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NEARLY 60 MILLION people worldwide are currently displaced from their homes by war, poverty and human rights violations. Most leave for other parts of their home countries, or to neighbouring countries, but some risk a dangerous journey to Europe. With land borders closed, a perilous journey at sea remains the only option.
More than 1,800 people have died this year crossing the Mediteranean Sea. On average Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are rescuing over 100 people per day. So far MSF has rescued over 2,600 people on the Mediterannean and provided medical care to thousands more at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily.
Here are the stories of four people, who have risked everything while attempting the dangerous crossing in overcrowded, leaky boats, in search of a new life in Europe. (Stories recorded by Médecins Sans Frontières medical staff.)
Dreams of football stardom shattered by war
Seventeen-year-old football prodigy Mohamed fled Syria after bomb killed teammate
Source: Alessandro Penso
Mohamed had always dreamed of a career in international football. At the age of 17, he was captain of Syria’s national youth team, despite being their youngest player. He was a striker, number 10 in the team, scoring a record 64 goals in 52 matches. But on 15 April he left all this behind, escaping Syria to risk everything on a rickety boat across the Mediterranean.
“Where is our star?”, “Our star shouldn’t have left us” and “He’s gone to Germany” are some of the posts on Mohamed’s Facebook page, alongside photos and videos showing his prowess on the football field.
At first Mohamed was so caught up in football that he took little notice of the war. But soon the conflict began to encroach on his daily life. As he took the bus to his training sessions, explosions became more and more frequent – when this happened, he and the other passengers would throw themselves onto the floor between the seats. One day, a bomb exploded on the football pitch in the middle of a match and one of his teammates died. Mohamed realised he did not want to carry on.
At the same time, Mohamed’s eighteenth birthday was looming, bringing with it the prospect of forcible conscription into the Syrian army.
“We decided to leave Syria to protect Mohamed’s future,” says his father.
Accompanied by his father and uncle, Mohamed crossed the border to Turkey and made his way to the port city of Mersin, on the eastern Mediterranean. A distance of just a few hundred kms, the journey took 24 hours and was fraught with risk. They had to cross the mountains on foot, bargain for transport and avoid human traffickers, all against a backdrop of gunfire and explosions.
In Mersin, they found a boat that would take them to Europe: an old merchant ship, into which they were squeezed with hundreds of other Syrians. By day two, the boat had started to take on water. By the time they were rescued, the boat was barely afloat. It was five more days before they landed on the coast of Sicily.
Mohamed sits on a camp bed in the migrants’ reception centre in Pozzallo, surrounded by Syrian families. On the wall behind him are pinned drawings, messages written in Arabic, Syrian flags, and a picture of a leaking boat with the legend ‘the death ship’.
Mohamed’s gaze is serious and determined; it suggests someone who, despite all the difficulties, will not easily give up on his ambitions.
“I hope that European clubs will read my story and help me pursue my dream to play football,” says Mohamed. “I would like to get to Germany and play for Borussia Dortmund, or to Spain and play for Real Madrid. I cannot go back to Syria – I feel like a deserter.”
Someone brings a ball. Mohamed starts to dribble the ball before bouncing it on his head, then transfers it expertly from foot to knee to shoulder. A circle forms around him. The onlookers clap their hands and shout encouragement. For the first time, Mohamed smiles.
“In Eritrea, escaping is no joke. Those who try it risk being executed.”
Anna, 21, left Eritrea, but one day she is determined to return
Source: Alessandro Penso
The first time that 21-year-old Anna tried to leave Eritrea, she was still a child. Captured and arrested, she was taken to prison, where she was tied up and beaten. On her release, Anna began to concoct the ‘perfect plan’ to get out of Eritrea. “In Eritrea, escaping is no joke,” she says. “Those who try it risk being executed.”
Anna was still only 16 when she succeeded in crossing the border to neighbouring Ethiopia. Hoping to get permission to join her mother in Israel, she stayed in Ethiopia for five years, but her requests were rejected. Finally she decided to leave Ethiopia to embark on the long and dangerous journey to Europe.
The toughest part, says Anna, was in Sudan. After walking for 13 hours non-stop, she got a lift on a pick-up truck, crammed in with 25 other people. Her feet and legs felt as if they were paralysed, she says. In the desert, the truck was stopped by traffickers, who forced them to strip naked as they searched them for money and valuables. The traffickers stole everything of value – they even took some people’s shoes, leaving them to continue their journey barefoot.
Anna holds on tightly to a copy of the Bible as she speaks. She doesn’t cry, but her eyes water with unshed tears. “I was scared,” she says. “I didn’t know if I would make it. I prayed a lot, I trusted in God.”
In Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, Anna bumped into some people she knew, and together they travelled on to Libya. On the Mediterranean coast, she managed to embark on a wooden boat along with 300 others. Just a few hours after setting off, the boat’s engine caught fire. The passengers managed to put the flames out with buckets of water, but the engine was damaged beyond repair. Someone called the emergency rescue services, who arrived nine hours later and took them to Pozzallo.
Anna sits in the reception centre in Pozzallo. Like most Eritreans in the centre, she knows some words of Italian, but it is thanks to Médecins Sans Frontières cultural mediator, Negash, that she is able to tell us her story in her native Tigrinya.
“I am alive and I have a lot of faith in God,” says Anna. “I don’t know where I will go – maybe to Belgium, maybe to England – but I do know what I want to do: I want to study Political Science. One day I want to work to bring peace back to my country. I have a very strong desire to go back to Eritrea.”
“In Libya everybody has guns and knives, even young kids”
Abdu, a 34 year old from Gambia, was rescued on 14 May by Médecins Sans Frontières from a wooden fishing boat carrying 561 people
Source: Gabriele François Casini/MSF
“My name is Abdu. I am 34 years old and I am from Gambia. The journey to Libya took me five and a half months, during which time I passed through Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Algeria.
I left Gambia because I needed money to support my family. There’s no work in Gambia. Before getting to Libya, I stopped a little while in Algeria to work and gather a bit of money. There the situation is better than in Libya: you can work, make some money and if you have your documents nobody puts you in prison without reason. But my brother was in Libya and I wanted to find him to travel to Europe together, so I went there.
In Libya there are a lot of bandits that attack you and steal everything you have. They harass you, beat you and can even kill you. There’s no freedom in Libya. You can’t walk or go where you want. Often people that pretend to be police or army, but are neither, kidnap you and try to extort money from you to let you go. If you have no money they beat you or kill you.
I have been kidnapped several times in Libya. One time, for example, while I was going to meet a friend of mine who had just arrived in Libya, some people pulled me into a car. They drove for a long time and took everything I had with me. I asked them to let me go because I had nothing else and they abandoned me in the desert. I was lucky that some other people were passing by and helped me to get back to the city.
When you arrive in Libya it is easy to get in contact with many people just like me that left their country to look for a better future. They helped me find my brother and we started living together. My brother is younger and I am responsible for him. That’s why every time we needed to go out to get something I left him at home, for his security. And that’s how I got kidnapped several times. I was imprisoned in houses; they were never real prisons or camps. These houses are full of armed men and women – everybody has guns and knives, even young kids. They take your money and they beat you up. Every day they would ask me for money and every day they would beat me. If you have no money your life doesn’t have value for them. If you are lucky you know people that will pay for you – I was lucky.
It met smugglers through my friends. They told me that if I had some money on the side they could put me in contact with people organising boats to Europe. I said yes and decided to try my luck at sea. I paid $1700 and decided on a date of departure. The date was postponed twice because of bad weather. One day, three weeks after, they called me and confirmed that we would leave that night, and we did. The smugglers are very hard with people. I was lucky because I had a place to stay until they called me. But there are many people that are put in warehouses while they wait for the departure.
The journey on the boat is a question of life and death. You’re on a small boat without any safety measures and with so many other people. I was very aware that I could have easily died at sea but I told myself that I had to leave, I had no choice. I thought, if God allows me to live, it means I have a purpose – it is destiny.
We go away from our country because we have no choice. We need to earn money for our families. We don’t want to get the Europeans tired of us, to overwhelm them, but we have no choice. We risk our lives to help our families, or neighbours, our friends, our parents and our brothers. That’s why we embark on this journey.
Now that I have been saved I believe more in God and I think about my family and future. The first thought I had when I saw the boat that saved me was to my family and to God.”
Much more than a letter
Golleh, 20, experienced forced labour in a Libyan prison
Source: Alessandro Penso
Golleh was treated by Médecins Sans Frontières teams initially for intestinal problems, which healed after a course of antibiotics. But some scars are less visible. He told his story to Anna, an MSF doctor.
Four years ago, in Gambia, both of Golleh’s adoptive parents died. Deprived of his inheritance, living in poverty and completely alone, Golleh decided to leave.
Golleh spent five months in Senegal and a year in Mauritania before making his way to Libya. Unable to pay 500 Libyan dinars, he was imprisoned, and forced to work at gunpoint every day for two months to pay off his ‘debt’. “They checked me day and night, pointing their guns at me, and they beat me,” says Golleh. On his release, he decided to take a boat for Italy.
“Since 2011, when my father died, the first people to take care of me were you,” he tells Gaia, an MSF psychologist.
That day, Golleh sat down and wrote a letter addressed to the MSF doctor who had treated him when he first arrived in Pozzallo:
“Hi Anna, I want to thank you and all of the people in Pozzallo – the doctors in particular. I send my greetings to all of you because today I was very happy to see Gaia, who came from Pozzallo to pay us a visit here at the centre.
I am very happy, and I am writing this letter to greet every one of you. I saw the respect you demonstrate towards the human being. You give the right cure to those who are sick. You always smile because you want us to feel good. For this reason I want to thank you and pray for you.
Your friend from Gambia,
Golleh
Thank you for reading my letter!”
And Anna’s response?
“Thank you Golleh for writing it! When you’ve made a long journey to escape poverty and persecution, when you’ve been subjected to forced labour in a Libyan prison, when you’ve risked your life crossing the Mediterranean, the very least we can do is to help your visible and invisible scars to heal.”
Médecins Sans Frontières search & rescue teams have rescued over 2600 people so far this year from the Mediterannean Sea. When onboard medical teams treat people according to their needs. Basic medical care up to advanced life support is provided onboard two ships the Phoenix and Argos. To find out more about the work of Search & rescue operations in the Mediterranean see http://www.msf.ie/country-region/search-and-rescue-mediterranean-sea |
It’s almost an accepted dogma that in the United States (and in several other countries), liberals are much more in favor of taking actions to curb climate change whereas conservatives block such actions. That’s certainly true within the halls of power. For instance, in the United States, it has become a litmus test for Republication candidates to deny humans are causing climate change, to try to claim that it isn’t important, in many cases to demonize the messengers (the scientists), and to work to halt climate science so we won’t know how bad the problem is.
Conventional wisdom – and in fact the seemingly obvious message from this past election – is that this denial is good politics. If you want to get elected as a conservative, you have got to be anti-science.
But perhaps what we thought was so just isn’t. A fascinating study was just released by Yale and George Mason Universities that involved a national survey of American opinions. What this survey found was astonishing. Almost 70% of registered voters in the U.S. believe that their country should participate in international agreements to limit global warming. Only 1 in 8 registered voters believe the U.S. should not participate in such agreements. Similarly, 70% of respondents support limits on carbon dioxide, the most important human-emitted heat trapping gas.
Moreover, they agree to limits even if that means electricity costs will increase (although they won’t). What this means is that 7 in 10 registered voters agree with President Obama’s signature climate accomplishment, the Clean Power Plan. When considered by party affiliation, the responses were 85% for Democrats, 62% for Independents, and 52% for Republicans. Yes, even among Republicans, whose elected officials systematically mock science, the majority of voters are in agreement about the importance of taking climate change seriously.
Amongst the respondents, more than 80% agreed that if a carbon tax is imposed, the revenues should be used to improve U.S. infrastructure, and large majorities support using the funds to help displaced fossil fuel workers or reducing the national debt.
A deeper dive into the results reveals that American voters are more knowledgeable about energy and the energy economy than is the president elect. They recognize the connection between the new clean energy economy and their own country’s economic vitality.
More than half of voters understand that transitioning to newer and cleaner fuels will improve economic growth and create new jobs – something we are already seeing. A small minority believe that transitioning to a clean-energy system will hurt the economy. Furthermore, a majority support exploring clean and renewable energy on public lands by a very large margin compared with those who support more fossil fuel extraction on those same lands.
The architects of this survey are the best of the best in this business. Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz and Dr. Ed Maibach are very well known in this area. They were joined by a talented team of colleagues from George Mason University and Yale University. I wrote to the authors and they responded:
A large majority of Americans want our nation to step up and do its part to limit climate change, and nearly all Americans understand that a clean energy economy is our destiny.
The single most surprising thing we learned in this survey was that 8 out of 10 Americans want our nation to limit global warming pollution by regulating it, taxing it, or both, while only 1 out of ten prefer for the United States to take neither action.
It’s interesting that over the past eight years, we have seen enormous drops in the cost of renewable energy, particularly wind and solar. Now, these energy sources are economically competitive with fossil fuels. We have also seen a major reduction of cost in all forms of energy. It’s an environment that should hurt renewables. With petroleum, natural gas, and coal in such abundance, you would think solar and wind would suffer. But they haven’t.
And the U.S. consumer hasn’t suffered. Prices for energy are low, this leaves more money in peoples’ pockets at the end of the month. But along with this, the U.S. has reduced emissions. It’s exciting to have a comprehensive energy plan that works. Lower costs, lower emissions, more clean energy.
It would be interesting to look forward four years to see if this trend continues. I hope it does, but the incoming transition team has been hostile to a rational energy plan. If we go backwards on the energy economy, it will hurt the environment as well as the economy. It would be ironic if the very people who voted for President-elect Trump were the ones most hurt by such a turn of events. |
Fox 2000 is developing the World War II action movie “Liberty Road,” based on one of the 1944 battle at Bastogne in Belgium, Variety has learned exclusively.
Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger of Automatik Entertainment are attached to produce with Chernin Entertainment. Matt Charman, who received an Academy Award nomination for his “Bridge of Spies” screenplay, is also attached to produce and oversee the writers, Gavin James and Neil Widener.
The studio has acquired movie rights to George Koskimaki’s book “The Battered Bastards of Bastogne,” about the contributions of the 530 soldiers who were on the ground or in the air over Bastogne. The attack was part of a surprise Nazi offensive with more than 400,000 soldiers that launched in mid-December of 1944, in which the Allied troops were caught off guard by what turned out to be the final major Nazi offensive of the war. After heavy casualties on both sides, the Nazis withdrew in early January.
Warner Bros. released “Battle of the Bulge,” starring Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, and Charles Bronson in 1965. The movie re-created the Nazis making the Allies an offer to surrender Bastogne or face annihilation.
Windener and James’ script “The Battle of Alcatraz” landed on the 2016 Black List, with Charman attached to produce through Automatic.
Fox-based Chernin was a producer on “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” and “Hidden Figures.” It’s also producing several upcoming high-profile Fox titles, including the Amy Schumer-Goldie Hawn action-comedy “Snatched,” “War for Planet of the Apes,” Idris Elba’s romance-adventure “The Mountain Between Us,” and Hugh Jackman’s P.T. Barnum biopic “The Greatest Showman.” |
As the dust settles on a bitterly-fought general election, British socialism’s corpse is barely even twitching now, its death rattle long since extinguished.
As a journalist who’s covered this campaign from the start on TV, radio and in print, I started out a Labour voter (I’ve previously voted Labour all my life)… and ended it anything but.
And while my defection was first started by Milliband’s business-bashing champagne socialism, it was spurred on by Labour voters themselves.
Sensing my Labour wobble, I was courted by hopeful UKIP voters who, despite their disgraceful portrayal in the left-wing press, I found to be almost universally polite and passionate.
Greens, while often bonkers, were also polite and optimistic for an extra vote. Tory voters were of course largely conspicuous by their absence on Twitter away from their established media commentators.
And Labour? On social media, it’s my conclusion that they have become the party of the modern-day Social Justice Warrior. And that is a truly terrible and toxic place to be.
During the election, I routinely watched Labour voters like wasps in a jam jar. Daily, they’d swarm towards aggressive Left-leaning and brazenly anti-Tory hashtags that brought out the worst in these lefties, who became drunk on hate.
The list was endless, with the omnipresent #CameronMustGo buttressed by #ToriesOutNow #millibandmustwin and the frankly preposterous final-furlong, sandwich-eating parody #JeSuisEd.
Potty mouthed
Believe me, there’s nobody more potty-mouthed than a scorned socialist. They were the polar opposite of ‘shy Tories’ – and probably the main reason so many Tories were shy. After all, who wants an aggressive, expletive-riddled, patronising lecture in privilege from a 22-year-old feminist gender studies student simply for questioning proven Muslim corruption in Tower Hamlets?
In the old days, it was the Right who told us how to think. The British Conservatives (with a big C) were morally conservative (with a small c). Today, it is Labour and their voters who, from their high perch, dish out morally superior life advice to the rest of us.
Labour’s zero-aspiration mindset seemed more interested in gender quotas, championing feminism and trying their best to not offend the LBGT and Muslim communities. But by pandering to the margins they have fatally ignored the mainstream; the quiet majority who work hard and pay their taxes.
In the strange world of the internet – and now in Labour’s mindset – whites, heterosexuals and men are bottom of the privilege pyramid. They don’t matter. Worse, if they dare to step out of line, they’re labelled racist, sexist, misogynistic, Islamophobic… whatever will shut them up.
Bullying
During this election, I was subjected to daily personal attacks on social media and when I went into these people’s timelines, to a man and woman they were Labour. And every time, it made it that little bit easier to abandon the Labour ship.
Not that it bothered me – after 20 years in journalism I’m ugly enough to not care about Twitter spats, and when you’ve had a hate letter posted to your home address from Britain’s hardest inmate Charles Bronson, a militant feminist droning on Twitter is what it is: a low-level irritant with no more force then a dripping tap.
For at least a year – long before it was accepted that Labour were losing entire communities to UKIP – I questioned, then later attacked, Labour’s abandonment of the working classes.
In the months leading up the the election, I was extremely open about my politics on Sky News, LBC Radio, in the Telegraph and here on Breitbart, where I finally I denounced Labour as a party I no longer recognised.
For this I was called “a Tory bottom feeder” a “Murdoch glove puppet”, and, of course, a “class traitor” and “a sell-out”. Finally, one enraged Tweeter told me to “f**k off”.
So, along with millions of others, I did.
Ungracious
If the left-leaning press ever hope to pander beyond the shrinking shores of Guardiansville, much like the Labour party itself, they need either a wholesale rethink of approach or a root and branch personnel clear-out.
Yet, somehow, even worse than Labour’s media commentators were some Labour voters themselves.
The ghoulish pall-bearers for Soviet economics and far-left social ideology – a minted metropolitan media elite and Labour’s most outspoken voters, a rag-tag bunch of furious Social Justice Warriors, feminists, bilious public servants and snide students – are still glumly death-dancing over the grave, making mischief on the streets of London, and wreaking disrespectful havoc on social media.
Never in the history of British politics has defeat been so ungraciously met. Labour’s media commentators have been struck down with the worst case of political delusion since “Comical Ali” was laughed out of Iraq in 2003, when Suddam Hussein’s Iraqi Information Minister refused to accept his “invincible” Iraq Army was being eviscerated by the Allies despite irrefutable televisual and journalistic proof.
Like Comical Ali, the standard bearers of British socialism – highly-paid media commentators such as Owen Jones, Laurie Penny and Charlie Booker – are suffering from a case of selective myopia, one that continues to consume them even after their war has been lost.
When the end was nigh, even Adolf Hitler had the good grace to pull the trigger, but Labour’s supporters live in a parallel dimension.
Delusional
It was magnificent, for example, to see Jones’s attempt at playing electoral Mystic Meg – “Russell Brand has endorsed Labour and the Tories should be worried,” he wrote – retweeted many thousands of times post-election. His end-of-the-pier fortune telling was even joyously printed onto celebratory mugs and T-shirts.
Penny’s bitterness at defeat led her first to take to her fainting couch with “depression” before she ill-advisedly threw her fedora in with the class war rabble who rioted outside Tory HQ the day after the party’s outright election victory had been declared.
When yobs daubed “FUCK TORY SCUM!” on the Women’s War Memorial in Whitehall on the 70th anniversary of VE Day, a Downing Street spokesman condemned the graffiti as “a despicable display of disrespect for those who fought and died for their country”.
Penny, however, insisted she had “no problem” with the desecration, adding: “The women of WW2 – including my nanna – fought for a better world. National healthcare, education. Everything the Tories want to destroy.”
For this high treason, she was quickly added to the Daily Mail’s Most Hated list, an accolade Penny and her fans will no doubt draw comfort from. Being a target of the Right adds to her allure on the Left.
Worse, when the exit poll was announced, Charlie Brooker – The Guardian’s resident Jack Dee – said voting Tory was “like masturbating or listening to Gary Barlow.”
His previous, wholesale dismissal of the Tories had come back to haunt him: “The Conservative party is an eternally irritating force for wrong that appeals exclusively to bigots, toffs, money-minded machine men, faded entertainers and selfish, grasping simpletons who were born with some essential part of their soul missing.”
At a stroke, this minted metropolitan socialist contemptuously dismissed 36.9 per cent of British voters, not to mention Winston Churchill, our greatest ever leader and the man who masterminded Penny’s “nanna” to victory against the Nazis.
These sneering boobies are the UK’s Animal Farm socialists: luvvies who’ve grown fat on lucrative book, journalism and TV deals, buttressed with public speaking appearance fees; corpulent Lefties who inexplicably feel they have the right to lecture the rest of us on privilege.
Their brazen contempt of the British electorate and, in particular, Penny’s disrespect for our war dead will be long remembered.
Liability
When the Social Justice Warrior collides with Labour we get the Socialist Justice Warriors: oiks who are encumbered with a rampant, intellectual fascism that grants them the right, hourly, to hunt down and harass anybody who disagrees with them.
Sweet revenge came when 11,334,520 crosses were placed in Tory boxes on May 7th. That’s not forgetting 3,881,129 UKIP voters, who’d been dismissed by the Left as racist, homophobic Neanderthals mainly for wanting tougher immigration controls on what they see as an open-door policy – a policy that was introduced by Labour.
The Labour party that once represented coal miners like my father is now the party of the Socialist Justice Warrior.
So we find ourselves in a bizarre position where modern Labour voters are now the single biggest reason to not vote Labour. How the hell did that happen? And what on Earth are Labour going to do about it? |
Stop the Epistemic Marginalization of Taiwan
廖顯禕 Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 7, 2016
Whether through intent or incompetence, Donald Trump has broken established US and international norms by speaking to the president of Taiwan on the phone. By now, every mainstream media has published at least one article that says, in one way or another, Trump needs to learn how to talk about Taiwan.
As I read these articles, it became clear that Trump is not the only one who needs to learn how to talk about Taiwan. From my perspective as a Taiwanese citizen and a professor of philosophy, the way that the Western media covers Taiwan constitute a textbook example of what philosophers call epistemic marginalization. By excluding Taiwanese voices, intentionally or not, the media is extending the existing political marginalization of Taiwan to the to the domain the press likes to call its own — the domain of knowledge.
As producers and transmitters of knowledge, the media plays an indispensable role in shaping how a society learns about and understands a topic. Individuals’ beliefs are significantly impacted by the voices that are amplified in the media they consume. However, a key insight from philosophers who study knowledge in the social context is that the choices of voices amplified are, unfortunately, often driven by factors like race and gender that are irrelevant to knowledge. People who occupy dominant social positions — Whites, Westerners, men — are standardly given more credibility than they deserve.
We can witness the epistemic marginalization by observing who gets quoted in articles about Trump’s Taiwan phone call. While the US and Chinese political actors are given the agency of chess players, Taiwan is represented as merely a pawn. The most basic articles include a quote from an American and a Chinese government official. The more advanced articles add quotes from an expert on China, Taiwan, or Asia — typically a White person working in a Western institution. The very advanced articles add quotes from expats or journalists working in the region — again, typically White and Western. In mainstream publications like The Financial Times, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, there was not a single quote from a Taiwanese perspective. Instead, it is those who already occupy dominant social positions who get to be heard.
We can also witness the epistemic marginalization by observing the narratives that get amplified. In these articles, the media typically repeats the historical narrative offered by the Chinese government. For example, in trying to provide historical context, Evan Osnos of The New Yorker writes, in a piece endorsed by The Atlantic’s James Fallows, “Taiwan broke away from mainland China in 1949”.
Such claims mislead readers who are unfamiliar with the history of Taiwan. Taiwan was a colony of Japan until the end of World War II. After World War II, the Chinese Civil War continued on mainland China between Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China and Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China. In the end, Chiang Kai-shek lost and retreated to Taiwan. And so the official name of the government that occupies Taiwan remains “Republic of China”. Since those leading People’s Republic of China (or, simply, China) never stepped foot on Taiwan, it is misleading to suggest that Taiwan “broke away” from them. Even worse, this narrative marginalizes the views of many indigenous people and Han immigrants who lived in Taiwan before Japanese colonization, to whom Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China was yet another foreign colonizer. Yet again, political and epistemic marginalization goes hand in hand.
Finally, we can witness the epistemic marginalization in the reporting of political emotions. As reported in The Economist, according to the Chinese government, nothing hurts Chinese feelings more than acts of kindness toward Taiwan. This posture of hurt feelings is especially ironic given China’s continual provocation and aggression toward Taiwan. Rather than evincing skepticism, the media — including commentators — simply reported that the incident might anger China. In doing so, they systematically legitimized China’s hurt feelings without questioning whether that response is appropriate. In contrast, Taiwanese political emotions — indignation from years of international alienation, fear of the uncertainty to come — remain unmentioned and unconsidered.
True enough, one inevitably misses finer points in speaking of “the media” in broad brushstrokes. Yes, one LA Times article included one quote from a Taiwanese international politics professor. Yes, one Economist article gave context about China’s international bullying of Taiwan.
Still, the broad brushstrokes paint a painful reality for the people of Taiwan. Even when the media finally turns its attention to Taiwan, we remain excluded from equal participation in the discourse. And so we remain marginalized — politically and epistemically. |
North Korea has reportedly directed rare and harsh criticism at China, its major international ally, accusing Beijing of giving in to the United States’ demands by tightening its own sanctions against Pyongyang.
Without directly mentioning China, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement on Thursday that “a neighboring country,” which often claims to be a “friendly neighbor,” was abandoning Pyongyang in favor of the US, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
“This country, styling itself a big power, is dancing to the tune of the US,” the statement reportedly read.
China, North Korea’s key economic benefactor, announced on Sunday that it would suspend all coal imports from North Korea until the end of this year. China’s Ministry of Commerce said it took the measure in line with the punitive sanctions imposed last year by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) over North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests.
In a direct reference to the ban, the KCNA reportedly said that Beijing had “unhesitatingly taken inhumane steps” to comply with UN sanctions and was now “defending its mean behavior with such excuses that it was meant not to have a negative impact on the living of North Koreans, but to check its nuclear program.”
An undated photo of the test-fire of the Pukguksong-2 by North Korea (via Reuters)
China, a permanent member of the UNSC, often backs North Korea but has had its own reservations about Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs.
The North faces international pressure to abandon its arms development and nuclear program. Yet, it says the programs are meant to protect the country from US hostility.
The KCNA reportedly said in the statement that “it is utterly childish to think that [North Korea] would not manufacture nuclear weapons and inter-continental ballistic rockets if a few [pennies] of money is cut off,” apparently referring to the revenue that would have come from the coal exports to China.
The US has military forces in South Korea — a long-time adversary of the North — and is planning to deploy an advanced missile system there in response to perceived threats from Pyongyang. The US also occasionally deploys nuclear-powered warships and aircraft capable of carrying atomic weapons in the region. |
It’s almost time to break out the sun screen and the dancing shoes because Queens parks will play host to tons of concerts this summer as part of the Only in Queens festival.
Hosted by SummerStage, New York City’s largest free performing arts festival, Queens residents will be treated to music and performances of all genres from June to July.
The festival will kick off on June 11 with a performance at Flushing Meadows Corona Park by George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame frontman and his group will perform with a host of hip-hop artists including Main Source and Long Island City native DJ Marley Marl from 5 to 8 p.m.
On June 23, Metropolitan Opera stars will perform pieces from opera’s most beloved works at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City. The free event will take place from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
In the mood to watch some talented dancers? On July 5 at Springfield Park in Springfield Gardens, Just Sole! Street Dance Theater Company will perform after giving a free hip-hop dance workshop at 7 p.m. Pretty BIG Movement, a dance company specializing in several genres such as hip-hop, jazz, African and modern dance will also perform.
The next day, Jamaica native and trumpeter Tom “Jamaica Funk” Browne will perform at Springfield Park after the Mobile Mondays! DJ-led dance party. The event will start at 7 p.m. and end at 9 p.m.
Springfield Park will welcome several artists that week with Slick Rick the Ruler, GrandWizzard Theodore, The Jimmy Heath Big Band, Ohio Players and Felix Hernandez Rhythm Revue all performing at the park.
Queensbridge Park in Long Island City will honor the women in music and dance with a number of performances ranging from a dance workshop and performance from Ladies of Hip-Hop, a female-fronted dance crew on July 12, a performance from dance-club hit maker Judy Torres on July 13 and a concert featuring hip-hop staples Mr. Cheeks and Large Professor on July 14.
On July 15, SKYY will perform their soulful hits at Queensbridge Park after a workshop with Scratch Academy. The event will take place from 4 to 7 p.m.
To close out the festival, Capone-n-Noreaga (also known as CNN) will perform their hits. Growing up in the Queensbridge Houses and LeFrak City, the Queens natives will come back to their hometown to perform from 5 to 7 p.m. on July 16.
For a full list of shows, visit the SummerStage website. |
Add Tokyo to the growing list of cities that are a nonstop flight away from Tel Aviv.
A new aviation deal between Israeli and Japanese airlines will offer customers up to 14 direct flights between the two countries each week.
Representatives from Israel’s airline El Al and Japan’s biggest airline, All Nippon, signed the deal at a recent meeting Tokyo.
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Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz Wednesday confirmed the new aviation agreement, calling it “really good news.”
“This agreement is a direct continuation of my policy to open the skies,” Katz said, according to Ynet.
No date was given for the launch of the new route.
“I believe that adding destinations in Japan itself, as well as flights, will increase the number of tourists arriving in Israel in the near future. The agreement is also an important component in the government’s policy to strengthen Israel’s relations with Japan.”
There are no direct flights between Israel and Japan currently, and most passengers traveling between the two countries must make connecting flights in Hong Kong or Seoul.
According to the Tourism Ministry, some 13,000 people traveled from Japan to Israel in 2014. |
American actor and professional wrestler
"David Batista" redirects here. For the Brazilian footballer, see David Batista (footballer)
David Michael Bautista Jr. (born January 18, 1969) is an American actor, professional wrestler and mixed martial artist.
Bautista began wrestling in 1999, and signed with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 2000. From 2002 to 2010 he gained fame under the ring name Batista, winning the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship twice. He holds the record for the longest reign as World Heavyweight Champion at 282 days and has also won the World Tag Team Championship three times (twice with Ric Flair and once with John Cena) and the WWE Tag Team Championship once (with Rey Mysterio). He was the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match and went on to headline WrestleMania 21, one of the top five highest-grossing pay-per-view events in professional wrestling history.[7] Bautista re-signed with WWE in 2013, going on to win the 2014 Royal Rumble match and headline WrestleMania XXX.
Bautista began acting in 2006 and has starred in The Man with the Iron Fists (2012), Riddick (2013), the James Bond film Spectre (2015), and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).[8] He is perhaps best known for his role as Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portraying the character in the films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). He has also appeared in several direct-to-video films since 2009.
In August 2012, Bautista signed a contract with Classic Entertainment & Sports to fight in mixed martial arts.[9] He won his MMA debut on October 6, 2012, defeating Vince Lucero via TKO in the first round.
Early life
David Michael Bautista Jr.[10] was born on January 18, 1969,[11] in Arlington, VA,[1] the son of Donna Raye (née Mullins) and David Michael Bautista, a hairdresser in the D.C. area. His mother has Greek ancestry, while his father is the son of Filipino immigrants.[10][12] His parents divorced, and he later called himself "the proud son of a lesbian".[13] His paternal grandfather served in the Filipino military, worked as a taxi driver and barber, and held other jobs to feed the family. Bautista has said that he lived in poverty,[14] and that he had a hard life—before he reached the age of nine, three murders had occurred on his front lawn.[15] As young as age 13, he was stealing cars.[16] By age 17, Bautista was estranged from his parents and lived on his own.[17] He later admitted, "I am proud of my parents. They are good, honest, hard-working folks. They taught me the values of working hard."[16] He was a nightclub bouncer until he was arrested after a fight that left two patrons injured, one of whom was rendered unconscious.[17] After a trial, he was sentenced to one year of probation.[17] He also worked as a lifeguard[18] before pursuing a career in bodybuilding,[17] crediting the latter with saving his life.[19]
Professional wrestling career
Training and early career (1999–2000)
Bautista tried out at the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) Power Plant, but was told he would never make it in the wrestling business by Sgt. Buddy Lee Parker.[20] He then went to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), who advised him to train with Afa Anoaʻi in the Wild Samoan Training Center wrestling school,[21] where he went to train and compete in Anoa'i's World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) promotion. He had his debut match as Khan on October 30, 1999.[6] Bautista also trained with Marrese Crump in Muay Thai and Eskrima.[22] Most recently, he trained at Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu under Cesar Gracie and has become a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.[23]
World Wrestling Federation/Entertainment
Ohio Valley Wrestling (2000–2002)
Upon signing with the WWF in 2000, Bautista was sent to Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), a WWF developmental territory. He made his OVW debut later that year under the ring name Leviathan, where he immediately joined forces with Synn.[5] As a member of the Disciples of Synn stable, he went undefeated until being beaten at Christmas Chaos by Kane with help from Stone Cold Steve Austin. He later won the OVW Heavyweight Championship from "The Machine" Doug Basham before losing the belt to The Prototype. A few months later, Bautista left OVW after he was promoted to WWE's main roster.[24]
Early storylines (2002–2003)
While still in OVW, Bautista began appearing on non-televised WWE events. He began his televised WWE career on May 9, 2002 on an episode of SmackDown! as Deacon Batista, a villainous enforcer for Reverend D'Von.[25] He made his WWE in-ring debut in a tag team match teaming with D'Von against Faarooq and Randy Orton, pinning Orton. Over several weeks, Orton tried to beat D'Von and Batista with different partners, but ultimately lost each time.[26] Batista suffered his first loss in a match against Rikishi after D'Von accidentally punched him, allowing Rikishi to take advantage and pin Batista. Batista and D'Von argued over the forthcoming weeks, with Batista eventually turning on D'Von. On the November 11 episode of SmackDown, Batista defeated D'Von to end their feud.[27] After splitting with D'Von, he was assigned to the Raw brand and was renamed Batista. He aligned himself with Ric Flair[28] and feuded with Kane, whom he defeated at Armageddon.[29]
Evolution (2003–2005)
In January 2003, Batista joined Triple H, Ric Flair and Randy Orton to form the villainous stable Evolution.[30] Batista, however, was sidelined for much of 2003 after he tore his right triceps muscle at a Raw live event in a match against Brock Lesnar. While training after the injury, Batista re-tore his triceps, extending his stay on the sidelines.[31] Batista made his return on October 20 episode of Raw, interfering in a match between Goldberg and Shawn Michaels and "shattering" Goldberg's ankle with a chair. After the interference, Evolution came out, and Triple H rewarded Batista with $100,000.[32] On November 10 episode of Raw, Goldberg defeated Batista by disqualification when Triple H interfered.[33]
At Armageddon, Batista took part in two matches; losing to Shawn Michaels in a singles match,[34] and winning a tag team turmoil match along with Ric Flair to become one-half of the World Tag Team Champions.[35] By the end of the event, all four members of Evolution held every male championship on Raw, with Triple H winning the World Heavyweight Championship and Randy Orton winning the Intercontinental Championship.[36] They held the title until February 16, 2004 episode of Raw, when they were defeated by Booker T and Rob Van Dam.[37] They later regained the title for a short period.[38][39]
At Survivor Series, Triple H, Batista, Gene Snitsky and Edge were defeated by Maven, Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, and Randy Orton in an eight-man elimination tag team match for control of Raw over the following month;[40] the members of the winning team would each be the Raw general manager for a week. Throughout the next two months, the relationship between Batista and Triple H began to deteriorate. After a loss to Chris Jericho, Triple H verbally insulted Batista. Batista teased leaving Evolution that night, but declared that he was still part of Evolution and that they tricked everyone.[41] Despite this ploy, Batista began behaving more like a fan favorite over the next few weeks in comparison to Evolution's villainous tactics. One particular moment saw Batista express disgust as Triple H and Ric Flair boasted about how they had intimidated and/or beat up Jim Ross, Danny Hodge, and Stacy Keibler. Regardless, he continued to show his loyalty to Triple H and Evolution by running down to the ring and assisting them in matches.
As 2005 began, Triple H realized the possibility of Batista becoming a threat to his World Heavyweight Championship. Triple H suggested that he not enter the Royal Rumble, claiming that it would be selfish of him to do so, and to simply focus on Triple H retaining the title. Batista entered anyway and went on to win the Rumble earning the right to participate in the main event of WrestleMania 21 against the World Champion of his choice.[42] In an attempt to persuade Batista to challenge WWE Champion John "Bradshaw" Layfield and challenger John Cena in a triple-threat match rather than him, Triple H concocted a scheme to have Batista run over in a limousine resembling the one used by Layfield. Initially, Dave did not want help from Evolution and wanted to confront JBL by himself. Triple H insisted that Evolution stick together and accompanied Dave anyway, saving him from the oncoming vehicle.[43] Batista became aware of the plot while sneakily eavesdropping on fellow Evolution members and signed a contract guaranteeing him a match with the World Heavyweight Champion Triple H at WrestleMania 21, thus leaving Evolution and officially turning into a fan favorite. Batista initially pretended that he would sign with SmackDown!, giving Triple H and Flair the "thumbs up", but turned it into a "thumbs down" before attacking the pair. He emphasized his departure by powerbombing Triple H through the table used for the contract signing.[44]
World Heavyweight Champion (2005–2008)
Batista won the World Heavyweight Championship on April 3 in the main event of WrestleMania 21.[4][45] WrestleMania 21 received 1.09 million pay-per-view buys worldwide – the then-highest ever number of buys for any non-boxing pay-per-view. Batista's match with Triple H was described by sports journalist Dave Meltzer as "the peak of one of [WWE's] best storylines in years".[7] Batista won a rematch with Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at Backlash.[46] After Batista retained his title against Edge, he was betrayed by Ric Flair, who helped Triple H viciously attack the champion as Triple H challenged Batista to a Hell in a Cell match at Vengeance.[47] Batista won the match at Vengeance, retaining his title yet again. With this win, Batista became the first wrestler to pin Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match.[48]
Batista in 2006
On June 30, Batista was drafted to SmackDown! as the last pick in the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, making a surprise appearance to attack JBL, who was celebrating his victory in a six-man elimination match to crown the inaugural "SmackDown! Champion".[49] JBL defeated Batista at The Great American Bash by disqualification after the referee saw Batista use a steel chair.[50] They had a rematch at SummerSlam in a No Holds Barred match in which Batista pinned JBL.[51] The feud culminated in a Bull Rope match with Batista retaining his championship.[52] Soon after retaining the title in a feud with Eddie Guerrero,[53] WWE.com reported that Batista suffered a muscle tear in his back at the taping for November 11 episode of SmackDown! due to a double chokeslam from Big Show and Kane.[54] Plans had been made for Batista to defend the title in a Triple Threat match with Eddie Guerrero and Randy Orton on November 18 episode, but the match did not take place due to the unexpected death of Guerrero on November 13, the date of the taping. Batista paid homage to Guerrero during the SmackDown! and Raw tribute shows dedicated to Guerrero's memory.[55]
Batista led Team SmackDown! against Team Raw in an inter-brand feud before Survivor Series. The feud saw Big Show and Kane chokeslamming Batista several more times in the weeks leading up to Survivor Series in an on-camera explanation for Batista's injury.[56] Batista ultimately helped his team win the match.[57] After Batista saved Rey Mysterio from Big Show and Kane,[58] it was announced that Mysterio would team with Batista to face the Big Show and Kane at Armageddon.
On December 16 episode of SmackDown!, Batista and Mysterio defeated WWE Tag Team Champions[59] MNM to win the titles in a match they dedicated to Eddie Guerrero, and thus Batista became a double champion.[60] After this, the clash with Big Show and Kane at Armageddon turned into a Champions vs. Champions encounter. Batista and Mysterio lost to Big Show and Kane at Armageddon.[61] Two weeks later on SmackDown!, MNM defeated Batista and Mysterio after help from the returning Mark Henry to regain the WWE Tag Team Championships. During the interference, Henry attacked Batista, and performed his World's Strongest Slam.[62] The teams met again in a steel cage match that Henry also became involved in, and Batista and Mysterio were defeated again.[63] On January 9, WWE.com announced that Batista tore his right triceps during a match with Mark Henry at a live event on January 6. Due to his injury, Batista was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship at the SmackDown! tapings on January 13, two days after surpassing Triple H's previous mark of 280 days for longest reigning champion. In his book, Batista Unleashed, Batista said that he believed that Henry was "careless" during their match as he never gave Batista any warning that the move was coming. Batista went on to have successful surgery on his arm on January 12.[64]
Batista made an appearance at No Way Out and told the crowd that once his arm had healed he would return to regain the World Heavyweight Championship.[65] At WrestleMania 22, he interrupted a Randy Orton interview, putting SmackDown! on notice that the World Heavyweight Championship would return to him by WrestleMania 23.[66]
Batista made his official return during July 7 episode of SmackDown! immediately calling out and entering into a feud with Mark Henry.[67] At Saturday Night's Main Event, Batista won a six-man tag match with teammates Rey Mysterio and Bobby Lashley, defeating World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, Finlay, and Mark Henry.[68] Henry was legitimately injured and was ruled out of the scheduled match between the two at The Great American Bash, thus further delaying a potential feud between the two after being delayed by Batista's initial injury.[67]
Batista put out an open challenge to replace the injured Henry, which was answered by Mr. Kennedy.[69] Batista lost this match via disqualification for failing to stop choking Mr. Kennedy into the turnbuckle with his boot, but continued to attack Kennedy resulting in a laceration on his forehead so severe that it exposed his cranium and required more than 20 stitches to close.[70][71] Batista lost another match with Kennedy via count out in a rematch on SmackDown! before finally defeating Kennedy by pinfall on August 4 episode of SmackDown!.[72][73]
During this time, Batista tried to regain a world title, facing both Big Show for his ECW World Championship on ECW,[74] and King Booker for his World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam and on SmackDown!. Batista won the SummerSlam match, but not the title as the contests ended via disqualification meaning Booker retained the title.[75] In the SmackDown! about a few weeks later, Booker retained with help from his Court.[76] Batista remained a top contender to the World Championship, competing against King Booker on several occasions while feuding with Finlay,[77] before finally defeating Booker to regain the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series.[4] Ironically, the win occurred at the same arena where he surrendered the title in January.[78]
Batista holding the World Heavyweight Championship in 2006
At WrestleMania 23, Batista lost the championship to the winner of the Royal Rumble match, The Undertaker.[79] They continued to battle over the title to a stalemate in a Last Man Standing match at Backlash[80] and a Steel Cage Match on 11 May episode of SmackDown!, in both matches Batista and The Undertaker ended in draw, thus Undertaker retained the championship. Following the latter, Edge took advantage and won the title from The Undertaker by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract.[81] Afterward, Batista challenged Edge unsuccessfully for the World Heavyweight Championship at Judgment Day, One Night Stand (in a Steel Cage Match), and Vengeance: Night of Champions (in a Last Chance match).[82][83] The loss at Vengeance stipulated that Batista could no longer get another chance at the World Heavyweight Championship while Edge remained champion.[84]
Batista accepted an open challenge from The Great Khali at The Great American Bash. Edge relinquished the title due to an injury the week before the pay-per-view, and Khali became the new World Heavyweight Champion, winning a Battle Royal and eliminating Batista. Batista and Kane, Edge's title opponent, faced Khali at The Great American Bash in a Triple Threat match where Khali retained the title.[85] Batista received a disqualification victory against Khali at SummerSlam after Khali used a steel chair, thus retaining the title again.[86] Batista finally claimed his third World Heavyweight Championship after eight consecutive attempts, by defeating Khali in a match that included Rey Mysterio at Unforgiven.[4][87] His first challenge was from The Great Khali in a Punjabi Prison Match at No Mercy where Batista retained his title. He won the match by leaping from the inner bamboo structure to the outer one, shortening his escape route and beating Khali to the floor.[88]
After the return of The Undertaker at Unforgiven, the duo reignited their feud at Cyber Sunday where the fans chose Stone Cold Steve Austin as the Special Guest Referee. Batista pinned The Undertaker after two Batista Bombs.[89] The feud continued with a Hell in a Cell match at Survivor Series. During the match, Edge returned and interfered by giving The Undertaker a con-chair-to. He then pulled an unconscious Batista on top of The Undertaker for the pinfall to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.[90] At Armageddon, Edge won a Triple Threat match, alongside The Undertaker for Batista's World Heavyweight Championship.[91]
Batista in June 2008
Batista appeared in the Royal Rumble and was eliminated by Triple H. At No Way Out, he was part of the SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match and eliminated Big Daddy V, but was last eliminated by The Undertaker. At WrestleMania XXIV, he defeated Umaga in an interpromotional match. After Shawn Michaels defeated Ric Flair at the same event,[92] Batista began a feud with Michaels, calling him selfish and egotistical. The two faced off at Backlash with Chris Jericho as the Special Guest referee. Michaels won after faking a knee injury and performing Sweet Chin Music.[93] Batista then defeated Michaels at One Night Stand in a stretcher match, thus ending their feud.[94]
On June 23, Batista was drafted from SmackDown to the Raw brand during the 2008 WWE Draft.[95] Batista became a World Tag Team Champion for a third time on August 4 episode of Raw when he teamed up with John Cena to defeat Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase for the title,[96][97] but they failed to retain the titles against the former champions on the next episode of Raw.[98] Batista defeated Cena at SummerSlam.[99]
On October 26 at Cyber Sunday, Batista defeated Chris Jericho for his fourth World Heavyweight Championship in a match in which Stone Cold Steve Austin was voted in as the special guest referee.[100] Batista's reign, however, only lasted eight days when Jericho won the title back in a Steel Cage match on a three-hour special episode of Raw.[101]
Batista then entered a feud with former Evolution partner, Randy Orton; at Survivor Series, Batista led a team of himself, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy, and R-Truth to face the team of Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, and Mark Henry. Orton's team won with Orton pinning Batista, winning the match for his team. His feud with Orton continued up to Armageddon where Batista defeated Orton. On December 15 episode of Raw, Batista was put into a handicap match against The Legacy with John Cena as his partner. During the match, Orton struck Batista with a punt to the head. Batista was knocked out and put out of action indefinitely due to a storyline head injury. WWE.com later reported that Batista elected to undergo surgery to repair a hamstring tear.[102] His hamstring was injured at SummerSlam, in the same match that John Cena was forced out of action with a neck injury. He was expected to be out of action for six to eight months.
