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TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place.
“Fog of War” is the result of The 100’s continuous attention paid to character-driven stories and a superb cast which, when given some serious heavy thematic lifting to do, continually rises to the occasion. Somewhere over the course of its first season, The 100 moved from being a solid but unremarkable dystopian teen drama, to a complex, intricate musing on morality, politics, colonialism, and bureaucracy. Almost halfway through its second season, the show is using its detailed world building and cast of characters to explore the physical and psychological costs of war. What’s remarkable about “Fog of War” is that, in terms of actual physical movement and action, not a whole lot happens. The majority of the episode sees characters confined to tight spaces; there’s not much running and gunning, no real movement in terms of military action. But wars aren’t all action. There’s a lot of strategizing, second-guessing, and eerie silences that serve to accentuate the harsh, quick brutality of the violence.
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Clarke, along with Abigail, Finn, Bellamy, Octavia, and Raven, have decided to head to Mount Weather to destroy a tower jamming their radio frequencies, which is keeping them from contacting any other potential Ark survivors. They get within sight of the tower, but then another acid fog rolls in–fog which we learn later in the episode is actually a weapon used by Mount Weather. Bellamy and Octavia, having split from the group to find a way into Mount Weather against Abigail’s orders, take shelter in an underground parking garage, a remnant of the old world. Meanwhile, Clarke and Finn are confined to the bunker where they had sex last season; or, more recently, where Finn shot his first of many Grounders in a single episode. Raven and Abigail set up the tent they were carrying with them just in time. The characters spend the majority of the episode trapped in these places, but since the characterization on The 100 is so strong, it hardly matters that they’re not moving.
Raven realizes that a single radio frequency is clear, and that it belongs to Mount Weather. After cracking the encryption, her and Abigail can listen in on the enemy, and therefore decide that blowing up the tower isn’t in their best interest. Not only does this create a new narrative possibility, giving the people of the Ark the upper hand, it gives Raven a chance to shine. The 100 might have the best set of female characters on television; they’re strong and smart, but never without flaws or complexities. It’s wonderful to see Raven as a tech geek, a role so typically given to a skinny white guy and played for laughs. Here, Raven is far from a joke; she’s integral to giving her people a strategic advantage in their war against Mount Weather.
The scenes in the underground garage are some of the most tense and beautifully shot moments of the season. The lighting and cinematography, all shadows and dust, has the effect of not only suggesting an eerie emptiness, but also making us feel claustrophobic. Those ideas run contrary to one another, and that creates tension. I’ve complained throughout this season that Octavia hasn’t been given much to do and that her storyline with Lincoln is based on a flimsy, undercooked romance, but the devastation on her face when she discovers that Lincoln is now a Reaper was worth the wait. It’s an emotional moment, and not only gives us insight into her psyche, but also gives her motivation going forward in this war.
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Finn and Clarke don’t get a ton of screen time, but they make use of what little they have. After last week’s massacre, both of them are clearly reeling. “I don’t even know who you are anymore,” says Clarke. Finn replies, “neither do I.” It’s long been understood that these kids are making decisions well beyond their years, but their scenes in this episode are some of the deepest psychological exploration the show has delved into so far. Finn and Clarke aren’t just dealing with the massacre; their body language, their eyes, their exhaustion all suggest that their dealing with everything, from being sent to earth to die, to losing members of the original 100, to having to decide when to torture a hostage. They’re contemplating their new life, and wondering when the constant state of anxiety will end.
It’s not just the female characters on this show that are complex, but the storylines too. The first few episodes of this season, while solid, lacked a certain narrative focus. With “Fog of War,” everything is starting to fall into place. Every decision made has a consequence, and not just an immediate one. While Jaha and Kane are imprisoned by the Grounders, they are told to fight one another for peace. When one of them dies, therefore atoning for the massacre on their people, peace talks might begin. A knife is thrown between them, and a Grounder named Lexa is told to bear witness. It’s the first Kane and Jaha have heard of the massacre, and Lexa fills them in on the details. Finn’s actions aren’t merely a plot point for his psychological unraveling; his actions have far-reaching consequences, influencing the attempt at democracy undertaken by Kane and Jaha. Ultimately, a bargain is made. Lexa turns out to be the Commander of the Grounders (another female character in a prominent role of power!! I love you, The 100), and after witnessing Kane’s attempt to sacrifice himself for his people, she agrees to let them go. The catch: Jaha is to be made an example of. He’s sent back to Camp–his first appearance there–with a message: the people of the Ark have two days to leave or they will die.
At Mount Weather, confinement is just a given, but the extent of that confinement is revealed further. Not only do we learn of their attempts to jam radio frequencies and use the acid fog as a weapon, but Jasper and Monty learn about their harvesting. Maya comes to them for help, because she’s scared of what will happen to them. It’s clear that after Maya’s successful recovery from the radiation exposure (which was a planned leak; President Wallace suspects it was the work of his son), certain members of Mount Weather will do anything to harvest them. Thus, Jasper, Monty, and Maya, along with some of the shows ever-reliable tertiary characters, begin to plan an escape. Again, there’s not real movement here, but the power of the narrative is in the deliberation. A constant theme in this show is how afraid we should all be of existing power structures. Just watch the news lately and you’ll see plenty of evidence that some of those who are put in power to protect us don’t always live up to that standard. Mount Weather is no different, a political and militarized body of power that seems to mistake oppression for safety.
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In so many ways, “Fog of War” is a remarkable episode of television. It manages to clearly establish a number of storylines while never once feeling complacent. More than that though, it puts it characters first, using their backstories and personalities to muse on larger themes of moral responsibility, what it means to establish ”civility,” and the uncertainty that comes with war.
Stray observations:
First things first: this gifset popped into my Twitter timeline via A.V. Club colleague Carrie Raisler the other day, and it made me feel so many things that I just had to share.
The only thing stopping me from giving this episode an ‘A’ is the way the writers seemed to gloss over Finn’s massacre at the end of the episode. Raven basically forgives him, saying ”we all have battle scars.” Umm, he killed a bunch of unarmed men, women, and children. Not exactly a battle scar. Hoping that’s not the end of the talk about Finn’s reprehensible actions.
So the plan is to bring Lincoln back and…heal him, presumably? If the Reapers can be saved, that’ll add another moral conundrum into the mix.
I’m excited for Lexa and everything she might bring to this story.
The creepy toy version of “Carol of the Bells” was pitch-perfect for the tone of the scene in the underground garage when the Reapers attack.
Raven knows who runs the show around here: “Tough call. I know what Clarke would do.” If anyone wants to make and mail me a “What Would Clark Griffin Do?” bracelet, I’m totally okay with that.
President Wallace, showing a bit of poetic empathy: “If I give the order to harvest these kids, I don’t deserve to see it [outside Mount Weather] again.”
“Beat it, Murphy.” Seriously, Raven rules. |
Steven Avery may be getting another lawyer.
The subject of Netflix’s “Making a Murderer” is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Teresa Halbach, but Sandra Greenman, Avery’s girlfriend, said on Facebook that a new attorney could be lining up to help.
“Went to see Steve today-he says thank you for all the letters etc from supporters,” Greenman posted Monday evening. “He really enjoys them. And some good new to share-we may have a lawyer-best post conviction lawyer in the country! Pray it all works out!!”
Also Read: 'Making a Murderer': One Wisconsin Ex-Cop's Take on the Case Against Steven Avery
Greenman did not respond to a request for further comment.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Innocence Project, which declined to take the Halbach murder case initially, tells TheWrap they are now in touch with Avery’s trial lawyers and could potentially take on the case in the future.
“We’re happy to reconsider any case if new evidence comes to light,” WI Innocence Project co-founder and co-director Keith Findley said. “As far as we’re concerned, nothing’s ever done… Whether the documentary raises new evidence is something we haven’t analyzed. I’ve been talking to his trial lawyers just to make sure that if there is viable new evidence, that someone is adequately considering it.”
Also Read: 'Making a Murderer' Prosecutor Ken Kratz Says Documentary 'Very Well Done'
Findley says there is no time frame for a decision.
Avery’s nephew Brendan Dassey, who was 16 at the time of the murder, was convicted as his accomplice and is also serving a life sentence. He is actively being represented by an Innocence Project affiliate, the Center for Wrongful Convictions based in Chicago, and his case is in litigation. |
John Waters, the American director and writer of transgressive indie films (Hairspray, Pink Flamingoes), has been called a lot of different names, but on the phone he is a poised, delightful man in his seventies. Like talking to Vladimir Nabokov, if he adored grindhouse.
In 1994, Waters released Serial Mom, a black comedy about the serial-killing matriarch of a suburban family. Featuring Kathleen Turner as a spree murderer, the film garnered positive feedback from critics and box office death; it went on to became a cult favorite, like most of Waters’ films. Next month, Shout! Factory will re-release the picture in a Blu-ray Collector edition, featuring various extras. (And last month, there was a Criterion release of Multiple Maniacs—it’s a good time to be a Waters fan.) Paste had the chance to interview the maestro of Baltimore cinema.
John Waters is exceedingly polite. John Waters is a workaholic, so his time is tightly scheduled, but when he is with you, he is fully present. John Waters seems to be without artifice. John Waters wishes you to know that his obsessions and interests are sincere, and he is not winking when he makes these movies. His satires are volleys at the fortress of square life. God loves irony, but John Waters does not.
“I love the man, I love the man dearly … He’s the boldest of the bold of the filmmakers; I wish I had the guts of this man,” Werner Herzog said of him. In conversation, John Waters will tell you exactly what he is thinking on any given subject, but he is so charming about it. Like most artists who have aroused controversy and affection, John Waters seems to be both interested in your reaction to his work, and probably could not give two hoots in hell if you hated his guts.
What more can I do but give you the man himself?
Paste: Serial Mom has become a classic. Why do people like this movie so much?
Waters: Because everybody’s mother, in a way, is a Serial Mom! Everybody has pet peeves—you had friends that they didn’t like. Now, your mother didn’t go set them on fire, but you kind of, maybe, wish your mother did go back to school and murder a teacher that was unfair to you. This is a comedy, so we know it’s not realistic, but I think everybody, in some way, wishes that they have a Serial Mom. In another way, this movie was done before O.J., and there’s kind of a lot of similarities to the true crime genre and reality stuff they have on television. Every crime they do over and over again on every channel, even if it’s usually a classy channel like the History Channel or Discovery Channel. So I think in a way we satirized something pretty early.
Paste: Now if everybody has a mother like this Serial Mom …
Waters: Everybody has a mother not quite like this, but everybody has a mother who has pet peeves. Like your mother, what does she hate?
Paste: She doesn’t like rudeness, I suppose.
Waters: Okay, so she wants people to have some manners. My mother wanted that, too. And we need to learn good manners. Now that’s something I still believe in. […] I’m very right-wing on the white after Labor Day. I think people should go to jail for that—I think we need to bring back fashion jail.
Paste: I read recently that you are on that Feud show. How’d you get on there?
Waters: I had to keep that secret for a long time.
Paste: Can you tell our readers who William Castle is and why you played him?
Waters: It was interesting they asked me to play him because I don’t really look like him. But I talk about him a lot. He had gimmicks in all his movies. He had skeletons that went out on wires and buzzers that went off under your feet. I kind of gave a tribute to him with Odorama in my film Polyester, where you scratch-n-sniff smells during the movie. I wrote the introduction to William Castle’s biography when it was later promoted … I’ve been a big William Castle fan forever, so it was fun to play him. Especially when I get to do a scene with Jessica Lange as Joan Crawford.
Paste: That sounds really fun.
Waters: Well, all movie-making is slow. “Hurry up and wait,” and slow, and slow. But I had a great time with Jessica because I hadn’t met her and I was still scared of her from her movie Frances.
Paste: Everyone is excited about that show. I haven’t seen it yet myself.
Waters: What’s the matter with you?
Paste: I’m really busy. I’m interviewing Hollywood guys on the phone. That’s what I’m doing.
Waters: Oh, I’m not a Hollywood guy, I’m a Baltimore guy.
Paste: Did you ever see The Wire?
Waters: Of course I saw it! I know David Simon; I married him and his wife—I’m a minister. All the people who made The Wire have worked for me.
(Waters is a minister of the Universal Life Church of Modesto, Calif. He was ordained in 1991 at the behest of J. Depp, who wished Waters to marry him to Winona Ryder. Although the Ryder-Depp nuptials were never fulfilled, the Rev. Waters has joined thirteen couples in matrimony, with no divorces on his record.)
Paste: What do you think about it, as a long-time Baltimorean?
Waters: It’s one of the best shows ever.
Paste: I don’t know Baltimore that well, but I liked it very much.
Waters: Well, some parts of Baltimore are exactly like that. We make real movies about real parts of Baltimore. But there’s also lots of places in Baltimore, and nobody makes movies about these parts.
Paste: Isn’t that strange that happens? You have these movies which people say, “Oh how odd, how strange.” But this stuff is going on around all of us all of the time … people think that directors make all this stuff up, but the world is weird. It’s just that it doesn’t usually appear in movies or TV shows.
Waters: When I went to Madrid, I realized that everybody looks like a Pedro Almodóvar movie. I mean, everybody! Look at Fellini movies. Go to Rome. People look like that! So in a way, it’s not a big exaggeration. You’re reflecting what you grew up in and the local color of the city that you grew up in—if you’re lucky enough to have any left.
Paste: Yeah, if it can be found. I think these things just get generated and people either choose to ignore them or go out to find it. For some people, it’s like they’re afraid of it or turned off by it. I don’t really understand that myself.
Waters: Just like I am afraid of romantic comedies.
Paste: Why are you afraid of romantic comedies?
Waters: They are horrible and predictable.
Paste: Yeah. Nobody really runs into each other like they do in the movies; like there’s a meet-cute or something. I’ve never seen that happen.
Waters: I guarantee you it will end badly.
Paste: How do you mean?
Waters: Romance is now done in a “romantic” way because people over a certain age think that’s how love should be. Love is only like that in Hollywood movies. That’s very melodramatic.
Paste: I like Moonstruck for that reason. Nic Cage has that great speech about how love is a destructive. It kind of pops out of nowhere and it’s a problem. It’s never easy.
Waters: Being in love is a hard job.
Paste: Your stuff holds up so well. I see a lot of people try to make things that are shocking—it seems that a lot of people are really bad at it.
Waters: Right now, Hollywood makes hundred-million-dollar gross-out comedies that are not one bit funny, so I think that’s an issue. If you’re just trying to try shock people, that’s easy. It’s not funny. You have to use that kind of material to change how people think about things, and look at different things in a new way—and then it can be good. But just grossing them out is easy to do, and it’s not so entertaining anymore.
Paste: What’s shocking, then?
Waters: (with great emphasis) The President! The President is shocking! What’s shocking? So many things. You pick up the newspaper every day, and it’s shocking. But that’s not a good shock.
Paste: People keep describing you as “camp,” but I don’t think “camp” is a real thing. I think it’s a word that people make up to describe things they can’t categorize.
Waters: I haven’t used that word since talking about Rita Hayworth in an antique shop with a Tiffany lampshade with several older gay gentlemen. It’s not a word anybody uses anymore.
Paste: Thank you!
Waters: It’s not a word anybody uses. … Then the word became “trash.” People use so many words for the same thing. “Camp” is the word they used, but I don’t know anyone who says that word out loud.
Paste: I’ll give you an example. I watched Batman, the old ’60s Batman show. When I saw this as a kid, I didn’t think it was supposed to be a satire. I just took it for real. … It never occurred to me take it tongue-in-cheek.
Waters: That’s true. That’s the thing we did in my films. Like the Russ Meyer [exploitation] movies. The audiences wanted to see those movies. They thought that they were sexy. They thought that they were scary. They didn’t think they were funny; they didn’t think they were “so bad they were good.” People were jerking off to those movies, not laughing. That’s the difference. My work was satirizing the genre. The genre got popular not for any irony reasons, but because they went further than other movies to offer audience something that people wanted to see, that Hollywood wasn’t giving them.
Paste: I want to talk to you for a second about The Wizard of Oz … There’s something about that movie. You mentioned the Wicked Witch in one of your interviews. What is it about that character? There’s something really ancient and powerful in that film … It feels like it’s older than the film it’s made on. Like we just discovered it. ...
Waters: Well, the Wicked Witch was great! I wanted to run off with her, and not go back to that smelly farm. She had that green skin. That’s why I hated that musical Wicked because they made my childhood heroine an ingénue. They made her pretty—don’t make her pretty and make her sing power ballads! … She was dropping houses on people! My name is Waters, so I would hate it if water melted me. Basically, I love the idea that she can only die if water got on her. And she wore a beautiful outfit.
Paste: The other thing that’s weird about it is that Dorothy doesn’t know she’s killing her; she was just throwing it on the scarecrow, not on the witch.
Waters: Because of the fire.
Paste: Yeah, that’s right. Which is still pretty damn scary.
Waters: Well, they were already heroin addicts from walking through that poppy field, too. They’re jonesing.
Paste: Yeah that Wizard’s up to something, too. He is spooky or suspicious even before you know he’s a fraud.
Waters: Well, he was just smoke and mirrors. I got an honorary degree this year from the university and I felt a little bit like the scarecrow, when they gave him the brain and the certificate and everything. It’s kind of the same.
Paste: Let’s return to Serial Mom. … What else is new on the DVD release?
Waters: Every extra that was on every different release before are gathered together. And [there’s] a long conversation that Mink [Stole], Kathleen and I had about the making of the movie—we shot [it] really about a month ago. So that’s the new part, and the fact it’s a beautiful Blu-ray version that’s never been out before.
Paste: What’s it like getting back together with Mink?
Waters: Oh, Mink and I are great friends. Mink’s been in all my movies. As for Kathleen, I’ve seen her in many plays since—I’ve stayed in touch with both of them—but we haven’t been together to talk about the movie ever, essentially. When you get back together with people you made movies with, you don’t sit around and talk about that so much. You talk about whatever your lives are like at the time. Serial Mom, when it came out, was not a success at the box office at least. But nowadays it’s appreciated way more, and I love the fact that it almost alway plays on the television on Mother’s Day.
Paste: When Shawshank Redemption came out … It got beat that year by Forrest Gump or something, but now it’s considered one of the all-time greats.
Waters: Let me tell you, when I went to jury duty in Baltimore, they would show Shawshank to the jury! I thought it was a pretty odd choice for a jury movie.
Paste: They showed you Shawshank before ….
Waters: Yeah!
(The writer from Paste magazine guffaws with excessive vigor, interrupting the interview for several seconds.)
Paste: If you came into … I hesitate to use the word “industry” because I don’t know if it’s an industry anymore. But if you came into the biz today as a young person, do you think you’d end up in the same place? Would you be doing the same stuff as before?
Waters: Well, today, the difference would be: when I started, there was no video, there was no internet. So basically today my film, if I’d done it in college, it would probably open in eight theaters for a regular run on a Friday night, and if it didn’t do well it would be out the same weekend. When Pink Flamingos came out, it opened in each city over a two-year period. It would spread: it would go one night, then two nights, then three nights. It took almost three years to open everywhere around the country, and we had the luxury of time to do that. That would be completely impossible today to do. What would happen is you could open right away in a real movie theater and it would either die or not. That’s the way all art movies happen today.
Paste: In some ways, it’s easier because the tools are accessible to everybody.
Waters: Well, they’re looking for it. The studios are looking for the next weirdo movie that somebody’s going to make somewhere. They’re falling over themselves looking for that. They were most definitely not looking for that when I did it.
Jason Rhode is a Paste staff writer from West Texas. You can follow him on Twitter. |
Anyone whose experienced LaGuardia Airport knows it's in desperate need of the major overhaul announced last July by Governor Cuomo and Vice President Biden; everyone also knows that the overhaul, like many public infrastructure projects in New York City, will take way longer and cost way more than the officials laid out. Case in point: the Wall Street Journal reports that the the overhaul will now cost about $4.2 billion, or $200,000,000 more than initially anticipated. And work hasn't even begun yet.
The new estimate arises after a few design changes related to the plan to raze Terminal B and build out a new Central Terminal. WSJ notes that a 2014 estimate totaling $3.6 billion from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the airport, didn't include the plan for a new Central Terminal. An exact plan for replacing the terminal is expected to surface in the coming months.
Here's how the costs for the project are expected to break down, according to a resolution released by the Port Authority on Friday: $3.93 billion will go to the rebuild of Terminal B/the Central Terminal and infrastructure that will connect it to the rest of the airport, $147 million will go to payroll and the Port Authority's overhead, $96 million will go to third-party consultants, and $36 million will be spent on constructing a temporary parking deck.
Also in discussion is lifting the ban on flights over 1,500 miles from LaGuardia, but a senior official at the Port Authority said the agency probably wouldn't consider lifting it until the fall. As of right now, the Central Terminal is expected to open by the end of 2021, but we'll see about that.
· La Guardia Airport Revamp Pegged At $4.2 Billion [WSJ]
· Behold, the First Glimpse of a Revamped LaGuardia Airport [Curbed]
· Will LaGuardia Airport's Makeover Actually Be Good For NYC? [Curbed]
· All LaGuardia Airport coverage [Curbed] |
If there anything we’ve learned in the last few weeks, it’s that little things on the internet can make big statements about your life when it’s combined into a single pile. There’s a lot of those little things hidden in what many hope to be a “private space” — your email. And a small program from a group of MIT Media Lab students can mine your mail, take all those tiny things and create an artistic, disturbing and accurate picture of your life and relationships.
Hooking up to your Gmail account via a secure connection, Immersion scans accounts for metadata related specifically to the To, From, CC and Timestamp fields in emails. All of this metadata is readily available using the proper API, but not directly accessible from the mail account itself. From there, all of the data is sorted, categorized and placed into a beautiful graphic that shows all of your “collaborators” on emails, including how often all of them talk to each other.
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The display itself, a series of circles with fine lines that show how different people converse with each other, is filled with colors to subtly delineate the varied social groups a user interacts with on a long-term basis. The project mines an account’s overall history, tabulating the number of emails while also showing real-time data of how many messages were sent in a given week. Users are invited to click around to different data points within the graphic, twisting and turning to uncover finite relationships.
Check out the video that shows how the program was developed below:
Sure, you may be thrilled and horrified at all of your email connections on display, but Immersion also gives users the option to delete all of their metadata, or to save it in a compressed file. However, the beauty of the data may just compel you to print it and hang it up on the wall as decor.
If nothing else, Immersion does a great job at showing users how much personal data is hiding in plain sight. With a simple click of a button and some clever code, your relationships with others can be on display and aggregated for all time — not necessarily the most comforting thought in the world of modern computing. But awareness is important, and Immersion will make you aware of how all the little things really add up. |
Most of you will be aware of the oligarch bidding wars for high end art at recent auctions held by Christie’s and Sotheby’s. In fact, the feeding frenzy was so extreme, the top 10 lots accounted for almost $800 million alone. Some of these paintings are breathtakingly beautiful, such as Vincent Van Gogh’s, “L’Allée des Alyscamps.” Others, not so much. Such as this one by Mark Rothko, which sold for $46.5 million.
Unsurprisingly, the paintings which seem to be least inspiring were by artists who were covertly pushed by the CIA in the 1950’s as part of its cold war strategy. Mark Rothko, for example, was born in the Russian Empire in 1903 (modern day Latvia) and ended up in America in 1913. Being a Russian artist in America made him the perfect CIA tool, and apparently his art served that purpose unbeknownst to him. The CIA program was originally set up in 1947, under the not so covert division called the Propaganda Assets Inventory. You really can’t make this up.
In one of the most interesting articles I’ve ever read, we learn from the UK Independent in a 1995 article:
For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art – including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko – as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince – except that it acted secretly – the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.
The connection is improbable. This was a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art – President Truman summed up the popular view when he said: “If that’s art, then I’m a Hottentot.” As for the artists themselves, many were ex- communists barely acceptable in the America of the McCarthyite era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive US government backing.
Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete.
The existence of this policy, rumored and disputed for many years, has now been confirmed for the first time by former CIA officials. Unknown to the artists, the new American art was secretly promoted under a policy known as the “long leash” – arrangements similar in some ways to the indirect CIA backing of the journal Encounter, edited by Stephen Spender.
The decision to include culture and art in the US Cold War arsenal was taken as soon as the CIA was founded in 1947. Dismayed at the appeal communism still had for many intellectuals and artists in the West, the new agency set up a division, the Propaganda Assets Inventory, which at its peak could influence more than 800 newspapers, magazines and public information organisations. They joked that it was like a Wurlitzer jukebox: when the CIA pushed a button it could hear whatever tune it wanted playing across the world.
This was the “long leash”. The centerpiece of the CIA campaign became the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a vast jamboree of intellectuals, writers, historians, poets, and artists which was set up with CIA funds in 1950 and run by a CIA agent. It was the beach-head from which culture could be defended against the attacks of Moscow and its “fellow travelers” in the West. At its height, it had offices in 35 countries and published more than two dozen magazines, including Encounter.
The Congress for Cultural Freedom also gave the CIA the ideal front to promote its covert interest in Abstract Expressionism. It would be the official sponsor of touring exhibitions; its magazines would provide useful platforms for critics favourable to the new American painting; and no one, the artists included, would be any the wiser.
Because Abstract Expressionism was expensive to move around and exhibit, millionaires and museums were called into play. Pre-eminent among these was Nelson Rockefeller, whose mother had co-founded the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As president of what he called “Mummy’s museum”, Rockefeller was one of the biggest backers of Abstract Expressionism (which he called “free enterprise painting”). His museum was contracted to the Congress for Cultural Freedom to organise and curate most of its important art shows.
The museum was also linked to the CIA by several other bridges. William Paley, the president of CBS broadcasting and a founding father of the CIA, sat on the members’ board of the museum’s International Program. John Hay Whitney, who had served in the agency’s wartime predecessor, the OSS, was its chairman. And Tom Braden, first chief of the CIA’s International Organizations Division, was executive secretary of the museum in 1949. |
North Korea is constructing a military site on a small island close to Yeonpyeong-do, the South Korean news site TV Chosun reported Thursday.
According to South Korean military authorities, the DPRK’s Korean People’s Army is constructing facilities on the small Yellow Sea island of Gal-do. North Korea may be constructing positions for coastal artillery and/or long-range artillery.
Gal-do is located about 2.4 kilometers from the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea.
The island is about 4.5 kilometers from the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong-do, which was bombarded by North Korean artillery on November 23, 2010.
The most recently available imagery of Gal-do on Google Earth – from January 2015 – showed no obvious signs of construction work or military presence. Any such activity on the island must have occurred after January.
The island of Gal-do is small and only about 2 kilometers closer to Yeonpyeong-do than Jangjae-do, which is already home to a North Korean military facility.
Though North Korean artillery – both on other islands and on the mainland – is already within range of South Korean islands, the addition of artillery positions on Gal-do would allow for quicker and easier observation and accurate fire than from existing sites.
The new site would not substantially increase the actual artillery threat to South Korean islands, but the close presence may have a psychological impact on the South Korean military and present more DPRK sites in the area that require monitoring.
South Korea’s islands in the Yellow Sea, along the NLL are isolated from the rest of South Korean territory and highly vulnerable to sudden attacks from North Korea.
Featured image: KCNA |
China has assured its closest ally Pakistan of support in the country's bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) if India is allowed to join the exclusive body, a media report said here today.
The assurance was given during the visit of a high-level delegation led by President Mamnoon Hussain to Beijing recently, the Express Tribune.
"The issue was discussed at length and Pakistan highlighted its point of view saying that it has equal right to join the group for fulfilling its requirement for peaceful use of nuclear technology," the report quoted diplomatic sources as saying.
"China, being member of the group and holding the veto power, assured Pakistan that it will take all measures so that it also becomes the member of the NSG," they said.
Pakistan has been saying that if it is deprived of NSG membership while India is accommodated, it would be taken as discrimination and lead to an imbalance in the region.
"If India is allowed to join NSG and Pakistan is deprived of the membership of the group, Beijing will veto the move to block Indian entry," sources said.
According to sources, Pakistan was aware of the fact that a quiet diplomatic move is on to induct India into the club of nuclear trading nations.
The 48-nation NSG is a multinational body that aims to reduce nuclear proliferation by controlling the export and re-transfer of materials that may be applicable to nuclear weapon development and by improving safeguards and protection on existing materials. |
“This is the man America needs," the wife of the Republican presidential challenger told thousands of delegates packed into a hangar in Florida for her party convention speech. "This man will not fail.”
The 62-year-old mother of five sons drew on her humble British heritage to appeal to lower and middle-class Americans struggling to recover from a severe recession and to relate to the wealthiest presidential candidate in modern times.
“I am the granddaughter of a Welsh coal miner who was determined that his kids get out of the mines,” said Mrs Romney. Having started work at six cleaning bottles at a pub in the village of Nantyffyllon, her father emigrated to the US at 15. “In our country, he saw hope and an opportunity to escape from poverty,” she said.
Mrs Romney defied expectations by claiming that just as her husband had been forced to strive for the £160 million fortune his opponents allege was handed to him, their seemingly perfect family life had in fact entailed frequent struggle.
She singled out her endurance of cancer and multiple sclerosis as hurdles that the couple had overcome. “I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a 'storybook marriage',” she said. “Those storybooks never seemed to have chapters called MS or Breast Cancer. A storybook marriage? No, not at all. What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage”.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The crowd – who gave Mrs Romney several standing ovations – roared with approval at several points and chanted "USA". In another key passage, Mrs Romney spoke directly to the women among whom Mr Romney badly trails President Barack Obama in opinion polls.
“It's the moms of this nation – single, married, widowed – who really hold this country together,” she said. “We're the mothers, we're the wives, we're the grandmothers, we're the big sisters, we're the little sisters, we're the daughters.” Breaking from her script, she added: “"I love you women!"
Mrs Romney also attempted to tie her speech to the convention's rallying cry, "we built that". The phrase is a rejoinder to Mr Obama's reminder to small-business owners that their success depended on the infrastructure put in place by government, and "you didn't build that".
She claimed that while her husband's investment firm had made its founders “successful beyond their dreams”, he and the “small group of friends” involved initially “struggled and wondered if the whole idea just wasn't going to work”.
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
In fact, Mr Romney's biographers state, the candidate agreed to leave his job as a consultant in 1984 to start Bain Capital, the investment arm of the already-successful Bain consulting firm, only after being promised that he could return to his old job and salary under a cover story if the venture failed.
None the less, Mrs Romney said the former Massachusetts governor would “work harder than anyone” as president and was the “man who will wake up every day with the determination to solve the problems that others say can't be solved”.
She also paid tribute to the private acts of generosity for which Mr Romney has tried to avoid publicity. Likening him to the millions of Americans who “quietly help their neighbours, their churches and their communities”, Mrs Romney said. “They don't do it so that others will think more of them. They do it because there is no greater joy. Give and it shall be given unto you.”
(MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/GettyImages)
Amid a campaign defined by a fierce political partisanship, Mrs Romney said that at the core of her speech was “love” – the “one thing that brings us our greatest joy when times are good, and the deepest solace in our dark hours”.
She hailed the “deep and abiding love” she shared with “a man I met at a dance many years ago” when the pair were high-school sweethearts in Bloomfield Hills, a wealthy enclave of Michigan, where Mr Romney's father George was governor.
Above all, she promised that the 65-year-old former Massachusetts governor had shown her that he had the ability to raise the US from its economic doldrums.
“At every turn in his life, this man I met at a high school dance, has helped lift up others,” she said. “This man will not fail. “This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America”.
Painting Mr Romney as the dependable husband the country needed, she concluded: “He will take us to a better place, just as he took me home safely from that dance”.
More from US election 2012... |
“With each passing day, China’s patent system looks like a photo-negative of the U.S. patent system…”
On July 28th, 2017, China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) announced a new set of regulations which are intended to streamline the examination of patent applications in certain burgeoning fields of technology. The new policy, which comes in response to “the central government’s call for an improved business environment, streamlined procedures for administrative approval, and the booming market,” will allow for the examination of both utility model and industrial design patent applications; SIPO guidelines issued as recently as five years ago only covered a single patent application designation, invention patents.
As China’s state run media Xinhua News reports, the new examination guidelines will also provide for the streamlined examination of patent applications related to energy saving, environmental protection, next-generation information technology, intelligent manufacturing, the Internet, big data and cloud computing. “The regulations help form a more comprehensive system for prioritizing patent applications,” Song Jianhua, director of SIPO’s treaty and law department, is quoted as saying by multiple Chinese news outlets.
With each passing day, China’s patent system looks like a photo-negative of the U.S. patent system in a way that makes China look very good to inventors and venture capitalists alike. The new regulations come swift off the heel of comments made by Chinese President Xi Jinping during the recent National Financial Work Conference on the “heavy price” intellectual property infringers should pay for copying protected IP. As the SIPO press release on the new examination guidelines indicate, China has received 565,000 patent applications through the first half of 2015, a 6.1 percent increase over the same period last year.
Ownership of patents among Chinese nationals is also increasing as the country continues to improve the atmosphere in favor of patent owners. SIPO granted 209,000 patents during the first half of 2017, about 160,000 of which were issued to Chinese entities. The average patent ownership rate in China is 8.9 patents for every 10,000 citizens, giving the country a total of 1.22 million patents held by residents. In Beijing, the country’s capital, the patent ownership rate is 85.9 patents for every 10,000 citizens, the highest such rate within the country.
Conversely, what’s happening in the United States couldn’t be more different. Instead of making it easier for patent owners to assert their property rights in response to potential infringement, now it costs inventors like Josh Malone millions and millions of dollars to obtain a patent and defend it against invalidity challenges at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) which covers a technology that continues to be infringed by Walmart. But is Congress interested in holding hearings to look at the high cost to patent owners and the way the system is tilted against them? Of course not. We’re still stuck having hearings on the effects of “bad patents” on American businesses without any substantive dialogue on how patents can help tech startups. In the House of Representatives, the Congressman who presides over those hearings is a former patent troll who is heavily financed by the efficient infringer lobby and who uses his political position to pressure members of the federal judiciary. The false narrative of “patent trolls,” which no one can clearly define and has been found to be highly subjective in news coverage and is considered to be a prejudicial term by the Federal Trade Commission, is reinforced by a series of poor panel witnesses like Tom Lee of Mapbox, Julie Samuels of Engine Advocacy and Steven Anderson of Culver Franchising.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) can’t help but guffaw when someone points out that the Chinese patent system is more welcoming to innovation and private property owners alike than the current version of the U.S. patent system. What will it take? Will the political narrative swing around once China overtakes the United States in the annual IP index which is released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce? In the most recent index, the United States’ system of patent rights was ranked 10th and China was ranked 20th in that regard. They could switch places as early as next year. China is actively addressing its key weaknesses outlined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, including historically high levels of IP infringement and an inability for some IP owners to secure adequate remedies for infringement. The recent IP index already noted that new SIPO guidelines on submitting post-filing experimental data could strengthen China’s patent environment. As for the U.S., we’re making zero progress on the key weaknesses outlined by the Chamber of Commerce, including substantial costs and uncertainty created by the patent opposition system as well as a narrow interpretation of the patentability of biotech and computer-related inventions.
To paraphrase a well-known American folk song, we might be hearing the following refrain in the years to come: “Where have all the patents gone? Gone to China, every one. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” |
Read this to learn more about how these projections work.
Last season, I took a bit of flak any time I posted projections, and it almost always centred around one specific team: the Winnipeg Jets. On paper, the Jets were a seriously talented group and my model was a big fan of many Winnipeg players, which led to some lofty predictions during the season they never achieved.
The Jets should be better than how they’ve played. For a number of reasons, Winnipeg has struggled to put it all together on the ice and this season will be an important one in determining just how good this team actually is. Despite the disappointment of last season, I remain optimistic about the team’s chances this season. This is finally the year they’re going to put it all together. (Feel free to send me that sentence in April.)
GSAR/60 is Game Score Above Replacement Per 60 which measures a player’s projected efficiency relative to a replacement level player at their... |
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Pflugerville, TX — Tori Thayer was asleep on the night of August 2 when four armed men forced their way into her home and assaulted her. The assailants, who were looking for Thayer’s roommate, were all members of the same gang, the Travis County Sheriff’s Department.
“I was ready to run for my life and throw something at them,” Thayer recounted after hearing four strange men break into her home in at 3:00 am.
After breaking into the innocent woman’s home, deputies then demanded that Thayer tell them where her roommate was, to which she replied that she had no idea.
Frightened but assertive, Thayer kept her wits enough to pull out her phone and began to record the home invasion. What she captured on video was nothing short of infuriating and a ridiculous violation of her civil rights.
For demanding the cops end their warrantless assault on her person and property, the deputies proceeded to attack Thayer. She was slammed to the ground and handcuffed — for her own safety of course.
“And another officer got behind me and put his knee into my back and thrust me to the ground while one stayed on my chest the entire time and handcuffed me,” recalled Thayer.
Deputies continued searching her home without her consent.
“I was dumbfounded, honestly I’d never imagine something like this happening to me, I hear it on the news see on my newsfeed … but you never think about it happening to you,” said Thayer.
Eventually, Thayer would be allowed back up but the harassment and intimidation would not stop. Deputies claimed they received a call from the family of her roommate, Carly Christine. They had broken into this innocent woman’s home at 3:00 am to check on the welfare of Christine. Christine happened to be fine. However, the only one who needed help was Thayer, who was being attacked by four armed thugs.
At one point, the officers demanded the Thayer find out where Christine was, as if she was required to do the job of these officers.
As the barrage of questions continued, Thayer maintains that she has no idea where Christine is, but officers acted as if she wasn’t even talking.
“They acted as if I wasn’t even talking,” explained Thayer. “They kept asking me where she was and I had already had complied and told them everything I knew, at that point I was done, I couldn’t do anything and they just wouldn’t listen.”
Eventually, the cops realized that she was not an evil terrorist attempting to take over the world, and they left. But the damage was already done. Thayer filed a formal complaint with the Travis County Sheriff’s department on Wednesday.
After Thayer’s story made local news, however, the department made an attempt to censure their misdeeds by using threats to gag those who would spread this story and video.
In a statement sent to FOX 7, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s department said an investigation is underway and that , “any further statement or publication of evidence in the case, on television or social media, before a thorough investigation is completed is inappropriate and interferes with the integrity of the investigation.”
Had Thayer not recorded her assault, no one would have ever believed her, and any potential punitive or compensatory action would have likely been futile. And Thayer knows this, “I knew from the moment they walked in there was a very aggressive tone about them and I needed to get this because nobody would ever believe this.”
Below is the video of Thayer’s state-sponsored home invasion. Imagine how different this story would have played out had Thayer attempted to defend her home with a weapon; she would very likely be dead, and the cops touted as heroes.
At 27 seconds, the video goes black as Thayer is assaulted by the officers and drops her phone, but the audio of the assault can still be heard. The video picks back up at the 5:00 marker. |
Inspired by an incredibly geeky conversation by Agents Earl and Bobby (one that the other poor agents were forced to listen to), we bring you a very special Dreamcasting Team-Up!
Looking for Part 2? Check it out here!
The Dragonlance novels helped launch an entire line of Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction, and they’re also unbelievably badass. The first novel, “Dragons of Autumn Twilight,” not only crafted a classic high-fantasy world but also birthed iconic fantasy legends like Tanis Half-Elven, Flint Fireforge, and even Raistlin Majere – one of the most famous fantasy wizards since Gandalf the Grey.
Will the Dragonlance novels get made into movies? In a just and perfect universe, yes, which means its time for Dreamcasting! Agent Earl and Agent Bobby (moi) are gigantic Dragonlance geeks, and as such we decided to split this article into two! I’ll be starting off the fun this week with the first half of the Heroes of the Lance and a grip of minor characters. Agent Earl will hit you up on Sunday to deal the deathblow!
Caramon Majere – Taylor Kitsch
If Tanis Half-Elven is the soul of the “Heroes of the Lance” and Raistlin is the brains, then Caramon Majere is in many ways the beating heart of the group. Caramon is (on the surface) a very simple man, a warrior who fights for only one cause – the protection of his brother Raistlin. He’s a decent man who’s been largely manipulated his entire life, most often by Raistlin but usually by anyone who recognizes that they can bend his strength to their fight. He’s hopelessly devoted to his sickly brother, and his unconditional love leads him down dark paths. Still, in the end, he always chooses what’s right, even at the cost of his wants and needs.
Caramon is tough to nail down because he isn’t the simpleton warrior he appears to be at first glance. Caramon is slow, but he’s actually frighteningly intelligent and perceptive – the book shows that while Caramon may take a great deal of time to come to a conclusion, it’s only because he looks at problems from every possible angle before making a decision. When he does, however, he brings fresh ideas and solutions into the group that no one else, not even his brother Raistlin, thought of.
Taylor Kitsch, though seemingly cursed with bad luck at the box office, is actually a fantastic actor who deserves to anchor a franchise. He can play funny and roguish, certainly, but his performance in John Carter (of Mars, goddammit) shows that he can play a man struggling with his pain very well. Plus he’s all buff and shit and looks just like Caramon.
Raistlin Majere – Emile Hirsch
Raistlin Majere is the rockstar wizard of pop fantasy literature – he ain’t called the “Master of Past and Present” for funsies. Cynical, clever, manipulative, and destructively ambitious, Raistlin holds the distinction of being one of the few hero wizards of fantasy lit you really don’t want to run into in a dark alley. He isn’t whimsical (for the most part), and he isn’t particularly wise – he just craves power, and is willing to sacrifice himself and all of his friend to make it happen.
Raistlin has golden skin and yellow eyes with hour-glass pupils, the effects of a curse laid on him by the powerful wizard bureaucracy to teach him humility – even at a young age, the Council of High Sorcery realized that his ambition and disregard for things like “conventional morality” would be a problem. His cursed eyes show him everything through the lens of passing time. All he sees is decay. This was supposed to teach him to appreciate everything, but ooops surprise it turned him into a cynical asshole. Kind of a fumble, Council of High Sorcery. Bad Council of High Sorcery. Go to your room, Council of High Sorcery.
Emile Hirsch would make an excellent Raistlin, and not just because he’ll be playing Taylor Kitsch’s brother and the two actors have very similar-looking last names. Nay, sir or madam, it’s just that there’s a trait about Raistlin that often gets overlooked – how incredibly pitiable he is. He’s sickly, plagued with a cough that ravages his body. He can’t handle inclement weather, and sometimes he can barely stand for his illness. Raistlin also has a powerful love for not only his brother, but for all downtrodden and broken people – not terribly surprising, considering he’s been a broken thing his entire life. There’s a great compassion behind his cynical ambition, and an emotive and soulful actor like Emile Hirsch can project that through the gold makeup and the dark hoods. Plus, it’s important to remember this saying: “There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.” Raistlin is all three, but the most important is the gentleness beneath the anger – Emile will do just fine with that.
Goldmoon – Rosario Dawson
Goldmoon is a woman of gentle word and unshakable faith, and is in many ways the Jebus Christo of Krynn, the world of Dragonlance. The gods and the true faith have been missing from Krynn since the Cataclysm, a moment of righteous anger where the gods whipped a flaming meteor at Krynn and bailed for like a hundred years. Goldmoon is the first woman to hear the gods again, and is gifted with an ancient artifact to prove their return: the Blue Crystal Staff. Goldmoon comes from the Que Shu tribe, a group of barbarian plainsman that are basically fantasy Indians.
She’s tasked with bringing the faith back, and is met with the kind of opposition you’d imagine. She’s the central figure of the first trilogy, the center around which the others Heroes of the Lance gather like a fire on a cold night. They become her bodyguards, essentially, really just helpers on her quest. Her husband Riverwind at her side, Goldmoon is the team mom who heals everyones booboos and hugs them when they’re all banged up.
Rosario Dawson is, of course, the perfect choice for the role. Give her some silver-golden hair and a blue crystal staff and she’s all ready to go. She has huge soulful eyes and a natural magnetism that makes you listen to her every word, and you all know that one hug from her would sprinkle sunshine over even your worst day.
Riverwind – Michael Ealy
Riverwind, plains barbarian and husband of Goldmoon, is sort of like the team dad if your dad was kind of a prick. Not that Riverwind is a bad person – he’s actually extremely noble and good-hearted, but it’s all been buried under layers of emotional armor. Riverwind’s primary motivation is protecting Goldmoon from a harsh and terrible world that would rather skin her alive then listen to what she has to say about the gods. Riverwind is in love with Goldmoon like you read about – he undertook a suicidal “courtship quest” to get the right to marry Goldmoon from her asshole Chieftain father, and actually succeeded. Riverwind found the Blue Crystal Staff – and lost most of his skin for the effort – and brought it to Goldmoon. Which, you know, sort of kicked off the whole story.
Riverwind is alien and stoic, and Michael Ealy’s light piercing eyes do a great job of keeping you just a little bit unsettled in his presence. He constantly challenges Tanis Half-Elven’s leadership, and is a powerful warrior and whip-smart tactician. Michael Ealy also speaks with a soft but authoritative voice that fits Riverwind exactly.
Tika Waylan – Karen Gillan
Tika Waylan begins the story as a typical adorable, red-headed barwench who just happens to have a crush on Caramon and works in the inn where all the shit first goes down. Tika is swept into the adventure without any particular skills (besides an unerring facility with an iron skillet), and in general has no businesses traveling the globe and fighting tyranny. Tika is the girl-next-door, and she’s completely in over her head. Which is why there’s no other choice for this role but Amy Pond herself, the fanboy (and fangirl) favorite, the Lady Karen of Gillan.
Plus Tika has a famous ginger rage that Karen, being Scottish, would have exactly ZERO problems pulling off. Tika also is the only girl that can distract Caramon from his brother Raistlin, and is basically the only thing keeping Caramon’s head on straight when it comes to his (slightly evil) twin brother. Karen Gillan is definitely . . . distracting, to say the least. But it’s not her looks or her Scottish fury that makes her perfect for the role – instead, it’s just her ability to project a combination of staid wonder and heart-warming enthusiasm that makes her a great audience surrogate to the crazy world of Krynn. Which is what Tika is, really.
Minor Characters and Antagonists
Kitiara Uth Matar – Half-sister to the Majere twins, Kitiara is a badass warrior woman with a dark past and a darker future. She’s got to be sensual, terrifying, and completely full of life, and that’s Lizzy Caplan in a nut shell.
Alhana Starbreeze – The exotic Silvanesti elf-princess that almost makes even stoic Sturm Brightblade break his vows: welcome to the stage Dichen Lachman.
Porthios – Handsome, rich asshole elf that you kind of want to strangle? Boom, Matt Bomer.
Ariakas – The head of the evil Dragonarmies, Ariakis has to be imposing, intense, and make you believe that thousands would follow him. Hey Jim Caviezel!
Verminaard – Gigantic, sadistic warrior-priest with the deep sexy voice that has to project even through his helmet? Plus he has to fight all of the Heroes of the Lance and nearly kill them all? Armie Hammer is open for business, and would love to play a villain.
Astinus – Emotionless creepy librarian who somehow knows everything as it happens and is filled with strange old wisdom? I believe Anthony Stewart Head would like a phone call.
Berem The Everman – Immortal, handsome, alien dude who is living with the pain of numerous lifetimes? Sam Witwer is in town, I hear.
Elistan – The first priest of the new faith, the man behind which an entire prison (and later an entire nation) rally behind? Charles Dance is your only man for the job.
Remember to stay tuned for Sunday, when Earl casts the rest of the characters for Dragonlance! |
Moaning about trains has become a national sport in Britain, where a special kind of antipathy is reserved for our much-maligned railway network.
And why not? Trains in this country are expensive, overcrowded and beset by delays – and don’t even get us started on the overpaid railway bosses. Yes, the less said about our railways the better.
Or maybe not. According to documentary makers Geoff Marshall and Vicki Pipe, our beleaguered railway network provides the best platform (excuse the pun) from which to explore this eccentric isle of ours.
A post shared by All The Stations (@allthestations) on May 18, 2017 at 4:24am PDT
And they’d know. The couple are currently visiting all 2,563 railway stations in Great Britain, an odyssey that will take around three months, and yesterday reached a milestone: their 1,000th station. Michael Portillo eat your heart out.
That all sounds rather quaint, but it begs the question: why? Well, the idea of visiting every station started as a joke after Geoff set a world record for visiting all the stations on the London Underground in the fastest time. That joke then became reality when the pair were looking for a way to “cheer themselves up” after a depressing 2016.
“David Bowie died, Alan Rickman died, Victoria Wood died, and just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse Brexit and Trump happened,” said Geoff. “So we wanted something bright and wonderful to look forward to in 2017.”
A post shared by All The Stations (@allthestations) on May 9, 2017 at 8:37am PDT
The pair decided they would use their epic trip to film a documentary about Britain’s railways and to inspire more people to explore the country by train.
Their £10,000 journey was funded via a Kickstarter campaign and is being chronicled daily on their YouTube channel. A documentary will follow when the trip is over and all the footage will be donated to the London Transport Museum, where Vicki works as an education professional.
So what have these rail anoraks learned so far?
1. The trains are actually quite punctual
Weary commuters might find it hard to believe, but Geoff and Vicki claim their journey thus far has been largely free from delays. “One thing I will say is that the railways have been remarkably reliable,” Geoff told Telegraph Travel. “A lot of people complain that the trains are always late, but we haven’t had many problems.”
2. Train travel is cheaper than you think
Again, commuters might need some convincing, but Geoff and Vicki assure us that deals abound. “If you book far enough in advance for off-peak travel then you can get some amazing discounts,” said Geoff, an advocate of railcards. “If you’re a young person get a 16-24 Railcard, if you’re a senior citizen get a Senior Railcard, if you live in the south east get a Network Railcard. They are brilliant – you can get a third off.”
3. Railways have shaped British politics (probably)
In “isolated” Skegness the couple concluded that parts of Britain might be less parochial if Beeching hadn’t axed so many rail lines in the Sixties. “Did Beeching inadvertently change the politics of a nation?” mused Geoff. “If there were more trains and we were better connected – and people were able to travel to meet other people, see other places and expand their horizons – would we be a less divided nation?” Answers on a postcard, please.
4. There’s a discount rail pass that nobody's heard of
And it’s called the All Line Rover. Costing £492, it allows unlimited travel on Britain’s rail network for seven days, which seems expensive when you compare it to, say, an InterRail ticket. However, the rail anoraks swear by it. “It’s been great,” said Geoff, though he admits some ticket inspectors have never heard of it. “One guy had to go and check it was valid.”
5. Some stations have rock ‘n’ roll connections
“Yesterday we were were at Cromford station – on the branch line between Derby and Matlock – and realised that it was used in the photoshoot for the Oasis single Some Might Say,” said Geoff. “We thought it be fun to recreate the cover.” Then the owner of the station building (now a private residence) turned up, let them into the property and helped the couple recreate the sleeve of the single. “He even fetched us a wheelbarrow,” said Geoff.
Geoff and Vicki try to recreate the sleeve for the 1995 Oasis single Some Might Say Credit: ALL THE STATIONS
And here's the actual version
6. You meet interesting people on trains
“We’ve met so many fascinating people already – people who use the railways for all kinds of reasons – showing just how diverse the railways are,” said Vicki. “Travelling from Penzance to Liskeard, we met a lovely man who was heading home after completing his own epic adventure – he’d walked 1,000 miles around the south coast of England to raise money for Parkinson’s UK. People have been so happy to chat to us.”
7. Railway statistics hide the truth
“Last year, according to the Office for National Statistics, Shippea Hill was the least used railway station in Britain – only 12 people travelled from the station,” said Vicki. “To try and beat the statistics we got 19 people to come with us and travel from Shippea Hill.” While trying to massage the figures, Geoff and Vicki met a group of women who were playing the same game. “These three ladies decided that throughout the year they would go into Norwich together to do their shopping and boost the figures.”
A post shared by All The Stations (@allthestations) on Jun 3, 2017 at 5:03am PDT
8. Railways can help reveal your family history
“My mum did a bit of research before our trip and discovered that my great, great granddad was actually a signalman at Shippea Hill station,” said Vicki. “We had a Who Do You Think You Are? moment when we visited the station.”
9. Our railways are actually quite old fashioned
“We recently went through Brundall which has a manually-operated level crossing,” recalled Vicki. “It was wonderful to see this man come out every two or three minutes to operate the crossing. It’s quite a rarity on the network nowadays because most crossings are automated. It’s fascinating to see these old fashioned systems working seamlessly with other high-tech systems.”
A post shared by All The Stations (@allthestations) on Jun 3, 2017 at 3:59am PDT
10. The journey should probably take 10 months
And here’s the rub: Geoff and Vicki aren’t getting off the train at every station, leading to accusations from some quarters that they are cheating. The couple are, however, only taking trains that stop at every station, allowing them the opportunity to poke their heads out the door or quickly hop on the platform. “Some stations only have a service once every four hours,” said Geoff. “If we got out at every station the trip would take us 10 months, rather than three.”
11. They are NOT trainspotters, honestly
“We haven’t written down a single train number,” said Geoff. “Can I just stress that?”
A post shared by All The Stations (@allthestations) on Jun 9, 2017 at 1:22am PDT
12. We should all take the train to somewhere random
“Go and take a random journey to somewhere you haven’t been before – there are some great places in Britain,” said Geoff. “Have an experience, talk to a stranger and just enjoy a great day out.”
For more information about Geoff and Vicki’s rail odyssey, visit allthestations.co.uk. |
On Thursday night, with four minutes left in the first game of this year's NBA finals, Miami Heat star LeBron James scored to pull his team within two. He immediately pulled up, then began hobbling over to his team's bench before teammates and trainers had to carry him the last few feet.
With LeBron out, the San Antonio Spurs outscored the Heat 16-3 and won the game easily.
people with high levels of sodium in their sweat are naturally prone to cramping
James' problem was a muscle cramp — a common, non-severe injury that struck at the worst possible moment. LeBron haters across the web seized it as an opportunity to question his toughness.
But here's the thing: muscle cramping is a legitimate, immobilizing problem that can befall even elite athletes. Dehydration and muscle fatigue are both involved, and heat can exacerbate the problem — making the fact that the AT&T Center's air conditioning went out during the game, driving court temperatures as high as 90°F, especially important.
Most importantly, some people with high levels of sodium in their sweat seem to be naturally prone to cramping. James may well fall in that category.
The only real ways to relieve muscle cramping are rest, stretching, and massage. So even though LeBron surely wanted to play through the injury, it physically just wasn't possible for him to make his legs work the way they would've needed to.
Dehydration and muscle fatigue cause cramping
You've probably experienced a muscle cramp before: a sudden, involuntary blast of pain as one of your muscles locks up for seemingly no reason. Exercise-associated muscle cramps, as scientists call them, are one particular type of cramp, the kind that befell LeBron last night.
Despite how common they are, scientists have debated the cause of these cramps for years. Part of the reason is that they're hard to study — you can't really put people in a lab and try to induce muscle cramps in them, because they happen so randomly.
both of the mechanisms can be driven by excessive heat
Over time, two hypotheses about the cause of cramps emerged. One held that repeated overuse of specific muscles leads to excessive activity in sensory receptors inside them, called muscle spindles. This activity then triggers a cascade of changes in the nervous system, ultimately disabling the mechanisms that are normally responsible for making sure muscles don't contract too much. The outcome is muscle cramping: an involuntary, excessive contraction of muscle.
The other hypothesized cause is a little more intuitive: dehydration, and the resulting depletion of electrolytes in your body. Over time, excessive sweating — and a failure to replace the electrolyte salts naturally present in your body — can cause sodium levels to dip dangerously. This upsets the balance of fluids in different compartments of your muscle cells, which makes your muscle fibers more likely to fire, ultimately causing your muscles to contract uncontrollably.
Ultimately, most scientists have come to the conclusion that both of these mechanisms sometimes cause cramping, sometimes in combination. And both of them, it turns out, can be driven by excessive heat.
Some people are naturally more prone to cramping, and heat makes it worse
It's impossible to say for sure what happened to LeBron last night, but it seems that both mechanisms probably played a role, helped along by the AT&T Center's faulty air conditioning. Sure, everyone had to deal with that heat, but James had played 33 of the 40 minutes of the game before initially cramping up, increasing both his sweat output and muscle fatigue.
Long-term muscle overuse can also contribute to cramping, and LeBron had also played in 92 of the previous 97 Heat games, averaging about 38 minutes on the floor per night, all while doing a huge amount of running for a man his size.
research among football and tennis players shows that people with more sodium in their sweat cramp more often
But there's also the unfortunate fact that some people — even elite athletes — are just more prone to cramping, because they have higher salt levels naturally present in their sweat. Research among football and tennis players has shown that people with more sodium in their sweat cramp much more often.
Despite a world-class NBA training staff, LeBron has battled muscle cramping in a number of high-profile games throughout his career — including Game 4 of the 2012 Finals — so he's probably part of this group.
"Drank a lot at halftime, even, changed my uniform, just tried to get the sweat up off of you," James told reporters after the game. "Our training staff tried to do the best they could by giving us ice bags and cold towels on timeouts, keep us dry." For a salty sweater in a 90°F arena with broken air conditioning, though, this apparently wasn't enough.
The only real treatment is rest
Sports scientists have looked for a medication that could cure muscle cramps for years, and found nothing. It's widely agreed that, apart from trying to get rehydrated as quickly as possible, the only effective treatments to get your muscles working again are resting, stretching, and getting massaged.
lebron physically wasn't capable of staying in the game
LeBron physically wasn't capable of staying in the game. Right after scoring his last basket, his entire left leg cramped up, rendering him so immobile that he couldn't even walk down the court.
Toughness might let players play through pain. But it doesn't let anyone deal with muscle contractions so extreme that they don't let you bend your knee.
"The best option for me was to not move," James told reporters. "I tried and any little step or nudge, it would get worse. I would lock up worse and my muscles spasmed ten out of ten. Best thing for me to do was just not to move and, you know, it was frustrating." |
First the good news. Fighting Ottawa Fury FC gutted out its first win of the Fall NASL season Saturday night in Indianapolis with a 2-1 road win over fellow expansion club Indy Eleven.
But there were enough obstacles strewn in their path to wonder if the gods were conspiring against them.
