandbox Method.”
The Sandbox Method for Self-Education
The sandbox method is an ongoing process for self-education, based on the latest scientific research on how we learn and how we process information. It recognizes that we don’t need to memorize facts, formulas, or other minutiae anymore. Instead, we need to develop an intuitive understanding of our skills, expose ourselves to a broad swath of information about the skill, and constantly push ourselves to improve.
It can be done on your own, with a mentor, in school, in a company, any time. It’s a process for continual learning and improvement, broken out into four cyclical steps.
Step 1: Build Your Sandbox
Before doing any research on how to do, or how to better do, what you want to learn, you need to create an environment to practice it in. You’re going to spend most of your time practicing and experimenting, not studying, so you need a way that you can easily exercise your skill and improvise.
This is your “sandbox,” an area where you can freely play around with the skill you’re trying to learn without having to worry too much about taking it seriously. The sandbox lets you explore, experiment, and fail, without staking your entire future, savings, or reputation on it. It’s an ideal environment for rapid learning.
This sandbox should be:
Low cost or free: so you don’t delay in starting Low-stakes: so you’re not afraid to fail or show your work Public: so that you have to put your work out there in some manner
Some examples:
Programming : Accounts on Github, Heroku, and StackExchange for building projects and asking for help.
: Accounts on Github, Heroku, and StackExchange for building projects and asking for help. Writing : A personal blog hosted on WordPress, Medium, or SquareSpace.
: A personal blog hosted on WordPress, Medium, or SquareSpace. Photography : Your camera and Instagram account.
: Your camera and Instagram account. Design : Sketch, and a Dribbble account to show your work on.
: Sketch, and a Dribbble account to show your work on. Marketing: A blog or information site hosted on WordPress that you can try to grow.
Whatever you want to learn, this sandbox must be in place before you get started. If you don’t have an easy way to practice whatever you’re trying to learn and to put your work out in the world as you’re going, then you’ll learn much slower and have a harder time getting feedback.
Putting your work out there when you’re a novice is scary, but it will train you to get comfortable with having people see your creative projects before they’re perfect and before you’re an expert. School trains students to be afraid of the judgment of their work from being graded all the time, but if you can get over that latent fear and start sharing what you’re working on with the community around your skill, you’ll advance much faster and make useful connections along the way.
With your sandbox in place, you can start researching and learning more about your target skill.
Step 2: Research
To continue expanding the borders of your sandbox, the extent of the skill that you can practice and apply, you’ll need to do a certain amount of research. The resources exist online to teach yourself anything, you just have to figure out what’s worth reading, watching, or listening to.
In the beginning, the best kind of information to look for is recipes. Clear ways of using the skill that you can immediately incorporate into your sandbox and try out. If you don’t practice what you’re reading (on your own, not just in the confines of the education platform like Codecademy) then you’ll never truly learn it.
So as you’re practicing the skill, go through materials that will broaden your understanding of it and give you new recipes to experiment with. These typically fall into a few categories:
Books
I love books as a learning resource. I’ve used them to improve my photography, get better at marketing, learn how our minds work, learn how to learn, and many people swear by books as a self-education resource. They’re great for picking up broad techniques and mental models for certain skills and can be invaluable introductions to new parts of the skills that you might not have thought of.
You can also use books for harder skills like programming. At least one person I’ve spoken with taught himself how to program primarily through textbooks until he knew enough to figure out problems on his own using StackOverflow and the debugger.
They can also be great for improving your language skills, both by teaching you how to be a better language learner and helping you learn the intricacies of a language’s grammar. You won’t learn proper pronunciation or how to listen to a book, but they can be useful resources for mastering the finer points.
Whatever you’re trying to learn, books are a great resource to start with since they’re generally more vetted and edited than what you can find online. But there are still plenty of great, sometimes better, resources to be found on the Internet.
Blogs and Online Resources
Second to books, there’s tons of written content online you can use to self-educate. Some people have written whole blog posts on how to teach yourself marketing, teach yourself design, learn JavaScript, and if you search around a bit you can probably find a well-written guide to teaching yourself anything.
Some of these resources will explain specifically how to do something, and some, like the ones listed above, will help you navigate everything else out there. If you’re trying to navigate the Internet’s vast collection of self-education resources, finding a good blog article or online resource that can cut through the noise is a huge boon.
The easiest way to find these is to simply Google “how to do X” or “how to learn X” or “how to get better at X.” You’ll typically find a good article, discussion on Reddit, or related question on Quora that you can dig through to get started.
Online Courses and “MOOCs” (Massive Open Online Classrooms)
If you prefer watching and listening to reading, then online courses or “MOOCs” are a perfect solution for self-education. The Internet is full of free and paid online classes that can teach you anything from programming, to marketing, to design, to (I assume) basket weaving.
Some colleges, even, have opened up free recordings of their courses. You can go through MIT’s OpenCourseWare, Harvard’s open learning, and free class recordings from tons of other universities.
There are also great dedicated platforms for online courses. I personally have used SkillShare, Khan Academy, Coursera, Codecademy, and Udemy. There are also plenty of amazing teachers on YouTube (like this Ruby on Rails series), teachers on Teachable (like Tiago Forte), and teachers who have built their own schools from scratch (like Wes Bos).
Many of these materials can be expensive, but there are plenty of free online courses too. And some of the free ones are better than the paid ones. Check out highly viewed YouTube channels for skills you’re trying to learn, and look at free university recordings and TED talks if you want to learn a subject. In many cases, these freely distributed courses are the best resources out there.
And Take Notes!
As you’re learning, take notes on everything so you can refer back to them later. I like using Evernote and keeping highly detailed notes, since this makes it easy to find things that I’ve learned in the past and exactly where I’ve found them. It helps you remember everything, too, by building up a “personal wiki” in the words of Andy Hunt.
You should also consider publishing your notes as you go (as I do with books I read) since that forces you to clarify your understanding and articulate it in a way that other people will understand.
Step 3: Implement and Practice
Within your sandbox, how you practice what you’re learning will be as important as what you choose to practice. The wrong practice methods can lead to hours, days, even years of wasted repetition, but the right practice methods can accelerate you to the level of competency in a matter of months.
The ineffective practice that most people engage in is called “naive practice,” named by Anders Ericsson in his book Peak. Naive practice is how most people trick themselves into thinking their practicing, while really, they aren’t learning anything.
Some examples of naive practice would be:
Playing a competitive game like Go casually with a friend.
Playing songs that you already know how to play.
Looking up a recipe, baking a pie, and then keeping making that kind of pie in the future.
The problem is that in this kind of “practice,” you’re not challenging yourself. If you go through the motions of naive practice, you’ll likely improve very little, if at all, so you have to incorporate the elements of purposeful and deliberate practice to make sure that you’re truly learning while you’re practicing.
Practicing purposefully within your sandbox requires that you:
Honestly assess your limits to figure out where you need to improve. Set a goal just beyond your current ability to motivate yourself to stretch beyond your comfort zone. Practice with intense focus. Get feedback, in whatever way you can, and incorporate that feedback into your practice.
Getting feedback will be the last part of our self-education system.
Step 4: Get Feedback
As you practice deliberately within your sandbox, continuing to do research to fill in the gaps of your knowledge, the last (and necessary) piece of the self-education process is getting feedback.
If you’re trying to improve your weightlifting, it’s hard to know if your form is good or not without a coach there to give you corrections. When you’re learning a language, it’s hard to know whether you’re pronouncing words correctly without someone to critique you. You can learn a lot on your own, but without a coach, mentor, or tool to provide feedback, you’ll get stuck eventually. Or, worse, you might keep ingraining bad technique, making it harder to unlearn later.
For some skills, you can find online tools that will give you feedback. Sites like Codecademy tell you what you did wrong, and quizzes on more education-heavy sites like Coursera check your comprehension as you’re doing.
There are also online communities that have good systems for giving each other feedback. There are free, community feedback systems like reddit’s /r/learnprogramming for getting coding feedback. There are also more enforced feedback-sharing sites like Lang-8, where you give feedback to people trying to learn your language in return for feedback from people whose language you’re trying to learn.
But the best form of feedback is always a coach, tutor, or mentor who already knows how to do what you’re trying to learn. They’ll be able to provide the most targeted feedback, and if they’re good, they’ll be able to preempt your plateaus and give you ideas about how you can design your learning program to avoid them.
If you don’t have anyone who can coach you in person, try finding someone online. If you want to be a better writer, hire an editor on UpWork to give you feedback. If you want to get in shape, find an online service focused on improving your weightlifting abilities. If you want to learn a new language, find someone on iTalki that you can have conversations with.
You could also reach out to someone you look up to and ask for small bits of advice. They won’t give as much hands-on coaching, but they can still be incredibly helpful.
Another option is to use less direct forms of feedback. The market can be one good feedback loop, since if you’re regularly publishing art, writing, photos, music, you can get a sense for what people like and don’t like based on what they respond to. Be careful with this method, though. Sometimes you’ll get pulled in the direction of mass appeal instead of best work. Fifty Shades of Grey is one of the best-selling books of all time… but it’s not exactly a literary work to model your writing off of.
Continue the Self-Education Loop
Once you’ve gone through the process of designing your sandbox, researching how to improve your skill, applying that knowledge to purposeful practice within your sandbox, and getting feedback on your work as you’re going, you simply repeat the process to continue developing your skill.
When you reach a learning goal, or feel like you’ve become comfortable with an aspect of the skill, you have to go back to the research phase to assess what else you need to learn, adjust your sandbox to allow you to learn that skill effectively, then purposefully practice it and solicit feedback to keep pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.
This creates the self-education loop. A perpetual cycle of constant learning and improvement, where you never have to stop improving your abilities or stagnate at a learning plateau:
Troubleshooting
Finally, it’s possible that you’ll eventually get stuck somewhere. When that happens, you have to assess what the problem might be.
Did you reach a point of “good enough” and plateau? Then you need to learn how to bust through learning plateaus.
Have you lost motivation and stop practicing? Then you need to learn how to build a self-perpetuating motivation machine.
Are you practicing diligently, but not improving? Then you may need to get a better understanding of how to practice purposefully and deliberately. |
Terry Firma
When Liberal Democrat Mark Smith decided to run for Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania recently, the amateur guitarist might not have counted on the votes of his conservative Christian bandmates. But what his musical friends had in store for him astonished Smith. The other members of the up-and-coming group, One Floor Away, told him he’d have to quit making music with them — unless he changed his position on marriage equality.
Smith has spoken up for marriage equality on the campaign trail and on Facebook. He refused to renounce his support, and lost the opportunity to play music he loves for a band that is recording its first album and seems to be going places in the Christian rock scene.
“It sort of blew my mind,” Smith said. “It was like a smack to the side of the head.” He said the band’s record producer and a couple of his band mates gave him the ultimatum late last month as they were meeting in Ithaca, N.Y. for a recording session.
The other band members declined to comment on the affair, other than to say “What we do with our band, we prefer to keep quiet.” The group aims to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Smith says he was on board with that.
One Floor Away recently recorded a single featuring Smith that was released on iTunes; at Smith’s request, it is being re-dubbed with a substitute part. He explains he “can’t support them any more than they support me.”
He also built the group’s website, Smith says. It’s unclear whether One Floor Away will redesign it so as not to benefit from creative contributions by the insufficiently pious.
[image via philly.com] |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I am Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from Warsaw, Poland, from the country of Copernicus, of Frédéric Chopin and Marie Curie. We’re here at the National Stadium which was built for football or soccer two years ago, but this year it’s the site of the COP 19. It’s the 19th Conference of Parties, the U.N. climate change summit.
While the Philippines continues to reel from the devastating Typhoon Haiyan, U.S. negotiators here in Warsaw are opposing efforts to help poor countries adapt to climate change. According to an internal U.S. briefing document that was seen by Democracy Now!, the U.S. delegation is worried the talks here in Warsaw will, quote, “focus increasingly on blame and liability” and that poor nations will be, quote, “seeking redress for climate damages from sea level rise, droughts, powerful storms and other adverse impacts.” The document was first reported on by The Hindu newspaper and The Guardian, as well, in Britain.
The question about who should pay for the damage caused by extreme weather events is at the crux of much of the negotiating here in Warsaw. Developing countries insist the world’s largest historical polluters, the United States and other industrialized countries, have a financial responsibility to offset the negative impacts of climate change on the developing world. According to a new report by Germanwatch, Haiti, the Philippines and Pakistan were most affected by severe weather-related catastrophes last year. Over the past 10 years, the most affected countries are, without exception, developing nations, with Honduras, Burma and Haiti being the hardest hit.
Joining us now is Nitin Sethi, a journalist with The Hindu, who first reported on the leaked document. Last week, he published a piece headlined “U.S. to Oppose Mechanism to Fund Climate Change Adaptation in Poor Nations.”
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Nitin.
NITIN SETHI: Thank you so much.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about how you got these documents.
NITIN SETHI: Well, I can’t reveal my sources, but obviously it was from one of the diplomats somewhere across the world who wanted to share it out.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the significance. For people especially in the United States, this word, “loss and damage,” doesn’t have much meaning; it’s sort of U.N. speak. What does “loss and damage” mean? And then talk about what the document said.
NITIN SETHI: OK, let me try and unpack that for you. The two issues that have—we’ve been talking of for the last 20 years, one is how to reduce the emissions in the atmosphere so that we don’t reach a certain level of concentrations, that make sure temperatures also remain within certain limits. Now, while we do that, we still need to adapt to things that are changing in the atmosphere at the moment or changing in the climate at the moment, which is called adaptation. But because we’ve not done too much in the last 20 years on mitigation or reducing emissions, what’s happened is there’s enough damage happening at the moment that cannot be checked even if you adapt to your best possible capabilities. Countries are now coming and saying, “Because you’ve not acted to reduce emissions, we are being damaged, our houses are being lost, our livelihoods are being lost, people are dying.” And you need to be compensated for that. You need to be compensated for the lack of action over the last 20 years. And that’s what really loss and damage is about.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the crucial points in the document that most surprised you?
NITIN SETHI: I think three things were fascinating for what—how they portrayed the U.S., of what it was going to do publicly and how it was going to negotiate within the UNFCCC or this present meeting. The first thing was its position on how it would treat the issue of loss and damage. And it was very clear that they don’t think loss and damage should live, except beyond its name; the loss and damage issue should not have any concern about liability or compensation attached to it. So they came here with the agenda to defang this idea which has been—or an animal which has been up for the last two years. What they want to do is keep the name intact, but put it in a place in this entire conversation where there’s no relationship whatsoever to any kind of liability, legal responsibility issues in it.
The second thing I find interesting in this document was something they’ve said in other words, but here they kind of go very explicit and say, while every country will be able to put its own pledges about how much emissions they want to cut, nobody shall be able to ask them to do more or less. So, while we put it out, say, 2014 end—the U.S. actually says 2015 early—every country can put out a pledge saying, “This is the amount I want to do,” and then everyone can talk about it for six months, but nobody can really tell anyone to do more than that, which really means, in other words, if science says that you’re required to do more to ensure temperatures don’t go beyond critical levels, there’s nothing anyone can tell the country to do.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to read, actually, from this confidential document—
NITIN SETHI: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: —that we have right now on loss and damage. The U.S. internal briefing paper reads, quote—and this is from John Kerry to the U.N.—the U.S. climate change team—the internal briefing paper reads, “As it was in last year’s meeting in Doha, the issue of Loss and Damage is likely to be one of the most contentious issues in Warsaw. Loss and Damage is an agenda item largely driven by the small islands, and more recently the least developed countries, seeking redress for climate damages from sea level rise, droughts, powerful storms and other adverse impacts. … A central issue will be whether loss and damage continues to fall within adaptation or whether it becomes a separate, third pillar … which we believe would lead the UNFCCC to focus increasingly on blame and liability, which in turn would be counterproductive.” Counterproductive, Nitin, for who?
NITIN SETHI: For the U.S. government, particularly, and other developed countries, because if you look at emissions from history, the accumulated emissions so far, a large percentage of that comes from the rich or the developed nations. So if someone goes to court tomorrow, or any legal redress system, and says, “Who is to blame for the typhoon that never happened before but has started to happen at a high level now?” it will primarily be the responsibility of developed countries to compensate these small, vulnerable countries. And that’s what U.S. government, I feel, is scared about, to enter a system where there is a legal compensation mechanism available for small, vulnerable countries, who otherwise don’t have voice in this large set-up.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you pressured not to release these documents?
NITIN SETHI: I could say that I had a long conversation with my friends in the U.S. delegation here. It took a while to convince them to talk about it.
AMY GOODMAN: Did they ask you not to reveal these confidential documents?
NITIN SETHI: I wouldn’t want to talk about this bit.
AMY GOODMAN: But you did reveal them.
NITIN SETHI: I did put them out. I quoted from them. They finally did make a statement, which didn’t end up saying anything about the document I had in hand. All they said was, “We’ll continue to work with the world to save climate change from happening,” and that was the end of it.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you very quickly address India? What does climate change mean for India?
NITIN SETHI: It’s a double whammy for India. At one point, India is one of the largest—or has a large percentage of its population vulnerable to what’s going to happen when climate change reaches certain levels. At the other stage, it has a development challenge of: Can it develop fast enough, cleaner enough, to ensure that more people don’t come in harm’s way? It’s a tough one for them, because you have about roughly 400 million people, even today, in India who do not have access to basic power and needs. And you need to provide them electricity and power in the next few years. You need to provide them quick, cheap and clean. It’s a challenge for any economy, I think, and it’s a great challenge simply because of the population levels, the way place—where they’re placed on the economic ladder right now, to do this and try and do this differently than other nations. And I think that’s the challenge for India.
AMY GOODMAN: And what about the Indian government? How is it dealing with climate change?
NITIN SETHI: I would say it’s been a slow start. There are some initiatives where they’ve done really well, on, say, issues like energy efficiency, building large solar plants. They’ve suddenly woken up in the last few years and are ratcheting up. But the energy demand overall is so high that even as they invest what in Indian rupees is 95,000 crores over the next 20 years, it still will not add up to more than 5 to 7 or 10 percent of the solar—of the entire energy mix of the country. So it’s a tough one, and it’s a risk for any nation to say, “I will invest in future rather than investing in my present.” And that’s the challenge India is facing.
AMY GOODMAN: Very quickly, what do you see as the most important accomplishment that should come out of the summit here?
NITIN SETHI: I think there are three that should act. Hopefully, they all come out together.
AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds.
NITIN SETHI: One is loss and damage. Two is finance. Third is elements for the 2015 agreement which lays out the basic framework for that.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much, Nitin Sethi, senior assistant editor at The Hindu, responsible for leaking the confidential U.S. briefing papers for diplomats prior to the climate summit in Warsaw, and we’ll link to those documents at democracynow.org. |
Some laboratory mice were given specially engineered insuling-producing genes. These genes were then remotely activated using radio waves. This could mean a whole new field of medical procedures in which we turn genes on and off at will.
This breakthrough is the work of geneticists at New York's Rockefeller University. It's a pretty circuitous path from the initial burst of radio waves to the activation of the gene, and there's still a lot of refinement and improvement that needs to be made before this can be used in medical treatments, but still - we're talking about the ability to modify the behavior of genes without ever going inside a patient's body. That's a potentially colossal advance.
Advertisement
Admittedly, while the treatment itself is totally non-invasive, the researchers did first have to inject some nanoparticles onto the mice's cells in order to affect their genes. It's a bit of a complex process, but Nature has a good explanation of just what was involved:
Friedman and his colleagues coated iron oxide nanoparticles with antibodies that bind to a modified version of the temperature-sensitive ion channel TRPV1, which sits on the surface of cells. They injected these particles into tumours grown under the skins of mice, then used the magnetic field generated by a device similar to a miniature magnetic-resonance-imaging machine to heat the nanoparticles with low-frequency radio waves. In turn, the nanoparticles heated the ion channel to its activation temperature of 42 °C. Opening the channel allowed calcium to flow into cells, triggering secondary signals that switched on an engineered calcium-sensitive gene that produces insulin. After 30 minutes of radio-wave exposure, the mice's insulin levels had increased and their blood sugar levels had dropped.
The radio waves are ideal for this sort of remote manipulation because they can pass through thick layers of tissue, and they can be easily focused by the TRPV1 channel to affect only the desired target. Lead researcher Jeffrey Friedman says that, although this particular treatment had to do with insulin production, this isn't actually meant specifically as a diabetes treatment. That's a good thing, considering this treatment is massively more inefficient than many diabetes treatments currently available. Instead, this is just meant as a general proof of concept, and insulin production happens to be one of the easier gene activities to manipulate.
Advertisement
Even better, the researchers have already developed a way to achieve similar, albeit weaker, results without having to inject nanoparticles at all. They have developed cells that can grow their own required nanoparticles, meaning there would be no need to give patients strange chemicals or molecules. However, as Nature explains, this would still require growing tumors inside humans to actually get these cell cultures in place, which means the treatment isn't yet ethically permissible in humans. It's definitely early days yet, but this is one seriously intriguing line of research.
Via Nature. Image by mathagraphics, via Shutterstock. |
When the name of Everson Griffen was on the Vikings' list of inactives ninety minutes before kickoff on Sunday, it came as a huge surprise. After all, Griffen was not even listed on the team's final injury report that was released on Friday.
According to Pro Football Talk, apparently the NFL is going to take a closer look at the circumstances behind that deactivation.
The NFL requires any team who has a player with an injury or illness that could impact his ability to play after 4:00 p.m. ET on the Friday preceding a Sunday game to announce the injury to the local media (including the Associated Press) and the network televising the game. The information also must be given to the other team's P.R. director and the NFL. In this case, the Vikings complied with the policy only if Griffen became ill at the moment the team submitted its list of inactives. If he were ill at any point before 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday, the Vikings had an obligation to alert the media, the Chiefs, and the league.
The National Football League requires teams to do this for a reason. . .*cough*betting lines*cough*. . .and while it seems like a minor rule, it's still a rule that's apparently enforced by the National Football League.
According to PFT, the Cleveland Browns did something similar a couple of weeks ago with cornerback Joe Haden. But, even in that case, Haden had been listed on the Browns' injury report. Yes, he was listed as "probable," but he was still listed.
We'll be keeping an eye on this situation as things develop. It's hard to imagine anything too harsh happening to the Vikings about this. But, since this is the National Football League, that could depend on any number of factors, up to and including what Roger Goodell has for lunch on any particular day. |
Click here for the Forbes list of The 25 Best Places To Retire In 2014.
Retirement is one of those chances in life to do something really different. With kids usually out of the house, many people look at it as an opportunity to move to a place that better fits their likings and budget---somewhere affordable that's warmer (or colder), more rural (or urban), with good medical care and options for an active life, including perhaps a part-time job.
We’ve identified 25 such communities of varying sizes that retirees and those nearing retirement would do well to consider. These spots are spread across 16 states in all four continental time zones. Four states--Texas, Florida, South Carolina and Pennsylvania--have two or more listings. About three-quarters of our picks are in climates considered warm or moderate. That's not surprising since weather is one factor taken into account, and polls show seniors prefer warm climates. Nevertheless, a number of colder cities made the cut, including Fargo, N.D., Pittsburgh, Pa., and Boise, Idaho.
For the full list, click on the picture above. The listings are in alphabetical order, meaning that all 25 are considered meritorious and not ranked among themselves.
Perhaps surprisingly, only three were on last year's list, although nine graced our earlier or more narrowly focused lists. That's because for 2014, we screened even more locations, took into account additional factors and broadened acceptable ranges for other factors. But our focus remains, as in previous years, the identification of places that offer what we consider good retirement value.
To come up with the best 25, we sifted data on more than 400 cities from every state. The major factors taken into account were economic. These included overall cost of living and home prices as compared to national averages and general state tax climates for retirees (something that Forbes has been tracking for years).
For cost of living, we draw largely on stats from FindTheData.org. For home prices, we primarily use numbers collected by the National Association of Realtors, trulia.com and zillow.com. Although no one element is determinative, cost is a major reason only three places in the expensive Northeast and West Coast make the cut. They are repeat choice Pittsburgh and Best Places list newcomers State College, Pa., and Bellingham, Wash.
If money is truly no object, check out our choices for 25 Top Places To Retire Rich.
If for you, as for most folks, money is a consideration, then you may be hoping to cut your housing costs in retirement. That's a growing challenge since the the median home price across the country is $207,000, up 11% from last year's $186,000. Still, there are bargains out there. Seven places on our list have average prices below $140,000. The lowest is Ogden, Utah, $124,000; followed by Pittsburgh, $130,000; and Clemson, S.C., $135,000. Moreover, only one city on the list has a typical price more than 10% above the average, Bellingham at $266,000.
Cost-of-living is expressed as an index, with 100 being the national average. We generally look for places with indexes no higher than 105. Two on the list are higher: Bellingham, again (109) and Bluffton, S.C. (108). Three places actually have indexes below 90, or more than 10% below the national average: Abilene, Tex. (87), Ogden (88) and Auburn, Ala. (89).
With more and more retirees working at least part-time, we also consider estimates of current and future economic prosperity. These include local unemployment rates as collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and prospects for future growth, as gauged in hundreds of cities by the Milken Institute. For December 2013, the national unemployment rate was 6.7%, down from 7.9% a year before. Only one place on the list has an unemployment rate substantially above the average, Port Saint Lucie, Fla., at 8.1%. All the others are near or below the national norm. Some are way below: Fargo, 2.3%; Morgantown, W.V., and Fredericksburg, Tex., both 3.6%.
Our focus on a state's tax climate for retirees takes into account the notion that what is low tax for retirees isn't always the same as for working-age folks. Nine states don't have a broad-based state income tax--Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. But such states tend to make up for that with other, higher taxes, most notably, higher sales and real estate levies, which can hit seniors harder. On the other hand, many states with income taxes give special breaks to retirees, such as light or no taxation of Social Security and pension benefits, and inheritances. In our view, the best states for retirees from a tax perspective are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.
Seniors rightly worry about physical as well as economic security. So we also give weight to violent crime rates for cities and their surrounding areas as calculated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.We factor in the number of doctors per capita as a proxy for the accessibility of health care.
Today's retirees want to keep fit and active, as well as safe. So we look at ratings for attributes that encourage an active retirement. One we use is Bicycling Magazine's ratings of cities for "bikability". High grades here go to Austin, Boise, Fargo, Charleston, S.C., Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City, Utah. Another is Walkscore.com ratings for walkability, or the ability to shop and get places on foot (great for both exercise and non-reliance on cars). Top scores go to Bellingham, Bluffton, Boise, Brevard, N.C.; Clemson, Fredericksburg and State College. A third measure we use is the assessment by volunteeringinamerica.gov of the extent of adult volunteer activity. Cities placing well here include Austin, Boise, Cape Coral, Fla; Fargo, Ogden, Oklahoma City, Okla.; Pittsburgh and Salt Lake City,
Of course, no nationwide list can take into account your own personal considerations such as wanting to stay near friends and family. Other things this list doesn’t take into account, at least directly, are such intangible qualities as cultural milieu and scenic beauty. But upwards of a half-dozen places on the list could be classified as college towns (Auburn, Austin, Bellingham, Blacksburg, Va.; Clemson, Las Cruces, N.M.; Morgantown and State College), which often afford enhance cultural opportunities for the community. And a fair number of our 25 offer mountain or water environments, including Bellingham, Blacksburg, Bluffton, Boise, Brevard, Cape Coral, Charleston, Ogden, Port Saint Lucie, Salt Lake City and Venice, Fla.
Click here for the Forbes list of The 25 Best Places to Retire in 2014.
Follow William P. Barrett on Twitter @WilliamPBarrett.
WATCH: How To Get Real Return On Your Retirement Account |
“The world sees Germany as a country of hope and opportunity, that was not always the case,” Ms. Merkel said, reminding Germans that they could be proud of a postwar country based on the principles of dignity, human rights and the right to political asylum.
Ms. Merkel said her government was planning measures in the coming months aimed at coordinating efforts between communities, states and the federal government, which each carry different responsibilities in welcoming, processing and integrating those who are granted the right to remain in the country as refugees.
Ms. Merkel praised the thousands of Germans who had opened their homes and pocketbooks to the newcomers and who had donated their time. “There is no tolerance for those who question the dignity of other people,” she said, echoing comments she made last week at a reception center for asylum seekers in the eastern German city of Heidenau that had been the site of violent protests.
Germany needs to be able to process applications more swiftly, and language and elementary-school teachers are needed to help families adapt — in Berlin alone, 400 new classes of students will be starting the new school year, the chancellor said.
Germany must also overcome logistical hurdles like the cumbersome bureaucracy needed to construct shelters at a rapid enough pace, she said, pointing out the country lacks a fire safety ordinance for tents. Ms. Merkel said her government would address issues like those in a law that she hoped would be passed before the end of the year.
“German thoroughness is super, but right now what we need is German flexibility,” Ms. Merkel said, recalling the government’s swift reaction to the global banking crisis of 2008, the ability to respond to natural disasters and, 25 years ago, the reunification of East and West Germany. |
Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms . We respect your privacy .
Why are my Google display campaigns running on “XYZ-Hyperpartisan-Site” with less-than-accurate or altogether false articles? That’s the polite version of a question I’ve heard in various forms over the past several weeks.
Isn’t Google taking steps against fake news on the Display Network? they ask. Why are sites that spread misinformation still able to earn ad revenue through Google’s AdSense publisher network? they wonder. I’ve heard these questions over and over again recently. In a nutshell, the answer comes down to semantics, namely the difference between “misrepresentation” and “misinformation.” Yes, Google is addressing fake publishers that impersonate well-known news outlets or make up clickbait headlines to drive users to articles that push diet pills or other products. Google’s not looking at misinformation, hoaxes and conspiracy theories.
Last fall, Google earned a lot of press, including on this site, for updating its AdSense “Misrepresentative content” policy to ostensibly “take aim at fake news,” as The New York Times put it. In its most recent Bad Ads Report, Google said it kicked out 200 sites permanantly and blacklisted 340 sites — out of some 2 million AdSense publishers — from the network for violations including misrepresentation. There has been a trend to capitalize on hyperpartisanship — because people are clicking.
Google continues to profit from ads served on hundreds if not thousands of sites promoting propaganda, conspiracy theories, hoaxes and flat-out lies. Some are fairly well-known publishers; others popped up during the election cycle and appear to exist solely to earn money from ads.
Here’s what advertisers should understand about what Google’s “Misrepresentative content” policy means and doesn’t mean.
Expectations versus reality
The “Misrepresentative content” policy states:
“Users don’t want to be misled by the content they engage with online. For this reason, Google ads may not be placed on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about [the publisher], [its] content or the primary purpose of [the] web property.”
Last fall, the general interpretation was that, as part of this update, Google would stop allowing ads to be served alongside fake news stories (i.e., misinformation). That was largely because Google stated in one of the policy examples that sites that were “deceptively presenting fake news articles as real” would be in violation. Satire was safe, misinformation was not, went the thinking.
But that’s not what Google meant. And, as Media Matters reported in January, Google quietly removed its reference to fake news (underlined below) at some point in late December or early January.
Google lists some examples of violations with every policy; these are not all-encompassing and are intended to help publishers understand the spirit of the policy. It’s also not uncommon for Google to tweak policy examples. This is how the examples for the Misrepresentative content policy now read:
The part about addressing “fake news” confused the issue — leading the press, advertisers, and perhaps publishers to think it was going after fake news content — so Google removed it. After getting all that positive press. To be clear, the policy itself and Google’s enforcement of it didn’t change.
What the policy really means
Marketing Land has confirmed with Google that the policy was never intended to address editorial veracity. Google doesn’t look at whether an article is true or not; it looks at whether the publisher is misrepresenting itself.
Google says the information was meant to address the proliferation of deceptive information online and not to get into editorial decisions about facts. The Misrepresentative content policy and others are purposely designed to be narrow. This is in part because its ad policies need to be defensible and enforcement intentional.
Some examples
Let’s take two of the most well-known fake news cases of last fall to better understand how this policy is applied: Macedonians who built sites filled with false hyper-partisan articles to rake in money from ads; and Pizzagate, the bizarre fake story involving the Clintons that proliferated across far right-wing sites and culminated in a real-life incident. Would these violate the policy?
YES: The Macedonian sites that concealed information about who the publishers really were would fall under this policy.
NO: The Pizzagate stories wouldn’t be flagged under the policy just for being made up.
The policy hinges on the publisher’s tactics, not the content itself. Google says the change provides the ability to go after bad sites that were impersonating or pretending to be affiliated with national and local news outlets. Many of these sites use a bait and switch to lure users in with sensationalized headlines that lead to content that’s actually promoting diet pills or some other product. As with the Macedonian example, a news site that presents itself as operating out of New York City but is in fact based in Europe would be in violation.
This specific policy has no bearing on whether publishers known to have extreme bias and publish hoaxes, conspiracy theories, overt propaganda or misinformation can carry Google-sold and served ads on their pages.
That’s, in part, why you’ll find hundreds of far-left-wing and far-right-wing sites like Breitbart.com, AnnCoulter.com, ClashDaily.com, TruthRevolt.org, LeftLiberal.com, LiberalMountain.com, LiberalPlug.com, Milo.Yiannopoulos.net, TheProudLiberal.og, and TruthDivision.com on Google’s Display Network.
Some of these sites have been around for years. Many others, like “DonaldTrumpPotus45,” popped up during the election season.
The review process
In most cases, bad actors present sites that adhere to the policies in order to evade detection and then pivot after the sites have been approved.
For the Misrepresentation policy, there is a human review process. Teams are aided by technology that lets reviewers do things like look at an entire site’s domain, identify rings of sites operated by one owner, and evaluate multiple sites using similar tactics. Red flags are double-checked manually.
Do these sites violate other policies?
Many of theses sites are chock-full of ads, from Google and other networks, and most rely heavily on content recommendation networks. Content recommendation ads do count as ads under Google’s Valuable content policy that covers ad-to-edit ratios. It’s not clear if Google also counts ads from other ad networks under this policy. We have asked and will update here when we hear back.
The most hyperpartisan of these sites are usually very clever and careful not to violate Google’s AdSense hate speech policy that prohibits content that advocates against an individual or group or organization — often walking right up to the line between free speech and hate speech. Google says it keeps a close eye on many of these sites.
With the sheer volume of sites, videos and ads, the company also relies on users and advertisers to report policy violations. This is partiularly true of content on YouTube where the volume of new content being uploaded everyday is massive.
Brand safety questions
The argument over whether Google should be an arbiter of content is obviously a thorny one. Policing fake news is far from easy, as Danny Sullivan covered in “Why Google might not be able to stop ‘fake news.” For now, it is profiting from and providing a revenue source for publishers of this type of content. Google’s Misrepresentation policy is aimed at scammers, not necessarily ideologues and opportunists who pedal propaganda for ad clicks.
From interest targeting to retargeting, there are many ways brands running campaigns on the Google Display Network can find their ads running on hyperpartisan sites without realizing it. For more, see our companion piece, “Brand safety: Avoiding fake & hyperpartisan news on the Google Display Network.” |
BERLIN (Reuters) - A gallery has discovered four paintings by Otto Dix, the German expressionist whose art chronicled the horrors of World War One, the depravity of the Weimar Republic and was labeled “degenerate” by Adolf Hitler.
Gallery owner Herbert Remmert looks at recently discovered paintings of German artist Otto Dix during an exhibition in his gallery in Duesseldorf, August 31, 2011. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender
Famous for works critical of the darker side of German society in the 1920s, Dix’s paintings were discovered among the belongings of his wife, gallery owner Herbert Remmert told Reuters Wednesday.
The paintings were found in a portfolio untouched for decades on an estate in Bavaria owned by the ancestors of a Duesseldorf doctor and art collector who remained close to Dix even after his wife left him for the artist.
The three watercolors and one painting-study date from the first two years Dix spent in Duesseldorf from 1922-1925.
“This period represents some of the most important years for Otto Dix as an artist,” Remmert said. “It was during this time that Dix really developed his themes. Even his technical skills developed — his watercolor paintings matured and became more refined.”
Dix was one of the leading artists of his era. When World War One broke out in 1914, he volunteered for the army and served on various frontlines, including the Somme, until he was wounded and discharged from service in 1918.
He initially produced gruesome drawings and paintings portraying mangled soldiers in battle. As time went on, Dix also became increasingly critical of postwar German society during a period in which soaring inflation meant financial ruin for most.
In his works from the 1920s, he captured the depravity of indulgence and destitution that marked the Weimar Republic.
His famous 1928 triptych “Metropolis,” contrasts a crippled veteran surrounded by prostitutes in a Berlin red-light district while rich patrons dance in an American-style jazz club.
When the Nazis took power in 1933, Hitler branded Dix a degenerate and had many of his most important works burned.
Gallery owners Peter Barth and Remmert tracked the works down at the Bavarian estate by accident. They were searching for other art on the estate owned by the daughter and granddaughter of the Duesseldorf collectors Hans and Martha Koch.
Dix became entangled in the lives of the Kochs in Duesseldorf. Hans Koch was a doctor and a leading art collector. Koch’s wife, Martha, fell in love with Dix and their affair led her to divorce Koch and leave her two children. Dix later married Martha in 1923.
Hans Koch and Dix nevertheless remained close.
The Remmert gallery in Duesseldorf has collaborated with the family for more than 20 years and has discovered other treasures on the estate. But this is the first Dix discovery.
Last year, Remmert and Barth found a watercolor by Dix contemporary George Grosz titled “Germany, a Winter’s Fairytale.”
Dix was famous both for his portraits and his dour depictions of Weimar society. The new discoveries will likely add to his legacy.
Among the works found, two watercolors are titled “Naechtens” and “Soubrette” and the third is a large-scale work titled “Strich III,” depicting a street-scene with prostitutes.
The fourth work is a study for the portrait of art-dealer Alfred Flechtheim. The famous portrait painted in 1926 currently hangs in the New National gallery in Berlin.
The newly found works are valued at about 200,000 euros ($287,960) each, according to Remmert.
The Remmert gallery plans to show the discovered paintings among other Dix works in an exhibition later this year.
Remmert suspects the Koch estate holds additional undiscovered works. The estate also houses several children’s books painted by Dix but the family wants to hold off on releasing them.
“For that, we will have to be a bit more patient,” Remmert said. |
20th-century American novelist, writer, journalist, political activist
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in several genres. Sinclair's work was well known and popular in the first half of the 20th century, and he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1943.
In 1906, Sinclair acquired particular fame for his classic muck-raking novel The Jungle, which exposed labor and sanitary conditions in the U.S. meatpacking industry, causing a public uproar that contributed in part to the passage a few months later of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act.[1] In 1919, he published The Brass Check, a muck-raking exposé of American journalism that publicized the issue of yellow journalism and the limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Four years after publication of The Brass Check, the first code of ethics for journalists was created.[2] Time magazine called him "a man with every gift except humor and silence".[3] He is also well remembered for the line: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."[4] He used this line in speeches and the book about his campaign for governor as a way to explain why the editors and publishers of the major newspapers in California would not treat seriously his proposals for old age pensions and other progressive reforms.
Many of his novels can be read as historical works. Writing during the Progressive Era, Sinclair describes the world of industrialized America from both the working man's and the industrialist's points of view. Novels such as King Coal (1917), The Coal War (published posthumously), Oil! (1927), and The Flivver King (1937) describe the working conditions of the coal, oil, and auto industries at the time.
The Flivver King describes the rise of Henry Ford, his "wage reform", and the company's Sociological Department to his decline into antisemitism as publisher of The Dearborn Independent. King Coal confronts John D. Rockefeller Jr., and his role in the 1913 Ludlow Massacre in the coal fields of Colorado.
Sinclair was an outspoken socialist and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a nominee from the Socialist Party. He was also the Democratic Party candidate for Governor of California during the Great Depression, running under the banner of the End Poverty in California campaign, but was defeated in the 1934 elections.
Early life and education [ edit ]
Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Upton Beall Sinclair Sr. and Priscilla Harden Sinclair. His father was a liquor salesman whose alcoholism shadowed his son's childhood. Priscilla Harden Sinclair was a strict Episcopalian who disliked alcohol, tea, and coffee. As a child, Sinclair slept either on sofas or cross-ways on his parents' bed. When his father was out for the night, he would sleep alone in the bed with his mother.[6] Sinclair did not get along with her when he became older because of her strict rules and refusal to allow him independence. Sinclair later told his son, David, that around Sinclair's 16th year, he decided not to have anything to do with his mother, staying away from her for 35 years because an argument would start if they met.[7] His mother's family was very affluent: her parents were very prosperous in Baltimore, and her sister married a millionaire. Sinclair had wealthy maternal grandparents with whom he often stayed. This gave him insight into how both the rich and the poor lived during the late 19th century. Living in two social settings affected him and greatly influenced his books. Upton Beall Sinclair, Sr., was from a highly respected family in the South, but the family was financially ruined by the Civil War, disruptions of the labor system during the Reconstruction era, and an extended agricultural depression.
As he was growing up, Upton's family moved frequently, as his father was not successful in his career. He developed a love for reading when he was five years old. He read every book his mother owned for a deeper understanding of the world. He did not start school until he was 10 years old. He was deficient in math and worked hard to catch up quickly because of his embarrassment.[8] In 1888, the Sinclair family moved to Queens, New York, where his father sold shoes. Upton entered the City College of New York five days before his 14th birthday,[9] on September 15, 1892.[6] He wrote jokes, dime novels, and magazine articles in boys' weekly and pulp magazines to pay for his tuition.[10] With that income, he was able to move his parents to an apartment when he was seventeen years old.[11]
He graduated in June 1897 and studied for a time at Columbia University.[12] His major was law, but he was more interested in writing, and he learned several languages, including Spanish, German, and French. He paid the one-time enrollment fee to be able to learn a variety of things. He would sign up for a class and then later drop it.[13] He again supported himself through college by writing boys' adventure stories and jokes. He also sold ideas to cartoonists.[11] Using stenographers, he wrote up to 8,000 words of pulp fiction per day. His only complaint about his educational experience was that it failed to educate him about socialism.[14] After leaving Columbia, he wrote four books in the next four years; they were commercially unsuccessful though critically well-received: King Midas (1901), Prince Hagen (1902), The Journal of Arthur Stirling (1903), and a Civil War novel titled Manassas (1904).[citation needed]
Upton became close with Reverend William Wilmerding Moir. Moir specialized in sexual abstinence and taught his beliefs to Sinclair. He was taught to "avoid the subject of sex." Sinclair was to report to Moir monthly regarding his abstinence. Despite their close relationship, Sinclair identified as agnostic.[8]
Career [ edit ]
Upton Sinclair imagined himself a poet and dedicated his time to writing poetry.[15]
Upton Sinclair early in his career
Upton Sinclair wearing a white suit and black armband, picketing the Rockefeller Building in New York City
In 1904, Sinclair spent seven weeks in disguise, working undercover in Chicago's meatpacking plants to research his novel, The Jungle (1906), a political exposé that addressed conditions in the plants, as well as the lives of poor immigrants. When it was published two years later, it became a bestseller.
With the income from The Jungle, Sinclair founded the utopian—but non-Jewish white only--Helicon Home Colony in Englewood, New Jersey (Helicon Home Colony was a white-only space [16]). He ran as a Socialist candidate for Congress.[17][18] The colony burned down under suspicious circumstances within a year.[19]
In the spring of 1905, Sinclair issued a call for the formation of a new organization, a group to be called the Intercollegiate Socialist Society.[20]
In 1913–1914, Sinclair made three trips to the coal fields of Colorado, which led him to write King Coal and caused him to begin work on the larger, more historical The Coal War. In 1914, Sinclair helped organize demonstrations in New York City against Rockefeller at the Standard Oil offices. The demonstrations touched off more actions by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Mother Earth group, a loose association of anarchists and IWW members, in Rockefeller's hometown of Tarrytown.[21]
The Sinclairs moved to California in the 1920s and lived there for nearly four decades. During his years with his second wife, Mary Craig, Sinclair wrote or produced several films. Recruited by Charlie Chaplin, Sinclair and Mary Craig produced Eisenstein's ¡Qué viva México! in 1930–32.[22]
Other interests [ edit ]
Aside from his political and social writings, Sinclair took an interest in occult phenomena and experimented with telepathy. His book Mental Radio (1930) included accounts of his wife Mary's telepathic experiences and ability.[23][24] William McDougall read the book and wrote an introduction to it, which led him to establish the parapsychology department at Duke University.[25]
Political career [ edit ]
Sinclair broke with the Socialist party in 1917 and supported the war effort. By the 1920s, however, he had returned to the party.
In the 1920s, the Sinclairs moved to Monrovia, California, near Los Angeles, where Sinclair founded the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Wanting to pursue politics, he twice ran unsuccessfully for United States Congress on the Socialist ticket: in 1920 for the House of Representatives and in 1922 for the Senate. He was the party candidate for governor California in 1930, winning nearly 50,000 votes.