WWE Champion (2009–2010)
Batista returned on the April 6, 2009, episode of Raw, the Raw after WrestleMania XXV, to save Triple H, Shane McMahon, and Vince McMahon from The Legacy (Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr.). Vince McMahon then announced that Batista would take his place at Backlash, where he would team up with WWE Champion Triple H and Shane McMahon to face The Legacy. During the match, Batista had brought out a chair, but Triple H tried to stop him, so they would not get disqualified. This distraction however, cost Triple H his championship, after he lost it to Orton. The following night on Raw, Batista won a singles match against Big Show due to a distraction by John Cena, to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship at Judgment Day.[103] Batista went on to defeat Orton in a rematch at Extreme Rules in a Steel Cage match to capture the WWE Championship.[104] However, on June 8 episode of Raw, Batista was to vacate the title due to a staged brutal attack by Orton and the Legacy. It was later revealed that Batista had suffered a legitimate torn left biceps similar to what he suffered in 2006. Legacy was given on-screen credit for his injury.[105]
Batista returned on the September 14 episode of Raw with his arm still in a vice and began his announcement. Randy Orton, assuming Batista was announcing his retirement, then came out and stated that he ended Batista's career. Batista then went on to remove his arm vice, as it was a fake just to lure out Orton, and proceeded to attack Orton. He then announced that he would not retire, but moving to SmackDown instead. Later that night, he defeated Orton in a no-holds barred match which was to be his last match on Raw.[106]
Following his return to SmackDown, Batista defeated Unified Tag Team Champions Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho and The Big Show) in singles competition.[107][108] These two victories culminated in a tag team title match against Jeri-Show with his partner Rey Mysterio On October 4 at Hell in a Cell, which Jeri-Show won.[109] That same month at WWE Bragging Rights, Batista was unsuccessful in winning the World Heavyweight Championship in a Fatal Four-Way match including CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, and champion and event winner The Undertaker. During the match, Mysterio broke up Batista's pin on Undertaker possibly costing him the match and the title. After the match, Batista and Mysterio appeared to patch things up, but Batista said he was tired of coming so close only to be stabbed in the back and told Mysterio he was going to rip his head off. Batista proceeded to brutally attack Mysterio, turning heel in the process.[110] Batista faced Mysterio on November 22 at Survivor Series, where Batista won via referee stoppage after delivering three Batista Bombs to Mysterio.[111] Batista defeated Mysterio again in a street fight on the December 11 episode of SmackDown.[112] A few weeks later, Batista lost to Mysterio in a number one contenders match for the World Heavyweight Championship;[113] Mysterio's title match against The Undertaker ended as a no-contest after interference from Batista.[114] On December 13 at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Batista faced Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship in a Chairs match. Batista initially won the match and the title, but SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long reversed the decision because Batista had hit Undertaker with a low blow behind the referee's back. The match was restarted with The Undertaker winning and retaining the championship.[115]
Batista then became involved in WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and Bret Hart's rivalry in February 2010 by assisting McMahon in attacking Hart; John Cena attempted to save Hart, but was assaulted by Batista.[116] On February 21 at Elimination Chamber, as payment for Batista attacking Hart, McMahon allowed Batista to face Cena for the WWE Championship immediately after Cena won the title in an Elimination Chamber match. Batista won the match and thus his second WWE Championship, which resulted in Batista moving back to Raw.[117] On March 28 at WrestleMania XXVI, Batista lost the WWE Championship to John Cena in a rematch, ending his reign at 35 days.[118][119] Batista received his rematch for the title in a Last Man Standing match on April 25 at Extreme Rules, but was defeated by Cena after Cena duct-taped his legs around a ring post, preventing him from standing up.[120] Batista and Cena faced off once again for the WWE Championship on May 23 at Over the Limit, but he failed again to regain the title from Cena in an "I Quit" match, quitting as Cena threatened to give him the Attitude Adjustment off the roof of a car. Cena did so anyway, throwing Batista off of the car and through the stage below.[121]
The following night on Raw, Batista opened the show in a wheelchair and claimed that he would be pursuing legal action against Cena and WWE for his injuries (which he revealed in 2014 to be a legitimate compression fracture of his L1 spine).[122] His promo was interrupted by new Raw General Manager Bret Hart, who ordered he face an injured Randy Orton to qualify for a shot at WWE Championship against Cena again at the new Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view. Batista refused and quit the company after Hart named Orton winner by forfeit. His profile was subsequently moved to the alumni page on WWE's website.[123] He later said in an interview that he left WWE because he "did not like the direction the company was going in".[124]
Return to WWE (2013–2014)
On the December 23, 2013 episode of Raw, a vignette aired announcing the return of Batista on January 20, 2014 episode of Raw.[125] It was later announced that Batista would be participating in the 2014 Royal Rumble match.[126] Batista returned as a face to confront WWE World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton on the January 20 Raw, and vowed to win the Royal Rumble match and become champion at WrestleMania XXX. Later that night, Batista confronted Alberto Del Rio, who had been trash talking him for several weeks, and eventually attacked him with a Batista Bomb.[127] Six days later at the Royal Rumble, Batista entered the Rumble match at number 28 and last eliminated Roman Reigns to win the match, becoming the fifth wrestler to win multiple Rumble matches, and the first, and so far only multi-time Royal Rumble winner to win from the same entrant number (28).[128] The live crowd reacted negatively towards Batista's win, as Daniel Bryan did not take part in the match. Despite a positive reaction originally, the crowd began to boo Batista after Reigns was eliminated.[129] After the show went off the air, Batista mocked Bryan and gestured his middle finger at the crowd.[130] According to Batista, he thought a return as face was a bad idea because of the fans being so invested in Daniel Bryan's "Yes Movement".[131] On the February 3 Raw, Batista was confronted and was ultimately assaulted by Del Rio before chasing him off.[132] Batista retaliated the following week, powerbombing Del Rio through the announce table.[133]
At the Elimination Chamber event and on the following Raw, Batista was heavily booed by the fans during matches against Del Rio.[134] Batista won the match at Elimination Chamber, but continued to suffer a torrid fan reaction with "Boo-tista" chants.[135] Batista responded to the audience on the February 28 episode of SmackDown, saying that he did not come back to be liked, then mocked the other wrestlers by stating that they were not "real men" and promised to be the next WWE World Heavyweight Champion, thus turning heel.[136] After Orton retained his title at the Elimination Chamber, the scheduled WrestleMania XXX main event was Batista vs. Orton, however Bryan was added to the match after defeating Triple H in the opening contest of the show. Batista ultimately lost the triple threat match at WrestleMania after Bryan forced him to submit to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[137]
The next night on Raw, Batista and Orton teamed together to face The Usos for the WWE Tag Team Championship, but the match ended in a double count out.[138] Later that night, Batista and Orton, along with Kane, attacked Bryan before he was set to defend his title against Triple H. Before Triple H could defeat Bryan, The Shield interrupted by spearing Triple H and taking out Batista, Orton and Kane, causing Bryan to retain his title via disqualification.[139] On the April 14 episode of Raw, Batista, Triple H and Randy Orton came down to the ring to attack The Shield after their 11-on-3 handicap match, using the name and the theme of Evolution.[140] At both Extreme Rules and Payback, Evolution lost to The Shield.[141][142] On the June 2 episode of Raw, Batista quit WWE after Triple H denied him a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.[143]
After the episode, he made one last appearance for WWE at an NXT event on June 12 as a face cutting a promo with Bo Dallas before attacking him with a spinebuster, and receiving cheers again from the fans.[144] Batista legitimately quit the WWE due to creative differences soon after.[145][146]
In April 2015, Batista said that he would be interested in returning to WWE, but only at non-televised events.[147] He was contacted to appear at WrestleMania 32 in 2016, but turned down the offer.[148] Regarding his last tenure in professional wrestling, he said that his greatest achievement was "putting guys over" and "repaying favors".[149]
Second return to WWE (2018-present)
On October 16, 2018, Batista reunited with the rest of Evolution for an appearance on SmackDown's 1000th episode.[150] On February 25, 2019, Batista returned to Raw and attacked Ric Flair backstage as Flair was about to make an appearance for his 70th birthday celebration, subsequently calling out Triple H.[151]
Professional wrestling style and persona
Batista Bomb, on Batista performing his finshing move, the, on Finlay at a WWE house show in 2006
Batista utilized a sit-out powerbomb, named the Batista Bomb in WWE, or the Demon Bomb during his time in OVW.[152] He also used a spear and a spinebuster as occasional finishers.[5][152]
Upon his return to WWE in 2014, Batista was heavily booed by the crowd after winning the Royal Rumble, despite playing a face character.[153] In an interview with WWE.com, Batista said regarding the crowd reaction that "it was weird. It wasn’t like a normal response. It was almost like a personal attack. It had to do with factors that were not in my control, factors and things that were going on in the company with other people, stuff that really had nothing to do with me. To me, it was a little frustrating, a little confusing, and, you know, I don’t want to say I completely took it personal, but I did somewhat."[154] The fan reaction caused Batista to turn prematurely heel.[136] He was declared as the 50th greatest wrestling villain of all time by a WWE article in 2012.[155] WWE has also ranked him as the second best World Heavyweight Champion of all time.[156]
Mixed martial arts career
After leaving WWE, Bautista attended Strikeforce: Los Angeles on June 16, 2010, having previously registered an interest in competing in mixed martial arts. On June 21, 2010, Bautista announced to TMZ.com that he would be embarking on an MMA career.[159] He also became a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under the tutelage of Cesar Gracie.[23]
Bautista had announced that he and Strikeforce had agreed on a price and were negotiating a contract. However, in April 2011, Batista announced to TMZ.com that negotiating a contract with Strikeforce fell through when Strikeforce was bought by Zuffa, LLC.[160]
The closing moments of Bautista's win against Vince Lucero in 2012
Bautista was expected to make his MMA debut against Rashid Evans (not Rashad Evans) on October 6, 2012 at Classic Entertainment and Sports: Real Pain in Providence, Rhode Island.[161] However, on October 1, 2012, it was announced that Evans was forced out of the bout after a probation violation landed him back in jail. With Bautista's MMA debut still on for the event, Evans was replaced by journeyman and 40-fight veteran Vince Lucero. Batista would go on to win the fight by TKO at 4:05 in the first round.[162]
Mixed martial arts record
Professional record breakdown 1 match 1 win 0 losses By knockout 1 0
Res. Record Opponent Method Event Date Round Time Location Notes Win 1–0 Vince Lucero TKO (punches) CES MMA: Real Pain October 6, 2012 1 4:05 Providence, Rhode Island, United States
Acting career
Film career
Bautista worked alongside Rob Van Dam, Marrese Crump and Ja Rule in the action film titled Wrong Side of Town.[163]
Bautista appeared as the villainous Brass Body in the Universal Studios film The Man with the Iron Fists. He played Drax the Destroyer in the 2014 Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy, which was a critical and commercial success.[164] He played Mr. Hinx in the James Bond film, Spectre (2015), and starred as the villain Tong Po in the reboot of the 1989 martial arts film Kickboxer, opposite Georges St-Pierre.[165] Bautista joined the cast of Blade Runner 2049 as Sapper Morton, which was released on October 6, 2017.[166] He reprised his role as Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, released in May 2017[167] and Avengers: Infinity War, released in April 2018. In January 2019, Bautista was cast in the upcoming Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Dune.[168]
In 2018, Batista joined the rest of his supporting cast as they showed strong support to Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn after his firing for old tweets joking about pedophilia and rape.[169] Batista went a step further, and declared that if Disney (parent company of Marvel Studios) would not use Gunn's script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, that he would ask to be recast, calling Gunn's firing "nauseating".[170]
Other media
Batista at a WWE meet and greet in 2005
In addition to wrestling, Bautista has been in several commercials and on several magazine covers. He was shown breakdancing in a commercial promoting WWE SummerSlam in 2004 where he did his take on a "floor routine", a routine that parodied the floor routines shown at the Olympic Games.[171] He was also on the cover of the April 2005 Flex[172] and Muscle & Fitness for September 2008.[173]
Moreover, Bautista has acted and has guest-starred in several television shows as both himself and in-character as Batista. He guest-starred in the eighth episode of season 6 of the American drama action/adventure television series Smallville; he played an extraterrestrial alien named Aldar that escaped from the Phantom Zone, who sucks the bones out of people for nourishment.[174] Along with John Cena and Ashley Massaro, Bautista appeared representing WWE on an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in January 2007, giving the kids of the family whose house was renovated WWE merchandise and eight tickets to WrestleMania 23.[175]
During the week of November 5, 2007, he appeared on Family Feud with several other WWE superstars.[176] On September 7, 2008, he appeared on an episode of Iron Chef America as one of the judges, with snails as the theme ingredient.[177] Bautista, along with Candice Michelle, Shelton Benjamin, and Josh Mathews, represented the WWE at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in an effort to persuade fans to register to vote in the 2008 presidential election.[178] Batista has also appeared on MTV Cribs showing his house and his cars.[179]
On May 2, 2009, he was shown on camera where he accompanied boxer and fellow Filipino Manny Pacquiao in his fight against British boxer Ricky Hatton in which Pacquiao won in the second round. He told The Sun that he loves Hatton, but Manny is in a league of his own and he tends to support his fellow Filipinos out of patriotism, adding that he is thrilled to be there to support Manny before his bout.[180]
In June 2009, Bautista made a cameo appearance as himself in an episode of the Australian soap opera Neighbours.[181] In 2010, he made an appearance on an episode of Chuck.[182] He has also made a cameo appearance in Relative Strangers.[16]
Dave Bautista had his first biographical DVD released through WWE Productions entitled Batista: I Walk Alone. It was released October 20, 2009.[183]
In August 2010, Bautista, in conjunction with The South of France Spa Naturals and Monday Night Mayhem wrestling released a video to obtain monetary contributions to Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. The video showed Bautista in various locales and included his long-time friend and veteran mixed martial arts fighter Imani Lee, his friend and trainer, Marrese Crump, his daughter, Athena and ex-wife Angie. Bautista dedicated the video to Angie, who has battled ovarian cancer for several years and is in remission.
Controversies
Incident with Booker T
Batista's backstage problems continued at the 2006 SummerSlam pay-per-view commercial shoot. Batista got into a real-life fistfight with Booker T. The incident was reported on WWE.com, with both men telling their sides of the story. Booker T believed that Batista considered himself to be better than the rest of the roster due to his main event status and relatively quick climb to achieve it. Wrestlers backstage were praising Booker for speaking his mind to Batista about his attitude.[184][185][186]
Steroid allegations
In August 2007, ESPN incorrectly included Batista on a list of names that they claimed were clients of Signature Pharmacy of Orlando, Florida, one of many pharmacies under investigation for illicitly providing anabolic steroids.[187] Batista released a statement denying ESPN's allegations and was furious over the report. He denied ever being a customer of Signature and stated that he has been "tested regularly by the WWE, and I am in full compliance with the WWE Wellness Program".[188] WWE suspended ten wrestlers named in the statement; Batista was not one of them.[189]
Personal life
Bautista in July 2013
Bautista married his first wife, Glenda, in 1990. They had two daughters named Keilani (born 1990) and Athena (born 1992) before divorcing in 1998.[190] Bautista married his second wife, Angie, on October 13, 1998; they divorced in 2006.[191] Before the age of 40, Bautista already had two grandsons through Keilani.[192][193] During his marriage to Angie, he became an avid collector of vintage metal lunchboxes. His favorite is the 1967 Green Hornet lunchbox as it has Bruce Lee on it. This collection started when he bought Angie an E.T. lunchbox and she did not want to break it, so he bought a second one.[194] In October 2015, he married competitive pole dancer Sarah Jade.[195]
On October 16, 2007, Bautista's autobiography, Batista Unleashed, was released.[24] In an interview about the book, he claimed, "I didn't want to tell my story unless it was honest... you have to go through three sets of lawyers: Simon & Schuster lawyers, WWE lawyers, my lawyers. Everything now being the way it is, you can be sued for the simplest thing."[196] One source of controversy was the book's mentioning of Chris Benoit, who was almost completely removed due to his double murder and suicide. Bautista responded, "I loved the guy. I despise what he did, but that doesn't erase him from my life. I fought to keep him in there and glad they did."[196] When asked about his ex-wife, Angie, he says, "[We] have really become close again, which we really haven't been in years. I really learned a lot about her, and she learned a lot about me from reading the book. She actually saw things from a different perspective from reading the book. So that was definitely therapeutic."[196]
He has numerous tattoos, including a large dragon on his back, red Kanji lettering on his upper left biceps which says "Angel" in tribute to Angie, a signature design on his upper right biceps, and a small sun on his stomach which encircles his belly button.[197] He also has a tattoo on his arm of the flags of Greece and the Philippines. While taking time off due to injury in 2009, he had both upper arms covered in large, tribal style tattoos, including the phrase "DC soldier" on his right bicep.[198]
Bautista supported Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential election, citing his support for women's rights and LGBT rights.[199]
Filmography
Web series Year Title Role Notes 2016 The #Hashtagged Show Dr. Jason Rush 2 episodes
Short films Year Title Role Notes 2017 2048: Nowhere to Run Sapper Morton Short film
Championships and accomplishments
Batista during his second World Heavyweight Championship reign
See also |
Light? Dark? Expansion Packs? – Are We Still Talking About Skylanders? By Matt Sonnenberg | Categories: News | |
If you were still doubting the existence of the new Light and Dark Skylanders, your time is up.
New Pictures
We now have images of the Light and Dark Trap Masters:
We also have images of the Trap sculpts that are exclusive to these new elements:
And finally, we get a look at the two new Level pieces that will accompany the new figures:
You can find larger images on the SCL Facebook Page.
Expansion Packs
One of the biggest questions surrounding the Light and Dark Elements is how they would be distributed. Would they all be individual pieces? Would they be in Adventure Packs?
Well, we now have an answer for that too.
When the new Elements are finally released, we will be seeing a new pack called an Expansion Pack. These Expansion Packs will include:
1 Trap Master
1 Trap
1 Level
What We Don't Know
We still do not have a release date for the Light and Dark Elements.
The appearance of these images is a positive sign, but nothing official has surfaced yet.
We still do not have an official price for the Expansion Packs.
There are rumors floating around as usual, but I hope you know by now that I am not in the business of starting or spreading rumors. |
Stripper Belinda Medlyn talks about having a child with NRL star Bodene Thompson after sex romps with groups of players.
NRL star Bodene Thompson has broken his silence on his group sex scandal with some shock allegations of his own.
The 29-year-old Warriors forward was on Tuesday embroiled in a messy group sex scandal following allegations from his former partner that he broke team rules to have sex before NRL matches and engaged in group sex with teammates.
Sydney Penthouse model and stripper Belinda Medlyn told The Daily Telegraph she consented to group sex with the former Gold Coast, Wests Tigers and New Zealand Warriors star and his teammates.
The pair has a 15-month-old son Hendrix, who was conceived in 2015 while one of Thompson’s teammates watched on, The Daily Telegraph revealed.
Their relationship has turned into an ugly dispute over finances to raise their child.
Medlyn claims Thompson has been late in making child support payments.
Thompson’s lawyer has said his client “doesn’t owe a cent”.
Now the NRL player has responded to Medlyn’s claims by issuing a statement to Channel 9.
Thompson claimed Ms Medlyn approached him in June threatening to expose the story unless he gave her $50,000.
“I refused to pay her this money on the basis that I was already paying her child support ...” he said.
“I wish to make a statement in relation to the latest media reports regarding my private life and family,” Thompson said in the statement reported by Channel 9 reported Danny Weidler.
“I am most concerned that these allegations, which occurred many years ago, have been raised so publicly ... to the detriment of myself and my child. This story has no benefit except to attempt to smear my reputation.
“The allegations and the fact that they have been raised so publicly are extremely hurtful to my family and I.
“I hope everyone can appreciate and respect my family’s privacy, particularly in light of there being a young child involved in this matter and my main objective is to protect him from these indelible articles being circulated.
“Although I do not wish to give any more oxygen to this story, I believe it is important to put the facts on the table.
“Ms Medlyn approached me in June 2017 threatening that she would expose this story ... I was already paying her child support as assessed by the Child Support Agency.
“I love my son and I have been striving to have a relationship with him. Ms Medlyn has made this difficult, however I continue to seek avenues to pursue having a proper relationship with my son.
“I continue to meet all of my financial obligations to my son and work hard to ensure his future.”
Medlyn initially told The Daily Telegraph the NRL has a “pack mentality” culture which makes players believe they can get away with anything.
Medlyn told the Telegraph they would meet behind coaches’ backs at hotels and sent photos of friends to each other to consider for group sex.
Medlyn claims she met up with Thompson in team hotel rooms where they had sex before his NRL matches.
Steamy text messages the dancer and NRL star sent each other have been revealed by the Telegraph. In one of them, Thompson sends a photo of his teammate saying: “This guy is so keen to f*** you”.
Thompson first “met” Medlyn on social media. His Tigers teammates went to Townsville’s Santa Fe Gold strip club after a game against the Cowboys two seasons ago and although he wasn’t there, a dancer introduced the two on Instagram.
From there Medlyn and Thompson had sex at his Sydney apartment, her place at Coogee in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and hotel rooms.
Medlyn said the culture in the NRL makes players believe they can get away with anything.
“There’s a pack mentality among NRL players,” she told the Telegraph.
“They think they’re rock stars who can do what they want, until it goes wrong.”
The Warriors on Tuesday also released a statement to declare the club does not plan to take any action against Thompson, saying the scandal is a “personal matter” between him and Medlyn. |
Female farmer could have made food, cloth or been a general labourer on a Roman farmstead centuries ago
© Worcestershire County Council
A young male who was decapitated after death before having his head placed by his legs has been identified as one of two Roman burials in Worcestershire, with the accompanying skeleton thought to have belonged to a woman over 50 who was laid to rest in an agricultural ceremony.Archaeologists digging at a primary school say the man, who was aged between 25 and 30, had signs of degenerative joints and osteoarthritis. It is unclear why the beheading ritual – a common post-mortem practice of the period – took place."This discovery seems to support evidence that during Roman times there were small farmsteads in Worcestershire, owned or run by a family,” said Tom Vaughan, an archaeologist on the dig.“The excavations are typical of Roman internments in the area and similar to recent excavations near Wyre Piddle and St John's, Worcester.“It is well known that there was Roman occupation around Bredon Hill."The recovery and analysis of the remains has provided important information which has contributed to the growing archaeological evidence for the nature of dispersed burial practices during the Roman period in rural Worcestershire."A set of hobnails found on the woman could indicate a “physically demanding” farming lifestyle. Recent research has suggested that female labourers would have been employed on farmsteads during the Roman era, preparing food, manufacturing cloth and carrying out general work.A selection of late Iron Age pots were found near the incomplete skeletons, with cropmarks of a possible trackway and enclosures supporting the theory that farming took place in the area. |
Having applied himself to what was not his own task, and not having applied himself to what was, having disregarded the goal to grasp at what he held dear, he now envies those who kept after themselves, took themselves to task.
Don't ever — regardless — be conjoined with what's dear or undear. It's painful not to see what's dear or to see what's not. So don't make anything dear, for it's dreadful to be far from what's dear. No bonds are found for those for whom there's neither dear nor undear.
One consummate in virtue & vision, judicious, speaking the truth, doing his own task: the world holds him dear.
If you've given birth to a wish for what can't be expressed, are suffused with heart, your mind not enmeshed in sensual passions: you're said to be in the up-flowing stream. |
13th November 2008, 10:20 pm
I read Max Rabkin’s recent post Beautiful folding with great excitement. He shows how to make combine multiple folds over the same list into a single pass, which can then drastically reduce memory requirements of a lazy functional program. Max’s trick is giving folds a data representation and a way to combine representations that corresponds to combining the folds.
Peeking out from behind Max’s definitions is a lovely pattern I’ve been noticing more and more over the last couple of years, namely type class morphisms.
Folds as data
Max gives a data representation of folds and adds on an post-fold step, which makes them composable.
data Fold b c = forall a. F (a -> b -> a) a (a -> c)
The components of a Fold are a (strict left) fold’s combiner function and initial value, plus a post-fold step. This interpretation is done by a function cfoldl' , which turns these data folds into function folds:
cfoldl' :: Fold b c -> [b] -> c cfoldl' (F op e k) = k . foldl' op e
where foldl' is the standard strict, left-fold functional:
foldl' :: (a -> b -> a) -> a -> [b] -> a foldl' op a [] = a foldl' op a (b:bs) = let a' = a `op` b in a' `seq` foldl' f a' bs
Standard classes
As Twan van Laarhoven pointed out in a comment on Max’s post, Fold b is a functor and an applicative functor, so some of Max’s Fold -manipulating functions can be replaced by standard vocabulary.
The Functor instance is pretty simple:
instance Functor (Fold b) where fmap h (F op e k) = F op e (h . k)
The Applicative instance is a bit trickier. For strictness, Max used used a type of strict pairs:
data Pair c c' = P !c !c'
The instance:
instance Applicative (Fold b) where pure a = F (error "no op") (error "no e") (const a) F op e k <*> F op' e' k' = F op'' e'' k'' where P a a' `op''` b = P (a `op` b) (a' `op'` b) e'' = P e e' k'' (P a a') = (k a) (k' a')
Given that Fold b is an applicative functor, Max’s bothWith function is then liftA2 . Max’s multi-cfoldl' rule then becomes:
forall c f g xs. h (cfoldl' f xs) (cfoldl' g xs) == cfoldl' (liftA2 h f g) xs
thus replacing two passes with one pass.
Beautiful properties
Now here’s the fun part. Looking at the Applicative instance for ((->) a) , the rule above is equivalent to
forall c f g. liftA2 h (cfoldl' f) (cfoldl' g) == cfoldl' (liftA2 h f g)
Flipped around, this rule says that liftA2 distributes over cfoldl' . Or, “the meaning of liftA2 is liftA2 “. Neat, huh?
Moreover, this liftA2 property is equivalent to the following:
forall f g. cfoldl' f <*> cfoldl' g == cfoldl' (f <*> g)
This form is one of the two Applicative morphism laws (which I usually write in the reverse direction):
For more about these morphisms, see Simplifying semantics with type class morphisms. That post suggests that semantic functions in particular ought to be type class morphisms (and if not, then you’d have an abstraction leak). And cfoldl' is a semantic function, in that it gives meaning to a Fold .
The other type class morphisms in this case are
cfoldl' (pure a ) == pure a cfoldl' (fmap h f) == fmap h (cfoldl' f)
Given the Functor and Applicative instances of ((->) a) , these two properties are equivalent to
cfoldl' (pure a ) == const a cfoldl' (fmap h f) == h . cfoldl' f
or
cfoldl' (pure a ) xs == a cfoldl' (fmap h f) xs == h (cfoldl' f xs)
Rewrite rules
Max pointed out that GHC does not handle his original multi-cfoldl' rule. The reason is that the head of the LHS (left-hand side) is a variable. However, the type class morphism laws have constant (known) functions at the head, so I expect they could usefully act as fusion rewrite rules.
Inevitable instances
Given the implementations (instances) of Functor and Applicative for Fold , I’d like to verify that the morphism laws for cfoldl' (above) hold.
Functor
Start with fmap . The morphism law:
cfoldl' (fmap h f) == fmap h (cfoldl' f)
First, give the Fold argument more structure, so that (without loss of generality) the law becomes
cfoldl' (fmap h (F op e k)) == fmap h (cfoldl' (F op e k))
The game is to work backward from this law to the definition of fmap for Fold . I’ll do so by massaging the RHS (right-hand side) into the form cfoldl' (...) , where “ ... ” is the definition fmap h (F op e k) .
fmap h (cfoldl' (F op e k)) == {- inline cfoldl' -} fmap h (k . foldl' op e) == {- inline fmap on functions -} h . (k . foldl' op e) == {- associativity of (.) -} (h . k) . foldl' op e == {- uninline cfoldl' -} cfoldl' (F op e (h . k)) == {- uninline fmap on Fold -} cfoldl' (fmap h (F op e k))
This proof show why Max had to add the post-fold function k to his Fold type. If k weren’t there, we couldn’t have buried the h in it.
More usefully, this proof suggests how we could have discovered the fmap definition. For instance, we might have tried with a simpler and more obvious Fold representation:
data FoldS a b = FS (a -> b -> a) a
Getting into the fmap derivation, we’d come to
h . foldsl' op e
and then we’d be stuck. But not really, because the awkward extra bit ( h . ) beckons us to generalize by adding Max’s post-fold function.
Applicative
Next pure:
cfoldl' (pure a) == pure a
Reason as before, starting with the RHS
pure a == {- inline pure on functions -} const a == {- property of const -} const a . foldl op e == {- uninline cfoldl' -} cfoldl' (F (const a) op e)
The imaginative step was inventing structure to match the definition of cfoldl' . This definition is true for any values of op and e , so we can use bottom in the definition:
instance Applicative (Fold b) where pure a = F undefined undefined (const a)
As Twan noticed, the existential ( forall ) also lets us pick defined values for op and e . He chose (_ _ -> ()) and () .
The derivation of (<*>) is trickier and is the heart of the problem of fusing folds to reduce multiple traversals to a single one. Why the heart? Because (<*>) is all about combining two things into one.
Intermission
I’m taking a break here. While fiddling with a proof of the (<*>) morphism law, I realized a simpler way to structure these folds, which will be the topic of an upcoming post.
I read Max Rabkin’s recent post Beautiful folding with great excitement. He shows how to make combine multiple folds over the same list into a single pass, which can then... |
The National Secular Society has written to the Department for Education and Ofsted calling for a fresh inspection of an Islamic school where pupils are reportedly banned from socialising with "outsiders".
Sky News reported on 25 July that the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic Institute of Education in Dewsbury threatens students with expulsion if they socialise with non-Muslims, and that boarders are banned from using televisions and cameras, as well as music players, mobile phones and other "items that are prohibited in Islam".
Pupils must wear strict Islamic dress and receive no formal sex education at the independent faith school.
However despite this, the last inspection by Ofsted in 2011 rated the school as "good".
Ofsted praised the school for the "excellent tracking and assessment system in place" for lessons on the memorisation of the Quran. The inspection report said that "Qur'anic memorisation [is] outstanding."
The 2011 inspection found that "students have an excellent understanding of their own Muslim culture" but have "no first-hand experiences" at all to "extend their empathy with differing cultural groups in society both at home and overseas."
The school says it aims to "create competent native Islamic scholars."
The Ofsted report recommended that the school develop "links with other schools to provide students with opportunities to socialise and learn with their peers in different environments", which is in stark contrast to the rules uncovered by Sky News which prohibit social interactions with non-Muslims.
Since 2014, independent schools have been required to "actively promote" the fundamental values "of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."
The National Secular Society has written to the Department for Education and Ofsted calling for an inspection to take place under the new rules as a matter of urgency.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "The most recent inspection of the Tablighi Jamaat Islamic Institute of Education predates the revision of the regulations, but we believe there are serious doubts as to whether the school sufficiently met the standards in operation at the time of its previous inspection.
"A fresh inspection is therefore necessary to ensure that the school is meeting the New Independent School Standards and adequately preparing its students for life in modern Britain.
"It is important that throughout all aspects of education there is an emphasis on the basic values that underpin a free, equal and progressive society. No establishment found to be involved in promoting ideas that are counter-cohesive, separatist and contrary to the values outlined in the standards should be permitted to operate as registered school."
The National Secular Society responded to a Government consultation on the new standards for independent schools in August 2014, and warned at the time that any attempt to tackle extremism in schools would be "undermined by an education system that encourages faith based schools and allows children … to be separated according to the religious beliefs of their parents."
The new guidance states that "pupils must be encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance".
The Prime Minister recently made a significant speech on tackling extremism in which he said that "it cannot be right" that "people can grow up and go to school and hardly ever come into meaningful contact with people from other backgrounds and faiths."
While the NSS welcomed much of his speech, his refusal to tackle faith schools ignored a key factor which drives ethnic and social segregation in the UK today.
David Cameron added that "you don't have to support violence to subscribe to certain intolerant ideas which create a climate in which extremists can flourish."
Mr Evans added, "The insular nature of the Institute of Islamic Education and its prohibition on socialising with non-Muslims sounds like a case study in what the Prime Minister warned about. We hope a new investigation is carried out as soon as possible." |
Update (12/18/2013): Tried these pickles tonight! While the flavor is on-point, the texture of the pickled parsnips is weird, they are slightly chewy. I recommend either cutting out the parsnip core/rind before pickling or coining the parsnips.
Need a quick, simple, spicy, and salty fix? These pickles may be your answer. Depending on your preference, you can easily modify this recipe by adding more or less of any of the dry ingredients. Or you could get creative and try different spice combinations. I’ve made countless variations of these pickles using yellow mustard seed; curious to taste the flavor differences between yellow and black mustard seeds, I experimented by swapping in black mustard for yellow in half of the pint jars. As soon as I open a jar, I’ll report back with my findings. If you didn’t notice it, these are essentially the same pickles using the same ingredients (albeit a different veggie) and ratios as the ZydeGo beans posted a couple of weeks ago, the only difference here is the red pepper flake substitution and the addition of bay leaves.
On another note, over the past two weeks we have been weighing our kitchen scraps to determine daily load and size requirements for our planned vermicompost (worm) bin. I am happy to report that this recipe produced a whopping 1lb 8oz of bountiful waste! I would be interested to hear if any great success stories of apartment scale vermaculture. Odors? Compost yield? Other pests? Any advice related to the matter would be greatly appreciated.
Lastly, I have added a links page to the site showcasing a few of my relevant go-to blogs. This list is in no way complete and it will continue to grow as I increase my network and blog queue. I welcome any suggestions and reciprocal blog love! |
ATLANTA (AP) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that one of his top priorities is investigating and prosecuting sex crimes against children despite technology that has made it easier for criminals to avoid detection.
Sessions spoke to police and prosecutors gathered in Atlanta for a conference on child exploitation, including child pornography and sex trafficking. Sessions, a former prosecutor in Alabama, acknowledged the challenges law enforcement face, including technology that allows predators to go undetected while phones and tablets make it easier to reach young children.
“Nothing less than a united effort will be enough to keep our children from becoming victims of exploitation,” Sessions said. “It will take all of us - investigators, prosecutors and victim support specialists; teachers, parents and concerned citizens.”
Sessions warned predators they will be found and prosecuted, citing recent federal cases that involved law enforcement working across state lines in Alabama and Georgia to arrest 29 people suspected of possession and distribution of child pornography, and a Kansas child pornography distribution case prompted by several callers to a police tip-line.
Sessions strayed briefly from his prepared remarks to reiterate his belief that tougher tactics compared to those favored by the Obama administration will lower violent crime overall and could reduce the soaring number of drug overdose deaths.
“The murder rate a few years ago was half what it was in 1980, a tremendous achievement,” Sessions said. “But the truth is, we’re seeing something that I don’t think is a blip. We had an 11 percent increase in murder last year.”
According to the latest FBI statistics for 2015, the estimated number of murders increased by 10.8 percent from the previous year. The FBI said the total was a 9.3 percent drop since estimates in 2006.
Sessions said incarceration may be the only sure way to stop people accused of committing sex crimes against children from abusing others in the future. Critics say more imprisonment will make prisons overcrowded without a long-term benefit.
Sessions didn’t address Trump’s recent criticism of the Department of Justice. On Monday, the president took to Twitter to blast the department’s legal strategy for depending a travel ban before the U.S. Supreme Court.
He also didn’t reference a government contractor in Georgia who was charged on Monday with leading a classified report containing “Top Secret level” information to an online news organization. The woman’s attorney has declined to confirm whether she is accused of leaking an NSA report on Russian hackers. The report was published online Monday by The Intercept.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. |
Why is Christianity conservative? (By conservative, I mean “believing in the value of established and traditional practices in politics and society,” as defined by Merriam-Webster.)
On one hand, it’s obvious why a religion would be conservative. Religions preserve a particular social order. They’re like many other institutions or movements that want constancy in a particular area of society like the Freemasons or other fraternal organizations, the National Wildlife Federation or other nature conservation organizations, a constitution, proponents of a traditional language or culture, or labor unions.
A religion like Christianity has a particular need to be conservative and reject new ideas since they already have the perfect plan given by a perfect source.
On the other hand, Christianity in many ways welcomes change. Many Christians feel free to declare other church leaders or traditions to be heretical. Christianity is the opposite of conservative when you consider its 45,000 denominations, which are expected to grow to 70,000 by 2050. But then every new denomination becomes a stake in the ground, a conservative position that must be defended, a hill to die on.
The fact is that social improvement comes from change. Slavery in the U.S. was allowed, and now it’s not. Polygamy was allowed, and now it’s not. Voting and other civil rights were not given to women and certain classes of people, and now they are. Alcohol was allowed, then prohibited, and then allowed. Western society is satisfied that these issues are now resolved for the better.
Where does social change come from?
I’ll grant that Christianity can’t embrace every crazy new social fad. But Christianity isn’t an ordinary institution; it’s supposed to be the only one that comes from God. It’s perfect. So it should know what the correct moral response is. It should be leading the parade and giving us the bitter but necessary medicine to make society a better place on a dozen important issues.
But it doesn’t work that way. Why does the church make no moral commands that we moderns find shockingly advanced? The shocking thing is when their position is too backwards, making the Bible look like just another ancient book.
Imagine our descendants in a future society. They will probably have adopted additional social changes. Whatever these changes are, can you imagine Christianity driving the change? It never has in the past: give me one example where Christianity led a reluctant society through a social change that is now almost universally accepted.
I’m sure the institution of slavery will spring to mind for some readers (William Wilberforce and all that), but Old Testament slavery was the same as American slavery, and the Bible gives more support for the slave owner than the abolitionist. If any other counterexamples come to mind, I’ll also want to see that (1) Jesus unambiguously advocated for this position and (2) the early church advocated for this position. Rejection of slavery or polygamy? Prohibition? Civil rights for minorities, immigrants, and women? Education rather than work for children? Laws against mixed-race marriages? Why did society have to inform the church the correct path on these issues?
Christian response
I’ve heard several Christian responses.
1. Christians and Christian movements have been the drivers of change on many of these issues!
Christians and Christian movements have been on both sides of these issues, giving no clear Christian position. We don’t see clear guidance from Jesus, and these are modern concerns, not ones that the Christian church understood since its earliest days.
Take one specific example: the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1963 that abolished pay differences based on sex. There might have been a Christians in favor of it primarily for biblical reasons, but that’s not what we’re looking for. There was no unified voice pushing for this from Christians and their churches, raising the issue when the majority of society didn’t even know there was a problem. That’s what you’d need to argue that Christianity did indeed have the one correct moral viewpoint.
The major social changes we’ve touched on—abolition, civil rights, and so on—happened more than a thousand years after the early church. The push for change often came from Christians, but these Christians weren’t simply pointing out truths that were plainly in the Bible all along. Christians advocating for change on these issues were not acting as students of the Bible; rather, they were products of the Enlightenment and modernity.
2. Perhaps Old Testament morality and modern morality are both right. God might simply be waiting for us to mature so that we can accept more demanding moral standards.
This argument is just an attempt to explain away the immorality we find in the Old Testament.
Yet again, I’m looking for evidence of the church on the cutting edge of social change. For example, imagine that the Baptist Church declared slavery immoral long before all Americans were ready for it, and then all other denominations quickly supported that position. (History records that the Quaker church was a vocal opponent to slavery in the late 1600s, but it was a voice in the wilderness. The Baptist church split over the issue of slavery, and the Southern Baptist Church apologized for its pro-slavery origin only in 1995.)
Same-sex marriage will be an interesting example to watch. Opponents of SSM say that their church’s rejection is justified, just like supporters of the Catholic Church will say that its stand against contraception is justified. But this isn’t social change, it’s just social conservativism.
I predict that in a couple of decades, SSM will be accepted and uncontroversial. Churches will be pointing to the bold few Christian martyrs who supported it in the early days, trying to recast history to show their church as a pioneer. But we return to the question, Why did the church not lead the charge? Why is the church conservative on social issues, not progressive?
Christianity tells us that it has the one correct worldview. This argument fails because Christianity is a fragmented battlefield with no unanimity on any social issue and because Christianity has never dragged a reluctant society into a new understanding on a social issue that is later accepted as correct. If it were the one correct religion, as it claims, it would be leading the charge on every social issue.
See also: “Is America the Greatest Country in the World? A Rant.”
The American Jesus is more a pawn than a king,
pushed around in a complex game of cultural (and countercultural) chess,
sacrificed here for this cause and there for another.
— Stephen Prothero, American Jesus
Photo credit: zzclef, flickr, CC |
Property-based testing XSLT
Property-based testing is a wonderful tool to verify correctness of your programs. However, some people struggle with finding reasonable cases to use the technique. In this entry, I'll try to prove that property-based testing can be used in every-day coding by showing a rather exotic example of applying property-based testing to check results of XSL transformations.
This post is part of the F# Advent Calendar in English 2015 action. Big thanks go to Sergey Tihon for organizing such a great initiative. Make sure to go check out rest of posts as well.
Prelude
I've been constantly postponing creation of my own blog. There were books and video courses which did encourage me to start, however I wasn't confident enough to do so. The F# Advent event convinced me to break the ice - "at least I'll have any readers", I thought.
This is my first blog post ever, so chances are it's not gonna be the best F# article you've ever read. Anyway bear with me - I think I've got something interesting to share.
Automatic publishing
My job is to develop and maintain a Content Management System (CMS). The company I work for is a big corporation and because big corporation often equals enterprise software, we deal a lot with the programmers' (especially Java) beloved enterprise format, namely XML. We store all the documents in the XML format, conforming to the DITA XML standard (with slight customizations).
Crucial part of the system is its publishing capability. In order to render PDF documents, we utilize third-party software. Within the software, the whole process of rendering printable documents can be cleverly automated by reusing a common template and applying different sets of content to it. To apply some content to the template, input format of the content must be XML which conforms to a provided schema (other than DITA). How do we prepare the input to manipulate the template? XML in, XML out - you guessed it, we do XSLT.
XSLT probably doesn't stand for one of the finest tools that every developer likes to work with. Verbose syntax (xsl transformation itself must be a valid XML), dynamic typing, immature tooling or template matching ambiguity are IMO the biggest cons of working with XSLT. It is based on functional concepts though, which after a while makes it a bit more attractive than it initially seemed to be. Be aware, one day I might even happen to write a post or two on XSLT only (that's what they call Stockholm syndrome, isn't it?). I'm playing a devil's advocate, you may think, but there's one gloomy thing about this DSL I'll have to admit: XSLT can get really hard to maintain and tricky after it reaches a certain level of complexity. That's why we have automated tests suite in our code-base, just to address XSL transformations. Majority of them are written in F# using a powerful library for property-based testing, FsCheck.
If you're new to the concept of property-based testing and using FsCheck library, I highly recommend reading this introductory article by Scott Wlaschin. There is also another great post on that blog, which talks about choosing properties for testing.
DITA XML
Let's have a quick glance at the DITA XML standard first, to grasp the idea of how the documents are stored.
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: < topic > < title > My first publication </ title > < body > < p > Hello < b > world! </ b ></ p > </ body > </ topic >
Above snippet describes a basic document, which contains a title element as well as body and a p (paragraph) inside that body. Both title and body are enclosed in root topic element. Such notation may look familiar to you already - DITA XML is akin to HTML markup. Inside the body we can also have such elements as image , table , h1 , h2 , etc.
To make things simple, snippets that follow are kind of "slimmed" versions of original code. I was too lazy to verify if they even compile - so please treat them as pseudo-code rather than copy-pastable pieces. After all, I think what matters the most is the idea itself of applying property-based tests to various use cases.
Generator
FsCheck can automatically generate random input for tests as long as generators for corresponding data types are registered within the assembly. The library comes with a few pre-registered generators for: primitive types, F# records or Discriminated Unions. However, in order to generate more fancy data structures, we have to do some manual work.
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: let title = gen { let! contents = contents return XElement ( "title" , contents ) } let body = gen { let! items = Gen . oneOf [ p ; table ; image ] |> Gen . listOf return XElement ( "body" , items ) } let topic = gen { let! title = title let! body = body return XElement ( "topic" , title , body ) }
To produce DITA XML documents, I use the XML object model from System.Xml.Linq namespace and gen computation expression from FsCheck. Given such granular generators, it's very convenient to compose them together - e.g. topic element generator makes use of title and body element generators.
Other generators which are used by, but not listed in above snippet include:
contents , for contents of a paragraph or title - literal strings with possible formatting (bold, italics, etc.),
, for contents of a paragraph or title - literal strings with possible formatting (bold, italics, etc.), p , for plain paragraph elements,
, for plain paragraph elements, table , for tables which conform to CALS Table schema,
, for tables which conform to CALS Table schema, image , for images with a source reference to a given graphic file.
Computation expression allows to define generators in similar to imperative paradigm fashion, what makes it easier for my colleagues to comprehend.
Tests
Implementation of a couple of helper functions is skipped for brevity as well, let's just assume we are given the following:
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: /// takes path to the XSLT file and input document /// returns the result of transformation val xsltTransform : string -> XDocument -> XDocument /// pretty-print XML Document for inspection val format : XDocument -> string /// checks whether XML document conforms to the provided XML Schema val conformsToSchema : XDocument -> bool /// generic function to traverse the XML tree /// can evaluate to string, bool, or "evaluator" (iterable sequence of nodes) /// use with caution! - it throws exceptions e.g. in case of invalid casts val xpath < ' a > : string -> XNode -> ' a /// takes input and output XML document /// returns sequence of pairs of objects (input * output) /// where an object is XML element representing a table or image val allObjects : XDocument * XDocument -> seq < XElement * XElement > /// determines proper width for "layout" attribute /// e.g. "narrow" can be "80mm" and "medium" can be "120mm" val layoutToWidth : string -> string
All properties are written with the help of FsCheck.Xunit adapter - each property is a separate test marked with [<Property>] attribute.
Conforming to XML schema
First test verifies if for any valid input XML (determined by our generator), output of the transformation conforms to a XML Schema provided by the vendor of PDF rendition software.
1: 2: 3: 4: [< Property >] let ``output XML conforms to the provided schema`` topic = let output = xsltTransform "topic.xslt" topic ( format output ) @| ( conformsToSchema output )
The @| operator used in line 4 allows to "label" failing properties. If for some reason the transform produces illegal XML and the property does not hold, test failure report will include both input topic , as well as output . This allows to quickly spot the cause of failure.
In its extended version, this test can also report schema validation error messages, e.g. that a specific element is not a valid child of its parent.
Thanks to the above test, we can eliminate any issue related to producing XML with invalid schema, which would always result in rendition failure. XML Schema safety within XSLT can also be guaranteed with Schema-Aware XSLT. While Schema-Aware XSLT processors usually require a commercial license, we can maintain the schema-conforming test in our code-base for free.
Bolded text
Next test makes sure that all text enclosed in the <b> tag should be indeed bold in the output PDF:
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: [< Property >] let ``if text node under "b" element then richtext has bold`` ( topic ) = let output = xsltTransform "topic.xslt" topic let textNodes = topic |> xpath "//text()" let richtexts = output |> xpath "//RICHTEXT" ( format output ) @| (( textNodes , richtexts ) ||> Seq . zip |> Seq . filter ( fst > > xpath "boolean(ancestor::b)" ) |> Seq . forAll ( snd > > xpath "@BOLD = 'TRUE'" ))
The provided schema specifices RICHTEXT elements as containers for text. All text within a single RICHTEXT is formatted in uniform fashion. Therefore, RICHTEXT elements form a flattened list of formatted text. To verify that @BOLD attribute is given on a proper RICHTEXT , we first collect all textNodes from input and richtexts from the output (lines 4,5). In next step, we use Seq.zip to create a sequence of pairs of corresponding items (line 9). Then in line 10 we filter those pairs, where text node has <b> ancestor tag. Finally we check with Seq.forAll that all RICHTEXT elements have @BOLD attribute set to TRUE (line 11).
Likewise, we can write tests for checking other types of text formatting, i.e. italic, underline ,superscript or subscript .
Width of images and tables
Third and the last property-based test presented in this entry checks if every "object" (image or table) with specified layout has correct width in output:
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: [< Property >] let ``objects with specified layout have correct width`` topic = let output = xsltTransform "topic.xslt" topic let pairs = allObjects ( topic , output ) |> Seq . filter ( fst > > xpath "@layout != ''" ) let attributeValues : seq < string * string > = pairs |> Seq . map ( fun ( i , c ) -> xpath "string(@layout)" i , xpath "string(*/@WIDTH)" c ) ( format output ) @| ( attributeValues |> Seq . forall ( fun ( a , b ) -> layoutToWidth a = b ))
Symbol pairs in line 4 is bound to sequence of pairs of input * output objects, filtered to only those which have @layout attribute (which don't fall back to the default layout). This sequence is then mapped in lines 6-9 to a pair of input's @layout and outputs's @WIDTH attributes. Finally, in lines 11-13, with the help of Seq.forall and layoutToWidth helper function, all pairs are checked for correct width.
