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The U.S. government agency that manages federal government buildings is set to announce Tuesday it is scrapping the contentious, decade-long push to build a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The move comes three years after the General Services Administration decided on three potential locations in the Washington suburbs for a new secure campus that could house the FBI's 11,000 headquarters employees.
Currently only about half of those workers operate out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building on Pennsylvania Avenue. The rest are spread out at a number of other locations, increasing the amount of money it costs to run the bureau while also making it more difficult for it to meet its objectives efficiently.
The building's location in downtown Washington also raises security concerns. FBI police patrol outside and heavy concrete planters ring the site, but residents and tourists can walk past the building's doors at all hours of the day.
One stated goal of the new facility was to upgrade the security level to that of facilities such as the Pentagon and the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency, with a secure perimeter separating the public from the actual building.
A new FBI headquarters would also vastly upgrade working conditions from the Hoover Building, which opened in 1974 and now has netting around some of its upper sections to prevent pieces of concrete from falling on the sidewalk below.
But at nearly $2 billion, the project faced opposition from Congress, which has not come close to appropriating enough to fulfill the plan that also involved handing over the Hoover Building site to whichever developer constructed the new campus in the suburbs.
With the GSA already having received bids from developers as it weighed which of the three potential sites it would ultimately choose, there have also been concerns raised about ties between President Donald Trump's family and companies involved in the bidding.
One of the reported finalists in the process was developer Vornado, a company headed by Stephen Roth who had advised Trump and partnered with him and son-in-law Jared Kushner in other real estate deals.
Members of Congress from Virginia and Maryland, the two states where the potential headquarters sites are located, criticized the government's decision ahead of the formal announcement.
"Reports that the federal government is pulling the plug on a new FBI headquarters reveals insurmountable Trump conflicts with GSA, FBI, and Vornado," Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, said on Twitter. "This is devastating news. Conflicts have consequences."
"The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are putting the safety and security of our country at risk," said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland. |
Halloween became unsettled for me after the ninja, drifting from one cultural reference and conceptual pun to the next, eventually clinging onto whatever the group was going to do. It took more than a decade to find something real to go as.
In a souk in Marrakech, I met a man wearing a robe similar to the ones I'd been eyeing. He asked how much I had to spend. I told him only 350 dirham, but had no desire to buy a costume. "These aren't costumes," he corrected me as we left the shop and took an elaborate path towards what felt like the medina's inner sanctum. An hour later, I had spent 300 DH for a sand-colored djellaba, which hung down below my ankles, and 70 for yellow babouche. The shopkeeper indicated that I should pick out a hat. I reached for a fez. He shook his head. "That's for tourists. It doesn't go with this djellaba." Ahmed, the man, who brought me, put a taqiyah in my hands. His unflappable demeanor became a little bit crushed when I began folding up my new garments. "Aren't you going to wear it?" he asked.
As I unfurled the robe over my cargo shorts and t-shirt, my shoulders seemed to straighten. I walked slowly. Ponderously. Ahmed pulled the baggy hood over my head. For the rest of the afternoon, I slipped through the medina without a second look. It was a kind of camouflage. I ended up drinking tea with Ahmed several times that week. He fed me a complex background story for the Berber from the Atlas Mountains.
But if you had to truthfully categorize my Berber, it was a last-minute costume. The djellaba had been abandoned in my closet for a couple of years, until a last-minute Halloween invitation that required more than a token effort at costume. I left the prayer cap at home that night, and didn't correct anyone who assumed it was a Star Wars thing. I also felt the most visceral sense of a soul I had encountered since Morocco.
It was out of laziness that the Berber from the Atlas Mountains reappeared the next year. I took on more of Ahmed's mannerisms this time. I began adding lines of dialogue right out of the medina, filling in the blanks with Wikipedia and Alberto Ruy Sanchez poetry.
And so as the character was brought more vividly to life each year, I learned to make pumpkin tagine and use the Obi-Wan hood to smuggle miniature Coffee Crisps. I began listening to a punk band called Mongoose, whose lead singer wrote a vest pocket book called "10 Steps to a Life Uniform" in which he likens the effect of finding a permanent costume to "that feeling when people order for you and it is exactly what you wanted." At which point I realized that I'd never wear any other Halloween costume.
None of this quite answered the question: Why do we dress up?
In my case it was the chance to tell a joke about a mouse and a cat, which Ahmed had told to everyone we met that week in Marrakech. "The cat chase the mouse around...the medina," he would always start, his face and shoulders scrunching to invoke both the concentration of the cat and the mortal fear of its prey. (You could see tables and stools and giant pyramids of saffron fly left and right in their furious wake.) "Chase and chase and chase...and chase," Ahmed would shriek, "until finally the mouse find the place in the wall where the paw of the cat cannot reach...what do you call it?" |
U.S. President Donald Trump arrives aboard Air Force One, returning to Washington from a weekend in Florida, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S. March 5, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. lawmakers expect to unveil this week the text of long-awaited legislation to repeal and replace the Obamacare healthcare law, one of President Donald Trump’s top legislative priorities, a senior Republican congressional aide said on Sunday.
Since taking office in January, Trump has pressed his fellow Republicans who control Congress to act quickly to dismantle former Democratic President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and pass a plan to replace it, but lawmakers in the party have differed on the specifics.
Democrats have warned that Republicans risk throwing the entire U.S. healthcare system into chaos by repealing the 2010 law that was passed by congressional Democrats over united Republican opposition. Republicans condemn it as a government overreach, and Trump has called it a “disaster.”
The aide cited progress in meetings and phone calls starting on Friday and lasting through the weekend involving House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney, Trump domestic policy adviser Andrew Bremberg and others.
“We are in a very good place right now, and while drafting continues, we anticipate the release of final bill text early this week,” said the aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The aide called the expected bill a “consensus Republican plan,” but offered no details.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said: “We are now at the culmination of a years-long process to keep our promise to the American people.”
The Obamacare law has proven popular in many states, even some controlled by Republicans, and it enabled about 20 million previously uninsured people to get medical insurance, although premium increases angered some. |
I recently bought AT&T DSL and documented their frustratingly over-engineered registration process. In short: a simple web-form system shouldn’t end up installing Internet Explorer 8 for you. I think it’s interesting particularly because no lean startup would ever ever do this in a million years, yet we aren’t particularly surprised when a big company is flushing dollars down the toilet in this way.
When AT&T activated my service and I received the DSL modem and a manual in the mail, I assumed it would be a quick five-minute process. Configuring the modem itself was straightforward and went smoothly. When the modem is configured, you pull up a browser, which will automatically redirect to an AT&T registration page.
The landing page was a little too flashy, it automatically plays some audio instructions in the background, basically telling you to hit the “next” button. They inform you that you need to supply some information to AT&T and in return they will give you a username and password to add to the modem’s configuration, which will allow you to get to the internet. The obvious approach is a simple HTML web form.
Instead, when I hit next, there is a five minute pause as AT&T’s website “checks my system.” Why this takes five minutes is beyond me. It then complains that my browser is not supported — well, I use chrome on ubuntu, which is an obscure setup, so fair enough, I’ll switch to Firefox. Wrong. It requires an ActiveX control (a way to run native code on my machine, also, who still uses ActiveX? Its 2011, does AT&T also send smoke signals from one department to another to announce the results of their fancy abacus calculations?). This means I must find a windows box and use Internet Explorer. Why? For a web form? Ridiculous, but okay, another hoop to jump through.
So, I boot into an old computer that is running Windows XP. I launch whatever version of IE is on it which has never been used, endure the flashy landing page again, wait another five minutes for the website to “Check My System,” and then wait another five minutes for it to download and run some sort of ActiveX control. I’m getting frustrated by this point, because what should be just a simple platform/browser independent webform has turned into some kind of ridiculous circus. Now, the ActiveX controller informs me that my version of IE isn’t good enough!
I’m livid. But luckily the ActiveX controller will download a new version of IE for me! Well, that is a nice touch I guess, although ridiculous in its own way; a simple web form now necessitates complicated contingency considerations.
Not inspiring confidence in the speed or consistency of my newly acquired broadband connection, it takes forever to download the new browser version and freezes once or twice. When it freezes, I have to restart the browser and re-endure the five-minute checking process before the ActiveX controller chides me for my ancient version of IE.
Finally it’s done. It warns me before it installs IE 8 that ATT may also include some bundled crapware (I didn’t notice any though). Then it installs. And reboots my computer. And then I go to the flashy landing page, wait five minutes for it to analyze my system, five minutes for the activeX control to load.
AND FINALLY…WHAT MAGICAL DELIGHTS AWAIT ME…WHAT WONDERS NECESSITATED FINDING AN XP BOX, INSTALLING AN ACTIVEX CONTROL, DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING A NEW VERSION OF IE, REBOOTING, ETC…??
Oh. It’s a web form. Cool.
Now: Would DropBox do something this silly? 37 signals? Even large tech companies like Amazon and Google wouldn’t. But somehow at AT&T some bloated process or disconnect between management and engineers resulted in an wasteful, irrational implementation.
Update: Wow, didn’t think this would hit #1 on hackernews.com, and want to exploit this incoming traffic, so go look at http://endlessforms.com/, a colleague Jeff Clune has launched this cool research-related site where you evolve 3d objects interactively and they can be printed out on a 3D printer.
Also, an anonymous commenter from the hackernews thread illuminates the true reason for the IE/ActiveX dependence:
What is called AT&T now is actually SBC, a Baby Bell with a penchant for out-sourcing. SBC bought Cingular, AT&T, Pacific Bell, lots of other companies. Their AT&T purchase was motivated in part by the name: everyione has heard of AT&T. SBC brought with them metric tons of bureaucracy, all running in IE. Disgusting. It’s not just the external web interfaces. We have to deal with this BS internally, too. 1990s web interfaces that only work in IE (sometimes requiring 7, sometimes requiring 6) for every interaction with corporate. Taxes, mandatory training, time reporting, everything. We have to grab a spare Windows machine or run a VM with XP in it. Most of the tech side of company knows and hates the whole thing. The impenatrable bureaucracy makes it impossible to find out who to complain to. There is no escape. The article is dead-on about what’s wrong, and I know first-hand, because we have to eat that dog food weekly.
The true cause of the crufty web-form is more insidious and historical than an outsider might intuitively guess. It is incredible how in less than three hours a single article can actually ferret out a strange nugget of truth. |
It's time to get back to some normalcy; the Boston Celtics kick off their five-game summer slate Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Entering a transition season, this set of Summer League games will be extremely important for the players participating this coming week. Even though assistant Jay Larranga will be coaching the summer team, new head coach Brad Stevens will be in Orlando for every game, keeping a watchful eye on all the young players participating this week.
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Fab Melo: Any Improvements?
• On-Ball Defense
• Hook Shot
• Footwork
This is obvious; everyone will have their eye on Fab Melo to see if he made any strides in his game. I was able to watch only three or four full Maine Red Claws games but I do think he's made a few improvements that are worth noting.
On the offensive end, he looked like he was a lot better at setting screens than he was at Syracuse. With his huge body, I believe he has finally gotten a handle on how to properly set a screen without fouling. However, I still don't think he finishes nearly as well as he should at the rim if it's a pick-and-roll play. After receiving a pass he still fumbles the ball around far too much. This makes him a liability in turning the ball over or just missing what should have been an easy look. I'll be keeping an eye on his footwork as well as his ability to finish strong at the rim.
Be on the lookout for a little 5-to-8 foot hook shot he has incorporated into his skillset; he used it quite a bit towards the end of the season with Maine. Here is one clip of it and here is an even better one. I would hope that he has found more consistency with this shot, though I am pretty impressed with what I see so far. He shows good form and touch on the shot but must improve his consistency.
The star defensive potential is there, that's why Melo was a first round draft pick last year. Fab was the Big East Defensive Player of the Year in 2012, and was on the first team of both the NBA D-League All-Defensive and All-Rookie teams. He averaged 3.1 blocks per game with Maine, and set the D-League record with 14 blocks in a single game. I think he made strides as a weak-side help defender; check out this clip here to see an example. In the Summer League, I want to see if he has improved his ability to defend on the post and on the perimeter. A lot of that is based more on technique than anything else, so he must improve there in order to contribute this year in the NBA.
Kelly Olynyk: Transition to PF
• Three-Point Range?
• Perimeter Defense
• Rebounding
Kelly Olynyk played center with the Gonzaga Bulldogs but will look to make the transition to power forward with the Boston Celtics. Danny Ainge said that he didn't even think of Olynyk as a center when drafting him -- I agree -- I believe that Olynyk's positive attributes fit him much more at the four.
Kelly Olynyk can hit a mid-range jump shot, but he has been trying to extend his range to beyond the arc. I don't doubt that he will be able to accomplish this -- it's only a matter of when it happens. If Kelly is able to find some consistency from three-point range as early as Summer League he could carve out a role in the team's rotation from the start of the season. Look for him in both the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop. He sets very strong screens but was mostly used on the roll with Gonzaga. I hope to see him utilized on the pop as well.
In-Depth Kelly Olynyk Analysis Kevin O'Connor takes an in-depth look at the Celts first round draft pick, Kelly Olynyk.
Kelly Olynyk's perimeter defense at Gonzaga was very weak. He struggles defending the pick-and-roll and doesn't have the lateral speed to stay with faster forwards. I'll be looking to see if he has made any improvements on his technique since the end of the season with Gonzaga.
Kelly Olynyk does a very good job at boxing out but had a hard time outrebounding superior athletes in college. At the power forward position, I'm curious to see if he has much more success against smaller opponents. Of course, players are even more athletic in the NBA, but he might be able to use his strength to his advantage with his new position.
The Guards: Who Stands Out?
• Who is the real Phil Pressey?
• Learning about Jayson Granger
• Does Darius Johnson-Odom have PG skills?
Besides Rajon Rondo, the C's don't have a true point guard on the roster. Sure, Avery Bradley and Courtney Lee can play the position, but it might make more sense to have a young one-guard on the roster that can be groomed behind Rondo. Fortunately, the Celts have a handful of candidates on the Summer League roster including Missouri's Phil Pressey, Europe's Jayson Granger. Marquette's Darius Johnson-Odom, and Duke's Nolan Smith.
Phil Pressey is a 22-year old point guard from Missouri whose greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses. Phil is extraordinary aggressive and constantly pushes the pace, creating plays for his teammates; but this also makes him turnover prone. Pressey averaged 7.1 assists and 3.5 turnovers per game. He had a few terrible games - 10 turnovers against Florida and 8 against Louisville - but he also had plenty (too many to list) when he cut down his mistakes and was an absolute star, like the clip of him versus UCLA embedded below.
So I wonder...who is the real Phil Pressey? Is he the far too aggressive turnover-prone point guard? Or is he an energy player that can make the strides needed to improve his efficiency and consistency? Hopefully he's the latter. Putting aside his offense, I think his man-to-man defense is the reason why he might make the final roster. Pressey only averaged 1.8 steals per game but has elite lateral speed and very quick hands. If Avery Bradley has an increased role on the team, Pressey's press defense (pun intended) could be valuable to give Bradley a breather here and there.
Jayson Granger is the other point guard to watch closely. He's 23 years old, has great length with a 6'7" wingspan and had a lot of success in Spain's first tier league. Other than that, I don't know much about him. In 25.9 minutes per game, Granger averaged 11 points, 3.4 assists, 3.3 rebounds, 1.8 turnovers, and 1.1 steals per game last season with Club Baloncesto Estudiantes. I'm interested to see what his game is like. Is he more of a scoring point guard? How does he play defense? Is he more of a combo or true point guard? Danny Ainge and the Celtics love to scout International talent, so Granger intrigues me.
Nolan Smith and Darius Johnson-Odom are combo guards more so than true point guards, so I question their chances of making the final roster considering the surplus of combo guards already on the team. Johnson-Odom had a terrific year in the D-League, averaging 21 points, 5.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 3 turnovers, and 1.3 steals per game. Even though he only played 13 games, those numbers are extremely impressive. He might be one of those guys that could explode against the talent in the Summer League, so let's promise not to overreact to anything he does. Instead, pay attention to his pure point guard skills: his ability to be an orchestrator on offense, his passing, creativity, and playmaking ability.
The Wild Cards
• Is Colton Iverson good enough for the NBA?
• Expectations for Tony Mitchell
Tony Mitchell was the D-League Rookie of the Year for good reason. In 48 games with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Mitchell averaged 21.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Mitchell isn't that effective of a perimeter shooter, with 31.7 shot percentage from beyond the arc, but he did average a respectable 47.7 percent from two-point range.
Mitchell looks like he has the ability to finish very strong at the rim. This clip here is an example of something that I have consistently seen from him. He finishes well with both his left and right hand, though he's much better handling the ball with his right. He also has a pretty nice shot from 10-to-14 feet, whether it's a pull up jumper or a floater. Beyond that, he seems far too inconsistent, though I need to see more of him before I can say that in full confidence. Considering Tony Mitchell's stellar play in the D-League, I'd be surprised if he didn't excel this summer. With that said, don't overreact to what you see.
I'm excited to see Colton Iverson play. There have been rumblings that he'll go to Europe to begin his professional career but during his introductory press conference he said he hopes to make Boston's roster. At 23 years old, I believe Iverson has enough experience and has the body to play in the NBA; it's only a matter of ability. In the limited footage I have watched of him, he appears to have an extremely high basketball I.Q and work ethic. Play for Brad Stevens -- a coach that values intelligence, grit, and hustle -- Iverson might have an advantage sticking around. I'll be keeping a close eye on Iverson's ability to defend the pick-and-roll and the post. I know he can rebound very well and I'm not expecting him to do much on offense, but he must prove he can defend at an efficient level to have a chance at cracking this roster this season.
What will you be watching for this summer? Help start the conversation by commenting below or by following and tweeting me @Kevin__OConnor with your thoughts!
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"The proper function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
Although at the time, he probably didn't realize it, Jack London would come to fulfill his own words during a life full of adventure, controversy and undeniable tragedy. Jack London was an adventurer stuck in a world of convention. He was the successor to a long line of Aryan warriors, intellects, and conquerors. In his 1914 novel, The Mutiny of the Elsinore, he wrote "I know, now, that my forebears were Vikings. I was seed of them in their own day. With them I have raided English coasts, dared the Pillars of Hercules, forayed the Mediterranean, and sat in the high place of government over the soft sunwarm peoples." Such Racial awareness as this is extraordinary no matter in what time it manifests itself. What made Jack London special, as you will see, was his ability to express in words what had taken centuries to ingrain in the Aryan soul.
Jack was born out of wedlock to Flora Wellman and Professor William H. Chaney on January 22, 1876 in San Francisco, California. Flora, the estranged, somewhat rambunctious daughter of a wealthy Eastern family, would never marry Chaney. When Jack was eight months old, Flora married a working-class-man by the name of John London. He would be the only father Jack ever knew. His early years were filled with poverty. As a thirteen year-old, he worked along children of six and seven in a pickle cannery for 10 cents an hour, often sixteen hours a day. These early experiences would fuel his life long hatred for capitalism. He eventually quit his job and become an oyster pirate, sailing his own ship. Always the restless wander, at age 21 he set sail for the Klondike with the hope of striking it rich. His experience in the Klondike, though rather miserable, would greatly influence his later literary work.
When Jack returned to his home town of Oakland, he was determined to start his literary career. He would religiously write one thousand words per day, rain or shine. For several years he spent much of his money on postage stamps for the hundreds of manuscripts he sent to magazines around the country. Jack London could have wallpapered his house several times over with the rejection papers he received, but he didn't give up. His work was too brutally honest, with an emphasis on brutal, for most of the pulp magazines he was trying to write for. Finally in 1897, The Overland Monthly published one of his stories, for which he was paid five dollars. Jack soon realized that his fortunes would lay in the publishing of his books.
In 1903, Jack's first commercially successful book, The Call of the Wild, was published. The story is a deceptively simple one about a kidnapped dog, named Buck, who is taken to the Yukon and sold as a sled-dog. In truth, it's the story of race, the superiority of one race over the other, and the survival of the fittest. Although Jack is writing about a dog, his theories also relate to humans. Buck knew that, "he must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed." This excerpt sums up much of Jack London's philosophy. Genetics - the will to survive - was the all-determining factor in his view of life. It decided what race, species, or individual would survive to pass on their genes. Jack would revisit this topic over and over again in his work. As he expressed, the year earlier, in his sociological work The People of the Abyss, Jack had an incredible amount of compassion for the poor working-class. This compassion was not of the sniveling and charitable type, but of the steel fisted revolutionary sort. In 1905, while addressing a group of wealthy capitalists in New York, Jack said: "Look at us! We are strong! Consider our hands! They are strong hands, and even now they are reaching forth for all you have, and they will take it, take it by the power of their strong hands; take it from your feeble grasp." Jack believed that revolution was the only possible answer to the problem of capitalist domination. Jack wrote eight months before his death, "My final word is that liberty, freedom, and independence, are royal things that cannot be presented to, nor thrust upon, races or classes. If races and classes cannot rise up and by their own strength of brain and brawn wrest from the world liberty, freedom, and independence, they never...can come to these royal possessions."
"... Ours is a lordly history, and though we may be doomed to pass, in our time we shall have trod on the faces of all peoples, disciplined them to obedience, taught them government, and dwelt in the palaces ..."
In Jack's next novel, The Sea-Wolf, he would again consider the influence of genetics on the human condition. The novel tells the story of Humphrey Van Weyden who transforms himself from weakling to warrior during his stay on the Sea-Wolf. In the middle of a dangerous seal hunting expedition, Humphrey thinks to himself: "The youth of the race seemed burgeoning in me, over-civilized man that I was, and I lived for myself the old hunting days and forest nights of my remote and forgotten ancestry." A similar instance occurs in the short story In the Forests of the North. It follows, "He, alone, was full-blooded Saxon, and his blood was pounding fiercely through his veins to the traditions of his race." Jack was incredibly proud of his Racial heritage, and he was not afraid to express it through his novels and short stories.
With the Russio-Japanese War raging in the Far East, the Hearst newspapers offered Jack the assignment of covering the conflict for them. On January 7, 1904, he set sail for Yokohama, on board the S.S. Siberia. Upon arriving in Japan, Jack quickly disobeyed the orders of the Japanese government that no reporters be present at the Korean Front. He sneaked into Korea by chartering a rickety sampan to take him across the Yellow Sea. Once there he was immediately struck by the cruel treatment inflicted upon the Russian prisoners by the Japanese. In one of his dispatches he wrote, "These men were my kind." He also stated that he would have preferably joined the Russians "in their captivity, rather than remain outside in freedom amongst aliens." When Jack returned to America, many, including his fellow socialists, questioned his vehement attacks on the Japanese and the "yellow peril." He answered them simply: "I am first of all a white man and only then a socialist."
In The Iron Heel, released in 1908, Jack records the events surrounding the rise of the working-class and their bloody attempt to destroy capitalism. The story is told by the wife of revolutionary, Ernest Everhard. Ernest is described as "...a superman, a blond beast such as Nietzsche described." The book was universally mocked by the critics and many socialists. The Independent concluded that "semi-barbarians, to whom this sort of stuff appeals, may possibly tear down our civilization." We certainly hope so. The most prophetic part of the book comes at the end. After a failed uprising in Chicago, many revolutionaries are murdered by the Iron Heel. In our own time we have seen mini coups at Whidbey Island, Ruby Ridge, Waco and Oklahoma City that have failed to ignite the multitudes in a national revolution. From the ashes of this failed revolution rise terrorists groups more radical than Ernest Everhard could have imagined. Jack describes some of these groups: "The Valkyries were women. They were the most terrible of all. No woman was eligible for membership who had not lost near relatives at the hands of the Oligarchy. They were guilty of torturing their prisoners to death. A companion organization to the Valkyries was the Berserkers. These men placed no value whatever upon their own lives, and it was they who totally destroyed the great mercenary city of Bellona along with its population of over a hundred thousand souls." I am sure one can name at least ten contemporary groups with similar goals. After the death of Robert Mathews and other comrades, the American government has made many in the revolutionary movement even more radical. The more something is suppressed, the more dangerous and powerful it becomes.
Another highly Racial novel was The Valley of the Moon. The two main characters are Billy Roberts and his wife Saxon. They are a working-class couple living in Oakland during the early 20th century. As life becomes increasingly difficult for the urban working class, and a revolutionary friend of theirs is murdered, Billy and Saxon decide to abandon city life and go in search of an unknown paradise in the countryside they call the Valley of the Moon. When Billy and Saxon first meet, she explains to him the origin of her unusual name: "My mother gave it to me ... the Saxons were a race of people - she told me all about them when I was a little girl. They were wild, like Indians, only they were white. And they had blue eyes, and yellow hair, and they were awful fighters." She continued: "They were the first English, and you know the Americans came from the English. We're Saxons, you an' me, an' Mary, an' Bert..." Racial pride is something Jack London's characters are always willing to exhibit. Also Racial loyalty, something we rarely see in the White man today, is a sub-plot in The Valley of the Moon.
Billy and Saxon's friend Bert becomes increasingly revolutionary in his thinking as the living conditions of the working-class in Oakland sink deeper into poverty. He said: "What chance have we got? We lose. There's nothin' left for us in this country we've made and our fathers an' mothers before us. We're all shot to pieces. We can see our finish-we, the old stock, the children of the White people that broke away from England..." After Billy asks Bert what we should do about it, Bert responds, "Fight. That's all. The country's in the hands of a gang of robbers." It is more true today than it was then.
One of Jack's last novels, The Mutiny of the Elsinore, was written in 1914. The main character is a young playwright, much like Jack London, who is a passenger on the Elsinore in route from Baltimore to Seattle. The novel is an allegory for the history of the White Man. I cannot add much to what is Jack's greatest Racial achievement therefore I will quote chapter 22 at length. It follows, "Every one of us who sits aft in the high place is blond Aryan. For'ard, leavened with a ten per cent. Of degenerate blondes, the remaining ninety per cent. Of the slaves that toil for us are brunettes." The struggle between the Aryan masters and the non-Aryan crew on board the ship represents the same universal struggle in miniature.
As far as I know, Jack London, in The Mutiny of the Elsinore, is the first articulate spokesman for racial separation in modern times. After the mutiny has occurred, the dark-skinned mutineers, which included Jews, are trapped by the blondes in the aft. The blondes keep themselves protected in the ship's forward with their cache of guns, ammo and food. The plan is to starve the darkies out until they surrender. After the mutiny, the young playwright notices a change in the mood of the Elsinore's passengers. He wrote, "All our voyage from Baltimore south to the Horn and around the Horn has been marked by violence and death. And now that it has culminated in open mutiny there is no more violence, much less death. We keep to ourselves aft, and the mutineers keep to themselves for'ard. There is no more harshness, no more snarling and bellowing of commands, and in this fine weather a general festival obtains." Jack was trying to explain how it is that Racial separation is the peaceful and human solution to the world's problems. When the races are separated, as on the Elsinore, there is much less conflict.
In one of his greatest insights, Jack summarizes the achievements, failures, and possible future of the Aryan race, "And I look at the four of us at table - Captain West, his daughter, Mr. Pike and myself - all fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and perishing, yet mastering and commanding, like our fathers before us, to the end of our type on the earth. Ah, well, ours is a lordly history, and though we may be doomed to pass, in our time we shall have trod on the faces of all peoples, disciplined them to obedience, taught them government, and dwelt in the palaces we have compelled them by the weight of our own right arms to build for us." Jack saw the future of our race as hopeful and full of possibilities. After the death of the Captain West and Mr. Pike, it is the Aryan playwright that, by superior intellect and by violence, takes back the Elsinore. In this instance, our race won.
As his fame grew, Jack traveled the world; always returning to the calming influence of the sea. His second wife, Charmian, now accompanied him. He also continued with his interest in politics, mainly socialism. His relationship with the Socialist Party had always been a rocky one. Jack's extreme revolutionary ideas, which were often violent in nature, and his racism brought him to constant blows with many other socialists. During his reporting of the Mexican Revolution in 1914, he referred to the revolutionaries as "stupid anarchists" and "half-breeds" mentally incapable of government rule. As the American Socialists did a slow burn back in the States, Jack continued to write scathing Racial articles about the Mexicans. He wrote, "the mixed breed always is - neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. They are neither White men nor Indians. Like the Eurasians, they possess all the vices of their commingled bloods and none of the virtues." As the alien hordes of mongrels have swept across Aryan lands, we have seen this statement become all too true. Jack believed that the natural resources of Mexico should be used for the betterment of the White Race. This infuriated the Socialists in America. Jack had carved an impasse between himself and the Socialist Party that would never be bridged. In 1916, the year of his death, he resigned from the Socialist Labor Party. At this point in his short life, almost sensing his premature death, he became a hard-core revolutionary. He felt that the Socialist Party had lost its "fire and fight."
Many Jack London biographers and scholars have made the mistake of believing that as Jack grew older his racial views lessened in intensity. To support their theory they point to the fact that Jack and Charmian felt sympathy for the plight of the native Polynesians, then under White capitalist control. During their attempted around the world trek in 1907-1910, they witnessed the suffering of the natives. As Jack stated later in The Mutiny of the Elsinore, he and Charmian felt that Racial separation was to the betterment of the White, as well as, the dark races. Jack's last major novel, The Little Lady of the Big House, was published the same year of his death. He wrote "You are successes. Your muscles are blond-beast muscles, your vital organs are blond-beast organs. And from all this emanates your blond-beast philosophy. That's why you are brass tacks and preach realism, and practice realism, shouldering and shoving and walking over lesser and unluckier creatures who don't dare talk back."
Jack London's writings stand as a testimony to a dying breed of White man, determined to exert his Will to Power over those who would let him. London was a proud and loyal member of our Folk, and whereas he died young, his wisdom shall transcend time and endure as glints in the eyes of the young and old alike, warmed by his poetic expressions of Aryandom.
Jack London - A White Man Of Whom We Are Proud. |
A Philippine national identified as RQG, aka Bobong, has been arrested by members of the Tomohon Police's mobile brigade for allegedly possessing a 38-mm-caliber revolver without a permit.
Tomohon Police spokesperson Sec. Insp. Johnny Kreysen said Bobong was arrested in the Talaud Islands, North Sulawesi, after the police received a tip off from residents.
“We received the information in July that Bobong, who lived in Teling village in Tombariri district, Minahasa regency, possessed a gun without a permit,” Johnny said on Wednesday evening.
The Tomohon Police sent a team led by First Insp. Adj. Bobby Rengkuan to search for the suspect who was later discovered to be in the Talaud Islands. Detectives pursued him to the location using a fish boat.
Read also: Three governors pass military training, issued guns by TNI
After days of sailing the sea, the team found Bobong 132 miles off Talaud coast and brought him to the Tomohon Police headquarters on Wednesday morning.
Johnny said the suspect originally came from Said Kalupang, General Santos City, the Philippines. One of his recent addresses was is in Mahawu village in Tuminting district, Manado.
The police seized a 38-mm-caliber revolver with two bullets, which had allegedly been brought by Bobong from the Philippines.
On Thursday, Bobong was transferred to the North Sulawesi Police headquarters in the provincial capital of Manado for further investigation.
As of Friday, it was not yet known if the suspect was involved in a larger criminal ring. (dra/bbs) |
Cal Crutchlow sees no other solution than the current flag-to-flag rules in the MotoGP World Championship in the event of inclement weather.
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez breezed to a commanding victory on Sunday after pitting at the end of lap two to swap bikes, getting the jump on his main rivals and effectively putting the outcome to bed within the space of a few laps.
Crutchlow, though, says Marquez was simply a ‘genius’ who outwitted the rest of the field on Sunday and says he does not know of a more suitable alternative to the current regulations governing a wet race scenario.
“We saw one guy, who was a genius and cleverer than the others: he let everybody past, he let me past and nodded to me to go in front of him and then on purpose I ran really wide on the next corner and he didn’t pass me, so I knew exactly what he was doing,” Crutchlow said.
“He was cleverer than the rest and he let everyone else come forward so that they didn’t see him come into the pit and then he won the race.
“I should’ve gone in the same lap, but I didn’t. I followed Dani [Pedrosa] because I thought Dani had the best pace this weekend, but there is no mess – this is the best solution we have. I don’t know any other solution. I don’t know what the big fuss is about; you have to get in and out of the pits.”
Crutchlow, who hurt his back after coming off on oil on Saturday, was sixth quickest on the LCR Honda during Monday’s test at Brno and proclaimed himself satisfied with his day’s work.
“To be honest I’ve not really had time to think about it [back injury]. I told the team I didn’t want to test today, but I’ve done the most amount of laps. We tested some things with the bike, we retested the wings and I felt positive with them, but the track condition was good I felt, considering it rained all night,” said Crutchlow, who revealed he suffered a massive vibration when he tested some new Michelin tyres.
“I went out of pit lane and then I came straight back in because my teeth were going to fall out! We don’t know what it is and I had a massive vibration with them. I put them on for the last run but I came back in because of the vibration; I already hit the wall at 200kph this weekend and I don’t need to do it again, especially when we’re riding on Friday – and there’s a lot more walls there.
“In the end we’re happy with the test and it was positive today; my lap times were very good with all of the tyres. I nearly crashed, when I was behind Marc,” he added.
“He was behind me for two laps and then I let him past – just like a mutual agreement! – and when I was behind him I nearly went over the handlebars like you would never believe.”
Crutchlow set his best lap in 1m 55.768s, which was six tenths off Valentino Rossi's top time on the factory Yamaha. |
Ford has announced details of its special edition Falcon XR6 Sprint and XR8 Sprint, showing unique styling and boosted performance.
Just 1400 Falcon Sprints will be produced, 550 XR6s and 850 XR8s, with New Zealand set to recieve 50 of the XR6 and 100 of the XR8.
But the big news is what’s under the bonnet. The XR6 Sprint becomes the most powerful six-cylinder factory-Falcon ever, thanks to 325kW at 6000rpm and 576Nm 2750 rpm from its turbocharged 4.0 litre straight six engine.
If that’s not enough, an overboost function lifts outputs to 370kW and 650Nm briefly.
For those seeking even more grunt, the XR8 Sprint turns the wick up on Ford’s 5.0 litre supercharged V8 with 345kW at 5750rpm and 575Nm between 2220 and 6250rpm.
That’s 20kW more, but 1Nm less that the XR6 Sprint. Tapping into the XR8 Sprint’s overboost unleashes 400kW and 650Nm.
That makes the XR6 Sprint more powerful than the last Ford Performance Vehicles F6, with its standard 310kW output, but leaves some breathing space between the uprated XR8 and the highly collectable GT F with its 351kW V8.
The XR6 Sprint borrows its larger intercooler, turbocharger, and injectors from the F6, but features a unique lower airbox, a new larger intake system, and unique calibration for the engine and transmission.
XR6 Sprint models come teamed with Ford’s six-speed automatic, while the XR8 Sprint is offered with a choice of six-speed manual, or six-speed automatic.
Visually the Sprint models differ from the regular XR models thanks to a lower decal package, 19-inch black alloy wheels, Brembo brake calipers finished in gold, black headlamp bezels, a black rear spoiler, uniquely designed foglamp surrounds, and Sprint badging on the front guards and bootlid.
XR8 Sprint also gains a black painted roof, and black mirror caps. Ford has only released one image of the XR8 Sprint (top and above).
Inside leather and lux suede trim covers the seats which also feature Sprint embroidery. There is also dual-zone climate control, high-series audio, a chromatic rear view mirror, a unique gear shifter assembly and surround, and a unique instrument cluster featuring the Sprint logo.
An individually numbered build plate affixed to the engine completes the Sprint package.
The XR6 Sprint is priced at $54,990 plus on road costs, a price hike of $9300 compared with the regular XR6 auto. The XR8 Sprint manual is priced at $59,990, with the automatic from $62,190, representing a price rise of $6500 for the manual, and $8700 for the automatic.
MORE: Ford News and Reviews
Interested in buying FORD FALCON? Visit our FORD FALCON showroom for more information. |
The new tax year, starting on 6 April (2016) will see record numbers of self‑employed workers, according to new data published by Co-operatives UK.
The Not Alone report tracks current levels of self-employment and the ways in which co-ops can help freelancers meet shared needs. Key findings are:
At 15% of the workforce, government statistics show that 4.6 million people are now self-employed – the highest numbers in the UK since records began
One in four people (27%) of employees in medium-sized firms in the UK would like to work in self-employment (22% in small firms, 14% in the public sector)
The number of freelancers is likely to grow further over the next year, reflecting a significant change in the pattern of work in the economy
Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said: “More and more people are turning to self-employment, whether out of choice or necessity. Our data shows this is likely to grow, with a significant number of people who are currently in employment interested in going freelance.
"Self-employment offers freedom and, by coming together in co-ops, freelancers can share the risks and responsibility.”
In line with this growth in self-employment, the report identifies examples of freelancers coming together to form co-operatives for shared services, from back-office support, debt management and contract advice to access to finance and sickness insurance and the shared use of equipment and access to workspace.
There are a number of examples across the UK of co-ops of self-employed workers, from 50 music teachers forming a co-operative to market their services to schools, to interpreters laid off by Capita providing interpretation services in judicial courts through a co-op.
"Working as a private peripatetic music teacher can be a very isolating experience. The Music Co-operative enables our members to feel part of something, and to feel connected to other like-minded professionals." Janet Hodgson, Swindon Music Co-operative
But the report also identifies considerable scope for the growth of services in the UK, pointing to well-developed approaches overseas. In the USA, the Freelancers Union provides its 280,000 members with advice and insurance. In Belgium, SMart is a co-op offering invoicing and payments for 60,000 freelancer members. In France, new legislation allows self-employed workers to access the sickness pay and benefits of conventional employees through co-operatives.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: "This research shows how the world of work is rapidly changing and becoming more precarious.
"While some choose to be self-employed, many people are forced into it. The lack of stable income and poor job security often associated with self-employment can make it hard for workers to pay their bills and spend quality time with their families.
"That’s why 300,000 self-employed people have joined trade unions in the UK to get better rights at work. Many more could benefit from being part of co-ops and unions, and as a movement we need to reach out to them.”
Pat Conaty, co-author of the report and a freelancer himself, said: "Self‑employment is at a record level, but it is not yet at the high water mark. The pressure and the promise that lead people to go freelance will continue to swell the ranks of the self-employed over the coming year.
"Working alone can be aspirational, but it can also be lonely and anxious. There is an extraordinary opportunity for new co-operative solutions for self-employed people, giving them the freedom of freelancing with the muscle of mutuality."
The Not Alone report has been produced in partnership with Wales Co-operative Centre and Unity Trust Bank. The full report and a summary can be downloaded here. |
Golden Gloves Social House, 401 Pearl Parkway, at Avenue B is open.
The bar concept is a partnership between the Boulevardier Group (spearheaded by Jeret Peña of The Brooklynite and the forthcoming The Last Word) and Chris Erck, who owns Swig Martini Bar, The Worm Tequila & Mezcal Bar and Taco Land.
“It’s an amazing location and a great opportunity to do a good business in an area where there is critical mass,” Peña said.
Javier Gutierrez and Peña’s brother, Jorel, will manage Golden Gloves Social House. The spot has a dive feel, and the menu offers value in a very simple cocktail program with drinks that cost $5-$7, as well as $2-$5 canned beers, including Miller High Life, Pearl, Lone Star, Firemans 4, Brooklyn Summer and Blanche de Bruxelles. There will also be a cocktail on tap.
From the outside, it looks similar to a food truck park, and there will be one or two trucks parked there to serve guests. Inside, there is a small bar with a garage bay door that opens to the patio. The décor is minimal, but features photos of boxers and other boxing paraphernalia. The theme carries through to the cocktail names: Kiss the Canvas, Mean Left Hook, Street Fighter, Jack Dempsey, Glass Jaw, to name a few.
The bar’s hours are 2 p.m.-2 a.m. seven days a week. Happy hour is 2-7 p.m. Monday-Friday.
Jennifer McInnis
Twitter: @JenMcInnis |
Computational imaging is undergoing a revolution. This is the discipline of making images using computational techniques rather than optical ones. Its best known breakthrough is the ability to record high resolution images and movies using a single pixel. But researchers have also used it to build lensless cameras, 3D imaging systems and more.
Today, they take the technique even further by using it to mimic the way humans see the world. David Phillips at the University of Glasgow and a few pals say they’ve found a way to use a single pixel to create images in which the central area is recorded in high resolution while the periphery is recorded in low resolution. That exactly mimics animal vision systems in which the retina has a central region of high visual acuity called the fovea surrounded by an area of lower resolution.
The team have even shown how to move the “foveated” region to follow objects within the field of view. The technique has the potential to change the way many imaging systems work in future.
First some background. A single pixel imaging system records light from a scene at a single point. This light has to be randomised in some way, for example by passing it through frosted glass or reflecting it off a micro-mirror array which is randomly arranged.
It’s easy to think that little can be gained by recording light randomised in this way. The trick of course is to take lots of single pixel images in this way. Although each data point seems to be a random sample of light, consecutive data points are correlated because they are reflections from the same scene.
So the trick behind computational imaging is to use a data mining algorithm to find the correlation between successive images. A bit of number crunching can then recreate the original scene.
It turns out that this is relatively straightforward, provided that the light from the scene is properly randomised each time the pixel records it. The resolution of the final image then depends on the number data points used to create it.
In other words, each data point can be thought of as recording a pixel in the final image. It is this idea that allows Phillips and co to vary the resolution throughout an image.
These guys use a digital micro-mirror array to randomise the light from a scene reaching their single pixel light detector. But they are also able to control the resolution of the randomisation in this array. So they can use high resolution randomisation in parts of the scene to increase the resolution of the final image. This is the “foveated image”
Their micro-mirror array can display some 10,000 randomised patterns per second which allows them to generate 32 x 32 pixel images at the rate of about 10 per second.
To start with, the pixels are square and equal in size in each 32 x 32 image. But a foveated image has smaller, more densely packed pixels in the centre and larger pixels in the peripheries.
Phillips and co achieve this by randomising the light from the scene with higher resolution in the centre of the image.
And the results are impressive. The team show how the resulting images clearly have a higher resolution at the centre. “We have demonstrated that the data gathering capacity of a single-pixel computational imaging system can be enhanced by mimicking the adaptive foveated vision that is widespread in the animal kingdom,” they say.
But they also show how it is possible to move the fovea to track objects of interest from one image to the next. They even show how it is possible to have two fovea in a single image to track two different objects, thereby taking the technique beyond the capability of the animal world. And they demonstrate the technique with both visible and infrared light.
That’s interesting work that has some important potential applications. The most obvious is for imaging systems in which pixel arrays are not practical. For example, single pixels are available for terahertz frequencies but pixel arrays are not.
But the technique is more generally applicable. In all imaging systems there is a trade-off between resolution and frame rate. This technique allows this trade off to be optimised on the fly and allows attention to focus on the parts of an image that are of greatest interest.
That could be made much more powerful by combining it with other machine vision techniques algorithms have begun to outperform humans in tasks, such as face and object recognition.
Humans and animals have long outperformed machines in vision tasks. But with techniques like this, this mastery will not last for much longer.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1607.08236 : Adaptive Foveated Single-Pixel Imaging With Dynamic Super-Sampling |
Men and women make moral decisions differently, according to new research published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin — but not necessarily in the ways scientists thought before.
The study, a meta-analysis of 40 studies with 6,100 total participants, revealed a more nuanced distinction between two common schools of moral thought.
Deontology vs. Utilitarianism
“Consider…a dilemma where you are hiding with other townsfolk from murderous soldiers,” says Rebecca Friesdorf, the corresponding author. “Suddenly a baby starts to cry—unless you smother it, the soldiers will find and kill everyone. Should you smother the baby to prevent the soldiers from killing the townsfolk?”
According to deontology, killing the baby would be wrong because murder is wrong, despite the potential consequences. Deontology puts moral norms at top priority.
According to utilitarianism, killing the baby is acceptable because it will save many lives in the end. Utilitarianism considers the overall consequences more important.
Deontology has long been associated with emotional responses to moral dilemmas, while utilitarianism is associated with cognitive, or mental, responses. Previous research has claimed that the two are opposites, and that women make more deontological decisions while men make more utilitarian decisions. However, the current study suggests it’s not so simple.
The Study
The research team, comprised of scientists from three universities in three different countries, believes that deontology and utilitarianism are not necessarily opposites—either thought process could be affected by a number of factors. In order to examine them independently, the team used a method called Process Dissociation (PD) to separate the variables. PD has been used previously to separate other controversial variables, such as racial bias in weapon identification.
“To…distinguish whether men are more utilitarian than women, or women are more deontological than men, it is necessary to measure [these]inclinations independently,” said Friesdorf.
The Results
The findings from the study challenge the traditional theory that men prefer cognitive decisions and women prefer emotional ones. After separating the variables, researchers discovered that men and women use cognitive reasoning about equally. However, women were much more likely to use emotional reasoning than men when one factor is involved: harm.
When asked a moral dilemma question that did not involve harm, women and men both tended to use utilitarian (or cognitive) thinking. However, when asked a moral dilemma question involving harm, women were significantly more likely to use deontological (emotional) thinking than men.
“The current findings cast doubt on the hypothesis that men and women differ in terms of their cognitive evaluations of outcomes,” according to Friesdorf. “Both men and women are governed by lines of intellect— women: additionally by curves of emotion.” |
The Danish ambassador to Germany singled out the US for criticism for not taking more refugees, and said that Danes do not want more refugees than they already have.
© REUTERS / Asger Ladefoged/Scanpix Denmark/Files Tough Legislation Allowed Denmark to Reduce Influx of Migrants
The Danish ambassador to Germany has said that his country does not want to accept more refugees, and criticized other western countries for so far failing to fulfil the promises they made to take asylum seekers.
"We don't want to take more refugees than we have already taken," Friis Arne Petersen said, RIA Novosti reported.
"The population doesn't want to take more refugees."
Petersen added that he sees the resolution of the migrant crisis in a "common European approach," but that "that will be a difficult, very difficult path," and "Europe is split on the migration question."
He also expressed disquiet about the agreement the EU reached with Turkey to stem migration to Europe, and the prospects of Turkey fulfilling the necessary criteria for EU membership.
The renewal of talks on Turkey's accession to the EU was one of the political concessions to Ankara in return for cracking down on illegal migration and people smuggling.
In November the EU promised to pay three billion euros ($3.3 bilion) in financial aid to pay for refugees in Turkey, and during further negotiations last week Ankara demanded at least an additional three billion euros.
