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Everyone loves the Eiffel Tower. Its classic, iconic shape is an instantly recognizable symbol of Paris. So you might be surprised to learn that while the tower was being built, art critics were not quite as glowing in their praise. Here are some of the more colorful phrases they used to describe it.
“this truly tragic street lamp” (Léon Bloy) “this belfry skeleton” (Paul Verlaine) “this mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused and deformed” (François Coppée) “this giant ungainly skeleton upon a base that looks built to carry a colossal monument of Cyclops, but which just peters out into a ridiculous thin shape like a factory chimney” (Maupassant) “a half-built factory pipe, a carcass waiting to be fleshed out with freestone or brick, a funnel-shaped grill, a hole-riddled suppository” (Joris-Karl Huysmans)”
To modern eyes, the tower’s shape is elegant and graceful, perhaps even timeless. But to contemporary critics it was a monstrosity. The tower represented a new kind of aesthetic, and it took people a while to appreciate this. Eiffel was going after a deeper kind of beauty, a kind that wasn’t just skin deep. His notion of beauty had to do with economy and structural efficiency, with achieving the greatest strength with the least possible material. It had to do with seeing pure, efficient, well-engineered structures as works of art.
Hidden Rules of Harmony
Here’s Eiffel describing his new aesthetic, in response to his critics.
“Are we to believe that because one is an engineer, one is not preoccupied by beauty in one’s constructions, or that one does not seek to create elegance as well as solidity and durability? Is it not true that the very conditions which give strength also conform to the hidden rules of harmony? [..] there is an attraction in the colossal, and a singular delight to which ordinary theories of art are scarcely applicable.”
The Eiffel tower is incredibly well optimized to do what it was designed to do, to stand tall and stand strong, while using a minimum of material. Rather than hide its inner workings with a facade, Eiffel exposed the skeleton of his masterpiece. In doing so, he revealed its “hidden rules of harmony”, many of the same rules that give your skeleton its lightweight strength.
To understand Eiffel’s ingenious design, let’s start with a little puzzle. Imagine that someone melted all of the iron in the tower into a solid ball. How big do you think that ball would be?
Each of the balls shown in the image are drawn to scale, next to their diameters.
Before reading any further, take a moment to guess your answer.
The correct choice is D (here’s the math to prove it). If you melted all the iron in the Eiffel Tower into a ball, it would be just 12 meters (less than 40 feet) in diameter. The tower’s immense height (324 meters, or over a thousand feet) belies the fact that it’s incredibly light for its size. To see it another way, if you were to melt the Eiffel Tower’s iron into a rectangular block as big as its base, then that block of iron would be only 6 centimeters (2.4 inches) tall. It wouldn’t even be visible in the image above.
One last way to picture the Eiffel Tower’s lightness. Imagine the smallest cylinder that completely wraps around the Eiffel Tower.
Now think about this. The air in this tube outweighs all the iron in the tower. (Don’t take my word for it, here’s the math.)
So how did Eiffel design a structure that’s strong enough to withstand the elements, and yet weighs about as much as the air surrounding it?
The secret lies in understanding the shapes of strength. It’s a lesson we can learn by looking inwards… literally. By studying our bones, we can discover some of the same principles that Eiffel used in designing his tower.
Shapes Within Shapes Within Shapes…
If you slice a bone open, you’ll find that it’s kind of like a baguette – hard on the outside and spongy on the inside. The outer bone material is hard and compact. This compact bone does most of the heavy lifting for the bone. On the interior is a spongier bone material. This spongy bone also plays an important role in carrying the pushing and pulling forces that our bones constantly endure.
Now let’s zoom into the crust of that bone baguette – the compact bone. It’s made up of tiny tubes called osteons, each just 2 tenths of a millimeter across, with a blood vessel running down the middle. Zooming further into the walls of these osteons, we find that they’re made out of tinier bundles called fibrils. Zoom further still, into one of these fibrils, and we see that they’re really a bundle of fibers, and each fiber is really three interwoven strands. Pull these strands apart, and we’ve unweaved our bones into its most fundamental unit, a long chain-like molecule called collagen.
This fractalesque way of putting things together, building with materials that are self-similar as you keep zooming in, is known as structural hierarchy. And it’s this structural hierarchy – tubes within tubes within tubes within tubes – that gives our bones their lightweight strength. (The spongy bone also has a fractalesque, self-similar design. If you look at a piece of it under an electron microscope, you’ll find that it looks just as spongy.)
Bamboo exploits the same idea. This ultra-fast growing grass needs a way to minimize material and stay very light, so it can grow tall and not collapse under its own weight. Bamboo’s hollow tube shape is a very efficient way to create stiffness. And like bone, bamboo is made out of tinier tubes, which in turn are made out of bundles of fibers, that are each made of out even smaller bundles of fibers, and so on. When you unweave a bamboo down to its tiniest thread, at the scale of a nanometer, you arrive at another long chain-like molecule – cellulose.
Bamboo and bone are both natural nano-engineered materials that use structural hierarchy to achieve their lightness and strength. The Eiffel Tower uses a similar idea. Eiffel borrowed this notion from bamboo and bone (although he probably arrived at it independently), and put it to use on a colossal scale.
Like many modern structures, the Eiffel Tower uses an arrangement of criss-crossing ‘X-shaped’ beams known as a truss. This is a very efficient way to engineer structures by relying on the inherent strength and stability of triangles. If you zoom into one of the Eiffel Tower’s trusses, you’ll find that they aren’t as solid as they seem – each of them are made up out of smaller, similar trusses. The material has more holes than it has iron. This hollow form contributes to the tower’s mind-boggling lightness. The next time you go over a bridge, look carefully, and you’re likely to see the same idea at play.
Shaped by the Wind
Once you’ve figured out how to build a lightweight tower, how do you ensure that it stays standing? The Eiffel Tower has to contend not just with gravity but with the considerable toppling force of the wind. To counter this, its sloping curve closely follows the most efficient shape for resisting the wind.
The trick to building a well engineered structure lies in transferring the forces from where you don’t want them to act to where you want them to act. Eiffel understood this. The shape of his tower has the special property that the combined force of the wind and the tower’s own weight will flow down the legs of the tower, all the way down to the strong foundations. (In physics terms, the tower has just the right shape so that the torque, or toppling tendency, generated by the wind is balanced by the torque due to its own weight.)
In the interview where he responds to his art critics, Eiffel describes this idea.
“Now to what phenomenon did I have to give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument’s four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty [..]”
That’s My Crane!
By understanding how forces flow, Eiffel’s engineers could design an optimal structure, putting stuff only where it’s needed, and leaving it out where it isn’t. The method that they used to visualize the flow of forces has a curious connection with the science of bones. It’s described in D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form, a delightful and insight-packed 1000+ page treatise on the mathematical laws that govern biology, published in 1917.
“A great engineer, Professor Culmann of Zürich, to whom by the way we owe the whole modern method of “graphic statics,” happened (in the year 1866) to come into his colleague Meyer’s dissecting-room, where the anatomist was contemplating the section of a bone. The engineer, who had been busy designing a new and powerful crane, saw in a moment that the arrangement of the bony trabeculae [spongy bone] was nothing more nor less than a diagram of the lines of stress, or directions of tension and compression, in the loaded structure: in short, that Nature was strengthening the bone in precisely the manner and direction in which strength was required; and he is said to have cried out, “That’s my crane!””
When an engineer looks at a structure, she looks beyond the material and sees the forces that act on it – it’s a bit like owning a pair of X-ray goggles. These forces come in two types – pushing forces that squeeze an object inwards, and pulling forces that stretch an object outwards. Every physical object that you encounter, from a table or a chair, to a bridge or a skyscraper, is basically a big party of these pulling and pushing forces (or as engineers refer to them, tension and compression forces).
So when Culmann was designing his crane, he was using his newly devised method of ‘graphic statics’ to map out these push and pull forces. And this is what he drew.
On the left is a drawing of the push and pull forces in the crane he was studying. And on the right is a similar drawing of push and pull forces in the top of the thigh bone (the femur). These images, adapted from Culmann and Wolff’s publication in 1870, represent the first collaboration between an engineer and an anatomist.
So when Culmann saw the pattern of the spongy bone in the top of the thigh bone, it reminded him of his crane. He was immediately struck by how clearly he could see the criss-crossing lines of forces in the bone.
The spongy interior of your thigh bone is efficiently arranged so that the material is present where the forces are the greatest, and absent where there aren’t any forces. In bone, this process occurs gradually over its development. The spongy bone hardens and aligns in directions where it experiences the greatest force, and atrophies in places where it isn’t used. There’s an analogy here to how those impressive sandstone arches are carved by the wind. The wind carves away places where the stone is least stressed, leaving in place a three dimensional outline of the lines of force, where the stone is most densely compacted.
In recent years, the mathematical exactness of this relation between bone and force has been called into question. But the general principle, that bone adapts to its functional demands, and that bone structure corresponds to the forces it experiences, is still widely accepted.
What does this have to do with Eiffel? Well, Culmann’s approach of graphically representing the push and pull forces was a powerful new tool, one that’s still used today. One of Culmann’s students, Maurice Koechlin, worked for Eiffel. And it was Koechlin who sketched the original concept of the Eiffel Tower, drawing from his training in visualizing forces. The same tools that Culmann developed and used to understand bone were later used by Eiffel’s engineers to design a tower that minimizes the use of material.
So while the critics who called Eiffel’s tower a skeleton meant it as insult, it’s actually quite the compliment. When it comes to engineering, we still have a lot that we can learn from our bones.
References
On the shape of the Eiffel Tower
Sundaram, M. Meenakshi, and G. K. Ananthasuresh. “Gustave Eiffel and his optimal structures.” Resonance 14.9 (2009): 849-865.
Gallant, Joseph. “The shape of the Eiffel Tower.” American Journal of Physics 70.2 (2002): 160-162.
Weidman, Patrick, and Iosif Pinelis. “Model equations for the Eiffel Tower profile: historical perspective and new results.” Comptes Rendus Mecanique332.7 (2004): 571-584.
On Structural Hierarchy
Lakes, Roderic. “Materials with structural hierarchy.” Nature 361.6412 (1993): 511-515.
Wegst, Ulrike GK, et al. “Bioinspired structural materials.” Nature materials (2014).
Rayneau-Kirkhope, Daniel, Yong Mao, and Robert Farr. “Ultralight fractal structures from hollow tubes.” Physical review letters 109.20 (2012): 204301.
Aizenberg, Joanna, et al. “Skeleton of Euplectella sp.: structural hierarchy from the nanoscale to the macroscale.” Science 309.5732 (2005): 275-278.
On the Forces in the Femur
Thompson, Darcy Wentworth. “On growth and form.” On growth and form.(1942).
Gray’s Anatomy on the Femur
Ruff, Christopher, Brigitte Holt, and Erik Trinkaus. “Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolff?:“Wolff’s law” and bone functional adaptation.” American journal of physical anthropology 129.4 (2006): 484-498.
Phillips, Andrew. “Structural optimisation: biomechanics of the femur.” arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.1286 (2011).
On the link between Culmann and the Eiffel Tower
Skedros, John G., and Richard A. Brand. “Biographical sketch: Georg Hermann von Meyer (1815–1892).” Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research 469.11 (2011): 3072-3076. |
Introduction
Part 1: Hardware
Part 2: Software
Part 3: General tips
Greetings and thank you for checking out my guide for the Galaxy Note 2 camera! This guide is targeted for beginner-to-intermediate level of experience with smartphone cameras and it will help you understand the limitations and the best possible ways to use your device. For this guide I will be focusing on the stock Samsung camera application, so even though most of the concepts can be applied to other camera applications, expect certain settings to vary between apps. I will be breaking down different topics on the important aspects to digital photography into laymen's terms and side-by-side comparison photos to show you not only what these settings mean by definition but also the impact they have on your photographs. So let's begin!The Galaxy Note 2 camera uses the same sensor as the one found in the Galaxy S3, so expect images to be comparable between the two devices. We all know it is an 8MP camera, but I'm going to discuss some other important hardware related details that you might not know about the camera.- The aperture of a camera is essentially the same as our eyes' pupil. It opens to let light in and closes to darken. Unfortunately the apertures on all or nearly all smartphone cameras are fixed. This means that we cannot work with this setting to adjust how exposed our photos are, we must look elsewhere. Our camera is fixed at f-2.6 which won't mean much to a beginner, but it has implications on our focus length and depth of field.- Shutter speed is an automated setting (on smartphone cameras) that determines how long the camera should be taking in light when you snap a picture. The longer the shutter is open, the brighter your image can get without bringing in any noise. However you open yourself up to the problem of motion blur. Long exposures require more than just steady hands, you will ideally need to have the camera fixed to a sturdy object if not a tripod than a piece of furniture or a wall etc. For fast motion photography you will need to use faster shutter speeds in order to avoid any blurring, but this limits our ability to properly expose our photos. Typical shutter speeds look like this: 1/2, 1/3, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/200 etc etc all the way up to around 1/1500. Take 1/30 for example, this means that for 1 30th of a second (or 0.0333 seconds) the shutter is open. If there is any motion in this time period, you will have blurring. This also means that you have less time to bring light into the sensor. The only way to make up for this is either through ISO adjustments, or by increasing the lighting of your scene.Here's an example from Wikipedia on how shutter speed affects the blurriness of a photo. Please note the shutter speed at the bottom right corner:- ISO is the devil of digital photography. It can be used to boost the exposure of a photograph without requiring slow shutter speeds but it comes at a great cost: noise. The higher the number ISO setting you use, the more noise you can expect in your pictures. The goal is to have the minimum ISO you can while maintaining a proper level of exposure. This is where things get difficult as you are already down one setting (aperture) and must deal with increased shutter speeds to compromise for a properly exposed image, else face the wrath of the ugly ISO noise! ISO is almost always the reason behind low-light photo's looking generally poor.In this image you can clearly see the difference in noise that higher ISO setting's bring into your photo:So, now that you have a basic understanding of what these aspects of your camera are and what they mean to you, let's move on to the next topic.The stock Samsung camera application that is pre-installed on your Galaxy Note 2 is powerful and capable of producing some excellent photos, even for a smartphone camera. It offers many different settings and shoot modes to help you get the best picture possible at any given moment. Most people are comfortable just leaving everything set to Auto and let the phone do the work, but unfortunately this often doesn't deliver the greatest results when compared to using the proper mode and setting for your situation. So for this part I am going to talk about some of the more important settings and modes and give my own personal comparison photos taken with my Galaxy Note 2.- Not much to say here except that Auto settings should only be used in the most well lit scenes possible. For pretty much every single specific camera mode I feature in this guide, I will include a picture taken at the same time using Auto mode to compare and help you better understand why it's important to choose the right setting for the right moment.- This setting can be found at the very bottom of the scene menu, and it will generally give you the best possible low-lighting shots this camera is capable of producing. The trick is it forces the camera to use extremely long exposure times, and this comes with a cost. You must keep the camera absolutely steady for up to half a second to get a properly detailed photo, and also there must be no motion in your scene. This is ideal for taking photos of architecture, family photos where everyone is still looking at the camera, and other no-motion settings. Typical shutter speeds for this mode are 1/2 and 1/3 but they will always produce photos with significantly lower ISO than if you used Auto scene mode.Left is Auto mode, right is Night mode:Pay particularly close attention to the noise present in the left image, and how smooth and bright the right image is.- A lot of people use HDR mode thinking it will just always give them an "HD" shot, not fully aware of what it does and when they should and should not use it. Well after reading this, you will know exactly when and how to use this excellent mode. HDR photos are photos that have a broad range of lighting, while maintaining good contrast levels across the whole image. An example of when to use HDR mode: you are capturing a sunset over a beautiful forest, the sun and sky are extremely bright and the ground is extremely dark. This is the ideal time to use HDR mode. The sky will be darkened and the ground will be brightened, leveling out the contrast making the image more pleasant to the eye and it will expose more details in areas that were either under or overexposed.Please excuse my messy room (Christmas time is always a mess lol) but on the left side I used Auto, on the right I used HDR:This is a dramatic difference. The left image is mostly underexposed. This is due to the extreme light difference of the bright window, and dark interior. Now on the right using HDR mode, the photo is leveled out. We can see significantly more detail inside the room, as well as through the window itself. This is the ideal place to use HDR mode. Do not use it for scenes where lighting is even and the contrast levels are balanced.- Metering mode is a setting that tells the camera how to determine the best way to expose a photo. There are 3 modes available: Matrix, Center-weighted and Spot. In Matrix mode the camera is going to target various points around the image and average them out to come to the best possible exposure for the whole scene. This mode is my personal favorite and the one I recommend most of the time. The next mode is Center-weighted which essentially uses the middle of the picture as the exposure calculation point then expands outwards just slightly to affect the overall outcome. This mode will generally have slight overexposure when the target in the center of the shot is darker in color or lighting then other parts of the photo which are not directly in the center. The last mode is Spot, this mode takes the exposure calculations from a very small area in the center of the screen. This mode will have similar results to Center-weighted but expect the overexposure to be even worse.Matrix:Center-wieghted:Spot:The subject is my computers black case so in comparison to the white walls it would require higher exposure to lighten it up properly. When using Matrix mode for determining exposure we can see that it uses the white walls as a calculation point and this balances out the image to be overall a bit darker but much better to look at. In Center-weighted we can see the overexposure beginning and the walls become too bright to really make anything out, the PC also begins to show signs of washout and just doesn't look proper. In Spot mode the overexposure is completely out of control and the image is unusable. I strongly recommend using Matrix mode for nearly all photography as it typically yields the best results. However do not neglect the other modes as there will be times, depending on the scene, where using the other modes will yield better results.I will continue to explore and investigate other default shooting modes to determine their significance, but for now these are the most important that I've discovered that will help you take better photos using your Galaxy Note 2.The following are general photography tips that can be applied to any camera to help you take better photos.1. Always clean your camera lens with a microfiber cloth before shooting. Smudges will have noticeable impact on fuzziness and blur.2. Use anything possible to hold your camera steady. Brace the camera against your own body or against a solid object to keep still.3. Choose scenes with the most light possible. The darker the scenery, the more difficult it will be to properly capture a photo.4. Always remember this is a smartphone camera! Do not expect miracles, but if you follow this guides tips and practice good photography skills you can and will take amazing photos right from your phone!I hope this guide has been helpful to you, and I look forward to seeing whatever excellent shots you folks take! I will be updating the guide with more information as it comes to me. Thank you for reading! |
In L.A., Everything Is Fine: The Wonderfully Weird Los Angeles of David Lynch
In the press kit for Lost Highway, David Lynch was asked if the 1997 film could have taken place in any other city besides Los Angeles. In typical Lynchian fashion he responded, "Perhaps, but you don't know how it would affect it. The place, the light and the feet — all these things come with the knowledge that you are looking for things to flesh out your ideas, make them more right. For me, L.A. was the right place."
Though the notion of L.A.'s perpetual golden light — not sure about the feet, though — is something filmmakers have been attracted to for decades, the city's daylight, and the night light for that matter, is something completely different in the hands of Lynch. Through his lens, Los Angeles becomes a mystical place of good witches, magicians, mystery men, cowboys and demons.
With the recent return of Lynch's Twin Peaks, we revisited some of the L.A. filming locations to six of the auteur's works: Eraserhead, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and the original Twin Peaks.
For more great Twin Peaks locations of L.A. check out In Twin Peaks, which includes a great map of the series' Franklin Canyon locations.
All photos by Jared Cowan except where noted. Please keep in mind that some of these locations are on private property. Do not trespass or disturb the owners. Follow Jared on Twitter at @JaredCowan1. |
The Washington Redskins drafted Austin Reiter with the hopes of grooming him to be a backup center. But coaches said Josh LeRibeus developed enough at the position that they did not need to carry another backup. So they told Reiter they would be releasing him, according to a source.
As of Friday night, there had been no discussion with Reiter about placing him on the practice squad. But those moves are fluid and can change. Reiter is the second draft pick to be released: Sixth-round cornerback Tevin Mitchel was claimed off waivers by Indianapolis after Washington designated him as waived/injured.
The Redskins also informed running back Mack Brown, receivers Reggie Bell and Colin Lockett, linebacker Sage Harold, tight end D.J. Williams and safety Akeem Davis that they were released as well. They reached injury settlements with Williams and Davis.
The Redskins must trim their roster to 53 by 4 p.m. Saturday. |
Photo
The Well Column Tara Parker-Pope on living well.
From the archives.
When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.
At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.
Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.
NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.
NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.
THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.
NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”
Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.
BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.
EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.
Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.
“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”
Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.
“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.” |
Today, about 45.2 million refugees are scattered around the world, a record high in nearly two decades. Of those, 80 percent are women and children. For 34 million of them, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees offers protection and life-saving supplies at refugee camps in more than 125 countries. The 50 largest camps, featured on the above map, house more than 1.9 million displaced individuals.
More than 1.6 million people have fled Syria during the country’s ongoing civil war, seeking safety in neighboring countries. The overwhelming majority of the 140,000 refugees residing in Urfa (No. 7) and Gaziantep (No. 31) in Turkey and Zaatri (No. 11) in Jordan came from Syria.
UNHCR provides them with food, safe drinking water, tents, bedding and medical care. The organization also helps refugees seek asylum in another countries and, when possible, reunites families forced to split up when they escaped.
Despite the terminology used—“camps” or “settlements”—many are not temporary; some have existed for years, and for many young refugees, these camps are the only homes they know. The Dadaab complex in Kenya, which includes the three biggest camps in the world, was constructed in the early 1990s. The largest of the three, Hagadera, houses 138,102 refugees, which is equivalent to the population of Pasadena, California. For each camp on the map, a comparable American city is listed to convey size.
World Refugee Day, recognized each year on June 20, honors the millions of displaced men, women and children across the globe. |
Children in lower-income families spend more time watching TV and using electronic devices than kids in more affluent homes, according to a survey released Thursday.
The report by the nonprofit group Common Sense Media on the viewing habits of more than 1,400 children nationwide age 8 and under found that less-affluent youngsters spend nearly three-and-a-half hours daily watching TV and using varied devices including smartphones, tablets, laptops and video game players.
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By comparison, kids in higher-income homes spend just under two hours on such activities. The offspring of better-educated parents also spend less time with media (1 hour, 37 minutes) compared with children of those with less education (2 hours, 50 minutes).
"Before we can begin to understand the impact of media and technology on kids and families, we have to better understand their attitudes and behaviors," James P. Steyer, the nonprofit group's CEO and founder, and Reveta Franklin Bowers, chair of its board, said in a preface to the report.
The survey found that Latino parents expressed the most concern about what their children are exposed to in media, including sex, violence and racial and gender stereotypes. African-American parents voiced somewhat less concern, with white parents expressing the least worry among ethnic groups.
But a majority of parents overall said their children's use of digital media helps boost learning and creativity.
The time youngsters spend reading or being read to has remained steady at 30 minutes daily, compared with previous studies in 2011 and 2013. But fewer than half (43 percent) of children under 2 are read to each day, counter to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that reading to kids should begin at infancy to help develop language and literacy skills.
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Nearly half (49 percent) of children are watching TV or using electronic media shortly before bedtime, contrary to the academy's recommendation of an hour gap between such activities and sleep.
According to its conclusion, the survey "should not be read as a judgment on the quality of children's time with media; rather, it is a snapshot of how media and technology are infused into daily life. Additional experimental and qualitative work is essential to better understanding the full implications of children's media use."
Other key findings:
— Children 8 and younger spend an average of 2 hours, 19 minutes daily with screen media, about the same as in prior study years. TV gets the lion's share, 58 minutes, but mobile has risen rapidly from 5 minutes daily in 2011 to 48 minutes in 2017.
— ?The "digital divide" is narrower but still exists between more and less affluent families. Home computers and internet access were found in 72 percent and 74 percent, respectively, of low-income homes, compared with 97 percent and 96 percent for higher-income families.
— In a surprising twist, children pick "old-fashioned" paper books over digital reading. Only three of the 29 minutes that kids spend reading each day are on electronic devices.
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Online:
www.commonsense.org/research
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Lynn Elber can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber. |
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have answered the Senate’s proposal to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by presenting their own version of the bill, but with protections of LGBT Americans taken out and a loophole that could exempt Native Americans victims of domestic abuse.
According to Think Progress, the House bill could derail renewal of the VAWA, killing any momentum the Senate bill had gathered since its proposal on Feb. 12.
Huffington Post provided a link to the bill and section-by-section analysis, which found the bill lacking any mention of key protections included in the Senate version of the renewal.
The House bill removes “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” from “the list of underserved populations who face barriers to accessing victim services, thereby disqualifying LGBT victims from a related grant program,” wrote Huffington’s Jennifer Bendery. As a result, funds could potentially be witheld from LGBT-inclusive shelters and crisis centers.
States would have more discretion under the House version of the bill to determine what populations are being underserved, and are therefore more deserving of funding than others.
House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that protections included in the Senate bill for Native American victims of domestic violence are “unconstitutional.” Under the House bill, Native American tribal courts can prosecute non-Native American perpetrators of domestic abuse, but the maximum sentence those courts can impose is set at 1 year.
In his protest against the Native American protections included in the Senate bill, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said that Native American juries are incapable of trying a white person fairly.
The House bill allows the accused to take their case to federal court if they feel their rights are being infringed upon. Think Progress reported, “Currently, Native American victims with non-native partners are caught in a limbo where tribal courts cannot touch perpetrators but federal law enforcement does not have jurisdiction.” |
INDIANAPOLIS -- Who is Cordarrelle Patterson?
That might be the question on the minds of casual NFL draft observers after seeing the Tennessee wide receiver's name posted at the top of the charts, but scouts and coaches can't stop raving about the most explosive playmaker in college football.
Jeremiah: The workout wonders Who will be the biggest star of this year's combine? Daniel Jeremiah picks 10 prospects expected to wow in Indianapolis. Who will be the biggest star of this year's combine?picks 10 prospects expected to wow in Indianapolis. More ...
Patterson set school records for all-purpose yards (1,858) and became the first NCAA player to score a touchdown four ways since 2008 (receiving, rushing, punt and kick return). Patterson scored 10 touchdowns (five receiving, three rushing, one kick return and one punt return), while also setting an SEC single-season record with a combined kickoff and punt return average of 27.6 yards.
Now, Patterson's feats as a do-it-all playmaker certainly caught the attention of NFL scouts and coaches searching for an explosive offensive weapon, but his rapid development as a receiver is what really pushed him to the top of the charts. Patterson totaled 46 receptions for 778 yards and five touchdowns during his only season of major college football. (He was a two-time All-American at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas before transferring to Tennessee in the spring of 2012.) Most impressively, Patterson demonstrated the ability to blow past defenders on vertical routes, making him an attractive option for teams in need of a receiver to stretch the field.
As I broke down Patterson's tape, I came away impressed with his acceleration, burst and overall explosiveness. He shows the rare ability to go from zero to 60 in a hurry, which makes him a scary receiver to defend one-on-one. Additionally, Patterson flashes extraordinary skills with the ball in his hands. He has a knack for making defenders miss in the open field, yet is a physical runner with the capacity to run through arm tackles in traffic. Patterson's a threat to score from anywhere on the field, making him a hot commodity in draft rooms across the league.
From a development standpoint, Patterson must continue to refine his route running. He needs to vary his stems and releases to set up defenders, and eliminate some of the extra steps getting in and out of breaks. Although Patterson was able to get open against elite competition in the SEC with raw skills, he will have to improve his footwork and overall savvy to consistently separate from top corners in the NFL.
Additionally, Patterson must continue to increase his football IQ through extensive classroom work and film study. With only one season of major college football experience, Patterson has limited exposure to some of the concepts (sight adjustments, hot reads and route conversions) featured in most NFL playbooks, which could impact his transition to the pro game. A quality position coach can help Patterson overcome his inexperience, but the Tennessee standout will need to put in the work to make it happen.
Based on our conversation on the NFL Draft Tracker podcast and other interactions leading up to the NFL Scouting Combine, I'm confident Patterson will demonstrate the commitment required to become a solid pro in the mold of Donald Driver.
Here are five potential fits for Patterson's game:
Miami Dolphins (No. 12 overall)
Ryan Tannehill enjoyed a solid rookie campaign, but the Dolphins must surround him with better weapons on the perimeter to maximize his talents. Patterson is a dynamic playmaker with exceptional speed, quickness and running skills. He is a rare receiver with the capacity to stretch the field, while also demonstrating the savvy, awareness and explosiveness to turn short passes into big gains. Given Joe Philbin's history of featuring a potent aerial attack built around the talents of a strong-armed passer and a host of electric pass catchers, the addition of Patterson would be a sensible one.
Brandt: Combine success stories Gil Brandt says prospects hoping to boost their stock at the combine have plenty of examples to follow -- like Cam Newton. says prospects hoping to boost their stock at the combine have plenty of examples to follow -- like Cam Newton. More ...
Carolina Panthers (No. 14)
Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman has stated that he'd like to see Cam Newton making more plays from the pocket, but the lineup features only one explosive weapon on the perimeter (Steve Smith). The addition of Patterson would give Newton a legitimate burner on the outside with the capacity to blow past defenders on vertical routes. Additionally, Patterson's presence would alter the way opponents defend Smith, creating more big-play opportunities in the passing game. Furthermore, Patterson would give the Panthers an eventual No. 1 receiver to build around when Smith, who turns 34 this summer, decides to hang it up.
St. Louis Rams (No. 16 and 22)
Jeff Fisher is on record saying Sam Bradford's struggles can be attributed to the lack of talent around him. While most would point to the Rams' leaky offensive line, the fact that Bradford hasn't played with a legitimate No. 1 receiver during his career is certainly one of the issues affecting his play. The team attempted to upgrade the receiving corps with a few draft picks a season ago (Brian Quick and Chris Givens), but neither is an explosive playmaker of Patterson's caliber. Furthermore, Patterson's speed and burst would be enhanced on the Rams' turf field, creating numerous problems for defenses. With a legitimate weapon to target in the passing game, the Rams could continue to close ground on their NFC West division rivals behind a Bradford-Patterson connection.
Schein: A circus in Pittsburgh? Anonymous comments. Unhappy players. Adam Schein says the More ... Anonymous comments. Unhappy players.says the Steelers are starting to resemble the New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 17)
The Steelers likely will need to replace the explosiveness of Mike Wallace, as he's expected to depart via free agency. Patterson definitely fits the bill. He is an exceptional runner with the ball in his hands, which would allow Ben Roethlisberger to target him on slip and bubble screens on the perimeter. Although Wallace's big-play ability would be sorely missed in Pittsburgh, the addition of Patterson would ease the transition and make the Steelers' offense more dynamic and explosive in future years.
Minnesota Vikings (No. 23)
If Christian Ponder is going to develop into more than a game manager, the Vikings must surround him with dangerous options on the perimeter. Obviously, Percy Harvin is a threat, but the rest of the Vikings' receiving corps is lacking. Patterson would give Ponder a long-ball specialist on the perimeter; his speed would open up the rest of the field, giving Harvin space on short and intermediate routes. Additionally, Patterson would give the Vikings an effective counter to the eight-man fronts designed to take away Adrian Peterson on the ground. With Patterson capable of running past defenders in isolated matchups, the Vikings could torch opponents with the deep ball following play-action fakes. In a division where offenses reign supreme, the addition of Patterson could help the Vikings maintain a spot near the top of the NFC North.
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"Lord Robert Cecil" redirects here. For his father and the Prime Minister, see Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, CH, PC, QC (14 September 1864 – 24 November 1958), known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923,[1] was a British lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations and a defender of it, whose service to the organisation saw him awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937.
Early life and legal career [ edit ]
Cecil was born at Cavendish Square, London, the sixth child and third son of Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, three times Prime Minister, and Georgina, daughter of Sir Edward Hall Alderson. He was the brother of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, Lord William Cecil, Lord Edward Cecil and Lord Quickswood and the cousin of Arthur Balfour.[2] He was educated at home until he was thirteen and then spent four years at Eton College. He claimed in his autobiography to have enjoyed his home education most. He studied law at University College, Oxford, where he became a well-known debater. A first job was as private secretary to his father, when commencing in office as Prime Minister from 1886-88. In 1887, he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple. He was fond of saying that his marriage to Lady Eleanor Lambton, daughter of George Frederick D'Arcy Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham[3] on 22 January 1889, was the cleverest thing he had ever done.
From 1887 to 1906, Cecil practised civil law, including work in Chancery and parliamentary practice. On 15 June 1899, he was appointed a Queen's Counsel.[4] After the outbreak of the Second Boer War, he enrolled as a recruit in the Inns of Court Rifles in February 1900,[5] but he never saw active service. He also collaborated in writing a book, entitled Principles of Commercial Law. In 1910 he was appointed a member of the General Council of the Bar, and a Bencher of the Inner Temple. He was already a Justice of the Peace when he was raised the following year as Chairman of the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions.
Unionist Free Trader [ edit ]
At the 1906 general election, Cecil was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament representing Marylebone East. Cecil was a convinced believer in free trade, opposing Joseph Chamberlain's agitation for Tariff Reform, denouncing it as "a rather sordid attempt to ally Imperialism with State assistance for the rich".[6] In February 1905 he compiled for party leader Arthur Balfour a memorandum on ‘The Attack on Unionist Free Trade Seats’ in which he quoted a letter to The Times by a member of the Tariff Reform League that stated they would oppose free trade candidates, whether Unionist or Liberal. Cecil argued that he had identified at least 25 seats in which such attacks had taken place.[7]
In January 1908 Cecil wrote to fellow Unionist Free Trader Arthur Elliot, saying that "To me, the greatest necessity of all is to preserve, if possible, a foothold for Free Trade within the Unionist party. For, if not, I and others who think like me, will be driven to imperil either free trade or other causes such as religious education, the House of Lords, and even the Union, which seem to us of equal importance".[8] In March 1910 Cecil and his brother Lord Hugh, unsuccessfully appealed to Chamberlain that he should postpone advocating food taxes at the next election in order to concentrate on opposing Irish Home Rule.[9]
He did not contest the Marylebone seat in either of the general elections in 1910 as a result of the Tariff Reform controversy. Instead he unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in the January election and Wisbech in the December election.[10] In 1911 he won a by-election in Hitchin, Hertfordshire as an Independent Conservative and served as its MP until 1923.[10]
First World War Minister [ edit ]
Fifty years old at the outbreak of the First World War and too old for military service, Cecil went to work for the Red Cross. He was made Vicar-General to the Archbishop of York, on account of his deep religious convictions and commitment to pacifism. Following the formation of the 1915 coalition government, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 30 May 1915, on 16 June he was sworn of the Privy Council,[11] promoted to Assistant Secretary in 1918-19. He served in this post until 10 January 1919, additionally serving in the cabinet as Minister of Blockade between 23 February 1916 and 18 July 1918. He was responsible for devising procedures to bring economic and commercial pressure against the enemy forcing them to choose between feeding their occupying military forces or their civilian population. After the War, in 1919, he was made an Honorary Fellow, and granted his MA of University College, Oxford, as well as an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law, apt for a university chancellor.
Formation of the League of Nations [ edit ]
In September 1916, he wrote and circulated a ‘Memorandum on Proposals for Diminishing the Occasion of Future Wars’ in the Cabinet. Cecil noted the suffering and destruction of the war, along with the threat to European civilisation and the likelihood of postwar disputes. He urged an alternative to war as a means of settling international disputes and claimed that neither the destruction of German militarism nor a postwar settlement based on self-determination would guarantee peace. Cecil rejected compulsory arbitration but claimed a regular conference system would be unobjectionable. Peaceful procedures for settling disputes should be compulsory before there was any outbreak of fighting. Sanctions, including blockade, would be necessary to force countries to submit to peaceful procedures. If overwhelming naval and financial power could be combined in a peace system, "no modern State could ultimately resist its pressure". He hoped that America might be willing to "join in organized economic action to preserve peace".[12][13] He later said that this was the "first document from which sprang British official advocacy of the League of Nations".
In May 1917 Cecil circulated his ‘Proposals for Maintenance of Future Peace’ in which the signatories would agree to keep the postwar territorial settlement for five years, followed by a conference to consider and, if necessary, to implement necessary or desirable territorial changes. Countries would also agree to submit their international disputes to a conference and they would be forbidden to act until the conference had made a decision. However, states would be allowed to act unilaterally if, after three months, the conference had failed to make a decision. All decisions made by conferences would be enforced by all the signatories, "if necessary by force of arms". If a country resorted to war without submitting the dispute to a conference, the other countries would combine to enforce a commercial and financial blockade.[14][15] Cecil had originally included proposals for disarmament but these were deleted from the final draft after the diplomat Sir Eyre Crowe submitted them to a "devastating critique" that persuaded Cecil they were impractical.[16]
In November 1917 Cecil requested from Balfour the creation of a committee to consider the proposals for a League of Nations. Balfour granted this and in January 1918 a committee, chaired by Lord Phillimore, was established.[17] In May 1918, with the Cabinet's permission, Cecil forwarded the Phillimore Report to the American President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel House.[18]
In October 1918 Cecil circulated a paper on League proposals to the Cabinet following their request for advice. He argued that "no very elaborate machinery" would be required as the proposals rejected any form of international government; the League would be limited to a treaty binding the signatories never to go to war until a conference had been called. If a country went to war unilaterally, the signatories would use all the power at their command, economic and military, to defeat the aggressor. Cecil viewed the three months' delay before countries resorted to war as the principal role of the League as this would give public opinion time to exert its peaceful influence.[19] The Cabinet received this paper "respectfully rather than cordially" and made no decision upon it. Cecil used the paper as the basis for a speech on the subject of the League delivered at his inauguration as Chancellor of the University of Birmingham on 12 November. On 22 November Cecil resigned from the government due to his opposition to Welsh disestablishment. He wrote to Gilbert Murray afterwards, saying that he hoped to do more for the establishment of a League of Nations outside the government than within it.[19]
In late November 1918 Cecil was appointed the head of the League of Nations section of the Foreign Office.[20] A. E. Zimmern had written a memorandum elaborating the functions of the League and Cecil selected this as a base to work from. He ordered that a summary of the actual organisation involved in implementing its proposals be written. On 14 December he was presented with the ‘Brief Conspectus of League of Nations Organization’, which would later be called the ‘Cecil Plan’ at the Paris Peace Conference. The Plan included regular conferences between the signatories which would be "the pivot of the League" and that they would have to be unanimous. Annual conferences of prime ministers and foreign secretaries would be complemented by quadrennial meetings between the signatories. A great power could summon a conference, with all members being able to do this if there was a danger of war. The great powers would control the League, with the smaller powers not exercising any considerable influence.[20] On 17 December Cecil submitted the Cecil Plan to the Cabinet.The Cabinet discussed the idea of the League on 24 December, with Cecil being the leading pro-League speaker.[21]
The Paris Peace Conference included a League of Nations Commission that was responsible for creating a scheme for a League, including the drafting of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Cecil viewed Wilson's draft for the League and in his diary he wrote that it was "a very bad document, badly expressed, badly arranged, and very incomplete". On 27 January Cecil and the American legal expert David Hunter Miller spent four hours revising Wilson's proposals in what became known as the Cecil-Miller draft. This included: granting more powers in the League to the great powers; granting the Dominions their own seats; a revision of Wilson's arbitration proposals; and the inclusion of a permanent international court.[22] In further negotiations, Cecil was successful in retaining important parts of the British draft. When Wilson tried to amend it, Colonel House warned him against alienating Cecil as he "was the only man connected with the British Government who really had the League of Nations at heart".[23] Cecil was disappointed in Lloyd George's lack of enthusiasm for the League and repeatedly threatened resignation due to some of Lloyd George's tactics.[24]
Cecil was greatly concerned at Republican opposition to the League and sought to concede some of Wilson's demands in order to secure American acceptance of the League. This included protecting the Monroe Doctrine in the Covenant.[25] On 21 April the British Empire delegation met Cecil; he assured them that Dominion criticism of the draft Covenant had been considered and that the new draft avoided "the impression that a super State was being created". The Canadians objected that while the risk of Canada being invaded was unlikely, invasions occurring in France or the Balkans were much greater and that these unequal risks had not been taken into consideration. Furthermore, the League loaded Canada with more liabilities than she had by being a member of the Empire. Cecil argued that the Council of the League would determine when this obligation would be fulfilled and that, as it could only decide by unanimity, a Canadian delegate could object and that would be the end of the matter.[26] The historian George Egerton in his history of the creation of the League claimed that Cecil "more than anyone else, deserved credit for the successful outcome of the second phase of the work of the League of Nations Commission".[27]
After the Treaty of Versailles was first presented to Germany, Cecil argued strongly that it should be made less harsh on Germany and that Germany should be allowed to join the League. Cecil left Paris on 9 June, his hopes of a revision of the Treaty disappointed.[28]
League of Nations Union [ edit ]
Encourage Home Industries.
Lord Robert Cecil. "I trust that after all we may secure at least your qualified support for our League of Nations?"
U.S.A. President-elect: "Why, what's the matter with ours?" Cartoon from Punch magazine, 10 November 1920, depicting Cecil advocating a design for the . "I trust that after all we may secure at least your qualified support for our League of Nations?": "Why, what's the matter with ours?"Cartoon from, 10 November 1920, depicting Cecil advocating a design for the League of Nations to Warren G. Harding
Upon returning to Britain, Cecil eagerly planned the activities of the League of Nations Union. Cecil's public life from now on was almost totally devoted to the League; he was president of the Union from 1923 to 1945. He chaired a reconstruction committee of the Union in July 1919, his primary aim to ensure that the Union built a powerful pro-League lobby in Britain to make sure that the government put the League at the centre of its foreign policy.[29] Cecil also sought to broaden the membership of the Union, which had hitherto largely consisted of Asquithian Liberals, by soliciting the support of Conservatives and Labour.[30]
Cecil was an Esperantist, and, in 1921, he proposed that the League of Nations adopt Esperanto as solution to the language problem.[31]
From 1920 until 1922, he represented the Dominion of South Africa in the League Assembly; in 1923 he made a five-week tour of the United States, explaining the League to American audiences.
He believed that "the war ha[d] shattered the prestige of the European governing classes" and that their disappearance had created a vacuum that needed to be filled if disaster was to be averted. The primary solution to this was the construction of a European order on the basis of Christian morality, with a machinery of legal conciliation by which "Junkerism and Chauvinism" would be destroyed. The Treaty of Versailles had failed to create this.[32] His belief in free trade and the League were part of his Cobdenite vision of a world where trade, self-sacrifice and international co-operation went together, along with international adjudication and mutual guarantees of peace. The League was not just a solution to war but also guaranteed that civilisation would be preserved within each member state, including in Britain where "the League point of view [ran] through all politics - Ireland, Industry, even Economy...[involving] a new way of looking at things political - or rather a reversion" to Victorian morality.[33]
Viscount (formerly Sir Edward) Grey. Cecil wished to replace Lloyd George as Prime Minister with Grey, whom he greatly admired
Possible party realignment [ edit ]
Cecil regarded "class war, whether the class attacked be landowners or Labour, [as] the most insidious form of national disintegration".[34] From 1920 onwards Cecil wanted to bring down Lloyd George and his coalition government by forming a progressive alliance between anti-coalition and anti-socialist forces.[34] He had been an enemy of Lloyd George for longer than any other major politician.[35]
He wanted to create an anti-socialist centre party led by former Foreign Secretary Viscount Grey, regarding him as the embodiment of "justice" which had been Britain's "greatest National asset...in foreign affairs...for the last two generations".[36] This party would not be anti-working class and would include "the best of the Liberal and Labour people" and "some of the old landowning Tories".[37] He supported Asquith in the Paisley by-election of February 1920 and wanted an electoral agreement between Labour and pro-League candidates.[38] In mid July 1920 Cecil was still keen for a realignment under Grey, who was keener on the League of Nations than Asquith, whom Cecil thought still influential in the country but no longer a leader.[39]
With his brother Hugh Cecil he resigned the Conservative whip in February 1921.[38] In 1921 Cecil abandoned his attempt to form a centre party but still wanted Grey to return to active politics.[40] Talks between Grey and Cecil began in June 1921.[41] A wider meeting (Cecil, Asquith, Grey and leading Asquithian Liberals Lord Crewe, Runciman and Sir Donald Maclean) was held on 5 July 1921. Cecil wanted a genuine coalition rather than a de facto Liberal government, with Grey rather than Asquith as Prime Minister, and a formal manifesto by himself and Grey which Asquith and Crewe would then endorse as the official Liberal leaders. Another Conservative, Sir Arthur Steel-Maitland, later joined in the talks, and his views were similar to Cecil's, but Maclean, Runciman and Crewe were hostile.[42] In July Cecil wrote a public letter to his constituency association attacking the coalition government.[40]
Grey himself was not keen and his failing eyesight would have been a major handicap to his becoming Prime Minister. He did, however, make a move by speaking in his former constituency in October 1921, to little effect.[42] After Grey's speech Cecil published a second letter which he announced he would co-operate with a Grey government. In November when the Irish situation looked likely to cause the fall of the coalition, Cecil wrote to the King urging him to appoint Grey as Prime Minister.[40]
In April 1922 in another constituency letter he distanced himself from other anti-coalition Conservatives by insisting on the importance of not being reactionary and in May he claimed that the dominant force within the Conservatives were a group of men who only cared for "the preservation of its property". He again announced his willingness to serve under Grey in a government based on industrial co-operation and support for the League. However Cecil became disillusioned with the Liberals' opposition to reconstructing the party system; he declined an invitation to join the Liberals so long as Asquith remained leader rather than Grey. With the fall of the Lloyd George coalition in October and the appointment of Bonar Law as Conservative Prime Minister, Cecil pledged to support the new government, though he was not offered office.[43]
A traditional Tory in a modernizing world [ edit ]
In Baldwin's Conservative administrations of 1923 to 1924, and 1924 to 1927 he was the minister responsible, under the jurisdiction of the Foreign Secretary, for British activities in League affairs. On 28 May 1923, Cecil returned to the cabinet as Lord Privy Seal,[44][45] a position held by several members of his family.[46]
Cecil wrote to Baldwin on 29 October 1923, offering his support on Tariff Reform if Baldwin would adopt a vigorous pro-League policy in return. He stated that Britain's economic problems could not be solved by tariffs, rather by solving the collapse of European credit, war debts and "international suspicion"; and withdrawing support from all international organisations except the League.[47] Because of his disagreement with the Conservatives' policy of tariffs, Cecil did not stand in the general election of December 1923. After the Conservatives lost their majority, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, of East Grinstead in the County of Sussex, on 28[48] December 1923.[49] He remained Lord Privy Seal until 22 February 1924,[50] When Ramsay MacDonald's minority Labour government took office, MacDonald apologised to Cecil for not retaining him as the government's League minister.[51] But at the period Chelwood was rewarded by being asked to be Rector of Aberdeen University, when they granted him an Honorary Doctorate of Law.[52]
The Conservatives returned to power at the October 1924 general election and Cecil was asked by Stanley Baldwin to be Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.[53] He led the British delegation to the Opium Conference at Geneva in 1925. During a naval conference of 1927 in Geneva, negotiations broke down after the United States refused to agree to the British argument that Britain needed a minimum of seventy cruisers to adequately defend the British Empire, its trade and communications. Cutting the number of British cruisers from seventy to fifty was proposed by the Americans in return for concessions over their size and the calibre of their guns. Cecil, a member of the British delegation, resigned from the cabinet because the British government let the conference break down rather than reduce the number of Royal Navy cruisers.
Cecil was very concerned about the increasing social problems and public dangers associated with the growth in popularity of the motor car. In 1929, Cecil accepted the post of president of the newly formed Pedestrians Association who were to campaign successfully to introduce many new measures to benefit pedestrians.[54]
Although an official delegate to the League as late as 1932, Cecil worked independently to mobilise public opinion in support of the League. He was joint founder and president, with a French Jurist, of the International Peace Campaign, known in France as Rassemblement universel pour la paix. Among his publications during this period were The Way of Peace (1928), a collection of lectures on the League; A Great Experiment (1941), a personalised account of his relationship to the League of Nations; and All the Way (1949), a more complete autobiography.
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which began in 1931, was a flagrant breach of the Covenant of the League of Nations.[55] The Geneva Disarmament Conference began in February 1932, and due to disarmament Britain was powerless to stop Japanese aggression. Baldwin told Thomas Jones on 27 February that "The very people like Bob Cecil who have made us disarm, and quite right too, are now urging us forward to take action. But where will action take us? ...If you enforce an economic boycott you will have war declared by Japan and she will seize Singapore and Hong Kong and we cannot, as we are placed, stop her".[56] Cecil wrote to Baldwin in July that he found himself "more and more out of sympathy with modern Conservatism" and he considered the government's disarmament proposals made at Geneva "quite inadequate".[57] In March 1933 he complained to Baldwin that the technical advisers, especially British ones, had sabotaged the prospect of abolishing aircraft and of bombing, particularly from those who wanted to retain it for areas such as the North-West frontier of India.[58]
Cecil's experience at the Geneva Disarmament Conference convinced him that the League was being jeopardised by "Hankeyism", the doctrine that the balance of power and national interests of countries were the only basis of international relations, named after the Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence (1912-1938) Sir Maurice Hankey.[59] He admired Anthony Eden, Lord Halifax and Baldwin but regarded MacDonald as an enemy of the League and disliked Lord Londonderry, Lord Hailsham and criticised Sir John Simon as "the worst Foreign Secretary since Derby in 1876".[60]
Cecil and the policy of Appeasement [ edit ]
After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Cecil was still hopeful of progress in disarmament. He favoured "the total abolition of naval and military aircraft, plus the creation of an international" civil air force along with German equality in aircraft. Later still in 1933 he advocated "the abolition of aggressive arms" as "the power of the defensive" would mean that "France and the smaller countries would be safer than...in any other way".[60] In October, a month before the Germans left the conference, Cecil said in a broadcast that the "rules governing [German] disarmament" should be "the same in principle as those governing the armaments of any other civilised power" and in a letter to Gilbert Murray he said "Goebbels [had] made rather a favourable impression at Geneva and [was] said to be quite pleased with the League". He deplored the Nazis education policy, however.[61]
In April 1934 Cecil wrote to Philip Noel-Baker that Baldwin had told him that an attempt by Hankey to find a practical way of internationalising civil aviation had failed, to which Cecil replied that he "did not think Hankey was a very good adviser on such questions as he disapproved of peace and disarmament".[62] Hankey had been an early critic of the feasibility of a League of Nations: in 1919 he complained that the British representatives on the League Commission, Cecil and Smuts, were idealists; Cecil was "not very practical on this particular question. I am afraid their scheme will prove unworkable for two reasons, first, that it attempts too much, and second, that not enough attention is given to the machine".[63] In 1923 he wrote that Cecil was a "crank".[64]
In 1934 Cecil criticised the British government for the missed opportunity of gaining French co-operation at the conference after the electoral victory of the French Radicals.[65] In August he wrote to Murray that because Baldwin had quoted the "arch-militarist F. S. Oliver" in declaring that Britain's real frontier was on the Rhine, he was very far from a League frame of mind and that the government "ought to go" in spite of "the intellectual nonentity of the Labour party".[65] He denounced the worldwide spread of nationalism and the outbreak of isolationism in Britain, claiming that isolation was a "principle of anarchy" and that in modern conditions countries could "no more live alone than individuals".[65] The British government in Cecil's view was so anti-League that he should sever his connections with the Conservatives and began to favour relations with Labour.[66]
The Stresa Front of 1935 between Britain, France and Italy received Cecil's criticism because it appeared to be an alliance in which Germany was excluded and condoned their failure to disarm. Cecil wrote to Baldwin, arguing that Hitler should be given a chance to sign a disarmament treaty, though he doubted whether this would be effective because everything that Hitler had hitherto done, along with Prussian practice of the last two centuries, suggested that it would fail. But after its likely failure, the League would have reason for contemplating the "economic and financial measures which might be applied to a state endangering peace by unilateral repudiation of its international obligations".[67]
In June 1935 Cecil believed that a "collective threat from the League or a breach of British friendship" would prevent the Italian invasion of Abyssinia of 1935-36. The attempt to prevent it by ceding a part of British Somaliland to Italy met with Cecil's approval.[67] Later that year Cecil used the Union to pressure the government into League action against Italy. He also favoured oil sanctions and the closure of the Suez Canal (even if this breached international law). He became increasingly favourable towards Labour's attitude to foreign policy and in August he contemplated joining it. At the general election held in November, he favoured the Union's policy of advising electors to vote for the candidate most likely to support the League.[68] The Hoare-Laval Pact of December met with Cecil's disapproval because it would mean that "as between the League of Nations and Mussolini, Mussolini ha[d] won" and that Hoare had set back the only hope of showing that aggression did not pay.[69] Cecil believed that France's suspicion of Germany was the main cause of the Pact and that Britain should therefore bargain with France possible British co-operation against Germany in return for French co-operation against Italy.[70]
1935 saw the highest influence that Cecil and the Union had ever possessed. Thereafter both went into sharp decline.[71] The remilitarization of the Rhineland in March 1936 was to Cecil the "most dangerous crisis since 1914" but it could not be resolved by "letting off Italy" since "the security of France, of Russia and indeed of every country in Europe would now be greater had the League already proved by its defeat of Italian aggression that the organised community as a whole could stifle war".[70] In April Cecil believed that as Italy had to subdue Abyssinia quickly, Britain ought to favour not only existing sanctions but increased sanctions against Italy. When Abyssinian resistance collapsed in May, Italy should have been expelled from the League in order to demonstrate that "an effective system of collective security" was possible. Otherwise it would become obvious that the League was a "failure", that the Union was "bankrupt" and that collective security was a "farce".[72]
Cecil tried to prevent Conservative withdrawal from the Union by presenting the League as "an almost ideal machinery" for the "preservation of the Empire".[71] However the Union further swung to the left and received complaints from Neville Chamberlain and Conservative Central Office about the left-wing tone of Union propaganda.[73] In May 1938 Cecil complained that the government had "allowed the League to disintegrate" and in August that their "ambiguities and timidities" were failing to ensure that Hitler understood that further aggression would be a breach of international relations.[74]
In May 1938 he said in a letter that German diplomacy had never in history been founded on honest dealing: "The Germans really conceive of their country as always under war conditions in this respect. No one expects a belligerent to tell the truth and, to the German mind, they are always belligerent. The Germans take the view that war is only intensified peace".[75] Cecil was a critic of the Munich Agreement, whereby the German-speaking lands of Czechoslovakia were granted to Nazi Germany. He wrote to the Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax on 20 September 1938 that he "had not felt so bitterly on any public question since the fall of Khartoum" in 1885.[76] The conduct of the government had completely alienated Cecil from the Conservatives.[74]
In his memoirs Cecil wrote that Mrs Beneš (wife of the Czech President Edvard Beneš) telephoned him on behalf of her husband and asked for advice on the crisis: "I felt forced to reply that, much as I sympathized with her country, I could not advise her to rely on any help from mine. It was the only reply that could be made, but I have never felt a more miserable worm than I did when making it. To me and many others the transaction was as shameful as anything in our history".[77] He further lamented that "Nothing was more painful in the whole of these...negotiations than the constant threats of the Germans to enforce by arms any of their demands which were resisted, threats to which we instantly submitted".[78] He wrote a letter to The Guardian denouncing Munich: "But supposing there is a German guarantee, of what is its value? It is unnecessary to accuse Germany of perfidy. Not only the Nazi Government but all previous German Governments from the time of Frederick the Great downwards have made their position perfectly clear. To them an international assurance is no more than a statement of present intention. It has no absolute validity for the future".[79]
After the German invasion of the remaining Czechoslovak state in March 1939, Cecil opposed Eden joining the government because such a strengthening of Chamberlain would be a disaster. He had a low opinion of the Labour Party (except for Sir Stafford Cripps and Noel-Baker), whom he thought were doctrinaire and unpractical. In his view Attlee was "not a leader" and would have to be removed if Labour was to be effective.[74] He wanted a "closer union between European states" against "nationalism" in the postwar settlement.[80]
In the spring of 1946, he participated in the final meetings of the League at Geneva, ending his speech with the sentence: "The League is dead; long live the United Nations!"[81]
Later life [ edit ]
He lived for thirteen more years, occasionally occupying his place in the House of Lords, and supporting international efforts for peace through his honorary life presidency of the United Nations Association.
