text
stringlengths 316
100k
|
|---|
MAKING POLITICAL PREDICTIONS in India is risky. The ruling party in Delhi often suffers so many setbacks that it is hard to believe voters will support it again. So it was with Congress in 2009, yet to general surprise it was re-elected with a bigger mandate than before. Explanations varied: urban voters liked rapid growth; rural ones were impressed by new welfare measures; allies flourished in the south and Congress roared in big Andhra Pradesh; perhaps people distrusted the opposition BJP’s candidates, such as Narendra Modi (see article).
Almost any explanation, and its opposite, could be right. Politics in India is big and messy: hundreds of millions of voters, from vastly different backgrounds, are bound to hold widely divergent views. Concerns at local and state level often trump national ones, and national affairs can appear as an amalgam of assorted local rivalries.
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks.
The next general election is in 2014, unless Congress is forced out sooner. The party’s electoral prospects look poor. Mr Singh, once a model of rectitude, is tarnished by presiding over the most corrupt government in India’s independent history. And although he had a hard-won reputation for good economic management, his new efforts to reform are unlikely to win much support from the public.
As usual, the ruling party has been thumped in big states. Andhra Pradesh provided more Congress MPs in 2009 than any other state, but now a local leader’s desertion has shattered the party there. Congress has also done badly in massive Uttar Pradesh (UP), earning only a poor fourth place in the state election there this year.
Rahul Gandhi—the son, grandson and great-grandson of prime ministers—was by now supposed to be reviving the party, or preparing to assume high office. But having led a dreadful campaign for Congress in UP, he seems to have lost his nerve. No one really knows what he stands for or whether he can lead. Nobody ever gets to interview either him or his mother, Sonia, the party president. But that looks like a defensive strategy, and meanwhile no other young leaders can rise.
Sachin Pilot, a junior minister and loyal friend of the Gandhis, says that analysis is unfair. Mr Gandhi’s restraint in reaching for power is admirable, he says, and no rising stars are being held back. Other observers are more sceptical. “Rahul Gandhi intrinsically doesn’t want it. A level of detachment is built into his personality,” says a Congress leader.
The Gandhi dynasty still holds together Congress (which lacks much ideology beyond broad secularism) and helps to settle leadership spats. But it matters less and less to voters. Regional dynasties, with power and money to spread around their states, are in the ascendant. Without their own state as a fief, the Gandhis look unrooted. A newspaper editor in Delhi thinks India is getting ready “to make the Gandhi family irrelevant”.
The crumb of hope for Congress is that the national alternatives are weak. Arun Jaitley, head of the BJP in parliament’s upper house, says the party has a “galaxy of leaders” for 2014. But they are really a collection of regional leaders, and the BJP is unsure of its ideology, having toned down its earlier, odious, form of Hindu nationalism but also muddied its old pro-market stance. It gets little support in India’s south, east or north-east.
The party tries hard to be seen as fighting corruption, yet projecting itself as clean is tricky. It has had its share of scams and crookedness, notably in the southern state of Karnataka, and it lacks ideas for making things better. It opportunistically backed Anna Hazare, an anti-graft campaigner, when he became popular, but not his plans for a powerful anti-graft ombudsman.
Smaller national parties do not look promising. Ramachandra Guha, the historian, thinks a national two-party system as in America would raise standards. The lesson from India’s states, too, is that a regular alternation of parties in power tends to deliver the best results. This happens in Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south and Himachal Pradesh and Punjab in the north. As parties compete to offer better public services and other social goods, things like literacy, the position of women and infant-mortality rates improve.
Think local
Regional parties fill the gap. Usually built around a charismatic individual who becomes a state’s chief minister, they matter, wielding near-presidential power over a territory that often has a country-sized population. These states control roughly half of all India’s public spending. The most prosperous ones, which rely least on Delhi for discretionary funds, throw up the strongest leaders, who often influence what happens in Delhi too.
What is new is the arrival of floating middle-class voters who swing between parties depending on how they perform, not on promises of rewards for their group
The mightiest satraps pay the least attention to national parties. They include three women: Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, Jayaram Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu and Mayawati, a Dalit (the lowest caste) who ruled UP until earlier this year. The others are Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav and family in UP, Mr Modi in Gujarat and Sharad Pawar, an ally of Congress in Maharashtra and nationally. They run some of India’s wealthiest states and preside over more than 600m people. They are unlikely to unite as a coherent third force of politics, but have great veto power over national matters.
Yet some voters are beginning to drift away from the rigid identity politics of old. Nationally, Congress still gathers in the Muslim and the more secular Hindu votes and the BJP the more fervent Hindus, and caste still counts: Mayawati relies on Dalit votes and the Yadav family on middle-ranking castes and Muslims in UP. Leaders, in turn, reward favoured groups, sometimes referred to as “vote banks”, with government jobs, education quotas and other handouts.
What is new is the arrival of a group of floating middle-class voters who swing between parties depending on how they perform, not on promises of rewards for their particular group. Mostly young, urban, literate, mobile and privately employed, they are increasingly well-informed thanks to cable news, social media and mobile phones.
For now they are in a minority, but they will increase as cities expand and schooling improves. Around 100m voters in 2014 will be first-timers. “Young India wants good policy. It wants a good job, education,” says a high-profile Congress figure in Mumbai. Another government leader calls the middle class a new “caste”. He reckons it is the single most cheering thing in Indian politics.
These voters may be starting to decide results. For evidence, look at Mr Kumar’s triumphant re-election in Bihar in late 2010. Caste was still a factor, but voters overwhelmingly rewarded him for delivering better roads, schools and hospitals, improving law and order and lifting the economy. Mr Modi keeps being re-elected in Gujarat mostly because he runs the place efficiently.
The chief minister of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh, says that voters re-elect him because their incomes are rising and public services are getting better. He identifies, especially, the more transparent and efficient delivery of food rations to the poor, thanks to computerisation and the spread of ID cards.
If holding leaders accountable for their performance becomes a national habit, it will be in part because of an explosion in television watching. Rajdeep Sardesai, a leading news presenter and editor since the 1990s, says India now has 365 round-the-clock satellite channels, as well as many city-based and cable ones. Television helps shape reactions to national issues such as corruption. Mr Hazare’s dramatic street campaign and public fasts were made for TV and earned non-stop live cable-news coverage. Mr Sardesai thinks TV lets voters “vent anger against the system” and judge leaders from close by, but worries that it might lead to “public hatred of politics”.
Such hatred would be understandable because much of Indian politics is rotten. A series of outrageous scams (see table 1) has left voters resentful at the huge losses of revenue involved, especially as a tiny minority grew rich beyond the dreams of avarice. The billionaires too often flourish thanks to political connections and access to natural resources, land and public goods such as telecoms spectrum. Growing inequality spreads dismay.
India may be passing through an American-style robber-baron phase, driven by a commodity boom and a shift from a closed to an open economy. Gloomier commentators see an outright Russian-style kleptocracy. “We are creating an oligarchy,” sighs a commentator in Delhi. A leading Congress figure rails that “there are no audits of political parties. There is such a deep nexus of property and political funding. Many political leaders are sustained only because they have huge war chests.”
In UP one politician was recently filmed telling officials it was acceptable to steal, and several ministers were sacked earlier this year for pocketing $1.2 billion from a scheme supposed to help sick villagers. A political party is said to clear business projects in exchange for 30% equity in them. One satrap is believed to have become the biggest property developer in India.
The costs are real. A power minister in one state reportedly tried to close functioning power stations so he could take a cut when pricier electricity was imported instead. India’s new airports, irrigation schemes and toll roads are typically overpriced and often late because they are built by firms with political ties.
Politicians want the lifestyle enjoyed by the country’s billionaires, but parties also raise huge quantities of cash to win elections. Voting in India is generally clean and honest, but the campaigning is expensive and dirty. And everything is big. A typical MP in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the national parliament, has to woo around 1m voters.
Even state assemblymen have massive constituencies. Money is needed for the usual stuff: posters, rallies, trips to villages, local organisers and the like. In India many voters in tight races also expect pre-election goodies, so politicians regularly dish out cash, TVs, food mixers, saris, rice, whisky and even, in Punjab this year, heroin. Official limits on party spending are universally flouted. Even the limited hope of letting private donors and parties maintain their close relations but making them transparent, as in America, seems forlorn at the moment.
More likely, politics will become cleaner if and when India’s economy shifts away from a system in which politicians allocate public goods. More wealth created by entrepreneurs, innovators and manufacturers might loosen political ties. But such changes will take time. |
The Bernie Sanders campaign is in crisis! Or so the narrative goes. A small number of Sanders supporters lodged death threats against Nevada Democratic Chairwoman Roberta Lange. That’s abhorrent and, as recent days’ wall-to-wall reporting makes clear, not good for the Sanders campaign. Sanders condemnation of the threats, however, hasn’t stymied the deluge of stories and commentaries suggesting that he is set to run the party into electoral oblivion, that his supporters are a dangerous mob, and that, as the Nevada Democratic Party put it, the campaign is not only “inciting” violence but has a “penchant for…actual violence.”
Conflating an entire protest movement with the actions of a few is a longstanding delegitimization strategy, and protesters always look more agitated than whoever they are protesting: the establishment, after all, exercises its power from a position of power. In the current primary, the establishment has deployed this strategy ever since the first bad person who happens to support Sanders found out about Twitter.
Advertisement:
After the Nevada incident, Jezebel’s Anna Merlan had a smart journalistic idea: pick up the phone and call the threat makers. She connected with three people. One was apologetic and felt like a jerk. Another couple, who meanly predicted that Lange would lose her job but were not accused of making threats, was not apologetic. The third person, who sent a particularly creepy text about knowing where Lange lived and who her family was, seemed like he had significant psychological problems.
The actual fracas at the Nevada convention, a fight over arcane rules and the seating of delegates that involved both sides attempting to out-game the other, highlights the frustration and anger that pervade the Sanders camp. The response to it, mournful eulogies to Sanders’ squandered promise written by people who never liked him anyway, evinces its counterpoint: the Democratic Party’s panic rising alongside its concern over Donald Trump’s swing-state poll numbers.
Generally, the tone of media coverage conveys a sense that Sanders is in some sort of meltdown. The dire words, however, are actually just bouncing out to you from an echo chamber: In reality, Sanders has been closing the gap in California and is still nipping at Clinton’s heels in national polls. He will almost certainly not win. But for an insurgent candidate who has won far more than anyone ever imagined, charging through its final month, he’s doing just fine.
A Washington Post headline blaring that “liberal allies” were “turning on Bernie Sanders after Nevada donnybrook” was a case in point for misleading reporting. James Hohmann wrote that the incident “has been a wake-up call for many liberal commentators, who have viewed Bernie positively because of his success at pulling Hillary to the left. But a new mindset has begun to take hold: If Trump becomes president, Sanders will deserve a big share of the blame.”
The “new idea” that Sanders will be blamed for a Trump victory is not, in fact, new. Rather, it’s so predictable that I already predicted it: the Democratic establishment will always try to blame the left for its problems (see McGovern, Nader and, voila, Sanders).
And those liberal allies who have suddenly gone sour? Cited figures include Dana Houle, a Clinton supporter who had criticized Sanders’ visit to the Vatican because of the role played by people who lack “communion with and allegiance to the Catholic Church” (how progressive!). And Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum who, despite writing for a magazine named for a left-wing labor radical, is in reality a longstanding Sanders critic who has charged that his social democratic spending plans are “not even remotely in the realm of reality.”
Advertisement:
Sanders opponents in the punditocracy greatly outnumber sympathizers, and the Nevada contretemps provides the latest opportunity for them to smear supporters as unhinged bros and to browbeat Sanders into becoming a loyal Clinton lieutenant—all before Californians have cast their ballots.
Unsettling poll numbers show a strong Trump challenge in Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Democrats worry he may successfully pursue a Rust Belt strategy aimed at downwardly mobile white men. And so allies of Clinton, who just barely trails Trump in this unpopularity contest, are fixing their sites on Sanders.
More specifically, the Nevada fracas has been seized upon as a dire prelude to convention disorder in Philadelphia: Sanders, the charge goes, is dishonestly selling voters on an impossible victory and delegitimizing the process.
There will be protests at the Democratic National Convention regardless of what Sanders says. Leftist activists have long staged protests outside both major parties’ political convention. Sixteen years ago, an LAPD officer’s club cracked my rib at one of them. Whether there are major disruptions inside the convention, however, appears to be largely within DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s control. Making two outspoken Clinton stalwarts, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy and former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, chairs of the platform and rules committees, is not a signal of inclusion. It’s courting disaster.
Advertisement:
Conspiracy theories about the election being stolen have credence among Sanders supporters. Sanders fans must accept that democratic socialism is on the rise but this year wasn’t its moment: Clinton simply won more people over this time. Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. But it’s also true, generally speaking, that conspiracy theories flourish where power is perceived to be illegitimate and nontransparent. The Sanders camp won’t be disabused of the notion that the process has been stacked against him. It has been. Clinton’s aura of inevitability sometimes worked to Sanders’ advantage, allowing early victories to become major news items in part because they were so surprising. Yet overall the superdelegate-abetted Clinton coronation worked strongly against him: Democratic voters are extremely concerned about electability and most believed that Clinton, despite polling to the contrary, was the person best poised to beat Republicans.
The coming months will pose difficult challenges without easy answers. Sanders must help lead his movement through a heartbreaking loss, keeping it alive and independent while fighting efforts to frame him as a sore loser. This week’s onslaught, the ugliest of the primary, are just a taste of what’s to come if he maintains any sort of critical distance from Clinton during the general election. That said, there’s no indication or evidence that the media’s concern for Sanders’ future is in any way shared by his followers.
Sanders has a lot of responsibility. But not in the way the establishment thinks. Sanders can’t make anyone vote for Clinton. She is the one who has to win them over. If pivoting toward the general election means the DNC insulting Sanders supporters and the Clinton campaign constantly telegraphing to reporters that they plan to take Sanders fans for granted, then she will have a harder time doing so. |
WASHINGTON -- Men continue to take a bigger hit in their paychecks than women because of lingering effects of the Great Recession, according to a study by the Conference Board.
Average wages for women remain lower than those for their male counterparts, by nearly 20%. But men's wages have been much slower to rebound from the effects of the recession, which had its most severe impact on male-dominated industries, such as construction, the study found.
Although the recession technically ended in 2009, men’s wage growth had rebounded to half the average rate of the previous decade by last year. Meanwhile, the growth in wages for women had almost fully recovered, the study said.
The findings came as the Obama administration has sparred with the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in recent weeks about which gender has suffered more in the down economy. |
Arsenal and Chilean international attacking midfielder Alexis Sanchez has been named the PFA Fans’ Player of the Season. Over 200,000 votes were cast since the final ten man shortlist was announced at the start of this month and Sanchez beat off competition from Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard who finished second and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero who finished third to take the award.
The Arsenal midfielder has enjoyed an outstanding first season in English football scoring 16 goals and providing eight assists for his team-mates in 35 appearances. Sanchez helped Arsenal finish in 3rd place in the Premier League to ensure Arsene Wenger’s side qualified directly for the Champions League group stages next season. Sanchez also scored both goals in the FA Cup Semi-final against Reading and he has the chance to end his first season in English football with silverware if Arsenal can beat Aston Villa at Wembley on Saturday evening and retain the FA Cup.
Sanchez has continued to score consistently throughout the season scoring braces in the victories over Sunderland, Burnley and Stoke as well as goals against Manchester City and Liverpool. A player with great technique, he has played out wide as well as through the middle for Arsenal this season and has scored goals from both inside and outside the box. Sanchez was deservedly named the PFA Fans’ Player of the month in October in which he scored three goals and one assist and his fine form for Arsenal also saw him included in the PFA Premier League team of the year.
The PFA Fans’ Player awards are designed to give a strong voice to the supporters who are the lifeblood of the game. The awards are endorsed by the players and supported by the clubs. One lucky fan voter will be chosen to present Sanchez with the award in person at an Arsenal home game next season.
Source: DSG |
Gamespot’s Scott Butterworth rolled out a hands-on preview of Doom VR, the upcoming VR iteration of the 2016 release of Doom from id Software and Bethesda. The 740 word preview published on August 8th, 2016 titled “Doom May Have Solved VR’s Traversal Problem” was based on an early build that was showcased at this year’s QuakeCon. The preview garnered some interesting feedback from the community.
While a lot of gamers were disappointed that VR seems to be moving into a more restricted and less dynamic environment for interactivity, others actually wanted to see more if the game. One user, amaneuvering, was a little annoyed that there was an entire preview about Doom VR but nothing visual to convey what the experience was like, writing…
“[…] Well, I’m not blaming you guys. It’s just annoying as hell that the developers give you the chance to actually play the thing firsthand but don’t see fit to even let us see some footage of the game. We’re the ones paying their wages at the end of the day, almost like glorified shareholders, and I think that more important than sucking up to game journalists they should maybe think about what their actual customers might appreciate.”
Butterworth replied, explaining it’s incredibly difficult to capture VR footage from VR headsets and that it isn’t worth the time or resources, and then follows up that point by stating…
“Second–and I cannot stress this enough–you are absolutely nothing like a shareholder in this situation. In fact, you’re not even a customer yet, you’re just a *potential* customer. At this point, you are entitled to absolutely nothing. Even if you’ve purchased games from Bethesda in the past, they’re not beholden to you in perpetuity. You purchased a commercial product, not corporate influence. Eating at a restaurant once doesn’t mean you get to wander into kitchen the next day and demand they change the menu. I would strongly caution you away from this entitled attitude because I promise, the developers don’t owe you a damn thing.”
Developers don’t owe customers anything but a working product. However, they definitely owe them something worth getting excited about otherwise they won’t have customers, and without customers you don’t have revenue, and without revenue you don’t hit profit margins, and without profit margins you lose your shareholders. So, technically, customers are a heck of a lot more important than shareholders.
Additionally, a potential customer is exactly who previews are supposed to be made for. If Butterworth is indignant over someone reading a preview and asking for more information, then he’s obviously not writing for gamers.
Perhaps they should add disclosures at the top of some previews letting people know it’s only for corporate shareholders and investors?
That’s not to mention that someone interested in a game and requesting more information so they can make an informed purchasing decision is not being entitled, it’s called being an educated consumer.
But even more than that, there is already footage up and available on YouTube from customers who bought and paid for Doom and bought and paid for an HTC Vive. You can see what it looks like in the video below from YouTube user SorryAboutYourCats.
Now keep in mind this is not Doom VR but simply the 2016 release of Doom. It’s to show that if the average user can rig up recording software to record the gameplay experience, it doesn’t make sense why a major gaming publication can’t.
Anyway, this is just another instance in the media thinking more highly of their position than what it’s actually worth. Their only value to gamers is in bridging information from publishers and developers to readers. A journalist’s job is not to assiduously work PR for the publisher, nor is their job to tell customers what information they shouldn’t be requesting, because at the end of the day every customer should be asking for as much information as possible in order to make the most informed purchasing decision possible.
More than anything, journalists should be encouraging readers to ask, to pry and to want more information because an informed customer is more likely to return to a media outlet that they trust as opposed to a media outlet that tells them that they’re entitled and goes on a tirade about the importance of shareholders and corporate resource protection.
Sadly, this is the very same attitude that led up to instances like #GamerGate happening in the first place. |
Legendary cult filmmaker and Full Moon Entertainment founder Charles Band is thrilled to present his new series RAVENWOLF TOWERS, which he describes as a “love letter to Full Moon fans past and present”.
The chilling, seven-part horror series is directed and produced by Band, who will release one episode every full moon, beginning December 13th. And as a bonus for Full Moon film fanatics, embedded within each weird and wicked episode of the series, Band has found novel ways to re-introduce some of Full Moon’s most famous and feared characters and creatures into the narrative.
Full Moon Entertainment will release RAVENWOLF TOWERS on their Amazon Channel, at FullMoonStreaming.com and on DVD. The first episode, titled Bad Mary, will debut on December 13.
And as a premium for customers who order the DVD, Band has committed to personally signing every copy sold.
Synopsis:
RAVENWOLF TOWERS, the dark saga of a family of incestuous lunatics lording over the remains of a looming, formerly opulent and now dilapidated Hollywood hotel.
Like a cross between Jack Hill’s 1964 Gothic shocker SPIDER-BABY and Dan Curtis’ beloved horror soap opera DARK SHADOWS, RAVENWOLF TOWERS follows the gruesome and bizarre adventures of Jake, the new assistant manager at ‘The Towers’ who is soon subject to the horror at the heart of the building: guests disappear without a trace, mad doctors meddle with madder science, degenerate monsters lurking around every corner and a beautiful woman who may be a distressed damsel in need of saving…or just might be the most terrifying resident of RAVENWOLF TOWERS.
At the center of it all is the spastic, inbred clan whose minds have become irrevocably warped as they live, love, die and commit all manner of sin within the walls of ‘The Towers’. |
Spread the love
Justice Department officials said it is not their job to notify prisoners that they might be incarcerated for something that they now concede is not a crime.
Elizabethtown, NC – There are over 60 people sitting in jail in North Carolina right now despite the fact that they have been declared innocent in court, according to a recent USA Today investigation. Some of the prisoners are totally unaware of the legal status of their case and don’t even know that they have been declared innocent, so many of them are not even fighting for their freedom.
The investigation found dozens of cases where men have been sent to jail for nonviolent gun possession offenses, yet it was not illegal for them to have a gun. All of the cases in question result from a legal misunderstanding that has allowed police and prosecutors to throw people in jail for exersizing their right to bear arms.
It is a federal crime for felons to possess firearms, and while all of the men arrested under these laws did have criminal records, they were not technically felons. This detail was specifically codified after the cases in question were decided, so as far as the court is concerned, the prisoners were still guilty of a crime.
USA today reports:
Justice Department officials said it is not their job to notify prisoners that they might be incarcerated for something that they now concede is not a crime. And although they have agreed in court filings that the men are innocent, they said they must still comply with federal laws that put strict limits on when and how people can challenge their convictions in court.
The courts are now afraid to overturn the rulings because then they would be setting a precedent for other inmates to challenge their own imprisonment.
“We can’t be outcome driven. We’ve got to make sure we follow the law, and people should want us to do that. [We are] looking diligently for ways, within the confines of the law, to recommend relief for defendants who are legally innocent,” Anne Tompkins, the U.S. attorney in Charlotte told reporters.
However, many legal experts are saying that the government has a responsibility to overturn these rulings and inform the prisoners about the status of their cases.
“If someone is innocent, I would think that would change the government’s reaction, and it’s sad that it hasn’t. I have trouble figuring out how you rationalize this. These are innocent people. That has to matter at some point,” Debra Graves, an assistant federal public defender in Raleigh said.
Sadly the rusty cogs of the bureaucracy turn at such a rate that “justice” is a but a pipe dream for most. The system would rather keep innocent people locked away than admit a mistake.
John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work he organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com. |
Prosecutors have indicted 214 people on felony rioting charges in connection to protests that broke out in downtown Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.
Police originally arrested 230 people after demonstrators smashed storefronts and bus stops, launched rocks at police and set fire to a limousine on January 20.
Six police officers were injured as chaos erupted in parts of the capital, just blocks away from where Donald Trump was being sworn in as president.
A grand jury in DC charged five individuals on Tuesday, adding to the 209 defendants who were indicted earlier this month.
Those who have been indicted face up to ten years in prison and a fine up to $25,000.
A grand jury in Washington, DC, charged five individuals on Tuesday in connection to protests that broke out on Inauguration day. Another 209 defendants were indicted on rioting charges earlier this month
Police originally arrested 230 people and charged them with felony rioting after protesters smashed storefronts and bus stops, launched rocks at police and set fire to a limousine on January 20
The US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia also announced on Tuesday that it was dropping three more cases.
The office did not say why the cases were dismissed but prosecutors have said they're working with police to review evidence related to the Inauguration Day arrests.
Some of the dismissed cases have involved journalists arrested while chronicling the actions of a group of self-described anarchists.
The indictment accuses the 209 charged of using a tactic called ‘Black Bloc’ to conceal their identities by wearing black clothing and face coverings, according to CNN.
The rioters destroyed a government vehicle, assaulted a limousine driver, smashed storefront windows and committed ‘violent and destructive acts’, according to the indictment.
Just before the Inauguration Day parade started, clashes broke out between more than 400 stone-throwing protesters and riot police in McPherson Square - just blocks from the parade in honor of newly sworn-in president.
The protest broke out just blocks from where President Donald Trump was being inaugurated (pictured above)
The US Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia also announced on Tuesday that it was dropping three more cases, but did not give reason as to why the cases were being dropped
As Trump's motorcade wound its way up Pennsylvania Avenue in the parade to the White House, protesters also descended on Franklin Square Park where they graffitied a stretch limo before setting the vehicle ablaze right outside the Washington Post building.
Court paperwork from January suggests the group of rioters did more than $100,000 in damage.
Those who have been charged had their phones seized by DC Police, who have been holding on to the devices since the arrests.
Some individuals have been targeted as part of a social media investigation into their Facebook activity by police.
A search warrant would allow Facebook to give away information including 'messages, photos, videos, timeline posts, and location information', according to Facebook's guidelines.
A subpoena would include the person's 'name, length of service, credit card information, email address(es), and a recent login/logout IP address(es)'.
IP data points could show where the suspects were the day of the protests. |
Now that we have passed the Galaxy S6 unveiling from Samsung, it is official that the Korea-based company opted to use in-house Exynos silicon to power its two newest flagship devices, instead of contracting out the job to San Diego-based Qualcomm for its Snapdragon 810 chipset.
What makes the situation important were the early reports that devices running the Snapdragon 810 were seeing overheating issues, with LG coming right out and denying the reports completely. However, whatever the case may be, Qualcomm lost its chance to power the newest Samsung devices, and now we are left with a new 64-bit octa-core Exynos processor inside both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.
From early benchmarks we are seeing, the Exynos-powered GS6 and GS6 Edge are dominating, easily beating out the One M9 and its Snapdragon. Although, HTC would likely chalk up any losses to those benchmarks being ran on “unfinished software.”
Samsung’s own JK Shin weighed in on the decision, reassuring the press that relations between Samsung and Qualcomm are still good. In fact, Shin claims the move was made to decrease Samsung’s dependency on other companies, and that if Qualcomm’s chips are good enough, Samsung would use them.
Speaking to the press, Shin stated, “Samsung previously used more Qualcomm mobile processors. But we are flexible. If Qualcomm chips are good enough, then we will use them. Samsung always uses the best-quality components and materials to differentiate our products from those by rivals.
From what we can tell so far, Samsung made the right call by using its own Exynos processor, especially when seeing countless videos of TouchWiz flying when compared to previous iterations. As far as average end users are concerned, the difference between Snapdragon 810 and Exynos chips will go unnoticed, so for now, we can assume Samsung only had consumers in mind when making this decision. |
Tom Hardy is a busy man: He’s currently headlining TV period drama Taboo (which he co-created with his father and his Locke director Steven Knight); he’s about to star in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming World War II epic Dunkirk; and he’s also contending with rumors about a sequel to 2015’s stellar Mad Max: Fury Road as well as a possible desire to take the reins of the James Bond franchise. It’s a lot for any actor to shoulder, and as Hardy recently revealed, it’s been made more difficult by the physical toll that some of his prior roles have taken on his body.
Related: Tom Hardy Costars in ‘London Road,’ a Serial Killer Movie That May Have Been the Fall’s Most Unusual Movie
Speaking to Marlow Stern for The Daily Beast, Hardy, 39, discussed the cost of significantly bulking up for his work as a notorious real-life criminal in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2008 gem Bronson, and as the burly villain Bane in Nolan’s 2012 trilogy-capper The Dark Knight Rises:
“I think you pay the price with any drastic physical changes. It was alright when I was younger, to put myself under that kind of duress, but I think as you get into your 40s you have to be more mindful of the rapid training, packing on a lot of weight and getting physical, and then not having enough time to keep training because you’re busy filming, so your body is swimming in two different directions at the same time. And then after the film I’m tired, and you maybe have to change your shape again and go back to your normal size for the next film. To go from one extreme to another has a cost. I haven’t damaged my body, but I’m certainly a bit achier than I used to be! I kind of miss it.”
Related: Double Duty: Tom Hardy and Other Actors Who’ve Played Identical Twins
Back in 2011, Hardy said that he planned to put on about 30 pounds to play the Batman villain. Still, he makes it clear that, even with all the added pounds put on to play Bane, he’s still not in the same body-transformation league as his Dark Knight Rises co-star, who’s famous for having radically shed (The Machinist) and gained (American Hustle) weight for roles:
“Compared to Christian Bale, I’ve been by no means extreme in my body changes, but for what little I’ve done, yeah, I certainly have joints that click that probably shouldn’t click, you know what I mean? And carrying my children is a little bit harder than it used to be — but don’t tell them!”
Related: Tom Hiddleston and These 6 Actors Want to Be James Bond
View photos Tom Hardy in ‘Bronson’ (Photo: Everett) More
To read more of the actor’s thoughts on his physically taxing prior roles, his feelings about potentially stepping into 007’s shoes, and his plans to star as Al Capone in an upcoming drama from director Josh Trank (Fantastic Four), click over to the full Daily Beast article. Hardy’s Taboo is currently airing on FX, and Dunkirk storms theaters nationwide on July 21.
‘Dunkirk’: Watch a trailer: |
Written By: Mathew ‘JJ’ Simoes
Get ready Wes Anderson fans. Today, we can confirm that (thanks to Trailer Track) the first trailer for Anderson’s Isle of Dogs will debut this week with The Lego Ninjago Movie and will also appear online not long after.
The film comes four years after Anderson’s critically acclaimed The Grand Budapest Hotel and will be set in Japan and follow the journey of a young boy in search of his dog.
The stop motion film will star Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Jeff Goldblum, F. Murray Abraham, Tilda Swinton, Kunichi Nomura, Bob Balaban, Harvey Keitel, Yoko Ono, Greta Gerwig, Courtney B. Vance, Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, and Scarlett Johansson.
Isle of Dogs premieres in theatres on March 23, 2018.
Advertisements
Like this: Like Loading... |
Is there a more syrupy genre than the commencement speech? Having had the opportunity to deliver one in person, I can report that once you accept the honor and present yourself, becapped and begowned, in front of the newly minted grads, you are already poised and primed to lie. Anything else would be a stretch: You would have to be a meanie to tell these plump youngsters anything resembling the truth, which is always too thorny and complicated and dark to deliver while Mom and Dad are beaming from the back rows, awaiting the celebratory graduation lunch.
And so this week, as school comes to an end, I want to deliver a different kind of address, not to those leaving college with pomp and circumstance at their backs but to those bedraggled souls staying behind. You young scholars are Rapunzeled atop the Ivory Tower for some years to come and so could benefit from a dispatch that has little of the swishy beauty of the commencement speech but is more accurate and direct. Here it is, short and unadorned: Things on the quad are pretty grim.
I’ll spare you the outrage over trigger warnings and micro-aggressions and the other forms of butchery the barbarians inside the universities’ gates perpetrate daily against free inquiry, free speech, and other expressions of liberty. Instead, I wish to speak to and about that most at-risk population currently on campus: young Jews.
You hardly need me, friends, to tell you that anti-Semitism on American campuses is spiking; half of you, according to a recent report, personally experienced or witnessed it firsthand. What you may need is a solid bit of advice about what to do—what to do when fellow students send mock eviction notices to your dorm; what to do when a professor opines that “justice and freedom for the Palestinians is incompatible with the existence of the state of Israel”; what to do when even the most genial of your peers fail to understand why you would ever consider supporting Zionism when it, by seemingly universal consensus, is little more than a colonialist, racist, oppressive ideology that is better eradicated than understood.
I can answer this question, not only because I’ve spent the lion’s share of the past two decades on college campuses—first as a graduate student, then as a professor—but also because I’ve been terribly, horribly, utterly wrong about it before, earning me, I hope, the sort of wisdom that comes only from repentance. In 2004, working as a journalist for another Jewish publication and struggling with my doctoral dissertation at Columbia University, I was invited to watch a documentary film that alleged widespread and systemic anti-Israeli bias among some of the university’s professors of Middle Eastern studies, a bias that sometimes festered into outright intimidation. Being a lifelong member of the Israeli left and a collegial sort of chap, I hesitated little before choosing sides. The Jewish students who made and appeared in the film seemed to me shrill and dogmatic, while the professors they were accusing, sharply dressed purveyors of intoxicating ideas, struck me as what I myself wanted to one day become. I wrote against the Jewish students with all the spume only the young and absolutely convinced can produce. Names were called. Emotions ran high.
Now that I’ve gained some experience and perspective—helped, I should gratefully say, by some of those with whom I sparred a decade ago and who are now my dear friends—I’m happy to look back and report that my mistake was based on two assumptions. The first was that Israel’s critics on campus, however vocal, were primarily interested in polite exchanges of well-reasoned positions; the second, following closely, dictated that the best way to proceed when confronted with criticism was to be a good academic and present the facts in an orderly and cogent way.
Sadly, dear not-yet-graduates, neither of these assumptions turned out to be correct. While you may stumble upon a scrum of folks interested in having what you’ll recognize as an honest debate—and when you do, kindly buy them a cup of coffee and cherish the pleasures of genuine intellectual discussion, which is among the world’s rarest and sweetest treats—the majority of anti-Israel sentiments you’ll experience are impervious to reason and oblivious of facts. This being college, it’s unlikely that the hysterics you encounter will admit their hate; rather, they’ll wrap it in useful theories, telling you that any support of Israel violates the tenets of post-colonialist, post-modernist, late-capitalist, neo-Marxist dogma. Having whipped out these intellectual bona fides the way cops in bad action films ludicrously hold up their badges as they move in for some dramatic bust, the anti-Israel crowd will then descend from Mount Jargon and offer up an attempt at human connection: Look, they’ll tell you, we’re not anti-Semitic, we’re just anti-Zionist. As if opposing the Jewish right to have a sovereign national homeland, while actively advocating for another nation to enjoy the very same right, isn’t just another form of irrational hatred. As if arguing that Jews and Jews alone had no right to self-determination was somehow more complicated than rank bigotry. As if objecting to Israel’s policies somehow made it OK to deny it the right to exist.
When confronted with this hateful drivel, then, don’t bother trying to come up with some clever retort. Instead, do what anyone should when accosted by a hate group: attack, attack, attack.
Others smarter and more experienced than me have been saying the same thing for a long time now, but, sadly, few of you, still-students, and even fewer adults in the larger organizational Jewish world are paying attention. Too often, we respond to hate the way a hapless nerd might respond to the bully about to stuff him into a locker, with some sad mixture of pride in our intellectual superiority and desperate attempt to be liked no matter what. Memories of your own days in high school, dear students, are still fresh, and so you know that charm and brains don’t matter much to bullies. The only way to stop bullies is to fight them.
On campus, this means three things. First, stop apologizing. Right now. You may be critical of certain aspects of Israel’s policy; if you’re not, you should march right into your university’s bursar’s office and demand a refund, as you’ve clearly failed to exercise your capacity for critical thinking in any meaningful way. But despite of these complexities, or maybe precisely because of them, you have much to be proud of: proud of being Jewish, proud of Israel, and proud of understanding the nuanced yet indispensable connection between the two. Start out by finding people who are just as proud, and cultivate a community predicated on faith, joy, candor, and all the other things that make life rich and nurturing.
Once you do that, you’ll discover that the old adage is true: Haters are indeed going to hate. Do not try to debate them or appease them or engage them in any sort of feel-good exercise. Instead, drag their bigotry into the light and make them pay for it. Force those who fail to condemn the atrocities of Hamas, those who believe that the Jews are somehow to blame for the rage of the maniacs who repeatedly rise to murder them, and those who defile history and morality by comparing Israel to Apartheid-era South Africa or to Nazi Germany to explain their hateful positions, and then explain why anyone so disdainful of reason and so devoid of empathy, decency, and common sense should have a place in any American institution of higher learning. Be like the shark in that Woody Allen joke, always moving, always ready to bare its teeth.
When you do, remember the final and most important piece of advice: No matter how relentless the adversity you face on campus, there’s a whole wide world out there that truly, blissfully, cares very little about the ideological battles you fight every day. These people are your natural allies. If you want them to take your side, don’t scare them with bluster or turn them off with self-righteousness. Instead, find funny and creative ways to make them see the absurdity of being denied the right to celebrate your identity by the same people consumed with celebrating every other expression of identity or the outrage of being subjected to hate speech in an environment allegedly devoted to the calm and unfettered exchange of ideas. Counter the bigots’ display of intolerance and fear with a better one of humor and hope, and let well-balanced people on campus decide which side is more appealing. As activists from Siberia to the Maldives have shown us, there’s no better way to combat hate and oppression.
Which, dear still-here-students, is very good news. The haters may be vile and they may be many, but they’re not the majority, not on campus and certainly not in the outside world. You haven’t yet had a chance to attend your 20th college reunion, but trust me when I tell you that the bullies, in the long run, never come out on top. They are always crushed by people like you, people who are proud of who they are, who strike back when put down, who believe in liberty and in justice, who would rather build than destroy, and who know that there’s no greater joy and privilege out there, before or after graduation, than fighting for what’s so clearly right.
***
Like this article? Sign up for our Daily Digest to get Tablet Magazine’s new content in your inbox each morning.
Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast. |
This post has been corrected.
All-male speaker lineups are so commonplace that there’s at least one Tumblr blog dedicated to mocking them (with a David Hasselhoff meme, no less). The endless stream of them can leave a thinking person overwhelmed and perhaps even convinced that they’re inevitable.
If you find yourself in this camp, help is on the way. Enter mathematician Greg Martin, who has presented an ingenious statistical probability analysis that even amateurs like me can(well, mostly) understand. Working with a “conservative” assumption that 24% of PhDs in mathematics have been granted to women over the last 25 years, he finds that it’s overwhelmingly improbable that a speakers’ lineup including one woman and 19 men could be random.
His explanation of the formula is a rollicking one involving marbles and a potentially suspicious roommate, and you which you can read here. The underrepresentation of women on speakers’ lists doesn’t “just happen,” despite many conference organizers’ claim that it does.
If you do the math, as Martin has, the argument that speakers are chosen without bias simply doesn’t hold up. In fact, when using the formula to analyze the speakers’ list for a mathematics conference—which featured just one woman and 19 men—he found that it would be eighteen times as likely for women to be overrepresented on the speakers’ list than to be so underrepresented.
The formula can just as easily be applied to other fields; all that’s needed is reliable data on the field’s gender distribution, which can usually be gathered by way of industry associations and/or government statistics (pdf).
I spoke with Martin about his analysis, its implications and whether it might finally convince conference organizers to stop making excuses for their underrepresentation of women.
What prompted you to calculate the statistical probability of all-male speakers’ lists?
While I’d love to claim it was my idea originally, that’s not the case—I came across a Conference Diversity Distribution Calculator by Aanand Prasad on the web. Prasad further credits inspiration for the idea to comments by Dave Wilkinson and Paul Battley.
As a side note, following Prasad’s links to those comments leads to two web pages—this one and this one—concerning tech conferences within the last three years that were criticized for inviting men almost exclusively; reading the rest of those comment threads reveals how truly dismissive and defensive people get when gender disparity is pointed out. Sadly, we still have a long way to go.
If I understand your conclusion correctly, the odds of having zero women speakers at a math conference are next to none.
If conference speakers were being chosen by a system that treated gender fairly (which is to say, gender was never a factor at all), then in any conference with over 10 speakers, say, it would be extremely rare to have no female speakers at all—less than 5% chance, depending on one’s assumption about the percentage of women in mathematics as a whole.
Turning that statement around, we conclude that any such conference without any female speakers must have come into being in a system that does not treat gender fairly.
So then why do so many STEM events still have so few women at the front of the room?
There are many possible reasons why a STEM event might have vanishingly few women among its speakers. Outright sexism and misogyny are rare these days (I hope!), but it still happens. Much more common, I believe, is that all of us carry implicit biases—internal prejudices, difficult to detect in any individual instance, against the idea that women can excel in science and math. These biases have been shown to literally alter our perception of women in STEM fields, so that we evaluate them as being less accomplished as men with identical CVs. This (unintentionally) unfair evaluation of women by conference organizers, together with the psychological tendency to first call to mind stereotypical representatives of categories (for example, male mathematicians), lead them to come up with speaker lists consisting disproportionately of male speakers.
Unless we consciously try to observe the gender composition at conferences, the same biases cause us not to even notice that there are far too few women to be the result of a fair process; and so the injustice is perpetuated.
In the technology sector, there’s an almost evangelical adherence to the religion of meritocracy, no matter how many studies come out proving that we all have unconscious biases—and therefore, so do the structures and processes we create (like job postings, university programs and calls for speakers). Is that true in the math world? What would you tell event organizers who argue that they’re not trying for a random selection of speakers, but are simply choosing the best (however that’s measured)?
The idea of meritocracy is very much a part of mathematical culture—both that meritocracy is the desired state of our discipline and (more implicitly) that it is also the state of our discipline in practice. Unfortunately, as the aforementioned research into implicit bias shows, in practice we are not really that good at fairly evaluating people’s success independent of cultural prejudices like gender (and ethnicity and age and affiliation…).
When addressing an event organizer (or anyone) who on meritocratic grounds opposes paying attention to gender, the crucial step is to draw explicit attention to their underlying assumption: they are assuming that the current system is purely meritocratic in practice, and that efforts to introduce gender into the decision-making is necessarily an addition of unfairness. Helping someone learn by presenting them with the truth, after all, will never work if they already have a conflicting falsity in their minds.
So I think it is important to assert explicitly that the current system, in practice, is flawed and systematically biased, and that efforts to introduce gender into the decision-making is actually a subtraction of unfairness—an effort to bring reality closer to the theoretical meritocracy we all desire.
One of the more compelling points you make in your analysis is that if speakers’ lists were truly selected without bias, we would be 18 times more likely to see an overrepresentation of women speakers than an underrepresentation. Have you ever seen a speakers’ list (at an event not geared specifically towards women, that is) that leaned heavily in favor of women?
That’s a great question, and I do not remember ever being in that situation—being at a conference where over one third, say, of the speakers have been women, much less over half (depending on how one interprets “leaned heavily”).
The January Joint Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America tend to have a decently large percentage of women speakers, between 25% and 30%. However, there are internal stratifications in place: the more prestigious a speaking position or session is, and the more it is associated with hardcore mathematical research, the smaller the percentage of women speakers.
There is also a significant correlation of the gender composition of a session’s speakers with the presence of one or more women on its organizing committee—these sessions have nearly twice as many female speakers on average.
It’s therefore important for us to realize that implicit bias doesn’t just affect sheer numbers of speakers, it also affects whether we select them for, say, keynote spots or supporting roles.
How do you hope people will use your statistical probability formula?
In my mind, using this sort of calculation has limited effectiveness as a proactive tool. Changing from the real-life situation to a probabilistic model is quite an imperfect process, and people can rightly criticize details of that change to the point where the underlying message is obscured. However, when people choose to resist the idea of gender inequity based on probabilistic statements (“having few women just happens by chance”), then they’re the ones holding out the petard to be hoisted by. I like the idea of using this probabilistic tool in response to such statements—”Ah, well, if you are going to suggest that probability is the right way to examine the situation, let’s see how that works out for you…!”
Correction: A previous version of this post stated that when Greg used his formula to analyze speakers at a math conference, women would be five times overrepresented. A previous version also stated that it is statistically impossible for a speaker lineup to contain 19 men and one women and be random. |
NEW DELHI: An Air India airhostess has accused her flight commander of misbehaving with her and other crew members during a Delhi-Kolkata flight on Saturday, after they objected to the unauthorized presence of a passenger inside the cockpit.According to a police complaint filed by the cabin crew head, when airhostesses went to the cockpit to ask the passenger to return to the cabin, the pilot told them: "Fir kahan bithaoon, tum apni goad me bitha ke le jao (Where should I make him sit? Seat him on your lap)."A heated exchange of words followed during which the pilot continued to misbehave, the complaint said. The passenger, a customs officer travelling on duty reportedly, is learnt to have completed the journey sitting in the cockpit, in violation of all safety rules.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has grounded the commander and sought all relevant details from AI for further action.DGCA will investigate whether the customs officer had a valid ticket or had travelled throughout in the cockpit. The crew will be called to the DGCA office on Tuesday for witness deposition.Delhi Police has registered a case of outraging a woman's modesty under section 509 of IPC and were investigating. "No arrests have been made yet," a police officer said.An airline spokesman said that the commander had been suspended.After the incident, the captain was allowed to fly again. He operated a Delhi-Bangkok flight on Sunday night-Monday morning. He is likely to be told about the ongoing disciplinary action on his return to Delhi on Tuesday."The DGCA grounded the pilot on Monday afternoon. By then, he had already commandeered a flight to Bangkok," said an AI official, adding: "But on Tuesday he will return to Delhi as a cabin passenger and will not be flying the plane."The suspended captain is also learnt to have tried to dodge a breath-analyzer test for alcohol recently. A colleague said the pilot had a "knack for getting himself into trouble". The DGCA will also probe his track record before deciding on the action to be taken against him.Following the strict tightening of safety rules after the 9/11 attacks in New York, no one except the flight crew is allowed to enter the cockpit. In fact, the crew is not allowed to take any unauthorized person such as a passenger inside the cockpit during a flight.The airhostesses were objecting to this violation when the mid-air altercation took place on AI 020. |
Shelton High senior has a date, but can't go to the prom
Shelton seniors Sonali Rodrigues and James Tate stand outside Shelton High School Tuesday, May 10, 2011. Tate asked Rodrigues to the prom by posting a message on the wall behind them. She said yes but he is now prohibited from attending the school's prom as punishment for trespassing to post the sign. less Shelton seniors Sonali Rodrigues and James Tate stand outside Shelton High School Tuesday, May 10, 2011. Tate asked Rodrigues to the prom by posting a message on the wall behind them. She said yes but he is ... more Photo: Autumn Driscoll Buy photo Photo: Autumn Driscoll Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Shelton High senior has a date, but can't go to the prom 1 / 8 Back to Gallery
SHELTON -- It began as a simple gesture. Shelton High School senior James Tate just wanted to make his good friend, Sonali Rodrigues, feel special.
So instead of the usual way of asking her to the senior prom, Tate and two friends went to the high school campus in the middle of the night and posted 12-inch tall, cardboard letters on the outside of the building -- at the main entrance.
The message that many saw when they arrived to school Friday, read: "Sonali Rodrigues, Will you go to prom with me? HMU Tate."
She said yes.
"It took a lot of effort," said Tate.
He posted the letters, one at a time, in a "safe and thoughtful way" to avoid trouble.
But, it appears, that didn't work out.
Because of what he did, Tate can't go to the prom.
Tuesday, after meeting with his headmaster, Tate and his two friends were each given one-day, in-house suspensions and banned from the prom. Tate was told the administration felt what they did was a safety risk.
But the teen said he took every precaution when he posted the message early Friday, sometime between 1 and 3 a.m.
"I had one friend hold the ladder while the other put double-sided tape on the letters," he said. Tate said he also wore a helmet.
He was told another reason for the suspensions was that they trespassed on school grounds.
"I didn't enter the school at all," he said. And while the front gates to the school were locked, Tate said he and his friends were able to get onto the grounds on a footpath.
