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A handful of France’s most respected police officers have recently been implicated in a string of scandals involving drugs, prostitution, bribes and spying on journalists, resulting in a storm of negative attention for French law enforcement.
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An image of brutality and corruption has long clung to New York and Los Angeles police departments, but these days, it’s the reputation of French law enforcement that seems most under fire.
A handful of previously renowned French officers have been implicated in a string of scandals in recent weeks, revolving around accusations of facilitating prostitution, rubbing shoulders with criminals, bribing informants with drugs, and spying on journalists.
The incidents have unleashed a storm of bad press for French police, prompting Interior Minister Claude Guéant to announce on October 21 that he would impose new measures to more closely supervise officers, particularly those in close contact with informants. “We are reflecting on what we can do to avoid these types of incidents from recurring,” Guéant told journalists.
Meanwhile, Sylvie Feucher, general secretary of the union of French police superintendents, has called for “lessons to be learned”. “Why so many of these cases all at once?” she asked.
Sex, drugs and spying
In the most recent case, Bernard Squarcini, the head of France’s secret services and a member of President Sarkozy’s inner circle, was placed under investigation last week for using the telephone records of a reporter for top French daily Le Monde to identify a mole leaking information about a political scandal. Next week, Frédéric Péchenard, France’s chief of police, is expected to be questioned in the case.
The investigation has incensed the French political class, with newly elected Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande calling for Squarcini to step down – and Sarkozy’s prime minister, François Fillon, hitting back that Squarcini is innocent until proven guilty.
More sensational still is the case of Jean-Christophe Lagarde, a top commissioner in the north of France, who was placed in custody last week following allegations that he arranged secret meetings between prostitutes and former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Paris and New York.
Lagarde was rumoured to be in talks with Strauss-Kahn to lead his security team if the former Socialist presidential hopeful was elected to the Elysée.
Lagarde has also been accused of helping oversee a prostitution ring in the northern French city of Lille.
Meanwhile, another reputed officer, Michel Neyret of Lyon (France’s second-biggest city), was arrested earlier in the month for fraternising with criminals and bribing informants with drugs. Once renowned as a “supercop” who effectively cracked down on drugs and robbery, Neyret now admits that he accepted gifts, including fancy cars and a vacation to Morocco, from powerful local criminals.
Neyret is said to be the inspiration for the main character in French director (and former police officer) Olivier Marchal’s upcoming crime thriller “Le Lyonnais”. Marchal has spoken up on behalf of Neyret, calling him “incorruptible…a good man and an extraordinary cop”.
“In a country that’s been overly sanitised, he no longer fits in,” Marchal concluded during a press conference.
But according to Christian Mouhanna, a specialist in French police and justice at the Centre for Sociological Research on Law and Criminal Justice Institutions (CESDIP), cases like those of Lagarde and Neyret are not exactly new in France.
“We’ve already seen several cases like this in France, in the mid-90s, for example,” Mouhanna explained. “Every time, the argument the officers give – which I’m not passing judgment on – is that they need to frequent certain people and places in order to obtain information about what’s going on there.”
Police mixed with politics makes for a ‘very bad’ image
What is noteworthy, Mouhanna said, is the fact that such cases have recently started to accumulate, which, he noted, is “clearly very bad for the image of the French police”.
That image has already been painted in broadly damning strokes in the foreign press, particularly during the 2005 riots in the Parisian suburbs; disenfranchised minority youths told journalists about random and discriminatory id checks in the street, and photos of French police officers facing off against protesters were splashed across front pages around the world.
But according to Mouhanna, the bad reputation the French police is getting these days is of an entirely different sort, perhaps best epitomised by the Bernard Squarcini case and its far-reaching political implications. Sarkozy is known to have kept tabs on rivals through close police contacts, including Squarcini, acquired during his time as interior minister from 2002 to 2007.
“The Squarcini affair is different from the other recent police scandals, because it is a case of the police being used presumably to protect the the president and his ministers from journalists trying to do investigative work,” Mouhanna explained. “So it’s not just bad for the police’s image, it’s also bad for President Sarkozy.” |
Welsh journalist and author Jon Ronson has begun a documentary project called “Esc & Ctrl” on The Guardian’s Comment is Free blog about efforts to control people and influence opinion online. In the introduction to the series, he explains his vision and methods for the series:
Escape and Control: Stories About People Trying To Control The Internet It can sometimes feel like we’re creating a new kind of democracy online, where we control and regulate each other instead of being told how to behave by those in authority. But there are people out there who don’t like this idea at all. So they want to come up with ways to control it. Sometimes maybe even secret ways…
The first part of the series was released yesterday and investigates the marc3pax anti-flotilla video hoax that The Electronic Intifada exposed in June. This unsourced video was released at the end of June while the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was trying to leave Greece to sail for Gaza, and the video was an attempt to smear the flotilla organizers as dangerously and even violently homophobic.
Ronson acknowledges EI’s investigation of the hoax video and shows one piece of evidence we found in our own investigation. A promotional video for XL Energy Drink (now removed from YouTube) briefly features the actor playing Marc: Omer Gershon. EI used this video to confirm Omer Gershon’s name and appearance, but Ronson shows this video to his interview subjects.
Ronson speaks to Alex Harrison of the Free Gaza Movement in an attempt to confirm any of the purported facts in the marc3pax propaganda video. When she saw the brief scene of the beating, she skipped back so she could watch it again, and she found it remarkable and troubling. During his interview with Orit Arfa, a former reporter for the Jerusalem Post, she finds the same scene unremarkable and insignificant. She insists that the marc3pax video is actually part of a trend among young Israelis to make internet video satires, and she shares other racist and anti-Palestinian videos, which she describes as “clever” and “thought-provoking.”
Ronson interviewed Omer Gershon recently, but we have to wait a few weeks before it will be published.
@bangpound no cos I'm in Madrid now. But I managed to interview him yesterday! — jon ronson (@jonronson) September 8, 2011
@bangpound we're going to move away from it for a few weeks and then return... — jon ronson (@jonronson) September 8, 2011 |
South Park ending: After defeating Voldemort, Harry and Ron address the audience, saying, “You know, I’ve learned something today.” Suddenly, Ginny is run over by the Knight Bus, prompting Ron to shout, “They killed Ginny!” Harry responds, “You bastards!” Neville laughs and says it’s because Ginny was poor.
Star Wars ending: Voldemort reveals himself to in fact be Harry’s father.
CSI: Miami ending: Harry, Ron and Hermione collect evidence linking Voldemort to the murder of Albus Dumbledore. When confronted, Voldemort challenges Harry to prove he did it; Harry puts on his sunglasses, holding up a single strand of Voldemort’s hair, responds, “I don’t have to, you already did.”
24 ending: It is revealed that Voldemort was really just working for the French, and Madame Maxime was really behind the entire plot to destroy the wizarding world. At the last second, Harry is able to diffuse the device Maxime had planted that would neutralize all wizard’s power in all of England. Just as they begin to celebrate, Harry is captured by the Chinese and when we last see him, he is on a boat to China.
Brokeback Mountain ending: After wishing he could “quit him,” Harry finally finds out that Draco was beaten to death with wands by a group of angry Deatheaters. The book closes with Harry gazing longingly into his trunk, in which he has Draco’s Slytherin robe wrapped around his own Invisibility Cloak. Harry mumbles, “I swear, Draco.” and sheds a single tear.
Lord of the Rings ending: Harry and Ron finally destroy the final horcrux by throwing it into a bubbling lave pit deep beneath Hogwarts, killing Lord Voldemort in the process, but at the same time weakening the foundations of Hogwarts, trapping Harry and Ron miles beneath the surface. where they gaze into each others eyes, too afraid to talk of the love that dare not speak it’s name. Just as they pass out, Fawkes rescues them and they both live out their lives married to their respective spouses
A Few Good Men ending: In the process of defeating Lord Voldemort, Ron and Hermione accidentally kill Draco. They are brought to trial before the Wizengamut, and Harry must act as their lawyer. Harry believes that Ron and Hermione were only following orders from Percy, and so he calls Percy to the stand. After a few hours of intense questioning, Harry finally tricks Percy into admitting he ordered the attack on Malfoy. As he is led off to Azkaban, Percy remarks, “All you did was weaken the wizarding world today, Potter. That’s all you did.”
Back to the Future ending: Harry, Ron and Hermione defeat Voldemort by traveling back through time to 1955. While there, they befriend a young, and not yet evil, Tom Riddle. By showing him love and friendship, Tom grows up to be a swell guy, in fact, he’s Dumbledore’s personal assistant. Just as we think things are going to be OK, Mad Eye Moody shows up, grabs Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny and herds them to his nuclear powered broom time machine. When Harry asks what is wrong with them in future, Moody replies, “You turn out fine…it’s your kids!”
Sweeney Todd Ending: After defeating Voldemort, Ginny is threatened by Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. Harry yells "not my girlfriend, you bitches!" and kills them both with a slashing spell. Suddenly the candles in Hogwarts are re-lit and Harry reccognises the faces of the couple he had just kill. Harry is then told by Ginny that his parents never actually died, and that she knew all along. Harry's parents were infact Bellatrix Lestrange and Rodolphus, and were driven insane by a potion-experiment-gone-wrong. Ginny confesses her love for him, and says that he wouldn't have loved her back if he still knew his parents were alive. Harry wouldn't have had to stay at the burrow during the summer holidays, and Ginny would never see him. Harry tells her that he understands, with a crazed look in his eyes. He begins to waltz with her in the Great Hall, dancing on top of all the dead bodies. Slowly, he waltzes her closer to the boiling cauldron of deadly potions. Harry quickly shoves Ginny into the cauldron and watches her burn to death. Meanwhile, Ron Weasley sneaks up behind Harry. Harry is depressed and desides he has no more reason to live. He walks over to his dead parents, and Ron briskly fires an "Avada Kedavra" from behind. Harry dies holding his dead parents, and all his memories seep out of him (like Snape did earlier) for the world to see. Fade to black.
The Princess Bride ending: “And that, children, is the story of the battle of Hogwarts,” said the pale old storyteller as he closed a massive, well-worn book.
“Professor,” said a young red-haired girl, “is that a true story?”
“Of course it is sweetie, of course it is.”
“How do you know?”
“I was there,” the old man said, and the young girl’s eyes widened with excitement. “For I am Lord Voldemort.”
Twilight ending: Voldemort lures Ginny to the Ballet School she went to when she was small. There, he uses the Cruciatus Curse on her. Harry comes in and they have an epic duel among all the mirrors.
Ginny ends up fine, but with a few broken bones.
Harry Potter ending: It’s the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. ‘Nuff said.
Voldemort is captured, and is revealed to be Filch wearing a mask. As he is hauled away, he shouts, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” |
Yes, President Obama could legalize marijuana, but it wouldn’t be a quick or easy process.
The president recently said that he considers pot less dangerous than alcohol. Yet the federal government classifies the drug as a Schedule 1 substance, meaning it has “no currently accepted medicinal use and a high potential for abuse.”
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And a recent petition calling for Obama to remove marijuana from the list of banned substances has 41,000 signatures and will likely keep adding more. With a clear majority of Americans in favor of legalization, it’s not hard to find supporters.
So would the president legalize it?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Obama has shown that he’s willing to keep an open mind about pot — you’d expect as much from the leader of the “Choom Gang” — but he hasn’t endorsed wholesale legalization.
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Like most national politicians, he seems content to let the experiments in Colorado and Washington simmer for a while.
Even if he wanted to legalize the drug, a few things would stand in his way.
International Treaties
In 1961, the U.S. agreed to a United Nations treaty that makes marijuana illegal apart from medical and scientific uses.
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We’re probably already in violation of that pact. In Colorado, pot can be legally produced, sold and consumed, a situation that has irked officials from the United Nations.
Complete legalization would break our treaty obligations, but legalizing pot for medical purposes would be permitted.
The Controlled Substances Act
The Controlled Substances Act regulates the possession, sale and use of potentially dangerous drugs in the United States. Under the law, drugs are broken down into “schedules,” according to the medical value and propensity for addiction.
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The attorney general can change the ranking of a drug, in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
In 1999, for example, Marinol — a kind of synthetic marijuana in pill form — was downgraded to a Schedule 3 substance. That meant it could be used for medical purposes.
Reclassifying a drug isn’t a particularly easy process. Vanderbilt law professor Robert Mikos recently called it “notoriously cumbersome” and said it could involve months, if not years, of hearings.
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But it’s doable. The main catch is, again, international treaties. The Controlled Substances Act appears to require the attorney general to adhere to international agreements when reclassifying drugs.
That’s not an excuse, according to Dan Riffle, the director of federal policy at the Marijuana Policy Project. His group launched the petition demanding action from Obama.
“If the president wanted marijuana rescheduled, it would happen,” he said. “If he wanted to lean on the right people, it would happen.”
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Of course, Congress could act, too. They’re the ones who passed the Controlled Substances Act in the first place. But the body’s record of inactivity over the past few years isn’t encouraging for activists who want sweeping social change.
That keeps the focus on Obama.
“He’s correct that marijuana is safer than alcohol and he should do something about it,” Riffle said. “It’s nice to hear him say that, but actions speak louder than words.”
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The takeaway: Completely removing pot from the list of banned substances would be a heavy lift for the Obama administration, and possibly beyond the authority of the executive branch. A more reasonable step could be reclassifying the drug so that it could be used as medicine.
Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction. |
Francesco Schettino ( Italian pronunciation: [sketˈtiːno]; born 14 November 1960)[1] is an Italian former sea captain who commanded the cruise ship Costa Concordia when it struck an underwater rock and capsized with the deaths of 32 passengers and crew off the Italian island of Giglio on 13 January 2012.[2][3] In 2015 he was sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence.[4]
Early life and education [ edit ]
Schettino was born into a seafaring family in Meta.[5] He attended the nautical institute Nino Bixio in Piano di Sorrento,[3] then worked for the ferry company Tirrenia.
Career [ edit ]
In 2002 he was hired by Costa Crociere (Costa Cruises), a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation. Starting as an official in charge of security, he moved up to become second-in-command.[3] In 2006 Schettino was promoted to captain and given command of the newly launched Costa Concordia.[3] In 2010 as captain of the Costa Atlantica, he entered the port of Warnemünde, Germany, at too high a speed, allegedly causing damage to the AIDAblu, also a Carnival Corporation ship.[6][7] In 2014 he taught a panic management course at Rome university.[8]
Costa Concordia disaster [ edit ]
Schettino was the captain in charge of the Costa Concordia when it hit an underwater rock off Giglio on 13 January 2012, capsized, and 32 people lost their lives.[9] He accepted some degree of responsibility and asked for forgiveness when he talked about those who had died.[3] In 2012, his lawyer, Bruno Leporatti, defended his action and indicated that his maneuver after the collision was "brilliant" and saved lives.[10] In December 2014, his lawyer, Domenico Pepe, just prior to Schettino's testimony, declared that his client wanted to set the record straight and "defend his honor".
Schettino indicated prior to trial that the underwater rocks the ship hit were uncharted, the helmsman did not speak English or Italian, and that the ship’s generators malfunctioned, impeding the rescue effort. Regarding his dry and early departure of the vessel, Schettino had explained that he slipped off the ship when it turned over and fell into a lifeboat.[11] A transcript of a recorded conversation between Schettino and the duty Coast Guard captain Gregorio De Falco was broadcast across news bulletins in Europe and posted (amongst other websites) on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian. It details a very angry De Falco ordering Schettino to leave the life-boat he was in and return to the stricken Costa Concordia. De Falco clearly does not believe Schettino's explanation of how he 'fell' into the lifeboat, or his excuse for not returning to the Costa Concordia because it was "too dark" and the lifeboat had "stopped moving". There is no reliable record of Schettino having returned to the Costa Concordia.
Treatment in media [ edit ]
Prior to the event from 13 January 2012, Schettino had apparently given only one interview to the media, to the Czech newspaper Dnes in 2010.[3] After the event, Schettino received extensive media coverage, being often vilified. He was dubbed "Captain Coward"[12][13][14] and "Captain Calamity".[7] Others in the press noted that he was a daredevil and prone to insubordination.[15] Schettino was even described as "Italy's most hated man" by the tabloid press.[16][17] At the end of his trial at Grosseto, Schettino said that he spent three years "in a media meat grinder."[18] However, there had also been speculation, that he was a handy fall guy for the cruise line that disassociated itself from him and must have been aware of the practice of a sail-by salute, even requesting it.[19] Also, Costa had communication with Schettino during the interval between the collision with the rock and the evacuation order; this may have led to a delay in the rescue effort.[14][19]
Legal proceedings [ edit ]
After the accident, Schettino was placed in temporary custody by the prosecutor of Grosseto and released for house arrest on 17 January 2012.[20] On 5 July 2012, Schettino was released from house arrest but mandated to reside in Meta di Sorrento.[21] Prior to the trial, Pier Luigi Foschi, at that time chairman of Costa Cruises, put blame on Schettino as being responsible for deviating from the course and getting close to Giglio.[3] Costa Cruises terminated Schettino's employment in 2012.[22] The company declined to pay for his legal defense although it first supported him; instead, after a plea bargain with the prosecution, it became a co-plaintiff in the trial against Schettino.[23]
Schettino's trial was separated from a trial against five Costa employees, namely Roberto Ferrarini (the company's crisis director, who was found guilty of minimizing the extent of the disaster and delaying an adequate response), cabin service director Manrico Giampedroni, first officer Ciro Ambrosio, helmsman Jacob Rusli Bin, and third officer Silvia Coronica. All pled guilty in a plea bargaining scheme and received jail sentences ranging from 18 months to two years and 10 months. Reuters cited judicial sources as saying none of these individuals were likely to go to jail as sentences less than two years for non-violent offences are routinely suspended in Italy, and longer sentences may be appealed or replaced by community service.[24] Criminal investigations into any role Costa Cruise may have had in the disaster were closed after the company agreed to pay a fine of €1 million.[23] The company may still be liable for civil damages.[18]
Court of Grosseto trial [ edit ]
On 23 February 2013, the office of the prosecution at Grosseto announced that it had initiated legal proceedings against Schettino. He was accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a maritime accident, abandoning ship with passengers still on board, and lack of cooperation with rescue operations.[25] On 17 July 2013 the trial started at Grosseto where the Teatro Moderno was transformed into a courtroom to handle lawyers of about 250 co-plaintiffs and about 400 scheduled witnesses.[23] While the other parties involved could plea bargain, Schettino's request to strike a plea bargain[23] was denied. By the time Schettino had his first appearance on 2 December 2014, he was left as the sole person to be accused of manslaughter.[26] "Schettino is (now) the only defendant, but he is not the only one responsible," opined Daniele Bocciolini, lawyer for some survivors. "He's not responsible for the lifeboats that couldn't be launched nor for the (failing) emergency generators".[27]
In his defense, Schettino explained that the sail-by salute was intended to pay homage to other mariners and, for business reasons, to present passengers a nice view. He denied that he did this to impress a Moldovan dancer whom he had brought to the bridge.[28] He indicated that his actions saved the lives of many after the ship hit an uncharted rock. Schettino accused some of his crew of misunderstanding and botching his orders. In 2013 he had already indicated that his helmsman, Jacob Rusli Bin, failed to follow his orders and made an error in changing the course of the ship.[17] Further, he blamed defective generators and flooding of compartments for aggravating the situation.[29] His lawyer indicated that these malfunctions led to the fatalities, whereas Schettino did not kill anybody when the ship hit the rock.[26]
At the end of the proceeding, the public prosecutor Magistrate Maria Navarro asked for a jail sentence of 26 years and three months.[29] Confirming the charges, she parsed jail times as follows: 14 years for multiple manslaughter, nine years for causing a shipwreck, three years for abandoning the vessel and three months for failing to contact the authorities when the accident happened.[25] Navarro accused Schettino of lying during the trial as well as in public interviews prior to trial.[29][30] Prosecutor Stefano Pizza stated, "The captain’s duty to be the last person off the ship is not just an obligation dictated by ancient maritime rules, it is also a legal obligation intended to limit the damage to those on the ship."[30] Schettino's lawyers rebutted the charges and indicated that the disaster was a collective failure for which he should not be made the scapegoat.[18] On 11 February 2015, after a 19-month trial, Judge Giovanni Puliatti read the verdict sentencing Schettino to 16 years in prison and five years of interdiction from navigating.[31][32] The 16-year verdict is composed of 10 years for manslaughter, five years for causing the shipwreck, and one year for abandoning his passengers.[18]
Response to the verdict [ edit ]
Although Costa Crociere's lawyer called the verdict "balanced",[33] others criticized the verdict. Survivors groups saw it as too lenient.[34][35] On the other hand, it was also argued that Schettino, while guilty, had been made a scapegoat.[35] According to this view, the disaster was a complex failure, involving not only negligence on part of the captain, but also inadequate safety procedures, poor evacuation procedures, communication failures, and technical defects (such as faulty water-tight doors).[35] On 31 May 2016, an Italian appeals court upheld the 16-year prison sentence.[9] Schettino further appealed to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation,[36] which upheld the original sentence on 12 May 2017. Schettino handed himself in to Rome's Rebibbia prison on hearing the verdict of the second appeal, to begin his sentence.[37][38]
Personal life [ edit ]
Before starting his prison sentence, Schettino lived in Meta, Campania, in the Province of Naples. He is married to Fabiola Russo, and has one daughter. Present with him on the bridge during the collision was Moldovan dancer Domnica Cemortan (26), who has admitted she had been having a love affair with Schettino.[39]
See also [ edit ] |
Photograph via Brainwashed archive
The snarky critical narrative goes something like this: that while Coil produced work of pin drop subtlety, orchestral complexity, sexual magick and academically rigorous symbolism, NIN were responsible for steroid-pumped, arena boistin' industrial rawk - overwrought frat boys in eyeliner. It's a lazy reductionist reading – utter bobbins, in fact - and one that says nothing about the myriad subtleties present in the best of Reznor's substantial catalogue, one that contains dank funk, subterranean horrors and jackhammer kicks. Coil rather liked it, too.
Because although Coil went places that few other bands dared, or were capable of, NIN did share with them far more than a cursory glance may suggest, both thematically (altered states, unflinching analysis of the male psyche in crisis, dark sexuality) and also with a grip on the nuts and bolts of grandiose, lose-yourself-for-months studio dynamics at a time when electronic music technology – on the epic scale both projects operated in - was an infinitely more cloaked and complex world than now. Reznor himself is a huge Coil fan (his side project How To Destroy Angels is named after the 17-minute 1984 Coil epic of the same name) while Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson and Jhon Balance remixed NIN a number of times throughout the 90s. Indeed the five tracks that make up Recoiled all stem from the outtakes from NIN remix LPs Fixed, Closer To God and Further Down The Spiral. All are imbued with a cinematic bent and questing thrust entirely befitting of the originals.
'Gave Up (Open My Eyes)' sounds remarkably fresh, with Reznor's start-stop, whisper to a scream vocal pushed up hard in the mix alongside a barrage of cut-up drum edits – remember this was done in 1992, predating jungle by a year or so, the most useful frame of rhythmic reference for Christopherson and Balance's virtuoso break work. The simple three-chord guitar riff acts as an anchor for an increasing cacophony and Reznor's screams. Hard treble - so much hard treble in fact, a proper 80s style hokey cokey mix down. Still, it suits the harsh EBM of the source material. Close your eyes and you can smell the cider, fags and poppers at The Elektrowerkz circa, well, the 90s. Keep them open and get blinded by the strobe.
The 'Closer' remix is slightly less alluring. Perhaps because the original is one of the sleaziest and raunchiest tunes of the 90's – like Nitzer Ebb meeting Prince in Hamburg and getting him fucked on Lowenbrau and crap speed – or perhaps because the Coil version forsakes the 'walking' whacka bass and bum spank snares in favor of some rather timid 5:00am Bristolian coffee table vibes. Heavy rain soundtrack gear, present and correct, but no cigar.
Luckily, 'The Downward Spiral (A Guilded Sickness)' is a fascinating rework that utilises squalls, accelerating engines and infinity tension to fine effect. Heavy duty tribal drums wrap up a heady session. 'Eraser' is an even deeper prospect, and one that layers drone, sustain and feedback in rather nightmarish ways. The same track is remixed again on 'Eraser (Baby Alarm Remix)', this time adding the chugging riff and pile driving drums alongside Reznor's cut and processed vocals. It's exhilarating, driving and cinematic. Indeed, Recoiled offers succinct drama that will no doubt delight NIN and Coil completists: virtuoso grot of the basest order.
Trent Reznor Talks About His Relationship With Coil
At the end of a recent interview with Reznor, John Doran asked where his interest in the music of Sleazy and Jhon Balance stemmed from. He gave us a lot more than we bargained for, so we've included the full transcript here.
One of my most played records of this year so far has been the Cold Spring release of the full Coil remixes. When it came to stuff like this I always got the impression that you, unlike most of your peers, were a lot more open to the first wave of European industrial and power electronics groups. What was your first introduction to bands like Throbbing Gristle and Coil?
Trent Reznor: I think context is important here. I grew up in a shitty little town about an hour north of Pittsburg in Pennsylvania where we were outside the reach of college radio. This was pre-internet and pre-MTV. I heard music on the local rock FM station and read the reviews in Rolling Stone magazine. In high school I got a subscription to Village Voice and it felt like a pamphlet from another dimension. It was full of exotic culture that felt like it came from a million miles away. And I was completely outside of that sphere of influence. I was just on this island of a town where there was nothing to do but to daydream about how to get out.
Then I got out of high school and went to college briefly, and then I had access to college radio. And a few friends who grew up in New York would overwhelm me with not just one band I'd never heard of before but like 500 bands I'd never heard before. And up until then I had no idea that any of them had existed.
When was this?
This was in about '83 or '84 and during the synth pop explosion that was happening then, which was exciting to me at the time also. My main instrument was piano, and I was thrilled by the idea of electronics and synthesizers, but couldn't get access to one until I was in tenth grade. I got a Moog Prodigy. It was fantastic. I lived on that thing. Around that time I got a Commodore 64 that had a primitive sequencer built by Sequential Circuits, and the idea that you could compose on this computer, that could control these instruments - it blew my mind. I knew I had to do something. All of my interests were aligned. Electronics, science fiction, computers, keyboards, music; that explosion of synth pop ignited me into thinking, "Yes. The time is right."
But I didn't realise what the darker underpinnings to that sound were until I got to college and then I heard what the Human League had sounded like, originally. I heard Cabaret Voltaire. That led onto Test Department and Throbbing Gristle. It just blew my mind. I was very into the idea of sound design. And sound design as music. Noise can be music. Found sounds can be music. All of that kind of happened at the same time, and I was late to the party.
A few years after that, I finally realised that I didn't want to be a computer engineer, and after a couple of years fucking around I ended up living in Cleveland. And there's a fantastic music store there called Record Revolution, which was my first real access to a big city independent record shop, where I spent every spare dollar I didn't have to spend on import vinyl. I was fascinated by the world it opened up. And around that time I was formulating the idea of what would become Nine Inch Nails. We were clearly heavily influenced by Wax Trax and what they were doing. To be able to take the aggression of noise and aggressive guitar sounds and marry that to something that has rhythm in it. This music couldn't have been made five or ten years earlier because the technology didn't exist then, and that was very exciting to me.
To be honest, when I started making music I was very self-conscious to begin with. What I'm getting at is that when I started, pop songs started coming out. I wanted to make Test Department music, but a lifetime of growing up with AM radio pop and the idea of choruses, verses and hooks being instilled in me meant I couldn't help but think in terms of pop. I was intrigued by the idea of bringing in noise and using samples and found sounds, but through the blender and my style of writing, pop songs started coming out.
'The Downward Spiral (A Gilded Sickness)'
When did that change?
TR: Well if I look at my catalogue, I see Pretty Hate Machine, which is a pop album with bits of noise, and at the time felt quite daring to me. Broken was a reaction to that. You know: "I'm not a pussy! I'm not a pop guy!" Which probably lent an air of insincerity to it. In all honesty it was more reactive than coming from a place that was pure. But on Downward Spiral, that's where I found my footing and started to become more me, I think.
So how did you come to work with Coil then?
TR: I'm trying to think how that came about. I think it would have been in the context of hiring Peter as a video director.
For the Broken movie?
TR: Yeah, I think that was probably the first thing. [Coil's] 'Tainted Love' video remains one of the greatest music videos of all time. I was always more attracted to Coil than Throbbing Gristle; the darkness and the scatology really chimed with me. If it's not immediately obvious: Horse Rotorvator was deeply influential on me. What they did to your senses. What they could do with sound. What Jhonn was doing lyrically. The exotic darkness of them permeated their work. So I figured that if I hired [Sleazy] as a director then I could at least meet him and hang out for a bit. We established a friendship, and that friendship was very valuable to me. Making the Broken movie was a lot of fun. There was no label involvement or pressure from anyone, it was just he and I talking. "What if we built a framework around these songs, what if we took an approach where it really was scary, instead of a cop out horror movie nod to the camera. What if it felt real?"
Then he went off and filmed some stuff. And I had an interesting phone call where he said, "Ahh, well, we've done it and, er, I really don't know what to think." So I said, "What do you mean you don't know what to think? Do you mean it didn't turn out properly?" And he said, "No, I'm just not sure what to think. [laughs] I'm going to send it to you, but it's going to show up in a paper bag unmarked because there could be... I'm not sure I want the authorities knowing this came from me."
A few weeks later something came in the mail. And then I watched it. And it was like, "Holy fuck! Now I kind of get what you're talking about!" It felt like we'd crossed over into territory that was perhaps too far. And to be honest, at that point I was living in the Sharon Tate house recording Downward Spiral. And as stupid as it sounds now, that genuinely wasn't a case of, "What's the most ridiculously extreme thing I can do to get attention?" Flood and I were looking for a place in New Orleans to record in, but we couldn't find anywhere that was right. The only houses we could find that were cool were in residential areas, and we didn't want to spend ages soundproofing a house, and we knew we were going to be making loud music in the middle of the night. Jimmy Iovine from Interscope said, "Why don't you come over to LA? I'll set up ten houses for you to look at and you choose one." We hadn't really spent any time in LA so we went for it. We looked at eight or nine houses that day and that house was the perfect place. It had a beautiful view, it was up on a hill, it was a small ranch house. It had a cool vibe, honestly. I wasn't thinking about Charles Manson - I mean why would I be?
Anyway, that night I told a friend where we were thinking of renting, and he said, "You know - that's where those Manson murders took place." Like anyone else my age those murders had freaked me out when I was younger but I hadn't thought of them in years. He had a copy of a book on them at his house, so we started leafing through it. I thought, "Well, it kind of looks familiar." But then I saw a picture of a ladder leading up into the loft - the ladder I had just climbed that day to see what was up there. I was like, "Oh my God, that is that house." And when he asked if I was still going to rent the place I said, "Fuck yeah, we gotta rent that house." Not realising that it would be the narrative for the next 20 years.
Anyway, that's where I was living when this package turned up, and I thought, "Enough. I don't know that I need this kind of thing." With the house it felt too stunty, and Peter agreed. So we shelved it, but little did we know that the internet would come into existence, and it would find its home on there.
Peter was a lovely guy. We had a respectful relationship. Him and Jhonn came and stayed with me in New Orleans for a while. I was in a dark place at that time and those guys were too, to be honest. Three addicts basically trying to pretend that it was fine and it wasn't.
[PR asks us to wrap up the conversation]
TR: You were about to ask something, John? Go ahead.
When we spoke to Sleazy just before he died, he said you were the "perfect gentleman", referring to the fact that you asked him if he minded that you were going to call your recent project with your wife [Mariqueen Maandig] How To Destroy Angels. He also said that he was working on How To Destroy Angels material. Did you ever hear any of that, and is it likely to ever see the light of day?
TR: Around that time I reached out to him. iPads had just come out, and I sent him one [with the music on] because he was in Thailand and away from technology. I just wanted to make sure that he was ok with it, because clearly I wouldn't have done it without his blessing. He mentioned, "Hey, I've got some stuff that I'm working on which could be interesting [for How To Destroy Angels]... it could be interesting, but it could also be way outside the realms of anything that you'd be interested in. We could work together, and maybe under the umbrella of How To Destroy Angels." And I said, "Please do. Send whatever you have." And nothing ever showed up - he passed away not long after that. So sadly I didn't get to hear what he had planned.
To read our feature on Nine Inch Nails' upcoming UK tour, and what actually happened at the Grammys, keep your eyes on The Quietus next week |
Are you a Verizon customer? Are you due for an upgrade on your 2-year contract? Well, go in armed with the knowledge that any 2-year agreement signed from today forward is going to have a substantially awful...er early termination clause.
The base fee of $350 is remaining the same - that's the not-bad news (I mean, it's obviously not good news). The problem is that until you're 8 full months into your contract, that ETF doesn't start declining. Previously, you'd shave $10 a month, every month, off your ETF. Eventually, that'd bring you to $120 after 23 months of service, and on the 24th month, the ETF obviously went away because your contract expired. But if you cancelled say, 7 months into your contract, you'd pay $280 to escape Verizon's clutches because of the $10/month reduction.
Now, under the new rules, if you cancel your contract before 8 months of service, you'll be charged $350. Like you would have if you cancelled the day you got the phone. After the 8th month, the reductions begin, and your ETF then goes down by $10 a month for 11 months. At the nineteenth month - mind you, this is 5 months before your contract ends - it will then drop by $20 a month. That means that one month before your contract is over, your ETF will be $140, $20 more than it was under the old policy.
More aggravating is the fact that if you cancelled just 5 months before your 2-year contract expired, Verizon would have you on the hook for $240. That's insanity.
Anyway, the new policy goes into effect as of today. Contracts signed before November 14th are not affected, but anything from November 14th forward will enjoy the now even-tighter embrace of Verizon's contractual stipulations.
Droid-life |
The evidence on mobile phone safety has been contradictory
The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion.
It may also cut our amount of deep sleep - interfering with the body's ability to refresh itself.
The study was carried out by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.
This research suggests that if you need to make a make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line
Alasdair Philips
Powerwatch
Funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45.
Some were exposed to radiation equivalent to that received when using a mobile phone, others were placed in the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure.
Those exposed to radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one.
The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."
Researcher Professor Bengt Arnetz said: "The study strongly suggests that mobile phone use is associated with specific changes in the areas of the brain responsible for activating and coordinating the stress system."
Another theory is that radiation may disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body's internal rhythms.
Electrosensitivity
About half the people in the study believed themselves to be "electrosensitive", reporting symptoms such as headaches and impaired cognitive function from mobile phone use.
But they proved to be unable to tell if they had been exposed to the radiation in the test.
Alasdair Philips is director of Powerwatch, which researches the effects of electromagnetic fields on health.
He said: "The evidence is getting stronger that we should treat these things in a precautionary way.
"This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don't have your mobile by your bedside table."
Mike Dolan, executive director of the Mobile Operators Association, said the study was inconsistent with other research.
He said: "It is really one small piece in a very large scientific jigsaw. It is a very small effect, one researcher likened it to less than the effect you would see from a cup of coffee."
Last September a major six-year study by the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHRP) concluded that mobile phone use posed no short-term risk to the brain.
However, the researchers said they could not rule out the possibility that long-term use may raise the risk of cancer.
In the UK, mobile services operate within the frequency ranges 872 to 960 MHz, 1710 to 1875 MHz and 1920 to 2170 MHz. |
ONATELAUNEE TOWNSHIP, Pa., June 23 (UPI) -- More than a dozen different police departments in a southeastern Pennsylvania county responded to a wedding brawl that grew violently out of control Monday night, according to reports.
Police arrested seven people -- including the groom -- during the altercation in Ontelaunee Township, which reportedly began over a guest letting her 14-year-old son drink alcohol.
Officers from Northern Berks Regional Police were the first on scene, but they called for reinforcements after guests, some shirtless and bloodied, threatened them.
Police from 16 different departments across Berks County responded and attempted to control the crowd.
Police say one guest was unfazed after an officer twice used a stun gun on him, and the groom, Nicholas Papoutsis, 31, reportedly challenged police to fight before being subdued and charged with disorderly conduct, interfering with the administration of law and public drunkenness.
Emergency workers meanwhile treated his bride for alcohol poisoning and dehydration.
The involved officers came from departments in Fleetwood, Hamburg, Penn State, Berks County, Wyomissing, Bern, Spring, Tilden, Reading and Muhlenberg, among other locations.
Four officers from Northern Berks Regional and Muhlenberg Township reportedly sustained minor injuries in the incident and received medical treatment at Reading Hospital.
Police say the 14-year-old boy in question blew a .16 percent blood-alcohol content and told officers he drank two beers. Those blowing a .08 percent BAC are considered legally drunk in the state of Pennsylvania.
The Reading Eagle quoted Northern Berks Regional Police Chief Scott W. Eaken as saying, "Several people were trying to be a calming influence in all of this, but at that point, alcohol had taken over." |
Just before President Donald Trump departed for Puerto Rico on Tuesday, he took one final swing at the Americans on the island desperately awaiting aid from the federal government.
"On a local level, they have to give us more help," Trump told a pool of reporters Tuesday morning. "But I will tell you, the first responders, the military, FEMA, they have done an incredible job in Puerto Rico."
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Clearly agitated from the negative reviews of his clean up efforts thus far, Trump again insisted that everyone in Puerto Rico is thankful for what he has done.
"Well, I think [Carmen Yulin Cruz] has come back a long way. I think it's now acknowledged what a great job we've done, and people are looking at that. And in Texas and in Florida, we get an A-plus," Trump said. "And I'll tell you what, I think we've done just as good in Puerto Rico, and it's actually a much tougher situation. And whether it's her or anybody else, they're all starting to say it. I appreciate very much the governor and his comments. He said we have done an incredible job, and that's the truth."
Trump abbreviated that comment by taking a shot at the truck drivers in Puerto Rico, who he said are not carrying their fair share of the weight.
"But now the roads are cleared, communications is starting to come back. We need their truck drivers to start driving trucks."
There have been rumors swirling in recent days, propagated by conservative websites such as Gateway Pundit, that truck drivers were on strike in Puerto Rico. But, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the local union of truck drivers in Puerto Rico, these stories are false.
"These viral stories spreading across the internet are nothing but lies perpetrated by anti-union entities to further their destructive agenda," Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said in a statement."The fact that they are attempting to capitalize on the suffering of millions of citizens in Puerto Rico that are in dire need of our help by pushing these false stories, just exposes their true nature." |
Photo by Seattle Police Department
Brendan Tevlin was catching up with old friends and classmates after returning home to Livingston, New Jersey, following his first year at the University of Richmond. On the night of June 25, the 19-year-old spent several hours at a friend’s place in West Orange, a town bordering his own, then texted his mother that he was heading home. He never arrived. Somewhere around midnight, as Tevlin pulled up to an intersection bordering a large wooded area, at least three and possibly four men approached his car. One of the men opened fire, killing the college student in a murder that shocked the quiet neighborhood, where violence is rare.
In the ensuing days, authorities claimed that their preliminary investigation determined that Tevlin had been “targeted,” a phrase suggesting that perhaps the young man had been the victim of a hit engineered by someone he knew. The viciousness of the killing—Tevlin had been struck by eight bullets—was one indication, investigators said, that this was more than just a chance encounter, such as a robbery gone bad. “It does not appear to be random,” a chief investigator said. Friends and family, however, were baffled by the authorities’ conclusion. “He was literally a good kid. No enemies—he always avoided controversy,” a family friend told the press.
Those who knew Tevlin were closer to the truth than the investigators. Three weeks after the incident, police tracked down Tevlin’s alleged killer, Ali Muhammad Brown, living in a wooded area not far from where he’d shot the former Seton Hall Prep lacrosse player. Fingerprints that Brown had left on several items he’d stolen but later discarded led investigators to Seattle, where they learned that he was wanted for several killings. Ballistics tests determined that the same gun used to kill Tevlin had been employed in the Seattle-area murders of Dwone Anderson-Young and Ahmed Said on May 31. Witnesses identified Brown as the shooter, and Seattle police issued an alert for him, but he somehow made it across the country in just a few weeks, evading detection.
Essex County, New Jersey prosecutors said that robbery had been the apparent motive in the Tevlin case, too, and they now believed that Brown had seemed to select Tevlin randomly. But the investigators’ characterization of the crime didn’t account for the viciousness of the killing, and something else bothered local residents. Press coverage in Seattle, the only other place that was writing about the Tevlin killing, noted that Brown had previously been convicted of bank fraud and served time in federal prison—and that Brown had claimed to be a Muslim jihadi.
Then, in late August, the Kings County, Washington, prosecutors’ office charged Brown with a fourth murder, of Leroy Henderson, whom he allegedly shot on April 27 when Henderson was on his way home. In those charging documents, the Seattle Times reported, prosecutors revealed that Brown had described his four murders as “just kills,” or justified murders, in response to U.S. combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan: “All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So, a life for a life.” According to the Seattle report, the authorities there suspected that the motive for Brown’s bank fraud, which he undertook with several acquaintances who regularly gathered to discuss jihad, had been to raise money for Somali terrorists, though investigators hadn’t traced the money to any specific groups.
These revelations cast an entirely different light on Tevlin’s killing and the ensuing investigation. New Jersey’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger, said in an editorial that authorities’ initial description of Tevlin as “targeted” by someone he might have known raised false assurances among local residents by implying “that the killer had some private beef with Tevlin and went after him.” The paper added that the message investigators apparently wanted to send was that “The danger is confined to people who associate with killers.”
Tevlin associated with no killers, and local residents now know that a jihadist had been hiding out among them for weeks after killing Tevlin. Brown had camped out at two sites in West Orange, a town intersected by the Watchung Mountains, where homes nestle next to hiking trails and wooded recreation areas. He put some thought into choosing his hiding place in an area dotted with wealthy homes. In his notebooks, police found jihadist rants suggesting, in effect, that taking cover among the rich was the best way to evade detection. Before being apprehended, Brown had committed at least one other local crime, emerging from the woods to rob a man at gunpoint and force him into the trunk of his SUV.
The story doesn’t end there. After arresting Brown, authorities collared two accomplices in the attack on Tevlin. In August, they announced that possibly a fourth accomplice remained at large. When pressed, investigators wouldn’t elaborate, except to say that “the public shouldn’t be alarmed.”
The late-summer revelations have sparked uncomfortable memories in a community scarred by the 9/11 attacks. On this past September 11, local family members who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center gathered at the Essex County 9/11 memorial at Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange, not far from where Tevlin was murdered. Donald Robertson, an acquaintance of the Tevlin family whose own son died in the North Tower, said that the revelation about Brown and his local jihad “was like going through 9/11 all over again.”
Brown’s jihad has received little coverage outside of New Jersey and Seattle. Perhaps that’s because investigators chose only to reveal Brown’s jihadist intentions in obscure court papers filed well after the crimes were committed. Or maybe, in a summer in which the magnitude of the ISIS threat has become clear, the media was too consumed by terrorist dangers elsewhere. Seattle authorities have requested that Brown be extradited to face murder charges in Washington, where he could face execution. In Jersey, which no longer has the death penalty, officials haven’t decided whether to try Brown on the Tevlin murder first. But William C. Banks, a terrorism expert and director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism at Syracuse University, told the Star-Ledger that based on his statements to investigators, Brown could also be tried by federal officials as a terrorist.
On the corner of Walker Road and Northfield Avenue in West Orange now sits a small cross planted in the ground, over which hang rosary beads and a Seton Hall Prep ribbon. Resembling those improvised roadside memorials that friends of accident victims sometimes erect, the tribute to Tevlin is easy to miss, though it’s within walking distance of a bustling, family-friendly zoo and arena that sits at the edge of the woods. The remembrance is nothing like official 9/11 memorials—the massive and expensive Reflecting Absence at Ground Zero, the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, memorial to Flight 93, or the tribute to those who died at the Pentagon. But it’s now clear that the same jihadist ideology that rained terror down on the 9/11 victims also took the lives of Brendan Tevlin and three other innocent souls in Seattle. |
Brett J. Talley, a lawyer unanimously rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Association, will not move forward in the nomination process for a lifetime federal district judgeship, TPM confirmed on Wednesday.
TPM also confirmed that Talley offered to withdraw his nomination.
Talley has no trial experience and was only the fourth nominee since 1989 to be rated “not qualified” by the ABA. President Donald Trump nevertheless nominated Talley in September as his pick for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.
The New York Times reported in November that Talley did not disclose his marriage to Ann Donaldson, top White House lawyer Don McGahn’s chief of staff, during his nomination process before the Senate.
BuzzFeed News reported, also in November, that Talley also failed to disclose thousands of posts he appeared to have written for TideFans.com, a University of Alabama sports fan website, on political subjects including immigration and gun control.
Talley appeared to go by the username “BamainBoston,” and identified himself in 2014 in a post titled “Washington Post Did A Feature On Me” with a link to a report that dubbed him “the ghost hunter and horror novelist who writes Sen. Rob Portman’s speeches.” (Talley did disclose to the Senate that he was part of The Tuscaloosa Paranormal Research Group in 2009–10.)
In one post about gun control in December 2012, titled “Aftermath of Connecticut Shooting” and written three days after a gunman killed 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Talley said, “My solution would be to stop being a society of pansies and man up.”
In another post on the same fan website, surfaced by Slate, Talley appeared to defend “the first KKK” which he incorrectly claimed “was entirely different than the KKK of the early 19th Century.” |
The Advanced Space Transportation Program (ASTP) is a NASA program which is developing future space transportation systems. The ASTP's work, or purpose, is to intentionally advance current technologies, and innovate novel technologies, through intense research efforts that culminate in regularizing the outer space environment decades from now. The intense efforts aim to accelerate scientific and technological breakthroughs.[1]
Regularizing outer space includes making the space transportation systems affordable, along with travel in space as safe and reliable as present day airline systems. It includes creating an environment in the space frontier that is routine enough for ordinary people to live, work and play.[1]
Routine space travel [ edit ]
As NASA’s core technology program for all space transportation, the Advanced Space Transportation Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center is advancing technologies that substantially increase the safety, and reliability of space transportation, as well as reduce the cost. Presently, it costs $10,000 to put a pound of payload in Earth orbit. NASA’s goal is to reduce the cost of getting to space to hundreds of dollars per pound within 25 years and tens of dollars per pound within 40 years.[2]
The high cost of space transportation coupled with unreliability currently discourages access to space as an everyday environment. When space transportation becomes safe and affordable for ordinary people numerous possibilities and opportunities can be envisioned. The vision is guided by possibilities such as living and working in space, exploring new worlds, and vacationing off the Earth. In a similar context opportunities for business and pleasure are added multiples.[2]
Additionally, researchers at the Marshall Space Flight Center are intentionally advancing technologies from simple engines to exotic drives in order to fulfil each of the above objectives.[2]
New-generation launch vehicles [ edit ]
The program's primary emphasis is on technologies for third generation reusable launch vehicles (RLVs) within an operational time frame of the year 2025. I lowering the price tag to $100 per pound by 2025, developing space transportation systems are to be safer by a factor of 10,000 compared to present day launch vehicles. These true space liners of the future could take off from aerospace ports accommodating both air and space vehicles. As the next step beyond NASA's X-33, X-34 fight demonstrators, these advanced technologies would move space transportation closer to an airline style of operations with horizontal takeoffs and landings, quick turnaround times and small ground support crews.[1][2]
Third generation launch vehicles — beyond the Space Shuttle and "X" planes — are founded on various cutting-edge technologies, such as advanced propellants that pack more energy into smaller tanks and result in smaller launch vehicles. Advanced thermal protection systems also will be necessary for future launch vehicles because they will fly faster through the atmosphere, resulting in higher structural heating than today's vehicles.[2]
Another emerging technology – intelligent vehicle health management systems – could allow the launch vehicle to determine its own health without human inspection. Sensors embedded in the vehicle could send signals to determine if any damage occurs during flight. Upon landing, the vehicle's on-board computer could download the vehicle's health status to a ground controller's laptop computer, recommend specific maintenance points or tell the launch site it's ready for the next launch.[2]
Oxygen-air-breathing propulsion [ edit ]
The Advanced Space Transportation Program is developing technologies for air-breathing rocket engines that could help make future space transportation like today’s air travel. In late 1996, the Marshall Center began testing these radical rocket engines. Powered by engines that "breathe" oxygen from the air, the spacecraft would be completely reusable, take off and land at airport runways, and be ready to fly again within days.
An air-breathing engine – or rocket-based, combined cycle engine – gets its initial take-off power from specially designed rockets, called air-augmented rockets, that boost performance about 15 percent over conventional rockets. When the vehicle’s velocity reaches twice the speed of sound, the rockets are turned off and the engine relies totally on oxygen in the atmosphere to burn the fuel. Once the vehicle’s speed increases to about 10 times the speed of sound, the engine converts to a conventional rocket-powered system to propel the vehicle into orbit. Testing of the engine continues at General Applied Sciences Laboratory facilities on Long Island, N.Y.