In his last speech in the House of Lords on 23 April 1953, Cecil reiterated his commitment to world peace. He admitted that it is "the essence of national sovereignty that independent nations cannot be compelled, except by force of arms, to take action of which their Governments disapprove—and that remains true, whatever may be the terms of any general agreement they may have made. No elaborate or ingenious organisation will alter that fact". He added that any plan for international peace must rest on Christian civilisation and "we British especially insist that in our own country, from the days of King Alfred to the present time, Christian civilisation has been responsible for every improvement and every advance that has been made". He said that that system had been attacked by Russian dialectical materialism, "its central tenet is that there is no such thing as the spiritual nature of man, or, if there is, it should be ignored or stamped out as speedily as possible". However, "If you ignore or abolish the spiritual nature of man, you destroy the foundation on which rests all truth, justice and freedom, except such as can flow from the love of money or what money can buy". He advocated rearmament to prevent a Bolshevik attack and claimed that "Christian civilisation is the only real alternative to dialectical materialism". Unless there was a change in the principle of materialism, "I do not see how we can have any permanent security for peace".[82]
Styles of address and honours [ edit ]
Lord Cecil of Chelwood, 1929.
Styles of address [ edit ]
1864–1868: Mr Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
1868–1899: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
1899–1901: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil QC
1901–1906: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC
1906–1910: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC MP
1910–1911: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC
1911–1915: Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC MP
1915–1923: The Rt Hon Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC MP
Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC MP 1923: The Rt Hon Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC
Lord Robert Gascoyne-Cecil KC 1923–1956: The Rt Hon The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood KC PC
The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood KC PC 1956–1958: The Rt Hon The Viscount Cecil of Chelwood CH KC PC
Honours [ edit ]
Cecil's career brought him many honours. In addition to his peerage, he was appointed Companion of Honour in 1956,[83] was elected chancellor of the University of Birmingham (1918–1944) and rector of the University of Aberdeen (1924–1927). He was given the Peace Award of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation in 1924. Most significantly, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1937. He was presented with honorary degrees by the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Liverpool, St Andrews, Aberdeen, Princeton, Columbia, and Athens.
Cecil died on 24 November 1958 at his home at Chelwood Gate, Danehill near Haywards Heath.[84] He left no heirs and his Viscountcy became extinct.
Legacy [ edit ]
Lord Home paid tribute to Cecil in the House of Lords two days after his death:
He was one of the first people, perhaps, in the modern world...to foresee the absolute need for nations to meet round the table in discussion of their national affairs in the interests of peace. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations. And your Lordships will recall the unflagging enthusiasm with which he pursued the cause of peace wherever he went. His vision of a world disarmed, where conciliation would hold the day, was time and again disappointed...all since have been convinced of the rightness of his ideal, although the world has not proved itself yet great enough to match his great conception. In the United Nations, which was the successor of the League of Nations, there is many a living monument to Lord Cecil. Many of the committees which do great work in the international field were the result of his conception and are daily drawing people closer and closer together in interdependence. I, myself, because my father was very keen and with him did much in the League of Nations field, remember Lord Robert Cecil coming to stay at home; and many a time at dinner, when I was a comparatively young man, I would watch him, with his long figure, slide more and more under the table, until only the distinguished head was left above his plate, and he would tell us of all his plans for the future peace of the world. Ever since then I have felt that so long as he was alive there was one among us who, however bitter the strife and however blind the world, never despaired of finding peace in our time.[85]
Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough said that Cecil "impressed me by his complete devotion to the cause which ought to be, if it is not, the main cause in all our lives—to try to secure peace and to establish the brotherhood of man...I am sure that the whole nation mourns the loss of a great public figure, to whom and to whose work we are all greatly indebted".[85] Clement Attlee also paid tribute: "I think the whole world has lost a very great man and a very great friend. Wherever the cause of peace is mentioned, the name of Lord Cecil will always come up, and the complete devotion that he gave to that cause for so many years".[85] Lord Pethick-Lawrence said of Cecil that his "life was devoted not to self, not to his own aggrandisement or some advantage of a personal kind, but to the well-being of his fellow human beings and the good fortune of this country and the whole world".[85]
Salvador de Madariaga summed up Cecil's character:
The gaunt, stooping, clerical figure of Robert Cecil seemed ever drawn forward by an eager zest which one fancied sharpened his long pointed nose and flashed in his powerful eye (only one: in Cecil the other eye did not matter). That cross hanging from his waistcoat pocket witnessed to the religious basis of his political faiths; but the sharp tongue, the determined chin, the large, powerful hand, the air of a man used to be obeyed, proud towards men if humble before God, did suggest that in that tall figure striding with his long legs the thronged corridors of the League, the levels of Christian charity were kept high above the plane of fools.[86]
Works [ edit ]
'Lord Salisbury', Monthly Review , xiii, October 1903
, xiii, October 1903 Our National Church (1913)
(1913) The Way of Peace (1928)
(1928) A Letter to an M.P. on Disarmament (1931)
(1931) 'The League as a Road to Peace', in L. Woolf (ed.), The Intelligent Man's Way to Avoid War (London: Victor Gollancz, 1933), pp. 256–313
(London: Victor Gollancz, 1933), pp. 256–313 A Great Experiment (1941)
(1941) All the Way (1949)
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]
Birn, D. S. (1981). The League of Nations Union, 1918–1945 .
Brody, J. Kenneth (1999). The Avoidable War, Volume I: Lord Cecil and the Policy of Principle, 1932-1935 . Transaction.
Brody, J. Kenneth (1999). The Avoidable War, Volume II: Pierre Laval and the Politics of Reality, 1935-1936 . Transaction.
Ceadel, Martin (1980). "The first British referendum: the Peace Ballot, 1934–35". English Historical Review . 95 : , 810–839.
Cecil, Hugh P. (1975). "Lord Robert Cecil: A Nineteenth-Century Upbringing". History Today . 25 : , 118–127.
Johnson, Gaynor. Lord Robert Cecil: Politician & Internationalist (2014), major scholarly biography.
(2014), major scholarly biography. Raffo, P. S. (1974). "The League of Nations Philosophy of Lord Robert Cecil". Australian Journal of Politics and History . 20 : , 186–196.
Thompson, J. A. (1977). "Lord Cecil and the pacifists in the League of Nations Union". The Historical Journal . 20. 4 : , 949–959.
Thompson, J. A. (1981). "Lord Cecil and the Historians". The Historical Journal. 24. 3: , 709–715. |
During the search: rescuers on horseback look for 7-year-old boy in a forest on Hokkaido. Credit:AP "We just have too little information about how the boy would have acted after being left alone," local fire department rescuer Satoshi Saito told AFP. "He must have been able to walk around himself, but we are having a difficult time projecting which route he would have taken and how far." Alone in the forest, the child had no food or water and has endured heavy rains at night, according to AFP. It only took several minutes for Yamato Tanooka to vanish after his parents abandoned him by the side of the road to teach the misbehaving boy a lesson. By the time his parents came looking for him, the child was missing.
Rescuers search for the 7-year-old boy who was abandoned for punishment. Credit:AP "The parents left the boy in the mountains as punishment," a police spokesman told the Japan Times. "They said they went back to the site immediately, but the boy was no longer there." Hokkaido police said the child went missing around 4pm local timeon Saturday, according to CNN. Two hours later, the boy's parents called police and told them that the child had disappeared on a day trip while the family scavenged for wild vegetables, CNN reported. Takayuki Tanooka, the boy's 44-year-old father, eventually admitted that the family's story was fabricated and that his son had actually been left behind as punishment for throwing rocks at cars along a road in the area, the Japan Times reported. Tanooka told a local reporter that he could not initially admit to authorities what he had done, according to the paper. "I was not able to ask for [a search] with a reason of punishment," he told TV Asahi, according to CNN. "I thought it might be taken as a domestic violence."
With police still deciding whether the parents will face charges related to child abandonment, many critics are calling for the parents to face repercussions, according to the Times. "This is not punishment but abuse!" one Twitter post read. "The parents are so stupid that I am speechless," another said. Police said a search party of more than 150 officers and firefighters has been looking for the boy, who was wearing navy shorts, a black pullover and red sneakers at the time of his disappearance, according to CNN. The northern side of the road on which the boy was left slopes toward Mt. Komagadake, which rises just over 3700 feet (1127 metres), according to AFP.
"Unless he started climbing the mountain, he would have hit a main road after walking for two-three kilometres in any other direction," Saito told AFP. Video footage shows dozens of searchers tramping through dense forest and thick foliage while a helicopter buzzes overheard, according to AFP. Overnight, the news service reported, rescuers moved through the search zone holding torches and calling out the boy's name. "I feel very sorry for my child," the father told an NTV reporter. "I am so sorry for causing trouble for many people." The area where the child was last seen is home to wild bears, according to the Times. Mitsuru Wakayama, a spokesman for the nearby town of Nanae, told the Times that the area is used as a shortcut by locals - but not often, because of how precarious it can be.
"Not many people or cars pass by, and it gets totally dark as there are no lights," Wakayama said. "It's not surprising to encounter bears anywhere in the area." The Associated Press reported that the boy's father expressed remorse in an interview with the public broadcaster NHK and other TV stations: "I regret what I did to my child," he said. Washington Post Follow Fairfax World on Facebook Follow Fairfax World on Twitter |
Hi. My name is Jane Turville and I’m the writer, producer and director of THE PEOPLE PROBLEM. The film is a four-part series that will be marketed to public broadcasting stations in North America as well as international venues. Material from the four-hour series will also be used to create a 90-minute documentary suitable for public screenings and film festivals. Our goal is to broadcast the film in Spring 2015.
Why make a film on population?
For many years I’ve believed that over-population is a big problem. Many of my friends and colleagues also believe this to be true.
It seems that, while we believe that super-populations are unsustainable, we don’t like to discuss population growth. We shift the conversation to other issues. I think this happens for two reasons.
First, is fear. Many ideas float around regarding over-population. Everything from remaining childless for the sake of the planet, placing limits on health access for seniors, and building walls to eliminate immigration. All of these ideas have one thing in common. They all diminish personal choice. Most of us (including myself) value the freedom to choose your own destiny as a basic human right. Yet, people fear that talking about population growth is, in fact, a discussion on the removal of this basic human right.
Second, most population information is presented through numbers, charts and graphs. While the information is compelling, it’s really hard to take data presented in this form and apply it to yourself. So, it’s easy to conclude that it’s someone else’s issue and that responsibility lies elsewhere.
So, what can a film do?
THE PEOPLE PROBLEM poses the question “Are there too many of us?” And, while I don’t intend to arrive at a definitive answer, the film will present population issues in a way that (a) alleviates fear about discussing population and (b) translates compelling data into stories that resonate with mainstream citizens.
How will the film achieve this?
Using the nesting basket sustainability model as a framework, the film will weave interviews with professionals into the stories of three families located in America, Brazil and China. Set up like this, data explained by professionals is immediately illustrated through each family’s story. By bringing the data into homes located in diverse countries, and showing data’s real-world applications for real families, the film will help viewers relate with statistical information and at the same time, bring to light the role of affluence and consumerism in population issues, dispelling the myth that it is a third world problem. In order to lay a foundation for the discussion, we’ll also take a look at population throughout history. What have the dynamics been and just how did we get to where we are today?
What is the nesting basket theory of sustainability?
In this model, the first basket represents earth’s natural systems, which should be healthy and abundant. The second basket rests inside the first and represents society, which thrives only when nested in a healthy environment. The third basket nests in the social basket and represents the economy, which remains stable when the baskets it rests in are strong. This structure achieves the balance required for a sustainable society.
How will money from this campaign be spent?
THE PEOPLE PROBLEM is just getting started, making this Kickstarter campaign the financial boost needed to “kickstart” the project. I am asking for $10,000 which will provide the funding for (a) my attendance at three population conferences to conduct research and meet potential interviewees, (b) external hard drives to store footage, and (c) development and launch the film’s website.
Why should I support this project?
To be blunt, I need your support. And, quite frankly, if humans are going to make educated decisions about the environment, social issues and economies, population has to be part of the conversation. We shouldn’t be afraid to talk about it. We shouldn’t shrug it off as someone else’s problem. If you want to be the catalyst that brings a balanced discussion into homes, churches, classrooms, and boardrooms, you should support this project.
Are there too many of us? Is there truly a “people problem?” If you’re interested in getting the conversation going, please make a contribution today. |
Thought criminal extraordinaire, Steve Sailer commented recently on Foreign Policy’s article, “Brazil’s New Problem With Blackness.” Money quotes:
These policies didn’t eliminate race, but they did affect how it came to be classified. The marker of race drifted away from a binary consideration of a person’s ancestry and became increasingly based on one’s appearance.
…
What ultimately binds these definitions together is an awareness that the less “black” a person looks, the better — better for securing jobs, better for social mobility. The widespread acceptance of multiracial identities in Brazil coexists with steep racial inequality — a contradiction that the sociologist Edward E. Telles has called “the enigma of Brazilian race relations.”
…
Eleven experts comprised the panel, among them UFPel administrators, anthropologists, and leaders in the wider black community of Pelotas. They received strict guidelines from the Public Prosecutors Office: “Phenotypical characteristics are what should be taken into account,” read the instructions. “Arguments concerning the race of one’s ancestors are therefore irrelevant.”
And this:
“In Aug. 2016, after it had become clear that the law left room for fraud, the government ordered all departments to install verification committees. But it failed to provide the agencies with any guidance. The Department of Education in Para, Brazil’s blackest state, attempted to fulfill the decree with a checklist, which leaked to the press. Among the criteria to be scored: Is the job candidate’s nose short, wide and flat? How thick are their lips? Are their gums sufficiently purple? What about their lower jaw? Does it protrude forward? Candidates were to be awarded points per item, like “hair type” and “skull shape” … But black activists say such measures are unavoidable.
When you allow your national policies to be guided by sociological theories, like those of Telles, you are bound to run into this type of mess.
Below are regression results, based on the Pelotas Birth Cohort (n = ~ 2850), for genetic racial ancestry, interviewer and interviewee-reported color (corr), and three SES indicators. In this 1982 birth cohort, independent of European ancestry, it can be seen that there is no consistent negative association between interviewer rated “black” appearance and outcomes. That is, in Brazil, the average race of one’s ancestors is more relevant than stereotypical race-associated phenotypic characteristics. (Note: the sample sizes for “Yellow” and “Indigenous” were small, so those estimates are fairly unreliable; also, neither an East Asian nor Amerindian ancestry component was included).
(Source: F. Hartwig, personal communication, March 4, 2016; full results)
So, if one is interested in addressing historic race-related inequalities, it would be more efficient and just — since (dis)advantages are mostly being passed along lines of descent — to positively discriminate according to objectively determinable biogeographic ancestry, not subjectively assessed stereotypical racial appearance. And it’s hard to see how requiring 23andMe reports would be more intrusive than having a 12 member panel examine applicants for nose width, lip thickness, craniofacial morphology, etc. to see if they are sufficiently African-looking.
Of course, this isn’t going to happen any time soon, since the conclusion that ancestry with respect to major racial or descent groups is relevant to social outcome needs to be evaded, even at the expense of good science and quality social policy. |
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Apple looks to leave 2015 on somewhat of a sour note, as the company was recently hit with a class-action lawsuit, with the iPhone 4S and iOS 9 at the heart of it all, reports AppleInsider.
The main issue, according to plaintiff Chaim Lerman and other iPhone 4S customers, is that Apple crippled the smartphone’s performance after upgrading to iOS 9. More specifically, after upgrading to iOS 9, Lerman and the other plaintiffs noticed a sharp decrease in performance in third-party apps and Apple’s own applications, such as the Phone app.
Apple’s website for iOS 9 advertises “faster performance, improved security, convenient updates, and longer battery life.”
As evidence for the latter, the lawsuit points to Apple’s website for iOS 9, which advertises “faster performance, improved security, convenient updates, and longer battery life.” Furthering the point is the plaintiffs’ accusation that Apple must have known about the iPhone 4S’ slower performance on iOS 9, yet didn’t warn owners about such a pitfall. According to the plaintiffs, Apple stands to financially benefit from not warning iPhone 4S owners due to customers readily upgrading to a newer iPhone when given a choice.
In short, the plaintiffs accuse Apple of planned obsolescence, a policy where companies knowingly design products that become non-functional over a set period of time.
Lerman and the more than 100 other plaintiffs are asking over $5 million in damages, with an option to treble, which triples the amount being asked for. No hearings have been set, with New York District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. presiding over the case.
Unfortunately for the suing party, a previous 2011 lawsuit regarding planned obsolescence and the iOS 4 update for the iPhone 3G was thrown out by the judge. In that case, the judge ruled that iOS 4 was not a good or a service, while also dismissing claims of false advertising and deceptive business practices. In other words, while time has certainly passed and the current case does have a different judge presiding over it, history is not on the plaintiffs’ side. |
Feature
Next Tuesday, Apple is expected to unveil its largest array of new product introductions ever, ranging from iPhone 8—and a premium new iPhone X—to a new 4K/HDR Apple TV, new Apple Watch Series 3, revamped AirPods and the company's new HomePod appliance—as well as its new Apple Park campus. Here's why it all matters—starting with the location.
Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park during construction in June 2017
Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park
A Theater named for the Showman
Much fanfare at a non-successful product launch, not at an Apple Event
Apple Park as a currency of competence
Inside Steve Jobs Theater during construction
Certainly the "largest" new unveiling of the event will be Apple's new Campus 2, now officially branded as Apple Park —a sprawling green campus centered around a futuristic "infinite loop" Ring and surrounded by satellite Phase 2 buildings that are both beautiful and minimalistically functional for research and design over the coming decades.If Apple has been a force to be reckoned with while it operates out of a drab headquarters straight out of the dystopian suburbia of Office Space, a complex and its surrounding sprawl that's been overutilized through the last decade of Apple's intense growth and was originally built back in the mid 1990s—back when Apple Computer built a few million Macs per year and struggled to license its reference designs for handheld Newton MessagePad tablets that nobody wanted—imagine what will come out of these modern new facilities designed to inspire creativity and integration among teams.The Apple Park name is an apparent homage to PARC , Silicon Valley's Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, where a variety of advanced computing ideas originated in the 1970s before being turned into real products by Apple (the original Mac), Adobe (PostScript), Cisco (Ethernet), Microsoft (Word) and many others.Apple's current style of R&D is far more immediate and practical than the academic experimentation of Xerox PARC, or for that matter the former Advanced Technology Group that Apple itself ran into the late 90s, or Microsoft Research or Google X or other labs that invent technology that rarely escapes to see any practical implementation in the real world.Tuesday's event is specifically being held within the subterranean Steve Jobs Theater , pictured below while it was still an excavated hole two years ago, back in the summer of 2015.The new venue is named in recognition of the man who not only co-founded Apple, but led the development and commercialization of PARC technologies that became the Macintosh in 1984; built the team that created the futuristic NeXT platform in the 1990s that became the basis of macOS X and iOS in the 2000s; resuscitated the culture of Apple with blockbuster, industry-shifting products ranging from iMac to iPod to iPhone and iPad, as well as ambitious software projects ranging from Pro Apps to iCloud; and presented plans for the new campus at his last public appearance prior to his passing in 2011.What we already know about the Steve Jobs Theater is that it is meticulously designed to detail and demonstrate new technology product introductions—not just these being shown next week for 2017, but for decades into the future. It's a major capital investment in Apple's theatrical Event model that has worked to introduce a string of hits for the company over the last twenty years.Rather than renting an arena or a trade show booth and throwing up massive banners shouting about how innovative their new catalog of SKUs or licensing initiatives are—in the model of Samsung, Microsoft or HP—or simply throwing a symposium party in a nearby outdoor venue like Google IO , Apple's Steve Jobs Theater is designed to perpetuate the cyclical model of new dramatic technology introductions in the form of real, desirable products available for immediate sale.And, presumably, Apple will also be able to use the theater across the rest of the year to welcome shareholders and train employees in the model of Apple University.One more thing about the new Apple Park: its purported $5 billion price tag is roughly the same size as the conflagration caused by Samsung rushing a defective product to market last fall, mishandling its safety recall, and then burning down a series of related strategic plans and partnerships, including the Facebook/Oculus deal for Gear VR that tied to the Galaxy Note 7 bonfire.Apple Park is not only a monument to the meticulous competency of Apple as a company, but also serves as a reminder of the massive destructions and waste of capital at the hands of Samsung and other rivals of Apple's iOS.Using Apple Park as a $5 billion currency of competence, we can debit Google with three negative Apple Parks worth of incompetence and lost opportunity just for its failed acquisitions of Motorola and Nest; chalk up another three negative Apple Parks in Microsoft's bungled acquisitions of aQuantive and Nokia, write off almost 30 negative Apple Parks for BlackBerry's collapse from its peak 2008 valuation, and something around negative 48 Apple Parks worth of Nokia's collapse since iPhone was unveiled.On the other hand, Apple itself now sits on 30 Apple Park's worth of liquid capital (subtracting its debt holdings), and the company brings in enough cash flow to fund another two Apple Parks about every three months.So far, we've gotten regular looks at Apple Park and the Steve Jobs Theater via drone flyovers and tweeted photos , just as we've always seen leaks of case design photos, screen shots of upcoming iOS features and leaks of codenames and product packaging.Many of the leaks are already known facts or strongly speculated well in advance based on Apple's previous acquisitions and investments. All the same, every Apple Event also carries new surprises and details that were kept tight secrets, and this Tuesday should reveal plenty new things about known products and initiatives, including the brand-new venue itself. The next segment looks at iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X |
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SAN CARLOS, TX—A family of Mexican migrant workers was thrilled to find its picture on the cover of the Jan. 25 issue of The Economist, vegetable farmhand, factory laborer, and fruit picker Luis Moreno reported Monday.
"Imagine my surprise when I walked past the newsstand and saw my own face on the cover of a magazine—a very respected international publication, no less," said Moreno, 34, speaking with the aid of a translator. "I couldn't believe it. I opened the magazine and there we were again, right there under the headline, 'Hard Harvest: The Enduring Plight Of Migrant Workers In America.' I ran to my wife with a copy of the issue as fast as I could and said, 'Hey, Rosa, we're famous!"
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Ever since losing his job as a mechanic's assistant in Mexico City four years ago, Moreno, his wife Rosa, and their three young sons have roamed the American South and Midwest in search of seasonal labor.
"Judging by the scenery and the size of little Esteban, I am guessing the photo was taken in north Texas, shortly after the October harvest," Moreno said. "We were relocating from the lower Rio Grande valley to Iowa, where I can usually find winter work in the slaughterhouses or the pork-processing plants. How lucky we were to be on that particular road that day!"
Continued Moreno: "I do not specifically remember anyone taking my picture, but that is not surprising if we were in the middle of traveling. It gets very tiring, of course, and sometimes you do not pay attention to distractions."
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Moreno praised The Economist's photo editor for choosing the cover image.
"The clothes we were wearing created a very interesting pastiche of colors, which is probably why he chose that particular shot," Moreno said. "Also, the photographer caught us at a moment when our expressions powerfully conveyed the great weariness we were feeling."
The seven-page cover story, which featured a second photo of the Moreno family inside the magazine, focused on George W. Bush and Mexican president Vicente Fox's long-running dispute over migrant workers and the legalization of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S.
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"I was so excited," Moreno said. "I had a little money saved, enough for three copies. I sent one home to Mexico to my grandmother, I put one away to keep nice, and the other I used to show all of my friends."
Within hours of the issue hitting newsstands, Moreno said he began hearing from friends, coworkers, and relatives.
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"I call home to my mother in Oaxaca whenever I can, just to make sure everyone is okay, especially our little Juanita, who is too young to travel," Moreno said. "The first thing she says to me is, 'Your cousin Carlos called to say he saw you in The Economist. He says to call him right away. My son, the celebrity!'"
Rosa said the cover story has made her and the rest of the Moreno clan the talk of the migrant-worker community.
"It's amazing how many people have seen it," Rosa said. "We were passing through Sebastian on the way to Progreso, and we stopped to visit some old friends from Mexico City who found work in a tannery. The first thing out of everyone's mouth was, 'Here comes the cover girl!' You should have seen me blush."
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"Our friend Miguel and his wife were teasing us, calling us 'undocumented migrants' like they did in the story," Rosa added, "but it was all in good fun."
Moreno, who read the article with the help of a translator, said he felt The Economist's assessment of migrant workers and their plight was "evenhanded and intelligent."
"Basically, the author of the article said migrant workers are net contributors to the economy of a country because they are disproportionately of working age, and the receiving country has not had to pay for their education," Moreno said. "And they pointed out that migration does not seem to increase unemployment among the native-born."
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"To be fair, it did say it may reduce their pay," Rosa said. "But I agree with Luis that it certainly was a fairer look at the subject than I have come to expect."
"I've been treated badly by many people throughout my life," added Rosa, lowering her eyes to the floor.
Though he does not expect to appear on another magazine cover any time soon, Moreno expressed hope that one day his family will have the luck to be interviewed by a Ph.D candidate conducting research in one of the seasonal worker camps.
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"It's amazing what a complex system of social ties we itinerant workers maintain, considering that we are always in motion and have only limited access to modern communications," Moreno said. "Don't you think that would make a fascinating subject for a dissertation?" |
A week after Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard wrote an emotional Instagram post in response to not being selected to the All-Star Game, NBA commissioner Adam Silver picked Lillard to replace injured Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin.
Blazers guard Damian Lillard picked by NBA commissioner Adam Silver to replace an injured Blake Griffin on the West All-Star team. — Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) February 8, 2015
On Sunday, the Clippers announced Griffin would undergo an operation on his right elbow and be out indefinitely.
In the original statement, Lillard said he wanted to thank all of the people who thought "he wasn't good enough," and intimated he was both disappointed and disrespected.
Lillard was voted an All-Star last season, despite averaging fewer points, assists, steals and rebounds per game than he has so far this season.
Blazers' Damian Lillard inks contract extension with Adidas 1 of 3 Advertisement
- Will Green |
The U.S Federal Reserve has released the worst-case scenarios it wants banks to stress test against, and some of them are downright apocalyptic.
As part of the stress tests, which the Fed announced it wants banks to do annually, U.S. lenders will have to simulate the effects of a severe recession hitting the U.S. What does that involve, you ask?
In the Fed’s bleakest scenario, the United States would slip into recession in the fourth quarter of 2011 (the one we’re currently in) and post four consecutive quarters of negative growth. The unemployment rate would peak at 13.05%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average would plunge all the way to 5,668 points (from the current level of 11,305). That would be even lower than the Dow’s financial crisis low in March 2009, when it settled at 6,547.
The Fed’s simulated recession would be deepest in the first quarter of 2012, when real GDP would contract by a whopping 7.98%. Peak unemployment wouldn’t hit until a year later.
Overall, the tests, known as the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, lay out 14 economic metrics for banks to include as means of testing their preparedness. The metrics include Consumer Price Inflation levels, Treasury Yields and mortgage rates.
The tests are designed for the top 31 banks in the U.S. that hold assets of US$50-billion or more. They will generate models that will produce loss estimates and see whether capital ratios are high enough to survive the worst-case scenarios.
The Fed will also allow banks to come up with their own scenarios to stress test their finances. Either way, it will requires banks to submit their capital plans by January 9, 2012.
For a full list of the metrics that will be used in the tests, check out the U.S. Federal Reserve’s website.
• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: jshmuel |
There are thousands of photography apps that serve a specific editing functionality. Some are great for filters, some are great for collages, others help you take the ultimate panoramic. Now there’s one that’s great for making comic strips from your favorite memories.
Comixon is a new iOS app that allows users to overlay thought and speech bubbles on photos to create a comic book narrative. They can then apply filters that are reminiscent of old vintage comic books and string together a series of photos to create a mini comic series. The premise is simple, but the results can be as wacky, as romantic, as funny or as serious as the imagination allows. You know, just like a comic book.
When finished with a comic strip, users can publish it to the Comixon social feed or publish it to other social networks of their choice; while the Comixon feed is a unique way to see other user’s Comixon strips (there is certainly some inspiration to be gained), the real value of the app is the ability to share to Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. Noticeably lacking in the sharing functionality is currently Instagram. Hopefully with some more flexible dimension parameters, Instagram is not too far off in the roadmap.
If a series of photos isn’t your style, you can also upload a video and pull frames from the video to create a comic narrative from that follows the flow of the footage.
Comixon was launched on November 13, 2015 and was developed by Orange Rockets, an eight person team based out of Belize City. |
Hermeticism is based on the teachings of a mysterious man named Hermes Trismegistus. He is portrayed as a wise teacher, a powerful magician, and a skilled mystic. He has been seen as a teacher of Moses, the inventor of alchemy, and the founder of occult schools throughout history.
Alexandrian Origins
Hermes Trismegistus is a composite of several mythological figures. He arose in Ptolemaic Alexandria, where the mishmash of Hellenistic and Egyptian culture bred dozens of interesting cults, religions, and deities. Early on, the Hellenistic deity Hermes became associated with the Egyptian deity Thoth.1 Both were inventors of writing and gods of magic. Both were also psychopomps, responsible for guiding souls in the afterlife. As a result, over the centuries they became identified with each other and were even worshiped together in certain Egyptian temples. In fact, Khmun, the Egyptian center for the cult of Thoth, became known as Hermopolis under the Ptolemies.
Because of this, Hermes Trismegistus, as a legendary teacher of magic and mysticism, was probably a humanized syncretization of Hermes and Thoth. His legacy has been immense.
Multiple Hermes?
Even though Hermes Trismegistus was a mythical figure, many ancient writers wrote about him as if he was a real person. This produced disagreements and confusion. At some point, it began to be assumed that there were two Hermes. In Asclepius, Hermes Trismegistus talks about his grandfather:
Is it not true that my grandfather Hermes, after whom I am named, resides in his eponymous town whence he aids and cures all those who come to him from every land?
Asclepius 372
This passage indicates that the Grandfather Hermes is in fact identical with the deity Hermes, residing at Hermopolis.3 Ancient writers invented additional Hermes to fill in the gaps. In fact, it could be that the title “Trismegistus” refers to many great Hermes characters, a line of sages and mystics bringing the Hermetic teachings to humanity over many generations.4
Astrologer, Magus, Alchemist
The Hermetica that we read and write about most often are not the only ancient books ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus. Multiple important early works on astrology were also attributed to the legendary sage. The link between Hermes and astrology is also clear in the Hermetic fragments of Stobaeus. The Greek magical papyri and texts such as the Cyranidi make it clear that Hermes Trismegistus was seen as a master of thaumaturgy, demonology, and other magical arts. Finally, Hermes is also the legendary source of alchemy, through such works as the Emerald Tablet and the works of Zosimos of Panopolis.5
Many Roles for a Legend
It is clear that the legendary figure of Hermes Trismegistus has served many purposes. Perhaps, like other legendary personalities, his real meaning is to be determined by each of us individually. As Hermeticism focuses on the experience of gnosis, it could be that Hermes Trismegistus himself is a concept that needs to be personally experienced to be fully understood.
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Australian blockchain startup Veredictum.io is currently working on a decentralised, anti-piracy and distribution platform for the film and video industry.
Speaking with ZDNet, Veredictum.io founder and CEO Tim Lea explained that his company is gathering people affected by piracy in the creative community to get them to represent the infrastructure that enables the community to solve the problem of piracy -- similar to the way SETI out of Berkeley is run.
But rather than have a community search for the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms, Lea is essentially setting up a decentralised structure that will see people go hunting for pirated content.
Those that help support the underlying infrastructure and find pirated content will be rewarded with cryptocurrency, Lea explained, noting that just like with other crytpocurrencies such as bitcoin, the more traction his platform gets, the more the value rises.
"If the market believes and the community believes that your project has got legs, then the price of that cryptocurrency will typically rise because they believe in the platform," he added.
Lea is passionate about solving piracy in the film industry, after falling victim to the practice himself after he and 115 other people made a film.
"When we got pirated, it basically said their contribution was worth nothing," he said.
"So we're focusing on the film and video, but we're creating the heart and soul of this platform so that others can actually go hunting for other content."
Lea hopes the platform will gain traction among creatives who have an interest in other areas, with his open-source platform accessible for those in the music and photography industries, as some examples.
"What it means is we can bring those guys together to create new business models of distribution where we have white hat peer-to-peer bittorrenting," he said.
"Our objective is to actually reduce piracy by 80 percent -- it's not going to happen a week on Tuesday -- but over time if we make content available more easily and we have deterrents at the same time, then we'll gradually reduce piracy."
Blockchain technology is the underlying system that facilitates bitcoin trading, but it has come a long way from simply being used as a secure method for buying illicit goods via online marketplaces.
"Without blockchain-based technology, it's not actually something that could be rewarded for actually providing a structure or they couldn't be rewarded as effectively," Lea added.
In addition to combating piracy, Lea told ZDNet his platform has the ability to disrupt the venture capital model as it currently exists.
"The community is funding the development of the heart and soul of the platform," he explained. "We don't actually need to go down the Series A route, which is beautiful."
Lea said a lot of blockchain-based startups are currently funding themselves in a similar way, pointing to Ethereum, which launched its software platform as a crowd funded initiative in late 2014.
Lucky for Etherium, it raised $18 million to fund the development of its platform, which Lea said is now currently worth $4 billion.
"We're creating the open source structure that everybody contributes towards, everybody benefits by, and then we just layer a commercial layer over the top for the film and video space," he said.
"If we get this right, it will be amazing."
The platform is the next phase of the Australian-based startup's plan to battle piracy, after launching a blockchain-based manuscript protection platform in August that aims to shield creatives from having their ideas stolen before they sign on the dotted line.
"The film script registration service is actually protecting the IP -- the actual script itself -- in terms of it identifies who has produced the item, the file itself is cryptographically hashed and that's locked to the blockchain, so it identifies that file was registered on this day, at this time, and that's held in an immutable record," Lea said previously.
"It doesn't prevent it from being downloaded, but if there's a problem in the course of law, they can say: 'This particular film script was registered on this particular date'. It's an immutable record; it cannot be changed."
Last month, digital music service Spotify announced it had acquired blockchain startup Mediachain Labs in a bid to create "a more fair, transparent, and rewarding music industry for creators and rights owners" using the blockchain.
Instead of creating a centralised database with music rights information, it is expected Spotify, with the help of its newly acquired Mediachain talent, will build a decentralised one that connects artists and other music rights holders with the tracks featured on Spotify.
As Mediachain explained in a blog post, its vision for the problem with attribution is a shared data layer, which it said "is key to solving attribution, empowering creators and rights owners, and enabling a more efficient and sustainable model for creativity online".
"The opportunity to join an organisation that shares this vision comes at a crucial time, when the relatively nascent blockchain community has few bridges to mainstream consumers, creators, or the platforms they use to interact," the company said at the time. |
Colin Kaepernick won't be catching on with the Seattle Seahawks following a recent free-agent visit, but Pete Carroll believes it's only a matter of time before the quarterback finds a new home.
The veteran head coach told reporters Friday that, although Seattle won't be signing Kaepernick right now, the team is well aware of what he's capable of doing on the field.
"At this time we didn't do anything with it, but we know where he is and who he is," Carroll said, according to Mike Garafolo of NFL Network. "He's a starter in this league."
A meeting with the Seahawks was Kaepernick's first since opting out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers and becoming a free agent early in the offseason.
The apparent lack of interest has sparked plenty of debate as to whether teams are passing over an established signal-caller for football-related reasons or more so in response to the national anthem protests he led last year.
Seemingly leaving the door open for a possible signing down the road, though, Carroll doubled down on the confidence he still has in Kaepernick's ability.
"He's capable of being a championship guy," he added.
Kaepernick was a logical target for the Seahawks given the offensive fit and the club's glaring need for a backup to Russell Wilson.
Whether it was a disagreement regarding financials, his potential role, or any number of factors that would have been discussed when the two sides met, Kaepernick's lengthy stay on the free-agent market now continues.
Starting 11 games for the 49ers last season, the 29-year-old completed 59.2 percent of passes for 2,241 yards, 16 touchdowns, and just four interceptions. |
Illustrations by Skip Sterling
He’d spent years wondering when the other shoe would drop. The revelation had taken him by surprise — the best possible thing that could have happened under the circumstances, his lawyer said — and yet the promise of it weighed too heavily for him to completely go along with it. Part of him was sure it wasn’t true at all.
This story was produced in partnership with Matter
He’d told his girlfriend, Jasmine. She didn’t seem to believe it, either. Maybe it was that even this new, shorter prison sentence still seemed too long to someone barely 20. Or maybe she didn’t like how the news seemed to change him. She bristled when he got serious and talked about marriage. Her visits slowed, then stopped. He kept her picture on the wall of his cell.
Only after Rene Lima-Marin walked out and the gate of Colorado’s Crowley County Correctional Facility shut behind him, on April 24, 2008, did he finally decide he didn’t have to worry anymore. He was 29 years old and a free man, released after serving a decade of what had first been a sentence of 98 years.
Jasmine came to see him right away. They stared at each other for what seemed like an hour. She said he looked weird. He was thinner, his long hair cut short. But he could not be denied now, standing there in person. He had told her he was going to change in prison, and he told her now that he’d done it.
They moved in together. He became a father to her one-year-old son. He found a job, and then a better one, and then a union job, working construction on skyscrapers in the center of Denver. The family went to church. They took older relatives in at their new, bigger house in a nice section of Aurora. There was another child, also a boy, and a wedding timed for when he’d be done with his five years of parole. And, eventually, the demands of everyday life papered over the past. Life became about bills, chores, church, and soccer with the boys. Days and weeks passed with only the smallest reminders of the person he’d once been.
Then on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2014, he was getting ready for another day in the sky, installing glass windows in buildings high above the city. His cell buzzed. He didn’t recognize the number. The woman on the line said she was from the Denver public defender’s office. She didn’t understand it all herself, not yet. The prosecutor was saying that his release from prison five years and eight months earlier — a lifetime ago, a life he’d managed to mostly will out of his mind — had been a mistake. A clerical error. A judge just signed off on the order. He had to go back.
For the longest time, he had no words. Finally, he managed a question.
Is this even possible?
Officers came to get him that day. They let him hug his young boys one last time, and then cuffed him out of their sight. And at a hastily arranged hearing, it was all confirmed. Rene Lima-Marin’s next chance at freedom would be in 2054, when he would be 75 years old.
T he Kit Carson Correctional Center is a medium-security state prison on an empty expanse of Midwestern plain, about as far from Denver as you can get and still be in the state of Colorado. One of about 700 inmates, Lima-Marin — now 36, with broad shoulders and a head of wiry dark hair, still short — has found a few things to do that will keep him out of trouble: a business class in the mornings, a Bible-study group on Saturdays and Sundays, some chess in the common area when he feels like it. That still leaves too much time to think about what’s happened. It doesn’t help, he says, when practically everyone he sees, inmates and guards alike, seem to acknowledge that he may be one of the only guys who really doesn’t belong there.
In a swivel chair in a small interview room down the hall from his cell, Lima-Marin seems unaccustomed to confinement — still modulating his bodily movements for a life inside concrete, cutting off his arm gestures before they become too expansive. His voice is steady but also guarded, as if he knows if he tries too hard to explain himself he’ll only seem defensive. “You have numerous amounts of time to just reflect and think, ‘Why is this happening?’” he says. The one moment he tears up during my visit is when he talks about his sons — missing Thanksgiving with them, missing Christmas. “I’m constantly replaying that in my head — not being there and experiencing things with them. And watching television doesn’t help me any because everything you watch, it all points to family.” Coming back inside, to him, is most jarring because of how, despite the last five years, it all is so familiar. “Nothing really changes,” he says. What has changed, he says forcefully, is him.
The young man who went in 17 years ago was so different, he says, he even went by a different name. Lima-Marin had dropped the “Lima” and went by Michael then, a more American-sounding name than the one he’d been given in Cuba. His parents had brought him to America when he was two in 1980, during a period when Castro was letting some people leave. His father had been a welder in Cuba; in the U.S., he worked janitorial and carpentry jobs. His mother had been a nurse; she worked at a bank and sold cars. They argued often and eventually divorced. By then, Michael was 16 and had already served one term in a juvenile prison for stealing cars.
Getting the cars was easy: Smash the window, pry out the ignition slot with a hammer and screwdriver, and you’re on the road. He did it with his best friend, Michael Clifton, with whom he’d formed a sort of two-person gang. “We were like brothers,” Lima-Marin says. “We were always together.” Their friends called them the two Michaels. Clifton was almost a full head shorter than Lima-Marin, but just as audacious. “The girls loved them,” says Clifton’s older brother, Derrick. “They were definitely sharp. They definitely fed off each other.” Their thing wasn’t drugs or booze, but money. They both wanted to be players, with the right clothes, the right jewelry, the right car stereos. “It was all about girls and having things and looking nice,” Lima-Marin remembers. “And because we didn’t have the money, we wanted to get and have all these things as quickly as possible.”
Not long after Lima-Marin’s parents had split up, he took over the lease of an apartment his mother was renting, and he and Clifton made it their headquarters. It was during this time that, in 1998, Lima-Marin noticed Jasmine Chambers at the mall. She was 16, two years younger than Rene. She remembers him as a player, not to be tied down; he remembers how innocent she’d seemed. “She wasn’t really impressionable,” he says, meaning it as a compliment. “She was just kind of sweet.”
Lima-Marin and Clifton both got jobs for a short time at a Blockbuster around the corner from the apartment; Clifton even became a manager. But by then, their social schedule came with a big budget. They were regularly throwing parties in their apartment. Friends crashed there all the time. To keep it all going, they needed more money than any day job could provide. Together, they devised a plan.
They knew how their Blockbuster operated — and so, by extension, they knew how all the other Blockbusters in Denver operated, too. They knew that each location had a safe in the back, and that at least one person on duty had the combination. They knew where the surveillance equipment was, and which machine had the tapes. They knew that all employees were instructed to cooperate during a robbery, to ensure everyone’s personal safety. They thought they’d need guns, but not bullets. “We knew exactly how it would pan out, based on what we knew employees were trained to do,” Lima-Marin says. “It felt like a big step, but we worked there. It was a matter of just going in and telling him we wanted the money from the safe.” They thought they were just planning out a heist, nothing more.
T he first call to the police came at 9:16 a.m. on Sept. 13, 1998, from a Blockbuster in the center of Aurora. The manager had just arrived for work when two men smashed the window, sent him to open the safe, and left with $6,766. The suspects were wearing bandanas around their faces, one carried a long rifle. There was another witness, a man who saw the men leave in a Honda Civic, and noticed it had an out-of-state plate. Moments later, a driver on I-225 called in a reckless-driving complaint about what seemed like the same car. The caller described Arizona plates.
Later that night, it all happened again, this time at a Hollywood Video around the corner. But with another slight variation from the script. Two clerks were in the store, not just one. Lima-Marin and Clifton brought them both into a back room, forcing one onto the floor and the other to open the safe. “They put a gun to the back of my head and said, ‘This is where you’re going to die,’” one of the employees, Shane Ashurst, later recalled. The men took $3,735.
It took only a few days for police to connect the robberies to Lima-Marin and Clifton. The manager of the Blockbuster where they used to work heard that the police were looking for a Honda Civic with an Arizona plate, and she gave them Lima-Marin’s name. The police got a warrant for his apartment and car and found everything: the rifles, the surveillance tapes, the cash. For Clifton and Lima-Marin, it was over. The evidence was irrefutable.
I t was a string of robberies, but of course it wasn’t just that. In the eyes of the law, everything about the two friends’ spree was important. Every step mattered. Every movement within those stores.
Both men received two counts of first-degree burglary and three counts of aggravated robbery, for each of the three employees they made cooperate at the two stores. That surprised Lima-Marin. “They gave me three counts because of the three people,” he says, “but I didn’t rob three people. I robbed two stores.” Then came the kidnapping charges: three counts of second-degree kidnapping, because they’d forced three employees in those two robberies to move from one part of a store to another. Lima-Marin is still outraged by this. They were never going to take anyone. “The point of the robbery was to get people to give you the money,” he says.
Lima-Marin wasn’t just facing more charges than he expected, but the prosecutors were pursuing those charges with surprising zeal. Back in those days, Denver had been rocked by years of alarming homicide rates. Gangs had made inroads into the suburbs, including Montbello, where Lima-Marin’s family had lived in a housing project. The high-water mark for public alarm came during the “summer of violence” in 1993, when a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting killed a five-year-old boy and another killed a 10-month-old child on a visit to the Denver Zoo. No suburb of Denver may have done more to try to curb the influx of gang violence than Arapahoe County, the center of which was the town of Aurora, where Rene-Lima and Clifton lived.
In the mid-’90s, public alarm nationally had reached a near-frenzy over so-called super-predators, juvenile offenders so impulsive that they killed or maimed without giving much thought to the consequences. Demographers and social scientists were predicting greater crime waves to come, citing data suggesting that a small percentage of young criminals were responsible for a huge swath of violent crime. The solution, many prosecutors and police thought, was to lock them away for as long as possible until their wild years were behind them. Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, in Arapahoe County, was proudly out in front of the trend. In 1987, the county had debuted a sentencing protocol called the Chronic Offender Program, or COP, to deal with young kids predisposed to committing violent crimes. The perfect target of COP was someone who seemed, on the surface, to be a lot like Lima-Marin: a violent criminal who was young, and therefore statistically more likely to commit more crimes if allowed back on the streets.
A panel would review each case to decide whether it was right for COP. “We tried to look at the entire situation: the entire crime, the previous crimes, and other circumstances,” says John Hower, the prosecutor who handled all COP cases from 1987 to 1993. “But defense lawyers absolutely hated the program. Defendants in the jail would tell others, ‘Don’t do a burglary in Arapahoe County, because they’ll throw the book at you.’” (In the years that followed, COP fell out of use. “The defendants who created a need for the COP program weren’t around anymore,” says Rich Orman, a senior deputy district attorney who has handled some COP cases and who recently became involved in Lima-Marin’s case.)
Lima-Marin says he had been ready to plea out, but when the COP prosecutor at the time, Frank Moschetti, came with an offer of 75 years, Lima-Marin knew he couldn’t accept that deal. Under pre-COP sentencing policies, the plea offer might have been based on concurrent, not consecutive, sentencing, drastically reducing the time he’d have to spend behind bars. Lima-Marin’s only alternative was to roll the dice at trial. Maybe he’d get lucky and the judge would rule the evidence inadmissible. “They left me with no other choice but to try to figure out a way to win, if you will,” he says. “Even though I did do it.”
On Jan. 31, 2000, a jury found both Lima-Marin and Clifton guilty on all eight counts. The sentences were to be served consecutively, for a total of 98 years. Offered the chance to say something before the judge and jury, Lima-Marin was too stunned to speak. Judge John Leopold seemed to sympathize: “I am not comfortable, frankly, with the way the case is charged,” he said as the two men stood before him. “But that is a district attorney executive-branch decision that I find I have no control over.”
S o how does a sentence like this vanish? How does 98 years become 10? It didn’t make sense to Lima-Marin, and yet going against it made even less.
He remembers first learning about the possibility of life after prison shortly after arriving at the medium-security Crowley County Correctional Facility, when he received a visit from a public defender assigned to handle his appeal. “I had no clue and no idea of how none of this worked,” Lima-Marin says. As he recalls, his lawyer surprised him by telling him that she didn’t think he ought to appeal at all. The best possible scenario had unfolded, he remembers her saying: “You no longer have 98 years. What you have is 16 years.”
When he said he didn’t understand, the lawyer offered no explanation. He says she never even mentioned a clerical error. From what he could gather, she’d looked at his case file for the first time before meeting him, and when she read it, she saw that his release date was consistent with a 16-year sentence, as if his sentences were running concurrently. Since this matched the most favorable outcome he could expect from an appeal, he remembers her saying that it made no sense even to bother filing one. She handed him a sheet of paper, he signed it, and he never saw her again.
Back in his cell, Lima-Marin wondered how this was possible. Other inmates told him that if he wanted to make sure his lawyer was right, he should ask to see what everyone called his “green sheet,” the official Department of Corrections record of his sentence and parole eligibility. The green sheet was gospel, he was told; whatever was on the green sheet, the DOC would follow. Sure enough, his green sheet confirmed what his lawyer had said: 16 years.
Lima-Marin felt a rush of relief. “I felt like, I still have a chance here. To live life,” he says. His time felt provisional now — his early release was his to screw up. He got into a few fights early on, but they were over too quickly for anyone to notice. Then, about a year and a half into his time at Crowley, he met another inmate, a tall, imposing former gang member who had undergone a transformation. “He’d been an OG, and everyone knew him, but he was completely for God now,” Lima-Marin says. “I wanted to find out why.” Through his new friend, he joined a small prayer group and spent every available moment with them. They offered him independent reinforcement — it could be done; a person could change. He stopped going by “Michael” to underscore the transformation. He was Rene now.
We Are Witnesses A portrait of the U.S. immigration system in 12 short films
There may have been no more meaningful measure of how much he’d changed than the new view he took of his best friend. Michael Clifton had been sent to a harsher prison, Limon Correctional Facility, which also houses maximum-security inmates. Lima-Marin remembers writing to his friend about his shorter sentence when he first found out, and that Clifton replied with congratulations. “He was like, ‘Man, that’s good’ and all that.” But as he kept reading Clifton’s letters, he couldn’t help thinking they were on different paths. In time, the letters felt like piercing reminders of the person he no longer wanted to be.
“Everything that he wrote me about were things I didn’t want to hear about and I didn’t want to talk about,” he says. “‘I’m doing this over here and gambling over there.’ So I mentioned that to him — not in a way of forcing it — saying, ‘Listen, brother, I’m different, and I’m trying to abide by what I’m learning.’”
When Clifton “kind of blew it off,” Lima-Marin says, he stopped writing back. “I got to the point of this being a lifestyle for me — not a game, not something I do just to be doing it or on specific days. He wasn’t understanding that.”
L ima-Marin’s behavior record at Crowley was clean. In his time there, he’d evidently been a model inmate — an embodiment, some say a rare one, of the system’s ability to rehabilitate career criminals. He was granted parole in April 2008, six years before the end of his 16-year sentence. Just a few days after arriving at his father’s place in Aurora, he sent a MySpace message to Jasmine. They moved in together almost immediately.
He was 29. His entire adult life up to that point had been spent in prison; now he had no money, no job, and no professional qualifications. Jasmine supported him while he got back on his feet. He sold coupon books door-to-door, then worked in a phone bank selling DISH Network subscriptions, and then became the phone bank’s supervisor. Even so, he wasn’t happy. He was starting to feel the same impatience he’d had as a teenager. “I wanted to have more,” he says. “It was somewhat the attitude I had before, but twisted. It was I’m not satisfied with what I have, and I’m going to get it the right way.”
It had never occurred to him that changing might be harder on the outside than it had been in prison. It was easy to replace old worries with new ones. There was the lack of simplicity and structure to life outside. “There are a lot fewer temptations in prison,” he says. “You study every day. You don’t have to put food on the table, everything is provided for you.” In the real world, he ministered to young people at group homes, and he recorded some rap gospel music with his friends (I’ve been selected and tested to overcome this oppression / Of sin and bondage that’s trying to hold me down but I’m pressing / It’s God's protection that brought me through these times of depression / ’Cause through the spirit they can hear it ’cause it won’t be neglected). But he had distractions, responsibilities. Weekly trips to church became erratic. “It was me just being me, I guess.”
But soon, his life gained a new shape. He married Jasmine. He worked to become vested in his union. “I remember talking to a friend. I said, ‘Look at where I am. I was in prison for the rest of my life. Now I have two boys, we both have nice jobs, we both have cars.’ I was kind of proud of what I had accomplished.”
There was only one outstanding reminder of the past, one he did his best to ignore. One day, Lima-Marin ran into Clifton’s brother, Derrick, at the Aurora mall. “I almost wanted to hide,” he says. “I thought, ‘Should I turn, do I not want him to see me?’ But I didn’t. I just walked up to him. He never mentioned his brother.”
Derrick Clifton remembers this, too. “It was like I’d seen a ghost. ‘No way, this is Michael Marin standing right in front of me?’ And then all kinds of stuff starts to go through your head. Like ‘How is he out?’ And ‘This don’t make sense.’ And ‘Where is my brother?’ And ‘What’s going on?’”
“I ’m in a tight situation,” Michael Clifton says over the phone one evening from Sterling Correctional Facility in central Colorado. He still calls his onetime friend by his old name, Michael Marin. “We did everything together. We called each other brothers,” he says. “We used to like to dress where we’d coordinate our clothes. Our thing was females. We’d always just hang out and shop, whether it was legal or illegal, for our clothes and jewelry.”
Their lives, of course, had diverged behind bars. Where Lima-Marin had a clean record, Clifton stabbed another inmate, and was punished for it with time at the Colorado State Penitentiary, a Level V maximum-security prison. And while Lima-Marin found religion, Clifton joined the Bloods — as sort of an adjunct, non-active member, he insists. Even now, Clifton is housed at Sterling, “the deadliest prison in Colorado,” he notes, with six reported homicides since 2010.
Clifton has been looking forward to speaking up about his old friend’s case, because from the first time he heard about the change in Lima-Marin’s sentence, he’d thought Lima-Marin’s good news might translate into his own. “We were both given excessive sentences,” he says.
He says he’d known about Lima-Marin’s suddenly shorter sentence for years and never told anyone about it. But he has a different recollection of when Lima-Marin learned the news. According to Clifton, it happened just after their conviction, at the Denver Reception & Diagnostic Center. “When I came back from seeing my case manager, I got to talk to him [in the hallway] before we went back to our pods,” he says. “I was shocked. But he showed me the actual paper, and his PED” — parole eligibility date — “was, I think, 2014. My PED at that time was 2046.”
He offered right away not to mention the mistake before Lima-Marin was safely out and through his parole. This was no small thing: It meant that Clifton couldn’t note the discrepancy in his appeal attempt. “I wasn’t going to bring it up,” he says.
According to Clifton, Lima-Marin didn’t seem to care about anything Clifton was saying about covering for him. He was more focused on the deeper meaning of what had happened. “He said, ‘Man, I’m going to change my life. I’m going to do a complete change, man. I’m gonna give my life to God.’” Only now, perhaps, does Clifton understand how serious Lima-Marin must have been about that. “When you look at that error or mistake,” he says, “you do think that you’re getting a second chance.”
Clifton remembers how their friendship faded much the same way that Lima-Marin does: Lima-Marin’s objections to his coarse language and subject matter of his letters; their correspondence falling off gradually. There’s only one bitter note in Clifton’s version, a passive-aggressive moment after they’d broken off contact, when he was in 23-hour lockdown, that he sent Lima-Marin a letter, but left it completely blank.