At first the test may seem needless, because it concerns a simple mapping from one value to another. In practice however it turned out quite useful mainly for regression purposes, whereas restructuring the code or introducing new features could break this property.
I chose only 3 examples of properties to show here, but we've got a lot more of them in our code-base. Some of them are quite complex and require thorough knowledge of domain and the third-party software.
Shrinker
Another important concept of property-based testing is shrinking. In short, shrinkers allow to find minimal input which fails the test. Let's consider the property which checked proper "boldness" of a piece of text. If we spoil code which turns on the @BOLD attribute, that property could fail for example on following input:
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: < topic > < title > My first publication </ title > < body > < image href ="unicorn.pdf" > < p > Hello < b > world! </ b ></ p > < table > < title > table </ title > < tbody > < row > < entry > aaa </ entry > </ row > </ tbody > </ table > </ body > </ topic >
It can be hard at once to say what exactly caused the test to fail, as this XML document is already quite complex. How about shrinking the above XML to a smaller version:
1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: < topic > < title /> < body > < p >< b > w </ b ></ p > </ body > </ topic >
The latter, shrinked data shows much clearer where the transform went wrong. It would be also hard to find smaller input, which still makes the test light red.
That's exactly what happens with properties in FsCheck. If any property fails for a given input, the library uses shrinker to make the input smaller untill it finds a minimal dataset which still causes the property to fail.
Implementing a shrinker for XML document turned out to be quite challenging and won't be described here, but maybe one day I'll put up a separate post dedicated only to this issue.
Conclusions
Property-based tests proves helpful while working with XSLT code. This rather unusual application of properties brings a number of advantages:
It is much easier to maintain what is called arrange phase of the tests, because you can rely on a generator and don't have to create new XML documents each time for a new test,
of the tests, because you can rely on a generator and don't have to create new XML documents each time for a new test, Randomly generated input discovers various edge cases , many of which could otherwise be found only in production,
, many of which could otherwise be found only in production, Thanks to the shrinker functionality, minimal faulty input can be spotted,
can be spotted, All different tests use the same generator, hence a high degree of consistency is achieved.
It must be noted, that applying the technique in this case comes also with some costs:
While arrange phase of tests is straightforward, the assert phase can sometimes get tricky and requires some brainstorming,
can sometimes get tricky and requires some brainstorming, It might be hard to troubleshoot problems when a property fails, and we're not immediately sure why,
when a property fails, and we're not immediately sure why, Solid shrinker's implementation for XML document is not easy (actually our shrinker has still a lot of gaps).
I'd like to thank Sergey Tihon once again for organizing F# Advent - if not this opportunity the blog wouldn't see the daylight today.
If you found this entry interesting, you may check out my presentation on this topic (created with FsReveal) which I prepared for my colleagues at work. That's it for now - Till next time!
val title : obj
Full name: propertybasedtestingxslt.title
val body : obj
Full name: propertybasedtestingxslt.body
val topic : obj
Full name: propertybasedtestingxslt.topic
Multiple items
val string : value:'T -> string
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.string
--------------------
type string = System.String
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.string
type bool = System.Boolean
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.bool
Multiple items
val seq : sequence:seq<'T> -> seq<'T>
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.seq
--------------------
type seq<'T> = System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<'T>
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.seq<_>
module Seq
from Microsoft.FSharp.Collections
val zip : source1:seq<'T1> -> source2:seq<'T2> -> seq<'T1 * 'T2>
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.zip
val filter : predicate:('T -> bool) -> source:seq<'T> -> seq<'T>
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.filter
val fst : tuple:('T1 * 'T2) -> 'T1
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.fst
val snd : tuple:('T1 * 'T2) -> 'T2
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.snd
val map : mapping:('T -> 'U) -> source:seq<'T> -> seq<'U>
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.map
val forall : predicate:('T -> bool) -> source:seq<'T> -> bool
Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Collections.Seq.forall
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The calendar includes quotes on political issues from Paul. | Courtesy of PINUPS4RONPAUL.com 2012 calendar: Pin-ups for Ron Paul
Even Ron Paul’s most ardent supporters would have to admit that his ideas are perhaps a little more attractive than the somewhat rumpled candidate himself. But lest you get the impression that the entire Paul community is uneasy on the eyes, meet 12 women looking to change that: the 2012 Pin-Ups for Ron Paul.
Calendar girls who believe in the cause.
Story Continued Below
The 2012 calendar will cost you $24.95 and is the brainchild of Juliet Annerino, a Los Angeles-based personal trainer and musician who did a similar Paul calendar in 2008 that sold about 2,000 copies. She said the light bulb went off when she “was trying to think of unique ways to get people to see his name and get people to become familiar with his politics and his stances on the issues.”
“One of the best ways to do that is through aesthetics, through catching their eye with beauty,” Annerino told POLITICO. “It’s a chance to see a pretty girl while also reading an educational and inspirational quote from Ron Paul,” said Annerino, who poses as “Miss July.”
The calendar also includes quotes on political issues from Paul, as well as sayings from historic figures such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi.
“True patriotism is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family and the future of his country to resist government abuse of power” reads a Paul quote from the April page.
“When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads,” reads the Paul quote for February, accompanied by this one from King: “I criticize America because I love her. I want her to stand as a moral example to the world.”
But the calendar girls aren’t just day models. They’re Paul true believers. Annerino put out invitations online and through Facebook for supporters around the country who would be willing to be featured in the calendar.
“I actually got a lot of men suggesting that their wives or girlfriends do it,” said Annerino, who plans to make a donation to the Paul campaign with some of the proceeds from the calendar.
She confessed to one major obstacle during the process: “Let’s be honest, the funny thing is that most libertarians, real hard-core libertarians, they’re nerdy.” (Two of the women are librarians.)
Annerino gave Paul a copy of the 2008 calendar when she met the candidate back then, and she says a Paul staffer bought five copies. But the Paul campaign officially is keeping its distance from Annerino’s effort.
“Individuals can do what they want, but the calendar is not something our campaign would support,” said Jesse Benton, a spokesman for the Paul campaign.
Will this catch on among Paul’s competing campaigns? Not likely, says Annerino.
“One reason is that Ron Paul has a real dedicated, strong following of supporters. We will take things into our own hands and say, you know what? We want you to pay attention to this man because he’s really something unique. And we’ll do it any way we can.” |
The California State University, Fullerton student government is considering a resolution officially denouncing an upcoming College Republicans event on campus.
The CR chapter is set to host conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos on Halloween, prompting the CSUF Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) Board of Directors to approve the resolution as a demonstration of its commitment to “supporting marginalized communities on campus.”
"I have never been politically active because I was afraid to speak my opinion."
[RELATED: Students fear ‘militarized environment’ when Milo comes to CSUF]
Asserting that Yiannopoulos “has put students in jeopardy by publicly sharing information regarding their gender and citizenship status,” the resolution also notes that previous Yiannopoulos events have required other public universities in the state to expend five- and six-figure sums on security.
More tellingly, the resolution also states that “over [sic] 5,000 student and community members have signed a petition ‘No Alt-Right Speakers or Hate Groups at CSUF,’” after which it proceeds directly to articulating its denunciation of Yiannopoulos, adding that by doing so, “ASI will continue to uphold its previously passed resolutions by supporting marginalized communities on campus.”
[RELATED: CSUF student gov rejects free speech education campaign]
According to a press release from the CR chapter, members of Students for Quality Education, an unregistered left-winged organization funded by the California Faculty Association, endorsed the resolution at an ASI meeting Thursday, and a final vote is scheduled to take place on October 24.
CR members say that regardless of one’s opinion of Yiannopoulos, the resolution represents “another disappointing attack on conservatives and the freedom of speech from CSUF's student body, faculty, and student government.”
“This is about freedom of speech. With a vote to denounce Milo, ASI is sending a signal to conservatives that their voices don’t matter and are not represented,” said CR President Amanda McGuire. “Conservative voices are, once again, the first to be silenced. ASI has remained neutral for this long and any deviance from their prior stance would show the student body that conservatives are excluded.”
[RELATED: CSUF lecturer suspended for attacking conservative student]
“Organizations on my campus are seeking to define my speech as hate speech and violence,” club Event Director Ryan Hoskins concurred. “This resolution is just one more step towards accomplishing that goal. I hope the student leadership will make the right decision and stand up for free speech.”
One CR member even said that this type of reaction confirms his previous reluctance about sharing his conservative beliefs on a liberal-leaning campus.
“I have never been politically active because I was afraid to speak my opinion,” Flint Giedt remarked. “ASI condemning Milo instead of staying neutral shows they do not care for the many students that stay silent in fear like I used to.”
Campus Reform reached out to the CSUF student government for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AutumnDawnPrice |
Police are looking for a man and a woman who they said were seen on surveillance video attacking and robbing a food delivery man in the Bronx.
It happened Feb. 2 as the 21-year-old victim, Ahmed Sayed, was making a Chinese food delivery at a building on Olinville Avenue near Britton Street in the Allerton neighborhood.
Police said he was in the lobby when he was pushed by a man and a woman. The two then punched and kicked the victim before forcing him to the ground, according to police.
Once on the ground, police said the suspects searched through the man’s pockets, took his cell phone and cash and fled.
Sayed was left with minor injuries. His sister told CBS2 he’s recovering, but is afraid of the publicity.
The attack was captured on surveillance video and police said the suspects were also seen on other surveillance video at a nearby store.
“Oh no, that’s terrible,” one woman reacted to the video.
“That’s in this building? That’s (expletive) wrong,” another added.
Also disturbing, is the fact that bystanders can be seen watching as the assault unfolded, CBS2’s Lou Young reported. In fact, one casually bounced a basketball in the background.
Security in the building is not an afterthought. The heavy steal door locks and there are cameras everywhere. People who live there said they know things can happen because it’s New York, but to see the video touches a nerve.
“People get desperate, but dang that’s a little extreme,” one woman said.
“It’s very scary. Like other people say, we’ve got to live here. I’m disabled, you know what I’m saying? I’m scared coming out, scared going in,” a man added.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782), visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. |
If you thought a public expression of regret by none other than the prime minister and a probe ordered by him into excessive security arrangements for his Chandigarh visit on September 11 has made any difference, think again!
While normal life in Chandigarh was thrown out of gear during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's day-long visit last week, the scene was nearly repeated by security agencies and the district administration on Friday as Modi flew into this temple town, also his parliamentary constituency.
This despite the fact that Modi used micro-blogging site Twitter to express his unhappiness over the security arrangements in Chandigarh, when schools were forced to close down and even the main cremation ground made out of bounds for the general public. Also read: Education is the best weapon to fight poverty, says Modi in Varanasi
In Varanasi too, many schools were closed, exams postponed and even trains briefly brought to a halt as Narendra Modi went on an inauguration spree. According to information available, the prime minister's security detail - the Special Protection Group, intelligence officials and police officers - ordered the stopping of all train traffic on Andhera Pul track, from under which the VVIP cavalcade was to pass.
Hundreds of passengers on the busy rail route were thus left stranded in their trains for 30-40 minutes. While Modi was to attend a string of events at the Dereka ground, DLW guest house and the army campus, almost all major schools in the town were shut owing to the "VVIP movement", said an informed source.
St. Johns School principal Father Thomas said an exam slated to be held on Friday was postponed to September 24 in Mandhauli and Dereka branches owing to the prime ministerial visit.
Though District Magistrate Rajmani Yadav clarified they had issued no orders to close schools, more than a dozen schools, including all branches of Dalims group, DPS Babatpur, St. Mary's (Sona Talaab), St. Mary's (Cantonment) and three branches of Sun Beam Academy were closed for the day.
Most of the VVIP route in the town was also made out of bounds for the common man, with many forced to travel on foot for several kilometres.
The Varanasi district magistrate, however, said efforts were made to ensure that people were put to minimal inconvenience due to the high-profile visit, adding that people caught in traffic jams, specially ambulances and school buses, could dial 100 for immediate help.
Modi was on a Varanasi visit after nine months, with his two earlier visits cancelled due to rains or other reasons.
Town residents, while welcoming Modi, said his security was too much to grin and bear.
"There is a big problem when he comes; Kashi has narrow roads and the traffic is typically messy. Such VVIP visits only aggravate our troubles further," a livid Gopal Mishra, running a non-governmental organisation at Laurabeer, told IANS. |
Reykjavik, Iceland (CNN) A new Prime Minister took the reins in Iceland Thursday as fallout over the Panama Papers document leak continued
Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, who had been the country's agriculture minister, was sworn in as Prime Minister Thursday afternoon.
Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, Iceland's new prime minister, speaks at the Parliament in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Thursday.
That came two days after former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson announced he was stepping down amid mounting protests and calls for his resignation after leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm revealed his links to an offshore company.
Gunnlaugsson's resignation doesn't mean the dust has settled. He will remain head of the Progressive Party, which might not go down well with the throngs of Icelanders who have taken to the streets in protest and want nothing to do with him.
New elections are slated to take place at the end of 2016, according to public broadcaster RUV.
Government shake-up
Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned Tuesday.
Since the Panama Papers were leaked, senior Icelandic political figures have scrambled to hold emergency talks.
Gunnlaugsson's critics said the revelations involving the offshore company, which allegedly had holdings in Iceland's collapsed banks, shattered public confidence in his leadership and could harm the country's international reputation.
Gunnlaugsson had led the island nation of 330,000 people since 2013. The accusations involving him are especially painful for many Icelanders who remember the 2008 financial crisis, which resulted in the collapse of Iceland's currency, stock market and several major banks
Elected leaders implicated
Gunnlaugsson was one of numerous world leaders under scrutiny after a group of news organizations jointly published reports Sunday.
JUST WATCHED Political elites and super rich deny hiding billions offshore Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Political elites and super rich deny hiding billions offshore 02:44
Those reports stemmed from millions of documents from Mossack Fonseca , a Panamanian law firm that allegedly helped elected leaders and top officials set up secret shell companies and offshore accounts.
The reports accuse Gunnlaugsson of having ties to an offshore company, Wintris Inc., that were not properly disclosed.
CNN hasn't been able to verify independently the leaked documents, which German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung obtained from an anonymous source and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
Gunnlaugsson has not responded to a request for comment from CNN.
But he told Iceland's TV2 on Monday that he felt "betrayed and disappointed" by the accusations. He also offered an explanation to the broadcaster about why he'd abruptly left an interview with a Swedish network that questioned him over the allegations.
"I was surprised because I didn't really know what they were talking about. They started talking about tax havens and such. Then they made the impression that I had been involved in that," he said. "It is very important to remember that my wife's company has never been a tax haven. And it isn't really an offshore company since it has always been taxed in Iceland."
Mossack Fonseca said in a statement to CNN on Monday that while the firm "may have been the victim of a data breach, nothing we've seen in this illegally obtained cache of documents suggests we've done anything illegal, and that's very much in keeping with the global reputation we've built over the past 40 years of doing business the right way."
Questions over declaration of interest
JUST WATCHED Leaked Panama Papers allege corruption by world leaders Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Leaked Panama Papers allege corruption by world leaders 04:38
Gunnlaugsson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, purchased Wintris from Mossack Fonseca in 2007, according to the journalism group , which conducted a yearlong investigation in cooperation with more than 100 news organizations.
The journalism organization alleged the shell company was used to invest millions of dollars in inherited money, and that Gunnlaugsson did not disclose, as required by parliamentary rules, that he co-owned Wintris when he entered Parliament in April 2009.
But in a statement attributed to Gunnlaugsson and Palsdottir published on his website March 27, he denied having breached the rules, saying that only companies with "commercial activity" had to be reported, while Wintris was simply a holding company for his wife's assets.
He had "therefore followed the rules for declarations of interests ever since he took a seat in parliament in 2009, regardless of how you look at this case," the statement read.
There are a few people in Austurvollur right now. #panamapapers #Iceland #protest #reykjavik A photo posted by Ben Gruber (@da_chucky) on Apr 4, 2016 at 10:36am PDT
On the last day of 2009, Gunnlaugsson sold his half of the company -- headquartered on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands -- to Palsdottir for $1, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reported, citing the leaked documents.
In a statement later provided to the journalism group , his office said that, as a holding company for his wife's assets, Wintris brought no tax advantages and had been created to avoid conflicts of interest in Iceland.
Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland Protesters packed the streets outside Iceland's parliament Monday, calling for the prime minister's resignation. Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland The protest came a day after reports accused Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who has led the country since 2013, of having ties to an offshore company that were not properly disclosed. Gunnlaugsson has denied the accusation. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland The reports draw on millions of documents hacked from Mossack Fonseca , a Panamanian law firm that allegedly helped elected leaders and top officials set up secret shell companies and offshore accounts. Details from the leaked documents, which CNN hasn't been able to verify independently, drew fierce criticism from demonstrators Monday. "Man who lies should not be a leader of a nation," one protester's sign read. Hide Caption 3 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland Waving banners that said, "TELL THE TRUTH" and "FAREWELL," throngs of protesters gathered outside the parliament building. Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland As opposition lawmakers are pushing for a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, some protesters say they want him to step down. Gunnlaugsson has vowed to stay in office. Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland "I'm so angry I made a sign," one demonstrator's sign said. Hide Caption 6 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland Some protesters waved Iceland's flag as they marched. Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: Panama Papers: People take to the streets in Iceland Angry demonstrators said they felt betrayed by the prime minister. Gunnlaugsson told Iceland's TV2 Monday that he won't step down. "I have not considered resigning, nor am I going to resign, because of this matter," he said. Hide Caption 8 of 8
"It's been clear since before I began participating in politics that my wife had a considerable amount of money," he wrote in a post on his website Monday.
"Some people find that in itself very negative. I can't do much about that because I'm neither going to divorce my wife nor demand that she relinquish her family inheritance."
Collapsed banks
The journalism group reported that among Wintris' more notable holdings were bonds of three major Icelandic banks that collapsed in 2008. It said it was not clear how Gunnlaugsson's political activities could have affected the bonds' value.
Gunnlaugsson said in his statement on his website that his wife had never benefited from his political activities -- "quite the contrary."
"My political participation and the policies I have fought for have resulted in her wealth being decreased," he wrote. |
My written evidence to the Scrutiny Committee in the UK Houses of Parliament that is currently examining the much-disputed Investigatory Powers Bill (IP):
1. My name is Annie Machon and I worked as an intelligence officer for the UK’s domestic Security Service, commonly referred to as MI5, from early 1991 until late 1996. I resigned to help my partner at the time, fellow intelligence officer David Shayler, expose a number of instances of crime and incompetence we had witnessed during our time in the service.
2. I note that the draft IP Bill repeatedly emphasises the importance of democratic and judicial oversight of the various categories of intrusive intelligence gathering by establishing an Investigatory Powers Commissioner as well as supporting Judicial Commissioners. However, I am concerned about the real and meaningful application of this oversight.
3. While in the Service in the 1990s we were governed by the terms of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 (IOCA), the precursor to RIPA, which provided for a similar system of applications for a warrant and ministerial oversight.
4. I would like to submit evidence that the system did not work and could be manipulated from the inside.
5. I am aware of at least two instances of this during my time in the service, which were cleared for publication by MI5 in my 2005 book about the Shayler case, “Spies Lies, and Whistleblowers”, so my discussing them now is not in breach of the Official Secrets Act. I would be happy to provide further evidence, either written or in person, about these abuses.
6. My concern about this draft Bill is that while the oversight provisions seem to be strengthened, with approval necessary from both the Secretary of State and a Judicial Commissioner, the interior process of application for warrants will still remain opaque and open to manipulation within the intelligence agencies.
7. The application process for a warrant governing interception or interference involved a case being made in writing by the intelligence officer in charge of an investigation. This then went through four layers of management, with all the usual redactions and finessing, before a final summary was drafted by H Branch, signed by the DDG, and then dispatched to the Secretary of State. So the minister was only ever presented with was a summary of a summary of a summary of a summary of the original intelligence case.
8. Additionally, the original intelligence case could be erroneous and misleading. The process of writing the warrant application was merely a tick box exercise, and officers would routinely note that such intelligence could only be obtained by such intrusive methods, rather than exploring all open source options first. The revalidation process could be even more cavalier.
9. When problems with this system were voiced, officers were told to not rock the boat and just follow orders. During the annual visit by the Intelligence Intercept Commissioner, those with concerns were banned from meeting him.
10. Thus I have concerns about the realistic power of the oversight provisions written into this Bill and would urge an additional provision. This would establish an effective channel whereby officers with concerns can give evidence directly and in confidence to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner in the expectation that a proper investigation will be conducted and with no repercussions to their careers inside the agencies. Here is a link to a short video I did for Oxford University three years ago outlining these proposals:
11. This, in my view, would be a win-win scenario for all concerned. The agencies would have a chance to improve their work practices, learn from mistakes, and better protect national security, as well as avoiding the scandal and embarrassment of any future whistleblowing scandals; the officers with ethical concerns would not be placed in the invidious position of either becoming complicit in potentially illegal acts by “just following orders” or risking the loss of their careers and liberty by going public about their concerns.
12. I would also like to raise the proportionality issue. It strikes me that bulk intercept must surely be disproportionate within a functioning and free democracy, and indeed can actually harm national security. Why? Because the useful, indeed crucial, intelligence on targets and their associates is lost in the tsunami of available information. Indeed this seems to have been the conclusion of every inquiry about the recent spate of “lone wolf” and ISIS-inspired attacks across the West – the targets were all vaguely known to the authorities but resources were spread too thinly.
13. In fact all that bulk collection seems to provide is confirmation after the fact of a suspect’s involvement in a specific incident, which is surely specifically police evidential work. Yet the justification for the invasive intercept and interference measures laid out in the Bill itself is to gather vital information ahead of an attack in order to prevent it – the very definition of intelligence. How is this possible if the sheer scale of bulk collection drowns out the vital nuggets of intelligence?
14. Finally, I would like to raise the point that the phrase “national security” has never been defined for legal purposes in the UK. Surely this should be the very first step necessary before formulating the proposed IP Bill? Until we have such a legal definition, how can we formulate new and intrusive laws in the name of protecting an undefined and nebulous concept, and how can we judge that the new law will thereby be proportionate within a democracy? |
by Comrade Black
So were at that time of year where the stores are preparing for xmass, their number one sales time of the year, and in response many people are planning on taking part in the annual Buy Nothing Day promoted by Adbusters.
When I first came across BND, a few years ago it seamed like a great idea, but now I am not so sure I buy it. I feel I have to question the tactics effectiveness. How much difference will it really make, the majority of people I know of that are excited to be taking part in BND are either people that already don’t buy almost anything anyways, who scavenge and live a freegan lifestyle, or people that will simply end up buying more in the days leading up to or directly following BND. In short both groups will likely end up buying the exact same amount this season as they would have bought anyways, just not on November 25/26. It seams to me that this action is more a symbolic gesture than a real strategy to empower people and/or challenge capitalism.
Some others have taken this further in an attempt to get past this problem but suggesting Steal Something Day! at least here we have a strategy attempting to cost the corporations money, although I must admit I am skeptical to whether a few pseudo-militant hippies and dirty squatters, travelers etc; all shoplifting on one particular day will even cost enough for the companies to bother hiring extra security that day. As much as I wish it would. However once again I doubt this will be any more than another symbolic gesture.
What we actually need to do is start thinking strategically. Capitalism is about the hording and exchange of personal property and resources, to an end of unlimited expediential growth, so how do we challenge capitalism? By affecting their income, and making it cost more money to do business, then they are making, thus removing the primary incentive.
So perhaps instead of celebrating Buy Nothing Day — which should really be called do nothing day — we could have Fuck With Business As Usual Day! 24 hrs of actions designed to cost corporations their profits,[i] from gluing locks, to sending solid black faxes[ii], sending 10000 emails to a bank so they can’t possibly receive their business emails and crashing their computers [iii], hacking, setting off smoke bombs in stores, talking loudly in the NIKE shop about child labor, phoney (or real) bomb threats at shopping malls,[iv] stealing, breaking windows,[v] paint-bombing or glitter-bombing,[vi] making large meal orders and not showing up for them at Mc-Restaurants, calling in sick for work, putting out of order signs on pop machines,[vii] arson,[viii] roadblocks,[ix] and anything else you can conceive of that would cost a business money!
However the big issue with this strategy would be promotions, I have to admit Fuck With Business As Usual Day does not have as nice of a ring to it, nor a good acronym, and without a glossy full color magazine in every 7-11 and Chapters to promote it, who would participate? As well you would have every liberal out there condemning the day and the coppers would be out in full force to “keep the peace” AKA protect corporate property, and business as usual. Hell if history is any indicator you would have many of the liberal pacifists not only condemning you but even working with the police to protect the property, and helping to catch anyone daring to partake. [x] Maybe Joe Foy of WCWC would even put up a bounty on us like he did to the tree spikers years ago! [xi]And in the USA under the Animal Enterprises Protection Act, people attacking any animal related industries could get up to 22 yrs in prison and be tried as a terrorist[xii] (child rapists often get 5-10 yrs, sometimes less [xiii]). Hell I could probably go to jail for even suggesting in a hypothetical that we consider any of these things, that is strategies that actually affect things. See the unfortunate truth is that whenever we actually become a threat they will use violence, fear, and threats to stop us, and as long as we are not of any real consequence to them they will be happy to continue to ignore us.
So even though Buy nothing day will really turnout to be Accomplish Nothing Day, the reality is in the end I will probably end up taking part in Buy Nothing Day, sad but true, cause honestly it’s the “least” I can do.
Currently the volunteer run non-profit infoshop I work at is planning our third annual Buy Nothing Day Sale! As a small business selling local or independent stuff, it wouldn’t make any sense for us to close down for the day, so instead we have fun with it. Anyways, they always say doing something is always better than doing nothing. All used books are 20% off and Marx is 1/2 off! Yet every year when we have the sale some folks completely freak out that we would dare mock the sacred Buy Nothing Day symbolic action.
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Footnotes
[i] A similar idea was done years ago in the UK and was organized in part by the anarchist punk bands Crass and Chumbawamba. These actions were called Stop the City demonstrations.
[ii] A Black fax is a tactic where a piece of paper that is black is fed half way through a fax machine and then the other end is taped together in a loop so it will keep sending continuously. The tactic serves to both freeze up the targets fax machine and modem so other incoming messages won’t be able to be received, while also costing them a lot of money in toner and paper.
in 2006, members of the above ground animal rights and anti-vivisection campaign known as Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty campaign (SHAC) were charged with conspiracy to harass using a telecommunications device for sending back faxes, as well as other charges. For more information look up the SHAC 7
[iii] In October 2005, Dylan Barr was arrested after he sent out flood of emails to Washington Mutual Bank with messages saying “This is what happens to companies that invest in HLS.” This is what is called a denial of service” attack… Barr sent so many large documents to the employees that their inboxes became full and refused emails from actual bank patrons. Washington Mutual dropped HLS as a client. Bar served 29 days in jail, and was fined $25000, which is only a tiny fraction of the $1000000 estimated in loss from the bank dropping it’s shares.
[iv] A few years ago when I worked for Public Outreach as a street fundraiser,. a couple of my co-workers had to move where they were canvassing because some random guy came up to them and told them quietly they should leave cause he had left a bomb in the garbage can of the bay center mall. The mall had to evacuate, and a lot of money was lost in revenue, while they searched for the bomb that didn’t exist. The guy was never caught.
However, there is a real danger in crying wolf, as Ann Hansen once pointed out.
“in fact, we oppose the use of fake bomb threats precisely because they do cause the authorities to be skeptical of the authenticity of real bomb attacks”
[v] Common tactic used by Blac Bloc’s is to smash windows of corporations, cause they can be easy to break quickly, and expensive. As well, I have heard that often contrary to general public opinion, that many companies don’t report the broken windows to their insurance companies because it may be cheaper to fix a few broken windows than to pay an annual increase in the cost of insurance.
[vi] Glitter Bombs or Glamdalizim is a tactic used by radical queers where they mix glitter into a regular paint bomb to make the attack that much more fierce and fabulous!
[vii] I got this one from the classic Crimethinc book recipes For Disaster
[viii] I want to be clear I am not advocating or counseling here, I am talking in the hypothetical. As Ted Kaczynski stated in Hit Them Where It Hurts;
“The engine, for example, can be ruined with very little expenditure of time and effort by means well known to many radicals.
At this point I must make clear that I am not recommending that anyone should damage a bulldozer (unless it is his own property). Nor should anything in this article be interpreted as recommending illegal activity of any kind. I am a prisoner, and if I were to encourage illegal activity this article would not even be allowed to leave the prison. I use the bulldozer analogy only because it is clear and vivid and will be appreciated by radicals.”
an even better disclaimer can be found in the cover of one of my favorite zines Bloodlust: A Feminist Against Civilization, which reads;
All contents of this zine are for purely entertainment purposes. No one involved in the writing or constructing of this zine advocates or condones any sort of illegal activity. Please ignore the screams of a dying world and passively consume this as you would a television sitcom.
[ix] Roadblocks have become a tactic often used by indigenous sovereigntists when fighting against the corporations and the state. This tactic was used at Oka, as well is in 6 nations, and I believe the longest was the road block at Grassy narrows, although there is really too many to cite them all. Currently the warriors of the Wet’suwet’en are refusing entry to their traditional territories by anyone who doesn’t ask consent, as part of their assertion of their traditional rights, and resistance to the pipelines the corporations & government are trying to force through their territories. This tactic involves blocking a major road with something like logs, human bodies, trucks, overturned cop cars, or other such items, so no traffic can pass through. It has been shown to be an effective tactic.
[x] There have been many examples of this, basically any time a black bloc action has occurred, such as the toronto G20 and No-2010 anti-olympics actions. However, I think the clearest example was in the WTO protests in Seattle in 99 where white liberal middle class activists actually physically restrained young local people of color to stop them from looting stores that had been smashed and held them until the police could arrive to take them into custody. These liberals also physically blocked people from smashing windows.
In a non anarchist context, after the recent Vancouver hockey riots some people reportedly took it 10 steps further by attacking people and their homes who had been photographed at the riots, as well as tracking them down to turn into the cops. Scary shit.
[xi] On more than one occasion “WCWC offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any tree spiker in B.C. This offer still stands today” (Big Trees, Not Big Stumps: 25 years of campaigning to save wilderness with the Wilderness Committee, by Paul George). This has lead to some people referring to West Coast Wilderness Committee as WCSnitch
[xii] Marie Mason in 2009 was sentenced to 22 years after pleading guilty to arson attacks for a 1999 attack on a building at Michigan State University that caused more than US$1 million in damages, undertaken as a protest against research into genetically modified crops, as well as attacks on the property of a Mink farm owner.
Jeff (Free) Luers was initially sentenced to 22 years, 8 months in prison, but had his sentence reduced to 10 years on appeal after a large campaign to support him. He had been convicted in 2000 he set fire to three light trucks at Romania Chevrolet dealership in Eugene as a protest against excessive consumption and global warming
Also Walter Bond is currently serving 12 yrs for his 3 arsons as part of the ALF.
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) is a United States federal law that makes it a mandatory minimum sentence for every conviction in relation to animal rights charges. So even if the defendant had gone out of their way to guarantee that no one would be hurt, their actions will be considered terrorism if they cost the corporation money through illegal means.
[xiii] In December 2003, Matin Tremblay was convicted for five counts of sexual assault against young Aboriginal teenage girls. However, he was released from custody the following year, after serving only a fraction of his three-and-a-half year sentence. Tremblay had originally been charged with 18 counts of sexual assault and administering a noxious substance to five Aboriginal girls between the ages of 13 and 15. Then 38 years old, Tremblay admitted to sexually assaulting and videotaping the girls while they were unconscious in his home. Feb 15, 2011, Tremblay was sentenced to 11 months in prison (one year minus time served) for two counts of drug-related charges. There are numerous new allegations by other young native womyn of waking up naked after her drugged them, and reportedly he often also would video tape himself sexually assaulting them while they were passed out.
There is also a history in BC (as well as other places) of native womyn going missing or being raped and/or murdered, and the police doing fuck all about it.
In the 2010 Victoria city council election a candidate named Pedro Mora admitted he had been previously convicted, after he plead guilty for the sexual assault of a 15 year old in Burnaby and he claims he served only 40 days in a “rehabilitation centre” in the Lower Mainland. |
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Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, a firm polling for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, said the group's weekly tracking survey shows the Republicans' struggle with Hispanics is unprecedented since the group began polling in 2007. At the same point in the 2012 race, 17 percent of Hispanics said the Republican Party was "hostile" toward them, he said. Today the number is 44 percent.
"It's the highest we've ever seen," said Barreto, a political science professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Not surprisingly, this is related to Donald Trump's rise in unfavorability."
But the Democrats have their work cut out in rallying Hispanic voters.
While the number of eligible Hispanic voters is expected to top 27 million this year, according to the Pew Research Center, not even half of them showed up at the polls in either 2008 or 2012.
Clinton's struggles with Hispanic millennials are particularly notable: Only 48 percent of that group supports her, Pew found. That's a huge advantage over Trump's 15 percent, but it nonetheless poses a significant challenge to Clinton's team, not least because almost half of eligible Hispanic voters are millennials.
Still, Clinton and the Democrats are hoping that Trump's hard-line approach to those living in the country illegally — combined with his provocative statements toward Mexicans, Syrian refugees and other groups — will energize Hispanics and other minority voters this year.
Barreto rattled off a list of statistics suggesting the Clinton campaign's outreach efforts are paying off — with an assist from Trump.
• In Florida alone, 441,000 Hispanics have registered to vote since the 2012 elections, he said. On top of that, those new voters are migrating toward Democrats, who have seen their 11-point advantage in 2013 jump to a 26-point lead today.
• Fifty-one percent of Hispanic voters say they're more enthusiastic to vote in this election compared to four years earlier. The figure was 40 percent at this point in the 2012 contest. "We're now on track to have the biggest turnout of Latinos in electoral history," he said.
• At this point in 2012, Barreto's firm found Obama with a 70-20 lead over Romney among Hispanic voters. Clinton's advantage over Trump today is 75-15, he said.
• In October 2012, 53 percent of Hispanic voters viewed Romney unfavorably, he said. The figure for Trump is currently 79 percent.
"This is doing a lot of damage to not just the Trump campaign but the party overall," Barreto said.
Lorella Praeli, Clinton's director of Latino outreach, said the campaign is pushing hard with grassroots efforts not only in traditional battleground states where Hispanic voters make up significant numbers — places like Colorado, Nevada, Arizona and Virginia — but also in states where the numbers are smaller but could prove a tipping point in the contest. In North Carolina, for instance, Hispanics make up just 2 percent of voters, but that's the same margin by which Obama lost the state in 2012.
"It's enough to swing the state one way or the other," she said, "which is why we have Latino vote directors and Latino programs across [North Carolina]." |
I get asked all the time about my opinion on different Android boxes. To be honest, most of them are fairly generic boxes that have trouble standing out in a crowd.
Every now and then you get one that stands out for an entirely different reason.
That’s the case with the StreamSmart S4 and StreamSmart PRO.
Update January 2018: StreamSmart.tv has been “under maintenance” for several days and many of their distributors have mysteriously closed up shop. What happened?
…maybe people read this review. 🙂
In case you missed part one…
This isn’t the first time that I’ve come out against buying an Android box. It’s rare…but it does happen.
Back in September 2015, I wrote the first “Don’t Buy this Box” article about SmartKodi. At the time, it was one of the most expensive Kodi boxes on the market – selling for $325 and promising “Free TV for a Lifetime.”
The article got some pretty high praise from a Team Kodi rock-star: Nate Thomas.
Nate and I don’t see eye-to-eye on everything, but we did agree on our opinions of manufacturers like SmartKodi. Check out the comments on that article to see what he said.
Since then, there haven’t really been many boxes which have ticked me off that much. I’m not against Fully Loaded Kodi boxes, even though that’s not how I choose to watch my TV. A ton of people love them and I think they have a place in the industry.
I’m also not against people charging for providing a service, as long as it’s giving a fair value to the customer.
But what I don’t like is when a company is obviously overcharging for a device and making an insane amount of money off their customer’s lack of knowledge.
As I said in that first article:
I worked in consumer electronics retail with Circuit City for a long time – over ten years, in fact. We were always taught to ignore our opinions on a product and just pitch its features and benefits. If any of you are in sales, you’ll understand what I mean. Most products were beneficial to at least some customers, even if we didn’t like them. Occasionally, we came across a product that is just so bad, or so overpriced that you really have to wonder what was going through the manufacturer’s heads.
The StreamSmart box Anti-review
You can find out about StreamSmart at StreamSmart.tv. There are other sites with similar names, but I’ll get into that in a minute. They’re all online stores, and all sell the same product. I won’t link to any of the sites because that may indirectly help them out, and that’s definitely not my purpose here. All of the images in this article were taken on December 27th, 2016 (except for two images which are noted in their descriptions) and were accurate as of the time of this writing.
So if you’re ready to find out why you shouldn’t buy a StreamSmart Android Box, let’s get started.
I’m going to cover both the StreamSmart S4 and the newer StreamSmart PRO in this article, because I believe that both are an absolutely horrible value for your money.
First I’ll list out the specs of each below and then get into why. Please note: the following specs have been copied in their entirety from the StreamSmart.tv website. Only the order of the specs have been changed in order to put all relevant hardware specs together at the top of the lists. No item has been added or removed.
StreamSmart S4 specs
AMLOGIC S805 QUAD CORE 64 BIT ARM CORTEX A 1.5 GHZ CPU + QUAD CORE MALI 450 GPU
1 GB DDR3 RAM AND 8 GB NAND FLASH STORAGE
ANDROID 4.4 KITKAT SUPPORTS GOOGLE BROWSER, FLASH10.2 AND HTML5
MEGABIT ETHERNET 10/100M RJ45 PORT
INTERNAL WIFI 802.11 A/B/G/N/AC DUAL WI-FI (2.4GHZ/5.8 GHZ)
USB2.0 HOST× 3(CONNECT TO USB DEVICES)
SD/MMC CARD READER
HDMI 1.4 AND AV OUTPUT AND COMPONENT(YPBPR) OUTPUT THAT’S SUITABLE FOR ANY TV AND DISPLAY.
***CHANNELUP ACCOUNT INCLUDED WITH PURCHASE***
***HD VIDEO***
SUPPORTS VIDEO FORMATS: VC-1, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DIVX, RM, ETC.
SUPPORTS AUDIO FORMATS: MP3, WMA, AC3, DTS, AAC, FLAC, ETC.
SUPPORTS PHOTO FORMATS: JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
FULL HD SUPPORT
ABILITY TO UTILIZE USB MOUSE, KEYBOARD OPERATION AND 2.4G QWERTY REMOTE
SKYPE/MSN/QQ
ANDROID VIDEO: YOUTUBE,XBMC
MULTILINGUAL GUI SUPPORTED.
SUPPORT ALL STANDARD SD/HD VIDEO OUTPUT FORMATS: 480I/P, 576I/P, 720P, 1080I/P
SUPPORTS 3D HDMI DISPLAY
ERGONOMICALLY DESIGNED REMOTE CONTROL MAKES OPERATIONS SIMPLE AND COMFORTABLE.
MCU POWER ON/OFF BY REMOTE CONTROL
StreamSmart Pro specs
AmLogic S905 Quad Core 64 bit ARM Cortex A53 2.0 GHz CPU + Penta Core Mali 450 GPU
2 GB DDR3 RAM
8 GB eMMC storage
Android 5.1 Lollipop Supports Google browser, Flash10.2 and HTML5
GigaBit Ethernet 10/100/1000M RJ45 Port
Internal WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Dual Wi-Fi (2.4GHz/5.8 GHz)
USB2.0 Host× 3(connect to USB devices)
SD/MMC card reader
HDMI 2.0 and AV output and Component(YPbPr) output that’s suitable for any TV and display.
***CHANNELUP account included with purchase***
***4K Video***
Supports video formats: VC-1, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DIVX, RM, etc.
Supports audio formats: MP3, WMA, AC3, DTS, AAC, FLAC, etc.
Supports photo formats: JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
Full HD Support, ability to utilize USB mouse, keyboard operation and 2.4G QWERTY Remote
Skype/MSN/QQ
Android Video: Youtube,XBMC
Multilingual GUI Supported.
Support all standard SD/HD/UHD video output formats: 480i/p, 576i/p, 720p, 1080i/p, 4K
Supports 3D HDMI display
Ergonomically designed remote control makes operations simple and comfortable.
MCU power on/off by remote control
How much should a StreamSmart box cost?
What would you pay for such an amazing piece of cutting edge technology?
I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek here because neither of these devices have anything close to cutting edge technology.
The AmLogic S805 that’s in the StreamSmart S4 was announced way, way back in April 2014. CNX-Software did an excellent write up back then of the differences in the main AmLogic chipsets at the time: the MX, S802, S812 and S805.
In the image below, you can see a current selection of the AmLogic S805 Android boxes at GearBest. With the exception of the Android projector and one crazy box priced at $200, all of the devices are currently priced between $32 and $65 US. For the record, these prices are accurate as of December 29th 2016.
The StreamSmart PRO boasts the newer AmLogic S905 processor. This is still a good performing chipset, and the one found in both the MINIX NEO U1 and SkyStream One. Even though this is a newer chipset, the S905 still came out in the latter half of 2015. If you’re interested in the performance difference between the S805 that’s in the StreamSmart S4 and the S905 that’s in the StreamSmart PRO, CNX-Software did a comparison test back in November 2015. Caution, it’s a technical article, so it may be a bit heavy for the casual reader.
At GearBest, similar devices range between $36 and $79 US – excluding the $26 Android stick. To be fair, Android stick PC’s normally have less features than their TV box counterparts. Comparing on cost isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. Again, these prices are accurate as of December 29th, 2016.
StreamSmart costs HOW MUCH???
If you’ve been following along, you’ve probably got a good idea that I think a StreamSmart box is insanely overpriced.
But just how much are they?
A StreamSmart box is over seven times more expensive than they need to be!
Seriously. I did the math.
If you look at the nine (normal) AmLogic S805 boxes in the GearBest image above, their average cost is $45.66. Compare that to the $349 that StreamSmart charges for the S4 and that’s 7.64 times more than the average S805 Android box.
The average cost of the twelve S905 Android boxes at GearBest is $57.08. That works out to be 7.86 times more expensive than the average!
With that much markup, there better be some killer features, right?
Well..not exactly.
Support Network
The after-the-sale support is handled either by forum, Facebook group or via email. There’s no option to talk to a live support representative that I can find on their website. I will say that the response time on their official Facebook group is evidently very quick.
There’s also a “Support News Feed” which sounds like a great way to keep users informed of changes, except that it redirects to a Tumblr page with three posts on it. The first is from January 2nd, 2016, and then the other two from December 15th and December 27th, 2016. I guess it was a slow news-year at StreamSmart.
The lack of live, personal support is a big strike against StreamSmart. If I’m paying a premium price for something, I expect to be able to talk to someone in person when I have a problem.
ChannelUp.tv
Arguably the main benefit to buying a StreamSmart box is the lifetime subscription to ChannelUp.tv.
What is ChannelUp.tv? It is an IPTV subscription service which advertises “unlimited entertainment at your fingertips!” It appears that ChannelUp.tv is affiliated with StreamSmart, but I wasn’t able to confirm that, and they did not replay to my email question at the time of this writing.
Basically it’s a paid Kodi addon which has paid streams so it purposefully limits the number of people trying to get on to the streams at any time. In theory, you can get pay-per-view and premium channels as part of your subscription cost.
I won’t go into why I think these services are a bad idea here, but I will STRONGLY recommend using a VPN if you choose to subscribe to ChannelUp or any other service of this type. Even then, you probably won’t be protected when these finally become illegal to use. After all, they’ll already have your account information so they know where you live. 🙂
What I will do though, is show why – even with a lifetime subscription to ChannelUp.tv – either StreamSmart box is still insanely overpriced.
The image below is taken from ChannelUp.tv and shows the various pricing tiers for their service.
I will give them credit for offering a bunch of different ways to sign up with the service. You can have a 24 hour trial or choose to pay monthly, semi-annually, annually or even a one-time payment for lifetime access.
As you can see, ChannelUp.tv offers a lifetime subscription for $149.79.
Interesting…
The ChannelUp.tv service is available on different hardware, so you don’t need a StreamSmart box to use it.
So let me break out my calculator again:
StreamSmart S4: $349 Value of Lifetime ChannelUp.tv subscription: ($149) Total value of StreamSmart S4 hardware: $200
StreamSmart PRO: $449 Value of Lifetime ChannelUp.tv subscription: ($149) Total value of StreamSmart PRO hardware: $300
StreamSmart is overcharging their customers between $200-$300 per device!
Can I get it cheaper on eBay or Amazon?
You could, probably.
But…
StreamSmart goes out of their way to make it difficult to use anyone but their authorized resellers (more on that in a minute). In December 2015, they unceremoniously told their customers that any device purchased “on Amazon or eBay after 1/1/2016 are no longer covered under warranty, supported, and will be shut off.”
But don’t worry. If you happened to buy your device on eBay or Amazon and suddenly find yourself with a very expensive paperweight, StreamSmart will be happy to sell you another one of their devices with a small discount.
After all…they certainly have a healthy profit margin, right?
I cannot put into words how disgusted I am by this. If you are a manufacturer of a product, then you have the obligation to support your product no matter where it was purchased from.
That’s why a manufacturer’s warranty exists.
I will leave it to legal professionals to figure out if that is within the bounds of the law, but my opinion is that it’s a pretty scummy way to take care of your customers.
What does Team Kodi think about StreamSmart?
There are only a couple of references to the StreamSmart box on Kodi.tv, but there’s one discussion that really stands out to me.
Ned Scott, the former Team Kodi member in charge of the Kodi Wiki, and Kodi developer Wrxtasy, who created the “Recommended Kodi Box” guide both chimed in on the StreamSmart box – and they didn’t mince their words.
In Ned’s words, “I know people need to make a profit, but the price they’re selling their product at is at scam-levels.”
Moderator Wrxtasy went even farther:
…this device is a GPL Open Source Violator box and actually illegal to sell in its current form. This sort of practice pisses Kodi developers and the Open Source community off no end. StreamSmart are freeloaders, actually stealing other people hard work unless they show us this modified Kodi code. This is nothing more than an Illegal Scam Pirate Box, sold at a ridiculously inflated price to fool Mums and Dads and Joe public into thinking its legit.
Why are there so many websites promoting StreamSmart?
At this point, you might be wondering why there are so many websites promoting StreamSmart.
Well, it turns out they do it because they’re actually selling the StreamSmart boxes themselves.
StreamSmart promotes it’s reseller program directly on the front page of their website and promises an “average part-time income of $3,500” or a full-time income “exceeding $15,000!”
I wonder how they can make that much selling a Kodi box?
If you Google “StreamSmart” you can quickly find several of these resellers like StreamingSmart, Captain StreamSmart and MyFreeCable.tv.
To be fair, I’ll say again that I have nothing against small businesses or selling your knowledge for a fee. But when you’re deliberately price-gouging your customers…that’s where I draw the line.
Why are there no StreamSmart reviews?
That’s a really good question.
I tried searching for any StreamSmart reviews but could only find a few “unboxing” videos. There was nothing that I could see that would show any benchmark tests or experiences using the product other than basic interface.
It’s entirely possible that there aren’t any StreamSmart reviews because the box is so expensive. Many of the review sites just starting out purchase their own products for review. A box that costs $449 is much less likely to be reviewed than something that costs $50. More established reviewers will likely put the box through rigorous testing and that will be bad press for the company.
There are better options:
My Top Picks For Best Android TV Box of 2018
Skystream Two
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NVIDIA Shield TV
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EZ-Stream Ti8
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Amazon Fire TV
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Fire OS – Proprietary version of Android OTA Firmware Updates
At this point, I think I’d recommend you buy anything other than a StreamSmart box.