Other advancements [ edit ]
Along with air-breathing propulsion, there is also magnetic levitation, highly integrated airframe structures that morph in flight, and intelligent vehicle health management systems are some of the other technologies being considered for a third generation RLV.[1]
The ASTP is also investigating technologies for a fourth generation reusable launch vehicles that could be operational in the 2040 time-frame. The goal is to make space travel safer by a factor of 20,000 and more affordable by a factor of 1,000, compared to present day systems. Routine passenger space travel is envisioned for this fourth generation RLV.[1]
Accessible outer space [ edit ]
As access to outer space improves and becomes routine, this will enable new markets to open up. This includes space-based adventure tourism and travel, along with space-based business parks. Other types of benefits to commerce and the global population includes solar electric power beamed from space to Earth, space-based hospitals for treatment of chronic pain and disabilities, mining asteroids for high-value minerals, and a worldwide, two-hour express package delivery system.[1]
Beyond Earth's orbit [ edit ]
The ASTP is developing technologies to decrease the trip times and reduce the weight of the propulsion systems required for planetary missions - including riskier missions to the edge of our solar system and beyond. Some of the technologies under development to accomplish these goals are electrodynamic tethers, solar sails, aeroassist and high-power electric propulsion (ion thruster) are just a few of the technologies being developed to achieve the goals.[1]
The ASTP is also conducting fundamental research on the cutting edge of modern science and engineering, including fission, fusion and antimatter propulsion, and breakthrough physics theories that might enable thrusting against space-time itself and faster-than-light travel.[1]
ASTP team [ edit ]
The ASTP leads a team of NASA centers, US Government agencies, industry and academia focused on products and developing a variety of propulsion and vehicle technologies. Technology development is concentrated in the areas of hypersonic transportation, travel beyond low-Earth orbit, and advanced concepts research. [1]
Ares rockets (cancelled) [ edit ]
Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will begin an extensive exploration of the surface of the moon. The objective is to establish a lunar research outpost where astronauts will learn how to live and work in space for extended periods of time before venturing further into the solar system. Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's Constellation Program is creating a 21st-century human and robotic exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile and safe.
The next generation of launch vehicles will carry humans into space and, ultimately, enable exploration of the moon and beyond, beginning with servicing the International Space Station following the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010.[3]
Ares I and Ares V rockets (cancelled) [ edit ]
NASA's Ares I and Ares V rockets will be the workhorse of the Constellation program. The Ares I rocket is an in-line, two-stage rocket topped by the Orion crew capsule, its service module and a launch abort system. The combination of the rocket's configuration and Orion's launch abort system, which can move astronauts away quickly in case of a launch emergency, will improve crew safety. Ares I is scheduled to deliver four or six crew members aboard the Orion into orbit by 2020. Development of the launch vehicles includes multiple project element teams at NASA centers and contract organizations around the nation, and is led by the Ares Project located at Marshall.[3]
The heavy lifter (cancelled; planned replacement is SLS) [ edit ]
The near-term planning for future development of the Ares V rocket is currently under way at Marshall. As NASA's "heavy lifter," Ares V will carry into orbit larger satellites, bigger payloads, the Altair lunar lander, outpost components, and the critical Earth departure stage. The Earth departure stage will rendezvous with the Orion crew capsule to propel our explorers to the moon and other destinations. Ares V will ferry materials and hardware—from science payloads to food, fresh water and other staples—for use by crew members conducting exploration missions.[3]
See also [ edit ]
There are advocate organizations interested in the development of outer space:
References [ edit ]
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. |
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A boy of six has won a book deal worth thousands.
Leo Hunter was awarded a 23-story contract with an American company after they read his first tale, Me and My Best Friend.
Leo started the book - about a little boy called Liam and his make-believe adventures with his dog Henry - when he was five.
It is now hitting bookshelves in America and is available online in the UK.
Leo, from Derby, said: "Writing makes me very, very happy. It's so interesting.
"I like writing about dogs, people, every single thing.
"I like Harry Potter but I like my books even more.
"I would like to be more famous than JK Rowling - even more famous than Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell."
Leo's novelist mum Jamie, 29, gave her literary agency Leo's tale and they brought it to the attention of US publishers Strategic Book Publishing. |
Drivers have been revealed for most, if not all cars, expected to participate in next week’s two-day IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship test at Daytona International Speedway.
Sportscar365 revealed the expected list of cars set to test earlier this week.
ENTRY LIST: November Daytona Test
Notable Prototype and Prototype Challenge driver additions beyond most full-season drivers from this year include Filipe Albuquerque as third driver in the No. 5 Action Express Racing Corvette DP, and Ryan Eversley and Johnny Mowlem as part of a four-driver lineup in BAR1 Motorsports’ No. 20 Oreca FLM09.
Ford does not have drivers listed for its pair of Chip Ganassi Racing-entered Ford GTs.
The five confirmed drivers for two Lamborghini Huracán GT3s – Bryan Sellers, Madison Snow, Bryce Miller, Townsend Bell and Bill Sweedler – will share the single Lamborghini entered next week.
Factory aces Jens Klingmann, Maxime Martin and Marco Wittmann will share the No. 97 BMW M6 GT3 for Turner Motorsport, while Thomas Jager and Yelmer Buurman will be in the new Mercedes-AMG GT3 as part of the manufacturer’s test effort.
The older Porsche 997 GT3 entered from Autometrics Motorsports features team veterans Corey Friedman and Joseph Toussaint, the latter of whom ran a handful of World Challenge races earlier this year.
Testing begins on Tuesday for the two-day session. |
New concept art from Gavin Li. An Eden Kit shines its beacon in the sheltered hollow of a crater.
Posted by Zumf on Aug 2nd, 2013
Good evening, morning, afternoon, whenever it is where you are!
Eden Star puts you on a frontier world, far from civilisation. Your task as a Pioneer is to reclaim this wilderness, plunder the earth for its rich minerals and annihilate any threat to the Eden Star for the advancement of the human domain.
Here is where you start. The Eden Kit touches down in an open space in order for you to establish an outpost. A powerful core emits a beam of energy when in alignment with the orbiting vessel; Eden Star, transferring a concentrated flow of energy, minerals and data. It is a guiding beacon of light to a Citadel Pioneer, but also an irresistible source of rich sustenance to which certain indigenous lifeforms are uncontrollably attracted...
Pharus 7 is a small planetoid with a hyper axial rotation, causing short day cycles. The night is illuminated by Pharus 7's twin planets, orbiting moons and the alluring glow of precious minerals.
More lore coming soon... |
This article is about the medical term. For the stock market term, see overweight (stock market)
Overweight The overweight range according to the body mass index (BMI) is the area on the chart where BMI > 25 Specialty Endocrinology
Being overweight or fat is having more body fat than is optimally healthy. Being overweight is especially common where food supplies are plentiful and lifestyles are sedentary.
As of 2003 , excess weight reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than 1 billion adults being either overweight or obese.[1] In 2013 this increased to more than 2 billion.[2] Increases have been observed across all age groups.
A healthy body requires a minimum amount of fat for proper functioning of the hormonal, reproductive, and immune systems, as thermal insulation, as shock absorption for sensitive areas, and as energy for future use. But the accumulation of too much storage fat can impair movement, flexibility, and alter the appearance of the body.
Classification
The degree to which a person is overweight is generally described by the body mass index (BMI). Overweight is defined as a BMI of 25 or more, thus it includes pre-obesity defined as a BMI between 25 and 30 and obesity as defined by a BMI of 30 or more.[3][4] Pre-obese and overweight however are often used interchangeably, thus giving overweight a common definition of a BMI of between 25–30. There are, however, several other common ways to measure the amount of adiposity or fat present in an individual's body.
Body mass index
The body mass index (BMI) is a measure of a person's weight taking into account their height. It is given by the following formula: BMI equals a person's weight (mass) in kilograms divided by the square of the person's height in metres. The units therefore are kg/m2 but BMI measures are typically used and written without units.
BMI provides a significantly more accurate representation of body fat content than simply measuring a person's weight. It is only moderately correlated with both body fat percentage and body fat mass (R2 of 0.68).[5] It does not take into account certain factors such as pregnancy or bodybuilding; however, the BMI is an accurate reflection of fat percentage in the majority of the adult population.
The body volume index (BVI) was devised in 2000 as a computer, rather than manual, measurement of the human body for obesity and an alternative to the BMI
BVI uses 3D software to create an accurate image of a person so BVI can differentiate between people with the same BMI rating, but who have a different shape and different weight distribution.
An obese man on a motorcycle
Belly of an overweight teenager
Children with varying levels of body fat
BVI measures where a person's weight and the fat are located on the body, rather than total weight or total fat content and places emphasis on the weight carried around the abdomen, commonly known as central obesity. There has been an acceptance in recent years that abdominal fat and weight around the abdomen constitute a greater health risk.[6]
A person's weight is measured and compared to an estimated ideal weight. This is the easiest and most common method, but by far the least accurate, as it only measures one quantity (weight) and often does not take into account many factors such as height, body type, and relative amount of muscle mass.
Skinfold calipers or "pinch test"
The skin at several specific points on the body is pinched and the thickness of the resulting fold is measured. This measures the thickness of the layers of fat located under the skin, from which a general measurement of total amount of fat in the body is calculated. This method can be reasonably accurate for many people, but it assumes particular fat distribution patterns over the body—which may not apply to all individuals, and does not account for fat deposits not directly under the skin. Also, as the measurement and analysis generally involves a high degree of practice and interpretation, an accurate result requires that a professional perform it. It cannot generally be done by patients themselves.
A small electric current is passed through the body to measure its electrical resistance. As fat and muscle conduct electricity differently, this method can provide a direct measurement of the body fat percentage, in relation to muscle mass. In the past, this technique could only be performed reliably by trained professionals with specialized equipment, but it is now possible to buy home testing kits that let people do this themselves with a minimum of training. Despite the improved simplicity of this process over the years, however, a number of factors can affect the results, including hydration and body temperature, so it still needs some care when taking the test to ensure that the results are accurate.
Hydrostatic weighing
Considered one of the more accurate methods of measuring body fat, this technique involves complete submersion of a person in water, with special equipment to measure the person's weight while submerged. This weight is then compared with "dry weight" as recorded outside the water to determine overall body density. As fat is less dense than muscle, careful application of this technique can provide a reasonably close estimate of fat content in the body. This technique does, however, require expensive specialized equipment and trained professionals to administer it properly.
Originally developed to measure bone density, DEXA imaging is also used to precisely determine body fat content by using the density of various body tissues to identify which portions of the body are fat. This test is generally considered very accurate, but requires a great deal of expensive medical equipment and trained professionals to perform.
The most common method for discussing this subject and the one used primarily by researchers and advisory institutions is BMI. Definitions of what is considered overweight vary by ethnicity. The current definition proposed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) designates whites, Hispanics and blacks with a BMI of 25 or more as overweight. For Asians, overweight is a BMI between 23 and 29.9 and obesity for all groups is a BMI of 30 or more.
BMI, however, does not account extremes of muscle mass, some rare genetic factors, the very young, and a few other individual variations. Thus it is possible for an individuals with a BMI of less than 25 to have excess body fat, while others may have a BMI that is significantly higher without falling into this category.[7] Some of the above methods for determining body fat are more accurate than BMI but come with added complexity.
If an individual is overweight and has excess body fat it can create or lead to health risks. Reports are surfacing, however, that being mildly overweight to slightly obese – BMI being between 24 and 31.9 – may be actually beneficial and that people with a BMI between 24 and 31.9 could actually live longer than normal weight or underweight persons.[8][9]
Health effects
While the negative health outcomes associated with obesity are accepted within the medical community, the health implications of the overweight category are more controversial. The generally accepted view is that being overweight causes similar health problems to obesity, but to a lesser degree. A 2016 review estimated that the risk of death increases by seven percent among overweight people with a BMI of 25 to 27.5 and 20 percent among overweight people with a BMI of 27.5 to 30.[10] The Framingham heart study found that being overweight at age 40 reduced life expectancy by three years.[11] Being overweight also increases the risk of oligospermia and azoospermia in men.[12]
Katherine Flegal et al., however, found that the mortality rate for individuals who are classified as overweight (BMI 25 to 30) may actually be lower than for those with an "ideal" weight (BMI 18.5 to 25), noting that many studies show that the lowest mortality rate is at a BMI close to 25.[13][14]
Being overweight has been identified as a cause of cancer, and is projected to overtake smoking as the primary cause of cancer in developed countries as cases of smoking-related cancer dwindle.[15]
Psychological well-being is also at risk in the overweight individual due to social discrimination. However, children under the age of eight are normally not affected.[medical citation needed]
Being overweight has been shown not to increase mortality[qualify evidence] in older people: in a study of 70 to 75-year old Australians, mortality was lowest for "overweight" individuals (BMI 25 to 30),[16] while a study of Koreans found that, among those initially aged 65 or more, an increase in BMI to above 25 was not associated with increased risk of death.[17]
Causes
Being overweight is generally caused by the intake of more calories (by eating) than are expended by the body (by exercise and everyday activity). Factors that may contribute to this imbalance include:
People who have insulin dependent diabetes and chronically overdose insulin may gain weight, while people who already are overweight may develop insulin tolerance, and in the long run develop type II diabetes.
Treatment
The usual treatments for overweight individuals is diet and physical exercise.
Dietitians generally recommend eating several balanced meals dispersed through the day, with a combination of progressive, primarily aerobic, physical exercise.
Because these general treatments help most case of obesity, they are common in all levels of overweight individuals.
Epidemiology
As much as 64% of the United States' adult population is considered either overweight or obese, and this percentage has increased over the last four decades.[18]
See also
References |
Front end development has never been so complex and exciting as it is today. New tools, libraries, frameworks, and plugins emerge every other day. There is so much to learn.
Fortunately our web team at Grab has been keeping up with the latest best practices, and has incorporated the modern JavaScript ecosystem in our web apps.
The result of this is that our new hires or back end engineers, who are not necessarily well-acquainted with the modern JavaScript ecosystem, may feel overwhelmed by the barrage of new things that they have to learn just to complete their feature or bug fix in a web app.
It’s imperative that they are guided to embrace this evolution of the front end, learn to navigate the ecosystem with ease, and get productive in shipping code to our users as fast as possible. We have come up with a study guide to introduce why we do what we do.
This study guide is inspired by “A Study Plan to Cure JavaScript Fatigue” and is mildly opinionated in the sense that we recommend certain libraries/frameworks to learn for each aspect of front end development, based on what is currently deemed most suitable at Grab.
We explain why a certain library is chosen and provide links to learning resources to enable the reader to pick it up on their own. Alternative choices that may be better for other use cases are provided as well for reference and further self-exploration.
If you are familiar with front end development and have been consistently keeping up with the latest developments, this guide will probably not be that useful to you. It is targeted at newcomers to front end.
If your company is exploring a modern JavaScript stack as well, you may find this study guide useful to your company too! Feel free to adapt it to your needs. We will update this study guide periodically, according to our latest work and choices.
Note that we’ve published this study guide on GitHub as well, and we’ll make future updates to it there.
Preparing for Front End technical interviews? Check out this handbook that contains answers to the famous Front End Job Interview questions.
Pre-requisites
Good understanding of core programming concepts.
Comfortable with basic command line actions and familiarity with source code version control systems such as Git.
Experience in web development. Have built server-side rendered web apps using frameworks like Ruby on Rails, Django, Express, etc.
Understanding of how the web works. Familiarity with web protocols and conventions like HTTP and RESTful APIs.
Some things we’ll cover in this article:
Single-page Apps (SPAs)
New-age JavaScript
User Interface
State Management
Coding with Style
Testing
Linting JavaScript
Linting CSS
Types
Build System
Package Management
Continuous Integration
Hosting
Deployment
Feel free to skip some of these topics if you already have prior experience with them.
Single-page Apps (SPAs)
Web developers these days refer to the products they build as web apps, rather than websites. While there is no strict difference between the two terms, web apps tend to be highly interactive and dynamic, allowing the user to perform actions and receive a response for their action.
Traditionally, the browser receives HTML from the server and renders it. When the user navigates to another URL, a full-page refresh is required and the server sends fresh new HTML for the new page. This is called server-side rendering.
However in modern SPAs, client-side rendering is used instead. The browser loads the initial page from the server, along with the scripts (frameworks, libraries, app code) and stylesheets required for the whole app. When the user navigates to other pages, a page refresh is not triggered. The URL of the page is updated via the HTML5 History API. New data required for the new page, usually in JSON format, is retrieved by the browser via AJAX requests to the server. The SPA then dynamically updates the page with the data via JavaScript, which it has already downloaded in the initial page load. This model is similar to how native mobile apps work.
The benefits:
The app feels more responsive and users do not see the flash between page navigations due to full-page refreshes.
Fewer HTTP requests are made to the server, as the same assets do not have to be downloaded again for each page load.
Clear separation of the concerns between the client and the server; you can easily build new clients for different platforms (e.g. mobile, chatbots, smart watches) without having to modify the server code. You can also modify the technology stack on the client and server independently, as long as the API contract is not broken.
The downsides:
Heavier initial page load due to loading of framework, app code, and assets required for multiple pages.
There’s an additional step to be done on your server which is to configure it to route all requests to a single entry point and allow client-side routing to take over from there.
SPAs are reliant on JavaScript to render content, but not all search engines execute JavaScript during crawling, and they may see empty content on your page. This inadvertently hurts the SEO of your app.
While traditional server-side rendered apps are still a viable option, a clear client-server separation scales better for larger engineering teams, as the client and server code can be developed and released independently. This is especially so at Grab when we have multiple client apps hitting the same API server.
As web developers are now building apps rather than pages, organization of client-side JavaScript has become increasingly important. In server-side rendered pages, it is common to use snippets of jQuery to add user interactivity to each page. However, when building large apps, just jQuery is insufficient. After all, jQuery is primarily a library for DOM manipulation and it’s not a framework; it does not define a clear structure and organization for your app.
JavaScript frameworks have been created to provide higher-level abstractions over the DOM, allowing you to keep state in memory, out of the DOM. Using frameworks also brings the benefits of reusing recommended concepts and best practices for building apps. A new engineer on the team who is unfamiliar with the code base, but has experience with a framework, will find it easier to understand the code because it is organized in a structure that they are familiar with. Popular frameworks have a lot of tutorials and guides, and tapping on the knowledge and experience from colleagues and the community will help new engineers get up to speed fast.
Study Links
New-age JavaScript
Before you dive into the various aspects of building a JavaScript web app, it is important to get familiar with the language of the web — JavaScript, or ECMAScript. JavaScript is an incredibly versatile language which you can also use to build web servers, native mobile apps and desktop apps.
Prior to 2015, the last major update was ECMAScript 5.1, in 2011. However, in the recent years, JavaScript has suddenly seen a huge burst of improvements within a short span of time. In 2015, ECMAScript 2015 (previously called ECMAScript 6) was released and a ton of syntactic constructs were introduced to make writing code less unwieldy. If you are curious about it, Auth0 has written a nice article on the history of JavaScript. Till this day, not all browsers have fully implemented the ES2015 specification. Tools such as Babel enable developers to write ES2015 in their apps and Babel transpiles them down to ES5 to be compatible for browsers.
Being familiar with both ES5 and ES2015 is crucial. ES2015 is still relatively new and a lot of open source code and Node.js apps are still written in ES5. If you are doing debugging in your browser console, you might not be able to use ES2015 syntax. On the other hand, documentation and example code for many modern libraries that we will introduce later below are still written in ES2015. At Grab, we use use babel-preset-env to enjoy the productivity boost from the syntactic improvements the future of JavaScript provides and we have been loving it so far. babel-preset-env intelligently determines which Babel plugins are necessary (which new language features are not supported and have to be transpiled) as browsers increase native support for more ES language features. If you prefer using language features that are already stable, you may find that babel-preset-stage-3, which is a complete specification that will most likely be implemented in browsers, will be more suitable.
Spend a day or two revising ES5 and exploring ES2015. The more heavily used features in ES2015 include “Arrows and Lexical This”, “Classes”, “Template Strings”, “Destructuring”, “Default/Rest/Spread operators”, and “Importing and Exporting modules”.
Estimated Duration: 3–4 days. You can learn/lookup the syntax as you learn the other libraries and try building your own app.
Study Links
User Interface — React
If any JavaScript project has taken the front end ecosystem by storm in recent years, that would be React. React is a library built and open-sourced by the smart people at Facebook. In React, developers write components for their web interface and compose them together.
React brings about many radical ideas and encourages developers to rethink best practices. For many years, web developers were taught that it was a good practice to write HTML, JavaScript and CSS separately. React does the exact opposite, and encourages that you write your HTML and CSS in your JavaScript instead. This sounds like a crazy idea at first, but after trying it out, it actually isn’t as weird as it sounds initially. Reason being the front end development scene is shifting towards a paradigm of component-based development. The features of React:
Declarative — You describe what you want to see in your view and not how to achieve it. In the jQuery days, developers would have to come up with a series of steps to manipulate the DOM to get from one app state to the next. In React, you simply change the state within the component and the view will update itself according to the state. It is also easy to determine how the component will look like just by looking at the markup in the render() method.
— You describe what you want to see in your view and not how to achieve it. In the jQuery days, developers would have to come up with a series of steps to manipulate the DOM to get from one app state to the next. In React, you simply change the state within the component and the view will update itself according to the state. It is also easy to determine how the component will look like just by looking at the markup in the method. Functional — The view is a pure function of props and state . In most cases, a React component is defined by props (external parameters) and state (internal data). For the same props and state , the same view is produced. Pure functions are easy to test, and the same goes for functional components. Testing in React is made easy because a component's interfaces are well-defined and you can test the component by supplying different props and state to it and comparing the rendered output.
— The view is a pure function of and . In most cases, a React component is defined by (external parameters) and (internal data). For the same and , the same view is produced. Pure functions are easy to test, and the same goes for functional components. Testing in React is made easy because a component's interfaces are well-defined and you can test the component by supplying different and to it and comparing the rendered output. Maintainable — Writing your view in a component-based fashion encourages reusability. We find that defining a component’s propTypes make React code self-documenting as the reader can know clearly what is needed to use that component. Lastly, your view and logic is self-contained within the component, and should not be affected nor affect other components. That makes it easy to shift components around during large-scale refactoring, as long as the same props are supplied to the component.
— Writing your view in a component-based fashion encourages reusability. We find that defining a component’s make React code self-documenting as the reader can know clearly what is needed to use that component. Lastly, your view and logic is self-contained within the component, and should not be affected nor affect other components. That makes it easy to shift components around during large-scale refactoring, as long as the same are supplied to the component. High Performance — You might have heard that React uses a virtual DOM (not to be confused with shadow DOM) and it re-renders everything when there is a change in state. Why is there a need for a virtual DOM? While modern JavaScript engines are fast, reading from and writing to the DOM is slow. React keeps a lightweight virtual representation of the DOM in memory. Re-rendering everything is a misleading term. In React it actually refers to re-rendering the in-memory representation of the DOM, not the actual DOM itself. When there’s a change in the underlying data of the component, a new virtual representation is created, and compared against the previous representation. The difference (minimal set of changes required) is then patched to the real browser DOM.
— You might have heard that React uses a virtual DOM (not to be confused with shadow DOM) and it re-renders everything when there is a change in state. Why is there a need for a virtual DOM? While modern JavaScript engines are fast, reading from and writing to the DOM is slow. React keeps a lightweight virtual representation of the DOM in memory. Re-rendering everything is a misleading term. In React it actually refers to re-rendering the in-memory representation of the DOM, not the actual DOM itself. When there’s a change in the underlying data of the component, a new virtual representation is created, and compared against the previous representation. The difference (minimal set of changes required) is then patched to the real browser DOM. Ease of Learning — Learning React is pretty simple. The React API surface is relatively small compared to this; there are only a few APIs to learn and they do not change often. The React community is one of the largest, and along with that comes a vibrant ecosystem of tools, open-sourced UI components, and a ton of great resources online to get you started on learning React.
— Learning React is pretty simple. The React API surface is relatively small compared to this; there are only a few APIs to learn and they do not change often. The React community is one of the largest, and along with that comes a vibrant ecosystem of tools, open-sourced UI components, and a ton of great resources online to get you started on learning React. Developer Experience — There are a number of tools that improves the development experience with React. React Developer Tools is a browser extension that allows you to inspect your component, view and manipulate its props and state . Hot reloading with webpack allows you to view changes to your code in your browser, without you having to refresh the browser. Front end development involves a lot of tweaking code, saving and then refreshing the browser. Hot reloading helps you by eliminating the last step. When there are library updates, Facebook provides codemod scripts to help you migrate your code to the new APIs. This makes the upgrading process relatively pain-free. Kudos to the Facebook team for their dedication in making the development experience with React great.
React Developer Tools in action!
Over the years, new view libraries that are even more performant than React have emerged. React may not be the fastest library out there, but in terms of the ecosystem, overall usage experience and benefits, it is still one of the greatest. Facebook is also channeling efforts into making React even faster with a rewrite of the underlying reconciliation algorithm. The concepts that React introduced has taught us how to write better code, more maintainable web apps and made us better engineers. We like that.
We recommend going through the tutorial on building a tic-tac-toe game on the React homepage to get a feel of what React is and what it does. For more in-depth learning, check out the highly-rated free course, React Fundamentals by the creators of React Router, who are experts from the React community. It also covers more advanced concepts that are not covered by the React documentation. Create React App by Facebook is a tool to scaffold a React project with minimal configuration and is highly recommended to use for starting new React projects.
React is a library, not a framework, and does not deal with the layers below the view — the app state. More on that later.
Estimated Duration: 3–4 days. Try building simple projects like a to-do list, Hacker News clone with pure React. You will slowly gain an appreciation for it and perhaps face some problems along the way that isn’t solved by React, which brings us to the next topic…
Study Links
Alternatives
State Management — Flux/Redux
As your app grows bigger, you may find that the app structure becomes a little messy. Components throughout the app may have to share and display common data but there is no elegant way to handle that in React. After all, React is just the view layer, it does not dictate how you structure the other layers of your app, such as the model and the controller, in traditional MVC paradigms. In an effort to solve this, Facebook invented Flux, an app architecture that complements React’s composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. Read more about how Flux works here. In summary, the Flux pattern has the following characteristics:
Unidirectional data flow — Makes the app more predictable as updates can be tracked easily.
— Makes the app more predictable as updates can be tracked easily. Separation of concerns — Each part in the Flux architecture has clear responsibilities and are highly decoupled.
— Each part in the Flux architecture has clear responsibilities and are highly decoupled. Works well with declarative programming — The store can send updates to the view without specifying how to transition views between states.
As Flux is not a framework per se, developers have tried to come up with many implementations of the Flux pattern. Eventually, a clear winner emerged, which was Redux. Redux combines the ideas from Flux, Command pattern and Elm architecture and is the de facto state management library developers use with React these days. Its core concepts are:
App state is described by a single plain old JavaScript object (POJO).
is described by a single plain old JavaScript object (POJO). Dispatch an action (also a POJO) to modify the state.
(also a POJO) to modify the state. Reducer is a pure function that takes in current state and action to produce a new state.
The concepts sound simple, but they are really powerful as they enable apps to:
Have their state rendered on the server, booted up on the client.
Trace, log and backtrack changes in the whole app.
Implement undo/redo functionality easily.
The creator of Redux, Dan Abramov, has taken great care in writing up detailed documentation for Redux, along with creating comprehensive video tutorials for learning basic and advanced Redux. They are extremely helpful resources for learning Redux.
Combining View and State
While Redux does not necessarily have to be used with React, it is highly recommended as they play very well with each other. React and Redux have a lot of ideas and traits in common:
Functional Composition Paradigm — React composes views (pure functions) while Redux composes pure reducers (also pure functions). Output is predictable given the same set of input.
— React composes views (pure functions) while Redux composes pure reducers (also pure functions). Output is predictable given the same set of input. Easy To Reason About — You may have heard this term many times but what does it actually mean? We interpret it as having control and understanding over our code — Our code behaves in ways we expect it to, and when there are problems, we can find them easily. Through our experience, React and Redux makes debugging simpler. As the data flow is unidirectional, tracing the flow of data (server responses, user input events) is easier and it is straightforward to determine which layer the problem occurs in.
— You may have heard this term many times but what does it actually mean? We interpret it as having control and understanding over our code — Our code behaves in ways we expect it to, and when there are problems, we can find them easily. Through our experience, React and Redux makes debugging simpler. As the data flow is unidirectional, tracing the flow of data (server responses, user input events) is easier and it is straightforward to determine which layer the problem occurs in. Layered Structure — Each layer in the app / Flux architecture is a pure function, and has clear responsibilities. It is relatively easy to write tests for pure functions.
— Each layer in the app / Flux architecture is a pure function, and has clear responsibilities. It is relatively easy to write tests for pure functions. Development Experience — A lot of effort has gone into creating tools to help in debugging and inspecting the app while development, such as Redux DevTools.
Backtracking state with Redux DevTools
Your app will likely have to deal with async calls like making remote API requests. redux-thunk and redux-saga were created to solve those problems. They may take some time to understand as they require understanding of functional programming and generators. Our advice is to deal with it only when you need it.
react-redux is an official React binding for Redux and is very simple to learn.
Estimated Duration: 4 days. The egghead courses can be a little time-consuming but they are worth spending time on. After learning Redux, you can try incorporating it into the React projects you have built. Does Redux solve some of the state management issues you were struggling with in pure React?
Study Links
Alternatives
Coding with Style — CSS Modules
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are rules to describe how your HTML elements look. Writing good CSS is hard. It usually takes many years of experience and frustration of shooting yourself in the foot before one is able to write maintainable and scalable CSS. CSS, having a global namespace, is fundamentally designed for web documents, and not really for web apps that favor a components architecture. Hence, experienced front end developers have designed methodologies to guide people on how to write organized CSS for complex projects, such as using SMACSS, BEM, SUIT CSS, etc.
The encapsulation of styles that CSS methodologies bring about, are artificially enforced by conventions and guidelines. They break the moment developers do not follow them.
As you might have realized by now, the front end ecosystem is saturated with tools, and unsurprisingly, tools have been invented to partially solve some of the problems with writing CSS at scale. “At scale” means that many developers are working on the same large project and touching the same stylesheets. There is no community-agreed approach on writing CSS in JS at the moment, and we are hoping that one day a winner would emerge, just like Redux did, among all the Flux implementations. For now, we are banking on CSS Modules. CSS modules is an improvement over existing CSS that aims to fix the problem of global namespace in CSS; it enables you to write styles that are local by default and encapsulated to your component. This feature is achieved via tooling. With CSS modules, large teams can write modular and reusable CSS without fear of conflict or overriding other parts of the app. However, at the end of the day, CSS modules are still being compiled into normal globally-namespaced CSS that browsers recognize, and it is still important to learn and understand how raw CSS works.
If you are a total beginner to CSS, Codecademy’s HTML & CSS course will be a good introduction to you. Next, read up on the Sass preprocessor, an extension of the CSS language which adds syntactic improvements and encourages style reusability. Study the CSS methodologies mentioned above, and lastly, CSS modules.
Estimated Duration: 3–4 days. Try styling up your app using the SMACSS/BEM approach and/or CSS modules.
Study Links
Alternatives
Maintainability
Code is read more frequently than it is written. This is especially true at Grab, where the team size is large and we have multiple engineers working across multiple projects. We highly value readability, maintainability and stability of the code and there are a few ways to achieve that: “Extensive testing”, “Consistent coding style” and “Typechecking”.
Testing — Jest + Enzyme
Jest is a testing library by Facebook that aims to make the process of testing pain-free. As with Facebook projects, it provides a great development experience out of the box. Tests can be run in parallel resulting in shorter duration. During watch mode, by default, only the tests for the changed files are run. One particular feature we like is “Snapshot Testing”. Jest can save the generated output of your React component and Redux state and save it as serialized files, so you wouldn’t have to manually come up with the expected output yourself. Jest also comes with built-in mocking, assertion and test coverage. One library to rule them all!
React comes with some testing utilities, but Enzyme by Airbnb makes it easier to generate, assert, manipulate and traverse your React components’ output with a jQuery-like API. It is recommended that Enzyme be used to test React components.
Jest and Enzyme makes writing front end tests fun and easy. When writing tests becomes enjoyable, developers write more tests. It also helps that React components and Redux actions/reducers are relatively easy to test because of clearly defined responsibilities and interfaces. For React components, we can test that given some props , the desired DOM is rendered, and that callbacks are fired upon certain simulated user interactions. For Redux reducers, we can test that given a prior state and an action, a resulting state is produced.
The documentation for Jest and Enzyme are pretty concise, and it should be sufficient to learn them by reading it.
Estimated Duration: 2–3 days. Try writing Jest + Enzyme tests for your React + Redux app!
Study Links
Alternatives
Linting JavaScript — ESLint
A linter is a tool to statically analyze code and finds problems with them, potentially preventing bugs/runtime errors and at the same time, enforcing a coding style. Time is saved during pull request reviews when reviewers do not have to leave nitpicky comments on coding style. ESLint is a tool for linting JavaScript code that is highly extensible and customizable. Teams can write their own lint rules to enforce their custom styles. At Grab, we use Airbnb’s eslint-config-airbnb preset, that has already been configured with the common good coding style in the Airbnb JavaScript style guide.
For the most part, using ESLint is as simple as tweaking a configuration file in your project folder. There’s nothing much to learn about ESLint if you’re not writing new rules for it. Just be aware of the errors when they surface and Google it to find out the recommended style.
Estimated Duration: 1/2 day. Nothing much to learn here. Add ESLint to your project and fix the linting errors!
Study Links
Alternatives
Linting CSS — stylelint
As mentioned earlier, good CSS is notoriously hard to write. Usage of static analysis tools on CSS can help to maintain our CSS code quality and coding style. For linting CSS, we use stylelint. Like ESLint, stylelint is designed in a very modular fashion, allowing developers to turn rules on/off and write custom plugins for it. Besides CSS, stylelint is able to parse SCSS and has experimental support for Less, which lowers the barrier for most existing code bases to adopt it.
Once you have learned ESLint, learning stylelint would be effortless considering their similarities. stylelint is currently being used by big companies like Facebook, Github and Wordpress.
One downside of stylelint is that the autofix feature is not fully mature yet, and is only able to fix for a limited number of rules. However, this issue should improve with time.
Estimated Duration: 1/2 day. Nothing much to learn here. Add stylelint to your project and fix the linting errors!
Study Links
Alternatives
Types — Flow
Static typing brings about many benefits when writing apps. They can catch common bugs and errors in your code early. Types also serve as a form of documentation for your code and improves the readability of your code. As a code base grows larger, we see the importance of types as they gives us greater confidence when we do refactoring. It is also easier to onboard new members of the team to the project when it is clear what kind of values each object holds and what parameters each function expects and returns.
Adding types to your code comes with the trade-off of increased verbosity and a learning curve of the syntax. But this learning cost is paid upfront and amortized over time. In complex projects where the maintainability of the code matters and the people working on it change over time, adding types to the code brings about more benefits than disadvantages.
Recently, I had to fix a bug in a code base that I haven’t touched in months. It was thanks to types that I could easily refresh myself on what the code was doing, and gave me confidence in the fix I made.
The two biggest contenders in adding static types to JavaScript are Flow (by Facebook) and TypeScript (by Microsoft). As of date, there is no clear winner in the battle. For now, we have made the choice of using Flow. We find that Flow has a lower learning curve as compared to TypeScript and it requires relatively less effort to migrate an existing code base to Flow. Being built by Facebook, Flow has better integration with the React ecosystem out of the box. James Kyle, one of the authors of Flow, has written on a comparison between adopting Flow and TypeScript.
Anyway, it is not extremely difficult to move from Flow to TypeScript as the syntax and semantics are quite similar, and we will re-evaluate the situation in time to come. After all, using one is better than not using any at all.
Flow recently revamped their homepage and it’s pretty neat now!
Estimated Duration: 1 day. Flow is pretty simple to learn as the type annotations feel like a natural extension of the JavaScript language. Add Flow annotations to your project and embrace the power of type systems.
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Build System — webpack
This part will be kept short as setting up webpack can be a tedious process and might be a turn-off to developers who are already overwhelmed by the barrage of new things they have to learn for front end development. In a nutshell, webpack is a module bundler that compiles a front end project and its dependencies into a final bundle to be served to users. Usually, projects will already have the webpack configuration set up and developers rarely have to change it. Having an understanding of webpack is still a good to have in the long run. It is due to webpack that features like hot reloading and CSS modules are made possible.
We have found the webpack walkthrough by SurviveJS to be the best resource on learning webpack. It is a good complement to the official documentation and we recommend following the walkthrough first and referring to the documentation later when the need for further customization arises.
Estimated Duration: 2 days (Optional).
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Package Management — Yarn
If you take a peek into your node_modules directory, you will be appalled by the number of directories that are contained in it. Each babel plugin, lodash function, is a package on its own. When you have multiple projects, these packages are duplicated across each project and they are largely similar. Each time you run npm install in a new project, these packages are downloaded over and over again even though they already exist in some other project in your computer.
There was also the problem of non-determinism in the installed packages via npm install . Some of our CI builds fail because at the point of time when the CI server installs the dependencies, it pulled in minor updates to some packages that contained breaking changes. This would not have happened if library authors respected semver and engineers did not assume that API contracts would be respected all the time.
Yarn solves these problems. The issue of non-determinism of installed packages is handled via a yarn.lock file, which ensures that every install results in the exact same file structure in node_modules across all machines. Yarn utilizes a global cache directory within your machine, and packages that have been downloaded before do not have to be downloaded again. This also enables offline installation of dependencies!
The most common Yarn commands can be found here. Most other yarn commands are similar to the npm equivalents and it is fine to use the npm versions instead. One of our favorite commands is yarn upgrade-interactive which makes updating dependencies a breeze especially when the modern JavaScript project requires so many dependencies these days. Do check it out!
[email protected] was released in May 2017 and it seems to address many of the issues that Yarn aims to solve. Do keep an eye on it!
Estimated Duration: 2 hours.
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Continuous Integration
We use Travis CI for our continuous integration (CI) pipeline. Travis is a highly popular CI on Github and its build matrix feature is useful for repositories which contain multiple projects like Grab’s. We configured Travis to do the following:
Run linting for the project.
Run unit tests for the project.
If the tests pass:
Test coverage generated by Jest is uploaded to Codecov.
Generate a production bundle with webpack into a build directory.
directory. tar the build directory as <hash>.tar and upload it to an S3 bucket which stores all our tar builds.
the directory as and upload it to an S3 bucket which stores all our tar builds. Post a notification to Slack to inform about the Travis build result.
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Hosting — Amazon S3
Traditionally, web servers that receive a request for a webpage will render the contents on the server, and return a HTML page with dynamic content meant for the requester. This is known as server-side rendering. As mentioned earlier in the section on Single-page Apps, modern web applications do not involve server-side rendering, and it is sufficient to use a web server that serves static asset files. Nginx and Apache are possible options and not much configuration is required to get things up and runnning. The caveat is that the web server will have to be configured to route all requests to a single entry point and allow client-side routing to take over. The flow for front end routing goes like this:
Web server receives a HTTP request for a particular route, for example /users/john . Regardless of which route the server receives, serve up index.html from the static assets directory. The index.html should contain scripts that load up a JavaScript framework/library that handles client-side routing. The client-side routing library reads the current route, and communicates to the MVC (or equivalent where relevant) framework about the current route. The MVC JavaScript framework renders the desired view based on the route, possibly after fetching data from an API if required. Example, load up UsersController , fetch user data for the username john as JSON, combine the data with the view, and render it on the page.
A good practice for serving static content is to use caching and putting them on a CDN. We use Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) because it can both host and act as a CDN for our static website content. We find that it is an affordable and reliable solution that meets our needs. S3 provides the option to “Use this bucket to host a website”, which essentially directs the requests for all routes to the root of the bucket, which means we do not need our own web servers with special routing configurations.
An example of a web app that we host on S3 is Hub.
Other than hosting the website, we also use S3 to host the build .tar files generated from each successful Travis build.
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Deployment
The last step in shipping the product to our users is deployment. We use Ansible Tower which is a powerful automation software that enables us to deploy our builds easily.
As mentioned earlier, all our commits, upon successful build, are being uploaded to a central S3 bucket for builds. We follow semver for our releases and have commands to automatically generate release notes for the latest release. When it is time to release, we run a command to tag the latest commit and push to our code hosting environment. Travis will run the CI steps on that tagged commit and upload a tar file (such as 1.0.1.tar ) with the version to our S3 bucket for builds.
On Tower, we simply have to specify the name of the .tar we want to deploy to our hosting bucket, and Tower does the following:
Download the desired .tar file from our builds S3 bucket. Extracts the contents and swap in the configuration file for specified environment. Upload the contents to the hosting bucket. Post a notification to Slack to inform about the successful deployment.
This whole process is done under 30 seconds and using Tower has made deployments and rollbacks easy. If we realize that a faulty deployment has occurred, we can simply find the previous stable tag and deploy it.
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The Journey has Just Begun
Congratulations on making it this far! Front end development today is hard, but it is also more interesting than before. What we have covered so far will help any new engineer to Grab’s web team to get up to speed with our technologies pretty quickly. There are many more things to be learned, but building up a solid foundation in the essentials will aid in learning the rest of the technologies. This helpful front end web developer roadmap shows the alternative technologies available for each aspect.
Grab is Southeast Asia (SEA)’s leading transportation platform and our mission is to drive SEA forward, leveraging on the latest technology and the talented people we have in the company. As of May 2017, Grab handles 2.3 million rides daily and we are growing and hiring at a rapid scale.
Hence we made our technical decisions based on what was important to a rapidly growing Grab Engineering team — maintainability and stability of the code base. These decisions may or may not apply to smaller teams and projects. Do evaluate what works best for you and your company.
As the front end ecosystem grows, we are actively exploring, experimenting and evaluating how new technologies can make us a more efficient team and improve our productivity. We hope that this post has given you insights into the front end technologies we use at Grab. If what we are doing interests you, we are hiring!
If you enjoyed this article, please don’t forget to leave a 👏 (Do you know that you can clap more than once? Try it and see for yourself!). You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
This article was originally published on Grab’s Engineering Blog. The original study guide can be found on Github and future updates to it will be made there.
Written by Tay Yang Shun. Many thanks to Joel Low, Li Kai and Tan Wei Seng who reviewed drafts of this article.
Preparing for Front End technical interviews? Check out this handbook that contains answers to the famous Front End Job Interview questions. |
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The ready term paper or the thesis guarantees you an appreciation, it is written by the experts having wide experience in writing of this sort of works. In case the teacher has any questions, or something does not suit him and demands modification, the “Pro-Papers” education center also provides free support before successful delivery of the bought work. In spite of the fact that work will be written top-level, the share of responsibility for assessment all the same remains on the student. Buying the ready term paper or ordering the thesis, study the received material and be convinced that everything is completely clear to you. It plays an important role in successful delivery, in case of questions from the teacher, you have to manage competently and efficiently answer them, not having given thereby the fact that you are not the true author of work. |
I put this pattern together in 1999-2000 mainly using patterns that I created in the 1980's. The basic design has a Universal Turing Machine in mind so design expands easily to 16 states and 8 symbols. I have a design for a Universal Turing Machine which fits in that size. This is the first fully working Turing machine so I made it small, just 3 states and 3 symbols. It takes 11040 generations for one cycle.
I have put an extra FANOUT in the addressing of the finite state machine to give a trace of the operation.
It is a very simple Turing Machine as it is limited to 3 states and 3 symbols. It is shown in this picture starting with a 2 1's on the tape to the right. It will stop with twice this number on the right. The Tape is implemented as 2 stacks and the machine has been provided with 6 stack cells. This can be expanded as required for the calculation. The Finite State machine part is an array of memory cells address by State (Row) and Symbol (Column).
Each memory cell cycle round in 240 generations with a space for a glider every 30 generations. These 8 positions are decoded as DVVVSSSS with the D for direction (1 = Right) first, VVV is the symbol to write on the tape and SSSS is the next state.
The design for this Turing Machine is extendible by expanding the size of the Finite State Machine part and storing different numbers in the memory cells. The maximum size is 16 states and 8 symbols. This is sufficient for a Universal Turing Machine. This has now been down see here. |
Maria Sharapova is back. Many are happy to see her, many less so, but her return can not be ignored, and it’s the central theme on this week’s Tennis Podcast.
How will she reflect on her run to the semi-finals? Did she strike the notes in her post-match press conference? And is she a French Open contender?
The team also look at the continuing form of Rafael Nadal, who followed up his 10th title in Monte Carlo with a second La Decima in Barcelona. Can anyone stop him from making it three in Roland Garros next month? A certain Roger Federer, perhaps?
As the tennis world awaits the return of Victoria Azarenka, and eventually, perhaps, Serena Williams after pregnancy, we hear from Kim Clijsters on what it was like for her to come back to win grand slam titles after becoming a mother. |
As a cinematographer, Michael Slovis has lensed 30 episodes of Breaking Bad, including standouts like “Fly,” “Face Off,” and “Ozymandias.” As a director, he helmed four more. Last year, thanks to what he calls “the mutual adoration society” between Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, he landed a gig directing the first two episodes of Thrones’ fifth season. We spoke to Slovis about some of his (and our) favorite scenes from Sunday night’s season premiere.
In the episode’s prologue, flashbacks show a young Cersei Lannister visiting a woods witch to learn her future. As the fortune-teller warns her, “Everyone wants to know their future, until they know their future.”
Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
“One of the great ways to tell a story is to open up a scene with a question: Why are you showing me this? And then, gradually, you answer it. If you come in knowing exactly what’s going on, it tends to not be engaging for the audience. To open up on these two girls whom we’ve never met before, it’s a question: Who are they? We have no idea. The clues are there — Maggy the witch starts throwing out the number of children she’ll have, and telling her she’ll marry the king — but it all happens so quickly that even some very astute devotees of the show were not able to do the calculus and figure out who it was. Good storytelling requires that you be deceptive, right to the last moment.”
In Meereen, a group of Unsullied tears down the harpy statue from the Great Pyramid. Their leader is White Rat, who will soon meet an unfortunate end.
Photo: HBO
“I landed on introducing Meereen with that image because I wanted to do a seamless transition from Cersei. In the original script, Cersei is looking out from the balcony after Tywin’s funeral, and I wanted to give the illusion that we were seeing what she was seeing. So we look at her looking out, then we see sky, but what are we looking at? Then we see the harpy — why is the harpy coming towards us? Lo and behold, we’re looking at the thing being torn down from the top of the pyramid. Then we get that character beat for White Rat, which came from David and Dan, to show how pleased the Unsullied were with themselves, and we as an audience are like, Yeah, right on! The images of the old regime are gone and now we’re happy, but that’s very short-lived for that guy.”
“When [producer Frank Doelger] and I were chatting about the scene, we were looking for examples of icon removal, and we hit upon [the image of pulling down the Saddam Hussein statue in Iraq]. I don’t know if it’s a political commentary, but visually, it’s something we talked about.”
Tyrion journeys across the Narrow Sea in a series of POV shots that recall Slovis’s work on Breaking Bad.
Photo: HBO
“It’s funny that you say that [it resembles Breaking Bad]. I never even thought of that before. The POV shots were actually in the script. The idea of using the transitions between the shots was something that we came up with after a little bit of experimentation. We literally just carried around a wall with those holes in it, and everywhere we went, we shot a little bit of Tyrion’s POV so we were able to capture the idea of traveling from one land to another.”
Jon visits Mance Rayder in his prison cell to convince him to bend the knee to Stannis.
Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
“This scene was like going to the theater for me. I felt honored to be in the space with those two actors. It’s so relatable. Here you have two guys who are both good guys, who respect each other and care about each other, and yet they can’t come to a consensus to save Mance’s life. It’s just a beautiful scene. The interesting thing is when Jon is basically begging for Mance’s life, telling him there’s no dishonor in living. Mance’s response is my favorite line in everything I did on Game of Thrones: ‘The freedom to make my own mistakes is all I ever wanted.’ It’s profound. Every single human on Earth could make that statement, and it would be honest and true.”
In the episode’s final scene, Mance is burned at the stake.
Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
“This scene was logistically very challenging because we did not have a lot of night. The actual burning on the stake was big, but if you really analyze it, it’s a series of simple shots. The most complicated shot is the first shot. It starts with Mance stepping out of the door and then pulling back, so you see the entire Castle Black courtyard. I wanted it to start as close as we can on him, and I wanted it to end on a beautiful, big, impressive moment. It took a lot of rehearsals, but our camera operator Sean [Savage] made it happen. It took getting the crane the exact right spot, and once you put a crane that big there, space goes away very, very quickly. We ran the full length of the arm of the crane on that shot. When we got it, my hairs stood up on my arms. It was so great.”