R ich Orman, in the Arapahoe County prosecutor’s office, received an email at 7:44 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2014, from a magistrate judge who years earlier had been the prosecutor who had secured the convictions against Lima-Marin and Clifton. The subject line was “A question out of the blue.”
Rich, I was just checking the DOC inmate website, and there is a person I prosecuted under the COP program who is not there. His co-defendant, Michael Clifton, is there (with an initial parole eligibility date some 30 years away)…. I am hoping somehow I just may have missed something, but I fear that somehow he might have been mistakenly released early or something. Would you mind checking into the situation? Thanks, Frank Moschetti
Orman called the DOC at once. He learned not only that Lima-Marin was free, but that he’d been out more than five years, completing his parole. He checked the state court’s computer system and noticed a strange phrase tacked on to each of Lima-Marin’s eight convictions: “No Consecutive/Concurrent Sentences.” Orman wondered if someone else might have been as confused by that phrase as he was, and decided that his sentences were concurrent.
Orman notified the judge of the error in a memo by 12:30 p.m., and had the judge’s order in hand two hours later. Lima-Marin was arrested that night, and the hearing that sent him back to jail took place the following day. “People talk about inefficiency in government?” Orman says, smiling. “This was very quick.”
One reason for the speed may have been that officials were still reeling from another case of an inmate’s accidental release. In January 2013, a 28-year-old prisoner from Colorado named Evan Ebel had been released four years early. A clerk had mistakenly written in his file that the sentence was to be served concurrently. Two months later, Ebel killed two men, including the Colorado prisons chief, Tom Clements. The case had sparked an audit of other cases; even so, Lima-Marin’s case reportedly did not come up in that audit, escaping scrutiny until Moschetti noticed it several months later.
The Ebel and Lima-Marin cases are not the only ones with clerical glitches. In April 2014, a California murder suspect named Johnny Mata was released when the court clerk failed to enter an order to keep him in custody; he fled to Mexico, where he was captured. In a string of Nebraska cases last year, at least 200 prisoners were released as a result of a flawed computer formula used to calculate sentences. The Denver Sheriff Department reported five erroneous releases from its Downtown Detention Center during a 10-month span in 2014; at least one of those was blamed on an inaccurate court order. And in another case, a Missouri man named Cornealious Anderson was sentenced to 13 years for armed robbery in 2000 but never received information on when and where to report to prison. He started a business, got married, had kids, and volunteered at his church before the error was caught on July 25, 2013, just as his original sentence was supposed to end. Anderson was sent to prison to serve out his sentence but was released on May 5, 2014, the judge calling him a changed man.
Last March, Lima-Marin’s new public defender, Marnie Adams, filed a motion with the court arguing that Lima-Marin no longer deserved or needed prison, and that to send him back amounted to cruel and unusual punishment — and that he had “a legitimate expectation of the finality” of his prison sentence when they let him out in 2008. His life outside prison proved he’d changed: “Now, Mr. Lima-Marin is a committed family man who inspires others with his love and dedication to his family.”
In a lengthy reply on behalf of the state, Rich Orman described Lima-Marin’s five years and eight months of accidental freedom as a great stroke of luck: How many other inmates would have jumped at the chance for a half-decade furlough? The fact that Lima-Marin lived like a model citizen for five years, Orman argued, should have no bearing. “Plainly said,” Orman wrote in his reply, “the Defendant had no business getting married and starting a family.”
On April 21, Judge William Sylvester sided with Orman, ruling against Lima-Marin’s motion to be released. The judge cited a ruling from White v. Pearlman, a 1930 case in which a clerical error released an inmate two years early, that there could be “no doubt of the power of the government to recommit a prisoner who is released or discharged by mistake.” He went a step further to say that Lima-Marin “could not have had a legitimate expectation of finality in his original sentence when he was mistakenly released early, based on a clerical error.” Lima-Marin hired an appeals lawyer, Patrick Megaro, who had represented Cornealious Anderson in Missouri. To Megaro, the main question of Lima-Marin’s case is not whether he knew about the clerical error and should have brought it to the state’s attention; it’s whether he should be punished for the state’s mistake at all. “To conclude [Lima-Marin] should have insisted that he was being wrongfully released from prison ignores reality,” Megaro argued in an August motion. “No rational individual would question the motives or correctness of his jailers and insist that they remain in prison for the rest of their life.” Megaro has asked to appear before the court to contest the matter in oral arguments. A hearing date has yet to be set.
L ima-Marin understands the strangeness of his life — that the same clerical error that brought him out of jail may have saved him. Without that error, he thinks, his time in prison may have been like Michael Clifton’s, turbulent and violent. Without that error, he might never have built a family at all. Without that error, he sometimes wonders, who would he be? “Some people might think this is extreme,” he says. “But I feel to a certain degree, that some of this is about to me.”
His family is caught up in this now. Back in Aurora, Jasmine and a group of clergymen are lobbying the governor to grant her husband clemency. They have not heard anything yet. She is raising an eight-year-old and a four-year-old by herself. She tells them that she doesn’t know when their father will come home. The younger boy, Josiah, or Jo-Jo, has been acting out, doing a lot of baby talk. Jasmine and the boys can afford to drive out to see Lima-Marin once a month. He and Jasmine talk on the phone every night. They weren’t going to church so often before he went back to prison. But she’s been going weekly ever since, with the kids. The pastor has been telling Jasmine that what is happening to her and Lima-Marin is a test. She is inclined to agree. So is he.
Our visit is coming to an end. After we talk, Lima-Marin will return to his cell and resume his old prison life, for how long he doesn’t know. He seems restless now, speaking more urgently, trying harder to get across what he thinks is really happening to him and what should happen. On one level, he believes he is reformed and that he’s proven he no longer poses a risk to society — that he’s a new man serving an old sentence. “What’s happened to me, it’s obvious to me, is wrong,” he says. He often says he’s being punished for the same crime twice. That’s why he thinks he’s being subjected to a second glitch.
Lima-Marin’s life, after all, has comprised a series of reversals, each of them drastic: from a life sentence to freedom; from ex-convict to faithful father; from selfishness to religious fervor. And now, every inch of progress has been ripped away. There has to be a reason.
He searches for it in memories: skipping church every now and then to coach soccer. Ministering with his music, but not face to face. “I’d come home and I’m tired. And then you have the bills. There’s so much going on. I’m not putting forth all of the effort that I’m supposed to be into the word, into study, into prayer. I pushed the Lord to the side, and it became about life.”
He looks up, pausing, worried he’s said too much, struggling to find the right words. And then he does. “Jonah ran from what God wanted him to do,” he says. “So he had to be placed in a position to be able to hear from God.” |
About the author
(NewsTarget) The new Monsanto has clearly come to dominate the American food chain with its genetically modified (GM) seeds. It's a master at enforcing its 674 biotechnology patents, using tyrannical and ruthless tactics against small farmers. This new Monsanto has also moved into the production of milk with it artificial growth hormones, seeking to dominate the dairy industry as effectively as it has the seed business. Has this new corporate image made us forget about the old Monsanto's decades long history of scorched earth and toxic contamination?An article in the May, 2008 edition ofchronicles the history of Monsanto from its beginnings to its efforts to shed itself of the image of toxic environmental and human threat.Monsanto was founded in 1901 by John Francis Queeny who had an idea to make money manufacturing saccharin, an artificial sweetener then imported from Germany. He called his company Monsanto Chemical Works. The German cartel then controlling the market for saccharin tried to force Queeny out of business, but his persistence and the loyalty of one steady customer, Coca-Cola, kept the company going. Vanillin, caffeine, sedative drugs, laxatives and aspirin had been added to the arsenal of products when supplies were cut off from Europe during World War I, forcing Monsanto to manufacture its own, and positioning it as a leading force in the American chemical industry.In the 1920's, Queeny's son took over and built Monsanto into a global powerhouse, extending into the production of an astounding array of plastic, rubber and vinyl goods, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.In the 1970's Monsanto moved into biotechnology. By 1982 it had become the first to genetically modify a plant cell, making it possible to introduce virtually any gene into plant cells to improve crop productivity. According to Vanity Fair writers Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Monsanto sought to portray GM seeds as a panacea for alleviating poverty and feeding the hungry.During the late 1990's, Monsanto spun off its chemical and fibers businesses into a new company called Solutia. It then reincorporated itself and emerged as an agricultural company.Company literature refers to Monsanto as a "relatively new company" with the primary goal of helping "farmers around the world in their mission to feed, clothe and fuel" the planet. The listed corporate milestones are from the recent era. There is no mention of the old Monsanto's potential responsibility for more than 50 Environmental Protection Agency Superfund sites. And it does not mention that the reason for the formation of Solutia was to channel the bulk of the mounting chemical lawsuits and liabilities into the spun off company, keeping the new Monsanto name tarnish-free.But keeping the new corporate image polished may be a tough task. For many years Monsanto produced two of the most toxic substances ever known - polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin. Several court proceedings regarding these substances remain unresolved.In the town of Nitro, West Virginia, Monsanto operated a chemical plant from 1929 to 1995, making an herbicide that had dioxin as a by-product. The name dioxin refers to a group of highly toxic chemicals that have been linked to heart and liver disease, human reproductive disorders, and developmental problems. Dioxin persists in the environment and accumulates in the body, even in small amounts. In 2001, the U.S. government listed dioxin as a "known human carcinogen".In 1949, at the Nitro plant, a pressure valve blew on a container of this herbicide, producing a plume of vapor and white smoke that drifted out over the town. Residue coated the interior of buildings and those inside them with a fine black powder. Within days, workers experienced skin eruptions, and many were diagnosed with chloracne, a long lasting and disfiguring condition. Others felt intense pains in their chest, legs and trunk. A medical report from the time said the explosion "caused a systemic intoxication in the workers involving most major organ systems." Doctors detected a strong odor coming from the patients they described as men "excreting a foreign chemical through their skins".Monsanto downplayed the incident, saying that the contaminant was "fairly slow acting" and only an irritant to the skin.Meanwhile, the Nitro plant continued to produce herbicides, In the 1960's it manufactured Agent Orange, the powerful herbicide used by the U.S. military to defoliate jungles during the Vietnam War, and which became the focus of lawsuits by veterans contending they had been harmed by exposure to the chemical. Agent Orange also created dioxin as a by-product.At the Nitro plant, dioxin waste went into landfills, storm drains, streams, sewers, into bags with the herbicide, and then the waste was burned out into the air. Dioxin from the plant can still be found in nearby streams, rivers, and fish. Residents have sued Monsanto and Solutia for damages, but Monsanto claims "the allegations are without merit" and promises to vigorously defend itself. The suit may drag on for years. Monsanto has the resources to wait; plaintiffs usually don't.From 1929 to 1971, the Anniston, Alabama plant produced PCBs as industrial coolants and insulating fluids for transformers and other electrical equipment. PCBs became central to American industries as lubricants, hydraulic fluids, and sealants. PCBs are highly toxic members of a family of chemicals that mimic hormones, and have been linked to damage in the liver and nervous system, as well as immune, endocrine and reproductive disorders. The Environmental Protective Agency (EPA), and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of Health and Human Services, classify PCBs as "probably carcinogens".Today, after tons of contaminated soil have been removed in an effort to reclaim the Anniston site, the area around the old Monsanto plant continues to be one of the most polluted spots in the U.S. While the plant was in production, excess PCBs were dumped in a nearby open-pit landfill or allowed to flow off the property with storm water. Some were poured directly into a creek running alongside the plant and emptying into a larger stream. PCBs are contained in private lawns fertilized with soil from the plant.The people of Anniston have breathed air, planted gardens, drunk from wells, fished in rivers, and swum in creeks contaminated with PCBs without knowing the danger. As public awareness grew in the 1990's, health authorities found elevated levels of PCBs in houses, yards, streams, fields, fish - and people. The cleanup is now underway, and will take years, but once PCB is absorbed into human tissue, it is there forever.Monsanto closed its PBC plant in Wales in 1977. In recent years, residents of Groesfaen, in southern Wales, have noticed vile odors emanating from an old quarry outside their village. As it turns out, Monsanto dumped thousands of tons of waste from its nearby PCB plant into the quarry. British authorities have identified the site as one of the most contaminated places in Britain.What did Monsanto know about the potential dangers of the chemicals it manufactured? Information from court records indicates Monsanto knew quite a lot. The evidence that Monsanto refused to face questions about the toxicity of PBCs is clear.In 1956, the company tried to sell its PCB containing hydraulic fluid, Pydraul 150, to the navy. Monsanto supplied the navy with test results from the product, but the navy decided to do its own testing. As a result, navy officials informed Monsanto that they would not buy the product, saying that "application of Pydraul 150 caused death in all of the rabbits tested" and indicated "definite liver damage". According to an internal Monsanto memo divulged during a court proceeding, "no matter how we discussed the situation, it was impossible to change their thinking that Pydraul 150 is just too toxic for use in submarines", stated Monsanto's medical director.In 1966, a biologist conducting studies for Monsanto in streams near the Anniston plant submerged test fish. He reported to Monsanto that, "All 25 fish lost equilibrium and turned on their sides in 10 seconds and all were dead in 3 ½ minutes."The company swung into action to limit the PR damage when the Food and Drug Administration found high levels of PCBs in fish near the Anniston plant in 1970. An internal memo entitled "Confidential - F.Y.I. and Destroy" from a Monsanto official, reviewed steps to limit disclosure of the information. One aspect of the strategy was to get public officials to fight Monsanto's battle: "Joe Crockett, Secretary of the Alabama Water Improvement Commission will try to handle the problem quietly without release of the information to the public at this time," according to the memo.The plant manager of Monsanto's Anniston site "convinced" a reporter for The Anniston Star that there was nothing to worry about. An internal memo from Monsanto's headquarters in St. Louis, summarized the story that subsequently appeared in the newspaper: "Quoting both plant management and the Alabama Water Improvement Commissions, the feature emphasized the PCB problem was relatively new, was being solved by Monsanto and, at this point, was no cause for public alarm."The real truth is that there was huge cause for public alarm for the harm done to the public by Monsanto. But that was the old Monsanto, not today's shiny new Monsanto. Today's Monsanto says it can be trusted - that its biotech crops are "as wholesome, nutritious and safe as conventional crop", and that the milk produced from cows injected with its artificial growth hormones is identical to the milk from untreated cows.Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural. |
Jo Ann Gibson Robinson (April 17, 1912 – August 29, 1992) was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement and educator in Montgomery, Alabama.
Life [ edit ]
Born Jo Ann Gibson,[1] near Culloden, Georgia on April 17, 1912,[2] she was the youngest of twelve children.[3] Her parents were Owen Boston and Dollie Webb Gibson who had owned a farm.[1] She attended Fort Valley State College and then became a public school teacher in Macon, where she was married to Wilbur Robinson for a short time. Five years later, she went to Atlanta, where she earned an M.A. in English at Atlanta University. After teaching in Texas she then accepted a position at Alabama State College in Montgomery.[4]:9 It was there she joined the Women's Political Council, which Mary Fair Burks had founded three years earlier. In part the WPC was an organization dedicated to increasing voter registration in the African American community.[1] In 1949, Robinson was verbally attacked by a bus driver for sitting in the front "Whites only" section of the bus. Her response to the incident was to attempt to start a protest boycott. However, when she approached her fellow members of the Women's Political Council with her story and proposal, she was told that it was "a fact of life in Montgomery." In late 1950, she succeeded Burks as president of the WPC and helped focus the group's efforts on bus abuses. Robinson was an outspoken critic of the treatment of African-Americans on public transportation. She was also active in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
The Women's Political Council had made complaints about the bus seating to the Montgomery City Commission and about abusive drivers, and achieved some concessions, including an undertaking that drivers would be courteous and having buses stopping at every corner in black neighborhoods, as they did in white areas.[4]:12
After Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), Robinson had informed the mayor of the city that a boycott would come, and then after Rosa Parks' arrest, they seized the moment to plan the Montgomery bus boycott.[5]
On Thursday, December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to move from her seat in the black area of the bus she was traveling on to make way for a white passenger who was standing.[4]:27 Mrs. Parks, a civil rights organizer, had intended to instigate a reaction from white citizens and authorities. That night, with Mrs. Parks' permission, Mrs. Robinson stayed up mimeographing 52,500 handbills calling for a boycott of the Montgomery bus system.[4]:34 The boycott was initially planned to be for just the following Monday. She passed out the leaflets at a Friday afternoon meeting of AME Zionist clergy, among other places, and Reverend L. Roy Bennett requested other ministers attend a meeting that Friday night and to urge their congregations to take part in the boycott. Robinson, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, two of her senior students and other Women's Council members then passed out the handbills to high school students leaving school that afternoon.[4]:34
After the success of the one-day boycott, black citizens decided to continue the boycott and established the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus their efforts. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was elected president. Jo Ann Robinson never became a member of this group. She had declined an official position to the Montgomery Improvement Association because of her teaching position at Alabama State.[5] She served on its executive board and edited their newsletter. In order to protect her position at Alabama State College and to protect her colleagues, Robinson purposely stayed out of the limelight even though she worked diligently with the MIA. Robinson and other WPC members also helped sustain the boycott by providing transportation for boycotters.
Robinson was the target of several acts of intimidation. In February 1956, a local police officer threw a stone through the window of her house. Then two weeks later, another police officer poured acid on her car. Then, the governor of Alabama ordered the state police to guard the houses of the boycott leaders.[5] The boycott lasted over a year because the bus company would not give in to the demands of the protesters. After a student sit-in in early 1960, Robinson and other teachers who had supported the students resigned their positions at Alabama State College.[5] Robinson left Alabama State College and moved out of Montgomery that year.[6] She taught at Grambling College in Louisiana for one year then moved to Los Angeles and taught English in the public school system. In Los Angeles, she continued to be active in local women's organizations. She taught in the LA schools until she retired from teaching in 1976. Jo Ann Robinson was also a part of the bus boycott, and was strongly against discrimination.
Robinson's memoir, The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, edited by David J. Garrow, was published in 1987 by the University of Tennessee Press.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Abernathy Ralph David (1989), And The Walls Came Tumbling Down, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York page 138 ISBN 0-06-016192-2
Bibliography [ edit ] |
Leno vs. Conan vs. NBC The War is On
Leno vs. Conan vs. NBC -- The War is On
andare at war ... each accusing the other of bad, bad behavior.Sources connected to Conan O'Brien tell TMZ NBC honchohas been "nasty, arrogant and threatening" in negotiating Conan's out. The Conan people are outraged, saying the blame for the/'ConanO'Brien/"Tonight Show" debacle falls squarely at Zucker's doorstep.
An NBC spokesperson tells TMZ, as for claims Zucker has been nasty, arrogant and threatening, "There is absolutely no truth to that. It is easy to make false statements under the cloak of anonymity."We're told Conan is so pissed off at NBC, he told the network he was leaving even though he still doesn't have a place to go -- at least not yet. Sources saystill has not made an offer.An NBC source connected to the negotiations tells TMZ Conan "has acted like a baby" since the network announced the changes. The source claims NBC made $25 mil in profits off "" the last full calendar year Leno hosted. The source says the projected loss for 2010 had Conan stayed put was $3 - 5 million. So NBC says it's simple math.We're told the NBC/Conan deal still isn't finalized. |
Fremantle key defender Zac Dawson has suffered another setback after fracturing his thumb in the WAFL on Saturday.
Dawson played his first game for the year for Peel Thunder last Saturday after battling groin issues throughout the summer and the early part of the season.
But he injured his thumb early in Peel's 71-point loss to Claremont and Fremantle coach Ross Lyon told 6PR on Monday night Dawson requires surgery that will sideline him for a few weeks.
WAFL Watch player stats: Saturday 30 May
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"He's broken his thumb," Lyon said.
"So he'll need a bit of a pin put in."
Despite Fremantle's relatively small injury list they are a bit light on for key defenders with Alex Silvagni still seven to nine weeks away from returning after hamstring surgery.
Lyon also revealed that defender Lee Spurr suffered a heavy cork in the Freo Dockers' win over Adelaide last Saturday night. Fremantle have a six-day turnaround before hosting Richmond at Domain Stadium on Friday night.
Match report: Freo's toughest test
"Spurr is a bit sore," Lyon said.
"He had that badly corked leg. We're hopeful he'll come up.
"It's more than likely we'll be unchanged but we've got to get through the week."
Lyon also said Anthony Morabito is facing an uphill battle to play any football this year as he waits for bone bruising to settle in his knee.
"Anthony and I had lunch last Friday just to check in," Lyon said.
"He's got bone bruising.
"Julian Feller is the surgeon in Melbourne and he's consulting with guys from London, Melbourne and the Perth surgeons here. He just needs some more time for the bone bruising to settle. He's boxing and riding and once it settles he'll start running but he'll be at a disadvantage for the rest of the year obviously."
Morabito has not trained this year after signing a one-year contract at the end of last year. He played three games for Fremantle last season after three successive knee reconstructions kept him out of the AFL for three years. |
GoDaddy is in big trouble and they know it. MLG Gaming issued a statement recently and said that they are dropping over 100 domains from GoDaddy and switching to Namecheap.
Now, 100 domains may not be much, since over 45 million domains are under GoDaddy, but it’s nice to see people stand up for their rights against the SOPA bill, which threatens to affect many people who make a livelihood from the internet.
This is what they said:
MLG would like to officially announce that we have removed our entire network, which encompasses over 100 domains, from GoDaddy.com in response to their support of SOPA. Moving forward, we will be using Namecheap for all of our hosting needs.
MLG is firmly against both the specifics of SOPA and the philosophy behind the bill. We urge all of you to read up on the issue and draw your own conclusions.
If more people stand up and spread the word, the impact will be big enough for GoDaddy and others to feel the heat. They recently said that they aren’t supporting the SOPA anymore, but it’s too late for backtracking it seems.
What can GoDaddy do now? Tell us in the comments section below. |
My SS had sent my gift from several different places and I didn't want to post until the last piece had arrived. Which it did... TODAY! Luckily my SS wrote to tell me I would be receiving 3 different items, but the "biggest" one was coming from Singapore.
Several weeks ago I received my first gift: a Gallifreyan name tag. I'm keeping it sealed because I don't want it destroyed (especially by the hands of my 4 year old). The next gift was a roll of gunmetal chain with a little baggie of clasps. Oooooh. Kaaaay. FINALLY the main piece arrived and I eagerly open it up to find my very own TARDIS keys. YES YES YES!!! I feel so honored.
What I loved most was that my SS is from the Netherlands and the 3 gifts came from Georgia (US), Singapore and Canada.
Anyway, thank you SS! The wait was well worth it.
Cheers. |
OAKLAND — More than a hundred people gathered Friday evening on Lakeshore Avenue at the site of where police shot and killed 30-year-old Demouria Hogg.
The vigil organized by the Anti Police-Terror Project drew family, friends and supporters to the busy shopping district along Lakeshore Avenue at Lake Park Avenue for a peaceful protest.
Organizers took over the intersection at 6:30 p.m. and traffic on Lakeshore Avenue came to standstill and the Interstate 580 westbound off-ramp was backed up as protesters locked arms around a makeshift replica of the vehicle Hogg was found sleeping in.
Once attendees took the street, they had a moment of silence for Hogg. Activists planned on blocking the intersection until sundown.
“This is where they murdered him, this is the street we’ll hold,” said activist Cat Brooks.
Attendees heard from Hogg’s family and relatives of other people killed in officer-involved shootings.
They’re demanding that police release any footage that captured the shooting and police or coroners reports. Relatives also remand that an independent investigator be brought in to investigate the fatal shooting.
“It’s disturbing someone could be asleep in their car, and the only action officers can take is to kill (somebody),” said Brianna Gibson, 23, of Oakland, with the Oakland Chapter of Black Youth Project.
As the street takeover began, organizers worked as traffic control to direct drivers on the off-ramp to turn right and not left toward Lakeshore Avenue. Oakland Police directed motorists from I-580 to take Wesley Avenue soon after. About a dozen officers were on standby near the vigil.
There were no arrests as of 7:30 p.m.
Hogg, a father of three, was killed June 6 after a standoff with police. City firefighters called police to the area about 7:30 a.m. after seeing Hogg passed out behind the wheel of a BMW, with a loaded handgun sitting on the passenger seat, police said.
Over the next hour, police tried to wake Hogg by using a loudspeaker, breaking out the car’s windows, and ordering him to surrender. When police approached the car to apprehend him, a female officer shot him twice, authorities have said. He was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital.
An attorney for the officer said she fired because Hogg reached for the pistol next to him. The police department has not identified the officer, who has been with the department for a little more than a year.
Hogg’s family and family friend and activist Brooks have questioned the shooting, and called for police to release more information. Hogg was recently living in Hayward but has ties to Oakland.
His family said he wasn’t a violent person and carried a gun for protection. He has been wanted since April on a parole violation and has served five years in prison after his conviction for drug possession and being an accessory to a felony, records show.
Staff writer Katrina Cameron contributed to this report. David DeBolt covers breaking news. Contact him at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt. |
The release of Supreme’s MetroCard is causing all kinds of havoc in the MTA. Fans have been flooding the Big Apple’s subway stations in hopes of obtaining one from the ticket machines, though some without much success. Earlier today the New York City MTA tweeted the locations where the collaborative card would be sold, including larger stops like Times Square and Broadway Lafayette. It was originally thought the card was only available for purchase by picking up a $75 USD MetroCard, but the MTA has since released a statement revealing the card can be purchased for any amount. Check out some of the clips below.
When a metro card is the only Supreme you can afford A post shared by Process (@processhsk) on Feb 20, 2017 at 5:25pm PST |
MARRIAGE
KEY FINDING: Marriage trends in recent decades indicate that Americans have become less likely to marry, and the most recent data show that the marriage rate in the United States continues to decline. Of those who do marry, there has been a moderate drop since the 1970s in the percentage of couples who consider their marriages to be “very happy,” but in the past two decades this trend has flattened out.
Americans have become less likely to marry. This is reflected in a decline of more than 50 percent, from 1970 to 2010, in the annual number of marriages per 1,000 unmarried adult women (Figure 1). In real terms, the total number of marriages fell from 2.45 million in 1990 to 2.11 million in 2010. Much of this decline—it is not clear just how much—results from the delaying of first marriages until older ages: the median age at first marriage went from 20.3 for females and 22.8 for males in 1960 to 26.5 and 28.7, respectively, in 2011. Other factors accounting for the decline are the growth of unmarried cohabitation and a small decrease in the tendency of divorced persons to remarry. Finally, U.S. Census data indicate that the retreat from marriage has accelerated in the wake of the Great Recession.
The decline also reflects some increase in lifelong singlehood, though the actual amount cannot be known until current young and middle-aged adults pass through the life course.
Figure 1. MARRIAGES PER 1,000 UNMARRIED WOMEN AGE 15 AND OLDER AND TOTAL MARRIAGES, BY YEAR, UNITED STATES NOTE: We have used the number of new marriages per 1,000 unmarried women age 15 and older, rather than the Crude Marriage Rate of marriages per 1,000 population, to help avoid the problem of compositional changes in the population, that is, changes that stem merely from there being more or less people in the marriageable ages. Even this more refined measure is somewhat susceptible to compositional changes. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2001, Table 117; Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1986, Table 124; and American Community Survey, 2010, Tables S-1201 and S-1251; available online at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml.
The percentage of adults in the population who are currently married has also diminished. Since 1960, the decline of those married among all persons age 15 and older has been more than 16 percentage points—and approximately 31 points among black females (Figure 2). It should be noted that these data include people who have never married, those who have married and then divorced, and widows or widowers.
Figure 2. PERCENTAGE OF ALL PERSONS AGE 15 AND OLDER WHO WERE MARRIED, BY SEX AND RACE, 1960–2011, UNITED STATES NOTE: Percentages of total males and total females include races other than black and white. In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau expanded its racial categories to permit respondents to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. This means that racial data computations beginning in 2004 may not be strictly comparable to those of prior years. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table A1, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
In order partially to control for a decline in married adults due solely to delayed first marriages, we have looked at changes in the percentage of persons age 35 through 44 who were married (Figure 3). Since 1960, there has been a drop of more than 23 percentage points for married men and 22 points for married women.
Figure 3. PERCENTAGE OF PERSONS AGE 35–44 WHO WERE MARRIED BY SEX, 1960–2011, UNITED STATES NOTE: The number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 2,000—except for 1977–1981, 1998–2002, and 2004–2008, with about 1,500 respondents for each sex. SOURCE: “The General Social Survey,” conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago.
Marriage trends in the age range of 35 to 44 are suggestive of lifelong singlehood. In the past and still today, virtually all persons who were going to marry during their lifetimes had married by age 45. More than 90 percent of women have eventually married in every generation for which records exist, going back to the mid-1800s. By 1960, 94 percent of women then living had been married at least once by age 45—probably a historical high point. For the generation of 1995, assuming a continuation of then-current marriage rates, several demographers projected that 88 percent of women and 82 percent of men would ever marry. Now, given recent declines in the marriage rate, the percentage of women and men ever marrying is likely lower.
The decline in marriage does not mean that people are giving up on living together with a sexual partner. On the contrary, with the incidence of unmarried cohabitation increasing rapidly, marriage is giving ground to unwed unions. Most people now live together before they marry for the first time. An even higher percentage of divorced persons who subsequently remarry live together first. And a growing number of persons, both young and old, are living together with no plans to marry eventually.
There is a common belief that, although a smaller percentage of Americans are marrying than was the case a few decades ago, those who now marry have marriages of higher quality. It seems reasonable to surmise that if divorce removes poor marriages from the pool of married couples and cohabitation “trial marriages” deter some bad marriages from forming, the remaining marriages should, on average, be happier. The best available evidence on the topic, however, does not support these assumptions. Since 1973, the General Social Survey periodically has asked representative samples of married Americans to rate their marriages as either “very happy,” “pretty happy,” or “not too happy.” As Figure 4 indicates, the percentage of both men and women responding “very happy” has declined moderately over the past forty years. This trend, however, has essentially flattened out over the last two decades.
Figure 4. PERCENTAGE OF MARRIED PERSONS AGE 18 AND OLDER WHO SAID THEIR MARRIAGES WERE “VERY HAPPY,” BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: The number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 2,000—except for 1977–1981, 1998–2002, and 2004–2008, with about 1,500 respondents for each sex. SOURCE: “The General Social Survey,” conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago.
DIVORCE
KEY FINDING: The American divorce rate today is about twice that of 1960, but has declined since hitting its highest point in our history in the early 1980s. For the average couple marrying for the first time in recent years, the lifetime probability of divorce or separation now falls between 40 and 50 percent.
The increase in divorce, shown by the trend reported in Figure 5, has probably elicited more concern and discussion than any other family-related trend in the United States. Although the long-term trend in divorce has been upward since colonial times, the divorce rate was level for about two decades after World War II, during the period of high fertility known as the baby boom. By the middle of the 1960s, however, the incidence of divorce started to increase and it more than doubled over the next fifteen years to reach a historical high point in the early 1980s.
Figure 5. NUMBER OF DIVORCES PER 1,000 MARRIED WOMEN AGE 15 AND OLDER, BY YEAR, UNITED STATES NOTE: We have used the number of divorces per 1,000 married women age 15 and older rather than the Crude Divorce Rate of divorces per 1,000 population to help avoid the problem of compositional changes in the population. Even this more refined measure is somewhat susceptible to compositional changes. Calculations for this table up to 2000 are based on National Center for Health Statistics data for the United States, less California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, and Minnesota. The 2011 estimate is based on nationally representative data from the American Community Survey that does not exclude these six states. Thus, the 2011 estimate is not strictly comparable to estimates from earlier years. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2001, Table 117; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data,” 2000, in National Vital Statistics Report 49; and U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2011, Tables S-1201 and S-1251.
Since then, the divorce rate has modestly declined. The decline apparently represents a slight increase in marital stability. Two probable reasons for this are an increase in the age at which people marry for the first time, and that marriage is progressively becoming the preserve of the well-educated. Both of these factors are associated with greater marital stability. (Note: The observed increase in divorce rates from 2000 to 2011 could be a true increase back to the divorce rates of 1990. However, this trend could also be explained at least in part by a change in how the U.S. gathers divorce data.)
Although a majority of divorced persons eventually remarry, the growth of divorce, and declines in remarriage, have led to a steep increase in the percentage of all adults who are currently divorced (Figure 6). This percentage, which was only 1.8 percent for males and 2.6 percent for females in 1960, had quadrupled by the year 2000. The percentage of divorced persons is higher for females than for males primarily because divorced men are more likely to remarry than divorced women. Also, among those who do remarry, men generally do so sooner than women.
Figure 6. PERCENTAGE OF ALL PERSONS AGE 15 AND OLDER WHO WERE DIVORCED, BY SEX AND RACE, 1960–2011, UNITED STATES NOTE: In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau expanded its racial categories to permit respondents to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. This means that racial data computations beginning in 2004 may not be strictly comparable to those of prior years. “Divorced” indicates family status at the time of survey. Divorced respondants who later marry are counted as “married.” SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table A1 and earlier similar reports, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
When it comes to cultural attitudes, Figure 7 indicates that the public has become rather more accepting of divorce in recent years, after turning against divorce somewhat in the 1980s and 1990s. This is a sobering development, insofar as more permissive divorce attitudes are associated with lower-quality and more unstable marriages.
Figure 7. PERCENTAGE OF INDIVIDUALS AGE 18–45 WHO SAID THAT DIVORCE LAWS SHOULD BE CHANGED TO MAKE GETTING A DIVORCE “MORE DIFFICULT,” BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: The number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 2,000—except for 1977–1981, 1998–2002, and 2004–2008, with about 1,500 respondents for each sex. SOURCE: “The General Social Survey,” conducted by the National Opinion Research Center of the University of Chicago.
Overall, the chances remain high—estimated between 40 and 50 percent—that a first marriage entered into in recent years will end in either divorce or separation before one partner dies. (However, see the accompanying sidebar: “Your Chances of Divorce May Be Much Lower Than You Think.”) The likelihood of divorce has varied considerably among different segments of the American population: the figures are higher for blacks than for whites, for instance, and higher in the South and West than in other parts of the country. But these variations have been diminishing. The trend toward a greater similarity of divorce rates between whites and blacks is largely attributable to the fact that fewer blacks are marrying.
At the same time, there has been little change in such traditionally large divorce rate differences as between those who marry when they are teenagers compared to those who marry after age 21 and the nonreligious compared to the religiously committed. Teenagers and the nonreligious who marry have higher divorce rates. As noted in the 2010 edition of The State of Our Unions, there is also a growing educational divide in divorce in the United States: less-educated Americans face a much higher divorce rate than their college-educated fellow citizens.
By now almost everyone has heard that the national divorce rate is almost 50 percent of all marriages. This is basically true for the married population as a whole. But for many people, the actual chances of divorce are far below 50/50. The background characteristics of people entering a marriage have major implications for their risk of divorce. Here are some percentage-point decreases in the risk of divorce or separation during the first ten years of marriage, according to various personal and social factors: factors percent decrease in
risk of divorce Annual income over $50,000 (vs. under $25,000) -30 Having a baby seven months or more after marriage (vs. before marriage) -24 Marrying over 25 years of age (vs. under 18) -24 Family of origin intact (vs. divorced parents) -14 Religious affiliation (vs. none) -14 College (vs. high school dropout) -25 So if you are a reasonably well-educated person with a decent income, come from an intact family and are religious, and marry after age 25 without having a baby first, your chances of divorce are very low indeed. Also, the “close to 50 percent” divorce rate refers to the percentage of marriages entered into during a particular year that are projected to end in divorce or separation before one spouse dies. Such projections assume that the divorce and death rates occurring that year will continue indefinitely into the future—an assumption that is useful more as an indicator of the instability of marriages in the recent past than as a predictor of future events. In fact, the divorce rate has been dropping, slowly, since peaking around 1980, and the rate could be lower (or higher) in the future than it is today. Matthew D. Bramlett and William D. Mosher, Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the United States, Vital and Health Statistics 23 (Washington, DC: National Center for Health Statistics, 2002); and W. Bradford Wilcox, “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America,” The State of Our Unions: 2010 (Charlottesville, VA: National Marriage Project/Institute for American Values, 2010). The risks are calculated for women only. Rose M. Kreider and Jason M. Fields, “Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces, 2001,” Current Population Reports, P70-80 (Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau, 2005).
UNMARRIED COHABITATION
KEY FINDING: The number of unmarried couples has increased dramatically over the past five decades. Most younger Americans now spend some time living together outside of marriage, and unmarried cohabitation commonly precedes marriage.
Between 1960 and 2011, as indicated in Figure 8, the number of unmarried couples in America increased more than seventeen-fold. Unmarried cohabitation—the status of couples who are sexual partners, not married to each other, and sharing a household—is particularly common among the young. It is estimated that about a quarter of unmarried women age 25 to 39 are currently living with a partner and an additional quarter have lived with a partner at some time in the past. More than 60 percent of first marriages are now preceded by living together, compared to virtually none fifty years ago.
Figure 8. NUMBER OF COHABITING, UNMARRIED, ADULT COUPLES OF THE OPPOSITE SEX, BY YEAR, UNITED STATES NOTE: Prior to 1996, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated unmarried-couple households based on two unmarried adults of the opposite sex living in the same household. After 1996, respondents could identify themselves as unmarried partners. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table UC3, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
For many, cohabitation is a prelude to marriage, for others simply an alternative to living alone, and for a small but growing number it is considered an alternative to marriage. Cohabitation is more common among those of lower educational and income levels. Our 2010 report indicates that among women in the 25 to 44 age range, 75 percent of high school dropouts have cohabited compared to 50 percent of college graduates.
Cohabitation is also more common among those who are less religious than their peers, those who have been divorced, and those who have experienced parental divorce, fatherlessness, or high levels of marital discord during childhood. A growing percentage of cohabiting couple households, now over 40 percent, contains children.
The belief that living together before marriage is a useful way “to find out whether you really get along,” and thus avoid a bad marriage and an eventual divorce, is now widespread among young people. But the available studies on the effects of cohabitation are mixed. In fact, some evidence indicates that those who live together before marriage are more likely to break up after marriage.
This evidence is controversial, however, because it is difficult to distinguish the “selection effect” from the “experience of cohabitation effect.” The selection effect refers to the fact that people who cohabit before marriage have different characteristics from those who do not, and it may be these characteristics, and not the experience of cohabitation, that leads to marital instability. There is some empirical support for both positions. For instance, a recent study based on a nationally-representative sample of more than 1,000 married men and women concluded that premarital cohabitation, when limited to the period after engagement, is not associated with an elevated risk of marital problems; however, this study also found that couples who cohabited prior to engagement were more likely to have marital problems and less likely to be happy in their marriages. What can be said is that the research does not provide consistent evidence that cohabitation helps couples prepare for marriage.
When thinking of the many benefits of marriage, the economic aspects are often overlooked. Yet the economic benefits of marriage are substantial, both for individuals and for society. Marriage is a wealth-generating institution. Married couples create more economic assets on average than do otherwise similar singles or cohab iting couples. A 2002 study of retirement data concluded that “individuals who do not participate in legal marriage (e.g., never married or cohabiting) have significantly lower wealth than those who are continuously married.” Compared to those continuously married, those who never married had a reduction in wealth of 75 percent, those who were currently cohabiting had a reduction of 58 percent, and those who divorced and didn’t remarry had a reduction of 72 percent. One might think that the explanation for why marriage generates economic assets is because those people who are more likely to be wealth creators are also more likely to marry and stay married. And this is certainly true, but only in part. The institution of marriage itself provides a wealth-generation bonus. It does this through providing economies of scale (two can live more cheaply than one), and as implicitly a long-term personal contract it encourages economic specialization. Working as a couple, individuals can develop those skills in which they excel, leaving others to their spouse. Also, married couples save and invest more for the future, and they can act as a small insurance pool against life uncertainties such as illness and job loss. Probably because of marital social norms that encourage healthy, productive behavior, men tend to become more economically productive after marriage; they earn between 10 and 20 percent more than do single men with similar education and job histories. All of these benefits are independent of the fact that married couples receive more work-related and government-provided support and also more help and support from their extended families (two sets of in-laws) and friends. Beyond the economic advantages of marriage for the married couples themselves, marriage has a tremendous economic impact on society. Marriage trends have a big impact on family income levels and inequality. After more than doubling between 1947 and 1977, the growth of median family income has slowed in recent years. A major reason is that married couples, who fare better economically than their single counterparts, have been a rapidly decreasing proportion of total families. In this same twenty-year period, and in large part because of changes in family structure, family income inequality has significantly increased. Research has consistently shown that divorce and unmarried childbearing increase child poverty. In recent years the majority of children who grow up outside of married families have experienced at least one year of dire poverty. According to one study, if family structure had not changed between 1960 and 1998, the black child poverty rate in 1998 would have been 28.4 percent rather than 45.6 percent, and the white child poverty rate would have been 11.4 percent rather than 15.4 percent. The rise in child poverty, of course, generates significant public costs in health and welfare programs. Marriages that end in divorce also are very costly to the public. One researcher determined that a single divorce costs state and federal governments about $30,000, based on such factors as the increased use of food stamps and public housing as well as increased bankruptcies and juvenile delinquency. The nation’s 1.4 million divorces in 2002 are estimated to have cost the taxpayers more than $30 billion. Janet Wilmoth and Gregor Koso, “Does Marital History Matter? Marital Status and Wealth Outcomes among Preretirement Adults,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 64 (2002): 265. Thomas A. Hirschl, Joyce Altobelli, and Mark R. Rank, “Does Marriage Increase the Odds of Affluence? Exploring the Life Course Probabilities,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 65 (2003): 927–38; Joseph Lupton and James P. Smith, “Marriage, Assets and Savings,” in Shoshana A. Grossbard-Schectman, ed., Marriage and the Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003): 129–52. Hyunbae Chun and Injae Lee, “Why Do Married Men Earn More: Productivity or Marriage Selection?” Economic Inquiry 39 (2001): 307–19; Sanders Korenman and David Neumark, “Does Marriage Really Make Men More Productive?” Journal of Human Resources 26 (1991): 282–307; Kermit Daniel, “The Marriage Premium,” in Mariano Tomassi and Kathryn Ierulli, eds., The New Economics of Human Behavior (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995): 113–25. Lingxin Hao, “Family Structure, Private Transfers, and the Economic Well-Being of Families with Children,” Social Forces 75 (1996): 269–92. U.S. Census Bureau, “Measuring 50 Years of Economic Change Using the March Current Population Survey,” Current Population Reports, P60–203 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1998); John Iceland, “Why Poverty Remains High: The Role of Income Growth, Economic Inequality, and Changes in Family Structure, 1949–1999,” Demography 40 (2003): 499–519. Mark R. Rank and Thomas A. Hirschl, “The Economic Risk of Childhood in America: Estimating the Probability of Poverty Across the Formative Years,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 61 (1999): 1058–67. Adam Thomas and Isabel Sawhill, “For Richer or For Poorer: Marriage as an Antipoverty Strategy,” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 21 (2002): 4. David Schramm, “Individual and Social Costs of Divorce in Utah,” Journal of Family and Economic Issues 27 (2006): 1.
LOSS OF CHILD-CENTEREDNESS
KEY FINDING: The presence of children in America has declined significantly since 1960, as measured by fertility rates and the percentage of households with children. Other indicators suggest that this decline has reduced the child-centeredness of our nation and contributed to the weakening of the institution of marriage.
Throughout history, marriage has first and foremost been an institution for procreation and raising children. It has provided the cultural tie that seeks to connect the father to his children by binding him to the mother of his children. Yet in recent times, children have increasingly been pushed from center stage.
Americans on average have been having fewer children. Figure 9 indicates the decline in fertility since 1960. It is important to note that fertility had been gradually declining throughout American history, reaching a low point in the Great Depression of the 1930s before suddenly accelerating with the baby boom generation starting in 1945. By 1960, the birth rate was back to where it had been in 1920, with the average woman having about three and one-half children over the course of her life. After 1960, the birth rate declined sharply for two decades before leveling off around 1990.
Figure 9. FERTILITY RATES OF WOMEN AGE 15–44, BY YEAR, UNITED STATES NOTE: The number of births that an average woman would have if, at each year of age, she experienced the birth rates occurring in the specified year. A total fertility rate of 2.11 represents “replacement level” fertility under current mortality conditions (assuming no net migration). SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Vital Statistics Report, 1993 and 2001; “Births: Preliminary Data for 2011,” National Vital Statistics Report 61:5, October 3, 2012.
In 2011, the latest year for which we have complete information, the American “total fertility rate” (TFR) stood at 1.89, below the 1990 level and slightly below two children per woman. This rate is below the “replacement level” of 2.1, the level at which the population would be replaced through births alone, and is one of the highest rates found in modern industrialized societies. Nevertheless, in most European and several Asian nations the total fertility rate has decreased to a level well below that of the United States, in some countries to slightly more than one child per woman. The U.S. fertility rate is relatively high due in part to the contribution of our higher-fertility Hispanic population.
The long-term decline of births has had a marked effect on the household makeup of the American population. It is estimated that in the mid-1800s more than 75 percent of all households contained children under the age of 18. One hundred years later, in 1960, this number had dropped to slightly less than half of all households. In 2011, just five decades later, only 32 percent of households included children (Figure 10). This obviously means that adults are less likely to be living with children, that neighborhoods are less likely to contain children, and that children are less likely to be a consideration in daily life. It suggests that the needs and concerns of children—especially young children—may gradually be receding from our national consciousness.
Figure 10. PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS WITH ONE OR MORE CHILDREN UNDER AGE 18, 1960–2011, UNITED STATES SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1964, Tables 36 and 54; 1980, Tables 62 and 67; 1985, Tables 54 and 63; and 1994, Table 67; Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Tables F1 and H1, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
Several scholars determined that in 1960 the proportion of one’s life spent living with a spouse and children was 62 percent, the highest in our history. By that year the death rate had plummeted so that fewer marriages ended through death, and the divorce revolution of recent decades had not yet begun, so that a relatively small number of marriages ended in divorce. By 1985, however, just twenty-five years later, the proportion of one’s life spent with spouse and children dropped to 43 percent—the lowest in our history. This remarkable reversal was caused mainly by the decline of fertility and the weakening of marriage through divorce and unwed births.
In a cross-national comparison of industrialized nations, the United States ranked virtually at the top in the percentage of those disagreeing with this statement: “The main purpose of marriage is having children.” Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe the main purpose of marriage is something else, compared, for example, to 51 percent of Norwegians and 45 percent of Italians.
Consistent with this view is a dramatic change in our attitudes about holding marriages together for children. In a Detroit area sample of women, the proportion of women answering “No” to the question “Should a couple stay together for the sake of the children?” jumped from 51 percent to 82 percent between 1962 and 1985. A nationally-representative 1994 sample found only 15 percent of the population agreeing that “When there are children in the family, parents should stay together even if they don’t get along.”
One effect of the weakening of child-centeredness is clear. A careful analysis of divorce statistics shows that, beginning around 1975, the presence of children in a marriage has become only a very minor inhibitor of divorce (slightly more so when the child is male rather than female).
FRAGILE FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN
KEY FINDING: The percentage of children who grow up in fragile—typically fatherless—families has grown enormously over the past five decades. This is mainly due to increases in divorce, out-of-wedlock births, and unmarried cohabitation. The trend toward fragile families leveled off in the late 1990s, but the most recent data show a slight increase.
There is now ample evidence that stable and satisfactory marriages are crucial for the well-being of adults. Yet such marriages are even more important for the proper socialization and overall well-being of children. A central purpose of the institution of marriage is to ensure the responsible and long-term involvement of both biological parents in the difficult and time-consuming task of raising the next generation.
The trend toward single-parent families is probably the most important of the recent family trends that have affected children and adolescents (Figure 11). This is because the children in such families have negative life outcomes at two to three times the rate of children in married, two-parent families. While in 1960 only 9 percent of all children lived in single-parent families, a figure that had changed little over the course of the twentieth century, by 2011 the percentage had risen to 26.
Figure 11. PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN UNDER AGE 18 LIVING WITH A SINGLE PARENT, BY YEAR AND RACE, UNITED STATES NOTE: Total includes blacks, whites, and all other racial and ethnic groupings. Over these decades an additional 3 to 4 percent of children, not indicated in the figure above, were classified as living with no parent. In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau expanded its racial categories to permit respondents to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. This means that racial data computations beginning in 2004 may not be strictly comparable to those of prior years. In 2000 and 2010, whites is redefined to white, non-Hispanic, and Hispanic is separated out as its own group. Prior to 2007, the U.S. Census counted children living with two cohabiting parents as children in single parent households. See “Improvements to Data Collection about Families in CPS 2007,” available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam.html. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table C3, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
An indirect indicator of fragile families is the percentage of children under age 18 living with two married parents. Since 1960 this percentage has declined substantially, by 23 percentage points (Figure 12). Unfortunately, this measure makes no distinction between natural and stepfamilies; it is estimated that some 88 percent of two-parent families consist of both biological parents, while 9 percent are stepfamilies. The problem is that children in stepfamilies, according to a substantial and growing body of social science evidence, fare no better in life than children in single-parent families. Data on stepfamilies, therefore, probably are more reasonably combined with single-parent than with biological two-parent families. An important indicator that helps resolve this issue is the percentage of children who live apart from their biological fathers. That percentage has doubled since 1960, from 17 percent to 34 percent.
Figure 12. PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN UNDER AGE 18 LIVING WITH TWO MARRIED PARENTS, BY YEAR AND RACE, UNITED STATES NOTE: Total includes blacks, whites, and all other racial and ethnic groupings. In 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau expanded its racial categories to permit respondents to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. This means that racial data computations beginning in 2004 may not be strictly comparable to those of prior years. “Married Parents” may be step- or natural parents of children in the household. In 2000 and 2011, whites is redefined to white, non-Hispanic, and Hispanic is separated out as its own group. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table C3, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
The dramatic shift in family structure indicated by these measures has been generated mainly by three burgeoning trends: divorce, unmarried births, and unmarried cohabitation. The incidence of divorce began to increase rapidly during the 1960s. The number of children under age 18 newly affected by parental divorce each year, most of whom have lost a resident father, grew from under 500,000 in 1960 to well over a million in 1975. After peaking around 1980, that number leveled off and remains close to a million new children each year. Much of the reason for the leveling off is a drop in average family size; each divorce that occurs today typically affects a smaller number of children than in the past.
The second reason for the shift in family structure is an increase in the percentage of babies born to unwed mothers, which suddenly and unexpectedly began to increase rapidly in the 1970s. Since 1960, the percentage of babies born to unwed mothers has increased more than sevenfold (Figure 13). More than four in ten births and more than two-thirds of black births in 2011, the latest year for which we have complete data, were out-of-wedlock.
Figure 13. PERCENTAGE OF LIVE BIRTHS THAT WERE TO UNMARRIED WOMEN, BY YEAR, UNITED STATES NOTE: Total includes whites, blacks, and all other racial and ethnic groupings. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1995, Table 94; 1999, Table 99; 2000, Table 85; and 2001, Table 76, available online at www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/statab.html. Centers for Disease Control Prevention, “Births: Preliminary Data for 2011,” National Vital Statistics Report 61, Table 1, available online at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_05.pdf.
A third and still more recent family trend that has affected family structure is the rapid growth of unmarried cohabitation. In fact, more cohabiting couples are having children, or bringing children into their relationship. Consequently, there has been about a fifteen-fold increase in the number of cohabiting couples who live with children since 1960 (Figure 14). Slightly more than 40 percent of all children are expected to spend some time in a cohabiting household during their childhood years.
Figure 14. NUMBER OF COHABITING, UNMARRIED, ADULT COUPLES OF THE OPPOSITE SEX LIVING WITH ONE OR MORE CHILDREN, BY YEAR,UNITED STATES SOURCE: Prior to 1996, the U.S. Census estimated unmarried-couple households based on two unmarried adults of the opposite sex living in the same household. After 1996, respondents could identify themselves as unmarried partners. The Census also identified households with children under 15 until 1996 when they began identifying children under 18. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports, “America’s Families and Living Arrangements,” 2011, Table UC3, available online at www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/hh-fam/cps2011.html.
In 2000, about 40 percent of unmarried-couple households included one or more children under age 18. For unmarried couples in the 25 to 34 age group, the percentage with children is higher still, approaching half of all such households. Seventy percent of the children in unmarried-couple households are the children of only one partner. Indeed, if one includes cohabitation in the definition of stepfamily, almost one half of stepfamilies today would consist of a biological parent and unrelated cohabiting partner.
Children who grow up with cohabiting couples tend to have worse life outcomes compared to those growing up with married couples. The primary reasons are that cohabiting couples have a much higher breakup rate than married couples, a lower level of household income, and higher levels of child abuse and domestic violence. The proportion of cohabiting mothers who eventually marry the fathers of their children is declining, a decline sadly predictive of increased problems for children.
TEEN ATTITUDES ABOUT MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
KEY FINDING: The desire of teenagers of both sexes for “a good marriage and family life” has remained high over the past few decades. Boys are almost ten percentage points less desirous than girls, however, and they are also a little more pessimistic about the possibility of a long-term marriage. Both boys and girls have become more accepting of lifestyles that are alternatives to marriage, including unwed childbearing and premarital cohabitation.
To find out what the future may hold for marriage and family life it is important to determine what our nation’s youth are saying and thinking, and how their views have changed over time. Are these products of the divorce revolution going to continue the family ways of their parents? Or might there be a cultural counterrevolution among the young that could lead to a reversal of current family trends?
Fortunately, since 1976 a nationally representative survey of high school seniors aptly titled “Monitoring the Future,” conducted annually by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, has asked numerous questions about family-related topics. Based on this survey, the percentage of teenagers of both sexes who said that having a good marriage and family life was “extremely important” to them has remained high over the decades. Eighty percent of girls stated this belief in the latest period, with boys lagging behind at 72 percent (Figure 15).
Figure 15. PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO SAID HAVING A GOOD MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE IS “EXTREMELY IMPORTANT,” BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: Number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 6,000. SOURCE: Jerald G. Bachman, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O’Malle, “Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation’s High School Seniors, 2010” (Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, 2011). Monitoring the Future surveys are conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.
Other data from the Monitoring the Future survey show a moderate increase in the percentage of teenage respondents who said that they expect to marry (or who are already married), recently 84.5 percent for girls and 77 percent for boys. Among teenagers, boys are a little more pessimistic than girls about the belief that their marriage will last a lifetime. But this difference has recently diminished and, since 1986 to 1990, the trend has flattened out (Figure 16).
Figure 16. PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS, WHO SAID IT IS VERY LIKELY THEY WILL STAY MARRIED TO THE SAME PERSON FOR LIFE, BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: Number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 6,000. From 1976–1980 to 1986–1990, the trend is significantly downward for both girls and boys (p < .01 on a two-tailed test), but after 1986–1990 the trend is significantly upward for boys (p < .01 on a two-tailed test). SOURCE: Jerald G. Bachman, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O’Malle, “Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation’s High School Seniors, 2010” (Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, 2011). Monitoring the Future surveys are conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.
At the same time, there is widespread acceptance by teenagers of nonmarital lifestyles. Take, for example, agreement with the proposition that “Most people will have fuller and happier lives if they choose legal marriage rather than staying single or just living with someone” (Figure 17). Less than a third of the girls and only slightly more than a third of the boys seem to believe, based on their response to this statement, that marriage is more beneficial to individuals than the alternatives. Note also that young women have seen their faith in marriage’s capacity to deliver happiness fall markedly over the last thirty years. Yet this belief is contrary to the available empirical evidence, which consistently indicates the personal as well as social benefits of being married compared to staying single or just living with someone.