Aside from the result, the entire trip consisted of a series of horrors totally ill-suited to the preparation for a game the Fury needed to win to keep alive any hopes of making the NASL playoffs.
The outward journey to Indianapolis was scheduled to end around 3 p.m. Friday, allowing time for a practice session. The squad actually walked through the doors of its downtown hotel close to midnight. That included seven unscheduled hours in Washington, including more than an hour in a plane sitting on the airport tarmac. That’s something like 16 hours door to door.
There was more. The game was scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff but come Saturday afternoon, thunder and lightning rolled into town and before Marc Dos Santos and his men knew it, the game had been pushed back to 9 p.m. No one was allowed in the stadium for fear of lightening threats, they were told.
Players ventured onto the field for warmup around 8:30 p.m. but more bolts lit up the sky and sent them scurrying back to the dressing rooms while the crowd was rapidly escorted out of the stadium.
The opening whistle went at close to 10 p.m. And midnight was beckoning by the time goals from Tom Heinemann and Sinisa Ubiparipovic clinched the Ottawa victory.
Coach Dos Santos, punching the air and hugging those nearest on the touchline, was clearly thrilled and not a little relieved. He admitted afterwards that the buildup to the game was almost as bad at it could get for his men and he had decided that tying the game would be a victory. His players thought otherwise.
Maybe they wanted to burn off some of the frustration from what had gone before, but there was no doubting their determination. Quick into the tackle and eager to break fast from defence, they pegged Indy back.
The early pressure had the Indy defence struggling and with 12 minutes gone, Ubiparipovic was brought down in the penalty area. Nicki Paterson stepped up but couldn’t beat Indy goalkeeper and captain Kristian Nicht who dived to his left to save.
The Fury pressed on, organized and eager even when Indy Eleven dominated possession.
Then another blow, one that might have repercussions in the coming weeks, Central defender Drew Beckie was yards from anyone when he went down in a heap five minutes before half time. A stretcher was dispatched and he was wheeled of only to return to the sidelines in a wheelchair. Early indications suggest ankle trouble. How severe depends on further examination back in Ottawa.
Tony Donatelli was introduced but it was some time into the second half before the Fury regained their rhythm.
The tide began to turn in the 70th minute when Donatelli took a stiff arm in the back. Penalty number two and this time Tom Heinemann stepped forward and slid the ball past Nicht.
Indy Eleven was galvanized, pressing hard before scoring a goal of their own with six minutes to go. It came from Don Smart who had been on as a substitute for maybe two minutes.
The Fury dug in, buoyed by some tremendous shot stopping by Romualde Peiser and the reward took only two more minutes. Donatelli headed a long cross back across the goal and there was Ubiparipovic to slip in the winner. |
Pete Townshend has always been obsessed with stories, not just songs. In the mid-’60s, there were few songwriters (the Kinks ’ Ray Davies comes to mind) who were more interested than the Who guitarist in crafting songs that related a short tale or painted a character portrait. Listen to those early Who singles and album cuts; many of them are simple, two-and-half-minute stories – "A Legal Matter," "Pictures of Lily", "Tattoo" and (most importantly) "I’m a Boy."
When the idea of a “rock opera” was just a glimmer in Pete’s eye, he had the idea of a larger musical piece called Quads that was set in a future when parents could select the genders of their children. The main conflict of the story (and the one at the heart of "I’m a Boy") is that one couple gets a boy instead of the girl they ordered, but make do the best they can with the unwelcome child. The bigger project was never completed – and may not have been really attempted – but it did result in a great slice of power pop for the Who and a No. 2 U.K. hit in 1966.
Townshend continued to think about musical stories that could expand beyond a quick-hit radio single. When extra material was needed for his band’s sophomore LP in 1966, he wrote the six-part, nine-minute "A Quick One, While He’s Away" – the most significant precursor to the album-length story of Tommy . A year later, the Who released arguably the decade’s best concept album. The Who Sell Out didn’t link songs by subject matter, but by the idea of a pirate radio broadcast complete with goofy fake ads.
Listen to the Who's 'A Quick One, While He's Away'
As the Who were creating a larger global presence for themselves with the American breakthrough of "I Can See for Miles" and the band’s electrifying performance at the Monterey International Pop Festival, Townshend’s ambitions continued to grow. In his autobiography, Who I Am , Pete discussed the perfect storm that led to the creation of the rock opera Tommy , which was released on May 23, 1969.
For one, the album was becoming more important than the single in rock and roll (thanks to bands like the Beatles , the Beach Boys and, yes, the Who). Townshend wanted to do something to fully capitalize on the album as a continuous art form… even more so than Sell Out . He also wanted to reach new audiences, ones who had not been particularly interested in the Who’s blasts of "Maximum R&B," and people he felt would be interested in a longer musical piece.
He endeavored to address themes of spirituality in pop music. As someone who had recently become a follower of the teachings of Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, Townshend was looking for an outlet to explore what he was learning. He felt that rock fans would be out to find the same answers he was seeking. Tommy would be dedicated to Baba, who had died months before the album’s release.
Townshend has joked that, in the run-up to Tommy , he would talk about the notion of a rock opera to anyone who would listen. That included Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner, who spoke with the guitarist at length in the summer of 1968 about the Who’s next project. "The package I hope is going to be called Deaf, Dumb and Blind Boy , he said. "It's a story about a kid that's born deaf, dumb and blind and what happens to him throughout his life. The deaf, dumb and blind boy is played by the Who, the musical entity...But what it's really all about is the fact that because the boy is 'D, D & B,' he's seeing things basically as vibrations which we translate as music. That's really what we want to do: create this feeling that when you listen to the music you can actually become aware of the boy, and aware of what he is all about, because we are creating him as we play."
As Townshend explored his newfound spirituality and toured extensively with the Who, he began to piece together bits of the Tommy story. "Sensation" was based on a sexual attraction he had to a fellow Baba follower in Australia. "Sally Simpson" came from an ugly experience on the road. Other songs came from deeply personal places in Townshend’s memory. He farmed out a couple of songs to bassist John Entwistle , both of which involved the violent and sexual abuse of the album’s protagonist. Pete later said that he had been abused as a boy. Because he didn’t want to deal with this aspect of his past at the time, he subconsciously left those tunes for John to write, who penned "Cousin Kevin" and "Fiddle About" in a darkly humorous manner.
Listen to the Who's 'Sensation'
As the Who began recording Tommy in late-’68, the story came together. A boy who witnessed a tragic death as a child goes catatonic and becomes deaf, dumb and blind. We hear about his trials and tribulations growing up, before Tommy becomes cured with the smashing of his image in a mirror. He turns into a messianic celebrity who is adored by hordes of followers until he starts to preach about simple living. They reject Tommy, who recedes back into his inner world.
Feeling that he had captured most of what was happening in his head, Townshend played a rough version of the album for critic Nik Cohn, who was not as impressed with the scope of Tommy as Pete was. The two discussed Cohn’s reaction and concluded that the serious tragedies of the story could be lightened by the presence of a breezier tune. Knowing that Cohn was a pinball buff, Pete suggested that Tommy could be a mystical master of pinball. Townshend hastily wrote " Pinball Wizard " and the Who recorded it in the winter of 1969. They slapped it in the middle of side three and Cohn now called Tommy “a masterpiece.”
Other critics were similarly taken with Tommy , lavishing praise on the double-LP as a breakthrough for the Who and as one of the most daring albums in rock and roll. With "Pinball Wizard" as a hit single and the Who hitting the road for marathon performances of (most of) Tommy along with other live staples, the album introduced the band to a new level of superstardom.
As the lead singer, Roger Daltrey became Tommy for the audience – especially in the band’s widely seen, and heavily fringed, Woodstock appearance. The singer discovered a new, more powerful voice in the Tommy performances (listen to him on Live at the Isle of Wight or Live at Leeds ). He stopped trying to sing like the high-voiced Townshend and found a lower, fuller sound that would be his calling card for the rest of his time as a frontman.
Of course, the Tommy story doesn’t end there. In 1972 there was an all-star orchestral recording and, in 1975, it became a surrealistic movie directed by Ken Russell and starring Daltrey, the rest of the Who, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton and Elton John . In 1989, all-star casts were assembled for Who reunion performances in New York and Los Angeles. And, in 1993, The Who’s Tommy became a full-blown, Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.
Tommy , the original album, remains a cornerstone of rock culture as music’s most famous rock opera. It’s one of the Who’s most commercially successful albums, having sold more than 20 million copies. If Tommy ’s reputation has since been downgraded from “masterpiece” (because of Pete’s pretensions or some silly plot-connector songs), it’s partially because Townshend topped himself in 1973 with the Who’s more substantial Quadrophenia . One rock opera is never enough. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption South Korean plans to develop Stuxnet-type weapons to damage North Korean nuclear facilities
South Korea is to develop cyber-attack tools in an attempt to damage North Korean nuclear facilities.
The country's defence ministry wants to develop weapons similar to Stuxnet, the software designed to attack Iranian nuclear enrichment plants.
The South Korean military will carry out missions using the software, the defence ministry said.
One computer security expert said that using cyberweapons could be "very dangerous".
The defence ministry reported its plan to the government on 19 February, the Yonhap news agency reported.
You might be targeting one thing, but it could spread Prof Alan Woodward, Computer security expert
In 2006, North Korea said it had successfully tested a nuclear weapon, spreading alarm through the region. Intensive diplomatic efforts to try to rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions continue.
Online propaganda
The development of weapons capable of physically damaging North Korean nuclear plants and missile facilities is the second phase of a strategy that began in 2010, Yonhap said.
The first part of South Korea's plan, which is continuing, is to conduct online propaganda operations by posting to North Korean social networking and social media services.
"Once the second phase plan is established, the cybercommand will carry out comprehensive cyberwarfare missions," a senior ministry official said.
The South Korean cyberwarfare command, which will use the weapons, has been dogged by accusations of using its psychological warfare capabilities on its own population to try to influence voters in the run-up to the 2012 presidential elections.
Attempting to use cyberweapons to physically damage critical infrastructure could drastically backfire, Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert at the University of Surrey, told the BBC.
"I think it's very dangerous," he said. "[The weapon] could end up damaging all sorts of things you never intended it to."
Once Stuxnet was released, its spread was impossible to predict or control, Prof Woodward said.
Vulnerable
The code was designed to target Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities and disrupt a suspected nuclear weapons development programme.
However, the code attacked Siemens control systems used not only in the facilities but also in electrical generation plants, factories and water treatment works.
"You might be targeting one thing, but it could spread," Prof Woodward said. "All those other forms of infrastructure become vulnerable."
Malicious code such as Stuxnet does not respect national boundaries. Cyber-attack code developed by South Korea could rebound and end up damaging South Korean infrastructure that uses the same technologies, he said. The code could spread internationally.
In addition, once the attack code is released, malicious hackers or military personnel anywhere in the world would be able to study a sample and use the weapons against another target, Prof Woodward added. |
A juvenile was stabbed at a Sacramento light rail station Monday afternoon after getting into a fight with two other minors, Sacramento Regional Transit said.The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment. The juvenile’s condition is unknown.The fight broke out around 3 p.m. at the 65th Street Light Rail Station. Three juveniles boarded a Gold Line train together but then got into an argument. When they got off at the station, they started fighting, Sac RT said.During the fight, one of the juveniles pulled out a knife and cut the victim on the arm. Sac RT said all three ran from the scene. But, the victim later returned to the station in order to get help for the injury.No other details were released.
A juvenile was stabbed at a Sacramento light rail station Monday afternoon after getting into a fight with two other minors, Sacramento Regional Transit said.
The victim was taken to the hospital for treatment. The juvenile’s condition is unknown.
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The fight broke out around 3 p.m. at the 65th Street Light Rail Station. Three juveniles boarded a Gold Line train together but then got into an argument. When they got off at the station, they started fighting, Sac RT said.
During the fight, one of the juveniles pulled out a knife and cut the victim on the arm.
Sac RT said all three ran from the scene. But, the victim later returned to the station in order to get help for the injury.
No other details were released.
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Belgium has placed Brussels at the highest terror alert level, citing a "serious and imminent threat that requires taking specific security measures as well as specific recommendations for the population."
The announcement by the Crisis Centre of the Belgian Interior Ministry is advising the public to avoid places where large groups gather -- such as concerts, sporting events, airports and train stations -- and comply with security checks.
"Following our latest evaluation... the centre has raised its terror alert to level 4, signifying a very serious threat, for the Brussels region," said a statement from OCAM national crisis centre.
The increase in alert level for Brussels comes as authorities investigating last week's terror attacks in Paris conduct raids in Belgium as they work to identify and take down the network of terrorists behind the carnage.
Salah Abdeslam, 26, is the subject of an international search warrant. He was last seen driving toward the Belgian border when police stopped and questioned him a few hours after the attacks, not knowing that he was allegedly involved. His whereabouts are unknown.
Hours before the alert, Belgian authorities charged a third person in connection to the terrorist attacks in Paris.
This is a developing story, check back for updates. |
After listening to excuses from IRS officials about why they cannot produce "lost" emails requested through a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has ordered the IRS to come up with a better explanation as to why the agency cannot produce valid documentation. He's also asking for details about IRS hard drive destruction policy and wants verification from an outside source that IRS hard drives in question were in fact destroyed as officials have claimed.
"In an extraordinary step, U. S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan has launched an independent inquiry into the issue of the missing emails associated with former IRS official Lois Lerner," President of Judicial Watch John Fitton said in a statement. "Previously, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS to produce sworn declarations about the IRS email issue by August 11. Today’s order confirms Judicial Watch’s read of this week’s IRS’ filings that treated as a joke Judge Sullivan’s order."
From Judge Sullivan's order:
In light of [26] the Declarations filed by the IRS, the IRS is hereby ORDERED to file a sworn Declaration, by an official with the authority to speak under oath for the Agency, by no later than August 22, 2014. In this Declaration, the IRS must: (1) provide information about its efforts, if any, to recover missing Lois Lerner emails from alternate sources (i.e., Blackberry, iPhone, iPad); (2) provide additional information explaining the IRS's policy of tracking inventory through use of bar code property tags, including whether component parts, such as hard drives, receive a bar code tag when serviced. If individual components do not receive a bar code tag, provide information on how the IRS tracks component parts, such as hard drives, when being serviced; (3)
provide information about the IRS's policy to degauss hard drives, including whether the IRS records whose hard drive is degaussed, either by tracking the employee's name or the particular machine with which the hard drive was associated; and (4) provide information about the outside vendor who can verify the IRS's destruction policies concerning hard drives.
The IRS has one week to come up with some answers.
H/T Ed Morrissey |
When you have a scene as new and constantly changing as eSports, situations are going to crop up that cause debate over what the definition of "cheating" actual entails. Now, at Dreamhack, we have a new case where a team used an in-game map exploit to rocket their way to victory, only to be met with derision by fans for employing the tactic, and which eventually led them to forfeit the series.
Dreamhack in Sweden hosts the world's largest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament, and the matches in question occurred during a quarterfinal match between Swedish team Fnatic and French team LDLC. Fnatic was staring down the barrel of a nine-game deficit, and knew they would have to get creative in order to make a comeback.
Unfortunately, they got a little too creative.
In Fnatic's next ten games, they employed a "boost" to reach an otherwise inaccessible portion of the map. A "boost" in Counter-Strike is when players use each other as springboard to jump to hard to reach locations, a legitimate tactic in the game that's used frequently. But in this case, they were using it to boost one player to a glitched-out portion of the map where they couldn't be killed and had a full view of the entire map. Knowing exactly where the other team was at all times gave them a significant advantage and they won ten straight to pull off a huge comeback upset over the French team.
Naturally, LDLC immediately filled a motion that what Fnatic did was illegal, but this is an issue with eSports. Fnatic wasn't hiding this, and the fact that they were doing it could be seen by everyone watching. But their argument was that it was the game that was at fault, not their team, and that just because they discovered and used an existing exploit, that didn't mean they were doing anything wrong.
That line of logic didn't last long, however. At first, Dreamhack declared that the entire series would be replayed starting at 0-0 in order to have a fresh slate. But that still didn't sit well with LDLC who was up nine games when the exploit was used. Eventually public pressure or a simple change of conscience made Fnatic change their tune and they forfeited the series so LDLC now moves on to the semi-finals without issue.
This kind of thing doesn't happen too often in eSports, as you seldom see glitches and exploits pulled out of a hat to be used to orchestrate an otherwise impossible comeback. For example, I've never seen a Starcraft player glitch out of the map to find a mineral node that gives him infinite money, or a League of Legends team band together to break the game to cause the immediate destruction of their opponent's nexus. Those may sound silly, but "god view mode" in CounterStrike is practically as good as any of those game-breaking glitches would be, as evidenced by a preposterous ten-game comeback.
I think both Dreamhack and fans were in the right here to immediately crack down on this kind of thing even if "using exploit 3AA356" wasn't an exact passage in the rulebook. Even Fnatic figured out they really didn't have a leg to stand on in the end, and I have to think they never really thought they'd get away with it.
eSports will always have its challenges as it continues to grow and evolve, and we've just seen a rather interesting one unfold here. In the end, wrongs were righted and it will probably be a while until you see a major team trying to use such an obvious exploit in matches again.
Follow me on Twitter, like my page on Facebook, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel, The Exiled Earthborn, along with my new Forbes book, Fanboy Wars.
Check out how Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system might work in other games: |
There was a time when I would wait for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films.
I loved getting transported into those timeless, geography-less lands that he created. I loved the drama, the colour, the painful soundtracks. It was just what my teenage heart needed.
Unfortunately, while my taste in cinema has grown, Bhansali’s endeavors seem increasingly tiring by the day. I am sure in his nightmares, Maps and Calendars come walking towards Bhansali, their hands outstretched, making whooshing noises.
If you strip them down to their basics, Bhansali’s films have always centred around a handicap (Khamoshi, Black, Guzarish), or unrequited love (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Sawariya). While enough has been said about his knack for creating these other-worldly worlds, the colours and the drums seem unnecessary in this film.
Playing to the galleries, Ram Leela is an average story, and all the peacocks and the statues and the colours cannot change that fact. And by the time the three hour colourfest has ended, you’re sincerely wishing the two of them die already. Since it’s inspired by Romeo and Juliet, don’t we all know how it’s going to end?
At the end of the day, Ram Leela is like Gordon Ramsay cooking pani puri. A good cook stirring up an everyday dish. So whether you like Ram Leela or not, depends on what you feel about Gordon Ramsay preparing Pani Puri.
*****************************
But what’s more interesting than the film itself, is the controversy surrounding the film.
You see, some groups were offended by the film’s content.
The film hurt their religious sentiments. Even before the bloody film released!
Absurd, you say?
I don’t think so. Even before Lord Krishna was born, Kamsa had known that the boy would offend his sensibilities (by killing him). So it’s not all that a novel idea to get offended by things we haven’t even seen yet.
I did a bit of research on who were these sensitive people who got offended, and who should I find, but my old friends?
The Bajrang Dal.
For years now, the Bajrang Dal has magnanimously taken up the daunting task of handling our sentiments. And that is a Herculean task.
Because as a nation, we love taking offence. It’s what we do.
I read in the news that Bajrang Dal had taken offence to the film because it was called Ram Leela. Very, very, valid point.
It’s such an overarching point that it negates the need for other banalities, like actually watching the film to find out what it is about. Ever the logical diplomats, this is the reason that was given – “The title has the name Ram, and Leela is associated with Lord Krishna, so people would mistake it for a mythological film, but it is a film steeped in sex, violence, and vulgarity.”
Don’t you feel like standing up and saluting? I know!
Because we live in dark ages, where we walk into a film having knowledge only of its name. Trailers, teasers, and promotions are for Martians, in case they want to enjoy some of our films.
*
But this is not new at all. We have been banning films for a few years now. And while you’d expect that with time, societies around the world would loosen up their iron grip on culture, in India we keep going a step backwards every year. Let’s have a look at the list.
Fanaa: The film was banned in Gujarat because Aamir Khan had spoken out against the Narmada Dam project. Personal opinion, you say? Haha, you little fool, you.
Billoo Barber: The film was based on Billoo, who’s a barber. Apparently, barbers took offence to a barber being called a barber. Dignity of labour, you say? Haha.
Black Friday: Unlike other films, this film did not malign anybody’s name or character. In fact, it is among the rare films that uses real names, real locations, real incidents. But how can something that really happened, be offensive? Haha.
The best part is, these films were banned before they were released. Before anybody had an inkling as to what the film could have contained. Talk about a seventh sense.
And as if the petitions aren’t intellectually stimulating enough, Indian courts entertain these people and pass those laws. Raasleela has been banned in the UP, as were the earlier films mentioned in the list.
Now, isn’t it the work of courts to uphold someone’s legal right to release a film? For all their erudition and experience, shouldn’t lawyers and courts be looking at larger issues? Aren’t we heading towards a Banana Republic, if any Tom, Dick, and Hairy can walk up to a court with a piece of paper and stall the release of a film?
*
But you shouldn’t get depressed. No, no.
Apart from upholding our culture as a nation, religious groups also take on the side job of entertaining us once in a while.
The second reason for banning the film was this – How can a character named ‘Ram’, be involved in violence and killing?
Because you know, Lord Ram vanquished Raavan by sending him a bouquet of roses. After which Raavan wiped his tears with the words, “Ab bas kar. Rulaayega kya?”
The petition goes on to say that the character named Ram is also involved in other trades, like selling of vulgar CDs, and is a general Casanova.
Very very valid point.
I am sure I couldn’t get through the Bajrang Dal because my CAT score was only 18%. After all, how else could one come up with points like this, you tell me?
Talking of which, let’s look at some other people who dared to act against their names.
Govinda: Even though he is named after Lord Krishna, he had the audacity to romance Raveena Tandon. He also shamed the nation, Lord Krishna, and the entire cosmos (because the entire cosmos was inside Krishna’s mouth!), by wearing yellow pants, and crooning ‘Meri pant bhi sexy’. He should have instead crooned ‘Mama Pitambaram Ati Madhuram’. Burn his house and blacken his face, I say.
Ram Jethmalani: Mr. Jethmalani has two wives. In one stroke a few strokes, he has shamed the name of Lord Ram, who was faithful to Mother Sita all through his life, never looking at any other woman, us nazar se.
But this shameless Jethmalani fellow goes on to live his life without his face being blackened.
Shakti Kapoor: Even though he’s named after Shakti, Mr. Kapoor has less than religious feelings towards women. In an interview, he told a girl that she has to ‘fuck’ to get ahead in her career.
Apart from this sacrilegious act, his career has spanned a wide vista of characters – ranging from the friendly neighbourhood sex offender, to a vicious rapist. How about we blacken his face?
Oh wait, we already have!
Bala Krishna: Named after Child Krishna, this actor has done things that can neither be counted as Krishna-like, nor childlike. Apart from being accused in a shooting incident, he has also done things that little Krishna would never have imagined. Even though he had the whole cosmos in his mouth.
How dare these people do anything vulgar, when they have been blessed with names of Gods?
How can they dare do their own thing, even though this is a free country?
How can they offend my sensibilities?
Blacken their bloody faces!!
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Fear of a second Mongol invasion was bizarrely echoed even in King Béla’s dynastic policy. He wrote in a letter to the Pope: “In the interests of Christianity, we let our royal dignity suffer humiliation by betrothing two of our daughters to Ruthenian princes and the third to a Pole, in order to receive through them and other foreigners in the East news about the secretive Tatars.” Clearly an even greater sacrifice, mentioned in the same letter, was the marriage of his firstborn son to a Cuman girl; this was supposed to bind the warlike nomad horsemen, called back a few years after the Mongol attack to the depopulated areas of the Danube-Tisza plains, even closer to the House of Árpád, and hasten their absorption into the Western Christian community.
The aversion to foreigners, even when they were urgently needed as allies; the friction within their own ranks, even in times of extreme danger; and finally the justified sense of aloneness and being at the mercy of others, formed the background to the first catastrophe in the history of the Christian Hungarian kingdom. That the Hungarians felt misjudged, betrayed and besieged by enemies was probably also, or perhaps primarily, the result of what is unanimously criticized in international historiography as “brazen blackmail”. The Austrian Babenberg Duke, Frederick II, set a trap for the fleeing King of Hungary (his cousin and neighbour, not to be confused with the Hohenstaufen Emperor) robbed and imprisoned him. The Austrian was already nicknamed “the Quarrelsome” because he had fallen out with most of his neighbours, even having been temporarily outlawed and divested of his fief in 1236 by the Emperor.
Rogerius, who—as mentioned above—had lived through the Mongol invasion as an eye-witness and was himself imprisoned for a year, described this deed in the thirty-second chapter of his account:
After his flight from the hordes the King rode day and night until he reached the Polish border region: from there he hurried, as fast as he could, by the direct route to the Queen, who stayed on the border with Austria. On hearing this the Duke of Austria came to meet him with wicked intentions in his heart, but feigning friendship. The King had just laid down his weapons and, while breakfast was being prepared, lain down to sleep on the bank of a stretch of water, having by an act of divine providence made his long escape alone from many horrible arrows and swords, when he was awakened. As soon as he beheld the Duke he was very happy. Meanwhile the Duke, after saying other comforting words, asked the King to cross the Danube, to have a more secure rest on the opposite bank, and the King, suspecting no evil, consented because the Duke had said that he owned a castle on the other side where he could offer more befitting hospitality—he intended not to entertain the King but to destroy him. While the King still believed he could get away from Scylla, he fell victim to Charybdis, and like the fish that tries to escape from the frying pan and jumps into the fire, believing that it has escaped misfortune, he found himself in an even more difficult situation because the Duke of Austria seized hold of him by cunning, and dealt with him according to his whim. He demanded from him a sum of money which he claimed the King had once extorted from him. What then? The King could not get away until he had counted out part of that money in coin and another part in gold and silver vessels, finally pledging three adjacent counties of his kingdom.
According to Rogerius, Duke Frederick robbed the Hungarian refugees and invaded the defenceless country with his army. He even attempted to capture Pressburg (now Bratislava) and Györ, which however managed to defend themselves. The chronicler did not realize that Duke Frederick II and Béla IV had old scores to settle. Frederick had attacked Hungary several times since 1233, and had supported an uprising by Hungarian magnates against their King. When András II and his sons. Béla and Coloman, resisted and chased him back to Vienna, the duke could obtain a peace agreement only in return for a costly fine. He had never forgotten this humiliation, and now, against the admonitions of Pope Gregory IX, exploited the Hungarians’ desperate situation.
The historian Günther Stökl referred to the “understandably very negative impression” which “the treachery of its western neighbour left in Hungarian historical consciousness”.5 As is well-known, none of the Central and East European states have school textbooks that treat in a particularly balanced way their own and their region’s history. Still, the chasm is rarely as wide as in the depiction of the episode described by Rogerius. Thus the Hungarian historian Bálint Hóman (1935): “Frederick… capped the disgraceful offence against the right of hospitality to the greater glory of Christian solidarity with an attack on the country suffering under the Tatars.” The Austrian historian Hugo Hantsch (1947) saw the role of the Babenberg Duke differently: “Frederick… stops the Tatars’ advance to Germany… Austria once again proves its worth as the bulwark of the Occident, as the shield of the Empire.”
It was an irony of fate indeed that the moribund kingdom was successful against the expansionist attempts of Duke Frederick of Austria in particular. After Frederick’s death in the battle at the Leitha in June 1246 Béla even got involved in the succession struggle of the Babenbergs and brought Styria temporarily under his control, his son and successor becoming its prince for some years. However, after a serious defeat by Ottokar II of Bohemia at Marchegg in Austria, the Hungarians were no longer able to assert themselves. The “annihilation of the kingdom of Hungary”—never actually came to pass. On the contrary, Béla IV steeled himself after his return for the enormous task of rebuilding the ravaged country, especially the depopulated lowland and eastern areas, which he did with considerable energy, resolve and courage.
Béla, not unjustly dubbed in his country as its second founder after St Stephen for his statesmanship and achievements, still had twenty-eight years ahead of him after the departure of the Mongols. Like Stephen, he was a ruler who practised openness, and the prime mover in an extensive policy of colonization. His realm extended over the entire Carpathian basin and embraced Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia and part of Bosnia. The reason why he so quickly regained his political power is partly that the most densely populated western areas of the country were those least affected by the Mongol depredations. Still, his entire domestic and external politics were always haunted by the nightmare of a renewed Mongol incursion, which led to the organizing of a completely new defensive system. The fact that only some castles had withstood the Mongol attacks showed that only well-built forts offered genuine security. That is why the King wanted to see so many cities and smaller places encircled by stone walls. He created a new powerful army, replacing the light archers with a force of heavy cavalry.
Béla managed to resettle the Cumans on the Great Plains, and this foreign tribe came to play an outstanding role in the new army. In his previously cited letter to Pope Innocent IV he wrote: “Unfortunately we now defend our country with pagans, and with their help we bring the enemies of the Church under control.” The Alan Jazyges, originally also steppe horsemen from the East, settled in the country with the Cumans. A royal document of 1267 states that the King had called peasants and soldiers from all parts of the world into the country to repopulate it. German colonists as well as Slovaks, Poles and Ruthenes thus came into Upper Hungary (today’s Slovakia); Germans and Romanians, but also many Hungarians, moved to Transylvania. Soon French, Walloon, Italian and Greek migrants moved to the cities. The Jewish communities of Buda (newly fortified as a royal seat), Esztergom and Pressburg were under the King’s personal protection. Already by 1050, according to the Historical Chronology of Hungary by Kálmán Benda, Esztergom was a centre for Jewish traders who maintained the business connection between Russia and Regensburg and are said to have built a synagogue. Minting was assigned to the archbishopric of Esztergom, which in turn entrusted the task to a Jew from Vienna named Herschel.
King Béla finally had to pay a high political price to the predominantly narrow-minded, selfish oligarchs for the surprisingly fast reconstruction, the promotion of urban development and—his priority—the establishment of a new army. The disastrous concentration of power in the hands of the great magnates remained in force, and in stark contrast to Béla’s radical measures and the reforms passed before the Mongol attack, they were able to assert their old privileges and, even more serious, they were not after all required to return the royal estates and castles, but even received further endowments. This soon created chaotic conditions.
During the last decade of his reign Béla was already embroiled in a serious conflict with his son, the later Stephen V, who was strong in military virtues but power-hungry. Stephen’s rule as sole king lasted only two years; he could not control the mounting tensions between the power of the oligarchs—who by now were feuding among themselves, as were some of the senior clergy—and the lower nobility, who had been supported by Béla as their counterbalance through the granting of privileges. But it was the particularly explosive and unresolved issue of the absorption of the Cuman horsemen into the Hungarian environment which once again impinged disastrously on the royal house itself. Although the Cumans were a mainstay of the new army, especially in campaigns outside Hungary’s borders, the complete socio-religious and linguistic assimilation of the tens of thousands of former nomad horsemen took another two to three centuries.
The marriage of Béla’s son Stephen to Elizabeth, daughter of the treacherously assassinated Cuman prince Kötöny, was meant to seal a lasting reconciliation with this ethnic group. The plan was to give the Cumans parity of treatment with the nobility, but Stephen’s untimely death brought an abrupt end to these endeavours.
Stephen’s son Ladislaus IV (1272–90) was still a child, and the Queen Mother Elizabeth, who called herself “Queen of Hungary, daughter of the Cuman Emperor”, proved to be a puppet in the hands of the power-hungry oligarchs and blatant favourites, and thus totally unfitted for the task of regency. She and her son trusted only Cumans, hindering rather than fostering the precarious process of integration by their exaggerated and demonstrative partiality towards the steppe warriors.
Only once did the young King Ladislaus IV show his mettle—by a historic action at a decisive moment for Austria’s future. It happened on the battlefield of Dürnkrut, where the army of Hungarians and Cumans, estimated at 15,000 men, resolved the conflict between Rudolf of Habsburg and Ottokar II of Bohemia. In the words of the Hungarian historian Péter Hanák, “In the battle of the Marchfeld [Dürnkrut] Hungarian arms helped establish the power-base and imperial authority of the Habsburgs.” Apart from this, the life of the young King, already known in his lifetime as “Ladislaus the Cuman” (Kún László), was an uninterrupted series of scandals, intrigues and bloody settling of scores. The passionate, spirited and, according to tradition, continuously love-struck King for some reason refused to produce a successor with his wife, the Angevin Princess Isabella of Naples, and had her locked up in a convent. When his pagan following and numerous mistresses resulted in a papal interdict, the psychopathic monarch threatened (as the Archbishop expressed it in a letter to the Pope) “to have the Archbishop of Esztergom, his bishops and the whole bunch in Rome decapitated with a Tatar sabre”. Incidentally, Ladislaus IV is supposed to have performed the sex act with his Cuman mistress during a Council meeting in the presence of the dignitaries and high clergy. He was excommunicated, and finally killed at the age of twenty-eight by two Cumans hired by the Hungarian magnates.
Ladislaus died without issue and anarchy followed. Groups of oligarchs ruled their spheres of interest as if they were family estates, and considered the entire country theirs for the taking, dividing it up between themselves. The last Árpád king, András III, was unable to re-establish central authority or prevent the country’s disintegration. He died in 1301, leaving only an infant daughter, and with him the male line of the Árpáds died out. Years of struggle for the coveted throne of Hungary, by now recognized as a member of the European community of states, resulted in 1308 in the victory of the Angevin Charles Robert, grandson of Mary of Naples, sister of Ladislaus IV.
In the long run the politically and, above all, psychologically most significant heritage of the time of “Ladislaus the Cuman” was the “new historical image” of the Hungarians, invented from A to Z by his court preacher Simon Kézai. In his famous letter to the Pope, King Béla still compared the Mongols with Attila and his murderous and fire-raising Huns. Barely a generation later, between 1281 and 1285, the grandson’s court scribe saw the Huns in a quite different light. Kézai, a gifted storyteller, perceived Attila as a worthy ancestor of the Christian kings. From sources he found “all around Italy, France and Germany” this court cleric, a man of simple background, calling himself in his preface an enthusiastic adherent of King Ladislas IV, concocted the evidently desired historical image. He produced the surprising theory of a “Dual Conquest”: the original 108 clans had in the distant past already made up the same people—who at that time were the Huns, and were now the Hungarians. Coming from Scythia, they had already occupied Pannonia once before, around the year 700, and under Attila conquered half the world. They then retreated to Scythia, finally settling permanently in Pannonia. The 108 clans of 1280 were thus, according to Simon Kézai, the descendants of the original community—without any mingling. Thus was born a historical continuity which had never existed.
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Image caption Tufty the road safety squirrel was popular with children
Road safety adverts will no longer be shown on television in England because the Department for Transport has decided to "re-prioritise" its budget.
TV adverts have been shown since the 60s, with characters such as Tufty the squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man.
A DfT spokeswoman said the adverts would not be broadcast as a consequence of budget changes.
The Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) said TV campaigns "help save lives and prevent injuries".
As part of the coalition government's spending review, announced in 2010 to tackle the deficit, the Department for Transport has to cut spending by £683m.
'Financial burden'
At the time, the department said it was "reducing the resources allocated to road safety research and marketing, distributing more of the available money instead for use in local targeted initiatives".
Commenting on the cutting of TV adverts, road safety Minister Stephen Hammond said: "Road deaths are at a record low but we know that one death is one too many.
"We are working closely with local authorities and other partners to ensure our road safety messages are reaching children and teenagers in schools as well as providing educational resources to allow these important messages to be incorporated into the curriculum."
We need to ensure it is not the start of an upward trend in child road deaths and injuries. Kevin Clinton, Head of road safety at RoSPA
The department spokeswoman said that local authorities would continue to work with schools to promote road safety.
Figures released to the Mail on Sunday under a Freedom on Information request show that the road safety publicity budget was £19m in 2008/09, and had dropped to £3.9m in 2011/12.
The department's Think! campaign has a budget of £3.6m, with £78,000 of that spent on educating children about road safety.
Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle said: "This government must take responsibility if these cuts mean more children are killed or injured on our roads."
Rospa, which introduced Tufty as a character, said TV campaigns had helped "to create a high level of road safety awareness over a long period, and are one of the reasons why Great Britain has been able to significantly reduce the number of people being killed on our roads".
Rospa's head of road safety, Kevin Clinton, said: "While road safety must face its share of cuts in public spending, road accidents are an enormous financial burden that the country can ill-afford.
"Investing in preventing road casualties, through measures such as television campaigns, makes a significant economic contribution and helps to save lives and prevent injuries."
'Worrying cut'
On average in the mid-1990s, 260 children were killed on Britain's roads every year; by 2011, the number had fallen to 60 children, he said.
"However, that was an increase from the previous year, which is very worrying, and we need to ensure it is not the start of an upward trend in child road deaths and injuries," he added.
Road safety charity Brake said it was "extremely disappointing" that television adverts were being cut.
"We have been calling for more prime-time advertising for some time. It's very worrying that they are being cut, because we still have a high child pedestrian accident rate. This is going to have an impact and lives are going to be lost," spokeswoman Sarah Fatica said.
She added that broad measures to educate children, including through parents, carers and teachers, was still important, and welcomed continuing funding for local authorities, but said it was "still a concern" that TV adverts were being cut. |
Image: GongTo/Shutterstock
The so-called front page of the internet is jumping on the encryption bandwagon.
Reddit quietly announced on Tuesday that it will soon start to better protect your privacy and security by switching to HTTPS by default starting on June 29. On that day, Reddit will become one of the largest sites on the web to be HTTPS only, joining a burgeoning movement to encrypt the whole web by default.
"We're ready to enforce that everyone use a secure connection with reddit," Reddit's system administrator Ricky Ramirez wrote in a short post on the site's developers subreddit. "HTTP will no longer be available."
"We're ready to enforce that everyone use a secure connection with reddit."
Since last year, Reddit already supported HTTPS, but it wasn't turned on by default, meaning that as a user had to turn on a setting on the site's preferences, type https:// before the address, or have a plugin such as HTTPS Everywhere to force the connection to the site to be encrypted.
In less than two weeks, Reddit will force all users to HTTPS, according to Ramirez's post.
Reddit's announcement comes just a few days after another internet giant such as Wikipedia started switching all its sites to HTTPS only. Big websites like Facebook, Google and Twitter have supported HTTPS by default for years, but the practice is only starting to gain mainstream adoption in the last year.
This has been in part thanks to a coordinated push from both nonprofit organizations and big tech companies. Earlier this year, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the internet's main international standards organization, encouraged the wider adoption of HTTPS in a paper. Last year, the human rights organization Access, with the support of companies such as Twitter, Dropbox, and Reddit itself, launched a pro-HTTPS campaign called "Encrypt all The Things."
Others, such as Google, Mozilla, and Apple, have all signaled their intention to abandon the unencrypted web. Even the White House recently set a deadline for all government sites to migrate to HTTPS only.
"We believe encrypting by default is the best course of action for the Internet in today's political climate."
When a website is HTTPS only, it forces visitors to an encrypted connection that uses the more secure TLS protocol, ensuring that the data that they send to the site (think login passwords or private messages) isn't visible while it travels across the internet. With HTTPS enabled, it's harder for spies and hackers to see what you are doing on a site, and it's harder for repressive regimes to selectively censor certain parts of a site (something that Iran used to do with Wikipedia or Instagram, for example).
Reddit has long been known for its pro-free speech, pro-privacy stance, and now the site is walking the walk.
"We believe we've finally overcome our technical challenges in providing an encrypted connection to all of our users," Reddit spokesperson Ashley Dawkins told Motherboard, "and believe encrypting by default is the best course of action for the Internet in today's political climate." |
Twenty years after her assault at a college party, Liz Seccuro received a letter of apology from her attacker. The correspondence that followed led her to pursue justice at last
It was late summer 2005 and we were about to set out on an extended vacation with our two-year-old daughter, Ava. "Hey, you got a letter," said my husband Mike, tossing it to me like a Frisbee. It smelled faintly of vanilla, nice paper. I ripped it open and began to read the very precise, almost feminine cursive script.
Dear Elizabeth:
In October 1984 I harmed you. I can scarcely begin to understand the degree to which, in your eyes, my behaviour has affected you in its wake. Still, I stand prepared to hear from you about just how, and in what ways you've been affected; and to begin to set right the wrong I've done, in any way you see fit. Most sincerely yours, Will Beebe
In 1984, I arrived, like any other student, at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. An only child, I was the first in my family to attend college. My parents were thrilled, although the university was far from our home town, a suburb of New York City. I had graduated top of my high school class and was prepared to make something great of myself. But those hopes and dreams were dashed about five weeks later.
A dorm friend, desperately wanting to join a fraternity, begged me to be his date to a party at Phi Kappa Psi, a massive pile of Georgian bricks and white columns at the head of fraternity row. Reluctantly, I climbed out of my sweatpants and donned a denim miniskirt, long-sleeved crew-neck sweater, navy blue flats and a pearl necklace. And then we set off on our five-minute walk with a few other friends from our dorm.
We arrived to the din of a party in full swing – a band, kegs of beer, jubilant collegians. Nothing out of the ordinary, but for the fact that my date was gay and, back in 1984, being gay was not as openly accepted as it is today. He needed to "pass", so I stuck to his side as we toured the property and listened to the brothers talk about tradition, academia and the honour that was bestowed upon the lucky few who would be chosen as Phi Kappa Psi brothers.
We got separated. My date was invited to smoke pot with some brothers. I had never done so, nor did I want to start. I decided to wait in the second-floor living room, thinking I'd be safer there than walking home alone. I sat on a sofa near a makeshift bar where two brothers, acting as bartenders, assured me that my friend would be back soon. And would I like a drink?
Not wanting to seem square, I said yes.
"It's our house special – here you go," said one brother, offering a green drink in a plastic tumbler.
"Thank you," I said. And sat back down, sipping my drink, waiting for my date to return. People milled about, greeting one another and dancing.
"When do you think my date is coming back?" I asked no one in particular.
"Oh, he'll be here in a few minutes. Just relax. You're fine here," said another brother.
Suddenly I noticed something was wrong. I could not feel my hands or feet; my arms and legs followed in numbness. What was happening? I started to panic. At that point, a very tall, owlish-looking man with glasses appeared, asking where I was from, what was my major, where did I live? I answered his questions perfunctorily, begging off that I was soon going home as I was tired. I had no idea what time it was or how long I had been there.
He grabbed my arm and said loudly, "I have something to show you!"
"No!" I said. I couldn't really walk. And I had no interest in what this stranger wanted to show me.
He dragged me down the hall like a rag doll, into a room, grabbed me around the waist, sat me on his lap and began reading to me from a volume of poetry. I squirmed, trying to set myself free. He stuck his tongue in my ear and told me to settle down.
Adrenaline kicked in and I freed myself, running into the hall, screaming. At that precise moment, the music was turned up loud and one of the guys from the bar calmly walked over to me, picked me up like a sack of ashes and deposited me back into the waiting arms of the bespectacled stranger.
What happened next was unspeakable. He raped me repeatedly, despite my screams. I awoke sporadically throughout the night; hearing voices, feeling hands. I could not move. At last, light flooded the room. I saw that I was lying on a filthy orange couch, covered in a filthy sheet, across the room from where I was raped. The sheet was covered with large spots of blood. As I tried to get upright, I realised, with horror, that the blood was my own. It had dried in rivulets down my legs.
After cleaning up and finding my clothing, I gingerly walked down the stairs and out into a gorgeous October morning. I started to walk right, towards my dorm, but then realised I needed to get to a hospital. So I turned left, toward the university medical centre.
After hours of waiting and many stares, I was told that what I needed "could not be done here in Charlottesville" and that I should travel to a large city such as Richmond or Washington, DC for testing. Those tests today are called "rape kits".
I went back to my dorm, where I told my dorm mates and resident adviser what had happened to me. Some sympathised, some rolled their eyes and many just walked away. I was bruised from head to toe – my head, my cheekbone, my foot, my ribs, my legs and of course my private areas. I finally showered, had some soup and slept for a good 12 hours.
On the following Monday, it was arranged that I would meet with the dean of students, Robert Canevari. Still smarting from the pain, I arrived at the appointed time and told him what had happened to me at the Phi Kappa Psi house. He looked at me, nonplussed.
"Are you sure you didn't have sex with this man and you don't want to admit that you aren't a 'good girl'?"
"No, that's not what I am saying. I am saying I was raped."
The dean told me, when I asked, that the Charlottesville police could not be called as the fraternity house fell under "university jurisdiction" and that I should make my report to them. But not before he volunteered to have me transferred to another school because of my "distress". I said no. I had always said no.
Nothing ever came of the investigation by the university police. I was the one calling them, always greeted with a terse, "Someone will call you back." No one ever did. The deans said that they had spoken with the young man in question and told me, "He said it was consensual." He, the rapist, withdrew from the university and was thus "no longer a danger" to me. One night, I took the bag of clothes I had worn that night and saved in the back of my closet, walked to the edge of the local cemetery and set them on fire. I had lost.
But then, in 2005, William Beebe, my rapist, wrote a letter to my home to apologise.
After thinking and stewing and not sleeping, I make a decision: I am going to reply. I need to know that Beebe is in Las Vegas, as it says on the return address, and not creeping outside my door. A day after receiving the letter, after putting Ava to bed, I'm sitting with my legs dangling in the pool of our Hamptons house, puffing surreptitiously on a cigarette (I'd quit years earlier) as I tap out the email on my BlackBerry.
Mr. Beebe: I am in receipt of your letter. My life was terribly altered by the fact that you raped me, and I want to know why you did it and why you are reaching out to me now. Every decision in my life has been coloured by wanting to feel safe. Now I don't feel safe again. How can you live with yourself?
I don't sign it. He'll know who it's from.
As Mike, Ava and I try to enjoy our vacation, I obsessively check the BlackBerry. And then it arrives. I see the new mail icon, see his name and click on it. He describes the selfishness of his youth, a time when he rarely thought about the consequences of his actions, especially when he had been drinking. He'd joined Alcoholics Anonymous. He wanted to right the wrongs in his past. It seems that he regards his crime against me as just one more instance of collateral damage from the alcoholic life he has put behind him. He says he prays for me.
This is torture. I can't let this email be the last word. Shamefully, I haven't discussed with my husband the correspondence – can't he tell something is wrong? That night, I email Beebe back.
Are you married? Does your wife know what you did? My life was a living hell after the rape.
Almost 24 hours later, my BlackBerry buzzes. Again, he speaks mainly about himself. He rambles on and on about his "spiritual awakening" and various trips to rehab. Not once does he really answer my questions, except to admit that he has never been married because he couldn't find "true union with a woman; especially after what he did". He refers to a much more romantic scenario than the brutal rape it was. He writes, "You were a natural blonde, as I recall." After reading those words, I almost drop the device in the pool. I have no idea what fantasy he is reliving. His emails become erratic.
The end of November brings many emotions to my household. The emails from William Beebe continue, and I intermittently email him back. The correspondence is never friendly, although my questions are sometimes benign.
One night I finally tell Mike about the emails. He stares at me, his expression changing from sympathy to anger to fear in the time it takes for me to sputter out what is happening.
In early December, I pick up the phone, hesitate, then punch in the number of the Charlottesville police department and ask for the chief. I am transferred to the voicemail of Timothy Longo. "Hi, you don't know me, but I was a student at the university, and I was raped by a fellow classmate in 1984 at the Phi Kappa Psi house. I reported it to the deans and the university police. Nothing was done. This person has made contact with me again and knows where I live. Sir, I think I need your help."
I don't expect an answer. Forty-five minutes later, Chief Longo calls me back. I give him a synopsis of what happened in 1984, and what has since transpired. He is polite, strong and businesslike. He tells me that, contrary to what the dean of students had told me two decades earlier, the fraternity house is indeed under the jurisdiction of the Charlottesville police department and always has been. My brain freezes. Had they lied to me? I am stunned. Longo also tells me that there is no statute of limitations on rape in Virginia, that Beebe can still be charged with the crime. Longo and I exchange email addresses, and he tells me that he or one of his detectives will follow up.
The next evening, the phone rings. It is detective Nicholas Rudman asking if I'd be willing to come to Charlottesville to give a statement. I phone Mike and we agree to go that Friday night. At noon on Saturday 10 December 2005, detectives Rudman and Scott Godfrey are in the hotel lobby to meet me. "Liz, could you take us to some of the places you mentioned in your statements to Chief Longo?" asks Godfrey. Sure, I say. As we drive, I point out the salmon-coloured building that housed the university police and tell the detectives of my visits there. I point to the Phi Kappa Psi house, sitting gracefully on Madison Lane. "That's the room I was raped in," I say, gesturing toward the second-floor window on the far right. "There's a window overlooking Madison and the bed was flush against that window."
We double back and drive toward campus, to my freshman dorm. On the second floor, at the end of a long hall, I see the door to my room. I'm overwhelmingly sad as I stand there, feeling so much older, but still so scared.
Finally, we begin our drive to the police department. They ask if I am ready to tell what happened to me that night in October 1984. It has been 20 years since I have spoken about it in such detail, from beginning to end. Telling it now, especially back in Charlottesville, is the oddest sensation. I ask for a piece of paper and draw a layout of Phi Kappa Psi, the room in which I was raped and myself as a stick figure on the bed and on the sofa. I stand up and ask Godfrey to stand in order to describe Beebe's height and weight. I take off my boots to demonstrate my own height. I can hear the clock on the wall ticking softly.
And then we come to the part where I have to describe the rape itself. My whole statement takes more than two hours. The story I had kept buried comes pouring forth, the details fresh. People are listening to me, hearing me, and I will never be silent again. "I think we have enough here," Rudman says, clicking off the tape. Enough for what, I wonder.
"Would you like to press charges against William Nottingham Beebe for your rape in October of 1984?"
I begin to sob. "Yes," I say, "I would like to press charges, please."
William Beebe was arrested on 4 January 2006 for felony rape. I was told that when he was arrested, there was packed luggage and a passport in his foyer, but he went without incident. He was extradited from Nevada to Virginia, where he was released after six days on a $30,000 bond.
In March 2006, I testified at a preliminary hearing, sitting a mere eight feet away from my monster. Beebe had hired a very costly and prestigious team of lawyers to defend him. As it turned out, he had found my home address by merely dialling the University of Virginia alumni office – they gave it to him without question.
I didn't look at Beebe, except when I had to identify him as my assailant. When I did, he was exactly as I remembered. The years fell away and I was 17 again and vulnerable and frightened, despite being surrounded by friends, family and the legal team.
Beebe was indicted by a grand jury and, as the investigation went on, it was revealed that I had actually been the victim of a gang rape, just as I had suspected. There was, however, not enough hard evidence to indict the other two.
Two weeks before trial in November 2006, William Beebe pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated sexual battery. The plea took two hours and he stared at me the entire time, so that the judge later told his defence team that he was not allowed to look at me. His attorneys had said that he was innocent; that he was guilty only of "a thoughtless college sex encounter during which he acted ungentlemanly".
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, all but two and a half of them suspended. He served less than six months. I was told that he was never even transferred to a maximum security prison, that "human error" had misclassified him as non-violent. He was released early as a result of this mistake and overcrowding at the city jail. Also, he was white and educated, so they figured they should set him free. I think of all the people in prison for far lesser crimes, serving far lengthier sentences, and wonder if justice was served.
Crash Into Me: A Survivor's Search for Justice by Liz Seccuro is published by Bloomsbury. |
Those who are still hoping that there will be a "Limitless" season 2 may have been saddened by news that it has been officially removed from CBS. But it looks like Bradley Cooper is here to save the day.
In May, the Hollywood Reporter announced that "Limitless" season 2 has been cancelled. This was after negotiations with Netflix and Amazon Video failed. Earlier, CBS already gave up on "Limitless" season 2 despite decent ratings for the comedy drama series.
But it looks like there is hope to "Limitless" season 2 after all. Reports say that FX, the same cable network which is responsible for the runaway success of "Archer," "People vs O.J. Simpson" and "American Horror Story," is said to be interested in the series.
Because of this recurring cast member and executive producer Bradley Cooper is said to be lobbying hard for FX to buy "Limitless" season 2. He is said to be confident with how FX will handle the material as he was impressed with the network's roster of programs. Cooper will not be as hands on with "Limitless" season 2 as previously thought as, according to the Rolling Stone, he will be directing and starring in the remake of "A Star Is Born." This is why he needs a network he can trust would not squander the potential of "Limitless" season 2.
As of now, no network or streaming service has committed to airing "Limitless" season 2 yet. GameNGuide will be covering more on the behind the scenes efforts of the producers to bring back "Limitless" season 2 in the coming weeks.
Should Bradley Cooper sell "Limitless" season 2 to FX? Or do you think plans for "Limitless" season 2 should be cancelled altogether? GameNGuide would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section. In the meantime, watch the teaser preview for the first season of "Limitless" in the video below. |
Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act Now at 218 House Co-Sponsors.
Brewers Association Press Release—Adding its 218th co-sponsor, the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act (H.R. 2903) is now supported by the majority of the U.S. House of Representatives. The comprehensive, bipartisan bill—which is widely supported by the craft brewing industry—seeks to reform burdensome laws regulating America’s brewers and beer importers and recalibrate the current federal excise tax structure for the nation’s brewers, fostering economic development and innovation in the industry.
Rep. David Rouzer, who represents the 7th Congressional District in North Carolina, became the 218th member of the House of Representatives to officially endorse the bipartisan legislation.
“I want to thank Rep. Rouzer as well as the 217 Republican and Democratic House members from Maine to Miami who are standing with America’s beer industry and supporting legislation that represents a fair, broad and bipartisan solution to a decades-old problem,” said Jim McGreevy, president and CEO of the Beer Institute, which represents brewers, beer importers and supply industries. “The beer industry prides itself on the quality ingredients and dedication that goes into every pour. This legislation will build on that tradition by updating the antiquated tax code and regulations impacting the beer industry.”
The American beer industry supports 1.75 million jobs, which contribute nearly $79 billion in wages and benefits each year to American families and generate $253 billion for the U.S. economy.
“Beer is as bipartisan as it gets,” said Bob Pease, president and CEO, Brewers Association. “Brewers large and small stand together in support of this critical legislation, Democrats and Republicans have shown the same unity. We’re grateful for the degree of support behind this bill, which will have a profound impact on the breweries in this country that are actively contributing to our culture and economy.”
The Brewers Association and Beer Institute are collaborating closely to pass the bill, which was introduced in the House by Reps. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) and Ron Kind (D-WI) and has also been endorsed by Hop Growers of America, the Can Manufacturers Institute, Glass Packaging Institute, and the National Barley Growers Association.
Specific provisions of the bill include:
Reducing the federal excise tax to $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels for domestic brewers producing fewer than 2 million barrels annually.
Reducing the federal excise tax to $16 per barrel on the first 6 million barrels for all other brewers and all beer importers.
Keeping the excise tax at the current $18 per barrel rate for over 6 million barrels.
Reducing bonding and filing requirements for the 90% of American craft breweries that pay less than $50,000 per year in federal excise taxes.
Expanding the list of ingredients that could be automatically included in beer without federal government approval.
Allowing small, unaffiliated brewers to greater collaborate on new beers by giving them the flexibility to transfer beer between breweries without tax liability.
A complete list of Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act co-sponsors can be found here. The Senate companion bill (S. 1562), introduced by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), currently has 43 co-sponsors.
About the Beer Institute
The Beer Institute is a national trade association for the American brewing industry, representing both large and small brewers, as well as importers and industry suppliers. First founded in 1862 as the U.S. Brewers Association, the Beer Institute is committed today to the development of sound public policy and to the values of civic duty and personal responsibility.
About the Brewers Association
The Brewers Association is the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers, their beers and the community of brewing enthusiasts. The Brewers Association (BA) represents more than 70 percent of the brewing industry, and its members make more than 99 percent of the beer brewed in the U.S. The BA organizes events including the World Beer Cup℠, Great American Beer Festival®, Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America®, SAVOR℠: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, AHA National Homebrewers Conference, National Homebrew Competition and American Craft Beer Week®. The BA publishes The New Brewer magazine and its Brewers Publications division is the largest publisher of contemporary and relevant brewing literature for today’s craft brewers and homebrewers. |
In 1810 Sir Samuel Romilly, former Solicitor General, told the House of Commons “There is no country on the face of the earth in which there are so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England.” In 1688 there had been 50 offences punishable with the death penalty. By the beginning of the 19th century there were 220. [1] Thanks to Romilly’s efforts, the number of crimes punishable by death began to decline, and by 1861 there were only five crimes that merited death: murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and piracy with violence. Of these, however, murder and treason carried a mandatory death penalty (unless the person was pardoned, that is). This brought a new prominence to the role of the official executioners – they were still required to be available to carry out these executions, but there was hardly enough of a steady stream of work to make them salaried employees. Instead, therefore, in 1884 they became independent contractors. The official power to carry out the punishment was granted to the Sheriff of a county, with the ability to invite someone to be deputised to carry it out for him. The Home Office maintained a list of those who could be invited to carry it out. The pay was not excessive – £10 per execution, which had remained static since the 19th century (it would eventually be raised to £15 in the 1940s). [2] Yet still there was fierce competition to get onto the Home Office list.
Henry Pierrepoint was one of those competing for a place. He’d been born in 1878 in the small village of Normanton on Soar, though his family had moved to Bradford when he was a child. Henry had worked as a mill worker and as a cabinet maker, but it was a magazine article he read on the hangman system that showed him the path to respectability. To him, becoming a hangman was a means to an end – a ways to raise his position in society. So he wrote his letters, and in 1901 he was told that he had been accepted onto the list. That November he participated in his first hanging as an assistant to James Billington. James was an experienced hangman, and the first to see it as a family trade – there were seven names on the Home Office list at the time, and three of them were Billingtons. All three of his sons eventually also became hangmen. James died soon after Henry Pierrepoint began work, as did one of his sons, but Henry acted as an assistant to the two survivors for the next few years. [3] By 1905, Henry had become the primary hangman for England and carried out all of the executions that year. (There were only eight – a far cry from the thousands of a century ago). Perhaps inspired by the Billingtons, he began suggesting to his brother Thomas that he also apply to be on the list, reportedly demonstrating the work to him with a bag of grain in a shed. Thomas applied, and was accepted in 1907. In the same year Henry executed Rhoda Willis, a 44 year old woman who had murdered a baby she had adopted for money. This execution was apparently where the job began to take its toll on Henry. His career ended in 1910, when he turned up drunk to an execution. He was immediately removed from the List.