During this period, Sinclair was also active in radical politics in Los Angeles. For instance, in 1923, to support the challenged free speech rights of Industrial Workers of the World, Sinclair spoke at a rally during the San Pedro Maritime Strike, in a neighborhood now known as Liberty Hill. He began to read from the Bill of Rights and was promptly arrested, along with hundreds of others, by the LAPD. The arresting officer proclaimed: "We'll have none of that Constitution stuff".[26]
In 1934, Sinclair ran in the California gubernatorial election as a Democrat. Sinclair's platform, known as the End Poverty in California movement (EPIC), galvanized the support of the Democratic Party, and Sinclair gained its nomination.[27] Gaining 879,000 votes made this his most successful run for office, but incumbent Governor Frank Merriam defeated him by a sizable margin,[28] gaining 1,138,000 votes.[29][30] Hollywood studio bosses unanimously opposed Sinclair. They pressured their employees to assist and vote for Merriam's campaign, and made false propaganda films attacking Sinclair, giving him no opportunity to respond.[31]
Upton Sinclair
Sinclair's plan to end poverty quickly became a controversial issue under the pressure of numerous migrants to California fleeing the Dust Bowl. Conservatives considered his proposal an attempted communist takeover of their state and quickly opposed him, using propaganda to portray Sinclair as a staunch communist. Sinclair had been a member of the Socialist Party from 1902 to 1934, when he became a Democrat, though always considering himself a Socialist in spirit.[32] The Socialist party in California and nationwide refused to allow its members to be active in any other party including the Democratic Party and expelled him, along with socialists who supported his California campaign. The expulsions destroyed the Socialist party in California.[33]
At the same time, American and Soviet communists disassociated themselves from him, considering him a capitalist.[34] In later writings, such as his antialcohol book The Cup of Fury, Sinclair scathingly censured communism. Science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein was deeply involved in Sinclair's campaign, although he attempted to move away from the stance later in his life.[35] In the 21st century, Sinclair is considered an early American democratic socialist.[36][37]
After his loss to Merriam, Sinclair abandoned EPIC and politics to return to writing. In 1935, he published I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked, in which he described the techniques employed by Merriam's supporters, including the then popular Aimee Semple McPherson, who vehemently opposed socialism and what she perceived as Sinclair's modernism. Sinclair's line from this book "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it" has become well known and was for example quoted by Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.[38]
Of his gubernatorial bid, Sinclair remarked in 1951:
The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them.[39]
Personal life [ edit ]
In April 1900, Sinclair went to Lake Massawippi in Quebec to work on a novel. He had a small cabin rented for three months and then he moved to a farmhouse.[8] Here, his future wife, Meta Fuller, and he became close. She was three years younger than him and had aspirations of being more than a housewife. Sinclair gave her direction as to what to read and learn.[8] Meta had been a childhood friend whose family was one of the First Families of Virginia. Each had warned the other about themselves and would later bring that up in arguments. They married October 18, 1900.[8] They used abstinence as their main form of birth control. Meta became pregnant with a child shortly after they married and attempted to abort it multiple times.[8] The child was born on December 1, 1901, and named David.[page needed] Meta and her family tried to get Sinclair to give up writing and get "a job that would support his family."[15] Around 1911, Meta left Sinclair for the poet Harry Kemp,[41] later known as the "Dunes Poet" of Provincetown, Massachusetts.
In 1913, Sinclair married Mary Craig Kimbrough (1883–1961), a woman from an elite Greenwood, Mississippi, family. She had written articles and a book on Winnie Davis, the daughter of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis. He met her when she attended one of his lectures about The Jungle. In the 1920s, the Sinclair couple moved to California. They were married until her death in 1961. Sinclair married again, to Mary Elizabeth Willis (1882–1967).[43]
Sinclair was opposed to sex outside of marriage and he viewed marital relations as necessary only for procreation. He told his first wife Meta that only the birth of a child gave marriage "dignity and meaning". Despite his beliefs, he had an adulterous affair with Anna Noyes during his marriage to Meta. He wrote a novel about the affair called Love's Progress, a sequel to Love's Pilgrimage. It was never published. His wife next had an affair with John Armistead Collier, a theology student from Memphis; they had a son together named Ben.
In his novel, Mammonart, he suggested that Christianity was a religion that favored the rich and promoted a drop of standards. He was against it.[48]
Late in life Sinclair, with his third wife Mary Willis, moved to Buckeye, Arizona. They returned east to Bound Brook, New Jersey. Sinclair died there in a nursing home on November 25, 1968, a year after his wife.[41] He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., next to Willis.
Writing [ edit ]
Sinclair devoted his writing career to documenting and criticizing the social and economic conditions of the early 20th century in both fiction and nonfiction. He exposed his view of the injustices of capitalism and the overwhelming effects of poverty among the working class. He also edited collections of fiction and nonfiction.
The Jungle [ edit ]
His novel based on the meatpacking industry in Chicago, The Jungle, was first published in serial form in the socialist newspaper Appeal to Reason, from February 25, 1905, to November 4, 1905. It was published as a book by Doubleday in 1906.[49]
Sinclair had spent about six months investigating the Chicago meatpacking industry for Appeal to Reason, the work which inspired his novel. He intended to "set forth the breaking of human hearts by a system which exploits the labor of men and women for profit".[50] The novel featured Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant who works in a meat factory in Chicago, his teenaged wife Ona Lukoszaite, and their extended family. Sinclair portrays their mistreatment by Rudkus' employers and the wealthier elements of society. His descriptions of the unsanitary and inhumane conditions that workers suffered served to shock and galvanize readers. Jack London called Sinclair's book "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of wage slavery".[51] Domestic and foreign purchases of American meat fell by half.[52]
Sinclair wrote in Cosmopolitan in October 1906 about The Jungle: "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach."[3] The novel brought public lobbying for Congressional legislation and government regulation of the industry, including passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.[53][54] At the time, President Theodore Roosevelt characterized Sinclair as a "crackpot",[55] writing to William Allen White, "I have an utter contempt for him. He is hysterical, unbalanced, and untruthful. Three-fourths of the things he said were absolute falsehoods. For some of the remainder there was only a basis of truth."[56] After reading The Jungle, Roosevelt agreed with some of Sinclair's conclusions, but was opposed to legislation that he considered "socialist". He said, "Radical action must be taken to do away with the efforts of arrogant and selfish greed on the part of the capitalist."[57]
The Brass Check [ edit ]
In The Brass Check (1919), Sinclair made a systematic and incriminating critique of the severe limitations of the "free press" in the United States. Among the topics covered is the use of yellow journalism techniques created by William Randolph Hearst. Sinclair called The Brass Check "the most important and most dangerous book I have ever written."[58]
Sylvia novels [ edit ]
Sylvia (1913) was a novel about a Southern girl. In her autobiography, Mary Craig Sinclair said she had written the book based on her own experiences as a girl, and Upton collaborated with her. [note 1] [59] She asked him to publish it under his name. [60] When it appeared in 1913, The New York Times called it "the best novel Mr. Sinclair has yet written–so much the best that it stands in a class by itself." [61]
(1913) was a novel about a Southern girl. In her autobiography, Mary Craig Sinclair said she had written the book based on her own experiences as a girl, and Upton collaborated with her. She asked him to publish it under his name. When it appeared in 1913, called it "the best novel Mr. Sinclair has yet written–so much the best that it stands in a class by itself." Sylvia's Marriage (1914), Craig and Sinclair collaborated on a sequel, also published by John C. Winston Company under Upton Sinclair's name.[62] In his 1962 autobiography, Upton Sinclair wrote: "[Mary] Craig had written some tales of her Southern girlhood; and I had stolen them from her for a novel to be called Sylvia."[63]
I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty [ edit ]
This was a novel he published in 1934 as a preface to running for office. He outlined his plans in it.[64]
Lanny Budd series [ edit ]
Between 1940 and 1953, Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels featuring a central character named Lanny Budd. The son of an American arms manufacturer, Budd is portrayed as holding in the confidence of world leaders, and not simply witnessing events, but often propelling them. As a sophisticated socialite who mingles easily with people from all cultures and socioeconomic classes, Budd has been characterized as the antithesis of the stereotyped "Ugly American".[65]
Sinclair placed Budd within the important political events in the United States and Europe in the first half of the 20th century. An actual company named the Budd Company manufactured arms during World War II, founded by Edward G. Budd in 1912.
The novels were bestsellers upon publication and were published in translation, appearing in 21 countries. The third book in the series, Dragon's Teeth (1942), won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1943.[66] Out of print and nearly forgotten for years, ebook editions of the Lanny Budd series were published in 2016.[67]
The Lanny Budd series includes:
Other works [ edit ]
Sinclair was keenly interested in health and nutrition. He experimented with various diets, and with fasting. He wrote about this in his book, The Fasting Cure (1911), another bestseller.[68] He believed that periodic fasting was important for health, saying, "I had taken several fasts of ten or twelve days' duration, with the result of a complete making over of my health".[69]
Sinclair favored a raw food diet of predominantly vegetables and nuts. For long periods of time, he was a complete vegetarian, but he also experimented with eating meat. His attitude to these matters was fully explained in the chapter, "The Use of Meat", in the above-mentioned book.[70]
Representation in popular culture [ edit ]
Films [ edit ]
Works [ edit ]
Fiction
Autobiographical
Non-fiction
Drama
As editor
See also [ edit ]
Upton Sinclair House — in Monrovia, California .
. Will H. Kindig, a supporter on the Los Angeles City Council
Notes [ edit ]
^ Sylvia (1913) under his name. In her 1957 memoir, she described how her husband and she had collaborated on the work: Upton and I struggled through several chapters of Sylvia together, disagreeing about something on every page. But now and then each of us admitted that the other had improved something. I was learning fast now that this novelist was not much of a psychologist. He thought of characters in a book merely as vehicles for carrying his ideas. According to Craig, at her insistence Sinclair published(1913) under his name. In her 1957 memoir, she described how her husband and she had collaborated on the work:
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Arthur, Anthony (2006), Radical Innocent Upton Sinclair , New York: Random House .
. William A. Bloodworth, Jr., Upton Sinclair. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977.
Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977. Lauren Coodley, editor, The Land of Orange Groves and Jails: Upton Sinclair's California. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 2004.
Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 2004. Lauren Coodley, Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2013.
Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2013. Engs, Ruth Clifford, [Ed] Unseen Upton Sinclair: Nine Unpublished Stories, Essays and Other Works. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2009.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2009. Graham, John, The Coal War, Colorado Associated University Press, 1976.
Colorado Associated University Press, 1976. Ronald Gottesman, Upton Sinclair: An Annotated Checklist. Kent State University Press, 1973.
Kent State University Press, 1973. Harris, Leon. Upton Sinclair, American Rebel. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1975.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co, 1975. Leader, Leonard. "Upton Sinclair's EPIC Switch: A Dilemma for American Socialists." Southern California Quarterly 62.4 (1980): 361–385.
62.4 (1980): 361–385. Mattson, Kevin. Upton Sinclair and the Other American Century. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Mitchell, Greg. The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair and the EPIC Campaign in California. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991.
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991. Swint, Kerwin. Mudslingers: The Twenty-five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006.
Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006. Jon A. Yoder, Upton Sinclair. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975.
New York: Frederick Ungar, 1975. Rob Leicester Wagner, Hollywood Bohemia: The Roots of Progressive Politics in Rob Wagner's Script (Janaway 2016) ( ISBN 978-1-59641-369-6)
(Janaway 2016) ( ISBN 978-1-59641-369-6) Martin Zanger, "Upton Sinclair as California's Socialist Candidate for Congress, 1920," Southern California Quarterly, vol. 56, no. 4 (Winter 1974), pp. 359–73. |
Bad Science Is A Danger To Public Health
A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that from 2001 to 2010, almost one third of all drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had additional side effects after they were brought to market.
And of the 222 prescription drugs approved over the decade, 71 (32%) and a “postmarket safety event.”
The lead author of the study, Dr. Joseph Ross, had this to say:
The large percentage of problems was a surprise… We know that safety concerns, new ones, are going to be identified once a drug is used in a wider population. That’s just how it is. The fact that that’s such a high number means the FDA is working hard to evaluate drugs and once concerns are identified, they’re communicating them.
It’s reasonable to expect some surprises when working with systems as complex such as human biology.
Although this doesn’t detract from the public humiliation that scientists have been experiencing in the media recently, nor does it preclude us asking why.
Why are there so many issues with pharmacology, given that even minor problems could pose serious health risks?
2 in 3 Researchers Can’t Replicate Other Scientist’s Studies
Much of it boils down to bad science, caused by the “publish or perish” mentality on university campuses.
Back in February, the BBC published an article opining that “science is facing a ‘reproducibility crisis’ where more than two-thirds of researchers tried, and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments.”
This was is response to an immunologist having trouble replicating 5 separate cancer studies.
The whole idea behind peer-reviewed research is that it should be scrutinized in a way that ensures a high level of confidence in the results.
One way to do this is by testing to see if the study can be replicated. If it can’t, then we should be less confident in the findings.
Even more frightening: according to Nature, 70% of researchers could not replicate another scientist’s findings when independently running the same experiments.
This means that there are plenty of studies out there that are falling through the gaping crevice of the peer-reviewed system—frankly, junk science is being used to craft public policy.
Unfortunately, this is partly why the reverence of credentialism is often unfounded.
There are 2 major problems that need to be addressed, if we are to fix this:
1. We need to put more emphasis, and allocate more funding, to replication. Part of the problem is that private researchers and institutions don’t want to invest time and money into replicating other people’s experiments because it’s not sexy—there’s no chance to find “the next big thing”, or to discover something new.
The system, as it is, prioritizes novelty over quality, which is becoming a major issue.
2. Another problem is that science has become highly politicized: special interests fund science that tends to confirm their suspicions, rather than impartial studies, or basic research.
To make this point, just look at how the fake scientist Bill Nye relies on the “scientific consensus” to back up his political claims regarding climate change.
Science needs to focus more on the scientific method, and less on politics.
At it’s heart, we need to make science reproducible again. |
Obama Was Not a Realist President
Barack Obama is in the homestretch of his presidency, and it is only human for him to care about how he will be judged after he leaves office. That impulse probably explains his decision to participate in a series of interviews with the Atlantic in which he defends his approach to foreign policy and explains why he has been reluctant to use American power as widely as his critics would have liked.
Not surprisingly, this story has rekindled the recurring question of whether Obama has been running a “realist” foreign policy for the past seven-plus years — or at least one heavily informed by realist thinking. (One of our country’s sillier pundits once suggested I was the secret George Kennan guiding his actions; anyone who reads this column regularly knows that U.S. foreign policy would have been markedly different if that were in fact the case.)
I understand why many people regard Obama as some sort of realist, but from where I sit, the nonrealist dimensions of his presidency are as prominent and important as any realist elements. And it is those nonrealist features that account for his most obvious foreign-policy failures.
But first, what will Obama’s legacy likely be? My view, for what it’s worth, is that future historians will rate Obama highly. He will be remembered for being America’s first nonwhite president, of course, and for conducting his office with dignity, grace, and diligence. His administration was blissfully scandal-free, and he didn’t make a lot of hasty decisions that turned out badly. He was admirably thick-skinned and charitable toward most of his critics, despite the abuse and thinly veiled racism he faced from some of them. And no matter who wins in November, he is likely to look mighty good by comparison.
As we look back, Obama will get credit for health care reform, for rescuing the country from the brink of another Great Depression, and for promoting greater tolerance toward minorities through legalization of gay marriage. When one remembers how scary things looked when he took office in 2009, this is no small set of achievements. And Obama did these things while facing a Republican opposition so toxic and extreme it kept devouring its own leaders and repeatedly threatening to shut down the entire federal government. That’s GOP-style “patriotism” for you.
But these elements of his legacy are all domestic achievements, and his record in foreign affairs is at best a mixed bag. Still, Obama can claim some clear successes: The U.S. image in most of the world is higher than when he took office; relations with China have been mostly tranquil despite the U.S. “pivot” to Asia; and the nuclear deal with Iran is a qualified success so far. I’d also give Obama props for ending America’s long and counterproductive effort to ostracize Cuba and for making progress on global nuclear security and climate change (though more needs to be done on both fronts).
Unfortunately, Obama’s foreign-policy record also contains a sizable number of depressing failures, beginning with Afghanistan. Obama agonized over this issue during his first year in office and ultimately sent nearly 60,000 additional troops there. He promised this temporary “surge” would turn the tide against the Taliban and enable the United States to get out with honor. It is now 2016, the Taliban control more territory than at any time since 2001, and the United States is still fighting there with no end in sight. As some of us warned at the time, this policy was destined to fail and fail it did.
Similarly, Obama’s well-intentioned efforts to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians were a series of humiliations: Israeli settlements kept expanding, Gaza kept getting pummeled, moderate Palestinians were discredited, Hamas grew stronger, and the two-state solution that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama all favored is now dead (if not quite buried). Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry wasted a lot of time and energy on this problem and got bupkis.
Obama’s response to the “Arab Spring” was no more successful. The United States helped push Hosni Mubarak out in Egypt and backed the newly elected government of Mohamed Morsi, only to reverse course and turn a blind eye when a military coup ousted Morsi and imposed another thuggish dictatorship. U.S. air power helped topple Muammar al-Qaddafi in Libya (a decision Obama now regrets), and the result is a failed state where the Islamic State is active. Obama declared “Assad must go” in Syria, despite there being no good way to ensure his departure and no good candidates to replace him, and then United States helped block the initial U.N. efforts to reach a cease-fire to end the fighting. Today, Syria is in ruins, and Assad still rules the country’s key areas. Obama and his team were also blindsided by the emergence of the Islamic State and by the Houthi rebellion in Yemen. It pains me to say so, but the Middle East will be in even worse shape when he leaves office than it was when he arrived. The United States is not solely responsible for this unfortunate trend, but our repeated meddling sowed additional chaos and alienated both friends and foes alike.
To be sure, dealing with simultaneous uprisings in several different countries would have been challenging for any president, and it is easy to imagine responses that would have been even worse than what the United States actually did. Even so, Obama and his team never seem to have figured out what they wanted to accomplish in the region (apart from stopping Iran’s progress toward a nuclear bomb), and the end result was a series of incoherent improvisations.
Lastly, Obama deserves low marks for his handling of Russia. I’m no fan of Vladimir Putin, but U.S. officials erred by openly siding with the demonstrators seeking to oust former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and by failing to anticipate how Russia was likely to respond. The result was a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, an embarrassment for the United States, and a more precarious situation in Europe, which hardly needed another problem on its agenda.
Does this record reveal the shortcomings of a supposedly “realist” foreign policy, as some of Obama’s liberal critics now contend? On the one hand, Obama does have certain instincts that are consistent with a realist outlook. He recognizes that U.S. power is not unlimited and that military power is a crude instrument that cannot solve every problem. Like most contemporary realists, he thinks the United States is extremely secure and that nuclear terrorism and climate change are the only existential threats it faces for the foreseeable future. His belief that Asia is of rising strategic importance shows an appreciation for the key role that economic and military capability — that is, hard power — play in shaping world politics. Indeed, his emphasis on “nation building at home” reflects an acute awareness that domestic strength is the bedrock of national security and international influence. And like most realists, he thinks the idea that the United States needs to fight foolish wars in order to keep its “credibility” intact is dangerous nonsense.
But on the other hand, the Atlantic story shows that Obama never fully embraced a realist worldview either. He thinks there are four main strategic alternatives for the United States: realism, liberal interventionism, internationalism, and isolationism. He rejects the latter completely and believes foreign-policy making involves picking and choosing from among the first three. And though he offers some tart criticisms of the interventionist “D.C. playbook,” Obama believes (along with most of the foreign-policy establishment) that the United States is an “exceptional” power and that American leadership is still “indispensable.” At bottom, he wants to have it both ways: to acknowledge there are limits to U.S. power and some problems it can safely ignore, but to still stand ready to intervene when vital interests are at risk or when U.S. power can produce positive results.
But after seven-plus years in office, this most articulate of presidents never articulated a clear and coherent framework identifying what those vital interests are and why and spelling out how the United States could advance broader political ideals at acceptable cost and risk. To be specific: What regions of the world were worth significant commitments of American blood and treasure? Why were these regions more important than others? Under what conditions is it advisable to put U.S. citizens in harm’s way in order to keep the rest of us safe? When will the costs and risks of action outweigh the potential benefits? And don’t forget the flip side: What regions or issues are of little or no importance to the United States and can safely be left to others?
The Atlantic story suggests that Obama has asked himself these questions more than once and is comfortable with the answers he has come up with for each. He is said to believe the Middle East is of declining importance, for example, and that Asia is rising. But Obama never shared his overarching vision with the rest of us, and he never openly stated that some parts of the world lay outside the sphere of vital U.S. interests and were therefore not worth sending Americans to fight and die for. Instead of laying out a hierarchy of interests and explaining the logic behind his thinking, Obama’s public utterances mostly echoed and reinforced the familiar tropes of U.S. liberal hegemony.
In his 2009 speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, he defended the need for military power and told the world that the United States has “helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.” And he showed he meant it by ramping up the use of drones, targeted assassinations, and special operations activities. Obama may have used military power in smaller increments and to achieve more modest goals than Bush did, but he used it in a lot more places. But how he decided where to act and where to hold back remains something of a mystery, even to those of us who have been paying attention.
His failure to define U.S. interests clearly and his tendency to recite the familiar rhetoric of liberal hegemony had several unfortunate consequences. First, it meant Obama faced constant pressure to “do something” whenever trouble beckoned in some distant corner of the world, but he had no overarching argument or principle with which to deflect the pressure (save for the correct but unhelpful dictum to avoid “stupid shit”). The danger, as the Libya debacle shows clearly, is that advocates of intervention will sometimes manage to override more sensible instincts and convince even a reluctant president to act, even though vital U.S. interests are not at stake and Washington has no idea what it is doing. In the absence of a clear strategy, stupid shit sometimes happens anyway.
Second, because Obama kept saying U.S. leadership was indispensable, he was vulnerable to hard-line criticism whenever he tried to end a failed policy or avoid some new quagmire. Getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq and staying out of Ukraine and Syria were the right calls, because vital U.S. interests were not at stake in any of these countries or their problems. But Obama never presented a convincing explanation for why this was the case (and in Afghanistan, in fact, he said the opposite). Thus, what he should have presented as difficult but hardheaded strategic judgments were seen as symptoms of war-weary and woolly-headed weakness.
This same ambivalence marred relations with U.S. allies. Free-riding and “reckless driving” by U.S. allies clearly bothers Obama, yet he spent considerable time and effort trying to convince many of these same allies they could count on Uncle Sam no matter what happened or what they did. What was the predictable result? U.S. allies continued to misbehave in various ways while getting angry and upset because Washington wasn’t doing everything they wanted. Foreign governments might have been equally disappointed had Obama told them why they had to do more to defend themselves, but at least they would have known where they stood (and so would the American taxpayer).
Most importantly, because Obama never publicly embraced an unvarnished realist outlook or tried to explain this view to the American people, he never disrupted the “D.C. playbook” that he now disparages. During his first presidential campaign, he said he didn’t want to just end the Iraq War; he also wanted to “end the mindset that got us into war in the first place.” The American people are in some ways already there, but the foreign-policy establishment hasn’t gotten the memo. The Atlantic story describes Obama as openly dismissive of the D.C. “think-tank complex,” but he appointed plenty of its members to prominent positions and embraced many of its shibboleths — most notably the indispensability of “U.S. leadership” — throughout his presidency.
Altering a well-entrenched mindset is not easy, and the president is just one voice (albeit an unusually influential one). Changing the current consensus would have required Obama to take on these entrenched interests and intellectual fiefdoms directly and to appoint a different sort of person to at least a few important government positions. He would have had to articulate a different grand strategy over the course of his presidency and not just in a couple of quickly forgotten speeches. No, changing a consensus requires making the case with the same persistence and focus that he showed in selling the Iran deal. And while he was doing that, he would still have had to run the government and deal with each week’s surprises. That’s a lot to ask of any president and especially one who took office with the economy on the brink and without a lot of prior experience in Washington.
In short, Obama did not in fact run a “realist” foreign policy, because he doesn’t fully embrace a realist worldview, didn’t appoint many (any?) realists to key positions, and never really tried to dismantle the bipartisan consensus behind the grand strategy of liberal hegemony. As I’ve noted before, a genuinely “realist” foreign policy would have left Afghanistan promptly in 2009, converted our “special relationships” in the Middle East to normal ones, explicitly rejected further NATO expansion, eschewed “regime change” and other forms of social engineering in foreign countries such as Libya or Syria, and returned to the broad strategy of restrained “offshore balancing” that served the United States so well in the past.
Of course, even if Obama had explained the logic behind this strategy carefully and followed it consistently, he might still have failed to transform the foreign-policy establishment’s interventionist mindset. After all, that worldview is supported by plenty of wealthy individuals, powerful corporations, influential think tanks, and well-connected lobbies. A more ambitious effort to change how Americans think about foreign policy might not have succeeded. But as his presidency approaches its close, I still wish he had tried.
Photo credit: KEVIN DIETSCH-POOL/Getty Images |
Ms. Mantel was among almost 300 cultural figures — actors and writers among them — who signed a public letter last month urging a vote to remain part of the European Union. “What kind of nation do we want to be?” the letter asked. “Are we outward-looking and open to working with others to achieve more? Or do we close ourselves off from our friends and neighbors at a time of increasing global uncertainty?”
The soul-searching goes beyond that. Over centuries, England, and then Britain, has strutted the global stage as an imperial overlord whose people sometimes seem more comfortable in the guise of underdogs. The national psyche rests on a history of invasion, submission, conquest and self-assertion — from the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons through the Normans and on to dynasties entwined with the royal houses of Europe.
In more recent years, waves of immigration — Jamaicans in the 1950s, then Pakistanis, Indians and other Asians in the 1960s — have reshaped the country’s demographics. Christianity, prevalent in Henry’s day, is professed by less than half the population. The loss of an empire and the rise of a complex, interconnected global economy has rekindled the notion that, in times of flux, the English define themselves by their opposition to a bigger outside power — the papacy in the 16th century; the European Union in the 21st.
This go-it-alone theme suffused Churchill’s speeches during World War II as Hitler’s armies spread across Europe to the Continent’s coastline. “We shall never surrender,” Churchill declared in 1940, albeit with the caveat that Britain would fight on until “the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
Today’s political leaders can barely resist the Churchillian mantra. Facing hostile questioning from a television audience on Sunday, a rattled Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out that “at my office I sit two yards from” where Churchill “resolved to fight on against Hitler.”
Churchill did not wish to be alone, Mr. Cameron said. “But he didn’t quit,” the prime minister added. “He didn’t quit on democracy, he didn’t quit on freedom. We want to fight for those things today.”
It was also Churchill, who, in 1930, foreshadowed one of the Brexiteers’ arguments in an oft-quoted article in the Saturday Evening Post. |
Nightingale the Brigand
Medium humanoid, neutral evil
Armor Class 16 (studded leather)
16 (studded leather) Hit Points 112 (16d8+40)
112 (16d8+40) Speed 30ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 18 (+4) 16 (+3) 12 (+1) 20 (+5) 9 (-1)
Senses passive Perception 20
passive Perception 20 Languages Common
Common Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
From the whistle of a nightingale. All the plants in 30 miles radius of the Nightingale's lair are dead.
He screams like a wild animal. Nightingale can mimic any animal noises. A creature that hears the sounds can tell they are imitations with a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check.
Actions
Multiattack. Nightingale makes either two ranged attacks with his shortbow, or two melee attacks with his yatagan.
Whistle (Recharge 5-6). Each creature in a 60-foot cone must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 30 (6d8 + 3) thunder damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Yatagan. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) slashing damage. |
Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy have released images of the latest stadium designed for the 2022 World Cup. Located in Al Khor City, the Al Bayt Stadium will also be surrounded by the new Al Bayt district, which will host retail space and restaurants, as well as landscaped paths for residents to use as horseriding, cycling and jogging tracks.
The design - billed as "an entirely Qatari concept, reflecting Qatar’s proud history and culture" - is based on the Bayt Al Sha’ar, a black and white tent used traditionally by nomadic people in Qatar, which would have been a welcome symbol of hospitality for desert travelers.
Read on after the break for more on the design
+ 11
The stadium was designed by an unnamed group of Qatari architects, although Dar Al Handasa are credited as design consultants. As one of the World Cup's semi-final venues, the stadium will hold 60,000 seats, but after the tournament the design allows the upper tier of seating to be removed, reducing the stadium to 32,000 seats. The removed seats are planned to be donated to other countries "to leave a legacy for international football development."
The Al Bayt Stadium & Precinct will also incorporate best practice in energy-efficiency measures in an attempt to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) standards. The stadium will also be constructed in accordance with the new Workers’ Welfare Standards, a policy brought in as a response to continued concerns over the safety and welfare of construction workers on Qatar's world cup projects.
The Al Bayt Stadium is the second design unveiled for the 2022 World Cup, joining Zaha Hadid Architects' Al Wakrah Stadium. |
Following up on its flagship G4 announcement for 2015, LG is now supplementing its lineup as it does every year with more midrange options that can appeal to and target different audiences: a larger phablet with a stylus for a Note-like approach and a smaller less powerful variant of its star player.
Let's start with the G4 Stylus. It comes with a larger 5.7" display than the G4, albeit with a lower 720p resolution that results in a rather average 258ppi. It has drawn the short end of the stick on other specs as well, coming with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, but there will be two variants: a 3G one and an LTE one. Oddly, the former has a more powerful 1.4GHz octa-core processor (and an 8MP camera) while the latter has a 1.2GHz quad-core processor (and a 13MP camera). The G4 Stylus packs LG's "Rubberdium Stylus" for drawing and noting on the screen, has the G4's Laser Autofocus camera, and comes in silver or white.
If the specs and design sound slightly familiar, it's because we've already met the Korean and North American version of this phone (seemingly the 3G-only variant), dubbed G Stylo. It was already released on Boost Mobile, it's coming to Sprint in June, and should be headed to T-Mobile as well.
Next up is the G4c, a more pocketable G4 alternative. It has a 5" 720p display (294ppi), the same 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage as the G4 Stylus, a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, and an 8MP rear camera. There will be no 3G-only variant, all G4c phones will have LTE. The G4c's other distinctive feature is its similarity with the G4 in terms of battery cover design — the same ceramic-like pattern is used on its gray, white, and gold models.
Both phones will have a front 5MP shooter, LG's now signature software features — Glance View, Knock Code, and Gesture Shot — and hardware rear buttons for power and volume. They will also keep the company's recently found differentiating factor in terms of removable battery and MicroSD slot for expandable storage.
There's no word on pricing or availability, except that they will be shipping "around the world in the next several weeks," and they're both "exceptionally priced." What that means is open to interpretation. |
Ashlee Simpson Defends Jessica Simpson's Weight (Photos)
The internet went crazy yesterday after photos surfaced oflooking like she had put on some pounds . The singer performed at a concert put on by Radio 99.9 Kiss in conjunction with an annual chili cook-off in Pembroke Pines, Florida on Sunday.
Jessica's little sister Ashlee Simpson is disgusted with all the attention that the news is giving to her sister's weight. Ashlee took the time to address this situation on her blog.
"Since when did a woman's weight become newsworthy. A week after the inauguration and with such a feeling of hope in the air for our country, I find it completely embarrassing and belittling to all the women to read about a woman's weight or figure. All women come in different shapes, sizes and forms and because you're a celebrity, there shouldn't be a different standard."
Ok, we don't think she's overweight, what we do think is that her stylist is to blame and that person should get fired ASAP. Those awful high-waisted pants would make anyone look like they have put on a few pounds and the belt right under her chest isn't doing anything positive for her figure either.
More photos below, including a few from her 'daisy duke' days.
Chili cook-off Photos: Wenn |
A classroom disruption that Tray Matthews admits to causing forced coach Mark Richt’s decision to dismiss the sophomore safety from the UGA football program, Matthews said Wednesday.
The story circulating by Wednesday afternoon on social media about a verbal altercation between Matthews and a professor further fueled the notion that the sophomore from Newnan had discipline problems while at Georgia.
It comes on the heels of an arrest on theft by deception charges in March.
In an exclusive interview Wednesday evening with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Matthews admitted to having a loud and distracting conversation with a fellow UGA athlete on the final day of Maymester classes Tuesday, but vehemently denied having disrespected Dr. Ronald Bogue, the professor of his Children’s Literature course. Matthews says he was asked to leave the class of around 30 students but did not.
“We were just going back and forth on something and then the teacher just basically said, ‘Y’all be quiet, y’all are always talking.’ And that’s the only thing that happened,” Matthews said. “And the teacher was just, ‘Get out,’ and I was like, ‘Sorry, he just keeps talking to me. I wasn’t disrespectful to the teacher at all.”
Matthews also disputed a charge made by a fellow classmate in the 3000-level course that he told her to shut up and directed obscenities at her. Dr. Bogue, who will retire from UGA after submitting Maymester grades, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The incident in one of the Miller Learning Center’s many classrooms preceded Richt’s decision to let Matthews go by just a few hours. The disruption occurred toward the end of the nearly three-hour class around 1:45 p.m., and Matthews announced his dismissal on Twitter just minutes short of 5:30 p.m. Matthews blamed the disruption for his dismissal, but said he thought the arrest also played a part in the decision.
“That’s basically the reason why I got kicked off though,” Matthews said of the classroom incident. “That’s what [coach Mark Richt] told me basically. … Yeah, I think it’s kind of some of the arrest stuff, too, though. But I was basically, I was leaving anyways, I just hadn’t put that in the media.”
Matthews, who finished his first year at Georgia with 23 tackles and one interception, has since left Athens and is back in Newnan weighing his options. He says he has discussed his situation with former teammates Shaq Wiggins and Josh Harvey-Clemons, now both at Louisville, but will consider several schools for his next stop. |
We are ENKKO and we are in process of creating quality repair parts for the Nintendo 64 controller. To prepare these parts for releasing to the market, we need to make molds of the parts needed. Each professionally done mold allows us to properly recreate the parts just as they were 13 years ago. After we have the mold, we can finally test different plastic materials and start reproducing the toggle stick and the bowl it sits on.
We have planned out what we need to bring these parts to fruition. However, we ran out of funding and are in need of help to keep the project moving.
That is why we have created this campaign on Kickstarter so you can also be part of the creation of these parts.
WHAT ARE THESE PARTS? HOW DO THEY FUNCTION?
All the parts located inside the joystick case are displayed below. Some of the parts are due to rough wear and tear during play.
Each of these parts work along with the optical encoding disks to send data to the system registering each action.
There are four main parts to the toggle stick in the whole case beneath the casing.
The gears wear over time but not as extreme as the bowl and toggle stick.
At the bottom of the bowl is where the end of the stick touch and rub each other. As you push the stick from side to side, up and down; it gradually wears down the end of the stick and bottom of the bowl causing dust to build up. This erosion renders the controller unusable as the movements you make don't register with accuracy to the system.
So we scanned and 3D printed a prototype to start reversing the process.
It worked for the most part, they were both made out of the rough material nylon. The reason is the bowl did not fit because the nylon was not smooth and the other parts could not move correctly. However, the toggle stick worked perfectly and would say it was a 90% replica of the OEM stick. If it was smoothened out, it would be a 100% replica.
So i purchased a plastic injection machine and decided to recreate it as they did in the large manufacturing factories before. A couple challenges were in front of me such as getting the materials, practicing with the machine, and finishing an aluminum mold.
Here is how a mold would look like with a fishing lure.
This is where you come in. In order to get the additional equipment and molds, we need your help to push us further to the goal.
OUR TIMELINE
HOW CAN I HELP?
If you can spread the word on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Reddit or retro forums, you would be doing us a huge favor! The more people we can reach, the stronger the 64 community becomes.
You can also donate or choose one of our rewards to be the first to receive the repair parts. You are not just helping ENKKO but the community as we all benefit from having fun in playing our favorite N64 games.
Credits: Yusuke Tsutsumi - The Beach |
How many atoms are there in a kilogram of silicon? This number is Avogadro’s constant and working out its value is one of the more important tasks that materials scientists face.
Today, a group of physicists reveal the answer. They say there are 6.02214084(18) × 10^23 atoms in a single crystal of silicon weighing about a kilogram. And they say they know this is right because they’ve counted them. Yep, counted them.
Actually, they counted the number of atoms in a unit volume of silicon and measured the size of this volume. The number of times this fits into a lump of exactly 1 mole of near perfect single crystal sphere of silicon is Avogadro’s number.
To have established this number to such accuracy is clearly an important piece of work but just how impressive is put in perspective by the monumental efforts of the international consortium behind it.
The work began in 2004 when a Russian group created a sample of silicon flouride with a specific isotopic content at the Central Design Bureau of Machine Building in St. Petersburg. A team at the Institute of Chemistry of High-Purity Substances of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Nizhny-Novgorod then turned this into a polycrystal of silicon hydride which a group at the Leibniz-Institut fur Kristallzuchtung in Berlin used to grow a 5kg lump of pure monocrystalline silicon in 2007.
The Australian Centre for Precision Optics then took samples from this lump and shaped them into quasi-perfect spheres. They then made an x-ray interferometer from the left over silicon to determine its crystal structure. They also measured crystals’ surfaces to see what kind of crud had built up there and would therefore have to be taken into account in the final calculations. (Various copper, nickel and silicon oxides had built up on the surface.)
Various groups then measured the mass of the spheres by comparing them to the platinum-iridium test kilograms owned by the PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) in Germany, the National Metrology Institute of Japan in Tskuba and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in France.
The team then measured the volume of the spheres using optical interferometry. And the isotope content was measured by teams at the University of Warsaw, the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Science and Institute for Physics of Microstructures of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Finally, the number of atoms in the sample was confirmed by a PhD student using a magnifying glass and a pair of tweezers.
OK, I made that bit up.
The result compares well with other measurements of Avogadro’s constant made using another method.
“Our result leads to more consistent numerical values for the fundamental physical constants,” say this international group.
That’s of more than academic interest. The hope is to one day get rid of the platinum-iridium kilograms which have a habit of loosing a few atoms every time a breeze ruffles the air around them, or worse, of gaining a few atoms each time their aged security guard sneezes.
In its place will be a definition of the kilogram based on an exact fixed value for Avogadro’s number. “The value obtained, 6.02214084(18) x 10^23 mol^-1, is the most accurate input datum for a new definition of the kilogram,” say the team.
That’s not quite good enough to replace the existing kilogram. But with a few more years and the help of what seems to be most of the materials scientists on the planet, we should eventually get there.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1010.2317: An Accurate Determination Of The Avogadro Constant By Counting The Atoms In A Si-28 Crystal
Update: a couple of commenters have pointed out that a mole of silicon weighs 28g not a kilogram and that I seem to be completely confused about this story. They are, of course, completely correct. Moral: never write a blog post after midnight! |
In the latest flame war on immigration, some politicians are targeting the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. They blithely state time and time again that undocumented immigrants are flooding the border to have their children in the U.S., thereby guaranteeing them citizenship. Their solution to this supposed “baby dropping epidemic” is amending the U.S. Constitution by repealing the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that, with very few exceptions, all persons born in the U.S. are U.S. citizens, regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Sadly, however, their arguments are thin, the facts misrepresented and their attempts at reelection using get-tough on immigration platforms even thinner. When facts don’t matter and vilifying immigrants is par for the course, attacking U.S. citizen children probably seems like a winning reelection strategy.
In a recent Fox News interview, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reiterated the flawed conservative argument for ending birthright citizenship:
“People come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child, it’s called drop and leave,” Graham said. “To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, they have a child, and that child’s automatically an American citizen. That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people for all the wrong reasons,” he added.
While some conservatives have taken a step back and challenged attacks on the Fourteenth Amendment, others have punted the argument into left field…the crazy end of left field. Texas state Rep. Debbie Riddle went on CNN this week and claimed that pregnant women are coming to America to give birth, then raise their babies as terrorists. You heard me, terrorists. When asked for proof, she mentioned the FBI and then refused to give a source. Surprise.
In fact, misrepresenting the facts has become par for the course in the immigration debate. The Pew Hispanic Center recently released a report which estimated that 340,000 of the 4.3 million children born in the United States in 2008 had at least one unauthorized parent. The “at least one unauthorized parent” conditional, however, was only clarified in a footnote which read, “a child has unauthorized parents if either parent is unauthorized: a child has U.S.-born parents if all identified parents are U.S. born,” meaning that this figure includes families in which one parent is unauthorized and the other a U.S. citizen or legal immigrant (mixed-status households). But that footnote makes a huge difference when determining how many children would be affected by a change to the Fourteenth Amendment. Numerous news articles ran with the Pew report’s estimate as though both parents were undocumented.
The truth is that majority of immigrants come to the U.S. to work, to reunite with their families, or to flee persecution—not to have children. Some immigrants do, in fact, have children in the U.S. and some of those families are mixed status families, but suggesting that undocumented immigrants anchor themselves here through childbirth is just false. As Senator John Kerry (D-MA) pointed out in a recent editorial , undocumented parents with U.S.-born children have to wait decades to apply for family-sponsored citizenship:
There is no epidemic of people “flying in” just to have their children born as U.S. citizens — and every senator knows it. Just as they know it takes more than two decades for a child born in America to sponsor anyone for immigration — which means no back door for undocumented parents to become citizens on the sly.
Denying birthright citizenship is not a solution to illegal immigration—it will not discourage unauthorized immigrants from coming to the U.S., and it will not encourage those already here to leave. Furthermore, it would force all American parents—not just immigrants—to prove the citizenship of their children through a cumbersome and expensive bureaucratic process. But conservative fear-mongers would rather rally their troops with false messaging and mischaracterizations than actually solve our immigration problem.
Seth Hoy
Republished with permission from Immigration Impact. |
The Toronto District School Board wants $3.6 million from the Star before it releases a database of work orders showing what taxpayers have been charged for maintenance and construction projects at local schools. The Star’s ongoing investigation has already turned up high costs — almost $3,000 to install an electrical outlet, $143 to screw in a pencil sharpener, and other examples. TDSB education director Chris Spence contacted the Star late Wednesday to say he had heard there was some “concern about the cost” in getting access to the work order database and that the board was determined to fill the request. He said the board’s freedom of information office is willing to work with the Star to “get the information you need.” Last month, the Star asked for an electronic copy showing three years of work at the TDSB to get a handle on the extent of the problem. The request was made under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which helps the public, media included, bring scrutiny to bear on government and government-funded agencies. TDSB lawyer Giselle Basanta has written to the Star saying she believes “partial access to the records will be granted.” First, though, she said, there is the issue of fees. Basanta, the board’s freedom of information co-ordinator, estimates it would cost the school board:
Article Continued Below
• $1,125,000 to search for the records in the SAP database, which would take 37,500 hours at $30 per hour • $1,350,000 to prepare the records for release, which would take 45,000 hours at $30 per hour. She estimates one-quarter of the records would have to be “severed,” to remove information they objected to releasing. The Star has seen sample pages from the records and there is no personal information, which is typically the type of information removed. • $1,080,000 to photocopy the records, even though the Star asked for an electronic copy of the database. The TDSB said there are 5.4 million pages detailing the work orders and the charge levied would be 20 cents a page.
Toronto Star reporter Jim Rankin, an expert in obtaining electronic databases, recalls a whopping $1.6 million fee estimate he received in 2003 when he asked the RCMP for access (under the federal access to information law) to Canadian criminal record information. The Star challenged the fee and two years later received the requested data at no charge. The original estimate was based on antiquated regulations that mention costs associated with duplicating microfilm and “magnetic tape-to-tape duplication.” In the school board’s case, the data is stored on a modern SAP system, and obtaining an electronic copy would be relatively easy. The work orders at issue detail and track jobs done by the 900-strong Maintenance and Skilled Trades Council, which has an exclusive contract to perform electrical, carpentry, plumbing and other trade work at Toronto’s public schools. The workers are represented by the council, run by leader Jimmy Hazel, but they are employees of the TDSB. The SAP database shows when a work order is requested by a school, when the work is done, how many hours are charged, how many workers are involved and other details.
Article Continued Below
Since the Star began publishing stories on the issue in June, teachers, principals and parents have flooded the newspaper with calls and emails complaining about high costs, slow work and crumbling schools. The TDSB has responded to the stories by promising to put GPS tracking devices on trades vehicles and working closely with principals to develop plans for priority jobs. TDSB chair Chris Bolton has said that a series of plans for the fall, plus some already implemented, will bring “greater transparency and accountability” to the board. To proceed with the request, Basanta said the Star must provide a cheque for $1,777,500 as a 50-per-cent deposit so the school board can “continue to address your request.” In her letter, the lawyer invites the Star to apply for a “fee waiver” or abbreviate the size of the request. The Star has written Basanta signalling that the paper will both request a fee waiver and appeal the school board’s decision to the provincial Information and Privacy Commission. TDSB communications manager Shari Schwartz-Maltz said she was unaware of the fee estimate. “This is the first I heard of it. There is a way to make this work,” Schwartz-Maltz said of the request. She said the TDSB’s freedom of information office is willing to discuss the issue further. “This is not an end game.” More on Star investigations Toronto schools pay high prices for small jobs |
President-elect Donald Trump’s threats against China and its policies could ultimately hurt Apple, the Chinese government said on Monday.
The Global Times, a state-run news agency in China, on Monday issued its strongest rebuke of Trump and his policies, saying that if he “wrecks Sino-U.S. trade,” several U.S. industries could be “impaired.” The news outlet, which called Trump “naive,” signaled Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone sales could be targeted by the Chinese government.
“China will take a tit-for-tat approach then,” the Global Times threatens in its editorial. “A batch of Boeing orders will be replaced by Airbus. U.S. auto and iPhone sales in China will suffer a setback, and U.S. soybean and maize imports will be halted. China can also limit the number of Chinese students studying in the U.S.”
Trump was one of the most outspoken critics of trade with China during the protracted Presidential campaign. He said on numerous occasions that China was acting unfairly in its trade dealings with the U.S. and said he would label the government as a “currency manipulator” when he becomes President. Trump said earlier this year that he could impose expensive tariffs on Chinese imports and has called the Chinese government the world’s biggest thief.
Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter
While China has not said that it will definitely engage in activities that could hurt American companies, there’s little stopping it from doing so. China, after all, has an iron-like grip on the trade in its country and has banned several American companies from its borders, including Google, Facebook, and others. Limiting sales on iPhones, then, wouldn’t be much of a stretch.
For affected companies, China trouble could be disconcerting. The country has a massive middle class that’s anxiously demanding the latest and greatest products. American companies have generated massive sums of revenue in the country despite trade regulations and continue to believe China will be critical to their growth and profit in the future.
Apple, one of the companies China cited in its editorial on Monday, last quarter generated nearly $9 billion in revenue in the country. While that figure was down 30% year-over-year, during an earnings call with investors and analysts, CEO Tim Cook said he believes China will continue to play an integral role in his company’s operation in the coming years.
American presidents have for years criticized China for some of its trade policies, but none have gone so far as to impose the expensive tariff on the country’s goods Trump has floated. Trump, though, has said that he would be acting in the best interests of the American people by taking a tougher stance against China.