Figure 17. PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO AGREED OR MOSTLY AGREED THAT MOST PEOPLE WILL HAVE FULLER AND HAPPIER LIVES IF THEY CHOOSE LEGAL MARRIAGE RATHER THAN STAYING SINGLE OR JUST LIVING WITH SOMEONE, BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: Number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 6,000. SOURCE: Jerald G. Bachman, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O’Malle, “Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation’s High School Seniors, 2010” (Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, 2011). Monitoring the Future surveys are conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.
Witness the remarkable increase in recent decades in the acceptance of out-of-wedlock childbearing among teens (Figure 18). And note that whereas in the 1970s girls tended to be more traditional than boys on this issue, now they are about the same. With more than 50 percent of teenagers now accepting out-of-wedlock childbearing as a “worthwhile lifestyle,” at least for others, they do not seem to grasp the enormous economic, social, and personal costs of nonmarital childbearing.
Figure 18. PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO SAID HAVING A CHILD WITHOUT BEING MARRIED IS EXPERIMENTING WITH A WORTHWHILE LIFESTYLE OR NOT AFFECTING ANYONE ELSE, BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: Number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 6,000 except for 2001–2004, for which it is about 4,500. SOURCE: Jerald G. Bachman, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O’Malle, “Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation’s High School Seniors, 2010” (Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, 2011). Monitoring the Future surveys are conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.
Another remarkable increase is in the percentage of teenagers who are accepting of living together before marriage—now well over half of all teenagers (Figure 19). In this case, girls remain more traditional than boys. The growing cultural acceptance of cohabitation among high school seniors is congruent with the growth in cohabitation demonstrated earlier in this report.
Figure 19. PERCENTAGE OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS WHO AGREED OR MOSTLY AGREED WITH THE STATEMENT, “IT IS USUALLY A GOOD IDEA FOR A COUPLE TO LIVE TOGETHER BEFORE GETTING MARRIED IN ORDER TO FIND OUT WHETHER THEY REALLY GET ALONG,” BY PERIOD, UNITED STATES NOTE: Number of respondents for each sex for each period is about 6,000. SOURCE: Jerald G. Bachman, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Patrick M. O’Malle, “Monitoring the Future: Questionnaire Responses from the Nation’s High School Seniors, 2010” (Ann Arbor, MI: Survey Research Center, 2011). Monitoring the Future surveys are conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan.
In summary, marriage and family life remain very important goals for today’s teenagers. Nevertheless, teens are also increasingly accepting of a range of nonmarital lifestyles that can stand in tension with these goals. Given the ambiguous character of teenage attitudes regarding marriage, there are no strong signs yet of a generational cultural shift that could lead to a reversal of the nation’s recent retreat from marriage. |
NEW DELHI: At least 5 people have been killed and 26 have been injured in a major ceasefire violation by Pak Rangers in Jammu & Kashmir's Arnia sector.According to reports, Pak troops fired at BSF posts and also targeted civilian areas in Arnia sector.Reports say the firing started at midnight and is still on.On Sunday the Pakistan Army had fired at Indian positions along the line of control (LoC) in Poonch of Jammu & Kashmir, violating a 2003 ceasefire, the defence ministry said.The "unprovoked firing" that began at 8am in Mendhar sector lasted for 30 minutes.Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Manish Mehta said the violation was "effectively and appropriately responded to" by Indian troops. There were no casualties."Pakistan carried out firing with automatics and mortar shelling. No casualty was reported," said the spokesperson.On October 3, Pakistani troops violated ceasefire four times by shelling forward areas and villages along LoC and International Border in Gulmarg sector of Kashmir valley and Poonch and Jammu sector in Jammu region in which a girl was killed and six people were injured.On October 1 and 2, Pakistani troops had violated the ceasefire two times along the LoC in Poonch district resulting in injuries to six people and damage to some houses.On October 2, Pakistani troops had targeted border hamlets in forward areas along the LoC in Jammu & Kashmir's Poonch district by shelling them with mortar bombs and firing resulting in injuries to six civilians.There have been over 100 ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the line of control in recent months.Three terrorists were killed by Army troops during an infiltration bid along LOC in Tangdhar sector of Jammu & Kashmir, a senior Army official said.(With inputs from agencies) |
Back in January I received an email from Dara Albright, the founder of NowStreet Media, and a well-known conference organizer. She thought it was time for a conference focused on p2p lending. This was quite serendipitous because one of my goals in 2013 was to put on some kind of conference. So we joined forces.
Today, we are both delighted to announce that the LendIt Conference is now open for registrations. It will be on June 20th at the Convene Innovation Center in New York City. Before I go any further I imagine you have a couple of questions. Like what is this conference about exactly and who is it for?
There is a full preliminary agenda on the website. While p2p lending will be a large part of the conference our focus is going to be broader than that. Of course I still believe that p2p lending is a fantastic investment opportunity but I am not blind to other types of alternative online investments. One that I am becoming increasingly enamored with is small business lending, something that has been around for centuries, but that has only recently migrated online. Student loans are also an interesting investment with a total market size far exceeding credit card debt.
So, the focus will be on investing, more specifically online lending be it to consumers, small business or students. For the first time we are bringing together the leaders in online lending for a one day conference.
Learn How Online Lending Will Replace the Banking System
While we are still working on the final speaker lineup I can tell you this. The morning keynote will be given by Renaud Laplanche, CEO of Lending Club, where he will reveal how he believes online lending will eventually replace the banking system. Other confirmed speakers are Ron Suber, Head of Institutional Sales at Prosper, Candace Klein, CEO of SoMoLend, Matt Symons, CEO of SocietyOne in Australia, Samir Desai, CEO of Funding Circle in the UK, David Klein, CEO of CommonBond and many more.
I am not going to lie to you. If you are just looking for the latest ideas on filtering loans at Lending Club or Prosper then this conference is probably not for you. But if you want to meet the leaders of this industry and learn the trends that are shaping its future then there is no better place to be on June 20th than in New York City.
Special Discount for Lend Academy Readers
The retail price to attend this one day conference is $495. However, if you act fast and are one of the first 50 people to register than the price is only $295. But if you are a Lend Academy reader you get a special discount. Just enter the code LENDACADEMYDISC into the promotion code field on the EventBrite registration page and you will receive a 25% discount.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has helped us on our journey so far. You have helped name the conference, choose the logo and now you can participate. I hope to see you at LendIt on June 20th.
Here is our official press release that just went out this morning. |
New Legislation Protects Sports Medicine Doctors // Study: Try Compression Device Instead of Blood Thinners
Elizabeth Hofheinz, M.P.H., M.Ed. • Sat, May 10th, 2014
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Frederick M. Azar, M.D. Discusses Bill to Protect Sports Medicine Specialists
A team doctor accompanies athletes across state lines to cover a game. When the excitement of the game passes, however, he or she learns that they are at risk for a lawsuit. But things are changing with the introduction of a new bill in Congress that would provide licensure clarity for sports medicine professionals. Dr. Frederick Azar, M.D., President of the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), tells OTW, “Sports medicine doctors often travel across state lines with their teams, and there are a lot of injuries during the game that require rapid evaluation. The team doctor is then faced with an unenviable dilemma: either deny their patient continuity of care from their own doctor who knows the athlete and his or her medical history, or treat their patient at significant professional and legal risk.”
“In the absence of licensure clarity, team doctors risk civil and criminal liability when they treat athletes and staff at away games, and their malpractice carriers would likely not cover the civil portion if there was an issue in a different state. Moreover, things have been rather ambiguous because of the differences in state laws. Thanks to this bill, doctors will not have to choose between their patient’s care and their ability to effectively practice medicine.”
Eureka! Decrease DVT Risk Without Blood Thinners
A multicenter study has found that a new compression device is just as effective at reducing the risk of thrombosis in hip and knee arthroplasty as any of the available drug protocols. Clifford Colwell, M.D. is an orthopedic surgeon with the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. He tells OTW, “Hospitals have used compression devices for many years, but the motors were cumbersome and patients could not take them home. Therefore, physicians have relied on drug therapy; but drugs are met with bleeding issues.”
“The ActiveCare+S.F.T., which coordinates with a patient’s respiration phase, ensures the best blood flow to the right heart, also takes into consideration the compliance issue: the manufacturer put a LCD on front of the device to record hours of use. We enrolled over 3, 000 patients and found that the DVT (deep vein thrombosis) rates based on clinical outcomes were the same as those of those patients who took blood thinners—under 1%—and there was no bleeding.”
“Once you get the risk down to that degree, your chances of changing those numbers for the better are low. The next target is to get companies to compete in order to drive down costs. About three companies are trying to put out a portable device, so that will happen. This device costs about $200-$300 for the home use component if the insurance company does not pay. Medicare will not pay for prophylaxis, but this device could be considered more than prophylaxis because we’re treating an impending clot. It would be difficult to improve on the incidence of clots below the 1% level, but it could be done less expensively.”
Note: Dr. Colwell indicates that he was compensated to organize the trial, but that he has no financial interest in the product.
James Jagger, M.D. Wins SEC Team Physician of the Year
Team doctors are on a roll in Kentucky. Dr. James Jagger, an assistant professor in the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine of the, has been named Southeastern Conference Team Physician of the Year. In 2013, it was UK’s Darren Johnson, M.D. who earned the prestigious honor.
Dr. Jagger also serves as the UK chief of athletic medicine and head team physician for all UK sports. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Jagger is in his 14th year at Kentucky and has been a vital asset to the UK sports teams.
The Team Physician of the Year award is chosen by the athletic training staffs at Southeastern Conference (SEC) member institutions and is given annually to recognize a team physician who has contributed greatly to both his or her school’s teams and to the SEC sports community. |
Wales forward Craig Bellamy has confirmed he is to retire from international football.
The Cardiff City player will bow out after the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Belgium.
Bellamy, 34, has won 76 caps for Wales and scored 19 goals during a 15-year international career.
"Players come and go and my career has definitely come and gone," the former Coventry, Newcastle and Liverpool striker said.
Bellamy leaves big boots to fill "Craig Bellamy's decision is no great shock but its impact is huge. Even his impressive statistics do not truly reflect his devotion to the cause. As fans question the loyalty of players to their national teams, Bellamy has unfailingly shown a fierce determination to play for Wales. He admits he's not the easiest player to get along with, but that often comes from craving perfection. He demands high standards of himself and those around him. His international highlight was the unforgettable 2-1 win over Italy in 2002, where Bellamy scored the winner. Wales have not reached such heights since. That qualification campaign ended in failure, meaning Bellamy joined Neville Southall, Ian Rush, Mark Hughes, Kevin Ratcliffe and Ryan Giggs as great Wales players who never featured in a major tournament finals. Bellamy will now concentrate his efforts on ensuring Cardiff City's Premier League survival. But as a student of the game, a management or coaching career surely beckons. One day Bellamy may wear the badge of Wales again."
"I have to do what's best for the national team and this group of players are the future. The next qualifiers, two-odd years, I'm not going to see it."
He said the current set of talented younger players gave Wales a better chance of qualification for Euro 2016.
"They have to have a better opportunity of qualifying. I have to cut myself short," he said.
Friday's penultimate World Cup qualifier against Macedonia at Cardiff City Stadium is set to be Bellamy's final Wales appearance on home soil.
And it could be his final cap if he picks up a second yellow card which would see him miss Tuesday's qualifier against Belgium in Brussels through suspension.
He was penalised the first time in Wales' 3-0 defeat by Serbia on 10 September.
Bellamy says he will not play in the friendly against Finland at Cardiff City Stadium on 16 November.
Former Wales captain Bellamy will go down as one of his country's greats. He is the third most-capped Welsh player of all time and is fifth on the all-time scorers' chart with 19 goals.
"I'm just grateful for every game I've been lucky enough to play for my country, and I really mean that," Bellamy added.
"It's an honour to play for your country at any level at any sport.
"[Playing] 70-odd times, it's been the best. Even the disappointments, even the lows, even the times I didn't want to play again because sometimes defeats can do that to you.
"Seventy-odd times having that honour like singing the anthem… it's still the best and Friday will be the best and hopefully I will get the chance to do it again on Tuesday. [It] will be hard to let go.
"My daughter will probably come out with me [before the Macedonia game] but it will probably hit me more after it... when you're watching the team."
Bellamy made his debut as an 18-year-old in a friendly against Jamaica in March 1998, replacing Gareth Taylor during the second half of a goalless draw at Ninian Park.
Craig Bellamy factfile Born: 13 July 1979, Cardiff Clubs: Norwich City, Coventry City , Newcastle United, Celtic (loan), Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool (two spells), West Ham United, Manchester City, Cardiff City (two spells) Wales debut: v Jamaica in 1998 Wales caps: 76 Wales goals: 19
He scored his first international goal against Malta two months later and scored the winner in a Euro 2000 qualifier against Denmark in October 1998.
His most famous goal for Wales was the winner in the famous 2-1 victory over Italy in a Euro 2004 qualifier at the Millennium Stadium in October 2002, a game Bellamy considers his best moment in a Wales shirt.
One of his most memorable games for Wales came when he scored twice in a 5-2 win in Slovakia in September 2007, a display which then manager John Toshack described as a "scintillating performance".
His career has been dogged by on and off-field controversies including being sent off for violent conduct during Wales' defeat in Belarus in September 2000.
Bellamy, whose spell as captain of the national team was during Toshack's reign in 2007 to 2011, also represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games.
He came close to retiring from international football following the death of Wales manager and close friend Gary Speed in November 2011.
But the Cardiff-born forward, who played in Speed's memorial match against Costa Rica in February 2012, decided to prolong his international career under new manager Chris Coleman.
However the former Manchester City frontman hinted the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign would be his international swansong.
He has even suggested he could retire from football altogether at the end of the season, when his current deal with Cardiff City expires.
Bellamy revealed in June his ambition to manage Wales and Cardiff City in the future but added he had a long way to go before stepping into management. |
The mother and uncle of a Canadian woman killed 14 years ago have been ordered extradited to India in stand trial in her alleged "honour killing".
Malkit Kaur Sidhu and Surjit Singh Badesha are accused of ordering the murder after Jaswinder Sidhu, 25, married a rickshaw driver.
She was killed in Punjab in June 2000 after she travelled there to reunite with her husband.
The family has denied involvement in Sidhu's death and may appeal.
Several people have already been convicted of the killing in India.
'Campaign of terror'
Her mother and uncle were arrested in 2012 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder.
On Friday, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Gregory Fitch ordered the two to be extradited to India to faces charges there.
Jaswinder Sidhu secretly married Mithu Sidhu instead of the wealthy, older man her family reportedly preferred.
She fled to India to reunite with her husband a few months after her family learned of the marriage.
Soon after, the couple were attacked while on a motor scooter - he was beaten and she was killed.
Prosecutors alleged Mr Badesha had made hundreds of calls to the men eventually convicted of the murder, first starting after her marriage became public, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Lawyers for the pair admitted the family was upset with the marriage, but that it did not prove they killed Jaswinder.
They will remain in Canadian custody until the extradition but may appeal. |
The State Department admitted Wednesday that a 2013 press briefing video was purposefully altered to remove a portion of a discussion about the Iran nuclear talks, after an unknown State Department official asked that it be edited out.
Spokesman John Kirby's announcement contradicted the position held by the department for the last three weeks, during which officials said the video was missing because of a "glitch."
But Kirby said officials didn't know who asked for the video to be edited, and said the department is unlikely to investigate further into who wanted the video to be edited.
Kirby said he asked the Office of the Legal Adviser to look into the issue, and that officials "learned that a specific request was made to excise that portion of the briefing. We do not know who made the request to edit the video, or why it was made."
Kirby insisted that the person who made the edit only remembers that he or she got a call from someone at the State Department, who was passing on a request from the departments' Public Affairs Bureau. But he said the person who received the call didn't remember who the caller was, and doesn't know who in that bureau made the request.
The missing video clip was revealed more than three weeks ago, and it involves then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki, who was asked in 2013 whether officials ever lie to the public to protect national security interests. Psaki seemed to indicate that this does happen.
"James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that," Psaki replied to Fox News reporter James Rosen.
When it was revealed that the video had been edited to remove those comments, the State Department quickly restored the entire video, and blamed the missing video on a " glitch."
Psaki worked in the Public Affairs Bureau, but Kirby didn't say it was Psaki who made the request, or who it might have been. But he did say the request was made in 2013, when she was still at the State Department. She has since moved to the White House, and said Wednesday that she wasn't behind the decision to alter the video.
Rosen's question dealt with when the Obama administration started the Iran nuclear talks. The administration initially said the talks started in 2013, after moderate leaders took over Iran.
But evidence has since surfaced that the talks started earlier, before moderates were in power, a fact that some see as evidence that Obama wanted a deal at any cost.
Kirby said that while it was wrong to edit the video, there's no basis for investigating the issue further.
"There were no rules in place at the time to govern this sort of action, so while I believe it was an inappropriate step to take, I see little foundation for pressing forward with a formal investigation," he said.
The only forward-looking step the department is taking is to put rules in place to make it harder to alter videos in the future.
"To my surprise, the Bureau of Public Affairs did not have in place any rules governing this type of action," Kirby said. "Therefore, we are taking immediate steps to craft appropriate protocols on this issue, as we believe that deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and is not in keeping with the State Department's commitment to transparency and public accountability." |
The one thing that surprised me was that you weren't optimizing weapons based on the target (at one point you took on hunters with 4 kinetic weapons), but streaming probably makes one cut corners.
Force(Extract) has some interesting possibilities,
but Trojan(Detonate) really has me interested. I'm sure it raises the security level, but that's a nice trade off for destroying enemies without taking any damage yourself.
Quick questions (since I'm too impatient to wait for your dev post): do deep network scanners facilitate brute force/trojan hacks;
and do botnets give you bonus to all terminal hacks, or only to terminals of the same security level or less as the botnetted terminal?
Ah, so you were there. It was a close one. Simply spent way too long fiddling around in Access. And I went west when apparently I should've gone east, argh!Definitely cut corners, but it also depended on the situation. Several times when it became important (especially later) I was taking that into consideration, and said as much. About Hunters, though, I'd honestly forgot it was a bad idea to use KI against them. (I do remember having a nagging feeling in the back my mind that there was something wrong there, though...) Most other hostiles I did try to at least not rely on weapons they're strong against.This, and schematics in general, are going to be even better once I implement additional schematic benefits, hopefully in Alpha 5.I really like this one. Should've used it more. I do think we need more terminals in the late game, and possibly some more low-security ones since the hacking game really does start to drop off there. (That said, I wasn't at all built for hacking so I can't complain too much xD. Also, we'll see because I'm going to continue adding some new hacking features, and as you can see with Trojans some of these are quite effective.)Oh impatient one: They do!(Actually, good question, since I didn't find a place to mention that in the blog post, anywayALL MACHINES on the same floor. Aw yeah. |
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., July 13, 2015 - Sprint (NYSE:S) has launched its innovative Direct 2 You service in four more metropolitan areas – Dallas, Detroit, Tampa and Washington, D.C. With Direct 2 You, customers can meet a wireless sales representative virtually whenever and wherever they want – for free1.
Through this one-of-a-kind offering, a Sprint expert helps customers set up a new mobile device as well as transfer content from the comfort of one’s home, workplace or literally anywhere someone chooses.
“We listen to our customers, which is why during the past year we’ve worked tirelessly to improve Sprint’s network, value and customer service,” said Rod Millar, vice president for Sprint. “Direct2You is all about taking the best customer experience one step further and addressing pain points for the customer. It makes buying a phone a unique and stress-free experience.”
The Direct 2 You experience is easy and simple. Schedule an appointment by calling 844-347-2968 or through https://sprintdirect2you.com. At an arranged and specific time a Direct 2 You expert will come to the customer’s location. In addition to helping the customer select a new phone, the expert will activate it and transfer content, including contacts, pictures, games and apps, to ensure the device is ready to go. The expert will also offer personalized training and tips to help the customer become familiar with using the mobile device.
With today’s expansion, the service is now available in major metropolitan areas across the country including Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Tampa, Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas. The service is anticipated to continue to roll out to more markets across the country throughout 2015.
For full downloadable version click here.
About Sprint:
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served more than 57 million connections as of March 31, 2015 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the past four years. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.
1Within participating markets, Sprint will have specific delivery zones. Upon setting up your appointment, the specialist will determine if your desired location is eligible for Direct 2 You. |
Team Liquid are the victors of The International 7, a Dota 2 tournament with over $24 million in prize pool. The European squad will take home the lion’s share at $10,806,301 after an historic 3-0 sweep of team Newbee.
Coming up through the loser’s bracket, the five players of Liquid are both the first team to have ever swept the grand finals at TI, and also the first to win after dropping in the first round of the winner’s bracket. After a year of strong performances and captained by seven-time International competitor Kuro “Kuroky” Takhasomi.
Team Liquid, hot off a 2-1 series against LGD Forever Young, returned once again to a Nature’s Prophet for Ivan “MinD_ContRoL” Borislavov Ivanov in game 1. Prophet’s ability to maneuver around the map and pressure opponents early made Ivanov a strong presence early on, securing a series of kills and helping put Liquid up six kills in six minutes. Despite brief signs of life from Newbee, a full team wipe inside the Radiant base led to a tap-out at 27 minutes, putting Liquid up one game in the best-of-five finals.
In game 2, it was Newbee’s turn to take the steering wheel, especially for Song “Sccc” Chun. With Nature’s Prophet finally banned out, early skirmishes kept going in Newbee’s favor and Liquid became fodder, biding time for Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi’s Alchemist’s to accumulate the items he would need to take back control of the game.
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Though it looked bleak, enough time was bought and Liquid broke the high ground at 29 minutes after a massive misplay from Damien “kpii” Chok, who leaped into battle and burned his ultimate on an unnoticed Linken’s Sphere (an item can block single-target spells like Legion Commander’s Duel).
Team Liquid, coming in from the loser’s bracket, closed out the match and were sitting on a 2-0 lead against Newbee, with one game between the team and a $10 million finish. At this point, Newbee needed to stay alive, Liquid needed just one game, and beach balls of unknown origin were flooding Key Arena.
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Early trades back and forth set the tempo for game 3. Both teams sought the early advantage, with only a mild difference of gold separating them. Gradually, Newbee started to establish a lead, using the vision and presence of Venomancer’s wards to control the map. One fight at Roshan’s pit swung the lead back to Liquid, thanks to a massive Echo Slam from one of the tournament’s breakout players, Maroun “GH” Merhej. Liquid secured a foothold, and despite the reviving Aegis expiring literally moments prior to a death, the Western team continued to slowly siege the Newbee base, inching ever-closer to an historic win.
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One final fight sealed the deal, handing Liquid the Aegis and a multi-million dollar win, capping off an incredible two weeks of Dota 2. |
For several weeks, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her allies in the mainstream media claimed that any concerns about her health were mere conspiracy theories.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel even mocked those concerns in late August by having the former Secretary of State open a pickle jar on his desk. She used that appearance to dismiss any health concerns as “part of the wacky strategy, just say all these crazy things and maybe you can get some people to believe you.”
Ari Rabin-Havt (who once falsely accused this author of being a Birther) mocked what he called “Hillary health trutherism,” likening it to the Birther conspiracy theories about Barack Obama. On Aug. 21, he wrote: “Like the birthers of the Obama era, Hillary health truthers base their accusations on a convoluted mix of conspiracy theories, exaggerations and outright lies that forces believers to willfully ignore any evidence to the contrary while twisting themselves into logical pretzels.”
Melissa Jeltsen, senior reporter for the Huffington Post, wrote on Aug. 26 that those raising questions about Hillary Clinton’s health were simply misogynists: “The subtext of the rumors spouted by Trump and his crew of armchair doctors is clear: Clinton is biologically unfit to lead. She’s a woman, after all … Let’s get real: The wild conspiracy theories around Clinton’s health are a convenient way to mask misogyny inside “legitimate” medical concerns … That’s sexism, plain and simple.”
Comedian Sarah Silverman was more direct, saying that those questioning Hillary Clinton’s health were “fucking assholes.”
Now that Clinton has been forced to take several days off the campaign trail after collapsing at the 9/11 Memorial on Sunday in New York, the truth is beginning to emerge: she has major health issues that even her supporters have long noticed.
Some in the media, like Vox, still cling to the hope that it is all a conspiracy theory.
But even Jimmy Kimmel had to admit Wednesday night: “You know, these conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health would be a lot harder to believe if they didn’t actually come true.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. |
Several public interest groups allege that AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) are forcing mobile carriers to charge higher prices for customers.
The groups claim that so-called roaming charges amount to "monopoly rent" the two biggest U.S. carriers use to prevent other companies from offering even lower prices. That harms competition, limits consumer choice and results in higher costs for mobile phone users, they say.
Individual mobile carriers have their own wireless networks, but often must use those of another carrier to complete a call or transfer data. Roaming charges are the bills mobile carriers send each other for that borrowed network use. The amounts are effectively like electronic road tolls. Because AT&T and Verizon are dominant and have the largest mobile networks, other carriers often must use that infrastructure.
The concern is that if the roaming rates are set high enough, smaller carriers must artificially increase prices for their customers. Unable to offer lower prices, these carriers are hamstrung in trying to compete with Verizon and AT&T in ways that might lower prices for consumers.
Carrier T-Mobile has asked the Federal Communications Commission for guidance regarding what kind data-roaming arrangements are deemed by the agency to be commercially reasonable. The company raised the question of whether other carriers -- specifically AT&T and Verizon -- charge "artificially high" rates that can exceed the "relevant retail rate" or the amounts charged to foreign carriers when their subscribers using roaming services in the U.S.
According to an FCC filing by Public Knowledge, Common Cause, Benton Foundation and the New America Foundation, there is "dysfunction in the roaming market" that creates "anticompetitive harm." As the groups wrote:
The ability of AT&T and Verizon to impose artificially high data roaming costs on rivals (or deny data roaming altogether) allows AT&T and Verizon to maintain artificially high prices for their own customers. In addition, AT&T and Verizon can maintain a highly aggressive cap on data usage, coupled with significant overage charges, by denying competitors such as T-Mobile the ability to offer truly unlimited data packages. As documented by T-Mobile in their Petition , the high price of data roaming effectively prohibits T-Mobile from offering uncapped and unthrottled mobile broadband access by making it impossible to offer such packages at anything close to an affordable price.
AT&T declined a request for comment. Instead, the company pointing to a company blog post that stated in part, "There is no justification for granting T-Mobile's petition -- in fact, according to T-Mobile's own economist, wholesale roaming rates have trended 'downward strongly' in recent years, and the average wholesale roaming rates paid by T-Mobile have fallen nearly 70 percent since 2011 and continue to decline."
In a FCC filing responding to T-Mobile's claims, Verizon Wireless said that since April 2011 the company has entered or renewed 48 data-roaming agreements and that since then average data-roaming charges have declined by roughly 40 percent. |
Few Americans outside the world of government or think tanks worry much about World War III. Beyond what appears on cable news or in newspaper headlines, dinner table issues like jobs, health care, paying for education, worrying about retirement, and the future—even fears of a lone-gunman or terrorist attacking friends and loved ones—are dominant in most American families.
Yet, after 16 years of continued American military engagement from the northern shores of Africa, through the Middle East and Persian Gulf, to the Afghan-Pakistan border, the Pentagon has been directed to begin planning for deterring—and, if necessary, winning—what could be World War III. The assumed enemies are Russia and China, or a lesser conflict against North Korea or Iran, while concurrently fighting the Islamic State (IS) and other Jihadi groups. This guidance is called the “four plus one matrix,” the four being the named states and the “one” IS. And this planning effort is no secret.
A more polite phrase is coping with what this administration calls “great power competition.” The great powers are a rising China flexing it military muscles and militarizing islets in the various Chinese seas, and a resurgent Russia occupying parts of Ukraine, annexing Crimea, and rescuing the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, while interfering in domestic elections and politics of various NATO states—particularly ours. If war comes with Russia or China, both must be defeated.
But what does it take to deter Russia or China from a war that neither wants in the first place? And what does it take to win such a war if it were to start? Perhaps most importantly, what will it take to prevent oRussia and China from actions that—although well short of war—otherwise challenge or harm our interests?
War with either country would be global. Against Russia, it would almost certainly involve nuclear and thermonuclear weapons of existential proportions. The last global war was World War II. Over 12 million Americans served in uniform then. Assuming it would take a military consisting of about 10-15 percent of the population—as it did 70-plus years ago—are we seriously considering putting 30-40 million Americans in uniform?
Even during the height of the Cold War, when fighting two-and-a-half wars—big wars against Russia and China, and a half war in Korea or the Middle East—the active duty force consisted of about three million in uniform, with 300,000 deployed in Europe to deter Soviet attack. Are we going to replicate a force of that size to deter or defeat an adversary?
The smarter approach is to confront any great power competition more realistically. Basing this competition largely, if not entirely, on military power is a prescription for failure. Consider how during the Cold War both Republican and Democratic administrations were obsessed with the threat of “godless, monolithic Communism” and the domino theory in which Moscow and Beijing would topple friendly regimes. That flawed perception led to the Vietnam debacle which President Lyndon Johnson once rationalized as “stopping the Commies on the Mekong and not on the Mississippi.”
Is the United States falling into a similar trap of militarizing our response to this so-called great power competition, much as we allowed dominoes to dominant strategy in the Cold War? That does not mean we do not need a strong military, or that a capable, ready, and deployed force does not have deterrent value in many situations.
Nor does this mean that after many years of war in which either the enemy army was easily crushed, as in Iraq—or lacked real armies, navies and air forces—should we be reluctant to bring back skills needed in a war against a well-equipped, trained, modern force. North Korea is a good example of this type of enemy.
However, this does mean that any competitions with Russia and China are better met politically, economically, diplomatically and ideologically. The more allies and friends we have, the better competition can be managed. By making things into a binary conflict against Russia or China, we forget that both world wars and the Cold War were won in largest part because of our allies.
Unfortunately, American politics today has become an adversarial process of us against them, with both political parties in constant, mortal conflict with the other. The result is a government that is at best dysfunctional, if not broken. By overly militarizing any great power competition, we risk a similar outcome on a global scale. The consequences of that could make Vietnam look like a fist fight.
Dr. Harlan Ullman has served on the Senior Advisory Group for Supreme Allied Commander Europe and is currently senior adviser at Washington D.C.’s Atlantic Council and Business Executives for National Security, chairman of two private companies and principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. He commanded a destroyer in the Persian Gulf and led over 150 missions and operations in Vietnam as a Swift Boat skipper. His next book due out this year is Anatomy of Failure: Why America Loses Wars It Starts. Find him on Twitter @harlankullman. |
From P2P Foundation
Text
By Marco Fioretti et al.:
"Introduction
In the modern world, more and more documents and services are made available in digital format. Even if it can be a source of huge progress for all humankind, this phenomenon often happens through technologies which become obsolete in a few years, are incompatible with each other or cannot be afforded by everybody. This fact creates serious obstacles to a really free communication among people, to the preservation of the cultural and spiritual heritage of humankind and to the diffusion of the Word of God.
The mission of the Church can be slowed down also when Her documents, from Holy Scriptures to Encyclicals and other official texts, cannot be distributed freely.
In addition to this, often many Catholics commit a crime, even if only for lack of adequate information,by using illegally installed proprietary software.
The Catholic Church and all Catholics cannot afford anymore to ignore these problems, because they interfere with Her/their mission and because practicable alternatives already exist.
Declaration
On the basis of official Church documents like Encyclicals [Free Software's surprising sympathy with Catholic doctrine] and CEI directorates [Software Libero, Comunicazione e Missione], we are convinced that there are strong ideal affinities between Christianity, the philosophy of Free Software [The Free Software Definition] and the adoption of Open Formats and Protocols [The Frequently Asked Questions of the Eleutheros Project]. We believe it is evident that the usage of such instruments is much more in line with Catholic Doctrine than fully closed, non Free solutions.
Definition
Elèutheros is an association of Catholics whose mission is to serve the Catholic Church through promotion and development of an always increasing harmony between the doctrinal principles mentioned above and the concrete choices made in the Information Technology field at all levels in the ecclesiastical world: from Parishes to Dioceses, from School to Congregations, up to Bishop Conferences and the Vatican itself.
Objectives
For the reasons mentioned above, Elèutheros intends to:
engage in the study of the Scriptures and the Ecclesiastical Teaching, of classical texts and, in general, of Catholic literature, in order to highlight references, ideas and principles which may sustain the ethical values of Free Software and the adoption of Open Formats and Protocols.
increase among Catholics the awareness of the importance of Free Software and Open Formats and Protocols, as well as their ethical values.
Regardless of which software is adopted, propose that only Open Formats and Protocols are used, by all Catholic Organizations to store or manage any kind of digital data, like for example text, images or music. Only this can guarantee that all digital documents are completely accessible to everybody, including those who cannot afford state of the art computers or the purchase of proprietary software, and above all that such documents remain available forever.
propose that, whenever it is possible, Free Software is used instead of proprietary software in all Catholic Organizations.
Request that, without exception, teaching of programming and basic Information Technology in all Catholic Schools and Universities is performed using Free Software.
Promote, towards all Ecclesiastical Organizations, the creation of directives which require the mandatory adoption, in all Catholic organizations, of the IT solutions proposed by Elèutheros, giving absolute priority to Open Formats.
Promote, in all Ecclesiastical Organizations, methods of distribution of all Catholic documents which guarantee the greatest diffusion of the Gospel and of the Church message.
Contacts with other denominations
Catholic inspiration and action for, and inside, the Catholic Church are at the center of the Elèutheros mission. This said, Elèutheros hopes that there will be cooperation with other Christian groups of any denomination, in order to achieve the goals of Elèutheros. Even cooperation or common activities with non-Christian religious groups is not excluded." |
Obamacare Enrollment Triggers Drop In The Uninsured Rate
Enlarge this image toggle caption Julie Jacobson/AP Julie Jacobson/AP
The percentage of Americans without health insurance dropped by nearly three percentage points between 2013 and 2014, according the U.S. Census Bureau, from 13.3 to 10.4 percent. Put another way, 8.8 million more people were insured in 2014 than the year before.
The annual study from Census is considered the definitive measure of health insurance, although a change in the way health insurance questions are asked make this year's report comparable to 2013 but not earlier years.
Census officials, however, point out that a different annual survey that has asked health insurance questions consistently show this to be the biggest drop in the uninsured since at least 2008.
Others say the sizable increase in Americans with insurance — due in large part to the implementation of the federal health law — is unprecedented since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago.
"It's probably the biggest drop ever," said Paul Fronstin, director of health research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, who has been studying the uninsured since 1993.
More importantly, said Diane Rowland, head of the Kaiser Family Foundation's Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, "the gains are exactly where the biggest problems were," meaning the largest increases in coverage were in those groups with traditionally the highest rates of uninsurance — younger, working-age adults and people with low and moderate incomes. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
Despite the gains, the Census study found that 33 million people are without insurance.
While the gains in insurance coverage were widespread, they weren't equal in every category. Not surprisingly, among types of coverage, the biggest increases were in people covered by Medicaid (up 2 percentage points to 62 million people) and people buying their own health plans (up 3.2 percentage points to 14.6 million people). Expanding Medicaid and making private insurance easier to purchase by those without employer coverage were key focuses of the health law.
But the largest single source of health insurance remains employers. That number held steady at around 55 percent.
The uninsured rate dropped for every age, income and ethnic group and in every state, although, again, some gained more than others.
Those at the lower end of the income scale were more likely to gain insurance than those with more resources. The uninsurance rate for households earning less than $25,000 per year dropped 4.3 percentage points. The rate for those with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000 dropped 5 points. The uninsurance rate for those earning more than $100,000 annually dropped too, but by less than a percentage point.
Similarly, the uninsured rate for the white non-Hispanic population (the ethnicity most likely to have insurance) dropped by just over 2 percentage points, while the rates for blacks, Asian-Americans and Hispanics dropped by more than 4 percentage points each.
Among states, Massachusetts (which began requiring most people to have insurance in 2006) had the lowest rate of people without coverage, at 3.3 percent, while Texas continued to lead the nation with the highest uninsured rate — 19.1 percent.
States that expanded Medicaid, however, saw overall gains in insurance — not just Medicaid — that were larger than those that didn't. For example, people with incomes above poverty but less than four times that (most of whom aren't eligible for Medicaid) still saw an overall decline in uninsurance of 6.4 percentage points in states that expanded Medicaid, while states that didn't take that option saw that rate drop by only 4 percentage points. |
WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - New York is investigating whether Mylan Pharmaceuticals violated antitrust laws in its contracts to provide EpiPens to some school systems, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement on Tuesday.
A person briefed on the matter said Schneiderman’s office has subpoenaed documents from Mylan over the EpiPen program.
“If Mylan engaged in anti-competitive business practices, or violated antitrust laws with the intent and effect of limiting lower cost competition, we will hold them accountable,” Schneiderman said in a statement.
“Allergy sufferers have enough concerns to worry about — the availability of life-saving medical treatment should not be one of them,” he said.
There have been allegations that schools which used Mylan’s EpiPen4Schools program, which gives many schools the devices for free, were contractually barred from buying products from Mylan competitors for a year. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Amy Klobuchar asked the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday to investigate the claims.
Mylan did not address possible antitrust implications in a statement issued on Tuesday, but said it had already scrapped some contractual restrictions. It also said it had provided 700,000 of the devices free of charge to some 65,000 schools.
“Previously, schools who wished to purchase EpiPen Auto-Injectors beyond those they were eligible to receive free under the program could elect to do so at a certain discount level with a limited purchase restriction, but such restriction no longer remains,” spokeswoman Lauren Kashtan said in an emailed statement.
Mylan has been criticized - including by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - for sharp price increases for EpiPens, often carried by people with life-threatening allergies. Mylan raised the price from about $100 in 2008 to about $600 currently. The company has offered some discounts but this has done little to allay concerns. |
Baby-faced woman, 21, faces life in jail after leading vigilante gang who murdered teenager falsely accused of rape
Emma Hall, 21, convicted of murdering 18-year-old Luke Harwood
Her two friends were also convicted of murder
They battered and then murdered the teenager on wasteland in May
18-year-old had pointed him to Hall during chance meeting and claimed he sexually assaulted her TWO YEARS earlier
Savage: Emma Hall, 21, is facing a life sentence for leading a vigilante gang who tortured and brutally killed a teenager wrongly accused of rape
A woman is facing a life sentence for leading a vigilante gang who tortured and brutally killed a teenager wrongly accused of rape.
Emma Hall, 21, of Romford, showed no emotion as she was found guilty of murdering Luke Harwood, 18, at the Old Bailey.
Her friends James Danby, 27, and Tony O’Toole, 30, were also convicted of murder.
Mr Harwood was savagely beaten to death in May last year after an 18-year-old girl pointed him out to Hall during a chance meeting and claimed she had been raped by him two years before.
She had made a complaint to police but the matter was dropped when she withdrew the allegation.
Police found no evidence that a rape had taken place.
The teenager and Hall were visiting friends at a house in Romford, Essex, where Mr Harwood was also staying.
He was beaten up in a room and dumped on wasteland in Woodford Green, east London.
Simon Denison QC, prosecuting, said: 'She told the others that he was the person she had told Hall about at the time who had raped her.
'The men, over a prolonged period of time, severely beat him up by punching and kicking him to the head, so he was bleeding heavily from his injuries and his face was terribly swollen.'
Hall then drove Danby and O’Toole and Mr Harwood to a lane where he was taken to the bank of a stream and 'finished off'.
False accusation: Luke Harwood was just 18 when the gang attacked and murdered him
Mr Denison said: 'They killed him by punching and kicking him and stamping on his head many, many times.
'The bones in his face were crushed.'
The killers then bought petrol and set fire to their bloody clothing, before cleaning up bloodstains at the house.
The following evening, Hall drove them and another man to the spot where the body had been covered with a mattress and other rubbish.
Killers: James Danby and Tony O'Toole were also convicted of murder. They punched, kicked and stomped Luke Harwood to death
Billy Duggan was found guilty of perverting the course of justice
Mr Denison said: 'They had with them knives and a pair of bolt cutters that they were intending to use to mutilate his body to make it more difficult for him to be identified by cutting off his fingers and removing his teeth.'
But Hall had secretly tipped off police to divert guilt from herself, and officers were waiting for them when they arrived.
Mr Denison told the jury: 'His murder was quite extraordinarily callous, violent and brutal.'
Two years earlier, the teenage girl had claimed she was raped 'but when what she was saying was examined more closely by police, it was clear that she was not in fact saying that he had raped her', added Mr Denison.
Hall and Danby were also found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and perverting justice.
O’Toole was also found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice along with Danby.
Billy Duggan, 21, was found guilty of perverting justice and conspiracy to pervert justice.
The defendants, who were all from Romford, were remanded in custody to be sentenced next week.
Jovan Roberts, 28, was cleared of murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and Khalid Hassan, 20, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert justice. They were discharged.
Grief: Caroline Harwood (left), the mother of victim Luke Harwood outside the Old Bailey today |
The Carolina Panthers might have greater needs than defensive tackle, but it's likely they're at least tempted by taking a standout at the position from their own backyard.
Larry Ogunjobi, a projected second-round selection out of University of North Carolina at Charlotte, performed well at the combine, opening eyes in the process. Ogunjobi has also made a fan of a Panthers player: defensive end Charles Johnson. The 10-year NFL veteran sent out the following tweet on Tuesday, indicating he wouldn't mind having Ogunjobi as a teammate.
True story: I want to see @Mr_Ogunjobi land on a team or the panthers. Only kid I know hit me on a consistent basis on how to become a pro — charles johnson (@randywattson) March 14, 2017
Carolina already has depth at defensive tackle and went high in the draft at the position last year with first-round selection Vernon Butler, so it remains to be seen if it would spend a second-round selection on Ogunjobi. But general manager Dave Gettleman likes his hogmollies, and it has to be tempting to him if he falls come draft day.
Not to mention - as of now - Kawann Short is only locked up for one more year (although he could be extended this offseason or next), and Star Lotulelei is heading into the final year of his contract. So the Panthers could help solidify the future of the position by investing in Ogunjobi.
The 6-foot-3, 305-pounder was a first-team All-Conference USA selection as a senior, accumulating 65 tackles and 13.5 tackles for loss. |
We may have seen the start of something unique to Canadian soccer on Sunday night. A league in which the Supporters of each team work together for the common good of the beautiful game rather than despise one another. If you have been paying attention, you know that Supporters Groups, optimistically supporting non-existent teams in a non-existent league, have been cropping up across the country. If you haven’t been paying attention, head over to January’s Rumour Roundup and scroll to the bottom of the page. In a coming together that was typically Canadian, representatives from the groups in Halifax, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Regina, and Winnipeg joined together via conference call to talk about their CPL hopes and dreams. They were joined by Paul Beirne, a key executive for the new league, whose main message was to keep going. “Don’t wait – just get going and start building things”.
Halifax Wanderers
https://twitter.com/Wanderers_SG
James Covey from Halifax kicked things off, telling the group about the fantastic relationship that has been established between the supporters and Sports & Entertainment Atlantic, the ownership group driving the Halifax bid. They held their first meeting on February 8th, 2017 and were “pleased to welcome Patrick Lowe, from Generation Adidas, who is working with Sports & Entertainment (SEA) on the bid for the Halifax CPL club”. Lowe has helped SEA to make educated requests for constructing the future temporary stadium, and the city has already put out a tender for resurfacing the field that takes into account these future stadium considerations. Covey informed the group that the city has “three vender bids for actual stadium construction. They have stadium concepts. Supporter section on one end, beer garden on the other”.
Covey made the point that the city was already behind the team, sharing that Mayor Mike Savage told Derek Martin, the President of SEA, that “this has to happen”. Another point of positivity was the fact that SEA seems to have recognized the importance of the fans already in this stage of development. “They seem to get the whole thing of not trying to run our show, our side of things”, Covey explained. The Halifax group will certainly continue to grow, especially as more news is released.
Barton St. Battalion, Hamilton
https://twitter.com/BartonBattalion
James Hutton from Hamilton was up next, representing the oldest CPL Supporter’s group- it will be reaching a year of age within the next couple of months. Hutton discussed how being around for that amount of time comes with its own challenges. “We’re in a unique space”, he explains, “we’re still trying to grow, but there’s only so much you can do without having the product yet”. The Hamilton group has been privileged to have an ownership group that has been active in promoting the league, and has been open about their ambitions from the start. Bob Young, the owner of the Tiger Cats and future owner of the Hamilton CPL team, has expressed a great deal of enthusiasm, and has also opened his organization to input from the Battalion members by sending representatives to attend some of their meetings. Although there has been less noise lately from the ownership group, the Battalion continues to soldier on – holding regular events and viewing parties. They have also been able to win some media attention, becoming the feature of a Hamilton Spectator article on the development of a local professional soccer team.
Grand River Union, Kitchener-Waterloo
https://twitter.com/grusupport
Continuing to travel west across the country, Levi Oakey and this writer shared what is happening with the Kitchener-Waterloo group. I was excited to share the progress that Grand River Union Supporters have already made in mobilizing the local community to come out to events. After meeting each other as a result of our mutual love of soccer over Facebook, we began to discuss the prospect of creating a supporter’s group to promote the idea of a CPL team in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Barry MacLean, the owner of the PDL team KW United, was already enthusiastic about moving KW United up to become a professional club. This meant that Jeff Hughs, a representative of the club, attended Grand River Union’s inaugural meeting on January 10th and encouraged the group to keep moving forward.
Oakey elaborated on the history of KW United and the supporters around it. Oakey was involved in the founding of Forsyth Machine, which had been the original supporter group of the local PDL team. Oakey told the group how “we started Forsyth Machine to mobilize around KW United, but we found it hard to get people from around the area to come out. The idea of a CPL team has brought out a much wider group of people”. Grand River Union has made bringing a diverse group of people together their priority. Oakey explained how they have “approached the local refugee centre a number of times. They’ve told us that football is a real need, connecting people with the society”. In one of their latest events, the group was able to get a great showing of families to come to a viewing party for the Women’s Bronze Celebration Match.
Winnipeg
https://twitter.com/WpgCanPLSG
Adam Johnston from Winnipeg updated the group on the progress they have made so far in mobilizing support for a local team. Their first meeting was held in late January, and “about eight to nine people showed up, which isn’t bad for a rainy January night in Winnipeg”. At the meeting, the group discussed all of the rumblings of the CPL, and decided that they “should rally behind the Winnipeg PDL team”. Johnston shared that the group decided to take a bit of a wait-and-see approach before developing a name and really diving into promotion. “Once the name is announced”, Johnston shared, “we’ll get some ideas on what to name the supporter’s group. We’re really waiting for more information, and are wanting to just support local soccer”.
Pile O’ Bones, Regina
https://twitter.com/POB_SG
Last of the supporter groups represented (but certainly not least), was Rob Notenboom from Regina. Notenboom gave a bit of history about the group that had amassed around the hoped-for CPL team in Regina, explaining how “lots of us have travelled a lot, a lot of us have done the supporters thing”, but there’s “quite a disconnect between the 10 of us who are the converted, and anyone else in Regina”. Despite this, Notenboom is optimistic about the future of the Pile O’ Bones Supporters. He believes that despite the mix of people who are “between disbelief and yeah that would be really cool tell me when it happens” mentality, the lack of enthusiasm in the wider population “will be overcome pretty quickly once we get some franchise information”. Notenboom echoed some of the other groups in saying the group doesn’t “want to end up pushing anyone away. Big tent mentality, this is their place; everyone is welcome here”. Pile O’ Bones will be attending the WCP Cup in Regina, which is a large and successful open soccer tournament held each year in the EventPlex. It will hopefully be a great opportunity for “10 guys to go and make a little show”. They have a “plan to go and pull out the Canadian chants and give some information” about the CPL and Pile O’ Bones.
Project Manager, CPL
https://twitter.com/Paulbeirne
The little band of soccer pioneers were very excited to have Paul Beirne as a part of the conference call, and freely peppered him with questions. Beirne was a great sport, and did his best to answer the many queries that flew at him; although some answers were understandably not forthcoming due to the need for nondisclosure by the league. One of the main messages that Beirne had for the group was to keep moving forward, keep driving enthusiasm. “I heard some people say we’re not doing much until we have more information”, he said, “I can tell you that owners get really energized when they hear that things are happening out there in their city”. He explained how “it’s almost a mutual appreciation society. The owners want to get some feedback and hear they’re doing something that people like”. Beirne also encouraged all of the groups to get involved in recruitment. He expressed how each supporters group should “be representative of whatever your community represents”, and encouraged the groups to think about ways to recruit.
When asked about any forthcoming announcement, Beirne explained that “we’re purposely at a quiet time”. He went on to encourage the group by saying “you can take some energy from the fact that we are in this quiet time and are very busy”. Since there is “no blueprint for how to start a professional league like this”, a lot of work needs to be done. He did explain that we should hopefully be able to see an announcement in the coming months. Beyond that, 2026 is the lightning rod for the movers and shakers of the CPL. The hope is that the CSA will be able to make a solid bid to host the World Cup in 2026, and “we’ve got to improve the Canadian player pool to the degree that we’ve earned a place in that global conversation”.
On the growth of the league after its inception, Beirne is confident that in 10 years time the league will have 12 clubs participating. He anticipates that the league will start with 6, grow to eight quickly, and then continue to grow. When asked if he can confirm the league will start with 6 teams, Beirne said “No, that’s a variable. But if I was a betting man I’d say 6, but we’d know who the 7th and 8th are”. When asked about the Voyageurs Cup, Beirne tantalized the group by simply saying “There’s a really good reason for optimism in that tournament, but I can’t tell you more”.
For now, those driving the Supporters movement for the CPL must be satisfied with the comfort that Paul Beirne and the CSA continue to work toward kickoff. The coming together of these groups is a step in the right direction in mobilizing the nation behind the beautiful game, and hopefully preparing Canada for the CPL’s success.
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Nathanael Martin Nathanael is a Political Theory MA graduate Not-For-Profit Professional who spends way too much of his time reading about, writing on, and watching the beautiful game. After playing soccer throughout childhood, his love was rekindled when Toronto FC gave him the opportunity to cheer for a local soccer team on the national stage. Since then, he has become passionate about Canadian soccer and the development of Canadian players through the Toronto Academy system and other branches of Canadian soccer.
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MEXICO CITY — The Mexican attorney general’s office has formally charged an active-duty general and three retired high-ranking army officials for their alleged involvement in the drug trade, another bleak reminder of the corruption threat facing the institution charged with waging war against the country's cartels.
Gen. Roberto Dawe Gonzalez, retired Gens. Tomas Angeles Dauahare and Ricardo Escorcia Vargas, and retired Lt. Col. Silvio Hernandez Soto had been held under house arrest since May. On Tuesday, they were charged with "organized crime with the intent to commit offenses against health."
Prosecutors did not divulge details of the case against the officers. But also charged in the case was U.S.-born Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal, believed to be a powerful force in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel. Valdez had been on Mexico’s most wanted list until his capture by Mexican security forces in August 2010.
In late 2006, now-outgoing Mexican President Felipe Calderon deployed the military to crack down on the drug cartels that operate with impunity in many parts of Mexico. More than 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence since then.
The Mexican army will probably continue to play a key role in the fight against organized crime under incoming President Enrique Peña Nieto, the winner of the July 1 election here. Although his Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was known to have made deals with drug gangs in the past, he has promised that he will not forge truces with them and that he will aggressively pursue their leaders.
The army, while generally held in high esteem here, has not been immune to the corrupting influence of the cartels. In 1997, the nation’s drug czar, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, was arrested, and later convicted, for protecting a leader of the Juarez cartel. Still, a Pew poll released in June found that 80% of Mexicans supported Calderon’s decision to send the army after the drug gangs.
As The Times reported in May, one of the retired generals, Angeles, had appeared at a security forum this year sponsored by the PRI. Before the election, pundits were discussing the possibility of Angeles taking a high-ranking security post in Peña Nieto’s Cabinet. He had earlier served as an assistant defense secretary under Calderon from 2006 to 2008.
Prosecutors have denied that politics played a role in the detentions of the officers. But questions are being raised about the strength of their case. According the Mexico City newspaper Reforma, the accusations are based, at least in part, on testimony from anonymous protected witnesses, a drug trafficker who has been extradited to the U.S. and another detained army officer, who have alleged that the army officers were granting protection to planes shuttling cocaine at airports in Mexico City and Cancun.
In the newspaper Mileno on Wednesday, commentator Carlos Puig warned against rushing to judgment if there wasn’t more substantial evidence.
"I have no idea if Gen. Tomas Angeles is guilty or not of what he’s been accused of," Puig wrote. "But I think [prosecutors] don’t know either."
ALSO:
Evita now graces Argentina's 100-peso note
Temporary refuge for migrants in Mexico also under threat
Spanish driver charged in crash that killed Cuban dissident
-- Richard Fausset
Photo: Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal, believed to be a powerful force in the Beltran Leyva drug cartel, was also charged in the case involving Mexican army officers. Above, he is escorted by federal police in Mexico City on Aug. 31, 2010. Credit: Henry Romero / Reuters |
Left Voice’s second issue, “Women on the Front Lines”, is now available to purchase. For every magazine sold, we will donate a dollar to a worker controlled factory in Argentina.
October 1st 2011 marked ten years of the occupation of the Zanon factory, which began in the midst of a financial crisis. What significance does this hold today?
Godoy: The fight at Zanon was a class-struggle response to the capitalist crisis in Argentina, which in those years saw the closure of almost 2000 factories.
The first response came from the organizations of unemployed workers, but then came the first factory occupations against closures and layoffs. These not only put private property into question, but also demonstrated that capitalists were not needed. The idea that “we can produce without the bosses” was repeated in different parts of the country.
Our experience shows, on a small scale, that workers are capable of providing a working-class and peoples’ solution to business closures, lockouts and unemployment. One that makes the capitalists pay for the crisis.
Over the next few weeks we will not only recall those days in which we decided to occupy the plant. We also want our struggle to serve and help many workers to prepare for the future.
And what were the main parts of this process?
The first thing we did was reclaim the comision interna (shop / factory committee) from the bureaucracy of the Montes brothers, who sold themselves to the company. We proposed some basic objectives: that all decisions would be made by asamblea (assembly / mass meeting), that all delegates would be recallable, and that the rights of both permanently employed workers and contractors would be defended equally. The unity of the workers’ ranks was one of our first lines of struggle. In this way we went to work, side by side, with a group of compañeros (comrades), from the first conflicts up until the struggle against the Zanon family’s organized evacuation of the plant, which ended with the closure of the factory.
We had a very important strike, which became a symbol of our struggle, back in 2000 when our compañero Daniel Ferrás died as a result of the poor health and safety conditions at the factory. Another milestone was our reclaiming of the union for the workers, which occurred at an historic assembly in Cutral Có in Neuquén province where we prevented the Montes bureaucracy from imposing a fraudulent junta electoral (electoral board). It was here that we won control of the union; after this, the vote was a formality because the majority of the workers already supported us. Another very important milestone was the 34 day strike in 2001. At this time we stressed to our compañeros that we would have to fight hard if we wanted to keep our jobs. “Open the accounting books that shows the millions that they have earned in previous years” was the call, and we went forward with this big strike.