I put out a list of what I think are the best Android boxes on the market. You could actually buy all three devices on that list for less than the cost of the StreamSmart PRO. If you’re looking for a good, cheap Kodi box, I’ve got some ideas on that too.
You shouldn’t be looking at a device that costs over $400 that isn’t cutting edge.
What should you do if someone tries to sell you a StreamSmart S4 or StreamSmart PRO?
Laugh…
..then walk away quickly.
Have you used a StreamSmart box? What do you think? Tell me about it in the comments below! |
Moby-Dick is the great American novel. But it is also the great unread American novel. Sprawling, magnificent, deliriously digressive, it stands over and above all other works of fiction, since it is barely a work of fiction itself. Rather, it is an explosive exposition of one man’s investigation into the world of the whale, and the way humans have related to it. Yet it is so much more than that. It is a representation of evil incarnate in an animal – and the utter perfidy of that notion. Of a nature transgressed and transgressive – and of one man’s demonic pursuit, a metaphorical crusade that even now is a shorthand for overweening ambition and delusion.
Out of all this, Herman Melville created a work of art as unique as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, as mythic as Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner – it is a true force of nature, set in a century that challenged every tenet of faith that had been held until then. Melville’s book – is it barely a novel – exceeds every expectation of a literary work. It bursts out of its covers with the enormity of its subject – as if the great White Whale itself were contained within.
Now, in the 21st Century, a century and a half since it was first conceived and launched onto a misbelieving world, Moby-Dick retains its power – precisely because we are still coming to terms with it, and what it said. Incredibly prophetic, it foresaw so many of the aspects of the modern world with which we deal with. The abuse of power and belief; of nature and the environment; of the human spirit. It deals with art and artifice and stark reality – in an almost existential manner. It is truly a book before its time – almost ancient myth, as much as futuristic prophesy.
In the spring of 2011, artist Angela Cockayne and writer Philip Hoare convened and curated a unique whale symposium and exhibition at Peninsula Arts, the dedicated contemporary art space at Plymouth University, under the title, Dominion. Inspired by their mutual obsession with Moby-Dick and with the overarching subject of the whale, they invited artists, writers, musicians, scientists and academics to respond to the theme. The result was an enthusiastic response which evidently could not be contained within the physical restrictions of a gallery space and a three-day symposium.
‘I have written a wicked book’, said Melville when his novel was first published in 1851, ‘and I feel as spotless as the lamb’. Deeply subversive, in almost every way imaginable, Moby-Dick is a virtual, alternative bible – and as such, ripe for reinterpretation in this new world of new media. Out of Dominion was born its bastard child – or perhaps its immaculate conception – the Moby-Dick Big Read: an online version of Melville’s magisterial tome: each of its 135 chapters read out aloud, by a mixture of the celebrated and the unknown, to be broadcast online in a sequence of 135 downloads, publicly and freely accessible. |
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the Cartosat-2 series satellite carried by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C38) at 9:30 am on Friday. Here's all you need to know about this momentous occasion:
Where: PSLV-C38 will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
PSLV-C38 at First Launch Pad. Picture Credit: ISRO
Mission's details: In its 40th flight, PSLV-C38 will launch the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites. Together this is about 243 kg at lift-off into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
PSLV-C38. Picture credit: ISRO
The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries namely, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and United States of America as well as one Nano satellite from India.
PSLV-C38 heat shield closed with all 31 satellites. Picture Credit: ISRO
The total weight of all these satellites carried on-board PSLV-C38 is about 955 kg.
Hoisting of PSLV-C38 second stage during vehicle integration. Picture credit: ISRO
The launch of international customer Nano satellites is a result of commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS) and the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.
Fully integrated core stage along with strap-ons of PSLV-C38 inside the mobile service tower. Picture Credit: ISRO
The primary satellite being carried by PSLV-C38 is the Cartosat-2 series satellite, which is similar to the earlier five satellites stall it's series. After its launch into the SSO by PSLV-C38, the satellite will be brought to operational configuration, following which it will begin providing remote sensing services using its panchromatic and multispectral cameras.
Cartosat-2 Series Satellite. Picture credit: ISRO |
The federal budget is taking affordable housing seriously, with a new National Housing Strategy that wants to tackle Canada’s housing crisis.
The 2017 budget proposes to spend $11.2 billion over 11 years and will build safe and affordable housing across the country. In cities with high prices and a severe lack of affordable housing, like Toronto and Vancouver, this funding cannot come soon enough. The government’s proposed housing fund will be run by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) — the country’s public insurance program for mortgages. The CMHC will receive $5 billion over 11 years to work on several projects related to housing. Another $3.2 billion will be dedicated to affordable housing specifically and will use a multilateral investment framework, relying on private and public funding to get affordable housing projects up and running across the country.
Out of the $11.2 billion, $3 billion will be spent in the next three years and $20 million for this year.
The money budgeted falls short of what the big city mayors caucus asked for at their meeting in late 2016. They asked for a pledge of $12.6 billion, spread over eight years to solve the affordable housing crisis that are growing in Canada’s largest cities. Toronto specifically has $2.6 billion in repairs needed for Toronto Community Housing units on the brink of being closed down.
Mayor John Tory is asking that the province pitch in to the housing fund as well and fill the gap that the federal government cannot commit to. Affordable housing in Toronto needs a huge investment to repair current community housing units as well as provide more. There are 82,414 households on the waitlist in the city, most consisting of families and seniors, and with rising house costs people are desperate for somewhere to live.
All three levels of government ultimately need to work together to tackle the affordable housing crises popping up across Canada. The National Housing Strategy is a brave step and the commitment of billions of dollars will make headway to giving vulnerable parts of the population somewhere safe and healthy to live. Without a home, it is nearly impossible to escape the throes of poverty — finally it seems that Canada is realizing the importance of shelter in the Great White North. Let’s hope that investment is maintained! |
Romanian international Lucian (LOU-chi-an) Goian (GOY-an) has signed a short-term player contract with Perth Glory FC for the remainder of the Hyundai A-League season.
The 34-year old experienced central defender heads to Perth after playing for Indian giants Mumbai City in the Indian Super League (IPL) where he was voted the league's best defender.
During this time he spent the season rubbing shoulders with former Glory midfielder Krisztian Vadocz and former Manchester United striker and Uruguayan international Diego Forlan.
Having represented his native Romania at the U-21 level, Goian comes from a rich pedigree, playing for local powerhouse Dinamo Bucharest, winning the Romanian League Championship, the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Supercup.
Prior to his IPL experience, Goian played 73 matches in the Chinese Super League with Tianjin Teda and Beijing Baxy before returning to his homeland to play for two more seasons with FC Brasov and CFR Cluj.
Goian has been signed following season ending injuries to Glory defenders Shane Lowry (quad) and Alex Grant (foot).
He has arrived in Perth and has commenced training and will don the number 26 for the remainder of the season.
Goian is expected to be available for selection for this week's Round 24 Hyundai A-League match against table leaders Sydney FC at nib Stadium on Sunday March 26.
Tickets to the match can be purchased HERE.
#GloryIsOurs |
The end of May saw interest in Russia-DPRK relations briefly surge with news that two North Korean migrants — both men and both living legally outside the DPRK — had been found dead in a Moscow accommodation block. Details of the case continue to be in short supply, but the two appear to have died of acute heart failure; an extraordinary turn of events given that one was only in his late 30s and the other just 22 years old (seven more individuals, at least two of them North Korean, reported symptoms).
The deaths highlight how in recent times the role of North Korean labor in Russian industry has grown, transcending a modest base of Siberian logging camps that date back to the 1960s. Indeed, on June 4 the investigative reporting spotlight fell upon the involvement of North Koreans in construction projects connected with next year’s prestigious FIFA World Cup, notably the impressive Zenit Arena in St. Petersburg.
Predictably, Russia’s increasingly varied economic interactions with North Korea are attracting the attention of the United States. Last month the US Treasury sanctioned a number of Russian companies and individuals — to by no means universal acclaim — and for all its well-documented (and still mostly just alleged) links to the Russian government, the Trump administration has taken to articulating a degree of dissatisfaction at Russia’s (non-)contribution to the enforcement of international action against the Kim Jong-un regime. Also in May, a new sanctions-related bill emerged from the US House of Representatives that targets both labor exports and the activities of North Korean vessels using third-country (including Russian) ports. Once again, Russia is not exactly pleased. Anthony Rinna looks at the implications. — Christopher Green, Co-editor
Targeting North Korea, Scratching Russia: HR 1644
by Anthony Rinna
On May 4, the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee passed the Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act (House Resolution 1644). An official House blog on HR 1644 states that continuing North Korean missile tests prove the failure of the US policy of “strategic patience,” and that while “diplomacy can work,” first the United States must gain greater leverage over North Korea through sanctions.
To this end, the resolution extends the scope of US action beyond North Korea, taking aim at the country’s economic activities on the territories of third states. The full HR 1644 introductory text stipulates that reports be submitted to Congress on commercial activity by North Korean entities at Russian ports near the DPRK, which mostly means Nakhodka, Vanino and Vladivostok, as well as at Chinese ports including Dalian and Dandong (Title I, Section 104). The resolution also includes provisions on the employment of North Korean labor abroad, and while this part of the proposal (Title 2, Section 201) does not mention Russia or Russian entities directly, there can be little doubt that with the number of North Korean workers in Russia rising, the US has taken into account the function of those workers in the application of economic pressure on the DPRK.
For Russia: A Different Type of Western Interference | The inclusion of Russian ports in the legislative proposal has, understandably from the Russian perspective, drawn an unfavorable reaction. RIA Novosti reported the news with the allegation that the US was trying to control Russian ports in Primorsky Krai. Ranking members of the Russian parliament expressed dismay, stating that the American proposal constitutes a violation of Russian sovereignty.
The bill’s high-level detractors include Viktor Ozerov, the chairman of the Russian parliament’s upper house defense and security committee. Ozerov, a member of the ruling United Russia and someone who has been outspoken against US policy toward North Korea, called the legislative move “absurd.” He stated that Russia would not yield control over its ports or even territorial waters, and insisted that Russia has been enforcing UN sanctions. Aleksey Pushkov, a legislator who sits on the defense committee of the Russian parliament’s upper house, condemned the US bill as a violation of international norms.
The latest evolution of the United States’ approach to sanctions against North Korea means two significant things for Russia’s position in multilateral attempts to resolve the North Korean security crisis. The first is the shifting relationship between Russia and the US over North Korea. For Russia and the United States, North Korean security has, since the DPRK’s nuclear breakout, been an issue on which Moscow and Washington have shared a common goal (a secure, denuclearized Korean Peninsula) but held divergent positions on how best to achieve it. This most recent bill marks a step away from potential Russia-US cooperation over North Korea.
At the same time, the legislation clearly demonstrates that the United States cannot afford to ignore the role of Russia in resolving the North Korea crisis. While Russia may not have the same level of influence over the DPRK as China or even the US itself, through its specific inclusion of Russia in the proposed sanctions, Washington is essentially sending Russia a clear message: “We believe that you have a role to play.” It is not clear whether the message is a call for help or a threat that if Russia doesn’t enforce sanctions, the US will force its hand. That is mostly up to the Russians to decide, at least for the time being.
The second important aspect is the implication of the legislation for Russian economic security in its eastern regions. Russia has always been concerned about the articulation of US power on its borders, mostly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Yet, seemingly not content with encircling Russia along its own borders, HR 1644 would allow the US to take actions inside those borders. The US is sending Russia the message that the US believes it has the right to involve itself in Russia’s dealings with at least one pertinent third country; North Korea. Given the assumed importance of Russia’s port infrastructure to the future prosperity of the Russian Far East, Russia may view this not only as a violation of its sovereignty, but also as a threat to its economic security.
Of course, we should not lose sight of the fact that HR 1644 is first and foremost about North Korea. Nevertheless, given the tense state of Russia-US relations, the inclusion of Russia in the legislation, even if only as a third party, serves to promote the view that the US is actively violating Russian economic security in one of Moscow’s most vulnerable regions.
China and Russia: Shared Views, Limited Interoperability | As Russia and the United States diverge on the use of sanctions and degree of diligence required to enforce them, Russia may see an impetus for closer cooperation with China. An early sign of this came in April 2017, when Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met with Russia’s deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov. The two parties agreed to continue cooperation over North Korean security in the UN Security Council. In particular, they vowed to continue enforcing sanctions against North Korea.
Russian expert Georgy Toloraya recently said that China and Russia both wished to focus on using diplomacy to resolve the crisis, rather than attempting to force change through sanctions. Indeed, ahead of the May 2017 meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, Russia’s ambassador to China, Andrei Denisov asserted that China and Russia are both interested in a diplomatic solution to the North Korean security crisis, and that sanctions threaten to have a negative effect on efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution, as well as hindering the provision of humanitarian aid to North Korea.
However, even as the Russian and Chinese positions coincide, it is difficult to say with any conviction that China and Russia will manage to actually cooperate in practice. Andrei Lankov believes that while China and Russia have similar views on the importance of the Korean Peninsula to their respective strategic imperatives, China places more importance on Korea than Russia does. Therefore, China’s priorities regarding North Korea may not be the same as Russia’s, including when it comes to enforcing sanctions. Nevertheless, if the US groups China and Russia together as parties-by-association in enforcing North Korean sanctions, then this could serve to push China and Russia closer together in cooperating over North Korea in a way that is detrimental to US interests.
Aside from uncertainty over China and Russia’s willingness or ability to cooperate over sanctions is the issue of whether or not Russia is even a worthwhile target of Washington’s North Korea sanctions strategy. Robert Einhorn of the Brookings Institution asserts that Russia has taken a back seat to China over North Korean disarmament, and that even as China-DPRK ties deteriorate, Russia cannot serve as a substantive alternative political or economic supporter for the DPRK. Thus, even if Russia enforces sanctions against North Korea of its own accord, or does so in response to US intervention, there is some doubt as to how effective this will actually be in modifying North Korean behavior.
Conclusion | The new legislation indicates that the United States views Russian economic ties to North Korea as a problem for the US and its North Korea sanctions policy, and has therefore decided to act unilaterally to defend its interests. While the specific targeting of key Russian maritime infrastructure does not mean that Russia, in the American view, is a full-fledged North Korean partner, it nevertheless reveals that Washington is increasingly skeptical about Russia’s willingness to act as a constructive interlocutor in curbing North Korean security provocations through economic means. For Russia, this serves as support for the already exceedingly widespread notion that the US has little regard for Russian sovereignty.
HR 1644’s inclusion of Chinese ports as subjects of American monitoring may also send the message that the US has little faith in China’s willingness to assist. Unilateral US actions of this nature risk pushing China and Russia closer together over the Korean security crisis. This will ultimately not serve the US’ best interests, in all likelihood perpetuating the regional standoff between the US, China and Russia over a wealth of issues, including how best to solve the North Korean security crisis. |
This is an animation tool I wrote for Maya that provides a different approach to ghosting/onion-skinning in 3D.
I was watching a recording of a live lecture with Jason Ryan (Dreamworks/iAnimate) when a student asked him if he used ghosting when animating in 3D. He mentioned a couple of reasons why he usually doesn't, even though he uses the lightbox feature all the time when animating in 2D.
I realised I feel the same way about any 3D ghosting solutions I've tried. One problem is that they slow the scene down usually, and another is that they are not that easy to see in the viewport, usually being a faded version of the mesh or a wireframe of it which doesn't read very clearly.
Then the penny dropped for me - 2D animators don't see the fully shaded character in the lightbox when animating, they see only the lines they've drawn, so the spacing is a lot easier to see. So I set about writing a tool that will give an outline of the character rather than a fully shaded one when ghosted. It's also a little different in that the animator just ghosts specific frames rather than having something heavy that's constantly updating in the scene, for my workflow at least this is preferable.
I showed this initially in a 30 second video here and was amazed by the amount of response from animators around the world. Many thanks to everyone for their comments and emails about it.
Please watch the video above so that you know how best to use it. I hope people find it useful, I know for me it's helping me see the spacing in my animation in a whole new light since I've started using it in my animation workflow. Happy animating!
Update 1.05 - 10102012 :
I got an email from Sean McLaughlin (formerly an animator at DreamWorks, currently teaching at Ringling College, Florida) saying that he really likes the the tool and asking if it was possible to incorporate multiple frame ghosting all at once. For example, the animator selects a range of keys in the time slider by shift+dragging and then when they press the Ghost button the tool creates ghosts for every frame of that range.
I thought it was a great suggestion and it was pretty straightforward to implement so I've added it in. (See it here)
So now if there isn't a range of keys selected the tool works the same as before, if there is a selected range though each frame will get a ghost.
Update 1.06 - 17122012 :
I've now added a new function to the tool which makes it much faster when working with multiple characters in a scene. Please watch the video here for more details.
Update 1.08 - 080513 :
I've added a new function where it will ghost only the keys in a selected range if a controller is selected. Please watch the video here for more details.
Update 1.09 - 160114 :
Added new 'replace' mode. With this enabled only one ghost exists at a time and each new one replaces the old one. Handy for polishing animation.
Update 1.10 - 301114 :
Added Create Tracker function - see video here to see how best to use this.
Update 1.11 -230415 :
Minor tweak to code to suit UI changes in Maya 2016.
Update 1.25 -300815
Added alternate colour option and smooth mode. Video demo here.
Update 1.26 -171015
Added the ability to ghost only selected parts of a mesh. Video on that here.
Update 1.27 -190216
Added 'Hide on Playback' option (Maya 2016+ only). Video on that here.
Update 1.28 - 110416
Added '10X' mode for thicker outlines
Update 1.29 - 150616
Code tweak to ensure the 'Hide on Playback' check box is enabled when a hide ghosts layer already exists in the Maya scene.
Update 1.32 -240817
Bug fix update to stop crashes when using Create Tracker function in Maya 2017/2018
Update 23 May 2017 - I made a new video that demonstrates all current features.. this is the ideal one to start with now -
https://vimeo.com/218632770
The older video is still online which covers things like installation in more detail here.
Download bhGhost _1_32 |
Elephant hawk-moth Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Euarthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Sphingidae Genus: Deilephila Species: D. elpenor Binomial name Deilephila elpenor
Linnaeus, 1758)[1] Synonyms Sphinx elpenor Linnaeus, 1758
Chaerocampa lewisii Butler, 1875
Elpenor vitis Oken, 1815
Chaerocampa elpenor alboradiata Lambillion, 1913
Chaerocampa elpenor cinerescens Newnham, 1900
Deilephila elpenor argentea Burrau, 1950
Deilephila elpenor philippsi Niepelt, 1921
Deilephila elpenor tristis Lempke & Stolk, 1986
Deilephila elpenor vautrini Austaut, 1907
Eumorpha elpenor clara Tutt, 1904
Eumorpha elpenor obsoleta Tutt, 1904
Eumorpha elpenor pallida Tutt, 1904
Eumorpha elpenor unicolor Tutt, 1904
Eumorpha elpenor virgata Tutt, 1904
Pergesa elpenor daubi Niepelt, 1908
Pergesa elpenor distincta Meyer, 1969
Pergesa elpenor hades Rebel, 1910
Pergesa elpenor lugens Niepelt, 1926
Pergesa elpenor scheiderbaueri Gschwandner, 1924
Pergesa elpenor szechuana Chu & Wang, 1980
Deilephila elpenor, the elephant hawk moth, is a moth in the family Sphingidae. Its common name is derived from the caterpillar's resemblance to an elephant's trunk. It is most common in central Europe and is distributed throughout the Palearctic region.[2] Its distinct olive and pink coloring makes it one of the most recognizable moths in its range.[3] However, it is quite easy to confuse the elephant hawk moth with the small elephant hawk moth, a closely related species that also shares the characteristic colors.[4]
These moths are nocturnal and therefore feed on flowers that open or produce nectar at nighttime. The elephant hawk moth has incredibly sensitive eyes that allow it to see color even at low-light. In fact, it was one of the first species in which nocturnal color vision was documented in animals.[5] The moth is also known for its hovering capability, which it utilizes when feeding on nectar from flowers.[6] This behavior is costly in terms of energy and can help explain why the moth has evolved such enhanced visual capabilities for efficient feeding.[5] The moths also have an important role as pollinators throughout their habitat.[7]
Description [ edit ]
The D. elpenor moth has olive-brown colored forewings outlined with pink. Two pink lines also run through the wings. The first line is usually thicker and terminates in the center of the wings near a white dot. The second line, which runs below the first, starts at the white inner margins and runs until the tip of the wing. The hindwings have a black inner half that gradually turns pink from the middle outwards. It is outlined by white fringes. The head, thorax, and body are also olive-brown in color with pink markings throughout.[8]
Male dorsal view
Male ventral view
Female dorsal view
Female ventral view
Subspecies [ edit ]
Two separate subspecies, Deilephila elpenor elpenor and Deilephila elpenor lewisii, were recognized in the past, but they are no longer regarded as well-distinguished. Similarly, the subspecies Deilephila elpenor szechuana is now thought to be a synonym for Deilephila elpenor elpenor. The subspecies Deilephila elpenor macromera, found in southern China, northern India, Bhutan and Myanmar, is still regarded as distinct.[9]
Male Deilephila elpenor macromera , dorsal view
Male Deilephila elpenor macromera, ventral view
Similar species [ edit ]
The elephant hawk moth is often confused with the small elephant hawk moth (Deilephila porcellus). There are clear distinctions in size and coloring that can help differentiate between the two. As the name suggests, the small elephant hawk moth is much smaller. It is also more yellow in color around its body. The most obvious defining feature is the thick pink stripe going down the elephant hawk moth's abdomen that is missing on the small elephant hawk moth's abdomen. The two species are not usually seen together in garden traps because the small elephant hawk moth prefers more open habitats.[4]
Range [ edit ]
D. elpenor is very common in central Europe and has a distribution throughout the palearctic region.[2] The species is especially well-distributed in England, Wales, and Ireland. Until the 1980s, D. elpenor was only present in the southern half of Scotland, but now it has made its way up the north coast and into the country's mainland as well.[3] In general, the moth's range becomes thinner and less concentrated in the northern parts of Europe. The range also extends throughout Asia and even to Japan.[8]
Habitat [ edit ]
D. elpenor inhabits a variety of habitats. These include rough grassland, heathland, sand dunes, hedgerows, woodland, the open countryside, and even urban gardens.[3] The moths play an important role in pollination throughout their habitats. For example, previous studies on hawk moths have indicated that they can pollinate up to 5-10% of the tree and shrub species in the area they inhabit.[7]
Life cycle [ edit ]
There is usually only a single generation of D. elpenor in a given year. Occasionally, a small number of second generation individuals in a single year will be recorded in the late summer, but this is very rare. The pupae overwinter in cocoons, and the species become active from May to early August. Its peak activity time is between the midsummer months of June and September.[3]
Egg
Egg [ edit ]
The females lay eggs either singly or in pairs on the leaves of plants that can act as food sources to the caterpillars when they emerge. These include but are not limited to rosebay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium) and bedstraws (of the genus Galium).[10] The moths are also attracted to human-made gardens, and eggs have frequently been found on garden fuchsias, dahlias, and lavender. The eggs are whitish-green and have a glossy texture.[8] Eggs will usually hatch in ten days.[10]
Larva [ edit ]
Larva
Young larvae are a yellowish white to green color. When they have finished growing, the larvae are a brown-gray color with black dots along the length of the body. Larvae have a backward curving spine or "horn" that is the same color as their body on the final abdominal segment. Fully grown larvae can measure up to 3 inches (7.62 cm) in length.[8] They also weigh somewhere between 4 and 7.5 grams (0.14 and 0.26 oz); during their lifetime, they ingest a total of 11–30 grams (0.39–1.06 oz) of plant material.[11]
Variation in color has been observed in nature. Specifically, a green version of the full-grown larva exists within the species. Previous research has shown that the color variation is not due to a simple inheritance pattern, and specific explanations still remain inconclusive.[12]
Pupa [ edit ]
Pupa
It takes around 27 days for D. elpenor to move from the larva stage to the pupa stage.[11] When the larvae are fully grown, they will look for a place to pupate. Usually, this ends up being at the base of a plant in plant debris or underneath the surface of the ground. Once they have found a secure spot, they will line the pupal chamber with a few strands of silk, pupate, then overwinter as pupae. Their pupae are brown with darker brown speckles throughout, and the divisions between the segments appear black.[8] Pupae are 40–45 mm long.[13]
Adult [ edit ]
The wingspan of D. elpenor that have been collected in Europe measure to be around 60–70 mm.[13] There is also very little variation between the male and female D. elpenor.[3] Adults are the most active during the month of June. They visit flowers and feed on the nectar at night, and are especially attracted to plants such as honeysuckles (lonicera).[8]
Adaptations [ edit ]
Eyespots [ edit ]
Many Lepidoptera species have evolved eye spots either on their body (when they are caterpillars) or on their wings (as fully grown adults). This dark, circular marking is generally thought to resemble the eyes of a predator and deter attacks from birds that feed on insects. This mimicry is effective because the caterpillar is usually somewhat concealed, and because the predators must respond to the signals quickly.[14]
When it feels threatened by a predator, the caterpillar will widen the anterior part of the body. This defensive posture emphasizes the eyespots and makes it more conspicuous. Some research have suggested that this allows the eyespots of the caterpillar to resemble a snake more closely than it could when it is at rest.[14]
Mating [ edit ]
Pheromones [ edit ]
Experiments using gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy have identified (E)-11-hexadecenal and (10E, 12E)-10,12-hexadecadienal [(E,E)-bombykal] as the major components of the female sex pheromone. These pheromones are the most active when females are actively exhibiting calling behavior and visibly showing their ovipositors.[2]
Vision [ edit ]
D. elpenor have incredibly sensitive eyes that allow them to have color vision even at nighttime.[5] Studies have analyzed the dark-adapted eyes of D.elpenor and have found three visual pigments with a maximal wavelength of 345 nm, 440 nm, and 520 nm. These values respectively correspond to ultraviolet, blue, and green wavelengths.[15] Most vertebrates, such as humans, lose the ability to use the three types of photoreceptors present in the eye in dim light conditions. However, all three types of photoreceptors remain functional in various light conditions for D. elpenor, giving it the ability to have scotopic color vision.[16] This species was the first instance in which being able to see color at night was documented in animals.[5] Usually, increased color sensitivity results in decreases in spatial resolution.[17] However, despite the incredible sensitivity of its eyesight, the moth also has a reasonable spatial resolution. This nighttime color vision is necessary because of the moth's feeding patterns. D. elpenor feeds at the darkest hours of night and also hovers over the flower to suck its nectar out rather than sitting on the flower. Locating the correct flower and hovering over it are both visually demanding tasks.[5]
Feeding [ edit ]
D. elpenor feed on nectar from flowers. When most insects forage, they land on the flower to retrieve the nectar. However, D. elpenor hovers in front of the flower rather than landing on the flower itself. The moth then extends its long, straw-like proboscis to attain its food. While hovering, its wings beat at a high frequency to stabilize the body from the drift of the wind. This flight pattern is quite costly; therefore, it is important for the moth to be able to feed effectively by knowing where to find nectar.[6]
Visual cues [ edit ]
Since they are nocturnal, the moths tend to feed on flowers that open or produce nectar at twilight or during the night. These are commonly termed "hawkmoth flowers."[7] D. elpenor are able to see color, an ability that is usually absent from most other nocturnal species.[17] Their particular visual system allows them to discriminate between various wavelengths even at low illumination, allowing the moths to find correct food sources while foraging.[7]
Olfactory cues [ edit ]
Olfaction also plays an important role in feeding for the moth. Many of the hawkmoth flowers contain a pleasant smell. Previous studies have found that fragrance release from the hawkmoth flowers stimulate flower-seeking behavior by the moths. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that both visual and olfactory cues play a role in the feeding behavior of D. elpenor.[7]
Learning [ edit ]
D. elpenor, like many other insects, can learn to adapt its behavior to changing environmental conditions. Experiments with D. elpenor has shown that it can discriminate between various visual stimuli (i.e. color) and associate it with a food reward. This behavior is especially important because the wrong decision when choosing a food source can prove to be a costly mistake in terms of time and energy resources. The experiment was conducted through the use of differently colored artificial flowers. When no reward in the form of nectar was given by the flower, the moth did not further participate in foraging behavior with that particular flower. This demonstrated the moth's need to keep energy expenses as low as possible while foraging.[6]
Flight [ edit ]
Peak flight time for D. elpenor is between the months of June and September. Since the species is nocturnal, the moth will fly from dusk until the morning. Then it will rest at one of its food sources until dusk comes again.[3] The moth has a maximum flight speed of 4.5— 5.1 m/s. The wind confers mechanical resistance to the wings while flying. Therefore, winds have negative effects on the energy budget of the moth. As a result, D. elpenor stop visiting flowers at wind speeds starting at 3.0 m/s.[18]
D. elpenor are particularly adept at hovering, which is a necessary skill for obtaining nectar. It utilizes spacial cues and motion-detecting neurons to steady itself.[19]
Predators [ edit ]
Some natural predators use bright coloring to attract its prey, which includes D. elpenor. The conspicuous body coloring of certain nocturnal invertebrates, such as the white forehead stripes on the brown huntsman spider, lures the flying moth to its predator.[20]
Bats are also known to prey on the moth.[21]
Gallery [ edit ]
Larva
Green version of the larva
Adult
Eye markings of the larva
Eye markings on the larva
Pupa |
(Last Updated On: January 10, 2016)
A NATO report which has been published in SPIEGEL quoted NATO probing Afghanistan’s security conditions will become worst in 2016 comparing to 2015.
Officials in Ministries of interior and Defense said observing the civilian casualties Afghan security forces are capable to launch military operations across the country.
Part of the report also indicated that NATO sees with doubt on Afghan security forces capabilities on launching operations to secure Afghanistan, therefore the security condition Afghanistan will be worst than 2015.
NATO member said,” NATO fore said that the Afghanistan security condition will be worst than 2015 because Afghan security forces aren’t capable to defend the country.”
Out of the total 101 infantry units only one has been characterized by the report as effectively battle-ready, while 38 units have been classified as having “massive problems.” Ten battalions of 600 soldiers each have been classified as not operational.
According to the data contributed to the report by US General John F. Campbell, the current commander of the Resolute Support Mission and United States Forces –Afghanistan, out of 17 battalions stationed in Taliban-troubled provinces of Kandahar and Zabul, 12 units have only “limited” readiness.
Another major problem is highly increased battle casualties, which in 2015 grew by 42 percent compared to 2014. Altogether, last year ANA had more than 8,000 combat fatalities, on average losing 22 soldiers every day throughout 2015.
Afghanistan Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said,” we confirm the casualties but who are launching operations against terrorism in Afghanistan, Afghan security forces are in the front line defending their country.”
Meanwhile officials in Ministry of interior affairs claimed that we are facing world battle here in Afghanistan, Afghan security forces are in the front line fighting terrorism.
We are fighting for peace, this is not our war, we confirm the casualties, we are facing International fighters here in Afghanistan, there serious threats to world, war erupted in Helmand, based on the reports war has been intensified in south part of Afghanistan, poor performances of Afghan National Army caused the war to be expanded Ministry of interior spokesman sediq sediqee said.
Reported by FarahNaz Forotan |
TIME has been added to a fifth exchange: Bittrex, one of the most popular locations for altcoin trading in the crypto world.
Bittrex is one of the most popular altcoin exchanges, with strong volumes and a dedicated base of traders. As such, it represents a great addition to the ChronoBank ecosystem and many traders will already have accounts there. We hope to see increasing volumes, and plan to deploy trading bots to help this in due course, if necessary.
After a successful crowdfund and token distribution, TIME is steadily being added to new exchanges. In the week immediately after investors received their TIME tokens, both Livecoin and Liqui integrated bitcoin pairs. At the present time, Liqui is still the most popular exchange for trading TIME, with gradually rising volumes. We now have a new exchange: Bittrex , which added TIME on Thursday.
Altcoin economics
ChronoBank raised $5.4 million during its crowdfund, with tokens on sale at 0.01 BTC by the end of the sale. At the time of writing, its market cap is at almost exactly that dollar amount (CoinMarketCap). However, in bitcoin terms it has fallen around 33%.
It’s no secret why: since the end of our ICO, bitcoin has risen sharply in anticipation of the SEC’s decision on the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF. When our ICO started, bitcoin was under $700. When it finished, it was hovering around the $1,000 mark. Now — and such is the volatility that this is subject to change at a moment’s notice — it’s around the $1,175 mark, having just come off its new all-time high. The fall in the BTC price of TIME has precisely cancelled out the rise in the dollar value of bitcoin.
This is unfortunately the reality of alts trading, and is the risk assumed when any investment is made — that the value of the currency used to purchase the investment falls. (Incidentally, this is one reason why the FTSE 100 is at all-time highs, too — the value of Pounds Sterling has dropped after Brexit, meaning the stocks, which are generally multinationals with dollar-denominated income, are worth more of a less-valuable currency).
Fortunately, for those traders who think in BTC terms rather than USD equivalents (i.e., most), we believe this will be a short-term phenomenon.
Looking ahead
The first reason is simply that when LaborX is finished and starts generating revenues, the value of TIME will naturally rise. Like stocks, it will be priced as some multiple of earnings (the multiple differs depending on sector).
In the meantime, there’s more good news. We’re in conversation with two larger exchanges about adding TIME. Assuming we’re successful and we see TIME trading on at least one of these over the next few weeks, that will represent a ‘liquidity event’ that will place TIME in front of thousands of new traders. In the short term there will naturally be volatility, but liquidity is valuable in its own right, regardless of any new buy pressure that these markets bring to bear. If that’s the case, then TIME’s present price will seem like a welcome discount in BTC terms, as well as a fair one in USD.
Lastly, of course, there’s the SEC’s decision. Whatever happens the bitcoin markets are likely to be choppy for a while as traders sell the news, position for the next movement, and try to front-run each other in the pursuit of profits. That always impacts the alts, and TIME will be no different.
The bottom line: there are opportunities coming in the next few weeks. If you’re a short-term trader, there may well be the chance to exit at profit. If you’re a long-term investor, there are opportunities to pick up more TIME at cut price. And if you’re not sure, it’s not a bad point to dip your toe in the water.
To buy TIME on Bittrex, visit:
https://www.bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-TIME |
About This Game
Story
September 1362:
Gameplay
Classic Hack and Slash Game:
Features
19 Levels and 18 Weapons
Single Player
3D Realtime Cinematic Blood Splatter Scenes
An army of evil, named "", have been ravaging the country like a plague of locusts for over a year and are frightening the people with their scary get-up. Most people still think they are monsters. But they are only in disguise. While you were away these monsters stormed the castle. A woman named Katerina has been kidnapped. It is not just any woman. You are in love with her. They’ve also taken all the gold. All the taxes. And weapons! You are the only one who can help Katarina. You must hurry and follow them before they do something to her.The player fights his way through 19 levels. Various weapons will be available. They can be found in different levels. Everything begins moderately and you need to find some keys and a sword. After the first level the game turns into a hack'n slash game. Most of the time, the player has to fight against enemies. But he has to do also other little things and must solve certain problems. You need keyboard and mouse.This game is an indie game with a kind of old school look.It is also supporting SSAO and Bloom Shader effects. |
Thanks for checking out the Lil' Mynx line of dance poles. We know there are choices out there and we thank you for considering what we have to offer. Lil Mynx are professional grade dance poles, made in the USA. These are not cheap poles made in China found in a novelty store in your local mall or on other web sites. We pride ourselves and our company by staying a US made product keeping US workers working. We will not sell out to overseas manufacturing to make a buck!
Lil' Mynx has the best reputation in the business as a safe, reliable, and sturdy professional grade line of dance poles for homes and studios with customer service second to none. We have been making removable poles in the US longer and better than anyone else. All of our poles are hand crafted one at a time for our customers. We don’t mass produce our poles like everyone else. We are the only real company that can offer truly custom poles because that’s what we do. When considering a removable dance pole your #1 concern should be safety. Safety is our business!
Unlike other poles that rely solely on friction to hold the pole in place, we have been using a bolt-in mount since day one. Having a secure mounting surface to hold the pole in place is the only way you can feel comfortable with your pole installation. With friction you have to continuously check the poles since they come loose as they push your ceiling up. The spring used in holding the Lil' Mynx pole in place has a duty-cycle of over 100,000. This is a continuous duty test, the kind the pole will never see. Also, our spring can sit in a compressed state indefinitely without changing its capability to hold the pole in place. We will never sacrifice YOUR safety to earn a dollar. So when choosing a removable dance pole, always keep safety and suitability your top priorities.
The Lil' Mynx dance poles are shipped all over the world for the gyms offering pole dance classes. Sheila Kelley's S Factor and Fawnia's Pole Fitness Studio use and trust the Lil' Mynx for their clients. All the best studios offer the Lil' Mynx dance pole to their students to continue their practice at home. Lil' Mynx has been on many TV shows including Keeping up with the Kardashians, Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, Tila Tequila and was also featured on VH1 Fabulous Life Celebrity Sex as most of today's top celebrities enjoy what the Lil' Mynx dance pole has to offer. This includes Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Adrianne Curry, Teri Hatcher, Carmen Electra, Daryl Hannah, Pamela Anderson, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Fergie, Cindy Crawford and many others. The pole dance craze was boosted when the Lil' Mynx dance pole was featured with S Factor on the Oprah show. |
The logo and trading information for Wells Fargo are displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 14, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
(Reuters) - Pennsylvania Treasurer Timothy Reese said on Thursday that he suspended Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) from any treasury investment or trading activities in the state for a year because of its “fraudulent” accounts scandal.
The Pennsylvania Treasury said it will continue to monitor the situation and may re-evaluate the bank’s status if it showed progress in reforming its operations and culture.
Wells Fargo has faced intense regulatory scrutiny since September over the opening of as many as 2 million unauthorized accounts, a scandal that led to the departure of John Stumpf, former chief executive, last month. |
Many lawmakers, often from safe districts, are still holding town halls throughout the month. While a number of them are drawing voters outraged over Mr. Obama’s health care law, the intensity is nothing compared to the scale of 2009.
But where there are no gatherings, some groups have decided to take matters into their own hands.
After seeing a paltry schedule of Congressional town hall meetings this month, another major conservative group, Heritage Action for America, decided it would stage public forums of its own from Arkansas to Pennsylvania. The aim is to recruit people for a group it calls the Sentinels, a citizens’ brigade of sorts, to reach lawmakers through other means, like writing letters to the editor, dialing in to talk-radio programs and mastering the language of Twitter and Facebook.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is sending its advocates into Republican districts with two-dimensional cutouts of members without a traditional town hall on the calendar. Anyone who is feeling especially theatric is being encouraged to debate their cardboard congressman.
This month, the committee sent a batch of rubber ducks to Representative Rodney Davis, Republican of Illinois, who is under pressure to support a broad immigration overhaul. (The joke: He is “ducking” questions in an ethics investigation.)
Others on the Democrats’ target list have included Representative Tim Griffin of Arkansas, who was greeted at an airport by protesters calling for an end to the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester, and Representative John Kline of Minnesota, who is also being pressed to support immigration overhaul and was picketed after attending a closed-door Chamber of Commerce event. Not one of the Republican congressmen has a town hall scheduled this month.
Ms. Pierson and Tea Party advocates from around Dallas spent one night last week making fake milk cartons with pictures of Mr. Sessions and Senator John Cornyn, another Texas Republican who has yet to announce a town hall. |
Adding a ladder rack to your commercial truck or van gives your business flexibility to transport a variety of materials to a job site. While a ladder rack implies that you will be carrying a ladder, there are racks that allow you to carry whatever you want on top of your vehicle. This is a good thing considering that your customers are rarely going to provide you with materials to do your job.
How Easy Is It To Install And Remove The Rack?
You want to make sure that any ladder rack that you purchase can easily be put on or taken off of your vehicle. If you have to adjust the rack, add accessories to it or you decide that you want a different type of rack, you don’t want to spend hours loosening screws and reading a confusing instruction manual. Fortunately, there are racks available that simply to install and won’t damage your van. See how to install a Tuff Racks ladder rack here.
Can It Resist The Elements?
No business can afford to take the day off because it is too hot or cold out. When your customers need you, it is important that you are there to delivery quality service. Therefore, you should look for aluminum racks that are resistant against rust and corrosion. Covering your materials and the racks themselves during the winter will keep them dry when it is snowing or sleeting out.
Will Your Ladder Rack Fit On Your Truck?
Your rack won’t be helpful if it doesn’t fit on your truck. It is important to measure before you make any purchase decision. Most manufacturer websites will help you determine what size rack is best for your truck or van. If you have any questions about what size rack you need, make sure to ask for help. In some cases, you may be able to get the supplier to install the rack on your truck for you.
Try To Find Something That Looks Good and Works Good
There are a variety of rack designs that you can put on the top of your truck or van. This allows you to find the shape and material that you need to properly hold pipes, ladders and whatever else you need to put on the top of your vehicle. Think about how you want to secure items atop the rack, is there a way to attach bungee cords or tie down items easily?
Many factors must be considered before choosing the best ladder rack for your truck or van. Make sure that it fits, that it looks good and that it will keep your goods safe from a variety of weather conditions. If it can do all of those things, you will be happy with your ladder rack for years to come. |
---------- Updated at 01:41 PM ----------
jj284b said: actually, i think the cause for this is quite simple - barber got killed off by some random beasts along the road... in my current playthrough, i have liberated him, but the road to Claywitch was completely cleared by me not so long ago, so he was not attacked and got there without issues. yet, if you dont clear up the area, he might run through some stronger monsters which will kill him off for good... Click to expand...
Best person in distress is the Blacksmith in Ard Skellig/village with the Ancient Leshen contract which is free when you get there first, after that you can free him at the coast... or not because he is free... no confusion intended.Claywich barber is bugged since release. You have to follow him when you want to use him one time only. And the shave/haircut isn't free even tough he states it is. Same with the drunk barber in Novigrad - no discount.While I'm at it - all that talk in this game when people claim to get you a discount is crap anyway because there won't be a discount. Take the merchant (griffin) or the dwarf (arsonist) in White Orchard as example - nothing changes despite different decisions.Good job on the polish (not the adjective...) tough, at least there are ways to finish the game. Couldn't imagine the state of this game if it was released last year.Ever seen monsters attack NPCs? They cry but they don't get hit and they don't die. |
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Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
Ankara’s consulate in Rotterdam has requested that Turkish organizations in the Netherlands report on any derogatory statements made about the Turkish president, according to reports by The Washington Post.
“We ask urgently for the names and written comments of people who have given derogatory, disparaging, hateful and defamatory statements against the Turkish president, Turkey and Turkish society in general,” read the email according to a BBC translation.
According to the Washington Post, the email sparked an uproar in the Netherlands and the Dutch prime minister demanded an explanation.The Turkish embassy defended the email, claiming its message had been misunderstood.The consulate claimed the government was requesting reports on hate speech incidents and racism.This incident comes after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded earlier this month that Germany press charges against comedian Jan Boehmermann after he recited a poem about the Turkish leader in a show on another public broadcaster, ZDF, suggesting he beats little girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality.Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to allow prosecutors to pursue the case against Boehmermann under a section of the German criminal code that prohibits insults against foreign leaders but leaves it to the government to decide whether to authorize such cases.Additionally on Sunday, a prominent Dutch journalist was detained by Turkish police, a Dutch official said, a week after she wrote a column published in the Netherlands in which she criticized Erdogan for his clampdown on dissent.Columnist Ebru Umar, who is of Turkish descent and an outspoken critic of Erdogan, was detained by police overnight in Turkey where she was on holiday.A spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed that Umar had been detained by police.“We are aware of this and we are following the situation closely. We are in contact with her,” he said. He declined to give further details.Last week she wrote an article in the free newspaper Metro criticizing a Turkish consular official in the Netherlands for asking all Turks to report incidents of insults against Erdogan in the country.The call was widely criticized, including by Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and was later withdrawn.Umar called Erdogan a “dictator” in the article.On her official Twitter account, Umar tweeted overnight: “Police in front of the door. No joke.” She later tweeted that she was being taken to a police station in Kusadasi, a resort town on Turkey’s Aegean coast.Reuters contributed to this report.
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For the original German review, see here.
Lenovo's tablets are always good for a surprise: With its Yoga, the manufacturer was one of the first to implement the convertible idea convincingly. They have built-in kickstands or an amazingly convenient handle including generous room for the battery. Or what about having a projector installed directly into the tablet? Lenovo's Tab 4 10 Plus is sooner a traditional mid-range tablet but Lenovo has come up with something special for it anyway: Special accessory packs allow optimizing the tablet for children or for work, or Amazon's personal assistant Alexa can be set up.
If all of this is not needed, potential buyers still get a 10.1-inch tablet with a fairly good memory configuration and a mid-range SoC. Its slim design and a glass rear should convince in terms of looks. Consumers also have some alternatives that we use for comparison. For example, the company's own Medion Lifetab P1050, Asus' ZenPad 10, Huawei's MediaPad M3 Lite or Asus' ZenPad 3S 10. Another interesting question is whether spending almost twice as much compared to Lenovo's Tab 4 10 is worthwhile. |
Beside ads beckoning believers to explore Islam, attend services at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church, or learn about the healing powers of Christian Science, the walls of the city’s subway cars will make room this month for another creed: nonbelief.
A group called the Boston Area Coalition of Reason has spent $11,000 to buy ads on more than 200 subway cars on the Red Line and Green Line to raise awareness about people who believe that God is a myth. Surveys suggest that they account for an increasing number of Americans.
The ads, which were unveiled yesterday and will be up for the next month, are set in a background of blue sky with puffy clouds. The bold-lettered message reads: “Good without God? Millions of Americans Are.’’
“The point of this ‘Good without God’ campaign is to reach out to the millions of humanists, atheists, and agnostics living in the United States,’’ said Fred Edwords, head of the United Coalition of Reason, which is sponsoring the campaign in Boston, as well as similar efforts in New York, New Jersey, and Chicago. “Nontheists sometimes don’t realize there’s a community out there for them, because they’re inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren’t alone.’’
The national coalition, funded by an anonymous donor, has already sponsored ads this year on billboards and transit systems in cities including Dallas; Charleston, S.C.; Des Moines; Phoenix; and New Orleans, with the message: “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.’’
It plans ads for another 10 cities, which will coincide with the publication of a book titled “Good Without God,’’ by Greg Epstein, a member of the coalition’s board who is the humanist chaplain at Harvard.
The coalition’s ads follow campaigns by other groups, such as billboards and signs posted last year by the Freedom from Religion Foundation of Wisconsin, including one beside a nativity scene in the US Capitol that read: “There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.’’
Last fall, the British Humanist Association posted ads on London buses that read: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.’’
The new ad campaign does not bother Dave Schmelzer, the lead pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Cambridge, which has been posting its own ads on the T for a decade.
“Their message seems uncharitable and hopeless, but I do think it’s possible to be good without God,’’ he said. “Yet I think they’re preaching to the choir in Boston. They’ll find a lot of people who agree with them.’’
He said he can’t complain about the MBTA allowing the ads, because “that would be hypocritical.’’
“It’s a free country,’’ he said.
Other religious groups that have bought ads on subway cars include the ReUnion Christian Church; Hope Fellowship Church; Catholic Charities; the Islamic Society of Boston; the Second Church of Christ, Scientist; and the Boston Chinese Evangelical, say officials of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
Joe Pesaturo, an MBTA spokesman, said there have yet to be any complaints about the ads, which began appearing on subway cars on Monday.
Stephen Prothero, a religion professor at Boston University, said the ad campaign reflects the new assertiveness of the nation’s nonbelievers, who varyingly call themselves atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, humanists, secularists, or brights.
They have been emboldened, he said, by a raft of best-selling books, including Sam Harris’s “The End of Faith,’’ Christopher Hitchens’s “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,’’ and Richard Dawkins’s “The God Delusion.’’
They also point to polls suggesting that the numbers of nonbelievers are increasing.
A 2007 Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, for example, found that 20 percent of Americans surveyed between the ages of 18 and 25 say they have no religious affiliation or consider themselves atheists or agnostics, nearly double the percentage of those who said that in a similar survey 20 years ago.