For more about Apple’s iPhone 7, watch:
There has been some debate over how much influence a President Trump could actually have over trade between the countries. Even the Global Times acknowledged that in its editorial, saying that even a President Trump “can exert limited influence” on what it believes is a mutually beneficial and “win-win” relationship for both countries.
Still, the Global Times ends its editorial with a prediction on how Trump could be viewed if he engages in a trade war with China, questioning if the U.S. media is attempting to bait Trump into a mistake.
“The new president will be condemned for his recklessness, ignorance and incompetence and bear all the consequences,” the Global Times predicts, adding it’s “very suspicious the trade war scenario is a trap set up by some American media to trip up the new president.” |
WASHINGTON — The $40 million shell of an unfinished prison in Iraq’s Diyala province; $2 million in laundered cash pocketed by government officials and contractors in Hilla; an $80 invoice on a $1.41 piece of PVC piping from a defense subcontractor near Baghdad.
Those are just three examples of fraudulent and wasteful spending that plagued U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq, according to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which on Tuesday issued its final report on the U.S. government’s $60 billion reconstruction program for that country.
The report identified at least $1.5 billion in wasted or questionable spending during the period from 2004 to 2013. It urged Congress to create a new agency, the Office for Contingency Operations, which would oversee and coordinate such reconstruction in the future, prospectively avoiding some of the worst excesses.
“If it had existed at the outset of the Iraq program, the United States might have avoided wasting billions of taxpayer dollars,” said the report, titled “Learning From Iraq.”
Such an office would be critical to better spending and contracting practices if, for example, the United States were to get involved in reconstruction in Syria, where the country’s civil war has devastated entire cities.
“Experience has shown that we need a corps of dedicated civilian professionals in order to conduct these stabilization operations well,” said John Herbst, the director of the Center for Complex Operations at the National Defense University in Washington, who testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We have created the world’s greatest military, but without a civilian counterpart, this military will not conduct stabilization operations effectively.”
Inspector General Stuart Bowen also used the example of potential reconstruction in Syria to explain how such an agency would prove more effective than addressing each effort as it arises.
“It’s impossible to project the cost, but we do know the devastation in Syria is massive. And thus the stabilization and rebuilding of the country will take time,” Bowen said. Were the Office of Contingency Operations in existence, he added, it already would be “identifying the contractors, the personnel, the IT system, the oversight, how money would be managed, the controls . . . to ensure that we avert fraud, waste and abuse of the kind that we saw in Iraq.”
With an administrator appointed by the president, such an office also would bring accountability to a process that in Iraq was handled largely by military officers or government civilians who rotated in and out of their posts before any of the projects were completed.
He cited the example of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina to make his point.
“There was no one in charge for Iraq specifically,” he said. “Mike Brown was there to fire when FEMA failed.”
The office would require roughly $25 million a year in funding, a small price, Herbst said, compared to the estimated $200 million a year it would have saved in Iraq spending.
The 172-page final report outlines nine years of questionable spending and misguided practices in the Iraq reconstruction effort. It blamed lack of planning and coordination and shaky oversight for widespread fraud and waste.
The report listed a plethora of failings: Many projects weren’t designed correctly, money designated for a specific use often was redirected to another project, Defense and State department efforts weren’t coordinated and no one was in charge overall. Contracts that shouldn’t have been approved slipped through the cracks, and under-the-table deals were struck.
U.S. reconstruction efforts, Herbst said, lacked legitimacy and the support of the Iraqi people. The failure of U.S. troops to establish security before reconstruction efforts began led many projects to fail.
“You must have sufficient security before engaging in reconstruction activity,” said Herbst. “That cost us billions of dollars and too many lives.” |
There are multiple errors and misrepresentations in Niall Ferguson’s cover story in Newsweek — I guess they don’t do fact-checking — but this is the one that jumped out at me. Ferguson says:
The president pledged that health-care reform would not add a cent to the deficit. But the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation now estimate that the insurance-coverage provisions of the ACA will have a net cost of close to $1.2 trillion over the 2012–22 period.
Readers are no doubt meant to interpret this as saying that CBO found that the Act will increase the deficit. But anyone who actually read, or even skimmed, the CBO report (pdf) knows that it found that the ACA would reduce, not increase, the deficit — because the insurance subsidies were fully paid for.
Now, people on the right like to argue that the CBO was wrong. But that’s not the argument Ferguson is making — he is deliberately misleading readers, conveying the impression that the CBO had actually rejected Obama’s claim that health reform is deficit-neutral, when in fact the opposite is true.
More than that: by its very nature, health reform that expands coverage requires that lower-income families receive subsidies to make coverage affordable. So of course reform comes with a positive number for subsidies — finding that this number is indeed positive says nothing at all about the impact on the deficit unless you ask whether and how the subsidies are paid for. Ferguson has to know this (unless he’s completely ignorant about the whole subject, which I guess has to be considered as a possibility). But he goes for the cheap shot anyway.
We’re not talking about ideology or even economic analysis here — just a plain misrepresentation of the facts, with an august publication letting itself be used to misinform readers. The Times would require an abject correction if something like that slipped through. Will Newsweek? |
They’re still with her.
Get push notifications with news, features and more.
Former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton received an overwhelming outpouring of support when she made a surprise appearance at the UNICEF Snowflake Ball in Manhattan on Tuesday night, just three weeks after losing the 2016 election.
The former secretary of state was on hand at the charity gala to present Katy Perry with the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund’s Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award. Clinton was smiling from ear to ear as she took the stage to Perry’s hit song “Roar.” But before she could even speak, Clinton was greeted with a standing ovation and chants of “Still with her! Still with her!”
It took several moments for Clinton to quiet the crowd as audience members shouted, “Hillary!” and “We love you!”
Kevin Mazur/Getty
“[Katy] has the spirit and the energy and the compassion that Audrey Hepburn brought to her work for UNICEF,” Clinton said in her introduction. “We need champions like Katy now more than ever. We need her passion, her energy, and, yes, her voice – ‘louder than a lion.’ We all know Katy as a global mega-star. The powerful voice who reminds us: When you get knocked down, get back up.”
Clinton added of Perry’s work with the organization:“She has been a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF since 2013, she has traveled the world advocating for the rights and needs of children, she has visited some of the poorest places on Earth and lent her voice to kids who would otherwise be voiceless from remote villages to Vietnam and Madagascar. She has put a spotlight on child poverty and encouraged the empowerment of women and girls.”
WATCH: Hillary Clinton Drowned Out By Fans Shouting ‘We’re With Her!’ at UNICEF Ball for Katy Perry
Video courtesy of Michele Noble
Perry, one of Clinton’s most vocal celebrity supporters throughout her presidential campaign, was moved to tears by the former secretary of state’s surprise introduction. When Perry joined Clinton on stage to accept the award, the two women embraced, and Clinton told Perry, “I’m so proud of you.”
Kevin Mazur/Getty
Perry returned Clinton’s praise in her acceptance speech, thanking the former secretary of state for inspiring her to use her voice for a good cause.
“I’ve always had a voice – a singing voice – but I’ve never had a voice like I’ve had before. Hillary has lit that voice inside of me, and that light will never go out, it will continue to get brighter and brighter and brighter,” Perry said. “Thank you, Hillary. You motivate me and so many millions of people,” she expressed.
Caryl M. Stern, the president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, expressed her gratitude for both Clinton and Perry’s work with the organization in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE.
“Children need dedicated, passionate champions now more than ever, and we were so thankful that Secretary Clinton joined us in honoring Katy Perry’s incredible work for the world’s children,” she said. “This year’s UNICEF Snowflake Ball was a powerful reminder of our collective ability to put children first.” |
President Correa revokes Snowden’s temporary travel document amid concerns WikiLeaks founder is ‘running the show’
The plan to spirit the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden to sanctuary in Latin America appears to be unravelling amid tension between Ecuador’s government and Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.
President Rafael Correa halted an effort to help Snowden leave Russia amid concern Assange was usurping the role of the Ecuadoran government, according to leaked diplomatic correspondence published on Friday.
Amid signs Quito was cooling with Snowden and irritated with Assange, Correa declared invalid a temporary travel document which could have helped extract Snowden from his reported location in Moscow.
Correa declared that the safe conduct pass issued by Ecuador’s London consul – in collaboration with Assange – was unauthorised, after other Ecuadorean diplomats privately said the WikiLeaks founder could be perceived as “running the show”.
According to the correspondence, which was obtained by the Spanish-language broadcaster Univision and shared with the Wall Street Journal, divisions over Assange have roiled Ecuador’s government.
Ecuador’s ambassador to the US, Nathalie Cely, told presidential spokesman Fernando Alvarado that Quito’s role in the drama was being overshadowed by the WikiLeaks founder, who has sheltered in Ecuador’s London embassy for the past year to avoid extradition.
“I suggest talking to Assange to better control the communications. From outside, [Assange] appears to be running the show.”
Earlier this week a senior foreign diplomat in Quito told the Guardian that some – though not all – factions in the government were annoyed with what they saw as Assange grandstanding.
In a message attributed to Assange sent to Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, and other top officials, the WikiLeaks founder apologised “if we have unwittingly [caused] Ecuador discomfort in the Snowden matter.” The note continued: “There is a fog of war due to the rapid nature of events. If similar events arise you can be assured that they do not originate in any lack of respect or concern for Ecuador or its government.”
Assange appears to have had a strong role in obtaining the travel document for Snowden, dated 22 June which bore the printed name, but not signature, of the London consul, Fidel Narvaez, a confidante. By mid-week Narvaez was reportedly in Moscow.
The document could have helped Snowden, whose US passport has been revoked, leave the transit lounge of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport where he has reportedly holed up since fleeing Hong Kong last weekend.
On Thursday, Correa, who previously has hailed Snowden for exposing US spying, and has earned kudos for defying Washington pressure over the affair, reduced Snowden’s chances of making it to Quito.
At a press conference the president declared the travel document invalid and said Ecuador would not consider an asylum request unless Snowden reached Ecuadorean territory, an increasingly remote prospect.
“The situation of Mr Snowden is a complex situation and we don’t know how he will solve it.”
Correa did however ramp up defiance of the US by waiving preferential trade rights to thwart what officials called Washington “blackmail”. Analysts said Correa, an economist who specialised in game theory, had so far skilfully extracted political capital from the saga without drawing US retaliation.
In a TV interview on Friday, Snowden’s father said said he was worried about the involvement of WikiLeaks. “I don’t want to put him in peril, but I am concerned about those who surround him,” Lonnie Snowden told NBC.
“I think WikiLeaks, if you’ve looked at past history … their focus isn’t necessarily the constitution of the United States. It’s simply to release as much information as possible.”
Snowden said he did not believe his son had betrayed his country. “At this point, I don’t feel that he’s committed treason. He has broken US law, in a sense that he has released classified information. And if folks want to classify him as a traitor, in fact he has betrayed his government. But I don’t believe that he’s betrayed the people of the United States.”
Snowden said he had told US attorney general Eric Holder through his lawyer that his son might return home if he would not be detained before trial, could choose the location for his trial and would not be subjected to a gag order. It was not clear that Lonnie Snowden was communicating his son’s views, as he also said they had not spoken since April.
© Guardian News and Media 2013 |
Wistfully Watching My Dream Collection Go to Auction
Photography by Afshin Behnia for Petrolicious
Paris-based auction house Artcurial will hold its fourth annual Retromobile sale this Friday, followed on Saturday by an auction dedicated to some very special Alfa Romeos. I frequently browse Artcurial’s catalogues and results, but a friendship forged years ago on a winter night in Italy gives me a personal reason to focus a keen eye on this year’s sale.
In the fall of 2010, I was browsing the Alfa Romeo bulletin board classifieds (one of my daily rituals) when I came upon a post telling of a large collection of Alfas for sale in Italy. The post was short on details—and thus long on intrigue—so I contacted the author of the post who turned out to be a middle-man based in Florida (doesn’t get any shadier, right?). After explaining to the middle-man that I’m fluent in Italian and that I was already planning on being in Italy in a couple of months, he agreed to put me directly in touch with the seller.
My wife, Kika, and I flew to Milan that December as we always do for the Christmas holidays, and I didn’t waste much time before getting on the phone with Francesco, the collection’s owner. A few days later, Kika and I were on a train heading south to a seaside town where Francesco’s collection was located. Francesco met us at the train station and, seeing the two weary travelers, decided that cars could wait.
“Have you eaten lunch yet?” He asked.
Before we could even respond, we found ourselves riding in Francesco’s black Mercedes-Benz S500 headed to a restaurant. For a man in his very late 60s, Francesco had a ton of energy and not much regard for traffic regulations. We arrived at our lunch spot, a charming restaurant run by a local fisherman, friendly with Francesco. As it turned out, Francesco was friends with every second person we encountered: the man was obviously well-known and well-liked around town, and Kika and I, as his guests, were welcomed into town like old friends.
Fast cars and slow meals are quintessentially Italian, and we spent the good part of the afternoon eating too much and drinking just the right amount. We could have happily spent all afternoon at the lazy sea-side spot if we hadn’t been so curious to see what automotive treasures he had in store for us.
After a quick stop at our hotel (which Francesco, overlooking nothing, had arranged), we headed for his warehouse. As we pulled up to the building I realized that it was, in fact, a hangar.
My jaw dropped as we walked inside. Arrayed in front of me were about twenty-five pristine Alfa Romeos, mostly rare, highly desirable ones—certainly one of the most impressive Alfa collections I’ve ever seen. A pair of GTA Junior race cars sat next to their street-legal siblings; a red Mille Miglia-eligible 1957 Sprint Veloce Lightweight kept company with a 1960 Giulietta SZ. There were Ferraris too and not just any Ferraris but two of Michele Alboreto’s F1 cars! And a 2009 Alfa 8C Spider offered a modern contrast to the room’s centerpiece, a red 1965 TZ. Dozens of other Alfas—including numerous GTVs, early Berlinas, Supers, and rare ex-police wagons—filled out the space. The condition of these cars fell into just two categories: perfectly preserved original condition or expertly restored. This room alone was worth our trip.
Imagine my surprise, then, to learn that as cavernous as this room was, it was only half of the building. Francesco led us through a small door in the rear and we entered yet another room full of Alfas, an additional forty or fifty in all. This was clearly the rehabilitation clinic: many works-in-progress, including a Giulia TI Super, several Duettos, a Montreal, and even a humble Arna sat in various stages of restoration. Overseeing the work was Francesco’s personal mechanic, Giordano, who had been with Francesco since he began his collection.
Francesco, we learned, had sold his company in the mid-1990s and in semi-retirement had set about assembling his collection of Alfas and Ferraris. Never married and without children, his cars were his life and it was impossible not to share in his bountiful enthusiasm as he talked of his love for building and restoring this collection.
“Why Alfas and Ferraris?” I asked him, always wanting to hear what sparks an owner’s passion for a certain marque. The question seemed to puzzle him.
“What else is there?” Francesco replied, as if I had asked why he chose to breathe oxygen.
He then thought for a moment and said, “No other car sounds like an Alfa, and Alfa Romeo is the mother of Ferrari. If Enzo hadn’t had his racing success with Alfa, who knows what might never have happened?”
We wandered about the shop for a long while, snooping in corners, snapping photos, and chatting with Francesco and Giordano. We could have happily remained amidst this family of Alfas for several more hours, lingering over their every detail, but the December sun was quickly setting outside and I worried that we might be overstaying our welcome. Our tour, however, was just getting started.
“Are you ready for the next stop on the tour?” asked Francesco.
“You mean there’s more?” I asked.
Whatever else awaited us, I couldn’t imagine it being more impressive than that hangar full of Alfas. Francesco bundled us into his car and we sped off into the darkness, Giordano and his assistant, following in a second car. After winding our way through the dark Italian countryside for twenty minutes we pulled up in front of an old farmhouse and barn.
“Where the hell are we?” I wondered to myself as we piled out of the car. I worried that I would soon find myself feigning interest in a collection of antique tractors and plows. Francesco never lacks for surprises, however, and this stop was no exception.
With some effort, Francesco and Giordano parted the rickety barn doors to expose two gleaming industrial steel doors painted bright red. Clearly, this was no ordinary cow shed. As Francesco slid the steel doors open and flipped on the interior lights, we found ourselves standing in a climate-controlled clean room worthy of Intel. With an HVAC system humming in the background and Ferrari-red walls covered in electrostatic anti-dust fabric, the room felt like a villain’s lair.
In the first room, parked end-to-end on the glossy white floor, were each of Ferrari’s supercars: an Enzo, an F50, an F40, a 288 GTO, and a 512 BB. Next to this row sat a 360 Challenge Stradale, a 575 Super America, a Daytona, a 330 GTC, and even an Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione that had evidently sneaked over from the Alfa hangar. This place took the notion of “barn finds” into entirely new territory.
Over the next several months, Francesco and I became good friends and I eventually convinced him to part with two of his cars: a GTA Junior race car and a 1960 SZ, both of which I shipped back to California. Sometime later, after much pleading and cajoling on my part, Francesco relented and sold me his 1957 Giulietta Sprint Veloce Lightweight that I keep in Italy.
Since that first visit in 2010, we have visited Francesco each time we are in Italy, always talking cars but also nurturing a friendship that goes beyond the garage. Even after knowing Francesco for several years, though, the man still surprises me. Now in his early 70s, Francesco rang me one day in 2013 to announce that he was now engaged to a 27 year-old and, what’s more, that he and his fiance were expecting their first child. A stable of Prancing Horses, it seems, is the key to eternal youth.
Francesco had planned to turn his collection into a museum and give the public a chance to share his passion for Alfas and Ferraris, but a lack of suitable locations and the recent changes in his home life finally led him sell most of the cars. A single buyer purchased the majority of the lot and, just like that, Francesco’s barn and hangar were left with about a dozen Alfas on land that will soon be turned into a commercial development.
Francesco had hoped to sell his cars to individuals as crazy as himself, and though a couple buyers like myself did pick up a few of his Alfas, it makes me feel a little uneasy knowing that a flipper bought the bulk of the collection. I guess I should take heart in the fact that they will ultimately go to true Alfisti.
As I watch those Alfas and Ferraris cross the block in Paris this weekend, I will be thinking back fondly on that stunning assembly of cars in the Italian countryside. In restoring and preserving his cars, Francesco accepted nothing less than excellence. I know that the lucky individuals with the winning bids this weekend will also appreciate the cars’ former caretaker for his uncompromising standards.
Join the Conversation |
Nine tenants are homeless after fire inspectors deemed their Fredericton apartment building unsafe.
A blue tarp is stretched across most of the roof, the brick work is crumbling, there are areas where the wood is rotting and fire crews told CBC News no one will be allowed to return until major repair work is completed.
City fire inspector Cameron Dunn said the big concern is water seeping into the electrical system.
"If water is in the electrical system there's potential for a short or something happening that could cause a fire incident," he said.
Dunn said it's unusual to close an entire building.
"It's pretty rare. We may have to close part of a building and maybe move one person to another apartment or get them to stay with friends for a day or two, but this has become a larger incident because of the amount of water in the building at the time."
The nine tenants, some on social assistance, are getting help from the Red Cross and the provincial government. Some are staying in local motels until the situation is remedied.
City councillor Mike O'Brien said he thinks the unsafe building is just one of many in Fredericton.
"We do call it the tip of the iceberg because there is the visible homeless in the city, about 300 or 400, and then below that are people living in situations like this," he said.
The city has ordered the landlord, Bill Petley, to repair the building.
Petley said he plans to complete the repairs as soon as possible, but he couldn't say when residents can move back in.
He said he will be meeting safety and health inspectors next week. |
On April 20, the European Political Strategy Centre, an in-house EU think tank that reports directly to Juncker, proposed that the European Union establish its own central intelligence agency, which would answer only to unelected bureaucrats.
On May 31, the EU, in partnership with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, unveiled a "code of conduct" to combat the spread of "illegal hate speech" online. Critics say the EU's definition of "hate speech" is so vague that it could include virtually anything deemed politically incorrect by European authorities, including criticism of mass migration, Islam or even the EU itself.
Although the survey does not explicitly say so, the findings almost certainly reflect growing anger at the anti-democratic nature of the EU and its never-ending power grabs.
Public anger is also being fueled by the growing number of diktats issued by the unelected officials running the Brussels-based European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the bloc, which has been relentless in its usurpation of sovereignty from the 28 nation states that comprise the European Union.
Public opposition to the European Union is growing in all key member states, according to a new survey of voters in ten EU countries.
Public disaffection with the EU is being fueled by the bloc's mishandling of the refugee and debt crises, according to the survey, which interviewed voters in Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
Public anger is also being fueled by the growing number of diktats issued by the unelected officials running the Brussels-based European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the bloc, which has been relentless in its usurpation of sovereignty from the 28 nation states that comprise the European Union.
The 17-page report, "Euroskepticism Beyond Brexit," was published by the Pew Research Center on June 7, just two weeks before the June 23 referendum on whether Britain will become the first country to leave the European Union (Brexit blends the words Britain and exit).
The following are excerpts:
Much of the disaffection with the EU among Europeans can be attributed to Brussels' handling of the refugee issue. In every country surveyed, overwhelming majorities disapprove of how Brussels has dealt with the crisis. This includes 94% of Greeks, 88% of Swedes and 77% of Italians. In Hungary and Poland, disapproval of how the refugee crisis has been managed stands at 72% and 71%, respectively. In France, 70% disapprove; in Germany the figure is 67%. The strongest approval of EU management of the refugee crisis is in the Netherlands, but that backing is a tepid 31%.
The EU's handling of economic issues is another huge source of disaffection with Brussels. About nine-in-ten Greeks (92%) disapprove of how the EU has dealt with the ongoing economic crisis. Roughly two-thirds of the Italians (68%), French (66%) and Spanish (65%) similarly disapprove. (France and Spain are the two nations where the favorability of the EU has recently experienced the largest decline.) Majorities in Sweden (59%) and the UK (55%) also disapprove of the EU's job in dealing with economic challenges. The strongest approval of Brussels' economic efforts is in Poland and Germany (both 47%).
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Britons say they want the EU to return certain powers to national governments. This Euroskepticism is not limited to Britain. In Greece, 68% of those surveyed want some EU powers devolved to the national government, followed by Sweden (47%); the Netherlands (44%) and Germany (43%).
A median of 42% of Europeans across the ten countries surveyed say they want to reclaim some powers from Brussels, while just 19% favor greater centralization (27% prefer the status quo).
Conversely, there is little enthusiasm for transferring more power to Brussels. Only 6% of Britons, 8% of Greeks and 13% of Swedes favor more power for the EU. The strongest backing for an ever closer Europe is only 34%, in France. In most countries, a quarter or more of the public prefers to keep the current division of power.
Three-quarters of Britons who disapprove of the EU's handling of economic problems and 71% of those who have an unfavorable view of the bloc's handling of the refugee crisis believe that Brussels should return powers to national governments.
The strongest backers of the EU are the Poles (72%) and the Hungarians (61%). In many other nations, support is tepid. Just 27% of the Greeks, 38% of the French (down from 69% in 2004) and 47% of the Spanish (down from 80% in 2007) have a favorable opinion of the EU. Notably, 44% of the British view the EU favorably, including 53% of the Scottish.
EU favorability is down in five of the six nations surveyed in both 2015 and 2016. There has been a double-digit drop in France (down 17 percentage points) and Spain (16 points), and single-digit declines in Germany (8 points), the United Kingdom (7 points) and Italy (6 points).
Young people — those ages 18 to 34 — are more favorable toward the European Union than people 50 and older in six of the 10 nations surveyed. The generation gap is most pronounced in France — 25 percentage points — with 56% of young people but only 31% of older people having a positive opinion of the EU. There are similar generation gaps of 19 points in the UK, 16 points in the Netherlands, 14 points in Poland and Germany, and 13 points in Greece. It remains unclear why young Europeans are so favorable to the EU, where youth unemployment is near 50% in some EU countries.
There is overwhelming sentiment across Europe that Brexit would be a bad thing for the European Union: 89% in Sweden, 75% in the Netherlands and 74% in Germany say the British leaving would not be good for the EU. France is the only country where more than a quarter (32%) of the public says it would be positive for the EU if the UK departed.
Although the survey does not explicitly say so, the findings almost certainly reflect growing anger at the anti-democratic nature of the EU and its never-ending power grabs.
On May 31, the European Union, in partnership with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, unveiled a "code of conduct" to combat the spread of "illegal hate speech" online in Europe. Critics say the initiative amounts to an assault on free speech in Europe because the EU's definition of "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" is so vague that it could include virtually anything deemed politically incorrect by European authorities, including criticism of mass migration, Islam or even the European Union itself.
On May 24, the unelected president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, vowed to use sanctions to isolate far-right or populist governments that are swept into office on the wave of popular anger against migration. Under powers granted to the European Commission in 2014, Juncker can trigger a "rule of law alert" for countries that depart from "the common constitutional traditions of all member states." Rather than accepting the will of the people at the voting booth, Juncker can impose sanctions to address "systemic deficiencies" in EU member states.
On May 4, Juncker warned that EU countries that failed to "show solidarity" by refusing take in migrants would face a fine of €250,000 ($285,000) per migrant.
On April 20, the European Political Strategy Centre, an in-house EU think tank that reports directly to Juncker, proposed that the European Union establish its own central intelligence agency, which would answer only to unelected bureaucrats. According to the plan, the 28 EU member states would have a "legally binding duty to share information."
The British Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Penny Mordaunt, responded:
"These matters are supposed to be, and must be the competence of member states. Intelligence sharing can only be done on a bilateral basis. This latest EU integration project not only shows how little the EU cares for the sovereignty of nation states, but also how little it understands the business of counter-terrorism."
On December 15, 2015, the European Commission unveiled plans for a new European Border and Coast Guard force that can intervene anywhere in the EU, even without the host country's consent.
On March 8, 2015, Juncker said that the EU needed its own military in order to restore the bloc's standing around the world: "Europe's image has suffered dramatically and also in terms of foreign policy, we don't seem to be taken entirely seriously."
Jean-Claude Juncker, the unelected president of the European Commission, recently vowed to use sanctions to isolate far-right or populist governments that are swept into office on the wave of popular anger against migration. In December 2015, the Commission unveiled plans for a new European Border and Coast Guard force that can intervene anywhere in the EU, even without the host country's consent. (Image source: © European Union 2015 - European Parliament)
In a recent interview with Le Monde, Juncker said that if Britons voted to leave the EU, they would be treated as "deserters":
"I am sure the deserters will not be welcomed with open arms. If the British should say 'No' — which I hope they do not — then life in the EU will not go on as before. The United Kingdom will be regarded as a third country and will have its fur stroked the wrong way (caresser dans le sens du poil). If the British leave Europe, people will have to face the consequences. It is not a threat but our relations will no longer be what they are today."
In an interview with the Telegraph, Giles Merritt, director of the Friends of Europe think tank in Brussels, summed it up this way:
"The EU policy elites are in panic. If the British vote to leave the shock will be so ghastly that they will finally wake up and realize that they can no longer ignore demands for democratic reform. They may have to dissolve the EU as it is and try to reinvent it, both in order to bring the Brits back and because they fear that the whole political order will be swept away unless they do."
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter. His first book, Global Fire, will be out in 2016. |
There was a time some years ago that CyanogenMod was the surest way to get the latest build of Android on your phone. It's a little slower these days, but development continues to chug along. The CM team hopes to roll out the first nightly builds of CM14.1 later tonight, but not all devices will be supported right away.
According to Steve Kondik, there are about a dozen devices slated for release in the first push. Here they are.
angler (Nexus 6P)
bullhead (Nexus 5X)
cancro (Xiaomi Mi3w/Mi4)
d855 (LG G3)
falcon/peregrine/thea/titan (Moto G variants)
h811/h815 (LG G4)
klte/kltedv/kltespr/klteusc/kltevzw (Samsung Galaxy S5)
oneplus3 (OnePlus 3)
Z00L/Z00T (Zenphone 2)
If you've got one of those devices with an unlocked bootloader, you will be able to install the CM flavor of Nougat. The nightlies will probably have some bugs, but updates will be frequent. Not all features will be available right away, and more devices will get support later. Interested parties with sufficient courage to run a nightly should keep an eye on the CyanogenMod download page. |
The Post Sports Live crew analyzes Kirk Cousins's performance in eight career starts and debates whether he has proven he could ever be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
The Post Sports Live crew analyzes Kirk Cousins's performance in eight career starts and debates whether he has proven he could ever be a top 20 quarterback in the NFL. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
There is a sentiment that need never be repeated again in Washington, and it’s this: “Dan Snyder just wants to win.” The day the owner quits doubling down on his favorite mistakes is the day you’ll know Washington’s football team is worth your interest again. The day Bruce Allen’s taxi is waiting to take him to the airport, to be replaced by an actual football professional as opposed to someone’s son or brother, is the day you’ll know this team isn’t just another fan swindle.
It’s mid-October, yet Washington’s football fans once more feel like they’re drinking flat beer. The team is in last place in the NFC East, which makes 2014 no different from 2013, 2011 or 2010, and the conversation already has shifted to how many needs will have to be filled in the offseason. Well, let’s count. There’s the offensive line, which plays with all the enthusiasm of gravediggers; the secondary, which can’t stop a seam route or a deep ball; the defensive line, which can’t seem to mount a consistent pass rush; and then there is the matter of finding a quarterback who isn’t so easily breakable either physically or mentally.
Nice job. Way to build.
Why is Washington always facing the same decade-old problems? Why, no matter how much changes, does nothing change? The reason is that Snyder prefers spies, moles, flatterers and glad-handers instead of accomplished managers. No coach or roster can succeed because they become fatalistic paycheckers who have no faith in the basic organization. The cycle of internal dissolution is repetitive and inevitable: The front office and locker room are torn apart by disagreement and dissension because the owner’s suite is always open to the backstabbers and the bad-mouthers.
Think about how many times this past offseason you heard a member of the organization plunge a knife into someone and distance themselves from blame. Allen went out of his way to shuck responsibility for any roster problems, saying that with Mike Shanahan’s firing “the control will be mine,” and vowing to “redefine some of the characteristics that we’re looking for in players.” He also offloaded any responsibility for Robert Griffin III returning too quickly from a knee injury last season, saying it was “almost disrespectful,” and the quarterback was asked “to do the impossible.”
The Post Sports Live crew predicts what will happen when the Redskins take on the Titans at FedEx Field on Sunday. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
Allen is president of the ballclub. What a stand-up guy.
Then there is the noble Jim Haslett, who whispered in the ear of all who would listen that his unit’s abysmal defensive performance last year was not his fault but a result of interference from above. DeAngelo Hall said, “I’m excited after talking to Haslett . . . of him being able to run his defense without anybody in his ear telling him what to call or what not to call.” Haslett himself said he wanted to “turn loose” his players, and, “You’ll see more of what we want to do . . .” as if he had been shackled and gagged.
Now, the point is not that Shanahan did a job worth defending. He didn’t. The point is what this says about the culture in Ashburn. If these are the sorts of things being said in the open, imagine the daggers plunged behind closed doors. But the real point is that this is what a very nice, well-meaning, seemingly talented, but not very empowered coach named Jay Gruden can expect going forward.
Disloyalty and unraveling, these are the hallmarks of Snyder’s ownership: Vinny Cerrato never missed a chance to cut up Jim Zorn. As the team starts to slide, there is a parade of tattletales and second-guessers who complain into the too-willing ear of the owner, and the head coach leaves not just a failure, but damaged.
Meanwhile, some of the wrong people are retained.
Explain, please, how Haslett could have been rehired from last year’s staff. He hasn’t had a squad ranked in the top half of the league since 2003. Last season his unit was 30th in points allowed and 20th against the pass. This season, his “turned loose” unit has surrendered at least 27 points in its past four games and is giving up an average of 297.9 yards, once again in the bottom third of the NFL. And this is with the addition of Jason Hatcher and Ryan Clark.
We know now where responsibility for Haslett’s performance lies: with Haslett.
1 of 30 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Washington at Arizona for Week 6 View Photos The Redskins’ losing streak continues as they fall 30-20 to the Cardinals. Caption The Redskins’ losing streak continues as they fall 30-20 to the Cardinals. Washington Redskins outside linebacker Brian Orakpo and teammates take the field for a game against the Arizona Cardinals on October 12 in Glendale, Ariz. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
This is why Washington is staggering in the NFC East. The better teams, Dallas and Philadelphia, are playing with a percussive force, the exacting, synchronized rhythm of a drumroll. This is because they believe in what they are doing. Even the drama-prone, emotionally messy Cowboys exhibit more basic loyalty and steadfastness to their people and their plan when things go wrong.
Washington, on the other hand, flies around chaotically, and yet as Gruden puts it “nothing is happening” for all of their seeming action. Except 48 penalties, fifth most in the league, and a raft of interceptions by Kirk Cousins, who tries to play with conviction but apparently can neither close out a game nor overcome a deficit, and is growing more insecure by the game.
The NFL asks men to risk their long-term health for the sake of winning, and that takes a certain amount of faith in the bosses upstairs. Without it, it’s hard to pay the daily bodily dues — to stand in, to play with real zeal instead of superficial. And it’s hard to buy in when you know the coach, no matter how much you like him or hate him, likely will be undermined when things go wrong.
“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be,” Tom Landry once said. Exactly what chance does anyone in Washington have of exercising those principles?
For more by Sally Jenkins, visit washingtonpost.com/jenkins. |
Thinking about leaving New York? A recent report from United Van Lines shows that most people are moving to the following states. Thinking about leaving New York? A recent report from United Van Lines shows that most people are moving to the following states. Photo: John Carl D'Annibale Buy photo Photo: John Carl D'Annibale Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close People moving from New York outnumber arrivals by nearly two-to-one, report says 1 / 28 Back to Gallery
United Van Lines reported Tuesday that nearly two-thirds of the moves involving New York households were outbound, a higher proportion than any other state except New Jersey and Illinois.
The 2016 National Movers Study by Fenton, Mo.- based United also found that almost 59 percent of the moves within the eastern United States were outbound.
Where were people moving? Mostly to western states and the Carolinas, with one exception. That exception was Vermont, which ranked second on the list of states with the highest proportion -- 67 percent -- of inbound moves.
South Dakota had the highest share of inbound moves, at 68 percent.
New Jersey and Illinois, like New York, saw outbound moves making up 63 percent of all moves.
"This year's data clearly reflects retirees' location preferences," said Michael Stoll, an economist and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Interestingly enough, these retirees are leaving at such a fast pace that the movement of millennials to urban areas in the Midwest and Northeast is being overshadowed."
In New York, inbound millennials were 27 percent of inbound moves and 19 percent of those moving out. But of those over 65, 26 percent were outbound and 20 percent were inbound. |
Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors, see a leprechaun fighting an ex-convict in a crocodile-themed dive bar.
People of America, welcome to American Gods — the hotly-anticipated television adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s instant-classic 2001 adult contemporary fantasy novel, which will give your DVR a new dose of deity when it premieres on Starz in 2017. And guess what? Your prayers for a sneak peek to tide you over until then have been answered.
EW has your exclusive first look at Shadow (Ricky Whittle), Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane), and Mad Sweeney (Pablo Schreiber) in a scene that’ll be instantly familiar to fans of Gaiman’s novel: Jack’s Crocodile Bar, one of the book’s earliest settings, where Shadow first proves his might and mettle to the mysterious Wednesday in a fist-fight with the pugnacious, drunk leprechaun.
“It was one of the sets that we were the most excited about and an opportunity to do a tonal landgrab for what we are and what the style of the show will be,” says exec producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies), who re-teams with Heroes producer Michael Green to adapt the novel. “[Jack’s] is a kind of hillbilly chic aesthetic for Shadow’s entrée into the world of the gods.”
If seeing primary protagonist duo Shadow and Wednesday together in the flesh is giving you strange sensations, you’re not alone. Fuller says McShane’s Wednesday, who always exercised a morbid comic bite in the novel, is just as darkly funny here. “I think the comedy and charm and ease of Wednesday’s appeal is very well-suited for Ian McShane,” he says. “He has a vibrancy as Wednesday that could have gone so many different ways in other actors’ hands, but has such a specificity and reality, despite the situation at hand.”
Starz
Shadow, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Wednesday — he’s stoic, kind, and, well, mortal. “There’s where Ricky has been such a boon,” says Green. “His experience of [the world of the gods] is very genuine and grounded, and we want to watch him be introduced to and beaten up by this new reality.”
American Gods, in a nutshell, proposes a world where gods are real and we’re all just pawns in their great chess game for humanity’s attention. At the center of the novel’s conflict is Whittle’s ex-convict Shadow, who’s released from prison and immediately gets caught up in a war of worship between the nation’s two bands of titans: The old gods, whose power in America has been slowly dying alongside the waning generation of immigrant believers who brought them to the country in the first place (e.g. Schreiber’s Sweeney, who struggles to figure out why he lost his charm), and the new gods, a fast-growing set of modern myths born on our own home turf (e.g. Gillian Anderson’s Media, a goddess whose screen-hungry power you’ll feed the second you turn on your TV next year).
“Neil created this wonderfully stuffed toy box filled with all sorts of cultural points of view on how American operates as a system, and that was so fascinating and mythological in and of itself,” says Fuller. “It’s really much more of an immigration story than it is a god story.” Green adds, “One of the biggest challenges was stripping the idea of gods as X-Men or giant empowered creatures who stomp on cities and throw the oceans. We wanted them to be people with problems. It’s not about lightning bolts — it’s about the question of day-to-day survival.”
For more exclusive intel on American Gods, pick up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly. |
An Israeli company named “Xsight” offers airports a way to avoid expensive delays and more importanty to save lives.
July 25, 2000, marked the beginning of the end of commercial high-speed supersonic flight – a method of airline travel that transported passengers between New York and Paris within just a few hours. On that date, an Air France Concorde supersonic plane caught fire, exploded, and crashed into a hotel, within minutes of takeoff.
All passengers and crew on the flight were killed, as were some employees of the hotel, for a death toll of 113.
The reason for the crash? A 17-inch metal strip that fell off a plane that had taken off minutes before.
Although the Concorde continued to fly for several years after the incident, the crash, along with other issues, took the wind out of the plane’s sails, and the Concorde — and commercial supersonic flight — was eventually scrapped.
If the idea of a tiny piece of metal taking down a hulking aircraft sounds ridiculous, you’re clearly not familiar with FOD (Foreign Object Debris), a problem that air travel authorities, like the Federal Aviation Authority, are very concerned about. Besides claiming lives, FOD incidents cost the airline industry an estimated $13 billion a year in repairs, delays, worker costs, and so on.
As a result, there has been a huge demand at airports around the world for FOD detection systems. Israel’s Xsight Systems’ FODetect is one of the leading providers of FOD detection systems, and is already installed in airports in the US, Europe, and Asia.
“Had the runway been inspected before the Concorde’s takeoff, the tragedy would have been avoided,” Oded Hanson, Xsight CTO and co-founder told The Times of Israel. “But with takeoffs at commercial airports coming within two minutes of each other, there would have been no way to find the fatal metal strip. Patrols on runways take place only several times a day, and the only way to find such debris is when workers or pilots observe them, which is very difficult to do when you’re driving a vehicle down the runway.”
FODetect uses hybrid radar and electro optical technology to detect junk on runways, with units installed with runway lights. That, said Hanson, is what separates Xsight’s system from the three others that are on the market for automated FOD detection. “The lights are already installed and there is an electrical infrastructure in place already. We add the FODetect sensors to the lights, with each sensor responsible for the area around it. When debris is detected, the control tower is alerted, and they can contact the pilots and hold up flights as necessary. And thanks to the installed GPS, they can tell ground crew exactly where the debris is located.”
FODetect is the only system that lets control tower workers “see” what is actually happening on the runway. “They can’t see the runway from the tower, but with our system they are able to see and read exactly what is happening on the ground.”
FODetect has been installed at Logan Airport in Boston, Ben Gurion Airport, and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport. The system is approved by the FAA, which wrote in a report last month that “the FODetect system was able to detect the objects of various shapes, sizes, and materials on runway surfaces and perform satisfactorily in nighttime, daytime, sun, rain, mist, fog, and snow conditions.”
For the full story: timesofisrael.com
Click ‘LIKE’ to congratulate Israel’s Xsight’s for making airports safer.
Please ‘SHARE’ this incredible story with your family and friends! |
WASHINGTON — The first battle that Representative Mike Pompeo prepared to fight was against the Russians, when he commanded a tank platoon in Germany in the twilight of the Cold War. On Thursday, he made clear he was ready to take on America’s old adversary if confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
But doing so may result in a battle closer to home: Mr. Pompeo and the C.I.A. versus President-elect Donald J. Trump, whose denigration of the nation’s intelligence agencies has opened an extraordinary breach between an incoming president and the spies who will serve him.
The question hanging over Mr. Pompeo, and America’s 17 intelligence agencies, is how to handle a president who embraces President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia while the agency tries to keep Russia in check. So far, nothing in the C.I.A.’s 69-year history has prepared it to deal with a president who is as openly derisive of its work as Mr. Trump.
The dispute has stoked fears at the C.I.A. that Mr. Trump, once in office, could halt or seek to limit inquiries into Russian hacking and other issues that he has dismissed as politically motivated smears, current and former agency officials said. |
Square Enix held a quite eventful keynote during the Final Fantasy XIV Fan fest 2016. The conference reached its climax when the company showed the trailer of Stormblood, the second expansion for Final Fantasy XIV which is scheduled to come out less than a year from now, during Summer 2017.
The expansion, as many fans theorized, will be set in Ala Migho, a region of Eorzea controlled by the Garlean Empire. The main quest of the expansion will revolve around the resistance and the effort to get back the area from the imperium. Ala Migho is a zone that is talked about really often during the game and the expansion (especially if you happen to play a monk) and is a major plot point in the war between Eorzean and the Garlean Empire. Being finally able to explore its deserts and forests is something that fans of Final Fantasy XIV wished for a long time.
Reddit user AnghellicKarma posted a nice list of what has been revealed about Stormblood during the keynote. Let’s give it a look.
Stormblood will explore Ala Mhigo
Main focus is to regain control of Ala Mhigo from the Garlean Empire
20 years have passed since Garleans have had control
Main antagonist to be Zenos Yae Galvus, XIIth Legion Legatus and de facto ruler of Ala Mhigo
Woman depicted in trailer to potentially be revealed in future 3.X patch
Warrior of Light’s main job in 4.0 is Monk (akin to DRG for 3.0)
Area shown in teaser trailer is Rhalgr’s Reach, the HQ of Ala Migho’s main resistance.
Multiple new jobs to be discussed at future date
Yoshi-P wore a t-shirt of Marvel’s Scarlet Witch, said that was the only hint he’d give at this time
New Level Cap: 70 (for all classes)
(for all classes) More actions for each job to go with new cap
Revamped battle system to go with new actions
to go with new actions Additional Skill System to be overhauled, with skills shared by roles instead of jobs, and can choose from shared role ability options
Reassessment of unused/ineffective actions
Example used is Dragoon’s Blood of the Dragon buff, where in 4.0 an icon/gauge showing how much time is left will be better visible on screen so players aren’t just staring at the current icon
New Areas to be introduced, comparable in size to Heavensward areas
Stormblood will be a full standalone game’s worth of content
New Primals to be introduced, including known names and all-new original-to-FF14 ones.
New Dungeons to be introduced with new battle and dungeon concepts to be introduced
High-End Raids to also be added, with possibility of different story depending on difficulty, with normal on odd patches, savage on even ( NOTE: I may have transcribed this backwards. Please look forward to more information on it ).
). New Alliance Raids to be added. Big news, but will wait until Tokyo Fan Fest , but will be, “very, very Final Fantasy”
, but will be, “very, very Final Fantasy” Expanded form of Exploration to be introduced: The Forbidden Land of Eureka (they really like FF3!), something different from Diadem and will expand its own entire area, unique to Stormblood. There might even be Notorious Monsters that only appear once every 72 hours.
(they really like FF3!), something different from Diadem and will expand its own entire area, unique to Stormblood. There might even be Notorious Monsters that only appear once every 72 hours. Eureka may also be used for next set of high-end weapons, akin to Relic/Anima, rather than upgrades in “normal areas.”
New Gear and Recipes, including winners of Fan’s Gear Design Contest
Item Inventory Exansion (this got the biggest cheers so far), looking to increase “as much as humanly possible.” There is uncertainty in how this will be implemented due to the server needs, and it will be addressed in a future Live Letter
(this got the biggest cheers so far), looking to increase “as much as humanly possible.” There is uncertainty in how this will be implemented due to the server needs, and it will be addressed in a future Live Letter A 4th Residential Area to be added. Where? “Sorry, can’t tell ya.”
to be added. Where? “Sorry, can’t tell ya.” In-game footage of new areas shown
Screenshots now being shown of new areas
Indications are that Ala Mhigo is crossed via a wall in The Black Shroud, which will be shown in Patch 3.5. Yoshi joked that Dragoon Jump won’t work to scale the wall, but that The Warrior of Light has a lot of practice falling off of things.
Ala Mhigo will not be just deserts and wasteland. Forests are also part of it.
All areas of 4.0 will be accessible by flying mounts, but there was an indication that it will again by quest-based like in 3.0. At groans from the audience, Yoshi said it will be easier than Moogle Quests.
That’s all the information for now from this keynote. More information will be released in other Fan Fests elsewhere, Live Letters, and so forth. “This is just the start.” Yoshi teases he wants to say more everytime the audience cheers, but then he’d be dead and Stormblood wouldn’t come out.
Two final announcements:
1) Changes to Windows version Minimum Specs requirements. Current minimum specs are geared towards components you can’t even buy anymore. So, for the best gaming experience possible, they’ve decided to raise their minimum specs. “If possible, maybe upgrade to 64-bit OS” but they will still support 32-bit. They just suggest 64-bit will be best gaming experience.
2) End of PlayStation 3 support . This got the second biggest cheers. They’ve been examining numbers and have seen a large migration of PS3 to PS4 so they have decided it is the right time to end PS3 support. To show appreciation to their PS3 fans that helped them get to where they are now, there will be a special FREE PS3 to PS4 upgrade campaign .