Then came the occupation, five months of tents, which saw displays of enormous working-class militancy that were later put into the running of the factory. With the objective of workers’ administration, we organized production, created different sectors and commissions for marketing, purchasing, sales, health, safety, press and broadcasting, all with sector coordinators, and a leadership body that discussed the politics of economic management as well as where our struggle was heading. This was a genuine Workers’ Council: the “coordinators’ meeting”. It was a new experience for us and for thousands of workers that followed us, a school of planning that demonstrated the capacity of the working class to manage the factories.
And workers’ self-management at Zanon, in contrast to other experiences, knew it had to surround itself from the beginning with enormous support not only from other workers, but from the community. We received support from our Mapuche brothers and sisters (the original indigenous peoples of Patagonia), together with human rights groups, artists, even the prisoners in Unit 11, the prison near Zanon, who showed their solidarity by donating several days of food rations to us.
We joined with thousands of the unemployed who were fighting for real work and with students defending public education. This popularised the slogan “Zanon belongs to the people, support these workers”, which was raised by thousands of workers who saw Zanon as an example of a response to the crisis.
From the beginning we incorporated the demands of different sectors. We also raised another banner: “for a plan of public works, one that generates real jobs, housing, schools and hospitals”; all very pressing demands for a population that suffers a housing and infrastructure crisis, a crisis that leads to people’s poorly-built little houses burning down in the harsh Neuquén winters, while millions in royalties flow to the oil companies.
With the students and teachers, we jointly raised the demand for “free and secular public education” that subsequently led to the signing of a worker-university pact between our Ceramic Workers’ Union and the University of Comahue.
Our work in common with other workers’ organizations, in the face of eviction, the bureaucracy and the government, led us to promote a common organization, the Regional Coordinadora (Coordinating Committee) of Alto Valle. Workers from the factories, the public sector, health, teachers, along with organizations of the unemployed, students and the left-wing parties all came together there. It was a very important organization in Neuquén that allowed us to coordinate our actions, to organize solidarity with large actions – such as that on 8 April 2003 when the Asociación de Trabajadores de la Educación de Neuquén (ATEN – Education Workers’ Association of Neuquén) struck in support of the workers of Zanon – and to have a body for debate among workers opposed to the bureaucracy.
That experience, although it was not extended over time, was very profound. It showed us the kind of organizations of workers’ self-determination we need to organize in moments of crisis, such as that crisis we lived through in those years, and that will come to life in other parts of the world.
All of the work we undertook to unite with other working-class and popular sectors and win the community support that we counted on in those years shows, on a small scale, the potential power of the working class to lead an alliance of all sectors that suffer exploitation and oppression in this society. This alliance that can take on and defeat the capitalists. This allowed us to deal with any eviction attempt and now the attempt to economically suffocate us, which has been pushed forward by the government of the MPN (Movimiento Popular Neuquino – the governing party in the province) with the collaboration of the national government, who are both enemies of workers’ self-management.
Along with workers’ self-management, the Ceramic Workers’ Union played a fundamental role . . .
Absolutely. In the year 2000, as many know, we threw out the Montes bureaucracy. The Agrupación Marrón (Brown Group) of the SOECN, organized on the basis of a class-struggle program, was put to the test in each of these events that occurred in the province. And not only in Neuquén. We began to approach each place where there was a struggle: Mosconi in Salta, Brukman (a textile factory in Buenos Aires occupied by its workers in 2001), the oil workers, the popular assemblies, the Subte (Subterráneo – Buenos Aires Underground). We organized meetings of factories, participated in the piquetero assemblies, launched a newspaper called Nuestra Lucha (Our Struggle), everything that allowed us to unite with those sectors that were fighting against the bureaucracy and the bosses, these were our brothers and sisters. Then we proposed and launched various forms of coordination.
And amongst the ceramic workers we set ourselves the objective of revolutionizing the union. Many militant compañeros have reclaimed their organizations, but they do not fight to get rid of the bureaucratic heritage that remains. Many pass through a union, but after they lose it, everything remains the same.
For this reason, and after much discussion, debate and participation we approved the new statutes of the union: that the assembly is sovereign, that all leaders are recallable and that their positions be rotated; that minorities have representation; that the union is a class-struggle union and is therefore independent of the state, the employers and big business parties, and that it places itself at the service of the class struggle which extends beyond national borders. This is part of the program of the revolutionaries: the struggle against state control of the unions and for workers’ democracy. And we don’t stop there: we cannot simply fight – even if at times in a heroic and self-sacrificing fashion – for only purely trade-union claims. We set ourselves the most fundamental goal, the political perspective of the abolition of the exploitation of man by man.
The last step, a very important one, that we took with the compañeros of the Agrupación Marrón, was the winning of a seat, a working-class and socialist seat, in the Neuquén Legislature (provincial parliament). It has the characteristic of having won a frontline position within enemy territory, but “with banner unfurled.” We maintain cohesion and have been making the same arguments for all these years. Since 2003 a group of leaders have considered the need to make a leap from the union to the political, and we were pushing for the formation of a political tool for workers. In these elections, the constitution of the Left Front at the national level between the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS – Socialist Workers Party), the Partido Obrero (PO-Workers’ Party) and Izquierda Socialista (IS – Socialist Left) aroused a lot of enthusiasm among many workers. So we held open plenaries of the Agrupación Marrón Ceramista from the four factories, that link us together with independent compañeros, and we jointly decided to be a part of the Front in Neuquén, and to vote for Alejandro López and I to head the list of deputies. Other compañeros were added to the different lists of the Front within Neuquén. We also face the prosecution of the Kirchnerist government against the left and militant workers and now we continue to fight for the acquittal of all the workers’ and peoples’ fighters, of which there are five thousand across the country and over five hundred in the province, including many ceramic workers, among them Alejandro and myself.
Translation: Sean Robertson
In the face of the current “tarifazo” of Mauricio Macri goverment (massive hikes in electricity and gas prices) and financial hardship, Zanon workers have launched a national and international campaign to establish a Solidarity Fund in defense of workers’ self-management at the plant. Read their letter from the workers of Zanon bajo control obrero (Zanon under worker control), calling for solidarity and donations.
Please, donate to their solidarity fund by clicking below:
PayPal – The safer, easier way to pay online!
This is a translation of an article published in La Verdad Obrera (LVO – Workers’ Truth) No. 447, 6 October 2011. LVO was the newspaper of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS – Socialist Workers Party) of Argentina between 1996 and 2015. |
There are 26 achievements with a total of 300 points.
Win a complete game of Swarm without dying on Medium or harder difficulty
Complete the Stormfront level of the Campaign
Win a game on each map in Swarm on Hard or Insane difficulty (2)
Kill an enemy by dropping on them (5)
Win a ranked match in each map group in Conquest (1)
Complete the Beasts level of the Campaign
Complete the Answers level of the Campaign
Complete the Campaign on any difficulty
Defeat the Vehicle Engineer in the Prejudice level of the Campaign before he deploys a Mech (5)
Complete the Campaign on Hard difficulty (2)
Earn each Badge in ranked matches (8)
Reach level 50 in ranked matches (9)
Survive against the Elimination DCM (1)
Purchase every Vehicle and Deployable (4)
Participate in each DCM successfully in ranked matches (3)
Kill an enemy with each weapon type (1)
Kill 3 enemies in a row with the Machine Gun without reloading (4)
Fatality an enemy with the Knife (1)
Kill an enemy by colliding with them while Overdriving (1)
Kill 10 enemies with the Deployable AA Turret (1)
DLC: Overdrive Map Pack
Price: $3.99 USD Achievements: 3 Points: 50
Hack a Control Point within 30 seconds in Assault. Requires Overdrive Map Pack.
Win a ranked match on Abaddon. Requires Overdrive Map Pack.
Capture 20 Control Points in Assault. Requires Overdrive Map Pack.
DLC: Frontier Colonies Map Pack
Price: $3.99 USD Achievements: 3 Points: 50
Complete a turn without losing a Control Point in Assault. Requires Frontier Colonies Map Pack.
Win a ranked match on Desolation. Requires Frontier Colonies Map Pack. (4) |
|=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=| |=----------------------=[ Modern Binary Exploitation ]=----------------------=| |=------------------------=[ CSCI 4968 - Spring '15 ]=------------------------=| |=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=| |=------------------------------=[ by RPISEC ]=-------------------------------=| |=---------------------------=[ [email protected] ]=----------------------------=| |=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=| |=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=| |=-----------------=[ Course materials available on GitHub ]=-----------------=| |=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=| +=======+======================================================================+ | Date | Class Notes | +=======+======================================================================+ | 01/27 | --[ Syllabus and Review | | | ----------------------------------- | | | A quick overview of the syllabus, course, and what students can | | | expect to learn. Some course terminology is covered along with a | | | brief refresher of the background material required for the course. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | | | Course Syllabus: Syllabus | | | RPISEC IRC: getting on IRC | | | | | | A more complete course rundown along with contact information can be | | | found in the syllabus. Please be sure to at least read through it | | | once to understand the mechanics of the course. | | | | | | Finally, class office hours will be held at RPISEC's hack nights! | | | WHERE: Sage 3101 | | | WHEN: Wednesdays, 7-10pm | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 01/30 | --[ Tools and Basic Reverse Engineering | | | ----------------------------------- | | | We covered some of the most basic tools and their usage in reverse | | | engineering. We covered mostly static tools today, and will go more | | | in depth with dynamic tools as used in the typical reverse | | | engineering workflow next class. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | | | Intro Crackmes: challenges.zip | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/03 | --[ Extended Reverse Engineering | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This class revolved around using IDA for static analysis in parallel | | | with assembly level debugging in gdb & edb. We took a look at the | | | crackmes from last class with this reversing workflow, along with | | | the RPI & CMU bomb crackmes. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | | | Bomb Crackmes: bombs.zip | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/06 | --[ Reverse Engineering Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Our first lab focuses on basic reverse engineering. While we won't | | | be doing any heavy reverse engineering in this class, being able to | | | debug at the assembly level is a necessary skill in exploit | | | development. | | | | | | Labs will typically consists of three graded challenges of | | | increasing difficulty. You are expected to complete the C problem | | | (the easiest one) by the end of each lab period or you will take a | | | grade penalty as specified in the syllabus. The rest are typically | | | due by the start of class exactly one week later. | | | | | | Due: 2/13/2015 1:59PM EST | | | Lab: lab1.zip | | | | | | Your solutions to the lab must be submitted individually to the | | | email mbespring2015 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/10 | --[ Introduction to Memory Corruption | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Memory corruption is typically at the heart of binary exploitation | | | and is fundamental to the course. This lecture focused on classical | | | stack smashing and demonstrating the possible effects of meaningful | | | corruption. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | | | VM: http://www.nostarch.com/hackingCD.htm | | | Other Materials: lectures/5/ | | | Suggested Reading: Hacking: The Art of Exploitation | | | chapters 0x320, skim 0x330-0x342 | | | | | | Be sure to visit office hours if you have any questions, want to | | | review, or want help with the reversing lab. | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/13 | --[ Memory Corruption Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | The Warzone is an in-house wargame that we've introduced as a self | | | contained learning environment for this course. Most of the | | | exercises and labs will take place on this server for the remainder | | | of the course. | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab2C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, February 20th | | | | | | levels are in /levels/lab2/ - Start with /levels/lab2/lab2C | | | | | | Solve the challenge, get a shell, cat /home/lab2B/.pass | | | Then SSH into the Warzone with the account lab2B with that password. | | | Repeat for lab2B, then lab2A, then lab2end | | | | | | To submit, send the passwords, a description of your exploit, and | | | copy of your script or payload to mbespring2015+lab2 [at] gmail.com | | | | | | Reminder: the bonus flag does not count toward your grade | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/20 | --[ Shellcoding | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Today's class introduced the concept shellcode and how it is used in | | | classical exploitation when injecting arbitrary code into exploited | | | processes. We'll be moving into more modern uses of shellcode as we | | | get deeper into the course. | | | | | | We also cover some simple techniques to write your own shellcode, as | | | well as some tools we use to make shellcoding a more pain free | | | process. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/24 | --[ Shellcoding Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Lab today will focus on your ability to use shellcode in | | | exploitation, and your ability to write custom shellcode tailored to | | | the constraints of a given scenario. | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab3C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Tuesday 1:59pm, March 3rd | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab3 [at] gmail.com | | | | | | Lab Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 02/27 | --[ Format Strings | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Format string based vulnerabilities are less common nowadays, but | | | they are an important bug class that can be tricky to exploit. | | | | | | This lecture covers uncontrolled format string vulnerabilities and | | | how they can be abused to leak information or take control of a | | | vulnerable application. | | | | | | We will be having a format string based lab next week. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/03 | --[ Format String Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab4C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Tuesday 1:59pm, March 10th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab4 [at] gmail.com | | | | | | Lab Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/10 | --[ DEP and ROP | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Data Execution Prevention is one of the pillars of modern exploit | | | mitigation technologies. Understanding how DEP works and how it can | | | be bypassed is important in exploiting real world targets. | | | | | | This lecture covers DEP and how it can be bypassed through Return | | | Oriented Programming. We talk about some of the tools, workflow, and | | | constraints of writing ROP. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/13 | --[ ROP Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab5C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, March 20th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab5 [at] gmail.com | | | | | | Lab Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/17 | --[ Secure Systems and Game Console Exploitation | | | ----------------------------------- | | | As we already have a lab assigned and project one due directly after | | | spring break, we don't want to dive into the next subject until we | | | get back. | | | | | | To mix things up, we'll be taking a peek behind the curtain at some | | | of the bugs that brought down game consoles of our generation. | | | | | | Game consoles are among the most secure off the shelf products | | | consumers can buy, so it's interesting to look at the techincal | | | aspects of the exploits and bugs that cracked them open. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/20 | --[ Project One Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Being the Friday of spring break, we will be hosting a lab period | | | for project one. If anyone wants help or has questions, they're | | | encouraged to ask for any final help before we move into break. | | | | | | We have also released a grading rubric for the first project in case | | | you would like some guidance on what to turn in. | | | | | | Project One Rubric: PDF | | | | | | Due: Tuesday 1:59pm, March 31st | | | | | | You must submit your writeup as either a link to a blog post, or as | | | a PDF equivalent. Here is a sample CTF Writeup that we would expect | | | your project writeup to resemble. | | | | | | Submit your final writeup links and/or work to | | | mbespring2015+project1 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 03/31 | --[ Address Space Layout Randomization | | | ----------------------------------- | | | ASLR is the second big pillar in modern exploit mitigation | | | technologies. It's designed to mitigate exploits that rely on | | | hardcoded code/stack/heap addresses by randomizing the layout of | | | memory for every execution. | | | | | | This lecture covers ASLR and how it can be bypassed through info | | | leaks, partial overwrites, bruteforcing, and utilizing your crash | | | state. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/03 | --[ ASLR Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | The labs are harder this week with the bugs being less trivial to | | | spot in source and more tricky to exploit. The challenges will also | | | have more scenario and context to make them feel a bit more real. | | | | | | To mix things up even more, lab6B is a remote exploitation | | | challenge. You can expect more remote exploitation challenges as we | | | move into the final few lab sets in the course. | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab6C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Because of the delay with getting lab6B up, we have extended the due | | | time till MIDNIGHT Friday rather than by class. | | | | | | Due: Friday 11:59pm, April 10th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab6 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/07 | --[ Heap Exploitation | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Many exploits found in the wild today likely touch on the heap in | | | some form. As stack based memory corruption has grown harder to | | | utilize, the bug hunt has continued into the heap space and brought | | | rise to new classes of vulnerabilities and techniques. | | | | | | This lecture covers how the heap can be abused in exploitation | | | through heap based overflows, use after frees, heap spraying, and a | | | brief mention of allocator metadata corruption. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/10 | --[ Heap Exploitation Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | There are only two lab challenges this week. Lab 7A is a bit tricky | | | and will be a remote challenge. | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab7C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, April 17th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab7 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/14 | --[ Misc Concepts & Stack Canaries | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Smaller points and concepts that we meant to cover in the week | | | before spring break. | | | This includes a basic breakdown of common integers issues, | | | interesting things with file descriptors, and details surrounding | | | stack canaries. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/17 | --[ Misc & Canaries Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Three lab challenges focusing on misc concepts and canaries. Lab 8A | | | is a remote challenge. | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab8C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, April 24th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab8 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/21 | --[ C++ Concepts and Differences | | | ----------------------------------- | | | C++ adds a number of conviences that C lacks. Some of these | | | additions help mitigate common exploitation avenues that we are used | | | to such as string mishandling. It's harder to mess up things when | | | you have a nice std::string instead of char *'s being thrown around. | | | | | | But with C++ adding more high level structures, it also opens new | | | attack surfaces to the application, e.g. classes+vtables. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/24 | --[ C++ Concepts Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This week there's only two lab challenges and they will focus on | | | exploiting C++ based binaries. Both challenges will be remote | | | services! | | | | | | SSH: warzone.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab9C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, May 1st | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab9 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 04/28 | --[ Kernel Exploitation | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Kernel Exploitation is the process of attacking the operating system | | | itself. Vulnerabilities in the Kernel can result in full takeover of | | | a system and are among the most powerful bugs we can find. | | | | | | This lecture is an introduction to the world of kernel exploitation. | | | It covers basic kernel exploitation techniques such as NULL | | | dereferences and jump-to-userland, as well as kernel land | | | mitigations such as mmap_min_addr and SMEP/SMAP. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 05/01 | --[ Kernel Exploitation Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | We've reached the system core, but can you get root? There are two | | | lab challenges this week. | | | | | | This week we've brought a separate server online to spin up personal | | | QEMU images for you to work in and break. Unlike the Warzone, this | | | server will only be accessible from campus so you will need to VPN | | | in if you're trying to work from off campus. | | | | | | SSH: warzone-kernel.rpis.ec 22 | | | Username: lab10C | | | Password: [DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS] | | | | | | Due: Friday 1:59pm, May 8th | | | | | | Submit your final command/payload for each level and a short | | | description to mbespring2015+lab10 [at] gmail.com | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 05/04 | --[ Final Project Lab | | | ----------------------------------- | | | Class today will be a dedicated lab session to get help on the Final | | | Project. We'll be releasing a few hints and tips to help for those | | | that attend. It's wise to ask any questions or ask for help if | | | you're stuck. | | | | | | Checkpoint #2 is due by Friday 11:59pm, May 8th | | | The entire project is due by Friday 1:59pm, May 15th | | | | | | We sent the rubric out a week or two ago via email, but here it is | | | for anyone that missed it. | | | | | | Final Project Rubric: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 05/08 | --[ Exploitation on 64bit, ARM, Windows | | | ----------------------------------- | | | This course has focused exclusively on owning 32bit linux binaries, | | | but how does exploitation differ on AMD64? What about on ARM? or | | | even on a different OS like Windows? | | | | | | This lecture explores and contrasts some of the differences found on | | | the other popular architectures and operating systems we see around | | | us today. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | 05/12 | --[ Automation & The Future of Exploitation | | | ----------------------------------- | | | You've learned how leverage bugs to pwn binaries and bypass many of | | | the modern mitigation technologies seen today. But how can we do | | | these things faster, and where is the field going? | | | | | | This lecture talks a bit about fuzzing as well as a few more | | | interesting and advanced tools in vulnerability research. It ends | | | the course with a brief look into the future of binary exploitation | | | and what to expect of the field in the near future. | | | | | | Lecture Slides: PDF | +-------+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |
Significance The strong focus on species extinctions, a critical aspect of the contemporary pulse of biological extinction, leads to a common misimpression that Earth’s biota is not immediately threatened, just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss. This view overlooks the current trends of population declines and extinctions. Using a sample of 27,600 terrestrial vertebrate species, and a more detailed analysis of 177 mammal species, we show the extremely high degree of population decay in vertebrates, even in common “species of low concern.” Dwindling population sizes and range shrinkages amount to a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization. This “biological annihilation” underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction event.
Abstract The population extinction pulse we describe here shows, from a quantitative viewpoint, that Earth’s sixth mass extinction is more severe than perceived when looking exclusively at species extinctions. Therefore, humanity needs to address anthropogenic population extirpation and decimation immediately. That conclusion is based on analyses of the numbers and degrees of range contraction (indicative of population shrinkage and/or population extinctions according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature) using a sample of 27,600 vertebrate species, and on a more detailed analysis documenting the population extinctions between 1900 and 2015 in 177 mammal species. We find that the rate of population loss in terrestrial vertebrates is extremely high—even in “species of low concern.” In our sample, comprising nearly half of known vertebrate species, 32% (8,851/27,600) are decreasing; that is, they have decreased in population size and range. In the 177 mammals for which we have detailed data, all have lost 30% or more of their geographic ranges and more than 40% of the species have experienced severe population declines (>80% range shrinkage). Our data indicate that beyond global species extinctions Earth is experiencing a huge episode of population declines and extirpations, which will have negative cascading consequences on ecosystem functioning and services vital to sustaining civilization. We describe this as a “biological annihilation” to highlight the current magnitude of Earth’s ongoing sixth major extinction event.
The loss of biological diversity is one of the most severe human-caused global environmental problems. Hundreds of species and myriad populations are being driven to extinction every year (1⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓–8). From the perspective of geological time, Earth’s richest biota ever is already well into a sixth mass extinction episode (9⇓⇓⇓⇓–14). Mass extinction episodes detected in the fossil record have been measured in terms of rates of global extinctions of species or higher taxa (e.g., ref. 9). For example, conservatively almost 200 species of vertebrates have gone extinct in the last 100 y. These represent the loss of about 2 species per year. Few realize, however, that if subjected to the estimated “background” or “normal” extinction rate prevailing in the last 2 million years, the 200 vertebrate species losses would have taken not a century, but up to 10,000 y to disappear, depending on the animal group analyzed (11). Considering the marine realm, specifically, only 15 animal species have been recorded as globally extinct (15), likely an underestimate, given the difficulty of accurately recording marine extinctions. Regarding global extinction of invertebrates, available information is limited and largely focused on threat level. For example, it is estimated that 42% of 3,623 terrestrial invertebrate species, and 25% of 1,306 species of marine invertebrates assessed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List are classified as threatened with extinction (16). However, from the perspective of a human lifetime it is difficult to appreciate the current magnitude of species extinctions. A rate of two vertebrate species extinctions per year does not generate enough public concern, especially because many of those species were obscure and had limited ranges, such as the Catarina pupfish (Megupsilon aporus, extinct in 2014), a tiny fish from Mexico, or the Christmas Island pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi, extinct in 2009), a bat that vanished from its namesake volcanic remnant.
Species extinctions are obviously very important in the long run, because such losses are irreversible and may have profound effects ranging from the depletion of Earth’s inspirational and esthetic resources to deterioration of ecosystem function and services (e.g., refs. 17⇓⇓–20). The strong focus among scientists on species extinctions, however, conveys a common impression that Earth’s biota is not dramatically threatened, or is just slowly entering an episode of major biodiversity loss that need not generate deep concern now (e.g., ref. 21, but see also refs. 9, 11, 22). Thus, there might be sufficient time to address the decay of biodiversity later, or to develop technologies for “deextinction”—the possibility of the latter being an especially dangerous misimpression (see ref. 23). Specifically, this approach has led to the neglect of two critical aspects of the present extinction episode: (i) the disappearance of populations, which essentially always precedes species extinctions, and (ii) the rapid decrease in numbers of individuals within some of the remaining populations. A detailed analysis of the loss of individuals and populations makes the problem much clearer and more worrisome, and highlights a whole set of parameters that are increasingly critical in considering the Anthropocene’s biological extinction crisis.
In the last few decades, habitat loss, overexploitation, invasive organisms, pollution, toxification, and more recently climate disruption, as well as the interactions among these factors, have led to the catastrophic declines in both the numbers and sizes of populations of both common and rare vertebrate species (24⇓⇓⇓–28). For example, several species of mammals that were relatively safe one or two decades ago are now endangered. In 2016, there were only 7,000 cheetahs in existence (29) and less than 5,000 Borneo and Sumatran orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus and P. abelli, respectively) (28). Populations of African lion (Panthera leo) dropped 43% since 1993 (30), pangolin (Manis spp.) populations have been decimated (31), and populations of giraffes dropped from around 115,000 individuals thought to be conspecific in 1985, to around 97,000 representing what is now recognized to be four species (Giraffa giraffa, G. tippelskirchi, G. reticulata, and G. camelopardalis) in 2015 (32).
An important antecedent to our work (25) used the number of genetic populations per unit area and then estimated potential loss on the basis of deforestation estimates and the species–area relationship (SAR). Given the recognized limitations of the use of SAR to estimate extinctions, our work provides an approach based on reduction of species range as a proxy of population extirpation. The most recent Living Planet Index (LPI) has estimated that wildlife abundance on the planet decreased by as much as 58% between 1970 and 2012 (4). The present study is different from LPI and other related publications in several ways, including that here we use all decreasing species of vertebrates according to IUCN, mapping and comparing absolute and relative numbers of species, and focusing on population losses. Previous estimates seem validated by the data we present here on the loss of local populations and the severe decrease in the population size of many others (see also refs. 3, 4, 6⇓–8, 26). Here we examine the magnitude of losses of populations of land vertebrate species on a global system of 10,000-km2 quadrats (Methods). Species vary from common to rare, so that our analysis, which includes all land vertebrate species (amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals) deemed as “decreasing” by IUCN, provides a better estimate of population losses than using exclusively IUCN data on species at risk. Obviously, common species decreasing are not ordinarily classified as species at risk. IUCN criteria provide quantitative thresholds for population size, trend, and range size, to determine decreasing species (28, 33). We also evaluate shrinking ranges and population declines for 177 species of mammals for which data are available on geographic range shrinkage from ∼1900 to 2015. We specifically focus on local extinctions by addressing the following questions: (i) What are the numbers and geographic distributions of decreasing terrestrial vertebrate species (i.e., experiencing population losses)? (ii) What are the vertebrate groups and geographic regions that have the highest numbers and proportions of decreasing species? (iii) What is the scale of local population declines in mammals—a proxy for other vertebrates? By addressing these questions, we conclude that anthropogenic population extinctions amount to a massive erosion of the greatest biological diversity in the history of Earth and that population losses and declines are especially important, because it is populations of organisms that primarily supply the ecosystem services so critical to humanity at local and regional levels.
Results Patterns of Variation in Population Loss Among Vertebrates. Considering all land vertebrates, our spatially explicit analyses indicate a massive pulse of population losses, with a global epidemic of species declines. Those analyses support the view that the decay of vertebrate animal life is widespread geographically, crosses phylogenetic lineages, and involves species ranging in abundance from common to rare (Figs. 1–4). The losses, however, are not uniform: some regions exhibit higher concentrations of species with local population extinctions than others, including a strong latitudinal signal corresponding to an intertropical peak (i.e., roughly between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn) of number of decreasing species, particularly strong in mammals and birds, which largely drive the overall land vertebrate pattern (Fig. 3, Center). Notably, some parts of the planet harbor low absolute numbers of vertebrate species undergoing decline (Figs. 2 and 3), such as those areas of low species richness located in hypercold (northernmost locations, particularly of the Western Hemisphere) and hyperarid (Saharan Africa and Central Asia) regions. However, it is instructive to examine their corresponding proportional numbers, an aspect we discuss in detail in another section below. Fig. 1. Decreasing land vertebrates, as exemplified with these four species, include taxa with different conservation status (e.g., low concern, critically endangered), current geographic range (e.g., large, very restricted), and abundance (e.g., common, rare). The data on conservation status, current geographic range, and abundance are from IUCN (28). Barn swallow image courtesy of Daniel Garza Galindo (photographer). Fig. 2. Global distribution of terrestrial vertebrate species according to IUCN (28). (Left) Global distribution of species richness as indicated by number of species in each 10,000-km2 quadrat. (Center) Absolute number of decreasing species per quadrat. (Right) Percentage of species that are suffering population losses in relation to total species richness per quadrat. The maps highlight that regions of known high species richness harbor large absolute numbers of species experiencing high levels of decline and population loss (particularly evident in the Amazon, the central African region, and south/southeast Asia), whereas the proportion of decreasing species per quadrat shows a strong high-latitude and Saharan Africa signal. In addition, there are several centers of population decline in both absolute and relative terms (Borneo, for example). Fig. 3. Latitudinal distribution of species richness (Left), decreasing species (Center), and the percentage of species (Right) that are suffering population losses in relation to total species richness, in each 10,000-km2 quadrat. Patterns of species richness in relation to latitude are similar in all vertebrates, although there are more species per quadrat in birds and mammals and, as expected, a scarcity of reptiles and amphibians at high latitudes. The patterns of number of species with decreasing populations indicate that regions with high species richness also have high numbers of decreasing species, but the percentage of decreasing species in relation to species richness shows contrasting patterns between mammals and birds compared with reptiles and amphibians. In mammals and birds, the percentage of decreasing species is relatively similar in regions with low and high species richness. In contrast, there are proportionally more decreasing species of reptiles and amphibians in regions with low species richness. Fig. 4. The percentage of decreasing species classified by IUCN as “endangered” (including “critically endangered,” “endangered,” “vulnerable,” and “near-threatened”) or “low concern” (including “low concern” and “data-deficient”) in terrestrial vertebrates. This figure emphasizes that even species that have not yet been classified as endangered (roughly 30% in the case of all vertebrates) are declining. This situation is exacerbated in the case of birds, for which close to 55% of the decreasing species are still classified as “low concern.” The number of decreasing species of all land vertebrates in each of the 10,000-km2 quadrats over Earth’s land surface ranges from a few to more than 365 (Fig. 2). As expected, large concentrations of decreasing vertebrate species occur in species-rich areas of moist tropical forests adjacent to mountainous regions, such as the Andes–Amazon region, the Congo basin-adjacent eastern African highlands, and the Himalayas–south Asian jungle belt. The distribution of the number of decreasing species considering vertebrate classes separately reveals notable differences. First, the maximum number of decreasing species in a 10,000-km2 quadrat varies from a high value of 296 decreasing birds per quadrat, to a low maximum of 60 decreasing reptiles in a quadrat. Second, mammals and birds have relatively similar distribution patterns of decreasing species, except that birds have more decreasing species in the temperate zones. Third, mammals and birds have patterns of decreasing species quite distinct from those of reptiles and amphibians (Figs. 2 and 3), given that the latter are rarer in the northern and southern temperate and subpolar regions (both are essentially absent from the Arctic and are missing from the Antarctic). Fourth, reptiles and amphibians clearly differ from each other in regions where decreasing species are concentrated. For example, there are more decreasing reptiles in the Eurasian and African continents, and more decreasing amphibians in the Americas. There is also great variation in the total population size and geographic ranges among individual species. Although there is no accurate information on population size for most taxa, whatever is available indicates that the total population size in species with decreasing populations varies from fewer than 100 individuals in critically endangered species such as the Hainan black-crested gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), to many millions of individuals in decreasing common species such as the barn swallow (Hirundo rustica). Similarly, the smallest ranges (i.e., <1 km2) are seen in species such as the Carrizal seedeater (Amaurospiza carrizalensis) from Venezuela and Herrera’s false coral snake (Lampropeltis herrerae) from Mexico, both denizens of tiny islands. The largest ranges are hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, as in the bush dog (Speothos venaticus) from South America and the common lizard (Zootoca vivipara) from Eurasia. The sum of the 10,000-km2 quadrats representing the current ranges of the 8,851 decreasing vertebrate species is 1,350,876 quadrats. A highly conservative estimate would indicate a similar number of local populations facing extinction. This is, of course, a very rough estimate of the total number of populations, as the number of populations of a decreasing species in each quadrat largely depends, aside from suitable habitat distribution within the quadrat, on animal body mass and trophic position (e.g., ref. 34). The assumption of one population per 10,000 km2 might seem very conservative, as this area could accommodate many populations of small animals (e.g., 0.1-kg rodents), most of which could have been extirpated. However, 10,000 km2 may not be sufficient for, or can barely accommodate a viable population of large carnivores (say a 330-kg Siberian tiger; ref. 34). Nonetheless, our results provide evidence of the extremely large numbers of vertebrate populations facing extinction, compared with the number of species. Proportion of Vertebrate Species Decreasing. The proportion of decreasing vertebrates shows that there are areas across the planet with high concentrations of decreasing species in all vertebrates and regions with high proportions of decreasing species of a particular group (Figs. 2, 3, and 5). For example, in mammals, the highest percentage of decreasing species is concentrated in tropical regions, mostly in the Neotropics and Southeast Asia, whereas in reptiles, the proportional decline concentrates almost exclusively in Madagascar. Decreasing amphibians are prominent in Mexico, Central America, the northern Andes, and Brazil’s Atlantic forest in the Americas; West Africa and Madagascar in Africa; and India and Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Philippines in Asia–Southeast Asia. Finally, decreasing species of birds are found over large regions of all continents (Fig. 2). Fig. 5. The percentage of species of land mammals from five major continents/subcontinents and the entire globe undergoing different degrees (in percentage) of decline in the period ∼1900–2015. Considering the sampled species globally, 56% of them have lost more than 60% of their range, a pattern that is generally consistent in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe, whereas in South America and North America, 35–40% of the species have experienced range contractions of only 20% or less. (See text for details.) Roughly a third (8,851/27,600) of all land vertebrate species examined are experiencing declines and local population losses of a considerable magnitude (Figs. 2–4). Such proportion of decreasing species varies, depending on the taxonomic group, from 30% or more in the case of mammals, birds, and reptiles, to 15% in the case of amphibians. Furthermore, of the decreasing species, many are now considered endangered (Fig. 4). Beyond that, roughly 30% of all decreasing species are still sufficiently common that they are considered of “low concern” by IUCN, rather than “endangered.” That so many common species are decreasing is a strong sign of the seriousness of the overall contemporary biological extinction episode. In our 10,000-km2 quadrats, the proportion of decreasing species ranges from less than 10% to more than 50% (Fig. 2). The geographic distributions of absolute (i.e., number) and relative (i.e., percentage) of decreasing species is contrasting. Whereas tropical regions have larger numbers of decreasing species, as expected, given their higher species richness, their corresponding proportions are relatively low. In contrast, temperate regions tend to have similar or higher proportions of decreasing species, a trend dramatically prominent in the case of reptiles. Local Population Extinctions in Mammals. Our most detailed data allow comparison of historic and present geographic range of a sample of 177 mammal species (Figs. 5 and 6). Most of the 177 mammal species we sampled have lost more than 40% of their geographic ranges in historic times, and almost half have lost more than 80% of their ranges in the period ∼1900–2015. At the continental and subcontinental level, some patterns become evident (Fig. 5). The predominant category of range contraction is ≥80% in Africa (56% of the sampled mammal species), Asia (75% of the species), Australia (60% of the species), and Europe (40% of the species). In the Americas, range contractions are less marked but still considerable: 22% of the species in North America and 17% of the species in South America have experienced range contractions of at least 80%. Nevertheless, 50% of the species in North America and 28% of the species in South America have experienced a range contraction of 41% or more. Fig. 6. Percentage of local population extinction in 177 species of mammals in 1° × 1° quadrats, as an indication of the severity of the mass extinction crises. The maps were generated by comparing historic and current geographic ranges (49) (SI Appendix, SI Methods). Note that large regions in all continents have lost 50% or more of the populations of the evaluated mammals. Because of the small sample size, biased to large mammal species, this figure can only be used to visualize likely trends in population losses. The comparison of the 1900–2015 geographic ranges showed that the 177 species of mammals have disappeared from 58,000 grid cells. On the assumption that on average each of the 10,000-km2 occupied quadrats held a single population of the species found within it, this implies that roughly 58,000 populations of the 177 mammals we examined have gone extinct. Consider the following emblematic cases: The lion (Panthera leo) was historically distributed over most of Africa, southern Europe, and the Middle East, all the way to northwestern India (SI Appendix, Fig. S1). It is now confined to scattered populations in sub-Saharan Africa and a remnant population in the Gir forest of India. The vast majority of lion populations are gone. In its African stronghold, it historically occupied roughly two thousand 10,000-km2 cells, and now it is reduced to some 600 cells. Other species, such as the mountain lion (Puma concolor), are known to be doing better. The mountain lion has lost some of its local populations in North America, but has not suffered such disastrous losses as its Old World relative, adapting relatively well to human-dominated landscapes, and it is still found across 85% of its historic range. Clearly, the extinction of mammal populations, although varying from species to species, has been a global phenomenon (Fig. 6). Strikingly, the predominant color code in the mammalian map is that of 70% or more of population losses, with the exception of some areas of South America and high latitudes of North America. Particularly hard hit have been the mammals of south and southeast Asia, where all of the large-bodied species of mammals analyzed have lost more than 80% of their geographic ranges. The Cape and Sahara regions in Africa, central Australia, the eastern United States, and the Atlantic forest in South America have also suffered severely from population extinctions.
Discussion It has recently been shown, using conservative estimates of current and background species extinction rates, that Earth is now in a period of mass global species extinction for vertebrate animals (11). But the true extent of this mass extinction has been underestimated, because of the emphasis on species extinction. This underestimate largely traces to overlooking the accelerating extinction of populations. Whereas scientists have known for a long time that several relatively well-studied species have undergone major contraction of their ranges, experienced considerable population decreases, and suffered many population extinctions, the global extent of population shrinkage and extirpation has previously not been recognized and quantified. In addition, some studies document that invertebrates and plants are suffering massive losses of populations and species (35⇓⇓–38). Here we extend investigation of mass extinction to terrestrial vertebrate population decreases and losses, and give estimates of the number of their species with decreasing populations. The accuracy of the estimates is strongly dependent on an unknown parameter, namely, the actual average area occupied by a vertebrate population (e.g., refs. 35, 39⇓–41). However, even if a population would, on average, occupy an area five times larger than what we have used here (i.e., 50,000 km2) there would still be hundreds of thousands of populations that have suffered extinction in the past few centuries. On the other hand, most vertebrates (∼70%) are small species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. If, on average, they have one population every 10 km2 then vertebrates would have suffered more than a billion population extinctions. Our results show that population extinction in land vertebrates is geographically omnipresent, but with notable prominence in tropical, species-rich regions. It is interesting, however, that when population extinctions are evaluated as the percentage of total species richness, temperate regions, with their typical low species diversity, show higher proportions of population loss. There are some illustrative qualitative examples of population decreases and their consequences within terrestrial and marine vertebrates, but ours is an attempt at a quantitative evaluation of global trends in population extinctions. Recent reviews indicate that species extinctions, population decreases, and range contraction (implying population extinctions) among terrestrial invertebrates and plants are as severe as among vertebrates (e.g., refs. 35⇓⇓–38). For example, long-term monitoring of insect populations in the United Kingdom shows that 30–60% of species per taxonomic order have contracting ranges (36). The situation in plants has been less evaluated; thus it is difficult to compare them with animals, but there is little reason to believe that the extinction situation in plants is dramatically different (37). Furthermore, research shows that the loss of animal populations indirectly leads to changes in plant communities (20, 37, 39), frequently causing the reduction of local species richness and dominance of a few plant taxa that either experience “ecological release” in response to decreasing herbivore pressures (42, 43), and/or experience population reductions due to the decline of animals responsible for pollination or dispersal (e.g., refs. 2−3, 20). The status of biodiversity among microorganisms is too poorly known to permit us to make any comparison and generalizations about the current pulse of extinctions, although some recent research has unraveled feedbacks between local large herbivore defaunation and mycorrhizal richness (44, 45). Given what we know about genetic population differentiation, it is expected that the range contractions and declines we document here imply a considerable loss of intraspecific genetic diversity (23) but this is, clearly, an aspect that warrants further investigation. In sum, by losing populations (and species) of vertebrates, we are losing intricate ecological networks involving animals, plants, and microorganisms (e.g., refs. 2, 8, 18, 45, 46). We are also losing pools of genetic information that may prove vital to species’ evolutionary adjustment and survival in a rapidly changing global environment. This suggests that, even if there was not ample sign that the crisis extends far beyond that group of animals, today’s planetary defaunation of vertebrates will itself promote cascading catastrophic effects on ecosystems, worsening the annihilation of nature (2, 3, 46). Thus, while the biosphere is undergoing mass species extinction (11), it is also being ravaged by a much more serious and rapid wave of population declines and extinctions. In combination, these assaults are causing a vast reduction of the fauna and flora of our planet. The resulting biological annihilation obviously will also have serious ecological, economic, and social consequences (46). Humanity will eventually pay a very high price for the decimation of the only assemblage of life that we know of in the universe.
Conclusion Population extinctions today are orders of magnitude more frequent than species extinctions. Population extinctions, however, are a prelude to species extinctions, so Earth’s sixth mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume. The massive loss of populations is already damaging the services ecosystems provide to civilization. When considering this frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization, one must never forget that Earth’s capacity to support life, including human life, has been shaped by life itself (47). When public mention is made of the extinction crisis, it usually focuses on a few animal species (hundreds out of millions) known to have gone extinct, and projecting many more extinctions in the future. But a glance at our maps presents a much more realistic picture: they suggest that as much as 50% of the number of animal individuals that once shared Earth with us are already gone, as are billions of populations. Furthermore, our analysis is conservative, given the increasing trajectories of the drivers of extinction and their synergistic effects. Future losses easily may amount to a further rapid defaunation of the globe and comparable losses in the diversity of plants (36), including the local (and eventually global) defaunation-driven coextinction of plants (3, 20). The likelihood of this rapid defaunation lies in the proximate causes of population extinctions: habitat conversion, climate disruption, overexploitation, toxification, species invasions, disease, and (potentially) large-scale nuclear war—all tied to one another in complex patterns and usually reinforcing each other’s impacts. Much less frequently mentioned are, however, the ultimate drivers of those immediate causes of biotic destruction, namely, human overpopulation and continued population growth, and overconsumption, especially by the rich. These drivers, all of which trace to the fiction that perpetual growth can occur on a finite planet, are themselves increasing rapidly. Thus, we emphasize that the sixth mass extinction is already here and the window for effective action is very short, probably two or three decades at most (11, 48). All signs point to ever more powerful assaults on biodiversity in the next two decades, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life.
Methods For full methods, please see SI Appendix. We determined the number of decreasing vertebrate species using the IUCN (28) Red List of Threatened Species. In the IUCN, species are classified as decreasing, stable, or increasing (see also ref. 33). Either range contraction (population extinction) or reduction in numbers in extant populations determines whether a species is decreasing. We used the IUCN maps of terrestrial vertebrates (i.e., mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians) to create the global maps of number of species (richness) and of decreasing species, and percentage of decreasing species in relation to total species richness. The distribution of all of the species was superimposed in a 22,000 grid of 10,000-km2 quadrats covering the continental lands. For the grid, a Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection was used (see ref. 49 for details of the projection methods). In our analyses a critical issue is how grid squares and populations correspond. This is a very difficult problem that varies with definitions of species. (In this paper, we stick with the classic biological definition of species.) The number of populations also varies from species to species; for example, a highly phylopatric species would have more populations per square than a very vagile species, and species with different mating systems would have different estimates of numbers of Mendelian populations, and these would not be the same as estimates of number of demographic units (50). For the purposes of understanding the annihilation, these differences are not critical. For example, if we have lost 90% of the lion’s geographic range, whether this amounts to 10,000 demographic units or 4,000 Mendelian populations is trivial in the present context. It would be extremely useful if we had much more information on population structure for all vertebrates, but this is a major, pending agenda. The population extinction analysis was conducted on 177 mammalian species occurring on five continents. Specifically, we analyzed 54 species in Africa, 14 in Asia, 57 in Australia, 15 in Europe, and 35 in America. The historical distribution was gathered from specialized literature (see details in ref. 26) and the current distribution from IUCN (28). Historic and current ranges were digitized as geographic information system polygons and elaborated in ArcGis 10.1 (51). For each species, we calculated the area of the historical and present distribution (in square kilometers) to estimate the percentage of lost area and the percentage of area where the species are extant. A caveat of these estimates regards how representative the sample of 177 species is. We recognize a bias in that the data include a large number of medium- and large-sized species, for which the best information is available. However, given that such medium and large species are the most seriously threatened by the predominant proximate drivers of defaunation (2, 3), the likely bias against small-sized species should not affect our overall interpretation of results.
Acknowledgments We thank John Harte for very helpful comments on the manuscript and Noé Torres, Giulia Santulli, and Jesús Pacheco for their help with data analyses. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and Stanford University supported our work.
Footnotes Author contributions: G.C., P.R.E., and R.D. designed research; G.C. and P.R.E. performed research; G.C., P.R.E., and R.D. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; G.C. analyzed data; and G.C., P.R.E., and R.D. wrote the paper.
Reviewers: T.E.L., George Mason University; and P.H.R., Missouri Botanical Garden.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1704949114/-/DCSupplemental.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option. |
Arsene Wenger confirmed that Arsenal are monitoring AS Monaco star Kylian Mbappe, but admits that the Gunners could lose out to clubs with bigger financial muscle.
The 18-year-old France international has exploded on to the scene this season with the Ligue 1 club and is now touted as one of the biggest prospects in Europe. Mbappe has scored 22 goals and assisted a further 11 in 36 games across all competitions in what is his first full season with the senior team after coming up through the youth ranks.
The striker's performances have garnered interest from all across Europe with clubs scrambling for his signature. Real Madrid, Manchester United and Arsenal are among a number of clubs interested in signing the Frenchman.
Monaco have made it clear that they are in no hurry to sell their best players with Spanish radio station Cadena Cope reported last month that Monaco had already rejected a €110m (£92.2m, $118.5m) bid from the Red Devils. It is unlikely to stop interested clubs to continue their pursuit but Wenger feels that Arsenal will be at a disadvantage as they will not be able to compete with clubs that are financially more capable than the north London outfit.
"Of course [we're targeting Mbappe]," Wenger told SFR Sport, as quoted by the Daily Mail. "It would be hypocritical and a lie to say we're not following him."
"But he's perhaps already in the category of clubs who perhaps have more financial potential than us," the French coach added.
Monaco, however, could have their hands tied when it comes to negotiating Mbappe's potential transfer away from the Stade Louis II after the club's sporting director Antonio Cordon revealed that the striker does have a release clause in his contract. They will be powerless to stop him from leaving if any interested club meets his exit clause which is said to be quite big. |
Sony Pictures boss pleads for end to gay stereotypes in Hollywood
Chairwoman Amy Pascal gave impassioned speech to LGBT group urging other movie makers to simply 'cross out' slurs and negative portrayals from scripts
Big movie makers are more known for doing the popular thing than for doing the right thing, but one mogul recently asked her fellow movers and shakers to shake off the film industry’s stereotypical portrayal of LGBT people.
Sony Pictures co-chairperson Amy Pascal gave an impassioned speech at a fundraiser Thursday and urged Hollywood executives to ‘simply cross it out’ when a script on their desks contain a slur, reports Deadline.
While admitting the industry’s past ignorance, she emphasized the impact media has on the way people learn to perceive the world and how movies have the power to mold these perceptions from youth.
Change: At an LA fundraiser, Sony Pictures exec Amy Pascal encouraged movie makers to remove gay stereotypes from their films
‘And now,’ she said, ‘I’m talking about kids who are gay and I’m talking about kids who aren’t gay. One group needs affirmation and the other group needs education. And, if I’m being honest, neither of those issues are high on any movie studio or TV network’s agenda.’
Pascal was being honored at an LA Gay & Lesbian Center fundraiser for homeless gay and lesbian youth.
The event, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, raised $1 million.
Herself married to a man and mother of one, Pascal thanked producers like ‘Max Mutchnick and David Kohan and Ryan Murphy for really changing things’ while also criticizing films that have largely been embraced as pioneering for the community.
Scrutiny: While being honored by the LA Gay & Lesbian Center, Pascal asked Hollywood to better scrutinize its depiction of gays and lesbian
While applauding them as movies she would be proud to have made, Pascal warned that these films often still contained largely negative portrayals.
‘Brokeback Mountain, Milk, Boys Don’t Cry, Philadelphia, The Hours, Gods and Monsters, The Talented Mr. Ripley, A Single Man...in all these movies, the main character is murdered or martyred or commits suicide or just dies unhappily,’ Pascal said.
There is always, she said, ‘the lesbian murderer, the psychotic transvestite, the queen who is humiliated and sometimes tossed off a ship or a ledge.’
‘It’s a big joke,’ she continued. ‘It still happens.’
Still negative: While still applauding them, along with animated feature 'ParaNorman,' Pascal noted that even celebrated movies like 'A Single Man' and 'Brokeback Mountain' tend to portray gay people in a depressed or negative light
Pascal also gave a nod to films she believes are helping change perceptions of LGBT people.
‘There are great images, too,’ she said, ‘like the family in The Kids Are All Right. The way the boy in Perks of Being a Wallflower and the middle-aged man in Hotel Marigold and the 75-year-old man in Beginners come out to a better, richer, more fulfilled life.’
She also credited the makers of ParaNorman for their animated portrayal of a gay football player whose sexuality is ‘totally incidental to the plot’ and asked ‘can’t we depict men and women who just so happen to be gay – perhaps a lawyer or soldier or business executive or scientist or engineer?’
She closed her heartfelt appeal by asking her colleagues to take it upon themselves to change their industry. |
SANTA MONICA, CA -- In a stunning admission contained in a brief filed recently in federal court, lawyers for Google said people should not expect privacy when they send messages to a Gmail account. Consumer Watchdog said today that people who care about their email correspondents’ privacy should not use the Internet giant’s service.
Google’s brief said: “Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their emails are processed by the recipient’s [email provider] in the course of delivery. Indeed, ‘a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties.’” (Motion to dismiss, Page 19)
Read Google’s motion to dismiss here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/googlemotion061313.pdf
“Google has finally admitted they don’t respect privacy,” said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog’s Privacy Project director. “People should take them at their word; if you care about your email correspondents’ privacy don’t use Gmail.”
Google made the statement that people can’t expect privacy when sending a message to a Gmail address in a response to a class action complaint filed in multi-district litigation. The suit says Google violates federal and state wiretap laws when the company reads emails to determine what ads to serve based on the message’s content. The class action complaint was filed under seal because it details many of Google’s business practices about the way it handles email.
A highly redacted version of the complaint was filed publicly. Read it here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/gmailcomplaint051613.pdf
A hearing in the case, In re Google Inc. Gmail Litigation, Case No. 5:13-md-02430-LHK, will be held before Judge Lucy H. Koh in U.S. District Court in San Jose, CA. at 1:30 p.m., Sept. 5.
“Google’s brief uses a wrong-headed analogy; sending an email is like giving a letter to the Post Office,” said Simpson. “I expect the Post Office to deliver the letter based on the address written on the envelope. I don’t expect the mail carrier to open my letter and read it. Similarly when I send an email, I expect it to be delivered to the intended recipient with a Gmail account based on the email address; why would I expect its content will be intercepted by Google and read?”
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LOS GATOS — Fire hoses still on the ground around him Monday morning, Darin Devincenzi surveyed the extensive damage to the popular restaurant that bears his and his brother’s initials.
The night before, Double D’s Sports Grille was buzzing with dozens of Warrior fans who watched the team win a crucial playoff game against the Houston Rockets. But then fire erupted after the restaurant closed.
As Devincenzi stood outside with some of his employees, he admitted, “It gets a little emotional.”
“We’ve got to rebuild,” he said.
Devincenzi credits firefighters for salvaging his collection of sports memorabilia that adorned the walls of Double D’s, including signed jerseys and photographs. Some of his personal favorites include items from Joe Thornton, Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan.
“The firefighters were awesome, a good job by these guys,” said Devincenzi, who has owned and operated the restaurant with his brother, Dean, for almost 20 years. “There’s nothing super valuable, but it’s valuable to me.”
The blaze, reported at 11:41 p.m., was contained to the attic and had probably burned for some time before being detected, according to the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
Extinguishing the blaze proved to be difficult as firefighters encountered three roofs while attempting to cut holes on top of the structure in order to let hot gases out, according to a Fire Department official.
The cause of the fire, which was under control at 1:50 a.m., was the improper storage of cleaning supplies, paper towels and electrical equipment in a water heater close, fire officials said. .
Darin Devincenzi received a call around midnight and rushed down to the restaurant, located on Santa Cruz Avenue. Once he arrived, Devincenzi stood and watched as flames shot through the roof.
“The emotions didn’t quite set in last night because we were in such shock,” Devincenzi. “You don’t know what to even do or what to think.”
Bryan Kiefel, who owns a gas station across the street, counts himself as one of Double D’s many regular customers. He said the closure of Double D’s, for however long, will be a loss for the Los Gatos community.
“It’s shame,” Kiefel said. “These guys have been here for a long time. They do a fantastic job and are really supportive of the community.”
Devincenzi laments the timing of the blaze, considering both the Sharks and Warriors are in the midst of playoff runs.
“We’re big Warriors fans and Sharks fans,” he said. “It’s a big time for us, a fun time of year. This is why we do this.”
Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869 and follow him at Twitter.com/MarkMgomez. |
Every year, Baseball America releases two prospect rankings. The first, during the off season, ranks the top-100 prospects in the game. This is the bigger one towards which everyone pays the closest attention. This is the one that shows up when you look at players' minor league stats on Baseball-Reference.
They also release a second list, a smaller one of the top 50 prospects in baseball. This one gets released at midseason, and not as much clamor surrounds it. It's the same thing, just cut in half and released at a different time. It's an updated version of offseason list.
Back in the off season, the Brewers barely managed to crack the top 100 as Jimmy Nelson ranked 96th. However, Nelson has been so good this year that he is now the 38th best prospect in all of baseball, according to Baseball America. The site gives only a small snippet on each player, with this to say about Nelson:
"There are few healthy pitchers in the upper minors with stuff and results this year, and Nelson leads the way."
It's certainly well-earned for the right-hander, who has been absolutely stellar for the Nashville Sounds. This year, he has a 1.56 ERA and 0.92 WHIP to go along with a 9.5 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 over 104 innings in Triple-A.
He's also made one start for the Brewers this season, pitching 5.2 shutout innings against the Marlins on May 25 when Yovani Gallardo was forced to miss a start. Nelson gave up five hits and three walks while striking out six batters.
There's certainly a case to be made that Nelson deserves more big league starts this year. He has nothing left to prove in Nashville at this point and, at 25 years old, he's certainly not in need of more seasoning. Meanwhile, Marco Estrada has proved to be a detriment more than a benefit so far this season as his home run woes have reached new levels of horrendous. With rumors that Milwaukee may be scouting David Price and Jake Peavy, the team could be looking at replacing their fifth starter. With trades being expensive options, it may just be time for Nelson to get the call.
With Nelson on the rise in prospect lists, a June draft-class that has consistently ranked among the best, and some risk-taking on the international market, the Brewers are suddenly in a position where their farm system doesn't look so laughable. Big talent is still lacking at the upper levels of the minors outside of Nelson, but there is now a ton of potential in the lower rungs.
Things are looking up and the Brewers might well have a bright future ahead of them. |
Around the internet there is a Japanese term, majikichi, which is short for “Maji de kichigai jimiteru kara yamero” or “Stop because you seriously seem to be losing your mind”. Needless to say it’s a convenient word.
Perhaps a good example of majikichi is in the sushi world. With all of Japan’s less traditional sushi restaurants known as “sushi trains” competing for people’s attention, they often come out with some eye-catching toppings, and sometimes things go too far.
