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The Rays are showing interest in Giants reliever Hunter Strickland, having sent a scout to San Diego to watch the right-hander pitch this weekend, reports Chris Haft of MLB.com.
At 49-43, a half-game up on the Yankees for the American League’s top wild-card spot and two games above the sixth-place Twins, the Rays are setting up as deadline buyers. Acquiring bullpen help by July 31 seems to be a priority for Tampa Bay, whose relievers rank 19th in the majors in fWAR (1.5) and 20th in ERA (4.37). With Alex Colome, Brad Boxberger, Chase Whitley, Tommy Hunter and Erasmo Ramirez, the majority of the Rays’ bullpen is in good shape, though they’ve struggled to find reliable options to fill out the group. Jumbo Diaz, Danny Farquhar and Austin Pruitt have combined for 93 1/3 innings among them, but no one from that trio has prevented runs at a particularly appealing clip this year.
The 28-year-old Strickland has limited damage throughout his career, evidenced by a 2.48 ERA over 152 1/3 innings, and has pitched to a sparkling 1.91 ERA across 33 frames this season. Additionally, Strickland’s 9.82 K/9 and 19.4 percent infield fly rate make him look like a shutdown option. However, there are some troubling signs – including a dip in velocity and a skyrocketing BB/9 that has climbed to 5.18 after sitting at 1.75 in 2015, Strickland’s first full season, and 2.8 last year.
While Strickland does come with concerns, his track record and team control suggest he’d warrant a solid haul in a trade. Strickland is making a near-minimum salary this season and brings four years of arbitration eligibility to the table. It’s unclear, then, how open the Giants are to moving him, especially considering they’re aiming to put a rough 2017 behind them next year and return to contention. If the Giants do make any deals in the coming weeks, they’d like to acquire major league-ready talent in return, notes Haft. |
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By Omar C.
Oh Millennials, the most discussed generation of the decade. Whether you belong to them, fear them, loathe them, love them or just choose to ignore them; it’s a fact they make up a large portion of the consumers of today’s world.
And consuming is a thing they tend to do quite a lot, from the newest smartphone to a mislabeled Starbucks chai latte, this generation seems to have high demand of every conceivable product or service.
Feeding off the collective information from the cloud, these young-lings are living in an age where everything gets data sheet and expiration date.
And yet, very few of them are buying new cars, or used ones for that matter.
What is the cause of this? Why is a generation so voracious in seemingly random purchases, not interested in automobiles?
Well, three decades ago, the working man got up in the morning, grabbed a cup of coffee, got into his motorcar and drove to the office. After work, he drove home, spent time with his family and went to bed, all to start over again the next morning.
But the employee of today has a routine that is completely different; she wakes up, checks her phone, gets breakfast, and opens her laptop while reading all her work emails. She grabs her bag, takes the train to her office, and when she is done with work, she goes home, this time on a mobile app based taxi service.
Notice how the routine of today requires little to no driving. Why is that?
Thirty years ago, we didn’t carry a whole office, archive, bookshelf, and phone in our pockets; we actually needed to go to places to retrieve information. A car used to be the most efficient medium to transport ourselves to work, school, family obligations and such.
But now, you don’t even need to leave home to perform half the tasks involved in office work, which means you don’t really need a car.
Another common reason for this trend of car-less Millennials, is the fact that they do not view cars as symbols of freedom, or as something they express themselves with.
For them a car is, at most, a gadget on four wheels, with lots of cool connectivity features; even then it’s just a box to haul them around and go places.
This prospect of a future without drivers is alarming to some and soothing for others. While car enthusiasts cringe in disgust, some people are just relieved that we won’t need driving in the future.
And yet, car manufacturers seem blind to the actual needs of this generation, and we’re not just talking about the automobile itself here. Car ownership costs have raised meteorically in recent years, along with fuel prices, insurance, registration, and above all, Driving Licenses and driver’s education are out of the reach of our Millennials.
Without a need for driving, and deprived of the mere taste of wielding an automobile on the road, this generation seems to have been almost “trained” to leave car ownership behind.
It may even spring to mind that there is an agenda behind this, and that driving will be “phased out”, and self driving econoboxes will take over the world.
By now you must be rather annoyed at Millennials, at the governments, Car Makers, and saddened by this horrifying lack of young car buyers.
But there is an upside, and it’s possibly going to pave the way for the next automotive revolution.
When something cars are no longer necessary, most people will stop wanting them, but, the ones that are passionate about them will keep on following their tradition of tinkering, driving, modifying, and above all, racing.
The low demand and high supply of cars today will create the used car goldmine of tomorrow, giving Millennial and Generation Z enthusiasts the perfect platform to perpetuate and improve car culture through innovation and open source engineering.
We are already seeing this happen, as more and more young people discover car culture through the internet, learning about almost anything in minutes, and best of all, getting back something the car community has lost some time ago: The spirit of curiosity.
Rather than being afraid of a future we can’t control, we must pave the road for the generation of gear heads succeeding us, and give them the opportunity to go beyond. |
In the course of the night calm has returned to Munich, police chief Hubertus Andrä confirmed. He said that 550 police were involved in the investigation of what he confimed was a warning of a suicide attack.
A police spokesperson had confirmed to media earlier that there had been "two concrete tips" of planned attacks with an "Islamist background."
Watch video 00:39 Munich's main train station evacuated after terror warning
On Thursday evening Munich police warned via Twitter of a possible terror attack: "Please avoid large crowds and the main train station and the one in Pasing" they published via twitter:
The two affected stations were reopened several hours later.
The interior minister of the state of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann, revealed that a foreign security service had passed on the information on New Year's Eve. He confirmed that the threat had been linked to the "Islamic State" terrorist movement.
He said that the tips had specifically referred to the two train stations and that attacks were planned for midnight.
The Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that six suspects were the target of the investigation.
rg/bik (AFP, dpa, Reuters) |
Sacramento and Davis are only about 15 miles from each other, but the distance might as well be 50 miles, psychologically.
The town-gown partnership that ought to exist between California’s capital and UC Davis perpetually founders in ways that it simply shouldn’t. Arizona State University in Tempe is embedded in Phoenix’s economy, though 10 miles separate those two cities. No business considering a Los Angeles location would imagine that city’s sprawling assets don’t include the academic powerhouse 16 miles west of City Hall known as UCLA.
The research hub, known as Tech Square, has used a pro-business mindset and the proximity to the university’s engineering talent to draw more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of tech startups to that city.
So it makes sense that UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg are redoubling past efforts to expand the university’s presence in the city, and, more importantly, to leverage UC Davis’ intellectual capital in ways that will diversify the regional economy.
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Last week, with little fanfare, the two announced a working group to rough out a technology and innovation campus/research park modeled on the one May helped shepherd when he was at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The research hub, known as Tech Square, has used a pro-business mindset and the proximity to the university’s engineering talent to draw more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies and hundreds of tech startups to that city.
The concept has worked in other cities as well, from Pittsburgh to Madison, Wis. Cities need jobs. Companies need research and development infrastructure and an educated work force. University researchers need places to scale and market their innovations.
Theoretically, it could work here. UC Davis’ medical school, school of nursing and medical center have been game changers in Oak Park; with the right infrastructure, the surrounding area might also attract, say, biomedical companies seeking to leverage university research.
Davis’ renowned agriculture and veterinary schools provide powerful research that has helped transform farming and will continue to do so. Sacramento hopes to get in on the coming autonomous vehicle boom and has room for research parks and industrial spaces; UC Davis has a top engineering school and not enough room in the surrounding community for growing startups.
This isn’t to say there aren’t hurdles. Transit is a big one. The commute between Sacramento and Davis is just long enough to feel like a hassle. It is essential that the region upgrade transportation between the two cities. Yolo Bus could start by adding more express lines.
Picking a site could also be a quandary. UC Davis Medical Center is an obvious draw for research-oriented business, but there’s also the downtown railyard, and the city has an obligation to find a new use for the old Sleep Train Arena in Natomas.
The temptation might be to nurture several research parks, to leverage a range of UC Davis expertise. But one reason these ventures have worked elsewhere is that, by congregating in one spot, startups, researchers and bigger businesses also generate business for each other.
And the mutual benefit has to be made apparent. May’s predecessor as chancellor, Linda P.B. Katehi, spoke ambitiously during her tenure of creating a World Food Center in Sacramento, and perhaps of building a downtown satellite campus. Those ideas gained little traction, partly because the economy was still skittish, but also partly part because businesses weren’t sure what was immediately in it for them, beyond a potential tenant.
May’s approach seems more tightly focused. Certainly the timeline is firmer: Initial reports have an April 1 deadline. We await the recommendations for “Aggie Square,” as May has informally dubbed the project.
Though maybe the working group might want to work on that name. |
New Delhi: Four days after his newborn twins were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at BRD (Baba Raghav Das) Medical College in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Brahmdev, a farmer from the nearby village of Bagadada, realized something was wrong with the treatment being given to his children. He began to panic when he noticed a dip in the oxygen supply to the ailing children—soon after the hospital staff directed him to manually pump oxygen by a ventilation device.
Within a few hours, the 10-day-old boy and girl had died, leaving Brahmdev and his wife Suman shell-shocked. This was 10 August. The farmer couple was not the only mourners in the ward that day. A number of the newborns there had now become part of a heart-wrenching statistic: 30 children dead in a span of two days, believed to be because of a cut in the supply of oxygen cylinders by the vendor the hospital used, over non-payment of dues. Brahmdev and Suman were two among the latest victims of the endemic failure of procurement management in the Indian public health system.
The central government, which has the declared aim of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2022, has failed to maintain a reliable and constant supply of consumables, diagnostics and other technologies, which leads to incidents like mass infant deaths in Gorakhpur.
The healthcare budget remains extremely low in India. The total spending on healthcare in the country makes up just 1.2% of gross domestic product (GDP), even though the government’s Draft National Health Policy 2015 envisages progressively raising public health expenditure to 2.5% of GDP.
Of the budget allocated for healthcare, about 26% is spent on procurement of drugs, vaccines and medical supplies. In 2016-17, the health budget was around Rs33,000 crore. The central health ministry spent Rs8,580 crore on procurement. In 2017-18 the overall budget increased to Rs37,471 crore, while procurement went up to Rs9,742 crore. Health economists say that achieving UHC would require an additional purchase worth Rs24,000 crore.
Already struggling with low budgets, a dearth of expertise and embedded corruption in the layered public procurement system, India’s government hospitals are unable to provide effective healthcare to the poor, who are compelled to turn to them in times of need.
Central procurement
The ministry of health and family welfare procures drugs, vaccines, contraceptives and medical equipment for many programmes such as the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme, Universal Immunization Programme, National Family Planning Programme, Reproductive and Child Health Programme, and National AIDS Control Programme.
The problem arises because health financing is an opaque activity, as money, drugs, vaccines and equipment move from the centre to the states (and vice versa). The inefficiency in the procurement process results in both shortages and wastage. When this happens in the field of health, the results can be disastrous, even leading to deaths that can be avoided. There are further complications: inaccurate quantification, delays in tender decisions, payment delays and inadequate monitoring.
The latest report (2015-2016) of the Central Medical Services Society (CMSS), an autonomous body under the ministry of health and family welfare that handles procurement, supply chain logistics and health sector supplies, disclosed that there are several deficiencies in the procurement of various healthcare items. Though programme divisions interacted with state programme officers on every aspect of implementation, the timely supply of drugs, vaccines and contraceptives remained a major concern at the state level.
The report identified deficiencies in the system of procurement of health sector goods. “There was an absence of supply chain management. There was inadequate supply chain infrastructure and quality control. There is manual collection of data and absence of any credible Management Information System for proper stocking and inventory management. There is inadequate professional procurement expertise in the Health Ministry, and delays in estimation of quantities and in settlement of tenders, leading to delayed supplies. In view of these deficiencies, the supply of vaccines, contraceptives and drugs has been irregular, with excesses in some places and shortages at others across the country, thereby affecting programme effectiveness," pointed out the report.
Public procurement policy experts say that there is a dire need to have procurement specialists in government hospitals. “There is no public procurement law in India. It is governed by a set of guidelines," said Girish Bhatnagar, procurement policy consultant at the procurement policy division of ministry of finance. Bhatnagar also consults with the World Bank on procurement policy. “In hospitals which must have procurement experts, doctors have been given the role of procurement officers. A doctor’s sole job is to concentrate on patients and research."
The 2016-17 annual audit report of the Union health ministry pulled up the central government-run Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital in New Delhi for blocking funds and non-utilization of equipment. “The Ministry, without ensuring readiness of infrastructure, went ahead and procured various medical equipment valued at Rs15.93 crore for the Emergency Care Centre in RML Hospital. Two pieces of equipment, valued at Rs2.40 crore, could not be put to use as of December 2015. RML also failed to exercise due diligence in procurement of X-ray film, leading to procurement at higher rates."
States perform worse
As the infant deaths in Gorakhpur made clear, the functioning of health authorities in state governments is even worse. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India, (CAG) in a June 2017 social sector performance report on Uttar Pradesh, found several irregularities in the procurement of equipment in the past five years. Take BRD Medical College, where the infants’ deaths occurred in August. All the way back in June, CAG found that though BRD hospital had Rs27.38 crore to spend, there was a of 27.21% shortage of clinical equipment and 56.33% of non-clinical equipment against the minimum requirement prescribed by the Medical Council of India. “The parking (not spending) of funds not only violated the financial rules but also deprived patients of adequate healthcare as essential equipment could not be procured on time…," said the CAG report.
Similarly, the CAG report for 2014-15, tabled in the Delhi Assembly in June 2016, criticized Delhi’s health department, arguing that a comprehensive procurement policy for medical equipment was lacking. The report found a delay of up to two years in procurement and delivery of medical equipment. The situation in the supply of medicines, vaccines and contraceptives across the country is no different.
“We are in constant consultation with the states to improve procurement systems in healthcare," said Sudhir Kumar, joint secretary in the economic advisory department of the central health ministry. “We are attempting to introduce e-tendering across the country, and direct transfer of payment into the bank account of the vendor or service provider to maintain transparency and avoid delays in service delivery."
Lack of transparency
The health ministry has identified the problems in procurement management; but it has not been able to find a solution due to the complexity of the existing system.
“The procurement of various items, ranging from medicines to medical devices and services, is done in various ways which are not linked with each other," said a senior official in the health ministry who requested anonymity.
At the state and district levels, procurement of various services is under the National Rural Health Mission. The ministry procures some services directly. In addition, different government hospitals have their own procurement systems, through open tender, rate contract and emergency procurement.
“Some departments procure medical items, vaccines, drugs and services through a procurement agency that charges 2% commission," the official cited above explained. “There is often overlap, because there are different programmes running for the same diseases, such as vector-borne diseases, HIV, tuberculosis, for which medicines and testing kits are procured. The major problem is that nobody keeps a tab on the stocks in hospitals and programmes. There is a lack of transparency about who is procuring what. There are delays in payments and delivery to states. There have been cases where payments and delivery of essential items and services has taken anywhere between six months and one year."
“Transparency should be maintained in financial processes," said Dr Raj Panda, additional professor and senior public health specialist at Public Health Foundation of India. “Introduction of a functional and online MIS (management information systems) can help in tracking the drugs and their timely storage across various warehouses. This contributes to strengthened and well-regulated procurement procedures. Robust data management systems should be in place to track inquiries regarding smart cards, payment approval, patients’ records and utilization rate."
Learning from the best
In a bid to eliminate inefficiencies in procurement, CMSS officials recommend setting up a central procurement agency along the lines of the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corp. Ltd (TNMSC), which has performed well in the last 15 years. Some other states, such as West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala, also have procurement models that are considered best-in-class.
Tamil Nadu follows a centralized offline procurement system to purchase essential drugs, specialty drugs, surgical items, sutures, veterinary drugs and equipment. TNMSC acts as a mediator, negotiating prices. The government of Tamil Nadu sanctions a specific annual budget, with no provision of advance payments. The payment is made after half the ordered quantity is received. Equipment is only paid for after the purchased item is installed properly at the required premises. All payments are made online.
All branded drugs are procured centrally, through direct negotiations with the manufacturers. These negotiations are based on current market prices and quoted rates. Essentials drugs are supplied free of cost to all public healthcare facilities, while other drugs are sold at subsidized rates through centres at government health institutions.
Kerala Medical Services Corp. Ltd (KMSCL) is yet another efficient procurement system, with a coherent decision-making structure and strict regulatory systems. “Transparency and quality assurance are central to the procurement mechanism under KMSCL," said Panda. “An efficient procurement mechanism is further supported by e-tenders. There is a competitive and transparent bidding process, strict quality assurance procedures, efficient drug distribution management, periodic evaluations and a reliable financing mechanism."
Madhya Pradesh Public Health Services Corp. Ltd is a public corporation that acts as the central procurement agency for essential drugs and equipment for public healthcare institutions in the state. The company is also entrusted with setting up and running medical and paramedical ancillary facilities such as hospitals, pathological labs, diagnostic centres and X-ray facilities.
The West Bengal government saved more than Rs706.34 crore by adopting a fair procurement system in 2014 that included free drug facilities, a fair price medicine shop, free diagnostic facilities and dialysis services. It did so through a public-private partnership. A dedicated Web-enabled software, Store Management Information System, was introduced to generate procurement orders against fund allotments. Manual processing of orders and bills has been disallowed in the state.
The World Health Organization advocates “strategic purchasing" to improve the performance of health systems through effective allocation of funds to healthcare product and service providers. It entails deciding which healthcare interventions need to be purchased given population needs, national health priorities and cost-effectiveness.
The Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED) has been urging the government to move away from so-called L1 procurement, under which the supplier who quotes the lowest price is given a contract. It wants preference to be given to indigenous suppliers who use higher domestic content in their products and recommends penal action against those with a poor delivery record.
Indian Certification for Medical Devices, quality assurance certification from the Quality Council of India and design India certification from the department of industrial policy and promotion should be used as the criteria for deciding who gets a contract.
“Major lapses in the procurement policy of most of the state governments are due to separate funding allocation for different medical colleges/hospitals due to which medical colleges and hospitals have to call for local tenders as well as for local purchases, depending upon the availability of the funds," said Rajiv Nath, forum coordinator at AIMED. “This usually encourages a system which is non-transparent and many times more favourable for a few suppliers, which may compromise patient safety and health."
To avoid incidents like the mass infant deaths in Gorakhpur, hospital authorities should make sure they have specialists to periodically assess the medical supplies they require and procure them in time, said procurement policy consultant Bhatnagar. |
Zombies have nothing on these nightmares. Style is timeless. And while some trends start, take hold, and eventually jettison the world of fashion to blend with classic style, the vast majority of trends have a half-life shorter than the careers of the Jonas Brothers.
Like the costumes you’ll see tonight, some trends are more frightening than others. Also, trends in style aren’t always rooted in clothing shapes, colors, and production. Sometimes they’re a shift in how we present ourselves through our actions. Your additions to the list should go in the comments. And if at any point during these ten you need to close your eyes, you go right ahead.
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Named after the type of jeans a woman would accidentally leave behind at her ex-boyfriend’s placee. Which leads to two points worth noting: 1. If that scenario actually took place, why would you ever put them on? And 2. If you did, face it son, she’s better off without you.
What one presumably wears if the swelling won’t go down after wearing Ex-Girlfriend jeans. Moderation in all things. Especially when it comes to breathing room for your junk.
Beyond Bad Moustaches
Tomorrow is the start of Movember. And a moustache grown to raise awareness about men’s health issues is more than just fine. But for the other 11 months of the year, the solo soup strainer has no place unless you look like Wilford Brimley or Sam Elliott. What was once limited to cops and then sprouted up on hipsters, the ‘stache has spread to normal guys who are just looking to try something out. And it’s not the best idea. Women hate them.
The Ever Present Smart-Phone
Droid, iPhone, Blackberry, whatever… if you think someone looks preoccupied walking around with a bluetooth earpiece hanging out of their head, then setting your phone on the table during happy hour (or even bringing it in with you when there’s no reason to) isn’t really all that much better. It’ll be fine in the car.
The odd scarf / t-shirt combination
Now that the slouchy beenie thing is going away, it appears some who were addicted to those frumpy hats need some other winter accessory to wear with their t-shirts. The only logical next step after this is mittens at the beach.
Men not knowing how to sew on a button
A trend of a different kind. There were warning signs we’d get to this point. When one kid shows up to the Scout meeting with merit badges stapled to his sash, that’s a tragic anomaly. When there’s a patrol worth of them walking around using a Swingline as their chosen method of mending, there’s an epidemic coming. Fast forward a decade or two and a solid portion of men between the ages of 18 – 35 don’t know how to sew a button on a shirt. It’s not even close to being this complicated, but this video is plenty helpful.
Underwear with inexact waist measurements
Between this, the drop crotch, and the Ex-Girlfriend jeans, we’re all suffering through the dark ages of crotchdom. Once upon a time your underwear was made in exact waist sizes like 30, 31, and 32. Now much of it is small (30-32) medium (32-34) and so on. That’s way too much room for error. Dialed in accuracy would be greatly appreciated.
Tucking pants into boots
This is getting awfully close to wearing a watch on the outside of a shirt cuff. Women can get away with tucking their pants into their boots because their pants are much tighter and their boots are much taller (and they look better than us.) Now, if you’re wearing ex-girlfriend jeans and knee highs, well then hell… go for it at that point.
Enormous Logos
Some guys have a completely understandable zero tolerance policy when it comes to wearing logos. They just can’t do it. But for the brands that just can’t help themselves, take a look at how car makers do it. There’s a reason why the hood ornament isn’t the size of a hub cap.
The explosion of man jewelery
Unless your last name is “Depp,” stacking bracelets on top of bracelets can come off as inauthentic. Like you want a tattoo, but that’s too permanent. And if 67-year-old Tony LaRussa has more necklaces draped around his neck than pitchers he has in his bullpen, then the jewelery = rebel equation might not longer be valid.
Additions to this list should go in the comments below. And as always, almost anything can be pulled off if the right person is wearing it, so no offense should be taken if a trend hit too close to home. Except for the drop crotch pants. |
Traditional scientific communication directly threatens the quality of scientific research. Today’s system is unreliable — or worse! Our system of scholarly publishing reliably gives the highest status to research that is most likely to be wrong.
This system determines the trajectory of scientific careers. The longer we stick with it, the more likely it will become even worse.
These claims and the problems described below are grounded in research recently presented by Björn Brembs and Marcus Munafò in Deep Impact: Unintended consequences of journal rank.
We have a system for communicating results in which the need for retraction is exploding, the replicability of research is diminishing, and the most standard measure of journal quality is becoming a farce.
Retraction rates
Retraction is one possible response to discovering that something is wrong with a published scientific article. When it works well, journals publish a retraction statement identifying the reason for the retraction.
Retraction rates have increased tenfold in the past decade, after many years of stability, and a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrates that two-thirds of all retractions follow from scientific misconduct: fraud, duplicate publication and plagiarism (Ferric C. Fang, R. Grant Steen & Arturo Casadevall: Misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted scientific publications)
Even more disturbing is the finding that the most prestigious journals have the highest rates of retraction, and that fraud and misconduct are greater sources of retraction in these journals than in less prestigious ones.
Among articles that are not retracted, there is evidence that the most visible journals publish less reliable (i.e., less replicable) research results than lower ranking journals. This may be due to a preference among prestigious journals for results that have more spectacular or novel findings, a phenomenon known as publication bias (e.g. P.J. Easterbrook, R. Gopalan, J.A. Berlin and D.R. Matthews, Publication bias in clinical research, The Lancet). Publication bias, in turn, is a direct cause of the decline effect.
The decline effect
One cornerstone of the quality control system in science is replicability; research results should be so carefully described that they can be obtained by others who follow the same procedure. Yet journals generally are not interested in publishing mere replications, giving this particular quality control measure somewhat low status, independent of how important it is, e.g. in studying potential new medicines.
When studies are reproduced, the resulting evidence is often weaker than in the original study. Indeed, Brembs and Munafò review research leading them to claim that “the strength of evidence for a particular finding often declines over time.”
In a fascinating piece entitled The truth wears off, the New Yorker offers the following interpretation of the decline effect.
The most likely explanation for the decline is an obvious one: regression to the mean. As the experiment is repeated, that is, an early statistical fluke gets cancelled out.
Yet it is exactly the spectacularity of statistical flukes that increase the odds of getting published in a high prestige journal.
The politics of prestige
One approach to measuring the importance of a journal is to count how many times scientists cite its articles; this strategy has been formalized as impact factor. Publishing in journals with high impact factors feeds job offers, grants, awards, and promotions. A high impact factor also enhances the popularity — and profitability — of a journal, and journal editors and publishers work hard to increase them, primarily by trying to publish what they believe will be the most important papers.
However, impact factor can also be illegitimately manipulated. For example, the actual calculation of impact factor involves dividing the total number of citations in recent years by the number of articles published in the journal in the same period. But what is an article? Do editorials count? What about reviews, replies or comments?
By negotiating to exclude some pieces from the denominator in this calculation, publishers can increase the impact factor of their journals. In The impact factor game, the editors of PLoS Medicine describe the negotiations determining their impact factor. An impact factor in the 30s is extremely high, while most journals are under 1. The PLoS Medicine negotiations considered candidate impact factors ranging from 4 to 11. This process led the editors to “conclude that science is currently rated by a process that is itself unscientific, subjective, and secretive.”
A more cynical strategy for raising impact factor is when editors ask authors to cite more articles from their journals, as I described in How journals manipulate the importance of research and one way to fix it.
A crisis for science
The problems discussed here are a crisis for science and the institutions that fund and carry out research. We have a system for communicating results in which the need for retraction is exploding, the replicability of research is diminishing, and the most standard measure of journal quality is becoming a farce.
Ranking journals is at the heart of all three of these problems. For this reason, Brembs and Munafò conclude that the system is so broken it should be abandoned.
Getting past this crisis will require both systemic and cultural changes. Citations of individual articles can be a good indicator of quality, but the excellence of individual articles does not correlate with the impact factor of the journals in which they are published. When we have convinced ourselves of that, we must see the consequences it has for the evaluation processes essential to the construction of careers in science and we must push nascent alternatives such as Google Scholar and others forward.
Politicians have a legitimate need to impose accountability, and while the ease of counting — something, anything — makes it tempting for them to infer quality from quantity, it doesn’t take much reflection to realize that this is a stillborn strategy.
As long as we believe that research represents one of the few true hopes for moving society forward, then we have to face this crisis. It will be challenging, but there is no other choice.
What’s your take on publishing in your field? Are these issues relevant? Are you concerned? If so, I invite you to leave a comment below, or to help keep the discussion going by posting this on Facebook, Twitter, or your favorite social medium.
For a little more on Brembs and Munafò’s article, see a brief note by Brembs on the London School of Economics’ Impact of Social Science blog and discussion at Physics Today’s blog. And don’t forget to follow Retraction Watch.
Finally, a disclosure: The New Yorker article cited above was written by Jonah Lehrer, one of the subjects of my piece: Whaddaya mean plagiarism? I wrote it myself! How open access can eliminate self-plagiarism.
This posting subsequently has appeared at The Guardian as Science research: 3 problems that point to a communications problem |
TUNIS — Fear engulfed Tunisia on Monday that Islamic State mayhem was spilling over from neighboring Libya, as dozens of militants stormed a Tunisian town near the border, assaulting police and military posts in what the president called an unprecedented attack.
At least 54 people were killed in the fighting in the town, Ben Gardane, which erupted at dawn and lasted for hours until the security forces chased out what remained of the assailants. An enormous stash of weapons was later found.
The authorities said at least 36 militants were among the dead. The others were a mix of security forces and civilians, including a 12-year-old girl.
It was unclear where the assailants had come from, although some witnesses reported that they had local accents and had pronounced themselves as liberators. But President Beji Caid Essebsi of Tunisia, increasingly alarmed about the Islamic State’s expansion in Libya, blamed the militant group. In a televised address, he suggested that the motive was to create a new Islamic State territory on Tunisian soil, similar to the 150-mile stretch it controls in Libya. |
As a good chemist I always defend drug companies when I hear people attack their integrity. I can’t help but roll my eyes when I hear the benefits of herbal remedies, and can’t help but wince when I hear people advocate only eating natural non-chemical containing foods. Even I will have to mellow these attitudes after The Scientist uncovered a deal Merck made with Elsevier to publish a fake medical journal for an undisclosed sum of money.
I always feel the readers of Chemistry Blog should draw their own conclusions, so here are the .PDFs for the 1st and 2nd issue of the journal: 1st, 2nd
My findings and take on each issue of the fake journal are summarized below.
Summary from my Perusal of the 1st issue of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine.
Total Quantity Article Type # Merck Products # other Company Products Conclusion 6 International News 0 0 2 Review Articles 1 1 Aledronate is Good 2 Abstracts 0 0 1 Commentary 0 0 9 Conference Highlights 2 0 Aledronate Effective 2 Case Report 0 0 2 Ads 2 0 Fosamax, Vioxx
Out of 22 articles only 3 show Merck in a good light. The other articles are general information pieces that a doctor might be interested in. Doesn’t really seem too evil, but here are the stats from the next issue.
Summary from my Perusal of the 2nd issue of the Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine.
Total Quantity Article Type # Merck Products # other Company Products Conclusion 3 International News 2 1 Rofexocib, Fosamax both good 2 Review Articles 2 1 Aledronate Good, Rofecoxib neutral 2 Case Report 0 0 9 Abstracts 6 2 Aledronate and Rofecoxib are good 8 Conference Highlights 5 2 Refoxib is good, Aledronate equal to hormone replacement, Aledronate better than PG’s Risedronate, Aledronate is good, Aledronate better than Lilly’s Raloxifene 1 Ads 1 0 Vioxx
Out of 24 articles 15 show Merck in a good light. Two of them show Merck’s drugs work better than competition. Any pretense of legitimacy to any ethical standard is completely lost when 63% of the stories are favorable to Merck. I can understand highlighting articles favorable to your company, but to go through all the hoops to make your own look-a-like peer-review journal seems over the top, ridiculous, and tarnishes science.
The Scientist broke this story: Merck Published Fake Journal
Update 1: Merck releases a statement: Merck Responds to Questions about the
Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine Journal. The statement goes over some examples of where they feel they have been slighted egregiously. It concludes with a broad statement implying they won’t do something like this again. In my mind, it still does not make up for creating a fake research journal to push Merck products.
Mitch |
PORTLAND, Ore. -- As they do every year around this time, arguments about the ideal format for Major League Soccer's All-Star Game resumed right on schedule in the Rose City, where the league's best face German titan Bayern Munich on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2/WatchESPN).
U.S. national team captain Clint Dempsey wasted no time bringing the debate back to the forefront at Monday's prematch news conference, when he suggested that the league ought to revert to its old-school East-West setup, the one MLS employed in six of its first nine midsummer classics. Dempsey said that doing so would "reward more players," and it's hard to disagree with the Seattle Sounders forward when you consider that the league's second-leading scorer -- Sporting Kansas City striker Dom Dwyer -- was left off the original 23-man roster.
SKC striker Dom Dwyer was not on the original All-Star Game roster, but the MLS' second-leading scorer got a late invite after Jermain Defoe withdrew with an injury.
Dwyer was eventually extended an invite after fellow Englishman Jermain Defoe of Toronto FC was forced to withdraw because of a groin injury, and it must be noted that the league's collective bargaining agreement stipulates that 32 players are named All-Stars (and receive the resulting performance bonuses) even if they don't actually take part in the on-site festivities. But as long as MLS keeps inviting foreign teams, there's no question that a few deserving players will miss out on the chance to be recognized alongside their peers. Some argue that's a small price to pay for MLS to continue to present what commissioner Don Garber once called "the most competitive All-Star Game in pro sports."
While those East-West games may have been fun, competitive they were not; the last three editions ended with scorelines of 3-2 (2004), 6-6 (2001) and 9-4 (2000).
"I've seen it go from a very casual friendly game to a very meaningful real game," said Los Angeles Galaxy forward Landon Donovan, who is participating in his 14th consecutive All-Star Game. "If you're just going to go through the motions, you might as well stay home."
On Tuesday, MLS president Mark Abbott made it clear that the league had no intention of switching back.
"We think that this format works really well for us," Abbott said. "We think it brings a really cool dynamic to the game to be playing international competition."
And usually it has worked out well, not least this year. The deal with Bayern was signed months before Germany -- featuring six Bayern players, all of whom are contractually obligated to take the field Wednesday even though they will arrive in Portland just hours before kickoff -- hoisted the World Cup in Brazil on July 13. MLS got similarly lucky two years ago when it lined up English club Chelsea, which unexpectedly went on to win the Champions League.
Still, Abbott stopped short of saying the league would never go back to East-West.
"I rule nothing out as to what the All-Star Game format could be in the future," he said. "There's no specific plan to go to East-West, and there's no specific plan to change the format right now."
And even if Dempsey has a case, few of his teammates seemed to share his opinion.
"The East-and-West thing is fun, but these kind of games are fun as well, playing against players you'd normally never get a chance to," SKC midfielder Graham Zusi said.
Besides, All-Star games aren't just about the players.
"No disrespect to anyone, but I'm sure the fans in Portland also want to see Bayern Munich," Thierry Henry said. "It's a debate you can have."
Notes: After being overlooked originally, nobody is happier to be in Portland than Dwyer. "I felt that I just missed out, so I was a little bit disappointed," he said. "Then my phone rang at the weekend and I'm here. When I came in, guys on other teams were saying, 'You should have been here from the beginning.' It was genuine. That definitely felt good." Zusi was thrilled for his teammate: "I fully expected him to be on the team initially. He certainly deserved it. Justice was served."
Doug McIntyre is a staff writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @DougMacESPN. |
It was a question of questions. Both asked and unasked. Answered and unanswered. And, most of all, questions answered badly—prompting more questions to be asked.
At the January 2014 annual gathering of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in Chicago, papers were given on the usual range of specialized topics in literary studies; candidates for jobs in English were interviewed; and the association of experts on modern language took extraordinary steps toward establishing a foreign policy. Starting small—presumably out of a sense of proportion indicated by modesty, given their lack of qualifications in this area—the professors of English, etc., prudently chose to begin with a proposal aimed solely at just one tiny country. As if to say, the more miniscule the target, the better—forgetting that although relatively small things may look easier to blast, they require better aim, even with big guns like national organizations the size of the MLA.
Yet not without precedent did the academic boycott lobby inside the MLA select their strategy of largely meaningless, if vociferous, denunciation of Israel in particular. Cleverly, like the United Nations itself in this way—no doubt the MLA activists were aware that three-fourths of all UN resolutions that single out a lone country for criticism by the General Assembly have been aimed at the Jewish state—the professors of various literatures knew just where to begin healing the world, by piling on with the “language.” Moreover, not just the UNGA, but a smaller and less important MLA sister organization—the American Studies Association (ASA)—had also recently decided on a similarly cowardly course of action, and even went as far as voting to endorse the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. While the problems with a corrupt General Assembly are no secret (its motives for attacking Israel, mostly symbolically and out of all proportion, are well understood by that institution’s observers), the ASA’s weird decision to pick now to get in on the Israel-bashing phenomenon of many years raised a question. Why?
Which in turn gave rise to an answer.
As explained by ASA President, Professor Curtis Marez, in what quickly became an infamous joke—although/because he really was serious (he actually said it), “You have to start somewhere.”
The inanity and appalling ignorance of this irresponsible statement aside, taken seriously (as meant) for the sake of argument, Marez’s question-begging response begs the further question: Why not, then, simply “start” the American Studies scholars’ campaign for justice in the world beyond America’s borders a little more ambitiously—with the announcement of an even-handed policy, directed at the type(s) of injustice that the ASA membership presumably, rightly, abhors, wherever such wrongdoing rears its ugly head? Nor would a politically neutral, balanced, ethically universalist approach need to have been interpreted absurdly as mandating action everywhere all at once (as some of ASA’s defenders have mockingly claimed), but would instead have served to clarify the organizations’ mission and intent. Is it to help redress wrongs committed by the imperfect Jewish state alone? Or, do the professional Americanists, more reasonably and morally, have an interest in human rights and scholars’ rights around the world, as these are imperiled daily by states far more imperfect than tiny, liberal-democratic, Israel, and with which the US also has strong ties?
Understandably, such questions begat more questions—until the whole ASA scheme and its aftermath came to seem…questionable, indeed. If, for example, because of the perceived wrongdoings of a government, an academic organization is going to boycott fellow academics—which was the ASA’s “brilliant” strategy—and it wants to do so on the basis of nationality and in the name of academic freedom, well, is that not first of all itself a violation of academic freedom? And second, but no less important, an ethno-racist policy, too? Dubious enough tactics in general, right? Except it’s worse than that—when one recalls that the supposed transgression under indictment by today’s “progressive” academic organizations is precisely (what else?) Israel’s own ostensible (purported) inhibition ofacademic freedom on ethno-nationalist grounds! Moreover, if any of that were the real issue with Israel (instead of a red herring, given Israel’s vibrant and free academic culture) then why not at least (for appearances’ sake if nothing else) shun as well the academics of China, Turkey, Russia, or even the United States? Since none of these countries are above criticism when it comes to what Israel gets branded with by its obsessed detractors—the violation of “human rights,” “occupation,” disrespect for “indigeneity,” etc.—one would have thought that the American Studies Association might have found ample reason to boycott itself first of all, on these sorts of grounds.
But once you open up a can of worms, why not go further and question the policies of such model states as Iran, Syria or North Korea—places where, very much unlike Israel, with its thriving civil society, there is no academic or political freedom? If, that is, you, with your can-of-worms opener, were serious about “starting somewhere” appropriate that made real sense, in a genuine campaign to better the world. Instead, the ASA chose to start with Israel—a country born heroically out of the national liberation struggle of a small minority of the earth’s population, the Jewish people, in a movement to free itself from centuries of European endo-colonization, by renewing its ties to its own indigenous lands, and facing the kind of menace that turned out to include the only truly global-eliminationist genocide in history. Had Zionism succeeded in establishing a state by, say, 1933, would there have been a Holocaust? Questions, questions—Marez’s “answer” about where to start just begs so many of them, it’s hard to know where to stop!
For example, there is even the question (dare we say it? dare we not?) of anti-Semitism in the movement to boycott Israel. After all, when today’s “new” anti-Semitism (as it’s called) distinguishes itself qualitatively from just more of the same “old” kind, it does so largely on the basis of attacks against not only Jews but the Jewish state, some of which even go so far as advocating an end to Israel as a Jewish state. For this is the sine qua non of peace, freedom, and justice in the world. So, is not the very proposition of boycotts with the intent of helping to eventually wipe Israel from the map anti-Semitic by definition? While those in the academic boycotts movement (in this not unlike most Jew-haters around the world today) have disdain for the discredited, moldy old label, “anti-Semite” (even members of Hamas and its supporters reject the accusation), they proudly emblazon the term “anti-Zionist” upon their escutcheons (again, in line with virtually all kinds of resurgent anti-Semitism today). So there is a question here too. Has the world really forgotten what this reviled thing Zionism—which it is assumed to be so respectable to declare oneself openly “anti-“—really was and is? Namely, the movement for the self-preservation (only partly successful) and autonomy of a people no less beleaguered by oppression than any in history.
Questions, questions. Yet, with the ASA’s previous blunder as recently established precedent, committed portions of the MLA were in no mood for a history lesson—but instead, activists in that organization merely followed suit, in a competition to see which organization could pass a more mindless resolution more thoughtlessly. Thus, at the January 2014 convention in Chicago, there came to be a “roundtable” discussion given over entirely to denouncing the Jewish state. Organized by a wing of the pro-boycotts, anti-Israel lobby internal to the MLA, it was a part of larger efforts to promote a “BDS” agenda (Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions against the Jewish state) within academia. And it offered no better justification for such an agenda than Professor Marez had given when queried—which tells you something. To wit: Professor Barbara Harlow, when asked from the floor a question similar to that put to the ASA President (“Of all the nations in all the trouble-spots on earth, why have you chosen Israel in particular for censure?”), responded blithely: “Why not?” It was symptomatic. It was gestures like that which tended to indicate that the MLA leaders of the academic and cultural boycotts movement might actually be as ignorant—if not, indeed, incurious—about the special object of their peculiar ire as the ASA as a whole seemed to be.
Which brings us to the question of yet another question: What else besides ignorance might this all be a sign of? Are such oddly unabashed, uncannily parallel expressions of indifference to the very issues ostensibly up for debate merely a random feature of this particular discussion? Or, are these symptoms symptomatic precisely of what often happens when self-styled scholar-activists voice opinions outside their fields of expertise, as (often poorly informed) activists rather than scholars per se? But if that were so (and while everyone’s got a right to an opinion), then why should their—our!—scholarly organizations be allowed to be used as anyone’s preferred organs of protest on matters outside of their field of study? Scholars stand for scholarship. Putting a scholarly seal on anti-Israelism isn’t kosher.
Shamefully, it was after several more hours of such “answers” to the question of what was going on, most of them resembling Harlow’s shrug, that at the end of the day (literally), the Delegate Assembly (DA) of the MLA approved a proposal to put a proposal critical of Israel before the full membership, a question to be voted on by the organization as a whole in the months ahead (as yet an undecided issue at the time of this writing). What this means is that much of what was said at the DA meeting in January to justify the MLA’s considering a foray into foreign policy made no more sense than the hullaballoo that BDS supporters now routinely seek to stir up—as a way of casting aspersions almost as an end in itself. In fact, the MLA proposed resolution’s chief architects—Professors Richard Ohmann, and David Lloyd—as much as admitted defeat of their original idea, in terms of any real substance their proposal might have ever been thought to have had. They had to, in order to try to save face, when it was quickly made clear that what they had spent god-knows how long drafting didn’t make any factual or moral sense. And so it was that they themselves were forced to question—throw out—much of what they had planned to ask for an answer about, in the form of a vote, from members of the DA!
Thus: in response to criticisms from concerned fellow MLA members prior to any voting whatsoever, they—the proposal’s chief advocates themselves—drastically cut portions that were easily shown to be manifestly absurd, leaving just a rump statement that was even crazier (more illogical) than the one they had thought was as good as any place to “start” from (because “why not?”). So: here’s what happened. Instead of a resolution, as first formulated, protesting against Israel’s policy toward those scholars wishing to visit Gaza (mention of which was excised soon after the would-be critics’ critics pointed out that Israel hasn’t occupied Gaza for years, and Egypt anyway controls its southern border-crossing, making the singling out of Israel in this regard even more problematic); instead of language condemning Israel for “arbitrary” denials of entry to the country (removed as well after other MLA members asked for evidence of arbitrariness, and the foes of Israel could produce none): instead, a significantly redacted resolution was finally put forward. But yet it still only passed by just seven votes out of 113 ballots cast!
Listen to this: The statement as finally forwarded had eliminated from it all reference to either Gaza orarbitrariness, which seemed fair enough. Except when one paused to recall that without the erroneous bits about arbitrariness and travel to Gaza, there was nothing left on which to base the original claim of the MLA’s having a professional obligation to respond to a U.S. State Department Travel Warning—which, in point of fact, is a prudent warning that applies not to Israel at all but to Gaza, because it is governed by a terrorist organization. Hamas! Without the claim that Israel denies entry to its national territory “arbitrarily,” in other words (just for fun, lacking reasons, because the Jewish state is a gang of fascists), there was nothing left of the original claim at issue. All the resolution finally “accused” Israel of was controlling its borders because of security concerns, as do the governments of all nations. Bizarrely, as the five and a half hour meeting of the Delegate Assembly dragged on, “Why not?” had morphed into “So what?” before the assembled delegate’s eyes. And in order to avoid having to answer real questions such as those we have raised here. Questions some even tried to raise at the meeting itself, although it wasn’t easy for Israel supporters to get a chance at the mic that day, for reasons that were reported on inInside Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and elsewhere.