1) Changes to Windows version Minimum Specs requirements. Current minimum specs are geared towards components you can’t even buy anymore. So, for the best gaming experience possible, they’ve decided to raise their minimum specs. “If possible, maybe upgrade to 64-bit OS” but they will still support 32-bit. They just suggest 64-bit will be best gaming experience. 2) . This got the second biggest cheers. They’ve been examining numbers and have seen a large migration of PS3 to PS4 so they have decided it is the right time to end PS3 support. To show appreciation to their PS3 fans that helped them get to where they are now, . Keynote ends with Yoshi saying, in English, “Please look forward to it.”
There are a couple of things that stand out in this list. First of all, there’s no mention of new classes to be added into the game. With the release of Heavensward, three new classes were added to Final Fantasy XIV so it’s only natural to expect the same from Stormblood. Square Enix probably aims to reveal them in the future keynotes leading to the release of the expansion. Looking at the teaser trailer, though, it would seem like expecting some kind of dancer-type class would be a safe bet.
The second bullet point to stand out is the one about the company pulling the plug on PlayStation 3 support for the game. With the release of Stormblood, it will not be possible anymore to play Final Fantasy XIV on PlayStation 3. It’s not unexpected news at this point. In order to allow the game to grow, Square decided to interrupt the support on older hardware that risks to hold the game back. The fact that they also announced that they’re going to raise the minimum PC requirements to play the game, attests the will of the devs to have more space to stretch their legs and experiment with new stuff.
For the Warriors of Light playing on PS3 out there, though, not everything is lost. PS3 players will be able to upgrade their version of the game to the PS4 version for free in order to continue to play on the new console. There are still no details about how the free upgrade will work but considering that PS3 support will continue until next summer, there’s plenty of time to lay down details.
Share Have a tip for us? Awesome! Shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll take a look! |
Announcement - 13 April 2017
We are sad to announce that our upside down tree has toppled over this morning at 4 a.m.
Never in our lives could we have imagined that this great giant that has stood sturdy all these years could break so tragically.
We are open, come and have a braai and a beer in front of the brave baobab.
Doug and Heather
See the pictures on our Facebook
Welcome to Baobab Tree Bar in Modjadjiskloof
"Come and see the largest Baobab in the world"
The Sunland ‘Big Baobab’ is in Modjadjiskloof in Limpopo Province, South Africa and is famous internationally for being the widest of its species in the world. Africa is symbolised by these magnificent trees. The Sunland Big Baobab is carbon dated to be well over 1 700 years old and has even made the front page of the Wall Street Journal!
When baobabs become a thousand years old, they begin to hollow inside. In the Big Baobab this has resulted in wonderful caverns and caves, where the world famous Baobab Tree Bar now amazes visitors.
The Big Baobab is on the mango farm Sunland, where day visitors are welcome. Sunland can also accommodate 20 overnight visitors in 5 chalets. We also offer quadbiking on our own quads or you can bring your own. There are hikes, waterfalls in the surrounding area and mountain biking trails, while the tree itself hosts a variety of activities. The Big Baobab has hosted many weddings over the years an there is now a honeymoon suite in a tree house for a wedding with a difference!
Sunland Farm is an ideal base for exploring the surrounding area - the Modjadjiskloof Cycad Forest, the Magoebaskloof hills and forest, the verdant area of Tzaneen and more.
Doug and Heather van Heerden bought the farm in 1989 and cleared half, planting mangoes and Palm trees. The Big Baobab is important both historically and ecologically and is home to many animals and birds, as well as providing food for many others. The van Heerdens fiercely protect the tree and the surroundings – woe betide anyone who doesn’t share their views!
Day visitors to the tree: R25.00 per person. Kids under 3 free!!
Click here for our Wikipedia Entry
Click here to read our Newsclipping from :
Metro Newspaper (1,5mb PDF) in the UK.
And here are some links to articles and photographs:
http://sa.travel-directory.co/25/places/Limpopo/Modjadjiskloof-%28Duiwelskloof%29/Attractions/Sunland-Baobab-Tree
http://www.barnorama.com/baobab-tree-bar/
http://www.southafricaweb.co.za/article/south-africa-beaten-track-big-tree-limpopo
http://www.onroutemag.co.za/articles/the-big-baobab
http://www.travelground.com/attractions/big-baobab-in-modjadjiskloof
http://travel.spotcoolstuff.com/unusual-bar/treehouse/big-baobab-pub
http://www.360cities.net/image/bigbaobabaframes#23.00,15.30,70.0
http://www.360cities.net/image/bigbaobab#397.00,-26.11,50.5
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/44766690
http://www.sastay.co.za/limpopo-attractions/the-sunland-baobab-biggest.html
http://www.safarinow.com/destinations/Duiwelskloof/PopularAttractions/Giant-Baobab.aspx
http://gallivant.com/sip/the-big-baobab-tree-bar/
http://www.swide.com/photo-gallery/big-baobab-the-new-way-to-do-a-pub/2011/03/24/1-4
http://showme.co.za/tourism/sunland-baobab-tree-modadjiskloof-limpopo/
http://www.findplaces.co.za/sunland-baobab-jungalows-in-modjadjiskloof-788.html |
Freda Houlston and BPL Bedi at the time of their engagement
By Naomi Canton
Interracial marriages are an everyday event in the UK now, but the marriage in 1933 of Oxford PPE students Freda Houlston and Baba Pyare Lal (BPL) Bedi made the front page of the Oxford Mail (right). Freda, British daughter of a Derby jeweller and watchmaker, ultimately became one of the first European women to take vows as Tibetan Buddhist nun.
While still at Oxford, Freda became anti-imperialist and pro-Indian independence. Once on Indian soil, where she lived with her Indian husband in Lahore, Kashmir and Delhi, she became an Indian nationalist.
Her life will form the basis of a book by historian and freelance journalist Andrew Whitehead, who read History at Keble and was a BBC World Service news editor.
The story will cover how Freda became friends with Labour cabinet minister Barbara Castle, her peer at St Hugh’s, and how her Gandhian and left-wing views were inspired by her time at Oxford, particularly her membership of the communist October Club, the Labour Club and Majlis, a debating society to campaign for Indian independence.
‘From her marriage onwards, she wore only Indian clothes. She was quite clear in her own head that she was Indian. Of course, she was English,’ Whitehead says, sipping a cappuccino at a hotel in Paddington. Freda and BPL were on the same PPE course and romance blossomed.
Freda was interested in ‘(as she put it) Oriental culture and religion,’ Whitehead says. She went to talks by Tagore, Gandhi, and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan at Oxford (where she is pictured as a student left). The couple had a shared passion for anti-imperialism.
‘BPL was from a privileged family in Lahore. He was meant to join the elite Indian civil service when he left Oxford but he got attracted to communism and Indian nationalism instead.
‘Freda had a strong sense of the ethical and she thought the way Britain suppressed the nationalist movement in India, the way it policed the Empire, the way it restrained people’s natural desire for self-determination was wrong,’ Whitehead says.
It was the 1930s, the time of the British Round Table Conferences to discuss constitutional reforms in India; the time of the Hunger Marches and the rise of fascism.
‘The strange thing is that although quite a lot of elite Indian students in the UK married English women, they did not usually marry fellow Oxford students — the rather crude stereotype is they married the “landlord’s daughter”,’ says Whitehead.
‘There is a whole file in the India Office Records of rather distraught working-class English woman who say they married Indian students who went back to India and they have not heard from them at all.’
There were articles in the press warning young English women not to marry Indian students because they were probably already married. The Indian student publications also had discussions about their parents’ dislike of mixed marriages, Whitehead says.
Reported by a Hertford College porter for going into BPL’s room unaccompanied, Freda was disciplined by being sent down early one term. It only strengthened their relationship and soon afterwards they got married at Oxford Register Office.
She graduated with a third and he with a fourth. They moved to Berlin, then Lahore, where she wrote articles and taught English.
When the Second World War broke out, the British viceroy, without consulting India’s political leaders or public, pledged India’s support to the Allied war effort. BPL Bedi was interned as an anti-war activist and sent to camp in Rajasthan. Freda (pictured right in about 1942) announced she would make a speech campaigning to resist the war effort and Whitehead says she became the first European woman to be arrested as a satyagrahi, a Gandhian practitioner of non-violent civil resistance. She spent three months in Lahore women’s jail.
In 1947 the family moved to Kashmir where they were active in the Kashmir nationalist movement. BPL Bedi worked for the then prime minister of Kashmir, Sheikh Abdullah, and they got to know Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Then Freda took a United Nations post in Burma and encountered Buddhism.
From 1959 onwards Tibetan refugees flowed into India. Horrified by the conditions they faced, Freda set up a lama school for incarnate Tibetan lamas and a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery.
In 1966 Freda took her ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, becoming one of the first European women to do so. She took the name Sister Palmo and her marriage in the conventional sense was over. ‘She didn’t tell her children she was going to become a nun. She simply appeared in Delhi wearing the maroon robes with her head shaved,’ Whitehead says. BPL Bedi turned to the occult and became a Sufi mystic.
Whitehead (left), who spent five years as BBC Delhi Correspondent and whose wife is Indian, first came across Freda’s name researching his first book, A Mission in Kashmir (2007), which explores the origins of the Kashmir conflict.
He made contact with her family as he was curious about her, especially since her son Kabir Bedi is an international film star who played Gobinda in Octopussy.
She spent the last 11 years of her life dividing her time between Dalhousie and Sikkim working with Tibetan lamas. She was instrumental in helping the 16th Karmapa Lama, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, introduce Tibetan Buddhism to the west, including to the ‘Beat’ movement in California.
Whitehead found that Delhi publisher Speaking Tiger was considering a series of books on Indians that challenge the idea of what it is to be Indian. He proposed Freda Bedi.
In Oxford he has gained access to Freda’s tutorial reports, the ‘not terribly good’ poetry she wrote for The Imp (a student magazine), and the complete set of Contemporary India, the quarterly journal the couple edited in Lahore, stored at the Bodleian Library.
‘There is something about the way in which she challenged convention and broke through barriers — of race, religion, nationality and gender — which I find quite remarkable,’ Whitehead says. ‘At a time when we are so concerned about identity, the way in which she challenged conventional notions of identity is really interesting.’
If you have information about Freda Bedi, Andrew Whitehead would love to hear from you and can be reached at [email protected]
All images courtesy of Andrew Whitehead except newspaper cutting courtesy of the Oxford Mail and Andrew Whitehead portrait by Ken Passley. |
This article first appeared in School Administrator.
To much of the public, it’s self-evident that public schools are “failing” when large achievement gaps separate middle-class white and low-income minority youth. Why, they ask, should skin color or family earnings affect whether children may benefit from effective teachers?
Of course, minority or low-income status does not itself depress achievement, but on average, disadvantaged children achieve at lower levels. International tests confirm this in every industrialized country.
Why is this so? Poor nutrition, inadequate health care, substandard housing and unstable families — all are factors that contribute to a child’s inability to learn at high levels.
Each of these well-documented social class differences between middle-class and low-income students has a small effect on average performance, but their cumulative effect explains much of the achievement gap.
Richard Rothstein, research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, is one of the nation’s authorities on the impact of socioeconomic factors on disparities in student achievement.
Isolation’s Impact
The negative effects of racial and economic disadvantage are exacerbated when low-income black students are concentrated in segregated schools. Remediation becomes routine, and teachers must focus more on discipline and less on instruction, leaving them little time to challenge those exceptional students who can overcome personal, family and community hardships that typically interfere with learning.
This isolation is a problem not only of poverty but of race. In urban areas, low-income white students are more likely integrated into middle-class neighborhoods and less likely to attend schools filled with other disadvantaged students. Nationwide, low-income black students’ isolation has increased. The share of black students attending schools that are less than 10 percent white increased from less than 34 percent in 1989 to 39 percent in 2007. In 1989, black students typically attended schools where 43 percent of students were low-income; by 2007, this grew to 59 percent. (Statistics provided by a 2009 report by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu.)
Schools with poorly performing students cannot be turned around while they remain racially and socioeconomically isolated. The problems these students bring to school are so overwhelming that policy should never assume that even the most skilled faculty can overcome them. Schools certainly can make a difference, but they cannot fully erase damage caused by concentrated poverty and racial isolation.
Regulated Housing
Throughout most of the 20th century, federal policy created black ghettos in metropolitan areas by placing public housing for white and black families in separate neighborhoods; guaranteeing low-cost mortgages for white (but not black) families to move from this public housing and from other urban neighborhoods to all-white suburbs of single-family homes; establishing bank and savings and loan regulatory policies that included racial discrimination as part of sound lending policy; granting tax exemptions to organizations formed for the purpose of enforcing racial barriers and to other organizations (and churches) for whom this was also a purpose; and deliberately routing federal highways through cities to create racial barriers and segregation.
State governments heavily regulated a real estate industry that sold and rented homes to whites in neighborhoods designated for whites, and (if at all) to blacks in neighborhoods designated for blacks. State prosecutors and local police tolerated, even encouraged, mob violence against African Americans who dared try to move into white-only neighborhoods.
High Court Ruling
Sociological, economic and historical research demonstrates that black student performance improves with integration, without any loss for whites. However, in 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 ruling, prohibited districts from taking race into account when assigning pupils to schools in an attempt to integrate. The decision arose from cases in Seattle, Wash., and Louisville, Ky., where the school districts used race as a factor to achieve diversity when assigning students to schools.
Expressing the plurality opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts asserted that explicit racial integration was permissible only to remedy a previous explicit policy of segregation. He said that black students’ isolation today is not deliberate; rather, it results from de facto neighborhood segregation that arose from income differences, demographic trends, and choices of white and black families to live in same-race neighborhoods. The dissent, by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, did not disagree on this point, arguing only that for de facto segregation, it is good public policy to permit districts voluntarily to integrate, even if not constitutionally compelled to do so.
But segregation in Seattle and Louisville was no accident. It was created largely by public policy. In Seattle, subdivisions created by mega-builders (such as William Boeing) were financed by the federal government with racial restrictions, or designated for whites-only in plans approved by the city and county. In Louisville, when a pro-integration couple sold a home in their white neighborhood to a black purchaser, not only did police stand by during the ensuing riot, but prosecutors responded by trying, convicting and imprisoning the white seller for “sedition.”
Forgotten Practices
Both Roberts’ and Breyer’s opinions reflect colossal historical amnesia. In truth, neighborhoods across the nation in which our schools are located were segregated by purposeful federal, state and local government policy. Many such policies are no longer in force, but their effects endure.
In 1954, the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, prohibited school districts from maintaining separate schools for blacks and whites. The decision was aimed at practices in the South and assumed that blacks and whites lived in the same neighborhoods and could attend the same schools if permitted to do so. But the Brown decision could do little to remedy segregation that results not from a racial pupil assignment plan but from geographic separation of the races. Busing is rarely a solution because distances between affluent white suburbs and urban black ghettos are now too great in many metropolitan areas.
Simply repealing the kind of school segregation policy banned by the Brown decision can integrate schools if districts draw integrated school attendance zones. But repealing an intentional residential segregation policy that already has led to substantial racial isolation accomplishes little, because once populations have been firmly established in separate areas, even modest integration could take decades if left to ordinary vacancies and in-migration.
Consider the iconic Levittown suburb in Nassau County, N.Y. In 1947, a vast housing shortage existed for both black and white workers and returning war veterans. The federal government financed the Levitt company to construct 17,000 units. These Levittown homes were easily affordable, but the government explicitly prohibited Levitt from selling (or renting) to African Americans. (Similar federal restrictions applied to other projects, many obscure and some well known, like the giant Lakewood development south of Los Angeles and the Daly City suburb south of San Francisco, memorialized by Malvina Reynolds’ song about “ticky tacky” houses.)
An executive order by President Kennedy in 1962 and the 1968 Fair Housing Act repealed government policies requiring racial housing segregation. Yet although many black families in New York City and Nassau County need better housing, Levittown remains today less than 1 percent black, compared to the nearby Long Island town of Roosevelt, which is 79 percent black.
In part, this is because white families fortunate enough to purchase Levittown homes in the 1940s and ’50s saw their equity appreciate more rapidly than their wages, so asset values helped propel them into the middle class. But by the time legal barriers to segregation fell, these homes were no longer affordable for working families, so African Americans were permanently excluded from the suburban boom and its amenities.
A Myth Perpetuated
That our segregation is de facto, not de jure (created by law and public policy) is an urban myth, shared by Supreme Court justices, national policymakers, legislators and educators. We continue to teach this myth in public schools, where social studies curricula characterize residential racial segregation as resulting only from private discrimination or as a purely random phenomenon.
For example, in the more than 1,200 pages of McDougal Littell’s widely used high school textbook, The Americans, a single paragraph is devoted to “Discrimination in the North” in the 20th century. The book devotes one sentence to residential segregation: “African Americans found themselves forced into segregated neighborhoods,” with no further explanation of how this happened or who was responsible. Similar cover-ups characterize the textbooks of other publishers.
Superintendents cannot hope to narrow the achievement gap without integrating their student populations, and they cannot hope to do this until the neighborhoods from which students come are integrated. Although federal, state and local governments have many policy alternatives they could employ to promote residential integration, there is no popular support for such policies.
This lack of public support is partly our own fault, because we fail to teach an accurate account of the segregation policies that were the most important determinant of our contemporary metropolitan landscape. As a result, the myth of de facto segregation endures. If we don’t teach students that residential segregation was unconstitutionally created by our government, and requires a constitutional remedy, how can we expect them, as adults, to act on this understanding?
Richard Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and author of several books, including Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap (Economic Policy Institute, 2004). E-mail: [email protected] |
I don’t ship anything that isn’t Trixie And Glimmy. They are probably the only characters in the entire show that I see and they just feel like they would be or are on the way of being a real couple. Something about their dynamic is just so charming and they both seem like they could help each other improve a lot as people. Also Trixie’s speech to Starlight at the end of all bottled up was wedding vows levels of shit along explicitly using the words “The Starlight I love” so casually and with passion on her voice. Hell, the fact that show is very careful about using the word “love” to the point where not even canon couples tend to say it much? Dude these two are a thing as far as I’m concerned.
Also trixie raises her hindleg on this gif down here, you know who raises their leg when hugging or kissing someone in fictional works as a trope? SOMEONE DOING SO TO THEIR LOVER. Checkmate atheists. |
EUREKA (AP) — Police in Northern California say a man robbed a gas station only to return hours later to give the money back and apologize.
Eureka Police Sgt. Steve Watson said Sunday that 23-year-old Cyle Warren Abbott Jr. told officers he needed cash to leave town for a fresh start but then realized his mistake.
Watson says Abbott first entered the gas station demanding cash with what the clerk believed was a semiautomatic handgun.
He says the clerk gave Abbott some cash, and Abbott left, also taking two bottles of beer.
Watson says three hours later Abbott returned, giving back most of the cash and saying he was sorry.
Watson says the weapon turned out to be a BB gun, which officers haven’t found.
Abbott was booked into jail on $50,000 bail. |
I told you to look out for something BIG, and here it is – it is TIME, my friends!
What better week could there be to start the WDW “tournament” of tournaments than the same week that the NCAA enters into their first weekend of “madness”? It is time. Let’s crown the All in WDW Readers’ Favorite Magic Kingdom Attraction!
If you’ve been around for a while, you know that we have already named our …
… favorite attractions for Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. Click the links for full re-caps. Well, in the spirit of the Magic Kingdom trivia questions we tackled this past weekend, it is time to take on the crown jewel of Walt Disney World and ask that age-old question – just what is our favorite Magic Kingdom attraction?
We “rocked the charts” with well over 200 votes when we handled Epcot. We pounded our keyboards, phones, and tablets with 107 responses to last Saturday’s trivia question. Let’s do it again, my friends!! 40 attractions, 10 groups, only the Top 2 in each group will move on. Vote! Vote! Vote! |
Following the immediate and widespread blowback in response to Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, the president sent out a statement Wednesday to clear the air regarding his controversial decision. Trump explained that, despite appearances of impropriety, the real reason he fired Comey was that Comey was simply taking too long to uncover his ties to the Russian government.
Trump did not pull any punches in his statement, calling Comey totally incompetent for being unable to hit what basically amounts to an investigative softball out of the park:
“Uncovering any misconduct involving my administration and Russia should be a relatively simple endeavor, and I’m troubled by Mr. Comey’s continued failure to do so despite having more than enough time and investigative resources at his disposal,” Trump’s statement read. “The American people need a leader they can trust to expose any poorly concealed webs of corruption involving elected officials, and Mr. Comey’s baffling inability to connect the dots regarding my ties to Russia makes it clear that he is not that person.”
Advertisement
Trump went on to say that between the hacking scandal, the countless alarming connections his close advisors maintain with Russia, the Steele dossier, and his own frequent public praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Comey “probably could’ve knocked this thing out in an afternoon.” He also added that there were a significant number of red flags right underneath Comey’s nose that a more capable investigator would’ve detected immediately, and he trusts that whoever he chooses to appoint as his successor should have no problem digging them up.
“If Mr. Comey had thoroughly examined the suspicious interactions with Russia involving Michael Flynn, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Jeff Sessions, and had he bothered to consider what bearing my well-documented business relationships with Russia might have on my refusal to disclose my tax returns, he would’ve been able to wrap this one up with a bow in no time,” the statement continued. “This isn’t The Da Vinci Code we’re dealing with, okay? This should be easy. If you come home and the dog’s got frosting all over its snout, you should be able to figure out it was the dog that ate the cake. But not Mr. Comey, which is why I felt I had no choice but to remove him from his post.”
Trump’s statement marked a rare moment of transparency for an administration that’s frequently been criticized for its furtive dealings, and it should go a long way toward quelling the outrage surrounding his decision to fire Comey. Hopefully whoever Trump picks to fill the FBI director role is someone who can put together the world’s easiest puzzle a little more quickly than Comey. |
Last weekend, over a dozen players met up in GTA Online. They were all in decked out in trucks, jeeps, and other rugged four-wheel vehicles. They had one goal in mind: to cross the entirety of the Los Santos wilderness—rivers, mountains, forests and all.
The rules were simple. The players would go on a cruise spanning the entirety of the map, on a course designed to test the limits of off-road vehicles (the only type of cars allowed on the tour). Throughout the cruise, if a player’s car got wrecked because of the terrain, they wouldn’t be allowed to just respawn a vehicle—they’d have to continue in the passenger seat of someone else’s car. The route contained four pit stops, which is where players would be allowed to repair their vehicles. All together, the tour would take at least two hours of driving.
Yesterday, one of participants of the Off-Road tour posted pictures of the event on Reddit, and the journey looks like it was an amazing one. Coordinating all those people to drive through tough terrain, instead of having it all devolve into mindless shooting? Pretty impressive! So, too, are the pictures. At times, the tour seemed like something straight out of Spintires.
These are but a small selection of pictures of the entire course the GTA players ran. Pictures courtesy of Reflexx28 and HodorFirstOfHisHodor:
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
(A rest stop.)
(Climbing up Mt. Chilliad)
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Though there were casualties along the way, the tour did conclude successfully. Best of all, the tour awarded prizes to different players depending on how they drove, what their car looked like, how helpful they were, and who had the least-battered car. It sounds like the organizers are interested in throwing more of these types of tours too, which is great—it’s always nice to see what the GTA community can do when they come together with a single purpose.
“The best thing about doing the Off-Road Tour I’d probably say the fact that we can bring 20-25 players from the GTA community and have some honest fun, and see some beautiful scenery without firing a single bullet,” BlakeFlaherty, one of the organizers behind the tour, told me via email. “The most surprising part of the Off-Road Tour is probably the amount of people interested in spending 4 hours of their time following one guy they had never met before this, and then just driving. The worst part is definitely the people who don’t consider any driver other than themselves, which leads to crashes, and police being called on us.”
Advertisement
Flaherty says that to develop the route, he cruised through the map on a plane and marked areas that seemed of interest. Then, he tested them out in a truck to see if it was possible to actually traverse the area. Eventually he settled on the tour that you see in the pictures above—a challenging course, but not impossible.
You can check out more awesome pictures of the GTA Off-Road Tour here. Those of you interested in partaking in an event like this in the future should definitely check out the GTA Offroad subreddit. |
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
RIO RANCHO — The Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a man in Rio Rancho that is being called suspicious and appears to be a homicide.
Sheriff’s officials say deputies say deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to investigate an unattended death.
Deputies say they found 30-year-old Matthew Senter lying near his vehicle unresponsive.
They say Senter had an argument with his girlfriend the previous evening and left the residence.
He walked alone to his vehicle that was parked in a vacant lot that is owned by his friend.
Senter was found dead the following afternoon by his friends.
Sheriff’s officials are trying to determine the cause and manner of Senter’s death.
Senter’s body appears to have been found along or near a dirt road north of Southern Boulevard in Rio Rancho, where large, newer adobe homes have been built.
Neighbors described the neighborhood as quiet and said they rarely see police activity. One neighbor said he was unaware that the man’s body had been found nearby.
Rio Rancho police and the New Mexico State Police Crime Scene Unit are assisting in the homicide investigation. |
[/caption]
Note: To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission, for 13 days, Universe Today will feature “13 Things That Saved Apollo 13,” discussing different turning points of the mission with NASA engineer Jerry Woodfill.
A Hollywood movie depicts three astronauts who survive an accident in space, but their lives hang in the balance as the people in Mission Control at NASA work night and day to figure out a way to bring the spacefarers home safely.
You probably think I’m describing the 1995 movie, “Apollo 13” by producer Ron Howard, but actually this is a recap of a 1969 movie called “Marooned.”
“The correlation between ‘Marooned’ and actual events threatening Apollo 13 is really uncanny,” said NASA engineer Jerry Woodfill. “People may not agree, but in my mind this movie was actually a catalyst to the rescue of Apollo 13.”
“Marooned” starred Gregory Peck as a Gene Kranz-like flight director, David Janssen as head of the astronaut office (who looked strikingly like the real Chief Astronaut Deke Slayton), with Richard Crenna, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman as the astronauts. Like the movie “Apollo 13,” “Marooned” dealt with three astronauts stranded in space, but was an adaptation of a 1964 novel of the same name by author Martin Caidin, and not a real-life portrayal. The novel told the story of a single astronaut in a Mercury-like capsule, but the movie was adapted to reflect the current-day Apollo program.
“Marooned” won an Oscar award for Best Special Visual Effects, but when the movie “Apollo 13” received an Academy Award for Best Screen Adaptation, Caidin joked that he should have received the award for scripting the movie in his novel a quarter century before.
Woodfill recounted how back in early 1970, he heard about the movie “Marooned” and that the flight directors at NASA were invited to a special screening of the film, and later, the Apollo 13 crew came to a special release and public viewing of the movie.
But most of the people who worked in Mission Control and the Mission Evaluation Room couldn’t afford to go see the movie. The viewing was at a plush theater on Richmond Avenue in Houston in January of 1970.
“Those days I worked as a young civil servant, and “Marooned” was playing at the theater on Richmond Avenue in Houston, which was $3.50 a ticket, which was out of reach for most of us,” said Woodfill. “But working for NASA we had to be clever about keeping costs down taking our wives out. We called this low-cost date, “NASA Night Out,” where we could go to a neighborhood theater for $1.25, plus get a two-for-one coupon if you took your wife to dinner at the Monterey House, and afterwards, you could get a free cup of coffee if you filled up at a local gas station. We had to be innovative in those days!”
“Marooned” made it to the $1.25-a-seat theater by the week of Apollo 13’s rescue, and several NASA employees went to see it, including Woodfill’s colleague and electrical engineer Art Campos, who is now deceased.
“Art was a wonderful electrical engineer, a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin,” Woodfill recalled, “As an engineer hailing from a Hispanic family, he often encouraged those in his culture to pursue technical fields. Art was also my mentor with regard to the electrical power system for the lunar lander. I often consulted him about caution and warning issues with regard to his lunar module electrical power system. He served as its system manager.”
Campos went to see “Marooned” the evening of April 13, 1970, and later told Woodfill he was thinking about the movie as he returned home and went to sleep, and wondered about a problem faced by the astronaut actors regarding the emergency batteries, which had been depleted.
“In the movie, charging the batteries was the instruction to fix the problem,” said Woodfill, “and Art said he wondered, ‘What if we faced such dire problems?’ and other ‘what-ifs.’”
Just a couple of hours later, Campos was awakened by a phone call informing him that the Apollo 13 spacecraft had suffered an accident, and that he needed to come in immediately to work on a way to get power to the emergency batteries in the Command Module, required for reentry.
“The crew had to use the emergency batteries in the Command Module to have time to transfer the guidance parameters to the Lunar Module computer,” said Woodfill, “and there may not have been enough power in them for when the crew returned to Earth. As Art was driving to Building 45 at the Manned Spacecraft Center, where the Mission Evaluation Room (MER) was housed, he recalled the movie, where they said ‘charge the batteries’ and then remembered a procedure he devised about a year earlier, a way to charge depleted emergency batteries by using a jumper charge between the two vehicles, because the lunar lander batteries are huge and would have ample power.”
Woodfill said Campos starting writing out the procedure while he and others in the MER rolled out drawings and schematics for the electrical systems on the two vehicles showing all the connectors and harness wiring. They finally found a small wire running between the two vehicles. It had been designed into the vehicles years ago to heat some components in the lander during the coast phase to the Moon until the lander is powered up.”
“They found the wire, but they didn’t know if the procedure would work,” said Woodfill, who sat next to the electrical engineers in the MER working this problem,” because there is a trickle charge and you have to set switches and the circuit breakers just the right way. They tried it out in the simulators, because there was a concern that current would flow the wrong way.”
And in fact, Woodfill said, in the simulators, it didn’t work. The computer in the simulator refused to allow the procedure, but nevertheless, there was no other alternative. So, they tried it in space and it actually worked to re-charge the batteries in the Command Module.
“I really think “Marooned” was the catalyst for Art remembering this wire,” said Woodfill, although we’ll never know for sure.
Video clip from NASA footage. Art Campos is among the engineers shown in the MER.
Woodfill also listed several other similarities between “Marooned” and the real-life drama of Apollo 13:
• The use of simulators is almost identical to that which Apollo 13’s ground team used in the course of the rescue.
• Gregory Peck’s character announces, “Every resource of NASA and our industrial contractors is being used to the fullest extent,” similar to what was done during the real Apollo 13 drama.
• Press conferences in the movie were similar to those conducted by Chris Kraft for the Apollo 13 media coverage.
• The “Marooned” crew wrongly thinks they may have suffered a meteor strike as did the crew of Apollo 13.
• A hurricane threatens the rescue as was the case with Apollo 13. Even the weathermen wrongly predict its course as did the Apollo 13 meteorologists.
• Commanders of both “Marooned” and Apollo 13 are named Jim.
• The threat of consumables running out is dealt with in the same fashion as Apollo 13 with severe conservation measures being utilized.
• The medics in “Marooned” express concern for the crew’s sleep deprivation as did Apollo 13’s doctors.
• The “Marooned” crew is told to shut down fuel cells 2 and 3, using only fuel cell 1. This is what the Apollo 13 flight controllers experienced as a result of the oxygen tank explosion, two fuel cells shut down with only one sustaining power, until it, too, was lost.
But perhaps, said Woodfill, the most notable of “Maroon’s” correlations with the Apollo 13 rescue had to do with those reentry batteries discussed above, and this earlier article in the “13 Things That Saved Apollo 13” series. The batteries were used during the time the ground team was confused about the source of Apollo 13’s explosion. This severely depleted them, and without enough power to the Command Module, reentry could be fatal. These batteries normally were to be used only during the mission’s final hours to power the reentry capsule.
Woodfill said that Apollo EECOM John Aaron commented recently at an Apollo 13 anniversary event at Johnson Space Center that he has reflected on how he allocated power from the those batteries to various system managers. He had refused a request for 2 amps from a DOD official wanting power for to light a rescue beacon to locate the crew capsule in the ocean.
Aaron commented, “Thankfully, the splashdown was in sight of the carrier and no beacon was needed to find Lovell and crew.“ But, he granted, “What if the landing had not been so accurate?” And Woodfill, likewise wonders, “What if Apollo 13 had landed in the storm-tossed seas of tropical storm Helen?”
Indeed, Campos’ contribution was huge, and Woodfill believes the procedure to recharge the batteries saved Apollo 13.
Next: Part 12: The Lunar Orbit Rendezvous Plan
Earlier articles from the “13 Things That Saved Apollo 13” series:
Introduction
Part 1: Timing
Part 2: The Hatch That Wouldn’t Close
Part 3: Charlie Duke’s Measles
Part 4: Using the LM for Propulsion
Part 5: Unexplained Shutdown of the Saturn V Center Engine
Part 6: Navigating by Earth’s Terminator
Part 7: The Apollo 1 Fire
Part 8: The Command Module Wasn’t Severed
Part 9: Position of the Tanks
Part 10: Duct Tape
Part 11: A Hollywood Movie
Part 12: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
Part 13: The Mission Operations Team
Also:
Your Questions about Apollo 13 Answered by Jerry Woodfill (Part 1)
More Reader Questions about Apollo 13 Answered by Jerry Woodfill (part 2)
Final Round of Apollo 13 Questions Answered by Jerry Woodfill (part 3)
Never Before Published Images of Apollo 13’s Recovery
Listen to an interview of Jerry Woodfill on the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. |
Snowden confirms Australian agencies involved in NSA global spying
By Peter Symonds
10 July 2013
A classified National Security Agency (NSA) map leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden confirms that four Australian intelligence facilities are directly involved in the NSA’s electronic spying operations in the United States and around the world.
The map published by American journalist Glenn Greenwald in collaboration with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo has revealed the locations of dozens of facilities in the US and its close allies that are involved in systematically intercepting and storing huge amounts of telecommunications and Internet data.
The four Australian sites are the US Australian Joint Defence Facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs, and three Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) facilities—the Shoal Bay Receiving Station near Darwin, the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Station at Geraldton in Western Australia, and the naval communications station HMAS Harman outside Canberra.
These sites, along with others on every continent, contribute data to an NSA program code-named X-Keyscore, which collects electronic data, separates it into streams of phone numbers, email addresses, log-ins and user activity for storage in massive data banks. The Government Security Communications Bureau facility at Waihopai in New Zealand is also part of the NSA collection system.
An article in the Age on Monday by Philip Dorling, a journalist with knowledge of Australian intelligence, explained that the X-Keyscore data is “shunted off to various ‘production lines’ that deal with specific issues and the exploitation of different data types for analysis—variously code-named Nucleon (voice), Pinwale (video), Mainway (call records) and Marina (internet records).”
The fact that Australian facilities have closely collaborated with the US in electronic spying is not new. New Zealand and Australia are part of the US-led “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance, formed in the late 1940s to monitor electronic communications internationally. Sometime later, the five countries ran a joint program known as Echelon, to intercept, store and analyse satellite, microwave and trunk-line communications.
The vast expansion of the Internet in the 1990s, however, raised the need for sophisticated new methods to plug into the fibre-optic cables carrying the data. The NSA map demonstrates for the first time that Australian facilities are intimately involved in this process. Moreover, as part of the “Five Eyes” network, Australian intelligence agencies have high-level access to the NSA data, including on Australian citizens.
An interview with Snowden published by the German magazine Der Spiegel on Monday raises further questions about the data-gathering activities of Australian intelligence agencies.
Snowden explained: “In some cases, the so-called Five-Eye partners go beyond what the NSA itself does. For instance, the UK’s General Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has a system called TEMPORA. TEMPORA is the signals intelligence community’s first ‘full-take’ Internet buffer that doesn’t care about content type and pays only marginal attention to the Human Rights Act... ‘Full take’ means it doesn’t miss anything, and ingests the entirety of each circuit’s capacity.”
At this stage, the GCHQ system only has the ability to store the entire Internet content in and passing through Britain for three days. However, as Snowden explained, an intelligence analyst can “task” a particular individual or computer, ensuring that their data streams are “stored forever and ever, regardless of policy, because you can always get a waiver.”
Snowden bluntly summed up what happens after the NSA targets an individual. “They’re just owned,” he said. “It’s up to the analyst to do whatever they want at that point—the target’s machine doesn’t belong to them anymore, it belongs to the US government.”
Snowden did not refer directly to the operations of Australian intelligence agencies, but the obvious question is whether similar systems exist or are under construction in Australia. The Age recently reported that a large new state-of-the-art data storage facility is currently under construction for the Defence Signals Directorate at HMAS Harman, for undisclosed purposes.
Government ministers have flatly refused to answer questions about the involvement of Australian intelligence agencies in the NSA programs. The Australian reported that a spokesman for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to comment on the leaked NSA map, repeating the standard line that the government did not comment on intelligence matters.
Late last month, Foreign Minister Bob Carr made the same response to a question in parliament by independent Senator Nick Xenophon, who asked whether the emails, log-ons and Internet data of parliamentarians were exempt from the NSA spying programs. Carr declared that the DSD and other agencies required specific ministerial authorisation under the Intelligence Services Act to spy on Australian citizens. But he failed to answer the question.
The NSA’s programs are designed to gather up and store vast amounts of Internet data, in this case from Australia, or passing through Australia, whether the individuals are citizens of Australia or other countries. As far as the NSA is concerned, there are no restrictions at all on spying on foreign citizens.
The Labor government and Australian intelligence agencies are deeply involved in this vast surveillance operation. The DSD, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (the domestic spy agency) and other agencies undoubtedly use their access to NSA data bases to obtain, with or without ministerial authorisation, intelligence on a range of individuals, including Australian citizens.
The Australian political establishment as a whole and the media, with few exceptions, have been silent on Snowden’s revelations and their implications. But there are real fears in intelligence and political circles that they could compromise operations both at home and throughout the region.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus last month confirmed an interagency task force had been formed to monitor the situation and co-ordinate the government’s response. Reuters reported that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the DSD had briefed the parliamentary intelligence committee “about the security breach and its potential to embarrass Australia’s relations with neighbouring Asian countries.” |
The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences… – Professor Carroll Quigley, Mentor to President Bill Clinton
Dave Hodges, Contributor
Activist Post
Very soon, America will be forced into water wars in order to secure the precious asset of water for our people. This will force our people into more wars of occupation in a search for water. Meanwhile, every nation that America conquers, is one less country that the bankers have to worry about taking over. At the end of the day, if America wants water, someday, Americans will have to go to war to obtain water.
As any aware person knows, Agenda 21 is being used as a front for the purpose of increasing the bottom of line of select global corporations. Bolivia is being exploited to this end and is serving as the canary in the mine with regard to what lies ahead for the United States and the coming water wars.
The United States sits upon a fiscal cliff. Economic devastation is in the cards for the United States. Many wonder what will happen when the country defaults and cannot pay its bills. The answer is simple, our country will enter receivership. Once receivership is thrust upon our country, the bankers will begin to take control of our assets. Among the prize assets coveted by the globalist bankers will be our water supply. Soon, very soon, our water supplies will become the most expensive in the world. Obtaining water for many Americans will soon be a life and death struggle.
Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth (United Nations Development Program, 2007). Also, according to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water (United Nations Developmental Program, 2007). If the current trend continues, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by over 50% more than the amount of water that is currently available.
Multinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, and other global multinationals are seeking control of world water systems and supplies. The World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. The World Bank’s policy of privatizing the world’s water supply conveniently coincides with the United Nations Agenda 21. Agenda 21 is actively promoting the privatization for the world’s water supplies through a “water for profit” scheme. “…(i) At the lowest appropriate level, delegation of water resources management, generally, to such a level, in accordance with national legislation, including decentralization of government services to local authorities, private enterprises and communities…” (United Nations Environment Program, 2007).
Agenda 21 further addresses the looming water crisis in Chapter 18 (.35) which states that “…water is a unitary resource. Long-term development of global freshwater requires holistic management of resources and a recognition of the interconnectedness of the elements related to freshwater and freshwater quality. There are few regions of the world that are still exempt from problems of loss of potential sources of freshwater supply, degraded water quality and pollution of surface and groundwater sources….” (The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2007).
After reading the comforting manner in which Agenda 21 addresses the coming water crisis, we should all be able to sleep soundly at night. Unfortunately, this does not prove to be the case when one considers what has happened to Bolivia ’s indigenous peoples’ access to fresh water.
Agenda 21’s strategy for privatizing the world’s water is quite simple: The United Nations financial partner, the World Bank, and its associated set of central banks around the planet, cripples a nation’s economy, largely through the use of fiat currency and forced assumption of banker’s derivative debt. Subsequently, the World Bank attempts to resuscitate that nation’s economy through a series of regime saving loans. World Bank loans offer the hope of staving off massive human suffering resulting from a lack of basic necessities, staggering unemployment and all the other accompanying variables which could lead to a violent overthrow of a nation’s political power structure. However, the terms of a typical World Bank loan would make the most adept loan shark green with envy. Often, as a precondition to receiving the loan, the World Bank imposes some very draconian conditions, such as the privatization of the basic necessities of life (e.g. water) from which their corporate partners derive great economic benefit.
Nowhere has this scheme been played out more directly than in the late 1990s and the early 2000s in Bolivia . The first large scale, dry run of Agenda 21’s plan to privatize water, took place in Bolivia when someone at the World Bank flipped a switch and demanded the privatization of Bolivia ’s water supplies as a precondition for massive debt relief.
In 1995, the government of Bolivia owed nothing. However, Bolivia did owe the World Bank enormous sums of money. Like a heroin addict, the Bolivian government became dependent on its financial “drug dealer,” the World Bank. Predictably, repaying Bolivian debt, to the World Bank, was plunging the Bolivian people and its government into the abyss of abject poverty and despair (Watson, 2003).
In Cochabamba , Bolivia , a city of 800,000 people, the public water system of El Alto and its neighbor La Paz , the nation’s capital, was privatized in 1997. In a classic conflict of interest case, the private consortium that took control of the water, Aguas del Illimani, is a subsidiary of Bechtel, and a set of minority shareholders that includes, among others, an arm of the World Bank (Watson, 2003).
Within weeks of taking over the city’s public water company, Bechtel hiked up rates by as much as 200%, far beyond what the city’s poor could afford to pay. The Bolivian poor, with a lack of access to clean water, have nearly one in ten children die before they reach the age of five. Adding insult to injury, families living in El Alto’s outskirts rely on well water in which community representatives say are contaminated with industrial waste (Watson, 2003).
When all legitimate avenues of securing fresh water were blocked by Bechtel, including the prohibition of collecting rain water in homemade pots and pans, the Bolivian people took to the streets and an ongoing pattern of street violence ensued until Bechtel exercised the better half of discretion and exited the country.
Mark my words, when we do this in America, follow our coming contrived water shortage, Americans will be met with 44,000 drones and DARPA killer robots.
Bolivia’s past is America’s future. Why the American people have only heard a whimper about these corporate abuses at the hands of the San Francisco based Bechtel Corporation, the World Bank and the United Nations Agenda 21. In order to answer that question, one has to ask: Who is Bechtel owned by? Bechtel is a subsidiary of General Electric. General Electric owns NBC (Media Owners.com, 2005). Perhaps this is why the reporting of this tale of human abuse so sparsely reported in the United States .
How interconnected are the global corporations to the United States Government, the United Nations and Agenda 21? Consider the following list of Bechtel employees who have moved into major policy making positions both in the United States Government and the United Nations.
Bechtel’s CEO, Riley P. Bechtel, served on the President Bush’s (43) Export Council (4/24/03)
George Schultz. Shortly after assuming his new position in Bechtel, President Reagan recruited Schultz to Washington to serve as Secretary of State.
Reagan’s Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinburger was a former Bechtel general counsel.
W. K. Davis was a Bechtel vice-president for nuclear development before he was appointed as Reagan’s Deputy Secretary of Energy and administrative head of the Atomic Energy Commission.
William Casey a former Bechtel consultant served in a number of government positions including chairman of the SEC under Nixon, head of the Export-Import bank under President Ford, and director of the CIA under Reagan.
Richard Helm, who later became a ‘consultant’ to Bechtel, had earlier been a CIA director under Nixon.
William Simon, Nixon’s Treasury secretary, was hired by Bechtel as a consultant.
Ross Connelly, CEO of Bechtel Energy Resources Corporation (retired), was appointed by George W. Bush (41) in June of 2001 to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The OPIC has strong connections to the United Nations privatization projects.
Stew Burkhammer, a current Bechtel executive, is presently a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (Cooperative Research, 2006).
Marie-Françoise of Bechtel (France), Conseiller d’Etat, From 1979 to 1980, she was Consultant of the United Nations Asian and Pacific Development Center (United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration, 2007)
The connections between these groups can be further exemplified by the following: United Resolution 1483 (UN Security Council, 2003), approved the occupation of Iraq by American and British forces, thus making Iraq into a de facto colony. As such, this opened door for a corporate feeding frenzy by companies such as Bechtel as they lined up to “repair” Iraq following Gulf War II. Subsequently, Bechtel received a $1.03 billion contract to oversee major reconstruction of Iraq ‘s water and sewage.
In spite of Bechtel’s promises, Iraqi families continue to lack access to clean water. The company made providing Southern Iraq’s potable water one of its top priorities in which Bechtel promised delivery within 60 days following the commencement of the project. Within a year, Iraqi people still were suffering through epidemics of water-borne illnesses (e.g., cholera, kidney stones and diarrhea). Bechtel failed to live up to its word, but they did make a lot of money (Weston, 2003). And some people think that the United Nations is merely a benign and benevolent organization which is essentially neutral on all areas of politics and finance. Today, the stock holders of Bechtel have the United Nations to thank, in large part, for that extra vacation, their kid’s braces and the addition to their homes.
Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free?
Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets
Bechtel is a major player in the evolving struggle to control the world’s future water supply. Bechtel and its peers have quietly been securing the rights to control the production and distribution of this essential resource and fully intend to make huge profits in the future when, as experts predict, water becomes a significantly scarce ‘commodity (Watson, 2003).