"We need Turkey as a strategic partner and EU member on the condition, of course, that it can adhere to the Copenhagen criteria," Petersen said.
We have to make that happen, but how to do so is a big question."
Petersen also called on all Western countries to take joint responsibility for the migration crisis, and singled out the US for particular criticism.
"Obama promised to take 10,000 refugees, but still hasn’t taken them," he said, and added Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Poland to the list of countries that are reluctant to accept more refugees.
© AFP 2018 / Claus Fisker / Scanpix Denmark Denmark Extends Control on Border With Germany for Another Month
Petersen's comments about Denmark's unwelcoming attitude towards refugees are consistent with severe legislation on asylum passed by the Danish government in January.
The law requires asylum seekers to hand over money and valuables to the authorities in exchange for state provisions while their asylum request is being processed.
Such measures may have contributed to relatively lower numbers of refugees and migrants seeking asylum in Denmark. In comparison to neighboring Sweden, which received around 163,000 asylum applications during 2015, Denmark received just 18,000. |
by Jean Damu
Lucy Parsons is the Haymarket Square widow who internationalized the struggle for the eight-hour day and whose work led to the May Day rallies held around the world, except in the U.S., to celebrate International Workers Day. I have known about Lucy Parsons most of my adult life but have read little of what she actually said. This is probably because the Chicago police and FBI burned all of her papers and books.
Lucy was born – probably enslaved – in the Oklahoma territory and married to Albert Parsons, a former Confederate soldier, who became a radical labor organizer. I was stunned to learn she didn’t die until 1942 and is buried near the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago. The lesson, in my mind, from the lives of this remarkable couple is that one of the first benefits to all workers that resulted from the ending of slavery, and even though it took much more struggle, was the instituting of the eight-hour day.
Numerous books on the contributions and achievements of African American women rarely if ever mention Lucy Parsons. Charlayne Huntger-Gault, Florence Griffiths Joyner, Shirley Chisholm – all worthies of course – but never ever Lucy Parsons. Who hasn’t been impacted by the legalizing and enforcement of the eight-hour day?
As a disclaimer here, not ony am I not an anarchist but I don’t believe in anarchism. However in certain historical periods it has a positive role to play and there is a passion in the real anarchists that one has to admire.
Utah Phillips, the folk singer, used to tell this story about Lucy Parsons. “Shoot or stab them” was advice that got the anarchist agitator arrested whenever she tried to speak in public. Lucy’s husband was among those anarchists framed and executed for the infamous 1886 Haymarket bombing. Lucy continued to advocate for labor rights and social change. Here’s how Utah told the rest of the story:
“One time, she was speaking at a big May Day rally back in the Haymarket in the middle 1930s during The Depression. She was incredibly old. She was led carefully up to the rostrum, a multitude of people there. She had her hair tied back in a tight white bun, her face a mass of deeply incised lines, deep-set beady black eyes. She was the image of everybody’s great-grandmother. She hunched over that podium, hawk-like, and fixed that multitude with those beady black eyes, and said: “What I want is for every greasy grimy tramp to arm himself with a knife or a gun and stationing himself at the doorways of the rich shoot or stab them as they come out.”
Lest her zeal need a little explaining, Lucy Parsons made this declaration at the founding convention of the IWW in 1905: “Never be deceived that the rich will permit you to vote away their wealth.”
Very little remains of the pamphlets which Parsons published over the course of her life. The authorities considered her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.” They blocked her entrance to public halls and arrested her whenever she addressed a crowd. When Parsons died, the police confiscated and destroyed her library and papers.
Jean Damu is the former western regional representative for N’COBRA, National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, and a former member of the International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, taught Black Studies at the University of New Mexico, has traveled and written extensively in Cuba and Africa and currently serves as a member of the Steering Committee of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Email him at [email protected]. |
We aren't too far removed from the death of Windows XP -- sure you can still use it, but you do so at your own peril as the operating system is no longer supported by Microsoft (businesses can pay for extended support -- protection money, if you will). That hasn't stopped many individuals, and indeed even businesses, from continuing to run the OS despite potential for disaster. Granted, that may not be huge, but it is still a very real concern.
Now Windows Server 2003 faces a similar fate, with an impending date of July 14th, 2015 slated to bring an end to another staple of the enterprise. Like Windows XP, customers will not be happy -- enterprises move slowly and upgrades can be costly, not to mention proprietary software that may not work once the move is complete.
Estimates put the number at 39 percent for Sever 2003 integration (about 20 million) and Insight UK claims that while "you’ll be able to continue using it after support has disappeared but while you may be reluctant to give up such a trusted operating system -- it isn't advisable".
Meanwhile, Computer Business Review states this transition could be even harder than the one from Windows XP -- a move many still have not made, almost a year after its downfall. "Windows Server 2003 expiration could present more business risk than the end of support for XP did, it is claimed".
Microsoft's schedule for this supposed "Armageddon" goes as follows: support for Service Pack 1 ended quite some time ago, on April 14th 2009, while mainstream support for all versions currently in use (we hope) will come to a crashing halt on July 14th of this year. That includes Enterprise editions, both 32 and 64-bit, Standard edition, Datacenter editions (32 and 64) and Web edition.
MSMD Advisors analyst Mike Davis claims those affected "include some of Europe, the UK and America's largest firms and financial institutions". He points out that "2003 migration is a bigger deal than XP. If XP is the peripheral veins then 2003 is the heart".
The real question is if businesses will take this more seriously than the end of Windows XP, and early indications seem to say they won't. Moves such as this come with a lot of kicking and screaming. For now "Microsoft provides support on the current service pack, and in some cases the immediately preceding service pack". None of this is news, we've been given plenty of notice. Microsoft doesn't simply kill off a product such as this without fair warning. Will we see the end of usage by the prescribed date? Probably not. |
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Sky Duels #8: Spain on fire
The Spanish Civil War was a challenging test of Soviet and German technical preparedness for a major conflict. And it was in Spain where many future aces saw the challenges they were yet to face in upcoming battles
From October 26th 06:00 GMT to October 28st 06:00 GMT (from October 25th 23:00 PDT to October 27th 23:00 PDT)
50% special discount for 15% special discount for I-16 type 18, I-16 type 28, He.112V-5, He.112A-0, He-112B-0 and He.112B-1 EXP conversion for USSR and Germany
Achievements:
While flying I-16 or He 112
destroy 5 and 50 enemy aircraft in Arcade Battles
While flying any Soviet or German planes
destroy 3 and 10 enemy aircraft in Arcade Battles
destroy 5 aircraft in Full-Real Battles
You may earn up to 100 000 Silver Lions
(You can check your progress in your game profile — achievements)
The Heinkel He 112 fighter was developed by Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the middle of the 1930s and was supposed to become the main Luftwaffe fighter plane for the next 10 years. Its design employed numerous inovative decisions like reverse-gull wing planform, retractable landing gear and an all metal monocoque construction. The He 112 was also one of the first fighters equipped with cannon armament. But all these advantages were not enough to make Luftwaffe command give it preference over Messerschmitt Bf.109. So Heinkel had to choose other markets like Romania and Japan for its new model. The He 112 was also supplied to the infamous German Condor legion, which served with the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.
The Republicans fielded the renowned Polikarpov I-16, nicknamed ‘ishak’ (the Donkey) by Soviet pilots, it remained unrivalled from its first flight in 1933 till the Germans started mass producing the Bf.109 and He 112 monoplanes. Polikarpovs had a decisive advantage over Nationalist biplanes like the He 51s and the Fiat CR.32 because of the ishak’s superior speed, good climb rate and mountable bomb and rocket armament.
The Spanish Civil War was a challenging test of Soviet and German technical preparedness for a major conflict. And it was in Spain where many future aces had their baptism of fire. |
Who would have thought that Greece would be on the verge of another crisis? Actually, lots of economists forecast that this would happen. But what next?
The Greek public finances have been mismanaged for many years. Much of Greek government spending has been wasted, including on ludicrously early retirement in the public sector. Meanwhile, in large parts of the private sector, tax payment has been lax. You can readily understand, therefore, how incensed German tax-payers get at the thought of their hard-earned money going to “help the Greeks”.
There is doubtless still a good way to go to get the management of both Greek government spending and taxation up to scratch, but on the macro numbers, the progress so far is extraordinary. From 15pc in 2009, the Greek budget deficit looks likely to fall to approximately 1pc this year. Next year the budget should be in surplus.
The trouble is that this has not brought any discernible benefit to the ordinary Greek. Average real incomes have fallen and unemployment, although down slightly from the peak, is still about 25pc. What’s more, as some economists, including yours truly, warned, since GDP has been falling, all this fiscal austerity has not stopped the debt ratio from rising.
What’s more, deflation is now well established. Over the last year, prices have fallen by 1.2pc, and they should go on falling. This means that even if real GDP increases a bit, money GDP may still fall, causing the debt to GDP ratio to rise. And yet still Greece has to tighten its belt.
In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the main opposition party, Syriza, has called for an end to austerity and for a good part of Greece’s debt to be written off. And, running up to the general election on January 25th, it is ahead in the opinion polls.
To some European commentators, what Syriza wants seems mad. Yet if anything is mad, it is surely continuing on the current course. Since 2008, Greece has suffered a fall in GDP of about 25pc, roughly equivalent to the drop that occurred in the US and Germany during the 1930s.
But I do not see how Mrs Merkel can concede what Syriza is demanding. A further debt write-off may just about be possible but an end to austerity surely cannot be conceded. If it were, then how would the governments in Spain, Italy, Portugal and, increasingly, France, be kept to the sticking place? So if it comes to a showdown and Syriza does not back down, I reckon that Mrs Merkel would force Greece out of the euro.
In some ways this sounds like a re-run of the crisis in 2012. But two things have changed since then – and they make a departure from the euro more likely, not less. First, excluding interest payments on debt the Greek government is now running a surplus. So if it defaulted and suspended or delayed interest payments it would actually have money to spare.
Even so, critics say that default would be disastrous as no one would lend to the Greek government ever again. Nonsense. History suggests that it would be a matter of months before the investment bankers came knocking on the door.
Nor is this simply the result of a powerful mixture of greed and short memories. What lenders fear is not the history of recent default but the prospect of future default. Once a country has defaulted, the prospect of another default in the next year or two is actually lower.
The second factor that has changed is that the German government now believes that the eurozone is able to withstand a Greek departure from the euro without much ill-effect. What they feared in 2012 was contagion from Greece to Spain, Italy and Portugal. They reckon that with the various support mechanisms in place that is now less likely.
If default and euro departure produced chaos and disaster for Greece then the continued membership of these other vulnerable countries would indeed be safe – at least for now. Their governments would be able to warn their people that if they didn’t take their nasty medicine they would end up like Greece.
The real risk for the eurozone, though, is that Greek default and euro departure go relatively well, and after a year or so Greece is beginning a vigorous recovery on the back of a weak drachma. In that case, the people of Italy, Spain and Portugal would ask: “if Greece can do it that way then why can’t we?” And there wouldn’t be a good answer. The euro-zone would do the splits as soon as you could say Jean-Claude Juncker.
Of course, virtually no one in the Greek establishment wants Greece to leave the euro. Yet the country desperately needs decent economic growth. An end to austerity and a debt write-off would only do half the job. The other half is improved competitiveness. Achieving that through sustained deflation would be slow and painful, and would intensify the debt problem all over again.
It is not unusual for governments to cling on to what is the source and origin of a painful economic predicament. This is a version of what is known in the psychological world as Stockholm Syndrome, when prisoners become emotionally dependent upon their captors and do not want to escape.
For example, in 1931, the UK’s National Government fought hard to keep us on the Gold Standard, which was breaking the UK economy. It was only when we were forced off it that the economy grew strongly. Similarly, in 1992, the Major government did not decide that it wanted to leave the ERM. On the contrary it bent every effort, and spent almost every dollar, to keep us in! Once again, being forced out was the source of our salvation.
If Greece defaults, departs the euro and devalues, I am sure that this would be portrayed by the European establishment and by the media, including in this country, as an unmitigated disaster for Greece. Yet in economics, things often turn out differently from how they initially seem.
Currency crises are dramatic and accordingly make good news stories. By contrast, a country being slowly roasted on the spit year after agonising year soon loses its prime slot on the News at Ten.
Of course, Greece could blow it. But default and euro exit would give her the possibility of escape from this awful situation. Just ploughing the same old furrow will bring misery and disaster.
Roger Bootle is executive chairman of Capital Economics [email protected] |
Chapter Text
“And then he told me that my takoyaki was ‘too sticky.’ I mean, that is…what does that even mean? It’s takoyaki, for crying out loud! That’s just how I make it, and if his poor wittle stomach can’t take that then how is it my problem? So anyway, the next morning…”
Junko Kaname, for her part, sighed inwardly and rested her head in one hand, pretending to listen.
Kazuko went on rants like this at least once a week, and her best friend has long since learned there was no stopping her once she got on a roll. Better to let the brunette run herself out of steam on her own – there were less headaches for everyone involved, that way.
“And so, in conclusion…screw all men, way deep up the ass, with a totem pole,” Kazuko Saotome finally finished, finishing the rest of her sake in a single gulp. “Come on, what do you say, Junko? Gonna join me?”
“Oh, uh…sure. Definitely,” said Junko, barely listening. “Err…wait, what am I joining you for?”
“Swearing off all men!” the teacher-in-training exclaimed dramatically, raising her arm upward in a pose evocative of a sentai hero. “When was the last time any of them did something worth a damn, huh?”
“Well, our waiter seems a nice enough guy,” Junko couldn’t help but snark. “Hasn’t cut off our…err, supply, anyway.”
Kazuko, for her part, instantly flushed and crossed her arms, pouting at her friend. “Y…You know what I mean!” she replied, probably louder than she’d been intending. “I’m talking about dates, Junko! When’s the last time you had a date who didn’t turn out to be a total creep, a judgmental loser, or both?!”
“Dunno. I don’t really date the way you do, at all,” Junko told her disinterestedly. “It’s just not something I’m interested in.”
The other woman’s eyes widened behind her thick glasses. “That can’t possibly be true,” she said. “I mean…just look at you, Junko! You’re practically sex on legs in that suit! You can’t be telling me you don’t have dozens of men throwing themselves at you every day! And probably a few women, too…”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Kazuko,” the purple-haired woman responded with a shrug. “It’s just not on my radar. When I go to work, it’s to work. I mean, maybe some of my coworkers are interested, but if they are I don’t know and I don’t wanna know. Women in business have a hard enough time being taken seriously. The last thing I need is to play into some dumbass stereotype.”
Kazuko just pursed her lips. “You know, you were never this uptight in college,” she reminded her friend, raising an eyebrow pointedly. “Not by a long shot.”
“H…Hey! I’m not uptight!” Junko immediately blurted out, looking offended. “And sex in college was different, anyway. There, all you had to do to get laid was go to a party, get drunk, and make out with the cutest, dumbest boy in the room for half an hour. These days, it’s all flowers, fancy restaurants, crappy poetry…that’s what I don’t have time for.”
Finishing off the rest of her bowl as well, the businesswoman declared in a quieter voice, “I’ve got a ten-year plan going right now, and it doesn’t leave room for romance.”
“Well, alright…” said Kazuko, sighing deeply. “But I still say you don’t know what you’re missing.”
Now it was Junko’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Hold the phone. Weren’t you just asking me to join you in a vow of celibacy, like a whole two minutes ago?” she asked.
“Err…uhh…well, yeah! But that’s…that’s beside the point!” the brunette attempted to argue, not at all convincingly. “Urgh…what I mean is, I’m only giving up on men because I’ve…y’know…tried the whole buffet! And none of the dishes were worth a damn! But you…you didn’t even make it to the table!”
Completely flustered, Kazuko flopped her chin down onto the table and mumbled, “That, uh…didn’t really come out right. But you get what I mean, don’t you?”
“I guess,” Junko answered, shrugging again. “Look…if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll join in on your whole ‘boycott the men’ crusade. Same reason I’d join in on a ‘boycott the mayonnaise’ – not losing anything I would’ve cared about anyway.”
Lethargy from their rather hefty drinking session slowly beginning to flood in, Kazuko lazily turned her head – still glued to the table between them – and asked, “Is my personal life really such a joke to you?”
“Not always,” said Junko, patting her best friend comfortingly on the shoulder. “But when you get like this…yeah, maybe a little bit.”
Getting to her feet to pay off their now rather-considerable tab, the young businesswoman donned what she hoped was a supportive smile and added, “Cheer up, Kazuko. It’ll all look better after a good night’s sleep. And until you get back on that wagon…consider me intentionally dateless, not just out of disinterest. I’ve got your back, girlfriend.”
[--------------------]
Were this a romantic comedy, Junko would’ve known exactly what’d come next.
Such brazen tempting of fate could only result in Mister Right spontaneously appearing around the next corner, probably just in time for an adorably awkward first encounter that’d make good trailer fodder. Bonus points if they literally bumped into each other – complete with a mad scramble for dropped items, inevitably leading their hands to brush against each other, and their eyes to slowly meet in stunned, awed silence…
Junko had to suppress the urge to gag. There was a reason she freaking hated romantic comedies. Give her a horror flick or an American action movie any day.
The truly funny thing, though, was that her overly clichéd imaginings weren’t that far off the mark. They were merely a few seconds fast…and involved the wrong target.
She saw the impact coming a split-second before it occurred. The man involved was carrying a stack of three wooden crates, limiting his field of vision as he struggled to keep his balance, while the woman wasn’t looking where she was going at all, her entire focus directed downward at her phone.
Junko almost shouted a warning, but by the time she thought to do so it was already too late. The young businesswoman cringed as both individuals tumbled to the ground, one of the crates popping open and emptying its contents all over the sidewalk.
The other woman, however, did not respond to this by falling in love at first sight – or at least if she did, she had a rather odd way of showing it. Shouting something to the effect of “Watch where you’re going, you clumsy little…!” and then several rather more…colorful words, the woman picked herself off the ground, dusted off her dress, and strode off without a single glance back.
Junko watched on as the man rushed to collect the items – what looked from this distance to be hundreds of small, reddish balls – and bit her lip. He looked pretty pathetic, honestly, hunched over and crawling on his hands and knees as the “balls” rolled away from him in every direction.
The handful of other people on the street seemed to feel similarly, swerving around the man and averting their eyes from his frantic scramble. Junko knew the smart thing was to follow their lead and just keep walking; even without stopping, she was gonna wind up a couple minutes late to work at this rate.
But without really deciding to, she instead bent down as she approached.
“You alright?” she asked of him. “Need any help there?”
Already, she was hoping he’d say no. It was selfish, to be sure…but this was her best suit, and she’d really prefer not mess it up for something like this.
The man, for his part, looked up from his task slowly, clearly surprised she was talking to him. Chuckling nervously, he responded, “Oh! Oh, err…well…”
He cleared his throat and tried again. “I really appreciate the offer, ma’am, but…err…don’t worry about it,” he said. “This sort of stuff happens to me all the time, I’m used to it.”
“Not sure you should be,” Junko couldn’t help but add. “But…if you insist. I’ll leave you to your…uh…ping pong balls?”
The man chuckled again at her guess. “They’re tomatoes, actually,” he informed her, now picking up the last few stray handfuls. “I grow them in my garden myself. I was taking them to the farmer’s market, actually…but I guess this batch is gonna need to be washed again first.”
“The farmer’s market? Oh, uh…I see. Maybe I’ll make it over there later?” stated Junko carefully.
She didn’t actually mean a word of it. To have some use for fresh produce, one would first need to know how to cook…and Junko most certainly did not. She was capable of creating passable sandwiches – that was about it.
“Oh! D…Definitely!” the man replied, looking askance as he sealed the box back shut. “My booth’ll be right near the corner of Pinion Street – you can’t miss it. I’ll save you a free sample, Miss…”
“Kaname. I’m Junko Kaname,” she said, smiling as he stood back up. She couldn’t help noting he cut a significantly more impressive figure when he was upright…and not crawling all over the sidewalk for his tomatoes.
“My name’s Tomohisa Inoue,” he offered, smiling warmly. As noted by a part of her mind that rarely if ever provided commentary, it was a rather nice smile. “Have a wonderful day, Kaname-san.”
“Err…likewise,” she mumbled, suddenly feeling more than a little strange. A quick glance at her watch, however, made it clear there was little time to spend thinking about it, so she bowed her head respectfully and began to move past him.
Before he was completely out of earshot, however, Junko was struck by an impulse, and turned back to add one more thing, her tone teasing and playful:
“Just…can you make sure my sample comes from one of the other boxes, please?”
[--------------------]
Frontier Settings was a commercial real estate firm, specializing in venues ideal for small businesses or franchise outlets.
Junko had managed to snag a bottom-rung position there directly out of college, thanks to her already substantial resume – she’d taken no less than five internships in various offices across her school career, plus a stint as editor of the student paper. Bouncing around various low-level jobs within the company over the past two years, a colleague’s early retirement had recently lucked her into a much more rewarding position: personal assistant to the company president.
Yes, she was still more than occasionally miffed at being a glorified secretary – her education had been geared toward becoming an executive in her own right, and that was still the direction her ambitions lay – but the work was varied and challenging, and in any event Junko tended to consider it a stepping stone to better things.
Still, while her day-to-day tasks could range anywhere from managing the president’s schedule to helping crunch the numbers when it came time to process the next year’s budget…it also involved getting him tea.
“Thank you, Junko,” he said, sipping deeply into the sharp blend. President Masaoka was very particular about his tea, and when she’d started this job she’d needed to get very good at it very quickly. She’d rather he never learn the first cup she’d made him was also the first cup of tea she’d prepared, ever.
Thank god for the internet.
“Now, can we talk about the Sea Fragrance file?” he asked after a little while, as he finished the last of his cup.
Inwardly, Junko groaned. Sea Fragrance was a hair salon that was trying to open in the nearby Asunaro City, repurposing the retail space of a small café that’d closed down three years ago. And at this point, around the office, nearly every employee spoke of it in hushed tones – the entire process having dragged on for so long, and experienced so many problems and delays, that even the steadfastly agnostic Junko was half-convinced it was cursed.
Still, the president didn’t know any of that, and Junko wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. It was too alluring of an opportunity for her own career.
“Yosuke just decided to drop the whole thing, Masaoka-sama,” she answered, deciding a little bit of the truth was probably the best thing to offer right now. Maybe it wasn’t nice to rat a coworker out like that, but it wasn’t her fault he’d shown up drunk yesterday and cursed out their client as “the shitstain to end all shitstains.”
Of course, the fact that Yosuke getting canned would open up a job directly above her might have been a contributing factor.
“Well, we’ll see just how much he likes ‘dropping’ things when he comes up for performance review next month,” grunted the president, and Junko’s mental image of herself practically did a backflip. “You can salvage this mess, I hope?”
“Oh, definitely. You can count on me, sir!” she said, deciding she’d told more than enough truth for one morning.
And hey, you never knew. Sure, dealing with clients directly was completely outside both her job description and her practical experience, and sure, Yosuke was only the fifth realtor to give up on completing this sale. But if the big boss was going to put his faith in her to make the impossible happen…then dammit, she needed to at least try to make it happen.
“Wait…one more thing, before you get buried in all that,” President Masaoka added after a moment’s pause.
“What is it, Masaoka-sama?” she asked, leaning forward a little bit.
He leaned forward slightly as well, his voice taking on a hushed tone that made it sound as if he was sharing some kind of conspiracy.
“It’s, err…well, it’s my daughter’s ninth birthday today,” he finally told her, causing Junko’s eyebrow to rise; she hadn’t been expecting anything like this at all. “My wife’s busy making her a cake for the party tonight, but something still feels like it’s…missing.”
Junko crossed her fingers that the next question wasn’t going to be “Any suggestions on the recipe?” Or, if it was, that he’d give her the chance to duck out of here and call Kazuko for advice.
Yeah…Kazuko would know all about that sort of thing. And she did owe Junko a favor, after introducing her to that nice…
Okay, bad example.
“She really loves strawberries. They’re her favorite food,” the president went on, jolting Junko out of her brief reverie. “Hmm…yeah, that’d work. Load up the cake with ‘em, she’ll love it…”
“Did you…need me to run to the grocery store for you?” Junko asked tentatively.
“No, no…for my girl, it can’t just be the cheap, store-bought kind. Need some way to get ‘em fresh,” said President Masaoka. Eventually, his eyes brightened and he snapped his fingers. “Hold on. Wasn’t there supposed to be some farmer’s market in town today? I think I saw a flyer for it in the paper.”
Junko’s inner voice groaned loudly again.
[--------------------]
Junko Kaname didn’t believe in…well, anything, really. But Fate, or Destiny, or whatever the hell else you wanted to call people’s bizarre insistence that life was more than a shitstorm of random events, topped the list.
This was what repeated, over and over in her head, as she roamed the large assortment of booths and stands selling fresh produce, her eyes narrowed in search for a vendor who might be selling freshly picked strawberries…
And, though she certainly wasn’t going to admit it to anyone, least of all herself…also keeping one eye open for a certain man selling grape-sized tomatoes.
She tried to rationalize it to herself – the sooner she got out of here, the sooner she could get back to doing real work, and considering she had absolutely zero idea where to look, a friendly face who could point her in the right direction certainly couldn’t hurt.
But the truth was that another part of her, for some utterly unfathomable reason…just kind of wanted to see him again.
It was an odd thing, because there really wasn’t anything remarkable about him; nothing remarkable in a positive way, at least, since she was pretty sure she hadn’t met any other guys in the course of scrambling for dropped tomatoes. But in appearance and demeanor, she couldn’t think of anyone in the world more distinctly “average.”
So why the fuck was she still thinking about him?
“Strawberries, not tomatoes, dammit!” she exclaimed irritably, only realizing belatedly that she’d said the words out loud.
Several onlookers paused to give her a strange glance, but one other voice sounded over them through the crowd. “Err…I’m sorry? But…those are all I have…” stated a rather awkward, and quite familiar, voice.
Junko flushed crimson as the onlookers moved on, revealing that she’d been thinking all of this not three meters from the booth of Tomohisa Inoue. He had several crates filled with those tiny tomatoes piled next to him, with a great assortment of prepared samples spread across the booth – whole, sliced, and even made into some kind of salsa.
One was speared on a toothpick and being offered in her general direction…though at the sound of her peculiar outburst, his outstretched arm sunk a bit.
Attempting to smile, Tomohisa rather lamely raised his hand again, the fruit attempting to slide off its spear as he held it out to her.
“It’s, uh…from one of the other boxes. Like you asked,” he said, swallowing hard. “Err…unless you’re really that set on strawberries. Come to think of it, I never even asked if you liked tomatoes…”
On impulse, Junko leaned forward and cut off his rambling by biting the tomato off the toothpick.
The truth was, she wasn’t a big fan of tomatoes. Or at least, she hadn’t been…before this moment.
“This…is the best fucking tomato I have ever tasted,” she blurted out, her eyes going wide as she chewed and then swallowed. “How do you do it?”
“Oh! Uh…well, there’s a lot that goes into it,” Tomohisa answered, clearly surprised even to be receiving the question. “You need to the right soil to make them grow big and juicy like that. And it’s not exactly easy to get that in Mitakihara, so I import. Same with the fertilizer – the store-bought kind just doesn’t cut it. Trust me, I’ve tried. Luckily, my brother sends me top-quality manure whenever I ask. He produces it himself!”
The glasses-wearing gardener paused here, wondering why Junko’s face had suddenly twisted up…before his brain caught up with his mouth, and he flushed brilliantly.
“Oooooh that came out so wrong,” he muttered, scratching his head awkwardly. “What I mean is, he’s got a farm up near the mountains, and he keeps horses there. That’s all…”
His face became redder and redder with each word…but Junko merely held one hand over her mouth, struggling to hold in a burst of laughter. And it wasn’t merely a polite chuckle, trying to save his embarrassing slip of the tongue by passing it off as humor. It was sincere, loud, and unreserved.
There was simply something about the way this guy talked. The blend of knowledgeable confidence and utter, profound awkwardness came together in a manner she couldn’t in any way explain, and yet she couldn’t deny seemed to put her well at-ease. It wasn’t a feeling she was used to experiencing around near-strangers, that was for sure.
It occurred to Junko a couple seconds later that she’d been silent long enough that the poor guy might be getting worried – either that she wasn’t listening, or that she was still disgusted by the “manure” comment and hadn’t appreciated his explanation.
To put both concerns to rest, she clapped him on the shoulder and said, “Well, it’s clear your nefarious plan to ensnare me with free food has succeeded. I’ll definitely be coming back for some more of these things. But…I really need to get those strawberries first.”
“Got a craving?” he asked, his posture instantly relaxing at her use of humor.
“Well, someone does,” responded Junko with a sigh. “My boss’ kid. It’s her birthday today, apparently.”
“Ah, I gotcha. So he’s got you playing errand girl at the last minute,” Tomohisa surmised. “Well, that’s nice of you. Every little girl deserves to be treated like a princess on their special day.”
Coming out of just about anyone else’s mouth – her own included – there was no way this sentence could’ve been spoken without positively drowning in sarcasm. Yet his own tone was entirely sincere; it wasn’t hard to tell that he truly believed what he was saying, fully and unironically.
It was like he’d jumped off the back of a greeting card. Except that Junko hated greeting cards with a passion, and he…
Well, she didn’t hate him.
“Anyway, if you’re really set on this, I might be able to help you out,” he added after a little while, chuckling nervously. “I have a friend – Kazuraba – who’s selling them here right now. I share my extra soil and fertilizer with him sometimes, so he owes me. Say you’re a friend of mine and he should give you a good deal.”
Junko raised an eyebrow, a small smile spreading across her face. “Does that mean we are friends?” she asked teasingly.
“You can never have too many,” was his remarkably quick reply. His casual, earnest smile matched hers like a mirror.
“Hmm…I guess you’ve got a point there,” she said, laughing slightly as he struggled to draw a rough map showing how to get to Kazuraba’s booth.
He wasn’t very good at it…but dammit if he didn’t try.
[--------------------]
Tomohisa hadn’t been kidding when he’d said Kazuraba owed him a favor; one mention of the tomato-grower’s name and the older man had shoved two boxes of his best berries into her hands, completely free of charge.
Never one to look a good horse in the mouth – though just to be on the safe side, she’d decided to try one of the strawberries for herself, and found she was having great difficulty stopping at one – Junko hurried off with her prize in hand, politely but forcefully pushing her way through the great throngs of people gathered to sample the organic wares.
Part of her wanted to get back to the office immediately…but she felt it’d be rude to leave without at least thanking Tomohisa, so she took a short detour down his aisle on her way back.
When she returned to his booth, she found him chatting animatedly with Tohru Shizuki – a high-profile corporate attorney, as well as one of the city’s richest men. She’d seen him around the Frontier Settings office a couple of times, doing consulting work or reviewing documents, though she was somewhat surprised to see him here; he didn’t exactly seem to be the “buy straight from the farmer” type.
Whatever they were discussing, both clearly found it highly amusing. The two shook hands energetically, after which Tohru wandered off, chortling merrily as he tugged on his long green beard.
Tomohisa noticed Junko approaching a moment later, and he waved her over with a smile. “Did you find everything you needed alright, Kaname-san?” he asked.
“Call me Junko,” she corrected him automatically, before she could stop herself; for the most part she disliked being referred to with honorifics, or indeed with any kind of “formal” speech. It occurred to her a moment later that making such a request of man she’d just met might send…unintended signals, but if Tomohisa found this curious he certainly didn’t show it.
Instead, he merely smiled wider and said, “Junko, then. So…did Kazuraba get you that deal?”
Junko visibly relaxed at this, her smile matching his.
“Better, actually. He gave me a whole bunch for free,” she answered, taking them out of her bag to show off the bright red berries. “Maybe I should be suspicious about that, but right now I’m just giving a big fat thumbs-up to my good luck. Don’t really get a lot of that, so I’ll take it where I can get it.”
“If there’s one thing Kazuraba can be counted on, it’s the quality of his fruit,” Tomohisa told her with a chuckle. “Can’t trust him to pay gambling debts on time, or drive you to the airport, or return the pruning shears you lent him eight years ago…but he grows some really good berries.”
“Oh, tell me about it,” replied Junko. “I have a friend who’s exactly the same way. She’s absolutely brilliant when it comes to anything school-related – she’s studying to become a teacher – but you can’t rely on her for anything else. Oh, sure, she’s got like a thousand of these obscure European authors memorized, but I ask her one fucking time to…err, sorry. Excuse my language.”
Tomohisa just laughed again. “Don’t apologize,” he said. “I grew up with two older sisters, and they have way filthier mouths than you do. The prim-and-proper lady’s a myth I never really bought into.”
“Well, that’s refreshing at least!” Junko declared, joining in. “I mean, you still get a handful from the more traditional families…but most of the girls I know can swear, booze, and make an ass of themselves just as much as any man. Why do we have to keep pretending otherwise?”
“Probably because most of the guys who do like pretending are insecure about their small penises,” responded Tomohisa, only half-jokingly.
The fact that he said these words in precisely the same casual, soft-spoken cadence as he’d used previously, however, was too much for Junko to bear, and her laughter intensified as she broke down completely.
“God, you’re like…I don’t know what you’re like,” she managed to choke out, still clutching her gut. “I’m pretty sure I like it, though. No wonder you had Tohru in stitches.”
At this, however, his expression shifted, becoming unexpectedly downcast. “Tell you the truth, I was mostly just laughing with him to be polite. He didn’t exactly give me good news just now,” said Tomohisa.
“What do you mean?” asked Junko, raising an eyebrow in concern. “C’mon, tell me. You’ve listened to me bitch about my problems practically all day.”
The gardener sighed deeply.
“Basically, me, Kazuraba, and a couple of our other friends were throwing around the idea of…well, opening up an organic produce store together. Yeah, I know it sounds stupid,” he told her, shaking his head. “But these farmer’s markets are only a couple times a year, and we always sell out our stock. We just thought…well, you know…”
“Hey, doesn’t sound stupid to me,” Junko stated, doing her best to sound sincere and non-sarcastic. She wasn’t very good at it. “I mean, you’ve clearly demonstrated there’s a demand for the product. Why not give it a shot? Not like this city’s bursting with other places to get fresh, locally grown food.”
“It’s just…a big step, is all,” explained Tomohisa. “None of us have ever run anything bigger than this stand right here. And that’s not even getting into raising the start-up capital, drawing up a business plan, finding the right location…”
Junko’s attention perked up quite abruptly at those last four words.
“So…you’re trying to start up a small business, and you need a place to open it?” she asked slowly.
“Pretty much,” said Tomohisa. “Which is why Shizuki-san was laughing, I’m afraid. We used to be friends in high school, so I asked if he knew anyone in real estate who might be able to help me. I guess you can figure out what he thought of it.”
“That’s why he was laughing so hard? Pretty dickish if you ask me,” Junko replied, making an annoyed sound with her tongue. “Some friend.”
“I did say we used to be friends,” he pointed out. “But I still don’t think he meant any offense out of it. He just thinks it’s a silly idea, business-wise. And I can’t say I don’t see where he’s coming from.”
He looked so morose and down on himself that, instinctively, Junko found her hand closing around his. She wasn’t really sure why she’d done it…but as long as they were holding hands, she squeezed his, in what she hoped would come across as a comforting gesture.
“Well, I say screw that,” she said, her eyes narrowing intensely. “You’re gonna see this happen, Tomohisa. And I’ll help. You stuck your neck out for me today…so now it’s my turn.”
And with that, she reached into her pocket, and replaced her hand in his palm with her business card:
JUNKO KANAME
Executive Secretary
Frontier Settings
“Mitakihara’s Leader in Commercial Real Estate”
Her cell number was hastily scribbled on the back. |
[+]Enlarge Harran (right) sits with his attorney, Thomas O’Brien, in court on June 20. Credit: Al Seib/Los Angeles Times
SETTLEMENT TERMS Harran must: - Acknowledge and accept responsibility for lab conditions - Make no public statements denying responsibility - Adhere to state employee safety standards - Cooperate with state worker safety agency - Pay $10,000 to Grossman Burn Center - Create and teach an organic or general chemistry course for South Central Scholars - Speak to UCLA chemistry and biological sciences undergraduate students about importance of laboratory safety - Perform 800 hours of nonteaching community service to UCLA Hospital System/UCLA Health Services
To see reactions to the settlement, visit http://cenblog.org/the-safety-zone/2014/06/reactions-to-the-patrick-harran-settlement-in-the-sherisangji-case/
A Los Angeles County judge approved on June 20 an agreement that could end a criminal case against University of California, Los Angeles, chemistry professor Patrick G. Harran.
Harran was charged with four felony violations of the state labor code. The case originated from a 2008 fire in his lab that led to the death of research assistant Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji.
The deal mandates that Harran complete multiple forms of community service and pay a $10,000 fine. The charges were not dismissed. Instead, the case against Harran is effectively on hold while he completes the terms of the five-year agreement.
In a written statement released after the hearing, Sangji’s sister, Naveen Sangji, called the agreement “barely a slap on the wrist.” Harran had faced up to 4.5 years in prison.
In court, Harran read a statement, saying he was “ultimately responsible” for the safety of people working in his lab. “I have always felt I failed Sheri, and I deeply mourn her loss,” he said.
The case against Harran started on Dec. 27, 2011, when the district attorney’s (DA’s) office filed charges against him and the UC governing body. The DA’s office didn’t negotiate a deal with Harran until after his preliminary hearing to ensure there was a public record of what happened in the accident, says deputy DA Craig W. Hum.
As part of the community service mandated by the agreement, Harran must develop and teach an organic or general chemistry course for the South Central Scholars, a volunteer organization that helps prepare Los Angeles inner-city high school students for college and graduate school.
The DA’s office worked with the organization to put together a project that would be “enough of a drain on Harran’s time and energy to be a significant punishment while giving a huge benefit to the organization,” Hum says.
Harran must also complete 800 hours of community service in the UCLA hospital system. This service cannot involve teaching, and could include jobs such as delivering food to patients. “We wanted him to do something outside of his comfort zone,” Hum says.
Additionally, the agreement requires that Harran talk with UCLA chemistry and biology undergraduate students about laboratory safety. The agreement didn’t include other safety outreach because the DA’s office felt that the case itself brought sufficient attention to safety concerns, Hum says.
The DA’s office and the California Division of Occupational Safety & Health will monitor Harran’s compliance with the agreement. If they think that Harran isn’t meeting the requirements and a judge agrees, the original case involving the four charges will proceed to trial. Judge George G. Lomeli stressed this part of the agreement in court: “[Harran] will be given one chance to get this right.”
At the end of the five-year term, if Harran meets his obligations, the district attorney’s office will move to dismiss all charges against him and will not pursue any further prosecution. |
Coming Soon
Chip & Potato
A loveable pug and her mouse BFF start kindergarten, welcome new siblings and learn to become part of their community in this series for preschoolers.
Shadow and Bone
Sinister forces plot against a young soldier when she reveals a magical power that might unite her world. Based on Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
An unexpected detour turns a couple's road trip into a terrifying journey through their fragile psyches. Adapted and directed by Charlie Kaufman.
Tuca & Bertie
Two bird women -- a carefree toucan and an anxious songbird -- live in the same apartment building and share their lives in this animated comedy.
Undercover
A major ecstasy producer living in luxury on the Dutch-Belgian border faces big changes when two undercover agents begin moving in on his operation.
Spectros
A teenage boy and his friends get caught in a clash between Brazilian witchcraft and Japanese Shinto spirits in their neighborhood.
Quicksand
After a tragedy at a Stockholm prep school, high school student Maja finds herself on trial for murder. Based on the best-selling novel.
Twelve Forever
Twelve-year-old Reggie's desire to remain a child is so powerful that it opens up a fantasy world where she never has to grow up. |
Real IRA: We killed spy Donaldson - it had nothing to do with Sinn Fein chief Gerry Adams BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A former Real IRA leader has said that the dissident paramilitary group - not the Provisional IRA - killed British spy Denis Donaldson. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/real-ira-we-killed-spy-donaldson-it-had-nothing-to-do-with-sinn-fein-chief-gerry-adams-35088061.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/article35068934.ece/3503e/AUTOCROP/h342/Gerry%20Adams
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A former Real IRA leader has said that the dissident paramilitary group - not the Provisional IRA - killed British spy Denis Donaldson.
The dissident figure, who was a member of the Real IRA army council, said that Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams had "absolutely nothing to do with the execution of British agent, Denis Donaldson".
The allegations that the Sinn Fein official-turned-spy had been killed by the Provisional IRA, and that his 2006 murder had been sanctioned by Mr Adams, was made in a BBC Spotlight programme last week.
The claim was made by a man - known in the programme as 'Martin' - who described himself as a former Sinn Fein and IRA member who worked as a Special Branch agent. Mr Adams has denied any involvement in Donaldson's murder.
The former Real IRA army council member last night told the Belfast Telegraph: "Let me be clear about this. A claim of responsibility was made by (the Real IRA) in 2009 and it was correct.
"Gerry Adams had absolutely nothing to do with the execution of British agent Denis Donaldson. The Provisional IRA wasn't involved in any shape or form. I don't know why allegations that the Provos did it are now being made but they are totally untrue."
The BBC programme claimed that the Provos' south Armagh brigade had demanded that Donaldson be murdered.
When asked if his organisation may even have been in contact with south Armagh Provisionals regarding Donaldson, the former Real IRA leader said: "We had no dealings with them. We didn't even have anyone from south Armagh on our army council at the time."
The Donaldson family don't believe the Provisional IRA killed him or that Mr Adams sanctioned the murder.
Speaking after a meeting with senior gardai last week, the family's lawyer, Ciaran Shiels, told the BBC that Spotlight's claims did "not marry in any way with the lines of inquiry that have been progressed by the guards or by the (Police) Ombudsman". The BBC has said it stands by its journalism.
Mr Donaldson was shot dead in April 2006 in his cottage in Glenties, Co Donegal. The Real IRA claimed responsibility in a statement to this reporter three years later. The paramilitary organisation has since merged with other republican groups to form the New IRA.
In the 2009 claim of responsibility, a Real IRA army council representative said that masked gunmen had sledgehammered down the door of Mr Donaldson's cottage.
"The look on his face wasn't even one of shock. He seemed to know what was coming," the spokesman claimed.
Although Mr Donaldson's family visited him regularly, the Real IRA said they had his house under surveillance and knew he was alone when they struck.
The spokesman said that Mr Donaldson had no plan to defend himself. "He hadn't a baseball or hurley bat, a knife or anything like that at hand. There was a struggle and he ended up on the ground. He didn't cry out or plead for mercy. He remained silent all the time," he said.
The Real IRA claimed that Mr Donaldson's right hand was virtually severed in the shooting. There was some media speculation that this was symbolic because of the money he had taken from the British for his services. "That wasn't so," the dissident spokesman said. "His hand was blown away because he'd raised it to protect his head."
The killers had used a shotgun, which is very difficult to trace forensically, in the attack. The paramilitary group claimed responsibility for shooting Mr Donaldson shortly after the murder of two British soldiers at Massereene.
There was extreme hostility between the Provisionals and the Real IRA with Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness branding the Massereene gunmen "traitors to the island of Ireland".
Claiming responsibility for Mr Donaldson's murder, the Real IRA accused the Provisionals of "treachery". It alleged that they had done "a dirty deal with Donaldson like they did with Freddie Scappaticci" by allowing him to live in Donegal.
Further reading
Donaldson relatives reject claim he was killed by IRA on Adams' orders
Denis Donaldson family do not blame Provisional IRA for murder
Donaldson murder: Police say Provos not to blame - 'Genuine surprise' at BBC allegations
Fingerprints of Gerry Adams critic found in Donaldson murder cottage
Belfast Telegraph |
Russian president breaks ranks with Bashar al-Assad for the first time since the start of protests in Syria six months ago
The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, has urged his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, to reform or leave office – the first time the allies have publicly diverged during Syria's six-month uprising.
The surprise statement, reported by Russian news agencies, came as Turkey – a former ally of Damascus – said again that it would consider all options in dealing with the ongoing violence in Syria.
When pressed on what those options were, the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, conceded that military measures would be considered if the situation threatened his country's security.
"Every domestic crisis in Syria will affect Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It affects the whole region," he said. "In this regard, there is no other country more important than Syria today. So, when an internal conflict in Syria poses a risk to Turkey, we will take all necessary measures."
Turkey has been weighing a response to the Syrian crisis, which its leaders now say is being caused by a regime crackdown on protesters, some of whom have taken up arms.
Ankara has said it will impose a range of cultural and economic sanctions on Assad's regime, which insists it is battling terrorists backed by foreign states.
The latest Russian intervention has added to mounting pressure on the Syrian leader.
Earlier this week Moscow helped to veto a US-led resolution before the UN security council, which had threatened further sanctions on Damascus.
Furious lobbying by the US, Britain and Syrian opposition figures appeared to have done little to sway Russia, which has maintained a strategic relationship with the Ba'athist state since the cold war.
"If the Syrian leadership is incapable of conducting such reforms, it will have to go," Medvedev was reported to have said. "But this decision should be taken not in Nato or certain European countries. It should be taken by the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership."
Meanwhile, activists claimed 21 people were killed across Syria on Friday.
Protesters in Homms said Syrian security forces were targeting mosques in an attempt to stop public gatherings from forming. Friday prayers have acted as a lightning rod for anti-regime dissent for the past six months and there were clashes on most Fridays throughout the summer.
A Kurdish leader and member of the newly formed Syrian National Council, which sees itself as an alternative government to the Assad regime, was reportedly shot dead by security forces in the northern town of Qaboun.
Mesha'al Timmo, the spokesperson for the Kurdish Future party, was meeting activists inside a private home when armed men burst in and killed him, activists said. |
In 2013, Manhattan Institute’s health policy team launched the Obamacare Impact Map—an interactive guide to understanding the financial impact of President Obama's signature health-care legislation. The map demonstrates the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on insurance costs state-by-state.
Since the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, together with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress, the future of Obamacare is under serious review. For the latest from MI scholars on health care policy ideas, please visit our health policy page.
ABOUT THE MAP
The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Obamacare) enacted numerous changes to the United States’ health insurance landscape. At its core, the law is an individual mandate requiring the purchase of health insurance, along with a system of health insurance marketplaces, also known as “exchanges.” In addition, the law provides federal subsidies to those who qualify for them. Various regulations dictate the minimum benefits that insurance plans must offer, ensuring that generally, the cost of insurance increases across the country.