In the true spirit of journalism, our reporter Nakano has been out and about finding the most majikichi sushi in the land from bacon sushi to rice omelet sushi. Now his travels bring him to Japan’s first ever sushi train chain Genki Sushi and their latest offering: Blueberry Cream Sushi.
Nakano is usually very daring when it comes to majikichi sushi. He downed the sushi ice cream cone with hardly a flinch and took on two courses of pungently odorous fermented topping sushi. However, something about the Blueberry Cream Sushi had spooked him prior to setting off for Genki Sushi. It was probably trying to imagine the sensation of mixing vinegared rice and creamy blueberries that set him off.
Nevertheless, Genki Sushi was Japan’s first sushi train restaurant in which small plates of sushi are passed by customers on a conveyor belt. Still going strong today, they have the most experience in the game.
Nakano focused on that though in the few minutes it took the sushi to arrive after he had ordered it.
His stomach turned just looking at it. There were small flakes of cereal mixed in with the vinegared rice and heaps of cream cheese on top. On top of each piece of sushi sat a single blueberry. Nakano confirmed the blueberry count during and extended period of poking and prodding at the food with his chopsticks.
Something about this particular combination of ingredients offended Nakano’s sensibilities greatly, and under other circumstances he would have discarded this abomination. However, he was on a mission to catch all of the majikichi sushi in Kanto and become a majikichi sushi master, just like in that hit video game he used to play…Nobunaga’s Ambition.
He went in for his first, nervous bite.
Ah! Much to our reporter’s surprise, Blueberry Cream Sushi wasn’t completely altogether all that bad, per se. It was kind of like a traditional Japanese dessert with the combination of rice and sweet foods. However, the tastes were bold, much like if a western food maker attempted to recreate these confections.
He had survived! Alright! Now onto the real sushi.
Nakano felt pretty proud of himself for having endured Blueberry Cream Sushi, but as a Japanese person he felt a little uncertain that it should be classified as real sushi. That being said, as far as majikichi sushi is concerned, Blueberry Cream Sushi is among the highest ranks for its boundary-pushing concept.
If you want a weird sushi experience with a great result, Nakano would recommend the Omurice Sushi of Sushiro, but if you’re looking for a wild ride Blueberry Cream Sushi is worth checking out. Furthermore, if you’re one of those aspiring majikichi sushi masters, both are required eating.
Source: Genki Sushi
Original article by Nakano
Photos © RocketNews24
[ Read in Japanese ] |
Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign event on April 4, 2016, in Milwaukee. | AP Photo Sanders hits Clinton over Panama Papers leaks
Responding to the 11.5 million documents leaked this week showing how a Panama law firm helped some of the world's wealthiest people establish offshore tax havens on the Central American country — the so-called Panama Papers — Bernie Sanders on Tuesday vowed to end the Panama Free Trade Agreement, tying Hillary Clinton to the same policies that he claimed fostered the practice.
“The Panama Free Trade Agreement put a stamp of approval on Panama, a world leader when it comes to allowing the wealthy and the powerful to avoid taxes," the Vermont senator said in a statement released through his campaign, adding that he has been opposed to it "from day one."
Vowing to use his authority as president to "terminate the Panama Free Trade Agreement within six months," Sanders said his administration would "conduct an immediate investigation into U.S. banks, corporations and wealthy individuals who have been stashing their cash in Panama to avoid taxes."
"If any of them have violated U.S. law, my administration will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," he said.
Sanders also said that he had correctly predicted that the passage of the trade deal "would make it easier, not harder, for the wealthy and large corporations to evade taxes by sheltering billions of dollars offshore."
"I wish I had been proven wrong about this, but it has now come to light that the extent of Panama’s tax avoidance scams is even worse than I had feared," he said, before pivoting to Clinton. “My opponent, on the other hand, opposed this trade agreement when she was running against Barack Obama for president in 2008. But when it really mattered she quickly reversed course and helped push the Panama Free Trade Agreement through Congress as Secretary of State. The results have been a disaster."
The leak of the documents, internal files from law firm Mossack Fonseca, to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists represents the largest such event in history, far surpassing past the volume of documents given to journalists by Edward Snowden in 2013. The prime minister of Iceland resigned Tuesday after the documents showed his hidden assets. |
Cam Newton had one of the greatest individual seasons of all time in 2015. So it should be no surprise that he is Sporting News’ Offensive Player of the Year.
Don’t just take our word for it. In our annual poll of players, coaches and executives around the NFL, Newton got a whopping 67 percent of the votes. That gave him considerable distance from the four runners-up — Tom Brady, Antonio Brown, Carson Palmer and Adrian Peterson.
Given how impressive those guys were through 16 games, Newton had to be historically special. And he was.
MORE: Top 5 plays of Newton's season | Ron Rivera claims Coach of the Year award | J.J. Watt repeats as title winner
Newton became the 18th quarterback to throw 35 touchdown passes in a single season, joining Palmer, Eli Manning and Blake Bortles as new members in that club. That exact number tied him for No. 2 in the league, one behind Brady.
But where Newton separated himself from Brady and every other QB was the other thrilling aspect of his game. His 636 rushing yards were good for No. 31 in the league. His 10 rushing scores leave Newton two away from breaking Otto Graham's all-time record for the position.
When you add it all up, Newton was responsible for 4,473 yards and 45 touchdowns. During his 2010 Heisman Trophy and national championship season at Auburn, he produced 4,327 yards and 51 touchdowns.
Newton's ability to match his highest level of college production also is rare. He joins Paul Hornung, Roger Staubach, O.J. Simpson, Marcus Allen, Barry Sanders and Charles Woodson as Heisman winners who also won SN’s NFL Player of the Year.
Sixty years ago for the Browns in 1955, Graham won what was then called Sporting News’ MVP in the award’s second season. That season, the last of the late Hall of Famer’s career, Cleveland won the league championship, too.
MORE: Newton, a community's prince, Panther's champion | 2015 SN All-Pro team
That’s ultimately what Newton is striving to cap his season: helping the Panthers go from finishing 15-1 to winning Super Bowl 50. If Newton can pull off the double, he would be SN's first OPOY to do it since Kurt Warner did so with the 1999 Rams.
Newton, already immortalized in college, has taken his first big step to having the same status in the NFL. Getting that ring would cement it. |
Japan's Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) watchdog group recently published viewer complaints from January, one stemming from an "extreme kiss scene" in a late-night television anime. The complaint reads, "There was an extreme kiss scene with high school students in a television anime. It was a late-night timeslot, but it's not the kind of content to broadcast on a [regular] airborne signal that anyone can easily view."
The complaint does not identify the anime, but some Internet users believe it refers to an episode of Scum's Wish that was broadcast in January. This may refer to a scene involving Mugi and Hanabi in the second episode, which premiered on January 19.
BPO also published a complaint relating to a commercial for an idol-raising game. The complaint expressed concern over in-game purchases and drew a comparison to gambling. The complaint called for more caution when airing commercials during times when children are awake.
BPO has published complaints about many anime, and its regular report also included in August complaints about the smartphone game Pokémon Go and its portrayal in news programs. The watchdog's anime-related published complaints include criticism of a scene in Detective Conan in which sushi is eaten off of a woman's body, the masturbation scene in Mr. Osomatsu, a scene involving "suggestive banana-eating" in Yokai Watch, the violence in Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, and the main characters of Pripara being shown in swimsuits in the ending.
Other anime to receive complaints published by BPO in the past include Owarimonogatari, SHIMONETA, Chibi Maruko-chan, Gintama, Kan Colle, Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V, The Seven Deadly Sins, Akame ga KILL!, Your Lie in April, Hunter x Hunter, Blood-C, Fullmetal Alchemist, School Days, Magi, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Pokémon, and NANA.
[Via Nijipoi] |
Fiona Miller, above, from Middlesbrough, suffered a harassment campaign from PC Kelly Jarvis who made false statements to the NSPCC about son Tommy
Fiona Miller and her family had just finished a home-cooked roast chicken dinner when there was a knock at the door. There on the step stood a policeman, his face grave.
This was never going to be good news, anyone could see that. But no one, least of all 38-year-old mum Fiona, could have predicted what came next.
'The officer politely informed me that he was there on a welfare visit, to check on my three-year-old son,' she says.
'There had been some serious allegations of neglect, bordering on abuse.'
Anyone glancing across the kitchen where Fiona's partner, Steven, was stacking the dishwasher while their happy, healthy little boy, Tommy, played nearby that evening in January this year would have seen nothing untoward about the family, who live in a neat, semi-detached home in Ormesby, Cleveland.
Yet Fiona was terrified — so terrified, it was all she could do to stop herself grabbing Tommy and running.
Someone was out to get her, and for the first time she feared this someone might actually have the power to see the job through.
For Fiona's accuser and tormentor was a serving policewoman — PC Kelly Jarvis, a former mounted officer and riding companion of Fiona's, a woman so twisted with hatred and jealousy that she would stop at nothing to see her former friend's reputation destroyed.
'I really started to panic at that point. All sorts of horrible thoughts started going through my mind. Would I be believed over a police officer? Are they all in on this together? And most terrifying of all, was I going to lose my little boy?
'If these allegations had come from a member of the public, I wouldn't have been too concerned — but as they were from a police officer, I knew they would be taken seriously.
Kelly Jarvis and her husband Lee. Jarvis was found to have abused her powers as a police officer while with Cleveland Police, after an internal investigation
'She had power. It came with her job. In the end her lies would be found out, but how long could that take?
'Tommy might be in care for months while they investigated. The prospect of not seeing my little boy again made me more afraid than I've ever been of anything in my life.'
Fiona and Steven managed to keep their cool and eventually, satisfied that Tommy was in no immediate danger, the officer left.
In the morning, after a sleepless night, Fiona dropped Tommy off at nursery en route to her part-time job as a veterinary receptionist. Alone in the car, she broke down for the first time.
'I sat and sobbed, gagging for air and shaking. I knew there was a real risk of losing Tommy. I couldn't let that happen.'
Without another thought, she phoned Cleveland Police Station to lodge a formal complaint against PC Jarvis.
This week, Jarvis quit in disgrace, but shockingly won't face further action after an investigation by her own force unearthed a level of abuse of police powers quite Orwellian in its magnitude, and with disturbing implications for how Britain is policed today. For the PC, it emerged, was able to use her work computer to enter an 'intelligence log' on the Police National Computer against the woman she hated so much, fabricating a totally plausible and unquestioned record in her name.
Fiona with her son Tommy. The first time the family was aware of the complaints was when Tommy was three-years-old and an officer arrived at their door claiming he was on a welfare visit because allegations of neglect were made
Nothing, it appeared, was too low for her. Not only had she made false reports to the NSPCC, accusing Fiona of everything from domestic violence to leaving her son alone in the car while she went to the pub with friends — all of which was investigated and dismissed by social services — but she had also recorded 'evidence' of Fiona having had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy when she was 25, a wholly malicious lie.
Fiona was only made aware of this when the disciplinary report into the PC was revealed this week.
Nevertheless, Fiona was still shocked at the level of spite: 'I was sickened, but it was all part of her vindictive campaign against me. She had told so many lies, yet still I was more worried about Tommy being put into care than anything else.'
But what could have sparked such animosity? It seems to have been nothing more than old-fashioned class jealousy.
The two women had first met in 2013 at Ormesby Grange stables, which are owned by the family of Fiona's partner, landscape gardener Steven Carter, 34, and were where Kelly Jarvis stabled her own horse.
The stables, in the picturesque grounds of a National Trust Georgian manor house, Ormesby Hall, are surrounded by hundreds of acres, all owned by the Carter family.
Perhaps it was this that piqued Kelly's envy. After all, it was a world away from the £90,000 terrace house that she and her police officer husband Lee, 41, share in Middlesbrough. She knew their modest salaries would never be able to provide such grandeur, which — as she saw it — would one day land in Fiona's lap.
'It was all about jealousy,' Fiona says. 'She would ask me lots of questions about my life and relationship. She would say: 'In a few years, when Steven's parents retire, you'll be living here in the big farmhouse.' I found her quite vulgar and intrusive, and tried not to engage with her.'
Soon afterwards, Fiona and some of her friends started to receive abusive messages on social media. She also received unpleasant text messages from unknown numbers, including a particularly disturbing one saying that Steven was cheating on her and had got another woman pregnant.
'I never believed it for a second, but of course it was really upsetting. Yet these messages came not long after Kelly started using the stables and they mirrored the way she spoke, her phrases and crudeness. I began to suspect that she was behind them, but I was determined not to let it bother me. I thought it was pathetic and sad, and just ignored her.'
Fiona, here with her son Tommy, originally met Jarvis through horse riding, but thinks jealously over the future owner of the stables is what sparked the campaign of messages
The messages continued sporadically — then, in 2015, the campaign took a sinister turn. 'A social worker turned up saying she'd received a complaint about Tommy's welfare. They had been told I was leaving him in the car on his own while I went shopping or to the pub, or that he was left wandering around the farm unsupervised.
'It was absolutely unfounded. I was asked really probing and personal questions, everything from the state of my relationship with Steven to whether Tommy was potty trained.
'It was really embarrassing, too, as they made inquiries at Tommy's nursery. I felt people would think I was a bad mother.
'It was very upsetting, but once they were satisfied there was no truth in it, I thought that was that. Back then, it didn't cross my mind that Kelly was behind these accusations, that she would stoop so low.'
By April 2015, as the abusive phone messages continued, Fiona decided she'd had enough and told Kelly to move her horse from the stables. She did so quietly, and Fiona assumed that was the end of the matter. It wasn't — not by a long way.
In January this year, Steven's parents cancelled a contract with Kelly's father, Ian Armstrong, to fit a new kitchen for them. They had employed the 63-year-old joiner without realising his relationship to Kelly until Fiona explained who he was and why it wasn't a good idea.
The next evening was the one when a police officer arrived at her door and Fiona finally put two and two together, then made a complaint against the PC.
So serious were the allegations, the case was sent to Newcastle Crown Prosecution Service. Meanwhile, an internal investigation produced a damning report into Kelly Jarvis.
It found she had exploited her training and knowledge of working in a unit which deals with malicious communication offences to harass Fiona by creating three false Facebook profiles to send her abusive and upsetting messages.
In addition, the report upheld the allegations that she had accessed police systems inappropriately and made false referrals to the NSPCC.
The nasty falsehoods went on and on, painting a picture of a filthy house full of barking dogs and of Tommy being left for hours to cry himself to sleep while Fiona and Steven screamed and shouted at each other all night — all of which were recorded as 'facts' on Fiona's police file.
In there, too, was the statement about Fiona having sex with a 14-year-old boy — a boy who is now a man. He is now in a relationship with one of her friends. When he heard of the lies being told in his name, he submitted a statement to police to deny that he and Fiona had ever had a sexual relationship.
Pulling no punches, the police report said: 'As a police officer, PC Jarvis should have been honest and diligent in the exercise of her duties and responsibilities and provided the correct details on the referral forms… she has acted in a manner which discredits the police force.'
So why did Fiona learn to her horror this week that Kelly had been allowed to simply resign and will not face further action for her reign of spiteful terror?
Cleveland Police say there are 'exceptional circumstances' for why she has been allowed to slip quietly away before a disciplinary hearing, so safeguarding her pension rights.
Fiona is understandably furious and claims she was told by police that the reason for this was cost, as it is cheaper for her just to step down than to carry on paying her while an investigation drags on.
New legislation was brought in last year to prevent police officers resigning or retiring while facing gross misconduct proceedings except in certain circumstances, which include ill health and comp-romising a covert investigation.
As to why Kelly Jarvis has been allowed to resign, a Cleveland Police spokesman said: 'In some cases officers are allowed to resign prior to a misconduct hearing where there are exceptional circumstances.' However, they would not elaborate on what these circumstances were.
Yet unthinkable as it is for a police officer to behave in this way, and as awful as the ordeal has been for Fiona, the case raises another issue — it exposes a serious flaw in the British policing system.
To judge from what occurred, there seem to be no safeguards to prevent any police officer with a grudge from doing as Kelly did: fabricating a criminal record for anyone they may happen to dislike.
David Green, who runs the Civitas think-tank, says it is very surprising that false logs can be entered on someone's record without the need for any collaboration. He also believes Kelly Jarvis should not be allowed to just go quietly.
Jarvis quit her job in disgrace but will not face further action because of 'exceptional circumstances' according to her former employer
'It's obviously quite wrong, but I'm very surprised this could have happened. You shouldn't be able to just invent a criminal record or incidents that will be on a police file.'
Civil liberties campaigner Dr Sean Gabb, of the Libertarian Alliance, described the case as 'outrageous', adding: 'The issue is that a police officer thought there was nothing wrong whatsoever in using her position to mess up someone else's life. It is blatant moral corruption and cannot be tolerated.'
Interviewed under caution, Kelly, who did not wish to comment for this story, admitted the allegations put to her and used words such as 'pathetic', 'stupid' and 'remorseful' to describe how she feels.
However, these feelings appear to have been short-lived, as this week she posted a Facebook rant standing by what she did and seeming to blame everyone, from the media to the police, for what happened.
She wrote: 'I feel very let down by my current employer however this is something I will address one day in the future.' She has also dyed her hair brown and is starting out in a new career as a horse reflexologist.
For now, Fiona is worried that after leaving the police, Kelly may feel she no longer has anything to lose and could decide to take matters into her own hands. |
IDEAS Jessica Jin is a University of Texas alumna and marketing consultant.
Pop quiz: Starting next fall, which won’t you be able to have on college campuses in Texas: a concealed handgun or a visible dildo? Currently, University of Texas policy prohibits “obscene” writings or images, so the school prevents students from bringing a sex toy to class. But starting on Aug. 1, 2016 anyone with a concealed handgun license will be able to carry a concealed firearm on any Texas college campus. To protest, I created the “Campus (DILDO) Carry” event for the University of Texas at Austin. If students can carry guns to class, why not dildos?
My call for students to attach sex toys to their backpacks went viral. The demonstration is rooted in satire, but it has drummed up animosity that would shatter even the most optimistic viewing of America as a fearless, liberated country.
In response, people have hurled insults about my race, my gender and my sexuality. They’ve threatened my life and safety. Apparently it’s subversive to have a woman advocate for sexual agency and gun control. I did not expect a harmless sex toy to unearth this much bitterness and hostility.
I have been asked hundreds of times now: Why protest gun laws this way? In short, our language is replete with interchangeable terms and imagery for firearms and sex. The opportunity to mock guns with flagellating rubber dildos was irresistible.
People instinctively felt the connection between the two objects but often told me that they couldn’t quite put their finger on why exactly it made sense to them. Here is the uncomfortable truth that has connected guns and phalluses for centuries: They are frequently used to incite fear and exert power over others.
Guns are used to protect Americans from those who have also armed themselves, and maybe also to shoot the occasional deer or rattlesnake. Guns have been glorified in pop culture as the choice tool for both genius villains and celebrated heroes. Guns have become the poster child of American individualism, the toxic “every man for himself” ideology that has convinced Texas lawmakers that students will not be safe lest they keep a loaded murder weapon between their schoolbooks.
The University of Texas System Chancellor, former U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven, has said concealed weapons on campus makes campus a less safe environment. McRaven organized and led the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. But since so many seem to think that only we know what’s best for our safety in our limited experience as college students, McRaven who?
To me, the lines of reasoning used to defend gun ownership are also the same reasoning often used to crush sexuality and sexual expression. “You’re going to wish you had a gun when a murderer comes into your home,” is “You’re going to wish you weren’t publicly consuming alcohol in a short skirt when you get date raped,” with just a few words swapped out. These threats will sound familiar to any woman who has ever stepped outside her home. This is why the vitriol directed at our protest has resonated with so many—we’ve heard it all before.
It’s easy to become complacent when something is out of sight, out of mind. I hope that students leave their sex toys on their backpacks for as long as there are other students with guns inside their backpacks. It will serve as a daily visual reminder that people are carrying.
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As a doctor, I was opposed to supervised injection facilities. Now I’m ready to give them a try
Over the last few years, I have watched with a blend of amazement and grave concern as an odd phenomenon has unfolded against the backdrop of our nation’s opioid crisis: Despite the clear need to battle this ongoing epidemic with all of the tools at our disposal, one evidence-proven option — supervised injection facilities — is being overlooked, and even disparaged.
Back in the spring, the Massachusetts Medical Society began advocating for the establishment of a pilot supervised injection facility in the commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was not an easy decision because physicians don’t want to condone, or to be seen as condoning, the use of illicit drugs. Yet after close review and thorough debate, it was clear that the data supported their use.
A supervised injection facility is a safe, clean space where individuals can inject drugs they already possess under the supervision of trained medical staff. The facilities also offer sterile injection equipment. The advantage is that medical expertise is immediately present in case an emergency occurs. At the same time, these on-site clinicians can facilitate pathways to treatment and rehabilitation from the chronic disease of opioid abuse disorder.
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Such sites provide an alternative to dangerous injection tactics like syringe sharing, syringe reuse, and improper disposal of soiled injection materials, all of which can lead to infection with HIV and hepatitis C, as well as other painful and hard-to-treat infections that can attack the heart, bones, and other organs.
As a physician and president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, I was initially inclined to oppose the concept of supervised injection facilities. How, I thought, could a health care professional, someone grounded in ethics and an oath to “do no harm,” stand by and watch as individuals inject street drugs into their veins?
Yet the opioid crisis and the frightening rate at which it has accelerated doesn’t allow for the outright dismissal of this idea — or any others — that could have prevented even one of the more than 60,000 deaths caused by drug overdoses in the United States last year.
As a health care professional, I can’t stand idly by with the knowledge that a better way exists for reaching and caring for those suffering from the disease of addiction. We can’t allow individuals to die cruel deaths alone in alleyways or under the cover of darkness in public parks.
The concept of supervised injection facilities fits well with the overarching and proven public health philosophy of harm reduction: meeting patients where they are in their disease to eliminate existing barriers to rehabilitation.
With lives being lost each day from all segments of our society, dealing in theoretical solutions can be counterproductive. Fortunately, supervised injection facilities operating in other parts of the world have yielded substantial and evidence-backed reductions of death, disease, and expenditures.
To better understand the utility of these facilities, the Massachusetts Medical Society created a task force to examine the evidence for and against supervised injection facilities. This group produced a report that reviewed all available data regarding the use of supervised injection facilities around the world.
The report clearly showed that these facilities save lives. For example, after the Insite facility opened in Vancouver, British Columbia — the first supervised injection facility in North America — researchers reported a 35 percent decrease in the number of lethal overdoses in that area.
Of utmost importance is the fact that since Insite’s doors opened in 2003, not a single fatal overdose has occurred on premises.
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In addition to providing a safe environment for using injection drugs, Insite encourages users to seek entry into treatment for drug addiction. This effort has yielded a 30 percent increase in detoxification and an increase in methadone maintenance initiation among those using the facility.
Supervised injection facilities are not a cure-all and they aren’t for everyone. In fact, they are designed to target the most vulnerable of our population — people, often homeless, who inject drugs publicly. But they work.
Shortly after our medical society overwhelmingly voted to adopt a policy in support of a pilot supervised injection facility program in Massachusetts, the American Medical Association adopted a similar policy.
The supervised injection facility concept is not the only approach we need to confront the opioid crisis. From improving opioid-prescribing guidelines to instituting partial-fill laws and prescription monitoring systems, it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck approach to reducing the use of illicit opioids. Still, supervised injection facilities are one of many tools that can be implemented and, with the “fentanyl era” snatching lives at a sad and frightening rate, piloting a supervised injection facility now is more prudent than ever before.
Establishment of supervised injection facilities managed by individuals with the experience and resources to safely oversee the injection of illicit drugs can help reduce the harm caused by opioid abuse disorder, make clearer the path to recovery, and save lives. As we continue to look for ways to increase access to recovery programs for those with opioid use disorder, we must remember that in order to get people into recovery, they must first stay alive.
Henry L. Dorkin, M.D., is the president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. |
Fans of psychology, unite! It's time to put those psychology myths to rest! This quick list will give you all the ammonition you need to argue against the false claims about your favorite subject matter.
1. Little Albert developed a as an adult and required treatment.
Little Albert was the baby conditioned to fear furry objects by behavioral psychologist John Watson back in the early 1900s. This myth gained a great deal of traction due to the mysteries surrounding the of the unfortunate baby. No one knew what happened to him until psychologist Hall P. Beck discovered that "Little Albert" was a man named Douglas Merritte, who died at the age of 6 from hydrocephalus. You can read more about the story in Kendra Cherry's "About Psychology" story.
2. was a master hypnotist.
We often associate Freud with hypnosis, because he did receive training in his attempt to improve his therapeutic skills. The truth is, though, that Freud could not actually hypnotize his patients, try as he might. His "piercing" brown eyes seemed to put his patients on edge. Eventually, his inability to hypnotize patients, along with his firm in forces, led him to develop the technique of free association that formed the basis for classical . With his patients on a couch, away from his soul-searching gaze, Freud was able to allow them to express their unconscious fears, wishes, and desires.
3. Milgram's experiments could never be completed today.
Remember the famous study in which subjects thought they were giving electric shocks in a " " experiment? Stanley Milgram conducted these studies in the early 1960s, showing that almost anyone, under any conditions would obey authority. Unfortunately these famous experiments were recently replicated. You can see the current version of the Milgram experiments in the Science Channel documentary featuring Santa Clara psychologist Jerry Burger. The results on the show, conducted as actual experiments, almost entirely matched the original Milgram experiment.
4. is "set in plaster" by age 30.
One of the founders of psychology, Harvard philosopher William James, believed that personality was fixed by early adulthood. Freud also believed in the immutability of personality, but it was James who is credited with the "set in plaster" quote. It's not unusual to find people today who believe that we are stuck with our or at least adolescent personality. However, years of research on personality in adulthood shows that people can change in many ways throughout life, even in their very fundamental dispositions.
5. People cannot recover from a chronic mental illness such as schizophrenia.
Along the same lines as Myth #4 is the belief that severe mental illness cannot be successfully treated. However, as is true for Myth #4, people can overcome their early life personalities or even forms of psychopathology. if people with schizophrenia receive current treatment during their acute phase, over 40% can recover (i.e. have no symptoms or hospitalizations and at least part-time work) for one or more years at a time. Some people with schizophrenia can even show complete recovery for the remainder of their lives (Jobe & Harrow, 2010).
You may think that the retina records everything it sees, though upside down, but in fact, the retina records patterns in an "on" and "off" manner. As the retinal cells transmit information up to the brain, the signal is continually refined, but it never physically resembles the objects that you "see." Introductory psych books unfortunately perpetuate this myth by showing the object facing the eye appearing upside down on the back of the retina. In actuality, we construct the images we see in our world by putting together the data in the higher regions of the brain, not the back fo teh eye.
7. Most people watching the Kitty Genovese murder (source of " " research) did not offer help.
The infamous murder of Kitty Genovese murder in March of 1964 in front of dozens of passive bystanders stimulated research by social psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latane to investigate the theory of "diffusion of responsibility." Darley and Latane's research showed that the larger the number of bystanders, the less likely any one person is to help. However, the true Genovese story didn't play out quite as described in most intro psych books. In fact, many people tried to help and were unable to due to the fact that the deadly assault did not take place right in front of them. Although there still is validity to the bystander effect, its origins in this case are more mythical than real.
8. Denial is a bad way to cope with . We are often told to get a grip on reality as a way to handle our problems, but this is only sometimes true. When a situation is unchangeable, you are better to use a so-called "emotion-focused" coping strategy, such as focusing on the positive or pushing the situation out of your consciousness. If someone has stolen a prized possession of yours, and you know thete's no way to get it back, your mood will only worsen if you ruminate over the experience. However, if a situation is changeable, then it would be a bad idea to ignore it. If you know who took your possession, but are afraid to confront this person, you could use "problem-focused coping." This would involve developing a plan in which you come up with possible strategies, evaluate them, and then put one of them into place. There is no one best way to cope with stress, so you are best off if you flexibly adapt to the situation by using denial (or other ways to feel better) or taking action.
The phenomenon of déjà vu refers to feeling like you've seen something before that you have not. People who experience déjà vu think that they have special psychic powers. You may feel that you've seen a situation you're in now at an earlier time (such as in a dream), and that you're therefore operating on some type of precognition. However, most people's déjà vu experiences reflect faulty "source ." Perhaps you've had this feeling when you've ordered coffee from your local barista. You're sure this has happened to you in a dream and now it is happening in real life. However, the chances are that the situation is just close enough to real experiences you've had many times before that it's simply an old memory whose source you can no longer place. Check out Art Markman's Psychology Today article for a more detailed explanation (and if you think you've read it before, well-- maybe you have!).
10. Skinner's daughter was raised in a Skinner box and grew up having severe mental disturbances.
I've saved one of the most mythical of the myths for last. Perhaps you even heard this one in the classroom (though I hope not). The truth is that Skinner built a crib for his younger daughter that resembled a "box," but it was not a box like the ones he used for training pigeons. Instead, it was intended to keep her warm and draft-free. No food pellets were dispensed and no shock provided. Regarding this daughter's future mental , she didn't seem to have been harmed by the experience whatsoever, at least according to her autobiographical statements. On the other hand, his older daughter Julie Vargas became a behavioral psychologist and now is president of the B.F. Skinner Foundation, which you can "like" on .
As you can see, psychology is full of entertaining and informative surprises. I hope that by debunking these myths, you'll be better prepared to apply the important knowledge from our field to promoting the of behavior.
If you'd like to read more about general psychology knowledge, check out my previous posts:
Making sense of psychology headlines.
Why it's worth taking intro psych.
We've come a long way since Pavlov.
25 Surprising Facts about Psychology
If you'd like to test your psychology knowledge, you can take this Jeopardy! Psychology Trivia quiz.
Also, check out these links:
Making sense of psychology headlines.
Why it's worth taking intro psych.
We've come a long way since Pavlov.
Psychology's Best Movies
Follow me on Twitter @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging and please check out my website,www.searchforfulfillment.com where you can get additional information, self-tests, and links. Join my Facebook group to share your favorite psychology stories and to have your psychology questions answered!
Copyright 2011 Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D.
References:
Jobe, T. H. and Harrow, M. (2010). "Schizophrenia course, long-term outcome, recovery, and prognosis." Current Directions in Psychological Science 19(4): 220-225.
For more psych myths, check out "50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology by Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues. |
President Donald Trump appearing on a television screen (Shutterstock).
President Donald Trump spends more than four hours a day in front of a television showing cable news, according to an in-depth New York Times report.
“Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House’s master bedroom. He flips to CNN for news, moves to ‘Fox & Friends’ for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day,” The Times explains of the president’s daily routine.
Television is the medium that motivates the commander in chief who is notorious for his Tweeter feed
“Before taking office, Mr. Trump told top aides to think of each presidential day as an episode in a television show in which he vanquishes rivals,” The Times reported.
“People close to him estimate that Mr. Trump spends at least four hours a day, and sometimes as much as twice that, in front of a television, sometimes with the volume muted, marinating in the no-holds-barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back,” The Times explained.
The story later notes that Trump usually gets only five or six hours of sleep each night.
Trump has even instituted a White House rule that he has perpetual dibs on the remote control.
“No one touches the remote control except Mr. Trump and the technical support staff — at least that’s the rule,” The Times revealed. “During meetings, the 60-inch screen mounted in the dining room may be muted, but Mr. Trump keeps an eye on scrolling headlines. What he misses he checks out later on what he calls his ‘Super TiVo,’ a state-of-the-art system that records cable news.” |
This is a mono black deck variant of a U/B version of the deck. Originally the basic concept was to make my opponent discard cards to trigger [Waste Not]. Should my opponent field anything, I would return it to their hand, to produce more potential discard triggers for [Waste Not]. Eventually dwindle the opponent down to 1-0 cards in hand and win passively through [Quest for the Nihil Stone] or through a card I grew to favor [Sangromancer]. However as I began experimenting with the Waste Not triggers, I began to be often forced into BB mana with no outlet for it. So the switch to mono black is a variant on that concept but to capitalize on potential mana through [Waste Not]+[Dark Deal]. I also wanted to highlight the benefit of going monoblack, so devotion was an obvious choice, and with so many enchantments, I'm pretty happy with the generally high devotion by end game. With the adjustment for enchantment creatures, the deck started having more of an aggressive feel. I didn't want to mirror other delve combos with waste not, I felt that wasn't creative enough for me.
My favorite plays are:
T1: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Dark DealTalk about major disruption. I usually reserve this kind of gamble if I've already used my mulligan. It is a first turn, first strike that can ruin the tempo for my opponent that carefully chose their hand. Obvious risk with shorting out my hand for the next few turns, but the return for disrupting early game has been fruitful in playtesting.
T1: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Underworld DreamsOk admittedly probably my weakest t1 play. But I like making my opponent start to sweat from their first draw. And with the rest of the build in the deck, forcing the cards into their hands to fuel discard engine, compounded with life loss forces a narrower margin for the opponent to come back to win. The game becomes a ticking clock before they drew their first card.
T1: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Master of the FeastTurn 1, 5/5 flyer? Need I say more?
T1: Swamp, Quest for the Nihil StoneT2: Swamp, Waste NotT3, Swamp, Dark Deal
This is probably the cornerstone of the deck. It's on time, the engine is set up, and if you're going first, beyond error for removal, the combo is probably assured. Which means creature, mana, or card advantage. Plus there's a good amount of morale damage.
Now this is in a casual META between roughly 4 non-competitive nerds. The deck loves to perform in multi-player game, but still does well 1-on-1. Looking for impressions, suggestions, anything really. It may be unorthodox but in the sideboard I've included the U/B variant cards. I wouldn't call it a true side board, as I'm 1. Unfamiliar with utilizing sideboards, we don't use them in my meta. So I'm not sure it's exactly kosher to sideboard in a whole other color in and out of the main deck. Nonetheless, I've included my choices in U/B Original variant. The cards that would be switched out would be: [Master of the Feast][Sign in Blood][Underworld Dreams] [Gray Merchant of Asphodel] [Damnable Pact][Ill-Gotten Gains]The U/B variant runs at 22 land, as opposed to the MonoB variant which runs at 20. As an additional note, the land base for the U/B has less resources for dual lands (because you know real life and stuff), and optimal dual lands are not included in the sideboard.
I'm still fairly new to MTG and have really enjoyed deck-building. Thanks to those who took the time to read. KAJD |
(CNN) -- Betty Ford, the widow of late President Gerald Ford and a co-founder of an eponymous addiction center in California, has died at the age of 93, according to the director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum.
Ford died Friday evening with family at her bedside, according to a family member.
Elaine Didier, the director of the Grand Rapids, Michigan, museum, confirmed Ford's death to CNN.
No other details were immediately available. The family is expected to release a statement later Friday or Saturday, Didier said.
Condolences began pouring in soon after news broke about her death -- including from celebrities who sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center.
"As far as I'm concerned, Betty Ford saved my life," Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks said.
Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, who revealed in his recent autobiography that he was treated at the Betty Ford Center for drug addiction, also praised Ford's work.
"Betty Ford took a risk at one of the worst times of her life and came forward to share a message of recovery in order to serve others," Tyler said. "Her vision, passion and amazing heart led to the Betty Ford Center, the gold standard of treatment facilities. She will be missed, but her work in recovery will live on."
President Barack Obama remembered the former first lady as a "powerful advocate for women's health and women's rights" and someone who "helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction."
His predecessor, George W. Bush, added that "because of her leadership, many lives were saved."
Some of the many others offering praise and sympathy included Nancy Reagan (calling Ford "an inspiration"), and former presidents George H. W. Bush (describing her as a "wonderful wife and mother, a great friend and a courageous first lady) and Jimmy Carter (saying she was "a close personal friend" and "a remarkable political spouse.")
Born Elizabeth Anne Bloomer in Chicago, she grew up in Grand Rapids. At the age of 21, she moved to New York City to work as a dancer and model. She returned to the Midwest two years later.
One year after divorcing William Warren after five years of marriage, she wed Gerald Ford -- a former star football player at the University of Michigan, decorated U.S. Navy veteran and budding Republican politician -- in 1948. That year, the woman now known as Betty Ford campaigned with her new husband on his successful venture to become a U.S. congressman from Michigan. She gave birth to three sons and a daughter over the course of their 58-year marriage.
The family moved to Washington, where Gerald Ford served in the Capitol for 25 years before being tapped in 1973 as then-President Richard Nixon's vice president in place of Spiro T. Agnew.
Just over 10 months later, Betty Ford became first lady when her husband was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States. Gerald Ford took office after Nixon resigned in the wake of his pending impeachment following the crisis and cover-up of the break-in at the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington.
Betty Ford soon made headlines, holding press conferences and publicly discussing her diagnosis with breast cancer. The first lady talked about abortion, pre-marital sex and equal rights in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" in 1975 -- the same year Newsweek named her its "Woman of the Year." According to the Ford library and museum's website, her candidness initially drew some criticism, but in a short time, 75% of Americans approved of her in public opinion polls.
But in 1978, just over one year after leaving the White House after her husband lost his campaign to remain president, Ford made headlines of a different kind. She entered the Long Beach Naval Hospital to seek treatment for alcohol and prescription painkiller abuse.
That same year, she published the first of two autobiographies, entitled "The Times of My Life." Ford would go on to become a high-profile example of someone who battled substance abuse issues and was a tireless advocate for drug- and alcohol-abuse treatment.
"My addiction was a combination of alcohol and the prescription drugs that ... both were a part of my life, but they did not become a problem until they overrode my common sense," Ford told CNN's Larry King in 2003. "I didn't know what was happening, I just knew that I felt great and the pain was gone."
Her work paid dividends in October 1982 when, along with Leonard Firestone, she opened the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. To this day, the center remains one of the most well-known and respected places nationwide for treatment of alcoholism and other drug dependencies.
Ford also fought to promote awareness and research on breast cancer, with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation eventually naming an award in her honor.
She earned numerous honors over her life, including a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and the Congressional Gold Medal eight years later.
Gerald Ford died on December 26, 2006, at the couple's home in Rancho Mirage. He was 93.
CNN's Denise Quan contributed to this report. |
A brand-new Chinese sportswear brand has received a great deal of attention following its launch earlier this week, with netizens noticing its striking resemblance to a certain popular American sportswear brand. See if you can figure out which one:
Yup. Pictures have gone viral of the company’s launch event, with executives speaking in front of a logo that looks like a very blatant rip-off of Under Armour’s trademark. Meanwhile the brand’s curious name, Uncle Martian, also happens to sound pretty similar. Here’s Under Armour’s logo, notice the subtle, but all important differences:
According to Shoes.Net, Uncle Martian’s parent company is Fujian-based Tingfei Long Sporting Goods, a 25-year-old sports shoe manufacturer that has specialized in manufacturing off-brand sneakers for years, but now appears poised for bigger and better things, riding on the wave of Under Armour’s growing success in China.
Tingfei Long executive Huang Canlong was frank with reporters, telling them he hoped that Uncle Martian would be able to capture part of the sports shoe market that has been taken over by foreign firms, such as Under Armour.
China is infamous for its disregard of international copyright laws — with copycat sphinxes, talent shows and luxury brands — but it’s hard to blame them when the strategy is often such a success. Last year, a company that began as a Segway copycat actually bought Segway, and then got financed by Xiaomi.
We aren’t saying that Uncle Martian will take over Under Armour someday, but stranger things have happened. Heck, it’s already got 100 followers on its Weibo account, launched earlier today.
[Images via Shoes.net]
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Story highlights The children ages 2 and 5 made noises and moved frantically
Bystanders instructed one of them to open emergency latch
(CNN) A woman is facing child abuse charges after she locked her two children in the trunk of her car while she shopped at a Walmart in Utah, police say.
Tori Lee Castillo, 39, was arrested after she returned to the car. Her children, ages 2 and 5, were taken by the Division of Child and Family Services and handed over to a responsible party, Riverdale City Police Department said in a statement.
Police said they received a call Thursday after a witness saw the woman stuff the children in the trunk and leave her car at a parking lot.
"The small children ... began making noise and moving frantically, causing the vehicle to shake," police said. "Several good Samaritans observed this and came to the aid of the children."
Bystanders coached the 5-year-old on how to open the trunk using the emergency latch in it, authorities say.
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Congratulations to Bubba Watson, PDGA # 44745, on winning his first major championship. It's fitting that he won here in Augusta, the mecca of ball golf and disc golf, since he enjoys both hitting the links and hitting the chains.
He didn't have an easy time of it, though. It took a two-hole sudden death playoff with Louis Oosthuizen, 2010 British Open Champion, to decide who would take home the green jacket. Both Watson and Oosthuizen took par on the first playoff hole and after they both faulted on their next drive, it came down to the short game.
Oosthuizen caught a bit of luck off the tee and his errant shot caught some limbs and ended up just off the fairway. Bubba wasn't as lucky and his ball rolled deep into the pinestraw. Louis had a chance to capitalize, but shorted his stroke and sat five or six feet off the front of the green. Now it seemed like Bubba had a chance to be able to get out of trouble, then get up and down and continue the playoff. Watson had other intentions. In sure Bubba style, he was going after the pin. He played a huge hook just underneath a magnolia tree, hit the front left of the green and spun right to within ten feet of the cup. After Oosthuizen's chip and two-putt, Watson was left with only a two-putt of his own separating him from the prestigious green jacket. He nearly hit the long putt and then hit the short come backer to seal the deal.
What an amazing feat and jaw dropping drama. We can only hope for a similar showdown in disc golf's two big tournaments next weekend. Disc Golf Planet will be broadcasting live from both the Glass Blown Open in Emporia, Kansas and the National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships back here in Augusta, Georgia.
Congratulations again to Bubba! See you all out on the course, soon. |
It's been my experience, having covered the news at CBS for nearly 30 years, that when the media elites come in for criticism, they're not very good at introspection. They're much better at circling the wagons.
Dan Rather, the former "CBS Evening News" anchor, is Exhibit A. On Feb. 8, 1995 he told Tom Snyder on his late-night TV show that, "It's one of the great political myths about press bias. Most reporters don't know whether they're Republican or Democrat and vote every which way."
On May 30, 2012, he told Jon Stewart the same thing. When Stewart asked, "In your experience, haven't most journalists, haven't their politics been somewhat more liberal?" Rather replied, "No, it hasn't been my experience. ... This is a sham."
This is nonsense -- breathtakingly untrue nonsense. Most reporters do know whether they're Republican or Democrat and they don't vote every which way. Studies have shown that there are far more liberals in America's newsrooms than conservatives -- and they vote Democratic far more than Republican.
After George W. Bush was elected in 2000, I got a phone call from a network news correspondent who said he thought he was the only person in his shop who voted for Bush and said his colleagues took to calling him a Nazi because of it.
In my 28 years at CBS News, I don't recall running into a conservative -- not one who would admit it publicly anyway.
What is a sham, to use my former colleague's word, is the refusal of many liberal journalists -- not only Dan Rather -- to acknowledge the obvious: That journalism attracts more liberals than conservatives and that too many reporters let their personal views infect their coverage of the news.
Which brings us to an important new study from researchers at Harvard University that shows that coverage of Donald Trump in his first 100 days of office was overwhelmingly negative. Overwhelmingly!
The researchers analyzed the tone of coverage at CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox News, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Here's some of what they found:
Coverage at CNN and NBC was 93 percent negative. At CBS, the tone was 92 percent negative; at The New York Times it was 87 percent negative; at The Washington Post, the negative tone was 83 percent; at The Wall Street Journal it was 70 percent negative; and at Fox News the coverage was 52 percent negative.
The numbers look like bias. But negative coverage is not necessarily biased coverage.
You can't blame journalists for simply reporting the news, which in President Trump's case is often filled with controversial statements and actions and so, understandably, would produce stories with a negative tone.
But when the negative numbers are so astronomically high, mainstream journalists would be better off employing some introspection instead of ignoring the study, which is what many did, and which is only a more nuanced way of circling the wagons.
The Harvard team also broke down the coverage by topic and found that on immigration 96 percent of the coverage was negative; on health care 87 percent was negative; and on fitness for office 81 percent of the news was negative.
Here's a theory: So much news coverage about the president has been negative because journalists don't agree with Trump's policies -- and a lot of them just plain don't like him.
For example, a lot of liberal journalists are at odds with the president's immigration policies -- whether it's about building a wall on the southern border or rounding up and deporting some immigrants here illegally. Is that why so much of the coverage has been negative and why journalists didn't spend more time finding sources that agree with the president, and putting them in their stories?
A lot of liberal journalists, who adored Barack Obama, don't like the president's plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. Is that why so much coverage on healthcare has been negative?
And it's no secret that a lot of liberal journalists believe the president is unfit for office. Maybe that's why more than 8 out of 10 stories on the president's fitness were negative.
By the way, the same Harvard researchers found that Barack Obama got 41 percent negative coverage and 59 percent positive. George W. Bush got 57 percent negative, 43 percent positive. Donald Trump's overall numbers: 80 percent negative, 20 percent positive.
I stumbled across an interesting essay by Washington journalist Robert W. Merry in which he says, "When a man as uncouth and reckless as Trump becomes president by running against the nation's elites, it's a strong signal that the elites are the problem."
Memo to America's elites: Millions of Americans think you're the ones who are deplorable. They don't want to be called bigots because they worry about the effects of illegal immigration on America's schools and hospitals and more broadly on the nation's sovereignty and culture.
They don't want to be seen as heartless because they believe that not everybody getting food stamps deserves them.
They don't want to be viewed as Muslim-hating bigots because they, like the president, believe that a temporary ban on travel from a few countries -- countries that harbor terrorism -- is a good idea.
And they're sick of being portrayed as unsophisticated dolts because they don't abide by the politically correct ideas that are so popular among the elites at our most prestigious universities.
This is not the time to circle the wagons. It's a time for introspection by America's elites, starting with the ones who set the agenda for the culture, who decide what the national conversation will be about ... the media elites.
COPYRIGHT 2017 BERNARD GOLDBERG
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM |
Late last week, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which became deservedly famous in the 1980s for combating violent white-power hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis, published a list of 15 individuals it labels as particularly threatening anti-Muslim extremists. It is sad but telling that the SPLC’s so-called field guide to Muslim-haters is not a list of violent extremists—who certainly do exist—but is instead a blacklist of prominent writers whose opinions on a range of cultural and political issues are offensive to the SPLC. The SPLC blacklist list contains practicing Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, foreign-policy think-tankers like Frank Gaffney and Daniel Pipes, and right-wing firebrands like David Horowitz—none of whom could be reasonably described as anti-Muslim bigots.
I spoke to Nawaz on the phone in London to ask for his reaction. “A bunch of first-world, comfortable liberal Americans who are not Muslims have decided from their comfortable perch to label me, an activist who is working within his Muslim community to push back against extremism, an anti-Muslim extremist.”
On the face of it, it’s difficult to understand why Nawaz was listed as such. As he told me, he’s a proud Muslim. “I learned Arabic in order to read my holy book,” he said. “In an Intelligence Squared debate, I defended the proposition that Islam was a religion of peace. This was the same week that the man who attempted to bomb Times Square was sentenced so it wasn’t the friendliest New York audience. I hosted Morgan Freeman in a mosque for his documentary The Story of God.”
Nawaz takes the SPLC blacklist seriously, he told me, because he believes that it has put his life in danger. “They’ve put a target on my head,” he said. “This is what putting people on lists does. When Theo Van Gogh was killed in the Netherlands, a list was stuck to his body that included Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s name. It was a hit list. When Bangladeshi reformers were hacked to death by jihadist terrorists, they were working off lists. Only fascists produce lists.”
It’s not easy to understand how the SPLC got here. The organization started in 1971 as a civil-rights law firm designed to combat white-supremacist groups. In 1981 it won a civil suit against the Klan for $7 million that bankrupted the United Klans of America. In 1991, it used the same tactics to win a $12 million judgment against the White Aryan Resistance. It won a $6.5 million case against the Aryan Nations in 2001. Co-founder Morris Dees’ career was dramatized in a TV movie, Line of Fire.
For SPLC’s efforts against violent white supremacists, its members were frequently targeted for reprisal. Yet now, the SPLC is putting bounties on the heads of Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who are opposed to Muslim extremism. Where the SPLC was once able to win legal battles through careful, often dangerous research that could stand up in court, the organization now identifies the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish right-wing think tank, as a hate group, right alongside the Ku Klux Klan. Where the organization once pushed for freedom for all regardless of race or creed, now it aims to silence those whose opinions it finds objectionable. In doing so, it makes it hard for any impartial observer to place much confidence in future claims about groups and individuals that may actually be dangerous.
Perhaps in spite of the number of white supremacists who have moved into the light with the nomination of Donald Trump, the SPLC no longer has the resources to tackle those who threaten violence and act on it. Instead, it’s spending its time on Google and Twitter—and hoping to raise money by going after writers and intellectuals who get its goat.
What’s more troubling are the suggestions contained in the report that the SPLC no longer thinks that political violence and hate are a bad thing, or even real—as long as the people committing such acts are Muslims. Complaints against radical Islamist violence, the report bizarrely suggests, are
propaganda, the vast majority of it completely baseless, produced and popularized by a network of anti-Muslim extremists and their enablers. These men and women have shamelessly exploited terrorist attacks and the Syrian refugee crisis, among other things, to demonize the entire Islamic faith. Sadly, a shocking number of these extremists are seen regularly on television news programs and quoted in the pages of our leading newspapers. There, they routinely espouse a wide range of utter falsehoods, all designed to make Muslims appear as bloodthirsty terrorists or people intent on undermining American constitutional freedoms. More often than not, these claims go uncontested.
Interestingly, the document fails to list the man who, according to this description, is the world’s most influential anti-Muslim extremist—President Barack Obama, who told the Atlantic that young people in the Middle East are only thinking about how to kill Americans.
Obama isn’t a violent anti-Muslim extremist any more than the 15 people named here. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is an outspoken critic of Islam and has a compelling personal narrative that reflects the story of millions of women and men who have suffered in the name of Islam. David Horowitz is a pugnacious right-wing intellectual who often engages in sharp propaganda. Daniel Pipes is a fierce adversary of Islamic extremism and a knowledgeable scholar of the Middle East. There is much to disagree with in what they and others identified in the SPLC write or argue. I find the work of a small number of the people listed in the report to be puerile. But neither they, nor anyone on this list, deserve to be listed alongside white supremacists who threaten or actually employ violence.
In reality, the SPLC’s field guide has little to do with real anti-Muslim extremism, the red-hot center of which these days is not America but Syria—where so-called secular dictator Bashar al-Assad has teamed up with Iran and Russia to slaughter nearly half a million Sunni Arabs. The SPLC document is simply an enemies’ list, of the kind that fascists, Stalinists, and other totalitarian thinkers can’t help producing. So it’s hardly surprising that the ghost of Stalin makes an appearance. In a paper nominally highlighting anti-Muslim sentiment, David Horowitz is chided for questioning why one professor identifies Paul Robeson as a “model of [American] patriotism.”
That the SPLC document seeks to re-litigate the case of Paul Robeson, who openly admired Stalin, is evidence that the field guide is simply a blunt instrument used to attack the enemies, personal and institutional, of the paper’s four contributing institutions—Southern Poverty Law Center, Media Matters for America, the Center for New Community, and ReThink Media. (Regarding the Robeson issue, perhaps it’s the pet project of SPLC Senior Fellow Mark Potok who has contributed to the People’s World, a publication affiliated with the Communist Party of the United States of America.)
Nor does the SPLC hide the fact that the purpose of its publication is to blacklist and silence its enemies. The field guide recommends to its consumers in the media that they, “research the background of extremist spokespeople and consider other sources, and if they do use anti-Muslim spokespeople, point out their extremism.”
Why is a liberal organization like the SPLC now using fascist tactics to blacklist enemies? Maajid Nawaz believes the organization has targeted him for a very specific reason. “The left is no longer about advancing progressive values,” he said. “For them, it’s now about tribal identities, and any internal critique is seen as treachery.” Nawaz also believes there may be another reason—the activists at the SPLC, he suggested, “may be influenced by Islamists themselves.” And there is evidence in the paper to suggest that Nawaz’s contention may have some truth to it.
The field guide attempts to rewrite history of the Muslim Student Association, for one. In its dossier on Horowitz, the SPLC complains that he
placed an ad in an April 2008 issue of a campus newspaper, The Daily Nexus, claiming that the Muslim Student Association was “founded by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the godfather of Al Qaeda and Hamas, to bring jihad into the heart of American higher education.” In fact, it had worked with Jewish campus groups, according to faculty members.
Whether or not some chapters of the MSA worked with Jewish campus groups (while the University of California at Irvine chapter shouted down guest speaker Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in 2011), it’s established that Brotherhood members played a role in founding the MSA.
Even more telling is the rationale for blacklisting Nawaz. Among others, he “tweeted out a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad—despite the fact that many Muslims see it as blasphemous to draw Muhammad. He said that he wanted ‘to carve out a space to be heard without constantly fearing the blasphemy charge.’ ”
That Nawaz tweeted out a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad in an effort to change the minds of Muslims who might automatically declare such an action to be blasphemy is the act not of an anti-Muslim extremist but a Muslim reformer. That the SPLC itself accuses him of blasphemy belongs not to the tradition of an American Civil Rights organization, but rather to the ideology of a religious fundamentalist organization, of the type that inspired the ISIS cadre that executed the staff of Charlie Hebdo.
The fact is that more than 40 years after its founding, the Southern Poverty Law Center is now aggressively defending the kind of violent supremacists it had once sought to prosecute, and attacking types like Nawaz it had once defended against violence. The suggestion that the organization has in fact switched sides will likely cause violent extremists of all shades and types to breathe a sigh of relief. It is also sign that there is something deeply wrong with our political culture.
***
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Lee Smith is the author of The Consequences of Syria. |
Washington (CNN) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appears to be standing by his offer to submit himself for extradition to the US in exchange for the commutation of Chelsea Manning's sentence.
"Everything that he has said he's standing by," WikiLeaks quoted an Assange lawyer as saying in a tweet.
Assange has lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London where he was granted asylum in 2012 to avoid potential extradition to the United States and extradition to Sweden, where he risked prison time over accusations of sexual assault. He has denied the validity of the sexual assault claims.
The exchange offer struck a puzzling note because the US has not made an extradition request for Assange.
If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK
WikiLeaks also tweeted Tuesday that "Assange is confident of winning any fair trial in the US."
The group celebrated Tuesday's news that President Barack Obama commuted Manning's sentence, hailing it as a "VICTORY" on Twitter.
VICTORY: Obama commutes Chelsea Manning sentence from 35 years to 7. Release date now May 17. Background: https://t.co/HndsbVbRer — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 17, 2017
WikiLeaks followed up later with a short statement from Assange: "Thank you to everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning's clemency. Your courage & determination made the impossible possible."
Assange: "Thank you to everyone who campaigned for Chelsea Manning's clemency. Your courage & determination made the impossible possible." — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 17, 2017
The Justice Department has not charged Assange with a crime, but US law enforcement officials have publicly acknowledged he is the subject of a criminal investigation.
"(Manning) should never have been prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison. She should be released immediately," said Barry Pollack, an attorney representing Assange, following the commutation announcement. "For many months, I have asked the DOJ to clarify Mr. Assange's status. I hope it will soon."
By Tuesday evening, WikiLeaks posited that the commutation was pacifying advocates and distracting from their other criticisms of the Obama administration.
"Manning's clemency stifles howls over Obama's failure to pardon Snowden, keeping civil-liberties crowd & NSA+CIA+IC onside for war v Trump," WikiLeaks tweeted.