Another Pew survey that year found 12 percent of Americans surveyed who were 20 and older described themselves as not religious, up from 8 percent in 1987.
“There will be conservatives upset about this, because they don’t want nonbelievers in the public space,’’ Prothero said. “But I don’t think the people sponsoring this campaign are evangelistic or want Christians to read the billboards and realize the error of their ways.
“I think this is more of a coming-out party for atheists,’’ he said. “It’s about achieving a public recognition. I think this group is about not wanting to feel invisible.’’
David Abel can be reached at [email protected].
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. |
Do you remember when I told you that GTX 780 Ti will in fact be available in 6GB variants? It was even before it was released. Later we learned that NVIDIA was not planning such models at the time, instead the company was quietly working on a new TITAN Black.
Well, guess what, guys over at NVIDIA HQ felt really unconformable with the recent news from Sapphire. Sapphire is preparing its 8GB models of R9 290X, which would outperform any 780 Ti in terms of available memory. That said they returned to their original plans and they will launch 6GB models. Okay, maybe not NVIDIA itself, but it’s AIB partner — EVGA.
It’s not only GTX 780 TI getting more memory, but also GTX 780. I don’t think people were still expecting GTX 780 with 6GB as EVGA Representative clearly said it’s not going to happen few weeks ago.
This is what you can find on EVGA website right now.
EVGA:
The New EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB Step-Up Double your memory with the EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB Graphics Card with the EVGA Step-Up Program! That’s right! EVGA’s GeForce GTX 780 6GB is coming soon. This graphics card will be available for EVGA’s legendary Step-Up program! You can trade up your current EVGA Graphics Card (if purchased within the last 90 days from the day we start the Step-Up) and get a brand New EVGA GeForce GTX 780 6GB graphics card. EVGA Step-Up Terms and Conditions apply (see details here). Make sure you are logged into your EVGA account and sign up below to be notified when the Step-Up starts to secure your place in queue.
EVGA Rep also confirmed that there are no GTX 780 (Ti) with original blower type coolers planned. The standard GTX 780 is probably going to cost around $549.99 (roughly $50 more than 3GB models).
EVGA is also planning GTX 780 Ti Kingpin Edition with 6GB memory, but of course it is going to cost a lot.
GeForce GTX 780 with 6GB memory will be available in ‘few weeks’, while GTX 780 Tis are scheduled for May/June.
—
By the way, we already wrote about GTX 780 6GB model, but of course everyone said it’s fake, well.. surprise!
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ARANA Taumata has the unfortunate record of playing 14 NRL games for three clubs — with another four that gave him a chance but were forced to punt him on disciplinary grounds.
The last of which was Penrith in 2013, when Phil Gould called him in and sacked him for fear that he would “kill himself or kill someone else with the way he was living his life”.
In an interview with sportingnews.com, Taumata says he is still chasing the NRL dream and will play for Newtown, Cronulla’s feeder club, in 2016.
“I don’t want to go back and say ‘at least I played NRL’, I at least want to have a full year at a club or a few couple of years at a club and really represent my name and say I came back out of all the adversity, I fought through it and hopefully be a role model for a lot of kids,” he says.
“It was about walking away from footy, putting it away for a couple of years and then coming back.
“I came back last year and played some good footy at Newtown, I should have stayed.”
Taumata played NRL games with the Bulldogs in 2008, Cowboys in 2010 and Panthers in 2012 but has been sacked by the Broncos, Roosters and Melbourne, as well as leaving both Wests Tigers and North Queensland for various reasons.
Taumata played with Newtown in 2014 before taking up a gig to coach Tumut in the Group Nine competition, where he parted ways with the club midway through the season.
However, the 26-year-old is back with the Jets for the 2016 season and looking for an opportunity.
“You see a lot of players who go through struggles,” he says.
“I do want to play footy at the end of the day and live a good life for my daughter and my partner.” |
Post by jay440 » Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:55 pm
That's right, totally serious...I want to make something sound like it's in the toilet and have tried every Search term I could think of here & on Google with no results.
I'm in FL Studio 9 playing with the Fruity Filter, 7-Band & parametric EQ as well as the Depth & Speed settings in the Chorus & Flangers/Phasers.
I'm getting almost-but-not-quite there and it seems that the Parametric gets the closest. I have yet to look into third-party versions of these effects and have no doubt that there are reverbs that may have Toilet Bowl Resonance among the selection of Virtual Spaces...if there is Freeware that can do it, then even better. Currently searching the Database & have found 2 or 3 things that I will try soon.
In the meantime, if anyone can tell me what frequencies to boost/cut on the Parametric - for example - or whatever will get me closer, then I can go from there. |
New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, currently in the eye of the storm over his one-eyed is king among blind remark, may be the most powerful person at the central bank, but he does not appear to be the top-paid one!
As per the latest details published by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the Right To Information Act, Rajans total monthly emoluments stood at Rs 1,98,700. This included a basic pay of Rs 90,000, Dearness Allowance of Rs 1,01,700 and others of Rs 7,000.
However, the monthly emoluments were higher than that of Rajan in case of at least three others -- Gopalkrishna Sitaram Hegde (Rs 4 lakh), Annamalai Arappuli Gounder (Rs 2,20,355) and V Kandasamy (Rs 2.1 lakh), as per the RBIs list of monthly emoluments of employees.
The latest available public figures, published by RBI on its website under the RTI Act, are for the period of June-July 2015 and it could not be ascertained whether these three persons are still with the RBI.
While RBI did not disclose their designations along with the monthly emoluments, Hegde has served as its Principal Legal Advisor in the past.
The total emoluments for Hegde and Kandasamy did not include basic pay or DA components.
Repeated queries sent to Alpana Killawala, the RBI spokesperson, did not elicit any response including on the latest salary figures of the top executives including Rajan.
Interestingly, the published monthly emoluments of Killawala, designated as Principal Adviser in Department of Communications at RBI, were higher than that of the four Deputy Governors and 11 Executive Directors whose pay packages have been made public by the central bank on its website.
In RBI hierarchy, the Governor is followed by the four Deputy Governors (DGs) and then by the EDs, while the heads of various departments come thereafter.
The Governor remains on the top in terms of basic pay.
The total monthly emoluments for each DG stood at Rs 1,73,900, while that of the ED was Rs 1,70,864.
The total emoluments are higher than that of DGs in case of at least 23 employees including Killawala, whose total has been disclosed as Rs 1,78,265. This included basic pay of Rs 67,000, DA of Rs 85,239 and other payments of Rs 26,026.
At least 44 employees earned more than the EDs.
Under the RTI Act, every public authority is required to publish "the monthly remuneration received by each of its officers and employees, including the system of compensation as provided in its regulations".
RBI has published on its website the "monthly emoluments of top management (as on July 1, 2015)" as also the "monthly emoluments of employees (as on June 30, 2015)".
While the first section provides monthly emoluments of Rajan, four DGs and 11 EDs, the second section has more than 16,000 entries from across the country some of which are for total monthly emoluments of less than Rs 10,000.
Rajan, formerly Chief Economist at IMF and on-leave professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, joined RBI as its Governor nearly three years ago and his current term would end in September this year.
His recent comments, wherein he said India being tagged as the bright spot in a rather gloomy global economy was like a one-eyed being king among blind, have sparked speculation on whether he would get an extension.
Later, Rajan sought to contextualise his comments, but still warned against being euphoric about Indias current economic growth rate and said as a central banker he needed to be pragmatic. PTI BJ BEN SA |
Oakland Zoo officials contend that Measure A1, a countywide parcel tax on the November ballot, will fund "animal care needs, including food, heating, and cooling." And their ballot argument is sure to pull at the heartstrings of East Bay animal lovers. But opponents of the measure say that the official language of the measure could allow the zoo to spend at least part of the proceeds from the $114 million parcel tax on a controversial expansion in the Oakland hills. And the debate over exactly how the zoo will use the proposed $12 tax on residential parcels and $72 on commercial properties may decide the fate of Measure A1.
Joel Parrott, the zoo's executive director, said in an interview that opponents' fears over how the tax money will actually be spent are misguided. "It's going to be used for operations and repairs to the existing zoo," he said. "We already have funded the next phase of the expansion project."
The Oakland Zoo's expansion plans worked their way through Oakland city government during the first half of last year before being approved in June 2011. Opponents of the expansion into upper Knowland Park filed an environmental lawsuit after the approval, but they subsequently lost and did not appeal. Nonetheless, they continue to argue that the project will have significant impacts that have not been adequately studied or mitigated. And they're concerned that Measure A1 parcel tax revenues could be spent on the expansion — rather than on caring for zoo animals.
"According to our lawyers and our reading of the measure, they clearly are related," said Ruth Malone of Friends of Knowland Park, a community group that has led the opposition to the expansion. "There's absolutely no question about this measure legally. It seems pretty clear that they can use this measure for the expansion."
The official summary that will appear before voters on the ballot states that the tax is needed to maintain and upgrade humane animal care and basic needs, retain veterinarians and animal specialists, care for wounded and endangered animals, support wildlife conservation, maintain children's educational programs, and keep entrance fees affordable. "People will read the summary of this and say, 'Oh, that's a good cause,'" Malone said. "But in this case, they may not realize that they're going to be financing the destruction of [Knowland] park, which has some really amazing resources."
The zoo's expansion plan includes new offices, a new veterinary hospital, and the centerpiece, an exhibit called California that highlights animals native to the state. Of the project's total $72 million tab, $40 million has been raised to date from both public and private sources, including a state grant for $7 million and $12 million from Oakland's Measure G, a bond passed with 75 percent of the vote in 2002. The remaining $30 million will be raised solely from private sources, Parrott said. "This measure is not to build California," he said, referring to the planned exhibit. "It's about operating the zoo and building programs as we go forward. ... If it comes to pass that this fails, the zoo will still go ahead with expansion."
According to Parrott, the ballot language stating that parcel tax revenues could be spent on expansion and new construction is designed to encompass the zoo's plans to build new exhibits and enclosures for chimpanzees, elephants, giraffes, and tigers. He also noted that the zoo could find itself in need of new buildings or facilities independent of the expansion plans. "That's the flexibility you need, because you can't predict for 25 years," he said. "It's not a devious way to say, 'Well, this capital improvement wasn't excluded.'"
An expenditure plan for the ballot measure includes items related to animal care and basic needs, education programs for children, and accessibility and affordability for visitors. It also notes that "the Zoo may undertake new projects and services consistent with the general purposes listed in this Expenditure Plan."
Parrott argued that the parcel tax is also necessary to ensure that the zoo can continue to offer field trips and other learning opportunities to Alameda County schoolchildren, and keep admission prices within reach for the county's low-income residents. "If you try to have the public support from too small of a base, then you wind up with an underfunded, expensive, inadequately programmed zoo," he said. "That's at the heart of it."
The zoo currently receives public support from the City of Oakland — this year amounting to approximately $539,000 from the general fund and $220,000 from the city's hotel tax -- as well as from the East Bay Regional Park District, including up to $700,000 annually from its general fund and $4 million grants in 1988 and 2008 from park measures AA and WW.
Measure A1 contains provisions for a citizen's oversight committee to ensure that revenues are spent as promised, and a sunset clause specifying that funding from the parcel tax will be discontinued if they aren't.
Yet for opponents like Malone, the expansion still proves problematic. "How can you out of one side of your mouth say, 'We don't have the money to take care of the animals we've got,' and out of the other side of your mouth say that you're going to build a $72 million expansion?" she said. "It just doesn't add up."
A four-page pamphlet on the measure mailed to East Bay homeowners last week seems to further call into question whether the zoo actually lacks funds. The glossy color mailer in support of Measure A1 referenced "animal care needs, including food, heating, and cooling," and looks to have been paid for directly by the zoo operator, the East Bay Zoological Society. Such mailers typically cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce and mail. The mailer did not cite a campaign account or outside funding source, and so appears to have been paid for by the zoo.
Correction: The original version of this story mistakenly reported that the Oakland Zoo only receives public support from the City of Oakland. It also receives financial support from the East Bay Regional Park District, funded by taxpayers in both Alameda and Contra Costa counties. |
Inmates arrive at the new maximum-security prison in Fort Madison in July. (Photo: Iowa Department of Corrections/Special to the Register)
Edward Roberson got out of prison three years ago after spending several years behind bars on a voluntary manslaughter conviction and found work handling glass for a window company.
That job was eliminated in April, and the 58-year-old Ankeny man has struggled to find work since, leaning on his faith, family and a support group to get by. He said it's no secret that many employers view former inmates like him as risky hires.
"It's known that we have a checkered past," Roberson said. "It should be known that we're positive and we've turned our lives around and we want to be productive."
State corrections officials are hoping to help former inmates find work by making it easier for them to show if they've learned valuable work skills while serving time. The state Board of Parole and Department of Corrections began the formal process of changing state code so that inmates will automatically receive certificates of employability for completing certain skills training in prison, instead of having to apply for such proof.
In fact, in the years that such certificates have been available, not a single inmate has ever completed the application form to get one, Steve Clarke, an administrative law judge for the parole board, told the joint Administrative Rules Review Committee at a meeting on Tuesday. He had no additional information but suggested that the process may be to blame and that he thinks automatically granting the certificates would streamline the process and help inmates.
"This makes it much simpler," he said.
Iowa's corrections system offers various educational opportunities to inmates, including the chance to get a high school diploma and complete college coursework. There's also a growing apprenticeship program with a separate certification that is recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The certificate of employability represents another way for inmates to highlight their work potential, said Sandra Smith, director of correctional education for the DOC.
"The employability certificate says, 'This is how I've utilized my time. So now in returning to the community, I am ready and have been provided an opportunity and this is my skill set and I'm employable,'" she said.
The proposed changes would require eligible inmates to either be registered in the apprenticeship program or complete other skills training, a portion of which is recognized through a national organization.
Some community leaders and attorneys who monitor employment issues involving former inmates applaud the effort, albeit with a degree of skepticism about how effective it would be.
“(The certificate) has the potential to have some value, but because it's completely untried, I don't know how much value it would have to my employers.” Jo Whitney
Jo Whitney, a Des Moines attorney who specializes in labor and employment law, said she's represented companies that hire former inmates and that she's never heard of a certificate of employability. She thinks Iowa employers will have a lot of questions, since they consider possible liability issues when reviewing an applicant with a criminal history.
"(The certificate) has the potential to have some value, but because it's completely untried, I don't know how much value it would have to my employers," she said.
Kyle Horn is founder and director of Iowa Job Honor Awards, a nonprofit organization that tries to connect employers with disadvantaged jobseekers who have been vetted through workforce development agencies. He said it's a constant struggle for inmates to find work because of their criminal records. He said employability certificates could help, but that there would need to be an effort to educate employers so they would buy into it.
Horn said 90 percent of the roughly 8,000 inmates in Iowa prisons are expected to get out some day, and they'll need the chance to rebuild their lives as contributing members of society.
"What we need to ask ourselves as a society is, do we want to punish them forever by giving them basically a life sentence of unemployment?" he said.
The proposal, which does not require formal legislative action during the next session, could take effect by the end of the year. Smith said the concerns raised by Whitney and Horn are "right on the mark" and that it will be very important to get the word out about the certificate. She reiterated that corrections officials are committed to helping inmates secure work when they get out.
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2a1RhMj |
Yerevan/Mediamax/. European External Action Service Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told Mediamax that the new agreement, which is to be signed by Armenia and the European Union, will be «ambitious” and will strengthen cooperation between the parties.
On March 21, the EU and Armenia initialed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement in Yerevan.
“It [the agreement] will broaden the scope of EU-Armenia relations, taking into account the new global, political and economic interests shared by both sides and the challenges we want to face together,” Ms Kocijancic said in the interview to Mediamax.
She reminded about the “last-minute decision by Armenia in 2013 not to sign the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU”.
According to Maja Kocijancic, the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement will cover political, economic and sectorial cooperation. The agreement counts about 400 pages and is comprised of 8 different Titles.
“Shared common values and a strong commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law underpin the new Agreement and our future cooperation. These will create favorable premises for stronger cooperation in sectors such as energy, transport, and the environment; for new opportunities for both sides’ trade and investment; but also for increased mobility to the benefit of our citizens,” the EU representative told Mediamax.
The trade-related provisions of the agreement aim at improving conditions for bilateral EU-Armenia trade, while taking into account Armenia’s obligations resulting from its membership of the Eurasian Economic Union.
“The EU has repeatedly mentioned that there was no contradiction for a country to be a member of the EAEU and to have separate agreements with the EU. As membership of the EAEU requires the transfer of sovereignty of trade policy to the EAEU itself, the only impossibility is to have an agreement with the EU which includes preferences on trade in goods,” Ms Kocijancic explained.
“Closer economic cooperation is envisaged by ensuring a better regulatory environment for economic operators in areas such as trade in services, the establishment and operation of companies, capital movements, government procurement and intellectual property rights,” Maja Kocijancic said.
She noted that upon going through various internal procedures including translation and procedures within the Member States, the draft agreement will be prepared for signature.
“What is important is that the negotiations were successfully concluded, and that we are now working towards having the agreement signed as soon as possible,” Maja Kocijancic said. |
“I’m the man who just paid 200 rugby players that have never been paid before. I’m the guy that put rugby on the map where it has never been before. I’ve done such a bad job that everyone wants it back. That’s what kind of ‘bad guy’ I am.”
That was PRO Rugby CEO Doug Schoninger’s response, in a nutshell, after a scathing article written by Rugby Today recently rattled the small but passionate American rugby community.
But how we got here — with the United States’ governing board, USA Rugby, and the country’s first professional rugby league (PRO) locked in a fight as venomous as any seen on a rugby pitch — goes far deeper.
Yet, at the same time, it boils down to the simplest ideologies of any feud: Both sides believe agreements have been broken; both sides also believe they have done nothing wrong.
Let’s see how we got here…
After a successful first season, optimism for PRO Rugby (and American rugby in general) was soaring, with expansion plans in the works as recently as October of 2017. Then in mid-December the bad press started rolling in: First, there was the fold of one PRO’s five teams, the San Francisco Rush. Shortly after, PRO announced that all player contracts would be terminated. That was followed up by a report — since proven to be incorrect — that the league as a whole was shutting down.
The gas really hit the fire, though, when “PRO’s Outstanding Bills at Forefront of USA Rugby Row” was published by Rugby Today on December 21st. The article accused Schoninger of not paying players and staffers across the league, as well of a history of liens against his credit — all of which Schoninger vehemently denied, with hard proof to point to.
Several PRO players were reached for comment on their payment situations for this article, and — while wishing to remain anonymous — all of them confirmed to me they’d been paid in full the money owed to them as of this writing. Schoninger, for his part, maintains that any disputes are the outliers and will be taken to the appropriate venue to be resolved, while players and staffers who were mentioned publicly in these issues were not available for comment.
Even the highest profile case of these disagreements, that of veteran New Zealand All Blacks star Mils Mulaina (who is short $20,000 of the $70,000 contract he signed with PRO Rugby), is more complicated than the numbers suggest: Mulaina only played in 4 games for the league, out of a possible 12 (he left the country during the season, which caused him to miss a game, and was injured for the other seven). “If you’re hurt, then you go into disability,” Schoninger explained. “He’s now on disability in the state of California. It’s completely in the [hands of] the workmen’s compensation department of the state of California. I don’t understand the issue. Every other player that was hurt, and was on disability for more than a week, went into disability.”
Regardless, USA Rugby has been in strong support of the players and staffers when it comes to their finance-related disputes with PRO. “My thoughts are with the players and staff during this time,” said USA Rugby CEO Dan Payne via email — an intentionally curt, and politically savvy, way of emphasizing where his organization believes blame ultimately lies.
Couple that with an even more contentious (and complex) disputed sanctioning agreement, and the PRO/USA Rugby divorce is all but signed in ink…
To recap, when former CEO Nigel Melville was still at the helm of USA Rugby # he signed an exclusive sanctioning agreement with Schoninger that gave PRO Rugby assurance it would be the lone professional organization in America sanctioned by USAR through 2018. However, with the news of PRO12’s plans to expand to the United States and the oft-rumored launch of Major Rugby Championship (a competition of elite U.S. clubs that are trying to make the jump to professionalism), Schoninger believes USA Rugby to be reneging on their agreement.
“You can’t say we’re the exclusive, elite, 15-a side men’s league in America, and then not support that,” he told me. “[At first], they didn’t offer me an exclusive arrangement. And I rejected it, I said I can’t do this without an exclusive arrangement. And [Nigel] said, ok we’re done. And he came back two weeks later with the exclusive arrangement.”
When reached for comment for this story, USA Rugby’s statement was consistent with its stance from the beginning: “We are honoring the current three year term of the sanctioning agreement as written and agreed to by both organizations.” From their perspective, by not officially sanctioning Major Rugby Championship or PRO12, USA Rugby has technically lived up to the terms of the contract. Meanwhile, Schoninger sees this as merely a loophole to get out of the agreement.
And therein lies the feud.
So, where does the league go from here?
When asked if there would be a PRO season in 2017, Schoninger responded, “One hundred percent. How it will look? We’ll see. It may take the form of an all star competition, playing against some international clubs or unions.” At the least, fans can expect a shorter season than in 2016.
It’s not what was expected, and it certainly puts a damper on the hopes for PRO’s future, though American rugby enthusiasts may be able to squeeze a little positivity out of the reports: If there’s only one domestic professional match in 2017, that is one more pro match than was ever played in the States before 2016.
There’s still reason to believe that America will find its foothold in World Rugby’s professional landscape.
When that hold is firm, and whose foot is in it, however, remains to be seen. |
Posted on by steveblank
First-Mover Advantage is an idea that just won’t die. I hear it from every class of students, and each time I try to put a stake through its heart.
Here’s one more attempt in trying to explain why confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea.
First mover advantage – great bad idea
The phrase “first mover advantage” was first popularized in a 1988 paper by a Stanford Business School professor, David Montgomery, and his co-author, Marvin Lieberman.[1]
This one phrase became the theoretical underpinning of the out-of-control spending of startups during the dot-com bubble. Over time the idea that winners in new markets are the ones who have been the first (not just early) entrants into their categories became unchallenged conventional wisdom in Silicon Valley. The only problem is that it’s simply not true.
The irony is that in a retrospective paper ten years later (1998), [2] the authors backed off from their claims. By then it was too late. Using this idea to differentiate themselves as the hot new Silicon Valley VCs, some of his former business school students made this phrase their rallying cry. Soon every other VC was using the phrase to justify the reckless “get big fast” strategies of dot-com startups during the Internet Bubble.
Fast Followers – a better idea
In fact, a 1993 paper by Peter N. Golder and Gerard J. Tellis had a much more accurate description of what happens to startup companies entering new markets.[3] In their analysis Golder and Tellis found almost half of the market pioneers (First Movers) in their sample of 500 brands in 50 product categories failed. Even worse, the survivors’ mean market share was lower than found in other studies. Further, their study shows early market leaders (Fast Followers) have much greater long-term success; those in their sample entered the market an average of thirteen years later than the pioneers. What’s directly relevant from their work is a hierarchy showing what being first actually means for startups entering new or resegmented markets:
Innovator First to develop or patent an idea Product Pioneer First to have a working model First Mover First to sell the product 47% failure rate Fast Follower Entered early but not first 8% failure rate
The Race to Fail First
What this means is that first mover advantage (in the sense of literally trying to be the first one on a shelf or with a press release) is not real, and the race to be the first company into a new market can be destructive. Therefore, startups whose mantra is “we have to be first to market” usually lose. What startups lose sight of is there are very few cases where a second, third, or even tenth entrant cannot become a profitable or even dominant player. (The rules are different in the life-sciences arena.)
Ford vs. GM, Overture vs. Google
For example, Ford was the first successfully mass produced car in the United States. In 1921, Ford sold 900,000 Model Ts for 60 percent market share compared to General Motors 61,000 Chevys, a 6 percent market share. Over the next ten years, while Ford focused on cost reductions, General Motors built a diverse and differentiated product line. By 1931 GM had 31% of the market to Ford’s 28%, a lead it has never relinquished. Just to make the point that markets are never static, Toyota, a company that sold its first car designed for the US market in 1964, is poised to surpass GM as the leader in the US market. The issue is not being first to market, but understanding the type of market your company is going to enter.
If the car business is too removed from high tech as an example, how about the story of Overture. In 1998 Goto.com, a small startup (later Overture, now part of Yahoo!), created the pay per click search engine and advertising system and demo’d it at the TED conference.
It was not until October 2000 that Google offered its version of a pay per click advertising system -AdWords -allowing advertisers to create text ads for placement on the Google search engine.
Google is a $25 billion dollar company with most of its revenue from AdWords.
Overture was acquired by Yahoo for $1.6 billion.
Implicit Customer Discovery and Validation in Fast Followers
Why do fast followers win more often? It’s pretty simple. First Movers tend to launch without really fully understanding customer problems or the product features that solve those problems. They guess at their business model and then do premature, loud and aggressive Public Relations hype and early company launches and quickly burn through their cash.. This is a great strategy if there’s a bubble occuring in your market or you are going to bet it all on flipping your company for a sale. Otherwise the jury is in. There’s no advantage. [4]
Astute fast-followers recognize that part of Customer Discovery is learning from the first-mover by looking at the arrows in their backs. Then avoiding them.
Lessons Learned
Believing in First Mover Advantage implies you understand your business model, customers problems and the features needed to solve those problems.
That’s unlikely.
Therefore you’re either going to burn through your cash or pray that the hype can help you can flip your company.
None of the market leaders in technology were the first movers
[1] Montgomery, M. Lieberman.1988 “First Mover Advantage.” Strategic Management Journal, Volume 9, Issue S1, pages 41–58, Summer 1988.
[2] Montgomery, M. Lieberman “First-mover (dis)advantages: retrospective and link with the resource-based view.” Strategic Management Journal Volume 19, Issue 12, pages 1111–1125, December 1998
[3] P. N. Golder and G. J. Tellis. 1993. “Pioneer Advantage: Marketing Logic or Marketing Legend?” Journal of Marketing Research, 30(2):158–170.
[4] Did First-Mover Advantage Survive the Dot-Com Crash? . M. Lieberman 2007
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Filed under: Customer Development, Market Types, Marketing | |
(Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
SÃO PAULO - Quem disse que o caminho para o sucesso está somente nos livros? Para a maior parte da população, a escola é um passo importante para a realização profissional. Já para outros, nem tanto.
Um exemplo é o fundador do Tumblr, David Karp. Aos 15 anos, abandonou o ensino médio para abrir sua startup em Nova York. Futuro incerto? Nem pensar. Com 26 anos, fundador e CEO Tumblr, Karp acaba de vender a plataforma por US$ 1,1 bilhão para o Yahoo.
Karp não está sozinho quando o assunto é ter sucesso sem ter completado o ensino médio. O site Business Insider listou 10 pessoas bem-sucedidas que pularam algumas etapas que os demais. Confira:
1. Richard Branson
Fundador do grupo Virgin, Branson deixou a escola aos 16 anos de idade. Mas, isso não foi páreo para seu talento. Hoje, Branson está entre as 270 pessoas mais ricas do mundo e seus investimentos vão da música à aviação, vestuário, bicombustíveis e até viagens aeroespaciais.
2. Mike Hudack
Cofundador da blip.tv, Mike abandonou a escola aos 16 anos para começar sua carreira em uma pequena empresa em Connecticut. Mike se mudou para Nova York e trabalhou na Tim Warner. Em 2005, ele fundou a blip.tv e, em 2012, deixou o cargo de CEO da empresa para trabalhar como Gerente de Produto no Facebook.
3. Kirk Kerkorian
O empresário norte-americano nem chegou a completar o ensino fundamental, mas isso não o impediu de se tornar um dos homens mais ricos do mundo. Kirk já foi boxeador e piloto de caça durante a Segunda Gerra Mundial. Mas foi em Las Vegas que se tornou bilionário. Sua empresa, Tracinda, controla diversos ativos, incluindo o MGM Mirage.
4. Quentin Tarantino
O gênio do cinema abandonou a escola aos 15 anos e começou a trabalhar como porteiro em um cinema, tendo aulas de atuação. Ele foi nomeado para vários prêmios da Academia e é o vencedor de dois: "Django Unchained" (2012) e "Pulp Fiction" (1994).
5. François Pinault
Terceiro homem mais rico da França, o empresário François Pinault desistiu da escola para trabalhar em uma serraria com seu pai. Hoje, como acionista majoritário da empresa de varejo PPR, tem um patrimônio líquido de US$ 15 bilhões.
6. Joe Lewis
Lewis deixou a escola aos 15 anos e hoje é a 9ª pessoa mais rica do Reino Unido, com uma fortuna estimada em US$ 4,2 bilhões. Lewis possui mais de 150 empresas, além de colecionar obras de artes.
7. Carl Henry Lindner Jr.
Fundador da American Financial e foi CEO do Cincinnati Reds, Carl era uma das pessoas mais ricas do mundo antes de falecer em 2011. Lindner abandonou a escola aos 14 anos para ser entregador para a empresa de laticínios da família, que se tornaria United Dairy Farmers. Segundo a Forbes, seu patrocínio líquido chegou a 1,7 bilhões em 2010.
8. Vidal Sassoon
O inglês deixou a escola aos 14 anos e trabalhou como aprendiz de cabeleireiro. No ramo, ficou famoso pelos cortes baseados nas formas geométricas. Vencedor de vários prêmios, foi presidente da Multinacional Vidal Sassoon. Sua fortuna era estimada em US$ 130 milhões antes de falecer em 2012, informou o Business Insider.
9. David Karp
O fundador do Tumblr abandonou a escola aos 15 anos para abrir sua startup. Nesta semana, o Yahoo comprou a plataforma por US$ 1,1 bilhão e Karp continuará como CEO da empresa.
10. George Foreman
Após abandonar a escola aos 15 anos, o ex-pugilista americano foi duas vezes campeão mundial de boxe na categoria peso-pesado e medalhista de ouro nos Jogos Olímpicos de 1968. Mas, a maior parte de sua fortuna veio depois de sua carreira no boxe, como porta-voz da Russell Hobbs Inc., com o lançamento do George Foreman Grill. Sua fortuna é estimada em US$ 240 milhões. |
By 2022, New Zealand is expected to welcome 4.5 million visitors a year. But can our infrastructure cope?
About 4.5 million international tourists are expected to visit New Zealand in 2022. How will we cope? MICHAEL WRIGHT reports.
The most recent meeting of the Westland District Council was a rousing success. The organisation adopted its 2016-17 annual plan – always a relief for a local authority – and this year's iteration budgeted $500,000 to widen and reseal the tourist-heavy Hokitika Gorge road.
"We all walked out for the meeting and thought, 'Jesus Christ, we've made some progress this year, we got a road sealed'," Westland mayor Mike Havill said.
Can we cope with our tourism future? Share your stories, photos and videos. Contribute
It might seem a disproportionately large celebration for approving a mid-sized roading contract, but in the Westland district the bar is set low. Eighty-seven per cent of its territory sits in the Department of Conservation (DOC) estate, which means no rates. A $500,000 roading contract is the equivalent of a five per cent rates rise – if the council could afford to pass that sort of cost onto its ratepayers, which it can't. It funded the gorge road project through debt, after opting for it over sealing the gravel road of a subdivision on the north side of Hokitika.
"Now we've got to tell those residents there we see this job as being more crucial to the district," Havill said.
Read more:
* More tourists than Kiwis - can we cope?
* West Coasters victims of their own success
MARTIN DE RUYTER/FAIRFAX NZ The Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki are the second-most visited natural attraction in New Zealand, after Huka Falls
Unpalatable as that may be, the decision was a no-brainer. The pristine blue waters of the Hokitika Gorge are a newly-discovered haven for tourists, and part of the Tourism West Coast's planning to promote the region as more than glaciers and rocks that look like pancakes. The gorge road is narrow and the last part is unsealed. "The locals, they head for the fence line when these campervans come," Havill said.
Safety and the tourist dollar won out, as they had to. Tourism in New Zealand is in the middle of an unprecedented boom. Last year the country had more than three million international visitors for the first time and expects to top 4m within four years. The climb from the 2m to the 3m mark took three times that long. Tourists are also spending more. Expenditure growth is outstripping the hike in visitor numbers by more than two to one. Two years ago, the industry set a goal of being worth $41 billion a year by 2025 and is tracking well ahead of the curve.
It sounds like a bonanza, but it's a lopsided one. Despite record visitor and expenditure numbers, the sector is short of money in crucial places. More people means more hotels, more car parks, more toilets and better roads with more signs. Who pays for those things isn't clear.
DEBBIE JAMIESON/FAIRFAX NZ By 2022, tourists to NZ will outnumber locals.
Right now, the bulk of the shortfall is being met by local government, but as the Westland model proved, that isn't sustainable. Many of our most popular regions are also our least populated, with tiny rating bases to match. A report from the New Zealand Tourism Council Working Group found councils spent an average of $37.90 a year on tourism per head of population. Auckland Council's figure was just $15.77 per head, while the Mackenzie district, home to tourist heavyweights like Lake Tekapo and Aoraki/Mt Cook, paid more than $80.
In the Westland district the plight is most pronounced in Franz Josef, where up to 5000 tourists can bed down alongside 400 locals. The glacier town is in dire need of a new wastewater treatment plant. Should hotel owners who would directly benefit from such a development have to contribute to its cost? Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said last month he thinks they should, but why stop there? Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) figures show international visitors to the West Coast spend more on fuel and transport than accommodation. By that logic, the local petrol station should be contributing even more.
Last month, Prime Minister John Key, who is also the Minister of Tourism, announced a $12m regional tourism facilities fund, to which communities could apply for money for that desperately needed toilet block or car park expansion. The announcement was met with a round of polite clapping and subdued thanks. Everyone, including Key, agreed it wasn't enough.
EDDIE SPEARING Lake Wanaka is experiencing a boom in tourism.
"When he announced the amount everybody cracked up laughing," Tourism West Coast chief executive Jim Little said.
"It's not going to build a heck of a lot of toilets around New Zealand is it?"
The $12m will be spread over four years, making competition even tighter. Key accepts more is needed and that central government must find it.
JOHN BISSET/FAIRFAX NZ Tekapo's tourist boom is seeing locals pay $80 a head for infrastructure compared with $16 for each Aucklander.
"I don't think it's realistic to expect local government to pick up all the bill," he said.
"You've got places where their population's surging as a result of tourism. While that underpins jobs and some flows through rates to the council, a lot flows through to central government."
Last year, the Government took in $929m in GST from visitor spending and critics have been loud in calling for more of that to be returned to the sector. Former chair of the New Zealand Tourism Council Working Group David Hammond said about $630m of the GST take was profit.
John Kirk-Anderson Freedom campers are rising in number putting a strain on facilities such as public toilets.
"Where's it gone?
"The Government needs to take a stronger lead in this space rather than all these parties thrashing around and talking a lot. A lot of action is not happening and next summer is right around the corner."
INFRASTRUCTURE SHORTAGE IS LOOMING
Hammond is the former chief executive of Ruapehu and Coromandel district councils, two tourist-heavy regions. In the latter role, he watched as three communities – Pauanui, Whangamata and Whitianga – were nearly bankrupted paying for new the wastewater facilities they needed to cope with the tourist high season. There was no clear alternative funding source in the community, he said. Many private tourism operators were already paying rates on commercial-zoned land and were reluctant to give more, even through targeted costs. Hammond had first-hand experience pitching economic development plans to the commercial sector for a contribution.
"It's an extremely testy conversation. Really people are interested in their own bottom line . . . unless it's a specific capital project that's going to benefit them.
"Ruapehu Alpine Lifts [partnering with the government] for the upgrade of the mountain road on Mt Ruapehu is probably a good example of that."
All the players in the sector – central government, local government, private operators, industry groups – agree an infrastructure shortage is looming. In some cases they agree on exactly what is needed and where, such as more toilets on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
In 2014 the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) released Tourism 2025, a 10-year growth plan culminating in the $41b spend target. The document was a winner, Hammond said, identifying all the right issues, including infrastructure required, with one crucial failing.
"None of those parties have signed up to [commit] their resources and their responsibilities to address the infrastructure gap.
"[The] gap has been cruelly exposed by the number of visitors coming into the country and we had an opportunity to get on top of this in 2014."
It seemed a logical next step. Current TIA chief executive Chris Roberts calls its absence a "fair enough criticism" but more a symptom of the market at the time: tourism was flatlining.
"The industry's focus was very much on, 'How do we get this industry moving again and why are we not seeing any growth?" Roberts said.
"Things like infrastructure and workforce were there but they probably weren't making the top 10 list and so not as much effort went into those as is needed now.
"If you'd called a meeting back in 2013 to discuss 'How are we going to get more investment in hotels?' the existing hotel operators would have laughed you out of the room."
The TIA is an industry body, yet it led the work on the tourism sector's defining document, around which much of the planning for growth is based. New Zealand used to have a Tourism Ministry, which might have been the source for such a platform, until it was absorbed by the new Ministry of Economic Development in 2010, which in turn became part of MBIE in 2012.
"The industry is filling the gap left by the ministry," Lincoln University tourism professor David Simmons said.
"They've done so with some success in terms of uniting the whole sector in one place. But they have neither the legal powers nor theoretically the long-term vision nor depth of resources that the public sector has so they can only make it up for so long."
MBIE has a tourism policy unit "buried away" in its recesses, Roberts said, and some tourism research capability elsewhere inside it, but not enough. While Tourism New Zealand, the public marketing arm, has enjoyed a funding windfall – its annual budget jumped from $84m to $115m in 2013 – the policy side had waned, he said.
"We're probably in a strange position of the private sector wanting more bureaucrats. We think they need more resourcing. The same issues we've identified they agree are the issues we need to work on but I don't know how much grunt it has and what impact it's going to have."
Policy tended to consist of reports about what had just happened rather than forward planning, Roberts said.
"There's always a tendency to respond to just whatever issue's in the headlines this week.
"The tourism facilities fund was really a reaction to freedom camping and let's build some toilets, rather than what's going to happen over the next 10 years."
Key, the minister at the helm as his ministry was twice subsumed, is comfortable with the policy output on his portfolio. The idea is it piggybacks somewhat on MBIE's significant resources, he said, with Treasury contributing policy legwork as well.
"I think we have the structure about right.
"I think the work they do and the policy advice that they provide has improved over the years . . . It'd be a very marginal call to split [a tourism ministry] off again and not one I think we're likely to support."
In lieu of anything else, Tourism 2025 remains as the sector's mission statement. Last month TIA published a "two years' on" update and addressed the infrastructure question with a new urgency:
"As a nation, we are limited in the peak season by capacity in such areas as our roads, port facilities, accommodation, water and sewerage, and public amenities. It is clear that investment in many areas of tourism infrastructure is lagging behind demand, so we need to speed up our planning, decision-making and investment cycles."
NZ RANKED 60TH IN THE WORLD FOR VISITORS PER CAPITA
Not exactly alarmist language but enough to hear the strain in the voice. If nothing is done the infrastructure problem will manifest itself as something more than freedom campers taking over a car park and clogging the loo. Tourists will arrive and they won't have a good time because we can't host them properly. Or they won't come at all.
There's no question New Zealand can host all the tourists who want to come if we build what we need. The visitor rate in the high season equates to about six international tourists in the country for every 100 Kiwis. Off-peak that drops to two in every 100.
"Apart from Queenstown in February or Auckland when a major event's on or Tongariro Crossing or Milford Sound, where clearly there are capacity constraints at times, across New Zealand we've got enormous spare capacity," Roberts said.
"If we have the infrastructure and the workforce in place . . . we could have so many more visitors than we currently have. On an area basis, we're about 107th in the world and on visitors per capita we're about 60th in the world. We are nowhere near being a heavily touristed country."
Fifteen years ago, the Department of Conservation (DOC) had the opposite problem – plenty of infrastructure that wasn't being used. Now it is dealing with a lack of toilets and car parking in places like Milford Sound and the Tongariro Crossing. Last year, 600,000 people visited Milford Sound, up from a record-breaking 500,000 the year before. Even there, though, there is breathing room. The Tongariro Crossing gets about 100,000 visitors a year but as many as 3000 can visit on one day in summer.
"In most parts there's plenty of room for more people," DOC visitor director Gavin Walker said.
"Milford at this time of year is actually a pretty quiet place.
"Our approach is not to focus just on the infrastructure problem. If you just kept on dealing with your infrastructure problem there's no incentive for visitors to want to explore other parts of the country."
WILL VISITORS COME IN SPRING AND AUTUMN?
DOC is employing the same tactics as the rest of the tourism sector to manage the load: encouraging visitors to come at different times of the year and go to different places. Every dollar of Tourism New Zealand's $80m marketing budget now goes into promoting the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn. Tourism West Coast is working on a Top of the South campaign, connecting Kaikoura, Nelson and Marlborough with the Buller region, as an alternative to the well-trodden route from the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki to Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.
"It's not a simple thing to do," Walker said.
"If people are coming to New Zealand once in their life and they're only spending six to 10 days here we have to be realistic. They're going to want to go to places like Milford Sound."
Shoulder season spread comes organically, too. Chinese travellers are prepared to wait until after the peak Chinese New Year period to come here and Indian tourists – a major new market – prefer to travel in the cooler autumn months. 'No vacancy' signs also force tourists to rethink their itineraries.
"Say you want to go to Tekapo and you can't get a hotel," Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism chief executive Vic Allen said.
"I really, really want to go to Tekapo, but the first hotel booking I can get is in April. So I go in April."
The spread is welcome news for the accommodation sector, which cannot react to boom as quickly as airlines offering more flights or rental car companies growing their fleet.
"I don't think there's a single more important thing than growing the shoulder periods," Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said.
"The reason we haven't got hotel investors rushing to put money on the table is because they can make a lot of money for a short period of year and then they struggle. Everything we can do to get spring and autumn higher will make the investment proposition for tourism a lot better."
Project Palace – a Government-led plan to assess future hotel demand in the tourist hotspots of Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown – found that 5174 new hotel rooms would be built across the five centres by 2025, just over half of the growth they were predicted to need. Auckland will require up to 4300 extra rooms but only 2518 are expected to be built. Occupancy rates there and in Queenstown are expected to nudge 90 per cent in the next decade, which, in hotel terms, is "practical capacity". New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is charged with "facilitating investment" to bridge the gap.
The Government will consider a business case from the tourism sector, probably early next year, arguing for a dedicated fund to pay for infrastructure upgrades. John Key is open to the idea and using a new charge, such as a bed tax, to fund it.
"There's two options," he said. "One is the Government tips some more money out of its own resources. The second is that . . . some other funding source should be found. Either way, we've got to build more infrastructure.
"If we just leave it all to organically appear then I think we'll have an infrastructure deficit. But if we're conscious of the rate of growth and where those tourists are coming from then yes, I think we can cope with it."
In Westland, Mike Havill has done some rudimentary calculations on his region's contribution to the tourism GST take.
By his reckoning, Westland generates about $60-70m a year, or just over $1m a week.
"A million dollars," he said, wistfully.
"If we could get our hands on something like that each year . . ." he trails off, seemingly mesmerised by the possibilities.
"We would be able to do so much." |
Tuesday November 28, 2017 Are actions of police legitimizing far-right groups in Quebec ?
Quebec City police arrested 44 counter-protesters at a far-right demonstration in Quebec City on Nov. 25, 2017. (Maxime Corneau/Radio-Canada)
This past weekend, and for the second time in three months, far-right protesters made their presence known in Quebec.
The nationalist group La Meute organized a heated demonstration in Quebec City on November 25, 2017, joining forces with other far-right groups like Storm Alliance.
Between 300 and 400 far-right protesters outnumbered the anti-fascist activists who showed up to counter-protest.
Police Protection
CBC News reporter Jonathan Montpetit tells The Current that on the day of the protest, police formed a security cordon around far-right protesters, following procedure.
"Quebec City has a by-law requiring people to register with police … before they can hold a rally."
"The far right group La Meute did so, and they held extensive conversations with police in the days up to the protest. The counter-protesters simply told police that they were going to be there and they didn't go into any kind of detail."
'It appeared like there was a level of collaboration between La Meute and police.'
"[Police] had information from one group and not the other group. It appeared like there was a level of collaboration between La Meute and police."
At the protest, more radical far-right contingents eventually joined the protected area held by La Meute , while counter-protesters were pushed back.
Clashes broke out and police officers resorted to tear-gas to disperse crowds. By end of day, 44 counter-protesters had been arrested.
Police say roughly half of the counter-protesters were detained because they failed to follow orders to disperse. (Maxime Corneau/Radio-Canada)
Strategic Co-operation with Police
Critics say police protection of far-right protesters works to normalize and legitimize the groups' extreme politics.
Montpetit believes this to be a conscious strategy on behalf of the far-right.
"They can use their own willingness to collaborate with police to show that they're law abiding, peaceful citizens — and that helps their cause. That helps them combat the notion that they are radical, violent racists," Montpetit tells The Current .
"Police kind of get co-opted into this effort to normalize their discourse."
Montpetit says the anarchist mindset of far-left groups like Antifa is working to the group's disadvantage in equal measure.
"[Antifa] insists on the necessity of physically confronting far-right groups ... and that goes along with a kind of unwillingness to be seen as overly complicit with police."
"Their unwillingness to cooperate with police makes them vulnerable to police reaction … so that they're the ones who end up getting arrested."
This segment was produced by The Current's Idella Sturino and Julian Uzielli.
. |
Too much sugar is bad for the eyesight
Brazilians, amongst other western nations, consume 4-5 times more sugar than the quantity recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization). Learn how it affects your eyes. Sugar consumption is growing worldwide and has become a major public health issue in several countries.
AP Photo
Sugar consumption is growing worldwide and has become a major public health issue in several countries. Brazil is one of them. This way, the per capita consumption of sugar is responsible for the intake of 40O to 500 calories/day, according to a study conducted at Harvard University (USA). This is 4 to 5 times more than the 100 calorie/day or 6 teaspoons that match the 25 g/day as recommended by the WHO (World Health Organization). Besides obesity and diabetes, this habit causes heart and eye diseases in the medium term.
The ophthalmologist from the Penido Burnier Institute, Leoncio Queiroz Neto, states that prior to the scales, the eyes can signal that sugar consumption is very high in people who have no predisposition to gain weight. Eye problems triggered by hyperglycemia go far beyond the already known diabetic retinopathy. "Adults who have never used glasses and suddenly begin to have blurry sight at distance, should do a blood test," he warns. This is because the increase of glucose in the bloodstream may induce myopia by causing swelling of the crystalline natural lens of the eye responsible for focusing the images. Not coincidentally, he points out, it is common for diabetics to reach the office believing that they need to change the glasses. In many cases it is only a fluctuation in refraction due to poorly controlled blood glucose. Changing the glasses does not help. When blood glucose is under control the glasses correct the eyesight.
Other effects
The loss of glycemic control in Brazil is larger than imaginable. VIGITEL 2014 (Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases Surveillance through telephone interviews), an annual survey conducted by the Ministry of Health since 2006, shows that 18.1% of Brazilians eat sweets daily being 15.6% of the male population and 20.3% of women.
According to Queiroz Neto increasing and reducing the thickness of the lens caused by fluctuating blood sugar predisposes to the formation of cataracts, clouding of the lens. Today, the operation is the only way to remove cataracts. The expert says that the ideal for diabetics is laser surgery. This is because the technique makes precise cuts and a self-sealing slant releasing the closure points. This precision, he highlights, reduces the risk of the procedure, speeds recovery and prevents visual distortion caused by irregular healing that can occur in the conventional method.
The ophthalmologist points out that another ocular disorder resulting from the loss of glycemic control is glaucoma. "The disease occurs because increasing the thickness of the lens in some people hinders the flow of aqueous liquid that fills the eye, and leads to increased intraocular pressure characteristic of glaucoma," he explains. Treatment is with eye drops to maintain normal intraocular pressure. Glaucoma, he points out, is the second leading cause of permanent blindness in the world. If the drops are not used properly it results in the loss of the visual field until complete blindness occurs.