Tate said that, according to school regulations, if you get suspended after April 1, you can't go to the prom.
"I tried to appeal -- tried to just get a detention instead," he said. "I even offered to do community service -- like cleaning up the litter outside the school."
But he said nothing worked.
"Now I have a date for the prom, but can't go," he said.
"This is ridiculous," said Rodrigues. "James is one of my best friends and we are both good kids who never got in trouble. I've never been to the principal's office except to get an award."
Rodrigues was also called to the headmaster's office Tuesday morning. "They just asked me some questions, like would I still go to the prom if James couldn't," she said.
She will go, with a girlfriend, whose boyfriend has also been suspended for an unrelated incident.
"This is really upsetting," she said. "It's our senior year and we are supposed to have happy memories, not something like this."
Shelton High School Headmaster Beth Smith did not return calls for comment Tuesday. Superintendent Freeman Burr declined comment, referring all questions to Smith.
Anne M. Amato can be reached at 203-330-6496 or at [email protected]. |
It is often in the excuses and in the apologies that one finds the real offense. Looking back on the domestic political “surge” which the populist right has been celebrating since last month, I found myself most dispirited by the manner in which the more sophisticated conservatives attempted to conjure the nasty bits away. Here, for example, was Ross Douthat, the voice of moderate conservatism on the New York Times op-ed page. He was replying to a number of critics who had pointed out that Glenn Beck, in his rallies and broadcasts, had been channeling the forgotten voice of the John Birch Society, megaphone of Strangelovian paranoia from the 1950s and 1960s. His soothing message: These parallels are real. But there’s a crucial difference. The Birchers only had a crackpot message; they never had a mainstream one. The Tea Party marries fringe concerns (repeal the 17th Amendment!) to a timely, responsible-seeming message about spending and deficits.
The more one looks at this, the more wrong it becomes (as does that giveaway phrase “responsible-seeming”). The John Birch Society possessed such a mainstream message—the existence of a Communist world system with tentacles in the United States—that it had a potent influence over whole sections of the Republican Party. It managed this even after its leader and founder, Robert Welch, had denounced President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a “dedicated, conscious agent” of that same Communist apparatus. Right up to the defeat of Barry Goldwater in 1964, and despite the efforts of such conservatives as William F. Buckley Jr. to dislodge them, the Birchers were a feature of conservative politics well beyond the crackpot fringe. Now, here is the difference. Glenn Beck has not even been encouraging his audiences to reread Robert Welch. No, he has been inciting them to read the work of W. Cleon Skousen, a man more insane and nasty than Welch and a figure so extreme that ultimately even the Birch-supporting leadership of the Mormon Church had to distance itself from him. It’s from Skousen’s demented screed The Five Thousand Year Leap (to a new edition of which Beck wrote a foreword, and which he shoved to the position of No. 1 on Amazon) that he takes all his fantasies about a divinely written Constitution, a conspiratorial secret government, and a future apocalypse. To give you a further idea of the man: Skousen’s posthumously published book on the “end times” and the coming day of rapture was charmingly called The Cleansing of America. A book of his with a less repulsive title, The Making of America, turned out to justify slavery and to refer to slave children as “pickaninnies.” And, writing at a time when the Mormon Church was under attack for denying full membership to black people, Skousen defended it from what he described as this “Communist” assault. So, Beck’s “9/12 Project” is canalizing old racist and clerical toxic-waste material that a healthy society had mostly flushed out of its system more than a generation ago, and injecting it right back in again. Things that had hidden under stones are being dug up and re-released. And why? So as to teach us anew about the dangers of “spending and deficits”? It’s enough to make a cat laugh. No, a whole new audience has been created, including many impressionable young people, for ideas that are viciously anti-democratic and ahistorical. The full effect of this will be felt farther down the road, where we will need it even less. I remember encountering this same mentality a few years ago, when it was more laughable than dangerous. I didn’t like Bill Clinton: thought he had sold access to the Lincoln Bedroom and lied under oath about sexual harassment and possibly even bombed Sudan on a “wag the dog” basis. But when I sometimes agreed to go on the radio stations of the paranoid right, it was only to be told that this was all irrelevant. Didn’t I understand that Clinton and his wife had murdered Vince Foster and were, even as I spoke, preparing to take advantage of the Y2K millennium crisis—remember that?—in order to seize power for life and become the Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu of our day? These people were not interested in the president’s actual transgressions. They were looking to populate their fantasy world with new and more lurid characters.
There is an old Republican saying that “a government strong enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take away everything you have.” This statement contains an essential truth that liberals have no right to overlook. But it is negated, not amplified, if it comes festooned with racism and superstition. In the recent past, government-sponsored policies of social engineering have led to surprising success in reducing the welfare rolls and the crime figures. This came partly from the adoption by many Democrats of policies that had once been called Republican. But not a word about that from Beck and his followers, because it isn’t exciting and doesn’t present any opportunity for rabble-rousing. Far sexier to say that health care—actually another product of bipartisanship—is a step toward Nineteen Eighty-Four. Ten percent unemployment, on the other hand, is rather a disgrace to a midterm Democratic administration. But does anybody believe that unemployment would have gone down if the hated bailout had not occurred and GM had been permitted to go bankrupt? Why not avoid the question altogether and mutter about a secret plan to proclaim a socialist (or Nazi, or Jew-controlled: take your pick) dictatorship? Again, there is a real debate about the pace and rhythm of global warming, and about the degree to which it has been caused (or can be slowed) by human activity. But at the first Tea Party rally I attended, at the Washington Monument earlier this year, the crowd—bristling with placards about the Second Amendment’s being the correction—was treated to an arm-waving speech by a caricature English peer named Lord Monckton, who led them in the edifying call-and-response: “All together. Global warming is?” “Bullshit.” “Obama cannot hear you. Global warming is?” “bullshit.” “That’s bettah.” I don’t remember ever seeing grown-ups behave less seriously, at least in an election season. |
Ireland's largest pharmacy group, LloydsPharmacy has repaid the Health Service Executive €12m for dispensing fess that the company incorrectly charged, RTÉ News has learned.
The irregularities were revealed by RTÉ Investigates last year.
In a further development similar HSE investigations are also ongoing into five other pharmacy chains or branches.
With 94 branches nationwide, LloydsPharmacy is Ireland's leading pharmacy chain.
Last year the RTÉ Investigations Unit revealed irregularities in the level of dispensing fees being claimed by the pharmacy chain from the HSE.
The irregularities centred on phased dispensing fees charged by LloydsPharmacy on its weekly medication management system, MyMed, a modern equivalent of a pill box that segregates drugs into weekly packs for those on large amounts of medication.
There are very limited circumstances under which a pharmacy can claim additional charges for the phased dispensing of drugs but documentation provided to the RTÉ Investigations Unit by a whistleblower last year showed that LloydsPharmacy staff were actively encouraged to widely promote the MyMed system to its customers which generated substantial additional profits for the company.
Each store was provided with monthly targets for the number of customers who had to be converted to the MyMed system and further documentation showed that on repeated occasions LloydsPharmacy customers were provided with a month's supply of their medication in one go despite payment statements from the HSE showing that phased fees were submitted as if the drugs had been dispensed each week.
RTÉ learned that following a HSE investigation LloydsPharmacy has been found to have over-claimed in the region of €12m in dispensing fees.
The sum is believed to have been repaid in full.
While not naming the company, in a statement the HSE said a "satisfactory resolution" had been reached.
A spokesperson for LloydsPharmacy told RTÉ the matter had been "resolved" between the parties.
In a further development, RTÉ has discovered that similar HSE investigations are also ongoing into five other pharmacy chains or branches.
It is understood those investigations are at an advanced stage and could result in further money being paid back to the HSE. |
Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory of connectionism and helped lay the scientific foundation for educational psychology. He also worked on solving industrial problems, such as employee exams and testing. He was a member of the board of the Psychological Corporation and served as president of the American Psychological Association in 1912.[1][2] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Thorndike as the ninth-most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[3] Edward Thorndike had a powerful impact on reinforcement theory and behavior analysis, providing the basic framework for empirical laws in behavior psychology with his law of effect. Through his contributions to the behavioral psychology field came his major impacts on education, where the law of effect has great influence in the classroom.
Early life [ edit ]
Thorndike, born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts,[4] was the son of Edward R and Abbie B Thorndike, a Methodist minister in Lowell, Massachusetts.[5] Thorndike graduated from The Roxbury Latin School (1891), in West Roxbury, Massachusetts and from Wesleyan University (B.S. 1895).[4] He earned an M.A. at Harvard University in 1897.[4] His two brothers (Lynn and Ashley) also became important scholars. The younger, Lynn, was a medievalist specializing in the history of science and magic, while the older, Ashley, was an English professor and noted authority on Shakespeare.
While at Harvard, he was interested in how animals learn (ethology), and worked with William James. Afterwards, he became interested in the animal 'man', to the study of which he then devoted his life.[6] Edward's thesis is sometimes thought of as the essential document of modern comparative psychology. Upon graduation, Thorndike returned to his initial interest, educational psychology. In 1898 he completed his PhD at Columbia University under the supervision of James McKeen Cattell, one of the founding fathers of psychometrics.
In 1899, after a year of unhappy initial employment at the College for Women of Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, he became an instructor in psychology at Teachers College at Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his career, studying human learning, education, and mental testing. In 1937 Thorndike became the second President of the Psychometric Society, following in the footsteps of Louis Leon Thurstone who had established the society and its journal Psychometrika the previous year.
On August 29, 1900, he wed Elizabeth Moulton. They had four children, among them Frances, who became a mathematician.[7]
During the early stages of his career, he purchased a wide tract of land on the Hudson and encouraged other researchers to settle around him. Soon a colony had formed there with him as its 'tribal' chief.[8]
Connectionism [ edit ]
Thorndike was a pioneer not only in behaviorism and in studying learning, but also in using animals in clinical experiments.[9] Thorndike was able to create a theory of learning based on his research with animals.[9] His doctoral dissertation, "Animal Intelligence: An Experimental Study of the Associative Processes in Animals", was the first in psychology where the subjects were nonhumans.[9] Thorndike was interested in whether animals could learn tasks through imitation or observation.[10] To test this, Thorndike created puzzle boxes. The puzzle boxes were approximately 20 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 12 inches tall.[11] Each box had a door that was pulled open by a weight attached to a string that ran over a pulley and was attached to the door.[11] The string attached to the door led to a lever or button inside the box.[11] When the animal pressed the bar or pulled the lever, the string attached to the door would cause the weight to lift and the door to open.[11] Thorndike’s puzzle boxes were arranged so that the animal would be required to perform a certain response (pulling a lever or pushing a button), while he measured the amount of time it took them to escape.[9] Once the animal had performed the desired response they were allowed to escape and were also given a reward, usually food.[9] Thorndike primarily used cats in his puzzle boxes. When the cats were put into the cages they would wander restlessly and meow, but they did not know how to escape.[12] Eventually, the cats would step on the switch on the floor by chance, and the door would open.[12] To see if the cats could learn through observation, he had them observe other animals escaping from the box.[12] He would then compare the times of those who got to observe others escaping with those who did not, and he found that there was no difference in their rate of learning.[9] Thorndike saw the same results with other animals, and he observed that there was no improvement even when he placed the animals’ paws on the correct levers, buttons, or bar.[10] These failures led him to fall back on a trial and error explanation of learning.[10] He found that after accidentally stepping on the switch once, they would press the switch faster in each succeeding trial inside the puzzle box.[10] By observing and recording the animals’ escapes and escape times, Thorndike was able to graph the times it took for the animals in each trial to escape, resulting in a learning curve.[12] The animals had difficulty escaping at first, but eventually "caught on" and escaped faster and faster with each successive puzzle box trial, until they eventually leveled off.[12] The quickened rate of escape results in the s-shape of the learning curve. The learning curve also suggested that different species learned in the same way but at different speeds.[10] From his research with puzzle boxes, Thorndike was able to create his own theory of learning. The puzzle box experiments were motivated in part by Thorndike's dislike for statements that animals made use of extraordinary faculties such as insight in their problem solving: "In the first place, most of the books do not give us a psychology, but rather a eulogy of animals. They have all been about animal intelligence, never about animal stupidity."[13]
Thorndike meant to distinguish clearly whether or not cats escaping from puzzle boxes were using insight. Thorndike's instruments in answering this question were learning curves revealed by plotting the time it took for an animal to escape the box each time it was in the box. He reasoned that if the animals were showing insight, then their time to escape would suddenly drop to a negligible period, which would also be shown in the learning curve as an abrupt drop; while animals using a more ordinary method of trial and error would show gradual curves. His finding was that cats consistently showed gradual learning.
Adult learning [ edit ]
Thorndike put his testing expertise to work for the United States Army during World War I. He created both the Alpha and Beta versions that led to today's ASVAB, a multiple choice test administered by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command that is used to determine qualification for enlistment in the United States armed forces. For classification purposes, soldiers were administered Alpha tests. With the realization that some soldiers could not read well enough to complete the Alpha test, the Beta test (consisting of pictures and diagrams) was administered. Such contributions anchored the field of psychology and encouraged later development of educational psychology.
Thorndike believed that "Instruction should pursue specified, socially useful goals." Thorndike believed that the ability to learn did not decline until age 35, and only then at a rate of 1 percent per year, going against the thoughts of the time that "you can't teach old dogs new tricks." It was later shown[who?] that the speed of learning, not the power of learning declined with age. Thorndike also stated the law of effect, which says behaviors that are followed by good consequences are likely to be repeated in the future.
Thorndike identified the three main areas of intellectual development. The first being abstract intelligence. This is the ability to process and understand different concepts. The second is mechanical intelligence, which is the ability to handle physical objects. Lastly there is social intelligence. This is the ability to handle human interaction[14]
Learning is incremental.[9] Learning occurs automatically.[9] All animals learn the same way.[9] Law of effect- if an association is followed by a "satisfying state of affairs" it will be strengthened and if it is followed by an "annoying state of affairs " it will be weakened. Thorndike’s law of exercise has two parts; the law of use and the law of disuse. Law of use- the more often an association is used the stronger it becomes.[15] Law of disuse- the longer an association is unused the weaker it becomes.[15] Law of recency- the most recent response is most likely to reoccur.[15] Multiple response- problem solving through trial and error. An animal will try multiple responses if the first response does not lead to a specific state of affairs.[15] Set or attitude- animals are predisposed to act in a specific way.[15] Prepotency of elements- a subject can filter out irrelevant aspects of a problem and focus and respond only to significant elements of a problem.[15] Response by analogy- responses from a related or similar context may be used in a new context.[15] Identical elements theory of transfer- This theory states that the extent to which information learned in one situation will transfer to another situation is determined by the similarity between the two situations.[9] The more similar the situations are, the greater the amount of information that will transfer.[9] Similarly, if the situations have nothing in common, information learned in one situation will not be of any value in the other situation.[9] Associative shifting- it is possible to shift any response from occurring with one stimulus to occurring with another stimulus.[15] Associative shift maintains that a response is first made to situation A, then to AB, and then finally to B, thus shifting a response from one condition to another by associating it with that condition.[16] Law of readiness- a quality in responses and connections that results in readiness to act.[16] Thorndike acknowledges that responses may differ in their readiness.[16] He claims that eating has a higher degree of readiness than vomiting, that weariness detracts from the readiness to play and increases the readiness to sleep.[16] Also, Thorndike argues that a low or negative status in respect to readiness is called unreadiness.[16] Behavior and learning are influenced by the readiness or unreadiness of responses, as well as by their strength.[16] Identifiability- According to Thorndike, the identification or placement of a situation is a first response of the nervous system, which can recognize it.[16] Then connections may be made to one another or to another response, and these connections depend upon the original identification.[16] Therefore, a large amount of learning is made up of changes in the identifiability of situations.[16] Thorndike also believed that analysis might turn situations into compounds of features, such as the number of sides on a shape, to help the mind grasp and retain the situation, and increase their identifiability.[16] Availability- The ease of getting a specific response.[16] For example, it would be easier for a person to learn to touch their nose or mouth than it would be for them to draw a line 5 inches long with their eyes closed.[16]
Development of law of effect [ edit ]
Thorndike's research focused on instrumental learning, which means that learning is developed from the organism doing something. For example, he placed a cat inside a wooden box. The cat would use various methods while trying to get out, however nothing would work until it hit the lever. Afterwards, Thorndike tried placing the cat inside the wooden box again. This time, the cat was able to hit the lever quickly and succeeded in getting out from the box.
At first, Thorndike emphasized the importance of dissatisfaction stemming from failure as equal to the reward of satisfaction with success, though in his experiments and trials on humans he came to conclude that reward is a much more effective motivator than punishment. He also emphasized that the satisfaction must come immediately after the success, or the lesson would not sink in.[8]
Eugenic views [ edit ]
Thorndike was a proponent of eugenics. He argued that "selective breeding can alter man's capacity to learn, to keep sane, to cherish justice or to be happy. There is no more certain and economical a way to improve man's environment as to improve his nature."[17]
Criticism [ edit ]
Thorndike's law of effect and puzzle box methodology were subjected to detailed criticism by behaviorists and many other psychologists.[18] The criticisms over the law of effect mostly cover four aspects of the theory: the implied or retroactive working of the effect, the philosophical implication of the law, the identification of the effective conditions that cause learning, and the comprehensive usefulness of the law.[19]
Thorndike on education [ edit ]
Thorndike's Educational psychology began a trend toward behavioral psychology that sought to use empirical evidence and a scientific approach to problem solving. Thorndike was among some of the first psychologists to combine learning theory, psychometrics, and applied research for school-related subjects to form psychology of education. One of his influences on education is seen by his ideas on mass marketing of tests and textbooks at that time. Thorndike opposed the idea that learning should reflect nature, which was the main thought of developmental scientists at that time. He instead thought that schooling should improve upon nature. Unlike many other psychologist of his time, Thorndike took a statistical approach to education in his later years by collecting qualitative (quantitative?) information intended to help teachers and educators deal with practical educational problems.[20] Thorndike's theory was an association theory, as many were in that time. He believed that the association between stimulus and response was solidified by a reward or confirmation. He also thought that motivation was an important factor in learning.[21] The Law of Effect introduced the relation between reinforcers and punishers. Although Thorndike's description of the relation between reinforcers and punishers was incomplete, his work in this area would later become a catalyst in further research, such as that of B.F. Skinner.[22]
Thorndike's Law of Effect states that "responses that produce a desired effect are more likely to occur again whereas responses that produce an unpleasant effect are less likely to occur again".[23] The terms 'desired effect' and 'unpleasant effect' eventually became known as 'reinforcers' and 'punishers'.[24] Thorndike's contributions to the Behavioral Psychology Society are seen through his influences in the classroom, with a particular focus on praising and ignoring behaviors. Praise is used in the classroom to encourage and support the occurrence of a desired behavior. When used in the classroom, praise has been shown to increase correct responses and appropriate behavior.[25] Planned ignoring is used to decrease, weaken, or eliminate the occurrence of a target behavior.[25] Planned ignoring is accomplished by removing the reinforcer that is maintaining the behavior. For example, when the teacher does not pay attention to a "whining" behavior of a student, it allows the student to realize that whining will not succeed in gaining the attention of the teacher.[25]
Beliefs about the behavior of women [ edit ]
Unlike later behaviorists such as John Watson, who placed a very strong emphasis on the impact of environmental influences on behavior,[26] Thorndike believed that differences in the parental behavior of men and women were due to biological, rather than cultural, reasons.[27] While conceding that society could "complicate or deform" [28] what he believed were inborn differences, he believed that "if we [researchers] should keep the environment of boys and girls absolutely similar these instincts would produce sure and important differences between the mental and moral activities of boys and girls".[29] Indeed, Watson himself overtly critiqued the idea of maternal instincts in humans in a report of his observations of first-time mothers struggling to breastfeed. Watson argued that the very behaviors Thorndike referred to as resulting from a "nursing instinct" stemming from "unreasoning tendencies to pet, coddle, and 'do for' others,"[30] were performed with difficulty by new mothers and thus must have been learned, while "instinctive factors are practically nil".[31]
Thorndike's beliefs about inborn differences between the thoughts and behavior of men and women included misogynist, pseudo-scientific arguments about the role of women in society. For example, along with the "nursing instinct," Thorndike talked about the instinct of "submission to mastery," writing: "Women in general are thus by original nature submissive to men in general.".[32] That this statement was little more than his opinion, and lacked any substantiating scientific evidence, appeared to be overlooked as it validated prevailing cultural values concerning gender and neatly justified prejudice against women in academia (including entrance into doctoral programs, psychological laboratories, and scientific societies).[33]
Thorndike's word books [ edit ]
Thorndike composed three different word books to assist teachers with word and reading instruction. After publication of the first book in the series, The Teacher's Word Book (1921), two other books were written and published, each approximately a decade apart from its predecessor. The second book in the series, its full title being A Teacher's Word Book of the Twenty Thousand Words Found Most Frequently and Widely in General Reading for Children and Young People, was published in 1932, and the third and final book, The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words, was published in 1944.
In the preface to the third book, Thorndike writes that the list contained therein "tells anyone who wishes to know whether to use a word in writing, speaking, or teaching how common the word is in standard English reading matter" (p. x), and he further advises that the list can best be employed by teachers if they allow it to guide the decisions they make choosing which words to emphasize during reading instruction. Some words require more emphasis than others, and, according to Thorndike, his list informs teachers of the most frequently occurring words that should be reinforced by instruction and thus become "a permanent part of [students’] stock of word knowledge" (p. xi). If a word is not on the list but appears in an educational text, its meaning only needs to be understood temporarily in the context in which it was found, and then summarily discarded from memory.
In Appendix A to the second book, Thorndike gives credit to his word counts and how frequencies were assigned to particular words. Selected sources extrapolated from Appendix A include:
Children’s Reading: Black Beauty, Little Women, Treasure Island, A Christmas Carol, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Youth’s Companion, school primers, first readers, second readers, and third readers
Standard Literature: The Bible, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Cowper, Pope, and Milton
Common Facts and Trades: The United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, A New Book of Cookery, Practical Sewing and Dress Making, Garden and Farm Almanac, and mail-order catalogues
Thorndike also examined local newspapers and correspondence for common words to be included in the book.[citation needed]
Thorndike's influence [ edit ]
Thorndike contributed a great deal to psychology. His influence on animal psychologists, especially those who focused on behavior plasticity, greatly contributed to the future of that field.[34] In addition to helping pave the way towards behaviorism, his contribution to measurement influenced philosophy, the administration and practice of education, military administration, industrial personnel administration, civil service and many public and private social services.[11] Thorndike influenced many schools of psychology as Gestalt psychologists, psychologists studying the conditioned reflex, and behavioral psychologists all studied Thorndike’s research as a starting point.[11] Thorndike was a contemporary of John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov. However, unlike Watson, Thorndike introduced the concept of reinforcement.[15] Thorndike was the first to apply psychological principles to the area of learning. His research led to many theories and laws of learning. His theory of learning, especially the law of effect, is most often considered to be his greatest achievement.[11] In 1929, Thorndike addressed his early theory of learning, and claimed that he had been wrong.[9] After further research, he was forced to denounce his law of exercise completely, because he found that practice alone did not strengthen an association, and that time alone did not weaken an association.[9] He also got rid of half of the law of effect, after finding that a satisfying state of affairs strengthens an association, but punishment is not effective in modifying behavior.[9] He placed a great emphasis on consequences of behavior as setting the foundation for what is and is not learned. His work represents the transition from the school of functionalism to behaviorism, and enabled psychology to focus on learning theory.[9] Thorndike’s work would eventually be a major influence to B.F. Skinner and Clark Hull. Skinner, like Thorndike, put animals in boxes and observed them to see what they were able to learn. The learning theories of Thorndike and Pavlov were later synthesized by Clark Hull.[11] His work on motivation and attitude formation directly affected studies on human nature as well as social order.[11] Thorndike’s research drove comparative psychology for fifty years, and influenced countless psychologists over that period of time, and even still today.
Accomplishments [ edit ]
In 1912, Thorndike was elected president for the American Psychological Association. In 1917 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.[35] He was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences in 1917. He was one of the very first psychologists to be admitted to the association. Thorndike is well known for his experiments on animals supporting the law of effect.[36] In 1934, Thorndike was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[37]
Selected works [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ] |
With a strong vision of who the initial audience is, we sought to design a brand, UI and UX that had some personality and uniqueness to it. We wanted it to be something that catches your eye the first time you use it. Something with consideration for the small details. Something that doesn’t come across as timid, but instead portrays enough confidence to reinvent the rules of an entire industry.
The initial audience of OpenBazaar is primarily made up of tech savvy individuals, Bitcoin addicts and independent creators (artists, designers, musicians, authors, homemade food & drink producers, gamers, entertainers, hand-crafters, ex-eBayers and so on).
Name
One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in regards to the OpenBazaar branding is the misspelling of the name.
INCORRECT USAGE
Open Bazaar (no space please) Openbazaar (the b should be capitalized) OpenBizaar (umm)
CORRECT USAGE
OpenBazaar (one word with a capitalized O and capitalized B)
Logo & Identity
The OpenBazaar logo has recently gone through some light cosmetic changes. We love the tent, but it had a few issues that we wanted to clean up.
Old logo (do not use)
The flag didn’t render well on light backgrounds. The flaps of the opening weren’t proportioned correctly. The colors could be simplified.
So we gave it a slight overhaul to correct the problems
The updated OpenBazaar logo
I ask everyone to please use the new logo going forward. If you need a copy of the logo, I’ve uploaded it to Github.
Martijn enjoying his brand new OpenBazaar shirt with the refreshed logo :)
Colors
Color 1
HEX: #063753
RBG: 6,55,84
Color 2
HEX: #215175
RBG: 33,81,117
Color 3
HEX: #106DA3
RBG: 16,109,163
Color 4
HEX: #327EB8
RBG: 50,126,184
Characteristics
The branding of OpenBazaar possesses 3 main characteristics:
Confidence
OpenBazaar doesn’t second guess itself. It’s providing a new ability to each and every person in the world, entirely for free. With any major social movement or technical advancement, confidence plays a major role in its success, and OpenBazaar is no exception. OpenBazaar is here to make trade free for all, and it’s going to be clear and direct in its path to doing so. Intelligence
Doing things that are “good enough” isn’t what OpenBazaar stands for. Every piece of content, every element within the UI and every new feature that rolls out will be crafted with thought and care for the community of users. The tools we’ve had available over the last decade to conduct trade online are not “good enough”, they’re too expensive, too limiting, difficult to configure, and they’re not delightful to use. Mysterious
Playing off the name of the project and the reality of an open market, OpenBazaar embraces who it is and what it stands for by layering mysterious elements into the branding. The colors are a bit bolder, the listings are unfiltered and the UI interactions are more edgy, which is all by design to leave the audience constantly wondering what is around the corner.
To summarize, OpenBazaar isn’t the kid sitting in front of the classroom raising their hand begging to be called on to earn yet another gold star. It’s the kid in the back of the classroom that understands the architectural problems of the school system and makes it a life mission to build a better platform for everyone.
Thanks for reading
If you have any questions about the branding of OpenBazaar or how it will evolve in the future, feel free to post a comment below.
In the next OpenBazaar in Detail article, I’ll be diving deeper into “Pages”.
And, if you haven’t tried OpenBazaar yet, Download today!
Mike Wolf (@thee_wolf)
UX / Design Lead @ OpenBazaar |
According to Israeli Army News (English translation below), Israeli banks have begun to limit the size of wire transfer amounts to bitcoin exchanges. The article explains that due to concerns of money laundering, taxation, and legality, banks have asked the Bank of Israel and Finance Ministry to provide an answer as to whether there are any regulatory problems with money transfers being made for bitcoins. So far, the regulators have yet to provide any guidelines and have said that they are investigating the matter. (With forex regulation in Israel being a slow process, it will interesting to see if bitcoin laws get finalized first)
In the time being, without an answer from governing bodies, Israel banks are limiting the value amount of international transfers allowed to be sent to bitcoin exchanges; specifically to Japan, home of MtGox and the most bitcoin/money exchanging in the world.
Join the iFX EXPO Asia and discover your gateway to the Asian Markets
What hasn’t been done yet is a complete ban on bank transfers to bitcoin exchanges around the world, and payments sent to non-Japanese venues have been executed according to Forex Magnate’s internal investigations. Also, while local Israeli bitcoin dealers are known to be out of bitcoins due to the limits on international transfers, they are theoretically still in business (just without stock) and haven’t been approached by regulators. Nonetheless, the events represent that although it is easy to transfer bitcoins around the world, hurdles remain for buyers to actually purchase the currency. While Israel‘s effect on bitcoin demand is probably quite low, if similar measures occur from larger nations it could very quickly sap demand.
On a silver lining, the fact that banks are approaching regulators for a decision means that rules from governments around the world should be forthcoming. As such, if there are provisions that deal with money laundering and legality, it could lead to easier outflows to bitcoin exchanges which would make the currency more readily available. On the other hand, they may just ban them outright due to client safety and money laundering issues.
English Translation of the Hebrew article |
Mark Kaser/University of Durham/PA
An orangutan has shown an ability to emulate human speech for the first time — a feat that gets us closer to understanding how human speech first evolved from the communications of ancestral great apes.
‘Rocky’ the ginger ape has astonished experts by producing sounds similar to words in a “conversational context”.
“This opens up the potential for us to learn more about the vocal capacities of early hominids that lived before the split between the orangutan and human lineages to see how the vocal system evolved towards full-blown speech in humans,” says lead researcher Adriano Lameria, from the University of Durham, UK.
Advertisement
His team conducted a game in which the ape mimicked the pitch and tone of human sounds and made vowel-like calls.
Comparing his sounds against a large database of recordings of wild and captive orangutans showed they were markedly different.
Rocky was able to learn new sounds and control the action of his voice in the way humans do when they conduct a conversation, the scientists concluded.
“Instead of learning new sounds, it has been presumed that sounds made by great apes are driven by arousal over which they have no control,” says Lameria. “But our research proves that orangutans have the potential capacity to control the action of their voices.”
“This indicates that the voice control shown by humans could derive from an evolutionary ancestor with similar voice control capacities as those found in orangutans and in all great apes more generally,” he says.
Eight-year-old Rocky was studied at Indianapolis Zoo in the US, where he still lives, between April and May 2012.
In the “do-as-I-do” game he attempted to copy random sounds made by the experimenter which included variations in tone and pitch.
His calls were compared with sounds collected from more than 12,000 hours of observations of more than 120 orangutans from 15 wild and captive populations.
A previous study led by Lameira when he was based at the University of Amsterdam found that a female orangutan called Tilda was able to make sounds that had the same rhythm and pace as human speech.
Journal reference: Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/srep30315
Read more: Talking gibbonish: Deciphering the banter of the apes; Kiki or bouba? In search of language’s missing link |
Director of NIST: Disclosure of WTC7 data "might jeopardize public safety"
http://cryptome.org/nist070709.pdf
FINDING REGARDING PUBLIC SAFETY INFORMATION
Pursuant to Section 7(d) of the National Construction Safety Team Act, I hereby find that the disclosure of the information described below, received by the National Institute of Standards and Technology ("NIST"), in connection with its investigation of the technical causes of the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers and World Trade Center Building 7 on September 11,2001, might jeopardize public safety. Therefore, NIST shall not release the following information:
1. All input and results files of the ANSYS 16-story collapse initiation model with detailed connection models that were used to analyze the structural response to thermal loads, break element source code, ANSYS script files for the break elements, custom executable ANSYS file, and all Excel spreadsheets and other supporting calculations used to develop floor connection failure modes and capacities.
2. All input files with connection material properties and all results files of the LS-DYNA 47-story global collapse model that were used to simulate sequential structural failures leading to collapse, and all Excel spreadsheets and other supporting calculations used to develop floor connection failure modes and capacities.
~
Patrick Gallagher Director National Institute of Standards and Technology
Dated: JUL 09 2009 |
The defensive end, who broke his leg after playing in 10 games during the 2007 Super Bowl season, was optimistic this injury would subside with time and he could resume playing again this season.
The Kiwanuka move was made so the Giants could sign kick returner Will Blackmon.
Kiwanuka, 27, said he will remain with the Giants until his contract expires at the end of the season. Depending on what transpires with the collective bargaining agreement, Kiwanuka will be looking for a new contract and possibly an opportunity to start at defensive end. The Giants have starters Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck. Rookie Jason Pierre-Paul is also waiting for a chance.
"Like I said before, I felt like, given enough time, I could've made it back this season, but it's the nature of the business," Kiwanuka said in a statement. "The Giants had to move on, and I had to be OK with it. Regardless of what happens to me as an individual, I'm definitely still going to work with the Giants organization throughout the term of my contract."
It seemed inevitable Kiwanuka's season would end on IR. Kiwanuka hasn't played since the team's loss to Tennessee in the third week of the season.
He led the team in sacks through the first three games with four while thriving in Perry Fewell's new system at defensive end and linebacker. But days before the Giants' win over Chicago, he was diagnosed with a bulging disk in his neck, a similar injury to the one that ended Antonio Pierce's season and career.
Kiwanuka spent much of this past month seeing various doctors. It was after a recent visit to spine specialist Robert Watkins that Kiwanuka's injury was diagnosed as a herniated disk, instead of a bulging disk, meaning it had ruptured. But Kiwanuka said doctors told him his disk will heal on its own without surgery due to the slight degree of the herniation and the alignment of his spine. It just requires time.
"I want to avoid surgery," he said. "The consensus is that if I take the proper amount of time off, there is a very good chance that it'll heal on its own. That's what the goal is right now. If it doesn't happen, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Regardless of whether or not it requires surgery, I'll still be back by the opening of training camp."
Kiwanuka is one of Tom Coughlin's favorite players and the head coach said he wants to see the defensive end stay with the Giants next season. Kiwanuka has been one of the team's most selfless players. He switched positions from defensive end to linebacker and back to defensive end. He also played special teams in the past.
"We held out hope as long as we could," Coughlin said. "Finally, by consensus, the doctors came to this decision. You have to make the right choice and the decision was made that he could not play again this season. My concern is for Mathias. He loves the game, he loves to play, he's proven his versatility this year beyond any question. He's given great effort and he has proven that he is a team player. I feel badly for Mathias because I know how important playing the game of football is to him. Let's get him healthy, back on the field, playing for the New York Giants."
Now the Giants move on without their 2006 first-round pick, who was a valuable chess piece in Fewell's schemes. Umenyiora will have to continue his torrid pace. Since Kiwanuka has been out, Umenyiora has seven sacks and six forced fumbles.
"We had to change a little bit when Kiwi went out," Fewell said on Wednesday when asked about how much he had to change schematically without Kiwanuka. "Kiwi is a special kind of guy, so we looked around and we searched for some guys to take over those roles and we have some guys that can assume that role, but not play it like Kiwi plays it, so that's a special little deal."
The Giants have used three safeties on the field quite a bit and safety Deon Grant sometimes lines up at linebacker. Linebacker Keith Bulluck's recent return from a toe injury helps and Fewell will need Pierre-Paul, who was drafted in the first round as a luxury, to continue his progress. Pierre-Paul doesn't have a sack yet but he has impressed coaches with his play on defense and special teams.
"He is making progress for us and we want to get him more involved and he will become more involved," Fewell said. "It just depends on how much more he can handle and execute. So the more he can take on and execute, the more we'll give him. It's up to him."
Blackmon, who played the past four seasons for the Packers, will come in and immediately compete for the kick- and punt-returning duties. Darius Reynaud, who was acquired in the Sage Rosenfels preseason trade from Minnesota, has been a disappointment. Reynaud is averaging 18.4 yards per kick return and just 5.9 yards per punt return.
"Blackmon had a very good workout for us and showed that he has recovered nicely from a serious knee injury," Reese said of Kiwanuka's former Boston College teammate who played in just three games last year due to an ACL injury. "We expect him to get into the mix quickly on special teams. He has experience and production as a return specialist and cover specialist. He also has played both safety and corner, which gives us some flexibility there as well."
Kiwanuka is looking forward to reuniting with his college buddy.
"It's tough, because we were a couple of weeks away from playing together again," Kiwanuka said. "He got his papers from Green Bay, I was excited and heard there was a chance that he might come here, so I've been talking him up around the locker room. Man, he's a great player. I told everybody he's definitely the most talented and gifted athlete that I ever played football with, hands down. He made the switch from DB to wide receiver [in college] and didn't miss a beat, and obviously he is a very talented return guy, too. He can do it all."
Ohm Youngmisuk covers the Giants for ESPNNewYork.com. You can follow him on Twitter |
Image copyright YouTube/Rai 1 Image caption The town first turned its piazza into a huge version of the board game last summer
A small Italian town is transforming its main square into a giant Risk board for a two-day tournament, it's reported.
The piazza in Sant'Eufemia a Maiella, located deep within Italy's central Majella National Park, will be covered with a 650-sq-m (7,000-sq-ft) board as part of the event later this month, the local Il Centro website reports. It's billed as the biggest game of Risk in the world by the event's organisers. Artist Liberio Furlini spent 15 days painting the huge political map of the world used in the game. Super-sized playing pieces designed to fit with the gigantic board will be used by those taking part.
Risk is a strategy game where players try to occupy each territory on the board, thereby eliminating their competitors. The rules are being slightly simplified to allow more people to compete, but the tournament's winner will need to brush up on all the finer details, as they'll be offered a place at the national Risk championship.
"We have already seen 80 people sign up to take part from all over Italy," Mayor Francesco Crivelli tells Metro News 24. And while the mayor is partial to a game himself, he might not fancy his chances at the tournament. "Usually I like to play using the green pieces, but I lose, I always lose," he tells the channel.
Image copyright YouTube/Metro News 24 Image caption Risk, or Risiko in Italian, has become popular around the world since it was first released in the 1950s
Next story: 'Safe selfie' campaign launched in Russia
Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter. |
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss junior defensive lineman Breeland Speaks is electing to forgo his senior year of college and enter his name for the upcoming 2018 National Football League Draft, he announced Tuesday.
Statement from Breeland Speaks:
"After discussing it with my family, I have decided to forgo my senior season and enter the 2018 NFL Draft. There are so many people I want to thank including Chancellor Vitter, Mr. Bjork, Coach Luke, the coaching staff, my teammates and everyone at the university for an awesome four years. Most of all, I thank Rebel Nation for the incredible support they gave me from day one. I was proud to Lock The Vaught every Saturday in my home state, and now I look forward to representing Ole Miss at the next level."
Statement from Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke :
"I have seen Breeland grow as a person and a player over the last four years, and we're excited to see him take this next step in his career. I am particularly proud of the leadership he brought to our team amidst the challenges we faced. He is a true Rebel, and we look forward to watching him continue our program's rich NFL tradition."
After redshirting in 2014, Speaks played in every game the last three years with 19 starts, including the last seven at defensive end after moving from tackle. The Jackson native earned All-SEC second team honors from the Associated Press and Phil Steele this season.
Speaks' senior campaign saw him rank sixth in the SEC with 7.0 sacks. He led the team with eight QB hurries and finished second in tackles (67) and third in TFLs (8.0). Speaks totaled a career-high 13 stops against LSU, including seven solos.
Follow Ole Miss Football on Twitter (@OleMissFB), Facebook and Instagram in addition to www.OleMissSports.com. |
This article is part of Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. If you too stand behind these principles, please join us by supporting them, sharing them, and telling lawmakers you want to see copyright law reflect them.
Over 3 million men and women work in America’s repair and maintenance industry. When your car breaks down, they get you on the road again. When your washing machine succumbs to entropy, they perform a sudsy resurrection. When your phone screen goes black, they reconnect you to the world. Three million people stand between you and chaos.
Maybe I don’t have a lot of faith in politics, but I think those 3 million people have more tangible impact on our lives than the squabbling politicians in Washington. And yet, a copyright law written by Washington insiders nearly two decades ago is threatening the livelihoods of those 3 million people.
It’s not supposed to work like that. Intellectual property laws are supposed to protect jobs. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), though, is different—and it’s poised to take a massive toll on skilled repair jobs in America.
The DMCA governs the complicated intersection between copyright and technology. Back in the 90s, computers made it relatively easy for people to copy movies and music. So the recording industry teamed up with Washington to crack down on piracy. Among other things, the resulting law made it illegal to break digital locks—like passwords or encryptions—over copyrighted work, no matter the reason.
In the past 20 years, technology has changed drastically. The DMCA has not. That’s a problem, because copyright isn’t just movies and music anymore. It’s everything. Because everything is powered by computers … which is powered by programming … which is technically copyrighted. That means your tractor, your coffeemaker, and your self-cleaning cat litter pan have the same copyright protection as your DVD of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
We can’t treat hardware the same way we treat a hit single. Singles break the charts; hardware just breaks. If companies put digital locks over our smart gadgets, then—under the DMCA—they’ll be the only ones who can fix that stuff. Worse, they can sue anyone who tries to break up their repair monopoly.
Over the years, lots of companies have abused the DMCA to squeeze out the competition. In the early aughts, cellphone companies wielded the DMCA to shut down programmers who developed unlocking software that moved cellphones to different carriers. Now, the same tactics are being used to shut down non-OEM repair options.
Local mechanics rely on diagnostic tools from companies like Snap-on and Autel to repair modern vehicles. But in 2014, Ford sued Autel for making a tool that diagnoses car trouble and tells you what part fixes it. Autel decrypted a list of Ford car parts, which wound up in their diagnostic tool. Ford claimed that the parts list was protected under copyright (even though data isn’t creative work)—and cracking the encryption violated the DMCA. The case is still making its way through the courts. But this much is clear: Ford didn’t like Autel’s competing tool, and they don’t mind wielding the DMCA to shut the company down.
“In some sense, this is an old fight. For decades, automakers have tried to steer drivers toward dealership-based repairs, and for decades some drivers have resisted that pull, preferring to work on their rides at home and in third-party shops,” says The Verge’s Russell Brandom. “But the computerization of the modern automobile has upset that balance, thanks to the unique legal status of software.”
Under the DMCA, the legal status of software makes tinkering a suable offense. Autel is fighting the suit—but most others couldn’t, especially against juggernauts like Ford. The safest option for third-party repair companies and developers is just not to innovate in directions that could put them at odds with the DMCA. The legal risk is too great, which leaves dealer repair shops with the only keys to the repair kingdom.
Other shops go out of business; people lose their jobs; repair prices go up.
As computers continue to permeate everyday things, the DMCA could impact repair jobs across all industries—not just cars. Imagine a future where your smart fridge turns into a refrigerated brick, because Samsung stops updating it and no one else can repair it. Or Apple says only they should be able to fix your iPhone. Or John Deere says you can’t repair your own tractor.
If that sounds far-fetched, it’s not. It’s already happening. In 2015, I teamed up with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Intellectual Property Law Clinic at USC to request a DMCA exemption for farmers who wanted the freedom to repair their own tractors—even if it meant fixing and modifying the software without the manufacturer’s permission. John Deere opposed the request, saying farmers didn’t own the software in their tractors. Deere argued that farmers only have “an implied license for the life of the vehicle to operate the vehicle.”
So much for ownership.
Thankfully, the US Copyright Office ruled with farmers and against Deere. But it’s not enough. John Deere just turned around and wrote an End User Licensing Agreement that chips away at an owner’s right to repair. Now it’s that much harder for anyone one but Deere to repair a tractor or develop diagnostic tools for independent repair shops.
Folks in Washington have been arguing a lot about jobs lately. Jobs that are leaving the US; jobs that can be saved. Well, I’m concerned about those 3 million repair jobs. Companies like Ford and John Deere are setting a dangerous precedent. Their aggressive copyright claims come at the expense of something far more dear: people’s livelihoods.
Thankfully, voters are stepping up to protect American jobs. Just last week, at the behest of constituents, three states—Nebraska, Minnesota, and New York—introduced Right to Repair legislation (more states will follow). These ‘Fair Repair’ laws would require manufacturers to provide service information and sell repair parts to owners and independent repair shops. And digital watchdogs, like the EFF and Repair.org, continue to advocate for the Unlocking Technology Act—which would ensure that repair people aren’t marked as criminals under the DMCA.
It doesn’t matter how smart your next gadget is—it’s still gonna break. The future will need fixing. But we’ll have to fix copyright law first. |
Howdy Shadowverse players! Man! It’s been a while since I have had sometime to sitdown and write an article on my own website. Generally I am writing between shadowverse.gamepress.gg and shadowverse.nge.io so I don’t have a large amount of time but I wanted to take the time to come back home and write an article on a deck that I have been playing a ton! Please understand that this article is primarily written for players who may not be entirely familiar with Shadowverse.
What is Vengeance Blood?
Vengeance blood is a midrange deck that is built around the premise of using bloodcrafts main mechanic Vengeance. While you are at 10 HP or lower, vengeance is active, allowing you to use increase the power of some of your cards.
Dark General: Gains Storm while in vengeance
Diabolic drain: Cost is reduced to 1 instead of 5
Belphegor: You do not take additional damage for playing this card while you are in vengeance
Emerelda, Demonic officer: Gains storm while in vengeance
Dark Air Jammer: Pulls 2 followers instead of one while in vengeance
My opponent won’t put me into vengeance! How do I get myself into vengeance?
Excellent question! This deck is literally equipped to handle that very situation. Good players will usually do their best not to force you into vengeance because they know the power of the deck they are facing. Below you will find a little guide as to what to do depending on the life total your opponent leaves you at.
12 HP Razory Claw Blood Wolf Spiderweb Imp Blood Pact
11 HP Ambling Wraith Snarling Chain
Belphegor…
Belphegor will always put you in vengeance regardless of your life total. However, you have to be careful about how you play belphegor because if played in correctly, you could actually end up killing yourself. There are games where you will not even want to be in vengeance after a certain time of the game has passed but i will cover that in the match up portion in the next article.
But Aya! I don’t understand why jormengand is in this deck! Can you explain???
Absolutely! Jormungand at first kind of became a pet card because of how underplayed it was. However after doing a lot of testing with the card, i have learned some very important things about it.
It is a must kill card. Your opponent isn’t gonna be leaving a 5/5 on the board for any reason. If they do kill it, they give your additional reach with your lethals If you look at how i constructed this deck, you will see that many cards in it deal damage to yourself. When Jor is killed, even a blood pact can help you lethal your opponent! Its entrance animation is freaking cool as hell! (This is a real reason! Don’t judge me….)
Then the next obvious question is “Why wouldn’t you play any of the other 6 drops in your deck?” I will address this below.
Carabosse, Wicked Fairy Very powerful card but has one major draw back. I don’t want to be locked in at 6 play points for the remainder of the game. In this deck, you generally want to play this card on turn 7 because you want to be able to play your Emerelda’s to help finish out the game. Unfortunately though, in the current meta as it stands, playing Carabosse on 7 ends up being a significant loss in tempo and this deck is always trying to push forward as quickly possible.
Imp Lancer Imp Lancer is certainly a fine option for the jor slot if someone opted not to play it. There is literally nothing wrong with this substitution.
Fenrir An excellent drop in the 6 slot but it is a little too slow for what you are trying to do. You generally want to be pushing as much as you can to your opponents face and this card doesn’t really help with that too much.
Mulligans
You mulligans are very important with this deck. I will try to cover as much of the mulligans as i can for the more common match ups.