As a footnote, in the face of 52 civilian deaths of Bechtel personnel, at the hands of insurgent terrorists, Bechtel did not withdraw from Southern Iraq . However, when its infrastructure projects came under fire from the insurgents, costing the corporation millions of dollars, Bechtel ceased operations in Southern Iraq . By the way, it was Bechtel which sold Saddam its chemical stockpile of weapons in his 1980’s war with Iran. This was followed by invading Iraq because it possessed weapons of mass destruction.
I also found it interesting that Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors for Bechtel at the time of the sale of the weapons of mass destruction to Iraq (August 6th Coalition, 2006). Before the fall of the Shah of Iran, under President Jimmy Carter, Bechtel was contracted to build Iran ’s first nuclear power plant. As was the case with Saddam Hussein, Iran ’s government is still standing in the way of unfettered investment by the global corporations. Iran , the only Middle Eastern oil-rich country which will not likely capitulate to President Bush’s plans for a Middle East Free Trade Area, is now being threatened by the United States military, And remember, free trade is the one of the cornerstones of the UN’s Agenda 21. This makes one wonder who former President Bush really worked for.
I could have chosen any number of global corporations (e.g., Monsanto, Halliburton, etc.) to illustrate this abuse of humanity. The Bechtel Corporation is but one small corporate example of this disturbing trend.
In the era of globalization, flying under the banner of Agenda 21’s policy of “global sustainability,” transnational corporations circle the globe looking for opportunities for profit, putting people’s livelihoods, survival and the environment at risk. Too often the global corporations victimize unsuspecting and impoverished people who can least afford to absorb the brunt of these profit generating schemes. These actions severely undermine national sovereignty and individual determinism. However, this process is not inevitable; or infallible, successful resistance is possible. However the clock is ticking and time is quickly running out.
Do we think that this only happening in Bolivia? Similar projects are underway in Manilla, Pakistan and San Francisco. Yes, this is correct; Bechtel now has a contract with San Francisco’s city government to upgrade the city’s water system. Bechtel employees are working side by side with city workers in a privatization move that people-in-the-know fear will lead to an eventual take-over of San Francisco ’s water system and create a fiasco similar to the one in Bolivia (Chatterjee, 2000). The wolf is at the door.
As the Roman Empire declined in influence and power, Feudalism replaced the nation-state government. The feudal lord was one of the few employers in the fourth and the fifth centuries. The feudal lords owned most of the land and nearly all the resources. Today, the specter of feudalism has shape-shifted into a global corporatocracy headed by the United Nations and Agenda 21. The global corporations are constructing this brand of neo-feudalism right before our eyes. Unfortunately, the people (i.e., Americans) who still have the power to stop it seem to possess the same vision-impairing flavor of glaucoma and refuse to see what is really happening. This is the same Agenda 21 plan which wants to use the power of behemoth banks and corporations, under the guise of United Nations sustainability rhetoric, in order to blackmail nations into allowing companies like Bechtel to assess a surcharge upon poor people and their at-risk children for daring to collect the rain water in homemade pots and pans. In the early part of this decade, Bolivians were asking each other, “have you seen the rain” in their unending search for fresh water.
Much like a teenager being lured into financial devastation by being enticed to own their first credit card, national governments cannot resist the addiction of seemingly infinite credit which is made available through the use of unsecured, fiat currency. Through the reckless spending of various governmental entities, tremendous debt is created. As the debt reaches critical levels and financial catastrophe looms, the World Bank rides in on its black horse and offers a nation financial salvation. However, that financial salvation comes at a steep cost which usually includes the selling their national soul to the devil. All too frequently, this “salvation” involves the imposition of the political and financial agenda of the United Nations and its partner, the World Bank. And with an Obama QE4 looming on the other side of the fiscal cliff, America is close to being the next Bolivia.
How long will it be until America becomes the next Bolivia ? With regard to Agenda 21, this is only the tip of the iceberg. When this country is bankrupted by the bankers, America will be leveraged into seeking water in foreign countries and we will be all to happy to invade countries that plenty of the resource that we no longer have.
As the reader will discover in the second part of this series, the reader will discover that we don’t just have to worry about a banker takeover of our water assets. we are being invaded from within. George H. W. Bush and T. Boone Pickens are buying up major water sources inside of our country as America is about to get hit on two fronts. I can see no other purpose behind this madness except that our military will be leveraged to invade, yet another set of countries.
RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLE:
10 Reasons Our Shallow Fresh Water Supply is in Deep Trouble
References:
August 6th Coalition (2006). Why Bechtel? http://www.august6.org/node/101 (retrieved June 14, 2007).
Chatterjee, Pratap (May 31, 2000). The Earth Wrecker. San Francisco Bay Guardian Cooperative Research (2006). UN Rubber Stamps Iraq Occupation. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/corporation/profiles/bechtel.html (retrieved May 11, 2006).
Fogerty, John (1975). Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Chronicle: 20 Greatest Hits. Credence Clear Water Revival
Global Environment Facility (GEF). (2007). A Joint Initiative with UNEP and the World Bank. www.undp.org/gef/(retrieved Jun 17, 2007). |
When Yohan J. heard that the invoice generation code had started to run slowly, alarm bells sounded in his head. The invoicing system hadn't been touched in a long while, no business process had changed, no new outside interfaces, no hardware changes, no logical reason that it wouldn't be running as quickly as it always had. In fact, this was just the step that generated the invoice; not invoice items, just creating a draft invoice. A single insert that would produce a single row.
Yohan started by checking the invoice table to get a spread of invoices over the past few months to see if volume had increased substantially. It hadn't. Though, oddly, the six-numerical-digit invoice numbers were all over the board. He spotted an 000015 and a 702438 that were created within hours of eachother. How is it even generating these? he wondered, expecting to find a constraint on the column containing an algorithm to generate the invoice numbers.
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `invoices` ( `code` varchar(6) NOT NULL default '000000', `DtCode` date NOT NULL default '0000-00-00', `Type` varchar(100) NOT NULL default '', ) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
Damn, not even the decency to enforce a primary key constraint on the code column. Oh well, on to the stored procedure that generates the new invoice codes. Ha, just kidding! There was no stored procedure. Invoice codes were generated in the PHP code:
No keys in the table, no enforced uniqueness of invoice numbers, and a while loop using a random number generator until it stumbles on an unused invoice number. Yup, this code has wound up right where it belongs. |
The state on Tuesday said it fears that #FeesMustFall leader Mcebo Dlamini might flee to Swaziland.
Dlamini is appearing in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on charges of theft‚ public violence‚ assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and being in possession of dangerous weapons.
In a court affidavit read out by prosecutor Steven Rubin‚ the state said it feared that if the court grants Dlamini on bail‚ he might go to Swaziland‚ where he was born.
“It appears that he is from Swaziland and our main concern is that he might go to Swaziland if released on bail‚” Rubin said.
He said that Dlamini‚ who is also a former president of the University of the Witwatersrand’s SRC‚ has a propensity to ignore court orders. It added that Dlamini has been instrumental in mobilising student protests despite a court order against such actions at Wits.
The affidavit stated that the charges brought against the student leader are backed by video footage.
Rubin said Dlamini was caught on camera carrying dangerous weapons such as sticks and stones. He was also captured breaching a police line during protests and assaulted a police officer who tried to arrest him.
Rubin also opposed the release of Dlamini by saying that he lied about having a test at the university on Tuesday‚ as there were no scheduled tests or exams for Dlamini's course.
Dlamini's lawyer‚ Mongezi Ntanga‚ said his client is not a violent person and does not have previous criminal convictions.
The bail hearing continues.
– TMG Digital |
@BKudron
UPDATE: Tuesday, December 30 at 8:20 a.m. ET
The Free Press published their Tuesday edition with the proper Harbaugh.
The newspaper reports that Jim Harbaugh is expected to be announced as head coach of the Michigan football program at noon ET.
---End of Update---
In the midst of another sorrow-drowning night in the Motor City, someone at the Detroit Free Press plastered the wrong Harbaugh brother on the front page of the paper's morning edition.
Twitter user @BKudron tweeted out an image of the goof-up.
This is John Harbaugh, who is related to but not the same as Jim Harbaugh. You can tell by the Baltimore Ravens logo, and by the fact that they are two different people.
The photo plays up the ongoing Jim Harbaugh coaching drama. The San Francisco 49ers announced after Sunday's win over the Arizona Cardinals that they would be mutually parting ways with the coach.
This move only deepened the prevailing belief that Harbaugh will take the University of Michigan up on its handsome head coaching offer.
As for the Free Press, the newspaper apologized for the error Monday morning.
It's OK, guys. The Lions drove you to this. That's the story I'd go with.
Follow Dan on Twitter for more sports and pop culture filigree. |
For many couples in the developed world, the only route to having a baby is international surrogacy. But the rapid rise of the industry in Cambodia has raised concerns about the welfare of women.
In the fast-growing industry of international surrogacy, destinations for low-cost options are constantly shifting. India used to be the top choice for Western couples looking for value for money: until recently, a surrogate baby from India cost as little as $15,000, a quarter of what it usually costs in America. After a series of scandals around the ethics of outsourcing pregnancy to disadvantaged women led India to ban surrogacy for foreign couples, Thailand, Mexico and Nepal took their turns at the top of the list. But over the past few years, each of those countries has banned or severely restricted foreign surrogacy.
Now Cambodia has stepped in to fill the gap, quickly forming a foreign surrogacy market that, according to officials, is fueled in part by Thai brokers who moved their operations, and many of their surrogates, to the country. The government has suggested it will bring in laws to regulate the practice or even ban it by making it a trafficking offence, but nothing has yet been put in place. In the absence of any clear legal framework, scores of surrogacy agencies have sprung up offering Cambodia packages for around $30,000 per baby.
“There is no doubt that Cambodia’s surrogacy industry has been hurriedly assembled,” says Sam Everingham, director of the Australian advocacy organization Families Through Surrogacy. Everingham visited Cambodia a year ago to witness the surrogacy scene for himself. He says the facilities he visited were impressive, with Western doctors employed to do the embryology.
However, he says, when an industry grows so quickly, there is the risk that proper procedure gets overlooked, and women could be harmed. “Intended parents should be concerned about the risks of surrogates not being adequately screened or counseled in such an environment,” says Everingham.
One of the biggest concerns anti-surrogacy campaigners have about the industry is that women are persuaded to undertake a surrogate pregnancy for money without proper recognition or understanding of the health risks involved. In India, it was found that women were being forced into surrogacy by their husbands or fathers. Women were also reportedly being implanted with up to four embryos and then told to undergo selective abortions if that led to a multiple pregnancy.
In Cambodia there is so little information about the industry, which has shrouded itself in secrecy for fear of being shut down, the risks are even higher, say campaigners.
Women & Girls Hub contacted three surrogate agencies offering services in Cambodia to ask for details on their surrogates and information on the services they offer. All of them declined to comment.
Even parents who have used a surrogate in Cambodia appear reluctant to talk about the experience. In June, the online magazine Gay With Kids announced Greg, a British man, and his Polish boyfriend were the proud new fathers of Mickey, one of the first babies born through surrogacy in Cambodia. He was delivered on Valentine’s Day 2016.
When Greg was contacted by Cambodia’s English-language newspaper the Phnom Penh Post, he declined an interview. However, he reportedly sent the newspaper a message saying: “The more publicity about surrogacy … the quicker it will close down … [I’m] afraid the media has been no friend at all to the world of surrogacy.”
Donna Dickenson, emeritus professor of medical ethics and humanities at the University of London and author of the book Me Medicine vs. We Medicine, says the fact that some surrogacy clients would prefer governments stay out of the industry shows a concerning attitude. “Many countries feel [foreign parents] simply take the ‘Third World’ for granted,” she says.
In the developing world, governments are taking a firm stand on foreign surrogacy, in part because they see the industry as a Western import. And that, Dickenson says, is good news. “’First World’ agencies present [surrogacy] as a win-win situation for everyone. The Western parents get a baby, and the women in the ‘Third World’ get money,” she says.
But she says the argument doesn’t withstand scrutiny. The very fact the Indian government decided to ban an industry valued at $400 million a year shows it had decided the ethical concerns outweighed the economic benefits.
While there is a risk clamping down on surrogacy in Cambodia will drive the industry underground, Dickenson says clear and strict legislation with penalties would deter parents from trying to break the law.
But Everingham says parents should not be punished for wanting to have children. “Bad practices tend to be the result of a lack of regulation and irresponsible operators,” he says.
Noting that surrogacy in developing nations provides many parents who cannot afford the process in Canada or the U.S. with their only viable option, Everingham says what Cambodia’s surrogacy industry needs are well-considered laws that respect the rights of surrogates and the unborn child, while underlining the responsibilities of parents and agencies to act ethically. |
The next Thor and Alien blockbusters will be made in Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has announced.
Homegrown Hollywood heartthrob Chris Hemsworth will be among reasonably familiar surroundings when he reprises the title role of Thor in the Marvel superhero franchise, while the production of an untitled Alien film would bring famed director Ridley Scott to our shores.
Ms Bishop announced the government had signed a deal to bring the two films to Australian shores, this afternoon.
"During recent visits to both Los Angeles and New York, I met with senior executives of major film and production houses, with Walt Disney Company, Marvel, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Village Roadshow, NBC Universal and directors Ridley Scott and Brett Ratner who all expressed a very keen desire to invest in significant new film production projects right here in Australia," she said.
"They specifically spoke about the value in Australia as a filming destination, the quality and variety of our locations, but more importantly our highly qualified and talented workforce, our embrace of innovative technology, our stable economy, our dollar, all this makes Australia an attractive destination."
Exact filming locations have not yet been decided by the production companies involved.
"But I particularly wanted to thank my ministerial colleagues Steve Ciobo, Stu Roberts and Karen Andrews because they have been fierce advocates for more film production and post production opportunities for the Gold Coast," she said.
"Sir Ridley Scott told me he knows the Fox Studios very well and knows NSW well, so we're hoping for some good news there."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was praised by Arts Minister Mitch Fifield for his efforts in securing the deals.
"The PM has taken a minute-by-minute interest in this venture," he said.
"He was determined to see that this would be landed, and I think the announcement that we are making today is a concrete example of what the PM means when he talks about the agility of government, the agility of industry, to support innovation and to deliver jobs."
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019 |
A South Korean official on Tuesday warned that North Korea is increasing its nuclear capability more rapidly than previously estimated as it seeks to build a nuclear missile capable of reaching the mainland U.S.
"North Korea has been developing its nuclear weapons at a faster-than-expected pace,” said Cho Myoung-gyon, the unification minister for South Korea, as reported by the Yonhap News Agency.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that North Korea could announce its completion of a clear force within one year,” Cho said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Cho cited 2018, the 70th anniversary of the Korean peninsula's separation into two states, as a crucial year for Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, which have proven to be a thorn in the side of President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE during his first year in office.
Pyongyang in September said it had successfully tested a miniaturized hydrogen bomb that can be placed on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), causing the United Nations Security Council to unanimously vote to ramp up sanctions.
The North’s aggression has caused increased concern in the region, particularly from its southern neighbor and Japan. Pyongyang fired a ballistic missile over Japan in August and again in September.
"It is a fact that we have witnessed some noteworthy movements in North Korea. But it remains to be seen whether Pyongyang would make further provocations," Cho said in the reported remarks.
His comments add to the ongoing threat from North Korea, which in July conducted two ICBM tests.
Trump, who recently returned from a 12-day tour of Asia where North Korea’s aggression was a key focal point, has cautioned Pyongyang against making provocations toward the U.S.
“Today, I hope I speak not only for our countries but for all civilized nations when I say to the North: Do not underestimate us, and do not try us. We will defend our common security, our shared prosperity and our sacred liberty,” Trump said during a speech earlier this month to South Korea’s National Assembly. |
An Post has apologised after a three-year-old Dublin girl’s letter to Santa Claus was returned to her home.
Speaking on RTÉ’s John Murray Show, Alan Campbell, the girl’s father, said the letter was returned last week with a sticker marked “insufficient address”.
He said the address on the envelope, which was written in his wife’s handwriting, was marked Santa Claus, Santa’s Grotto, Lapland, The North Pole.
“We were horrified to get a letter like that back. My eight-year-old daughter found the letter at the end of the stairs when she came down and was quite concerned as to why her little sister’s letter hadn’t made it to its destination.”
Mr Campbell said he was glad he brought his daughters to meet Santa in Dundrum before Christmas where they told him what gifts they wanted.
An Post said it was “very upset” to learn of the case and that “it simply should not have happened”.
It received nearly 140,000 letters to Santa over Christmas and sent them on to the North Pole and helped Santa get letters back to the children.
“An Post takes its role in helping Santa Claus reply to children’s letters very seriously, and has done so for almost 30 years,” it said in a statement.
An investigation began into the returned Santa letter after An Post spotted a picture of the letter on Mr Campbell’s Twitter account. The company said it contacted the family straightaway on Twitter and then by telephone.
“We apologised totally for what had happened and offered to do whatever we could to make good the damage done to his daughter’s faith in Santa and Santa letters.”
An Post said it offered to arrange for Santa to send a “very special letter” to Mr Campbell’s daughter which would include details of the gifts the three-year-old had received at Christmas.
Mr Campbell told RTÉ he wasn’t satisfied with An Post’s response.
Separately, a second Santa letter, sent by a young boy in Dublin on November 30th, took nearly two months to arrive at its destination in Connemara.
The letter, which was addressed in Irish to Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta (Parents of the Gaeltacht) in Connemara, ended up in a UK Royal Mail sorting office before making it’s way back to Limerick and finally arriving at its destination in Carraroe last week.
Before Christmas Tuismitheoirí na Gaeltachta called on Irish speaking children to send their Santa letters to it and promised they would receive a personal response from “the big man”.
Last Thursday the parents’ group posted a picture on its Facebook page of a Santa letter stamped by both the National Return Letter Centre in Limerick and the Royal Mail.
An Post told Tuairisc.ie that the fact the letter was addressed in Irish had nothing to do with its long journey and that it accepted the blame.
“An Post does not understand how the letter ended up in the UK. However, this is not a question of language. This could have happened even if ‘Main Street, Gort, Co Galway’ was written on the envelope.”
The group has arranged for a personal letter to be sent to the young boy in Dublin from Santa and also plans to send a collection of gifts to the boy. |
If eternal youth meant swapping DNA with a lobster, would you be up for it?
And no, I’m not using “swapping DNA” as a euphemism for bestial naughtiness. I’m really asking: if you could be eternally young and internally healthy, but it meant taking out some of your DNA and replacing it with that of a giant sea insect, would you?
That choice could be a real one, and sooner than you may think. The next few decades are going to see a plethora of mind-blowing anti-aging technology that goes well beyond facelifts and Viagra, and our invertebrate bottom-dwelling cousins could be key to some of the most promising cures to the disease of being old. Not exactly kosher, but when you get to play God, who cares?
Finally, A Wrinkle Cream That Really Works!
Before we go full lobster, let’s ease into this anti-aging thing with a technology that leaves your DNA alone—heck, it doesn’t even go skin deep. Researchers at MIT have developed a polymer that sits cleanly, softly, and invisibly atop the outermost layer of your epidermis and keeps things tight, elastic, and supple as a Saran-wrapped baby’s bottom.
It appears as though the hardcore scientists behind this research, who have springboarded the polymer into a startup called Olivo Laboratories, didn’t set out with an aging solution in mind. Other applications, like invisible, fast-applying, and body-conforming bandages were forefront in their thinking, but let’s face it—beauty is way more profitable than personal health and safety.
It’s a cool product: a clear gel is applied first, then a Jergens-like catalyst is rubbed on after to activate the polymer. The result is a thin cohesive layer of molecules that are soft to the touch yet possess a great deal of surface strength. It can hold back wrinkles and seal gaping wounds, and is sure to be equally popular amongst aging bluebloods and those who are simply bleeding to death.
Breaking in New Genes
Now let’s take a journey from the surface of your skin to the nuclei of your cells and the very blueprint of the amazing creature that is you. Fuck off, Ms. Frizzle—I’m driving the bus this time, and this field trip is brought to you by our corporate sponsor Calico.
This Google…er, sorry, Alphabet, Inc….spinoff made major waves when it was first announced in 2013, but aside from a few less-than-detailed press releases they haven’t been making a whole lot of news despite some serious backing and brain power. It could be because the problems they’re tackling are huge and fundamental to the issue of aging. Calico isn’t looking to be first to market with a partial fix. They want to decode the aging process so they can hack it however they want and eliminate it altogether – if that’s possible.
That’s where lobster DNA—and DNA from other seemingly-ageless creatures—comes into play. Calico, and other groups like the research-oriented nonprofit SENS Research Foundation, are looking at a variety of species with naturally “negligible senescence” to see if their genetic makeup can provide a map to our own Fountain of Youth. They’re leaving no stone or rockfish unturned, and though there aren’t any viable therapies or products on the horizon, research has been promising.
Both organizations are completely serious about the prospect of indefinitely prolonged life and health and they’ve got some of the best minds around saying it’s entirely possible. With any luck, we’ll soon be living in an age where the rich never die and the poor become a food source!
Ushering in the Age of the Cellular Holocaust
Unity Biotechnology is also taking a cellular approach to the ugly, ugly problem of getting and being old, but they’ve got a narrower focus than Calico and SENS. In fact, they think they might already have the key to the aging process figured out and ready to burn away, almost literally. It’s all based on research with mice, like everything else cool that medicine ever does, but this goes further than anything ever done before.
Yes, even further than that.
The gist of it is this: in mice (and in humans, preliminary research suggests), aging seems to be triggered when a handful of cells just randomly (or for reasons unknown) stop dividing but don’t die; instead they just sort of hang around and suck up nutrients. Cellular division, for those who flunked high school biology, is both how we grow and how new cells are created to replace old and damaged cells. When division stops occurring, a cell has essentially lived out its usefulness and ought to go away, but for some reason they get more stubborn as they age.
Once a few cells hit this curmudgeonly, stuck-in-their-ways time of life, it triggers a response that induces aging and age-related problems in other cells. If this first handful of obstinate senior cells could be routinely cleared away, Unity theorizes, that could be enough to stop widespread aging throughout the body and allow ongoing cellular division to keep our steps springy and our skin less saggy.
This would also prevent things like arthritis, dementia, osteoporosis, and other less-important, non-cosmetic things.
We Can Make It Better Than It Was. Better. Stronger. Liver.
But why go through all the trouble of preventing aging when it’s so easy just to grow new parts as the old ones wear out? That’s the thinking behind the team of researchers at Wake Forest University and India-based Pandorum Technologies, both of which have been developing proprietary methods for printing real, working, “living” tissue.
Yes, 3D printing and biological “inks” are coming together to make organ donation, donor matching, and waitlists a things of the past. The Wake Forest team has printed jawbones, cartilage structures, and other tissue and organ prototypes, and Pandorum claims to have printed an organic tissue that can function as a human liver. While there are still going to be years of clinical trials and regulatory hoops to jump through, these aren’t “something to look forward to” technologies—they’re here right now, they just need to be tested and refined.
Bad news for anyone hoping to sell a kidney to fund their retirement, but it makes the prospect of testicular cancer slightly less unappealing.
Very slightly. |
Sheila Dikshit, a former three-term Chief Minister of Delhi, was today appointed Governor of Kerala within three months of her defeat in the recent Assembly polls. Highly placed sources said tonight that the decision has been conveyed to 75-year-old Dikshit, who will succeed Nikhil Kumar, a former Delhi Police Commissioner.
Dikshit, a senior Congress leader, met Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in the morning and the decision to make her Kerala Governor was conveyed to her.
Nikhil Kumar is resigning and is expected to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Aurangabad seat in Bihar, which he had won in 2004.
During the Delhi Assembly elections in December last, Dikshit suffered an ignominious defeat from New Delhi seat at the hands of Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal, who succeeded Dikshit and has since resigned over the Jan Lokpal issue, won by more than 22,000 votes. The Congress came a poor third bagging eight seats in a House of 70. Dikshit served as Chief Minister from 1998 to 2013 in Delhi.
She had also represented Kannauj Parliamentary Constituency of Uttar Pradesh during the period between 1984 and 1989.
RJD President Lalu Prasad visited Nikhil Kumar's home in Patna setting off speculation of his contesting the Aurangabad Parliamentary seat. RJD and Congress sources confirmed the visit of Prasad to seek the blessings of Kumar's mother Kishori Sinha and to meet the Kerala Governor. Kumar is son of veteran Congress leader and former Bihar chief minister Satyendra Narayan Singh. Kumar could not be contacted as his mobile was switched off. He had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha elections from Aurangabad to Sushil Kumar Singh.
Aurangabad with an overwhelming population of Rajputs is popularly called 'Chittorgarh of Bihar'. The alliance between Congress and RJD is yet to be formalised after RJD chief offered 11 seats to Congress and 1 to NCP and sought a final response. |
Well, it certainly raises some in my mind.
earn2life.com, one of a number of such ‘get Linden Dollars for completing surveys’ Web-sites that I’ve seen over the years, has raised IPO funds through the Second Life Capital Exchange (SLCapEx, or just CapEx).
US-based service CapEx describes itself thusly: “Capital Exchange (CapEx) is a fictional stock market simulation game operating for entertainment and educational purposes only.” and “To be very clear, Capital Exchange is not a real-world stock exchange and does not offer opportunity for direct real-world investment or profit. Shares purchased on this stock exchange simulation game do not entitle you to any legal real-world rights to a listed virtual company. Please play accordingly!” – From the CapEx Web-site. Emphasis is mine.
Got all that?
Russian Second Life user Glaznah Gassner, owner/operator of earn2life has just received roughly fourteen and a half-thousand dollars of … err … “entertainment and education” as more than 200 investors stumped up funds for his business’ IPO.
That’s 3.75 million Linden Dollars with which he could buy some very real groceries, make mortgage payments, convert to any national currency, pay for his Web-hosting, or just blow on beer and books.
In return, Gassner has committed to paying 70% of the site profits to the couple of hundred investors. Those dividends could then be spent on digital or physical goods and/or services.
Forgive me if that doesn’t sound particularly fictional to me. A fictional exchange would imply no transfer of value, and value is clearly being exchanged. Indeed, CapEx exists because of that trade.
Fictional it isn’t. No more fictional than any other stock market, which trade in all manner of virtuals and intangibles as a matter-of-course. In fact, this looks a lot like trade in unregistered securities, which is generally considered quite naughty whether it is being done in US Dollars or convertible MoonBux.
Share this: Twitter
Google
Facebook
Reddit
Tumblr
More
LinkedIn
Pocket
Pinterest
Print
Tags: earn2life.com, Glaznah Gassner, IPO, Linden Dollar, Opinion, Russia, Second Life, SL CapEx, US Dollar, USA, Virtual Environments and Virtual Worlds |
The R&D center was officially inaugurated in China with the attendance of an Iranian delegation headed by Saeed Sarkar, head of Research Center for Medical Science and Technology affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and representatives from Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (SIBET) in China.
The agreement for the establishment of the center was signed back in November 2016 between Iran’s VP for Science and Technology, Sorena Sattari, and Presidency of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Center will serve as a base for mutual collaboration in the field of medical engineering, conducting market-oriented joint research, student/research transfer programs, and holding joint scientific and technological workshops.
Other missions of the center include cooperation for benefiting from the infrastructures of the two countries for conducting research and development of new products; and cooperation for obtaining licenses and mutual approvals for entry of medical equipment into Iranian and Chinese markets, as well as other countries’.
Earlier this month, a nanotechnology student lab was inaugurated in Guangzhou, China, equipped with Iranian made equipment. Hzs_Nanosurf Nanotechnology Company as the representative of Tavana Company has initiated marketing Iran-made nanotechnology training equipment packages in China since 2016. This company has set up the first educational nanotechnology student lab in Suzhou, China, last year and the second lab in Guangzhou, this year.
MS/4040623 |
A massive security flaw that could let hackers listen in on private calls and read text messages has been revealed.
The flaw, is in a global telecom network called Signal System 7 that helps phone carriers across the world, including AT&T and Verizon, route calls and texts.
The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest in a string of major flaws in the system.
The flaws are in a system called SS7, the global network that allows the world's cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other
HOW IT WORKS The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower. However, hackers worked out a way to repurpose the features for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.
'Experts say it's increasingly clear that SS7, first designed in the 1980s, is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world's billions of cellular customers,' said The Washington Post, which first uncovered flaws in the system earlier this year.
The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower.
However, hackers worked out a way to repurpose the features for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.
Although the extent of the flaws has not yet been revealed, it is believed hackers can locate callers anywhere in the world, listen to calls as they happen or record hundreds of encrypted calls and texts at a time for later decryption.
'It's like you secure the front door of the house, but the back door is wide open,' Tobias Engel, one of the German researchers, told the Post.
There also is potential to defraud users and cellular carriers by using SS7 functions, the researchers say.
The The American Civil Liberties Union has even warned people against using their handset in light of the breaches.
'Don't use the telephone service provided by the phone company for voice,' principle technologist Christopher Soghoian told Gizmodo.
Hackers worked out a way to repurpose the features networks use to connect calls for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.
The voice channel they offer is not secure.
'You can use FaceTime, which is built into any iPhone, or Signal, which you can download from the app store.
'These allow you to have secure communication on an insecure channel.'
He also believes that security agencies could be using the flaws.
'Many of the big intelligence agencies probably have teams that do nothing but SS7 research and exploitation. |
Scientific confirmation that the NASA Mars rover Curiosity has found a location habitable to Martian microbial life 3 billion years ago is an historic milestone in planetary exploration.
"This is an incredible adventure to get to this point so early in the mission, I feel giddy," said John Grunsfeld NASA associate administrator for science.
The major finding was made in spite of a weak wisp of organics measured by the rover's instruments, except for a major spike in carbon dioxide from the material when heated to 1,535 deg. F (835 deg. C).
The signatures of more than five hundred mass values were sampled during the heating of this drilled sample and analyzed by the SAM instrument. Five are shown in the graph. These traces are diagnostic of water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and two forms of sulfur, sulfur dioxide, the oxidized form, and hydrogen sulfide, the reduced form. The high deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in water in the Mars atmosphere is a signature of the lighter hydrogen more rapidly escaping to space over geological time. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/GSFC.
The new data from the powder drilled from within a rock at Yellowknife Bay indicates that mineralogy, chemistry and abundant fresh water conditions that existed at the time would have supported the existence of prokaryotic organisms.
Such microbes "do not use organics to metabolize, but rather process inorganic compounds for food and energy", said John Grotzinger of Caltech, project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory.
"There does need to be a source of carbon there somewhere," Grotzinger said. "But if it is just carbon dioxide you can have a "Chemolitho autotrophic organism" that literally feeds on rocks. Such organisms will metabolize and generate organic compounds based on carbon in the carbon dioxide," the project scientist said at a Washington briefing on sample results.
Curiosity's SAM instrument detected the simple carbon-containing compounds chloro- and dichloromethane from the powdered rock sample extracted from the "John Klein" rock on Mars. These species were detected by the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS) on Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument. The blue peak on the left shows the presence of chloromethane and the two red peaks on the right show the presence of dichloromethane. Credit: NASA/ JPL-Caltech/GSFC
"The fact that Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy was able to show in the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument that there was a major carbon dioxide spike" that vented from the subsurface rock powder "is what we are really excited about," Grotzinger said. That is because such a spike indicates a key building block for life on Mars.
The main points of the briefing include:
Significance: "A fundamental question for this mission is whether Mars could have supported a habitable environment," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "From what we know now, the answer is yes."
After 50 years of planetary exploration no other location in the solar system beyond Earth has ever been found to be habitable until Curiosity started exploring Yellowknife Bay, Mars.
This set of images shows the results from the rock abrasion tool from NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity (left) and the drill from NASA's Curiosity rover (right).
Scientists were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized, less-oxidized, and even non-oxidized chemicals in the Curiosity sample, providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth exploit to live. This partial oxidation was first hinted at when the drill cuttings were revealed to be gray rather than red like with Opportunity's site where high Ph readings means that area is much less desirable for microorganisms. Credit: JPL-Caltech/MSSS
The stuff of life: The rover's instruments found within the gray/green rock sample the elements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphors and sulfur, which dominate living cells on Earth. But the science team members said that with the new data they will be able to shift their thinking more to a "Mars paradigm" where the chemistry and mineralogy in the rock samples will align in tune with the Martian environment that existed 3 billion years ago.
Life on Mars and Earth: The habitability finding also raises an interesting comparative planetology question about whether Martian microorganisms could have evolved at about the same time, or even before life developed on Earth as early as 3.8 billion years ago, within 700 million years of the formation of the Solar System 4.5 billion years ago.
Organic molecules: The SAM instrument found simple organic molecules, but not a strong organic signal from past Martian life. Curiosity detected the simple carbon-containing compounds chloro- and dichloromethane from the powdered rock sample extracted from the "John Klein" rock on Mars. These species were detected by the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS), one of three instruments that make up SAM.
On the left is "Wopmay" rock, in Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planum, as studied by the Opportunity rover. On the right are the rocks of the "Sheepbed" unit in Yellowknife Bay imaged by Curiosity. The Wopmay environment was acidic and not likely habitable. In the Sheepbed image on the right, these very fine-grained sediments represent the record of an ancient habitable environment. The Sheepbed sediments were likely deposited under fresh water. Scientists think the water cemented the sediments, and also formed concretions. The rock was then fractured and filled with sulfate minerals when water flowed through subsurface fracture networks. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Alert to contamination: Both chloro- and dichloromethane were also detected earlier by SAM at the "Rocknest" sand drift. It is possible that these simple carbon-containing compounds were produced by the reaction between Martian carbon and chlorine released when this sample was heated in the SAM oven.
However, analysis of an additional drilled sample is required to help scientists understand if instead any residual terrestrial carbon from the drill, or perhaps chlorine left over from the Rocknest sample, is responsible for the generation of some or all of these compounds.
Strategy forward: Curiosity will remain at Yellowknife Bay well into May or even June to drill for a second subsurface rock sample in a somewhat different location in the bay. Once that second sample is processed 2-3 times through SAM and CheMin, the rover will be started on its about 5 month traverse toward Mt. Sharp.
Diagram shows Curiosity's landing site in relation to major water features. A stream sweeping down from crater wall formed alluvial fan. The red signature indicates high thermal inertia of an area that does not cool as quickly as surrounding area. This is the Yellowknife Bay area. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Second rock drilling: Curiosity's engineering team continues to restore the rover's A-side computer to full health for its new backup role after a significant malfunction in late February. Some science operations will resume through the end of March, including the possible run of a triple dose of the original sample in SAM to boost an organic signal if it is there.
But Mars, now 221 million mi. (356 million km.) from Earth will move behind the Sun in April, making it difficult for Earth to communicate with the rover. Curiosity will remain quiescent during April, but in May the science team will select a new site where a second sample will be drilled and run two or more times through SAM and CheMin for comparison with the original subsurface rock data.
The second run should also benefit from decreased contamination, if any, from the original use of the drill and the highly oxidized Rocknest sample processed last fall. Some red Rocknest sample was noticed in the scoop that handled the rock sample after drilling.
Image (left) shows dry lakebed in Australia similar to Yellowknife Bay on Mars. Image (right) shows a core sample of the Australian site showing how bands of clays form in the sediment. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Electricity is in the air: Scientists were surprised to find a mixture of oxidized, less-oxidized, and even non-oxidized chemicals, providing an energy gradient of the sort many microbes on Earth exploit to live. This partial oxidation was first hinted at when the drill cuttings were revealed to be gray rather than red.
"The range of chemical ingredients we have identified in the sample is impressive, and it suggests pairings such as sulfates and sulfides that indicate a possible chemical energy source for micro-organisms," said Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator of the SAM suite of instruments at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
These images, made from data obtained by Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin), show the patterns obtained from a drift of windblown dust and sand called "Rocknest" (left) and from a powdered rock sample drilled from the "John Klein" bedrock. (right). The presence of abundant clay minerals in the John Klein drill powder and the lack of abundant salt suggest a fresh water environment. The presence of calcium sulfates rather than magnesium or iron sulfates suggests a neutral to mildly alkaline pH environment in a lacustrine (lakebed) environment with high water activity. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ames
Impressive Clays: "Clay minerals make up 20-30 percent of the composition of this sample," said David Blake, principal investigator for the CheMin instrument at NASA's Ames Research Center.
These clay minerals are a product of the reaction of relatively fresh water with igneous minerals, such as olivine, also present in the sediment. The reaction could have taken place within the sedimentary deposit, during transport of the sediment, or in the source region of the sediment. The presence of calcium sulfate along with the clay suggests the soil is neutral or mildly alkaline.
But the Mars meteorite community believes that the analysis of meteorites from Mars found similar reactions between the flow of water through clays (known as smectites) found in a number of Martian meteorites years before Curiosity reported its clay findings. Clays are important because they are the most likely to preserve organics as a tip off to the existence of past life.
Awards: Members of the rover team also won two major awards this week. The 2013 Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum Trophy for Current Achievement will be awarded to the Mars Science Laboratory Entry, Descent, and Landing Team. They will be presented their award April 24 at a black-tie dinner at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum building in downtown Washington, D.C.
In addition, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Social Media Team for Curiosity has captured the 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Award for best social media campaign for turning the Mars Science Laboratory mission into an internet sensation. The award was presented March 12 in Austin, Texas to Veronica McGregor, Stephanie L. Smith and Courtney O'Connor of JPL.
Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. |
Apache TomEE aims to provide application developers with a best-of-breed technology stack that can be deployed to a simple and lightweight Java EE container. In this return to the Open source Java projects series, author Steven Haines introduces TomEE, explains how it differs from Tomcat, and helps you set it up in your development environment. He then walks through the process of configuring TomEE to integrate resources such as database connection pools and JMS destinations -- bread and butter for today's enterprise apps.
Tomcat is a popular choice among lightweight, open source application servers, but for developers seeking a more enterprise-ready app server, the options have been mostly commercial. With TomEE, Apache hopes to change all that -- and then some. In this installment in the Open source Java projects series, I'll go under the hood of TomEE to explain how it differs from plain old Tomcat. You'll also have the opportunity to meet TomEE (pronounced "Tommy") hands-on, with a deep-dive review of what is required to configure TomEE to host your application. Since the main benefit of using TomEE over Tomcat is its support for enterprise technologies, I'll show you how to configure various types of resources, as well as the process to wire those resources into your application.
About TomEE
You might recognize TomEE from its parent project, OpenEJB. TomEE started out as the integration of Tomcat with OpenEJB, but that definition proved too narrow. As explained on the TomEE homepage, EJB itself is an expansive specification, including support for most of the Java specs used in enterprise Java development today. But TomEE builds on top of OpenEJB's integration with JMS, Web services, connectors, Servlets, JPA, JDBC, and Java Transactions and Security, adding support for ActiveMQ, CXF, MyFaces, and OpenJPA.
In evolving TomEE to be Tomcat plus Java Enterprise Edition, TomEE's open source development team worked with three key design principles:
Don't mess with Tomcat
Keep it simple
Avoid architectural overhead
The goal was to add enterprise features to Tomcat without incurring additional runtime requirements or startup time for larger applications. Based on recently published benchmarks for TomEE 1.0, it looks like they succeeded. The following statistics compare the start times of applications in TomEE versus other deployment environments:
Rails 3.3 Custom (44mb WAR): 21.3% of beta2 startup time (369% faster)
Lift/Scala sample app (23mb WAR): 43.8% of beta2 startup time (128% faster)
Confluence 3.5.5 (149mb unpacked): 37.6% of beta2 startup time (166% faster)
TomEE and TomEE Plus
It's no secret that the Java EE technology stack is very large. This poses a variety of challenges, but can make it especially difficult for non-commercial vendors like Apache, that cannot necessarily afford the infrastructure overhead of implementing a full-stack Java EE application. So, with Java 6, the JCP introduced Java EE certification profiles.
As of this writing there are two classifications of certification: Java EE 6 Full Profile and Java EE 6 Web Profile. Commercial Java EE app servers like Oracle Application Server, Oracle WebLogic, and IBM WebSphere, as well as the open source JBoss and Glassfish application servers, are fully certified. TomEE is currently Java EE 6 certified only against the web profile. This means that TomEE supports a subset of the Java EE specifications that particularly apply to Java web development, namely: CDI, EJB, JPA, JSF, JSP, JSTL, JTA, Servlet API, JavaMail, and Bean Validation.
If your application only requires those technologies, then you can take advantage of TomEE's lightweight, low-overhead container. Projects that need a little more might consider using TomEE+, which is currently not Java EE 6 Certified. TomEE+ includes support for SOAP and RESTful web services, as well as JMS and the Java EE Connector Architecture. See the OpenEJB homepage for an up-to-date matrix comparing features available in Tomcat, TomEE, TomEE Plus, and OpenEJB.
You can download TomEE or TomEE+ from the TomEE homepage. Note that I used TomEE+ for the sample application, though you should be able to follow along with either version.
TomEE in your development environment
After you've downloaded TomEE or TomEE+, decompress it to a directory on your computer. Just like Tomcat, TomEE requires that you install a JDK and configure a JAVA_HOME environment variable. The JAVA_HOME environment variable should point to the root of the directory in which you installed the JDK and you should add the JAVA_HOME/bin directory to your PATH environment variable.
You can set the JAVA_HOME on Windows with the following command (assuming that you installed your JDK in C:\Program Files\Java ):
set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program Files\Java" set PATH=%PATH$;%JAVA_HOME%\bin
Note that if you are using Windows and do not want to run this command for each new command prompt, you can configure a system- and user-level environment variable through the System configuration in your control panel.
Likewise, on Linux or Mac you can use the following command:
export JAVA_HOME=/home/user/Java export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
Once you have TomEE installed and decompressed locally and you have your JAVA_HOME set, then you can start up TomEE by executing the startup.bat or startup.sh file from TomEE's bin directory. Like Tomcat, TomEE writes its default logs to logs/catalina.out . If everything starts up correctly you should see something like the following in your log file:
May 24, 2012 10:35:10 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init May 24, 2012 10:35:13 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"] May 24, 2012 10:35:14 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol init INFO: Initializing ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"] May 24, 2012 10:35:18 PM org.apache.openejb.server.ServiceLogger <clinit> INFO: can't find log4j MDC class May 24, 2012 10:35:18 PM org.apache.openejb.OpenEJB$Instance <init> INFO: ******************************************************************************** ... May 24, 2012 10:35:43 PM org.apache.myfaces.webapp.AbstractFacesInitializer initFaces WARNING: No mappings of FacesServlet found. Abort initializing MyFaces. May 24, 2012 10:35:43 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"] May 24, 2012 10:35:43 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start INFO: Starting ProtocolHandler ["ajp-bio-8009"] May 24, 2012 10:35:43 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start INFO: Server startup in 15197 ms
The TomEE log file is much larger than a traditional Tomcat log file because TomEE is starting far more services than Tomcat. An informational message that states " Server startup in xxx ms " indicates that the server started successfully. To validate that TomEE is running, open a web browser to the " tomee " web context on the machine on which TomEE is running, for example:
http://localhost:8080/tomee/
You should see something similar to the screenshot in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the TomEE homepage (click to enlarge)
From this page you can click on "Testing your setup" to ensure that everything is working. This test suite first checks that the openejb directory and environment are properly setup. It then tests that the OpenEJB classes can be loaded and initialized, and that the JNDI lookups work. If all the tests pass then you're ready to start deploying your applications to TomEE.
Application deployment with TomEE
Deploying application artifacts to TomEE is very similar to deploying to Tomcat: simply copy your WAR or EAR file to the tomee/webapps folder. When TomEE sees your WAR or EAR file, it will explode your archive into a directory with the same name, but without the .war or .ear extension.
TomEE supports a new feature introduced with Java EE 6, which is the ability to deploy your EJBs and web artifacts in a single web archive (WAR file). The purpose of doing this is to enable your web application and your EJBs to share the same classloader and third-party libraries (such as Spring), and to allow servlets to see EJB classes and EJBs to see servlet classes. For packaging purposes, the web.xml and ejb-jar.xml files live in the same WAR file.
This new packaging scheme is quite a difference from J2EE and even Java EE 5, which both required a strict separation between EJBs and Web code. If you still need these layers of separation, you can package your WAR file and EJB JAR files inside an EAR file. If you do not need the separation, however, it is more performant and much easier to configure all your classes in the same archive while sharing the same class loader.
Defining external resources
An enterprise application would be pretty useless if it never interacted with any external resources. There are two basic strategies for defining resources:
Container managed
Application managed
Container managed resources are configured in the container, outside of the application itself. The application subsequently acquires those resources from the container when it needs them. Application managed resources are defined at the application-level, usually through configuration files. They are wired into the application on load or when needed.
The benefit of container managed resources is that the same application can run in different environments with just a few simple environmental configuration changes. For example, in a QA environment an application might be configured to persist data to and from a QA database and publish messages to QA topics; but in a User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment those external resources would be different. Having the environmental configuration performed on the container also removes the risk that the application will inadvertently point to the wrong environment (such as deploying an application to a production environment that is pointing to a QA database). Finally, most monitoring tools provide the ability to automatically discover container managed resources that publish resource metrics via Java Management Extensions (JMX). Most production support teams for medium- to large-scale applications configure resources at the container-level.
The benefits to defining resources inside the application are primarily with respect to ease-of-deployment. It is far easier to deploy an application that knows about all of its dependencies than it is to deploy one whose collection of resources must be externally defined. Some projects get around this by combining the two approaches; for instance, the application might define the resource, such as configuring a database connection pool, but then extract the JDBC URL from the deployment environment.
Defining a container-managed database connection pool
Database connections are probably the most common resource to configure for an enterprise application, so we'll try configuring a database connection as a way of learning more about TomEE.
The first step is to copy your JDBC driver (JAR or ZIP file) to the tomee/lib folder so that the classloader will be able to find it when TomEE starts up. Next, you must configure the database connection in a <Resource> XML node in the tomee/conf/tomee.xml file.
To create a data source, define a <Resource> node with a type of " DataSource ," as shown here:
<Resource id="MyDataSource" type="DataSource"> </Resource>
The body of this node accepts a simple set of name-value pairs that configure the data source.