Manning's clemency stifles howls over Obama's failure to pardon Snowden, keeping civil-liberties crowd & NSA+CIA+IC onside for war v Trump. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 18, 2017
Manning was convicted in 2013 of stealing and disseminating 750,000 pages of documents and videos to WikiLeaks. The material, which WikiLeaks published in 2010, included a classified video of a US helicopter attacking civilians and journalists in Iraq in 2007. Labeled "Collateral Murder," the film drew criticism from human rights activists for the deaths of innocent people.
Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor who provided troves of government documents to journalists and currently resides in Moscow to avoid facing arrest and prosecution in the US, wrote to Manning, "In five more months, you will be free. Thank you for what you did for everyone, Chelsea. Stay strong a while longer!" and linked to the Guardian's story about her commutation.
Snowden -- whom the White House said earlier in the day had not submitted a request for clemency -- added, "Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama." He also went on to thank "all who campaigned for clemency on Manning's behalf."
In five more months, you will be free. Thank you for what you did for everyone, Chelsea. Stay strong a while longer! https://t.co/PaLvJDvDbl — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017
Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama. https://t.co/IeumTasRNN — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017
To all who campaigned for clemency on Manning's behalf these last hard years, thank you. You made this happen: https://t.co/PaLvJDvDbl — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017
"Since she was first taken into custody, Chelsea has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement -- including for attempting suicide -- and has been denied access to medically necessary health care. This move could quite literally save Chelsea's life," said Chase Strangio, an attorney for Manning in an ACLU statement.
Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists to whom Snowden leaked the NSA documents to and a supporter of Manning's release, posted the letter he wrote advocating for her clemency and said, "Chelsea Manning is probably the most empathetic person I've ever met. So thrilled!! Can't wait to see what she does."
Chelsea Manning is probably the most empathetic person I've ever met. So thrilled!! Can't wait to see what she does. My clemency letter: pic.twitter.com/j9CQhRmxhm — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 17, 2017 Chelsea Manning is probably the most empathetic person I've ever met. So thrilled!! Can't wait to see what she does. My clemency letter: pic.twitter.com/j9CQhRmxhm — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 17, 2017
"Beyond the whistleblowing, ponder Manning's courage: she publicly announced her transition in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas," Greenwald added.
Beyond the whistleblowing, ponder Manning's courage: she publicly announced her transition in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 17, 2017
An outpouring of support from other advocacy groups also came out in response to Manning's commutation. Amnesty International, Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and many others rushed to celebrate Obama's decision.
National security hawks, however, expressed confusion and agitation.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, told reporters on Capitol Hill that he considered Manning a "traitor" and said he was "disappointed" about the commutation.
"If somebody leaks our state secrets, endangers Americans directly, we need to set an example that is severe and consistent," he said.
Speaking with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, said, "There are very serious questions when you release the type of documents that she did, and at the end of the day, what message do we send for the next person?"
In a statement calling the commutation "outrageous," House Speaker Paul Ryan said, "Chelsea Manning's treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation's most sensitive secrets." |
By Lisa Selin Davis
Five days after the birth of my first daughter, I held her in my arms as my husband held me. My head was bent against his shoulder and I was sobbing so heavily that I shook. I could barely breathe, but I pushed out the words: "I. Just. Want. To. Feed. My. Baby."
That I wouldn't be able to, and that no lactation consultant or midwife would admit this, turned what would have been a disappointing situation into a near-health crisis for my daughter.
I had been told that it might take as long as three days for my milk to come in, so by day four, I was perplexed. By the end of that day, confusion gave way to disappointment. I was never particularly fond of my breasts, and I'd been looking forward to a new sense of appreciation for them; hey, they might not be Playboy material, but they could sustain a life! By day five, panic had set in. The baby was getting crankier, and I was agitated and devastated, the oxytocin from childbirth flooding from my body with no pleasure hormones from breastfeeding to replace them.
On the phone, my midwives sounded as perplexed as I was. I'd had a natural childbirth, and was totally committed to nursing. My mother was able to breastfeed. It must just be that we weren't trying hard enough, or that the baby wasn't latching properly. They prescribed a militant regimen of water-drinking and pumping --15 minutes on, 10 minutes off, for two hours straight, then a two-hour break until I started again. I fed the baby the pathetic quarter-ounce yield and prayed for that mythical sensation I'd heard about called let-down.
A day later, when I told the midwives that nothing had changed, they just said, "Huh. We've never heard of this before." Let down, indeed. Whatever happens, they said, don't introduce the bottle or give formula. I was presented with a list of what horrors might unfold if I did: obesity, compromised immune system, lowered IQ.
Not sure what else to do, I went on a tear of western and eastern medicine. The acupuncturist gave me a tincture to rub on my sternum and prescribed a pig's blood soup, available in Chinatown. The lactation consultant weighed my baby before and after a feeding and pronounced that she was getting milk, even though the baby had soiled her diaper during the feeding (explaining the weight gain) and there were literally three squeezable drops of yellow-ish liquid emanating from my breasts. Though she is quite well-known in New York City and the subject of a New York Times profile, the LC also told me that she'd never heard of a body that just couldn't produce breast milk. She gave me some exercises to do with the baby's mouth, suggested that I use a supplemental nursing system or spoon-feed formula and that I Just Keep Trying, the unofficial motto of LCs everywhere.
A week after the birth, the pediatrician gave it to me straight: My daughter had lost more than 20 percent of her birth weight and needed nutrition immediately. "Formula is perfectly fine," she said, in sharp contrast to everything else I'd heard. And then she added this: "Your milk might never come in. It happens sometimes."
My whole body exhaled. Though I was still swimming in panic and shame, she had confirmed my quiet suspicion and given me a free pass to do what all my instincts urged: feed my baby however I could. To keep her alive.
Three and half years later, I continue to wonder: Why didn't the midwives and lactation consultants admit that lactation failure was even a possibility? Amy Evans, M.D., a pediatrician in Fresno, CA with a subspecialty in breastfeeding, told me that at least 5% of women have medical conditions that make breastfeeding extremely difficult or impossible, including insufficient glandular material and breast hypoplasia, which is what I have -- breasts with underdeveloped ducts, that just don't have the apparatus to create an adequate milk supply. Hypoplastic breasts have some identifiable characteristics, like fullness on the sides of the breasts but not in the middle, yet not one person I consulted ever mentioned this condition, or even examined my breasts. I learned about it from a friend, who heard about it on Facebook. I had to seek out a breastfeeding doctor to confirm it.
I do understand the fervor of lactation consultants, midwives and other medical and lay professionals to delay a diagnosis of failure. After all, most women struggle tremendously with breastfeeding in the weeks after giving birth -- it's painful, the latch might not come naturally, and sometimes milk supply is simply delayed. Todd Wolynn, M.D., who is both a lactation consultant and a pediatrician in Pittsburgh, PA, told me that almost all women can successfully breastfeed if they get adequate support in the first week when the learning curve is sharpest.
And I understand that breastfeeding needs to be marketed just as zealously as formula-feeding to counteract the power and reach that formula companies have. After all, every breastfeeding mother is one less customer for them, and so they have ingenious marketing methods (like, until the recently enacted bans in some cities, giving you free formula at the hospital, just as your breastfeeding frustration begins) to get and keep you hooked on the stuff. It's a heck of a lot easier, if more expensive, to formula-feed, so breastfeeding advocates have to try extra hard to help women surmount the trials of those first weeks and support women enough to make it work.
Except that sometimes it just doesn't. In my case, what should have been support was actually ignorance and pressure -- pressure that left my child starving for a week -- accompanied by shame and guilt and fear. Lactation consultants took my money -- hundreds of dollars of it -- and never told me what my pediatrician uttered immediately in her judgment-free and matter-of-fact way: It ain't gonna happen.
I don't mean to villainize lactation consultants and midwives. They perform an important function in modern American society. In addition to their medical training, they are the keepers of a kind of folk knowledge that got lost in the better-living-through-chemistry 1950s, when powdered, cow's milk-based Similac ("similar to lactation") made its entrance to the scene--and to the hospital--and changed baby feeding as we know it. The medical world has taken over what was once women's work, with much information lost in the shift. LCs and midwives give us the help that our mothers and aunts and older sisters and neighbors were able to offer in a less medicalized, more communal time.
But in their enthusiasm for breastfeeding, their desire to reclaim the act, some seem unwilling to acknowledge the medical reality of lactation failure, even though as many as 200,000 women may experience it each year. If you are one of those women desperate to breastfeed, terrified of what you've been told will happen if you don't, the denial will make you feel crazy, on top of terrified.
Situations like mine are slowly eroding the denial of lactation failure in the medical and lactation community. I've been told by doctors, doulas and lactation consultants themselves that LCs are more and more likely to be kept, um, abreast, of these very real, if rare, medical conditions, and that their training more and more includes information on breast hypoplasia. Lactation consultants aren't regulated by any governing body, though, so training is not standardized, and anyone can call herself one (you should look for certification from the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners if you need one).
But in the meantime, thousands of women each year are experiencing the confusion and terror that I did. So let me take a moment to allay your fears. If no milk materializes from your breasts despite how much and how long you've tried, and your baby gets nothing but formula from a bottle (or banked, pasteurized breast milk from somebody else, if you can find and afford it), for her first year of life, she will be fine. Three years after my fiasco, I'm happy to report that my own formula-fed daughter is vivacious, smart and has a terrific immune system. |
kRO is working on a new system titled: Equipment Replacement System. So, what does it do? Well, you can kinda get a hint from the title of it. Basically, there will be a new UI in your Equipment/Character Window and in your inventory which will allow to switch between equipment sets. At the time, in order to switch between your equips, you are either clicking on them directly in your inventory or have them setup in your battlemode hotkeys... well now, here is a new change.
How the System Works
Open up your Equipment/Character window and click on the "Setup Equipment" button
Once you have done so, you must register your equipment that you wish to switch between (click and drag the item).
Once you have registered your items in the equipment change window, you will notice the items that you registered now have arrows in the corner of their image. Basically stating that the equipment is registered.
Equipment Switch System Addition Function
You will be able to setup hotkeys in the hotkey setting window. |
How to Rewire Your Brain to Be More Kind Toward Others
Kindness is the state of caring about other people’s well-being and taking action to help make other people’s lives better and happier.
It is a social glue that allows us to connect with others and build meaningful relationships with them
When someone does something kind for us, we like them more and we want to cooperate with them more.
When we do something kind for someone, we earn their trust and respect, and we feel better about ourselves for being a good person.
Kindness is a reciprocal relationship. It becomes a cycle that strengthens our bond with friends, family, lovers, coworkers, and acquaintances.
The more we practice kindness, the easier it is.
Every thought and action we do fires neurons in our brain. The more these neural pathways are fired, the easier it becomes to activate them. So the more we repeat acts of kindness, the easier it is to do them in the future.
Here are scientifically supported ways we can increase our kindness toward others.
Get your intentions right
Having good intentions is the first step toward being kinder toward others and building positive relationships with them.
Research on good intentions has shown that when people know we are acting with their best interests at heart, this improves their experiences with us and makes them more pleasurable.
Cultivating the right attitude about others is often necessary before we start acting in kinder ways.
If we approach the world with a cynical mindset, people are going to notice that and not want to be around us.
But if we approach the world with a positive and optimistic mindset, people are going to be attracted to that and want to spend more time with us.
In a small but significant way, people with good intentions make the world a better place.
See from the other person’s perspective
The practice of perspective-taking is a scientifically supported technique that we can use to increase empathy and kindness toward others.
The aim of this technique is to imagine ourselves experiencing a situation from another person’s perspective. How would you feel if you were them? What thoughts would you have? How would you act if you were in their shoes?
By answering these questions, we can gain a deeper understanding of why people act the way they do. Perspective-taking helps us step out of our narrow mind and see the world through the lens of another conscious being.
And by understanding people better we learn to interact with them better, be nicer to them, and even forgive them when they do things we normally wouldn’t understand.
Practice kindness in small doses
Kindness starts as a thought but ends as an action.
Acting kindly toward others is the only real way to let people know we care about them and their happiness. Without action, kindness just lives in our minds but never touches the real world.
Being kind to others doesn’t have to be complex or fancy. Sometimes the simplest acts of kindness are seen as the most sincere, such as holding the door, helping with directions, saying “please” and “thank you,” or even just a smile.
Start there and then build to acts of kindness that take a little more effort. Here is a list of 30 acts of kindness you can try out – have fun with it and make it into a 30 day challenge.
Kindness is like a muscle, the more we exercise it the better we are at it.
Pause when you get angry or frustrated
An important part of being a kind person is knowing how to control our anger and frustration.
It’s natural for us to occasionally be upset with other people; however, we should try our best to channel these emotions in constructive ways, not lash out, yell, insult, or be aggressive.
One recommended technique to overcome these impulsive emotions is called a STOP Meditation. It allows us to take a short pause and reflect on our thoughts and feelings before acting on them.
Often by creating a “pause” between our thoughts and actions, we can re-evaluate what we’re doing in the moment and change our direction if we find ourselves wanting to do something stupid or destructive.
So when someone pisses you off and you want to yell at them, take a mental “step back” – breathe a few deep breaths – and then focus back on the situation with a clear mind.
Try a loving-kindness meditation
Loving-kindness meditation is a popular technique in Buddhism designed to cultivate warm, positive feelings toward all conscious beings.
The meditation begins with focusing on yourself and loving yourself fully and completely. You then extend these good feelings of love toward family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances, and even enemies. The goal by the end of the meditation is to be radiating good vibes toward everyone in the world.
Often times practitioners will use visualization and affirmations to increase the effectiveness of the meditation. For complete instructions on this meditation, check out the second part of this article.
Recent research in neuroscience has showed that this meditation can leave long-lasting changes in the brain if practiced on a regular basis.
Stay updated on new articles and resources in psychology and self improvement: |
NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy's primary fighter operating from the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya faces operational deficiencies due to defects in engines, airframes and fly-by-wire systems, according to a report by India's autonomous auditor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). However, Indian Navy officials say the Russian-made MiG-29K remains the best choice available.
The report said the "aircraft MiG-29K is being technically accepted despite having discrepancies and anomalies."
India ordered 45 MiG-29K aircraft and equipment worth $2.2 billion in two separate orders — in 2004 and 2010 — from Russia. It is the primary combat platform on Vikramaditya, which was acquired from Russia when it was known as the Admiral Gorshkov.
The MiG-29K aircraft are also expected to serve on the homemade aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which is still under construction.
Arun Prakash, who served as chief of the Indian Naval Staff, evaluated the aircraft in 1999 before the purchase from Russia. The retired admiral said: "There are the only two fighters — MiG-29K and Sukhoi-33 — in the world capable of operations from a Short Take-Off But Arrested Recovery, a system used for the launch and recovery of aircraft from the deck of an aircraft carrier like INS Vikramaditya. There is no better fighter available to replace the MiG-29K."
However, Prakash is highly critical of what he called the "lethargy" by the Russians in the manufacturing and maintenance of the aircraft.
On problems with the engine, the CAG report said: "Since induction in February 2010, 40 engines (62 percent) of twin-engined MiG-29K have been withdrawn from service/rejected due to design-related defects."
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Additionally, the serviceability of the warplanes was low, ranging from 21.30 percent to 47.14 percent, according to the report.
"The roots of these problems (serviceability and defects) lie in the extremely poor quality control in the Russian military-industrial complex and dismal product support being rendered by the Russian industry to the Indian Navy for the past 25 years," Prakash said. "This is in spite of the fact that the development of the MiG-29K has been totally funded by the Indian Navy."
On how the aircraft could affect combat worthiness of the Navy, the CAG report said: "The service life of MiG -29K is 6,000 hours or 25 years (whichever is earlier) but the deficiencies and snags in the aircraft is likely to reduce the operational life of the aircraft, thereby affecting combat worthiness of [the Indian] Navy."
Detailing the defects of the engine on MiG-29K, the report noted that "even as the RD-33 MK engine (mounted on MiG-29K) was considered an advancement over the engine of the MiG-29K, its reliability remains questionable."
"The engine-design defects should be rectified with the utmost urgency at the Russians' cost," Prakash said. "Any respectable company, conscious of its reputation, would attend to this. But the oligarchs who control the Russian military-industrial complex are too brazen, for two reasons: (a) they know that India has not choice and (b) they are confident that Indian politicians will never turn the screw on them."
However, retired Indian Navy commodore and independent defense analyst, Sujeet Samaddar, gave no credence to the CAG report.
"I firmly believe auditors have no experience or professional ability to comment on technical matters of a modern state — just putting numbers and percentages." |
MONTGOMERY — Governor Robert Bentley on Tuesday declared a State of Emergency for all Alabama counties in preparation for winter weather that is expected to move through Alabama.
“With winter weather expected to impact Alabama, we are taking precautions to protect Alabamians,” Governor Robert Bentley said. “By issuing a State of Emergency, I have directed all state agencies to take necessary actions to be prepared to respond to the anticipated winter conditions including sleet, ice and snow. We will actively monitor the storm as it begins to hit the state and are prepared to respond to any requests for assistance.”
The State of Emergency will be effective at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday. Read the declaration.
According to the National Weather Service offices in Alabama, various portions of the state are expected to experience ice, sleet, snow and freezing rain beginning Wednesday morning and lasting through Thursday. Check the latest forecast on WHNT.com.
The Alabama Emergency Management Agency is activating the State Emergency Operations Center in order to monitor the storm and assist county Emergency Management Agencies as needed. State law enforcement agencies have coordinated state resources in order to respond to stranded drivers.
Governor Bentley has authorized 250 Alabama National Guardsmen to prepare to respond to any emergency requests for assistance. |
Florida State running back Dalvin Cook has been associated with having “off-field issues” and “character concerns” during the pre-draft process.
Some of Cook’s past is a legitimate concern for NFL teams vetting the potential first-round selection ahead of the 2017 NFL Draft, but a recent story from Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback indicates that a runner has aimed to sabotage Cook’s draft stock.
(Get FSU news sent directly to your inbox! Click for FREE FSU newsletter!)
Cook had legal issues in middle school and early in his career at FSU. Those have been well-documented. But draft pundits have routinely mentioned those who Cook associates himself with from his hometown of Miami as being possible concerns for NFL teams. Now the origin of that perceived fear, or at least part of it, has been identified.
Tony Villani -- who runs XPE Sports, a facility in Boca Raton that Cook has trained at ahead of the draft -- told Sports Illustrated that he began receiving inquiries from coaches and scouts about Cook’s work habits. They told Villani that an agent informed them at the Senior Bowl that Cook was showing up to workouts late with alcohol on his breath and associated with “unsavory characters” from his neighborhood.
“I told these guys, You know me, you know I’m not going to lie to you… you’ve got it wrong,” Villani told MMQB. “It got to the point where I felt I had to go to Dalvin’s agent and tell him about what people were saying.”
MMQB reported in the story that two NFL scouts cited the unnamed runner as the source of the rumors: “A scout familiar with the runner suggested he might have had an informal business relationship with Cook before the prospect settled on different representation, though when told the runner’s name, Cook said he’d never heard of him.”
It’s an interesting turn to what has been a bumpy pre-draft process for Cook.
The entire MMQB article on Cook is worth the read as it delves into his background as a player and person.
(Unbelievable offer! Get a 7-day free trial with monthly or annual subscriptions) |
Pool Reporter Transcript
Crew Chief Ed Malloy
Postgame – New York at Toronto, November 10, 2015
NBA Crew Chief Ed Malloy met with pool reporter Eric Koreen of the National Post after the game between the Knicks and Raptors in Toronto tonight. Here is the transcript of that interview:
Question 1: Did the Raptors tell you they were planning on not fouling?
Malloy: They didn’t tell us. They didn’t tell us they weren’t going to take a foul. Honestly, Eric, we’re trained to call fouls when we see them.
Question 2: Did you see Carmelo Anthony step out of bounds?
Malloy: No.
Question 3: Did you see Carmelo Anthony travel?
Malloy: No.
Question 4: Have you reviewed the play since then on video and what did you see?
Malloy: When we came in, we reviewed the play. We did see Anthony step out of bounds and should’ve awarded the ball to Toronto.
Question 5: What was your explanation to Coach [Dwane] Casey at the time?
I don’t really discuss what conversations we have with coaches and things of that nature. |
John Stossel was born in Chicago 68 years ago today. In his life, he has gone from liberal consumer reporter to libertarian hero, along the way shifting the dialogue from the ways in which government must protect us, to the ways in which we must be protected from government.
After graduating from Princeton in 1969, Stossel had little desire to go to graduate school and instead decided to go into the business of reporting. Working his way up the ranks while battling a stuttering problem, Stossel eventually got his break when he landed a gig with ABC News in 1981 as a consumer reporter for Good Morning, America and a correspondent for 20/20. During his time with ABC, Stossel won 19 Emmy Awards while advocating for more stringent consumer protections.
However, Stossel began to challenge his own thinking when he discovered Reason magazine. He realized how much governments, as well-intentioned as they may be, actually made life more difficult for American citizens. His move toward libertarianism coincided with a larger role on 20/20, as he began doing weekly “Give Me a Break” segments, often detailing the ways in which government failed. In 1994, the segment became so popular that it was spun off into a weekly one-hour segment.
Stossel became co-anchor of 20/20 in 2003 and published his first book, Gimme a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media in 2004. Stossel moved to Fox News in 2009, where he currently resides. He often appears on The O’Reilly Factor, as well as hosting his own one-hour show entitled Stossel.
John Stossel has been a major catalyst in the modern libertarian movement. Milton Friedman said of Stossel, “Stossel is that rare creature, a TV commentator who understands economics, in all its subtlety.” For all of the years that Stossel spent propagating liberal myths, he has more than made up for it by presenting the concepts of liberty in a manner which anyone can understand.
Stossel brings a certain credibility to the libertarian movement. He is a name and face that has earned trust throughout the American populace, and a man that can articulate and synthesize the most complicated ideas into simple, one-hour specials. It’s difficult for a libertarian today to attempt to persuade a friend with the writings of F.A. Hayek or Murray Rothbard. What is much easier is to bring up a short YouTube clip of the Stossel show deriding big government in a succinct and clear fashion.
Libertarians can have a hard time communicating their complex, principled positions in this 24-hour news cycle. For that reason, “conservative” and “liberal” pundits are easily able to distort messages in a manner which fits to their narratives. It is much more nuanced to explain why liberty nearly always succeeds where coercion and government forces fail.
All of us in the libertarian movement have different people and sources which we can point to as the reasons we came to liberty. Whether it was Ron Paul’s presidential campaign in 2008 or a simple distaste with the ever-increasing size of government under both major parties, not many began as libertarians, but nonetheless, we have all ended up in the same pool of Americans who are fed up with big government.
Like many others, I owe much of my evolution toward liberty to John Stossel. Growing up in a conservative area, it was simple to watch Fox News and parrot the Republican narrative. But every time I heard Stossel speak about liberty and challenge the status quo, my interest was piqued in a manner that made me want to hear more.
Today, as I find myself with a more solid and principled stance as a libertarian, I cannot help but be thankful to John Stossel for assisting in opening my eyes. |
Member
Group: Veteran Members
Posts: 117
Joined: 26-April 10
From: Orange, NSW
Member No.: 9,375
MemberGroup: Veteran MembersPosts: 117Joined: 26-April 10From: Orange, NSWMember No.: 9,375
After last year's appaling show at my first ever tourney, Wintercon (only managing a draw as a best result ) I thought it was time to make an army worthy of at least ONE win.
However, I am still a sucker for themed armies, and I am also not a fan of the WAAC or "net list" builds. So whilst it will certainly not be the most competitive list at the tourney, I am hoping it will look tops, be fun to play and give me that ONE win! (just one and im a happy camper, as it shows some level of imrpovement).
Anyway, I have been working on this army for a while, and don't have all the progress shots, so will just do a bit of a dump of where I am up to. If anybody would like to see progress shots let me know as I did take some that are buried in the depths of the My Pictures folder somewhere.
Firstly, I wanted to try and improve my sculpting on this project, and the appaling bad games workshop GUO mixed with the appaling expensive Forge World GUO gave me my first project.
It was time to build Papa
I wanted a couple of things:
-He had to be fat, like super fat, but still muscular looking (think the Marvel character Kingpin for my inspiration.
-He had to have one big leering eye, staring in the direction he was casting his filthy spells! Couple with a mutated little mong eye.
-He had to have a mouth of gnashing gnarly teeth.
-Guts / Blood / Pus / Guts / Poo / Guts / Maggots / Guts / Pimples
Starting with a wooden skewer and plastiscene (for a cheap and malleable base) I started coating bit by bit in Apoxe Sculpt, adding basic detail where I could. I then used green stuff for the details. The horns are Dryad Branches, the teeth plastic toothpicks and the hands I stole from a Soulgrinder and a Predator Toy I had (I'm new at this so scultping hands was off the cards). I also added some little bits and pieces like a decapitated head nipple ring, a Nurgle Bell on the sword and a little nurgling hiding in his Guts!
From Behind. Anal growth was a goer, as well as the embedded maggot nest from the plague bearer sprue, with a few scratch built ones crawling to spread Nurgle's Rot.
Hi all,After last year's appaling show at my first ever tourney, Wintercon (only managing a draw as a best result) I thought it was time to make an army worthy of at least ONE win.However, I am still a sucker for themed armies, and I am also not a fan of the WAAC or "net list" builds. So whilst it will certainly not be the most competitive list at the tourney, I am hoping it will look tops, be fun to play and give me that ONE win! (just one and im a happy camper, as it shows some level of imrpovement).Anyway, I have been working on this army for a while, and don't have all the progress shots, so will just do a bit of a dump of where I am up to. If anybody would like to see progress shots let me know as I did take some that are buried in the depths of the My Pictures folder somewhere.Firstly, I wanted to try and improve my sculpting on this project, and the appaling bad games workshop GUO mixed with the appaling expensive Forge World GUO gave me my first project.It was time to build PapaI wanted a couple of things:-He had to be fat, like super fat, but still muscular looking (think the Marvel character Kingpin for my inspiration.-He had to have one big leering eye, staring in the direction he was casting his filthy spells! Couple with a mutated little mong eye.-He had to have a mouth of gnashing gnarly teeth.-Guts / Blood / Pus / Guts / Poo / Guts / Maggots / Guts / PimplesStarting with a wooden skewer and plastiscene (for a cheap and malleable base) I started coating bit by bit in Apoxe Sculpt, adding basic detail where I could. I then used green stuff for the details. The horns are Dryad Branches, the teeth plastic toothpicks and the hands I stole from a Soulgrinder and a Predator Toy I had (I'm new at this so scultping hands was off the cards). I also added some little bits and pieces like a decapitated head nipple ring, a Nurgle Bell on the sword and a little nurgling hiding in his Guts!From Behind. Anal growth was a goer, as well as the embedded maggot nest from the plague bearer sprue, with a few scratch built ones crawling to spread Nurgle's Rot.
--------------------
This might just be the beer talking but, I love Beer.
Wintercon 2013 army:
My work in progress mono god Daemons for Wintercon 2014: Enjoy beer? Enjoy Nerd gaming of all varieties? Enjoy beer? Did I mention Beer? Then join us at Friday Night Gaming for all your Beer and Gaming needs! https://www.facebook.com/groups/611805728910307/ This might just be the beer talking but, I love Beer.Wintercon 2013 army: http://imgur.com/a/aeYj4 My work in progress mono god Daemons for Wintercon 2014: Nurgle Daemons!! |
Image caption Manna Dey had largely withdrawn from public life in his later years
Indian singer Manna Dey has died in a Bangalore hospital at the age of 94.
He had been ill for the past few months and was in hospital for a respiratory infection. His funeral is due to take place later on Thursday.
Born Prabodh Chandra Dey in 1919, Dey was popularly known as Manna, and chalked up a number of hit Bollywood songs in a career spanning six decades.
Tributes have been pouring in for the legendary singer from the government, the film industry and his fans.
President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh led the country in paying tributes to Dey.
India "has lost a veteran playback singer, a versatile artist of extraordinary ability and a creative genius who mesmerised listeners with his enchanting voice," the president said.
The prime minister described Dey as the "king of melody" and said with his death, the music world had lost one of its most talented artistes.
"I am deeply saddened to hear of the demise of the King of Melody, Manna Dey. An accomplished singer with a unique voice, he was multi-talented and excelled in Rabindra Sangeet and various other forms of popular music," he said in his condolence message.
"In his death, the music world has lost one of its most talented artistes. Dey's legacy will, however, live on through the many songs he sang," Mr Singh added.
Dey sang in several languages including Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi and Bhojpuri.
His long career saw him win several awards for his contribution to music, including state honours like the Padma Shri in 1971 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2005. He was also given the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2007.
Dey sang more than 3,500 songs, including romantic ballads, intricate raga-based songs, Qawwalis and fast-paced modern numbers in his career.
Along with Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore Kumar, he made up what was known as the "famous quartet of singers" who dominated the Hindi film music industry from 1950s to 1970s.
Many of Dey's tracks for Bollywood films became huge hits and he sang for some of the biggest Bollywood names like Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra.
His most popular numbers included Zindagi kaisi hai paheli (Life, what a riddle it is) from the film Anand; Poocho na kaise maine raen bitayee (Don't ask how I spent my night) from Meri Surat Teri Aankhen; Ek chatur naar (A clever woman) from Padosan; and Eey bhai zara dekh ke chalo (Oh brother, look where you're going) from Meraa Naam Joker.
He also sang for Bollywood super-hits Sholay and Amar Akbar Anthony.
'Pleasant, easy personality'
In the last few years, he had largely withdrawn from public life.
Dey's peers from Bollywood and fans took to Twitter to pay tribute to the singer.
"Today, great classical singer Manna Dey sahab, who we fondly called Manna da, is not among us anymore. He had a very pleasant and easy personality. He was very dedicated to his work. I salute him and pray that his soul rests in peace," singer Lata Mangeshkar, who collaborated on innumerable hits with him, wrote on Twitter.
Image caption Manna Dey sang more than 3,500 songs, including romantic ballads, intricate raga-based songs, Qawwalis and fast-paced modern numbers, in a career spanning more than six decades.
Image caption Many of Dey's tracks for Bollywood films became huge hits and he sang for some of the biggest Bollywood names like Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra.
Image caption Along with Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh, and Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey made up what was known as the "famous quartet of singers" who dominated the Hindi film music industry from the 1950s to 1970s.
Image caption Manna Dey won several awards for his contribution to music, including the state honour Padma Vibhushan in 2005.
Mangeshkar's duet Pyar hua ikraar hua (I admit I'm in love), played as background to film of actors Raj Kapoor and Nargis on a rainy night under an umbrella in Shri 420, is among the most popular romantic songs of Bollywood.
"Manna Dey, stalwart of the music world, passes away. Flooded with memories and his songs," tweeted Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
In another tweet, Bachchan said: "Strange how we connect events of our life with his songs."
"Manna Dey passes away. His voice shall linger forever. RIP," tweeted film-maker Mahesh Bhat.
Actor Manoj Bajpai tweeted: "Manna Dey is no more! A great singer! Let's pray for him! My condolences to his family! His music will live for 1000 yrs. RIP."
Actress Shabana Azmi wrote: "Manna Dey had a unique voice. He will live on through his songs Ai Meri Zohra Jabeen/ dil ka haal suney dilwala/ poocho na kaise maine. RIP."
Popular cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle tweeted. "Oh no. Such terrible news to get up to. Manna Dey no more? Less melody in the world."
Dey, a Bengali, also charmed neighbouring Bangladesh with songs in his mother tongue and in a message on Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Dey would remain alive forever among music-loving people of the subcontinent.
"People will never forget his extraordinary melodious voice and unique style," she said. |
Can You Smuggle Wine Through Security in Your Bra?
Last year, I was in search of a new wine rack. The first result Amazon.com gave me was surprising:
So, of course, I tweeted it. Which, of course, got me my only mention on an esteemed Duke University Professor’s blog. (What can I say? I’m classy).
Something reminded me of the wine rack today, and I got to thinking–would this actually violate any TSA security rules? And can you make it through security with the wine rack?
The subject of bras and security came up on this blog before. There was a case of a man whose falsies were confiscated at TSA security, and I found out the TSA rules on falsies and augmented bras are gender-neutral, so as long as he wore his falsies through security, he was okay. (TSA now has a section on traveling when transgendered, which also contains rules that apply for cross-dressing travel).
What if my choice of, er, augmentation is wine?
First, can I bring wine through security?
Believe it or not, you can. Just in 3 ounce forms.
Okay, now, can I bring wine in my bra through security?
For a while, the TSA seemed completely unaware that women wear padded bras, and that this padding is usually made out of liquid.
First they suggested checking your gel bras. After an outcry from both breast cancer survival groups and people who didn’t want to buy bras just for going through security, TSA slowly amended the law from allowing medically “necessary” gel bras (which is an odd categorization) to allowing necessary and cosmetic.
The rule was changed to allowing (emphasis mine):
Items used to augment the body for medical or cosmetic reasons such as mastectomy products, prosthetic breasts, bras or shells containing gels, saline solution, or other liquids;
Under this rule, you’re allowed to augment your breasts with any liquid as long as you are doing it for cosmetic reasons.
Now, this specific rule has disappeared off the TSA website (even though it has been cited recently by many airlines), but I don’t think this is a change in policy. In fact, it looks like any mention of bras has disappeared from the website. I think they were just simplifying their 3-1-1 policy and cut out this info (I could imagine there would be an uproar otherwise). The current rules on transgendered policies solidifies this for me, since they accentuate (no pun intended) the right to prosthetics.
So, should you transport wine through security in your bra? It appears to be okay to take through security, but that doesn’t mean it is okay to take on-board and drink it.
FAA rules say:
You cannot drink alcohol on board unless it is served to you by a flight attendant. While that’s possible I suppose, it would be extremely awkward given the location of the wine.
YMMV.
Please note: If you purchase this item, I will receive affiliate credit, but… er… don’t. Don’t. |
The season of holidays, shopping lists, and end-of-the-year retrospectives is upon us. Here at Science, in keeping with tradition, our news writers and editors are getting ready to unveil the 21st “Breakthrough of the Year”: their choice of the most momentous scientific discovery, development, or trend of 2016, to be announced when the last issue of the year goes online on 22 December. They’ll also choose 9 runners-up and will highlight “Areas to Watch”: important developments likely to pay off next year.
But there’s no need to wait—you can get in on the action now! Pick your favorite breakthrough from the list below by Sunday, December 4. Then check back next Monday–we'll be doing a second voting round with your 5 finalists to pick the official winner. We'll announce the People's Choice selection, along with our editors' pick, on December 22.
Which breakthrough will you choose? Cast your vote today! |
Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
America’s privileged students at elite colleges and universities continue to be traumatized by speech they find “hurtful” and “threatening.” Last November at Yale it was a faculty email suggesting that students should lighten up on policing Halloween costumes for racial insensitivity. At the University of Missouri, some students were offended by the administration’s failure to investigate and punish alleged racial slurs. A Harvard student recently told FOX News’ Meghan Kelly that displaying the American flag in a dorm room or just being in the same class with a pro-life student is hurtful and insensitive. Now students at Emory University are experiencing “pain,” “fear,” and “frustration” over messages supporting Donald Trump that were written in chalk on campus sidewalks. At Scripps College, #Trump2016 written on a dorm whiteboard was called “racist” and “intentional violence.”
There’s been no end of commentary on these incidents. Some have correctly pointed out that they are the fruit of nearly four decades of the progressive and leftist transformation of the university. Once a protected space for truth, independent thought, and free speech, now universities are training centers for left-wing cadres and commissars intolerant of political heresy and opposing points of view. Listen to the vice-president of the Missouri Students Association, responding to questions about the professor who had asked for “muscle” to scare off a journalist covering a protest. “I personally am tired of hearing that First Amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and for other students here.”
Other critics blame a culture of permissive parenting and a therapeutic obsession with children’s feelings that have led to demands for “safe spaces,” speech codes, and rigorous surveillance of “microagressions.” A callow youth at Yale demonstrated this change, hysterically shouting to a professor and master of a campus residence, “It is not about creating an intellectual space! . . . It is about creating a home here!” Another Yale student in an article for the student paper wrote, “I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain!” The university’s role of being in loco parentis now means recreating the pampered indulgence of childish feelings that many affluent students have became used to at home.
These analyses are revealing, and the weird incoherence of this combination of Marx and Oprah has been neatly captured by William Voegli in an essay for the Claremont Review of Books: “The compassion commandos of 2015 are history’s first revolutionaries to mount the barricades in the name of their own emotional fragility.” Yet there are other causes of the “snowflake” phenomenon.
Start with federal law. Sexual harassment and Title IX legislation employ vague and subjective language that invites legal complaints no matter how obviously absurd. Once harassment proscribes actions or words that create an “intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment,” as sexual harassment law puts it, then the standards for defining these subjective terms will be set by the hypersensitive, the neurotic, or the Machiavellian opportunist. So too with Title IX, which says no one will “be subjected to discrimination” on the basis of sex. But who will define what constitutes “discrimination”? Students like the one quoted above, who echoes sexual harassment law with her phrase “hostile and unsafe learning environment.”
This degradation of law to the level of irrational, subjective perceptions can be seen in the language of university “harassment” or “hate speech” codes, which are created to avoid run-ins with the feds over violations of sexual harassment laws. But it’s not just sex that is at issue. Any protected class, which includes selected minorities and sexual identities, is given the same protection from behaviors deemed offensive to their identities. Expand this proscription of “hostile” and “intimidating” to politics and ideology––a natural progression of such open-ended law given the prevalence of multicultural identity politics––and you get the “snowflake” phenomenon. Thus political speech that disturbs someone can be proscribed as a violation of harassment and discrimination laws policed by federal agencies.
This brings us to the eagerness of college administrators to take seriously such complaints and appease the complainers. They do so not just because they may agree with the ideology of “diversity” and grievance politics. Whether they do or not, any institution that receives “federal financial assistance,” in the words of Title IX––which comprises, with few exceptions like Hillsdale College, almost every public and private university and college in America–– is bound by federal law. Alleged infractions must be investigated and punished, unless a school wants the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Department of Education, backed by the coercive power of the state, to get involved. And don’t forget the possibility of private lawsuits based on these laws, the loss of federal funds, and the risk to an institution’s accreditation.
For administrators, then, the path of least resistance is to investigate the alleged infractions, and propose remedies that will appease the complainers and get the television news cameras off campus. And if Constitutionally protected free speech and academic freedom are the victims, that’s a small price to pay for avoiding a career-ending orgy of bad publicity.
Finally, the common perception of these students as just spoiled, immature, entitled neurotics is only partly true. The real instigators of these incidents are savvy progressive student activists who know that most faculty agree with and support them, and that most administrators are careerist invertebrates fearful of bad publicity and blowback from trustees and the media. These student Alinskyites leverage photogenic protests and marches into academic lucre in the form of more scholarships, “research centers,” and faculty hires that will expand the progressive influence over the institution, especially over curricula, hiring, programs, admission criteria, and academic policy.
A perfect example of this dynamic can be seen in the response of Yale president Peter Salovey to the incident on his campus last November. First there is some embarrassing groveling: “I have never been as simultaneously moved, challenged, and encouraged by our community — and all the promise it embodies — as in the past two weeks. You have given strong voice to the need for us to work toward a better, more diverse, and more inclusive Yale. You have offered me the opportunity to listen to and learn from you.” But employing the multiculturalist dog whistles “diverse” and “inclusive,” and flattering self-righteous entitled whiners by anointing them as Socratic sages, are just preludes to the real business––doling out academic protection money.
Race, ethnicity, and other aspects of social identity are central issues of our era, issues that should be a focus of particularly intense study at a great university. For some time, Yale has been exploring the possibility of creating a prominent university center supporting the exciting scholarship represented by these and related areas. Recent events across the country have made clear that now is the time to develop such a transformative, multidisciplinary center drawing on expertise from across Yale’s schools; it will be launched this year and will have significant resources for both programming and staff.
And that’s just the beginning of the payola. Four new faculty positions will be filled to research and teach the “histories, lives, and cultures of unrepresented and under-represented communities,” and Yale will add “additional teaching staff and courses in Yale College starting in spring 2016 that address these topics.” Fifty million dollars is committed to “enhance faculty diversity,” by which he means hiring not the children of Scots-Irish West Virginia coal-miners, but “protected” groups like blacks and “Hispanics” no matter how affluent their parents or how laden with social capital.
But this academic Santa Clause is just getting started. There will be a new administrative position created to help the Faculty of Arts and Science in its “diversity efforts.” Yale will make “funds available to improve existing programs and develop new ones — both during orientation periods and beyond — that explore diversity and inclusion and provide tools for open conversations in all parts of the university about these issues. Programs may take the form of trainings, speaker series, or other ongoing activities.” New “pathways” for reporting discrimination, and new “measures to strengthen mechanisms that address discrimination” will be created with significant “input” from students.
But not just faculty, staff, and administrators will profit from this blood money.
Financial aid policies for low-income students in Yale College, the subject of a spring 2015 report by the Yale College Council, will also see improvements beginning in the next academic year. Details will soon be announced, and will include a reduction in the student effort expectation [which probably means lowering GPA standards for receiving aid] for current students. In the meantime, funds for emergencies and special circumstances [compensation for the trauma of microagressions?] already available through the residential colleges, and the financial aid offices are also being reviewed and increased.
Finally, what capitulation to totalitarians would be complete without self-flagellating “reeducation” programs?
Educating our community about race, ethnicity, diversity, and inclusion begins with the university’s leadership. I, along with the vice presidents, deans, provosts, and other members of the administration, will receive training on recognizing and combating racism and other forms of discrimination in the academy. Similar programs will be provided to department chairs, directors of graduate and undergraduate studies, masters and deans, student affairs staff, and others across the university.
It is safe to say that all this largesse will amount to at least hundreds of millions of dollars distributed to faculty, staff, administrators, and students, especially those “of color” no matter how privileged. And that’s what the “snowflakes” are really about: activists who extort and leverage money and power from institutions of higher education that have abandoned their mission to transmit knowledge and turn students into independent critical thinkers worthy of political freedom. |
Updated: 18-JAN-2018
Dave Announces 2018 Tour Dates
Dave Announces New Album, 2015 Tour
Dave has announced that he will release a new album in August, and will follow it up with a tour in October. The following dates have been announced so far. 02-OCT-2015
through
04-OCT-2014 West Springfield, Massachusetts Court of Honor Stage, The Big E West 08-OCT-2015 Boston, Massachusetts The Wilbur Theatre 09-OCT-2015 Londonderry, New Hampshire Tupelo Music Hall 10-OCT-2015 Londonderry, New Hampshire Tupelo Music Hall 11-OCT-2015 Londonderry, New Hampshire Tupelo Music Hall 13-OCT-2015 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Musikfest Café 20-OCT-2015 Washington, D.C. The Howard Theatre 22-OCT-2015 Asbury Park, New Jersey The Stone Pony 23-OCT-2014 New York City, New York City Winery New York 24-OCT-2015 Fall River, Massachusetts Narrows Center for the Arts 26-OCT-2015 Albany, New York The Egg 27-OCT-2015 Ridgefield, Connecticut Ridgefield Playhouse 30-OCT-2015 Napa, California Uptown Theatre 01-NOV-2015 Sacramento, California Ace of Spades 03-NOV-2015 West Hollywood, California The Roxy Theatre 18-DEC-2015 London, United Kingdom Islington Assembly Hall
Dave's Autumn 2014 Tour Wrapped Up
Dave's Autumn 2014 tour wrapped up at the end of November. Show photos from the Chicago and Detroit dates will be posted soon. Some have already been posted on The Kinks Facebook page (joining the Facebook group is required to see the photos).
Dave shares his guitar at the Magic Bag, Ferndale, Michigan, Nov. 13, 2014
Dave Releases Rippin' Up Time
On October 28, Dave released Rippin' Up Time, an all-new ten-track album distributed through Sony's Red River Entertainment label. Reports are that he has been rehearsing some tracks from the new album with his band for the tour that begins on November 11. Covering a wide range of emotion, Dave delivers strong lyrics and his trademark crunchy guitar in his follow-up to 2013's I Will Be Me.
Dave Touring the US This Fall
Dave has announced a tour of the middle and the eastern US this Fall to support his new album! 11-NOV-2014 Milwaukee, Wisconsin Turner Hall Ballroom 12-NOV-2014 Chicago, Illinois City Winery Chicago 13-NOV-2014 Chicago, Illinois City Winery Chicago 14-NOV-2014 Ferndale, Michigan The Magic Bag Theatre 18-NOV-2014 York, Pennsylvania Pullo Center 19-NOV-2014 Natick, Massachusetts The Center for Arts in Natick 20-NOV-2014 Norfolk, Connecticut Infinity Hall 21-NOV-2014 Norfolk, Connecticut Infinity Hall 22-NOV-2014 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania ArtsQuest Center 24-NOV-2014 New York City, New York City Winery New York 25-NOV-2014 New York City, New York City Winery New York 26-NOV-2014 Pittsfield, Massachusetts The Colonial Theatre
Postponed due to weather 28-NOV-2014 Englewood, New Jersey Bergen Performing Arts Center
Dave To Play in London This April
Dave has announced a show in London for this April! 11-APR -2014
London, UK Barbican Theatre
Dave Announces Autumn 2013 US Tour
Dave's following up his Spring 2013 tour with another tour of the northeast and Great Lakes in November! 12-NOV-2013
New York City, New York City Winery 13-NOV-2013 Annapolis, Maryland Ram's Head On Stage 14-NOV-2013 Englewood, New Jersey Bergen Performing Arts Center 16-NOV-2013 Niagara Falls, New York Bear's Den, Seneca Niagara Casino 18-NOV-2013 Chicago, Illinois City Winery 19-NOV-2013 Evanston, Illinois SPACE
Dave Announces Spring 2013 US Tour
It's been awfully quiet around this site for the past few years, but now we have a new tour to obsess over! At this time, the following dates and venues have been announced: 27, 28 and 29-MAY-2013
New York City, New York City Winery 30-MAY-2013 Shirley, Massachusetts Bull Run 31-MAY-2013 Norfolk, Connecticut Infinity Hall 01-JUN-2013 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Musikfest Cafe 02-JUN-2013 Fall River, Massachusetts Narrows Center for the Arts 04-JUN-2013 New York City, New York New York Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival 06-JUN-2013 Hermosa Beach, California Saint Rocke Cafe 07-JUN-2013 San Juan Capistrano, California The Coach House 09-JUN-2013 Agoura Hills, California The Canyon 11-JUN-2013 Del Mar, California San Diego County Fair
The Dave Davies Satsang Weekend and Spiritual Retreat 4
With the success of the three Satsang Weekends he has held since Autumn, 2011, Dave has announced Satsang Weekend 4 for Spring, 2013.These weekends are spiritual gatherings and workshops in an intimate environment, featuring evening concerts. See Dave's web site for further details.
The Aschere Project
Dave has released a new CD in cooperation with his son Russ, called The Ashere Project. It's based on an original story by Dave and Russ Davies called The Kakshisa Cipher. The story is a mix of science fiction, science fact and a bit of a love story thrown into the mix. It's available on Dave's site and on the Official Aschere Project website
Mystical Journey
Dave's DVD release by Koch Records, Mystical Journey now has a website with a trailer, a promo film and the release date, etc. A review page has been added too! If you have reviews you can submit them there.
Around the Galaxy CD Out Now!
Dave has announced a new CD Around The Galaxy (Metamedia Bootleg Series number 4) it is based on the board tapes at The Galaxy Theatre gig in 1997. It was released February 24th and copies are still available at Dave Davies Shop!
Belly Up Out Now!
Dave has released Dave Davies Belly Up! (Metamedia Bootleg Series number 3) it is based on the board tapes at Belly Up gig in 1997. This CD is available now on Dave's site . Also check out an interview Dave gave the day of the Belly Up show here part 1 and part 2
Now on DetuneTV: Kink Memoirs Chapter 2!
Dave has added Kink Memoirs Chapter 2 to Detune TV! http://www.detune.tv According to the preview it features the following; "Dave begins to explore major influences such as Big Bill Broonzy, Chuck Berry and Mike Picker. Dave visits the Phoenix cinema in East Finchley, Cherry Tree Woods, and Muswell Hill - all important areas when he was growing up. He shows us the venue where the band first performed."
Also available on Detune TV a fully downloadable version of Fragile. This CD was originally released in 2001. http://www.detune.tv/fragileMP3.html
"Second-Edition" Release Of Fractured Mindz
The "second-edition" version of Fractured Mindz was released on July 31, 2007. This new release is remastered, and contain the tracks "God in My Brain", previously only available on the Kinked CD, and an all-new track titled "This Is The Time", which has not been released previously. This second release is distributed by Koch Records.
Dave Releases New Album Exclusively Through
His Web Site
On January 30, Dave released a new album titled Fractured Mindz exclusively through his web site. Its release was pushed back a week from the January 23 date announced earlier. Dave's web site has details, plus a review of the album.
Dave Releases New Video Interviews Through His Web Site
On May 30, 2006 Dave made the first of his Spiritual Planet Interviews available for (free) download from his web site. This is a series of interviews during which Dave discusses his life and his spiritual beliefs. The first part, available now, is a twelve-minute segment focusing on how his family and his reading as a teenager influenced his interest in metaphysics. He also touches briefly on the teachers he credits with guiding him along his path. You can reach the interviews through the "What's New" page on Dave's web site. Viewing the interviews requires Real Network's RealPlayer or Apple's QuickTime plug-in.
Kinked Released on February 22, 2006 Through Dave's Site,
Through Koch on March 7
Kinked was released for direct ordering through Dave's web site on February 22, 2006. Koch Records released it for sale by retailers in the US on March 7. This is a 15-song CD. A new track, "God in My Brain", is accompanied by acoustic versions of "Love Gets You", "This Man He Weeps Tonight","Death of a Clown" and "Suzannah's Still Alive", live versions of "Living on a Thin Line", "Strangers", "Too Much on My Mind" and "Picture Book", plus Dave's version of "Give Me Love", which has been available only on the George Harrison tribute CD, Songs From the Material World. Of particular note is "When the Wind Blows (Emergency)", from Dave's out-of-print 1997 Unfinished Business EP. An audio clip from "God in My Brain" is available on the "What's New" page on Dave's web site.
Dave's Rehabilitation Artwork Prints On Sale |
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Democrats have been looking to expand their voter share in the state by offering moderate Mormons a political home. And party leaders and pollsters say the strategy appears to be working.
Utah Democratic Party chairman Jim Dabakis said two full-time organizers have been hired to reach out and assist members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Another group, the LDS Democrats Caucus, has also formed under the Utah Democratic Party umbrella with the mission of bridging the divide between those Utahns who are members of the church and those who are not.
"Most LDS Democrats have felt like they've had to stay in the closet about it," said Craig Janis, outreach co- chairman for the LDS Democrats.
Dabakis has actively appealed to LDS voters since becoming party chairman in 2011. He said the current climate in the Republican party, where tea party activists and other extreme factions are pressing their causes, is giving a number of voters pause to reconsider their political affiliations.
"LDS people are not extremists in nature," Dabakis said. "This extremism that has taken over the Republican Party, it makes a lot of LDS people extremely uncomfortable."
LDS people are not extremists in nature. This extremism that has taken over the Republican Party, it makes a lot of LDS people extremely uncomfortable. –- Jim Debakis, Democratic Party
Utah Republican Party chairman Thomas Wright disagreed. He said the number of moderate delegates at this year's state Republican convention was evidence that middle-of- the-road voters were making their way to the GOP, partly in response to the European-style socialist policies endorsed by the Obama administration.
On the subject of LDS voters, Wright said individuals should not base party affiliation solely on religion and that being presented with strong political options was ultimately good for the state.
"I think it's terrific that both political parties are reaching out to a number of different people," Wright said.
The LDS Church continues to maintain political neutrality, telling its members that principles compatible with church teachings can be found in the platforms of both major political parties. In February, the church issued a statement that instructed church leaders to avoid scheduling meetings during party caucus meetings and encouraged church members to attend their precinct meetings.
Both parties saw increased attendance at caucus meetings and Dabakis said the number of LDS voters at Democratic precincts was "stunning."
Janis held an "LDS 101" training session with Democratic political candidates last week the day before the party's state convention. He presented an overview of church history and culture and gave tips on interacting with church members.
On a bullet list of things to do, he included "speak from the heart" and "express your perspective and let them express theirs (but don't hang around if they're crazy)." Four sister missionaries were also on hand to answer whatever church- and doctrine-related questions the candidates had.
Related:
Utah Democrats condemn O'Donnell's anti-Mormon statements A controversial talk show host is feeling heat from the Utah State Democratic Party after claims he made about the origins of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Cimarron Chacon, who is running for the Utah House of Representatives, participated in the training session and said the material presented was invaluable.
"I just realized so many commonalities," she said.
Chacon, who was born Catholic but no longer attends church, said candidates were educated on passages of LDS scripture that are closely associated with topics on the Democratic plaform; such as education, health, self- sufficiency and care for the poor. She said they were given an extensive background on the church's worldwide humanitarian efforts and ran out of time to ask questions of LDS missionaries whom the party invited.
"We didn't get to utilize their expertise as much as people wanted to," she said.
Janis, who is LDS, often employs tactics that parody church culture, like buttons with the slogan "Choose the Left" or pass along cards that direct individuals to UtahCommonValues.org. On that website, designed by Janis' Fubeca Studio, LDS Democrats give testimonials akin to the LDS Church's "I'm a Mormon" campaign, explaining how their religion informs their political views.
He said any perceived similarities are meant to be light and fun, part of the LDS Democrats Caucus' goal of bringing Utahns together.
"An essential part of bridging that gap is showing that Mormons can make fun of ourselves," he said.
When asked what message he would like to give to LDS voters in Utah, Dabakis said Utah's Democrats are not like Washington politicians. Utahns have their own style of solution-oriented, reasonable governing.
An essential part of bridging that gap is showing that Mormons can make fun of ourselves. –- Craig Janis, LDS Outreach
"We're just plain problem solvers and we're civil and that's not true about (elected) Utah Republicans," he said. "Please give your Democratic candidates a second look."
Quin Monson, associate director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU, said reaching out to LDS voters is "absolutely" good policy for Utah Democrats, and may even be working. The CSED conducted a survey before this past weekend's state Democratic convention and found that 49 percent of delegates self- identified as members of the LDS Church.
Monson was quick to point out that being a BYU survey, there was a possibility that an inflated number of LDS delegates responded. But if a greater number of LDS voters heeded the call of the church's First Presidency to attend their neighborhood caucus meetings, it stands to reason that more LDS members would be elected as delegates.
"It was more than I thought it was going to be," he said.
Monson said that in politics, both parties are always trying to convert new voters or at the very least persuade opposite-party voters to defect temporarily. While actively reaching out to LDS voters is good long-term strategy for Utah Democrats, he said party leaders should take a cue from the conservative tea party movement and be wary of the intra-party divisions that come with increased numbers.
"What we see in Utah politics is often a culture war," Monson said. "We see less of that visibly in the Democratic Party but it's there nonetheless."
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The gun manufacturer donated to the US’s largest gun industry trade body in response to state’s attorney general’s ban on sale of assault rifles to civilians
Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson has donated $500,000 to the US’s largest gun industry trade body to help its fightback against the Massachusetts attorney general’s ban on the sale of assault rifles to civilians.