Ambling Wraith
Blood Wolf
Spiderweb Imp Keep: You are playing against Forest / Sword / Blood as these tend to be aggro decks and you want to be conservative with your life total as much as possible. Don’t Keep: Against Rune. This card is a very easy Kaleidoscopic Glow target.
Disagreeable Demon Keep: You have a 2 drop in hand in match ups that are not the below or you are playing against Dragon / Haven / Rune
Belphegor Keep: Against Rune / Dragon / Haven / Blood (though debatable) Don’t Keep: Against Aggro decks.
Snarling Chains Keep: Going Second and if you did not get any other 2 drops.
Do you have tips for playing the deck?
It takes quite a bit of games to understand how you are supposed to play out your match ups. Stay tuned for the match up article that will be coming out shortly after this one!
Don’t focus on playing Jormungand! A lot of the time, you will feel the temptation to play jor when a better play is available. Play it when you can, not when you want to!
Make sure to pay very close attention to how much potential damage you can do in a turn. If you are not familiar with playing a deck such as this, it can be easy to miss lethal by not paying attention to a Razory claw in your hand or even remembering that jormungand’s effect has triggered.
In the beginning, play this like an aggro deck. Much like an aggro deck, you do want to play to your curve so mulliganing for it is paramount if you are going first more specifically.
Be weary of your life total and how much your opponent can do to you in a turn. This is rather generic advice but it is even more important for this deck than any other decks because of the sheer amount of damage you do to yourself. Don’t put yourself in your opponents lethal range!
Final thoughts
This deck is a ton of fun and I hope you get as much enjoyment out of playing it as I do! In the next article, i will cover this decks match ups and try to go into detail as to how this deck can be played in those! Feel free to hit up my discord and chat about shadowverse here! https://discord.gg/bdVuV7T Until next time!
(For the people who don’t get the reference in the title…) |
U.S. fears Mexico is losing war on drugs and organised crime, WikiLeaks cables reveal
The U.S. has lost hope in Mexico's ability to tackle drug cartels and organised crime, according to classified cables released by WikiLeaks.
Mexico's four-year assault on the cartels lacks a clear strategy and its military is not modern enough to take on the huge task, the messages claim.
They call into question many of the efforts publicly touted by Mexico and the U.S. about their war on organised crime.
The Mexican army is considered outdated, slow and risk averse and the $1.4billion U.S. Merida Initiative - a U.S.-Mexican co-operation plan - ill-conceived and ineffective in tackling drug trafficking.
Failing: Federal police on in a drugs bust in Mexico City
In one cable, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asks about how the stress is affecting President Felipe Calderon's 'personality and management style'.
Another by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual notes that Calderon has admitted to having a tough year and has appeared 'down' in meetings.
'Calderon has aggressively attacked Mexico's drug-trafficking organizations but has struggled with an unwieldy and uncoordinated inter-agency and spiraling rates of violence that have made him vulnerable to criticism that his anti-crime strategy has failed,' a memo from January 29 says.
One dated Oct. 5, 2009, from then-Undersecretary for the Interior Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez, who oversaw domestic security, expressed a 'real concern with 'losing' certain regions.'
'It is damaging Mexico's international reputation, hurting foreign investment, and leading to a sense of government impotence, Gutierrez said.
'If we do not produce a tangible success that is recognisable to the Mexican people, it will be difficult to sustain the confrontation into the next administration,' the memo says.
The classified and secret memos stand in stark contrast to the public presentation by both countries of the war on organized crime.
Calderon has insisted that the spike in violence that has killed more than 28,000 people since 2006 is a sign that the drug cartels are on the ropes and that the government controls all areas of the country.
Up in smoke: A Mexican soldier stands by as piles of cocaine are burnt
U.S. officials stage public ceremonies for the handover of helicopters and other Merida Initiative equipment and talk about Mexico's reform from a closed to an oral trial system a key tool in fighting the drug war.
Privately the U.S. notes: 'Prosecution rates for organized crime-related offenses are dismal; Two per cent of those detained are brought to trial. Only two per cent of those arrested in Ciudad Juarez have even been charged with a crime.'
Calderon's office refused to comment today.
The October 5 cable the U.S. says it would be happy to provide Mexico with more training and technology, particularly in intelligence gathering, but that it will take 'the development of strong trust through proper vetting.'
The cable also says 'it would be excellent to get to the point where there is no longer impunity for (Joaquin) Chapo Guzman,' Mexico's most-wanted drug lord.
One bright spot are the Mexican Marines, which led what U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual called in one memo 'a major victory for President Calderon' - the offensive a year ago that killed drug lord Arturo Beltran Leyva, head of cartel that bears his last name.
Since then, the marines, 'with extensive U.S. training' have also taken down drug lords Sergio Villarreal Barragan, who was fighting for control of the Beltran Leyva gang after its leaders death, and Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, or 'Tony Tormenta,' a top leader of the Gulf cartel.
But Pascual also notes that the U.S., who had information locating Beltran Leyva, originally took it to the army, which refused to move quickly.
The January 29 cable notes friction between the army and the marines.
An October 28, 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City describes a proposal by Mexican Defense Secretary Gen. Guillermo Galvan Galvan to control the violence with a type of state of emergency suspending, some constitutional rights in several cities, including Ciudad Juarez, a city across the border from El Paso considered one of the most violent in the world.
The cable noted that the Mexican government had not taken such action since World War II.
But then-Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont batted down the idea, and in the cable, then-Charge d'Affaires John Feeley said that U.S. government analysis showed the benefits were 'uncertain at best, and the political costs appear high.'
An October 5 cable describes a dinner that the Mexican Attorney General's Office hosted for a delegation from the U.S. Department of Justice, quoting Gutierrez as saying the Merida Initiative was too hastily crafted to be effective.
'In retrospect he and other GOM (Government of Mexico) officials realize that not enough strategic thought went into Merida in the early phase,' the memo said.
'There was too much emphasis in the initial planning on equipment, which they now know is slow to arrive and even slower to be of direct utility in the fight against the DTOs (drug-trafficking organizations.)'
Both the U.S. and Mexico have said recently that Merida money in the future would be directed toward creating more effective institutions.
The January 29 memo notes that military surges in Ciudad Juarez have not worked.
Gutierrez and National Security System Coordinator Jorge Tello Peon said Calderon has to stop the violence in Ciudad Juarez, according to the cable.
'Politically ... Calderon has staked so much of his reputation there, with a major show of force that, to date, has not panned out,' the cable said Gutierrez and Peon told U.S. officials at the dinner. |
Findings on Using Azilect (Rasagiline) as an Add-On Therapy A Phase 3 Japanese trial has found that adding Azilect (rasagiline) to levodopa is safe, and over the course of a year improved motor function in those with Parkinson’s disease with off periods. The Journal of Neural Transmission published the results …
Acorda Therapeutics Announces FDA Approval of INBRIJA™ (levodopa inhalation powder) (December 21, 2018) Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved INBRIJA™ for intermittent treatment of OFF episodes in people with Parkinson’s disease who are treated with carbidopa/levodopa. INBRIJA is expected to be commer …
Join The Parkinson Alliance at Rock Steady Boxing of South Brunswick’s Family Appreciation Day on Monday, December 10, 2018, in Kingston, NJ Rock Steady Boxing of South Brunswick will have a Family Appreciation Day on Monday, December 10, 2018, at 11:45 am to 2 pm, at the Retro Fitness of Kingston, in Kingston, NJ. The Parkinson Alliance will be there; please join us! Participate with a fam …
The Parkinson Alliance is a Charity Partner of the 29th Annual Bucks County Roadrunners Thanksgiving Day Five-Miler & One-Mile Fun Run on Thursday, November 22, 2018 The 29th Annual Customers Bank Bucks County Roadrunners (BCRR) Thanksgiving Day Five-Miler & One-Mile Fun Run in Langhorne, PA, will be held on Thursday, November 22, 2018. The Parkinson Alliance is proud to be a Charity Partner of this race, along …
Dance for Parkinson’s – Open House (November 11, 2018) Dance for Parkinson’s is for people with Parkinson’s Disease and their caregivers. Each class has live music and creates a warm sanctuary for movement exploration, and a social atmosphere to support artistic venture. The Parkinson A …
Axovant Announced Administration of AXO-Lenti-PD, A Novel Gene Therapy for Patient’s with Parkinson’s Disease, to First Patient in Clinical Study October 25, 2018 — Axovant announced that the first patient in a clinical study was administered dosing of AXO-Lenti-PD, which is an investigational gene therapy to treat Parkinson’s disease, that enables the expression of a set of three critical enzym …
“Milestone Moment” as LRRK2 inhibitor enters human testing October 25, 2018 — At the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s annual scientific conference, data was presented from a Phase I LRRK2 trial. The gene that makes the LRRK2 protein is the most common genetic cause of Parkinson’s. Described as a “Milestone Momen …
NYC Area: Free LSVT-LOUD Educational Seminar on December 1 October 25, 2018 — Those with PD, their families, friends, caregivers and healthcare professionals are invited to learn about LSVT-BIG, an evidence-based and effective program for those with PD seeking to improve movement, balance, walking and more. …
NYC Area: Free LSVT-LOUD Educational Seminar on November 30 October 25, 2018 — Those with PD, their families, friends, caregivers and healthcare professionals are invited to learn about LSVT-LOUD, an evidence-based and effective program for those with PD. Enjoy a FREE one-hour lecture, following which individ … |
CLOSE Attorney Merrida Coxwell said the $250,000 bond was excessive for his client, a respected attorney who has no criminal history
Buy Photo Attorney Mark Mayfield listens to his attorney John Reeves during his initial apperance in court in Madison Thursday. (Photo: Rick Guy/The Clarion-Ledger)Buy Photo
Authorities say the vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party and two other men conspired with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran.
Mark Mayfield of Ridgeland, an attorney and state and local tea party leader, was arrested Thursday along with Richard Sager, a Laurel elementary school P.E. teacher and high school soccer coach. Police said they also charged John Beachman Mary of Hattiesburg, but he was not taken into custody because of "extensive medical conditions." All face felony conspiracy charges. Sager also was charged with felony tampering with evidence, and Mary faces two conspiracy counts.
The arrest of Mayfield, well-known in political, business and legal circles, caused shock in Mississippi, in a criminal case and election that already had Mississippi in the national spotlight.
Mayfield's attorneys — Merrida Coxwell and Mayfield's brother-in-law, former state Rep. John Reeves — quickly posted cash for Mayfield's release on a $250,000 bond but called it excessive. They and Kelly's attorney said the case appears to be politically driven.
"There's a lot of bigger powers moving, and that's why this case wasn't handled the way it should be," said Kelly's attorney Kevin Camp, who argued Kelly should face, at worst, a misdemeanor. Instead, felony charges of conspiracy and photo voyeurism were added to the count of exploitation of a vulnerable adult he already faced. He faces a total of 20 years in prison.
"It's all about politics," Camp said.
Cochran's opponent in a bitter GOP primary race, tea party-backed state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville, continued to deny any involvement with Kelly or the video and to accuse Cochran of gaming the incident for political points.
Authorities said they have no evidence at this point linking the alleged conspiracy to a campaign. But Cochran's camp has continued to question when and how McDaniel and his staff knew of it, and point to inconsistent answers McDaniel and others on the campaign have given since Kelly's arrest Friday night.
McDaniel in a statement Tuesday called on Cochran to take down a new ad. It says a "Chris McDaniel supporter has been charged with a felony for photographing his wife in a nursing home. Had enough? … Rise up against dirty politics."
McDaniel said, "It is shameful for a sitting U.S. senator to engage in such desperate slander and lies."
Mayfield has been an ardent supporter of McDaniel, as have the Mississippi Tea Party and the Central Mississippi Tea Party, both of which list Mayfield on their boards of directors. Tea party officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
A photo posted recently on the McDaniel campaign's Facebook page shows Mayfield and other volunteers, saying, "Here's part of a crew that reached over 500 homes walking in Madison today. Great work team!"
Kelly, 28, of Pearl is a McDaniel supporter and an aspiring political blogger with the site "Constitutional Clayton." His friends and family say he wanted to make a name for himself and the blog, and was egged on by others over the Internet to do a hit piece on Cochran. He was trying to claim Cochran has a mistress — which Cochran has denied — while his wife languishes in a nursing home.
Kelly's wife said someone on the Internet gave him info on how to find Rose Cochran at St. Catherine's Village, and he photographed her on Easter Sunday.
John Mary (Photo: Madison Police Department)
An investigator testified Thursday that it was Kelly's third attempt to get a photograph of the incapacitated Rose Cochran.
Camp said Thursday that Kelly did not know the others arrested and had never seen them until in the holding room and courtroom.
Camp has argued that the felony exploitation law doesn't fit Kelly's alleged actions, in part because he said it would require monetary gain of more than $250 for Kelly. He also tried to kick holes in the photographing charge, which has most often been used to prosecute peeping Toms. It says it's a crime for anyone "with lewd, licentious or indecent intent" to photograph someone in a place where they would tend to be in a state of undress and have reasonable expectation of privacy.
Camp sparred with Madison Investigator Vickie Currie when she took the stand at Kelly's hearing Thursday. He said there's no evidence Kelly profited by $250 or more.
But Currie countered, "I believe (Rose Cochran's) image is priceless."
Camp said Kelly's intentions were "not lewd or licentious."
Currie countered, "I believe it was indecent."
Currie also testified Rose Cochran, who is unaware of her surroundings, was unconscious and in "bed clothes," when Kelly photographed her. She said the photos appeared to be taken at bedside, very close to Rose Cochran inside her room. Camp has claimed Kelly took them from outside her room.
Judge Dale Danks denied Camp's motion to dismiss or downgrade the charges against Kelly and his motion to reduce his bond. It remains $200,000 after the new charges. Kelly's wife, Tara, left the courthouse in tears with other family. They had hoped Kelly's bond would be reduced. Kelly mouthed "I love you" to Tara as he was led from the courtroom.
Tara and other family and friends say Kelly is a good person — a loving father to his autistic daughter — but got too wrapped up in politics and made a mistake.
Camp argued that Kelly had fulfilled his parole and always showed up when required on past drug charges. He said Kelly's "journalism" use of the photo may not be illegal.
Danks also denied lowering the bond of the others. Sager's remains at $500,000 total for his counts of conspiracy and tampering. Sager told the judge he doesn't have an attorney but plans to get one.
Richard Sager (Photo: Madison Police Department)
Danks bound Kelly and Mayfield's cases over to a grand jury after Mayfield waived a preliminary hearing and bonded out.
Coxwell argued Mayfield is a respected lawyer and pillar of the community, "of the entire state," and would not pose a flight risk under lower bond.
"This is not the first time I've been in this city where charges were filed against somebody that turned out not to be true," Coxwell said.
McDaniel on Thursday said, "As we have said since day one, the violation of the privacy of Mrs. Cochran is out of bounds for politics and reprehensible. Any individuals who were involved with this crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Contact Geoff Pender at (601) 961-7266 or [email protected]. Contact Jimmie Gates at (601) 961-7212 or [email protected]. Follow @GeoffPender or @jgatesnews on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://on.thec-l.com/1nvsKeg |
Issues of electricity regulation typically play out in drab government hearing rooms. That has not been the case this summer in Arizona, where a noisy argument — featuring TV attack ads and dueling websites — has broken out between regulated utilities and the rooftop solar industry.
An Internet web video attacks the California startup companies that sell rooftop solar systems as the “new Solyndras,” which are spending “hard-earned tax dollars to subsidize their wealthy customers.” Meantime, solar companies accuse Arizona Public Service, the state’s biggest utility, of wanting to “extinguish the independent rooftop solar market in Arizona to protect its monopoly.”
Similar battles about how rooftop solar should be regulated have flared in California, Colorado, Idaho, and Louisana. And the outcome of these power struggles could have a major impact on the future of solar in the U.S.
Opposition from regulated utilities could stop a solar boom before it gets started.
Today’s solar industry is puny — it supplies less than 1 percent of the electricity in the U.S. — but its advocates say that solar is, at long last, ready to move from the fringe of the energy economy to the mainstream. Photovoltaic panel prices are falling. Low-cost financing for installing rooftop solar is available. Federal and state government incentives remain generous.
Yet opposition from regulated utilities, which burn fossil fuels to produce most of their electricity, could stop a solar boom before it gets started.
Several utilities, including Arizona Public Service and Denver-based Xcel Energy, have asked their state regulators to reduce incentives or impose charges on customers who install rooftop solar; so far, at least, they aren’t making much headway. A bill in the California legislature, backed by the utility interests would add $120 a year in fees to rooftop solar customers.
A video posted by advocacy group Arizona Solar Facts attacks rooftop solar startups. YOUTUBE
But other utility companies are adopting a different strategy — they are joining forces with solar interests. NRG Energy, based in Princeton, N.J., has created a rooftop solar unit to sell systems to businesses and, eventually, homeowners. New Jersey’s PSE&G is making loans to solar customers, and Duke Energy and Edison International have invested in Clean Power Finance, a San Francisco-based firm that has raised half a billion dollars to finance solar projects.
“The industry is divided on how to deal with the opportunity — or threat,” says Nat Kreamer, Clean Power Finance’s CEO. “Some utilities are saying, how do I make money off distributed solar, as opposed to, how do I fight distributed solar.”
Distributed solar — which produces electricity outside the grid — “has become one of the more polarizing topics in the power industry, with some utilities joining the party, some doing just what is legislatively mandated, and others remaining reluctant and not being true believers,” according to a new report from Citi Research, called Rising Sun: Implications for U.S. Utilities. The report warns the utilities that “solar is here to stay, and very early in the growth cycle in the U.S.”
Until recently, utilities could ignore solar. Although the sun’s rays have been touted as a clean energy solution since Jimmy Carter first installed photovoltaic panels on the White House roof in 1979, solar remains barely a blip in the U.S. power market. In 2012, solar power provided a mere 0.11 percent of U.S. electricity generation, according to the Energy Information Administration, a government agency. By comparison, coal delivered 37 percent, natural gas 30 percent, nuclear 19 percent, and wind 3.5 percent. And that solar percentage includes utility-scale projects, like the big solar farms in California and Nevada that feed into the electricity grid, as well as distributed solar.
Distributed solar could disrupt the de facto monopoly long held by regulated utilities.
But the solar industry is growing fast, and much of the growth is distributed solar built “behind the meter” — that is, on commercial and residential rooftops, where electricity from solar panels eliminates the need for power that would otherwise be generated and sold by the utilities. Last year, nearly 90,000 businesses and homeowners installed rooftop solar projects totaling about 1.15 gigawatts, roughly the amount generated by a large coal plant. That represented a 46 percent growth over 2011, according to the Solar Electric Power Association. By the end of last year, the number of customer-sited photovoltaic systems in the U.S. topped 300,000, the association says.
Most industry experts expect that growth will accelerate as prices for solar continue to fall, to the point where rooftop solar will eventually cost less than the retail price of grid-delivered electricity. According to the Citi Research report, solar is already cheaper than electricity at the plug in several states, including Arizona, and in many countries, including Germany and Spain, where solar subsidies are generous. Last month, Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told GreenTechMedia that “solar is growing so fast it is going to overtake everything…It could double every two years.”
No wonder the utilities are nervous. Just as personal computers threatened the manufacturers of industrial-sized mainframes, and the rapid adoption of cell phones shook up once-formidable landline operators, distributed solar could disrupt the de facto monopoly long held by regulated utilities.
“From the utility’s perspective, it’s a mortal threat,” says NRG Energy’s chief executive, David Crane. As an independent power producer, NRG competes with regulated utilities; it has been selling rooftop solar directly to commercial customers, including hotels, Arizona State University, and NFL stadiums in Washington, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. “Big corporations are realizing that they can openly display their commitment to sustainability with solar panels without having to pay any more for electricity,” Crane says.
Arizona Public Service says current rules allow solar customers to use the grid for free.
The regulated utilities say they welcome the growth of rooftop solar, as long as businesses and homeowners who install rooftop panels pay their fair share of the costs of maintaining the electricity grid, which they rely on when the sun isn’t shining. The utilities say solar customers currently benefit from subsidies and regulations, particularly the policy of “net metering,” which requires utilities to buy back excess electricity from rooftop solar systems, at retail prices in some locales.
Arizona Public Service, which has asked regulators to impose higher costs on solar customers, says current rules essentially allow those customers to use the grid for free. As a result, customers who can’t afford solar panels or don’t have a place to put them end up paying higher rates. That, in turn, will help drive more customers to solar, increase the burden on those who don’t have it, and, not incidentally, eat into the utility’s earnings. That’s not a sustainable model for the future, the utility argues.
A solar industry group is trying to help utilities and solar companies find common ground.
The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), whose members include utilities and solar firms, is trying to help the industries find common ground so both can thrive. “People need to be equitably compensated for the services they are delivering — in both directions,” says Eran Mahrer, executive vice president of strategy and research at SEPA. “At the end of the day, that’s a negotiation.” But because utilities are regulated, and because regulators in some states, including Arizona, are elected, the argument has turned political. It has also led to some unorthodox alliances.
In Arizona, solar firms formed an advocacy group called TUSK (Tell Utilities Solar won’t be Killed) and hired as chairman Barry Goldwater Jr., a former Republican congressman and son of the 1964 presidential nominee. True to his heritage, Goldwater casts the issue as one of giving consumers “the freedom to make the best choice.” The utilities, he says, “don’t like competition. Competition tends to drive the price down and the quality up.” In Georgia, too, Tea Party conservatives have allied with environmentalists to form a Green Tea Coalition to oppose the local utility, again under the banner of free choice.
But other conservatives, including a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are loudly opposing government support for solar. A Virginia-based advocacy group for senior citizens called the 60 Plus Association has built an Arizona website, and an accompanying web video attack on solar subsidies. The video seeks to link California-based rooftop firms SunRun and Solar City, which are operating in Arizona, to bankrupt manufacturer Solyndra, calling them “connected companies getting corporate welfare.” An APS spokesman told Yale Environment 360 that it was not responsible for the video or any campaign against rooftop solar. But APS has confirmed that its parent company, Pinnacle West Capital Corp., hired Sean Noble, an Arizona political consultant who also has worked for the 60 Plus Association. 60 Plus has received funding from Charles and David Koch, whose conglomerate, Koch Industries, includes fossil fuel holdings.
The fact that organizations funded by the Koch brothers are going after solar subsidies may be the best evidence of all that the industry’s future is bright.
Corrections, September 4, 2013: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Nat Kreamer, the CEO of Clean Power Finance. It also incorrectly stated the amount of electricity generated by new U.S. rooftop solar projects last year; it was 1.15 gigawatts; not 1.1 megawatts. |
We've seen it in science-fiction books and movies before — the urban dystopia where living space has shrunk to almost nothing to house a teeming humanity. Now it seems to be here... or at least scheduled for 2011.
The loft — already a compact, efficient living arrangement that eschews most luxury — is being replaced in some places, including one city in windy, wide-open Canada, by the even more austere micro-loft. Soon you can live like Larry Niven's Louis Grindley Wu (in Ringworld Engineers), who could see both doors to his apartment from his chair.
Advertisement
That's the news in a new post at Core77, which says that Vancouver — a progressive, green city that also has some of the highest rents in the world even before Olympic madness — could lead the way.
And of course, as Thomas Malthus warned us two centuries ago, it could take off from there: "In a problem spreading across the globe," the post says," the population is outstripping the available space."
It's another step in a trend — mass produced faux-Tuscan mini-mansions be damned — toward more compact living: The micro-lofts should be ready to roll next year.
Explains Core77:
Although the comedian Ricky Gervais is now fabulously wealthy, in one of his sets he recalls how, as a poor unknown, he and his girlfriend shared a London flat so small that he could open the refrigerator whilst still in bed. In Tokyo I saw similarly tiny apartments, where you would open the front door and hit the bed; and New York's East Village spawns, among other trends, some of the tiniest rabbit-hutch apartments you'll ever see.
Advertisement
(Here's another report on CTV News.)
A developer has just unveiled 270-square foot apartments with Murphy beds, folding kitchen and built-in shelving and flatscreen TVs. (One bit of advice: Windows.)
Besides Ringworld Engineers, what other scifi books or films does this remind us of? |
At Zero Otto Nove, a stalwart trattoria in the Bronx, Mr. Bloomberg sought to pre-empt criticism by citing statistics showing an uptick in restaurant revenue and a reduction in salmonella infections since the grading system began in 2010. He denounced critics as “people that complain because they don’t want to keep their restaurants clean.”
“They think it’s O.K. to have mice and roaches and dirt and not have people wash their hands before they come back from the bathroom,” the mayor said, his voice rising. “That’s just simply unacceptable, and their complaints are going to fall on deaf ears, I can tell you that. We’re not going to change.”
The Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is rarely at odds with the mayor, later offered a firm, if measured, rejoinder.
“The mayor is appropriate to defend the idea of a grading system; I defend the idea of a grading system,” Ms. Quinn said in an interview. “I also have to respond when I’ve heard this many complaints from constituents.”
“All I want to make sure is that the grades really tell the true story, and they do it in a way that doesn’t overly or inconsistently fine,” she added.
For health officials, the Council’s hearing came at an inopportune moment. The New York Post reported over the weekend that Per Se, consistently rated among the city’s best restaurants, had avoided a “B” grade with a telephone call to a city official, in which the restaurant successfully argued that the inspection report had contained errors.
City Hall officials quickly pointed out that several dozen restaurants, of varying degrees of prestige, had taken the same route to contest alleged violations and avoid a protracted adjudication process. Mr. Bloomberg, at his news conference on Tuesday, referred to any suggestion of undue influence as “an outrage.”
Photo
“It’s just so unfair,” the mayor said. “No wonder sometimes it’s just so hard for everybody to keep working in this city and trying to do what’s right.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
About 72 percent of restaurants have an “A” grade, and Mr. Bloomberg noted that an imperfect rating was not necessarily a reason to avoid a restaurant: he said he had continued patronizing a coffee shop near his Upper East Side town house despite its recent drop from an “A” to a “B.”
The health department has been spot-checking restaurants for safety and sanitary issues for decades, but the unappetizing findings — a roach in the kitchen, unrefrigerated, raw food — were published only in hard-to-find documents, and fines for violations were often quietly paid, with the consumer none the wiser.
Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.
Mr. Bloomberg and Ms. Quinn agreed on Tuesday that the grading system provided diners with more access to information, but some restaurant owners argued that the grading system was far too blunt and was frequently based on relatively minor issues.
“It could be a cracked toilet cover; it could be a gap around a pipe,” said Peter Hansen, the director of operations at Benchmarc Restaurants, which owns several expensive dining establishments in the city.
“But,” Mr. Hansen added, “what your customer is thinking is: old tuna.”
Elizabeth Meltz, who oversees food safety at Mario Batali’s Italian restaurants, said that she supported a grading system and that it could improve public health.
But, echoing other restaurant workers, she said some city health inspectors seemed inconsistent in their standards, asking about certain elements of the kitchen on some visits and not on others. Sometimes, the inspectors appeared unfamiliar with complex dishes like terrine and kimchi, Ms. Meltz said, and on one occasion, she believed that an inspector was disrespectful to her because of her gender.
“There can be a lack of ability to communicate whatever expertise they may or may not have,” Ms. Meltz said. “I’m all for the grading system. If we could help the health department get the inspectors that they need and deserve, it should work for everybody.”
Ms. Meltz said she wished inspectors and restaurant workers better understood each other’s needs. “Inspectors could come in and dine, and see what our food is like, and why our antipasti are at room temperature,” she suggested. “And a couple of our sous chefs could take a week of the inspectors’ courses, to see how they inspect, so it’s not this guessing game.”
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
In the case of James, which serves artisanal American cuisine on the ground floor of a Prospect Heights brownstone, one of the reasons for its “B” rating was the lack of a ventilating fan in an employee bathroom.
“The bathroom was well ventilated, and I tried to explain that to the inspector, but I guess the law’s the law,” said Bryan Calvert, the chef and one of the owners of the restaurant, who later installed a fan.
Mr. Calvert, who said he prided himself on employing a highly trained staff, said that he missed the “A” cutoff by one or two points, and that he was disheartened when he initially received the lower grade.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “We definitely had people who would ask, ‘What happened?’ ” |
Horace Augustus Curtis VC (7 March 1891 – 1 July 1968) was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Enlistment and training [ edit ]
Curtis was born on 7 March 1891 in St Anthony-in-Roseland, Cornwall. He enlisted after war broke out in August 1914, and passed fit for duty on 12 September. He was attested into The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI) at Bodmin on 14 September as No.15833 Private Curtis. However, four days later he was transferred to the 7th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.[1]
Recruiting in Ireland in August 1914 was not as satisfactory as in Britain, and in consequence Lord Kitchener decided early in September to transfer a number of recruits for whom no room could be found in English regiments to fill up the ranks of the 10th Division. Despite these transferees, the division and its battalions consisted of Irishmen (apart from the 10th Battalion Hampshire Regiment) The 7th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers had just started forming up in August at Naas in Ireland, and presumably Horace proceeded there to commence his training at the Curragh in County Kildare. The 30th Brigade moved to Dublin in February 1915 and then embarked for England in May 1915 and onto the Basingstoke area, where intensive training of the 10th Division took place for the next 3 months. During that time, the division was inspected by King George V on 28 May at Hackwood Park and by Field Marshal, Lord Kitchener on 1 June.
As a result of these inspections the following divisional orders were issued:
"Lieutenant-General Sir B Mahon received His Majesty's command to publish a divisional order to say how pleased His Majesty was to have had an opportunity of seeing the 10th Irish Division and how impressed he was with the appearance and physical fitness of the troops. His Majesty, the King recognises that it is due to the keenness and co-operation of all ranks that the 10th Division has reached such a high standard of efficiency. The General Officer Commanding 10th Irish Division has much pleasure in informing the troops that Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, the Secretary of State for War, expressed himself as highly satisfied with all he saw of the 10th Division at the inspection today." Order no. 34 1st June 1915.
Gallipoli [ edit ]
The division embarked from Devonport on 11 July 1915, the 7th battalion R. D Fus aboard H. M. T Alaunia and via Malta and Alexandria, the 7th landed at the island of Mytilene off the Turkish coast on 25 July 1915. Horace's service with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (M. E. F) dated from 10 July 1915. The battalion left Mytilene and landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli peninsula, Turkey on 7 August 1915.
Other parts of the division had been engaged with the enemy prior to the 7th Battalion arriving and had suffered severe losses, which was also to befall the 7th Battalion. In his book "The Tenth Division in Gallipoli" Major Bryan Cooper, who served with the division, estimates that by the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the Tenth Division had lost 75% of its original strength killed or wounded. In his book "Ireland's Forgotten 10th" Capt. Jeremy Stanley states 3,000 men were killed or died from wounds, 25% of the division's strength.
Greece [ edit ]
After Gallipoli, the 10th Division sailed for the base island of Lemnos (Mudros Harbour) on 30 September and in early October left for the port of Salonica in Greece. During a long stay in the Macedonian theatre of war and bitter fighting, Horace earned promotion during 1916 from unpaid lance corporal on 7 February to full sergeant on 17 November 1916. He was also mentioned in Dispatches in the London Gazette on 21 July 1917.
Palestine [ edit ]
After almost 2 years here, the division sailed for Alexandria in September 1917 for Egypt and the allied offensive against the Turks in Palestine. A further 8 months later in April 1918, the 6th Battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the 7th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers had left the 30th Brigade, 10th Division and returned to Egypt in order to join units in France fighting the German advance.
France [ edit ]
On 23 May 1918, the 7th Battalion left Alexandria and landed at Marsailles, France on 31 May. On 6 June the battalion was reduced to a cadre. Surplus personnel, of whom Horace was one, were absorbed by the 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
This was to be the fourth theatre of war that Curtis fought in: he had served with the M. E. F and the Eygyptian Expeditionary Force. He was now a member of the British Expeditionary Force (B. E. F) France and Belgium.
On 20 June 1918, Curtis returned to England where he went to Bermondsley Military Hospital in London for treatment for malaria, broken by a furlough, home leave to Fiddlers Green between 24 July until 3 August, the first time in four years.
He was finally cleared to return to his unit in France on 19 August and was back in France by 1 September and to the Front by 21 September.
VC action [ edit ]
On 18 October 1918, No. 14107 Sergeant Horace A Curtis, 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers fought in action near Le Cateau that earned him the Victoria Cross. The following is the official citation, which appeared in the London Gazette on 6 January 1919.
No.14107 Sjt. Horace Augustus Curtis.2nd Battalion, R. Dub. Fus (Newlyn East, Cornwall) For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty East of Le Cateau on the morning of 18th October 1918, when in attack his platoon came unexpectedly under intense machine-gun fire. Realising that the attack would fail unless the enemy guns were silenced, Sjt Curtis, without hesitation, rushed forward through our own barrage and the enemy fire and killed and wounded the teams of two of the guns, whereupon the remaining four guns surrendered. Then turning his attention to a train-load of reinforcements, he succeeded in capturing over 100 enemy before his comrades joined him. His valour and disregard of danger inspired all.[2]
His VC was presented to him by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 8 March 1919.
Post war [ edit ]
On 31 January 1919 he was back home and starting 28 days demobilisation leave and transferred to Class "Z" Army reserve on 23 March 1919. Curtis was finally discharged on 31 March 1920. He joined the 5th (Territorial) Battalion DCLI on a 3-year engagement at St Columb on 5 May 1920. Private 5431368, he was rapidly promoted to Sergeant and by 27 August 1920 was WO2 (CSM). On 20 December 1921, Horace transferred to the 4/5th DCLI and on 19 May 1923 his service was terminated at the end of his engagement.
Curtis died on 1 July 1968.
The Medal [ edit ]
His VC is on display in the Lord Ashcroft Collection[3] at the Imperial War Museum, London. |
Trey Edward Shults, Krisha, 2015, HD video, color, sound, 83 minutes. Krisha (Krisha Fairchild).
1 KRISHA (Trey Edward Shults) This hilariously harrowing portrait of a family reunion ruined by an alcoholic relative and too many dogs is told with verve and lunacy and features a top-notch performance by Krisha Fairchild, the director’s own aunt. Other people’s hell can sometimes be so much fun.
2 TICKLED (David Farrier and Dylan Reeve) Hahahahaha! First you’ll chuckle watching this exceptional piece of investigative reporting, but then, once the shocking plot twists begin, you’ll choke on that laughter.
3 EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (Richard Linklater) The best accidentally gay movie ever made by a known heterosexual director features the most talented and sexy ensemble cast of the last decade.
4 ROAR (Noel Marshall) I finally got to see Tippi Hedren’s real-life snuff movie starring her entire family that was made in 1981 but not released in the US until 2015. Watch, slack-jawed, as Tippi is scalped and her daughter Melanie Griffith mauled by the wild-animal extras who turn out to be the real stars of this nutcase action film.
5 WIENER-DOG (Todd Solondz) The funniest dog movie since Godard’s Goodbye to Language. Nasty, blunt, rude, and full of hideous surprises.
Noel Marshall, Roar, 1981, 35 mm, color, sound, 102 minutes. Hank (Noel Marshall) and Madelaine (Tippi Hedren).
6 ELLE (Paul Verhoeven) Do daughters of mass murderers like to get raped? In France they sometimes do, and only Isabelle Huppert could play this hetero-deviant, Claude-Chabrol-meets-Radley-Metzger character with feminist dignity. Isn’t she the best actress in the whole wide world?
7 JULIETA (Pedro Almodóvar) If Hitchcock had actually understood women, might he not have made this serious and absolutely stunning hellodrama about female longing and loneliness? Rossy de Palma is back, too. Yay!
8 LIKE CATTLE TOWARDS GLOW (Dennis Cooper and Zac Farley) Arty teenage death, Gallic rimming, and a maddening passion for punk penises make this Eric Rohmer–like porno a real French tickler for the fucked-up literary set.
9 VALLEY OF LOVE (Guillaume Nicloux) Yep, it’s her again. Isabelle Huppert and the fattest Gérard Depardieu you’ve ever seen team up as parents in Death Valley, searching for some kind of mystical message from their son who has just committed suicide. Even dead Pasolini would love this film.
10 A QUIET PASSION (Terence Davies) The grim curse of Emily Dickinson’s poetic talent has never been shown with such depressing clarity. If you can’t enjoy suffering along with her, you should be dead too.
John Waters has already left on an eighteen-city tour for his spoken-word show A John Waters Christmas.
This is a complimentary article. Subscribe to access the rest of the issue and our online archives. |
MUNICH/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday a Syria ceasefire plan was more likely to fail than succeed, as Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes took rebel ground near Aleppo and set their sights on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa province.
International divisions over Syria surfaced anew at a Munich conference where Russia rejected French charges that it was bombing civilians, just a day after world powers agreed on the “cessation of hostilities” due to begin in a week’s time.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated accusations that Russia was hitting “legitimate opposition groups” and civilians with its bombing campaign in Syria and said Moscow must change its targets to respect the ceasefire deal.
The conflict, reshaped by Russia’s intervention last September, has gone into an even higher gear since the United Nations sought to revive peace talks. These were suspended earlier this month in Geneva before they got off the ground.
Turkish forces shelled Kurdish YPG militia targets near the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Saturday, Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said, demanding that the group withdraw from land it recently captured.
The United States urged both Turkey and the Syrian Kurds to step back and focus instead on tackling the “common threat” of Islamic State militants who control large parts of Syria.
The Syrian army looked poised to advance into the Islamic State-held province of Raqqa for the first time since 2014, apparently to pre-empt any move by Saudi Arabia to send ground forces into Syria to fight the jihadist insurgents.
A Syrian military source said the army captured positions at the provincial border between Hama and Raqqa in the last two days and intends to advance further.
“It is an indication of the direction of coming operations towards Raqqa. In general, the Raqqa front is open ... starting in the direction of the Tabqa area,” the source said.
Tabqa is the location of an air base captured by Islamic State two years ago, and the source said the army had moved to within 35 km (20 miles) of the base.
The cessation of hostilities deal agreed by major powers falls short of a formal ceasefire, since it was not signed by the warring parties - the government and rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad in a five-year war that has killed at least 250,000 people.
If its forces retake Aleppo and seal the Turkish border north of the city, Damascus would deal a crushing blow to the insurgents who were on the march until Russia intervened, shoring up Assad’s rule and paving the way to the current reversal of rebel fortunes.
Russia has said it will keep bombing Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which in many areas of western Syria fights government forces in close proximity to insurgents deemed moderates by Western states.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, asked at a security conference in Munich on Saturday to assess the chances of the cessation of hostilities deal succeeding, replied: “49 percent.”
Asked the same question, his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier put the odds at 51 percent.
The complex, multi-sided civil war in Syria, raging since 2011, has drawn in most regional and global powers, caused the world’s worst humanitarian emergency and attracted recruits to Islamist militancy from around the world.
Assad, backed on the ground by Iranian combatants and Lebanon’s Hezbollah in addition to big power ally Russia, is showing no appetite for a negotiated ceasefire. He said this week that the government’s goal was to recapture all of Syria, though he said this could take time.
The U.S. government said Assad was “deluded” if he thought there was a military solution to the conflict.
Syrian state television announced the army and allied militia had on Saturday captured the village of al-Tamura overlooking rebel terrain northwest of Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported advances in the same area, adding that Russian jets had hit three rebel-held towns near the Turkish border.
Government offensives around Aleppo have sent tens of thousands of people fleeing towards the Turkish border.
ISLAMIC STATE TARGETED
Islamic State, driven by the goal of expanding its “caliphate” rather than reforming Syria - the original goal of the opposition when the conflict began as an unarmed street uprising in 2011 - is being targeted in separate campaigns by a U.S.-led alliance and Assad’s government with Russian air support. Regional Kurdish forces supported by Washington are also fighting Islamic State in Raqqa province.
Gulf states that want Assad gone from power have said they would be willing to send in troops as part of any U.S.-led ground attack against Islamic State. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send commandos to help recapture Raqqa.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was reported as saying Saudi Arabia will send aircraft to Turkey’s Incirlik air base to support the air campaign against Islamic State in Syria.
“Saudi Arabia is now sending planes to Turkey, to Incirlik. They came and carried out inspections at the base,” Cavusoglu told the Yeni Safak newspaper, adding it was unclear how many planes would come and that the Saudis might also send soldiers.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday in Munich there was no need to scare anyone with a ground operation in Syria.
Stalls are seen on a street beside damaged buildings in the rebel held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail
Two Syrian rebel commanders told Reuters on Friday insurgents had been sent “excellent quantities” of Grad rockets with a range of 20 km (12 miles) by foreign backers in recent days to help confront the Russian-backed offensive in Aleppo.
Foreign opponents of Assad including Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been supplying vetted rebel groups with weapons via a Turkey-based operations centre.
Some of these groups have received military training overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The vetted groups have been a regular target of the Russian air strikes. |
Richmond RCMP are investigating after a drone was reported flying dangerously close to aircraft at Vancouver's YVR airport on Monday.
A concerned citizen spotted the drone, a remote-controlled aircraft, adjacent to the glide path of planes landing at Vancouver airport.
RCMP Sgt. Cam Kowalski said police want to publicize the dangers of remote-controlled aircraft, also known as UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles.
"It puts people in danger and puts them at risk, puts the community at risk," said Kowalski. "We take these incidents very seriously."
"It's incredibly dangerous and incredibly stupid, so we will investigate this every way that we possibly can."
Canada’s Transportation agency is already investigating an earlier incident, in which video — shot from a drone — was posted on YouTube showing a landing passenger jet at Vancouver airport.
In another case, an Air Canada pilot reported a drone came within 50 metres of his landing aircraft, and in May, a drone crashed on a movie set in Vancouver.
Aviation lawyer Lee Mauro is concerned about the lack of rules in Canada and questions what would happen if a drone were to strike a cockpit window or be sucked into an engine.
"Our aviation industry is heavily regulated and is quite safe. But [planes] are not tested for a 75 pound carbon fibre drone flying into the engine or the windscreen," said Mauro.
"I think that is a real safety issue, and we're seeing it now."
Under Canadian rules, if a drone is under 35 kilograms, operators are only required to maintain a line of sight and avoid getting too close to congested areas or restricted airspace like an airport.
A drone equipped with a small video camera takes flight in Vancouver. (CBC)
In the U.S., the rules are much more strict. Drones cannot travel within eight kilometres of an airport without permission from the control tower.
"The technology at this point is sort of surpassing the regulation, it's moving at a pace that has significantly outpaced the legislative ability to keep up to it," said Mauro.
A YVR airport spokesperson told CBC News the safety of airspace is paramount to the airport and making sure planes land safely is its number one priority.
Meanwhile, the RCMP say if they can track down the person who was flying drone near YVR Monday, they will consider laying charges.
According to Kowalski, that could mean a substantial fine under the Aeronautics Act or a penalty in line with the Canadian Aviation Regulations.
Provincially, he says, police will be pursuing a myriad of potential charges, including mischief and criminal negligence. |
The video will start in 8 Cancel
Get the biggest Chelsea 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
Chelsea's title-winning stars have been handed limited edition watches as a thank-you from owner Roman Abramovich.
Each player received their Hublot watch this week with a note from Blues chairman Bruce Buck, who congratulated the squad on 'creating history' last season.
Willian and Nathaniel Chalobah took to Instagram to reveal their new timepieces which came courtesy of the club's official timekeeper.
A note from Buck accompanying the gifts for both players read:
"On behalf of Mr Abramovich and also on behalf of the board of directors of the club, congratulations on creating history during the 2016/17 season.
(Image: willianborges88/Instagram)
(Image: willianborges88/Instagram)
(Image: willianborges88/Instagram)
"It's been a campaign to remember. Keep the blue flag flying high."
While neither player showed off the actual watch on social media, they are likely to be similar to a £9,000 timepiece from Hublot that is limited to only 200 units.
Last summer Leicester gave their title-winning players £100,000 BMW cars as a special bonus.
Antonio Conte's men kick off their title defence when they host Burnley on the opening week of the season. Before that they face Arsenal in Beijing on July 22, with pre-season friendlies against Bayern Munich and Inter Milan following, before they again meet the Gunners in the Community Shield.
(Image: hublot)
(Image: hublot)
The Blues kicked off their summer transfer activity last week when they landed defender Antonio Rudiger from Roma.
(Image: hublot)
A striker is expected to follow after the club missed out on Romelu Lukaku, who joined Manchester United in a £75million move. |
Outspoken billionaire Mark Cuban has a bone to pick with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Less than a year after scoring a huge victory against the regulator, he took to Twitter and YouTube this week to deride the agency, which he locked horns with in a testy, years-long legal battle in which he fought off insider trading charges.
What has Cuban so worked up this time? Apparently, the process for getting SEC guidance on what constitutes insider trading.
Cuban tweeted a clip from a YouTube video in which he follows telephone instructions for filing a ”no-action letter,” a formal request that the agency weigh in on whether a specific trade could be deemed a violation of securities law.
The full video, which includes more explanation from Cuban as to what he’s researching and why he’s researching it, is here:
Here are some highlights from Cuban’s rant against the process, which is based on procedures the SEC outlined 34 years ago, and apparently hasn’t updated much since:
This is not going to accomplish anything and this is certainly not going to help any normal individual who’s thinking about buying stocks in the market. It’s not going to help them understand insider trading and it’s not give them comfort that were doing all they can to not break the law. Which based off of my experience is not shocking … and if it seems like I’m going on and going off about the SEC, well, this was an easy change for them to step up and answer a question. Instead me and everybody else going through this gets a memo from 1980. Way to go, [SEC chief] Mary Jo White. Good Job!
Here’s the memo(pdf) that Cuban references.
Cuban makes a valid point: insider trading laws can be hard to parse. That’s why the SEC itself urges people to consult with a legal expert. Cuban, with a reported net worth of $2.5 billion, certainly can afford an army of lawyers. But what about everyone else? |
- video encodings still in process -
CAIRO — Egypt displayed Monday newly discovered tombs more than 4,000 years old and said they belonged to people who worked on the Great Pyramids of Giza, putting the discovery forth as more evidence that slaves did not build the ancient monuments.The series of modest 9-foot-deep shafts held a dozen skeletons of pyramid builders, perfectly preserved by dry desert sand along with jars that once contained beer and bread meant for the workers' afterlife.The mud-brick tombs were uncovered last week in the back yard of the Giza pyramids, stretching beyond a burial site first discovered in the 1990s and dating to the 4th Dynasty (2575 B.C. to 2467 B.C.), when the great pyramids were built on the fringes of present-day Cairo.The ancient Greek historian Herodotus once described the pyramid builders as slaves, creating what Egyptologists say is a myth later propagated by Hollywood films.Graves of the pyramid builders were first discovered in the area in 1990 when a tourist on horseback stumbled over a wall that later proved to be a tomb.Egypt's archaeology chief Zahi Hawass said that discovery and the latest finds last week show that the workers were paid laborers, rather than the slaves of popular imagination.Hawass said the find sheds more light on the lifestyle and origins of the pyramid builders. Most important, he said the workers were not recruited from slaves commonly found across Egypt during pharaonic times.Hawass said the builders came from poor Egyptian families from the north and the south, and were respected for their work — so much so that those who died during construction were bestowed the honor of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs.Their proximity to the pyramids and the manner of burial in preparation for the afterlife backs this theory, Hawass said."No way would they have been buried so honorably if they were slaves," he said.The tombs contained no gold or valuables, which safeguarded them from tomb-raiders throughout antiquity. The skeletons were found buried in a fetal position — the head pointing to the West and the feet to the East according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, surrounded by the jars once filled with supplies for afterlife.The men who built the last remaining wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly and worked in three-month shifts, said Hawass.It took 10,000 workers more than 30 years to build a single pyramid, Hawass said — a tenth of the workforce of 100,000 that Herodotus wrote of after visiting Egypt around 450 B.C.Hawass said evidence from the site indicates that the approximately 10,000 laborers working on the pyramids ate 21 cattle and 23 sheep sent to them daily from farms.Though they were not slaves, the pyramid builders led a life of hard labor, said Adel Okasha, supervisor of the excavation. Their skeletons have signs of arthritis, and their lower vertebrae point to a life passed in difficulty, he said."Their bones tell us the story of how hard they worked," Okasha said. |
A police bungle meant officers weren’t sent to tackle a gang of naked youngsters rampaging through Cowdenbeath last weekend.