What it came down to was that, in spite of the emptiness of the resolution’s final wording (or rather, precisely because of it!), there was a feeling in the room that had to be assuaged, stimulated by the committed BDSers in attendance (of which there appeared to have been about 60). The feeling seemed to be that Israel simply had to be deemed somehow uniquely to blame for something—and so it was. And so it was that a purely symbolic proposed resolution, void of content, logic, or substance, was approved by a slim margin to be put before the membership for a final vote later on in the year, with a clear intent of nothing more (or less) than stigmatizing Israel in the hopes of lending credence to the cause of those who question its very legitimacy, and would deny its right to existence as a UN member state.
So it was that Bigoted, Dishonest, and Shameful (BDS) double-standards aimed at demonizing anddelegitimating Israel—Natan Sharansky’s “3D Test of Anti-Semitism” in relation to the Jewish state—were firmly in place and fully in effect where one might naively have thought least to find them. And, thus precisely it is that we believe BDS to be, in actuality, a movement that is anti-Semitic, first and foremost, in intent—if indeed, hopefully not, as it appears from the gutted resolution’s meaningless wording, in effect. With apologies to Lawrence Summers for our inversion of his well-known formula to fit the absurd circumstances of the MLA’s “postmodern” politics—a view of the world in which image is thought to be everything and reality nothing—it appears that it is in fact the intent to create an image that is, in this case, the only real effect.
Now let’s be crystal clear: the BDS insistence on the Palestinian “right of return” and an end to the “greater occupation” of “all Arab lands” in a territory stretching “from the river to the sea” is the antithesis of a call for peace and reconciliation between two peoples in a compromise solution that would allow both a place in the sun, side by side in some kind of harmony. Rather, it becomes painfully apparent that, for committed extremists of the academic and cultural boycotts movement, Palestinian identity is now conceived of as synonymous with three things—all non-starters in any peace negotiations with a chance of success, as everyone knows who is serious. For BDS trumpets: (1) the “right of return”; (2) the permanent, sanctified struggle with Israel until the bitter end, without genuine recognition of the Jewish state or real, meaningful compromise; and (3) perpetual recognition of the Palestinian’s own status andthat of all their descendants until the end of time as refugees, dispossessed of the land of Israel/Palestine with the connivance of the international community. More reasonably, however—since many, if not most, of the originally displaced victims of the 1948 Nakba would presumably be dead by now of old age or close to it—others have referred to the actual refugee problem as a diminishing, not growing, one. The actual refugee problem per se simply can’t go on forever and becomes increasingly moot, ironically enough, due to what might be termed, albeit sadly yet inevitably, “facts in the ground.” But Israel’s haters won’t mourn the dead and with that let their hatred die too, which they instead seek to keep alive and pass on from generation to generation.
To make matters worse, those stalwart BDSers, who know better, often seek to evade the “anti-Semitic” (because anti-Zionist) label, by resorting to ignoring or covering up what Palestinians say in Arabic about their political demands; the definition of their national identity; and widespread attitudes toward Israelis. While not unique to American “scholarly activism” (or is it “activist scholarship”?), this linguistic security fence is unfortunately often an obstruction to constructive American and European engagement with the Middle East—a structural feature of the rhetorical landscape that effectively forces meaningful discussion miles out of its way, thus avoiding the real issues at stake both inside academe and beyond. For, while the problematic phrase “right of return” is sometimes explained away as inherently symbolic by definition, rather than practical, just an element of the Palestinian “narrative” regarding the blameless circumstances of their diaspora; Israelis are in fact compelled in many ways to confront real demands along these lines, faced with interlocutors who insist both that they (“the Jews” or at most “the Zionist entity) accept the narrative in which they are the villains, and with it the possibility of a mass migration of Palestinians to Israel that would, by design, put an end to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state of all its citizens. Which is what it is.
These hardcore positions promoted by BDS, either blindly (in some cases perhaps) or with open eyes (as is plainly the case with others) are the opposite of any notion of a just settlement that both parties to a dispute over territory—two nations, one Palestinian and one Jewish—could ever possibly agree on. Tellingly, even liberal critics of Israeli government policies from within the Jewish community, such as Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller of UCLA Hillel, have concluded that this means, “BDS is poison and Omar Barghouti is a classic anti-Semite.” Did we mention that the same Omar Barghouti—the celebrity BDS spokesman, educated at Tel Aviv University, ironically—was on the “roundtable” with Barbara Harlow and Richard Ohmann? Well we should have. For he was!
And regarding Seidler-Feller’s observation, we could not have said it better ourselves. Although we have both been saying more or less the same, in other words, for some time, along with others. Moreover, even the notorious Norman Finkelstein, who has gone so far as to accuse Jews in print of using the Holocaust for their own gain, has described the BDS movement as, “a hypocritical, dishonest cult,” led by “dishonest gurus” who want to “selectively enforce the law” by posing as human rights activists. It is revealing, is it not, when not only radical critics of Israel, like the mad (former?) Professor Finkelstein, but even Palestinian “moderates,” such as Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen, who is, according toWikipedia, both the “Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization” and “President of the State of Palestine”), detach themselves from BDS and speak against it? Because BDS is poison. Even/especially those whom the movement claims to represent know it. Why, then, without the support of the Palestinian Authority even, does BDS push on?
Because, in spite of our questions, BDS supporters disingenuously claim that their brand of criticism of Israel is legitimate, even necessary, and that their positions are based in “real concern” for the well-being of the Palestinians. In fact, their strategy is clearly to target Israel and its advocates for stigmatization by nationality, holding citizens of the world’s only Jewish state to a far different, unrealistically high, standard, set by rules not applied to other countries—including both miserable dictatorships and leading democracies in far less difficult circumstances. Amidst flowery “anti-imperialist” rhetoric, the movement sugarcoats its toxic medicine, misleadingly implying that merely ending specific Israeli policies, deemed “apartheid” practices in their intentionally inflammatory words, would satisfy its backers. In fact, BDS supporters envision the replacement of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with a bi-national, majority Palestinian, entity—otherwise known as a greater Palestine in a world without Israel.
But the academic activists don’t want people to know this. Thus, to try to help get the word out, one of us, Gabriel Brahm, among others (including specifically fellow authors of chapters in this book, Russell Berman, Cary Nelson and Ilan Troen) had to resort to joining a panel billed as the “alternative MLA” session in Chicago. This was organized by MLA Members for Scholars’ Rights, and held across the street from the “real MLA,” in response to the organization’s decision to host an exclusively pro-boycott/anti-Israel roundtable which we have mentioned above). Brahm argued then and there on our behalf (with Romirowsky in the audience), and in no uncertain terms, that “the stigma that properly attaches to anti-Semitism should adhere as well to anti-Zionism.”
We conclude this essay therefore by reiterating that claim here, unequivocally. The latter incarnation of bigotry is but a species of the former. For, when a people is denied its right to self-determination, that’s an attack upon that people, as a people. Moreover, there is no way that “debates” about a cultural blockade of Israel can fail to affect the Jewish residents of all countries disproportionately—given that for most of us, if not all, Israel is a distinctive marker of identity, no less important to Jews than the Koran, for example, is to most Muslims. Denigration of anyone’s ethnic identity—despoliation of a community’s symbols—is incompatible with the values of multiculturalism and diversity, or what Hannah Arendt called more precisely the fact of “plurality” as a defining property of the human condition (see her famous remonstration of Adolf Eichmann for “not wanting to share the earth” with others in her controversial book, Eichmann in Jerusalem). While certain so-called “stealth writers,” like Professor Vijay Prashad, holder of the Edward Said Chair in American studies at the American University of Beirut, may choose to downplay, on occasion, for the purposes of public media consumption, the underlying genocidal intent of “mere anti-Zionism,” it is both explicitly and implicitly there in the BDS movement. Frankly, we find it hard to imagine that any holder of an “Edward Said Chair” in anything (let alone American studies as it has come to be practiced) could fail to be aware of this fact, even if he doesn’t bother to mention it when writing for a broad audience that could be expected to recoil from the full implications of Said’s own explicit rejection of two states for two peoples.
Moreover, with admiring/fawning students of Said (including, most prominently, the cultural theorist andcult figure, Judith Butler) at its philosophical core, the movement for academic and cultural shunning of Israel—the anti-Israel boycott lobby, understood as an outgrowth and organ of the “new anti-Zionist anti-Semitism”—is a movement against the Jews as a distinctive thread in the tapestry of humanity. It is a racist—anti-Semitism is a form of racism—movement. Anti-Zionism—anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism—is immoral and, indeed, in its current guise as a campaign that proposes embargoing scholarship as a “place to start” since “why not,” another self-inflicted wound to the reputation of today’s university in crisis, or what one might term a “crime against the humanities.” For it is no secret that anti-Zionism is the sort of prejudice that would see a Jewish state selectively excised from the map no less surely than the “old” anti-Semitism would like to have seen the Jewish people erased from the face of the earth. This must be faced, because if prominent individuals like Butler and others are allowed to dominate the scene in academia—if they succeed at shaping the kind of discussions happening on campuses regarding Israel—then extreme voices will have set the tone of a messed up discussion. MLA members like Ohmann and Harlow will carry the day. This must not be—for, how long before unchecked crimes against the humanities help inspire more crimes against humanity?
So! Questions, questions. Will scholarship carry the day on campus after all? Will the full membership of the MLA have the courage, decency, and good sense to vote down the proposed resolution put forth by its BDS inspired General Assembly? Or will debased excuses for real academic work continue to flourish in an age of declining literacy, leading to even greater ignorance and who-knows-what sort of outcomes down the line? The immensely learned doyen of Middle East Studies, Bernard Lewis, once explained the success of Edward Said’s otherwise shoddy, theoretically incoherent and factually inaccurate proto-BDS primer, Orientalism, as residing centrally in its author’s opportunistic cleverness, directed at transforming a single word, “orientalism”—a term that had always referred simply to an area of academic specialty, one focusing on societies and cultures of the Middle East, North Africa and Asia—into a term of abuse. As Lewis prophesied, upon its publication, Said’s Orientalism began changing the face of Middle East studies across North America—as many Middle East classes began to present to students the Arab-Israeli conflict solely through a distorted lens of anti-Zionism. For to do otherwise would make one “orientalist.”
Now, decades later, in a time when not just the study of the Middle East but the humanities and social sciences more broadly are under attack from a corporate America in quest of greater “efficiency” and profits—just as, probably not coincidentally, “functional” illiteracy is well on the way to becoming the “new normal” for nearly half the American population—the academic boycotters’ retreat away from serious engagement of issues and into anti-intellectual demonology bears all the marks of what Richard Hofstadter long ago identified as the “paranoid style in American politics.” As such, BDS’s Manichean rhetoric offers the Israel-bashers of the world some old bottles, too—along with what’s “new” about anti-Semitism today—into which they funnel the gasoline of their inchoate dissatisfaction with a much more complex reality. The yield is a fiery rag-stuffed cocktail of resentment, so easily and thrillingly hurled against readily identifiable stereotypes and made-to-order scapegoats.
In this context, if the MLA Delegate Assembly really wanted to do something “radical,” it might consider a resolution not against Israel but against grade inflation on the one hand (a) and (b) the proletarianization of the professoriate on the other. Until then, imprudent, badly researched and unfair proposed resolutions like the ones approved lately in turn by the ASA as a whole, and the one put forward by the DA of the MLA (again, bearing heavily in mind that as this book goes to press the full membership of the latter still has to decide whether or not to endorse what its delegates have voted to put before them) will stand as glaring symptoms of our detractors’ worst fears about us (we, the tenured, or, increasingly, untenured radicals on college campuses).
Which leaves us with just one more question: Why is it even a question? The “place [and time] to start” defending liberal values (academic freedom among others), by rejecting BDS demagoguery, is here and now. |
A group of 20 local youth, who said they will go all out to "keep the reputation of the holy town of Piran Kaliyar in Haridwar district intact and prevent any illicit relationship in the area", dragged a young couple from a guest house, thrashed and publicly humiliated them.
Woman beaten up, despite begging the mob to let them go
asiancorrespondent | representational use only
The shocking case of vigilantism, which actually happened on Sunday, had gone unreported as the couple were too scared to press charges. However, after a video of the incident went viral, the matter came to light, forcing the police to take action and book the 20 under various charges. There are about 50 to 60 guest houses in the Piran Kaliyar area, which some local resident allege are being used to promote "illicit relationships by offering rooms to unwed couples".
The video of the incident shows the mob pulling the couple out of a guest house and after abusing the two start thrashing them. When the woman protests, they set upon her, too, pulling her by the hair and beating her up. In the 5.05-minute clip, the terrified couple can be seen repeatedly pleading to the men to let them go.
"No one has the right to take law in their hands."
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Taking a serious note of the incident, Haridwar police, under whose jurisdiction Piran Kaliyar falls, has registered a case against the 20-odd men for disrupting the law and order situation. When contacted, SSP Haridwar Sweety Agarwal said, "No one has the right to take law in their hands. As no one came to us with the complaint, we have registered an FIR against the unidentified persons on the basis of the video."
Agarwal maintained that the police team had no information about the couple shown in the video. "We have started a probe into the matter and soon all the facts related to it will come to the fore," she added.
Rishabh Mathur flickr
This is the second video clipping in just the last few days of mobs harassing unsuspecting couples in Uttarakhand that has gone viral. On September 16, a video showing people misbehaving with a couple in Kunda area of Udham Singh Nagar had triggered an uproar.
(Originally published in the Times of India) |
Intensifying action, Pakistan troops on Monday violated ceasefire four times by resorting to heavy
mortar shelling and firing on Indian Army posts and civilian areas along LoC in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, leaving five civilians injured and several shops ablaze.
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Reports said in the retaliatory action by the Indian Army, one Pakistani post Twiven1 has been been destroyed. The firing and shelling is going on in various areas along the LoC, officials said.
Pakistan resorted to firing and shelling in Shahpur, Krishnagati, Mandi and Sabzian sectors in Poonch district, officials said.
“Pakistan troops resorted to unprovoked firing in Mandi and Sabzian sectors of Poonch district from 1345 hours today,” Defence spokesman Col Manish Mehta said. They fired 120 mm, 80 mm mortar bombs, automatic weapons and small arms, he said, adding the exchanges are going on.
Earlier, Pakistani troops violated ceasefire in Poonch using small arms, automatic and mortar bombs (in Shahpur) in Poonch, the spokesman said. “It has appropriately been responded to, we have given them befitting reply. The ceasefire violation is still on,” he said.
J&K: Person injured after grenade blast in Poonch Mini Secretariat building earlier today (where encounter had taken place 20 days back) pic.twitter.com/1Z224xfcmd — ANI (@ANI_news) October 3, 2016
A Police officer said the firing started at around 1045 hours and is going on. Pakistan troops resorted to brief firing in Krishnagati sector of Poonch district around 0100 hours, officials said.
In shelling, five people were injured in Shahpur Kerni and Saujian sectors, officials said, adding the injured have been hospitalised.
Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and briefed him about the security situation in the wake of a fidayeen attack on an army camp in Baramulla and the ceasefire violations by Pakistan.
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Doval’s meeting with the Prime Minister comes after the late Sunday night attack by fidayeen militants on a 46 Rashtriya Rifles army camp in Baramulla, which was foiled. Two Border Security Forces troopers were injured, one of who died later. |
In a late response to Edge.org's annual New Year challenge to the world's leading thinkers, Prof Richard Dawkins has submitted his entry. Edge.org asked scientists, philosophers, artists and journalists "What will change everything?"
Dawkins – author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion – muses on the effect of breaking down the barrier between humans and animals, perhaps by the creation of a chimera in a lab or a "successful hybridisation between a human and a chimpanzee".
Here's what he had to say.
Our ethics and our politics assume, largely without question or serious discussion, that the division between human and 'animal' is absolute. 'Pro-life', to take just one example, is a potent political badge, associated with a gamut of ethical issues such as opposition to abortion and euthanasia.
What it really means is pro-human-life. Abortion clinic bombers are not known for their veganism, nor do Roman Catholics show any particular reluctance to have their suffering pets 'put to sleep'. In the minds of many confused people, a single-celled human zygote, which has no nerves and cannot suffer, is infinitely sacred, simply because it is 'human'. No other cells enjoy this exalted status.
But such 'essentialism' is deeply un-evolutionary. If there were a heaven in which all the animals who ever lived could frolic, we would find an interbreeding continuum between every species and every other. For example I could interbreed with a female who could interbreed with a male who could ... fill in a few gaps, probably not very many in this case ... who could interbreed with a chimpanzee.
We could construct longer, but still unbroken chains of interbreeding individuals to connect a human with a warthog, a kangaroo, a catfish. This is not a matter of speculative conjecture; it necessarily follows from the fact of evolution.
Theoretically we understand this. But what would change everything is a practical demonstration, such as one of the following:
1. The discovery of relict populations of extinct hominins such Homo erectus and Australopithecus. Yeti enthusiasts notwithstanding, I don't think this is going to happen. The world is now too well explored for us to have overlooked a large, savannah-dwelling primate. Even Homo floresiensis has been extinct 17,000 years. But if it did happen, it would change everything.
2. A successful hybridisation between a human and a chimpanzee. Even if the hybrid were infertile like a mule, the shock waves that would be sent through society would be salutary. This is why a distinguished biologist described this possibility as the most immoral scientific experiment he could imagine: it would change everything! It cannot be ruled out as impossible, but it would be surprising.
3. An experimental chimera in an embryology lab, consisting of approximately equal numbers of human and chimpanzee cells. Chimeras of human and mouse cells are now constructed in the laboratory as a matter of course, but they don't survive to term. Incidentally, another example of our speciesist ethics is the fuss now made about mouse embryos containing some proportion of human cells. "How human must a chimera be before more stringent research rules should kick in?" So far, the question is merely theological, since the chimeras don't come anywhere near being born, and there is nothing resembling a human brain. But, to venture off down the slippery slope so beloved of ethicists, what if we were to fashion a chimera of 50% human and 50% chimpanzee cells and grow it to adulthood? That would change everything. Maybe it will?
4. The human genome and the chimpanzee genome are now known in full. Intermediate genomes of varying proportions can be interpolated on paper. Moving from paper to flesh and blood would require embryological technologies that will probably come on stream during the lifetime of some of my readers. I think it will be done, and an approximate reconstruction of the common ancestor of ourselves and chimpanzees will be brought to life. The intermediate genome between this reconstituted 'ancestor' and modern humans would, if implanted in an embryo, grow into something like a reborn Australopithecus: Lucy the Second. And that would (dare I say will?) change everything.
I have laid out four possibilities that would, if realised, change everything. I have not said that I hope any of them will be realised. That would require further thought. But I will admit to a frisson of enjoyment whenever we are forced to question the hitherto unquestioned.
What do you think? |
Super Easy Contact Form Handler
Chad Tiffin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 11, 2017
Probably the most common “back-end” work I do when building websites is setting up a simple contact form, and often, that’s the only server-side code a website needs (aside from any CMS related stuff or template includes).
It’s a mundane process to have to write a new handler script for every variation of a form, so I wrote a simple PHP script can handle the input from any front-end variation of a contact form. This basically cuts my work in half, as now I only have to worry about writing the HTML for every new contact form, and this script can process it and deliver it to a set of recipients no matter how the fields are set up.
Of course this is a great option for static websites where we don’t really have any plugins or tools to help us build a contact form, but its great for CMS websites too. CMS websites usually have some sort of plugin that can handle this functionality, but especially with Wordpress websites, the fewer plugins you need to the use, the better. If you only have a simple need to take some information and mail it to an email address, why use a plugin? We can do it ourselves!
My own implementations have some extra checks for special fields (like a reply email address), logging, some extra CSS for styling the HTML email, etc. I’ve removed most of that extra stuff to just show a simplified version of the script so its a little easier to read through and understand. One thing I did keep in there however is a check for a honeypot field, which only processes the form if that honeypot field is empty. Although its not a perfect spam solution, I do find it cuts down on a huge amount of spambot form submissions, and its an easy thing to do.
If you find this script useful, feel free to use it!
Of course if you want to get fancy this script will also work just fine with AJAX requests (which is my preferred method), you’d just likely want to change the success message to respond with some JSON rather than an HTML message.
It might also be a good idea to add some logging of requests, both the successful ones and the ones that get rejected by the script, either by appending into a simple text file, or writing to a database. But for now what we have above is a very simple, and very extensible “just works” starting point.
For those who’d like to see an example of what a form might look like, here’s a quick HTML form that you might use in conjunction with it:
NOTE: The main thing with input fields is you need to include a “name” attribute, which is what creates a field that goes to the server.
Did you find this useful or do you have your own implementation? I’d love to see what other people are doing. |
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Want to learn how to how to grow crystals overnight using easy to find materials? Of course you do!
Any exploration of science for kids is not complete without growing some crystals….am I right? In fact, at the science fair this past year crystal growing projects were the project de jour, and I can understand why, growing a Crystal Garden has ranked pretty high up there on my list of fun science experiments since I myself was a kid!
Now one of the big drawbacks to many crystal growing projects is the time involved. I’ll be honest, I am not a patient woman and though I proselytize patience to my kids, I’m not a very good example of this virtue! So days of waiting for a crystal garden to grow pretty much sent this idea to the “someday” list. That is until I discovered Epsom salt crystals….leave them overnight and wake up to magic! Oh how much do I love thee Epsom Salt!
Grow crystals overnight in your refrigerator! Click To Tweet
Before we get started let me clarify, growing crystals using Epsom salt will not yield giant geodes bursting with color; Epsom salt crystals are small, delicate, and slivery. Instead of one or two mega crystals this science experiment for kids will give you hundreds of miniature crystals; they look a little bit like shards of glass and if you’re lucky you may get a few that look like snowflakes…
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Also plan on making 3-4 crystal gardens. The crystals grow differently, some were delicate and lacy, other were more rocky and gem like. Be sure to make a bunch to delight you and the kids!
This post contains affiliate links to products I love and recommend to my readers.
How to Grow Crystals Overnight
Materials
Epsom Salt Clean Glass jars Buy in bulk here Food Coloring (optional) Hot Tap Water Bowl or glass measuring cup Spoon Pebble or sand Microwave (optional)
Instructions
Step One | Measure You will be using a ratio of 1:1 water to Epsom Salt for this project. Add 1 cup of Epsom salt to your jar/votive. If you are working with larger jars feel free to add more salt but be sure to make a note of how much so you can add the same amount of water.
| You will be using a ratio of 1:1 water to Epsom Salt for this project. Add 1 cup of Epsom salt to your jar/votive. If you are working with larger jars feel free to add more salt but be sure to make a note of how much so you can add the same amount of water. Step Two | Heat the Water Add 1 cup of water to a microwave safe bowl. Heat the water in the microwave for 45 seconds. Alternatively use very hot tap water and skip the microwave.
| Add 1 cup of water to a microwave safe bowl. Heat the water in the microwave for 45 seconds. Alternatively use very hot tap water and skip the microwave. Step Three | Add Color If you are using color, add a dash of food coloring to the water. Stir.
| If you are using color, add a dash of food coloring to the water. Stir. Step Four | Combine Pour the water into the jar with the salt. Stir the salt and water for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the salt. Don’t worry if some of the salt remains undissolved at the bottom of the jar.
Step Five | Cool Drop in a pebble or a few grains of sand. Crystals need something to grow on and one little impurity in the water like grain of sand will should help ensure they have a place to nucleate.
| Drop in a pebble or a few grains of sand. Crystals need something to grow on and one little impurity in the water like grain of sand will should help ensure they have a place to nucleate. Step Six | Cool Place the jar in the back of your refrigerator. Alternatively, quick cool the mixture for 10 minutes in the freezer and then move it to the refrigerator. Cooling in the freezer first yielded crystal growth in 90% of our experiments. We had just a slightly lower success rate going straight from mixing to the fridge.
| Place the jar in the back of your refrigerator. Alternatively, quick cool the mixture for 10 minutes in the freezer and then move it to the refrigerator. Cooling in the freezer first yielded crystal growth in 90% of our experiments. We had just a slightly lower success rate going straight from mixing to the fridge. Step Seven | Let ’em Grow Leave the mixture overnight in the fridge. Crystals may start forming in as little as 3 hours but we got the best results when we made the gardens in the evening and left them to sit undisturbed overnight Bonus: My daughter was excited to wake up and see how they had grown!
Step Seven | The Reveal Carefully pour out the extra liquid. It’s okay to leave a little liquid at the bottom of the jar. If you colored your water it will be hard to see if any crystals have grown until the excess liquid is removed. Clear water is easy to check.
Carefully pour out the extra liquid. It’s okay to leave a little liquid at the bottom of the jar. If you colored your water it will be hard to see if any crystals have grown until the excess liquid is removed. Clear water is easy to check. Step Eight | Clean Use a wet paper towel to gently wipe away excess salt and color that may be on the upper portion of the jar. This will help you see the lovely crystal garden through the glass. Be careful not to damage any of your crystals!
You’re done! Hand the kids a magnifying glass for additional exploration. My kids really wanted to touch the crystals. That’s okay but let them know they are delicate and break easily.
Tips & Troubleshooting
Science for kids is not without trial and error! Here are some tips I learned after repeating this experiment over 20 times…
Don’t overheat the water! I know it’s tempting to really heat that water up to make the salt dissolve, but all the experiments we did with really hot water, heated more than 45 seconds in the microwave, failed miserably.
I know it’s tempting to really heat that water up to make the salt dissolve, but all the experiments we did with really hot water, heated more than 45 seconds in the microwave, failed miserably. Stir for at least one to two minutes! This is tough one for littler kids. My daughter was done stirring within a few seconds but you really need to get that water super saturated with salt to make the crystals grow. The less dissolved the salt is the smaller the crystals will be and worst case they may not grow at all.
This is tough one for littler kids. My daughter was done stirring within a few seconds but you really need to get that water super saturated with salt to make the crystals grow. The less dissolved the salt is the smaller the crystals will be and worst case they may not grow at all. Let them grow even longer in the fridge. Leave them in the fridge longer than overnight and they should continue to grow. I left a few in the fridge for a over a week and the results got even better!
Leave them in the fridge longer than overnight and they should continue to grow. I left a few in the fridge for a over a week and the results got even better! DO NOT let them sit in water at room temperature. Any crystals that have formed will deteriorate in the water at room temp. Once the crystals have formed and you want to preserve them you will need to pour out the water. I had some gorgeous crystals form in the fridge over the course of a week or so and I took them out and left them on the counter in the water. I came back the next morning to find they had flattened out. The one garden I poured the water out of remained stunning.
Any crystals that have formed will deteriorate in the water at room temp. Once the crystals have formed and you want to preserve them you will need to pour out the water. I had some gorgeous crystals form in the fridge over the course of a week or so and I took them out and left them on the counter in the water. I came back the next morning to find they had flattened out. The one garden I poured the water out of remained stunning. Make a Crystal Suncatcher with the leftover water!
Let’s Talk Science
Here are a few terms we need to know to understand the chemistry in this project:
Crystals Crystals are a type of material that is formed by patterns of repeating molecules. To the naked eye they have flat surfaces and facets. Crystals form when a liquid cools very slowly and/or when water evaporates from a chemical mixture leaving behind the solute (see below) whose molecules re-form into new geometric shapes i.e. crystals
Crystals are a type of material that is formed by patterns of repeating molecules. To the naked eye they have flat surfaces and facets. Crystals form when a liquid cools very slowly and/or when water evaporates from a chemical mixture leaving behind the solute (see below) whose molecules re-form into new geometric shapes i.e. crystals Solute A substance dissolves in another substance.
A substance dissolves in another substance. Saturation When a mineral like salt (the solute in this project) is dissolved in water, the water can only hold certain amount of the solute. A liquid is saturated when the maximum amount of solute is dissolved in it. Hot liquids can hold more solute than cold liquids.
When a mineral like salt (the solute in this project) is dissolved in water, the water can only hold certain amount of the solute. A liquid is saturated when the maximum amount of solute is dissolved in it. Hot liquids can hold more solute than cold liquids. Nucleation & seed crystals When an impurity is introduced into a saturated solution the solute will begin to recrystallize around that impurity. This is the site of nucleation. Often a large crystal is used to grow smaller crystals, this is a seed crystal. In our experiment the sand and pebbles are acting as the seed crystal.
What is happening in this project:
In our overnights crystals we first mix up a super saturated batch of salt water. As the mixture both cools in the refrigerator and the water begins to evaporate, the atoms in the salt start reforming around the pebbles and/or sand particles causing the salt crystals to reform in new geometric formations.
How to turn this in a Science Fair Project
Let’s turn this topic into an experiment! Here’s how you can take this to the science fair:
Ask yourself questions Some question ideas: What are the best materials for nucleation? What is the ideal temperature for crystal growth- you can explore the water temperature or the temperature in the refrigerator. What is the ideal salt/water ratio for crystal growth? Research Do research online and at the library to try and predict the answer to your question. For instance, research seed crystals, saturation, and the best methods for growing crystals. Make a hypothesis A hypothesis is your prediction of the answer to your question based on your research. It may or may not be true. Experiment! Test you your hypothesis by testing the variables and documenting them. Be sure to take notes of each experiment and what happens; this is called your data.
Examples:
Experiment with nucleation materials Try crowing crystals using sand, rocks, dust, glitter, etc. as your seed crystal. Does that change the way the crystals form? Does the size of the object make a difference in the way the crystals form?
Test different temperatures Try using different water temperatures to grow crystals. Does that change the way they grow? Try cooling the crystals at different temperatures, i.e. in the freezer, refrigerator, room temperature, and observe what happens.
Find the best salt/water ratio for crystal growth We used a 1:1 ratio in this experiment but what happens if you vary that ratio? Experiment and document the results.
Draw conclusions Based on your experiments form a conclusion. Was your hypothesis correct? Share your findings Create a presentation with your findings. Include your research, hypothese, the data you collected and your conclusions. Be sure to include images and samples
Well that was fun, right? Here’s a little something you can try with the leftover saturated water: Make Crystal Suncatchers:
learning how to make crystals from epsom salt is really simple and a great idea for a science fair project!
For more fun science experiment ideas for kids hop over here
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Palace of the Soviets Change this
The unbuilt skyscraper with a statue of Lenin at the top 1 of 11
Description Change this
The Palace of the Soviets was to be a major congress hall and administrative centre in Moscow, near the Kremlin. The project was never realised but the winning neoclassical design was by Boris Iofan. The site was to be where the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour had been demolished. If the structure had been built it would have been the world’s tallest at the time after Vladimir Shchuko and Vladimir Gelfreikh revised Iofan’s original design into a tall skyscraper.
Although construction began in 1937, the building was interrupted when the German’s invaded Russia in 1941. During World War II the steel frame already installed was disassembled to be used for much needed infrastructure and bridges, never again being rebuilt.
In 1958 the remaining foundations were converted into an open-air swimming pool, later between 1995-2000 the Cathedral was reconstructed.
The Competition
Comments
In 1931 the Soviet Union announced the first competition for the design of the Palace of the Soviets with a combination of 15 avant-garde and traditional architects however even after the competition closed in May 1931, no winner was selected.Shortly after on June 2nd the political Party identified the site and rallied for the demolition of the Cathedral which was formally backed up on July 16 by the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union commission. Two days later the second competition was announced, opening it up to international architects. Demolition of the Cathedral began on 18th August and by December 5th was reduced to rubble.The second, public, international contest received a total of 272 concepts with 160 architectural designs, 136 by Soviets and 24 foreigners. Some of those international architects included Le Corbusier , Joseph Irban, Walter Gropius Erich Mendelsohn and Albert Kahn . Boris Iofan’s Italian teacher, Armando Brasini expressed the idea of ‘Lenin atop the skyscraper’ The project received international interest and was broadcast, reported and reviewed all over the world. However still no clear winner was announced, in early 1932 three proposals were selected including Boris Iofan, Ivan Zholtovsky and a British architect Hector Hamilton.As there was no winner, a third round of the competition was announced in the form of a state intervention. All three runners-up turned their backs on the avant-garde and leaned towards neoclassicism. This "reactionary" decision caused an uproar among European avant-garde artists. Particularly Le Corbusier and Sigfried Giedion, leader of the CIAM. |
Nov '15 9
Sometimes Writers Block is really Depression
Last year, I stopped writing.
Previously, I’ve always looked at Writers Block as a way of diagnosing that something has gone wrong with my story. I found that I could examine my reactions to sitting down and that they broke down into a couple of specific areas.
Drowsy — Two sentences in and I’m totally falling asleep Staring — How long can I look at a blank screen without putting any words down? Restless — Why am I suddenly in the kitchen doing dishes? Dithering — There are only so many times I can rewrite the same opening.
With each of those, what’s really going on is that my reader brain is trying to tell my writer brain about its responses to the thing I’m writing. When you think about your favorite book, the one you’ve read multiple times, you still have an emotional reaction to the story, even though you know what is going to happen next. The same thing is happening with your own writing. Even though you know what is going to happen next, you are still telling yourself a story.
Drowsy — Sorry, this means your story is dull. You are boring yourself. Back up to the last point that you were excited about and try to think of a more dynamic choice to make for the plot. What would be cool and excite you as a reader?
Staring — You don’t know what is supposed to happen next. So think about the situation that your character is in. What do they want? What is the smartest thing they can do with the materials they have on hand to achieve that goal? Now how does it go horribly, horribly wrong?
Restless — The next scene is hard and you are trying to escape writing it. By “hard” I mean, you are approaching a tense scene. It’s a scene that will be difficult for your character and/or difficult to write well. This one, you just have to power through. Remember, you can always go back and fix it later. Set a timer for fifteen minutes, start writing, and don’t let your fingers stop while the timer is running. Most of the time, you’ll get out of the hole.
Dithering — You don’t believe the scene that you are about to write. This is probably related to your character’s internal motivation, or possibly just that a planned scene no longer fits in the novel. Much like “staring,” pause and think about what your character wants and how they can try to achieve that. Then be awful to them.
But there’s a fifth form of writer’s block. And that’s when the urge to go to the chair isn’t even present. When you go, you hate writing. The joy is totally gone when you do write.
This is depression.
I had been slowing down and struggling to even care about writing for most of the previous year. And then, I just stopped.
And after that, I stopped getting out of bed, except right before my husband came home. I’d get up and get dressed, because I was ashamed of the fact that I was in bed and had gotten nothing done. I could hear the gate open as he headed to the back yard with his bike, so I’d be in the kitchen washing dishes when he came home. I looked totally productive.
Finally, as I was writing a forward for my excerpt in Altered Perceptions, I realized that I was masking. No– wait. I admitted to myself that I was masking. I already knew it. I already knew that it was depression. I just didn’t want to admit it, because that would mean admitting being broken.
I knew what depression looked like. I had tons of friends who dealt with it and who are open about it. So, I called my doctor to make an appointment. My internalization of the stigma of mental illness was so ingrained, that I made the appointment to have a mole on my back looked at.
When I got into the office, I told my doctor why I was really there. “I think I’m dealing with depression, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
She said, “That’s what I’m here for.”
Cue burst of tears.
I’m on Zoloft and seeing a counselor. I’ve started writing again. It’s still slow, but the desire is back.
In hindsight, I’ve probably dealt with this off and on for my entire life, but last year, I tried to push past it and pretend I was fine. And it became crippling. Now I have tools to handle it. I’m better about self-care, so that I don’t let things become crippling again. I am trying to treat it like having a broken arm and be very matter-of-fact about it. Though, really, it’s more like having dysentery, because it traps you at home and no one wants to hear about it.
But I digress.
Now… I’ve given you strategies for handling the other types of writer’s block. Let me tell you the things that work for me with writing. I want to be clear, that everyone’s brain is wired differently. If you are like me, and respond well to challenges and ticky-boxes, these might work for you.
Habitica — This gamifies my to-do list. I have a mix of things on there from “Take medication” to “Leave House” to “Write 3 sentences.” The big thing is that I can see that, yes, I actually AM achieving something.
— This gamifies my to-do list. I have a mix of things on there from “Take medication” to “Leave House” to “Write 3 sentences.” The big thing is that I can see that, yes, I actually AM achieving something. 4theWords — Oh heaven. This is an RPG game in which the metric for defeating monsters is the number of words and the time written. You can go on quests! Gear! Costumes! (Here’s my referral code, if you want it: BUCGG84743)
— Oh heaven. This is an RPG game in which the metric for defeating monsters is the number of words and the time written. You can go on quests! Gear! Costumes! (Here’s my referral code, if you want it: BUCGG84743) Small goals — I used to have a 2000 word per day goal. Now, I aim for 3 sentences. This almost always turns into more, but having a small goal is achievable, even on the rough days.
— I used to have a 2000 word per day goal. Now, I aim for 3 sentences. This almost always turns into more, but having a small goal is achievable, even on the rough days. Headspace — This is a meditation app. I was toooootally skeptical about this when my counselor suggested it. It took me awhile to get comfortable with the idea, but it makes a difference.
— This is a meditation app. I was toooootally skeptical about this when my counselor suggested it. It took me awhile to get comfortable with the idea, but it makes a difference. Yoga in the morning — So, apparently, 20 minutes of physical activity in the morning can totally change your entire day. I have found this to be appallingly true for me. The days that I skip it to do later, I am much more scattered. It doesn’t have to be yoga, but physical activity is huge. (I use DailyYoga since I travel a ton.)
in the morning — So, apparently, 20 minutes of physical activity in the morning can totally change your entire day. I have found this to be appallingly true for me. The days that I skip it to do later, I am much more scattered. It doesn’t have to be yoga, but physical activity is huge. (I use DailyYoga since I travel a ton.) I stopped lying — I was lying to myself and to my husband. Now, when he asks me how I’m doing, I answer him. And I’m honest. And he can help. Putting up a front took a lot of energy. Now I can use that energy for other things.
— I was lying to myself and to my husband. Now, when he asks me how I’m doing, I answer him. And I’m honest. And he can help. Putting up a front took a lot of energy. Now I can use that energy for other things. Buffers — Self-care involves turning things down, even things I want to do sometimes. I build quiet space into my convention schedule. I have buffers on my calendar to keep me from over-booking myself. (Yes, I know what my travel looked like this year. Recall that my mom was becoming bionic, which added a lot of unplanned travel to the list. I dropped a ton of stuff, too.)
— Self-care involves turning things down, even things I want to do sometimes. I build quiet space into my convention schedule. I have buffers on my calendar to keep me from over-booking myself. (Yes, I know what my travel looked like this year. Recall that my mom was becoming bionic, which added a lot of unplanned travel to the list. I dropped a ton of stuff, too.) Timers — I use a sand timer to help me get started. It’s 15 minutes. The beautiful thing is that it doesn’t make a sound when the time runs out, so if I’m a roll, I keep going.
— I use a sand timer to help me get started. It’s 15 minutes. The beautiful thing is that it doesn’t make a sound when the time runs out, so if I’m a roll, I keep going. Written? Kitten! — Look. Kittens make the world go around. This gives you a new picture of a kitten for every 100 words you write. Yes, my brain is that easily hacked.
— Look. Kittens make the world go around. This gives you a new picture of a kitten for every 100 words you write. Yes, my brain is that easily hacked. The Email Game — It turns answering email into a game! Again, my brain is that easily hacked. This doesn’t help with writing, per se, but it does help keep me from becoming isolated by making answering email less daunting.
The biggest thing to say to you though, is that if you are having trouble writing take a look at what’s going on. Ask yourself if something is wrong with the story, or if the thing that is wrong is outside the story.
And if it is not the story, please ask someone for help. That’s what they are there for.
(PS Sometimes, not writing is also just being lazy. Sorry. The only solution for that one is to just STFU and write.)
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Coromandel Peninsula Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove Your browser does not support video playback via HTML5.
268 km driven 6.6 km walked 647 photos taken
Auckland Coromandel Peninsula After my first day in New Zealand spent exploring Auckland, I started the new day by sleeping a few extra hours before I hit the road. It was a 2.5 hour drive to the Coromandel Peninsula, in particular to my destination in Whitianga. I had booked my next hotel just the night before on my phone.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the wide variety of scenery on this trip and was starting to get the hang of driving on the left side of the road. I arrived at the hotel in the early afternoon, made some coffee — the hotel staff conveniently gave me fresh milk upon check-in — and relaxed a bit before heading back out. Admiralty Lodge Motel 69 Buffalo Beach Road, Whitianga USD $162 per night 1 night I loved this place. Massive rooms, free Wi-Fi and super friendly owners that gave me tips about the area. They recognized my Georgia area code (!) and told me about how they used to live there long ago.
Hot Water Beach Hot Water Beach is a famous geothermal beach situated on Mercury Bay just a 30 minute jaunt from my lodging in Whitianga. Visitors bring shovels and dig large holes to reach the underground hot water near low tide.
By this time I was starving and picked up what the staff at the local cafe recommended: a mincemeat pie. I would later find mince pies throughout New Zealand at just about every cafe. They were always a safe bet if the other food options looked questionable.
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Cathedral Cove From Hot Water Beach I drove just 10 minutes further to reach the highlight of my visit to the Coromandel Peninsula: Cathedral Cove, also known as the Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve. But first I had to stop for a real meal nearby at The Pour House. I got a ridiculously tasty "Haheian" pizza and a great Kiwi pilsner. It was exactly what I was looking for after a while in the sun.
From the carpark there was 2.5 km trail that took me past beautiful Gemstone Bay and Stingray Bay on the way to Cathedral Cove.
Your browser does not support video playback via HTML5. A silver fern frond. These are everywhere in New Zealand.
I spotted these silver ferns throughout the trail — and just about everywhere else on the trip. They're the symbol of New Zealand. When the fern frond is curled up it is referred to in Māori culture as Koru and encapsulates the nature of life simultaneously changing and remaining constant. I made it to Cathedral Cove right around golden hour and stayed there until a striking full moon began to emerge. Unfortunately, high tide came in just as I was arriving so I couldn't venture out too far without getting trapped on the wrong side of the cove.
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It was very dark at this point — it only looks somewhat bright in the shots as they're long exposures. I was shooting a quick timelapse when these Japanese photographers that I had been shooting alongside all evening came back to let me know there was a lovely full moon. We couldn't really communicate but they gestured to the other side of the beach and I followed them to take some last shots.
It was around 10pm at this point. With only moon light available and a 30-40 minute hike back to my car, I decided to head back. Fortunately, I had purchased a powerful LED flashlight just for this trip and put it to use here. As I was hiking back I kept hearing sounds around me. I poked my flashlight beam around intermittently but couldn't spot anything. Needless to say I picked up pace. A moment later I heard more sounds and immediately looked around to see a pack of possums climbing the trees right next to me and behind me. They paced me for a bit but got annoyed with my flashlight and left me alone. |
The Redskins bypassed the expensive talent, knowing they needed more than one or two players. So they opted to rebuild their 3-13 roster a different way: by adding depth. Naturally, that pleased their coach.
Jay Gruden sees a roster that’s already improved. Yes, he should say that regardless.
Coach Jay Gruden said he's pleased with how the Redskins have added depth at inside linebacker. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
“We’ve made a lot of progress as far as our team’s concerned with free agency,” he said. “The big thing with free agency was we needed some players to help our depth.