The Obamacare Impact Map, a product of the Manhattan Institute, is a tool for policymakers, researchers, and every day Americans to understand the multi-faceted effects of PPACA on the nation.
The map demonstrates the effects on health insurance rates, the total number of potential subsidy beneficiaries under the law, and the effect of subsidies on insurance costs.
Primary authors responsible for the Obamacare Impact Map include Paul Howard, senior fellow and director of Health Policy at the Manhattan Institute; Avik Roy, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and editor of The Apothecary, a Forbes health care blog; and Yevgeniy Feyman, fellow and deputy director of Health Policy at the Manhattan Institute.
METHODOLOGY
In order to adequately assess the information required to develop the Obamacare Impact Map, we used three separate approaches for the three separate sets of data presented in the map.
Rate Changes
In order to document rate changes, we first gathered pre-ACA insurance rates using the federal government's finder.healthcare.gov website. Our pre-ACA dataset consists of the five least expensive plans (by monthly premium) for the most populous zip code in every county. To cover a significant age range we collected rates for 27, 40, and 64-year old male and female non-smokers. We adjusted these rates to take into account those who are denied health insurance coverage as well as those who receive a surcharge. Using the "denial rate" and "surcharge rate" from the federal government's repository, we assumed that those who are surcharged pay 75 percent more and those who are denied, find insurance elsewhere at three times the original rate. We used this to develop a weighted average of the five least expensive insurance plans for every zip code we identified. To develop a state-wide average, we took the state-wide average for every age-gender combination.
For ACA rates, we created state-level averages by averaging rates for the five cheapest plans across all counties in a state. The data was sourced from HealthSherpa.com, and because the ACA bans denials based on pre-existing conditions, there is no need to develop a weighted average of these rates. Thus, rate changes at the state-level are calculated by looking at the rate change between the average of the five cheapest plans for all counties before and after the ACA.
Subsidy Beneficiaries
In order to tabulate the total number of potential subsidy beneficiaries we used the University of Minnesota Population Center's Integrated Public Use Microdata (IPUMS) for the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS). We used the 2012 March Economic Supplement as the primary data source.
It is important to note that we opted not to use replicate weights - instead we used the standard person-weights while using states as our strata. The reason for this is that the improvement in standard errors from using replicate weights was relatively minor given the additional computation time required to implement them.
In determining who would eligible for subsidies, we assumed a complete Medicaid expansion - and therefore excluded those below 139 percent of the federal poverty level (the ACA expands Medicaid to 133 percent with a five percent income disregard, making it effectively up to 138 percent). While the ACA will use 2013 income to determine eligibility, we used 2012 income and therefore used 2012 cutoffs to determine the federal poverty level as well. This should not make a material difference in the final results - as income grows in 2013, so does the federal poverty level.
The data is reported in two groups - the first column shows the number of uninsured, subsidy-eligible individuals as a percentage of the total uninsured population for each age group. The second column goes a step further - because individuals currently in the individual market may end up transitioning to the exchanges, we identify those currently purchasing individual health insurance who would be eligible for subsidies. We add this number together with the number of total uninsured eligible for subsidies and report it as a percent of the entire population for each age group. Put simply, the numerator and denominator for the first pie chart are: the total number of uninsured potential subsidy beneficiaries and the total number of uninsured above 138 percent of FPL, respectively (to exclude those eligible for the Medicaid expansion). For the second pie chart, the numerator is the total number of insured eligible individuals in the individual market plus the number of uninsured potential subsidy beneficiaries; the denominator is the total population. In most cases this does not include government programs - in the case of New York, however, the Healthy New York population will be transitioned to the exchanges and thus was included in the count.
Additionally, we report the data along five age groups - 20 and under; 21 to 30; 31 to 40; 41 to 50; and 51 and up. Lastly, we use Adjusted Gross Income (rather than Modified Adjusted Gross Income) to determine subsidy eligibility; this should not make a material difference in the findings.
Your Decision
The focus of the third dataset was to address the effects of premiums on the cost of insurance. To do so, we used 2012 American Community Survey (ACS) data (also sourced from IPUMS) to find median household incomes for three ages - 27, 40, and 64-year olds - as well as the median household size and found the subsidy-adjusted net cost of insurance under the ACA for each representative household, using the average of the five cheapest plans for this calculation (household here is defined as a "family unit"). In addition, we built "breakeven points" (more precisely, critical points) which reflect the household income level, for a given representative individual, where a subsidy-adjusted rate increase (if there is one) turns into a subsidy-adjusted rate decrease.
This analysis was broader than in previous sections primarily because we took into account the entire population of each of the three ages studied. Taking into account the entire population allows for "churn" in insurance markets. That is, a 27-year old who is currently insured through his employer may eventually end up on the exchanges at some point. The caveat with this approach, of course, is that the focus is on the population as a whole rather than just the uninsured.
A few important notes are also in order. The breakeven point is only available for those states where we found rate increases for a median income household with subsidies. In states with a decrease, the inflection point is labeled with as "0."
*Methodological Caveats: Additionally, the average of 5 cheapest plans in Alabama ends up being more expensive than the second-cheapest silver plan (which is used to calculate subsidies). Thus, in Alabama, we assume, for the purposes of developing a net cost of insurance for the median individual, that the individual purchases the second-cheapest silver plan. We also excluded a number of plans from our calculations. Excluded plans include those which explicitly offer vision or dental coverage, child-only plans, plans that cover bariatric surgery, as well as catastrophic plans. Lastly, it's important to note that the third and first categories are not directly comparable; the third category uses data from an older dataset and was not updated with more recent figures, and thus isn't completely comparable. |
On October 23, 1887, when St. Albans first turned on the ladies of Taylor Park, the effect around town was nothing short of electric.
“Those who arose early saw them amid the shining glories of the rising sun … the attractive figures upon the fountain. The graceful and handsome maiden … the shapely figures about the base,” the St. Albans Messenger rhapsodized the next day. “For long years to come it would remain marvelous in its beauty — an inspiration and a delight — the pride of St. Albans.”
Railroad tycoon and former Vermont governor John Gregory Smith presumably intended that reaction when he donated the $2000 fountain to St. Albans. Sitting on the board of Vermont Central Railroad, Smith played no small role in the village’s economic development.
Even if the “ladies” were just a cherry on top of Smith’s other contributions, they have remained iconic, standing 30 feet tall and looming large over Taylor Park, a 5-acre green space that slopes down to Main Street. Even the Smithsonian has taken note: In 2009, a photo of the fountain appeared on the front cover of Zinc Sculpture in America, 1850-1950, a 705-page book by Carol A. Grissom, a senior conservator for the institution.
Visible as the fountain is, it has seen better days. It consists of three sections: a cast-iron fountain stem; a wide, concrete basin surrounded by a granite ring; and zinc statues (one water nymph at the top, three cherubs halfway down and four musing ladies at the base). The nymph was cast from a model originally made in Paris in 1867, according to Grissom’s book, and no more than seven such sculptures still stand in the U.S.
Since the fountain was last refurbished in 1987, the wear and tear has been so great that St. Albans was forced to shut it down in spring 2012. The fingers and feet on individual statues are cracking and peeling, while water has seeped under the basin and frozen, eroding the grout that once acted as a seal.
In advance of the city’s sesquicentennial reenactment of the St. Albans Raid next October, several residents have been ramping up their efforts to restore “the pride of St. Albans.” But, according to Jeff Young, an alderperson who manages the park and has spearheaded the restoration, it’s not clear if the fountain will be running by that deadline.
What’s needed isn’t a Band-Aid approach, he believes, but for someone to disassemble the fountain completely, refurbish its individual parts and reengineer the plumbing and basin on which they sit. “It’s not a $20,000 fix. It’s a quarter-million-dollar fix,” Young explains of the required work.
Although the city council hasn’t taken up any motions to write a bond for the restoration, it has been getting estimates from ORW Landscape Architects and Planners, a White River Junction firm that most recently suggested costs between $250,000 and $300,000, reports St. Albans city manager Dominic Cloud.
The city council will work on a budget to present to voters on Town Meeting Day in March. But Young doesn’t predict the fountain will make the cut this year. As St. Albans has revitalized its downtown, Young readily admits, he and his fellow aldermen have been faced with “one bond [vote] after another.”
Rather than depending on public funds, Young and other residents have started looking to private and corporate donors and grants to raise the $35,000 necessary to kickstart the refurbishment. With the city’s blessing, Young says, the first step would be shipping the fountain to a metalworking firm in Alabama that owns the original French molds of the statues and could recast them in aluminum. That metal is more durable than zinc but can rust easily, requiring ample waterproofing.
Kathleen Manahan, who has organized fundraisers for various causes around St. Albans, recently created the Save the Ladies Fountain Fund. Her fundraisers have included a car show and, last March, a charitable jump into Lake Champlain by city manager Cloud and alderman Chad Spooner. To date, $7000 has been donated to the city for the cause.
Young has been refurbishing Taylor Park since taking over the parks commission in 2006, and now is trying to start a nonprofit organization for the park that could allot funds to the fountain restoration. After all, he explains, the ladies are inseparable from their environment.
“When I took over, [the park] was in desperate condition, and I think we’ve made good progress,” Young says. “But the fountain is the 800-pound gorilla in the room. For over 100 years it’s been the city’s logo, and you don’t want it looking like that.”
For more info about Save the Ladies Fountain Fund, email [email protected]. |
Ethereum design studio ConsenSys has launched BTC Relay, an open source project enabling Ethereum-based networks to interoperate programmatically with the Bitcoin network and eventually other Ethereum and Bitcoin-based systems.
BTC Relay is a fully decentralised smart contract for the community that does not grant special privileges to any party. Using BTC Relay, Ethereum developers can implement a "Pay with Bitcoin" button in their Ethereum-based decentralised applications, allowing Bitcoin holders to interact with smart contracts and decentralized applications on the Ethereum platform, said a statement.
BTC Relay has been added to EtherEx, a decentralised exchange, as a mechanism whereby Bitcoin can be exchanged with Ether, without any counterparty risk. Another potential use case is the issuance of an Ethereum-based "BTC" token (ETHBTC) based on locking actual BTC tokens in a multisig on the Bitcoin protocol.
This bidirectional bridge between BTC and ETHBTC is planned. From a technical perspective, BTC Relay implements Bitcoin SPV (simplified payment verification) to verify whether a Bitcoin transaction has been confirmed (sufficiently) on the Bitcoin blockchain. Community members, called Relayers, provide BTC Relay with the new Bitcoin block header that has been generated by Bitcoin miners. Ethereum decentralised app developers can make API calls to BTC Relay from their smart contracts to verify activities on the Bitcoin network.
Anyone can join the Ethereum network and become a Relayer; there is no heavy hardware or electricity consumption as required for Bitcoin mining. BTC Relay was conceived and funded under the Ethereum Foundation, and later adopted and supported by ConsenSys when Joseph Chow, the developer of BTC Relay, joined ConsenSys. A grant from Wanxiang Blockchain Labs was used to fund an independent security audit and rewards for a fruitful bug bounty program.
"BTC Relay is a building block and I look forward to the infrastructure, applications, and innovations that BTC Relay helps enable on and off the Ethereum platform. The possibilities are exciting," said Joseph Chow, developer of BTC Relay.
Vitalik Buterin, the inventor of Ethereum, said "I am excited to see BTC Relay provide the first-ever production release of cross-blockchain communication of this kind, and hope that it will set an example for interoperating cross-blockchain applications, whether between Bitcoin and Ethereum, other blockchains and Ethereum and public and private or consortium chains, for many years to come."
Joseph Lubin, founder and CEO of ConsenSys, indicated that "BTC Relay is a powerful tool that enables Ethereum smart contracts to serve as SPV wallets for various other Ethereum-based networks or other blockchain-based systems (Bitcoin, Doge, etc.) in private permissioned, or open permissionless implementations.
With this capability, Ethereum, due to the stateful, computational power of its EVM and smart contract capabilities, can serve as a substrate for many glue protocols that will join various blockchain networks and other decentralised services together into an internet of decentralised systems. We envision a world of many purpose-built private enterprise and consortium blockchain systems, in addition to public blockchain networks, and BTC Relay and its extensions can enable them all to easily interoperate." |
The official website for Toei's Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~ (Rainbow-Colored Fireflies: The Eternal Summer Vacation) anime film began streaming the first 20 minutes of the film on Monday. The video is available to watch until May 18, the day before the film premieres in theaters in Japan.
Based on Masayuki Kawaguchi's 2007 novel, the story follows a sixth-grade boy named Yūta who slips back in time 30 years during summer vacation. After his father's death, Yūta tries to reclaim what was lost by experiencing summer activities like insect collecting and fireworks and discovering his first love in a village that should be underwater.
The cast and theme singer for the film were revealed in late January.Two trailers were also streamed for the film in February.
Konosuke Uda (One Piece, Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy) is directing the film, which features an adapted screenplay by Kei Kunii ( The Princess Blade live action film), along with character designs and animation direction by Hisashi Mori (Samurai 7). Takaaki Yamashita (Saint Seiya, Summer Wars) is contributing to visual art, and Seiki Tamura (K-ON!, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) is serving as art director. Masataka Matsutoya (Sonic X) is composing the music.
[Via Duune99, Crunchyroll] |
As you'll hear from the video's narration, three Nitrous-based RTS games are currently in production and Oxide believes that these titles will represent a major leap forward for the real-time strategy genre thanks to the "epic scale" permitted by the high population limit.
"It's a difference of at least an order of magnitude," says Oxide founder Dan Baker (who was previously Graphics Lead on Civilization V). "Take the most complex scene you've ever seen in StarCraft II and multiply it by 10."
There are a couple of ingredients that are essential for delivering the huge 5,000-unit spectacles seen in Star Swarm. Firstly, you need a robust CPU, since processing this quantity of AI and physics relies on general computing power just as much as on graphics. Unlike many games on the market, those based on Nitrous will be able to make full use of all available CPU cores at the same time. The configuration in the video includes an aging, but powerful six-core Intel Core i7 980.
"Take the most complex scene you've ever seen in StarCraft II and multiply it by 10."
Secondly, to allow for both scale and enhanced visual effects such as motion blur, the graphics side of the system must contain a recent AMD GPU that supports the Mantle programming tool. As we've reported before, Mantle brings hardware-specific (read: brand-specific) programming to PC games, because it allows developers to code directly for AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture without going through fluffy, hardware-agnostic middlemen like Microsoft's DirectX drivers. In this instance, Mantle speeds up the communication between the CPU and GPU, allowing multiple CPU cores to delegate tasks to the GPU without causing a jam. The result is a GPU that does more, like calculating lighting effects for every object, and a CPU that is also freed up to do more, such as simulating independent AI-controlled gun turrets on bigger ships. (For deeper technical detail on this, check out Oxide's presentation at APU13.)
Star Swarm is actually the first hard evidence we've seen of what Mantle can do, and the numbers speak for themselves: With everything else being equal, enabling Mantle increased the demo's frame rate by nearly 300 percent, from an unplayable 13 fps to a buttery 44 fps. AMD promised as much when it launched its Kaveri APU earlier today, adding that Star Swarm will run at playable frame rates even on low-power 65-watt versions of the APU (versus 95 watts for a regular desktop chip).
Separately, AMD claims that a forthcoming Mantle update for Battlefield 4 will boost performance in that title by as much as 45 percent. We've also heard some gossip that the PC version of Sniper Elite 3 will support Mantle, likely reflecting the fact that its developer, Rebellion, is making PS4 and Xbox One versions of the first-person shooter and is therefore already accustomed to optimizing its code for AMD's architecture. All in all, if these games live up to the precedent set by Star Swarm, it could well be worth having some Mantle juice in your gaming rig in 2014. |
AN EMPLOYEE reported that Dollar Tree, 5316 N. Milwaukee Ave., was robbed at about 10:20 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The employee reported that a man entered the store, displayed a handgun and took $110 from the cash register, according to police.
AN EMPLOYEE reported that Walgreens, 5230 N. Milwaukee Ave., was robbed at about 8:50 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The employee reported that a man displayed a handgun and demanded money, according to police. The employee said when he told the gunman that he could not open cash the cash register, he took five packs of cigarettes and left the store, police said.
A WOMAN reported that she was attacked and robbed at about 4:40 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, in the 5200 block of West Byron Street, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The 22-year-old woman reported that a man approached her, punched her in the head and took her purse, according to police.
A WOMAN reported that her wallet was stolen at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, while she was on a CTA Blue Line train between Cumberland Avenue and Irving Park Road, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The woman reported that when she got off the train she discovered that her purse was open and that her wallet containing $300 and her passport were missing, according to police.
A MAN WAS charged with assault following his arrest at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, in the 5200 block of North Lockwood Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
A 22-year-old woman reported that the man blocked her vehicle with his pick-up truck and pointed a gun at her when she tried to turn onto Foster Avenue from Lockwood Avenue, according to police.
The suspect was identified by police as Cong L. Sun, age 27, of the 5300 block of West Foster Avenue.
A MAN WAS charged with battery following his arrest at about 6:15 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, in the 6000 block of West Cornelia Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
A 56-year-old man reported that following an argument, the man threw a knife at him, hitting him in the ear and causing minor injuries, according to police.
The suspect was identified by police as Jan Kozak, age 55, of the 6000 block of West Cornelia Avenue.
TWO MEN were charged with possession of burglary tools following their arrest at about 2:20 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 26, in the 3800 block of North Pioneer Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
Officers responding to a report of suspicious men discovered footprints in the snow near a garage where tools were missing, and the men were arrested after the owner of the garage identified tools in their possession, according to police.
The suspects were identified by police as Joseph R. Castle, age 24, of the 4900 block of North Michigan Avenue, Schiller Park, and Roger Parsons Jr., age 27, of the 4800 block of West Winnemac Avenue.
AN EMPLOYEE reported that three men stole beer from the 7-Eleven store, 6000 W. Higgins Ave at about 1:05 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The employee reported that the men entered the store, took two cases of beer and left the store without paying for the items, according to police.
A MAN WAS charged with retail theft following his arrest at about 11:10 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, in the 4300 block of North Central Avenue, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
An employee of Walgreens, 4343 N. Central Ave., reported that he saw the man place eight boxes of Children’s Motrin in his coat and leave the store without paying for the items, according to police.
The suspect was described as Johnny Lopez, age 36, of the 4600 block of North Monticello Avenue.
A MAN REPORTED that his home in the 7300 block of West Lunt Avenue was burglarized between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The man reported that when he returned home he discovered that jewelry valued at $3,000 and $1,000 in cash were missing, according to police.
A MAN REPORTED that the garage of his home in the 3500 block of North Neva Avenue was burglarized between 6 and 11 a.m. Monday, Jan. 27, according to 16th (Jefferson Park) District police.
The man said he discovered that the garage window was broken and that four car rims valued at $2,800, two bicycles valued at $200 and tools valued at $1000 were missing, according to police. |
Economists around the world are struggling to break free of the clutches of the financial crisis but a Canadian girl explains exactly what needs to be done.
Victoria Grant, 12, became an overnight Internet sensation after a video of her slamming Canada’s banks and the government for robbing the people, went viral.
“What I’ve discovered is that banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada,” she said at Pubic Banking Institute conference in Philadelphia.
In her interview with RT, the child economist expressed her concern that the Canadian government has been borrowing money from private banks and putting the people into debt. “And they are not doing anything about this. So they are just standing by and watching the private banks make us pay compounded interest.”
“It has become painfully obvious even for me, a 12-year-old Canadian, that we are being defrauded and robbed by the banking system and a complicit government,” Victoria stated in her speech at the conference.
Until the 1970s, the Canadian government borrowed money directly from the Bank of Canada. But in recent decades, it has been borrowing from private banks instead which results in the government paying extra in interest rates to cover private banks’ profit margins.
The prodigy’s solution to her country’s financial problems is that the government “should stop borrowing from private banks and start borrowing from the Bank of Canada with little to no interest.”
“The people will then pay fair taxes to repay the Bank of Canada. This tax money would in turn get injected back into our economic infrastructure and the debt would be wiped out. Canadians will again prosper with real money as the foundation of our economic structure,” she said.
Victoria’s mother, Marcia Grant, principal at the Resurrection Christian Academy, told RT that her daughter becoming an Internet sensation is “quite exciting.” “We never knew when this project started what would happen with this. It’s exciting that we get people talking and doing their own research. Whether they agree or disagree, they are at least listening and exploring.” |
RUGBY league journalist Paul Kent has slammed Jarryd Hayne’s return to Parramatta from the Gold Coast, blasting the NRL to allow a deal that “stinks” to go through.
Hayne signed a one-year contract with the Eels last week for a reported $500,000 a season — a far cry from the $1.2 million a year he was earning at the Titans. Despite still being contracted to the Gold Coast, Hayne told the club he wished to leave to be closer to his young daughter, who lives in NSW.
The NRL reportedly must take into account a player’s value before giving the OK to any deal and Kent — from The Daily Telegraph — was furious the sport’s governing body permitted Hayne’s walkout with the knowledge he was taking a $700,000 pay cut to allow Parramatta to remain under the salary cap.
“To be honest, I think the whole thing stinks. I think there’s a smell about this,” Kent told Fox Sports News.
“I don’t see how the NRL can justify Jarryd Hayne taking a $1.2 million deal, walking out on it and being allowed to get under the cap at Parramatta for $500,000.
“No concept of me can figure out why that’s a fair deal.
“The NRL, I’ve spoken to them today about it, they’ve argued that’s what Jarryd’s current market value is, but how do you establish that?”
Kent maintained the rage on NRL 360 lateron Monday night, saying if any other player made a similar move the NRL would need to investigate for a possible salary cap “rort”.
He also said Parramatta being found guilty last year of cheating the salary cap added an ugly twist to the situation, which should make the NRL even more keen to look into the specifics of Hayne’s return.
“How they can allow any player in the competition to go from a $1.2 million deal to another club for $500,000 and not investigate it as a salary cap rort (is beyond me),” Kent said.
“I can’t see how any other player in the competition can be allowed to take that pay cut and still be declared legitimate under the salary cap the way it works.
“The NRL said if you went to the open market he would be worth $500,000 or $600,000 but the fact is he’s not on the open market. He has a current contract worth $1.2 million then quit to take a $500,000 deal and we’re all going to say, ‘Nothing to see here, move along’ at a club which a year ago was cheated busting the salary cap.”
One of Kent’s issues is Hayne didn’t go on the open market, preventing other clubs from making a play for the representative superstar and offering him similar money if not more than what the Eels put on the table.
“I’m thinking the NRL says to Parramatta if he wants to come back that’s fine but you pay proper market value,” Kent said.
“By the time every other club found out about it (Hayne’s availability) he’d been signed.
“There’s a stink that a player is allowed to sign at one club and walk out on $1.2 million, to sign at another club without going to market for half that and we don’t even investigate it.”
Hayne thanked his former side for offering him a second chance last week.
“As I said yesterday, my decision to return to Sydney wasn’t taken lightly so I am grateful that (coach) Brad (Arthur) and the Eels have offered me the opportunity to return to the club,” Hayne told the Eels’ website on Friday night.
“Eels members and fans have been behind me throughout my career and I want to use this second chance to repay that faith and support.
“I look forward to returning to training in early January 2018 and am keen to work hard and play my part for the team in building on last year’s finals run.”
It remains to be seen where Hayne will fit into coach Brad Arthur’s side. His best football has always been played while at fullback.
However, either Clint Gutherson or Bevan French is more likely to fill the No. 1 jersey while Mitch Moses and Corey Norman would appear to have a mortgage on the halves spots.
— with AAP |
Property owners may be entitled to compensation if the state government fails to act to halt pollution that is a “known and longstanding public health hazard,” Maryland’s highest court has ruled.
In a case that advocates say puts the state on notice to enforce environmental laws, a divided Court of Appeals declared in late January that a Caroline County woman can pursue her claim that she lost her family’s lake and campground because state and local officials didn’t address septic contamination from a nearby town.
The 4-3 ruling is the latest twist in the six-year legal struggle of Gail Litz, who is suing the state of Maryland and the Eastern Shore town of Goldsboro contending that their neglect of a long-running septic pollution problem cost her the business and property that had been in her family for decades.
The court’s majority said that the Maryland Department of the Environment’s failure to enforce a consent order requiring the town to fix its residents’ failing septic systems could be seen as an “inverse condemnation” if Litz can prove it caused her to lose the campground and her 140-acre property.
The state’s Court of Special Appeals, an intermediate court, had decided earlier to let Litz’s lawsuit against the town proceed. But that court dismissed her case against the state, saying MDE’s inaction was not grounds under state law to demand compensation from the government for depriving her of her livelihood and land. The intermediate court said that passive inaction was not a taking, or condemnation, of her property; in order for a government entity to be responsible for condemnation, it had to actually contribute to the pollution problem.
But the highest court ruling disagreed. So Litz can now also pursue her claims against the state. The decision is significant not just because the state has resources that small towns like Goldsboro do not, but also because the state has issued hundreds of similar orders to fix pollution, but doesn’t enforce them all.
Three judges dissented from the majority opinion, saying they believed property can only be “taken” by some government action, not by failing to enforce laws. No Maryland law or prior court decision has established that government inaction can lead to liability, the dissenters wrote. They warned that Litz’s “novel theory” of government taking property by doing nothing could enable private citizens to seek a wide range of legal actions when they perceive laws aren’t being enforced.
The ruling allows Litz to have what she’s wanted all along: a chance to argue her case to a jury of her peers in Caroline County, her home for most of her 67 years.
“The exciting thing is that it sets a precedent, so people all over … can do this to get relief,” she said. “When the state says they are going to do something, they need to do it.”
The court’s majority looked at laws and legal precedents in California, Minnesota and Florida that found those states’ inaction in the face of a duty to protect could make the government liable for harm. The court then ruled that the same principle applied under Maryland law: A state’s failure to act can condemn property, just as if it had taken people’s homes to build a new highway.
“Maryland said, ‘look, we’re going to be of the view that if a government’s failure to do something affects a person’s property, they have a claim for inverse condemnation,’” said Litz’s attorney, Philip W. Hoon of Chestertown, who took the case along with Baltimore litigator G. Macy Nelson after several environmental groups declined to represent Litz. “Now, thanks to their decision, we start the trial we wanted to have six years ago.”
In its 29-page opinion, the appeals court majority stated that Litz still must prove she deserves compensation. But, writing for the majority, Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr. concluded: “It is not frivolous to hypothesize that state, county, and municipal agencies may have duties to step in to protect the public health.’’
MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said state officials were still “digesting the decision” and had no comment on it.
Litz’s father, William Councell, bought the 28-acre freshwater Lake Bonnie and surrounding farmland in 1948. By the early 1960s, he opened the property as a campground, which was popular for its summer bluegill fishing and its winter ice-skating parties. Litz worked at the campground as a young girl, and inherited the business and the land from her father.
By the 1980s, though, both Litz and Councell were sensing a problem with the water in Lake Bonnie, which comes from two local streams in Goldsboro and then discharges into the Choptank River near its headwaters. Sometimes, Litz recalled, there were suds in the lake. The town’s septic systems were failing, and officials determined the only way to solve the problem was to hook the town of about 150 residents to a public sewage treatment system.
But in 1985, and again in 1988, the townspeople rejected such plans. Even though federal and state grants would have paid close to 90 percent of the costs, townspeople maintained they couldn't afford the rest. Even 10 percent of the costs could be crippling for such a small and cash-strapped town. Each household might have had to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more each year in water and sewer bills.
In Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, residents in Woodstock and Berryville saw sewer and water rates quadruple when the towns put in new plants to upgrade antiquated systems. Those towns are about 10 times larger than Goldsboro, allowing more people to pay into the system and diffuse some of the cost. Still, in the case of Woodstock, the entire city council was voted out in large part because of the increases to cover the $31 million wastewater plant. But, town officials said, there was no choice; like Goldsboro, Woodstock was under a consent order to upgrade its wastewater plant.
In Goldsboro’s case, Caroline County’s health director, Lester W. Coble Jr., voiced concern that nitrate, a key pollutant in septic systems, was showing up in residents’ drinking-water wells. Nitrate-rich water is dangerous for infants younger than 6 months old. When ingested, it can cause “blue baby syndrome,” a condition in which youngsters do not get enough oxygen in their blood. Their skin turns bluish, and they may become irritable or lethargic. In severe cases, it can cause coma and death if not treated promptly.
In a 1988 letter to the state’s environment secretary, Coble wrote: "Community sewage and community water are needed for this town.”
By 1995, Coble wrote to the secretary again, saying the problem in Goldsboro had reached "crisis proportions." He urged the state to enter into a consent order that would force the town to hook up to public water and sewer.
Later that year, he ordered Lake Bonnie closed for swimming because the water contained unsafe levels of fecal coliform bacteria, an indicator of contamination by human waste.
The lake never re-opened.
In 1996, Goldsboro signed a consent order with MDE acknowledging the septic systems were failing. The order outlined a schedule for the town to construct and connect residents to a public sewer system. The state would fine Goldsboro $100 a day if it did not comply.
But the state never enforced the order. Steven R. Johnson, MDE’ s chief lawyer, told the Bay Journal in an interview four years ago that it would have been “malpractice” to say the state should have enforced the agreement. He called the order “meaningless” once the town decided not to fund the system. How could the state fine a town that had no money, he asked? Instead, Johnson said, the department tried to work with Goldsboro to find a way to finance a sewage treatment plant.
State and local officials say they were hamstrung by the high costs of fixing the problem, and a lack of funds. One plan floated in 2009 would have cost $21 million to build a treatment plant in Goldsboro big enough to replace the failing septic systems in that town and three other nearby communities.
Another plan would have extended a sewer line under the Choptank River and connected the town to Denton’s sewage plant, sparking fears of river pollution should the line rupture. There was some hope that a developer who wanted to build 500 homes near Goldsboro would construct a plant to solve the problem, but county commissioners balked when the developer would not also hook up to nearby towns on failing septics. As discussions wore on, the real estate market slumped, and the development never came to pass.
Litz, meanwhile, said she did everything she could to keep her lakefront campground running without its star attraction. She also served on the local sewer committee. But by 2010, with Goldsboro no closer to solving its septic problem and her campground losing visitors, she fell behind on her mortgage and lost the property to foreclosure.
In 2015, Caroline County officials broke ground on a $19 million sewage treatment plant in Greensboro, with a sewer line to be extended to Goldsboro by 2018. Nearly 40 years after county health officials first discovered the failing septic systems in Goldsboro, government is finally addressing the problem, with state and federal funds covering the bulk of the cost.
In the lawsuit she filed six years ago, Litz asked for $7 million in damages. The lake was her retirement, she said, and her only chance of passing something to her children. She now lives outside Orlando, FL., with her son and his family.
“The campsite was my life, and my purpose, and everything centered around it. When I lost it, I lost my purpose,” she said. “That was my children’s inheritance, and I worked for it all my life.”
Ridgeway Hall, vice chair of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, a nonprofit group offering free legal help to environmental groups and citizens, called the court’s decision “absolutely the right call.” The state has acknowledged that it has issued hundreds of consent orders requiring pollution be curbed or cleaned up, but doesn’t enforce them all strictly. This decision, Hall said, could encourage governments to take those orders more seriously.
“It’s very hard to know how many situations are analogous,” Hall said. “But one constitutional use of this will be, environmental groups can go to the government and say, ‘Look, you have the duty to do something, and if you don’t, you could be liable.’”
Litz’s situation is, if not unique, at least uncommon. In most cases, pollution harms a group of people — children suffering asthma attacks from breathing smoggy air, for instance, or fishermen losing their livelihood because algae-clogged tributaries have depleted their catch. Not too many Marylanders own their own lakes. And pollution typically does not harm one person in an area disproportionately more than another. Still, Hall said, the case could have widespread implications.
“It will give lawyers heart to know that there is now Maryland case law supporting the claim of inverse condemnation when there’s a failure to act in the face of a duty to act,” he said.
The septic pollution problem in northern Caroline County has harmed more than just Lake Bonnie. It further degraded the Choptank River, which has struggled for decades with an influx of nitrogen and phosphorus from farm runoff. Though the river’s water quality has improved in recent years, the Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy’s 2014 report card found those gains came mainly in the lower river, not the upper reaches near Lake Bonnie.
The Lake Bonnie case “was a failure by the state on so many levels,” said Jeff Horstman, the conservancy’s executive director. “Compliance and enforcement has largely been a weakness at the Maryland Department of the Environment for many reasons, budget being a main issue.”
Litz can never get back what she lost. A local resident, Johnathan Merson, now owns Lake Bonnie. And even when the new treatment plant is built, Caroline County’s septic problem won’t be entirely solved, either. Henderson, Marydel and Templeville -- other small towns near Goldsboro with failing septic systems -- were supposed to be connected to the new Greensboro sewage plant. As of now, there isn’t enough money to include them. |
LATE NIGHT Jon Stewart picks apart conservative case against gay marriage
From there, he spent some time picking apart the slippery-slope arguments made by conservatives like Sen. Lindsey Graham and Justice Antonin Scalia.
“It is hard to overstate how big a deal this could be for gay marriage,” Stewart declared.
Stewart began with a little historical context, reminding viewers of the fact that it was President Bill Clinton who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, and and that states as politically divergent as California and Alabama have enacted constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions.
“The Daily Show” broadcast its last new episode of 2012 on Thursday night, and Jon Stewart closed the year by looking forward – specifically, to the two historic gay marriage cases going before the Supreme Court in 2013 .
He began with Graham, who in an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan, asked whether it’s possible for three people to genuinely love each other. Presumably, his point was that by expanding the definition of marriage to accommodate gays and lesbians, lawmakers would leave open the floodgates to more radical redefinitions of the term.
Unfortunately, Graham made this point while sitting next to two of his colleagues, Sen. John McCain and Sen. Joseph Lieberman. As Stewart observed, this created the distinct impression that the good senator from South Carolina was interested in some kind of unorthodox arrangement himself.
But more to the point, Graham was also relying on the “age-old slippery-slope argument,” a line of reasoning that, as Stewart put it, “plac[es] gayness into the category of whimsical desire for something unconventional, as opposed to a state of being who you are.”
Surely no one on the Supreme Court would fall for this kind of specious logic, Stewart predicted.
Ah, but not so fast: During an appearance on Monday at Princeton University, Scalia was asked by a gay student about dissents he’d written likening anti-sodomy laws with measures against murder and bestiality.
Scalia’s response? He expressed surprise that the student wasn’t convinced by his argument.
"Good old slippery, sodomy-slope Scalia," Stewart mused. Like many other observers, Stewart was irritated by the justice’s condescending response to the student at Princeton, which he paraphrased this way: “Yes, I’m surprised you weren’t persuaded, gay student who asked why I equate his love life with murder."
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twitter.com/MeredithBlake |
The news of President Trump's executive order on immigration from Muslim countries drew opposition from around the country yesterday, including a large protest at SFO's international terminal and a smaller one that marched through the city's streets.
Now, organizers are gearing up for a larger protest, set for 3pm this coming Saturday, February 4th, in Civic Center Plaza. According to the Facebook event, 7,500 people have expressed interest and nearly 2,000 have said they will attend.
Organizers say the protest will target the President's "racist and exclusionary executive orders ... Join us in sharing your immigration stories and standing in solidarity with all our brothers and sisters."
LET THEM IN.Thousands gather at SFO to protest the Muslim refugee immigrant ban. #nohatenofearimmigrantsarewelcomehere pic.twitter.com/DR6g6MIe4T — ((wendymacnaughton)) (@wendymac) January 29, 2017
In addition to next weekend's protest, protesters are returning to SFO today for a second day of demonstrations. Here's more information on that protest.
Have more info on upcoming protests taking place in SF? Have you spotted a protest in action in the city? Text Hoodline at (415) 200-3233. |
Photo: Courtesy of Jaunt
With the Sound and Visions series, Vulture explores the future of movies and the movie industry. We hope you’ll plug us directly into your cerebral cortex.
In 1947, MGM tried a new narrative trick. The studio wanted a way to mimic the first-person narration of Raymond Chander’s Philip Marlowe novels, so it hit upon the idea of shooting an entire film from the detective’s perspective. The result was Robert Montgomery’s The Lady in the Lake, and it’s an odd watch. We’re seeing the mystery from Marlowe’s eyes, but we’re not really Marlowe; our eyes don’t see in black-and-white, for one, and they don’t see in the Academy ratio. Watching it, you get the sense that there’s always something you’re missing, lurking just outside the frame.
In the decades since, other films have borrowed the first-person conceit, but none have been able to perfect it. Take Hardcore (currently crowd-funding on Indiegogo), which bills itself as “the world’s first ever action POV feature film.” The concept is cool — what if Crank had been filmed on a GoPro? — and the wide-angle lens cuts down on aspect-ratio FOMO, but its relentless forward momentum has the same odd, distancing effect. In the words of Film School Rejects, it feels less like real life and more like watching somebody else play a video game.
But as long as humans have visual cortices, we’re going to want to make art that reflects the way we see the world. Now the technology is finally catching up. The much-hyped Oculus Rift headset has brought virtual reality to exhibition halls across the country; a consumer version is rumored to be coming next year. (Officially, there’s no release date.) Other manufacturers, including Google, have come up with VR headsets that use your smartphones as a screen. In a few years, seeing someone strapped into a headset in public may be like seeing someone taking a picture with an iPad — weird and slightly unsettling the first few times, and then slowly more and more normal.
You don’t have to be Steve Jobs to see the potential opportunity that presents for filmmakers. At the recent Virtual Reality Film Fest in Los Angeles, Rift headsets were filled with the work of studios looking to get in on the ground floor of the new medium. The Rift was originally designed for gaming, and most of the films on display seemed inspired by sandbox games, plopping you down in CGI landscapes and letting you take in the scene. There were exotic safaris, charming cafés, and underwater voyages that got you up close and personal with an animated blue whale. (They are much larger than you expect.)
Like the early silent filmmakers, the VR industry is currently trying to figure out how to go from simply immersing viewers in a new world to telling a story within it. While their predecessors a century earlier had to discover editing, what VR filmmakers have to adjust to is a lack of it. Cuts may work in Lady in the Lake, where the viewer is literally less plugged-in, but everyone agrees that the most basic film transition is verboten in VR lest it make viewers sick or, even worse, insane.
“In film, a lot of scenes are constructed from the outside in,” says Michael Murdock, co-founder of VR studio Otherworld Interactive. “You start with an establishing shot, then you move in closer until you get to the point where you’ve got the actors talking. With virtual reality, you have to work the opposite way; you start in the personal space around you, and then you ask, Where am I?” Or even, Who am I? One of Otherworld’s films is Café Âme, which puts viewers in the midst of a soothing French café in the 1950s — only when you see your reflection in a window do you discover you’re actually a robot.
Experiencing the world as a beatnik robot is fun, but for more complicated stories, VR filmmakers are looking for ways to get the audience to pay attention to what they’re supposed to. One trick, they say, is sound. Scott Broock of Jaunt VR imagines a virtual-reality film of the near future: “Say you’re on top of a cliff, with a beautiful tree to your right and a golden sunset ahead of you. And there’s a bird on the branch of the tree, and it’s chirping. You think, Oh my God, this is the most serene, relaxing place on the planet. And then behind you, you hear this rumbling sound. It’s slowly getting louder, so finally you turn around and realize you have a zombie horde coming right at you. You’ve managed to get people to look in a particular direction, so they didn’t manage to catch something that was right there.”
The lack of cuts also means that most VR films need to take place in something close to real time. But, Broock says, you can wiggle around that with a little ingenuity. Jaunt’s horror film Black Mass begins with the viewer waking up in a bloody storage room. After a couple tiny jump-scares, two strangers come in and put a hood over your head; when they take it off, you’re in a different room. “That was a transition,” says Broock, “but it’s organic to the scene.”
Jaunt is one of a handful of companies that has developed live-action virtual-reality cameras; the hope is that live-action VR can feel more natural on the eye than CGI. But shooting a VR film introduces a panorama of hazards. Because VR cameras shoot 360 degrees, there’s literally nowhere a crew member can stand without being in the shot. (So far they’ve gotten around this by ducking into shadows or hiding behind crates.) The lighting, too, needs to be natural, or at least disguised. And at this point, the technological hurdles are vast. To create the 3-D effect, Jaunt’s camera needs to edit footage from 16 lenses together into one image; every second of footage takes 15 seconds to stitch. Even by the glacial standards of a film set, that’s a lot of downtime.
Talk to anyone in the VR industry, and they’ll tell you it’s a very experimental time for the medium. It’s unclear whether anyone will want to have a headset strapped to their face for two hours, or even what kind of stories they’ll want to experience. So far, horror shorts and concert documentaries seem like natural fits, but Jaunt has tried its hand at a war film and a monster movie. Fox Searchlight just made a Wild short with Reese Witherspoon for the Rift, and even the porn industry has dipped a finger into the pie. A company called Total 360 Cinema is reportedly making the first VR feature film; it’s a romantic comedy. Just like in regular Hollywood, nobody knows anything yet.
But one bigger question looms over all these debates: How interactive should VR films be? The technology will be there soon, but filmmakers are wary the immersive experience will be lost if viewers have too much power. “For the type of storytelling I’m interested in, I think interactivity is a problem,” Pixar director Sasha Unseld told a panel at a recent Oculus developer conference. “The audience is a horrible storyteller.”
Additional reporting by Kara Warner. |
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Dec. 25, 2013, 12:54 AM GMT By Alan Boyle, Science Editor
Nearly two weeks after a faulty coolant valve crippled the International Space Station, two NASA astronauts took on a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk to get things back to normal.
During Tuesday's seven-hour, 30-minute repair operation, spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins installed a refrigerator-sized coolant pump module with an assist from Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who operated the 58-foot-long (18-meter-long) robotic arm from inside the space station.
NASA commentator Rob Navias said the new module passed an initial pressure test. "We have a pump that is alive and well," he reported on NASA TV.
The only other time NASA conducted a spacewalk on Christmas Eve was during a Hubble repair operation in 1999. The timing lent a holiday spirit to Tuesday's proceedings. "It's like Christmas morning, opening up a little present here," Mastracchio joked as he checked his tools.
PhotoBlog: Santa never had a view like this!
Two and a half hours into the job, Hopkins stood at the end of the robotic arm and steadied the 780-pound (355-kilogram) pump module as it was swung into position for installation. "Mike Hopkins taking a special sleigh ride on this Christmas Eve," Navias observed.
The spacewalk didn't always go as smoothly as Santa's rounds, however: After the astronauts slid the boxy apparatus into place and secured it with bolts, they had some trouble switching the cooling system's fluid lines. They had to tap and pry at one of the interim fluid-line connections to free it up, and in the process they set off a mini-blizzard of toxic ammonia "snowflakes."
The snowflakes dissipated, and all the proper connections were eventually made. But the astronauts reported that some of the frozen ammonia got onto their spacesuits. As a result, they had to take some extra time to let the chemicals "bake out" from their suits before ending the spacewalk.
Essential role
Tuesday's spacewalk followed up on Saturday's operation to remove the faulty pump module. A valve inside that module failed on Dec. 11, forcing one of the station's two ammonia coolant loops to go offline.
The cooling system plays an essential role in keeping the onboard electronics from overheating. When the first loop failed, NASA had to shut down non-essential systems and switch other systems over to the second loop, reducing the station's safety margin in the process. If the other loop had failed, that could have forced the six-man crew to abandon the station.
A similar pump module switch-out required three difficult spacewalks in 2010, but only two were needed this time around, in part because of the lessons learned three years earlier. The astronauts who were involved in those 2010 spacewalks, Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson, were on hand at Mission Control in Houston to lend advice.
When the repairs were made, Wheelock told the crew, "It's the best Christmas ever."
"Merry Christmas to everybody," Hopkins replied. "It took a couple of licks to get 'er done, but we got it."
Worries about water
Safety concerns added some extra twists to the past week's repair operation: In July, Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano almost drowned when water from his spacesuit cooling system backed up into his helmet. The crew overhauled the spacesuits, and NASA pronounced them "clean" — but as a precaution, the helmets were equipped with absorbent pads and emergency snorkels.
Neither Mastracchio and Hopkins reported any helmet problems on Saturday or on Tuesday.
After Saturday's 5.5-hour spacewalk, Mastracchio mistakenly flipped a switch on his suit that may have sent water to a different cooling device known as a sublimator. In a worst-case scenario, that could have caused the device to freeze up during the next spacewalk.
As a result, Mastracchio's suit was set aside to dry out, Hopkins' suit was resized to fit Mastracchio, and a backup suit was fitted for Hopkins' use. The switch required an extra day of preparation — which is why the follow-up spacewalk took place on Tuesday instead of Monday, as originally scheduled.
Getting back to normal
If further tests confirm that Tuesday's repairs were successful, operations could return to normal over the next few days. NASA also could go ahead with a cargo resupply mission that had to be postponed due to the cooling system problem. The launch of Orbital Sciences' Cygnus cargo capsule is now scheduled for Jan. 7.
The station is currently at its maximum capacity of six live-aboard spacefliers. In addition to Mastracchio, Hopkins and Wakata, three Russians round out the crew: Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyurin.
Kotov and Ryazanskiy are planning a spacewalk of their own on Friday, to install new equipment on the station's Russian segment.
More about the spacewalks:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding +Alan Boyle to your Google+ circles. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds. |
The Petalhue hair dye and Spirit hairpin accessories are made from bits and pieces of the creatures the citizens worshipped: Florie wings for hairpins and Orochi snake fluids for the dye. The Florie wings secrete a fluid that brings out a person's desires, corrupting them in the process. The two girls who went to the forest succumbed to the wings and killed each other over it. The Orochi snake extract, called Nidaphyx, is a hallucinogen and drives people mad. Considering what happened to the girls, this would have been Florem's fate had the party not intervened. The Petalhue merchant, working for the Bloodrose Legion said that at the rate it continued, "Florem won't last a month."
Can we just clarify and reiterate the fact that two girls - literally children - kill each other with their bare hands over fairy wings while you're standing right there? Since you're fighting Mephilia you don't see it, but my god. That's creepy. Not to mention them screeching at each other as they pull a fairy apart between them right before the fight. And Mephilia's obviously insane, chattering on about how much she loves her sister and loves watching people betray and kill each other...and then she says there's another soul inside Tiz, right before she dies. Yeah, that whole scene is terrifying, made somehow worse with the dissonance between the grim goings-on and the fact that this is happening in a bright, colourful forest area.