Database configuration example
Resource configuration is a huge topic, so I direct you to the TomEE homepage for complete documentation. We'll practice with a database configuration, which includes all of the options summarized below. |
What We Eat Shapes Microbe Societies Inside Us
Enlarge this image toggle caption Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc. Dennis Kunkel Microscopy, Inc.
Deep inside your intestines, there's a complex microbial ecosystem, which scientists say contains nearly a thousand species of bacteria.
A lot of recent research has shown that the community of gut microbes acts almost like another organ in your body — they're that crucial. They exert a pronounced effect on the nutrients and energy that get pulled out of food. And the bacteria are thought to play a big role in a slew of health conditions, including obesity and diabetes.
But a study just published in the journal Science shows that the bugs don't have all the power in this symbiotic relationship. The dominant species in the gut are linked to — and potentially controlled by — your eating habits.
Microbiologist Frederic Bushman of the University of Pennsylvania and his co-authors compared detailed lists of what 98 people ate with bacterial DNA from stool samples that they provided. "The kinds of bacteria that are there sort of fell into groups, and we see an association between these groups and long-term diet," Bushman told Shots.
Two diet categories emerged as important. People who eat more animal protein and fat had gut microbes dominated by one genus of bacteria (Bacteroides, if you're keeping track), while high-fiber eaters tended to have more of a different genus (Prevotella). These results line up with a smaller study comparing the diets of kids in Europe, where people eat more animal products, with kids in Burkina-Faso, where the diet is primarily vegetable-based.
The study found these microbial communities are pretty stable in the short-term. The researchers changed the diets of 10 people for 10 days and took stool samples to monitor changes in gut microbes. Although they could detect small changes in the bacterial mixture after only a day (shorter than the time it took for food to completely go through the intestines), each subject's basic gut ecosystem remained relatively unchanged even after 10 days on an altered diet.
Bushman and colleagues say that this means that it's long-term eating habits, rather than short-term lapses, that are linked with gut microbial communities and health.
The health connection is why our gut microbes have drawn the interest of heavy hitters like the National Institutes of Health, which launched the Human Microbiome Project in 2008. The bacterial cells in or on the average person outnumber human cells 10 to 1, and according to Bushman, it's an even greater divide in stool samples. "The DNA that's there is overwhelmingly bacterial," he says, estimating that less than 1% of the DNA in a stool sample is human.
These results tell us that there's a difference between general types of gut bacteria, but they don't tell us which is good or bad. That's the next step, according to Bushman, who is involved with applying these results to a study of kids with inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease.
The step beyond that might be trying to change your gut ecosystem to improve your health, through probiotics, so-called "poop transplants," or, taking a tip from this study, an old-fashioned apple a day. |
A Capitol Christmas tree is shown. | John Shinkle/POLITICO | John Shinkle/POLITICO Congress inaugurates a Christmas tree tradition, Dec. 24, 1913
On this day in 1913, thousands of people came to the U.S. Capitol to celebrate Washington’s first “community Christmas.” The centerpiece of the festivities, a 40-foot Norway spruce Christmas tree located on the East Front Plaza of the Capitol, was adorned with red, white and blue electric bulbs.
The celebration also boasted a lighted placard with the inscription, “Peace on earth, good will to men” and nativity scenes, and featured a chorus whose members sang Christmas hymns. During the Christmas Eve celebration, the U.S. Marine Band played the national anthem.
Story Continued Below
The holiday tradition resumed in December 1914. But it ended the next year due to a lack of funds. “Shock Awaits Santa Claus: No Community Christmas Tree Will Be at the Capitol for Him,” a Washington Post headline read.
Nearly a half-century later, in 1962, House Speaker John McCormack (D-Mass.) supervised the placement of an indoor Christmas tree in Statuary Hall.
It is “most appropriate that a Christmas tree be placed in the Capitol, which is [at] the heart of legislative activity of our country,” McCormack said. A year later, he spearheaded the revival of an official Capitol Christmas Tree when he suggested that the architect of the Capitol plant a tree on the West Front lawn. That tradition continued, and the next year, on Dec. 18, 1964, Sen. Carl Hayden (D-Ariz.), the Senate’s president pro tempore, lit the 25-foot Douglas-fir “congressional” tree decorated with white lights and topped with a star.
Since 1970 — after two unsuccessful attempts to plant trees on the West Front lawn — the U.S. Forest Service and the architect’s office have selected a Capitol Christmas Tree from a rotating group of U.S. national forests. In recent years, an annual ceremony has been held in early December, during which the House speaker presides over the lighting of the Capitol Tree.
POLITICO Pulse newsletter Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Accordingly, on Dec. 6, 2017, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) presided over this year’s lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree. The tree had been transported to the Capitol from Montana’s Kootenai National Forest. During the ceremony, Ryan showed Ridley Brandmayr, an 11-year-old Montanan, which switch to flip on the dais that would light the tree.
In brief remarks, Ryan said:
“Amid our cares and troubles, we gather to see for ourselves that the light overcomes the darkness. We seek out the joy and the good in the world. We give back to those in need. We lend a hand to those in pain.
“We see that the glory of God shines all around us, and brings us closer to one another. These gifts never dim in our hearts. They are always there. All we need is a little light—and of course, a little Christmas—to guide our path.”
The tree will remain lit from nightfall until 11 p.m. each evening through New Year’s Day.
SOURCE: HISTORY.HOUSE.GOV |
Vermont Business Magazine New York residents pay the most for basic health insurance and Vermont is second, but has the highest monthly premium at $469 a month, compared with New Mexico, which has the lowest monthly premium at $181 a month. New Mexico pays the least for basic health insurance, according to a new study released today by leading personal finance website GOBankingRates.com. The study compared silver plans ― the most popular plan according to the Department of Health and Human Services ― offered through the national or state-level insurance exchanges administered through the Affordable Care Act.
The lowest-cost silver plans for each state were ranked based on the favorability of the following cost factors:
The plan's monthly premium
The deductible
The emergency care copay
The copay for care from a primary physician
"Higher insurance costs in many states are tied to high costs of living or being in rural areas," said Elyssa Kirkham, the lead GOBankingRates reporter on the study. "Where costs of living are high, like New York or Vermont, care is also likely to be more expensive, a cost which insurers pass to enrollees through higher premiums."
"Competition is another key factor of health insurance costs," said Kirkham. "In rural states like Wyoming and Oklahoma, fewer residents means a smaller health insurance market with fewer options, where insurers can charge more without losing customers. Of course, subsidies can offset these costs, but this form of assistance also varies widely from state to state," she said.
The 10 States With the Highest Health Insurance Costs
New York Vermont South Carolina Alabama New Jersey Mississippi Oklahoma Indiana Delaware Wyoming
2. Vermont
Vermont's cheapest silver option, the Silver CDHP Plan from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont, has the highest monthly premium of any state, charging $469 a month, or $5,628 a year in premiums. The yearly cost on this plan is estimated at $7,317 on average by Vermont's exchange site and up to $11,377 in a "bad year" with many health expenses.
These high costs are offset somewhat by a low deductible of just $1,425, one of the lowest of the silver plans included in this ranking. The policyholder is still responsible for some costs once the deductible is met, however, such as a 25 percent co-insurance on emergency care and a 10 percent co-insurance charge for visits to a primary care physician. Vermont's health insurance exchange, Vermont Health Connect, added a comparison tool to its website in December 2015 that allows shoppers to compare out-of-pocket costs and premiums on different plans.
The 10 States With the Lowest Health Insurance Costs
New Mexico Utah California Texas Pennsylvania Michigan District of Columbia Hawaii Oregon Idaho
Additional insights:
The state with the highest monthly premium is Vermont, at $469 a month, compared with New Mexico, which has the lowest monthly premium at $181 a month.
Primary doctor copays vary widely by state. West Virginia and Indiana have no copays, but Californians' copays are the highest ― $250.
Deductible costs range from $1,300 in North Dakota to $6,850 in South Carolina, which is more than five times the price.
Despite New Mexico's low costs, many residents have encountered difficulties in January 2016 getting their health coverage due to a high volume of December 2015 health insurance applications still being processed.
50 States and D.C. Ranked by Health Insurance Costs
Here is the full ranking of the 50 states and the District of Columbia from best to worst, according to their health insurance costs for the silver plan with the lowest monthly premium in each state.
1 New Mexico 18 Minnesota 35 North Carolina 2 Utah 19 Virginia 36 Georgia 3 California 20 Iowa 37 Florida 4 Texas 21 Nevada 38 Alaska 5 Pennsylvania 22 New Hampshire 39 Tennessee 6 Michigan 23 Maine 40 Missouri 7 District of Columbia 24 Kentucky 41 Colorado 8 Hawaii 25 North Dakota 42 Wyoming 9 Oregon 26 West Virginia 43 Delaware 10 Idaho 27 Washington 44 Indiana 11 Wisconsin 28 Ohio 45 Oklahoma 12 Connecticut 29 Montana 46 Mississippi 13 Arizona 30 Maryland 47 New Jersey 14 Louisiana 31 Arkansas 48 Alabama 15 Illinois 32 South Dakota 49 South Carolina 16 Kansas 33 Rhode Island 50 Vermont 17 Massachusetts 34 Nebraska 51 New York
About GOBankingRates
GOBankingRates.com is a leading portal for personal finance and consumer banking information, offering visitors the latest on everything from finding a good interest rate to strategies for saving money, investing for retirement and getting a loan. Its editors are regularly featured on top-tier media outlets, including U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Business Insider, Daily Finance, Huffington Post and more. It specializes in connecting consumers with the best financial institutions and banking products nationwide.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- GOBankingRates.com |
Post News Network
Cuttack: Several rivers in the state are fast turning toxic threatening the life force on earth even as a survey conducted by the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) has blamed industrialisation and lack of water management.
Samples were collected from water sources in residential areas in all the 30 districts in the state. The report said a majority of water sources including groundwater has become contaminated.
Meanwhile, the rural water supply and sanitation (RWSS) department engineers have stated that it has become impossible to obtain safe drinking water from 11 major rivers and lakes like Chilika and Ansupa.
Cuttack RWSS assistant executive engineer Fakir Mohan Sahu said, “Water in various rivers has turned toxic as heavy metals like iron, manganese, lead, nickel and cadmium are dumped into the river. Water in such rivers has already non-organic substance like sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium.”
Several surveys have revealed that fluoride content in water sources at Deragaon, Jutiki, Behal and other places under Begunia block of Khurda district and places in Nuapada district has exceeded 0.15 mg per litre. Consequently, people residing in the riparian areas get afflicted by fluorosis.
Since per capita water use in urban areas stands at 335 litres per day, rapid urbanisation helps release of huge amount of water into rivers and nullahs thereby polluting them. This causes spread of jaundice, Hepatitis A and E like diseases. It also causes typhoid, cholera, gastric, stomach ulcer and other diseases, said a survey.
Another survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) found presence of heavy metals in water sources of Badamba-Narsinghpur in Cuttack, Dharmagarh in Kalahandi, Manomunda in Bolangir, Kolabira in Jharsuguda and some areas in Angul district.
SCB Medical College and Hospital head of nephrology department Chittaranjan Kar said, “Presence of heavy metals like lead and cadmium is causing kidney-related ailments. Fluoride content in water causes water-borne diseases.”
Lack of proper lab facilities in the state to assess the quality of water and ascertain presence of heavy metals therein has become a concern. Although there are 32 district, 46 sub-divisional and a state-level laboratories under the water resources department, these facilities woefully lack requisite infrastructure.
Currently, the state has to depend on Institute of Minerals and Material Technology (IIMT) at the Centre to test the water quality. The state government spends at least `2,000 to test of a litre of water sample. So, pendency of cases of water quality tests keeps rising. For example: more than 100 water samples collected from Badamba region have been pending for test.
Former dean of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Sanjay Samantray said, “Rampant use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers coupled with industrialisation has largely been responsible for water pollution.”
The survey report said release of bio-carbonates and other heavy metals from paper mills are major pollutants of river water.
Experts opine that industrial units at Angul, Talcher, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Damanjodi are potential polluters of several water resources. Iron, copper, zinc and manganese being released from sugar mills add to water pollution, the experts maintained. |
The video will start in 8 Cancel
Get the biggest Arsenal FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Arsene Wenger is facing a keeper crisis after David Ospina was ruled out with a back injury.
It leaves Wenger having to play third choice keeper Emiliano Martinez against West Ham - and he could have to play for the next fortnight.
Ospina suffered an injury after a heavy fall against Manchester City on Sunday and it is understood that he is out injured.
That comes on top of first choice Petr Cech being ruled out with a calf problem for at least another two weeks.
(Image: Arsenal FC/Getty)
(Image: REUTERS)
(Image: Matthew Lewis)
Martinez has played three games in the League Cup this season and is not a rookie but it will still be a worry as he could be up against West Ham’s giant striker Andy Carroll.
Ospina is set to leave Arsenal this summer - Marseille are keen on him as well as interest from Turkey - and this latest injury worry is a major setback.
It could mean that Martinez has to deputise for the next few games.
Arsenal have recalled rookie keeper Matt Macey from his loan spell at Luton to ease the crisis with Ospina and Cech out.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now |
The NHS should pay for organ donors’ funerals to encourage more volunteers and boost life-saving operations, says a new bioethics report.
A report from the Nuffield Council on Bioethics says that a pilot scheme offering a funeral fund for organ donors would help to gauge public opinion and could boost the number of donors.
Three people die every day while waiting for an organ, Nuffield said, and paying for organ donors’ funerals could be an ethical incentive to encourage more people to sign the register.
The report rejected the idea of a system where organ donation is the default option and where organs would be transferred unless patients specifically opt out, but it backed a “mandated” or “prompted” system where people are encouraged to make a choice.
There are currently 8,000 people on the organ transplant waiting list in the UK and the average wait for a suitable donor is three years.
Although 18 million people are on the organ donor register, few die in circumstances where they are able to donate their organs, says Keith Rigg, a member of the working party behind the report, and a consultant transplant surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
“In considering whether this would be ethical, firstly we did not think this would be harmful to the donor,” he said. “It would fit in with the altruistic approach to donation as the perceived reward of funeral expenses would not benefit the donor directly but it might help their family at a very difficult time.
“Families will of course be able to turn the offer down if they so wished.”
We worry that offering funeral expenses in return for organs may result in families leaning on sick relatives to donate. Roger Goss, Patient Voice
The proposal is part of a series of recommendations following an 18-month inquiry into the ethics of encouraging people to donate in a range of health areas, including major organs to eggs, sperm, blood, tissue and whole bodies.
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, who headed the inquiry said: “Paying for the funerals of organ donors would be ethically justified – no harm can come to the donor, and it would be a form of recognition from society.
However Roger Goss, co-director of Patient Concern, said: “We worry that offering funeral expenses in return for organs may result in families leaning on sick relatives to donate because it can save thousands of pounds.
“The number of cases that reach the court of protection because those holding power of attorney treat their charges as cash cows should be a warning that this is only too likely.”
He added: “We deplore the council’s apparent acceptance of presumed consent as ethical and merely an issue of whether or not it produces more donors.” |
Image caption Wavii automatically creates status updates about its user's interests
A new personalised news stream service has been launched by some of technology's most respected developers.
Wavii searches the net - including tweets, news stories and blogs - to offer a customised feed.
It is offered via the web or as a smartphone app, and was created by engineers who had previously worked for Amazon and Microsoft.
It is likely to compete with Facebook's news feed, prompting speculation that it could become a takeover target.
Mark Zuckerberg's social network made headlines on Monday when it announced it was buying 18-month-old rival Instagram for $1bn (£629m).
While Facebook's feed is mainly based on status updates and content shared by friends, Wavii highlights what's happening in the world at large by creating personalised news streams based on data taken from across the web.
Crawling the web
According to Adrian Aoun, Wavii's founder and chief executive, his service offers a more complete experience.
"Facebook is aggregating all this structured data about your friends, and we are aggregating all this structured data about the world - the other half that Facebook doesn't have," he told the BBC.
"We are looking at everything and mapping it into story types. We try to look for patterns."
Wavii detects users' likes and interests based on their previous Facebook activity and by asking them to select at least 12 topics or people of interest. These range from celebrities and politicians to business acquisitions and gadgets.
Then the startup's "learning" algorithms kick in to crawl the real-time web, and turn plain facts and unstructured content into something endowed with context and order.
'Game-changer'
The technology, which processes up to 1,000 articles a minute, can detect rumours and story duplicates, ultimately streaming the most important and relevant nuggets of information into new feeds.
Wavii gets rid of the "fluff", said Jim Pitkow, a technical advisor to the Seattle-based venture.
"We live in a sea of information, it's really hard to decide what to pay attention to.
"With Wavii you can access more information with less effort."
Image caption Users choose 12 topics or people to follow when they set up their personalised news feed, they can later add more
Although other apps such as Flipboard and Pulse have attempted to blend together RSS-feeds and other news sources, one industry watcher believes Wavii is a game-changer.
"I haven't seen anyone do anything close," Oren Etzioni, a semantic search expert and professor of computer science at the University of Washington, told the BBC.
"Wavii is tackling an incredibly hard problem. Google and Microsoft's Bing have worked on this for years."
He said that could make it a takeover target with social media companies which already have news feeds - such as Twitter, Facebook, Google and Linkedin - all a potentially good fit. |
It’s difficult to hear anything above the screams.
Sure, there are other noises here in Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena. Lee Greenwood, for example, whose song "God Bless the USA" is playing over the arena’s loudspeakers. Perhaps somewhere in this building, someone is singing along. And then there are the signs, reading "TRUMP PENCE" and "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN," all waving through the air, presumably with a whooshing sound. One has to imagine that the reporters, all sectioned off in the press pen, are making a clacking noise as they type away on their laptops. A few babies are here. Maybe they’re crying. Perhaps they’re laughing. Or maybe, as Donald Trump walks to the stage, they’re joining the thousands of adults in this building by screaming too.
Trump steps to the microphone and, eventually, the screams subside. It’s Thursday night in one of the most outrageous and discomfiting weeks in the recent history of American politics, and the man who has given rise to the spectacle is preparing to speak. After a few platitudes, he begins, launching into talk of terror and immigration, manufacturing and trade.
"I love you, Donald Trump!" shouts someone from the arena’s floor.
Even now. Especially now. As Trump’s campaign combusts through October, these are the Americans riding along in the flames.
"God Bless A-fucking-merica!"
Eighteen thousand people are here in Cincinnati to affirm their support for a man whose presidential campaign seems to be in a moment of historic crisis. They are here even though Trump was caught boasting on tape about assaulting women and a number of women came forward to allege that yes, his boasts were true. They are here even as Republican leaders unendorse Trump in droves, apparently willing to concede the White House to refocus their attention down the ballot.
I’m attending two Trump rallies in two days, in Cincinnati and Charlotte, not as a credentialed reporter, but as any other member of the crowd. In conversations, I’m identifying myself as a writer and am taking notes the entire time, but unless someone goes out of their way to tell me I can, I’m agreeing not to identify the people I speak to by name. This is done in hopes of finding honesty and candor, of learning, with less than a month until the election, about the people who refuse to leave Trump’s side.
On the stage, Trump continues a vague and winding monologue. He says he’ll build a wall. He rails against NAFTA. He says he’ll defeat ISIS. Mostly, though, he looks for reasons to elicit more screams. Eventually he turns to his easiest trick: saying the words "Hillary Clinton."
"Lock her the fuck up!" yells the man standing next to me, whom I’ll call Ed. Ed is short and muscular and middle-aged. He wears an oversize T-shirt that says "DONALD FUCKIN’ TRUMP." He scans the room, awed by the spectacle in a way that feels contagious. He can barely see anything onstage, but a few times he jumps up so that he can catch a fleeting glimpse. At one point, he hands me his phone, and he asks me to take a 360-degree panoramic photo of the room. When I oblige, he takes one look at the picture, and then he smiles up at me and says, with a certain reverence: "Fucking bad-ass, dude. Bad. Fucking. Ass." I look at the photo. He’s right. The scene is astonishing.
And yet it is also jarring in a way that, days later, I will still be unable to fully describe. I’m no stranger to red America. I’ve spent most of my life in the South, and I grew up attending evangelical Christian schools. I once voted for the reelection of George W. Bush. And beyond a life spent among people who are now Trump supporters, I’ve also worked for years as a sportswriter, sitting among crowds and listening to people scream. The boos in Philadelphia. The insults in Cleveland. The gleefully polite bile that pours forth from stadiums all across the SEC. And yet I’ve never experienced anything quite like tonight in Cincinnati. Ed hasn’t either. "This is unreal," he says.
Just to Ed’s right stands a young woman. She enjoys screaming. She has a favorite word: fuck. "Fuck Obama!" "Fuck Syrians!" And at one point, when Trump mentions Republicans who have not honored their pledge to support him, she offers a vague but menacing "Fuck them!" This is something of a moment, because right as she is screaming "Fuck them!" Ed is screaming "Goddamn pussies!" and after they each scream their respective epithets, for a second, their eyes meet. They laugh. Then they turn back toward Trump and ready for their next chance to scream.
Outside, after the rally, I meet a protester named Tonja who holds a sign that says, "Don’t Grab My Pussy!" Young men parade past her, all making the same joke, aping the response that Trump has given at rallies all week. They say, "You don’t have to worry about anyone grabbing your pussy," or some variation thereof, one after another, laughing every time.
At one point Tonja fires back. She yells at two young men, named Clay and Owen. Clay is tall and skinny, wearing a backward Trump hat. Owen is short and stout, wearing a fedora adorned by a feather. Tonja calls them "rednecks." She makes a joke about them sleeping with their own mothers. They scream. She screams. Tonja takes a picture. Clay and Owen raise their middle fingers to her camera as it flashes.
The men take off jogging down the street, laughing the whole way. Eventually, Clay turns around. He shouts, at no one in particular, "God bless A-fucking-merica!"
This was among Trump’s tamest rallies all week.
"Are Y’all on Reddit?"
The next day in Charlotte, a line forms in the bowels of the city’s convention center, a small crowd waiting for doors to open for another rally. The room feels like something between a hangar and a basement, a wide and gray open expanse.
"Do you think they’re gonna gas us?"
That’s a woman I’ll call Cynthia. She’s middle-aged, wearing a blue visor and expressing concern. "I think they might gas us because we’re Trump supporters." She is joking, she makes clear. In front of her is another woman I’ll call Anne, who wears a red "Make America Great Again" hat. As Anne takes in the growing crowd, she says, "Do you think Hillary’s rallies look like this?"
"I saw one on TV," says Cynthia. "They had to make everyone squeeze together, just so it looked like they had people there."
"Well," says Anne, chuckling, "you can’t get dead people to your rallies. You can get them to vote, but you can’t get them to your rallies."
She’s referencing voter fraud, a central talking point in the Trump campaign. It is, according to a number of academic studies, in-depth journalistic investigations, and government probes, a virtually nonexistent phenomenon, a conspiracy theory with very little evidence to back it up.
"Oh, I just loving reading conspiracy theories," says another woman I’ll call Pam. Fifties, blonde, wearing a dazzling red blouse and bright red lipstick. "Are y’all on Reddit? Y’all have got to get on Reddit."
Anne and Cynthia respond that yes, of course they’re on Reddit, corners of which serve as home to much of the Trumpian fringe. "Oh it’s just so good," says Pam, referring to a particular subreddit she enjoys. "Everything is anti-Hillary. And it’s all true. Oh, it’s so good. Every word. I just sit in bed, and I read it like it’s a good novel."
Pam continues. "These alt-right boys," she says, referring to the mostly young, mostly male coalition of nationalists who compose a core minority of Trump’s support, "I’m telling you, they keep coming out with all these conspiracies. Some of it’s out there, but I love it. And I swear to you — they ain’t been wrong yet!"
They start throwing out some of their favorite theories. A woman up ahead of them says that Obama is going to impose martial law, that he won’t leave office if Trump wins. "Oh, of course," someone says. "That’s been confirmed." Another woman says that everyone needs to be careful not to harass any of Trump’s accusers, because there’s a rumor that the Clinton campaign will murder one of them and make it look like a suicide. "Mmm," comes the response. "You know people would believe it, too." Anne says that Clinton has Stage 3 Parkinson’s. Not Stage 2. Not Stage 4. "Every neuro person knows it," she says. "They see it and they just know."
"Hmm," says Pam. "I don’t really know about that."
"Oh, I know it for a fact," says Anne. "It’s 100 percent true."
Cynthia chimes in: "I want her to die like that," she says. "I want her and Bill to die just sitting and staring at each other, drool coming out of their mouths." It’s quiet, for just a second, and then they laugh.
Soon enough the doors open, and as we walk toward security, I talk with Cynthia and Anne in more depth. Cynthia has been a Republican since she met Ronald Reagan decades ago, but now she’s leaving the party out of disgust for the way it’s treated Trump. Anne speaks with precision and nuance about the failings of Obamacare, and she speaks with a bashful shrug about Trump’s comments regarding women and his alleged sexual assaults. "He’s from New Yoooooorrrrrk," she says, drawing out the second word in an exaggerated drawl. "I’ve been to New York. It’s just different up there. People are more aggressive. It’s not like the South. It’s not as polite. People just need to understand where he’s coming from."
They ask who I’m voting for. I tell them it will not be Trump. They needle me, just a little, but soon they start asking about my life. When I tell them I’m from the South, and that I went to a conservative Christian college, Cynthia stares at me, briefly open-jawed. "And you vote Democrat?" she says.
We pass through security and reconnect on the other side. Before we part ways, I ask Cynthia how she can continue to support Trump given the way he treats women. "I went into this with eyes wide open," she says. "I knew who he was. Everybody knew who he was. The hypocrites are the ones acting like they only know it now." She continues: "I’m 55 years old. I’ve had stuff like that" — referring to uninvited grabbing and kissing — "happen to me." She shrugs. "Life is long. Bad stuff happens."
"When it comes down to it," she finishes, "if I’m in a foxhole, I want Donald Trump down there with me. I don’t want Hillary Clinton." Now a crowd is forming around the stage, and Cynthia is worried about getting a good spot for the event. She has to go. "You’re a sweet boy," she says. "You could be my son if you’d stop voting Democrat." She squeezes my arm, and with that, she slips off into the crowd, out of sight.
"SALAM Means PEACE"
Minutes later I spot a small woman darting through the crowd. She carries a bag. She wears a hijab. Every few seconds she approaches a man or woman and hands them a pen that’s been made to look like a rose. It is green and red with white lettering that says, "SALAM means PEACE."
Her name is Rose Hamid. She’s 56, born in Buffalo to a Colombian mother and a Palestinian father, and she now works as a flight attendant and lives in Charlotte. She works the room, handing out pen after pen, and each time she looks up with a round face and brown eyes, and she offers the same soft and buoyant smile as she says, "Have a nice day."
"Thaaaank youuuuu," says one woman, who takes the pen and then looks at her friend with frozen lips and wild eyes. "Cool," says a pot-bellied man in a Trump-Pence T-shirt, nodding with genuine warmth. "Very cool." Most people meet Hamid’s eyes as she approaches, and they accept her gifts politely. A few make a point to look away, and rather than bothering them, she just moves on.
This is not Hamid’s first Trump rally. She made news in January when she showed up at another one in Rock Hill, South Carolina. During his speech that day, Trump suggested some Syrian refugees had ties to the Islamic State, and at that moment Hamid stood up silently behind him, wearing a shirt that said, "SALAM I COME IN PEACE." The crowd booed and jeered. Police escorted her out of the rally. She came to another rally in August, and says she was booted from that one, too.
Now she’s back. "I think it’s really important to do this," she tells me. "Just to show people my face and allow them to actually encounter a Muslim and show them that we are peaceful, that we’re not terrorists. So many people have never even met a Muslim. They don’t know who we are." I tell her that it sounds like an incredible weight to carry, representing all of Islam to people whose candidate would like to keep Muslims from entering the country. She takes a quick, smiling breath, and she shakes her head kindly as she explains. "I already carry that weight. I carry it going to the grocery store, going about my day. Every time people see the hijab, they know what it means. They know what I represent. I don’t ever leave that behind."
She admits that she asked some Muslim friends to join her tonight, but that they were too nervous to come along. But, she says, so far tonight she’s encountered politeness from all and genuine curiosity from some. "One woman told me she was scared of me at first," she says. "But then she said she didn’t understand why she was scared. ‘You’re not that scary,’ she said. Moments like that make this a good thing to do."
As we’re talking, an older man walks up. He looks Hamid up and down and he grins, warm and a little confused. "Now haven’t I seen you on the news?" he asks.
She turns toward him and smiles. "Maybe," she says.
"Yeah," he says. "I think I seen you on there."
Awkward silence. Mutual nods. Then he asks, "You having a good time tonight?"
"I am."
He registers this for a moment. He looks down, as if processing the weight of her words. "Good," he says. "That’s good to hear. You have a nice night."
He walks away. As he leaves, Hamid turns back to me and smiles. "See?" she says. "Most people are really nice." Now another man approaches, this one in a gray suit. He appears to be a campaign staffer. He is less curious. He is less nice. "Come with me, please," he says, and she follows. He leads her toward the exit, and as she walks, she keeps smiling, pulling out pens and handing them to men and women on her way to the back of the room. She knows what this is. She’s been through this before. Finally they reach the exit and disappear.
Minutes later, the man returns. She does not. I ask him what happened. "That’s confidential," he says. I ask if Hamid had been asked to leave, and he says, "I believe so." He won’t say anything more, not even his name.
A few minutes later, Hamid says by phone that once she left the room, the man told her, "This is a private event. You are not welcome here."
She says she got in her car. She drove home.
"Fuck Donald Trump!"
An hour passes. Then two. Omarosa, perhaps the most famous former Apprentice contestant, speaks. Rudy Giuliani speaks. A few local politicians and a televangelist, James Robison, all rise to the stage. The crowd yelps and chants and cheers. Speakers branch out into territory that was left unexplored in Cincinnati. There is more talk of God, some bashing of liberals offended by North Carolina’s antitransgender bathroom law. Mostly, though, the speakers play the hits. By my second night on the trail, the rhythm is familiar and almost monotonous. People scream if someone says Donald Trump should be president. They chant if they say that Hillary Clinton should go to jail.
A few feet ahead of me in the crowd, I see a little boy, perhaps 5, sitting atop what I assume are his dad’s shoulders. His feet dangle on his father’s chest. He wears lines of red, white, and blue paint on his face and a pair of glasses in the shape of two stars, and they’re so big that he has to hold them in place to keep them from falling off his head. At one moment during the speech, he looks down at his dad and smiles, big and wide, adorable. Then he pumps his fist and chants, "Lock her up!"
When Trump appears, the crowd squeals. For a moment, he basks in their adoration. Then he speaks, long and rambling, without a teleprompter. He calls himself "a victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country." Several men, infiltrating protesters, start yelling for him to keep his hands off women. They hold signs: "GOP Hands Off Women" and "End White Male Silence." The crowd boos and security escorts them out, and on their way to the back their signs — written on fabric so that they could be folded and snuck in — are grabbed and ripped, left as shreds on the convention floor. As the protesters reach the exit, they walk alongside a number of Trump supporters who are already on their way out the door.
Related The Perfect Pundit for the Trump Generation
I join them. I head through the doors and up to the plaza just outside the convention center’s entrance. Here is downtown Charlotte, dark and cool, busy and alive. The Trump supporters are filtering out the building and toward their cars, past a group of perhaps three dozen protesters, standing and holding signs. "No Predators 4 President." "America, Women, We Deserve Better." And finally, a sign with multicolored lettering that says, "GOP, Hands Off Me," just above a sketch of an anthropomorphic vulva, complete with a scowling face and two middle fingers raised to the sky.
The protesters chant. "No justice! No peace! No justice! No peace!" That one is familiar here in Charlotte, chanted throughout the city after Keith Lamont Scott, a black man, was killed by police last month. "The whole damn system / Is guilty as hell!" Trump supporters continue to filter out of the convention center, and as they reach the protesters many stop and linger. For a while they stand on the edges, giggling at the scene. Bodies continue pouring out of the building and the crowd of Trump supporters continues to swell, until there is a small crowd of largely black and brown protesters surrounded by a massive crowd of nearly all-white rallygoers.
At some point, the Trump supporters decide they’ve had enough. I hear one shout, "Go back where you came from!" Another yells, "Your mom’s on welfare!" As the number of Trump supporters continues to grow, the group of protesters becomes more compact, squeezing together in a tight formation. As tensions rise they move to their most effective chant, and it booms crisply all over downtown.
"Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump!"
Standing near the front of the group of Trump supporters, a young man in a "Make America Great Again" hat shakes his head. He turns around to the rest of his throng, and he whips his arms in the air as he leads a counterchant. "Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!" Now fists pump and grins turn downward into scowls. The Trump supporters inch closer and closer to the protesters until there is only an imaginary line, a sliver of concrete separating the two groups. On each side, the same name.
"Trump!"
"Fuck Donald Trump!
"Trump!"
"Fuck Donald Trump!"
Standing among them is a protester named Giselle. While everyone around her screams, she stands, silent and blank-faced, rocking back and forth and holding a sign. Giselle was born in Brazil but moved to the United States at 13. She earned her citizenship just after President Obama won reelection in 2012. Next month, she will vote in her first presidential election.
Later, when Giselle and I speak, she shares something. This week, she says, has been "really, really rough." When she first saw the video of Trump’s comments to Billy Bush, she felt a numbing anger, some shrugging rage. But later that day, she began to feel the spaces around her closing in. Her heartbeat raced against her breath. All week, as women came forward accusing Trump of sexual assault, these feelings returned. Trembling. Sweat. A seizing and confounding fear.
She realized then that those women’s stories reminded her of her own. She thought of the older boy who she says raped her at 13. She thought of the way others excused her attacker. He was popular and powerful. Surely he wouldn’t need rape for sex. If they’d slept together, she says people told her, then she must have wanted it too.
Now here she stands, rocking back and forth, silently holding her sign. The top half of it says, "My 1st Election As A Queer, Rape Survivor, Latina Immigrant, and American Citizen." The bottom half shows drawings of two middle fingers held high.
She continues rocking to the rhythm of the chants around her. She is nervous, she tells me later, about the possibility of violence from Trump supporters. She feels, she says, actual fear. But in this moment she steels herself as she rocks. Finally, she joins the chant.
"Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump! Fuck Donald Trump!"
She screams and screams and screams.
"USA! USA! USA! USA!"
The two sides continue like this, chanting and counterchanting, pausing to shuffle around among themselves or to hurl scattered insults back at each other. Finally, as the protesters begin another round of anti-Trump chants, the Republican nominee’s supporters shift tracks.
"USA! USA! USA! USA!"
As soon as it starts it spreads, grabbing lingerers and bystanders. All across the plaza, more and more mouths open and fists raise to the sky. As the chant spreads, the anti-Trump protesters go silent for just a second. They gather themselves, as if figuring out what to do next. Finally, they join.
"USA! USA! USA! USA!"
On both sides, the same chant, full-throated. This might read like a moment of solidarity, two poles of American politics finding three letters on which they can all agree. But at the center of the scrum, just across each side of the imaginary line, they stare at each other, faces twisted into anger, yelling to drown each other out with the exact same thing.
"USA! USA! USA! USA!"
Soon the chant morphs. Again, it starts on the Trump side. "I pledge allegiance to the flag …" Immediately, the protesters join. "… of the United States of America …" The volume rises, and hands pound against hearts. "… and to the republic for which it stands …" They are screaming, all of them. "One nation!" "Under God!" The words sound different now, violent somehow, and as the screaming reaches its end, the protesters back into themselves, away from the Trump supporters, who are bigger in number and volume and at least equal in rage.
The air is cool. Somewhere a few blocks from here, the night is pleasant and the streets are at peace. In three weeks, most of these people will go to the polls. The day after the election, all will be left wondering what the hell comes next. For now, the protest nears its end. Everyone joins together in yelling the familiar refrain. But the words themselves are empty casings, vessels for warring ideas of what this country means.
"Indivisible!"
This is not a pledge. This is a threat.
"With liberty!"
"And justice!"
"For all!" |
This year, Apple has launched almost -- but not quite -- identical handsets apart from the screen size. We've already evaluated Apple's new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 , and now it's the turn of the larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus. In 2013, by contrast, we got the premium iPhone 5s and the more affordable iPhone 5c, both with 4-inch displays and both still available (you can compare all iPhone models at Apple's website).
The iPhone 6 Plus is the biggest phone Apple has ever made. It's also the most expensive, the top-end 128GB version costing an eye-watering £789 (inc. VAT, £657.50 ex. VAT) SIM free. Three sent us the mid-range 64GB version, which it is selling from £44 a month with a £99 upfront cost. This model costs £699 (inc. VAT, £582.50 ex. VAT) SIM-free from Apple.
Image: Apple
Design
Time was when Apple would have dismissed the idea of a large-screen handset. Then again, this reviewer once thought a 4.5-inch screen was pushing the boundaries. Times and user requirements have changed, and the appearance of a 5.5-inch screen in an iPhone is no surprise. Nor is the fact that Apple has presented it in a near-faultless design.
The physical design is the same as that of the smaller iPhone 6. Button placement is identical with the power button on the right, volume buttons and mute switch on the left. The headset and proprietary Lightning connector are on the bottom edge, along with the handset's single speaker.
Large top and bottom screen bezels are a characteristic of Apple's handsets, but this makes for a tall phone in the case of the iPhone 6 Plus. Compare its 158.1mm height to 150.7mm for the 5.3-inch Sony Xperia T3 , or just 146.3mm for the 5.5-inch LG G3 . The plus side of the large screen bezels is the ease with which you can hold the handset in landscape mode for video watching or gaming, although you do need to take care not to cover the speaker in this orientation.
Sound quality from the single speaker is noticeably better than from the smaller iPhone 6 -- indeed it's among the best we've heard. Having said that, front-mounted stereo speakers might deliver an even better audio experience.
The screen occupies an ion-strengthened glass front that curves down to meet the handset's aluminium edges. These in turn curve into the back of the phone, whose metal expanse is broken by plastic antenna strips, plus the camera lens and TrueTone LED flash unit.
The camera lens protrudes slightly, which means that when the handset is flat on a desk it rocks from side to side as you tap the screen in a way we found quite annoying.
There's nothing Apple could have done about this apart from increase the thickness of the handset, which is not something we'd have liked to see. The 7.1mm-thick chassis is one of the iPhone 6 Plus's remarkable design features.
The thin profile means that even at 77.8mm wide and 158.1mm tall the iPhone 6 Plus feels comfortable in the hand. It has to be said, though, that smaller hands simply won't be able to reach across the screen. Apple has a wheeze to help out in the shape of its 'Reachability' feature, which also appears in the iPhone 6: make two taps on the home button and the screen falls towards the bottom of the handset.
Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet
This feels somewhat unwieldy, leaving an empty space at the top of the phone, but means you might just be able to reach the notifications area. I still couldn't stretch across the width of the phone, though. The most elegant and ergonomic solution for one-handed operation on a large screen remains Samsung's screen-shrinkage system used in the Galaxy S5.
Tales of bent iPhone 6 Plus handsets led us to apply quite severe pressure on the handset to see if it would bend. We found the aluminium chassis to be pretty tough: it's undoubtedly possible to bend the phone in your hands, but you'd have to apply a lot of force. In short, we didn't find the iPhone 6 Plus particularly vulnerable or poorly made in comparison to other large-screen smartphones.
Features
There's plenty of processing power behind the iPhone 6 Plus, which, like the smaller iPhone 6, uses the new 20nm dual-core Apple A8 SoC running at 1.4GHz. The 64-bit main processor is accompanied by a motion coprocessor, in this case the new M8, that offloads processing relating to sensor data (accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and barometer) for improved power efficiency. The iPhone 6 Plus, like its smaller sibling, comes with 1GB of RAM.
Internal storage is capped thanks to Apple's policy of not providing a MicroSD card slot. Three sent us the 64GB model, which had 54GB of free capacity. There's no 32GB version: your other choices are either 16GB (likely to leave you with around 11-12GB free), or the most expensive 128GB model. You also get 5GB of free online storage with your iCloud account, which you can upgrade to 20GB, 200GB or 1TB for a monthly fee (see Apple's website for prices).
As with the iPhone 6, Touch ID fingerprint recognition worked flawlessly, although I found it impossible to login when holding the phone one-handed.
Dual-band 802.11ac wi-fi is supported, along with Bluetooth 4.0 LE and LTE mobile broadband -- now with expanded coverage of 20 frequency bands. NFC is also present, but disappointingly it's currently redundant as far as UK users are concerned: it's configured solely for Apple Pay, which is only available in the US at present.
The iPhone 6 Plus's roster of sensors now includes a barometer, which can be used to gather altitude-related data as part of its assault on the health and wellness sector. There's an iOS 8 Health app too, which can aggregate relevant information from a number of sources.
The main 8-megapixel iSight camera offers good autofocus speed (thanks to a new sensor with additional Focus Pixels), 43-megapixel panoramas, a time-lapse video mode, 1,080p video at 60fps and slow-motion 720p video at up to 240fps. The 1.2-megapixel Facetime HD camera, meanwhile, gets improved face detection, a burst mode and HDR video. Optical image stabilisation when shooting video is supported on the iPhone 6 Plus, but absent from its smaller sibling.
Image: Sandra Vogel/ZDNet
Meanwhile, Apple has taken advantage of the larger 5.5-inch screen size to offer some additional keyboard features in landscape mode. Cut, copy and paste tools, full-stop, comma, cursor movement, question mark and explanation mark all make an appearance and can speed up typing. Sadly, though, there's no dedicated number row. However, iOS 8 does support third-party keyboards for the first time, so you can experiment with alternatives such as Swiftkey or Swype.
The 5.5-inch screen has a full-HD resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels, giving a pixel density of 401ppi. Apple calls this 'Retina HD'. You can find higher resolutions -- the 5.5-inch LG G3 , for example, delivers 2,560 by 1,440 pixels for a class-leading pixel density of 534ppi. Still, the IPS screen on the iPhone 6 Plus is superbly sharp and bright, with great viewing angles. If you find text a little small, you can opt to permanently zoom the display, a feature also supported on the iPhone 6.
Performance & battery life
Like the iPhone 6, the iPhone 6 Plus is powered by the 1.4GHz Apple A8 SoC with 1GB of RAM. We ran a number of benchmarks on the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus -- and also, for comparison, on a high-end Android phone, Samsung's Galaxy S5 .
The Geekbench 3 CPU test examines integer, floating-point and memory performance, in single-core and multi-core modes:
The Sunspider 1.0.2 test evaluates JavaScript performance:
The AnTuTu benchmark examines several subsystems -- UX (User eXperience), RAM, CPU, GPU and I/O:
Although it's unwise to read too much into mobile benchmarks, these results do indicate that the A8-powered iPhone 6 Plus (and iPhone 6) delivers an incremental speed improvement over the A7-powered iPhone 5s, and that it can more than hold its own against high-end Android handsets in terms of performance.
We found battery life on the iPhone 6 something of a disappointment, but the opposite is true for its larger sibling. During the test period, the iPhone 6 Plus's 2,915mAh/11.1Wh battery kept us going happily for two days, and we think Apple has done a good job of balancing thinness with battery capacity.
The official battery life claims for the iPhone 6 Plus (with those for the iPhone 6 in parentheses), are: 24 hours of 3G talk (14h); 16 days on standby (10 days); 12 hours of internet use on LTE, 3G and wi-fi (10h on LTE and 3G, 11h on wi-fi); 80 hours of audio playback (50h); and 14 hours of video playback (11h).
Conclusion
While there's lots to like about the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, we also have some grumbles. The speaker grille is easily covered by the hand, for instance, while Apple's 'reachability' method for accessing the large screen feels like a bit of a fudge. We also still hanker for storage expansion, and the price is high.
Still, the iPhone 6 Plus delivers better battery life and audio quality than the smaller iPhone 6, along with superb design and solid build quality. If money were no object, we'd choose the 5.5-inch model over its 4.7-inch sibling. |
Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV says the government should clarify its position on foreign affairs, given its conflicting statements
Published 1:30 PM, September 26, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – With all the conflicting statements of the executive branch on foreign relations, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV has asked the Senate to conduct an inquiry into the foreign policy direction of President Rodrigo Duterte to protect the country's national interest.
In filing Senate Resolution Number 158, Aquino said there is a need for the government to clarify its position.
"Given the number of conflicting statements coming from the President and senior government officials, there is a need to clarify government's position and engagement with its neighbors and allies, and to ensure the Filipino public that we are pursuing a clear and coherent foreign policy that is most beneficial to the country," Aquino said in the resolution.
He maintained a clear strategic foreign policy is "integral" to the country's development.
"Our relations with members of the international community have bearing on our ability to protect our territory and environment, develop our economy, and promote the welfare and well-being of our citizens," Aquino said.
He also cited the 1987 Constitution, which mandates the government to pursue "an independent foreign policy," with national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national interest as paramount considerations.
Aquino, in his resolution, cited the different conflicting statements of Duterte and his men.
China
With the favorable Permanent Court of Arbitration decision, Aquino said the Philippines had the chance and "initial momentum" to rally Asian neighbors to unite against China's increasing aggressiveness in the region.
But what Duterte did instead, Aquino said, was opt for a "soft landing" and send former president Fidel V. Ramos as special envoy to revive Manila's relationship with Beijing.
"Speaking to the Chinese ambassador on August 29, the President reportedly said that he is willing to temporarily set aside the PCA ruling so as not to endanger the ongoing talks, but that he means to raise it at a later time," the senator said.
Aquino also recalled the East Asia Summit, where the President opted to deviate from his prepared speech, which would have highlighted the need to respect international law, after the PCA ruling favoring the country.
"The President instead raised the issue of killings in the Philippines under the period of US occupations, seemingly to challenge present calls for the Philippine government to uphold human rights in its war on drugs," Aquino cited.