“Obviously, we wanted to get everybody, but you have to have a plan of attack. You have to circle certain guys or a position and really go after it and come out of free agency with something because there’s no guarantee that you can get even the top guy that you have as a priority. So, I think we did a great job and I’m happy where we’re at.”
They obviously added an interior pass-rusher in Jason Hatcher and three inside linebackers (two of whom, Darryl Sharpton and Akeem Jordan, will compete for the starting job).
“We attacked very well,” Gruden said of that position. “We answered that [inside linebacker position]. We added some good players and it’s going to be a very competitive position in training camp.”
Those moves provided Washington help on special teams, giving them a key for any good unit: bigger guys who can run. All three have carved out careers because of their work there, even when they’ve started. The Redskins lacked enough players like this a year ago and the results showed. They still need to work on this area at safety. When you have good safety and linebacker depth, special teams benefits.
They’ve also added offensive line depth, with Shawn Lauvao, who will start at left guard, and Mike McGlynn, who gives them an experienced backup.
“Some of the marquee guys just got a lot of money, and good for them,” Gruden said. “We needed more quantity as opposed to just one guy at a huge price. I think we went about it the right way.”
While there were rumblings in some circles that the stain of Washington’s finish, and the drama surrounding it, was an issue for some free agents, Gruden said it wasn’t for those they met.
They’re still awaiting word from receiver Kenny Britt and safety Ryan Clark. Both visited; both remain possibilities. Tight end Owen Daniels also visited, but it does not appear anything is imminent with him. Gruden said he knows how players are eventually lured somewhere.
“This is a heck of a franchise, but when it’s all said and done it’s usually about the money -- usually,” Gruden said. “There are some teams I wouldn’t think would get any players. It wasn’t an issue, really. The type of players we have in place with DeAngelo Hall and [Brian] Orakpo and Robert [Griffin III] and Pierre Garcon, this is an attractive franchise for players.” |
The woman featured in a controversial Belvedere Vodka ad showing what many believe to be date-rape imagery is suing the boozemaker for emotional distress and unlicensed use of her image, KTLA reports.
Alicyn Packard, a voiceover actress in Los Angeles, said in the suit that the image of her was stolen from an on-line video that her company, Strictly Viral Productions, produced, according to KTLA. Interpreted by many as depicting a rape in progress, the ad features a man grabbing and fondling Packard from behind, as panic overtakes her face. The tagline reads, "Unlike Some People, Belvedere Always Goes Down Smoothly."
The commercial sparked a severe viral backlash, with critics saying the ad made light of rape. Belevedere apologized and removed the ad from its Facebook page. But its parent company, Moet Hennessy USA, apparently has not reached out to Packard.
The Hollywood Reporter published part of the lawsuit:
"While Defendants have apologized to nearly everyone else, and admitted the offensiveness of the advertisement, they have yet to apologize to the plaintiff, whose image she says they used without permission to sell vodka, and who has now been unwillingly made the face of the Belvedere advertising campaign that jokes about rape, and has been put front and center in the worldwide controversy created by Defendants."
The show business trade journal said much of the suit is based on a California "publicity rights" law that prevents the unapproved use of a person's photo for promotional purposes.
The ad was apparently a screen grab of a comedy sketch that Packard did in which her character is forced by her mother to reenact a childhood moment. But to many viewers of the Belvedere ad, the moment became something else entirely. |
As crazy as the lyrics are, the music itself is a model of discipline. Stoner metal is slower than other metal subgenres, and the steady, bludgeoning cadence of ‘‘Dopesmoker’’ really does sound like pilgrims trudging through an unforgiving landscape. (It took me about 20 listens before I appreciated how seamlessly the time signature shifts between 4/4, 6/8 and 3/4, a neat aural analogue to the complications of walking on loose sand.) Playing slow music at a deafening volume while keeping accurate time is mentally and physically draining. Sleep managed to keep it up for more than an hour. They basically recorded the song live, incorporating musical breaks every 16 minutes or so to accommodate the time limits of analog tapes. The physical constraints of the recording medium are probably the only thing that kept the arms of the drummer, Chris Hakius, from falling off.
‘‘Dopesmoker’’ is also really, really heavy: There’s a chord struck about 20 minutes in, after the song’s first guitar solo, that sounds like an avalanche having an orgasm. The guitarist Matt Pike tuned his instrument down two whole steps, to C, and the weight and sustain of that low C is mesmerizing; Pike returns to it again and again over the course of the song, a total of 1,818 times by my count. According to Billy Anderson, the recording engineer, the guitar tracks were recorded three separate times to thicken the sound, using custom-built amps so powerful that it wasn’t possible to stand in the same room with them. Each amp was recorded with seven or eight microphones, which gives you a sense of the dedication required to create something so loud.
The record’s sonic and spiritual heft is supplied in large part by the bassist and singer, Al Cisneros, who delivers the lyrics in a sort of roaring plainsong. The vast stretches of homorhythm — in which the guitar, bass and drums match individual syllables of the droning lyrics — create the sort of ominous ascetic feeling that I associate with chanting the Great Litany from my childhood in the Episcopal Church. Maybe this is where I should mention that the song’s original title was ‘‘Jerusalem’’ and that an early member of Sleep became a monk after quitting the band. If I’m really being honest, I should also admit that I experience the final few measures of ‘‘Dopesmoker’’ with the same exhausted, guilty relief I remember from the closing moments of a church service.
Was this music designed to be sacred someday? The essence of heavy metal is discipline in service of the preposterous. At its best, the genre solemnizes the impulses of adolescence. Couple this with the stoner’s habit of uncovering deep truths in whatever’s at hand and you might understand why Sleep’s magnum dopus can actually feel profound. For an atheist who misses the liturgical solemnity and theological strangeness of High Church, ‘‘Dopesmoker’’ delivers the next best thing. It reminds me of the heaviness of purpose required to chase the feather-light glee of the sacred.
Or, as Pike once said: ‘‘We were just a bunch of massive stoners trying to do something that no one else had done.’’ Religions have been founded on less. |
When President Abraham Lincoln in May 1861 issued the call for volunteers to serve in the Union army for a three year term, one of those who tried to answer was Ohio resident John Clem. Not yet 10 years old, Clem’s service was refused by the newly formed 3rd Ohio. Undeterred, Clem later tried to join the 22nd Michigan, where his persistence won over the unit’s officers. They agreed to let him follow the regiment, adopting him as a mascot and unofficial drummer boy. The officers also chipped in to pay his monthly salary of $13 before he finally was allowed to officially enlist in 1863.
Clem became a national celebrity for his actions at Chickamauga. Armed with a musket sawed down for him to carry, Clem joined the 22nd Michigan in the defense of Horseshoe Ridge on the afternoon of September 20. As the Confederate forces surrounded the unit, a Confederate colonel spotted Clem and shouted either “I think the best thing a mite of a chap like you can do is drop that gun” or called him a “damned little Yankee devil,” according to various sources. Rather than surrender, Clem shot the colonel and successfully made his way back to Union lines. For his actions, Clem was promoted to sergeant, the youngest soldier ever to become a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army, and became known as the “Drummer Boy of Chickamauga.”
Clem’s legend grew following the battle, although some stories may be apocryphal. One holds that his drum was destroyed at the Battle of Shiloh, earning him the nickname “Johnny Shiloh” and serving as inspiration for the song, “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh.” However, the 22nd Michigan, Clem’s unit, was not mustered until the summer after the Battle of Shiloh, making it unlikely Clem saw action in the battle with that regiment.
Clem went on to fight at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Kennesaw and Atlanta, where he was wounded twice. Clem was discharged from the Army in 1864 at age 13, but sought to rejoin the military in 1870. Nominated to West Point by President Ulysses S. Grant, Clem failed the entrance exam several times before Grant appointed him a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Clem enjoyed a successful second military career, rising to the rank of colonel and assistant quartermaster general by 1906. He retired on the eve of U.S. entry into World War I with the rank of major general, the last Civil War veteran to actively serve in the U.S. Army. Clem died in 1937 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery |
August 15, 2017
2017-08-15T15:58:26-04:00
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President Trump answered questions from reporters on the violence that occurred at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous weekend. When asked why he waited two days to specifically condemn white supremacist groups and Nazis, he responded “....before I make a statement, I like to know the facts.” He also criticized what he described as “alt-left” groups and said there was “blame on both sides” and said not all of the people at the rally were neo-Nazis or white nationalists.
At the start of the press conference, the president announced he signed an executive order that aims to streamline the federal permitting process for infrastructure projects.
President Trump answered questions from reporters on the violence that occurred at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the previous weekend. When asked why he waited two… read more |
Indonesia pledges $1m to flood appeal
Posted
The Indonesian government is donating $1 million to Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's disaster relief appeal.
Indonesia's foreign minister, Marty Natalegawa, says his government has been impressed by the resilience of the people of Queensland.
"We have been seeing with a great deal of admiration their resilience, the stoic way they have been confronting the obvious difficulties that they are confronting," he said.
"We would like to assure the people of Queensland, the people of Australia, that we know what these situations are like and and if there is any other way that we can be of help, please let us know."
Mr Natalegawa says he hopes the "modest sum" will help affected residents recover.
"No doubt there will be a long-term impact in terms of crops, in terms of business losses and there will be financial consequences to all this," he said.
"But you can rely on Indonesia to be with Australia in this very difficult time."
Topics: floods, disasters-and-accidents, brisbane-4000, australia, qld, ipswich-4305, indonesia |
The complete skeleton of an 8-meter-long dinosaur has been unearthed from marine deposits dating back 72 million years at Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, making it the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Japan, according to researchers.
Excavations to uncover a fossilized duck-billed dinosaur (Hadrosauridae) in the Hobetsu district of Mukawa Town have been underway since 2013. It is the third time a complete skeleton of a Hadrosaurid from a marine stratum has ever been discovered, according to the research team from Hokkaido University and Hobetsu Museum in Mukawa.
Hadrosaurids, or duck-billed dinosaurs, were common herbivores during the Late Cretaceous Period (about 100 million to 66 million years ago) and thrived on the Eurasian, North and South American continents as well as at Antarctica. Complete hadrosaur skeletons have been unearthed on these continents, but it is extremely rare for a complete skeleton of a land dinosaur to be discovered in a marine stratum.
In 1936, a complete hadrosaur skeleton was unearthed from a marine stratum in Sakhalin and named Nipponosaurus by Professor Takumi Nagao of Hokkaido Imperial University (predecessor of Hokkaido University). It had been the only such fossilized dinosaur from a marine stratum that was assigned a name. The latest discovery of the fossilized skeleton, nicknamed "Mukawaryu" (Mukawa dragon), represents the third such discovery in the world, including a complete skeleton of an undescribed specimen.
If a complete skeleton is defined as a skeleton containing more than 50 percent of the bones, Mukawaryu represents the second complete dinosaur skeleton unearthed in Japan after Fukuivenator, a 2.5-meter carnivore from the Early Cretaceous Period (about 145 million to 100 million years ago) discovered in Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture. Mukawaryu is the first complete skeleton of a herbivore from the Late Cretaceous Period and from a marine stratum in Japan.
Dr. Yoshitsugu Kobayashi of the research team said "We first discovered a part of the fossilized Mukawaryu skeleton in 2013, and after a series of excavations, we believe we have cleaned more than half of the bones the dinosaur had, making it clear that it is a complete skeleton."
There are more than 50 kinds of dinosaurs in the hadrosaurid dinosaurs, which is grouped into two groups: uncrested (Hadrosaurinae) and crested members (Lambeosaurinae). "Although Mukawaryu has some characteristics of both groups, our preliminary analysis indicated it might belong to the Hadrosaurinae. Further cleaning of the fossils and detailed research should make it clearer which group the Mukawaryu skeleton belongs to," says Kobayashi. |
Today, the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes video game PC demo became available for the public. I spent some time playing it and also doing a recording of the gameplay. My laptop isn’t specced for gaming so there might be a little lag in the video. The controls I used were the default ones.
The beginning cutscene “shows” unknown being eating the LEGO, Marvel, WB Games, and the Telltale logos after they blown up. After he finishes eating, he tells the Silver Surfer to find him something else to eat. The game starts off with the Sandman and the Abomination taking over Sand Station Central and wanting the Cosmic Bricks. Iron Man comes into the action along with the Hulk. Throughout the demo, you can the hear some voiceovers from Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson. Initally, you take control of the Hulk and Iron Man. You can switch between the two by pressing (U). Each character has an Action/Attack (H), Jump (J), and a Special Move (K). The Hulk’s moves are pretty simple. He just smashes stuff and even yells the phrase when you do a jump attack. You can even do the move he did to Loki in the Avengers movie where he flings him around. I must say that it is pretty spot on. You can do that move by getting close to an enemy and pressing Action/Attack (H). There’s also a cool animation where he punts the minion away. By pressing his Special (K), he can pick up things and toss them by subsequently pressing H. Finally, he can turn back in Bruce Banner by pressing and holding (U) and vice versa. The animation for that is pretty funny.
Iron Man also has some moves of his own. By pressing (H), you can fire some missiles at enemies or objects. By pressing and holding down (H), you can target many objects at once by using your directional pad and let go of the Action button to fire the missiles. You can do his Unibeam by pressing and holding down his Special button (K) to charge up and release to fire. Iron Man is also able to fly by tapping Jump (J) once and tap again to have him floating around. To land, just tap (K) twice.
During the stage, you have to destroy taxi cabs and barricades and collect coins to get to Abomination. There are also some sand enemies that will get in your way but they are pretty easy to defeat. By collecting enough coins to fill up the bar at the top middle of the screen, you will earn the title “True Believer.” Like with other LEGO games, you also have to do some puzzles to reach certain checkpoints. There are times where you have to use the Hulk to pull things by pressing his Special (K) but I’ve had some issues with that. It would tell you to pressing the button repeatedly but when I do that, he would let go and I would have to start over. You can see my issue in a few parts of the video. I’m not sure if it was just me or if others have that same problem. Once you reach Abomination, you fight him by pressing certain button and it was pretty hilarious when Hulk used Abominations hand to hit himself.
After you’ve defeated Abomination, you reach the second part of the demo where you try to get to Sandman at the end. Again, there are puzzles and obstacles to get through as well as more of the sand minions to fight off. In the end of this part, you reach Sandman’s “castle” and do another puzzle to get through the gate but before you do, you’re swept away to the roof.
The final part of the demo, you are on the roof where the Sandman is terrorizing Stark Tower up above. In this area, Spider-Man joins the action with his web-slinging abilities. Let’s describe some of his moves shall we? By pressing the Action (H) button, he can shoot web bolts at objects. By pressing his Special (K), he does his Spider Sense ability where it allows him to see hidden objects. You have to use it a few times by the end of the demo. Spider-Man is also able to swing on his web by pressing Jump (J) twice. Make your way through a few more puzzles to weaken Sandman and use the Hulk to deliver the final blow.
In the ending cutscene, workers are cleaning up the area and Nick Fury with Agent Coulson show up to apprehend Sandman and Abomination. They also have workers taking away the Cosmic Brick to the Fantastic Four’s lab for analysis. They don’t know who’s behind the whole operation but Fury orders Iron Man to get back to stark Tower to get some answers.
Overall, the demo for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes was really fun despite the lag I got from my computer. The animations were fantastic and the controls weren’t bad except for that one little issue with the Hulk pulling things. Check out my gameplay video below to get a feel of how the game will be. It took me about 40 minutes to complete so there’s plenty to do in the amount of demo given. Although it was pretty linear, there will be open-world play later on in the game. You can try out LEGO Marvel Super Heroes for yourself by downloading the demo from LEGO. You can still pre-order the game from Walmart , Gamestop , and on Amazon . The game will be released next Tuesday, October 22nd for all systems except for the Nintendo Wii. Now that I’ve tried the demo, I can’t wait to play the full game while relaxing in front of the TV. If you’ve tried the demo, let me know in the comments what you think of it. |
People sometimes ask us what regulations govern the League of Legends community. While we do have a discrete list of rules, there's a lot more to being a positive force in the community than adhering to the legal ease set down in our Terms of Service. We believe that there are things that separate a great player from one who is mostly concerned with not violating the TOS. And you may be surprised to find out that we believe what makes a player great doesn't have anything to do with your summoner level, win/loss ratio, or Elo rating. What makes a great player is the willingness to take responsibility for ensuring that he and his fellow players have a good time.
And so, in response to this request for leadership, we here at Riot Games have set down a few guidelines for becoming one of these great players. May I present, The Summoner's Code (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code)! Henceforth, these nine patterns of behavior shall be the creed that governs all League of Legends players as you continue to fight the good fight out there on the Field of Justice:
Support your Team ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#1 )
) Drive Constructive Feedback ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#2 )
) Facilitate Civil Discussion ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#3 )
) Enjoy Yourself, but not at Anyone Elses Expense ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#4 )
) Build Relationships ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#5 )
) Show Humility in Victory, and Grace in Defeat ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#6 )
) Be Resolute, not Indignant ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#7 )
) Leave No Newbie Behind! ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#8 )
) Lead by Example ( http://www.leagueoflegends.com/articles/The_Summoners_Code#9 )
So, while you're out vying for supremacy with your fellow Runeterrans, remember to always keep to the Code! |
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The owners of a family-run takeaway store that burnt down have vowed to return after a poll found it was the most popular fish and chip shop in Ballarat. Speaking on behalf of his parents, Charlie Zhe said they were doing the best they could after receiving the shock news the Fair Dinkum fish and chip shop had been gutted in a suspicious fire along Doveton Street North on Friday. “It hasn’t been long since we took over this shop and it has been great,” he said. “Thanks to all of our customers who supported us during the past months. “We are glad to announce that we will be staying and will rebuild a brand new shop with our property owner as soon as possible, so please don't forget us over the next few months.” The big fire, which took four CFA trucks to contain in over half an hour, came on the same day The Courier conducted a survey into who did the best fish and chips in Ballarat. Fair Dinkum scraped to victory with 229 votes, closely followed by the Arch on Sturt Street with 226 votes and Pleasant Street Take Away on 212 votes. CHECK OUT THE TOP 10 HERE AS VOTED BY YOU Charlie, whose family lives in Bacchus Marsh where they used to run George’s fish and chip shop, said their landlord in Ballarat planned on rebuilding as soon as possible. The 17-year-old said his family received a phone call from emergency workers late on Friday informing them about the fire about 11pm. “It was quite a shock,” he said. “I was about to get in bed in Bacchus and we got a call saying your shop is on fire. It is quite sad, but we’re still keeping it together.” Arson squad detectives were yet to determine the cause of the blaze. They were investigating possible links to a man who witnesses claim threw an object through a window of the shop before it burst into flames. But it had not been determined if it was an incendiary object or if it was responsible for the fire. Building owner Greg Parry had previously said Charlie’s family had turned the business into a popular fish and chip shop since they took over nine months ago. “It is pretty disappointing, especially for the tenants,” he said. “It was a good fish and chip shop, but we will rebuild. “They’ve invested a significant amount and I’d say they’d want to rebuild it too.” The weatherboard structure was heavily damaged but its brick facade still stood. The fire came a week after the Lake Wendouree Adventure Playground was defaced in an arson attack. Anyone with information about Friday night’s fire is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential crime report to crimestoppersvic.com.au. VIEW THE FULL RESULTS HERE
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When you think about it it's really sort of a minor error, a plane crashing into the side of the mountain. A million things had to go right to make it possible: the plane had to be built by hundreds of skilled workers, drawing on the technical innovations of literal centuries to produce a colossal metal marvel that astounds casual observers even today. Materials had to be extracted and refined to exacting specifications, plans had to be developed and then edited, remade and edited again until they were nothing short of perfect. A crew had to go through collective thousands of hours of training, workers on the ground had to ensure that every single aspect of the machine was in working order and a national infrastructure of airports and traffic control had to exist to get the plane into the air in the first place. All of that had to go right before the thing even began, before this staggering technical achievement could achieve anything approximating success or failure. And when you think of it that way, the fact that someone may have steered the thing into a sheer rock face instead of open sky seems academic at best.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 feels a little bit like this.
This game is the sort of monumental achievement that could only have come out of the modern AAA studio system, with all the attendant wonder and pain that comes along with that. It is dripping with gorgeous visuals, stunning vistas, excellent sound design and moments of genuinely exciting gameplay. It is also crippled by a series of wrongheaded high-level decisions that have all but ensured that the incredible amount of toil and talent that went into making a game of this scale would inevitably be misfired, careening off into mediocrity with the open skies of brilliance just in its peripheral vision.
The job here was relatively straightforward, at least conceptually. Star Wars Battlefront was a commercially successful game that managed to combine the best Star Wars visuals ever seen outside of a movie with fun, accessible gameplay, making for an approachable experience that still gave the player a chance to feel like they were genuinely part of an epic Star Wars battle. We had Star Destroyers looming overhead, skies crossed with green and red laser fire, Stormtroopers bumbling on the ground, a stirring orchestral score, colossal weapons of war both futuristic and terrifyingly mechanical: etc. But where it succeeded in a general feeling it lacked in content and was roundly criticized for launching with a dearth of maps, modes and challenges and no single-player content to speak of. That was the challenge: make Star Wars Battlefront, just more of it.
And boy, did they try. This game is just dripping with more in every aspect of its gameplay but in that translation DICE has lost control over the simple fun that made Star Wars Battlefront such a blast. Everything is more complicated, everything is more detailed, everything is more involved, everything is worse. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a gorgeous game marked by technical skill and occasional aesthetic brilliance, bringing decades of Star Wars stories to life in a way we've never seen before. But Star Wars Battlefront 2 is also a bad game.
A Mess of Multiplayer
Multiplayer is where Star Wars Battlefront 2 wants you to spend most of your time, and Multiplayer is where you will encounter most of this game's dizzying smorgasbord of systems and concepts. To start out with, you can now choose between five troopers in a match: Assault, Heavy, Specialist, and Officer. Essentially it's standard, machine gun, sniper and support. They're all classes that feel defined by their weaknesses rather than their strengths, especially at the beginning of the game when none of them have the Star Cards they need to compete -- more on that later. Heavy is slow, Specialist is squishy, Officer is confusing and Assault is just sort of lame. The game spawns you in with a squad of up to five players and tells you to stick together. Everyone just runs off on their own anyway.
We have five modes: a 20 vs. 20 "Galactic Assault," a 12 vs. 12 "Strike," a deathmatch-style "Blast," a "Heroes vs. Villians" which casts all the players as iconic characters and a "Starfighter Assault" which allows you to take to the skies. They've all got their problems.
Star Wars Battlefront was defined by Walker Assault, a progressive battle that saw the rebellion trying to attack two massive At-At's lumbering across a grand, linear map. Walker Assault was divided into two phases: in the first, rebels tried to control uplink terminals to allow Y-Wings to lock on and attack the Walkers. The longer they did this, the more Y-Wings they got. Then, the Y-Wing attacks would make the Walkers vulnerable for a limited time, during which the Rebels would unload with everything they had and the Empire would try to slow them down. The AT-ATs would move to a different area, and the match would do this for three rounds. It gave each map a wonderful sense of rhythm and narrative, and I maintain it's the best large-scale multiplayer mode I've ever played.
There's nothing like this here.
Galactic Assault, like Walker Assault, tasks the teams with a set of three progressive objective sets, ranging from zone control to bomb planting to a mode that almost looks like attacking a big, grand AT-AT but doesn't have any of the structural brilliance of Walker Assault. Most of the time you just hurl yourself at one objective and then either give up or move on to hurling yourself at another. At some point, the match ends. None of the maps have quite the drama of any of the maps I remember from Battlefront, and they don't come loaded with environmental effects both visual and auditory like Battlefront had. Battlefront often felt like you were genuinely a single small trooper in a massive battle between good and evil: matches in Battlefront 2 feel quiet, perfunctory and game-like instead.
Most of these modes are crippled by a system of death tickets: the attacking team only gets to die a certain number of times, after which the match is over. It ensures cautious play, punishes inexperienced players and causes every match to wind down anti-climactically rather than ending in a final, blazing last stand. It feels like a small feature, but it's hard to overstate how it comes to define nearly every mode in the game. Again, this is the airplane from the beginning here: if only they had pointed this thing a hair to the right, we might not be having this conversation.
On top of this, we've now got Battle Points, which players use to unlock more powerful characters, including supercharged Jedi or Sith heroes. Everything you do in the game earns you these points, and you can cash them in for a vehicle, an improved trooper or a hero at your next respawn. It means that not only will weaker players never get to use the exciting characters from Star Wars that they bought the game for, and it also ensures that the heroes bouncing around a game killing everyone will inevitably be controlled by the strongest players in the match. It's already frustrating when you, a lowly Assault Trooper, get cut to ribbons by a tiny little Yoda ripping through you and your allies. It's even more frustrating when it happens constantly for minutes at a time because the player on the other end has plenty of both practice and skill, and you don't stand a chance under any circumstances. And it's ultimately the most frustrating when you know you'll never get the chance to return the favor.
This is even true of lower level Wookie Warriors and Rocket Troopers, which have a way of dominating the smaller-scale strike mode. If you find yourself up against one as a standard trooper, you'll most likely just die unless you manage some impressive moves, and if you could manage said moves you probably wouldn't be stuck as a standard trooper anyways. Battlefront handled powered-up characters with random pickups, which lent both an arcade charm and egalitarian sensibility to a system that now feels wrought and frustrating.
You could theoretically play as a hero in the Heroes vs. Villains mode, but a great way to axe that particular power fantasy is to run headlong in a powered up Boba Fett raining rockets down on you. Heroes vs. Villains is a perfectly fine diversion, but it's too unfocused and crazy to have much fun with.
Starfighter Assault is the game's biggest multiplayer addition from its predecessor, and at times it can actually feel like the most successful new feature here. It takes the large-scale conflict concept of Galactic Assault and applies it to space battles, with teams typically completing to destroy or defend some major capital ship or Space Station. It has a wonderful feel to it: the first time you wind up in a Tie Fighter you're enraptured with how it screams across the black, tracking down and nailing human and AI players with ruthless efficiency. But early excitement gives way in no time because there's just so little depth of control here. If another player -- let alone a hero character -- winds up on your tail or locks onto you with a missile, there's very little you can do aside from die and then fly right back into the fight, hoping to be on the other side of six o'clock for at least a little while. We have no barrel rolls or loop de loops which would allow for genuine evasive maneuvering, and as a result, it can feel like there's just not enough there to generate actually exciting dogfights.
Nothing here finds its groove, nothing here feels like it rewards you with a fun match on its own merit. It mostly serves to funnel you to the progression system which, well. Let's talk about that now.
Road To Nowhere
The progression system has drawn much of the Internet's ire in the days leading up to release, and for good reason. It revolves around upgrades called Star Cards, and there's a helpful video on the game's welcome screen that asks "What Are Star Cards?" Hint: if your system needs this explained, you're already in trouble. Essentially, Star Cards are bonuses that can greatly increase your character's combat capabilities, and you level up your individual character classes by getting more of them. You get them through randomized loot boxes, which you buy with credits, which you get from completing matches and challenges. You can also craft them with crafting parts, which you sometimes get from said loot boxes. The more Star Cards an individual character class has, the higher its level becomes, allowing you to equip more and more powerful Star Cards.
Before launch, loot boxes could also be purchased with real money, but EA has disabled that feature and promised to bring it back at a later date.
If it sounds bad in theory, it's even worse in practice. First off is the very basic concept of wide-ranging upgrades that make your characters more powerful, meaning that you're thrown into your first matches as an underpowered weakling with better-equipped players blasting you into oblivion whenever you come up against them. The game helpfully shows you which Star Cards a player that killed you was packing, and inevitably. It makes upgrading difficult because your success is always going to be hampered against high-level players, and it means that your first moments in the game's signature multiplayer are little more than a suggestion of how things might be fun at some point in the future. You can sort of imagine how there might be fun somewhere down the road, but the road is long and paved with constant death.
Then there's the actual process of upgrading. Randomized loot boxes mean you have no control over which upgrades you actually receive, and so you might play six matches as an Assault trooper and wind up with literally no cards with which to upgrade your Assault Trooper. You can mitigate this to some degree with crafting parts, but their efficacy is pretty limited compared to random drops. And because cards apply to every single type of character you might be playing -- heroes, vehicles, troopers and starfighters -- it means that you might, like me, wind up sitting on a ton of cards for the hero character Rey even though I'm likely to never use her because my normal troopers aren't strong enough to earn her in a match.
Weapons are a different matter entirely: each class starts with one weapon and can unlock more by earning a certain number of kills with that weapon, and good luck if you're no good with the starting weapon. Things here, and things everywhere, are slow and tedious.
Players were angry that you could also buy progress with real money, but temporarily removing microtransactions does nothing to mitigate the long, capricious and unrewarding grind that is leveling up in this game right now, nor does it do anything to address the obvious balance problems that come along with it. Most multiplayer shooters either make sure to dole out theoretically top-tier rewards very quickly or limit upgrades to cosmetics: this is why.
A Campaign, For What It's Worth
The campaign has a strange way of feeling like an afterthought next to the other modes despite the obviously massive investment of time and energy that went into creating it. For the most part we play as Iden Versio, an elite Imperial Soldier who traipses across the Galaxy having a crisis of conscience in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. Like multiplayer, it's best defined by its aesthetics: we have some truly striking visions of the Star Wars universe both otherworldly and all too real, all of it set to the stirring Star Wars music that this game nails to a T. And unlike multiplayer, which uses music cues sparingly to create long stretches of awkward silence, the campaign gives us a much more consistent sense of drama, at least where sight and sound are concerned.
But aside from that, the campaign never progresses beyond competence. Nothing is entirely terrible: Versio is a surprisingly charming character, the Empire is scenery-chewing evil, and there are even some nice moments of dialogue from characters both new and old -- I laughed once or twice, which is more than most games can claim. But the entire experience is so disjointed that it can barely ever find a groove to make the player care. Versio's story is more or less abandoned to allow us to bounce around playing as different hero characters, at times swinging so far from the original storyline that missions can feel more small-scale vignettes along the lines of Battlefield 1. It mostly careens into fan service, or at least a version of fan service that imagines fans have been clamoring to watch Luke whack beetles with a lightsaber for five to ten minutes.
This is true of gameplay too: rarely do we move past blasting a couple enemies in a relatively confined space as we poke along through one environment after the other. We take extended breaks for starship action, which fare a little better for the solid flight controls, but they too wear thin after we've blasted our way through a couple of dozen unremarkable Tie Fighters. While one moment with an AT-AT does stand out, for the most part the campaign serves to allow the player to use the toys of multiplayer in a much more controlled environment. That environment, unfortunately, feels so controlled as to be something like the intergalactic equivalent of a Stormtrooper petting zoo.
There are moments when the storytelling feels like it's on to something, particularly in an earlier scene where Versio pilots a Tie Fighter through the wreckage of the Death Star and the player is forced to confront the actual human toll of what we saw only as a victory in the movies. These moments are abandoned in no time, and we're left with a serviceable if forgettable device for shuttling the player from one moment to the next. The campaign does not carry with it most of the frustrations of multiplayer, and so it stands out in this game for at least allowing you to set goals and accomplish them, if not for much else.
Misfire
There is no joy in the failure of Star Wars Battlefront 2. It is a game that manages to excise both the fun and the drama from the original game for something that feels like far more but far less. It is larger but less grand, more detailed but more opaque, deeper on one level but far more ponderous on another. It is successful neither as a Battlefield-style online shooter nor as an approachable arcade experience. That your time with this game is defined by a byzantine and oppressive progression system does not help, nor does the ever-present specter of microtransactions sure to return soon. But this would not be a successful game even if these problems were solved. Star Wars Battlefront 2 is the prequel trilogy: overwrought and complicated, with none of the heart that drew us here in the first place.
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Developer: DICE
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: EA
Release Date: November 17, 2017
Price: $59.99
Score: 5/10
A review code was provided for the purpose of this review. |
India Mulling Introduction Of Tax Incentives For Residential Solar
June 25th, 2014 by James Ayre
The country’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently put forward a proposal for the introduction of tax incentives for residential rooftop solar installations. The Ministry of Finance is expected to reach a decision on the proposal sometime before the end of the summer.
Image Credit: India flag via Shutterstock
Given that there are currently no tax breaks available to residential solar energy system owners, the move by the Ministry is one that could have a notable effect — potentially spurring significant growth in distributed solar generation capacity, as is the MNRE’s aim.
As Bridge To India notes, this proposed income tax incentive is not output-related and is based entirely on the investment made — potentially leading to poorly constructed systems.
Such tax incentives tend to incentivise short term decisions rather than the longer term investment approach befitting a long-lasting renewable energy installation. The Indian wind sector has grappled with this challenge. The second is that such tax benefits depend on the investor’s ability to absorb tax benefits and are not available to all investors thereby distorting the market. Why not decouple the tax benefit from the investment in the same way that, say a carbon credit or a renewable energy certificate can be traded independently of the power output? That would attract professional, financial investors who want to develop solar projects in special purpose vehicles which cannot utilise income tax or accelerated depreciation incentives. They are expected to be better at developing, financing and operating solar power plants because of their ability to bundle projects and their greater focus on quality and experience. This would drive down the cost of solar and create a level playing field.
Good points. Honestly, though, any incentives would be a big improvement over the current state of affairs.
In related news, India’s installed solar capacity just recently crossed the 2.5 GW milestone (during the month of May). Growth hasn’t been common to all of the country’s regions, though. Nearly all of the capacity installed to date (70%) can be found in the deserts of the western states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. And nearly all of it is via large utility-scale projects — a situation that the (potential) new residential incentives can address. |
Update: On July 31, UK Home Secretary Theresa May announced that the initial decision to issue a 20-day visa to Ai would be reversed, and that he would be issued the six-month visa for which he originally applied.
In a gesture of either craven capitulation to Beijing or inexcusable ignorance, UK immigration officials have denied a six-month business visa to the Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei on the grounds that he failed to declare “a criminal conviction in China.”
Instead, he has been granted only 20 days’ stay through late September. It is hard to escape the conclusion that this decision is political, linked to Chinese President Xi Jinping scheduled visit to the UK shortly thereafter.
It’s not clear what the UK officials are referring to, given that Ai Weiwei has no criminal conviction in China. According to Ai, the UK Visas and Immigration Department referred in their correspondence with him to “news about Ai's secret detention by the Chinese authorities in 2011 and the tax case for Fake Design.”
Expand Chinese artist and outspoken critic Ai Weiwei unveils his installation at the Tate Modern Museum in London on October 11, 2010. © 2010 Getty Images But this suggests that the UK is accepting China’s hopelessly politicized judicial system as legitimate. Ai was secretly and unlawfully held by the Chinese government in 2011 for 81 days, during which he was denied access to a lawyer. The tax case refers to the authorities’ order for Ai’s company (not Ai himself), Beijing Fake Cultural Development Limited, to repay taxes it allegedly evaded. Throughout this ordeal, Ai was never formally charged or convicted. China’s actions against him are clearly motivated by Ai’s activism on human rights issues, including his efforts to secure accountability for the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
When reached by the press, the spokesperson for the Home Office failed to address the controversy, insisting that Ai’s application has been “considered… in line with the relevant legislation.” Presumably coincidentally, this is a phrase Chinese officials frequently use to justify serious human rights violations.
If the UK Visas and Immigration Department has any other evidence to bolster its decision over Ai’s visa, it should show it now. Otherwise, it should immediately reverse this decision, based as it is on a false premise. Ai and his lawyer are both adamant he does not have any criminal convictions, and the Chinese authorities have never contradicted him.
The UK welcomes scores of senior Chinese government officials - many of them implicated in human rights abuses. To deny comparable access to a peaceful critic of Chinese autocracy and repression, and do so on the basis of flawed Chinese judicial procedures, is inexcusable. |
The White House's official Twitter account sent out a message Monday highlighting comments by FBI Director James Comey, saying the remarks showed former President Obama and his staff may have known the FBI was listening in on former national security adviser Michael Flynn's calls with Russian officials.
"FBI Director Comey refuses to deny he briefed President Obama on calls made by Michael Flynn to Russia," the tweet posted to the official @POTUS account read.
The tweet included a video from Monday's hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election of Rep. Trey Gowdy Harold (Trey) Watson GowdyThe family secret Bruce Ohr told Rod Rosenstein about Russia case Trey Gowdy joins Fox News as a contributor Congress must take the next steps on federal criminal justice reforms MORE (R-S.C.) asking Comey whether he had briefed Obama on the Flynn calls.
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Records of the calls ran counter to statements Flynn had made about not having communicated with Russia — including comments Flynn made to Vice President Pence. Flynn eventually resigned as President Trump's national security adviser.
Though it's unclear exactly what the purpose of the tweet is, it appears to be accusing the former president of being responsible for leaking information on the phone calls to the press, whether intentionally or unintentionally, if a staff member was behind the leaks.
Trump often prefers to tweet more inflammatory things from his personal account, but @POTUS posted a series of tweets about today's House Intelligence Committee hearing featuring testimony by Comey.
At the hearing, Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers acknowledged a variety of other people at least had access to the information, including many outside the office of the president. |
In the first instalment of a series on the threat of water scarcity, Pilita Clark reveals the cost to companies
©EDF@Pascal Tournaire
The River Nar, a minor waterway about 100 miles north of London, is barely known to the average Briton. And at first glance, it is hard to understand why a brand-conscious company such as Coca-Cola would want to have anything to do with it.
Some of the Nar bears an unhappy resemblance to a ditch, thanks to decades of re-routing that have left it so straight and narrow its murky waters can be crossed in a single step. Unlikely as it may seem in soggy Britain, it also suffers from a lack of water because outdated licensing rules have allowed it to become overused.
But the river is significant to Coca-Cola because it flows through an area that supplies a large chunk of the sugar beet the company uses to sweeten the drinks it sells in the UK. Fertiliser run-off from farms has contributed to the Nar’s troubles.
Coca-Cola knows that these sorts of problems can pose a risk to its business. Eleven years ago one of its bottling plants in India was subjected to angry protests over its impact on local water supplies and eventually closed. It has long insisted the accusations were unfair.
But since 2003 Coca-Cola and its bottlers have spent nearly $2bn to reduce their water use and improve water quality wherever they operate. That spending now extends to a sodden field next to the Nar, surrounded by clumps of stinging nettles and the odd goat, where the company recently paid for something very unusual to be done to improve the river. It gave £1.2m to the World Wildlife Fund conservation group, which has dug a winding channel to restore a straight stretch of the river back to a meandering version of its older, natural self.
“It’s definitely not your average conservation project,” says Rose O’Neill, WWF water programme manager, explaining that the scheme and other related work Coca-Cola has funded will help the river clean itself and tackle water scarcity.
Coke’s nearly $2bn in investments may sound big but in fact they are a small example of how much companies are starting to spend on water worldwide. Nearly 20 years after the World Bank began warning of a looming water crisis, the combination of a surging population, a growing global middle class and a changing climate is straining water supplies. For companies – from multinational corporations to small businesses – this amounts to higher costs for a resource that has long been taken for granted.
“The marginal cost of water is rising around the world,” says Christopher Gasson, publisher of Global Water Intelligence. “Previously, water was treated as a free raw material. Now, companies are realising it can damage their brand, their credibility, their credit rating and their insurance costs. That applies to a computer chipmaker and a food company as much as a power generator or a petrochemicals company.”
Examples of these costs abound:
● Nestlé, one of the world’s biggest food companies, set aside SFr38m ($43m) for water-saving and wastewater treatment facilities at its plants last year.
● In Australia a subsidiary of BG Group, the British oil and gas company, has launched a A$1bn ($938.7m) water monitoring and management system that will pipe treated water from its gasfields to boost water supplies for farmers and towns.
● Antero Resources, a US shale gas company, plans to spend $525m on a pipeline to carry water to its operations, boosting the reliability of its supplies.
● Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton have launched a $3bn desalination scheme in Chile that will pump treated seawater up 10,000ft to a jointly owned copper mine, cutting their use of fragile local water supplies.
● Ford, the carmaker, has built a $2.5m water treatment system at its Pretoria assembly plant in South Africa that is increasing water reuse up to 15 per cent. “We see it as definitely an emerging issue that we feel we need to address,” says John Viera, global head of sustainability.
● EDF, the French energy group, has spent €20m shifting a water intake tunnel for one of its hydropower plants in the French Alps because the glacier feeding the meltwater for its turbines retreated so much the old tunnel could no longer capture enough water. “Water management is not only a developing country issue,” says Claude Nahon, the company’s head of sustainable development.
Since 2011 companies have spent more than $84bn worldwide to improve the way they conserve, manage or obtain water, according to data from Global Water Intelligence, regulatory disclosures and executive interviews with the Financial Times.
The reasons for each investment differ. Some are driven by physical water shortages, others by new industrial processes requiring water in greater quantities or of higher quality. Other companies want to show customers they care about water conservation. Some are motivated by new environmental regulations requiring better wastewater treatment.
The $84bn figure is neither comprehensive nor easy to compare with past spending levels. This is because companies are generally not required to disclose capital or operating costs for water-conservation measures. While some businesses highlight water investments in their sustainability reports, relatively few disclose the price of such schemes.
The bottom line
Google, for example, declines to say how much it spent on a plant it has built at one of its data centres in the US state of Georgia, which enables it to use diverted sewer water to keep its servers cool. Nor has it disclosed how much it spends at a Belgian data centre that uses water from an industrial canal.
Previously, water was treated as a free raw material. Now, companies are realising it can damage their brand, their credibility, their credit rating and their insurance costs - Christopher Gasson, Global Water Intelligence publisher
Joe Kava, the company’s head of data centre operations, has warned that water is “the big elephant in the room” for tech companies, which can typically use hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day. “We’ve been focusing on power consumption and energy efficiency and that’s excellent,” he said in 2009. “I think the next thing we need to turn our attention to is what do we do about the looming water crisis?” As water becomes more scarce, data companies’ use of it could attract public scrutiny, he added, possibly resulting in regulations governing how much water they consume.
Google told the FT last week that its focus on water conservation means it now has a facility in Finland cooled entirely by seawater. It is also looking at using captured rainwater in South Carolina.
Regulation is a growing concern for many companies, which is a reason investors are starting to press for more disclosure about water risks.
Norway’s huge $890bn oil fund, the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, is one of several large investors urging companies to improve their reporting. It cites what Jan Thomsen, its chief risk officer, has described as “increasing water scarcity and adverse water-related events” that could affect its long-term returns.
The fund is one of 530 investors with $57tn in assets that work with the Carbon Disclosure Project, an international environmental charity. On behalf of those investors, CDP asks large companies each year to disclose the risks and opportunities water poses for their business. Last year 70 per cent of the 180 FTSE Global 500 companies that responded said water was a substantive risk to their business, up from 59 per cent in 2011.
A similar trend has emerged in the most recent edition of the World Economic Forum’s annual global risk survey of business executives and other leaders. Water supply crises were not rated among the five biggest concerns in terms of impact in any year up to 2011, but have been among the top three listed every year since 2012.
Water scarcity is no longer just a small, plant-level issue for companies but has become a strategic question for senior management, says Martin Stuchtey of McKinsey, the consultancy. “It’s capturing a larger part of the capital expenditure bill at many companies,” he says. The $550bn global water market – which covers everything from water treatment plants to pipelines – is expanding at about 3.5 per cent a year, he adds. But it is growing much faster in some industries: as high as 14 per cent a year for the oil and gas sector and 7 per cent for the food and beverages industry.