Diabetic retinopathy
The most dreaded eye disease resulting from hyperglycemia is the retinopathy that usually appears after 10 years of living with diabetes. The expert says that the retinopathy results from the obstruction of retinal vessels. Initially it leads to decreased vision and spotting when it reaches the macula, the central portion of the retina responsible for detailed vision. As it progresses, it can lead to the formation of new vessels. Being weaker, these new vessels can rupture and cause major bleeding in the back of the eye that leads to permanent blindness.
Queiroz Neto warns that some foods increase the risk of clogged arteries and vessels. They are those which combine glucose and fructose such as soft drinks, processed fruit juices, among others. This is because when this cocktail falls in the liver it is converted into fat. To keep the vision, the ophthalmologist recommends checking the composition of foods. Whenever they combine sugar and fructose there is more of a risk for circulation, including the eyes.
Eutropia Turazzi
LDC Communication
Translated from the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru
By Ekaterina Santos |
Venomous snake bites have struck more people in 2012 than average. Poison control center officials blame the mild winter and early spring.
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"This year is a banner year for snakebites in California for sure and probably similarly across the country where there has been a warm winter and early spring," Stuart Heard, executive director of the California poison control system, told USAToday.
Besides waking up early, more of the young snakes born in the fall last year survived the winter, one amateur herpetologist told WSPA in North Carolina. One North Carolina hospital treated four bite victims between January and April, whereas last year there were none.
Although most snakebites are non-fatal, a Tennessee man succumbed to the bite of a copperhead in January, according to USAToday.
In West Virginia this May, a snake-handling Pentecostal Christian preacher was struck down by one of the rattlesnakes he used in his religious services.
Even Wal-Mart shoppers aren't safe from snake bites. A man buying supplies for his marijuana garden was bitten by a rattlesnake in a Wal-Mart garden center this year.
Article continues at Discovery News
Snake image via Shutterstock |
Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have signed a defence cooperation arrangement that will make it easier for the Canadian defence industry to access one of the world’s most lucrative arms markets and bolster military ties between the two countries.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan signed the agreement on Friday during his five-day tour of the Middle East that included stops in Jordan, the UAE and Kuwait.
The Canada-UAE Defence Cooperation Arrangement will help advance shared interests, including increased personnel training opportunities, defence engagement, and the promotion of regional stability, Sajjan said in a statement.
“The signing of the Canada-UAE Defence Cooperation Arrangement is a testament to the enduring partnership between our nations,” Sajjan said in a statement. “We will continue our joint efforts to counter violent extremism in the Middle East as we work to build a more peaceful and prosperous world for both Canadians and the Emirati people.”
Canada’s defence industry welcomed the agreement.
“Defence Cooperation Agreements are an important tool for governments to enable more comprehensive defence trading relationships, and exports are an important driver of innovation and growth within Canada’s defence and security industries,” Christyn Cianfarani, president and CEO of the Canadian Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), said in a statement to Radio Canada International.
Huge potential market
F16 fighter jets from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrive at an air base in Jordan February 8, 2015. A squadron of F16 jet fighters from the United Arab Emirates arrived in Jordan a day after the Gulf state announced it was being sent to bolster the coalition’s military effort against the Islamic State. © Petra Petra
The UAE ranks among the top 15 defence spenders in the world, according to Business Monitor International (BMI).
According to the official Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada, in 2016, Canada exported $8.1 million worth of arms and defence products to the UAE, a drop in a bucket given the UAE’s defence budget.
The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that the UAE defence expenditure in 2016 will increase by 7.4 percent to reach about 23.5 billion US ($30.25 billion Canadian), from $21.8 billion US ($28 billion Canadian) in 2015.
The UAE is forecast to increase its defence budget over the next few years, with defence spending projected to grow to $41 billion ($52.8 billion Canadian) by 2025.
Human rights concerns
But closer defence cooperation with the UAE is also likely to raise more concerns about Canadian-made weapons and equipment being used in the commission of human rights abuses.
The UAE is an active participant of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi movement in Yemen.
The coalition is accused of indiscriminate bombings in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians, said Kenneth Epps, policy advisor on the Arms Trade Treaty at Project Ploughshares.
“Consequently, there are serious grounds for concern about the nature of the defence cooperation between Canada and the UAE,” Epps said.
“Moreover, Project Ploughshares would argue that the UAE should not be added to the Automatic Firearms Country Control List, the list of countries eligible to import automatic weapons from Canada, and traditionally the next step after Canada has signed a defence cooperation agreement with a specific country.”
The war in Yemen has killed over 10,000 people and has unleashed what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Over 17 million Yemenis, nearly two-thirds of the population, is food insecure while 8.5 million people are on the brink of starvation, according to UN reports.
In all, close to 21 million people across Yemen are in need of humanitarian or protection support, the UN says.
Officials at the UAE embassy in Ottawa were not available for comment on the agreement at the time of the publication. |
March 16, 2017
2017-03-16T15:03:49-04:00
https://images.c-span.org/Files/507/20170316150407013_hd.jpg
Sean Spicer briefed reporters and responded to questions on a range of issues. He answered several questions on the president’s proposed budget, wiretapping allegations, and rulings over the executive order on refugees and immigrants. On the executive order, Mr. Spicer told reporters that the White House planned to appeal the rulings from two federal judges over the ban and said the “danger is real and the law is clear.” He also said the president stood by the wiretapping allegations and accused the media of perpetuating false narratives. White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney also attended the briefing and answered questions on the proposed budget.
Sean Spicer briefed reporters and responded to questions on a range of issues. He answered several questions on the president’s proposed budget,… read more |
Well it seems that someone will be losing their job, or getting taken to court soon by HBO.
It appears that the season 5 finale has leaked online.
The leaks appear to be from a screener that was sent out to media outlets for review.
If you have seen the leaked copy or know of the spoilers, you may discuss them here but no-where else on the site. If you do post the spoilers on articles other than this one you will be banned for life. Do not read the comments if you don't want to be spoiled.
Please remember that requests for pirated material or linking to pirated content is not allowed.
Please do not discuss, share, hint at or ask for a way to illegally obtain the episode. Do not say that you have obtained an illegal copy if you have. The site cannot have any comments that are allowing fans to share/distribute copyrighted material.
We do understand that this is a crappy situation, and that the delay before the official HBO airing is a pain. But we cannot allow the site to be compromised in any way by these circumstances. We have had to delete comments about this despite asking politely a number of times. We don't want to start banning anyone, but we will have no choice if this warning continues to go unheeded. |
Experts have roundly criticized BC Premier Christy Clark’s recent home ownership grant policy. A key part of the negative reaction has been based on fears that interest free grants will increase housing prices and drive a further wedge between incomes and housing costs, a divide already plaguing the Vancouver and lower mainland markets.
These worries about the divide between housing prices and incomes are well founded.
Trends in residential property prices and housing affordability between 2005 and 2016 paint a grim picture in both Vancouver and the city of Toronto. This article looks at those trends, analyzing the mortgage cost of homes in these two cities and in comparison to Canada more broadly.
More specifically, it looks at the number of weeks of labour time it would take workers making the average weekly wage to make a mortgage purchase in each city. The data are startling.
Methodology:
The nominal dollar cost of a house or a condo today is much higher than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Indeed, it is even higher than what it was just a couple of years ago. There exists a number of indices that look at the price of housing by deflating the nominal dollar price of a house by the consumer price index (CPI) to get an idea of how fast housing prices are rising relative to the general rise in prices of consumer goods.
This article does something different. It calculates how many weeks of labour time, paid at average provincial weekly rates, it takes to purchase an average residential property. In order to do so, it makes some key assumptions.
The calculations in this article concern changes in the mortgage costs of residential property purchases. Here, I assume that the entire price of the properties (inclusive of mortgage fees and financing costs) were paid through a mortgage financed with 5-year mortgage loans amortized over 15 years. In other words, it assumes no initial down payment. By looking at the weeks of labour time, the analysis assumes that all of a person’s income is going towards financing their mortgage. Of course, we know people have many other fixed costs and financial responsibilities. But this measure gives us an informative picture of the glaring gap between incomes and housing prices.
Of course, since we don’t know what interest rates and wage rates will be after 2016, the numbers for the years after 2011 are estimates based on an extrapolation of recent data for these two variables. The calculation also assume, after 2011, a return towards trend values in the case of interest rates). Finally, the data is based on yearly averages. So for the year 2016, with the series ending in June, the average was calculated for the first six months. As a result, the calculations most likely underestimate what will be the true 2016 values.
Vancouver
Unless they inherit from their parents, most Vancouverites are unable to purchase residential property outright with a cash payment. It is helpful then to look at how much it costs in terms of weeks of labour time to purchase the average residential property when individuals finance their purchase through a mortgage.
The increases in the mortgage prices of dwellings in Vancouver look disturbingly like a bubble. The data show it took 610 weeks of labour time to buy the average Vancouver dwelling through a mortgage in 2005, or nearly 12 years. It is estimated that it will take 910 weeks, or 17.5 years, to do so in 2016.
Growing unaffordability is even worse for single family houses which required 861 weeks, or 16.5 years of labour time in 2005 to cover the mortgage cost. In 2016, it is estimated to be no less than 1518 weeks — that’s over 29 years. Figure 2 also illustrates how the Vancouver housing market differs in the more pronounced severity of its affordability challenge as compared to the country as a whole.
Toronto
The situation of the Greater Toronto Area (henceforth Toronto) has shown a similar trend to that of Greater Vancouver. Figures 2 applies the same methodology as the preceding analysis of Vancouver however using the average weekly wage in Ontario.
When purchased through a mortgage, it took 513 weeks of labour time or nearly 10 years in 2005 to buy the average Toronto dwelling. It is estimated that it will take 652 weeks of labour time, or 12.5 years, to do the same in 2016. Single family houses, once more, show a more marked divergence. Mortgage purchases required 526 weeks of labour time in 2005 (almost 10 years) and no less than 15 years, or 783 weeks, in 2016.
While conditions for first-time homeowners in Toronto area are clearly worsening, and are pronounced compared to those in the rest of Canada, they pale compared to the conditions faced by those living in the Greater Vancouver area. It takes roughly twice as many weeks of labour time measured in the appropriate provincial mean weekly wage to buy a dwelling through a mortgage in Vancouver than in does in Toronto.
Affordable housing increasingly illusory
These data point to stark and growing disparity between incomes and housing prices since 2005, far outstretching a related but less pronounced trend in the rest of the country. If the analysis had looked at median income, the results would likely be even more stark.
Current and recent home buyers in Toronto and Vancouver are devoting many more weeks of labour time to the financing of their home than their predecessors and the dream of home ownership is becoming increasingly remote for all but the wealthiest and highest income earners.
The effects of growing housing affordability are not isolated to Toronto and Vancouver. The Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation, Canada’s housing agency, recently warned that prices are soaring in British Columbia and Ontario as the real estate boom in Vancouver and Toronto spread deeper into surrounding communities.
Housing affordability is a complex public policy challenge and addressing it, and the inequality and cost of living challenges it betrays, will require a myriad of public policy measures. The case for further government action is clear not only on housing but on wage growth as well.
Marc Lavoie is Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Broadbent Institute policy fellow. This research was financed by a grant that Mario Seccareccia and Marc obtained from the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). Thank you to economist Sheila Matthen for graphs.
Image: Karen Neoh CC BY 2.0 |
Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET
One Motorola Mobility is worth 100 Zagats. That's the latest rate on the Google currency exchange, from a company that acquires historic brands with as much gusto as Jay Leno scoops up vintage rides at an antique car show.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Mountain View, Calif.-based Google paid $125 million for the legendary restaurant review company, or about 1 percent the proposed purchase price for Motorola, which Google came to terms with last month.
Zagat put itself on the block three years ago. Back then its estimated value was $200 million, but apparently there were no buyers at that price. Google eventually stepped in and offered a number closer to what Zagat claimed it was worth back in 2000.
Marissa Mayer, Google's VP for local, announced the deal on the company's blog and on Google+ on Thursday. Mayer said Zagat reviews would be integrated with Google search and Maps, and she praised Zagat's "innovative... consumer-based" approach:
Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC [user-generated content]--gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed. Their iconic pocket-sized guides with paragraphs summarizing and "snippeting" sentiment were "mobile" before "mobile" involved electronics.
If Google's track record with acquisitions is any indication, there could be an uncertain road ahead for Zagat. Social-search tool Aardvark, which Google bought for $50 million, was recently killed off; Jambool social payments and Slide social gaming, which cost more than Zagat, met similar fates. Then again, the Android platform cost Google only $50 million, and I hear it's doing well. |
NIAGARA FALLS – Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak issued a statement on the results of the Ontario By-Elections.
“This evening’s results prove that the people of this province want change. They sent the McGuinty-Wynne Liberals a clear message. They want leadership that will take decisive action, implement a plan to balance the budget and create jobs.
“The majority of voters chose an Ontario PC plan to bring jobs and opportunity back to our province. My Million Jobs Plan will create more jobs with better take-home pay by making energy affordable, lowering taxes, and reducing government debt.
“Tonight, I am pleased to congratulate Gila Martow on her election victory in Thornhill. I look forward to welcoming Gila to the Ontario PC caucus, and to working closely with our newest MPP to bring jobs and opportunity to Thornhill.
“I want to thank Bart Maves and his team of dedicated volunteers. Bart has represented Niagara for 11 years and has a proven track record of creating jobs. He ran a great campaign and I know he will continue to fight for his community.
“Tonight, hardworking Ontario families should be worried about the willingness of the Liberals and NDP to side with and protect special interest unions rather than Ontario families. Those special interest groups make no distinction between the high tax, high-spending policies the Liberals have used to drive jobs away, and the high tax, high-spending approach the NDP would take to drive away even more job.”
“Once again, the Ontario PC Party received the most votes of any party. Ontario will have two choices in the next election: a Liberal/NDP coalition that will raise taxes, increase spending and debt, or an Ontario PC Party with a Million Jobs Plan that will create jobs and opportunities for families across our province. Our message remains the same. We will stand up for more jobs and a better Ontario”.
Related articles across the web |
Rescuers 'may never go into mine'
Updated
Rescue teams say it may never be safe for them to enter the New Zealand mine where 29 men have been trapped for almost six days.
Hopes of rescuing the men continue to fade, with police Superintendent Gary Knowles saying poisonous gas levels in the mine may never be low enough to allow rescuers in.
This morning, rescuers confirmed a robot in the mine had found a helmet, with the lamp still on, lying in the tunnel, but said it belonged to miner Russell Smith, who escaped after the explosion.
Pike River CEO Peter Whittall said a drill bit had broken through into the mine tunnel overnight but said air samples had shown levels of poisonous gases in the mine were still dangerously high.
"As we expected, but not as families hoped, the air that came up was extremely high in carbon monoxide, very high in methane, and fairly low in oxygen," he said.
"It's making their hopes diminish and making it more difficult for them to hold out that hope that all 29 of those guys are waiting for us as we hoped on day one.
"I think we're all coming to that realisation now," he added, but he would not comment on whether the gas levels were survivable.
Superintendent Knowles said it might never be safe for rescuers to go into the mine.
"We had a meeting with all the experts yesterday and looked at all the possibilities," he said.
"You may never get a zero [methane gas level] reading.
"It's a very unstable environment and currently it is not safe to go underground. It may never reach that point. But if it does, rest assured we are ready."
Mr Whittall said he could not comment on Superintendent Knowles' statement.
A tiny camera has been lowered into the mine's fresh air refuge, but there were no signs of life and the mine's management says the area had been "knocked about".
Superintendent Knowles said the robot which found the helmet, which had been restarted yesterday after breaking down, had now been pulled to the side of the tunnel about one kilometre into the mine to avoid blocking the way for other remote-operated devices.
He said footage from the robot's on-board camera was being analysed.
Another New Zealand Defence Force robot was about 800 metres inside the mine and another from Western Australia had arrived and was being readied for action, he said.
Mr Whittall has shown families a map of where their loved ones might be trapped inside the mine, and a video of the explosion as it was recorded at the entrance to the mine.
He said it was a violent explosion and had probably originated about two kilometres away.
Mr Whittall was accompanied by New Zealand's Police Commissioner, Howard Broad, who said the situation was "bleak" for those underground and was getting "bleaker by the hour".
The lack of news from the trapped men sparked memories of the nearby Strongman Mine explosion in 1967.
Nineteen men died in that explosion and rescue crews faced poisonous gases and underground fires when they went in to recover the bodies.
The last two bodies were never recovered and had to be left in the sealed-off mine.
Topics: workplace, industry, mining-industry, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, new-zealand, australia, qld, wa
First posted |
3 weeks ago
I don't think it's about the condom, but rather about ejaculating inside, because as long as the guy doesn't do it inside, then they can have sex/ make love without a condom. I prefer it that way, as it makes me feel closer to, and enjoy a real connection with my man - this means we both trust each other. And if he wants to cum inside, without the ,,discomfort" of pulling his instrument out - during the last day of the period and 1-2 days after it's safe for him to ejaculate inside, because the conditions - pH, moisture and etc are not good enough for conception. It's exiting to wait for that special moment every month when you can give him and yourself the permission to cum inside. Actually it's dangerous only 2-3 days before ovulation, because the semen can live inside the female body for 1-2 days, and if the woman is not in ovulation the sperm cells die. It's very important for her to keep an eye of her menstrual cycle and know when is her ovulation. |
Activists are asking people to plant and grow sunflowers with a goal of decontaminating soil made radioactive in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. A group of young entrepreneurs and civil servants are asking volunteers to grow sunflowers, then send the seeds to the Fukushima area where they will be planted next year to help clean the soil of contamination.
Fast Company magazine reports that entrepreneur Shinji Handa has sold some 10,000 packets of sunflower seeds to Japanese people at a cost of $6.00 apiece to launch the project. “We will give the seeds sent back by people for free to farmers, the public sector and other groups next year,” said Handa. Besides decontaminating the soil, the organizers hope that the project will promote concern for the afflicted area, as people see a sea of yellow blooms and support the victims of the catastrophe.
Besides the entrepreneurial campaign, Japanese scientists led by a space agriculture professor have already conducted a test by growing sunflowers in the contaminated soil on farmland near the nuclear plant. On July 2 the scientists confirmed that the sunflowers had sprouted. Once the plants have grown and if it is confirmed that they have absorbed significant quantities of cesium, scientists will employ bacteria to decompose the plants, and the result will be treated as radioactive waste.
The process of extracting contaminants from the soil via plants is called phytoremediation. While animals can move away from pollutants or other toxics (if they’re lucky), plants have evolved ways to live with the toxics and eventually extract them from the soil. The downside is that the concentrated pollutants, such as radioactivity or lead, can then pass along the food chain if not disposed of properly. Sunflowers were used to suck up radioactive cesium and strontium in a pond at the Chernobyl nuclear accident site in 1994 and to remove uranium from contaminated springs near the Oak Ridge (TN) National Laboratory in 1996.
Fungi, bacteria and plants have remarkable properties that can help clean up the messes that we humans create. While no one solution will solve the problem of irradiated soil and the struggling farmers, it’s always wise to look to nature first for the processes that can heal the land.
Photo: By Bruce Fritz [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
Every now and then a company introduces technology that truly is a “game changer” in how drastically different your daily life is impacted once you are introduced to it. I truly feel I am witness to the dawn of such technology, brought to us by the innovative company Tesla.
I can go on and on about the many features of my Tesla Model S (2015 90D) that make me smile every time I enter the vehicle, but the one feature that rises above all in this wonderful tech car is the Autopilot setting.
Life before Tesla
First, a little background on myself. I am a physician, and as such possess the classic “Type A” personality. Every day I have about a 35 mile commute which although can occasionally be relaxing, is more often than not quite frustrating, dealing with other drivers on the road that do not follow common courtesy (most often the drivers that insist solely on travelling in the fast lane while talking on the cellphone, etc all the while building what I call a parade behind them). I typically use cruise control on these commutes, however this often caused more frustration. With my former daily driver, I had to repeatedly disengage and engage the cruise control as I encountered these obstacles. It often caused me to overtake on the slow lane and darting back into the fast lane before I encountered a vehicle appropriately traveling on the right. I would often have to find myself needing to decompress when I first enter my workplace just from the buildup of stress from my morning commute.
Enter Tesla
Enter Tesla into my life and the impact was obvious from the very first day I drove to work. The adaptive cruise control was leaps and bounds superior to the standard cruise control I had been accustomed to, automatically slowing down when traffic dictates without any input from me and then resuming speed when traffic clears. In fact, if this was all that Tesla offered, it still would have eliminated 95% of the frustration of my morning and evening commutes and I would be an incredibly happy owner.
Introducing Tesla Autopilot
However Tesla went a giant step above and introduced Autopilot. I did not know what the act of driving did to one’s mindset even in the best of traffic conditions. Although it feels subconscious, when manually driving a car, your brain is processing so much information, calculating velocity, road conditions, curves ahead, etc so that you can stay in your lane of travel. These constant mental calculations running in the background do take a toll on your mental state (akin to a computer running many applications in the background which causes the overall computer performance to slow down).
With Autopilot, my car took over all the minutia of staying in one’s lane, driving in traffic, etc and allowed me to relax in a more supervisory role. It has taken out all the frustration. Tesla also was kind enough to eliminate a potential annoyance I see with other manufacture’s attempts at “autopilot” by giving us Autopilot with Lane Change ability. Currently, other manufacturers that implement some sort of Lane Maintenance capability in their cars, ONLY works by forcing you to stay in that particular lane. If you want to leave the current lane, the driver has to manually disengage this setting, change lanes, and then reengage the setting. I could see this cause frustration similar to what the standard cruise control feature did on my old car. With my Tesla, I just touch the indicator stalk and the car effortlessly goes into the lane I want, Autopilot engaged fully throughout.
The commute felt like it took half the time.
Such was the impact that Autopilot had on my commute, that the first day I drove to work, I actually almost missed my exit. True story. I could not believe how quickly the commute seemed to be and my exit seemed to come up from nowhere. Once I realized where I was, I had to make 3 lane changes to quickly get off into the exit ramp for my workplace, which luckily I did (the only stressful part of the entire drive). It was the same distance, but the commute felt like it took half the time and I was fully relaxed pulling into the parking lot. It truly is unbelievable when you get to free your brain from the complexities of driving on the interstate and allow it to actually enjoy the experience. I remember really listening to and enjoying the music playing and just observing more things around me than before when I had to have focus on just the actual task of driving.
There will always be naysayers whenever any new technology is first introduced. One criticism regarding Tesla’s Autopilot that I have heard is that you lose the fun of actually driving the car. My response to that is that Autopilot is not an all or none option. For the long tedious interstate/highway travel I am happy to let Autopilot take the wheel so that my senses don’t get dulled from the monotony of driving straight for miles (if there are drivers out there who consider that scenario fun, more power to them). But you can bet that I don’t let Autopilot have the fun when I am driving those beautiful winding road with many curves, which I am fortunate to have near my house. I grab the wheel and get the full driver’s experience with precise tactile feedback from the road. Autopilot: Best of both worlds.
If one car learns, they all learn
The most astonishing thing of all is that my version of Autopilot is considered a beta testing program by Tesla. As part of a community of Tesla owners, whenever Autopilot is engaged, that information is sent centrally and Tesla learns driving habits and improves mapping of those roads. When one car learns something, every other car gets that information and improves automatically, sort of like a hive mentality. Amazing concept and one I witnessed firsthand: On my first commute, there was a tricky portion of highway where two lanes became three, with no real markings on the road to divide the lanes for 500 feet or so. When my car first encountered that section, it did not know what to do and split the difference (essentially driving in the middle of the two unmarked lanes). I made a manual correction to get it back into the lane I wanted. The next day, and every day afterwards, the car anticipated this and correctly maintained proper lane control without any intervention. All it took was one experience and manual input from the driver and it learned proper driving behavior from then on. Amazing.
I will never have to settle for old technology
as my car ages.
If Autopilot is this good now, I can only imagine how great it will be in the future. The fact that I have a Tesla also means that when that version comes out, I will wake up one morning and my car will tell me I have an update to download, so I will never have to settle for old technology as my car ages. In fact, although I have only owned my car for 3 months, I have already downloaded an improved beta version of Autopilot with visibly noticeable improvements over the original version the car came with.
I applaud Tesla for pushing the technology envelope. They will always have a loyal customer in me. |
OAKLAND — The Scottish Rite Center that overlooks Lake Merritt is undergoing a $1.2 million renovation to return the lodge to its original glory.
For 60 days, the building will close so workers can replace the roof, install LED lighting and sound systems and make the building handicap accessible. The grand dome theater will get a fresh coat of paint and 24-karat leafing on its details.
“There was a huge community here, and we want to bring that back,” said Konstantin Savvon, the director of operations for the center. “We want to support and reach out to Oakland.”
The Scottish Rite of the Valley of Oakland, a Freemasons fraternity, will offer guided public tours and open a restaurant and bar. Rooms previously used only by the fraternity will be available to rent. Savvon said they want the building to become more accessible, for example, to Oakland’s nonprofits and startups.
The fraternity has a few thousand members — the exact number is a secret. However, the building was designed with 8,000 members in mind.
While those numbers have declined, revitalizing the building is a way to revitalize themselves and the community.
Savvon often hears wows, oohs and ahs when people walk into rooms. The rich architecture sparks conversations, which, Savvon said, is worth the costly restorations.
The fraternity raised nearly $200,000 and received about $1 million in donations.
“We’re trying to be as original to the period as possible,” he said.
The original hammered-bronze ceiling in the entrance room would cost more than what the center is worth today, which is about $240 million. One thousand men working simultaneously built the Scottish Rite Center in 1927 for a cool $1.9 million.
There were no CNC machines to spit out the tiny and intricate architectural details found throughout the 130,000-square-foot building. Almost everything was done by hand.
“What I have to do is reconstruct the same motifs with the same materials and techniques,” said Philip Lawson, lead restorer and artist. “It can be very labor-intensive.”
He and other craftsmen have the painstaking task of restoring thousands of hand-painted, plaster-relief and stone masonic symbols that cover almost every nook and cranny of the building.
“Freemasonry has a lot to do with symbolism, so preservation is important,” Lawson said. “The reason this needs to be done methodically and carefully is because we’re trying to protect the history, trying to honor the history.”
The Masonic history and rituals are also shrouded in mystery and tall tales to the outside world. Once construction is finished, visitors will get a glimpse of secret passageways and rooms. Some say the building is haunted. Ghosts have been spotted roaming, or floating, in the building, said Paul Adams, the librarian.
“I was not a believer until I saw one,” he said. “There are a lot of secrets in this building.”
The missions of the fraternity are to honor personal liberties and to act with good moral character. The building is like a university where these values are taught and is worth preserving, the fraternity says.
This is the second major renovation in the building’s 80-plus years.
“It’s been one hell of a battle,” Savvon said of restoring the lodge, which has been his project since he walked through the doors of the lodge three years ago. “They don’t build buildings like this anymore.” |
06/05/2014 - Bank secrecy for tax purposes is coming to an end as countries and major financial centres commit to automatic exchange of information between jurisdictions.
The Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters was endorsed during the OECD’s annual Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris by all 34 member countries, along with Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and South Africa.
The Declaration commits countries to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information. The standard, which was developed at the OECD and endorsed by G20 finance ministers last February, obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.
“Tax fraud and tax evasion are not victimless crimes: they deprive governments of revenues needed to restore growth and jeopardise citizens’ trust in the fairness and integrity of the tax system,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said. “Today’s commitment by so many countries to implement the new global standard, and to do so quickly, is another major step towards ensuring that tax cheats have nowhere left to hide.” The OECD will deliver a detailed Commentary on the new standard, as well as technical solutions to implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of G20 finance ministers in September 2014.
G20 governments have mandated the OECD-hosted Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to monitor and review implementation of the standard.
More than 60 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to early adoption of the standard, and additional Global Forum members are expected to join this group in the coming months.
Journalist queries on the new standard should be directed to Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA), Achim Pross, Head of the CTPA International Co-operation and Tax Administration Division, or the OECD Media Office (+33 1 4524 9700). |
So you’ve created a Windows Phone app that has something to do with music? Well chances are you can gain some money with it thanks to the Xbox music affiliate program!
All you need to know to get this up and running is available on MSDN here… but let me show you my implementation, because I find the docs on MSDN a bit chaotic.
So first things first, open up a publishers account on Rakuten Linkshare through this url http://www.linkshare.com/join/ This is needed, because they are the ones gathering the click information and doing the payments.
* Pro tip * Note that at one point you’ll need to fill in website info – here you’ll have to put the URL pointing to your app in the windows phone app store! This is important, because that way Xbox music can verify your request ( more on this later on ).
* Pro tip * Be sure to take into account that you’ll need to fill in form W-8BEN if you live outside of the United States, for being in order of payment taxes!
After you filled in all the needed info and your account is in order, open the LinkShare website and navigate to PROGRAMS > Categories – select category Entertainment > Music and look for Xbox Music and press the Apply button on the right side.
When you apply for a new advertiser, you’ll get an email notification stating that it will take 1 till 2 weeks before your application is approved! And here comes the important pro tip from above, this validation is done based on the app url you submitted earlier. So you’ll first need to add a working app to the store.
After a positive review, your app will be approved for generating links to LinkShare. So the coding/integration can begin!
In my app ConcertWall I wanted to show albums from a specific artist and when the user presses the image from that album, it will show Xbox music so you could play/purchase that album.
To get started with using the REST API service of Xbox Music, you’ll need to get a Client ID and Client Secret for your app. This can be obtained via https://datamarket.azure.com/ – you’ll need to register and add the app. All the details and steps are outlined on MSDN here…
With this info you then can set up your first method to interact with the service!
When you want to gather data, you’ll first need to request an access token from the OAuth service before you can perform any REST calls to the Xbox Music service. I’ve packed this call in an async method called RequestAccessToken.
<span id="lnum1" style="color: #606060"> 1:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">private</span> async Task<<span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>> RequestAccessToken() 1 < span id = "lnum1" style = "color: #606060" > 1 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > private < / span > async Task & lt ; < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > & gt ; RequestAccessToken ( ) <span id="lnum2" style="color: #606060"> 2:</span> { 1 < span id = "lnum2" style = "color: #606060" > 2 : < / span > { <span id="lnum3" style="color: #606060"> 3:</span> HttpClient client = <span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> HttpClient(); 1 < span id = "lnum3" style = "color: #606060" > 3 : < / span > HttpClient client = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > HttpClient ( ) ; <span id="lnum4" style="color: #606060"> 4:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum4" style = "color: #606060" > 4 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum5" style="color: #606060"> 5:</span> <span style="color: #008000">//Create the request data</span> 1 < span id = "lnum5" style = "color: #606060" > 5 : < / span > < span style = "color: #008000" > //Create the request data</span> <span id="lnum6" style="color: #606060"> 6:</span> var requestData = <span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> Dictionary<<span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>, <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>>(); 1 < span id = "lnum6" style = "color: #606060" > 6 : < / span > var requestData = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > Dictionary & lt ; < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > , < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > & gt ; ( ) ; <span id="lnum7" style="color: #606060"> 7:</span> requestData[<span style="color: #006080">"client_id"</span>] = _clientID; 1 < span id = "lnum7" style = "color: #606060" > 7 : < / span > requestData [ < span style = "color: #006080" > "client_id" < / span > ] = _clientID ; <span id="lnum8" style="color: #606060"> 8:</span> requestData[<span style="color: #006080">"client_secret"</span>] = _clientSecret; 1 < span id = "lnum8" style = "color: #606060" > 8 : < / span > requestData [ < span style = "color: #006080" > "client_secret" < / span > ] = _clientSecret ; <span id="lnum9" style="color: #606060"> 9:</span> requestData[<span style="color: #006080">"scope"</span>] = _xboxMusicService; 1 < span id = "lnum9" style = "color: #606060" > 9 : < / span > requestData [ < span style = "color: #006080" > "scope" < / span > ] = _xboxMusicService ; <span id="lnum10" style="color: #606060"> 10:</span> requestData[<span style="color: #006080">"grant_type"</span>] = <span style="color: #006080">"client_credentials"</span>; 1 < span id = "lnum10" style = "color: #606060" > 10 : < / span > requestData [ < span style = "color: #006080" > "grant_type" < / span > ] = < span style = "color: #006080" > "client_credentials" < / span > ; <span id="lnum11" style="color: #606060"> 11:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum11" style = "color: #606060" > 11 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum12" style="color: #606060"> 12:</span> <span style="color: #008000">//Post the request and retrieve the response</span> 1 < span id = "lnum12" style = "color: #606060" > 12 : < / span > < span style = "color: #008000" > //Post the request and retrieve the response</span> <span id="lnum13" style="color: #606060"> 13:</span> var response = await client.PostAsync(<span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> Uri(_tokenService), <span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> FormUrlEncodedContent(requestData)); 1 < span id = "lnum13" style = "color: #606060" > 13 : < / span > var response = await client . PostAsync ( < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > Uri ( _tokenService ) , < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > FormUrlEncodedContent ( requestData ) ) ; <span id="lnum14" style="color: #606060"> 14:</span> response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode(); 1 < span id = "lnum14" style = "color: #606060" > 14 : < / span > response . EnsureSuccessStatusCode ( ) ; <span id="lnum15" style="color: #606060"> 15:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span> responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); 1 < span id = "lnum15" style = "color: #606060" > 15 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > responseBody = await response . Content . ReadAsStringAsync ( ) ; <span id="lnum16" style="color: #606060"> 16:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum16" style = "color: #606060" > 16 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum17" style="color: #606060"> 17:</span> Token token = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Token>(responseBody); 1 < span id = "lnum17" style = "color: #606060" > 17 : < / span > Token token = JsonConvert . DeserializeObject & lt ; Token & gt ; ( responseBody ) ; <span id="lnum18" style="color: #606060"> 18:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">return</span> token.access_token; 1 < span id = "lnum18" style = "color: #606060" > 18 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > return < / span > token . access_token ; <span id="lnum19" style="color: #606060"> 19:</span> } 1 < span id = "lnum19" style = "color: #606060" > 19 : < / span > }
It needs your client id and secret ( the ones you created on the DataMarket.Azure site ), a given scope – this is a fixed string http://music.xboxlive.com all this has to be passed to the token service – this is https://datamarket.accesscontrol.windows.net/v2/OAuth2-13 – as a http POST. You’ll get a response back that contains the needed access token.
This token allows you to do any HTTP Get REST requests to the Xbox Music service for a specific period. In my case I just wanted to show all albums of a given artist. I wrapped this in a method called GetArtistAlbums
<span id="lnum1" style="color: #606060"> 1:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">public</span> async Task<List<Album>> GetArtistAlbums(<span style="color: #0000ff">string</span> artistName) 1 < span id = "lnum1" style = "color: #606060" > 1 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > public < / span > async Task & lt ; List & lt ; Album & gt ; & gt ; GetArtistAlbums ( < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > artistName ) <span id="lnum2" style="color: #606060"> 2:</span> { 1 < span id = "lnum2" style = "color: #606060" > 2 : < / span > { <span id="lnum3" style="color: #606060"> 3:</span> List<Album> artistAlbums = <span style="color: #0000ff">null</span>; 1 < span id = "lnum3" style = "color: #606060" > 3 : < / span > List & lt ; Album & gt ; artistAlbums = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > null < / span > ; <span id="lnum4" style="color: #606060"> 4:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">try</span> 1 < span id = "lnum4" style = "color: #606060" > 4 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > try < / span > <span id="lnum5" style="color: #606060"> 5:</span> { 1 < span id = "lnum5" style = "color: #606060" > 5 : < / span > { <span id="lnum6" style="color: #606060"> 6:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span> accessToken = await <span style="color: #0000ff">this</span>.RequestAccessToken(); 1 < span id = "lnum6" style = "color: #606060" > 6 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > accessToken = await < span style = "color: #0000ff" > this < / span > . RequestAccessToken ( ) ; <span id="lnum7" style="color: #606060"> 7:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum7" style = "color: #606060" > 7 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum8" style="color: #606060"> 8:</span> <span style="color: #008000">//Use the token in a new request</span> 1 < span id = "lnum8" style = "color: #606060" > 8 : < / span > < span style = "color: #008000" > //Use the token in a new request</span> <span id="lnum9" style="color: #606060"> 9:</span> HttpClient client = <span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> HttpClient(); 1 < span id = "lnum9" style = "color: #606060" > 9 : < / span > HttpClient client = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > HttpClient ( ) ; <span id="lnum10" style="color: #606060"> 10:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum10" style = "color: #606060" > 10 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum11" style="color: #606060"> 11:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span> serviceRequest = <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>.Format(_artistSearch, artistName); 1 < span id = "lnum11" style = "color: #606060" > 11 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > serviceRequest = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > . Format ( _artistSearch , artistName ) ; <span id="lnum12" style="color: #606060"> 12:</span> serviceRequest = <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>.Concat(serviceRequest, <span style="color: #006080">"&filters=Albums"</span>); 1 < span id = "lnum12" style = "color: #606060" > 12 : < / span > serviceRequest = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > . Concat ( serviceRequest , < span style = "color: #006080" > "&filters=Albums" < / span > ) ; <span id="lnum13" style="color: #606060"> 13:</span> serviceRequest = <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>.Concat(serviceRequest, _xboxMusicRESTRequest); 1 < span id = "lnum13" style = "color: #606060" > 13 : < / span > serviceRequest = < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > . Concat ( serviceRequest , _xboxMusicRESTRequest ) ; <span id="lnum14" style="color: #606060"> 14:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum14" style = "color: #606060" > 14 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum15" style="color: #606060"> 15:</span> var response = await client.GetAsync(<span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> Uri(serviceRequest + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(accessToken))); 1 < span id = "lnum15" style = "color: #606060" > 15 : < / span > var response = await client . GetAsync ( < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > Uri ( serviceRequest + HttpUtility . UrlEncode ( accessToken ) ) ) ; <span id="lnum16" style="color: #606060"> 16:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span> responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); 1 < span id = "lnum16" style = "color: #606060" > 16 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > responseBody = await response . Content . ReadAsStringAsync ( ) ; <span id="lnum17" style="color: #606060"> 17:</span> AlbumsResponse albumsResponse = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<AlbumsResponse>(responseBody); 1 < span id = "lnum17" style = "color: #606060" > 17 : < / span > AlbumsResponse albumsResponse = JsonConvert . DeserializeObject & lt ; AlbumsResponse & gt ; ( responseBody ) ; <span id="lnum18" style="color: #606060"> 18:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum18" style = "color: #606060" > 18 : < / span > <span id="lnum19" style="color: #606060"> 19:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">if</span> (!ReferenceEquals(albumsResponse, <span style="color: #0000ff">null</span>) && !ReferenceEquals(albumsResponse.Albums, <span style="color: #0000ff">null</span>)) 1 < span id = "lnum19" style = "color: #606060" > 19 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > if < / span > ( ! ReferenceEquals ( albumsResponse , < span style = "color: #0000ff" > null < / span > ) & amp ; & amp ; ! ReferenceEquals ( albumsResponse . Albums , < span style = "color: #0000ff" > null < / span > ) ) <span id="lnum20" style="color: #606060"> 20:</span> { 1 < span id = "lnum20" style = "color: #606060" > 20 : < / span > { <span id="lnum21" style="color: #606060"> 21:</span> artistAlbums = (from album <span style="color: #0000ff">in</span> albumsResponse.Albums.Items 1 < span id = "lnum21" style = "color: #606060" > 21 : < / span > artistAlbums = ( from album < span style = "color: #0000ff" > in < / span > albumsResponse . Albums . Items <span id="lnum22" style="color: #606060"> 22:</span> from artist <span style="color: #0000ff">in</span> album.Artists 1 < span id = "lnum22" style = "color: #606060" > 22 : < / span > from artist < span style = "color: #0000ff" > in < / span > album . Artists <span id="lnum23" style="color: #606060"> 23:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">where</span> artist.Artist.Name.Equals(artistName, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase) 1 < span id = "lnum23" style = "color: #606060" > 23 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > where < / span > artist . Artist . Name . Equals ( artistName , StringComparison . OrdinalIgnoreCase ) <span id="lnum24" style="color: #606060"> 24:</span> select album).ToList(); 1 < span id = "lnum24" style = "color: #606060" > 24 : < / span > select album ) . ToList ( ) ; <span id="lnum25" style="color: #606060"> 25:</span> } 1 < span id = "lnum25" style = "color: #606060" > 25 : < / span > } <span id="lnum26" style="color: #606060"> 26:</span> } 1 < span id = "lnum26" style = "color: #606060" > 26 : < / span > } <span id="lnum27" style="color: #606060"> 27:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">catch</span> (Exception) 1 < span id = "lnum27" style = "color: #606060" > 27 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > catch < / span > ( Exception ) <span id="lnum28" style="color: #606060"> 28:</span> { 1 < span id = "lnum28" style = "color: #606060" > 28 : < / span > { <span id="lnum29" style="color: #606060"> 29:</span> <span style="color: #008000">//There was a problem with getting the albums, return null to be sure the program continues</span> 1 < span id = "lnum29" style = "color: #606060" > 29 : < / span > < span style = "color: #008000" > //There was a problem with getting the albums, return null to be sure the program continues</span> <span id="lnum30" style="color: #606060"> 30:</span> } 1 < span id = "lnum30" style = "color: #606060" > 30 : < / span > } <span id="lnum31" style="color: #606060"> 31:</span> 1 < span id = "lnum31" style = "color: #606060" > 31 : < / span > & nbsp ; <span id="lnum32" style="color: #606060"> 32:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">return</span> artistAlbums; 1 < span id = "lnum32" style = "color: #606060" > 32 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > return < / span > artistAlbums ; <span id="lnum33" style="color: #606060"> 33:</span> } 1 < span id = "lnum33" style = "color: #606060" > 33 : < / span > }
The Service Request string is composed of different parts, let me show you each one
First the base url: _artistSearch = https://music.xboxlive.com/1/content/music/search?q={0} So we are going to perform a search with a given keyword
The keyword: artistName = the input parameter of this method
We want albums so add: &filters=Albums You can search for other items, be sure to check out the MSDN documentation
Add the access token: _xboxMusicRESTRequest = “&accessToken=Bearer+”
Concat with the actual urlencoded token: new Uri(serviceRequest + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(accessToken))
With that in place, you just fire a client.GetAsync() and the response return value will be a JSON string containing all found Albums mathing your search string. I found that this can be a big set with to much hits, so I filter out all albums that don’t have the given artist name in the artists list of each album!
* Pro tip * Do note we aren’t yet earning any money! For this we need to add Deep Links to Xbox music on our phone.
I now present these albums in a list so the user can press the image, with this I’m activating the Deep Link url to Xbox Music on the phone.
The correct deep link uri for each album is actually already inside the response result we got from our search query, but to gain money through LinkShare we need to modify it!
We need to reroute our request through LinkShare with the correct id’s so that LinkShare can track the requests and if needed award us points!
The correct link format is show below, only thing missing is your affiliate key for Xbox music – this id can be found by generating a link on the LinkShare site for Xbox music after your request for this advertiser has been approved! Just press the Get Link button and look for the http://ad.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/show?id= part it shows you the id!
<span id="lnum1" style="color: #606060"> 1:</span> <span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>.Format(<span style="color: #006080">"http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id={0}&mid=39033&murl={1}"</span>, <span style="color: #006080">"{your Xbox music LinkShare id}"</span>, HttpUtility.UrlEncode(<span style="color: #0000ff">string</span>.Concat(item.Link, <span style="color: #006080">"&action=play"</span>))) 1 < span id = "lnum1" style = "color: #606060" > 1 : < / span > < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > . Format ( < span style = "color: #006080" > "http://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id={0}&mid=39033&murl={1}" < / span > , < span style = "color: #006080" > "{your Xbox music LinkShare id}" < / span > , HttpUtility . UrlEncode ( < span style = "color: #0000ff" > string < / span > . Concat ( item . Link , < span style = "color: #006080" > "&action=play" < / span > ) ) )
But how do you use this deep link? Well put a WebBrowser control on your windows phone page and set it Collapsed.
<span id="lnum1" style="color: #606060"> 1:</span> <phone:WebBrowser x:Name=<span style="color: #006080">"HiddenWebBrowser"</span> Visibility=<span style="color: #006080">"Collapsed"</span> /> 1 < span id = "lnum1" style = "color: #606060" > 1 : < / span > & lt ; phone : WebBrowser x : Name = < span style = "color: #006080" > "HiddenWebBrowser" < / span > Visibility = < span style = "color: #006080" > "Collapsed" < / span > / & gt ;
Only thing left is triggering the navigation on this control with the given deep link url!
<span id="lnum1" style="color: #606060"> 1:</span> HiddenWebBrowser.Navigate(<span style="color: #0000ff">new</span> Uri(message.MusicLink)) 1 < span id = "lnum1" style = "color: #606060" > 1 : < / span > HiddenWebBrowser . Navigate ( < span style = "color: #0000ff" > new < / span > Uri ( message . MusicLink ) )
* Pro tip * Instead of doing this yourself, you can use this XBox music API wrapper ( pcl ) ! It contains all needed REST calls and also provides the possibility to add your affiliate id!
Happy money gaining! |
As a devout Latter-day Saint who has lived both in and out of Utah at different times of my life (not including my LDS mission), I am always saddened to read things such as the letter titled “Shunning Happens” [Aug. 22, City Weekly].
I picture some members of my church whom I know personally responding to Marie by playing the “blame the victim” card. I imagine them saying something like, “You say you’re a nonjudgmental person, but that you’re reading the City Weekly proves how judgmental you are. I am certain you agree that LDS people are a bunch of brainwashed, homophobic, money-obsessed, neoconservative cultists and that LDS women are nothing but robotic Stepford Wives. So why would you want your kids hanging out with such evil people in the first place? If anything, that girl you mentioned and her parents did your family a big favor. You should go and thank them.”
On the other hand, I know some members of my church who would approach Marie’s letter in a much different way. Their reaction would be more along the line of, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that some people who call themselves LDS would behave in such a way. I would be curious to know if those people were around during the Salt Lake floods in ’83. All sorts of residents, regardless of their religion or politics, helped out sandbagging our neighborhood streets. Marie, you and your family are welcomed to our house and your kids are welcome to play with ours. If you’re not interested in listening about our church, that’s OK. We just want you to feel welcome in this beautiful part of the country.”
I think it goes without saying which approach would truly be the most beneficial to all involved, especially to all the Maries out there and their families.
CLARK LARSEN
Tooele |
The highly anticipated Mercedes-Benz AMG GT has been officially announced by Mercedes AMG! Due for public debut this fall, the 911-competitor from AMG could become the hottest new car of the year. Along with the official announcement, AMG released two interior images from the 2015 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT. The AMG GT is the first AMG sportscar to hit the market after the SLS AMG production ended earlier this year. It is not a true successor of the SLS AMG however with a different positioning and significantly smaller price tag.
Mercedes-AMG promises breathtaking design and supreme agility for its new AMG GT sportscar. “The new Mercedes-AMG GT shows that we will be positioning AMG more vehemently and aggressively than to date as a dynamic sports car brand,” notes Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. “The technological substance of the Mercedes-AMG GT underscores our high aspirations with regard to driving dynamics, agility and sportiness. Following the global success of the SLS AMG, the new GT is the second sports car developed fully independently by Mercedes-AMG. An initial exclusive look at the design of the interior shows what is in store for our customers: a GT sports car in its purest form.”
A sneak preview of the interior provides an alluring foretaste of the new Mercedes-AMG GT: the interior design embodies emotion and sensuality like no other sports car. The uncompromising lines of the interior components and their authentic materials exude a clarity that uses contrasting effects to help define the concept of “modern luxury”.
A dominant aspect in the cockpit of the GT is the further stylistic development of the central “aviation design” theme which is typical of Mercedes-Benz sports cars. The dashboard places an extreme emphasis on width, creating an impression of a powerful wing. This effect is supported by the four central spotlight-style vents and the individual vents at the left and right ends of the dashboard. The dominant centre console presents a correspondingly dynamic character: its shaping reminiscent of a NACA air intake and the employed materials suggest that it has been adopted directly from motor racing. Another clever design feature comes in the form of the controls on the AMG DRIVE UNIT, which are arranged like eight cylinders in a V layout, further bolstering the powerful and high-tech impression made by the centre console.