“It’s really interesting, because there’s very little special effects. That scene was done the old-school way, by putting fire bars in front of the camera, and making it look way more dangerous than it ever was. Ciarán [Hinds] was never even in any danger of being burned. I wanted him to be so comfortable that he was not even thinking about the fire, that he was free to do his work. That scene is sold through Ciarán’s face and eyes. If we don’t care about that person that’s up there, then it’s all for naught. One of the notes that David [Benioff] and Dan [D.B. Weiss] gave me was, ‘Speak with Ciarán about honor.’ Honor only gets you so far. Honor gets you to the point where it’s all theoretical, but when there’s fire on your pants, there’s going to be a reality check. At that moment, does Mance think, Dammit, I should have bent the knee? On a show where so many people have lost their heads, boiling it down to that human moment — I think Ciarán gave us that in spades.”
This interview has been condensed and edited. |
The hits just keep coming for Comcast. It was bad enough when Ryan Block recorded the infamous customer service call from hell and when another Comcast customer showed how Comcast would only refund bogus charges to his account after he revealed to them that he’d recorded a phone call with a rep who explicitly said the charges wouldn’t apply. Now Comcast is having to deal with yet another instance of embarrassingly bad service: A customer who tried to cancel his account and was promptly put on hold for three-and-a-half hours until Comcast’s customer retention offices had closed for the day.
The customer in question, YouTube user Aaron Spain, decided to take a video of his experience once he hit his third hour of Comcast customer service captivity. He held his phone up to the camera that showed he had indeed been on the phone with Comcast’s phone number (1-800-266-2278, a.k.a., 1-800-COMCAST) for three hours. He took a separate phone at around 10:30 p.m. and tried to give Comcast a call using a different line. After going through the usual endless parade of menu options, he finally reached the one that let him cancel all his services… only to receive a message saying that the customer retention department’s office had closed for the day.
We’ve reached out to Comcast for comment and will post its response once we get it. The full video follows below.
UPDATE: Comcast has just issued a response to the video: “Under no circumstances is this the experience we want our customers to have. Our goal is to be respectful of our customers’ time and fix any issues the first time. We take this very seriously, and after investigating Mr. Spain’s situation, we want to apologize to him and acknowledge that his experience was completely unacceptable.” |
Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has apologised for criticising the portrayal of his character Luke Skywalker in the blockbuster franchise's latest film, Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
"I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public", Hamill wrote on Twitter yesterday. "Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private."
Hamill, who played Skywalker in the three original Star Wars films (1977-83), gave an interview in June in which he said he was unconvinced by the script, and particularly unhappy about Skywalker's line "It’s time for the Jedi to end." He said: "Luke would never say that...I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he's 'Jake Skywalker,' he's not my Luke Skywalker."
Earlier, in May, Hamill said he had approached the film's writer/director Rian Johnson about his concerns. He told Vanity Fair: "I at one point had to say to Rian, ‘I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.'"
But yesterday the 66-year-old actor admitted his fears had been unfounded. "All I wanted was to make good movie," he tweeted. "I got more than that – Rian Hohnson made an all-time GREAT one!" |
Hello my sweeties! It’s Friday! It was a busy week, so this is going to be a quick post today. I don’t know how to succinctly describe today’s mani, so I’m just calling it the purple mish-mash mani. 🙂 It has a little bit o’everything. I started out wanting a gradient manicure, but I decided I wanted to make it a skittlette manicure.
The darker purple is much more purple in real life. My camera wanted to make it blue-toned, but it is definitely warmer than it photographs. My camera must be prejudiced against blurples! They never work well on film for me!
I also wanted to be able to use a fun polish that I bought awhile back that hasn’t seen any love yet. Reverie Bonfire didn’t match as well as I originally thought it would, but it doesn’t clash too badly!
Polishes used:
Pinky: OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? … this is a warm leaning blurple that is just stunning. It’s a vibrant purple with a perfect formula.
… this is a warm leaning blurple that is just stunning. It’s a vibrant purple with a perfect formula. Ring finger (and thumb): Reverie Bonfire … this is a deep blue jelly with coppery orange shards/flakes, blue iridescent glitter, and some holo mixed throughout. I used 3 coats to get this opaque, and the formula wasn’t too thick.
… this is a deep blue jelly with coppery orange shards/flakes, blue iridescent glitter, and some holo mixed throughout. I used 3 coats to get this opaque, and the formula wasn’t too thick. Index and middle fingers: Base: Formula X Heart-Stopping … this is a perfect light lavender purple creme. Gradient: Heart-Stopping with Stock-Holm Dots in Stock-Holm
What do you think? Do you think it coordinates alright? What accent glitter/ nail art would you have chosen?
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With Comcast losing pay-TV subscribers in favor of streaming video services , the company is doing what it can to retain customers who not only ante up for TV and broadband, but also for home phone service.
Today, the company confirmed that some of its Mid-Atlantic and New England broadband customers will be getting free speed upgrades.
Comcast is trying to sweeten the pot to retain Triple Play (TV/Internet/Phone) customers, who account for about 45% of its subscriber base, by bumping some of them up from 25Mbps service to the new Performance Pro tier at 75 Mbps at no extra cost.
Note that the company’s press release only refers to “eligible Triple Play subscribers” but provides no further details on eligibility. A Comcast media rep we contacted didn’t provide specifics but said the company will soon be notifying those who are eligible.
As a customer-retention plan, it’s not a bad idea. Costs for carrying TV networks continue to increase while live-TV viewership is down, so as much as Comcast customers would love to see a price drop for their cable service, that’s unlikely. There’s not much you can do to make phone service more attractive; we’re amazed that so many people still pay for landline service. But one thing Comcast can do is improve data speeds.
Most of the affected customers currently don’t need 75 Mbps service and won’t suddenly run out to buy multiple 4K TV sets to take advantage of the faster speeds. It’s a lot like the recent spate of wireless companies giving away extra or free data to smartphone users. It’s a factor the company has control over and a benefit that most will not fully take advantage of.
If you’re an Internet-only customer with the higher-speed Blast tier of service, you’ll get a free downstream speed increase, taking you from the current 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps. Unlike the other no-cost increase, you don’t have to be a Triple Play subscriber.
The bad news is that Internet-only and Internet/TV-only Comcast subscribers with speed tiers lower than Blast will not yet see any speed increase, and why would the company go out of its way to retain these Internet-only customers when they are growing in number?
This is why increased competition in home broadband is needed. Comcast customers (and subscribers of most cable companies) have little choice for high-speed Internet service, so if they cut the pay-TV cord they are often still tethered to the pay-TV company by the Internet. With competition, Comcast would have to fight to keep the business of that defecting pay-TV customer. |
Thy Art Is Murder frontman CJ McMahon has left the band, citing various reasons for his departure. Nick Arthur of Molotov Solution will serve as a fill-in for the band’s currently scheduled shows. Statements from both McMahon and TAIM can be read below.
Read more: Thy Art Is Murder barred from playing Disney venues
McMahon:
“With a mix of both negative and positive emotions, I inform you all that I have parted ways with my band Thy Art Is Murder. It has been a wild ride I have travelled to over 40 countries around the world and played alongside some of the worlds biggest and best bands, it brings me great sadness knowing I will never perform again for my amazing and supportive fans, this will be the hardest thing for me to deal with. My reasons for leaving: I spend too much time away from my fiancé , family and friends, touring has taken a massive mental, emotional and physical toll on me. One of the biggest reasons is money, I / we have been broke for years and being 32 years old I can't live like this anymore. I am getting married next year and plan on having a family, these things cost money, to put the finances into perspective for you I /we have earned between $16k-$18k each over 6-7 years, I feel there is something massively wrong with this, I will not live like this anymore. I'm sorry to my fans that I have to go, I have loved you all and I thank you for believing in me supporting me. The money made from my closing down sale of my clothing label will be going to my wedding, I will also be selling my Northface stage jacket I have worn the last two years on stage via eBay soon to try to pay for my wedding for the people interested, again thank you for the love and support, Your Prince Of Darkness Cj”
Thy Art Is Murder:
“After much conjecture and ambiguity on his behalf, it is with a heavy heart that we must announce today that CJ is no longer a part of Thy Art Is Murder. We have worked so hard from day one to make this band what it is now, and develop the reputation that we have and he had been there with us every step of the way. We like to think that even if someone doesn't like our music that they can at least respect our work ethic. This band has taken us to places we never thought we would see and to share stages with many bands we never thought we would get to play with or meet, let alone call friends. It is unfortunate that with our best year to date and our biggest paved out before us that he has decided to leave.
All this being said, touring as hard as we do does take its toll on you physically, but more importantly mentally and emotionally. We are an underground metal band, and have been so fortunate over the last two years to carve out a small income thanks to so many dedicated and generous fans around the world. For some people, it comes to a turning point in their life where that income is no longer enough for their personal goals, and that point has come for CJ. We would like to wish him all our best as he leaves the band and moves onward to start a family and new life with his loving fiancée.
The four of us are continuing forward into 2016 for some of the biggest and best tours of our lives. We won't be slowing down or missing any shows. We head back out next month with Parkway Drive and Architects throughout Europe and the UK and will be taking one of our favourite vocalists with us, Nick Arthur from Molotov Solution. Thy Art is what we have done with all of our adult lives and we have put absolutely everything we have into the band and the friendship between the four of us. That friendship and drive to create extreme music is what has kept us together through thick and thin. Unfortunately not everyone can share this fire. |
Pyotr Pankratau And Minsk: Soldier Rescues Squirrel, Takes Him To New Job (PHOTOS)
Check out these totally adorable photos of Pankratau and Minsk:
Photos courtesy of Sodahead.
Pyotr Pankratau was a soldier in the Belarussian army when he rescued a weak baby squirrel on the verge of death. Two years later, Pankratau is now a taxi-driver, but the squirrel never leaves his side.Soldiers in Belarus found the feeble baby squirrel and brought him to Pankratau, who was their warrant officer. Pankratau took in the tiny squirrel, feeding it like a baby every four hours until it returned to health."He was lying unconscious under the tree. There were worms in his mouth and right eye, I took them out. However, two weeks later everything got back to normal. I fed him with baby food and milk through a syringe ... Then his teeth came out and he started eating himself. Half a year later I vaccinated and registered him," Pankratau told Euro Radio.The squirrel, dubbed Minsk, stayed with Pankratau throughout his military service. Now, two years since the rescue, the pair continues to be inseparable.Pankratau has left the army and works as a cab driver. Minsk is never too far from him, taking up the role of assistant cab driver. Minsk is very well trained and keeps to his designated areas in the cab, lying in his bed on the dashboard or peeking at Pankratau through the wheel."I don't show him to everyone. I mean, what's the point? Why disturbing him all the time? I show him to kids," Pankratau said. ( SOURCE |
Johannesburg, South Africa - Linda Elfs, 58, spends eight hours at a street corner in Harteebesport dam, a small tourist town in the North West Province of South Africa, begging for money.
She is too young to get state pension and "too old to be hired", she says.
A former nurse and bartender, she joined the ranks of the unemployed white South Africans eight years ago, and life has since become a struggle.
"On a good day I make R400.00 ($37.57), which is not enough to pay for rent or food," Elfs says.
Donovan Moolman, 46, has been begging in the streets of Johannesburg for six and a half years. With just a matric certificate, he struggled to find employment and began doing menial jobs like gardening and painting homes.
Now, he says, those jobs are gone.
"Once you find yourself in the streets, it's hard to break the cycle," Moolman told Al Jazeera. "We are struggling to find work because we don't have homes. People won't give you a job without a residential address because they don't trust you."
Poverty - still believed to be the preserve of black South Africans - now knows no colour. It is finding its way to white communities once associated only with wealth and privilege.
Stories like Elfs' and Steyn's were unheard of when white South Africans were in power during the apartheid era.
Jobelessness rising
But the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), a household-based sample survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), which collects data on the employment trends in the country, showed the unemployment rate among white people increasing by 1.5% in the second quarter of 2014. This is the highest increase ever among white South Africans since the launch of the survey in 2008.
Labour Movement Solidarity, the union that represents white workers, downplayed this, saying the quarterly reports fluctuate and should not be seen as an absolute reflection of employment.
"What we are seeing is a movement that we believe was highly influenced by the long industrial action that has just ended in the platinum sector," said Piet Le Roux, head of Solidarity's research unit.
We are struggling to find work because we don't have homes. People won't give you a job without a residential address because they don't trust you. - Job seeker Donovan Moolman
People who may have lost their jobs are not necessarily mine employees but those who worked for small companies that are contracted to provide services to mines, explained Le Roux.
"Many of these contractors went out of business when the mines were not operating."
Gareth Brickman, an analyst at ETM analytics, a macroeconomics analytics firm, blames white South Africans' rising joblessness on a slump in the agricultural sector.
Many white people run small businesses and some of them supply goods and services to mines and farms, according to Brickman
"These sectors have been struggling since last year because of industrial action, and some of them have reduced their expenses or trimmed their businesses," he told Al Jazeera.
"As a small business, if you are supplying those sectors, you would be affected. Perhaps this is where the increase in white unemployment comes from," Brickman said.
Before South Africa's liberation 20 years ago, most whites had jobs - with or without qualifications.
Even though there has been a growing number of white people without jobs, the percentage of those employed far exceeds those of other racial groups, especially blacks.
According to a survey conducted by Solidarity, it appears over the years there is a significant drop in the numbers of white people employed by the government, which was their biggest employer prior to the new dispensation.
Of the 38 national government departments surveyed by Solidarity, 74.8 percent of all employees are black while only 12.2 percent are white.
Economist Mike Schussler of Economist.co.za, one of the leading independent economic research houses in South Africa, attributes the number of unemployed whites, some of whom have become street beggars, to changes implemented by the government across the board.
'A lot of white beggars'
"There are clearly a lot of white beggars these days. There are now fewer white people employed in the public service and in the state-owned entities such as transport and freight company Transnet, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and power utility company Eskom. These were mainly the employment domain for white people before 1994," Schussler said.
The private sector is also changing, with many companies implementing affirmative action - a government policy that encourages companies to give preferential employment to blacks, coloureds and Indians over whites.
"If you look at big companies like platinum company Lonmin, the CEO [chief executive officer] is black and the COO [chief operating officer] of Anglo Platinum is black. You are seeing more black faces with companies that are expanding overseas like mobile [phone] company MTN," he said.
What we do here is not just totally demeaning but it is unsafe. You are at a risk of being knocked [down] and killed by cars at any minute especially at peak hour, which is also a time where you're likely to be given something. - Beggar John Murphy, 28
Schussler acknowledges that there is still an over-representation of minority groups in the work place but he says it will normalise in the next 20 years.
"In the normalisation process, a lot more Africans will be eligible for management, specialist and professional positions, especially with the help of affirmative action programmes. It's a long term correction and by the time it normalises, there will be just under 12 percent of white people unemployed."
Schussler also says that many black South Africans are graduating at tertiary level and getting qualifications. More than 20 years ago, 80 percent of coloureds and Indians had degrees. Now 50 percent of black South Africans have a tertiary qualification, he said.
But 39-year-old Daniel Long, who graduated with an electrical engineering diploma and has been in the streets for seven months, says "this is not the case at all".
"Not only do I have a qualification, but I have 16 years of experience working as a technician and a sales representative," Long said. "I can also find fault in a high voltage cable within seconds, which requires skill and knowledge, but I can't find a job."
But Schussler adds that people who are struggling to find work are those without skills. He says they also may be refusing to take jobs they are fit for.
Jobs where little skill is required, such as gardening and domestic work, would be generally seen as demeaning by white people because those roles were once thrown to Africans.
Cherry picking
When compared to the R400 day that could be earned in the streets these jobs become even less attractive. An average wage of a domestic worker a day is R170.00 ($15.92)
"You come with a placard that has a sob story asking people to share their hard-earned money with you, while some of us are actually working hard," said 25-year-old Abigail Moyo in protest.
"We do understand that jobs are hard to come by, but I would be embarrassed to go out in the streets begging for handouts," she added.
"I don't care how much they make, as long as I’m still able-bodied, I will continue to work hard for my children rather than take an easy way out."
John Murphy, 28, went to beg on the streets of Melville, Johannesburg, out of frustration. He was forced to drop out of university and tried manual labour which did not last.
"What we do here is not just totally demeaning but it is unsafe. You are at a risk of being knocked [down] and killed by cars at any minute especially at peak hour, which is also a time where you're likely to be given something. I find it painful to hear people say we cherry pick jobs. No one wants this kind of life,” says Murphy.
He also blames his unemployment on affirmative action, which favours blacks, coloureds and Indians over whites. He feels if he was not white and male he would have a better chance of a job in the new South Africa. |
If you’re familiar with the electronics company Sharp – it may be because they produce you’re television. But little did you probably know, Sharp is also the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in Japan. But they’ve got plenty of competition, so to keep their edge over the likes of Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Kenwood, Toshiba, NEC, Denso, Pioneer, Sanyo, Kyocera, Hitachi, Casio, and others, Sharp will be launching an Android Phone in early 2010.
While no specifics were included and no carrier promised, company executive Masami Ohbatake did say that NTT DoCoMo “is expected to be first in line.” I don’t see that as anything less than an endorsement with the option to back out if DoCoMo somehow self destructs. Whether the Sharp Android Phone will make it to other Japanese carriers or better yet, other markets around the world, is yet to be determined.
We’ll bring you news as this story develops, but to be blunt, Sharp will likely stick to Japan for Android Phone Round 1.
[Via MarketWatch] |
By Jordan Asher Major Brogan III, age 16
The Great Gatsby is a very important and famous book which tells its story through many pages, all of which I enjoyed reading very much. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who lived from 1896 to 1940 and truly wrote many books. Through its use of characters, garbage falling from the sky all the time, and black people constantly playing the trumpet on a fire escape, The Great Gatsby is truly a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald about how you shouldn't just buy a castle near your ex-girlfriend in the 1920s and then wait for her to fall back in love with you, because eventually you might get murdered by a poor person.
The main guy in the book is Nick Carraway, who seems like he probably has brown hair and blue eyes, not that I would know, as I only read about him in a book and haven't seen what he looks like. Nick Carraway went to college and then moved to a dirty shack on Long Island, where he tries to make money using finance and mainly just follows his neighbors around staring like a weirdo. He is currently in a mental institution because he used to drink too much because of the '20s, so he spends his time typing his recollections of Long Island on a magic typewriter that makes his words float up into the air like cheap visual effects in a movie. (Not that I watch movies. I prefer books.)
Nick Carraway has a cousin named Daisy. She's married to Tom Buchanan, who is a really good actor. I mean character. He has a small mustache, probably. Daisy hates shirts, Tom Buchanan, and having a personality, but everyone seems to think she is a lot of fun to be around anyway. She's pretty cute, I guess.
Next door to Nick Carraway is a big castle where a mysterious man named Gatsby lives. Gatsby is the most important man in town (and in the book—hence the title!!!), except that none of his friends or acquaintances has ever met or seen him, even though he is literally on the cover of the newspaper every day. Any time someone says "Gatsby," everyone else is like, "Gatsby? Gatsby? What Gatsby? Where Gatsby? Show me the Gatsby!" but no one knows who he is. Gatsby is so mysterious, in fact, that even the drunk guy who lives in his library has never seen him! Until that stops being a convenient plot point, after which everyone is just like, "Oh, hey Gatsby, could you move, you're blocking the polo game or whatever."
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So, Gatsby and Daisy used to date, before Gatsby had to go be in World War I and then hide so nobody would find out he was a secret poor. Now that he's not poor anymore (because of alcohol crime) Gatsby throws a lot of parties hoping that Daisy will come over. The main thing you need to understand about life in the "roaring 1920s" is that it mainly consisted of a bunch of people standing in a fountain while a drunk guy played the pipe organ and servants dumped garbage all over the place and everyone is just screaming and screaming. The 1920s people loved it. As history shows, there were nine main people in New York at that time: Gatsby, Nick Carraway, Daisy, Tom Buchanan, a black guy playing the trumpet on a fire escape, Daisy's friend, a dirty mechanic, his wife who is amorous, and her sister who is also amorous. After some events, life would never be the same.
Gatsby is obsessed with this green light across the water from his house. The green light represents Daisy, because Gatsby is "green" with envy that Tom Buchanan gets to hang out with her all the time, and also because green is the color of "go" and Gatsby would like to "go" over there.
Eventually Daisy comes over and says she would like to break up with Tom Buchanan and marry Gatsby instead, because of shirts. Everyone has a fight and eventually Gatsby dies, which represents death. The most important metaphor in The Great Gatsby is the shooting stars, which happen in the sky at least twice in every scene. The shooting stars represent the fact that Gatsby is the "star" of the book and somebody "shoots" him at the end. Aren't we all a little bit like Gatsby in this modern world?
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The Merriam-Webster English Dictionary defines "conclusion" as "the last part of something." In conclusion, this is the last part of my report on The Great Gatsby, which is a very expensive book about confetti. It is truly the best book I have ever read all the way through. |
Stop wasting your life — how living in a Van for 9 months has changed the trajectory of my journey!
Daniel Osterman Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 4, 2017
Opting out of the mundane 9–5 lifestyle commonly treaded has opened my eyes to the limitless opportunities abundantly surrounding. It’s not easy being an apple when you’re in a room full of oranges — see how living in a van has turned me into a Maverick.
My brother Makwa enjoying the hammock during his stay
Nine months — it’s been nine whole months I’ve lived inside a van. That’s long enough to say you know somebody.
Im 26 years young, a short month and a half away from the exit out of my golden year and into the inner depths of 27.
I’m young and I know it, but I also feel in tune with my awareness toward the brevity of our time on Earth.
Think about it — we’re humans being…being on a rock thats spinning in a connected Universe — our time here comes and goes in the blink of an eye.
A lot can change in 9 months — babies are conceived and birthed— my first serious relationship lasted around 9 months — and 9 months of living in a van has provided me plenty of stability as I relax above its wheels — it’s the same type of comfort you naturally feel as you sit on your sofa reading this article — at peace and secure in your surrounding. |
Bell has a year to run on his Dundee United contract
Kilmarnock are in negotiations to sign goalkeeper Cammy Bell for a second time.
Bell, 30, is understood to be keen on the move with present club Dundee United preparing for a second successive season in the Championship.
And United have agreed a deal with goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet.
Bell made his Killie debut in 2009, leaving in 2013 to become a team-mate of Rugby Park manager Lee McCulloch at Rangers.
He joined United last summer and captained the side regularly.
With Freddie Woodman having returned to Newcastle after a successful loan spell, McCulloch sees Bell as the ideal replacement.
United missed out on an immediate return to the top flight, losing to Hamilton Accies in the Premiership play-off final.
Capped once for Scotland in 2010, Bell kept 14 clean sheets in 49 games for Ray McKinnon's team and saved three penalties in one match last September against Dunfermline.
He has a year to run on his current deal.
New Tannadice arrival Mehmet, 24, formerly with Port Vale and Falkirk, has signed a one-year contract after playing in three pre-season games.
In March 2012, Bell was man-of-the-match with some stunning saves as Kilmarnock won the League Cup for the first time with a 1-0 win over Celtic at Hampden.
He helped Rangers to the League One title in his first season at Ibrox.
But a shoulder injury sidelined him for the majority of the next campaign, only returning for the last two months as Rangers failed to gain promotion to the Premiership as he again ended up in the losing side in a play-off final.
Injury continued to hinder Bell the following season and Wes Foderingham became first choice 'keeper under then Rangers manager Mark Warburton. |
Politico’s Hadas Gold and the Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly severely misrepresented a series of events during the Republican primaries in an attempt to attack the Breitbart News Network, Breitbart News can reveal.
In a headline out on Monday evening, Gold presented Breitbart News’s cutting edge journalism as somehow “coordination” of activities with a source.
“Breitbart coordinated with liberal activist and organizer who disrupted GOP primary campaign events,” the headline read.
The article contained a description of how Aaron Black—a progressive organizer who dressed up as Robot Rubio during the GOP primaries—did interviews with Breitbart News about his activities. It is not a surprise or news now that he did this at the time. Breitbart News featured these interviews live on the website and on this network’s SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 radio program at the time. Gold wrote:
A liberal activist and organizer coordinated with reporters from the conservative news site Breitbart during the primaries to cover his disruptions of events for candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio. Aaron Black, an associate with Democracy Partners and a former Occupy Wall Street organizer, worked with the pro-Trump site Breitbart, tipping it off about his stunts, exchanging raw video and coordinating coverage, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
The idea that Black “coordinated” Breitbart News coverage is a blatant misrepresentation of what happened. Black did on occasion—as he and any other effective organizer in politics does with everyone in media—tell Breitbart News about planned events he had coming up and different newsworthy actions he planned to take. Sometimes, when editors and reporters here deemed them newsworthy, Breitbart News would cover them. Other times not. For the reporters and editors at Politico who don’t understand, that is what is called journalism.
If anything, Black is a solid source with actionable intelligence on newsworthy events about many different goings-on in the political arena—and we’re proud he has trusted us enough to work with us on a number of stories, including his work as Robot Rubio exposing the globalist Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). Rubio, of course, would go on after this to lose the Republican presidential primaries badly to current GOP nominee Donald J. Trump as voters rejected his vision for the country by the millions.
[Update: Democracy Partners challenged Politico’s characterization of this interaction, as well. Gold has updated her story with a statement from the group:
In an email Democracy Partners denied that Black worked directly with the Breitbart team. “Some Democracy Partners staff worked with groups that gave voice to the majority of Americans left out of the extreme conservative agenda of the Republican Party Presidential Primaries,” the group said in a statement. Black, Democracy Partners said, “disseminated information about the whereabouts of demonstrations and rapid response events to media outlets.” “The coalition demonstrated against all 17 of the Republican candidates,” the statement continued. “We engaged the media from across the political spectrum. When we organized events aimed at a Trump opponent, Breitbart was more than happy to spread the word. When we organized events against Mr. Trump, Breitbart amplified the Trump Foundation-funded con artist James O’Keefe, who attacked our firm and coalition.”]
But that’s beside the point of this story, in which specifically Politico accuses Breitbart News—and Black—inaccurately of “coordination.” At no time did Breitbart News reporters or editors, including myself, tell or suggest to Black what to do—he was going to do what he was going to do—we just covered the news. And we did so ahead of the rest of the media in many cases on what turned out to be some of the more newsworthy stories of the Republican presidential primaries and beyond.
Those facts didn’t stop Politico from falsely smearing Black and Breitbart News in their story, though, with the suggestion that this news network was somehow behind what he did. That’s an insult to the journalists at Breitbart News — which was clearly at the cutting edge during the primaries, — and it’s an insult to Black’s activism, which was clearly effective for his cause.
“According to the source, Black coordinated with Breitbart via email, phone and in person, including when he dressed up as a robot and trolled Marco Rubio’s events,” Gold wrote. “The relationship was described as very friendly. An article subsequently published on Breitbart featured video footage of a physical confrontation between Black and Rubio’s New Hampshire campaign chairman.”
In that section, there are a few half-truths in Gold’s article. First off, Breitbart News did cover the incident of Robot Rubio—Aaron Black—getting physically confronted by Rubio staffer Cliff Hurst. Hurst, Rubio’s state director in New Hampshire, manhandled Black—who was wearing a robot costume to poke fun at Rubio’s horrendous debate performance in an exchange with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie—in the video.
What Gold doesn’t say, however, is who actually pushed the story to Breitbart News. Black did not have a hand in pushing this particular story. Breitbart News can reveal here for the first time that it was a paid staffer—whose identity this network will protect, because Breitbart News believes in journalism—for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign that first flagged the incident for Breitbart News and sent the video to Breitbart News.
“Here is the video,” the Jeb Bush staffer said in an email to Breitbart News, with a link to the YouTube clip of Hurst bashing Black.
“The guy in the green jacket that puts the kid in a head lock (assault) is this guy. Cliff Hurst. He is [Rubio’s] state chairman,” the Jeb Bush staffer added with a link to a WMUR story detailing how Hurst used to work for fellow failed GOP presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker before defecting to the Rubio campaign after Walker dropped out of the race.
The paid Jeb Bush staffer provided Breitbart News with Hurst’s cell phone number, and Breitbart News proceeded to interview Hurst about the incident. Only after interviewing Hurst and reviewing the video of the incident, Breitbart News went on to contact and interview Black. Black agreed to do the interview, and the story went viral getting nearly a thousand comments on Breitbart News.
Politico also clearly thought the story was newsworthy, though, as it posted video of Black as Robot Rubio on its website and on its Vine account. Politico’s was less detailed, however, than Breitbart News’s—and didn’t include an interview with Black or with Hurst about the incident, as Breitbart News did. Gold’s piece makes no mention of the fact that Politico also covered the news—and it’s unclear if she believes Politico’s piece was “coordination” with Black as well.
Breitbart News’s quote in the article—from editor-in-chief Alex Marlow—makes it clear that no such “coordination” was happening.
Marlow told Gold:
Aaron Black reached out to Breitbart and then we covered this and multiple other stories on our website and on our radio show on Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125. Breitbart News Network is proud to work with sources from across the political spectrum to cover important and breaking news stories so that we may bring the most informative reporting to our readers. This type of reporting proves why Breitbart continues to have amazing growth with over 200 million monthly page views and 36 million monthly unique visitors. In addition, this month we launched an online store and radio show with Major League Superstar Curt Schilling.
But Gold wasn’t interested in accuracy. She had a preconceived narrative that she was interested in pushing before she even reached out about the matter. And it appears that narrative she preconceived came from an anonymous source. As they do best, Politico quotes an anonymous source to make an unsubstantiated allegation against Breitbart News’s coverage of Robot Rubio—which took off as a meme online after that New Hampshire incident, spilling over into South Carolina where Rubio lost embarrassingly to Trump again.
“[Black] worked directly with Breitbart’s political team on the ground in the primary states to sabotage Marco Rubio & Ted Cruz, and elect Trump as nominee of [the Republican] party,” the anonymous source who was not otherwise identified told Gold. “[Black] was coordinating with [Breitbart’s] top staff to rabble rouse against Rubio at rallies.”
Again, this anonymous quote is laced with half-truths. After the first story did so well in New Hampshire, Black informed Breitbart News that he was planning to continue the effort down in South Carolina—where the primaries went next for the First in the South contest. There were several events that Black trolled Rubio at as a “Robot Rubio” there, but Breitbart News—upon an exhaustive review on Monday—does not seem to have actually covered any of them on this website, despite his efforts to get us to do so. They didn’t rise to the level of newsworthiness. Instead, Breitbart News was focused on other newsworthy developments during the South Carolina primary, including how Rubio was missing campaign events, how U.S. immigration officers were offering a historic rejection of his candidacy, how a prominent South Carolina blogger said that Rubio’s campaign manager pushed the story of an affair between him and Gov. Nikki Haley years ago, and how his campaign basically dissembled there.
That fully debunks the Politico story. But the insanity doesn’t stop there. Right after Politico went up with its story—while she was live on the air Monday night—Megyn Kelly interrupted a live panel discussion to rush the unverified and now debunked story on air.
“As we are on the air right now, Politico’s Hadas Gold breaks this story saying that the same group—Democracy Partners… that group according to Politico coordinated also with, get this, I’m gonna blow your mind now,” Kelly said, before revealing:
Breitbart. Breitbart, which is a conservative, they think it’s alt-right—whatever—to hurt Marco Rubio. Let me—I’m just reading this now—coordinated during the primaries to cover disruptions of events for candidates such as Marco Rubio. So you’ve got the groups on the left who dislike Rubio and the groups on the far-right who dislike Rubio. They didn’t make Rubio go into robot-mode when Chris Christie came after him, but the point is these are dirty, dirty tricks and these Democracy Partners should not have been coordinating with Hillary Clinton—she was not allowed to do that.
This isn’t the first time Kelly has rushed inaccurate and unsubstantiated stories onto her air. In fact, as part of her long-documented quest to dismantle Trump’s presidential campaign, early in the primaries just after he launched the campaign Kelly rushed a hit piece from the Daily Beast on air that claimed inaccurately that Trump raped his ex-wife Ivana Trump. Ivana Trump and Donald Trump discredited the Daily Beast’s inaccurate smear within a day—and the next night Kelly backed off the story.
It remains to be seen if both Gold—and Kelly—among the others in media who have reprinted this inaccurate narrative will retract or apologize for their inaccuracies. |
CNN Chief International Correspondent and host Christiane Amanpour said, “The top Republican candidates, have decided to make a war on Muslims” during CNN’s coverage of the pope’s visit to the US.
Amanpour, while discussing Pope Francis I’s DC visit and speech to Congress, stated, “in that Congress was one of the Republican candidates for presidency — there are two. The top Republican candidates, have decided to make a war on Muslims, you know, 1.5 billion members of another faith. And it must be a little bit weird to have that sort of discordance when this pope is here talking about what makes America great – tolerance and all the other issues that have made this country great, and the power of immigrants and other religions to build this country.”
(h/t Newsbusters)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett |
The future Wonder Woman is eyeing another hot role
Future Wonder Woman Gal Gadot is in talks for another hot role.
The actress is in early negotiations for the female lead role in Ben-Hur, Paramount and MGM's retelling of the classic sword-and-sandals epic.
Jack Huston is starring as the Jewish prince who is betrayed into slavery by his onetime friend, Messala, played by Toby Kebbell. He fights his way to freedom and vengeance, with a couple of chariot races thrown in for good measure. Morgan Freeman is also on board as the man who trains Ben-Hur how to win at chariot-racing.
If the deal is made, Gadot will play Esther, a slave with whom Ben-Hur is in love.
Timur Bekmambetov is directing the movie, which is both a remake of the Charlton Heston-starring 1959 movie (which won 11 Oscars) and an adaptation of the Lew Wallace novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in 1880. For the remake, Keith Clarke wrote the script with a rewrite by John Ridley.
The team behind hit miniseries and movie The Bible, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, are onboard as producer and executive producer, respectively. Sean Daniel and Joni Levin are also producing while Ridley, Clarke and Jason F. Brown are executive producing.
The film will shoot in Europe early next year and is eyeing a February 2016 release date.
Gadot, who appeared in the Fast & Furious franchise before nabbing the role of Wonder Woman in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, will also get to lead her own Wonder Woman spin-off movie. Warner Bros. announced plans for a Wonder Woman film for 2017. She'll also appear in Justice League Part One, also set for 2017.
Gadot is definitely having a big year, with several other noteworthy projects in the works. She has wrapped work on John Hillcoat’s Triple Nine with Kate Winslet, as well as Ariel Vromen’s Criminal with Ryan Reynolds. Gadot is repped by ICM Partners, Untitled Entertainment, ADD Agency out of Israel and Felker Toczek. |
Asset Forfeiture: Killing Criminal Organizations With $16 Seizures
from the imperceptible-wounds dept
When asset forfeiture is pitched to Americans, law enforcement agencies roll up to press conferences with shiny, new seized vehicles and large stacks of cash. This public preening is meant to assure everyone that forfeiture kills drug cartels and cripples large criminal organizations. But the day-to-day reality is much different. Pathetic, even. Here's Eric Boehm of Reason on Utah's yearly forfeiture roundup:
Utah police seized more than $1.4 million in cash during 2016 and federal law enforcement agencies operating in Utah took another $1.3 million in assets from people suspected of crimes, a new report shows.
Sounds impressive until you start digging into how that $2.7 million was amassed. It wasn't a few large seizures with definite ties to criminal activity. It was a bunch of petty, nickel-and-dime seizures where the amounts taken could easily have earned by the property's owners through completely legal means.
Most forfeitures (69 percent) take place during traffic stops and most of the time only money is seized. According to the state report, cash was taken in 99 percent of forfeitures during 2016, with the median seizure amounting to only $1,031.
The paperwork alone for the following seizure easily surpassed the value of the property seized. And that's just in terms of office supplies. Add on the labor involved and what is even the point.
That means, in many cases, the amount seized was considerably less than four-figures. In one instance, the report shows, police took $16 from a motorist.
So much for the "don't drive around with large amounts of cash" solution. To avoid being robbed by opportunistic law enforcement, the mantra needs to be shortened to "don't drive." Or simplified to "don't leave the house."
Utah's smallball seizures aren't an aberration. Before the Washington DC Metropolitan PD was hit with minor forfeiture reforms, it also believed no amount of cash was too small to be seized. It racked up nearly $3 million in seizures slowly and steadily from citizens who went on to sue the department.
Altogether, the nearly 1,400 claimants in the class action lost almost $700,000 to forfeiture, so the settlement will restore roughly three-quarters of what was taken from them. Yet the claimants represent just 14 percent of those affected by this particular D.C. forfeiture policy. Over a six-year period, the Metropolitan Police Department seized a staggering $2.9 million from these owners collectively. Among the owners represented in the lawsuit, the median amount of cash seized was a mere $120. In fact, the MPD seized as little as $1 from some owners. There is little indication trivial amounts of money can be plausibly tied to the drug trade, noted Sean Day, who was co-counsel on the class action.
These low dollar amounts discourage owners from seeking the return of their property. In some places, the fee just to file a motion for return is higher than the amount taken. Even the median seizure in Utah (~$1,000) is easily dwarfed by filing fees and the costs of legal representation. It would be ludicrous to believe officers aren't aware of these facts when they seize cash.
It's hard to see how civil asset forfeiture benefits society. It doesn't take criminals off the street because criminal charges are rarely filed. It doesn't put criminal cartels out of business because the few hundred dollars lifted off random people likely isn't directly tied to these organizations -- and if it is, the hit is so small an organization won't feel it.
Law enforcement agencies fight reform by claiming it will harm taxpayers if the agencies are forced to rely solely on general funds (something with actual oversight) to pay officer overtime and purchase equipment. But the alternative is even worse: agencies and officials are arguing it's OK to tax certain citizens the amount of cash they happen to have on them when interacting with police officers. It's a preposterous argument that says law enforcement agencies not only shouldn't be expected to play by the same public funding rules as every other agency, but will actually be unable to perform their basic functions without a second stream of income.
Filed Under: asset forfeiture, civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement, stealing |
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Reno 1868 FC rallied from an early deficit to take a 2-1 victory against Sacramento Republic FC in front of a sellout crowd of 11,569 fans at Papa Murphy’s Park on Saturday night to bolster its position in the Western Conference’s top four. Sacramento had the edge early on, and took the lead in the 15th minute as Hayden Partain scored his first professional goal with a flicked header from James Kiffe’s cross from the left. Just two minutes later, Reno answered as Dane Kelly notched his league-leading 16th goal of the season with a good header from Nick von Niederhausern’s chipped cross. Antoine Hoppenot almost gave 1868 FC the lead moments later, his finish cleared off the line by Kiffe, but in the 22nd minute Chris Wehan bent home an excellent free kick to put Reno ahead. Kelly almost added a third for Reno with a fierce shot four minutes before halftime, but then Sacramento had a big chance to level only for Trevin Caesar’s initial shot to be saved, and Tyler Blackwood’s rebound effort to be cleared away by Jimmy Ockford to keep Reno ahead at the break. Caesar almost leveled in the 52nd minute as a good through-ball was met by Matt Bersano’s save, and Blackwood had the rebound again blocked by Ockford. Reno’s first big chance of the second half came in the 67th minute as Hoppenot skied a finish from the middle of the penalty area, while Marc Pelosi’s sliding finish went just wide of the right post with 10 minutes to go as the visitors almost doubled their lead. 1868 FC’s Brian Brown was then denied by a good save from Evan Newton with five minutes to go, and Newton almost provided late dramatics with a header deep in stoppage time that was cleared off the line, but Reno held on to take all three points.
Scoring:
15’ – SAC – Hayden Partain (James Kiffe)
17’ – RNO – Dane Kelly (Nick von Niederhausern)
22’ – RNO – Chris Wehan
Three Things That Matter:
1. Going behind early on the road against Sacramento is a challenge for any team that visits Papa Murphy’s Park, but it was one that Reno 1868 FC rose to the challenge with two goals within the next 10 minutes that put the visitors in control on the way to a big road result. Both goals were well taken, with Dane Kelly’s powerful header his USL-leading 16th goal of the season a fine finish, but Chris Wehan’s raised the bar with an outstanding free kick that powered in off the underside of the crossbar for an outstanding spell in Republic FC’s half.
2. Sacramento got a fine opening goal itself, but Republic FC was left kicking itself after other good chances went by the wayside. The main culprit was Trevin Caesar, whose chance late in the first half to level the score ended up with a weak finish that was knocked away by Reno goalkeeper Matt Bersano. By contrast, Tyler Blackwood could probably count himself unlucky not to find the net on the night, but 1868 FC captain Jimmy Ockford pulled off two great blocks in either half to keep the visitors ahead, and on their way to three points.
3. Sacramento not only saw the gap between itself and fourth-place Reno grow on Saturday night, it also suffered a blow ahead of Wednesday night’s key game with the third-place Swope Park Rangers due to the yellow cards of midfielder Jeremy Hall and defender Chris Christian. The two will now be suspended for the contest, which opens a crucial week ahead for Republic FC that also sees the club visit Phoenix Rising FC next Saturday night. Sacramento’s depth is going to be tested as it looks to keep its hopes of a home playoff game in range in the next seven days.
USLSoccer.com Man of the Match
Chris Wehan, Reno 1868 FC – Wehan’s outstanding free kick highlighted another big performance by the rookie as 1868 FC took a big victory on the road against its regional rival. |
The Revenant has been making waves in the movie world since its Christmas day release, particularly for the hyper-realistic scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is savagely attacked by a bear. However, as authentic as the grizzly appears, the now-infamous beast is actually a result of CGI. “There was no bear ever on set,” stuntman Glenn Ennis told Global News. “The closest a bear ever got to set (that we knew of) was at the Calgary Zoo.”
Ennis was one of two stuntmen who stood in for the computer-generated bear while filming was taking place, and was charged with portraying as convincing a grizzly as possible. “In rehearsals, I would wear a blue suit with a bear head,” he said. “Obviously that doesn’t make it into the film, and the CGI guys paint the bear in. Alejandro [G. Iñárritu] was adamant that the blue bear moved just like a real bear would move, and it was essential that it had the same nuances that a bear would have. Even though it was a big Smurf bear, it still had to be as authentic as possible.”
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Read More: This Video Is the Only Cure for Watching The Revenant
The 51-year-old Vancouverite explained that the role often required him to spend quite a bit of time up close and personal with the film’s star: “If you notice the bear head in the picture, they wanted the bear mouth to be right on his lower back. I was supposed to grab his jacket with my hand to make it look like the bear’s jaws were pulling it. In order to have the bear’s jaw in the small of his back, basically my face was in his butt. My face was in Leo’s butt for a fair bit of time. I can see how that’s someone’s fantasy, but it wasn’t mine!”
Write to Megan McCluskey at [email protected]. |
The Briton believes that fans are eager to see heroes in Formula 1, and he feels that is missing from Grand Prix racing.
"I'd like to see the drivers becoming the heroes. The fans want a hero," Hembery told The Guardian newspaper in an interview.
"They want an iconic person to follow. And they want to know that when driver X is winning he's actually making a difference.
"In NASCAR the driver is the king. Even the guy at the bottom is a superstar with a multi-million dollar contract. I would love to see our drivers held in that esteem.
"In F1 the driver has to become an international superstar, like David Beckham.
"When people sit in a bar and watch Lewis Hamilton win a race they think great, but they also think that five other drivers in that Mercedes car could have done the same job, and that is a shame."
Drivers should embrace "iconic" helmets
Hembery was also critical of Formula 1 drivers for complaining about the new rule introduced this year to ban helmet design changes.
"We've got drivers who don't understand why it's crap to change a helmet every race, and moan and bitch about it," he added.
"Everyone knows an iconic driver's helmet, going back to Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna.
"It's part of their identity, because fans can't see them with their hats on.
"So it was a very good thing telling them to register a helmet design and keep with it." |
Not all of us will be mourning 9/11 victims and their families this Friday on the 14th anniversary of the attacks. Hundreds of college kids across the country will instead be taught to sympathize with the terrorists.
That’s because their America-hating leftist professors are systematically indoctrinating them into believing it’s all our fault, that the US deserved punishment for “imperialism” — and the kids are too young to remember or understand what really happened that horrific day.
Case in point is a freshman-level English class taught at several major universities across the country called “The Literature of 9/11” — which focuses almost entirely on writings from the perspective of the Islamic terrorists, rather than the nearly 3,000 Americans who were slaughtered by them.
The syllabus, which includes books like “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” and “Poems from Guantanamo: Detainees Speak,” portray terrorists as “freedom fighters” driven by oppressive US foreign policies.
Even highly ranked University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has adopted the curriculum. The 9/11 seminar is taught by UNC associate English professor Neel Ahuja, who specializes in “post-colonial studies.”
In Ahuja’s twisted worldview, al Qaeda terrorists are the real victims. “Abu Zubaydah’s torture may be interpreted as simply one more example of the necropower of US imperialism, the power to coerce and kill targeted populations,” Ahuja recently wrote in an academic paper criticizing the war on terror.
He says America’s depiction of the 9/11 terrorists as “monsters” is merely an attempt to “animalize” them as insects and justify “squashing” them in “a fantasy of justice.”
This colonialist “construct” of an “animalized enemy,” he added, “dovetails with the work of mourning the nation after 9/11 (which in the logic of security must be made perpetual, melancholic).” To him, it’s all cynically designed to justify more “imperial violence” against “Muslim, Arab and South Asian men.”
Ahuja goes on to decry the US “colonization” of Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan, along with “aerial bombing (and) indefinite detention” of al Qaeda terrorists at Gitmo. In other writings, the professor bashes Israel and sides with Palestinian terrorists, further revealing his agenda.
He clearly has an ax to grind, which critics say the university gives him license to exercise through “The Literature of 9/11” curriculum.
A group of concerned UNC students has complained to administrators that the 9/11 course, also taught at the University of Maryland and other campuses, is being used to brainwash impressionable underclassmen.
“These readings offer points of view that justify terrorism, paint the United States and its government as wholly evil and immoral and desecrate the memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,” the UNC College Republicans said in a recent letter to Chancellor Carol Folt.
“There is not a single reading required that focuses on the lives of the victims, the victim’s [sic] families, American soldiers (or) families of American soldiers,” they added. “Nor is there a perspective that portrays the United States as acting in good faith before, during and after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
The course, moreover, “does not teach students how to think, it teaches them what to think,” the letter continued. “And the material it presents is an apologetic for the violence and murder against the United States.”
The university replied that freshmen should be exposed to differing points of view, even radical ones.
“Part of the college experience is the opportunity to learn from those who have differing points of view. Carolina’s first-year seminar program is part of that growth,” the administration said in a press statement, while insisting “the university isn’t forcing a set of beliefs on students.”
But several students who have taken the course warned in a professor review blog that Ahuja, who earns $72,100 a year spewing his unAmerican propaganda, does not tolerate dissent.
“He favors kids who share his views, so learn to do that,” said one reviewer. “A very interesting guy, just don’t disagree with him.”
Added another student, in a January 2014 post: “I would avoid contradicting him openly.”
“AGREE WITH HIS STANCE IN YOUR PAPERS!!!!!” advised another in November.
What’s happening in Chapel Hill is not isolated. Presenting terrorists in a sympathetic light and the US as an imperialist nation is standard fare. This is what, in varying degrees, most college kids are learning today, all over the country.
Paul Sperry, a visiting media fellow at the Hoover Institution, is author of “Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington.” Email him at [email protected]. |
Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 10.2 update to developers, two weeks after seeding the third beta of iOS 10.2 and a month after releasing iOS 10.1 , the first major update to iOS 10 Registered developers can download the fourth iOS 10.2 beta from the Apple Developer Center and it should be available over-the-air soon.iOS 10.2 introduces new emoji, such as clown face, drooling face, selfie, face palm, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more. There are more than a hundred new emoji, including several profession emoji available in both male and female genders, such as firefighter, mechanic, lawyer, doctor, scientist, and more. Apple has also redesigned many existing emoji, adding more detail to make them look much more realistic.Along with new emoji, iOS 10.2 includes new wallpaper, new Music sorting options and buttons for Repeat and Shuffle, new "Celebrate" and "Send with Love" Screen Effects, an option for preserving camera settings, a TV widget and TV settings, Single-Sign On support for watching live TV via apps, and the official "TV" app that was first introduced at Apple's October 27 event.The TV app serves as an Apple-designed TV guide that's designed to simplify the television watching experience and discover new TV shows and movies to watch. The TV app will eventually be available on both iOS devices and the Apple TV.With iOS 10.2, the "Videos" app is replaced entirely with the new "TV" app, which will now serve as the TV and movie hub on iOS devices.Apple has called iOS 10 its "biggest release ever" for iOS users, with a revamped lock screen, a Siri SDK for developers, an overhauled Messages app, a dedicated "Home" app for HomeKit users, new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos, and redesigned Maps and Apple Music apps.iOS 10.2 beta 4 is now available as an over-the-air download.Apple has also made iOS 10.2 beta 4 available for public beta testers. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R) rejected recent statements made by his Palestinian counterpart
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to hold talks to calm the recent surge of violence.
Mr Netanyahu said he was "perfectly open" to a meeting that might be "potentially useful".
He also defended a massive security deployment in Jerusalem following a wave of knife attacks by Palestinians.
Near-daily attacks have left seven Israelis dead and dozens wounded over the past fortnight.
Several of the attackers were among at least 30 Palestinians who have been killed in recent violence.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been fuelled by clashes in Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and across the Gaza border, as well as the wave of stabbings.