Yeah, that whole scene is terrifying, made somehow worse with the dissonance between the grim goings-on and the fact that this is happening in a bright, colourful forest area. Advertisement: Artemia the Ranger is pretty creepy as well, having gone completely feral and having practically no sense of free will anymore. What makes it worse is Edea once knew her. Imagine having one of your friends lose their mind and consider you "prey" to "hunt"... Actually the Blood Rose Brigade has Nightmare Fuel aplenty: Fiore de Rosa, source of the Unfortunate Implications entry below, is also a member.
During the Fiore de Rosa quest, you can talk to one of the girls who's been subject to his pheremones. It's incredibly horrifying from an Adult Fear point of view, since she sounds scarily similar to a rape victim. And he was this close to doing the same to Edea, AKA his boss's daughter . And (in the Japanese version) she's only fifteen years old.
It's incredibly horrifying from an Adult Fear point of view, since she sounds scarily similar to a rape victim. |
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Jurgen Klopp insisted Divock Origi was ideally suited to facing Borussia Dortmund after the young Liverpool striker shone in the 1-1 draw at the Westfalenstadion.
The Reds boss, who insisted the tie was still “50-50” going into next Thursday’s second leg at Anfield, played down the significance of dropping Daniel Sturridge for the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final as Origi got the nod to start up front.
The 20-year-old frontman repaid the manager’s faith with a tireless performance in Germany which he capped with a precious away goal.
“Divock was made for this game with the space he can make and how he can hold the ball,” Klopp said.
“You have to try and imagine where you can have some small advantages and that’s what we did – it was nothing about Daniel.
“He has played the last games, it is completely normal. I know people say things about me taking him from the pitch after 60 minutes, but it is completely normal and now he is fresh for the game against Stoke.
“When Daniel came on he immediately had a brilliant moment. It was outstanding so you could see the impact he had. I cannot say we played better with Divock ahead of Daniel.
“It was not too brave to start Divock to be honest. He has had no rhythm because of injuries.
“He is a young lad and we have to work with him. If we have more than one player for each position then we can choose one game him, and another game him.”
Klopp was delighted with Liverpool’s display against his former club but was left to rue the lapse which allowed Mats Hummels to nod home an equaliser early in the second half.
“I am satisfied with a lot of parts of the game,” he said.
“Organisation was good, we were brave, disciplined, everything good. We were brilliant to be honest, we showed what we are capable of.
“Of course with a team like Dortmund with their quality you can not defend each pass, so you need to be fight and be organised and that’s what we did.
“We did it really well and we scored a wonderful goal.
'Sorry' - Klopp apologises for positioning at corner
“Then a set piece. That’s how it is in football - a fault for all of us.
“I decided to have Adam Lallana in this position instead of Origi, so sorry for this. But we were still in the game and had really big chances after. It fell into an almost perfect performance.
“Dortmund weren’t too clear in their performance. Always they changed, so always adapting to these changes in formation was not easy, but we did well.”
Asked about the reception he received on his return to Dortmund, Klopp added: “Of course this was an unusual situation with everything around the game, it was different than we were used to.
“There was applause which I took for me and I made a small gesture in return. The people here are very special and I felt good coming back, it’s a special place to come to.
“I think we saw the game is still 50-50 and Dortmund don’t care too much about where they are playing or where they score a goal.
“They are still a very strong team, but people thought a lot about our possible performance so they are perhaps a little surprised now.
“An away goal is really good, 100% better than a 0-0. It will still be really tight, and a really interesting clash.” |
CL-12
The optional CL-12 linear fader controller significantly expands the mixing capability of the 664. The CL-12 offers 12 100 mm linear faders and sunlight-viewable, 22-segment LED metering with limiter activity. It also offers three user programmable buttons, as well as numerous dedicated back-lit buttons for quick access to key functionalities, such as metadata entry, transport controls, arming, routing, and much more.
The CL-12 comes in two models: the standard CL-12, designed to be a sleek and durable mixing surface with robust black aluminum side panels, and the CL-12 Alaia, which features incredibly smooth gliding Penny & Giles faders and gorgeous custom hardwood side panels.
NOTE: A micro USB power cable (not included) is required when connecting the CL-12 to the 664. Also, Firmware v2.11 or later is required. |
I've been on the road here in Iowa, covering the caucus and the aftermath of the close-number-three outcome in the Ron Paul world, for an upcoming feature article in the April print issue of Reason (subscribe right away!)
Herewith, a free-range gambol through some things I've learned or seen here, on the ground, in Iowa. (The ground here is cold, in case you were wondering the real truth about being on the ground in Iowa.)
The Paul campaign, as the media has noted, is pretty tight-lipped; I was told that "message discipline" in a campaign is of great importance to them, so the people officially authorized to speak on the campaign are limited in number and often hard to reach in a hurry. But I've gotten some on-the-record comment and a much larger store of background or not-for-attribution stuff from wandering around the speeches, caucuses, and parties of the Ron Paul world this week.
The most important thing for Paul fans to know is: coming in third with over 26,000 votes fully matched if not exceeded the campaign's hopes and expectations. Even if you are bummed that he didn't win, the campaign is not. Some in the Paul community are even pretty sure that not coming in first will be better for Paul for the long haul than coming in first would have been. (For general reasons of "less of a target for opponents and media.")
During the brief holiday period of Paul's frontrunner-hood last month, that attention didn't feel good to the campaign in many ways. But there is no objective sign that he was particularly damaged by any of that yesterday. Paul's 21.4 percent came in pretty much exactly as he'd been polling for the ten days prior. Paul didn't fail to win yesterday because his percentage shrank; he didn't win because his opponents' percentages grew.
Rick Santorum is one who grew, and grew, and grew, to everyone's surprise. There is some chance that part of that surprise Santorum growth can be credited to the Paul-centered brouhaha when Bachmann's state chair Kent Sorenson, a state senator who had long been in the Paul orbit (Paul had done a fundraiser for him back in 2009), quit Bachmann's team and endorsed Paul.
Bachmann accused Sorenson of having been paid off by the Paul campaign. She provided no proof, the Paul campaign and Paul himself denied it, and I didn't meet any Iowan who seemed to genuinely believe it. Another Bachmann aide denied it publicly and probably got fired for contradicting his boss. (More interesting unsubstantiated rumor, based on the Paul fundraiser in 2009: that Sorenson was a Paul mole all along!) More than one Iowa native (one of whom noted that, perhaps to their detriment, most of the people running the show for Paul here day-to-day were not Iowans) told me that that sort of thing just reads distastefully to many locals. One Paul precinct captain just told me, unbidden, that he didn't like that sort of thing; it just isn't done, and it was the only expression of distaste with anything surrounding Paul I heard from his lips.
Another Iowan said at the very least it might have been better if Sorenson's quitting Bachmann and endorsing Paul had a couple of days between them to avoid the old appearance of impropriety. I meet a lot of Paul fans, both here and around the country, who like to believe their guy is above purely political machinations; lots of people working for him understandably believe political machinations are one of the things that make political campaigns work.
Doubtless the specifics of this "staffer leaves one candidate and endorses another" story is a pretty in-the-weeds thing that most caucus-goers didn't obsess about much. Still, it added to the general aura of a deflating Bachmann and may well have led many people who would have been Bachmann voters to become Santorum ones. Had the split of that evangelical values voter audience been more even between Michele and Rick, Paul would likely have been a close second.
Everyone I talked to was impressed with what the Paul machine achieved in Iowa, working hard for what they got with likely over a million in ads over the campaign, dozens of paid staffers, many hundreds of out of state youthful troops working brutal 10 hour or more shifts everyday and stored away at a YMCA camp, doing advance work for Paul's many appearances, working the phones (ferociously; everyone in the Paul campaign's lists seemed to be getting multiple calls a day), doing some door-to-door stuff (and keeping their eyes on the local Occupiers to make sure they didn't come back to disrupt the office, as they did once.)
The good old fashioned traveling Paul grassroots warriors, like "End the Fed" movement founder Steven Vincent from Los Angeles, hit the ground here to do the sort of public rallying--pub "crawls for Paul," sign waves--that the grassroots loves, even as the campaign would rather they all just be phone banking. The Paul energy is "different" this time around, Vincent says; "it's not as much stuff like sign waving and rallying and public outward activity. It seems more online and more phone calling and things like that, and fundraising. It is not as raucous." The days of the "Ron Paul Revolution" banners hanging everywhere, as another activist lamented, seem to be over.
Still, Vincent is sure that the Paul energy remains deep and spreading; he's a yoga coach himself and wandered into an Iowa yoga class out of the blue, and ran into three random Paul voters there when he explained what brought him to Iowa. "One man, 68 years old, told me that he understands it is time for real, real change, serious change, and this Ron Paul seems like the guy who's gonna do it," Vincent says.
Could more have been done to get Paul closer to number one? I heard a few bits of Wednesday-morning-quarterbacking that seemed to have some merit. At the caucus itself, lots of people come in undecided, so a concerted effort at making sure good, sharp Paul spokespeople were at as many caucus locations as possible might have paid off. That speechifying effort was laid on local precinct captains (who were provided with suggested talking points) and may not, from some accounts, have been done very effectively across the over a thousand different caucus meetings.
One Iowan actually suggests that the phone banking--which was key to how Rand Paul, from whose winning campaign many Ron Paul higher-ups come, won in Kentucky in 2010, and thus considered pretty much the alpha and omega of how to win a campaign in the Paul operation--may have been overdone. He told me he knows of at least a handful of Iowans who found it annoyingly overbearing and led them to decide not to caucus for Paul, and from what he knows of the Iowan mentality he suspects there might have been others similarly discomfited. (Another un-Iowa touch I heard locals complain about: the official Ankeny HQ started locking its doors during office hours. Bad form for someone eagerly showing up, often after driving many hours, to pick up signs or volunteer to run into a locked door. "No one in Iowa locks doors," I was told, though I admit when I'm in a hotel here, I do lock my door. But I'm an out-of-towner.)
And never forget that no matter how good a job the campaign did at message-spreading and getting out their base, Paul has a problem with lots of voters (one I find Paul mavens surprisingly unwilling to admit): they just don't actually agree with most or all of his beliefs. In that regard, given that Paul's most vivid and forceful departure from conservative and Republican orthodoxy is in foreign policy, the noises round the globe hyping up possible war with Iran probably worked against Paul's interests here in Iowa. Ominous splashes from the Straits of Hormuz may have poured cold water on Paul's chances, to indulge a perfectly dreadful metaphor.
A.J. Spiker, a member of the Iowa Republican Party Central Committee, was state co-chair for the Paul campaign. He thinks having Paul on the ground in Iowa so often was key to their success. "Dr. Paul connects well with people when he gets the opportunity to speak to people and answer their questions in a town hall format," Spiker says. "People receive his answers a lot better than in 30 second debate rebuttals. When Dr. Paul has the opportunity to really answer questions, lots of Iowans recognize a good answer, especially on foreign policy." Spiker notes that Paul people are working the party apparatus more and more, seeking and gaining positions of influence in local parties and helping cement Paul as the leader for the constitutionalist conservative wing of the GOP. Paul forces did well in winning county delegate seats yesterday, Spiker thinks, though he doesn't have hard numbers. He also stresses, despite things you may read, that what happened yesterday has no necessary connection at all to how Iowa's delegates are eventually apportioned after they come out the wringer of county-to-state-to-national.
But what's most important is that what happened yesterday has the Paul campaign coming out of Iowa where they needed to be: healthy, energized, still "top tier," clearly the candidate of the young; appealing more to the independents who might actually help the Republicans beat Obama than any of his opponents; copping earned media about what a beloved doctor their candidate is; getting public love from rock n' rollers very old (Joe Perry) and slightly less old (Jonny H. of Social Distortion; my band opened for them back in 1988, the year of Paul's first presidential run--coincidence? Assuredly so, especially given that H. wasn't even in the band yet then); and thinking ahead--for example, launching anti-abortion ads in South Carolina where the old evangelical values voters will likely be vital.
Most importantly and immediately, Paul's team is already focusing on that old ground game in New Hampshire, where a strong second place to Romney is being fought for with the same vigor that made Paul the only force in the GOP that more than doubled its apparent appeal since 2008 yesterday in Iowa. Whether fully thrilled about the Iowa operation or having some misgivings, all in the Paul campaign and volunteer camps seem to agree that his supporters and his ideas are more firmly entrenched in American politics today than they were two days ago.
You can, as always, learn more about Paul from Reason's Ron Paul archives and from my forthcoming book, Ron Paul's Revolution. |
Christos Papakostas bid a tearful goodbye to his pitbull Wicca at the Montreal courthouse Monday afternoon. The dog was then taken away to be euthanized.
In June, the city of Montreal said Wicca bit a woman and then an ambulance technician who arrived on the scene to treat her.
Papakostas said his dog simply jumped at the two because she was excited.
"She got spooked. Yes. She bit? We don't know. The lady never went to the hospital. She never got stitches. She only got Polysporin on her," said Papakostas.
His lawyer, Elaine Rosenberg, won a stay of execution for Wicca while trying to appeal the order.
But Quebec's top court ruled in favour of an execution.
Rosenberg said sentencing animals without proof is too easy, which should concern all dog owners.
"All I saw was a photo of the victim, the first victim, and yes, she had been scratched, but to say that she was bitten was a stretch," said Rosenberg. "There was no written testimony from her surrounding any of the facts of the case."
The city said it's satisfied with the final judgment. |
Senator decries US aid to Israel as ‘welfare’
WASHINGTON – Tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in an interview published Friday that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts were inadequate and fretted that his party may not have the courage to make a dent in the deficit.
“It’s really not going to touch the problem,” Paul told ABC News‘s Jonathan Karl. “There’s a disconnect between Republicans who want a balanced budget but aren’t maybe yet brave enough to talk about the cuts to come.”
The Republican budget proposed Thursday offers $32 billion in spending cuts from a resolution funding the government in fiscal 2011 — less than the party’s proclaimed $74 billion in cuts, and far short of GOP promises to remove $100 from the budget prior to the November elections.
Paul, an ophthalmologist and son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), was elected to the Senate in November on a wave of tea party energy. Last week, he unveiled a plan of his own to slash spending by $500 billion, including drastic cuts to the Department of Education, minor defense cuts and the elimination of all foreign aid.
Even that, he told ABC, was not enough: “I go to a tea party and you know what they say to me? It’s not enough. It’s not enough. Where’s the other trillion you need?”
The Kentucky Republican defended his call to slash aid to Israel, calling the nation an “important ally” but saying the US simply doesn’t have the money.
“Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don’t think so,” he said.
Paul dismissed fears by Israel advocates that the Jewish state needs US support to continue defending itself from regional adversaries. “I think that their defense is very significant and probably well in advance of any of their particular enemies,” he said.
Mirroring his father’s reputation for going it alone, the younger Paul was the sole holdout on a 96-1 vote Thursday making it illegal to aim laser pointers at airplanes. |
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The president of the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL) and vice-president of the Russian Football Union (RFU), Sergey Pryadkin, in an interview with Russian news agency TASS has weighed his rather heavy opinion on how the new Premier League season is undertaking and insights into new regulations on the prospective foreigner limit, salary caps and much more.
On the Russian Cup
While discussing the current Premier League season, Pryadkin expressed his “dismay at the RPL clubs’ bad performance in the Cup – ten teams have crashed out already”, the second most at this stage since twelve teams were dumped out in 2009. Pryadkin adds that he does understand that reform of the Russian Cup is necessary to benefit both big and smaller teams;
Cup reform is necessary to increase the competitiveness of the tournament and the responsibility of the clubs. We’ve been discussing that question with the representatives of other European leagues, for instance, to give the Cup winner a place in the Champions League. Right now, it’s only a dream, but some European league and club officials did talk about that. Also, we need to think about commercial attractiveness, how to make the RPL clubs use their strongest line-ups. We do understand that the calendar is quite intensive, there are many important matches, but still, we want to increase the Cup’s level.
The Cup must be reformed, as it stands the current format that all RFPL clubs that enter in the 1/16 stage must play away from home aids the lower-league clubs, but does offset them financially, and is arguably too harsh on teams like Anzhi, SKA, Tosno and Arsenal Tula who aren’t that far ahead of leading FNL clubs. It allows, Yenisey for example, advance far in the Cup but if they lose in the 1/16 round they won’t receive the financial boost that playing at the Otkrytiye, Krestovsky, VEB et al would provide. A return to the two-leg format has also been discussed, as has decreased the percentages of game receipts given to European teams. One necessary development, however, is to increase the financial rewards throughout the competition and thus increasing interest.
On Video Assistant Referees (VARs)
The President of the RFPL also spoke positively about the possibility of seeing VARs introduced in Russia, a matter currently heavy in the public eye after a mixed response during the Confederations’ Cup, and then again when Yuri Semin claimed they are necessary after losing in the Supercup.
Considering Yuri Pavlovich’s emotional state, I can fully understand him. This is a rather complicated process. It might make the decision-making process easier and soften some sharp angles during the game. But we recently visited a UEFA congress, and before that, me and Alexander Alaev [current RFU General Director] visited the national federations’ assembly, where refereeing was discussed. It’s very difficult. Installing the system is one thing. I think some of our clubs would gladly install it, especially Krasnodar. Spartak and Zenit probably can install it too at their stadiums. CSKA too, and probably many other clubs. We will get all necessary licenses, but we also need to prepare enough referees: at least two active referees should man the system during the match. We’ll play some test games with the system, that’s for sure. We also need goal-line technology: there were already several episodes that affected the matches’ outcome during the season. The video assistance systems has the support of 90% of clubs.
Upon being asked whether or not we will see VARs in the current RFPL season, Pryadkin added;
I can’t tell for sure, perhaps in a test mode. The clubs do support the idea, but I’ll reiterate: we need money and human resources. The RFU President [Mutko] gave us the task, we have a working group studying the issue. There are several companies that can provide and support such systems. I’ve got a document before me: delivery, installation and setup for one stadium will cost €1.2 million. The cost of yearly support is €100,000.
Although I personally disagree with VARs from a fundamental level – it will hand way too much power into the hands of television officials and companies such as Match TV and Sky Sports – it will aid both referees and clubs in respectively making and suffering fairer, and ethical decisions. However, can this be implemented nationwide? Grassroots semi-professional clubs in England would suffer, yet, in Russia even Premier League teams. When SKA Khabarovsk have to travel ~180,000 km this season with the average flight costing ~4,500 Rb, they can scarcely afford to install such costly technology. However, as is the case with twenty-first-century football, it is largely only ever the elite (where the money accumulates) who are ever considered.
On Structural Reform
Expansion to the league was discussed with Pryadkin, but he, unfortunately, claims none is to be expected. A shame, considering the desperate need for reform in the Trans-Siberian Football League, the FNL;
No. I would like to have more teams in the RPL, but, sadly, there are too few stable clubs, and the league doesn’t earn as much as it would like to. Of course, it would be great to earn at least $200 million from the broadcasting rights – this would allow us to give 7 to 10 millions to each of the lower table clubs, that’s about half of [some of] their budgets. The Western leagues earn the bulk of their money through TV rights, the second-biggest revenue source is supporters’ money, and then sponsorship. Our model is different: we get most money from sponsors, then from TV rights, then from the supporters. Still, when the clubs built new stadiums, the situation changed. Look at Zenit, Spartak, CSKA, Rubin. Top matches attract 20 to 40 thousand people. It’s good money.
He did, thankfully, deny any possibility of introducing a closed league system;
It’s impossible. Primarily because of the football power hierarchy: we have FIFA and UEFA. Football is unique in this regard: we have a very rigid vertical of football laws, thanks to Sepp Blatter. And UEFA doesn’t recognize any closed leagues. There were some offers to decrease the number of teams, buy time for stabilization and infrastructure renovation. But sporting principle now prevails.
It is a deep shame that no reform is up and coming. The RFU will only ever reform the FNL after the RFPL is, and the only reform that is needed high up in terms of the league structure is an increase in teams participating. However, adding two clubs – stable teams like the new Dinamo SPb, Krylia or Yenisey – who are financially strong could pave the way for lower league reform. He did in the piece confirm that no “Unified Football League” would ever be considered due to UEFA’s “weariness” on the matter, but does admit he finds the prospect “entertaining and interesting”.
READ MORE: Problems with the Trans-Siberian Football League
On the Foreigner Limit
The most important reform discussed by Pryadkin, however, was the future of the foreigner limit. He had this to say on the matter;
It’s hard to say [which foreigner limit will be introduced]. The RFU workgroup proposed the “maximum of 10 foreigners + 15 Russians registered” variant. Some support the “9+16” or “8+17” variants. The work is still ongoing. Of course, the main role will be played by the RFU officials, but our committee will make our position known too. Before the presidential council [after which, as Vitaly Mutko said earlier, there’ll be a meeting of the RFU executive committee] we’ll state our position. The abolition of the foreigner limit was never discussed. The criteria will be rather strict. It’s hard to give a definitive list now: international caps, European cups participations, national team ratings. There’s almost a dozen possible criteria, but we’ll use three or four.
The foreigner limit is the one piece of legislation imposed by the RFU that is holding back both the RFPL and Russian football as a whole more than any other. The ridiculous “6+5” (tightened from “7+4” in 2014) imposes a manufactured limit upon foreigners in the first team, with only six allowed to start alongside five Russians. As a result, players have been stockpiled in different positions. The Russian goalkeepers right now are arguably in its healthiest position in over a decade, yet there are very few, young and truly exciting Russian central defenders coming up. In week eleven of the RFPL – the weekend when the squad was announced, only one of the defenders named in Stanislav Cherchesov’s squad for the upcoming friendlies started (Fyodor Kudryashov). In the top ten at the time, only nine Russian central defenders started in the league as a whole. Four of these were over the age of 30 and retired (the Berezutskiy brothers, Sergei Ignashevich and Dmitri Belorukov) and three were uncapped (Denis Tumasyan, Pavel Alikin and Nikolai Zaitsev) leaving Andrey Semonov the only capped player available for selection who did start, aside from the selected Kudryashov.
Состав @TeamRussia на контрольные матчи с Южной Кореей и Ираном pic.twitter.com/S6QPuENBid — Сборная России (@TeamRussia) September 25, 2017
His comment that abolition of the limit has never been considered is deeply disappointing. However, a less stringent limit such as the “10+15” to be imposed on the squad as a whole is much more manageable. Even a homegrown quota as seen in England likewise inflates the prices of young players from their respective country. Abolition of the rule and a focus on reforming the league format, academy system and financial setup in the country would’ve been much more successful in the lead-up to the World Cup. I fear now, with such changes way too late, the whole impetus for such change may all but disappear once the World Cup Final in 2018 passes by.
On a Salary Cap
He was later asked about the possibility of a salary cap being introduced into Russia. Although he did not either deny nor confirm a cap for senior players, he did speak of introducing one for younger professionals;
Maybe we’ll limit the wages of young players, say, U21 or U23. Or perhaps, we’ll limit the total wages, and the club will have to work within this budget. Or we’ll limit the maximum possible wage. There are many possible options. A number of clubs say that it’s wrong and impossible. If you ask for my opinion, I’m supporting the wage limit for new players. The guys should grow and fight for their place in the first team.
In reading these comments, it is likely an individual senior salary cap has never even crossed the minds of the power brokers within the RFU. However, the possibility of a shared cap could be an effective inclusion, in order to stop clubs spending beyond their means like Anzhi, Dinamo Moscow and Alania Vladikavkaz have in the past and subsequently suffered as a result.
Limiting younger players’ wages individually would likely be a shrewd decision as well. It would two-fold allow younger players to focus on their football alone ahead of the lifestyle, while also promoting promising youngsters to move abroad when the opportunity arises. Aleksandr Kokorin”s stalled career springs to mind, although the Zenit striker is finally not only achieving his potential but impressively surpassing it both domestically and in Europe.
On Fans and Financial Fair Play (FFP)
Pryadkin was also asked about other aspects of the RFPL and Russian football away from reform.
One key topic was the aggression in the stands during this season’s RFPL calendar, such as when some fans attempted to assault Roman Zobnin during Dinamo – Spartak, the Zenit fans’ behaviour at the Krasnodar Stadium last month, and the flare gun incident by Spartak fans at Maribor in the Champions League. Typically, Pryadkin replied both calmly and confidently, claiming;
Yes, but these are isolated cases. Look, in the first eight rounds, pyrotechnics were used only once; last season, they were used eleven times. Offensive chants and obscene language; last season – five cases, this season – only two. Throwing things on the pitch – zero cases. Running to the pitch – zero cases. I visited two games of the eleventh round. Both Dinamo – CSKA and Spartak – Anzhi matches were quite peaceful.
Granted, he is correct in claiming these cases are very rare and overall the state of matters has increased, it is a typical response in the digital Cold War with the West in which anything of substance is taken and blown out of proportion. It would go much farther for Pryadkin to merely denounce these singular events, before then – correctly – admitting that fan behaviour has indeed improved.
Another interesting tidbit from the interview was the discussion of FIFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules, and how they are affecting clubs in the RFPL. He confirmed Roman Babaev’s recent comments that CSKA was the only club without FFP troubles who “passed the audit without a hitch”, and later discussed the threat of Russian clubs’ being excluded by UEFA from Europe for rule violations;
The clubs who’d been playing in the European competitions for a number of years know all the rules. Dinamo were the only ones who suffered greatly. Some clubs were punished, but they managed to rectify the situation, they have good managers. I don’t think there’ll be problems.
Pryadkin also raised to UEFA the unfairness of the system, suggesting that it is skewed in favour of the top leagues and players;
Many at the EPL supported me. Yes, the top leagues can solve any problems with their TV rights money, but everyone else is concerned with fairness and survival. UEFA have started to listen to us; they understand how much money we get from advertisers, the differences paid between television in England and Russia, Croatia, Macedonia or Belarus. The situations are very different. There were no concrete steps yet, but UEFA seems to have become more flexible. We’ll raise the question again. Now UEFA has a new president, Aleksander Čeferin from Slovenia, we have a good relationship. Still, our clubs are complying with the financial fair play rules even now.
Here he raises a rational point and one that UEFA themselves either did not realise or simply chose to ignore in the past. The FFP rules are skewed in favour of the elite teams dominating the elite leagues within the elite governing body. It is no surprise that Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City were reprimanded very lightly for contravening the rules, while Dinamo – whose own crimes pale in comparison – were kicked out of Europe at the drop of a hat. Hopefully, with Aleksander Čeferin installed as the successor to Gianni Infantino as the President of UEFA, the European governing body seemingly (finally) has a progressive, astute and above all, transparent facilitator at its head. He has already discussed sweeping changes, the sort designed to cease the inexorable accumulation of power towards the European elite, and is irrevocably against the chronic threat of a continental super league.
Pryadkin is a very controversial figure, both for the controversies surrounding him and his poor decisions alongside Vitaly Mutko, but his interview is arguably much more forward-thinking than we’ve heard in Russia for a long while. Of course, none of the aforementioned reforms and quotes is set in stone just yet, but hopefully, this is just the start of a long road towards solving the ailments that have haunted the country since the very inception of the Russian Federation. |
Tampa’s downtown commercial real estate market has positioned itself, since the recession, in such a way that is has become increasingly attractive to investors and developers-both local and from outside the market area. Great press and significant media attention about proposed future projects have come to heighten both the draw and the expectations of a market with such high potential for return. Unfortunately, constant coverage by news outlets about such projects, many of which fail to come online, creates a distorted reality about the market itself.
With the exception of very few groups, speculative office and mixed use development in Tampa’s downtown and surrounding area is a risk that no one is able to take at the moment. Large gaps exist, currently, between ‘for sale’ prices and actual offers – price and value are not parallel, signaling to many would-be investors that the downtown Tampa economy is not currently as efficient as one might suppose. That is to say, in an efficient market buyers and sellers ‘freely and openly transact business in high volume at nearly identical prices’, which is not what is currently happening here. (Source: William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004). See chapter four, Capital, p. 133.)
If distortions about market realities lead to enough disappointed sellers (and, for that matter, buyers), it could undermine the long-term goals of achieving a vibrant, livable downtown due to holdouts on both sides of deals. Sellers can easily become frustrated waiting to ‘hit it big’ due to an inaccurate perception of property values and buyers who are tired of bidding on over-priced parcels with little to no reasonable counter offers from sellers are likely to move on.
The media provides the public with streaming news and information about deals, projects and investor interest in our market because there is a thirst for real time information from their readers. During the recession years, negative coverage of the commercial real estate market by news and media outlets helped foster an environment that saw an artificial drag on pricing that lasted through the recovery period. Today, the coverage is positive and is amplifying price appreciation trends. Often, what occurs is a scenario where media outlets report on development news long before there is a signed contract, permit in place or ground-breaking. It’s good for business but it also helps to magnify price volatility by creating a situation where land holders in the downtown area feel their parcels are worth much more than is reasonable-simply due to proximity of nearby proposed projects.
To be clear, much of the hype around downtown today is around a few key players-with Jeff Vinik and his team at center stage. The concern of this article is to point out that third party investment and development is necessary to jumpstart areas around the downtown core that are not specifically aligned with Vinik’s master-planned project.
Outside of major office building sales (class A), the bulk of future real estate value in Tampa’s downtown is tied up in vacant, poorly-maintained properties and land parcels currently in the hands of long-term investors. These individuals and corporations often expect astronomical returns on their investments due, in part, to the media hype surrounding activity in the downtown market- activity that is projected and planned but has not yet actually materialized. This signals a market where pricing and value are bifurcated – proven by the constant listing of B and C-type product that does not move and yet sees no decrease in pricing strategy. Without a reality check ‘for sale’ signs will remain abundant but ‘sold’ signs will be difficult to find.
The community and media need to challenge these would-be sellers, investors and developers to aim for properly-scaled projects at price points that are sustainable in a second-tier downtown market. Most investors cannot pump billions of dollars into a project and therefore cannot afford to enter a market where they are bidding on properties well above what the actual value of the parcel is worth.
Despite the hype, Tampa is still just beginning its recovery in regards to the commercial market. Office rents have steadily increased in the downtown core over the last few years and sales of major properties (class A) are high. B and C-type product, however, is not moving at the same rate of increase due to the over-valuation of such vacant properties by their owners.
Vacancy has been falling, rents rising and few construction cranes have popped up over the last few years. But, a few things that are not (often) discussed include:
A lack of speculative building and a lack of new to the market tenants in downtown, which in turn would increase the likelihood of a speculative office project. While downtown has seen an overall increase in lease signings the last few years, we are only now exceeding the pre-recession occupancy rates of our best buildings.
Job growth in the Tampa Bay MSA, while still positive, has decreased in the last 12 month period for which there are records available (source: US BLS, Current Employment Statistics). Job growth is imperative to the sustainability of downtown and the real estate market in general.
Downtown Tampa’s cranes have all been for apartment projects, not office buildings. It is office projects, historically speaking, that indicate a healthy downtown economy. One needs only to look to Tampa’s competitors- Raleigh, Nashville and Jacksonville to name a few- to see that the lag in office and mixed-use product development is real.
If Tampa is to be the destination city for millenials and corporations alike , we need significant and sustained job creation. That will start with opportunities to invest in a downtown that has a pricing scale in line with reality. Our restaurants, museums and apartment high rises are great amenities to a fledgling 18-hour city, but most of all what downtown needs is new office and mixed-use construction projects. With exception given to the Vinik project, this is only possible in places where developers can acquire land at a fair price in order to hold rents to a level that is affordable for small to medium sized companies to fill what will be speculative, vacant space.
When it comes to media relations, delivering good news will always make you more friends than delivering bad news- but when that good news is presumptive it can and does distort reality, leading to a false sense of security within the marketplace. To be clear, this is not a bet against Tampa’s future but rather a call for a reality check in assessing where we are currently. Too much emphasis on future development that has yet to result in concrete projects has begun to impact the market in terms of for-sale pricing. Such high prices based on speculation, not comparables, impedes the growth of our downtown.
The city cannot afford to shut out smaller investors and developers by creating an environment that thrives on projections and promises alone. A reality check on the media’s part would serve everyone well, helping to re-align market expectations with market realities and allowing for an adjustment in pricing that encourages sales and not just listings. |
After a week off, the Six Nations 2019 continues with England leading the table going into round three but face second placed Wales in Cardiff. Below we have all the fixtures, kick off times and TV channels, as well as details on how to watch online for free.
Six Nations 2019: Fixtures & TV channels
Below we have a list of all the six nations games over the five weeks. You can see the date, who's playing, kick-off time and what channel it's being broadcast on. All times are GMT.
Round 3
23 Feb - France vs Scotland - 3.15pm - BBC One
23 Feb - Wales vs England - 4.45pm - BBC One/S4C
24 Feb - Italy vs Ireland - 3pm - ITV One
Round 4
9 March - Scotland vs Wales - 2.15pm - BBC One/S4C
9 March - England vs Italy - 4.45pm - ITV One
10 March - Ireland vs France - 3pm - ITV One
Round 5
16 March - Italy vs France - 12.30pm - ITV One
16 March - Wales vs Ireland - 2.45pm - BBC One/S4C
16 March - England vs Scotland - 5pm - ITV One
Round 1 (finished)
1 Feb - France (19) vs Wales (24) - 8pm - BBC One/S4C
2 Feb - Scotland (33) vs Italy (20) - 2.15pm - BBC One
2 Feb - Ireland (20) vs England (32) - 4.45pm - ITV One
Round 2 (finished)
9 Feb - Scotland (13) vs Ireland (22) - 2.15pm - BBC One
9 Feb - Italy (15) vs Wales (26) - 4.45pm - ITV One/S4C
10 Feb - England (44) vs France (8) - 3pm - ITV One
Watch Six Nations online for free
Every match in the tournament will be shown on BBC One or ITV One, so you can tune in on your TV or online. All Wales games will also be shown on S4C.
To watch live on a PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet you can either use a Freeview app such as TVCatchup, or you can use the BBC or ITV's own streaming apps, iPlayer and ITV Hub.
All three apps are free to download to a phone or tablet from the App Store or Google Play, and can be accessed in a web browser on a PC or laptop.
If you are not on an unlimited mobile data contract on your phone or tablet you should ensure that you are connected to Wi-Fi to avoid high data charges. To stream live rugby matches on a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone you also need to have a valid TV Licence.
Click to watch BBC One
Click to watch ITV One
Click to watch S4C
Check the rules out: Do I need a TV Licence?
Watching the Six Nations abroad
If you are on holiday and want to watch the Six Nations, you can do so using a VPN. You can download a VPN (virtual private network) from somewhere like Nord VPN to ‘browse from the UK’.
For full information, check out our best VPN services chart. |
Helen Borgers, the legendary DJ on KKJZ (K-Jazz) for 38 years, died Sunday after complications from surgery. She was 60.
Friends said Borgers will be remembered for her infectious laugh. In a 2012 K-Jazz YouTube video, Borgers broke through the soft jazz music as she showed a contest winner the audio board she worked with every day.
In the video, Borgers talked about the old turntables they used back in the day and remarked that the newer digital components of the audio board are harder to use. But that didn’t matter to her.
“As long as the music’s good, who cares? That’s the deal,” she said in the video.
Borgers worked at the Long Beach station for nearly four decades. She was laid off in late June. Shortly after, she underwent surgery and was hospitalized at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.
Born on Aug. 9, 1957, in Kansas City, Missouri, Borgers spent almost her entire life in Long Beach.
Her best friend since junior high, Brooke Wharton, said that when they were almost teenagers, Borgers would describe herself as “too cool for school”—and she really was. As a 12-year-old, Borgers had a “meditation room” that her parents built her in their garage where she would listen to Ella Fitzgerald, Mose Allison and Oscar Peterson, among other jazz names.
Her older brother Ken Borgers, who is another longtime jazz-radio DJ with KSDS-Jazz 88 in San Diego, said in an interview that she also listened to The Beatles and other popular music, but it was jazz that was really her passion.
Her love of Shakespeare, which permeated her life, was also prevalent in her teens. Ken Borgers said that by junior high, his sister had memorized all of Shakespeare’s sonnets and most of his plays.
Wharton said in an email: “You would go to her house and she would have her latest edition of King Lear… which you would read with her for the 10th time, but this would be her latest iteration of Shakespeare.”
That love led Borgers to the Long Beach Shakespeare Company, where she had been the artistic director since 1997.
Borgers was also an activist and a bit of a rebel. At Hill Junior High in East Long Beach, Borgers and Wharton both got suspended for circulating a monthly underground newspaper, called “The Metamorphosis,” where they advocated for free speech and First Amendment rights for students in the Long Beach Unified School District. Their free speech rights were successfully defended by Long Beach attorney Arthur Gottlieb, Wharton said.
When she saw her freshman class schedule at Poly High School, Borgers thought it wasn’t challenging enough, so she, with Wharton and other students, presented their own program to the Board of Education. They became the founding students School of Educational Alternatives at Poly.
“We actually went to all of the high schools and junior highs giving speeches and recruiting students to come to SEA school,” Wharton said. “We also campaigned and canvassed many neighborhoods on behalf of a few political candidates (Democrats), long before we would be able to vote.”
Once the program got started, Wharton said Borgers “pretty much ran the school,” occasionally went to class and even led a class on Shakespeare.
Borgers graduated high school early to attend Cal State Long Beach. A child of teachers, Borgers told the Press-Telegram in 2010 that education is the most important thing in society.
“And it seems to me that the wisdom of the ages is in the classics in any art form, whether it be literature or music or drama,” Borgers said. “The great classical pieces all hold the real truth about being human. That’s why they call them humanities.”
Once at CSULB, Borgers began interning at K-Jazz, then called KLON, with her brother Ken.
Wharton said that Borgers was supportive and inspiring to musicians and actors. She played the flute, sang and played the piano.She and Wharton would play music together on the flute and violin.
“As a struggling violinist, I often bemoaned that I would never sound like Heifetz or the great Russian violinist, David Oistrakh,” Wharton said in the email. “I remember her responding, ‘You don’t need to sound like Heifetz. What’s wrong with sounding like Wharton?’”
Helen is survived by her siblings, Carol Roland, Dave and Ken Borgers and partner, Cannon Coccellato.
Services are pending. |
Yesterday, the office of the controller general of patents, designs and trademark contradicted its 2015 decision and granted a patent to the US drug company Gilead for its hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir (also known as "sofo," and sold under the name Sovaldi).
Sovaldi had been approved for sale in the US in December 2013, but Gilead had come under sharp criticism for the price it was charging: it was launched in the United States at $1,000 per pill, or $84,000 for the standard 84-day course that cured most patients. In 2014, Sovaldi earned Gilead $10.3 billion, and powered its revenue to nearly $25 billion—more than double the figure for the previous year.
Wanting to sell Sovaldi in India, in July 2014, Gilead submitted an application for a patent for the sofosbuvir compound to the controller general office, which came before an official named Hardev Karar. In January 2015, just about two weeks before US President Barack Obama was to visit India, Karar rejected Gilead's application. This decision made headlines across the world: it meant that Indian pharmaceutical companies would be free to manufacture generic versions of the drug and sell them at any price they chose. Indian companies would also be free to export the drug to other countries, including places where Gilead was aiming to corner the sofosbuvir market. The application's outcome was also expected to indicate how welcoming India, under the Narendra Modi government, would be to international business. For decades, the country had been accused of having weak protections for intellectual property rights—or IPR—and of thus being unsupportive of innovative foreign firms. Western countries were likely to see the rejection of Gilead’s patent application as yet another sign that India wasn’t serious about strengthening its IPR regime.
In their March 2016 cover story, 'Drug Deals,' Mandakini Gahlot and Vidya Krishnan reported on how Gilead's efforts to secure the patent indicated that India may be giving into the pressure from the US government and big pharma to loosen its IPR policy, and why that would endanger millions of patients globally. In this excerpt from the story, Gahlot and Krishnan recount what they learned happened to Karar after he rejected Gilead's application.
In the second week of February, we drove to Dwarka Sector 14 to meet with three officials—two mid-level and one senior—of the patent office, and to learn about what had happened behind the scenes when Hardev Karar rejected Gilead’s patent application for Sovaldi. |
A former ambassador to NATO, he will work with both sides of urgent, deadly conflict
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has seen a chance for progress in the conflict in Ukraine and has tapped Kurt Volker, executive director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a unit of Arizona State University, to work with both sides in the peace process.
Kurt Volker
Volker was named a special representative for Ukraine negotiations on July 7 and immediately traveled to Kiev with Tillerson, meeting the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and other key players.
Ukraine and Russia have been in a violent conflict since 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. The fighting has cost some 10,000 lives. Volker is working on convincing both sides to comply with the Minsk Agreement, a blueprint for ending the tensions that was negotiated by France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia.
“This conflict has been around for over three years, and there are still daily cease-fire violations,” Volker said. “There are still people dying. In fact, more people died in 2017 than in prior years. It’s still an urgent issue that needs to be addressed.”
Volker has worked in the U.S. Foreign Service, as a legislative fellow on the staff of Sen. John McCain, as acting director for European and Eurasian Affairs for the National Security Council, and was appointed U.S. ambassador to NATO by President George W. Bush in 2008.
Volker answered some questions from ASU Now in between trips to Kiev.
Question: How did Secretary Tillerson come to appoint you to this role?
Answer: I had met Secretary Tillerson on a number of occasions from when he was preparing for his own confirmation hearing and also since he’s become secretary of state.
In getting to know him, he asked me if I would be willing to take on this role of giving a new impetus to the negotiations to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
Q: Are you doing the nitty-gritty work of diplomacy in this position?
A: In the sense of traveling and meeting and trying to find solutions with all of the stakeholders, that’s what I’m doing. If it’s sitting at a table and scrubbing a text, adding and deleting, that’s not what I’m personally doing a lot of.
The issue is fundamentally a political issue rather than a textual issue. The reason there is conflict in Ukraine is not that there is something wrong with the text.
We need to tackle this issue at a strategic level, not a textual level.
Q: With whom did you meet?
A: On this visit to Ukraine I accompanied Secretary of State Tillerson. I stayed on after his departure and had meetings with the president, prime minister, several members of parliament, several ambassadors, the civil societyThe civil society refers to the non-governmental organizations and institutions that work for the citizens of a country., the Red Cross, the International Organization of Migration. I also had a number of meetings at the U.S. Embassy with our ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch.
I had a lot of meetings to understand who all the players are in Ukraine and to touch base with them directly and understand the shape of the conflict and what’s been done already.
Q: Will you be returning to Ukraine?
A: In order to carry out this responsibility, I’m going to travel a fair amount. I have not yet visited the line of contact, the cease-fire line in Ukraine. I expect to go back in 10 days to do that. In addition I’ll need to speak with the other players.
It will be an intensive period over the next several weeks because there is a sense of momentum right now.
Changing the status quo and really getting a settlement in Ukraine is something we’ll be able to figure out in a year or so, or less. It’s not going to be something that drags out forever.
Q: Have you been to Ukraine before?
A: I’ve worked on Ukraine as a substantive issue in terms of its reform, its integration into Europe and NATO, and I have many friends and contacts in Ukraine as a result of that. A lot of this is not new, but it’s the first time I visited there.
Q: Will you remain executive director of the McCain Institute?
A: Yes. Secretary Tillerson asked me to take on this responsibility, and I’m happy to do so and I’m doing it on a voluntary basis without compensation.
The McCain Institute was created as a “do tank” and we want to get our hands dirty and actually solve our problems, and so taking on this responsibility is very consistent with that approach at the McCain Institute.
Top photo: St. Andrews Church, Kiev, Ukraine. Photo courtesy of Pixabay |
Cases against people who refused to complete the 2011 census in England and Wales are starting to come before the courts. Judith Sambrook , who declined to fill in her form in protest at the government's contract with WMD manufacturer Lockheed Martin to process census data, had a preliminary hearing at Wrexham Magistrates Court on Remembrance Day 11/11/11 with her case now adjourned to 8 December (tbc). Over 20 supporters attended the court in solidarity with Judith to demonstrate against Lockheed Martin and the wars it fuels, holding a vigil at the war memorial afterwards. Other known cases are in Liverpool on 8 December , Reading on 13 December and Birmingham on 5 January . There are bound to be more in the coming weeks and months.
REASONS FOR RESISTANCE
Although no figures are available yet, it is likely that the 2011 UK Census has been widely and variously resisted by outright refusal to comply, active and passive avoidance tactics and creative completion of the forms. There are many reasons for people to resist the census, but the awarding of census data processing contracts to Lockheed Martin (England and Wales) and CACI (Scotland and Ireland) has been a major factor in resistance in 2011. Lockheed Martin is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers, with Trident nuclear missiles, F-16 fighter jets, cluster bombs and the Aegis Combat System among its products (more details in this article). Both companies are implicated in human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. There are many concerns about data security, particularly in light of other major data security lapses, a recent Lockheed Martin security breach and a statement by Vice-President of Lockheed Martin US that “We want to know what’s going on anytime, any place on the planet”.
2001 CENSUS RESISTANCE
Lockheed Martin also had a contract for processing census data in England and Wales ten years ago for the 2001 census, but objectors have been more effective at getting the word out this time round, with opposition coming from a wide range of groups and organisations.
Last time round, in 2001, a Freedom of Information request revealed that there were a reported 39 census related prosecutions, with all but one of the defendants found guilty. According to the Guardian, this was from a total of 3 million people who didn't fill in their forms.
JUDITH SAMBROOK
Judith Sambrook, 47, is mother of five and a single parent with two primary age children. She has kidney failure and spends three days a week in hospital on dialysis. Judith has said that once she was aware of Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census, after reading an article in the Guardian, she could not conscience completing the form given Lockheed Martin's business of manufacturing arms including weapons of mass destruction and its involvement in human rights abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib where it provides contract interrogators. Judith entered a plea of not guilty in court on 11/11/11 and is planning to run a human rights defence in her case which will question whether the state has the right to come between a person and their conscience. In a statement to the Shropshire Star, Judith said: “I will risk the threat of prison because I am not going to pay any fine or sign that census form. This is an important fight and campaigners around the world are showing solidarity.”
SARAH LEDSOM
Sarah Ledsom, 56, of Bromborough, Wirral, a grandmother who suffers with a disabling chronic condition, is due to appear at the Magistrates Court in Liverpool on Thursday 8 December. Sarah's objections to completing the census relate to the contract with arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin for processing census data. Sarah refers in particular to the use by Israel of deadly Lockheed Martin weaponry on the people of Palestine.