2015 Mercedes AMG GT Spy Shots
The interior of the Mercedes-AMG GT also boasts a fascinatingly exclusive look and feel, with the finest materials and outstanding workmanship combining to conjure up a setting that simply exudes class. As such, the exclusive interior of the Mercedes-AMG GT is enough to get one truly hooked on this vehicle even while it is still at a standstill. Designed to set the driver’s and front passenger’s pulses racing even before the car moves off, it provides an enticing intimation of the superlative dynamic performance that can be expected of the new GT when its AMG V8 is brought to life.
The 2015 Mercedes-AMG GT is scheduled for public debut this fall – possibly at the Paris Motor Show 2014 with first customer deliveries starting beginning of 2015. |
TEHRAN -- Khayyam Street, the entrance to Tehran's grand bazaar, was still covered in darkness. The fluorescent lamp outside the Ali 110 restaurant was a rare beacon of activity in a city fast asleep.
It was exactly 5 a.m. and inside, Hassan Najjar, a burly man with a thick gold necklace over his hairy chest, was stirring a giant pot filled with a soup of cooked sheep's heads, brains and hooves. Two waiters, known to everyone as Issa and Mohsen, were busy filling baskets with special bread baked in a stone oven. Pots of tea seemed to be perpetually boiling.
The restaurant, a tiny space with blue marble counters where customers stand and eat, specializes in kaleh pache, or "heads and hooves" soup, the most traditional of Iranian breakfast dishes. Its popularity is under threat, however, from the spread of fast food and from doctors warning about the dish's high cholesterol.
"Look at this," Najjar said as he took a cooked sheep's head and held it in the air. "This has exactly the same ingredients as a human head, only we eat it." He stripped the head bare of all edible parts until only the skull remained. "The brains, the tongue and the skin are all very tasty, as are the eyes," he explained. "Put some lemon and cinnamon over it and you will have a very tasty start to your morning."
After half an hour, customers started to come in. Outside, the first city buses and some taxis drove past. "One brain soup please," a man carrying a briefcase said. "Can I have hooves and tongue this morning, Hassan?" another asked. Najjar, a man of few words, motioned the men toward one of the counters, where Issa quickly provided them with a bread basket and soon after, their orders.
Having first sprinkled the remains of an eye with salt and drops of lemon juice, Ali Lamei, a lean, 27-year-old interior designer, stuck it between a piece of bread and offered the eye to a fellow customer, as Iranian etiquette prescribes.
The eye was already crushed, the lemon and salt adding strongly to the oily flavor. The tongue had a powdery texture. As for the brain, well, it was soft and squishy and tasted like the bouillon it was soaked in.
"This place is the best kaleh pache restaurant in the whole of Iran," Lamei said. "Some young people and women think it's disgusting, but it's full of calories," he explained. "This food gives you enough energy to work the whole day."
"Maybe cooked sheep's heads are upsetting for some," said his friend Mostafa Mogaddam, who works for Iran's judiciary. He compared Iranian food with Iranian music. "It's meaningful and refined. Kaleh pache, for instance, has been passed on for centuries, like the notes and words of our traditional songs have been handed down for generations."
Hassan Najjar runs the place with four brothers, who like him were all named after Shiite imams. Amir, a former major in the army, walked in around 7 a.m. after having prepared more than 100 sheep heads at their kitchen some doors down the street. Saeed, with long hair, Buddy Holly glasses and a tattoo of a cross on his upper arm, entered the restaurant from a hatch in the floor, which turned out to lead to a cellar. No one knew where Hussein was. And Ali, the brother who had bought the place from their father, doesn't show up this early in the morning.
"People think we are very rich," Amir said. "But Ali is the only one who owns a house. The rest of us rent," he said. "If my daughter ever wants to marry a kalehpachi I will forbid it. We are crazy to work here every day."
Doctors and rising inflation have given the Najjar brothers headaches over the last years. "These doctors say kaleh pache has 'health issues,' because it's fatty," said Hassan, who lit yet another cigarette while handing out plates of yellow brains. "But I'll take one spoon of kaleh pache over 40 plates of chello kabab," he said referring to another favorite Iranian dish, minced lamb on a skewer. "Kaleh pache is honest food, and at least I know who made it."
The price of a breakfast portion has sharply risen since their father died 15 years ago. "Four hooves and one head used to be 60 tomans, now it costs 15,000 tomans" or about $15, Hassan explained. "These days only rich people can afford to eat here. The kids, they eat pizza. What is the future for kaleh pache?"
After Issa dropped a chair, Hassan yelled loudly that his waiter was a "donkey." The clients gazed as Issa quietly asked his boss to be more friendly. A homeless man from the neighborhood walked in and received a plate of free food.
But Saeed told him to leave after he was impolite. "Don't do that," Hassan reprimanded his younger brother. "It's God who gives him this food."
Around 7:30 a.m., when the first rush of customers had left, Hassan stepped from behind the giant pot and lit a small bunch of herbs. He blew the sweet smelling smoke to disperse it throughout the restaurant. "Against the evil eye," he explained, referring to an Iranian custom to prevent misfortune. "We might be complaining, but many people are jealous of us," Hassan said. "I don't know why. Maybe they should try selling sheep's heads seven days a week." |
Paintball is usually played as a team sport. Rival teams try to capture each other's flag while defending their own. Photo courtesy WARPIG.com
Paintball is indeed used in military training. In terms of feel and handling, a paintball gun has little in common with an actual firearm, but paintball is still good practice for combat situations. Mainly, it lets soldiers and police practice strategy, camouflage and the fine art of not getting shot. However, while paintball has become a part of military and police training, that's not where it originated.
The first guns were developed in the 1970s for use in forestry and agriculture. Foresters used the guns to mark certain trees (for research, planning trails). The guns were also used by farmers to mark cattle.
At some point, it occurred to a few foresters or farmers to shoot the guns at each other, and the game of paintball was born. But things didn't really get going until 1981, when a group of 12 weekend warriors got ahold of some forester guns and used them to play a grown-up version of "capture the flag."
In this game, which is still the predominant paintball activity, two teams try to find and steal the other's flag while protecting their own flag from capture. Players are "out" of the game when they get hit with a paintball, and the referee decrees that they are down. Referees are also there to make sure nobody makes physical contact with another player: This is one of the most important rules. A paintball game typically lasts from 15 to 40 minutes, but players may play for six hours or more at a stretch. You can hold a paintball game with only a few people on each team, or with hundreds of people on each team. To find out about other variations on the game of paintball, check out this site.
The original 12 paintball enthusiasts had a lot to do with launching the sport. Soon after their first game, they bought up hundreds of tree-marking guns from the manufacturer (a company called Nelson) and began selling them to the general public. The idea caught on pretty quickly, and in 1982, the first paintball field opened in Rochester, New York. There are now paintball fields, as well as indoor paintball arenas, all over the world.
Here are some interesting links: |
Six law enforcement officers in two states were shot and one killed Friday night, including two shot in what officials believe may have been an ambush in Kissimmee, Florida.
Officer Matthew Baxter was killed in Kissimmee when he and his partner, Sgt. Sam Howard, responded "to a suspicious activity call just before 9:30 pm Friday. Within minutes, gunfire erupted, surprising the officers, who were not able to return fire," according to Kissimmee Police Chief Jeff O'Dell. Sgt. Howard is currently listed as being in "grave critical condition." Other officers arrived shortly thereafter and apprehended three suspects and are looking for a fourth person. The area in which the officers were shot is known for "high drug activity."
Chief O'Dell: This is a tough time in law enforcement. I would ask that you pray for the men and women of law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/MEp056LfSm — Kissimmee Police (@kissimmeepolice) August 19, 2017
My thoughts and prayers are with the @KissimmeePolice and their loved ones. We are with you!#LESM — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2017
A little further north, the two Sheriff's deputies in Jacksonville, Florida were shot while responding to an attempted suicide call. When they arrived at the home, the suspect shot through the doorway, striking the two officers while others backed them up. The suspect was shot during the exchange and later died at the hospital.
In Pennsylvania, two Pennsylvania State Troopers were shot in Fairchance, Fayette County, in the southwestern portion of the state. One official said the two were involved in a "situation" at the Shop 'N Save. Other sources said they were serving a warrant when the shooting occurred. Both troopers are in stable condition. |
In May 2011, before the project got shelved due to budget issues, before Jaume Collet-Serra took over, but after Ruairi Robinson took his turn, Albert Hughes (From Hell, The Book of Eli and more with brother Allen) walked away from plans to direct a Hollywood live-action adaptation of the Akira anime/manga. Tommy Lee Edwards (The Book of Eli) has now posted a pair of design illustrations from the Hughes iteration.
Last November, movie/comic artist Rodolfo Dimaggio (Hulk, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) posted a trio of cityscape concept pieces, as well as a look at its rather non-teenage version of Kaneda.
Before that, in September, storyboards from artist Jeffrey Errico emerged online.
There were also storyboards from concept artist Sylvain Despretz's (Gladiator, Alien Resurrection) 2008 work on the project.
via @World_Of_Hurt
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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime. |
James Files, the man who has repeatedly confessed to assassinating John F. Kennedy, has been moved from a maximum security facility at Danville Correctional Center, in Danville, Illinois, to a more lenient one.
According to the Daily Mail, James Files — who has been in prison for the past 36 years — is scheduled to be released next spring. To this day, Files still insists he was the man on grassy knoll. On that fateful afternoon of November 22, 1963, Files admitted he was the man who fired the fatal shot that ultimately killed JFK.
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During a notable 1994 interview, he shared graphic details about the fatal shooting and the single gunshot wound to his head. He offered a detailed account of the shooting and how he aimed directly at JFK’s head, firing only one shot.
“I was aiming at his right eye. When I pulled the trigger it was almost like looking from six feet away through the scope. As I squeezed his head moved forward. I missed and got it right along the temple, right behind the eye. I squeezed off my round. I hit him and blew his head backward. I fired one shot and one shot only.”
Now, in the wake of James Files upcoming release, and the 55th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s presidential election, conspiracy theories have resurfaced and Files’ claims are being questioned yet again. So, did he really assassinate John F. Kennedy?
According to JFK Murder Solved, a site dedicated to the critical analysis of Kennedy’s untimely death, there were a number of details about Files’ confession that were quite contradictory, but proven to be true.
The 72-year-old former mob hitman indicated that he used a Remington XP-100 Fireball to carry out the assassination, which sparked a number of debates. Conspiracy theorists claimed the firearm Files used was more of a pistol than a rifle. So, he should have “had an enormous recoil” because it “kicks like a mule.” Files’ line of vision has also been questioned. Although he claims he could see clearly through the scope of the firearm, there is reportedly no way he could have based on the firearm he said he used.
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Another arguable factor centers around the availability of the XP-100 in 1963. Some critics argue that particular firearm was unavailable in 1963 and the rounds of ammunition used for the weapon were “not a .222 caliber, but rather .221.” However, those accusations were proven to be false because that firearm model was introduced in 1963, with prototypes available as early as 1962, and the weapon was, indeed, chambered for .222 caliber rounds.
ROSCOE, IL - NOVEMBER 19: The actual Secret Service car which followed President John F. Kennedy's limousine when he was shot and killed in Dallas is displayed behind a Lincoln convertible similar to the one the president and his wife were riding in at the Historic Auto Attractions museum on November 19, 2013 in Roscoe, Illinois. The museum has a large collection of items from Kennedy's life and death on display. It has been fifty years since John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Another factor that has raised speculation is the timeline of events. James Files has been criticized by many conspiracy theorists who argue he didn’t have enough time to do all that he said he did immediately after the shooting took place. He stated that he bit the shell casing after firing the fatal shot and left the casing on a fence near the grassy knoll. Then, he allegedly placed the gun in a briefcase and turned his jacket inside out before putting it back on and walking away. Files claims he was able to walk away without anyone noticing him.
Even police officers who were less than 25 yards away failed to spot him. Some argue that with all of the chaos immediately after the shooting, Files wouldn’t have had time to spare and he’d only had enough time to flee. Although the speculation is justifiable, all of Files claims seem to add up. But, since Files’ charges stemmed from the attempted murder of a police officer, he was never tried and convicted for JFK’s assassination. So, his untimely death still remains a mystery.
Do you believe James Files killed John F. Kennedy? Share your thoughts.
[Image via Wikipedia] |
CLEVELAND, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The death of a 12-year-old Cleveland boy fatally shot by police in November has been formally ruled a homicide, according to a Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's autopsy report released on Friday that found he was struck once in the abdomen.
Tamir Rice, who was black, was shot on Nov. 22 by police responding to a call of a suspect waving a handgun around in a Cleveland park. The weapon turned out to be a replica that typically fires plastic pellets. He died the next day.
The autopsy report said that Rice sustained a single wound to the left side of his abdomen that traveled from front to back and lodged in his pelvis.
The shooting came at a time of heightened national scrutiny of police use of force and two days before a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August.
Rice was shot less than two seconds after the police car pulled up beside him in the park, police have said. They also released a security video of Rice in the park before and during the shooting.
Rice's mother, Samaria Rice, said on Monday the officers involved should be convicted. The family filed a lawsuit last week against the city of Cleveland and the two officers involved in Rice's shooting. The officers are on administrative leave.
Below is the autopsy report via WKYC. |
Former British No.1 Baltacha dies of cancer, aged 30
"The news of the death of Elena Baltacha, one of the shining lights of British women's tennis of recent generations, is devastating to everyone who has ever had the privilege to know her, play against her, or call her a friend or team mate," a statement on the LTA website said.
"It leaves a huge hole within our sport. Bally gave new meaning to the word 'fighter.' She fought tirelessly during her career against opposition on court, and never gave in to the struggles she endured off it."
Baltacha, who was born in Kiev but moved to Britain where her father Sergei was a professional soccer player for Ipswich Town, turned professional in 1997 and reached a career-high ranking of 49 in 2010.
She competed at the 2012 London Olympics but retired at the end of the following year because of persistent knee injuries. She married her coach Nino Severino in December 2013 before being diagnosed with cancer in January this year.
Even before quitting the Tour, Baltacha had set up an academy for young players in Ipswich.
"Words simply cannot express how saddened we are by this news. All our thoughts are with Nino and the rest of Elena's family. We will miss you Bal," LTA Head of women's tennis Iain Bates said.
End. |
Apollo 14: Science instruments (circled left) and the lunar module descent stage (circled right) are connected by a footprint trail
A US spacecraft has captured images of Apollo landing sites on the Moon, revealing hardware and a trail of footprints left on the lunar surface. The release of the images coincides with the 40th anniversary of the first manned mission to land on the Moon. The descent stages from the lunar modules which carried astronauts to and from the Moon can clearly be seen. The image of the Apollo 14 landing site shows scientific instruments and an astronaut footpath in the lunar dust. It is the first time hardware left on the Moon by the Apollo missions has been seen from lunar orbit. The pictures were taken by Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, which launched on 18 June. The Apollo 11 mission touched down on the Moon on 20 July 1969 The spacecraft is carrying three cameras on board: one low-resolution wide-angle camera and two high-resolution narrow-angle cameras mounted side-by-side. These are known collectively as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) instrument. "The LROC team anxiously awaited each image," said the instrument's principal investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. "We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill - and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus." Astronaut trail The camera instrument was able to capture five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution. Long shadows from a low sun angle make the locations of the lunar modules' descent stages particularly evident. A long shadow is cast by the Apollo 11 descent stage The image of the Apollo 14 landing site had a particularly desirable lighting condition that revealed additional details. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module and instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints. The LRO satellite reached lunar orbit on 23 June and captured the Apollo sites between 11 and 15 July. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo missions, these first images were taken before the spacecraft had reached its final mapping orbit. HAVE YOUR SAY I am 63, at 23 watched spellbound as it happened W A Froud, Letchworth, Herts "Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues," said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, US. "They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the Moon." Although the pictures provide a reminder of past lunar exploration, LRO's primary focus is on paving the way for the future. Data returned by the mission will help Nasa identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe the Moon's radiation environment and demonstrate new technologies.
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METAIRIE, La. -- Kenny Vaccaro said he felt like he let his teammates down when he was suspended over the final four games of the season due to a positive test for Adderall.
Especially since the New Orleans Saints safety said he was probably having the best season of his four-year career.
"To be honest, I just made a mistake," Vaccaro told ESPN in his first interview since the suspension.
Vaccaro said he did take Adderall, which is a stimulant banned by the NFL without a proper prescription. But he insisted it was not any kind of performance enhancer. He said he took it during the bye weekend as a pick-me-up when he was in Dallas to watch his former school, Texas, and his little brother Kevin play against Oklahoma in the Red River Rivalry.
"I was just tired and I really wasn't aware of the whole rule thing. The game's early in the morning, the state fair was going on," Vaccaro said. "I never took it before. I just did it, and it was just a dumb mistake by me, to be honest. And then I came back in Monday and had a random PED test. But that's the rules, and I take full responsibility.
"It wasn't worth it to get a little bit of energy to watch a game to come back and get a random PED test on a Monday. I mean, people can say it was unlucky, but I shouldn't have done it in the first place. But I don't take it, I don't have any problems. I just wanted to be up and alert. I don't take Adderall ever."
Kenny Vaccaro was having the best season of his career before getting suspended. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
Vaccaro said coach Sean Payton and all of his teammates were very supportive and nobody made him feel like an "outsider." He even stayed in touch with many teammates, reviewing plays and situations that he saw on TV while watching from back in his hometown of Brownwood, Texas.
"I'm glad I had such a good locker room to be around," Vaccaro said -- though he said Payton's message to him was basically that the game doesn't stop to wait for anybody.
"He said, 'This is how this league is. As soon as one person's out, it just keeps rolling.' And it'll blow you away, just the magnitude of it. The train never stops for no one," Vaccaro said. "And that's the biggest thing I got from the whole suspension is that I'll never let this happen again. I felt like I let my teammates down. I thought I was playing at a really high level the last five games before I got suspended. Probably my best year, and I only played 11 games, statistically.
"I just feel bad, because I feel like was on a roll right before I got suspended and I just wanted to see how it would have all played out if I would've gotten to play the whole season like last year.
"And I was really hurt because I felt like we could've made a run, and I feel like I really could've helped the team in a lot of ways."
It's hard to imagine many Saints who are more excited to turn the page to 2017 than Vaccaro, who has already been training at the Proactive sports performance facility in Southern California. Vaccaro said he plans to spend the next few months there, training with other NFL players and draft hopefuls represented by his Athletes First agency.
The suspension was a disappointing setback for Vaccaro, who admittedly had to learn how to overcome some maturity issues earlier in his career -- or as he and coaches put it, "be a better pro."
Vaccaro's career has been loaded with highs and lows. He was drafted in the first round in 2013 and finished third in the NFL's Defensive Rookie of the Year voting but also suffered a broken fibula at the end of that rookie season. Then he struggled in 2014 and was temporarily demoted late in the season before bouncing back with a very good 2015 season and an excellent 2016 campaign.
Vaccaro's versatility as a strong safety/nickel back/pseudo-linebacker was a big part of the Saints' return to a three-safety alignment in 2016. He forced a career-high four takeaways (two interceptions, two forced fumbles) and assisted on another forced fumble in a critical moment during a come-from-behind win at San Diego. Vaccaro ranked second on the team with 67 tackles at the time of his suspension, had one sack, eight quarterback hits, five tackles for loss and five pass defenses.
"[Defensive coordinator Dennis Allen] just did a great job of, you never really knew where I was gonna be," said Vaccaro, who said he concentrated on getting a bit leaner last offseason. "I was able to be disruptive a lot more than I have in the past. Eleven games, I had better ball disruption than I did since I've been in New Orleans."
Vaccaro is equally encouraged by the progress of the Saints' defense as a whole.
They made some modest gains in 2016 after two lousy seasons in 2014 and 2015. They finished 27th in the NFL in yards allowed but were 10th over a seven-game stretch from Week 10-16. Their run defense greatly improved, as did their red-zone defense.
"I hate to be like ... I don't want to repeat myself, because we said last year was a different team. But this truly is," Vaccaro said. "And I think this is the first year the statistics actually prove that we're a better team."
However, Vaccaro said it was tough to see the Saints fire defensive assistant coaches like Joe Vitt, Bill Johnson and James Willis. But he said everyone from coaches to players understand that winning is "what keeps you in this league."
"Joe, he treated me like a son. He called me Sonny for [former Nike executive] Sonny Vaccaro. That hurt me, man," Vaccaro said. "But I mean, they always talk about it, winning is the only thing that matters, and how productive you are. Coaches and players.
"But it's just sad that had to happen, man. It will be a little different in the building not seeing those guys and the jokes they would make and the foundation and the culture we built." |
The Netflix series 13 Reasons Why may lead to increased suicidal thoughts among young viewers, new research suggests. The study is the first to examine the impact of the controversial show, which has garnered much praise for its realistic depiction of the events leading up to (and including) the suicide of a teenage girl. The data indicates that Google searches for “how to commit suicide” increased 26 percent following the series release. That’s cause for concern, because there’s a well-established link between suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
“Psychiatrists have expressed grave concerns, because the show ignores the World Health Organization’s validated media guidelines for preventing suicide,” coauthor on the study John W. Ayers of San Diego State University told Fatherly. WHO’s guidelines aim to discourage content that centers around suicide.
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Ayers and his team looked at aggregate internet search data in the U.S., obtained from Google Trends. They focused on 2017 searches that took place between March 31 (when 13 Reasons Why was released) and April 18, a cut-off date chosen to control for suicide-related searches about former NFL player Aaron Hernandez’s death on April 19. Researchers also excluded the term “squad” in them, to account for searches related to Suicide Squad.
The findings indicated that there were marked spikes in suicide-related searches in early April. Some of that spike came from people seeking help—searches for “suicide hotlines” and “suicide prevention” increased by 12 percent and 23 percent, respectively. But there was also a disturbing increase in searches for the phrases “how to kill yourself” (up 9 percent), “commit suicide” (18 percent), and “how to commit suicide” (26 percent).
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“It’s unsurprising that we find the show has increased suicidal thoughts—thoughts that are known to be linked to suicide attempts,” Ayers says. “The time for more debate is over.”
Ayers and his colleagues call on Netflix to immediately remove the show or edit it so that it conforms to WHO’s recommendations, before it causes needless deaths. Given that suicide is currently the third leading cause of death for 15 to 24-year-olds, they may have a point. “I’d create a show that offers a message those contemplating suicide need to hear—a success story of how someone contemplating suicide sought and was given help, and persevered to have a full life,” Ayers suggests. “This is where 13 Reasons Why totally misses the mark.” |
The temperate winter climate of Miami, Florida is serving as a pleasing backdrop for the numerous attendees of the North American Bitcoin Conference.
The symposium, being held at the Miami Beach Convention Center this weekend, brought a huge crowd. Many of the talks were held with all seats full.
In the afternoon, the second hall, used in the morning for merchant vendor workshops, was used as an additional seating area with the speakers being broadcasted on a large video screen.
Here are some highlights from Day One of the conference.
Cash Used More Than BTC for Crime
They say that crime doesn’t pay. It probably doesn’t in the long-term. But criminals still use monetary instruments in order to break laws.
And despite the media exposure bitcoin has received regarding scams, thefts and the sale of illicit goods, most crooks still use cash.
David Aylor is a South Carolina attorney who is involved with what is likely the first case where the federal government has seized bitcoin.
His presentation ‘Bitcoin, Dirtier than Real Money?’ made the argument that there’s plenty of good to be had with cryptocurrencies, and that it is going to attract bad actors just like any other technology would.
Craigslist was an example that Aylor used as a tool that can be used for good as well as bad. Bitcoin can be used the same way and the media’s portrayal of BTC is one of the reasons that some people “think bitcoin is evil”, he said.
Aylor advocated for candor and transparency within the bitcoin economy in order to propel it forward. A lack of honesty is a problem that could thwart bitcoin’s success.
“We don’t want to become a rouge industry based on secrecy,” he said.
Eric Benz, VP of Business Development for ZipZap, made the case that there is a business use for bitcoin, and that it is inevitable that the negative news as it relates to bitcoin will result in compliance policies coming from governments.
“We need smart regulation that does not stifle innovation,” he said. ZipZap should know. The company allows people to complete online transactions with cash in thousands of physical locations around the globe.
Bitcoin Opportunities
Bitcoin conferences are usually an exciting time for enthusiasts to get together and talk about potential. Day One’s venture capital panel did just that.
Roger Ver the CEO of MemoryDealers.com and an angel investor, Marc van der Chijs a partner at CrossPacific Capital, Matthew Roszak the co-founder of SilkRoad Equity and Rik Willard who is founder of MintCombine all offered opinions about VC interests.
Investor Rik Willard made it clear that virtual currencies will bring “a lot of things you can’t even think of yet”.
Roger Ver echoed that sentiment, saying that bitcoin’s opportunities scale globally. “Bitcoin doesn’t care where you come from,” he said.
Ver made clear that BTC could become a legitimate worldwide method of exchanging value. “Bitcoin has the potential to be a universal currency.”
Economist Jeffery Tucker, the founder of Liberty.me, took to task traditional economists who do not have favorable views of bitcoin, specifically a certain author of New York Times op-eds.
“Does it really matter what Paul Krugman thinks?” he asked the audience.
Tony Gallippi, the CEO of BitPay, pointed specifically to Miami as a place where a prosperous hub for bitcoin-related activity could happen. “Miami is an amazing city for international business,” he said during his presentation.
Gallippi pointed out that TigerDirect, an online retailer that recently started accepting bitcoins, is based in Miami.
BitLicenses and the Future
How burgeoning businesses should be operating in the face of possible regulatory sanctions dominated the startup panel that featured leaders from several different BTC-related businesses.
Wendell Davis the founder of Hive Wallet, Steve Beauregard the founder and CEO of GoCoin, Dan Held the product manager of ZeroBlock, Oleh Zadoretskyy the founder and lead developer of BTC Robot and Paul Vernon the CEO of Cryptsy were the panelists.
Interestingly enough, only Cryptsy was incorporated in the United States. The other companies on the panel cited different countries for incorporation because of somewhat murky US policies in regards to cryptocurrencies.
Paul Vernon, Cryptsy’s CEO, welcomed the idea of BitLicenses, a regulatory framework that the state of New York is considering.
“I think the BitLicense is a great idea. I hope that every state does that,” he said.
Roger Ver on the Bitcoin Price and Mining
Day One of the conference was capped off by angel investor and bitcoin advocate Roger Ver and he did not disappoint. When asked about the future value of bitcoin, Ver was understandably bullish about price.
“It’s very, very clear that it is going to be higher than it is today,” he said.
Perhaps the most intriguing though that Ver conveyed was his opinion on mining. “It’s a market that has huge potential,” he said. Ver pegged bitcoin mining as a $1 billion industry given the roughly one million coins that will be rewarded over the next year.
“I don’t think anyone understands how big this industry will be,” he said.
Keep checking back with CoinDesk for highlights from Day Two of the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami. |
The seventh console generation was SEGA’s big test as a 3rd party publisher, while they were still a 3rd party during most of the sixth generation, the seventh was the first time they didn’t have home console hardware to sell from the very start. Who knows how game history will see the once big console manufacture turned 3rd party during this time and while not all the games they released that generation were considered great, they did release quite a bit of overlooked gems that fans think deserve second chances. Like always this is a personal opinion list of games, if one of your favorite SEGA published games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 didn’t make the list, let us know in the comments below.
Note: We didn’t include the Nintendo Wii games that deserve PC ports because the Wii was a really unique console, but we might have a list dedicated just for the Nintendo Wii in the near future. Also titles that already had PC releases but got delisted aren’t included (aka OutRun 2).
After Burner Climax
You probably have heard comments where people say that SEGA isn’t fit to make follow-up games to classic franchises, but SEGA-AM2 really proved they still had it by releasing not only a sequel to Out Run but also a new entry in the After Burner franchise. After Burner Climax released in the arcades in 2006 and finally got a home release on XBLA and PSN in early 2010. The game would also later get a mobile port on both iOS and Android, because why not? The game had beautiful graphics andfun old school dog shooting After Burner fun. Games like After Burner Climax the type of game I usually associate SEGA with and giving it another chance to attract a new audience on PC would be a good idea. I mean, that is if you cared about your internal brands…
Chances of happening: I would say 0%. Sadly the game has been delisted (meaning no longer on sale) on Xbox Live and PSN services since December 16, 2015 and was removed from mobile stores on May 18, 2015. This is sad, but this just how the new head hanchos care about SEGA AM2’s legacy titles. They don’t care, they just care about what makes money fast and easy. While the main reason to why SEGA delisted the games from online stores hasn’t been confirmed, it could be SEGA not wanting to renew licenses for using a aircraft found in-game. This is the same reason SEGA has delisted the Out Run 2 games, which is the best SEGA in-house developed game since they went 3rd party. Its a shame that he company wouldn’t find a way to put them on sale even without licensed vehicles… I mean I don’t think we play After Burner or Out Run due to the licenses involved.
Vanquish
Vanquish was a pretty innovative shooter that seemed very ‘cookie cutter’ from a glance, but had score mechanics that really made it stand out from all the Gears of War clones of the seventh generation. It was one of the SEGA and Plantinum Games partnership titles, this one being directed by the famous Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil series) and was well received by fans, including your boys here at SEGAbits. When the game came out in 2010 it didn’t sell as well as SEGA would have wanted, even though the game was critically acclaimed people seemed to have overlooked the game when it came out. I think this is one of the titles that will really do good on Steam and seems to be one of the higher requested games by fans.
Chances of happening: I would say 90%. Rumors about the type of PC Ports that SEGA wants to bring over have suggested that Vanquish is high on that list. Recently Platinum Games’ Inaba teased that they would love to port the game to the PC. Seeing this and the fact that SEGA of Europe have confirmed that more SEGA PC Port titles are coming in the near future, don’t be surprised to see Vanquish get another chance to suit up on Steam.
Yakuza Series
Do you enjoy manly games that have soft drama centers? You might be a Yakuza fan. The Yakuza series by SEGA has been around since late 2005 when it debuted on the PlayStation 2. Since this list is about seventh generation consoles what we are asking for is at least PC ports of either Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and/or Yakuza 5. While it might be a bit scary to release a high numbered game without the prior installments, I think most of these games do a good enough job with wrapping up prior story elements that new comers could just enjoy the games by starting with one of the later titles. Sure, I feel like they will enjoy the characters more if they play all the games, but I don’t think SEGA will localize Yakuza 1&2 HD just for a PC re-release.
Chances of happening: I would say 25%. I love this series of games but if you haven’t noticed, about 95% of releases are on Sony consoles or handhelds. Seriously, the only titles that weren’t exclusive to Sony happen to be Yakuza 1&2 HD that got a Wii U port (bombed) and the short lived Yakuza Mobile title. While SEGA has never came out and said it, I think the reason the Yakuza series enjoys Sony exclusivity is because they get free advertisement by the console manufacturer (again this is an opinion) but according to series producer Toshihiro Nagoshi its more about loyalty to Sony for believing in the idea behind the game but also confirms they ‘work together’:
“At the beginning of the project we spoke to all the platform holders including Sony and Microsoft. Every platform holder was negative about this prospect, but we kept on pushing because we believed in the potential, and as we kept going one platform holder that showed interest and saw the prospects of this title was Sony. That’s how we started working with them, and that’s probably not going to change.” – Toshihiro Nagoshi, Yakuza series producer
But lets pretend that SEGA and Sony have no contracts keeping these titles exclusive, there is also the fact that every non-Sony title has bombed in sales (yes, even if it was only mobile and Wii U) plus the fact that none of the Yakuza titles have sold amazingly well in the West and PC being a prominent western skewed platform, I just don’t see SEGA taking the risk sadly. I wish they did though, imagine all the mods.
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
While SEGA’s Virtua Fighter series mostly enjoyed its massive popularity in Japan, the brand did have a high point in America during the release of Virtua Fighter 4 which sold a little over 780,000 units in North America. Sadly that success didn’t continue with Virtua Fighter 5 which was criminally overlooked during the start of the seventh generation for a lot of reasons, which I won’t get into in this article. SEGA would later re-release the game digitally in 2012 as ‘Virtua Fighter: Final Showdown’ having, at the time, the latest arcade version on console with a budget price. SEGA tried to promote it the best they could, holding SEGA Cup tournaments but the momentum for the title died out. Now Virtua Fighter has been stagnant without a new entry for over a decade, the longest we have been without a entry in this franchise. I think doing a PC port, with all the cosmetic items and cut content from Virtua Fighter 5: R as a SEGA PC port will be a good way to engage and test the market. Facts are that during the initial release of Virtua Fighter 5, the fighting game market wasn’t looking so hot, but now with FGC tournaments are becoming huge deal I think SEGA should give the franchise another shot.
Chances of happening: I would say 75%. This was included in a rumored short list of games that SEGA Europe was thinking of porting over, plus was one of the headlined titles used by the SEGA PC Ports petition of games that SEGA said they listened were aware of. I would say the chances of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown having some sort of port announcements might be pretty good or maybe its just me really wanting to have a port on PC. I mean, why wouldn’t I? This franchise needs to stay relevant and right now its looking rather grim.
Bayonetta Series
You probably read the top that says ‘Bayonetta series‘ and got ready to write a long complaint that Bayonetta 2 is a Nintendo game or some shit, you can just stop. You are correct, Nintendo paid for the development and exclusivity of Bayonetta 2 on consoles and while I don’t know the specifics in the contract about PC, even if they can’t use the work by Platinum Games they can always remake the engine from scratch which seems pretty unlikely. But it has been done in the past, one publisher that is known to do this to overcome a exclusivity contract was Tecmo by basically remaking the Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden II for the PlayStation 3 as Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (they also did it for the first title). While seeing a Bayonetta 2 SEGA PC Port seems less likely, we would 100% settle for a SEGA PC Port of the original Bayonetta. Who knows, if the game makes a ton of cash, SEGA can think of investing money on in a Bayonetta 2 remake for all current generations consoles and PC. Come on Nintendo fans, if you really are ‘huge’ Bayonetta fans you would want to share the awesome gameplay with everyone else, right?
Chances of happening: For the original Bayonetta about 90%. This is one of the titles that SEGA fans has been demanding the most from the seventh console generation and SEGA themselves know fans really want to see the witch without the constraints of console hardware. As for Bayonetta 2, I give that about a 10% chance of it coming out to the PC. While it has demand from fans, all these contracts they stupidly signed with Nintendo is tying their hands from doing a straight port. I guess that is what happens when you make stupid decisions, maybe SEGA should have funded Bayonetta 2 as a SEGA published title on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Wii u. Everyone wins… right?
Other SEGAbits articles you might enjoy: |
Published online 15 June 2010 | Nature 465, 853 (2010) | doi:10.1038/465853a
News
Land saved from cultivation offsets carbon emissions.
Modern farming practices have led to reduced carbon dioxide emissions. P. Whitaker/Reuters
To many people, modern agriculture, with its industrial-scale farms and reliance on petroleum-based fertilizers, may seem a necessary evil — one that has fed a growing human population while causing untold damage to the environment. But the alternative may be worse, concludes a Stanford University study: a less-productive agricultural system would destroy even more wild land, drive up greenhouse-gas emissions and wreak havoc on biodiversity. The study's results suggest that further agricultural intensification will play a critical part in addressing global warming.
In the study, researchers modelled the world as we know it, complete with the 'green revolution' and modern agricultural practices, and two alternative realities in which crop yields were kept at the levels of decades ago. Published on 14 June, the results show that increased greenhouse-gas emissions resulting from intensive farming are more than offset by the effects of land preservation, which keeps carbon sequestered in native soils, savannahs and forests (J. A. Burney et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073/pnas.0914216107; 2010).
"In the beginning, we weren't even sure whether the carbon savings from land use would outweigh the increased agricultural emissions," says David Lobell, an agricultural scientist at Stanford University in California and a co-author on the study. After all, the fertilizers used in intensive farming increase emissions of greenhouse gases. All told, agriculture was responsible for 10–12% of global anthropogenic emissions in 2005.
Yet the balance turns out to be favourable, says Lobell, "and the carbon savings are quite large". All other things being equal, the researchers found that agricultural advances between 1961 and 2005 spared a portion of land larger than Russia from development and reduced emissions by the equivalent of 590 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide — roughly a third of the total emitted since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Click for larger image
The notion that increasing crop yields preserves forests and other native lands dates back to the father of the green revolution, the late US plant scientist Norman Borlaug, and is known as the Borlaug hypothesis. Lobell's team attempted to quantify that effect and to calculate the resulting reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions.
Between 1961 and 2005, the global population increased by 111%, from 3.1 billion to 6.5 billion, but agricultural yields went up by 135% over the same period, according to the researchers. As a result, global cropland increased by just 27%, from 960 million to around 1.2 billion hectares.
To work out how much land would be required to feed today's world using yesterday's technology, the researchers froze agricultural yields at 1961 levels and then allowed population and living standards to increase apace. Although emissions from fertilizer use were lower than in the real-world scenario, the amount of land required to grow food expanded by nearly 1.8 billion hectares. In a second scenario, both the yields and the standard of living were fixed at 1961 levels; the effects in terms of agricultural-land conversion and greenhouse-gas emissions were roughly half those of the first scenario but were still higher than actual impacts in the real-world analysis (see 'Greenhouse-gas emissions').
Finally, the team analysed the nearly US$1.2-trillion investment in agricultural research and development since 1961. Averaged over the study period, investments in agricultural yields reduced carbon emissions at a cost of around $4 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, less than a quarter of the going price for emissions permits under Europe's carbon-trading scheme.
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The environmental benefits will accrue if yields continue to increase, say researchers. Last year, for example, a team from the Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Maryland, analysed land-use scenarios and found that increasing yields could reduce emissions as much as could energy technologies such as wind and solar (M. Wise et al. Science 324, 1183–1186; 2009).
"Above all, this study underscores the purpose of agricultural research funding, especially in developing countries," says Andrew Balmford, a conservation scientist at the University of Cambridge, UK. Unless the world sees a second green revolution, some 1.5 billion to 2 billion additional hectares will need to be put into production by 2050 to feed a growing population, according to an ongoing analysis by David Tilman, an ecologist at the University of Minnesota in St Paul. Fortunately, there is plenty of cleared land that is underperforming and massive potential for boosting yields in developing countries, Tilman says. "If we want to save the Earth, we have to feed the world," Tilman adds."And it's these poorest countries that have the most to contribute." |
The men of France invoked the ancient Merovingian Salic Law to bar women from inheriting the throne of France but this hasn’t stopped women from ruling the kingdom. There is a prominent tradition of women acting as Regents. Louise of Savoy was a formidable women well versed in politics. Her son King François I trusted her completely and relied on her to oversee the government of his realm while he was in France and when he was on campaign fighting wars.
Louise was born on September 11, 1476. Her father was Philip, Count of Bresse who was a younger brother of the Duke of Savoy. Her mother was Marguerite of Bourbon. She grew up in the family home of the castle of Pont d’Ain, just a few miles from Bourg-en-Bresse and was described as lively, unusually tall with light brown hair, blue grey eyes and a rosy complexion. The count was away from home for extended periods of time and Louise’s mother died of tuberculosis when Louise was seven and her brother Philibert was four. Their father realized the castle of Pont d’Ain was no place for young children and sent them to be educated and brought up by Anne de Beaujeu, the formidable daughter of King Louis XI. Anne herself had a successful career as Regent for her young brother King Charles VIII when Louis XI died in August of 1483.
While in the care of Anne, Louise was never more than a poor relation. A sum of eighty livres was allotted from the treasury to clothe Louise. She received an elementary education at the château of Amboise with Margaret of Austria, Charles VIII’s betrothed and other girls in the household. Louise was an avid reader and learned the essential skills needed by ladies of high degree such as feminine deportment and manners, dress and decorum, how to manage a household or even an estate, hierarchy and kinship, how to play the lute and embroidery and Christian morality. Louise also learned many political lessons from Anne de Beaujeu, the virtual ruler of France.
All of this was to prepare Louise and the other girls to marry well which Anne de Beaujeu did when she arranged for Louise to marry at the age of eleven. Her chosen husband was Charles d’Orléans, Count of Angoulême and governor of Guyenne. Charles was the great-grandson of King Charles V so he was a Prince of the Blood and in line to inherit the throne if the current king of France died with no male heirs.
Louise’s father traveled to Paris to see to the financial and practical preparations of her marriage and to meet with her. Anne de Beaujeu arranged for her to receive the domains of Romorantin and Châteauneuf-sur-Charente along with a dower of three thousand livres. They were married on February 16, 1488 and that spring, Louise said farewell to her father and left with her twenty-eight year old husband for Cognac. Consummation of the marriage was deferred until Louise was about fourteen or fifteen.
Charles had a mistress Antoinette de Polignac by whom he had two daughters, Jeanne and Madeleine. He had another illegitimate daughter named Souveraine by his mistress Jeanne Le Conte. When Louise arrived at Cognac, Antoinette was for all intents and purposes the châtelaine. She embraced Louise and the two women became allies. Charles did not have a lot of income so the household was not affluent and it was a struggle to keep up appearances.
Louise only learned a small amount of Latin in the course of her education but she greatly desired to read and learn. Her husband had a remarkable library that included many medieval classics like “Lancelot” and “The Roman de la Rose” along with works by Dante, Petrarch, Christine de Pizan and Boccaccio. Charles and Louise shared a love of books and their marriage was relatively happy. For the most part they lived a quiet life in Cognac. The couple visited the court of King Charles VIII in 1490/91.
Louise gave birth to a daughter Marguerite on April 11, 1492. Her son François was born at Cognac on September 12, 1494. This was a turning point in Louise’s life. Louise realized her son could one day be King of France and from that point forward, she poured her heart and soul into the life of her “Caesar”.
In December of 1495, Louise and her husband left Cognac to head for Lyon where they intended to greet King Charles VIII who was returning from the wars in Italy. They got no further than Châteauneuf-sur-Charente. Charles caught a chill and after being ill for a month and diligently nursed by Louise, he died on January 1, 1496. Charles had made Louise the guardian of their children and also gave her a life interest in his assets. Along with others, she was executor of his will.
Charles cousin, Louis d’Orléans contested the will and managed to gain veto power over Louise regarding financial matters. She couldn’t make any changes in her household without his consent. Even though there was little money, she still managed to add books to her husband’s library. After her husband’s death, Louise continued to take care of her own children as well as her husband’s illegitimate daughters, marrying them off as they grew older.
Louise devoted her time in her small provincial court to educating François intellectually, religiously and martially. This also benefited Marguerite. Both children wrote poetry. The family grew together and had a great deal of intimacy between them. Louise was considered as a bride for several men but nothing ever materialized. She seemed determined to remain free to pursue her hopes and dreams for her son.
Charles VIII was king when her husband died and he had no male heirs. Next in line for the throne was her husband’s cousin Louis d’Orléans. King Charles was married to Anne, Duchess of Brittany. With each passing pregnancy of Anne’s, Louise followed anxiously. When Charles died in 1498, Louis became king and married Anne. Louise watched every pregnancy of the queen closely as a lot was at stake for her. Anne only had two surviving daughters Claude and Renée.
Two months after Charles VIII died, Louise was summoned to the court of King Louis XII in Paris to attend his coronation. The family moved from Cognac to Chinon in December. By Christmas they had moved on to Amboise. In theory Louise was mistress of her household but the King was in charge of where she lived and he put Marshal de Gié in place to watch over her. This caused a great deal of conflict. Louise resented Gié’s power over her and the Queen had an irrational dislike of him. Gié had a hard time pleasing both women.
King Louis was ill off and on for many years. A match between King Louis’ eldest daughter Claude was considered early on. Louis wanted her to marry Louise’s son François but the Queen wanted her to marry Charles of Ghent the future Habsburg emperor Charles V. After Louis suffered a near fatal attack of illness in 1505, he used the opportunity to make a definitive decision on the marriage of his daughter. François was his choice. On January 9, 1514, Anne of Brittany died and entrusted Louise as guardian of her daughters.
Claude was deeply distressed at losing her mother. Even so, conclusion of her marriage came to the forefront and plans quickly went ahead. The wedding took place on May 18, 1514 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye where her father happened to be hunting.
Much to Louise’s dismay, King Louis married Mary Tudor, the young sister of King Henry VIII of England. François was enchanted with the new queen when she arrived in France and Louise watched his behavior intently. But all the excitement of the marriage was too much for Louis and he died on January 1, 1515. Louise’s beloved son was now King of France. On January 25, he was crowned in Reims Cathedral. François gave Louise many powers in his realm and elevated her to the title of Duchess of Angoulême. He also gave her the duchy of Anjou, the counties of Maine, Beaufort-en-Vallée and the barony of Amboise. The king started his reign engaging in courtly pleasures, leaving the governance of his kingdom in her hands.
Louise was a skillful negotiator and expert at choosing experienced advisors. She was always with Françoise and Claude but was careful to never take precedence over the Queen and was very strict in following court etiquette. But she was treated as if she was a crowned queen by ambassadors and other notables.
Later in 1515, François left France with his army to press his claim to Italian territory. Louise was named Regent in his absence. The French routed the combined forces of the Papal States and the Old Swiss Confederacy at Marignano in September and captured the Italian city-state of Milan. Although Louise’s time as Regent was short, she appointed men to offices who were devoted to her and her policies. Even after the king returned in 1516, she continued to have great influence over his government. He preferred to hunt and chase women and let his mother do all the heavy lifting of ruling.
During the Field of the Cloth of Gold meeting in June of 1520 with King Henry VIII of England, Louise arrived for the festivities riding in a black velvet litter with a considerable number of ladies dressed in crimson velvet with sleeves slashed with gold. In July of 1524, Queen Claude died.
François went to war in Italy again in 1523 and again named his mother Regent. This period of regency lasted much longer because in February of 1525, the French suffered a disastrous defeat at Pavia. François was captured by the Holy Roman Emperor and imprisoned in Spain. Louise was distraught. It took every bit of diplomacy from Louise and her daughter Marguerite to work for his release. In the meantime she had to defend France from the threat of foreign invasion while the king was gone.
During this time she negotiated the Treaty of Moore in 1525 with King Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey, basically paying England to drop hostilities toward France. She also negotiated the League of Cognac with Pope Clement VIII and the Venetians, and worked with the Ottoman Empire persuading all of them not to hamper François’ invasion of Italy and to keep Charles V engaged while she sought the release of the king. She ultimately secured the release of François with the Treaty of Madrid in 1526. In return for the restoration of the valuable territory of Burgundy to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, François would be released. François had to marry the Emperor’s sister Eleanor of Austria and his two eldest sons François and Henri were to be taken hostage by the Emperor to enforce the terms of the treaty. She traveled south to Bayonne to exchange her grandsons for her son.
From this point on Louise worked tirelessly to get her grandsons released. Perhaps her greatest moment of triumph was the Ladies Peace of Cambrai of August 1529. She negotiated with her sister-in-law, Margaret of Austria who represented her nephew, Charles V. With this treaty, Louise worked out a cash ransom for the return of her grandsons and the marriage of her son to Eleanor of Austria. She collected the enormous ransom and in July of 1530, the two boys were escorted back to France by Eleanor.
On March 5, 1531, Louise attended the coronation of Queen Eleanor at St. Denis in Paris. She had long been suffering from gout and other physical ailments. She soon became very ill and was closely attended by her daughter Marguerite. She requested to see her son but he made excuses, saying he was trying to avoid pestilence. Louise was heartbroken. She died on September 22, 1531. On October 17, she was interred in the Basilica of St. Denis.
Louise was a great admirer of Italian art. She learned to love it from the works that were brought back from Italy by Charles VIII and Louis XII and installed in the castles of Blois and Amboise. Louise has been criticized for her choice of some of the men she employed in the government and for appropriating money from the royal treasury. France was perpetually in debt during François’ reign but his had more to do with collecting revenues in addition to malfeasance and the crippling ransom for the two princes.