US President Barack Obama earlier questioned the administration's stance on human rights violations, which irked Duterte. (READ: Obama, Duterte clash over brutal crime war)
United States
In his resolution, Aquino also cited the President's intentional skipping of the ASEAN-US Summit. Malacañang earlier said the President was not feeling well but days after, Duterte himself said he purposefully did not attend "as a matter of principle."
Aquino also noted that Duterte said in a speech before civil servants on September 12 that US troops must leave Mindanao, as they could only aggravate security risks in the area.
The senator pointed out the inconsistencies in Malacañang's statements concerning the topic – Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella said Duterte's statement was not official policy but Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr later said that the withdrawal of troops would only be temporary.
Aquino also mentioned Duterte's plan to buy defense equipment from Russia and China, which is contrary to the usual practice of buying weapons from the US.
The senator also cited the President's speech before the Philippine Air Force, where he said the country would no longer join maritime patrols with the US to avoid hostilities. Yasay, later on, clarified that the joint patrols within 12 nautical miles of the coastline would still be continued.
With all these, Aquino highlighted the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement signed by his cousin, former president Benigno Aquino III, and Obama, which allows the US military to deploy troops to the country for training exercises.
The Supreme Court upheld the agreement's constitutionality in January 2016. – Rappler.com |
Home pages of conservative websites the day after Democrat Doug Jones's surprise victory in the U.S. Senate special election in Alabama.
Democrat Doug Jones’s victory in Alabama's U.S. Senate special election shocked political observers, setting off a cascade of commentary about its political significance as the country heads toward midterm elections in 2018.
Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in 25 years. Jones's Republican opponent, Roy Moore, who has yet to concede, ran a contentious campaign that split his party, despite earning vocal endorsements from President Trump and the president's former political strategist Stephen K. Bannon.
Jones's victory — likely to have ramifications in Congress, where Republicans cling to a slim majority in the Senate — led the news on the biggest U.S. news sites. But how did it play in conservative media?
Not Bannon’s fault
The reputation the president’s former chief strategist had earned in some quarters as a political mastermind — many credited him for Trump's improbable success last year — sustained a massive blow with Moore’s loss. Despite the numerous allegations made by women that Moore had acted inappropriately toward them when they were teenagers, Bannon blazed ahead with his support for the candidate, stumping with him in the campaign’s final days.
“If they can destroy Roy Moore, they can destroy you,” he told a crowd in early December.
But after Tuesday's election, many prominent conservative voices, including the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, were quick to question Bannon's importance to the party because of the loss.
On Breitbart, the site that Bannon serves as executive chairman, conservative writer Ann Coulter pushed back on the assertion that he deserved blame for the loss.
“Bannon is the least culpable!” she tweeted, in a quote that the site splashed, exclamation mark included, in a headline across its home page. Coulter's piece served more as a broadside against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for fighting against one of Moore's primary challengers, Mo Brooks, a view shared by far-right Fox News host Sean Hannity.
“The good news is, even with the media carrying on 24-7 about Moore being a 'CHILD MOLESTER!' and 'PEDOPHILE,' the election was still a nail-biter,” Coulter wrote. “I salute the good people of Alabama and admire their contempt for the media.”
She said she believed that the election demonstrated the importance of harsh immigration policies for Republicans.
“Everyone who screwed the pooch on this one better realize fast: All that matters is immigration. It’s all that matters to the country, and it’s all that matters for winning elections,” she wrote. “Republicans who treat immigration as a back burner issue should be required to run on the issues they consider more important — in California. See how your arguments fare in a state that’s already been transformed by immigration. That’s your new country.”
[Analysis | Alabama is strong evidence that Trump might want to ignore Bannon’s political advice]
But emails text messages
The Daily Caller, a reliably conservative site with a large following, downplayed the election news entirely, with only scant references on its home page. Instead the site focused on negative stories about special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into possible Russian collusion: sound bites of Republican congressmen aggressively questioning Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general with jurisdiction over the investigation, during a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday; stories about texts sent by two officials who later went to work on Mueller’s team that were critical of then-candidate Trump; and a news piece that called Mueller “The Biased 'Special Counsel,' " in its home-page headline.
Fox News joined the fray, with the leading piece on its website about the Rosenstein hearing during the afternoon. “GOP pols pile on Rosenstein over agents’ anti-Trump texts, ‘extreme bias,’ Mueller probe,” the headline read. Later, it played up stories looking at whether there was any silver lining for conservatives in Jones’s election. One story, which later led the website, focused on the “pressure” facing Doug Jones to vote with the GOP, a push started by the Republican National Committee immediately after Moore's loss.
Misinformation
A couple of conservative sites published stories saying the election was tainted by fraudulent voting, claims that were published with scant evidence. Infowars' Alex Jones, who regularly spreads conspiracy theories, said that “dead people” and “folks bused in” swayed the election, claims that were not substantiated by evidence.
“And they, as they do all over the country, had the dead people vote and had the folks bused in in those Democrat areas, and they stole the election,” he said. “So it really is biblical what we’re witnessing, and the dirty tricks of the Clintons and the dirty tricks of their systems in this country reaching down through into daily life. I mean, they come after you when you fight them.”
Right-wing site Big League Politics, which was started by former Breitbart employees, ran multiple stories that sowed doubt about the integrity of the vote. One story on the site, based in large part off a single anonymous post on Reddit of unconfirmed authenticity, claimed that African Americans were being solicited to travel from Mississippi to Alabama for the vote.
Conservative radio host Bill Mitchell amplified some of those conspiracy theories on his Twitter account to wide derision.
The Alabama Republican Party said it does not support Moore's push for a recount, but on Wednesday evening Moore once again declined to concede.
[One wide-open question about Doug Jones: What kind of senator will he be?]
Correction, Nov. 14: An earlier version of this story misidentified Bill Mitchell as a former congressmen. He is a radio host.
Read more:
Accused of molesting a teenage girl, Kentucky lawmaker refuses to resign
Trump bashes Gillibrand using a favored weapon: Innuendo as insult
‘The Shed at Dulwich’ was London’s top-rated restaurant. Just one problem: It didn’t exist. |
Joanna Aizenberg's muse is the whole of the natural world. The Harvard University materials scientist takes her inspiration from creatures that suggest engineering of substances in unexpected ways. Ocean creatures in particular have proved inspirational. The brittle star, a relative of the starfish and the sea urchin, has a shell coated with lenses, which may furnish ideas for new types of optical communication systems. There is also the deep-sea sponge with a crown composed of optical fibers.
Aizenberg's early life in Russia and her brilliant, creative career as an engineer that followed at Harvard the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are the focus of a question-and-answer feature in the February 2012 Scientific American.
Her laboratory has mustered a basic understanding of the physics of water to design a finely structured polymer coating that resists every attempt to accrete a layer of ice at temperatures as low as 30 degrees Celsius. The material, or some analogue thereof, might one day find its way into aircraft, power-transmission towers and building roofs.
Watch this incredible video of a droplet of water pinging off Aizenberg's no-icing, super-hydrophobic surface. For comparison, the video starts with two other surfaces—one hydrophilic and the other merely hydrophobic. |
Oct 26, 2011
Does the position of geologic strata determine age?
In part one of this article, a reference to laboratory experiments that falsify the consensus view of sediment deposition mentioned that fossil ages could not be reliably determined based on the so-called “geologic column.” The geologic column is defined as a series of depositional layers that form a chronological sequence. It is also called the “stratigraphical column.”
Considering the position of fossils in rock strata, the following sequence is generally accepted:
ERA PERIOD EPOCH END DATE IN MILLION YEARS Quaternary Holocene Pleistocene Tertiary (Cenozoic) Pliocene 2 Miocene Oligocene Eocene Jurassic 65 Triassic 190 Primary (Paleozoic) Permian 225 Carboniferous 280 Devonian 345 Silurian 395 Ordovician 440 Cambrian 500 Precambrian 570
Thus, the extinction of the dinosaurs is said to have taken place over 65 million years ago. However, the popular notion that the geologic column represents vast periods of time is being questioned by a number of geologists who realize that it most likely results from a series of catastrophic events.
Nicolaus Steno is often said to be the father of geology. His “principle of superposition” influences geologists to this day, even though it was formulated in the late 1600s. In many ways it seems to be completely straight forward, but only now is it recognized that it was not based on experiments but on field observation.
“At the time when any given stratum was being formed, all the matter resting upon it was fluid, and, therefore, at the time when the lower stratum was being formed, none of the upper strata existed.”
In February 2000, Guy Berthault wrote a paper in which he described several experiments that analyzed the hydraulic processes involved with sedimentary layering. His conclusions were subsequently published in Lithology and Mineral Resources, Vol. 37, No. 5. Under conditions of constant flow rate and a continuous supply of particles, he discovered that a mixture of coarse and fine particles would separate into thin laminations.
Material flowing through a flume under simulated flood conditions created a downstream deposit that sorted into several horizontal strata that continued to build up on the advancing face. The unusual aspect to the deposition of particles is that each layer was composed of laminations younger than those farther back. Rather than top stratum being younger than the bottom, all strata were deposited simultaneously in a horizontal fashion. As the paper states: “Superposed strata are not, therefore, necessarily identical to successive sedimentary layers.”
Another problem with the superposed strata theory is speed of erosion. The current weathering rate for the continental shelves is thought to be six centimeters per thousand years. Therefore, in less than 10 million years today’s continental shelves will erode away. The difficulty with that assessment is that sediments hundreds of millions of years old are on top of all the continental shelves. How can this be when that material should have all washed away in the Cenozoic era?
Since rock layers are often dated by the type of fossil contained within them, and experiments reveal that the deposition of sediments containing pre-fossil skeletons can no longer be based on the principle of superposition, then rock layers can no longer be dated in that way.
Another problem with gradualism in geology is the radiometric dating of rocks. Rocks are typically dated using the principle of constant radioactive isotope decay rates and an assumption of the estimated original isotope ratios. The oldest rocks are dated using the uranium/lead half-life ratios.
When rocks form, they contain a certain percentage of elements. Zircon contains uranium and thorium atoms, but no lead. Therefore, the assumption is that all the lead in zircon must be radiogenic. This idea depends on a uniform, gradual process free of sudden alteration. If the decay rates of various elements can be altered by external influences, then the percentage formulae that indicate a sample’s age are unreliable.
“There has been in recent years the horrible realization that radiodecay rates are not as constant as previously thought, nor are they immune to environmental influences. And this could mean that the atomic clocks are reset during some global disaster, and events which brought the Mesozoic to a close may not be 65 million years ago but, rather, within the age and memory of man.” Fred Jueneman, FAIC, Industrial Research & Development, p.21, June 1982.
A foundation of Electric Universe theory is the flow of electricity through space and the catastrophic influence it had on planets and moons in the recent past. Whatever phenomenon it was, within the recorded history of humanity a great cataclysm engulfed the Earth. Canyons were blasted out, mountains raised, ocean basins shifted, and great swathes of plants, animals, and people obliterated in the blink of an eye.
Those enormous energies, the rearrangement of the topography, and the intense radiation make it impossible to assign any measure of antiquity. Repeated and rapid sedimentation that hardened to stone in mere minutes, fossilizing its burden of organic detritus, means that what is visible on the surface might be the same age as what lies beneath.
Stephen Smith
Hat tip to Mel Acheson
Now Available – Stars in an Electric Universe DVD
This outstanding lecture delivered by Wallace Thornhill at the NPA 2011 Conference is now out on DVD!
See our resources page for more information. |
If we've learned anything from the Sweetest Thing and the now-defunct Wreck Room bathroom, it's that nothing good ever comes from sticking a body part through an unknown hole. I want to say that came out wrong, but it didn't.
And yet! From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, tattoo artist Scott Campbell will be seated in the Milk Gallery at the receiving end of an ostensibly sterile glory hole, tattooing whatever the hell he wants on the anonymous arms that protrude into his space.
The agreement is thus: YOU have the opportunity to receive free ink from a man who has tattooed Notoriously Discerning celebrities like Courtney Love and Robert Downey Jr. HE gets to spend 90 minutes making whatever permanent marks on whatever part of your arm he likes. A green-tinted penis on your forearm? The words "FUCK BITCHES LET'S BUTT CHUG" in comic sans across your hand? Ten tiny, identical Koch Industries logos on each knuckle? Up to him! These things aren't generally in Campbell's wheelhouse, but I don't think he made you any promises, now did he?
In a Q&A, the Times asked Campbell all sorts of sensible questions like "Why?," but failed to dig deeper into the fine print, like whether the tattooee is allowed to converse with him during the process, or what he'll do if someone's arm is covered in scabies.
Campbell tells the paper that "the great tattoos are always the ones that have great stories behind them," adding that "there is a bit of magic there in the exchange, the drawing-a-card-out-of-the-deck dynamic." He then goes on to compare his own heavily tatted body to "the bathroom walls of Max Fish."
I'm not saying don't do it, I'm just saying be careful. Last Christmas Eve, while hanging out at a friend's apartment in San Francisco, it was determined that a great way to jumpstart a night of bar-hopping would be for me to get an off-the-cuff tattoo. My friend's roommate, who happened to walk in the door during this discussion, sealed my fate. "Get an arrow," she said, her eyes flashing. "On your middle finger."
Will my children find that story terribly amusing? Will their teachers, when I have to go in and explain why little Tabitha or Cholula is acting out during Social Studies? I sure hope so. I suuuuure hope so. Because this thing ain't coming off, and neither will that urinal cake now permanently etched on your wrist. |
I post a lot about my Mustang but I haven’t started from the beginning. Here’s a look at the engine before and after.
THE ENGINE AND ENGINE BAY
This the look the Stang sported before the new paint job I decided to do the engine first.
THE ENGINE:
You are looking at a Ford 250 straight 6 engine, compression 9.0:1 rated at 155 hp. Of course that’s when it was new. with 175k + miles it’s less then powerful and is pretty tired. As you can see in the other photos the engine bay is in very good shape but not too pretty. Look at the engine you can see it was in need of a lot of TLC – in the form of a complete tear down and rebuilding.
THE REPLACEMENT:
I decided on the 302 engine – keeping with what was available at the factory at the in 1970. The 302 mated with a 3 speed transmission was an option at the time. This engine is a 1970 re-manufactured power plant by S&S Engines and bored .030. These are the photos of it still in the crate.
With all the components:
So what’s it got??!!! Well, we start with the main pieces: Holley 4b carb, Typhoon intake manifold and Hooker headers turning the single exhaust into dual with Thruster mufflers – oh the sound!!!!. I think it looks great. Steve put it all together and detailed painted and routed electrical, gas line, hoses. Cleaned up the entire engine bay. EXCELLENT JOB!!! A new triple core radiator and shroud, all new a/c hoses all new heater hoses, Steve’s a master.
The Engine Bay:
This is the engine bay nearly completed. It’s clean and crisp. These images are before all then hoses and wiring were added. We took the time to remove parts from the bay wall and replaced them after hitting the complete inside with the flat black paint – a work of art!!.
The FINISHED PRODUCT:
BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!
The engine puts out about 300 HP which makes this car a lot faster than it use to be.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
#Mustang
#ClassicCars
I kind of want a muscle car
Hooniverse Obscure Muscle Car Garage – The 1969-70 Mercury … Welcome to the Hooniverse Obscure Muscle Car Garage, a regular feature which aims to expand the notion of what a muscle car is, and maybe to change your thinking in the process. Up until now there hasn’t been a product …
Like Dislike
Share this: Pinterest
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Pocket
More
Email
Tumblr
Reddit
Print |
Dermatophytes are fungi that use keratin for their nutrition and may cause infections of the nails, skin, and hair, known as dermatophytosis. These organisms are classified into three genera: Epidermophyton, Trichophyton, and Microsporum[1]. Although not life-threatening, superficial mycoses due to dermatophytes have been among the most common communicable diseases of humans since antiquity, and have considerable social and health-economic implications [2].
Generally, dermatophytes infect the superficial layers of skin. However, immunocompromised patients, such as AIDS patients or recipients of kidney transplants, can be affected by deep injury in the dermal layer, resulting in disseminated lesions that may take fatal forms [3]-[6]. Although many antifungals are available, their side effects and drug interactions, and the existence of resistant organisms have created a need to find safer and more effective treatments [7]. Also, dermatophytosis treatments are, in general, expensive and must be applied over long periods.
Natural products have proven to be an alternative source of new active molecules. In many countries, mainly in developing countries, plants have been used as the primary basic health treatment. The pomegranate Punica granatum is a bush 3 to 5 meters in height, with opposite and obtuse leaves, flowers with wrinkled white, yellow, or orange petals. The fruit is composed of a yellow to red peel that covers the seeds, the fleshy arils of which are eaten. Punica granatum is a plant with worldwide application in folk medicine. There are references to an antimicrobial effect of pomegranate products against many pathogenic bacterial species, including inhibition of formation of biofilms [8]-[11], antiplasmodial activity, and effects against Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lamblia[12]. Polyphenols extracted from pomegranate fruit rind were active against phytopathogenic fungi [13]. The extract of P. granatum showed good results as a topical antifungal agent for the treatment of candidosis associated with denture stomatitis [14]. The tannin punicalagin is the major component of pomegranate fruit peel. This substance was isolated not only from Punica granatum, but also was described from Terminallia mollis and Terminallia brachystemma, as having antifungal activity against Candida albicans, C. krusei, and C. parapsilosis[15].
The present study evaluate the antidermatophyte activity of pomegranate fruit peel extract and investigate its effect on different fungal development stages, cytotoxicity and possible mechanisms of action. The active substance of pomegranate peel was isolated and identified as well. |
[qi:025] Citing changes to its billing and costs that are doubling every month, Twitter announced that it will no longer support outbound SMS to Canadians. Twitter’s searching for a business model (and a Business Product Manager to help out), and in the meantime it has to curtail costs — but it doesn’t help that Canadian carriers are trying to charge huge fees for text messaging, resulting in consumer lawsuits. Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice called the decision by Bell and Telus a “poorly thought out decision,” back in July, but reneged in August following meetings with the carriers, saying, “I would encourage consumers dissatisfied with existing plans to seek alternatives. The telecommunications market in Canada is dynamic — choice is available.”
Given today’s news, it would seem that alternatives aren’t available, at least for Twitter, and probably not for Canadians in general.
Advertisement
The statement from Twitter is below. |
Mondragón and the second or maternal family name is Alí. This name uses Spanish naming customs : the first or paternal family name isand the second or maternal family name is
Faryd Camilo Mondragón Alí (born 21 June 1971) is a Colombian retired footballer who last played as a goalkeeper for Deportivo Cali in the Colombian First Division.
Since his debut in 1993, he has played over 50 times for the Colombian national team, making him alongside Mario Yepes the last active members of the original 1990s golden generation of Colombian football. He was named in the Colombian squads for the 1992 Olympics, two Copa América tournaments, two CONCACAF Gold Cups, and the World Cups of 1994, 1998 and 2014. On 24 June 2014, Mondragón made history by becoming the oldest player to play a FIFA World Cup match at the age of 43 years and 3 days, a record that was broken four years later by 45-year-old Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary.
Club career [ edit ]
Born in Cali of Lebanese descent, Mondragón began his career began at Deportivo Cali, and he moved to Independiente Santa Fe and then Cerro Porteño in Paraguay. His career took off when he joined the Argentine first division side Argentinos Juniors in 1993, and then made his international debut for Colombia. The following year he moved to Club Atlético Independiente where he won, among other titles, the 1995 Supercopa Libertadores against Flamengo. Apart from some brief periods, he largely stood at the club until 2001.
He was the man behind the FC Metz's escape from relegation from Ligue 1 at the end of the 2000–01 season. However, he was convicted of using a false Greek passport and despite the mitigating circumstances (the passport would have been provided by shysters and FC Metz had not reached the limit of players outside the EU), Mondragón was not allowed to play in France and had to leave the country.
Mondragón represented Turkish power Galatasaray from 2001 to 2007, where he won two Süper Lig titles in 2002 and 2006. He was appreciated by the fans for his many saves and his commitment to the success of the team, and also become known for his prayers before and during games. He came to the fore in many European matches and was selected Player of the week in the Champions League two times.
Mondragón transferred from Istanbul to 1. FC Köln in May 2007. After arriving at his new club, he was forced to compete with established Köln goalkeeper Stefan Wessels for a spot in the starting eleven. One of the reasons that he chose 1. FC Köln it was because the current coach Christoph Daum was working there. After an intense pre-season, Mondragón was named as the new number one for 1. FC Köln. This resulted in Wessels leaving the club for Everton in England. Since Wessels departure, Mondragón established a first choice goalkeeper for the club until Mondragón was relegated to the bench after an altercation with Zvonimir Soldo over his desire to go on international duty. This resulted in Mondragón being sent home from the team hotel and being replaced by young Croatian stopper Miro Varvodić.[2]
Mondragón in his second spell at Deportivo Cali.
His contract with Köln was terminated with effect from 31 December 2010,[3] the reason being Mondragón's desire to play in the MLS.
He spent the 2011 season with Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer, where he was successful in providing leadership to a young team. On 30 January 2012, Deportivo Cali announced Mondragón had signed a one-year contract to finish his career with his original professional club.[4] He retired after two and a half seasons back at the club.
International career [ edit ]
After making his debut against Venezuela in 1993,[5] Mondragón was a member of the Colombian national teams that competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup. During the 1998 World Cup, he started in goal for all three of their games, including the final match against England. Despite conceding two goals, he made some impressive saves and in doing so kept the score down to 2–0, with the BBC's South American football correspondent Tim Vickery saying that Mondragón was "single-handedly responsible for the fact that England did not run up a cricket score".[6] At the end of the game, Mondragón broke down in tears and David Seaman, England's goalkeeper, did his best to console him. According to German footballing legend Franz Beckenbauer, Mondragón had been the best goalkeeper of the first round.[7]
Along with Carlos Valderrama, the country's most capped player, Mondragón is the only Colombian to have participated in five FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns.[5] In 2010, he was recalled to the Colombian squad at the age of 39 after a five-year absence from international football.[8] In 2014, he was named in Colombia's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, making him the oldest player at the tournament, and in World Cup history, at the age of 43, and the only squad member at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[9] He is also the only player to have participated in 6 different World Cup qualifying campaigns since 1993. By coming on as a substitute in the 85th minute of the final group game against Japan on 24 June 2014, he became the oldest player ever to play in a World Cup game at the age of 43 years and 3 days old, surpassing the record set by Roger Milla for Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup.[10] Mondragón gave a very emotional interview afterwards, expressing his gratitude to have been given the opportunity to represent Colombia one last time at a World Cup.[11] His record for oldest player in World Cup history was broken four years later at the 2018 World Cup by 45-year-old Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary.
After Colombia's elimination to the host country Brazil in the quarter-finals, Mondragón officially confirmed his retirement from football and thanked the fans and nation for the support after stating, "This is my last stadium as a professional player. I'm proud to be part of this wonderful group. Thank you all for the years of support.".[12][13]
Career statistics [ edit ]
Updated 27 June 2014
Honours [ edit ]
Independiente
Galatasaray
Deportivo Cali
Superliga Colombiana: 2014
Personal life [ edit ]
Mondragón is of Lebanese descent.[14] His first name Faryd means "unique or unmatched" in Arabic.[15] He is a Maronite and has said so publicly along with making the sign of the cross on multiple occasions before matches.[16]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Faryd Mondragón at National-Football-Teams.com
Argentine Primera statistics at Fútbol XXI (in Spanish) |
British electro-soul musician James Blake is releasing his new LP The Colour in Anything tonight at midnight GMT, meaning listeners on the East Coast will be able to hear it just in time for a relaxing evening listen. It's Blake's third full-length and first since 2013's Overgrown, and it's his first substantive release since 2014's short 200 Press EP. (He wrote and performed on several songs that made up Beyoncé's recent "visual album" Lemonade.) Blake announced the release on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show while premiering new music, specifically a Bon Iver collaboration called "I Need a Forest Fire" that's part of the tracklist. (It's embedded below.)
Blake has been teasing this album for over a year, and his promotional efforts have ramped up in recent weeks with the appearance of billboards in London and New York that bear the album's title. It was called Radio Silence at one point, and Blake went as far as to premiere a recorded version of a song with the same name on Mac's show last year. (An updated version is included in the embed below.) It's unclear whether or not "Radio Silence" and other recent releases — like the tracks "Modern Soul," "Timeless," and "RPG" — will be on The Colour in Anything's tracklist, but we won't have to wait long to find out: the album's out in just a few hours.
Update May 5th 4:25PM ET: Three of Blake's new songs — the two mentioned above and another called "My Willing Heart" are now available on Spotify. |
Kasich awaits signal from God on presidential bid
Ohio Gov. John Kasich continued to signal his increasing interest in running for president Sunday, saying he’s waiting for a signal from God before making the call.
“My family is a consideration,” the Republican governor said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Number two, the most important thing is, what does the Lord want me to do with my life?”
While he awaits that clarity, Kasich said he’s been active on the trail just in case. “I’m not going to figure [it] out laying in bed, hoping lightning strikes,” he said.
The governor made waves in New Hampshire over the weekend when he told activists to hold off on committing to any candidates until he made up his mind. He’s one of five Republican governors seriously considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination, including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, New Jersey’s Chris Christie, Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.
Kasich has been barnstorming the country to promote a federal Constitutional amendment to balance the budget, and he recently stepped up his activity in the early GOP nominating states. |
What if I told you that a substantial amount of your hard-earned tax dollars went into financing one of the wealthiest, most powerful industries in the world? What if I added that this industry is responsible for the destruction of public health and the natural environment? To close it all off, I must mention that your democratically-elected representatives are highly dependent on ‘contributions’ from the said industry for their election campaigns. Did I guess it right? – You must not be very happy about it. And you must also be guessing which industry I’m talking about.
According to International Energy Agency (IEA) figures, in 2012 global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $544 billion. On the other hand, the financial support provided to the renewable energy sector was under 20 percent of that, or $101 billion. The estimate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for oil, coal and gas subsidies is much higher, putting the total nearer $2 trillion. The differences stem from the uncertain definition of what a ‘subsidy’ represents, but in any case, the figures are striking.
Taking a national perspective, in the United States alone, reliable assessments of yearly fossil fuel subsidies range from $10 billion to $52 billion per annum. This number exceeds by 5-6 times the amount spent on renewable energy generation.
This substantial chunk of the government’s revenue would be much better spent financing socially beneficial projects such as building new schools, hospitals and badly-needed infrastructure. In addition, fossil fuel subsidies, if diverted to the renewable energy sector, would serve a longer-term, more sustainable purpose that would not only provide for a cleaner environment, but would also reduce dependence on ‘dirty’ fuels that exacerbate the effects of climate change.
What is more, subsidies take many different forms, ranging from production subsidies for exploration of oil and gas reserves and tax breaks, to consumption subsidies granted to the end consumer by reducing the price paid for petrol or electricity. This helps create an uneven playing field for other energy companies and also spurs artificially-boosted demand patterns on the consumer side. Enough said about the “free market” hypothesis advocated by so many vigorous supporters of the fossil fuel business. Providing such tremendous support to a powerful hegemon of an industry, out of state coffers, is hardly justifiable by the almighty Free Hand of market liberalism.
In terms of the government logic for continued provision of subsidies to the oil, coal and gas giants, the supposedly noble rationale of serving the most disadvantaged members of society doesn’t stand scrutiny. Indeed, it is the poorest members of the population that benefit least from subsidized fuel and electricity prices, because they often don’t own a personal vehicle or expensive energy-consuming devices: according to the IMF, the richest 20 percent get six times the benefit of the poorest 20 percent. It is apparent that fossil fuel subsidies benefit only the richest producers and the richest consumers of hydro-carbon fuels.
Recognizing these disparities, there have been numerous attempts, including by President Barack Obama, to introduce legislation in the United States that considerably reduces the subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industry. Among the pieces of legislation proposed for adoption were: The Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act, sponsored by Senator Menendez (D-NJ) and the End Polluter Welfare Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Keith Ellison.
“ The supposedly noble rationale of serving the most disadvantaged members of society doesn’t stand scrutiny. Indeed, it is the poorest members of the population that benefit least from subsidized fuel and electricity prices, because they often don’t own a personal vehicle or expensive energy-consuming devices.
However, such commendable legislative changes, aiming to free up much needed public funding for socially valuable projects and reducing reliance on unsustainable sources of energy, would not be taken up by the US Congress. ‘Surprising’, you would say – Isn’t democratically-elected Congress supposed to have the people’s best interests in mind?
The situation is a bit more complex. The reluctance to phase out fossil fuel subsidies might well stem from the fact that Congressmen receive substantial support for their election campaigns from Big Oil (read here Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Koch Industries, Shell, BP, etc.). Indeed, the amount spent by the fossil fuel lobby during the 111th Congress (in 2009 and 2010) totalled $347,282,110. However, this figure pales in comparison to the subsidies provided to fostering the USA’s reliance on oil, coal and gas: the full amount given to fossil fuel companies during the 111th Congress was $20,489,340,000. Do the math and this represents a staggering 5800 percent return on investment!
There are winners and losers in every game, but certainly in this case, our governments are not winning. To make matters worse, according to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), given the volatile market prices of fossil fuels at the moment, the policy of subsidizing already powerful Big Oil represents a poor investment of public money.
What is more, if the views of the world’s most respected scientists are to be taken into account - look at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report: The Physical Science Basis 2013 - then in order to avoid some of the most catastrophic consequences of human-induced climate change and environmental impact, we need to keep at least two-thirds of existing fossil fuel reserves in the ground. This, effectively, means that the majority of carbon fuels will have to stay unburnable, creating a carbon bubble (similar to the dot.com bubble and the 2008 mortgage crash).
The government’s policy of relentlessly supporting fossil fuels seems all the more unreasonable in this light. Yet, it is not advocated here that we need to, or indeed can, stop relying on energy altogether. Energy is vital in supporting all the processes and workings of a modern world. What it will take, however, is a steep and consistent transition to cleaner, reliable and cost-effective sources of energy that are here for the long run: renewables.
For the sceptics, it must be noted that on 11 May 2014, Germany (neither a very sunny, nor a windy country) managed to generate 75 percent of the country’s overall energy demand from wind and solar power. Moreover, the country - the fourth-biggest economy in the world - generated 27 percent of its energy needs by renewables in the first three months of 2014. This commendable example only goes to show that what is lacking is not capability, but political will, to make a change.
It also makes economic sense. Studies suggest that renewables represent much better value per dollar invested: every US dollar spent on renewable energy subsidies attracted $2.50 in investment, while a dollar in fossil fuel subsidies drew $1.30 of investment. This number excludes the socially harmful effects of pollution generated by Big Oil companies such as health impact, deteriorating environment and oil spills (e.g. the infamous Gulf of Mexico Spill by BP in 2010); neither do these calculations take into account the benefits provided by renewable/clean energy in terms of job creation, green economy benefits, ‘natural’ unquantifiable benefits, human rights/health impact and improved natural habitats for biologically diverse flora and fauna.
The call is yours to make when approaching your elected representatives – members of the public can demand a change by requesting their governments and organizations to divest from fossil fuels (just like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund did in September last year). If a big name in Big Oil can do it, you can do it, too.
Inna Amesheva is a PhD candidate at Hong Kong University. This article was written exclusively for Eco-Business. |
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Rice encouraged Alabama voters to "reject bigotry, sexism, and intolerance" during Tuesday's special election for the U.S. Senate.
Condoleezza Rice, an Alabama native who was former President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, is urging Alabamians to vote in Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate ― a race she called “one of the most significant in Alabama’s history.”
Rice, now a political science professor at Stanford University, provided a statement to AL.com ahead of the election between Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones. The candidates are vying for the Senate seat that Jeff Sessions left when he became attorney general last year.
“I encourage you to take a stand for our core principles and for what is right,” Rice wrote, without mentioning either candidate by name. “These critical times require us to come together to reject bigotry, sexism, and intolerance.”
Moore, 70, has been accused by multiple women of groping, harassing and pursuing them sexually when they were minors and he was an adult in the 1980s. He has denied the allegations, calling them “malicious” and “false,” and claimed he has never met any of the six women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. President Donald Trump, who also has been accused of sexual misconduct, has endorsed Moore’s candidacy multiple times.
Rice wrote that it is “imperative” that voters “remain focused on our priorities and not give way to side shows and antics.” She added: “I know that Alabamans need an independent voice in Washington. But we must also insist that our representatives are dignified, decent, and respectful of the values we hold dear.” |
Researchers may be close to finding the secret to building the next generation of wind turbine blades for producing wind power. A Case Western Reserve University researcher reports building a prototype blade that is lighter and tougher than those now in use. The key, he says, is using polyurethane reinforced with carbon nanotubes.
As we’ve reported, larger wind turbines are something of a paradoxical pursuit in the wind industry these days. They can capture more energy – but they can be costly, and if too much extra weight accompanies the larger size, the net effect can be reduced efficiency. That’s because the heavier the blades, the more wind is needed to turn the rotor. In addition, larger blades are more prone to flex, further reducing their ability to capture energy.
Marcio Loos, a post-doctoral researcher, built a 29-inch blade, that is lighter and more rigid than the commercial template he modeled it on. He’s calling it “the world’s first carbon nanotube reinforced polyurethane wind blade.”
So far, mechanical tests of the carbon nanotube and ployurethane have shown that the material outperforms the resins application now used for wind turbine blades. In addtion, carbon nanotubes are lighter than carbon fiber and aluminum and have five times the strength of carbon fiber and 60 times the strength of aluminum. Fatigue testing showed the reinforced polyurethane composite lasts about eight times longer than epoxy reinforced with fiberglass.
Loos and his team, supporter in their work by the U.S. Department of Energy and Bayer MaterialScience, will continue to test optimal conditions for the nanotubes. The functional prototype blades built by Loos, which were used to turn a 400-watt turbine, will be stored in a laboratory and used for use in the next generation of wind turbine blades. |
Software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems."
By this logic, the GregTech code added was in fact malware as it aimed to disable minecraft as long as TConstruct was installed.
Let me clarify my position though, as I have normally been a strong defender of GregTech as it is forced on no-one.
While I do believe that this was Malware, I also believe that mistakes happen and people sometimes make poor judgement.
Further, I also believe that people should take responsibility for their actions.
All this said, I am not sure what I think of this whole situation, as with any dispute, it could have probably been handled better on both sides, but hindsight is always... (you know).
I guess I will simply monitor moving forward, and most likely GregTech will appear back on my server every now and then. |
Welcome to the Brandon Sanderson newsletter for March 2015! A new ebook novella, Perfect State, is out today, plus more exciting news below. But first I want to mention that after six years of maintaining the newsletter’s mailing list manually, my assistants have moved it over to MailChimp. You won’t see much difference on your end (and your email address will still be kept private), but it’s now much easier for you to update your subscription preferences. In fact, I highly recommend you click that link to update your info right now. I’ll be appearing at numerous events worldwide in the next couple of years, so if you tell me the nearest large metro area you’re willing to travel to in order to see me, I’ll send you an email when I go there. Of course, this is an optional part of being on the mailing list. The newsletters I send out to everyone on the list will still come only three or four times per year. In this newsletter: A new novella, Perfect State
Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
Conventions & exclusive hardcover
Words of Radiance in paperback
Shadows of Self cover reveal
New on the Brandon Sanderson Store
Excerpt of Perfect State
Newsletter exclusive preview Perfect State Today marks the release of a new novella of mine, Perfect State. This one is a bit different from anything else I’ve written, and I think you’ll enjoy it. Here’s the blurb: God-Emperor Kairominas is lord of all he surveys. He has defeated all foes, has united the entire world beneath his rule, and has mastered the arcane arts. He spends his time sparring with his nemesis, who keeps trying to invade Kai’s world. Except for today. Today, Kai has to go on a date. Forces have conspired to require him to meet with his equal—a woman from another world who has achieved just as much as he has. What happens when the most important man in the world is forced to have dinner with the most important woman in the world? Perfect State is an action-filled novella about privilege, culture clash, and expectations. The cover illustration is by the talented J.P. Targete, and you can get the novella now as an ebook (with no DRM) at the usual ebook vendors. I have a worldwide collection of store links here. There’s an excerpt toward the bottom of the newsletter, and info on a hardcover version below. Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell For those who missed it, my Cosmere novella Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell is also now out as an independent ebook. If you didn’t already read it in the Dangerous Women anthology, here’s another opportunity for you to get your hands on it. Here’s the blurb: When the familiar and seemingly safe turns lethal, therein danger lies. Amid a forest where the shades of the dead linger all around, every homesteader knows to follow the Simple Rules: “Don’t kindle flame, don’t shed the blood of another, don’t run at night. These things draw shades.” Silence Montane has broken all three rules on more than one occasion. And to protect her family from a murderous gang with high bounties on their heads, Silence will break every rule again, at the risk of becoming a shade herself. There’s an excerpt of the story here on Tor.com, and I shared some words on its inspiration here. The new ebook has a great cover illustration by Miranda Meeks. Conventions & exclusive hardcover Whenever I release a new ebook novella, many readers ask me if it will also be available in print. While I want my novels to be in as many bookstores as possible, that doesn’t always make sense for novellas because of their length. But I want to offer something to you collectors as well. A hardcover of The Emperor’s Soul is available in my store, and later this year we will have new hardcovers of both Legion books. A couple years ago I put out a double edition of my novelettes Firstborn and Defending Elysium, and this year I’m doing the same thing with Perfect State and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell. I also like to do something special for readers who attend conventions where I’m a guest. So these two goals will coincide. The double hardcover of these two novellas (they’re printed back-to-back, so there are two front covers) will start out as available exclusively at conventions, before going up on my website store sometime in the fall. If you want to pick one up, your first chance will be this week at Minicon in Minneapolis. Here are the conventions where I’m a guest this year, and where you should be able to buy the hardcover double: Minicon 50, Minneapolis, April 2–5
Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, United Arab Emirates, April 22–May 2
ConQuest 46, Kansas City, May 22–24
Worldcon, Spokane, August 19–23
FantasyCon, Nottingham UK, October 23–25 These are my confirmed appearances, and there are a few other conventions I might be attending that aren’t yet confirmed. Check my events calendar throughout the year. Words of Radiance in paperback Earlier this month, mass market paperbacks of Words of Radiance, the second book in the Stormlight Archive, were released in the US and the UK. As we were entering typo fixes for the paperback, I made changes to a few lines near the end. There was one particular scene that I was never satisfied with, and I’d like you to be aware of what I changed and my reasoning for it. However, I also don’t want to put too many spoilers in this newsletter, and if you haven’t read Words of Radiance, my explanation would definitely spoil a critical scene for you. So if you’ve already read the book and want to know what has changed, please see this blog post and skip down past the spoiler space. These changes are in the new US and UK mass market paperbacks, and we’re still working on getting them into the ebook versions as well. Some readers have asked about the audiobook being updated, and this is a possibility we’re looking into. It currently seems we may be able to get this done sometime later this year, when Michael Kramer is recording the audio for the next Mistborn book. Next Mistborn book: Shadows of Self I’ve mentioned before that the next Mistborn book, Shadows of Self (the sequel to The Alloy of Law), will be coming out in October. I’ll be starting the final draft on that (and its sequel, Bands of Mourning, which comes out in January) in a few weeks. Recently, Tor.com announced the cover for Shadows of Self, and it’s one of my favorites from Chris McGrath. You can see a large version here. (Though we heard today that Tor might change the design a bit, swapping the placement of the title and my name. These things happen where marketing is concerned. Also, that S is a bit hard to read with Wax’s head in the way.) New in the store My assistant Kara, who runs the Brandon Sanderson store, has put up a few new items. There are shirts, art prints, jewelry, and signed books as always, and the decals page now has a collection of mini Allomantic symbols, including some of the lesser-known symbols such as the one for Kredik Shaw. She has also added hardcovers of Words of Radiance, and the new ebook novellas are in the ebooks section. Excerpt of Perfect State On the three-hundredth anniversary of my birth, I finally managed to conquer the world. The entire world. It had made for a rather memorable birthday present, though admittedly I’d been placed into this world with the intention and expectation that I’d someday rule it. The next fifty years had put me at risk of boredom. After all, what did a man possibly do with his time after conquering the world? In my case, I’d developed a nemesis. “He’s planning something, Shale,” I said, stirring the sugar into my tea. “Who?” Shale was the only man I knew who could lounge while wearing full plate armor. He hardly ever took the stuff off; it was part of his Concept. “Who do you think?” I said, sipping the tea and leafing through the letters on my desk, each sealed by a daub of dark red wax. The two of us sat on a large flying stone platform with chairs and railings like a patio’s. I’d Lanced us a barrier over the top to ward off the rainstorm thrumming outside. The Grand Aurora shimmered above—visible even through the stormclouds—illuminating the ground beneath us and painting it faintly blue. The occasional crashes of lightning from the storm highlighted a hundred other platforms flying in formation around my own. They carried a small retinue of soldiers—only six thousand—as my honor guard. Thunder shook us. Shale yawned. “You really need to figure out weather, Kai.” “I will eventually.” These last fifty years spent studying the practical application of Lancing had been most productive, but controlling the weather—at least on a grand scale—eluded me. I sipped my tea. It was growing cold, but at least that I could do something about. I undid the buttons on my right sleeve, exposing my skin to the blue-violet light pulsing from the sky. The Grand Aurora encircled the entire world, and even the mightiest storms did little more than churn its mother-of-pearl shimmering. The Aurora defeated storms; that was how I knew I’d someday be able to do it too. I entered Lancesight, and everything around me dimmed. Everything but the Grand Aurora. I basked in its warm light, which I could suddenly feel striking my skin with a pulsing rhythm. I drew the power in through my arm, then sent the energy up out my fingers and into the cup. The tea began to steam. I sipped it and left Lancesight as I cracked open one of the letters. The seal was imprinted with the symbol of my spy networks. Your Majesty, the note read. I believe it necessary to inform you that the Wode Scroll has once again— I crumpled the paper. “Uh-oh,” Shale said. “It’s nothing,” I said, dropping the piece of paper and doing up my sleeve. It wasn’t from my spy networks at all; Besk simply knew I opened spy reports first. The platform shook in another peal of thunder as I looked through a set of reports, each with my imperial mark at the top. “You can’t make this thing go any faster, can you?” Shale asked. “Be glad we don’t have to do this the old way.” “The old way? Like . . . on a horse?” Shale scratched his chin. “I miss that.” “Really? The sore backsides, riding through the rain, getting bitten, finding food for the beasts . . .” “Horses have personality. This platform doesn’t.” “You’re just saying that because it’s part of your Concept,” I said. “The dashing knight riding on horseback, winning the hands of fair maidens.” “Sure, sure. I had quite the collection of hands. Couple of arms, the occasional foot . . .” I smiled. Shale was now happily married with five children. The only maidens he spent any time with were the ones who called him Daddy and begged him for sweets. I continued looking through reports. The next was the preliminary sketch for a new set of coins to be minted later in the year, bearing my image. It was mostly right, depicting my strong features and hair that curled regally to my shoulders. The beard was too big, however. I wore mine neat and squared, kept at a modest finger’s length, to present a strong image. The thing in the picture was far too bushy. I made notes on the sketch, then continued on, ignoring the crumpled-up note I’d thrown on the floor. Besk was far too clever for his own good. I needed to fire the man and hire a stupid chancellor. Either that or hack Besk and rewrite his Concept. Rewriting Concepts was a pain, though. And, truth be told, I was terrible at hacking, which was why—despite centuries together—I’d never gotten around to changing Besk. It wasn’t, of course, because I was fond of the chancellor. The troll-like man never did what I told him. I ruled literally billions of people, and only this one ignored my will. “Here,” I said, holding up a report to Shale. “Look at this.” Shale sauntered over, armor clanking. “Another robot?” He yawned. “Melhi’s robots are dangerous.” “Yawn.” “You just yawned. You don’t need to say it.” “Yawn. Whatever happened to the big quests, Kai? Hunting dragons, searching out magical swords? All you do these days is study magic and duel with Liveborn from other States.” “I’m getting older, Shale,” I said, looking over the report again. My spies had overheard some of Melhi’s men in a Border State bragging about this new robot of his. I shook my head. Melhi was still smarting after what I’d done to him at Lecours, a different Border State we could both access. He’d been so certain his armies would overwhelm mine. “Getting older?” Shale laughed. “What does that have to do with it? You’re immortal. Your body is young.” I couldn’t explain it to him. The quests he referred to—building a kingdom, searching out hidden treasures and secrets, uniting those who would follow and conquering those who would not . . . Well, those had been what I’d needed as a youth. They’d made me into the person I was, the person who could rule an empire. That empire pretty much ruled itself these days. We had imperial senates, diplomats, ministers. I was very careful not to step in unless something grossly stupid needed straightening. In truth, I relished nights spent in my study, experimenting, meditating. Only occasional government functions—like the one earlier today, where we’d commemorated the fiftieth year since the unification of the world—drew me out. Well, that and the attacks by Melhi. The churning rain outside suddenly vanished, and the heavens grew bright. The Grand Aurora was still there, but it now hovered in a sky that was blue instead of stormy grey. We’d reached Alornia. I stood up from my desk, walking to the edge of the platform, and watched the near-endless streets of the city blur beneath us. At least here, at the center of my power, I could stop the storms. Eventually, I thought to myself. Eventually I’ll be able to do it without an Aurorastone affixed to the middle of the city. Alornia was a place of bulbous golden domes atop finger towers. The platform slowed in its preplanned course and swung down over the city, trailed by the hundred platforms carrying my honor guard. People waited below to watch us pass; my movements were matters of national record. And so, cheers roared beneath us, as if a stream to carry us along. I smiled. Perhaps I should get out more. At my side, Shale rested his hand on his sword, watching those below with narrowed eyes. “Nobody’s going to be able to hit me from all the way down there,” I said, amused. “You never know, Kai.” The platform descended toward the palace, which sat on the hill at the center of the city, and docked at the side of my large tower, becoming a balcony again. I strode off and into my study as a group of servants in vests, loose pants, and bare chests trotted out onto the balcony and lifted my desk to carry it after us. Shale stretched, clinking. “That trip seems to get longer every time.” “It would probably be more comfortable without the armor.” “I’m your bodyguard, Kai,” Shale said. “One of us has to be ready. Remember when those sky nomads tried to pinch you?” Shale smiled fondly, in the way a man might while remembering a youthful romance. “Or that time when we got trapped in the Tendrils of Sashim?” “Sure do. You carried me . . . how far?” “A good fifty miles,” Shale said. “Lords. That was . . . that was over a hundred years ago now, wasn’t it?” I said nothing. Shale didn’t age—long ago, he and I had discovered a secret draught of long life in the hoard of the dragon Galbrometh. These days, I wondered if that draught had been placed there specifically for me to find, so I’d have an acceptable reason for not aging. I hadn’t known the truth of my nature until I’d reached fifty, the Wode’s Age of Awareness. Shale stretched again. “Well, best to remain vigilant. It’s when everything is calm that you need to be most alert.” “Most certainly. Thank you for your help today.” “Yeah. Yeah, it’s a good thing I’m around, eh? Anyway, I’m going to go check in with Sindria. See what the kids are up to, you know?” “Good idea,” I said, watching the servants carefully arrange all the items on my desk. Did I have time to file those reports . . . ? No. I needed to get moving. I walked toward Shale, who was opening the doors that led to the hallway. He gave me a questioning look. “If I’m quick,” I explained, “I might be able to get down into the lab before Besk can—” Shale pulled the door all the way open. Besk stood outside. “Ouch,” Shale said. “Sorry, Kai.” Besk raised a single painted-on eyebrow. He was like one of those statues that people carved on the outsides of buildings. Limbs that seemed too long, robes too stiff, face expressionless. Long ago, I’d shared a drop of my draught of immortality with him. He’d haunted me ever since. He bowed. “Your Imperial Majesty.” “Besk,” I said. “I’m afraid the daily briefing will have to wait. I had some very important mental breakthroughs regarding Lancing that I absolutely must record.” Besk regarded me for a long, unblinking moment. He carried a distinctive piece of slate in his fingers. As large as a book, yet incredibly thin, there was nothing else like it in the empire. To the side, one of the servants helpfully carried in the crumpled paper I’d left on the balcony, then set it on the desk, just in case it was important. Besk’s eyebrow rose another notch. “I will walk with you to the lab then, Your Majesty.” Shale gave me a farewell pat on the shoulder, then clanked away. He’d faced assassins, terrors, and rebels without flinching, but even after all this time, Besk made him nervous. “You may wish to consider giving Sir Shale a leave of retirement, Your Majesty,” Besk said as we began to walk. “He likes what he does. And I like having him around.” “Your will is, of course, law.” “Yeah. Unless the Wode is involved.” “In over a century of rule, this is the only time the Wode has called upon you.” Besk held up the piece of slate he carried. The Wode Scroll, the only official means of communicating with the outside. The Scroll was filled with words, none of which I wanted to read. From the little I saw, however, the tone of the Wode’s letters was growing more forceful. I had been ignoring them too long. We walked for a time in silence until we eventually left the corridor and stepped out onto a wall-walk between towers. I shouldn’t be so hard on Besk, I knew. He was acting according to his Concept, and was loyal in his own way, even when he was disobedient. Below, a cheer went up, and I raised a hand absently toward my subjects. Was that a band playing? The Grand Aurora shimmered in the sky, though—for once—its light failed to comfort me. “Is it such an onerous task, Your Majesty?” Besk asked. “The Wode requests of you only one day, to go and perform a task most people would consider pleasurable.” “It’s not the task itself. It’s the nature of being . . . summoned like this. What good is it to be emperor if someone else can just call on me as if I were a common cupbearer or messenger boy? It undermines everything I’ve done, everything I’ve accomplished.” “They merely ask you to do your duty to your species.” “What duty has my species ever done to me?” “My lord,” Besk said, stopping on the wall-walk. “This is most unseemly of you. I’m reminded of the child you were, not the king you have become.” I tried to walk onward without him, but my shoes felt as if they were filled with lead. I stopped a few steps ahead of him, not looking back. “It is your duty,” Besk repeated. “I’m a brain in a jar, Besk,” I said. “One of trillions. Why can’t they bother one of the others?” “It has been determined that you have accomplished great—” “We’ve all accomplished great things,” I said, spinning and waving my hands toward the city. “That’s the point of all this. How many of those trillions of others are living lives just like mine, in Primary Fantastical States?” “The programming allows—even requires—that each State be individually tailored.” “It doesn’t matter, Besk,” I said. Lords! I hated thinking about this. The Wode had only interfered with my life twice. First at age fifty, to inform me that my reality was a layered simulation. And now to demand that I procreate. “It’s meaningless,” I said, stepping up to Besk. He wasn’t of the Wode, of course; I’d never actually met any of them. He was a part of my reality, my State. But he, like everything else in the entirety of my existence, would serve the Wode if required. They controlled the programming and, if pressed, they could change anything in this world—anything but me myself—to force me to obey. Lords, how it hurt to think about that. “The requirements are inane,” I continued. “They need my DNA to create new Liveborn humans? Well, fine. They can take it. Stick a little needle or whatever into my jar and withdraw it. Simple.” “They require you to interact with a woman, Your Majesty. The precepts say you must choose her, and she you, and then you must meet one another and perform the act.” “Our bodies are just simulations. Why must we meet?” “I do not know.” “Bah!” I stalked off the wall-walk and back into the palace. Besk followed. “I’ve ordered the hunting range filled with wild draklings, Your Majesty. The most vicious we could find. Perhaps destroying them will put you in a more fond mood.” “Perhaps,” I said. Even thinking about the Wode turned me into a child again; Besk was right on that count. I’d commanded armies of thousands and I’d single-handedly forged an empire that spanned continents. But this . . . this made a spoiled brat out of me. I stopped inside the stairwell. “I do not know all the reasons for the rules, my lord,” Besk said more softly, stepping up and resting a hand on my shoulder. “But they are ancient, and have served your kind well. XinWey’s Doctrine states—” “Don’t lecture me,” I said. He fell silent, but . . . damn it . . . I could hear his voice in my head. He’d read off these rules to me often enough. XinWey’s Doctrine states that the most essential morality of mankind is to create the greatest amount of happiness among the greatest number of people while using the least amount of resources. Turned out, the best way to create greatly satisfied people using minimal resources was to remove their brains when they were fetuses and attach them to simulated realities tailored to fit their emerging personalities. Each Liveborn received an entire world in which they were the most important person of their time. Some became artists, others politicians, but each had a chance for supreme greatness. All of this took only the space required for a box about the size of a melon—simulation machinery, brain, and nutrient bath all included. Incredibly efficient. And . . . to be honest, I didn’t resent it; hell, I loved it. I got to be an emperor, and while the simulation gave me opportunities, each step—each grueling quest or accomplishment—had to be my own. I’d earned this life. Thinking of the millions upon millions of others who had done the same, though . . . that unnerved me. Were there millions of Besks, and millions of Shales, millions of mes, all living beneath a Grand Aurora? Everything else in my existence had taught me I was unique, important, and powerful. I rebelled at the idea that I might just be another person. “It will not take long, my lord,” Besk said. “Choose one of the women from the list—the Wode ranked them for you with compatibility projections—and send her a request to meet. Perhaps you could dine together.” “A woman from their list,” I snapped. “A Liveborn woman, with her own world to rule. Lords, she’ll be insufferable.” The closest I ever wanted to get to another Liveborn was across the battlefield in a Border State, and it had taken me some time to warm even to that. My first meeting with Melhi had— “My lord,” Besk said. “The wall.” I started, realizing that something had changed the stone wall of the stairwell. Words were appearing in the stone, as if chiseled there, each line sinking in a trough. CHILD EMPEROR. I HAVE CREATED A NICE SURPRISE FOR YOU. “Melhi, you snake! How did you hack my palace? You’re violating the precepts of engagement.” THE PRECEPTS ARE ONLY WORDS. SO ARE SCREAMS. I WILL HEAR YOURS FOR THE INSULT YOU GAVE ME. “My spies already told me of your robot, Melhi. You should stop sending those. They never work properly in my State.” I didn’t mention that I’d been surprised at how well they did work. Far better than Lancing would have worked in his State, where the laws of physics were different. YOU WILL SCREAM, CHILD. YOU WILL SCREAM. I entered Lancesight. Here I could see the Grand Aurora even through the stone of the palace—but I stepped backward anyway, into the doorway, where the Aurora’s light could strike me directly. I drew strength into my arms from that warmth, then pushed it from me in a wave. With Lancesight, I could see the core workings of all things, the very motes of energy—or thought, or whatever they were—that made up my reality. I could also see Melhi’s hack. It manifested as tendrils of red creeping like venom into my palace. Filled with strength, I cut him off, destroying the tendrils. They hadn’t been strong—he couldn’t accomplish a powerful hack without running afoul of the Wode’s protective programs. The wall’s surface returned to normal. I melted the stone there for good measure, recast it into a new shape, then blinked my eyes back to my ordinary vision. “Lords, but that man needs to learn to let go of a grudge,” I said. “He’s never going to beat me. Surely he has to see that by now.” “Indeed,” Besk said. “He does seem to boorishly continue the same stubborn course, without maturity, and without careful consideration of the best path. Wouldn’t you say?” “That’s quite enough, Besk.” “I try to be topical when possible, Your Majesty.” I took a deep, calming breath. It didn’t work. “Fine. Fine, whatever. Pick one of the women from the list. We’ll meet, get this over with, and I’ll return to my life.” “Which one do I choose?” Besk asked. “The one the Wode thinks is most compatible?” “Lords, no,” I snapped, walking away. “Pick the one on the bottom of the list. I might as well have an interesting time of it.” Continued in the full novella, available now. Newsletter exclusive preview And now, a preview of Calamity, the third book in the Reckoners trilogy. If you haven’t read Steelheart or Firefight yet, you should probably steer clear of this, as it will contain spoilers. For that reason I’m including a spoiler space below. Note: this is a very rough draft (I haven’t even finished writing the whole book yet), and it could change substantially before it’s released! Thanks so much for subscribing. (This exclusive preview is only available in your email client rather than on this archive page. If you’re not a subscriber, sign up here.) |
Venezuela's Socialist government has warned it will suspend the passports of arrested protesters for five years amid a hardening crackdown on the bloody unrest that has spread nationwide in recent weeks, threatening to consume the volatile oil-rich nation.