"My conscience will not, cannot condone what is happening to the good people of Palestine, innocent men, women and children being murdered by arms provided by Lockheed Martin to Israel. The very same Lockheed Martin who were given the contract to oversee the census 2011. On Thursday 8th of December I will be pleading not guilty as I will not be part of the collusion against Palestine. I will refuse to pay any fine and am more than prepared to go to prison. This is not about me; this is about the corruption and collusion going on between the UK/US/Israel against the innocent Palestinians and I am standing against it. Will you stand with me and all census resisters?"
DEBORAH GLASS WOODIN
Deborah Glass Woodin of Oxford, green activist, mother of two and widow of Mike Woodin, is due in Reading Magistrates Court on Tuesday 13 December at 10am.
Following a pattern with all cases we've seen so far, her case will not be heard at her local magistrates court, but at one miles away in Reading. Inconvenient for Deborah, but nicely situated for Aldermaston anti-nuclear activists! Lockheed Martin jointly runs Aldermaston AWE as well as having a £5.3 billion contract with the government to develop new illegal weapons of mass destruction there.
Deborah has given four reasons for her census refusal:
1) The link with Lockheed Martin (brought to my attention through printing a leaflet about it at Oxford Greenprint Workers Co-op of which I am a member)
2) The statement on the front of the form about using the information to help decide where schools and hospitals should be built: I wish this were true, but these decisions are driven by money, not need (as my time on both Councils has shown).
3) The number of questions not related in any way to anything but 'big brother' monitoring eg religion, nationality.
4) The Census in this form is to be scrapped (Daily Telegraph June 2010). It only ran this time because contracts had been signed and heavy losses would have been incurred. It is acknowledged to be a hugely inefficient way of collecting this data.
She also says: "I was an active Green Party member for many years and have been a City and County Councillor for the Greens in Oxford. I have always been an activist and until recently believed that the best way to change the world was working with the system. I feel somewhat more cynical and less naive now!"
ROGER GRENVILLE
Roger Grenville, 66, a former Local Government Officer and local Councillor from Leamington, Warwickshire, is in court in Birmingham on 5 January.
Roger Grenville: "I did state to the officer who initially visited me to chase up the form that I was not completing it because of the involvement of Lockheed Martin. When I was later interviewed under caution at home by two Enforcement Officers, I again repeated that I was refusing to complete this year's Census on grounds of conscience because of the involvement of Lockheed Martin.
"I have no intention of paying any fine or any costs. As a taxpayer I have already contributed to Lockheed Martin's profits and it is not my intention to give them another penny. Perfectly happy to be given a custodial sentence in lieu of fine."
SOLIDARITY
Solidarity for Judith Sambrook's census resistance has come from far and wide, including Canada where there is ongoing resistance to Lockheed Martin's involvement in the Canadian census. Many people at Occupy LSX and Finsbury Square in London also sent solidarity messages. Others sent messages of support via email. Supporters at the court came from Wrexham, Flintshire, Shropshire, Wirral, Liverpool and beyond.
NoCONcensus and others are building a solidarity network to support all those who face court hearings. |
Ok let's get this organized. ᔉᔵᔺᔊ
I've been seeing your amazing LoL pumpkin carvings all over the place, and I KNOW there are more out there I haven't seen yet!
So lets see what you got! Post your best League of Legends pumpkin art here and join the Penguin Pumpkin Party!
**EDIT**
Amazing work so far everyone! But it's only just begun...Because it's time for 'Riot Penguin's Pumpkin Party' to get SERIOUS! ᔉᔵᔺᔊ
You have until 11:59pm PST on SUNDAY November 5 to show us your mad pumpkin skillz and after that, I'll open it up to a vote for the best LoL pumpkin!
Now let's make things interesting...I'm going to put in a small informal wager. I will personally gift the summoner with the winning pumpkin a juicy 3,900 RP
That'll give the em a chance to pick up say...oooh I don't know...the Headless "Pumpkin Head" Hecarim I designed?
Come on guys and gals, lets see whatcha GOT! |
PHILADELPHIA – Waiting to see what Flyers GM Ron Hextall has up his sleeve?
Here’s how he can do it:
Threaten the Columbus Blue Jackets that he'll sign restricted free agent Ryan Johansen to an offer sheet.
Now that would get the hockey world talking because Johansen, 22 on July 31, is a 6-foot-4 center who’s one of the game's rising superstars.
Can the Flyers pull this off given their cap situation?
Sure, but the trick here is doing it in a slick way so that the Blue Jackets feel it’s in their best interest to make a trade with the Flyers, who love Johansen so much that they might be inclined to give up two of their best young players, centers Sean Couturier and Brayden Schenn.
The Flyers certainly wouldn't begin negotiations by offering Couturier, but they might reluctantly agree to include him in a deal for Johansen, who is seeking a long-term contract while Columbus prefers a short-term deal and called his last offer "disrespectful" and a "slap in the face."
Yes, we know the Flyers (and Flyers fans) don't want to lose Couturier, but Johansen, who scored 30 goals and 63 points last season, is a special player still not in his prime.
The Flyers, who were quiet on Tuesday's first day of the unrestricted free agent signing period aside from signing backup goalie Ray Emery, have been intrigued with Johansen for years. When they traded center Jeff Carter to Columbus three Junes ago, then-GM Paul Holmgren pushed hard for Johansen, the fourth pick of the 2010 draft who was coming off his rookie NHL season.
Holmgren ultimately settled for a deal in which the Flyers landed two standout players – Carter for right wing Jakub Voracek and the eighth overall pick of the 2011 draft, which was used to select Couturier.
Again, the Flyers' plan here would be to keep Couturier, but if even if they'd lose him and Schenn, they'd be set at center for their top three forward lines with Claude Giroux, Johansen and 2013 No. 1 pick Scott Laughton.
So here's what Hextall can do:
Trade center Vinny Lecavalier ASAP to free up more cap space, then tell Columbus to work out a trade ASAP or else the Flyers will sign Johansen to a six-year offer sheet for around $40 million.
At the moment, the Flyers are $1.24 million over next season's $69 million cap. By rule, teams can go 10 percent over during the offseason, thus the Flyers can take on another $5.6 million even with Lecavalier, who figures to be gone soon. (Keep in mind that the Flyers will gain $4.94 million cap space once the season begins when Chris Pronger is permitted to go on the long term injured reserve (LTIR).
The Flyers really have nothing to lose here by giving Columbus a scare, and as we know, they have a precedent of being creative with restricted free agents.
How can we forget two Junes ago when the Flyers signed Nashville restricted free agent Shea Weber, a superstar defenseman, to a frontloaded 14-year, $110 million offer sheet?
Word is Holmgren warned Predators GM Dave Poile to negotiate a trade or else Weber would be signed to an offer sheet Nashville can't match.
There was no trade, Weber signed the offer sheet and then Nashville used all 10 days it had to decide before matching with ownership using its own personal wealth.
New rules allow teams to offer just seven years to others' free agents nowadays and eight to their own, so no one will be offering Johansen a Weber-like deal.
But the Flyers have nothing to lose threatening Columbus with an offer sheet … and then signing Johansen to it.
Of course, Johansen has to be willing to come to the Flyers.
If he's willing, then the Flyers, despite not having much money, can make a big splash. |
Danielle Brazell, executive director of Arts for L.A. since 2006, was nominated by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be the fifth general manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs. With a core budget of $9 million, the DCA generates and supports arts and cultural experiences through grant making, community arts programming, and partnerships with artists and arts and cultural organizations. The department also operates cultural landmarks such as Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House and the Watts Towers.
Brazell sat down with Artbound in 2013 to speak about her work with Arts for LA and the influential role of arts and culture in Los Angeles.
Arts for LA advocates for communities throughout Los Angeles Country to have access to rich arts and cultural experiences. We do that advocacy work through many, many different strategies and tactics: primarily around giving voice to communities around arts and culture and connecting communities with their public officials to voice support for arts and culture. And we do a lot of work around arts education and making sure that every student has access to arts education.
I believe access to the arts, access to arts and culture, is a civil rights issue; and I believe that because I think that communities prosper when they have access to the arts. Communities and people prosper with participation or through participation with the arts through a myriad of ways. Number one is that it is so much about the way in which the art stimulates local economies. I think that arts and culture also helps to create cultural identity and helps to instill cultural pride and self-esteem. And when you do that, your communities end up having more joy and more hope and through community engagement, and through hope people tend to lift up a little bit more and reach a little bit higher.
The economic crisis that the state and the country have faced over the last couple of years has impacted the arts and cultural landscape exponentially. Despite that, however, we see there are great opportunities for arts and culture to contribute to the solutions that many of our economic challenges have. Part of it is so much about the way in which arts and culture has transformed communities through looking at how when an arts organization or activity is built in a blighted area -- we've seen that in redevelopment--which in California went away -- how through redevelopment, arts and culture and neighborhoods were just transformed. And yet, now, with redevelopment going away, we see that that opportunity is possibly lost. On the flip side, we can also see that cities throughout the region have maintained their commitment to making sure that there are still resources for arts and culture, primarily nonprofit organizations that are really delivering rich work for communities.
I would love to see each of the mayoral candidates come out with a platform that talks about how they would utilize the arts to create a magnificent Los Angeles. And when I talk about the arts, I'm not just talking about pieces of art on a wall, I'm talking about arts and culture in all of its diversity--from the for-profit to the nonprofit, from the community based to the cornerstone institutions, for as part of our tourism, as part of our community anchors -- as a way to combat some of the most pressing issues that our region faces.
We often see that the arts do get put on the chopping block, first and foremost. We're working really diligently with community members, with our policy partners, with our public officials, to make sure that, look, Angelenos value arts and culture across the board -- and the thing about us is that if that you're part of the cultural community, you vote. And so one of the things that folks are really starting to get the message is that we want our arts, and you really have got to start to listen to us cause we're the voters.
Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook and Twitter. |
Go back to previous page or be prepared for disappointment.
This series has been stopped at page 44 and won't be continued.Go back to previous page or be prepared for disappointment.
I've redraw page 1, to fix some "hole" in the story, this new version shows you about how did they get into the modern world!
====================================================================================New page 1 here:Click here to read the full comic (English Version):繁體中文版 (Traditional Chinese Version):Russian Version:Versión española (Spanish version) por This comic is based on video game Disney Infinity.In Disney Infinity, you can play as your favorite Disney character and have a great adventure!Also, you can use some amazing tools to fight your enemy,my favorite tool so far is the Laser gun from toy storyHere is the Anna gameplay trailer in Disney Infinity: |
By Abdullah Bozkurt
A Turkish al-Qaeda militant who had been involved in kidnapping for a ransom to raise revenue for the radical armed group was saved by the government of Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who hushed up the probe, thwarted the trial hearings and eventually secured the release of all suspects from prison.
The operative’s name is Orhan Yaşar, 43 year old (DOB: July 11, 1974) from the the Suruç district of Turkey’s southeastern province Şanlıurfa on Turkish Syrian border. He was involved in the scheme of kidnapping and later the release of Turkish photo-journalist Bünyamin Aygün of Milliyet daily from his captives in al-Qaeda affiliated armed group in Syria. Yaşar had been probed as part of the confidential investigation file No. 2012/1361 which was launched by the Office of the Public Prosecutor in the Eastern province Van in 2012.
Yaşar was detained in a sweeping al-Qaeda operation on January 14, 2014 and formally arrested few days later. He and other suspects in the case were indicted on July 2014. But Yaşar was released pending a trial on the first hearing in the case by Van No.3 High Criminal Court on August 6, 2014. In his testimony to the court, he denied any involvement with al-Qaeda and said he is a businessman trading in textile in Syria. Yaşar did not even bother showing up in the next trial hearing held on October 28, 2014 and became a fugitive in the case.
The release of Yaşar did not make a sense at all given the fact one of the wiretap evidence in the case file revealed how he and his al-Qaeda cell leader was tipped off about the ongoing probe and planning to flee Turkey before police detained them on January 2014. Most likely the MİT learned about the police investigation file and passed that info to al-Qaeda suspects. As soon as the prosecutor was alerted by the investigators that suspects were made aware of the probe, he ordered their detention before they could have escaped the country.
There are five wiretap recordings in the investigation file that revealed how Yaşar involved in abduction of foreign nationals by al-Qaeda affiliated Jihadist groups in Syria. The investigators, after securing wiretap authorizations from the judge, listened in his communications with other al-Qaeda suspects. He was operating in a cell led by İbrahim Şen, a former Gitmo detainee and a convicted senior al-Qaeda militant, who has been working with Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) in moving arms, funds and supplies to Jihadist groups in Syria.
In several recordings, Yaşar was talking to Şen and a man named Sadullah Alyo about what they termed as “kaldırma” (an abduction in Turkish). Yaşar was also talking about financial needs of al-Qaeda, how to raise funds and transfer them to al-Qaeda in Syria. He was saying that Turkish intelligence agency MİT has been facilitating the transfer of Jihadists to Syria, and providing arms, funds and logistical supplies to al-Qaeda groups.
The case file includes a wiretap recording that shows Yaşar was discussing the kidnapped Turkish photo-journalist Bünyamin Aygün, and Spanish correspondent Javier Espinosa and Spanish freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova. Aygün was kidnapped on Nov.26, 2013 while Spanish journalists were kidnapped on Sept.16, 2013. Yaşar was urging his contact to locate these journalists, and ask for a ransom money from their families. “Without taking any [ransom] money, do not release him [Aygün],” Yaşar was recorded as saying according to the investigation file submitted to the court.
All three journalists were eventually released from captivity but there was no mention of any ransom money was paid in exchange of their freedom. When asked about that, Aygün simply said he had no knowledge of such transaction. The interesting part of his kidnapping is that Turkish media reported that MİT teams helped secure his release and took him back to Turkey.
The controversial charity group International Humanitarian Relief (IHH), accused by Russia at the UN Security Council for smuggling arms to rebels in Syria, was also involved in negotiations for Aygün’s release. In other words, while MİT had been helping Jihadists to organize kidnapping, ransom demanding and even killing hostages, it was also brokering the release of hostages to save the day and appear as a hero at the same time.
If the MİT was helping Jihadist groups to arm, fund and resupply themselves as the evidence in the prosecutor’s confidential file suggests, it should not come as a surprise that these hostages were easily picked up from the hands of Jihadist groups.
There is another twist in Aygün’s saga which was told by him after he made safely back to Turkey. He said he met with a man named Haisam Toubaljeh, also known as Heysem Topalca, who was involved in recruiting foreign fighters and smuggling arms to Syria in cooperation with Turkish intelligence agency. Aygün claimed he was kidnapped after he met this guy to interview and later both were separated during the captivity.
Toubaljeh is no ordinary figure according to Turkish prosecutors who traced his footprints to the twin bombings in the Turkish border town of Reyhanlı, which claimed the lives of 53 people on May 11, 2013. Accordingly, two suspects who stood trial as part of an investigation into the Reyhanlı incident said what they claimed to be a Turkish official named Toubaljeh had pushed them to mastermind the attack.
The attack came only five days before then-Prime Minister and current President Erdoğan’s scheduled visit to Washington to meet US President Barack Obama in the White House. The plausible explanation was that MİT staged the Reyhanlı bombing through the contractor Toubaljeh as a false flag operation to prod the US into a military engagement in Syria to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power.
In a separate case, Toubaljeh was named as a suspect in moving three Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) terrorists who killed three people, including two police officers in the central Anatolian province of Niğde in March 2014. The ISIL militants, identified as Çendrim Ramadani, Benjamin Xu and Muhammed Zakiri, who are citizens of Switzerland, Germany and Macedonia, respectively, were later convicted. The court asked for the probe on the link between ISIL militants and the MİT, but later dropped when judges and prosecutors looking into the case were reassigned.
Toubaljeh’s name also surfaced in May 2013 in the case of 12 members of Syria’s militant al-Nusra group arrested in connection with the seized chemical materials that could be used to make sarin gas (also known as nerve gas), which was going to be used in a bomb attack on Turkish soil. The ringleader of the network was a man identified as Hytham Quassap, another name allegedly used by Toubaljeh. He was arrested by Turkish police but let go in July 2013. Toubaljeh is believed to have been involved in numerous cases of smuggling as well as the transfer of almost 1,000 rocket heads to Syria, which were intercepted in November 2013 in Adana by security forces.
According to Turkish police intelligence, Toubaljeh moved in and out of Turkey hundreds of times between 2011 and 2014 and remains at large despite the fact that he was detained several times by law enforcement agencies. He acted as a middle man for the MİT to link up with all sorts of Jihadist groups in Syria including al-Qaeda, ISIL, Nusra and others. The veteran prosecutors who unmasked this shadowy guy and Turkish intelligence’s dirty business with Jihadists are in jail today because the Islamist rulers including Erdoğan are afraid of expose on these clandestine schemes that were drawn up to advance their political goals.
April 19, 2017 |
'Dancing With the Stars' taps Trump ex
DANCING WITH THE STARS - MARLA MAPLES - The stars grace the ballroom floor for the first time on live national television with their professional partners during the two-hour season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars," which airs MONDAY, MARCH 21 (8:00-10:01 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Craig Sjodin) less DANCING WITH THE STARS - MARLA MAPLES - The stars grace the ballroom floor for the first time on live national television with their professional partners during the two-hour season premiere of "Dancing with ... more Photo: Craig Sjodin, ABC Photo: Craig Sjodin, ABC Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close 'Dancing With the Stars' taps Trump ex 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
ABC announced the cast for season 22 of "Dancing With the Stars" on "Good Morning America" Tuesday, and there are some notable names on the roster.
None more so than Marla Maples, the former Mrs. Donald J. Trump. She and Trump, currently running roughshod over the GOP establishment in his bid to become the party's presidential nominee, were married from 1993 to 1999. Their relationship was the subject of one of the New York Post's most famous front pages, which featured Trump's grinning face and the headline: "Marla boasts to her pals about Donald: BEST SEX I'VE EVER HAD."
"DWTS" also is tapping into the buzz surrounding the relaunch of "Full House" on Netflix with cast member Jodie Sweetin joining the dance competition.
The new season of "Dancing With the Stars" kicks off at 7 p.m. March 21 on ABC.
Click through the slideshow to see the full season 22 lineup. |
EXPECTATIONS of a tight season have only been confirmed during the pre-season with no team winning every game and 10 of the 27 games decided by 10 points or less.
Forgetting the vagaries of nine-point supergoals, weather conditions and the obvious selection and game time discrepancies, AFL.com.au put together a ladder based on the win-loss and percentage after the JLT Community Series.
It showed the Saints – helped by the 92-point thumping of an inexperienced Carlton – to be on top with a whopping percentage of 155.2. St Kilda's three-point loss to Sydney in the final game of the pre-season series was its only loss for the competition, form which is likely to stand it in good stead as it aims to make finals for the first time since 2011.
Those with long memories will recall a less than excited skipper Lenny Hayes and former coach Grant Thomas holding up the Wizard Cup after the Saints won the 2004 pre-season Grand Final. However, the victory was a signal that the team was about to emerge.
By contrast, Hawthorn only won one game in this year's pre-season, courtesy of an on-the-siren match winner from Kade Stewart in Launceston. Of course, if you take Geelong's supergoal out of that scoreline, the Hawks would have been ahead before Stewart lined up to kick, but still their form has been average as they head into round one.
Kade Stewart kicks Hawthorn's match-winning goal against Geelong. Picture: AFL Photos
Collingwood scored the most points over the three games, winning twice, but also conceded more than any other team, underlining the fact its defence is the real issue heading into 2017. It only had Scott Pendlebury and Jamie Elliott for one game apiece so its scoring power should increase even further.
Melbourne was arguably the most consistent team over 12 quarters while Fremantle, Greater Western Sydney, Sydney and Gold Coast were fortunate enough to not have to leave their home state for the series. They will all do plenty of travel during the season.
Of course no one places much store in pre-season results and the form is tough to line up but if you want some indication of what transpired over the past month on-field, here's one place to start. |
Image caption Fat around the waist is a particular risk factor for health problems
Christmas may be a time of indulging for many, but health experts believe it is the perfect time to tell a loved one they are overweight.
The National Obesity Forum and International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk said it was important to be upfront because of the health risks.
Being overweight - particularly around the waist - increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
But a poll by the groups suggests too many people shy away from the issue.
The survey of more than 2,000 people found 42% of 18 to 24-year-olds would not tell a loved one they should lose weight because of a fear they would hurt the other person's feelings.
For those aged 25 to 44 it was just over a third, while for older people it was about one in four.
Men find it hardest to tell their partners, while women were more worried about bringing up the issue with a friend.
But with families and friends getting together up and down the country over the festive period, the experts believe there is an opportunity that should not be missed.
Waist fat In recent years, health experts have begun talking much more about what is known as abdominal obesity - basically fat round the stomach
It is recommended that men are no larger than 94cm (37in) and women 80cm (31.5in)
Fat around the waist is related to the release of proteins and hormones which affect how the body breaks down sugars and fats
Prof David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said: "Suggesting to someone that they should consider losing a few pounds may not be a comfortable conversation to have.
"But if someone close to you has a large waistline then as long as you do it sensitively, discussing it with them now could help them avoid critical health risks later down the line and could even save their life."
Dr Jean Pierre Despres, scientific director of the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk, agreed.
"Start by encouraging someone close to you to make simple lifestyle changes such as becoming more active, making small alterations to their eating habits and replacing sugary drinks with water." |
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Brand New Nexus 7 (2013) 16GB On Ebay Daily Deals! Only $199 W/Free Shipping!
If you've been waiting for the first signs of a discount on the recently released 2nd generation Nexus 7, then today is your day! Ebay Daily Deals has the 16GB model for $30 off at only $199(Play Store price is $229)...and with Free Shipping to boot! Hurry though, the deal is only good today or when stock runs out whichever is first...and they're going fast! This is brand new current model, 2nd generation Nexus 7 with that amazing Full HD 1920 x 1200 display. It's the best price we've seen yet and quite frankly are likely to see for a long while since it's such a new tablet, so hit the link below and stock up...holidays are just around the corner! |
Once or twice a week, I get a letter taking me to task for Slate’s commenting policy. The reader wants to tell me that I suck, but he doesn’t want to log in to Slate’s comment system using his credentials for Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or Twitter. Obviously this requirement doesn’t bother everyone; hundreds of people happily sign in every week to tell me I suck. Yet I imagine that there are lots more people who are itching to chime in but who are put out by the login process.
One common misperception is that Slate wants your social-networking account in order to steal your private information. In fact, when you comment by typing in your username and password for Facebook or Twitter, those sites are the ones that check your credentials—Slate never sees your login information. If you sign on with your Facebook account, we do see your name and other details you’ve made available for everyone, but we get nothing more private than that.
If Slate isn’t looking to invade your privacy, why are we asking you to log in with your social-networking accounts? Why make it so hard for people to comment—don’t we want every reader to participate, even if they’re skittish about revealing their names?
I can’t speak for my bosses, who might feel differently than I do. But as a writer, my answer is no—I don’t want anonymous commenters. Everyone who works online knows that there’s a direct correlation between the hurdles a site puts up in front of potential commenters and the number and quality of the comments it receives. The harder a site makes it for someone to post a comment, the fewer comments it gets, and those comments are generally better.
I think Slate’s commenting requirements—and those of many other sites—aren’t stringent enough. Slate lets people log in with accounts from Google and Yahoo, which are essentially anonymous; if you want to be a jerk in Slate’s comments, create a Google account and knock yourself out. If I ruled the Web, I’d change this. I’d make all commenters log in with Facebook or some equivalent third-party site, meaning they’d have to reveal their real names to say something in a public forum. Facebook has just revamped its third-party commenting “plug-in,” making it easier for sites to outsource their commenting system to Facebook. Dozens of sites—including, most prominently, the blog TechCrunch—recently switched over to the Facebook system. Their results are encouraging: At TechCrunch, the movement to require real names has significantly reduced the number of trolls who tar the site with stupid comments.
That should come as no surprise. Anonymity has long been hailed as one of the founding philosophies of the Internet, a critical bulwark protecting our privacy. But that view no longer holds. In all but the most extreme scenarios—everywhere outside of repressive governments—anonymity damages online communities. Letting people remain anonymous while engaging in fundamentally public behavior encourages them to behave badly. Indeed, we shouldn’t stop at comments. Web sites should move toward requiring people to reveal their real names when engaging in all online behavior that’s understood to be public—when you’re posting a restaurant review or when you’re voting up a story on Reddit, say. In almost all cases, the Web would be much better off if everyone told the world who they really are.
What’s my beef with anonymity? For one thing, several social science studies have shown that when people know their identities are secret (whether offline or online), they behave much worse than they otherwise would have. Formally, this has been called the “online disinhibition effect,” but in 2004, the Web comic Penny Arcade coined a much better name: The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory. If you give a normal person anonymity and an audience, this theory posits, you turn him into a total fuckwad. Proof can be found in the comments section on YouTube, in multiplayer Xbox games, and under nearly every politics story on the Web. With so many fuckwads everywhere, sometimes it’s hard to understand how anyone gets anything out of the Web.
Advocates for anonymity argue that fuckwaddery is the price we have to pay to ensure people’s privacy. Posting your name on the Web can lead to all kinds of unwanted attention—search engines will index you, advertisers can track you, prospective employers will be able to profile you. That’s too high a price to pay, you might argue, for the privilege of telling an author that he completely blows.
Well, shouldn’t you have to pay that high a price? I’m not calling for constant transparency. If you’re engaging in private behavior—watching a movie online, posting a dating profile, gambling, or doing anything else that the whole world shouldn’t know about—I support and celebrate your right to anonymity. But posting a comment is a public act. You’re responding to an author who made his identity known, and your purpose, in posting the comment, is to inform the world of your point of view. If you want to do something so public, you are naturally ceding some measure of your privacy. If you’re not happy with that trade, don’t take part—keep your views to yourself.
Until recently this debate was largely academic. Those of us who called for ending anonymity had no good way to make commenters prove who they were. As a stopgap, many sites set up their own login systems, but this was tedious (who wants to go through the process of creating an account just to post a one-line retort?), unsafe (see what happened at Gawker), and ineffective, because there was still no way to force people to use their real names. Facebook has changed that. Not only does a Facebook account include your real name, but it’s also tied to your network of friends and family. This means that anything you post with your Facebook account is viewable by people you know. This introduces to the Web one of the most important offline rules for etiquette: Don’t say anything that you’d be ashamed to say in front of your mom.
What will the outing of commenters do to comment threads? From what I can tell, sites that switched on Facebook comments this month saw an overnight improvement in the quality of posts they attracted. Comments on TechCrunch used to be virtually unreadable; now—even on hot-button subjects like Apple—they’re somewhat interesting. Or look at this comment thread on a San Jose Mercury News story about rat poison being found at a Sunnyvale, Calif., dog park. A guy named Stephen Chen pops in to say that the poisoner is “Probably someone whose lawn was pooped on one too many times.” But seeing his name attached to that comment must have made him think twice; he quickly posted a second comment underneath, “Uh oh, compassionate and loving friends/family of the dogs may find this a hateful and hurtful comment.”
Sure, this isn’t terribly high-minded. I’ll concede, too, that forcing people to use their real names might give us more “sterile and neutered” comments, as the blogger Steve Cheney argued last week. And perhaps we’ll miss some important comments that could only be posted anonymously. If TechCrunch writes a post wondering about some terrible new Apple policy, for instance, we likely won’t see an anonymous comment from a whistle-blower explaining the policy. But I doubt that’s a real loss—I don’t think raucous comment forums are the first place that whistle-blowers turn to. I’ll take sterile and neutered over vulgar, stupid, irrelevant, sexist, racist, false, and defamatory any day. That’s why I hope every site on the Web adopts Facebook’s comment system. Disagree with me? Tell me why below. Just use your real name. |
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The Moroccan Minister for Human Rights, Mustapha Ramid, has received criticism, after he called homosexuals “scum” last month.
Yesterday he refused to take back his words, justifying that his remarks were against homosexuality itself, rather than homosexual people.
So not much better then.
He first made the remarks after a meeting on torture prevention, when a journalist asked him for comment on the treatment of homosexuals in Morocco
“Why are you asking me about homosexuality too?” Ramid asked.
Trying to dismiss the journalist he continued “this is too much. Too much. It’s a shame that homosexuality has a value now. Why is everyone asking me about it?”
He then described homosexuals with the insulting Arabic word “Awsakh,” which translates to trash, dirt, or scum.
Ironically, this week, a museum devoted to Yves Saint Laurent, will be opened in Marrakesh, where the gay fashion designer did some of his most famous work.
After being criticised by many public figures and organisations Ramid made a long post on his Facebook page last night, attempting to justify his comments.
He argued that, as homosexuality is illegal in Morocco, his remarks should not be held to the standards of leaders in “Europe.”
He then tried to argue he was referring to the act of homosexuality, rather than homosexual people.
“If I have described homosexuality as dirt, it is in reference to homosexuality as such and not to the people who identify with it.”
He compared it to people who criticise death penalty, saying the government doesn’t take those complaints personally.
Many thought this to be an offensive analogy, since homosexuality is still punishable by death in four African states.
Where is it illegal to be gay? A look at all the countries where homosexuality is against the law
He stated that “the Moroccan government refuses categorically to decriminalize homosexuality,” but, paradoxically “”at the same time, it accepts no type of discrimination against any citizen.”
The Moroccan Association of Human Rights and the Association for the Fight against AIDS, among others, sent a petition to Prime Minister Saad Eddine El Othmani, condemning Ramid’s words, saying he “encourages homophobia.”
“We consider that to qualify as ‘dirt’ of Moroccan citizens like any other citizen is a flagrant violation of the Moroccan constitution, which in its preamble adopts the commitment of the Moroccan State to human rights as recognized internationally,” the petition read.
Samira Sitail, the director of a Moroccan television channel also criticised Ramid.
“A minister of human rights who advocates hatred,” she said in a Facebook post.
“Dividing society, turning people against each other, stirring tensions and lashing out against people to detourn attention from the real issues that infect the Moroccan society.”
Ramid has been criticised for homophobia before. In 2015, when he was Justice Minister, he said in a radio interview that homosexuals should have a sex change if they want to obey the law. |
The LG V10 was one of the most under-rated smartphones of last year. Prized by those that took a punt on it but largely ignored by everybody else. It was big, beastly and heavy, but that turned out to be perfectly OK with those that loved its unique second screen, next-level audio and military spec impact resistance. So how do you improve on such a winning recipe? Find out in our LG V20 vs V10 comparison.
First, what’s the same? They both share a screen size and resolution: 5.7 inches at 2,560 x 1,440 pixels (the V20 has a slight edge over the V10 in screen-to-body ratio though, at 72.5%). They both have MIL-STD-810G transit drop compliance and superior audio performance courtesy of on-board DACs.
Both V series phones feature 16 MP cameras on the back and 5 MP cameras up front (more on this in a moment). They both have removable batteries, microSD expansion and fingerprint scanners. But that’s about where the similarities end. When it comes to the cameras, DACs, design, specs and overall feel of the series, there are way more changes than similarities.
DAC all the things
Four DACs are better than one, right? The excellent ESS DAC in the LG V10 has now been superseded by four DACs in the V20 (also made by ESS). The addition of multiple DACs promises to reduce noise and harmonic distortion by over 50% compared to competitor’s phones – that means significantly clearer sound. With the V20 Quad DAC, dynamic range goes through the roof and the signal-to-noise ratio is 1.4 times that of certain other well-known flagships.
Until we’ve had a chance to comprehensively test the audio performance of the LG V20 we’ll have to take LG at its word. But rest assured we’re already putting the V20 through every audio test we have at our disposal (including against the V10) to see just how much better the V20 really is. The V20 also supports HD audio recording (24 bit, 192 kHz) that’s 6.5 times more accurate than 16 bit, 44.1 kHz audio.
One point worth noting though: you won’t enjoy the benefits of the V20’s Quad DAC unless you have headphones or a speaker plugged in. For the reasons why, read Rob Triggs’ excellent V20 DAC explained piece.
Portability
The LG V20 is also smaller and lighter than the V10 despite sharing a screen size with its predecessor. Samsung managed something similar with the move from the S7 Edge to the Note 7 – squeezing a larger screen into a very similar sized chassis. LG did the opposite: maintaining a screen size while shrinking the body around it. The result makes the V20 a much more manageable device than the admittedly bulky V10.
Second screen
The second screen is also a lot better, with larger, more legible text and notification icons and support for 24 character signatures, compared to the 14 available on the V10. This number changes depending on the font you choose, but the capital A in the default handwriting font is the one LG used to get 24. Longer signatures roll across the screen via a marquee or ticker effect.
The second screen on the V20 is also brighter, tackling with one of the main criticisms with the first generation V10. The secondary display’s brightness has been near doubled, from 35 nits in the V10 to 68 nits in the V20. Even though the V20 is just as capable of a full-screen always on display like the G5, I much prefer the secondary screen for its discreteness.
Cameras
This one might be up for debate but the V20 has taken the dual cameras found on the front of the V10 and shifted them around to the back. Nevertheless, the single 5 MP camera on the front of the V20 still supports both a normal mode (covering 83 degrees) and a wide mode (encompassing 120 degrees) for wide-angle shots. The aperture has also been bumped up, from f/2.2 on the V10 to f/1.9 on the V20, ensuring better low-light photography.
On the back of the V20 you’ll now find two lenses, one 8 MP f/2.4 wide-angle camera covering 135 degrees and a 16 MP f/1.8 shooter that covers 75 degrees. When it comes to video recording, the V20 also leaps ahead, adding SteadyRecord 2.0, a new stabilization technology from Qualcomm. SteadyRecord 2.0 features a gyro-based EIS (electronic image stabilization) and image stream analysis-based DIS (digital image stabilization).
The hybrid auto-focus combination of laser, PDAF and Contrast AF also promises speedier and more accurate auto-focus. Tracking focus for moving objects and focus peaking (that DSLR feature you get that shows a fuzzy outline in the viewfinder to show what is in focus) also step things up considerably. Finally, the V20 records video in lossless audio (FLAC) and increases the decibel range to 132 dB, up from 120 dB in the V10.
Battery
The battery capacity increase in the V20 isn’t significant, but according to LG, it will get you an additional 20% longer battery life. The V10 had a 3,000 mAh cell and a bad reputation for a weak battery. LG obviously didn’t feel the need to bump that up a lot, settling instead for a 3,200 mAh cell.
LG confirmed to us that the only battery optimization going on with the V20 is courtesy of Doze and the Battery Saver baked into Android 7.0 Nougat. The V20 supports Quick Charge 3.0 whereas the V10 only supports Quick Charge 2.0.
Software
The software experience on the V20 is unparalleled (only partially because no other phone has it out of the box). Android 7.0 Nougat on the V20 delivers a very clean interface, quick app switching and split-screen mode, not to mention notifications straight from stock Android and very nice and customizable Quick Settings area.
Nougat on the V20 is one of my favorite OS/skin combos of recent memory and puts up a solid challenge to Samsung’s recent ascendancy with the new Note 7 interface. The signature wallpaper is a nice touch, the theme engine is appreciated (although native icon pack support would be nice) and there’s some nice software additions like Capture+. I just wish the V20 had the System UI Tuner and a dark mode.
Performance
No surprises here: the V20 naturally has a better specs sheet than the V10. From the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 in the V10, the V20 assumes a place amongst the flagships rocking the Snapdragon 820 this year. The same storage and RAM configurations remain, but the V20 gets Adreno 530 graphics as opposed to the Adreno 418 GPU in the V10.
Design
This one is open to debate as well, but if you weren’t a fan of the chunky rubberized look of the V10 then the sleek metallic contours of the V20 should please you. You’ve still got access to a removable battery and microSD card but this time it’s via a solid metal battery cover. The V20 is smaller and lighter than the V10 but still offers the same sized screen in a smaller form factor. And our V20 drop test demonstrated the new design is just as tough as the old.
While the design might make the outside of the V20 look like it borrows a little too heavily from the G5, the inside is V series DNA all the way. If anything, the new camera orientation makes more sense than the V10’s and the beefed up audio spec makes the V20 an even better content creation device. That said, don’t get too hung up on what the V20 looks like, because it is a true successor to what the V10 stands for on the inside.
Which design do you prefer? Do you think LG made the right decisions with the V20? |
DUBAI (Reuters) - Four Arab states sought on Monday to pile pressure on Qatar over charges it backs terrorism, saying the publication of a previously secret accord between Riyadh and Doha showed Qatar broke a promise not to meddle in the affairs of Gulf countries.
FILE PHOTO: Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir (2-R), UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan (R), Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (L), and Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa (2-L) meet to discuss the diplomatic situation with Qatar, in Cairo, Egypt, July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Khaled Elfiqi/Pool/ File Photo
The text of the 2013 accord, whose existence was known but whose contents have never before been made public, was first published by CNN on Monday and later released on social media by Saudi officials.
In a joint statement, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said the publication of the accord, meant to settle a dispute between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours, “confirms beyond any doubt Qatar’s failure to meet its commitments and its full violation of its pledges”.
Amid fresh tension with Qatar, the four slapped sanctions on Doha on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism, cosying up to Iran, backing the Muslim Brotherhood - the world’s oldest Islamist organisation - and interference in their affairs.
The four say Qatar pledged to desist from interfering in its neighbours’ politics in the 2013 agreement.
Qatar has rejected the charges and said the four countries are trying to impose their own views on its foreign policies.
The document surfaced as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in the region to help Washington’s allies hammer out a way out of the crisis.
In response, Qatar accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of breaking the spirit of the Riyadh agreement and engaging in an “unwarranted and unprecedented attack on Qatar’s sovereignty”.
The Riyadh accord aimed to enhance cooperation between sovereign Gulf Arab states and avoid interference in their internal affairs, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) said.
Kuwaiti mediation efforts hit a snag last week when the four Arab states said they were disappointed with Qatar’s response to their list of 13 demands.
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
Qatar said the demands, which included ending support for militant groups, the closure of the Al Jazeera TV channel, shutting down a Turkish military base in Qatar and downgrading ties with Iran, were an infringement of its sovereignty.
QNA reported Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed Al-Thani, director of Qatar’s government communications, as saying the 13 demands bore no relation to the Riyadh accord and the latest crisis was the result of a coordinated media campaign against Qatar.
“Some of the allegations and demands of the siege countries have no basis, while others were an unwarranted and unprecedented attack on the sovereignty of the state of Qatar in violation to all international and regional agreements.”
The 2013 agreement, reached at a meeting in Riyadh hosted by the then Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, was signed by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, while an implementation mechanism was signed by the six GCC foreign ministers.
In the document, the parties agreed to refrain from backing any “political currents that pose a threat to any member country of the (Gulf Cooperation) Council”, and provided for Muslim Brotherhood leaders who are non-GCC citizens to leave the area. |
by
It is never not the season for Marx-bashing among the high-flown successors to the New York Intellectuals of decades past. Louis Menand (or Mundane, as he is sometimes called) steps up to the proverbial plate, in a recent New Yorker (Oct.10) to remind readers that Marx the “Scientific Socialist” helped bring totalitarianism into the world, and that he also had a lisp, for which he was evidently compensating. Marx had an answer to the ongoing human and, it turns out, ecological crises of capitalism, Menand himself wisely has no real answers. But the old prophet evidently meant well, and since Thomas Piketty has made such a splash with criticisms of growing poverty and class division, we are advised that some things in Marx must still, after all this time, be attended to. If not, matters may go badly for the likes of Menand’s circles, although mainly in the realms of prestige.
As the New Yorker eagerly girds its collective loins for a new president and her new wars, it may be wise to recall the thread of socialism, not really Marxism, represented by “revisionist” Eduard Bernstein and so much resented by Rosa Luxemburg, a century ago. The optimistic, empire-building Bernstein urged German colonization of Africa, indeed insisted upon national responsibility to bring the backward peoples and their rich trove of natural resources into modern world, at whatever cost. They might suffer, but in the long run, they would better for the civilizing influence. A Menand and New Yorker sort of fellow, although closer to the bombs-and-invasion enthusiasms of George Packer.
Samir Amin (Russia and the Long Transition to Capitalism, Monthly Review Press, $23) is by contrast clearly an heir to the Luxemburg tradition, also one of the world’s distinguished critics of Empire, now well past his eightieth birthday. Global scholar and currently the director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal, Amin surveys the struggles of anti-imperialists from the inside, as a former participant in the once-heroic Non Aligned Movement still around to tell the stories. There are so many small gems of insight offered along the way that this collection of essays written over several decades cannot be summarized adequately, but the general drift is clear.
“The three great revolutions of modern times (French, Russian and Chinese) are great precisely because they looked forward beyond the immediate requirements of the moment. “ (p.79) For these sweeping world events, Samir urges us to grasp, “Thermidor is not the Restoration.” (p.79). That is, things move ahead, for worse (very often) as well as for the better, because the global capitalist market dominates along with the assorted weapons of war… but still, and whether we like it or not, things adjust.
As C.L.R. James used to remind readers, Stalinism was not a bad idea but rather, with all its degradations, a part of evolving reality. Samir wants to press home the point that something has changed, irrevocably, in our own past century, and not only for the winners. He insists we see that the crucial errors of Communists in state power can be found above all in the forced march of the peasantry toward expanded output, thus breaking the alliance with the working class that had made revolution possible, and confirming bureaucratic misrule in later decades. That oft-repeated misjudgment misrule, by no means restricted to Leninists, must also be seen in its own complexities, and with its own far-reaching consequences.
The Russian regime turned Stalinist built itself up sufficiently, at enormous sacrifice, to defeat the Germans. Thereafter, and mainly for the sake of survival against a West determined to turn back the clock, Stalin and his heirs almost unwillingly offered third world revolutionaries assistance in freeing themselves from the formal bonds of colonialism. The ongoing decline of the Soviet system, like the built-in limitations of Maoism, doomed the Non Aligned Movement (launched in 1955) along with other efforts at true economic independence and egalitarian solutions. Nationalists with spurious claims to socialist traditions—Samir naturally brings Egypt’s Nasser to mind—retreated at the first threats to their power, tightening grips on the political system around them, and ultimately insuring their own downfall. “Populism” (we should use the word carefully) of what we might call a quasi-Trumpian, nationalistic variety that had arisen across much of the Middle East in particular, promising redemption both of native pride and of centuries of suffering, crashed sooner or later. The forced austerity that accelerated, following the Soviet collapse, finalized matters, or, seen differently, reset the systems for the cycles of crises to come.
Amin rightly fears the signs on the horizon. The US and its allies evidently now intend a decisive reconquest, in one way or another, of the Middle East and far beyond. They will clearly stop at nothing to do so, with populations and ecosystems at risk in new and horrible ways. Russia of the “market economy” is a poor foe at best but who knows, perhaps neither Putinism nor complete capitulation to the West that leaders like Hillary Clinton in particular seek, will be the end of this story.
All this brings us back to the old and inescapable trope, “what didn’t Marx anticipate, etc etc?” Fifty or for that matter a hundred years ago, for the great majority of European and American Marxists of any variety, the unanticipated factor was undoubtedly “nationalism.” Otherwise, why did (most) socialist leaders and followers accept their own sides in the First World War as justified, and direct their minions to into battle slaughtering each other? In recent generations, the questions of war and nationalism have turned toward empire, and with a contrast of views that has become familiar in the recent discussions of what Marx (and Engels) said and what they might have said if they had not run out of time. Scholars like Kevin Anderson, examining the late-life writings (often scribbled notebooks) of Marx, have offered further details and analysis of the master’s observations about the non-industrialized world and the possibilities, however problematic, of the old communalism leaping out of the imperial grasp and over into a newer form of collectivism.
But there is another line of thought as well. If race, class and nation are the key issues in question and the writings of Marx and Engels to be examined anew, why not look to the American Civil War, a subject taken up by the pair in younger years, at considerable length? Why not, indeed. Such a text has now appeared under the (renewed) title of The Civil War in the United States. (219pp, $14.00.) The same title was used in 1937, during the golden age of International Publishers, affiliated with the Communist Party USA. This venerable press, now on hard times and (mistakenly) rumored to be closing, has made a memorable contribution with the new edition, thoroughly reworked, reedited (with much material missing from its precursor) and annotated by Professor Andrew Zimmerman who teaches at George Washington University.
(A little pained levity: the original editor called himself “Richard Enmale,” i.e., Engels, Marx, Lenin. Herbert Morais, a Brooklyn College instructor, felt the need to hide behind a nom de plume, probably for good reason: he was caught in the roundup of college reds in 1941 and fired anyway.)
This is powerful stuff. Marx and Engels faced hard, disillusioning days during the 1850s, with the revolutions of ’48 behind them and the formation of the (First) International well ahead. Marx certainly needed the money, but both wrote for the New York Tribune, a reform-minded daily that Abraham Lincoln, out in distant Springfield, Illinois, read with the greatest interest. During the aftermath of the European uprisings, in 1849, Marx was already seeking to define black slavery, not as a carryover from some distant and more barbarous time, but as a precise consequence of advancing capitalism in certain circumstances. Marx and Engels’ exchanged correspondence excerpted here, over the following two decades or so, drives the point home. They were often pondering the ways in which slavery in America mirrored British colonialism in India, amidst the modernizing web of empire and race.
The two men had no doubt about the reasons for the outbreak of the Civil War, i.e., the frustrated Southern effort to expand slavery into the West, and the inevitable result of Northern victory in the abolition of slavery. Along with the Tribune pieces, the ongoing correspondence highlights the international implications of the war crisis. The working class of Europe could not fail to be involved–and not merely implicated. The British aristocracy of blood and commerce (notably the cotton mills) naturally inclined toward the slave South. The fate of the North, of the potential abolition of slavery, arguably depended upon the actions of working class communities in Lancashire and elsewhere.
We know that Lincoln regarded the solidarity actions of British working people, palpably against their own material interest, to be among the highest expressions of idealism anywhere. Marx for his part had bitterly criticized Lincoln’s hesitations, but as the War went on, welcomed the president pressing the war toward a victorious conclusion. Marx and Engels the radical democrats, the militant anti-racists, come out strongly and unmistakably here. In the famous phrase, white labor could not be free until black labor was also free.
This commentary, published and unpublished at the time, ends with the close of the war, or nearly that. Why no commentary on Radical Reconstruction? No one knows, really. Perhaps they were leaving the subject for W.E.B. Du Bois! But at an intelligent guess, they ran out of time and energy, as they soon faced the challenges and promise of…the Paris Commune.