Thomas, it appears, took to the trade he had been reluctantly drawn into even better than his brother. He spent 39 years on the List, longer than anyone else in its history. [4] In addition to his work for the Home Office he received several outside appointments – he was the official executioner for the Irish Free State after it was established in 1922, and carried out the death sentence 28 times at Mountjoy prison. He was also an official executioner for the US Military in Europe, and during World War 2 he hanged 16 US servicemen at their base in Shepton Mallet. (Most were executed for rape, which was a capital offence under US military law at the time.) The one blot on his record was an instance in 1927, when he and a fellow hangman were reprimanded by the Home Office for writing letters to offer their services to carry out an execution. The code of conduct the hangmen were held to implicitly forbade them to tout for business, but Tom claimed that he had merely done so because he knew the other man, Robert Baxter, was doing so. [5] The code was revised to explicitly ban the practise.
Henry Pierrepoint’s son Albert grew up in the shadow of the gallows. His father looked back on his nine years in the trade as a highlight of his life, while his uncle was the most respected hangman in the country. Albert idolised his uncle, and when he stayed with his aunt and uncle his aunt would let him read Thomas’ work diaries. As a child at school in 1916 Albert wrote an essay entitled “When I Grow Up I Would Like To Be The Official Executioner”. The following year, at the age of twelve, he left school and went to work in the mill. His father died in 1922, and Albert inherited his diaries and notes on the craft of hanging, which he read voraciously. By 1931 he had become a delivery driver, and that April he finally wrote to the Home Office volunteering to be a hangman. They wrote back to tell him there were no vacancies, but towards the end of the year one of the hangmen on the list asked to be removed. Albert was invited for an interview, and impressed the authorities enough to get the place.
Albert’s first job was in Ireland, assisting his uncle Thomas. His father and Thomas had avoided telling him the real reason why his father had been removed from the List, but Thomas’ advice to him was uncompromising. It was the custom in Ireland to offer both the condemned man and the hangman a drink, but Thomas advised him “if you can’t do it without whisky, don’t do it at all”. It was advice he would take to heart, and it helped to account for his long career. Nothing got a man removed from the List faster than drunkenness. Albert spent nine years as Tom’s assistant (and continued to assist him at Shepton Mallet until the end of the Second World War).
In 1941 he performed his first execution as lead hangman. The condemned man was Antonio Mancini, a notorious East End gangster. Antonio had knifed a man in self defence and had expected to get a verdict of manslaughter. It was clear that his sentence owed more to his position as an underworld crime boss, combined with the desire of the government to clamp down on war profiteers. Still, Antonio seemed to have resigned himself to his fate, and Albert reported that he said “Cheerio!” as the lever was pulled. Albert’s second execution was a much messier affair. Karel Richter was a Czech who had tried to escape from German territory to reunite with his girlfriend and son in America, but been caught crossing the border and imprisoned. The Germans had offered him to option to commute his sentence through service as a spy, and he had accepted. After some training he had been parachuted into England, with the task of checking on another spy that the Germans suspected had been turned. [6] Unfortunately his complete lack of tradecraft led to his swift arrest, and after a military trial he was sentenced to death. Karel vowed to die “as a man”, and he made life very difficult for Albert. When the guards entered his cell Karel repeatedly ran headfirst at the wall, and when the guards restrained him he broke his bonds and attacked them. Eventually four guards overpowered him and carried him to the gallows, where he was bound hand and foot with a hood over his head and the noose around his neck. As Albert pulled the lever, Karel tried to leap clear, but failed. Albert was horrified to notice that the noose had slipped from his neck, though it caught on his nose under the hood. Luckily for Albert he had worked out the length of rope perfectly, and the jerk to Karel’s head was enough to break his neck and kill him instantly.
It was definitely the most trying execution Albert had ever taken part in, but his mettle seems to have impressed the authorities. Perhaps it was this, or perhaps it was his having assisted his uncle at Shepton Mallet that led to him being chosen to go to Nuremberg. As a military executioner for the Allied Armies his uncle would have been the logical choice, but he was 75 years old and had been effectively retired by the Home Office. So in December 1945 Albert flew out to Germany. He left behind a wife – Annie Fletcher, the girl who had run the sweet shop next to the grocers where he had his “day job”. Albert had not told Annie about his other profession, and it was six months after their wedding before he confessed. Annie, of course, had known all along. It was with her blessing that he went to Nuremberg.
The first trial at Nuremberg had been of those who had run the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Belsen. Forty-five men and women had been put on trial. One was too sick to stand trial, fourteen were acquitted and eighteen were sentenced to terms in prison. One was sentenced to prison, but also faced a civil trial for murder (for which he was executed by the German authorities). Eleven were sentenced to death, and two who had been convicted of murdering a captured RAF pilot joined them. On the 13th December 1945 Albert Pierrepoint hanged them all. He also carried out the executions of others convicted of war crimes in various trials over the next four years, and by 1949 he had executed 202 people on the continent (as well as several convicted of treason back home, such as William Joyce). The press managed to discover his identity, and he became a strange kind of national hero. Tales of the horrors found in the camps and of the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi forces ensured there was little sympathy for those at the end of his rope. [7]
Albert was paid handsomely for his work in Germany, and the money allowed him and Annie to buy a pub in Hollinwood, just outside Manchester. Tourists came to be served a pint by the man who had hanged the Nazis, while his regulars soon came to see the human side of the “Official Executioner”. It was in 1950 that Albert had one of his most difficult executions. He turned up at Strangeways prison in Manchester to hang James Corbitt for the brutal murder of his girlfriend. The name was unfamiliar to him, but he immediately recognised the man as one of his regulars, and later realised that Corbitt had even got drunk at his pub before he went home to commit his crime. It was the first time the job ever got to him, and it probably contributed to the end of his career. Equally contributing, however, was the changing public attitude towards the death penalty. It became more and more common for people to be reprieved, and those that were not became more and more cause for controversy. The execution in 1953 of Derek Bentley for conspiracy to the murder of PC Sidney Miles caused public outcry, and among others the widow of Miles and two hundred members of Parliament all called for his reprieve. The times were changing – in 1954 Albert hanged the last man to receive the death sentence in the Republic of Ireland (Michael Manning, a rapist and murderer) and in 1955 he hanged the last woman to receive the death sentence, Ruth Ellis. Her execution for the murder of her lover was also controversial, with many feeling that her behaviour in court was deliberately calculated to ensure she received the death sentence. In this atmosphere, reprieves became more and more common and it was a reprieve in January of 1956 that prompted Albert’s resignation.
The dispute was simple enough – Albert turned up at Strangeways to carry out an execution, but midway through his preparations he was told that the prisoner had been reprieved. The under-Sheriff then told him that as no execution had been carried out he was entitled to no fee, though he was willing to give him £1 for his time. Albert was insulted, and demanded the full £15. When the Home Office refused to back him up, he tendered his resignation. Things may not have been so clear cut, however. Shortly after the Home Office wrote to him asking him to reconsider (the only time they ever did so for any hangman) they discovered that he had agreed to sell his story to the newspapers. They considered prosecuting him under the Official Secrets Act, but instead simply pressured the newspapers in question to cease publication of the articles after the first few. As a result Albert still received his payment – perhaps a final gift from the government, in recognition of his long service.
The last hanging in the United Kingdom took place in 1965. Nine years later, in 1974, Albert published his memoirs. Executioner Pierrepoint was a bestseller, and remains in print to this day. In the conclusion to the book, Albert admits that while he never felt that the hangings he carried out were unjust, he had come to believe that capital punishment was not an effective deterrent to criminals.
“It is said to be a deterrent. I cannot agree. There have been murders since the beginning of time, and we shall go on looking for deterrents until the end of time.”
“I have come to the conclusion that executions solve nothing, and are only an antiquated relic of a primitive desire for revenge which takes the easy way and hands over responsibility for revenge to other people.”
“The trouble with the death penalty has always been that nobody wanted it for everybody but everybody differed about who should get off.”
Whether these were his true beliefs, or a calculated ploy to boost sales, we’ll never know. The book earned enough that Albert and Annie were able to retire to Southport. There he spent his twilight years in peace. In 1992 he died, aged 87. Two weeks earlier the last death sentence in the UK had been handed down in the Isle of Man, to a man named Tony Teare found guilty of the contract killing of a young woman. The Queen exercised her royal prerogative to commute the sentence, and Teare was instead sent to prison for life. The following year the Isle of Man abolished the punishment, and by 1998 there were no crimes that carried the death penalty in the United Kingdom. The era of the hangmen had come to an end.
Images via wikimedia except where stated.
[1] Notable examples of crimes punishable by death were wearing a disguise to commit a crime, spending more than a month travelling with Gypsies, and “strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age”. Stealing anything valued at more than a shilling was also a potential ground for death.
[2] Half was paid at the time, half two weeks later (provided the hangman had shown appropriate discretion).
[3] In 1904 William Billington was struck off the list for letting his wife and children be put into a workhouse, and in 1905 John Billington died of injuries sustained when he fell off a scaffold.
[4] The longest serving hangman was William Calcraft, who was in office from 1829 to 1874, a full 45 years. Calcraft predated the List however – he was a salaried Government employee.
[5] Baxter became infamous the following year for an accident involving his assistant Alfred Allen. Baxter was blind in his left eye and did not realise that Allen was still standing on the trapdoor when he pulled the lever. Allen survived the fall, and Baxter continued to perform hangings for another seven years.
[6] In this they were correct. In fact the British had turned or captured all of the German spies in Britain, thanks in large part to Nathalie Sergueiew and Roger Grosjean, two French agents who allowed themselves to be recruited by the Germans and immediately started to double for the British.
[7] Pierrepoint was not the only executioner employed to hang Nazi war criminals. One notable executioner was John C Woods, a US private from Kansas who had been discharged from the Navy for incompetence in 1930, but re-recruited in 1943 due to the war. He secured a promotion to Master Sergeant by lying about having experience as a hangman and became notorious for botching hangings with too short a drop. In 1950 he accidentally electrocuted himself while working on an electrical lighting repair. |
The biomass boiler near Port Hawkesbury consumed 530,000 tonnes of woody biomass last year, with nearly a quarter of that imported from outside the province, CBC has learned.
The total consumed by the plant in 2014 amounts to about 50 large pulp trucks a day. It includes low-grade hardwood, bark and wood chips.
The numbers are contained in a summary report prepared for the province by Nova Scotia Power, which owns the boiler.
Last year was the first full year of operation for the biomass boiler, which was approved to provide cheap electricity to Port Hawkesbury Paper and help Nova Scotia Power meet legislated renewable energy targets of 25 per cent in 2015.
Nova Scotia Power spokesperson David Rodenhiser says the company went outside the province to buy 23 per cent of its total biomass when it was cheaper.
"We've imported some secondary biomass, largely sawmill bark, from Quebec," he says. "And there's also been some primary biomass that we've purchased from lands that were being cleared for agricultural purposes in New Brunswick."
Primary biomass is largely wood, while secondary biomass is usually the chips and bark from sawmills.
Matt Miller of the Ecology Action Center has been critical of the boiler from the start, calling it an unwise use of a forest that should be providing higher value products. He says importing biomass suggests the power company is facing some of the same supply issues competing for fibre as sawmills and even pulp mills.
"We've seen this project drive harvesting practices to a new low," Miller says. "It's having an impact on the value-added hardwood industry, which is a much wiser use for jobs per unit of wood used.
"There have been increases in clear cutting and we should be looking at options to decommission the plant once Muskrat Falls comes online."
Hydroelectricity from Muskrat Falls is due by the end of 2017. Meanwhile, Nova Scotia Power is on track to hit its 25 per cent renewable energy target for this year and exceed it once the South Canoe wind project, near New Ross, comes online.
Difficulty finding hardwood
The biomass plant in Port Hawkesbury generates about three percent of the province's electricity.
Sawmills and flooring manufacturers that are experiencing difficulty finding enough hardwood question to what extent Port Hawkesbury Paper and private contractors are working to separate it from the truckloads of biomass heading to the boiler.
The Department of Natural Resources confirms 43 percent of the hardwood on Crown lands licensed to Port Hawkesbury Paper wound up being used for biomass last year.
And there's plenty of disagreement among the department, sawmills and pulp and paper mills over whether the province is properly identifying the higher value hardwood before cutting goes ahead.
Natural Resources Minister Zack Churchill says he’s satisfied hardwood cut from Crown land is not being turned into biomass.
"We know that's not happening from Crown land," he says. "It is monitored for how much hardwood sawlogs are going into the biomass plant and all the inspections we have done to date indicate a minimal amount of sawlogs going to the biomass plant.”
“We don't control what comes off private lands. Seventy to 80 per cent comes off private lands. If you look at the economics of it, I don’t know why people would be selling hardwood sawlogs at a lower value when there is a higher value outlet out there with other sawmills."
Churchill went on to blame "market forces" such as the price drop after the recession of 2008 for the closure of half the province’s sawmills in the last ten years.
Read the report. |
Family Leadership Summit
The American Family Association is throwing a prayer rally for Gov. Bobby Jindal at LSU next month. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Are legal abortion and same-sex marriage leading to more disasters like Hurricane Katrina? Does the First Amendment only protect Christian religious expression?
Next month, Gov. Bobby Jindal is bringing a mass prayer event to LSU's campus sponsored by a conservative Christian group that has espoused controversial views on a number of issues, including the causes of Hurricane Katrina.
The American Family Association (AFA), based out of Mississippi, has weighed in on everything from homosexuality to Eric Garner -- the man who died after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold. They are paying for Jindal's mass prayer event at LSU, called The Response, in January.
"I haven't looked at their website, so you will need to talk to them about it. Here's what we do know...our nation is facing serious issues, but God is real, He is powerful, and He answers prayer. That is why we are asking people to come to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 24th and pray for revival," said Shannon Bates, Jindal's deputy communications manager, in a written statement about the organization.
"This is a prayer meeting -- not a political rally. One thing that most people can agree on is that prayer is a positive thing," Bates said.
Abortion, homosexuality and Hurricane Katrina?
The AFA implied -- in a prayer guide originally distributed in connection with Jindal's January rally -- that there is a direct link between the rising approval of same-sex marriage and abortion in the United States and events like Hurricane Katrina.
The prayer guide -- which appeared to be a few years old and outdated -- was pulled from The Response's website Friday (Dec. 12). Before it was taken down, it contained the following language:
"We have watched sin escalate to a proportion the nation has never seen before. We live in the first generation in which the wholesale murder of infants through abortion is not only accepted but protected by law. Homosexuality has been embraced as an alternative lifestyle. Same-sex marriage is legal in six states and Washington, D.C. Pornography is available on-demand through the internet. Biblical signs of apostasy are before our very eyes. While the United States still claims to be a nation 'under God' it is obvious that we have greatly strayed from our foundations in Christianity.
"This year we have seen a dramatic increase in tornadoes that have taken the lives of many and crippled entire cities, such as Tuscaloosa, AL & Joplin, MO. And let us not forget that we are only six years from the tragic events of hurricane Katrina, which rendered the entire Gulf Coast powerless."
More on homosexuality
The group counts the "preservation of marriage and family" as one of its top priorities. Concerns about same-sex marriage and homosexuality are raised throughout the group's website.
For example, the organization has begun lobbying on behalf of the Duggars, a family on reality television who have spoken out against an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in their home state of Arkansas.
"The Duggars are under a malicious attack because of their uncompromising stand on marriage and abstinence. The homosexual lobby has drawn a bully bead on Jim and Michelle Duggar. Gay activists are publicly labeling Jim and Michelle with words like 'ignorance' and 'fear mongering,'" reads one recent letter posted on the American Family Association website, asking people to support the television stars.
Eric Garner and the chokehold
The AFA has also recently weighed in on the case of Eric Garner, who died after a New York police officer put him in a chokehold for selling loose cigarettes. A grand jury's refusal to indict the arresting officer for using excessive force has spurred protests across the country.
Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the AFA, has said Garner was responsible for his own death because he was breaking the law at the time the police arrested him.
"To put it as simply as possible, if Mr. Garner had not broken the law and then resisted arrest, he would be alive today," wrote Fischer in an article on the American Family Association website.
First Amendment
In a recent opinion column, Fischer has also argued that the First Amendment of the Constitution is not meant to protect all freedom of expression, but only Christian religious exercises.
"Americans, even educated ones, do not understand this basic fact about the First Amendment: that by the word 'religion' in the First Amendment, the Founders meant only the various expressions of Christianity," wrote Fischer in a column about the First Amendment this November.
*****
The prayer guide originally posted in connection with Jindal's mass prayer rally can be found below:
(PDF)
. . . .
Julia O'Donoghue is a state politics reporter based in Baton Rouge. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @jsodonoghue. Please consider following us on Facebook at NOLA.com and NOLA.com-Baton Rouge. |
Newham house prices rising faster than anywhere else in England
Stratford from the sky Picture: Chris Radburn/PA PA/PA Photos
House prices are rising faster here than anywhere else in the country.
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New figures released by the Land Registry today show property in Newham increased in price by an average of 20.29 per cent from September 2015 to September this year.
That puts the cost of the average home in the borough at £371,139, up by £62,596 in 12 months.
The national average is £217,888, while in London it is £487,649.
Back in January 1995 – the earliest date covered by the records – the average Newham home cost £53,539. |
We are one week from election day. Barack Obama leads John McCain in every poll. Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com gives Obama a 96.7 percent chance of winning. And some McCain supporters with a nose for survival are jumping off of the Republican bandwagon faster than Sarah Palin running to an Alaska consignment shop (yes, I'm talking to you Joe Lieberman).
And yet I can't bring myself to believe Obama will win next Tuesday.
You have to forgive me. As a 41-year-old Democrat, I've seen too much to ever be confident. I watched the nation choose a bumbling Bush (the first one) over a smart, successful governor, all because the governor was a bit of a nerd. Okay, a lot more than a bit, but still. (I often think about the Saturday Night Live sketch in which Jon Lovitz, as Michael Dukakis, in a debate with Dana Carvey's George H.W. Bush, responds to a nonsensical response by looking into the camera and saying, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy!") I've seen Americans twice put into office a language-bungling, shallow-thinking, political legacy who, as was brilliantly said once, was born on third base but acted like he hit a triple (one of the elections coming after it was clear he had led America into a dangerous, damaging, unnecessary war that was completely mismanaged by his administration).
So you can at least understand why I won't believe that the U.S. has elected Obama until/if I see McCain giving a concession speech.
I know what you're thinking right about now: "But Mitchell, it's over. Just look at the polls." I get it. I'm not pretending that there is necessarily a rational underpinning for my paranoia. I wouldn't begin to set out an electoral path to victory like Silver gamely tried to do for the New York Post (give the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid credit for asking a smart Obama supporter how the paper's guy could pull an upset).
But I can tell you the four things that keep me up at night and make me wonder if there ever really will be an Obama inauguration in January.
Close Races
When the polls are viewed through the prism of how many of the close states McCain has to win, they certainly look daunting for the Republicans. But consider that Obama holds fairly small leads in nearly all of the toss-up states, according to Rasmussen, which is ranked as the most reliable of all the major polling organizations by fivethirtyeight.com (only Seltzer and SurveyUSA have a better record, and Rasmussen is the top daily tracking poll).
According to Rasmussen:
- Virginia: Obama up 51 percent to 47 percent.
- Colorado: Obama up 50 percent to 46 percent.
- Missouri: McCain up 48 percent to 47 percent.
- Ohio: Obama up 49 percent to 45 percent.
- North Carolina: McCain up 49 percent to 48 percent.
- Florida: Obama up 51 percent to 47 percent.
- New Hampshire: Obama up 50 percent to 46 percent.
- National Daily Tracking Poll: Obama up 51 percent to 46 percent.
Considering that, depending on the scenario, McCain has to win most (if not all) of these states, the numbers I have laid out above look very good for Obama. It's hard to imagine McCain sweeping so many close races.
But here is where the dread creeps in: The biggest lead Obama has in any state is five points. So if there is one big event, or one big factor, that can put a jolt into the election nationally, it can change the look of the map in a hurry. As you consider the next three nightmare scenarios, remember how relatively little effect they have to have on the electorate to shift the outlook of the race.
Voter Fraud
Make no mistake: If the Republicans cannot generate more votes for their candidate, they are happy to win by decreasing the number of votes of their opponent. Shortly after the 2004 election, Robert Kennedy wrote about voter fraud in Ohio, and there have been a number of films to cover the story, as well.
And it's not like the GOP is going to suddenly play fair in 2008. On Friday, Bush asked the Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, to investigate 200,000 voter registrations for minor discrepancies in data. Bush is quick to look into non-issues like this one and the minor voter registration (note, voter registration, not voter fraud) allegations at ACORN, but he can't be bothered to enforce congressional subpoenas or investigate actual voter fraud allegations. (Hendrik Hertzberg wrote an excellent piece in the New Yorker explaining how the ACORN issue has been completely distorted and misused by the Republicans.) It's fair to say that McCain has the might of the federal government on his side in any election fraud-related issue.
Remember, it only takes a few points in the key swing states to make a difference.
So even if the polls are correct and most Americans support Obama, I would not be the least bit surprised to wake up next Wednesday to a "miraculous" McCain comeback victory (with the miracle provided courtesy of election irregularities). Of course, this year, the Democrats are better prepared for such an eventuality, and any fraud will be more vigorously challenged. But that only does so much to assuage my fears.
October or November Surprise
It's not too late for the president to engineer an event to put national security on the front burner of the election. After all, security is the one issue on which McCain outperforms Obama in polls. If we've learned one thing from watching McCain run a disgusting smear campaign, it's that Republicans, who seem to see the White House as a birthright, are not below doing anything to secure victory.
I fear that Bush's move to have Mukasey investigate voter registration in Ohio is not the end of his involvement, but only the beginning. It's not like any Republicans right about now are looking for Bush's endorsement or want him to campaign for them. But this is a way the president could actually affect the race.
More Than Just the Bradley Effect
There has been a lot of debate about whether or not there is a Bradley Effect; that is, if there are white voters who tell pollsters they will vote for a black candidate, but when they get into the voting booth, they can't bring themselves to actually do it and cast a ballot for the white opponent.
But there is nothing to which one can compare this election. An African American has never been a Republican or Democratic nominee for the presidency before. There is just no way to judge what will happen on election day.
Even if the Bradley Effect does not exist (and there certainly is a strong argument to be made in that regard), I am concerned that there are white voters who won't vote for an African-American candidate, and that many of them are contained in the "undecided" category of the polls. (Despite an interesting science-based defense of undecided voters in today's New York Times, I still can't imagine how anyone at this stage of the race can't decide between two candidates who are different in virtually every way.)
There are things to look at if you want to scare yourself into thinking that race may be a deciding factor in this election. For example, in the race for governor in Missouri, a state that leans red (Bush carried it in 2000 and 2004), Attorney General Jay Nixon leads Republican Congressman Kenny Hulshof by nearly 20 points (57 percent to 38 percent) in the latest Rasmussen poll (October 17), and yet in the presidential race in the state, Obama trails McCain by one point in Rasmussen's latest survey (October 27). On CNN this morning, a radio host from Missouri didn't shy away from explaining the difference in the numbers: He attributed it to Obama's race.
Maybe race is the reason, and maybe it's not. We don't know for sure, but I'm certainly afraid it is. The Missouri factor is not unique. Based on Rasmussen results, the Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate seats in Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire are all outperforming Obama in their states.
Both the New York Times (Pennsylvania) and the New Yorker (Ohio) have recently done features on rust-belt white voters, and in each case, it's clear that Obama has to overcome some pretty strong race-based biases. The Times piece features one voter saying, "I'm no racist, but I'm not crazy about him either. I don't know, maybe 'cause he's black" (the person claimed to be voting for Obama anyway), while another remarks, "He scares me. The coloreds are excited, but my friends and I plan to write in Hillary's name." When I read the last line, chills of fear and disgust literally shot up my spine. I don't know what bothered me the most: that someone would care so much about a candidate's race (the positions of Clinton and Obama are so similar), that the person would admit it to a New York Times reporter, or that the person would use the term "colored." It's 2008. How often do you, in your day-to-day life, hear that word? I can remember someone using it to me once in the last 20 years (and, oddly, it happened a few weeks ago, but it had nothing to do with Obama).
Look, I get it. Despite yahoos like the people quoted in the article, the polls look good for Obama right now. But with this kind of race-based nonsense floating in the ether, especially when the McCain campaign is all too happy to fan these flames whenever possible (like when a McCain staffer pushed the phony attack story of Ashley Todd to reporters), I can't feel entirely comfortable.
McCain and Palin have spent a lot of time in Pennsylvania, despite every poll showing Obama with a more-than-10-point lead. Why? Is it a suicide mission? It just may be. It may be that McCain has run out of viable options, so he is going for one of his now-patented Hail Mary plays and hoping it is more successful than the last two (choosing Palin and "suspending" his campaign to work on the financial crisis), which both backfired on him. But since we're talking about what keeps me up at night, what if race is the wild card that McCain is counting on in Pennsylvania? I'm not saying he's right (in fact, I don't think he is), but since I'm admittedly looking for doomsday scenarios, I can't help but think of this one.
And again, with the numbers fairly close on a state-to-state basis, it's easy to be afraid of one false inflammatory rumor taking hold in this final week and tipping the scales to McCain in too many states. It's not like there is any shortage of McCain robocalls or flyers trying to scare voters out of supporting Obama. |
For New Jersey, wind and solar energy a better investment than nuclear power
As for nuclear, Tittel said. it’s too expensive to build, maintain, and operate. The cost of building a nuclear plant is three to four times more than wind and then you add the environmental and safety issues, he said.
“Wind and solar is a much better investment,”
Wind And Solar Energy Overshadow Nuclear At Energy Master Plan Public Hearing, Toms River Patch, By Elaine Piniat 19 Aug 11, The public, environmental advocates, and stakeholders voice their opinions on the state’s Energy Master Plan. Wind and solar energy were the focus at a public hearing on the state’s Energy Master Plan held by Sen. Bob Smith (D- District 17) and Assemblyman John McKeon (D- District 27) at the Town Hall in Toms River.
“The New Jersey shore provides an appropriate setting for a vigorous discussion on clean energy, considering it is an ideal location for harnessing renewable sources like wind and solar…New Jersey has a unique opportunity to modernize our energy blueprint for the future,” Smith said prior to the hearing……
The purpose of the hearing was for members of the public, environmental advocates, and stakeholders to voice their opinions so their ideas could be brought to the legislature.
“The Energy Master Plan affects all aspects of your life,” he said, including air quality and the cost of air condition.
Although most emphasized the importance of wind and solar, Stefanie Brand, Director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, said the state needs to balance the resource mix with energy efficiency and cost in mind.
“We can’t close Oyster Creek if they don’t replace the capacity…We can’t replace base load generation simply with solar, wind and energy efficiency,” Brand said.
The state needs a mix of resources that would moderate prices and decrease carbon emissions, she said….
Jeff Tittel, President of the New Jersey Sierra Club, looks at the Energy Master Plan …..
The 3,000 megawatts of wind generation proposed is manageable and the state is exceeding in solar, Tittel said. But he looked down upon the Energy Master Plan decreasing from 30 percent to 22.5 percent of electricity produced from renewable energy sources by 2020. “We look at this plan overall and we see a future but we need to make a decision,” Tittel said. The state needs to make a decision between offshore or onshore oil, wind, solar, and energy efficiency, he said….. As for nuclear, Tittel said it’s too expensive to build, maintain, and operate. The cost of building a nuclear plant is three to four times more than wind and then you add the environmental and safety issues, he said. “Wind and solar is a much better investment,” Tittel said. “If we do replace [Oyster Creek], it should be with offshore wind and renewable energy not another fuel plant. I think we’re better off both environmentally and financially.” Lacey Township can become a service place for offshore wind and even install solar panels on Oyster Creek once the plant closes, he said…. http://tomsriver.patch.com/articles/wind-and-solar-energy-overshadow-nuclear-at-energy-master-plan-public-hearing
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By Massad Ayoob, American Handgunner
Situation:
The big man has threatened to beat you to death, and you have reason to believe he’s capable of doing it. Now he shows up at your house, and begins to beat you …
Lesson:
Not everyone who violently attacks you will be a stereotypical criminal, and the justice system still has trouble recognizing your attacker doesn’t need a weapon to kill you.
Social scientists tell us by the time we turn 21, we’ve seen thousands of people “killed” on TV and movie screens. Those images shape our society’s values, sometimes in unrealistic and unhealthy ways. TV and movies can give the general public false impressions.
The guy was shot in the back? “It couldn’t possibly be self-defense — he must be a victim of cowardly, murderous ambush!” The deceased was shot more than once or twice, particularly with a relatively powerful gun? “Hey, when Gary Cooper shot a bad cowboy once with a .45, it knocked him off his feet! This shooting must have been motivated solely by murderous malice!”
Years of watching shows such as “CSI” on TV can lead the viewer to think if the spent casing was found in Position X, then without a doubt the shot must have been fired from exactly Position Y. And, horror of horrors, an armed citizen shot someone unarmed? In reference to one such case last year, I saw a CNN commentator literally scream into the camera, “Murder! Murder! MURDER!”
The Facts
Anyone who’s been involved in homicide cases for any length of time knows all of the popular beliefs listed above are misconceptions. Any number of dynamics can account for a bullet entering behind the lateral midline of an attacker’s body. Many factors can turn a violent assailant into a “bullet sponge,” who soaks up wound after deadly wound before he goes down.
Any shooter who has tried to retrieve brass after a range session absolutely knows the shooter’s position does not exactly correlate to where the spent casing ends up. And any medical examiner or homicide investigator who has ever seen the corpse of someone beaten to death knows a criminal assailant does not require a deadly weapon to kill an innocent victim.
Movies teach us to expect an attacker who resembles a street monster out of Hollywood Central Casting. The fact is, with surprising frequency, the attacker is someone who doesn’t happen to have a criminal record, and who is loved by family and friends — who genuinely see him as a good guy.
Earlier this year, I was involved in a premeditated murder trial in the Appalachians where all of these factors came together. I came to know the defendant and his wife, who asked me to keep their names out of this story because they have suffered enough from the trial’s negative publicity. The same seems fair for the family of the deceased. For these reasons, I am going to change two names here, the name of the defendant and the name of the man who was killed. All other names appearing in this account are real.
Prelude
The men on each side of the gun the night of this shooting had clean criminal records and were respectable citizens. One of the men, who I’ll call “Mr. Phist,” had an eye for the wife of the man I’ll call “Mr. Gunn.” Neither man had ever so much as met, but Mr. Gunn got wind of it. He touched base with Phist’s wife. He testified later she told him she wasn’t surprised, because her husband had a wandering eye, and Mr. Gunn had better be careful because Mr. Phist was a dangerous man who stood six-feet-three, weighed 300 to 350 pounds of solid muscle, and messing with him was a good way to get killed.
This was a definite concern for Mr. Gunn, who was of average height and had never been in a serious fight. A hunter and recreational gun owner with a concealed carry permit, he had long made a habit of keeping a pistol in his car, and bringing it into the house when he came home. It was kept out of reach of his little boys, but in a place where Mr. Gunn could get to for home defense.
Late on the night of Nov. 17, 2010, the Gunn family was asleep when Mr. Gunn heard a loud banging at the door, awakening him. He got up, and without opening the door, asked who was there. Mr. Phist, clearly in a state of rage, identified himself and verbalized his anger, claiming Gunn had put his marriage in jeopardy by talking to Mrs. Phist. In his verbal tirade, he swore he would “beat the life” out of the smaller man.
Gunn, wisely, never unlocked the door. Phist eventually drove off into the night. Shaken, Gunn called 9-1-1 and told the dispatcher what happened. Since this was a rural community with a limited police presence, he was told to simply call back if the man returned.
The Incident
Four days later, devastation occurred. It is approximately 8:00 p.m. The two little boys in the Gunn family were eager for Christmas, and even though it wasn’t yet Thanksgiving, decorating the house for the holidays is now in full swing. The doorbell rang, and Mrs. Gunn answered it. In moments, she was back inside, a look of grave concern on her face — informing her husband Mr. Phist was at the door demanding to talk to him.
Gunn’s mind immediately flashed back to the screaming rage he witnessed at his door four nights ago. He was glad his kids were asleep then and didn’t hear any of it. Fearing it would escalate again, he told his wife to take the boys into another room. Then, because he had every reason to be genuinely in fear of his life, he took his pistol from its high resting place and tucked it into his waistband behind his right hip.
The gun was a Ruger P345 he bought used from a friend a few years ago. Its hammer was de-cocked on a live round — the way he always carried this gun, with the lever up and off safe. Having been told all his life to load magazines one round short of capacity to save their springs and preserve reliability, his 8-round magazines had seven Remington 185-grain jacketed hollowpoint .45 ACP cartridges. After chambering a round, he never bothered to top it off; meaning a pistol capable of holding 8+1 rounds had only seven.
Pausing at the door, Gunn then stepped out onto the dimly lit porch area and closed the door behind him. Part of him hoped the man had simply come to apologize for his previous outburst. No such luck.
This was the first time he had seen the dreaded Mr. Phist face-to-face. The man towered over him, looking every bit of the 300-plus pounds he’d been described, and launched into a tirade. Philst’s wife had just kicked him out and he was holding Gunn responsible for ending his marriage of more than 20 years.
He angrily repeated his previous, ominous threat, “I’ll beat the life out of you!”
A punch came out of the darkness from nowhere, hammering into the right side of Gunn’s face like the kick of a mule. He felt his partial plate dislodge from the painful and stunning impact.
Reeling back and acutely aware of the situation — knowing his wife and children were inside and certain this enraged giant was not going to stop — Gunn reached for the Ruger with his right hand, and as soon as it cleared his belt, he opened fire on the enraged assailant.
Gunn then realized the big man was running away from him down the side of his property and watched him fall at the backend of the house. Not knowing what else to do, Gunn walked back inside and numbly placed his empty, slide-locked P345 on the kitchen counter.
Gunn’s brother, who had been working on a truck in the yard, sprinted toward the house. At the first shot, he raised his head, witnessing the exchange between his brother and Phist. He immediately called 9-1-1. Also nearby, Gunn’s father, who was staying in a motor home on the property, grabbed his shotgun and ran to help after he heard the shots fired.
Emergency response was swift. The Gunn home was located at the edge of the county line, and the dispatcher sent full ambulance crews from both counties to be fail-safe. Pulling in at opposite sides of the yard, two three-person crews rushed toward the downed patient with their gurneys. One gurney rolled directly through the “evidence field” in front of the house — which was in line with the spent brass from the gun fired from the porch. In minutes, police were on the scene.
Mr. Phist did not survive. And, a documented 12 minutes after the police arrived, Mr. Gunn was placed under arrest for premeditated murder.
Next, issues and answers
Issues And Answers
Autopsy revealed eight gunshot wound tracks from seven bullets, all but one clearly entering behind lateral midline. Trial began on Feb. 4, 2013, in the court of Circuit Judge Eric O’Briant in Logan, W.Va. The prosecution argued a jealous husband had murdered a perceived suitor of his wife, shooting the unarmed man several times in the back — and arming himself before the confrontation constituted the element of premeditation.
The night of the shooting, five spent .45 casings were recovered from in front of the porch. The following afternoon, two more were discovered near where the dying man had fallen; this, the prosecution maintained, meant Gunn must have walked 40 feet forward and fired two more execution shots into the “victim,” who had collapsed and was rendered helpless.
Gunn wisely retained Brian Abraham, former District Attorney of Logan County, to defend him. Abraham’s management of this case, I think, is a template for future defenses in cases of this nature. This case presented a number of issues needing to be addressed.
Firstly, Spent brass does not correlate exactly to shooter position. Remember the six responders and their two gurneys, one of which left tracks through where the first five spent casings were found? Many lawmen and other people walked through the same area. The state’s own Firearms and Toolmark Examiner from the crime lab testified factually and honestly too many factors to list here were inconsistent between lab testing and assured reality — points he clarified in Abraham’s expertly delivered cross-examination.
The prosecution then brought in an expert witness, a young engineer who had never been involved in a ballistics trial before, disputed the state’s expert analysis by claiming the location of the spent cases absolutely correlated to where they would land. The state’s real expert insisted the casings could have been kicked, caught in shoe treads or picked up in the treads of the gurney wheels and redeposited where they were eventually found; the state’s outside expert stipulated the casings had to be execution shots. Abraham tore him apart in his cross-examination.
Shots in the back were a critical issue. When I was on the stand, I explained the dynamics of action/reaction paradigms, and demonstrated on video how a man can easily shoot seven shots from this type of gun in under a second and a half. I also demonstrated how the human body can turn 180 degrees in half a second, and how those time frames could intersect in a situation like this one. We showed the jury a training film I had produced for the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, in which I was shot multiple times in the back with Simunitions. In the criminal attacker role, I spun away from the legitimate defender who was shooting back at me.
When you’re shooting as fast as you can to save your life and your nearby family from an irrational, violent man, it takes a relatively long time to react to something unexpected — which in this case was the other man suddenly breaking off the attack. But, “seven shots”? We showed the jury on video the significant muzzle flash of the Remington Express 185-grain JHP, the same lot of ammunition the evidence showed the defendant was using. He never saw a muzzle flash, and after the savage blow to his head, the next thing he saw was the other man running away.
An experienced fighter can train himself to keep his eyes open after such a blow — so he can block or parry the next blow, and see his target to counterpunch — and the reaction of an untrained person such as Mr. Gunn is to instinctively close the eyes. Because of what Phist did, Gunn couldn’t see him unexpectedly turning away in time to stop his defensive stream of fire.
The “power of the gun” issue came up here, certainly not for the first time in such a case. The medical examiner who did the autopsy spoke of how powerful a .45 was and how devastating the hollowpoint bullets were — implying a terrible unfair advantage and malice on the part of the shooter. When my turn came on the stand, I simply pointed out the arresting officers carried essentially the same amount of stopping power: a 9-shot department-issue Smith & Wesson Model 4566s, all loaded with Gold Dot .45 hollowpoints.
But, the medical examiner dropped a bomb. The fatal shot of the seven fired had gone through the left ventricle of Phist’s heart. Asked by the prosecutor how far a man so wounded could have traveled, he answered adamantly, no more than 10 feet — which fueled the state’s theory of the execution shots.
This testimony occurred on Wednesday, February 6. It was too late for the defense to retain its own forensic pathologist to counter the testimony and I was due on the stand the next day. Courts often accept testimony on these matters from us who are extensively trained homicide investigators, but a pathologist has more credibility. I had with me for other reasons a textbook by pathologist Abdullah Fatteh, which explained why wounds of the left ventricle are the least likely among heart shots to cause rapid death, and even a study by the state’s witness’s own mentor showing men shot through the heart going great distances and even shooting back.
However, I remembered a classic case from Dr. Vincent DiMaio Jr.’s authoritative text, Gunshot Wounds, in which a man whose heart was shredded by a close range shotgun blast ran a far greater distance before falling. I didn’t have it with me, so I phoned Marty Hayes and Jim Fleming of Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network. Within hours, they had it faxed and e-mailed to me, and I read it to the jury the next day, showing them the state’s theory pertaining to Gunn taking execution-style shots as totally false.
All evidence has to be correlated! Gunn, his wife, his brother, and his dad had all stated from the very beginning the shots were fired as fast as a trigger could be pulled, and in one continuous string of fire. Three impartial ear-witnesses heard the same. A neighbor lady bathing her grandchild when the shots were fired said it sounded like “a string of firecrackers.” Another neighboring couple agreed, with the deer-hunting husband saying it sounded like one long, echoing rifle shot in the woods.
Brian Abraham had me explain how long it would take for a man to run 40 feet, and why there would have had to be a distinct pause between the first five shots and the last two if the state’s theory was to be valid. My final statement before it went to cross-examination was if the prosecution theory was true, we would have to discount the testimony of all seven eye- and ear-witnesses, and suspend the laws of time and space.
Disparity of force was a key element here. It means when an ostensibly unarmed man is so likely to kill or cripple you, his physical advantage becomes the equivalent of a deadly weapon, and warrants your recourse to a gun or knife or whatever in self-defense. Gunn was dramatically outmatched by his much bigger and stronger attacker, and already stunned by a blow to the head so brutal it had knocked his teeth loose. He knew a man this irrational was a threat to Gunn’s wife and children as well as to him. The man could take his .45 and kill them all once he had overpowered Gunn. The defendant was indeed facing deadly force, and Brian Abraham drove that home to the jury effectively throughout the week of trial.
Next, the verdict
The Verdict
On the afternoon of Friday, Feb. 8, 2013, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The long ordeal was over. Under West Virginia law, a conviction on the charge of premeditated murder would have resulted in a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Instead, a good man went home to his family to rebuild his life.
There are no winners here. The acquittal meant merely a wrongly accused man did not lose as much as he could have lost. His actions certainly saved him from death or great bodily harm at the hands of a man who had threatened to “beat the life out of him,” and may well have saved his wife and children also.
Real life is rarely as starkly black and white as in a Charles Bronson Death Wish movie. I want to commend Brian Abraham for an outstanding piece of trial advocacy, and extend my best wishes for the healing of the families on both sides of this unfortunate incident.
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Illegally placed domestic tableaux have been popping up in the German capital’s subway network. Either it’s the quirkiest Airbnb destination yet – or an artistic societal critique
Checked wallpaper decorated with a Matisse poster and a miniature portrait of the Virgin Mary. A black leather sofa. A single bed with electric-blue sheets. An Ikea rice-paper lampshade. A Star Wars novel and a catalogue of African string instrumentson the floor.
Airbnb's most popular rental: a tiny cabin in the California woods Read more
At first, the underground workers who stumbled upon this scene in a disused U-Bahn tunnel in Berlin’s Reinickendorf district in mid-January assumed they had encountered an abandoned film set. But checks showed that no film recordings had been applied for in the area. The wallpaper, furniture and books were deemed a fire risk and were swiftly removed.
A month later, well-lit photographs of the bedroom were emailed to the biggest Berlin newspapers by someone claiming to be an anonymous rail worker. Berlin’s transport body, BVG, denied that its staff had anything to do with it.
Then, a second domestic tableau appeared in early March, this time in an underground passage at Yorckstrasse station: a front garden complete with fence, garden gnome, flower bed and a cat staring through a window.
Since then, Berliners have been speculating about which artist could be behind the underground rooms and what it could all mean. An advert posted (and since removed) on Airbnb alongside a photo of the bedroom points towards a critique of the German capital’s rapid gentrification. “Central location, close to the U9 line,” the ad reads. “Loft character, retro-chic. The apartment was completely modernised in 2016 and is relatively quiet (as long as you wear earplugs). Perfect for commuters and rough sleepers.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Among the graffitied concrete walls and industrial stairs, the bedroom looks pretty cosy.
Others have suggested that the clues may lie in the books. The battle theme of the Star Wars novel and the book on African string instruments could be a reference to the refugee crisis, pondered architecture critic Nikolaus Bernau in Berliner Zeitung newspaper, pointing out that the Berlin senate had sheltered some refugees in its windowless congress centre. Another writer noted the catalogue of instruments was published in 1984 – clearly the installation was a commentary on the surveillance state and the end of privacy.
That the artists behind the rooms have stayed anonymous is hardly surprising. BVG says the creators must have gained illegal access to the tunnel – the least they could expect would be a fine for trespassing. “We cannot condone these works,” says Petra Reetz, a spokeswoman for the company. “But the attention to detail that’s gone into these rooms, it’s quite original – I have to admit that.” |
Madeline Smith, The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- Canada's public health agency has confirmed the country's first case of Zika-related defects in a fetus.
A spokeswoman for the Public Health Agency of Canada said on Friday that the fetus has "severe congenital neurological anomalies," but didn't provide further information citing privacy reasons.
Rebecca Gilman said it is Canada's second case of maternal-to-fetal transmission of the virus, which has been linked to serious birth defects that include microcephaly, where babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains to mothers who were infected while pregnant.
Gilman said the first Canadian case of maternal-to-fetus transmission occurred in a baby that was confirmed to have the virus, but did not have related birth defects and so far appears normal.
A World Health Organization report released on Thursday also mentions Canada as the latest country to report a case of congenital malformation associated with a Zika infection.
Zika is primarily transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, which isn't found in Canada. Mosquitos transmitting Zika have recently been found in a part of Miami, Fla., prompting Canada's public health agency to warn pregnant women to avoid travelling there.
As of Thursday, there have been 205 confirmed cases of travel-related Zika infections in Canada and two cases of sexual transmission.
University of Toronto professor of medicine and infectious disease expert Jay Keystone said he isn't surprised to see more cases of Zika emerging, but the problem is much worse in countries dealing with mosquito-borne transmission of the virus, such as Brazil.
"It was a matter of time before we start seeing Zika cases in Canada and it's a matter of time before a fetus was infected from the virus," he said.
"The hope is there will be less and less as Canadians become more aware of the risk."
Keystone said the Aedes mosquito is a daytime-biting insect most active in the morning and late afternoon, and using mosquito repellent and covering your body as much as possible in areas with Zika outbreaks is important.
University Health Network infectious diseases specialist Isaac Bogoch said the full range of health issues related to Zika still isn't clear, and doctors will be closely watching babies who have been infected to see if cognitive problems emerge as they grow.
"We know microcephaly is one illness the developing child can have, and it can be pretty catastrophic at times. But they may have a whole spectrum of defecits which can include cognitive deficits, they can have problems with vision, they can have problems with hearing."
He added that Canadians should take precautions but don't need to be alarmed, calling the guidelines for preventing infections "spot on."
"The level of concern here is low, but we can't let our guard down," he said. "It's appropriately low, but it's not zero."
Canada's public health agency has recommended that women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant shouldn't travel to areas with Zika outbreaks. But men who are travelling also need to be aware of the risks -- current Canadian public health guidelines say men who have travelled to Zika-infected areas should consider using condoms or avoid having sex for six months to avoid transmitting the virus to partners.
They also say women who have travelled to areas with Zika outbreaks should wait at least two months before trying to conceive. |
History Edit
Status Edit
Statistics Edit
The Principality is situated 517 km (354 mi) north of Perth, along the Hutt River. It is about 75 square kilometres (29 sq mi; 19,000 acres) in size. Exports include wildflowers, stamps and coins and agricultural produce which is also exported overseas. Tourism is also important to the economy with 40,000 tourists, predominantly from overseas countries, visiting the principality every year.[13][26][41] While the Principality has only 23 residents, it claims a worldwide citizenry of 14,000.[48] The Principality has no standing army, but a number of its citizens have been awarded military commissions. Honorary guardsmen attend Casley on formal occasions and, despite being completely landlocked, naval commissions have been conferred on supporters of the principality. Since 2 September 2004, Hutt River Province/Principality has accepted company registrations. At least one company experienced in the registration of entities in traditional offshore jurisdictions (British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands etc.) as tax havens has been authorised to act as a registered agent for PHR incorporations.[49] On 29 March 2005 the Hutt River Province International Business Company announced that it would accept registrations of company trusts which have since been promoted worldwide by registered financial agents.[50] Concerned that Hutt River registrations "may be sold as part of a tax avoidance or evasion arrangement", in April 2012 the Australian Taxation Office warned potential purchasers that the registrations have no legal basis and "could be illegal".[51] Hutt River also allows car registrations, including issuing license plates to overseas vehicles. The principality's capital, Nain, is named after Nain in Galilee. When the Principality of Hutt River seceded, a bill of rights, a brief document outlining the rights of "Hutt River" citizens, was drafted. It also provided for an administration board to govern the principality until a permanent form of government could be established. When Casley declared himself "Prince", the administration board clause lost effect and the Hutt River Principality became an absolute monarchy, with a legislation committee to draft new legislation. In 1997, the legislation committee presented a proposal for a constitution to Casley and his cabinet.[52] Although he and the cabinet are yet to officially adopt and promulgate the proposal, there is a decree stating that any constitution will be in effect while under consideration, except for any clauses that conflict with the bill of rights, so the proposal has essentially become a provisional constitution.[49]
Casley family Edit
Obverse of a 50 cent coin depicting Casley "His Royal Highness Prince Leonard I of Hutt" is the style used by Leonard Casley since his creation of the Principality. Prince Leonard pursued a number of occupations before purchasing a large wheat farm near the towns of Northampton and Geraldton in the 1960s. He worked for a shipping company based in Perth and, although he left school at 14, describes himself as a mathematician and physicist and has claimed to have written articles for NASA.[26] He is an adherent of hermeticism, a subject on which he has privately published a number of research papers and books.[41] He is the subject of a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.[53] Prince Leonard was married to Shirley Casley (née Butler) until her death on 7 July 2013.[54] The Principality went into a period of mourning, closing some of its services.[55][56] She was styled as "Her Royal Highness Princess Shirley of Hutt, Dame of the Rose of Sharon". Princess Shirley played host to dignitaries and diplomatic representatives visiting the Principality each year[37] as well as receiving television crews and magazine journalists. She was the patron and chair of the board of directors of the Red Cross of Hutt, a parallel organisation to the International Red Cross.[57] Leonard and Shirley had seven children, among them Ian Casley ("Prince Ian", born 1947) and Graeme Casley. Prince Ian is involved in wildflower production, with the product being exported to Perth and internationally. Prince Graeme succeeded his father in an enthronement ceremony that took place on 11 February 2017.[citation needed] Prince Leonard claims the use of titles is purely practical as they are required for legal purposes.[citation needed]
Currency Edit
See also Edit
References Edit |
The Dodgers have signed Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu for $36MM over six years, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (Twitter links). The deal was struck just prior to the 4pm CT deadline and only 20 hours after signing Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147MM contract.
Ryu's deal includes innings-based performance bonuses worth $1M per year, which could raise the total of the contract to $42MM, according to Heyman (Twitter links). Heyman also reports (via Twitter) that Ryu can opt out after the fifth year of the deal. The opt out can be triggered if Ryu throws 175 innings during those five years, writes Yahoo! Sports' Tim Brown. Brown adds Ryu will receive a $5MM signing bonus. Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times tweets that Ryu will earn $2.5MM in 2013, $3.5MM in 2014, $4MM in 2015 and $7MM annually from 2016-18.
Hernandez also breaks down (via Twitter) the innings-based performance bonuses and other details (all links go to Twitter) from the Scott Boras negotiated deal including: there isn't a no-trade clause, Ryu's salary can increase depending on how he fares in the Cy Young voting, Ryu can't be sent to the minors without his written consent, the Dodgers will pay for an interpreter, and Ryu's jersey will sport the number 99.
The Dodgers expect Ryu to be part of their starting rotation next season, reports Hernandez. Ryu joins Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Josh Beckett, Chad Billingsley, Ted Lilly, Chris Capuano, and Aaron Harang as starters already under contract. With this surplus, Jon Paul Morosi of FOXSports.com tweets Capuano or Harang could be dealt in the coming days or weeks.
Ryu was posted by the Hanwha Eagles last month and the Dodgers won his negotiating rights with a bid worth a bit more than $25.7MM. The 25-year-old has been one of the Korea Baseball Organization's most dominant pitchers over the last several years, helping Korea win Olympic gold in 2008 and finish second in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Ryu went 9-9 with a 2.66 ERA last season for last place Hanwha with 210 strikeouts in 182 2/3 innings. He has a 2.80 ERA over his seven-year career in Korea.
This marks the Dodgers’ second significant move in the international market since they were purchased by Guggenheim Baseball Management. In June, the Dodgers signed 21-year-old Cuban defector Yasiel Puig to a seven-year, $42-million contract. |
The number of hijacked MongoDB servers held for ransom has skyrocketed in the past two days from 10,500 to over 28,200, thanks in large part to the involvement of a professional ransomware group known as Kraken.
According to statistics provided by two security researchers monitoring these attacks, Victor Gevers and Niall Merrigan, this group is behind around nearly 16,000 hijacked databases, which is around 56% of all ransacked MongoDB instances.
The Kraken group got involved in these MongoDB attacks on Friday, January 6, seeing how successful and profitable previous attacks from other groups had been.
Numbers of hijacked MongoDB servers went from 1,800 to 28,000 in a week
There are currently twelve groups launching attacks on unsecured MongoDB databases. These databases are easy pickings because they've been left exposed to Internet connections with no password on the administrator account.
These groups access these unsecured databases, export their content, and leave a message behind asking for a ransom payment in order to return the data.
According to the Gevers and Merrigan, in recent days, some groups aren't even downloading the data, but simply deleting it. Nevertheless, many companies paid to get their data back.
These attacks started around Christmas 2016, and initially, they were small in nature and carried out by one group alone, nicknamed Harak1r1.
Groups involved in MongoDB hijacking attacks [Source]
Attacks intensified last Monday when Bleeping Computer first reported on these events after Harak1r1 successfully compromised around 1,800 MongoDB installations.
Two days later, the number of groups involved in these hijacking attacks grew to three, and by Saturday there were eight groups, with the number of hijacked databases reaching 10,500 servers.
Professional ransomware group gets involved in MongoDB attacks
As the number of hijacked servers grew to over 28,000, the massive surge that took place over the weekend was driven by the involvement of Kraken, a group that has been previously involved with the distribution of "classic" Windows ransomware.
The connection between the Windows ransomware and the MongoDB attacks comes from the usage of the same email address in both attacks: [email protected].
Prior to the attacks on MongoDB databases, the group had created and deployed its own brand of ransomware, known as the Kraken Ransomware.
Kraken Ransomware - portion of the ransom note
According to Michael Gillespie, the creator of ID-Ransomware, a service that allows for ransomware victims to detect which ransomware family has locked their files, the Kraken Ransomware was never "a hit."
"[Kraken was] very small, only a handful of submissions to ID-Ransomware," Gillespie said, "about 8 unique IPs from the US, Slovakia, Germany, the Czech Republic, India, and Cyprus."
That's 8 Kraken infections between December 1, 2016, and January 3, 2017, which is a laughably small number. Other, more mature ransomware families such as Locky or Cerber infect hundreds of users per week.
It appears that the Kraken group might have found a more lucrative niche in which they can operate.
Kraken group made $6,220 in 3 days of hijacking MongoDB servers
At the time of writing, the group's Bitcoin wallets received 70 ransom payments from their nearly 16,000 infected victims.
The group, which asks for ransoms between 0.1 and 1 Bitcoin has made 6.89700196 Bitcoin, which is about $6,220. That's about $2,000 per day, since launching in MongoDB hijacking attacks last Friday.
According to Gevers and Merrigan, the group has been launching attacks from the same IP address as other groups.
"Attacker's IP 46.166.173.106 has been used by multiple groups, which smells like a Ransom Mongo As A Service kind of setup," Gevers told Bleeping Computer.
Not all victims who paid received their data back
"I am getting negative feedback from victims who pay the Kraken group and get no email response," Gevers added. "12 victims complained yesterday that they paid and got no response."
His colleague, Merrigan, added that "one person said they have asked for information and got a response and it looks like they will pay." So it appears that the Kraken group might be swamped in emails.
Nonetheless, victims should always ask for proof that the hijackers have their database before paying a ransom. In our last articles on MongoDB attacks, we detailed about a turf war going on between these gangs, who are rewriting each other's ransom notes. This means people might end up paying the ransom to the wrong group, who doesn't have their data.
As we concluded in our previous piece on this MongoDB debacle, these attacks might end up being a turning point in MongoDB's history, being hard to imagine that database administrators might expose their MongoDB instances online after these high-profile ransom attacks. |
“More than seven decades ago, on a calm Sunday morning, our Nation was attacked without warning or provocation.... On National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we honor the men and women who selflessly sacrificed for our country, and we show our enduring gratitude to all who fought to defend freedom against the forces of tyranny and oppression in the Second World War.”
— President Barack Obama, National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Proclamation, December 07, 2013
President Obama’s Pearl Harbor remembrance proclamation is little different from those of his White House predecessors. Today, however, a great deal more is known than was known in previous years about the secret maneuverings and treasonous activities at the top levels of the Roosevelt administration that caused the Japanese attack on our naval forces at Pearl. Documents released from the decoded Venona Files, from the Soviet KGB archives, from our own National Archives, and memoirs of Soviet officials now confirm what noted anti-communist writers, Congressional investigations, Communist Party defectors, and FBI documents had stated for decades: Harry Dexter White (shown), assistant secretary of the treasury in the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a top Soviet spy and agent of influence who not only caused incalculable harm to the United States, but also materially assisted Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s spreading of terror and tyranny throughout the entire world.
Harry Dexter White, a top advisor to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and President Franklin Roosevelt, is remembered chiefly as the architect of the Bretton Woods Conference that created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, but he also played a key role in bringing about the “Day of Infamy,” by doing everything within his power to scuttle the peace efforts of the forces within the Japanese government that were striving to avoid war with the United States. White authored an ultimatum adopted as official policy by FDR that upped the ante of belligerent acts Roosevelt was directing at Japan.
White’s plan was calculated to inflame public opinion in Japan and undermine Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Prince Fumimaro Konoye, both of whom favored peace with the U.S. It was also aimed at guaranteeing the rise to power of Japan’s political forces that were beating the drums for war. This is precisely — and predictably — what happened. However, White did not undertake this move on his own initiative, it is important to note, but as a directive of the NKVD (an earlier name for the Soviet KGB). His Kremlin bosses were most anxious for assurance that Japan would not attack the Soviet Union; they thus expended great efforts through their spy and propaganda networks in Japan, Europe, and the United States to ensure that Japan would strike America, rather than the U.S.S.R.
Interestingly, one of the most recent admissions concerning White’s crucial role in this comes from Benn Steil, senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In the decades since World War II, the CFR’s very influential members in government, the media, and academe have been in the forefront of the efforts to debunk factual anti-communist charges of rampant Soviet penetration of the top levels of the American government. The CFR choir could always be counted on to defend Alger Hiss, the Rosenbergs and their fellow “atomic bomb spies,” the Red China Lobby, and the many other Communist agents exposed operating in the top echelons of federal agencies. And the same CFR intelligentsia could be just as dependably relied upon to denounce as “McCarthyites” any responsible patriots who attempted to force officialdom to investigate, remove, and/or prosecute traitors in our government, especially those in positions most sensitive to our national security.