"Right now as we can speak, we can meet - I have no problem with that - and we shall stop immediately this wave of incitement and attacks against Israel," Mr Netanyahu told a news conference on Thursday.
However, he continued, "I am willing to meet him [President Abbas] but he isn't willing to meet me".
The Israeli leader said he was also willing to meet US Secretary of State John Kerry and Jordan's King Abdullah for talks to defuse the tension.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Violent clashes have erupted in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent days
The Palestinians have previously said they would not return to talks unless Israel halted settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel has built more than 100 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since it occupied the territories in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.
Mr Netanyahu also berated Mr Abbas for what he called inciting violence and telling lies about Israel seeking to change the status quo at a holy compound in East Jerusalem, known to Jews as Temple Mount and Muslims as Haram al-Sharif.
Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians.
He said Israel was carrying out "executions of our children in cold blood", highlighting the case of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, Ahmed Manasra, who was hit by a car after he and a 15-year-old stabbed two Israelis, one of them a 13-year-old boy, on Monday.
Mr Netanyahu rejected this as a "new big lie" in his news conference on Thursday, hours after his government released video and photos showing the boy alive in an Israeli hospital.
Image copyright Israeli Government Press Office Image caption Israel released a photo of Ahmed Manasra alive in hospital, after Mahmoud Abbas said the boy had been "executed"
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat later said that Mr Abbas had received inaccurate information on the boy's condition, AFP news agency reports.
Israeli police on Wednesday began setting up checkpoints in Arab-majority parts of East Jerusalem, including one neighbourhood that was home to three of the Palestinians who carried out attacks on Israelis this week.
Israel's security cabinet had earlier authorised police to seal off or impose a curfew on parts of the city in a bid to stop "those who try murder and...all those who assist them".
It also announced that the homes of Palestinian attackers would be demolished within days and that their families' right to live in Jerusalem would be taken away.
The Palestinian leader said on Wednesday that Israel's security actions threatened "to spark a religious conflict that would burn everything".
Human Rights Watch has also condemned the new measures, saying they infringed on freedom of movement of all Palestinians.
But Mr Netanyahu defended Israel's actions, saying it was using legitimate force. Any country would do the same to deal with "people wielding knives, meat cleavers, axes, trying to kill people on their streets," he said.
Fear and loathing fuel Jerusalem knife attacks
Jerusalem attacks prompt fear and defiance
#intifada - Is social media to blame?
Can Israel and the Palestinians contain spiralling violence?
Why is Jerusalem so holy?
Despite the heightened security measures, there were two more stabbing incidents on Wednesday, and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the West Bank city of Bethlehem and along the Israeli border with Gaza continued into Thursday.
Some 300 soldiers are due to be in place by Sunday to reinforce police forces in the city.
US Secretary of State is due to travel to the region soon, but details of his trip are yet to be revealed.
What is happening between Israelis and Palestinians?
There has been a spate of stabbings of Israelis - several of them fatal - by Palestinians since early October, and one apparent revenge stabbing by an Israeli. The attackers have struck in Jerusalem and central and northern Israel, and in the occupied West Bank. Israel has tightened security and its security forces have clashed with rioting Palestinians, leading to deaths on the Palestinian side. The violence has also spread to the border with Gaza.
What's behind the latest unrest?
After a period of relative quiet, violence between the two communities has spiralled since clashes erupted at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site in mid-September. It was fuelled by rumours among Palestinians that Israel was attempting to alter a long-standing religious arrangement governing the site. Israel repeatedly dismissed the rumours as incitement. Soon afterwards, two Israelis were shot dead by Palestinians in the West Bank and the stabbing attacks began. Both Israel and the Palestinian authorities have accused one another of doing nothing to protect each other's communities.
Is this a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising?
There have been two organised uprisings by Palestinians against Israeli occupation, in the 1980s and early 2000s. With peace talks moribund, some observers have questioned whether we are now seeing a third. The stabbing attacks seem to be opportunistic and although they have been praised by militant groups, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said Palestinians are not interested in a further escalation.
What is driving the latest violence? |
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (WBBM)
Seven rape kits were left rotting in an unplugged refrigerator of the Ford Heights, Ill. police department that shut down two years ago - including one sexual assault kit that police said has now linked a man to the 2006 rape of a 13-year-old girl. In addition to the rape kits, nearly 200 guns and hundreds of bags of narcotics were found in a neglected evidence room, officials said Friday.
"You're not talking about ineptness, neglect, you're talking about outrageous conduct of a police department that didn't care about the residents out there," said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Cook County police have been patrolling Ford Heights for the past few years after financial problems forced the village to lay off most of its 16 officers. The sheriff's department took over completely in 2008; they took over, Dart said, because the last few Ford Heights officers simply stopped showing up for work.
That was when deputies opened the door to the evidence room.
Detectives were stunned by what they learned about the sexual assault of the girl - and the apparent lack of any meaningful investigation of a case in which there was a great deal of evidence against one man.
"What happened to this girl is unconscionable," said Dart, whose office arrested 27-year-old Marquis Deering last week. "She thought nothing was going to happen to him."
Ford Heights police never interviewed Deering, whose criminal history includes 15 arrests since 2001 and a conviction for aggravated vehicular manslaughter, Dart said. He said it's unclear whether they ever interviewed the girl.
The sheriff said his office also is looking into whether criminal charges can be brought against anyone at the Ford Heights Police Department, but he acknowledged that's not likely.
MORE ON CBS NEWS
Nov. 9, 2009 - Rape in America: Justice Denied |
Ukraine is Everywhere
On September 3rd, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan made a “surprise declaration” – as it is still sometimes referred to – that he would bring his country into the new Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) alongside Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Of course, it should have been anything but that.
The mountain republic, sometimes referred to as the “Kaliningrad of the Caucasus” due to its geographic isolation from its fellow EEU and CSTO members, has been playing a high stakes game here. A Russian military ally under the auspices of the CSTO, Russian soldiers patrol the country’s borders with both Iran and Turkey.
Armenia needs the Russian labor market as well: according to the World Bank, remittances from migrant workers abroad comprise some 21% of the country’s GDP, with Russia being the destination of choice for 61% of them.
While there are officially 59,351 Armenian migrants in Russia, the number of Armenians regularly working in the country for their livelihood may, according to expert Stepan Grigoryan, exceed 1.5 million when taking into account Armenians holding Russian passports and undocumented laborers. And Russia, after a series of agreements in the early 2000s, wrote off or reduced Armenian debts to Russian gas companies in exchange for shares in its energy infrastructure.
The policy of Armenian complimentarism, in which Armenian officials boast of maintaining warm relations with both the United States and Iran, hasn’t exactly come to an end. Still, it is unlikely to ever be quite the same again. In Armenia’s neighborhood, complimentarism by any other name is a basic necessity. Already, some analysts are predicting that Armenia may get the best of both worlds, providing its two neighbours with whom it has open borders, Georgia (a recent signatory to an association agreement with the EU) and Iran, access to EEU markets. Conveniently, Russia may have found its own form of complimentarism in Armenian membership, too, with the country being seen as a possible counterbalance within the EEU to Belarus and Kazakhstan, who have been adversely affected by the recent slump in the Russian economy and are disconcerted and disturbed at the precedent set by Moscow’s recent actions in Ukraine.
As I watched the Ukrainian crisis unfold from Yerevan, discussion of the country’s future membership in a “Russian” economic union had a more urgent edge to it. Serj Nigoyan, one of the first protesters killed on the Euromaidan in Kyiv, was declared a “victim of Putinism” at a solidarity protest outside the Ukrainian Embassy in Yerevan. A selection of photos lauding Armenian-Ukrainian friendship graced a public display board on Abovyan Street that September. At first, the faces of Presidents Sargsyan and Yanukovych gleamed, as did the cupolas of Armenian churches across Crimea. By March, when I left Armenia, they had disappeared, replaced with a note offering advertising space for sale. Perhaps, wondered a friend, he should buy the space and restore the display to its former glory?
Putin was in town in early December, and the authorities swiftly removed an offensive banner hung from a motorway overpass. Instead, they dedicated him the Unity Cross, a monument to Russo-Armenian friendship, in central Yerevan. The political opposition took to the streets in protest, with police making several arrests. I had arrived in the country the same day – by train from Tbilisi, Georgia – and found the streets decked in Armenian and Russian flags in the dawn. I resolved to wander with a camera for the occasion but, arriving at my residence, sleep soon set in. I had spent the previous night talking with a fellow traveller in the same compartment – an Armenian Yezidi who worked in Georgia, and was returning to visit her family. I told her that I was researching ethnic minorities in the country, to which she replied “How strange. You’re studying everything I ran away from”. In the autumn of 2014 and in cold retrospect, those are haunting words.
Following the annexation of Crimea, Armenians were faced with another dilemma. Their government tried to resolve it through its no vote on a UN resolution, in which it refused to condemn Russian actions in the peninsula. Russian “reunification” with Crimea, some felt, held parallels for the de-facto state of Nagorno-Karabakh, widely (but de jure) accepted as the territory of neighbouring Azerbaijan by the international community. The 1988 protests, and subsequent violence, over Nagorno-Karabakh was one of the first tears in the fabric of the Soviet state. “Miatsum”, or unity, was the rallying cry of Armenians on Yerevan’s central square. While Armenia has historically based its support – though not recognition – of the secessionist government in Nagorno-Karabakh on the principle of self-determination, Azerbaijan has opposed it on the grounds of respect for territorial integrity. Azerbaijan itself was faced at the UN vote with the task of not provoking Russia with full-throated criticism while simultaneously supporting the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The West’s concern for Crimea, reasoned Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, only highlighted its duplicity and double standards given its relative lack of concern for the status of Nagorno-Karabakh.
During my last few weeks in Yerevan from late February to early March, the city felt a little on edge. Ukraine was on the mind and in the air. The appointment of Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s ethnic Armenian Minister of the Interior, on February 27th, was well received. But not without appropriate cynicism. “He’s Hay [Armenian]”, went one pro-European wisecrack “but his boss is a Russian” – though none of Avakov’s superiors identified as ethnic Russians. Days earlier, after Yanukovych had fled Kiev, one Armenian news website suggested Armenia as his possible refuge. Clutching at straws perhaps, but this was harvest time in a season of conspiracies.
If “miatsum” was the cry of Armenian protesters in 1988, it echoed around the monumental squares of a Soviet city not designed for political dissent. Yerevan’s squares can hold impressive crowds and are central to political life: as Thomas de Waal noted, the Armenian word for glasnost, hraparakutiun, is derived from hraparak, meaning square. On March 2nd, shortly before I left Armenia, people on the square commemorated the deaths of ten opposition protesters in 2008. Then, President Robert Kocharyan had stepped down in favour of president elect (and current President) Serzh Sargsyan, whose rise to power was ascribed to electoral fraud by the opposition. Opposition leader Raffi Hovhannisyan and former President Levon Ter-Petrossian took to the stage, microphone in hand, retelling the events of those days.
October 2014 would again see Yerevan’s Freedom Square become the focus of opposition protests calling for Sargsyan’s resignation. I approached a protester holding a banner bearing a lengthy slogan and photographs of politicians. “Who are these people?” I asked. “Sadists!” he replied, without elaboration. Their names, it seemed, were academic. I tried again, further away, and decided to elaborate. Were their banners protesting the deaths in Ukraine, I asked? “Of course not!” responded one woman, looking about her warily. “That won’t happen here,” she continued, “we’re peaceful people!” Nearby, a man in a Russian tracksuit – to which most were indifferent – was accosted by a group of overeager twentysomethings: “How can you not be ashamed?” they cried. “What for?’ he retorted, “It’s Maslenitsa!”
I left it all behind for Georgia, where I found it all again, though painted in Ukrainian national colors. The drive to Tbilisi was long and frozen. My Armenian friend would hold forth and smoke patriotically-named local cigarettes. I may have quit, though I miss their smell, as I miss the journeys. Driving through Shirak province, we passed Spitak, a town levelled in 1988 by a 7.0 Richter scale earthquake, killing up to 50,000 and leaving thousands more homeless. On the outskirts of the nearby city of Gyumri, the concrete shells of new housing for the survivors still stand empty, judged unsafe in the event of further tremors. In other cases, there were simply no funds available to complete them. One man present during the rebuilding efforts was Viktor Yanukovych, in whose honour a (small) local square was named in 2008.
I got out and walked the length and breadth of Yanukovych Square. The kitschy log hut Café Ukraina looked closed. The bilingual Armenian-Russian signs bore the traces of stickers, posted by opposition activists in protest. Feeling it inappropriate that Yanukovych should be so honoured, they had attempted to rename the square in honour of Serj Nigoyan – though their stickers were soon removed with little public discussion. Local people were uncomfortable with their principled youth. The earthquake must come first, and Ukraine thereafter. “That was a time” reflected my friend, Artash, ”when everybody helped each other. They came and helped Armenia.”
We descended into Lori Province, with its remaining villages of Molokans, descendants of Russian sectarians banished to the south Caucasus in the early nineteenth century. Perhaps, we joked, Russia would come and “rescue” them, too?
Crossing the border to Georgia on the road to Bolnisi, a cratered, potholed road spread out across a forested valley. Artash smiled a wry and dry smile, and welcomed me “to Europe”.
Photographs courtesy of Milos Vincze and Pan Photo. Published under a Creative Commons license. |
We are incredibly excited to announce the official release of NativeScript 3.0! Since the 3.0 Release Candidate, we've been working hard to fix all major issues and ease the migration path to this new major version of the framework. We closed about 80 pull requests across all repositories and upgraded dozens of plugins and applications to ensure a smooth migration experience for our users. We have also prepared a document to describe the need behind a major version bump and the newly introduced breaking changes.
You can try out the new 3.0 bits by running:
npm install -g nativescript
...and follow our documented upgrade instructions for upgrading individual projects.
Be sure to register to attend the free NativeScript 3.0 webinar (coming up on May 17th!) to learn all about this release and be the first to hear exciting news about our future product plans.
Release Highlights
Here is an overview of what's included in NativeScript 3.0:
Cross-Platform Modules
The new Modules 3.0 implementation. The 3.0 refactoring is based on three major pillars: Performance improvements; Enhanced extensibility model; More consistent APIs across the entire cross-platform modules implementation.
The 3.0 refactoring is based on three major pillars: A completely revamped layout measurement system. Prior to 3.0, the layout system worked with DIP (device-independent pixels). With 3.0, everything is calculated down to DP (device pixels) and you can specify the px suffix to define a 1-px wide border, for example.
Prior to 3.0, the layout system worked with DIP (device-independent pixels). With 3.0, everything is calculated down to DP (device pixels) and you can specify the suffix to define a wide border, for example. Migration to TypeScript 2.2 and removed ambient modules in favor of explicit path resolution.
CLI
We made the following behavioral changes in the Command-line tool: The livesync command is removed in favor of tns run which now automatically performs livesync --watch under the hood; The plugin find/search command is removed as it had zero usage; The emulate command is now deprecated and its functionality has been exposed through the run command and its --emulate option; The run --device <Device Identifier> command now starts an emulator if one is not started already. Prior to 3.0, the --device option worked only with running devices.
Numerous bug fixes and internal improvements that ensure better stability and extensibility of the codebase.
Runtimes
Network Domain enabled for Chrome DevTools. Now you can monitor your application network traffic directly from within Chrome DevTools. This is currently available for the built-in http module. For third-party modules that do network requests, additional glue code must be implemented to populate the Network Tab.
Now you can monitor your application network traffic directly from within Chrome DevTools. This is currently available for the built-in http module. For third-party modules that do network requests, additional glue code must be implemented to populate the Network Tab. Reverted static binding code generation for Android instead of producing *.DEX files directly. The code generation approach has several major advantages that affect build speed, readability, and maintainability.
instead of producing *.DEX files directly. The code generation approach has several major advantages that affect build speed, readability, and maintainability. Updated Gradle build tool. This will speed up the Android builds significantly.
This will speed up the Android builds significantly. Improved debugging experience in Chrome DevTools for Android. We have made several fixes related to crashes and bugs while debugging.
Please note that we decided to wait to release the local snapshot builds feature due to breaking changes in the underlying native build tool chains (i.e. the new Android SDK tools and Xcode 8.3). While the snapshot feature is important for further optimizing the loading time for Android applications, we decided that we shouldn't delay the 3.0 release and will deliver the feature as an incremental update in the near future.
Enabling the New Bits
Besides the standard new npm packages update npm install -g nativescript . If you create a new 3.0 project then all the dependencies will be automatically set to the latest version because the updated 3.0 template will be used. To update an existing project you need to follow these steps:
Update your project's tns-core-modules dependency:
npm i -S [email protected] For a NativeScript Angular project update your nativescript-angular plugin, again to 3.0.0:
npm i -S [email protected] Since NativeScript 3.0 comes with built-in support for Angular 4, all packages from the @angular scope need to be updated too:
npm i -S @angular/common@latest @angular/compiler@latest @angular/core@latest @angular/forms@latest @angular/http@latest @angular/platform-browser@latest @angular/router@latest npm i -S zone.js@latest npm i -S rxjs@latest If your project uses TypeScript, you will need to update the nativescript-dev-typescript plugin and it will automatically update your TypeScript configuration:
npm i -D nativescript-dev-typescript@latest
For a comprehensive list of all the breaking changes and how to migrate existing code you can refer to this wiki page. And if you are a plugin author we have also prepared this document to guide you through the plugin migration steps for 3.0.
WebPack vs. Android Snapshot
For 3.0 we are turning off the snapshot-by-default feature for Android Angular projects. This is primarily done because for Angular projects the major benefit that affects the loading time is the AoT feature (not present in the existing snapshot architecture) that comes enabled through our nativescript-dev-webpack plugin.
WebPack is the recommended way to optimize your NativeScript Angular applications. Once we ship the local snapshot builds then your applications will be able to take advantage of WebPack, AoT, and snapshots for Android simultaneously. More information about enabling WebPack in a NativeScript application may be found in this documentation article.
Share Your Feedback
We have no less than 600 Jenkins jobs that run continuously to ensure the stability and quality of the framework, but no software is flawless :). Please, let us know of any issue that you may hit with the new release so that we can fix it as soon as possible!
Update
Added more information in the "Enabling the New Bits" section about upgrading existing projects to 3.0. |
Empire State Building sues photographer for $1.22 million over topless photos
Updated
The owners of New York City's Empire State Building are suing a photographer for $US1.1 million ($1.22 million) over a set of topless photos taken from the skyscraper's observation deck.
Professional fashion photographer Allen Henson used his phone to take the photos last August and posted them on social media.
They were subsequently picked up by a local blog before featuring widely in US media.
Two days ago the building's owners lodged a suit in the US Supreme Court, alleging the photos constituted "forbidden behaviour" and they were "taken by Henson for commercial purposes".
"ESB was never notified about the plan for the photo shoot and [Henson] did not seek or obtain permission for the topless photo shoot from ESB at any time," court papers said.
"At the time that [Henson] and the model entered the observatory, it was crowded with visitors, including children."
The woman in the photos is Texan model Shelby Carter, whom Henson describes as a friend.
Henson, who woke up to news of the legal action when he saw a news story online, says it is bizarre to be sued because the photos were just "a bit of fun".
"I had a model friend in from Texas and we were up there and I thought it would be interesting," he said.
"Nobody seemed to mind. The girl has a wonderful pair of breasts but to be honest if you've seen the view up there it's pretty breathtaking and I don't think anybody noticed."
I imagined somebody got drunk last night and said 'you know, let's sue this guy for a million dollars, why not?' Allen Henson
He insists that despite the photos being widely featured in the media, he has made no money from their use.
"I am a photographer by trade but at that moment it wasn't really a commercial situation by any means," he said.
"The main grounds for their lawsuit is that somehow I have taken from them by using these commercially which makes no sense to me because it's clearly not the case."
It is the latest in a series of topless photo controversies for the photographer, who was kicked out of a hip restaurant in the city's East Village last year after staging an impromptu photo shoot with the same model.
The Empire State Building owners say the lawsuit is justified because Henson's actions damaged the building's "business and reputation as a safe and secure family friendly tourist attraction".
Henson says a million-dollar lawsuit is extreme.
"I speculated and I couldn't really think about the logic behind it but for some reason I imagined somebody got drunk last night and said 'you know, let's sue this guy for a million dollars, why not?'," he said.
Topics: fine-art-photography, offbeat, united-states
First posted |
Norman Rothery is the value investor for Globe Investor's Strategy Lab. Follow his contributions here and view his model portfolio here.
Carl Icahn is trying to squeeze a little more juice out of Apple. Late this week, he released what amounted to a love letter extolling the virtues of the company and urging it to repurchase more of its stock.
The move follows a similar push last year that saw the company return money to shareholders by raising its dividend and buying stock. This time around management appears to be a little less co-operative. But I wouldn't count out Mr. Icahn quite yet. While he sometimes fails to get companies to follow his advice, he has a knack of walking away with piles of cash, nonetheless.
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You can learn more about activists like Mr. Icahn by reading money manager Tobias Carlisle's new book Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations. It explores the modern development of value investing and uses the careers of famous activists to show how it has evolved.
Fans of Mr. Carlisle's previous book, Quantitative Value, will also appreciate the market research he sprinkles throughout Deep Value. But the numbers play a supporting role in this case.
At the core, Deep Value revolves around two basic value investing strategies. The first being Benjamin Graham's net current asset value method that looks for companies trading for less than two-thirds their current assets less all their liabilities, which is a rough measure of their liquidation value.
The main problem with Mr. Graham's approach is that very few stocks pass the test in normal times and those that do tend to be quite small. As a result, it places the strategy firmly in the domain of individual investors rather than institutional ones. Nonetheless, it has performed remarkably well over the long term.
But the second method recommended by Mr. Carlisle scales up to larger portfolios. It's based on what he calls the acquirer's multiple, which is the ratio of a firm's enterprise value (the market value of a company's equity plus net debt) to its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). You can think of the multiple as being something like a price-to-earnings ratio, with price replaced by enterprise value and earnings by EBIT.
Buying a basket of stocks with very low multiples has been quite profitable over the long term. He reports that a portfolio containing stocks with the lowest 10 per cent of multiples (the value decile), rebalanced each year, returned an average of 12.50 per cent annually from 1951 to 2013. By way of comparison, the market gained 8.36 per cent a year over the same period.
Mr. Carlisle also goes a step further and divides the value decile in half. Stocks with the lowest multiples are put into the deep-value portfolio, which gained 15.72 per cent on average from 1951 to 2013. The value stocks with higher multiples are put into the amusingly named "glamour value" portfolio. They advanced only 8.84 per cent per year and outperformed the index by a meagre 48 basis points annually.
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I was, frankly, surprised at how poorly the glamour-value stocks fared. The reason for their lacklustre performance can be explained to some degree by looking at the average multiple of the stocks in both categories. The deep-value portfolio's average multiple was a very frugal 3.9 whereas the glamour-value portfolio was much higher at 8.2.
Over all, Mr. Carlisle makes the case that value investors should be very wary of paying up for stocks with pleasing characteristics. Call it the revenge of the cigar-butt stocks because the market's castoffs have provided excellent returns over the years.
If you're a value investor or are simply interested the sort of thinking behind Mr. Icahn's latest round of activism, then you'd do well to pick up a copy of Deep Value. It'll help you become a better investor.Special to The Globe and Mail |
Like many women at Rollins, I joined a sorority during my first year. In most ways, my experience in the Greek system has been typical: I have a “big,” I participate in service projects and chapter events, and I attend all the crush parties and formals. The only difference between me and the rest of the members of my pledge class is that when I joined Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII) in the spring of 2011, I wasn’t an 18-year-old freshman but a 30-something college professor.
Those aren’t the only reasons why I am the last person you would expect to find hanging out at a sorority house—I am also a soccer mom who embodies all of my genre’s stereotypes: My purse is littered with candy wrappers and arcade tokens; I know the location of every McDonald’s PlayPlace in the greater Orlando area; and, on school nights, I am in bed by nine. As one of my former students wryly put it, my personal life is where fun goes to die.
While the unlikelihood of my sorority membership makes for a good chuckle, the irony of it is precisely why it works. When I roll into the sorority house in my snazziest pair of mom jeans, no one accuses me of trying to be 19 again. And when I ask what’s up with the monogrammed pins, finger snapping, recruitment skits, and excessive use of glitter, everyone knows that I’m not pretending to be stupid—I really am that clueless. I did my undergraduate work at a university without a Greek system. The upside is that my ignorance of fraternity and sorority culture renders me completely nonthreatening. While I run the show in my classroom, I am clearly the student in the sorority house. Needless to say, this role reversal has given rise to circumstances that bear all the trappings of a television sitcom.
Of course, I didn’t come to Rollins desiring to hone in on my students’ extracurricular activities. My interest in sororities stemmed from an unexpected surge in one of the most primal of human emotions: jealousy. As a new assistant professor, the first thing I noticed about Rollins students was how much of their personal property was embossed with Greek letters. Fraternities and sororities are a big deal on campus, but I wondered what exactly about it is so appealing that it attracts a whopping 35 percent of the student body at Rollins—especially when 10 percent is the national average.
As a teacher of medieval British literature (a subject that doesn’t exactly sell itself to the masses), I couldn’t help but fantasize about a world in which 35 percent of the Rollins student body clamored to study Beowulf and Chaucer. After one particularly rocky class during which half of my students basically confessed that they would rather guzzle rat poison than read another poem written in Middle English, the horrible truth dawned on me: The problem wasn’t with my students; it was with me. I couldn’t expect my students to care about something that was important to me if I didn’t show any interest in what mattered to them.
That’s when I decided to become fraternity and sorority life’s biggest faculty fan.
Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that is also how I introduced myself to the sorority member who I encountered in the basement of Olin Library one evening. The woman—who was using a laptop with an AOII sticker plastered across the front—did not see me coming until it was too late. Monica would tell me later that she found it slightly weird when I slid into the chair across the table from her and began asking her the same set of questions that one would pose to a spaceship full of aliens: Where did you come from? How many of you are there? What do you want?
Fortunately, Monica was able to overlook my lack of social grace. The two-hour conversation that followed culminated with an invitation to attend one of her sorority’s upcoming chapter meetings. My attendance at that meeting—and several other chapter events in subsequent weeks—led to an invitation that took me by surprise. The Rollins chapter of AOII had solicited and received formal approval from their national headquarters to initiate me as an alumna member of their organization. Usually, these kinds of membership requests are processed by a local alumni chapter of the sorority, but since I was affiliated with Rollins and knew so many of its active collegiate members, I had been given special permission to join the chapter’s current pledge class.
“Are you in?” she asked.
Once I stopped laughing, I realized that she was serious. As I weighed the choice before me, I found myself hovering between thinking “Why in the world would I do this?” and “Why not?” Ultimately, I was swayed to acceptance by a combination of burning curiosity and the faint hope that some of Rollins’ undergraduate population would be inspired to step out of their academic comfort zones if they saw me orbiting so far outside of my own social universe.
“Despite what you think, joining a sorority is not all fun and games,” Monica warned. I didn’t know what she was talking about until the next morning, when she dropped a 3-inch binder on my desk.
“What’s this?” I asked, casually flipping through the pages.
Monica explained that before any woman is eligible to join a sorority, she has to learn about the organization’s history, values, and traditions. What she had given me was a study guide that would help me prepare for a sorority entrance exam.
At the mention of the word “exam,” I grimaced. One of the things I have learned since becoming a professor is that I like administering exams significantly more than I like taking them. Monica, as it turned out, was not interested in my personal preferences or my excuses. |
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“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, but I could’ve been dead,” Zumoff says now in a thick, fast-talking East Coast accent. “I must have been laying in the middle of the intersection. Can you imagine that? I can’t imagine doing that to a dog.”
Though his two children live in Houston with their mother, after he was discharged, Zumoff flew to Florida to live with his own mother and sister during his long recovery, in which he is relearning basic things like walking. Having never even broken so much as a finger before, Zumoff found himself having a hard time grappling with the fact that some phantom driver may have stripped him of his lifelong passion of being active — cycling, running, boxing — in a matter of seconds. He had been a bicyclist all his life — in the middle of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, in downtown Miami, on the streets of Philly, where he grew up — but Houston was the only city where, he says, he encountered routine hostility from drivers.
What Zumoff says he didn’t know — probably because he was never part of a cycling group while in Houston — was that rather than being an isolated incident, his accident was part of a common narrative that Houston cyclists have dealt with for years.
Since 2013, nearly 1,700 cyclists have been hit by cars on Houston streets, and nearly a quarter of the accidents were hit-and-runs like Zumoff’s, according to data from the Houston Police Department. Twenty-three bicyclists have died, seven of whom were killed by hit-and-run drivers.
There was the 17-year-old immigrant dishwasher, Miguel Marcial, hit and killed by a law student who sped away from the scene in his BMW, dragging Marcial’s bike beneath his car for a mile. The 56-year-old father, Bobby Brooks, run over by a school bus whose driver continued on her route as though nothing had happened. And 61-year-old Dan Hertweck, killed by an Isuzu box truck driver who stayed at the scene — but went home freely, without charges, after telling police he did not see Hertweck and did not know how the accident had happened.
Cyclists have been asking the city to do something about this situation for years. In May 2013, the city took a step forward by enacting a “safe-passing” ordinance, which allows cops to ticket drivers who do not give cyclists at least three feet of space while passing them. But despite the fact that hundreds of cyclists have been clipped or smashed by cars since the ordinance passed, only 32 drivers have been ticketed. Cyclists grew so dissatisfied with the city’s lack of action that they staged a “die-in” on City Hall’s front lawn in June 2015 after four cyclists were killed in just three weeks.
Finally, this year, the city answered with a solution — on paper at least — and that’s the Houston Bike Plan.
It’s a sweeping biking blueprint, if not one of the most comprehensive in the country, and if the city can actually pull it off, cyclists will have more than 1,700 miles of new, safely designed bike lanes and trails, costing up to $500 million to complete over the next ten to 20 years. Many cyclists, cycling attorneys and city officials have pointed to the lack of safe bike infrastructure across the city as a core reason that cyclists keep getting hit. That infrastructure has not been comprehensively updated since the early 1990s.
Still, not everyone is convinced the new bike plan will solve Houston’s cyclist-accident problem, particularly in a city where drivers tend to blame cyclists for their own misfortune.
“I think the Houston Bike Plan is a bold plan, and I think it’s a step in the right direction,” says Houston Ghost Bike attorney John Clark, who represents injured cyclists and the families of killed cyclists. “But until public perception about cyclists changes, and awareness changes, it doesn’t matter if there’s a bike plan or not.”
Lauren Meyers, a member of Houston Ghost Bike, ties flowers to the Ghost Bike memorial for Wesley Edward Mein, who was struck by a car while walking his bike along the East Freeway service road in October 2014.
The death of a 24-year-old woman cycling home from a grocery store on December 3, 2013, handed the City of Houston a wake-up call.
Chelsea Norman was coming back from work at Whole Foods that night and was just blocks from the store on Waugh Drive when a driver ran her over and then continued on her way. Police, acting on a tip, discovered Margaret Mayer’s pickup truck at her workplace the following week, its front end still damaged from hitting Norman. Mayer told police she was so intoxicated that night that she could barely even remember how she got home. She was eventually sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Just months after Norman’s death, the group BikeHouston petitioned the city to create that bicycle master plan. Then-mayor Annise Parker announced a “Zero Fatalities Bike Safety Campaign,” a well-intentioned if ultimately unsuccessful operation. Meanwhile, a group of cyclists created Houston Ghost Bike, aiming to raise awareness about cyclist deaths by placing wiry, all-white memorial bicycles at the site of each fatal accident. Norman’s memorial was the first.
Since then, the group has placed 70 Ghost Bike memorials in Houston and its surrounding areas, most recently for Wesley Mein, who was struck and killed by a drunk driver who was only charged with a DWI, not in Mein’s death. The group has memorialized cyclists ranging from Benjamin Mendez — a day laborer who sold fruit and commuted by bicycle each evening, pushing his fruit cart home with him — to David Rosenfeld, a father of three who loved to ride his bike leisurely every weekend as an escape from his fast-paced job. With personalized memorials for every mother and husband, son and daughter, the group aims to dispel the caricature of cyclists as a curbside annoyance.
“We’re trying to put pictures on every bike now, because we want to put a face to the memorial,” says Ghost Bike organizer Steve Sims, sitting in his car on the side of a back road where a cyclist was recently killed. “We want people to remember, there was a person who was killed — not this caricature of a cyclist in their mind.”
On the evening of July 30, Steve and his wife, Melissa Sims, headed out to the site of a fatal accident to prepare a Ghost Bike memorial for Richard “Ricky” Johnson. Johnson was a young new father from Crosby, Texas, killed by an elderly driver who didn’t see him while Johnson, also a commuter, was cycling to work one morning before the sun was up. At the time he was killed, Johnson had just been approved to finance a new car so he wouldn’t have to bike anymore. He had just found a new place to live, closer to his job. And his baby daughter was learning to crawl.
Dozens of Johnson’s family and friends, including his daughter’s new foster family, gathered on the side of the road to watch Steve and Melissa chain the white bicycle to a telephone pole near the site of Johnson’s death. Whizzing cars were nearly the only sound as the couple attached Johnson’s picture to the spokes — one of him and his baby — in near total silence. Eventually the disruptive, speeding cars became too distracting, with several members of the family growing irritated, if not red-faced angry, with the drivers. “You didn’t slow down for Ricky,” his mother screamed at one pickup, “so you can at least slow down for us!”
Nothing happened to the driver who hit Johnson. The driver told police he was sorry but he did not see the cyclist in the dark hours of the morning. And so he went home, never charged with anything.
According to a Houston Press analysis of police and court records, this is actually the most common outcome. Of the 23 cyclist fatalities in Houston in the past three years, only six have resulted in charges — and in one case a drunk driver who killed a child on a bike was given just two years of probation, with no mention of the dead eight-year-old in the court filings. Prosecutor Alison Baimbridge, with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office’s Vehicular Crimes Division, said it’s because sometimes the cyclist involved broke a traffic law such as not yielding the right of way, or did not have proper lighting on his or her bike, meaning the driver was considered blameless. If drivers stayed at the scene, they were never charged, except in one case because the driver was drunk and also considered at fault, for the death of Mollie Walker, epitaphed as a “loving mother and grandmother” on her Ghost Bike memorial.
Almost all drivers, if they gave a statement to the police, said they just didn’t see the cyclist at all or in time to avoid hitting him or her. The reports then generated by police almost always reflect the driver’s account, and with the cyclist no longer alive, often there is little to counter that version of events, especially if other witnesses had hindered views of the accident or didn’t actually see the impact.
Steve recalled the story of Dan Hertweck, the 61-year-old man hit by the box truck driver who was not even given a traffic ticket let alone a citation for breaking that safe-passing ordinance. In the police report, an officer writes that Hertweck, who was an experienced longtime cyclist, “may have ran [sic] into the back” of the truck and “may have fell [sic] after impact with” the truck, based on what appears to be this statement from the driver: “I felt my car rock so I thought I hit a curb. I kept driving straight and pulled over into the gas station parking lot. I turned around and saw a person on a bike on the ground.”
“You would get a ticket for hitting a car. But you can strike and kill someone on a bike and it’s like, ‘Oh well,’” says Steve.
He looks up to his left, pointing down the road. “I see the skid mark now.”
*****
David Rosenfeld, pictured at far right, rode his bike every weekend as a way to escape, whether on solo rides or with cycling groups like this one. Courtesy of Wendy Rosenfeld
David Rosenfeld’s last ride ended before it had really even begun.
He left early the morning of May 24, 2015, to meet dozens of other cyclists at the Bike Barn for a 15-mile memorial ride for Jon Trevalise, an avid 68-year-old cyclist who had recently been hit and killed by a distracted driver. Trevalise had been involved in several cycling groups and had completed an impressive five Tours du Rouge, six-day bike trips from Houston to New Orleans.
But before Rosenfeld could make it to the memorial that morning, he was hit by a car and killed.
It’s a case that many in the cycling community, and certainly Rosenfeld’s family and friends, point to as a stark illustration of the need for safer bicycle infrastructure everywhere. More than a year later, the cruel irony is one Wendy, his wife, says she has still not gotten over: Had a distracted driver never killed Trevalise, her husband would never have been killed either.
On top of it, Wendy said, the driver was never charged. “He just gets to walk around as a free person, with no consequences for killing my husband,” she said. “I think about it all the time…This guy has no idea who he hit.”
Rosenfeld was a father of three and deeply committed to his Jewish faith, once even helping his best friend, a rabbi, build an entire congregation from the ground up. Thanks to Rosenfeld’s people skills and knack for creative marketing campaigns, he brought 300 new congregants on board for the rabbi, Scott Hausman-Weiss, in a matter of months. He was so good at his creative advertising and marketing job for an oil and gas company, Wendy and Hausman-Weiss said, that his co-workers nicknamed him “Professor,” following him around and asking for his advice constantly.
“If you want to know what was taken from us when he was killed in this ridiculous way,” said Hausman-Weiss, the rabbi at Congregation Shma Koleinu in Houston, “he was like a modern-day Don Quixote. He really was able to attack every windmill.”
Rosenfeld went cycling every weekend through the city and along the bayou, and sometimes he went on social rides on Thursday evenings, Wendy said. Occasionally he took his daughter with him on rides; other times he commuted to work. “Biking for David was…how did he describe it? ‘This is my island,’” Hausman-Weiss recalled. “‘This is my way to escape the intensity of my work, and all the details of life.’” Rosenfeld loved fixing bicycles for people and assembling them as presents at Christmastime, Wendy said. He was involved with BikeHouston, the group that helped create the city’s new bike plan, and he would get agitated and angry in the car with Wendy when he saw cyclists breaking a traffic law, or cars driving too fast and too close to them. He was a nut about bike safety, Wendy said, but even a helmet couldn’t save him that day in May 2015.
The congregation shielded Wendy for months after her husband’s death, keeping quiet about two more cycling-related deaths shortly after Rosenfeld’s: One experienced cyclist from their same congregation hit a nasty pothole and did not survive his injuries; another was hit by a car right near Hausman-Weiss’s home. The congregants gathered for religious services at Wendy’s home, checking on her and her kids frequently. Wendy was too distraught even to attend the Ghost Bike memorial.
“I was in shock for a long time,” Wendy said. “You always protect your children first, and I just went into that mode and did the best I could with that.”
According to data from the Texas Department of Transportation, Houston leads the state’s largest cities — San Antonio, Dallas and Austin — in every category of bicyclist accidents even when population differences are considered. Despite having a population less than twice that of Dallas, Houston has more than three times more cyclist accidents, and roughly 1.4 times more than San Antonio and Austin. (TxDOT cautioned that its data may differ from police department data, given factors such as different computation methods and Texas peace officers’ failing or forgetting to submit accident reports.) Houston also has the highest proportion of cyclist hit-and-runs among the state’s largest cities, at 22 percent of accidents; drivers in Austin, by comparison, flee the scene only 14.6 percent of the time.
Houston leads in fatalities, too, averaging 7.3 cyclist deaths a year compared to Austin’s one, Dallas’s 1.7 and San Antonio’s 4.3.
“I don’t know that I’ll ever get past it,” Wendy said of her husband’s death. “I don’t know what I would do or say if I spoke to [the driver] or saw him. David was such a good guy, but he would say, ‘Let it go.’”
*****
Doctors told Kyle Zumoff, who was run over by a truck while riding his bike in May, it would take a year for him to learn to walk again. Zumoff has given himself six months. Christina Mendenhall
It has been easier said than done for Kyle Zumoff, too, who was angry not only at the phantom driver but at the police, who never found the person who hit him.
A few weeks after Zumoff was hit, HPD’s Vehicular Crimes Division Hit and Run Unit closed his case. There was no surveillance footage of the accident. No one caught the license plate. No one could identify the driver. The police put out a Crime Stoppers notice and got one phone call, a lead that didn’t go anywhere. They had reached the end of the rope.
Sergeant Derrick Hall, with the Vehicular Crimes Division, said that hit-and-runs such as this one can be some of the most frustrating cases to investigate when there is little to no identifying information that could lead police to the suspect. In the case of Chelsea Norman, it was a co-worker of Margaret Mayer’s who came forward to tell police that Mayer called her the following day and said she was so drunk the night before that she thought she had hit someone, because her windshield was shattered, but couldn’t remember. In the cases of both Benjamin Mendez, the fruit-cart pusher, and Miguel Marcial, the immigrant dishwasher, the drivers both came forward to admit fault on their own. Without lucky breaks such as those, Hall said, investigations may never reach a conclusion.
Of the 30 hit-and-runs causing death or serious bodily injury in the past three years in Houston, 17 of them remain unsolved.
“It feels bad. It does,” Hall said. “It’s extremely frustrating, because we either have a dead person or a severely injured person who’s the end result. Sometimes I’ve talked to family members and they’re crying, and I’m crying, and I want to do more, but I physically cannot. It’s such a bad feeling knowing there’s somebody out there who would run over somebody and just leave.”
The cause of the problem is anybody’s guess — but Houston’s cycling community, at least, can easily point to the city’s failure to maintain its biking infrastructure. Thanks to only sporadic updates over the past 25 years, cyclists have few safe ways of commuting on bike, and drivers perceive cyclists as “in the way” often because bike lanes are either too narrow or nonexistent.
While some people may be understandably upset as swarms of Critical Mass cyclists take over the road once a month when drivers are trying to get home from a long day at work, individual cyclists can still tell you about all the times they’ve been cursed at or honked at or nearly run off the road simply for riding a bicycle on the street, where they are required by law to ride. Each of them, in fact, likely has a catalog of horror stories about close calls with cars as thick as a collection of platinum Beatles records. Exhibit A: The CEO of Houston B-Cycle, Carter Stern, has been hit by a car on Houston streets a dozen times.
He is lucky only in the sense that none of the cases have resulted in serious injuries, and all the drivers stayed at the scene. “Most only stayed so they could yell at me. Their usual line is, ‘What are you doing in the road?!’” Stern said.
It’s why Stern is a major proponent of the Houston Bike Plan. Of the 1,700 miles of bikeways the plan calls for, planners are seeking to ensure that the majority of them are “high-comfort” lanes, meaning they are designed safely, are well-separated from traffic or are “protected lanes,” like the one on Lamar Street that has an actual barrier dividing the bikes from lanes of car traffic. By comparison, of Houston’s existing roughly 500 miles of bikeways, only half are “high-comfort” — and only 39 miles of high-comfort lanes are on actual streets as opposed to trails along the bayous.
The problem with the city’s only protected lane on Lamar is that it basically leads nowhere and connects to nothing, a huge complaint of cyclists. The bike plan is poised to fix that problem too, seeking to connect trails and on-street lanes all across the city so that cyclists can safely get from point A to point B.
“Right now, there is not much bike infrastructure on Houston streets, period,” said Mary Blitzer, BikeHouston’s advocacy director. “Some of our infrastructure includes routes which are currently identified as ‘bike routes,’ yet it’s not a place where most people on a bike would feel safe riding. Absolutely nothing has been done to make it safe except calling it a ‘route.’…The bike plan is changing that.”
Though completed, the plan has not been officially approved by City Council, but council member David Robinson says the council and Mayor Sylvester Turner are highly supportive of it, and he expects it to be on the books this fall.
One problem, however, is the lack of funding. While the city’s ReBuild Houston projects may take care of much of the new infrastructure in the short term — BikeHouston expects 700 miles to be completed in the next seven to ten years — seeing the entire plan materialize on the streets of Houston may depend on voter-approved bonds.
Meaning the success of the Houston BikePlan may depend on the support of drivers.
Blitzer said a large part of BikeHouston’s goal has been to persuade drivers that they want this too, that if they are annoyed that cyclists are “in the way,” then this is the answer.
“We’re trying to unite everyone who’s riding now, who wants to ride a bike in the future — or maybe never wants to ride a bike but wishes there wasn’t a bicyclist in front of them on a busy street, and that that person had a safer place to ride,” Blitzer told us. “Most of the time, people who are riding in unsafe conditions are doing so because they have no other way to get to where they need to go.”
Still, whether the bike plan is successful may not matter to people like Kyle Zumoff, who says that even if he returns to Houston, he will never get on his bike here again.
He isn’t sure he will ever be able to anywhere, in fact, still unable to get over how quickly, without any notice, a leisurely ride on a clear evening turned into a brush with death. He is still in a wheelchair, anyway: Doctors told him that learning to walk again may take a year — though Zumoff, always up for a challenge, has given himself six months.
As for Wendy Rosenfeld, she says she and her husband had been planning a big bike trip through Europe, perhaps wine country — but it’s one she won’t ever be taking. Her three kids might start riding again one day, though, she said. Recently, her daughter, who loved to go on rides with her dad, had even asked some of Rosenfeld’s old friends if they could take her on a ride with them — her own way of keeping her dad close.
It’s been months, though, and Wendy said the ride still hasn’t happened — which is fine with her. Save for a couple of rides her daughter has taken around the block, the 11 bikes in their garage have remained mostly untouched. |
In a world first, zookeeper Rohan Cleave captured the amazing hatching process of a critically endangered Lord Howe Island Stick Insect at Melbourne Zoo. The eggs incubate for over 6 months and until now the hatching process has never been witnessed. If you didn’t see it you wouldn’t believe it could fit in that egg!
Krulwich Wonders has a great post with excellent photos of this six-legged black giant and the incredible story of how, with just 24 of them living under one bush on a remote island cliff in 2001, scientists spent two years determining if they could move a few, finally breeding two at the Melbourne Zoo in Australia. This passage gives some detail on the conservation group’s success:
When Jane Goodall visited in 2008, Patrick [Honan, of the zoo’s invertebrate conservation breeding group,] showed her rows and rows of incubating eggs: 11,376 at that time, with about 700 adults in the captive population. Lord Howe Island walking sticks seem to pair off — an unusual insect behavior — and Goodall says Patrick “showed me photos of how they sleep at night, in pairs, the male with three of his legs protectively over the female beside him.”
The co-curator was into the suspense of the video. The details of the story echo that…
via @990000. |
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The head of an entertainment oriented organization that provides HIV advocacy and education services for black gay men has called on D.C. and Prince George’s County police to step up their investigations into the unsolved murders of three black gay men in the D.C. area since 2014.
Devin Barrington-Ward, president of Impulse Group D.C., said he and activists involved with his organization are troubled that no other community-based organization has demanded answers from police about the status of the investigations into the three cases.
He said Impulse Group D.C. spoke out about the most recent case after learning that the victim, Matthew Mickens-Murrey, 26, who was found stabbed to death in his Hyattsville, Md., apartment on May 30, regularly attended Impulse Group events.
Barrington-Ward said a short time later his group learned that an aspiring black gay model and rapper named Demencio Lewis, 23, was shot to death in a hail of gunfire on March 13, 2014, on a street in Southeast D.C.
A little over a year later, D.C. police found Stephon Marquis Perkins, 21, lying unconscious on a street in Southeast Washington suffering from a gunshot wound to the head on June 25, 2015. Police said he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead a short time later.
In all three cases police said they have yet to identify a suspect or determine a motive for the killings. In press releases announcing the murders at the time they occurred, D.C. and P.G. County police did not mention that the victims were gay.
A D.C. police spokesperson said police don’t believe the two D.C. cases are related.
Before learning of the Perkins case in D.C. from the Blade, which reported on that case when it happened, Impulse Group D.C. released a statement last week saying activists involved with the group sent letters to the D.C. and P.G. County police chiefs “demanding action” on the Mickens-Murrey and Lewis cases.
“While I do not believe the murders of Matt and Demencio are related, it is a tragedy that two Black gay men can be killed in our area and outside of their family and friends, no entity is demanding accountability and justice from the departments responsible for investigating these crimes,” Barrington-Ward said in the statement.
“Far too often when Black gay men and Black transwomen are killed their murderers are never found,” he said. “This sends a disturbing message that their lives have little to no value to their communities because if they did their murderers would be found,” he continued. “Today, Impulse Group D.C. is seeking to shift that narrative and push the authorities to do more and secure justice in these cases.”
D.C. police have released few details about the Perkins case other than he was found suffering from a fatal gunshot wound to the head near the intersection of 16th and Galen Streets, S.E. about 3:44 a.m. on Thursday, June 25, 2015.
An employee of the D.C. LGBT community services center Casa Ruby, who identified herself only as Molly H., told the Blade she and Perkins were close friends and that Perkins identified as gay.
In the Lewis case, Fox 5 News reported that Lewis’s mother told the TV news station that she and her son were dining together when Lewis received a call on his cell phone from someone named Chris, who was waiting downstairs. He told his mother he needed to talk to Chris and he would be right back, Fox 5 News reported.
Within minutes D.C. police said officers responded to the 2600 block of Sales Pl., S.E., and found Lewis lying unconscious on the street. His mother told Fox 5 he had been shot 27 times.
She also told the TV news station that her son’s status as an openly gay man may have had something to do with his death.