Anger erupted among demonstrators in Caracas, as news broke on Friday night of the Interior Ministry resolution that anyone detained for disturbing the peace and the public order or participating in acts of violence would be barred from leaving the country. "We're turning into Cuba", government opponents wailed as they once again took to the streets for the daily protests that have now claimed nine lives nationwide.
The country was braced for further clashes on Saturday as government supporters and opponents gathered for large rival rallies in the capital. As the protests began, Ernesto Villegas, the minister of state for the revolutionary transformation of greater Caracas, warned the country was in "a spiral of death and destruction". "We can still stop a civil war," he urged.
On Friday, President Nicolas Maduro accused US intelligence services of giving the "green light for the overthrow" of the Venezuelan government, which has long sparred with the "empire" to the north. He had already expelled three US diplomats, claiming they had conspired with the students who have formed the core of the protests as part of a "far right" plot similar to that which unseated his predecessor, Hugo Chavez, for 36 hours in 2002. But he also, unusually called for talks with Washington, an indication perhaps of fears he may be losing control of the crisis.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, earlier criticised the government's actions to quell the protests. "The government's use of force and judicial intimidation against citizens and political figures ... is unacceptable and will only increase the likelihood of violence," he said in a statement, adding: "This is not how democracies behave."
For years, Venezuela has been wracked by searing divisions over its 15-year-old Socialist revolution, embraced by many of the poor who have benefited from the diversion of oil profits into social programmes, but anathema to much of the middle and upper classes. In the past two weeks, frustation at the rampant inflation, chronic food shortages and some of the world's highest murder rates has erupted into opposition protests - igniting the country's long-seething political and class tensions and drawing radicals from both sides into running street battles. In the epicentres of the violence, burning barricades, molotov cocktails and tear gas are now a daily sight.
It is a crisis with high international stakes. Venezuela sits atop the world's largest proven supplies of oil and is the leader of a strong leftist alliance in Washington's backyard. The government has also alleged the involvement of Alvaro Uribe, the former president of neighbouring Colombia, a key US ally in the region with which Venezuela has a fractious relationship.
On Thursday, the government ordered paratroopers into the border city of San Cristobal, the birthplace of the protests where protesters have been engaged in fierce battles with security forces. The internet was cut off and residents said they were living in a "war zone", with the town fully occupied by the army and military helicopters and planes flying overhead.
From the fray has emerged Leopoldo Lopez, a key opposition figure who has taken the lead in a hardline protest movement under the slogan "The Exit", meaning Mr Maduro's departure from power. Declared "the face of fascism" by the leftist leader, Mr Lopez is now languishing in a military jail outside Caracas on charges of arson, damage and criminal gatherings, accused of orchestrating protest violence in order to justify a coup d'etat.
On Friday the wealthy 42-year-old Harvard economist urged the protesters not to give up. In a note from prison released through his wife, he said: "To the police, soldiers, prosecutors and judges: do not obey unjust orders, do not become the face of repression.
"To the youth, to the protesters, I ask you to stay firm against violence, and to stay organised and disciplined. This is everyone's struggle."
Mr Lopez and his supporters insist the government is to blame for the protest violence, claiming they are tacitly endorsing radical Chavista armed groups to attack opposition protesters. They also complain of excessive violence by security forces, who have used tear gas, buckshot and water cannon to disperse protesters, and allege that some of those detained have been tortured.
In a country where fact is often difficult to distinguish from rumour or even outright fabrication, some claims are almost impossible to verify. The government's vice-like grip on televised media means the protests, and the opposition, have been largely kept off Venezuelan screens. Mr Maduro has also expelled a Colombian broadcaster and threatened to throw out CNN, accusing it of a "propaganda war"and, according to the network, refusing or revoking press credentials for several of its journalists. Instead opponents have taken to social media, where manipulated videos and images abound.
But on Friday, Mr Maduro acknowledged that police officers had fired shots at an opposition protest in which three people died last week. He announced he was investigating whether there were "plotters and conspirators" within his government, claiming that the same firearm had been used to kill both a student protester and a pro-government activist. Investigators are also examinng a case of a protester allegedly "raped with a gun" after being arrested in the city of Valencia.
While opposition leaders insist they are not agitating for an overthrow, some of their supporters acknowledge they have lost patience with attempts to unseat the government through the ballot box. They accuse the ruling Socialists of electoral fraud, and note that almost half of the Venezuelan electorate are reliant on state jobs or subsidy programmes, with heavy pressure to vote for the government.
Alberto Delfante, an opposition supporter in Caracas, told the Telegraph: "I don't believe this government will ever surrender democratically. If they become very threatened they could simply announce a dictatorship, what would we do then?
"What we're seeing now is very much like what it looked like in 2002 (the coup d'etat). I'd like to see this government forcibly removed, but we don't know what the reaction of the chavistas would be."
Dr Fred Mills of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, a US based think tank, told The Telegraph that "the "exit" strategy has clearly been translated on the streets into a golpista (coupster) strategy by a considerable segment of the opposition." But he suggested they were miscalculating "the balance of forces" in the country, saying that unlike in 2002, the military leadership was not inclined to a coup and the Chavista base were on high alert.
But Carlos Cardenas of IHS Country Risk said the most likely scenario was that protests continued to escalate, drawing in some of the poorer areas which have so far seen only sporadic involvement.
"This scenario would lead to eventual fractures within the PSUV (Socialist) party and the military, with Maduro not being able to contain the associated violence. Should this scenario take place, the risk of Maduro being ousted due to a military intervention would increase significantly." |
It’s a bit crazy to think, but the next phase of the Heroes Global Championship is already upon us. Tomorrow teams around the world will return to their regional leagues to begin clawing their way to the top. This time they’re fighting for everything, this time around we’re aiming for Blizzcon.
In North America, we saw a major roster shakeup once again. Teams made strategic moves to try and get better in preparation for this new phase. As we watch Phase 2 of the NA HGC, there are five major questions to be asked. They are as follows.
Is Goku an Upgrade?
On the opening day of the Mid-Season Brawl, Roll20 Esports announced that they would be making a trade with Superstars–Yoda for Goku. The reaction from most analysts was that this would be a strong upgrade for Roll20. Goku is a phenomenal player, and his hero pool would lend some clarity to the murky draft strategy Roll20 had with Glaurung, Yoda, and Prismaticism all playing flexible roles.
However, Yoda showed up at MSB. Many games were won off the back of his stellar Li-Ming. The team had a strong synergy, they took a map from MVP Black in the opening day, and went further than anyone expected. Now returning home from Sweden, the question has to be asked–did Roll20 make a mistake? Is replacing their Li-Ming player with a melee carry the best choice for this team’s playstyle? Who’s going to play Zeratul now?
Talent-wise, Goku seems like a clear improvement for the team. However, will the tradeoff in synergy be worth it? Will we see a repeat of GFE’s issues when Fan was brought in to take over the melee role?
Will Even In Death Win a Game?
In case you missed it, there was a last-minute shakeup in the NA HGC for this phase. B-step, the team helmed by Blizzcon Champions Kingcaffeine, K1pro, and iDream, has disbanded and abdicated their place in the league. To replace them, the team with the best playoff performance in the open division, Even In Death, was elevated to the pro level. EiD did not impress in their cruicible match, and were by no means a dominant amateur team in the regular season. Even open division caster SolidJake spoke passionately on his show Town Hall Heroes about his concerns with EiD’s worthiness for the spot.
The bottom tier teams have all made moves to improve this season, and have plenty of experience over their new colleagues on EiD. The newcomers were not even allowed to make any roster changes after they disbanded and then reformed to secure their trip to the HGC. Can this team hold together? More importantly, can they compete with the pros?
Is Naventic Back?
It’s been a long trip down for the once-dominant Bob Ross Fan Club. As Team Naventic, Zuna and crew seemed unbeatable in the early iterations of their team. Since the departure of Erho we’ve seen a slow downward spiral as the team struggled to find it’s identity without a warrior player. With Bkid at the helm many hoped for a revival, but Naventic’s first phase in the HGC was an unmitigated disappointment to fans and players alike.
Now, the team has made some brilliant roster moves. They moved Kenma, a smart player with awful mechanics, to the coaching role where he can still help the team but not get caught face-checking bushes. They’ve resolved their ranged disputes by moving Bigempct to support. Finally, iDream has come in to shore up the team’s melee position, giving them more flexibility at that role than ever before.
This is the best version of Naventic we’ve seen since the original, but can it hold up? Will the cries of “Zuna Feed” and “lagf” be louder than the team’s performance in the nexus? I expect it will take a few weeks for this roster to fully come together, but the potential is there. It will be up to Team Naventic to fight their way back to their former glory.
Is K1pro a Ranged Assassin Anymore?
If you’re new to the Heroes esports scene, you may not know the k1pro that we all love. There was a version of this player that was the undisputed best ranged assassin in the game. His Tyrande was devastating, his Tassadar revolutionary, and his Jaina unstoppable (even without cleanse). It has been a hot minute since we’ve seen that version.
Of late the version of k1 that’s been on display has been whiffing stuns as Anub’arak and struggling to find any clear identity. Now, k1 has a chance to return to his old ways with Gale Force Esports. The team has already had their identity crisis and has solidified their roles. There’s no room for k1 to play off-tanks and other nonsense. He is replacing Khroen as their ranged assassin. This move is a tall order for the former World Champion. We’ve never seen a truly impressive Li-Ming from him, and his old comfort picks are all out of the meta. In a world full of Vallas, Greymanes, and Tychusis (Tychuses? Tychi?) where does the former best in the world stack up? He’s not had a strong organization and skilled leadership guiding his way since the days of Cloud9, perhaps the leadership of Fan and Udall under the GFE banner will be enough to bring back the k1 of old.
Can Tempo Still Download Everyone?
North America is super weird. On the international level, Tempo Storm is not an especially impressive team. They struggle at every event and their weaknesses are quickly exposed. However, they continue to dominate back in North America. They were the unquestioned kings of NA during Phase 1.
The prevalent theory is that, between their coach and smart drafters, Tempo can just read all of their NA opponents. They know what they like to draft and how to counter it. Heroes is such a draft-focused game, by consistently winning the draft, Tempo essentially goes into every match with an advantage over the enemy. They also happen to be one of the only teams with a genuinely great warrior/support combo.
This season is a little different. For the full break, Tempo’s focus has been on their international opponents at the MSB. They have not been scrimming the new rosters of North America, or studying any footage of them. They have also not been scrimming or practicing on the newest patch. It is virtually impossible for Tempo to have a strong read on the NA meta going into the early weeks of Phase 2.
So, will we finally see a Tempo Storm that has to play without first downloading their opponents? Are Khala and Cattlepillar so smart that they can read the meta with only a week to prepare? Is their duo of Fury and Jun so much better than most teams that they can carry the team through the early weeks?
Or, will we finally see new teams rise up to the top of North America? Will a newly revived Naventic come knocking? Reunited with Fan, can KingCaffeine and k1pro recapture their former glory? With Goku alongside are Roll20 the new team to beat? Is there a new team who finally put the pieces together to challenge the elite? The answers to all the questions and so much more will be revealed on the next episode of Dragonball Z! By which I mean watch the HGC this weekend, it’ll be really cool.
Advertisements |
Mozilla employees across the web are calling for the removal of new CEO Brendan Eich, who previously held the position of CTO and has been with the company since its formation out of Netscape in the 90’s.
In 2008, Eich donated $1,000 to support Prop 8, which was a California ballot proposition that aimed to ban gay marriage in California. In 2012, the public listing for the donation was uncovered, with Mozilla appearing right next to Eich’s name. Eich remained at the company, continuing on as CTO, after the brief scandal.
With this week’s appointment to CEO, Eich has come under fire from employees in his own organization and from members of the LGBT tech community.
Open Badges lead at Mozilla Chris McAvoy tweeted:
I love @mozilla but I'm disappointed this week. @mozilla stands for openness and empowerment, but is acting in the opposite way. — Chris McAvoy (@chmcavoy) March 27, 2014
And a creative lead in Badges, Jess Klein…
Have waited too long to say this. I'm an employee of @mozilla and I'm asking @brendaneich to step down as CEO. https://t.co/K3OqeImUnU — iamjessklein (@iamjessklein) March 27, 2014
John Bevan, from Partnerships at Mozilla Foundation…
I'm an employee of @mozilla and I'm asking @BrendanEich to step down as CEO. — John Bevan (@bevangelist) March 27, 2014
And this design researcher…
To me, @Mozilla is about openness & expression of freedom. I hope to see us have leadership that represents those values in their actions. — emgollie (@emgollie) March 27, 2014
And the list goes on.
Other employees have jotted down their issues in blog form.
Mozilla’s head of Education Christie Koehler didn’t weigh in on Eich’s suitability as a CEO, but did express her disappointment with his private endorsement of anti-LGBT legislation.
Like a lot of people, I was disappointed when I found out that Brendan had donated to the anti-marriage equality Prop. 8 campaign in California. It’s hard for me to think of a scenario where someone could donate to that campaign without feeling that queer folks are less deserving of basic rights. It frustrates me when people use their economic power to further enshrine and institutionalize discrimination.
Still, she praises the company’s progress in regards to healthcare benefits and guidelines for participation, and she doesn’t see Eich standing in the way of that.
Certainly it would be problematic if Brendan’s behavior within Mozilla was explicitly discriminatory, or implicitly so in the form of repeated microagressions. I haven’t personally seen this (although to be clear, I was not part of Brendan’s reporting structure until today). To the contrary, over the years I have watched Brendan be an ally in many areas and bring clarity and leadership when needed.
And it wasn’t just employees who spoke up about Eich’s new CEO role. Rarebit, an app developer that was quite active in the Firefox marketplace, announced that it would no longer support the platform with Eich at the helm. Founders, and married gay couple, Hampton Catlin and Michael Lintorn Catlin published a post on their blog describing the painstaking process of trying to start a company with his partner, who was in the midst of the immigration process and tied to his job on a visa.
Today, Michael has a green card and we’re able to pursue this venture in the US. These days, I am so damn proud of my country for making this all possible. It’s really stunning the support we’ve received, and thank you to everyone out there who have either changed their own minds on the subject, or convinced a relative or friend that there is nothing wrong with the government recognizing our relationship. Thank you. The overturning of Prop 8, literally was the foundation that allowed us to start this venture. That’s why it’s personal for us. Brendan Eich was an active supporter of denying our right to be married and even to start this business. He actively took steps to ensure that rarebit couldn’t exist!
Many advocates of Eich, like Mozillian Daniel Glazeman, stand in support of Eich not based on his personal beliefs, but based on the fact that Mozilla has always promoted an environment where everyone is entitled to their own way of thinking. Others, however, believe that Eich’s appointment to CEO may play a very different role in future decisions for the company that may affect the LGBT community, such as partner health benefits in states where gay marriages aren’t recognized.
John Schneider, from Mozilla’s DevOps team, had this to say:
A CEO is publicly seen as one of the most visible faces of an organization, and is quite a bit about image, partnerships, and culture, rather than the largely technical role of a CTO. Unfortunately, right now Brendan’s public image (which is also now in part Mozilla’s public image in his new role) is one showing that he donated money to deny equal rights to the LGBT community during Prop 8 in California. Note: I fully support Brendan’s right to hold these views and support them financially as he sees fit, even while I vigorously disagree with his views on this issue.
Eich penned his own response to the issue, with the hopes of putting some of these concerns to rest. In the post, he promised to uphold the same equality that has always been present at Mozilla, from employment to healthcare benefits. He also explained that he knows words are not enough, and that actions will seal whatever trust exists between him and his employees.
John Lilly, former CEO at Mozilla and board member, announced his resignation from the company’s board of directors with a brief statement.
As it stands now, it doesn’t seem like Eich is going anywhere. Current chairwoman Mitchell Baker posted a lengthy reaction of her own, promising to maintain the level of diversity and equality currently in the workplace, and hopefully grow it. But she also expressed that Eich would be a part of that.
My experience is that Brendan is as committed to opportunity and diversity inside Mozilla as anyone, and more so than many. This commitment to opportunity for all within Mozilla has been a key foundation of our work for many years. I see it in action regularly. The CEO role is obviously a key role, with a large amount of authority. The CEO must have a commitment to the inclusive nature of Mozilla. This includes of course a commitment to the Community Participation Guidelines, inclusive HR practices and the spirit that underlies them. Brendan has made this commitment.
Mozilla’s mission is “to promote openness, innovation & opportunity on the Web.” In the world of tech, we influence legislation on a number of issues reaching well outside the scope of technology. After all, technology sets the boundaries for what is achievable in this world.
Openness and innovation, Mozilla’s cornerstones, are dependent on diversity.
Hopefully, whether Eich remains at the helm or not, Mozilla employees don’t lose sight of that. |
Microsoft has patched a critical flaw in Windows that has existed in every version since the introduction of Windows 95 more than 19 years ago. IBM security researchers discovered the flaw earlier this year and notified the software giant privately in May. The rare bug allows attackers to remotely execute code on an affected system just by convincing Windows users to visit a URL in Internet Explorer. IBM says the exploit can be triggered on Internet Explorer 3.0 onwards, and every currently supported version of Windows is affected.
"This vulnerability has been sitting in plain sight for a long time despite many other bugs being discovered and patched in the same Windows library," says IBM researcher Robert Freeman. While Microsoft is providing patches for Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and its various server releases, the company stopped supporting Windows XP earlier this year so consumers will not be protected if attackers attempt to exploit the bug. There’s no evidence this bug is being exploited in the wild yet, but it has been rated 9.3 out of 10 on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) so it’s well worth patching through Windows Update if you haven’t already. |
At this year’s E3, I played a portion of For Honor’s single-player campaign -- a campaign designed to help sell the fantasy of playing as a sword-wielding ancient warrior, thrust into a unique slice of universe where other equally skilled warriors also exist. At a stretch, it’s a contextual anomaly that is hard to sell, but in practice, it’s pure childhood fantasy come to life, only with a layer of depth few games in the space have, and with a skill ceiling that could very quickly separate the grown ups from the children.There’s a lot to get through with what For Honor has to offer across PC and console, which includes everything from 4v4 competitive multiplayer, to 1v1, split-screen co-op and beyond. The level of customisation on offer is huge for the sort of game it is, and in the form we viewed, and played, at this year’s Gamescom, it’s looking fantastic despite the relative age of the Anvil Engine it’s running off.But at its core, the game is a rock, paper and scissors action-adventure outing that may, or may not, suffer from a crowded room approach. The E3 demo we played, played to player strengths and, as mentioned earlier, worked tirelessly to sell the fantasy. Campaign mode in the short amount that we’ve experienced is a nice necessity that works on an aesthetic andtutorial level, but the meat of this entire experience is going to be in its multiplayer offering, which is equal parts fun and frustration.There’s still plenty of ironing out to do, specifically where balance is concerned, but if I had to leverage any issue with For Honor so far, it’s in the player-controlled systems that lack in encounters with more than one player. Basically, in any one on one scenario, you can hold your own and succumbing to, or prompting your opponent’s rock, paper or scissors attack will be the difference between death and victory. You can also evade, and charge attack, but these are minor shifts away from that core three-way conflict system. The problem is, when you’re faced with more than one opponent striking you multiple times, being able to combat two, or even three different RPS attacks is nigh on impossible. The strategy then calls for running away. Or, you can try and stand your ground -- successful blocks of a handful of attacks gives you a chance to activate your Revenge mode, which is essentially a Super, but this can easily be shut down by another player’s strikes while you’re attempting to wail on one of them.This could all be the product of not playing enough of the game to fully grasp the intricate balance of all the systems though. However, I did play for an hour on a single mode called Objective, which is a Domination-styled 4v4 multiplayer offering with three capture points -- two (A and C) flanking a single, heavily AI populated lane (B). AI are a filler concept, and based on the tide of the match, it will either be your friendlies or the enemy who flood the lane. They’re also a kind of XP and health currency. You can also gain health for standing in a captured area, and you’ll earn twice as many points for populating a captured point, and defending it. In Objective, you can also revive downed players and you’ll earn Feats (like kill streak rewards) for what the team is calling Renown, which is basically being one of the better players on the field of battle.We had a chance to play as one character from all three factions -- Knights, Samurai and Vikings with mostly heavies on offer, as well as the Samurai’s Orochi class, which is essentially a more nimble assassin. You have endless run regardless of the archetype you play, and you can use the environment to your advantage. The Viking Warlord for example can run at their opponent and if timed correctly, you can grab them, lift them off the ground and essentially spear tackle them into the environment. Some spiked walls make this a dangerous move if you’re in the wrong position, while being anywhere near a ledge when a Warlord comes gunning for you could be one of your worst mistakes. Each character has the ability to use the environment in unique ways like this, and once the game is out in the wild it’s going to be interesting to see just how the community starts to utilise this ulterior form of offense.The game’s maps are all appropriately themed to the three factions, and they look stunning. As mentioned earlier, it’s all running off the Assassin’s Creed Anvil engine, which is quite old, but has arguably the best animation system going around. Each character feels like they have weight and purpose and combat offers a real sense of feedback as a result. I do feel the evade motion needs to be sped up, slightly. If only to give outnumbered players an out. It could even have a negative effect on your Renown, severely hampering your ability to call in Feats for running away like a coward, but if you need to choose between death (and therefore a respawn cooldown), or running away to regroup and restrategise how your next encounter is going to play out, then I’d be all over the latter. It would just be good to have the option, really.This was just a taste of the whole experience though, and we have another day here at Gamescom with more modes, including Duel which is a 1v1 affair where strategy and cat and mouse gameplay become a new way to play (it’s the best of five rounds with a larger emphasis on utilising the environment to your advantage). So we’ll have even more in-depth coverage of the rest of the unique new product from Ubisoft.For Honor is slated for release on February 14, 2016 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. |
On a lonely Friday night in Ripon, cookies rolled down the conveyer belt at Ripon’s main plant.
These were round, soft-baked peanut butter cookies, packaged eight to a container under the name “Smile & Save.”
But few inside the plant were smiling.
As these treats marched through ConAgra’s Ripon West plant on a conveyor belt last week Friday, none followed behind.
They were the last ever produced in Cookietown USA.
The cookie factory, opened in 1930, long has been a staple for the community.
Yet, 85 years later, current owner ConAgra announced last May it would be shutting down the plant.
It meant about 300 employees would lose their jobs; it meant a community known for the scent of cookies baking on a cold winter’s day would close a proud chapter in its history.
ConAgra officials announced production would cease over the winter. Last week, it became clear those final cookies would roll off the line last week Friday. |
We still don’t know what the Mercedes-AMG hypercar will look like, but we’re slowly learning more about its impressive features—a Formula One powertrain, a supposed 1,000 horsepower and an engine that revs to 11,000 RPM. But guess what! For the mere $3 million it costs, the engine will only last 31,000 miles.
According to Top Gear, Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers said the car, named the “Project One,” will cost £2.37 million including tax. At the current exchange rates, the car will be nearly $2.9 million once it goes on sale and will be on the streets by 2019. The manufacturer will only make 275 of them, and we should see the car at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
Here’s the fun—and kind of funny—part. The Project One hypercar’s 1.6-liter turbo V6 engine and four electric motors, which Moers told Autocar will power each of the front wheels, the crankshaft and the engine turbocharger, will only last 31,000 miles before needing a rework or a replacement. At least, that’s what Motoring says Moers told them.
Expensive stuff, that is.
But when you think about it, 31,000 miles don’t get put on these kinds of cars often. Plus, it’s not like every manufacturer jumps at the chance to tell people how long its performance engines last for comparison.
Advertisement
So, with the internet unable to give us an answer on how long comparable cars last and manufacturer representatives out of office for the Geneva Motor Show, we got creative and called up a McLaren service advisor at a U.S. dealership to ask about the engine life on the McLaren P1.
The service advisor told us that he’s seen P1 customer cars that are nearly four years old, and that they usually only have 4,000 to 5,000 miles on them since the hybrid supercar isn’t exactly a daily driver. He’s seen the odometers get up to 10,000 miles, all with no engine problems.
He did say that he’s seen McLaren 12Cs with upwards of 40,000 to 50,000 miles in the dealership, also without engine problems. For comparison to the Project One, the 12C was McLaren’s supercar for the regular wealthy rather than the super rich at under $300,000. It came with a race-inspired 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, and it wasn’t nearly the level of fancy this Mercedes hypercar should be.
Advertisement
But still, an engine replacement at 31,000 miles is just plain frightening for the common folk on this earth. We’re not the biggest fans of people who let their stupid-expensive performance cars sit in the garage every day, but at this cost, can we really blame them?
Update, March 11, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. ET: A McLaren spokesperson got back to us about the engine life on a car like the hybrid McLaren P1 supercar, which has a twin-turbo V8 alongside its electric motor and sells for well over $1 million.
The McLaren spokesperson says the company doesn’t have specific records on engine life of the P1, but that there’s a P1 that belonged to the McLaren press fleet while the car was still being manufactured. The car, McLaren says, has over 50,000 “seriously abusive” miles on it—and the “seriously abusive” part can definitely be expected from a press car—and that it is still “going strong with no major engine work beyond regular services.” |
Show full PR text RANGE ROVER NUMBER ONE FOR AUCTION
The first ever Range Rover, chassis number #001, will be going under the hammer in The Salon Privé Sale, hosted in partnership with Silverstone Auctions, in London on September 4th. This incredibly special car, estimated at between £100,000 and £140,000, was the first example of the iconic British SUV to roll of the production line back in 1969.
The Range Rover story begins in the 1960s when Rover acknowledged the demand for a new, more recreational type of off-road vehicle, and so development began in 1967 headed by Charles Spencer King.
This car was built between 24th November and 17th December 1969 before being registered on 2nd January 1970, nearly six months before the official launch date of the Range Rover. The first owner of the car was Michael Furlong, the producer of two promotional films for the model.
In 1975 the car, by this time re-sprayed in Bahama Gold, passed onto a new owner. Changes to registrations as well as colour meant that chassis number 001 was 'lost' for a number of years, passing through another owner, until discovery by the current vendor in the early 1990s. What followed was a professional, six year ground up restoration, both bodily and mechanically executed to an exceptional standard as well as taking it back to its original Olive Green colour.
Unusually, the vehicle retains all its "matching numbers" components; chassis, engine, gearbox, and axles, as well as the original aluminium bonnet, and the original body shell. In 1997 the DVLA reissued #001 with its original registration number 'YVB 151H'.
Speaking on the sale of this historical car, Nick Whale, Managing Director, Silverstone Auctions, said: "It's wonderful to be able to offer this iconic British model for auction at the UK's finest concours event. These cars are incredibly popular and we expect a significant amount of interest when it goes under the hammer."
Managing Director of Salon Privé, Andrew Bagley, added: "The Range Rover is a truly landmark British icon and I'm delighted that chassis number 001 will be joining us at such an internationally recognised British event."
For more information on the car please visit http://www.silverstoneauctions.com/1970-range-rover-chassis-no-1.
There's a scene in the Nicholas Cage version of Gone In 60 Seconds, where the lead car thief marches into a Ferrari dealership and laments a newer version of Maranello's finest, claiming he saw three outside his local Starbucks and calling their drivers "self-indulgent wieners," before talking about a 1967 275 GTB/4. The salesman rightly points out that purchasing such a car would make Cage's character a connoisseur. This is Land Rover's equivalent of that 275 – the very first Range Rover , wearing chassis number 001.The rare Land Rover is slated to cross the Silverstone Auctions' block on September 4, where it's expected to fetch anywhere from 100,000 to 140,000 pounds ($167,000 to $235,000 at today's rates).Built in late 1969, this particular example was registered some six months before the Range Rover's official launch date. It was considered "lost" until the 1990s, according to Silverstone, thanks in large part to a new Bahama Gold paint job and registration changes. Since its rediscovery, this numbers-matching SUV underwent a six-year, ground-up restoration.Take a look up top at our fully gallery of images of this rarity, and then scroll down for the press release. And if you happen to be in London in early September and have about $230,000 burning a hole in your pocket, pick this classic. Then head to Starbucks and show up the self-indulgent wieners of the world. |
We're taking a look at each position group as Alabama prepares to open spring practice next week. The second of a nine-part series looks at the running backs.
Projected depth chart
-- Damien Harris, junior, leading rusher in 2016 with 1,037 yards
-- Bo Scarbrough, junior, exploded late in the season in the SEC Championship, Peach Bowl and championship game.
-- Josh Jacobs, sophomore, the surprise of last season ran for 567 yards on 85 tries.
-- B.J. Emmons, sophomore, a season-ending injury limited this former five-star to 35 carries and 173 yards.
-- Najee Harris, freshman, early enrollee
-- Brian Robinson, freshman, early enrollee
Departed
-- Derrick Gore, 18 carries, 93 yards
Due to arrive in the fall
-- None
Outlook
This will be a fascinating group to track this spring and summer. It's hard to imagine a time with more talent assembled at this position, save for maybe the Mark Ingram-Trent Richardson-Eddie Lacy overlap in 2010.
This time, it's about the depth. There are four running backs who were five-star recruits in this group. Bo Scarbrough lived up to his hype as last season ended. Damien Harris was steady all season, quietly hitting the 1,000-yard mark. Jacobs and Emmons both showed real potential as freshmen.
Any of those four would almost certainly start at the vast majority of schools out there.
Now add one of the best overall recruits in the country.
Najee Harris enrolled this January as one of the more celebrated running backs in a program with a history of that. Brian Robinson, a four-star from Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa, also brings the kind of versatility Nick Saban likes in a running back.
It'll be interesting to see how things are divided on A-Day with young talent mixing with two established players and two rising sophomores. Saban has always made it clear that the best players would be on the field regardless of age. That was made clear last fall at quarterback.
Among the questions: Where do you draw the line in the rotation? Regardless, capable backs will be on the outside. That only makes the spring competition more intriguing.
The dynamic of new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and fewer established receiving targets will also be a factor here. Calvin Ridley is back, but receivers No. 2-4 (ArDarius Stewart, O.J. Howard and Gehrig Dieter) on the stat sheet are gone.
This was already a run-heavy offense and this legion of running backs would only strengthen the case to continue that trend. |
That is not the way Microsoft views things. Microsoft always assumes they can force everybody to use their latest OS release regardless of what users actually want and regardless of what the statistics say. Microsoft would love to hack themselves off from 98% of the market on the off chance a few users might switch to their products. I honestly could see Microsoft paying top dollar for Unity and then gutting the massive multi-platform advantage that Unity has.
Microsoft would not do it directly. They will do it in slow, subtle ways through a bunch of different seemingly trivial incompatibilities and dependencies. But eventually, Unity development will require the absolute latest version of Windows plus the absolute latest Microsoft development tools and we will no longer be able to fully target other platforms when building games. We'll all have to install Visual Studio Pro plus SQL Server. Even though nobody would need SQL Server, Microsoft will make some other piece of the software puzzle require SQL Server because that is Microsoft's constant pattern in the IT industry. Microsoft makes sure everything requires more Microsoft software in order to work. Eventually, Unity would require thousands of dollars worth of Microsoft software and require several hours of additional software installs on the latest Microsoft OS in order to work.
Ask anybody in the IT industry about how Microsoft operates and you will get a clear picture of what Microsoft would likely do with Unity if given the chance.
Click to expand... |
Ernie Cline is running 20 minutes late.
Finally, he finds a parking spot and slides in his 1982 DeLorean, its sides emblazoned with the Ghostbusters logo and a license plate that reads ECTO88. Virtual reality and gaming buffs might recognize it as protagonist Wade Watts’ car from Cline’s breakout novel Ready Player One.
“It’s bad form to show up late in a time machine,” he says. “What’s your excuse, dude?”
Ready Player One was published in 2011, when lifelike virtual reality still felt like a distant conquest. It imagines a dystopia where most of its characters live in poverty and see the OASIS, a vast world accessible through virtual reality goggles, as an escape from their true reality.
“Ready Player One” was published in 2011, when virtual reality still felt distant.
Cline began brainstorming Ready Player One in 2001, when he asked himself what would if happen if Willy Wonka was a video game designer. James Halliday, the eccentric billionaire who offers up his fortune to whoever solves his geek-tastic 1980s-inspired treasure hunt in the OASIS, is one part Wonka and one part virtual reality pioneer John Carmack. That makes Watts Charlie Bucket.
A Mass Consensual Hallucination
Back in 2001, consumer virtual reality was just a dream that had been dead since the early 1990s. Cline had to turn to the military to see a modern version of it. He drew on science fiction classics like Snow Crash and Neuromancer to build out his vision of the OASIS metaverse. Like the OASIS itself, Ready Player One is built from a mashup of previous cultural works.
“(Creating the OASIS was) very easy when you’re just thinking about the future of video games,” Cline said. “When you’re out on the internet now, it’s not a 3D space, but it kind of is. Websites are like planets. There are virtual realities popping up to serve different fanbases. Can you imagine Hogwarts? If you could teach different classes in that setting, how much more engaging it would be?”
The OASIS abruptly came within reach in 2012, when Oculus announced the Rift headset on Kickstarter. Founder Palmer Luckey built the first versions in a trailer in his parent’s driveway as a teen. Like Watts, who uses his knowledge of ’80s video games and movies to solve Ready Player One‘s puzzles, Luckey was a kid with the time and passion to do something many others thought to be impossible.
Cline was invited to the company’s headquarters, where he finally got his first taste of modern VR. He remembers snow falling around him in the virtual world as the Oculus team stood nearby. He could see that it would change everything.
It’s funny talking to Cline about virtual reality. He’s such a diehard gamer that he almost doesn’t seem to care about virtual reality technology itself. For him, it’s more an obvious progression for gaming. To him, humans have been creating online worlds for themselves since the very first video game consoles, when two friends could sit next to each other and interact on a screen. We have always been seeking to immerse ourselves in alternate realities; this is just the ultimate form.
“Up until now, our whole experience has been through a two-dimensional screen,” Cline said, continuing:
This is not the human experience. The human experience is 360 degrees, and all your senses immersed. Role playing games are a simulation for all the stuff we’re wired up by evolution to do, which is hunt and form teams and tribes. It simulates all this stuff you’re hardwired to do, but you don’t do it. You sit in a car or in a cubicle.
One Virtual World, Or Many?
There’s no doubt that gaming will have a place in virtual reality. Oculus was born in pursuit of immersive video games. But will there be an OASIS, an alternate world where Earth’s people congregate in the form of avatars?
Cline thinks so, but he is uncertain if it will take the form of one all-encompassing galaxy like OASIS. He pointed to media libraries like Amazon and Hulu, which would make a lot more sense as one giant service. But maybe it would be too much power to concentrate access in the hands of one company. The whole point of Ready Player One is a battle between OASIS advocates like Watts and a mega-corporation battling to gain control.
“If it’s one place it has a lot of power, the way Facebook has a lot of power, the way Google has a lot of power,” Cline said. “If the whole world is there, it has a lot of value. If there is a truly free … virtual world that is democratic and free, that’s the one that will prevail.”
Ernie Cline’s 1982 DeLorean is a replica of the car “Ready Player One” protagonist Wade Watts drives in the OASIS after he becomes rich.
No matter what the metaverse looks like, we are apt to find ourselves there someday, whether it is to access a classroom or play a vintage gaming simulator with a friend across the world. And like (spoiler alert) Watts’ friends Art3mis and Aech in the OASIS, we will experiment with new identities. Cline said people already do this today—they go online and explore how people react to different representations. They cast off the body their parents gave them and assume something new, even if only for a little while.
“Video games in virtual reality, it’s all changing the course of human evolution right now,” Cline said. “It’s changing how we interact, and communicate and collaborate with everyone all the time.”
At the same time, Cline described leaving his home state of Ohio and realizing that his “weird childhood” wasn’t so weird. He might have felt geeky and awkward as a kid, but there are people around the world who felt the same way. We’re not as strange as we think, and there is a new virtual landscape to help us explore that.
Photos of Ernie Cline by Signe Brewster for ReadWrite; photo of Oculus Rift by Sergey Galyonkin |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.