Scared members of the public who watched the events unfold in the town’s public park called the police, to no avail.
Instead the gang continued themayhem unabated, setting fire to a wheelie bin and sneering at firefighters sent out to tackle the blaze.
The incident has seen ChiefSuperintendent Alan Spiers admit that “regrettably” the calls received at the police control room had not been logged correctly and local officers were notdispatched.”
Local MSP Alex Rowley questioned the effectiveness of having a police control centre miles away across the Forth.
Fife’s Glenrothes-based controlcentre closed last month and now calls are dealt with by staff in Bilston Glen.
“We were told that there would be no detrimental impact from the closureof the Fife control centre with theoperations being moved to a centre on the outskirts of Edinburgh in a move to save money.”
The Cowdenbeath MSP has written to Chief Superintendent Garry McEwan, asking him to investigate how the police responded to the incident.
“The level of behaviour in the park that local residents have to deal with is completely unacceptable and I amtaking this up with the local station in Cowdenbeath.
“But the failure of the control centre to respond is an extra worry.
“Some residents tell me they were told ‘the police don’t put out fires’ whichis just not the response they werelooking for when reporting anti-social behaviour, vandalism and fire-raising.”
Local community inspector Hannah Morrison stressed local officersdid appreciate anti-social issues inJohnston Park and Leuchatsbeath Drive, bordering the park, and were working to resolve them.
Additional patrols have been carried out by community officers and wardens over the last few weekends.
These will continue on Friday andSaturday nights for the foreseeable future to deter youngsters, she added.
Regular visits will also be made to local licensed premises to identify the issue of proxy sales of alcohol to young people. |
True Justice Must Be Served For Guantanamo Detainees
President Barack Obama lifted a moratorium on transfers of Guantanamo bay detainees to Yemen – a moratorium he put in place. Why Obama put this moratorium into place after vowing, on a multitude of occasions, to do whatever he could to restore justice and shut down Gitmo is neither here nor there. I don’t intend to speculate on his reasons for taking so long, but I will say that this is one step forward after 3000 steps back.
But of course, this step is only a drop in the bucket representing justice for those jailed indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay. Now that Obama has made a meaningful step forward toward ending Gitmo, we must put pressure on the executive to see true justice is served. So what will true justice look like for those innocent individuals jailed at Guantanamo? Surely justice would not be to merely release these prisoners into Yemen, where they may very likely meet their end in death-by-drone at some later date.
First, we must look at compensation. In half of the union’s states, compensation is due to those who have wrongfully been imprisoned. Federal statute stipulates $50,000 per year of imprisonment, and $100,000 for those on death row. But of course, for far too many at Gitmo, their wrongful caging goes beyond the standard state or federal case. For example, many were never formally charged with a crime. Many were stripped from their homeland and brought to a foreign island. Many were either tortured directly or force fed during a heroic and continuing hunger strike. All were forced to live under the constant threat that any privileges afforded to them can be stripped away, if they ever refused to comply with the demands of guards. And lastly, many have been known to be innocent for years.
For all of these reasons, we must consider that due compensation far exceeds that of the average wrongfully imprisoned American. I do not mean to speak softly of the plight of your average American prisoner. Practice of solitary confinement has been found by human rights watchdogs to be nothing less than torture. But issues of solitary confinement at Guantanamo are even worse than your average federal supermax. As of 2009, a majority of Gitmo detainees were being held in solitary confinement, often deprived of sleep and beaten for the slightest deviations of prison protocol according the Center For Constitutional Rights.
The issue of compensation is then a difficult one to calculate. There are no standards one can abide by. I might suggest a lump sum of $2m for each innocent detainee, along with either continued compensation from their torturers or even a shifting of the torturers’ wages and benefits to those who should be freed. The same will go for any other prisoner who, in the past or in the future, will be proven innocent of crimes they have never even been accused of formally.
There is also the concerning issue of releasing detainees into Yemen, where I earlier half-jokingly referred to their possible fate of being bombed by the same government that at one time imprisoned them. President Obama, in the same recent speech that he addressed the issue of Guantanamo, also hinted that the drone policy of his administration is going to be made permanent and even be pursued to new degrees. Perhaps instead we should allow the detainees to be freed into the U.S., into any area of their choosing. Anthony Gregory has suggested Pennsylvania avenue as a possible relocation for them, but that might not be in the cards. I think that they should at least be given the option of living in America, as opposed to Yemen or other countries. Perhaps we can even get them on a path to U.S citizenship? This might, quite ironically, be the safest place for them.
And then there is the issue of future justice. Justice can not truly be served while the practices that led to their wrongful imprisonment are still being carried out. We must arrest their torturers and those responsible for implementing, endorsing and enforcing their torture. This includes both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, along with a lengthy list of top military brass. They, like all others, are entitled to a trial. Those found guilty must pay restitution. We must end the unjust occupations that made such black-bagging of individuals seem necessary. End our campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and all other nations under attack by the U.S government. End government secrecy. Allow free and open journalism about war crimes the U.S has committed. We must make a solemn promise to never allow such a travesty of justice to occur ever again.
Finally, there is the issue of legacy. Many of those detained unjustly have acted as noble heroes worthy of reverence. Their hunger strike forced the issue, laying bare the injustice of their imprisonment. As such, a memorial is in order. Perhaps we can set aside a space in the heart of Washington D.C, alongside those who seek to emblazon the injustice of Japanese internment camps, where family, friends and supporters can set up such a memorial. To create a memorial for all those innocent victims of a racist United States military.
We must honor, revere and restore as much justice as possible to these innocent victims. We must never forget. |
In the early 90s, there were few better places to discover music than the used cassette section of Record Connection. At $3 a pop, this was a cost-effective method to keep your ears busy in the pre-streaming era. I managed to dig up Fugazi Repeater, Bad Religion Against the Grain and NOFX Ribbed before finally stumbling upon one that really clicked: Descendents’ I Don’t Want To Grow Up.
After my first listen, I was hooked. A single and love thirsty teenage girl, I nearly always flipped to side two and started with “Silly Girl” and fell in love with Milo before “Good Good Things” ended. I listened to him in the morning on the bus, on the way home from school and eventually in my car. Milo was the perfect counterpoint to my nerdy, somewhat angsty art girl persona. He sported the thin, bespectacled, slightly disheveled emo look long before it came into fashion. He was in a really cool band yet somehow managed to seem accessible. AND HE SANG ABOUT GIRLS.
“I think about you every night and day, and when I could have asked I let it slip away. I’ve got to get to know you, but I’m so afraid. Well it’s so hard to be a friend and be in love this way.” COME ON! How could I resist? Maybe someday, I thought, a guy like Milo would fall in love with me.
So why is my letter to you, Mr. Stevenson, and not to Milo?
Descendents are one of those bands from which I never felt compelled to disassociate myself (I’m looking at you, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy). It’s a badge of honor to be a fan. People who like Descendents like them with all their heart—not only nostalgic gals such as myself but actual punk dudes.
I’ve always wondered why that was the case, and a recent viewing of Filmage answered my question. You are the man behind the magic. It seems almost obvious that someone with your passion and energy would produce music that stayed with me for decades. You poured everything you’ve got into the music and are deserving of all your loyal fans (and particularly the one who brought you back to health). My fandom has reached new levels, and I even bought my baby girl (and a friend’s baby boy) an I Don’t Want To Grow Up onesie.
So, now that I have your attention, here’s a quick anecdote:
In 10th grade, I participated in a class trip to see Macbeth at a local playhouse. Jackie sat next to me on the bus. Jackie was captain of the soccer team, tall, thin, peppy and blonde—everything I was not. Did she want to talk? Even though I was weirdly excited someone actually wanted to sit next to me, my walkman and trusty I Don’t Want To Grow Up cassette were waiting for me.
Jackie didn’t exactly want to talk, but asked if she could listen to my music on the way back to school. Considering the contents of my walkman, I politely warned her that it might not be her thing. My warning lead to her increased curiosity so I set it up for side two (of course) and reluctantly handed it over. After side two ended, Jackie seemed a bit nonplussed and asked “Do you really like listening to stuff like that?” Perhaps she thought I was pretending in order to be different. I was not, and I’d let her into my world exactly long enough to feel exposed, embarrassed and wondering why I didn’t bring a different cassette with me. What about the Cranberries—something I enjoyed that was safe, feminine and mainstream?
I could feel my face getting red and my self-consciousness increasing by the second. Would she tell people what happened, ensuring that my classmates continued to see me as an outcast? Most likely yes, and although it stung like hell at the time, the very thing that made me an outcast as a teen makes me special(ish) now. A Milo bobblehead sat on my corporate desk for years. Everyone who came in asked who it was, and I was delighted to tell conservative men in dark blue suits all about the Descendents.
Descendents are a reminder of how happy I am to be unlike everyone else, and for that, Bill Stevenson, I owe you a great big thanks.
Much respect,
Christine
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Silly Girl
https://loveletterstorocknrolldotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/10-silly-girl.mp3
In Love This Way
https://loveletterstorocknrolldotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/11-in-love-this-way.m4a
Good Good Things
https://loveletterstorocknrolldotcom.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/10-good-good-things.mp3 |
Ian Wright has been appointed co-host of BBC Radio 5 live's 606 programme for the 2013/14 season.
The former Arsenal striker will present the live football phone-in show with Kelly Cates on Sundays.
Wright - who previously worked as a pundit on Match of the Day - said he was pleased to be back on the BBC.
"There will be lots to talk about and a lot of divided opinion," he said. "For me, it's all about the fans and what the fans think. I like to hear all sorts of opinions, everyone is entitled to one."
Cates - daughter of Liverpool icon Kenny Dalglish - said of Wright: "As well as having been a brilliant footballer, he's a real fan of the game."
"You don't know what somebody's going to ask," she continued, "what point somebody's going to make, which way the conversation is going to go.
"When it does get heated and it does get passionate, that's really important because it shows people care."
Perou
David Davies/PA Archive
Meanwhile, Match of the Day 2 host Mark Chapman will also present new programme MOTD2 Extra, a debate show focusing on the weekend's games and hot topics. It will air on Sunday lunchtimes simultaneously on BBC One, Radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website.
Dan Walker will continue hosting Football Focus along with 5 live's Friday night preview show. Jason Mohammad will now present a new-look Final Score on Saturdays.
On Match of the Day, former Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli has signed up as a regular pundit, while Chris Waddle has joined 5 live.
Other regular MOTD pundits alongside Alan Hansen and Alan Shearer will include Gus Poyet, Robbie Fowler, Les Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Robbie Savage.
"This season, the BBC's commitment to football coverage is greater than ever," said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport.
"With new-look shows and new names to add to the already impressive presentation and punditry line-up, we're ready to bring all the excitement to our audiences.
"Our digital offering enables fans uninterrupted access to all the key action and events as they unfold, wherever they are, with access to news, scores, TV shows and live radio commentaries on the go." |
Venus Williams got the benefit of the doubt today, thanks to some new video.
No, this had nothing to do with a tennis match, but a deadly car crash last month.
In the video, you can see Williams' 2010 Toyota Sequoia entering the intersection, under a green light. In the upper part of the video, she pauses briefly in the middle of the intersection, before continuing.
That's when her car was struck by Hyundai driven by Linda Barson, whose 78-year-old husband, Jerome, later died of his injuries. Before they saw the new evidence, police said Williams was "at fault for violating the right of way."
Venus Williams breaks down at Wimbledon over deadly crash
But in light of the footage, the police department released a statement exonerating Williams, saying, "the vehicle driven by Venus Williams lawfully entered the intersection on a circular green traffic signal, and attempted to travel north through the intersection to Ballenisles Drive."
The police said a car entered the intersection in front of Williams and made a left turn, causing her to stop advancing through the intersection to avoid a collision. The crash occurred when Williams started to legally proceed.
Earlier this week, a visibly distraught Williams broke down when asked about it during a Wimbledon press conference.
"There are really no words to describe how devastating and -- I'm completely speechless," she said before bursting into tears.
The Barson family filed a wrongful death suit against the seven-time Grand Slam winner. It's unclear if this new evidence will change their minds. |
COLUMBUS, Ohio - New Ohio House legislation would allow concealed handguns to be taken into churches, day-care centers, aircraft, state buildings, airports outside security checkpoints, and publicly accessible areas of police stations.
House Bill 48, introduced this week by state Rep. Ron Maag, is similar to a gun bill the Warren County Republican unsuccessfully pushed last session.
The legislation would further allow conceal-carry permit holders to take handguns into school safety zones if the firearms are left in the car. Current law only allows people to carry concealed handguns in school zones when they are immediately picking up or dropping off a child.
Public and private universities and colleges would also be given the choice of allowing concealed handguns on campus, under the bill. Schools that allowed hidden guns would be granted legal immunity for any injuries or deaths that occur as a result.
Even though the GOP controls a historic 65-seat majority in the Ohio House, the bill's fate is unclear. HB 48 has 10 co-sponsors so far -- all Republicans, though several of them are first-term lawmakers without much clout. |
I have been reading articles about business ethics lately, and to my dismay discovered a common feature: a lack of understanding of self-interest. This is not surprising, given that altruism, the moral code advocating self-sacrifice, dominates the culture. Still, I was hoping that at least some intellectuals writing today would acknowledge alternatives to altruism, such as the common sense view of ethics accepted by most people (those not writing articles about ethics …).
The common sense view is that we should live by pursuing our own interests, without hurting others, by physical force or fraud. Most people recognize that if we don’t pursue our values—such as food, shelter, health, work, recreation—we cannot survive and be happy. The authors of the several articles I read ignored this. Instead, upholding altruism as the moral ideal, they set up self-interest as a straw man. In their view, self-interest means exploiting others, based on the assumption that people’s interests automatically conflict. For example, a CEO’s interest to maximize his compensation, the employees’ interest to maximize theirs, and the shareholders’ interest to maximize the return on their investment allegedly conflict. Because of this perceived conflict, achieving one’s self-interest supposedly requires exploiting others, such as the CEO deceiving the shareholders, or the employees shirking their responsibilities, or the shareholders manipulating the CEO.
If people’s interests unavoidably conflict, then pursuing self-interest automatically harms others. The authors of one article went as far as arguing that self-interest that is harmonious with the interests of others is logically impossible. By their logic, giving a raise to an employee is not in the self-interest of a manager (presumably because that will mean less money available to compensate himself). By the same logic, the manager getting a bonus conflicts with the interests of his employees.
Not only do intellectuals embrace the straw man view of self-interest; they also evade the true nature of altruism. Instead of recognizing it for what it is (as intended by that code’s developers such as August Comte): self-sacrifice for the sake of others as a principle, they promote putting others’ interests ahead of our own as noble. Never do these intellectuals tell us why it is moral to help others to achieve their values but immoral to pursue our own.
Why are the intellectuals’ views wrong? The idea that people’s interests automatically conflict and that pursuing self-interest means exploiting others is truly a straw man. It completely misses what self-interest actually means: pursuing one’s values—values that meet the requirements of human survival and flourishing. Pursuing self-interest is absolutely necessary if we want to survive and flourish, and most people know that simply from observation.
Exploiting others through force or fraud is not in our self-interest. Such action would invite others to do the same or get justice through the legal system, thus jeopardizing our values. Even if we derived some temporary gain, say, from deceiving others, such a gain would not be sustainable, as any pyramid investment schemer or other fraudsters eventually learn. As shown by Ayn Rand, people’s rational interests do no not conflict. Giving a raise to a productive employee does not conflict with the interests of the manager or the shareholders. Quite the contrary, it benefits them if the raise keeps the employee motivated and deters him from joining a competitor. As a consequence, the company will create more value, making possible a bonus to the manager and dividends to the shareholders. A bonus to a deserving manager would similarly promote the interests of the other parties.
Also, only by evading the self-sacrificial nature of altruism can anyone embrace it as the moral ideal. It is altruism not egoism that is destructive. By advocating putting others’ interests always first, it prevents us from achieving our self-interest: well-being and happiness. Despite the common sense view of ethics, many people do not question what the intellectuals, including religious leaders, teach and end up feeling guilty because they are not able to put others ahead of themselves on principle. Nobody can live by the opposite principles of the common-sense morality and of altruism.
Ironically, it is not altruism but the morality of self-interest that makes genuine benevolence and kindness possible. Only when people are free and their rights are protected against exploiters, can they seek their own interests and flourish and thus be able to help those deserving help when the need sometimes arises.
If we want to survive and flourish, we must reject altruism and study, understand, and adopt self-interest instead.
Like this: Like Loading... |
Chaos invaded the soccer pitch Saturday at Bartlett High, where a bizarre series of events resulted in the abrupt and premature end of a crucial boys Cook Inlet Conference match between the host Golden Bears and the Service Cougars.
When the dust finally settled, coaches and school administrators were still shaking their heads and trying to figure out what to make of a messy situation that remains unresolved.
Things began to unravel late in the first half of a scoreless match between the third-place Golden Bears and fourth-place Cougars when Service goalie Caleb VanBlankenstein was whistled for fouling Bartlett's Ryan Reid inside the penalty box. The head referee gave VanBlankenstein a yellow card and awarded Bartlett a penalty kick.
In high school soccer, players who receive a yellow card must leave the pitch for a replacement before returning. As VanBlankenstein left the field in favor of temporary replacement keeper Jacob Andrews, Service head coach Dan Rufner and assistant Brian Waite continued to loudly argue with the referee, repeatedly asking for an explanation and protesting the decision.
At that point, the ref decided he'd had enough from both men, and gave Rufner and Waite straight red cards -- which come with automatic expulsions from the match.
Rufner continued to protest for about a minute longer.
"You can't have us both out!" he yelled. "You can't have us both off the pitch, there's no supervision for kids. You pick one or the other, you can't, you can't do it. It's an ASAA rule, you can't."
Apparently tired of hearing Rufner's loudly-stated opinions about what he could or could not do, the referee then blew his whistle three times to signify the match was over.
That's when things really got ugly. Andrews aggressively ran up to the referee before being pulled away by Rufner. After receiving a red card of his own, the senior tore off his jersey and yelled profanities before breaking down in tears. His Service teammates appeared stunned, as did their counterparts on the Bartlett sideline. The head referee and two linesmen retreated to the far side of the field, leaving the participants to stand around wondering what to do next.
"I've never seen anything like this," said Rufner, who has been the Service head coach since 2002.
The head referee refused to comment or give his name to reporters. He was later identified by Anchorage Soccer Referees Association president Terry Curran as Derek Newman, who Curran said is rated as a Level 6 referee by the United States Soccer Federation.
"He is the highest ranked referee in the state," Curran said.
Curran said the officials for Saturday's match were chosen specifically because it was crucial to the league standings.
"We tend to put the best crews we can on games we know will be important," he said.
Curran said Newman reported to him after the match. It was Curran's understanding that Rufner and Waite were given red cards for taunting. Curran backed up Newman's decision.
"Not being there I obviously can't say for sure, but if things went down the way he spoke to me, I would have done exactly the same thing," he said.
Curran said that once a player or coach is given a red card, they're supposed to leave the grounds. That didn't happen in this case.
"If you're dismissed as a player or coach you must leave the area," he said.
Rufner said he and Waite's protestations were only about the call against VanBlankenstein and didn't warrant a pair of red cards.
"That's all we wanted was to explain what the foul was," said Rufner, who pointed out that neither he nor Waite used profanity or threatened the referee before being thrown out.
Curran said coaches are supposed to set an example for their players by treating the referees with respect.
"They tell us in high school ball to have very little tolerance for dissenting language," he said.
Rufner said Andrews' actions toward Newman after the game was called were unwarranted, but that they were the reaction of an emotional player in the midst of a heated situation.
"He overreacted," he said.
After things settled down, players on both teams shook hands, with no one quite sure about what the decision meant for the conference standings.
Bartlett entered the game 6-3-1, four points ahead of Service (5-4-1) in the race for third place. That's a big deal, because only the top three teams in the conference advance to the state tournament.
Many players seemed to think the halted game meant Service lost by forfeit, and Bartlett midfielder Lorenzo Froehle consoled VanBlankenstein in the post game handshake line.
"That's not how we wanted this," he told the opposing goalie.
However, it was unclear in the immediate aftermath if the game will go down as a Bartlett win or some other result. Both Rufner and Bartlett head coach Matt Froehle said they don't know what will happen next.
Service girls soccer head coach Mark Cascolan -- a 1992 Bartlett graduate -- spoke with the head referee after the game. He said a report will be made to the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA), which will determine how to handle the complicated affair.
According to the rules, Cascolan said, his understanding is the game will have to be replayed in some fashion.
"We were looking over the rule book, since it was less than a half that was played, a replay is in order," he said.
Cascolan stressed that nothing has been decided, and that ASAA will have to rule on what to do about the abandoned match.
"After ASAA reads the report from the referees, they'll make that decision," he said.
Cascolan said the situation was a new one for just about everyone who witnessed it.
"This isn't common," he said.
Everyone agreed the outcome was unfortunate, and Curran said he trusts that ASAA will make the right decision.
"I'm sure they'll make a decision that's in the best interest of the players," he said.
GIRLS
South 6, East 0
First-place South continued to roll through the CIC on Saturday, improving to 11-1 in the girls standings with a 6-0 win over East at East. |
0 Seafair icon victim of Seattle home invasion
SEATTLE - Seattle police are investigating a home invasion robbery at the home of a local Seafair icon.
Police say an 84-year-old man was held at gunpoint by two men wearing ski masks, who they say kicked the older man when he was thrown to the ground in a scuffle.
Neighbors say the $488,000 home is owned by Sven Ellstrom, the owner of Ellstrom Manufacturing.
He’s also known locally for racing his hydroplanes at the annual Seafair.
Police say the men broke into the back of the home around 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday night.
Police say the men made off with a Rolex watch, a diamond ring and the purse of a 51-year-old woman with whom Ellstrom was sleeping at the time of the home invasion.
Some of the items found laying in the middle of the street about a block away.
Neighbors told KIRO 7 that this is not the first time Ellstrom’s home has been broken into.
Seattle police confirmed that Ellstrom was tied up and robbed at gunpoint in February of 2013.
A neighbor told KIRO 7 his own home was broken into last year a week earlier than Ellstrom's, but he says the robbers left everything alone when they realized it was not Ellstrom’s home.
"Hopefully it'll stop from this point, because it's scary. It's scary,” he said of the situation.
The neighbor says he’s also concerned about people coming and going from the house.
"A lot of unwanted activity. Cars pulling up. Females going in and out all times of the night. Cabs and limos," he described it.
He says he hopes this is the end of robbers at Ellstrom’s home.
"He could lose his life if this happens again. I'm afraid they might kill him next time. I don't know,” he said.
Anyone with information about the home invasion or who may know the identities or whereabouts of the intruders is asked to call 911 or the Seattle police robbery unit at 206-684-5535. Anonymous tips are welcome.
Want to talk about the news of the day? Watch free streaming video on the KIRO 7 mobile app and iPad app, and join us here on Facebook. |
Thirty-two years ago this month an explosive eruption reshaped Mount Saint Helens in a matter of seconds. An earthquake under the volcano in Washington State on May 18, 1980, triggered the largest landslide in recorded history as billions of cubic meters of mountainside tumbled away, initiating a massive release of gas, lava and ash. The cataclysm killed 57 people and sent a plume some 20 kilometers into the sky.
The 1980 eruption was not totally unexpected. For the two months prior, earthquakes and steam explosions had rattled the mountain, and the north slope of the volcano had noticeably swelled outward. But interpreting just what was happening beneath the mountain to cause those shudders and belches was not possible.
Now a team in England and Germany has linked the seismic record from that era to magmatic processes beneath Mount Saint Helens by closely examining crystallized minerals formed in the volcano's innards just before eruption.
In a study appearing in the May 25 issue of Science, the researchers report that crystals of the silicate mineral orthopyroxene from 1980 and from subsequent eruptions trace various injections of magma, as well as other chemical changes, within the bowels of the volcano.
The crystals contain concentric rings of differing chemical composition. Some orthopyroxene crystals, for instance, have a magnesium-rich core surrounded by an iron-rich rim; others have an iron-rich core and a magnesium-rich rim. Each type of crystal zonation can record the conditions of the magma reservoir from which it emerged.
"We chemically fingerprint each of those zones to determine how they formed," says lead study author Kate Saunders, a volcanologist of the University of Bristol in England. The outer rim of an orthopyroxene crystal, she says, represents the most recent stage of crystal formation and typically grew just months before the crystal’s emergence in volcanic ejecta. That allowed the researchers to make precise estimates of when, and how, the crystals acquired their chemical forms. "Mount Saint Helens is really good—because the samples, we know exactly when they erupted," Saunders says.
In several cases, a flurry of crystallization matched up well with internal activity at the volcano, as inferred from seismic records. For instance, crystals with iron-rich rims increased in number in the weeks and months leading up to the May 1980 eruption, as earthquakes shook the mountain with low-frequency seismic waves. Such long-period quakes, Saunders says, are characteristic of magma giving off gas. "Previously it's been reported that iron-rich rims on orthopyroxene are due to changes in the water content of the magma, so it makes sense that if we've got degassing or fluxion of water or CO2 through the system, we may get more iron-rich rims," she says. Other crystals with magnesium-rich rims seem to mark an influx of hot magma from deep reservoirs just before eruption.
Those events are also captured in the seismic record, but the root cause of the tremors is not always clear from seismology alone. That is where the crystals can provide important corroboration—or critical insight into ancient eruptions, for which seismic records do not exist. In the case of Mount Saint Helens, the study's authors "are providing fairly convincing arguments that the periods of enhanced seismicity are related to inputs of magma," says Timothy Druitt, a volcanologist at Blaise Pascal University in Clermont–Ferrand, France. "Just because you've got seismicity doesn't mean you've got magma intruding at depth," he adds. "They're providing evidence that that's probably what happened. If you can establish that, then that helps you better interpret your seismicity.”
Even though crystals from volcanic ejecta can only offer a window into past eruptive behavior, researchers hope that studying such minerals will provide a clearer picture of volcanic behavior overall. "We can't get at the rocks until after they've erupted, but the more we know about a volcano and how it behaves, the better we can anticipate future eruptions," Saunders says. "We can see inside, we can see what's happened in the past and, hopefully, predict what's going to happen in the future." |
A team of researchers from Auburn University has discovered a new trapdoor spider species from a well-developed housing subdivision in the heart of the city of Auburn, Alabama.
The new species, described in the paper in the open access journal ZooKeys, was named the Auburn Tiger Trapdoor spider, Myrmekiaphila tigris, in honor of Auburn University’s costumed Tiger mascot, Aubie.
M. tigris belongs to a genus that contains 11 other species of trapdoor spider found throughout the eastern United States.
Trapdoor spiders – related to tarantulas, funnel web spiders, and their kin – construct subterranean burrows that they cover with a hinged door made of a mixture of silk and soil. Female spiders spend nearly their entire lives in a single silk-lined burrow from which they forage as sit-and-wait predators. Prey are captured, usually at night, when an insect or other animal causes a vibration, provoking the spider to leap from the burrow entrance, bite and envenomate the unsuspecting victim, and then return to the bottom of the burrow to feast on its prize.
Due to superficial similarities, M. tigris was previously believed to be a different species, M. foliata, according to a taxonomic study of the team that was published a few years ago.
However, closer examination revealed considerable differences in appearance, particularly in their genitalia, that were supported by additional studies comparing the DNA of M. tigris with that of related species.
“Despite the physical uniqueness of these specimens, the use of DNA as an alternate, less subjective line of evidence for recognizing the species was warranted, given our excitement with discovering a new species literally in our own backyards,” said lead author Prof. Jason Bond, director of the Auburn University Museum of Natural History.
Members of the species are rarely encountered individually. However, once males reach sexual maturity at around 5 or 6 years old, they emerge from their burrows to find a female with which to mate; shortly thereafter they die. Wandering males can be found in relatively large numbers on neighborhood sidewalks, in swimming pools and even in homeowners’ garages for a brief time during the months of November and December.
Females, on the other hand, are much more secretive, living relatively long, 15 to 20-year lives in their below-ground burrows. They often have more intricate burrows that include side chambers with additional underground trapdoors. Burrows can be found along the banks in relatively young, secondary growth forests in neighborhood natural areas.
“The discovery of a new species in a well-developed area like this further demonstrates the amount of biodiversity on our planet that remains unknown; we know so little about our home planet and the other organisms that inhabit it with us,” Prof. Bond concluded. |
When I play Madden, I play exclusively as the Green Bay Packers. At my best, I had a ranking of #532, not bad considering there over 100,000 ranked players. That’s not "best in the world," tournaments-in-LA kind of good, but it’s good enough where I’d feel comfortable wagering a significant amount of money against the average player.
More than comfortable. Relaxed.
Here's how I make winning look easy:
(Disclaimer: nothing can substitute for stick skills, hand-eye coordination, football acuity, basic mental competency, etc).
The Basics
I leave my playbooks alone. Everything you need is right there in the McCarthy/Capers menu of plays. As for uniform selection, I personally like the white cleats with yellow accents. Kind of completes the uniform for me. These are the important things.
Optimize your Lineup
Might as well start with the best team right? For sure, some switches you will want to make are:
> Start BJ Raji – he will be defaulted on IR
> Get your fastest TEs in the game (sorry Richard Rodgers, next year big fella)
> Roll with Jeff Janis at WR5 (Jared Abbraderis is rated higher, but Janis makes all the tough catches and is faster and bigger up the middle seam)
> Change KOS to Mason Crosby – for some reason, the game has the weaker-legged Tim Masthay set to kickoff
> Make Micah Hyde your CB5 and start Ha Ha Clinton-Dix at Safety – you’ll probably find yourself in Quarter often, and you want your best players out there so…not Jarrett Bush
> KRs – Dealers choice. You can definitely get return TDs using Randall Cobb, but I find the injury risk isn’t worth it, and can roll with DuJuan Harris/Micah Hyde (Sam Shields doesn’t cut quick enough for my liking, acceleration rating be damned).
Defense
> 1st / 2nd DOWN
You win on D by forcing the opposing player into third downs, and then forcing him into a bad throw, or sack. I like to play conservative on early downs/against non-spread offenses. A great play is Cover-2 Sink in the nickel package. Take one of the inside linebackers and play the short pass/run inside. Or a 3-4 2 Deep Man coverage, and track the running back with Hawk, while shading towards the TE. If the team is passing all the time, you can drop Matthews or Peppers into manual coverage from the Cover-2 Sink, or use my favorite 2 plays in the game (see 3rd and long).
> 3rd AND SHORT/2-POINT CONVERSIONS
I love the nickel Psycho defense here. Especially Cover-2. If your opponent likes to run, audible Clinton-Dix into a blitz and take control of the other safety. Hover close to the line of scrimmage, scramble the look a couple times by shifting the secondary/LB units, and rove across the line of scrimmage towards his favorite target once he hikes it while keeping an eye on any receivers going over the top. It’s a guessing game, and it’s a bit of a mess, but its 3rd and short, the odds are not in your favor if you play vanilla.
> 3rd AND LONG/PASS-HEAVY SITUATIONS
Quarter package, basic Cover-2 and Cover-3. Mix them up. Morgan Burnett plays a QB-spy in both these plays, and I take that as carte blanche to do whatever I want with him to blow up the play.
In the Cover-2, you can show blitz off the tackle pre-snap, then float back on the inside seam, past AJ Hawk’s shallow zone into the deep secondary, where you can lure the QB into a bad throw. Or, you can sit Burnett way behind Hawk in the Cover-3, and then swoop in for the interception underneath Hawk’s very deep zone coverage, which will cause the opponent to look shallow. Finally, you can hover inside and navigate through the O-Line for surprisingly effective run-stops and QB hurries. Coverage sacks are here to be had.
(One last thing about this Quarter-base defense: it works great against option QBs if you use Burnett to fill running lanes. Though you don’t quite see as many players choosing Washington as they used to…wonder what’s changed).
> 3rd AND VERY LONG NON-BLITZ, BLITZ
Take that nickel Cover-2 Sink, and swing either Matthews or Peppers over to the other side and shoot the gap right next to the other DE. This is good for unexpected pressure without bringing 5 guys. In fact, if you get through once, just that look will pressure the opposing QB, and then you can peel away at the last second to chase the tight end, QB spy – whatever you haven’t done in a while, basically.
> BLITZING AND BALANCE
Once or twice early on in the game, maybe a couple times later on to spark a comeback, but otherwise playing good coverage in defenses you know is the better bet. At the end of the day, assume the passing is going up the middle and try to take that away. Same with the run. If they beat you outside, so be it, but most people lack the ability or vision to work the outside for an entire game. And if they try, go over there with Clay Matthews and do something about it!
Offense
> 1st AND 10
Run. Body punches. A famous football mind (Parcells?) once said, every running play is a positive play. Take runs from all over the playbook including shotgun/FB dives/motion/goal-line plays/tosses to the outside. Eddie Lacy falls forward enough to make this a useful tactic. Now, you should also be peppering in PA, screens and quick passing at about a 1-to-4 ratio within these runs. Here are some of my favorite "toss-in" plays to mix it up on 1st and 10:
PA-reverse passes out of the Strong and Singleback bunch formations. These two slow-developing plays really stretch the defense, and it’s so nice to get Rodgers out there throwing on the run, which is an absolute back-breaker in this game (ignore rollouts at your own peril). Lacy out of the flat, and underneath the coverage, is just what the doctor ordered here. Even if it only goes for 2-3 yards, it loosens up the defense, who SHOULD and WILL be thinking run by that point.
WR Screen out of any shotgun set. This play is a revelation once you get the swing of it. It works especially well throwing it to the outside shoulder of Nelson or Cobb, and letting him swoop around the blockers towards the sideline. The game almost seems to encourage this action by giving the WR a speed boost while he rounds the corner. It also is nifty when the D is closed in tight for a run, like on third and short (although I wouldn’t mess with it there) or red-zone situations (try it out from the difficult 3-6 yard line zone).
> 2nd / 3rd AND LONG
Oops. Something didn’t go so well. But now is exactly not the time to panic because this is where the talent shines on this team. If it’s still 8 yards or further to the yellow line, I love to break out the 5WR Empty Set. You did pick the Packers, right? This is their bazooka option, and I excitedly break it out on these long pass situations on 2nd and 3rd down. Here’s a tidy little progression you can go through:
1. Pick the "Stick N’ Nod."
2. If the D comes out and the two OUTSIDE CBs are playing off (leaving significant distance between themselves and Nelson and Cobb) audible into "Curl Flats." This is now a "gimme." You will see how easy it is to hit the curling WR between the two defensive backs on the outside, or if necessary, check down to the inside WR in the flat. You should go back to the well on this play for as much as you can get.
3. Things get more interesting if the outside CBs are up close to Nelson and Cobb. The "Stick N’ Nod" you picked can certainly get Janis open over the deep middle of the field, but if you don’t want to risk a sack, keep your eyes more on the underneath receiver, who is running the same route concept just in a tighter amount of space, typically against a slower defender.
4. If you don’t want to mess with all that, you can audible straight to "4 Verticals." The key here is that sly route across the middle by Adams from the inside-left slot. He hitches in the middle of a slant, usually shedding his defender along the way, while the three receivers to the right of Rodgers are all running fly routes. Your first look here is at Jeff Janis at the inside seam fly, who will be veering from right to left as he runs downfield. If this looks at all covered or "busy", your eyes drop down to Adams, and you hit him for whatever the defense gives you. There’s also the "big boy" way to play this, and that’s to focus strictly on the three streaking WRs on the right side—Janis, Boykin and Cobb—and pick on the safety responsible for that side of the field. This is risky but you can get some really nice back-shoulder throws with Boykin or even Cobb down the sideline. Almost as good as the real thing!
> 2nd / 3rd AND SHORT
I do like running it here from time to time, and think it’s necessary. If the situations aren’t dire, and the opponent isn’t overly bracing against the run, break out Shotgun "Doubles On" or "Y-Trips Wk" (personally my favorite formation in the game). The "Inside Zone" plays out of these two formations are really nice plays, providing a solid wall for Lacy to dart through for a tough three yards.
But if things are dire, here’s where the money is at: Singleback Bunch. You’re going to toggle between two plays, the "HB Dive" and "Spacing." I can’t tell you whether to run it or throw it, but your opponent will soon learn the meaning of helplessness when you learn how to complete the "Spacing" pass. Just read it from inside to outside as the three receivers to your right sprint out to their left, middle, and right. You can pick the pocket of the defense, either by taking advantage of an uncovered Quarless in the flat, patiently waiting for Nelson to box-out his spot in the middle, or hitting Adams in stride as he flashes into the middle of the field. On the other hand, you can just pound it with Lacy up the middle. Both of these plays are automatically included as audibles. See why that’s hard to defend?
Oh, and: Aaron Rodgers speed is rated in the the 80's in this game. Use it. He can get hurt rather easily but you should be able to avoid that by ALWAYS sliding (tapping once on the slide button). If you're not nailing two or three killer runs during the game like Aaron does in real life, you're leaving a lot on the table.
Other tricks in the bag
> STRONG FORMATION
Out of its base audible package, you have access to "FL Drive" (Jordy up the seam or Cobb underneath), "Y Trail" (My personal favorite play in the game, hitting Quarless after he doubles back on his route, or pushing it upfield with the quick-hitter to Cobb over the middle), and the deadly "PA Deep Cross" (shudders). Nelson can get so open on this play if the D isn’t perfect, and you can make Aaron Rodgers look really good by "throwing him open" as Nelson breaks away from his man twenty yards down the field. This play is also surprisingly useful in the redzone.
> SINGLEBACK ACE TWINS
There are two nice options here for play action daggers. Look for Nelson to get open on the "PA Boot" by curling away from the action, or slice it upfield to Nelson on the "PA FL Stretch" with the nice safety options with the TE’s underneath.
> KUUUUUHHNNN
Please understand: John Kuhn is deadly catching the ball out of the backfield. He will be wide open in the flat all day, and him running up the sideline is painful for the opposing defense.
Special Teams
Something important to note: with no wind, Crosby can hit safely from 51-52 yards. Any longer and you need to be perfect. Push the field goal aimer to as low as possible on these long kicks. With significant wind into your face, I’d rather go for it on 4th than try anything longer than 45 yards. I don’t really punt when the game is still in hand; if I’m winning, punting is acceptable. Fake FGs work 99% if the opposing team actually comes out in FG block.
Clock Management
At a certain level, people stop blowing each other out. The games come down to who has the ball last. You need to "look down the road" when playing against savvy players. This doesn't need to affect your rhythm. Throwing the ball with the Packers can chew just as much time as running; in many of my games, Rodgers finishes at a 80-90% completion rating over ~30 throws for ~270 yards. If things slip away from you, there may come a time in the game when your best bet is to Onside Kick every time and blitz the other team into short, FG-producing drives. If you can trade TDs for FGs quick enough, this can be an effective strategy in low-odds situations. Otherwise, the better I got the more I relied on defense, much like the real-life Packers.
Last thought
When you’re up, play like you’re down. When you’re down, play like you’re up. That’s another old football-ism I play by. Up by 10? Push the ball no-huddle with a 5WR offense. Down by 10 early on? That’s when your game-plan is actually most important, and it’s when most people I play abandon it (this is 99% the difference of the top players and good players). It comes down to this, whether you’re playing with the Packers or not: you have to believe that your opponent is eventually going to make a mistake, yet you have to play like you can’t afford one. Oh, and if you're home at Lambeau, turn the snow on every now and then. Your guys will be slipping all over the place, and FGs will be almost impossible. Just like video game football was meant to be played.
+1 Bonus play
Here’s a great little play when you just really need to complete a short pass, whether to get your confidence back, keep the clock running or convert a short third down. "Y Shallow Cross" in Shotgun Y-Trips Wk. After Nelson comes in motion, you’re looking at Quarless shallow across the middle, or you wait patiently for Lacy to release through the middle of the play and curl out to the right for an easy completion. Problem solved. |
Experiment Summary Scientific Questions How much of the ionosphere is affected by a solar eclipse?
For how long is the ionosphere affected by a solar eclipse?
What causes these spatial and temporal scales? Methodology Illuminate the ionosphere with an Eclipse QSO Party.
Use networks such as the Reverse Beacon Network to collect data.
Use amateur radio data to complement data from other sources.
Introduction
On 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse will cause the shadow of the moon to traverse the United States from Oregon to South Carolina in just over 90 minutes. As shown in Figure 1, this will be the one of most significant solar eclipses traversing the continental United States for 100 years. While solar eclipses are perhaps best known for their stunning visual display, the shadow of an eclipse also causes changes to the ionosphere which effect radio wave propagation and are useful for the study of ionospheric physics. For a summary of ionspheric radio effects as measured during the 1999 United Kingdom Total Solar Eclipse, please see Bamford 2000.
Although the ionospheric effects of solar eclipses have been studied for over 50 years, many unanswered questions remain. Some include, “How much of the ionosphere is affected by the solar eclipse, and for how long? Why is this the case?” HamSCI is inviting amateur radio operators to participate in a large-scale experiment which will characterize the ionospheric response to the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse and target these open questions in ionospheric physics.
Figure 1: Total solar eclipses visible in the US from 1950 to 2052. The 2017 eclipse (red triangles) will have an exceptionally long footprint in the heart of the continental US.
Background
The ionosphere is produced when solar ultra violet (UV) and x-ray radiation cause neutral atoms and molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere to be stripped of negative electrons. This creates a type of gas known as a plasma, which is made of both positively and negatively charged particles. After a certain amount of time, some of these particles recombine to form neutrals again. When solar radiation is present, ionospheric production and loss processes occur simultaneously creating a strong ionosphere. When solar radiation is absent, loss processes dominate and the ionosphere becomes weaker. These effects are most commonly observed as a result of the day-night (diurnal) cycle. Figure 2 shows examples of typical day and night ionospheric profiles generated using the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) empirical model [Bilitza et al., 2011].
Figure 2: Typical day (red) and night (blue) ionospheric profiles.
In some ways, the shadow of a solar eclipse is similar to the darkness of night. However, there are significant differences between solar eclipses and typical day-night variations. For instance, an eclipse shadow moves faster than and in the opposite direction of the dusk or dawn terminators. Additionally, an eclipse shadow is relatively localized compared to night. Because the ionosphere does not respond instantaneously to changes in solar inputs, and several processes in addition to simple ion production and recombination are at play, it is not possible to assume that the ionosphere will respond to an eclipse in the same manner as dusk or dawn.
Previous solar eclipse studies have found that ionospheric densities at lower altitudes (D and E regions, 60 – 150 km altitude) deplete rather quickly. Conflicting results have been reported for the F region (150 – 600 km altitude), which is a region that is more effected by plasma transport processes than photoionization. Typically, it has been reported that these conditions allow for better radio wave propagation at lower frequencies (< 10 MHz) during the eclipse, as D and E region absorption disappears during this time.
Scientific Merit
Important open questions refer to the spatial and temporal scales of eclipse ionospheric effects. Eclipse totality affects only a narrow region of the Earth’s atmosphere (on the order of a few hundred kilometers) for time periods of less than ten minutes. However, previous observations suggest that ionospheric effects are much larger and longer than might be expected. Figure 3 and Figure 4 illustrate this. Figure 3 shows the F2 region peak critical frequency (f o F 2 ) over Chilton, England during a total solar eclipse on 11 August 1999. The green line shows measurements made with an ionosonde [Afraimovich et al., 2002], while the blue line shows the expected (non-eclipsed) values generated by the IRI. The measured values depart from the expected values from 0800 to 1200 local time, much longer than the less than 10 minutes of totality.
Figure 3: Effect of the August 11, 1999 eclipse on f o F 2 . The decrease in the observed f o F 2 (green) from the IRI model (blue) over a long period coincides with partial obscuration of the solar disk.
Similarly, Figure 4 shows 130.4 nm UV airglow data measured by the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI) satellite instrument on days before (left), during (middle), and after (right) a total solar eclipse over Africa on 29 March 2006. The middle panel shows a blue line indicating the totality path, as well as a large region (~3300 km diameter) of depleted airglow that roughly corresponds with the region of partial eclipse shadow. Recent studies, such as [Choudhary et al., 2011], suggest that complex plasma processes may cause larger spatial regions of the ionosphere to be affected than would be predicted by simple photochemistry.
Figure 4: Special Sensor Ultraviolet Spectrographic Imager (SSUSI) airglow data showing a large depleted airglow region associated with a total eclipse in 2006. The three panels show data from days before, during, and after the eclipse at roughly the same location and local time.
Although the ionospheric effects of total solar eclipses have been studied for over 50 years, these questions regarding the spatial and temporal scales of eclipse effects have not been adequately answered. There are a number of reasons for this. First, eclipses are relatively rare events which do not frequently traverse geographic areas which are well instrumented for ionospheric studies. Next, technological advances have made it only recently possible to monitor the ionosphere over very large geographic areas with both high temporal and spatial resolution. Finally, the ionospheric response to an eclipse is dependent on season, time of day, and location on Earth (due to differences in the shape and orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field at different locations). This makes every eclipse uniquely valuable for scientific study. The 21 August 2017 eclipse will take place over a large geographic region which is well instrumented for studying ionospheric effects, and therefore presents an excellent opportunity for characterizing the spatial and temporal aspects of the ionospheric response.
Amateur Radio as a Scientific Instrument
Amateur radio operators routinely use frequencies spread across the medium and high frequency bands (1.8 – 30 MHz) to engage in two-way communications across large geographic areas. Details of these communications are recorded in private logs, as well as a public computer network known as the DX Cluster. Recent advances in information technology, signal processing, and software defined radio (SDR) have led to the development of automated observation and reporting systems such as the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN). It has been shown that data from these systems can be used to identify and characterize large-scale ionospheric disturbances [Frissell et al., 2014].
Figure 5 and Figure 6 illustrate diurnal propagation effects observed by the RBN. Figure 5 shows a 5 min interval when both the United States and Europe are in darkness, while Figure 6 shows a 5 min interval when both continents are in daylight. RBN traffic is indicated by lines color-coded by frequency. Black dots indicate RBN receiving stations. Colored dots represent GPS-TEC measurements, which are discussed in the next section. The RBN data shown in these figures characterizes what is typically expected of day and night HF propagation and ionospheric conditions. That is, nighttime conditions (Figure 5) are dominated by communications on frequencies less than 10 MHz, indicating a weaker ionosphere which reflects lower frequencies but cannot refract higher frequencies. Daytime conditions (Figure 6) are dominated by communications on frequencies greater than 10 MHz, indicating a stronger ionosphere which refracts higher frequencies but absorbs lower ones.