“Just because he was a gay man, he still was Demencio,” she said in an on-air interview. “He still was my son, my baby and he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Friends of Mickens-Murrey said he had attended events associated with D.C. Black Pride over the Memorial Day weekend. One of his friends, Terrence Ford, said Mickens-Murrey was last seen at the D.C. gay bar Nellie’s on Sunday night, May 28.
P.G. County police are calling on anyone who may have seen Mickens-Murrey in the days prior to his death or who may know something about the case to call them at 301-772-4925. D.C. police have said anyone who knows anything about the Lewis or Perkins cases should call the police tip line at 202-727-9099. |
There's an old scouting adage that say "You can't scout a stat line". That is true in two senses of the phrase. Firstly, a stat line is just a compilation of numbers, so flying half way across the country to see it probably won't help you much. That's why we have google. There is a lot of truth in the actual meaning of that statement, with many, many examples. A prime one comes straight out of the Southern League-Braves Prospect Mallex Smith hit .340/.418/.413/.831 for the Mississippi Braves, while Brewers prospect Orlando Arcia hit .307/.347/.453/.800. I don't think there is a right-minded evaluator out there that would tell you that Mallex Smith is a better prospect than Arcia (not a knock on Mallex, either), so that raises the clear point.
Yes, there is plenty of information you can gather from a stat line, including many things you couldn't even see if you scouted a player every single day of the season. That's just how it works. We balance out visual evidence with statistical evidence to come to some sort of happy medium as to
A) What is happening, and
B) Why it's happening
Then there's 2014 first rounder Braxton Davidson. He was the last of the Wren Era selections, and so far has done about as well as you would expect a Wren draftee. The only problem is, he's actually a really good prospect. Yes, he is buried pretty deep on many prospect lists, but with the depth of the organization that's not really a concern. Davidson has all the talent in the world, but his numbers wouldn't really peg him as a potential future middle of the lineup hitter. When you see a .242/.381/.374 slash line most people instantly think that guy is about 5'9 and fast. You wouldn't expect a 6'2" 210 ball player with as much raw power as any player in the system to be doing that. So..
What do the numbers tell us?
There are 4 key numbers to know for Davidson-27.3, 17.0, .132, and 48.6. 27.3 is the percentage of Braxton Davidson's plate appearances that end with strikeouts. In case you don't know, that is really bad. Dan Uggla bad. Then we move to his 17.0% walk rate, which is absolutely absurd. His .132 ISO would be really good for the previously stated role of 5'9 base stealer, but is quite a bit short of what was hoped of him out of high school. Lastly, we have that 48.6% ground ball rate. We'll come back to that in a bit.
Braxton Davidson strikes out a lot. That was the knock on him in high school, that's been the knock on him as a professional, and that will likely continue to be the knock on him as his career progresses. The 27.3% strikeout rate was the 11th highest in A ball, and that number clearly tells us that he is just not making enough contact. A player that can hit 20-25 home runs a year can get away with that, and a player with his batting eye can still maintain a high on base percentage even with those numbers, but he has to do a lot of things right to get to that point.
The good for Braxton is clearly that he has an advanced batting eye. That 17.0% walk rate led low A ball, and you had to go all the way down to a 12% rate before you found another player less than two years older than Braxton. That is not just impressive, that is incredible. This tells you that not only does Braxton Davidson wait for the pitch he wants, he knows what his pitch looks like. Once he gets up the ladder and starts getting into umpires who are a lot better at calling a zone that lower minor league umpires, you could see even better numbers from Braxton (though the improved pitching likely balances things out.)
Do I hate a player with a .132 isolated power? Of course not. For a player as young as Davidson who has advanced as quickly as he has (we'll get to that in a bit) it's not that bad. But Braxton Davidson? This guy was supposed to be the powerful slugger we've been missing. The bat to top all bats that can hit bombs off the roofs of building 4 states over. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe we got caught up in the hype of a prospect who was so young and still hitting with aluminum bats. Maybe it's not a problem at all. Dan Uggla had a .076 ISO when he played in A ball. That turned out quite well. Maybe the problems lies just a bit deeper than numbers though...
A 48.6% ground ball rate is really not that high. But the 10 players with the highest Isolated Power numbers in the major leagues this year all had lower ground ball rates. This isn't really a surprise because less ground balls means more extra base hits. To take it even further, the lowest fly ball rate of that group was 32.8%. Braxton Davidson clocked in at 23.53%. The type of player the Braves need Davidson to be is the one that hits 30 home runs a year, not 300 ground balls. That is just not his game. This poses among others 3 possibilities. He either doesn't know what type of player he is, doesn't care, or doesn't have a swing that creates enough loft
There's one more number we need to focus one. Perhaps this is the most important. 183. That's how many days it is until Braxton Davidson is no longer a teenager. He was the 5th youngest player to start in the South Atlantic League this year, 2.5 year below the league average age. Is there even a point to passing judgment on a player this young? (The answer to that is "not really" but you're almost 1000 words in so you might as well keep reading)
So what does the scouting tell us?
I've gotten now 5 opportunities to see Davidson in person, and many others to watch online. From this, I can really take out 3 key points.
Braxton Davidson has the most advanced approach of any high school draftee that I've seen. There are certain players in A ball that go up to the plate and look like A ball players. Davidson brings a completely different attitude to the plate. He works deep into counts and waits for his pitches. He sees more pitches than anybody, and yes that will lead to a lot of 2 strike counts and strikeouts. It also leads to a lot of 7 and 8 pitch walks that will wear a starter down. Very rarely is there a player that you say is almost too patient at the plate, and Davidson is one of those.
He hits the ball hard. Sometimes he may struggle to make contact, but when he does you know it. The ball comes off of his bat screaming for it's life, getting through the infield before the infielders can even take 2 steps. He can put balls deeper in the trees than any player in the Braves farm system, and can take a pitch out to all parts of the park. It's not just his home runs either. He hits those types of ground balls that make you think "wow that would have gone a long way if he had hit it in the air" and can bank line drives off of the fence in right field. The power is real.
He's not afraid to use all fields. This is perhaps my favorite part about Davidson and the one that reminds me most of Joey Votto (along with that plate discipline). He can turn on a fastball, and he can hang with an outside curveball and line it to the left fielder just as easily. His spray chart is a thing of beauty, (which you can find here amongst other statistic gathered for this article. MLBFarm.com always comes in clutch) and seriously makes me wonder why he can't just put the ball in play more.
Gathered together this shows a pretty clear view of what we are seeing with Davidson. His approach, while amazing and beneficial, has a few downsides especially for someone who doesn't have the elite contact skills of someone like Votto. He is going to strike out, and he is going to strike out a lot and unless he makes some tweaks to his game he always will. At the same time, he is always going to be a high walk guy who will have an OBP approaching the mid or even upper three hundreds even when he isn't hitting all that well.
The biggest thing that shows out for Davidson now is that ISO. Of the 3 possibilities posed, I can completely dismiss 2 of those. Davidson is a very smart hitter. He knows what he's doing and he knows his game well enough to not think that he needs to be a line drive ground ball hitter. He certainly cares as well. He by all accounts works hard on his game and is willing to make necessary changes to be a better player. So right now it looks like his swing just might not be creating loft at this point. When you watch him this becomes even more apparent, as many of even his fly balls don't have a ton of back spin or carry to them. Again, he is just 19. There is the time and the means by which he can improve. The approach he has and the power to all fields leaves him so close to potentially being one of the top power hitting minor leaguers. If he can do that, the walks will continue to come even more with time as pitchers choose to pitch around him rather than give up 450 foot home runs
So what are these Joey Votto and Dan Uggla comparisons I've been throwing around. Despite the difference in handedness and position, I quite like the comparison between Uggla and Davidson.Both are high strike out, high walk guys who didn't show a ton of power in their early time in the minor leagues. Uggla's 3rd season was his break out, hitting .290 with 23 home runs so hopefully Davidson follows suit. If he were to follow the same path as Uggla, he would be debuting in 2019 as a 22 year old. Of course Uggla's story is well known. He hit 190 home runs in his first 6 years as a major leaguer prior to his precipitous decline. The good thing for Davidson is that he would be debuting a full 3 years later, perhaps delaying his decline and providing a much longer peak.
The Votto comparison is more of a pipe dream than anything, but in his first full season as a pro Votto hit .278/.406/..398, and much of that was at a lower level than Braxton played at. As for Votto's rate stats-27.0% K rate, 16.9% BB rate, and a .120 ISO. So maybe not as crazy as you thought. While expecting Davidson to be that good shouldn't happen, one of the biggest things that helped Votto was the Red's willingness to take their time and let him develop. He spent 5 years in the minor leagues before making his debut and was never rushed to a level that he wasn't ready for. There is an argument that maybe Davidson has been rushed, but there is no question Atlanta will give him every chance to develop as Votto did. So while Davidson may have his problem, here's a little something to dream on: A Joey Votto clone wearing a tomahawk across his chest. |
UPDATED: CBS has given a series order to Doubt, its legal drama pilot from Tony Phelan and Joan Rater. It was one of two drama pilots at CBS for Grey’s Anatomy alums Phelan and Rater, along with Drew, which is now not going forward.
Doubt, from CBS TV Studios and Timberman/Beverly, was originally piloted by CBS last season. It didn’t go to series but CBS ordered a new pilot, with the two leads replaced by Katherine Heigl and Steven Pasquale. With today’s series pickup, Orange Is the New Black‘s Laverne Cox, who was in both the original and the second pilot, is breaking new ground for transgender performance. Doubt will be the first broadcast series featuring a transgender series regular character played by a transgender actor.
The new pilot for Doubt was filmed off-season, and in January, when the network was still gearing up for its pilot season orders, Doubt already was a favorite. It joins newly picked up dramas Bull, Training Day, Pure Genius (fka Bunker Hill) and MacGyver. Most are procedurals, with Doubt and Bull in the legal arena, Pure Genius in the medical, while cop drama Training Day has an underlying serialized storyline. MacGyver is an action-adventure procedural.
Here are more details about Doubt.
DOUBT
EP: Tony Phelan & Joan Rater, Carl Beverly & Sarah Timberman
EP/Director: Adam Bernstein
Studio: CBS Television Studios
Logline: A smart, chic, successful defense lawyer at a boutique firm starts to fall for her charismatic client who may or may not be guilty of a brutal crime.
Cast: Katherine Heigl, Steven Pasquale, Laverne Cox, Dulé Hill, Dreama Walker, Elliott Gould, Kobi Libii |
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
Southern states lead the red states in social safety net hypocrisy. (Map: Wikipedia )
A recent article in Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) scathingly debunks the "racialized rural mythology" that conservative white rural voters subsidize urban residents. In fact, in general, the opposite is true. FAIR rebuts this fiction, which is embedded in rural culture and politics, with the revealing raw facts:
On an individual level, too, rural residents are more likely to receive government benefits than urban or suburban residents; a Pew survey (12/18/12) found that 62 percent of rural residents had received Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, welfare or unemployment benefits, vs. 54 percent of urban dwellers and 53 percent of suburbanites.
In a 2012 BuzzFlash commentary, I noted that Mitt Romney received his greatest support from a significant portion of Americans he referred to as "moochers," who reside in the rural South. The Tax Foundation found that the Southern states have the largest percentage of people who don't pay income taxes, in general, due to low income or tax avoidance:
Nine of the ten states with the largest percentage of nonpayers are in the South and Southwest. In Mississippi, 45 percent of federal tax returns remit nothing or receive money with their federal tax returns; that is the highest percentage nationally. Georgia is next at 41 percent, followed by Arkansas at 41 percent, and Alabama, South Carolina, and New Mexico at 40 percent.
These high percentages of income tax non-filing are indicative of blue states being much more likely to subsidize red states than the other way around. Yet, every election, the myth that white rural voters are paying to prop up poor people of color in cities is trotted out. In fact, as I noted in 2012, the state of Mississippi received $2.73 in federal support for every dollar state residents paid to the IRS. The net flow of tax dollars into Mississippi is fairly typical of Southern states, as a map in a Mother Jones article reveals. Meanwhile, solid blue states -- such as California, Illinois and New York -- receive less money back from the federal government than the state residents pay to the IRS.
Of course, come election time, Donald Trump stoked the festering myth of rural white voters financially supporting a government that gives their limited funds to "freeloaders." FAIR correctly identified this as a weaponized "racial myth."
FAIR brings up another related myth: the idea that rural areas have decrepit roads because highway construction money is lavishly spent in urban areas. The article makes short shrift of the shibboleth:
Road spending in particular is notoriously skewed toward rural areas. “For all its talk of geographic inequality, rural Minnesota has been getting more than its fair share of road money for a long time,” reports the streets.mn blog (1/14/15), with a map illustrating which counties get less in state highway funds than they contribute (mostly Minneapolis/St. Paul and their suburbs) and which get more (most of the others). A Brookings report (3/1/03) taking Ohio as a case study found that
urban counties consistently took home a smaller share of state highway funds than suburban and rural counties relative to
their amount of vehicle traffic (vehicle miles traveled), car ownership (vehicle registrations) and demand for driving (gasoline sales).
If these two examples of state highway funding are indicative of other states, it's clear the notion that rural areas are being shortchanged on road construction is utterly false.
In essence, the notion that "the government" favors urban areas and poor people of color over rural areas is debunked by statistical analysis. Nonetheless, the continued support for conservatives who advocate cutting safety net programs and other government funding (that actually benefits the denizens of red-state rural areas) remains a conundrum. In 2013, I wrote about Kentucky Republican Congressman Hal Rodgers, who continues to get re-elected in his district by landslide margins even though he is an ardent advocate of drastically reducing government programs such as food stamps -- despite the fact that more than 50 percent of his 98 percent white district is made up of food stamp recipients.
The Root reveals that in 2012, "of the 254 counties where the number of food stamp recipients doubled between 2007 and 2011, Republican candidate Mitt Romney won 213."
Anybody who still believes that rural white voters are in fact subsidizing people of color in urban areas, I have a Trump Tower to sell you. |
“The conventional definition of management is getting work done through people, but real management is developing people through work.” – Agha Hasan Abedi
The 1980s are considered by many to be the golden age of the WWF. An argument could be made that it certainly is one of, if not the best era of professional wrestling. If one were to make that argument, it would most certainly need to bring up the pro wrestling manager as a contributing factor.
Bobby Heenan, Jim Cornette, Jimmy Hart, Mr. Fuji, Gary Hart, J.J Dillon, Missy Hyatt and more. Many more actually, too many to name here without this turning into just a long list of men and women who helped shaped the personalities and even the product of professional wrestling in the 1980s, not just in the World Wrestling Federation.
In the 1990s managers still had a place in the business, but certainly not as prominently. As professional wrestling moved into the new millennium, managers became passé, and were seen as a nuisance instead of an asset. Expendable instead of exceptional.
Now here we stand in 2014. A new era has begun in WWE. There has been a shift in tone, in philosophy. This new way of thinking feels fresh and new, but also has some distinct markings of tradition and nostalgia. Tag teams have seen a resurgence. There’s more emphasis on in ring story telling, and there are familiar faces at ringside once again. In fact, WWE’s current manager roster may be the most diverse collection of characters of any era! Let’s take a look at this incredible cast of important supporting players.
Let us begin with the veteran managers, Paul Heyman and Zeb Colter. Their biggest selling point is experience. These are managers who have mastered the craft. Those who can generate attention for their clients by only a few words or even just a glance. These men know how to create heat and then put it onto the wrestlers, a delicate balancing act that only the best of the business know how to do. Zeb Colter took Jack Swagger from a struggling mid card act, to wrestling for the World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 29. As for Paul Heyman, well, if you don’t know what his client Brock Lesnar has done then welcome back to earth, you’ve got lots to catch up on!
Of course, we can’t forget the ladies now can we? Valets the likes of Sensational Sherri Martel, Luna Vachon, and Ivory would be proud of today’s women who often times juggle the demands of both in ring performer as well as manager. Currently there are three women who fall into this category in WWE: Layla, Summer Rae, and Emma. All three are nice to look at, but aren’t afraid to get rough when they need to. They are the perfect element for creating a multi layered story that involves both a wrestler and their charge getting involved.
While we’re on the subject of playing rough, let’s not forget an important manager category that is always overlooked, and perfected even less so: the role of bodyguard. From Bob Orton to Diesel, these enforcers were not only there in case things got rough, they were usually the reason it happened! These managers are often silent but deadly, and serve as an insurance policy or secret weapon to the highest bidder. They tend not to be easy on the eyes, or any other part of your anatomy they choose to bruise or break in order to secure a win for their boss. Of course, the most recent example of this type of manager has been the exception that proves the rule. Tamina Snuka was a huge part of AJ Lee’s Diva Championship reign that lasted many, many months and she was effective as a loyal protector to AJ when needed (and even when she wasn’t!) she added lots of drama to AJ Lee, and given Lee’s personality, that is saying something.
Of course, not every manager or valet needs to get physical. Some are simply inspiring enough to motivate their charge on to victory. No greater example of this was the first lady of the WWF, Miss Elizabeth. Although she didn’t get involved very often, she was very effective at guiding the career of more than a few legendary talents. On the flip side of that coin was the devious Tammy “Sunny” Sytch. Sunny was a little more willing to pull a foot or throw in an object here or there, but mainly she used her powers of distraction to ensure victory. Today’s modern equivalent has to be the Russian vixen known as Lana. A man bear like Rusev needs little to no protection, but a leggy trophy awarded to you for victory is sometimes more tempting than gold. Lana uses her lips for more than just temptation and makes sure that the WWE Universe hates Rusev for all the right reasons, including being paired up with a woman worth defecting for.
The last category we’ll study is a strange one, but that fits perfectly because our last managers are a little strange. Emphasis on the little. Of course, I’m referring to the hyperactive mascot for Los Matadores, El Torrito and the always energetic Hornswoggle! There have been a number of professional wrestling mascots over the years, and the majority of them tend to fall into the role of hype man or woman. Men like Jimmy Hart or Bill Alfonso were notorious for being the kind of manager that forced you to pay attention to their clients, while The Genius or Paul Bearer were outlandish characters that showed a clear connection to the man, woman, or team they were managing. El Torrito and Hornswoggle fit this category like a pair of tiny gloves. Torrito is the perfect cheerleader, getting fans excited about his team, while Hornswoggle has been an advocate (and reflection of) all his partners including Finlay, DX, and recently 3MB.
For years it was believed that the art of management in professional wrestling, certainly in WWE, was dead. Now, like a zombie, it has crawled out of its grave to walk the earth once more, intent on infecting the WWE Universe with long lasting memories and emotions. What does the future hold for the art of managing in WWE? Well, many of the talent on this list came from NXT, further proof that WWE is starting to recognize the importance tradition will play in the coming years. A future that looks quite bright, if properly managed.
For more on sports injuries, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
Who is your #FavoriteWWEManager? Who is the #BestManagerEver? Which #ManagerStyle is your favorite from the ones I talked about in this article? Sound off in the comments or anywhere else you like, but please, leave the megaphone and cane at home.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @AdamContant. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” ourFacebook page.
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© Reuters. U.N. monitors accuse British oil firm of "payoffs" to Somali officials
Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.N. sanctions experts have accused
British company Soma Oil and Gas of making large payments to
Somalia's oil ministry that created a "serious conflict of
interest," some of which appeared to have been used to pay off
senior officials.
In a report to a U.N. Security Council committee, the
experts said Soma paid nearly $600,000 as part of efforts to
protect and expand an energy exploration contract it signed with
the ministry in 2013.
According to a confidential report compiled by the experts
on the U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group, which was
reviewed by Reuters, Soma also paid $495,000 to a lawyer who was
advising the Somali government when it was negotiating a
contract with the company. The eight-member panel of
investigators that compiled the 28-page report monitors
compliance with U.N. sanctions.
The allegations outlined in the report, which has been
submitted to the U.N. Security Council's Somalia/Eritrea
sanctions committee, triggered an investigation into Soma by
Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), according to people
familiar with the situation.
The SFO has confirmed that it opened the inquiry but it has
not outlined the allegations against Soma Oil and Gas. The
company's London headquarters were searched last week.
ID:nL5N10C040
The U.N. Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group said the
evidence it collected demonstrated that the Soma payments
"created a serious conflict of interest, in a number of cases
appearing to fund systematic payoffs to senior ministerial
officials".
In its response to Reuters, Soma denied any wrongdoing,
saying the contract to the company was awarded by Somalia's
cabinet and not members of the petroleum ministry and as such
there was no conflict of interest.
Somalia's Petroleum Minister Mohamed Mukhtar Ibrahim
declined to comment.
Somalia's petroleum ministry declined to comment as the
ministry staff has not yet seen the report, according to Ibrahim
Hussein, the ministry's head of external relations.
According to the report, Soma Chief Executive Robert
Sheppard told the Monitoring Group that the payments were part
of a "Capacity Building Agreement" requested by the Somali
government. This aimed to help the ministry hire local and
foreign experts to build up geology and other oil industry
expertise, something the country lacks after decades of conflict
destroyed its state institutions.
The U.N. monitors described the capacity building programme
as "likely part of a quid pro quo arrangement", whereby the
ministry would protect the Soma contract from any negative
consequences when a panel chaired by the Somali finance ministry
began conducting a review of all its contracts.
The monitors allege these "quid pro quo" arrangements
"undermine Somali public institutions through corruption".
Soma told Reuters in an emailed statement that the U.N
monitors "fundamentally misunderstood the nature, purpose and
destination of the payments made under the terms of the Capacity
Building Agreement", and said the company has been transparent
about the programme.
Soma is chaired by Lord Michael Howard, who led the British
Conservative Party when it was in opposition and was succeeded
in 2005 by David Cameron, who is now prime minister. The company
said the SFO had told it that "no suspicion whatsoever attaches
to Lord Howard".
Soma secured an exclusive contract in 2013 to conduct
seismic surveys on 12 offshore oil and gas blocks, totalling
60,000 square km. The contract awarded Soma the right
subsequently to pick blocks it wanted to exploit.
The payments to Somalia's oil ministry totalled $490,000
over a year, according to the report. It said most of that money
was earmarked for salaries, with about $40,000 put towards
office supplies.
The report said that in December 2014 Soma transferred an
extra $100,000 to the Somali oil ministry to construct a "data
room" in the capital Mogadishu, but by June there had been no
progress on its construction and oil ministry officials either
could not account for the money or did not respond to requests
for information.
"All payments pursuant to the CBA and relating to the Data
Room were made directly to the Somali Government following
appropriate due diligence and the implementation of various
legal safeguards," Soma said, adding that it had sought
independent legal advice.
"Soma has never made payments to individual government
officials," the company said.
U.N. monitors allege that at least six officials who drew
Somali government salaries were also on Soma's capacity building
payroll, which would in some cases have almost trebled their
salaries.
The report said those officials included director general of
the oil ministry, Farah Abdi Hassan, and his deputy, Jabril
Mohamoud Geeddi. Neither official replied to several Reuters
requests for comment.
The monitors also queried why "despite the apparent conflict
of interest", Soma had paid nearly half a million dollars to J.
Jay Park, a Canadian lawyer who was acting as an official legal
adviser to the Somali government when it was negotiating its
contract with the British company.
According to the report, Soma confirmed to the monitors that
it had paid Park's firm, Petroleum Regimes Advisory (PRA), but
said it did so because the Somali government was unable to cover
its own legal fees.
"Soma agreed to the Somali Government's request to pay these
fees and did so after taking legal advice which confirmed that
it was appropriate to do so," Soma said in its statement to
Reuters.
Jay Park told Reuters, "We respectfully differ with the
suggestion of a conflict of interest", adding that the Somali
government requested Soma to pay the legal fees only after the
negotiations ended and an agreement had been signed.
(Editing by Toni Reinhold) |
For a case study in how to run a company into the ground, look no further than the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
The island’s government-owned electric utility has $9 billion in debt, falling sales and rising costs. Its electricity rates for consumers run 2 1/ 2 times the national average and higher than any U.S. state except isolated, oil-dependent Hawaii.
All that money has purchased precious little. The utility’s power plants, with a median age of 44 years, lack pollution controls and violate Environmental Protection Agency mercury limits. The plants burn dirty residual fuel oil and diesel to generate about two-thirds of the island’s power. And thanks to aging infrastructure, frequent and costly power failures plague customers. The calls of customers bold enough to phone the utility to complain about service are dropped more than 50 percent of the time.
Now, however, PREPA is running out of cash and its creditors — including the major bond funds Oppenheimer and Franklin Templeton — can’t be put on hold.
The utility lies at the epicenter of a mounting financial crisis in Puerto Rico, frequently called “America’s Greece.” The territory’s governor recently called the island’s $73 billion of debts “unpayable.” With hundreds of millions of dollars of payments looming and little cash on hand, PREPA has been thrust to the forefront of a fight over whether the Puerto Rican commonwealth should be able to resort to U.S. bankruptcy courts for protection while it restructures its debts.
1 of 19 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Paradise lost in Puerto Rico View Photos Officially a U.S. commonwealth, Puerto Rico is treated in some ways like a foreign country, in other ways a state, and in still other ways unlike anywhere else. Caption Caught in political limbo, the island teeters on the financial brink. July 4, 2015 A woman walks by a rundown building in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The historic area brings in many tourists. Matt McClain/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
That in turn is part of a larger debate over the status of Puerto Rico — tethered to the United States ever since it was seized in the Spanish-American War of 1898, yet treated neither as a state nor as a country. Bankruptcy rules are part of that. In 1984, Congress passed legislation barring municipalities, agencies and government-owned utilities in Puerto Rico from declaring bankruptcy, while allowing those located on the mainland to do so.
Amid all this, PREPA stands out as what Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla in an interview called “the biggest mess.”
A report issued by three veteran International Monetary Fund economists said the utility’s poor performance not only ruined its own balance sheet but also undermined the Puerto Rican economy’s competitiveness because of needlessly high electricity rates.
“As a key input cost, this cascades down to locally produced goods and services and stunts potential growth sectors such as tourism,” the report said.
The cost and availability of energy “is probably the most serious issue we face today,” said Eric Spackey, chief executive officer of Bluewater Defense, a manufacturer of uniforms and protective clothing for the military. “My largest fixed cost is energy, and sadly service in the area of my plant is intermittent.”
Spackey said that every time there is a power failure, more than 450 machines in his complex just west of San Juan “turn off and production stops until the generator kicks in and the machines can reboot — disrupting the production flow, machine circuit boards and ultimately morale.” He said that while the government is aware of the problems, he fears the liquidity crisis will only make things worse.
Problems with plants and politics
Fixing the mess at PREPA — whose chief executive and several other top officials resigned in June — will be no small task.
“This is not something where a few tweaks will do,” said Anne O. Krueger, former chief economist at the World Bank and former No. 2 official at the International Monetary Fund. She helped write the report on Puerto Rico’s finances.
One of the main problems is PREPA’s overwhelming dependence on oil for power generation, a function of poor planning. Moreover, its antiquated power plants burn the oil inefficiently. As a result, high oil prices over the past 10 years have helped strangle the utility and at one point drove electricity rates over 30 cents a kilowatt hour.
But PREPA’s problems run deeper than that and are rooted in the island’s political culture.
The Krueger-led report called PREPA “an inefficient and over-staffed public enterprise using technologies decades out of date.” Three-quarters of the utilities service trucks are “obsolete” and frequently out of service, said a presentation by Lisa J. Donahue, a managing director of New York-based Alix Partners who is now acting as the utility’s restructuring officer.
Donahue has vowed to fix the trucks and shrink the bloated payroll, which is twice as big as the average utility payroll on the mainland, according to a June 2010 report by the Center for a New Economy.
Both of the island’s political parties have been complicit; they have padded the payrolls with loyalists in equal number as part of an unwritten pact to feed off the utility’s revenues. More than a thousand of these “trust employees” work more — and earn more — when their party is in power.
“So when your party is in the majority, you might be given more responsibilities, and if it is out of power then you are sent to the basement for four years,” said former Puerto Rico secretary of state Kenneth McClintock, who tried in vain to reform PREPA when he was in office. He said that the political parties also raised money by pressing the utility’s suppliers to buy tickets to utility raffles or social events whose earnings go to the parties.
The EPA’s experience with PREPA suggests not just political meddling but a pattern of disregard of laws and regulations. In 1993, the utility was found to have committed multiple violations of air, water and storage-tank regulations. In 1997, it was fined for failing to fix those. In 1999, the EPA won a criminal case under the Clean Water Act to force the utility to comply with orders after a sulfuric acid spill. In 2004, PREPA was fined again for failing to meet terms of an earlier consent decree.
Not all of PREPA’s woes are of its own making. The Puerto Rican government, no matter what party was in power, has in the past used its ownership of public utilities to extend subsidies to lure new investors or keep businesses from leaving, Eugenio J. Alemán, senior economist of Wells Fargo, wrote in a May 24, 2012, note to investors.
“In the past, some of the hotels that have gone bankrupt over the years on the island had been delinquent in their public utility bill payments and phone bills for years before the bankruptcy, but state-owned public utilities never enforced the collection of their bills from those hotel chains,” Alemán said.
“This meant that public utilities would have to recoup the costs of these subsidies either by not investing or by charging a higher rate to other businesses or individuals or a combination of both strategies,” he wrote. “For many decades, they did not do either. This is one of the reasons why public utilities are in such dismal conditions today.”
As the commonwealth’s finances have crumbled, PREPA also has had trouble collecting money owed by the government itself. According to the last report, from 2013, the government owed the utility $250 million.
Stealing electricity has grown more prevalent too, by some estimates draining as much as 15 to 25 percent of output.
Refusing to innovate
Many investors have put forth a different vision of PREPA, offering to build a variety of solar, wind, hydro and natural-gas-powered plants to make the utility’s electricity cheaper and greener.
Yet PREPA, reluctant to relinquish its grip on power supplies, has turned away many of those investors. Although sunlight is plentiful and breezes steady, the island has only about 150 megawatts of wind and solar installed — barely 1 percent of total consumption. Although many wind and solar developers have signed contracts with PREPA, virtually all of them have shelved the projects for now.
In late 2012, Robert Sternthal, president of CohnReznick Capital Markets Securities, predicted that Puerto Rico would become “the next hot development spot in the U.S. solar market.” After all, with nationwide tax incentives and the high cost of oil-fired electricity, solar would be significantly cheaper than business as usual.
Today, a frustrated Sternthal admits he was wrong. PREPA demanded that independent solar power developers meet “minimum technical requirements” or PREPA would close off the solar project’s access to the grid for an unspecified amount of time, with no clear guidance on when a project could come back online, Sternthal wrote in a November 2013 online solar industry publication.
Complying with PREPA’s requirements “is a near impossibility” and “would make nearly all of the projects uneconomic to build,” wrote Sternthal, whose firm has arranged financing for more than $4 billion in renewable energy projects. By the time PREPA’s finances are sorted out, the federal tax incentives for solar will probably have expired.
“To me it’s astounding that you look at the world and the creation of renewables, at how many megawatts are built every day, and these guys cannot get out of their own way,” Sternthal said in an interview. “They would save millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, a year.”
Now PREPA is attracting conventional firms and financiers who see the potential for big savings and profits.
York Capital, a New York-based investment firm, and NRG, one of the country’s largest electric utilities, teamed with ITC Holdings, a transmission company, and recently came up with a grand vision for Puerto Rico’s electricity sector. The three firms said they would invest $3.5 billion to install a natural-gas-fired plant, about 400 megawatts of solar, and transmission lines to take power from the gas plant in the south of the island to the north.
The group would sell electricity to PREPA — without getting involved in the utility’s debt headaches, its four trade unions or its aging power plants.
Within a couple of years, the group says, the island would save $1.5 billion annually, or 9 cents a kilowatt hour, more than 40 percent of retail rates — enough to pay creditors and still slash consumers’ bills.
“Our interest in the project comes from being distress investors and restructuring experts,” said William Vrattos, partner and head of global credit at York. “At PREPA, we felt that not only would more value be created for the PREPA bankruptcy estate or the company but also for the island and all the stakeholders.”
Trying to reorganize
For now, PREPA is at the mercy of its creditors while a team hired by the Puerto Rican government scrambles to restructure — and get some financial relief.
On July 13 at Citigroup’s midtown Manhattan headquarters, advisers to PREPA spelled out to a room crowded with creditors how dire the island’s situation is.
Jim Millstein, former head of restructuring at the Treasury during the financial crisis, warned at the meeting that “if this turns into a donnybrook, with creditors litigating against one another and litigating with the commonwealth,” it would hurt the economy and tax revenues needed to meet payments. Millstein’s firm has been working with Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank.
PREPA proposed deferring principal payments and most interest payments for five years, delaying more than $600 million a year in payments and providing the utility with enough capital to build more efficient power plants that would be cheaper to operate because they wouldn’t burn petroleum.
The biggest creditors initially insisted that the utility could cover interest costs by raising electricity rates about 4 cents a kilowatt hour. The utility’s advisers replied that higher rates would only accelerate the fall in demand, which has sliding about 2.5 percent a year for the past decade.
Franklin Templeton and Oppenheimer have about $10 billion in Puerto Rican bonds, valued by investors because interest on such bonds is exempt from federal, state and local taxes. Together with Blue Mountain, a hedge fund, Franklin Templeton and Oppenheimer won an appeals court ruling that threw out Puerto Rican legislation that would have allowed government entities there to use bankruptcy, saying that power belonged to Congress.
But on Thursday, a group representing holders of 40 percent of PREPA’s bonds — including Franklin, Oppenheimer, Blue Mountain and Knighthead, another hedge fund — made a counterproposal, offering to exchange old bonds for new ones with lower average interest rates and a mixture of deferred payments.
For PREPA, it would be a mixed bag. It would still pay $1.6 billion in the first five years but would save $2.5 billion in interest and principal payments over 10 years. Electricity rates would be lower than Hawaii’s but would remain high compared with rates on the mainland.
A big obstacle to a compromise could be the two companies that insured much of PREPA’s bonds — National, formerly known as MBIA, and Assured. They have guaranteed $10 billion of Puerto Rican debt; about $3 billion of that was issued by PREPA. If PREPA and its bondholders agree on terms, National and Assured, which also guaranteed mortgage securities caught in the housing collapse of 2008, would still have to pay investors in insured bonds the shortfall.
To Wolfe, co-author of the Krueger report, the PREPA crisis echoes the earlier U.S. financial crisis.
“To me, this is second example of where financial markets have completely failed because of bad information,” Wolfe said. Just as ratings agencies rated sub-prime mortgages without any idea what they were rating, he said, “here investors were lending to a governmental agency, and no one knew what its financial situation was.” |
It’s hard to watch France’s political and cultural elite rush to support filmmaker Roman Polanski against extradition to the United States on a decades-old sex charge and not wonder exactly how they interpret the national motto “liberté, égalité, fraternité.” It’s tempting to ask whether they’re defending the liberty to break the law and skip town, respecting the equality of all before the law and championing a brotherhood of artists who can do no wrong.
(Photo: Roman Polanski, 19 Feb 2009/Hannibal Hanschke)
Here in Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner declared the arrest was “a bit sinister … frankly, (arresting) a man of such talent recognised around the world, recognised in the country where he was arrested — that’s not very nice.” He and his Polish counterpart have written to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the issue. Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterrand said “just as there is a generous America that we like, there’s also an America that scares us, and that’s the America that has just shown us its face.” Directors, actors and intellectuals have been signing a petition demanding Polanski’s immediate release.
Almost all the focus is on the argument that Polanski is a brilliant director, the charge of unlawful sex with a 13-year old dates back to 1977 and the victim herself says she wants the whole issue to be forgotten. Almost completely ignored is the fact that he fled the U.S. to escape sentencing, which added a crime to the original crime. There is such a widespread assumption that all artists and intellectuals would automatically support Polanski that Paris papers today — both the left-of-centre Libération and the conservative Le Figaro — wrote with an air of surprise that Hollywood was not storming the barricades to back him.
The French Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit made headlines by bucking the trend and saying he was “ill at ease” with the rush to absolve Polanski of raping a minor and the culture minister should have been more cautious in his comments.
Across the Atlantic, by contrast, Hollywood’s hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times, reviewed the objections by Polanski’s supporters and concluded: “Plausible or preposterous, these arguments are eclipsed by a simple fact: Polanski fled the country … the Justice Department and L.A.’s district attorney are right to seek extradition.”
And almost nobody in the media here in France asks the tough questions that Fr. Tom Reese, S.J. (photo at right) did in his Washington Post blog post entitled “Father Polanski would go to jail”:
“Polanski’s defenders … argue that he should not be punished. They say that the girl was willing and sexually experienced and she has forgiven him (after receiving a settlement). They even cite his tragic childhood and life as an excuse. And besides, it is ancient history. Such arguments from paedophile priests would be laughed out of court and lambasted by everyone, and rightly so…
“The Catholic Church has rightly been put under a microscope when 4 percent of its priests were involved in abuse, but what about the film industry? The world has truly changed. Entertainment is the new religion with sex, violence and money the new Trinity. The directors and stars are worshipped and quickly forgiven for any infraction as long as the PR agent is as skilled as a saintly confessor. Entertainment, not religion, is the new opiate of the people and we don’t want our supply disturbed.
“Is there a double standard here? You bet.”
There’s a lot to say about the different ways Americans and French approach the law. But let’s go right to Tom Reese’s question. Do you think Polanski’s supporters cut him slack they wouldn’t think of permitting for a paedophile priest? Is the entertainment industry setting our values?
Follow FaithWorld on Twitter at RTRFaithWorld |
Sign language has helped the hearing-impaired communicate for many centuries, way before it was formalised and officially recognised, but this long-standing language of gestures has now been given a 21st-century technological upgrade. Saudi designer and media artist Hadeel Ayoub has invented a smart glove that recognises hand movements and converts them into the relevant text.
Much like Google Translate can give anyone a basic grasp of a foreign language in an instant, this glove is designed to help sign language users make themselves understood by those who can't usually interpret it.
Five flex sensors sit on the fingers, monitoring how they're being manipulated, while an accelerometer integrated into the fabric of the glove figures out how the hand is being held and the direction in which it's pointing. Through three successive prototypes, the glove has been made thinner, lighter, and faster, and the latest version includes a text-to-speech chip to vocalise the words as they're signed.
Ayoub has also created a computer application for displaying the signed words and phrases on a small screen. Eventually, she wants to create a mobile app so the same effect can be seen on a smartphone or tablet, and once Wi-Fi is incorporated - scheduled for the next prototype - the glove could also be used to send texts and emails. The addition of a motion controller in the fourth version of the glove should add to its accuracy too.
"I had one mission when I started this project and it was to facilitate communication between all kinds of disabilities, eliminating barriers between people who have a visual, hearing, or speech impairment," explains Ayoub in a press release. "The prototypes each have a new additional feature, an LED light, and a speaker for example, that took me one step closer to my goal. Once I've incorporated Wi-Fi and translation features into it the glove will be useful for all - no exclusions as to who the user can reach, wherever, whoever, from any country at any time."
While other researchers have worked on similar projects in the past, Ayoub says her invention is the lightest and most practical yet. She also has plans for a version for kids and wants to incorporate multilingual capabilities into the device so that speakers of sign language are able to communicate in whatever tongue they choose.
The fourth prototype is expected to cost in the region of £255 (US$386) and Ayoub has already been approached by several companies interested in manufacturing it. She's hoping that the costs are eventually picked up by schools and companies buying the gloves for their students and staff. You can keep up to date with the project at Hadeel Ayoub's own blog. |
SINGAPORE - Transport operator SBS Transit has apologised for a spelling error in its Christmas greeting at an MRT station on the Downtown Line.
A photo posted on online discussion website Reddit on Dec 24 showed the phrase "Marry Christmas" on the display at the entrance of an unknown station.
The photo was shared widely on various social media platforms, with many netizens poking fun at the error.
One said he was not sure "if Christmas wanna marry me", while another said even the spelling had suffered a breakdown in SBS Transit.
In response to queries, SBS Transit senior vice-president of corporate communications Tammy Tan said that the transport operator was very sorry for the error in spelling and had since corrected it.
"We hope this has not marred the festivities for any of our commuters. We would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas," she added.
On Dec 24, Malaysia Airports apologised for an erroneous Christmas bunting that said "Mary Christmas" and "Happy New Years".
The red bunting was put up at an airport in Kota Baru.
A photo of the bunting later went viral, drawing criticism from netizens who were disappointed over the typographical and grammatical errors.
"We wish to assure you that this does not involve any other airports," Malaysia Airports said in a statement on Facebook.
It also apologised for the mistake and thanked the public for highlighting the issue. |
Wherever David de Gea is playing his football this time next year, his decision to sign a new four-year contract at Manchester United is win for the goalkeeper and a win for the club.
A four-year deal, worth £200,000-a-week, places De Gea among United’s highest earners and justifiably reflects the 24-year-old’s progress since arriving in a £18.3million transfer from Atletico Madrid four years ago.
But the spectre of Real Madrid will not disappear simply because De Gea has committed future to United, on paper at least.
Had Real moved quicker last week on Spain’s transfer deadline day, and if the agent of Keylor Navas had signed off the Costa Rican goalkeeper’s move the other way to United earlier in the day, De Gea would be preparing for his Real Madrid debut against Espanyol this weekend rather than a return to action at Old Trafford against Liverpool.
The move collapsed and De Gea returned to Manchester United just two days ago following international duty with Spain.
But pragmatism on both sides has now led to the goalkeeper signing his new contract. Few at Old Trafford will be concerned by what happens next summer and whether De Gea sticks to his new deal or merely uses it as a sticking plaster until Real come calling at the end of the campaign.
From United’s perspective, they are now able to bank on a sizeable fee for De Gea if Real return for him next summer.
I feel proud to announce that I'll continue with you and Manchester United. THANKS for your unconditional support!Me... Posted by David De Gea on Friday, September 11, 2015
Also, with the club’s supporters unlikely to throw their backing behind a wantaway first-team player, De Gea’s show of commitment should banish the clouds of uncertainty that have hung over him for the past 12 months.
• Louis van Gaal press conference - as it happened
There will be speculation about escape clauses, all of which is unlikely to be confirmed by any of the parties involved, but such details are now common practice in football, with Fabian Delph’s £8million clause inserted at Aston Villa as part of the agreement behind his new contract earlier this year.
• David de Gea's new deal - how the internet reacted
From De Gea’s point of view, he will be given a handsome pay-rise which amounts to over £7million–a-year and also the security of knowing that he will play when fit in the run-up to Euro 2016.
But De Gea’s popstar girlfriend, Edurne, continues to live in Madrid and only the couple know whether they expected their long-distance relationship to extend to another four years.
Real are the big losers, having lost out on their first-choice replacement for Iker Casillas.
• Why did De Gea's move to Real collapse?
They may get him in the end, but they can forget about getting De Gea for nothing now. For that reason alone, United have landed a long-awaited blow on their rivals at the Bernabeu. |
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Oct. 29, 2014, 10:31 PM GMT By Chris Serico
Ryan Weimer dreams big. For the last few years, the Oregon dad has created elaborate Halloween costumes for his young son Keaton, who uses a wheelchair. This year's ambitious plan sprouted a Kickstarter fundraising campaign that has turned into something even greater.
Keaton Weimer, who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy, is in the process of getting a "How to Train Your Dragon" costume that will wrap around his wheelchair. Today
In addition to quadrupling his fundraising goal and touring the DreamWorks facility that helped create the “How to Train Your Dragon” character that inspired the costume, Weimer now plans to create a nonprofit that will allow him to create costumes for other children with special needs.
Related story: Amazing wheelchair costumes will make you smile
"It's just like the same thing anybody would do for their kids: dress them up for Halloween," he told TODAY.com. "For me, it's just what we do, but for other people, it's this really amazing thing.'"
The Weimer family includes, clockwise from top left, Lana, Ryan, Keaton and Bryce. Today
Ryan and his wife Lana, who live in Keizer, Oregon, haven’t had it easy. In addition to raising two sons — Keaton, 9, and Bryce, 2 — with a rare kind of muscular dystrophy called spinal muscular atrophy, they've lost two other children.
Their daughter Addison, who also lived with the genetic condition, died in 2011, just days before her third birthday; and a third son, Eston, died at birth.
Lana and Ryan's daughter, Addison, passed away in 2011, just days before her third birthday. Today
Since people who live with spinal muscular atrophy often don’t live past their teens, Weimer said he’s doing what he can to give his children the best lives possible. Part of that involves investing his energy and hundreds of dollars each year into building ornate Halloween costumes for Keaton. (Bryce also uses a wheelchair, but is too young yet to care about costumes.)
It all started in 2008, when the self-described “nerdy nurse with an imagination” created a three-dimensional wooden pirate ship around Keaton’s wheelchair. Next came an elephant in 2009; a dinosaur in 2010; a “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” character in 2011; and a knight riding a horse in 2012. (Ryan got a reprieve last year, when Lana sewed a simpler “Pokemon” character costume for Keaton.)
"Every year, I ask my son what he wants to be," Weimer said, "and immediately, I'm like, 'Holy crap. How am I going to make that?'"
Three days into the process of making the Toothless costume, Ryan Weimer experiments with a prototype of his design, while Keaton and Bryce assess his work. Today
This year, when Keaton requested a costume of Toothless — a character from the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies — Weimer stumbled upon the website for the Stan Winston School of Character Arts, which provides visitors with detailed tutorials of how to build characters of all shapes and sizes. That studio is responsible for characters that appeared in many blockbuster movies, including “Jurassic Park,” “The Terminator” and “Iron Man.”
Weimer also created a crowd-sourced fundraising campaign on Kickstarter, complete with a video of both his impressive costumes and emotional family story.
“Each year our ability to make cooler, more epic projects improves, but there is a limit to what we can do with just our resources," he wrote on his Kickstarter page.
Things quickly escalated when a local newscast picked up the story. By the Sept. 30 fundraising deadline, 226 backers raised $6,454 for the cause, crushing Weimer's $1,500 goal.
On the fifth day of the assembly process, Ryan tries to get a head. Today
"It's just amazing and humbling, just people coming out of the woodwork to help," Weimer said.
When the costume builders at the Stan Winston School of Character Arts heard about Weimer’s project, they reached out to offer not only personalized tips and tricks, but also an invitation to the Weimer family to visit their facilities in Los Angeles as part of a week-long vacation paid for by DreamWorks Animation and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Keaton and the Weimer family take a tour of DreamWorks, whose "How to Train Your Dragon" character Toothless is the inspiration for his Halloween costume. Today
"[That was] an absolutely once-in-a-lifetime visit," Weimer said of the family's recent trip, which included tours of DreamWorks and classes at the Stan Winston School. "It was truly amazing for all of us."
Erich Grey Litoff co-founded the school with his brother-in-law, Matt Winston — the son of the school's late namesake, who won four Academy Awards for special effects and makeup. Litoff told TODAY.com he and his staff were thrilled to share their time with the Weimer family.
"[Their] story is heartbreaking and inspirational," Litoff told TODAY.com. "[Ryan] is amazing. The whole family is incredible. We're just on the side, supporting them with whatever tools they need to get it done."
Toothless started to take shape on the sixth day of costume manufacturing. Today
Said Weimer of the photo above, "That smile on his face, that says it all. When you see Keaton on Halloween be the coolest kid on the block — not because he's in a wheelchair, but because he's riding a super-epic costume — to me, that's priceless."
Weimer said all donations beyond the $4,500 mark will be the basis for a new nonprofit organization called Magic Wheelchair, which will build these kinds of costumes for other children in wheelchairs. The nonprofit's full website is expected to launch this week.
"I want people to look at my kids, not because they're different, but because they're amazing," he said. "And whatever I can do to try to create those opportunities [for other children] is what I want to do. And I'd love for other kids to be able to have that same experience. ... It's just an awesome opportunity for [kids] to be flying around on the dragon of their dreams."
Keaton's Toothless costume is almost done, one week into the process. Today
The Stan Winston School will continue to be there for Weimer. "We've offered him the training tools and the access to our material, and (invited him) to come down any time in person so he can have as much training as he can to build these things for kids in need," Litoff said.
There’s more good news: Ryan and Lana are expecting another child in about three months, and this one does not appear to have inherited the condition.
"When we told Keaton that Lana was pregnant, he was hoping for a healthy baby," Ryan said. "He wanted to see a baby who can walk and crawl. He wants to see those milestones."
Follow TODAY.com writer Chris Serico on Twitter. |
(KUTV)For many toying with the idea of a grand international vacation, thoughts of the grand international price tag can bring daydreams of far off places to a screeching halt.
Every now and then, however, a deal will come along that might just persuade you to start packing those suitcases.
As of Sunday afternoon, United Airlines is offering round trip flights from select US cities to Australia for as low as $385 -- and it's not a mistake.
The fares are available out of Salt Lake City, Seattle, Atlanta, Detroit and Minneapolis, according to travel website Travelers may choose between Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane as destinations.
View From the Wing says the fares appear to be available from now through the end of November for the initial outbound flight. In order to qualify for the deal, fliers must return at least 10 days after their initial departure.
Most round-trip flights in and out of Salt Lake City can be found for about $575. However, travel site notes that travelers can shave that down to as low $385 if they choose to to fly into LAX for your return flight, though that specific deal appears to only be available for trips that depart May 1 through June 21 or August 1 through August 31.