Mining matters
Those rising costs are most visible for one business sector: mining. The industry’s spending on water has increased from $3.4bn in 2009 to nearly $10bn in 2013 and is likely to exceed $12bn this year, according to Global Water Intelligence.
It says BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto’s $3bn desalination scheme for their Escondida copper mine in Chile was a record for an industry in which water infrastructure has traditionally accounted for about 10 per cent of a mine’s cost, but has recently reached as much as 30 per cent. At least seven other mining groups in the country have drawn up plans for smaller desalination plants worth a combined $1bn. Water scarcity is such a concern that Chilean legislators have been discussing a measure requiring miners to desalinate their water instead of drawing on local supplies.
More plants are also planned for mines in neighbouring Peru, where the industry has had its own version of Coca-Cola’s troubles in India: in 2011 the $1bn Tía María copper mining project run by US-based Southern Copper was halted after violent protests by farmers about its water use left three people dead. Other projects have been dogged by similar troubles.
Nonetheless, Rio Tinto, the junior partner in the Escondida mine, plays down suggestions that water shortages are an unmanageable financial problem. “We haven’t felt it as being a significant trend for the business, but it is a material risk that we are managing,” said Matthew Bateson, Rio Tinto’s global head of environment.
Still, some experts are less relaxed. “It’s plainly true that water scarcity is finally starting to bite financially,” says Andrew Metcalf, an investment analyst and author of a 2013 report for Moody’s, the credit rating agency, that was among the first to warn of the financial impacts water shortages have begun to pose for the mining industry.
Mr Metcalf believes miners are not the only ones at risk. “Regulators in markets where oil and gas groups, chemicals companies and others operate have massively tightened the rules, and thus costs of compliance, regarding water usage in the last three to five years,” he says. “In the past, companies could do a project and spend more money on water if a problem later arose. Now, they have to have a plan showing how they won’t affect local water supplies before they can start operating.”
Costs are likely to keep rising according to Mr Metcalf’s report, because 70 per cent of the six biggest global miners’ existing mines are in countries where water stress is rated as a high or moderate risk, along with two-thirds of projects being developed.
The result is “projects will take longer to complete, be costlier and riskier, with credit-negative implications for the entire industry”.
Managing water scarcity
One executive with little doubt about the rising costs of water is Peter Brabeck, chairman of Nestlé. He has been at the forefront of corporate efforts to draw attention to water scarcity, a problem he believes is still not taken as seriously as it needs to be. “Humankind is running out of water at an alarming pace,” he says. “We’re going to run out of water long before we run out of oil.”
Water scarcity is a far more pressing problem than climate change, he says, but receives much less political attention than it should. “We have a water crisis because we make wrong water-management decisions,” he says. “Climate change will further affect the water situation but even if the climate wouldn’t change, we have a water problem and this water problem is much more urgent.”
One reason water receives less attention is that, unlike global warming, there is no such thing as a global water crisis. Instead, there are a series of regional predicaments in a world where the distribution of fresh water is so lopsided that 60 per cent of it is found in just nine countries, including Brazil, the US and Canada, according to the UN.
Another reason the problem persists, insists Mr Brabeck, is that water is so undervalued that it is typically used inefficiently – and there is not enough investment to boost supplies.
As the chairman of a leading bottled water seller, whose brands include Perrier and Poland Spring, he has drawn fire for this view from activists opposed to any form of water privatisation. He also agrees the provision of water for drinking and basic needs is a human right. Still, Nestlé has taken an unusual approach to valuing water by introducing an internal “shadow price” for it that is used by the company when assessing proposals to buy new equipment to improve the efficiency of how water is used in its factories. The price is just over $1 per cubic metre for sites where there is abundant water and about $5 in drier spots.
Such a move makes good business sense for a company such as Nestlé. Its coffee, cereals and milk products sit on breakfast tables worldwide, meaning it has a global reputation to protect. It is also the 49th-biggest industrial consumer of water in the world, according to Global Water Intelligence.
That makes it far more vulnerable to customer boycotts than the biggest water consumer, China Guodian, a power generator, which has captive customers and is barely known outside its own country.
That vulnerability is one explanation for the water investments at many companies, not least Coca-Cola, which ranks as the 24th-biggest industrial consumer of water and is one of the world’s most recognisable brands. The closure of its bottling plant in India galvanised awareness of water risk at many drinks companies. “It was certainly something that had a lot of impact for us,” says Greg Koch, Coca-Cola’s director of global water stewardship. He adds that it showed the company needed an “emotional licence” to water, on top of regulatory permission. “I don’t mean emotional in a perjorative sense, like emotional baggage. I mean it in the sense that water is spiritual, it’s religious, it’s visceral, it’s daily. Everyone has a first memory of water; you don’t have a first memory of a carbon offset credit.”
Farms versus industry
For all the accusations of water hogging made against Coke or any other business, however, industry comes a very distant second to the world’s biggest water users: farmers.
Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of all water use compared with 22 per cent for industry and just 8 per cent for domestic users, says the UN.
These proportions vary by country but the problem water scarcity poses for businesses in many parts of the world is that shortages pit the two biggest users, farmers and factories, against each other.
In Iran, farmers last year smashed a pipeline they said was diverting water to factories in a nearby city. In Australia, farmers have formed a movement against coal seam gas drilling they claim will damage water supplies. And in India, which accounts for more than 30 per cent of the increase in global water withdrawals over the past 15 years, farmer protests over water have been aimed at companies ranging from coal-power generators to soft-drink makers. Another Coca-Cola bottler, this time in the north of India, was temporarily closed last month after local farmers complained about its water use.
The number of water-related conflicts reported worldwide has surged in the past 15 years, according to the Pacific Institute, a water research group. US intelligence officials have also raised concerns about the risk of conflict over water. “We assess that during the next 10 years, water problems will contribute to instability in states important to US national security interests,” said a 2012 intelligence report prepared for the US State Department.
That report highlighted the risk to global food markets from the rapid depletion of one crucial source: groundwater.
Just over 97 per cent of the world’s water is in its oceans. Of the 2.5 per cent that is fresh water, almost 70 per cent is locked away in glaciers and ice caps and about 1 per cent is in lakes, rivers and other surface water sources. The remaining 30 per cent is groundwater, some of it so ancient and hard to replace it is known as fossil water.
Drilling deep
Less than a century ago relatively little groundwater was used. But as the global population surged, driving up food demand, it led to a boom in extraction that began in a few countries such as Spain and the US but has now spread worldwide.
An estimated 2bn people rely on groundwater for drinking and irrigating crops but its use is often unregulated and poorly monitored. This means more is pumped out than can be replenished quickly when it rains.
In the US groundwater levels around California’s Central Valley farming area have been declining rapidly. Between 2003 and 2010, a volume of water almost equal to that in the country’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, was lost, according to a study led by Jay Famiglietti of the University of California who uses Nasa satellite data to monitor depletion.
In the Middle East, countries including Iran and Syria lost an amount almost equal to the Dead Sea over a similar period, mostly because of groundwater pumping.
But in terms of the severity of the depletion, northwestern India is the worst, says Prof Famiglietti. Water-hungry farms and rapid population growth mean that between 2002 and 2008, the region’s aquifers lost an amount of water nearly three times the maximum Lake Mead can hold.
Globally, pumping out so much groundwater has contributed to a “small but not trivial” increase in sea levels as the extracted water eventually makes its way to the oceans, according to Leonard Konikow of the US Geological Survey, a leading groundwater expert.
The politics of agriculture are such that no politician is ever going to remove subsidies for farmers, whether it’s in California or anywhere else - Scott Rickards, Waterfund founder
At the heart of the groundwater problem is a host of regulatory deficiencies that companies alone can do little to change, including subsidised water for impoverished farmers that governments are loath to touch. “The politics of agriculture are such that no politician is ever going to remove subsidies for farmers, whether it’s in California or anywhere else,” says Scott Rickards, founder of the US Waterfund group, which develops financial risk-management products for the water industry.
One company acutely aware of the dilemma is SABMiller, one of the world’s biggest brewers. It has paid millions of dollars to conserve and improve its own water supplies, including $6m to upgrade pipes and other equipment at one of its plants in Tanzania affected by deteriorating water quality. At another of its facilities in the Indian state of Rajasthan, however, groundwater is disappearing so fast it has become “quite a significant risk to the brewery”, says Andy Wales, the company’s head of sustainable development.
SABMiller has invested in several measures to boost supplies, and it replaces more water than it draws out every year. Still, “that’s not enough to solve the problem because the farmers are still using it”, he says, noting that irrigation water is typically so cheap it is used inefficiently. SABMiller pays about 50c for each cubic metre of water it uses in South Africa, for example, while the farmers irrigating the barley used in its beer can pay half of 1 per cent of that price for the same volume of water.
“The only solution for companies really is to understand those local risks; dramatically improve efficiency and engage with local communities, governments and others to put in place projects that protect the watershed for all users.”
The cost of such measures is unlikely to fall as the world’s population becomes bigger, and richer.
Water scarcity is a pressing issue for corporations, environmentalists and the world as a whole. Just 2.5% of the planet’s water is freshwater. Not only is this important for human and animal consumption, saline water is unusable for many industrial purposes because of its corrosive properties.
Of that share, more than two-thirds is locked up as ice – inaccessible for consumption by industry, agriculture and humans.
Of the remainder, only a quarter is readily available for use – or far less than 1% of the earth’s total water resources.
This situation is exacerbated by soaring global water use, which grew almost eightfold between 1900 and 2010. Projections suggest no imminent slowdown in this trend.
This scarcity manifests differently in different regions. Across the world as a whole, agriculture is the dominant sector for water use, meaning scarcity endangers food security. In western and central Europe, however, industry is under most pressure. Previous image Next image
Next Thumbnails Previous Thumbnails
Energy shocks
By 2030, the global population is expected to have increased from today’s 7bn to 8bn. The global middle class, meanwhile, is likely to have surged from nearly 2bn to 5bn, according to the OECD, largely in fast-growing Asian economies. Like their predecessors in developed countries, they are likely to want a hamburger, not just a bowl of vegetables, and the UN has calculated it takes 2,400 litres of water to produce a hamburger compared with less than 30 litres for a potato or a tomato. They will also want air-conditioning, televisions and other devices requiring electricity, on top of family cars and overseas holidays, all of which require more energy.
Water is needed for almost every aspect of energy production, from digging up fossil fuels to refining oil and generating power, and the amount of water consumed by the sector is on track to double within the next 25 years, according to the International Energy Agency.
In the Middle East, Royal Dutch Shell and Qatar Petroleum have built Pearl, the world’s biggest plant for converting gas to liquid fuels. The Qatar plant includes a groundbreaking water recovery and treatment system that Shell says eliminates the use of local water supplies. Shell declined to divulge the price but Global Water Intelligence estimates it cost $640m.
Water is needed for almost every aspect of energy production, from digging up fossil fuels to refining oil and generating power, and the amount of water consumed by the sector is on track to double within the next 25 years
“It’s a huge project,” says Laurent Auguste, director of innovation and markets at Veolia, the French water services group, which helped design and build the system. “It’s definitely something that you probably would not have thought of years ago but something that is absolutely critical.”
Water supplies are crucial for one of the energy industry’s most vibrant sectors: the booming US shale industry. The hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, process used to extract shale gas and oil typically requires about 2m gallons of water or more at each well. That has prompted concern among groups such as Ceres, a sustainable investor group, which says nearly half the US wells drilled since 2011 are in areas of high or extremely high water stress.
But the shale industry is only one part of the energy sector confronting water scarcity, says Tara Schmidt of Wood Mackenzie, the energy industry analyst. “This is no longer a ‘could be’ issue, this is a forefront issue,” she says. “Most energy companies definitely recognise they are under increasing scrutiny from governments and the public about how they use their water supplies.”
The risk is evident in China, where it has become mandatory in some regions for coal-fired power plants to be cooled with air instead of water. Installing an air-cooling system costs about $100m at an average-sized plant, say industry analysts, and also reduces efficiency because the plant needs to burn more coal to produce electricity to operate the system. This also produces more of the carbon dioxide responsible for climate change, underlining the difficult environmental trade-offs posed by the issue of water scarcity.
Desalination is another way that water scarcity is inadvertently leading to greater use of energy, thanks to the soaring increase in the number of plants that need electricity to operate. Forty years ago there were hardly any desalination plants. Today there are more than 17,200 producing a volume of water equal to just over 21 years of rain in New York, says the International Desalination Association.
Most energy companies definitely recognise they are under increasing scrutiny from governments and the public about how they use their water supplies - Tara Schmidt, Wood Mackenzie
They are no longer confined mostly to the deserts of the Middle East either. The top 10 countries, in terms of online desalination volume capacity, include Spain, Australia and China, and companies are one reason why. Since 2010 45 per cent of new plants have been ordered by industrial users such as power stations and refineries, up from 27 per cent in the previous four years, the IDA says.
The trouble is, desalinated water is typically more expensive than water from other sources and, as climate scientists repeatedly warn, wet areas will become wetter and drier regions more parched, the prospect of these costs rising seems certain.
What can be done?
The solution to water scarcity is largely in the hands of governments, not companies, because it requires policies such as better regulation of irrigation groundwater or more intelligent use of wastewater.
Some states have shown how this can be done. Israel and Singapore have water recycling and management measures widely regarded as models. But such examples are relatively scarce and that has led some businesses to take matters into their own hands.
A group of companies including Nestlé and Coca-Cola has joined forces with the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private investment arm, to form the 2030 Water Resources Group, a body trying to highlight the dimensions of the water scarcity problem and the least costly way of tackling it. It has produced sobering reports, including one showing demand for freshwater is likely to outstrip global supply by about 40 per cent by 2030 unless more is done to improve supply and stop inefficient use.
But some types of action make much more financial sense than others, according to another report from the group last year by Arup, the engineering consultancy. Plugging leaks at an existing water supply system, for example, can address water scarcity 50 to 100 times more cost effectively than building an expensive water treatment plant.
Solutions to water scarcity, in other words, are known and do not need to be that expensive. The risk a growing number of business leaders fear, however, is that such steps will be deferred until the last minute, forcing a costly scramble for action.
“If we don’t tackle this water issue we are going to run out of water,” says Nestlé’s Peter Brabeck, “and then we will start to try to make decisions which are not always necessarily the best ones.”
Next: How China’s dams are causing tensions along the Mekong river. In Saturday’s FT Weekend Magazine.
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Letter in response to this article:
Regulate fresh water use with foresight / From Mr Edward Davey |
Since its conception in the 70s, Hip-Hop has never been restricted to one nation or one gender, with one of the earliest Hip Hop records ever made being Lady B’s To The Beat Y’all in 1979. This brings us to another lady of Hip-Hop, not from the east-coast but the East.
Shanghai’s Lady Cha Chahas been making a name for herself as the first lady of China’s underground music scene for the last seven years. Her work extends beyond her home country, having collaborated with Hyperdub bossman Kode9, Finnish Dub maestro Desto and produced her debut album with Amsterdam’s Jay Soul. Her biggest international breakthrough was in 2011, when Cha Cha became the first Chinese mainlander to be awarded a coveted place at the Red Bull Music Academy in Madrid. But it didn’t stop there. Cha Cha is a busy and accomplished woman, who is currently working on a Reggae album with Jamacian legends Sly & Robbie and is the mastermind behind ‘The Hip Hop connection’, which congregates musicians and producers with a love for Hip-Hop to showcase talent from across the country while growing the local music scene in Shanghai.
For her most recent release 19, Cha Cha teamed up with the Guangzhou producer Along, whose Cantonese rap is a playful contrast to her endearingly lilting Mandarin. A truly lovely production, with lyrics playing around the theme of youth and a resounding feeling of freshness and excitement. A feeling that is also apt to describe this most original artist. |
As Braille Literacy Declines, Reading Competitions Held To Boost Interest
Enlarge this image toggle caption Blake Farmer/WPLN Blake Farmer/WPLN
Reading isn't usually a competitive sport. But it's become one for Braille readers because of a lack of excitement about Braille.
Right now, the Los Angeles-based Braille Institute is putting on regional competitions like this one in a classroom at the Tennessee School for the Blind.
A braille reading competition actually looks more like a typing contest.
As competition begins, students flip through their packets. Their spread fingers sweep over the square pages.
In some events, they proofread Braille. But in this session, they interpret charts and graphs, typing their answers into mechanical nine-key Braille writers.
The old-school equipment is akin to taking a math test without a calculator these days. Digital technology, especially a computer's ability to read text aloud, makes Braille seem more and more antiquated. But 12th-grader Marcus Johnson finds it a necessary skill.
"Because you cannot use technology for every aspect of education, so sometimes you just have to have that physical writing there," he says.
For Johnson, there's also something about the written word, even in an alphabet of dots.
"To me, it's kind of reminiscent," he says. "I've had vision before in my life. I lost my vision while I was young. But it kind of just helps to bring back the feeling of actually having a physical book."
But it's not easy, even for someone who's been blind since birth.
Sydney Walker made her middle school-aged son learn Braille as a baby, putting raised labels on things all over the house.
"It wasn't easy, I'll say," she says. "I think some people have the idea that if you're born blind, you're automatically going to be great Braille reader."
It's far from automatic. And Braille literacy has fallen to around 10 percent for children.
"The kids are not wanting to do it because it takes extra time, and it's harder," says Joanne Weatherall, a retired teacher from the Tennessee School for the Blind.
She's blind herself and comes back to be a scorekeeper each year. She says no sighted person would ever think they could forget about learning to write with a pencil and paper just because they type most of the time.
"It should not occur to a blind person to not be where they can't write something down," she says.
She says people might be entertaining the idea of getting through life without knowing Braille because it's easier and faster.
"The only thing I would think is because kids that start out in school very young learning technology — it's very easy for them," she says. "It's faster than reading and writing in Braille because that can be very slow and cumbersome."
This national competition that is fed by these regional events was set up 16 years ago as a fun way to make sure Braille didn't fall out of use. And Weatherall says she still has to convince students to compete.
"What to do to really get the kids really charged up about Braille, I don't know because many of them hate it, which just makes me crazy," she says.
What makes Weatherall grin are Braille lovers like Marcus Johnson, who plans to attend a local university in the fall, though he says Braille will not be particularly useful in his college classes.
Blake Farmer is the news director of NPR member station WPLN. You can follow him at @flakebarmer. |
Image caption The CMS experiment will search for signs of new physics in collisions at the LHC
Scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they have moved a step closer to their aim of unlocking the mysteries of the Universe.
The world's highest-energy particle accelerator has produced a record-breaking particle collision rate - about double the previous rate.
The collider is now generating around 10,000 particle collisions per second, according to physicist Andrei Golutvin.
The LHC is housed in a 27km circular tunnel under the French-Swiss border.
The more collisions we get, the closer we get to supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs boson and other types of new physics Dr John Ellis, Cern theorist
The vast machine is operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), based near Geneva in Switzerland.
Physicists say this marks the start of turning the LHC into the world's most powerful particle collider.
"It's clear that the LHC is the new boy in town, but in two years running we're going to put Fermilab out of business," operation group leader Mike Lamont told BBC News.
The Tevatron particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois, USA, is the LHC's rival. It has operated at higher intensities, but the current collision rate is a record for Cern.
The LHC is expected to overtake the American machine in due course.
Over the past few months, LHC engineers have slowly and carefully increased the energy and intensity of the proton beams which race around the collider's 27km-long "ring".
Image caption The LHC will aim to detect the elusive Higgs boson
This weekend, engineers smashed together two beams consisting of three "bunches" of protons particles.
For the first time, these bunches were at "nominal" intensity - the intensity the LHC was designed to work at. This means each bunch consisted of as many as 100 billion protons.
The LHC smashed together its first two particle beams travelling at close to the speed of light in November 2009.
At the moment, it is running at half the energy it was designed for, but the scientists aim to take the machine to the top energy of seven tera-electronvolts (TeV) per beam by 2013.
Stationed around the collider's ring are four large experiments designed to study new physics - in a bid to shed light on the secrets of our Universe. These are Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), Atlas, Alice and LHCb, of which Dr Golutvin is chief scientist.
Scientists hope to find an elusive sub-atomic particle known as the Higgs boson, dubbed the "God particle", which explained why matter has mass.
Nerve centre
Standing in the LHC's main control room, the machine's "nerve centre", Mike Lamont explained that his team has recently achieved a record luminosity - a measure of the number of protons colliding per second.
Luminosity is key to a particle smasher's power, he said. More collisions means more chances of "really interesting physics, like [finding] the Higgs", Dr Lamont explained.
Dr John Ellis, one of Cern's top theoretical physicists, is among those on the hunt for the Higgs. Dr Ellis said he was very excited by the LHC's latest record.
"Protons are complicated particles, they've got quarks, [and other small particles], and colliding them is like colliding two garbage cans and watching carrots come out," he told BBC News.
"The more collisions we get, the closer we get to supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs boson and other types of new physics."
Image caption The LHC main control room is based in Geneva
The theoretical physicist explained that collision rates depend on the bunch intensity - the number of protons in a bunch.
"Now we will be trying to increase the number of those bunches, and then probably in August we will spend quite a period of time just banging away and trying to get as many collisions as we can."
The eventual aim is to reach 2,808 bunches in a beam. The LHC team hopes to get there by 2016.
Professor Ellis added that as the luminosity increases, one of the things physicists at Cern will be looking for is a mini- black hole.
"It would be absolutely, fantastically exciting if we produced black holes at the LHC," he said.
"Then we would test our ideas about gravity, quantum physics, string theory. This would be much more exciting than finding a... Higgs boson or even dark matter."
A Cern report released in 2008 concluded that these mini-black holes would pose no danger, as they would vanish shortly after being made.
Scientists point out that the collisions generated by the cosmic rays which have been hitting the Earth's atmosphere from space for billions of years can be far more energetic than those at the LHC.
Beam stability
Dr Lamont said that before stepping up the bunch intensity, scientists had to be certain the beam carrying bunches at nominal intensity was not going to become unstable.
"Up to now we've been working with very low intensities because we didn't want to risk any damage," he said.
On March 30, the two beams that produced the first high-energy collisions of seven teraelectronvolts (TeV) contained four bunches each, but with a relatively small number of protons in each bunch.
He said that as the number of protons increased, the team had to be really careful not to lose "a high-intensity beam in an uncontrolled way".
Image caption Visitors to Cern can see a futuristic exhibition on particle physics
"The beam has got enough energy to melt a hole in the vacuum pipe, cause a vacuum leak into the magnet and helium leak into the vacuum pipe. It could be a real mess and would probably take us six months to repair," said Dr Lamont.
But he said the consequences for the general public would be roughly nil.
"Standard analogy is a British aircraft carrier going at 12 knots. Imagine it going into the Mont Blanc Bridge - it would be a real wreck, but it would not destroy half of Geneva.
"And given that this is all buried 100m under ground, the loss of energy would be very localised and safely contained in the tunnel."
A helium leak happened once before - in 2008. Shortly after the collider was first switched on, a fault with an interconnection between two magnets caused six tonnes of liquid helium to leak into the tunnel.
It took the scientists 14 months of repairs to re-launch the machine.
The LHC is located in a picturesque region of French-Swiss Alps, but Dr Lamont said the team has so far had few opportunities to get off the site and enjoy the area's natural beauty.
"The aim over this summer now is to get into a routine, where we're just turning the handle, delivering collisions on a regular basis to the experiments," he said.
And this weekend's record is the first step towards that goal, he added.
"Once we get into a routine, [scientists on individual experiments] can get on with their analysis, and we can gradually increase the intensity and at the same time catch our breath, go home see our families and maybe get into the mountains occasionally." |
However Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen said the development underlined the government's "fiscal failure" and cast further doubt on its budget projections. Scott Morrison should stick to his guns on planned superannuation changes, OECD research suggests. S&P on Thursday revised the credit rating outlook from "stable" to "negative", which means the rating may be slashed in future without an improvement in budgetary performance, potentially increasing Australia's government borrowing costs and deterring international investment. In a statement, Standard and Poor's said prospects for this improvement had been weakened by the recent uncertain election outcome, which could affect the ability of a new government to pass revenue and expenditure measures through both houses of parliament. This could see debt continue to rise over the forecast period "unless more budget savings measures are legislated or there are improvements in the revenue outlook".
It said Australia's sovereign credit ratings benefited from the country's "strong institutional settings, its wealthy and resilient economy, monetary policy flexibility, and low government debt". Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison during the election campaign. Credit:Andrew Meares But this was moderated by high external and household debt, and vulnerability to weak commodity export demand. External debt refers to the total debt a nation has borrowed from foreign lenders. S&P said without remedial action, "the government's fiscal stance may no longer be compatible with the country's high level of external indebtedness". The agency said there was a one in three chance it could lower the rating within the next two years if it believed Parliament was unlikely to pass savings or revenue measures that would bring the budget deficit into balance by the early 2020s.
Over the next six to 12 months, the agency will monitor the new government's ability to legislate such measures. The prospect of a hung parliament, and a larger, more difficult Senate crossbench, has substantially complicated this task. S&P said the ratings could stabilise if new budget savings or revenue measures were enacted that sufficiently reduced fiscal deficits over the next few years. Credit ratings are used by sovereign wealth funds and other investors to assess Australia's credit worthiness, and can impact on the country's borrowing costs. Mr Morrison said the AAA-rating had been retained by S&P and other agencies, but said the statement reaffirmed the government's fiscal plans and provided important context for a new government. "The message is we need to stick to the plan to maintain the fiscal trajectory that wasn't only outlined in the previous fiscal budget but also in previous budgets," he said, adding it reinforced the government's message that Australia must "live within its means".
He said S&P were clearly concerned about the outcome of the election and that "the pace of fiscal consolidation may be postponed". "That's why I say, as an invitation more than anything else to the parliament as a whole, is this is something we have to work on together," he said. Mr Morrison said it would be irresponsible to increase the deficit over the next few years, because "that increases the debt and you can't get that money back". During the election campaign, the government criticised Labor costings that showed a worse short-term budget outlook due to more spending on Medicare, education and infrastructure. Labor argued it was implementing structural improvements that would leave the budget better off than under a Coalition government by 2026-27.
Mr Bowen on Thursday said the S&P outlook was "a sombre day for the Australian economy" which increased the likelihood of a credit rating downgrade. "During the election campaign we ... pointed out that the government's budget projections were based on fantasy, that the iron ore price was highly heroic, that the assumptions on wages and nominal growth were highly optimistic," he said. Mr Bowen said S&P made the same observations, citing the agency's comment that it was "more pessimistic about the central government's revenue outlook than the government was in its latest budget projections". "And of course what we see today is Standard & Poor's calling out the Liberal National Government for three years of fiscal failure and passing a vote of no-confidence in this government's ability to deal with the budget situation," he said. "Particularly since Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison took the reins we've seen a lack of strategy and a lack of coherence in their economic approach."
He pointed to Labor's proposed reforms of negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, saying it was "necessary for the long-term budget health of the nation". |
Image copyright Niall Carson Image caption Northern Ireland people's discretionary income of £103 a week compares with a record UK average of £201
Household spending power in Northern Ireland is about half the UK average, according to new data.
Compiled for Asda by London economists CEBR, the latest income tracker shows families in the region have an extra £8 a week compared with a year ago.
However, their discretionary income of £103 a week compares with a record UK average of £201.
Discretionary income is money left over after tax and bills and expenses, like a mortgage and food spending, are paid.
According to the quarterly income tracker report, the situation in Northern Ireland reflects lower rates of pay compared with other regions of the UK.
Additionally, it says almost 10% of Northern Ireland workers in 2014 were employed at or below the minimum wage compared with just over 5% across the UK as a whole.
Wales has discretionary income of £180 a week, Scotland has £200, and the poorest English region, the north-east, has £133.
The pace of growth has slowed considerably for Northern Ireland householders - it rose by 9% between April and June, compared with 18% in the corresponding quarter of 2015. |
During the 1972 Summer Olympics at Munich, in the early morning of September 5, a group of Palestinian terrorists storms the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes, killing two and taking nine others hostage. The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September, in return for the release of the hostages, theydemanded that Israel release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails and two German terrorists. In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West German policeman. Olympic competition was suspended for 24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes.
The Munich Olympics opened on August 26, 1972, with 195 events and 7,173 athletes representing 121 countries. On the morning of September 5, Palestinian terrorists in ski masks ambushed the Israeli team. After negotiations to free the nine Israelis broke down, the terrorists took the hostages to the Munich airport. Once there, German police opened fire from rooftops and killed three of the terrorists. A gun battle erupted and left the hostages, two more Palestinians and a policeman dead.
After a memorial service was held for the athletes at the main Olympic stadium, International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage ordered that the games continue, to show that the terrorists hadn’t won. Although the tragedy deeply marred the games, there were numerous moments of spectacular athletic achievement, including American swimmer Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals and teenage Russian gymnast Olga Korbut’s two dramatic gold-medal victories.
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In the aftermath of the murders at the ’72 Olympics, the Israeli government, headed by Golda Meir, hired a group of Mossad agents to track down and kill the Black September assassins. The 2005 Stephen Spielberg movie Munich was based on these events. |
Jul 19, 2016; Seattle, WA, USA; Chicago White Sox second baseman Brett Lawrie (15) points to the crowd after hitting a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the second inning at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
White Sox have the option to non-tender veteran player after an injury-plagued 2016. With Tyler Saladino putting together a solid season, does this make the native Canadian expendable?
The Chicago White Sox traded for Brett Lawrie last offseason in the hopes of solidifying its infield. Lawrie has battled injuries in the past that prevented him from playing a full season, but in 2015 he was able to finish his first season playing more than 145 games.
With Lawrie joining the Sox, he was looking to put his injury concerns behind him and contribute to a successful season on the South Side. Unfortunately for Lawrie, he wasn’t able to play 100 games as his season ended before August. Lawrie experienced a left hamstring injury on July 21 against the Tigers.
Lawrie would later be placed on the 15-day disabled list with the hopes of eventually returning. After a brief rehab stint with Double-A Birmingham Barons, Lawrie returned to the disabled list after playing five games. Lawrie would not return to the Sox lineup as other injuries to his left knee and calf ultimately ended his season.
The native Canadian has dealt with injuries before, and has been known to be injury-prone. With a successful 2015 season with the Oakland Athletics, it appeared Lawrie was going to be able to stay healthy for a full season consistently. In 2015, Lawrie played in a career-high 149 games for the Athletics.
The most games Lawrie had played in a single season before 2015 was 125 in 2012 with the Blue Jays. While Lawrie’s season ended prematurely with the Sox in 2016, his absence gave way to the emergence of Tyler Saladino. The second-year player hit .282 in 93 games for the Sox this past season. Lawrie hit just .248 in 94 games for the Sox in 2016.
Saladino was primarily a utility player with the Sox in 2016 before Lawrie’s injury. However, he quickly became the starting second baseman when Lawrie was placed on the disabled list. For Saladino, the opportunity couldn’t have come at a better time. In his rookie season, he struggled to adapt to major league hitting.
This season, Saladino not only looked much better at the plate, but he delivered clutch hits for the Sox as well. With Saladino’s solid 2016, the Sox could very well start next season with him as the starting second baseman.
Lawrie will be up for arbitration in the offseason, and according to mlbtraderumors.com, he could command a salary of $5.1 million for 2017. If the Sox aren’t privy to spending this money for one season of Lawire, they could choose to non-tender him. This wouldn’t be surprising as the Sox are typically looking to save money where they can.
Saladino not only made Lawrie more expendable, but he’s proven to be more durable. An area of concern for the Sox would be Saladino not playing more than 95 games in a single season. Although Saladino had a good 2016, he still hasn’t had 500 at-bats in one season. If the Sox were to non-tender Lawrie, it could present a new risk for them in 2017.
The Sox will certainly have a tough decision to make in the coming weeks. However, they could tender Lawrie for 2017 and hope he can stay healthy. If Lawrie isn’t tendered for next season, expect the Sox to move quickly to find a potential replacement for him in free agency. |
AUDIO: @MBraves Coach Barbaro Garbey Talks Cuban-American Baseball Relations, Returning to Cuba After Three Decades
MLB.com/blogs Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 24, 2016
By Kyle Tait
Barbaro Garbey defected from Cuba in the early 1980s to play baseball in the United States. He wasn’t able to return until this past January to visit friends and family he hadn’t seen in more than three decades.
Leading up to Sunday’s 1:00 PM first pitch, Kyle Tait caught up with the Missisippi Braves’ first base coach to talk about Cuban-American relations in baseball, the 1984 Tigers’ World Series team (on which he was a rookie), and the emotions of returning to his home country after so long away.
Hear the full interview:
[archiveorg Garbey width=640 height=30 frameborder=0 webkitallowfullscreen=true mozallowfullscreen=true]
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Kyle Tait is in his sixth season as the radio voice of the Mississippi Braves, double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter: @HearKyleTait, and take a listen at HearKyleTait.com |
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Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston could face a ban from football after an FA investigation into abusive texts he sent to supporters last year.
If found guilty of misconduct Oyston, a member of the Football League board, faces a punishment similar to that handed out to former Wigan chairman Dave Whelan.
Oyston exchanged texts with fans after his mobile number was circulated in December.
During one exchange he referred to fan Stephen Smith as a ‘retard’ and told him to ‘enjoy the rest of your special needs day out’.
He apologised but Smith made an official complaint to the FA. The matter has been under investigation since.
Whelan was banned for six weeks and fined £50,000 for using racist language after Malky Mackay became boss. |
ATLANTA — Democrats are preparing for what many believe will be the party’s largest presidential field in decades in 2020. But at the premier annual progressive gathering on the political calendar, signs of the crowded primary to come are nowhere to be seen.
Just one potential candidate — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — is scheduled to speak at the three-day Netroots Nation event. Beyond that, there’s almost no presence from the many prospective presidential candidates who are already building up their political teams and making moves to run.
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Instead, the elected officials and formal presenters in the main ballroom are focused on ideology — the need to be unapologetically progressive in 2018. To them, voting rights, climate change and health care take precedence over a presidential race that is more than three years away.
The question of alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russia looms especially large here. In the hallways and on side panels, activists and organizers are resisting the guidance of party leaders who worry about overplaying the Russia issue at the expense of others that may matter more to voters. The message from the grass roots? We’re not going to stop talking about President Donald Trump and Russia.
“Not only is it a false choice, it’s a really limited choice,” said Democracy for America Executive Director Charles Chamberlain of the common refrain that Democratic candidates and groups ought to focus on issues like health care rather than the investigations. “I get it when people are frustrated when they feel like all they’re hearing is, ‘Russia, Russia, Russia…[but] it actually isn’t a distraction: It’s actually critical for our democracy.”
In any case, it’s not a debate that top Democratic presidential prospects are eager to get involved in. Some said they couldn’t attend the event this year because their invitations arrived at a time when it was unclear whether the Senate would be in session. Others were wary of protesters like the Black Lives Matter activists who interrupted then-presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley at 2015's event, according to multiple Democrats aligned with potential White House contenders.
The divide over the party’s approach to Russia was apparent from the public speeches and statements of the elected officials who did attend. Unlike the grass-roots activists who want to engage voters about the investigations that continue to dominate headlines and cable television, the officeholders steered clear of talking about Russia.
“There’s a different Trump scandal or controversy almost daily, but the only thing that’s consistently dominated the news these last eight months is Russia,” said Shripal Shah, a vice president of the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge. “As a party, we have to figure out the best way to message the issue: It’s not going anywhere, and we can’t afford to ignore it.”
In Thursday evening keynote addresses, former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander hit on voting rights, Tallahassee mayor and Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum criticized current Gov. Rick Scott for his ties to Trump, former Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards talked about winning back Barack Obama voters who sat out the 2016 election, and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams delivered a largely biographical speech.
The pattern repeated itself on Friday: Paul Ryan challenger Randy Bryce talked about health care, Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego leaned on the imperative to develop a progressive agenda, and Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison — the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee — sat on a panel that touched on right-wing smears and media failures.
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As other progressive elected officials — including California Rep. Barbara Lee, Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan — roamed the halls and sat on panels of their own, even the official programming steered clear of the topic: Just one event appeared designed to touch tangentially on the Russian investigations — a Friday panel about the role of state attorneys general and legal action against the White House.
Mingling at the hotel bar and in the coffee line, some activists conceded that an unrelenting focus on special prosecutor Robert Mueller or the Intelligence committee investigations might not be helpful in the Republican-leaning suburban districts that are essential to Democratic hopes of winning back the House.
“If you talk about Russia does Jon Ossoff win those 4 or 5 points? I don’t think so, that district had a ceiling,” said Mike Ceraso, a party organizer and former senior staffer on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, referring to the Democrat who narrowly lost a Georgia special election in June.
Even so, organizers universally agree that the topic so animates Democratic base voters that the party can’t afford to take its foot off the gas pedal.
A messaging memo prepared for liberal groups American Bridge, End Citizens United, MoveOn.org, and Stand Up America by Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner — and viewed this week by POLITICO — got straight to that point: "Although the Russia scandal is not the top concern, the research shows this issue is motivating to potential Democratic voters," it reads.
Sources say some Democratic presidential prospects didn’t attend Netroots this year because they wary of protesters like the Black Lives Matter activists who interrupted then-presidential candidate Martin O’Malley (right) at 2015’s event. | Ross D. Franklin/AP
“If you are not recognizing that what is going to drive massive turnout in 2018 is people who want to send a message to Congress that we have to fight and stand up and be against Trump,” you’re not seeing the full picture, said Chamberlain.
The memo, aiming to provide some guidance, encouraged campaigns to “stress the national security implications” of Trump’s potential ties to Russia.
“Voters — particularly swing voters — are sensitive to the scandal’s national security implications,” reads the memo, which was based off polling in a wide range of primarily Republican-held House districts and a series of focus groups.
The document reflects a growing wish — particularly among those who are dealing with donors — for a framework for talking about the topic and issues related to it, such as impeachment.
“Look, at the end of the day, it’s an issue. Our democracy was corrupted by a foreign power, and we should never allow that to happen. But just because you’re talking about it doesn’t mean you’re avoiding other issues that are just as important, like economic issues,” said Gallego, fresh off his Friday speech that steered clear of the investigations. |
The low price of gasoline is delaying the Obama Administration’s stated goal of reaching one million electric vehicles on Americanroads by now, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said . In the summer of 2008, with gas prices hovering around $4 a gallon, Obama, then a candidate, set a goal of getting 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015, something he reiterated in his 2011 State of the Union address. Of the 250 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads, only 400,000 of them are electric. Sales fell six percent last year when compared to 2014, to about 115,000 vehicles, despite an increasing number offerings, often at sold at steep discounts. But cost remains an issue. Mostly due to the price of batteries, electric and hybrid cars often cost about $8,000 to $10,000 more than an equivalent gasoline-powered car. |
Hello Everyone,
Patch 4.06a has been a highly anticipated patch for most avid players of The Feast, as it was promised to bring about the first wave of balance changes following the start of The Feast Season 5, the very first season taking place after the major PvP system overhaul of Patch 4.0.
In this post, we will go over the changes and provide our critical thoughts and opinons. Did players get what they wanted? What they needed? Kind of, but some fell short. Let's Begin.
Paladin
We begin with the PLD. Overall, we see some pretty hard nerfs. The nerf changing Shield bash from 3 seconds to 2 means that their stun is now objectively worse than the DRK stun, Low Blow. PLD overall now has 1 second less of total CC potential on a single target, while DRK remains untouched. Overall, this is not a terrible change for the health of the game, but a pretty solid blow to PLD.
A nerf to their already inferior CC was not enough, however, as Cover also saw minor nerfs. The Oath Gauge increase from 20 to 25 gauge really just means less uptime. 20% less uptime. Was this change really needed? Probably not, given that once again, the DRK holds an arguably more powerful ability in The Blackest Night, which did not see nerfs.
However, all is not lost, as the change to Shield Oath to now grant 5% more damage reduction will make the use of Cover a bit safer, in addition to the many changes we will go over below.
PLD will still retain it's spot as the 2nd best tank in The Feast, though the gap between PLD and DRK has definitely grown in size, and not in favor of the PLD.
Warrior
Next up is the WAR, widely considered one of the three "unplayable" jobs prior to this patch. So what sort of buffs did they receive? The first is a base increase in HP, from 15,000 to 15,500. Not bad, not stellar, when evaluated alone.
The change to tank stances hit the WAR as well. A 5% boost in max HP, a 5% boost in HP recovery, and of course the damage reduction to come with it. What does this mean for WAR survivability?
Before the change they had 18,000 HP in Defiance. After the change they have 19,375 HP in Defiance.
This is definitely a buff to WAR survivability, but it still does not stand in line with the survivability of the other two tanks. For the sake of leaving the more detailed and in-depth analysis for another time, we will simply say that WAR still lacks in defensive support for both the team and themselves.
Lastly comes the much anticipated, and much needed buff to the WAR kit. A stun. Onslaught has now become shoulder tackle, instead of having the clunky knockback mechanic attached to it. This change alone brings it into the realm of possible viability, and it is possible that having the stun tied to a gap closer could make for some very great offenssive plays.
WAR has moved from a position of "almost certain loss" to "maybe viable", though we will withold our own judgement until we see more of it in game.
Dark Knight
DRK has been the most powerful tank since patch 4.0 launched and patch 4.06a has not changed that. It sees the same changes to Grit as WAR and PLD saw to their tank stances, which is a welcome buff to tank survivability.
The only nerf which hit the DRK was to their Power Slash combo. A 10% nerf to the healing reduction debuff is pretty huge, and may be a good place to start in reducing the power of DRK, as targets will not be a bit harder to kill if a healer is keeping them up. Overall though, DRK is still in a very good place and remains the top tier tank.
Monk
Let's all have a moment of silence for MNK, and all those rode it through the terrible climb of the DPS roles. It's no surprise that MNK is receiving nerfs, but really, these may be a bit harsh when considering the increased HP pools of the ranged DPS roles, as described later in this post.
MNK already suffered from weak sustain. The burst was all it had going for it, as insanely powerful as it was. Ultimately, these nerfs are hitting MNK hard and we are interested to see how they will hold up.
Dragoon
DRG receives a hit to their damage as well, though not nearly as hard as MNK. Overall, these nerfs are not huge and DRG players should not feel much of a difference. However, they are still curious changes to us since DRG seemed to be in a good place and not so powerful that it needed nerfs.
Samurai
SAM sees some very good but not so dramatic changes this patch. First, the Kenki cost reduction on H:Shinten means more sustained damage, and in general just a more plentiful Kenki pool to use with your abilities.
The second change reduces the Kenki cost AND CD of H:Soten. This provides SAM with much more mobility, in both engagement and escape. Another solid change.
H:Chiten is the last ability to see buffs. In a previous update, the ability was nerfed to a 750, down from 1,000. This potency nerf has been reverted, and the Kenki cost reduced. While minor, nobody should ever complain about 250 extra potency.
These changes, along with the nerfs to MNK and DRG, put SAM in a better place than it was prior to the patch. However, they still don't quite match up to the other melee in terms of burst damage, a weakness that has not been addressed with this round of changes.
Ninja
Anyone who played NIN in 3.x were at a severe disadvantage. The job suffered from poor design and confused role identity. Now, however, in patch 4.06a, the NIN may just take over as the most viable melee carry in The Feast. The most minor change is that Mug now generates 20 Ninki, down from 30. A nerf, yes, but in the grand scheme of things, you will see why this really isn't so bad.
The cost of mudras getting cut in HALF is huge for NIN. It means they can more readily weave ninjutsu into their burst rotations, and generally have a much easier time with on-demand utility several options this ability provides. We see this as a great change, as it has the potential to open up interesting decisions that the player will have make as the match progresses. Damage? Debuff? CC? The choice is now one made more often.