Benn Steil’s book, The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order, published earlier this year by the CFR and Princeton University Press, makes some important concessions concerning White’s NKVD operations. As the book’s title suggests, the main focus of Steil’s attention deals with White’s central role in designing and implementing the plan to establish the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and the post-war economic order.
However, in Chapter Two of his book, Steil discusses White’s crucial role as a Soviet agent in the decisions and events that brought about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Steil writes:
“We sighed a deep sigh of relief,” recalled the head of the American desk of the NKVD Intelligence Directorate, Vitali Pavlov. Yet this was not merely cheerleading from the sidelines. Pavlov had, secretly, been part of the game.
The Japanese decision to attack Pearl Harbor was the culmination of a series of critical political developments and, clearly, no single event, no single action, and no single individual can be said to have triggered it. Nevertheless, the most proximate cause has the curious connection with Pavlov and his most important American contact, Harry Dexter White.
Steil notes that, as a result of White’s fierce lobbying, FDR “authorized [Secretary of State] Hull to present the Japanese with what became known as the Ten-Point Note. Hull summoned Nomura and Kurusu on November 26 to deliver the austere ultimatum, incorporating White’s demands on China, without concessions. An alarmed Kurusu told Hull that the Japanese government would ‘throw up its hands’ if presented with such a response to their truce proposal. Hull did not waiver. The collision course had been set.”
And Soviet agent Harry Dexter White had set that course. Steil comments:
That White was the author of the key ultimatum demands is beyond dispute. That the Japanese government made the decision to move forward with the Pearl Harbor strike after receiving the ultimatum is also beyond dispute.
Steil notes that “the Soviets, American allies in the European war, were anxious to ensure that such an attack did take place.” He quotes Soviet spymaster Vladimir Karpov in this regard:
“The war in the Pacific could have been avoided,” wrote retired GRU military intelligence colonel and World War II “Hero of the Soviet Union” Vladimir Karpov in 2000, nearly sixty years after Pearl Harbor. “Stalin was the real initiator of the ultimatum to Japan,” he insisted.
How was that possible? Steil allows Karpov to explain:
“Harry Dexter White was acting in accordance with a design initiated by [NKVD intelligence official Iskhak] Akhmerov and Pavlov,” Karpov argued. “[White] prepared the aide-memoire for signature by Morgenthau and President Roosevelt.” The Soviets had, according to Karpov, used White to provoke Japan to attack the United States. The scheme even had a name, “Operation Snow,” snow referring to White. “[T]he essence of ‘Operation Snow’ was to provoke the war between the Empire of the Rising Sun and the USA and to insure the interests of the Soviet Union in the Far East.... If Japan was engaged in a war against the USA it would have no resources to strike against the USSR."
Steil’s book allows only five pages to cover this abominable act of treason and Steil can’t quite seem to muster the moral outrage to unequivocally condemn White as a traitor; like too many other intellectuals, he is inclined to explain away the treachery by suggesting that perhaps White’s motives were good, even if somewhat muddled and misguided. To be sure, Steil is not an outright apologist for White, as is Prof. James Boughton, the recently retired historian for the IMF, or R. Bruce Craig, author of the 2004 defense of White, Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case. Steil even takes Boughton to task in the book for his obstinate refusal to admit White’s espionage, in the face of overwhelming evidence proving it. (Steil develops this argument against Dr. Boughton in more detail in an August 15, 2013 article in Forbes here).
White’s infamous role in provoking the attack on Pearl Harbor is told in gripping detail in Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor by military historian John Koster (published by Regnery History, September, 2012) sans the moral equivocation of Steil.
The Steil/CFR admissions concerning White’s treason on behalf of Stalin’s Russia don’t signal any truth-telling trend from the disinformation artists at the Pratt House brain trust. Rather, they have merely adopted a new fallback position dictated by circumstances. They are sophisticated enough to realize that with all of the corroborating evidence that has surfaced in recent years, they risk losing all credibility by sticking to the Boughton/Craig denialist position, which has been the main position of the CFR thought cartel for the past six decades. Back when it mattered most, in the 1940s and '50s, when courageous civil servants, diplomats, military personnel, elected officials, and private citizens heroically fought to expose the Communist operatives in our government, the leading lights of the CFR did all within their considerable powers to squash any real investigations and exposure. Soviet agents such as Whittaker Chambers, Elizabeth Bentley, and Louis Budenz, who had defected from the Communist conspiracy and testified against their former comrades, were smeared far more effectively by the CFR-dominated press than by the communist press. Ditto for leading senators of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and the congressmen of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Now, at the safe remove of seven decades, the CFR has decided it can afford to acknowledge (partially) what it previously strove mightily to deny, cover up, suppress, and discredit, especially since it can now put its own spin on the perfidy. Soviet agent Alger Hiss, the top State Department adviser, is the most notorious of the Communist moles that were imbedded in the federal government. The lesser-known White, arguably, was more important than Hiss. Whittaker Chambers hinted at this in a December 29, 1953 article for Look magazine. “Harry Dexter White’s role as a Soviet agent,” Chambers wrote, “was second in importance only to that of Alger Hiss — if indeed it was second."
The evidence that has come out since that time indicates that White was certainly of equal, if not greater importance, than Hiss. Of course, FDR’s advisor, friend, and confidante Harry Hopkins — another Soviet agent — is also in the running with them for most important traitor.
What Steil and his CFR colleagues are not in a hurry to bring up are the uncomfortable connections between their organization and the Soviet network of which Hiss, White, and Hopkins were prime exemplars. In addition to Hiss, Soviet agents Laughlin Currie (an FDR White House economic adviser) and Laurence Duggan (at the State Department) were CFR members. Far more important as an indictment of the CFR than the fact that their membership includes some very notorious traitors is the role played over the years by key CFR luminaries to aid and abet the traitors and to stop all efforts to expose them.
In addition to his perfidy in helping bring about the Pearl Harbor attack, White was also responsible for carrying out the following acts of treason to aid Stalin’s Communist regime:
— White was the primary author of what became known as the “Morgenthau Plan” to strip a defeated Germany of all industry and transform it into an agricultural society. The plan was leaked by Treasury (most likely by White) and was used by Nazi Germany to stiffen resistance of the German people and armed forces on the Western front. This undoubtedly prolonged the war and contributed more casualties to American and Allied forces, while also making many Germans more sympathetic to the Soviets.
— White brought other Communist agents into the U.S. government, got them promotions, and repeatedly scuttled investigative efforts and attempts to expose and remove them.
— White provided the Russians with the actual printing plates, colored inks, varnish, tint blocks and special paper to enable them to counterfeit the Allied occupational currency for Germany, allowing them to flood the country with currency that U.S. taxpayers were forced to redeem.
— Through the infamous Lend-Lease program, White helped facilitate the transfer of billions of dollars in aid to Stalin.
— When Stalin requested a $6-billion loan in January of 1945 White upped it to $10 billion, and at better terms. Russia’s request had been that it be for 30 years at an annual interest rate of 2.25 percent. White proposed the larger sum with a more generous 35-year payment period at only two percent. Plus, he proposed that the U.S. grant an additional $1 billion at no interest.
— While providing the Communists with every possible assistance, White was doing everything possible to cut off aid that had been appropriated by Congress to assist our ally Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-communist government in China. White was a key operative in treachery that pushed China into Communist hands.
— As the chief architect of the 1944 Bretton Woods monetary conference, he designed the IMF and World Bank, the economic instruments that have been used to destroy national sovereignty, encourage global inflation, and wreak monetary havoc. White was appointed American director of the IMF and his co-conspirator in the Silvermaster spy cell, Virginius Frank Coe, was named secretary of the IMF.
— In 1945 White joined Alger Hiss in San Francisco for the founding of the United Nations. Hiss was in charge as the secretary of the conference. Other Soviet agents whom he had named as American delegates included Noel Field, Harold Glasser, Irving Kaplan, Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, Victor Perlo, and Henry Julian Wadleigh. Decoded Venona messages show that while in San Francisco White transferred information to Vladimir Pravdin, a KGB officer who was posing as a correspondent for the Soviet news agency TASS.
In the coming year, 2014, as the IMF and World Bank celebrate their 70th anniversary, it will be important to remember their paternity. The ghosts of Harry Dexter White and his fellow conspirators who fashioned these institutions and the post-war global monetary system continue to haunt us, threatening the financial stability, prosperity, and liberty of every nation and person on this planet. As the articles listed below from The New American demonstrate, the Council on Foreign Relations continues to push for transforming the IMF with vast new powers, something Harry Dexter White, no doubt, would heartily approve of.
Photo of Harry Dexter White testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on August 13, 1948: AP Images
Related articles:
Pearl Harbor: Hawaii Was Surprised; FDR Was Not
Council On Foreign Relations
CFR Applauds European Union’s “Real Subversion of Sovereignty”
Killing the Dollar: G20 & IMF Push for Global Fed, Global Currency
G20-Russian “Convergence”: Partnering With Putin’s Mafia State
Putin’s KGB/FSB Converging with New IMF Banking FSB
IMF as Global Fed: G20's Agenda Behind the Agenda
"Supersizing" the IMF |
A-RT
Coming in swinging hard with their new gentle giant. It’s Huge, it’s beautiful, and it’s a slow rolling powerhouse of chilling proportions. It also hits a theme that is rarely brought up but pleases me a great deal to see proper representation of our counter culture’s preferences. Can’t help but smile.
It is finally time.
It’s here.
Its the 420!
Official Specs
Diameter: 63mm - Width: 47mm - Weight: 65.5g
Ok, so what does that mean?
It means its Big, but it’s Light! Its nimble and moves like a much smaller yoyo. I thought it was gonna feel weird. I always thought the Grail felt like a big yoyo compared to my usually tastes, so I figured that the 420 would feel like a beach ball. This, however, was not the case. It fits in my hand like its always been there.
There is something soft here. The weight to size is confusing on paper but amazing on the string. This is very comfortable and surprisingly natural. It just feels “right.” Chopsticks are easily hittable in contrast to what you may think. It is not heavy rim weighted, so sloppy planes, and poor control will be shown to you in the form of tilting. The training wheels are off so to speak.
Its gap is kind of a K shaped. Sort of a softened H/O hybrid. The walls are higher and the gap is a touch narrower than the run-of-the-mill competition geared throws. This makes it supreme for regens and low RPM stability.
It encourages a different kind of play than what Im used to. While this yoyo can go about as fast as you want, you can tell its not meant for that. It wants to slow down and relax. It wants you to chill out and slow your roll. And by doing so you are rewarded with a whole new way to play. Bobbin’ and jivin’ as opposed to rippin’ and tearin’. No need to throw it hard.
It’s sensitive but doles out happy times when you are doing it right. It binds smooth and tight. A fat string makes it even more eager to return.
My DS bearing came dry and LOUD. Even after lubing, it was a banshee. Swapped it out for another DS and it hushed down nicely. The sound of the string whipping it is a lower bong vs a high pitched ting.
If you can find its level, you may find a new core throw in your arsenal. I was skeptical, but the risk was worth it. A-RT knows how to make stellar yoyos. While they may look lack luster in flourish and fancy design. The cup is plain but the play is undeniable. Chuck and Jensen are heading in the right direction. Not following the trends, fads, or big names and knocking em out of the park one after another.
Not the easiest to get your hands on, but if you can get one, you should. I’ve gotten so used to the size that the Grail now feels small, and the TiPeak seems mini!! I Love it and will likely keep this big guy forever.
Here is the Grail INSIDE the cup of the 420
All in all I am very impressed. I enjoy the new directions it taking me.
Its always 420 somewhere. 8) |
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2016 was a year of remarkable scientific breakthroughs. A century after Albert Einstein proposed his general theory of relativity, researchers proved him right when, for the first time ever, they were able to observe gravitational waves produced by two black holes that collided 1.3 billion years ago. Astronomers discovered a potentially habitable planet just 4.3 light-years from Earth. And scientists even came up with a good reason to put a bunch of adorable dogs in an MRI machine.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of anti-science nonsense this year, too—much of it from our political leaders. On issues ranging from climate change to criminal justice, our president-elect was a notable offender. But some of his rivals joined in as well. So did his nominees. And Congress. And members of the media. Here, in no particular order, are some of the most appalling examples. You can let us know in the comments which one you think is the worst.
Hurricane Matthew Truthers
In early October, as Hurricane Matthew approached the southeastern United States and officials ordered mass evacuations, a group of right-wing commentators alleged that the Obama administration was conspiring to exaggerate hurricane forecasts in order to scare the public about climate change. On October 5, Rush Limbaugh said hurricane forecasting often involved “politics” because “the National Hurricane Center is part of the National Weather Service, which is part of the Commerce Department, which is part of the Obama administration, which by definition has been tainted.” He added, however, that Matthew itself was “a serious bad storm” and hadn’t been politicized.
The next day, Matt Drudge took the theory a step further, tweeting, “The deplorables are starting to wonder if govt has been lying to them about Hurricane Matthew intensity to make exaggerated point on climate.” He added, “Hurricane center has monopoly on data. No way of verifying claims.” Drudge’s tweets were widely condemned as dangerous and irresponsible. They also caught the attention of conspiracy kingpin Alex Jones:
A day later, Limbaugh also went full Matthew Truther, declaring it “inarguable” that the government is “hyping Hurricane Matthew to sell climate change.” Matthew would ultimately kill more than 40 people in the United States and hundreds in Haiti. It caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage.
Congress Won’t Lift the Gun Research Ban
Gun violence is a public health crisis that kills 33,000 people in the United States each year, injures another 80,000, and, according to an award-winning Mother Jones investigation, costs $229 billion annually. But as the Annals of Internal Medicine explained in a 2015 editorial, Congress—under pressure from the National Rifle Association—has for years essentially banned federal dollars from being used to study the causes of, and possible solutions to, this epidemic:
Two years ago, we called on physicians to focus on the public health threat of guns. The profession’s relative silence was disturbing but in part explicable by our inability to study the problem. Political forces had effectively banned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific agencies from funding research on gun-related injury and death. The ban worked: A recent systematic review of studies evaluating access to guns and its association with suicide and homicide identified no relevant studies published since 2005.
Following the June 12 terrorist shootings that killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Democrats tried once again to lift the research ban. But as the Hill reported, “Republicans blocked two amendments that would have allowed the [CDC] to study gun-related deaths. Neither had a recorded vote.”
Officials Face Charges in Flint Water Crisis
Perhaps the biggest scientific scandal in recent memory was the revelation that residents of Flint, Michigan—an impoverished, majority-black city—were exposed to dangerous levels of lead after government officials switched their drinking water source. Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and behavioral problems, along with a variety of other serious health issues. Officials ignored—and then publicly disputed—repeated warnings that Flint’s water was unsafe to drink. According to one study, the percentage of Flint children with elevated lead levels doubled following the switchover. The water crisis may also be to blame for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease.
Since April 2016, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed charges against 13 current and former government officials for their alleged role in the crisis. On December 19, Schuette accused two former emergency managers—officials who had been appointed by the governor to oversee Flint’s finances with minimal input from local elected officials—of moving forward with the switchover despite knowing the situation was unsafe. According to the charging document, Darnell Earley conspired with Gerald Ambrose and others to “enter into a contract based upon false pretenses [that required] Flint to utilize the Flint River as its drinking water source knowing that the Flint Water Treatment Plant…was unable to produce safe water.” The document says that Earley and Ambrose were “advised to switch back to treated water” from Detroit’s water department (which had previously supplied Flint’s water) but that they failed to do so, “which caused the Flint citizens’ prolonged exposure to lead and Legionella bacteria.” The attorney general also alleged that Ambrose “breached his duties by obstructing and hindering” a health department investigation into the Legionnaires’ outbreak. Earley and Ambrose have pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s Budget Director Isn’t Sure the Government Should Fund Zika Research
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Donald Trump’s choice to head the White House Office of Management and Budget, isn’t just a global warming denier. As Mother Jones reported, he recently questioned whether the government should even fund scientific research. In September, Mulvaney took to Facebook to discuss the congressional showdown over urgently needed funding for the Zika epidemic—money that would pay for mosquito control, vaccine studies, and research into the effects of the virus. (Among other disputes, Republicans sought to prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Zika funds.)
“[D]o we need government-funded research at all[?]” wrote Mulvaney in his since-deleted post. Even more remarkably, he went on to raise doubts about whether Zika really causes microcephaly in babies. As Slate’s Phil Plait noted, “There is wide scientific consensus that zika and microcephaly are linked, and had been for some time before Mulvaney wrote that.”
The House “Science” Committee
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is quickly becoming one of the most inaccurately named entities in Washington. For the past several years, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has used his position as chairman of the committee to harass scientists through congressional investigations. He’s even accused researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of having “altered historic climate data to get politically correct results” about global warming. As we explained in February, “Smith is determined to get to the bottom of what he sees as an insidious plot by NOAA to falsify research. His original subpoena for internal communications, issued last October, has been followed by a series of letters to Obama administration officials in NOAA and other agencies demanding information and expressing frustration that NOAA has not been sufficiently forthcoming.”
Fast-forward to December 2016, when someone working for Smith decided to use the committee Twitter account to promote an article from Breitbart News titled “Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists.” (Breitbart is the far-right website that was formerly run by chief Trump strategist Steve Bannon. In addition to climate denial, Bannon has said the site is “the platform for the alt-right,” a movement that is closely tied to white nationalism.)
.@BreitbartNews: Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists https://t.co/uLUPW4o93V — Sci,Space,&Tech Cmte (@HouseScience) December 1, 2016
Unsurprisingly, actual scientists weren’t pleased.
GOP Platform Declares Coal Is “Clean”
Republicans’ devotion to coal was one of the defining environmental issues of the 2016 campaign. Trump promised to revive the struggling industry and put miners back to work by repealing “all the job-destroying Obama executive actions.” Those commitments were reflected in an early version of the GOP platform, which listed coal’s many wonderful qualities and said that Republicans would dismantle Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which limits emissions from coal-fired power plants. That didn’t go far enough for GOP activist David Barton, who convinced delegates at the party’s convention to add one additional word to the text. “I would insert the adjective ‘clean,'” said Barton. “So: ‘The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable domestic energy resource.'” Barton’s wording change was approved unanimously. As Grist noted at the time, “For years the coal industry—and at one point, even President Obama—promoted the idea of ‘clean coal,’ that expensive and imperfect carbon-capture-and-storage technology could someday make coal less terrible. But there’s no way it is clean.”
Global Warming Deniers in the GOP Primaries
As 2016 kicked off, there were still 12 candidates competing for the Republican presidential nomination. Nearly all of them rejected the overwhelming scientific consensus that humans are the main cause of global warming. (The GOP contenders who spoke most forcefully in favor of the science—Lindsey Graham and George Pataki—both dropped out of the race in late 2015.)
As recently as December 2015, Trump declared that “a lot of” the global warming issue is “a hoax.” His chief rival, Ted Cruz, said in February that climate change is “the perfect pseudoscientific theory” to justify liberal politicians’ efforts to expand “government power over the American citizenry.” In a debate in March, Marco Rubio drew loud applause when he said, “Well, sure, the climate is changing, and one of the reasons why the climate is changing is the climate has always been changing…But as far as a law that we can pass in Washington to change the weather: There’s no such thing.” Moments later, John Kasich said, “I do believe we contribute to climate change.” But he added, “We don’t know how much humans actually contribute.”
In 2015, Ben Carson told the San Francisco Chronicle, “There is no overwhelming science that the things that are going on are man-caused and not naturally caused.” A few months earlier, Jeb Bush said, “The climate is changing. I don’t think the science is clear of what percentage is man-made and what percentage is natural…For the people to say the science is decided on this is just really arrogant.” In one 2014 interview, Rand Paul seemed to accept that carbon pollution is warming the planet; in a different interview, he said he’s “not sure anybody exactly knows why” the climate changes. Mike Huckabee claimed in 2015 that “a volcano in one blast will contribute more [to climate change] than a hundred years of human activity.” (That’s completely wrong.) In 2011, Rick Santorum called climate change “junk science.” In 2008, Jim Gilmore said, “We know the climate is changing, but we do not know for sure how much is caused by man and how much is part of a natural cycle change.”
Two other GOP candidates, Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina, seemed to largely accept the science behind climate change, but neither of them had much of a plan to deal with the problem.
Trump’s (Other) Wars on Science
Trump’s rejection of science goes well beyond basic climate research. Here are some of his more outlandish claims from the past year:
Trump wants to use hairspray. Trump has repeatedly complained that efforts to protect the ozone layer are interfering with his hair routine. “You’re not allowed to use hairspray anymore because it affects the ozone,” he said in May, arguing that more environmentally friendly hair products are only “good for 12 minutes.” He added, “So if I take hairspray and I spray it in my apartment, which is all sealed, you’re telling me that affects the ozone layer?…I say no way, folks. No way. No way.” FactCheck.org actually went through the trouble of asking scientists whether Trump’s strategy of using hairspray indoors would help contain the ozone-destroying chemicals. “It makes absolutely no difference!” said Steve Montzka, a NOAA chemist. “It will eventually make it outside.”
Jill Stein (Yep, She Deserves Her Very Own Category)
Vaccines. Of course, science denial isn’t confined to the political right. During the 2008 presidential campaign, both Obama and Hillary Clinton flirted with the notion that vaccines could be causing autism and that more research was needed on the issue—long after that theory had been discredited. Obama and Clinton have abandoned these misguided views, but Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is apparently still concerned. In July, she told the Washington Post that vaccines are “invaluable” medications but that the pharmaceutical industry has too much influence over safety determinations from the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC. “As a medical doctor, there was a time when I looked very closely at those issues, and not all those issues were completely resolved,” she said. “There were concerns among physicians about what the vaccination schedule meant, the toxic substances like mercury which used to be rampant in vaccines. There were real questions that needed to be addressed. I think some of them at least have been addressed. I don’t know if all of them have been addressed.”
GMOs. There are plenty of reasonable debates surrounding the use of genetically modified crops. But when it comes to their impact on human health, scientists are pretty much in agreement: GMOs are safe to eat. Once again, Stein isn’t convinced. During the 2016 campaign, Stein called for a moratorium on the introduction of new genetically modified organisms and a “phaseout” of current genetically modified crops “unless independent research shows decisively that GMOs are not harmful to human health or ecosystems.” Stein’s website promised that her administration would “mandate GMO food labeling so you can be sure that what you’re choosing at the store is healthy and GMO-free! YOU CAN FINALLY FEEL SECURE THAT YOUR FAMILY IS EATING SAFELY WITH NO GMO FOODS ON YOUR TABLE!” That page also featured a 2013 video of Stein saying, “This is about what we are eating. This is about whether we are going to have a food system at all. This is about whether our food system is built out of poison and frankenfood.”
The Climate-Denying Cabinet
Trump has loaded up his incoming administration with officials who, to varying extents, share his views on climate change. Vice President-elect Mike Pence once called global warming a “myth,” though he now acknowledges that humans have “some impact on climate.” Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote in May that “scientists continue to disagree about the degree and extent of global warming and its connection to the actions of mankind.” Energy secretary nominee Rick Perry once alleged that “a substantial number” of climate scientists had “manipulated data.” Trump’s interior secretary nominee, Ryan Zinke, believes that climate change is “not a hoax, but it’s not proven science either.” Ben Carson (see above) is slated to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an agency facing serious challenges from global warming. Mulvaney, the incoming White House budget director, has said we shouldn’t abandon domestic fossil fuels “because of baseless claims regarding global warming.” Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions claimed in 2015 that predictions of warming “aren’t coming true.”
Interfering With Government Scientists?
Trump hasn’t even been sworn in yet, but already there are troubling signs that his administration may attempt to interfere with the work of government scientists and experts.
Energy Department questionnaire. The president-elect’s transition team submitted a questionnaire to the Department of Energy asking for a list of employees and contractors who had worked on the Obama administration’s efforts to calculate the “social cost of carbon”—that is, the dollar value of the health and environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. The transition team also asked for a list of staffers who attended UN climate negotiations. As the Washington Post explained, the questionnaire “has raised concern that the Trump transition team is trying to figure out how to target the people, including civil servants, who have helped implement policies under Obama.” (The department didn’t comply with the request, and the Trump team ultimately disavowed the questionnaire after facing criticism.)
The president-elect’s transition team submitted a questionnaire to the Department of Energy asking for a list of employees and contractors who had worked on the Obama administration’s efforts to calculate the “social cost of carbon”—that is, the dollar value of the health and environmental damage caused by burning fossil fuels. The transition team also asked for a list of staffers who attended UN climate negotiations. As the Washington Post explained, the questionnaire “has raised concern that the Trump transition team is trying to figure out how to target the people, including civil servants, who have helped implement policies under Obama.” (The department didn’t comply with the request, and the Trump team ultimately disavowed the questionnaire after facing criticism.) Earth science at NASA. One of Trump’s space advisers, Bob Walker, has repeatedly floated the idea that the administration should begin to remove Earth science from NASA’s portfolio. NASA’s Earth science program is well known for producing some of the world’s most important climate change research, and Walker’s proposal has sparked an outcry among many in the scientific community. (Walker has suggested shifting the work to NOAA, but the incoming administration hasn’t proposed giving NOAA additional funding, and Walker’s critics have called the plan unworkable.) Trump hasn’t actually adopted Walker’s idea, and scientists such as David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist who receives NASA funding, are optimistic that he won’t. But if Trump does attempt to gut NASA’s research efforts, the backlash could be intense. “We’re not going to stand for that,” said Grinspoon on our Inquiring Minds podcast. “We’re going to keep doing Earth science and make the case for it. We’ll get scientists to march on Washington if we have to. There’s going to be a lot of resistance.”
Abortion and Breast Cancer
For years, abortion rights opponents have insisted that abortion can cause breast cancer. That claim was based on a handful of flawed studies and has since been repeatedly debunked by the scientific community. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no causal relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk.” Influential anti-abortion groups have frequently emphasized a more nuanced but still misleading version of the breast cancer claim: that having an abortion deprives women of the health benefits they would otherwise receive by giving birth. That argument has found its way into an official booklet that the state of Texas provides to women seeking abortions. According to the latest version of the booklet, released in early December:
Your pregnancy history affects your chances of getting breast cancer. If you give birth to your baby, you are less likely to develop breast cancer in the future. Research indicates that having an abortion will not provide you this increased protection against breast cancer.
“The wording in [the Texas booklet] gets very cute,” said Otis Brawley, the American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer, in an interview with the Washington Post. “It’s technically correct, but it is deceiving.” Here’s the problem, as explained by the Post:
Women who deliver their first baby to full-term at 30 years or younger face a decreased long-term risk of breast cancer than women who have their first baby at older than 30 or 35, or who never deliver a baby at all…Having a baby does provide increased protection against breast cancer, but it doesn’t mean that having an abortion affects your risk one way or another. For example, women who deliver a child before 30, but then have an abortion after their first child, still have a decreased risk of breast cancer, said Brawley, who described himself as “pro-life and pro-truth.”
Pence Denies the Existence of Implicit Bias in Police Shootings
During her first debate with Trump, Clinton supported efforts to retrain police officers to counter so-called “implicit bias.” She noted that people in general—not just police officers—tend to engage in subconscious racism. But she added that in the case of law enforcement, these biases “can have literally fatal consequences.” During the vice presidential debate a few days later, Pence blasted Clinton and other advocates of police reform for “bad-mouthing” cops. He criticized people who “seize upon tragedy in the wake of police action shootings…?to use a broad brush to accuse law enforcement of implicit bias or institutional racism.” That, he said, “really has got to stop.”
Pence’s comments were a gross misrepresentation of a key scientific issue in the national debate over police killings of African Americans. Implicit bias does not, as he implied, refer to intentional, overt bigotry or to systematic efforts by law enforcement to target minorities (though there are plenty of examples of those, too). Rather, implicit bias refers to subconscious prejudices that affect people’s split-second decisions—for example, whether or not a cop shoots an unarmed civilian. As Chris Mooney explained in a 2014 Mother Jones story:
This phenomenon has been directly studied in the lab, particularly through first-person shooter tests, where subjects must rapidly decide whether to shoot individuals holding either guns or harmless objects like wallets and soda cans. Research suggests that police officers (those studied were mostly white) are much more accurate at the general task (not shooting unarmed people) than civilians, thanks to their training. But like civilians, police are considerably slower to press the “don’t shoot” button for an unarmed black man than they are for an unarmed white man—and faster to shoot an armed black man than an armed white man.
And as Mooney noted, acknowledging that implicit biases are common—something Pence refused to do—allows scientists and law enforcement to devise trainings that seek to counter the problem. |
Nuclear ethics is a cross-disciplinary field of academic and policy-relevant study in which the problems associated with nuclear warfare, nuclear deterrence, nuclear arms control, nuclear disarmament, or nuclear energy are examined through one or more ethical or moral theories or frameworks.[1][2][3] In contemporary security studies, the problems of nuclear warfare, deterrence, proliferation, and so forth are often understood strictly in political, strategic, or military terms.[4] In the study of international organizations and law, however, these problems are also understood in legal terms.[5] Nuclear ethics assumes that the very real possibilities of human extinction, mass human destruction, or mass environmental damage which could result from nuclear warfare are deep ethical or moral problems. Specifically, it assumes that the outcomes of human extinction, mass human destruction, or environmental damage count as moral evils. Another area of inquiry concerns future generations and the burden that nuclear waste and pollution imposes on them. Some scholars have concluded that it is therefore morally wrong to act in ways that produce these outcomes, which means it is morally wrong to engage in nuclear warfare.[6]
Trinity shot color
Trinity fallout
Nuclear ethics is interested in examining policies of nuclear deterrence, nuclear arms control and disarmament, and nuclear energy insofar as they are linked to the cause or prevention of nuclear warfare. Ethical justifications of nuclear deterrence, for example, emphasize its role in preventing great power nuclear war since the end of World War II.[7] Indeed, some scholars claim that nuclear deterrence seems to be the morally rational response to a nuclear-armed world.[8] Moral condemnation of nuclear deterrence, in contrast, emphasizes the seemingly inevitable violations of human and democratic rights which arise.[9]
Early ethical issues [ edit ]
US fallout exposure
The application of nuclear technology, both as a source of energy and as an instrument of war, has been controversial.[10][11][12][13]
Even before the first nuclear weapons had been developed, scientists involved with the Manhattan Project were divided over the use of the weapon. The role of the two atomic bombings of the country in Japan's surrender and the U.S.'s ethical justification for them has been the subject of scholarly and popular debate for decades. The question of whether nations should have nuclear weapons, or test them, has been continually and nearly universally controversial.[14]
The public became concerned about nuclear weapons testing from about 1954, following extensive nuclear testing in the Pacific Ocean. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, about 50,000 women brought together by Women Strike for Peace marched in 60 cities in the United States to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.[15][16] In 1963, many countries ratified the Partial Test Ban Treaty which prohibited atmospheric nuclear testing.[17]
Some local opposition to nuclear power emerged in the early 1960s,[18] and in the late 1960s some members of the scientific community began to express their concerns.[19] In the early 1970s, there were large protests about a proposed nuclear power plant in Wyhl, Germany. The project was cancelled in 1975 and anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired opposition to nuclear power in other parts of Europe and North America. Nuclear power became an issue of major public protest in the 1970s.[20]
Uranium mining and milling [ edit ]
United Nuclear Corporation Church Rock Uranium Mill
Shiprock, New Mexico uranium mill aerial photo
Moab uranium mill tailings pile
Between 1949 and 1989, over 4,000 uranium mines in the Four Corner region of the American Southwest produced more than 225,000,000 tons of uranium ore. This activity affected a large number of Native American nations, including the Laguna, Navajo, Zuni, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, Acoma and other Pueblo cultures.[21][22] Many of these peoples worked in the mines, mills and processing plants in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.[23] These workers were not only poorly paid, they were seldom informed of dangers nor were they given appropriate protective gear.[24] The government, mine owners, scientific, and health communities were all well aware of the hazards of working with radioactive materials at this time.[25][26] Due to the Cold War demand for increasingly destructive and powerful nuclear weapons, these laborers were both exposed to and brought home large amounts of radiation in the form of dust on their clothing and skin.[27] Epidemiologic studies of the families of these workers have shown increased incidents of radiation-induced cancers, miscarriages, cleft palates and other birth defects.[28] The extent of these genetic effects on indigenous populations and the extent of DNA damage remains to be resolved.[29][30][31][32] Uranium mining on the Navajo reservation continues to be a disputed issue as former Navajo mine workers and their families continue to suffer from health problems.[33]
Notable nuclear weapons accidents [ edit ]
Nuclear fallout [ edit ]
Castle Bravo Blast
Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. Radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing was first drawn to public attention in 1954 when the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test at the Pacific Proving Grounds contaminated the crew and catch of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon.[17] One of the fishermen died in Japan seven months later, and the fear of contaminated tuna led to a temporary boycotting of the popular staple in Japan. The incident caused widespread concern around the world, especially regarding the effects of nuclear fallout and atmospheric nuclear testing, and "provided a decisive impetus for the emergence of the anti-nuclear weapons movement in many countries".[17]
As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout, various studies were done to assess the extent of the hazard. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ National Cancer Institute study claims that fallout from atmospheric nuclear tests would lead to perhaps 11,000 excess deaths amongst people alive during atmospheric testing in the United States from all forms of cancer, including leukemia, from 1951 to well into the 21st century.[46][47] As of March 2009, the U.S. is the only nation that compensates nuclear test victims. Since the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990, more than $1.38 billion in compensation has been approved. The money is going to people who took part in the tests, notably at the Nevada Test Site, and to others exposed to the radiation.[48][49]
Nuclear labor issues [ edit ]
VOA Herman – April 13, 2011 Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant-04
Nuclear labor issues exist within the nuclear power industry and the nuclear weapons production sector that impact upon the lives and health of laborers, itinerant workers and their families.[50][51][52] This subculture of frequently undocumented workers (e.g., Radium Girls, the Fukushima 50, Liquidators, and Nuclear Samurai) do the dirty, difficult, and potentially dangerous work shunned by regular employees.[53] When they exceed their allowable radiation exposure limit at a specific facility, they often migrate to a different nuclear facility. The industry implicitly accepts this conduct as it can not operate without these practices.[54][55]
Existent labor laws protecting worker’s health rights are not properly enforced.[56] Records are required to be kept, but frequently they are not. Some personnel were not properly trained resulting intheir own exposure to toxic amounts of radiation. At several facilities there are ongoing failures to perform required radiological screenings or to implement corrective actions.
Many questions regarding these nuclear worker conditions go unanswered, and with the exception of a few whistleblowers, the vast majority of laborers – unseen, underpaid, overworked and exploited, have few incentives to share their stories.[57] The median annual wage for hazardous radioactive materials removal workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is $37,590 in the U.S – $18 per hour.[58] A 15-country collaborative cohort study of cancer risks due to exposure to low-dose ionizing radiation, involving 407,391 nuclear industry workers showed significant increase in cancer mortality. The study evaluated 31 types of cancers, primary and secondary.[59]
Civil liberties [ edit ]
Nuclear power may be a potential target for terrorists, and also increases the chances of nuclear weapons proliferation. Circumventing these problems involves cutting back on civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and assembly. So, Brian Martin says that "nuclear power is not a suitable power source for a free society".[60]
Human radiation experiments [ edit ]
The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) was formed on January 15, 1994 by President Bill Clinton. Hazel O"Leary, the Secretary of Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy called for a policy of "new openness", initiating the release of over 1.6 million pages of classified documents. These records revealed that since the 1940s, the Atomic Energy Commission was conducting widespread testing on human beings without their consent. Children, pregnant women, as well as male prisoners were injected with or orally consumed radioactive materials.[61] |
Kevin De Bruyne has been speaking to German magazine SportBIld about his future and has been quite frank about his aims to play for a huge club like Manchester United. SportBild put it directly to De Bruyne "Your consultant Patrick De Koster told us during the winter break that Europe's top clubs have you in their sights. They were PSG, Bayern and Manchester United, you have a contract with VfL until 2019. Will you leave again in the summer?"
De Bruyne wasn't as flustered as many would be when put on that particular spot and responded "I'll never say that in the summer I'll go or stay. In football it wouldn't be wise. Lots kiss the badge on the jersey and say 'I'm staying'. Then they're gone. Also in football, things can go fast."
The former Chelsea player had already said "And my ambition is also to one day be at a top European club and to win as many titles as possible."
Short of De Bruyne saying to SportBild "Of course I'd like to move to one of those clubs," he couldn't have made it much clearer he'd be up for a transfer to PSG, Bayern Munich or Manchester United should the right offer come in. Wolfsburg will want a hefty fee for the player and selling de Bruyne could help their battle with FFP whilst at the same time providing funds to spend during the summer transfer window.
De Bruyne certainly isn't scared of returning to the Premier League, despite what happened at Chelsea, and may feel he has a point to prove in English football. |
What would Christianity mean if there were no saints?
To rephrase the question: What would be the meaning of the Christian gospel if there were no wonderworkers, no people who had been transfigured with the Divine Light, no clairvoyant prophets, no healers, no people who had raised the dead, no ascetics living alone in the deserts for years on end, no beacons of radical, all-forgiving love?
What would be the meaning of the Christian gospel if there were no wonderworking relics, no true Body and Blood of Christ, no true Baptism in the death and resurrection of Christ? What if there were no weeping icons?
First, it would mean that the two-storey version of Christianity was the correct version. What would remain if all those artifacts of the faith were removed would be the mere idea of Christianity accompanied by the moral efforts of those who admired it. Saints would simply mean “dead Christians.”
The Christian gospel, as recorded in the Scriptures and maintained in Classical Christianity, is replete with the artifacts of holiness – tangible, living examples of transfigured lives – not morally improved but something other. Human beings becoming gods (in the bold language of the early fathers).
There began, however, in the 16th century, a rebellion against the honoring of the saints, and the wholesale jettisoning of many aspects of the Classical faith. The 16th century, with the Reformation, saw the advent of the ordinary Christian as the normative Christian and the ordinary world as the normative world.
All believers are saints! (they said)…
The preaching of a radicalized grace and the demonization of works brought about the democratization of heaven (many contemporary Christians still denounce practices such as fasting and vigils as “works righteousness”). The spiritual elitism of a special class of Christians was denounced as a fraud. In England (and other places as well), the bodies and bones of the saints were dismantled, desecrated and destroyed. The democratic republic of heaven wanted no going back.
The removal of any form of transformation to somewhere other than our present world was required by the exaltation of the ordinary. The possibility of present-tense transformation endangered the entire scheme of the ordinary. The presence of a single honored saint who was more than merely heroic represented an indictment of the entire Reformation project.
Thinking of the Reformation and contemporary Christianity in such terms almost sounds like the plot of a children’s novel. But that is the nature of a time that can only be seen as bizarre.
Moving forward in history, this same shift to the ordinary was met with resistance which continues to this day. The great “awakenings” (the “First” and the “Second”) should be seen as uprisings against the ordinary. Against the theory of idealized, postponed Christianity, popular revolts leapt forward towards experience. In England, the Methodists following John and Charles Wesley were accused of enthusiasm (a very serious matter among the British). People swooned, and even barked like dogs under the “sway of the Spirit” as John Wesley, George Whitefield and others preached. The established Church was ruptured.
The Second Great Awakening gave birth to the Second Birth, and theology itself was ruptured with the creation of evangelical experiential claims. Perhaps the most significant (and extreme) response to the ordinary-driven reforms were found in the various Pentecostal movements of the 20th century (and beyond). Evangelical demands for a born-again experience were pushed by demands for a Baptism in the Spirit (with signs following).
The instinct of these reactionary movements should be seen in the context of ordinary Protestantism. The emptiness of a postponed spiritual reality gave birth to undisciplined, non-traditional forms of spiritual experience. The New Testament itself bore constant witness against the banal, empty futility of ordinary Protestantism. It promises so much more.
From a Classical Christian perspective these eruptions of experience-hungry movements should not be judged too harshly. They are often defective in doctrine and marked by delusional claims, but their instinct and hunger are correct. I think that current conversations between Orthodoxy and Pentecostalism (at least on the theological level) will be very fruitful – particularly for the Pentecostals.
The Tradition teaches the reality of the spiritual life:
We have seen the true light, we have received the heavenly spirit, we have found the true faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity who has saved us!
The Tradition also places the reality of the experience into the disciplined life of the Church. Thus 2,000 years of experience produces saints rather than ephemeral movements. For in the end, the experience of Orthodox Christianity is about far more than popular demand: it is the promise and realization of union with God.
Individual believers have a “taste” of this reality – but the fruit of the Orthodox life is found in the saints – those persons who have been so united with Christ that the very life of Christ Himself is tangibly visible in their works and teachings. Like the resurrection of Christ Himself, their reality validates the life and struggles of all believers.
The traditional ascesis of Orthodoxy is not a method. It is not a set of actions and thoughts that inherently produce the results of sanctity. Such a notion would reduce God to an impersonal force. They are, however, guards against delusion and the path by which we may normatively know the true and living God. But the “ordinariness” of general experience is not the “norm” for the Christian life. Christ Himself alone, and the stature of His fullness (Eph. 4:13) are the measure and standard of the Christian life.
The language of the Church quickly evolved in its use and definition of the term “saint.” Though St. Paul regularly addresses his readers as “saints,” in a manner that makes the term seem synonymous with the word “believers,” it sometimes has a stronger meaning.
To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom 1:7)
and
To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1Co 1:2-3)
In time, the Church came to restrict the use of the title, “saint,” for those whose manner of life truly conformed to the life of the gospel. They were not merely significant “historical” figures, but people whose lives were indeed filled with the Spirit. Figures who remain controversial in this designation (such as Constantine the Great) are controversial precisely because some question whether they rightly meet this standard. Their inclusion does not change the meaning – the questioning confirms it.
I have elsewhere described this normative, Classical understanding of truly experiential Christianity as “Christianity in a One-Storey Universe.” The bifurcation of the Christian life is ultimately a denial of the truth of the faith and an exaltation of a bland, mundane substitute whose emptiness can only suffocate true believing.
The Church of the saints is the only complete proclamation of the Christian faith.
All articles are written by Fr. Stephen Freeman, Rector of St. Anne Orthodox Church in Oak Ridge, TN, unless otherwise noted. |
Naloxone is commonly used to reverse narcotic intoxication. However, its use is not entirely free of hazards. For instance, pulmonary edema (PE) has been reported to arise with the mechanism of over-sympathetic discharge caused by release of cat-echolamine or central neurogenetic responses to narcotic reversal. Here, we report a healthy young patient who, after undergoing an uneventful uvulopalatopharyngo-plasty for obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome, developed PE following administration of naloxone. Fentanyl-induced respiratory depression was found during anesthesia emergence and thus naloxone was indicated for reversal. Unfortunately, upper airway obstruction-induced negative pressure PE occurred following naloxone administration. From this case, we suggest that a patent airway should be ascertained before naloxone administration for treating narcotic-induced respiratory depression.
Copyright © 2010 Taiwan Society of Anesthesiologists. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
LOS ANGELES — Kim Kardashian and her sisters Khloé and Kourtney will be heading to Armenia, the birthplace of their paternal grandparents, sometime in April, sources tell E! Online.
E! says the specifics of the trip are still being worked out for their family milestone journey, but Kim is set to take daughter North West with her, while Kourtney will be traveling with kids Mason, Penelope and Reign as well. Several cousins are also expected to be along for the continent-crossing ride.
Kim’s husband Kanye West will also make the trip, if he can squeeze it in between upcoming concert dates.
“Visiting Armenia has been on Kim’s bucket list forever,” a family insider tells the entertainment website. “They are all so excited! They want to learn about their heritage.”
The sisters have always culturally identified with their Armenian roots, according to E!, which notes that every year they pay tribute to victims of the Armenian Genocide, which occurred in what is now modern-day Turkey.
In March of 2011, Kim appeared on the cover of the inaugural issue of Cosmopolitan‘s Armenian edition. She was quoted in the magazine as saying, “My Armenian heritage means a lot to me and I’ve been brought up to be incredibly proud of my family’s background and culture. So as an Armenian-American woman it is a huge honor for me to be on the first ever Armenian Cosmopolitan cover.”
The Kardashian sisters’ late father, Robert Kardashian, was born to Armenian-American parents and his great-grandparents were ethnic Armenian immigrants from a part of Turkey that at the time belonged to the Russian Empire. |
While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.
These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity. As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people's lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.
"Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness, or life satisfaction," explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. "Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates, and predictors for meaning in life."
Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: "Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?" and "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"
The data revealed some unexpected trends:
"Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life," says Oishi. "But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction."
When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries - all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life.
The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning in life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:
"Religion gives a system that connects daily experiences with the coherent whole and a general structure to one's life...and plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship," the researchers write.
Oishi and Diener hope to replicate these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life. |
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Five teens were arrested and charged after a shot was fired outside of an Orleans County mosque Monday night as worshipers were leaving nightly Ramadan services.
YNN spoke with members of the World Sufi Foundation Mosque in Waterport as well as law enforcement officials to learn more about what happened.
“I’m just grateful that things weren’t worse last night, which they easily could’ve been,” said David Bell of the World Sufi Foundation Mosque.
Members of the mosque in Waterport said they have been harassed since they were first founded in 1974. They said they have experienced everything from people speeding by and shouting vulgar language to having their fence torn out and burned down.
Still, they said nothing compares to what happened Monday after nightly prayer services.
“As we were standing here, the one car came back and instead of speeding by that car swerved directly into our group of people. It clipped me,” Bell said. “I fell to the ground and what’s even more difficult is what happened after. There was a group of people and a shot was fired before the car sped away.”
“This is actually the first time that someone’s actually been physically injured and that’s a concern for us. Imagine coming out after a service, particularly a holy service, coming out and seeing someone flipped by a car obviously we’re going to feel threatened by it, we’re going to feel insecure about it and we’re gonna wonder where is our protection and where are our rights,” said Bilal Huzair of the World Sufi Foundation Mosque.
Huzair said once David Bell was taken to the hospital for treatment, he and other members of the mosque drove to the boat launch and used their cars to surround the two vehicles full of teens until police arrived.
Huzair claims it took more than 40 minutes for police to arrive and that police only came after the teens called 911 to say they were being harassed.
“I think there’s some miscommunication as to what agencies can respond and where they respond. There was more than one law enforcement agency involved in this. We did have local Albion police and state police assisting the sheriff’s office on both incidents,” said Orleans County Sheriff Scott Hess.
“Whether or not it was properly responded to initially is something we’ll be looking at, but I can tell you on behalf of this county, this is something that we’re taking extremely serious and will be properly addressed to be sure there will be no further escalation of what’s already occurred and the harassment that they’ve been subject to,” said Joseph Cardone, Orleans County district attorney.
Investigators charged Mark Vendetti, 17; Tim Weader, 17; Dylan Phillips, 18; Jeff Donahue, 18; and Anthony Ogden, 18, with misdemeanor disruption of religious services.
Vendetti is also charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon for allegedly shooting a 16-gauge shotgun in front of the mosque where people were leaving. He was arraigned and sent to the Orleans County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Authorities said all five teens are buddies from Holley.
No charges have been filed related to Bell’s injury, though the district attorney said more charges are possible. Four of the teens are scheduled to appear in Carlton Town Court on September 6.
“I’m hopeful that something can begin to change,” Bell added.
Later in the day on Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called for appropriate hate crime charges to be brought against the five Orleans County teenagers.
“New York Muslims must be free to practice their faith without fear of harassment or intimidation,” said Faiza N. Ali, community affairs director of CAIR’s New York chapter.
People who live near the mosque are reacting to the arrests. Opinion seems to be mixed on whether the incidents are related to religion.
“Just kids being renegade kids, you know there’s renegade kids out there. So anyway nobody got shot I guess. Kid probably went by and blew a shot out of the window,” said Phil Coville of Albion.
“You don’t do pranks with loaded weapons. It’s unfortunate. Kids, I don’t know how old they are, but they have a way of wrecking their own youth with rash acts And i hope somebody will put the brakes on these guys,” said Patricia Smith of Ontario.
“They were wrong because you don’t go interrupt somebody’s thing and go shoot off a gun, that’s not right, that’s not right. They should think first with their actions, not try to hurt somebody,” said Deborah Rebar of Albion.
People that YNN spoke with said they know very little about the mosque itself.
YNN contacted Carlton Town Supervisor Gayle Ashbery, who declined comment for our report.
Huzair said members of the mosque immediately called 911 to report the incident.
He said another member, who was late to prayer service, spotted the black SUV and white truck parked down the road at the Lake Alice Public Boat Launch. He said the member recognized the vehicles as the ones that were allegedly involved in a separate harassing incident just a few days earlier.
Original post: 5 Teens Arrested After Shot Fired Outside Mosque |
Michigan's governor has made it legal for holders of concealed-carry permits to also pack electric heat for self-defense, the Detroit Free Press reports.
The state joins 44 others that allow the carrying of Tasers and other brands of stun guns.
Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, signed the bipartisan legislation that allows licensed Michiganders to carry single-shot, consumer-grade, non-lethal stun guns after completing additional training. The laws are the same as those for carrying a handgun.
As of last October, the Michigan State Police said there were more than 286,000 Michigan residents with valid concealed pistol licenses, the Detroit News says.
The consumer-grade weapon fires two dart-like electrodes up to 15 feet. Police and military versions fire multiple electrodes up to 35 feet.
Stun guns remain illegal in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. |
On Tuesday, November 27, 2012 one of Prenda’s individual trolling cases, Sunlust Pictures LLC, v. Nguyen, (12-cv-01685) was dismissed by Judge Mary Scriven with fireworks (emphasis is mine):
Federal Judge Mary Scriven
The case is dismissed for failure to appear at this hearing, for failure to present a lawful agent, for attempted fraud on the Court by offering up a person who has no authority to act on behalf of the corporation as its corporate representative, and the Court will hear, by motion, a motion for sanctions and fees against this Sunlust entity and everyone affiliated with it, including a motion against Mr. Wasinger for his purposeful failure to appear at this hearing. And a motion will also be heard on Mr. Duffy for his lack of candor in relation to his connection with this matter based upon the representation of Mr. Torres that he was contacted by the Prenda Law Group or Prenda Law, Inc. for the purpose of being retained as local counsel in this case and that was not presented to the Court in this purportedcorrespondence. The case is dismissed. I intend to advise the other Judges in the Courthouse of the nature of this matter and may refer this matter to the Florida Bar for further proceedings.
What preceded this ruling is an unreal, Kafkaesque hearing, that I offer for your enjoyment below. I read this transcript in a gym on a treadmill a couple of hours ago collecting strange looks from the gymgoers: my uncontrollable giggles and gasps were probably too loud.
THE COURT: Mr. Lutz, who is the individual who you just spoke to in the Courtroom with you?
MR. LUTZ: Sorry?
THE COURT: Who is that behind you?
MR. STEELE: Your Honor, my name is John Steele.
THE COURT: Who are you?
MR. STEELE: I’m an attorney, but not involved in this case.
THE COURT: You’re an attorney with what law firm?
MR. STEELE: I’m not an attorney with any law firm right now […]
During the entire hearing, the judge’s attempted to understand who was who in this comedy with everthickening plot. Despite that it was apparently the only actual agenda, I am not sure that the judge succeeded in figuring that out. The only thing that she seemingly got right is that she dealt with a bunch of fraudsters, and very sloppy ones. I hope that she will carry out her intentions to alert other judges and to ask the Florida Bar to conduct yet another investigation.
Although both this hearing and the resulted dismissal were based on procedural questions, if you want to learn about the merits (or the lack thereof, to be more precise) of this case, read an excellent motion to dismiss written by the defense counsel Graham Syfert.
Please set sharp things aside, do not eat and drink, and sit firmly and comfortably, so you cannot fall and injure yourself. Laughs are guaranteed (not for Steele though: I am sure that some unpleasant phone conversations ruined his evening).
After you wipe off your tears and your hiccups subside, I will have a question for you. I am waiting.
Ready?
Girls and boys, ladies and gentleman, senior citizens!
Do you understand that the clowns that appeared in this comedy are the very same people that manage to terrorize tens of thousands and to induce fear so irrational, that many, prior to understanding what’s going on, reach out their checkbooks and write four-figure amounts on the checks? How can it possibly happen?
Appendix. Prenda and Florida: a love story
Many things happened since my article/informal interview with Graham Syfert “Who and where is Prenda Law? What happened to John Steele?” written in May, but you do not need to follow all the intrigues, just one fact is enough to know. This fact is: Prenda has tried and failed to secure nine local counsels in Florida:
Joanne Diez : filed one case, it is not implausible that her name was used without her consent.
: filed one case, it is not implausible that her name was used without her consent. Robert Balzebre : resigned.
: resigned. Joseph Perea : was an integral part of Prenda, officially left it, although continues trolling, investigated by the Florida Bar (initiated by multiple parties).
: was an integral part of Prenda, officially left it, although continues trolling, investigated by the Florida Bar (initiated by multiple parties). George Banas : resigned.
: resigned. Maurice Castellanos : resigned.
: resigned. Matthew Wasinger : resigned.
: resigned. Jonathan Torres : resigned.
: resigned. Alan Greenstein: a current counsel, but for how long will he hold the ground? 🙂
Every time a new guy understood that the newly acquired stink he couldn’t get rid of is exuded by Prenda Law, he ran away as quickly as possible. Even 75% contingency fee cannot persuade local lawyers to stain their future careers by associating themselves with a lawfirm that is actively investigated by the Florida Bar Association, and is expected to be investigated criminally in the nearest future.
Coverage
Followups |
Juan Pablo Montoya rolls down pit lane during Monday's Open Test at Barber Motorsports Park -- Photo: Chris Jones
IndyCars have some of the most advanced cockpits of any racing series. There are paddle-shifters, gear lights, fuel-map switches, and a plethora of other buttons to deal with. At the open test at Barber Motorsports Park , we got a chance to look inside some of the cockpits of the cars and see just how busy they really are.
Below are some shots of the cockpits of the machines. Hover over images for more information. All photos courtesy of Chris Owens, IndyCar PR.
For a more detailed explanation of what's exactly on the wheel, check out the list below (all explanations courtesy of INDYCAR ):
ANTI-ROLL BARS: Allows driver to fine-tune the handling of the car by engaging mechanical linkages connected to the front or rear suspension.
DASH: Displays warning lights and information the driver needs during the race. That information includes lap times, oil, water and gearbox temperatures and fuel mileage. |
We begin this evening in the alternate realm, and Many Years Ago, I assume (they didn’t even bother with a caption this time). We observe Rapunzel, driving a carriage on a dark and stormy night containing her husband, Marcus (who is obviously ill) and two young daughters.
Rapunzel pulls the carriage over because she’s found something to eat but she assures her worried daughter that “their lanterns will connect them” -she’ll find her way back to them and furthermore, she’ll do anything for her family.
It turns out she picking veggies from Gothel’s garden, and Gothel is intrigued that she hasn’t come merely to steal magic. “It’s rare to find a flower that can grow amongst the weeds of human nature,” she tells Rapunzel. Gothel offers Rapunzel a chance to give her family a better life and Rapunzel makes the deal gladly, only to find herself enchanted and stuck in a tower.
She calls out to her husband (who can’t hear her, of course) and her daughters – Drizella and Anastasia, giving us the big reveal we all knew was coming anyway because Once, like Snow White, is crap at keeping secrets.
Rapunzel is Victoria Belfry – a.k.a. Lady Tremaine.
Ahead now to Hyperion Heights, where Victoria waits in a holding cell garbed in stunning prison Orange (which, of course, Drizella has to remark upon) as she awaits her fate after being accused of kidnapping poor Eloise Gardner. And then she calls Drizella “Ivy” even though she knows she’s woke and it irks me just like it used to irk me through season 2 when David constantly called Snow “Mary Margaret.”
Anyhoo, Drizella wants to know where to find Anastasia’s body. She claims to want to wake her up, but Victoria is sure she only wants the magic within Anastasia’s body. She refuses to make a deal, and Drizella tells her she’s teaming up with Gothel to find her corpsified sister.
Rumple makes the next visit and they parry for a bit, as Victoria offers to make a deal for his help in getting to Anastasia’s body. Rumple plays dumb for a bit, but it turns out Victoria has some key information regarding “The Guardian” – and he clearly wants it. He makes the deal, sealing it with the use of her proper name: Rapunzel.
Across town, Lucy is back home with Jacinda and Sabine. She’s working on mom, trying to get Henry an invitation to dinner or something. Sabine presses Jacinda about her intentions with Henry, but right now all that is on hold since Henry and Roni are both out of town on their way to San Francisco.
Back now to Rapunzel in the tower, keeping track of the days with endless tally marks as she watches the lantern festival outside her window, surrounded by her ever-growing tresses. She realizes she’s got a way out, and makes her escape, sliding down a rope of hair.
In Hyperion Heights, Rogers shows up at the station just as Victoria is leaving, and he’s more than pissed she’s out roaming around free. Rumple shows up to let him know that his failure to get a warrant (despite exigent circumstance) means Victoria got off on a technicality. Rogers is ready to do battle over this but Rumple warns him that his habit of not doing what he’s told hasn’t worked out very well for him so far before he climbs into the car with Victoria. She means to wake Anastasia, so they have a few stops to make to see the deed done.
Stop one is Jacinda and Sabine’s, where Victoria hands over all the custody paperwork for Lucy, foregoing all her custodial rights. Jacinda is understandably wary, but Victoria assures her that it’s all legit. The fact that Jacinda is fighting for Lucy counts for something in her eyes, and she really only wants Lucy’s happiness. She hands over a doll that Lucy is particularly fond of, and lauds Jacinda for reconnecting with Nick (Lucy’s father).
Ivy is of course following her mother and has Gothel in the car, sure that Victoria will lead them to Anastasia. Gothel warns her not to underestimate her mother, but Ivy scoffs, reiterating that Victoria always makes the wrong choices.
Back to Rapunzel, who’s escaped from the tower. We learn that six years have passed, and Anastasia and Drizella have been sending up the lanterns, hoping she’ll return to them. Well, Anastasia hopes. Drizella is certifiably meh at the thought of seeing mom again. Of course, that’s Rapunzel’s cue to show up, having followed the lanterns.