Smith & Wesson, whose shares this week hit a record high on the back of increasing demand for its assault rifles and other guns, said it had donated the money to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s (NSSF) battle against “arbitrary government action that threatens to turn lawful gun owners and dealers into criminals”.
Maura Healey, the Massachuetts attorney general, last month moved to close a loophole that allowed the sale of assault rifles, which are illegal under the state’s assault weapons ban, after the firearms manufacturers had been given what Healey regards as “small tweaks”.
Healey said that following the horrific atrocity in Orlando, in which 49 people were killed and 53 injured at the hands of an attacker using an AR15-style rifle and a handgun, the state would no longer let gun manufacturers “exploit our laws”.
“The gun industry has found a way to exploit our laws, a loophole of potentially horrific proportions. And it’s time we act,” she explained in an impassioned editorial in the Boston Globe. “It’s no surprise the Orlando killer chose an AR-15 style assault rifle. It’s a weapon of war, originally created for combat, and designed to kill many people in a short amount of time with incredible accuracy. It’s in the same category as weapons chosen by killers in Newtown, Aurora, and San Bernardino. These are not weapons of self-defense. They are weapons used to commit mass murder. And they have no business being in civilian hands.”
Largest US gunmaker: Hillary Clinton 'campaigning against lawful commerce' Read more
Healey said the Massachusetts assault weapon ban, which mirrors the federal ban that expired in 2004, prohibits the sale of specific weapons like the Colt AR-15 and AK-47 as well as “copies or duplicates” of those weapons. “But gun manufacturers have taken it upon themselves to define what a ‘copy’ or ‘duplicate’ weapon is,” she said.
Healey said gun companies have been getting around the law by selling state-compliant “copycat versions of their assault weapons” with “small tweaks that do nothing to limit the lethalness of the weapon”.
“The gun industry doesn’t get to decide what’s compliant. We do,” she said at a press conference announcing the new ban, which went into force late last month.
The gun lobby fought back on Thursday, launching plans for legal action against Healey who it claims has “undermined the legislative and public process by unilaterally declaring products that were legal to be illegal”.
Lawrence Keane, NSSF’s senior vice-president and general counsel, said: “Her actions totally disregard 18 years of Massachusetts firearm law, supported by all state regulatory agencies and understood by all concerned, in which firearm retailers have operated.
“In doing so, she has endangered the livelihoods of family-owned businesses and made potential felons out of tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens.”
Keane said the NSSF has retained Michael Sullivan, a former acting director of the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to prepare its legal filing.
The NSSF also called on gun owners and manufacturers to donate to its #GUNVOTE campaign, that helps gun owners to register to vote “and encourages them on election day, armed with the facts, to #GUNVOTE so they do not risk their rights”.
#GUNVOTE (@gunvote) Don’t let anti-gun politicians take aim at your rights. #GUNVOTE https://t.co/E8PLTvyZtg
The NSSF praised Smith & Wesson for its “unprecedented half-million-dollar contribution”, which comes on top of donations from other assault rifle manufacturers.
“It is exactly that kind of commitment that will help ensure that our history and our rights will remain intact not just for us today, but for the generations to whom we will pass them on,” Keane said. “And it is an example of dedication to our industry we encourage others to follow.”
James Debney, the British chief executive of Smith & Wesson, said: “We are honored to support this effort on behalf of our employees and especially the law-abiding firearm owners of Massachusetts, who have so recently been denied their fundamental rights through arbitrary government action that threatens to turn lawful gun owners and dealers into criminals. To stop this from happening elsewhere, it is imperative that citizens across our nation are informed and knowledgeable about their rights, their candidates and the importance of their vote in this critical election year.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Screen shot of a gun called a Sig MCX from the Sig Sauer website. Photograph: Sig Sauer
Sig Sauer, the German gun company that made the SIG MCX used by the Orlando killer, donated $100,000. The company describes the Orlando killer’s gun as “ECLIPSING ALL THAT’S COME BEFORE IT” and the “result of years of toil and sweat, the SIG MCX is proof that the dawn of a new era doesn’t happen overnight”.
“We can’t imagine a more important time in our country’s history as it relates to many issues, not the least of which is the second amendment and our gun rights,” Ron Cohen, Sig Sauer’s president and CEO, said. “We believe that everyone must get out and vote this year, not only in the presidential election, but in many, many critical congressional races. Our future is still in our hands.”
Healey, who has suffered horrific sexist and homophobic abuse online since she introduced the new ban, said action must be taken to try to save lives. She said 10,000 assault rifles nearly identical to the one used in the attack in Orlando were sold in Massachusetts last year, and sales of the weapons jumped 450% in the wake of the Pulse nightclub massacre.
A person has tweeted that he would like to hire a homeless man to rape and disembowel the attorney general alive. Another is a said to have posted her home address on a gun blog, underneath a commenter has posted: “Road Trip???. Who wants to be a hero?” |
This past Sunday, I had my first try at being a Game Master. I’m still new to pen and paper RPGs, having only started last July. We’re playing Pathfinder, which is based on Dungeons & Dragons version 3.5.
I invited my friends over (a cleric, a sorcerer, a rogue, an alchemist and a paladin). I sat them down around the table and began.
The party was aboard a merchant ship when during the night, they hear a tremendous roar and a crash on the top decks. They rush up to the top decks to see a dragon, magnificent and terrifying.
He is angrily arguing with the Captain of the merchant ship. The dragon’s captain has been taken during a battle with the navy of a nation nearby, Nidal. They were trying to protect the merchant routes, but failed. The villainous Nidal ship of the line and their heavyweight dragon are in quick pursuit and will be upon them by dawn.
The dragon, Capra, recruits our adventurous party to be his substitute crew to help defend the merchant ship (and hopefully) retake his captain. The party clamors aboard the dragon’s back and takes to the air.
As dawn approaches, the enemy ship of the line, The Flawless, appears on the horizon, with not just the heavyweight, Praetorian, but also a firebreath dragon, Nigelus.
Capra, the green friendly dragon, captained by our Alchemist flies high and far from the merchant ship so as to take the two Nidal dragons by surprise. Capra divebombs between them.
The Rogue jumps off onto the smaller firebreath dragon (purple) but misses his spot and is lucky enough to catch the dragon’s tail. Meanwhile, Capra rakes the heavyweight dragon’s wings (orange) while the party lets off a volley of crossbow & lightning bolts.
Capra (green) grapples with the enemy heavyweight, doing damage with his claws and teeth while his crew hurl bombs at it. They stayed grappled too long, though, and picked up boarders!
Meanwhile, the rogue sneaks up on the captain of the firebreath dragon (purple) and takes him hostage. The purple dragon lands on the merchant ship and surrenders. He is out of the fight.
Capra (green) pounces on the orange heavyweight again, this time delivering the coup-de-grace and sending it spiraling into the sea.
With both dragons out of the fight, their attention now turns to the enemy ship of the line. It has 40 ballistas to the merchant ships 4 and they currently hold Capra’s captain. Capra swings by the merchant ship and collects the rogue who had landed there with the now captive firebreath dragon. They land at the bow of the Nidal ship of the line and face a full crew of wolf men, orcs and wicked men.
The party charges across the deck, their swords slashing, bombs throwing and lightning bolts cracking. They down sailors and marines alike as they barrel toward the stern where Capra’s captain is being kept. Capra uses his tremendous draconic strength to smash the first mast of the ship to keep it from catching the merchant ship.
However, as they charge across, different members of the party hear whispers in their ears:
Each of you is marked for death.
These decks will run slick with your blood.
You will see your friends fall before you, one by one.
Clearly this is not a typical naval vessel; there is magic at hand. And sure enough, wards appear to slow down invaders and lieutenants emerge from the Captain’s quarters. One is a halfling bard, and the other is a 9 foot tall lizard man with bastard sword longer than anyone in the party.
The party works quickly to take down the lieutenants while Capra manages the crew that is streaming up from below and descending from the sails and rigging above. They meet the captain of the Nidal ship of the line, a cruel man with a rapier and a whip. He trips and disarms more than half the of the party, while skewering any who draw too near. But he is outmatched as the five members of the party descend on him and bring his villainous life to a close.
Capra’s captain freed, the party takes the Nidal ship’s strong box and returns to their ship, exhausted from their first foray into dragon combat. |
Orchard Park, N.Y. — Buffalo Bills defensive end Mario Williams wasn't happy with the notion that some people at One Bills Drive didn't believe him when he called in sick last Wednesday, as Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Sunday morning.
Williams, who missed two days of practice because of the illness, played in Buffalo's 35-25 loss to Washington Sunday and said those who didn't believe he was sick are "not adults."
On Monday, Bills coach Rex Ryan refuted Schefter's report and said it was made up.
"The thing that I respected the most was here's a young man who would come in, try to get the game plan done and things that he was missing, he tried to make up during the week," Ryan said. "That's really where we're at. So I admire the fact that he came back and he toughed it out. I think maybe somebody else made up that part about questioning or whatever because I don't believe there's one person in this building that would ever question the fact that he wasn't legitimately sick. Because I know for a fact he was."
As for where the report came from, Ryan has no idea.
"There's nobody in this building that questioned whether Mario was sick," Ryan said. "That was what was pointed out to him. I can tell you this: I saw him with a mask on when he came in. We can get on Mario about things — this or that — but I'm going to tell you this: this young man wanted to play in the worst possible way. He never ate for three straight days, that's what I know about him. He shows up trying to get the game plan, and then to be questioned that somebody made up this thing fictitiously in my opinion, I think would set off anybody. It's certainly something that I don't believe in. Not for one second do I believe anybody --- on the coaching staff, in the locker room --- would question whether he was sick or not. Because he clearly was sick."
Of course, the fact that Williams was sick and people believed it when they saw him doesn't discount the idea that there may have been skeptics when Williams phoned in Wednesday morning.
Williams also sounded off on Ryan's defense after the Bills' latest loss, and Ryan said he understands his frustrations. There has been plenty of speculation about Williams' future with the team given his comments and the fact that the Bills could save $12.9 million on the salary cap by cutting him loose this offseason. Ryan said he would "love" to have Williams back but left the door open for change.
"Does that mean that there won't be changes along the way?" Ryan said. "No. We know, of course, the league almost turns over a third of it. A coach never wants to lose a player. That's the nature of the game. That's the unfortunate part of the game. But do I wish that Mario had 20 sacks? Heck yeah I do. No question I do. But that's not where we're at right now. But there hasn't been one thought of any player that we've had discussions about — this player's going to be here next year, this one's not — that hasn't happened with any player." |
People fretting about the city's future and looking for new leadership have asked Ben Jealous to consider running for mayor of Baltimore — certainly one of the toughest jobs in America — and there should be no surprise in that. A Columbia graduate and Rhodes Scholar, Jealous was just 35 when he became president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In the five years he spent at its Baltimore headquarters, he returned the NAACP to relevance, re-energized the organization and improved its finances. He's only 42 now, and based in Baltimore with a venture capital firm with a social conscience.
And that's just the dilemma: Jealous told me last week that his position with Kapor Capital puts him on the edge of entrepreneurship in the tech industry, a place where he and the couple who started that company, California entrepreneurs and philanthropists Mitch Kapor and Freada Kapor Klein, believe they can make a difference in the lives of young African-American men, among others. So Jealous can't see getting into government — not that there's anything wrong with that — just when he believes he's about to solve some social problems through the marketplace.
The Kapors' goals include bringing more minorities and women into the tech world and closing the achievement and wealth gaps. There is both growing criticism of Silicon Valley for its lack of diversity and growing pressure to bridge the nation's digital divide as a way to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people in old, post-industrial cities like Baltimore. Economists keep telling us there are thousands of jobs in information technology in Maryland, but not enough educated and trained home-grown workers to fill them.
Jealous runs the Baltimore office of Kapor Capital, and given the company's investment mission — "100 percent social impact" — he's decided not to run for mayor.
"People asked me to think about it, and I did for a couple of months," he says. "But timing was an issue." He became a Kapor partner only a year ago, and he has yet to move his family to Baltimore. Still, he's aware that many people are looking for more choices in city leadership.
No one expected this to be an issue this year and next. But the death of Freddie Gray changed everything. In the midst of April's unrest and the surge of violence that followed, City Hall drew the heat and light.
Until Gray's death, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake appeared to be cruising through 2015 toward re-election in 2016. There were only rumors that her predecessor, former Mayor Sheila Dixon, would challenge her. Now, having completed the probation attached to the embezzlement conviction and perjury charge that ultimately forced her to resign in 2010, Dixon is in the race, claiming sidewalk support everywhere she goes.
A young, Harvard-educated engineer named Calvin Young says he will seek the Democratic nomination. Connor Meek says he's going to run for mayor, too. He's the young fellow who exposed (and helped reverse) the head-scratching practice of Baltimore police district stations shutting their doors to the public each night at 7.
City Councilman Carl Stokes and state Sen. Catherine Pugh are seriously considering launching campaigns for the office, and Del. Jill Carter says she's thinking about it, too. "I've made no decision, yet," Carter says. "Just watching and contemplating."
David Warnock, the civic-minded venture capitalist and new chairman of the Greater Baltimore Committee, has been mentioned as a candidate. I asked Warnock if he intended to get into the race.
"Like you I'm deeply concerned about the future Baltimore," he replied in an email. "I'm also very optimistic about its prospects. The performance of the last two mayors speaks for itself. Hope that's helpful."
Not very — particularly with regard to Rawlings-Blake — but it was all Warnock offered.
Jealous said he expects to see "a very strong candidate get into the race soon." He would not say who that person is. It is clearly not Ben Jealous.
He also considered a run for Barbara Mikulski's Senate seat, but decided against that adventure, too.
Meanwhile, he runs the Baltimore office of Kapor Capital and feels he's in a great position to have "social impact." He has good reason to feel that way.
His bosses have been described as "a tech power couple to the powerless." Mitch Kapor, the inventor of Lotus software in the 1980s, is a longtime champion of diversity in Silicon Valley, as is his wife. Two weeks ago, they went to the White House to pledge $40 million over three years to make tech entrepreneurship more inclusive of women and minorities.
Some of the Kapors' investment will go to summer education and technical training for minority students. But the bulk of it, more than $25 million, will go to direct investments in technology startups, half of them with "founders from historically underrepresented communities."
That's what Ben Jealous is working on these days — "social impact investing" in the tech world — and why he won't be running for mayor, at least this time. |
1. The Killing Joke One of the best pieces of work that was written on Batman, it has since become a classic in the Batman reading, along with Frank Miller's the Dark Knight Returns and Strike again. It is the perfect book to show the relationship between the Batman and the Joker and expands upon the latter character's possible history. It also changed the life of Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, who became paralyzed in the events of the book, which led her to don the guise of Oracle and become, arguably, the primer Computer hacker on DC's earth.
2. Knightfall A fantastically brutal arc that featured the breaking of the bat
3. Hush Another mystery story that focuses on Batman's detective side. Features a lot of Batman related characters and it has stunning art by Jim Lee.
4. A Court Of Owls Batman #1-7: Decades from now, Scott Snyder will be remembered as one of the great Batman writers. I was going to include “Black Mirror” but it is already taken so I went ahead and included the equally fantastic “Court of Owls” which was arguably one of the strongest stories to come out of the New 52s. “Court of Owls” sees Bruce Wayne as Batman struggle against an unknown entity whose relationship with Gotham may predate even Batman. Everything about this arc is fantastic from the writing to the paneling and the revelations and the covers! I can not wait for “Night of Owls”.
5. The Black Mirror Detective Comics #871-881: It's my belief that Snyder is going to go down as one of the greatest Batman writers ever and this is the story arc that will define him. Snyder's story really reflected Batman's typical noir roots, and conjured up one of the most devilish and memorable sociopaths ever introduced to the Batman mythos. The tale of the Gordon's, and how the deal with the return of James Jr. is paramount to the story, and will leave the reader fully empathizing with the emotional impact it has. James Jr. is a nutter, but damn is he a good one. Again, Jock's art is superb, and really emphasizes the noir tone.
6. Batman: Year One Perfectly explanatory why this should be among the top one hundred, for it was a reboot of the Dark Knight mythos following the Crisis on Infinite Earths. New beginnings lead to new interpretations, and its from this issue where we get almost everything we take for granted with the Batman of today.
7. The Dark Knight Returns Redefined the entire Superhero and Comics genre Along with watchmen
8. Batman R.I.P. One of the stories that shows Batman's Batman's will and foresight after he is pushed to his mental and physical limits. Also introduces us to Dr. Hurt.
9. Under the Hood The emotionally powerful return of Jason Todd (alright, just disregard the whole punching dimensions part). Todd is back and his fate at the hands of a cruel Joker with a crowbar has left him an emotional wreck. He's looking to clean up Gotham in his own style, but in the meantime, it never hurts to get a little revenge, right? A must read for anyone even remotely interested in the second Robin, Jason Todd.
10. Batman the Long Halloween Takes place during the early days of Batman's crime fighting career. It's a good mystery story that shows Batman's detective skills and his relationships with Harvey Dent and Gordon.
11. No Man's Land Gotham city has gone through a wave of disease, a hundred days without a Batman, police starting gang wars, a new Batgirl, and complete isolation from the United States. And what does he do? She keeps on going. Detailing the lives of people trying to rebuild a somehow worse than ever Gotham, No Man's Land is a massive story with, dozens of wackos, rogue police squads, and even Lex Luthor. No Man's Land is the story that really got me into Batman. And how couldn't it? It has great characters, great plot, and a very emotional ending, one that even the Joker didn't find fun.
12. Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance #1-3: Out of the world of Flashpoint comes an amazing addition to the world of Batman in this alternate reality re-telling of Batman. While there were dozens of Flashpoint tie-ins, this was the best selling one and after you’ve read it, you can understand why. The basic premise that Brian Azzarello sets up is what if Bruce Wayne was the one killed and Crime Alley, leaving his parents to survive? Thomas Wayne ends up assuming the mantle of Batman and other famous rogues also appear making it seem as though in any reality, Batman must exist. Seeing Thomas Wayne in action as Batman is incredibly thrilling. Watching Thomas and Martha deal with the grief over the death of their beloved son is heartbreaking. Seeing the emergence of Joker is shocking and reading the final pages literally brought tears to my eyes! This is absolutely one of the best and most interesting Batman stories ever told!
13. Batgirl Year One #1-9: Once again, a story that introduced me to a character, immediately making me aware of what that character stood for as well as what the writer was trying to get across. A light-hearted and fun story of a young girl destined for something more. This is a beautiful story and the art is wonderful as well.
14. A Death in the Family Batman #426-429: This story arc completely turned the world of comics on its head. As we all know, though not entirely popular at the time, given the void left behind by Dick Grayson, the fate of Jason Todd would be left to the readers in a poll conducted like any other, resulting in the death of the second Robin at the hands of Batman's arch-nemesis. Though only 4 issues long, the fallout caused by A Death in the Family continued to haunt the Batman as his greatest-ever failure.
15. Elegy Detective comics #854-857: This story introduces us the Batwoman character in a way we haven't seen her and Rucka definitely succeeds to make her one of the main Bat-related characters in the DC Universe.Before this story,Batwoman was a character that has something to do with the Bat-family but nobody was interested in her and after this she became Batwoman and an actual big character.
16. JLA: Tower of Babel JLA #43-46: While Tower of Babel isn't necessarily a Batman story, it is most definitely a story in which the reader can see why a human of flesh and blood such as Batman, can stand with his head held high among Gods. This is not without its problems, because the reader comprehends in this book that Batman can only do what he does in a manner which the other members of the JLA, don't consider ethical.
17. Batman Incorporated What Grant Morrison's whole batman run led up to. Your enjoyment of this really depends on how you feel about Grant. The whole run is a lot of fun, and as always there are some bizarre nods to the more wacky side of Batman's history... like bringing back Lord Death Man from the 60's Batman manga. It should be on the list purely for it's grand scale, and for being the final chapter (for now) of Grant's crazy run.
18. Batman: Arkham Asylum The prisoners of Arkham Asylum have taken over Gotham's mental illness detention center on April Fool's day and demand Batman for the exchange of the prisoners.
19. Battle for the Cowl In the wake of Batman’s death, Gotham City desperately needs someone new to assume the mantle of Batman. While this three issue event penned and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel features a myriad of guest stars, this story is ultimately about the Robins: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne. Arguably, Bruce Wayne/Batman has had the most profound effect on the young wards he took on and raised to fight crime under the mantle of Robin. Battle for the Cowl is basically the Robins duking it out and dealing with their grief and coming to terms with the responsibility they have to continue Batman’s legacy. Arguably, this story leads up to a conclusion everyone saw coming from miles away, but it isn’t really about that. This is a story about the lives the Batman touched and how Gotham City is reeling from the death of Batman as those he left behind battle for the right to wear the cowl!
20. Batman: Dark Victory #1-13: Loeb and Sale follow up the gigantic success to “The Long Halloween” with this sequel that follows the early days of Batman. There is a cop-killer known as The Hangman that is going after Gotham’s finest and Batman must race to figure who this villain is. Typical of Loeb and Sale collaborations, many of Batman’s most famous rogues make an appearance and are all possible suspects. The big reveal at the end will certainly leave you reeling! Sale really outdoes himself on the artwork creating several stunning splash pages! Dick Grayson’s origin story is also told in the final issues of this story establishing him as Robin. Loeb and Sale do a fantastic job integrating him into the world of Batman that they have created. Once again, Loeb and Sale create a masterpiece!
21. Batman: Year 100 #1-4: This is not the Batman you're used to. This is not the Robin you're used to. It's not supposed to be. It's a new Batman for a new world. With art that is adored by some and hated by others, this story shows a man reminding Gotham about her once most famous citizen.
22. Heart of Hush Detective Comics #846-850: Technically this can be treated as an arc within an arc since it goes hand in hand with events going on in Batman: RIP but I singled it out as being one of Bruce's most trying events. Not just because it deals with his conflict with Thomas Elliot, but because in the end Bruce's true revelations toward Selina Kyle come out at the end with her near death, which I believe was a perfect reaffirmation to what we learned in the Batman: Hush story arc.
23. Superman/Batman #1-4: Intricate and intimate details are shared of how the bog two really feel toward each other and how they relate. This is a must and a HELL of a fun read for any comic book and/or Batman fan.
24. Joker This Original Graphic Novel By Brian Azzarello took a darker look at one of the greatest villains in comics.
25. Batman & Dracula: Red Rain Since Batman was invented, one question remained in people's heads; Who would win? Batman or Dracula? Well, after so many years it was answered in Batman: Red Rain, an Elseworlds published in 1991. This comic was written by comic legend Doug Moench and was drawn by Kelley Jones. This comic was great since every page was full of great twists, amazing artwork, and a brilliant story. Batman: Gotham By Gaslight may have invented the Elseworlds, but Red Rain was the first to perfect it.
26. Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Finally, this story shows what it would be like at the end of The Dark Knight's career. This is pretty much the last batman story if there ever would be one. What would happen if the Batman's story ended? Who would go to his funeral? Who would mourn him? What would people say about him? It answers a lot of interesting questions you've never realized you wanted to know.
27. Batgirl Rising Batgirl #1-7: Stephanie Brown is a refreshing contrast to the normal pathos that drives the defenders of Gotham City. Yeah, she has her baggage but for the most part she is so enthusiastic about becoming Batgirl (after already assuming the mantle of Spoiler and a Robin) that it is hard not get caught up in her great spirit, snarky backtalk, and wonderful inner monologues. Stephanie Brown routinely makes me laugh out loud as Batgirl. Her relationship with Damian is also brilliant. This arc also does well to focus on Barbara Gordon coming to terms with her role as Oracle and her feelings for Dick Grayson. This arc is a wonderful mix of superhero fun and emotionally complex characters working through their issues.
28. A Lonely Place of Dying The introduction of Tim Drake is one of the most important occasions in the life of Batman. The book ranks amongst the top 100 however not for that reason, I placed it in my top 5 because of the way it questioned and revised the reasoning behind why Bruce really needs a Robin. Some had argued that Bruce needed a beacon of hope, or that Bruce simply wanted to train the next superhero too take over him, but no, Wolfman story concludes by reflecting that Robin is essentially to Batman because it keeps him cautious, keeps him alive.
29. Batman: Ego Ego is really a physiological trip for the Dark Knight. It showcases an arguement between Bruce Wayne and Batman regarding who he really is, what his purpose is, what methods he should be using to put an end to crime and his true motivation for doing so.
30. Batman: Return Of Bruce Wayne Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne is hit or miss mini-series. Some people hate it, others love it, but it is unarguably one of the most important stories of the last half decade as it sees the final return of Bruce Wayne from his perceived "death" at the hands of Darkseid, one of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe. Whether people liked the fact the twist of Batman walking through time, suffering from Amnesia or not, it definitely brings something different to the table.
31. Dark Knight, Dark City Batman #452-454: This story I believe to be important and deserving to be in the top 100 due to the fact that it was one of DC Comics' first attempts to explain connections between Barbatos, Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham in general. I see it as an inspiration and prelude to the Batman RIP story arc.
32. The Case of the Chemical Syndicate Detective Comics #27: How can the best stories not include the very first one?
33. Kingdom Come Kingdom Come shows a Batman who has never given up, even in old age and will go to great lengths to protect the city of Gotham. Bruce Wayne (Batman) will not let anything stop him. I doubt even the grave could hold him back. The first story arc stays true to who he is and is an excellent story.
34. Nightwing: Freefall Nightwing #140-146: Freefall is arguably the definitive Dick Grayson story. It really defines Dick's plays within the world and highlights what separates the light hearted, and optimistic Grayson from his brooding mentor. It's a delight to read, and the interaction between Dick and the expanded universe is more enthralling that the stellar fights.
35. Robin: Year One #1-4: I really love this story, the story of the first year of the first robin surely has to be included. Some can be put off by the cartoony looks of it, but beyond that, this is a great tale showing robin learning his place, Bruce learning some responsibility and Alfred learning to balance his relationship with Bruce and dick. throw in just enough villains getting just enough space within the plot (freeze, hatter, two-face) and it's up there in my top 5.
36. Fifty Years Anniversary Detective Comics #572: Batman has been refered to as "The World's Greatest Detective", but he is not the only one who has possessed that title. In celebrating 50 years of Detective Comics, one of my favorite crossover events occured to allow Sherlock Holmes and Batman to meet. It is one of my favorite batman stories. It is a pure mystery adventure which draws from Detective Comic's original roots. There is no magic in this comic (unless you count Elongated Man's powers) only a story which is wonderful even 26 years later. It has some great twists and turns and a magnificent group of creators. Very epic comic!
37. Gotham by Gaslight It is the very first 'Elseworlds' story DC did, and it remains one of the best. Mike Mignola's dark artwork sets the perfect tone for any Batman story, and let's face it, how cool is it to see Batman fighting Jack the Ripper? Not to mention the completely different reaction from the Victorian times to this 'Bat-Man.
38. Dark Knight vs. White Knight Batman & Robin #20-22: There is something about Dick and Damian as Batman & Robin that really works for me. This story comes from one of their final adventures together before Bruce takes up the cowl once more. This story introduces “The White Knight”, a complicated villain who attempts to clean up Gotham by making it a heaven on Earth. The imagery of the story and the villain’s rationale help make one of the most memorable stories from the recent “Batman & Robin” title.
39. Batman & Son Batman #655-658: This arc is of note mostly because of the introduction of Damian Wayne into the Batman canon. Grant Morrison takes the seed of a plot point introduced years ago in “Son of a Demon” and creates Damian Wayne, one of the finest modern additions to the Bat family. The story itself also features a Man-Bat army and Talia at her crazy finest!
40. Batman Black And White #1-4: Some of the greatest comic makers got the chance to produce one, short B & W Batman-story. The range of stories is as colorful as you`d probably expect from an anthology. There are grim, psychological, action filled, and scary stories in these books. Some of them, naturally, aren`t as masterful as the others, but even those ones are better in various levels, than what you can find from TEC or Batman every month. They`re different, and not as restricted by continuity as you`d expect. The talent in these stories comprised of Chris Claremont, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Joe kubert, Dave Gibbons, Gene Colan, Marie Severin, Walter Simonson, Daniel Torres, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Dwayne McDuffie and dozens of others. This anthology-series isn`t an epic. It`s a tale of Batmans ordinary life, and tells about him, and his influence. In this one, he is truly Batman.
41. Batman: Noel Nothing if not beautifully drawn. Batman: Noël is a cleverly constructed story that adapts the work of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' to the world of Batman. One very appealing aspect of several Batman publications is the personal inner-demons that Batman has to overcome in order to feel worthy of the role of Gotham's protector - a concept explored here with the help of a whole cast of familiar supporting characters from the Batman mythos
42. Batman: War On Crime A simple story that serves to re-enforce the core concept of the Batman character, the big draw here is the incredible art by Alex Ross, finally presented in a format that truly showcases the man's work. Batman has never looked more real, his world more authentic. It's a shame that we can't get a book like this every year.
43. Batman: The Cult #1-4: Once upon a time, before both Marvel and DC just made cash grabs by selling mediocre stories in fine dressing, the "Prestige" format was reserved for only the best stories, art, and creators. Teaming up Starlin & Wrightson on Batman was exactly the kind of project that called out for the "Prestige" format. Starlin gave us a new adversary for the Batman, and Wrightson... what can I say? Just amazing. Wrightson's passions may lie in the horror genre, but, in my opinion, his is one of the 10 best versions of the Batman. Seeing him doing the artistic honors on a four part "Prestige" format mini-series was a helluva treat.
44. Catwoman #1-4: Sets the stage for Brubaker’s run on “Catwoman” which I believe to be the finest run of Catwoman ever written. Anodyne’s immediate plot is a serial killer who is targeting prostitutes. However, “Anodyne” also deals with Selina coming to terms with Catwoman and returning to a life she had long thought abandoned.
45. The First Batman Detective Comics #235: Let's be honest, when people think silver age they think very silly comic books that never really stood out as good unless they had some ridiculous gimmick. Well, this story was made in the silver age, and sounds like it has a silly gimmick but it is still great. The story is that Batman finds an old tape, his father's diary and Batman costume and discovers (after watching the tape) that it was worn by Bruce's father Thomas Wayne during a costume party. After finding out that crime boss Lew Moxon kidnapped Batman's father at the costume party, which ultimately amounted to Lew ordering a hit on Thomas Wayne by hiring a certain Joe Chill, Batman decides to open the Wayne murder case once again to bring Lew Moxon to justice. I don't want to ruin the ending, but it is certainly dark compared to most other silver age comics.The comic builds on Batman's origins greatly (and rightfully so, since it was written by Batman co-creator Bill Finger) and is full of great art.
46. Final Crisis I think final crisis should be on the list since its the "Death" of Batman. Without Final Crisis you wouldn't have stories like Battle for the Cowl, The Black Mirror, Pretty much the entire Red Robin series, Morrisons Batman and Robin run.. I could really make a list of how many stories this one effects the DCU let alone just the Batman family/universe. I know its a love/hate story like the other crisis' but I believe it deserves consideration in light of all the great stories that spun from it.
47. Red Robin #1-5: The start of brilliant series. This first story arc was great, and showed that now Batman was gone, (set after RIP), Time Drake was now the 'World's Greatest Detective'. He is the only one who believes that Bruce isn't dead, and makes it his mission to set out to prove it. For fans of Tim, this whole series is a real treat, and the stories that follow couldn't be more recommended.
48. War Games I am glad that I was allowed to use all three acts of this story, because it really is one of the biggest and best Batman epics out there. Gotham is having the worst gang war, with the city literally set on fire. But with [virtually] all the mob bosses in Gotham dead or missing, the big players are about to change, along with the rules to the game. But everything that is happening in Gotham seems all too familiar to Batman, and with such limited help from both his dwindling allies and the police department, Gotham may just loose a few heroes.
49. The Dark Knight Strikes Again That's right, the Dark Knight Returns. Much lambasted as an inferior sequel, let's forget Frank Miller and the Dark Knight Returns for a moment and think how we might have responded if, out of the blue, this irreverent tale of an arse kicking bats and the mad, crazed, post punk world he lives in fell into our laps out of the blue? What would our response be then? Having our minds freaking blown. That's what.
50. Batman and Robin #1-16 (Morison's run): Let me start by saying that Grant Morrison is certifiably insane and that’s a very good thing! As a side effect of his Batman RIP saga, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne became the new Batman & Robin. They have to struggle a bit, but eventually they make a fantastic dynamic duo. Morrison’s run on Batman & Robin sees the emergence of a terrifyingly grotesque villain Professor Pyg, the return of Jason Todd as the Red Hood as he creates a dynamic duo of his own, a wonderfully horrific tie-in to Blackest Knight, Talia at her crazy best, a terribly violent homage to the classic Jason Todd crowbar death scene, and the groundwork is laid for understanding the mystery of Batman’s death. The artwork changes quite a bit, but there is definitely something for everyone! The last page of Morrison’s run on Batman & Robin sets up one of the biggest events to hit Batman ever in the announcing of Batman Incorporated! Love him or hate him, Grant Morrison’s run on Batman & Robin is definitely one of the best story arcs in Bat-history!
51. Batman: The Man Who Laughs I'm just going to say it, this book is too often compared to The Killing Joke. It's a shame too, because this book not only has great art and story, but great characters. It wonderfully portrays both Bruce's drive and Joker's twisted psychology, challenging how insane he truly is.
52. Batman and Robin #1-7: I'll confess, the first issue left me unimpressed. Damian was a brat and we dove yet again into Batman's feelings about the tragic loss of his parents at a young age. But then something special happened, the book introduced a villain that would give this story so much more depth. Not only was the villain himself worth checking out, but the impact he would have on both Damian and Batman is worth experiencing. I can't wait to see where this goes after the events of issue 7.
53. Batman Confidential #1-6 ("Rules of Engagement"): If you are in to a tech savvy Batman then this is for you,great series opener which showcases a war for corporate supremacy in arms manufacture between Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor.Expect badass battles.
54. Batman: Tales of the Demon This collection shows the evolution of Ra's Al Ghul and examines his relationship with the dark knight.
55. Bruce Wayne: Fugitive Continuing on from 'Murderer?', and not being complete without it, this is another great Batman epic in the same vein as 'No Man's Land', 'War Games' and 'Knighfall' etc... and while It suffers from being fairly long-winded in places and never reaching the highs of some of the other long story-arcs (or it's prequel, in my opinion), it still deserves to stand alongside them in this list. It's also interesting to see some of the interactions between between Batman and other characters during this desperate time for him.
56. Bruce Wayne: Murderer? This story really shook things up for the Batman comics, had Bruce broken his one golden rule of no killing? It is a great, action-packed story which flows at a great pace and is just the right length. It's really interesting to see a Bruce/Batman who is not in control, doesn't have a plan and who's trusted relationships are crumbling. Like a lot of the best best Batman tales, it revolves around a mystery, it captivates and keeps you reading. While everything isn't wrapped up here, It also sets the scene for the 'Fugitive' story-line, where the mystery continues.
57. Emperor Joker The world is broken, and nobody seems to know what's wrong. It isn't even until halfway through this Nine Issue story that The Joker is revealed as the cause. But we get to see the world shaped in the Clown Prince of Crime's image, and it's as interesting as it is terrifying. In the end, it's also one of the Joker's easiest defeats. He is beaten simply by the idea of Batman that he can't erase from his head.
58. Knight and Squire #1-6: I must say I enjoy the idea of a british Batman and robin. This mini-series had a lot of british humor in it (some of which went over my head) and yet was enjoyable. I liked this series. Paul Cornell and Jimmy Broxton gave playful insight into a duo we haven't seen a lot.
59. Lovers & Madmen Batman Confidential #7-12: What kind of person becomes a joker? This 6-issue arc retells the Jokers origin story with a new twist: he is now a violent, depressed nomadic assasin from out of town looking to put a little light back in his life. An arc to remember!
60. The Deadly Numbers Game! and "The "Batman Nobody Knows" Batman #250: A rather fun-take on the Batman, where children exchange their rather imaginative accounts of Batman, one more wacky than the last. The idea presented in this comic book from the 1970s has branched out to various forms of media, and remains an important issue in the Batman universe, exploring how the youths of Gotham see him - a topic that is not considered often enough.
61. The Jokers Five-Way Revenge! Batman #251: In what may be THE quintessential Joker story, writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams take the Joker back to his roots in murderous fashion. After having being depicted as a harmless buffoon due to the Comics Code Authority and self censorship for many years previous, O'Neil and Adams reinvigorated the character, showing him as a murderous and very real threat to the Batman. Re-establishing the relationship between the two protagonists and reaffirming the character as a very real threat, this version of the Joker inspires every appearance of the character to this day.
62. Broken City Batman #620-624: The central focus of this story revolves around the murder of a woman. Batman being the great detective he is, embarks on a trail in which he embraces several twists and turns until finally being able to identity the culprit behind the murder. The story is unpredictable and keeps you guessing all the way through, which is exactly what any die-hard comic fan wants to have in a comic such as this. Azzarello's characterization for Batman is dead-on and flawlessly executed. This is classic Batman the detective solving strange and bizarre murder cases we all know him to be. The art is by Eduardo Risso whose style here is very neo-noir. It's not my favorite art I've ever seen, but I think it's absolutely perfect for this comic. It sets the tone of the comic and reflects the dark, gritty feel Gotham City is known for. I would recommend this comic to all comic fans who like a good murder story. You can pick this up and jump right into it without having to have read anything else prior to it. This is something that should be in any Batman fans collection.
63. The Clown at Midnight Batman #663: A quintessential Joker tale on par with the Killing Joke IMO,this story is unique in that it is written as a prose,it shows Jokers new murderous transformation,further explores the concept of super sanity and ends his relationship with Harley Quinn.
64. Batman Adventures: Mad Love Based of the acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series, this 64-page special is responsible for intruducing Harley Quinn, who went on the become one of Batman's most popular opponents. If nothing else, it should be included for that. Aside from that you get some great insight into Joker's manipulation techniques and his desperation in having the Batman all to himself.
65. Mortal Clay, Love Bird Batman Annual #11: Alan Moore takes an unflinching look into the mind of one of Batman's more obscure foes, Clayface III. Preston Payne started out as a pretty pathetic character, but his pathos reaches new heights of greatness with this story. On the surface, this is a love story, one between a psychotic murderer and a mannequin. It follows all the usual beats of a relationship gone bad. Payne experiences the blush of new love, and the inevitable passion that follows. His monumental insecurities, though, lead to jealousy, murder, truth, pain, loss, and ultimately, the kind of complacency one is resigned to, when clinging to a loveless union. Batman shows up for the tragic finale, but even though his appearance is relegated to a few pages, the Dark Knight has his own character arc to follow. One that sees him play the familiar role of protector, then cast as the rival in the eyes of his deranged foe, and finally, the savior. It's a classic Alan Moore story, and a nice deep look at a Batman rogue that, sadly, rarely gets the attention he deserves.
66. Batman/Grendel Devil's Riddle #1-2: A great company crossover featuring Matt Wagner's indie comic great, Grendel, in an intellectual chess match with the Batman. Grendel makes for an awesome adversary for Batman. Throw in some strong dialogue, stylish artwork, and well defined characters, and you've got one of the finest Batman "team-up" books ever crafted.
67. Batman: Birth of the Demon This collection provides a look at Batman and Talia's relationship, Ra's attempts at fathering a heir, and an in depth look into the motivations of the man known the world over as the Demon Head
68. Batman: Cataclysm Cataclysm is an event that shook the foundations of the Stat Quo, and it culminated in what is the event known as the "Breaking of the Bat", in which Bane ends up breaking Batman's back, forcing the latter to somewhat retire and Jean-Paul Valley, to become the new Batman.
69. Batman: Gates of Gotham #1-5: This story is a perfect jumping on point for Snyder's run on Batman and is perfect for giving little tidbits about Gotham's history that even as fans we were not aware of. Plus, it was a wonderful prelude to what Bruce now faces with the Court of Owls in the current Batman books. Highly recommended to be an all time top 100 I say!
70. Batman: In Darkest Knight This is an Elseworlds title that gives a whole new spin on the Batman origin story, albeit an original one with Bruce receiving Abin Sur's Green Lantern ring instead of Hal Jordan. I believe it is an excellent addition to the top 100 as a "what if" to all those who would wonder what kind of superhero Batman would be had he become a Green Lantern.
71. Batman: Nine Lives One of the most effective Elseworlds ever written, this tale features a hard-boiled detective named Dick Grayson on the beat trying to figure out who killed local Kit Kat Club proprietress, Selina Kyle. This story manages to play on long-standing Bat-conventions while creating something wholly new. The noir tone is perfectly captured and the artwork is stunningly appropriate. Many staple Bat-character make an appearance in one way or another in this story that makes me extremely glad that the Elseworlds imprint existed for a time.
72. Batman: Sword of Azrael #1-4: In this four-part series, we are first introduced to Jean-Paul Valley. This would be the begining of a rocky path which would lead to the Breaking of the Bat and Jean-Paul becoming the newest Dark Knight.
73. Catwoman: Selina's Big Score I never understood Catwoman's character until I read this. It was very sleek, noirish, and completely fitting to the modern interpretation of Selena Kyle's character, providing a wonderful look into her mind as well as a kiss-ass heist story as well.
74. Catwoman: When in Rome #1-6: I must say I haven't read that many Catwoman books, but I really enjoyed Catwoman: when in rome. It has wonderful art and the story is very enjoyable. It finds Selina Kyle entangled in an adventure involving the Falcone crime Family, the Riddler, a blond, the Cheetah, Joker Venom and so much more! There are a lot of amusing moments in this series. Even being a Riddler Fan I love it when Selina kicks him off a boat into the harbor. Nice adventure.
75. Collision I love both the Red Robin and Batgirl Rising series. I included this story-line to give a nod to both of them as it includes a mini-crossover. Above everything else - these stories are fun. They stand up as two of the best bat-family orientated runs, and so deserve a place up there. Everyone should read the whole Red Robin series and Brian Q Miller's Batgirl.
76. The Laughing Fish! Detective comics #475: A classic story which helped to cement Joker's title as Batman's #1 Rogue. It was also adapted for Batman: the Animated Series
77. Hush Beyond Batman Beyond #1-6: The first animated series I ever saw was Batman Beyond and the first graphic novel I ever read was Hush. I love both stories, so the combination of both concepts is very fun. Although it does have its faults (for ex: art work), it is a nice way to start an introduction to the Beyond Universe.
78. Joker: Last Laugh The basic concept is this: The Joker, thinking he is going to die, wreaks havoc across the DC Universe. I just love the idea of a Jokererized DC universe. Its just so fun!
79. Knightsend Following the events of Knightfall and Knightquest, Bruce Wayne considers retiring the Batman persona - but changes his mind once he sees the chaos caused by the stand-in Batman, Jean-Paul Valley. This story arc is particularly important as Bruce traverses down the path to once again earn the cape and cowl, but controversially under the guidance of Lady Shiva. The scenes where Batman finally regains the mind of the Bat, and when Jean-Paul Valley releases the mantle of the Bat are two very powerful scenes that have stayed in the minds of many Bat-fans, including this one.
80. Legends The world has turned it's back on all Superhero's. Darkseid has implemented his most insidious plan ever by turning the people the superheroes protect against the superheroes themselves. The arc is great but one thing that stuck me about this was Batman and Robin. Robin gets beaten to a pulp and hospitalized and later gets himself a shotgun. There is something about Robin walking around with a shotgun that just seems wrong. This is the story arc that leads to my favorite Justice League with Batman in command to Guy Gardner's dismay.
81. Nightwing: Year One Nightwing #101-106: Nightwing, the first Robin, has always been somewhat at odds with his mentor after leaving him to become his own man. Year One goes back to his origins and allows the reader to understand what the essence of Nightwing is and his relationships with other members of his "family".
82. Red Hood: Lost Days #1-6: I saw that “Under The Hood” was already taken so I wanted to include another fantastic story featuring Jason Todd which fills in what exactly happened to him in the time between coming back to life and assuming the mantle of Red Hood. No one writes Jason Todd quite like Judd Winick. Jason Todd’s second life is one of the greatest modern additions to the Batman storylines. This particular story really establishes the tenuous mental state of Jason Todd with some nice retcon in the end setting the stage for Batman Hush.
83. The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul This is an awesome, touching, crazy, kick-ass, emotional story about fathers and their children. Alfred, Bruce and Dick and Tim and Damian, of course, but also about Ra's Al Ghul, Talia, and a surprise addition at the end of the story. The heart of the story deals with the Robins who duke it out and learn to work together. Those boys have so much emotional baggage that it makes for a powerful story. Throw in the league of assassins, hired hitmen, and Ra's Al Ghul's quest for a younger vessel for his consciousness and you've got yourself one crazy ride. On top of all that, there is rumored implications for the effects of this story to be seen in upcoming Batman Inc. storyline!
84. Riddle Me That Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #185-189: My favorite Riddler story and honestly coming from me that means a lot,this story gives you everything a Riddler tale should give.A badass,non goofy,criminal mastermind who is not afraid to get dirty and the best part Riddler actually won and made a fool out of Batman.If only there were more quality Riddler stories like this.
85. Secret Origins Special There are a lot of great origin stories for Batman's rogues. This is not the first series of its kind to provide a window into how they became the crazies they are today nor will it be the last. However, it is one of my favorite collections. Written by Neil Gaiman and Alan Grant, among others, this story examines Penguin's, Two-face's and Riddler's origins stories. I really like this because it is fun while still being realistic. When is a Door?
86. Thrillkiller #1-3: One of the finest Elseworlds productions ever written! This features Barbara Gordon in the spotlight as a wealthy heiress and the stubborn, rebellious daughter of Jim Gordon. Set in the turbulent 60s after the election of JFK, Barbara Gordon becomes a vengeance seeking vigilante after the death of her mother (sound familiar?). She is joined by her boyfriend, a circus acrobat, who fights by her side (you may recognize him too)! To reveal anymore of the plot would be too spoil the surprise of an Elseworlds production but there are many twists and turns as Batgirl and Robin are thrust into the spotlight with beautiful lush artwork by Dan Brereton!
87. Who Knows What Evil? Batman #253: This is a simple "Batman busts counterfeit ring" story. Or it would be, if not for the inclusion of The Shadow. It's no secret that the creators of Batman were influenced by the Shadow's pulp adventures in crafting Batman's stories. In the 1970's, DC had the publishing rights to the Shadow. It just made sense for the influence to meet the influenced. The Shadow mysteriously keeps to the background for most of the issue, as one would expect, but at the very end, the two icons share a little face time. The Shadow clearly passes on the torch to Batman, taking pride in the accomplishments of the hero he helped to inspire. The two would meet again a few months later, but that story sucked ass.
88. Last Batman Story! Batman #300: David V. Reed takes the Golden Age Batman & Robin on a career capping adventure, one that finds the original dynamic duo pitted against the syndicate to end all syndicates, Spectrum. It's an adventure that carries our heroes from the Gotham City of the future, all the way across the country, with a detour into outer space. Along the way we get tantalizing hints to the eventual fates of classic rogues like Joker and Two-Face, as well as the particularly intriguing disappearance of the Riddler, his final puzzle unsolved. The finale finds Bruce Wayne contemplating giving up the mantle of the Batman. He's done all one man can do, and lived to see Gotham City change in ways he never could have dreamed. A political future looms before him, and the possibility of marriage to the woman he loves. Reed leaves the ending ambiguous, with Wayne on the brink of a decision about his future, while reflecting on his past.
89. Batman in Bethlehem Batman #666: Set 15 years in the future, Bruce Wayne is dead, Dick Grayson is gone, and Alfred is a cat leaving Damian Wayne to assume the mantle of Batman all by himself. This futuristic romp is bleak and violent as we see one possibility of the Batman that Damian would become only a few issues after meeting him for the first time. He is at odds with the current commissioner Barbara Gordon who hates him because she believes he killed a good friend. Armageddon is about to fall upon Gotham at the hands of the last remaining member of “Three Ghosts of Batman” who claims Satan himself as his father. Damian is not his father and admittedly he is not as good as Dick Grayson either, but Damian is self-aware and so he staves off Armageddon from coming to Gotham in the bloody violent manner you would expect from a child raised and trained both by the League of Assassins and The Batman.
90. Batman: Harley and Ivy #1-3: Yeah, I know it is not as dark as many of the other choices on the list and I really wanted to have the Kingdom Come choice instead but I could not resist this gem. It is not a solid Batman story but this is a list of the best stories in the Batman Universe and I love the refreshing comedy that is brought out in the dynamic of Harley and Ivy. They are great characters together. Somehow when Cat Woman is brought in the mix it is not as good but this is a wonderful three issue series and I believe it is a great selection for this Batman Universe list.
91. Batman: Joker's Asylum Batman is a brilliant character, dark, but honourable, the best Gotham has too combat the darkness that beseeches it. However, in many ways, it's his Rogue's Gallery that is the most compelling part of his mythos. Joker's Asylum is great because it provides 5 short little looks into the lives and minds of Batman's most prominant adversaries. In particular I value it highly for it's expansion of Ivy, and how it matures her origins and purpose within live to something more deadly, on par with the likes of Two Face, Joker and the Penguin.
92. Crisis on Infinite Earths Crisis On Infinite Earths was an important storyline for all characters involved, but with the death of the Golden Age Robin and The Huntress, it left an indelible mark on the Bat-Family and lovers of these characters. It highlighted some beautiful character moments between Batgirl and Supergirl and showed the humanity of Batman, relegated to basic crowd control when faced with such a seemingly overwhelming cosmic foe. Crisis is very much a story that left its mark on every member of the Bat-Universe, past, present and future.
93. Face the Face If you ask a comics fan who Harvey Dent is, chances are that they'll say Two Face. That's not the case in this story. Harvey Dent has not only been repaired both physically and mentally, but was also Gotham's protector when Batman and Robin are away. When Batman returns to Gotham and doesn't show Harvey the thanks that he thinks he deserves, he may just go over the edge. With a thrilling mystery, emotional trails for Bruce, Harvey, and Tim, and some very important changes to the Batman mythos, this story is a must read to all Batman fans.
94. Fool's Errand Robin #85: It is from the Batman Dies crossover which mostly went otherwise unnoticed by Batman fans. It was mostly a pretty weak stunt, but in issue #85 of Robin the Joker looks back on his life and figures that there must be multiple Robins and if there are multiple Robins that there must be multiple Batmans. Its an interesting look inside the mind of the killer as he wonders about just how many times he has killed Batman
95. Earthly Delights, Scenes from a Work in Progress Batman & Robin #26: I scarcely know where to begin with this one. Its a tale that shaped the possible future for Nightrunner in the DC Universe. It gave him a Joker who avoids being a cheap imitation by being self aware of his identity as a cheap imitation. David Hine took some of the core ideas of Batman, and rewrote them into a whole new world. In France. Arkham Asylum is, in my opinion, outdone by Le Jardin Noir. Certainly a breakout at Arkham is very very very bad, and certainly the place itself is essentially a well of psychosis; but the breakout of simply four inmates from Le Jardin Noir causes the entire scope of reality in Paris to be so far fractured, that within two days, the entire city was declared a Disaster Area. It was chock full of Dada symbolism, and created oodles of as-of-yet-untapped potential for the so called 'Batman of France.'
96. Midnight Train Batman Chronicles #1: Although most of this issue is pretty ordinary, there is a backup tale of Commissioner Gordon trying to make it home on the subway before it is hijacked by gun wielding thugs. The inclusion of the Huntress in Gordons' quest to reclaim the train brings up memories in Jim of what happened to Barbara, when the Joker paralyzed her. A simple, beautifully written and illustrated tale that gets to the heart and the humanity of Gotham's real protector, James Worthington Gordon.
97. Batman: Son Of The Demon The story shows us Batman's relationship with Ra's al Ghul and Talia.
98. The 500th Anniversary Celebration Detective Comics #500 ("To Kill a Legend"): This one's really interesting. Batman having the opportunity to stop his parents' murder is very intriguing and plays out pretty emotionally and realistically. Also, it further goes to show just how destined Bruce was to become Batman, no matter what. This is what he was meant to do and what Gotham needs him to do.
99. Half a Life GOTHAM CENTRAL #6 – 10: The first introduction of Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen into the series and also the first arc of Greg Ruckas'. This was before Montoya became the Question and Allen became the Spectre and we see Greg Rucka leave his mark on both characters. The characterisation throughout this series on all characters is brilliant, but Half A Life shows off the crackling dialogue to its best and highlights Montoya in the reveal of her lesbianism, which had been kept a secret up until this point. This arc showed a new maturity to the bat universe and expanded the bat universe into deep and dark corners more befitting a HBO show than a comic book. |
Amnesty International has condemned a court decision which they say could see 14 men, including a student due to study in the US, beheaded for taking part in anti-government protests in Saudi Arabia.
READ MORE: When in Riyadh: Trump & Tillerson awkwardly join in Saudi sword dance (VIDEOS)
Mujtaba al-Suweyket and 13 other men have reportedly had their death sentences upheld by the Saudi Arabian Supreme Court for their part in demonstrations that took place between 2011 and 2012.
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The protests were part of the Arab Spring upheaval and according to Amnesty International the men were found guilty in July 2016 on charges of “armed rebellion against the ruler,” “inciting chaos,” “using Molotov cocktail bombs,” and “shooting at security personnel.”
The men have now had their sentences upheld and could be executed if their death warrants are approved by the state.
“By confirming these sentences Saudi Arabia’s authorities have displayed their ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent and neutralize political opponents,” said Samah Hadid, of Amnesty International’s Middle East group.
“King Salman’s signature is now all that stands between them and their execution. He must immediately quash these campaigns which are a result of a sham court proceedings that brazenly flout international fair trial standards.”
Al-Suweyket was just 17 at the time of his arrest and had been accepted as a student by Western Michigan University prior to his detention.
Earlier this year, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) called for US President Donald Trump to use his influence to secure a reprieve for the student.
READ MORE: Video of woman wearing miniskirt in Saudi Arabia prompts heated debate
“Saudi Arabia’s threat to behead its own citizens for attending an anti-government protest is an unthinkable and despicable violation of international law and basic humanity,” an AFP statement read.
“Should these executions occur, Saudi Arabia should be considered a pariah nation by the world. We implore President Trump, as the standard-bearer for our great nation, to do everything in his power to stop the atrocities that may otherwise take place in Saudi Arabia.”
The 14 men are thought to be held in a facility in Riyadh following their transfer from the city of Dammam on July 15. |
Being the head of the Republican or Democratic National Committee is a big and influential job. It’s also a tricky and thankless job, requiring the occupant to work tirelessly and impartially on behalf of candidates for national public office. At the R.N.C., Reince Priebus juggles a sprawling field led by a billionaire many Republicans would hate to see nominated for president. At the D.N.C., Debbie Wasserman Schultz has the opposite challenge: In a relatively tiny group of three candidates she has been close to one, Hillary Clinton, for years, having served as co-chairwoman of her bid for the nomination in 2008.
Her task at the moment is to make sure she does not favor Mrs. Clinton, the clear front-runner, and there are a growing number of critics who don’t think she’s doing a good job of it.
Nominated by President Obama as D.N.C. chairwoman in 2011, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, who represents Florida in the House, has put the organization in the black and worked hard, particularly among female and Jewish Democrats. It has been a rough tenure: Republicans won majorities in both the House and the Senate in 2014. They now control more state legislative seats than at any time since 1920, and hold 31 governorships.
That’s hardly the fault of a party leader. But Ms. Wasserman Schultz hasn’t always been helpful. She has been accused of grandstanding and using her post to bolster her own re-election, which she denies. |
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