Raiton having it's potency reduced is a justified change to the cost reduction of mudras. However, this change, in addition to the potency reduction of Bhavacakra, means NIN took a very significant blow to their burst damage. NIN do get something in return, in the form of a 2 second stun tied to their hardest hitting ability. What this means is that NIN are now the only job in the melee role to have a stun. In addition to their stun, they also still have their silence, their bind, AND their heavy. With so many different tools in their kit, it's likely that the amount of NIN players will rise as they switch off their MNK to try and carry themselves up the ladder.
Bard/Machinist
The jobs of the physical ranged role were doing quite well, except for their very low HP. This, in tandem with the nerfs to melee damage as detailed above, will make surviving, and therefore carrying your team, just that much easier. This is a change that needed to happen, as BRD and MCH were unable to survive for more than the duration of a 3 second stun in most cases.
Black Mage
Not quite the buff to HP that the physical ranged role received, but even so, the extra HP on BLM is a welcome buff. A BLM that lives longer is a BLM that has more opportunity to really cause trouble for the opponent, and 11,000 HP seems like a fair spot to have them.
In additon to the buff to their survivability, we see a 500 potency nerf (about 12-13%) to their ability which hits like a freight train, Foul. While Foul was incredibly powerful prior to the patch, and if looked at by itself alone, could have used a bit of a nerf, it's hard to justify the nerf in power to this ability with all of the buffs to survivability that came with the patch. However, BLM is still in just as good a spot as it was before, if not a bit better.
Summoner
Just as with BRD and MCH, SMN is pretty well off in terms of balance right now. The HP increase is of course helpful, and SMN will remain a strong pick as it always has been.
Red Mage
Now you might be telling yourself, "Wow! Look at those RDM buffs!" But let me stop you before you get too excited. While these changes to potency do somewhat increase that sustained damage, the reduced CD on Manafication increases the frequency of the burst, and of course their increased HP pool...RDM is still not in a good place, as the problems with the job were not fixed or even touched on.
RDM suffers from a long, unsatisfying burst combo with an extremely high risk factor, no OGCD abilities to supplement, and lower survivability not just to the greater risks it's forced to take, but also in that it does not have great utility in it's kit.
There's a long list of ideas and changes which would make RDM more viable, but for now, until those come, we advise that anyone seriously trying to climb the ladder stay far, far away from RDM.
White Mage
The single change to WHM may seem small to some, but this is a huge change that will relieve the headaches of the handful of WHM players that for some reason haven't switched to SCH yet.
For those confused, there was an unintended behavior where Regen would not reapply to a target if they were already affected by a stronger Regen. This caused stress on the WHM as they had to wait for the stronger Regen to fully fall off before the reapplication, often having to forego the reapplication completely depending on what the situation demanded. This change makes it so that once again, WHM players are rewarded for being a bit more proactive in the Regen application.
Scholar
Sure to make some of the more aware PvPers scratch their heads at first glance, the SCH changes seem underwhelming on the surface. Known since the start of Season 1 as the most broken job in The Feast, it looks like SCH players will sit on their Diamond thrones a bit longer.
Adloquium receives the same treatment as Regen, a welcome change for the same reasons mentioned in the WHM section of this post. But the real change, that might seem lackluster in the realm of nerfs, is the nerf to Lustrate's ability to fill the Faerie Gauge. As most SCH's use Lustrate as their primary healing ability, the generation of their gauge being cut in half is very significant. This means that their additional healing from Embrace will be much more finite than it was before.
Is SCH balanced again? No. Is it still the best healer? Yes. However, they are not too greatly far ahead of WHM, and so we are glad that SE is taking a more careful approach to nerfing this job. A shame they did not show the same restraint for MNK.
Astrologian
To be honest, it pains me to even work on this section. AST has been ASS since 4.0 PvP was introduced. There have been many threads, many discussions, and many good ideas. The topic has been discussed a lot among the player community, and feedback has been given, but it is clear that the feedback provided for AST has not made it into the hands of the development team.
While ED being on a 10 second CD and Disable being on a 30 second CD are both welcome buffs, neither address the glaring flaws with the AST as a healer. It simply lacks in tools, and one of the tools it does have (the cards) are too random and inconsistent to provide meaningful benefits.
A way to hold and shuffle cards? A suitable replacement for the useless Deorbit? There are many things that would help bring AST back into viability, but these changes are not those things.
Additional Actions / Traits
Lastly we have some minor changes to Recuperate and IAS.
The reduced CD on Recuperate means that it may become a logical choice to take, though Safeguard will likely still be better in just about every situation. If you play a role that could take both, such as a BRD, MCH, or SMN, this is a very welcome change.
IAS being reduced by 2% makes a difference in that it will be harder for those that use it to push their casts out before being prevented to do so. With higher casting speeds, it is easier to get a cast off before being CC'd, or before someone runs behind a wall. This is a minor change with a magnitude which will have to be measured in practice, to see if casts are more frequently interrupted than before due to this change.
TL;DR: DRK and SCH are still the top dogs, NIN might just takeover as the best melee pick, and WAR/RDM/AST are still much weaker than the other options in their roles. Thanks for reading our recap and thoughts on the job balances changes coming with Patch 4.06a. |
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Singapore has been moving up the ranks of the world's most expensive cities to live in over the last decade
Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
The city's strong currency combined with the high cost of running a car and soaring utility bills contributed to Singapore topping the list.
It is also the most expensive place in the world to buy clothes.
Singapore replaces Tokyo, which topped the list in 2013.
Other cities making up the top five most expensive cities to live in are Paris, Oslo, Zurich and Sydney, with Tokyo falling to sixth place.
The EIU's Worldwide Cost of Living Survey is a relocation tool that uses New York city as a base. It looks at more than 400 individual prices.
Top 5 most expensive cities Image copyright Getty Images Singapore, Singapore Paris, France Oslo, Norway Zurich, Switzerland Sydney, Australia
Soaring Asia
The top 10 cities this year have been dominated by Asian and Australasian cities as well as some in Europe.
"Improving sentiment in structurally expensive European cities combined with the continued rise of Asian hubs means that these two regions continue to supply most of the world's most expensive cities," said the editor of the report, Jon Copestake.
"But Asian cities also continue to make up many of the world's cheapest, especially in the Indian subcontinent."
Most Asian cities that top the list are there for predominantly higher costs of groceries. Tokyo is still at the top of the list for everyday food items.
Inexpensive India
However, not all Asian cities are tough on the wallet.
India's major cities - including Mumbai and New Delhi - were found to be among the least expensive in the world.
Mumbai's prices are kept low by large income inequality.
The low wages of many of the city's workers keep spending low, and government subsidies have helped them stay that way.
Outside of the subcontinent, Damascus in Syria saw the largest drop, becoming the fourth cheapest city in the world as the country's ongoing conflict has led to plummeting prices.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Watch: Toby Iles from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) explains to Sharanjit Leyl why Singapore is the most expensive city to live in
While the EIU's survey takes into account the cost of living, other firms employ different research methods.
Mercer conducts research to determine the most expensive cities for expatriate living.
It found that in 2013, Luanda, Angola was the hardest on expatriate wallets due to the difficulty of finding adequate secure housing, and the high price of imported goods. |
Clinton was New York’s senator for eight years, where Wall Street was a key constituency. Wall St. Republicans' dark secret
NEW YORK — The biggest parlor game on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms these days is guessing whether former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will run for president and save the GOP’s old establishment base from its rising populist wing.
The second most popular game is guessing what happens if Jeb says no.
Story Continued Below
Two dozen interviews about the 2016 race with unaligned GOP donors, financial executives and their Washington lobbyists turned up a consistent — and unusual — consolation candidate if Bush demurs, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie doesn’t recover politically and no other establishment favorite gets nominated: Hillary Clinton.
Most donors and Wall Street titans have not lined up with any candidate yet, waiting for the field to take shape after the midterms. But if Bush doesn’t run, the list of Republican saviors could be short. Some donors fear Christie will never overcome the Bridgegate scandal. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin so far seems more inclined to stay in the House than to run for president. And to varying degrees, other candidates — such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio — are either unknown or untrusted.
( PHOTOS: Who’s talking about Hillary Clinton 2016?)
The darkest secret in the big money world of the Republican coastal elite is that the most palatable alternative to a nominee such as Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky would be Clinton, a familiar face on Wall Street following her tenure as a New York senator with relatively moderate views on taxation and financial regulation.
“If it turns out to be Jeb versus Hillary we would love that and either outcome would be fine,” one top Republican-leaning Wall Street lawyer said over lunch in midtown Manhattan last week. “We could live with either one. Jeb versus Joe Biden would also be fine. It’s Rand Paul or Ted Cruz versus someone like Elizabeth Warren that would be everybody’s worst nightmare.”
Most top GOP fundraisers and donors on Wall Street won’t say this kind of thing on the record for fear of heavy blowback from party officials, as well as supporters of Cruz and Rand Paul. Few want to acknowledge publicly that the Democratic front-runner fills them with less dread than some Republican 2016 hopefuls. And, to be sure, none of the Republican-leaning financial executives are so far suggesting they’d openly back her.
( Also on POLITICO: Jeb Bush: I'm 'thinking about' 2016)
But the private consensus is similar to what Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein said to POLITICO late last year when he praised both Christie — before the bridge scandal — and Clinton. “I very much was supportive of Hillary Clinton the last go-round,” he said. “I held fundraisers for her.”
People close to Blankfein say the same calculus applies to a Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton race as it would to a Christie-Clinton contest. “Those would be two very good choices and we’d be perfectly happy with them,” a person close to Blankfein said. Blankfein is a self-described Democrat, but his comments about Christie and Clinton reflect the ambidextrous political approach that many Republicans and Democrats on Wall Street take.
There are, of course, other GOP candidates who could emerge as favorites of the financial industry after making their case over the next few months.
Rubio, even with his rocky start on immigration, has impressed many on Wall Street, including the Blackstone Group’s Steve Schwarzman, during his forays to the city.
( Also on POLITICO: Warren hopes Clinton runs in 2016)
Both Walker and Ryan will be in New York on May 13, Walker for an Republican National Committee fundraiser and Ryan for a reelection event hosted by a wide range of major donors, including hedge fund magnates Cliff Asness and Paul Singer and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson. Walker also will be holding meetings in New York this week as the “Wall Street primary” continues. Kasich, a former Lehman Brothers managing director, is viewed as a candidate who might fit the consensus, center-right mold favored by Wall Street. But multiple GOP operatives and donors said they see few signs Kasich, who is in the midst of a reelection fight, is currently organizing for a run.
Instead, the donors, financial executives and Washington representatives offered a consistent refrain: If we can’t nominate someone like Bush or Christie from the pro-business wing of the party, and if the GOP nominee is from the far right, then we will hold our noses and tolerate Clinton.
“Most people in the industry find her approachable and have a track record with her,” one Republican financial services executive said. “They wouldn’t align with her on every policy, but they won’t view her as hostile to the sector. If it turns out to be Hillary walking away with it, there would not be any panic.”
( Also on POLITICO: GOP preps as Christie stumbles)
Clinton, after all, was New York’s senator for eight years, where the financial district was a key constituency. She had many Wall Street rainmakers as advisers and friends. Her family has continued to work that network to try to stock the Clinton Foundation with a $250 million endowment before a presidential run. And she’s been out on the financial services speaking circuit, giving talks to Goldman Sachs and fireside-style chats with the heads of the Carlyle Group and the investment firm KKR.
Clinton warmed some hearts on Wall Street during a paid, closed-press speech to Goldman Sachs executives and other big donors last year when she said of the financial crisis, in essence: We all got into this mess together, and we’re all going to have to work together to get out of it. That line, as the people on hand interpreted her speech, reflects the feelings of many financiers. They know they played a role in the 2008 financial collapse but argue that many other factors did as well, including federal housing policy and irresponsible borrowers lying on mortgage documents. Wall Street sees in Clinton someone who would not look to score easy political points at its expense. |
Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied Kiev’s report that it “destroyed the Russian military column” which allegedly crossed into Ukraine, saying that no such column ever existed.
“No Russian military column that allegedly crossed the Russian-Ukrainian border at night or during the day ever existed,” said Major General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
The best scenario would be, the official said, if it was a “phantom” that the Ukrainian military destroyed “rather than refugees or their own servicemen.”
“Such statements – based on fantasies, or journalists’ assumptions, to be precise – should not be subject for a serious discussion by top officials of any country,” Konashenkov said.
The Defense Ministry’s comment comes shortly after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that his country’s artillery had destroyed a “significant” number of Russian military vehicles that allegedly crossed into Ukraine on Thursday night. Reports of the alleged incident had appeared in several Ukrainian and Western media outlets.
Earlier on Friday Russia’s Security Service (FSB) also denied the reports. Border guards have been deployed to provide security near the frontier, but they operate only on the Russian side, the FSB said.
The mobile military teams “operate strictly within the territory of the Russian Federation,” a spokesperson for the FSB Border Guard Service in Rostov region told RT on Friday.
Russia has stepped up security measures on its border with Ukraine as local residents are under constant threat because of “regular cross-border shelling” and an increased number of “mass border crossings” by the Ukrainian military, he explained. For that reason, FSB mobile border guards’ teams have been created.
Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on Kiev's bloody eastern Ukraine campaign
“When residents report about cross-border shooting and fighting in the frontier zone, these teams are immediately deployed to such areas to provide the safety of the Russian state border and Russian citizens, and also to prevent armed people from crossing into the territory of the Russian Federation,” Sinitsyn said.
Earlier, several foreign news agencies caused quite a stir, reporting that a convoy of Russian military vehicles had crossed into Ukraine overnight.
The reports triggered criticism from NATO and some European states.
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen referred to the alleged incident as to “a Russian incursion” that they “saw.”
“Last night we saw a Russian incursion, a crossing of the Ukrainian border,” he said Friday, adding that “it is a clear demonstration of continued Russian involvement in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine.”
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was “very alarmed by the reports.”
“Of course the humanitarian convoy itself is a separate issue, but if there any Russian military personnel or vehicles in eastern Ukraine they need to be withdrawn immediately or the consequences could be very serious,” he told reporters in Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers had gathered for an emergency meeting to discuss crises in Ukraine and Iraq.
While the White House could not confirm or deny the reports and is still trying to get more information, spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden warned that Russia "has no right to do it."
In an article published by The Guardian, reporter Shaun Walker said he “saw a column of 23 armored personnel carriers, supported by fuel trucks and other logistics vehicles with official Russian military plates, traveling [toward] the border near the Russian town of Donetsk.” Late on Thursday the convoy “crossed into Ukrainian territory,” he said. However, no photographic or video evidence of the incident was presented either in his article or in his Twitter feed. The photograph published with the text was taken on Russian territory.
The Telegraph also reported that “at least 23” Russian vehicles had crossed into Ukraine. The report is accompanied by a video also filmed on Russian territory.
It’s a “big question” why two foreign journalists in a war zone “seeing something that should be a very dramatic story haven’t got a mobile phone to take pictures of this,” Neil Clark, journalist and broadcaster, noted to RT. |
KOLKATA: Sleuths claim that they have information of calls from Kolkata to a suspected operative of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in a West Asian country in the last few weeks. The calls were allegedly made after the blast in Burdwan and the ISIS operative is said to have expressed his displeasure at the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) module blowing its cover in the state.“The calls were very cleverly routed and we will require more time to trace the caller in Kolkata. The person at the other end of the line seems to be the one who is in charge of recruitment of Indians into the ISIS. Much before the blast at Khagragarh, the Mumbai ATS had traced a man inSharjah who is in charge ofthe recruitment of Indians. Some youths from Maharashtra are suspected to have slipped into Bangladesh through West Bengal to join the ISIS,” said a central intelligence agency source.“The JMB is suspected to have facilitated this movement both in Bangladesh and West Bengal. In the last few months, youths from Hyderabad — including some women — were apprehended in West Bengal while trying to enter Bangladesh. They said that they planned to join the ISIS. The youths were taken back to Hyderabad and counselled,” the source added.It is not a secret that the JMB in Bangladesh has links with the ISIS, but the calls from Kolkata have established that operatives in West Bengal are also part of the whole plan.Experts in the intelligence fraternity say that it is from the ISIS that the JMB picked up the concept of an Islamic state or Caliphate in Bangladesh extending to parts of Bengal.“It is a matter of concern that the ISIS is monitoring developments in India. This proves that it has plans for India as well. There has been some indoctrination about ISIS among youths in the bordering districts of Malda, Murshidabad and Nadia. JMB believes that it will succeed in including these districts in the Caliphate,” the source said.“It is unfortunate that some people fail to see the true picture but the danger is very real. The first part of the plan will be to create severe chaos in Bangladesh and get a section of military officers, both serving and retired, to stage a coup. The next part is to fan the flames of fundamentalism to such an extent that the heat is felt across the border in India. JMB will then turn its attention to India, particularly Bengal. There are several JMB modules operating in the state. They are working independent of each other with the sole objective of creating an army to rise in favour of a religious state,” he added. |
Indian Railways and IRCTC have included "transgender as third gender" in the option alongside male and female in ticket reservation and cancellation forms.
The decision which was taken on a representation made by a lawyer will include the facility for reservations and cancellations, both online as well offline.The Delhi-based lawyer had made the representation after the Delhi High Court in February had asked him to approach the Railway Ministry while disposing of his petition.
The ministry in its circular referred to the direction of the apex court of April 2014, which had said that hijras, eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as third gender for protecting their rights.
"Supreme Court (in the judgement) has directed that Hijras, Eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as third gender for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of our Constitution and the laws made by the parliament and the State Legislature.
"It has, therefore, been decided to include the third gender/transgender option alongside male/female in reservation cancellation requisition form. This information will be captured by the system and tickets to transgender will be issued on full fare," the circular stated.
Advocate Jamshed Ansari in his PIL before the high court had alleged violation of Article 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), by non-inclusion of "transgender/third gender" as a gender option in its forms.
He had also sought compliance of the apex court judgment in which it directed the Centre and the state governments to recognise transgender as the third sex, and to provide them with the benefits accorded to socially and economically backward classes. He had further demanded special coaches and reserved seats for the transgender community in all trains, for their "care and protection".
On which the bench headed by Chief Justice G Rohini had asked the ministry to look into the averments made in the writ petition. |
The breakfast for conservative ministers prior to Chancellor Angela Merkel's weekly cabinet meeting is considered the most secretive and concentrated gathering in the day-to-day business of political Berlin. There are no leaks, no mobile phones ringing and no one leaves the room.
Last Wednesday, however, the morning discussion was abruptly interrupted. The ministers belonging to Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), were just perusing the first items on the agenda when a Chancellery employee told Merkel that she had an urgent call. Jens Weidmann, Merkel's economic advisor, was on the line to tell her that Axel Weber, president of the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank, intended to announce his resignation that day.
When Merkel returned, the cabinet members could tell by the expression on her face that something very unpleasant had happened -- so unpleasant, in fact, that close associates would later call it a "catastrophe." Merkel conferred briefly with Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble before calling Weber. It quickly became clear that there was nothing that could be done.
He had given careful thought to his decision, the banker told Merkel. He said that he felt isolated as a result of his strict, anti-inflation policies, and that he was practically alone in his views within the European Central Bank (ECB). Under these circumstances, Weber explained, he could not continue in office, and certainly could not become ECB president.
Deaf Ears
Merkel's objections fell on deaf ears, but she did convince the country's top monetary official to make one concession: Weber promised that he would not make a public statement until he had met with Merkel in person.
What followed was two days of intense confusion. Announcements that Weber was going to issue a statement were made and then cancelled. There were also rumors that the Bundesbank president was to succeed Josef Ackermann as chief executive of Deutsche Bank. Speculation over Weber's motives was rampant.
Even on Friday, after Merkel had met face-to-face with Weber, clarity was at a premium. In a tersely worded afternoon statement, it was announced that Weber would step down at the end of April, and that his successor would be announced this week.
The chancellor must now find a new Bundesbank president in record time. But this marks only the beginning of Merkel's difficulties. The fact that she is losing her most prominent monetary policy expert in the midst of the euro crisis is the lesser of her problems. It is more worrisome for Merkel that Weber's resignation makes a mess of her strategy for the future architecture of the euro.
A Symbol for Euro Skeptics
She was determined to install Weber as ECB president, in the face of much resistance, especially from southern Europe. She had wanted to send a message that Europe's monetary policy is based on established German principles, is largely independent of political meddling and is strictly oriented toward stable prices.
Instead, Weber now threatens to become a symbol of those among Merkel's conservatives -- and within her junior coalition partners, the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) -- who are skeptical of the euro and have long been uncomfortable with measures to rescue the common currency. "If (the ECB president) holds a minority opinion on key issues," Weber said in an interview with SPIEGEL, "then it has a negative effect on the credibility of the office."
Things couldn't be worse for the chancellor, particularly given the approaching state elections in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg. She had hoped to be able to portray herself as a chancellor who staunchly supports the euro -- one who ensures that no German money goes to Europe without getting something in return. But now, the head of the country's central bank has made public his fears that, in the Europe-wide negotiations on saving the common currency, German discipline could lose out.
The two politicians are not just at odds over monetary policy. Apparently there is also a deep personal rift between them. Until recently, Merkel and Weber were seen as close allies, whose relationship was partly bolstered by the fact that former students of Weber, from the time when he was an economics professor, hold key posts in the Berlin government. Both Finance Ministry State Secretary Jörg Asmussen and Merkel's economic advisor Jens Weidmann were once students of Weber's.
Cross Purposes
Now, however, it would seem that Merkel and Weber have been talking at cross purposes for months. Just who might be responsible for the miscommunication, however, remains unclear.
Only last spring, everything seemed to be going well. Merkel had taken steps in Europe to ensure that Weber was almost certain to succeed ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, whose term expires in November. With her help, Portuguese politician Vítor Constâncio had been named ECB vice-president. Based on the complicated arithmetic of power in Europe, this meant that the future president had to come from a large northern European country. Everything pointed to Weber, and even the French had signaled their approval.
But then last May the ECB, in an effort to save the euro, decided to buy up government bonds of highly indebted countries like Greece, Portugal and Ireland. In Weber's view, this was a serious violation of the ironclad principle that money should not be printed to finance government debt. In addition to criticizing the measure internally within the ECB council, Weber took the unusual step of making his reservations public. In doing so, he not only incurred the wrath of ECB President Trichet ("There is only one ECB statement, and it comes from me"), but he also ran afoul of most other members of the ECB governing council. |
The Japanese do not forget old friends easily. Tokyo has honoured former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with its highest award at a time when he is all but forgotten in India. He has been conferred with the Grand Cordon of the Order of Paulownia Flowers. He is the first Indian to get the award.
The honour will be read in many ways, but what strikes me is the message it sends out. It says that the India-Japan relationship has a long history and will be important for years to come. In strengthening this relationship Singh has played a key role – as an economic advisor, while holding other offices in the government, and as prime minister.
This is not the first Japanese award Singh has received. In 1997 he was given the Nikkei Asia Prize, an award instituted by Japan’s leading economic newspaper the Nikkei.
Gave bilateral ties new dimensions
Only the Japanese would have honours named after flowers. The tree, scientifically proven to be native to North America, is named after a Dutch queen.
Called kiri in Japanese, the tree was traditionally planted at the birth of a daughter so that the wood could be used for her trousseau when she was married. Today, it is on the emblem of the prime minister’s office. The emblem of the Japanese imperial house is the chrysanthemum.
Singh has had a long interest in Japan. During his tenure, the bilateral relationship acquired a political and strategic dimension that was peripheral for most of the post-war period.
It is worth recalling that in the aftermath of Indian independence, when Japan was still a defeated nation under US-led occupation, it was India that presciently argued that Japan must be made part of the newly emerging Asia or Asia would split.
India invited Japan to participate in the Asian relations conference in March-April 1947, months before its Independence. It invited Japan to the first Asian Games in New Delhi in March 1951, though Japan had been excluded from the Olympic Games in London in 1948.
India refused reparation payments for wartime damage from Japan, but more importantly it argued that the US should not sign a military alliance with Japan while it was still under its occupation. The US went on to make Japan a military ally and then signed the San Francisco peace treaty that ended Japan’s occupation. This was a major step in cutting off Japan from the newly emerging Asia.
Cold War thaw
Pushed apart during the divisive Cold War period, India and Japan came closer when the fall of the Soviet Union created space for new interactions. As India loosened its economic controls, Japan, then still a "miracle" economy, was seen as the source of much needed capital and technology.
Singh’s reforms as finance minister in 1991 were, in part, enabled because Japan helped the country in tiding over the balance of payments crisis. The economy’s opening led to renewed interest from Japan. Economic ties developed but the political side of the ties took longer to take shape.
In August 2000, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited India and signed a pact with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for a Global Partnership for the 21st Century. Since then the relationship between the two countries has grown steadily.
Despite the debates and differing visions, the two governments have seen a convergence of political, economic and strategic interests, giving greater depth to their relationship.
Deviating from safe choices
In honouring the former prime minister, the Japanese have displayed an unexpected side to their perceived conformism. It is not a "safe" choice. The foreigners who have received this award earlier include General Douglas MacArthur, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces that occupied Japan after the war and carried out major reforms to demilitarise and democratise the country, as well as Lord Mountbatten.
The Japanese conservatives, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have always held Justice Radha Binod Pal in high honour as he gave a dissenting judgement in the Tokyo war crimes tribunal, a judgement they see as clearing them of wrongdoing. But giving him the award posthumously, which it has been to others, would have triggered a contentious debate.
This time 57 foreigners have been honoured, together with some 4,000 Japanese, in the imperial award ceremony. Among the foreigners are the US scholar and Assistant Secretary Jospeh Nye, best known for his theorising of "soft power".
In recognising Singh’s contribution, the award underlines the importance of the India-Japan relationship at a time when the region is undergoing a great transformation.
Brij Tankha is a professor of modern Japanese history, retired from the University of Delhi. |
Porsche has officially unveiled the 919 Hybrid this week in Geneva, thus signaling Porsche's return at Le Mans.
The Porsche 919 is a LMP1 contender packing a hybrid system consisting of a newly developed single-turbo V4 2.0-liter direct-injection gasoline engine working with a front axle-mounted electric motor and a lithium-ion battery pack. The V4 engine revs up to 9,000 rpm and sends its power to the rear wheels while the electric component provides drive to the front wheels so the 919 Hybrid offers temporary AWD.
It has received two energy recovery systems in the form of brake energy recuperation and a thermal energy recovery system incorporated in the exhaust system. It boasts an eight megajoule / lap energy recuperation boost function, representing the maximum allowed under current LMP1 rules. Porsche's gasoline-electric hybrid has been developed to fully respect all LMP1 regulations which impose a maximum length of 4,650mm, up to 1,900mm width and 1,050mm height, while the curb weight must be of at least 870 kg (1,918 lbs).
According to Porsche, the 919 Hybrid has spent no less than 2,000 hours testing in the wind tunnel ahead of the racecar's participation this June at Le Mans with the following drivers: Mark Webber, Neel Jani, Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas along with works drivers Marc Lieb and Brendon Hartley. |
Business owners in Indiana’s vaping industry – making and selling liquids for e-cigarettes – say despite all the work that’s gone into legislation regulating e-liquids, proposed requirements are still too strict.
A Senate committee Wednesday unanimously approved the requirements.
Rep. Kevin Mahan, R-Hartford City, authored a bill including several regulations vape shop owners say they’re comfortable with – prohibiting sales to anyone under 18 years old, ensuring e-liquids are prepared in rooms that are up to commercial food preparation standards, requiring tamper-proof safety caps.
There are other provisions they say go too far, including one that requires them to store three samples of each mixture they create. Indianapolis vape shop owner Shawn Anderson says that requirement would bankrupt him.
“With the amount of samples that I would have to save, because we do batches as small as six milliliters, it would cost me over $1.2 million per year,” he says.
Mahan says he’s had discussions with vape shop owners throughout session and looks forward to continuing that dialogue.
But Chief Deputy Attorney General Matt Light says the bill should do more to keep e-liquids out of the hands of minors.
Light’s suggestions include imposing an excise tax on vaping liquids. He says there should also be steps taken to address potential issues with secondhand smoke from vaping.
“Not looking at the statewide smoking ban and considering including e-cigarettes in that context might jeopardize some of the progress or some of the things that you’ve done with the statewide smoking ban to this point,” Light says.
Mahan says he’ll leave the excise tax issue up to the legislature’s fiscal leaders, but he notes that many House lawmakers expressed opposition to including e-cigarettes in the statewide smoking ban. |
Dishonored is an immersive first-person action game that casts you as a supernatural assassin driven by revenge. Creatively eliminate your targets with the flexible combat system as you combine the numerous supernatural abilities, weapons and unusual gadgets at your disposal. Pursue your enemies under the cover of darkness or ruthlessly attack them head on with weapons drawn. Regardless of your actions, the outcome of each mission plays out based on the choices you make.
Dishonored is set in Dunwall, an industrial whaling city where strange technology and otherworldly mysticism coexist in the shadows. You are the once-trusted bodyguard of the beloved Empress. Framed for her murder, you become an infamous assassin, known only by the disturbing mask that has become your calling card. In a time of uncertainty, when the city is being besieged by plague and ruled by an oppressive government armed with neo-industrial technologies, dark forces conspire to bestow upon you abilities beyond those of any common man – but at what cost? The truth behind your betrayal is as murky as the waters surrounding the city, and the life you once had is gone forever.
Features |
Marine Corps personnel move a transfer case containing the remains of Marine Corp Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, of Temecula, Calif., at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
The U.S. military has around 5,000 service members in Iraq, officials said on Monday, far more than previously reported, as the Obama administration quietly expands ground operations against the Islamic State.
The number of American forces in Iraq has come under increased scrutiny following the death over the weekend of a Marine staff sergeant, the second combat casualty in renewed U.S. operations in Iraq. He was killed when militants launched rockets at a small U.S. base around the city of Makhmour. The existence of the Marine detachment had not been known prior to Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin’s death.
Officials at the Pentagon have declined to specify how Marines are serving at the outpost in northern Iraq, which they described as a satellite base positioned to protect American trainers at a nearby, larger base. Their presence in Iraq highlights the use of forces from Navy ships already in the Middle East.
[Death of U.S. Marine in Iraq highlights use of troops from Navy ships in ISIS war]
The Defense Department has also reversed an earlier position and are now declining to confirm how many forces are presently in Iraq, saying only that the number of officially assigned forces is below the current cap of 3,870.
“People come through on a temporary basis and go above and below the force cap all the time, but we remain under our force cap,” Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters on Monday.
But officials privately acknowledge that the total troop number, while it varies from day to day, now stands around 5,000. The more than 1,000 personnel above the official cap include the Marines in northern Iraq along with military officials handling foreign military sales and other defense cooperation matters.
Having the ability to add additional personnel, whose deployments are seen as more temporary than the force of 3,870, “gives the theater commander the ability to move forces around,” a U.S. military official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues. The 3,870 troops include American trainers and advisers arrayed around the country.
[The U.S. air war against ISIS enters a new phase — but the fight for Mosul is coming]
If the Obama administration were to classify the Marines and other additional personnel as permanent, it would be required to increase that official force level reported in its monthly “boots on the ground” notification to Congress.
The White House, mindful of Obama’s pledge to end the ground wars initiated by his predecessor, has sought to minimize the combat role of American forces in Iraq. But officials have recognized the need for enhanced support to Iraqi forces, which are only slowly making progress is dislodging militants from major urban areas.
The United States has already taken steps in recent months to augment its campaign, including establishing a new Special Operations task force. Senior officials are expected to consider additional steps when the Iraqi government launches an offensive to reclaim the city of Mosul.
The number of U.S. troops is a sensitive topic for Iraqis following the 2003-2011 war that saw over 150,000 U.S. troops on Iraqi soil at its peak. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, already grappling with a fiscal crisis, is facing intensifying pressure over widespread corruption. |
Devyani Khobragade (left) and Neerja Bhanot. Devyani Khobragade (left) and Neerja Bhanot.
Kin of Pan Am Flight 73 victims lashed out at American double standards in taking up the issue of diplomat Devyani Khobragade's maid Sangeeta Richard while claiming international law and longstanding practice forbade them from taking up claims and cases of foreign nationals in their case.The US was paid 1.5 billion dollars in compensation by Libya. This was given to American victims of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 73 but not shared with the 120 Indian victims including 13 who were killed in the hijacking. India awarded Ashok Chakra, the highest gallantry award in peace time to Neerja Bhanot the chief flight pursuer who made the supreme sacrifice of her life, saving three American children.Her brother Avneesh Bhanot has once again approached the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to expose American double standards. "The US which claims to champion the cause of a domestic help Sangeeta Richard has told victims of Pan Am flight 73 that it is not in a position to pursue the claims of Indian nationals against another state. Devyani Khobragade is an Indian national. The maid is an Indian national who travelled to the US on an Indian 'Official' passport. So how can the US take up an Indian national's claim against another Indian national in the US? Where is the longstanding US practice and international law in this case," he asks.Pan Am Flight 73 took off from Mumbai for New York in September 1986. It landed in Karachi for refueling. That is when four terrorists from Libya dressed as security officials carrying grenades and automatic weapons boarded the American aircraft. The pilots and cockpit crew hearing the commotion inside the aircraft and seeing men with weapons escaped through the security hatch. Quick thinking Neerja concluded that terrorists were looking for American nationals. She immediately hid their passports. There was a 17 hour stand-off as the Libyan terrorists demanded another flight crew to take the aircraft to Cyprus."The all Indian cabin crew saved lives of 41 Americans on board at grave risk to their own lives. In fact as the Libyan terrorists suddenly opened fire and threw grenades, Neerja flung herself to protect three young American children. She died saving American lives," says her brother with pride. However, the US despite getting 1.5 billion dollars from Libya as compensation in 2008 has refused to compensate Indian victims of the hijacking. "The American plane as per aviation laws is American territory. The Libyans were attacking American nationals and interest. 13 Indians were killed but the great champion of human rights the United States abandoned the Indians," an official familiar with the case said.The kin of Pan Am Flight 73 victims have once again appealed to the MEA not to let the US "trample upon" their rights.13 Indians sacrificed their lives while saving but the great champion of human rights the United States abandoned the Indians. |
If you’re a Mac user, you might want to look out for an increase of unwanted advertisements popping out from your web browsers.
Security firm McAfee released a report this week that showed a big jump in 2016 regarding malware hitting the Mac operating system. The McAfee report said there were 460,000 malware instances affecting the Mac OS in the fourth quarter of 2016, an over 700% jump from the previous year during the same quarter.
McAfee’s new report confirms similar research by other cybersecurity firms in recent years that show an increased prevalence of malware affecting Apple computers. Essentially, as more people buy Apple (aapl) computers, there are more possibilities for malware to infect the machines.
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But while an over 700% surge in malware may sound frightening, it should be noted that “the big increase in Mac OS malware was due to adware bundling,” the report’s authors wrote. Adware refers to software that automatically displays online advertisements to users when they surf the web.
Adware, while annoying and obtrusive to some users, is considered by security researchers to be relatively harmless compared to the kinds of computer viruses that can help criminals hack into people’s machines.
One way people can protect themselves from accidentally downloading adware is by only downloading apps from Apple’s approved online store instead of installing software from less reliable sources.
In January, cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes said that it discovered a new type of malware that could freeze Apple computers. |
A good cooking pot design has an "overcook edge" which is what the lid lies on. The lid has a dripping edge that avoids condensation fluid from dripping off when handling the lid (taking it off and holding it 45°) or putting it down.
Both the cooking pot and lid handles can be made of the same material but will mean that, when picking up or touching either of these parts, oven gloves will need to be worn. In order to avoid this, handles can be made of non-heat-conducting materials, for example bakelite , plastic or wood . It is best to avoid hollow handles because they are difficult to clean or to dry.
The choice of material for cookware and bakeware items has a significant effect on the item's performance (and cost), particularly in terms of thermal conductivity and how much food sticks to the item when in use. Some choices of material also require special pre-preparation of the surface—known as seasoning —before they are used for food preparation .
Cookware and bakeware are types of food preparation containers , commonly found in a kitchen . Cookware comprises cooking vessels, such as saucepans and frying pans , intended for use on a stove or range cooktop . Bakeware comprises cooking vessels intended for use inside an oven . Some utensils are considered both cookware and bakeware.
By the 17th century, it was common for a Western kitchen to contain a number of skillets, baking pans, a kettle and several pots, along with a variety of pot hooks and trivets. Brass or copper vessels were common in Asia and Europe, whilst iron pots were common in the American colonies . Improvements in metallurgy during the 19th and 20th centuries allowed for pots and pans from metals such as steel, stainless steel and aluminium to be economically produced. [7]
The development of bronze and iron metalworking skills allowed for cookware made from metal to be manufactured, although adoption of the new cookware was slow due to the much higher cost. After the development of metal cookware there was little new development in cookware, with the standard Medieval kitchen utilizing a cauldron and a shallow earthenware pan for most cooking tasks, with a spit employed for roasting. [6] [7]
The development of pottery allowed for the creation of fireproof cooking vessels in a variety of shapes and sizes. Coating the earthenware with some type of plant gum, and later glazes, converted the porous container into a waterproof vessel. The earthenware cookware could then be suspended over a fire through use of a tripod or other apparatus, or even be placed directly into a low fire or coal bed as in the case of the pipkin . Ceramics conduct heat poorly, however, so ceramic pots must cook over relatively low heats and over long periods of time. However, most ceramic pots will crack if used on the stovetop , and are only intended for the oven.
According to Frank Hamilton Cushing, Native American cooking baskets used by the Zuni (Zuñi) developed from mesh casings woven to stabilize gourd water vessels. He reported witnessing cooking basket use by Havasupai in 1881. Roasting baskets covered with clay would be filled with wood coals and the product to be roasted. When the thus fired clay separated from the basket, it would become a usable clay roasting pan in itself. This indicates a steady progression from use of woven gourd casings to waterproof cooking baskets to pottery. Other than in many other cultures, Native Americans used and still use the heat source inside the cookware. Cooking baskets are filled with hot stones and roasting pans with wood coals. [5] Native Americans would form a basket from large leaves to boil water, according to historian and novelist Louis L'Amour . As long as the flames did not reach above the level of water in the basket, the leaves would not burn through. [ citation needed ]
Of greater difficulty was finding a method to boil water. For people without access to natural heated water sources, such as hot springs, heated stones (" pot boilers ") could be placed in a water-filled vessel to raise its temperature (for example, a leaf-lined pit or the stomach from animals killed by hunters). [4] In many locations the shells of turtles or large mollusks provided a source for waterproof cooking vessels. Bamboo tubes sealed at the end with clay provided a usable container in Asia, while the inhabitants of the Tehuacan Valley began carving large stone bowls that were permanently set into a hearth as early as 7,000 BC.
The history of cooking vessels before the development of pottery is minimal due to the limited archaeological evidence. The earliest pottery vessels, dating from 7004196000000000000♠19,600±400 BP , were discovered in Xianrendong Cave , Jiangxi , China. The pottery may have been used as cookware, manufactured by hunter-gatherers . [1] Harvard University archaeologist Ofer Bar-Yosef reported that "When you look at the pots, you can see that they were in a fire." [2] It is also possible to extrapolate likely developments based on methods used by latter peoples. Among the first of the techniques believed to be used by stone age civilizations were improvements to basic roasting . In addition to exposing food to direct heat from either an open fire or hot embers it is possible to cover the food with clay or large leaves before roasting to preserve moisture in the cooked result. Examples of similar techniques are still in use in many modern cuisines. [3]
Pottery Edit
Pottery has been used to make cookware from before dated history. Pots and pans made with this material are durable (some could last a lifetime or more) and are inert and non-reactive. Heat is also conducted evenly in this material. They can be used for both cooking in a fire pit surrounded with coals and for baking in the oven.
Metal Edit
Metal pots are made from a narrow range of metals because pots and pans need to conduct heat well, but also need to be chemically unreactive so that they do not alter the flavor of the food. Most materials that are conductive enough to heat evenly are too reactive to use in food preparation. In some cases (copper pots, for example), a pot may be made out of a more reactive metal, and then tinned or clad with another.
Aluminium Edit
An anodized aluminium sauté pan
Aluminium is a lightweight metal with very good thermal conductivity. It is resistant to many forms of corrosion. Aluminium is commonly available in sheet, cast, or anodized forms,[9] and may be physically combined with other metals (see below).
Sheet aluminium is spun or stamped into form. Due to the softness of the metal it may be alloyed with magnesium, copper, or bronze to increase its strength. Sheet aluminium is commonly used for baking sheets, pie plates, and cake or muffin pans. Deep or shallow pots may be formed from sheet aluminium.
Cast aluminium can produce a thicker product than sheet aluminium, and is appropriate for irregular shapes and thicknesses. Due to the microscopic pores caused by the casting process, cast aluminium has a lower thermal conductivity than sheet aluminium. It is also more expensive. Accordingly, cast aluminium cookware has become less common. It is used, for example, to make Dutch ovens lightweight and bundt pans heavy duty, and used in ladles and handles and woks to keep the sides at a lower temperature than the center.
Anodized aluminium has had the naturally occurring layer of aluminium oxide thickened by an electrolytic process to create a surface that is hard and non-reactive. It is used for sauté pans, stockpots, roasters, and Dutch ovens.[9]
Uncoated and un-anodized aluminium can react with acidic foods to change the taste of the food. Sauces containing egg yolks, or vegetables such as asparagus or artichokes may cause oxidation of non-anodized aluminium.
Aluminium exposure has been suggested as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.[10][11][12] The Alzheimer's Association states that "studies have failed to confirm any role for aluminum in causing Alzheimer's."[13] The link remains controversial.[14]
Copper Edit
Copper provides the highest thermal conductivity among non-noble metals and is therefore fast heating with unparalleled heat distribution (see: Copper in heat exchangers). Pots and pans are formed from copper sheets of various thicknesses, with those in excess of 2.5 mm considered commercial (or extra-fort) grade. Between 1 mm and 2.5 mm wall thickness is considered utility (fort) grade, with thicknesses below 1.5 mm often requiring tube beading or edge rolling to reinforce structural rigidity in circular configurations. Less than 1mm wall thickness is generally considered decorative, with exception made for the case of .75–1 mm planished copper, which is work-hardened by hammering and therefore expresses performance and strength characteristic of thicker material.
Copper thickness of less than .25 mm is, in the case of cookware, referred to as foil and must be formed to a more structurally rigid metal to produce a serviceable vessel. Such applications of copper are purely aesthetic and do not materially contribute to cookware performance.
Copper is reactive with acidic foods which can result in corrosion, the byproducts of which can foment copper toxicity. In certain circumstances, however, unlined copper is recommended and safe, for instance in the preparation of meringue, where copper ions prompt proteins to denature (unfold) and enable stronger protein bonds across the sulfur contained in egg whites. Unlined copper is also used in the making of preserves, jams and jellies. Copper does not store ("bank") heat, and so thermal flows reverse almost immediately upon removal from heat. This allows precise control of consistency and texture while cooking sugar and pectin-thickened preparations. Alone, fruit acid would be sufficient to cause leaching of copper byproducts, but naturally occurring fruit sugars and added preserving sugars buffer copper reactivity. Unlined pans have thereby been used safely in such applications for centuries.
Lining copper pots and pans prevents copper from contact with acidic foods. The most popular lining types are tin, stainless steel, nickel and silver.