She hugs Anastasia, she hugs Marcus, but ignores Drizella in her happiness at being reunited. Out walks Ella, and it gets awkward when Rapunzel learns that Marcus has remarried, thinking her dead. He introduces her to his new wife, Cecilia. Then he sets Rapunzel up in a smaller house on the property, and as the girls visit her, Rapunzel can see that Drizella is slipping away from her.
Marcus pays a visit to return her cloak – he’s mended it and kept it all these years – and she asks him if he still loves her. He assures her that he does, that their children mean everything to him – but so do Ella and Cecelia. He leaves without even a goodbye kiss.
As Rapunzel gives way to tears, Gothel shows up. She’s not even pissed about Rapunzel getting free because she’s got an interest in polluting a pure soul. She offers Rapunzel a magic toadstool from Wonderland, instructing her to squeeze it into Cecelia’s drink when she’s not looking and Cecelia will “go away.” Rapunzel refuses to harm an innocent, tossing the toadstool into the fire only to have it reappear again, waiting for her to break and use it.
Ahead in Hyperion Heights, Lucy’s father, Nick the lawyer is looking over the custody agreement and assures Jacinda that Victoria’s paperwork is legit. She’s thrilled and thanks him profusely, then steps a bit closer and he goes in for the kiss.
FINALLY. SOME CHEMISTRY.
Too bad it’s not with the person she’s supposed to be sparking with.
Oh well.
She pushes him away and picks up her copy of the mix tape she made Henry with a contemplative look.
Rogers, despite being recently promoted to full detective doesn’t seem to have code access to the evidence room at the station, so he pulls the fire alarm and that releases the door.
He finds his hook in an evidence bag and gives it a déjà vu filled glance before zeroing in on Weaver’s case files, where he finds a file on himself and just about everyone else in town.
He heads over to the food truck to have a word with Sabine under the guise of following up on the fire at Mr. Cluck’s. She lets him know that Weaver mentioned the alley door had been jimmied with a knife – a very particular knife – that she didn’t recognize. She draws the knife for Rogers and of course, we all know what that particular knife looks like.
Across town, Rumple remarks that Drizella is following them as he and Victoria head down into a crypt somewhere in the business district because that’s where they keep crypts in Seattle. They break into a vault and pull out a large bag that Victoria tells him contains all she needs to wake Anastasia.
Rumple takes a moment – a really heartfelt moment – to remind her that she’s got two daughters, and it’s never too late to reconcile. He relates his own experience with Bae, and Victoria snaps that he doesn’t know what she’s been through. He pulls her by the hands, revealing what looks to me like scars on Victoria’s wrists (am I seeing that? If so, I want to know that story), as he assures her that he does know, and reconciliation, like magic, can come with a price.
Back into the other realm now, where the family is celebrating Drizella’s birthday. Cecelia approaches Rapunzel to thank her for her work on the party refreshements, and Rapunzel whines to Marcus that Drizella didn’t even thank her for her gift.
She did, however, gush over the gift Cecelia gave her. She even calls Cecelia “Mother.” Rapunzel is seriously not pleased to hear it, too.
She heads back to the house to refill the lavender lemonade (Cecilia’s favorite) and squeezes the toadstool into a cup.
Ahead to the Seattle crypt now as Victoria takes off. Drizella heads down to the crypt with Gothel, only to run into Rumple, who’s been waiting for them. She knows there’s nothing down there for her, but Gothel wants a word, so Drizella leaves the two of them to have a chat.
Gothel cautions Rumple that reawakening Anastasia will come at the cost of an innocent’s belief – and she asks him if he knows where Lucy is right now.
We then see Lucy running into Victoria at the ballet school. Victoria pulls out the original story book, and confesses that all of it is real – and she’s going to tell Lucy “the rest of the story.”
She shows Lucy that she was indeed, Rapunzel, that she put the toadstool juice in Cecelia’s drink, which caused her to flee to Wonderland (and Marcus to run after her). When Marcus returned they made a new family, with Ella becoming a true sister to Anastasia and Drizella. We flash back to a cozy scene of the girls building a snowman on the top of a frozen pond (Seriously? What parent allowed that?)
Of course, the snowman’s head rolls off a la Olaf and Ella runs across the cracking ice to fetch it (showing us yet again that this girl is dumb as a box of rocks), with Anastasia following to warn her. Both girls fall in as Marcus runs to save them. He dives in, rescuing only Ella as he was unable to save Anastasia. (And why the hell wouldn’t he dive right back in? I’m with Rapunzel – WTF Marcus!)
In Hyperion Heights, Victoria walks Lucy to the hospital, where Anastasia is a comatose patient – and Ivy never thought to look there? Really? Victoria tells Lucy that while fairy tales are real, happily ever after is not, no matter how hard heroes try. Lucy refuses to believe that so Victoria pulls out the final weapon in her arsenal: video of Nick kissing Jacinda (I’m guessing the camera was planted in the doll she left for Lucy).
Victoria gently tells Lucy that Jacinda doesn’t care about Henry, and to make matters worse, Henry left town because Lucy failed to make him stay. So their stories are similar.
They’d both do anything to keep their family together, but despite their heroic efforts, it will never happen. “When your beliefs betray you, you must let them go,” she tells Lucy. Lucy’s tear falls onto the story book and she takes off running.
Back in the other realm, we see a tearful Rapunzel bringing Anastasia’s lifeless body to Gothel, begging her for help. Gothel locks in Anastasia’s last breath, keeping her hovering between life and death. She tells Victoria that Anastasia will now go into the tower – becoming “The Guardian.” She needed someone pure of heart, a true hero who wouldn’t be tempted, and since Rapunzel failed the test by using the toadstool, she’s going to take Anastasia instead.
Rapunzel is a step ahead of her, however. She has the magic dust Gothel used on her before, and she throws it – imprisoning Gothel in the tower instead.
Rumple has his officers out searching for Lucy, but Rogers confronts him, wanting to know about the files. Rumple finally comes clean, admitting that he’s trying to get back to his wife, Belle, and “all this is in service to that.” Rogers doesn’t understand exactly, but he believes him, and offers to help.
Across town, Victoria has saved the tear from Lucy’s face, and uses it to awaken Anastasia. As the tear hits her daughter’s skin and Anastasia awakens, Lucy collapses into Jacinda’s arms. We see Drizella observe all of this through the open doorway, and she turns and walks away with tears in her eyes.
This may be the episode where Lucy stops believing, but it’s the Season 7 episode that finally made me start.
I’m giving this one 5 teardrops out of 5. Finally.
This episode may not have been jam-packed with action or feels, but it did come with a huge amount of information, and now I am definitely intrigued.
My thoughts:
Gothel needs someone who’s a true hero, pure of heart, unable to be tempted into straying from the course as her guardian. Guardian of what, exactly? I’m starting to think that garden of hers is a lot more central to this story arc – as is its counterpart in Hyperion Heights. And I’m thinking Gothel (in the true tradition of Once Upon A Time) may not be an entirely evil villain. Oh wait. She abandoned her own newborn baby. Nevermind.
So Anastasia is The Guardian – or is she? Maybe Gothel meant for her to be, but I have a feeling Lucy’s tear hitting the story book before it got to her will come into play. I have a gut feeling that the magic of the story book ties Anastasia to Lucy somehow, and now Lucy is the Guardian and only has to awaken or believe again for that to manifest itself. After all, she’s the only one who had her memories outside of Victoria and Ivy. Or maybe Henry is The Guardian, and in a callback to Emma in season one, he has to truly believe to awake Lucy and claim his power.
Cecelia thanks Rapunzel for making the best lavender lemonade she’s tasted since “The bayou.” Hmmm. That can’t be coincidence. So Cecelia calls the bayou home, which means Ella’s real dad may be from the bayou, and I’ll betcha good money it’ll come up that Ella is either the daughter of Dr. Facilier or she’s related to Tiana somehow by blood.
Rumple tells Rogers that “all this is in service” to his quest to return to Belle (in the afterlife, I guess? He has to lose his immortality to do that). Clearly, Rumple is much more a part of this curse than just a victim of it’s aftermath. He preset a clue with Alice, telling her to wound him (thereby bringing his memory back when his Dark One immortality powers were activated) so he’s got a lot going on in the background, here.
Why won’t Rumple wake Killian? I’m sure he can concoct something that’ll do the trick – why won’t he?
Why did Rumple try to force the Dark One dagger into Sabine’s hand? What was the effect he was hoping for from her?
I have a hard time buying into Rapunzel’s love for her family when she’s so clearly and utterly cold to Drizella. I realize Drizella was a baby when Rapunzel was imprisoned and there was a stronger connection to Anastasia, but to cut her other daughter dead like that? It just doesn’t set right or make sense or make me feel much sympathy for Victoria -despite the heartbreak she’s experienced.
How did Victoria get the story book? Last time we saw old faithful, it was in Lucy’s hands as Henry cautioned her to protect it at all costs.
So many questions – and that’s a good thing. For the first time, I am genuinely intrigued by this season. I want to see how this unravels.
How about you? Did this tickle your interest? Or leave you feeling flat?
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Residents are urging backbenchers to oppose the proposal to allow charities and volunteer groups to take over responsibility for heritage forests, such as the New Forest in Hampshire and the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, and sell off the leases to thousands of acres of timber land to private individuals.
Ministers are braced for a rebellion when MPs debate the plans tomorrow. While losing the vote would have no practical effect, because it is being called on an Opposition day motion, it would make it more likely that the Government would be forced to think again.
Mary Creagh, the shadow environment secretary, has written to the 42 Coalition MPs with more than 1,000 acres of woodland maintained by the Forestry Commission in their constituencies, urging them to join the rebellion. They include Julian Lewis, Tory MP for New Forest East, which has nearly 17,974 acres potentially affected by the proposals, and Guy Opperman, Conservative MP for Hexham, whose constituency includes 49,000 acres affected in the Kielder Forest.
Ministers insist that conditions would be attached to all sales which would protect public access to all privatised forests, and ensure that biodiversity would be maintained. But campaigners claim that private individuals would not be as rigorous at maintaining the forests and allowing the public to enjoy them, as the taxpayer-funded commission.
Charities have also warned that they lack the resources to take over responsibility for woodland which is currently in public ownership. |
Gawker, one of the defining magazines of the 21st century, announced Thursday that it’s shutting down next week for reasons that are too repulsive and terrifying to think about for long. In its 14-year lifespan, Gawker published breakthrough investigations and scurrilous gossip and everything in between. It created much of the lively, ironic, emotionally labile house style of the internet. It revealed that the mayor of Toronto had been filmed smoking crack and that Politico’s Mike Allen let a source write an item and that BuzzFeed’s Benny Johnson plagiarized from Yahoo Answers. The fact that a billionaire could kill Gawker out of spite is a crisis, and the fact that Gawker is gone is a tragedy.
When it comes to Gawker we are conflicted out the wazoo. One Slate editor is married to a Gawker editor. One is married to a lawyer who represented Gawker in the Hulk Hogan trial. One is a former Gawker Media executive editor. None of these Slate staffers worked on this roundup.
Here are some of our favorite Gawker posts for you to read before they disappear into the Memory Furnace to be replaced by something Peter Thiel likes better.
My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday’s Endless Appetizers by Caity Weaver
Weaver’s famous mozzarella-stick stunt isn’t just about TGI Friday’s endless appetizers. It’s about the supreme difficulty of entertaining yourself for 14 goddamn hours without being able to read a book or use the free Wi-Fi. (Though she did play with the TGI Friday’s app.) —Torie Bosch
Is It Time? by Dog
Everything published in Gawker’s Dog column was a pure delight. It’s impossible to imagine any other publication printing this spot-on but affectionate satire of both dogs and columnists and accompanying it with such beautiful illustrations (by Jim Cooke, of course). This is a good one in which Dog explains why he doesn’t wear a watch. “It’s not for me. I’m classy, not flashy. I also don’t know how to read a watch,” Dog writes. I will miss Dog so much. —L.V. Anderson
Burning Bridges That Never Really Mattered: Joe Dolce Edition by Jessica Coen
Coen’s departing editor letter is a total evisceration of the then-editor of Star, who tried to have an unflattering post removed. It is hilarious yet very fair, a burned bridge done right. —Jeffrey Bloomer
The Zimmerman Jury Told Young Black Men What We Already Knew by Cord Jefferson
Writing before the #blacklivesmatter movement took hold, Jefferson’s bracing, bitter essay on George Zimmerman’s acquittal, on what he had experienced as a black man in America, and on what black people have to put up with every day remains powerful. —Seth Maxon
Real Housewives of New York: The Stoning of Bethenny F. by Richard Lawson
Lawson’s Real Housewives roundups summed up so much of what made Gawker Gawker: bitchy, exacting, exhaustive, hilarious, obsessive, and a little surreal. At their best, the recaps blurred fiction and reality so that if you didn’t watch the show (and maybe even if you did), you wouldn’t be quite sure what really went down and what was spun purely out of Lawson’s Bravo-addled headspace. The loopy patois he concocted for the Countess LuAnn de Lesseps was mind-altering—worthy of a thread in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. —Jessica Winter
Is Donald Trump’s Hair a $60,000 Weave? A Gawker Investigation by Ashley Feinberg
Donald Trump’s hair, with its absurd, origamilike complexity, has long been an object of ridicule and speculation. Is it a wig? Is it a transplant? Is it the hide of an unfortunate golden retriever? This year, Gawker finally cracked the case, accumulating a mountain of circumstantial evidence that the persimmon-colored demagogue is wearing an awful and outrageously expensive weave, created by a specialist who worked out of his own building. This is a hilarious investigation for the ages and one of the best things I’ve read this whole godforsaken election cycle. —Jordan Weissmann
Everything I Ever Thought I Knew About Street Sharks Was a Goddamned Lie by Andy Cush
Cush’s outrage over the revealed history of bogus synopses for the ’90s cartoon Street Sharks is one of the funniest things to come from the Ghost of Internet Past. Who knows how much time (or how many takedown requests) will pass before we purge this fake history from our collective consciousness? —Dawnthea Price
The Most Deranged Sorority Girl Email You Will Ever Read by Caity Weaver
Perhaps the defining literary work of our time, every sentence a crystalline gem of violent beauty and power. —Gabriel Roth
Alex Balk’s Day Off b/w I’m Back, Baby by Choire Sicha
This little throwaway post from almost 10 years ago is so funny and great that I don’t even know what to say. —Heather Schwedel
Here’s What’s Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up by Dee Barnes
Plenty of media organizations are happy to be the vessels for the stories famous and powerful people tell about themselves. Gawker never was, and we all benefitted from the existence of a place that called out and ripped apart self-serving narratives. —Josh Levin
What Are The Odds These New Media Brands Will Survive? A Power Ranking by Leah Finnegan and Max Read
This is a little morbid, but it’s also an example of what made Gawker great. Even with its hearty sense of self-deprecation, rereading this today stings. —Susan Matthews
The Gawker Endorsement: None of Them by Alex Pareene
Pareene’s case against each of the remaining presidential candidates on the day of the New York primary was a lucid encapsulation of this dreadful political year. —Seth Maxon
On Smarm by Tom Scocca
Snark is the revenge of the powerless. The powerful don’t like it. They prefer smarm, a positive, happy view of the world, which smooths out conflict and serves to maintain the status quo. Tom Scocca makes the case against smarm and shows why we need snark in this memorable 2013 essay. —Helaine Olen
Who Needs a Log Flume When You Can Get a Blow Job in a Theme Park Bathroom Instead?: My Family Vacation by Rich Juzwiak
This might not be the most serious or poignant of Rich’s writing at Gawker—at root it’s about trading blow jobs with a guy in Toon Lagoon—but it is representative of the fearless, honest, and compassionate way he’s treated subjects, especially queer ones, in his time there. Rich’s ability to find humor and beauty in the strangest or most mundane of assignments has always impressed me, and this piece represents an early and important ethnography of a now-defining aspect of queer male life. I think of his as a crucial voice in the LGBTQ conversation, one with which I’ve often agreed and just as often argued. I hope, after Gawker, we continue to hear it. —J. Bryan Lowder
Fuck Boston by Hamilton Nolan
I’ve only lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a year, and I’m leaving in two weeks, but I quite like the place as well as the city it borders. Still, Hamilton Nolan’s 2013 essay “Fuck Boston”—in which Hamilton clarifies that he also means “Fuck the Puritans” and “Fuck Boston (the band)”—is one of the funniest things Gawker ever published. —Seth Maxon
A Long, Dark Early Evening of the Soul With Keith Gessen by Emily Gould
What other magazine would have let someone publish this? And yet, why not! They probably got a lot of pageviews out of it too. —Gabriel Roth |
A few growing pains aside, a Linux deployment in a Santa Rosa, CA elementary school district is maturing robustly, letting teachers and students stand apart from their previous dependence on Microsoft Windows while they try on new open software attitudes.
The transition in Santa Rosa from Windows NT 4 to Ubuntu Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) might not get an A+ mark based strictly on smoothness, suggested Jordan Erickson, who’s been overseeing the seven LTSP school networks ever since their launch about three years ago through his company, Silicon Valley-based Logical Networking Solutions (LNS). But overall, the Linux deployment is ranking highly with the seven schools involved, because it saves them money on Microsoft licenses, spares them from Windows upgrades, prevents computer viruses, and spurs greater collaboration, Erickson said.
The school district in Santa Rosa decided to switch to LTSP following a pilot program at a Boys and Girls Club in Petaluma, CA. Initially used in an after-school program for six-to-14-year-olds, the implementation at the kids’ clubhouse is still up and running, along with a smaller deployment at LNS, for a grand total of nine managed LTSP networks, all in Sonoma County. LNS administers the whole configuration from its offices in Santa Rosa, using Virtual Network Computing (VNC) over Secure Shell for Workstations (SSH) tunnels.
Each of the eight remote sites also has its own server, which serves up LTSP to the Koolu thin-client systems accessed by the kids for classroom lessons, after-school homework, Internet research, and--during lunch-time and the late afternoon--computer games.
Although some of the schools already had older Compaq PC workstations at the outset, other classrooms were just heading into computerization with the use of Neoware E100 or HP T5530 thin clients.
Linux-enabled applications used by the schools have revolved around the OpenOffice suite, Firefox browser, and Typing Tutor, a commercially developed program which teaches kids to type. Some of the schools are also running Virtual Machine (VM) Terminal Services for legacy Windows-based classroom learning applications, Erickson said.
Meanwhile, in its own offices, LNS has been running a custom virtual machine--hosted on the same LTSP server--along with a Windows-driven QuickBooks accounting system and Linux applications that include OpenOffice.org; Firefox; Thunderbird, for e-mail; Sunbird, for shared calendaring; Dia, for network diagramming, and a number of others. Shell scripts are utilized over the SSH tunnels to automate tasks such as synchronizing the directories on each server from a master.
"We’ve experienced a few hiccups with the VM," Erickson acknowledged. "We’ve also had some problems around OpenOffice and Firefox... Firefox has well known issues with LTSP, anyway," he added.
Erickson also noted, however, that LNS has been able to work out a lot of the glitches by communicating with other Linux community members through the Pidgin and XChat software applications.
The spirit of collaboration in Santa Rosa has been contagious, stretching into classrooms, too. Erickson concedes that, at first, LTSP underwent considerable opposition from some teachers.
"These teachers were so accustomed to Windows that any change was difficult for them," according to Erickson. "They’d say, ‘This is just weird.’"
LNS, however, taught the teachers they could do just about anything in Linux that they’d done in Windows--and more importantly, showed them how.
"After the teachers gained more mastery, they flipped a 180-degree turn. They grew excited about troubleshooting, and they were proud to be able to get to the point where they could solve problems even without our help."
Erickson contended that, along the way, Adobe’s lack of support for Shockwave Director on Linux has posed one of the biggest stumbling blocks to LTSP in the Santa Rosa schools.
"Adobe has finally added support for Flash Player on Linux, and that’s helpful. But there’s still been absolutely no response from Adobe to requests from the community for a plug-in to Director," he charged. As a result, teachers in Santa Rosa have been dropping a Director-enabled application formerly used during the first three grades of school. "And there have been some hard feelings against Adobe," Erickson said.
For the sake of underlying stability, Santa Rosa has been sticking with the Long Term Support (LTS) versions of Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux, beginning with Ubuntu 6.04 and migrating along to 8.04, the current deployment.
Hardware upgrades have been performed, as well. "We are putting stability and security first," Erickson said. "And we’re had zero viruses with LTS," he added.
Meanwhile, though, in the interests of greater ease of use, Erickson--who owns LNS--recently hired a subcontractor to develop a new graphical user interface (GUI) for Ubuntu LTS. At the same time, thought is now being given to putting lab technicians in place at each of the remote sites on the LTSP network, for on-site help to teachers and children.
Still, however, LTSP is bringing huge benefits to the elementary schools of Santa Rosa, and it promises to do likewise for other school districts, too, according to Erickson.
Beyond slashing the costs of Microsoft licenses, taking giant steps away from Windows permits the schools to hold on to their software investments. Particularly with LTS versions of Ubuntu, older software "doesn’t stop getting supported, the way it does in Windows," he said. Moreover, proposed changes to the OS "are examined in light of how they might potentially break other things."
Also as Erickson sees it, thin client systems can produce additional cost savings by providing better energy efficiency than Windows PCs.
"Schools these days just don’t have all that much to spend. They can apply the money they save from LTSP to other needs, such as books," he observed.
"The use of Linux and open source also gives schools a chance to collaborate with others, no matter where in the world those schools are located." |
This weekend I was at Borefts Beer Festival, the De Molen festival in Bodegraven, Holland. It was the fifth time I attended with beer loving friends from Odense. I wrote about the 2013 festival in some of the first entries on this blog, going carefully through what my favourite brewers had to offer. This year I’ll do it all in a single blog about the good and bad at the 2014 festival, rather than a long list of great beers.
Borefts Beer Festival has evolved over the years and there have been changes every year. The past few years, the geographical lay-out of the festival has had to change every year, to accomodate more and more guests. This year it was all in one place, in and around the new brewing facilities. Much better than having the festival split up in two locations across the road, but also pretty crowded at times.
The breweries coming to Borefts have also changed from year to year, and the best news this year was that the two lambik houses Cantillon and Tilquin were there. There have been sour beers of various kinds from almost all brewers and every year, but with very few exceptions, there is just nothing that comes even close to the real thing, and I had a lot of wonderful beer from both brewers over the weekend.
At the other end of the quality spectrum, two brand new and unproven breweries had some of the worst beer I have had at Borefts at all. Every brewery has served some less fortunate or even undrinkable experimental beers over the years, from brewers who mistake malt vinegar for sour beers, or brewers who mistakenly believe peat smoked malt and Laphroig barrels have a place in the beer world, to brewers under the strange illusion that spice in beer is good and more spice is better. But this year we had some truly badly brewed beers. Maybe it isn’t fair to place these new brewers next to the cream of world class brewing.
Every year has had a challenge for the brewers. This year the challenge was to brew a version of that evil phenomenon called the Radler, that takes up valuable space on beer shelves across Holland, through Germany to Slovakia, even making occassional visits here in Denmark. It causes every proud, Reinheitsgebot-loving German brewer to pour cheap soda-pop in his beer, and it causes teenagers to believe that beer can taste like sugar-water.
Luckily the brewers at Borefts had met the challenge by taking a non-radler and call it their radler. There were a few interesting and tasty fruit beers among them, but they had very little in common. I really hope that the challenge next year is something that challenges the brewers on their brewing skills and not their imagination. Like a single hop pale ale, a crisp, clean pilsner, or a 5% porter. That would be much more interesting.
The food served at the Borefts Beer Festival has definitely also evolved, from a choice of two different sandwiches (if memory serves me right), to several food stalls with burgers, fries and stew, and local delicacies like good Dutch cheese.
And finally: My favourite beers at Borefts 2014. Tilquin had a few new beers for me, and the best beer I had was Tilquin (Gueuze)²/Gueuze Squared. Not particularly sour, but very dry and very complex. I had it several times, and also brought home a couple of bottles from De Molen Beer Shop. And I finally got to taste Cantillon jonge lambik (young lambik), which was a missing piece in my beer world. Jonge lambik is by definition a work in progress, but this was more tasty than others I’ve had, tasting more finished. The other Cantillon beers – all served from tap – were beautiful as always.
There are always too few really good hoppy beers at Borefts, but two great breweries really know how to do that thing. Toccalmatto had a “Rye India Brown Ale”, which was a dark amber Imperial IPA with rye malt. Great balance of malt flavour and citrus hops, and full body, and bitterness to match. They also brought an absolutely fantastic imperial stout aged on Sagratino di Monefalco wine barrels with brettanomyces. The Kernel had a Simcoe/Chinook/Amarillo IPA, following their usual recipe as a pale golden, clean and fresh hoppy ~5% beer, one of those hoppy beers that you can just keep on drinking forever. And finally Buning Sky Plateau, a fruity 3.5% golden ale of the kind that is slightly more healthy to keep on drinking forever.
But as usual, the stars of the festival are by and large the strong black beers, which makes a lot of sense, since it’s De Molen’s own area of strength. The aforementioned Toccalmatto stout was up there. And Närke had brought two new versions of the legendary Stormaktsporter Kaggen, which s simply the best balanced strong black beer in the world. One was the “usual” bourbon barrel aged with added raspberry. It was amazing, though the raspberry didn’t do much of a difference, only adding a little fruity tartness to the finish. The other was aged on Laphroig casks and with added blackcurrant. It should be illegal to ruin such a fine beer with Laphroig casks.
Almost equaly smooth and balanced and delicious was De Molen Twist & Shout Cognac barrel aged. Really full bodied and heavy beer, with lots of chocolate character and a nice touch of oak. Honorary mention go to Emelisse White Label Imperial Russian Stout from Makers Mark barrel, and Evil Twin Imperial Doughnut Break. |
(For the most up-to-date chart included in this blog post, check out our health care tools page.)
(The numbers on the chart on this page were updated on August 12, 2009, to include 2009 second quarter campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures.)
If you’ve been following the money in the public health care debate with us for the last month, you’ve probably got a pretty good sense now where it leads. As Congress continues debating the issue, we’re making it even easier for you to keep track of the money by comparing the views of the big industries involved and some of the key players in each industry.
Check out how much money they’ve spent on lobbying expenditures in 2008 and in the first three months of 2009, the total they’ve given to lawmakers’ candidate committees and leadership political action committees since the start of the 2008 election cycle and which party they’re bankrolling.
CRP Senior Researcher Douglas Weber, Lobbying Researcher Matthias Jaime and Communications Intern Aaron Kiersh contributed to the chart below. Webmaster Hector Rivera produced the graphic.
Players Lobbying,
2008 and 2009 Contributions
2008 and 2010 cycles Democrats Republicans Policy Positions PHARMACEUTICAL/HEALTH PRODUCTS $370,440,214 $33,622,476 51% 49% Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) $33,280,000 $348,609 51% 49% Supports individual mandate to buy insurance.
Opposes public health insurance plan. Biotechnology Industry Association $11,400,000 $253,979 48% 52% Has not endorsed or opposed public health insurance plan. Pfizer $23,900,000 $2,138,668 52% 48% Represented by PhRMA Eli Lilly & Co. $19,515,000 $1,267,073 50% 50% Opposes public health insurance plan.
Opposes taxing health care benefits.
Supports expanding Health Savings Accoungs (HSAs). INSURANCE $144,738,590 $22,870,936 54% 46% Blue Cross/Blue Shield $25,089,912 $3,164,955 52% 48% Supports individual mandate to buy insurance.
Opposes public health insurance plan. America’s Health Insurance Plans $11,440,000 $754,820 43% 57% Supports individual mandate to buy insurance.
Opposes public health insurance plan.
Proposed ending practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems. MetLife Inc. $7,760,000 $1,278,886 59% 41% Represented by AHIP UnitedHealth Group $7,330,000 $1,601,466 61% 39% Represented by AHIP HEALTH PROFESSIONALS $117,291,855 $105,848,099 53% 47% American Medical Association $29,025,000 $1,990,418 56% 44% Opposes public health insurance plan.
Opposes 21 percent cut in Medicare fees to doctors.
Supports malpractice reform. American Dental Association $2,970,398 $2,658,490 55% 45% Supports funding for community-based prevention measures and the recruitment of dentists.
Supports improving the Medicaid dental program, especially for low-income adults. American Nurses Association $1,960,386 $866,891 79% 21% Supports single-payer system in which the government finances medical coverage. American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons $2,809,000 $1,588,853 50% 50% Opposes increasing Medicare payments to general practitioners only, especially if it means it would be paid for by reducing payments to specialists. HOSPITALS/NURSING HOMES $151,880,681 $26,600,830 63% 37% American Hospital Association $28,599,860 $2,560,016 65% 35% Supports individual mandate to buy insurance.
Opposes public health insurance plan.
Opposes cuts to reimbursements to hospitals. Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care $3,176,246 $68,00 65% 35% Opposes reducing senior citizen’s Medicare funding. American Health Care Association $2,598,000 $1,701,440 65% 35% Opposes reducing senior citizen’s Medicare funding. Federation of American Hospitals $4,305,000 $696,287 53% 47% Opposes public health insurance plan.
Supports co-op option. ADVOCACY American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) $37,280,000 $56,172 90% 10% Has not endorsed or opposed public health insurance plan.
Supports more “comparative effectiveness studies.” Health Care for America Now $150,000 $500 100% 0% Supports public health insurance plan. Families USA Foundation $57,000 $87,735 100% 0% Supports public health insurance plan. BUSINESS (PACS only) $2,826,028,184 $433,053,147 49% 51% U.S. Chamber of Commerce $117,921,000 $294,657 31% 69% Opposes employer mandate. Wal-Mart $10,770,000 $2,446,543 43% 56% Supports employer mandate. National Federation of Independent Business $5,530,402 $866,797 16% 84% Opposes employer mandate. LABOR (PACs only) $53,624,397 $92,802,666 92% 8% AFL-CIO $4,920,000 $1,542,318 91% 9% Supports public health insurance plan.
Opposes taxing employer-provided health benefits. SEIU $3,853,950 $2,821,103 95% 5% Supports public health insurance plan.
Opposes taxing employer-provided health benefits. AFSCME $3,240,000 $2,826,504 99% 1% Supports public health insurance plan.
Opposes taxing employer-provided health benefits. Blue font indicates that this organization is among the top 20 groups to spend money on lobbying since 1989 Red font indicates that this organization is an all-time top contributor since 1989, designated as one of CRP’s “Heavy Hitters”
Return to “Diagnosis: Reform” series
CRP in the News
Pay to Play The Health Care Way (NPR, July 9, 2009) |
This was better than anything I've gotten for christmas since I was a little kid!!
I got the package and I knew my santa was the best. A freaking Christmas Lenny was drawn on the box?! I bet you don't know what that is do you. Just shows the level of dedication and stalking my santa did. And if you then santa you need to add me as a friend on neopets :)
Three of these look like they were hand made by mjfikes. If they are you are one talented son of a bitch. In the excitement from finding my Mjolnir magnet and baby groot (both of which are proudly going to live on my desk at the job I'm starting on the 29th) I almost missed the piece that is going to get the most use/comments from strangers. A sonic freaking screwdriver crochet hook!! Are you kidding me! Oh dear god it glows in the dark. My 3 favorite things bundled into one glorious object.
And don't think that I don't appreciate the reflective yarn. That shit is gorgeous and soft. I initially wanted to make a little cat sweater, but now that I actually have some I'm tempted to make some cold weather jogging gear for myself.
And I can't forget the candy. I'm going to have to fight to keep my SO's grubby paws off. Luckily I can keep the candy bracelets close!
Thank you again mjfikes, this is by far the most amazing gift anyone has given me! |
What does the word "rape" mean to you? For many reading this post, I suspect, it is a trigger to appalling events in their own lives. Because rape is an everyday crime. By my calculations, roughly 230 people are raped each day in England and Wales.
Police, this morning, called for specialist units to investigate rape allegations - senior officers are ashamed of a conviction rate they calculate at 6%. "Not good enough" says the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police John Yates.
But analysis of the Home Office data on what they call "intimate violence" suggests the conviction rate is much lower. And the scale of the problem far greater. My source is the Home Office supplement to the British Crime Survey - Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2006/07 (pdf link). This is a remarkable piece of research in which 13,000 people were asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire on their experiences of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape.
It is an exercise that has been conducted three times now and is backed up by other academic studies. The results are consistent. One in 20 women said they had been raped since they were 16. One in 200 said they had been raped in the previous 12 months. In terms of the population of England and Wales, that suggests 85,000 women are raped each year - 230 a day. And yet the number of men convicted of rape is fewer than 800 a year. So the chance of a victim seeing her attacker jailed is less than one in 100.
But rape is a complex crime. Only 17% of rapists are strangers to their victim. Just 4% are cases of date rape. Half (54%) are committed by a husband, partner or ex-partner. What's more, even though their experience is technically rape in law, 57% of rape victims don't necessarily think of themselves that way.
To be clear what the figures categorise as rape, the definition is this: "the penetration of the vagina or anus without consent and penetration of the mouth by a penis without consent."
Since the 39,000 people who have taken part in the studies benefited nothing from alleging rape, and the results appear consistent, it seems probable that the research gives a realistic sense of the scale.
If one looks at the data on rape at any point during adult life, it suggests 700,000 women have suffered in that way - equivalent to the entire population of Leeds.
Figures for male rape are too small to measure on an annual basis, but the survey suggest there are approximately 80,000 men in England and Wales who have been raped in adulthood.
The data suggests, if anything, incidents of rape are going down slightly. But, to my mind, the numbers still paint a deeply troubling picture of sexual violence in the 21st century.
How should we respond? The police have made great strides in recent years to deal more effectively with allegations of rape. The idea of specialist units may help. But such is the scale of unwanted sexual advance, assault and rape revealed by the research, the answer surely cannot lie with policing alone. |
Like many people, I've been slowly rewatching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ever since it popped up on Netflix. And one thing becomes clear: in many ways, 2012 has already overtaken DS9 as The Future goes — barring, of course, space travel and replicators. Culturally, at least, we've zoomed right past Star Trek's version of the 24th century, by the second decade of the 21st.
I've been struck particularly by two things missing from the DS9 universe — one that was unpredictable in the 1993-99 span of the series, and one that was predictable but unattractive from the creators' standpoint. Nobody uses social media, and nobody wastes time. Spoilers ahead...
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As I watch everyone interact on the station, the lack of social media sticks out hugely to me simply because it is how so many of us interact with each other now—and especially over long distances. There is no hashtag for DS9 workers to tweet LOLSisko macros or talk to families back home. Everyone uses voice/video communication rather than text despite the security issues this obviously poses (and of course a social network of any kind poses security problems in and of itself, but provides rich narrative opportunities in that arena which I've yet to see explored much) and the fact that we are seeing even now many people shy away even from the telephone when given an alternative. We have the videophones of science fiction past—and no one much cares. We use it sometimes, but it's far more of a pain to make yourself presentable onscreen, get the kids and dogs to leave you alone for long enough to Skype, and carry on an etiquette minefield of a conversation when a quick text or email will do for most business.
This doesn't begin to cover the constant "come here and see this" requests, where said person will not be able to come there and see that due to falling plot. We live in a world already where no one need come and see anything, a quick picture upload obviates the need for O'Brien to come squint at your shit in person. Part of the reason, I think, that Minority Report continues to be a watchwod for interface technology is that it showed a new(ish) way for people to interact with technology. In DS9, instantaneous information tech is available and evenly distributed, but the writers do not live in a world, yet, where anyone has begun to figure out what to do with it. So walkie talkies are still, in 1999, the model for communication. DS9 cares about physical presence in a way we are already beginning to leave behind. Image by Lord Magnusen
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All of the episodes involving Jake's incipient writer-hood (besides being pretty weaksauce in general) make much more sense if one imagines him as a blogger rather than an intrepid boy reporter for...a newspaper? Magazine? I find it sort of touching that the kind of 30s reporter that Jake seems to aspire to be is still considered worthy and important—he wants to write our brand of McCarthy/Hemingway realist fiction (when we hear his plots they do not involve spaceships or aliens even though those would be realism for him) and even more amusingly, he's terribly famous in the future he glimpses on account of having published a single short story collection. In fact, the war correspondence he so longs to write—and he believes he is the only one who can write it—would be one of many, many voices escaping from occupied DS9 in the post Arab Spring networked news hivemind.
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I do think the presence of a TrekTwitter would be deeply erosive to the power structure on DS9, though I'm not wholly sure that's a bad thing. Everyone in power is good and believes themselves a hero—even when they are deceitful and manipulative it is always in service of the greater good, where the greater good is defined as the survival of the Federation. Can you imagine the subreddit for the station? How many atheists would tear down Sisko the messiah, how every decision would be questioned, mocked, dissected where the actors and the acted upon could see it? Every show of this type has a "view from below" episode at some point—but part of the point of the barrage of opinions and information we now sort through every day is that the view from below is as available as the A narrative, at all times. Image by LedVen/Cheezburger.
But it's not there. At one point someone asks for a high-speed data connection and this is treated as a pretty serious request. But all I could think is: for what?
This absolutely feeds into my second point, which I think is far more endemic to SF in general than simply the lack of anyone predicting Facebook in 1993.
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We do see hobbies on the station: O'Brien and Bashir, who are basically married by Season 2, like to re-enact famous battles in the holosuite. Sisko likes to re-enact baseball games. People gamble, they play sports, they play instruments, they buy prostitutes both virtual and real. But the hobby we see most often is reading books (followed by cooking food, which is interesting and I think a right call in a world of replicators—real, cooked food suddenly has a tremendous value and becomes a status-flag) we never see anyone just wasting time.
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Battle re-enactments are eminently useful for military officers; likewise strategic sports and even Picard's mystery-solving programs and the crew's bafflingly low-tech poker games, though that's getting further afield than I'd like. Gambling is almost always shown as a social activity (as opposed to online poker) in which many other kinds of important information can be had. Reading books is mentally stimulating and often the books themselves are classics even by our own standards, such as Shakespeare. (Most people, no matter what their profiles say, do not read Shakespeare to unwind. Apparently all Starfleet captains do, however.) In fact, the pastimes we see are very Victorian in nature. They are parlor pastimes: reading, talking, playing live instruments (something we already see drastically less of than even a few decades ago, especially as compared to how many people can play Rock Band vs can play a guitar). It's all over Aubrey and Maturin up in there.
Nobody sits around and plays Farmville. Nobody gets embroiled in a flame war concerning the portrayal of Klingons in human vids or just sits and watches vids with their feet up. Nope. The brave men and women of the future read (super old) books, talk to each other face to face, and even in their VR fantasies practice for things they will have to do in real life or, admittedly quite realistically, have space holosex. There is no WoW. There are no video games at all unless they are evil ones from Risa that will suck out your brains.
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Because of this, and because of the lack of a social network, it is possible to be alone in the Star Trek world in a way which I would have to deliberately take action to achieve in my world. Even when we are alone, most of us check a number of communication vectors and leave them live—Twitter, email, text messages, Facebook, our blogs, Reddit, news feeds. We are a baby hivemind spinning our training wheels. To be alone as profoundly (to me) as Sisko, Kira, and the rest often are, I would have to make a decision to shut down all of those streams. (And I do that sometimes. But it's a choice. The Internet is always on. Actually, in my house we have 19th century nights where all the power and screens are shut off and only pre-electricity activities are on the table. You know, reading books, playing live instruments, talking, cooking, playing cards. It's a bit hilarious that those nights are the closest thing I can get to living on DS9.) Image via SciFun.
Sidebar: Interestingly, the whole notion of the Great Link seems to present a very high-level version of that interconnected, networked state, much like Asimov's Galaxia. This is a concept that used to horrify me, being a good 14 year old "rugged" "individualist" American. But now I live in the baby-version of that world, where I can plug into the world's thoughts at will. It's addictive; very hard to unplug once you're there. And the Great Link is a wholly, constantly networked culture—even their bodies are open source. They do not need to eat or work or sleep or have sex or die. When they're not getting up in the Alpha Quadrant's grill, they simply are.
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And in terms of DS9's universe, the Great Link is at best squicky and at worst an abomination. That connectivity, that lack of need, is presented as a big part of their Otherness, the reason that not only are they bad because they engineer species and want to fight the Federation, but that their being is essentially suspect. Not like our upstanding heroes, who never waste a moment, never let a consideration of others get too much in the way of Doing the Right Thing.
Anyway. I know wasting time is not necessarily narratively interesting, (though it can be. How one wastes time says a lot about a person) but Star Trek is at least in lip-service a post-scarcity world, and the Federation is not at war until Season six. Wasting time and/or fucking around would be a lot of what people did with their lives. It's a lot of what we do now, and we're not even close to post-much at all. No one is frivolous in the future. No one exhibits poor or even mediocre time management. All are paladins of self-organization.
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Wasting time has a unique pleasure (some call it slack) that we as humans are kind of addicted to. We're starting to do it collectively on our social networks now, to waste time in a connected way. The universe of DS9 is culturally incredibly old-fashioned — all the aspects of life that were important to a 19th century officer can be found in spades, both in-show and in a meta-sense. In a world with faith in its higher-ups, as Star Trek purported to be, it is terrifying to see the paladins playing WoW. They should be defending justice even in their sleep — and this too is a very old idea.
Much continues to be made of the fact that we now have Star Trek pads, ubiquitous, available, and to be honest, better than those on the show, which showed piles of them required to convey basic ship business. But more than the pads, in fifteen years or so, we've leapfrogged the social norms of Star Trek on the back of the Internet. It's amazing to me just how quick the transition was—of course we're still in it—and that more recent Star Treks have not and probably will not engage with this new reality either.
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Star Trek is a butterfly in a glass. It is no longer meant to predict or exhibit the future, but to quietly stand for the world of the past, as much as the Shire ever was. It's not exactly revolutionary to say that about Star Trek, but DS9 still gets props for its realistic portrayal of war (I actually think the war bits are sort of trite and easy — the Dominion is never for a moment meant to be seen as having a point or being in the right) and grittiness, since of course grittiness = quality in terms of much contemporary media.
But it strikes me that, though she wears a pretty technodress, underneath it all, DS9 is Grandma telling us kids how it was in her day, and that no matter how many fancy doodads we get, her day will go on forever.
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This article by Catherynne M. Valente originally appeared over at Charles Stross' blog. |
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Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, has been removed from a Senate committee because of anti-gay comments he made that became public this week. Senate President Michael Waddoups says he decided to take the action because of public pressure, but at the same time he affirmed Buttars' free speech rights.
Buttars isn't backing down, even as Senate GOP leaders announced his punishment. In a statement posted online, Buttars says he disagrees with the censure, but he's a "grown man who can take his knocks." Senate President Michael Waddoups took him off of the senate judiciary committee.
Even in the face of what amounts to a demotion, Sen. Buttars is not apologizing and his supporters don't think he has anything to apologize for. At the same time, his critics are angry. They want more severe action against Buttars, even for him to quit the Senate.
Buttars was kicked off the judicial committee he chaired after comparing gay activists to radical Muslims during an interview for a documentary. Buttars also told filmmaker Reed Cowan that gay activists are "probably the greatest threat to America going down."
There has been outrage over the comments this year because gays have unsuccessfully sponsored a package of bills they say find common ground on the issue of equal rights. Also, Butters has a record of speaking off the cuff when it comes to gays, illegal immigrants, and African Americans.
Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, says the move shouldn't be viewed as punishment but rather the removal of a distraction.
"I want the citizens of Utah to know that the Senate stands behind Sen. Buttars and his right to speak, that we stand behind him as colleague and support his right to serve in this state," Waddoups said.
Senate Pres. Michael Waddoups
He said this will free Sen. Buttars to be more at ease when speaking his opinions.
"We agree with many of the things that he said. We disagree with some of them. We may disagree with some of the ways he said it, but we stand four square behind what he wants to say and needs to say," Waddoups said.
To listen to Waddoups' statement, play the audio link on this page.
Buttars defended himself in a blog post on Friday, saying, in part, "For the record, I do not agree with the censure. I see it as an attempt to shy away from controversy. In particular, I disagree with my removal as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, since my work there is entirely unrelated to my opposition to the homosexual agenda."
There were those who didn't think the penalty went far enough; and that Buttars should be removed from the powerful Senate Rules Committee, too.
Senate Democrats do seem satisfied. But Senator Ross Romero is going a step further, proposing sensitivity training for legislators. He said, "We need to balance the constitutional rights of free speech. We are doing so as representatives of our state, and to have some sensitivity training, have some diversity training my hope is it will help educate those in the body who don't appreciate the differences that individuals brings."
Cowan interviewed Buttars in January for a documentary about California's Proposition 8 campaign. The comments were made public this week.
Reaction varies as emotions run high
Sen. Buttars' supporters say today is a victory for free speech. "It would have been a chilling effect if he were censured for what he said, on all lawmakers," Gayle Ruzicka, president of the Utah Eagle Forum, said.
She and others are wearing his campaign button around the Capitol. "We just thought it would be a good day to say we support Chris Buttars and his right to free speech," she said.
Buttars' supporter Karen Clark said, "I've been in his home many times and talked to him. He said, ‘You may not agree with me, but you'll always know where I stand.' And there are a lot of people in his district who voted for him because of that issue, that stance. He will stand up and speak the things that are near and dear to him and us, as well."
But plenty of people say they're offended at Buttars' comments. Those people also were at the Capitol and wanted their voices to be heard.
Troy Williams said, "We are a vibrant, beautiful part of this community. We demand to be heard. We're not going away. We believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We believe that includes us as well as everyone else in this state. We're here to fight for that."
Listeners flooded KSL Newsradio's Doug Wright Show by phone and e-mail following the announcement. One said, "I'm very pleased with how that was handled. You go, President Waddoups, and thanks for supporting Sen. Buttars!"
Another said, "Waddoups doesn't care because this is a one-party state."
And someone else said, "Buttars should be forced to resign. He is an embarrassment for our state."
The Buttars story has gotten more that 56,000 page views on KSL.com, about 10 times that of a typical news story. By mid-afternoon, more than 900 people posted comments on KSL's message board.
Greg L. wrote, "I thought Senator Buttars also had 1st Amendment rights just like homosexuals. Apparently not. Why is he being reprimanded?"
Another responded, "His particular comment was hateful and bigoted. This kind of mentality has no place in the judicial system."
National group The Human Rights Campaign calls Buttars' comments dangerous and his committee removal not enough. Bruce Bastian of the campaign said, "It's a slap on the wrist because, again, there's no apology. How can you just let something like that go and say OK, what he said, he said, and it's OK, basically?"
But others say it went too far. Stephen Graham of the Standard of Liberty Foundation said, "It is a slap on the wrist, but it's a slap on the wrist that he didn't deserve. He shouldn't have received that. They had no business saying because you used your freedom of speech we are affecting the job you have in the Senate. It's uncalled for."
Earlier, chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, Wayne Holland, had called it statement time for the Republicans. "They have an opportunity here to show Utah citizens that they are tired of this kind of politics," he said.
Utah Republican Party Vice Chair Todd Weiler earlier said the comments attributed to Buttars do not represent the party. "Our state party platform is that we recognize the traditional family as the fundamental unit of society, and that's it. The Republican Party doesn't discriminate or encourage discriminatory statements against any group of citizens," he said.
He feels the comments are unfortunate and take away from some of the positive things the 2-term senator has done.
Also today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement urging "civil and respectful dialogue." It said, "From the outset, the Church's position has always been to engage in civil and respectful dialogue on this issue. Senator Buttars does not speak for the church."
The Utah Pride Center said Buttars' recent comments as well as today's press conference deeply hurt and saddened its community. And the group Equality Utah said it appreciates the removal of Buttars as chair of the judiciary committee, but says that is "far from enough to repair the damage caused by Buttars' comments."
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah defends Buttars' right to voice his opinions. A statement released by the civil liberties group reads in part: "While we disagree vehemently with Senator Buttars' views, we strongly support the Constitution's free speech protections.
"Restricting the speech of one group or individual jeopardizes everyone's rights because the same laws or regulations used to silence unpopular and controversial speech can be used to silence valid discourse," it said.
All members of the Senate are ready to move on now. They consider this a huge distraction from the work they still have to do on dozens of bills and the state budget.
Buttars himself did not respond to questions after the news conference.
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
(Copyright 2008 Bonneville International Corporation. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed. AP contributed to this report.)
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The combined ingestion of ketamine (Ket) and amphetamine (Amph) by drug-users has been rampant and produced more severe behavioral abnormality. However, the interactive consequences of the two drugs are still unclear. In this study, we treated adult male mice with a single i.p. injection of saline, Amph (5 mg/kg), low Ket (LK, 10 mg/kg), high Ket (HK, 50 mg/kg), or Amph and LK or HK (ALK or AHK) and examined their behavioral and neurochemical changes at 0.5 and 2 h post-injection. Compared with saline, Amph, LK or HK treatment alone increased the levels of motor activities such as locomotion, stereotypy or ataxia of mice. Notably, at combined treatments, LK and HK differentially exacerbated Amph-induced locomotion and stereotypy, whereas Amph worsened LK or HK-produced ataxia. The higher striatal dopamine levels of A, ALK and AHK groups correlated with their greater motor activities. The prolonged increase of dopamine in the motor cortex of ALK and AHK mice may associate with the longer duration of behavioral hyperactivity and greater peak score of locomotion; the greater dopamine level in the somatosensory cortex probably contributes to the more severe ataxia. Furthermore, in the striatum of all drug-treated groups, the expression of GAD 67 mRNA and GAD 67 -positive punctates was higher than respective saline controls, indicating the involvement of GABAergic system in the drug-induced behavioral changes. Our results demonstrate the acute interplay between Amph and Ket in both behavioral and neurochemical aspects for the first time. Dopaminergic and GABAergic systems were affected differentially by the drugs in the striatum. |
T-Mobile announced today that it’s giving away a 12 months of DirecTV Now, AT&T’s new live TV service, to customers who switch from AT&T. The company says you’ll only need to migrate one number to T-Mobile and it will give you a $35 credit on your bill for the next year. However, you will have to sign up for T-Mobile One, the company’s confusing new unlimited plan, and open two lines with the company. Also, the $35 credit is the price of DirecTV Now’s cheapest plan, and that plan does not include add-ons like HBO or select sports channels from higher-tier plans. The full details of the promotion can be found here.
The goal, of course, is to try and publicly poke holes in AT&T’s mobile offering. Since the launch of DirecTV Now, T-Mobile CEO John Legere has been openly bragging about his company’s commitment to the potentially net-neutrality-violating practice of zero-rating, which exempts select internet services from counting toward a customer’s data cap. AT&T is zero-rating DirecTV Now for customers who use its cell network, and the practice could be harmful to the open internet. Nonetheless, Legere sees zero-rating as a benefit it offers, and T-Mobile has pretty much written the book on how to get away with it using its Binge On and Music Freedom initiatives.
1/ A few weeks ago, @ATT high-fived themselves for zero-rating #DTVNow, but guess what??? We already do that to all video w/ #TMobileONE! — John Legere (@JohnLegere) December 15, 2016
So while this new promotion might seem like a bit of corporate trolling — and it definitely is — there is more at stake here. Large telecoms are trying to outdo each other when it comes to giving away stuff for free, sometimes in ways that may have lasting ripple effects on the state of the internet. And no company loves to up the ante more than T-Mobile.
Update 3:23PM ET, 12/15: Clarified that T-Mobile’s promotion involves signing up for its new unlimited plan, as well as opening two lines. |
Most people can name one 17th century Italian scientist who challenged Aristotle's writings and changed the way science was done for centuries to come. There were actually two! Galileo was one. Francesco Redi was the other. Francesco Redi is known for his early use of controlled experiments and his challenge to the theory of spontaneous generation.
When a scientist designs an experiment it is important to eliminate as many unknowns as possible. For instance, if one were trying to assess the health effects of a drug on humans, there are many factors which may affect health..simply counting how many of the patients get better or worse when given the drug is not good enough. We want to know how many got better or worse specifically from the drug. One solution might be to introduce a control to compare the drug-based tests against some standard case. In these drug-tests one group is commonly given the drug and another group, the control group, is given a placebo (commonly a sugar-pill with no known health effects). The subjects do not know which type of pill they have been given. The drug results from the test group can then be compared against those of the control group and we can get a better idea of which effects result from the drug. This important advance in scientific methods was introduced only 25 years after the death of Galileo and only a few kilometres away from where he lived.
Francesco Redi was able to disprove the theory that maggots could be spontaneously generated from meat using a controlled experiment. Spontaneous generation, the theory that life forms can be generated from inanimate objects, had been around since at least the time of Aristotle. Francesco took eight jars, placed meat in all the jars, but covered four of the jars with muslin. Maggots developed in the open jars but did not develop in the muslin-covered jars. Today controlled experiments are commonly demanded by scientific journals and are sometimes legally required by regulatory bodies (especially for pharmaceuticals). The image below is taken from Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl' Insetti (p. 187) where Francesco Redi published a description of the experiment in 1668 (see sidebar for digital copies of book).
We are taught that Galileo introduced the scientific method while Francesco Redi introduced the controlled experiment. Both beliefs may be simplistic, however. Francesco Redi and Galileo Galilei demonstrated their methods using very simple experiments then explained their procedures in clear and compelling ways. This is why both are so important. But scientists before Redi and Galileo had recognized the need to control variables and had described the sequence of steps described in Galileo's experimental method. When Galileo was still a young boy, Giuseppe Moletti, a professor at the University of Padua, conducted a series of experiments on free fall by dropping weights in different media (see Timeline of Classical Mechanics). His test with free fall in water and air specified that the balls must be of the same substance, weight and figure in order to remove doubt. In the same book, when Moletti described dropping balls of wood and lead from a tower to demonstrate that free fall doesn't depend on weight (as Aristotle had said) he was careful to eliminate size as a nuisance variable by conducting the experiment with wooden balls of different sizes [_1_] .
Being careful to control for the known variables doesn't guarantee that you will get the correct results. That is because "you don't know what you don't know". There might be variables that need to be controlled that you don't even know exist. This is why the famous Tower of Pisa experiment actually came up with incorrect results. Many consider the legend of the Tower of Pisa experiment to be a myth (see Myth 1. The Tower of Pisa Myth) . The experiment did occur. It was conducted by Vincenzio Renieri, a Catholic monk and another University of Pisa professor and not by Galileo as is commonly thought. Vincenzio was a friend of Galileo's. Like Moletti before him, Renieri, controlled for size when he dropped two balls of the same size (one of wood and one of lead). He came up with the wrong results. There was almost 2 metres difference between the heavier and lighter balls when they hit the ground. Galileo described similar results in some of his works. These scientists could not have known that they needed to control for human physiology as well. Modern experiments with humans dropping balls of markedly different weights show that there is a tendency to grip the heavier ball more tightly and release it more slowly [_2_] . |
If the proposed bipartisan immigration bill becomes law as it now reads, the Republican Party may never win the White House again, according to Dr. Steven Camarota, Director of Research for the Center for Immigration Studies."It's over 40 million new immigrants this bill will admit … [creating] an enormous number of new guest worker programs. Many of these new categories are uncapped, so an unlimited number of people can come in," Camarota told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV."Is this an unremitting electoral disaster for the Republican Party? Absolutely. The amnesty beneficiaries plus the new immigrants — it's hard to see how the Republicans would ever win another presidential election ."Everything we know about the political opinions of new immigrants, including Hispanics and non-Hispanics, are that they tend to favor the Democratic Party because the Democrats favor expansive government, and immigrants are in favor of that."Camarota — whose nonpartisan, research group advocates immigration reduction — said a "very large fraction" of Republicans feel they must support the bill, a bipartisan effort of four Republican and four Democratic lawmakers known as the "Gang of Eight.""[They] want to vote for something so that they can say they did something. Whether the bill has merits or not, they just want to vote for something. And what this is is a fig leaf. It doesn’t really change anything," he said."It's just another promise to add more border patrol agents and fencing, but it doesn’t get at all of the underlying problems – the weakness of the interior enforcement, the fact that legalization and amnesty come before any enforcement . . ."Gaffney said that alarmingly, the 2006 "Secure Fence Act" passed by Congress in 2006 to erect better barriers at U.S. borders and other immigration control measures have been failures."Almost none of it has been done. Congress has five times passed an entry-exit system to keep track of temporary visitors when they come and go from the United States. And this bill, of course, would be a sixth time," he said."But every time they pass it, it never gets implemented. Congress drags its feet, it doesn’t allocate the funds, the bureaucracy resists, the administration doesn’t want to do it."
See the Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV each weekday live by Clicking Here Now
You can listen to the Steve Malzberg Show each weekday live from 3-6 PM ET on SiriusXM 244. |
President Donald Trump Drain the Swamp Sir.
DC Hilton Ritz Carlton used for congressional child sex says federal agent
Washington—October 11, 2006—TomFlocco.com—DC Hilton, Ritz Carlton used for congressional child sex says federal agent—According to a long-time senior intelligence agent, the Washington, DC Hilton was used for compromising House and Senate members who had sex with children in a legislative influence ring also involving male and female prostitutes at other Capitol Hill hotels. The operation was organized by convicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and recently ensnared California GOP Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham—convicted for bribery and currently serving eight years in federal prison. We recently reported that resigned Florida Republican Representative Mark Foley’s page-boy sex predator case is only the tip of the iceberg—a pedophile scandal linked to the first Bush administration. Abramoff’s recent GOP sex ring also involved male and female prostitutes at Washington’s Watergate, Ritz-Carlton and Sheraton hotels.
TomFlocco.com learned last night that the Washington Hilton was specifically used for sex with children because it has what the agent termed a “super secure section for VIPs that is out of public view and which reportedly employs no camera surveillance, an area able to hold around 6-10 vehicles so that no one could observe abducted, abused or drugged children flown in from other states who were coming to or leaving the hotel.” Today we were told that Hilton employees began to become suspicious of Abramoff’s operation, so children were moved to the Washington Ritz-Carlton according to other intelligence officials. The issue is reportedly becoming so hot that it is likely that Hastert will ultimately resign to hide his personal issues in the same manner as Foley.