When we tried it, we found a deal out of Salt Lake City for $403.
Happy flying, travel lovers.
Follow us on Twitter and for breaking news, updates and more. |
Over at Politico, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Gabriel Debenedetti have a dishy look inside the last days of the Bernie Sanders campaign. You should read it in full (seriously, go do that right now). The main takeaway is that Sanders's aides know they've lost; the candidate doesn't.
The secondary takeaway: The aides are throwing the candidate under the bus. Here, for instance, is the first paragraph:
There’s no strategist pulling the strings, and no collection of burn-it-all-down aides egging him on. At the heart of the rage against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, the campaign aides closest to him say, is Bernie Sanders.
Oof. You know things aren't going well when campaign staffers are trying to minimize perceptions of their influence with the candidate. This leaked email exchange about Sanders's combative response after the Nevada Democratic Convention is particularly brutal:
"I don’t know who advised him that this was the right route to take, but we are now actively destroying what Bernie worked so hard to build over the last year just to pick up two fucking delegates in a state he lost," rapid response director Mike Casca complained to Weaver in an internal campaign email obtained by POLITICO. "Thank you for your views. I’ll relay them to the senator, as he is driving this train," Weaver wrote back.
Someone handed those emails over to reporters, and the reason they handed them over to reporters was to show that the Nevada statement wasn't the fault of campaign manager Jeff Weaver or rapid response director Mike Casca.
The characterizations of Sanders's state of mind aren't particularly flattering either. Aides portray him as angry, hurt, and actively deluding himself about both the reasons he's losing and the possibility he may still win:
Sanders is himself filled with resentment, on edge, feeling like he gets no respect -- all while holding on in his head to the enticing but remote chance that Clinton may be indicted before the convention.
Dovere and Debenedetti get a fair amount of detail on the concessions Sanders wants from the Clinton campaign, and the focus seems to be on revenge rather than policy:
Campaign aides say that whatever else happens, Sanders wants former Congressman Barney Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy out of their spots as co-chairs of the convention rules committee. It’s become a priority fight for him.
Sanders is said to be so furious with longtime Senate ally Sherrod Brown, who endorsed Clinton, "that he’d be ready to nix Brown as an acceptable VP choice, if Clinton ever asked his advice on who’d be a good progressive champion."
It's worth being sympathetic here. No campaign looks good in its dying days, and the end of a long, exhausting primary will leave any candidate angry, emotional, and focused on slights and thin reeds of hope. My guess is the Sanders who ultimately ends this campaign will prove much more circumspect than the Sanders who appears in this article.
Even so, the Sanders who appears in this article seems to be unnerving even his top aides, and any campaign that leaked this much to Politico is not in a functional place.
There's much more in the whole piece. Read it in full.
Watch: Where our modern primaries came from |
As teacher resignation letters increasingly go public -- and viral -- new research indicates teachers are not leaving solely due to low pay and retirement, but also because of what they see as a broken education system.
In a trio of studies, Michigan State University education expert Alyssa Hadley Dunn and colleagues examined the relatively new phenomenon of teachers posting their resignation letters online. Their findings, which come as many teachers are signing next year's contacts, suggest educators at all grade and experience levels are frustrated and disheartened by a nationwide focus on standardized tests, scripted curriculum and punitive teacher-evaluation systems.
Teacher turnover costs more than $2.2 billion in the U.S. each year and has been shown to decrease student achievement in the form of reading and math test scores.
"The reasons teachers are leaving the profession has little to do with the reasons most frequently touted by education reformers, such as pay or student behavior," said Dunn, assistant professor of teacher education. "Rather, teachers are leaving largely because oppressive policies and practices are affecting their working conditions and beliefs about themselves and education." |
LONDON, United Kingdom — The grave of Neda Soltan, the Iranian demonstrator whose murder, captured on a cellphone video, became an international symbol for resistance to the Ahmadinejad regime, has been desecrated, according to eyewitnesses in Tehran.
Neda Agha Soltan was killed at the height of the anti-government protests that rocked Iran during the post-election unrest in June. Within hours of her death on the streets of central Tehran, a shocking video of her death went viral, making her the most iconic victim of the Iranian conflict.
Now the Iranian government appears to be trying to stifle all efforts to make her martyr of the resistance.
Despite enormous regime pressure to keep her family silent, Soltan's parents refused to meekly walk off the public stage that circumstances had tragically ushered them onto. Encouraged by the vocal family of a young man who died while in custody, Soltan's mother publicly condemned the Iranian government.
Soltan's boyfriend, Caspian Makan, also refused to keep silent, emerging in the international media to accuse the Islamic Republic of having targeted Soltan for assassination. He was jailed for 65 days on the personal order of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and released in September on the condition he neither speak out nor leave Iran. He fled Iran for an undisclosed location and, although he fears for his safety, he denounced the desecration of Soltan's grave.
“Once again the Islamic Republic of Iran has killed Neda,” said Makan, reached at his secret exile. “This inhuman action only shows that the Islamic Republic is even afraid of the earth Neda lies in.”
Hajjar Agha Soltan discovered that her daughter’s gravestone had been shattered one day after the most recent protests on Nov. 4 during a visit.
“As she was realizing it was broken, she was approached by a three-star police general and the man in charge of security for Behesht-e Zahra (Tehran’s largest cemetery),” said Makan. “They tried to calm her down and told her a 'number of people' came and broke it and we promise you that a new stone will replace it as soon as possible.”
The officials said they did not know who the desecrators were and the stone was repaired by the next day.
Makan believes it unlikely that mourners or other non-state elements would have vandalized the gravesite and points out that the authorities have repeatedly erased graffiti proclaiming Neda Soltan a “martyr.”
A witness wrote in Persian how Hajjar Agha Soltan “was shouting that Neda’s gravestone was completely broken and covered it with flowers so that no-one can find it.”
As more people were attracted to the wailing, some 30 to 40 security officials clustered in the cemetery’s Section 257 to monitor the growing crowd, according to the written testimony. The tumultuous scene was recorded on a mobile phone video that security officials confiscated, smashing the cell phone. But this chilling audio recording from the scene has been posted on the internet. Neda’s mother can be heard screaming in grief as a group of men chant a Muslim prayer.
Iranian authorities buried several of those killed during the recent street violence in Section 257 of the cemetery, creating a focal point for wakes and anniversaries. The spot is usually under surveillance during daylight hours.
“They are always watching it,” said Makan of Neda’s grave. “Before I left Iran, I went very early in the morning to see her grave to avoid the surveillance.”
Ever since this summer, when several hundred thousands of protesters swelled into some of the largest demonstrations since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian government has made great efforts to repress them before they could coalesce into groups. Ordinary pedestrians crossing through protest areas are likely to be beaten by police and other state agents even if they have not chanted a single anti-government slogan, just because they are suspected of an intention to demonstrate.
Soltan's parents were struck with batons and detained during the last bout of unrest earlier early in November. They told those who detained them that “we came (to the protests) because you destroyed the house of our daughter.”
“It’s good we lost her and we will also disappear you,” the guard who arrested them replied, according to Caspian Makan.
“It’s no longer safe for me to remain quiet,” said Makan, in an interview to Britain’s Observer newspaper . “I have to break my silence.”
Makan is currently in an undisclosed country. He is seeking political refugee status in the West. In an interview he gave a few days after he was smuggled out of Iran, he wants to commemorate Neda Soltan's death by creating a high-profile shrine to her memory in a major Western capital and he would also like to see the production of a “Hollywood film about her life.” |
Posted
Laws aimed at limiting bikies' activities have found an unlikely first target in a country town, a 21-year-old disability pensioner.
Source: 7.30 | Duration: 6min 56sec
Topics: laws, ethics, states-and-territories, crime, police, rights, crime-prevention, australia, inverell-2360
Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: An eruption of violence involving outlaw motorcycle gangs in the past year or so has prompted governments around Australia to introduce tough new laws and expanded police powers.
In New South Wales it's now an offence to even associate with criminals.
Defence lawyers and civil libertarians have warned from the start that the laws are open to abuse and could be used not just against bikies, but against almost anyone.
Sean Rubinstein-Dunlop reports on the first arrest under the new regime.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP, REPORTER: It's a long way from the gun violence that's rocked the streets of Sydney, but like any town, Inverell in north-western NSW has its fair share of trouble-makers.
ELI MORRIS, FRIEND: I've been in three times and I done a month every time, so three months jail I've done.
DAMIEN CASE, FRIEND: I've been to jail seven times and each time a valuable lesson's been learnt.
JACK HAYES, FRIEND: We've all had similar charges like assault and affrays and what not.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: These streets are home to Jack Hayes and his mates. They've been in trouble with the law for violent offences since their early teens.
JACK HAYES: It's not just fighting over nothing, mate. It's over ex-girlfriends, over, um, drugs, just fighting over who owes who money. Just stuff like that.
ELI MORRIS: We've all been hooligans and that.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: The mate who's not here is Charlie Foster. The 21-year-old is back in jail for his second time, sentenced a fortnight ago to between nine and 12 months for consorting with his friends.
JACK HAYES: I believe that we weren't in the wrong. We weren't doing anything wrong. We were goin' down the street to do our shopping and pay our rent. If we don't do that, we won't have anywhere to live.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: Charlie is the first person convicted under NSW new consorting laws, introduced to stop the bikie wars.
Charlie Foster's mum, Tricia, says he's always done it tough. He was born with an intellectual disability.
TRICIA HARRISON, MOTHER: He can't read and because he can't read, he can't write. He can write his name and stuff. ... His father was an alcoholic. His father would be at the pub and Charlie would be outside the pub waiting for his father and he met up with the wrong kids and he started to cut school and that was how it all happened.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: At 13 he had his first brush with the law and he picked up a drug habit. First it was marijuana, later speed and prescription drugs, including the opioid known as "hillbilly heroin".
TRICIA HARRISON: He's using Oxycotton. Look, I - he'll use anything he can get his hands on.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: At 18, Charlie Foster was convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl. Later, it was driving on drugs, assault and a 12-month jail term. He got out 10 months ago and moved in with his best mate Jack Hayes. Jack had been in jail too.
JACK HAYES: Me and Charlie have had one affray together I think and that's literally the only charge me and Charlie's had together. We haven't been charged together for anything else.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: It was in April that Jack Hayes and his mates found themselves targeted by the new laws.
JACK HAYES: As soon as I've seen the paddy wagon, I've said to Charlie, "Here comes the filth." Charlie's said, "Just put your head down, take no notice." Just kept walkin'. They've pulled up beside us and told to us stop walkin'. They told us that they gave us a warning a few days before that.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: They were picked up four times over two months.
JACK HAYES: We couldn't do anything. We couldn't do nothing. We couldn't even go down and pay our bills. It literally seemed that there was only way that we could still talk to each other without being charged or locked up.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: Another mate, Damian Case, offered Charlie an alternative place to stay. At age 23, Damian's been in jail seven times. He was targeted too.
DAMIEN CASE: Having the police rock up to me door and givin' us warning for consorting here. You know, that sort of stuff's not on and I feel as though that's intimidating and that's threatening behaviour.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: Charlie Foster's lawyer says he had no option but to plead guilty when he was charged last month with consorting with his three friends.
JON WATTS, SOLICITOR: I was very surprised that he was charged with those offences. But, I mean, when you look at the legislation, I mean, it fitted the legislation, the way it was handled.
TRICIA HARRISON: I couldn't believe it. I still can't. You know, like, 12 months for talking to your friends? You know, these kids were friends long before they ever had gone to jail and served any time. You know, why, because they have all been to jail do they have to stop being friends? You know, that's crazy.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: The lawyer who acts for the bikie gangs has offered to represent Charlie Foster for free and has lodged an appeal against his conviction. After successful High Court challenges against previous anti-bikie laws, Wayne Baffsky is hoping for another win.
WAYNE BAFFSKY, BARRISTER, UNITED MOTORCYCLE COUNCIL: This is the very thing the police said they wouldn't do and they're doing it. I don't understand why people aren't jumping up and down and screaming about this. It isn't right. It's going against what the police said they were going to use the Act for and now we see the truth of that: everybody's at risk and everybody's at risk before they've even tried to deal with outlaw motorcycle club members.
SEAN RUBINSTEIN-DUNLOP: Charlie Foster's mates are afraid they'll be the next to be charged.
ELI MORRIS: I've got a baby on the way so I'm gonna change my ways for my kid when it's born. She's due - she's a girl, she's due in two months and I'm gonna use this to give up the alcohol hopefully and change my life and hopefully never go back because my kid and Mrs is gonna need me around. You know, they need me sittin' in jail.
TRICIA HARRISON: I don't know what it does to him. I can't begin to imagine. He says it does his head in sittin' in a room and there's nothing to do and, you know, all you can do is think about stuff, so, I don't know. Oh, dear.
LEIGH SALES: And the NSW Government and police declined to comment on that story because an appeal is underway. |
On the heels of the Marine Corps' desire for a new rifle for its infantrymen, the U.S. Army now says it is contemplating a dramatic switch in rifles. The service is considering going back to battle rifles—heavier rifles that can hit targets at longer ranges. The last time the Army fielded such a rifle was in the 1960s.
The story, broke by Soldier Systems Daily, says that U.S. Army troops feel they're "in a street fight with a guy with longer arms." That longer arm is the 7.62x54R cartridge, the cartridge used by the PK machine gun and Dragunov SVD sniper rifle . The PK squad machine gun is extremely common; it's in use by the Taliban, the Islamic State, and most insurgent and terrorist groups worldwide. Longer and heavier than the 7.62x39-millimeter round used in the AK series of assault rifles, a PK with the 7.62x54R round has an effective range of 800 to 1,000 yards, versus only about 350 yards for an AK-47.
Taliban fighter with PK machine gun, November 2001. Patrick AVENTURIER/Gamma-Rapho Getty Images
On the Army side, the maximum effective range of an M4 carbine against man-sized targets is about 500 yards, depending on the skill of the rifleman, and 700 yards for the M249 squad automatic weapon . Both fire the same cartridge. That leaves a dead zone of roughly 500 to 1,000 yards where the bulk of a nine person infantry squad can't engage individual enemies. In a platoon of 40 soldiers, on average only about six soldiers armed with M249s, marksman rifles, and M240 machine guns have the range to engage an enemy in the dead zone.
U.S. Army troops may have an edge on paper, but guerrilla groups don't adhere to a bureaucratic equipment roster that says each unit can have a certain number of weapons. Taliban and IS groups routinely have a large number of heavier machine guns, and what they lack in skill they often try to make up in firepower.
M14 rifle.
The Army says it wants a heavier, longer-range bullet in the 7.62x51-millimeter weight category, from which it would later transition to an even more exotic, modern caliber. The Army did once have a rifle that fired the 7.62 round: the M14 battle rifle . Adopted in the 1950s, the M14 was problematic. In addition to manufacturing and accuracy issues, the M14 weighed 10.7 pounds fully loaded. The 7.62-millimeter ammunition also weighed twice as much as the 5.56 millimeter ammunition of the M16 rifle that replaced it, meaning M16 users could carry twice as much ammo into battle. It was also long and unwieldy, making it difficult to use in close quarters combat.
If the Army does go forward with an interim battle rifle, as Soldier Systems Daily suggests, the Army will gain range. With decent optics, a modern 7.62 rifle can reach out to 700 to 800 yards. However, soldiers will once again find themselves up against ammunition weight and length issues. The rifles will be heavier: Properly outfitted with the same optic and a laser/light combination on virtually every M4 carbine, a 7.62 rifle would weigh about 12 pounds. The new rifle will also be more difficult to use in urban terrain, as the longer barrel (which imparts bullet velocity and range) will be hard to handle in caves, inside buildings, trenches, and rough terrain.
Fitted with a new rifle scope, the M14 has been brought back in limited numbers to fight in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Department of Defense photo.
Down the road, the Army would rebarrel the rifle for a new round, according to SSD, likely a 6.5-millimeter bullet. That could result in a lighter round, but a longer, heavier rifle is an inevitability to get the desired range.
Although well intentioned, the adoption of a new rifle and round could open up a Pandora's Box of development, cost, and practical issues sealed more than 50 years ago by the M16. One alternative is supplying more infantrymen with better, more accurate ammunition and higher power optics. The relatively new 5.56-millimeter Mk 262 round paired with an 18" barrel (the M4's barrel is 14.5" inches long) would make the M4 effective to 700 yards in the hands of a trained rifleman.
While the Army's project could result in an amazing new rifle that satisfies everybody, that's unlikely as tradeoffs are inevitable. It may just be that the Army is better off modifying its existing weapons and accepting known shortcomings than wandering into new ones. |
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Greg Berlanti, watching from a distance, couldn’t stop smiling as he sidled up to members of his creative team on the set here of “Arrow” — his second-season CW network adaptation of the “Green Arrow” comic book character — gushing like the adolescent fanboy he used to be.
“Can you believe this?” he said in a giddy whisper, trying not to disrupt the filming. “It’s the first time Green Arrow meets the Flash!”
Mr. Berlanti, 41, the show’s creator, made his reputation as a prolific writer and producer of character-driven family dramas, including “Dawson’s Creek,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Jack and Bobby,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and one he created, “Everwood.” But his most recent television success has been rooted in superheroes and fantasy tales, the genres he adored as a comic-book-obsessed kid growing up in Rye, N.Y.
Which is why he was so excited to see two of his favorite characters from the classic DC Comics universe, not yet superheroes but on the verge, meeting in a scene that he had imagined and that his team — including the “Arrow” executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, and the comic book writer Geoff Johns, DC Entertainment’s chief creative officer — had brought to life. There was Barry Allen, just a particle-accelerator mishap away from becoming the Fastest Man Alive, introducing himself to wounded-soul billionaire Oliver Queen, who spends his off hours fighting crime with high-tech bows and arrows. |
• Dimitri Seluk is concerned Guardiola could sell his client, as he did at Barça • ‘My grandfather would win the title with Barcelona and Bayern Munich’
Yaya Touré’s agent has claimed Pep Guardiola is overrated as a manager and admitted he is concerned he could look to get rid of the 32-year-old should he take over at Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola is putting Manuel Pellegrini in the shade | Daniel Taylor Read more
The Bayern Munich manager, who is favourite to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at the end of the season after revealing he wants to work in the Premier League, sold Touré when the pair were at Barcelona.
Dimitri Seluk told the Sunday Mirror: “Pep is a great coach. But he has won the title at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. The truth is that my grandfather would win the title with Barcelona and Bayern Munich because they are big clubs with great players. I’d like to see Pep take a club that is eighth or ninth and make them champions.”
Guardiola sold Touré to City in 2010, the Ivorian not fitting into his plans for Barcelona. Seluk added: “I don’t know what Guardiola’s plans are but - after what happened at Barcelona - of course it is a worry that, when he comes Yaya will be out. I hope not and Yaya hopes not.” |
Every Time A State Tries To 'Protect The Children' Online, It Makes Things Worse
from the bad-ideas dept
the removal right doesn’t apply if the kids were paid or received “other consideration” for their content. What does “other consideration” mean in this context? If the marketing and distribution inherently provided by a user-generated content (UGC) website is enough, the law will almost never apply. Perhaps we’ll see websites/apps offering nominal compensation to users to bypass the law.
The law only allows minors to remove their content from the site where they posted it; and the removal right doesn’t apply where someone else has copied or reposted the content on that site. Removing the original copy typically accomplishes the minor’s apparent goal only when it’s the only copy online; otherwise, the content will live on and remain discoverable. Given how often publicly available content gets copied elsewhere on the Internet–especially when it’s edgy or controversial–minors’ purported control over the content they post will be illusory in most circumstances.
... odds are that the more embarrassing the post is, the more likely it was shared. The law does not require that these shared posts be hidden, which the law should not. It would be unfair to give websites the impossible task of tracking down and hiding each iteration of a post on their site or on the entire internet. However, it’s unclear if hiding the original post will make much of a difference in cases where teen’s photos are shared and used against them. For example, in New York an Ex-NFL player created a website where he shared photos teens publicly posted on social media of themselves trashing and partying in a home he had up for sale. The teens in this case were able to delete their photos, but only from the original source.
Example 1: A newspaper prepares a collection of stories, written by teens, about their first-hand experiences with cyber-bullying. These stories are combined with other content on the topic: articles by experts on cyberbullying, screenshots of cyberbullying activity online, and photos of victims and perpetrators. After the newspaper publishes the collection, one of the teenagers changes his/her mind and demands that the newspaper never reprint the collection, and seeks a court order blocking republication. Does the newspaper have a potential First Amendment defense to the court order? Yes, and I don’t think the question is even close.
Example 2: a UGC website creates a topical area on cyberbullying and asks its registered users, including teens, to submit their stories, photos, screenshots and videos on the topic. The website “glues” the materials together with several articles written by its employees. Does the website have a First Amendment interest in continuing to publish the entire collection? Yes, and like the newspaper example, I don’t think it’s close.
First, the law protects minors’ “personal information” but doesn’t define the term. Without a definition, the term is meaningless. We know that just about any data can be combined with other data to personally identify individuals.
Second, the law doesn’t define who is an “advertising service.” Surely it covers ad networks like Google AdSense, but do the obligations extend to other players in the online ad industry: ad serving technology providers, ad agencies, buyers of remnant ad inventory, etc.?
Third, the law restricts “specifically directing” an ad to a minor, but I have no idea what that means. The law suggests that “run of site” ads should be OK, but I’m not sure when other targeting efforts trigger the restriction.
Finally, like its online eraser counterpart, the law establishes a potentially illusory distinction between teen-oriented websites and adult websites.
A few weeks ago, California Senate Bill 568 was signed into law, creating a whole host of "protect the children online" provisions -- almost all of which seem short-sighted to ambiguously dangerous. The part that has received the most attention is the "online eraser." While folks like Eric Schmidt have championed the idea of being able to have teenagers erase the past upon becoming an adult, the first attempt to turn that into a law appears to be a massive failure. Law professor Eric Goldman walked through many of the problems with the law -- much of which is focused on the vagueness of the bill:And then there's the reality that this won't actually do much to stop any harassment, since it only lets you erase the initial posting of content, but not further copies:In fact, as the folks at New Media Rights point out, this means that the bill will be particularly useless Goldman, in his piece, also highlights the First Amendment problems:And the law doesn't stop there, either. In another post, Goldman also rips apart a part in the bill that tries to block advertising "bad things" to kids online . It's one of those things that, and which politicians love because it makes it look like they're "protecting the children." But as per usual, the reality is a lot more messy.Furthermore, he notes that the law itself is almost certainly unconstitutional and violates certain federal laws.So why is it always this way? It seems that certain politicians just can't avoid trying to "protect the children online," and yet every single time they try to do so, the end result is a mess: poorly drafted laws that don't actually do anything to protect children -- and which often just create opportunities for lawsuits over perfectly reasonable activities, creating a massive waste. This knee-jerk reaction to try to regulate the internet to "protect the children" is something that really needs to stop.
Filed Under: california, eraser law, protect the children |
21 Inc., a bitcoin startup, has recently announced its first product, the 21 Bitcoin Computer, the first computer with native hardware and software support for the Bitcoin protocol.
The CEO of 21.co, Balaji S. Srinivasan, explained in a Medium post, “With this pocket-sized device, if you are an entrepreneur or developer, you can now instantly buy or sell digital goods and services at the command line using Bitcoin.”
The 21 Bitcoin Computer will enable users to instantly mine Bitcoin from the command line, sell API calls for Bitcoin, like English-to-Chinese translation or file conversion, set up personal iTunes-like digital goods store, reward peers for posting their links on social media, make any IoT hardware Bitcoin-rentable, from smart locks to 3D printers.
With this computer, Srinivasan explained, users can build a service or site in which conceivably every page view can be monetized, reports The Wall Street Journal.
“The utility of bitcoin up until this point has been the speculation value,” Mr. Srinivasan said. “We have a new, pretty strong use case for bitcoin.”
It includes a built-in 21 mining chip and a built-in 21 micropayments server, all accessible from the 21 command line interface. Moreover, everything required by a user to get started has been bundled with it, including a WiFi adapter, RPi 2, power supply, USB-to-laptop cable, and 128GB SD card.
“I’m very excited about it,” said Ben Horowitz, a co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, which led the startup’s funding earlier this year, reports the WSJ. “The thing that’s completely missing that I think would make the Internet better would be machine-to-machine payments. It’s just amazingly hard to do right now.”
The device, priced at $399, has been listed on Amazon for sale. The description says that it was produced with funding from Qualcomm, Cisco, and Andreessen Horowitz. |
Thomas Sowell is that rarest of things among serious academics: plainspoken. This characteristic, a by-product of both his innate temperament and the intellectual courage for which nature does not deserve the credit, surely has been bad for his career. (Intellectual courage tends to impede the career path of an intellectual.) If he were the obfuscating sort, he might have made Harvard don; if he were the cheaply poetical sort, he might have made U.S. president. His plain speaking also makes him dangerous, and that danger is intensified by the fact that Sowell is black. And not just black, but unassailably black: He’s Southern-born, Harlem-raised, brought up poor, and the first of his family to be educated beyond the sixth grade.
If a mad scientist were to repair to his laboratory to design a machine that would make white liberals uncomfortable, that machine would be Thomas Sowell, whose input is data and whose output is socioeconomic criticism in several grades, ranging from bemused observation to thorough debunking to high-test scorn—all of which are represented in The Thomas Sowell Reader (Basic Books, 404 pages).
Now 81 years old, Sowell is known as a libertarian-leaning conservative, which he is, and he has a thriving sideline in debunking racial platitudes. But he is first an economist, which means he is first an observer and reporter of facts, and if those facts take him to uncomfortable places, so be it. No, the prevalence of black men in the NBA doesn’t mean that the NBA is racist, it means that reality is racist. Yes, Barack Obama and congressional Democrats really do practice the same kind of ethnic politics that resulted in the Rwandan genocide and the Sri Lankan civil war, even if they do not practice them to the same extent. Yes, affirmative action is naked racism. No, rent-control laws don’t control rent. No, gun-control laws don’t control guns. No, standardized exams are not culturally biased—but, yes, life is culturally biased.
Because he is black, his opinions about race are controversial. If he were white, they probably would be unpublishable. This is a rare case in which we are all beneficiaries of American racial hypocrisy. That he works in the special bubble of permissiveness extended by the liberal establishment to some conservatives who are black (in exchange for their being regarded as inauthentic, self-loathing, soulless race traitors) must be maddening to Sowell, even more so than it is for other notable black conservatives. It is plain that the core of his identity, his heart of hearts, is not that of a man who is black. It is that of a man who knows a whole lot more about things than you do and is intent on setting you straight, at length if necessary, if you’d only listen. Take a look at those glasses, that awkward grin, those sweater-vests, and consider his deep interest in Albert Einstein and other geniuses: Thomas Sowell is less an African American than a Nerd American.
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One of the great and brilliant things about Thomas Sowell is that he, like most nerds, appears to be simply immune to certain social conventions. This is a critical thing about him—because the social conventions of modern intellectual life demand that certain things go studiously unnoticed, that certain subjects not be breached, or breached only in narrow ways approved by the proper authorities. Sowell does not seem to me to be so much a man who intentionally violates intellectual social conventions as a man who does not notice them, because he cannot be bothered to notice them, because he is in hot pursuit of data about one of the many subjects that fascinate his remarkable brain.
Sowell is a writer with many interests: international development, child development, language, law, restitution, rednecks, Marx, manners, markets, Marines, mascots, the process of growing old, and, because he is an American conservative, baseball. That comes under the heading of “Social Issues” in the Reader, and the essay is “‘Dead Ball’ Versus ‘Lively Ball’.” Baseballologists will be familiar with the debate: Relatively few home runs were hit before 1920, after which the number grew very quickly. Legend has it that the Powers That Be in MLB introduced a so-called lively ball in 1920, hoping to produce a crop of exciting new home-run hitters to distract the public from the recent scandal of the Chicago “Black Sox,” who had fixed the 1919 World Series. “Denials by baseball officials that the ball had been changed have been dismissed out of hand,” Sowell writes, “in view of the dramatic and apparently otherwise inexplicable changes in the number of home runs hit in the 1920s and thereafter.”
Sowell, as is his habit, does not accept the orthodoxy, in baseball or in politics. He goes to the data: How did specific hitters perform before and after the putative introduction of the lively ball? Did Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson start hitting more home runs? What do the statistics say? (It is easy to see why economists and nerds love baseball.)
Sowell’s answer is that in baseball, as in economics, culture matters. In this case, the culture of baseball seems to have been changed by the phenomenon of Babe Ruth, whose home-run-hitting prowess made him a baseball demigod. Batting styles changed. “Gross numbers may suggest a change in the ball,” Sowell writes, “but a finer breakdown of the statistics indicates a change in the batters.”
Baseball is only a game, of course, but Sowell brings the same analytic mind-set—and the same detached aloofness—to the most important questions of adult life, and the most emotional ones. Confronted with a New York Times report claiming that blacks are suffering from racial discrimination in mortgage lending, he begins his detective work with the observation that markets tend to work against racial discrimination rather effectively: “Empirically, it is very hard to find people who are willing to lose hard cash, in order to discriminate. Racists may prefer their own group to others, but they prefer themselves most of all.”
He considers what factors have not been accounted for and immediately identifies the missing variables: savings and credit ratings. “This is not rocket science. This is Economics 101.” But of course our American public orthodoxies are not enforced by an Inquisition but rather a Disinquisition: Thou shalt not notice certain uncomfortable things. Sowell is invaluable for being willing to talk about them, and to ask uncomfortable questions: Are blacks and whites really economically comparable in the economic comparisons we have? What about whites and Asians?
There is a sense of inevitability in Sowell’s investigations. You will not be surprised to find that Asians are approved for loans more often than whites are, and that they are offered expensive subprime loans less often. “Does that mean that whites were being discriminated against?” Sowell asks. “Or are statistics taken seriously only when they back up some preconception that is politically correct?” To ask the question is to answer it—but it is imperative that somebody ask the question, and Sowell is one of the few major intellectuals in American public life who can be counted on to do so.
And what of real, undeniable racial discrimination? Read:
When you are walking down a dark street at night and you see a shadowy figure in an alley up ahead, do you judge him as an individual—or do you cross the street and pass on the opposite side? Judging him as an individual could cost you your life….Recently, a black, middle-class professional wrote of his resentment when he was asked to pay for his meal in advance in an Asian-owned restaurant—especially after he noted that a white couple that came in was not asked to do the same. Was this arbitrary racism or self-protection based on experience in this neighborhood? That was the key question he did not ask—nor do most journalistic or even scholarly studies.
This touches upon one of Sowell’s great themes, what he calls “the vision of the anointed” (the title of one of his books, of which the Reader is the 30th published in a writing career dating back to 1972). The vision of the anointed is a complicated thing. It is part ideology, part prejudice, part ignorance, part psychological projection, and part (perhaps its biggest part) wishful thinking. The vision of the anointed is at its heart a refusal—a knowing, intentional refusal—to deal with reality on reality’s terms, or even to conscientiously encounter realities that are challenge that vision or unpleasant.
But, as Sowell reminds us, reality is not optional; facts must be accounted for. It is not as though he is in possession of secret, arcane knowledge. For instance, these facts are easily documented: Gun-control laws began to be passed during times when crime was declining, rather than climbing. Crime began climbing after gun-control laws were passed. Places with very strict gun-control laws typically have more crime than do places without them—a fact that holds true between countries and between regions of the United States. There is little or no relationship between the rigorousness of gun-control laws and criminals’ access to guns. Many countries have lots of guns but relatively few murders, while others have few guns but relatively many murders. Swimming pools kill many more people in accidents than guns do. You do not have to be a great scholar to look at those facts and ask: What is the point of gun-control laws?
Nor should you have to be a great intellectual contrarian to ask: Why is it that these programs that we are told will help blacks in fact hurt them? And what should be done about that? But there are shockingly few people who can and do ask those questions, and very few who can dissect them with the rigor of Thomas Sowell. His “‘Friends’ of Blacks,” originally published in 2004, is a miniature classic, briefly chronicling the double standards in admissions (and, in some cases, in grading) that have undermined blacks’ education in the name of helping them.
He points to the case of Dr. Patrick Chavis, a celebrated case study of affirmative action, and notes: “[Chavis was] publicly praised by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights—just two weeks before his license was suspended, after his patients died under conditions that brought the matter to the attention of the Medical Board of California. An administrative law judge referred to Chavis’s ‘inability to perform some of the most basic duties required of a physician.’ A year later, after a fuller investigation, his license was revoked.” Some years before, Sowell reports, a Harvard Medical School professor was denounced as racist for declaring that affirmative action for medical students was endangering patients. He was proved right. But that fact is inconsistent with the vision of the anointed, which holds that to even ask the question of whether black doctors are on average today less qualified than white doctors as a result of preferential treatment is to abandon the fundamentals of civilization. It is a thought that cannot be thought.
_____________
In large measure because of a path Sowell charted, the term black conservative is practically an occupational category today. It is one of the great ironies of our time that Sowell is especially poorly served by such pigeonholing. Consider his fascinating disquisition on the geography and natural environment of Africa, in which he argues that such factors as the lack of navigable interior waterways, the steepness of its rivers, the lack of pack animals due to insect-born disease, the lack of natural ports and harbors on the continent’s smooth coastline, other interior barriers to travel, the resulting isolation of group from group, and linguistic fragmentation (Africa, he points out, has 10 percent of the world’s people and a third of its languages) explain much of the continent’s socioeconomic backwardness. Such brilliant observational analysis does not fit neatly into orthodox conservative or orthodox liberal explanations of development. It is fact-intensive and based upon observable, empirical realities—which is to say, it is Sowellian.
Africa has its physical barriers, but the relevant geography in the West is mostly psychological and social. There are many cultural divides in these United States. Some of them are racial (as Sowell explored in his 2005 book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals), some are economic, some are religious. Some of the most important cultural fault lines run not through neighborhoods or income brackets but through time: Sowell often seems like an envoy from another age, which in a sense he is, given his advanced years and the circumstances of his upbringing. He is a remnant from an age when it was common to know people who had grown up in homes that did not have indoor plumbing. This contributes a certain groundedness to his criticism. When detailing the many material goods enjoyed today by people living in what we call poverty, he reports: “People today eat in restaurants more times in a month than they used to in a year—or, in some cases, a decade. As a young man, I was uneasy when I began eating in restaurants, because I had so seldom eaten in one while growing up. As for having a car, the thought never crossed my mind.”
Sowell very strongly rejects the notion that the details of his biography should add or detract from the persuasiveness of his arguments, and he is right to think so. But he does have a great deal of experience to draw on, and much of it speaks to the actual experience of the poor and the marginalized. While he never slips into cheap sentimentalism of the “Heck, we’uns didn’t know we was poor!” variety, his firsthand observations are invaluable—because he refuses to romanticize his experiences, even easily romanticized experiences such as military duty. You do not get the feeling that Thomas Sowell was much of a Marine; in fact, he plainly still resents having been drafted.
Even his gratitude is unsentimental. Consider his account of the happy coincidences that contributed to his success and how they have shaped his views:
I happened to come along right after the worst of the old discrimination was no longer there to impede me and just before racial quotas made the achievements of blacks look suspect. That kind of luck cannot be planned. Crucial pieces of good fortune like these would have made it ridiculous for me to have offered other blacks the kind of advice which the media so often accused me of offering—to follow in my footsteps and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The addiction of the intelligentsia to catchwords like “bootstraps” has made it all but impossible to have even a rational discussion of many issues. As for following in my footsteps, many of the paths I took had since been destroyed by misguided social policy, so that the same quality of education was no longer available to most ghetto youngsters, though there was never a time in history when education was more important.
He continues:
I am not Dear Abby…. Nevertheless, clever media interviewers insisted on asking me questions such as: “But what do you say to the welfare mother or to the ghetto youth?” I cannot imagine what would have led anybody to think that I was writing handbooks for welfare mothers or ghetto youths, or that either would be reading them, if I were.
That is the inimitable Thomas Sowell. His prose style, like his thinking, is economical and lucid, if not always precise. (He is not always especially conscientious about distinguishing correlation from causality.) At his bracing best—and in my view he is at his best in the long form, rather than in his newspaper columns—Sowell is dry, amused and amusing, and a rich source of useful knowledge. In his grumpier moments, his tone makes it easy to imagine him shouting at Paul Krugman to get off his lawn, damn it. But The Thomas Sowell Reader is full of his best, and its publication, like the great nerd himself, is a cause for celebration. |
There are a lot of recipes on the internet for how to make Mod Podge – here are all of the good reasons NOT to do it yourself.
I get a lot of questions about how to make Mod Podge, and I've seen a lot of it on Pinterest recently, so I wanted to address with a blog post. Interestingly enough, I have been asked these questions for years.
I should start by saying this is not a paid endorsement – no person or company asked me to post this, or even knows I'm doing it. I don't make money off the sale of Mod Podge. And while my blog might be all about Mod Podge, I get visitors using all types of decoupage mediums.
I just don't want you to be disappointed.
The truth is, I've gotten MANY e-mails from people (with pictures) who tried to make Mod Podge. These emails ask me why their photo/furniture/gift project is yellowing/flaking/peeling and what they can do.
With further prompting, I find out that they made a glue concoction on their own by adding water to flour, or something along those lines.
Mod Podge is a step above craft glue in terms of the sealing properties. Mod Podge is glue, but it's also a sealer – and there are varnishes, etc. in the formula that don't exist in craft glues. The bonding properties of Mod Podge are way stronger than that of (most) craft or school glues.
Long story short, the ingredients in Mod Podge are not the same as craft glue, and in 99% of cases are superior. That is why Mod Podge costs more than craft glue.
And that is why it lasts longer and is more durable on projects.
A lot of the homemade recipes take craft glue and dilute it with water, which is just about the worst thing you can do to make a decoupage medium of any sort. You're taking a glue that is inferior to decoupage medium and made it even thinner by adding water.
This is why I receive pictures all the time of ruined furniture or home decor items that didn't last more than a few years before the paper started peeling off or yellowing BADLY. In the short term, the projects might seem okay, but over the years, the projects go down the toilet. And then I get very sad e-mails.
Decoupage medium is more expensive than glue, but you'll notice on the glue aisle of any craft store that there is a wide range of pricing depending on what the specific glue does. The more specialty the application, the more it's going to cost.
Mod Podge might be more expensive than glue and water, but the 8 oz. bottle lasts a long time, and you can always use a 40% coupon (do an online search to find them). Of course I think it's worth it – but I also have the proof: jewelry, home decor items and furniture that have been around for years and still look as great as the day they were made.
I hope this helps. And I hope that if you want the project to last, you won't take the risk and make Mod Podge – that you'll use the real thing!
If you're a newbie or can't figure out how to get rid of wrinkles, check out my learn-how article and videos. You can also learn about the eight original Mod Podge formulas in the video below, and ALL the decoupage formulas in my formula guide. |
UK embassy in Beijing providing consular support to Britons after hundreds of partygoers were detained in Chinese city of Shenzhen
British officials are offering consular support to a group of British citizens detained during a police raid on a rave in Shenzhen, south-eastern China.
Riot police reportedly descended on the party, which was being held in a tunnel on the outskirts of the city in Guangdong province in the early hours of Sunday morning. Witnesses said at least 300 revellers – understood to include British, American and Chinese citizens – were ordered on to buses and taken away for drug testing.
China's hip-hop stars feel the heat of Xi Jinping's battle to control culture Read more
China’s official news agency, Xinhua, meanwhile said 491 people were under investigation. Of those, it said 118 tested positive for drugs. Ninety-three, including about 50 foreigners, are still thought to be in custody. The Guardian understands at least six are British.
An American witness told the Shenzhen Daily newspaper there were scenes of chaos and panic as Chinese security officers wearing riot gear surrounded the party in the city’s Nanshan district.
“It was like a stampede. My friend almost got run over. If it was more people, someone could have definitely got hurt,” the witness said. Suspects were forced to lie down by police and were treated like “prisoner[s] of war”, he added.
A spokesperson for the British embassy in Beijing said: “We are currently providing consular support to a group of British nationals detained in Shenzhen over the weekend.”
The event’s flier had promised “free entrance, cheap drinks, friendly vibes”. And online leaflets for previous raves suggest rave have been throwing all-night parties at the Shenzhen tunnel since at least 2012. One flier from that year features an image of a smiley face and the invitation: “Cheap drinks and everything else is available throughout the party.”
Flyer for Shenzhen party. Photograph: The Real Deal
Drugs such as MDMA and ketamine, which is produced on an industrial scale in some corners of Guangdong province, are popular on the city’s party scene.
The Shenzhen Daily reported that the tunnel where Sunday’s raid took place has become a regular location for raves, with famous DJs from Hong Kong, Australia, South Africa and Europe often playing there.
The American witness said the raid appeared aimed at ending those festivities once and for all. “I feel like this is a way to send a signal to the expat community,” he said.
Speaking on the eve of the raid, Deng Guangsheng, Shenzhen’s top anti-drugs officer, told the Shenzhen Evening News that his city had become an important drug distribution centre because of its proximity to Hong Kong and Macau.
Meanwhile, rave aficionados in southern China mourned the death of the region’s nightlife on Reddit. “Drugs aside, I have seen the SZ [Shenzhen] nightlife I liked disappear and being replaced with the SZ nightlife that I hate over the past 5 years,” wrote one. “Today it seems to be ‘look at me’ in most places, no one dancing around, most people forgot how to have fun and only care about showing off.”
The Foreign Office’s travel advice for China states: “The Chinese authorities undertake random drug testing on foreign nationals including on entry to the country. If a foreign national tests positive, the Chinese authorities can prosecute regardless of where or when the drugs had been consumed. There are extremely severe penalties for drugs offences, including the death penalty.”
Additional reporting by Christy Yao |
Coming some four hundred years before the man who taught his followers to drink a cup in order to live, Socrates drank a cup in order to die.
But before he received this anti-Eucharist, the infused hemlock, Socrates publicly ruminated on the nature of death to his fellow Athenians.
Plato, Socrates’ most famous pupil, captured these speeches in his work The Apology, which in this case means legal and philosophical defense rather than a petition for forgiveness.
In the Apology, Plato records Socrates defending himself against the charges of impiety and corruption, which stemmed from Socrates allegedly encouraging the Athenian youth “not to acknowledge the gods which the state acknowledges, but some other new divinities.”
In the course of his apologia, Socrates offers two arguments about death. But before we can get to those we need to reacquaint ourselves with Socrates’ self-conception, which is the key to understanding his philosophy.
The Wisest Of Them All
When the Oracle of Delphi proclaimed him the wisest man of all, Socrates did not take this to suggest he had greater expertise or more advanced knowledge than the others. Quite the opposite — he was proclaimed the wisest because, unlike the so-called experts, Socrates knew that he didn’t know.
Athens, pretty much like all societies before it and all societies since, boasted its own set of experts in every conceivable field — morality, politics, religion, beauty, etc. Yet Socrates understood something about these experts. He noticed that when pressed, although they would be able to rattle off an example or two about their subject of expertise (“What is beauty, you ask? Well, the Parthenon.”), they would find themselves utterly unable to articulate the essence of the subject itself.
In other words, Socrates found that when their expertise came under scrutiny, it was clear they didn’t really know what they claimed to know. Socrates, on the other hand, claimed not to know, and in that very way knew more than they!
In fact, Plato’s dialogues, which feature Socrates as the voice of reason, are structurally arranged to draw out this discrepancy. In order to do so, they typically follow this pattern:
1. Socrates meets with a so-called expert.
2. Socrates questions the so-called expert.
3. The so-called expert finds himself unable to respond to Socrates in a philosophically adequate manner.
4. The so-called expert is shown to not actually know what he is claimed to know.
Though the Apology’s structure is importantly different than the majority of the other Platonic dialogues, in one sense it’s the same: the central conflict is between Socrates and a pretender to knowledge. His main accuser is Meletus, whom Socrates addresses, and embarrasses, early on.
Socrates’ First Argument Concerning Death
In the course of refuting the charges brought against him, Socrates offers the first of his two arguments regarding death.
1. Death should be feared if and only if it is known to be bad.
2. Neither he nor anyone else knows that death is bad.
3. Death shouldn’t be feared.
Socrates calls fear of death “the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown,” adding that “no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehends to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”
What are we to make of this argument?
It seems Socrates has a general principle in mind that is undergirding his first premise. Something like this: You should only fear that which you know is bad.
The idea is not that a person should fear everything he or she knows to be bad. Fear is just not a relevant emotion when it comes to certain experiences we would construe as bad ones. Having a headache is bad but not an occasion for fear.
The idea, rather, is that it is only legitimate to fear something when one has knowledge that it is bad. Since we don’t know that death is bad, we shouldn’t fear it. Fear should be reserved only for that class of experiences one is sure are bad ones.
Recall that for Socrates it is very important to not claim we know, or act as if we know, when we don’t really know.
This provokes us to ask a highly important question: What does it mean to know something? What separates knowledge from mere belief? Within Plato’s own writing we get the formula that has been dominant within philosophy for ages: knowledge is justified, true belief.
In other words, an item of knowledge is a belief that is true and that you are justified in having.
But notice that death is unlike other experiences in that it strips you of the very life you need to go on and evaluate it further. Miracles aside, there’s no coming back from it.
So using Plato’s own recipe for what constitutes knowledge, it seems we lack justification for being sure that death is either good or bad. When it comes to other experiences, the justification tends to come from someone — ourselves or others — undergoing the experience and then informing others about it. The reason that books such as Heaven Is For Real don’t satisfy the justification requirement is that they are not seen as trustworthy accounts.
This requirement is an important one. Consider two scenarios involving you at a game show. In both scenarios, you have to choose which door the treasure is behind: the first, second, or third door. In both scenarios, you choose door number two. In the first scenario, you choose that door because two is your lucky number. In the second scenario, you choose that door because your friend, who has always been trustworthy, works for the show and gives you insider information so that you’ll split the money with him later. The treasure is indeed behind door number two. Here’s the thing: in the first scenario, we wouldn’t call your belief that it’s behind door number two an instance of knowledge; but in the second scenario, we would.
What’s the difference? Justification.
So let’s give Socrates premise 2 — the real problematic principle is the one we said is bolstering premise 1: You should only fear that which you know is bad.
This principle seems obviously wrong.
Imagine you go on a roller coaster only to find out moments into its launch that the ride has killed 20 people in the past year — does Socrates think we have no grounds for fear in such a circumstance? Were folks wrong to fear a nuclear apocalypse during the height of the Cold War? We can think of innumerable scenarios that we don’t, strictly speaking, know are bad, yet we see fear as a perfectly legitimate response to them — and not just legitimate, but potentially helpful, too.
Socrates’ Second Argument Concerning Death
What about Socrates’ second argument?
Two things have happened since Socrates gave his first argument. He has been found guilty, and he has been sentenced to death.
Here’s his second argument:
1. Death is either like peaceful sleep, which is a good thing.
2. Or it involves joining a permanent community of heroes and philosophers, which is also a good thing.
3. Whichever of these it is, death is good.
It is interesting to note Socrates’ optimistic turn. In the first argument, our lack of knowledge about what happens after death was given as a check on our emotions; in this argument, Socrates explicitly finds room for a different sort of emotion: hope. He actually says “there is great reason to hope” that the conclusion, above, is true.
Earlier, reason did not supply us with grounds for fear; but now, reason apparently can supply us with grounds for hope.
Is Socrates simply engaged in wishful thinking here?
It appears so. How else should we interpret his decision to narrow the range of possibilities to just these two? Consider the inversion of premise 2: What if death involves joining a permanent community of cowards and simpletons? Why didn’t Socrates consider this as a possibility? This would certainly be a bad thing for him, one would think.
Or maybe not. Here’s Socrates just moments after producing his second argument concerning death: “no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death.”
Is it possible that Socrates is of the belief that even if our inverted version of premise 2 were to occur, he would still consider it a good? He might come to see it as an opportunity to teach the simpletons how to reason and the cowards how to become brave — he is, after all, a teacher.
Still, it’s hard to believe we wouldn’t be able to conceive of a scenario which even Socrates would view as bad. Imagine a neverending, Dante-inspired torture chamber. Good luck trying to find the silver lining in that scenario.
Even if we see Socrates as engaged in a bit of motivated reasoning — theorizing that death is either like dreamless sleep or like endlessly interesting conversations, both of which would be good things — there may be another issue with his reasoning.
Upon closer inspection, premise 1 appears to be highly problematic.
In the Apology, he writes that if death is “a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness,” then death is like “the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams.” That’s fine. So far, so good.
But then he says this would make death “an unspeakable gain.” How is he able to construe eternal sleep as good? He reasons that if you were to ask a person to evaluate which nights have been the most restful, that person would point to those undisturbed, peaceful, dreamless instances of sleep.
Here’s the critical problem with this reasoning: the very element that makes an instance of peaceful sleep a good thing is the resulting experience of feeling refreshed, feeling well-rested, feeling reenergized. Apart from this, there is nothing about peaceful sleep that one can legitimately characterize as good, unless you think unconsciousness or lack of existence is good, which Socrates did not, and Plato certainly did not.