Future generations, including our own, have challenges both unique and familiar, but none unrelated to the insights that Marx and Engels offered. I am tempted to give away the ending of a neglected genre novel, The Marx Sisters (“A Kathy and Brock Mystery”) published in the UK in 1994. Author Barry Maitland, a Scotsman relocated to Australia, offers us crimes committed….to keep the secret and unpublished Marx manuscripts hidden….for a future generation. Where are those manuscripts when we need them?## |
We hope everyone in Cincinnati had a great time watching baseball’s All-Star Game, seeing Pete Rose step on a Major League Baseball field and witnessing Mike Trout secure home-field advantage during the World Series for the American League.
It’s only a few more weeks until the National Football League’s Bengals and owner Mike Brown steal their joy again.
Earlier this week, HBO’s John Oliver dug deeply into the subject of stadium financing and the use of public tax dollars on private facilities. It’s a topic that we may have addressed here a time or two. With the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams all threatening to move to Los Angeles if their towns don’t give them money for new stadiums, it’s tough not to view the encroaching NFL season warily if you pay your taxes regularly. However, despite the fact that taxpayers have given 22 NFL teams an average of $250 million apiece for stadiums since 1997, the NFL isn’t solely to blame here.
No, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have all played chicken with taxpayers and threatened to take their ball (or puck) to another city willing to foot the bill for new facilities. You don’t even have to dig that far into history to find examples. In fact, here are just five towns that are being squeezed as we speak:
Minneapolis
Minnesota Vikings
How do you get taxpayers to chip in $500 million on a more than $1 billion stadium when only one city, Indianapolis ($620 million), has ever paid that much. Tell them you’ll move their 54-year-old NFL franchise to Los Angeles.
Vikings owner Zygi Wilf did just that and got the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis to go along for the ride. With the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome’s roof collapse moving games in 2010 and competing L.A. stadium plans just waiting for a team, Minnesota panicked and came up with a plan for a new stadium on the Metrodome site that the state would pay for through “charitable gambling.” Though the plan was approved in 2012, the funding portion never worked out and led to a tax on cigarette inventory instead.
Minneapolis, meanwhile, will end up paying $678 million over its 30-year payment plan once interest, operations and construction costs are factored in. The city earned a Super Bowl hosting gig in 2018, but also got a 150-page list of Super Bowl demands from the NFL that will only cost the host city and state more money. Oh, and the Vikings are playing yet another season in frosty outdoor TCF Stadium until their new digs are built. Awesome.
Atlanta
Atlanta Braves
Only in Atlanta is a $1.4 billion replacement for a 23-year-old stadium considered a bargain. However, Atlanta taxpayers are contributing $200 million to the new home of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Major League Soccer’s Atlanta United FC. Cobb County, Georgia, wishes it got that lucky.
Cobb County will be borrowing $397 million via bonds, including nearly $300 million that will be paid from property taxes, to finance the new SunTrust Park after Braves ownership decided to leave its current digs at Turner Field for the suburbs. Opponents were barred from speaking against the lending scheme, the Braves’ president shrouded the deal in secrecy and the Georgia Supreme Court struck down an appeal against issuing the bonds just last month.
Yes, taxpayers had $400 million in property taxes that typically go toward roads and schools just handed to a team that left the only home it’s ever known. And they had no way to fight it. Why isn’t there more uproar, you ask? Besides the fact that Cobb County gagged anyone who dared try to debate it, much of the ire is focused on Braves ownership: media conglomerate Liberty Media US:LMCA It’s a faceless opponent built to absorb whatever criticism is thrown its way. Atlanta may have lost the Braves, but it saved a bundle compared to what Cobb County will be paying — even before interest — in years to come.
Glendale, Ariz.
Arizona Coyotes
Glendale is in the desert. It doesn’t need any more moments in the sun.
Within the past 10 years, Glendale has spent $308 million on a $455 million football stadium for the Arizona Cardinals, it entered a 15-year, $225 million arena management contract with the Arizona Coyotes and it paid millions more for a spring-training facility for baseball’s White Sox and Dodgers. How’s it working out for the city? Well, Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers told ESPN Magazine his city lost $1 million on the Super Bowl in 2008 and “I totally believe we will lose money” on this year’s Super Bowl. With much of that spending coming before the recession, the city is in hefty debt.
However, it no longer wants to put up with any of it. It ended its lease with the Coyotes, which may attempt to leave for Las Vegas (more on that town later) if they can’t beat the city in court. The NHL would prefer to expand into its next market, but the Coyotes and their angry non-Glendale fans may not leave them much of a choice. The city won’t spend on a new arena, it seems more than happy to let Phoenix try to lure the Coyotes back when it builds a new arena for the Suns and it seems to be under the sound impression that it will never get out of its sports teams what it put into them.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Milwaukee Bucks
Kansas City has an empty Sprint Center just waiting for a tenant, and the St. Louis Blues don’t share their arena with an NBA team.
However, it took Anschutz Entertainment Group and MGM to build an arena in Las Vegas and securing 10,000 season-ticket commitments for a nonexistent team to convince the Milwaukee Bucks owners to threaten to move. When hedge fund sweethearts Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan, whose worth is measured in billions, bought the Bucks from longtime owner Herb Kohl for $550 million last year, it was believed the team wouldn’t go anywhere. However, a stipulation in the deal noted that the team wouldn’t move if the owners replaced the 27-year-old Bradley Center. However, the league noted that if construction didn’t begin on the new arena by the end of this year, the league would buy the team back and move it.
The new owners, sensing they have a bit of leverage, made the city an offer: Pay us $250 million plus interest for a new arena or lose the team. That includes $90 million in bonds that accrue interest for more than a dozen years before they can be paid off. That interest would add another $170 million to the existing $250 million cost. Surprisingly, in a town that will be paying off the Milwaukee Brewers Miller Park (built in 1996) until 2020, this is not going over well. Unfortunately, Milwaukee’s problem just became Wisconsin’s as the state senate approved a deal for public funding that Gov. Scott Walker is expected to approve. Milwaukee and its surrounding county are now on the hook for what will add up to $400 million over 20 years. Thanks, Vegas.
Washington, D.C.
D.C. United
Think MLS doesn’t have enough pull to play the stadium-extortion game? Oh, think again.
D.C. United was one of the league’s founding franchises and has been around since 1995. It’s called oversized RFK Stadium home during that time and is looking for a new stadium in the city. Unfortunately, land in D.C. is a bit hard to come by, so plans for a stadium in the industrial Buzzard Point neighborhood ballooned to a cost of $300 million. D.C. United is willing to pick up half of that, but it is asking the city to cough up the rest to pay for parcels of land currently owned by businesses.
Now, $150 million isn’t unprecedented in MLS terms. Denver and Commerce City, Colo., paid $174 million for the Colorado Rapids’ suburban home. Harrison and Newark, N.J., meanwhile, spent nearly $250 million to give the NY/NJ Red Bulls a new home near the Harrison PATH train station. However, the bevy of property and sales-tax breaks associated with D.C. United’s new stadium, and the fact that a portion of the city’s $150 million is coming out of a school-modernization program, is a bit much to swallow. However, D.C. United knows that there are enough towns in the Northern Virginia suburbs looking for a team to make them “big time” that it could have its pick if D.C. didn’t pay. It’s getting a half-price deal on the costliest soccer-only stadium in the country because D.C. doesn’t want the team to flee for the suburbs. If only it felt similarly about priced-out residents.
Jason Notte is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Esquire. Notte received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in 1998. Follow him on Twitter @Notteham. |
Between 125 to 150 athletes are expected to take part in Arkansas' Advance Camp today.
Registration is from 10 am to 11 and the camp should start a shortly afterward. The camp should end around 3:30.
Below are just some of the prospects expected:
2017 DE LaGaryonn Carson -Texarkana (Texas) Liberty-Eylau - Doesn't plan to work out. Has several teammates planning to participate in the camp.
2017 DE Anthony Payne- Kansas City
2017 WR Jonathan Adams-Jonesboro- Hogs has strong interest
2017 WR Kentre Patterson- East Lansing, Mich.
OL Tom Killilea- Overland Park, Kansas
Ath. Kiondre Thomas- FS Northside
LB Deontre Hardwick- FS Northside
TE Blake Williams- Mustang, Okla.- North Carolina offer
DE Malcolm Roach- Baton Rouge Madison
DB David Beasley- Pine Bluff
2017 RB DaRon Davis- Kansas City (Mo.) Hogan
LB-FB Grant Morgan- Greenwood
LB B.J. Edmonds -Mobile (Ala.) St. Pauls
2017 OL Trey Smith - Jackson (Tenn.) University- Has numerous offers. Major target for the Hogs
OL Creed Humphrey- Shawnee, Okla.
2017 OL Alan Ali- Ft. Worth Timber Creek
DE Andrew Clark- Ft. Smith Southside
2017 Ath. Monta Thomas - Hermitage - One of the top junior prospects in the state.
TE Grayson Gunter- Madison Central High School in Miss. - Has several offers
Pine Bluff DL John Tate said he will not be able to make the trip.
DL Michael Perry- Memphis Whitehaven- Has several offers. Wants ones from the Hogs.
8:37 update
Ath Brandon Northcross -Ashdown will be in Fayetteville today for camp
2018 QB Jaden Hill-Ashdown- A promising prospect that stands 6'3 190 but not participating. Just had surgery.
2017 OL Sanderson Hines-Pulaski Robinson
2018 Ath Nathan Page-Pulaski Robinson
10:08 update
2017 OL Justin Henderson, 6-7, 325- Denham Springs, La. Has offers from Central Florida and Kent State. Played with Hjalte Frofoldt at IMG but moved back home for this season
update
Expect 2017 DE LaGaryonn Carson to get an offer before the day. He is loving Arkansas. He ran a 4.68 HH at his school.
RB Tre Nation of Leeds, Ala. loved his visit on Friday. His father loves this place. He has several offers.
Arkansas Baptist College has two of the best looking athletes here. CB Donnie Lee looks to to 6-1,200 while OLB LaDarius Daniels is 6-0, 207. Both are ripped. Arkansas wanted them to come up and work out.
2017 RB Dominque Williams of Parish Episcopal is a good looking athlete. His father played RB at Cal and he believes his son is better.
12:13 update
Highly recruited S Isaiah Simmons of Olathe North in Kansas ran a 4.37 at 6-3,207. Very good shot at an offer.
LB LaDarius Daniels had an unofficial 4.40 while CB Donnie Lee ran a 4.47.
DE Eli Hale of Fayetteville ran 4.77 and 4.78.
All times are handheld.
12:38 update
Ath BJ Edmonds of Mobile Ala. had a 4.30. Will likely work at LB today.
Heard Ft Smith Northside Ath Kiondre Thomas ran a 4.3 but don't know exact time. What he does in 1-on-1s will determine if he gets an offer or not.
12:39
Kiondre Thomas had a 4.38 by at least one stop watch.
2:21 update
The camp broke for lunch until 2:45.
B.J. Edmonds worked with the RBs not the LBs.
Brandon Norcross of Ashdown ran 4.46 and 4.48. He has definitely added upper body strength since last year. Big chested kid for a CB.
RB Tre Nation ran a 4.48.
2017 DL Damien McDonald, 6-2, 275of Helena- West Helena ran a 5.09.
TE Blake Williams arrived later and did drills. He'll test during the lunch break.
Ath Jon Johnson of Harmony Grove worked with the LBs and was one of the more impressive ones in the group during drills.
2018 RB Danny Smith of Vilonia ran a 4.63. Very nice looking kid that could pass for someone going into their senior season. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
As noted above, Isaiah Simmons rans a 4.37 in testing at 6-3, 207. He looks like a LB but plays safety. He's very long too. Would be interested in knowing his reach.
A source in Louisiana believes QB Danny Etling is probably headed to LSU after his visit.
Hearing 2017 OL Trey Smith is really liking Arkansas. He's a big fan of the coaching staff.
Hearing TE Grayson Gunter ran a 4.58.
2017 WR Jonathan Adams has been attending Arkansas' basketball camp and arrived during the testing session. I was hearing he was really impressive at the basketball camp.
update
2017 DL Lagaryonn Carson and TE Grayson Gunter have been offered.
5:51 update
QB Breylin Smith of Conway was offered a preferred walk-on spot after today's camp.
North Little Rock WR Tobia Enlow ran an unofficial 4.41. He had a great day and had made some very difficult catches.
Ath. Jon Johnson of Harmonty Grove reports times of 4.41 and 4.46. He looked very good at linebacker.
CB Kiondre Thomas said the Hogs will check his transcript and if that checks out an offer will be coming. He said he knows he's good to go academically.
9:17 update
Fayetteville FB Damani Carter, 6-0, 232 of Fayetteville has been offered as a preferred walk-on after today's camp. He said it's an honor to have the opportunity and he'll report for fall practice in August. He committed to Army but because of paperwork issues both parties have decided to part ways. |
Legendo Entertainment is the next studio to step up and announce that is has games on the way to Apple TV.
There are three of them, in fact, each one quite different from the others. Only one of them is a new game while the other two have been out on iOS for some time.
Still, it's better than nothing, so let's have a look...
Armada of Undead
The first one is a completely new turn-based strategy for between one and four players called Armada of Undead.
It has a Caribbean setting and involves undead pirates.
You'll be able to use your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch as a second-screen controller while playing this one.
Dracula Twins
The second one, Dracula Twins, is already out on iOS (it's £1.99 / $2.99 on the App Store).
Legendo describes it as a Ghosts 'n Goblins-like platformer. You play as vampiric siblings Drac and Dragana as they attempt to reclaim Castle Moonskull from the devious Doctor Lifelust.
There are zombies and other monsters to deal with inside this horror-comedy world.
The Apple TV version will have a new feature in the form of two player co-op.
Pure Pinball
Third and finally we have Pure Pinball. This is already out on the App Store for iOS too.
What can be said? It's a 3D pinball game. Legendo boasts about its "table design, responsive controls, exceptional graphics and realistic ball movement."
If you like pinball then, hey, you'll be able to play it on a big screen with Apple TV. |
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DCS World Weekend Update - 8 July 2016
Summer Bonus Action Week
Starting today at 1500 GMT and lasting until Monday, July 18, 0900 GMT, you can spend up to 60% of your bonus points on most module from our
DCS 1.5.4 News
Two weeks after publishing DCS 1.5.4 in Open Beta, we finally managed to clear up the critical bugs and will publish the patch for DCS World today. Thanks again for all your feedback during this short, yet very effective Open Beta phase!
Changelog:
http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?...5&postcount=27 Starting today at 1500 GMT and lasting until Monday, July 18, 0900 GMT, you can spend up to 60% of your bonus points on most module from our E-Shop . This is a great way to finally spend this bonus points with a huge discount on our great modules!Two weeks after publishing DCS 1.5.4 in Open Beta, we finally managed to clear up the critical bugs and will publish the patch for DCS World today. Thanks again for all your feedback during this short, yet very effective Open Beta phase!Changelog: Attached Thumbnails
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Take a look at this alarming claim right at the beginning of an article entitled "The Religious War against American Scholars of India" recently published in Inside Higher Education:
Highly respected professors face intimidation, threats and smear campaigns for deviating from the views of the Hindu right. A cultural and religious war is raging in which Western academics are the enemy.
...
And now at the K-12 level, the struggle over how Hinduism is taught in California public schools has been renewed. A new online petition that has received more than 23,000 signatures accuses a group of South Asian studies faculty who proposed changes to social studies curriculum documents of seeking "to erase India and Hinduism from California's schools." The Hindu American Foundation has even launched a #DontEraseIndia campaign. At issue are questions of whether it's historically accurate to use the word "Hinduism" to describe the religion of ancient India -- the members of the faculty group argue that it isn't -- and the faculty group's suggestions that certain references to "India" be replaced with "South Asia" or "Indian subcontinent."
I am the main author of the online petition with over 23,000 signatures noted in the last paragraph. I am a professor and a writer. I have taken a clear but civil, respectful, and reasonable stand against what I believe is a systemic distortion in a part of the academy's reading of Hindu and Indian history. I have never thought of myself as a "cultural" or "religious" "warrior," nor do I condone intimidations, threats and smears. Nor have I ever identified, however debatable that term might be, with the "Hindu Right."
And most importantly, the petition at hand (which is independent of and preceded the Hindu American Foundation's subsequent hashtag campaign mentioned above) is hardly an empty "accusation." The facts about the sweeping and brazenly delusional (in some places) expurgations to the California History Social Science Frameworks are a matter of public record. The South Asian Studies faculty referred to here have clearly stated that they recommend changing most references to India before 1947 to South Asia and Hinduism to "ancient Indian religion" (read their November letter here). They have modified the word "India" in key places in the curriculum so that sentences such as the conquest by Central Asian tribes of "Northern Indian states" now reads as a mere expansion of territory by them across the Indus river into "Northern Indian plains." They have deleted the word "India" from a line about "India and the Muslim world" to subsume it with a phrase about the "Islamic civilization stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean."
All of these facts are in plain view.
And yet, the Inside Higher Ed's reporter chooses to smear by association my campaign and the scholars supporting it by saying there's a religious and cultural war on scholars by the Hindu Right (I will note though that I am acknowledged as the author of the petition, later, almost at the very end of the article, and as a professor of Media and Asian studies, well after my petition has been framed implicitly as one more part of this alleged Hindu "religious war").
Given the unfortunate framing of a position of academic dissent against a wholesale denial of India's existence in history books as a "religious war," I have to ask some specific questions. Is it a "religious war" if you point out that it is historically inaccurate to subsume "India" under the phrase "Islamic civilization"? Or contest the white-washing of history and evisceration of human agency through phrases like "expanding territory into Northern Indian plains"?
In a way, all of this is not surprising given the blatant disregard for facts that has marked some of the media reporting on the California textbooks issue (read my response to the LA Times here).
Between the dogmatic refusal by some academicians to respond directly and civilly to the concerns of fellow scholars about their publicly stated positions, and the seeming eagerness of some community organizations to be co-opted into a media narrative that grants them visibility as vocal opponents to academia (even if that visibility is incredibly "filtered"), the truth, which is what scholars and journalists ought to care about, is left to rot somewhere on the sidelines.
What then is the core issue here? "These disputes," writes the author, referring presumably to our petition as well as other issues she lists prior to it such as the controversy over the Murty Classical Library, "have frequently pitted Hindu believers against non-Hindu scholars... They have tapped into postcolonial anxieties and puritanical attitudes towards sex." Now, arguably, some of these concerns may apply to some of the criticism that has been made by one of several Hindu groups or individuals over the years against some of the non-Hindu scholars of Hinduism whose work they find offensive. But the issue quite clearly is a lot more than simply one of believers fighting scholars (after all, it would be quite absurd to dismiss a case nor not deleting "India" as a matter of mere "Hindu belief," I would imagine!). The real problem is something I described in my 2012 review essay "Hinduism and its Culture Wars" as follows:
There is however one truly strange thing about the supposedly liberal vision of Hinduism that has been offered by writers crusading against the Hindu right (such as Wendy Doniger, Martha Nussbaum and others). Their worldview seems to have little respect, if not consideration, for how Hindus themselves see their religion in the first place. Consequently, a whole contemporary era of writing about South Asia has come to answer the Hindu right's distortions of myth and history not by engaging with Hinduism as it is lived and understood by Hindus (which would mean acknowledging at least some grievances felt by them), but by a narrow and selective promotion of its own normative fantasy about what liberal, secular Hindus ought to believe.
It is an amazing example of intellectual inertia (it would be impolite and un-collegial perhaps to call it anything worse so I won't), that the same sort of clichés and evasions that I pointed out several years ago reappear even now. For example, the Inside Higher Education article then goes on to quote Martha Nussbaum:
"For about 20 years at least, members of the Hindu community in the U.S. have been carrying on a well-funded campaign to substitute an ideological Hindu-right version of Indian history for serious historical scholarship." Nussbaum said that this version of history, propagated by the Hindu right since the 1920s, overstates the age of the Vedas by at least 1,500 years and makes false claims for Hindu indigeneity to the Indian subcontinent (where, as Nussbaum summarized the narrative, they lived "peacefully, with no conflict or strife, until Muslims arrived to create strife and try to dominate Hindus" -- and until the British Christians arrived to participate in the oppression of Hindus after that). This version of history also holds -- again falsely, Nussbaum said -- that "traditional Hinduism was highly puritanical about sexual matters, and the sexual element has been introduced by leftist and Western scholars."
It is clear from this quote that what Nussbaum thinks of as an "ideological Hindu-right version of Indian history" contains some seriously debatable assumptions. At the heart of the battle between ideological Hinduphobia in the academy, and the much more complex, diverse, and disorganized (and hardly well-funded in my view) campaign in the Hindu community, is essentially the assertion by Nussbaum about "false claims for Hindu indigeneity to the Indian subcontinent." All the rest is a sideshow frankly, a mere distraction meant to conceal the fact that much of this supposed "critique" of the Hindu Right from some academics lacks real insight into Hinduism or Hindutva and is a mere cut-and-paste of criticisms more apt to their traditions than Hinduism or India (after all, has any Hindu organization involved with the California textbooks made any assertion about 'traditional Hinduism' being 'highly puritanical about sexual matters'?)
The most important issue in this needlessly prolonged conflict is the question of whether the diverse traditions that Hindus today broadly refer to as "Hinduism" ought to be recognized as an integral part of India or whether Hinduism is really nothing more than a Nazi-like ideology imposed by the mythical invading Aryan race in 1500 BCE. Although several South Asia Studies scholars today say that they do not subscribe to this now discredited pseudo-scientific and racist theory concocted during colonial times, we still find eminent voices among them dismissing contrary views as "false claims" by the "Hindu Right." As I wrote a few weeks ago in HuffPost, it seems increasingly clear that the widely spread canard about Hindu extremism and nationalism in the California textbooks controversy may well be a part of the same mythology among some scholars. They pretty much seem to equate any position that respects Hinduism's deep rootedness in India as Hindu nationalism. One wonders what will happen the day academia realizes that all this shadow-boxing has been an utter distraction from our duty to the world as scholars and public intellectuals. |
20-Oct-2017: This post originally appeared in the main Excelsior blog back in January 2015. We have started moving relevant technical posts over to this new blog.
A number of old tests get a new life every time we add support for another target architecture or platform. Here comes a fresh record from our labs.
Environment: OS X
Patient: Popular free desktop Java Swing app that has been part of the Excelsior JET test suite for many years.
Symptoms
Clicking the right mouse button on the application’s tools panel results in:
expected behavior on Apple Java SE 6
NoClassDefFoundError on Oracle HotSpot 1.7.0_55, thrown because the class apple.laf.AquaPopupMenuUI is absent in the Oracle JRE for OS X. The application catches it and displays a dialog inviting the user to try the latest version or report the problem.
The latter is what we expected the natively compiled application to do, because the Excelsior JET Runtime includes exactly the same classes as the respective version of the Oracle JRE for the same platform.
However, the app did not show that dialog if natively built. Launched from a terminal, it would dump the call stack to that terminal, but without a terminal it appeared to the user that some functionality has been silently disabled for no apparent reason.
Examination
The execution paths diverge in the code that handles the initial NoClassDefFoundError : in the native build, that code itself throws a NullPointerException , effectively canceling the creation of the error dialog.
Here is a small excerpt:
Thread[] ts = new Thread[Thread.activeCount()]; Thread.enumerate(ts);
As you might have guessed, code that follows iterates over the ts array, assuming that it has been filled with references to all active threads. Indeed, on HotSpot the entire array is full of valid references to Thread instances. But in the native build, the last element of the array appears to be null , and the absence of a guard against that leads to an NPE.
It is easy to reproduce this problem on a small sample by having the above code executed from SwingUtilities.invokeLater() .
Diagnosis
Fact is, activeCount() returns the number of all threads, both alive and dead, whereas enumerate() only goes over the threads for which isAlive() returns true . So in the general case, one must check for null references when iterating over an array filled returned by Thread.enumerate() .
But why does the app work on HotSpot, whereas the native build fails?
Here one subtle difference between two implementations of the JVM specification comes into play:
Upon termination of the main thread, the HotSpot VM “reincarnates” it as a new, DestroyJavaVM() -thread, which waits for all other threads to terminate. (Actually, those two are the same thread, but from the JVM’s point of view they are different, hence me quoting the word “reincarnates”.)
As they said on the fifth James Bond movie posters:
But in our case, “twice” is NOT the only way to live!
In the Excelsior JET Runtime, the main thread is only marked as dead upon termination, and then “waits” for other threads to die. As a result, when activeCount() gets called after the termination of the main thread, it returns a number that is greater than the number of threads that a subsequent call of enumerate() would, well, enumerate. Greater by at least one.
Treatment
We could possibly change the Excelsior JET Runtime so that it behaves identically with HotSpot in the above scenario. However, the specification does not guarantee that the result of an activeCount() call is at all times equal to the length of the array that a subsequent call of enumerate() would fill. In fact, that cannot be guaranteed in the presence of dead threads, so the said code only works on HotSpot if there are none yet. A close inspection of Thread.activeCount javadoc would confirm that:
Returns an estimate of the number of active threads…
Therefore, the code of the application is incorrect both with respect to the Java specification — it relies on the behavior of a specific implementation, HotSpot, and in general — checking for null array elements would have prevented the problem.
Verdict: no treatment necessary (on our side, anyway).
Credits
Images are fragments of vintage posters for the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice. |
In the wake of a series of shooting deaths by local police forces in Seattle, Tacoma and the metropolitan region, most clearly justified, but with at least one seemingly something of a tragic mistake, local Anarchist groups are going wild, calling for more copkillings. (This in fact echoes the call of local NAACP Pres. James Bible justifying the killing of “occupying force” cops, in the midst of a copkilling spree that left five local European-American police officers dead at the hands of two Black Supremacists. Of course, the only real racists, the Seattle Police Chief gravely intoned as five of his officers lay dead at the hands of Black Supremacists, are those who think race played a role in the Black Supremacist rampages.)
One rather nasty local anarchist group, the Arctic Circle Collective, simply calls for the massacre of Cops. (see their Seattle Cops Kill; Fuck the Police, and Fuck Calming Down! at arcticcirclecollective.info, August 31).
I have read through all of the Arctic Circle Collective website and it is clear that this group is Zionist. On their Distro page they have a document called “Bloom Theory”, an ideological statement (41 pages no less, written in an incoherent Situationist/Joycean style) in which they state their goal that every member of the working class should evolve into a Elser/Bloom (Bloom is the main character of Ulysses). Elser/Bloom, to be specific, is Johann Georg Elser, who, the Arctic Circle Collective asserts, is “an exemplary Bloom in every respect”; he was a German Jew who tried to assassinate Hitler in 1939. For Arctic Circle, assassinating Hitler is the decisive act of revolution and anyone killing a cop is both assassinating Hitler and increasing anarchy. In a very real sense, Arctic Circle argues, to live under a [non-Jewish] state is to be, like Elser/Bloom, a Fuhrerssonderhaftling (an exceptional prisoner of the Fuhrer). Of course, as Zionists, by definition, they worship Israel, the Jewish state: This is clear because while anarchist groups are constantly demanding the murder of police everywhere in the world, but no anarchist group ever advocates assassinating Israeli police.
In their manifesto “About Us” they describe anarchism as a fog that obscures and ultimately obliterates the State: It is through the process of killing Hitler again and again that the “fog” of anarchism can be thickened, ultimately creating the worldwide Anarcho-Zionist utopia, a sort of Israeli world empire, the ultimate, final and eternal Tiqqun (they use the French transliteration from Hebrew, Tiqqun, instead of the English transliteration Tikkun). I think calling it “fog” is a kind of in-joke, because one of their overriding operational goals is to conceal the fact that they are Zionists.
Oddly enough, this is essentially the same ideology as that of Neo-Con Christophobe David Frum (George W. Bush’s speechwriter who put the word “Crusade” in Bush’s mouth to describe the Wars for Israel and the phrase “Axis-of-Evil” to designate the enemies of Israel). Frum is obsessed with cop killer Leonard Peltier. Even after Jews have become the ruling class in the United States, their young cannot resist the temptation to play revolutionary, always aware that they will never be faced with the consequences of their racial terrorism.
As the then Acting Chief of Police stated after the murder of Seattle police officer by a self-avowed Black Supremacist, anyone who thinks there is anything to be learned from this act of terrorism is a racist. And in the silence imposed by the Government to protect those who stand behind this terrorism, more police will be murdered. |
Well the holiday season is in full swing and so are the parties. And parties mean party food! If I had not been sicker than sick for onion day, this would have been my entry. But alas the forces of nature did not allow that and so I am presenting my dish to you now. I love this dish and bring it often to parties. This can be presented in two ways. One as an appetizer, where you would put a nice wedge on a plate along with some greens and some bread. Or two, the way I do it most often as a “spread” for crackers, bread and what not. The cheesecake itself is good but it is the onion pear jam/chutney(which ever you prefer) is what makes this special. So if you want to serve something a little unusual but tasty, put this out on your holiday buffet table.
Blue Cheese Cheesecake with Onion Pear Jam
1 3/4 lbs softened cream cheese
8 oz shredded Asiago cheese
8 oz blue cheese, crumbled
5 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp white pepper
Grease a 9-inch springform pan.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Cream cheeses together until smooth.
Add eggs one at a time.
Add cream and pepper. Combine.
Bake uncovered in a water bath until golden brown and center is set.About 45-50 minutes.
Cool Completely, remove sides of pan.
Onion Pear Jam
4 cups onions, diced
1 tsp olive oil
2 cups pears, peeled, chopped
2 TBSP fruit vinegar
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Saute onions in oil until brown. Reduce heat and cook until glazed.
Add pears, vinegar, sugar, cayenne and salt. Cook till pears are crispy tender.
Remove mixture ans simmer juice utnil a thick glaze.
Mix pear onion mixture with glaze. Cool.
Cover cooled cheesecke with jam and serve with bread or crackers. |
7 Ways to Support a Friend Who's Questioning Their Sexuality
Being a supportive, helpful friend is the best thing you can do for someone who is questioning their sexuality.
If you proudly identify as a member of the LGBT community, you may have a friend secretly tell you that they're questioning their sexuality. While your natural response is to scream “ONE OF US” and deploy the rainbow confetti from overhead, I’d recommend taking a step back.
Here are some positive ways to support a friend who’s questioning their sexuality.
1. Don’t use labels
Labels are fucking terrifying, especially for people who are questioning. Even if they say they're interested in someone of the same gender, there’s still no need to use the word gay or bisexual. Let them be the one to use it when they're ready.
2. Avoid asking yes or no questions
“What type of thoughts have you been having?” “How have they affected you?” Try to get them to open up a little bit. Sometimes, the mere act of saying the words aloud is enough to clarify our hazy thoughts. Give them an opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings.
3. Listen, and then, if appropriate, advise
Yes, you’ve been there, and you’re going to have a mighty urge to give advice. Hold back. Don’t initially spew advice the moment they talk to you. Listen to them first. Then, after they're all out of words, ask if you can tell them what was helpful for you. If they say yes, then feel free to advise lightly.
4. Realize their path is different
But there are SO many similarities between you and them. You had identical thoughts when questioning. That might be the case, but they didn’t grow up in your household. They didn’t have the same friends. Their life is different. Treat it as such.
5. Don’t hook up with them
This shouldn’t need to be said, but I will still say it because I’ve seen it happen. Your friend is not coming to you to experiment. They're coming to you for help. Help is not taking advantage of a vulnerable and confused friend by shoving your lips on their face.
6. Don’t push them in any direction
Encourage acceptance, open-mindedness, and exploration. Emphasize the importance of living without self-judgment. Do not push them in a “straighter” or “gayer” direction. That’s not your job as a friend.
7. Expand your concept of "straightness"
A straight person can acknowledge that a gay person is cute. That doesn’t mean they're gay or bi. Let’s push the limits of what straight can be. I’d even go as far as to say that straight people can have a little crush on someone of the same sex and still consider themselves straight. A person’s sexual identity shouldn’t erupt because of a single thought. That doesn’t do any good for straight OR LGBT folks. |
Donald Trump’s most senior business representative has warned any post-Brexit deal with Washington will hinge on the UK scrapping rules set by Brussels, including regulations governing imports of chlorinated chicken.
Wilbur Ross, the US commerce secretary, suggested European regulations governing the safety of imports such as chlorine-washed chicken ignored US scientific research. His comments underline the potential difficulties in striking a free trade deal with the US once Britain leaves the EU.
The key Trump adviser, who was separately caught on Monday at the heart of the furore over the Paradise Papers, said changing these regulations will form a “critical component of any trade discussion,” between London and Washington, while the UK should also take steps to remove “unnecessary regulatory divergences” with the US.
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Speaking in front of an audience of business leaders at the Confederation of British Industry annual conference in London on Monday, Ross warned any deal with Brussels to maintain its regulations might “hinder development of a closer post-Brexit US-UK relationship”.
He also said it was important for the UK’s deal to leave the EU to take into account America’s “commercial interests”. He said that Trump was “very supportive” of a trade deal between London and Washington.
Ross said the UK would need to change rules in areas such as food safety, as well as take steps to bring the standards for the manufacturing of medical devices closer in line with the US. Criticising EU regulations, he referred to the “limited role of science” in assessing risks related to certain foodstuffs, amid an ongoing row over safety of chlorinated chicken.
Geographic indicators on food products, the registration and documentation of chemical exports, as well as automotive industry standards and trade tariffs are also “key impediments” to expanded trade, he said. “Something we hope to be able to quickly fix between our two countries,” he added.
Ross’s comments are likely to fuel concerns that controversial clauses will be attached to any post-Brexit trade deal with Washington. A political row was ignited in Westminster over the summer after Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, suggested the UK should be open to the prospect of allowing poultry treated with a chlorine wash process, which is banned by the EU, as part of a trade deal with the US.
Fox defended the practice last week, despite assurances from Michael Gove, the food and environment secretary, that there were no circumstances under which chlorinated chicken would be allowed in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Ross also bemoaned the lack of US involvement in the EU standard-setting process. These “hindrances... [are] potentially ones that the UK could help solve if you don’t simply adopt EU trade policy in its entirety [after Brexit]”, he added.
Washington trade representatives and American industry experts are due to hold a second round of “preliminary scoping discussions” in London next week, after the first meetings in Washington in July, he said.
He added: “As the UK stands on the edge of the major changes coming with Brexit, we stand ready to use this opportunity to support our friends across the pond and to deepen our ties even further.”
The Department for International Trade said: “The US is our largest single trading partner, and the comments today from Wilbur Ross reaffirm the clear will on both sides of the Atlantic to strengthen our bilateral trade and investment relationship.
“As an international economic department we are laying the groundwork for a potential free trade agreement and remain committed to a mutually beneficial economic trading arrangement with the US. We have been clear that the UK will maintain its own high regulatory standards in future free trade agreements.”
• Follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk, or sign up to the daily Business Today email here. |
Accusing President Trump of neglecting storm victims in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, House Democrats on Thursday pressed both the administration and congressional Republicans to step up their response to Hurricane Maria.
The lawmakers charge that Trump is applying a double standard when it comes to storm relief, saying his response to Hurricane Maria lacks the urgency that followed Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which hit Texas and Florida in recent months.
“I want to see the fire and the fury of this administration when it comes to a rescue effort,” Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) told reporters in the Capitol.
“I have not seen the fire and fury.”
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), characterizing the devastation from Maria as “almost biblical in its proportions,” also said the response has been too slow.
“We can’t make them whole right this minute, but we can give them hope immediately, and that is what we must do,” Pelosi said, rattling off a long list of essentials the government needs to be providing in greater volume, including doctors, medical supplies, helicopters, water, food and electric generators.
“They need it yesterday,” Pelosi said. “We must move more quickly.”
Although residents of both Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are American citizens, the Democrats contend they’re being treated like something much less.
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the number of people still without power in Puerto Rico is equal to the population of Wyoming, Vermont and Alaska combined.
“I have no doubt that the responses to those states in this situation would be far different than the situation we’re having today,” she said. “It’s tantamount to mother nature’s atomic bomb, and we’re doing very little.”
Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, delivered a similar warning.
“They’re as much America as Maryland, as Texas, as Florida,” he said. “And we need to treat them the same.”
The Democrats are not alone in pressing for more urgency from Trump. On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 MORE (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the president urging the administration to expand the involvement of the Pentagon.
“The logistical chain in Puerto Rico isn’t just broken, at this point it is virtually non-existent,” Rubio wrote. “Unless [the Department of Defense] steps in quickly to establish emergency logistical assistance, it is my fear this situation will deteriorate rapidly.”
The administration has defended its response to Maria, which struck the Caribbean last week as a Category 5 storm. Officials deny that the territories are being treated differently than states and blame the media for creating the false impression that relief has been slow to arrive.
"I understand the coverage, in some cases, is giving the appearance that we aren't moving fast enough," Tom Bossert, White House homeland security adviser, told reporters Thursday. “The people of Puerto Rico have every bit of support from President Trump that he gave to the citizens of every other state in this country.”
Trump, however, helped fuel the criticisms earlier in the week when he said Maria victims have been tougher to help because they’re “on an island in the middle of the ocean.”
That explanation didn’t fly with Democrats.
“We don’t need second-grade geography lessons,” said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.). “We need solutions.”
The Democrats are calling on Trump to tap more military resources to meet the immediate needs of the Maria victims scrambling to secure food, water, fuel and medical supplies even eight days after the storm.
“This is a real human crisis and we need an immediate federal military response,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.). “United States citizens’ lives are on the line, and we need to respond [with] just that kind of urgency.
“It is just like a war.”
Gutiérrez noted that, for decades, the U.S. Navy tested munitions on Vieques, a small island off of Puerto Rico’s eastern coast. If Trump is having logistical problems, he should simply “ask the generals.”
“You know where it’s at,” Gutierrez said. “You found it very well, the United States, when it was time to practice bombing.”
The Democrats are also urging Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) and GOP leaders to waste no time taking up another supplemental spending bill to provide emergency help to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as Congress did in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
“This has to happen soon. Not weeks from now. Not in late October,” said Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.). “This needs to be an immediate priority for Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership.”
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) vowed Thursday that Congress will act “to make sure that whatever they need will get there.” And Ryan offered a similar promise, saying he’s waiting only for officials to assess the damage and estimate the federal help required.
“We will quickly act on that request,” he said.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló offered some updates on the situation Thursday. He said 44 of the region’s 69 hospitals are operational, while 4 million liters of potable water had been imported, with another 7.6 million liters expected. But many areas remain inaccessible, and he stressed the need for more help.
“We've asked the DOD to send some special troops over here, specifically for transportation, fuel deployment, food deployment, medical help, engineering, and so forth,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “We welcome more help.”
Unlike Capitol Hill’s Democrats, Rosselló has had nothing but praise for Trump’s response. On Tuesday, he told The Hill the president is “doing everything on his end,” and he amplified that message Thursday on MSNBC.
“I can say that the president has been very diligent,” Rosselló said. “He has been essentially talking to us every day.”
Rep. José Serrano (D-N.Y.) downplayed any disconnect between the seemingly contradictory messages. Rosselló, he said, is simply being careful not to ruffle the president at the same time he’s asking him for help.
“I didn’t expect the governor to be attacking the federal government,” Serrano said, “because that serves him no purpose at all.” |
Both sides went into this fixture without a league win this season, what resulted was a convincing performance and victory for Liverpool, with Luis Suarez scoring a hat trick.
Line Ups
Norwich made wholesale changes to their team that beat Doncaster 1-0 in the League Cup. Grant Holt was again left out of the starting team, with Simeon Jackson and Steve Morison preferred.
Liverpool also made nine changes from the midweek win at West Brom. Nuri Şahin’s double meant he was selected in midfield, replacing the suspended Jonjo Shelvey, and Andre Wisdom was also handed his Premier League début in place of Martin Kelly, who was missing due to a long-term injury. Youngster Suso was also elevated to the starting XI for his league starting début.
Super Start
Within two minutes Liverpool had taken the lead through a good finish from Luis Suarez. After an early spell of possession Liverpool was able to expose the Norwich defence, with Suarez capitalising.
The initial movement from Suarez allowed him to get in between the Norwich central defenders, as a result Leon Barnett moved into a deeper position in order to open his body up and be aware of Suarez. As he did this, Suarez pulled into the space in front of Barnett to receive the ball from Glen Johnson. With space now in behind, Nuri Şahin burst through. He was then tracked by both Bradley Johnson and Michael Turner.
Johnson’s through ball (aiming for the run of Şahin) was cut out, but Suarez nicked in front of Barnett and exploited the space where both B. Johnson and Turner should have been, before finishing past Ruddy.
Liverpool Dominate
Midway through the first half, perhaps Liverpool’s best passing combination occurred. Despite Norwich’s attempts to press, Liverpool was able to pass their way through and create a good chance.
Liverpool passed the ball across the back, from Agger to Reina, to Skrtel and Wisdom whilst under pressure from Norwich. However, as Norwich pressed, the back for did not step up, which created space between the lines. This allowed Wisdom to pass into Suso’s feet, who then flicked the ball with the outside of his boot onto Suarez and played a one-two leaving Suarez in behind the Norwich defence. Suarez’s resulting cross was too deep for Raheem Sterling to knock down for the on rushing Şahin, but the combination was ruthless.
Liverpool continued to dominate Norwich in the middle of the park, as Norwich was unable to combat Liverpool’s passing and movement from deep. Luis Suarez was also superb in exploiting the slow turning and sloppiness of the two central defenders. Moments after scuffing a brilliant 1-on-1 chance, Suarez scored again after dispossession and then nut-megging Turner, before curling the ball into the net with the outside of his boot.
Next Page: 2nd Half Analysis – more tactics and goals analysis
2nd Half Analysis
In the second half, Liverpool again scored an early goal, this time on the counter-attack. As Andrew Surman misplaced his pass, Joe Allen was able to win the ball and feed Raheem Sterling. Poor discipline from Russell Martin meant Sterling was able to evade his challenge. Luis Suarez then ran into the left channel, where Martin previously was, and Sterling smartly ran at Barnett to draw his attention before laying the ball off to Suarez. On the second attempt Suarez’s cut back found a Liverpool shirt, with Nuri Şahin again scoring.
Liverpool made it four, with Suarez getting his hat trick ten minutes later. Norwich’s back four was a shambles and caught way too narrow, allowing Suarez to drift into space to receive the ball and curl it into the far corner under minimal pressure.
Norwich Consolation Goals
Norwich pulled one back within five minutes after Reina threw out for Allen, only for Martin to nick in front and combine with Snodgrass. His resulting shot was too hot to handle for Reina (who probably felt he should have punched it away) and Morison finished from close range.
Liverpool continued to create chances and Gerrard was able to restore Liverpool’s four-goal advantage. Again the Norwich back four was caught out, this time Garrido.
Raheem Sterling made a smart dash in behind, only to check his run outwards. Garrido was now about 4 metres behind the rest of the Norwich back line, and when Gerrard fizzed in a pass to Sterling’s feet, Garrido kept Sterling onside and then was beaten.
Gerrard burst through midfield and eventually scored after a deflected shot off Sterling’s cut back.
Norwich again scored a consolation goal, this time through Grant Holt. An intelligent run into the space from substitute Wes Hoolahan drew debutant Wisdom into midfield. Grant Holt then exploited this space and was first to the pass (from Howson), beating the covering Skrtel before neatly finishing.
Conclusion
It was a goal fest at Carrow Road, with a dominate Liverpool leaving with all three points.
Liverpool was scintillating with their ball possession and movement, with Norwich being caught out again and again. A superb performance from Luis Suarez was the story of the day, however Liverpool still go without a clean sheet. |
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King Henry VIII is the best-known of the English Kings, a man who turned from a talented and admired renaissance prince to an autocratic, fat, tyrant. He is also well-known for being the only King with more wives than mistresses, marrying an astonishing 6 times.
So who were the women King Henry VIII married? Read on to find out the crucial facts about Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, the woman who finally gave King Henry the son and heir that he craved.
Name: Jane Seymour
Parents: Sir John Seymour and Margery Wentworth
Birth: Jane's exact date of birth was not recorded. She was born in either 1508 or 1509
Siblings: Jane Seymour had three older brothers, two younger brothers, and 3 younger sisters. Two of the older brothers and one sister became well-known.
Edward Seymour was the oldest of the nine Seymour children. He was born in about 1506. Just after the birth of Jane Seymour's son, Edward VI, he was made Earl of Hertford. When King Henry VIII died in February 1547, Hertford became one of the Regency Council, and was appointed Lord Protector in March 1547, and became the Duke of Somerset. He was arrested in October 1549 and deprived of the Protectorship, and executed at the Tower of London in early 1552.
Thomas Seymour was born in about 1507. Shortly after Henry VIII's death, Thomas attempted to marry first Mary, and then Elizabeth, Henry's two daughters. Having failed in both attempts, he married Queen Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife and widow, in April 1547. Catherine soon became pregnant in 1548, and Thomas Seymour seems to have made sexual advances to Princess Elizabeth, who was living with Catherine Parr. He was then about 40, and Elizabeth was only 14. Catherine Parr died in childbirth in August 1548, and Thomas Seymour was arrested in January 1549, after he tried to kidnap the boy King. He was executed for treason.
Elizabeth Seymour was born in about 1513. She married three times, and had five children by her second marriage to Gregory Cromwell, son of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's chief advisor in the 1530s. Her first and third marriages were childless. She was chief lady-in-waiting to her sister, Jane Seymour, and to each of the three Queens who followed Jane – Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr.
Appearance: Jane Seymour was of average height, with very pale skin and blue eyes.
Religion: Jane was Catholic, in contrast to the Queens before and after her (Anne Boleyn and Anne of Cleves).
Marriages: King Henry VIII appears to have started to show an interest in Jane Seymour in about January 1536. The couple became engaged on 20th May 1536, the day after Queen Anne Boleyn was executed at the Tower of London. They married on 30th May, and Jane was proclaimed Queen on 4th June, but never crowned.
Children: Jane Seymour gave birth to her only child, and Henry VIII's only son, Edward, on 12th October 1537 at Hampton Court.
Marriage end and death: Jane Seymour was in labour for 2-3 days before Edward VI was born. Although she initially appeared to recover slowly from the birth, some type of post-natal infection developed. Jane died, probably from childbirth fever, on 24th October 1537. Henry VIII regarded his marriage to Jane Seymour as his first valid marriage (he only accepted one other as being valid, that to Catherine Parr).