Figure 5: RBN Network Traffic between the US and Europe during nighttime conditions. Note that the green links represent low frequencies, because absorption is minimal in nighttime conditions.
Figure 6: Same format as Figure 5, but for daylight conditions. Note that the red and orange links correspond to higher frequencies, which are less effected by D and E region absorption.
Using this and other similar techniques, HamSCI will use amateur radio data to characterize the spatial and temporal response of the ionosphere to the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse. It has been recognized that the use of amateur radio signals presents certain challenges for scientific analysis. Some of these challenges include the tendency of operators to transmit only on frequencies which provide the best communication links, a possible lack of amateur radio operations during the period around the eclipse, and an uncertainty as to what equipment (e.g., antenna pattern, transmit power level) is in use. HamSCI intends to mitigate these factors by partnering with the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) to sponsor an Eclipse QSO Party, or contest-style operating event which takes places during the eclipse. The rules of this operating event will be written in such a way to help optimize the experiment. The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) sponsored a similar event during the 20 March 2015 solar eclipse in Europe. Additionally, the operators of the Reverse Beacon Network have joined the HamSCI organization and are working to make improvements to the scientific capabilities of the network.
Additional Ionospheric Instrumentation
In addition to amateur radio observations, many additional, well-established space physics instruments will be used to monitor ionospheric conditions during the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse. These include measurements by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), Global Positioning System Total Electron Content (GPS-TEC) receivers, ionosondes, and more. Each of these instrument networks sense the ionosphere in a different way and in different locations. Combining the data from these networks together will allow for the most complete characterization of the ionospheric response to the eclipse as possible.
As an example of how this additional data will be used, Figure 5 and Figure 6 show GPS Total Electron Content (GPS-TEC) data beneath the Reverse Beacon Network propagation paths. TEC is a measure of the total number of electrons in the ionosphere on a path between a GPS satellite in space and a GPS receiver on the ground. The speed of a radio signal through the ionosphere is directly related to both the frequency of operation and the density of the ionospheric plasma it travels through. Because certain GPS receivers receive two separate GPS frequencies simultaneously, it is possible to determine the delay between the received signals and estimate the total number of electrons in a column along the propagation path [Rideout and Coster, 2006]. Each TEC Unit (TECU) is equal to 1016 m-2 electrons. Figure 5 and Figure 6 show that, as expected, TEC is high in daytime regions, but low in the night. It is worth noting that due to ground-based receiver requirements, GPS-TEC measurements are only available over and near certain landmasses. There is no coverage over the oceans, and somewhat limited coverage in the middle of the United States. Amateur radio data has the potential to provide information about the ionosphere in places where GPS-TEC data is not available.
Summary
On 21 August 2017, a total solar eclipse will traverse the continental United States from Oregon to South Carolina in a period of just over 90 minutes. Previous research shows that the shadow of the eclipse will impact the ionospheric state, but has not adequately characterized or explained the temporal and spatial extent of the resulting ionospheric effects. HamSCI is inviting the amateur radio community to contribute to a large scale experiment by participating in an Eclipse QSO party and further developing automatic observation networks such as the Reverse Beacon Network. Data resulting from these activities will be combined with observations from existing ionospheric monitoring networks in an effort to characterize and understand the ionospheric temporal and spatial effects caused by a total solar eclipse.
References
Afraimovich, E. L., E. A. Kosogorov, and O. S. Lesyuta (2002), Effects of the August 11, 1999 total solar eclipse as deduced from total electron content measurements at the GPS network, J. Atmos. Solar-Terrestrial Phys., 64(18), 1933–1941, doi:10.1016/S1364-6826(02)00221-3.
Bamford, R. (2000), Solar Eclipse 11 August 1999: Project Final Report, Radio Communication Research Unit, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, arXiv:1703.01491.
Bilitza, D., L.-A. McKinnell, B. Reinisch, and T. Fuller-Rowell (2011), The international reference ionosphere today and in the future, J. Geod., 85(12), 909–920, doi:10.1007/s00190-010-0427-x.
Choudhary, R. K., J.-P. St. -Maurice, K. M. Ambili, S. Sunda, and B. M. Pathan (2011), The impact of the January 15, 2010, annular solar eclipse on the equatorial and low latitude ionospheric densities, J. Geophys. Res. Sp. Phys., 116(A9), A09309, doi:10.1029/2011JA016504.
Frissell, N. A., E. S. Miller, S. R. Kaeppler, F. Ceglia, D. Pascoe, N. Sinanis, P. Smith, R. Williams, and A. Shovkoplyas (2014), Ionospheric sounding using real-time amateur radio reporting networks, Sp. Weather, 12(12), 651–656, doi:10.1002/2014SW001132.
Rideout, W., and A. Coster (2006), Automated GPS processing for global total electron content data, GPS Solut., 10(3), 219–228, doi:10.1007/s10291-006-0029-5. |
The never-ending soap opera surrounding Bulls star Derrick Rose continued on Thursday, and it has nothing to do with another unfortunate injury.
Joakim Noah emotionally defended his teammate after Rose received another round of criticism for saying part of the reason he sits out games is because he’s thinking of his life after basketball.
“I just, I don’t want to see him down. I know sometimes it’s frustrating, you got injuries, you got tweaks,” Noah told reporters after the Bulls beat the Raptors on Thursday night, a game which Rose left with a “minor” hamstring injury.
“Every time something happens to him, people act like it’s the end of the world. And that’s f—ing so lame to me. Relax. Like, OK, he’s coming back from two crazy surgeries. Obviously we’re being conservative with him, and when things aren’t going right, he’s got to listen to his body more than anybody. So everybody needs to chill the f— out. I mean, I’m sorry for cursing, but I’m really passionate. I don’t like to see him down. And he doesn’t say that he’s down, but I don’t like it when, like, people portray him and judge him. ‘Cause it’s not fair to him. It’s not.”
Charles Barkley disagrees.
The TNT analyst ripped Rose’s comments as “stupid” during “Inside the NBA” on Thursday night.
“That was stupid. Derrick Rose is a great player, he’s a great kid. Love his mom. That was stupid. You know, Ernie [Johnson], we’re so blessed. I limp around, but I go home to a big ol’ mansion. There’s people who work harder than Derrick Rose who go home to a shack,” Barkley said.
“There are consequences to what we do for a living. We got the best life in the world. I’m a poor black kid from Leeds, Alabama, who grew up in the projects and listen, I don’t mind limping around because when I go home, there’s a big ol’ house. I got good sheets — I don’t know the thread count, but they’re good. I got a big ol’ car. I never have to worry about my bills. There are pros and cons to what we do for a living. Derrick Rose is making $20 million a year. He got a couple bad knees. That’s disrespectful to maids, people who are in the Army who go out and kill people and get killed. They got no arms and no legs. As much as I like Derrick Rose, that is just flat-out stupid.”
Rose has missed most of the past two seasons first with a torn ACL then a torn meniscus. He was criticized by fans and media for not returning for the 2013 playoffs after suffering the ACL injury in the first game of the 2012 postseason.
Rose has sat out four of the Bulls’ nine game this season while easing into the grind of an NBA season. The Bulls are 3-1 in the games Rose has missed and 4-1 when he’s played.
“I don’t want to be in my meetings all sore or be at my son’s graduation all sore just because of something I did in the past. Just learning and being smart,’’ Rose said earlier this week.
The 26-year-old said he had cramping in his hamstring and does not expect it to be an issue after the victory Thursday. He did not back down from his comments.
“It’s like on to the next,’’ Rose said, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “Just try to keep it moving. It’s a new day. Just trying to think about the team.’’
Rose added that he could “care less” about his detractors. |
Image caption Nick Clegg acknowledges the applause at the Lib Dem spring conference
Nick Clegg is preparing to fight his final general election, many of his senior colleagues believe.
Several MPs have told me there is an unspoken assumption that he will stand down as Liberal Democrat leader in the next Parliament - whatever the result in May.
While Lib Dems are fighting for their political lives in constituencies, they are thinking hard about life after Clegg.
Their leader's career could end with defeat in his Sheffield Hallam seat, of course, or in resignation after a terrible election performance.
But even if he manages to prove the polls wrong - as he insists is possible - it would be very natural for him to stand down in 2017, one senior MP says.
It is widely thought he has not asked his wife Miriam to endure more than two general elections, another insists.
Explicit ambitions
Clegg's aides dismiss such talk - he intends to be the leader through the whole of the next Parliament they say.
That is not what plenty of his colleagues expect though, and several are positioning themselves to fight to replace him.
They eye left-leaning Tim Farron with suspicion.
Two campaigns to be the party's president, one successful, have given him much more contact with members - who will elect the new leader - than any of his rivals.
He gets a lot of press.
Image copyright PA Image caption Tim Farron has been putting in the leadership groundwork, colleagues say
MPs use almost identical terms to describe him criss-crossing the country eating rubbery chicken at meals with activists, who he showers with praise.
Some are dismissive - Farron is a good campaigner they say, but "not cerebral". Others use more forthright terms to dismiss his abilities.
The party's former leader Lord Ashdown told 5 Live: "Tim's a very able guy but at the moment judgement is not his strong suit."
His rivals, like the health minister Norman Lamb, are growing increasingly explicit about their ambitions.
If there is a contest, the energy secretary Ed Davey will want to stand, and he too has backers.
Those who are not talking about life after Clegg in public worry they too should give interviews for fear of not being regarded as a contender.
Who else? Jo Swinson, equalities minister, should also be a candidate one well-respected figure tells me, provided she is still an MP after the election.
Lib Dems suspect Treasury minister Danny Alexander of harbouring leadership ambitions, but he too faces a tough fight to hold his seat and many in the party regard him as having grown far too close to the Chancellor George Osborne.
A definitive list is hard to complete though because Lib Dems only need the support of 10% of the party's MPs to stand.
If the general election goes as badly as the polls suggest a would-be leader could comfortably fit the necessary supporters in a cosy phone box.
It could be a crowded contest. |
The Los Angeles LGBT Center wants to spread the word about PrEP, and about AB 2640, a new California Bill which would educate people about PrEP and help stop the spread of HIV in California.
The bill is simple. If you test negative for HIV, you should get information about PrEP.
That simple.
AHF’s Rand Martin, however, doesn’t agree. He says that Truvada can be “toxic” and “it does have side-effects.” And if, for example, “a 45-year-old man who’s been married for 20 years, who has a fling and panics and gets tested, and is told that he should try PrEP, he’s going to be asked to be prescribed Truvada,” he says, so you are “condemning a person who should not be taking it to forever having to take this pill.”
Truvada can be as safe as aspirin, the video says, referring to a Buzzfeed article that said that “people who take Truvada, the once-a-day pill that prevents HIV, are no more at risk for dangerous side effects than those who take an aspirin a day to prevent heart attacks, according to a new study.”
Furthermore, the bill is not a mandate to anybody to prescribe anything, but instead it’s assurance that individuals who test negative will receive information about PrEP treatment.
Information can never hurt.
Dr. Robert Bolan, Medical Director of the LA LGBT Center urges for the passing of the bill, because it will save lives by “reminding medical providers” that they are also “educators.”
For more information, or to sign a petition visit lalgbtcenter.org/ab2640.
Some of the facts highlighted in the video:
California has the second highest number of new HIV infections in the nation.
Expanding HIV testing, treatment and PrEP could slash new HIV cases by 70 percent by 2020.
One in four gay men should take the pill that prevents HIV, CDC says.
Only one in ten gay/bisexual men in California have ever taken PrEP.
Black and Latino men are least likely to know about it.
One in four latino gay/bisexual men are projected to get HIV in their lifetime.
Watch the full video below: |
The UN Security Council unanimously condemned North Korea's firing of a ballistic missile over Japan as an "outrageous" threat and demanded that the country not launch any more missiles and abandon all nuclear weapons and programmes.
In a statement, the Security Council said it was of "vital importance" that North Korea take immediate, concrete actions to reduce tensions and called on all states to implement UN sanctions on North Korea.
The council also expressed "its commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution".
OPINION: N Korea is not Soviet Union and Trump is not Kennedy
"The Security Council stresses that these DPRK [North Korean] actions are not just a threat to the region, but to all UN member states," said the statement, issued after closed-door talks at UN headquarters.
"The Security Council expresses its grave concern that the DPRK is, by conducting such a launch over Japan as well as its recent actions and public statements, deliberately undermining regional peace and stability."
However, the US-drafted statement, which was agreed by consensus, does not threaten new sanctions on North Korea.
Diplomats say China and Russia - two veto-wielding council members - typically only view a test of a long-range missile or a nuclear weapon as a trigger for further possible UN sanctions.
China is working with other members of the Security Council on a response to North Korea's missile launch, the Chinese foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Wang Yi spoke just hours after the UN condemnation and Japan's UN ambassador suggested that a new sanctions declaration could come next.
Wang said China - which is North Korea's only major ally - was "now working with other members of the Security Council to discuss the recent developments of the situation".
He said that "based on the consensus of Security Council members, we are going to make a necessary response to the recent test launch of the missile".
But Wang did not specify whether a fresh set of sanctions was looming.
"Whether there will be new measures going forward, that should be discussed by the Security Council and consensus needs to be formed," he said.
Punishing sanctions
The Security Council earlier this month unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea that could cut by a third the country's $3bn annual export revenue after it staged two long-range missile launches in July.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.
Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said that while China - North Korea's close ally and neighbour - approved the statement, it had also criticised ongoing joint US-South Korea military exercises which North Korea sees as a threat.
"So while agreeing to condemn North Korea and also agreeing to enforce previous UN sanctions on that country, China making very clear as well that [they believe] there are other duties that some of the Security Council member states could exercise to help defuse the situation within that region," he said.
"But generally, a clear signal of Security Council unity and a very important signal that China has confirmed it will help enforce the execution of sanctions already in place, and this is the critical issue."
Earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called on Wednesday for more weapons tests targeting the Pacific Ocean.
Tuesday's missile launch - likely the longest ever from North Korea - over the territory of a close US ally sends a clear message of defiance as the US and South Korea conduct war games nearby.
Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said it was a Hwasong-12 intermediate range missile that the North first successfully tested in May and threatened to fire into waters near Guam earlier this month.
INFOGRAPHIC: North Korea explained in graphics
Kim expressed "great satisfaction" over the launch that he called a "meaningful prelude" to containing Guam, which is home to key US military bases that North Korea finds threatening, the agency said. He also said the country will continue to watch "US demeanours" before it decides on future actions.
Kim also said it's "necessary to positively push forward the work for putting the strategic force on a modern basis by conducting more ballistic rocket launching drills with the Pacific as a target in the future."
The launch seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to target the US territory of Guam if it chooses to do so, while also establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future missiles flying over Japan.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile travelled around 2,700km and reached a maximum height of 550km as it flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The KCNA said the flight test was a countermeasure to the Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea that run through Thursday. Pyongyang views the annual war games between the allies as invasion rehearsals.
In a statement, US President Donald Trump said North Korea had signalled its "contempt for its neighbours" and that "all options are on the table" in terms of a US response.
OPINION: Should you be worried about North Korea?
Any new test worries Washington and its allies because it presumably puts North Korea a step closer to its goal of an arsenal of nuclear missiles that can reliably target the US. Tuesday's test, however, looks especially aggressive to Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
North Korea has conducted launches at an unusually fast pace this year - 13 times, Seoul says - and some analysts believe it could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of Trump's first term in early 2021. |
On November 9, the day after the election, Richard Dawkins sat down with comedian Julia Sweeney for a pre-planned interview at the University of Indianapolis.
Their conversation begins at the 7:20 mark with a brief venting session about the previous night… before getting into a longer conversation about science.
Even looking back on that part of the discussion, it’s appalling how those fears about Trump have manifested over the past several months. And we don’t even know the half of it. It’s frightening to think about what additional damage Republicans will do to appease the worst instincts of their ignorant base.
I haven’t had a chance to watch the entire conversation, so if any moments stand out to you, please leave a timestamp and summary in the comments. |
Jay Petschek and Steven Major's hedge fund Corsair Capital pitched Alere (ALR) in their Q4 letter. They feel that the market still has a negative view toward the company despite numerous changes happening.
The company is involved with medical diagnostics and has a huge market share in 'point-of-care rapid tests used in hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices.'
Over the last ten years, the company went on an acquisition binge and basically failed to integrate them properly. A proxy contest in 2013 led to changes and the company hired Namal Nawana from Johnson & Johnson as COO to change the culture and reduce costs.
Corsair thinks ALR is worth between $70-80 per share if it trades with a multiple in-line with other competitors. ALR trades around $37 today.
They also note, "Furthermore, if the market doesn't come around and value this business properly, we wouldn't be surprised if, after restructuring the company, (the CEO) looks to sell the company as he did with IMA back in 2001."
Embedded below is Corsair Capital's Q4 letter with their pitch on Alere (ALR):
If you missed it, we've posted up Corsair's past letters as well. |
Hey folks, the Short Time Wrestling Podcast is now available as a standalone app for your Apple iOS devices and Android platforms. That's right, go to www.mattalkonline.com/iosapp to download the FREE app for your iPhone or iPad and if you want to head over to the Google Play store and get the app for your Android devices, go to www.mattalkonline.com/androidapp.
On Episode 151 of the Short Time Wrestling Podcast, we catch up with two-time NCAA wrestling champion Johny Hendricks as he prepares for his upcoming fight at UFC 185 in Dallas against UFC veteran Matt Brown.
We're also running a special promotion in conjunction with Team Takedown. If you buy a shirt from www.johnyhendricks.com between now and fight night, you'll be entered into a drawing to win a pair of autographed Johny Hendricks fight gloves.
We get to the origination of the spelling of his nickname, which believe it or not, comes from World of Warcraft. We'll also talk about how he's been managing his weight and now working again with Kenny Monday. Hendricks looks back at fights with Robbie Lawler and Georges St. Pierre and how those two losses continue to drive him.
Hendricks talks about his days at Oklahoma State and how he had to embrace the bad guy image and how much easier it is now for him to simply be himself. He also addresses the thought of a fight with Ben Askren and we get to the bottom of the alleged All-Star Classic bout that never happened. There's also quite a twist.
SUBSCRIBE TO SHORT TIME
iTunes | Stitcher | Spreaker | iHeartRadio | TuneIn | SoundCloud | RSS
And if you haven't already, head to www.mattalkonline.com/getshorttime to leave a rating and a review on iTunes.
The Short Time Time Wrestling Podcast is proudly sponsored by Flipswrestling. Share your attitude and be heard at Flipswrestling.com. |
Follow MTO on Social Media
America Recovers Its Greatness Inauguration 2021 23 months to go.
Subscribe to MTO via Email
Support Mexico Trucker Online Mexico Trucker Online Token of Appreciation Cup of Coffee -$2.00 Cup of Coffee & Donut - $4.00 Hot Dog & Soda $5.00 Suitcase of Bud - $15.00 Help with Server Fees - $25.00 Other Amount: Your Email Address:
Search Mexico Trucker Online
Upcoming Events There are no upcoming events.
Most Popular Articles
Archived Articles Archived Articles Select Month December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 April 2017 February 2017 July 2016 May 2016 March 2016 November 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 October 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 September 2010 August 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 November 2006 October 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006
Gallery of Real Mexican Trucks
Mexico Trucker Online Categories Mexico Trucker Online Categories Select Category American Politics (41) Border News (103) Border Patrol Crimes (5) Borderland Files (13) Cross Border Program (262) Editorial Comment (11) Events (1) Fear Factor (14) FMCSA (135) For your information (29) Guest Bloggers (14) Hate Crimes (14) Hate Watch (7) Headlines (46) Homeland Stupidity (6) Human Rights (9) ICE & CBP (27) Immigration Blog (14) Immigration Reform (4) Issues (7) Legal Actions (69) Media & Talk Radio (39) Mexican Information Sources (13) Mexican Pilot Program Revealed (2) Mexican Politics (51) Mexican Trucks & Trucking (97) Mexico Business (8) Mexico Historical (4) Mexico Living (15) Mexico Today (78) NAFTA (221) NAFTA 2.0 (1) Nafta Op (24) Narco Wars (103) News & Views (533) Opinions (55) Public Corruption (25) Ramos & Compean (4) Smugglers Brew (62) The Border (3) Trucking Opinions (13) U.S. Trucking News (82)
Top Document Downloads on MTO Regulations on Weight & Diminsions 17270 downloads 0.00 KB Download Law Establishing Mexican Commercial Drivers Classes (ES) 15584 downloads 0.00 KB Download Law Establishing Mexican Commercial Drivers Classes (ES) 12343 downloads 0.00 KB Download NAFTA ARBITRATION DECISION ON MEXICAN TRUCKS 10223 downloads 0.00 KB Download NAFTA ARBITRATION DECISION ON MEXICAN TRUCKS 10026 downloads 0.00 KB Download Teamsters/Public Citizen v. USDOT/FMCSA 9140 downloads 0.00 KB Download Teamsters/Public Citizen v. USDOT/FMCSA 8790 downloads 0.00 KB Download Complete Study of Mexican Commercial Laws and Regulations (ES) 7716 downloads 0.00 KB Download Lawsuit against Dennis Mekenye and DEMCO Express - 4:12-cv-00872-Y 7642 downloads 459.17 KB Download UN AMMO v DEMCO EXPRESS LAWSUIT Complete Study of Mexican Commercial Laws and Regulations (ES) 7347 downloads 0.00 KB Download
Blog Stats 1,004,922 hits |
New research on farmers' exposure to pesticides links several of the most commonly used chemicals to both allergic and non-allergic wheezing, report researchers at North Carolina State University. Photo by Toa55/Shutterstock
RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Pesticides and herbicides are designed to kill insects and invasive plants, though evidence the chemicals also have a negative effect on health is growing.
Several of the chemicals most commonly used on farms were linked to allergic and non-allergic wheezing in a large study of farmers, with researchers at North Carolina State University warning in a new study that the threat to health is moving beyond farmers as they are increasingly used in residential areas.
Pesticides and herbicides have been linked to diseases such as ALS and several kinds of cancer, though the studies have been controversial and contradicted each other in many cases.
A report from the World Health Organization called one of the most widely used chemicals -- glyphosate, the active chemical in the weed killer Roundup -- carcinogenic, and the state of California officially listed the herbicide as carcinogenic last year.
Months later, however, European researchers released a report claiming a review of more than 100 studies found the link between glyphosate and cancer was "weak," and a United Nations report earlier this year even found levels of exposure to the chemical on food were "unlikely" to cause cancer.
Researchers involved with the new study looked at other effects of exposure to pest control chemicals, linking several to wheezing conditions in farmers who use them.
"This is the most comprehensive list of pesticides in relation to wheeze that has been evaluated to date," Jane Hoppin, an epidemiologist at North Carolina State University, said in a press release.
For the study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers reviewed the effects on allergic and non-allergic wheezing among 22,134 farmers from 78 pesticides using interview data from the Agricultural Health Study collected between 2005 and 2010.
Among the farmers, 6 percent had been diagnosed with allergic wheeze or hay fever, while 18 percent had non-allergic wheezing defined as wheezing without a diagnosis of hay fever.
Of the 78 pesticides considered in the study -- 45 herbicides and plant growth regulators, 25 insecticides, six fungicides, one fumigant and one rodenticide -- 19 were significantly linked to allergic wheeze, 21 to non-allergic wheeze and 11 linked to both.
RELATED Women exposed to DDT in utero more likely to get breast cancer
The chemicals most significantly linked to wheezing as a response to exposure were the herbicides 2,4-D and glyphosate, the insecticides permethrin and carbaryl and the rodenticide warfarin.
"Fifty-one of the pesticides we tested in this study had never been analyzed in terms of their effects on respiratory outcomes," Hoppin said. "And some of them, like glyphosate, 2,4-D and permethrin, aren't just used on farms. They're used residentially now to kill weeds or treat fleas on pets. We believe it's important information that will help people make decisions about pesticides." |
The seed for SYNHAK was planted on April 5th, 2011 at Noisebridge during Camp KDE. At the time, I was a KDE developer who was starting to get involved by contributing to Phonon-GStreamer. This was my first FOSS event and first big adventure by myself. Moreso, I was traveling across the country to a city that hadn’t even crossed my mind as all that important to me. Hey, I was young, yeah?
The last day of Camp KDE was a brief after-party at the Noisebridge Hacker Space in San Francisco. I had heard about hackerspaces before, but only vaguely. I knew that strange things came out of them and interesting projects happened there. I was too absorbed in schooling and KDE to pay attention outside my bubble.
After just a few minutes, I was sold on the idea. The tools, the art, the community, the vibe. This was something I wanted in Akron, but I wasn’t sure if it was possible.
Months later, I had been discussing the subject with my friend Ryan. At some point he said:
<rrix> Go for it.
And that I did.
Around that time, I had been ejected from the Computer Science department at the University of Akron, the details of which can be another story entirely. Looking for socialization, I wandered into the shack on top of Zook Hall where W8UPD — The University of Akron HAM Radio Club — lived. There I met Chris Egeland. He later became one of our first Champions at SYNHAK, alongside myself and Omar Rassi.
It is now Tuesday, July 1st, 2014.
I have been banned from my own hackerspace for just over two months now. Last week I was harassed by the board of SYNHAK who insists that I am capble of single-handedly ruining their image, asking me to stop the “unjustified and unwarranted” attacks I’m apparently making on twitter. In the two months since being banned, the only thing I’ve done is share a handful of e-mails from the publically available [email protected] mailing list. Here’s an excerpt:
From: Andrew Buczko <[email protected]>
To: SH Members <[email protected]>
Mar 11
I'd like to resolve this issue by having Torie (Trevor Fisher) put on suspension from SynHak (this will include SynHak's mailing lists and any other service) for a giving amount of time.
I feel that she needs time to cool off for 3 months, 6 months a year? I'll leave the time period up to the champions. Or at least until her sex change is done (since it has been brought up to me that this "behavior" of her's is due to her taking hormones. ) <-- not mentioned before since it's none of my business.
Hormones or not, the other members and the community should not have to suffer because of her antics.
I am a proud transgender woman. Been that way for as long as I can remember. This Andy Buczko is on the board of SYNHAK, the former Akron hackerspace. Since early January 2014, he has harassed me, picked fights with me, and generally bummed all the other synhakkers out.
I really wish I could include more examples of his incredibly abusive behavior, but that wouldn’t even scratch the surface. Nor is he alone.
Many former synhakkers attempted to resolve our differences by working to create a Community Working Group within the space, modeled after KDE’s own. No less than five members stepped up to get folks involved in fixing these issues. At every turn, they were rebuffed by the board of SYNHAK under the guise of it being a “trap” to remove the board.
They were mostly right. The purpose of the Community Working Group was to make sure toxic members of the community were kept out and the culture of SYNHAK was preserved.
Anna-Janine Herman, Justin Herman, Steve Radonich, Devin Wolfe, and Becca Salchak fought admirably to take the idea of SYNHAK and twist it into the next bullet point on their resume. For three years, we ran under the triumvirate of Consensus, Excellence, and Do-Ocracy. In three years, SYNHAK went from a small group of four hackers in a North Hill garage into a huge community in northeast ohio with 25 members, a $15,000 grant, and 4,030sqft of space in Downtown Akron. |
About
Handle Business Tax Like (And Without) A CPA
Have you ever had a skill that’s naturally easy for you, but impossible to others?
The type of skill that you probably don't even notice, until somebody says something.
And no, I'm not talking about the "Not everybody has your metabolism..." skill, I'm talking about other things...
Like fun skills, something similar to "Most Consecutive Pogo-Stick Jumps" (or hops, whatever they're called).
It's a fun skill to have, and a fun skill to show - but it's not a skill that I'd consider "needed"....just take that the good way, if you have this skill - you're unique.
But no matter how fun it is, it's never "needed" unless it's also a useful skill.
And when I say useful skill, I mean something that does everybody good - like Designing Responsive Websites.
You increase your client's sales and you get paid well for it - I'd say that's a good skill.
And it really could be anything, no need to think of it as a Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Skill, either - think of something similar to website design, or Sales Copywriting, or SEO, or - okay...you get the hint.
Anyway, these two things have a lot of differences, but they also have a few things in common…
Like how they help people, or how most people carry these skills - just never use them...
And that last sentence ties in with my message for two different reasons
The first reason is how difficult things are for anybody who's considered self-employed. Trust me, I’ve seen every angle.
Starting with my role as a Commercial Loan Officer, a role that allowed me to work with Small Business Owners everyday.
I enjoyed working with small business owners, but at the same time - I noticed how difficult it was for most of them.
And they were all extremely smart, worked hard, and had money - that was the crazy part.
I know mistakes are inevitable for entrepreneurs, but that's on the business side of things.
A lot of mistakes were happening on the legal (including tax) side of things - and that's the side of things where you really don't want to have mistakes.
Those tend to do a little more damage.
But there's not a lot of resources out there and Freelancing doesn't bring in enough cash to cover Professional Fees, so that takes us back to our original problem...lack of information - for every new entrepreneur.
Sure, you could go to college and get your MBA - but that doesn’t teach you core concepts of business.
Trust me, I’ve been there (MBA-Tax).....
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it didn’t help in one way, shape or form - I’m just saying it doesn’t teach you what you really need to know... in the beginning stages.
And I continued to notice this as I entered the Tax field, preparing tax returns for business owners (including Freelancers, Consultant, Solopreneur, Small Business)...most of them doing it for the first or second time.
The veteran business owners usually had a good handle on things, but it always scared me when I saw someone who'd been in business for less than 5 years. They're the most prone to a "tax surprise" - and it's never fun to deliver these surprises.
Each surprise was different, but to give you some insight on them, they all said the same thing - "I had no idea, I’ve looked everywhere and I didn’t see that - I can't pay that much for tax right now..”.
Which leads me to the second reason, my random skill that’s always been easy for me.
I don’t know who I pissed off or why I was born with this skill, but I’ve always been good at Tax.
It’s not a fun skill to have, but as I’ve learned over the years - it’s important to know.
(I’m sure you’ve heard the Ben Franklin quote about death and taxes)
And that’s where the irony starts to come in. I’ve always had this skill, and I've always loved explaining it to Business Owners - but I’ve never liked doing the actual returns (even though I do like breaking them down and verifying them).
I think that’s where my extroverted personality clashes with my odd number skill - but in all honesty, it really works out great.
I now understand how to talk tax in the terms (and see through the lens) of an entrepreneur - that’s helped me in a lot of ways.
Like creating a system that allows entrepreneurs to handle their own tax - using processes and today's technology...ones that they already use (and know).
They might not understand the tax code in full and they won’t talk like a CPA - but they get the same results.
And that helps them avoid tax surprises or large professional fees (in the early years anyway).
So where are my going with this?
Well finally, after years of advice from family and friends - I finally decided to take the leap.
Helping Entrepreneurs Tackle Tax
The leap started with passing the entire IRS Enrolled Agent Exam after 6 days of studying - then receiving the ability to represent clients (in IRS Tax Audits) a few weeks later.
That led to the Consulting business. I did a few different things, but they all revolved around helping entrepreneurs with tax. And when I say help, I mean cleaning up a mess.
A mess created by the lack of information I talked about a few minutes ago, the same mess that almost forced a client to pay $20,000 on income...that wasn't even income.
A lot of the mess was from a misunderstanding - like doing something that you wouldn't consider income...even though you’re technically making a profit from it.
That story comes from one of my clients who received a large bill from the IRS - referencing $21,000 of unreported income that PayPal sent them.
This amount took place over 3 years, but he also had roughly $20,000 of expenses (that could offset this income)... over the same 3 years.
He clearly wasn't trying to avoid the tax bill, he just didn’t think about it as income.
It was a hobby (custom golf club grips....little profit), so he didn’t see it as anything else.... until he had to pay someone to help him out of a serious tax debt.
And I’m glad he called us, but it made me wonder how many others have been in that situation?
Knowing that help is too expensive, so they decide to risk it - spending way more on tax than they need to?
Helping More Entrepreneurs Tackle Tax
It sounds crazy, but it happens all the time. And after seeing this too many times, I've finally decided to scale up - so I can help more Entrepreneurs avoid this situation.
After months of training...learning...and testing - I’ve finally found out how:
Through an Online Course that’s designed to teach Entrepreneurs - Mainly Freelancers, Consultants, Solopreneurs, and Small Business Owners - how to handle their tax (with systems and processes) and avoid surprises.
The course will continue to grow over the years and updates will be made in different “launches”.
These different launches will add more items like videos, templates, updated tax changes, etc. - but the basics will always be there (and updated annually).
These basics include:
Federal Income Tax For Business...(How It Works/Impacts You)
State Income Tax For Business
Business Entities, and Which One Is Best For You
Other Areas of Tax (If applicable)
Payroll Tax
Estimated Payments
How to Report Your Revenue and Expenses
Sales Tax
Setting up a system that allows you to file your own taxes like a Tax professional, even if you’ve never done them before
And more to come as it continues to grow (i.e. taped coaching sessions)
Always Growing With Member Feedback/Questions
For the beginning stages, I’ve decided to sell this course at a one-time price.
I’ll probably do this again during the second launch, but after the third launch - it’ll change over to subscription pricing.
There’s a few different reasons for that, but it’s mainly a thank you to the initial members who helped get legs under the community....
And even more important, helping more entrepreneurs with tax - a very important topic as the “gig economy” continues to get larger.
That’s why their one-time price is also a lifetime membership - an amazing resource that'll help for many years.
And today, I’m offering that membership to you as a reward for backing this course - for the one-time pledge of 75.
Does this sound like a good course to you?
If so, please help me out by using the options on the right-hand side of this page (towards the top).
Anything helps, thanks for reading! |
Mackenzie Duncan is a talented photographer who pretty much always has had a nomadic lifestyle! Currently living on the West Coast, he works with great brands that fit his day to day life. See how he’s able to make a living and enjoy life to the fullest!
What freedom vessel are you driving and does it have a name?
The story of my freedom vessel comes first with the story of another freedom vessel, one which I came to love and live in as if she were my own this past year. At the beginning of 2015 I reached out to my friend Drew in Toronto to see if he wanted to head to the East Coast on a cold water surf trip. He got back to me and invited me on a trip he already had planned down to Baja in his ’86 Westy, Delilah. Three weeks later I packed up my stuff, flew out west and met Drew just South of LA. I had no idea I was getting so much more than just a surf trip. We ended up spending three weeks in the Baja. Surfing, exploring, driving down roads we probably shouldn’t have, snapping photos, writing journals and generally having a grand time. Naturally I fell in love with Vanlife, and couldn’t believe Drew’s generosity and kindess when he offered to lend me Delilah while he went off tree planting in British Columbia. A month later and Drew dropped her at my parents house on Vancouver Island. I picked her up, and road tripped her down South in May. All the way down highway one- stopping in Washington and Oregon along the way. It was just over a week of surfing, hiking, soaking in natural hot springs, and sharing tea and oatmeal with strangers who were to become friends.
I eventually ended up in LA where I spent 4 months living both part-time and full-time in the van. Basically splitting my time between a friends spot in Venice, and vanlifing up in Malibu surfing or hiking and cooking up in the local mountain ranges for days on end.
Eventually I returned Delilah to Drew in September of this past year and spent the Fall without a van. I was on the mend from a fractured vertebrae (a whole ‘nother story Delilah was there for, involving the ocean and a pretty gnarly wave). I spent a lot of days sitting searching for my freedom vessel, and am please to announce I just bought my yet to be named-’82 Diesel Vanagon! I’m so excited, and will be busy the next few months building it out to a bio-diesel camper which I can take on adventures with Drew and Delilah and all our other van friends!
You left your hometown many years ago to pursue your dreams, how did that happen?
Well, I went to high school away from home and met a lot of people from all over who had a very different mentality than a lot of the folks I grew up with. They came from all sorts of backgrounds and places and it started to open up my eyes a bit to travel. Near the end of my Grade 12 year (I was a bit of an art nerd) my art teacher took us on a tour of a few schools in Vancouver to sort of see what the next steps could be. I knew I didn’t want to do another four years of school as I’d had a hard enough time getting through high school so I opted for a 12 month diploma studying design and film at Vancouver Film School. From there I moved to Montreal and did a bunch of graphic design work. During this time I got the travel bug, saved up a small sum of money and flew down to Central America to live on the beach for six months and learn to surf. This gave me a ton of time to think and figure out what I wanted to do next, which led me into photography.
When I returned I started assisting a handful of photographers between Montreal and Toronto before opening my first studio in Toronto. I then spent the next 8 years between Toronto, Montreal and NYC pursuing fashion photography, while also opening a furniture business with a childhood best friend- JM & Sons, before moving out to LA a year ago. It’s been quite a journey and it’s really taught me a lot. I wouldn’t change a thing. I am so happy to be back near the ocean and spending more time in nature, and have been focusing my photography towards more lifestyle than fashion so I can keep getting more opportunities to get even more of that moving forward!
Is it hard to find clients while on the road? How do you connect with new brands and new clients ?
Over the last 8-10 years of assisting, shooting, traveling and living between a handful of different cities I’ve met a whole bunch of amazing people that I’ve kept in touch with. We’ve all grown as creatives in our own ways and some have become successful Art Directors who I have ended up working with, or designers, or marketers. I’ve found that to be the most important thing- just keeping in touch with the people you respect and people who’s work you respect. The opportunity may seem to take a long time but eventually your creative paths will cross and you’ll get to the opportunity work together. Another way I connect with new brands and clients is sort of a mix of social media, word of mouth, self promotion etc. I’ve started to reach out to a bunch of brands that I respect and I’m always amazed at how open they are to work with new people if your work and their brand fit together.
How do you manage to protect your equipment and your datas?
Equipment is tricky to protect. I do my best to under dress my bags and often cover my cameras in black grip tape so they don’t look fancy and expensive. I also make sure everything is insured properly, just in case.
As for data, I carry multiple backups and spread them around to different places as well as storing all of my final images (RAW, TIFF and JPG) on Google Drive so they are accessible from anywhere and relatively safe.
Can you show us 3 of your favorite pictures you shot recently?
I was lucky enough to shoot this image out on the west coast of Vancouver Island at a place called Sombrio. I spend a few days out there with a good friend of mine, Phillipe. Phillipe lives in an E-350 in California these days but happened to be up in Vancouver for a job so I had the opportunity to show him around where I grew up, in the same truck I grew up driving, an ’82 Land Cruiser. I got to shoot him with a board I made at Shaper Studios Vancouver, so the images are a great collaboration between hard work, good friends, and a great brand. We had one of those classic down pour days that happen out here on the west coast of Canada. Early in the morning we went down to the beach and for an hour or so the rain stopped and the mist was lifting off the beach just long enough to capture some beautiful images. It really was a bit of a magical day really.
I snapped this shot on the second night of that trip down to Baja I referenced earlier in Drew’s van Delilah. We had kind of followed our intuition along these dirt roads and ended up next to this empty beach with no one around. We surfed for hours and eventually came back to the van exhausted and made some dinner. Drew was just sitting on the stoop of the van as we relaxed before bed. There are some great memories attached to that image.
This was the last shot of a campaign I shot for a denim brand in LA called Crawford Denim. We’d been shooting on the beach up in Malibu for most of the day and decided to do a few shots on the vintage bikes we had. It was great because we were able to catch the sun at that perfect spot because I was shooting from the Jeep with no top. We only had a short section of highway where the sun spilled over and to me it captures all of what California can be.
Can you share with us a great parking spot you often go to?
There is this one spot sort of near the North end of Malibu up Decker Canyon Road. I wish I could remember all the other little roads you turn off onto. I found it one night with my girlfriend and we’ve been back a handful of times in her van, or in Delilah when I still had her. Sometimes bringing friends but more often heading up there, just the two of us. It’s just sort of hidden behind this hill and you get this view of all the Santa Monica Mountain ranges and the sun sets right there above all the long grasses. It’s so peaceful and quiet and it’s only 40 minutes away from LA, without traffic of course. Conveniently enough at the bottom of the hill is a break called Zeros, which is one of my favourite breaks in Malibu.
What is the project you’re working on now?
I’ve got a few things but the next major thing is a Van Life Cookbook. I’ve teamed up with a great crew of people and we’re putting together a cookbook based around healthy, simple cooking with locally sourced produce, sort of based around the west coast for now. We plan to do some roadtrips, cooking on a two burner stove or over the camp fire and I think putting all that together with some really talented people which should be a lot of fun!
It’ll be coming out later this spring, hopefully in time for summer van lifers- so if you have any wonderful suggestions on farmers markets to check out or great camp spots that should be included please reach out as I’d love to hear from you. It’s meant to be a bit of a community effort celebrating this lifestyle we all choose to live.
Follow Mackenzie’s work and adventures here:
The Mackenzie Life
Mackenzie Duncan’s portfolio
Instagram account : @themackenzielife
Facebook page |
The last time I hiked through the deep Blodgett Canyon, it was nearly 90 degrees and the sun was brutal. This time, winter was starting to creep into this ancient glacially-carved drainage. Blodgett Canyon is home to towering granite cliffs, gigantic moraine boulders, and 2 dramatic waterfalls. The falls are relatively close to one another and they are location around 5miles up the trail. The trail itself follows Blodgett Creek with its cascades and beaver ponds. The first waterfall is called Chasm Falls, and imagine this, it is a chasm. Flying the DJI Phantom 4 drone over this deep cut through the solid rock captures a scene that few (if any) have ever seen. The second falls is named Cascade Falls, and they (drumroll please) cascade a vast series of steps that covers roughly 250 yards of the streambed.
Total distance: 10.43 mi
Max elevation: 5266 ft
Total climbing: 3307 ft
Total Time: 04:53:50 |
'Orange Is The New Black' writer Lauren Morelli and her girlfriend Samira Wiley, who also stars on the show, on the way to the Emmys (via Lauren Morelli's Instagram)
One of the main writers for Netflix's Orange Of The New Black has filed for divorce from her husband after realizing, through writing the show, that she's a lesbian. Lauren Morelli and her husband of two years, Steve Basilone, recently filed a joint petition for divorce according to TMZ.
Morelli started writing for Orange less than half a year after getting married to Basilone, and realized that she was gay after writing for the main character Piper. In the series, Piper is a bisexual woman who is reunited with her former lover when she is sent to an all-women prison. "I found a mouthpiece for my own desires and a glimmer of what my future could look like," she wrote of her realization, back in May.
Her new squeeze, now that she knows where her heart truly lies? OITNB's own Samira Wiley, who plays Poussey Washington on the show. |
The Journal Communications building (left) and the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena properties are believed to be the first choice site for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. One of the team’s new co-owners said Saturday that a new arena could generate $500 million to $1 billion in private investment downtown. Credit: Mike De Sisti
By of the
Wes Edens, one of the new co-owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, has seen what a new arena can do to rejuvenate downtowns in many midsize American cities.
And that's what he and his new ownership group have in mind for Milwaukee.
"The reality is you can go visit Pittsburgh, you can visit what's proposed for Sacramento, what exists in Los Angeles, and get a very tangible picture of what a vibrant downtown means," Edens said. "These centers can act as a real meeting place for people to come back and connect. It's not just a good idea, it's imperative if we are going to be successful in Milwaukee."
For the first time since he and his partners bought the Bucks for $550 million in April, Edens on Saturday articulated the vision he and his partners have for downtown Milwaukee.
Over the next five to 10 years, Edens, fellow owners Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan and the rest of the ownership group hope to attract between $500 million to $1 billion in additional development near the arena, all privately financed, in the form of a mixed-use development that includes new, multifamily housing, retail and, down the road, office space.
For now the main focus is the arena.
Edens says he envisions an arena with a capacity of 16,500 for basketball, somewhat smaller than the typical NBA arena, and with a design that can be reconfigured for more intimate events like concerts. He envisions a plaza that would serve as a gathering place for crowds gathered for public events or celebrations.
An architect has not yet been selected, he said, nor has a site been found.
"Although we will be the main tenant, we only play there 41 games, plus preseason and playoffs," Edens said. "The other objective is that it needs to be a great venue for concerts and other entertainment.
"The best arenas have upward of 300 events a year, and that plays a huge role in generating economic activity in the surrounding area, the city and the state. We think that's very important."
Should an arena be built and new development becomes a reality, it could be another shot in the arm for downtown Milwaukee.
Right now, downtown is in the midst of a makeover, with the planned $450 million Northwestern Mutual tower, the proposed $122 million Couture apartment tower complex, and the 17-story 833 East office building under construction at 833 E. Michigan St., among others.
To help make their vision a reality, Edens brought in a friend and big hitter in New York real estate in Michael Fascitelli, the former CEO of the Vornado Realty Trust. Before working at Vornado, Fascitelli managed the real estate practice of Goldman, Sachs and Co. Vornado, Edens said, is the largest landlord in New York City.
"Mike is a very good personal friend of mine and Marc," Edens said. "He is, in my view, the most talented real estate person that I know. After we bought the Bucks, he was the first person that I reached out to."
Fascitelli is an investor in the team and is advising Edens, Lasry and Dinan in coming up with a plan for Milwaukee.
"Obviously, we have an ownership group that is committed to trying to doing something that is world class," Fascitelli said Saturday.
"Having a great arena and a great facility is necessary but hopefully not sufficient," Fascitelli said. "I think if we can accomplish revitalizing or picking up the area around it, that would be an even greater objective that Wes, Marc and I all share."
The timetable remains ambitious, Edens said.
"You know it's all happening in real time," Edens said. "Right now we are working on a site and we are cautiously optimistic we will have something there in hand sooner than later."
Edens declined to detail what site the Bucks have in mind. But sources have told the Journal Sentinel that the franchise's preferred site remains the land owned by Journal Communications, publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Milwaukee Theatre, or some iteration involving those properties.
If that site doesn't work out, there are other options, including land north of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, and sites near N. 4th St., and W. Wisconsin Ave., and at N. 2nd and W. Michigan streets.
Once a site is selected, Edens said, work would begin immediately on a feasibility study to determine the economics of the project.
"And then we have to have an open and earnest discussion with government about a public-private partnership and how we go about funding this," Edens said.
"Ideally, those conversations will be early next year, with design and how to finance it by next spring. That gives us a fighting chance to have the arena three years from now."
The team's goal is to have the Bucks playing in the new arena for the 2017-'18 season.
Edens is well aware of the anti-tax sentiment and push-back expected from the public to any form of public financing for an arena for a team largely controlled by deep-pocket owners.
Lasry and Edens have committed $100 million toward a new arena. Former U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl , who sold the team, has also said he would put $100 million toward an arena, and additional private investment could bring the total commitment to $300 million.
Once a financing plan is developed with more exact numbers, the right thing to do is "look at what is the appropriate way to get this done."
"If you step back, look, the team generates over the term of this arena's utilization... many tens of millions of dollars of direct tax benefits.
"While people can argue about what the impact is on the team and the community long term, you can't argue that there's not a team playing there that no one is paying taxes. That's not much of an argument."
Timing is important, too. Interest rates are low, Edens said.
"It seems likely to me there really is a constructive middle ground," he said of developing a financial plan.