The agent—who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the case—added that the secluded entrance was originally used in response to Bush 41 family friend John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton on March 30, 1981 just after Reagan and Vice President Bush took office. Interestingly, the assassin’s brother Scott Hinckley was scheduled to have dinner with Bush 43’s brother Neil on the evening of the assassination attempt, but the curious “coincidence” was covered up as perhaps one of the most spiked news stories of the last century.
Following on the heals of our Thursday, October 5 Abramoff hotel story, WayneMadsenReport.com reported over the weekend that informed sources in the Washington, DC gay community told Madsen that GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert has been involved in sexual encounters with young “men for hire” and that his alternative lifestyle is the main reason he and his staff are covering up the Foley scandal. The revelations date back to Madsen’s earlier stories about the Yorkville High School, Illinois wrestling coach’s decision to enter politics after rumors surfaced about inappropriate contact with male students. Madsen reported today that media sources are starting to focus on Hastert’s unmarried advisor, key Foley player and chief of staff, 56 year old Scott Palmer, who lives with Hastert in a DC townhouse with his deputy chief of staff, Mike Stokke—and that Hastert’s wife Jean lives in Illinois and stays at a hotel when she is in Washington. This, despite the serious fact that the House Speaker is third in line for the presidency should Democrats take control of the House and Senate, and then impeach and remove Bush and Cheney. Also mentioned were links to indicted former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff and child prostitution in the Northern Mariana Islands where DeLay and his staffers vacationed while developing Free Trade deals with multinational corporations using cheap foreign labor outside the U.S.A.
George W. Bush will stand with and defend the actions of the embattled Speaker Hastert on Thursday in Chicago, where Presidential Press Secretary Tony Snow will also be in Illinois this Saturday to headline Hastert’s annual “mega-dinner” campaign fund-raiser.
AIPAC and Abramoff operated child sex blackmail ring
http://www.stewwebb.com/2014/02/03/aipac-and-abramoff-operated-child-sex-blackmail-ring/
APIAC Officers and Board Members
AIPAC Directors left Norman Brownstein and right Larry Mizel Organized Crime Boss Hogs
http://www.stewwebb.com/AIPAC_Officers_and_Board_members_20121127.htm
Who Controls Senator John McCain Larry Mizel Organized Crime Boss Hog
http://www.stewwebb.com/2017/01/02/who-controls-senator-john-mccain-larry-mizel-organized-crime-boss-hog/
Senator Charles Schumer Blackmailed by Larry Mizel Organized Crime Boss Hog
Boulder Properties Blackmail of Congress and Senate reason for recall
http://www.stewwebb.com/2013/05/25/the-blackmail-of-us-congress-and-senate-reason-for-recall/ |
The discovery follows the announcement that the UK’s Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has listed 40 treatments that are unnecessary and shouldn’t be given routinely. As well as chemotherapy for advanced cancers, the list includes x-rays for lower back pain, regular scans for terminally ill patients and routine checks for patients after a cataracts procedure or other common and routine surgery.
Announcing the list, AMRC chairman Prof Dame Sue Bailey said patients—and doctors—should think twice before having tests or treatments, and question whether they really were necessary. “Patients should ask ‘what would happen if I do nothing?’” she said.
The AMRC, which represents all 21 medical royal colleges, is planning to extend the list to around 150 unnecessary treatments.
In the survey of around 5,000 doctors, the vast majority who admitted ordering a drug or procedure they knew was useless were driven by a fear of litigation, and, in some cases, because the patient demanded it.
Around 20 per cent admitted prescribing an antibiotic, 16 per cent ordered x-rays and 14 per cent CT scans or blood tests that they knew were unnecessary. |
Sometimes people say things that are so profoundly stupid that it makes your brain ache. Actually, since Donald Trump was elected, it’s more several times a day and here’s one now. The UN Secretary General said that putting America first is not in America’s best interest. That’s kind of like saying that feeding your dog is not the best way to feed your dog only much dumber.
Here’s something that could only be brought to you by CNN:
President Trump said in his inauguration speech that the slogan “America First” would govern his administration and approach to foreign policy. But UN Secretary-General António Guterres believes that the President’s pledge is “detrimental to American interests.” The whole idea of “America first” is predicated on a belief that “the interests of the American people are best protected by the US in itself, and that international organizations do not contribute much to it,” Guterres told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday. But, the Secretary-General emphasized, this simply “wasn’t true.”
If at all possible, Guterres managed to get even more idiotic with this next statement.
“The US is too big and too relevant to be able to think it alone. The way things happen in the world has a very important impact in the way things happen in the United States,” said Guterres.
Wait, let’s see if I’m understanding this correctly. The United States is too important and self-sufficient to make its own decisions? And that we need other countries to do our thinking for us?
As it turns out the UN Secretary General wasn’t so much saying that the US needs to include other countries in our decision making process as he was saying that America has to keep handing out freebies to the rest of the world.
“It’s very important for the United States that the US engages — engages in climate action, engages in migration but also engages in addressing crises like the crisis in Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan or South Sudan or the DRC,” Guterres said.
In other words, Guterres is saying that we have to give insane amounts of foreign aid to countries that hate us, provide a safe haven for every piece of shit who hates us, and put the lives of our own people on the line to settle conflicts between groups who hate us. Yeah, we already do that, but maybe it’s time we stopped.
What Guterres is really saying is that he doesn’t want the United States to stop paying the UN’s bills, since the rest of the word doesn’t feel like chipping in very much.
The UN Human Rights Commission regularly slams America for being a racist country that is dangerous for people of color and doesn’t respect the basic rights of non-white non-Americans. Now we have the Secretary General saying that putting America first is not in America’s best interest. I have an alternate theory: maybe this global organization should spend less time attacking the country that keeps the lights on at the UN. It would definitely be in the UN’s best interest to not shit all over the one country that makes their ridiculous agenda possible.
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Blueprint | BCBusiness
Blueprint's new HQ. It's hip—and it's not downtown
Vancouver's core could face a vacancy crisis
Demand for unique, character workspaces—fuelled by Vancouver's booming creative industries—continues to shake up the market in Metro Vancouver and challenge landlords holding older, traditional office space, according to a new report from Colliers International.
Headlining Colliers's Q2 report are two notable deals by Microsoft and Sony Pictures Imageworks for more than 200,000 square feet of state-of-the-art office space to open in late 2015 in a redeveloped Pacific Centre. While these glamourous deals captured the most attention, the report notes technology firms have been the primary drivers of demand for office space in Metro Vancouver over the past few quarters.
"The Amazons, Microsofts and Sonys haven't had a significant footprint in Vancouver until recently," says Maury Dubuque, managing director for Colliers Vancouver. "Now that they do, we are seeing trends emerge. These media and technology companies want large, open spaces, state-of-the-art heating and cooling systems and lots of natural light. These tenants tend to prefer office space in heritage buildings found in locations like Gastown or Railtown that offer a distinctive 'retro' feel or new modern buildings close to amenities and rapid transit."
As a result, traditional office spaces in the downtown core are faced with modest demand and rising vacancy.
The Q2 report found that vacancy rates are the highest they've been in Metro Vancouver since 2005, rising to 9.3 per cent up from 8.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2014. Colliers attributes current vacancies to a general lack of demand for office space across traditional industries, combined with increased inventory in the suburbs. With almost 3.6 million square feet of office space under construction in the region, there are big questions about what will happen to the over one million square feet left behind.
"This is the oddest market I've experienced in years," Dubuque says. "We are in a construction cycle and all of a sudden there is a tremendous demand for office space in new buildings and a modest to weakfish demand in older buildings."
Among the local companies on the move to non-traditional office space is Blueprint, one of B.C.'s largest full-service entertainment and hospitality management companies. The firm has 400 employees in a dozen nightclubs, pubs and restaurants. When Blueprint's head office staff outgrew their digs in the Electra building at Burrard and Nelson, co-founder Alvaro Prol says they went looking for something more in keeping with the character of the company. After an extensive search, they decided to buy into and renovate part of a heritage building in Gastown at Water and Cordova. It will become the new Blueprint headquarters later this week.
"We wanted to be somewhere where our young creative staff felt at home," Prol explains. "We've renovated 3,600 square feet from the ground up. It's got skylights and huge windows, a ton of natural light." He says the move reflects his company's belief that the entertainment centre of the city is moving east, away from Granville Street to the cobblestone of Gastown.
Of course, in all this there will be winners and losers. Maury Dubuque predicts real challenges in this market for landlords who have not re-invested in their assets and enjoyed low vacancy rates. "They are going to have a rude awakening in this market." For tenants, on the other hand, it could be a good opportunity to "cut very attractive deals." |
MORE THAN 16,000 public sector staff have been empowered by Section 4 of the Investigatory Powers Act to snoop on people's web browsing records.
And that's before the estimated 4,000 staff at security agency MI5, the 5,500 at GCHQ and 2,500 at MI6 are taken into account.
That's according to the responses from a series of almost 100 Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made in a bid to find out exactly who has the power to snoop on ordinary people's web browsing histories under the Act.
GCHQ, the Home Office, MI6, the National Crime Agency, the Ministry of Justice, all three armed forces and Police Service of Scotland all failed to respond to the FOI requests, so the total could be much higher.
According to WhoIsHostingThis.com, a tool that enables internet users to find out which web hosting company a site is hosted with and the organisation that filed the FOI requests, the sheer number of people empowered under the Investigatory Powers Act will increase the risk of a large-scale breach of highly sensitive data.
"Small-scale data protection breaches happen all the time; large scale hacks aren't that rare. And the UK government has a long track record of losing personal data accidentally, too," claimed the organisation.
Access to people's web browsing histories by public sector staff is broken down into two types, full access or entities, the latter which provides a more restricted view.
"It's important to get to grips with the sheer scale of the issue. There are a dizzying number of people with access to your private data. They all have permission to see what you get up to on your laptop or phone. And, in some cases, it isn't clear how their jobs have anything to do with the supposed reasons the Investigatory Powers Act was passed in the first place," the organisation added.
There are almost 3,000 staff at HMRC with the power to peruse people's internet connection records out of 56,000 'full-time equivalents', which means that more than five per cent of employees can spy on people's web browsing histories. That is on top of 10,578 in the UK's various police forces.
The Investigatory Powers Act became law in 2016 after almost a decade in which governments of various complexions had tried - and failed - to bring in such all-encompassing web surveillance laws. µ |
The quintessential image of a snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) is a pure white bunny – although it is a hare, not a rabbit – nestled in powdery snow, gazing out from under the overhanging branches of a balsam fir. I can almost see my breath and hear sleigh bells just thinking about it.
But in Pennsylvania, powdery snow has a short life expectancy during our winters’ freeze-thaw cycles. In southern Pennsylvania, it’s not unusual for snowstorms to turn completely to rain, and it can happen almost anywhere in the state. As a result, in much of Pennsylvania it’s rare to sustain complete snow cover throughout winter, and will become rarer as climate change results in warmer temperatures across the state.
And balsam firs occur only in tiny, relict patches scattered across northern Pennsylvania, left over from retreating glaciers. Our forests are dominated by trees that shed their greenery every winter, such as oak and hickory. Conifers are more common to our north in New York state, New England and Canada.
For millennia snowshoe hares’ pure white coats have kept them warm and protected them from predators. But if snowshoe hares are going to make it in Pennsylvania, they will have to have to leave that balsam hiding spot and rethink their thick white winter coats. That appears to be what they are doing. In a recently published study, my colleagues and I found that snowshoe hares have adapted to the warmer winters of Pennsylvania – but it’s unclear whether they can continue to change as quickly as the climate.
Adapting to warmer winters
Laura Gigliotti, Michael Sheriff and I recently published a study comparing physiological characteristics of snowshoe hares from Canada’s Yukon with those in Pennsylvania. We documented several interesting differences between the two groups by tracking movements of 70 Pennsylvania hares with radio collars, fitting some of them with temperature sensors and measuring characteristics of their winter coat.
As in all other studies of snowshoe hares, the ones we tracked sought out habitats with dense vegetative growth. Hares in Pennsylvania were most likely to rest in locations thick with shrubs and small trees beneath the forest canopy, where you could see little beyond 30 feet (10 meters). Our measurements indicated that these areas had at least 80 percent visual cover. We never found hares resting in areas with less than 20 percent visual cover. Even though Pennsylvania hares rarely have access to the same kind of ground-hugging cover that conifers provide their northern cousins, they appear to use native vegetation to hide effectively from predators.
In northern climates, hares select habitats that provide both hiding cover from predators and protection from cold temperatures. However, in Pennsylvania we found that snowshoe hares’ resting spots were not any warmer than locations we chose at random. It appears that for our hares, winter temperatures aren’t much of a concern.
Reinforcing that fact, we also found that Pennsylvania snowshoe hares produce relatively light-duty fur coats. The downy hairs of their underfur were 58 percent less dense than those of their northern counterparts, while their guard hairs (long hairs that protect the insulating underfur) were 32 percent less dense and 20 percent shorter. Our temperature sensors indicated that Pennsylvania hares produced less body heat than hares from the Yukon, which suggests that they have slower metabolisms.
Hares of a different color
Our most fascinating discovery was that some snowshoe hares in Pennsylvania do not change color from brown to white in winter. We captured three individual hares in January that had brown coats except for some white coloration around the nose, feet and ears. Although this phenomenon has been documented in the Cascade mountain range in the Pacific Northwest, it had never been documented in eastern North America until now.
We were not able to test the hair density of individuals that retained a brown coat in winter, so we can only speculate about why they had this unusual adaptation. We have two hypotheses: first, that the hares may have kept their summer coat because they did not need the insulation; second, that there may be some reduced predation risk for hares that retain a brown coat in an environment where persistent snow cover is unpredictable.
All of these physical and physiological differences help snowshoe hares survive in the warmer climate of Pennsylvania. Our findings are intriguing, although more range-wide studies of snowshoe hare could help us better understand how snowshoe hares contend with warmer winter conditions.
Diefenbach Lab, PSU , CC BY-ND
Changing too slowly
Will these physiological adaptations be enough to sustain snowshoe hare populations in the face of climate change? In 2004 I studied the distribution of snowshoe hares across northern Pennsylvania. By modeling the characteristics of where we found hares present compared to where they were absent, we showed that they were most common in the coldest, snowiest parts of Pennsylvania. One area is in a part of northwestern Pennsylvania that receives a lot of lake-effect snowfall from the Great Lakes, and the other is in the higher plateau region of northeastern Pennsylvania. Hunter harvests of snowshoe hares from 1983 through 2011 indicate that harvests now occur mostly in those same regions of Pennsylvania.
Snowshoe hare populations reach their highest densities in early successional habitat, which has dense vegetation that provides both food and cover to hide from predators. Creating suitable habitat by applying best management practices to timber harvests or controlled burns, in the right amounts and locations, could help snowshoe hare populations persist despite climate change.
Unfortunately, research in Wisconsin has concluded that the duration of snow cover is a bigger problem for snowshoe hares than the availability of forest cover. If this is true, based on projected climate change in Pennsylvania, we predict snowshoe hares’ range will continue to contract northward. We don’t have enough information to say whether snowshoe hares, even those of a different color, are adapting fast enough to persist in Pennsylvania.
Like many other species, snowshoe hares are found across a range of climatic conditions. Understanding how a species copes in different environments can help us understand where it will continue to thrive in our changing world. |
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, told Yahoo News that stopping future atrocities like the mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., requires making Muslim Americans more “comfortable” about going to the authorities.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday on SiriusXM, Schiff also said that he would look into past FBI investigations that failed to turn up credible evidence that Omar Mateen, the gunman, posed a real risk.
U.S. officials have said that online propaganda linked to the so-called Islamic State helped inflame the gunman, leading him to carry out an attack “inspired” by the terrorist army but not planned or controlled by the group, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.
Yahoo News asked Schiff how U.S. authorities could stop that kind of attack.
“It’s very difficult,” the California lawmaker replied.
First, “a lot of the motivation, a lot of the inspiration” come from ISIS holding land and perpetuating the notion that it controls a modern caliphate, so “the military effort is very important,” Schiff said. Second, he argued that there must be a fight for social media, including counter-messaging by the United States and taking down ISIS-linked accounts.
Third, “we need to further intensify our work with the American Muslim community so that people feel comfortable reporting to law enforcement if someone is at risk of radicalization,” Schiff said.
The FBI has to find a way “so that family members don’t think every time they call the bureau about a loved one who may be becoming radicalized, that it means they’re simply going to be sent to jail,” he said.
There is an existing effort to achieve this goal, but it “can be intensified,” Schiff said.
It is not clear whether this effort would have helped prevent the attack in Orlando, which left 49 victims dead and authorities searching for answers. There have been unconfirmed news reports, anonymously sourced, that the gunman’s wife knew — or should have known — about the shooting ahead of time. There also have been reports of missed red flags in other high-profile shootings, like the one in San Bernardino, Calif.
Schiff said that Congress would be looking at the way the FBI handled its past investigations into the shooter’s comments claiming that he had ties to terrorist groups. But the lawmaker indicated that the investigations appear not to have yielded any information or evidence that could have led to arrest or prosecution.
“They ran a confidential source against this person to see whether he had any active intent to go beyond these expressions of radicalism,” Schiff said. “Nothing materialized.”
“Sometimes when you run a source against a target, they will make their expressions of criminal intent very clear and they’ll take overt steps to carry out a plot,” he also said.
“Other times, it becomes clear that the person has no intent to commit harm, and there’s no basis to continue investigation,” Schiff said. “Here, apparently, the use of the confidential source did not result in additional evidence that could be used to either keep the file open or bring charges.” |
Eiji Kawashima has 72 Japan caps
Japan international goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima will be in the Dundee United squad for Saturday's Premiership match against Dundee at Dens Park.
Tannadice manager Mixu Paatelainen confirmed on Thursday that the 32-year-old player had been granted international clearance to play.
Kawashima signed for the Terrors earlier in the week following a protracted wait during which he had to sit an English exam.
He has signed until the summer.
Paatelainen said: "It has taken a bit longer than any of us would have liked, but this is a fantastic coup for the club."
Kawashima's signing had initially been announced in November, but he had to go through a lengthy work permit application, which included taking an English exam in Japan.
Reports recently claimed that Dutch club Nijmegen could hijack the deal, but United have now signed the goalkeeper who has 72 caps for his country but was a free agent after leaving Belgian outfit Standard Liege in the summer.
"Eiji will strengthen the competition in the goalkeeper's position," Paatelainen told his club website.
Mixu Paatelainen's side sit bottom of the Scottish Premiership
"He is a seasoned professional who has played at major tournaments and this experience will help our young goalkeepers also.
"He is a strong character who has shown great desire to play for Dundee United and I look forward to working with him."
Kawashima, who has appeared at the last two World Cup finals, played for Omiya Ardija, Nagoya Grampus Eight and Kawasaki Frontale in his homeland before joining Belgian club Lierse in 2010.
Now he will try to help United off the foot of the Scottish Premiership table.
"Finally I'm able to join to Dundee United," he said. "I'm delighted to join this club.
"I will try to do all my best with my fighting spirit and my ambition as a player.
"I hope that can bring something different to the squad and also I hope I can use my experience as well.
"I'm looking forward to wearing the Dundee United jersey on the pitch soon." |
(TALLINN) - Delegates from the Council of Europe's GRECO anti-corruption watchdog will visit Estonia next week to focus on a spate of allegations about irregularities in party funding.
"The GRECO visit was agreed ... before a former member of parliament alleged Estonia's governing Reform party was involved in money laundering," Asso Prii, head of Transparency International Estonia told AFP on Thursday.
Prii said he welcomed the timely visit by the independent European body focused on evaluating levels of corruption among members of parliament, judges and prosecutors.
Last week prosecutors in Estonia launched a probe into allegations that the country's governing centre-right Reform Party had received donations from murky sources for years.
Reform Party member and ex-member of parliament Silver Meikar publicly claimed he funneled money of unknown origin into party coffers on several occasions in 2009-10.
Meikar also alleged he was asked to do so by then Reform Party secretary general Kristen Michal, who became Estonia's justice minister in the spring of 2011.
Both Michal and current Reform Party leader, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, have flatly denied the claims, but several powerful businessmen and politicians have admitted their own involvement in activities similar to those described by Meikar.
Estonia's Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi slammed Meikar this week, saying his public revelations about Reform Party funding "should be considered crimes against Estonia and its national security".
Calling Meikar "a liar", Ansip said this week he has complete confidence in his justice minister.
A country of 1.3 million, Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991 and went on to join NATO and the European Union in 2004 and the eurozone in 2011. |
[](http://gforge.se/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Lego-house-concrete.jpg) A solid concrete foundation is always important. The image is cc by[Sharon Pazner](https://flic.kr/p/nSNQzw)
Handling [tabular data](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_(information)) is generally at the heart of most research projects. As I started exploring [Torch](http://torch.ch/) that uses the [Lua](https://www.lua.org/) language for [deep learning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning) I was surprised that there was no package that would correspond to the functionality available in R’s [data.frame](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/base/html/data.frame.html). After some searching I found Alex Mili’s [torch-dataframe](https://github.com/AlexMili/torch-dataframe) package that I decided to update to my needs. We have during the past few months been developing the package and it has now made it onto the Torch [cheat sheet](https://github.com/torch/torch7/wiki/Cheatsheet#data-formats) (partly the reason for the posting scarcity lately). This series of posts provide a short introduction to the package (version 1.5) and examples of how to implement basic networks in Torch.
# All posts in the *torch-dataframe* series
1. [Intro to the torch-dataframe][intro]
2. [Modifications][mods]
3. [Subsetting][subs]
4. [The mnist example][mnist ex]
5. [Multilabel classification][multilabel]
[intro]: http://gforge.se/2016/08/deep-learning-with-torch-dataframe-a-gentle-introduction-to-torch/
[mods]: http://gforge.se/2016/08/the-torch-dataframe-basics-on-modifications/
[subs]: http://gforge.se/2016/08/the-torch-dataframe-subsetting-and-sampling/
[mnist ex]: http://gforge.se/2016/08/integration-between-torchnet-and-torch-dataframe-a-closer-look-at-the-mnist-example/
[multilabel]: http://gforge.se/2016/08/setting-up-a-multilabel-classification-network-with-torch-dataframe/
# Intro
The _torch-dataframe_ package has the amazing samplers from Twitter’s [torch-dataset](https://github.com/twitter/torch-dataset) and is fully integrated with the elegant [torchnet](https://github.com/torchnet/torchnet) from Facebook. The aim is for intermediate size projects where the core data fits into memory. This does _not restrict_ your data to a single drive or computer, only your ‘csv’ file. For image classification I to store my labels and corresponding image filename in the csv-file. I only retrieve the image data after sampling a batch and the memory usage is therefore be negligible.
# Installing
You can install the package directly using standard luarocks :
luarocks install torch-dataframe 1 luarocks install torch - dataframe
There is also the dev-version that you can install through cloning the package. The develop branch, it is generally stable as we put all the new features into sub-branches that are merged only once all the tests are cleared. You download it via:
git clone https://github.com/AlexMili/torch-dataframe cd torch-dataframe git checkout develop luarocks make rocks/torch-dataframe-scm-1.rockspec 1 2 3 4 git clone https : / / github .com / AlexMili / torch - dataframe cd torch - dataframe git checkout develop luarocks make rocks / torch - dataframe - scm - 1.rockspec
# Reading a CSV-file
The core idea is that a CSV-file is parsed into the dataframe that allows you to then work with the data. To read a CSV-file you can simply provide its name during the constructor call (the file is a dump from R’s [mtcars](https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/datasets/html/mtcars.html) and available for download [here](https://gist.github.com/gforge/8b0e3551f377781e83c6c189867f149d):
require 'Dataframe' mtcars_df = Dataframe('mtcars.csv') 1 2 require 'Dataframe' mtcars_df = Dataframe ( 'mtcars.csv' )
The loading is handled by the load_csv function that relies on the csvigo library. The data is internally stored in the self.dataset variable together with a some meta-data that indicates whether it is a numerical, boolean or string column.
# Quick look
We can easily display the data using the print that prints the first 10 rows:
print(mtcars_df) 1 print ( mtcars_df )
This will print a formatted table:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | ... | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mazd... | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.62 | 16.46 | 0 | ... | | Mazd... | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.875 | 17.02 | 0 | ... | | Dats... | 22.8 | 4 | 108 | 93 | 3.85 | 2.32 | 18.61 | 1 | ... | | Horn... | 21.4 | 6 | 258 | 110 | 3.08 | 3.215 | 19.44 | 1 | ... | | Horn... | 18.7 | 8 | 360 | 175 | 3.15 | 3.44 | 17.02 | 0 | ... | | Valiant | 18.1 | 6 | 225 | 105 | 2.76 | 3.46 | 20.22 | 1 | ... | | Dust... | 14.3 | 8 | 360 | 245 | 3.21 | 3.57 | 15.84 | 0 | ... | | Merc... | 24.4 | 4 | 146.7 | 62 | 3.69 | 3.19 | 20 | 1 | ... | | Merc... | 22.8 | 4 | 140.8 | 95 | 3.92 | 3.15 | 22.9 | 1 | ... | | Merc... | 19.2 | 6 | 167.6 | 123 | 3.92 | 3.44 | 18.3 | 1 | ... | | ... | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Columns skipped: 'am', 'gear', 'carb' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | . . . | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | Mazd . . . | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.62 | 16.46 | 0 | . . . | | Mazd . . . | 21 | 6 | 160 | 110 | 3.9 | 2.875 | 17.02 | 0 | . . . | | Dats . . . | 22.8 | 4 | 108 | 93 | 3.85 | 2.32 | 18.61 | 1 | . . . | | Horn . . . | 21.4 | 6 | 258 | 110 | 3.08 | 3.215 | 19.44 | 1 | . . . | | Horn . . . | 18.7 | 8 | 360 | 175 | 3.15 | 3.44 | 17.02 | 0 | . . . | | Valiant | 18.1 | 6 | 225 | 105 | 2.76 | 3.46 | 20.22 | 1 | . . . | | Dust . . . | 14.3 | 8 | 360 | 245 | 3.21 | 3.57 | 15.84 | 0 | . . . | | Merc . . . | 24.4 | 4 | 146.7 | 62 | 3.69 | 3.19 | 20 | 1 | . . . | | Merc . . . | 22.8 | 4 | 140.8 | 95 | 3.92 | 3.15 | 22.9 | 1 | . . . | | Merc . . . | 19.2 | 6 | 167.6 | 123 | 3.92 | 3.44 | 18.3 | 1 | . . . | | . . . | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + * Columns skipped : 'am' , 'gear' , 'carb'
Note that when the table gets wide it truncates also the columns and leaves a note at the bottom, this was inspired by R’s excellent [dplyr](https://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/dplyr/vignettes/introduction.html) package.
If we want to inspect two random columns we can simply write:
mtcars_df:get_random(2) 1 mtcars_df : get_random ( 2 )
that outputs:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | am | ... | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Merc... | 17.8 | 6 | 167.6 | 123 | 3.92 | 3.44 | 18.9 | 1 | Auto... | ... | | Merc... | 22.8 | 4 | 140.8 | 95 | 3.92 | 3.15 | 22.9 | 1 | Auto... | ... | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Columns skipped: 'gear', 'carb' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | | mpg | cyl | disp | hp | drat | wt | qsec | vs | am | . . . | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | Merc . . . | 17.8 | 6 | 167.6 | 123 | 3.92 | 3.44 | 18.9 | 1 | Auto . . . | . . . | | Merc . . . | 22.8 | 4 | 140.8 | 95 | 3.92 | 3.15 | 22.9 | 1 | Auto . . . | . . . | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + * Columns skipped : 'gear' , 'carb'
# Categorical variables
A common task for deep learning is to classify images. The images are classified into groups and then the groups are converted to numbers ranging from 1 to #classes. I like to be able to look at my data and immediately see the relationship between the image and the class name. This requires converting a string label into numbers and keeping a table that maps the number to the class, using the Dataframe package it is achieved via:
mtcars_df:as_categorical('am') -- Print a subset of the columns mtcars_df:tostring{columns2skip="^[^a].*"} 1 2 3 mtcars_df : as_categorical ( 'am' ) -- Print a subset of the columns mtcars_df : tostring { columns2skip = "^[^a].*" }
the output is:
+-------------------------------+ | | am | +-------------------------------+ | Mazda RX4 | Manual | | Mazda RX4 Wag | Manual | | Datsun 710 | Manual | | Hornet 4 Drive | Automatic | | Hornet Sportabout | Automatic | | Valiant | Automatic | | Duster 360 | Automatic | | Merc 240D | Automatic | | Merc 230 | Automatic | | Merc 280 | Automatic | | ... | +-------------------------------+ * Columns skipped: 'mpg', 'cyl', 'disp', 'hp', 'drat', 'wt', 'qsec', 'vs', 'gear', 'carb' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | | am | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + | Mazda RX4 | Manual | | Mazda RX4 Wag | Manual | | Datsun 710 | Manual | | Hornet 4 Drive | Automatic | | Hornet Sportabout | Automatic | | Valiant | Automatic | | Duster 360 | Automatic | | Merc 240D | Automatic | | Merc 230 | Automatic | | Merc 280 | Automatic | | . . . | + -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - + * Columns skipped : 'mpg' , 'cyl' , 'disp' , 'hp' , 'drat' , 'wt' , 'qsec' , 'vs' , 'gear' , 'carb'
The mapping between the columns can be done using the to_categorical or from_categorical :
th> mtcars_df:to_categorical{data = 1, column_name = "am"} Automatic [0.0002s] th> mtcars_df:to_categorical{data = torch.Tensor({1,2}), column_name = "am"} { 1 : "Automatic" 2 : "Manual" } [0.0004s] th> mtcars_df:from_categorical{data = 1, column_name = "am"} { 1 : nan } [0.0002s] th> mtcars_df:from_categorical{data = "Manual", column_name = "am"} { 1 : 2 } [0.0003s] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 th > mtcars_df : to_categorical { data = 1 , column_name = "am" } Automatic [ 0.0002s ] th > mtcars_df : to_categorical { data = torch . Tensor ( { 1 , 2 } ) , column_name = "am" } { 1 : "Automatic" 2 : "Manual" } [ 0.0004s ] th > mtcars_df : from_categorical { data = 1 , column_name = "am" } { 1 : nan } [ 0.0002s ] th > mtcars_df : from_categorical { data = "Manual" , column_name = "am" } { 1 : 2 } [ 0.0003s ]
# Statistics
There are also some convenient basic descriptive statistics available. To get the value counts you can use the value_counts :
th> mtcars_df:value_counts('am') +-------------------+ | values | count | +-------------------+ | Automatic | 19 | | Manual | 13 | +-------------------+ [0.0008s] th> mtcars_df:value_counts("am", true) -- normalized values +---------------------+ | values | count | +---------------------+ | Manual | 0.40625 | | Automatic | 0.59375 | +---------------------+ [0.0010s] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 th > mtcars_df : value_counts ( 'am' ) + -------------------+ | values | count | + -------------------+ | Automatic | 19 | | Manual | 13 | + -------------------+ [ 0.0008s ] th > mtcars_df : value_counts ( "am" , true ) -- normalized values + ---------------------+ | values | count | + ---------------------+ | Manual | 0.40625 | | Automatic | 0.59375 | + ---------------------+ [ 0.0010s ]
# Help – I’m in argument hell
There are plenty of functions available at your disposal and keeping track of all the arguments is event tricky for the authors. We have therefore in addition to the [README](https://github.com/AlexMili/torch-dataframe/blob/master/README.md) also added a [doc](https://github.com/AlexMili/torch-dataframe/tree/master/doc) folder that contains the entire API. You will furthermore automatically get help if you get the inputs wrong (courtesy argcheck ):
th> mtcars_df:drop({}) [string "argcheck"]:56: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dataframe.drop(self, column_name) ({ self = Dataframe -- column_name = string -- The column to drop }) Delete column from dataset Return value: self or You can also delete multiple columns by supplying a Df_Array ({ self = Dataframe -- columns = Df_Array -- The columns to drop }) Got: Dataframe, table={ } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 th > mtcars_df : drop ( { } ) [ string "argcheck" ] : 56 : ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ ++ Dataframe . drop ( self , column_name ) ( { self = Dataframe -- column_name = string -- The column to drop } ) Delete column from dataset Return value : self or You can also delete multiple columns by supplying a Df_Array ( { self = Dataframe -- columns = Df_Array -- The columns to drop } ) Got : Dataframe , table = { }
# All properties and functions
Here’s a list of the main Dataframe’s all options. This list does not include the metatable functions, subclasses or helper classes:
mtcars_df:add_cat_key() mtcars_df:is_string() mtcars_df:add_column() mtcars_df:iterator() mtcars_df:append() mtcars_df:load_csv() mtcars_df:as_categorical() mtcars_df:load_table() mtcars_df:as_string() mtcars_df.n_rows mtcars_df:assert_has_column() mtcars_df:new() mtcars_df:assert_has_not_column() mtcars_df:output() mtcars_df:assert_is_index() mtcars_df:parallel() mtcars_df:batch() mtcars_df:rbind() mtcars_df.categorical mtcars_df:remove_index() mtcars_df:cbind() mtcars_df:rename_column() mtcars_df:clean_categorical() mtcars_df:resample() mtcars_df.column_order mtcars_df:reset_column() mtcars_df.columns mtcars_df:reset_subsets() mtcars_df:copy() mtcars_df:schema. mtcars_df:count_na() mtcars_df:set() mtcars_df:create_subsets() mtcars_df:set_version() mtcars_df.dataset mtcars_df:shape() mtcars_df:drop() mtcars_df:show() mtcars_df:exec() mtcars_df:shuffle() mtcars_df:fill_all_na() mtcars_df:size() mtcars_df:fill_na() mtcars_df:split() mtcars_df:from_categorical() mtcars_df:sub() mtcars_df:get() mtcars_df:tail() mtcars_df:get_cat_keys() mtcars_df:to_categorical() mtcars_df:get_column() mtcars_df:to_csv() mtcars_df:get_column_order() mtcars_df:to_tensor() mtcars_df:get_max_value() mtcars_df:tostring() mtcars_df:get_min_value() mtcars_df:tostring_defaults. mtcars_df:get_mode() mtcars_df:transform() mtcars_df:get_numerical_colnames() mtcars_df:unique() mtcars_df:get_random() mtcars_df:update() mtcars_df:get_row() mtcars_df:upgrade_frame() mtcars_df:get_subset() mtcars_df:value_counts() mtcars_df:has_column() mtcars_df:version() mtcars_df:has_subset() mtcars_df:where() mtcars_df:head() mtcars_df:which() mtcars_df:insert() mtcars_df:which_max() mtcars_df:is_boolean() mtcars_df:which_min() mtcars_df:is_categorical() mtcars_df:wide2long() mtcars_df:is_numerical() 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 mtcars_df : add_cat_key ( ) mtcars_df : is_string ( ) mtcars_df : add_column ( ) mtcars_df : iterator ( ) mtcars_df : append ( ) mtcars_df : load_csv ( ) mtcars_df : as_categorical ( ) mtcars_df : load_table ( ) mtcars_df : as_string ( ) mtcars_df . n_rows mtcars_df : assert_has_column ( ) mtcars_df : new ( ) mtcars_df : assert_has_not_column ( ) mtcars_df : output ( ) mtcars_df : assert_is_index ( ) mtcars_df : parallel ( ) mtcars_df : batch ( ) mtcars_df : rbind ( ) mtcars_df . categorical mtcars_df : remove_index ( ) mtcars_df : cbind ( ) mtcars_df : rename_column ( ) mtcars_df : clean_categorical ( ) mtcars_df : resample ( ) mtcars_df . column_order mtcars_df : reset_column ( ) mtcars_df . columns mtcars_df : reset_subsets ( ) mtcars_df : copy ( ) mtcars_df : schema . mtcars_df : count_na ( ) mtcars_df : set ( ) mtcars_df : create_subsets ( ) mtcars_df : set_version ( ) mtcars_df . dataset mtcars_df : shape ( ) mtcars_df : drop ( ) mtcars_df : show ( ) mtcars_df : exec ( ) mtcars_df : shuffle ( ) mtcars_df : fill_all_na ( ) mtcars_df : size ( ) mtcars_df : fill_na ( ) mtcars_df : split ( ) mtcars_df : from_categorical ( ) mtcars_df : sub ( ) mtcars_df : get ( ) mtcars_df : tail ( ) mtcars_df : get_cat_keys ( ) mtcars_df : to_categorical ( ) mtcars_df : get_column ( ) mtcars_df : to_csv ( ) mtcars_df : get_column_order ( ) mtcars_df : to_tensor ( ) mtcars_df : get_max_value ( ) mtcars_df : tostring ( ) mtcars_df : get_min_value ( ) mtcars_df : tostring_defaults . mtcars_df : get_mode ( ) mtcars_df : transform ( ) mtcars_df : get_numerical_colnames ( ) mtcars_df : unique ( ) mtcars_df : get_random ( ) mtcars_df : update ( ) mtcars_df : get_row ( ) mtcars_df : upgrade_frame ( ) mtcars_df : get_subset ( ) mtcars_df : value_counts ( ) mtcars_df : has_column ( ) mtcars_df : version ( ) mtcars_df : has_subset ( ) mtcars_df : where ( ) mtcars_df : head ( ) mtcars_df : which ( ) mtcars_df : insert ( ) mtcars_df : which_max ( ) mtcars_df : is_boolean ( ) mtcars_df : which_min ( ) mtcars_df : is_categorical ( ) mtcars_df : wide2long ( ) mtcars_df : is_numerical ( )
# Summary
The torch-dataframe package will hopefully allow you to do all the basic things that you expect from a data frame. In this post we have covered some of the core functionality for installing, loading and looking at the data. Next post will show some of the manipulations that the package provides. |
By Gene Nelson, Ph.D.
Volume 24, Number 2 (Winter 2014)
Issue theme: "Whatever happened to the American Dream?"
Keywords: american, dream, h-1b, immigrant, stem, jobs
Abstract: Greedy economic elites are utilizing many different tools in order to maximize their prospects for economic gain from even greater liberalization of immigration to the United States. However, the elite’s economic gain requires the further impoverishment of the American middle class.
Greedy economic elites possess tools that middle-class Americans do not. The key resource of the elites is large amounts of discretionary cash. Given the wide loopholes in laws that are supposed to bar the purchasing of legislation, such as the RICO Act, the American political system has in many ways devolved to a “pay to play” system. As an example, the Sunlight Foundation determined that these elites spent $1.5 billion “lobbying” for immigration liberalization since the last immigration amnesty campaign collapsed (i.e., between 2007–2012.)1 The Sunlight Foundation’s methodology likely excluded considerable lobbying funds. Given the large push to pass S. 744 in the U.S. Senate at the end of June, 2013, a more realistic estimate is about $2 billion in lobbying expenditures regarding immigration liberalization between 2007 and January, 2014.
Another tool utilized by the elites is public relations. The various media outlets are being flooded with messaging to pave the way for the planned enactment of further immigration liberalization. This author, among others, has written numerous rebuttals to this messaging. Here is a recent example:
The “more jobs for Americans” that Mr. Dearie and Ms. Geduldig refer to are the part-time jobs that make scant use of the American’s education or experience. For many older Americans, more than one of these part-time jobs are necessary to make ends meet — and there are no fringe benefits. The peak earning years of Americans are now between the ages of 40 to 50, even for those with Ph.D.s, per the U.S. Census. Americans are being displaced from their careers by the record numbers of young immigrants, who further glut labor markets, meaning bigger employer profit margins. The Census Bureau shows a new record: over 40 million Americans are foreign-born. If the immigration bill passed by the Senate six months ago is enacted, yet more poverty will be imported.2
Much of the messaging centers on the false claim that the U.S. faces a talent shortage in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The false claims are examples of the profit motive, writ large. A 2012 estimate was that each higher-skill work visa admission was valued at approximately $150,000.00 in reduced salary and benefit expenditures.3 A recent article in the most widely read publication of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Spectrum chronicles some of the misleading, but widely disseminated views, that the U.S. faces a STEM talent shortage. The year 1936 marks the earliest example that the author, Robert N. Charette, documented.4
The author’s letter to the editor above references the fact that the peak earning years for almost all Americans, are between ages 40 and 50, as shown in this graph.3 The reason for this income decline following the peak is that the American, are forced to take employment that makes scant use of their training or experience in order to keep a roof over their heads. As they get older, they are also forced to take part-time employment, without benefits, as that is all that is offered to most experienced Americans, even if they desire full-time employment.
The author has also reviewed additional data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s educational attainment pages and has observed similar trends for 2005.5 Regrettably, the Census Bureau no longer supplies this information in tables such as those cited for years 2002 and 2005. A detailed review of these newer data and an exploration of where information regarding income as a function of age and educational attainment is now located within the U.S. Census Bureau’s website will appear in an upcoming article.
The glutted ranks of the college-educated in the U.S.
The Census Bureau’s website subdivision Educational Attainment also provides a relevant snapshot for 2009 of the dominance of STEM degrees within the U.S. college-educated population.6
There is no shortage of college degree holders in the United States. Per the January 2013 press release titled, “Census Bureau Reports Fast Growth in Ph.D.s and Master’s Degree Holders”: From 2002 to 2012, the highest rate of increases in education attainment levels were doctorate and master’s degrees, according to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. The population with a doctorate grew by about 1 million, or 45 percent to 3,191,000, with Asians holding 359,000, while those who held a master’s (degree) climbed by 5 million, or 43 percent to 16,625,000, with Asians holding 1,599,000. Bachelor’s degrees (also) rose 25 percent to 43,277,000 with Asians holding 3,829,000. Professional degrees rose to 3,099,000 with Asians holding 304,000.... (Note the prevalence of Asians is about 10 percent at each degree level. The ranks of Asian Ph.D.s are likely augmented by the creation of the H-1B visa in 1990. Asian race totals represent the entries from the “Alone or in combination” table entries.) 7
Record numbers of foreign-born in the U.S.
The U.S. has the most generous immigration policy in the world. The rate of annual admissions to the U.S. is greater than the rate of all of the admissions to the remaining nations of the Earth. The author’s earlier articles have provided evidence that legally sanctioned bribery of elected officials by the economic elite plays a role in the establishment and maintenance of these post-1965 immigration policies.8
The cumulative adverse impact of these liberal immigration policies on the incomes and career prospects of American citizens is a consequence of the economic law of supply and demand. Glutted labor markets reduce the wages and benefits that employer interests must pay. (An additional adverse economic impact of this cumulative recent immigration is that the large number of recent immigrants bids up the prices of the necessaries of life. The economic gains of both changes benefit the economic elites at the expense of the American middle class.)
The numbers are significant. The 2012 foreign-born population was estimated at over 40 million, comprising over 13 percent of the U.S. population.9 The number of foreign born is at record levels. Estimates from NumbersUSA.com show that net legal and illegal immigration is currently adding about 2 million a year to the U.S. population.
If S. 744, the immigration bill passed by the U.S. Senate in late June, 2013, is enacted into law, the result will be a massive increase in immigration, at roughly twice the levels permitted by the 1990 liberalization of immigration.
Dire consequences for American citizens
A recent Forbes article includes the following perspectives regarding retirement:
... Forget pushing retirement off a few years. A growing number of Americans believe they’ll be working until death. An alarming 37 percent of middle class Americans believe they’ll work until they’re too sick or until they die. Another 34 percent believes retirement will come at the ripe age of 80. Just two years ago only 25 percent of respondents felt the same way. It’s a grim look at the state of retirement which seems to be getting worse for middle class Americans....10
Another Forbes article outlines some of the problems for today’s college graduates related to the lack of employment opportunities connected with their college training and experience:
More than half of them financed their education through student loans, and many say if they had $10,000 the “first thing” they’d do is pay down their student loan or credit card debt. That’s no surprise when you consider student borrowing topped the $100 billion threshold for the first time in 2010, and total outstanding loans exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in 2011. Student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S. which stands at about $798 billion.... ...(Student loan) Delinquencies are also on the rise. The number of borrowers who are at least 90 days late on student loan payments has jumped from 8.5 percent in 2011 to 11.7 percent today, according to a study by the New York Federal Reserve. The problem sometimes is that not all college educations are worth their cost since they can’t guarantee a high-paying job to help pay off that student debt.... ...The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found student debt has also affected home ownership in the country. Census data reveals that nearly 6 million Americans ages 25 to 34 lived with their parents in 2011, a sharp increase from 4.7 million in 2007. The CFPB cited The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) saying higher student debt burdens “impair the ability of recent college graduates to qualify for a loan.”...11
So, older Americans are being economically squeezed by employment age discrimination. Particularly in technology-related careers, it is a commonplace (and perfectly legal practice) to force experienced Americans to train their younger foreign-born replacement, as a condition for the Americans to receive their meager outplacement benefit. A summary of this practice that was published over a decade ago labeled this cruel employer practice, “extortion into oblivion.” Since the author has also served as a professor at several colleges and universities, he has witnessed first-hand how his well-qualified students are having a difficult time being hired into positions that are connected with their areas of study. Many recent articles have documented the problems that younger Americans are having in launching a career closely tied to their college major.
As this author has noted, work visa programs such as H-1B have morphed into de facto government-sanctioned foreign hiring preference programs, as the foreigner’s work visa has been designed to facilitate long-term immobility of the foreigner via the effective indenture provisions of the work visa, while at the same time the design features of the work visa program allow employers to legally underpay the foreign worker, relative to an American citizen worker.12
While the American Dream is being shattered by record levels of immigration (importing even more poverty), greedy, amoral economic elites are “laughing all the way to the bank,” with unprecedented income and accumulated wealth. As an example, William Gates III is again ranked as the number two wealthiest man in the world with assets of $72,000,000,000.00 in September, 2013.13 Gates (and Microsoft Corporation — with a large block of stock controlled by Gates) continue to lobby for the increases in higher-skilled immigration included in S. 744.
In the recent political history of the U.S., a well-used legislative vehicle for enacting immigration liberalizations is to include them as amendments in “must pass” legislation, such as omnibus appropriations bills. The author has a grave concern that unless there is very strong opposition from the American middle class, this tactic will be employed again in the next few months to enact S. 744 with the upcoming omnibus spending bill, perhaps with a “sweetener” of extending long-term unemployment benefits. This would be a tragic tradeoff, as the increase in long-term unemployment is strongly tied to the current high rates of immigration.
Endnotes
1. “Untangling the webs of immigration lobbying,” by Lee Drutman and Alexander Furnas, March 25, 2013. http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/03/25/immigration/ Note the related blog post, “Surge of immigration lobbyists fueled by push for high-skilled foreign workers,” by Keenan Steiner, May 22, 2013. http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/05/22/surge-immigration-lobbyists-fueled-push-high-skilled-foreign-wor/
2. The author wrote this “Letter to the Editor” submission on January 1, 2014 in response to the article by John Dearing and Courtney Geduldig in the Wall Street Journal. “More Immigration Means More Jobs for Americans” — December 29, 2013
http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/SB10001424052702303290904579278173121185300-lMyQjAxMTAzMDMwMDEzNDAyWj
In the view of this author, the Wall Street Journal article is a collection of statistical half-truths and inferences not supported by facts.
3. “How Record Immigration Levels Robbed American High-Tech Workers of $10 Trillion” by the author. The Social Contract, Spring 2012 http://tinyurl.com/74cc64p
4. “The STEM Crisis Is a Myth — Forget the dire predictions of a looming shortfall of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians,” by Robert N. Charette, IEEE Spectrum, posted August 30, 2013, http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/the-stem-crisis-is-a-myth
5. U.S. Census Bureau — Educational Attainment: Table 8. Income in 2005 by Educational Attainment of the Population 18 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Race Alone, and Hispanic Origin: 2006 http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2006/tab08-2r.xls
6. Educational Attainment — Five Key Data Releases from the U.S. Census Bureau, Media Webinar, February 23, 2012, page 16 for B.S. and above distribution by selected majors, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/pdf/2012-02-23_education_slides.pdf See also http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/education/cb12-31.html release number: CB12-31, February 16, 2012, for additional details. This material was also discussed on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” on February 24, 2012.
See: http://www.census.gov/newsroom/cspan/educ/educ_attain_slides.pdf
7. The press release CB13-13, dated January 23, 2013, is located at http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/education/cb13-13.html and the detailed tables are found at http://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/data/cps/2012/Table1-01.xls
8. In addition to endnote 3, above, see also these articles by the author, “The Greedy Gates Immigration Gambit,” The Social Contract, Fall 2007, http://tinyurl.com/37l8ry and the important legislative history in “Career Destruction Sites — What American colleges have become” The Social Contract, Spring, 2005, http://tinyurl.com/nn28s
9. Estimated 2012 Foreign-born Population: 40,824,658 Estimated Native-born Population: 273,089,382 for a total of 313,915,040 yielding a foreign percentage of 13.00504% from S0501: “Selected Characteristics of the Native and Foreign-Born Populations” based on 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_S0501&prodType=table
10. “Work Until You Die? More Middle Class Americans Say They Can Never Retire,” by Halah Touryalai, Forbes, October 25, 2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/10/25/work-until-you-die-more-middle-class-americans-say-they-can-never-retire/
11. “Student Loan Problems: One Third of Millennials Regret Going to College,” by Halah Touryalai, Forbes, May 22, 2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2013/05/22/student-loan-problems-one-third-of-millennials-regret-going-to-college/ See also “ U.S. Colleges Are Both Victimizers and Victims of Mass Immigration” by the author, the Social Contract, Fall, 2012, http://tinyurl.com/victimizer-University
12. For a less than five-minute summary, see “Professor Norm Matloff’s H-1B Web Page,” http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/h1b.html. Professor Matloff provides considerable documentation via his short op-eds and via his lengthy articles in academic journals.
13. “Top 400 Americans Net Worth Calculated,” Forbes, September, 2013
http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/ (The magazine noted that the wealthiest man in the world, Slim Helu and his family, topped Gates by only about $1 billion.) |
By Derrick Broze
Senior officials with the U.S. Department of Justice recently announced possible legal changes which could allow the government greater room to combat so-called “anti-government extremists”.
On Thursday February 4, Reuters reported that John Carlin, the Justice Department’s chief of national security, and federal prosecutors are looking for new tools to deal with the rise of “domestic extremists.”
“Based on recent reports and the cases we are seeing, it seems like we’re in a heightened environment,” Carlin told Reuters. Reuters notes that the U.S. government is facing an increase in opposition from militia groups, “sovereign citizens,” and other “anti-government extremists.”
However, federal officials like Carlin claim they are impeded in their pursuit of violent domestic terrorists because, although there is currently a U.S. law that prohibits “material” support of internationally recognized terror groups, there is not such a law for domestic groups. Reuters reports:
Carlin and other Justice Department officials declined to say if they would ask Congress for a comparable domestic extremist statute, or comment on what other changes they might pursue to toughen the fight against anti-government extremists. The U.S. State Department designates international terrorist organizations to which it is illegal to provide “material support.” No domestic groups have that designation, helping to create a disparity in charges faced by international extremist suspects compared to domestic ones.
Carlin told Reuters that his counter-terrorism team is taking a “thoughtful look at the nature and scope of the domestic terrorism threat” and looking for “potential legal improvements and enhancements to better combat those threats.” The Justice Department will identify cases being prosecuted at the state level that “could arguably meet the federal definition of domestic terrorism.”
Carlin and his team are not only remaining quiet about whether or not they are pursuing the legal changes but the entire team has not been revealed to the public. This means we have an unelected, secret team of people working on identifying which Americans should be deemed “domestic extremists.”
Will Freedom Activists be Targeted?
Carlin’s silence should alarm all activists who consider themselves opposed to the policies of the U.S. government. Not only are those who espouse anti-government or pro-freedom rhetoric likely to be targeted but the penalty for being a part of such a group, or supporting such a group could eventually mean years in prison. Current laws allow for a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for Americans who support groups on the State Department list of designated terrorist organizations.
Under a 1994 law federal prosecutors could attempt to bring “material support” terrorism charges against people who are linked to groups not on the State Department’s list but this has only happened twice since the law was enacted. If the Justice Department creates a list of groups that are deemed extremist or terrorist this could lead to stifling of free speech and expression.
Part of the problem is the broad definition of “extremism” itself. As far as the pursuit and defense against “extremism” is concerned, the United States government has failed to adequately define the term, and by doing so, is allowing for perfectly legal behavior to become taboo or even criminalized. In June 2014, TruthInMedia’s Jay Syrmopoulos wrote about this trend:
Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free?
Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets First there was the MIAC report, which claimed that potential terrorists include people who own gold, Ron Paul supporters, libertarians, and even people who fly the U.S. flag. Then in 2012, there was a leaked Homeland Security study that claimed Americans who are ‘reverent of individual liberty,’ and ‘suspicious of centralized federal authority’ are possible ‘extreme right-wing’ terrorists. More recently, there is a Department of Defense training manual, obtained by Judicial Watch via a FOIA request, that lists people who embrace “individual liberties” and honor “states’ rights,” among other characteristics, as potential “extremists” who are likely to be members of “hate groups.” This document goes on to call the Founding Fathers extremists, stating, “In U.S. history, there are many examples of extremist ideologies and movements,“ including “[t]he colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule.”
Survival Solar Battery Charger - Free Today! If the United States government cannot clearly define who it is targeting in its war on extremism how are the people supposed to trust that these programs will not simply be used to target outspoken activists and critics of the government? A Domestic War on “Extremism” These possible legal changes are only the latest effort to combat “extremism” by the Justice Department. In October 2015 Anti Media reported that the United Nations and the Department of Justice announced the creation of a new program designed to help local communities combat “violent extremism.” Called the Strong Cities Network (SCN), the plan calls for “systematic efforts” to “share experiences, pool resources and build a community of cities to inspire local action on a global scale.” U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said, “The Strong Cities Network will serve as a vital tool to strengthen capacity-building and improve collaboration,”and will “enable cities to learn from one another, to develop best practices and to build social cohesion and community resilience here at home and around the world.” “To counter violent extremism we need determined action at all levels of governance,” said Governing Mayor Stian Berger Røsland of Oslo. “To succeed, we must coordinate our efforts and cooperate across borders.” The creation of the Smart Cities Network comes after the Justice Department announced it would revive a task force on domestic terrorism in an attempt to stop violence within the United States. In June 2014, former Attorney General Eric Holder stated the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee would work to eliminate dangers from violent individuals who may be motivated by anti-government or racist views. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Division of the Justice Department, and the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee are in charge of the efforts. The committee was originally launched to focus on right-wing extremism in the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. As Americans slowly awaken to the truth of the American Empire, the powers that wish they were are scrambling to tighten their control grid. If the American public will not be subdued and distracted by elections or deadstream media bread and circuses, the Ruling Class will have to resort to more direct methods of stifling freedom. This presents the perfect opportunity for those living amongst the zombies to organize and strategize for solutions that do not rely on government or their corporate partners. Derrick Broze is an investigative journalist and liberty activist. He is a news editor for ActivistPost.com and the founder of the TheConsciousResistance.com. Follow Derrick on Twitter. This article may be freely reposted in part or in full with author attribution and source link. |
If you came to this article via our Twitter account, did you click the link the first time we tweeted it? Maybe the second? Or the third?
It seems that of late, publishers are losing their inhibitions when it comes to tweeting a link to the same piece of content multiple times over a period of hours or days.
I’ve noticed a particular leap in this practice since Twitter’s new Analytics dashboard launched earlier this month. The realisation that tweets from any given account get seen by a tiny fraction of its total followers seems to have hit home.
At The Next Web, we’ve been publishing repeat tweets of some of our articles as a matter of course for several months. Generally, we don’t do this for news stories – it’s for non-time-sensitive feature pieces and product reviews – but as other publishers increasingly recycle old news as new, the temptation to join an arms race of maximizing Twitter exposure through repeat tweets of news stories grows, even if that news is far from fresh on its third or fourth outing.
My personal account’s stats a couple of weeks ago
TechCrunch, The Verge and Business Insider are among those that appear to have ramped up the repeat tweets of late. For example, I’ve seen TechCrunch tweet the same news story as many as five times in two days. I don’t blame any of these publishers for pushing to get more from their Twitter audience, but others may not be so forgiving.
The problem is that seeing the same link come up again and again is annoying for any publisher’s most engaged audience members – and even their former writers:
There have been a few articles that have been tweeted 3 or 4 times. I'm starting to go insane and I want to read those articles even less. — MG Siegler (@parislemon) July 26, 2014
I have push notifications set up for a number of tech news sites and in recent times those notifications have switched from offering a streamlined news feed to a being a noisy shouting match as rival publishers compete for my clicks by sharing the same content repeatedly.
There must be a solution to this. Any user should only have to see any link from any account once. Twitter can take action, and here are a couple of ideas:
‘Show any link from each account only once’: Twitter could offer an option to see a link from any account once. If you missed our first tweet about this post, maybe you’d see our second, but then Twitter would hide the third tweet from you when it went out a few hours later.
Taking things further, how about a Facebook-style, algorithmically filtered feed? Facebook gets criticism for deciding what users get to see in their News Feeds, but the goal of that filtering is to keep you coming back by showing content you tend to react to. The nearest that Twitter has to this at the moment is the Discover feed that shows popular tweets from people you follow along with others that it thinks you might like. In addition there could be a ‘best of your feed’ option that filters out repeat tweets, highlights tweets that you’re likely to find interesting, and the like.
I wouldn’t want Twitter to get too far into the realm of filtering my feed. One of the joys of the service is that it is what you make it through the people you follow. Still, there must be something the company can do to keep both publishers and their audiences happy Twitter users.
Don’t miss: Why Twitter’s new analytics could turn us all into stat-hungry engagement addicts
Image credit: Getty Images
Read next: Trimming the fat: Evaluating your business partnerships and nurturing their success |
Tides roll in, tides roll out. It’s not just the ocean. Elections can work the same way.
Four years ago, Republicans had a smashing campaign season, seizing control of the House and piling up victories in Senate and gubernatorial races from sea to shining sea. Some of those swept into office were buoyed by the tea party-fueled wave.
Four years later, many governors now have to defend their seats under less favorable conditions.
That, succinctly, explains the dynamic in this year’s gubernatorial contests, which is more broadly discussed in this article focused on Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s struggle in deeply red Kansas.