Sources:
Photos and images relating to Jane Seymour - http://tudorhistory.org/seymour/gallery.html
Death and terror: executions at the Tower of London - http://www.webhistoryofengland.com/?p=86
Henry VIII's six wives - love, marriage, and children - http://hubpages.com/hub/King-Henry-VIII-and-his-six-wives—love–marriage–and-children |
A complaint filed with the FTC alleges unfair and deceptive practices on the part of WhatsApp, which has decided to share phone numbers and data with Facebook.
Alleging a trail of broken promises, two privacy-focused advocacy groups yesterday filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against a recent WhatsApp privacy policy change that states it will begin sharing user data with parent company Facebook.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) said in a joint complaint that the proposed change constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice, and called on the FTC to investigate.
EPIC Consumer Protection Counsel Claire T. Gartland told Threatpost that the FTC has yet to reply to the complaint; the commission does not publicize investigations and filing organizations may not be notified whether the FTC proceeds on a complaint, most of which are ultimately settled without formal hearings.
“EPIC will be keeping the pressure on the Commission to act, since this is such a clear violation of their numerous statements on the issue,” Gartland said. “If and when the FTC acts, they have the power to stop the proposed changes from going forward and/or enter into a settlement agreement with the companies – similar to the 2012 consent order with Facebook.”
In 2012, the FTC and Facebook settled over charges that Facebook repeatedly shared information that users intended to remain private. Facebook was ordered in the settlement to give consumers “clear and prominent notice and obtaining their express consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings, by maintaining a comprehensive privacy program to protect consumers’ information, and by obtaining biennial privacy audits from an independent third party,” the FTC said in a release.
WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook two years ago for $19 billion, said last Thursday in a blogpost that it would soon begin sharing users’ phone numbers with Facebook, a move that would improve targeted advertising and connections with the friends on Facebook.
“Our belief in the value of private communications is unshakeable, and we remain committed to giving you the fastest, simplest, and most reliable experience on WhatsApp,” WhatsApp said.
EPIC and CDD, however, said in their complaint to the FTC that the transfer of such data was collected by WhatsApp under promises made in the early days of the Facebook acquisition that private information would not be used or disclosed for marketing purposes.
WhatsApp says in its new policy that users will have the opportunity to choose not to share data with Facebook, rather than opt-in to the program.
In the FTC complaint, EPIC and CDD point out that WhatsApp founder Jan Koum and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg both promised that WhatsApp would operate autonomously and that nothing would change regarding the way WhatsApp uses user data. The complaint also references a 2014 complaint filed with the FTC by EPIC and CDD that called for an investigation and possible injunction blocking the acquisition.
Yesterday’s complaint cites a 2014 letter from FTC Consumer Protection Bureau director Jessica Rich to Facebook and WhatsApp officers reminding the companies of promises Facebook made to WhatsApp users, stating that any uses of WhatsApp user data for marketing and advertising purposes violates privacy promises made by the two companies, and that both must obtain consumers’ consent before doing so.
“WhatsApp has made a number of promises about the limited nature of the data it collects, maintains, and shares with third parties–promises that exceed the protections currently promised to Facebook users,” Rich wrote. “We want to make clear that, regardless of the acquisition, WhatsApp must continue to honor these promises to consumers.”
WhatsApp and Facebook combined have more than two billion users globally. WhatsApp’s messaging service in April introduced end-to-end encryption based on the Signal protocol, securing calls, messages, files, video and voice messages. |
Summit A Chance For Obama, GOP To Tone It Down
Enlarge this image toggle caption Charles Dharapak/AP Charles Dharapak/AP
On the eve of his White House summit with congressional leaders, President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian government workers and warned the newly empowered GOP not to interpret its election success as a mandate.
"The most important contest of our time is not the contest between Democrats and Republicans," Obama said in televised remarks Monday. "It's between America and our economic competitors all around the world."
He is scheduled to meet at the White House at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday with Republican leaders including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, as well as Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Topping the official agenda are the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire in the current lame-duck congressional session, and the ratification of a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia.
But the sit-down is really more about calming the heated rhetoric of the campaign trail, where Obama referred to congressional Republicans as "enemies" and McConnell and Boehner pledged to block any White House initiative going into the 2012 campaign.
In fact, the GOP leaders rebuffed the president's first post-election invitation, suggesting that they were too busy to meet just then with the commander in chief.
There is a lot of distrust on both sides. [Tuesday] is meant to be about lowering that distrust — to look around the room and see who brought a brick, who brought a weapon. It's about the ability of these different leaders to understand each other.
Easing Tensions
"There is a lot of distrust on both sides," says Doug Holtz-Eakin, who was director of the Congressional Budget Office during the George W. Bush administration.
"Tomorrow is meant to be about lowering that distrust -- to look around the room and see who brought a brick, who brought a weapon," he said, half jokingly. "It's about the ability of these different leaders to understand each other."
The president in his comments Monday urged his Capitol Hill opponents to work with him in a "cooperative and serious way," singling out spending cuts as a paramount issue, and said it would be unwise to assume that Americans "prefer one way of thinking over another."
"My hope is that tomorrow's meeting will mark a first step toward a new and productive working relationship, because we now have a shared responsibility to deliver for the American people," Obama said, identifying national security and the economy as the "fundamental challenges."
In an op-ed published in The Washington Post Tuesday, McConnell and Boehner said that Republicans are also ready to focus on the economy. But they offered their own interpretation of last month's election results.
"Republicans got the message voters have been delivering for more than a year," McConnell and Boehner wrote in the Post. "That's why we made a pledge to America to cut spending, rein in government, and permanently extend the current tax rates so small-business owners won't get hit with a massive tax hike at the end of December. That's what Americans want. And that's the message Republicans will bring to the meeting today."
In addition to his sit-down with the leaders, the president's bipartisan deficit reduction commission is expected to vote Tuesday on its tough-love recommendations to begin to put the nation's financial house in order.
Proposals released in early November by commission co-chairmen Democrat Erskine Bowles and former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson called for dramatic spending cuts across the government, the elimination of tax breaks including deductions for mortgage interest, and reining in entitlement programs like Social Security. The coming days, the president said, will be about "tough decisions this town has put off a very long time."
Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, have said they found many of the commission's major recommendations unacceptable. The president appeared careful to characterize any suggestions that emerge as a starting point for conversation. What emerges from the 18-member deficit commission should "spark a serious and long overdue conversation in this town," he said.
In a statement, Boehner said he welcomed the president's move to freeze federal pay and noted that he had suggested the same earlier this month.
Bipartisanship 'May Not Be Driving The Conversation'
Republicans, who dramatically recaptured the House on Nov. 2 and increased their numbers in the Senate, may disagree with Obama's interpretation of election results -- even though surveys showed that voters expressed distaste for both parties, and for the tone in Washington.
After all, says Republican consultant Cameron Lynch, after Obama was elected in 2008 on an anti-Bush wave, "he told Republicans that 'elections have consequences.' "
"He's moved way to the left," Lynch says, "and the election showed that America is still a center-right country."
"What he's saying now echoes his campaign trail language, but in office he veered off that rhetoric," he says.
But no matter the president's intention, both Lynch and Democratic strategists say the faithful of both parties may not allow their leaders -- be it Obama or Boehner or McConnell -- to move toward compromise, even if it's good for the country.
"The notion of 'let's do what's best for the country' may not be driving the conversation," says Lynch, who previously worked for Republican senators Bob Dole, John Ashcroft and John McCain.
Accord Unlikely
As they go into Tuesday's summit, the prospect that deals will be cut or middle ground discovered on tax cuts and nuclear treaties is remote.
Republican leaders have said they won't compromise on their position that Bush-era tax cuts for wealthy Americans should be extended, along with those for middle class taxpayers.
Obama has been under intense pressure from his party's base to make good on his campaign promise to end the tax cuts for the wealthy -- those earning $250,000 or more. Democrats have been scrambling to put together proposals that would maintain middle-class tax cuts but appease those who claim that allowing the cuts for the wealthy to expire would hurt small businesses. Experts say, however, that close to 98 percent of small businesses would be unaffected if the tax cuts for those with income over $250,000 expire.
One Democratic proposal being discussed would extend tax cuts to everyone earning less than $1 million.
Most of those close to the negotiations predict that there will be a tax-extension accord in Congress after some skirmishes, and that it will amount to a temporary extension of all of the cuts.
"You'll see some message votes on other alternatives," Holtz-Eakin predicts, "but I think ultimately you'll see all the cuts extended for a period of time."
"The lesson is that each and every person who wants more revenue has to go about it through tax reform," he says.
Obama is expected to make his case Tuesday for ratification of the START nuclear arms-reduction treaty with Russia. But GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, whose vote is key to START's passage, on Sunday reiterated his intention to block the measure during the lame-duck session.
His stated reason: the lack of time remaining before the session's close at the end of the year.
Better Than Last Time?
When the leaders gather Tuesday at the White House, one thing is certain: They will all be adjusting to Washington's new order.
The president will likely not deliver an encore performance of what Boehner characterized as a table-slapping, finger-wagging "lecture" during a White House meeting on jobs with Republican leadership earlier this year.
But the president now faces a divided Congress. And Boehner finds himself in the position of managing a caucus studded with anti-Washington, small-government newcomers. Both may find opportunity in areas where compromise can be reached -- from education to energy.
Republicans have to play ball now, the president noted.
"We're going to have to budge on some deeply held positions and compromise for the good of the country," he said. "We're going to have to set aside the politics of the moment to make progress for the long term."
Tuesday's meeting is more about setting tone than deciding policy. But the American people may very well get a glimpse of whether Obama and his adversaries start a conversation the country desperately needs. |
ATHENS (Reuters) - A group of Afghan refugees in Greece protested against their living conditions on Monday by chanting “Liar!” as they tried to block a minister from entering the former Athens airport terminal where they have been stranded for months.
Refugees and migrants, most of them Afghans, block the entrance of the refugee camp at the disused Hellenikon airport as police officers try to disperse them, in Athens, Greece, February 6, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Children stuck inside the compound climbed up a metal gate while dozens of protesters pushed and shoved one another as they shouted “Go, Go!” at Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas. One man handed him a crying child as he reached the chained gate.
About 1,600 refugees and migrants live at Hellenikon, a former airport complex that also houses abandoned venues used in the 2004 Olympic Games. Of those, 600 live in the old arrivals terminal, sharing tents in unsanitary conditions.
“We have a bad situation in this camp. It’s like one year in jail,” said an Afghan man who identified himself as Massoud.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have criticized conditions in Greece’s makeshift and formal camps, describing them as deplorable and unfit for humans.
“The situation in Greece ... is still very concerning to us,” said Monica Costa of Amnesty International, who is on a fact-finding mission at Greek camps this week.
“There are still thousands of people languishing in camps that are not prepared for long-term stay,” she said.
Greece has long said it plans to clear out Hellenikon - which housed up to 3,000 refugees and migrants in scorching temperatures last summer - after agreeing to lease it to private investors under its bailout program.
“Hellenikon must be cleared out,” Mouzalas reiterated on Monday.
The protesters were demanding better quality food, better sanitation facilities and hot water.
“I completely understand their pain and hardship. We are trying to ease it as much as we can,” Mouzalas said.
About 60,000 refugees and migrants have been in Greece for nearly a year after border shutdowns throughout the Balkans halted the onward journey many planned to take to central and western Europe.
Costa said Amnesty researchers had observed “psychological deterioration, a lot of stress,” in the camps, exacerbated by lengthy asylum procedures and uncertainty over the future.
Greek authorities have yet to determine the cause of death of three migrants who died within a week in one camp on the island of Lesbos this month.
“Since the closure of the Balkan route, this humanitarian crisis unfolded, and we have already said that this crisis was completely avoidable,” Costa said. |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2nd L) waves next to Benin's President Thomas Boni Yayi (R) as he arrives in Cotonou April 14, 2013. Ahmadinejad arrived in Benin on the first stop of a west African tour that will also take him to Niger and to Ghana. Picture taken April 14, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Placide (BENIN - Tags: POLITICS)
DAKAR - Before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad started a visit to Niger last week, there was talk that the poor West African state might add Iran to its list of buyers for the uranium mined in its remote desert north. Such a deal would have alarmed world powers seeking to have Iran curb its shadowy nuclear programme. But the outcome of Ahmadinejad's trip was far less spectacular: an agreement on visas for diplomats and another on health cooperation.
Ahmadinejad's final African tour before he steps down this year illustrated how Iran's campaign to court the fast-growing continent has yielded remarkably little in the way of trade and votes at the United Nations against sanctions targeting its disputed nuclear activity over the past seven years.
“There is a general sense that Iran's influence in Africa is on the wane,” said Manoah Esipisu, a Johannesburg-based Africa analyst. “Iran means trouble with Washington and its allies, and there is little appetite for that.”
With an economic growth rate forecast above 5 percent this year despite a global slowdown, Africa is now attracting investment from around the world, meaning the continent can afford to be choosier about its friends.
Burgeoning oil production from countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Chad and Equatorial Guinea also means Tehran's chief economic bargaining chip is of less value.
South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa's largest economy, had relied on Iran for a quarter of its oil imports but gave in to Western moves last year to embargo Iranian oil exports, turning elsewhere to secure its crude.
Kenya, an important Western ally in the fight against militant Islam in East Africa, also backtracked within days on a deal to import 4 million tonnes of Iranian oil last year after its allies expressed disapproval.
South African Deputy Foreign Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim said he had told Tehran frankly that his country could no longer purchase Iranian oil to avoid running into Western sanctions.
“I told them the United States is an important export market ... We don't want a situation that will damage our economy,” said Ebrahim, who returned from Tehran last week.
“While we may appreciate and sympathise with them, there are certain realities that we need to take into consideration.”
Many developing states in principle back Iran's insistence on the right to enrich uranium for what it says will be civilian nuclear energy only. But they also feel Iran should heed U.N. demands for transparency in its nuclear work to help defuse fears that it is trying to develop the means to make atom bombs.
Last week's visit to Benin, Niger and Ghana was Ahmadinejad's fifth to the continent since he took office in 2005. Before the trip, he described relations with Africa as “of paramount importance to Tehran”.
But Tehran's lobbying for votes at the U.N. Security Council has fallen on deaf ears. African nations have voted in favour of all four sanctions resolutions passed between 2006 and 2010 as a result of Iran's nuclear programme.
IMF data also suggests that Iran's trade with Africa - a fraction of other emerging powers' - has been hurt by sanctions. Its exports to sub-Saharan Africa peaked at $3.9 billion in 2011 only to slump last year to $1.8 billion.
Senegal exemplifies Iran's chequered record. A deal signed under the previous government of President Abdoulaye Wade led to a factory churning out yellow, Iranian-designed vehicles.
But promises of a Iranian-built refinery to help ease Senegal's chronic fuel shortage never materialised.
Then the seizure of a secret Iranian arms shipment in Nigeria in 2010 en route for Gambia prompted Dakar to break off relations with Tehran as it feared the arms would have found their way across the border into the hands of separatist rebels.
The link between Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which was ties in West Africa, causes particular concern.
“It's important these countries are aware of the connections Iran has,” said one Western diplomat, noting Tehran was using its chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement to court African nations. “You can track a lot of things going on back to Iran ... which means we need to be alert to what is going on.”
Iranian warships visited Sudan last year after Khartoum accused Israel of bombing a weapons factory there. Israel has not commented on that accusation but has accused Sudan of smuggling weapons to Iranian-allied Palestinian group Hamas.
In Niamey, the Nigerien capital, Ahmadinejad called on Muslim states to resist Western efforts to divide them.
“The enemy doesn't want to see nations, especially Muslim ones, have good ties. They are always plotting ... but there is no doubt that the will of the people will triumph,” he said.
But, with France a significant donor and security ally for Niger, Nigerien Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum was quick to stress that any exchange with Iran would have to meet international laws.
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress and an adviser to several African leaders, said he was previously alarmed that Iranian activities on the continent were not being taken seriously enough but now feels the tide has turned.
“Iran and Ahmadinejad have become more pariah-like than they were a few years ago and African leaders understand where their long-term bread is buttered,” he said. - Reuters |
Trevon German, 24, is charged with gunrunning. View Full Caption DNAinfo; Chicago Police Department
COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — A South Deering man has been charged with illegally buying and selling five guns, including one that was used in an attempted murder in 2015.
Trevon German, 24, was ordered held on $500,000 bail Wednesday on charges of gunrunning, illegally transferring a gun, buying a gun using false information and selling a gun to someone who does not have a valid FOID card.
According to prosecutors, German bought five 9mm guns between May 2014 and February of this year that were later sold to at least three other people.
Two customers were convicted felons who have served time for drug and gun cases, court records show. A third customer, 23-year-old Corey Cowan, used one of German's guns in a 2015 attempted murder, prosecutors said.
In that case, Cowan was arrested and charged in September 2015. He is being held on $400,000 bail, and the case is pending before Cook County Judge Lawrence Edward Flood. Additional details about the case were not available Wednesday.
Authorities said German always intended to sell the guns and provided false information to officials, Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti said during a bond hearing Wednesday.
Judge Laura Sullivan ordered German, of the 9600 block of South Oglesby Avenue, held in lieu of $500,000 bail. |
26-mile Jiaozhou Bay crossing connects Qingdao to Huangdao, took four years to build and uses 5,000 pillars
China, which seems to complete mammoth infrastructure projects on a routine basis, has claimed another world-beater with the opening of the longest sea bridge.
The 26-mileJiaozhou Bay crossing connects the bustling port city of Qingdao, south-east of Beijing, to the industrial district of Huangdao.
The eight-lane, 35-metre-wide bridge opened to traffic on Thursday morning, China's Xinhua news agency said. Built over a four-year period the project cost about £1.4bn and uses 5,000 pillars. It shortens the driving route between the two locations by about 20 miles.
Somewhat inevitably, the bridge takes the world record from another Chinese sea crossing, the 22.5-mile Hangzhou Bay bridge, which opened in 2008, connecting the cities of Jiaxing and Ningbo, south of Shanghai. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, at almost 24 miles, is slightly longer but crosses an inland waterway rather than open sea.
China is constructing an even more ambitious bridge. Work began in December 2009 on a Y-shaped structure linking Guangdong province in southern China to Hong Kong and Macau. Building is expected to be finished in 2015, and the bridge is expected to cover about 31 miles, although only about 22 miles will span the sea. |
“Hey, buddy, you need a limo into the city? Seventy bucks.”
Arriving at a strange airport can be unnerving, especially when some unsavory character with a chauffeur cap sidles up to you at the baggage carousel, looks furtively around the terminal, and whispers something like that.
Most of us are smart enough to give guys like him a wide berth and look for safer, more legitimate means of transportation. But that’s also when many travelers throw in the towel and head for the nearest taxi rank. “It may be a lot more expensive to take a cab,” they say to themselves, “but at least it will get me to my hotel fast.” Fast? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Expensive? Usually. That’s why conscientious travelers—at least, those not schlepping a lot of baggage—always consider whether public transit is a practical alternative.
And sometimes it is. Coming into Chicago from O’Hare? A taxi to the Loop is going to set you back as much as $40 and take up to 30 minutes. Hop on the CTA Blue Line train, though, and it’s just $2.25—and the scheduled trip is only 10 minutes longer. Newark to New York City can be an even bigger bargain, especially if you’re traveling alone. For $15, the AirTrain links up with New Jersey Transit’s trains for the 30-minute trip. A taxi shaves just five minutes off that time, and costs $55. (Of course, that does get you door-to-door service.)
Internationally, nothing makes an air traveler feel more like a local than taking public transportation to the city and avoiding long and expensive taxi rides. That’s especially true in Tokyo, where a taxi from Narita costs an eye-popping $220. Our suggestion: take the plush Narita Express, where a ticket is less than $35. And in Shanghai, skip the 45-minute taxi trip. The ridiculously fast magnetic levitation train is a thrill ride in itself, whisking you downtown in just eight minutes flat.
No matter which city you’re visiting, you can check the air-rail service, where available, at Airport Railways of the World. Still, of course, public transportation isn’t always the right choice, so decide for yourself if the convenience of a taxi outweighs the additional cost.
Our opinion? It rarely does. |
So there I was happily contemplating the blue parts, now done, all was going well, until …
So yeah all the airbrushing was done, only thing missing was touching up some parts and doing just a bit of detailing here and there, nothing major. So I go for the helmet and manage to completely destroy the head sensors that gave me so much trouble to mask and paint
So mask again and off I go for the second round. At least this time I was much faster masking so seems that the extra practice may be worth something.
Of course the troubles couldn’t have stopped there. The fit between the arm pieces is too tight and rubs against the shoulders painted metallic so yeah that is also great. I should have noticed it when I test fitted and sanded those a bit.
Alas it’s not too late, and I just had to take it apart repaint the shoulders and sand the hell out of the armour pieces.
Let’s see if it worked.
Success !
Everything is now top coated, and the last bits I did to the head are curing up. Early next week I’ll put it all together.
Advertisements |
President Obama tops Republican Mitt Romney in a head-to-head matchup, according to the latest Fox News poll, which finds American voters feeling more positive about the economy.
Obama would have an advantage of 46 percent to 39 percent over Romney, if the election were held today. Three weeks ago the candidates were tied at 46 percent each.
The national poll, released Wednesday, shows the president’s lead is just outside the poll’s margin of sampling error.
Click for the full poll results
About a third of voters say they are “extremely” interested in the election. Among just that group, Romney tops Obama by 50 percent to 44 percent.
Overall, each candidate’s party support is strong: Most Democrats back Obama (88 percent) and most Republicans support Romney (84 percent).
Among independents, 34 percent back Romney, 29 percent support Obama and more than a third are undecided or say they won’t vote (36 percent). Last month, independents broke for Romney by 46 percent to 33 percent.
The gender gap is alive and well, as women continue to be more likely to back Obama (55 percent to 33 percent), while men are more inclined to support Romney (46 to 37 percent).
In general, a 60-percent majority is satisfied with their candidate choices. One voter in three disagrees and thinks “none of the above” should be an option on the November ballot.
Obama voters (74 percent) are much more likely than Romney voters (59 percent) to say they are satisfied with the candidate choices.
Each candidate’s backers were asked to say in their own words the main reason they were supporting him. For Obama, the top responses are, he’s doing a good job (25 percent), his issue positions (13 percent) and he’s a Democrat (11 percent).
Another 11 percent say, “he’s not Romney.” Nearly four times as many Romney backers say “he’s not Obama” is their top reason (43 percent).
Others are supporting Romney because he’s a Republican (14 percent), his issue positions (10 percent) and the economy (8 percent).
Romney supporters are as likely to cite his business background as the issue of same-sex marriage as the main reason for their vote (5 percent each).
Currently 49 percent of voters approve and 47 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance. That’s up from 45 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval three weeks ago. In addition, this is his highest approval rating since May 2011, after the raid that killed Usama bin Laden, when some 55 percent approved and 41 percent disapproved.
To Obama’s advantage, voters feel the economy is improving. The number saying the economy is in “poor” condition has dropped 14 percentage points from a year ago. And while few voters, 11 percent, rate the economy positively -- that’s the highest number since April 2009.
Meanwhile, even though more voters continue to say the economy is in worse shape today compared to four years ago, the number saying it’s in better shape is up 11 points (from 17 percent last May to 28 percent today).
The same shift is seen when voters are asked about jobs. Compared to four years ago, 24 percent think the job situation in their area is better today, 41 percent say worse and 32 percent say it’s unchanged. A year ago, 13 percent said the job situation was better, 57 percent said worse and 29 percent unchanged (May 2011).
On their family’s financial situation, voters are more likely to say they are worse off as opposed to better off today compared to four years ago by an 8-percentage-point margin (23 percent better, 31 percent worse). That’s down from a 17-point margin last year (19 percent better, 36 percent worse).
Obama’s best marks are on his handling of Afghanistan: 53 percent approve. His lowest approval is 36 percent for handling the federal deficit. Forty-three percent approve of the job Obama’s doing on the economy, up from 39 percent a year ago.
What’s the “best thing” Obama has done to help the economy? Fifteen percent say he slowed or stopped job loss and the recession, 8 percent cite loans to the auto industry and 7 percent point to the stimulus. The most common response was Obama did “nothing” to help (43 percent).
By a 13-percentage-point margin, voters would pick Romney over Obama to manage their personal money (47 percent to 34 percent). The former governor also comes out on top as the better business partner (48 to 39 percent). Voters think Romney would do a better job creating jobs by a slim 2-point margin (43 to 41 percent).
If hiring a life coach, Obama is the preferred choice by a wide margin, 47 percent to 33 percent. In addition, voters prefer Obama to pick the next Supreme Court justice (46 to 38 percent).
Would Romney have made the same decision Obama made to get Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden? By a wide margin of 62 to 24 percent, voters say yes, if Romney were president a year ago, he would have given the order to get bin Laden.
Finally, if Obama were re-elected, 45 percent of voters say they would feel the “country’s improving” and would “look forward” to another four years, while a roughly equal number (43 percent) say they would feel the country is “going down the drain” and would “dread” a second Obama term.
The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 913 randomly-chosen registered voters nationwide and is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 13 to May 15. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. |
Bobby Wood has found the back of the net today for Hamburg in the second round of the DFB Cup. Hamburg have been mired in a horrendous slump in the Bundesliga and sit at the very bottom of the league table.
There’s nothing like a little match-up with a third-division side in the cup to bust you out of a slump. That’s exactly what Wood did in the first half, scoring his third goal of the season with a nice little chipped finish:
Wood struggled a bit in the October friendly against Cuba, as did a lot of the USMNT players. This goal will be a good confidence booster for him heading into a very important month of November and should help his case for a starting spot against Mexico in Columbus on the 11th.
It remains to be see what exactly Klinsmann’s plans are for the starting lineup, but you have to think Wood will be in contention if he keeps the goals coming.
Update: He’s scored another |
Woman attacked by 2 men on Washington and Old Dominion Trail in Virginia, police say. (Photo
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is alerting users of a popular Northern Virginia trail about an attempted sexual assault.
The Sheriff's Office says on Tuesday, a woman in her early 30s reported the crime, which she says happened last Wednesday on a section of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail in Sterling.
According to the police, the woman was walking on the trail when two men came out of a wooded area, "grabbed her, and pulled at her clothing." The woman believes the men wanted to sexually assault her, but a bicyclist came along and they fled.
The alleged attack happened around 8:30 p.m., when it was already dark.
The Sheriff's Office says it occurred only around 50 feet south of busy South Sterling Blvd. A lot of homes and businesses are nearby.
The Sheriff's Office describes the suspects in the following way:
"The first suspect was described a black male, 6'2" tall, with a thin build, black curly hair and was wearing a black shirt. The second suspect was also described as a black male that was slightly shorter with a thin build, black curly hair and was wearing a gray shirt."
On Friday, August 26 police released a composite sketch of a suspect in the attack.
The Sheriff's Office emailed ABC7 the following list of recommendations for people using the trail:
-- Always stay alert and be aware of your surroundings (Don't wear earphones).
-- Walk, run or bike with a partner or group.
-- Let someone know when you are on the trail, your route and when you expect to return.
-- Walk, run or bike when the path or trail is likely to have a higher volume of foot traffic.
-- Avoid using paths or trails when it is dark outside (Please note the W & OD trail is closed after dark for safety. Anyone on the trail after dark is considered to be trespassing).
This latest attack is one of several incidents that have taken place over the past couple of years on the Washington and Old Dominion Trail.
In February 2011, a woman was sexually assaulted along the trail.
On May 23, 2011, police said a 61-year-old Leesburg woman was approached by a man and grabbed from behind on the trail. The man escaped after the woman screamed. According to police, she was riding a bike with a friend on the trail when they stopped around mile marker 22.
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is asking anyone with information on the identity of the men or who may have witnessed the assault to call the department's Criminal Investigation's Division at 703-777-0475. |
A 25-year-old suspect ran down a bike messenger, "sped off" and stashed a car in the Boston Common garage, leaving behind his car rental agreement in the glove compartment, prosecutors said today at the arraignment in the fatal Back Bay hit-and-run.
Malone Mesfun Kidanemarium, 25, pleaded not guilty this morning in Boston Municipal Court to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. He was ordered held on $25,000 cash.
If convicted, the Bay State College graduate faces a mandatory minimum one year in jail – and possibly more than two years in state prison. He was ordered to return to court next month for a pretrial hearing.
Richard "Rick" Archer, 29, a professional bike messenger, was out for an early morning recreational ride with a friend on Commonwealth Avenue April 30 when he was hit while crossing the road. He died May 2 at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Kidanemariam's family and court papers state the suspect works in administration.
He was arrested by Boston police last night after turning himself in eight days after the fatal crash on the advice of his attorney Patrick Troy and after learning police had cooperating witnesses against him.
Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Benjamin Megrian said officers responding to a call for help at Commonwealth Avenue and Clarendon Street shortly after 3:15 a.m. on April 30 found an unconscious Archer bleeding from his nose, mouth and ears.
Megrian said Archer's cause of death was blunt-force head trauma.
The friend Archer was riding with told investigators Archer had left the bike lane and crossed the street to talk with him.
"Upon hearing an approaching vehicle, the witness stated to the victim that he ought to move back to the bike lane so as not to block the right lane," Megrian said. "Shortly after, the approaching vehicle struck the victim, sending the bike into a parked motor vehicle."
Megrian said Kidanemariam, who had at least two passengers in the silver 2016 Toyota Camry with New York plates he had rented from Enterprise, then "sped off" and drove the wrong way up Berkeley Street.
Megrian said Kidanemariam stashed the dented Camry in the Boston Common garage 15 minutes later. It was located two days later.
Both passengers told police they were asleep and were awoken by the collision. One claimed Kidanemariam "panicked and continued to drive around until he parked the car," Megrian said.
The other, he said, said the damage to the car was so bad that Kidanemariam "can't even see through the windshield."
Police executing a search warrant "found a rental agreement in the name of the defendant in that vehicle," Megrian said.
Kidanemariam has no criminal record, he said.
Troy told the court a more reasonable bail would be $5,000.
"My client is not a man of substantial means," Troy said, "and neither is his family … At the end of the day, this is an absolute tragedy that the commonwealth has alleged is a failure to act appropriately, post incident."
Afeworki Kidanemariam, the uncle who "raised him up," said, "He is a child. Everyone knows him. He's very nice. Everybody's shocked by what happened."
The uncle declined to discuss the case. "I don't know anything," he said. "He's a very nice kid. That's what I know."
After this morning's proceeding, dozens of family members and supporters from Roxbury's Ethiopian community held a prayer service outside the courthouse. |
The driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal accident involving a trooper sat down with WYFF News 4 on Tuesday.Like all who knew Taylor Miller, Lauren Rowe is in mourning over his death but unlike Miller’s other friends and family, Rowe is charged in the crash that took Miller’s life.Rowe and her attorney sat down with WYFF News 4 on Tuesday.“This is not a case of a stranger hitting someone this is a case of one of her best friends. This is a guy who she spent most of her weeks with," said her attorney.Rowe is charged with felony DUI and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. Her SUV and a Troopers patrol car collided at the intersection of North Pleasantburg Drive and Rutherford Road just after midnight Friday.Investigators said it began when a driver went through a Highway Patrol DUI checkpoint around midnight Friday.“She was going from one home to another to deliver a Christmas gift to a friend of hers” the attorney said.Deputy Drew Pinciaro with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office said, a trooper started pursuing that vehicle near the intersection of Blue Ridge Drive and Cedar Lane Road.About six minutes later, the trooper crashed into a Nissan SUV at the intersection of North Pleasantburg Drive and Rutherford Road, Pinciaro said.The trooper was not seriously hurt and a passenger in the Nissan was taken to the hospital.Deputy Coroner Jeff Fowler said Taylor Heathman Miller, 22, died at the hospital at 5:21 p.m. Friday. The cause and manner of Miller's death is still pending.Rowe’s attorney says she is not responsible for the crash that killed her friend, “she was not doing anything wrong she was driving through a green light and an accident occurred.”The Greenville County Sheirff’s Office is investigating the accident.According to Pinciaro, the trooper's lights and sirens were on but the investigation continues into who had the green light.
The driver of a vehicle involved in a fatal accident involving a trooper sat down with WYFF News 4 on Tuesday.
Like all who knew Taylor Miller, Lauren Rowe is in mourning over his death but unlike Miller’s other friends and family, Rowe is charged in the crash that took Miller’s life.
Advertisement
Rowe and her attorney sat down with WYFF News 4 on Tuesday.
“This is not a case of a stranger hitting someone this is a case of one of her best friends. This is a guy who she spent most of her weeks with," said her attorney.
Rowe is charged with felony DUI and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. Her SUV and a Troopers patrol car collided at the intersection of North Pleasantburg Drive and Rutherford Road just after midnight Friday.
Investigators said it began when a driver went through a Highway Patrol DUI checkpoint around midnight Friday.
“She was going from one home to another to deliver a Christmas gift to a friend of hers” the attorney said.
Deputy Drew Pinciaro with the Greenville County Sheriff's Office said, a trooper started pursuing that vehicle near the intersection of Blue Ridge Drive and Cedar Lane Road.
About six min
utes later, the trooper crashed into a Nissan SUV at the intersection of North Pleasantburg Drive and Rutherford Road, Pinciaro said.
The trooper was not seriously hurt and a passenger in the Nissan was taken to the hospital.
Deputy Coroner Jeff Fowler said Taylor Heathman Miller, 22, died at the hospital at 5:21 p.m. Friday. The cause and manner of Miller's death is still pending.
Rowe’s attorney says she is not responsible for the crash that killed her friend, “she was not doing anything wrong she was driving through a green light and an accident occurred.”
The Greenville County Sheirff’s Office is investigating the accident.
According to Pinciaro, the trooper's lights and sirens were on but the investigation continues into who had the green light.
AlertMe |
Len Wallick weighs quality and quantity in his consideration of Mercury’s approaching Libra retrograde, and in the context of two other air-sign retrogrades this year. Once you have made some qualitative connections between the two previous Mercury retrogrades of 2015, sniff the air you are moving in now. See if you can find a corresponding scent.
Most of us know our way around the concept of quantity. You know ‘bigger’ when you see it, ‘smaller’ too. Many (but not all) athletic contests are won by those who move faster and jump higher or farther. Finances are usually a matter of quantity. One of the oldest sales enticements is to offer more in exchange for less.
Quality is another matter. Sometimes quality is actually just quantity in fact (such as 14 karat gold versus 24 karat gold). In other contexts, quality can also be so highly subjective that no two people will agree on what it means.
Yet, you know much of what constitutes a quality of life cannot be measured in dollars, pounds, hours or square feet. Love, for example is without price. The quality of service, to cite another example, is more about intent and spirit than amount.
Another one of the things that eludes quantitative measurement most of the time is astrology. You know a Full Moon when you feel it, even if you cannot put a meter on the experience. Even the Moon changing signs, which will happen when the Moon moves from Cancer to Leo shortly before 10:36 pm EDT tonight (or 02:35:48 UTC tomorrow), is usually something you can sense even if it is not something you cannot objectively assay.
Of all the qualitative experiences astrology has to offer, Mercury retrogrades are probably among the best known. Seeking to understand what goes along with Mercury passing between Earth and the Sun (making Mercury appear to slow down and go into reverse from our perspective) is the gateway to astrology for many.
As it so happens, now is a good time to begin improving the quality of your understanding of both Mercury retrogrades and astrology. No measurements will be required. You won’t have to remember anything farther back than the first month of this year, and your own judgment will be all you need to make what will almost certainly be some useful, albeit subjective observations.
That’s because Mercury has been in its first echo (or ‘shadow’) phase of its third and last retrograde of 2015 since Aug. 28. Mercury echo/shadow is when Mercury enters the degrees where it will be soon be retrograde. This happens again when Mercury goes back over the territory where it was retrograde.
Since you are in a process that has repeated twice before and recently, you have some grounds for qualitative comparison. This is especially true because there is a constant: air.
Mercury’s actual retrograde period will begin on Sept. 17 at 15+ Libra, and end on Oct. 9 in Libra’s first degree. The second shadow phase will then continue until Mercury reaches and passes 15+ Libra again on Oct. 24.
Libra is an air sign. The two previous retrogrades of 2015 also took place entirely in air signs. Counting the echo/shadow phases, Mercury moved back and forth three times between 1+ and 17+ Aquarius from Jan. 5 to March 3. Subsequently, Mercury tacked between 4+ and 13+ Gemini for nearly all of May and June. Indeed, by the time this year is over, Mercury will have spent about half of it in three signs all distinguished by the same element.
This is not to say all three of the Mercury retrogrades this year will be the same. They will not be the same. However, there should be a qualitative through-line you can sense and subjectively discern, which will provide some useful (if un-quantifiable) information.
Of the four elements (fire, earth, air and water) that contribute to distinguishing one sign from another, air might fairly be said to be the most qualitative. After all, the earthen element implies both material as well as metaphorical substance, and material substance can be weighed. Similarly, the watery elements correspond with literal and figurative volume, and literal volumes can be measured. Fire, for its part, is often a matter of time and temperature (or temper, as the case may be).
Air, on the other hand, is as elusive as it is essential. You are continually and necessarily immersed in actual air, which is not the case with the most familiar and tangible forms of earth, water and fire. Additionally, when something is said to have an ‘air’, it’s understood to be a quality, not a quantity.
Hence, this is the year and now is the time to pull together a qualitative sense of what the experience of Mercury retrogrades mean for you. You can start by comparing your two previous periods of reference. January and February would be the first period. May and June would be the second. Look for some qualities in common. Recall experiences rather than acquisitions or losses. Disregard that which can have a price, and emphasize value.
Once you have made some qualitative connections between the two previous Mercury retrogrades of 2015, sniff the air you are moving in now. See if you can find a corresponding scent. Keep in mind that history does not repeat, but history does tend to rhyme. Disregard the differences for the time being. Feel for correlations. Then, experiment based on what you experienced during the two previous Mercury retrogrades this year and what you feel (not what you can prove) now.
No hurry. You have time. Even so, give yourself a start in qualifying the qualitative now. If you can do just that, by this time next month you should have gleaned a quality of information that only the conscious practice of astrology can provide.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com. |
“Bridges to the Neverland” (CC) George Grie
To prevent civilizational collapse, a bridge may be necessary—specifically for geeks—between systematic rationality and fluid, meta-rational understanding. (Not to be alarmist or anything.)
This is an obscure and superficially implausible claim. Here’s why I think the bridge may be needed—and a sketch of how to start building it.
Stages and bridges
My conceptual framework draws on Robert Kegan’s model of adult cognitive, affective, and social development. (I recently posted a summary elsewhere. This metablog post won’t make sense unless you understand Kegan’s model, so read that post first, if you haven’t already!)
Kegan describes three stages of adult development (numbered 3, 4, and 5). We could call them pre-rational , rational , and meta-rational . These stages are distinctive, internally consistent, relatively-well-functioning modes for organizing one’s thinking, one’s self, and one’s relationships. They might be described as “islands of psychological stability.” To progress from one island to the next, you must cross a heaving sea of psychological confusion, in which the previous mode no longer seems functional, but you cannot yet operate in the next mode reliably. These stage transitions are emotionally and cognitively difficult, and typically take several years, during which one may think, feel, and act inconsistently.
Ideally, a society and culture provides “bridges” of support from one stage to the next. To some extent, ours does. However, Kegan pointed out that we have allowed the bridge from stage 3 to 4 to fall into disrepair. We are not adequately teaching young adults how to be rational, systematic, or modern. This is the central theme of his In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life .
This problem seems to have only gotten worse in the two decades since he wrote that. That is what makes me fear civilizational collapse. Keeping modern institutions operating requires cognitively modern, rational operators. We may be destroying the conditions necessary to produce them. I’ll explain this in more detail later.
Our society and culture do even less to support the transition from stage 4 to 5. This transition, between the rational and meta-rational stages, is particularly difficult; and no bridge has yet been built. This is an unrecognized lack—and so, an opportunity to contribute. It has, perhaps, never been seriously attempted, so it may be unexpectedly easy: “low-hanging fruit” that has not yet been plucked.
Between stages 4 and 5, there is a gap, a stretch of open ocean. One recognizes the limitations of rationality, but can’t yet work effectively in the meta-rational mode. Many people get stuck treading water here, trying to stay afloat, often not even able to see the dry land of meta-rationality on the horizon. With rationality seeming the only basis for meaning, they fall into nihilistic depression. This is sometimes informally called “stage 4.5,” although it is not a “stage” in the same sense as the others. It is not a workable mode of organization. However, its dysfunction is stabilized by spurious logic of nihilism. Some stuck there may be barely capable of everyday functioning. Others manage better, by recognizing the limits of rationality while continuing to use it effectively in practice.
The stages of individual development are manifest also in forms of social organization. Pre-rational psychology is typical of pre-modern societies—what I’ve described elsewhere as the “choiceless” or “communal” mode. Rationality is characteristic of systematic, modern societies. Postmodernity corresponds to the 4.5 breakdown.
Postmodernism sabotages the bridge to rationality
In the 1970s and 1980s, the best postmodern/poststructural thinkers presented meta-rational views, based on their thorough understanding of systematic rationality. This first generation of postmodern teachers had a complete “classical education” in the humanities; they mastered the Western intellectual tradition before coming to understand its limitations.
Deconstructive postmodernism, their critique of stage 4 modernism/systematicity/rationality, is the basis of the contemporary university humanities curriculum. This is a disaster. The critique is largely correct; but, as Kegan observed, to teach it to young adults is harmful. Few university students have consolidated rationality. Essentially none are ready to move beyond it. Pointing out its defects makes their developmental task more difficult.
You cannot understand what is wrong with rationalism until you are capable of being rational. You cannot go beyond rationality until after you can use it reliably. You cannot become meta to systems you do not appreciate and do not understand how to deploy. You cannot move from stage 3 to stage 5 without passing through stage 4.
In fact, even most teachers of postmodern theory don’t understand it. Unfortunately, the postmodern pioneers chose to write in obfuscatory riddles. Their insights were difficult enough to understand without that. Few followers could extract the insights. Most teachers are second-generation professors who didn’t understand pomo when it was new, and third-generation ones who were mainly taught dumbed-down second-generation “pseudo-pomo.”
They were never taught to think, and can’t. What they learned was to imitate the founders’ appalling rhetorical style. They even learned to not think—because thinking would lead to questioning the nonsense, which would get you ejected from pomodom. Consequently, most contemporary pomo writing is—as everyone admits—incoherent blather, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. That’s “pseudo-pomo.”
At this point, many humanities professors cannot take even a rational, stage 4 stance; they were not taught to think. Lacking that, they cannot critique rationalism accurately. They could not possibly transmit stage 5 meta-rationality to their students now.
“All systems must be destroyed”
Still worse, pseudo-pomo misunderstands the postmodern critique simply as “all systems are wicked, false ideologies invented by the powerful as means of oppression, and must be destroyed.”
Unfortunately, “critical theory” has so far failed to produce a broad, positive, clear and practical meta-rational vision. With nothing beyond the discredited stage 4 to look forward to, it is mostly no longer possible for humanities majors to develop a rational, systematic self. Nor can they participate effectively in a rational, systematic culture and society. At best, if they do somehow make it to stage 4, deconstructive postmodernism can only push them on into the ultra-relativist nihilism of 4.5. In that abyss, you realize rationality is not the answer, but can see no alternative. There is essentially no support available for the further transition to stage 5.
This scares me. Up until the 1980s, a university humanities department did teach you how to think—and it was the standard education for the ruling class. Since then, it has taught you not to think. What happens as people trained in postmodern anti-thought move increasingly into positions of power? Without an appreciation for administrative and technical rationality—much less the ability to deploy them personally—how can they lead governments, corporations, universities, churches, or NGOs?
Recently, major institutions seem increasingly willing to abandon systemic logic: rationality, rule of law, and procedural justice. Such systems lost credibility decades ago, and are under increasing cultural/political attack from the pomo-educated. But for now they are critical to maintaining civilization. Someone has to keep the machinery running. Until we can build a fluid, meta-rational stage 5 society, destroying stage 4 institutions means everyone will die. (Not to be alarmist or anything.)
Building a bridge to stage 5 may be critical to keeping the bridge to stage 4 open. Because the postmodern critique is correct, it’s intellectually indefensible to insist on rationality as The Way and The Truth and The Light. To make stage 4 palatable, it has to be clear that it is not the final destination. Confirming the accuracy of the critique opens the possibility of a third alternative to the stage 3 and 4 worldviews. Saying:
“You are right, systems are not ultimately workable as the basis for society and culture” and
“You are right, systems do always get appropriated by the powerful as means of oppression”
makes credible:
“Psychologically, understanding rational systems is a stage you need to go through to get beyond them” and
“However imperfect, systems are the main way we currently know how to deliver the material and social prerequisites for life, so we need to keep them running for now.”
Misperception of woo blocks the bridge beyond rationality
STEM education teaches the value of technical systems, including formal rationality. STEM education ignores postmodernism, so the bridge to stage 4 is still intact there. Thus, stage 5 meta-rationality is now probably more accessible for STEM folks than other people. I think it is important to present stage 5 in language STEM folks can understand and will find attractive.
For people in stage 4, anything that is not rational may sound like simple irrationality, or magical thinking, and so they are likely to reject it. As a further difficulty, stage 5 has some specific commonalities with stage 3 (pre-rationality), making it harder to distinguish. Dualism—insistence on precise boundaries—is characteristic of stage 4. Monism—rejection of boundaries, and over-emphasis on connections—is characteristic of stage 3. Stage 5 recognizes that boundaries and connections are both nebulous and patterned, so it is neither monist nor dualist. However, from a rationalist point of view, meta-rationalism’s rejection of black-and-white thinking just looks like the blooming buzzing confusion of stage 3 monism, which rationalism is right to reject.
For someone in stage 4, relativizing the ultimate value of rationality seems certain to slide into Romanticism (prioritizing emotions and subjective experience over objective understanding) and woo (supernaturalism, pseudoscience, and wishful thinking). Since nearly all talk about limits to rationality is motivated by stage 3 Romanticism and woo, this is an inevitable misapprehension. However, that is not the stage 5 agenda. This must be made extremely clear.