"We want to build a great arena," Fascitelli added. "You do this once in a lifetime, right? We want to build a great arena with the appropriate design for what Milwaukee is. We are not going to build a spaceship, right? We will integrate the design of this arena into what we think is contextual to Milwaukee.
"That's the goal, if we can do it." |
Watch the latest video at <a href=”//video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>
Meet Toni Richardson
Toni Richardson is a Functional Skills Educational Technician at a high school within the Augusta School Department in Augusta, Maine. She works with students who have special needs due to cognitive and emotional disabilities and helps them learn important skills for functioning in life.
Toni is a devout Christian who considers her faith to be foundational to her life. She is active in ministry, serving others through her church’s nursing home ministry and also the monthly dinners given by her church for members of the community who are less fortunate.
She says, “Because my faith is an integral part of who I am, my religious beliefs influence how I see the world and sometimes affect the words and phrases I use as a part of casual conversations with friends and colleagues. I pray often for the people I care about and sincerely believe in the power of prayer.”
Interrogated by School Official and Banned from Saying “I Will Pray for You”
In September 2016, however, Toni was interrogated by a school official about the religious content of her conversations. The official asked Toni if she had told anyone at the school she was a Christian, that she would pray for them, or if she had made any “faith-based statement[s].” According to the official, such statements would even include phrases like “That’s a blessing.”
The school official told Toni that she was violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that she couldn’t tell people they would be in her prayers—which was something Toni had recently done one day at work in a private conversation with a coworker.
In that conversation, Toni had sought to encourage her coworker by telling him that she would pray for him. The conversation occurred after students had left class and while Toni and the coworker were alone. At the time, Toni’s coworker—who attended her church—thanked her for her kind gesture.
Regardless, soon after being interrogated, Toni was sent an official, written “coaching memorandum.” The memo stated that it was “imperative” that Toni stop “us[ing] phrases that integrate public and private belief systems when in the public schools.”
The memo asserted that the phrases “I will pray for you” and “you were in my prayers” were “not acceptable – even if that other person attends the same church as you.” The memo also invoked the “separation of church and state” and threatened that if Toni had any other conversations that school officials decided were “unprofessional,” Toni would face further disciplinary action and could even be fired.
“I was shocked that my employer punished me for privately telling a coworker, ‘I will pray for you,’” Toni stated in a press release. “I am afraid that I will lose my job if someone hears me privately discussing my faith with a coworker.”
First Liberty Institute Legal Action
Toni retained the assistance of First Liberty Institute, and on May 16, 2017, First Liberty and the elite Maine law firm Eaton Peabody filed a complaint on Toni’s behalf with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The complaint argued that the school’s actions showed hostility toward Toni’s expression of faith and constituted “unlawful viewpoint discrimination” banned by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It also stated that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, school districts like the Augusta School Department are required to accommodate the religious beliefs of its employees.
“No one should be threatened with losing their job for privately telling a coworker, ‘I will pray for you,’” Jeremy Dys, Deputy General Counsel at First Liberty Institute, stated. “School employees are not required to hide their faith from each other while on campus.”
School District Acknowledges Its Employees’ First Amendment Rights
In November 2017, less than six months after First Liberty and Eaton Peabody filed Toni’s EEOC complaint, the school district sent Toni an updated coaching memorandum. The school district withdrew any threats of disciplinary action against Toni and acknowledged the First Amendment rights of all school employees, including Toni, “to express religious beliefs or use faith-based language at school.” Further, the updated coaching memorandum said comments such as “God Bless You” or “I am praying for you” are permissible when made to co-workers outside of the hearing of students.
“I love my job helping special needs students succeed, and I am glad that I don’t have to sacrifice my First Amendment rights in order to be here,” Toni Richardson says. “I hope my colleagues, and school employees across the country, will remember that the First Amendment still protects our private conversations at work.” |
The results were surprising. “We thought, ‘If it’s sighted people, it’s not going to be something we’ve ever learned to do,’” reflects Virginia Flanagin, a neuroscientist and first author of the study. “‘So probably we’re really bad at it.’” But the sighted subjects had little trouble figuring out the relative sizes of the spaces. The person who grew the most skilled at it could tell if there was as little as a 4 percent difference in the size of the room. Even the people who did less well could still often tell apart differences of 6 to 8 percent, with the least skilled bottoming out at a 16 percent difference. Overall, that actually is about the same level of acuity—ability to distinguish differences—that you find in some visual tests, says Flanagin.
Additionally, the brain scans showed something odd: The sound of the echoes was activating sighted subjects’ motor cortex, the part of the brain that handles movements. The researchers had the subjects make their echolocation sound—usually a click with their tongues—without playing them back any echoes, then subtracted that scan from the scans taken when they heard the noise reverberating in the church, to get rid of any motor cortex activation from moving the tongue. But it still lit up, even with the tongue movement removed. In fact, the brain region was more active with large versions of the church than smaller ones. “It seems like the motor cortex is somehow involved in the sensory processing,” says Flanagin. In the blind subject, the echoes caused the activation of the visual cortex instead.
These results lay the groundwork for future studies investigating whether sighted people can be trained to do more complicated kinds of echolocation, like navigating down a virtual hallway. The idea, Flanagin says, is to understand at what level of complexity blind people start being able to do things that sighted people can’t and what might have changed in their brains to allow them to do that. In general, the resilience of the human brain and the readiness with which we can learn new skills when circumstances demand it is impressive. Quoting the blind advocate Daniel Kish, who uses echol oc ation himself to walk around every day , Flanagin remarks, “The only reason sighted people can’t do it is they don’t have to.”
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. |
Craters up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) wide have been found within the Barents Sea off the northern coast of Norway. As reported by the Sunday Times, these are likely to be due to unstable build-ups of methane, a notoriously volatile and at times explosive natural gas. Details are few and far between at present, although researchers at the Arctic University of Norway are due to present their findings in detail at the annual European Geoscience Union conference this coming April.
“Multiple giant craters exist on the sea floor in an area in the west-central Barents Sea... and are probably a cause of enormous blowouts of gas,” the research team told the Sunday Times. “The crater area is likely to represent one of the largest hotspots for shallow marine methane release in the Arctic.”
Although these huge methane bubbles could perhaps take out a ship or two sailing in these shallow waters, the links that several journalistic outlets are making with the Bermuda Triangle may be a bit of a stretch.
Methane under certain conditions is stored as a compound known as methane hydrate, and vast caches of it are found both beneath the seabed. This natural gas is also generated within great expanses of long-term frozen soil known as permafrost, which mostly exists in Siberia, Greenland and Alaska: When organic matter there is decomposed by microbes under warmer, low-oxygen conditions, methane is produced.
Due to man-made climate change, the world is warming at an unprecedented rate, which is beginning to unlock these caches, although the rate at which the methane is escaping skyward currently remains unclear.
In any case, melting permafrost is definitley unleashing methane gas, the second-most dangerous global warming greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, causing the planet to warm further to some degree. Within the oceans, the hydrates are becoming increasingly unstable due to both warming and increasing acidification, and the same effusion process is suspected of taking place there too.
These craters are certainly big, but methane bubbles up from the depths all the time. Rich Carey/Shutterstock
If an entire “chunk” of these hydrates suddenly becomes unstable, a lot of methane gas can escape at once. This can generate craters, such as those found beneath the surface of the Barents Sea. It’s difficult to estimate how much energy is being released in these crater forming “explosions,” but it’s not unreasonable to suggest that – at over half a mile across each – they could be energetic enough to sink ships passing above them. The evidence for this type of ship sinking, however, remains deeply tenuous.
This methane forcing itself up from the depths has likely happened before, around 56 million years ago. The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a sudden and catastrophic warming event that bumped up the world’s temperature by 5 to 8°C (9 to 15°F) in just 20,000 years, and researchers have occasionally surmised that a massive methane hydrates release is to blame.
However, the link with the Bermuda Triangle, which is off the eastern coast of Florida, is somewhat weak – this study doesn’t appear to have anything to do with this part of the world. Nevertheless, gargantuan methane bubbles have been cited before as a possible ship-sinking phenomenon in the Triangle. Even if they don’t cause a damaging blast, a methane bubble is considerably less dense than the sea around it; if it rises up beneath a ship, it could cause it to suddenly sink.
There’s just one problem with this: The Bermuda Triangle doesn’t officially exist, in that it’s not recognized by various scientific institutions of the United States. It’s statistically no more dangerous than any other stretch of ocean, and perhaps most importantly of all, there has been no methane bubbling up from beneath it for at least 15,000 years. |
Theresa May is edging towards securing a new withdrawal settlement with the EU amid intense negotiations with both Brussels and her Northern Irish political partners.
While a deal on the first ‘withdrawal phase’ of Brexit negotiations was not confirmed on Thursday night, The Independent understands the UK is on the brink of securing broad approval for a final text.
In a sign of progress, officials scheduled European Council President Donald Tusk to make a statement on Friday morning, while Brussels confirmed Ms May had spoken to the European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Downing Street are unwilling to speak publicly about any progress until a deal is completely locked in, after being burnt by the Northern Irish DUP’s public torpedoing of her previous effort to secure a settlement. One UK Government source said: “We're not there yet.”
But sources close to Mr Tusk indicated he had agreed to a final text, something which prompted him to set up his statement on Friday.
Meanwhile, members of the European Parliament are also due to meet on Friday to discuss the matter.
Mr Juncker’s spokesman Margaritis Schinas said the Commission President had a telephone conversation with Ms May on Thursday evening and added that an early morning meeting was “possible”.
Shape Created with Sketch. Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Brexit: the deciders 1/8 European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty 2/8 French President Emmanuel Macron Getty 3/8 German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters 4/8 Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA 5/8 The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty 6/8 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images 7/8 Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA 8/8 After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA 1/8 European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty 2/8 French President Emmanuel Macron Getty 3/8 German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters 4/8 Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA 5/8 The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty 6/8 Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images 7/8 Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA 8/8 After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA
He tweeted: “We are making progress but not yet fully there. Talks are continuing throughout the night.”
The Independent understands that Ms May’s Europe advisor Olly Robbins has been in constant contact with Sabine Weyand, who works for the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, to agree the final wording of the settlement – specifically around the vexed issue of what will happen to the Irish border.
Ms May had been hoping to make a new offer by Friday on the border to satisfy both Ireland and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which props up her Government.
A mooted agreement between the UK and EU on divorce issues including the Irish border, which would allow talks to progress to the future trade relationship, was blocked on Monday by the DUP.
The party objected to plans for “regulatory alignment” between Northern Ireland and the Republic to maintain a soft border between the two, arguing it would amount to the drawing of a new frontier with the UK mainland in the Irish Sea.
But as efforts to cement a withdrawal deal continued on Thursday, a senior Irish official said: “It is moving quite quickly at the moment. Negotiations are continuing.
“I think we are going to work over the next couple of hours with the UK Government to close this off. I say hours because I think we are very close.”
The DUP’s chief whip Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: “Discussions are ongoing.”
Pressure is mounting on Ms May to see that leaders of the EU 27 member states declare at a European Council summit on December 14 that “sufficient progress” has been made on withdrawal issues to pave the way for trade talks to begin.
If she cannot show that progress on trade is being made by Christmas, business chiefs are warning that companies will activate contingency plans that will cost Britain jobs.
Ms May’s own position will also be put under greater pressure, with rebels in her own party having stated that progress in talks is a key test for her continued leadership.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe now. |
You might want to stick to taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the daytime (Picture: Getty Images)
Not many people know this, but taking pictures of the iconic Eiffel Tower at night is illegal, and punishable by a massive fine.
The ban has been in place for a while now, but as France becomes more aggressive in its crack down on photo sharing, MEPs are joining forces in a bid to finally lift it.
What does the ban mean?
EU law allows members the choice to demand permission before people can share or sell photos of historic buildings protected by copyright.
Most countries abide by something called ‘freedom of panorama’. This allows people to take photographs and video footage of buildings, and other art works, that are permanently located in a public place.
But there are countries where the freedom is limited, like France, Italy and Denmark, reports Politico.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Online freedom advocates across the EU have called its failure to secure panorama across the board as an example of ‘Europe at its worst’ and is demanding change.
EU copyright law allows state members to impose restrictions on certain monuments (Picture: Getty Images)
How do I get around this?
Technically taking the picture is also illegal, but it’s the sharing part that will land you in hot water.
If you want to publish the image to social media you must gain permission from the ‘Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel’ (the Eiffel Tower’s operating company).
Julia Reda, a German MEP from the Pirate Party, told Politico: ‘The European Commission is afraid to pick a fight with the French government.
‘The French government has been quite clever and are telling the Commission that they’ve done something, so drop the issue.’
Are there other iconic buildings protected by copyright law? Yes – other landmarks include Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid Statue, the Louvre’s pyramid in Paris and the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Even the 2,000-year-old Colosseum in Rome has certain limitations.
Is there any hope of changing this?
The EU held a public consultation asking people for their opinions – but despite the European Commission promising to publish the results in July, they’re yet to be seen.
The Wikimedia Foundation, MEPs and other parties in Europe are currently fighting to lift the restrictions and impose freedom of panorama everywhere.
MORE: Police recover £2.2m worth of jewels stolen from Drake’s tour bus
MORE: #Grammerschools is trending on Twitter and the irony is beautiful |
Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to act clueless when it comes to ISIS. They act clueless about when they formed, where they are today, and how can we defeat them. They are lazy, but they are also severely incompetent.
Last week, Donald Trump asserted that Hillary Clinton and Obama “founded ISIS.” Trump didn’t literally mean they sat down and discussed how to create this group from scratch–or did he?
Trump’s statement is 100% accurate, and a leaked memo from the State Department proves it to be true!
A month ago, it was released that Hillary Clinton received classified intelligence stating that Obama was supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the group that changed their name to ISIS. So, Obama is the founder of ISIS, and Hillary quickly became the co-captain of this dangerous team in 2012.
The leaked memo made it abundantly clear that AQI used Muhammad Al Adnani as their spokesman. Guess what, he is now the spokesman for ISIS. Barack Hussein Obama was literally paying them money! This is not even close to a joke or a theory. The leaked memo proves it to be factual.
Obama’s plan was to support the terrorist group until they overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. Toppling dictators and supporting terrorist groups has NEVER worked, but Hillary continues to think so. She was a heavy proponent of this idea. Keep that point in mind.
In an August 2012 “SECRET” classified memo made its way to Hillary Clinton AND Obama.
Farrell confirmed that the report was read by Hillary Clinton via the recipient marking “RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHINGTON DC.”
The document is very lengthy and some portions are still classified, so we pieced together certain aspects to show the exact memo Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama saw.
THE GENERAL SITUATION: A. THE SALAFIST, THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, AND AQI ARE THE MAJOR FORCES DRIVING THE INSURGENCY IN SYRIA. B. THE WEST, GULF COUNTRIES, AND TURKEY SUPPORT THE OPPOSITION; WHILE RUSSIA, CHINA, AND IRAN SUPPORT THE REGIME.
This report primarily discusses the background of AQI, their methods, capabilities, and that they use the spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq Muhammad Al Adnani. Clearly there are already signs of bad things, but Hillary and Obama push even harder on this.
The report continues:
AL QAEDA – IRAQ (AQI): A. AQI IS FAMILIAR WITH SYRIA. AQI TRAINED IN SYRIA AND THEN INFILTRATED INTO IRAQ. B. AQI SUPPORTED THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION FROM THE BEGINNING, BOTH IDEOLOGICALLY AND THROUGH THE MEDIA. AQI DECLARED ITS OPPOSITION OF ASSAD’S GOVERNMENT BECAUSE IT CONSIDERED IT A SECTARIAN REGIME TARGETING SUNNIS.
The intelligence report from 2012 also predicts that segments of Al Adnani’s AQI group will break off and join ISIS, making them much stronger:
THIS CREATES THE IDEAL ATMOSPHERE FOR AQI TO RETURN TO ITS OLD POCKETS IN MOSUL AND RAMADI, AND WILL PROVIDE A RENEWED MOMENTUM UNDER THE PRESUMPTION OF UNIFYING THE JIHAD AMONG SUNNI IRAQ AND SYRIA, AND THE REST OF THE SUNNIS IN THE ARAB WORLD AGAINST WHAT IT CONSIDERS ONE ENEMY, THE DISSENTERS. ISI COULD ALSO DECLARE AN ISLAMIC STATE THROUGH ITS UNION WITH OTHER TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN IRAQ AND SYRIA, WHICH WILL CREATE GRAVE DANGER IN REGARDS TO UNIFYING IRAQ AND THE PROTECTION OF ITS TERRITORY.
Remember when American Kayla Mueller was taken hostage by ISIS and was kept as a sex slave for ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi? Had ISIS been destroyed from the beginning like a leaked memo warned, this atrocity wouldn’t have happen to an American!
Both Obama and Hillary Clinton knew ISIS was going to carry out all of the plans in all of the locations before it happened. Did they stop them? No.
This memo leaked proves Obama and Hillary saw this information in 2012, which was just before ISIS rose to their prominence in 2014. So, yes, Mr. Trump, they are the founders of ISIS. They paid them and allowed them to do whatever they wanted in the Middle East.
Here is a former Obama Pentagon official admitting Trump is right:
This report accurately predicted that ISIS would take over Mosul, Raqqa, and Ramadan. Obama and Hillary say Trump lacks the mental capacity, yet these two weak leaders paid ISIS and allowed them to grow into the world’s largest jihadi network. Who lacks the mental fortitude now?
Assange says that he plans to release an “October surprise” that he guarantees will lead to Hillary’s criminal trial, but we have come across an issue. Assange has been receiving thousands of death threats. It is reported that the higher ups are working to take him out before he can release the documentation.
If we don’t continue to share these leaks, he can’t accomplish justice like he is risking his life to. We have reports of social media censoring these type of posts, but they can’t stop them if they are heavily shared. Please show this to everyone! Obama and Hillary are the founders of ISIS.
Trump was 100% correct and leaked classified memo’s prove it to be true. If elected, Hillary may give rise to ISIS 2.0, and we will never be able to stop them.
Check Arrest Warrants Online instantly with this site. You might even see Obama’s warrant soon hopefully! |
In a ceremony held in the Washington headquarters of the World Bank on Monday, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority will sign an agreement green-lighting the construction of Red Sea-Dead Sea pipeline, Yedioth Ahronoth journalist reported.
The Red Sea–Dead Sea Conduit also known as the Two Seas Canal will carry some 100 million metric cubes of water to the north annually, thus hopefully slowing down the process Dead Sea's desiccation. As part of the cooperation, a joint water purification plant will be formed and Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians will share the water.
Related stories:
Israeli Energy Minister Silvan Shalom – who is also the minister for regional cooperation and infrastructure minister – will represent Israel in the signing ceremony, and will be joined by both Jordanian and Palestinian water ministers. "This is a historical agreement," Shalom said, adding it was a "dream come true."
The pipeline's projected route
According to the agreement, some 200 million metric cubes of water will be pumped from the Read Sea annually, some 80 million of which will be desalinated in a special facility to be built in Aqaba, Jordan; 30-50 million cubic meters will be allocated to Israel for usage in the Arava and Eilat.
The Jordanians will receive 30 million cubes for their own southern region and an additional 50 million cubes of grey-water from the Kinneret for the north.
Dead Sea (Photo: Tomriko)
As part of the agreement's negotiations, the Palestinians requested a foothold in the northern part of the dead see, in the Ein Pushka area, but Israel refused. In stead, the Palestinian Authority will receive some 30 million cubes from the Kinneret – either desalinated water or grey-water at production cost – which will increase water supplies for West Bank residents.
The entirety of the pipeline will be laid in Jordan, thus circumnavigating issues raised by environmental organizations in Israel. Baring unexpected delays, the construction of the pipeline and purification facility will be completed within four to five years.
The full story was published in Monday's Yedioth Ahronoth
Nahum Barnea is a senior Yedioth Ahronoth correspondant
Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter |
In Paris, France, last year, governments agreed to confine global warming to well below 2 degree Celsius. What’s the driving force behind this?
‘As Martin Luther King put it, “the fierce urgency of now”. We probably have underestimated this urgency to some extent, even in the scientific community. Years ago, I introduced the concept of so-called tipping elements. This refers to critical components of the earth system like the Greenland ice sheet, the Amazon rainforest or the Indian summer monsoon that could at some point of continued perturbation be tipped from one state to another – we call this highly non-linear behaviour. Crossing critical thresholds would cause comparatively abrupt and perhaps irreversible environmental changes. And we know that beyond 2 degrees global warming the risk of tipping increases. Now there is new evidence based on historic reconstructions that shows climate sensitivity is probably higher than estimated in the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This could mean we can emit even less CO2 if we want to stay within the temperature range agreed to in the Paris Agreement.
‘If we keep doing what we’re doing so far, in a business-as-usual scenario, this could mean about 5 degrees warming by the end of the century. It’s not hard to imagine that this could mean the end of the world as we know it. The changes we’d face would be profound. So we seem to be at a highly critical moment in our time where we have to get almost everything right in order to avoid most severe consequences. This worries me, especially when I look at recent developments like in the United States with a President-elect Donald Trump, possibly planning to leave the Paris Agreement behind. He will probably also invest trillions in building roads and other infrastructure with concrete and steel, which will churn out billions and billions of tonnes of additional CO2. This is the tragedy of many civilisations, as can be seen in history. When societies got into trouble, far too often the response was not to change the system, change the paradigm, but more of the same.’
How do we go about changing the paradigm?
‘What we need is a roadmap towards decarbonisation, with decadal steps bringing down emissions to almost zero by 2050. Because that is the only chance we have to stay within the 2 degrees limit, even though it would probably not be enough to keep warming below 1.5 degrees. But if you want to go down that road by mid-century, that means that by 2020 emissions globally have to peak. That may sound like a tremendous effort, but it also means turning back to many solutions we already have. It means repairing the European Emission Trading System and boosting efficiency measures everywhere. People have kept on talking about the low-hanging fruits, but they never pluck them. Now is the time.
‘In the next decade, until 2030, there are two essential shifts that should happen from my point of view. A phase out of coal-fired power stations, completely and worldwide. That means stopping building new ones, but also shutting down some of the existing ones. And we should get over the combustion engine in automobiles, because it is about time to completely replace it with much smarter alternatives.
‘Then, in the decade after that, we also need to have a number of major breakthroughs, technology breakthroughs. Think of super-smart grids connected by super-conductivity cables. People are working on this already, as this could transport electricity over long distances without any losses. Think of cities not being built anymore with concrete or cement, which is highly climate-damaging. These might be cities built from wood again, which was dominant over thousands of years, next to stone and clay of course. Already, in a city like Berlin (Germany), there are five-storey apartment buildings mainly constructed from wood. Young entrepreneurs are working on very innovative ways to treat wood to make it more flexible and fireproof. Building in wood would help us… even (reduce) carbon (usage). While cement production is a huge source for CO2, wood can be used as a carbon sink, absorbing and storing CO2.
‘And that is the other, much brighter side of the coin. If we embrace this challenge and turn climate stabilisation and a sustainable future into the new narrative of modernity, not only would this be a fantastic project for humankind, creating new jobs, it would also shape a world of new life opportunities, new cultural development, and so on. We still have the choice, as we are standing at the crossroads. This could give our modern times a new meaning, enabling us to use all the available potential, whether it is intellectual, whether it is physical, whether it is resources. So it is a very interesting point in time, we either go for the bright side of a sustainable future, or we might go for the dark ages again.’
For climate research, where should the focus be as the EU prepares its next funding programme to follow on from Horizon 2020?
‘In order to get a real grip on the climate problem we need a strategic approach, something like an Apollo project, that focuses all available resources and potentials on a common goal. You would need some kind of a roadmap, mapping out… the low-hanging fruits, like energy efficiency, as well as technological innovations in strategic areas like new material for construction, also carbon-negative technologies. But there are many other areas as well with great potential, like agriculture. You could very simply avoid a lot of emissions from agriculture by no-tillage approaches where you do not plough the soil.
‘Commissioner Moedas (the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation) has set up this new high-level panel for European decarbonisation pathways… and I am chairing it. And there, my intention is to work out precisely such a roadmap. Not a narrow-minded, technocratic document, but an open plan with a number of important milestones. And here is the important thing. Innovations don’t need to be only physical, chemical or whatever. There are many social innovations that also help us to go for a more sustainable world.’
What kinds of social innovations do you mean?
‘Let me give you an example: the carmaker BMW told me once about their electric car, the i3. I drive an i3 today as my private car, but I’m one of very few people who own one. What did the company do? They set up a collaboration with partners including the City of Berlin for a very popular Berlin vehicle-sharing scheme. You can find available cars on your smartphone, and they have created a fleet of these i3 cars which you now find everywhere on the streets of Berlin. The city will support this by reviewing their public parking-space policies.
'People have kept on talking about the low-hanging fruits, but they never pluck them. Now is the time.' Prof. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
‘The biggest social innovation might be to set up some kind of transformation fund - like the sovereign wealth fund in Norway - where you strategically invest in new infrastructure, and where the funding could come, for example, from a carbon tax or trading scheme. Some countries already have carbon taxes, and if the revenues would go directly into a transformation fund earmarked for climate innovations, this would be a completely new way of dealing with the climate challenge. So from simple individual behaviour up to fiscal institutions, you can go through a whole series of possible innovations.’
You have been credited for coming up with the 2 degrees threshold that the world is working towards. Yet it is becoming clear that the climate could be more responsive than we thought, is this level low enough?
‘We have not completely understood the climate system yet, and particularly the non-linear behaviour associated with tipping points should be researched further. Many scientists tend to be a bit conservative, staying on the safe side, avoiding what could be misunderstood as alarmism, thereby sometimes underestimating the dynamics. Only recently, I published a paper together with colleagues in Nature Climate Change about critical thresholds when you turn up the heat globally. The question is, when do we reach these critical thresholds? There are still some uncertainties but, as it turns out, limiting warming to 2 degrees will not be enough to avoid all tipping points. The tropical coral reefs will probably completely die back, even if we limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. The Greenland ice sheet might also be at risk.
‘So 1.5 degrees clearly is the better target, but I think it could only be achieved by overshooting the available emissions budget temporarily and then later coming back to within the budget range - which means you have to work with substantial negative emissions, a very difficult concept. I think it could only be done if we turn global agriculture into a carbon sink and actually build all our future cities from carbon-negative materials. That is the only scale where we could achieve it, so the answer is, 1.5 would be much better in terms of climate impacts than 2 degrees. But 2 degrees already requires an industrial revolution at the planetary scale. In contrast, I think 1.5 degrees requires almost a miracle. But of course sometimes miracles do happen.’
You say miracles do happen, but you’ve also mentioned the drastic changes that need to take place such as getting rid of the internal combustion engine and revolutionising agriculture and the way we build cities. It seems like an enormous challenge.
‘Mind-boggling, yes. But the crazy thing about it is, these things can be done. People pursue nuclear fusion, which might be a benefit in the end, but it is a tremendous challenge with no end in sight so far. Yet it seems to be ok for the EU to pour money into that endeavour, and I accept that because it is an exciting intellectual enterprise, even though it will probably not save the world. However, we already have a perfectly working powerful fusion reactor – the sun. Solar energy comes without any cost, it is absolutely safe. We just have to harvest it. We do not have to bend the laws of physics to make use of the sun and to use wood as a carbon sink and so on. So, in a way, our society is in a strange state of schizophrenia. On the one hand we go for highly, highly utopian technologies and are willing to fund them. At the same time, we say that things that are already proven in principle are impossible to achieve, and this has to do with vested interests of course, and also with human inertia. People would rather go for the fairy tale that we will drive the whole economy by fusion energy by 2050, which is of course impossible, but at the same time they tell us that it is absolutely impossible to run a country like Morocco from solar energy.
‘I am from Germany, a country with lots of renewable energy production. But if you conduct an analysis of the sunshine potential of Germany, it is comparable to Alaska (US). So how much easier would it be for Italy and Greece and the United States of America, let alone Africa, to run their countries on sunshine? I think we need to get rid of all the myths that are, in a way, congesting our brain, and once we have done that, yes then the answer is I think it is achievable still.’
If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media. |
In all fairness, driving in Yangon is a walk in the park compared to Cairo or Nairobi. And unlike New York there’s no messenger cyclists hanging onto the back of buses as they accelerate through a yellow light on 5th Avenue.
But it has to be said that Yangon could surely do with a few better driving schools - and maybe just a slight change in attitude from its drivers? So for those poor souls arriving here in Yangon from the likes of Australia, Europe, USA, Singapore, etc.. here are my top 10 things to watch out for as you hit the streets:
Door mirrors. You know those things stuck on the side of vehicles? Let me tell you a secret. If you see any in Yangon, you’re hallucinating because no-one, NO-ONE ever uses them here. My old driving instructor used to hit me over the head if I didn’t check my mirrors AND look over my shoulder before changing lanes. The Yangon technique is different. Here standard operating procedure is to look fixedly ahead while edging (or should I say veering) into the lane alongside. You see if there’s another vehicle alongside you it’s THEIR responsibility to sound their horn to warn you not to do the incredibly dumb thing you are about to do.
Indicators. It may be that after decades of driving old wrecks where only the steering wheel (sort of) operated, Yangon drivers have yet to adjust to the fact that their car indicators work. Or maybe they think using indicators will drain the battery, or use more fuel. Who knows? What you do need to know is that you will regularly grind your teeth waiting to pull out from a side road, only to see the car you’ve been waiting to pass you by suddenly turn into the same road you’re waiting in. Had they indicated you could have safely pulled away, but as they didn’t you’re left waiting for more traffic to pass before you get another chance to pull out.
Lane markings. People spend hours painting white lines on the roads, but I have no idea why they bother. White lines are for sissy’s, especially at roundabouts. Want to know how to spot a Brit in Yangon? Head down to any roundabout and watch the cars conscientiously following the marked lane. Yep, that’s a Brit. The only problem is that all the other vehicles take the racing line around roundabouts - if you’re in the far right lane at the entry to the roundabout you drive straight ahead so you reach the far left lane by the apex of the roundabout. You know it makes sense - it’s the shortest, fastest route and therefore saves fuel! Oh, and in case you’re wondering please refer to items 1 and 2 above about the standard operating procedures for use of door mirrors and indicators while adopting this manoeuvre.
Yellow junction boxes. People also get paid to paint these markings on the roads too, but in Yangon their purpose is just to brighten up those dull grey roads. Don’t be fooled into thinking that cars are supposed to keep them clear at all times, especially in traffic jams. What’s the point of watching other drivers being able to move if you can’t? No, no, no. The Yangon way is to completely block up every junction so at least you have the satisfaction of knowing that everyone else is stuck just like you.
Horn. Every empty taxi horns at every person minding their own business walking along the pavement. Don’t they realize if we wanted one of the million taxis around town we would be standing on the kerb flagging them down? My favourite though is the driver behind me at the traffic lights who horns the nanosecond the light changes to green. Does he think this is some quiz game and the first to press the buzzer wins? For goodness sake I CAN SEE TOO! If I COULDN’T see they wouldn’t let me drive (well maybe I’ll take that back because I am absolutely positive that 50% of the bus drivers here are totally blind)! Next time someone does that to me I’m trying a new tactic. I’ll keep my foot firmly on the brake but engage reverse gear so I can see the horror on their faces when they see my reversing lights and think I’m going to reverse into them. Yes they’ll horn even more…
Bicycles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of bicycles. They have just as much right to be on the road as any car and are a great way to keep fit. I also hope the sai kaa (tri-shaws) remain a part of Yangon’s streets for years to come – they provide a really useful service, enable people to earn a living and add real character to the city. No, my problem is at night. After 3 years living in Yangon I have seen a grand total of one (yes ONE) bicycle with lights on at night. It would be a step in the right direction if bicyclists wore white shirts at night. But no, the preferred outfit is a black Iron Cross T-Shirt and dark longyi. If you don’t see many bicycles on Yangon streets it’s not because people don’t know how to ride them. It’s because we’re in the middle of a real live Darwinian experiment and Yangon bicyclists are becoming extinct as the species get wiped out. Survival of the fittest? No, its survival of the cyclists who ride at night with lights on.
Parking. Most cities have worked out by now that traffic on major roads has to be kept moving and therefore vehicles are not allowed to stop and block a lane. Unfortunately Yangon lives on a different planet, because vehicles can block any lane, anytime. All vehicles also carry a trump card at school times which allows them to double or even triple-park alongside each other while dropping off or collecting kids. Now I have a young kid, so I too want my son to be safe when he goes to school. But can we please do a trade? Let’s introduce traffic wardens at kid’s school crossings and take away drivers’ rights to block any lane on a major road. Is that a deal?
Pedestrian Crossings. I have no doubt the newly opened Mercedes showroom will be a huge success. The distinctive cross-hairs badge on the bonnet of their cars is the perfect accessory for Yangon’s drivers as they aim at any pedestrian foolish enough to step onto a marked pedestrian crossing. As a kid I used to enjoy playing on stepping stones across a stream near my house. In Yangon that experience has given me a critical survival tool as I take a series of leaps from the edge of one lane to another as vehicles whizz by on both sides. I’ve lost weight since I moved to Yangon. It’s not because of the food or the climate, it’s because I need a flat tummy for crossing the road so I can fit between the sides of buses as they roar past me on adjacent lanes.
Betel Leaf and Nut. Why am I talking about a seed when this article is about driving? When I first came to Yangon, I was horrified at the number road deaths, evident by the blood smatters dripping down every driver and passenger door. Since then I’ve learned that emptying the mulched red contents of your mouth over your own vehicle door, the road, any adjacent car or nearby pedestrian is considered acceptable behavior. My advice is to always, ALWAYS keep your window closed when inside your car, and carry an umbrella when walking near traffic. It’s nothing to do with the sun or the monsoon, it’s just that if I wanted to have red hair I’d dye it myself thank you.
Buses. I know, I know, you’ve been waiting for this one. Where to start? I really love the conductors hanging out of the side door, waving their arms, shouting unintelligibly and pointing to show that the driver is going to turn left, when they immediately turn right. I love the access doors being on the wrong side of the vehicle so passengers step into moving traffic. I love the broken suspension on one side so you look up to see passengers staring straight down through your sunroof as the bus sways at a 45 degree angle around the corners. I love the drivers’ pinball machine driving techniques, bouncing from one non-existent gap in the traffic to another. I love how they drive up the wrong side of the road, directly into oncoming traffic, to get to the head of the traffic jam. Have Yangon’s bus drivers ever seen Mad Max? I doubt it, but they soon will…
Oh, the delights of driving in Yangon! |
Well over a decade has passed since Kino's Journey was first adapted into anime, but this season brought us an unexpected remake with Kino's Journey - The Beautiful World . This week in anime, Jacob and Steve compare notes on how the character's world has changed with time.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network . Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
Steve
Well Jake, it's 2017, and reboots are still where the big money is. So what better anime series to reboot than a niche hit from 14 years ago that examines philosophical questions through careful allegory!
Jacob
ah yes, you vs the Kino she told you not to worry about
ah yes, you vs the Kino she told you not to worry about
Kino's back! And they're still on a journey, go figure.
It's about as unexpected a choice for a remake as you can get, despite the wealth of source material. The first anime adapted stories from about two books? Three if you count OVAs? But there are twenty books. So far.
Which is why I was pretty optimistic when I heard about the new series! It's definitely not my first choice for a reboot, but the original series is one of my favorite anime, and the prospect of seeing some of the newer stories get animated was exciting.
Honestly, my favorite thing about this new project is its origin story.
Oh, what's that?
Aoi Yūki , was the driving force behind getting more made. Which okay, voice actress is a fan of thing, uses her influence to push for a remake, not a special occurrence. Apparently the new voice of Kino,, was the driving force behind getting more made. Which okay, voice actress is a fan of thing, uses her influence to push for a remake, not a special occurrence.
Aoi Yūki 's debut anime role was?
But guess what's debut anime role was?
If you haven't seen the OG Kino's Journey , that won't mean much to you, but if you have, boy are there layers to that casting choice.
HOLY SHIT I had no idea! That's so cool!
Keiichi Sigsawa . First a new Kino's anime, and then a Gun Gale Online Alternative anime next year! (He wrote that too, the man likes his firearms.) It's gonna be a good year for author. First a new Kino's anime, and then a Gun Gale Online Alternative anime next year! (He wrote that too, the man likes his firearms.)
Kino's Journey and Sword Art Online , but that's anime for you. Aoi Yūki is definitely one of the most talented voice actresses currently working, and her performance as Kino is one of my favorite things about the new series. It is still wild to me that there's one degree of separation betweenand, but that's anime for you.is definitely one of the most talented voice actresses currently working, and her performance as Kino is one of my favorite things about the new series.
Same. I'm a little torn on the art style difference so far, but despite the improved animation of the new series, I think I still tilt more in favor of the old look. Kino's setting is not so much a detailed fantasy world as a series of broad fable worlds. So I liked the more dreamlike and surreal aesthetic that made its stories feel less literal.
Ryutaro Nakamura of Serial Experiments Lain fame, and his control of atmosphere definitely benefited the tone of the series. The muted colors and cartoony character designs evoked a kind of retro feel, and they even added a CRT scanline filter on top of everything, like you were constantly reminded that you were watching a TV show, that it was fiction. As a framing device, it helped further separate the audience from the anime and reinforced the fantastical, fable-like nature of the stories. The old anime was directed byoffame, and his control of atmosphere definitely benefited the tone of the series. The muted colors and cartoony character designs evoked a kind of retro feel, and they even added a CRT scanline filter on top of everything, like you were constantly reminded that you were watching a TV show, that it was fiction. As a framing device, it helped further separate the audience from the anime and reinforced the fantastical, fable-like nature of the stories.
Which is a lot of words to say that I really really love the old anime
Yeah I liked everything but that LCD filter. Don't miss that. Like, digipaint struggles to upscale to modern TVs as it is. YOU ARE NOT HELPING, SCANLINE FILTER.
Definitely an odd choice, but it's charming!
Well, for anyone intimidated by old KJ's artsy-fartsy look, new KJ is here to anime things up for you. Which is fine, these stories are solid, simple conversation-starters that can and should speak to a wider audience, and anime funding and marketing has changed immensely since 2003 in terms of what you can make and how it has to sell. So I get it, though I do miss the old aesthetic.
Yeah, the new anime basically just looks like...an anime. Awkward CG vehicles and all.
Not to say that it looks bad, because there are some very nice shots!
It's just overall not as inspired as Nakamura's version.
Yeah, I don't want to harp on the new style too much because THINGS CHANGE JACOB, and it's not even my primary issue with the new series so far. Nope, turns out I have bigger problems that I wasn't expecting!
Yeahhhhhh unfortunately the anime kinda shot itself in the foot (with a Persuader) by choosing to re-adapt one of the most memorable stories from the old anime in its SECOND episode. So before it even got a chance to establish itself as its own thing, it's already begging comparisons with the old show, and, in my estimation at least, it doesn't have the chops to win this battle yet.
So I have a theory about this, because right before the Coliseum episode (which worked waaaaaaay better a two-parter in the first series for reasons I'm sure we'll get into), the remake's first episode also adapted a story that happened to be very violence-centric. Now for anyone unfamiliar with KJ, I swear Kino does not solve all their problems by shooting at them. In fact, it's supposed to be a big deal when the gun comes out because they try to be as passive and uninvolved as possible in their travels unless their life is endangered.
Kino would much rather stop and enjoy the flowers, metaphorically and literally.
otaku with this story's more common non-gun-centric arguments about societal politics and shit. Definitely! But the first two episodes of this remake have played up the "journey of danger and survival and lookit mah cool guns" thing pretty hard, and I wonder if it's because they don't think the show will grabwith this story's more common non-gun-centric arguments about societal politics and shit.
Our first scene with new Kino is this
It's a good monologue, but they literally jump straight to "I'm gonna keep traveling even if I have to kill people," which is an odd thing to emphasize in terms of sacrifices, certainly not a focal point of the original series.
It sets a worrying precedent, because while some of Kino's stories are indeed dangerous or tragic, a lot of them are also whimsical and amusing. Like these guys!
Yeah, with the new series, I'm already worrying about those kitty ears gettin' blown off by a crossbow.
He used to be a traveler like Kino, but then he took an arrow to the--
[GIANT HOOK CREEPS IN FROM ACROSS THE ROOM]
Part of what I love about Kino's Journey is that it runs the gamut of the human condition, all of its sadness and cruelty and absurdity and, ultimately, beauty. So I hope the new anime doesn't just focus on the cruelty. Kino is many things, but an action hero they are not.
If your motto's "The world is not beautiful, therefore it is," I'm gonna need a lil more o' dat "therefore it is". But it's only two episodes in, so there's still plenty of hope!
True! And this new version does seem to be focusing more on Kino as a character, which is a slightly different direction from the old anime that could be neat to explore.
Right, that's what I was thinking! Anthology format aside, many people's favorite episodes of KJ are the ones that crack Kino's passive, gentle-smile facade and get at what drives them to keep going on this destination-less path, even when they're offered a place to belong now and again. Sometimes this can be cute, as in Kino's rejection of their taller and rugged-er doppelganger Shizu, but sometimes it can be uh
devastating
So with the remake opening once again on a monologue that (weird preoccupation with killing aside) openly questions Kino's motives for traveling, I'm hoping that facade will be cracked a little further.
THE FIRST STEP TO RECOVERY IS ADMITTING THAT YOU HAVE A PROBLEM KINO
I am also on board for more sick motorrad stunts
Poor Hermes.
it's not easy being a talking motorcycle
What's better tho, a talking motorcycle or a talking dog?
DOG IS VERY GOOD
"Get in loser, we're going on a journey."
I wonder if there's a country full of talking dogs. Kino should go there. They need a break.
Yeah, anything's better than that damn Coliseum. We should probably address that elephant, since it seems to be the one big thorn in what's otherwise been a promising remake.
Yeah, the new Coliseum arc adaptation fails on multiple levels. By compressing the story into one episode, it not only feels rushed, it misses out on a lot of the nuance and thoughtfulness of the old two-parter. It plays out so poorly that Kino comes across as cruel, rather than conflicted. The old anime also had five prior episodes to get to know their character before this heavy dilemma.
Look, Kino has always been pretty unflappable.
But they're not reckless, and when you adapt one of the most worldbuilding-heavy stories in a not-worldbuilding-heavy series in a reckless way, that unflappability might accidentally make them come off as a monster. The gist is that Kino accidentally falls into a country that pits hapless passers-by against one another in a deathmatch for citizenship. You know, as one does. But this version of the story cuts out the existence of the underclass, people who aren't at peace with this system but have no other place to live, so it's unclear what would drive Kino to get involved beyond bitterness at being used as a pawn for another traveler's confusing attempt at vengeance, which isn't really enough.
Without the two-episode time to explore all Kino's thoughts before they make their plan to take down this system (as in the 03 series), about the best we get is
This quickly culminates in Kino's clever plan to murder the murderbowl itself by first killing the king and then declaring that Everyone Should Fight to the Death for the right to replace him.
And boy do those folks not waste any time getting straight to the murder! As...one...does?
I can't stress this enough, the Coliseum arc is a BIG DEAL because it's the first time Kino actually interferes with a country. Doing so goes against their entire philosophy of avoiding any attachments to the countries they visit, and the decision to kill the king doesn't come lightly. It comes after Kino sees the unfairness of the caste system, the abject cruelty of the king, and the determination of the exiled prince. In a way, killing the king is a kindness that prevents the prince from falling into an endless cycle of familial bloodshed. THAT is what gets communicated in the 2003 version. In the remake, we don't even learn why Kino was pissed off at all until after they tell everyone to start punching each other to death.
Right, the jump from inception to conclusion is the most Boy That Escalated Quickly thing and I just
you said it, dog
There were also two Extremely Important details left out of Kino's decree from not just the first anime (which did admittedly expand on the book's story) but the original novel itself:
A) The new murderbowl is limited to first-class citizens, i.e. people who won and/or benefited from this awful system in the first place. Slum denizens are not only exempt, but protected from this violence by the decree. If you harm any of them, you're disqualified.
B) The killing doesn't just start two seconds after Kino says "here's my idea fellas!" There's a window of time where anyone who doesn't like the idea can skip town. Kino's decree first prompts an understandable level of confusion, not a mad rush for the long knives.
It also makes Kino's earlier remark (in both versions) that they made it to the finals without killing anyone pretty moot for obvious reasons. YOU SURE MADE UP FOR LOST GROUND IN THE ELEVENTH HOUR, HUN.
I can understand the argument that maybe the country is different in this version, and that maybe everyone who lives there is a jerk, but that's also not as compelling a story. Kino's Journey can be very, very blunt in its messages sometimes, but this seems just mean-spirited.
With any luck, this just means we're hitting this adaptation's low point early and the series will start improving in its choices afterwards.
I liked the first episode quite a bit! So I am also hopeful that the new stories will bring more of that good philosophical flavor that I love.
Also more good food for Kino to enjoy. They deserve it.
Totally. The stories chosen for this remake were selected via popularity poll, so with any luck we'll get some doozies while (hopefully) avoiding the pitfalls of Coliseum.
And apparently we're also getting more Shizu, which means more PUPPY~
Excuse me, I have to go. My Uber driver is here.
ADVENTURE HO! |
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Just when you thought ESPN couldn't get any more tone deaf, after backing Little League father of the year Craig James over respected professional Bruce Feldman, now comes this inexplicable decision.
Urban Meyer will be in the ABC booth Saturday working the Auburn-Clemson game.
Are they kidding?
Of all the booths in all the stadiums in all the world, Meyer's going to walk into Death Valley's with Auburn in the house?
Did they ask Nick Saban to skip the North Texas game to join the fun?
Let's get this
out of the way up front. Meyer has no business working an Auburn game, there, here or anywhere.
The appearance of a conflict of interest is thicker than Joe Paterno's glasses. Try as he might, the former Florida coach can't escape his history with the Auburn program, and that history isn't exactly defined by mutual respect.
In the spring of 2009, after Auburn hit the road in its Tiger Prowl recruiting limos, Meyer told the Gainesville (Fla.) Sun that the NCAA should investigate. He also took a few shots at Auburn's tires.
"We're trying to sell graduation rates and academics and trying the sing and dance routine," he said. "The Florida coaching staff will not be riding around in limos or ripping off our shirts."
That shirt reference was a shot at Lane Kiffin and his Tennessee staff, but still. Even two years later, Meyer trying to drag his program onto the high ground, despite its arrest record, remains a shining example of hypocrisy.
He didn't stop there. In December of 2010, Meyer was the only SEC coach with a vote that didn't put Auburn No. 1 on his final regular-season ballot in the USA Today poll. He put Oregon first and Auburn second.
But those slights pale next to the role Meyer may have played as a wizard behind the curtain of the Cecil Newton-Kenny Rogers story last fall.
According to multiple news reports, before that story broke, Meyer had vowed on a three-way call with his protege, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, and former Mississippi State quarterback John Bond to tell it to The New York Times and ESPN.
Who broke the story of Newton and Rogers asking for money from Mississippi State boosters, Bond included, to send Cam Newton to State? The Times and ESPN.
That story, as the NCAA later confirmed, was right. You can argue that Meyer did the right thing in trying to get the story out, in blowing the whistle on shady recruiting, despite Mullen's reported preference to let that sleeping dog lie since the proper authorities had been notified.