Louise was partly responsible for the disgrace of Charles, Duke of Bourbon. There were rumors she wanted to marry Charles to regain what she believed were family assets in the duchy. When his wife Suzanne, Duchess of Bourbon died, there was a dispute over her holdings of Bourbon which Louise won thereby alienating Bourbon. Bourbon would eventually betray his king and began to fight for Charles V.
With the help of Louise, François was able to assert his authority against the Parlement and the Church. She was instrumental in his foreign diplomacy. After her death, François lost a valuable champion for his government and for the French. He would replace her with successive mistresses. She was an industrious and able ruler. With her help, her children guided France into the Renaissance.
Further reading: “Queen’s Mate: Three women of power in France on the eve of the Renaissance” by Pauline Matarasso, “The Great Regent: Louise of Savoy, 1476-1531” by Dorothy Moulton Mayer, “Queens and Mistresses of Renaissance France” by Kathleen Wellman, “Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France and England” edited by Diana Robin, Anne R. Larsen and Carole Levin, “Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I” by R.J. Knecht, “Golden Age Ladies” by Sylvia Barbara Soberton |
Ask anyone why they wouldn't consider an electric car and they're sure to cite worries over range and a lack of chargers as key complaints - but having spent a few days with the Tesla Model S, I believe these concerns are about to disappear.
The Model S which I drove (base price £70,000, plus around £12,000 of options) had a range of approximately 250 miles and can be charged by 80% in 40 minutes at Tesla's own Superchargers.
At the time of publication (late January, 2015) there are 20 Supercharger stations in the UK, each with between two and eight charging bays, giving a total capacity to charge over 50 British Teslas simultaneously. The chargers are free to use, the batteries have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty, and owners of the five-year-old Tesla Roadster claim in 30,000 miles their range has reduced by just 5%.
All of this is hugely positive for Tesla and the electric car industry - but it isn't the whole picture. As it stands, a year after the Model S went on sale in the UK, there are just three Supercharger stations with a total of six chargers for everywhere north of Northampton; one of these stations is in Edinburgh, one is on Warrington, and the third is in Birmingham.
The south east is very well covered - there are seven stations inside the M25 - and there are two in Exeter to serve Devon and the south west.
While it's theoretically possible to drive a Model S from Warrington to Edinburgh - a distance of 216 miles - any deviation (or very cold weather) would cause the car to fall dangerously low on juice.
But that's just how things stand today; by the end of 2015 Tesla hopes to have an extra six stations operating in the UK, making Scotland and the north far more accessible.
Staying within 100 miles of London is where the Model S feels most at home. Superchargers are nearby and as a worst-case scenario, car parks and city centre streets are littered with public chargers which take longer and require payment, but will give you enough electricity to get home in an emergency.
Remarkably unremarkable
Here, range anxiety almost completely disappears. I drove to the Reading charger and back merely for the sake of showing the Model S to my housemates. It felt like a regular car, doing regular motorway speeds, in quiet, refined comfort. Not once did I worry about running out of charge.
The range falls quicker at 70mph than it does at 60, but the gauge falls progressively and doesn't suddenly tumble 20% like an iPhone does when you use the sat-nav for a few minutes. Indeed, the most remarkable thing about driving medium to long distances in the Model S is how unremarkable it all feels.
I could commute from my house in Wimbledon to the office in Canary Wharf every day (12 miles each way) for a week, then drive 100 miles over the weekend and still only need to charge once, for one hour, each week. For that, there's a Supercharger with space for four cars in Canary Wharf.
Tesla boss Elon Musk has made a fundamental change to the electric car industry and how these vehicles are portrayed. Range anxiety has become range curiosity: 'Will we make it?' has become 'How much further can we go?'. |
ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- When the Chicago Bears drafted Kyle Long in April, part of the reason was to look to the east, to a rival.
To Detroit.
Part of Long’s job Sunday will be the reason why he was drafted -- to try and block Ndamukong Suh.
“We’ll see how well he is prepared to block me when we play on Sunday,” Suh said. “That’s their opinion. That’s their choice. That’s their draft.
“It’s not anything of my concern. I just look forward to digest whoever I have in front of me.”
Suh has three career sacks and 13 tackles against Chicago, but as it is with a lot of his opponents, what he does is more about disruptions and pressure on opposing quarterbacks and offensive lines.
He is a strong enough player that teams have to pay attention to him even if the numbers he puts up aren’t gaudy.
“It’s always nice to be noticed, but to me it’s not necessarily a compliment,” Suh said. “It’s just, it is something that they felt they needed to do and they did it, and I look forward to the challenge.”
There is little question, though, that Chicago will keep an eye on Suh.
"I've been doing some early preparations," Long said on "Football Night in Chicago" on ESPN 1000. "I've been trying to sharpen my mental sword I guess you could say. I've been just trying to pick up some tendencies that I can use against their defense, hopefully.
"Suh is just relentless. He is a relentless football player. He is somebody that is just going to always keep coming and give you his best. He's got that kind of presence where you're like, ‘I can't take a play off.' If you do, he will expose you. What people can't see through all the time with all the media scrutiny is truly how great of a player Suh is and how great of a player (Nick) Fairley is and the devastation those two guys can impose on an offense."
Bears coach Marc Trestman also respects the Lions' tandem.
“(Suh is) one of the best in the business at what he does,” Trestman said. “Both tackles, Fairley too, they’re both powerful guys and they penetrate and they do all the things you’re looking for in defensive linemen.” |
Having had the label “abstract horror” applied to my own work on numerous occasions, I began thinking about the distinguishing features of this rather sparsely populated area of literature. The works that came to mind spend their time establishing an absence where one would otherwise expect to find a something, a tangible adversary. For all their variant weirdness, the underlying terror is the simple fact of existing in the first place. These books remind their readers of an inescapable paradox, remind them that, in the words of Clarice Lispector, “being alive is inhuman.” Below are some of my favorite examples.
Blake Butler, There Is No Year
We are introduced to a family and a house, but no sooner has the family been introduced–with special attention paid to the father’s odd compulsions and night-time voyeurisms–than we meet another family, a copy family, already living in the house. These peculiar circumstances set the tone going forward, as the reader cannot help but wonder why the discovered family is considered to be a copy instead of the family who discovers them pre-existing in their home. From bizarre insecurities and contingencies such as this, Butler weaves the aberrant logic of this haunting family drama. Although wilfully and relentlessly experimental in its language, tone, and arrangement, it never wavers in its steady accumulation of the pedestrian details of family life: accounts of the son’s classroom experiences, the father’s commute to work, and phone calls to the realtor are seamlessly interspersed with lacunas, anomalous illnesses, and sinister packages. Butler, it seems, is perennially mindful that for all the novel’s improbabilities, it’s the slyly constructed everydayness of the horror that allows it to leave its mark.
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Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia: Complicity With Anonymous Materials
We follow American artist Kristen Alvanson to Istanbul, where she has arranged to meet none other than Reza Negarestani. Although he fails to arrive in person, an arcane and puzzling manuscript soon turns up bearing his name. The manuscript, found in a dust-covered box under her hotel bed, is Cyclonopedia itself. From here on in, we follow Kristen inside its involuted tangle, working through page after mystifying page. Famed for its tortuous intricacies, Cyclonopedia’s subjects range from archaeology, esoterica, and philosophy to Islamic lore, geopolitics, and demonology. We are told that “the Middle East is the best place to go missing. . . the best place to get lost,” and Negarestani recreates that experience in his work.
Tony Burgess, Pontypool Changes Everything
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We arrive in Pontypool with Les Reardon, garbage truck driver cum drama coach, who is recovering (or not) from a bout of psychosis. Halfway through the book, we are told, “in the beginning was a virus”; by this time, however, we’re already fully immersed in its effects. For a virus thought by some to resemble déjà vu, this postponement feels fitting–the incomprehensible infection, which may or may not exist, infiltrates and mangles language, memories, and reality itself. Burgess’s zombies often defy expectation: they are prone to shouting and verbal mimicry, and they seemingly fascinated by alliteration and ethical quandaries. Their cannibalistic ferocity is mirrored by a self-destructive force, whereby the snapping of a victim’s neck invariably results in the assailant’s own neck being snapped. Told in Burgess’ articulate and witty voice, the end of humanity never looked so good.
Dennis Cooper, Zac’s Haunted House
If, as Nick Land points out in his manifesto, “pictures are mistakes” in a work of abstract horror, then including a novel made from nothing but a series of GIFs would seem to be a mistake. However, the horror of Zac’s Haunted House is found less in the images than in the movement between them and the whole they come to represent, in the meaning manufactured by the reader in an effort to make narrative sense of its fractured parts. One is immersed in a sprawling house in which the silly, the slapstick, the cute, and the banal sit amongst endless images of children spewing blood, decapitations, hands reaching inside bodies, stabbings, and spontaneous combustions. It’s all equally cartoonish, all equally hideous; to be squeamish about one half is to miss out on the fun of what is, in Cooper’s world, inevitable anyway. Point being: the horror is not in the sameness or the difference, but in the futility of our inevitable attempts to assimilate them into a meaningful whole.
Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G.H.
G.H., an affluent sculptor, enters her maid’s room and does not return. Inside, she encounters a cockroach that she crushes in a wardrobe door. From this point on, she is utterly mesmerized by the expiring insect and the hell they share. It is G.H.’s realization of the fragility of the forms that exist around the formless (the roach’s carapace around its soft, white insides) that invite the horror in. Ultimately, it is not the reality of the death which has been previously denied her that so profoundly strikes G.H., but the fact that she’s alive in the first place. Lispector stays faithful to the enigma of these moments of crisis, to the “hell of living matter,” to the pale, twitching ugliness of life, clearly and cruelly seen. The miscreation at the nucleus of this novel is nothing other than life itself. What horror could be more absolute?
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Warewolff! by Gary J Shipley is available now from Hexus Press.
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After being made aware of Nick Land’s role in the pseudo-intellectual morass of the vast and bilious alt-right internet, Lit Hub editors have removed his book from this list. |
Dispensaries trading free weed for holiday donations
Wade Vandervort
Rob Ruckus, a worker at Inyo Fine Cannabis Dispensary in Las Vegas, grabbed a tub of more than 50 canned food items Thursday morning to load into his pickup truck.
Over the last couple weeks, donated food — items such as cereal, canned goods, macaroni and cheese, Hamburger Helper and Ramen noodles — has been piling up fast in the main lobby of the dispensary. It’s headed for Veterans Village just in time for the holidays.
“The donations have been coming in nonstop,” said Ruckus, the dispensary’s floor manager. “It has been incredible.”
Inyo is one of several valley dispensaries hosting holiday food and toy drives with local cultivator Green Life Productions.
The dispensary is offering a free pre-rolled marijuana joint, which usually costs about $12, in exchange for three food items and has collected more than 1,000 pounds of food since the drive began Dec. 1. It is also passing out a significant amount of weed — more than 2,000 free joints.
“We’ve actually seen a slight dip in sales because so many people are coming in for the pre-rolls,” Inyo owner David Goldwater said, chuckling. “But it speaks to so many different things: the philanthropy and the demand for different products. It’s fascinating.”
Customers and friends Mike Frayt, 27, John Black, 50, and Lloyd Ferrer, 33, were among those taking advantage of the deal. After leaving a plastic grocery bag filled with canned vegetables Thursday, they walked eagerly into the dispensary sales area to claim their free pre-rolls.
“It’s a good deal and a good way to give back this holiday season,” Frayt said.
Essence Cannabis Dispensary, meanwhile, is collecting toys for the Las Vegas Rescue Mission in exchange for free marijuana.
Essence and partner DigiPath Labs collected about 600 toys last year and hope to match or beat that number before the drive ends Dec. 19, said Shelby Stanley, operations manager for DigiPath. “Our cannabis community is coming out for our community,” Stanley said.
At Veterans Village, which provides transitional and permanent housing for U.S. military veterans, inventory manager Manny Carvalho opened the door to a large room, revealing thousands of pounds of food. A “fair chunk” of the estimated 15,000 pounds of food the nonprofit hands out annually to its residents, other veterans and the homeless comes from Inyo, he said.
Veterans Village President Arnold Stalk called food donations from local marijuana dispensaries “a real lifeline for us.”
“The food items they’ve donated could be the difference between people eating and not eating,” Stalk said. “We’re able to feed hundreds of people that way.” |
Maybe it's time to let the huge, comfort oriented Land Cruiser go. To suspend the nameplate, shutter the production line and give the once-great 4X4 a rest. Perhaps quell the heartbeat for a model year or two (or five), until it's clear either what the SUV wants to be or what buyers need it to be.
Loving a thing doesn't make it good. Calling something an icon is only acceptable when it's true. But when the lovable and iconic characteristics of a thing are mostly gone, what do you have?
In this case, you have the 2016 Toyota Land Cruiser, a mid-cycle refresh of the 200 Series that was overhauled in 2013. This big 'n' blasé SUV may own the Land Cruiser badge, but the spirit is no longer willing. I just spent a week with one to see if there was any magic left and, well, not much. This is a vehicle with a personality complex.
I'm not the only one with little confidence. Just look at how Toyota prices the LC: $84,820. Then consider that until recently the Lexus version, the LX 570, was $700 cheaper. (Lexus has bumped up the price of the 2016 model.) It's almost as if they're trying to steer away buyers.
So it's little wonder that last year, as of November, only 2,337 LCs were sold in the U.S. Compare that to the 87,000 4Runners sold.
A base Range Rover starts at $85,945, including destination. Hardcore off-roaders might scoff, but the latest Range is a far lighter vehicle, and you'd be amazed how well it handles terrible terrain. I've beaten them up from the badlands of Utah and high passes of the San Juan mountains of Colorado. When it isn't your paint or bodywork that you're worried about, they make seriously good 4X4 rigs.
The requirements for a good off-roader are usually in direct conflict with the characteristics that make a comfy ride on the asphalt. But all the R+D that the Tata Group has sunk into the Range Rover immediately shows when you're driving one.
If they can make a vehicle palatable in both worlds, so too could Toyota, if they would give the serious love, care and investment dollars that the Land Cruiser deserves. But seeing as we get only configuration and engine, and not a single other available option except color choices, I'm not holding out much hope.
It's no shame to fall in love with a nameplate. Even a casual off-roading fan knows that the Land Cruiser lives among the pantheon of 4X4 greats alongside the Jeep. It's been with us since the 1950s, with its own take of boxy bad-assery.
And if the Jeep is the American great, the Land Cruiser is still found all around the world's roughest places. I've ridden around the Atlas Mountains of Morocco in an abused FJ60, and banged around the Great Karoo desert of South Africa in a classic FJ40. In South Africa they're still selling brand-new Land Cruiser 76s with diesel V8s that are as rough and righteous as ever. Seriously, tell me you wouldn't happily consider dropping 677,600 Rand on one? That's around $43,000, as it turns out.
And if a vintage LC dropped in my lap, I'd be a happy man. How about a 1970s era FJ40, or even better, a FJ45 with a long bed? (Here's one for sale at a mere $12,000, though in need of serious attention.) A1980s FJ60 with solid axles and an unbreakable inline six would also be welcome. An older LC can be remade into an unbreakable machine. Just ask Icon's Jonathan Ward .
There's still some good news. Purists will be pleased to find that it is still a box-on-frame design. And the gasoline engine is old school, a naturally aspirated 5.7-liter V8 with plenty of torque (401 pound-feet). On the highway it powers up the steepest hills with low-throated abandon. I suspect that the time tested powerplant will run and run with few if any complications, for hundreds of thousands of miles. If Range Rovers were historically consigned to endless mechanical problems, the Land Cruiser was the always the eternal beast of the badlands. You couldn't kill them.
A Lexus lover would feel pretty at home in the modern LC's cabin. Nice seats, nice leather, everything heated and cooled and sensor enabled. But there's no excuse for the on-road behavior. The vehicle is an unconscionable 5,800-plus pounds, and you can feel every bloated ounce in every single turn.
The vehicle is an unconscionable 5,800-plus pounds, and you can feel every bloated ounce in every single turn.
Much of the weight and poor manners is due to the 4X4 equipment, of course, including a center locking diff and the high ground clearance (8.9 inches). The LC has a number of trick off-road systems, including Crawl Control and a multi-terrain selector that work off the traction control. Some Toyota engineers are bravely soldiering on, and I bet the systems would be wonderful in a smaller, lighter vehicle.
But anything this big and heavy just isn't going to make it through something like California's Rubicon Trail. Hell, even a real Jeep Rubicon is big enough these days to have issues. I ran the trail two summers ago and could barely squeeze an Unlimited model through the tight Little Sluice section.
Nonetheless, I threw a shovel, axe, tow rope in the rear and headed for national forest and logging roads near my house in eastern Pennsylvania. Without snow I didn't even need to put the LC in 4 Low until I reached a muddy concourse torn asunder by heavy logging equipment. The mud got muckier and as I seesawed through and I began considering the Toyota's weight and the not-so-knobby 16-inch tires.
Not long ago I was in similar terrain in a new Tacoma and it didn't even give me pause. But there is no overcoming the LC's weight, too-civilized rubber and oversized proportions. I couldn't even slip through the narrowest tree-lined lanes. In the end, I'd lost faith. So I turned around.
In the end, the company should allow the Lexus be a Lexus—and maybe even dump most of the off-road equipment to make the LX a lighter machine. And the Land Cruiser should take a pause and become something else. Something simpler and lighter and cheaper. Something more like the Land Cruiser 76. Because the nameplate deserves better.
(Jason Harper, a contributing editor to Road & Track, has tested and written on cars for two decades. His scariest drive was a rally race in an original Lancia 037, his first drive of a supercar was the Porsche Carrera GT, and the only time he's gotten a speeding ticket was in a base Mini Cooper. His column, Harper's Bizarre, runs every Wednesday.) |
Perry Halkitis is looking forward to sharing with students the challenges that he faced and empowering them to be advocates in their education through regular informal sessions such as “Perry’s Power Hour.” Photo: Nick Romanenko / Rutgers University
When Perry N. Halkitis, the incoming dean at Rutgers School of Public Health, is asked to discuss the accomplishments that make him most proud, his research in HIV/AIDS, his mentorship of young scholars and practitioners, and his roles as senior associate dean of New York University’s College of Global Public Health and director of the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies come to the fore. But equal to those achievements is his identity as an openly gay man in academia and a first-generation college student.
Halkitis, who will join Rutgers in August, is enthusiastic about furthering the research he pursued at NYU, which includes a longitudinal investigation delineating the risk and resiliencies of young gay and bisexual men as they emerge into adulthood; a study examining how young gay men relate to health care as they transition from adolescence to young adulthood; and a study of the health and resilience of HIV-positive men and women over age 50.
Rutgers Today spoke with Halkitis about what it means to be an openly gay leader in higher education, the importance of LGBTQ role models and the state of gay and bisexual men’s health in post-AIDS crisis America.
Discuss the significance of being an openly gay man in higher education leadership.
There is still a glass ceiling for LGBTQ people in higher education. We like to believe that academia is a liberal bastion, but in fact it is not. It has taken women and racial and ethnic minorities decades to achieve some stature in higher education administration. Although gay men have had leadership roles throughout the history of academia, in our country, being an openly gay man who conducts work on gay health-related issues is a very different phenomenon. Few of us have been able to achieve the level in higher education administration that I have been so honored to have with this position at Rutgers.
It is one thing to be an LGBTQ person in higher education administration who exhibits only a sliver of that as your identity and another to have your LGBTQ identity as the cornerstone of your work. My work is defined by LGBTQ public health. So, yes, to have an openly gay man as an administrator is a big deal. We only got to this point in 2017 because of the fight for rights that LGBTQ people have been undertaking for decades. I hope I’m just the beginning of openly proud LGBTQ people in university administrations.
How does your appointment position you as a role model for students?
Like many of the students at Rutgers, I am a first-generation college student. My parents came to the United States from Greece in the 1950s with minimal education. It’s empowering for students with similar family backgrounds to see what I have achieved in one generation. I want to commit myself to those types of students and let them know they can succeed.
During my time at NYU, being an openly gay man made a real difference in the lives of LGBTQ students. They could say they had a role model who is a successful, respected academic who also could talk about his life openly without any shame. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences, challenges and knowledge with Rutgers students.
Related Stories:
Perry Halkitis with his husband, Bobby Halkitis, a teacher with the New York City Department of Education. Courtesy Perry N. Halkitis
Since New Jersey experiences health disparities at extremely high rates, I see the school playing a critical role in delivering programming and advocating for these populations. For example, the school has a Newark location that has the opportunity to develop into a great urban public health program.
I’ve been talking to HIV researchers across Rutgers about developing a center on HIV research like the Fenway Institute in Boston, which does policy work, research and health care provision for the LGBTQ community. I also plan on developing a research center similar to the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies at NYU. The tenets will be the same: community-based, participatory public health research for LGBTQ people and an interdisciplinary team of professionals in public health, psychology, social work, medicine and nursing. At CHIBs, one of the things I treasured the most was watching my students going out and being hands-on in the world. I want this new center likewise to be a training ground for the next generation of scholars.
What are the most pressing issues today in gay men’s health?
There is a misunderstanding in society about HIV – that it’s not there and is not a problem. Let’s be clear: We don’t have a cure. Each year, there are 40,000 new infections in the United States – mostly gay and bisexual men of color in the south. The good news is that we have tools besides condoms to fight this disease. There are antivirals to treat people who are HIV positive; when people are on medication and are virally suppressed, they cannot transmit the virus. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is an antiviral that prevents HIV-negative people from acquiring HIV. It’s close to 100 percent effective when taken on a daily basis.
Despite these advances, only about 40 percent of Americans who are HIV positive are virally suppressed, and only 10 percent of HIV-negative gay men are on PrEP. It’s shortsighted of us to expect a new generation of gay men to worry about HIV the way my generation did. While it’s still a problem, it’s not a death sentence. Public health needs to play a key role in determining how we ensure that we get these tools in the hands of health care providers and remove the impediment for people to access these powerful tools.
Members of the media interested in interviewing Perry Halkitis can contact Patti Verbanas at 848-932-0551 or [email protected] |
Update on Bitcoin Cash
Adam White Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 3, 2017
We wanted to give our customers an update on the recent Bitcoin hard fork.
Forks enable innovation and improvements to digital assets. We believe that we will see an increasing number of forks in the future and expect this to be a vibrant and innovative part of the community.
When a digital currency forks, it creates a new digital asset. Adding new digital assets to GDAX, however, must be approached with caution. Not every asset is immediately safe to add to GDAX due to technical stability, security, and compliance considerations.
Our top priority is always the safety of customer funds and we spend extensive time designing, building, testing and auditing our systems to ensure that the digital assets we support remain safe and secure. We may not always be first in adding an asset, but if we do, you can be sure that we have invested significant time and care into supporting that digital asset securely. We believe this is the best approach for us to maintain customer trust and ensure a fair and orderly market.
In the case of bitcoin cash, we made clear to our customers that we did not feel we could safely support it on the day it was launched. For customers who wanted immediate access to their bitcoin cash, we advised them to withdraw their bitcoin from GDAX. There are several points we want to further clarify for our customers:
Both bitcoin and bitcoin cash remain safely stored on GDAX. Customers with balances of bitcoin at the time of the fork now have an equal quantity of bitcoin cash stored by GDAX. We operate by the general principle that our customers should benefit to the greatest extent possible from hard forks or other unexpected events.
Over the last several days, we’ve examined all of the relevant issues and have decided to work on adding support for bitcoin cash for all GDAX customers. We made this decision based on factors such as the security of the network, customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations.
We are planning to have support for bitcoin cash by January 1, 2018, assuming no additional risks emerge during that time.
Once supported, customers will be able to withdraw bitcoin cash from GDAX. We’ll make a determination at a later date whether or not we will also support trading of bitcoin cash. In the meantime, all customer’s bitcoin cash will remain safely stored on GDAX. |
The writer and director Bryan Forbes, whose films included Whistle Down the Wind and 1970s horror classic The Stepford Wives, has died aged 86 following a long illness, a family friend has said.
Forbes, who began his career in film as an actor and screenwriter and became one of the most important figures in the British film industry, died surrounded by his family at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey, friend Matthew D'Ancona said.
He was married to actor Nanette Newman, who appeared in several of his films, and with whom he had two daughters – the TV presenter Emma Forbes and the journalist Sarah Standing.
D'Ancona said: "Bryan Forbes was a titan of cinema, known and loved by people around the world in the film and theatre industries and known in other fields including politics. He is simply irreplaceable and it is wholly apt that he died surrounded by his family."
Forbes, who was made CBE in 2004 for services to the arts and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, was born John Theobald Clarke in Stratford, London in 1926. He began acting in the late 1940s after changing his professional name, playing a number of supporting roles in notable British films including An Inspector Calls and The Colditz Story. But he soon became better known as a screenwriter and director.
His notable screenwriting credits included I Was Monty's Double (1958) and The League of Gentlemen (1959), about a group of former army officers who use their wartime skills to plan a daring bank robbery.
His directing debut was the acclaimed Whistle Down the Wind (1961), about three Lancashire children who believe a criminal they discover hiding in their barn is a reincarnation of Christ.
In 1969 Forbes became chief of production and managing director of film studio Associated British. Although the venture produced a few classics, including The Railway Children (1970) and The Go-Between (1970), many other projects were either disappointments or were frustrated due to financial problems and Forbes resigned in 1971.
But Forbes had enjoyed success in Hollywood in 1965 with the film King Rat, a prisoner of war drama, and 10 years later he returned to the US and directed The Stepford Wives (1975), based on the novel by Ira Levin.
In his later years, Forbes turned to writing novels, including his latest, The Soldier's Story, published last year, and two volumes of autobiography.
He was awarded the Dilys Powell award for outstanding contribution to cinema at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards in 2006.
Interviewed by the Daily Mail last June, Forbes said he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1975 but doctors later told him it was a misdiagnosis. |
[1] Business model innovation is an iterative and potentially circular process
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value,[2] in economic, social, cultural or other contexts. The process of business model construction and modification is also called business model innovation and forms a part of business strategy.[1]
In theory and practice, the term business model is used for a broad range of informal and formal descriptions to represent core aspects of a business, including purpose, business process, target customers, offerings, strategies, infrastructure, organizational structures, sourcing, trading practices, and operational processes and policies including culture.
Context [ edit ]
The literature has provided very diverse interpretations and definitions of a business model. A systematic review and analysis of manager responses to a survey defines business models as the design of organizational structures to enact a commercial opportunity.[3] Further extensions to this design logic emphasize the use of narrative or coherence in business model descriptions as mechanisms by which entrepreneurs create extraordinarily successful growth firms.[4]
Business models are used to describe and classify businesses, especially in an entrepreneurial setting, but they are also used by managers inside companies to explore possibilities for future development. Well-known business models can operate as "recipes" for creative managers.[5] Business models are also referred to in some instances within the context of accounting for purposes of public reporting.
History [ edit ]
Over the years, business models have become much more sophisticated. The bait and hook business model (also referred to as the "razor and blades business model" or the "tied products business model") was introduced in the early 20th century. This involves offering a basic product at a very low cost, often at a loss (the "bait"), then charging compensatory recurring amounts for refills or associated products or services (the "hook"). Examples include: razor (bait) and blades (hook); cell phones (bait) and air time (hook); computer printers (bait) and ink cartridge refills (hook); and cameras (bait) and prints (hook). A variant of this model is Adobe, a software developer that gives away its document reader free of charge but charges several hundred dollars for its document writer.
In the 1950s, new business models came from McDonald's Restaurants and Toyota. In the 1960s, the innovators were Wal-Mart and Hypermarkets. The 1970s saw new business models from FedEx and Toys R Us; the 1980s from Blockbuster, Home Depot, Intel, and Dell Computer; the 1990s from Southwest Airlines, Netflix, eBay, Amazon.com, and Starbucks.
Today, the type of business models might depend on how technology is used. For example, entrepreneurs on the internet have also created entirely new models that depend entirely on existing or emergent technology. Using technology, businesses can reach a large number of customers with minimal costs. In addition, the rise of outsourcing and globalization has meant that business models must also account for strategic sourcing, complex supply chains and moves to collaborative, relational contracting structures.[6]
Theoretical and empirical insights [ edit ]
Design logic and narrative coherence [ edit ]
Design logic views the business model as an outcome of creating new organizational structures or changing existing structures to pursue a new opportunity. Gerry George and Adam Bock (2011) conducted a comprehensive literature review and surveyed managers to understand how they perceived the components of a business model.[3] In that analysis these authors show that there is a design logic behind how entrepreneurs and managers perceive and explain their business model. In further extensions to the design logic, George and Bock (2012) use case studies and the IBM survey data on business models in large companies, to describe how CEOs and entrepreneurs create narratives or stories in a coherent manner to move the business from one opportunity to another.[4] They also show that when the narrative is incoherent or the components of the story are misaligned, that these businesses tend to fail. They recommend ways in which the entrepreneur or CEO can create strong narratives for change.
Complementarities between partnering firms [ edit ]
Berglund and Sandström (2013) argued that business models should be understood from an open systems perspective as opposed to being a firm-internal concern. Since innovating firms do not have executive control over their surrounding network, business model innovation tends to require soft power tactics with the goal of aligning heterogeneous interests.[7]. As a result, open business models are created as firms increasingly rely on partners and suppliers to provide new activities that are outside their competence base [8]. In a study of collaborative research and external sourcing of technology, Hummel et al. (2010) similarly found that in deciding on business partners, it is important to make sure that both parties' business models are complementary.[9] For example, they found that it was important to identify the value drivers of potential partners by analyzing their business models, and that it is beneficial to find partner firms that understand key aspects of our own firm's business model.[10]
The University of Tennessee conducted research into highly collaborative business relationships. Researchers codified their research into a sourcing business model known as Vested (also referred to as Vested Outsourcing). Vested is a hybrid sourcing business model in which buyers and suppliers in an outsourcing or business relationship focus on shared values and goals to create an arrangement that is highly collaborative and mutually beneficial to each.[11]
Categorization [ edit ]
From about 2012, some research and experimentation has theorized about a so-called "liquid business model".[12][13]
Shift from pipes to platforms [ edit ]
Sangeet Paul Choudary (2013) distinguishes between two broad families of business models in an article in Wired magazine.[14] Choudary contrasts pipes (linear business models) with platforms (networked business models). In the case of pipes, firms create goods and services, push them out and sell them to customers. Value is produced upstream and consumed downstream. There is a linear flow, much like water flowing through a pipe. Unlike pipes, platforms do not just create and push stuff out. They allow users to create and consume value.
Alex Moazed, founder and CEO of Applico, defines a platform as a business model that creates value by facilitating exchanges between two or more interdependent groups usually consumers and producers of a given value.[15] As a result of digital transformation, it is the predominant business model of the 21st century.
In an op-ed on MarketWatch,[16] Choudary, Van Alstyne and Parker further explain how business models are moving from pipes to platforms, leading to disruption of entire industries.
Platform [ edit ]
There are three elements to a successful platform business model.[17] The Toolbox creates connection by making it easy for others to plug into the platform. This infrastructure enables interactions between participants. The Magnet creates pull that attracts participants to the platform. For transaction platforms, both producers and consumers must be present to achieve critical mass. The Matchmaker fosters the flow of value by making connections between producers and consumers. Data is at the heart of successful matchmaking, and distinguishes platforms from other business models.
Chen (2009) stated that the business model has to take into account the capabilities of Web 2.0, such as collective intelligence, network effects, user-generated content, and the possibility of self-improving systems. He suggested that the service industry such as the airline, traffic, transportation, hotel, restaurant, information and communications technology and online gaming industries will be able to benefit in adopting business models that take into account the characteristics of Web 2.0. He also emphasized that Business Model 2.0 has to take into account not just the technology effect of Web 2.0 but also the networking effect. He gave the example of the success story of Amazon in making huge revenues each year by developing an open platform that supports a community of companies that re-use Amazon's on-demand commerce services.[18][need quotation to verify]
Applications [ edit ]
Malone et al.[19] found that some business models, as defined by them, indeed performed better than others in a dataset consisting of the largest U.S. firms, in the period 1998 through 2002, while they did not prove whether the existence of a business model mattered.
In the healthcare space, and in particular in companies that leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence, the design of business models is particularly challenging as there are a multitude of value creation mechanisms and a multitude of possible stakeholders. An emerging categorization has identified seven archetypes.[20]
In the context of the Software-Cluster, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, a business model wizard[21] for software companies has been developed. It supports the design and analysis of software business models. The tool's underlying concept and data were published in various[citation needed] scientific publications.
The concept of a business model has been incorporated into certain accounting standards. For example, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) utilizes an "entity's business model for managing the financial assets" as a criterion for determining whether such assets should be measured at amortized cost or at fair value in its financial instruments accounting standard, IFRS 9.[22][23][24][25] In their 2013 proposal for accounting for financial instruments, the Financial Accounting Standards Board also proposed a similar use of business model for classifying financial instruments.[26] The concept of business model has also been introduced into the accounting of deferred taxes under International Financial Reporting Standards with 2010 amendments to IAS 12 addressing deferred taxes related to investment property.[27][28][29]
Both IASB and FASB have proposed using the concept of business model in the context of reporting a lessor's lease income and lease expense within their joint project on accounting for leases.[30][31][32][33][34] In its 2016 lease accounting model, IFRS 16, the IASB chose not to include a criterion of "stand alone utility" in its lease definition because "entities might reach different conclusions for contracts that contain the same rights of use, depending on differences between customers' resources or suppliers' business models."[35] The concept has also been proposed as an approach for determining the measurement and classification when accounting for insurance contracts.[36][37] As a result of the increasing prominence the concept of business model has received in the context of financial reporting, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), which advises the European Union on endorsement of financial reporting standards, commenced a project on the "Role of the Business Model in Financial Reporting" in 2011.[38]
Design [ edit ]
Business model design generally refers to the activity of designing a company's business model. It is part of the business development and business strategy process and involves design methods. Massa and Tucci (2014) [39] highlighted the difference between crafting a new business model when none is in place, as it is often the case with academic spinoffs and high technology entrepreneurship, and changing an existing business model, such as when the tooling company Hilti shifted from selling its tools to a leasing model. They suggested that the differences are so profound (for example, lack of resource in the former case and inertia and conflicts with existing configurations and organisational structures in the latter) that it could be worthwhile to adopt different terms for the two. They suggest business model design to refer to the process of crafting a business model when none is in place and business model reconfiguration for process of changing an existing business model, also highlighting that the two process are not mutually exclusive, meaning reconfiguration may involve steps which parallel those of designing a business model.
Economic consideration [ edit ]
Al-Debei and Avison (2010) consider value finance as one of the main dimensions of BM which depicts information related to costing, pricing methods, and revenue structure. Stewart and Zhao (2000) defined the business model as a statement of how a firm will make money and sustain its profit stream over time. [40]
Component consideration [ edit ]
Osterwalder et al. (2005) consider the Business Model as the blueprint of how a company does business.[41] Slywotzky (1996) regards the business model as the totality of how a company selects its customers, defines and differentiates it offerings, defines the tasks it will perform itself and those it will outsource, configures its resources, goes to market, creates utility for customers and captures profits. [42]
Strategic outcome [ edit ]
Mayo and Brown (1999) considered the business model as the design of key interdependent systems that create and sustain a competitive business. [43] Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart (2011) explain a business model as a set of choices (policy, assets and governance) and consequences (flexible and rigid) and underline the importance of considering how it interacts with models of other players in the industry instead of thinking of it in isolation.[44]
Definitions of design or development [ edit ]
Zott and Amit (2009) consider business model design from the perspectives of design themes and design content. Design themes refer to the system's dominant value creation drivers and design content examines in greater detail the activities to be performed, the linking and sequencing of the activities and who will perform the activities.[45]
Design themes emphasis [ edit ]
Environment-Strategy-Structure-Operations (ESSO) Business Model Development
Developing a Framework for Business Model Development with an emphasis on Design Themes, Lim (2010) proposed the Environment-Strategy-Structure-Operations (ESSO) Business Model Development which takes into consideration the alignment of the organization's strategy with the organization's structure, operations, and the environmental factors in achieving competitive advantage in varying combination of cost, quality, time, flexibility, innovation and affective.[46]
Design content emphasis [ edit ]
Business model design includes the modeling and description of a company's:
value propositions
target customer segments
distribution channels
customer relationships
value configurations
core capabilities
commercial network
partner network
cost structure
revenue model
A business model design template can facilitate the process of designing and describing a company's business model.
Daas et al. (2012) developed a decision support system (DSS) for business model design. In their study a decision support system (DSS) is developed to help SaaS in this process, based on a design approach consisting of a design process that is guided by various design methods.[47]
Examples [ edit ]
In the early history of business models it was very typical to define business model types such as bricks-and-mortar or e-broker. However, these types usually describe only one aspect of the business (most often the revenue model). Therefore, more recent literature on business models concentrate on describing a business model as a whole, instead of only the most visible aspects.
The following examples provide an overview for various business model types that have been in discussion since the invention of term business model:
Business model by which a company integrates both offline (bricks) and online (clicks) presences. One example of the bricks-and-clicks model is when a chain of stores allows the user to order products online, but lets them pick up their order at a local store.
Business system, organization or association typically composed of relatively large numbers of businesses, tradespersons or professionals in the same or related fields of endeavor, which pools resources, shares information or provides other benefits for their members. For example, a science park or high-tech campus provides shared resources (e.g. cleanrooms and other lab facilities) to the firms located on its premises, and in addition seeks to create an innovation community among these firms and their employees.[48]
Cutting out the middleman model
The removal of intermediaries in a supply chain: "cutting out the middleman". Instead of going through traditional distribution channels, which had some type of intermediate (such as a distributor, wholesaler, broker, or agent), companies may now deal with every customer directly, for example via the Internet.
Direct selling is marketing and selling products to consumers directly, away from a fixed retail location. Sales are typically made through party plan, one-to-one demonstrations, and other personal contact arrangements. A text book definition is: "The direct personal presentation, demonstration, and sale of products and services to consumers, usually in their homes or at their jobs."[49]
Distribution business models, various
Fee in, free out
Business model which works by charging the first client a fee for a service, while offering that service free of charge to subsequent clients.
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. For the franchisor, the franchise is an alternative to building 'chain stores' to distribute goods and avoid investment and liability over a chain. The franchisor's success is the success of the franchisees. The franchisee is said to have a greater incentive than a direct employee because he or she has a direct stake in the business.
Sourcing business model
Sourcing Business Models are a systems-based approach to structuring supplier relationships. A sourcing business model is a type of business model that is applied to business relationships where more than one party needs to work with another party to be successful. There are seven sourcing business models that range from the transactional to investment-based. The seven models are: Basic Provider, Approved Provider, Preferred Provider, Performance-Based/Managed Services Model, Vested outsourcing Business Model, Shared Services Model, and Equity Partnership Model. Sourcing business models are targeted for procurement professionals who seek a modern approach to achieve the best fit between buyers and suppliers. Sourcing business model theory is based on a collaborative research effort by the University of Tennessee (UT), the Sourcing Industry Group (SIG)[1], the Center for Outsourcing Research and Education (CORE)[2], and the International Association for Contracts and Commercial Management (IACCM). This research formed the basis for the 2016 book, Strategic Sourcing in the New Economy: Harnessing the Potential of Sourcing Business Models in Modern Procurement.[50]
Business model that works by offering basic Web services, or a basic downloadable digital product, for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features.[51]
A non-profit or for-profit business model which does not depend on set prices for its goods, but instead asks customers to pay what they feel the product or service is worth to them.[52][53][54] It is often used as a promotional tactic,[55] but can also be the regular method of doing business. It is a variation on the gift economy and cross-subsidization, in that it depends on reciprocity and trust to succeed. "Pay what you want" (PWYW) is sometimes used synonymously, but "pay what you can" is often more oriented to charity or socially oriented uses, based more on ability to pay, while "pay what you want" is often more broadly oriented to perceived value in combination with willingness and ability to pay.
Value Added Reseller is a model where a business makes something which is resold by other businesses but with modifications which add value to the original product or service. These modifications or additions are mostly industry specific in nature and are essential for the distribution. Businesses going for a VAR model have to develop a VAR network. It is one of the latest collaborative business models which can help in faster development cycles and is adopted by many Technology companies especially software.
Other examples of business models are:
Frameworks [ edit ]
Technology centric communities have defined "frameworks" for business modeling. These frameworks attempt to define a rigorous approach to defining business value streams. It is not clear, however, to what extent such frameworks are actually important for business planning. Business model frameworks represent the core aspect of any company; they involve "the totality of how a company selects its customers defines and differentiates its offerings, defines the tasks it will perform itself and those it will outsource, configures its resource, goes to market, creates utility for customers, and captures profits".[56] A business framework involves internal factors (market analysis; products/services promotion; development of trust; social influence and knowledge sharing) and external factors (competitors and technological aspects).[57]
A review on business model frameworks can be found in Krumeich et al. (2012).[58] In the following some frameworks are introduced.
Business reference model is a reference model, concentrating on the architectural aspects of the core business of an enterprise, service organization or government agency.
Technique developed by IBM to model and analyze an enterprise. It is a logical representation or map of business components or "building blocks" and can be depicted on a single page. It can be used to analyze the alignment of enterprise strategy with the organization's capabilities and investments, identify redundant or overlapping business capabilities, etc.
Business model used in strategic management and services marketing that treats service provision as an industrial process, subject to industrial optimization procedures
Developed by A. Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, the business model canvas [2][59] is one of the most used frameworks for describing the elements of business models.
The OGSM is developed by Marc van Eck and Ellen van Zanten of Business Openers into the 'Business plan on 1 page'. Translated in several languages all over the world. #1 Management book in The Netherlands in 2015. The foundation of Business plan on 1 page is the OGSM. Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Measures (dashboard and actions).
Related concepts [ edit ]
The process of business model design is part of business strategy. Business model design and innovation refer to the way a firm (or a network of firms) defines its business logic at the strategic level.
In contrast, firms implement their business model at the operational level, through their business operations. This refers to their process-level activities, capabilities, functions and infrastructure (for example, their business processes and business process modeling), their organizational structures (e.g. organigrams, workflows, human resources) and systems (e.g. information technology architecture, production lines).
Consequently, an operationally viable and feasible business model requires lateral alignment with the underlining business operations.[60]
The brand is a consequence of the business model and has a symbiotic relationship with it, because the business model determines the brand promise, and the brand equity becomes a feature of the model. Managing this is a task of integrated marketing.
The standard terminology and examples of business models do not apply to most nonprofit organizations, since their sources of income are generally not the same as the beneficiaries. The term 'funding model' is generally used instead.[61]
The model is defined by the organization's vision, mission, and values, as well as sets of boundaries for the organization—what products or services it will deliver, what customers or markets it will target, and what supply and delivery channels it will use. While the business model includes high-level strategies and tactical direction for how the organization will implement the model, it also includes the annual goals that set the specific steps the organization intends to undertake in the next year and the measures for their expected accomplishment. Each of these is likely to be part of internal documentation that is available to the internal auditor.
Business model innovation [ edit ]
[62] Business model innovation types
When an organisation creates a new business model, the process is called business model innovation.[63][64] There is a range of reviews on the topic[65][66][67], the latter of which defines business model innovation as the conceptualisation and implementation of new business models. This can comprise the development of entirely new business models, the diversification into additional business models, the acquisition of new business models, or the transformation from one business model to another (see figure on the right). The transformation can affect the entire business model or individual or a combination of its value proposition, value creation and deliver, and value capture elements, the interrelations between the elements, and the value network. The concept facilitates the analysis and planning of transformations from one business model to another[67]. Frequent and successful business model innovation can increase an organisation’s resilience to changes in its environment and if an organisation has the capability to do this, it can become a competitive advantage.[68]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The credit crisis deepened on Friday as Wachovia Corp reported a potential $1.7 billion loss on mortgage-related debt, while credit card company Capital One Financial Corp said more customers are missing payments.
The Capital One headquarters in McLean, Virginia, August 21, 2007. The U.S. credit crisis deepened on Friday as Wachovia Corp reported a $1.1 billion loss on subprime mortgage-related debt in October, while Capital One Financial Corp said more customers are missing payments. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The news helped cause losses in broader market indexes, on expectations that mounting write-downs and bad loans may plunge the economy into recession. Shares of financial companies rebounded, but after weeks of heavy selling on worries about the impact of the credit downturn on their bottom lines.
Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co, the second- and third-largest U.S. banks, said the poor market conditions could hurt fourth-quarter results.
After markets closed, online brokerage E*Trade Financial Corp withdrew its forecast for 2007 profit of 75 cents to 90 cents per share, citing expected write-downs in its fixed-income holdings. Its shares fell more than 11 percent.
“This is now worse than Long-Term Capital (Management),” said Jack Malvey, chief global fixed-income strategist at Lehman Brothers Inc, referring to the hedge fund whose 1998 collapse threatened to unhinge global financial markets. “This is a painful lesson in financial engineering.”
Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, said the value of its so-called asset-backed collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) linked to subprime mortgages fell about $1.1 billion in October, to $676 million from $1.8 billion. The pre-tax loss is in addition to a $347 million third-quarter loss, it said.
Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia also expects to boost loan losses by $500 million to $600 million this quarter, largely because of “dramatic declines” in housing values.
Wachovia joined Citigroup Inc, Merrill Lynch & Co, Morgan Stanley and other financial companies to report tens of billions of dollars of subprime losses.
“WE ARE NOT IMMUNE”
Wachovia Chief Risk Officer Don Truslow said at a banking conference in Boston that credit problems in housing were concentrated in “several pockets” in California and Florida.
“The housing market certainly has been deteriorating very, very quickly in certain parts of the country,” he said. “We are not immune.”
Wachovia paid $24.2 billion in October 2006 for Golden West Financial Corp, a California adjustable-rate mortgage lender.
“It now becomes even more obvious that Wachovia purchased the thrift at the wrong time of the cycle,” Deutsche Bank Securities analyst Mike Mayo wrote.
Gary Townsend, a Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co analyst, downgraded Wachovia to “underperform” from “market perform.”
“Subprime is a huge issue, and it’s going to get worse,” said Ted Parrish, who helps invest $1.3 billion at Henssler Asset Management in Kennesaw, Georgia. “My uncertainty is over how long it will take lenders to recover from write-offs.”
Credit analysts at Citigroup estimated $64 billion of industry losses from asset-backed CDOs. Britain’s Barclays Plc on Friday rejected rumors it might lose $10 billion.
Separately, Wachovia said it would reduce reported third-quarter profit by $72 million, or 4 cents per share, to reflect its share of Visa Inc’s $2.1 billion antitrust settlement with American Express Co on Wednesday.
CAPITAL ONE CARD LOSSES
Capital One, the largest independent MasterCard and Visa credit card issuer, said its net charge-off rate rose to 3.28 percent in October from the third quarter’s 2.86 percent.
The charge-off rate in U.S. cards rose to 5.11 percent from 4.13 percent in the same periods, while card loans at least 30 days past due rose to 4.75 percent from 4.46 percent. Capital One had on Tuesday raised its forecast for 2008 credit losses.
“While management previously indicated that the U.S. card loss rate would trend north of 5 percent in the fourth quarter, we were surprised to see how fast this jumped,” Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch wrote.
Standard & Poor’s revised its rating outlook for McLean, Virginia-based Capital One to “stable” from “positive.”
Bank of America, also based in Charlotte, said market dislocations, including those affecting CDOs, will “adversely impact” fourth-quarter results.
New York-based JPMorgan, meanwhile, said it may need further write-downs this quarter, given its exposure to about $50 billion of leveraged loans, subprime mortgages and CDOs.
Related Coverage JPMorgan warns of possible Q4 write-downs
Lehman’s Malvey said: “We will find out over the next three to six quarters if we are coming close to recession or may cross over the recession line.”
On Friday, Wachovia shares rose 35 cents to $40.65; Capital One rose $1.36 to $54.26; and Bank of America rose 48 cents to $43.98. JPMorgan fell 30 cents to $42.31. The respective stocks are down 29 percent, 29 percent, 18 percent and 12 percent this year.
E*Trade, after closing 1 cent lower at $8.59, fell to $7.60 after-hours. At the close, it was down 62 percent this year. |
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