So, even granting Socrates’ naive narrowing of death to those two possibilities, the first of those should not be characterized as good since it is missing the very feature that would generate its goodness.
In a way, these arguments work in the exact opposite way than they were intended. That Socrates produced two of his worst arguments while facing the prospect of death should not be lost on us.
The first argument concludes that we shouldn’t fear death — yet if the possibility of death could get Socrates to reason this poorly, maybe we should fear it greatly! The second argument concludes that death is a good thing — yet if his own imminent death could get Socrates to rule out equiprobable, though far less desirable, possibilities, maybe we should rage, after all, against the dying of the light! |
Senate Democratic leaders say House Republicans should dissolve the special panel investigating the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack given House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthySteve King says he will run again in 2020: 'I have nothing to apologize for' Steve King spins GOP punishment into political weapon Steve King asks for Congressional Record correction over white supremacist quote MORE's comments that the committee is a political weapon against Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE.
"It is unconscionable that the U.S. House of Representatives is continuing to use millions of dollars in taxpayer funds for political purposes, and we urge you to immediately disband the Select Committee on Benghazi," Minority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidBottom Line Brennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE (D-Nev.) and Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin Richard (Dick) Joseph DurbinKids confront Feinstein over Green New Deal Senate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Overnight Energy: Trump ends talks with California on car emissions | Dems face tough vote on Green New Deal | Climate PAC backing Inslee in possible 2020 run MORE (Ill.), Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (N.Y.), Patty Murray Patricia (Patty) Lynn MurrayThis week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Johnson & Johnson subpoenaed by DOJ and SEC, company says MORE (Wash.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) said in a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).
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Boehner announced his resignation last week, and McCarthy (R-Calif.) is running to replace him.
The majority leader created a political storm on Wednesday when he touted the Benghazi panel as a top political accomplishment of the House GOP.
"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable," he told Fox News earlier this week.
Democrats pounced on the McCarthy comments, which they said proved that the panel wasn't meant to get to the truth behind the Benghazi attack and its aftermath, but was simply meant to hurt Clinton, the secretary of State at the time of the attack and now the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Some Republicans have also blasted McCarthy, who was seen as undercutting the party's message.
Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) repudiated McCarthy's comments in a CNN interview on Wednesday, and said McCarthy should apologize.
McCarthy's office later released a statement saying the Benghazi panel had nothing to do with politics.
"These inquiries have nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the consequences of what the former secretary has done and her confusing, conflicting and demonstrably false responses," McCarthy spokesman Matt Sparks stated.
In their letter to Boehner, the five Senate Democrats said McCarthy's comments underscore that the committee is meant to politically injure Clinton rather than conduct "a serious investigation into a terrorist attack that killed four Americans. We should not disrespect their sacrifice by further politicizing this tragedy." |
Lee is not being arrogant. He’s making an objective evaluation based on AlphaGo’s play against Fan Hui, which he had seen. And Fan Hui and Lee Sedol are not exactly comparable in strength. In the Go world, Lee is Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Roger Federer. He is one of those rare virtuosos who defines his era, who sets the pace for the rest of the world. He is orders of magnitude more talented than Fan Hui, who is no slouch. And Fan Hui has actually beaten AlphaGo outside of the formal five-game match DeepMind publicized. With much stricter time settings, he won two out of five matches, giving AlphaGo a much harder time.
Other Korean professionals joke that they’re envious of Lee, that they feel the DeepMind Challenge Match is the easiest million dollars a top-level player could ever make.
* * *
Minutes into Game 1, all expectations change. It’s immediately clear that Lee Sedol is not playing the same AlphaGo that Fan Hui did back in London. That version of AlphaGo played steadily but also passively, peacefully. The AlphaGo playing in Seoul is happy to engage in aggressive fighting with Lee. Lee has played an unconventional opening, trying to throw AlphaGo off, but it is not working.
AlphaGo has had nearly five months to improve—and it is always improving, playing itself millions of times, incrementally revising its algorithms based on which sequences of play result in a higher win percentage. As you are reading this, AlphaGo is improving. It does not take breaks. It does not have days when it just doesn’t feel like practicing, days when it can’t kick its electronic brain into focus. Day in and day out, AlphaGo has been rocketing towards superiority, and the results are staggering.
Lee goes on to lose Game 1, resigning after 186 moves. The turning point in the mental game seems to have come at White’s move 102. It’s a sharp, unexpected invasion, an aggressive move that invites complicating fighting positions. It is, in truth, exactly the kind of move Lee is known for. In this moment, a full range of reactions washes over Lee: shock, surprise, acceptance, and finally grim resolution. His jaw drops, and after several seconds, he sits back in his chair and smiles, perhaps amused but certainly taken aback. Then his expression grows serious, and his hand rubs the back of his neck, a tic he exhibits when he’s thinking hard or feeling nervous.
The moment he throws in the towel, he begins revising moves, pushing stones around the board to play out alternate variations, experimenting with the roads untraveled. We can see him work through it, trying to pinpoint exactly how he has lost.
He has taken the machine’s measure. Going into Game 2, he understands the magnitude of what he’s up against. The following evening will be the real first test. But in the press conference following Game 1, he downgrades his perceived chances of winning to 50 percent. |
20th Armoured Division "Macedonia"
20ή Τεθωρακισμένη Μεραρχία «ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ» Formation flag of the 20th Armoured Division Active 1956–today Country Greece Branch Hellenic Army Type Armour Size 3 Brigades Part of IV Army Corps Garrison/HQ Kavala, Macedonia Motto(s) In The Shade
ΥΠΟ ΣΚΙΗ
Ypo Skii
The 20th Armoured Division "Macedonia" (Greek: XX Τεθωρακισμένη Μεραρχία «ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΙΑ», abbrev. XX ΤΘΜ) is the only armoured division of the Hellenic Army. It is headquartered in Kavala, Macedonia.
History [ edit ]
The Hellenic Army's first attempt to form an armoured/mechanized division was the 19th Mechanized Division in early 1941, which was destroyed during the German invasion of Greece. These efforts were resumed after Liberation, with mechanized units being established in 1945 and fighting in the Greek Civil War of 1946–49. The same period saw also the arrival of the first true tanks in Greece, the British Centaur tanks, which only began to be employed in 1947. From 1950 on, the Hellenic Army began receiving M24 Chaffee tanks and M18 Hellcat tank destroyers.
In 1954, 9th Infantry Division was converted into an armoured division, comprising two Battle Commands (Διοικήσεις Μάχης, ΔΜΑ). Due to the severe lack of tanks and other armoured vehicles, the division was armoured in name only. In 1956 the 9th Armoured Division was converted into the 20th Armoured Division, which was gradually formed over the next four years. With the arrival of the first M47 Patton tanks in 1957, the first Medium Tank Battalions (Επιλαρχίες Μέσων Αρμάτων, ΕΜΑ) of 55 tanks each, were formed.
From 1964, the division began receiving the first M48 Patton tanks and M113 armoured personnel carriers, which began replacing older material. By 1971, sufficient numbers of M48 tanks had arrived so that three new Medium Tank Battalions, 24th, 25th, and 26th, could be established so that each Battle Command comprised two Medium Tank Battalions. In 1977–79, the Battle Commands were formed into independent Armoured Brigades, with 3rd Battle Command forming the 23rd Armoured Brigade, 1st Battle Command forming the 24th Armoured Brigade, and 2nd Battle Command forming the 25th Armoured Brigade. 20th Division remained as an operational headquarters coordinating the latter two brigades. In 1985, 25th Armoured Brigade passed directly under IV Army Corps, and was replaced by 22nd Armoured Brigade.
Structure (2016) [ edit ]
Structure of the 20th Armoured Division
Division HQ Company (ΙΣ/ΧΧ ΤΘΜ)
20th Signal Company (20ο ΛΔΒ)
955th Military Police Company (ΛΣΤ)
Division Artillery Command (ΔΠΒ/ΧΧ ΤΘΜ)
21st Armoured Brigade , based at Komotini, Thrace HQ Company (ΙΣ/ΧΧΙ ΤΘΤ) 211 Medium Tank Battalion (211η ΕΜΑ) 212 Medium Tank Battalion (212η ΕΜΑ) 646th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (646ο M/K ΤΠ) 140th Self Propelled Artillery Battalion (140η Μ Α/K ΠΒ) 21st Engineer Company (21 ΛΜΧ) 21st Signal Company (21 ΛΔΒ) 21st Support Battalion (21 ΤΥΠ)
, based at Komotini, Thrace 23rd Armoured Brigade , based at Alexandroupoli, Thrace HQ Company (ΙΣ/ΧΧΙΙΙ ΤΘΤ) 21st Medium Tank Battalion (21η ΕΜΑ) 24th Medium Tank Battalion (24η ΕΜΑ) 644th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (644ο M/K ΤΠ) 138th Self Propelled Artillery Battalion (138η Μ Α/K ΠΒ) 23rd Engineer Company (23ος ΛΜΧ) 23rd Signal Company (23ος ΛΔΒ) 23rd Support Battalion (23ο ΤΥΠ)
, based at Alexandroupoli, Thrace 25th Armoured Brigade , based at Xanthi, Thrace HQ Company (ΙΣ/XXV ΤΘΤ) 22nd Medium Tank Battalion (22η ΕΜΑ) 25th Medium Tank Battalion (25η ΕΜΑ) 645th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (645ο M/K ΤΠ) 139th Self Propelled Artillery Battalion (139η Μ Α/K ΠΒ) 25th Engineer Company (25ος ΛΜΧ) 25th Signal Company (25ος ΛΔΒ) 25th Support Battalion (25ο ΤΥΠ)
, based at Xanthi, Thrace
Emblem and motto [ edit ]
The emblem depicts a Centaur ready to fire an arrow. The body of the horse symbolizes strength and aggressiveness of armor/cavalry, and the human body symbolizes the soldier who controls the vehicle and directs the weapon.
The motto of the 20th Armored Division is "In The Shade" (Greek: Υπό σκιή, Ypo Skii). The phrase is attributed to the Spartan soldier Dienekes, who on the eve of the Battle of Thermopylae, was told by a native of Trachis that the Persian archers were so numerous that their arrows would block out the sun. Dienekes replied with a laugh, "Good. Then we will fight in the shade."
References [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ] |
Washington (CNN) The Republican-led Congress returns to work this week, and once again, the Russia investigation will overshadow the ambitious legislative agenda that includes major overhauls of the health care system and tax code.
Former FBI Director James Comey is slated to testify publicly Thursday and is expected to discuss President Donald Trump's request that he end his probe of a top aide's ties to Russia
Against the backdrop of the highly anticipated hearing, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will tackle a critical summer list of high-priority issues and bills that GOP leaders are anxious to complete -- or at least make significant progress on -- before the long August recess.
But with only seven work weeks left, getting must-pass items to President Donald Trump's desk could be daunting, especially since it is the sharp divide among Republicans that largely stands in the way of progress. Democrats are in no mood to cooperate -- sensing their own political fortunes potentially on the rise with the continued controversy over the President and his team.
Here are the top five items to look for from Capitol Hill in the weeks ahead:
Comey speaks
All eyes will be on Comey Thursday when he testifies before the Senate intelligence committee about his conversations with the President, who allegedly urged Comey to drop the bureau's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn and his interactions with top Russians during the 2016 campaign. Some legal experts argue Trump's possible directive might be proof of obstruction of justice, a potentially impeachable offense.
It's still unclear whether the White House will attempt to assert executive privilege as a way to block Comey's testimony.
Meantime, House and Senate intelligence committees issued a slew of subpoenas last week, a sign their investigations are hitting their stride.
JUST WATCHED Booker on GOP health strategy: 'this is craven' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Booker on GOP health strategy: 'this is craven' 01:59
GOP still not on same page on health care
After a divisive debate in the House that pitted moderates against conservatives inside the Republican conference, the Senate GOP is essentially starting over and creating its own bill. A Senate working group continues to limp forward on complex negotiations over an Obamacare repeal and replacement plan that can marry the competing demands of conservative and moderate Republicans and get the 51 votes it needs to pass.
McConnell acknowledges he doesn't know which policies will bring the sides together, but aides were ordered to begin drafting language over the recess to help drive talks. Senators on the right flank want to shrink Medicaid to save money and abandon Obamacare's strict insurance regulations to help provide greater choice and lower premiums for consumers.
But centrists want to hold onto important Obamacare requirements for covering people with pre-existing conditions and the expansion of Medicaid that is now providing coverage for millions of Americans.
In a setback for Republicans, veteran Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, said in an interview Friday "it's unlikely we will get a deal" and that he does not see "see a comprehensive health care plan this year" coming out of the Senate.
JUST WATCHED Fact checking Trump's balanced budget plan Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Fact checking Trump's balanced budget plan 03:01
Budget and tax reform
Republicans on Capitol Hill largely ignored the budget request sent last month from the Trump administration. The party is split on some of the proposed changes to Medicaid and the spending cuts to some federal programs such as cancer research, environmental protections and how much more money the military should receive to address national security threats.
Both House and Senate budget committees have been working on their own fiscal blueprint. Without any help from Democrats, it will be a heavy lift to get enough Republicans on the same page to get a budget passed.
There are competing forces inside the party with goals that are conflicting, including those that want to reduce overall spending but boost spending for the US military.
Others want to balance the budget on a faster timetable than their leaders, slashing some federal agencies with deep cuts that are unpopular in swing states and districts where some in the GOP worry about the impact on the 2018 midterm elections.
The budget is a political wish list document that doesn't need to be enacted into law. But this year's budget is a critical component of the GOP's legislative strategy. They are replying on using a tool known as "reconciliation" that allows leaders to push through a tax reform bill through the Senate with a simple majority of votes, avoiding a Democratic filibuster. They employed the same approach for the health care bill that the House passed in May.
Despite deep divisions over how to pay for a major tax bill or which tax cuts would be retained and which would be phased out, Ryan insisted last week that Congress was on track to get a bill to the President's desk "by the end of the calendar year 2017." Trump also said on Thursday that his tax proposal is "moving along in Congress" but there is no actual legislation.
JUST WATCHED Graham: Trump budget 'destroying soft power' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Graham: Trump budget 'destroying soft power' 01:09
Ryan's continued push for a border adjustment tax as the main revenue source to offset the tax bill faces stiff resistance from many on the right in his party. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has been critical of the proposal. Without an alternative proposal to offset the significant costs of a new tax bill lowering rates, the GOP plan could be pared down. Some are already suggesting that the GOP should focus on a package of popular tax cuts instead of a major reworking of the tax code.
In addition to paving the way for tax reform, Hill Republicans use the budget's top line numbers to set spending levels for the dozen spending bills they will need to pass before the end of September to avoid a government shutdown.
Scramble to hatch plan to raise debt ceiling
Mnuchin recently told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the administration wanted Congress to increase the nation's borrowing authority this summer before it heads out on the five-week late summer recess. That timetable surprised GOP leaders who thought they wouldn't need to address the thorny issue until the fall.
"We need to make sure we raise our debt ceiling to pay our debts," Mnuchin said.
He also urged members to back raising the debt ceiling without any conditions attached. But conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus have already called for any increase in the borrowing limit to be paired with "policy that addresses Washington's unsustainable spending by cutting where necessary, capping where able, and working to balance in the near future."
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former member of the Freedom Caucus, told The New York Times on Friday that he wanted to add some spending reforms, but also admitted, "we've not settled on a final policy within the administration."
Other key promises and finding a new FBI chief
Lawmakers are also slated to take up several issues waiting for congressional action such as new sanctions against Iran and Russia and a promise to repeal Obama-era financial regulations.
The political fallout of Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate change accord -- which incensed Democrats but pleased most Republicans -- will also be a focus.
The Senate will also need to take action once the President names a new FBI director, which Trump promised to do quickly but that is now in limbo. Once a nominee is named, the confirmation process could take several weeks as Democrats, in particular, work to ensure the new director will be truly independent of Trump. |
Revealed: Internet troll behind 'Creepshot' forum where users post sexual pictures of unsuspecting girls unmasked as cat-loving grandfather from Texas
Reddit message board 'CreepShots' came under fire for photos of women taken without their permission; around 40 per cent were underage
User who moderated board now identified as Michael Brutsch, 49
Branded 'the biggest troll on the web' for offensive posts
Revealed as computer programmer and married military father
Brutsch: 'I stand by exactly what I've done'
Found: Michael Brutsch, 49, has been unmasked as the Reddit's biggest, most controversial troll
The internet troll behind a disgusting online message board where users post sexual photographs of unsuspecting teenage girls has been revealed as a cat-loving grandfather from Texas.
Michael Brutsch, who uses the Reddit name 'Violentacrez', was the main moderator for the social network's 'Creepshot' forum which sparked outrage last month for encouraging the vile pictures.
Now, after years posting offensive messages across the internet and earning the moniker of the 'biggest troll on the web', Brutsch has been found working as a computer programmer for a financial services company in Arlington, Texas by Gawker .
The 49-year-old lives with his wife, who suffers from diabetes and is also an avid Reddit user, a son, two dogs and seven cats. Brutsch, who has a granddaughter, also has a son in the Marines, according to social networking sites.
'My wife is disabled,' he pleaded with the reporter. 'I got a home and a mortgage, and if this hits the fan, I believe this will affect negatively on my employment.
'I do my job, go home watch TV, and go on the internet. I just like riling people up in my spare time.'
But, even though he has become a massive internet troll after setting up a number of sickening Reddit forums, including 'Rapebait', 'incest' and 'misogyny', he refused to apologise.
'I would stand by exactly what I've done,' he added.
Unmasked: At odds with his controversial life online, Brutsch is a married computer programmer for a financial services firm who lives with his wife, Tori, and their pets in Arlington, Texas
As Gawker reveals, Violentacrez has long been one of the driving forces of Reddit, a website where users submit content and vote for or against it to determine its position on the front page.
On the website, he was also behind the sickening trend 'Jailbait', where users submitted sexualised images of scantily-clad underage girls. The users deleted photos of girls older than 16.
It generated millions of page views each month but, unsurprisingly, also sparked outrage and was eventually pulled after Anderson Cooper lambasted Reddit for hosting it.
Brutsch has long argued that he is not a pedophile and would remove any child porn that was posted, and was merely maintaining free speech on the website.
He told Gawker that, while at home with his wife, the two would lie in bed together with their laptops, both on Reddit, him posting porn as she posted cute animal videos.
Reddit has not only condoned his vile posts but encouraged and facilitated them, aware that their controversial spin will drive more traffic to the website, which launched in 2006.
Sick trend: One Reddit forum set up by Brutsch is 'Creepshot' where users upload sexualised images of unsuspecting young girls. Here, a shot of a schoolgirl reportedly taken at a school
He was close with the employees, he told Gawker, and was even given a 'pimp hat' as a thank you for his contributions to the site, which now receives more than three billion hits a month. REDDIT: THE SITE OF CONTROVERSY Reddit has been an established and popular name on the Internet over the last five years. It is a social news website where users submit content and vote for or against it to determine its position on the front page. Users can discuss any subject, and the site is regularly used by celebrities for interviews, including Barack Obama, who recently took part in an 'ask me anything' debate. It is celebrated for its wide-range of topics, diverse users and freedom of speech which, as in the case of Brutsch, can make way for controversial topics. Some of the 'subreddits' he has been linked with include ' Rapebait', 'incest' and 'misogyny', on which users would post pictures and discuss them in detail.
In 2011, he was behind 'jailbait', a group for sexually suggestive pictures of underage girls taken from pages like Facebook. Images of girls who looked over 16 were removed from the subreddit. After it was blasted on Anderson Cooper 360, the group was banned. Since 2006, Reddit has been owned by Condé Nast publishers, which also owns GQ, the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Before Jailbait was to be closed, the general manager, Erik Martin, contacted him directly to warn him, Brutsch claimed. 'Want to give you a heads up,' Martin wrote. 'We're making a policy change regarding jailbait type content. Don't really have a choice.' This blasé - and often encouraging - attitude towards trolling and offensive, invasive images raise questions over Reddit's social and moral responsibilities. They even used Brutsch as a volunteer moderator, trusting this man with extremely questionable tastes over what would be appropriate to appear across the website. The revelation of his identity comes weeks after campaigners fought to close his 'Creepshots' forum.
It features images of ordinary women on the street, in the gym or even at school who are caught unawares by stealthy 'creeps' with cameras. Most shots focus on the buttocks or breasts of non-consenting women going about their daily lives - and users admit that 'at least 40 percent' of the images are of underage girls. In one alarming thread, a prolific poster appears to be a teacher, posting images of his unsuspecting female students. The user, 'Weagleweaglewde', while posting numerous 'upskirt' images of girls in a classroom setting, claims in at least two posts that he is a teacher at a high school.
The response to the 'creep shots' forum - known as a subreddit - has been outrage and a campaign to remove the site has sprung up from other corners of Reddit.
Unabashed: The Creep Shots admittedly has photos of large numbers of underage girls
In a sub-forum called 16F - shorthand for Female, 16 - user Weagleweaglewde comments on a girl's appearance, again claiming to be a teacher at a high school
Blasé: Despite some his sickening posts and fears he could lose his job, Brutsch stands by what he's done
One furious user wrote: 'What's particularly disturbing about the voyeur subreddits is that individuals are having their perverse, invasive, and illegal behavior validated and encouraged by many others.
'Students should be able to attend class without having their privacy violated by fellow students and trusted authority figures like teachers.
'Girls should be able to go to school without worrying that sexually suggestive images of them are being uploaded to popular websites like Reddit for thousands to view and ogle.'
One user went as far as to offer tips for getting 'creep shots'. |
An often bitter wrangle over mackerel quotas between Scotland, the European Union, Iceland and the Faroes has been capturing headlines for several months, and now the EU is deciding on what steps to take.
Here are answers to some of the main questions surrounding the issue.
When did the mackerel wrangle begin?
In August last year, Fisheries Secretary Richard Lochhead warned "short-sighted and selfish" mackerel quotas set by the Icelandic and Faroe Islands governments could be "disastrous" for the Scottish fleet.
Iceland, which landed very little mackerel before 2006, had allocated itself a 130,000-tonne quota for the year.
This was said to be up from 36,000 tonnes in 2007, 112,000 tonnes in 2008 and 116,000 in 2009.
The Faroes, a set of islands about 250 miles north of Scotland, tripled its usual entitlement to 85,000 tonnes.
The Scottish Fishermen's Federation said the decisions were "astonishing".
And the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen's Association said fishermen were "very angry".
Why the high level of concern?
Mackerel is the most valuable stock to the Scottish industry.
In 2009, it was estimated to be worth £135m at a 'first-sale' value, which represented about a third of the value of landings by the Scottish fleet.
The Scottish industry said the raised quotas were at odds with efforts to promote sustainable fishing practices across the EU.
What justification was offered for the increased quotas?
Iceland and the Faroes said they saw the situation differently.
The countries argued that the mackerel stock has gravitated north in recent years - thought to be due to climate change - so they were now fishing in their own zones.
And a recent fall in the herring catch meant the mackerel was even more welcome.
What are the qualities of mackerel?
It once had an image problem with shoppers.
But mackerel has grown in popularity and is regarded as an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12.
It is perhaps best known as a smoked and vacuum-packed fillet.
What direct action has been taken over the quotas?
A week after concern was first raised, fishermen in Peterhead preveted a Faroese fishing boat offloading its cargo of mackerel.
The Jupiter was met by dozens of protesters at the harbour in the early hours of the morning.
What was the result?
The Jupiter's skipper, Emil Pedersen, had to leave port and return home - and claimed the blockade cost him more than £400,000.
Mr Pedersen said the catch had been good for human consumption, but would instead go into areas such as oil production.
Of the blockading fishermen, he claimed: "This is not their job, this is a political matter."
What happened next politically?
First Minister Alex Salmond called for political action to end the ongoing dispute.
And a Scottish MEP called for an EU-wide blockade of Icelandic and Faroese boats.
Conservative Struan Stevenson said Iceland and the Faroes were "acting just like their Viking ancestors" by "plundering" stocks.
What were ecologists saying?
Governments, not scientists, had to tackle the row over mackerel quotas, according to a leading adviser on the Common Fisheries Policy.
Poul Degnbol, head of the advisory programme at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ices), said: "It is all about getting a working arrangement to share the access to the resource between different fleets, or countries, so that the fisheries overall is sustainable.
"Obviously, when the total of the quotas set by different parties exceeds what is considered sustainable, the overall mackerel fishery cannot be sustainable, but this is independent of who is taking the fish."
Did talks work?
No. A series of talks last year aimed at resolving the issue failed to do so.
What happened next?
Last month, Iceland announced it was setting a 2011 quota of 146,818 tonnes, up from the 130,000 in 2010.
Scottish fishing leaders condemned the decision.
However, Tomas Heidar, chief negotiator of Iceland on mackerel fisheries, said they had legitimate rights to a fairer share of the EU's total allowable mackerel catch.
Ahead of the impending EU decision, Mr Heidar told the BBC Scotland news website this week: "Mackerel fisheries by Icelandic vessels have in recent years almost exclusively taken place within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of Iceland and all catches have been landed in Icelandic ports and processed in Iceland.
"Mackerel has been migrating in growing quantities into the Icelandic exclusive economic zone.
"We remain committed to finding a fair solution on the allocation of mackerel that takes into account the legitimate interests of all the parties."
What has the EU now done?
On Friday, the European Union signalled an intention to block Icelandic boats from landing mackerel at EU ports, ahead of more talks. |
D&D Basic (Free) rules may be downloaded here:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/basicrules
2.67 Mb PDF
D&D Character Sheets can be downloaded here:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Tool.aspx?x=dnd/4new/tool/charactersheet
2.34 Mb ZIP file with PDFs
Rest of post follows this video summary, make sure to keep scrolling!
As you may have heard by now, the Basic D&D Rules have dropped via the Dungeons & Dragons Team at Wizards of the Coast, and these bad boys are free to download and play. I was originally expecting them around mid-July, so when I found out they were available starting July 3rd, I wasted no time downloading them and giving them a look through.
What are my thoughts, you ask? Read on, I answer!
In August when the new hardcopy Player’s Handbook releases, Basic D&D will receive expansions including monsters, magic items, and DM rules (Dungeon Master, if you didn’t know… the player that is part storyteller, part referee and part enemy to the other players).
In the meantime, however, these rules are rather, well, “basic” and if you want more before August you’ll need to look into the D&D Starter Set box set available July 15.
As for what we have so far in the D&D Basic Rules, there’s a lot to like and imaginative DMs and players can likely jump in and start improvising and having fun, especially those with previous D&D or other RPG experience.
Let me make sure to point out again in case you didn’t already catch it from the previous paragraphs that there are no real rules available yet for DMs but they’re coming.
One thing that I want to note is the lack of artwork. There is no artwork in the Basic Rules other than the very last page.
Assuming (an assumption I agree with) that one of the fun parts of looking through RPG rules is the artwork, which also helps set the tone and feel of the game, I’m not quite sure why this decision was made. From what I understand the D&D Basic Rules are intended to be a fully playable version of the game, and if I print these out and take them to a friend’s house to try to get them excited to play… the lack of artwork certainly won’t help.
That being said there’s a lot here to like and let’s not forget that this is a FREE (F.R.E.E.) and fully playable version of D&D 5th Edition. So that will be my last kvetch.
It should also be noted that my history with D&D is a lot of 1st Edition, some 2nd Edition, quite a bit of 3rd Edition but basically completely skipped over 4th Edition other than listening to some podcasts of play from the Critical Hit Dungeons & Dragons podcast from Major Spoilers. From what I understand of 4th Edition, I think a lot of the elements from that version have been removed (I only saw one rule referencing a “surge”).
Some other things that jumped out at me as I browsed the Basic Rules:
The rules allow play up to level 20.
The Inspiration rule seems pretty cool and encourages and rewards role playing. I like it a lot.
The moral Alignment system has survived the cut and made it into yet another edition. I’m happy about this because I’ve always thought it was a good element that added to the depth of the characters and game (assuming that the DM and players respect and use it correctly, otherwise it’s just annoying to see someone consistently playing against their alignment with no repercussions from the DM). I always keep thinking it will be phased out, but here it is again.
Playing on a grid with miniatures is now a “variant” rule. This is interesting to me, because back in the day if you didn’t use a grid and / or map and miniatures, a lot of people felt you weren’t “fully” playing D&D. I should also say that when I was cutting my teeth on D&D we never used them but I always thought they were cool. Given the combat rules in 3rd Edition and 3.5, I couldn’t imagine not using a grid and minis (which I did use when that edition rolled around, even if the “minis” were sometimes dice).
Politically correct notions of sex and gender have been included. It’s not just a game, it’s a social revolution that gives you affirmation and WOTC wants to show it!
Playable races are Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human and some of their subraces.
Playable classes are Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard.
There are some helpful “Background” rules that help flesh out characters from the various classes. Those included in the Basic Rules are Acolyte, Criminal, Folk Hero, Sage and Soldier.
There’s a selection of divine and arcane spells up to 9th level. According to a tweet from Greg Bilsland (D&D Senior Producer) there are around 120 spells in Basic Rules.
Like any good D&D adventure, the story doesn’t end in one setting and there’s plenty more to come. I’m really looking forward to the forthcoming additions to D&D Basic Rules in August and will post more then.
In the meantime, here’s a photo gallery to help tide you over. |
UM Board of Curators announce resignation of Ann Covington
COLUMBIA – The University of Missouri Board of Curators today announced the resignation of curator Ann K. Covington of Columbia, due to personal reasons. The resignation of curator Covington, who was appointed to the board in 2013 by Governor Jay Nixon, is effective immediately.
“It has been a great honor to serve the four campuses of the University of Missouri System in the role of curator, and I am deeply grateful for the opportunity,” Covington said. “At the time of my appointment nearly three years ago, I did not anticipate that in the course of the last eleven months I would lose my husband Charles (McClain), have hip replacement surgery and experience my younger granddaughter’s undergoing major surgery. Given these events in my personal life, I feel I cannot summon any longer the requisite energy for the faithful service that is demanded of a UM System curator, thus must step down.”
“I am confident in the leadership at the UM System and on all four campuses, which makes this difficult decision easier,” she said.
Representing the 4th Congressional District on the board, Covington’s term was set to expire on January 1, 2019. During her time on the board, she served as chair of the finance committee, and also served on the academic, student and external affairs and compensation and human resources committees.
“Ann Covington is one of the most extraordinary people I’ve had the pleasure to know. Her passion for the University of Missouri, and higher education in general, will be greatly missed,” said current board chair Donald Cupps of Cassville. “Ann’s judgement and vision have contributed so much to the university and it is a great loss to the system that personal circumstances have necessitated her early departure from the board. We wish her the best.”
A lawyer and judge for more than 30 years, Covington made history in 1989 when she was appointed as the first female judge to serve on the Missouri Supreme Court, where she instituted a number of significant judicial administration programs. Prior to her appointment, she sat on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, practiced law in Columbia and served as an assistant attorney general under Missouri Attorney General John Ashcroft. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1963 and a juris doctorate from the University of Missouri School of Law in 1977.
The board of curators is the governing body of the University of Missouri and consists of nine members who are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. Curators serve six-year terms although, any replacement for Covington will serve only the remaining portion of her term.
Ann K. Covington Photo: http://umurl.us/nIt4P
Ann K. Covington Letter to Governor Nixon: http://umurl.us/P6mg1
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In the past few months, my family has been really busy fixing up stuff around the house. In addition to watching a lot of DIY videos on Youtube and getting inspired by TV shows on the HGTV channel (hgtv.com), we've also been looking at Houzz (houzz.com) for design ideas. If you're looking to renovate your house or simply want to browse beautiful home photos, then you should check out the Houzz app for Windows Phone. We've installed Houzz on our Nokia Lumia 930. Head past the break to watch our hands-on video.
The Houzz app for Windows Phone currently has 2 sections: Photos and Ideabooks. Photos let you take a look at other people's designs and you can browse by certain types of rooms. This includes the usual living, dining, and bath, but you can also check out wine cellars, closets, gyms, and more. The photos do not have any descriptions. If you see something you like, you can save them to your phone's album. This option is available if you purchase the VIP Upgrade package for $1.99. The package also removes ads within the app. Think of Ideabooks as articles with photos. There are several topics such as Houzz tours, remodeling, decorating, and more. When you click 'Topics,' a list slides in from the left.
Houzz started as a side project but has become a community of more than 20 million homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals around the world. Whether you are starting a complete bathroom remodel or just looking for the perfect office desk, Houzz is a great place to get inspiration and discover products for your home. We were having doubts, but the Houzz Support Team has told us that this is indeed their official app for Windows Phone. One major thing that's currently missing is integration with the Houzz account that lets you upload photos, make comments, and more. Update: WPCentral reader, SEKKDS, was not convinced this was an official Houzz app, so he has tried contacting Houzz's support team. Their response indicates this is not an official app. The good news is that they are currently working on one. Read the email below:
Hi again Scott, I do apologize for the confusion, but please do not download, or delete this version of the application, as this is not associated with us. We are working on a version of the app for Windows devices, however, this is not available at the moment. Thank you! Best, The Houzz Team |
The rapid growth of GT4 over the past two seasons has left many British GT Championship regulars turning their attention away from GT3, raising questions about the future of the top class.
Last weekend’s double-header at Snetterton had just ten GT3 cars alongside 17 GT4 entries, with the latter continuing to benefit from the rising costs of GT3 that are forcing drivers, teams and manufacturers to look further down the field.
McLaren is amongst the names absent from the top class this season, and McLaren GT Sporting Director Bas Leinders explains why his brand is concentrating on its 570S GT4 in British GT.
“The reason we have the GT4s is because they are very good cars, it’s a good championship and GT4 is on the up, so it is important that McLaren is represented in the best possible way,” he told Sportscar365.
“There will be very good competition in the future – there already is now – but with Audi, BMW and Mercedes stepping up, it will only get more entertaining.
“GT4 is very competitive, with a lot of cars, a lot of teams and budgets are quite reasonable.”
Stuart Parker’s Team Parker Racing currently competes with a pair of Bentley Continental GT3s as well as the series’ sole Porsche Cayman GT4 Clubsport MR, and he says that the manufacturer interest in GT4 is a major attraction.
“The competition is getting better, and that’s because there are more manufacturers getting involved,” he told Sportscar365.
“You’ve got more product choice, so it’s not a two-horse race which it was a few years ago. Three years ago, you’d have a Ginetta or an Aston Martin, and that was your lot.
“Now, there’s the Porsche in the mix, the McLaren, and the Nissans are back.
“Next year is going to be really interesting because you’ve got all the big German manufacturers coming back in.
“It’s the age-old cycle – GT3 is going to die because it’s getting too expensive, and GT4 becomes the new GT3.”
A bold move from a GT3 regular saw Joe Osborne return to GT4 this season with Tolman Motorsport, something he says future-proofs his career.
“The most common thing people have said to me is, ‘Oh you’ve stepped down to GT4,'” he told Sportscar365.
“I can understand the logic, and GT3 is the headline class and the fastest, but if you now look at the grid, we’re two-thirds of it in GT4.
“Yes, it’s a step down in terms of speed, but in competitiveness, we have twice as many cars. OK, we don’t have the drivers like [Matt] Griffin, [Phil] Keen, and Jonny Adam, but there are some quick under-the-radar guys.”
Parker worries about the budgets required for GT3, meanwhile.
“The cost of GT3 is getting too much, and it’s getting to manufacturer levels of financial commitment,” he said.
“Private teams just can’t afford to pay the bills, and it’s gone from needing a wealthy person to a super-wealthy person.”
With a reduced GT3 entry last season and some manufacturers missing, Osborne was very vocal about his worries regarding the class’ downfall.
He admitted he didn’t expect GT3 to survive the off-season and that a 12-car full-season entry was far past his expectations for this year.
“I lost £50 on a bet with Benjamin [Franassovici, Championship Manager] that he’d have less than eight cars, and he proved me wrong!” he said.
“I’ve got no problems in being wrong if the series is healthy, but I still say that GT3 is frail. We’re now down to ten cars, and to me that isn’t a proper competitive championship.
“It’s hard to attract new blood, and I think GT4 is a lot more attainable, budget-wise, for these guys, and that’s why it has grown.”
Franassovici, meanwhile, assures that he is confident GT3 will remain part of the package next season, and that he is aiming for more cars than this year.
“We’re pushing for next year,” he told Sportcar365. “I think it’s very possible that we’ll have the same numbers next year, if not a couple more.
“There are a lot of young Silver guys who are stepping up. Ten is not what I want, so we’re pushing for more.”
The McLaren is part of the new generation of GT4 cars and Leinders was quick to praise the improvements made to the category in recent years.
“They are very nice cars now, and a few years ago they were not so nice race cars,” he said. “They’re enjoyable to drive and the speed has gone up.
“OK, the budget has gone up a little bit, but they are still only half the price of GT3 cars.”
While GT4 cars are still considerably more affordable than their GT3 counterparts, Osborne isn’t so sure that the arrival of new manufacturers next year will keep this true.
“GT4 will start its cycle of becoming GT3, which will ultimately get too expensive and then everything starts again,” he predicts.
“By the time I finish my career it will be GT86, because it’s just getting ridiculous.” |
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, but for governments it’s not that easy. Once something is given – say, health insurance coverage to 20 million Americans – you take it away at your peril. This is true for any government benefit, but especially for health care. There’s a reason not one Western democracy with some system of national health care has ever abolished it.
The genius of the left is to keep enlarging the entitlement state by creating new giveaways that are politically impossible to repeal. For 20 years, Republicans railed against the New Deal. Yet when they came back into office in 1953, Eisenhower didn’t just keep Social Security, he expanded it.
People hated Obamacare for its high-handedness, incompetence and cost. At the same time, its crafters took great care to create new beneficiaries and new expectations. Which makes repeal very complicated.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that, under Paul Ryan’s Obamacare replacement bill, 24 million will lose insurance within 10 years, 14 million after the first year.
Granted, the number is highly suspect. CBO projects 18 million will be covered by the Obamacare exchanges in 2018. But the number today is about 10 million. That means the CBO estimate of those losing coverage is already about 8 million too high.
Nonetheless, there will be losers. And their stories will be plastered wall to wall across the media as sure as night follows day.
That scares Republican moderates. And yet the main resistance to Ryan comes from conservative members complaining that the bill is not ideologically pure enough. They mock it as Obamacare Lite.
For example, Ryan wants to ease the pain by phasing out Medicaid expansion through 2020. The conservative Republican Study Committee wants it done next year. This is crazy. For the sake of two years’ savings, why would you risk a political crash landing?
Moreover, the idea that you can eradicate Obamacare root and branch is fanciful. For all its catastrophic flaws, Obamacare changed expectations. Does any Republican propose returning to a time when you can be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition?
It’s not just Donald Trump who ran on retaining this new, yes, entitlement. Everyone did. But it’s very problematic. If people know that they can sign up for insurance after they get sick, the very idea of insurance is undermined. People won’t sign up when healthy and the insurance companies will go broke.
So what do you do? Obamacare imposed a monetary fine if you didn’t sign up, for which the Ryan bill substitutes another mechanism, less heavy-handed but still government-mandated.
The purists who insist upon entirely escaping the heavy hand of government are dreaming. The best you can hope for is to make it less intrusive and more rational, as in the Ryan plan’s block-granting of Medicaid.
Or instituting a more realistic age-rating system. Sixty-year-olds use six times as much health care as 20-year-olds, yet Obamacare decreed, entirely arbitrarily, that the former could be charged insurance premiums no more than three times that of the latter. The Republican bill changes the ratio from 3-to-1 to 5-to-1.
Premiums better reflecting risk constitute a major restoration of rationality. (It’s how life insurance works.) Under Obamacare, the young were unwilling to be swindled and refused to sign up. Without their support, the whole system is thus headed into a death spiral of looming insolvency.
Rationality, however, has a price. The CBO has already predicted a massive increase in premiums for 60-year-olds. That’s the headline.
There is no free lunch. Republican hard-liners must accept that Americans have become accustomed to some new health care benefits, just as moderates have to brace themselves for stories about the inevitable losers in any reform.
That’s the political price for fulfilling the seven-year promise of repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Unless, of course, you go the full Machiavelli and throw it all back on the Democrats. How? Republicans could forget about meeting the arcane requirements of “reconciliation” legislation (which requires only 51 votes in the Senate) and send the Senate a replacement bill loaded up with everything conservative – including tort reform and insurance competition across state lines. That would require 60 Senate votes. Let the Democrats filibuster it to death – and take the blame when repeal-and-replace fails, Obamacare carries on and then collapses under its own weight.
Upside: You reap the backlash. Downside: You have to live with your conscience.
Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for The Washington Post. He can be contacted at:
[email protected]
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I’m extremely busy today, so this post will be short.
In recognition of the Supreme Court hearings on the issue of same sex marriage, I’d like to make a few comments about intolerance and oppression. Both are issues that are central to gay rights, but they have also recently become rallying cries for fundamentalists and others who oppose them.
When coming from that sector, the general claim is that gay rights supporters are being intolerant and oppressive of those who believe that homosexuality is a sin and that homosexuals should not be entitled to equal rights, due to that fact. Most gay rights supporters (in my experience) counter this argument by pointing out that it is the other side who is being intolerant of homosexuals, and that affording other people equal rights is the opposite of oppression. I see things a little differently.
I say that, in my case at least, the gay rights opposition is absolutely correct. I am intolerant. I am 100% intolerant of bigoted, discriminatory beliefs, based on ancient, outdated moral codes. I am intolerant of those who would hide behind those beliefs to justify their own bigotry and hatred towards those who are different than they. I am intolerant of any who would oppose the affording of equal rights to all people. And, call it oppression if you will, but I will continue to speak out and fight against all those who embrace such ideals.
So, there you have it. On this issue, I am intolerant, and I am proud of it.
-J.C.
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[Links are to Spanish-language pages.]
In September, Uruguay adopted law 19.128, which designates the country's territorial waters as a “sanctuary for whales and dolphins.” The law applies not just to the territorial sea but also to the economic zone that is exclusive to Ururguay and prohibits the chasing, hunting, catching, fishing, or subjecting of cetaceans to any process by which they are transformed.
It also includes a prohibition against the transportation and unloading of live whales and dolphins, irrespective of whether the vessels sail under Uruguayan or foreign flags. The law envisages penalties for those who do not comply. Exceptions will be made for scientific and medical cases, providing they are approved by state authorities. The law also takes into account cases of harassment, aggression, or any other mistreatment that could lead to the death of cetaceans.
The law was unanimously approved by the legislature and was promulgated on September 13 by President José Mujica.
The new legislation strengthens Uruguay's existing conservation policies, implemented by the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP) and by the National Directorate of Aquatic Resources (DINARA). The Director of DINARA, Daniel Gilardoni, declared to the government publication Presidencia that: “For our country the biggest threat is shipping, a good deal of the beaching is due to collisions between whales and ships.”
The newly designated whale and dolphin sanctuary in Uruguayan waters will be economically beneficial, according to an article entitled “Uruguay sanctuary for whales and dolphins: Let the cetaceans come to me” on the blog Ballenas en Uruguay [Whales in Uruguay].
The cybersphere lit up with favourable reactions to the passing of the law. Social media reflected widespread approval to Uruguay's new status as a “sanctuary for whales and dolphins.”
Last year, user Jana (@Piper_uy) contributed to the campaign to promote the bill on Twitter:
Haz clic para apoyar la creación de un santuario de ballenas en Uruguay http://t.co/N7x1uVMN — Jana (@Piper_uy) agosto 14, 2012
Click to support the creation of a sanctuary for whales in Uruguay http://t.co/N7x1uVMN
In October of the same year, according to the journalist Lourdes Vitabar (@louvitabar), several different school groups assembled outside the Legislative Palace:
A las 9 escolares d Maldonado y Rocha (apadrinados x Paez Vilaró) van a Pcio Leg. para promover proyecto ley santuario ballenas @ballenasuy — Lourdes Vitabar (@louvitabar) octubre 3, 2012
At nine o'clock schoolchildren from Maldonado and Rocha (sponsored by Paez Vilaró) are going to the Legislative Palace to promote the whale sanctuary bill
The National Party representative from the Rivera deparment Gerardo Amarilla (@GerardoAmarilla), anticipated the success of the bill in March of this year:
El Santuario de Ballenas y Delfines quedó aprobado hoy en la Cámara de Diputados y pasará al Senado donde podría convertirse en ley. — Gerardo Amarilla (@GerardoAmarilla) marzo 12, 2013
The Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary was approved today in the House of Representatives and will pass in the Senate where it could become law.
Animales Sin Hogar (@ASHcomUY) [Animals Without Homes] celebrated the news when the law was approved in September; at the same time, however, it mourned the death of a beached whale in the Colonia district:
Por un lado festejamos la excelente noticia de la creación de un santuario para ballenas y delfines en nuestras… http://t.co/DTtyd0hXVQ — Animales sin Hogar (@ASHcomUY) septiembre 4, 2013
On the one hand we celebrate this wonderful news about the creation of a sanctuary for our whales and dolphins…. http://t.co/DTtyd0hXVQ
For more information on the continuing conversation about Uruguay's marine ecosystem, you can follow the Organization for Cetacean Conservation (OCC) on Facebook and Twitter. |
Getting home a bit late and the desire for a brew struck while the fridge was low. I broke into what should have been a full review beer but didn’t get to land in front of the camera before she ended in my stomach. Nevertheless, here’s what I think.
I’ve seen Charleville before and I kick myself now for not knowing about this (generally) local brewery. A Facebook post from my favorite bottle shop got me excited to try this brew so here goes:
Appearance: A gorgeous deep orange bursts from the glass. There are reds and ambers inside creating a beautiful melange of colors although I wish it was a bit clearer. It’s quite hazy. A slightly off-white head of a finger stands proudly but dissipates quickly.
Smell: Pine and citrus come first. Orange, lemon, lime all come up behind the pine scent. West Coast American hops dominate the aroma. Barely a sign of malt stand here and it makes me just a bit nervous about the flavor. There’s also an earthy smell here that I’m taking too.
Taste: Pine up top with slight orange flavors coming next. The hops burn slightly but it’s no where near as “burning” as Hoptimum or Double Jack but the hops are might flavorful and incredibly enjoyable. After a few sips, the malt starts to blossom. It’s slight but it’s full of caramel and breadiness. It’s just barely enough to stand with hops and I find myself wanting more.
Mouthfeel: Just like the taste, this DIPA isn’t as “full” or “syrupy” as the ones I’ve enjoyed in the past. The lighter aspect here helps the hops take top form and this is my favorite characteristic in the beer.
Overall: A decent showing from Charleville. The malt bill came across a little weak for my tastes though. I don’t know if they’ve convinced me to take the trip out there but they’ve convinced me to give them another drink.
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"Tim Kaine is Hillary's VP pick. The ultimate insiders - Obama, Hillary, and Kaine. Don't let Obama have a 3rd Term. Contribute,” Trump said in a text message to supporters. | Getty Trump campaign hits ‘Corrupt Kaine’ right out of the gate
Donald Trump’s campaign wasted little time depicting Hillary Clinton’s new running mate as a continuation of the “rigged system,” casting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as “Corrupt Tim” and attacking him for supporting President Barack Obama’s policies.
"Tim Kaine is Hillary's VP pick. The ultimate insiders - Obama, Hillary, and Kaine. Don't let Obama have a 3rd Term. Contribute,” Trump said in a text message to supporters. In a tweet late on Friday, Trump attacked Kaine as corrupt:
Story Continued Below Why did Tim Kaine have no problem when he took far more money as Governor of Virginia than Bob McDonald. Crooked Hillary & rigged system! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2016
Trump spokesman Jason Miller emailed a statement to reporters that described Kaine as an “ethically challenged insider.”
"It's only fitting that Hillary Clinton would select an ethically challenged insider like Tim Kaine who's personally benefited from the rigged system,” Miller said. “While serving in government, Kaine has taken tens of thousands of dollars in freebies - more than $160,000 in fact - on free vacations, free clothes, and free tickets,” pointing to a POLITICO story that described the Virginia governor as taking advantage of his state’s “lax gift laws.”
“If you think Crooked Hillary and Corrupt Kaine are going to change anything in Washington, it's just the opposite,” Miller continued. “They do well by the current system, while the rest of America gets left behind.The choice has never been clearer - Donald Trump calls on us to Believe in America, while the Status Quo ticket of Clinton-Kaine wants us to believe in a rigged system that enriches them at your expense."
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released his own statement casting Kaine in similar terms.
“Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine does nothing to unify a fractured Democrat base which is repelled by her dishonesty and cronyism,” Priebus said. “After spending last week pandering to grassroots Democrats with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has chosen someone who holds positions that she’s spent the entire primary trying to get to the left of.