Kevin Scarbinsky is a columnist for The Birmingham News. His column is published on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
There's no argument that, if Meyer played Deep Throat, he put Cam Newton's Heisman season and Auburn's BCS championship run in jeopardy, even though there was no solid evidence then - and none has been presented since - that Auburn broke NCAA rules to sign Newton.
Hence, bad blood.
Gene Chizik might never admit it in public, but he hinted last November that Meyer might be a wizard behind the curtain. During a passionate defense of his quarterback in the middle of the storm, the Auburn coach said this:
"If you really want to do your homework, go and start with his Little League coach, then go to his junior high coach, then go to his high school coach, then go to his junior college coach and then come talk to any coach at Auburn."
Who was missing from Chizik's suggested list of character references for Newton? His Florida coaches, Meyer and Mullen.
A lot of Auburn fans didn't like it when ESPN sent Meyer and Saban, who could hardly be considered neutral observers, to serve as pregame and halftime analysts for the BCS Championship Game in January, but at least the network had legitimate reasons.
They were the two previous national championship coaches, and besides, Saban had just coached against Auburn, and Meyer had once coached Newton.
There's no similar justification for ESPN/ABC to send Meyer to Clemson, not for cameos but for a game-long stint in the booth, and there are more than enough reasons to believe that he isn't neutral in his feelings toward Auburn.
What is ESPN thinking? I asked, and the network provided this statement: "We regularly assign analysts to games involving conferences and teams they have coached for and against and do not avoid assignments based on a competitive rivalry that existed when they were coaching. We expect our personnel to do their jobs as professionals. Like all of our analysts, Urban will work games involving teams from multiple conferences."
Sorry, but this goes beyond "a competitive rivalry that existed" while Meyer was coaching. This is wrong person, wrong place, wrong time.
ESPN should change assignments for this weekend, and Meyer, at the first opportunity, should change careers. He should go back to coaching. That way, he can try to do something he's never done. Beat Auburn on the field.
1CR> |
Sheriff Arvin West is the law in Texas’ Hudspeth County. It certainly seems that way to unsuspecting travelers along his county’s stretch of I-10. He’s known for accusing the Mexican army of invading the border, ragging on the federal government on border security policies and busting more than a few entertainers for carrying pot (Willie Nelson, Nelly, Fiona Apple and Snoop Dogg are on the list).
West, now tied to a three-year-long federal investigation, isn’t talking. But a Washington Post report reveals he may be involved in setting up a rogue Navy training based in West Texas.
Craig Whitlock, reporter at the Washington Post, says West has yet to be charged and many of the details in the federal investigation are far from clear.
“What exactly they were up to is kind of a big mystery,” Whitlock says, “but it sounds like they went down there to work for him and try and set up some kind of training base in the county.”
Related to West’s case is a scheme involving AK-47 silencers. The former director of the Navy intelligence office at the Pentagon, civilian David W. Landersman, allegedly help equip Navy commandos with untraceable silencers. He’s now facing federal conspiracy charges. Two of Landersman’s subordinates have said that other than working on intelligence matters, they moonlighted as deputy sheriffs under West. Although there is nothing illegal about working as deputy sheriffs, Whitlock says, the context surrounding the work – what the Navy intelligence was up to – is questionable.
“The reason they first came under investigation is that the civilians in this office were caught making some kind of dodgy law enforcement badges that would enable them to carry weapons around,” Whitlock says. “And NCIS … did a search warrant on their office at the Pentagon. But as part of that investigation, they found that this small group of civilians at the Pentagon were involved in some kind of secret weapons program.”
Allegedly, the intelligence officers were setting up a type of training camp at Circle Ranch in west Texas, but not much more than that is known. There is speculation, however, that the case might have something to do with counter-narcotics – drug investigations or training people along the border how to look out for Mexican drug gangs. But Whitlock says no one knows for sure.
“A lot of the documentation in the federal investigation has been sealed on national security grounds,” Whitlock says. “This case has been going on in federal courts and a lot of times they have to have sessions in private or they say everything is classified.”
Post by Beth Cortez-Neavel. |
Does the Dashter even need an introduction? She looks great stylized as a cuddly cartoon marshmallow elf, but I thought she also deserved to have her real-life awesomeness portrayed in all of its glory, or at least a certain minor percentage of its glory. (can you guess what percentage?? Aaaawwwww yeeeaaaaaah!)Hey, everypony, I want you to hear something... I love music and art together, and think that they both work together synergetically to give rise to inspiration and creative energy. I listened to alot of different music while painting this, and was very inspired by it, and I think the music worked its way into the painting, so I want you to listen to some of the music that inspired me the most while painting this, see how it goes with the artwork, and I hope it inspires creativity and happiness in your heart and mind as well.Try playing it in a separate tab, I mean, um, if you want to... Higher and Higher - The Moody BluesHurdy Gurdy Glissando - Steve HillageTalking to the Sun - Steve HillageMercury - The Winged Messenger - Isao Tomita (originally composed by Gustav Holst)Hehe... I had to mention this too... This image also seems to go perfectly along with the MictheMicrophoneZero dramatic reading of the MLP fanfiction "Quest for the Friendship Stones" by Poultron1Up Next: Fluttershy and Derpy.For all you fellow bronies out there, keep on hoofin' it. You are awesome. A new age is dawning, and we are trampling towards its light.Brohoof! |
SYNOPSIS
Black Sands is a bold new visual novel drawing from African, Indian and Middle Eastern mythology, married to an innovative spin on speculation about ancient aliens and precursor races. This is largely unexplored territory for video games as a medium – and Black Sands aims to take it further than any other creative team has managed to date.
Genres: Visual Novel, History, Mythology, Dark Fantasy, Educational
As Ra, the Dark Pharaoh, players must enter into a series of challenging trials posed by their creator, Nun – an emissary from the far-flung world of Nibiru who wants you, as his avatar, to wield godlike power over the ancient world. But before your legend can begin, you have to prove yourself worthy.
In the Black Sands Universe, Nun engineered the beings humanity worship as gods – but his creations betrayed his grand plan, and plunged the Earth into an age of oppression. Rah and his companions are Nun's last-ditch attempt to fix his mistakes – but before he can unleash them on the Earth, he needs to know they're up to the challenge!
You have to manage a team of mythical heroes; nurture their relationships, both with you and each other; explore the sprawling landscape of Nun's secret hideaway, the Rift; study its secrets and its tortured history, and defeat the countless enemies that stand in your way. Only then will Nun grant you your freedom!
UNIQUENESS
Black Sands is more than just comic-book heroics and wild conspiracy theories – it aims to convey a deeper understanding of real-world ancient history and cultural diversity as well. An in-game dictionary with scores of unlockable entries contains an explanation of the research that went into every character and location, giving their historical inspiration alongside their in-game backstories.
Black Sands is also not simply a visual novel, too. Decisions stem from much more than simple emotional dilemmas or "choose your own adventure" branching paths. The story offers players the challenge of exploration, discovery, investigation and stat management over a rich, carefully crafted narrative and multiple side quests of many different types.
Win your companions' respect to open up still more content as their backstories are revealed – or rule them by fear like the god you're destined to become.
Scour the map for a huge number of secrets spread across a detailed, ever-changing world.
Watch the clock! Manage the passing of time correctly, or the odds could end up against you and cause your death!
Study the relics and artifacts to unlock achievements and lore – including the real-world research behind the fiction.
Be entrenched in the development of a stunning production values from a carefully hand-picked team.
A totally unique aesthetic – no other game has used this same material like Black Sands!
Dominant Protagonist
African, Middle Eastern, and Hindu cultures
Competitive love interest
Comic-style Artwork
Multiple Mini-Sagas
Aliens
Mythological Gods and Monsters
Dark Humor
Education
If you cannot download the demo or don't have a strong enough computer, you can watch the demo playthrough below. |
California marked the month-long celebration Sikh Awareness Month (SAAM) celebrations for the fifth year in a row. With Donald Trump 's the US President-elect, this year's awareness month could potentially be the most important SAAM to date, as the future of Sikh Americans hangs in the balance, said Sikh Coalition community development manager Harjit Kaur. She said minority communities across the nation have experienced an uptick in hate crimes, bullying, and discrimination as a result of the current political climate.A series of Sikh-related events were organised through the month, from local activities in schools to collaborating with the basketball team, the Los Angeles Clippers.Sikh Coalition community development manager Harjit Kaur explains how it all came about. “Since November 2010, California community leaders have engaged with legislators to recognize the contribution of Sikh Americans to California and to provide a platform to create aware ness about Sikhs in California educational institutions and the community .“ Harjit elaborates, “This year, Assembly member Jim Cooper presented Dr Onkar Singh Bindra and me with the state member resolution celebrating Sikh Awareness and Appreciation Month. California state superintendent of public instruction Tom Torlakson also recognised November as the awareness month for California's public schools. Sikh Awareness and Appreciation resolutions have been passed in Yuba City , Fresno, San Jose, Bakersfield, Fremont, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara, along with numerous school districts across the state.The Sikh Coalition, along with many volunteers, has delivered presentations to hundreds of Californians across the state in classrooms and local libraries.The Sikh Coalition also co-hosted a Sikh Awareness and Appreciation game with the Los Angeles Clippers.Over 350 Sikh Americans attended the LA Clippers game alongside the other 19,000 spectators. It also featured the US national anthem by Raaginder `Violinder' Singh on the violin as well as the Los Angeles Sikh Boy Scouts of America colour guard, and half-time entertainment by Da Real Punjabiz.Harjeet said they work tirelessly to ensure that SAAM is used as a platform to meaningfully engage with legislators, educators, and community members across the state to address these issues. “This year, after helping to protect Sikh history in California in July , the Sikh Coalition secured safe passage of AB-2845, a groundbreaking new anti-bullying law in California in September“. |
It’s something we all hear about during an airplane safety demonstration, but for most of us, hopefully it’s something we’ll never actually have to use.
The evacuation slide.
While it’s exceptionally rare that it would have to be deployed, every commercial aircraft is fitted with an inflatable slide should there be an emergency where customers need to get off the aircraft quickly and safely.
Now, British Airways ground staff has given us a glimpse into exactly how the slide works, in a new behind-the-scenes video where they deploy a Boeing 777-200’s slide during a series of safety checks at London Gatwick.
Boeing 777-200 planes are fitted with eight slides for maximum safety and efficiency – and these are all checked almost on a daily basis by highly trained engineers to ensure that they work properly.
To operate the slide, engineers open the aircraft door in the ‘automatic’ position, which automatically causes the inflatable to deploy.
It’s an impressive sight, as the huge inflatables can be up to 14 metres (or 46ft long) – and yet it takes just six seconds for it to roll out, inflate and be ready for passengers.
A speed we imagine comes in handy during an emergency.
In the clip, British Airways licensed engineer Peter Dyer explains that to activate the slide, cabin crew need to put the door to ‘automatic’ and pull the door handle to 180 degrees, at which point an assist system will take over.
He expanded: “It will fire the squib, the nitrogen pressure in the bottle will power open the door, the slide pack will fall off and then the slide will inflate in six seconds.”
Oh, and if you’ve ever heard cabin crew being asked to ‘cross check’ a door, there’s a simple explanation.
Doors need to be set ‘to automatic’ or ‘manual’ prior to take off and landing so that they’re ready for an emergency – so cabin crew need to make sure they are in the correct position.
Original Source |
October 21, 2010
In the first article in a series on "Socialism and Black Liberation," Lance Selfa explains the origins of slavery at the dawn of capitalism and the ideology of white supremacy.
IT'S ONE of the oldest truisms around. Racism, it's said, is as old as human society itself. As long as human beings have been around, the argument goes, they have always hated or feared people of a different nation or skin color. In other words, racism is just part of human nature.
If racism is part of human nature, then socialists have a real challenge on their hands. If racism is hard-wired into human biology, then we should despair of workers ever overcoming the divisions between them to fight for a socialist society free of racial inequality.
Fortunately, racism isn't part of human nature. The best evidence for this assertion is the fact that racism has not always existed.
Racism is a particular form of oppression. It stems from discrimination against a group of people based on the idea that some inherited characteristic, such as skin color, makes them inferior to their oppressors. Yet the concepts of "race" and "racism" are modern inventions. They arose and became part of the dominant ideology of society in the context of the African slave trade at the dawn of capitalism in the 1500s and 1600s.
An ad for a slave auction in 1840
Although it is a commonplace for academics and opponents of socialism to claim that Karl Marx ignored racism, Marx in fact described the processes that created modern racism. His explanation of the rise of capitalism placed the African slave trade, the European extermination of indigenous people in the Americas and colonialism at its heart. In Capital, Marx writes:
The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the indigenous population of the continent, the beginnings of the conquest and plunder of India, and the conversion of Africa into a preserve for the commercial hunting of black skins are all things that characterize the dawn of the era of capitalist production.
Marx connected his explanation of the role of the slave trade in the rise of capitalism to the social relations that produced racism against Africans. In Wage Labor and Capital, written 12 years before the American Civil War, he explains:
What is a Negro slave? A man of the black race. The one explanation is as good as the other. A Negro is a Negro. He only becomes a slave in certain relations. A cotton spinning jenny is a machine for spinning cotton. It only becomes capital in certain relations. Torn away from these conditions, it is as little capital as gold by itself is money, or as sugar is the price of sugar.
Series Socialism and Black liberation How is the struggle against racism connected to the struggle for socialism? SocialistWorker.org writers explain what Marxists have to say. Lance Selfa The roots of racism
Paul D’Amato Race and the U.S. socialist tradition
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Race, class and Marxism
In this passage, Marx shows no prejudice to Blacks ("a man of the black race," "a Negro is a Negro"), but he mocks society's equation of "Black" and "slave" ("one explanation is as good as another"). He shows how the economic and social relations of emerging capitalism thrust Blacks into slavery ("he only becomes a slave in certain relations"), which produce the dominant ideology that equates being African with being a slave.
These fragments of Marx's writing give us a good start in understanding the Marxist explanation of the origins of racism. As the Trinidadian historian of slavery Eric Williams put it: "Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence of slavery." And, one should add, the consequence of modern slavery at the dawn of capitalism. While slavery existed as an economic system for thousands of years before the conquest of America, racism as we understand it today did not exist.
The classical empires of Greece and Rome were based on slave labor. But ancient slavery was not viewed in racial terms. Slaves were most often captives in wars or conquered peoples. If we understand white people as originating in what is today Europe, then most slaves in ancient Greece and Rome were white. Roman law made slaves the property of their owners, while maintaining a "formal lack of interest in the slave's ethnic or racial provenance," wrote Robin Blackburn in The Making of New World Slavery.
Over the years, slave manumission produced a mixed population of slave and free in Roman-ruled areas, in which all came to be seen as "Romans." The Greeks drew a sharper line between Greeks and "barbarians," those subject to slavery. Again, this was not viewed in racial or ethnic terms, as the socialist historian of the Haitian Revolution, C.L.R. James, explained:
[H]istorically, it is pretty well proved now that the ancient Greeks and Romans knew nothing about race. They had another standard--civilized and barbarian--and you could have white skin and be a barbarian, and you could be black and civilized.
More importantly, encounters in the ancient world between the Mediterranean world and Black Africans did not produce an upsurge of racism against Africans. In Before Color Prejudice, Howard University classics professor Frank Snowden documented innumerable accounts of interaction between the Greco-Roman and Egyptian civilizations and the Kush, Nubian, and Ethiopian kingdoms of Africa. He found substantial evidence of integration of Black Africans in the occupational hierarchies of the ancient Mediterranean empires and Black-white intermarriage. Black and mixed race gods appeared in Mediterranean art, and at least one Roman emperor, Septimius Severus, was an African.
Between the 10th and 16th centuries, the chief source of slaves in Western Europe was Eastern Europe. In fact, the word "slave" comes from the word "Slav," the people of Eastern Europe.
This outline doesn't mean to suggest a "pre-capitalist" Golden Age of racial tolerance, least of all in the slave societies of antiquity. Empires viewed themselves as centers of the universe and looked on foreigners as inferiors. Ancient Greece and Rome fought wars of conquest against peoples they presumed to be less advanced. Religious scholars interpreted the Hebrew Bible's "curse of Ham" from the story of Noah to condemn Africans to slavery. Cultural and religious associations of the color white with light and angels and the color black with darkness and evil persisted.
But none of these cultural or ideological factors explain the rise of New World slavery or the "modern" notions of racism that developed from it.
The slave trade lasted for a little more than 400 years, from the mid-1400s, when the Portuguese made their first voyages down the African coast, to the abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888.
Slave traders took as many as 12 million Africans by force to work on the plantations in South America, the Caribbean and North America. About 13 percent of slaves (1.5 million) died during the Middle Passage--the trip by boat from Africa to the New World. The African slave trade--involving African slave merchants, European slavers and New World planters in the traffic in human cargo--represented the greatest forced population transfer ever.
The charge that Africans "sold their own people" into slavery has become a standard canard against "politically correct" history that condemns the European role in the African slave trade. The first encounters of the Spanish and Portuguese, and later the English, with African kingdoms revolved around trade in goods. Only after the Europeans established New World plantations requiring huge labor gangs did the slave trade begin.
African kings and chiefs did indeed sell into slavery captives in wars or members of other communities. Sometimes, they concluded alliances with Europeans to support them in wars, with captives from their enemies being handed over to the Europeans as booty. The demands of the plantation economies pushed "demand" for slaves. Supply did not create its own demand.
In any event, it remains unseemly to attempt to absolve the European slavers by reference to their African partners in crime. As historian Basil Davidson rightly argues about African chiefs' complicity in the slave trade: "In this, they were no less 'moral' than the Europeans who had instigated the trade and bought the captives."
Onboard, Africans were restricted in their movements so that they wouldn't combine to mutiny on the ship. In many slave ships, slaves were chained down, stacked like firewood with less than a foot between them. On the plantations, slaves were subjected to a regimen of 18-hour workdays. All members of slave families were set to work. Since the New World tobacco and sugar plantations operated nearly like factories, men, women and children were assigned tasks, from the fields to the processing mills.
Slaves were denied any rights. Throughout the colonies in the Caribbean to North America, laws were passed establishing a variety of common practices: Slaves were forbidden to carry weapons, they could marry only with the owner's permission, and their families could be broken up. They were forbidden to own property. Masters allowed slaves to cultivate vegetables and chickens, so the master wouldn't have to attend to their food needs. But they were forbidden even to sell for profit the products of their own gardens.
Some colonies encouraged religious instruction among slaves, but all of them made clear that a slave's conversion to Christianity didn't change their status as slaves. Other colonies discouraged religious instruction, especially when it became clear to the planters that church meetings were one of the chief ways that slaves planned conspiracies and revolts. It goes without saying that slaves had no political or civil rights, with no right to an education, to serve on juries, to vote or to run for public office.
The planters instituted barbaric regimes of repression to prevent any slave revolts. Slave catchers using tracker dogs would hunt down any slaves who tried to escape the plantation. The penalties for any form of slave resistance were extreme and deadly. One description of the penalties slaves faced in Barbados reports that rebellious slaves would be punished by "nailing them down on the ground with crooked sticks on every Limb, and then applying the Fire by degrees from Feet and Hands, burning them gradually up to the Head, whereby their pains are extravagant." Barbados planters could claim a reimbursement from the government of 25 pounds per slave executed.
The African slave trade helped to shape a wide variety of societies from modern Argentina to Canada. These differed in their use of slaves, the harshness of the regime imposed on slaves, and the degree of mixing of the races that custom and law permitted. But none of these became as virulently racist--insisting on racial separation and a strict color bar--as the English North American colonies that became the United States.
Notwithstanding the horrible conditions that African slaves endured, it is important to underscore that when European powers began carving up the New World between them, African slaves were not part of their calculations.
When we think of slavery today, we think of it primarily from the point of view of its relationship to racism. But planters in the 17th and 18th centuries looked at it primarily as a means to produce profits. Slavery was a method of organizing labor to produce sugar, tobacco and cotton. It was not, first and foremost, a system for producing white supremacy. How did slavery in the U.S. (and the rest of the New World) become the breeding ground for racism?
For much of the first century of colonization in what became the United States, the majority of slaves and other "unfree laborers" were white. The term "unfree" draws the distinction between slavery and servitude and "free wage labor" that is the norm in capitalism. One of the historic gains of capitalism for workers is that workers are "free" to sell their ability to labor to whatever employer will give them the best deal. Of course, this kind of freedom is limited at best. Unless they are independently wealthy, workers aren't free to decide not to work. They're free to work or starve. Once they do work, they can quit one employer and go to work for another.
But the hallmark of systems like slavery and indentured servitude was that slaves or servants were "bound over" to a particular employer for a period of time, or for life in the case of slaves. The decision to work for another master wasn't the slave's or the servant's. It was the master's, who could sell slaves for money or other commodities like livestock, lumber or machinery.
The North American colonies started predominantly as private business enterprises in the early 1600s. Unlike the Spanish, whose conquests of Mexico and Peru in the 1500s produced fabulous gold and silver riches for Spain, settlers in places like the colonies that became Maryland, Rhode Island, and Virginia made money through agriculture. In addition to sheer survival, the settlers' chief aim was to obtain a labor force that could produce the large amounts of indigo, tobacco, sugar and other crops that would be sold back to England. From 1607, when Jamestown was founded in Virginia to about 1685, the primary source of agricultural labor in English North America came from white indentured servants.
The colonists first attempted to press the indigenous population into labor. But the Indians refused to be become servants to the English. Indians resisted being forced to work, and they escaped into the surrounding area, which, after all, they knew far better than the English. One after another, the English colonies turned to a policy of driving out the Indians.
The colonists then turned to white servants. Indentured servants were predominantly young white men--usually English or Irish--who were required to work for a planter master for some fixed term of four to seven years. The servants received room and board on the plantation but no pay. And they could not quit and work for another planter. They had to serve their term, after which they might be able to acquire some land and to start a farm for themselves.
They became servants in several ways. Some were prisoners, convicted of petty crimes in Britain, or convicted of being troublemakers in Britain's first colony, Ireland. Many were kidnapped off the streets of Liverpool or Manchester, and put on ships to the New World. Some voluntarily became servants, hoping to start farms after they fulfilled their obligations to their masters.
For most of the 1600s, the planters tried to get by with a predominantly white, but multiracial workforce. But as the 17th century wore on, colonial leaders became increasingly frustrated with white servant labor. For one thing, they faced the problem of constantly having to recruit labor as servants' terms expired. Second, after servants finished their contracts and decided to set up their farms, they could become competitors to their former masters.
And finally, the planters didn't like the servants' "insolence." The mid-1600s were a time of revolution in England, when ideas of individual freedom were challenging the old hierarchies based on royalty. The colonial planters tended to be royalists, but their servants tended to assert their "rights as Englishmen" to better food, clothing and time off. Most laborers in the colonies supported the servants. As the century progressed, the costs of servant labor increased. Planters started to petition the colonial boards and assemblies to allow the large-scale importation of African slaves.
Black slaves worked on plantations in small numbers throughout the 1600s. But until the end of the 1600s, it cost planters more to buy slaves than to buy white servants. Blacks lived in the colonies in a variety of statuses--some were free, some were slaves, some were servants. The law in Virginia didn't establish the condition of lifetime, perpetual slavery or even recognize African servants as a group different from white servants until 1661. Blacks could serve on juries, own property and exercise other rights. Northampton County, Virginia, recognized interracial marriages and, in one case, assigned a free Black couple to act as foster parents for an abandoned white child. There were even a few examples of Black freemen who owned white servants. Free Blacks in North Carolina had voting rights. In the 1600s, the Chesapeake society of eastern Virginia had a multiracial character, according to historian Betty Wood:
There is persuasive evidence dating from the 1620s through the 1680s that there were those of European descent in the Chesapeake who were prepared to identify and cooperate with people of African descent. These affinities were forged in the world of plantation work. On many plantations, Europeans and West Africans labored side by side in the tobacco fields, performing exactly the same types and amounts of work; they lived and ate together in shared housing; they socialized together; and sometimes they slept together.
The planters' economic calculations played a part in the colonies' decision to move toward full-scale slave labor. By the end of the 17th century, the price of white indentured servants outstripped the price of African slaves. A planter could buy an African slave for life for the same price that he could purchase a white servant for 10 years. As Eric Williams explained:
Here, then, is the origin of Negro slavery. The reason was economic, not racial; it had to do not with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor. [The planter] would have gone to the moon, if necessary, for labor. Africa was nearer than the moon, nearer too than the more populous countries of India and China. But their turn would soon come.
Planters' fear of a multiracial uprising also pushed them towards racial slavery. Because a rigid racial division of labor didn't exist in the 17th century colonies, many conspiracies involving Black slaves and white indentured servants were hatched and foiled. We know about them today because of court proceedings that punished the runaways after their capture. As historians T.H. Breen and Stephen Innes point out, "These cases reveal only extreme actions, desperate attempts to escape, but for every group of runaways who came before the courts, there were doubtless many more poor whites and blacks who cooperated in smaller, less daring ways on the plantation."
The largest of these conspiracies developed into Bacon's Rebellion, an uprising that threw terror into the hearts of the Virginia Tidewater planters in 1676. Several hundred farmers, servants and slaves initiated a protest to press the colonial government to seize Indian land for distribution. The conflict spilled over into demands for tax relief and resentment of the Jamestown establishment. Planter Nathaniel Bacon helped organize an army of whites and Blacks that sacked Jamestown and forced the governor to flee. The rebel army held out for eight months before the Crown managed to defeat and disarm it.
Bacon's Rebellion was a turning point. After it ended, the Tidewater planters moved in two directions: first, they offered concessions to the white freemen, lifting taxes and extending to them the vote; and second, they moved to full-scale racial slavery.
Fifteen years earlier, the Burgesses had recognized the condition of slavery for life and placed Africans in a different category as white servants. But the law had little practical effect. "Until slavery became systematic, there was no need for a systematic slave code. And slavery could not become systematic so long as an African slave for life cost twice as much as an English servant for a five-year term," wrote historian Barbara Jeanne Fields.
Both of those circumstances changed in the immediate aftermath of Bacon's Rebellion. In the entire 17th century, the planters imported about 20,000 African slaves. The majority of them were brought to North American colonies in the 24 years after Bacon's Rebellion.
In 1664, the Maryland legislature passed a law determining who would be considered slaves on the basis of the condition of their father--whether their father was slave or free. It soon became clear, however, that establishing paternity was difficult, but that establishing who was a person's mother was definite. So the planters changed the law to establish slave status on the basis of the mother's condition.
Now white slaveholders who fathered children by slave women would be guaranteed their offspring as slaves. And the law included penalties for "free" women who slept with slaves. But what's most interesting about this law is that it doesn't really speak in racial terms. It attempts to preserve the property rights of slaveholders and establish barriers between slave and free which were to become hardened into racial divisions over the next few years.
Taking the Maryland law as an example, Fields made this important point:
Historians can actually observe colonial Americans in the act of preparing the ground for race without foreknowledge of what would later arise on the foundation they were laying. [T]he purpose of the experiment is clear: to prevent the erosion of slaveowners' property rights that would result if the offspring of free white women impregnated by slave men were entitled to freedom. The language of the preamble to the law makes clear that the point was not yet race.
Race does not explain the law. Rather, the law shows society in the act of inventing race.
After establishing that African slaves would cultivate major cash crops of the North American colonies, the planters then moved to establish the institutions and ideas that would uphold white supremacy. Most unfree labor became Black labor. Laws and ideas intended to underscore the subhuman status of Black people--in a word, the ideology of racism and white supremacy--emerged full-blown over the next generation.
Within a few decades, the ideology of white supremacy was fully developed. Some of the greatest minds of the day--such as Scottish philosopher David Hume and Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence--wrote treatises alleging Black inferiority.
The ideology of white supremacy based on the natural inferiority of Blacks, even allegations that Blacks were subhuman, strengthened throughout the 18th century. This was the way that the leading intellectual figures of the time reconciled the ideals of the 1776 American Revolution with slavery. The American Revolution of 1776 and later the French Revolution of 1789 popularized the ideas of liberty and the rights of all human beings. The Declaration of Independence asserts that "all men are created equal" and possess certain "unalienable rights"--rights that can't be taken away--of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
As the first major bourgeois revolution, the American Revolution sought to establish the rights of the new capitalist class against the old feudal monarchy. It started with the resentment of the American merchant class that wanted to break free from British restrictions on its trade.
But its challenge to British tyranny also gave expression to a whole range of ideas that expanded the concept of "liberty" from being just about trade to include ideas of human rights, democracy, and civil liberties. It legitimized an assault on slavery as an offense to liberty. Some of the leading American revolutionaries, such as Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, endorsed abolition. Slaves and free Blacks also pointed to the ideals of the revolution to call for abolishing slavery.
But because the revolution aimed to establish the rule of capital in America, and because a lot of capitalists and planters made a lot of money from slavery, the revolution compromised with slavery. The Declaration initially contained a condemnation of King George for allowing the slave trade, but Jefferson dropped it following protests from representatives from Georgia and the Carolinas.
How could the founding fathers of the U.S.--most of whom owned slaves themselves--reconcile the ideals of liberty for which they were fighting with the existence of a system that represented the exact negation of liberty?
The ideology of white supremacy fit the bill. We know today that "all men" didn't include women, Indians or most whites. But to rule Black slaves out of the blessings of liberty, the leading head-fixers of the time argued that Blacks weren't really "men," they were a lower order of being. Jefferson's Notes from Virginia, meant to be a scientific catalogue of the flora and fauna of Virginia, uses arguments that anticipate the "scientific racism" of the 1800s and 1900s.
With few exceptions, no major institution--such as the universities, the churches or the newspapers of the time--raised criticisms of white supremacy or of slavery. In fact, they helped pioneer religious and academic justifications for slavery and Black inferiority. As C.L.R. James put it, "[T]he conception of dividing people by race begins with the slave trade. This thing was so shocking, so opposed to all the conceptions of society which religion and philosophers had, that the only justification by which humanity could face it was to divide people into races and decide that the Africans were an inferior race."
White supremacy wasn't only used to justify slavery. It was also used to keep in line the two-thirds of Southern whites who weren't slaveholders. Unlike the French colony of St. Domingue or the British colony of Barbados, where Blacks vastly outnumbered whites, Blacks were a minority in the slave South. A tiny minority of slave-holding whites, who controlled the governments and economies of the Deep South states, ruled over a population that was roughly two-thirds white farmers and workers and one-third Black slaves.
The slaveholders' ideology of racism and white supremacy helped to divide the working population, tying poor whites to the slaveholders. Slavery afforded poor white farmers what Fields called a "social space" whereby they preserved an illusory "independence" based on debt and subsistence farming, while the rich planters continued to dominate Southern politics and society. "A caste system as well as a form of labor," historian James M. McPherson wrote, "slavery elevated all whites to the ruling caste and thereby reduced the potential for class conflict."
The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass understood this dynamic:
The hostility between the whites and blacks of the South is easily explained. It has its root and sap in the relation of slavery, and was incited on both sides by the cunning of the slave masters. Those masters secured their ascendancy over both the poor whites and the Blacks by putting enmity between them. They divided both to conquer each. [Slaveholders denounced emancipation as] tending to put the white working man on an equality with Blacks, and by this means, they succeed in drawing off the minds of the poor whites from the real fact, that by the rich slave-master, they are already regarded as but a single remove from equality with the slave.
Slavery in the colonies helped produce a boom in the 18th century economy that provided the launching pad for the industrial revolution in Europe. From the start, colonial slavery and capitalism were linked. While it is not correct to say that slavery created capitalism, it is correct to say that slavery provided one of the chief sources for the initial accumulations of wealth that helped to propel capitalism forward in Europe and North America.
The clearest example of the connection between plantation slavery and the rise of industrial capitalism was the connection between the cotton South, Britain and, to a lesser extent, the Northern industrial states. Here, we can see the direct link between slavery in the U.S. and the development of the most advanced capitalist production methods in the world. Cotton textiles accounted for 75 percent of British industrial employment in 1840, and, at its height, three-fourths of that cotton came from the slave plantations of the Deep South. And Northern ships and ports transported the cotton.
To meet the boom in the 1840s and 1850s, the planters became even more vicious. On the one hand, they tried to expand slavery into the West and Central America. The fight over the extension of slavery into the territories eventually precipitated the Civil War in 1861. On the other hand, they drove slaves harder--selling more cotton to buy more slaves just to keep up. On the eve of the Civil War, the South was petitioning to lift the ban on the importation of slaves that had existed officially since 1808.
Karl Marx clearly understood the connection between plantation slavery in the cotton South and the development of capitalism in England. He wrote in Capital:
While the cotton industry introduced child-slavery into England, in the United States, it gave the impulse for the transformation of the more or less patriarchal slavery into a system of commercial exploitation. In fact, the veiled slavery of the wage-laborers in Europe needed the unqualified slavery of the New World as its pedestal. Capital comes dripping from head to toe, from every pore, with blood and dirt.
The close connection between slavery and capitalism, and thus, between racism and capitalism, gives the lie to those who insist that slavery would have just died out. In fact, the South was more dependent on slavery right before the Civil War than it was 50 or 100 years earlier. Slavery lasted as long as it did because it was profitable. And it was profitable to the richest and most "well-bred" people in the world.
The Civil War abolished slavery and struck a great blow against racism. But racism itself wasn't abolished. On the contrary, just as racism was created to justify colonial slavery, racism as an ideology was refashioned. It now no longer justified the enslavement of Blacks, but it justified second-class status for Blacks as wage laborers and sharecroppers.
Racist ideology was also refashioned to justify imperialist conquest at the turn of the last century. As a handful of competing world powers vied to carve up the globe into colonial preserves for cheap raw materials and labor, racism served as a convenient justification. The vast majority of the world's people were now portrayed as inferior races, incapable of determining their own future. Slavery disappeared, but racism remained as a means to justify the domination of millions of people by the U.S., various European powers, and later by Japan.
Because racism is woven right into the fabric of capitalism, new forms of racism arose with changes in capitalism. As the U.S. economy expanded and underpinned U.S. imperial expansion, imperialist racism--which asserted that the U.S. had a right to dominate other peoples, such as Mexicans and Filipinos--developed. As the U.S. economy grew and sucked in millions of immigrant laborers, anti-immigrant racism developed.
But these are both different forms of the same ideology--of white supremacy and division of the world into "superior" and "inferior" races--that had their origins in slavery.
Racism and capitalism have been intertwined since the beginning of capitalism. You can't have capitalism without racism. Therefore, the final triumph over racism will only come when we abolish racism's chief source--capitalism--and build a new socialist society. |
Well, I’m not sure that myth is quite dead yet, but it appears that it took a direct hit. Still, a majority of Democrats believe that Russia hacked the election. And by hacked, I mean messed with vote tallies. There is no evidence to suggest that, as DHS officials, including former Secretary Jeh Johnson, noted this week. The Russians did not tamper with the vote totals. Regardless, this is some of the best tin-foil hat drama from the Left in a long time. Still, for the NY Post’s editorial board, Johnson and company’s testimony killed this myth and blamed the Obama administration for peddling it and mishandling the situation to the point where it snowballed into unbridled hysteria. Now, they do admit, like everyone else, that there was a Russian interference campaign waged by fake news and social media trolls, but added that it played no pivotal role—and it didn’t:
Johnson told the House Intelligence Committee outright that the Russians failed to alter “ballots, ballot counts or reporting of election results.” Yes, it’s clear Russia (with Vladimir Putin’s full approval) orchestrated cyberattacks designed to influence the 2016 contest, and also pushed fake news. But the hack, and release via WikiLeaks, etc., of Democratic emails produced nothing game-changing. The biggest impact was to confirm the obvious: The Democratic National Committee favored Hillary Clinton from the start. […] Johnson also made it plain that Democrats didn’t take the problem too seriously: “The FBI and the DNC had been in contact with each other months before about the intrusion, and the DNC did not feel it needed DHS’s assistance at that time.” Johnson also explained why the Obama administration kept quiet on the threat. The White House, he recalled, argued that a public admission of possible Russian interference might be seen as an effort to influence the election — particularly since Donald Trump was warning “the election was going to be rigged.” That is: Because Obama was fervently campaigning for Clinton, the White House figured that raising alarms about Russian interference would seem mere electioneering. […] The administration didn’t take action until after Election Day, when it slapped Moscow with new sanctions — putting the question of Russian interference on Page One only after Trump had won. It’s good that the hysteria has finally died down, but too bad Team Obama’s handling of it all helped produce so much misdirected hysteria in the first place.
Following Hillary Clinton’s defeat, The New York Times reported that Obama officials were rushed to spread their information about Russian meddling with as many people in government as possible. The only question here is why now? If Russian interference was so terrible, why didn’t they take action? Former CIA Director John Brennan did reach out to his Russian counterparts to tell them to quit their activities concerning our election, but were not heeded. After that, there was nothing. Maybe that’s why there are reports that Hillary Clinton is actually more infuriated with Obama than James Comey or the Russians.
The issue is that Democrats are still going mad over Trump being president. It will be exacerbated by Jon Ossoff’s loss in Georgia, making the Democratic Party 0-4 in special elections. Maybe the Russians tampered with those vote totals too, huh? Or maybe it’s just that the Left isn’t coming out of the political wilderness just yet. |
Mobs rampaged across a north Indian state on Friday, leaving 28 people dead and more than 250 others injured, after a court declared a quasi-religious sect leader guilty of raping two of his followers, authorities said.
Mobs set fire to government buildings and attacked police and TV journalists in the town of Panchkula in Haryana state, smashing the windshields of news vans and breaking broadcast equipment.
Police initially used tear gas and water cannons and then fired bullets in the air in an attempt to control the surging mobs as people vandalized bus stations and government vehicles.
"The situation is tense. There has been arson and burning," Rajiv Mehrishi, the federal home secretary, said late Friday.
He said more than 1,000 of the guru's supporters had been detained in Panchkula on charges of arson and destruction of public property.
The special court announced the guilty verdict on Friday after hearing closing arguments in the 15-year-old case against the guru, who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan.
Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard near an Indian court in Panchkula on Friday. Several north Indian cities were under a security lockdown as a court issued a verdict in a rape case involving a man who calls himself Saint Dr. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insaan. (Altaf Qadri/Associated Press)
The guru, who had denied the charges of raping the two women at his ashram in 2002, was flown by helicopter to a jail in the nearby town of Rohtak because district officials feared they would be overrun by his supporters. His sentencing is to be held Aug. 28, prosecutor H.P.S. Verma said.
Tens of thousands of followers had camped overnight awaiting the verdict.
Internet services shut down
Violence also broke out elsewhere in Haryana and the neighbouring state of Punjab, as well as in the capital, New Delhi, police said. Railway stations in the towns of Malout and Balluana were ablaze, and two coaches of an empty train parked in New Delhi's Anand Vihar station were set on fire.
A curfew was imposed in at least four districts of Punjab, said Amrinder Singh, the state's chief minister.
A spokesperson for the guru's sect, Dera Sacha Sauda, urged his supporters to remain calm.
"I just want to request everyone to maintain peace at the moment," said Dilawar Insan. "We will explore what legal options are available to us."
The sect claims to have about 50 million followers and campaigns for vegetarianism and against drug addiction. It has also taken up social causes such as organizing the weddings of poor couples.
Such sects have huge followings in India. It's not unusual for their leaders to have small, heavily armed private militias protecting them.
Angry mobs also attacked police in the town of Sirsa, where the guru's ashram is located, local police said.
When the guru left his ashram early Friday for the hearing, he was accompanied by a convoy of more than 180 vehicles, Singh, the Punjab chief minister, said.
Police erected heavy metal barricades topped with barbed wire along main roads in the town, a quiet residential suburb of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Haryana and Punjab states.
Authorities ordered internet and cellphone services shut down across both Haryana and Punjab as a security precaution.
Train services were cancelled in the area, leading to railway delays across north India. Schools and colleges were also closed.
The case was tried in a special court run by India's top investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Ram Rahim Singh, seen in a May file photo, was convicted of raping two followers, prompting the violent protest. (Tsering Topgyal/Associated Press)
Such cases against religious leaders have prompted violence in the past.
Clashes in 2007 between Dera Sacha Sauda followers and members of the Sikh faith left at least three people dead in north India.
In 2014, six people were killed when followers of another religious leader, guru Rampal, fought pitched battles with police who were attempting to arrest him after he repeatedly failed to appear in court in connection with a murder trial.
In a televised appeal on Thursday, Ram Rahim Singh asked his supporters not to resort to violence, but some said they would not tolerate a verdict that went against their leader.
"I consider guru-ji to be only next to God," farmer Malkit Singh said as he squatted on the ground in a park, saying Ram Rahim Singh had cured him of a 10-year addiction to drugs.
"There is a God above," he said. "Our guru-ji follows the path of truth." |
Prepubertal gonadectomy (PPG) is promoted for population control in cats, but concerns related to health and behavior still exist. From a behavioral point of view, in order for PPG to be an acceptable alternative for traditional-age gonadectomy (TAG), the occurrence of undesirable behavior should be unaffected by age at gonadectomy. The aims of this study were to investigate (1) whether the average number of (potentially) undesirable behaviors in shelter kittens during 24 months after adoption was associated with the age at gonadectomy and (2) whether social or environmental factors were related to the occurrence of commonly reported undesirable behaviors (inappropriate elimination, fearfulness, aggression, and destruction). Eight hundred healthy kittens between the estimated age of 8 and 12 weeks (0.7 and 1.4 kg) were recruited from animal shelters in Flanders, Belgium. Before adoption, kittens were randomly assigned to a PPG group (gonadectomy on assignment) and a TAG group (gonadectomy between 6 and 8 months of age). Online short- and long-term follow-ups were conducted using a 30-day diary immediately after adoption and surveys at 2, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after adoption. Mean number of potentially undesirable behaviors per day during the first month after adoption was not significantly different between PPG (1.48 ± 0.957) and TAG (1.39 ± 0.899) kittens (P = 0.32) and neither was the evolution of the mean number of potentially undesirable behaviors and undesirable behaviors during the long-term follow-up (P = 0.0946 and P = 0.10, respectively). The occurrence of inappropriate elimination, fearful behavior, non–play-related aggression, and destruction was associated with other social and environmental variables (e.g., the use of punishment by the owner and friendliness toward a stranger). In conclusion, this study in shelter cats did not demonstrate an effect of age at the time of gonadectomy on the mean number of (potentially) undesirable behaviors during 24 months after adoption. Other factors seem to play a more dominating role in the development of such behaviors. |
After getting an Amiga 1200 summer 2016, almost a year later I’ve finally got it set up close to how I want it. What I primarily did on the Amiga back in the days was create music on it and the only thing I didn’t sell when making the big mistake of selling my towered A1200 in 2005 was my Amiga MIDI interface. I used to connect a MIDI controller Keyboard to it. As software I use a tracker program which came free on a coverdisk of CU Amiga Magazine back In 1996 called ‘Soundtracker pro 2’ by Marco Nelissen. Little did I know this software was going to shape my creative life.
Still having an Amiga 500 back then, I had an Action reply cartridge and I used to rip music from demos, games and intros via that trusty red square freeze button and my collection began. ‘Soundtracker Pro 2’ was practically my main music player, I used to sit and watch the tracker go up as the numbers danced to the music. I started dabbling with sampling, I would sample sounds and instruments and start replacing samples in mod music, and save them as remixed mods. As with most people at that time, there was no internet nor any other distraction other than TV which was never my thing. It was just me with Soundtracker pro 2 loaded onto my Amiga and lots of floppy disks, ah simple times!
After about a year of messing with mods, samples and remixes. In 1997 I had a go at writing/composing my own music module. 1997 was the year I got an Amiga 1200, which with it’s doubled memory and cpu power and IDE hard drive support, (Of course eventually leading me to get a hard drive even if it was only 200mb), give me some more space to breathe when creating music. This went on until 2004.
The only disadvantage to Soundtracker Pro 2 is the file format, it saves as MOD but this is not a standard protracker MOD and loading it into any other tracker program would come up with a mess or reacquaint us with our old friend ‘Guru Meditation’. I tried dabbling with Protracker, Noisetracker and Octamed v5 but the interface just didnt agree with me, it was not like Soundtracker Pro 2 and despite having the Source Code? For the STP file format, I don’t know how to code in order to create a converter from STP MOD to regular MOD format.
Not so long ago I bought a Yamaha Reface DX, an amazing synthesizer that is a remake of the vintage Yamaha DX7, which was popular amongst musicians and bands in the 1980s. This powerful little synth has MIDI and can of course be connected to the Amiga. My first ever recent music project began when I was messing around playing Turrican 3 on my Commodore 64, the music to the second level grabbed me and got stuck in my mind. So I got hold of the SID file and I could play it back on my Amiga using playSID, a simple SID playing program available on Aminet.
The .MOD and .SID formats are completely different in how they work, as are the SID and Paula Chips. I do believe Paula also has some Wavetable Synthesis and FM Synthesis capabilities. Which is why I sometimes felt that Amiga and Commodore 64 music sometimes reminds me of one another. However as far as I know there is no chance of conversion from one format to the other. So the only option is to recreate a MOD by ear.
Using my Reface DX, I created a custom sound for the Turrican 3 music by messing around with envelopes, operators and effects. With my Technosound Turbo Sampling Cartridge, I began to sample some of these sounds and also some built in presets such as bass sounds, pads, musical instrument sounds and effects and saved them into a folder.
Now is the time to start creating the music. I now started to use the Reface DX as a MIDI controller and after hours of playing snippets of melody into the tracker, programming drum rhythms and sequences along with bass, identifying notes and chords by playing the original SID file at a lower tempo and then playing them into the tracker program, it was all coming together.
I used effects such as a sample start position shift, which starts playing the sample at different points, this is useful for emulating a sort of cut off, filter slide type effect with the correct sample (i’m unsure of the exact term for this effect).
Another I used was portamento which is the shift in pitch from one note to another. I also used a modulation effect at certain points to shape the way the sound flows. All number commands that i’ve known from back in the days when I used to watch the ‘dancing numbers’ while listening to mods from my collection.
My aim isn’t to improve on the SID tune but to show my appreciation for it by recreating it on the Amiga. The music has been stuck in my mind for weeks and It was the perfect time to do a project like this and give it an outlet, use the passion which was within.
Update: The track can be downloaded as an MP3 (320kbps) from Remix64: http://www.remix64.com/track/madija/turrican-3-shooter/
Here is the video from my channel on how i’m creating this music from scratch on Soundtracker Pro 2. |
The New York Yankees have been the talk of the baseball world since landing Giancarlo Stanton in a blockbuster trade with the Miami Marlins.
But Stanton might not be long for New York.
Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe reported Sunday, citing a longtime, major force in baseball, that the Yankees will trade Stanton to the Los Angeles Dodgers following the 2018 season in order to sign Bryce Harper.
New York long has been seen as a suitor for Harper, as the power-hitting outfielder is tailormade for the short porch in right field at Yankee Stadium.
The Washington Nationals outfielder will be a free agent following the 2018 campaign, and he is expected to command a contract upward of $400 million. He undoubtedly will have a number of suitors, with the Yankees, Nationals, Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox potentially being among them, but New York is seen as the club most likely to spend the money on the star outfielder.
As for Stanton and the Dodgers, it was reported that LA was the 2017 National League MVP’s favored destination before he was dealt to the Yankees, so a trade between the Dodgers and Yankees would seem to make sense for both sides.