The use of tin dates back many centuries and is the original lining for copper cookware. Although the patent for canning in sheet tin was secured in 1810 in England, legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier experimented with a solution for provisioning the French army while in the field by adapting the tin lining techniques used for his cookware to more robust steel containers (then only lately introduced for canning) which protected the cans from corrosion and soldiers from lead solder and botulism poisoning.
Tin linings sufficiently robust for cooking are wiped onto copper by hand, producing a .35–45-mm-thick lining.[15] Decorative copper cookware, i.e., a pot or pan less than 1 mm thick and therefore unsuited to cooking, will often be electroplate lined with tin. Should a wiped tin lining be damaged or wear out the cookware can be re-tinned, usually for much less cost than the purchase price of the pan. Tin presents a smooth crystalline structure and is therefore relatively non-stick in cooking applications. As a relatively soft metal abrasive cleansers or cleaning techniques can accelerate wear of tin linings. Wood, silicone or plastic implements are to preferred over harder stainless steel types.
For a period following the Second World War, pure nickel was electroplated as a lining to copper cookware. Nickel had the advantage of being harder and more thermally efficient than tin, with a higher melting point. Despite its hardness nickel's wear characteristics were similar to that of tin, as nickel would be plated only to a thickness of <20 microns, and often even less owing to nickel's tendency to plate somewhat irregularly, requiring milling to produce an even cooking surface, albeit sticky compared to tin and silver. Copper cookware with aged or damaged nickel linings is eligible for retinning, or possibly replating with nickel, although this service is difficult if not impossible to find in the US and Europe in the early 21st century. Nickel linings began to fall out of favor in the 1980s owing to the isolation of nickel as an allergen.
Silver is also applied to copper by means of electroplating, and provides an interior finish that is at once smooth, more durable than either tin or nickel, relatively non-stick and extremely thermally efficient. Copper and silver bond extremely well owing to their shared high electro-conductivity. Lining thickness varies widely by maker, but averages between 7 and 10 microns. The disadvantages of silver are expense and the tendency of sulfurous foods, especially brassicas, to discolor. Worn silver linings on copper cookware can be restored by stripping and re-electroplating.
Copper cookware lined with a thin layer of stainless steel is available from most modern European manufacturers. Stainless steel is 25 times less thermally conductive than copper, and is sometimes critiqued for compromising the efficacy of the copper with which it is bonded. Among the advantages of stainless steel are its durability and corrosion resistance, and although relatively sticky and subject to food residue adhesions, stainless steel is tolerant of most abrasive cleaning techniques and metal implements. Stainless steel forms a pan's structural element when bonded to copper and is irreparable in the event of wear or damage.
Using modern metal bonding techniques, such as cladding, copper is frequently incorporated into cookware constructed of primarily dissimilar metal, such as stainless steel, often as an enclosed diffusion layer (see Coated and Composite Cookware below).
Cast iron Edit
Cast iron cookware is slow to heat, but once at temperature provides even heating. Cast iron can also withstand very high temperatures, making cast iron pans ideal for searing. Being a reactive material, cast iron can have chemical reactions with high acid foods such as wine or tomatoes. In addition, some foods (such as spinach) cooked on bare cast iron will turn black.
Cast iron is a porous material that rusts easily. As a result, it typically requires seasoning before use. Seasoning creates a thin layer of oxidized fat over the iron that coats and protects the surface, and prevents sticking.
Enameled cast iron cookware was developed in the 1920s. In 1934, the French company Cousances designed the enameled cast iron Doufeu to reduce excessive evaporation and scorching in cast iron Dutch ovens. Modeled on old braising pans in which glowing charcoal was heaped on the lids (to mimic two-fire ovens), the Doufeu has a deep recess in its lid which instead is filled with ice cubes. This keeps the lid at a lower temperature than the pot bottom. Further, little notches on the inside of the lid allow the moisture to collect and drop back into the food during the cooking. Although the Doufeu (literally, "gentlefire") can be used in an oven (without the ice, as a casserole pan), it is chiefly designed for stove top use.
Stainless steel Edit
Stainless steel
Stainless steel is an iron alloy containing a minimum of 11.5% chromium. Blends containing 18% chromium with either 8% nickel, called 18/8, or with 10% nickel, called 18/10, are commonly used for kitchen cookware. Stainless steel's virtues are resistance to corrosion, non-reactivity with either alkaline or acidic foods, and resistance to scratching and denting. Stainless steel's drawbacks for cooking use is that it is a relatively poor heat conductor and its non-magnetic property, although recent developments have allowed the production of magnetic 18/10 alloys, and which thereby provides compatibility with induction cooktops, which require magnetic cookware. Since the material does not adequately spread the heat itself, stainless steel cookware is generally made as a cladding of stainless steel on both sides of an aluminum or copper core to conduct the heat across all sides, thereby reducing "hot spots", or with a disk of copper or aluminum on just the base to conduct the heat across the base, with possible "hot spots" at the sides. In so-called "tri-ply" cookware, the central aluminum layer is obviously non-magnetic, and the interior 18/10 layer need not be magnetic, but the exterior 18/10 layer must be magnetic to be compatible with induction cooktops.
Carbon steel Edit
Carbon steel
Carbon steel cookware can be rolled or hammered into relatively thin sheets of dense material, which provides robust strength and improved heat distribution. Carbon steel accommodates high, dry heat for such operations as dry searing. Carbon steel does not conduct heat efficiently, but this may be an advantage for larger vessels, such as woks and paella pans, where one portion of the pan is intentionally kept at a different temperature than the rest. Like cast iron, carbon steel must be seasoned before use, usually by rubbing a fat or oil on the cooking surface and heating the cookware on the stovetop or in the oven. With proper use and care, seasoning oils polymerize on carbon steel to form a low-tack surface, well-suited to browning, Maillard reactions and easy release of fried foods. Carbon steel will easily rust if not seasoned and should be stored seasoned to avoid rusting. Carbon steel is traditionally used for crêpe and fry pans, as well as woks.
PTFE Non-stick Edit
Skillet with non-stick cooking surface
Steel or aluminum cooking pans can be coated with a substance such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE, often referred to with the genericized trademark Teflon®) in order to minimize food sticking to the pan surface. There are advantages and disadvantages to such a coating. Coated pans are easier to clean than most non-coated pans, and require little or no additional oil or fat to prevent sticking, a property that helps to produce lower fat food. On the other hand, some sticking is required to cause sucs to form, so a non-stick pan cannot be used where a pan sauce is desired. Non-stick coatings tend to degrade over time and are susceptible to damage. Using metal implements, harsh scouring pads, or chemical abrasives can damage or destroy cooking surface.
Non-stick pans must not be overheated. The coating is stable at normal cooking temperatures, even at the smoke point of most oils. However, if a non-stick pan is heated while empty its temperature may quickly exceed 260 °C (500 °F), above which the non-stick coating may begin to deteriorate, changing color and losing its non-stick properties.[16] Above 350 °C (662 °F), the non-stick coating will rapidly decompose and emit toxic fumes, which are especially dangerous to birds, and may cause polymer fume fever in human beings.[16][17]
Coated and composite cookware Edit
Enameled cast iron Edit
Enameled cast iron cooking vessels are made of cast iron covered with a porcelain surface. This creates a piece that has the heat distribution and retention properties of cast iron combined with a non-reactive, low-stick surface.
Enamel over steel Edit
The enamel over steel technique creates a piece that has the heat distribution of carbon steel and a non-reactive, low-stick surface. Such pots are much lighter than most other pots of similar size, are cheaper to make than stainless steel pots, and do not have the rust and reactivity issues of cast iron or carbon steel.[citation needed] Enamel over steel is ideal for large stockpots and for other large pans used mostly for water-based cooking. Because of its light weight and easy cleanup, enamel over steel is also popular for cookware used while camping.
Clad aluminium or copper Edit
Cladding is a technique for fabricating pans with a layer of efficient heat conducting material, such as copper or aluminum, covered on the cooking surface by a non-reactive material such as stainless steel, and often covered on the exterior aspect of the pan ("dual-clad") as well. Some pans feature a copper or aluminum interface layer that extends over the entire pan rather than just a heat-distributing disk on the base. Generally, the thicker the interface layer, especially in the base of the pan, the more improved the heat distribution. Claims of thermal efficiency improvements are, however, controversial, owing in particular to the limiting and heat-banking effect of stainless steel on thermal flows.
Aluminum is typically clad on both the inside and the exterior pan surfaces, providing both a stainless cooking surface and a stainless surface to contact the cooktop. Copper of various thicknesses is often clad on its interior surface only, leaving the more attractive copper exposed on the outside of the pan (see Copper above).
Some cookware use a dual-clad process, with a thin stainless layer on the cooking surface, a thick core of aluminum to provide structure and improved heat diffusion, and a foil layer of copper on the exterior to provide the "look" of a copper pot at a lower price.[18]
Other non-metallic cookware Edit
Silicone food steamer to be placed in a pot of boiling water
Silicone ladles
Non-metallic cookware can be used in both conventional and microwave ovens. Non-metallic cookware typically can not be used on the stovetop, although Corningware and Pyroflam are some exceptions.
Ceramics Glazed ceramics, such as porcelain, provide a nonstick cooking surface. Historically some glazes used on ceramic articles contained levels of lead, which can possess health risks; although this is not a concern with the vast majority of modern ware. Some pottery can be placed on fire directly.[ citation needed ]
Glass Borosilicate glass is safe at oven temperatures. The clear glass also allows for the food to be seen during the cooking process. However, it cannot be used on a stovetop, as it cannot cope with stovetop temperatures.
Glass-ceramic Glass ceramic is used to make products such as Corningware and Pyroflam, which have many of the best properties of both glass and ceramic cookware. While Pyrex can shatter if taken between extremes of temperature too rapidly, glass-ceramics can be taken directly from deep freeze to the stove top. Their very low coefficient of thermal expansion makes them less prone to thermal shock.
Stone a natural stone can be used to diffuse heat for indirect grilling or baking, as in a baking stone or pizza stone, or the French pierrade. |
Friday's opening of the Evergreen Line is sure to have many commuters excited, but geologists have been excited about the Evergreen Line for a different reason: science.
Lionel Jackson is an adjunct professor at SFU's Department of Earth Sciences, and he and some colleagues have been sifting through sediment samples that were dug up during the line's tunnel excavation.
What they say they have found is a wealth of geological history about the area dating back thousands of years.
"I was quite amazed, because I realized the tunnel was going completely through sediments, not rock," he told On The Coast's Michelle Eliot. "For me, [it was] an incredible opportunity to study the record of glaciations that would be recorded in those sediments."
Jackson says one particularly exciting finding from the cores was an indication that Burnaby Mountain and central Coquitlam were probably separate islands at one time when sea levels were higher. "That was quite interesting."
'Like going into a time machine'
Drilling cores contain a wealth of materials and information, Jackson says. The ones he has from the Evergreen construction include soil, gravel and even wood — evidence of an ancient forest.
Lionel Jackson shows of some of his drilling cores from Evergreen Line construction. (Michelle Eliot/CBC)
The cores' shifting colours tell the stories of the many glaciation, and even volcanic, events the Lower Mainland has seen over the millennia..
"It's amazing," Jackson said of the chance to study the cores. "It would just be beyond our resources as scientists to just go out and do this type of drilling. It would be hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and I doubt we'd be able to talk people into being able to drill in their neighbourhoods at the best of times.
"But because it's a public works project, they did all kinds of drilling and this came to us at absolutely no cost."
Jackson says he plans on being on one of the first Evergreen Line trains open to the public, and will be thinking a lot about the geological forces that created the mountain he and other passengers are riding through.
"It's like going into a time machine."
With files from Michelle Eliot and CBC Radio One's On The Coast
To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: Hardcore! Sediment cores from Evergreen Line tunnelling provide wealth of information |
Former NSA Directors Coming Out Strongly *Against* Backdooring Encryption
from the didn't-see-that-coming dept
Michael Hayden, the former head of the US top spy agencies, the CIA, and the NSA, thinks the US government should stop railing against encryption and should support strong crypto rather than asking for backdoors.
The US is “better served by stronger encryption, rather than baking in weaker encryption,” he said during a panel on Tuesday.
“In retrospect, we mastered the problem we created by the lack of the Clipper Chip,” he said. “We were able to do a whole bunch of other things. Some of the other things were metadata, and bulk collection and so on.”
“Don’t get in the way of progress,” McConnell said Thursday at a panel during an encryption summit hosted by The Washington Post. “Don’t get in the way of innovation and creativity, because this is going to happen. Somebody’s going to provide this encryption.”
McConnell’s position is a complete departure from the perspective he represented in government, a shift he has publicly acknowledged. When he ran the National Security Agency in the 1990s, McConnell was a vocal supporter of the Clipper Chip, a device developed by the NSA that allowed the government to decrypt electronic communications.
Earlier this summer, we were taken a bit by surprise when both former NSA/CIA boss Michael Hayden, along with former DHS boss Michael Chertoff, came out fairly strongly against backdooring encryption at a time when their counterparts still in the government seemed to be leaning in the other direction and have been pushing proposals to mandate backdoors. And it appears they're not backing down. Hayden has now doubled down with further statements against backdooring encryption , according to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai at Vice's Motherboard.Later, he told Lorenzo that part of his thinking is that the intelligence community doesn't need such backdoors since it has other ways of getting that info:Hayden is being a bit snarky there. He knows that privacy advocates will take his words about backdooring encryption and celebrate them, so he's using it at the same time to argue in favor of the other problematic programs -- programs that Hayden is most closely associated with involving mass surveillance. He's also being disingenuous. The metadata and mass surveillance efforts generally give you access to a different kind of information. What Hayden leaves out, of course, is the real reason why backdoors usually aren't that important: because there are almost always ways to hack into encrypted data, though that also raises serious questions.Meanwhile, another former NSA director, Mike McConnell, has joined with the other two Michaels in arguing against backdoors . This according to Kaveh Waddell at the National Journal:Of course, what's mostly left out of this discussion is that both McConnell and Hayden are now in the private sector -- Hayden at the Chertoff Group with Michael Chertoff, and McConnell at defense contracting giant (and former Ed Snowden employer) Booz Allen Hamilton -- where both have economic reasons for supportingstronger security, rather than undermining such security. Either way, in this debate, it seems that those pushing for backdooring encryption are increasingly being marginalized entirely. Even their normally faithful supporters have moved on into the world of reality, where backdooring encryption only leads to trouble.
Filed Under: backdoors, encryption, michael chertoff, michael hayden, michael mcconnell, nsa, surveillance |
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – WrestleMania 31 became the highest grossing live event in WWE history and broke the attendance record for Levi’s® Stadium. This year's Show of Shows grossed $12.6 million, as 76,976 fans from all 50 states and 40 countries converged on the home of the San Francisco 49ers.
The previous attendance record for Levi’s® Stadium was 70,799, and WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium in 2013 held WWE’s prior record for gross revenue at $12.3 million.
“On behalf of the cities of Santa Clara and San Jose, we would like to thank all the fans that came from around the world to be part of WrestleMania 31,” said Santa Clara Mayor Jamie Matthews. "We congratulate both WWE and Levi’s® Stadium on their historic achievement."
“We are thrilled that WrestleMania 31 has set the standard for all future events held at Levi’s® Stadium. None of this success would have been possible without the support of Mayor Matthews, Mayor Liccardo and the San Francisco 49ers, as well as our public and private sector partners that worked tirelessly to support all of our regional WrestleMania Week activities," said John P. Saboor, WWE Executive Vice President, Special Events. "We now turn our attention to the Dallas/Arlington region for what will surely be a historic WrestleMania 32.”
WrestleMania 32 takes place on Sunday, April 3, 2016 from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX. Ticket information will be announced later this year.
Top Ten All-Time Attendance Records at WrestleMania: |
CLOSE U.S. President Donald Trump says he's "fairly close" to reaching a deal with congressional leaders on providing protections to young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children but he needs "massive border security." (Sept. 14) AP
Immigration activists protest the Trump administration's decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on Wednesday in Newark, N.J. (Photo11: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he's close to a deal with Congress that would protect young undocumented immigrants who came into the country illegally as children — and suggested that he wouldn't let his insistence on a Mexican border wall get in the way.
"The wall will come later," he said.
News of a possible breakthrough came after Trump dined with House Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Charles Schumer, the top Democrats in the House and Senate, at the White House on Wednesday. It's the second time in as many weeks that Trump seemed to bypass his own party to talk directly with opposition leaders.
And although Trump and the Democrats later didn't agree on what they agreed to, both sides suggested Trump's campaign promise to build a border wall is no longer the main sticking point.
Trump — who promised to take his deal-making skills to the Oval Office but has been unable so far to get Congress to pass his major priorities such as repealing Obamacare — appeared eager for an agreement this time.
"We have to get things passed, and if we can't get things passed then we have to go a different route," Trump said aboard Air Force One on his way back from hurricane-ravaged Florida.
But Trump also made clear he's not taking the wall entirely off the table: "They cannot obstruct for a wall because we definitely need a wall," he said.
The driving force behind a broader immigration bill is an Obama-era program known as DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which delayed deportations and gave quasi-legal status to the foreign-born children of immigrants who came to the country illegally. Trump suspended that program this month, giving Congress six months to come up with a legislative solution before ordering deportations to begin.
Trump has expressed sympathy for the so-called DREAMers, but is also using them as leverage to get a bill that would also include stronger border security measures.
"We're working on a plan, subject to getting massive border controls. We're working on a plan for DACA. People want to see that happen. You have 800,000 young people, brought here, no fault of their own," Trump said. "We'll see what happens, but something will happen."
The idea that Trump would de-link border wall funding from those talks prompted a day-long scramble on Capitol Hill to redefine the terms of negotiation over the bill.
Schumer called the agreement a "framework," but Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan downplayed the significance of the cross-party talks.
"It was a discussion, not an agreement or a negotiation," Ryan said. "You cannot fix DACA without fixing the root cause of our problem. We do not have control of our borders." The president, Ryan added, "understands he has to work with the congressional majorities to get any kind of legislative solution."
Pelosi said Democrats thought they had an agreement to incorporate the DREAM Act into the immigration package, with the border wall dealt with separately.
The DREAM Act is a bipartisan bill that would not just protect the DACA recipients from deportation, but also give them a way to earn citizenship. “I do believe there is an understanding that down the road there is an eventual path to citizenship,” she said.
But asked Thursday if he favors amnesty for undocumented immigrants Thursday, Trump shouted back to reporters, "The word is DACA."
The talks appear to be part of a shift in strategy for Trump, who cut a separate deal with Democrats last week over the budget. That deal that included a suspension of the debt limit, short-term spending to keep the government open through December, and $15 billion in hurricane relief — to the consternation of some Republicans who felt he gave up too much.
But this time, Trump insisted that GOP leaders are "very much on board."
The Trump-Pelosi-Schumer summit also ignited a firestorm of protests among Trump's right-wing base, especially among conservative talkers.
"At this point, who DOESN'T want Trump impeached?" asked Ann Coulter. Mark Levin called him a RINO — a Republican in name only. "Is he this ignorant?" asked Rush Limbaugh.
House conservatives had a mixed reaction to the development. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said border security has always been a broader issue than the wall. "You can tunnel under a wall," he said.
"Obviously the Trump voter is not in favor of amnesty," he said. But most undocumented immigrants aren't seeking citizenship, he said — just the ability to work without fear of deportation.
"It's a very complex issue that we're not going to solve in one dinner with two Democrats," said Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.
CLOSE We break down what DACA is and what it could mean for thousands of immigrants. USA TODAY
More: Trump official: White House may not link DREAMers to border wall funding
More: Hope for some 'dreamers' despite Trump move to end DACA
Trump spoke to reporters at least five different times on Thursday, addressing the issue each time — sometimes with mixed messages.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that they had covered his position on the dinner discussions "very accurately." But his campaign later sent out an email to supporters to "set the record straight," writing in all capital letters that "WE WILL BUILD A WALL (NOT A FENCE) ALONG THE SOUTHERN BORDER OF THE UNITED STATES."
"Apparently, liberals in Congress and the mainstream media need one more reminder that building the wall is non-negotiable," Trump said in the email.
In a series of early-morning tweets, Trump said no deal had been reached on DACA. "Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent. Would be subject to vote," he said.
But he also appeared motivated to protect DREAMers from deportation.
"Does anybody really want to throw out good, educated and accomplished young people who have jobs, some serving in the military?" he tweeted Thursday, adding: "They have been in our country for many years through no fault of their own."
– Eliza Collins and Deirdre Shesgreen contributed in Washington. David Jackson contributed from Joint Base Andrews, Md.
CLOSE President Trump’s controversial decision to end the DACA program was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats in Washington. Buzz60
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wbxRio |
A man driving a front loader shifts soil containing rare earth minerals to be loaded at a port in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu province, for export to Japan. Inset: an electric car, night vision goggles and an iPad.
CHINA'S monopoly over rare-earth metals could be challenged by the discovery of massive deposits of these high-tech minerals in mud on the Pacific floor, a study suggests.
China accounts for 97 per cent of the world's production of 17 rare-earth elements, which are essential for electric cars, flat-screen TVs, iPods, superconducting magnets, lasers, missiles, night-vision goggles, wind turbines and many other advanced products.
These elements carry exotic names such as neodymium, promethium and yttrium but despite their "rare-earth" tag are in fact abundant in the planet's crust.
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The problem, though, is that land deposits of them are thin and scattered around, so sites that are commercially exploitable or not subject to tough environment restrictions are few.
As a result, the 17 elements have sometimes been dubbed "21st-century gold" for their rarity and value.
Production of them is almost entirely centred on China, which also has a third of the world's reserves. Another third is held together by former Soviet republics, the United States and Australia.
But a new study, published yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience, points to an extraordinary concentration of rare-earth elements in thick mud at great depths on the Pacific floor.
Japanese geologists studied samples from 78 sites covering a major portion of the centre-eastern Pacific between 120 and 180 degrees longitude.
Drills extracted sedimentary cores to depths that in place were more than 50 metres below the sea bed.
More than 2000 of these cores were chemically tested for content in rare-earth elements.
The scientists found rich deposits in samples taken more than 2,000 kilometres from the Pacific's mid-ocean ridges.
The material had taken hundreds of millions of years to accumulate, depositing at the rate of less than half a centimetre per thousand years. They were probably snared by action with a hydrothermal mineral called phillipsite.
At one site in the central North Pacific, an area of just one square kilometre could meet a fifth of the world's annual consumption of rare metals and yttrium, says the paper.
Lab tests show the deposits can be simply removed by rinsing the mud with diluted acids, a process that takes only a couple of hours and, say the authors, would not have any environmental impact so long as the acids are not dumped in the ocean.
A bigger question is whether the technology exists for recovering the mud at such great depths -- 4,000 to 5,000 metres -- and, if so, whether this would be commercially viable.
Lead author Yasuhiro Kato, a professor of economic geology and geochemistry at the University of Tokyo, said the response from mining companies was as yet unknown, "because nobody knows the presence of the (rare-earth) -rich mud that we have discovered."
"I am not an engineer, just a geoscientist," Mr Kato said. "But about 30 years ago, a German mining company succeeded in recovering deep-sea mud from the Red Sea. So I believe positively that our deep-sea mud is technologically developable as a mineral resource."
The market for rare-earth elements has tightened considerably over the past couple of years.
China has slashed export quotas, consolidated the industry and announced plans to build national reserves, citing environmental concerns and domestic demand.
These moves led to a fall of 9.3 per cent in China's exports of rare-earth metals last year, triggering complaints abroad of strategic hoarding and price-gouging.
Japanese industry sources also said China temporarily cut off exports last year during a territorial row between Asia's two largest economies. |
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This article was originally published on Wear Your Voice and republished here with the author’s permission.
The other day as I was riding the subway, I saw an advertisement for a new television series centering on Natalee Holloway, the 18-year-old who disappeared when she was on a high school graduation to Aruba in May 2005. The case is being revisited in a new television series on Oxygen, called “The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway”, where promises of new leads give audiences a new interest in the case.
American audiences are too familiar with Natalee Holloway’s name, just as they are with JonBenet Ramsey and other white girls and women whose faces are helmed as the epitome of innocence. This doesn’t dispute that they don’t deserve any of the harm that may have befallen them – no woman does. However, the ways that white victims of misogyny and gender-based violence are treated in comparison to BIW+oC — Black, Indigenous, and other women of color — are staggering and send a clear message on whose lives matter more.
Too often, the treatment of BIW+oC in the face of violence and misogyny is disregarded and pushed aside altogether.
Violence against BIW+oC is not only routine and expected, but celebrated. It’s clear that talking about misogyny isn’t something new, but the ways in which it impacts our lives are.
The danger with oppression isn’t with the everyday violence which it allows; the true danger comes from the normalization of that violence. As we’ve seen with the news surrounding The Breakfast Club and their complacency in transphobia and transmisogyny under the guise of “humor”, it is a dangerous thing when we become comfortable with the violence that surrounds us every day.
Our society is more complacent with violence against women and femmes than we give it credit for.
What does all of this have to do with misogyny?
Merged with the racism and oppression that particularly weighs on Black, Indigenous, and other women and femmes of color, misogyny becomes something much deadlier. Misogyny becomes a nameless epidemic that seeks to kill us silently and softly.
In the cycle of violence, dehumanization is the first step towards completing that cycle. Dehumanization includes “equating a specific group with subhuman creatures, allowing the dominant group to overcome their aversion to murder.”
Hate propaganda is also part of this step in the process. Do these things sound familiar? They should. They are present in every major act of violence in history and are certainly present in each example of smaller-scale or early-stage violence against oppressed groups. |
Has the mystery of nine skiers who died in the Siberian wilderness in 1959 been SOLVED? Author claims new 'scientific' explanation for the Dyatlov Pass incident
Donnie Eichar said discovered the secret in an interview about his new book
A probe by the Soviet government at the time was inconclusive, and other researchers have been baffled by the famous case for decades
Bodies of the experienced explorers were found under the snow
Some had been unclothed, while their tent was left immaculate except for signs of it having been cut open from the inside
Interview hints that Mr Eichar's theory may be to do with 'infrasound' - extremely low-pitched noise which studies claim causes irrational terror
A mysterious case of nine experienced skiers who died in bizarre circumstances on an expedition into Siberia may have been solved by an America researcher.
Donnie Eichar, a film-maker and author, spent four years investigating the so-called Dyatlov Pass incident, and has now claimed that he has discovered a 'scientific' explanation for the baffling case.
The skiers, who were all students, were led into the wilderness of the Ural mountains by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov.
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Smiling before disaster: (Left to right) Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolle, Luda Dubinina, Semyon Zolotarev and Zina Kolmogorova
Their aim was to reach the remote Otorten Mountain, but - with the exception of one man who turned back early due to ill health - the entire party would be found dead beneath the snow.
Rescuers sent out into the -24-degree weather to track the party down at first found only a collapsed tent, still filled with all the clothing and survival gear needed to make the rest of the journey.
But the empty tent baffled investigators, as it still contained items of clothing and pairs of shoes - implying that some of the students had ventured out into the wilderness barefoot and without coats.
Even when later searches uncovered the frozen bodies of all nine victims, no convincing explanation could be found for why the experienced hikers - who would have been well-versed in winter survival techniques - had come to such a tragic end.
Search parties found one group of bodies lying in the snow on flat land near a river, a mile from the tent, next to the remains of a long burnt-out fire.
Around 350 yards away lay the corpse of Dyatlov, the engineering student from Ural Polyetchnic who had put the expedition together and was its leader. His name would later be given to the area where the tragedy took place, as well as the incident itself.
Nearby, a search dog sniffed out the remains of Zina Kolmogorova, 22, under four inches of snow, and then that of Rustem Slobodin.
The bodies were in a line 200 yards apart, as if they had been trying to crawl behind each other back up to the shelter of the tent, but never made it.
Eerie: The tent as the rescuers found it on February 26, 1959, which had been cut open from inside
Another two months went by before the rest of the group were found, under 15ft of snow in a den they had desperately hollowed out for themselves before succumbing to the cold.
Some of this group had broken bones and terrible internal injuries but, strangely, no external wounds, not even scratches on the skin.
Post-mortem examinations of all nine bodies threw their own anomalies, as some bodies were fully clothed, others almost naked. One, belonging to Lyudmilla Dubinina was missing her tongue and eyes.
An investigation by a Soviet government inspector was also fruitless, and was quietly dropped after concluding nobody was to blame. Lev Ivanov, the inspector, concluded only that all nine deaths had been caused by what he described as ‘an unknown elemental force which they were unable to overcome’.
Striking camp: The skiers setting up camp on February 2, 1959 in a photo taken from a roll of film found by investigators
Experienced skiers: Yuri Yudin, centre, hugging Lyudmila Dubinina as he prepares to leave the group due to illness, which saved his life as he left the expedition before the deaths
But in a recent interview with Failure magazine, Mr Eichar hinted at his conclusion, saying: 'The conclusion that I have come up with could only have happened with the help of modern science and the help of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.'
Jason Zasky, who interviewed Mr Eichar, also wrote that his theory: 'involves a particular type of repetitive wind event (one that could be produced by the topography of Dead Mountain), which in turn might have triggered panic-inducing infrasound.'
Mr Eichar has stayed tight-lipped about the specifics, but said the original investigator: 'couldn’t explain what happened because he lacked the science and technology to do so.'
The 'infrasound' theory to which the interviewer refers is a bizarre - but apparently plausible - explanation which argues that sound waves too low to hear could have subtly affected the minds of the skiers, panicking them and causing them to rush recklessly out into the snow, where the cold killed them.
These waves of infrasound, it seems, could have been produced by high winds resonating thanks to the shape of the mountains.
Studied have suggested that infrasound - soundwaves too low for humans to hear - can nonetheless produce feelings of unease, awe or even terror which cannot be explained any other way. |
Incessant rains in Chennai, waterlogging in various parts of the region (Visuals from T Nagar) pic.twitter.com/87NiVdeF0g — ANI (@ANI_news) December 2, 2015
Waterlogging due to heavy rains in Chennai. (Visuals from Anna Nagar) #ChennaiFloods pic.twitter.com/mt7eatPbTq — ANI (@ANI_news) December 2,
CHENNAI: Chennai on Wednesday turned a virtual island and several coastal areas of Tamil Nadu were marooned by flood waters after unprecedented rains in 100 years pounded the city, its suburbs and neighbouring districts destroying crucial road and rail links, shutting the airport and rendering thousands homeless.Chennai, which received 49 cm of rain and Chembarambakkam, where the reservoir surplussed about 25,000 cusecs of water into Adyar river, received 47 cm of rains in the last 24 hours that flooded the city and the suburbs, uprooting people from their homes.Flood waters reached upto even the second floor of the Housing Board colonies on the banks of Adyar river as people reached roof tops looking for rescue and relief in several parts of the city and suburbs.The death toll in the rains that have lashed the city and other parts of state has gone up to 197, officials said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke to chief minister J Jayalalithaa last night and promised all assistance, held discussions with his cabinet colleagues Rajnath Singh (Home), Arun Jaitley (Finance) and M Venkaiah Naidu (parliamentary affairs) in the morning to take stock of the situation.The National Crisis Management Committee headed by cabinet secretary P K Sinha reviewed the situation and assured the state of all support from the centre.All modes of transport--air, road and rail services-- remained suspended due to the unprecedented deluge, leaving thousands of passengers stranded at the airport and various rail terminals. Suburban rail services also remained suspended.Adding to the worry of the citizens and administration, the weatherman has forecast rainfall over the next three days with the next 48 being very critical under the influence of a trough of low pressure and upper air circulation over the southwest Bay of Bengal and Sri Lankan coast.Thereafter, the state will see an anti-cyclone activity which will be associated with "heavy rains" at some places."The phenomenon will continue for the next seven days, but the next 48 hours are very crucial. Neighbouring states will also see rainfall activity," L S Rathore, Director General of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) told reporters in Delhi.A steady drizzle, which was occasionally heavy, brought some respite from yesterday's torrential downpour, but vast swathes in the city and the suburbs and neighbouring districts of Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore and Villupuram reeled under the impact of the surplus waters from reservoirs that left Adyar and Cooum rivers in spate and Buckingham Canal breached.Massive rescue and rehabilitation efforts have been undertaken by army, navy and air force along with personnel of the National Disaster Rescue Force ( NDRF ), police and fire service in the worst-affected areas of Tambaram, Mudichur, Velachery and Madipakkam in the suburbs that come under Kanchipuram distict and in Kotturpuram, Jaffarkhanpet, Saidapet, Guindy and Mambalam and other western parts of the city.Normal life in the city and suburbs were completely disrupted by lack of public transport, power and essential supplies as movement of vehicles were largely curtailed because flood waters even in hitherto-safe areas of the city.Mobile telephony largely remained crippled because of failure of telephone towers and the landline phones in several areas went still because of the flood in the of the areas.The Maraimalai Adigal bridge connecting on the arterial Anna Salai (Mount Road) and the Kotturpuram bridge were closed for transport following Adyar water rising upto the road level.Teams of army, navy, coast guard and NDRF have been deployed in the worst-affected areas of Tambaram, the southern gateway to the city, Mudichur and Oorapakkam.Police and Fire service personnel were also involved in rescue operations. The Coast Guard has deployed its boats in some areas in the city that has witnessed unprecedented rains in a short period of time in recent memory.Teams have also been pressed into service in Jafarkhanpet, Saidapet and Kotturpuram on the banks of Adyar and Vadapalani, Valasaravakkam, Anna Nagar, Mogappair, Avadi, Ambattur and Aminjikarai in western parts of the city which have been flooded with waters entering residential homes.People stand on a flooded road in Chennai. (Reuters Photo)The southern suburbs of Chennai including Velachery, Madipakkam and neighbouring areas which had suffered heavily in the earlier spells of rain in November were again hit badly by the downpour that has again flooded homes.The Grand Southern Trunk road connecting Chennai with Madurai and beyond, the old Mahabalipuram road and the East Coast Road through which Chennai can be accessed have been cut off with waters washing away the roads in several places including Guduvancheri.The famous IT corridor was also flooded. Work in the IT and auto hubs in the suburbs and the industrial estate in Ambattur has been crippled.While travellers from southern districts have been stranded midway, thousands of passengers were left helpless in Chennai Central and Egmore stations.Suburban railway services in Chennai have also been suspended because of flooding of tracks. Trains from norther, eastern, western and other parts of south India to Chennai were cancelled or diverted.The flooding of the city and the suburbs has been caused essentially by the surplussing of waters from the reservoirs like Chembarambakkam, Poondi and Puzhal into Adyar and Cooum that criss-cross the city flooding several areas along the banks and displacing people from homes.An unprecedented 25,000 cusecs of water was released from the Chembarambakkam lake as the reservoir has been getting heavy supplies from the rain in catchment areas.A boy wades through a flooded street in Chennai (AP Photo)Electricity has been cut off in most parts of the city as a precautionary measure while people went without essential supplies like milk and water.Air Force helicopters were seen distributing food packets in some of the worst-hit areas.The Southern Railways cancelled 16 trains and diverted 12 others both on the Chennai Central and Egmore sections following breaching of tracks in several areas.The airport, whose runway, tarmac and apron areas have been flooded with rainwater, has been shut down till 6am tomorrow. Operations were suspended at the airport last night itself. Flights to Chennai have been diverted to Bangalore, Hyderabad and other nearby cities.In view of the water logging, Chennai Airport authorities have shut operations till 6 AM tomorrow. All airlines have cancelled their operations from Chennai airport where stranded passengers have been having a horrid time.People rescued waterlogged houses of Kotturpuram, receiving food packets while sheltering at a road following rains in Chennai on Wednesday. PTI PhotoThe Airports Authority of India has issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) to all air operators in this regard, an AAI spokesperson said in New Delhi.Rajnath Singh told reporters in Delhi that the Centre has deployed Army, Navy and NDRF teams in sufficient numbers."The Prime Minister has issued a memorandum and we have deployed our Central team there to assess the situation and make a report so that every possible help can also reach there," Singh said.Four columns of army's Garrison Infantry Battalion have been pressed into service in Tambaram, Mudichur, Manipakkam, Guduvanchery and Oorakapakkam areas and Oorapakkam where water level reached 10 to 12 feet. Additional columns were on standy in Secunderabad and while two more columns were brought from Bangalore.30 army trucks have also employed for ferrying stranded people. The army personnel have rescued over 750 people till the evening, an army press release said.The Navy has also been deployed to assist in the operations. Navy personnel have been deployed in Sadiapet area of Chennai to rescue people marooned in low-lying areas.The NDRF is airlifting another 15 teams to the rain-battered state. While 10 teams are being airlifted from Bhubaneshwar to Tirupati, another five teams are being lifted from Delhi, NDRF DG O P Singh said.Each team comprises 40 personnel.The teams are also carrying 20 inflatable boats along with them for the rescue operations.NDRF DIG and commanding officer have been stationed in Chennai to take stock of the operations, he said.Singh said that he is also in constant touch with the Relief Commissioner of Tamil Nadu.Talking about Navy's operations, Rear Admiral Alok Bhatnagar said Navy has deployed a team comprising two boats, two helicopters and a remotely piloted aircraft for relief and rescue operations.Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said more forces will be deployed to tackle the situation.However, "we are facing difficulty in bringing them (forces) there as the airport is also not operating," he said. |
TOKYO, July 9 -- South Korea was bombarded Thursday with a third wave of cyberattacks, which disrupted and in some cases halted access to government, banking and media Web sites.
Intelligence officials in Seoul, meanwhile, presented no hard evidence to support earlier suspicions that North Korea may have been behind the disruptions that have hit Web sites in South Korea and the United States in recent days.
The timing of Thursday's attacks, which began in the early evening, had been predicted by the country's largest computer security company, Ahnlabs. It said hackers had planted "malicious codes" in thousands of personal and business computers, which contained instructions to bombard seven Web sites in South Korea at 6 p.m. local time.
When the attacks began, however, there were many more targets than predicted. About half a dozen government Web sites not on the company's list, including those of parliament, the Defense Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, slowed down or temporarily stopped working.
South Korea's main spy agency said that the "level of the attacks was highly organized and meticulously planned," indicating the work of "certain organizations or state."
The National Intelligence Service did not, however, single out North Korea by name as a suspect. Agency officials had told some members of the National Assembly yesterday that North Korea was the prime suspect, according to news reports in Seoul.
The intelligence agency had been expected to elaborate on that conclusion Thursday before the intelligence committee in the National Assembly. The committee did not convene, however, because the main opposition party vetoed the session, according to Park Ji-won, a member of the committee and a senior member of the opposition.
The attackers appeared to have backed off U.S.-based targets. Alex Lanstein, senior security researcher at FireEye, a Milpitas, Calif.-based computer security firm, said the attackers dropped the U.S. government and commercial Web sites from their hit list Tuesday afternoon, after those sites began working with large Internet service providers to filter and block the attack traffic.
Experts said the bug that caused the attacks, called MyDoom, is fairly unsophisticated. But they also noted that the bug was being frequently reprogrammed to target different sites.
"This wasn't a computer program thrown out into the wild," said Peder Jungck, founder and chief technology officer of CloudShield, a California cybersecurity firm. "Someone was actively monitoring its success and changing the targets based on the response. There's a human on the other side playing chess with us."
The MyDoom bug first surfaced in January 2004 and was originally programmed to force all infected personal computers to attack the Web sites of SCO Group, a software company in Lindon, Utah, and Microsoft. Microsoft still has a standing reward offer of $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the bug's author.
Staff writers Brian Krebs and Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report. |
Following the short-lived campaign of Scott Fine, and the blunderous beginnings of candidate David Schorn, Ward 10 now has a third city council challenger: Saralyn Romanishan. Romanishan is best known for her work running the Facebook page Minneapolis Residents for Responsible Development Coalition (MRRDC).
In the post, Romanishan plays to nativist sentiment, deriding Bender as an illegitimate newcomer to the neighborhood. She points out that Bender “moved into this neighborhood 2 or 3 years before running for office.”
Romanishan goes on to observe that Bender “is from a 4th ring small town suburb and only lived in SF and NY for a very short time before moving here and running for city council…”
This was the context in which I shared a link to Romanishan’s remarkable piece of political commentary:
Below is the email that I, and 10 other LHENA board members, received from Romanishan later that day:
Today, Romanishan is explicitly running her campaign for city council based mostly on the “community organizing” she did over the past four years with LHENA and MRRDC. So I guess you could say my big offense in sharing her parking commentary was chronicling the rise of a prominent neighborhood activist and budding political star.
Four days after Romanishan’s initial message (and three days after I declined to delete my tweet), I received this email threatening my girlfriend, accompanied by a link to a sexually explicit online personals ad:
“pat farrell” is not a real name.
To summarize the timeline: in an email sent on a Friday night, Romanishan accused me of “stalking.” Then, on Tuesday morning, someone acting on behalf of “LHENA volunteers” put my girlfriend’s name, personal details, and location on Craigslist, inviting strangers on the internet to show up at her home.
Romanishan runs with a nasty crew of people, and she does her best to rile them up with wild accusations detached from reality. However remote her chances, and whatever your political inclinations, the idea of Saralyn Romanishan as a member of the Minneapolis City Council should scare you. If you are a journalist writing about her candidacy, please portray her as the fringe figure she truly is.
She’s risen to become a leading figure in a movement of southwest Minneapolis anti-apartment activists who have become increasingly bold in the last few years, engaging in acts of vandalism such as letting the air out of the car tires of a worker who was removing appliances from a vacant house VIDEO ]. |
No matter how deep I am in the forest, the sounds of humanity seep through, reminding me that the Abuko Nature Reserve in The Gambia is at once a mosaic of habitats, a home for the endangered red colobus monkeys and various other species, and simply a tiny forest—smaller than Central Park in New York or Hyde Park or Hampstead Heath in London.
Dogs bark, cocks crow, donkeys bray, grain is pounded, axes are wielded: the sounds of the bordering villages come wafting across the savannah and deep into the riverine forest. On Sunday mornings I hear church bells ring and choirs sing. On Fridays at two o’clock in the afternoon I hear Muslim prayers recited over a loudspeaker. And on most holidays and weekend afternoons I hear music from radios and cassettes, and drums, whistles, and cheering when football or wrestling matches are held.
This is merely a forest blip in a small, finger-shaped country on the coast of West Africa. It’s also where I straddle two worlds—one foot in the human world, one foot in the monkey world. To be honest, most of the time these two worlds collide and confuse me.
People here, especially women, rarely enter the forest. I was, and still am, considered slightly mad for spending so much time in the “not safe bush” on my own. “Don’t you get scared in Abuko?” I’m frequently asked. “Shouldn’t someone come with you?” “Do you have special powers to protect you from the snakes?” They also tell me the forest is full of djinns, invisible spirits mentioned in the Koran that are said to inhabit the earth and appear as humans or animals to intercede in human affairs. “Do you have special jujus to protect you from the djinns?” a local woodcarver asks me.
According to one of the forest rangers, toubabs (whites) and African people are different: “Our skin and our blood is stronger,” he says. “And we are better at smelling and hearing and feeling, and that is why we know there are djinns and you don’t know. Does the hair on your head sometimes stand up and does your heart go thump because you meet something different than you?” he asks. When I tell him that the only time my hair stands up or my heart thumps is when I’m surprised by a snake, the ranger puts his fingers on my eyelids and says, “I don’t know how you can say you know Abuko and the monkeys and the pythons if you don’t know how to use these. It is not what you look at; it is what you see that is important. You do not understand that what you think you see is sometimes not what’s there.”