Of the 36 governors races on the ballot this November, 22 are for seats held by Republicans and 14 by Democrats, numbers that work in the Democrats’ favor in contrast to their struggle in House and Senate races.
Here are some gubernatorial contests to watch, based on interviews with nonpartisan analysts Jennifer E. Duffy of the Cook Political Report and Nathan Gonzales of the Rothenberg Political Report, as well as campaign strategists for the two major parties.
REPUBLICAN SEATS THAT DEMOCRATS COULD FLIP:
Florida: Gov. Rick Scott barely won election in 2010 and voters haven't seemed to warm to the former healthcare executive. Perhaps the best thing Scott has going for him is his opponent, Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist, whose partisan perambulations left him with plenty of critics on all sides.
Kansas: Brownback has pursued an aggressively conservative agenda, highlighted by a record cut in the state’s income tax, which has sent revenues plunging and many moderate Republicans running into the arms of his Democratic opponent, House Minority Leader Paul Davis. Brownback is trying to tie Davis to President Obama, who is overwhelmingly unpopular in the state despite his family roots. (Obama’s mother was a Kansan.)
Georgia: Gov. Nathan Deal has been dogged by an ethics scandal and his bungled response to a freak January snowstorm, among other missteps. The Democratic candidate is Jason Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who has been a strong fundraiser and may also benefit from heavy Democratic spending on behalf of U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn, daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, who offers the party a rare pickup opportunity against businessman David Perdue.
Maine: Gov. Paul LePage barely won election in 2010 in a three-way race and has alienated a lot of people since, pursuing an aggressively conservative agenda in a state that twice voted handily for President Obama. LePage, who has waged high-profile fights with both state lawmakers and the news media, is in another three-way race this year, facing Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler, who is reprising his candidacy of four years ago.
Michigan: Gov. Rick Snyder romped to victory in 2010, thanks in part to a cheeky ad campaign that portrayed him as “one tough nerd” and promised to bring a business sense to state government. He has taken on unions and other Democratic constituencies in this solidly blue state and organized labor is itching to oust him. Snyder’s Democratic challenger is former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer.
Pennsylvania: Tom Corbett is the most vulnerable GOP governor in the country. He won election handily, but is deeply unpopular owing in part to his brusque personality and an economy that is still struggling from the Great Recession. Tom Wolf won the Democratic primary by spending freely from his personal fortune and Republicans, in a partisan turnabout, hope to make an issue of his business dealings.
South Carolina: Gov. Nikki Haley faces a rematch with state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, who lost relatively narrowly -- 51% to 47% -- in 2010 in another very red state. Since then Haley, who came from seemingly nowhere to win the 2010 GOP primary, has battled nearly as fiercely with Republican lawmakers, over ethics and other issues, as the Democratic opposition.
Wisconsin: A conservative folk hero after beating back a labor-led 2012 recall effort, Gov. Scott Walker is presumed to be eying a run for president in 2016. First, though, he has his hands full trying to beat back a strong challenge from Democratic businesswoman Mary Burke.
DEMOCRATIC SEATS THAT REPUBLICANS COULD FLIP:
Arkansas: Bill and Hillary Clinton’s old home state has undergone a dramatic blue-to-red transformation over roughly the last decade. Term-limited Gov. Mike Beebe has been tremendously popular but that doesn’t necessarily help Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, who is vying to replace him. Ross has out-raised GOP nominee Asa Hutchinson, who has a long political track record in both Washington and Arkansas. But the big question is whether the moderate Ross can differentiate himself enough from the national Democratic Party to win.
Connecticut: Former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy just barely inched past Republican businessman Tom Foley in 2010. The two may face each other once more, only this time Malloy will have to defend a tax increase and the state’s less-than-stellar economic performance. Foley must first get past an Aug. 12 primary, however.
Illinois: Gov. Pat Quinn is the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the country. He has spent much of his term battling fellow Democrats in the legislature and his low approval ratings are cringe-worthy. His best hope is turning Republican businessman Bruce Rauner, a relative moderate with ample means to fund his campaign, into this blue state’s version of the beleaguered Mitt Romney.
DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY TO WATCH:
Hawaii: Gov. Neil Abercrombie has been a divisive figure in this overwhelmingly Democratic state going back to his emergence decades ago as part of a liberal wing challenging the more moderate Japanese-American establishment. Hard feelings resurfaced after a Los Angeles Times interview in which Abercrombie questioned whether the revered Sen. Daniel Inouye truly made a deathbed wish that Rep. Colleen Hanabusa be named his successor. (Abercrombie instead appointed his lieutenant governor, Brian Schatz.) Abercrombie has lost much of his financial edge over state Sen. David Ige, giving the underdog a shot in the Aug. 9 primary. GOP hopes rest on a battered Democratic nominee stumbling into a three-way November contest against former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, running as an independent, and former Republican Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who was swamped by Abercrombie in 2010. |
CAN’T FEAR YOUR OWN WORLD Part 7 Full Translation
I’m super late but here it is, it’s going to be another long read (12.5k words) since this part consists of two chapters.
Chapter 5
(page 208)
Soul Society - Kizokugai
“…No matter how many times I come here, I’ll never get used to walking around Kizokugai.”
In the eastern end of the 6th sector, Kizokugai is lined with mansions belonging to noblemen, high class ryōtei*, and establishments catering exclusively to nobles. (*Fancy, traditional Japanese restaurant.)
At the heart of Kizokugai, Hisagi releases a small sigh whilst heading towards the central block where commoners cannot enter unless they obtain formal permission or an invitation from a noble.
Responding to Hisagi, Hanatarō posed a question.
“You’ve come here a few times then?”
“That Ōmaeda guy invited me to dine with him, along with Abarai. After all, it’s impossible for me to come here to a ryōtei street alone on my salary.”
“I-impossible even on a vice captain’s salary…it’s really that bad…?”
“Oh…well, that’s because I use most of my salary on ordering things like Gasoline or guitars from the Human World… I only have a bit of money…”
Hisagi replied self-consciously.
He ordered a ‘Reishi-fied’ motorbike and guitar, amplifiers and electric generators to accompany it, fuels to work them, all from the Human world, in so doing, he paid a considerable amount of money as a 'Reishi-fication’ fee to Urahara Shop.
As a result, and despite being in the position of vice captain, his wages had practically disappeared due to transactions with Urahara Shop, but it seems he still had no intention of giving up his hobby of motorcycles and guitars, even now.
“Even though he’s a fellow vice captain, it’s rumoured that Ōmaeda has his own gem mining business. Indeed, it’s true what they say, money attracts money.” (TN – Alluding to the Ōmaedas’ business dealings with the wolf clan/Jewelry business, see WDkALY part 9)
The pair chatted away whilst walking on, however, Hisagi’s feet suddenly came to a stop, he turned his attention to a noticeably grand structure which could be seen in the distance.
“What’s the matter, Hisagi san?”
“No…I was just thinking, that’s the Tsunayashiro mansion isn’t it…?”
Ahead of their sightlines stood an extravagant mansion, its roof which was far taller than the surrounding buildings is spread wide.
Aside from some facilities, Soul Society is generally less inclined to build tall building structures making it a set of community developments reminiscent of a city during the Heian period in Japan rather than downtown high-rise areas like in the Human World.
Although it’s the same in Kizokugai, the architectural style of the Tsunayashiro mansion appeared as if it was looking down on the estates belonging to the other nobles, and despite the fact that squad 6 and the Kuchiki clan were the wardens of the entire sector, it almost appeared as if the Tsunayashiro mansion was insisting that it was they who were in fact the rulers of this neighborhood.
“Ah, it appears you’re right, it seems like their clan are the leaders amongst the four great noble houses doesn’t it? It’s built on a spot that’s directly opposite to the Kuchiki clan.”
“…I see.”
Whilst thinking that he may end up having to go to that place sooner or later in order to 'collect information’, at the same time he also considered that an outsider like himself probably won’t be allowed entry.
At the very least, the atmosphere around the Tsunayashiro mansion did not feel openly inviting like the Ōmaeda family at all, rather it exudes an atmosphere that seemed even harder to probe into than that of the Kuchiki clan who were practically like the embodiment of the word 'strict’.
Hisagi continued to walk whilst fixing a sharp look at the mansion for a short while, but then Hanatarō raised his voice as if he had noticed something.
“Ah, I can see it. That over there is the Central Pharmaceutical Institution. Although, I haven’t even been here since the time I went to celebrate my brother’s inauguration…”
“…This is built more extravagantly than the squad 1 barracks, don’t you think…?”
Whilst embracing such a thought, Hisagi also harboured another Impression.
“How should I put it… the atmosphere is somewhat similar. But the outward appearance is completely different…”
“Eh…? T-To what?”
Overpowered by the serious look on Hisagi’s face, Hanatarō enquired whilst breaking into a cold sweat.
Then, whether or not he completely understood it even himself, Hisagi opened his mouth to speak appearing to lack in self-confidence somewhat.
“…The 12th division’s Department of Research and Development.”
Squad 12 - Department of Research and Development.
“Can you point out the most important facility within Seireitei?”
When asked that question, most nobles and commoners alike would indicate to the places associated with Central 46 or the name of an institution within the governmental district, but many amongst the active Shinigami would speak about one of the following three.
Firstly, the squad 1 barracks, as well as being the general headquarters of the Gotei 13, it is also the fortress that accommodates “Muken” in its basement, the lowest level of the Central Great Underground Prison.
Next, the 4th division’s relief station where many of those who were injured were transported to. Previously there were numerous relief specialists from the 4th division who were looked down upon, however as many Shinigami narrowly escaped death after battling with the Quincies, now there was practically nobody who underestimated them.
And finally, the Department of Research and Development which is under the management of squad 12.
It’s said that ninety percent of the advanced Reishi technology currently being handled within Seireitei is born out of this Research and Development Institute, Urahara Kisuke, its founder, and Kurotsuchi Mayuri, its second president, were said to be entities who were inseparable from the very history of Soul Society itself.
However, obviously it’s not like it’s only the president that works here.
A multitude of researchers were at the forefront for the advancement of civilisation, sometimes under the instructions of the president, sometimes at the request of the Shinigami, and sometimes simply continuing to exhibit shrewdness for their own interests - a beacon of hope that rapidly settles the various impossible demands of the Soul Society - that was the place they called the Department of Research and Development.
Even today, a new impossible demand stood in their way.
“Hmph! I’m hungryy~! Hungry, hungry hungry~! Nicorun, snacks~! Give me snacks~! I want to eat castella*~! Something that contains a heap of sugar~!” (*TN – a type of Japanese sponge cake.)
Kuna Mashiro the self-proclaimed “squad 9 super vice captain” was noisily flapping her hands and feet around like a child on the floor of the Department of Research and Development.
A female technician who was wearing glasses – Kuna Nico – addressed her as if scolding a child. (TN – Nico is short for Nicorun)
“You ate the snacks yesterday didn’t you, Mashiro onee-chan.”
“No fair, no fair, no fair~! I have to eat some everyday~! You also have to give me otoshidama* every year~!” (*New year’s gifts, usually in the form of money given to children)
“It’s pointless, onee-chan! I also gave you otoshidama this year already so next year you won’t be getting any!”
Watching as Nico scolded her saying “enough” and Mashiro who continued to throw a tantrum, even starting to roll around on the floor let alone flapping her hands and feet about, a man who had horn like protrusions on his forehead – Akon the vice president of the Department of Research and Development – muttered to himself as if he was exasperated.
“Well… it doesn’t even matter if you give Otoshidama every year does it.”
“Or rather, should the younger sister be giving otoshidama to an older sister of that age…?”
Next to him was a man whose outward appearance looked like a cross between a Namazu* (* a giant mythological catfish) and a temple bell – Hiyosu – after also muttering to himself, he released a sigh seemingly astounded as he continued to speak.
“Just when I thought Miss. Kusajishi would stop coming here, it seems it’s come to be that we have her replacement instead…”
Hearing that whilst continuing his keystrokes on the nearby observation equipment, technological development staff member Tsubokura Rin groaned with a heavy sigh.
“This place is cursed, isn’t it…”
As he says so, he reaches his hand out to a space that is seemingly empty.
Then, he stealthily took out some sweets from the small hole that had opened up above that space.
“So in the end, your sweets were being hidden away in that artificial subspace huh…”
“This guy is also a member of the Department of Research and Development after all.”
Akon who replied emotively in response to Hiyosu’s words, looked at Mashiro who still continued her riot on the floor, he then opened his mouth to speak as if remembering something.
“That reminds me, an interview request was submitted to the captain again, from the real vice captain of squad 9. But it was swiftly rejected.”
“If that’s the case, why don’t you answer the vice captain’s questions instead?”
“Even if you say that, what answers can I……”
“Huh? I’m getting some kind of weird feedback!”
Interrupting Akon’s dialogue, Rin points out the abnormality on his monitor.
Confronted with that feedback, Akon leaned forward in curiosity and continued to observe for a short while, he then knit his eyebrows together ever so slightly whilst addressing Rin.
“…ah, that is something we can disregard.”
“Is that so? But, this is some unusual Reishi, without even using a gate, it’s made a direct appearance in Kizokugai…”
“It’s fine. That Reishi pattern. It’s something that has a "no interference required” directive against it personally issued from within the four great noble clans. That’s why the alarms didn’t even ring… Of course the captain is certainly not satisfied with this, I’ll probably have to keep monitoring it independently.“
Despite answering in an unconcerned manner, Akon frowned as he watched the numerical values of that Reishi pattern.
"Compared to what I observed in Kizokugai few hours ago, this Reiatsu has depleted by a significant amount… what the hell happened?”
Central Pharmaceutical Institution - Waiting Room.
"…Incredible. Everything including the furnishings, it’s just like a nobleman’s estate in itself don’t you think… is this place truly a waiting room for patients?”
Hisagi and Hanatarō were currently standing by in the Pharmaceutical Institution’s waiting room.
It appeared that Yamada Seinosuke was away from his workstation right now, but they were to wait as he would return soon. Today was apparently his day off from general medical examinations, and with the exception of emergency cases, it seems he was not receiving anyone, however when Hanatarō gave his name at the reception desk he was met with a polite response and shown into this room where they were presently waiting.
Although there was also a formal guest room, he thought he would lose his nerves even being brought into a room used for important nobles, so they were invited into the waiting room at Hisagi’s suggestion.
“P-perhaps, I think that even all this is considered the bare minimum. My brother, he dislikes pointlessly decorating things, so I think this is probably just the demands of the noble people.”
“So in other words, even the room in which they wait for a medical examination must be extravagant or else they can’t stomach it. It’s a drag isn’t it, this so called aristocratic vanity.”
“But captain Kuchiki doesn’t seem to pay too much attention to vanities does he?”
“You say that but, doesn’t captain Kuchiki have that piece of cloth he used to wear around his neck? Apparently one of those is worth around ten stately mansions.”
At Hisagi’s words, Hanatarō raised his voice in surprise as his eyes remained partly open.
“T-ten!?”
“I didn’t know at first either, but I happened to hear about it when I was collecting information for a special feature on well established shops… I wonder how many motorbikes one of those hair ornaments of his are worth… hn?”
Hisagi was just releasing a sigh at the difference in financial standing between himself and the nobles, but then he suddenly lifted his face up, he turned his attention in the direction of the Pharmaceutical Institution’s courtyard which was adjacent to the waiting room.
“What’s wrong, Hisagi san?”
When Hanatarō tilted his head in puzzlement, Hisagi replied whilst narrowing his eyes.
“No it’s just… there seems to be some sort of weird Reiatsu…”
As he said so with a glare fixed on the courtyard —— all of a sudden, that space opens up like the jaws of a beast.
“Whaa……”
It was no gate the Shinigami would use. Cracks similar to a Garganta used by Hollows were produced in the space, from within that a single figure emerged.
—- A Hollow attack!?
—- Inside the Shakonmaku!?
He stood up straight despite being in shock, but then he realised he was currently not carrying a Zanpakutō at his waist.
At present, there were no war-time special exceptions in operation, even if one held the position of vice captain, carrying a sword was prohibited in several places, inside the Pharmaceutical Institute was one of them.
Hisagi considered that he would need to run over to the reception desk and retrieve his Zanpakutō which he had left with them, but his feet stopped when he looked at the true form of the figure that had just appeared.
It was a youngster wearing clothes similar to a Shihakushō and it appears the child’s whole body was covered in injuries.
“That’s not a Hollow… a Shinigami? They’re terribly injured!”
“T-this is serious! If I don’t give medical treatment right away…!”
Hanatarō set off in a hurry towards the courtyard where he then came to a stop.
There, an androgynous youngster impossible to characterise as either a girl or boy, the child’s shoulder tips were severely mutilated, holes had pierced several places on the child’s abdomen, and one arm was twisted back into an irregular position.
Rather than describing it as wounded head to toe, looking at the youngster’s condition, it wouldn’t be surprising to mistake the child for a corpse even if it was still standing and walking - Hanatarō immediately hovered his hands over the openings to those wounds, activating healing Kidō known as Kaidō
“…Uuhn.”
The child drops to both knees on the spot and distorts their face seemingly in pain.
“It’s okay, I will close up those wounds at once! Can your hear my voice?!”
The usually timid Hanatarō was like a different person, his voice echoed across the courtyard as he tried to vigorously encourage the youngster.
However – as the child shook its head from side to side looking sorrowful, its eyes welled up with tears and it opened its mouth to speak.
“It’s pointless, I can’t go on any longer…”
“Such a thing, why would you–”
“I, I was unable to carry out Tokinada sama’s commands… life, life isn’t worth living anymore, please just let me die here…!”
“You must be confused… it’s alright! Please, try to pull yourself together!”
Hanatarō frantically said so whilst continuing Kaidō, behind him however, Hisagi’s body tensed.
—- Just now…what did…?
—- …Did that kid just say, “Tokinada sama”?
Before Hisagi who was bewildered at the name that had just left the child’s mouth, Hanatarō looked anxious for other reasons.
—- this Reiatsu… it’s continuously changing!?
—- I cannot close up these wounds with my Kaidō alone…!
Deciding that continuing on like this was perilous, Hanatarō cried out to Hisagi.
“Hisagi san! Please call a Pharmaceutical Institute staff member quickly! We’ll move the patient into an emergency treatment room!”
“R-right!”
Hisagi had come to his senses at Hanatarō’s voice, but as soon as he turned on his heel ——
There on the spot he had turned to look, stood a man.
“……!? Are you a staff member here!? We have an injured person…”
Before Hisagi could even finish talking, that man calmly started to approach the bloodstained youth, lining himself up beside Hanatarō, he placed his hands over the wounds.
“Indeed, your efficiency in Kaidō has improved. However, this patient is a bit of a special case. You won’t be able to heal them alone.”
“Ehh”
Looking at the person who has appeared beside him, Hanatarō’s eyes widened as he raised his voice in surprise.
“Se-Seinosuke nii-san!”
“What!?”
Subsequently, Hisagi’s eyes also opened wide.
A man with a sharp look in his eyes and a self-possessed demeanour, one would be completely unable to associate his image with Hanatarō in any way, shape or form.
This man – paying no heed to the surprise of the other two, Seinosuke continued to proceed with his medical treatment whilst skillfully changing the nature of the Reiatsu in his own Kaidō.
Then, the wounds began to heal in an instant and the bleeding had visibility halted.
Observing that scene, Hisagi’s breath was taken away.
Even from the viewpoint of Hisagi who has grown accustomed to receiving medical treatment, he could understand that the man’s Kaidō level was in a completely different league in comparison to that of the ordinary members of the 4th division.
—- He’s far from Hanatarō… this guy… could it be that he may even be on par with Unohana san…?
Although it’s still no match for Inoue Orihime’s “rejection of events”, at the extraordinary talent for Kaidō that was being displayed before his eyes, Hisagi marveled about whether this was truly the power that belonged to the chief of the Central Pharmaceutical Institution.
Only the youngster being healed showed no signs of improvement in their countenance whilst undergoing the Kaidō treatment.
“…oh, Yamada san. I’m already a lost cause. Please don’t heal me…!”
“I don’t like the sound of that. I prefer keeping a patient who is eager to die, alive against their will. Since I won’t let you die so easily, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself while you still can. Prepare to live with that dishonour.”
“I can’t face Tokinada sama…! Please just let me rot here like this…!”
“That’s out of the question, after all, you are the property of Tsunayashiro Tokinada are you not? If you were to die here of your own accord, then Tsunayashiro Tokinada would be unable to forgive you for such a thing don’t you think?”
“huh!”
At the words of the chuckling Seinosuke, the child opened its eyes wide and gave a grunt.
Hisagi and Hanatarō were dumbfounded by that exchange, when the youngster’s wounds were closed up, it began to rise and slowly move.
“…Thank you very much, Yamada san. I almost committed an unforgivable act of disloyalty to Tokinada sama…”
looking at the disheartened youngster, Hisagi noticed something.
The suffering this child displayed just a moment ago did not originate from the pain caused by its injuries, but rather from anguish at the simple fact that it had failed in its duties to the man named Tokinada.
—- Does this kid… even feel… things like pain to begin with?
Hisagi who had just undergone this strange sensation, was at a loss as to how exactly he should engage in conversation with them, however in that moment it was Yamada Seinosuke who started to talk instead.
“I’ve given the patient emergency treatment for the time being, however full-scale medical treatment is still required, I’m sorry that you’ve been made to come on this errand for nothing, but can I ask you to reschedule this for another day? Lieutenant Hisagi Shūhei dono?”
“Eh…Y-yes.”
It seems the reception desk had already contacted Seinosuke about both himself and Hanatarō.
Although he realised it was impossible to try and proceed with today’s interview since he was told so by name, there was still something pressing on his mind spurring him on, with a strong tone of voice Hisagi posed his questions.
“Hey, that kid, why are they injured like that? What kind of connection do they have with Tsunayashiro Tokinada!?”
Then, rather than Seinosuke, the injured youngster who began to walk forward was the one to reply with an unexpected smile on its face.
“You mean me? I am Tokinada sama’s retainer!”
“… you’re, his ’retainer’…?”
A perplexed Hisagi turns his attention to Seinosuke, but he flashed a wicked smile as he opened his mouth to speak.
“Sorry, but as a medical professional, I cannot disclose a patient’s personal information.”
“Please wait, also as the vice captain of squad 9, there’s a heap of things I want to ask you. Firstly, bringing this child to the scene of a battle, that Tokinada guy, what is he thinking…”
As a Shinigami of the Gotei 13, there were many matters he simply could not ignore, such matters include the fact that this child had emerged from within some Garganta-like thing, or those serious injuries said child had received.
Moreover, this Shinigami called Hikone did not even appear matured, with a figure which was still that of a child’s much like Hitsugaya, and it seemed as if the child’s age would probably match its outward appearance too.
Even if this was a matter connected to the four great noble clans, looking at the bigger picture here, if a man was to turn a blind eye to an injured child, Hisagi probably wouldn’t even be in the position of vice captain today.
However, the instant he went to reach his hand out to Seinosuke’s shoulder in an attempt to hold him back ——
Hisagi’s world rotated around him in a half spin, he realised he was now looking up at the sky of Soul Society.
“……!?”
Perceiving the fact that he had apparently been thrown down to the floor by Hikone who seized his hand from the side, Hisagi opened both of his eyes wide.
Hikone’s voice resounded from overhead, down towards Hisagi.
“Uh, s-sorry! I actually thought that Yamada san was in danger…”
“………”
“But, if you are able to understand that in this way I… Ubuginu Hikone, will have the power to fight for Tokinada sama, then I’d appreciate it! Okay!”
He was unable to discern whether or not he could read the mood in the things Hikone was blurting out, but Hisagi’s thoughts were also captured in deep confusion.
—- Hey, wait a minute…
—- Just now… what did that kid do to me?
Although this was a surprise attack, he still prides himself on the considerable amount of varied experiences he’s accumulated amongst the Shinigami.
Nonetheless, coming from the Shinigami that introduced itself as Hikone a moment ago, he could feel a flow of Reishi which was different from any Hollow, Shinigami, or Quincy he had battled in the past.
—- It’s different from any guy I’ve met in battle so far…no…
—- This sensation… it’s somewhat similar to the time my Reiryoku was absorbed by that Zanpakutō Ayasegawa has…
Although he had faced defeat against it only once, Hisagi who had received such an attack did not feel the slightest bit of pain, instead he had fallen into this sensation as if every possible “power” such as his spiritual power, or his physical power and his will power, had all completely dissipated.
Hisagi stared up at the sky in a daze.
Watching him, Yamada Seinosuke shook his head, a smile still on his face.
“This place is the domain of the nobles. As long as there are no wartime special exceptions, the principles of the Gotei 13 don’t apply here. If common practice is generally praised as good sense, then I think it’s better that you never set foot in this place.”
Then, Seinosuke turns to face Hanatarō.
“I will tell you again, Hanatarō. Take some time away from the squad for a while.”
Along with a smile that held a touch of self-ridicule, Seinosuke shrugged his shoulders and continued talking.
“If you don’t want to get dragged any further into matters such as this.”
As Hisagi got up, he began to ask a question at the backs of the two people who were about to leave.
“Hey… I don’t know anything about the circumstances at all but… is this Tokinada guy really worth serving under to the point where you’d get injured in such a way?”
In response, the child turned its head to look in his direction —— said child replied, smiling with its whole face almost making it appear as if the youngster wasn’t just on the verge of death.
“Of course! Tokinada sama is a wonderful person! There is nothing worthy enough that can compare, not even the extent of my own life!”
“……”
The youngster continued even further at Hisagi who wasn’t quite sure how to respond.
“Also… Tokinada sama told me he will let me become king! So I must repay that kindness by staking my life for him for the rest of my lifetime!”
“King…?”
Looking at the suspicion on the faces of both Hisagi and Hanatarō, Seinosuke gave a strained laugh whilst addressing the child.
“Did Tsunayashiro Tokinada inform you it would be okay to just casually tell others about that?”
After tilting its head slightly to one side like some small animal, the child’s face instantly turns pale.
“…? …. …! Uh- ahhh! I didn’t say anything just now! Please forget about it! Your kindness Mr… err… pardon me, but your names are…?”
“S-sure. I’m Hisagi Shūhei. And this is Yamada, Yamada Hanatarō.”
“I see! With your kindness Hisagi san, Hanatarō san! Please be sure to forget about my business! But, I won’t forget this favour! When I become king someday, I will repay this favour properly!”
After continuing to laugh in a strained manner, Seinosuke departed towards a medical treatment room taking the youngster along with him, Hisagi held doubts about whether or not the incident from just a moment ago was all a dream, but the child’s blood which stained the courtyard was a clear indicator that this was indeed the current reality.
“That was baffling… what the hell just happened…?”
At the same time, Hanatarō is dumbfounded as he mutters to himself.
“My brother’s emergency treatment is truly amazing but… for a person to even be able to walk with their own strength right away in such a state of injury…”
Next to Hisagi who was in deep thought over something, Hanatarō recalled the people he had treated in the past, and spontaneously spoke these names.
“It is just like captain Zaraki or Ichigo san…”
Hikone’s body was lying on a medical table inside the emergency treatment room. The child’s internal nervous system had become a complete mess, it almost seemed like an illusion that this youngster was chatting with a smile on its face only a short while ago.
Whilst carrying out the treatment in a detached manner, Seinosuke mutters to himself before an unconscious Hikone.
“Good grief, it seems the Hollows didn’t go easy on you, but this was also within the plan wasn’t it… well, either way I won’t let you die.”
Seinosuke made use of the Kaidō which set him apart from the ordinary person and at the same time he displayed a smile, as if to conceal his true feelings.
“Even if there is not a shred of hope for this child’s life.”
Hueco Mundo.
“…It was quite the flashy showdown huh.”
An Arrancar who had arrived late at the scene chasing after Harribel – Cyan Sung-Sun one of the “Tres Bestias”, opened her mouth to speak when she saw the devastation in the desert.
The bodies of skull masked soldiers reaching the tens of thousands, pitifully littered the surroundings, Rudbornn who had apparently created them also had a large gash on his body, and was in a state of dying.
“…Your blood vessels and nerves have all been connected. Please rest until your Reiatsu is recovered.”
An Arrancar healer who arrived late much like the Tres Bestias – whilst receiving Roca Paramia’s medical treatment, Rudbornn releases a groan in a weak voice.
“Understood… But, I am extremely ashamed… not only did I inconvenience Harribel sama and the others, but I actually exposed myself to be such a disgraceful sight…”
Looking at Rudbornn, as well as Loly and Menoly who were similarly injured and receiving treatment, and then the several huge Hollows in the vicinity who had gotten caught up in the battle now collapsed on the ground, one of the other Tres Bestias Emilou Apacci raised her voice.
“Ha, you are truly pathetic Rudbornn. I heard that you were mowed down by some Quincy survivors, and then beaten up by some strange Shinigami brat who had burst onto the scene?”
“Humph… even if I wanted to deny it, I can’t.”
Listening to Rudbornn’s pained voice, Franceska Mila Rose, also one of the Tres Bestias, opens her mouth to talk.
“Well, in the end, Harribel sama drove them away right? Honestly, do those goddamned Shinigami look down on Hueco Mundo as a sort of tourist attraction or something?”
Then, Harribel shook her head with eyes that were somewhat sombre.
“It wasn’t with my power alone. Without the assistance of Grimmjow, Nelliel… and those Quincies, there was even a possibility that we might have been annihilated… we may come to regret letting this individual escape.”
“Huuuh!? What are you saying Harribel sama! Even if it’s a Shinigami, it was only one person right!? Could it be some sort of freak, like that old fart who could manipulate fire!?”
Harribel shook her head at Apacci who questioned her whilst in shock.
“The individual’s physical strength and Reiatsu were certainly comparable to a captain class Shinigami. When it comes to their physical abilities alone, it may even have rivaled the ice user I once fought against.”
“So then, did they intentionally send in a captain rank Shinigami to Hueco Mundo?”
At Sung-sun’s question, Harribel speaks words of denial.
“No, this individual is too inexperienced for that to be the case. That’s why we were even able to catch them off guard. However… I am very concerned about the Zanpakutō which was in that person’s possession…”
“What kind of Zanpakutō was it?”
Harribel pondered on this for a short while – before even mentioning the form and nature of this Zanpakutō, she stated one fact first.
“It wasn’t that Shinigami who opened a Garganta… but rather the Zanpakutō.”
In a spot slightly further away from where Harribel was conversing with her subordinates, Nelliel questioned Grimmjow who was staring at the empty space where the Shinigami had disappeared.
“Don’t you need to get Roca chan to heal you?”
“Huh? This thing, It’s just a scratch.”
Disregarding the deep gash on his left arm, Grimmjow clicked his tongue whilst thinking back on the battle from earlier.
“I’ve even lost my edge, I missed the chance to kill it in my Resurrección state.”
“Yeah, there’s no way a Zanpakutō could become aware of that child’s crisis and act of it’s own free will. One could clearly see it opened up a Garganta and let the child fall into it.”
“It doesn’t make any sense. A Shinigami Zanpakutō acting of its own accord, and making use of a Garganta of all things.”
Nelliel did not seem to have an answer for that either, after some reflection, she spoke.
“The next time they come here, things may not be like they were this time around.”
“Right, this will allow me to become stronger through battle. I don’t particularly care, but you lot, from your points of view, it was a failure that you didn’t put an end to the brat’s life.”
After giving a contemptuous laugh, Grimmjow’s smile vanished, with a serious expression he was reminded of the face of his rival, his back teeth made a creaking sound as be ground them together.
“I really do hate to say this, but… in this way, I’m the same type as Kurosaki. Each time we have a narrow escape from death, it’s like we’re born again but stronger.”
“Well… other than that detail, I feel we’re completely different.”
A certain place in the Human world.
Ancient stone ruins in a certain small country.
Within those decaying ruins which were reminiscent of some sort of temple, two Quincies and one corpse were hiding.
“If we were going to end up running away, wouldn’t it have been easier to just run away from the very beginning? Hey Lil, why did you even bother to take advantage of the confusion and attack that Shinigami?”
At Gigi’s teasing words, Lil replies with her usual poker face.
“There was something I wanted to check. You noticed it too right?”
“Yeah, I even sprinkled some spurts of blood on that kid, but I wasn’t able to turn it into a zombie huh? I wonder what’s going on? Is it that this kid is as strong as a captain rank?”
“Not only that.”
When Lil said so, she recalled catching the Shinigami off guard shooting an arrow at it, and then she remembered the sight of that arrow as it was repelled.
“That kid… it wasn’t just using an Arrancar’s Hierro. It was also using the Quincy Blut Vene.”
“Are you kidding me!?… Really?”
Blut Vene.
It is an ability unique to Quincies which dramatically enhances one’s defence power by circulating Reishi inside the blood vessels, and alongside Blut Arterie which enhances one’s capability for attack, it is the underlying power of soldiers belonging to the Wandenreich.
“Why is a Shinigami able to use it? They can’t be that cunning can they? Perhaps this the doing of that dazzling weirdo?”
“Perhaps. It’s possible that various Quincy bodies have been tampered with. The question is why.”
“The kid was saying something about becoming the king of Hollows. Was their goal some sort of rebellion like with that Aizen guy?”
Whilst gently stroking Bambietta’s head whose eyes were shut seemingly tired, Gigi offered her carefree response.
However, Lil accepted her response, with her usual composed expression she uttered troubling words.
“If the Shinigami are killing each other because of internal disputes, then everything will work out as desired for us.”
“But I hope we can still retrieve Candi and Meni in the midst of all the chaos over there.”
Connecting Chapter
(page 235)
A few days later - Rukongai.
That day – As Ginjō Kūgo wandered around Rukongai, a strange crowd caught his eye.
“…hn? What the heck is going on?”
There, several men were causing a commotion, as if they were frantically petitioning for something.
“Hey, what the hell happened?”
When he asked the Rukongai dwellers who he’d occasionally encounter, the other party even tilted their heads like they didn’t quite understand.
“Oh, those fresh dead guys who have recently arrived in Rukongai are making a damn racket. Their Gods were right, soon a new world will begin for them and whatnot.”
“What’s this, religionists?”
One of the troubles caused by inhabitants who have just arrived in Rukongai is the confusion that occurs from the disparities between religious views they had faith in during their time in the Human World and the actual world of life after death.
Some amongst religious cult members get caught up in rage and say “I’m supposed to go to heaven, a sorry place like this, there’s no mistaking that this phony world was created by the devil,” consequently, it could be said that one of the roles of the people already living here is also to soothe and humour them.
“No, this isn’t the same as usual. I heard them saying "this world is exactly as the kyouso* sama described” (*founder of a religious sect), they seem to already understand and in quite some detail too about things such as Rukongai and Seireitei. And yet, I have no clue why they’re still kicking up a fuss, saying stuff like “a new leader and a new world will come” or whatever.“
"…Oh? That’s quite interesting.”
Is it that a Shinigami who was dispatched to the Human World, happened to spill the beans about everything to a spiritually aware religionist who then spread that as their dogma?
Whilst speculating as such, Ginjō approached the crowd seeing as he had time to kill.
Then, one person amongst the crowd took notice of his attire and spoke up.
“Ah! H-hey, that brother over there! Judging from the clothes you’re wearing, you must have come here recently right!? If that’s the case, perhaps this brother also knows about our religion!?”
“…Sorry, but I’m not interested in canvassing faith.”
As he thought about the fact that this was not a line he was able to say when he was a former substitute Shinigami (TN – since being a substitute Shinigami entails the need to reassure bewildered spirits about an afterlife in SS), Ginjō decided to listen to what the others had to say however – –
In the next moment, Ginjō was shaken to the core when he heard the words that jumped out of the man’s mouth.
“Our commercial message has even been broadcast on TV for the last few months after all, so you ought to know it, it’s 'XCUTION’ ! えくすきゅーしょん*！(*ekusukyuushon!)”
“……What did you say?”
Hearing that name, Ginjō noticeably drew his eyebrows together in unease.
—- What’s this all about?
XCUTION.
It is the name of the Fullbringer organisation Ginjō once established in the Human World.
It’s easy to think that they had simply adopted this name by chance.
However, it is hard to imagine that it’s mere coincidence when it comes to this group who apparently know a great deal about the Shinigami.
—- It’s unlikely that Yukio, Riruka or Jackie would spread such things.
—- …Be that as it may, right now, even if I wanted to investigate, I can't…
Although Ginjō thought as such, he realises that he was now losing sight of ‘what he should be doing’.
Then, the raging flames from when he was still alive reignited in his chest just a little.
—- There’s nothing I can do anyway.
—- But perhaps I should try playing detective, just a bit.
After pondering for a moment, he addressed these “XCUTION followers” with a friendly smile.
“Sorry, I died some time before that. However, you’ve piqued my interest somewhat. Will you allow me to listen to what you have to say about your Kyouso sama just a while?”
Ginjō Kūgo.
He was not yet aware at this point in time.
About the fact that he was already getting dragged into the strife of Soul Society which was enshrouded in secrecy.
And also the fact that a bow was being drawn at the “Fullbringers” from a completely unforeseen direction.
The Department of Research and Development.
“Fullbringers. Now that I have exhausted my research into both Shinigami and Quincies, as well Arrancar, it is they who will become the very trigger for the cultivation of new technology… that, I am certain of.”
“This time around, we’re going back to the basics of the Department of Research and Development now aren’t we?”
In front of the tense looking researchers, there was one man who seems to be enjoying himself as he talked about his new 'area of research’.
It is the man who serves in concurrent posts as the president of the Department of Research and Development, and as the captain of squad 12 – Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
“The targets are three 'Fullbringers’ confirmed to be hiding out in Rukongai. Under normal circumstances, it would be no problem to have just one specimen, but Fullbringers have a great manner of differences in abilities depending on the individual. Much like our Zanpakutōs, or the Schrift power used by some Quincies.”
“Captain, between the three of them, it’s true that one is a criminal, and the other two fought against Kurosaki Ichigo as well as captain Kuchiki and so on, but there is an official notice from captain commander Kyōraku to wait-and-see…”
At the words of one of the department’s staff members, Mayuri emphatically shrugs his shoulders as he shook his head.
“Does it have something to do with analysing whether or not they’re guilty? It’s better if they can obediently devote themselves to Soul Society’s technological advancement, then I suppose it wouldn’t be too much of an ask to plead for their pardon with the Central 46 from my very own oh so compassionate mouth.”
“Isn’t that going to cause a dispute with squad 1 and Rukongai?”
“What are you talking about, it’s not like I’m going to snatch them away and try to kill them. It’s just a simple matter of requesting their cooperation for a little bit of dismantling and analysis, which of course entails conducting as many experiments as there are stars in the sky. If they feel nothing but a sense of guilt towards the Shinigami, then they will offer themselves up to us willingly. Of course, I suppose I can promise to heal* their bodies back to perfect condition when the experiments are over.” (*TN – Mayuri says “naosu” which means healing but Narita uses kanji that means “reconstructing/remodeling” just a cool way to illustrate his sinister intentions, with this in mind the next line should make sense)
Watching Mayuri as he spoke whilst disguising disturbing characters behind the phonetics he was using, Hiyosu stealthily posed a question to Akon who was next to him.
“What’s going on? These days the department’s president is more aggressive than ever regarding his research, don’t you think?”
At Hiyosu who summed up the proposal of harvesting and dissecting people with the single word “aggressive”, Akon replied with his usual unconcerned air.
“…Since Nemu isn’t by his side anymore. The captain is trying to fill that temporary sense of loss in the captain’s own way.”
“I can only sympathise with the Fullbringers being caught up in this…”
Despite nodding in agreement at Hiyosu’s words, Akon was curious about one thing and began to ask Kurotsuchi Mayuri a question.
“Even so captain, although I’ve heard those guys weren’t exactly captain level in strength, with the exception of you captain, we probably won’t be able to capture them right? So does this mean the captain will carry out this task himself?”
“Honestly, as someone who is a scientist you shouldn’t have to utter such uncivilised comments, Akon. In that case it would be just like acting with a view to cause violence from the very onset, wouldn’t you agree?”
The man who had spoken of a plan that would quite evidently lead to violence, shook his head as he continued to reply.
"In any case, the experiments will embody a number of uncertain elements. In preparation for everything, I am going to have the appropriate 'equipment’ assembled.”
When Mayuri presses a button he had produced from somewhere, part of the Research and Development Department’s walls opened up, and something gradually rose up from there.
A countless array of cylindrical tanks stood in a line filled with a highly transparent scarlet liquid.
One figure per cylinder was floating around in the liquid solution, a small group of researchers knit their eyebrows together in discomfort when they saw the identities of those figures.
Most of the researchers were able to stay calm because they knew that the same thing had been done with 'Arrancar corpses’ in the past.
With his back to the great number of figures that were floating inside those tanks, Kurotsuchi Mayuri revealed his usual crooked smile as he opened his mouth to speak.
“This is a great opportunity. As the first experiment, let’s conduct some thorough tests shall we?”
“– – Concerning the usefulness of Quincies with regards to the Fullbringers.”
Kizokugai - Tsunayashiro Residence.
“Woah… I’m sorry, but can I ask you all to leave? I have an important meeting to attend now.”
As Tokinada was preparing to depart for a certain meeting, he sensed an unsettling air sweeping around his own room.
Perhaps after hearing Tokinada’s voice, they had concluded that “mounting a surprise attack is impossible”. Without even making a sound, the covers were pushed back and a countless number of sword wielding figures emerged within the residence.
Looking at the men who quite clearly appeared to be from the same line of assassins that came for him the other day, Tokinada gave a small shake of his head.
“Hmm… I’d say… there are about eight of you who have the strength of a seated member.”
Whilst reading the Reiatsus of his opponents, Tokinada calmly releases a sigh.
“My my, you’ve actually come to target me when Hikone’s undergoing treatment. What bad luck.”
As he spoke, Tokinada placed his hand on the sword attached at his waist.
Tokinada was no longer a Shinigami of the Gotei 13, and his original Zanpakutō had also been confiscated.
However, just like the Ise clan’s Hakkyōken, there is a sword that is handed down from generation to generation within the Tsunayashiro clan, and he had secretly inherited it as clan head.
To be precise – that Zanpakutō had been stolen secretly before he even became the next clan head.
“And… I’ve been underestimated for far too long.”
As he effortlessly used Hakuda to dodge the leaping assassins who were trying to prevent him from drawing out his sword, Tokinada called the name of the Zanpakutō.
That name sounds extremely similar to the Zanpakutō in the possession of his 'rival’ Kyōraku Shunsui.
“– – Revere, 'Kuten-kyōkoku’ – –”
(TN – As a reminder Shunsui’s Zanpakutō is called “Katen Kyōkotsu”, “Kuten-kyōkoku” on the other hand literally means 9 heavens mirror valley)
Seireitei - Main Street
Without even being aware of his own movements, Hisagi Shūhei was finishing up his preparations for new interviews whilst simultaneously walking through the main street of Seireitei.
Yamada Seinosuke’s next day off was a little while ahead, so Hisagi decided to collect information around Kizokugai beforehand.
After the commotion at the Central Pharmaceutical Institution, he attempted to conduct an independent investigation into this child who gave its name as Ubuginu Hikone, but he did not discover anything as a result. He also asked Kyōraku, however it seems he too was completely unaware about anything pertaining to Tokinada’s personal soldiers, consequently he was unable to obtain any useful information.
—- When that kid threw me to the ground, I didn’t sense any animosity or ill will.
—- Rather than being gentle or naive. Perhaps the kid… doesn’t quite understand the concept of good and evil just yet.
Hisagi is reminded of the face of Hikone who revealed an innocent smile despite bearing such horrific injuries, and once again he is resolute for he simply must know what kind of person Tokinada really is.
Therefore Hisagi decided to approach the interviewees which he had obtained permissions for through Kyōraku in advance.
Perhaps by arranging to meet with those interviewees, he had suspected that he could learn something regarding the Tsunayashiro clan’s internal state of affairs or Hikone’s strange Reiatsu.
Placing interview utensils and the like into a simple kit bag, Shūhei tied the drawstrings and carried the bag over his shoulder.
Coupled with his usual sleeveless garments and tattooed face, Hisagi who had the appearance of a hitchhiking rocker continued on his way until he bumped into Hirako Shinji the captain of the 5th division.
“What’s up Shūhei? Going somewhere?”
“That’s right, I’m going to the Human World to collect information for Seireitei Communication”
At Hisagi’s words, Hirako questions him further whilst inclining his head.
“Huh? It’s being put back into print already?”
“No, that’s still a few months ahead, but the special feature reissue will look back on the Great War. I’m going to take the opportunity to visit Urahara san’s place to conduct interviews. If everything goes smoothly, I may even be able to hear the story from that Kurosaki guy as well.”
“Ha, to Kisuke’s place? That’s an ordeal indeed. That guy is not the type to give you a straightforward response in an interview.”
“Ehh? How could……”
But after thinking over Hirako’s remark for a moment, a drop of cold sweat ran down Hisagi’s cheek.
“…Now that you mention it.”
“Why have you realised this just now? You should have known that from the time you were in your mother’s womb.”
Although Hirako spoke as if he was astounded, he advises Hisagi about going to the Human World.
“Well, if you’re going to Kisuke’s, then there’s a chance you may encounter Hiyori. If you do see her, please feel free make fun of her as much as you like on my behalf.”
“In that case, isn’t it me that’s going to suffer the counterattack instead!? Forgive me, even after I return I’ll be swamped with collecting material in bothersome places like Kizokugai…”
“Kizokugai? Why in the world would you go there, isn’t a feature on Ōmaeda’s bourgeois lifestyle or something during a time where restoration is still underway and everything is in chaos, a rather tedious affair?”
“That’s tedious with any kind of timing don’t you think…”
After exchanging a few rounds of banter with each other, Hisagi departed, heading in the direction of the Senkaimon.
Watching Hisagi’s back until he was out of sight, Hirako then unintentionally shifted his eyes in the direction of Kizokugai.
“Kizokugai huh… come to think of it, Yoruichi was talking about various kinds of suspicious events recently.”
Although he couldn’t observe the state of affairs within Kizokugai from this main street, he felt he was under an illusion as if something in the sky surrounding that place was coiling around it, Hirako released a sigh whilst scratching his head.
“I hope it’s nothing too difficult to deal with… well, that’s probably quite unrealistic.”
A certain place in Seireitei.
Deep underground a certain establishment, there is a space not mentioned on official maps.
Since ancient times, It has been a sacred place where the five great noble clans would very often discuss issues such as the policies of Seireitei, and it was regarded as one of the most important locations in Soul Society second only to the Soul King Palace.
However, it doesn’t mean that the thing that serves as the cornerstone of Seireitei is placed there.
Only in the moment when the heads of the five great noble clans were all assembled in that room, it is sublimated to a state where one could say their safety in that situation was tied to the fate of Seireitei as it stood.
And now – – amongst “the four great noble clans” which excludes the fallen Shiba house, the heads of two great houses and a clan head representative of another great house were all assembled within the meeting room.
Tokinada Tsunayashiro is seated on one side of the pentagon shaped conference table, Kuchiki Byakuya as well as Yoruichi who is acting on behalf of the Shihōin clan head were each seated at the two sides situated furthest away from him.
The remaining house of the four great noble clans has not made an appearance on this occasion.
This is because there is a law established by the former Central 46 that “as a precautionary measure, the heads of the five great noble clans must not converge together in the same place”.
It is a law that was founded on the notion that they cannot afford to lose all the heads of the five great noble clans at the same time in the event of an enemy attack or disaster, it is said that this arose from the Quincy attack a thousand years ago.
Even now when the five great noble clans has become four, that law still remains, and even now in this way, it has come to be that only three clans are gathered in this room.
“Well, it’s the first time I’m entering this place. It seems there’s no evidence of it being used in a while, only the cleaning has been done scrupulously.”
Quite in contrast with Yoruichi who was seated in a laid-back manner, Byakuya who sat in his chair with an elegant posture was quiet, and yet his dignified voice resounded within the room.
“I’ve heard it’s only been used once during an inauguration two generations ago. In all likelihood that was probably the last time. Even during the expulsion of the Shiba clan, this place was never used.”
“Ah, that’s why this place has been specially prepared for us. I think it’s also one of our duties as nobles to carry on these traditional customs of old.”
In response to Tokinada who spoke with an easygoing demeanour, Yoruichi made a sniffing sound as she spoke.
“That aside, there’s a thick stench of blood wafting in the air. Did you capture and consume some children before coming here?”
The pronounced smell of rusted iron was wrapped around Tokinada who remained as unharmed as ever.
With a calm smile still on his face, he replied without even denying the fact that he was indeed soaked in spurts of blood.
“Oh it’s nothing, I was merely surrounded by a bunch of miscreants. I failed to avoid some of their blood that’s all.”
Although they have already been introduced to one another, Yoruichi and Byakuya were still in a state where they could not probe into this Tokinada character’s true intentions. They had considered the idea that in the worst case scenario, he had summoned them to a place like this in an attempt to have them assassinated, but they could not sense a situation like that at present.
—- In any case, this is a man who is suspected of killing members of his own head house. We can’t be careless.
With a small smile on her face, Yoruichi observed the new Tsunayashiro clan head who was before her eyes.
His predecessor was also an arrogant man with all manner of aristocratic vice condensed into him, but this man named Tokinada also made one feel an air that was truly unbefitting of a noble.
However, more than that, Yoruichi’s whole body was ringing with alarm bells from unpleasant signs that goes beyond the scope of things such as nobility and commoner.
Then, whether he felt her gaze on him or not, Tokinada flashed a gentle smile and opened his mouth to speak.
“That reminds me, this is the first time I’m meeting the former head of the Shihōin clan. Indeed, you’re not called the Shihōin princess for nothing. You are a beauty both charming and majestic.”
“Your transparent flattery is unnecessary. Anyway, In your mind you also think of me as an unruly woman who’s unbecoming of nobility, don’t you?”
“If you are conscious about that, then as former clan head you should refrain from acting in such a rash manner.”
Whilst ignoring the words of Byakuya who so matter-of-factly interjected, Yoruichi narrowed her eyes in a smile and posed a question to the head of the Tsunayashiro clan.
“So? Why go to the trouble of summoning me and Byakuya? You asked for me specifically rather than the present head Yūshirō… it’s not like you gathered us here to merely show us your face is it?”
“Ah, of course. I am concerned about Soul Society’s future. After all, you all made a blunder when you let us be attacked by the likes of Quincies, even allowing them to invade the Soul King Palace.”
“It pains me to hear it.”
“Nevermind, you were mere cooperators all along, I don’t even consider this to be the fault of the Gotei 13. Rather than blaming them, there was the Soul King sama and squad zero who completely failed to grasp the flow of the world’s changes by secluding themselves away in their shells. Don’t you think so? If we had a Soul King sama who could conduct themselves better, the damage to the Gotei 13 and so on would’ve also been reduced isn’t that right?”
Although there were no others in the vicinity, Tokinada spoke in a manner as if he was publicly criticising the Soul King.
Although his feelings were not revealed on the surface, Byakuya formed his words with an unfazed demeanour as if rebuking him for that statement.
“That’s quite enough. Pointlessly renouncing the Soul King in such a manner is not appropriate behaviour for a head amongst the four great noble clans.”
Then, as Tokinada held back his laughter, he spat out remarks as if to provoke Byakuya.
“And was your behaviour appropriate for a noble? It’s true isn’t it. You who was manipulated by the information of a traitor, I can’t possibly imitate behaviour such as yours, you who tried to advance the execution of his own little sister.”
“……”
Tokinada continued to throw more remarks at a silent Byakuya.
“Your wife… Hisana also did foolish things. After all, that’s the kind of outcome you can expect when you place faith in the likes of nobility and entrust the fate of your own sister to them. Or perhaps her outlook on society had even been clouded over as a consequence of being defiled by the well-fed and finely clothed lifestyle of a noblewoman?”
“Tokinada, you……”
Yoruichi whose facial expression had gone blank and was about to say something is cut off mid-sentence with a motion of Byakuya’s hand.
“It’s true that I attempted to have Rukia punished. I don’t mind if I receive any kind of slander for that.”
“…Oh?”
“But, there is not even a shred of fault on Hisana’s part. All blame, falls on me.”
Byakuya remained expressionless, but perceiving the the stream of his inner sentiments, Tokinada quietly shrugged his shoulders.
“…Please don’t make such a grim face. It’s not like I came here to quarrel with you.”
The man who was blatantly picking a fight bowed apologetically after shamelessly declaring as such.
“I apologise for the provocation. I am relieved that you are a man who can separate emotions from politics.”
“Cut to the chase already. Or do I have no option but to send you flying first?”
In response to Yoruichi’s easygoing manner of speaking, Tokinada gave a wry smile, then his expression turned serious and he began to broach the real issue at hand.
“I’d like to revive the five great noble clans… or in other words, I intend to propose a restoration of the Shiba clan.”
At those words, Byakuya was still expressionless, Yoruichi raises one eyebrow ever so slightly.
The Shiba clan were once part of the five great noble clans, but a man who was a descendant of that house and serving as captain of squad 10 at the time - Shiba Isshin - disappeared into the Human World, as a result they were stripped of their noble standing in the form of bearing responsibility for it.
Members of Isshin’s household who were the branch family were broken up, and head house members Shiba Kūkaku and co who had taken up residence in Rukongai from the very beginning, were completely expunged even of their status amongst the five great noble clans which was already a mere title in name only at the time. As an outcome, they were formally prohibited from travelling in and out of Seireitei.
But naturally, in Kūkaku’s case, she would later infiltrate the court by force accompanied by Jidanbō, the gatekeeper of the Hakutōmon* (* White Road Gate) in the west of Seireitei.
As the two waited for him to continue with the conversation, Tokinada went on.
“It’s true, Shiba Isshin’s departure is an act that can only be described as a betrayal towards Soul Society. However as a consequence of that, Isshin’s son… despite coming from the lineage of a branch family, Kurosaki Ichigo a descendant of the Shiba clan, defeated the king of Quincies. Don’t you think that meritorious service is enough to clear their name?”
Because it was a view that was more earnest than what she could have imagined coming from him, Yoruichi in turn was suspicious of what Tokinada was thinking.
Meanwhile, Byakuya’s facial expression remains as undisturbed as before, with a nonchalant air he spoke of his own thoughts.
“I agree about Kurosaki Ichigo’s meritorious service, but Kurosaki Ichigo will not accept the status of a noble or anything of the like.”
“That’s true. For that guy things like status and prestige are simply not regarded as a reward. Rather it only appears to be a nuisance to him at best. If you’re speaking for the sake of entire Shiba clan it may be better received, but neither Kūkaku nor Ganju are thinking of returning to nobility again.”
After listening to Byakuya and Yoruichi’s words and quietly nodding in understanding, Tokinada gave a weak smile as he replied.
“So, it’s true Kurosaki Ichigo is that sort of man. If that’s the case, then how about we make his two younger sisters nominal clan heads? They won’t need to be involved in any practical duties. It’ll only be a formality so there’s no problem.”
“You’ve investigated even as far as Ichigo’s family members huh?… However, I don’t see what you’re getting at. Why are you so fixated on restoring the Shiba clan?”
A look of vigilance was playing on Yoruichi’s face, at her question Tokinada replied with honesty.
“Ah, for the sake of valuing justice. I have no problem forcibly getting things done with the might of the Tsunayashiro clan, but that will only create a breeding grounds for future problems amongst the people of Soul Society. They would think they were under my dictatorship wouldn’t they? For this reason, I want it to be known the world over that the Seireitei operates through just procedures.”
“……?”
“So long as the five houses are all present, and we’ve acquired the Soul King’s formal consent – – the five great noble clans will have a position equivalent to that of the Soul King Palace and can become Seireitei’s decision making body surpassing the Central 46. Perhaps, the Central 46 at the time decided to decimate the Shiba clan in order to prevent a situation like that.”
As he stifled his laughter, Tokinada continued even further.
“In any case, have you never thought to question it? Why, out of the five great noble clans, it was the Shiba clan that were met with a cold reception from the very beginning? Supposedly, it’s because they took up residence in Rukongai in order to set up a Shiba clan secret cannon there. However, before they were stripped of their position amongst the five great noble clans, the Shiba clan received treatment no better than a bunch of poor people from lesser nobility. Aren’t you curious about both the Shiba clan and why it was deemed acceptable?”
“Who knows, when looking at value alone, the Shiba clan residence was in no way inferior to the ordinary noble’s, perhaps they simply felt that was enough. However, I’m surprised by your arrogance, you go as far as to call even nobles, poor people.”
Although it was a matter that was certainly on her mind, Yoruichi replied as if she wasn’t going to tread to deeply into that topic right now.
She concluded that going along with Tokinada’s ideas here will only serve to stray further away from the truth instead.
Whether or not he was also thinking the same, Byakuya then spoke to Tokinada with an indifferent air.
“I do not intend to step foot in another house’s internal affairs… at any rate, even if you understand it as a matter of stipulation, I expect consent has never before been handed down from the Soul King.”
In response to the point Byakuya had just raised, Tokinada distorts his mouth into a grin.
“I expect you’re right. Even if Soul King sama is able to communicate his general will to the inhabitants of the Soul King Palace, he will not act to give his consent to anything. Well, perhaps I should say, he’s incapable of doing so”
“I still can’t see what you’re getting at. What are you planning? Tokinada.”
“But, those days are over. Eventually, by obtaining the Soul King sama’s consent, the day will come when Seireitei… when we the five great noble clans, will independently govern all three worlds. That’s all there is to it.”
At those words, both Yoruichi and Byakuya slightly raised their brows.
The three worlds.
It’s quite possible that’s referring to Soul Society and the Human world – – and then, either Hueco Mundo or Hell.
At Tokinada’s mention of such sudden absurdities, Yoruichi questions him.
“…Then let me ask you this before we hear the particulars of the matter. You said the Soul King will not give his consent, did you not? How can you be so assertive that the Soul King will go out of his way to approve of your proposal?”
“Oh, that’s a simple matter. Because the next Soul King sama is to have free will.”
“……?”
In contrast with a doubtful and perplexed Byakuya, Yoruichi’s eyes widened in sudden realisation, then those eyes instantly narrowed as she fixed a glare at Tokinada.