Of course, after a season of Stanton hitting beside Aaron Judge in the Yankees’ lineup, New York might not want to trade him.
Thumbnail photo via Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports Images |
Getty Images
With the first of their two first-round picks in the 2015 NFL draft, the Saints have bolstered their offensive line.
Andrus Peat, an offensive tackle from Stanford, is going to New Orleans as the 13th overall pick.
The pick is one that will surely make Drew Brees happy, as Peat should make an immediate difference along the Saints’ offensive line. Brees has been sacked 37 and 29 times in the last two seasons, the two highest sack totals of his career. Peat should help bring that number down.
The Saints still have plenty of holes on their roster and are in precarious salary cap shape, but they’ll get another first round pick in a couple hours: Trading Jimmy Graham netted New Orleans the No. 31 overall pick. Perhaps that will also go toward a player who will make Brees happy. |
Classic cars are great to look at. Their sharp chrome bumpers and bold grilles might not be ideal for aerodynamics or pedestrian safety, but they sure do look good.
The problems with owning a classic car start when you climb behind the wheel. Most pre-1960 classics struggle to drive at highway speeds for extended periods of time and braking must be done months in advance to prevent flying through a red light. What are people supposed to do when they want that cool 1950’s style but still need a daily driver? Jonathan Ward of ICON in California thinks he might have the answer: Why not have an unassuming-looking vintage car with modern underpinnings?
There is a shop in California that brings rusty classics into the modern age. It's called ICON customs Clayton Seams , Driving
The ICON workshop is always busy and full of various classics getting the ICON treatment. Clayton Seams , Driving.ca
The bench seats are actually specially filled with high and low density foam to create a bucket seat effect while maintaining the classic look. Clayton Seams , Driving.ca
This Buick uses a supercharged Corvette engine. Note the hand aged plastic cover. Clayton Seams , Driving.ca
The weathered finish of the Derelicts is preserved instead of being painted over. Clayton Seams , Driving.ca
The waiting list to get your very own ICON Derelict is more than two years. Clayton Seams , Driving.ca
“The problem with older cars,” Ward says, “is that you’re a martyr to them.”
Ward realized early on that using a stock 1950’s car as daily transportation was fraught with issues, so he decided to build a 1950’s car of his own. He started with a 1952 Chrysler station wagon that had a lovely rusted and faded patina and added the front clip of a similarly aged DeSoto. Then he got creative.
The ancient Chrysler underpinnings were replaced with an advanced Art Morrison chassis with modern suspension and powerful disc brakes, then a modern 6.1-litre Dodge Hemi was placed under the hood.
This is the point where most hot rodders would paint the wagon a deep metallic red and add modern leather bucket seats to the interior. But Ward did the opposite. He clear-coated the original faded paint on the wagon to preserve it and kept the original layout of the interior. He retained the pizza-sized steering wheel and made all the antique chrome switches and knobs work with a modern climate control system.
It started out as a personal project, but when he was finished, he realized, “This is ICON,” and he turned it into a business.
The car went on to win multiple awards, made it onto an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage, was featured on the cover of Hot Rod magazine and soon enough, requests starting pouring in from people who wanted their very own “brand new” beat-up hot rod.
Ward calls these cars the Derelicts and if you want one, you have to put down a hefty deposit and then wait more than two years before they can even start work on your car. But when you see these cars up close, it’s easy to see why people are willing to wait.
The attention to detail borders insanity. Every visual cue of the cars’ modern underpinnings are carefully hidden. One customer wanted a centre armrest with a modern big-gulp sized cupholder and a charge port for his iPhone. Ward says it took over 140 hours to design, prototype, cad plate and upholster. And that was just for the armrest! Even the bench seats, which look low-tech, feature different kinds of foam to create a bucket sensation as you sit on them with a subtle bolstering effect. It’s easy to walk around one of these cars for hours just soaking in the details.
The fact that these cars don’t require intensive maintenance opens up the market for a whole new buying demographic. Many of the people who buy ICON Derelicts aren’t the type who spend their weekends rebuilding engines on their kitchen table, but are a new kind of enthusiast that want classic style with modern drivability.
But the Derelicts are just one part of ICON’s business. ICON started out as a company making off-road parts for Toyota Land Cruisers and today they make turn-key Land Cruisers and Ford Broncos with modern components. But their off-roaders have paint. Of course, they’ll still make you a Derelict should you wish, but Ward acknowledges that the Derelict cars are “the dumbest business thing we do” because of the insane amount of time it takes to build each one.
There are, of course, people who don’t “get” the Derelicts. The whole point is to preserve that beautiful natural patina the cars have earned, but some people just don’t understand the appeal. But if you want a truly one-of-a-kind classic that gets attention at every car show and can drive you to and from work without issues, you might want to consider getting in line for a Derelict. |
The perfect mashed potato alternative
From school lunchrooms to fancy steak houses, this side dish is a staple.
Well, sorta.
Introducing: cauliflower mash. It’s creamy, steamy, and savory-starch deliciousness.
Ridiculously easy. Ridiculously good.
But I think its transformation is the best part.
Mesmerized by what a simple head of cauliflower can become
“That’s cauliflower?”
Yep.
It looks and feels and tastes identical to the real thing (mash potatoes).
It’s great next to any main course. And, it’s one of those “sneaky” ways to get your pickiest eaters to eat some (non-potato) vegetables.
It’s definitely a Vitamix recipe, but an immersion blender works just fine.
I hope this cauliflower mash becomes a staple in your house as it has become one in ours.
Hugs,
Lenny
P.S. A single image cannot do this gem justice. Watch the quick vid to see why.
Here’s how to make magic by turning a cauliflower into creamy “mash potatoes” (4:05)
Recipe |
ONTARIO – Isn’t it wonderful that the Ontario Reign and San Diego Gulls play each other 12 times this season?
Given the way the boys behaved Saturday night at The Vault, in the second night of a back-to-back set, this relationship between the AHL affiliates of the Kings and Ducks is going exactly as planned. No love lost at all, and by the time these players arrive in the NHL, their distaste for the guys on the other side of the rivalry will be firmly in place.
For the record, San Diego won on the scoreboard 3-1 Saturday night, a second straight victory over the Pacific Division leading Reign. Goals by Tim Jackman, Nic Kerdiles and Antoine Laganiere gave the Gulls a 3-0 lead before Adrian Kempe scored his seventh of the year for the Reign.
But the tone was set 2:51 into the evening, when Ontario left wing Paul Bissonnette and Gulls right wing Brian McGrattan dropped the gloves and went at it.
It was not a random incident.
Reign players, as well as Coach Mike Stothers, were irate with McGrattan’s behavior in Friday night’s game in San Diego, specifically a fight with Reign defenseman Kurtis MacDermid in which the Ontario side felt McGrattan fired a couple of extra punches while the linesmen were breaking things up.
Stothers addressed it after the game, as reported by Lindsay Czarnecki on the Reign Insider blog:
“What is surprising to me is the lack of respect McGrattan had for the ‘code of a fighter.’ The (original) hit itself is one thing but why would he throw not one, but two punches, to the face of MacDermid when the linesman had ‘both’ tied up. MacDermid is defenseless at this point and could have been seriously hurt. I certainly would expect better of a guy that was once considered the heavyweight champ of the NHL. Physical is one thing, and a fair fight I can live with, but I can not stomach watching one of my players being taken advantage of, and possibly injured.”
Bissonnette, a veteran of 202 NHL games who had been out the previous six games with a back issue, personally addressed it on his first shift Saturday night.
“If I kind of take him out of the equation, maybe it settles the other guys down a little bit,” he said. “He’s a pretty scary guy. He’s been around a long time. I was just doing my job.”
McGrattan drew a 10-minute misconduct for “inciting” the scrap, in addition to the five-minute fighting major. Later, Andrew Crescenzi dumped McGrattan over the boards and into the San Diego bench, touching off another fracas that ended with the Gulls’ Mike Sgarbossa drawing a double-minor, Crescenzi a roughing penalty and McGrattan another misconduct.
Oh, and did we forget the chirping between Stothers himself and McGrattan?
“I just asked him how his family was,” the Ontario coach said with a hint of a smirk. “He must have read the tweets, I guess, of my postgame comments. I stand by what I said. If he doesn’t like it, too bad.”
McGrattan – a 34-year-old right wing who has played 317 NHL games with Ottawa, Phoenix, Calgary and Nashville sandwiched around a lot of games in the minors – probably didn’t intend to be the face of this rivalry. But hockey’s funny that way.
And Bissonnette’s willingness to engage helps explain why the Kings signed him to an AHL contract in Manchester last season, and why they brought him back this year. These are lessons that can be valuable to younger players, lessons about sticking up for your mates and taking one for the team when needed.
“You talk about a character guy, you talk about a teammate, you talk about a guy you need in your dressing room and on your bench,” Stothers said. “He’s involved the whole game long, whether he’s pumping up our guys or chirping the other team.
“I think (the combination of Bissonnette and Scott Sabourin, another rugged forward) go out and they’re a little reckless. They bang around. It’s exciting.
“You just stand back and say, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen now.’ That’s the beauty of it.”
Just think, there are nine more games to go between these teams, including one more back-to-back to close the season, April 15-16.
Good seats, I presume, will be available.
Contact the writer: [email protected] |
How do you know with certainty that Davos has not only jumped the shark, but has become a parody of itself? One answer: when you have a handful of semi, and not so semi, billionaires - perplexed by the populist backlash of the past year - sit down and discuss among each other how a "Squeezed and Angry" middle-class should be fixed.
As Davos puts it, "once the lynchpin of developed economies, it’s now threatened by job losses and stagnant wages, paving the way for the rise of populism. In emerging markets, middle class growth rates are stalling. Have middle class problems been forgotten?" It asks rhetorically "What can be done?"
Apparently the answer is to have three people completely disconnected from the real world, sit down and provide "answers.":
In this session, starting at 0800 GMT, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Founder, Chairman and Co-CIO of Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio, discuss what's needed to restore growth in the middle class and confidence in the future.
And then they wonder why the annual Davos echo chamber boondoggle has become not only a global farce, but a symbol of everything that is wrong with globalization today...
Watch it live below |
Rep. Justin Amash said a request from Pentagon chief James Mattis prompted his vote to preserve former President Barack Obama’s pro-transgender policies in the military.
In a July 16 Facebook post explaining his unpopular July 13 vote, Amash wrote:
On July 13, the House voted on an amendment offered by Rep. Hartzler. The amendment says that “[f]unds available to the Department of Defense may not be used to provide medical treatment (other than mental health treatment) related to gender transition to a person entitled to medical care” under the military health system … [Defense] Sec. [James] Mattis and the White House urged us not to adopt Hartzler Amendment [and] all the administration wants is three months to review everything.
So far, administration and Pentagon officials have not confirmed Amash’s claim of their opposition to the Hartzler amendment. However, on June 30, Matt ordered a six-month suspension of Obama’s rules, which were about to invite transsexuals to join the military from July 1. The suspension will give Mattis — and new appointees — until January 2018 to decide if the military will endorse the transgender ideology.
In contrast, Mattis ordered a six-month suspension of Obama’s rules on June 30, which were about to invite transsexuals to join the military from July 1. The suspension will give Mattis — and new appointees — until January 2018 to decide if the military will endorse Obama’s pro-transgender ideology.
Amash was one of 23 Republicans who voted with all lockstep Democrats to preserve the Obama-era transgender policy with a narrow vote of 214 to 209.
The Obama policy endorses the transgender ideology by validating and accepting recruits who believe their “gender” is different from their male or female body, and by also offering transsexuals free lifetime medical care — such as debilitating hormones and expensive surgery, despite the loss of military readiness. The new rules also enforce transgender demands by ordering servicemen and servicewomen to offer “dignity and respect” to transsexuals in their shower rooms and in their shared sleep spaces, while also telling transsexuals that they “are not required or expected to modify or adjust their behavior based on the fact that they do not ‘match’ other Soldiers.”
Hartzler’s amendment rejected the ideology of the transgender movement by prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for the non-military medical task of converting physically healthy soldiers into transsexuals who face lifelong dependence on hormones and surgery.
Freshman Florida GOP Rep. Brian Mast — who voted for Hartzler amendment after first miscasting his vote — said the Pentagon should not divert funds from military readiness to cosmetic medical services. Mast, a veteran, told Breitbart:
I don’t think the military should be paying for any elective surgery, whether it be for transgender surgery or cosmetic surgery. Everything we look for in Defense Department spending has to make the warfighter better off and safer on the battlefield. No question, this [transgender policy] doesn’t. I’ve been on the battlefield … I have [veteran] friends who can’t get oxygen treatment, who can’t get the things they need for their spine, or can’t get the best wheelchairs or body armor… This is going to be where we should be spending our money. That should make sense to everybody.
During the floor debate, Mast added, “I certainly heard on the House floor [legislators saying] that General Mattis requested that this amendment be pulled from the floor and that he is going to work the issue.” However, that story has not been confirmed by the administration, he added.
Amash’s Facebook statement suggested that the public’s pressure may cause him to flip flop on his vote. After first justifying his vote, Amash ended his post by echoing Mast’s comments about the need to prioritize medical spending and to focus on combat effectiveness:
Given the facts, circumstances, and eminently reasonable request from the Trump administration, it was not a difficult decision to vote no on this amendment. After Sec. Mattis announces the DoD’s finalized policy, we can discuss the policy with him, evaluate it, and seek changes if necessary. Those who serve in our Armed Forces deserve the best medical care. One question we must ask and answer, with the aid of the medical community, is which treatments are medically necessary and which are simply elective. With respect to transgender persons, we should focus on the best science, not the political or philosophical opinions of partisans. Finally, service in all aspects of our Armed Forces cannot be guaranteed to everyone. The job of our Armed Forces is to defend our country, and the DoD should be given more leeway than other parts of the executive branch with respect to personnel decisions.
However, if Mattis decides to continue Obama’s pro-transgender policies in December, then Democrats, liberal Republicans, and the established media will likely deter the GOP leadership from pushing for corrective reforms.
According to critics, Obama’s pro-transgender policies may cost the military up to $3.7 billion over the next ten years if the number of transsexual people in the military matches the high claims by transgender activists.
So far, the military’s most famous transsexual soldier is Private Bradley Manning, who copied and released 90,000 military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. He was released from jail in early 2017 after Obama reduced his jail sentence. Manning has since changed his name to Chelsea Manning.
The transgender ideology says that a person’s legal sex should be determined by their self-declared “gender identity,” not by their male or female body. The ideology also says the federal government should force Americans to accept the “gender identity” claims made by each person, regardless of scientific data about genetics, biology and the variety of normal behavior and appearances shown by normal equal-and-complementary women and men.
Polls show that strong majority of ordinary Americans oppose the progressive claim that unverifiable “gender” is more important than a person’s sex. Polls also show that Americans want sexual privacy in bathrooms and shower rooms and especially in K-12 schools. Also, the polls show that most Americans want to be polite and helpful to the very few transsexual people who wish to live as members of the other sex. According to one study of the 2010 census, the population of transgender people amounts to one in every 2,400 Americans, or 0.03 percent of the adult population.
The fight over the Pentagon’s policy is important because a Pentagon approval of the pro-transgender ideology would help transgender activists pressure judges and swing-voting legislators to impose the transgender rules on Americans’ civic groups, such as schools, universities, and workplaces.
The progressive push to bend Americans’ attitudes and their two-sexes, male and female, civic society around the idea of “gender” has already attacked and cracked popular social rules for how Americans handle the many social preferences of equal, different and complementary men and women, boys and girls. For example, the gender claims shifted rules or practices about different-sex bathrooms, shelters for battered women, sports leagues for girls, hiking groups for boys, K-12 curricula, university speech codes, religious freedoms, free speech, the social status of women, parents’ rights in childrearing, practices to help teenagers, women’s expectations of beauty, culture and civic society, scientific research, prison safety, civic ceremonies, school rules, men’s sense of masculinity, law enforcement, and children’s sexual privacy. |
UPDATE 11/10 9:45 AM EST: The filmmakers behind Basmati Blues has released an official comment regarding criticism of the trailer for their production.
Monique Caulfield and Danny Baron said in a statement:
“We deeply regret any offense caused by the Basmati Blues trailer. We have heard a number of voices that have understandably reacted to a trailer that is not representative of the film as a whole. Unfortunately, the international trailer has given the wrong impression of the film’s message and heart. This movie is not about an American going abroad to solve India’s problems. At its heart, this film is about two people who reach across cultures, fight against corporate greed, and find love. Basmati Blues is an ensemble musical romantic comedy. The film explores our responsibility for our actions and for each other, and attempts to do it in a disarming way, using music, comedy and romance. Basmati Blues is a love letter to multiple eras of Bollywood cinema, musicals, and classic Hollywood romantic comedies. We are confident that the film, when seen in its entirety, will bear out the our appreciation and respect for India and its people.”
—————
One of Brie Larson's upcoming movies is causing major controversy following the drop of its trailer last week. Basmati Blues follows Linda, a scientist played by Brie, who travels to India in an attempt to sell genetically modified rice to the local farmers. However, once she realizes that her company is actually evil, she tries to work against them to save the people, and people have several big problems with it.
In the trailer, Brie's character hits pretty much every stereotype about Indian culture. There's a scene of her sampling some local fare, and then immediately screaming and dramatically fanning her face because of the spice; some locals trick her into doing something embarrassing under the guise of teaching her their customs; and, to top it off, Brie's character wears a traditional sari and partakes in a huge, colorful dancing scene reminiscent of so many Bollywood films. Linda also falls in love with a local farmer, played by Utkarsh Ambudkar, and at one point exotifies it all by proclaiming, "India is this exciting journey." Basically, the entire plot seems to revolve around one white woman rescuing an entire village of supposedly helpless people, reinforcing the white savior narrative seen countless times in Hollywood.
The film, which BuzzFeed reports Brie signed on to in 2013 and has struggled to get picked up worldwide, seems to be an odd choice for the actress, who has previously said that she makes movies "as a form of activism" and is known for playing strong female characters. Brie has spoken up about social issues in the past; she supported activists at Standing Rock who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline and often posts on social media about gun control, LGBTQ rights, and mental health issues, for instance.
Brie has not yet responded to the criticism of Basmati Blues, though many have taken to social media to express their feelings about the movie. One Twitter user wrote, "It’s 2017 & they’re really still releasing these things." Another blamed the cringe-worthiness of the film on the fact that it was conceived in 2013 (although, this portrayal would be offensive in any year). The user wrote, "Basmati Blues was shot before Short Term 12 was even released. Why are people freaking out so much? I get it, it's incredibly offensive, but we all make mistakes. I'm sure that Brie Larson wouldn't sign onto a project like that today." Still, others found the whole thing to be inappropriate and disappointing, saying, "I just watched the trailer for Basmati Blues and I'm not even angry just massively secondhand embarrassed for everyone involved," "Cringeworthy to say the least," and "* Deep, disappointed sigh *."
Watch the trailer and read more reactions, below.
Related: Brie Larson on Her Friendships With Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone |
cis-Encoded antisense RNAs (asRNAs) are widespread along bacterial transcriptomes. However, the role of most of these RNAs remains unknown, and there is an ongoing discussion as to what extent these transcripts are the result of transcriptional noise. We show, by comparative transcriptomics of 20 bacterial species and one chloroplast, that the number of asRNAs is exponentially dependent on the genomic AT content and that expression of asRNA at low levels exerts little impact in terms of energy consumption. A transcription model simulating mRNA and asRNA production indicates that the asRNA regulatory effect is only observed above certain expression thresholds, substantially higher than physiological transcript levels. These predictions were verified experimentally by overexpressing nine different asRNAs in Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Our results suggest that most of the antisense transcripts found in bacteria are the consequence of transcriptional noise, arising at spurious promoters throughout the genome.
Keywords
There is an ongoing discussion in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes as to what extent this plethora of sRNAs provides a crucial layer of transcriptional and translational regulation, or if a large part of them are the result of transcriptional noise, arising from spurious promoters ( 17 , 18 ). Bacterial promoters are characterized by low information content, and their major landmark is the Pribnow motif that has the consensus sequence “5′-TANAAT-3′” ( 19 ). Other features include (i) the −35 box, although this has been shown not to be essential (especially in Firmicutes) and can be replaced by other elements ( 20 ), and (ii) low melting energies, which ultimately depend on the AT composition of the promoter region. Such low information content implies that promoters could easily arise by random mutations in bacterial genomes, especially given the presumptive bias toward G/C nucleotides mutating to A/T ( 21 ). If sRNAs are the product of transcriptional noise due to spurious 5′-TANAAT-3′ boxes, we predict that the number of sRNAs in bacteria will strongly correlate to the AT content of their genomes in an exponential manner (fig. S2A). Because of the stochastic nature of transcription and the short half-life of RNAs in bacteria, low levels of random production of asRNA from these spurious Pribnow boxes would not affect the levels of the sense mRNA (fig. S1B).
The catalog of bacteria-encoded RNAs has recently undergone a vast expansion. The canonical mRNAs and known noncoding RNAs [ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), transfer RNA (tRNAs), transfer mRNA (tmRNA), and others] are now accompanied by a handful of new transcript categories. Small, non–protein-coding RNAs or sRNAs are one of these new categories. The numbers of initially reported sRNAs ranged from dozens to hundreds in different species ( 1 , 2 ). These include cis-encoded sRNAs, which overlap functionally defined genes, either in sense or antisense (thus named asRNAs), and trans-encoded sRNAs, which are separated from their target genes. These sRNAs span a wide range of lengths: from dozens of to a few thousand base pairs ( 2 ). However, recent improvements in techniques for analysis of transcription have revealed that noncoding transcription in prokaryotes is pervasive through the genome ( 3 – 5 ). Still, only few sRNAs have been functionally characterized ( 6 – 8 ), most of which correspond to the category of trans-encoded sRNAs. Examples of these are the ones associated with bacterial virulence ( 9 – 11 ). The most common mechanism of action of sRNAs is via complementary base pairing with coding sequences (fig. S1A). RNA duplex formation between sRNA and mRNA can change mRNA stability, inducing degradation or stabilization of the duplex. This duplex may as well induce or repress mRNA translation by affecting the ribosome binding site ( 2 , 12 ). Another asRNA regulatory mechanism is transcriptional interference, occurring if two RNA polymerases transcribing in convergent directions collide ( 13 ). Other types of RNA having a regulatory role by “nonstandard” mechanisms should not be disregarded. For instance, if there was a Dicer-like mechanism in bacteria as it occurs in eukaryotes ( 14 ), low abundant RNAs could exert a strong influence on complementary, more abundant, mRNAs. In this respect, we have the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)/Cas system in bacteria, where crRNAs (CRISPR RNAs), even if not abundant, target the enzyme against foreign DNA ( 15 ) and/or RNA sequences ( 16 ).
RESULTS
To investigate these hypotheses, we annotated sRNAs de novo in the genomes of Buchnera aphidicola, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, and Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies capri (tables S1 to S3 and fig. S3) in a similar way as we did with Mycoplasma pneumoniae (22). We also considered the sRNAs annotated using deep sequencing data in 17 other bacterial genomes and a chloroplast genome (table S4). These 21 genomes span an AT content ranging from 28 to 80%, and their genome sizes range from 416 kb (B. aphidicola Cc) to 9.02 Mb (Streptomyces avermitilis). Investigating the number of canonical Pribnow boxes in these genomes, we found an exponential dependency of the number of boxes on the AT content, qualitatively similar to our theoretical expectations (fig. S2A). Moreover, comparison of the number of these boxes upstream of open reading frames (ORFs) and sRNAs showed that the proportion of sRNAs with Pribnow boxes is similar to or higher than the proportion of ORFs having them (fig. S2B). This supports the hypothesis that an increase in AT content also results in an increase in spurious Pribnow boxes.
We found that the number of sRNAs normalized by genome size versus the AT content in the studied bacterial species has a clear exponential dependency (Fig. 1A), similar to that of the number of TANAAT motifs randomly expected given a certain AT% (fig. S2A). The exponential trend observed for the sRNAs is conserved, omitting the species whose sRNAs were de novo annotated (R2 = 0.814), indicating that it is not an artifact of the method used to identify them (see fig. S3 and Materials and Methods). In contrast to the observed sRNA trend, the number of coding genes normalized by genome size shows no dependency on AT content, and this trend is invariant with respect to genome size (Fig. 1B). We tested whether the AT dependency held true for both asRNAs and trans-encoded sRNAs. asRNAs follow an exponential dependency on the AT content (fig. S4A), whereas trans-encoded sRNAs behave similarly to coding genes and are uncorrelated to the AT content of the intergenic regions (even when considering a minimal size larger than that of an average asRNA; fig. S4B). These results support the transcriptional noise hypothesis, and that random mutations in coding genes could result in spurious antisense 5′-TANAAT-3′ boxes, in a manner related to the genome AT content, which could drive the expression of asRNAs.
Fig. 1 Different genomic features show distinct dependency on the genomic AT content. The number of features was divided by the genome size for normalization and represented versus the genomic AT content. The following genomes are represented: Atu, Agrobacterium tumefaciens; Bcc, Buchnera aphidicola (str Cc); Bsu, Bacillus subtilis; Cgl, Corynebacterium glutamicum; Chl, chloroplast (Arabidopsis thaliana); Cje, Campylobacter jejuni; Eco, Escherichia coli; Hpy, Helicobacter pylori; Mge, Mycoplasma genitalium; Mhy, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae; Mmy, Mycoplasma mycoides; Mpn, Mycoplasma pneumoniae; Mtu, Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Pau, Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Sav, Streptomyces avermitilis; Sco, Streptomyces coelicolor; Sme, Sinorhizobium meliloti; Sth, Salmonella typhimurium; Sve, Streptomyces venezuelae; Syn, Synechocystis spp., Vch, Vibrio cholerae. (A) Number of total sRNAs in different bacteria. Total sRNAs have an exponential dependency on the AT content (R2 = 0.88) and do not correlate with genome size. (B) Genome compaction (that is, number of ORFs normalized by genome size) versus AT content. Genome compaction in the different bacterial genomes analyzed shows no dependency on the AT content. Instead, the number of ORFs in bacterial genomes correlates with the genome size (R = 0.99).
Regarding expression levels, it has been shown that essential ORFs show higher mRNA levels, suggesting that elements with essential roles are more transcribed (23). Therefore, we compared transcript levels of ORFs and asRNAs in eight of the bacteria in our study. In all cases, average asRNA levels were lower than average mRNA levels (fig. S5A). This could indicate that at least a majority of the asRNAs could be nonessential. Indeed, a recent study on the essentiality of the M. pneumoniae genome revealed that only 5% of all sRNAs are essential (23). We also compared the expression of each asRNA to its overlapping mRNA. asRNA-mRNA expression ratios are presented in fig. S5B. These ratios are below 1 in most of the cases (fig. S5B). For three of the species in our study (M. pneumoniae, M. mycoides, and Bacillus subtilis), we compared asRNA levels at exponential and stationary growth phases (fig. S5C). Most of the asRNAs remain unchanged, excluding the effect of the growth phase at where the bacteria were analyzed. Additionally, asRNA and trans-encoded sRNA levels were compared in five species (B. aphidicola, Mycoplasma genitalium, M. pneumoniae, M. mycoides, and M. hyopneumoniae), and we found that asRNA expression is significantly lower than trans-encoded sRNA levels in all cases (Welch’s two-sample t test, P < 0.05).
We estimated the energy consumed by the cells in transcribing these asRNAs in M. pneumoniae, considering the number of noncoding RNAs, their length, and their transcription rate, compared to those of mRNAs, tRNAs, and rRNAs (see Materials and Methods). M. pneumoniae spends ~5000 adenosine triphosphate (ATP) units per cell per second in transcribing mRNAs, tRNAs, and rRNAs (24). This amount is proportional to the transcription rate of these molecules, their length, and their copy number in the cell. Taking into account these parameters for sRNAs, we estimate that M. pneumoniae spends 2.94% of the energy of RNA transcription in synthesizing sRNAs, equivalent to ~147 ATP units per cell per second. This number represents 0.24% of the total ATP generated per cell per second (24). Thus, according to our calculations, the energetic impact of spurious transcription is not high even in bacteria with a large number of asRNAs.
asRNAs have been proposed to play a role in transcription regulation complementing the role of transcription factors (25). Should this be the case, we would expect a negative dependency with the number of transcription factors in the different bacteria analyzed here. The number of transcription factors, as reported in the P2TF database (26), shows a linear trend with genome size as previously described (27) (fig. S6A). However, this trend does not exist for asRNAs (fig. S6B). To determine if there is a negative dependency between transcription factors and asRNAs, we considered groups of genomes with approximately similar AT content and different numbers of transcription factors. We found no negative relationship between the number of transcription factors and the number of asRNAs per genome having similar AT content (>60%) (fig. S6C). For bacteria with high AT content, there is a positive correlation, contrary to what we would expect (R = 0.94). This can be explained by the fact that for this group, larger genomes present both more transcription factors and more asRNAs. Indeed, for bacteria with similar AT content, the number of asRNAs correlates with the number of genes, indicative of genome size (fig. S6D).
As we indicated in fig. S1B, asRNAs expressed at low levels could barely encounter its sense mRNA, given the stochastic nature of transcription. Therefore, no effect on mRNA half-life or translation would be expected. To see if this is the case, we constructed a mathematical model of transcription and translation of a gene in the bacterium M. pneumoniae. We modeled three possible effects of the asRNA: (i) the binding of the asRNA to the mRNA induces degradation of the duplex, (ii) the binding of the asRNA to the mRNA induces degradation of the mRNA, and (iii) the binding of the asRNA to the mRNA is stable but prevents translation (fig. S1A). In all cases, binding of the mRNA to the ribosome prevents degradation of the mRNA. Parameters for this model were determined from experimental data (see Materials and Methods). Other possible effects, such as transcriptional interference, were not considered as the low transcription rates in M. pneumoniae deem the collision of transcribing polymerases to be very unlikely. We scanned the parameter space of the mRNA and the asRNA transcription rates, from typical wild-type levels to ~100-fold overexpression (Fig. 2 and fig. S7). We found that for the three cases modeled, the region with low concentrations of both asRNA and mRNA shows no changes with respect to the control simulations. This can be explained by the fact that in this region, RNA copy numbers are below 1 per cell, and thus the chance of an mRNA and an asRNA to occur simultaneously at the same cell is negligible (fig. S1B). Remarkably, most of the RNAs in different bacteria are present at concentrations that yield no asRNA effect (28), although some exceptions have been described, showing that some asRNAs can have a regulatory role (29–31) (Fig. 2A). This mathematical model can be a valuable resource to identify putative functional asRNAs in a given organism according to their expression levels. By determining the concentrations of all asRNAs in M. pneumoniae, we can determine a list of potential functional asRNA candidates. In this bacterium, asRNAs are insufficiently expressed to trigger an effect in their overlapping mRNAs, according to our simulations. It has to be noted, though, that the values of decay rates used in these simulations represent the average values determined for M. pneumoniae. Individual transcripts with decay rates that differ significantly from the average should be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. With the adequate parameters, the model could be extended to other bacteria, given that the action mechanism of asRNAs is known beforehand.
Fig. 2 Simulation of the effect of the asRNAs, assuming that the asRNA-mRNA pairing causes duplex degradation. Parameters for the simulations are detailed in the Supplementary Materials. Each point of the heat maps represents the average change in the protein concentration for 100 simulations of 1000 min each, for specific parameters of asRNA and mRNA transcription rates. The remaining parameters remain constant for all the simulations. The axes represent the mRNA and asRNA concentration in the control experiments for the corresponding transcription rates scanned. (A) Changes in the mRNA concentration after 1000 min of simulation. Blue circles represent experimental data from the overexpression of asRNAs in M. pneumoniae, whereas green circles represent data from studies in Gram-negative bacteria (29–31). The green ellipse delimits the region of the concentrations of most transcripts in E. coli (28). (B) Changes in the protein concentration after 1000 min of simulation. Blue circles represent experimental data from the overexpression of asRNAs in M. pneumoniae.
To verify these results, we overexpressed nine asRNAs in the bacterium M. pneumoniae (up to sixfold; Fig. 2 and table S5). These asRNAs were selected such that they overlap different regions of their corresponding mRNA partners (5′ end, 3′ end, or center), to test different possible action mechanisms. Additionally, asRNAs with different expression levels were chosen. Shotgun proteomics of the clones revealed no significant changes in the protein levels of the overlapping genes (Fig. 3A and table S6). Also, RNA-seq (RNA sequencing) revealed no significant changes in the mRNA levels (Fig. 3B and table S7). Thus, our simulations and our experimental data do not support the hypothesis that asRNAs have a general regulatory role in bacteria replacing the function of transcription factors. Only in those exceptions in which both asRNA and mRNA are expressed over a certain threshold can a regulatory behavior be expected.
Fig. 3 Effect of the overexpression of asRNAs in their overlapping genes, measured by RNA-seq and shotgun proteomics. (A) Protein levels of the genes overlapping each asRNA under control conditions and in the strains transformed with the antisense constructs. Error bars represent the SD of the samples. Two of the proteins, MPN056 and MPN305, were not detected in any of the strains of M. pneumoniae. (B) mRNA levels of the genes overlapping each asRNA under control (wild-type) conditions and in the strains overexpressing the antisense transcripts. Error bars represent the SD of the samples.
Our findings support the idea that most of the asRNAs are a consequence of transcriptional noise, rather than of tightly regulated events. The distribution of asRNAs in bacteria with distinct AT content and the lack of capability of replacing transcription factors support this idea. Probably, the bias toward AT mutations in bacteria (21) generates spurious promoter sequences that are able to trigger transcription. However, spurious expression of asRNAs is not incompatible, with some being functional, as described elsewhere (1, 2, 6–8, 12). Indeed, asRNAs claimed to be functional are expressed at much higher rates than the average (28–31). Despite the observed general trend, we should not ignore that, in some bacteria, there are proteins [such as RNA chaperone Hfq (32)] that help to stabilize asRNAs or the duplexes they form with mRNAs. In such cases, even low expressed asRNAs may exert a regulatory function. Nevertheless, this protein is not conserved throughout the bacteria in our study, and although it is conserved in some species, it is not essential. Therefore, we cannot expect such a mechanism to be general but rather an adaptation for specific cases. This suggests that asRNAs may accumulate in bacterial genomes because of transcriptional noise and a lack of negative selection, probably due to the low energy needed for their transcription and the absence of deleterious effects. Some of these asRNAs may afterward gain a function. Additionally, pervasive noncoding transcription may as well have unspecific functional roles, such as buffering the RNA polymerase levels inside the bacterial cell. Our results are likely to be valid throughout the bacterial kingdom, and according to a recent study (33), they may also apply to eukaryotes. |
Several years ago, Jessica Wintrip, a 43-year-old teacher from Taunton, was breastfeeding her one-year-old when she noticed her friend's three-month-old baby was not putting on weight. "So I just blurted out, 'Do you want me to feed him?' It was one of those things you say and you think, I've overstepped the mark." But her friend was grateful rather than shocked and agreed that she should try. "I fed him three times a day for three months - and she kept feeding him as well. It felt a real privilege to be able to do it. I knew how much my friend wanted to breastfeed, and if I hadn't stepped in, he would have had formula."
While in the developing world suckling someone else's baby is commonplace, here we see it as weird - but why? Formula milk has only been available since the early 1900s. Before then wet-nursing would have happened as a matter of course if the mother was ill or absent. In three generations it has become socially unacceptable. None the less, I know women in the UK who have fed each other's babies, although they acknowledge that they would not necessarily admit to it openly. I have also heard of several circles of parents where it is accepted that if you babysit for someone else's newborn, it is OK to breastfeed them (with the parents' consent). This informal wet-nursing is called "shared feeding" or "cross-nursing". And while this has always gone on on quietly in Britain, hiring someone else to breastfeed your child is becoming increasingly popular in Hollywood.
Cross-nursing also happens in extreme circumstances. Sarah (not her real name) was contacted by a local breastfeeding support group when a woman with a three-month-old baby was injured in a car crash. She was unconscious and unable to feed. The baby's father knew that the mother would ideally want to avoid feeding the baby formula so he contacted the organisation to ask for donations of breastmilk. "The first woman who turned up at the hospital to express milk said, 'This is a bit ridiculous. I might as well just feed the baby.' The father agreed."
In the end a group of five women wet-nursed the baby for a week until the mother recovered. This example is telling in that it shows that wet-nursing can be a pragmatic solution: it would have been very difficult for the family to feed this baby any other way (the father was also injured and hospitalised and in any case the baby had never taken a bottle or had any formula). It felt very intimate to feed another woman's child, says Sarah: "It was weird at first. But it was just a baby who needed milk and needed cuddling."
Wet-nursing is now making a comeback in China, after being banned for political reasons for decades. Rich Shanghai families are recruiting rural women as live-in nannies to feed their babies. Given that most well-heeled Chinese women do not work, these nannies-with-extras are more of a status symbol than a necessary accessory to a busy life. Banned under Mao as "decadent" in the post-war period, wet-nursing is a long-standing Chinese tradition: Pu Yi, the Last Emperor, was suckled into his teens. Now, China's nouveau riche are bringing it back, recruiting pregnant women, who leave their own child-ren at home with their grandparents (these babies then have to be wet-nursed themselves by another local woman). Their sacrifice is rewarded with a salary of up to five times the national average.
Perhaps even more intriguing than the actual trend itself is the way it has been reported in the west - with fascination disguised as disgust. One (male) reporter on a British broadsheet claimed with some excitement that these Chinese wet nurses are selected for their "superlative breasts". This, as any breastfeeding mother knows, is total nonsense - breasts of virtually any condition or size can produce milk. Babies do not give extra marks for beauty. The only breasts that have trouble producing milk (although it is not impossible) are fake ones. And, surprise, surprise, earlier this year a Los Angeles-based agency supplying wet nurses popped up. Certified Household Staffing claims it has on its books several Hollywood celebrities with breast implants who have requested lactating nannies. On its website, "wet nurse" is right next to valet, chauffeur and chef. Company director Robert Feinstock assured me over the phone that, yes, there was a demand, but declined to give any more details.
If feeding another woman's baby seems like the last taboo, it is one that exerts a fascination. (You can imagine what happens if you type the words "wet nurse" into Google: X-rated mammary heaven). In the film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle the moment we "know" that nanny Peyton (Rebecca de Mornay) is genuinely psychopathic is when she pulls her employer's crying baby out of the cot and puts it to her breast.
Perhaps the intimacy of shared feeding enhances the taboo. Rhonda Shaw, a sociologist at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, is author of a study entitled The Virtues of Cross-Nursing - and the Yuk Factor and is researching contemporary cross-nursing practices. We perceive feeding another woman's child to be somehow indecent, she says: "Adult meanings of eroticism get confused with breastfeeding as a sensual activity." She recently interviewed two single working mothers who have agreed to share childcare and cross-nurse each other's babies to fit around their work schedules. "It's always been practised. It just isn't reported," she says.
Extraordinarily, there have even been cases where there is an underlying suggestion that wet-nursing is borderline child abuse, says Shaw: "One state in the USA requires people to get a license before they provide someone else, other than their child, with breast milk. There was a case in Oklahoma in 2003 where a woman breastfed someone else's infant without consent, and faced a $500 [£257] fine and up to a year in jail on a 'morals' charge."
Gabrielle Palmer, lecturer in human nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and author of The Politics of Breastfeeding, finds current attitudes perplexing. Once wet-nursing was so commonplace that Jane Austen mentions it in Emma: "For years it was a really good job for a woman. In 17th- and 18th-century Britain a woman would earn more money as a wet nurse than her husband could as a labourer. And if you were a royal wet nurse you would be honoured for life."
She has personal experience of the practice (her children were born in the 1970s): "I wouldn't mind another mother feeding my baby - if it was my sister or my best friend that would be fine. In the 1970s, you would get breastfeeding circles within the babysitting circle - you'd ask for somebody lactating. There is an idea that 'this is a special relationship' - it is that special bond - but I'd rather a baby had another woman's milk than formula."
Given the current climate, Palmer advises against anyone telling the authorities they are cross-nursing: "I know adoptive women who have breastfed their [adopted] children and the health authorities have been appalled. Far too many health professionals are hung up about breastfeeding."
The practice is officially frowned on in the UK because HIV can be transferred through breast milk, although, as Shaw puts it, "If a woman knew she was HIV positive I think she would be unlikely to cross nurse someone else's infant." (This is a major problem in countries where wet-nursing is culturally acceptable but talking about and testing for HIV is not; in many parts of Africa, for example.)
There is no medical reason why women should not lactate indefinitely or feed more than one child simultaneously (known as "tandem feeding" when a mother feeds two siblings of different ages: Palmer estimates that some women would thoeretically be able to feed up to five babies). And there are many historical examples of wet-nursing, says Shaw: Naomi, from the Old Testament, relactated to feed her grandchild so Ruth, the infant's mother, could go to war after her husband was killed. Both Moses and Mohammed were wet-nursed after they were rescued from the bulrushes. Dr Naomi Baumslag, author of Milk, Money and Madness, wrote a celebration of the legendary wet nurse Judith Waterford: "In 1831, on her 81st birthday, she could still produce breast milk. In her prime she unfailingly produced two quarts [four pints] of breast milk a day."
All our objections to wet-nursing, says Shaw, are cultural: "The exchange of body fluids between different women and children, and the exposure of intimate bodily parts make some people uncomfortable. The hidden subtext of these debates has to do with perceptions of moral decency. Cultures with breast fetishes tend to conflate the sexual and erotic breast with the functional and lactating breast."
I wonder if our attitudes towards the "freakishness" of wet-nursing betray what we really think about breastfeeding itself. We still don't completely accept it as what it is - natural, normal, instinctive. And no superlative breasts required. |
During a busy Sunday evening in my ER two weeks ago, while I stitched closed a laceration to the temple of a two-year-old infant who had run into a door, disaster struck. As is customary in these situations, my attendant nurse, a kind woman who is wonderful with children, had wrapped up the child in layers of sheets to prevent any unexpected movements of arms or legs while we performed the delicate procedure. Halfway through my sewing, our young patient stealthily managed to extricate a right arm from her wrapping, and promptly, before anyone noticed, the injured child delivered a full force punch to the face of my poor nurse.
The nurse assisting me rapidly developed a substantial bruise near her eye (believe me -- injured babies throw a mean punch!), but she never flinched, proceeding to calmly re-wrap the offending arm, and allowing me to finish suturing. Afterwards, to my chagrin, the parents of the injured baby ignored the nurse and the injuries she had sustained in order to help their child, while proceeding to thank me profusely for my care.
This episode got me thinking -- our nurses so frequently go above and beyond the call of duty, while receiving so little recognition for their amazing work and dedication. It is a situation I feel we all should do our best to improve, so without further ado, the top reasons why nurses are my true heroes of the Emergency Room:
1) Nurses regularly save us doctors when the going gets tough
Almost every doctor out there has stories, from their years in practice, about how an experienced nurse saved the day for them at some point. For me, the first time this occurred was during my residency, prior to receiving my license to practice.
I remember, during a night on call, seeing an older male patient who presented with suddenly elevated blood pressure and difficulty breathing -- the type of critically ill patient I would have seen only with a senior physician by my side during daytime hours. Being alone with this dying man, no other MD in sight, I froze, suddenly unable to recognize the clear diagnosis -- acute congestive heart failure -- that was in front of me.
As I watched my patient slipping away from me, rapidly running out of strength to breathe further, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was one of the experienced nurses on the floor, a knowledgeable pro who had seen it all. She said to me gently, "I see you're here for the heart failure patient -- want me to draw up drugs x, y, and z?" Her quick, attentive action saved the day. With the correct diagnosis identified, and proper treatment started, the patient quickly improved. I learned a lesson that day, one that I have never forgotten: that nurses know their stuff, and that their enormous experience is an incredible asset to have by my side when faced with the most challenging patients.
2) Nurses take abuse and maintain their professionalism
Emergency rooms, due to the high-pressure, life and death nature of the work we perform, are very stressful places to be. Patients and their family members, as well as hospital staff, are frequently on edge. When tempers flare in the ER, nurses, as the workers in the ER who spend the most time with patients, frequently serve as proverbial, and all too often literal, punching bags.
In the course of my career I have repeatedly seen nurses assaulted by intoxicated, demented, and mentally ill patients, as well as verbally abused by patients and families upset with wait times and outcomes. A 2005 study found that 34 per cent of hospital nurses reported a direct physical assault from a patient within the past year. Despite this, I have observed nurses almost always maintaining their cool and remaining professional, even in the face of events that would result in police being called to almost any other workplace.
3) Nurses do all the dirty work that doctors don't
There is nothing pretty or glamorous about much of the work performed in a typical emergency room. Throughout a shift, countless tasks need to be completed that would curdle the stomach of any but the most hardened individuals. From diaper changes on elderly patients, to administering enemas, to cleaning bed bugs and maggots off of our homeless and less fortunate guests, the nurses I work with do it all, and it is a testament to their dedication that they rarely protest about it. In fact, I am constantly amazed at how gentle and kind they are with the patients whose illnesses require such unpalatable care.
4) Nurses work gruelling hours
The average ER nursing shift is 12 hours long, and usually starts at either 7:30 a.m., or 7:30 p.m. Most nurses work a staggered schedule of several day shifts, then several night shifts, followed by several days off. As a result, their bodies are perpetually in a state of shifting time zones and sleep schedules, with constant exhaustion as a consequence. Long-term, these types of shift work schedules can raise a nurse's risk of cardiovascular disease by 40 per cent and diabetes by 50 per cent -- a huge price to pay in personal health for one's profession.
Additionally, nursing schedules have little regard for social lives, family obligations or holidays. Without exception, the ER nurses I know regularly work Christmas days, New Year's Eves, Passovers, and the like. Wonderfully, instead of complaining about this, nurses in my department throw potluck meals during holidays and adorn the ER with impressive festive decorations, transforming a place nobody wants to be during these special days into a celebratory place for patients and staff.
5) Nurses get to know their patients better than any ER doctor can
During an average ER shift, I see a bare minimum of 30 patients, and on my busiest days, over 50 patients. This leaves me little opportunity to get to know my patients, answer their questions, or allay their concerns in any meaningful way. The nurses in my department typically get to spend time with patients both before and after I see them, explaining the tests I order, the diagnoses I come up with, and the treatments needed. The soothing, compassionate presence of my nurses, and the extra time they provide to patients, allows the people we care for to be properly informed about their illnesses, and to feel individually tended to, in a way that ER physicians only wish they could achieve.
6) Nurses are educated professionals with unique skill sets
Nursing requires an extensive knowledge base, and in today's hospitals all nurses are required to have either a college or university degree in their field. Additionally nurses are proficient in a wide array of clinical skills that are absolutely essential to the patients in any ER. When it comes to starting an intravenous line, drawing bloods, administering an electrocardiogram, and a wide variety of other tasks, the nurses I've worked with have unique skills that put mine to shame. In fact, I pity any patient that has their intravenous started by me instead of by a nurse!
So next time you or a family member are sick and end up in the ER, remember who the unsung heroes of the department are, and thank them for all that they go through and all that they do -- I promise they'll appreciate it deeply.
ALSO ON HUFFPOST: |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.