But in spite of all the warnings I feel safe in the forest. It’s my haven, my shelter. For me there is nothing to fear here, no large predators (they were killed off decades ago). The only possible animal danger comes from snakes, which I’m cautious of; sometimes I even stomp and hum out loud to warn any pythons, cobras, mambas, or puff adders of my approach. Yet, I actually relish my snake sightings. In fact, I never feel as though I’ve had a completely satisfying day unless it includes a slightly scary serpentine encounter. Potentially, the most frightening thing to me in the forest is that nothing will happen. I have an almost pathological terror of being bored. So far that hasn’t happened.
Sitting under a tallo tree swatting away the mosquitoes and the tsetse flies and squashing ticks between my thumbnails, a red colobus soap opera unfolds in 3-D Technicolor above my head. This is sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll colobus style.
The members of two opposing troops—mostly the males—chase each other back and forth through the branches and down to the ground. While the subadults and adults call, threaten, and chase each other, squealing infant males follow closely behind, forming a cheerleading squad. The infant males follow so closely behind that the older males often trip over them during the chase. A young oestrus (sexually receptive) female is attempting to switch troops, and both sides are vying for her uterus, the future home of the next generation. If a high percentage of females transfer on the same day, things can get a bit chaotic, but in the long run transfers have little effect on troop size and composition, since females who leave are gradually replaced by females from other troops. However, this does mean that the genetic composition of the troop changes continually.
When different red colobus troops engage in hostilities, the winning troop doesn’t permanently take over the loser’s territory: the winners simply move in for a while—maybe only an hour, maybe a day—use some of the resources, then leap off. The winners don’t capture mates. Young females aren’t kidnapped or dragged off kicking and screaming. Neither are they evicted from their birth troop. They simply move between troops at will.
Then another day dawns and another encounter ensues. Winners become losers and vice-versa. This small-scale hostility appears to work well. Resources are occasionally shared and potential breeding females are swapped. There is definitely competition, but the combatants don’t wage war. There is no pillage, no hoarding of resources. There is no rape. Instead, alliances are created and dissolved, friends are made and lost, altruism is promoted, selfishness is encouraged, wealth is redistributed, rivals are vanquished, self-esteem is lost and self-esteem is gained: a typical inter-troop encounter is similar to many human encounters. Think, for example, of a not-very-friendly, not-very-bloody football game between two rivals, whose fans wave flags, chant obscenities, and hope to win the cup—or, in this case, the resources. All of our so-called virtues and our so-called evils, our strengths and weaknesses, our warts and foibles and joys and sorrows—many of the very key factors behind humankind’s evolutionary success—are also part of what makes a colobus a colobus.
People sometimes wonder what it must be like to be someone else. I spend much of my time wondering what it must be like to be a monkey, to think like a monkey. And much of this wondering leads to total frustration.
Sometimes when I watch the colobus I’m swamped with intellectual dread and confusion. I know that we share a very distant family history, and I know that what makes us human is not uniquely human. Murder, compassion, and morality stem from our common past. But the colobus’ behavior, not to mention their raison d’etre, is often beyond me. I have no idea what they think or feel. I’ve spent years associating with these thumbless, pot-bellied, clumsy acrobats, yet the simplest questions often panic me. Why do they sometimes walk right up to me—even bump into me, and other times I can’t get within 150 feet of them? Why don’t they have opposable thumbs? All other monkeys do. Why do the young ones close their eyes whenever they play on the ground? Isn’t that dangerous? Why is it that one old female always lies in the same position on the same branch in a certain mampato tree, and none of the others seem to have favorite branches? Why do the males engage in tug-of-war stick fights, and the females don’t?
These questions may seem insignificant, but they haunt my days and sometimes even my dreams, because I believe the full picture of who these animals are can only be understood by comprehending the trivia and minutia of their daily lives. I think it is the layering, the addition and subtraction of the commonplace, the so-called unimportant and inconsequential details, the behavioral flotsam and jetsam that constitute the big picture and can provide answers. Quite simply, it seems to me that what is usually unconsidered is deeply considerable.
There is still so much I don’t understand. As my friend the forest ranger says, I have to learn to see. Yet I wonder, if I found the answers, would I be satisfied? Would I know what to do with the knowledge? Would I know where to place such “silly little facts” in the grand scheme of things?
Entering Abuko one morning I find a five-inch-wide trail that resembles a bald tire tread winding along a sandy path. It can only be a python imprint. Why can’t the colobus and the green monkeys recognize that this is obviously a clean, fresh python track, and that there could be a problem if they don’t move away? They pay no attention to it. They don’t seem to have made the connection that this track was made by a python. Yet I have watched them watching pythons make tracks. To me it’s so obvious: I see the track, I know a python might be nearby. I am alert. Laughing with eyes shut, the young colobus roll around on the ground next to and over the track, and the adults sit on it, eating fallen fruit. The greens chase each other back and forth over the track.
Whenever I observe a situation like this, I’m totally mystified. It’s hard to accept that I’ll never know for certain what goes on—or doesn’t go on—in the mind of a monkey. It’s hard to accept that there’s such a huge gulf between us, and that I could never truly develop an ability to enter into the thoughts and feelings of another species. As a human being, I can easily take a visual cue (a fresh python track), add it to an assumption (the python is probably nearby), and react accordingly (I should be careful). Humans look for patterns, causes, and relationships all the time. Do these monkeys? I don’t think they do in an obvious, regular way that I can comprehend. And so I come to the conclusion that they are so very different from us: just a bunch of monkeys. Then I see two colobus hugging and kissing, reassuring each other, using gestures humans use every day, displaying emotions we display everyday, and I decide that we do in fact share a lot with our very, very distant cousins.
What I experience is the simultaneously problematic and joyful reality of studying primates. It’s a non-stop to-ing and fro-ing, full of “are-they/aren’t-they like us?” dilemmas and “will I/won’t I ever understand them?” quandaries that occur on a daily basis. I am constantly looking for similarities, and when I’m hit head-on with so many extreme differences, it can turn my sense of self and others upside down.
Is it this very desire to know what others—familiar and foreign—think and feel, and to then relate this to our own feelings that partially makes us human? Is it the lack of this desire that partially makes monkeys just monkeys? And, is the very desire to know what others think and feel the very basis for human ethics, toward each other and toward our animal cousins?
I’m pretty sure biologists who work with worms and slugs and fruit flies don’t suffer this constant onslaught of schizophrenic confusion. I imagine their fieldwork is probably much less personal, more subdued, probably much more sane.
A green monkey with no left hand runs across the leaf litter. A colobus with a missing right hand sits in a mango tree. Elsewhere, two females and a male pin an alien male colobus down to the ground and kill him. They bite his legs, rip off his left testicle, leaving the right hanging by a thread, expose bones in his thighs, and rip major tendons and muscles. Their anger and fury appears infinite. An adult female colobus mother, clutching her dead infant with one arm, leaps from one palm tree to another. Three young colobus play on the ground, laughing and tugging and pulling at each other and rolling fist-sized pieces of termite mound along the forest floor.
Are these animals oblivious to the speckled light and the fallen logs in the shape of crocodiles and the lianas climbing up, falling down, lying sideways? They live in the middle of an oasis, a veritable feast for all the senses—a world even Henri Rousseau could not have imagined. Do they see the amazing beauty that surrounds them? What type of consciousness do they possess? Do they have “good” thoughts? Do they have “bad” thoughts? Are their usual thoughts linear or are they more often random? Do they revel in the world? Do they enjoy themselves in this very brief time they have in this extraordinary forest? Do they even have a concept of joy or reveling? Like humans, do they sit back and think of missed opportunities, paths not taken, alternative versions of their lives and themselves? Do they ever silently congratulate themselves? Do they have delusions and irrational beliefs?
These are the questions that really bother me, the questions I think about when I sit on the forest floor. What do the colobus and greens think about when they sit on their forest perches? Oh sure, I know their individual personalities and what they eat and who they like and who they want to chase away, and I am positive that they can feel fear and rage and lust, and probably even colobus-style love: but I have no idea what they think, or how they truly feel. Does a monkey resent the fact that it’s lost a limb? Does it replay the incident over and over again in its head? Do monkeys experience the pain, pressure, and itching of phantom limb syndrome?
What were the colobus killers thinking in their murderous frenzy? Were they even “thinking” during this whirlwind of extreme passion?
Does the colobus mother know that her dead infant will soon be so laden down with maggots that she will no longer be able to carry it around with her? Does she despise her infant’s killer? Does she want revenge? Is she in mourning?
I believe the mothers do feel a loss when their infant dies, but I don’t know whether they feel this loss until the end of their days. I’ve witnessed their screams when they come across a dead colobus in the forest. However, this doesn’t mean they understand death; these screams could simply signify “something isn’t right here.” Humans understand death, of course, albeit with variations on what happens afterward. I know I didn’t exist at one stage. I know I exist now, and I know that someday I will no longer exist. The idea of being nothing, then something, then nothing is probably—no almost certainly—beyond the colobus monkeys. Is this one of the major differences between them and me?
Conversely, when the young ones are playing and laughing, do they feel good? If so, what do the older ones do to feel like this once they’ve outgrown the play and laughter period? In humans, laughter releases endorphins—the natural feel-happy drug. And shared laughter creates bonds among people— it floods the brain with endorphins and makes us feel positively disposed towards the other person or group. Laughter can be contagious and uncontrollable. It helps dispel boredom. It brings on a rush of energy and joy. Is this true for the colobus?
There are always more questions than answers. Although this is frustrating, it’s probably the way it should be for all of us. I imagine that inquiries are the peaks of mental mountains, and that observing the world around us, asking questions, and seeking solutions is what drove our evolution.
As an anthropologist doing fieldwork, I’m alert to the dangers of the over-interpretation of the unobservable thoughts swarming around in monkey minds. I’ve often been warned about the pitfalls of anthropomorphism. However, as a field-working anthropologist, I have no problem accepting the possibility that there are a vast number of intricate mental gymnastics taking place inside the brains of these clumsy acrobats feasting and fighting and fooling around above my head. As an anthropologist and an evolutionist, I see us all intricately bound together, links in a chain, chapters in an ongoing story. I want to know who we humans are, where we came from, and where we might be going. I want to know what other species can tell us about our behavior. More importantly, as a fieldworker and a conservationist, I want to know what can be done to save these endangered animals and their forest from disappearing in this part of the world.
My questions persist, even when the lights are out at night and I’m falling asleep and trying to understand what it all means: sprawled out along thick mampato branches or curled around each other high up in the forest—are the colobus monkeys dreaming? |
(Petaluma, CA) – Or more like they were according to Lagunitas Brewing founder, Tony Magee. Magee posted on Twitter on Wednesday night about a dinner that he had with an A-B InBev executive in which he told the exec that he would rather “die on payroll” than sell Lagunitas to them. See the tweets below.
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Have I mentioned the visit I got from the Budweiser guy who did the deal to buy Goose? We had dinner, a burger, I think. He was shopping. — LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 31, 2013
He was a nice fella. Didn't exactly say what he wanted, but the three calls to meet seemed clear enuf. I told I'd rather die on payroll. — LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 31, 2013
Selling ones brewery is selling all of ones best friend's careers, their hearts, the portion of their lives they spent working for you. — LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 31, 2013
After meetin Andy Goeler, the guy Bud assigned t'Goose, the guy fr St. Louis w/the huevos t'welcme us t'Chicago, I'd rather put out my eyes. — LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 31, 2013 |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After more than a decade focused on combating Islamist militancy, Western military planners are once again contemplating potential war between major powers - and how to prevent one happening by accident.
U.S. soldiers walk after a ceremony for the arrival of the first company-sized contingent of about 150 U.S. paratroopers from the U.S. Army's 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team based in Italy in Swidwin, northern west Poland April 23, 2014. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Although the Cold War rivalry with Moscow has never been forgotten, current and former Western officials say Russia’s annexation of Crimea has NATO powers tearing up strategic assumptions and grimly considering both conventional and nuclear fights.
As late as March, most NATO powers - with the exception of eastern members such as the Baltic States long worried by Moscow - had assumed Europe itself faced no imminent military threat.
It is still the case that few believe Russia would attack any NATO state, but, in order to deter, Western officials say they must consider and plan for the contingency.
The threat to U.S. allies in the Pacific from a stronger China has also focused military minds on how to contain the risks there, and ensure any localized conflict does not spill over into global war.
In a major foreign policy speech at the West Point military academy last month, President Barack Obama spoke mostly on counterterrorism and the Afghanistan withdrawal. But while he said the risk from other nations was now much lower than before the Berlin Wall fell, he made clear it still existed.
“Regional aggression that goes unchecked, whether in southern Ukraine or the South China Sea or anywhere else in the world, will ultimately impact our allies and could draw in our military,” he told graduating cadets.
Tensions with Moscow and Beijing have increased faster than almost anyone in government in Washington expected. They are expected to dominate a meeting between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day later this week.
Last weekend’s annual Shangri-La Dialogue strategic conference in Singapore, meanwhile, showcased the growing gulf between Washington and Beijing on issues from regional maritime disputes to cyber security.
In recent weeks, current and former officials say, the Obama administration has been insistently reassuring allies and signaling foes where Washington’s true red lines are.
Washington might not be prepared to act militarily in Ukraine but an attack on a NATO state such as one of the Baltics or a formal Asian ally like Japan, the Philippines or Australia would commit it irrevocably to war. Those treaty obligations are not new, but U.S. officials say it is important to make clear that they are taken extremely seriously.
They hope that will reduce the risk of an accidental war where a state takes action wrongly assuming other powers will not respond.
“It’s not that the leadership in Russia or China is looking for a war - and the United States certainly isn’t,” says Kathleen Hicks, a U.S. undersecretary for defense until last July who now works for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“The real worry is miscalculation.”
GREAT WAR
One hundred years after the start of World War One, books on the period have become increasingly popular in Washington, Whitehall and NATO headquarters in Brussels, current and former officials say, and not purely for their historical interest.
In June 1914, the killing of Austria’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist triggered actions and alliances that brought war in barely a month.
Now, experts say flashpoints could range from a clash over disputed South China Sea islands or ethnic strife in Russia’s former Soviet neighbors to a wrongly attributed cyber attack.
Even as Washington reassures allies, Moscow and Beijing have asserted their might against Ukraine and Vietnam which lack such formal alliances. The risk, experts say, is that they become overconfident and misjudge.
“The parallels with 1914 can definitely be overstated,” said Nikolas Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College.
“But they do show us that war can start through unintended consequences and an economically interdependent world does not necessarily stop it from happening.”
As in 1914, no one really knows what a modern great war would be like.
While much military thinking assumes conflict would remain conventional, nuclear powers have kept their atomic war planning up to date, maintaining target lists for mutually assured destruction, current and former officials say.
Cyber attacks, some experts say, could be almost as destructive, as could the effects on global trade in an unprecedentedly interconnected world.
Meanwhile, some of the systems supposed to prevent conflict may be starting to weaken.
WEAKENED LINKS
U.S. officials had embarked on a campaign to build formal and informal communications channels with Beijing, mimicking the hotlines and procedures set up with Russia.
Moscow and Washington have used those systems themselves in recent months to notify each other of missile tests and reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory.
Links with Russia, however, have weakened this year as NATO states canceled conferences and military exchanges with Moscow in protest at the annexation of Crimea.
Contacts with China have also deteriorated in the last month, particularly since Washington indicted five Chinese officials for cyber espionage, a charge Beijing denies.
A near collision between U.S. and Chinese warships in January, a mock Russian attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Black Sea in April and periodic confrontations between long-range bombers and other aircraft show the risks, experts warn.
Last week on Japan and China accused each other of “dangerous” and “over the top” actions after warplanes came within a few dozen meters.
Any additional challenge to the West, some analysts say, is that both Russia and China know Washington would struggle to handle simultaneous confrontations.
U.S. forces are spread around the world while Moscow’s and Beijing’s, while smaller, are almost exclusively focused on their immediate neighborhood. Since 2008, they have increased military spending 30 and 40 percent respectively, according to London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The 2012 Asia “pivot”, which saw the U.S. Navy in particular moving to increase its Pacific footprint, aimed to make crisis response easier.
In Europe, in contrast, NATO has little developed thinking beyond its post-Crimea strategy of putting small numbers of U.S. troops and jets on the frontline in eastern member states they fear Moscow might target next.
Until Ukraine, European states had viewed their primary military focus as occasional intervention, peacekeeping and counterinsurgency in the Middle East and Africa.
“We are in uncharted territory,” said one senior Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It means ... reconstituting high end fighting skills and properly thought through doctrine for both conventional and nuclear deterrence.” |
Sales are expected to be brisk Friday for the latest commemorative Makers Mark bourbon bottle, this one features the likeness of the “Baron of the Bluegrass,” Kentucky basketball coaching legend Adolph Rupp.
For some 18 years the distiller has teamed with Keeneland to sell the bottles and raise funds for various central Kentucky charities, as well as programs at the University of Kentucky. For the next five years the proceeds will go toward a proposed four million dollar expansion of its student athlete tutorial center, better known as CATS.
“Serving our student-athletes, as well as positioning them for success after they leave UK, remains our primary goal as a department,” athletics director Mitch Barnhart said. “With this unique partnership, we are taking an important step in securing the resources needed to continue to serve them through CATS.”
Those who purchase the collectible will have the opportunity to come to Keeneland on April tenth and have it autographed by UK All Americans, Cliff Hagen, Dan Issel, Frank Ramsey, and Adrian “Odie” Smith.
Tickets for that event in the Keene barn at Keeneland will actually be distributed the day before, on Thursday evening April 9th beginning at 7. |
A TEAM of bell ringers found themselves locked in a North Yorkshire church tower by a pensioner, after he seemingly took offence to the sound of their ringing.
The man, believed to be in his 70s or 80s, climbed the narrow staircase up to the belfry of Saint John the Evangelist Church in Sharow, near Ripon, where a team of ringers were practising a three-hour peal.
After protesting to the bell ringers and allegedly threatening to damage their cars, the irate man then closed the door to the tower and lodged it shut with a piece of wood, leaving the ringers trapped inside.
They were stuck there for an extra half-hour, before eventually being freed by a member of the church who heard banging from the trap door when she went to lock up.
She said: “I wandered up at about 5.10pm and heard this stamping and I thought that was a funny way to ring the bells.
“Then I went up to the tower and I could hear the stamping going on again.”
The woman she discovered the trap door had been lodged with a piece of wood, which she removed to free the trapped ringers, who it is understood were visiting the area from the south of England.
“There’s no way they could have got out of there,” said their rescuer. “I apologise on behalf of Sharow and the whole of Yorkshire. We aren’t normally like that here.”
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police confirmed the force had received a complaint.
He said: “We were called at 6.07pm on May 29 with reports that a group of visiting bell ringers were approached by a man at about 4pm.
“He was allegedly shouting abuse at the ringers and allegedly made threats to damage their cars.”
He said he believed the man to be from the local area but said the police were not currently investigating the allegations.
• Do you know who was involved? Email [email protected] or phone 01904 567155. |
PRISTINA (Reuters) - Opposition lawmakers released teargas in Kosovo’s parliament and protesters outside threw petrol bombs in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Hashim Thaci, who they say gave too much power to ethnic Serbs, from being elected president.
Twenty one officers were injured in the streets of Pristina during Friday’s session when police used teargas and water cannons to disperse protesters.
Thaci, now 47, helped to clinch an EU-brokered agreement in 2015 that gives a small Serb minority more power over local government decisions and raises the possibility of financing from Belgrade.
With 71 votes in a 120-seat parliament, he will be Kosovo’s fourth president and serve five years in the largely ceremonial role.
Four hours into Friday’s session, led by Thaci’s Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), opposition lawmakers threw three tear gas canisters in the chamber, prompting the speaker, Kadri Veseli, to eject 11 MPs.
An hour later tear gas was thrown again but the vote was passed despite a delay.
Opposition parties have been protesting for four months against the deal with Serbia and have staged street protests, repeatedly thrown tear gas in parliament, clashed with police and last month set a government building on fire.
Police in full riot gear backed by armored vehicles used tear gas and water cannons to disperse several hundred demonstrators.
Protesters shouted, “Hashim, Hashim we want you in jail!” and “Hashim, the traitor!”
“I will always work to serve the country, all its citizens and respect the constitution,” Thaci told the parliament after the vote.
Born and raised in the hardline region of Drenica, Thaci led the guerrilla insurgency against Serbian forces in 1998-99. He served as Kosovo’s prime minister when it declared independence in 2008.
But in a 2011 Council of Europe report he was identified as a leader of a group that had committed war crimes against Serbs and had harvested organs from Serbs captured in the 1998-99 Kosovo war.
Thaci has denied the accusations.
Slideshow (3 Images)
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes drove out Serbian security forces accused of killing and expelling ethnic Albanian civilians during a counter-insurgency war.
Many Kosovo Albanians believe last year’s accord with Serbia could erode that hard-won sovereignty, though its status is unclear after a Kosovo constitutional court ruling in December that parts of it breach the country’s laws.
“Our protests will not stop, they will get bigger,” Visar Ymeri, leader of the biggest opposition party Vetevendosje, told a press conference. |
The biblical King Solomon might not have been a commodity trader but he knew this much:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build (Eclesiastes 3:1-3)
Similarly some commodity traders have reached the conclusion that there was a time to invest in commodities but now this time has passed.
For roughly a decade begging in the early 2000s commodity prices knew really only one direction: Up. An investor betting on oil, iron, gold or silver in 2000 would have seen their investment grow by several hundred percent in real terms (accounting for inflation) over ten years. Many commodities reached a frenetic peak in 2008 right before the Lehman bust. Even while they fell sharply in late 2008 and early 2009, they bounced back quickly in the following years.
Price trends over the last few years are somewhat inconclusive but there appears to be strong evidence that the commodity super cycle of the 2000s is indeed over and that the overall trend going forward will be downward. To come to this conclusion we need to understand some basic workings of the commodity markets.
Commodity markets 101
It will come to little surprise, that, as in other markets, prices in the commodity markets are determined by supply and demand. However supply and demand in commodity markets have a number of interesting features. Generally, there is a long-term trend, which is fairly inelastic in the short run, meaning that quantities demanded and supplied will not respond much as an immediate reaction to changes in price.
High oil prices might lead Americans to switch to fuel efficient cars over time which will reduce oil consumption in the long run, but a US$5 per barrel rise in the oil price today will not lead to a significant reduction in fuel consumption next week. Similarly, high prices will lead to more investment in mines and oil wells, which will increase supply in the long run, but these projects can easily take a decade to come online.
So a decision taken today to invest (or not) driven by high (or low) prices will only result in greater supply in the mid-2020s.
Hence, while the underlying trends of supply and demand are usually moving slow and steady, daily prices are often determined by shocks: short-term disruptions in supply and demand.
A particular feature of commodity markets is that these shocks on supply as well as demand are almost always negative (resulting in a lower quantity supplied or demanded). Such a negative shock, say the unrest in Libya in 2011 disrupting oil production or heavy rain in Colombia reducing the coffee crop, will lead to lower than expected supply and higher prices. It is hard to imaging a positive supply shock (“El Dorado finally found!”), which would lead to an unexpected increase in supply and falling prices (in agricultural commodities, a better than expected harvest is an example of a limited positive supply shock).
Similarly on the demand side, surprises tend to be mostly on the downside. Demand for most commodities is driven by economic activity hence a surprise recession (along the lines of the Lehman shock) can send commodity prices on tailspin. A positive demand shock on the other hand would require an unexpected boom, which curiously does not seem to happen all that often.
Where we are now
So let’s talk about where we are right now. In terms shocks, we live in a world of great uncertainty where negative supply shocks leading to higher prices seem to be just as conceivable as negative demand shocks leading to lower prices.
The case for falling commodity prices in the medium and long term however is based more on the underlying structural features. As could be expected, the commodity boom of the 2000s has led to plenty of investment and innovation on the supply side, most notably in the area of oil and gas.
The dragon in the room is always China. The baseline assumption is that growth in China is slowing down and is becoming less commodity-intensive, which by itself should exhort downward pressure on commodity prices. Yet, surprises on Chinese growth and commodity demand seem very much possible and as always they are asymmetrically on the downside.
Rumors of a looming crisis, financial or other, have persisted for years and are still alive today, and just because it hasn’t happened so far doesn’t mean it never will. Even if a dramatic crisis does not materialize, a soft landing and with a shift from commodity-intensive investment to less commodity intensive consumption should still make us bearish on the raw materials that have been feeding the Chinese boom such as copper, coal and iron ore.
On the supply side, things look very different depending on which commodities we chose to focus on. For agricultural commodities, recent studies indicate that supply might actually have a hard time keeping up with demand, which would mean high prices for many years to come. On the non-edible stuff there is a general trend for supply to increase at a faster pace than demand. The period of high prices has induced investment in mining, drilling and fracking many places, most importantly Gringolandia.
As discussed, investments in mines and oil rigs take a long time to yield output so the price rises between 2003 and 2008 might be showing up as new supply just about now. We have already seen how this has depressed natural gas prices in the western hemisphere (as gas is not easy to transport, natural gas markets are segmented).
What does it all mean for Latin America?
Many Latin American economies remain commodity dependent and generally have become more so in recent years as commodity prices provided a strong incentive to increase output in extractive industries often at the price of losing competitiveness in other areas.
The share of raw materials in total exports has grown significantly in countries such as Brazil, Peru and Colombia. Commodity dependence in Latin America knows no political camps; members of the pro-market Pacific Alliance such as Chile, Peru and Colombia are just as much affected as ALBA countries like Ecuador and Venezuela.
While the commodity effect is great in all of these countries, it affects them through different channels. In Peru or Colombia, resource wealth has attracted foreign investment, which in turn resulted in higher growth and improved government finances.
In Venezuela but also Chile, rising commodity prices have a direct effect on government finances through government ownership of the petroleum and (most of) the copper industry respectively. Maintaining economic growth and sustainable government finances as the tailwinds of high commodity prices recede will be a key challenge for all of these economies.
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Shortly after health care reform became law in March, a small ripple showed up in the vast tax-law ocean.
Today it has become, if not a tsunami, as least a decent sized wave of opposition to new Form 1099 reporting requirements that businesses will soon face.
Starting in 2012, part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) will force companies to file a Form 1099 for payments for goods or services that total more than $600 annually to a single business. The current law only applies to the purchase of services, not the purchase of goods.
The expanded provision was included as a way to raise money to pay for health care measures. The Joint Committee on Taxation's numbers crunching projects the added reporting will bring in $17.1 billion over 10 years thanks to the IRS having increased information about money paid out to vendors.
New paperwork burden: Small business owners in particular are outraged about the amount of new work this law will create. And support for their position is growing.
Concern first started showing up on blogs, such as The Wandering Tax Pro, Tax Update Blog, taxgirl and Tax Lawyer's Blog.
Others soon joined the "this stinks" chorus.
The new information reporting requirement "may present significant administrative challenges to taxpayers and the IRS," wrote Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson in her latest report to Congress.
Olson told Representatives and Senators that her office "is concerned that the new reporting burden, particularly as it falls on small businesses, may turn out to be disproportionate as compared with any resulting improvement in tax compliance."
Most recently, the American Institute of CPAs wrote members of the House and Senate asking them to repeal the new 1099 reporting section of the health care law.
Now, some lawmakers are trying to do just that.
A group of Democratic Senators -- Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Begich of Alaska, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Evan Bayh of Indiana -- wrote IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman expressing concerns about the new 1099 requirements. They want the IRS to reduce the resulting paperwork burdens that small businesses expect to face.
Bills to repeal introduced: Legislatively, Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) has introduced S. 3578, which would roll back the health care law's expansion of Form 1099 information reporting requirements. Eighteen of his colleagues have signed on as cosponsors.
On the other side of Capitol Hill, Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Calif.) has offered a companion bill, H.R. 5141, which has 131 cosponsors.
"Businesses are up in arms over this new provision and they should be," Johanns told participants at a recent health care forum in Washington, D.C., hosted by several business groups. "This provision is absolutely brutal for small businesses. It will require them to spend more time and money on paperwork and reporting."
Both bills are titled the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act and each is currently pending in its respective House or Senate tax-writing committee. Practically speaking, that's probably as far as they'll progress this Congressional session.
But since the new reporting requirement doesn't kick in until 2012, expect to see the effort to repeal the added Form 1099 reporting to get even more attention as the effective date nears.
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Shares of Facebook (FB) surged in early trading, hitting an all-time high, after Mark Zuckerberg's pioneering social network reported quarterly earning that exceeded even the most optimistic of projections thanks to its surging mobile advertising business.
Shares of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company hit $75.20 after opened for trading Thursday, continuing their rise after yesterday's earnings report. That's 96 percent higher than Facebook's $38.23 IPO debut in 2012, which at the time was interpreted as a failure.
In the quarter ended June 30, Facebook earned net income of $791 million, or 30 cents per share, more than double from $333 million, or 13 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 61 percent to $2.91 billion, topping analysts' expectations of $2.1 billion. Excluding one-time items, Facebook earned 42 cents a share, beating Wall Street forecasts of 32 cents.
Mobile advertising, a fast growing market that's closely watched by Wall Street, accounted for 62 percent of advertising revenue in the most recent quarter, versus 41 percent in the year-earlier period. Facebook estimates that 650 million of the 829 million people who access Facebook on a daily basis do so via a mobile device. Zuckerberg stoked investors' enthusiasm when he noted that mobile has more "room to grow."
"The results this quarter show our continued focus on improving our core products and business," Zuckerberg said during the company's earnings conference call. "We're going to continue investing aggressively in areas that are important for our mission and long term strategy, but we're also going to stay focused on our core products and business."
Ordinarily, when CEOs talk about "investing" in their businesses, shareholders take that as a signal to sell their stocks because it means that profits will be lower. However, Facebook, as recent history suggests, isn't a typical business and analysts are applauding the company's moves.
"Their advertising model is scaling very nicely," said Edward Jones & Co. analyst Josh Olson told Bloomberg News. "We've seen them take a very careful approach to advertising, doing things so that they don't alienate their audience."
Wall Street expects the good times to continue for Facebook. Analysts have an average 52-week price target on the stock of $78.09, with a low of $57.54 to a high of $90. Most analysts view the stock as a "buy."
With a market valuation of about $191 billion, Facebook, which was founded in 2004, has a market valuation that surpasses the combined market value of McDonald's, which the market values at $94 billion and Time Warner , which has a capitalization of $74 billion. |
Steven Stucky, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer whose work was widely commissioned by major orchestras around the world and who earned respect as a conductor, teacher and author, died on Sunday at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 66.
The cause was an aggressive form of brain cancer that was diagnosed in November, his wife, Kristen Frey Stucky, said.
In 2012, Mr. Stucky provided some revealing insight into his own music with an offhand comment before the New York premiere of his Symphony. “Graspable” is the way he described the 20-minute, single-movement piece in conversation with Alan Gilbert, conductor of the New York Philharmonic before the performance. For all the modernist complexities of Mr. Stucky’s scores, his music was sanguine, lucid and structurally clear — graspable in the best sense.
Symphony, jointly commissioned by the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, goes through dramatic contrasts, from stretches of gnashing intensity with hurtling rhythmic bursts to passages of harmonically tart yet hymnal calm, and even a jittery, slicing scherzo. Yet, despite the teeming shifts, the narrative design and overall thrust of the piece come through vividly. |
Joanne Chang put a fork into a small cake and raised a bite to her mouth. The two Harvard students next to her watched anxiously. The cake was their invention, one they think could revolutionize the world, at least the world of cake. Chang is the chef behind Flour bakeries and a superstar of that world. To them, her opinion was crucial.
In a way, she had inspired their radical and novel way to make a cake, start to finish, in minutes.
It all started a little over a year ago, when John McCallum, one of the Harvard students, was sitting in the lab at his Science & Cooking class, trying to come up with ideas for his group’s final project. As he puts it, they were spitballing a bunch of possibilities that all followed the same theme: “ways to eat more cake.”
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Chang had appeared before the class earlier that semester and talked about the chemistry behind what makes cakes rise. As McCallum stared off into the distance, thinking about cake, he happened to notice someone spraying whipped cream from a can.
Read more: Food & dining coverage from The Boston Globe
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That’s when the 20-year-old from Louisiana had his eureka moment: cake from a can.
Related Links Watch Video Video: Spray Cake
McCallum wondered if he could borrow the technology from the whipped cream can and create a similar delivery mechanism for cake batter, in which an accelerant releases air bubbles inside the batter, allowing the cake to rise without the need for baking soda and baking powder.
To his surprise, it worked.
At first, McCallum, who will be entering his junior year (he had the idea as a freshman), was just happy to have come up with a clever idea for class. When he walked into the dining hall one day, carrying something wrapped in foil that he “made in the lab,” his friends didn’t show much interest in eating it. But Brooke Nowakowski, a 20-year-old classmate from Utah who would soon become his girlfriend, thought he was missing the potential.
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“He was just like, ‘Cool. Lab project,’ ” Nowakowski said. “But I thought it could go somewhere.”
The two perfected the recipe through trial and error in McCallum’s dorm kitchen, and after searching high and low to be sure no one had done it before, they decided to take it to market. They are now in the process of patenting a product they call Spray Cake.
Essdras M Suarez/ Globe Staff Chef Joanne Chang of Flour bakeries fame tested the creation of Harvard students John McCallum and Brooke Nowakowski, and the verdict was a thumbs up.
As they demonstrated the product in a Harvard dorm on Thursday, spraying the batter into a baking dish and a cup cake tray, they talked about the many benefits that come from making cake this way.
Number one: You can make it in the microwave. For a cupcake, it takes about 30 seconds and you’re done. For a whole cake, it takes no more than a minute. And they say it has the same mouth feel as it does when cooked in a traditional oven (where, they say, it will cook much faster than a traditional batter because the batter has essentially already risen).
And Nowakowski, who seems to be the salesperson of the duo, likes to point out that it allows for better portion control. “You can simply pull it off the shelf, make one cupcake, then put it back in the fridge and it won’t go bad.” Plus, there is nothing left to taunt you on the counter all night.
Also see: Recipes for grilled stuffed burgers
Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff McCallum and Nowakowski don’t plan to take on the made-from-scratch bakery world; their product would go up against ready made cake mixes.
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Their goal, they say, is “taking baking back.”
They’re not going after the traditional made-from-scratch cakes — and the satisfaction of that cooking process — but instead are targeting the premade cake mixes.
The gimmick is intriguing, but the success of the idea will come down to taste. So with that in mind, the Globe arranged for McCallum and Nowakowski to bring Spray Cake to the woman who inspired it all.
They were nervous as they walked into Myers + Chang, an Asian restaurant Chang owns in the South End. “I can’t believe Joanne Chang is about to try our cake,” McCallum said.
But Chang seemed pleased to meet students who had done something with one of her lectures. “I’ve never had anyone experiment to this level, that I’m aware of,” she said, as McCallum and Nowakowski told her about the product, their target market, and the basics of how it was created.
McCallum produced two cans from his bag and filled two small dishes with what they call “Zebra cake” — half chocolate, half vanilla. (They say this is another added potential of their batter, which is thicker due to the included bubbles, so it won’t run together like traditional batter.)
Chang took the cakes back to the kitchen, apologized that she didn’t have the right oven or a microwave in the Asian restaurant, and returned about 15 minutes later with two cute little cakes.
Then, the moment of truth.
Chang took her bite and considered. As she did, she began to nod her head, slowly. Then it came: the thumbs up.
The cake hadn’t browned much — Chang blamed it on the fact that she didn’t have a bakery oven — but as she took a few more bites, she seemed sold. “I’d add a little more salt, but that’s just me,” she said.
The kids looked relieved, and as they got ready to leave, a group of women who were waiting to take a cooking class rushed up to congratulate them.
“You’re going to be millionaires,” one of the women said.
That’s what they’re hoping.
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Billy Baker can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @billy_baker |
Farmers have another tool to help them in the field.
With smartphones in hand, tech-savvy farmers are able to fly heavy duty drones out to do everything from crop dusting to surveying the health of the plants.
SEE ALSO: Passenger drones will start flying for real in summer 2017
And with smarter software, drones can do more autonomously, making the process more efficient and at far lower cost than hiring a specialised pilot to man an aircraft over the fields.
Only 2 percent of farmers in China use drones.
While makers have offered agriculture drones to the market for two decades now, adoption is tiny, according to Xaircraft, a Chinese maker that's starting to expand into the U.S.
It estimates only 2 percent of farmers in China use drones, in part because of lower awareness, and because the technology wasn't that user-friendly before.
But now with autonomous UAVs and smartphone apps, it's all set to change, a spokesperson said. To operate one of their drones, farmers just need to draw out the shape of the land on their phones, and the drone will do the rest — including returning to its base station.
Image: Xaircraft/weibo
The Guangzhou-headquartered firm has so far trained over 1,000 drone operators in its homeland, and is hoping to lower the learning curve for newbies via free online training courses.
Next step up: Data
For farmers that already know how to fly a drone, they can move up the technology ladder and analyse data collected about their plantations.
Poladrone is a Malaysian startup that's writing software to analyse palm oil plantations. Looking at imagery taken from above, it can count the number of oil palms, determine crop health, and alert farmers if it detects blocked pathways.
An aerial view of a oil palm plantation Image: Poladrone
Founder, Jinxi Cheong, explained that image recognition software can figure out the health of a plant based on factors such as the colour of its leaves.
Up to 10 percent of the oil palm's fruit go to waste because it's a laborious process to judge the health of the plants, and fraught with human error.
Poladrone doesn't make its own drones; it relies on off-the-shelf DJI Phantoms, running flight-control app Litchi to automate the flight paths.
Oil palm plantations in Muar, Johor. Image: Epa/Shutterstock
"What we're focused on is something that's very simple and easy for [plantation owners] to deploy," Cheong said. "Something that anyone can use, without much training."
"It's still a very traditional industry, and we need to go one step at a time," he adds. "It's not like an industry that's going to [jump at] adopting new technology — it's going to be a 5-10 year process." |
Code on Github
Discussion on Reddit Minecraft Stronghold finder Find a stronghold without wasting Eyes of Ender! Instructions below.
Add measurement Initial X
Initial Z
Final X
Final Z
Add measurement Delete selected measurements
Instructions
Write your coordinates in Initial X and Initial Z. Throw the eye of ender and place yourself right under it when it's hovering in the air. Write your new coordinates in Final X and Final Z and press Add measurement.
You'll get an estimate of the Stronghold's position as soon as you have two measurements. In order to improve its accuracy, you should take your measurements far away from each other. After taking the first measurement, move several hundred blocks to either side. This prevents bearings which are close to parallel (bad for estimation). Taking additional measurements also improves accuracy.
How it works
Each time you throw an Eye of Ender, the game is telling you that the Stronghold is somewhere on a line that passes through the throwing point and the landing point. So if you throw twice, from different locations, you know the Stronghold is in the intersection of those two lines.
However, there is a certain amount of error associated with each measurement. To combat this, you can take more than two measurements, which makes errors tend to cancel out. Since three or more lines don't usually intersect in a single point, the assistant looks for the point which is closest to all of the lines. It does this using a mathematical technique called Linear Least Squares |
Let’s hear your best stuff. No, really. I mean it.
Have at it. I’ve heard it all by now anyway.
Daddy’s boy.
Three-star recruit.
Stop shooting!
How are you not a walk-on?
White boy.
And there’s a whole lot of other stuff you can’t print.
After almost four years here at UCLA, I like to think I haven’t let the haters bother me too much — I like to think that I’ve never cracked.
There was one time, though.
It was in a game my sophomore season. I can’t remember who we were playing, but we won. And — the strangest thing about it — I played fine, if not pretty well.
At least I thought so.
But as I was walking off the court, I heard a voice behind me.
UCLA Athletics
“Hey, Alford!”
If there’s one thing that’s common to all the trash talk I hear, it’s that no one — no opposing fan — ever just calls me Bryce. It’s always Alford. And the way they pronounce it — let’s just say that they don’t mean it as a last name. People really lean into it, like it’s a swear word.
“Hey … Alford!”
I turned around, and right behind me, up in the stands, I saw where the voice was coming from. It was a middle-aged guy — a stout, out-of-shape dude with a full beard.
He was screaming, red in the face. Seemed really fired up. “Go back to New Mexico!”
Normally, if he had been just some random rival fan, that kind of thing wouldn’t have fazed me too much.
But then I saw what the guy was wearing.
A blue hoodie. A blue UCLA men’s basketball hoodie.
We’d just won the game, and I was getting heckled by a UCLA fan?
I’m getting taunted … by our own fans?
In that moment, that guy got to me. I hate to admit it. He got under my skin. But I’ve thought about that moment a lot because it revealed something to me.
At UCLA, the expectations are just different.
I might not have known it then, but high expectations aren’t so bad.
When I first started getting attention from college basketball programs — which was around my sophomore year of high school — my dad sat me down in our kitchen in Albuquerque. Keep in mind, he was the coach at New Mexico at this point.
“I don’t want you to waste other coaches’ time,” he told me, “so if you know that you want to play for me then we need to make that known.”
My dad was always on the road recruiting, so I understood the importance of what he was advising me to do — even though I also also knew it was a mind game he was playing with me.
The truth was: I didn’t want to commit to a school yet. I was 15 years old and I was still curious about my options. I had a lot of friends from the AAU circuit who were starting to get recruited, too, and I wanted to find out what that process was all about.
So I told my dad I wanted to feel it out — to see what the alternatives looked like.
the Alford Family
It was a funny moment for me — for both of us. Growing up, I got pretty good at identifying when my dad was in “Coach Mode” and when he was in “Dad Mode.” To his credit, he was always really good at coming home after work — from a practice, a game or a recruiting trip — and just being my dad.
But this was new territory for us. I could tell I was playing with fire — trying to play both roles at the same time.
“If that’s what you want to do, I’m all for that,” he said.
“But if you’re not going to decide to commit to New Mexico now, I’m going to have to start recruiting to fill your spot.”
That statement hit me in the mouth. He’d give up my spot? His son’s spot?
Shortly after that conversation, I committed to play for him at UNM.
As my senior year of high school went on, I was all geared up for a career at UNM. I had just had a great season at La Cueva High, so everyone locally seemed really excited about me staying in town to play for the Lobos. Most of my friends would be enrolling at UNM, too, and I knew my dad was happy he’d get to coach me and my older brother, Kory, at the same time. Plus, the way the roster was setting up, it looked like I was going to get some burn right away as a freshman.
Things were looking good.
But one day in the spring of my senior year, I got a strange text from my dad.
“Are you sure you don’t want to play at UCLA?”
I was confused. I’d already committed to New Mexico.
I waited for a follow-up text, but none came.
So I texted him back. “I want to play at New Mexico. What are you talking about?”
He texted me back right away.
“Meet me in my office after school.”
Marla Brose/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMAPRESS.com
It all felt kind of mysterious. When I showed up at his office on campus, he told me that he had been offered the head coaching job at UCLA.
“Would you like to join me there?”
I was hesitant. I wanted to talk to Kory first — he was playing for my dad at UNM at the time, and if my dad decided to take the UCLA job, I knew that Kory would be going to Westwood, too. So I asked my brother straight up about my main concern: “If Dad’s my coach, I know I’m going to have to earn respect no matter where I play. But UNM is not UCLA. Do you think I can make the same impact at UCLA?”
“Definitely,” Kory said.
I’ve always trusted Kory, so that’s all I needed to hear. It still felt like a big risk, but I decided I was all in. We moved to Los Angeles early the summer after my senior year.