My summary of Kegan’s theory included a point that merited only a footnote there, but which I want to emphasize here:
Stages 3 and 5 both tolerate contradictions, but of different types and in different ways. Stage 3 does not feel a need for rational justifications, and mostly doesn’t have the capacity to use them; so it mostly doesn’t even notice logical contradictions, and isn’t bothered by them when it does. However, stage 3 can be highly intolerant of contradictory value judgments, because they threaten community harmony. Stage 4 finds contradictions within its system a fundamental problem, and tries to eliminate them one way or another. Eventually, if contradictions cannot be eliminated from the system, it must be replaced. Stage 4 wants to find the right system, and if two contradict, that shows one is wrong. Stage 5 recognizes the value of sorting out contradictions within a system, and retains stage 4’s ability to do so. However, it doesn’t expect any system to work perfectly, so it tolerates internal contradictions if they appear relatively unproblematic. Stage 5 entertains multiple systems, and is comfortable with contradictions between them, because systems are not absolute truths, only ways-of-seeing that are useful in different circumstances. Stage 5 is uniquely comfortable with value conflicts, since (unlike both 3 and 4) it does not take any value as ultimate.
Emanuel Rylke commented, perceptively:
You say “People in stage 3 tend to misunderstand stage 4 as being stage 2” and hint at the possibility for a similar error at stage 4: “3 and 5 both tolerate contradictions” (I myself got hung up on this superficial similarity for multiple years). I think that’s not just a coincidence but a reason for why we can make a reliable distinction between these stages in the first place. If you view cognitive development as a river then sections where progress lies in a direction that looks backwards create a sort of reservoir. Basically there progress is counter intuitive so people slow down a lot and pile up. These then can more easily recognized as separate stages compared to a continuously flowing river.
For stage 4, stage 5’s tolerance of contradiction is indistinguishable from stage 3’s; both appear simply irrational.
Lacking a clear presentation of stage 5, and particularly a clear explanation of how it differs from stage 3, it is inaccessible from stage 4 directly. At best, one can only reach it from 4.5, the gap of nihilistic despair. This generally provokes anxiety, rage, and depression, and is not a good place to get stuck.
And, little or no support is available for the 4.5 to 5 transition. Mostly you can only get to stage 5 through a rare combination of luck, intelligence, and endurance.
The nihilistic gap, STEM depression, and postrationalism
Many of the people I care about most, and find most interesting, are STEM-educated refugees from ideological rationalism. They’ve mastered rationality, they’ve seen through it—and many now are stuck. Systems cannot provide them with meaning; but neither, it seems can anything else. Many fall into crippling nihilistic depression—a characteristic of stage 4.5. This is awful.
4.5 is necessary en route to stage 5, but maybe it doesn’t need to be so horrible. One needs to become disillusioned and disappointed with rationalism, and then angry at it, and perhaps temporarily reject it altogether (in theory at least). Moving beyond any of the developmental stages involves a profound sense of loss: of one’s previously comfortable mode of making meaning. One’s meaning-making mode is always experienced as “the self,” and the new mode seems frighteningly alien—even though it is more powerful once mastered. The 4-to–5 transition is particularly difficult, as it appears no new meaning is possible even in principle, which implies you are nothing, and have no value.
However, if you understand that meaning re-emerges at stage 5—or can accept this, based on plausible testimony—then you need not descend into despair.
Recently, there has been an exodus from the rationalist movement, and some exiles have loosely grouped under the banner of “postrationalism.” (For an informal review, see Darcey Riley’s 2014 post and the reader comments on it. More recent contributions are from Sarah Perry and Warg Franklin.) Postrationalism is an early work-in-progress, whose meaning is as yet unclear, but seems to have much in common with Kegan’s stage 5, and with the complete stance as I describe it in Meaningness .
(I’m a little wary of the term “postrational,” because it might be misunderstood as a rejection of rationality, in favor of something irrational. That describes stage 3 Romanticism. Kegan’s stage 5, the complete stance, and—so far as I understand it—postrationalism do not abandon rationality. They deploy rationality as a miscellaneous collection of oft-useful tools, rather than The Single Correct Way To Do Everything. I’m using “meta-rational”—just in this post, so far—as an experimental alternative, meant to suggest that. However, the problem with “meta-rational” is that it may be misunderstood as “applying systematic rationality to itself.” That is not stage 5; it’s just an extra-fancy version of stage 4. Elsewhere I am using the word “fluid”; I’m not sure whether that’s better.)
The current adult developmental landscape
This diagram summarizes past, current, and potential future ways beyond stage 3. Dotted lines show routes that are mainly unavailable, and dotted boxes are stages that are mainly unavailable.
Click to embiggen
(This is a good time to remember that adult developmental theory is a conceptual model, not Eternal Truth. Like all models, it highlights and partially explains some phenomena, and marginalizes and distorts others. I am using it here because it provides a useful vocabulary for discussing some patterns I want to point out.)
Twenty-some years ago, Kegan said that the bridge into stage 4 was through participation in a systematic institution: either employment or university education.
Employers such as large corporations and the military induct young adults into bureaucratic rationality. This bridge is still open. However, it seems increasingly under cultural-political attack. Further, it has never led beyond stage 4. Stage 5 institutions are rare, transient, and perhaps entirely hypothetical.
“Pseudo-pomo” now stands in the way of a systematic humanities education. It is probably still possible to reach stage 4 in some English departments, but you’d have to be smart, lucky, dedicated, and discreet—so I’ve made that a dotted box in the diagram. If you do reach it, the genuine pomo critique is still available; I’ve drawn it with a solid line. However, the critique leads only to ultra-relativistic nihilism. The logical next step, a positive non-eternalist stage 5 cultural and social vision, does not yet exist. (I do plan to try to sketch one in Meaningness and Time —but that’s not what this post is about.)
Formal rationality is central in STEM education, so it’s now the best route to stage 4. STEM departments do not explicitly go beyond that. However, at least some professors understand the limitations of formal methods and the inherent nebulosity of their subject matter, and may teach that informally. They may also teach some stage 5 cognitive skills informally, implicitly, or by example.
Some STEM people figure out the limits of rationalist ideology on their own. Lacking any intellectual or social framework for that, the discovery often leads to nihilistic despair and social isolation. This is common enough that I’ve given that box a solid border. “Postrationalism” is, perhaps, the dawning of a conceptual structure and social support network for moving beyond it.
A bridge to stage 5 for STEM people
So, I really want to help. I care particularly for the STEM-educated who are lost in the nihilist abyss.
But also, STEM people are the most likely to have made it beyond stage 4, and therefore the most likely to be able to reach stage 5. With stage 4 discredited, getting a critical mass of people to stage 5 may be the only way to preserve civilization from systemic collapse. That could be brought on by broad cultural, social, and psychological reversion to stage 3 tribalism. (Not to be alarmist or anything.)
Stage 5 may contain the answers to current pressing social and cultural problems (as I’ll eventually argue in Meaningness and Time ). But perhaps even more critically, building the bridge from 4 to 5 may be the only way to keep the bridge from 3 to 4 open. (And to repair the bridge to rationality for non-STEM people.)
Stage transitions usually cannot be accomplished solo. Intellectual understanding is not enough. A bridge needs a culture and community that help in three ways. They should challenge current-stage behavior to push you toward the next; they should support you during the transition, to minimize negative consequences when you are halfway through and can’t quite make the next stage work; they should confirm (praise and reward) next-stage behavior to the extent you can do it. Systematic institutions, ideally, provide these for new members, transitioning from stage 3 to 4.
Cultural and community context for the 4-to–5 transition has, thus far, been rare. The meta-rational mode is not broadly recognized. Context for reaching it has been created only rarely, idiosyncratically, by exceptional individual mentors, plus their circle of students. I’m probably not in a position to do that currently. I can probably best contribute through mere explanation . Alas, that is radically inadequate. Maybe it is better than nothing, though.
Each developmental stage can be explained in terms of any aspect of human being. Kegan discusses the 4-to–5 transition in terms of ethics, marriage relationships, and management style. These are not areas that STEM folks are typically particularly interested in. It may be more helpful to explain in terms of cognitive, or epistemological, approaches. Cognition and epistemology are central in Kegan’s model overall, but he’s vague on how they change in the 4-to–5 transition.
Perhaps this is one place I can help. Challenge, here, entails explaining the limitations of rationality; support means showing how meta-rationality works, and how to make the transition emotionally feasible; confirmation is pointing out the power of meta-rationality. Meaningness , the book, is supposed to do all three of these, eventually. In fact, it might be described overall as guide to the transition from stage 4 eternalism through 4.5 nihilism to stage 5—the complete stance. (However, the book is mostly an enormous collection of IOUs, so far!)
This book section explains how rationality fails when you try to make it do too much. It’s quite incomplete, and there isn’t even a good overview yet. I’ve also addressed the issue, obliquely, in several metablog posts; and it will also appear in other parts of the book, for example this page.
To be honest, I’m not altogether enthusiastic about writing these bits. The issues have actually been understood pretty well for most of a century. So I’m impatient. I’m like “come on, you can’t really believe anything that dumb, can you!”, which is not a helpful approach. Unfortunately, no one else has taken the time to explain the problems clearly and carefully in straightforward language, so far as I know. The discussion is scattered across a dozen disciplines, written in the distinctive academic codes of each. Summarizing this will—or would—be a public service; but not as much fun as I would like.
Anyway, one way or another, many people do figure this out, but get stuck at stage 4.5, so maybe it’s not as important to challenge rationality (from a stage 5 perspective) as to help build the 4.5-to–5 bridge.
As support for that route, I plan to explain in more detail why nihilism is wrong, and to offer antidotes to its emotional pitfalls. Some of this I have drafted in detail, and I’d like to complete those parts soon. (In terms of priorities, I have been torn between working on that and on “The history of meaningness,” which I hope is relevant to some current political dilemmas.)
Cognitive support, and confirmation, mean showing clearly that meta-rational cognition is possible and valuable. “How to Think Real Good” may be a start, although this was not how I thought of its purpose when I wrote it. There’s vastly more to say on this subject.
Even if all that were completed, it would fall far short of building a bridge—because that requires a social and cultural context. Can such a thing exist? I am confident it can. It will take collaborative construction by many contributors, though. |
If there's one doctor who irritates me possibly more than any other, it's got to be "America's Doctor," a.k.a. Dr. Mehmet Oz, thanks to The Dr. Oz Show. He's been an all too frequent topic on this blog and at my not-so-super-secret other blog. Of course, I refer to him as "America's quack," because, well, that's what he is. Ever since Oprah Winfrey found him and elevated him from a promising young academic cardiothoracic surgeon with a penchant for woo to America's quack, I've been pointing out how much dubious medicine and outright quackery he's been pushing, including homeopathy, faith healing, dubious unproven (and almost certainly nonexistent) links between cell phones and breast cancer, GMO fear mongering, promotion of the antivaccine views of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and even psychic scammers like John Edward and Theresa Caputo. It's gotten so bad that Dr. Oz has increasingly faced less than adoring press and even been hauled before Senator Claire McCaskill's (D-MO) committee for his unscrupulous boosterism for unproven weight loss supplements to be humbled. It got so bad that not long ago Dr. Oz's social media people tried to do a an "Ask Dr. Oz" segment on Twitter under the hashtag #OzsInbox. Let's just say that it backfired spectacularly and hilariously.
If there's one thing that's also puzzled me about Dr. Oz, it's how someone who was such a promising young surgeon-scientist back in the early 1990s could have fallen so far—from a scientific standpoint, obviously. He is, after all, making a ton of money and enjoying incredible fame, thanks to his embrace of woo. Even more frustrating, even though Dr. Oz has disgraced himself more times than I can remember, he remains faculty in good standing at Columbia University. Heck, he's more than faculty in good standing. He's a full professor in the department of surgery there. Heck, he's vice-chair! He's also the director of Columbia’s Cardiovascular Institute and Integrative Medicine Program. In other words, he does hold high ranking positions in Columbia University's department of surgery and integrative medicine program.
It's this latter fact that's irritated me, and I've wondered why no one has ever made a stink to his university about this. Then, upon arriving home from New York from NECSS, what to my wondering eyes should appear but one answer to my question in the form of a post on Skepchick by Kavin Senapathy revealing that Dr. Henry Miller had written a letter to Lee Goldman, MD, the Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine at Columbia University complaining that Dr. Oz is faculty at Columbia:
I am writing to you on behalf of myself and the undersigned colleagues below, all of whom are distinguished physicians. We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery. As described here and here, as well as in other publications, Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain. Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable.
The letter is signed by:
Henry I. Miller, M.D.
Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy
& Public Policy
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA Scott W. Atlas, M.D.
David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA Jack Fisher, M.D.
Professor of Surgery (emeritus)
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA Shelley Fleet, M.D.
Anesthesiologist
Longwood, FL Gordon N. Gill, M.D.
Dean (emeritus) of Translational Medicine
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA Michael H. Mellon, M.D.
Pediatric Allergist
San Diego, CA Gilbert Ross, M.D.
President (Acting) and Executive Director
American Council on Science and Health
New York, NY Samuel Schneider, M.D.
Psychiatrist
Princeton, NJ Glenn Swogger Jr. M.D.
Director of the Will Menninger Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences (retired)
The Menninger Foundation
Topeka, KS Joel E. Tepper, M.D.
Hector MacLean Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research
Dept of Radiation Oncology
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC
As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I can't help but see this as a wasted opportunity, something that is unlikely to accomplish anything but brief publicity, with Columbia already having responded with the predictable bromides about "academic freedom." I hate to be too negative about an effort like this, so I'll tell you why I am. Think about it. There are only ten signatories. Two are from the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank based at Stanford University whose fellows tend to be climate change denialists. In other words, it's an institution whose commitment to science is highly questionable to nonexistent in one area, and it's attacking Oz for pseudoscience? Two others are affiliated with the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH), a group that is pro-science when that science aligns with industry interests, particularly the pesticide industry. ACSH's late president Elizabeth Whelan was known for dismissing any concerns about various chemicals as potential health hazards as "chemophobia" and even referring to "chemophobia" as an “emotional, psychiatric problem,” which is not very skeptical at all. Indeed, as I've mentioned before, a few years ago, when ACSH invited me to be on its board of advisors, I turned it down because I perceive ACSH as going too far in the other direction (not to mention the problem of its behaving largely like an industry shill) to the point that it takes the germ of a reasonable idea (that there’s too much fear mongering about “chemicals”) and takes a despicable turn with it by implicitly likening concerns about chemical pollutants and other chemicals that might cause health problems to mental illness by labeling them “chemophobia.” Lately, ACSH has been pushing e-cigs as the greatest thing since sliced bread, the answer to tobacco addiction, and attacking anyone who has the temerity to suggest that e-cigs are unproven and should perhaps be regulated.
That's why ACSH is such a frustrating organization. It's often right scientifically about issues like vaccines, deconstructing The Food Babe's nonsense, and attacking quackery, but on issues like the question of health problems related to various chemicals, e-cigs, and taking the food industry to task it's maddeningly—to me, at least—in the thrall of commercial interests. Or, at least, that's the way it appears. It also makes some incredibly bad arguments sometimes. In this case, ACSH is right to criticize Dr. Oz, and Dr. Miller is appropriate to question why Columbia retains him in high ranking positions in its department of surgery, cardiac institute, and integrative medicine program. Indeed, I have no problem with what Dr. Miller did, but I really wish he hadn't done such a half-assed job of it. There are lots of skeptical doctors (like myself) who would have signed the letter if it had been presented to us before sending it to Columbia. I probably would have signed it, even given my reservations about some of the signatories and my doubts that it will do anything other than produce some transient bad publicity for Dr. Oz and Columbia. In actuality, if anyone is going to "bring down Oz," I think it will be the slow, careful sort of campaign being waged by a medical student named Ben Mazer rather than just a letter to the dean. Mazer has been documenting examples of patient harm that have resulted from Dr. Oz's bad medical advice, and, I suspect, it is the slow drip-drip-drip of such stories that will ultimately irrevocably tarnish the Oz brand.
There's also the issue of appropriateness of trying to get someone fired for their views outside of their job, something I've been on the receiving end of more than once and been grateful that the two universities where I've been faculty have basically ignored such complaints. In any case, whether or not Dr. Miller's letter was a good idea, did or didn't go far enough, or will do any good, just yesterday, Julia Belluz of Vox.com published a nice overview of how Dr. Oz the promising academic surgeon of 20 years ago became Dr. Oz, America's quack, entitled The making of Dr. Oz: How an award-winning doctor turned away from science and embraced fame. What I liked about it was that it was a good overview and filled in some blanks in my knowledge about Dr. Oz's history. For instance:
I spoke to dozens of Oz's colleagues, mentors, and other health professionals who have been touched by the surgeon or his work, some who've known the man since his early days fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. I read his early books. I talked to his fans — including my own mother. I found out that the roots of Oz's experimentation with alternative techniques go all the way back to his childhood, and that his departures from evidence-based medicine have gotten more extreme as he's become more famous. I also learned that the making of Dr. Oz says more about America's approach to health than it does about its most famous doctor.
I knew Dr. Oz embraced reiki, even inviting reiki masters into his operating room, as far back as the 1990s. I hadn't known that his flirtation with alternative medicine had gone back to his childhood. I did know this, but it's worth emphasizing again:
Oz has achieved some of the greatest scientific accomplishments of his career at Columbia. While a resident there, he was the four-time winner of the prestigious Blakemore research prize, which goes to the most outstanding surgery resident. He now holds 11 patents for inventing methods and devices involved in heart surgeries and transplants. This includes helping to research and develop the left ventricular assist device, or LVAD, which helps keep people alive while they're awaiting a heart transplant. Oz had a hand in turning the hospital's LVAD program into one of the biggest and most active in the world.
This is, as they say, a BFD, an incredibly impressive accomplishment. I have no problem admitting that I never won any prize this prestigious as a resident or in my career. Even as an attending the one award I did earn doesn't measure up. Oz's accomplishments as a young surgeon were truly impressive. Given Dr. Oz's current submersion in quackery for his TV show, it's easy to forget that back in the late 1980s he was the real deal, a true surgeon-scientist in development. By the early 1990s he was a rising star in academic surgery and continued on that path for many years afterward. Dr. Oz is only a couple of years older than I am; so we are of the same generation and came up through the academic surgical ranks around the same time; so I have an idea of how difficult it was to have earned such awards back then.
Part of Belluz's article involves an interview with Dr. Richard Green, the associate chief of cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgery, Dr. Oz's division. It is in this interview that to me confirmed my belief that complaints to the bigwigs at Columbia about Oz are unlikely to go anywhere. Dr. Green has his proboscis so far up Dr. Oz's posterior that he could clean the back of Oz's teeth with his own tongue. It's nauseating and depressing, with Green saying that he'd vote for Oz if he ran for president and attributes the leveling off of the increase in obesity rates in the US to Dr. Oz's show and how it raises awareness of the importance of eating right.
Here's what's maddening, though. Belluz asked Green a question about a recent article in the BMJ that that examined the health claims on The Dr. Oz Show and The Doctors and found that about half the recommendations had no evidence to support them or even contradicted what the best science tells us now. I've blogged about this very study (of course). His response was telling:
Green admitted that he had never seen The Dr. Oz Show. "I don't know what he would promote or not promote," he said. Then he asked: "Why would anyone mistake that for anything but entertainment?" Green said he thought people in Oz's audience would be able to distinguish between the man's work on TV and his work in the operating room. Plus, he said, even if Oz did deviate from science sometimes, this didn't make him any different from every other doctor. After all, physicians don't always practice in an evidence-based manner. Critics were being unfair to Oz by holding him to an evidence-based standard, Green felt. Oz wasn't pushing narcotics and antibiotics through his show, Green reasoned — just harmless supplements and health tips. "What can a TV doctor do except for give advice about how to live your life?" he asked.
I thought my head was going to explode as I read that passage. It has it all: False equivalence, a shruggie attitude that doesn't care about whether Oz is peddling quackery or not and even excuses Oz if he is, lame justifications for what Oz does every day. Clearly, Dr. Green is as much a part of the problem of Dr. Oz as Dr. Oz is himself!
Equally telling is how Dr. Green seemed to dance around the topic of whether Dr. Oz is still a good cardiothoracic surgeon:
I asked Green whether he'd want to be Oz's patient, and he said, "If you did a poll of the staff at Columbia and asked them, 'If you needed a heart operation and Mehmet was there, would you want him?' they'd say yes." He then added, "He's probably a little rusty right now." He said Oz seemed to be operating less and less — from several hundred surgeries per year at his peak to a maximum of about 100 now — as he entertains more and more.
Notice how Dr. Green didn't directly answer the question. Instead, he cited a hypothetical poll of the staff at Columbia without actually saying whether he himself would go to Dr. Oz if he needed heart surgery. Then he even conceded that Dr. Oz is probably a bit rusty because he doesn't operate nearly as much as he used to. Let me tell you something. I've been a surgeon over 25 years. I know that surgeons don't like to speak ill of other surgeons and will almost never directly say that a surgeon is no good, particularly to the media. Dr. Green's reluctance to answer a direct question about Dr. Oz's surgical competence, his invocation of Oz's being "rusty," and his excuses for Dr. Oz all combine to scream at me that Dr. Green doesn't think particularly highly of Dr. Oz's current surgical skills but can't openly say so. If that weren't the case, he would have said something along the lines of, "Hell, yes! If I needed a heart operation I'd pick Dr. Oz to do it!" You can't fool a fellow surgeon that way, Dr. Green.
Of course, Dr. Oz brings fame and fortune to Columbia, and that's what really matters. If Dr. Green were to go on record publicly criticizing Dr. Oz, I doubt he'd retain his division chief job long after that. Who can blame him for using code and playing dumb, saying that he's never watched Dr. Oz's show, which he did in his interview? I can, that's for sure. Even so, I feel a bit sorry for him. He probably would have been better off declining to be interviewed.
It's also interesting how Dr. Oz is not particularly fond of criticism. No one is, but when you're a major media figure, it doesn't look good if you do things like this:
Oz's staff, unsurprisingly, doesn't like the criticism either. When I tried to attend that March taping of Oz's show in New York after getting a ticket through a lottery, Tim Sullivan, the show's media representative, told me, "We cannot accommodate you attending Friday's taping or other future tapings" — despite the fact that several other journalists have gone to Oz show tapings in the past. Sullivan then stopped returning any of my emails, including several requests for interviews and information for this piece.
Now that's not the way someone committed to science, good medicine, and openness deals with the press. It never looks good to shut out critics like that, even if she writes:
I talked to many other doctors from across America with patients who have been touched by the Oz effect. Again and again, they used phrases like "snake-oil salesman" and "quack" to refer to him. They worried about their patients. Rather than heaping him with praise as Oz's New York colleagues or fans did, they said he is a menace to public health, that he takes advantage of people and confuses medical issues.
Yup. that's exactly right. Also, rather predictably (albeit still depressingly), this story reveals that it's been all about Dr. Oz, rather than patients, for a long time. In other words, Dr. Oz is always acting and has turned into a publicity hound:
Monique Class, a family nurse practitioner and another former employee of the center, said the media attention negatively affected their work. "It became about Oz. Not about the project. Not about the patients. Not about the work. That all became secondary to his rise to the top." It wasn't uncommon, Class said, for Oz to say some version of the following to her or to the other employees: "Give me a patient because the cameras are coming in, and tell me what I need to know." Class said, "He was always acting. He didn't know this patient. He was not connected to this patient. We'd give him a two- or three-minute sound bite and he'd sit there in front of the cameras like he'd done this work and had this deep connection."
Which is exactly what he does on his show.
While I was at NECSS, I spoke to a couple of primary care physicians (whom it's great to see at NECSS), and their perception is that they're getting fewer "but Dr. Oz says" sort of comments and questions from patients. However, that's strictly anecdotal. I have no idea if it is representative of a larger trend, but I can hope because, if true, it suggests that maybe America's finally getting wise to the snake oil hucksterism that is the Dr. Oz brand. If not, I hope America wakes up soon. We deserve "America's doctor," not "America's quack." Unfortunately, with Dr. Oz, America's quack is what we're getting. |
Monster Strike Million Lottery (4/12)
Time: 4/12 - 4/17
Tap the Cherry Blossom every day from 4/12 - 4/17. Each day will reset at 4AM JST.
- 1 Million Players will receive a prize
- Participation Prize is 2 Orbs
- Includes in-game prizes of a year's worth of Orbs and off-game prizes like cash
April Monster Sharl
Time: 03/30 - 04/28
Level 3: Genghis Khan
Level 4: Striker
New Series - Norse Gods 3
Time: 04/02 12PM - 04/14 11:59 JST
Hatcher Monsters
Asc Skuld (Fire 6*)
Type: Speed
Sling: Bounce
Ability: Flight / Status Recovery
Gauge: Null Warp
SS: Reveals all a boss's weak points on contact.
Bump: ATK Up
Sub: 8-way Laser S
Asc Urd (Water 6*)
Type: Power
Sling: Bounce
Ability: Weak Point Slayer
Gauge: Null Block
SS: Passes through enemies and reverts to bounce after touching a wall.
Bump: DEF Up
Sub: Super Blast
Evo Heimdall (Light 6*)
Type: Speed
Sling: Pierce
Ability: Null Gravity Barrier / Null Wind
SS: Dispels enemy gravity barriers on contact for a set number of turns.
Bump: Homing Pierce-struction 8
Farmable Monsters
Angrboða (Dark 6*) and Jotun (Wood 6*)
Lethal Monster
Ymir (Fire 6*)
Limited Missions
Time: 4/2 - 4/15
There are 10 Missions which will be unlocked daily (at 4AM). Defeating all missions will net 1 Special Sharl for a free roll in the hatcher as well as 9 Orbs.
Limited Descend - Haru (Fire 6*)
First Descend Time: 4/5 9PM - 11:59PM JST
She will be on rotation until 4/18.
_ |
This commentary aired on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered on January 16, 2008 in response to much talk about the the need to create a stimulus package to avert a recession. Audio is here.
Love that word—stimulus. It sounds so scientific. With the right stimulus, you can even make the leg of a dead frog twitch. A heart attack victim gets the stimulus from those chest paddles and bam. Back to life. My online dictionary defines stimulus as something that “rouses or incites to activity.” Sounds like the perfect prescription for an ailing economy.
But if politicians know how to stimulate the economy, why wait for a recession? If you can make the economy grow, why wait for bad times?
One answer is that a healthy patient doesn’t need medicine. But the other possibility is that it’s all hot air. Maybe we don’t know how to make a $14 trillion economy move very quickly. And if we did, it would take a lot more than an injection of even 125 billion dollars.
There’s that scientific language again—an injection. The politicians are always going to inject some amount of money into the hands of consumers and into the economy, like a doctor giving a lifesaving blood transfusion. But where does the economic injection come from? It has to come from inside the system. It’s not an outside stimulus like the chest paddles or the transfusion. It means taking money from someone or somewhere inside the system and giving it to someone else.
The standard stimulus package doesn’t change incentives. It’s a check from the government. The hope is that the receiver will spend it. But when you just send out checks from the government, whoever gets stimulated is likely to be offset by someone who gets unstimulated.
The money has to come from somewhere. If you raise taxes to fund the plan, the people who are taxed are poorer and they’ll spend less. If you borrow money to fund the plan, the people who buy the government bonds have less money to spend and that offsets the stimulus. It’s like taking a bucket of water from the deep end of a pool and dumping it into the shallow end. Funny thing—the water in the shallow end doesn’t get any deeper.
And even the people who get the money often save more of it than they spend.
That’s why stimulus schemes based on giving people money have a poor track record of energizing the economy. Usually, the only thing that gets stimulated is a politician’s approval rating.
I’m not saying that economy policy is irrelevant. Economic policy matters because it affects the long-run growth of the economy. I’m all for policies that make us more productive or innovative by changing incentives. But those policies take time. There’s little any economic doctor can do to move our $14 trillion organism of an economy in the next few months.
Politicians who work in the Oval Office—or those who seek to work there—would be wise to remember that patience is a virtue. Focus on the policies that lead to growth over time. Expecting results overnight is bound to lead to disappointment. |
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While they didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build, we’d like to share some upcoming changes so you can keep these in mind for feedback. Death and Decay’s cooldown will be halved for Blood, providing more reliable AoE damage/threat. Blood Strike will apply a snare. Lastly, Death Strike’s healing will be going up, and will be based off a slightly shorter slice of time (significant net buff overall). Keep up the constructive feedback, thanks! ( Blue Tracker Several changes are coming regarding traps that didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build. Traps will no longer share a cooldown, and their cooldowns are being significantly lowered. Additionally, many trap talents had placeholder damage numbers, and are being fixed to actually do respectable damage. Explosive Trap’s baseline damage is also going up massively, such that it’ll be worth using even against a single target. Keep these changes in mind, and continue giving us constructive feedback, thanks! ( Blue Tracker Undoubtedly, Phoenix Flames has dominated the feedback about Fire Mages. We’ve heard you, and have had plans to change it, just hadn’t gotten a chance to do so yet. We wanted to let you know that it will be changing, so that hopefully you all can focus on discussing any other concerns/feedback about Fire. The current plan is that it will become its own separate active button, with up to 3 charges (45sec recharge), and a proc on Ignite tick to generate an additional charge. In the next build, you should be able to give that a try. Thanks! ( Blue Tracker A few notable changes are coming soon but didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build, but you can keep these in mind when giving feedback. Several talents are going to swap places to create more better choices among their talent row. Also, Spiritual Resonance and Fist of Stone are being replaced with two new talents. One will add a proc to make your next Lava Lash free and double damage. The other will replace Rockbiter with a stronger ability with charges and a short recharge time. This will provide a non-GCD-locked playstyle option, if you prefer that combat style. Keep up the constructive feedback, thanks! ( Blue Tracker A couple important changes didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build, but we wanted to share now, to help guide feedback. Grimoire of Supremacy’s effect is being replaced with the Demonic Servitude effect (permanent Doomguard/Infernal), and Demonic Servitude is being replaced with a new passive talent, Soul Conduit, which causes each Soul Shard you spend to have a chance to be immediately refunded (chance rolled individually per Soul Shard). Thanks for all the constructive feedback, and keep it coming!This is for all three specs. ( Blue Tracker A couple important changes didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build, but we wanted to share now, to help guide feedback. Grimoire of Supremacy’s effect is being replaced with the Demonic Servitude effect (permanent Doomguard/Infernal), and Demonic Servitude is being replaced with a new passive talent, Soul Conduit, which causes each Soul Shard you spend to have a chance to be immediately refunded (chance rolled individually per Soul Shard).Additionally, there’s another change coming, specific to Affliction’s artifact. Souls for the artifact will no longer be targetable units; they will instead be just a soul that appears when you kill an enemy, plus occasionally escaping from the artifact. The artifact’s active button will consume all of the nearby souls, and grant you the buff for 5sec per soul consumed. No more targeting/killing souls required.Thanks for all the constructive feedback, and keep it coming! ( Blue Tracker A couple important changes didn’t make it in in time for today’s Alpha build, but we wanted to share now, to help guide feedback. Grimoire of Supremacy’s effect is being replaced with the Demonic Servitude effect (permanent Doomguard/Infernal), and Demonic Servitude is being replaced with a new passive talent, Soul Conduit, which causes each Soul Shard you spend to have a chance to be immediately refunded (chance rolled individually per Soul Shard). Thanks for all the constructive feedback, and keep it coming! ( Blue Tracker |
Testers have been putting the new version of the Lync 2013 desktop client and Lync Server 2013 through their paces for a few months.
But there's another Lync product in the family -- an Lync app built specifically for Windows 8 and Windows RT. This is the product to which Microsoft officials previously referred as Lync 2013 MX . This touch-centric, Metrofied ("Windows Storized"?) version of Lync was not released as part of the Office 2013 Customer Preview in July.
But there's now word that this new Lync application will be available in the Windows Store for both Windows 8 and Windows RT as of late October. That's according to a September 20 post on the Lync Team Blog.
Lync is Microsoft's unified communications family of products. Lync offers enterprise instant messaging, VOIP and conferencing. In addition to the desktop client, the server and the new Windows 8/Windows RT Lync app, there also are versions of the Lync client for a variety of smartphone platforms and a browser-based Lync web app.
"The new Lync App ... will be compatible with both Lync Server 2010 and Lync Server 2013," explained the team in the latest blog post. It "is Lync re-imagined for the new Windows Experience."
The coming versions of Lync, as Microsoft officials have indicated, will include Skype federation . Lync 2013 users will be able to see presence, instant message or call anyone on Skype.
Microsoft officials have attempted to distinguish Lync and Skype by describing Lync as Microsoft's inside-the-firewall unified-communications solution, and Skype it's outside the firewall one.
The fact that this new Lync for Windows 8/Windows RT application will be available in the Windows Store in late October 2012 does not mean that Microsoft will release all of the Office 2013 products to manufacturing in October. Microsoft officials are continuing to decline to say when Office 2013 will be released to manufacturing or generally available. (The rumor is November for RTM and February 2013 for general availability/launch.)
Microsoft officials said recently that the final version of Office 2013 Home & Student for Windows RT would be available starting in early November . |
Last picture of tragic teenage girls killed in hit and run: Victims, 14, and 16, pose happily for camera just two hours before they died
Jasmine Allsop, 14, and Olivia Lewry, 16, died early on Sunday morning
They had happily smiled and posed for the camera just two hours earlier
Man, 20, who was 'going out with Olivia' arrested on suspicion of murder
Police have been given more time - until Thursday morning - to question him
He allegedly drove into the girls and then collapsed at nearby petrol station
Jasmine's mother describes holding her for hours and kissing her goodbye
'I told her she was my angel... I remember her blue eyes staring'
Pictured smiling and laughing as they pose for the camera, these photographs were taken just two hours before teenagers Jasmine Allsop and Olivia Lewry were tragically killed in a hit-and-run.
Jasmine's heartbroken mother, Rosemary Allsop, last night revealed the poignant images as police were granted more time to question a 20-year-old man over their deaths.
Jasmine, 14, died at the scene of the collision in Ann's Hill Road in Gosport, Hampshire, at about 4am on Sunday. Olivia, 16, was taken to hospital where she died later.
Tragedy: Jasmine Allsop, 14, left, and Olivia Lewry, 16, right, pose for a photograph just two hours before they were killed in a hit-and-run
Happy: Jasmine, left, and Olivia, right, both looked happy and smiled as they posed for photographs in the early hours on Sunday
The suspect from Gosport was detained following the incident and detectives have been granted further time before deciding whether they have sufficient evidence to charge him.
A Hampshire police spokesman said: 'The courts have granted more time for detectives to continue questioning a 20-year-old man on suspicion of murder after a fatal road traffic collision in Gosport on Sunday, November 3.
'The suspect can now remain under arrest in police custody for interviewing until 12.25am on the morning of Thursday, November 7.
'A decision will follow on whether there is enough evidence at that time to charge the suspect with a criminal offence.'
Friends: Jasmine, left, died outside her home shortly after the collision. Olivia, right, was taken to hospital where she later died on Sunday
Investigation: A 20-year-old local man has been charged with mansalughter over the girls' deaths
Mrs Allsop, 37, last night revealed the moment she ran out of her house to see her daughter lying in the road, before picking her up and saying her final goodbye.
She said: 'I went out and then a neighbour covered me in a blanket. I kissed her - it was four hours before they took her body away because I did not want to let her go.
'I told her she was my angel and I'd loved her since the day she was born. I can remember her big blue eyes staring.'
The housewife, who is also the mother of a four-year-old, said the death has left her numb. She said: 'I'm empty inside and lost. I keep expecting her to come through the door.'
Close: Jasmine Allsop (left) and Olivia Lewry (right) died after they were hit by a car in Gosport, Hampshire Friends: The two girls are shown playing around at Jasmine's house in a photo provided by her mother She added: 'Jasmine was a gorgeous, lovely, bubbly character. They (Jasmine and Olivia) were best friends.' The 20-year-old man - whose identity has not been confirmed by police - is believed to have been in a relationship with Olivia. Friends of the girls say that the 20-year-old suspected of killing them went to a nearby petrol station to get help and then passed out, shortly before being arrested by police.
'I can't believe she's gone': Rosemary Allsop is comforted by a well-wisher as she looks at the floral tributes left by her daughter's friends One friend, who did not want to be named, said: 'I heard Olivia was going out with the guy who has been arrested.'
The girls were apparently hit by a green Honda Civic around 20 yards from Jasmine's terraced house as they walked home at about 4.15am. Jasmine – known as Jas – died at the scene, while Olivia was taken to hospital with severe injuries but died later on Sunday. Jasmine's mother yesterday spoke outside her home where she described the heart-rending moment she visited her daughter in a hospital mortuary.
I've only just been to see her body. I can't believe she's gone ,' said Ms Allsop, 37 'She would have loved to see all these flowers and to see how much she meant to everybody.
'It's harder for me that she died right outside my house.
'I didn't let her go for four hours when it happened.
'I was just kissing her and holding her in the road - I couldn't bear to let her go.
'I looked into her big blue eyes and told her she had always been my angel and I had always loved her.' She added: 'She had hundreds of friends and they've all been here to pay their respects.
'Tonight her friends are all heading to the local park to light lanterns, play music and just remember the girls.
'I don't know if we'll go along - it was all a bit too much last night when they did something similar.
'There must have been 200 people there, even though it was pouring with rain.
'At school today they even held an assembly for Jasmine and Olivia and the school sent flowers to us too, which was lovely.
'The response from everyone has been amazing.
'Now I just feel empty. It's awful, because I keep expecting her to walk back through the front door.'
Tributes: Friends have left bunches of flowers at the scene of the two girls' death, and have gathered to remember the teenagers 'Sleep tight': One friend's heartfelt tribute to Olivia, who has died at the age of just 16 Ms Allsop said earlier that she had been enjoying a 'girly night' watching horror films with the teenagers. Emergency services had woken her in the middle of the night. 'It was just all a blur,' she said. 'I cannot remember what happened. I had gone to bed. I didn't see anything. I just thought they were playing CDs and talking about boys and make-up.'
She added: 'I'm empty inside and lost. I keep expecting her to come through the door.
'We had a girls' night in. Jasmine was straightening my hair and plucking my eyebrows and Olivia was here. Jasmine was a gorgeous, lovely, bubbly character - they were best friends.'
Mourners: Two friends carry flowers to the scene, which was cordoned off as police continued their investigation Recording every detail: Forensic officers collect evidence in Anne's Hill Road Jasmine's father Kevin MacLaughlan, 58, also paid tribute to his daughter, saying: 'She was beautiful. The most beautiful, bubbly natured girl - outgoing and affectionate, very caring and bubbly.'
The 14-year-old was studying at Brune Park Community School, where Olivia used to be a pupil.
Head teacher Richard Kelly said: 'They were both independent, strong-minded individuals who lived their lives to the full with confidence and a sense of humour and a sense of fun.
'We will miss them both immensely and the unique talents which they displayed. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families at this dreadful time.'
Di Lloyd, principal of St Vincent College where the older girl was studying at the time of her death, said: 'We're sending our sincere condolences to Olivia's family.
'We're very shocked and saddened. At the moment everyone is coming to terms with it and preparing to support the students who are coming in today.'
Continuing investigation: Both girls were struck by a green Honda Civic in this suburban street. Etherington was arrested by police after he collapsed at a nearby petrol station Call for witnesses: Police officers put up a sign urging people to come forward if they have any information about events leading up to the incident Friends have paid tribute to the popular schoolgirls, but Hampshire Constabulary was forced to delete hundreds of Facebook posts amidst fears they could jeopardise the police investigation. Officers wrote: 'Please DO NOT post comments which could have a detrimental effect on this investigation or that speculate on the circumstances.
'Remember there are grieving families who have just lost loved ones.' Detective Superintendent Dick Pearson, from Hampshire Constabulary, said today: 'I would like to thank members of the public for their substantial co-operation and assistance with our investigation so far.
'A dedicated team of officers and staff from a range of departments are working closely together to analyse leads from witnesses and forensics. 'They were best friends and were always together. It’s so sad. Everyone is shocked and I don’t think anyone can believe what has happened. They were good girls and easy to get along with. They didn’t have any enemies. They were loved by everyone. There will be a lot of tears’ - Jazmine Bates, friend
'The green Honda Civic is the subject of further examinations to ensure all potential evidence has been gathered and preserved.' Friends and neighbours gathered yesterday near the scene of the tragedy to mourn the pair. Jazmine Bates, 16, said: ‘They were lovely, bubbly girls and everyone around here knew them. ‘They were best friends and were always together. It’s so sad. Everyone is shocked and I don’t think anyone can believe what has happened. ‘They were good girls and easy to get along with. They didn’t have any enemies. They were loved by everyone. There will be a lot of tears.’
Sasha Ewing, also 16, said: ‘They were happy girls who were always out with mates and having a good time. It’s such a shock - one minute they were here and now they are not.’ Damien Bannon, 19, who knew both girls, said: ‘I believe the girls had been to a party and were standing outside the house talking when the car hit them. The driver was a friend of theirs. ‘I still can’t believe it. It’s such a tragedy.’ Mr Bannon, a decorator, said Jasmine’s older brother Reece was ‘distraught and angry’ at her death. ‘He was very fond and protective of his little sister,’ he added.
Schoolfriends who asked not to be named described the girls as ‘bubbly, outgoing, and extremely popular.’ One said: ‘They loved being the centre of attention and were very sociable. They were always listening to popular chart music or dubstep.’
Meanwhile devastated neighbours laid flowers at the scene and spoke of their shock.
A message on one bunch said: ‘In love and memory of Olivia and Jaz. Thinking of you. Lots of love Regan, Taylor, Kayleigh and Tom.’ Family friend Victoria Berry, 45, who lived opposite Jasmine’s former Gosport address, described the teenager as an ‘absolutely gorgeous girl’.
She added: ‘What has happened to her and her friend is an absolute tragedy and a huge loss to all that knew and loved her. ‘It’s hard to believe that I’ll never see her again.’ |
Understanding Gravity
When most people think of gravity, they think of a force that keeps keeps things together: it keeps people on the surface of the Earth, it keeps the Earth in orbit around the Sun, and it even keeps entire galaxies together. This way of thinking about gravity — as a long range force of attraction — was firmly established in the 17th century by Isaac Newton. Newton's law of gravity is a spectacular example of how some simple mathematical rules can accurately explain what we observe in nature, but it isn't the end of the story. By the end of the 19th century, people had found several situations in which the classical physical laws, such as Newton's law of gravity, didn't quite work. Newton's theory isn't totally wrong, but it is incomplete. Few people realized just how profoundly a more complete law of gravity would change our view of the Universe, but that is exactly what happened after Albert Einstein weighed in.
In 1916, Einstein published his general theory of relativity, a completely new way of thinking about gravity. In general relativity, or GR, we think of gravity as a distortion, or curvature, of the fabric of space and time itself (called space-time). In this context, space means the distance between two objects, or the shortest path you could take to get between point A and point B. This is not the same thing as "outer space" — every thing in the Universe exists in space-time, including the Earth and everything on (and in) it. In the concept of space-time, time refers to that which is measured by clocks. |
When Obamacare was rammed through Congress without a single Republican vote way back in 2010, conservatives warned that the massive government program would ultimately require bailing out health insurance companies that gladly signed on.
Fast forward five years and it's that time. Today on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are being pressured by the White House to provide money, or a bailout, to insurance companies losing money due to running government Obamacare exchanges. From The Hill:
White House desperately trying to add insurance company bailout to tax extenders bill. https://t.co/CUVd2IYFRC pic.twitter.com/EIwKuvJm2Y — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 9, 2015
Republicans and Democrats are close to agreeing on delaying two major taxes, the “Cadillac tax” on high-benefit plans and the medical device tax.
But those proposals have run into opposition from the White House, which wants language fixing ObamaCare’s so-called risk corridors — a program intended to help insurance companies that take a financial hit by participating in government-run health exchanges.
That program is nearly out of money because of a policy rider sponsored by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on a year-end spending bill in 2014 that bars the Department of Health and Human Services from tapping into other accounts to fund it.
Rubio’s role has injected presidential politics into the debate, making it all but impossible for GOP leaders to agree to the White House’s demands.
The talks appeared to hit a wall Monday when Republicans ruled out fixing the risk corridors, which they panned as a “bailout for insurance companies.”
“This is not on the table. Risk corridors is fully off the table,” said a Senate Republican leadership aide.
Despite the disagreement, Republicans are feeling optimistic they can get the healthcare pieces worked out.
Repealing the Cadillac tax, which hits the health plans of union members especially hard, is a priority of Reid’s and many Democrats.
The good news is, it looks like the Obamacare Cadillac tax will be repealed and insurance companies will have to take the hit they signed up for when they agreed to Obamacare years ago.
I'll leave you with this, which explains why Democrats and Republicans are on board with repealing the Cadillac Tax. |
Nvidia's Tegra 4i — a mobile processor introduced in February and billed as a cheaper, smaller, more power-efficient alternative to the ultra high-performance Tegra 4 found in the Shield handheld — is already being shown in an upgraded form this week. Previously demonstrated with support for 100Mbps LTE, the latest version is compatible 150Mbps LTE-Advanced service that carriers will start deploying starting this year.
What's most interesting is how the Tegra 4i was upgraded so quickly. The hardware is identical to the part shown off back at Mobile World Congress, but because it features a "software-defined modem," Nvidia simply applied an update to the chip's integrated modem circuitry to bring it up to spec with LTE-Advanced. The company says that another update that it's currently working on will make the 4i compatible with voice over LTE (VoLTE), the long-awaited replacement for old-fashioned circuit switched calling that many carriers — Verizon and AT&T included — will end up using.
What's most interesting is how it was upgraded so quickly
That capability should help phone manufacturers ship with better and more current wireless technologies because the 4i's modem can be upgraded very late in the game, but Nvidia says that customers shouldn't expect miracles: it's not likely that we will see a production phone that is magically upgraded from LTE to LTE-Advanced after it's already on store shelves, for instance. One phones are in customers' hands, updates are likely to be far more minor.
Tegra 4i-powered phones are still a ways off; Nvidia says that it's currently going through AT&T's lengthy certification process and that we'll probably see devices in early 2014 (and by then, it's likely that networks will start offering LTE-Advanced support). When they finally get here, the company faces an uphill battle for adoption: besides Qualcomm's dominance, industry giants Apple and Samsung both source their own processors and have all but pushed Nvidia out of the North American market, so it'll be looking to the 4i's midrange pricing to pick up some slack. |
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