“……! I see. So that’s why you picked me rather than Yūshirō……”
Caught in her line of sight, Tokinada plastered a foul expression on his face, smiling, laughing, sneering.
“You saw it didn’t you? Shihōin Yoruichi. The Soul King that was killed by Kurosaki Ichigo… the kind of the state it was in before being killed. But, what was 'that'… that’s right, it seems you lot don’t yet know what kind of existence the Soul King had in the first place.”
“Though Urahara Kisuke would know about it right”
Soul society - In front of the Senkaimon.
“Urahara san huh… we’ve had conversational exchanges over things like motorcycles and gasoline, but this is the first time I’ll be officially interviewing him…”
Oblivious to the fact that the same topic of discussion was being brought up amongst members of the four great noble clans, Hisagi Shūhei proceeded to take a step towards the Human World, he spoke of his own resolve in order to encourage himself.
“Well, I’ll do it for you. If I can’t at least do that, I won’t be able to call myself editor-in-chief of Seireitei Communication.”
—- Please keep watching. Captain Tōsen.
—- I will definitely light a path for all the people of Soul Society, in my own way.
—- As captain once did for me.
Whilst making use of a Jigokuchō heading for Karakura Town, Shūhei prepared himself and made progress towards the Senkaimon.
By doing so, he remained unaware of the fact that he had thrown himself deeper into a position of conflict.
A number of destinies cling to Hisagi Shūhei, encapsulating coincidence and inevitability at the same time.
Without knowing that the thing at the centre of the conflict is the very thing that is tied to the core of Soul Society – – Hisagi simply continues to walk his own path.
Yielding to fear itself, Tōsen Kaname who had once lit his own path could do nothing but flee.
Rather than the path that was his to walk, he was convinced that a path which he had been directed to was the one which was in fact correct.
Hisagi Shūhei is neither a prophet nor an omnipotent and omniscient being, naturally he has no way of knowing his own future.
It’s not like he could cut a path through a checkered fate like Kurosaki Ichigo.
Unlike Zaraki Kenpachi, there wasn’t a torrent of power dwelling within him.
Unlike Urahara Kisuke, he didn’t have deep consideration for countermeasures.
Unlike Kurotsuchi Mayuri, he didn’t have a curse-like inquisitive mind carved into his very soul.
Unlike Kuchiki Byakuya, he didn’t have the knowhow to confront a never ending heavy burden.
Neither did he have the talent to masterfully control unequalled Reiryoku like Hitsugaya Tōshirō.
Nor did he have enough experience to see through one’s inner nature like Yamamoto Genryusai did.
He couldn’t cleverly parry all manner of temperaments like Kyōraku Shunsui.
He didn’t have the passion to redefine even the ways of the world like Komamura Sajin.
His fists are not so strong that he could persist through his own path like Muguruma Kensei.
A Shinigami who had learned everything about the conflict later told him –
That’s precisely why he is who is he, why Hisagi Shūhei is a Shinigami, so that he might be capable of confronting the world itself.
He may be able to finally reach a resolution to that only because he is walking a different path while continuing to follow after the man named Tōsen Kaname.
And so, Hisagi Shūhei did not yet know.
Perhaps he will continue to never know.
Since when did the man named Tōsen Kaname who had demonstrated the path that was supposedly his to walk, stray away from his very own path?
Or – is it that he never strayed from that path of his until the very end?
Several hundred years ago - Soul Society.
A young man from Rukongai who appears to be blind was seeking an audience with the Central 46.
After leading him away for a few minutes to discuss the matter of this “noble who murdered his own wife”, that very noble smiled brightly as raised voices could be heard coming towards them.
“Hey, you guys. You’re on duty? This Rukongai citizen tried to raise a hand to me. Won’t you quickly kick him out for me?”
Although they were quite frankly oblivious to the circumstances, the men who served as guards had no reason to refuse those instructions.
“Y-yes sir!”
The guards sense something eerie in the nobleman’s words, nevertheless they decide to obediently follow his instructions.
Whether or not there was something behind those words, it was none of their business, so rather than disobeying the nobleman, they knew it would be far more beneficial to beat up this Rukongai dweller before their eyes.
The noble continues to throw some more words towards the blind man, but they had no need to make sense of it.
They considered the fact that nothing good will come out of getting involved in the disputes of the five great noble clans, even if it’s just a lower seat of a branch family.
The blind Rukongai citizen whose throat was crushed, tries to yell something whilst glaring at the noble.
Such defiant attitude, and from someone with the social standing of a Rukongai pauper no less.
The guards decided to give this pauper a thorough beating so that he would never set foot in the governmental district again.
As sadistic intentions took hold, stimulated by the look of despair on the blind young man’s face, the guards unwittingly flashed grins that were similar to the nobleman’s even amongst themselves.
This youth didn’t know his place, it’s as if he was saying that they needed to teach him a lesson.
And thus, they raised their staves overhead once again, above the blind man who was enveloped by deep despair and anger – – –
This time, there was no one who would stop it.
As the sound of staves making contact with his body continued to ring out, the blind youth - Tōsen Kaname - continues to listen to those sounds in a daze.
—- What?
—- These guards… what are they doing?
The soul which was boiling over furiously, engulfed in despair and anger, then began to gradually subside due to bewilderment.
Although he couldn’t see anything with the blindness in his eyes, it seems he could sense what was happening just from the flow of sound and air around him.
Donning a sadistic smile, one of the guards proceeded to swing down his staff in front of Tōsen –
Towards another fellow guardsman who was standing next to him.
“Y-you wretch, what the hell are you… arrgh”
The other guard who was hit gave a groan, but his words were cut off by a strike to the face.
“Don’t talk back! You filthy commoner!”
The idea that they might have been overlooking him was immediately dismissed by the beaten man’s palpitations and coarse breathing.
It seems this guard actually intended to deliver the beating to him rather than his own partner who was by his side.
The guard then proceeded to drag his partner who had lost consciousness up to the other end of the street.
In doing so, Tōsen who was still in a state of confusion, continued to listen to the sound of the guards as they gradually faded into the distance, from behind him – an unfamiliar voice of a man could suddenly be heard.
“I switched the water in their flasks with alcohol. It’ll end up looking like their actions just now fits with the story that they got into a scuffle after drinking on the job won’t it? That noble will probably suspect something, but it’s better to let suspicion beget more suspicion.”
A gentle voice.
However, unlike Tokinada - that noble from a moment ago - it made no secret of some incarnation of power dwelling within it’s depths, it was a voice that made one feel pressured just by listening to it.
“Who is it… are you also… are you also a Shinigami…!?”
Despite his bewilderment, Tōsen ignited the hatred in his heart once again and asked his questions whilst enshrouded in enough bloodlust to tear out the windpipe of the man before him.
Then, keeping nothing back from him, the man openly replied.
“Yes. That’s right. A small scrap of a trivial world that put you in despair just a moment ago, that made you willing to burn it to the ground with flames of hatred.”
This new Shinigami that has made an appearance offers Tōsen one proposal.
“That chest filled with hatred, don’t you want to leave it with me… just for a while?” [1] (TN – see my translation note concerning this line at the end of this chapter).
Although Tōsen is dubious, judging by the voice of the man before him, this man felt confident, as though he had already seized control of Tōsen’s heart – – Tōsen sensed an overwhelming 'power’, giving him the impression that he was talking with an instinctive leader.
The man extended his arm out to Tōsen who remained calm – – Speaking his own name.
It is the name of a man who would reveal the one 'path’ to the man called Tōsen Kaname, and then later aim for the heavens by making enemies of this world.
“My name is Aizen Sōsuke. At present, I’m still… just a lowly Shinigami.”
[1] (TN – It’s quite impossible to incorporate this into English, but here the speaker (Aizen) says “ […]暫し僕……私に預けるつもりはないか？” – very literally this means “for a while to me (僕)… to me ( 私) don’t you intend to leave it?” So he starts by using 僕 “Boku” which means I/me, pauses, and then decides to use (私) “watashi” instead which is also a personal pronoun meaning I/me. Firstly “boku” sounds more polite and friendly, but not too ‘casual’ either like the rougher sounding “ore” (俺) , in anime/manga, a guy who uses the pronoun “boku” quite often exudes a 'good guy’ vibe, e.g. Hanatarō or Uryuu. A male who would use “watashi” in anime/manga is often someone with high status and has to retain some degree of formality or in informal speech, it could be someone who thinks highly of themselves/is a leader figure. During his days as a member of the Gotei 13, Aizen would use “boku” with his peers and squad members because he was playing the 'good guy’, but after he revealed his betrayal in the SS arc and left for HM he switched to using “watashi”. So Aizen deciding to stop mid-sentence and use “watashi” instead here means he felt he didn’t need to keep up the facade with Tōsen since he’s obviously seen something in him, thus giving Aizen no reason to hide his true nature in front of Tōsen.)
To be continued in the next volume.
The next installment is scheduled to commence this fall!! Please anticipate further details!! (App)
CFYOW II – Scheduled to go on sale in winter 2017.
Thanks for all your support, I’ve made a masterpost of all parts here. |
A former student at Michigan Technological University (MTU) is suing the school, saying he was railroaded out of the university after an innocuous joke so the school could claim it was tough on racism.
Matthew Schultz’s life suddenly fell apart last fall in the wake of racial protests at the University of Missouri and several other colleges. On November 12, Schultz logged into Yik Yak, an anonymous chat app popular on campuses, and posted “Gonna shoot all black people… a smile tomorrow,” followed by a smiley face emoji.
Even though Schultz’s comment was, if anything, supportive of black people, MTU students and administrators reacted with tremendous hostility.
The university allowed Schultz to be framed by a hostile student, Ryan Grainger, who allegedly cropped Schultz’s post to only show the phrase “Gonna shoot all black people” and then forwarded it to MTU’s deputy police chief, according to Schultz’s lawsuit.
After receiving Grainger’s message, university police issued a public warning to the whole campus, ordered Yik-Yak to identify the author, and then arrested Grainger for allegedly committing domestic terrorism, a 20-year felony. Eventually, the charge was downgraded to a misdemeanor of disturbing the peace, which was in turn quickly dropped, with the prosecutor’s office saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
According to the lawsuit, MTU officials saw Schultz’s full, uncropped post very early and knew it wasn’t a real threat, but continued to vilify him anyway. The day after the initial announcement, a school official said Schultz had “said they wanted to shoot all black people,” even though the school already knew that wasn’t the entire post.
The suit also accuses the school of helping organize a protest march intended to pressure local prosecutors into treating Schultz more harshly.
“Matthew would be sacrificed in the name of showing MTU’s commitment to fighting racism,” the suit claims.
The suit suggests the school was motivated by embarrassment over a recent incidents where students wore blackface and displayed a Confederate flag.
Even after the charges were dropped, Schultz’s ordeal wasn’t over.
The same day he was cleared by prosecutors, MTU’s conduct board held a closed-door meeting and placed Schultz on probation for 18 months, according to the lawsuit. Neither Schultz nor his attorney were allowed to attend the hearing. When Schultz tried to appeal, Dean of Students Bonnie Gorman allegedly responded by having him expelled, again with no hearing.
Schultz says his academic career has been badly sidetracked, and he wants damages of $75,000.
“Presently, Matthew remains out of school with no hope of resuming his studies anywhere, having been labeled a virulent racist by a University with a history of botched investigations and an inability to do other than protect the institution and the lives of its administrative careerists, at any cost to the students or the truth,” the suit says.
MTU didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but told The Associated Press it plans to vigorously contest the lawsuit.
Schultz is far from the first student to sue his school over an allegedly unjust expulsion. Many male students have sued their schools, claiming they were pushed out over dubious rape accusations. In 2015, a student was awarded $900,000 from Valdosta State University in Georgia after he was expelled for a series of social media posts criticizing school administrators.
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On November 9, Eric Tucker, co-founder of a marketing company in Austin, Texas, tweeted about buses crowded with people paid to protest against President-elect Donald Trump. The tweet went viral nationwide. With just 40 followers, Tucker’s message was retweeted 16,000 times and was shared more than 350,000 times on Facebook. Although Tucker’s tweet brought controversy — and even caught the president-elect’s attention — no such buses ever existed. According to The New York Times, a company called Tableau Software hired the buses for a conference.
Two days later, a fake news site called The Denver Guardian spread across Facebook with negative and false messages about Hillary Clinton, including a claim that an FBI agent connected to Clinton’s email disclosures had murdered his wife and shot himself.
Fake news has become a problem that the media and technology industries are urgently searching for ways to solve. As a result, “the mainstream media has lost credibility even when it deserves it,” Dustin Siggins, a conservative journalist, said.
The problem has been growing for some time, but the presidential campaign turned a spotlight on this viral disinformation. In fact, fabricated stories drew more engagement on social media than real news as the elections drew to a close. In particular, fake news — that is, hoaxes, false and misleading stories from illegitimate sources — took advantage of the widening gap between booming tech platforms and legacy media companies. Facebook in particular has suffered the brunt of the criticism for allowing stories filled with factual inaccuracies to flood pages and misinform the public. According to Pew Research Center, nearly 1.2 billion people log on to Facebook every day; nearly half of Americans rely on the social network as their primary news source.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, deflected responsibility for the fake news epidemic away from his company, claiming that “identifying the truth is complicated.” Columbia Journalism Review found that it may be complex for algorithms but easy for journalists whose daily duty is as simple as investigating what happened, when it happened, who did what, how and why. Media literacy has become a challenge because people have grown so distrustful of institutional media that they turn to alternative sources. A Pew Research Center Survey found that only 18 percent of people have a lot of trust in national news organizations, nearly 75 percent said news organizations are biased.
Although Zuckerberg dismissed the idea that fake news significantly influenced voters in November, Facebook has nonetheless mounted its most concerted effort to combat the problem. Facebook announced it had begun a series of experiments to limit misinformation on its site. The tests include putting warning labels on fake news posts, making it easier for its 1.8 billion members to report fabricated stories, and creating partnerships with outside fact-checking organizations — including FactCheck.org, Google, The New York Times, PolitiFact, the Associated Press and CNN — to help it indicate when articles are false. “Below the headline there will be a red label that says, ‘disputed by third-party fact-checkers,’” Facebook Vice President Adam Mosseri said in a blog post.
News organizations are also investing in cutting-edge technology to battle for audiences’ trust and legacy using various ways that help the reader distinguish a real story from crafted one.
The Washington Post has created a Google Chrome extension to fact-check President-elect Trump's tweets. Trump, who uses Twitter like no other U.S. politician before him, discusses topics ranging from the political to the personal — but not all of his tweets are entirely accurate.
The Washington Post said the extension was built “to help ensure that the public receives the most accurate possible information by creating this extension, which will add more context or corrections to things that Trump tweets.” When the extension is active, a fact check box will appear directly beneath any given tweet.
Among other new filtering policies, Google promised to replace the “In the news" section that sits atop all desktop Google search results with a rotation of "Top stories." Google Spokeswoman Andrea Faville was not clear on how the company will determine the difference between false and accurate information going forward. “We use a combination of automated systems and human review,” she told The Washington Post.
Slate has also built “This Is Fake,” a free Google Chrome extension that both identifies articles in Facebook feed that intentionally spread information and allows the users to tell their friends when they are sharing a fake story.
“When you connect This Is Fake to your Facebook account you can also flag fabricated stories for our moderators,” Slate announced in a statement.
According to Slate, once you install the extension, as you scroll through your Facebook feed, stories that Slate has identified as fake news will be flagged with a red banner over the preview image, indicating that they’ve been debunked.
Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier. Second image courtesy of The Washington Post. |
By The Jaded Local1
Things have reached the point where someone could stick a 375-foot jump on a pair of 20-plus year old skis and not one professional Ski Journalist notices. How do I know this? Because that’s exactly what a guy from Bozeman named Rolf Wilson did in February 2011. Apparently, all the Ski Journalists were too busy re-tweeting press releases from energy drink companies on their iBerries to care. Or maybe the snow was really good that week.
Either way, if an extra rotation or the “drop” of yet another movie is worth burning a trillion electrons in re-tweets and Facebook posts, I would be severely remiss in my duties if I didn’t try to shove this story into the conversation: Wilson broke his own world alpine-binding’d distance record off the 90-meter nordic jump at Howelsen Hill, flying 375 feet during Steamboat’s Pro Alpine Flying Championships (formerly known as Gelande Jumpin’2) on Feb. 11.
Now, jumping 375 feet on alpine gear (or any gear) is, of course, crazier than a bag of cut snakes. But looking at Jace Romick’s photo (above), it’s also clear that Wilson did it on a pair of Salomon 977 bindings and Rossi DH boards from approximately 1988.3
I’ll grant you, no rotations, not even a token grab, but the bottom line is that the man jumped 375 feet and stuck it. He didn’t fall off a big cliff and hot tub into 20 feet of pow. He sent it well and true at speed and stomped. On gear from the Reagan Administration.4
And it’s not like this was some big secret. This happened in the middle of a place known as Ski Town USA, during a well-publicized event that headlines said town’s Winter Carnival, an event where loonbat ex-DH’ers have been jumping 300-plus feet for 20 years.
As far as I’m concerned, the Ski Media owes Wilson big time—and anyone else who has ever hit a 90-meter jump with alpine gear.5 From now on, if we say anything about going big, we should have to keep it the context of Rolf Wilson. Like, “The gap jump at the photo shoot was so huge it was like… almost half as big as Rolf Wilson goes on his warmup runs.”
And I sure don’t want to read any editorial hand-wringing about how Maybe Jumps Are Getting Too Big. If there’s one thing Wilson and the rest of the boys have shown us, it’s exactly where The Level is for going large on skis.6 As far as I’m concerned, the top spinnyflippers ought to be buying old 223s and working on nice, floaty 350-foot 720s at Howelsen. Give me a 90-meter Big Air and I’d have a reason to watch X Games.
So, to Rolf Wilson and the rest of the Pro Gelande Tour: You might never get any love from the Bro Industry, but this one’s for you.
Advertisement
————
1 Hans Ludwig is The Jaded Local.
2 Gelande Jumping is the art of jumping for distance off Nordic jumps with standard alpine gear and speed suits. Without the huge skis and specialized floaty suits that Nordic jumpers use, Gelande jumpers have to make up for less lift with more speed. In other words, it’s way more badass. The Pro Tour apparently consists of about twelve ex-downhillers with very large legs and high DIN settings.
3 Long after mankind has blown itself to smithereens, and even the cockroaches have boiled away in the fiery heat of our dying sun, race-stock steel Salomon bindings will live on. If aliens visit our planet in the distant future, they will conclude that we must have been very concerned about Throwing A Shoe.
4 Which makes me feel a lot better about the pair of 11-17 977s I’ve been skiing on since 2003 when I bought them for $60 off Marshall on the TGR forum. I can attest that I haven’t had a single pre-release in the 600+ days that I’ve skied on them. Or any release whatsoever, for that matter. So I’ve got that going for me.
5 And what the hell do these guys have to do to get sponsored, anyway? Jumping a football field (and the end zones) isn’t enough?
6 At least until someone lets them jump at one of the 120-plus meter ski flying hills, where the current distance record on Nordic gear is over two football fields (and the end zones). |
(CNN) -- Authorities in Kansas are looking for a boy who disappeared about a decade ago, but was not reported missing until a few weeks ago.
Adam Herrman has not been seen since 1999, when he was 11 or 12.
"We don't know what happened to Adam Herrman past '99, when he was last seen," Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference in El Dorado.
"Is he alive, is he dead? That one I can't answer because we don't know," he added.
Adam was 11 or 12 when he was last seen, Murphy said. At the time, he was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a small town in southern Kansas, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. The couple did not report him missing, Murphy said.
A few weeks ago, a person notified Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children's Unit of a "concern" regarding Adam, Murphy said.
The agency did not immediately return CNN's phone call seeking additional information.
Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple "really rue the fact that they didn't" report the boy missing.
"They feel very guilty" about not doing that, he said in a telephone interview. The couple told him the boy had run away frequently, he said, and they believed him to be either with his biological parents or homeless.
Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, "they were very worried about him," he said.
Authorities have searched the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park, where the family had lived, and discovered an "answer" to one of their questions, Murphy said, without explaining.
"We did find one of the answers we were looking for, but I am holding that one very tightly," he said.
Eisenbise said authorities also executed a search warrant on December 15 at the Herrmans' home in Derby, a town just outside of Wichita. They took the couple's computer, he said.
Murphy said the couple is cooperating and had not been charged with anything.
Citing a relative, the Wichita Eagle reported the Herrmans had taken Adam into foster care and later adopted him.
Michelle Ponce of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which oversees adoption and foster care, said she could not release any details regard Adam's case, and could confirm only that he had been in foster care at some point, but was no longer in foster care in 1999.
Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said in a phone interview. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born on June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed.
His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in different foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported.
"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children and evidently it wasn't," Irvin Groeninger told KWCH. "If he was still in my custody this would have never happened."
Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she last saw her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party.
A year or two later, he sent her a Christmas card, she said. "And that was the end of my contact with him," she told KWCH.
"He had the cutest little round face, little bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek," she remembered.
"I'm just awestruck as how something like that could actually happen, and how he could be missing as long as he's been and nobody say anything," she said.
Murphy said Adam's name appears on a legal document later than 1999. "We know that he was listed in a legal action as if he was still living at home, and I'm not certain of the date, but it was beyond 1999," he told CNN.
All About Missing Persons |
Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2014 --- 5:05pm
New data shows a record low number of Wisconsin teens are smoking cigarettes, but instead of kicking the smoking habit completely, it seems teens are turning to other products.
According to the Wisconsin Youth Tobacco Survey, 10.7 percent of Wisconsin high school students smoke cigarettes. That's down from 13.1 percent in 2012. It's also below the current national average of 12.7 percent.
The rate of Wisconsin high school students using smokeless tobacco products went up from around six percent to nearly ten percent.
“This data is both reassuring and alarming,” says Sara Sahli, Wisconsin government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
The survey also showed the percentage of teens using electronic cigarettes. It found around eight percent of Wisconsin high school students use electronic cigarettes. That's 75 percent higher than the national average.
The full health effects of electronic cigarettes is unclear, but the Surgeon General found that the nicotine in e-cigarettes is addictive and can damage developing teenage brains. |
Stop working for the man, start working against the man.
My theory is this--Shadowrunners don't do this for the money. They do this for the ability to get out of the system and do something that society says is wrong--like stopping the megacorps or caring for the environment or doing magic the way you want to do it.
Make this a prerequisite of the character, and you'll be AMAZED at what happens. Instead of thinking as 'running as "you know, a job", suddenly you're fighting the man. Sure, you might be taking money from Megacorp A, but then you use that to fight Megacorp B and probably learn a little more about A to begin with and...
Add to this the "self-trained" element of punk music. Don't use the corp cyberdeck loaded with spyware and apps you won't need, build one yourself with eight old cellphones and a keyboard you found at a recycling plant. Don't get the fleshlike cyber arm--get the one that's been jailbreaked and uploaded with new moves and works better so fuck the warranty. Don't summon that elemental--every time you do a tiny bit of mojo is going back to the secret society that wrote the incantation. No, call on this guy--it's stronger and meaner, but he'll take a joke and worst of all he's creative...
Punk, to me, is "the bastards at the top want to grind you down--so you grind right back". Don't fit in, and make it that the characters and players feel that. Then let them revel in it. |
For other uses of "Dungeon Master", see Dungeon Master (disambiguation)
The Dungeon Masters Directed by Keven McAlester Cinematography Lee Daniel Edited by Christine Khalafian
Victor Livingston Release date 2008 ( )
Running time 87 minutes Country United States Language English
The Dungeon Masters is a 2008 documentary film about the role playing game Dungeons & Dragons and its significance in the lives of three dungeon masters (self described as "gamemasters"): Scott Corum,[1] Richard Meeks and Elizabeth Reesman. The film is director Keven McAlester's second feature documentary (his first was You're Gonna Miss Me), and premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. It was an official selection of the South by Southwest Film Festival and the AFI Dallas Film Festival. The original film score is by Blonde Redhead. Cinematography is by Lee Daniel. The film's executive producers are Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, the directors of Bug. The film's producers are Jeff Levy-Hinte, Brian Gerber and Kel Symons.
Synopsis [ edit ]
The Dungeon Masters explores the lives of three devoted Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts who find the harsh realities of life impeding on their rich worlds of fantasy. This commentary on the frail psyche of the American middle-class examines the subculture of gamers and role-playing games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons.
Development [ edit ]
The movie was originally envisioned as a history of Dungeons & Dragons, but shifted its focus to the lives of the players early on.[2] The film was produced by Antidote Films.
Release [ edit ]
It was released on DVD in 2010 by MPI Media Group.[3]
Reception [ edit ]
Rob Vaux of mania.com comments: "Even when their wounds come self-inflicted or the movie settles for surface impressions rather than more nuanced details, we remain firmly in the trio's corner. We pull madly for them to succeed and die a little bit when life hands them its inevitable failures. McAlister structures the documentary after classic fantasy novels, with rising challenges leading to moments of darkness and an eventual (if comparatively minor) triumph. It demonstrates how the game they love teaches lessons on life, and how life in turn feeds back into the game. They're not in opposition to each other, but act together: something few outsiders understand but which The Dungeon Masters—despite some shortcomings–illustrates with thoughtfulness and empathy."[4]
The Dungeon Masters received an audience approval rating of 27% on Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregation website.[5] |
Share. Mobile games save the day. Mobile games save the day.
Despite struggles within the console gaming sphere, Japanese game publisher Konami is reporting growth in its net income, with profits up 147 percent.
The company previously reported profits totaling ¥3.8 billion ($31.7m) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. However, it's now enjoying ¥9.5 billion ($79.1m) in profits for its latest fiscal year, which ended just a couple months ago. Interestingly enough, Konami expects to rake in the very same figure over the next year.
Exit Theatre Mode
While Konami has had its fair share of issues these past few months with the cancelation of Silent Hills and its deteriorating relationship with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima, its gaming division is still its most profitable arm, thanks to Pro Evolution Soccer 15 and a new mobile baseball game called Jikkyou Pawafuru Puroyakyu, which amassed a whopping eight million downloads in its first four months.
Konami expects both Pro Evolution Soccer 15 and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which releases in September, to be major sources of revenue this year. Of course, it also has its health, arcade, and gambling divisions to rely on as viable sources of income as well.
Alex Osborn is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @alexcosborn. |
Signed copy of the Hobbit sells for record at auction (06.06.15 by Pieter Collier) - Comments
A first edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, given by J.R.R. Tolkien to one of his former students Katherine Kilbride in 1937, was sold at Sotheby's auction house in London for £137,000 (about $210,000). This more than doubled the world record and makes this copy of The Hobbit the most expensive in the world. The record was held by a first edition The Hobbit dedicated to Elaine Griffiths, The Queen of Hobbits, which sold for £60,000 in March 2008. This copy, in almost perfect condition and mint jacket, can now be added to the list of most expensive copies of The Hobbit in the world.
Tolkien inscribed only a handful of presentation copies of The Hobbit on its publication, with CS Lewis also a recipient. This The Hobbit also includes an inscription by J.R.R. Tolkien in Old English, identified by John D Rateliff, author of The History of The Hobbit, as an extract from Tolkien's The Lost Road (see J.R.R. Tolkien, The History of Middle Earth, Vol. 5 published in 1987). This time-travel story, in which the world of Númenor and Middle-earth were linked with the legends of many other times and peoples, was abandoned incomplete.
Within a set of page proofs of The Hobbit, Tolkien wrote a list of family members, colleagues, friends and students to whom he wished to present copies of the book (see Appendix V within John D. Rateliff's second edition of his The History of The Hobbit, published in 2011). Intended recipients were E.V. Gordon; C.S. Lewis; Elaine Griffiths; K.M. Kilbride; Marjorie Incledon; Mary Incledon; R.W. Chambers; Aileen and Elizabeth Jennings; Mabel Mitton ("Aunt Mabel"); Florence Hadley ("Aunt Florence"); C.L. Wrenn; Simone d'Ardenne; Helen Buckhurst; Jane Neave; "Rattenbury" (thought by Rateliff to be R.M. Rattenbury, a lecturer in Classics at the University of Leeds); "Livesleys" (possibly the couple who ran a guest house in Sidmouth); A.H. Smith; Jennie Grove; Stella Mills; W.R. Childe; George S. Gordon; and Hilary Tolkien. Rateliff notes that copies were also to go to the Oxford Magazine and the "Book Soc."
< br /> In the last decades many of these association copies of The Hobbit have been sold on auction and several were sold directly to collectors. They remain the most precious books any Tolkien lover or collector could desire. Prices have now risen so high that they have become accessible for the lucky few. Doubling the previous price record however indicates a very strong interest. Many had expected that with the release of The Hobbit movies many rare copies would have been brought to the auction block, however no such thing happened and prices remained stable (no such thing during The Lord of the Rings movies where prices skyrocketed). Now with all the movie hype calmed down it is time for the books to retake their place.
The recipient of this The Hobbit was Miss Katherine ("Kitty") Kilbride (1900-1966) who had been one of Tolkien's first students at Leeds University in the 1920s. Kitty Kilbride was, recalled her nephew, "...an invalid all her life and was much cheered by his [Tolkien's] chatty letters and cards. ...books were given to her as they were published".
Kilbride's letter of acknowledgement for the present volume is preserved in the Tolkien papers in the Bodleian Library (MS.Tolkien 21, f.66). She notes "what fun you must have had drawing out the maps".
Tom Shippey's study of Tolkien's fiction, The Road to Middle-Earth, cites a similar poem and translates it as: There is many a thing in the West-regions unknown to me, marvels and strange beings, a land fair and lovely, the homeland of the Elves, and the bliss of the Gods ... ?. But this inscription diverges in the third line. According to Professor Susan Irvine at UCL, Tolkien followed eardgard elfa or the homeland of the elves with eorclanstanas / on dunscrafum digle scninath, which she translated as precious stones / shining secretly in mountain caves. So and the bliss of the Gods... was changed for precious stones shining secretly in mountain caves.
Kilbride's set of The Lord of the Rings (inscribed to "C.M. Kilbride") was sold by Sothebys on 19 July 1982, lot 315, and later sold once again by Sotheby's New York on 10-11 December 1993, lot 581. An autograph postcard to her, dated 24 December 1926, was sold at Bonham's on 12 June 2012, lot 150.
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As solar panels become less expensive and capable of generating more power, solar energy is becoming a more commercially viable alternative source of electricity. However, the photovoltaic cells now used to turn sunlight into electricity can only absorb and use a small fraction of that light, and that means a significant amount of solar energy goes untapped.
A new technology created by researchers from Caltech, and described in a paper published online in the October 30 issue of Science Express, represents a first step toward harnessing that lost energy.
Sunlight is composed of many wavelengths of light. In a traditional solar panel, silicon atoms are struck by sunlight and the atoms' outermost electrons absorb energy from some of these wavelengths of sunlight, causing the electrons to get excited. Once the excited electrons absorb enough energy to jump free from the silicon atoms, they can flow independently through the material to produce electricity. This is called the photovoltaic effect -- a phenomenon that takes place in a solar panel's photovoltaic cells.
Although silicon-based photovoltaic cells can absorb light wavelengths that fall in the visible spectrum -- light that is visible to the human eye -- longer wavelengths such as infrared light pass through the silicon. These wavelengths of light pass right through the silicon and never get converted to electricity -- and in the case of infrared, they are normally lost as unwanted heat.
"The silicon absorbs only a certain fraction of the spectrum, and it's transparent to the rest. If I put a photovoltaic module on my roof, the silicon absorbs that portion of the spectrum, and some of that light gets converted into power. But the rest of it ends up just heating up my roof," says Harry A. Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science; director, Resnick Sustainability Institute, who led the study.
Now, Atwater and his colleagues have found a way to absorb and make use of these infrared waves with a structure composed not of silicon, but entirely of metal.
The new technique they've developed is based on a phenomenon observed in metallic structures known as plasmon resonance. Plasmons are coordinated waves, or ripples, of electrons that exist on the surfaces of metals at the point where the metal meets the air.
While the plasmon resonances of metals are predetermined in nature, Atwater and his colleagues found that those resonances are capable of being tuned to other wavelengths when the metals are made into tiny nanostructures in the lab.
"Normally in a metal like silver or copper or gold, the density of electrons in that metal is fixed; it's just a property of the material," Atwater says. "But in the lab, I can add electrons to the atoms of metal nanostructures and charge them up. And when I do that, the resonance frequency will change."
"We've demonstrated that these resonantly excited metal surfaces can produce a potential" -- an effect very similar to rubbing a glass rod with a piece of fur: you deposit electrons on the glass rod. "You charge it up, or build up an electrostatic charge that can be discharged as a mild shock," he says. "So similarly, exciting these metal nanostructures near their resonance charges up those metal structures, producing an electrostatic potential that you can measure."
This electrostatic potential is a first step in the creation of electricity, Atwater says. "If we can develop a way to produce a steady-state current, this could potentially be a power source. He envisions a solar cell using the plasmoelectric effect someday being used in tandem with photovoltaic cells to harness both visible and infrared light for the creation of electricity.
Although such solar cells are still on the horizon, the new technique could even now be incorporated into new types of sensors that detect light based on the electrostatic potential.
"Like all such inventions or discoveries, the path of this technology is unpredictable," Atwater says. "But any time you can demonstrate a new effect to create a sensor for light, that finding has almost always yielded some kind of new product."
This work was published in a paper titled, "Plasmoelectric Potentials in Metal Nanostructures." Other coauthors include first author Matthew T. Sheldon, a former postdoctoral scholar at Caltech; Ana M. Brown, an applied physics graduate student at Caltech; and Jorik van de Groep and Albert Polman from the FOM Institute AMOLF in Amsterdam. The study was funded by the Department of Energy, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. |
If a neural network can write Shakespeare, could it write a resume for you? Inspired by the remarkable results of Recurrent Neural Networks and using thousands of anonymized resumes from untapt, I’ve been experimenting with applying deep learning techniques to the CV.
Inspiration
There’s a seminal blog post called The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Recurrent Neural Networks by Andrej Karpathy, a PhD student and instructor at Stanford. Andrej is taken by surprise by the magical results from Recurrent Neural Networks, a particular type of neural network that can process arbitrary sequences of inputs.
In one example, he feeds the Complete Works of Shakespeare into an RNN. He asks his creation to dream up new passages of Shakespeare. The result could have come from the bard himself.
It gives me goose bumps every time I read it.
It got me thinking. Could we try something similar using our data at untapt? If we combine the anonymized resumes from all our members, we have seven times the data of the Complete Works. We could feed this into an RNN and have it imagine a new resume.
The Neural Network
I used TensorFlow, the open source deep learning library from Google. The data scientists here also pointed me at TFLearn, a higher-level API to speed up experiments. For those new to neural networks, Google also made a brilliant playground to illustrate how they work.
We spun up a beefy 40 core box on AWS and set it loose. After a couple of false starts, my RNN, code-named deep_orange, started to dream up resumes.
Early Results
After a few hours of thinking, the work experience wasn’t looking too inspirational:
Developed and complite the to to anales, and an enterprise project on hull to the analysis and inalysis that team of test and applications and providing resign systeming
Yikes. That’s not going to get deep_orange many interviews. But it’s important to remember, it’s fed a sequence of characters with absolutely no knowledge of the English language, the structure of words and punctuation, and definitely no understanding of the make-up of a resume.
We’re asking a lot. Maybe more time is needed.
By the next day there was a glimmer of progress.
CONTRATES – SOFTWARE ENGINEER Ontendated and complete and sales product successful office for the components for a company test for company for track and process to company content of cases for design
It’s starting to recognize the structure of a resume. It’s fun to see it invent the name of a company.
A few days later, something magical emerged. I watched as deep_orange dreamed up believable work experience.
LAN CONSULTANCY SERVICES – SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Development: Integrated Reporting services to manage and develop internal and external solutions for the financial standards and processes of clients
Not quite ready to be submitted to a hiring manager… but getting there.
The resume of the future
Could this actually add value for software developers looking for jobs? Potentially, yes. One day, deep_orange, with a few modifications, might predict whether a resume will be invited to interview, or suggest improvements. We’re barely scratching the surface. Much more to come.
In the meantime if you’re interested to see how we are applying machine intelligence to the hiring process, please sign up for untapt, or follow me at @edwarddonner.
Ed Ed is co-founder and CEO of untapt. A FinTech veteran and an Oxford alum, Ed was previously MD at JPMorgan and has held technology positions at IBM and various startups. Coder by day, Ed leads a double life as DJ after work. And if you happen to run into him, ask him how much he loves Seamless (hint: a lot). |
At the second presidential debate, Mitt Romney talked about how a president should be "Mr. Oil, or Mr. Gas, or Mr. Coal." Romney supports continuing the massive $113 billion in federal subsidies for oil, gas and coal over the next 10 years. He has previously referred to sustainable energy as "imaginary." If elected, Romney is promising an end to key federal policies supporting sustainable energy like the production tax credit for wind. While I may not agree with all of President Obama's energy policies, I strongly supported his successful effort to double fuel economy standards for cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. This will cut our reliance on imports from OPEC by half. I also support his investments in energy efficiency and the sustainable energy industries. Frankly, I think he may be too modest about his accomplishments in this area. The fact is, over the last four years we have begun to transform our energy system, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create new jobs through energy innovation. The truth is that we're off to a strong start, but given the crisis of global warming much, much more has to be done. Energy efficiency is the low-hanging fruit. Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment -- money we could save by investing in energy efficiency. Since Obama took office and we passed the stimulus, we have weatherized over 1 million homes. In Vermont, families whose homes are weatherized save on average $916 a year on their fuel bills while making significant cuts in carbon emissions. Given the fact that over 90 percent of the products used in weatherization are manufactured in the United States, we are creating jobs not only in construction but also in manufacturing. This is a win-win-win situation. In the last several years we have also made significant progress in local energy innovation. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program I wrote with Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) helped Carmel, Ind., switch 800 of their 1,300 street lights to LEDs, reducing their energy use by nearly 50 percent and saving the city $70,000 a year. In Raleigh, N.C., block grant funds helped install solar hot water systems at fire stations across the city, reducing fossil fuel use for water heating by up to 50 percent. In Miami-Dade County, Fla., block grant funds went to construct a new power plant that recycles gas from a wastewater treatment plant and a landfill to make electricity.
Contrary to Romney's claims, we are making significant progress on solar. At the end of 2008, we had about 1,500 megawatts of solar and less than 50,000 solar jobs in America. The cost of solar was $7.50 per watt installed. Today, less than four years later, largely thanks to federal investments, we have more than tripled solar energy to 5,700 megawatts installed. We now have more than 100,000 solar energy jobs at 5,600 companies in the United States, double the number of jobs from four years ago. And, very significantly, the cost of solar has been cut by more than half, down to $3.45 per watt installed. There is nothing "imaginary" about the growth of solar energy.
In fact, the Department of Defense, the largest single energy consumer in America, is bullish on solar. Whether it is the 1.45-megawatt solar project at the Burlington, Vt., Air National Guard Base or the 14-megawatt project at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., the military recognizes the value of solar. Thanks to the stimulus, America is now home to the largest operating solar photovoltaic plant in the world, the 250 megawatt thin-film plant in Yuma County, Ariz. That plant can provide electricity to 100,000 homes.
Photovoltaic technology is not the only significant solar development. In California, construction is underway for the largest concentrated solar thermal plant of its kind in the world, the 392-megawatt Ivanpah project in California that created 2,100 construction jobs. When completed in 2013, this concentrated solar plant will power 140,000 homes. And a 280 megawatt concentrated solar plant in Gila Bend, Ariz., will be the first in the U.S. with energy storage, providing power even when the sun goes down. That project created 1,600 jobs.
The story is much the same with wind energy, thanks to the federal production tax credit and the stimulus bill. At the end of 2008 we had about 25,000 megawatts of wind energy, but today we have doubled wind energy capacity to over 50,000 megawatts. We have added more new wind energy capacity over the last five years than nuclear and coal combined. We now have 75,000 Americans working in wind and over 470 plants in America manufacturing wind products. The upshot: the cost of wind energy dropped from 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour in 2008 to about 5 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour today.
States like Iowa and South Dakota have achieved the milestone of getting 20 percent of their electricity from wind. And the Shepherds Flat wind farm in Oregon, one of the largest in the world at 845 megawatts, created 400 construction jobs and is powering 235,000 homes. Wind energy is real, not "imaginary."
We are seeing great progress on geothermal. Ball State University in Indiana is constructing the largest closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system in the country, creating 2,300 jobs as they replace aging coal-fired boilers. As a result, they will save $2 million annually in energy costs. In Oklahoma, a state with over 4,000 people working in geothermal, the Oklahoma Gas and Electric utility is helping customers switch to geothermal in order to cut peak energy demand by 27 megawatts in the next decade. This will avoid the need for costly new fossil fuel plants. Geothermal technology is creating jobs for well drillers, and 99 percent of the geothermal heat pumps sold in America are made in America.
Likewise, with biomass, we are seeing innovation. In Kansas, a cellulosic ethanol refinery is under construction that will produce 25 million gallons a year of fuel from sources such as wood and agricultural waste, instead of corn. That plant, supported by the stimulus, created 65 jobs and will generate 22 megawatts of biomass electricity as well. The Navy is using algae and advanced biofuels in its fleet, and the Air Force has flown fighter jets using a 50 percent advanced biofuel mixture.
As a nation, we should all be proud of the progress we have made in the movement toward energy efficiency and sustainable energy, but much more needs to be done. The scientists tell us that if we do not reverse global warming, more and more damage will be done to our planet in terms of floods, drought and extreme weather disturbances. The United States today has not only the opportunity to lead the world in cutting carbon emissions, but also in creating millions of good paying jobs as we transform our energy system away from fossil fuels.
Mitt Romney's energy policy is a relic of the 19th century. We need a 21st century plan. The fate of the planet is at stake. |
There isn't anyone to blame. No political party is to blame. Corporations are not to blame. Banks are not to blame. The word "blame" is the wrong concept from the start, it's "Cause and Effect" that controls our destiny. Because we have no immigration or population control it will continue to have negative effects on overall unemployment and quality of life in America. This then leads to many more persons in poverty, which fosters low self esteem and anger, which leads to rampant crime, which creates civil unrest which leads to civil and class warfare.
I firmly believe that in modern day countries with hundreds of millions of people, the only opportunity millions of them will ever have are the ones available through their governments. As the population continues to grow, the gap between the rich and the poor will continue to widen, and not because wealthy citizens like it that way, it's because there are just too many of us! Barring some global disaster, I don't think it is realistic to believe the population will begin to shrink, and as technology continues to replace the human element in the world wide workforce, more and more people will have to depend completely on government aid for survival. Soon enough we won't even need pilots anymore. The new technology in the Automatic Pilot systems will put commercial pilots and air traffic controllers right out of work, this includes military pilots too. There goes thousands of more jobs your children won't have available to them. Two generations from now old men will say, "I remember when people flew these airplanes, those were the days!" We are going to need "Big" government programs to handle the excess masses of people who will have no jobs available to them, there simply will not be jobs for everyone, especially quality, well paying jobs. Like it or not, it's gonna cost lots and lots more money to support a population in which only half of them are working. Taxes will have to skyrocket on every working person to pay for the huge numbers of unemployed on welfare programs. I just cannot see any other outcome. Unless we are willing to wipe out, dare I say, murder, hundreds of thousands of our own citizens annually just to "get them off the books", huge government programs will be more and more necessary as the world populations continue to grow beyond a healthy balance. Interesting how mother nature has managed all living things naturally for hundreds of millions of years; keeping everything in a fragile yet beautiful balancing act, everything except humans. This is just another glaring example to highlight how out of touch with nature humans really are, how everything we do seems harmful in the end and only serves to upset the balance. How can we come along and upset the natural balance of things so quickly? If we are suppose to have evolved here, why can't we live in harmony with the Earth? |
In Establishment Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates enjoys a charmed life based on a charming persona. The Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) is always ready with fulsome praise for his "candor" and "leadership" – and even for his belated recognition that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were nuts.
"Certain kinds of public candor are so unexpected that they have the shock value of a gunshot at the opera," purred a Boston Globe editorial about Gates’s admission that only a crazy person would commit U.S. ground forces to wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The editorial then lamented Gates’s planned retirement later this year and urged President Barack Obama "to look hard for a successor with some of Gates’s unusual leadership qualities." Unusual leadership qualities, indeed.
Without doubt, it was surprising when Gates inserted the following comment into the tenth paragraph of a speech last Friday at West Point:
"But in my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General [Douglas] MacArthur so delicately put it."
However, those of us who have known Gates for many years, including some of us old colleagues from his CIA days, couldn’t help but wonder what he was up to, what was the ulterior motive behind his decision to put distance between himself and these two misbegotten wars.
The Bob Gates we knew was a bright and brightly ambitious careerist whose greatest skill might have been to sense quickly where the prevailing winds of power were blowing and position himself accordingly. He was the consummate windsock.
So, having overseen the two wars for more than four years now, was Gates signaling that he knew the conflicts would come to no good end and thus was he creating a public record for himself as something of a war skeptic?
Was he preparing for his next career move, an elevation to a Washington "wise man" to be consulted by presidents and other important personages in his later years while being named to prestigious commissions?
What was Gates thinking?
I’m willing to acknowledge that Gates is bright enough to arrive at the same sensible conclusion that MacArthur derived from his hard experience in the Korean War – that the United States must avoid future land wars in Asia.
Gates also might be following in the footsteps of other secretaries of defense, including Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld, who went wobbly on the efficacy of warfare. After all, Gates got Rumsfeld’s job in 2006, in part, because Rumsfeld questioned President George W. Bush’s plan to escalate in Iraq.
Maybe the wool of self-deception was finally lifted from Gates’s eyes, too.
In 2006, Gates might have been understandably blinded by the allure of returning to center stage in Washington, after cooling his heels during the Clinton administration and the first six years of the second Bush presidency, working mostly at Texas A&M, including a stint as the school’s president.
For someone with Gates’s intense ambition, it would be hard not to jump at the prospect of running the Defense Department, especially in wartime. He has always claimed that he took the post reluctantly, saddened to leave behind the Aggies, but that claim never washed with those of us who knew Gates well.
Urges for Surges
In his first months at the Pentagon, Gates certainly didn’t seem like a hesitant skeptic about the war policies. He played a key role in helping President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney escalate the war in Iraq and thus make their escape into the sunset without having lost a war on their watch.
That was 90 percent of what the celebrated "surge" of troops into Iraq was about, staving off an obvious defeat, even if it cost the lives of an additional 1,000 or so U.S. soldiers and many more Iraqis. [See Consortiumnews.com’s "Afghan Lessons from the Iraq War."]
Then, after he was kept on by Obama, Gates supported a similar "surge" in Afghanistan, pushing for a 40,000-troop increase in late 2009. Obama groused that Gates and the generals wouldn’t provide a meaningful set of alternative options to the escalation, but Obama finally relented and sent 30,000 more troops.
So, it would seem an odd swing for Gates to suggest now that psychiatric care is in order for anyone loony enough to commit U.S. ground forces to places like Iraq and Afghanistan. After all, that was pretty much what Gates had done.
What’s Behind the Change?
I’ll acknowledge that Gates may have come to his newfound skepticism about these ground wars honestly, sincerely distraught by the continued loss of life as the bloody conflicts grind on with no real end in sight.
Yet, I would venture to suggest that – more likely – the timing of Gates’s conversion can be pinned on two other factors, a typically windsock reaction to recent polling on Afghanistan and an attempt to burnish his future wise-man reputation:
–U.S. public opinion has swung dramatically against the war in Afghanistan, with some polls showing that as many as 86 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans want a speedier U.S. pullout from the war.
–Gates has announced he will retire in the coming months. By abandoning his post on the bridge of the sinking pro-war ship now, Gates will let the next secretary of defense take the blame when the U.S. does not "prevail" in Afghanistan. Gates can point to his echoing of MacArthur’s warning.
I base this assessment, in part, on having observed Gates very closely in the early 1970s when I headed the Soviet Foreign Policy Branch at CIA and had supervisory responsibilities for Gates.
Within months of his arrival as a new analyst, his overweening careerist ambitions became all too obvious to his analyst colleagues as well as to me, and became a disruptive influence on the whole branch.
I felt it necessary to record this on his first Efficiency Report and to counsel him about his behavior. However, he didn’t change. He only became more proficient at climbing the career ladder and stepping over anyone who got in his way.
Gates made his first big jump early in the Reagan administration under CIA Director William Casey, a Cold War hardliner who disapproved of the careful, objective work on the Soviet Union done by experienced analysts of Soviet Communism.
Casey found Gates to be more pliable, willing to cook up the analytical results that Casey and the White House wanted.
The cooking was consequential, too. It facilitated not only illegal capers like the Iran-Contra Affair but also budget-breaking military spending against an exaggerated Soviet threat that, in reality, had long since passed its peak.
Talk to anyone who was there at the time (except the sycophants Gates co-opted) and they will explain that Gates’s meteoric career had mostly to do with his uncanny ability to see a Russian under every rock turned over by Casey.
To Casey, the Soviet Union could never change, and Mikhail Gorbachev was simply cleverer than his predecessors. Gates eagerly seconded these opinions.
The aging Casey may have been ideologically stuck in the most frigid days of the Cold War, but Gates – with his earlier training in our Soviet Foreign Policy branch (and a doctorate in Russian history no less) – should have known better. Yet he did Casey’s bidding and stifled all dissent.
One consequence was that the CIA as an institution missed the implosion of the Soviet Union — no small matter. Another was a complete loss of confidence in CIA analysis on the part of then-Secretary of State George Shultz and others who smelled the cooking of the intelligence.
In July 1987, Shultz told Congress: "I had come to have grave doubts about the objectivity and reliability of some of the intelligence I was getting." And well he might.
Gates in Iran-Contra
In the fall of 1985, as Ronald Reagan’s White House was looking for excuses to secretly sell arms to Iran, there was an abrupt departure from CIA’s analytical line that Iran was supporting terrorism.
On Nov. 22, 1985, the agency reported that Iranian-sponsored terrorism had dropped off substantially that year, but no evidence was adduced to support that key judgment. Oddly, a few months later CIA’s analysis reverted back to the pre-November 1985 line, with no further mention of any drop-off in Iranian support for terrorism.
Also in 1985, Gates commissioned and warped a National Intelligence Estimate suggesting that Soviet influence in Iran could soon grow and pose a danger to U.S. interests. This gave additional cover for the illegal arms sales to Iran.
More serious still was Gates’s denial of any awareness of Oliver North’s illegal activities in support of the Contra attacks in Nicaragua, despite the fact that senior CIA officials testified that they had informed Gates that they suspected North had diverted funds from the Iranian arms sales for the benefit of the Contras.
Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel for the Iran-Contra investigation (1986-93), later wrote in frustration that, despite Gates’s highly touted memory, he "denied recollection of facts thirty-three times."
Gates’s dubious explanations about the Iran-Contra scandal forced the withdrawal of his first nomination to be CIA director when he was supposed to replace Casey who died in May 1987. Gates’s career appeared to be at a dead end, but in 1989, President George H.W. Bush gave him a spot as deputy national security adviser.
Then, in 1991, when the first President Bush was riding high from his victory in the Persian Gulf War, he decided to roll the dice on placing Gates in as CIA director. The nomination prompted a virtual insurrection among CIA analysts who had suffered under Gates’s penchant for cooking intelligence.
Witness after witness explained that Gates was one of the officials most responsible for institutionalizing the politicization of intelligence analysis. He had set the example and promoted malleable managers more interested in career advancement than the ethos of speaking truth to power.
The stakes for analytical integrity were so high that both active-duty and retired officials summoned the courage to testify against the nomination. A highly respected former CIA station chief, Tom Polgar, offered the following at the Gates nomination hearings:
"His proposed appointment as director also raises moral issues. What kind of signal does his re-nomination send to the [CIA] troops? Live long enough, your sins will be forgotten? Serve faithfully the boss of the moment, never mind integrity?
"Feel free to mislead the Senate — senators forget easily? Keep your mouth shut — if the Special Counsel does not get you, promotion will come your way?"
Despite the remarkable outpouring of protests, however, the fix for Gates was in, thanks to then-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, David Boren, D-Oklahoma, and his staff director, George Tenet, who cut off lines of inquiries and rounded up the votes.
Still, the issue of politicization and doubts about Gates’s honesty led 31 senators to vote against Gates on the Senate floor. Never before had a CIA director nominee received nearly as many nays.
Fall and Rise
After Bill Clinton entered the White House in 1993, he replaced Gates, who retreated to the Pacific Northwest to write his memoir and then look for work. Again, the Bush Family intervened to help, assisting Gates in landing jobs at Texas A&M, where he rose to be the school’s president.
However, Gates with his Eagle Scout demeanor remained a favorite with much of the Washington Establishment – and he was heartily welcomed back in 2006 when he arrived to work on the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group.
Before the panel’s work was done, though, President George W. Bush decided to dump Rumsfeld, who was going wobbly on the Iraq War. Bush asked Gates to take over at the Pentagon. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com’s "Rumsfeld’s Mysterious Resignation."]
In the brief Senate hearing on the Gates nomination, the troubling Iran-Contra history – and the politicization of CIA intelligence – were happily forgotten.
At the Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius rewrote the narrative of Gates’s meteoric rise at the CIA, explaining it as a case of worthy meritocracy, that Gates simply "was the brightest Soviet analyst in the [CIA] shop, so Casey soon appointed him deputy director overseeing his fellow analysts."
Gates wasn’t; and Casey had something other than analytical expertise in mind.
Now, the savvy Gates appears to have made a new calculation, that it is the right time to join the rats leaving the sinking ship of the Iraq and Afghan war policies.
As I’ve noted, Gates is not dumb. In his mind, there’s no dishonor in doing what he must to preserve and even enhance his reputation as a Washington Establishment savant.
Still, his appeal to the West Point cadets about "duty, honor, country" was a little much for this former Army officer. Gates noted that 80 young West Point cadets had fallen in battle since 9/11 – and surely some in his audience will join them.
They will come back lifeless in what the Pentagon now calls "transfer cases" from the feckless wars that Gates only now tells us should qualify any supporter for a visit to the local shrink.
And, if the Boston Globe editorial is any harbinger, Gates may have calculated another smart move. He may have greased the skids for his slide into wise-man-dom. I can visualize a new chapter in Gates’s second memoir, "How I Issued MacArthur-Type Warnings All Along."
Were I the parent of Casey Sheehan or one of the nearly 6,000 other U.S. soldiers killed in Bush’s two wars, well, I cannot imagine how I could control my anger.
And my outrage would be heightened at hearing Gates "protest too much" as he finished his "Farewell Address" Friday at West Point:
"As some of you have heard me say before, you need to know that I feel personally responsible for each and every one of you, as if you were my own sons and daughters; for as long as I am secretary of defense that will remain true. … I bid you farewell and ask God to bless every one of you."
Reprinted with permission courtesy of ConsortiumNews.com
Read more by Ray McGovern |
In what some are calling a publicity stunt for A&E’s reality series Lawman, actor Steven Seagal manned a tank during a ridealong with Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, his deputies, and a SWAT team earlier this month. Their quarry was unarmed suspected cockfighter Jesus Llovera, and the Sheriff’s Department said they were just “err(ing) on the side of caution.”
That’s good, because if two tanks, a SWAT team, and Steven Seagal is erring on the side of caution, I’d hate to see recklessness. I mean, they’re taking down a cockfighter. Erring on the side of caution is bringing a variety of dipping sauces and some wet naps, not two tanks.
Yes, according to reports, Arpaio actually used two armored vehicles and a SWAT team to take down lone alleged cockfighter Llovera, in a scene that sounds like the climax of Cockocalypse Now. Seagal explained to reporters that “Animal abuse is one of my pet peeves.” I pity that one tube sock that Seagal finds in his dryer.
All kidding aside, cockfighting is a despicable crime that certainly deserves to be punished, but in a state whose governor has cut funding for human organ transplants due to budget constraints, is this really a good use of Arizona taxpayers’ money? And if they were going to spend the money, couldn’t they have at least gotten Chuck Norris?
Perhaps there is a silver lining to this episode. The producers of “reality TV” seem to have dropped any attempt to conceal its contrived nature, so maybe Arpaio and Seagal can be persuaded to do a crossover episode with Jersey Shore. Now, that’s Must See TV.
h/t C&L
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A solicitor who drunkenly kicked and spat at police after a wine and vodka binge has been let off with a slap on the wrist when officers said they “feel sorry” for her.
Ofra Azar-Freedman, 51, lashed out when officers came to her home to investigate claims she had threatened to kill her partner.
The mother-of-two’s niece claimed Azar-Freedman had drunk four bottles of wine and a bottle-and-a-half of vodka prior to the incident, on August 1 last year.
Azar-Freedman, a family law specialist who ran her own practice in Islington, then spat at a female police officer but missed the target when she was taken to Colindale Police Station.
Hauled before Hendon magistrates, she pleaded guilty to two counts of assault and was let off with a 12-month conditional discharge.
Prosecutor Peter Lock said the two police officers involved believe Azar-Freedman did not need to be punished at all and could be let off with warning to behave in the future.
“Neither officer was injured and all of the police officers involved say they feel sorry for the defendant”, he said.
He said the incident started when Azar-Freedman’s partner reported her for making threats to kill but then withdrew the complaint later the same day.
“Police officers still wanted to speak to Mrs Azar-Freedman about it and attended her home at 8pm”, said the prosecutor.
“She was incredibly drunk and her niece told the officers she had drunk four bottles of wine and one-and-a-half bottles of vodka.
“The police officers had to arrest her and during that arrest she has kicked out at one of them, contacting his knee, but he suffered no injury.
“At the police station she spat at another officer, but it did not make contact.”
Pamela Sergeant, defending, said Azar-Freedman disputes her niece’s claims about her drinking, saying it “more like three glasses, not four bottles”.
She said the solicitor admits being “reckless” when she kicked the officer rather than intending to assault him, but insisted she “has not tried to minimise” her actions.
The court heard Azar-Freedman lost her last job in March last year, was put on gardening leave until June and is now relying on benefits.
Ofra Azar-Freedman, of Tenterden Drive, Hendon, was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £20 victim surcharge. |
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