As soon as we got to UCLA and I walked around Pauley Pavilion for the first time, I got the sense that the adjustment to a Power 5 conference wasn’t going to be my biggest challenge.
What I wasn’t prepared for were the expectations that come with wearing those four letters: UCLA.
Naturally, people assumed that I was just there because of my dad. On paper, they saw that I was a three-star prospect. They saw my height. I know for sure that my high school career didn’t mean much to anyone outside of New Mexico, even if I had averaged 38 points, nine rebounds and six assists as a senior.
It didn’t help that once the season started, I struggled in my first few games as a backup rotation player.
To make matters worse, I did what you’re never supposed to do — I searched my name on Twitter. Bryce Alford isn’t a true PG, they were saying. Alford doesn’t belong at the high D-I level.
I’ll cop to it — for my first three years at UCLA, I didn’t deal with that stuff the right way. I was trying to prove people wrong instead of playing my game. At 18 and 19 years old, I was still figuring things out.
UCLA Athletics
I did have some big games early on — one of my favorites was our 60-59 win over SMU in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2015. I got hot and hit nine threes (which tied a school record) in that game, and we won in the final seconds. When the buzzer sounded, Kory ran onto the court and tackled me. It was the best feeling ever. It was then when I realized that the magnitude of the stage at UCLA could bring the best out of me.
But even as my confidence was growing, the pressure felt like it was mounting, too. Back when I was trying to carry the load on offense and play point guard at the same time, I caught a lot of heat when things didn’t go our way. It made sense — I was the floor leader. I remember during my freshman and sophomore years coming back to the locker room after games and feeling physically ill. I was feeling so much pressure to be flawless. On the outside, I wanted to be a pro, say the right things, act like a leader. But inside, the pressure was just tearing me up.
There has to be a better way, I thought.
This year, my senior year, I think I have finally accepted the idea that, If they’re talking about you, you must be doing something right. You go to college to learn, to mature, to grow. UCLA probably does that as well as anywhere. I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to take advantage of it.
Last off-season was a real low point. They say you can’t enjoy the highs without experiencing the lows. I’m not so sure about that. I never want to feel that low again.
We hadn’t even gotten invited to a postseason tournament — not even the NIT. We had just had only the fourth losing season at UCLA since 1948.
One of the first things my dad and I did together after last year’s season was meet up for a round of golf at a course near our house. Naturally, even in the off-season — and especially after that season — our discussions on the course always come back to UCLA basketball. So we started talking about the upcoming year … and eventually about my dad’s incoming recruits.
The discussion ended up — where most UCLA basketball discussions these days tend to end up — on a familiar subject: Lonzo Ball.
I didn’t really know much about Lonzo yet. The big thing that I remembered about him was his position: point guard. He was considered the best point guard in the nation.
But point guard was my position.
“Hey,” my dad asked, “Are you excited to be playing off the ball, finally?”
And that’s how I lost my job.
The coach in him knew that Lonzo was the natural choice to start at point guard. But I’m sure the dad in him was probably worried about how his son would respond.
I wasn’t the only one who got displaced, though. Aaron Holiday, a beast of a player who started all 32 games for us at the two spot as a freshman the year before, has had to embrace the role of sixth man. To his credit, Aaron has not only embraced that role, but thrived in it.
I’d like to think that I have thrived in my new role as well. The chance to play the two guard was a fresh start and, in many ways, it was also a relief. I knew with the freshmen — Lonzo, TJ Leaf and Ike Anigbogu — coming in, we were going to be really good. At the two guard, I could just play my game.
So that’s what I told my dad on the golf course that day. I could see he was relieved, both as a coach and as a father.
I finally got to see Lonzo in action on our team’s trip to Australia last summer.
The hype was crazier than I expected. After our exhibition games, T.J. and I would have a few kids approach us for autographs, which was cool. And then we’d look over at Lonzo and he’d have 50 to 75 people in line waiting for him. People in the stands had Lonzo jerseys on for crying out loud — where did they even get those?! We were halfway around the world and Lonzo’s freshman year was still months away, but the buzz was in full effect.
That hype, of course, hasn’t let up.
It has been eye-opening for me to watch how Lonzo has handled the commotion. He’s dealt with it in the most Lonzo way possible: humble, low key, quiet.
When Lonzo does speak up, you get to see a whole other side of him. Like, for instance, he’s a really good rapper. I found that out in Australia. He’d freestyle for like 15 minutes while we tossed him random words. Because he’s naturally so quiet, it was cool to see him come alive and really open up. I don’t want to gash him up too good now, but I’ll admit — yeah, he’s not bad at all. I’d go as far as to say he’s good. (He’s brilliant compared to me.) But still, Zo, stick to hoops.
Stephen R. Sylvanie/USA TODAY Sports
TJ is another freshman who I’ve had a really good time getting to know while I’ve been showing him the ropes. We’ve grown really close despite our age difference. TJ is definitely the team weirdo — he’s a goofball who plays the whole “6′ 10″ white boy/ladies man” thing to a tee. He’s always talking trash, but in this extra goofy way that never comes off mean.
Our opening game of this season, against Pacific, was the first chance we had to show off our new lineup. With Lonzo at point, all I had to do was get open and get shots up. Lonzo kept hitting my shooting pocket time after time, every pass better than the last. Even now, I just can’t really overstate how much fun it is to play with him – a selfless guard who knows where you need the ball.
I had 30 in that game. Played 32 minutes. And when I got to the locker room, I wasn’t dead tired.
It felt easy.
That’s when I knew this team wouldn’t be missing the postseason.
In my four years at UCLA, this is probably the closest group of guys I’ve been around. And I think it shows. We trust each other. We have fun. We’ve had some close groups before, but there’s just something about this one that’s special.
And this team, and this year in particular, has also brought me closer to my dad. Maybe it’s partly because we both know that this is our last run together. Maybe it’s because I can finally appreciate all the times he’s laid into me. I realize now that he did it simply to make me better. That’s the life of a coach’s kid — you get it from all sides.
Which brings me back to that round of golf with my dad. We’re really competitive out there, but the most important part of our rounds together is that they give us a chance to catch up on life.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports
Back on that golf course last spring, my dad was talking about the way last season had ended. The disappointment. The NCAA tournament was going on at the time, and I could tell he was in agony.
As we were walking down a fairway, he turned to me like he was joking — he totally wasn’t — and said, “Let’s never be on the golf course at this time of year ever again.”
I promised him that we never would be. |
It may never rain in Southern California (though, this last winter is bringing that adage into question), but L.A. is facing a perfect storm. Sky-high land value, an expanded state tax credit for film and TV production, and a boom of new media platforms (Netflix, Buzzfeed, YouTube, etc.) pumping out year-round content has left soundstage space at a premium.
According to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. Center Studios is running at 100% capacity, while Sunset Las Palmas and Sunset Gower studios are running at 90% capacity. These are historic highs for a market that typically functions at 70% capacity rates.
"We are at a turning point," Carl Muhlstein, an international director with JLL real estate who is familiar with the L.A. production facility market, told LAist. "We have lost feature film production to places like Georgia and Louisiana, but we have done well with TV, commercials, and concert rehearsals."
The California Motion Picture and Television Production Credit that passed in 2014 (and which went into effect January 1, 2016) allocated about $330 million in tax credits for production in California. It also did away with the previous random lottery system in favor of productions that generate more jobs. These factors, among other things, have given TV production a boost. According to a recent report by FilmLA, which only tracks on-location production in Los Angeles, "Overall Television production is still tracking 10.3 percent ahead of its 5-year average."
The effect for movie production has been more difficult to determine, however. “Feature production levels are proving highly cyclical and difficult to evaluate on a quarter-by-quarter basis,” Paul Audley, president of FilmLA, noted in the report. “Last year local Feature production hit a seven-year high—so trendspotting in this segment requires a deeper dive.”
"There are so many cyclical factors here," Muhlstein continued to LAist. "Tax credits, exchange rates, etc. So, it's really hard to predict." What is certain is the scarcity of land in Los Angeles, and the difficulty of developing in this city, he noted.
"Soundstages are very land-intensive, and land is a commodity we're running out of," Muhlstein concluded. "So now [soundstage] users have less negotiation power." Muhlstein noted that Netflix just signed a "historic" 10-year lease with Sunset Bronson Studios to use their soundstages, adding that it was the longest lease ever for a non-studio owned soundstage space. Muhlstein said that, previously, the longest such agreement was a 5-year lease that producer David E. Kelley had signed with Manhattan Beach Studios. |
The aftermath of national tragedies always instigates attempts at changing the policy landscape one way or another. This time around, the story is highly reminiscent of the outcome of another domestic attack on Americans from over two years ago.
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Reports have indicated that the FBI is in the process of attempting to gain access to the iPhone of Texas church shooting perpetrator Devin Kelley. Agents apparently hope to gain insight into Kelley’s background and motivations based on data in the device. Apple had offered assistance to the Bureau in advising them on how to use Kelley’s fingerprints to unlock the phone. Now that this opportunity is gone (the fingerprint ID feature ceases to operate after 48 hours of not being used), the FBI will have to pursue legal avenues if it wants Apple to cooperate with them in accessing the phone.
Sound familiar?
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This episode is in many ways a replay of what transpired following the San Bernardino shootings in 2015, when two ISIS-inspired attackers shot and killed 14 people at an employee gathering at the Inland Regional Center in the city. After the FBI failed to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the shooters, it turned to Apple for assistance. The tech giant refused, claiming that such an action would create a bad precedent and undermine its commitment to customers’ privacy. The government promptly sued the company for obstructing their investigation.
No legal conclusion was ever reached at that time, as the FBI withdrew their request after it managed to hack the iPhone with the help of mysterious outside parties. Thus there was left the lingering question: What are the rights of government investigators when it comes to breaking through encryption from the private sector?
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Since that time, lawmakers and officials, including the current attorney general Jeff Sessions, have been leading the crusade to institute policies that will help law enforcement with this problem in the future.
In truth, these voices in the government making demands on private industry encryption is a bit disturbing.
The attorney general has repeatedly bashed big tech for impeding investigations, claiming in a recent press conference that the FBI has been locked out of thousands of devices over the past year alone. Sessions would like to see a world in which manufacturers are obligated to help investigators gain access to a device, and failing to do so would be obstruction of justice.
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Sessions’ deputy Rod Rosenstein has been hinting for months that the Trump administration will take a harder line against the tech industry’s trend toward unbreakable encryption. Rosenstein has pursued this mission over his career. While he was the US attorney in Maryland, for instance, he sought to take companies to court to make them unscramble their data in two separate instances in 2014 and 2015.
In truth, these voices in the government making demands on private industry encryption is a bit disturbing.
Sessions has implied that certain types of encryption should be outlawed if they are beyond the ability of law enforcement to crack. This has drawn criticism not just from the typical left wing opponents of the administration but from the right as well on the basis of libertarian arguments. What business does the government have making rules about the encryption its citizens use to keep their private information safe?
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The horror of the killings in Sutherland Springs may provide new fuel for the anti-encryption camp in Washington. It would look very bad, to say the least, if Apple were to be perceived as preventing the investigation of one of the worst shootings in American history.
The ball is now in the government’s court. The FBI may resort to the methods that they employed following San Bernardino. Or, quite possibly, hawks on the encryption issue may use the incident to promote their agenda and take Apple for a legal ride. |
To rewrite history the Obama administration is toying with the devices that George Orwell depicted in 1984. The party line that Orwell attributed to Ingsoc provides this rationale: “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.”
Today’s New York Post editorial comes up with another example, this one involving the oxymoronically named White House spokesman Josh Earnest. At the May 9 press briefing, Kevin Corke asked Earnest whether he could state categorically that no senior administration official ever lied publicly about any aspect of the Iran deal. The White House transcript of Earnest’s answer reads as follows:
Q Can you state categorically that no senior official in this administration has ever lied publicly about any aspect of the Iran nuclear deal? MR. EARNEST: Kevin, I think the facts of this agreement and the benefits of this agreement make clear that the national security of the United States of America has been enhanced, and Iran’s effort to acquire a nuclear weapon has been set back. In fact, Iran has now committed to not seeking to acquire to a nuclear weapon, and we can now verify that they’re not able to acquire a nuclear weapon. It is our critics who either falsely or just wrongly suggested that Iran would never go along with the agreement. They have. They falsely or wrongly suggested that we would never be able to verify through the international community that Iran would abide by the agreement. They have. It is our critics who have suggested that Iran would experience hundreds of billions of dollars in benefits — a financial windfall from this agreement. They have not. In fact, we have seen the Iran government complain about the fact that they haven’t gotten the kind of financial benefits that they expected. So I recognize that there is an attempt by those who either lied or got it wrong to try to relitigate this fight. But the fact of the matter is, when you take a look at the concrete results of this agreement, Iran is not able to obtain a nuclear weapon; we can verify that their nuclear program is only focused on peaceful purposes; and we have succeeded in making the United States safer, in make Israel safer, and making our partners in the region safer because Iran is not able to obtain a nuclear weapon. This wasn’t just a priority identified by President Obama. Preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon was a priority that was identified by Prime Minister Netanyahu and other leaders in the Gulf that work closely with the United States to advance our national security. That’s the crux of this argument. And the facts indicate that the strategy that the President laid out was remarkably successful. Q I just want to make sure — I want to give you another run on it, because I’m not sure if you misspoke. I said, can you state categorically that no senior official in this administration ever lied publicly about any aspect of the deal. MR. EARNEST: There is no evidence that that ever occurred. And what I would encourage you and other critics of the deal to do is to look at the facts and to look at the results. We can verify them now, and the facts are clear.
The White House, however, has sanitized the the transcript. Asked whether he could categorical state that any senior administration official had lied on behalf of the Iran deal, Earnest’s word cloud was preceded by the answer: “No, Kevin.” The Post editorial explains:
“No, Kevin,” Earnest replied, before adding a storm of words to fuzz the issue — including the bizarre claim that “there is no evidence” anyone lied. Weirder still: Earnest’s original two-word response — “No, Kevin” — was omitted from the official White House transcript. Asked about that this week, Earnest said it was because his response was inaudible. But it isn’t: You can clearly hear the words on the official White House video. Earnest might as well have said, Who you gonna believe, me or your lying ears? To make it all more surreal, Earnest is now refusing to give a direct answer to the same question. He hems, haws and switches subjects; the closest he’ll come is to insist the administration made a “fact-based, accurate, truthful case” about how everyone benefits from the deal. Read between his lies — er, lines, and it’s plain he’s pretty sure his colleagues did lie. Which may make him the closest thing to an honest guy to be found on Team Obama.
Earnest’s long-winded answers deserve no credit for honesty. At a time of its choosing the Iranian regime will acquire a nuclear weapon facilitated by funds obtained under the deal. This time will come at the latest when the terms of the deal expire. When the time comes, Iran will have perfected the ballistic missile delivery system that it is now testing with the tacit consent of the Obama administration. Indeed, Obama seems to think it’s a good idea.
In the news this week is the story of the eight-minute gap in the State Department video of Jen Psaki acknowledging the administration’s deception regarding the initiation of negotiations on the deal with the Iranian regime in 2011. This story is related by subject matter and makes an interesting companion to it. |
An Emirates plane crash-landed at the Dubai airport, sliding on its belly to a halt.
Highlights Emirates plane from Kerala crash-landed at Dubai airport All passengers and crew safe, one fire-fighter killed Passengers wasted time trying to grab bags instead of exiting plane
When their plane crash-landed at the Dubai airport , sliding on its belly to a halt before going up in flames, some of the passengers on the Emirates flight tried to pull out their bags from overhead bins despite the emergency."Laptop, laptop," a passenger can be heard saying; the amateur video shows others reaching for their luggage, ignoring the crisis conditions.A video uploaded on social media reflects the chaos as the plane's crew shouted at passengers to use the emergency chutes to flee. Moments later, the plane would be wrecked by explosions and then a fire in which a local firefighter was killed.There were nearly 300 people on board, most of them from Kerala. "Chute, chute, chute," a woman flight attendant shouts. "Jump the slide, jump the slide," she urges asking passengers to forget their bags.After the Boeing 777 caught fire, the world's busiest airport was closed for several hours.Investigators will scour the wreckage and interview pilots, controllers and witnesses for clues to any technical malfunctions, human error or weather-related problems.Judging by footage of the aircraft's intact tail section, where the 'black box' flight recorders are located, vital voice and data recordings should be retrievable. According to specialist aviation weather reports, at the time of the accident temperatures at Dubai International airport were up to 49 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) and wind shear - a potentially hazardous condition involving sudden and unpredictable changes in wind direction or speed - was indicated on the airport's runways. |
Between the television and the gamepad on the Wii U, the dual screen experience is now akin to that of the DS and 3DS, Nintendo’s acclaimed handhelds. So can we expect a peripheral that would allow people to play their DS/3DS carts on the Wii U?
We’ve already seen two instances of Nintendo releasing a device that would allow a console to play handheld games: The Super Game Boy for the Super Nintendo, and the Game Boy Player for the GameCube.
And looking at the hardware DNA of the Wii U, it is very conceivable that a third device is possible. The Wii U’s GamePad has a touchscreen, camera, microphone, and all the basic controls that would allow for the DS/3DS experience to be played on the console.
The only feature that probably wouldn’t make the leap to the Wii U is the 3D ability of the 3DS. There are glasses-free enabled 3DTVs on the market, but compatibility could be an issue. Seeing as 3D was always an optional feature for the handheld, I don’t think this would be a deal-breaker for consumers.
The allure of having a device that would allow an install base consisting of nearly 174 million handhelds (152 for DS, 22 for 3DS) to play their games on a console would be too great for Nintendo and consumers to ignore. On the fence about the Wii U? A device like this would certainly seal the deal.
It looks like an external device would be warranted as opposed to an adapter or hardware expansion like the aforementioned Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player devices. More than likely a small device that plugs in via USB, unless the DS/3DS handhelds themselves got a firmware update that allowed them to plug-in directly to the Wii U, which is another possibility.
I put together this basic design and named it the “DS U”. Its silhouette is that of the ‘U’ from the Wii U logo, so it could sit beside the console in a complimentary fashion. The ‘U’ opening also prominently displays the game cart label, giving it an old-school cartridge vibe.
Really hope Nintendo does something along these lines, as it would certainly expand the Wii U’s potential. |
White House Anthony Bourdain kept CNN in the dark on President Obama booking
When Anthony Bourdain learned that he would be sitting down for a meal with President Barack Obama, the decision was made to keep the booking quiet. How quiet? Not even CNN, which airs Bourdain’s series, “Parts Unknown,” knew that the president would be appearing on the show.
“We had been talking for nearly a year. It was very, very closely held,” Bourdain told Politico. “CNN did not know, the camera people did not know. Only a very tight group at [production company] Zero Point Zero, my partners, me and very few people at the White House. It was very closely held.
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“We were told not to tell anyone. It was a security situation,” the chef and author added. “The White House tells you don’t tell anybody, you don’t tell anybody!”
News of the booking came as it happened, when the White House press pool was parked across the street from the bún chả restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, where Bourdain and Obama dined. That meeting, filmed in May, will be featured in the season premiere of “Parts Unknown,” scheduled for Sept. 25.
As with other non-news TV appearances for the president (think of the appearance on Bear Grylls’ NBC survival show), the idea to have Bourdain sit down with Obama came from the White House itself, and was more than a year in the works. Bourdain and his producers selected the restaurant they dined in. The check was for $6; Bourdain picked up the tab.
“I had a healthy skepticism of the thing from the get-go. I didn’t want to serve as a platform for a policy discussion, I didn’t want to present myself as a journalist, but if the president wanted to hang out and eat bún chả in a city I loved, I responded to him in the same way I would anyone, with excitement about the prospect,” Bourdain said.
Bún chả is a popular Vietnamese pork and noodle dish.
“This was not a formal interview; I am not a journalist,” Bourdain added. “I spoke to him as a Southeast Asia enthusiast to a fellow Southeast Asia enthusiast. And I spoke to him as some random knucklehead who watches the news like everyone else, and I spoke to him as the father of a little girl to another father of two daughters, who has access to a hell of a lot more information than I will ever have.”
Bourdain and Obama spoke about Southeast Asia, raising their daughters and the controversial topic of whether one should ever put ketchup on hot dogs.
“He gave me a surprisingly undiplomatic answer. He is clearly not running for office,” Bourdain quipped. |
We recently had the opportunity to visit VLONE’s new pop-up shop at Slam Jam in Italy.
The walls have been covered with various newspaper clippings, which have then been customized via graffiti-style tagging. Multiple quotes can be seen plastered throughout, some of which translate to “live alone, die alone,” “only God knows,” “life is my prison,” “my mind is my weapon,” “I am afraid of nothing,” and “you are so beautiful when you are unfaithful.”
The Madonna statues, meanwhile, were created by artist Andrea “FACE” Facelli.
Strategically placed throughout are various apparel styles for purchase, ranging from graphic T-shirts and hoodies to jackets, track pants and more.
To get a feel for the VLONE pop-up at Slam Jam Milano (Via Pasquale Paoli, 3, 20143 Milano, Italy), scan through the imagery above.
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Photography: Stefano Carloni / Highsnobiety
Words by Jonathan Sawyer Staff Writer Not NYC, not LA. |
Stand-up comedian Louis C.K is selling a direct download of his show at the Beacon Theater for 5 dollars.
No DRM, no forced email spam, no expensive middle-man – just value for value.
That’s how easy and convenient video distribution can be nowadays and judging from the comments on Reddit people seem to like it.
However, Louis C.K also heard that a DRM-free copy will be easier to torrent.
To accommodate this ‘threat’ Louis has a special message for torrenters at the bottom of the page.
—
To those who might wish to “torrent” this video: look, I don’t really get the whole “torrent” thing. I don’t know enough about it to judge either way. But I’d just like you to consider this: I made this video extremely easy to use against well-informed advice. I was told that it would be easier to torrent the way I made it, but I chose to do it this way anyway, because I want it to be easy for people to watch and enjoy this video in any way they want without “corporate” restrictions.
Please bear in mind that I am not a company or a corporation. I’m just some guy. I paid for the production and posting of this video with my own money. I would like to be able to post more material to the fans in this way, which makes it cheaper for the buyer and more pleasant for me. So, please help me keep this being a good idea. I can’t stop you from torrenting; all I can do is politely ask you to pay your five little dollars, enjoy the video, and let other people find it in the same way.
Sincerely,
Louis C.K.
Update: $200.000 profit! |
(JTA) — An Orthodox rabbi, Steve Greenberg, officiated at a same-sex wedding.
Greenberg, who is openly gay, married Yoni Bock and Ron Kaplan at the 6th & I Synagogue in Washington last week, Roee Ruttenberg reported in +972 Magazine.
The ceremony was held under a chuppah and included the breaking of a glass and the exchanging of rings. The ketubah, or marriage contract, was replaced with a Shtar Shetufim, or partnership contract.
"We were encouraged by the legislation of same-sex marriage in our home ‘state’ of Washington, D.C.,” Bock and Kaplan wrote in a guide to the ceremony, according to Ruttenberg. “At the same time, both of us wanted a ceremony that would be meaningful halachically (in terms of religious Jewish law) and create a set of Jewish legal obligations between us."
It is believed to be the first time that an ordained Orthodox rabbi has officiated at a same-sex marriage in the United States. |
Only four Norse goddesses have homes of their own. Out of these, two are given to Frigg and Freyja, who are the preeminent goddesses of the pantheon and might be expected to own their own property. The other two are Saga and the giantess Skadi.
The latter is extremely interesting because we know that she inherited her home, Thrymheim, from her father, the giant Thiazi. What little we are told about the Aesir’s homes suggest that they created them from scratch – that Skadi inherits hers tells us that the giants are older beings than the gods. This is why the giants were often shown as knowing the history and layout of the cosmos so well that Odin would come and quiz them about it.
We are used to thinking of giants as big, slow and stupid, but Thiazi knew enough magic to outwit both Odin and Loki, and was famously rich. He dared to match his wits against the gods’, and paid with his life.
Thiazi had no sons, but his daughter Skadi, a formidable giantess herself, inherited his property, including his homestead. This is in keeping with Icelandic law, which allowed women to inherit.
Thrymheim was in the mountains, and its name means “Noisy-Home”.1 The Eddic poem Grimnismal included it in its list of deities’ dwellings:
“Thrymheim the sixth is called
where Thiazi lived, the terrible giant,
but now Skadi, shining bride of the gods,
lives in her father’s ancient courts”
(Grim. 11)
Noisy it may have been, but Skadi was very attached to it.
The gods offered her compensation in the form of a husband for killing her father – perhaps a way of brokering peace between gods and giants. She and her new spouse, the sea-god Njord, spent nine nights in each other’s homes, and at the end of it, she left him and returned to Thrymheim.
Snorri Sturluson quotes a verse that she supposedly spoke:
Sleep I could not
on the sea beds,
for the screeching of the bird.
That gull wakes me,
when from the sea,
he come each morning.
Then Skadi went up to the mountains and lived in Thrymheim. She travels much on skis, carries a bow, and shoots wild animals. She is called the ski god or ski lady…
(Gylf. 23)
Skadi clearly returns to the “wild zone” (Larrington), although the sources refer to her as a “goddess”, which shows that she managed to have her cake and eat it. Back in Thrymheim she continues to practice the inlander lifestyle, living by hunting, like the Sami. (Mundal)
She still manages to be at Asgard when anything important happens, like the feast that Loki disrupts in Lokasenna, but clearly her heart is in the hills. (Although Njord, in a verse to match Skadi’s above, complains about the howling of wolves all night – clearly Thrymheim had no charms for him.)
As a side-note, one of the four manuscripts of the Prose Edda gives her home as Thrudheim, Power-Home. The scribe may have confused Skadi’s home for Thor‘s, Thrudvangr, Power-Field. (Simek, however, thinks it a suitable name for a giant’s residence.)
1. Or Crash-Home, or Thunder-Home.↩
Links:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Keeper of Seasons Hall article on Skadi
Norse Mythology for Smart People post
The Broom Closet post
For the image at the top, click here.
References:
The Prose Edda, Snorri Sturluson/Jesse Byock, Penguin Classics, 2005.
Jesch, Judith, 1991: Women in the Viking Age, Boydell Press, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK, 1991.
Larrington, Carolyne, 1992: “”What Does Woman Want?”: Maer and munr in Skirnismal”, alvissmal, 1: 3 – 16. (PDF here)
Mundal, Else, 2000: “Coexistence of Saami and Norse culture – reflected in and interpreted by Old Norse myths’, in Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society, Proceedings of the 11th International Saga Conference, eds. Geraldine Barnes and Margaret Clunies Ross, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, Australia: 346-56. (PDF here)
Orchard, Andy 2002: Cassell’s Dictonary of Norse Myth and Legend, Cassell Reference.
Simek, Rudolf (trans. Angela Hall), 1996, Dictionary of Northern Mythology, D. S. Brewer, Cambridge.
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This series is an attempt to bring together in one place various info scattered all over the place about numerous types of DLL Entry Points and DLL Exports. Knowing what functions are exported by specific DLL types helps in both identification of a file and its reverse engineering. Everything below is from a reverse engineer’s perspective i.e. what you see when you open a DLL in a RCE tool e.g. IDA Pro. Information provided here is based on a lot of sources yet it is quite condensed; if you want a nice starter about DLLs instead, please check this Microsoft support article What is a DLL? first.
Since this is by no means an exhaustive list, and as I was researching it I was finding more and more stuff I started getting really insane while trying to make it all correct and nicely hyperlinked so please consider this to be a draft quality a.k.a. a WORK IN PROGRESS. If you spot any mistake please let me know. Thanks and see in you in a Part 2 soon!
Generic Exports
.tls Not really an exported function per se, but since it may be present inside PE file I am mentioning it for completeness. Code potentially present inside .tls section (.tls callbacks) is executed on many ‘funny’ occasions. Do read Ange’s article to understand its quirks; it’s seriously @#$%^.
DllEntryPoint A pseudo-export (unless really exported and I have actually seen it exported) so you will see it mainly inside programs for analysis e.g. IDA Pro. This is actually an entry point of the Portable Executable (note that on the source code level in high-level languages or RAD tools it is a place holder and it can be customized by a programmer so it can have some ‘funny’ stuff inside); This is where you start analysis, unless an RCE program finds DllMain for you (beware that DllMain can be empty yet DLL can be executing some code via modified DllEntryPoint, or .tls, or obviously – via other exports expected for certain types of DLLs).
DllMain A main function for a non-.NET user-mode DLL (32- and 64-bit); does NOT need to be exported, but sometimes is. It is called by DllEntryPoint. If the DLL is written in an assembly language, often has the same address as DllEntryPoint.
_CorDllMain NET entry point; it initializes the Common Language Run-Time (CLR) and starts the .NET DLL. It is called internally by DllEntryPoint on OSs not supporting .NET. Sometimes exports named like this are fake.
LibMain / LibEntry DLL initialization entry point (16-bit). Newer DLLs use DllMain.
DllInstall Can be quite common, handles installation and setup for a DLL. To be executed by regsvr32.exe, a command line argument “/i” needs to be used – as per Microsoft:
To use DllInstall with regsvr32, add a “/i” flag followed by a colon (:) and a string. The string will be passed to DllInstall as the pszCmdLine parameter. If you omit the colon and string, pszCmdLine will be set to NULL.
___DllMainCRTStartup (DLLMainCRTStartup) Run-time library Startup code. Calls DllMain internally.
WEP (_WEP) Exported by old DLLs (16-bit) and is called before the driver DLL is removed from memory (WEP=Windows Exit Program).
LangDataCall An export that can be found inside NLS*.dll on Windows 7; the function is called internally by NaturalLanguage6.dll.
___CPPdebugHook A debug export often found in the projects created using Borland C++ Builder (BCB)/ Delphi. It provides a way for a program to communicate with the Borland debugger (note: it’s not a function, but a variable; debugger finds it and writes “2” changing the internal state of the RTL component which will result in debugger being notified about the events via RaiseException API with a magic value).
__GetExceptDLLinfo Another Borland-specific export used by a debugger. This one is actually a function which is called anytime the DLL is attached or a new thread is created.
If it is a lot and it’s confusing think of it this way:
DllEntryPoint is like Start
DllMain is like WinMain
for .exe files, and a code execution flow for a DLL is as follows:
If kernel mode DLL:
DllInitialize
then DLL is doing stuff asynchronously
then DllUnload when DLL is unloaded
If user mode DLL, .NET:
_CorDllMain (if ran on OS supporting .NET)
If user mode either not a .NET DLL, or .NET DLL used on a OS not supporting .NET:
.tls callbacks (if exist)
then DllEntryPoint
then _CorDllMain (if .NET)
then DLLMainCRTStartup (if exists)
then either DllEntryPoint or ___DllMainCRTStartup calls DllMain
and asynchronously: specifically named exports for specific protocols – see list below for examples .tls callbacks depending on circumstances (loading/unloading, creating/exiting threads) |
Proposals would cut benefits for California employees 25% to 40%
In an analysis of two concepts, the nonprofit California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility warns that the state's five biggest pension funds are in precarious financial conditions.
"The upshot," she said, "is going to be a huge fight" — an initiative contest that will be followed closely nationwide.
"Public employees are getting far more benefits than those in the private sector," said Marcia Fritz, the foundation's president, adding that voters are "fed up."
In a new financial analysis estimating the cutbacks, the nonprofit California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility warned that rising costs of public employee pensions and retiree healthcare could overwhelm the ability of taxpayers to fund many basic health, welfare and public safety services.
Reporting from Sacramento — Pension benefits for hundreds of thousands of state workers would be reduced 25% to 40% under two proposals that have become the focal points for what could become a costly and bruising ballot fight over retirement funding.
According to the study, to be released Thursday, California's five biggest pension funds are in precarious financial conditions. Last year, they had only enough money to cover 61% to 74% of their obligations to current employees.
Without a significant scaling back, "public employer obligations for retirement benefits will rise sharply over the next decade, further squeezing government budgets that are already facing enormous pressures," the study said.
The proposals, the primary efforts statewide to curtail public pension benefits, have prompted labor unions to dispatch so-called truth squads to the state Capitol this week to debunk warnings that the cost of public pensions would saddle future California generations with billions of dollars in debt.
Teachers, police officers and retirees are telling lawmakers that state workers already have made pension reduction concessions and get only modest benefits.
Critics of public pensions "selectively draw attention to headlines about the few sensational cases of abuse," said Martha Penry, a special education teacher in Sacramento. "They continue to spread myths and falsehoods about public employee pensions."
The foundation's research focused on proposals that would reduce payouts by about 40% for workers currently on the state payroll and by one-fourth for people hired after 2011.
Benefits for members of the California State Teachers' Retirement System wouldn't be significantly changed by the proposed overhaul, the study concluded. Teacher pension benefits already are lower than those received by most state workers.
The first proposal is modeled on the federal government's retirement system and recently was endorsed in concept by the state's Little Hoover Commission, a nonpartisan panel that studies ways to make government function more efficiently.
The second, a version of 401(k) plans widely used by private sector employers, is expected to be the basis for a proposed initiative that may be submitted to the Secretary of State this month. Backers hope to gather enough signatures to put the measure before voters on the June 2012 ballot.
Lawmakers, meanwhile, have been engaging in contentious debates over the ratification of new state employees' union contracts, Republican efforts to limit pension benefits and the governor's still vague promise to include pension reform in an overall deal to fill a $15-billion hole in the state budget. |
This couldn't happen to a nicer group of guys.
If you're searching for a reason not to have sex with animals, add this to the list: It could give you penis cancer, according to a new study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.
The authors found that men who have had sex with animals were twice as likely to develop penile cancer as those who stick with their own kind.
Lead author Stenio de Cassio Zequi, a urologist in Sao Paulo, gave Live Science his theory explaining the increased risk.
"We think that the intense and long-term SWA [sex with animals] practice could produce micro-traumas in the human penile tissue," Zequi said. "The genital mucus membranes of animals could have different characteristics from human genitalia, and the animals' secretions are probably different from human fluids. Perhaps animal tissues are less soft than ours, and non-human secretions would be toxic for us."
A member of a pro-zoophilia group told The Huffington Post by email that the results of the study should prompt people to take precautions, like using a condom, when having sex with animals. She added that it was unlikely to deter diehard zoophiles. "They might become more cautious," she said, "but they wouldn't change their nature."
One thing that did change recently was the law in Florida, where a measure banning bestiality received unanimous support in both chambers of the state's legislature earlier this year (well before Zequi's study was published). The sentiment was overwhelming but the political process was muddled, requiring three attempts to pass the bill.
That would make Florida the thirty seventh state with such a measure on the books, according to information on the Animal Legal Defense Fund website. The group, which advocates for animal protection laws, said that (prior to the Florida bill), "Thirty-six states (and three U.S. territories) have laws which expressly criminalize the sexual assault of an animal, though these provisions are often poorly equipped to accomplish meaningful convictions. Those states without such statutes are left to consider charges via their anti-cruelty laws, laws which, due to both the nature of the criminal conduct itself and the often lengthy lapses between the assaults and any investigation or examination of the animals, are often ill-fitting for successful prosecutions."
Zequi's study is based on a questionnaire about personal and sexual habits completed by 118 penile cancer patients and 374 healthy men recruited between 2009 and 2010.
Additionally, the research found that people who said they have had sex with animals also reported more venereal diseases.
This story has been updated to include information on laws addressing bestiality in the United States. Information from a pro-zoophilia group has also been redacted.
PHOTOS: ANIMALS IN THE NEWS |
Global income inequality has returned to levels recorded in the 1820s—when the Industrial Revolution produced sizable wealth gaps between the rich and poor—according to a new report released Thursday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The sweeping study, "How Was Life? Global Well-Being Since 1820," uses historical data from eight world regions to present for the first time "systematic evidence" of trends in areas such as health, education, inequality, the environment, and personal security over the past 200 years.
The report reveals that great strides have been made in some areas such as literacy, life expectancy, and gender inequality. "People's well-being has generally progressed since the early 20th century across a large part of the world," it reads.
But while income inequality, as measured by pre-tax household income among individuals within a country, fell between the end of the 19th century until around 1970, it began to rise markedly at that point, perhaps in response to globalization.
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"The enormous increase of income inequality on a global scale is one of the most significant—and worrying—features of the development of the world economy in the past 200 years," the authors write. "It is hard not to notice the sharp increase in income inequality experienced by the vast majority of countries from the 1980s. There are very few exceptions to this."
In a speech Wednesday in Strasbourg, France before the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría called on world leaders to "strengthen our efforts to reduce inequality."
He declared: |
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My Crock Pot Beef Bourguignon is a fix it and forget it meal at its finest ~ this easy slow cooker beef stew is a pared down version of the fancy French dish and I promise it will get rave reviews!
Slow cooker meals are a lot of things, but they certainly aren’t elegant. They might be delicious, of course they’re easy, they make your kitchen smell insane. and they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but they aren’t what anyone would call fancy. And that’s ok. When you’re hungry after a long day you don’t need fancy. I’ve been thinking a lot about slow cookers lately. I’ve had one for years, but honestly it doesn’t get that much use. Most of my cooking is done from fresh ingredients in a pretty quick manner, and I don’t really need it on a regular basis. But every time I do haul it out, I fall in love all over again. And with both my daughters newly out on their own I’ve been reminded of what a godsend a slow cooker can be.
Today I took my favorite Beef Bourguignon and adapted it for the crock pot and I must say, I think it’s a rare example of an elegant slow cooked meal. I say adapted, but I really didn’t have to do anything much, and it’s true that most soups and stews can be made in the crock pot, with just a few small adjustments. Some recipes fare better than others, though, and sometimes color and texture can be sacrificed in the name of convenience. I like to choose hearty dishes like stews and dried bean soups for my slow cooker; they not only tolerate, but benefit from the prolonged cooking time.
My Slow Cooked Peach Barbecue Smothered Pork Chops
The secret to a great bourguignon is in the sauce. More specifically, it’s in the Burgundy, its namesake deep red wine that tenderizes the meat and gives the sauce a rich base.
A large shot of Cognac enriches it even further, and during the long slow cooking the two produce an amazing sauce.
Print Slow Cooker/Crock Pot Beef Bourguignon Rate this recipe 1 2 3 4 5 78 ratings Yield: serves 4-6 Ingredients 2 Tbsp olive oil
2 lb stewing beef, cut in large chunks
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
2 Tbsp flour (leave out for gluten free)
1 bunch fresh thyme, tied in a bundle (reserve some leaves for garnish)
1/2 cup cognac
2 cups beef stock or broth
2 cups red wine (Burgundy, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir)
1 heaping Tbsp tomato paste (I like the kind in the tube)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 yellow onion, peeled, halved, and sliced
3 carrots, peeled and cut in 1 inch pieces
1 lb small white skinned potatoes, left whole if small, or cut in large chunks
8 oz (give or take) mushrooms, dusted off and halved
1 bag frozen pearl onions
a splash of red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar Instructions Browning the meat is an optional step, but if you have the time, I like to do it. Skip this step if you like. Heat the oil in large heavy saute pan or stock pot. Toss the meat with the salt, pepper, and flour, When the oil is nice and hot, brown the meat, in 2 batches, until browned on all sides, about 6 minutes per batch. Put the meat in the bottom of your slow cooker and top with the bundle of thyme. Turn off the heat and add the cognac to the pan, and scrape up all the brown bits as the liquid bubbles. Add the wine and beef stock and continue stirring until you've gotten all of the good stuff off the bottom and sides of the pan, put it back on the heat if necessary. Stir in the tomato paste. Add the garlic, carrots, onion, potatoes, mushrooms and pearl onions to the slow cooker. Add the liquid from the pan to the slow cooker and give everything a gentle stir to get it settled. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. At the end of cooking, remove the bundle of thyme and taste to check the seasonings. I like to add a splash of vinegar at this point, add it according to taste. If you want a thicker sauce, stir in a knob of butter coated with flour, or sprinkle in some Wondra flour and stir well. Use corn or potato starch for gluten free. Serve the stew with a sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves. Notes There is a lot of alcohol in this dish, and while most of is DOES cook out, even in a covered slow cooker, there will be some remaining...so save this for the adults. The potatoes are not normally included in Bourguignon, but I added them to round out the stew as a complete meal. No use in using the slow cooker if you have to make a side dish! 4.36 *Recipe from [The View from Great Island|http://theviewfromgreatisland.com] All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to use this recipe, please link back to this page.
notes:
If you love the idea of easy elegance, you might also like my EASY CASSOULET ~ it’s a scaled down version of the French classic.
Don’t forget to pin this wonderful slow cooker/crock pot beef bourguignon! |
I'm sure many of you Fallout 4 fans have already got your teeth stuck into the second DLC instalment, Wasteland. For those who haven't yet tried it, Wasteland lets you capture creatures that you can then use to fight in an Arena scenario, keeping your settlers entertained, or terrified, depending on your lean.
Meanwhile, I'm still having fun with the first DLC, Automatron, in which I've moved on from building effective robot sidekicks to replicating some of my all-time favorite movie machines.
Just one warning to anyone who hasn't played Automatron yet: all the bloody junk you'll need to complete even one Automatron is, as Parks and Rec's Jean Paul Ralfio would put it, The Worst. So start collecting from now.
Ripley's power loader
My favorite film is Alien, so I couldn't think of anyone better to roam the Wasteland with than Ripley. And of course, Ripley needs her power loader.
Ok, so I nailed the arms, but there's no way of having a hollow body, or Ripley. Still, it's a rather fetching yellow, no?
GlaDOS
The problem with the power loader is that it lacks personality. Enter GlaDOS, Portal's evil mastermind. The Wasteland's tough enough without having to think about a psychotic robot too, so it's probably best that the game doesn't allow for her level of AI, but at least she's slightly more relatable.
Nailed it. Ok, I half nailed it.
Fine, I nailed the head and nothing else.
Johnny 5
Johnny 5 can come with us on a Wasteland adventure any time. His innocuous optimism should keep us pepped up and out of the mire of day to day living with radiation poisoning every five minutes.
Boom. If I was going for a mini fridge with arms.
Wall-E
Millennials (who apparently hate that name) will be more familiar with Wall-E, the cutesy last robot on Earth. Just look at those eyes.
Once again, I was bossing it until I reached the head - options are limited - but I think I got the hands and tracks pretty spot on.
Pixar's movie would have been a lot less cute with this version - so for childhood memory's sake, we relegated it to one of our furthest settlements.
The Terminator
If you're fighting foes in the Wasteland, you don't want cute; you want the most badass of all badass robots. You want the Terminator itself.
First draft - or 'How YOU doing?':
Second draft or 'I've come to kill you':
Ok, so this is as accurate as I'm going to get. The voice is pretty terrifying too.
I then decided to go one step further and build a little homage to everyone's favourite deadly cop in T2: Judgement Day.
ED-209
For the last robot, I'm going mean and large and referencing probably one of the key influences of this DLC: Robocop. But rather than making the Cop himself, I decided I'd have a better shot at the ED-209.
"You have 10 seconds to comply"
The head is domed, and the legs buff, but it's not quite as menacing as the smooth-armored ED-209 that ripped up a (probably) marketing executive like it was a shredder. Still, the built-in gatling gun and missile launcher will keep us safe from any raiders.
Made some sweet robots? Let us see 'em. Submit pics via Twitter or Instagram @techradar with #WasteNot tag.
Someone built a real life Fallout 4 Thermite flame thrower
If that wasn't visually stimulating enough, try watching what playing a horror game in VR was like for the techradar office: |
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