“Ultimately this is a ticket that represents one thing: four more years like the last eight, just with more corruption and scandal,” Priebus said. “A Clinton-Kaine administration will push our country further down the path President Obama has led us on and that has made us less safe, less prosperous, and less free. More taxes, more debt, more government and more leading from behind on the global stage will not deliver the turnaround our country desperately needs. Americans have had enough of the failed Democrat status quo.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement that by picking Kaine, the former secretary of state had shown “there is no doubt about Hillary Clinton's plan to serve as a third term of the liberal Obama administration.
"As one of President Obama's most loyal 'yes men' in the Senate, and a proud Clinton Democrat, Kaine fought to protect Obamacare despite higher premiums, massive regulations despite higher costs for consumers, and a foreign policy that even Jimmy Carter says is a failure.“ |
It’s a good time to be non-monogamous or polyamorous. Or at least, it’s a better time to be non-monogamous than it used to be. Not only are alternative approaches to relationships getting more attention, there’s also a plethora of technologies to enable them.
But before we break down which dating apps may be best for your open relationship needs, let’s pause and define what non-monogamy and polyamory mean. Generally speaking, both terms refer to an approach to dating and relationships where you pursue multiple romantic and/or sexual relationships at the same time, with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved. But the nature of each of those relationships varies from person to person. Sometimes more than two people might pursue a relationship together; other times, someone may prefer to have multiple two-person relationships of varying levels of commitment and intimacy. There’s no limit to the types of non-monogamy out there.
As a woman in an open relationship, I use OKCupid and Tinder the most. But I also talked with some of my friends in the polyamory community (who subscribe to various forms of open relationships, but who are mostly all straight) to get their opinions and experiences using various dating apps.
The best dating apps for polyamorous dating
Sceengrab via iTunes
Pros:
Majority of users are non-monogamous
You can filter by people who are non-monogamous.
You can get to know people through questions.
You can message anyone.
Longer profiles
Queer-friendly
Cons:
Anyone can message you.
The odds are good, but the goods are odd.
I could probably write an entire article on the promise and peril of OKCupid alone. Suffice it to say, I think the selection of potential matches on OKC is better now than it used to be, and certainly better if you happen to live in a major U.S. city, than, say, rural Ohio. I’ve found the people I’ve met through the app to generally be more experienced in non-monogamy, very articulate, and great conversationalists—perhaps because on OKC it’s weird to see a profile that’s less than 300-words-long. That said, the people I meet on OKC tend to be a bit more on the nerdy side, but, hey, your experiences may vary.
OKCupid also offers a number of features for poly couples, such as the ability to link to their profiles. Additionally, as of this year, the majority of OKCupid’s user base is non-monogamous, according to the Atlantic.
“I like to dig into people’s profiles. I like to read people’s questions, and I find them really fascinating,” a 29-year-old designer told me, showing that non-monogamous dating isn’t all the sexy stuff. He said he’s been practicing non-monogamy for about a year, which initially started when opened up a previously monogamous relationship. He uses several dating apps, but OKC is his favorite. Interestingly, he told me that he doesn’t actually list himself as non-monogamous on the website, but finds most women he matches with are nonetheless open to the idea.
[email protected] / flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman
Pros:
More people (probably?)
Swiping is fun.
You can only message people you match with.
Cons:
More heteronormative
Can’t filter for non-monogamous people
So many robots
Shorter profiles
Adheres to the gender binary
When I first was trying out non-monogamy, I exclusively used Tinder—and it worked for me. I’ve gone on a lot of dates, and most of the ones that have stuck around were Tinder matches. While OKCupid might leave you with a little too much profile information to mull over, Tinder is much more to the point.
My left-swipe rules are pretty arbitrary, admittedly. Spelling error in your profile? Next. “No drama”? No thanks. Fish photo? Byeeeee.
But for all the little hints someone may intentionally or unintentionally leave that would turn you away, there is also a weird, secret language on Tinder that can help lead you to the right person.
Some people will just come right out and say that they’re poly. Occasionally, you might even come across a couple’s profile. But there are other, more coded signals. Terms like “GGG,” which stands for “good, giving, game.” Again, this refers more to how someone approaches the bedroom, but it’s also a term coined by Dan Savage, the writer of the “Savage Love” column, who frequently espouses the virtues of non-monogamy.
My primary partner also used to list that he was in an open relationship in his profile, and included a selfie of the two of us. But he found his matches went way, way, down. Now his strategy is to not mention it at all—sometimes even waiting until during or after the first date to reveal his relationship status. So far, it’s been working. Like-minded people tend to be drawn to one another, so he’s probably not going to attract anyone who is staunchly monogamous.
Another tip I’ve heard from multiple people is that if someone on Tinder is friends with your non-monogamous friends on Facebook, there’s a good chance they may be interested in what you have to offer.
Screengrab via iTunes
Pros:
For straight matches, only the woman can initiate contact.
You have 24 hours to initiate contact, they have 24 hours to respond.
Hot people to the front
Cons:
Can’t specifically select non-monogamous
Not very queer-friendly
I’ve never tried Bumble, but I’ve heard good things. Apparently, the first people you’re shown are some of the hottest, so it might be worth a download just to ogle the cute people nearest you.
Like Tinder, Bumble uses a swiping mechanic to help you sort your matches. Once a match is made, only the woman can initiate contact if the couple is straight (though either member of a same-sex match can initiate). No matter what, you only have 24 hours to start talking and reply to someone’s message or you lose the match—a feature which Bumble’s CEO says cuts down on ghosting.
A 30-year-old nursing student new to non-monogamy told me she exclusively uses Bumble. She was using it before entering a non-monogamous relationship and found both her partners through the app. “The biggest difference is I don’t automatically pass on someone that says they are non-monogamous/poly outright,” she told me over Facebook messenger.
Another friend said she uses pretty much the same approach as she does with Tinder. She looks for little signifiers in emoji: two girls holding hands, a rainbow, a unicorn.
READ MORE:
Image via Feeld.com
Pros:
Designed specifically for groups
Great for couples or single women looking for a couple
Cons:
Mostly hookups-based
Not great for single straight men
This is another app I’ve never tried, but I know many who have. It’s not so much for finding new relationships as it is for finding group sex. But hey, that’s certainly part of the non-monogamous lifestyle for some (but not all)!
According to Steve Dean, a dating consultant who specializes in non-monogamous date coaching, Feeld is great for single women and couples, but not so great for single men. As far as straight couples go, finding a third generally sways toward looking for another woman instead of another man for about a bazillion reasons we can’t totally get into here. But just know there’s a stigma against single men in this scene. Dean’s advice for single guys on Feeld? “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.”
Ouch.
There’s a lot more niche dating apps out there. But the most important thing to finding the perfect one for you is the most obvious: To have a lot of options, you need an app that’s going to have the highest number of “your type,” whatever your type is—it’s just a matter how much work you’re willing to do to find your people. |
Edward Snowden has described Britain's strengthening of its surveillance laws as part of an "authoritarian trend".
In a wide-ranging interview that covered Russia's "corrosive" rights record and its alleged hacking of the US, the whistle-blower listed the UK alongside Russia and China in saying how some countries had given intelligence services greater powers since he engineered the biggest leak of classified documents in history.
"The laws have gotten worse in some countries," the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor told the Financial Times. "France has gone very far, so too, of course, countries like Russia, China. In Britain there’s an authoritarian trend.
"There’s no real question that police in a police state would be more effective than those in a free and liberal society where the police operate under tighter constraints. But which one would you rather live in?"
The British government approved new powers to intercept and store communications data in March. Concerns were raised, however, that the Investigatory Powers Bill, dubbed the Snoopers' Charter, was ill-defined and allowed too many organisations too much access to sensitive data. |
Ronald Joseph Ryan (21 February 1925 – 3 February 1967) was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing warder George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria, in 1965. Ryan's hanging was met with public protests by those opposed to capital punishment. The death penalty was abolished in all states by 1985.[1]
Early life [ edit ]
Ronald Edmond Thompson was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne's inner suburb of Carlton, to John Ronald Ryan and Cecilia Thompson (née Young). Cecilia already had a son with her first husband George Harry Thompson and was living with John Ryan. Cecilia and George had separated in 1915 when George left to fight in the Great War. The relationship never resumed. Cecilia met John Ryan while working as a nurse in Woods Point where he was suffering lung disease. They formed a relationship in 1924 and later married in 1929, after Thompson's death in 1927 by falling from a tram and getting hit by a car.[2] Ronald then adopted the name Ronald Edmond Ryan. In 1936 Ryan was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. He took as his confirmation name Joseph, becoming Ronald Edmond Joseph Ryan. He did not like Edmond and from then on used "Ronald Joseph Ryan".
Following the theft of a watch from a neighbour's house at Mitcham in November 1936, the plight of the Ryan children was brought to the attention of the state welfare authorities. Ronald was sent to Rupertswood, the Salesian Order's school for orphaned, wayward and neglected boys in Sunbury. His three sisters were made wards of the state a year later when authorities declared them to be "neglected". His sisters were sent to the Good Shepherd Convent in Collingwood. Ryan absconded from Rupertswood in September 1939 and, with his half-brother George Thompson, worked in and around Balranald, New South Wales; spare money earned from sleeper cutting and kangaroo shooting was sent to his mother, who was looking after their sick, alcoholic father.[3][4]
At the age of 20, Ryan had saved enough money to rent a house in Balranald. He collected his mother and sisters and they lived together in this house. Ryan's father stayed in Melbourne and died a year later, aged 62, after a long battle with miners' disease, phthisis tuberculosis.[2][3][4]
Move to Victoria, marriage and children [ edit ]
Aged about 22, Ryan decided to join his brother, who was tomato farming near Tatura, Victoria. He started visiting Melbourne on weekends and during one of these weekend trips Ryan met his future wife, Dorothy Janet George. On 4 February 1950, Ryan married Dorothy at St Stephen's Anglican Church in Richmond, Victoria. He converted from Roman Catholicism to the Church of England to marry her. He converted back to Catholicism[5] shortly before his execution.[6] Dorothy was the daughter of the mayor of the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn. Ryan and Dorothy had three daughters, Janice, Wendy and Rhonda. A fourth baby was stillborn.
Later life [ edit ]
After spending a few months working for his father-in-law as a trainee mechanic, Ryan decided that more money could be made cutting timber near Marysville and Licola. When it was too wet to cut timber, Ryan got a job painting for the State Electricity Commission. By 1952 the Ryan family was living in Noojee.[7]
Trouble with the law started when his rented house burnt down. Ryan was away for the weekend in Melbourne when the arsonist struck. The arsonist was caught and claimed that Ryan had put him up to it in order to claim insurance money. His first appearance in court was in Warragul in 1953 when he was acquitted on a charge of arson.[7]
In 1956 Ryan appeared in court for passing bad cheques in Dandenong. He was given a bond. His next appearance in court was after he issued a large number of forged cheques in Warrnambool. His partner was caught with the goods purchased with the bad cheques and handed Ryan over to the police. He received another good-behaviour bond after the arresting detective gave a favourable character reference on Ryan's behalf.[8]
After being apprehended for robbery in April 1960, Ryan and his accomplices escaped from the Melbourne City Watch House but were recaptured several days later.[9] On 17 June 1960, Ryan pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Court of General Sessions to eight charges of breaking and stealing and one of escaping from legal custody. He was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment.[7]
Ryan first served prison time at Bendigo Prison. Here, under Ian Grindlay (who would later become the Governor of Pentridge Prison), he appeared to want to rehabilitate himself. His time in prison was productive and he exhibited a disciplined approach to study, completing his Leaving Certificate (the equivalent of 11 years of formal schooling).[10] He was studying for his Matriculation (the successful completion of 12 years of formal schooling) when he was released on parole in August 1963. He was regarded by the authorities as a model prisoner.[11]
After working as a clerk for a couple of months, Ryan went to lunch and never returned. He had started robbing butcher shops and used explosives to blow their safes.[12]
Ryan and two accomplices were caught after a butcher shop robbery on 4 January 1964. He was charged with breaking and entering and theft offences on 6 January 1964. Bailed on 3 February 1964, Ryan skipped town and fled to New South Wales. He later admitted to nine robberies in New South Wales between 4 April and 11 July 1964. On a visit home on 14 July he was caught by Victoria Police in the early hours the next morning. On 13 November 1964 he received an eight-year prison sentence for breaking and entering. He was sent to Pentridge Prison.[1]
Escape [ edit ]
After Ryan was sentenced to Pentridge Prison, he was placed in B Division where he met fellow prisoner Peter John Walker (who was serving a 12-year sentence for bank robbery). When Ryan was informed that his wife was seeking a divorce, he made a plan to escape from prison. Walker decided to go along with him. Ryan planned to take himself and his family and flee to Brazil, which did not have an extradition treaty with Australia.[1][10] At around 2:07 pm on Sunday, 19 December 1965, Ryan and Walker put the escape plan into effect. As prison officers were taking turns attending a staff Christmas party in the officers' mess hall, Ryan and Walker scaled a five-metre prison wall with the aid of two wooden benches, a hook and blankets. Running along the top of the wall to a prison watch tower, they overpowered prison warder Helmut Lange and took his M1 carbine rifle. Ryan threatened Lange and demanded he pull the lever to open the prison tower gate. Lange, however, deliberately pulled the wrong lever. Ryan, Walker and Lange then proceeded down the steps to the tower gate, but it would not open. At the bottom of the stairs was the night officers' lodge. Warder Fred Brown was returning from lunch to relieve Lange when he was confronted by the escapees. Brown did not resist. When Ryan realised Lange had tricked him, he jabbed the rifle into Lange's back and marched him back up the stairs so Lange could pull the correct lever to open the tower gate. The two escapees then exited through the gate into the prison car park.[1] To the escapees' dismay there were only two cars in the car park and one had a flat tyre.[13]
However, they did encounter the prison chaplain, Brigadier James Hewitt of the Salvation Army, in the car park. The escapees grabbed Hewitt and used him as a shield. Ryan, armed with the rifle, pointed it at Hewitt and demanded his car. Prison Officer Bennett in Tower 2 saw the prisoners. Ryan called to Bennett to throw down his rifle. Bennett ducked out of sight and then got his rifle.[1]
When Hewitt told Ryan he did not have his car that day, Ryan rifle-butted him in the head causing serious injuries.[14] Les Watt, a petrol attendant who watched the escape from a petrol station on Sydney Rd, witnessed Ryan hitting Hewitt with the rifle.[15] The escapees then left the badly injured chaplain and Ryan ran out to Champ Street, directly in front of the south-west corner of the prison.[1]
Walker went south across Church Street toward the adjacent Roman Catholic church in Sydney Road. Prison officer Bennett had his rifle aimed at Walker and ordered Walker to halt or he would shoot. Walker took cover behind a small wall that bordered the church.[13] The prison alarm was raised by Warder Lange, and it began to blow loudly, indicating a prison escape. Unarmed warders, Wallis, Mitchinson and Paterson, came running out of the prison's main gate and onto the street.[1][16]
George Hodson, who had been having lunch in the prison officers' mess near the Number 1 post, responded to Lange's whistle. Bennett shouted to Hodson that he had a prisoner, Walker, pinned down behind the low church boundary wall. Hodson headed for Walker and picked up Walker's pipe. Hodson grappled with Walker but the escapee managed to break free so Hodson began hitting him over his head with the piece of pipe. Walker was a faster runner than Hodson, but Hodson continued to chase after Walker with the pipe still in his hand. Both men ran towards the armed Ryan.[1][16]
Meanwhile, confusion and noise were increasing around the busy intersection of Sydney Road and O'Hea Street and across to the Champ Street intersection, with Ryan waving the rifle around trying to get cars to stop so he could commandeer them, and people ducking for cover between cars.[1][16]
Frank and Pauline Jeziorski were travelling south on Champ Street and had slowed to give way to traffic on Sydney Rd when Ryan armed with the rifle appeared in front of their car. Ryan threatened the driver and his passenger wife to get out of their car. The driver, Frank Jeziorski, turned his car off, put it in neutral then got out of his vehicle. Ryan got in via the driver's door. Surpisingly, Pauline Jeziorski refused to get out of the car. She was persuaded by Ryan to get out, only to go back in the car to get her handbag.[17] Paterson, realising Ryan was armed, returned inside the prison to get a rifle.[18]
Warder William Mitchinson was first to reach the car and grabbed Ryan through the driver's window, he told Ryan "the game's up".[19] Warder Thomas Wallis who was following, ran to Pauline Jeziorski's side of the car. He grabbed her and pulled her away from the car.[18]
In frustration, Ryan forced Mitchinson to back off, then got out of the passenger's side door and noticed Walker running towards him, being chased by Hodson who was holding the pipe in his hand. Walker was shouting frantically to Ryan that prison guard William Bennett, standing on the Number 2 prison tower, had his rifle aimed at them. At this time, Hodson was chasing Walker,[1] Ryan took a couple of steps forward, raised his rifle, aimed at Hodson, and fired.[19]
George Hodson fell to the ground. He had been struck by a single bullet, travelling from front to back. The bullet had exited through Hodson's back, about an inch lower than the point of entry in his right chest. Hodson died in the middle of Sydney Road. Paterson, now with a rifle, ran back outside and onto Champ Street. He decided he could not get a clear shot, so he stood on a low wall in the prison's front garden. He aimed his rifle at Ryan, and claimed he fired a shot in the air when a woman came into his line of sight.[1]
Ryan and Walker ran past the critically wounded Hodson and commandeered a blue Standard Vanguard sedan on Sydney Road from its driver, Brian Mullins. With Walker driving and Ryan a passenger, the car travelled through an adjacent service station and then west along O'Hea Street.[13]
On the run [ edit ]
Ryan and Walker successfully eluded their pursuers outside Pentridge Prison and drove away before changing cars. They then made their way south following the Moonee Ponds Creek to change cars again before hiding in a safe house in Kensington provided by Norman Harold Murray. The following day the men moved into Christine Aitken's flat in Ormond Rd, Elwood.
The prison escape dominated newspapers and other media. One newspaper reported that, "Ronald Ryan, serving time for burglary, seized a prison officer and shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in the back."[20] Reports of their activities caused widespread anxiety.
On 23 December, Ryan (armed with the warder's rifle) and Walker robbed an ANZ bank in North Rd, Ormond. Ryan herded 13 people into the bank's strongroom and stole A£4500. A witness, June Crawford, told reporters, "a bandit told me 'This gun shot a man a few days ago.'"[21]
On 24 December 1965, the Victorian Government announced a £6,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Ryan and Walker. It was reported in The Age newspaper that the Chief Secretary and Attorney General, Arthur Rylah, had issued a warning to the escapees that the killing of Hodson during the prison escape was the worst Victoria had known and that the "Hanging Act was still in force."[1]
On 24 December (Christmas Eve), there was a party at the flat.[1] A petty criminal, John Fisher, who knew Ryan, and Arthur Henderson (Aitken's boyfriend) were there. After all their beer had been consumed, Walker and Henderson left to find sly-grog in Albert Park for more drinks. An hour later Walker returned alone to the flat. He had killed Henderson in a Middle Park toilet block. Henderson was shot in the back of his head by Walker. The escapees left the flat and returned to Kensington. On 26 December, Aitken and another woman were charged with harbouring the criminals. They came forward after Henderson was killed and the escapees had left. The charges were later dropped. The pair returned to hiding in the basement of the house in Kensington. Murray was given money to buy a car in Sydney and return with it. Murray returned with the car with Queensland plates on 31 December (New Year's Eve). Ryan and Walker left for Sydney on 1 January 1966 (New Year's Day) and arrived on 2 January.[13]
Recapture [ edit ]
After arriving in Sydney, Ryan and Walker endeavoured to establish some safe houses, Ryan also wanted to make contact with a woman he knew when he was in Sydney years ago, she was not home but her daughter was.[18] Ryan made an arrangement to meet the woman and daughter at Concord Repatriation Hospital on the evening of 6 January. Unknown to Ryan the daughter recognised Ryan and tipped off the police. Acting on the information, Detective Inspector Ray "Gunner" Kelly was alerted about their presence. DI Kelly with a heavily armed contingent of 50 police officers and detectives set a trap for them. When the escapee's car pulled up near the hospital, Ryan walked over to a nearby telephone box, but it had been deliberately put out of order, so he walked over to a neighbouring shop and asked to use the phone there. The owner had been instructed to tell Ryan that his phone was also out of order, and as Ryan walked out of the shop he was tackled by six detectives, dropping a loaded .32 revolver that he had been carrying. At the same moment Det. Sgt Fred Krahe thrust a shotgun through the car window and held it at Walker's head, and he was captured without a struggle.[22] Ryan and Walker had been on the run for 19 days. In the boot of the car Police found 3 pistols, a shotgun and two rifles, all fully loaded, an axe, jemmy, two coils of rope, a hacksaw and two boiler suits.[18]
Extradition [ edit ]
Ryan and Walker were extradited back to Melbourne. They were jointly tried for the murder of George Hodson. It is alleged that Ryan made three verbal confessions to police whilst being extradited to Melbourne. According to police, Ryan admitted to them he had shot prison officer Hodson. However, these verbal allegations were not signed by Ryan and he denied making such verbal or written confessions to anyone. The only signed document by Ryan was that he would give no verbal testimony.[23] Walker was also tried for the shooting murder of Arthur James Henderson during the period when he and Ryan were at large.
Trial and sentencing [ edit ]
On 15 March 1966, the case of The Queen v. Ryan and Walker began in the Supreme Court of Victoria. The first day was spent choosing the make up of the jury. Ryan and Walker each exercised their legal right in objecting to twenty candidates.
Crown's case [ edit ]
The Crown's case presented no scientific evidence. Ryan's rifle was never scientifically tested by ballistic forensic experts to prove it had fired a shot at all. The fatal bullet was never recovered so no ballistic and no forensic evidence was possible to prove or disprove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. The spent bullet casing (allegedly fired by Ryan) was never recovered so no ballistic and no forensic evidence was possible to prove Ryan had fired the fatal shot. [24]
The Crown's case relied only on eyewitnesses who were near Pentridge Prison when Hodson was shot and killed, because there was no scientific forensic evidence to prove Ryan fired a shot. Each eyewitness testified a different account of what they saw and where Ryan was standing. Eleven eyewitnesses testified that they saw Ryan waving and aiming his rifle. There were variations, whether Ryan was standing, walking or squatting at the time a single shot was heard and whether Ryan was to the left or right of Hodson. Only four eyewitnesses testified that they saw Ryan fire a shot. Two eyewitnesses testified that they saw smoke coming from Ryan's rifle. Two eyewitnesses testified that they saw Ryan recoil his rifle.[24]
Some witnesses testified that they saw Ryan's rifle recoil when he fired and also saw smoke from Ryan's rifle. The owners of the car Ryan got into, Frank and Pauline Jeziorski, were two of the witnesses. A warder, Thomas Wallis, testified that he saw smoke come out of the rifle Ryan was holding. Pauline Jeziorski testified that she smelled gunpowder after Ryan had fired the shot.[1][25]
At trial, all prison officers testified that they did not see Hodson carrying anything and that they did not see Hodson hit Walker. However, two witnesses, Louis Bailey and Keith Dobson, testified that they saw Hodson carrying something like an iron-bar or baton as he was chasing after Walker. Governor Grindlay testified that he did not see a bar near Hodson's body but that he found one after Hodson's body was loaded into an ambulance.
Verbal confessions [ edit ]
The Crown also relied upon unrecorded unsigned testimony that Ryan had, allegedly, verbally confessed to shooting Hodson.[26]
Detective Sergeant KP "Bill" Walters told the court that on 6 January 1966, the day after his re-capture in Sydney, Ryan said
In the heat of the moment you sometimes do an act without thinking. I think this is what happened with Hodson. He had no need to interfere. He was stupid. He was told to keep away. He grabbed Pete [Walker] and hit him with an iron bar. He caused his own death. I didn't want to shoot him. I could have shot a lot more.[27]
Detective Senior Constable Harry Morrison told the court that on 7 January 1966 during the flight returning Ryan back to Melbourne Ryan said: "The warder spoilt the whole show. If he had not poked his great head into it he would not have got shot. It was either him or Pete."[28]
The Crown also called the two bank officers from the bank that Ryan and Walker robbed. Robert Sipthorpe and George Robertson testified that Ryan said "This is the gun that shot a man the other day!" At trial, Ryan's defence lawyer Dr Philip Opas QC cross examined the two witnesses asking if instead they heard "This is the type of gun that shot a man the other day." Both witnesses stuck to their story.[26]
John Fisher, who had a long criminal history and had not seen or heard from Ryan for more than two years, testified that he asked Ryan who had shot Hodson. Fisher said Ryan told him he had shot Hodson.[1]
None of the verbal confessions were signed by Ryan, who only signed documents saying that he would give no verbal testimony. Ryan testified he had been "verballed" and denied the allegations of verbals/confessions said to have been made by him.[23]
Defence's case [ edit ]
The main problem for the defence was that Victoria had the Gaols Act of 1958 in which it stated:
Every male person lawfully imprisoned for any crime misdemeanour or offence by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction, or employed at labour as a criminal on the roads or other public works of Victoria who escapes or attempts to escape from any gaol or from the custody of any member of the police force gaoler or other officer in whose custody he may be, shall be guilty of felony:
If a killing occurs by an act of violence in the course of a commission of a felony involving violence or in the furtherance of the purpose of such a felony the accused is guilty of murder even though, there is no actual intention of killing.[29]
The defence spent a lot of time arguing about when the time of the felony ended. Did it end after the prisoners had cleared the prison walls or did it once the prisoners were caught and returned to custody?.[30]
The defence pointed to various substantial discrepancies in The Crown's case. While some eyewitnesses testified they saw Ryan to the east of Hodson when a single shot was heard, other eyewitnesses testified Ryan was to the west of Hodson. The discrepancies in evidence were substantial and wide-ranging. Opas contended that each of the fourteen eyewitnesses evidence were so contradictory that little store could be placed on them.[10]
Philip Opas produced a human skeleton as a visual aid to explain the trajectory of the fatal bullet, Opas argued that the ballistics evidence indicated that the fatal bullet entered Hodson's (chest) body in a downward trajectory. He also got a Monash University mathematics professor Terry Speed, to explain that Ryan 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall would have had to have been 8 feet 3 inches (2.55 m) tall to have fired the shot.[31] These calculations were based on Ryan being twenty feet from Hodson and Hodson was standing perfectly upright. The bullet would enter Hodson's body 62 inches from the ground and exit 61 inches from the ground. If the shot was in a downward angle the bullet would have hit the road forty feet from where Hodson was hit, it also suggested that Hodson could have been shot from another elevated point and possibly by another prison officer. It would cast doubt that Ryan had fired the fatal shot. But the prosecution argued that Hodson 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall could have been running in a stooped position, thus accounting for the bullet's fatal angle of entry.[10] No witnesses saw or testified seeing Hodson running in a stooped position.[1][16]
The trajectory theory put forward by Opas, the trial judge dismissed the theory as did the judges at the Appeal two months later. They said there was enough evidence to say Hodson was not standing fully erected but was running in a forward leaning position when he was shot.[30]
Opas in defending Ryan put a lot of pressure on a warder who made conflicting statements, Paterson had made several mutually contradictory statements to police about what he saw, heard and did on that day. In his first statement given to Detective Sergeant Carton on 19 December 1965 Paterson said; "I did not hear a shot fired other than the one I fired." In a second statement given to Senior Detective Morrison on 12 January 1966 Paterson said; "Just as I turned into the entrance to the garden I heard a shot." In a third statement on 3 February 1966 Paterson said; "I ran back inside and asked for a gun, I went to the main gate and I received a gun and ran back outside, as I was running on to the lawn I heard the crack of a shot." Paterson changed his story, too, about who was in the line of fire when he aimed his rifle. In his first statement Paterson said; "I sighted my rifle at Ryan and was about to fire when a woman walked into the line of fire and I lifted my rifle." In his second statement Paterson said; "I took aim at Ryan but two prison officers were in the line of fire so I dropped my rifle again." In his third statement Paterson said; "I took aim at Ryan and I found out I had to fire between two prison officers to get Ryan, so I lowered my gun again." [1][10]
Ryan testified that he kept his rifle to prove his innocence in the event of recapture, as he knew that forensic microscopic markings on the spent bullet would prove that it was not fired from his rifle.[10][32]
Despite extensive search by police, neither the fatal bullet nor the spent cartridge were ever found. Although all prison-authorised rifles were the same M1 carbine type, scientific forensic testing of the bullet would have proven which rifle fired the fatal shot – every rifle leaves a microscopic "unique marker" on the fired bullet as it travels through the barrel of the rifle.[32]
All the bullets in Ryan's M1 carbine rifle would be accounted for if Ryan cocked the rifle with the safety-catch on, this faulty operation (conceded by prison officer Lange, assistant prison governor Robert Duffy, and confirmed by ballistic experts at trial) would have caused an undischarged bullet to be ejected, spilling onto the floor of the guard tower. Opas established that a person who was inexperienced in handling that type of rifle and its cocking-lever rifle, it would be easy to jam the rifle and any attempt to clear the jam would result in a live round being ejected.
On the eighth day of the trial Ryan was sworn in and took the witness stand. Ryan denied firing a shot, denied the alleged verbal (unsigned) confessions said to have been made by him, and denied ever saying to anyone that he had shot a man. According to Ryan, they were after the reward money by making false allegations.[1] "At no time did I fire a shot. My freedom was the only objective. The rifle was taken in the first instance so that it could not be used against me."
After a trial in the Victorian Supreme Court lasting twelve sitting days Ryan was convicted of the murder of Hodson and sentenced to death by Justice John Starke, the mandatory sentence at that time. Asked if he had anything to say before sentencing Ryan stated "I still maintain my innocence. I will consult with my counsel with a view to appeal. That is all I have to say!"[33] Walker was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. He would later be found guilty of manslaughter for the death of Arthur Henderson and receive an additional 12 years sentence.
After the trial [ edit ]
According to juryman Tom Gildea, the jury evidently thought that the death sentence would be commuted, as had happened in the previous 35 death penalties cases since 1951. Gildea's account of the discussions in the jury room, not one member of the jury thought that Ryan would be executed.[34] Gildea said,
Of the jury, two members held out the first vote we took, but 10 of us were sure Ryan was guilty. He was a bit too sure of himself in the witness box but the thing that decided us was handling the rifle which had killed Hodson. We had been told the rifle had a hair trigger,[35] but when we examined it we found we had to pull it at least half an inch and use quite a bit of force."[36] Eight members of the jury were experienced with rifles either in the country or overseas with war service.[36][37]
Gildea also said, "I don't know how much experience the judge and the lawyers had but we had had our share in the jury box I can tell you."[36]
When it was apparent that the Victorian Government was intent on hanging Ryan, Gildea contacted the nine other jury members he could trace.[34] Gildea said that of the twelve jurors, three refused to sign petitions, one older man who was convinced of Ryan's guilt and the two who believe Ryan was not guilty. Two other jurors could not be contacted.[34][37]
Seven jury members, including Gildea, signed separate petitions requesting Ryan's death sentence be commuted to life in prison.[34] Later, some of the jurors came forth and stated they would never have convicted Ryan of murder had they known that he would in fact be executed.[1] Gildea said "We didn't want the rope. If we had known Ryan would hang, I think we would have gone for manslaughter."[36][37]
Appeal [ edit ]
Opas decided to appeal against the murder verdict. The appeal was to the Victorian Court of Criminal Appeal, a bench consisting of three judges of the Supreme Court. The basis of the appeal was that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. He argued that as a matter of law that the inherent inconsistencies and improbabilities and even impossibilities in the evidence.[38]
At the trial there had been a legal argument on when the crime of escaping from jail had been completed. In the Crimes act, a relevant section provides that "every male person lawfully imprisoned for any crime who escapes shall be guilty of a felony".[38]
At the trial, Mr Justice Starke had directed the jury: "In certain circumstances, the crime of murder may be established even though the accused had no intention of killing. And that is so in these circumstances. If a killing occurs by an act of violence in the course of a commission of a felony involving violence, or in the furtherance of the purpose of such felony, the accused is guilty of murder, even though there is no actual intention of killing."[38] There was long legal argument on when the escape felony finished, did it stop once Ryan and Walker left the prison property or did it continue until they were caught in Sydney nineteen days later?[38]
The appeal was dismissed on 8 June 1966.[38]
On 14 October 1966, the Full High Court rejected appeals by Ryan and Walker.[39] With all legal avenues yet to be exhausted, legal aid to Ryan was cut by the Bolte Government. Premier Bolte then directed the Public Solicitor to withdraw Opas' brief as the government was not going to fund the petition to the Privy Council.[10]
Ryan had a right to increased free legal assistance for expert forensics analysis, to hire expert witnesses, and to present a series of appeals and recourses that were available to those facing execution by the government. The Full Court agreed that it was unthinkable that a man should be executed before he had exhausted his ultimate right of appeals. Opas decided to apply to the Privy Council in London. The appeal is a vestigial remnant of an appeal to the sovereign in person.[10]
On 12 December 1966, the State Executive Council (Premier Bolte's cabinet) announced that Ryan would hang on 9 January 1967.
Opas, convinced of Ryan's innocence, agreed to work without pay. Opas consulted the Ethics Committee of the Bar Council to seek approval to make a public appeal for a solicitor prepared to brief him, as Opas was prepared to pay his travel, other expenses and appear without fee. The Committee said that this would be touting for business and was unethical. Opas argued that a man's life was at stake and he could not see how he would be touting when no payment was involved. Opas defied the ruling and on national radio sought an instructor. Opas was inundated with offers and accepted the first application, being from Ralph Freadman. Alleyne Kiddle was in London completing a master's degree and she agreed to take a junior brief without a fee.[10]
On 4 January 1967, the State Executive Council stayed Ryan's execution pending an approach to the Privy Council.[39]
Opas then flew to London to present Ryan's case to the highest judges in the Commonwealth. Ryan's execution was delayed by Premier Bolte awaiting the Privy Council's decision.
On 23 January 1967, the Privy Council Judicial Committee refused Ryan leave for appeal.[39]
On 25 January 1967, the State Executive Council set Ryan's execution date as 31 January.[39]
On 30 January 1967, Justice Starke ordered a stay of execution following an affidavit from former prisoner John Tolmie who said he saw a warder fire a shot from Number 1 tower at the time of the murder.[39] The following day Tolmie was charged with perjury for making a false affidavit; he was not in gaol at the time of the escape.[40]
Bolte scheduled Ryan's execution for the morning of Friday 3 February 1967, a week before the dismissal of the appeal to the Privy Council was published in the Government Gazette.[10][41]
Final appeals [ edit ]
The State Government of Victoria had commuted every death sentence passed since 1951, after Robert Clayton, Norman Andrews and Jean Lee were executed for the torture and murder of an old man.[42]
Starke reported that the Premier of Victoria, Sir Henry Bolte, insisted that the death sentence be carried out.[43] Bolte's cabinet was unanimous although there were at least four State cabinet members who opposed capital punishment.[43]
When it became apparent that Bolte intended to proceed with the execution, a secret eleventh-hour plea for mercy was made by four of the jury members. They sent petitioning letters to the Governor of Victoria, Sir Rohan Delacombe, stating that in reaching their verdict they believed that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria and requested that the governor exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and commute Ryan's sentence of death. Such Melbourne newspapers as The Age, The Herald and The Sun all ran campaigns opposing the hanging of Ryan. The papers ran a campaign of spirited opposition on the grounds that the death penalty was barbaric. Churches, universities, unions and a large number of the public and legal professions opposed the death sentence. An estimated 18,000 people participated in street protests and around 15,000 signed a petition against the hanging. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) suspended radio broadcasts for two minutes as a protest.[1]
Bolte denied all requests for mercy and was determined that Ryan would hang.[44] On the afternoon of the eve of Ryan's hanging, Opas appeared before the trial judge, Justice John Starke, seeking a postponement of the execution due to the opportunity to test new proffered evidence. Opas pleaded with Starke and said, "Why the indecent haste to hang this man until we have tested all possible exculpatory evidence?" Starke, however, rejected the application.[45]
Attorney-General, Arthur Rylah, rejected a second plea to refer Ryan's case to the Full Court under Section 584 of the Crimes Act. A third attempt to save Ryan, in the form of a petition presented at the Crown Solicitor's office pleading for clemency, was also rejected. Close secrecy surrounded all government moves on the Ryan case. That evening, a former Pentridge prisoner, Allan John Cane, arrived in Melbourne from Brisbane in a new bid to save Ryan. An affidavit by Cane, which was presented to Cabinet, says he and seven prisoners were outside the cookhouse when they saw and heard a prison warder fire a shot from the No. 1 guard post at Pentridge Prison the day Hodson was shot. Police had interviewed these prisoners but none were called on at the trial to give evidence. Cane was immediately rushed into conference with his solicitor, Bernard Gaynor, who tried to contact cabinet ministers informing them of Cane's arrival. Gaynor telephoned Government House seeking an audience with the Governor, Sir Rohan Delacombe. However, Gaynor was told by a Government House spokesman that nobody would be answering calls until 9 am (one hour after Ryan's scheduled execution). Gaynor said Cane's mission had failed.[46]
At 23:00, Ryan was informed that his final petition for mercy had been rejected. More than 3,000 people gathered outside Pentridge Prison in protest of the hanging. Shortly before midnight more than 200 police were at the prison to control the demonstrators.[47]
Execution [ edit ]
On the night before the execution Ryan was transferred to a cell just a few steps away from the gallows trapdoor. Father Brosnan was with him most of this time. At the eleventh hour Ryan wrote his last letters to his family members, to his defence counsel, to the Anti-Hanging Committee and to Father Brosnan. The letters were handwritten on toilet paper inside his cell and neatly folded. In the documentary film The Last Man Hanged Ryan's letter to The Anti-Hanging Committee is read out loud to the public. Ryan wrote; "... I state most emphatically that I am not guilty of murder." Ryan's last letter was to his daughters, it contained this line "With regard to my guilt I say only that I am innocent of intent and have a clear conscience in the matter."[48]
Ryan refused to have any sedatives but he did have a nip of whisky, and walked calmly onto the gallows trapdoor. Ronald Ryan's last words were to the hangman; "God bless you, please make it quick."[49]
Ryan was hanged in 'D' Division at Pentridge Prison at 8:00 am on Friday 3 February 1967.
A nationwide three-minute silence was observed by Ryan's supporters at the exact time that Ryan was hanged.
Later that day, Ryan's body was buried in an unmarked grave within the "D" Division prison facility.
Forty years later in 2007, the Victorian Premier John Brumby granted permission for Ryan's family members to have his body exhumed from Pentridge Prison after Hodson's daughter jumped and danced on Ryan's grave.[50] Ryan's remains were cremated and placed next to his deceased ex-wife in Portland Cemetery.[51]
Appearance and personality [ edit ]
Ryan was a slightly built man who stood 5 ft 8 inches (173 cm) tall. He had suffered an injury to his left eye as a child resulting in a permanent droop of his left eyelid. He favoured expensive clothing, aiming to impress others, and aspired to be known as Australia's leading criminal.[52] He was of above-average intelligence and was described by the people who knew him and prison authorities as a likable character but also a compulsive gambler.[8]
Arresting officer Det Harding described Ryan as "... tough, plausible and particularly difficult to question, he gave nothing away until he realised the game was up."[8]
Later statements [ edit ]
Nineteen years after Ryan's execution, a former warder, Doug Pascoe, claimed on air to Channel 9 and other media that he had fired a shot during Ryan's escape bid. Pascoe said his shot may have accidentally killed his fellow prison guard, Hodson. Pascoe had not told anyone that he fired a shot during the escape because at that time, "I was a 23-year-old coward." In 1986, he tried to sell his story but his claim was dismissed by police because his rifle had a full magazine after the shooting and he was too far away.[53][54]
Pascoe's claim was rejected by another former warder, Bill Newman. Newman claimed that he was in Tower 3 the afternoon of the escape and that Pascoe was in Tower 4. Tower 3 was 200 metres from the shooting and Tower 4 was 500 metres away.[55] Police produced a photocopy of the duty roster for the day that showed that Newman was meant to have been in Tower 3 and Pascoe in Tower 4.[54]
Though Opas claimed that the staff duty roster was virtually meaningless on the day of the shooting because prison officers were taking turns sitting in for their colleagues while they attended the annual staff Christmas party, Newman said he returned to his tower (3) at 1.45 pm and later signed statements for the police.[54] According to the duty roster Robert Paterson was not on duty either but in fact he was on duty – he was the one that fired a shot.[10]
Retired prison governor Ian Grindlay said that Ryan told him "straight out" that he had shot but not meant to kill Hodson.[55]
Sister Margaret Kingston of the Good Shepherd Convent in Abbotsford, said Ryan told her that he had shot Hodson, but had not meant to kill him.[56]
Eyewitness [ edit ]
Twenty-five years after being a witness in Ryan's trial, where he gave evidence claiming to have seen him commit the murder, a man broke his silence, for fear that the alleged killer was becoming a latter-day Ned Kelly.[57] Les Watt wrote to The Australian: "Let me assure you and your readers that Ryan did kill Hodson." Watt spoke out after reading Philip Opas' comments and the latter's autobiography.[58] Watt was one of four witnesses to testify seeing Ryan fire a shot. Watt said that it might well be proper for Opas to leave the bar as his emotional involvement with the case had certainly distorted the facts, leading as it had to the suggestion that Ryan might not have fired the shot that killed Hodson. Watt, on the contrary, said that he saw Ryan take aim and fire and then saw Hodson fall flat on his face and not move. "It was a sickening sight. I also witnessed a slight puff of smoke come from the carbine Ryan used. This was probably as a result of a bullet passing through a well-oiled barrel bore."[59]
Case for innocence [ edit ]
An Australian criminologist, Gordon Hawkins, the director of Sydney University's Institute of Criminology, doubts the damning validity of the "unsigned confessions" of Ryan in a television film documentary, Beyond reasonable doubt.[23] Although verbal confessions are not permissible in court, in the 1960s the public and therefore the jury, were much more trusting of the police.[60] As to whether as a result an innocent man was hanged, there is at least a reasonable doubt. Following revelations of police corruption uncovered by various Australian police royal commissions.[60] Australian police have to record or tape all interviews they carry out in connection with a crime. The police had no evidence of these unsigned verbal confessions. Ryan signed only a statement saying that he would not be giving any statements, verbal or written, to anyone except his lawyer. Hawkins questions why Ryan, a seasoned criminal, would suddenly feel the need to tell all to the police.[23]
In 1993, a former Pentridge prisoner, Harold Sheehan, claimed he had witnessed the shooting but had not come forward at the time. Sheehan saw Ryan on his knees when the shot rang out and, therefore, Ryan could not have inflicted the wound that had killed Hodson, which passed in a downward trajectory.[10]
All prison-authorised M1 carbine rifles, including that seized by Ryan from Lange, were issued loaded with eight rounds ball. Seven of the eight were accounted for in Ryan's case. If the eighth fell onto the floor of the prison watch-tower when Ryan cocked the rifle with the safety catch on, thereby ejecting a live round, then the bullet that killed Hodson must have been fired by a person other than Ryan.[4][10][61]
In a letter, "Opas on Ryan – The innocence of Ronald Ryan", written to the Victorian Bar Association and published in the Victorian Bar News (Spring 2002), Opas responded[10] to an assertion made by Julian Burnside, in reviewing Mike Richard's book The Hanged Man, that Ryan was guilty, but that while the verdict was correct the punishment was wrong.[62]
Opas disagreed with this assertion, refusing to believe that at any time Ryan confessed to anyone that he fired a shot and denying the existence of any evidence whatsoever that Ryan ever confessed guilt to anyone, either verbally or in writing.[10]
Ryan gave evidence and swore that he did not fire at Hodson. He denied firing a shot at all. Ryan denied the alleged verbal confessions said to have been made by him. Opas says the last words Ryan said to him were; "We've all got to go sometime, but I don't want to go this way for something I didn't do."[10]
On 26 March 2003, just months prior to his death, Catholic priest Father John Brosnan was asked on ABC Radio by journalist Kellie Day about Ryan, who was believed to have fired the fatal shot during the prison breakout. Brosnan said; "No, I won't make a hero out of him. He caused a situation. I don't know whose bullet killed who, but a friend of mine died. But I'll tell you what, he had heroic qualities." [63] Father Brosnan said. "George was a nice fellow, but his wife had left him, taking their thirteen-year-old daughter with her, and he didn't have much of a life. I used to talk to him at Pentridge and drop in to see him in St Kilda sometimes to cheer him up." [34]
On 1 March 2004, in an interview with the Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty (ACADP),[64] Opas said: "I want to put the record straight. I want the truth told about Ronald Ryan – that an innocent man went to the gallows. I want the truth to be made available to everyone, for anyone young and old, who may want to do research into Ryan's case or research on the issue of capital punishment. I will go to my grave firmly of the opinion that Ronald Ryan did not commit murder. I refuse to believe that at any time he told anyone that he did".[65]
On 23 August 2008, Philip Opas QC, died after a long illness at the age of 91. Opas maintained Ryan's innocence to the end.[66] Opas asked Australian Coalition President Dorina Lisson to keep fighting to clear Ryan's name.[67] According to Ms Lisson, she and others are determined to have Ryan's murder conviction overturned because there is no scientific ballistic forensic evidence to prove Ryan guilty of murder, that a wrongly convicted man was hanged based solely on unsigned unrecorded unproven "hearsay" allegations of verbals/confessions.[67]
For 35 years, Barry Jones, who was a member of both the Victorian and Federal Parliaments refused to comment publicly on Ryan's hanging. Mr Jones broke his silence in 2002 at the launch of Mike Richards' book, The Hanged Man.[68] Mr Jones says he remains "unsure" of whether Ryan ever pulled the trigger. "It seemed to me that there was probably a reasonable doubt in the case," he said.[68] Mr Jones, also the former secretary of the Victorian Anti-Hanging Committee says he believes Ryan's hanging was an attempt by then Victorian Premier Henry Bolte, to push his law and order agenda.[68]
Justice Starke, the judge at Ryan's trial and a committed abolitionist, was convinced of Ryan's guilt but did not personally think that he should hang. Until his death in 1992, Starke remained troubled about Ryan's hanging and would often ask his colleagues if they thought he did the right thing.[1] Philip Opas' junior in the trial, Brian Bourke, was filmed in 2005 saying ″One of the problems of Ryan's trial was an alleged admission that he made on the plane back to the homicide fellows. That sort of thing can't happen now, because they've got to be recorded on tape, but whether he made the admission or was verballed, I don't know. He was a pretty talkative fellow, he might have. I didn't have much doubt about his guilt.″[69]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Books [ edit ]
Pamphlets [ edit ]
Whiticker, Alan J., Ronald Ryan: Last Man Hanged, New Holland Publishers Australia, 2013, pp. 26.[70]
Plays [ edit ]
Film and television documentaries [ edit ]
Other [ edit ]
An Epiphany Window was installed at St James the Great Anglican Church a few weeks after the execution. It was created by the artist Dr Miroslav "Dismas" Zika, who etched an inscription in Latin into the glass towards the base of the window, a translation of which in English is rendered "Dismas made this in 1967 at the beginning of the month when Bolte, scandalous, arrogant, was demanding Ryan suffer capital punishment." Bolte considered this objectionable. The Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Frank Woods, apologised to the Premier, clarifying that the inscription had neither been included in the original design brief, nor had any "official authorisation", and that the offending inscription would be removed. Dr Zika remained unrepentant.[78] |
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum corrected Whoopi Goldberg’s misconception that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms as one of their services, on Wednesday’s “The View.” (RELATED: Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards: Well, OK, No, We Don’t Perform Mammograms)
“I’m for reallocating every dollar that goes to Planned Parenthood and put them in women’s health centers that actually provide more comprehensive services than Planned Parenthood does,” Santorum said. “Planned Parenthood, for example, doesn’t provide mammograms.”
Goldberg tried to correct Santorum, but he insisted, “No, Cecile Richards yesterday at the hearing said, in fact they do not. In fact, there are no Planned Parenthoods that provide any mammogram services. They basically provide abortion, contraception, STDs and pregnancy tests. That’s it.” (RELATED: Jim Jordan Unloads On Planned Parenthood President)
Santorum suggested reallocating the federal funding Planned Parenthood receives to go to “clinics that provide a whole host of other women’s health services. Women are probably going to get a more holistic health screening at those places than they would at Planned Parenthood.”
In light of the federal funding Planned Parenthood receives, Santorum admitted “the money that we’re reallocating has nothing to do with abortion.”
Santorum argued the removing federal funds for Planned Parenthood “shouldn’t affect abortions unless of course, they are commingling funds. And that’s one of the questions that people have.”
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A communications strategist for more than two decades, Edan Gelt has often debated with colleagues and clients about which is more important, presentation or content. This argument has covered everything from RFPs and presentations to advertising campaigns and website development. On one hand, you want to present the importance of your concept but on the other hand, a ton of data does not entice someone to consider you.
Decisions
The best way to describe the presentation and content is to relate it to the way children make choices.
It’s a holiday, you offer two equally sized packages to your child and tell him/her to choose one to open. One of the packages is wrapped in sparkly paper with a beautiful bow – the other a brown beat up, raggedy box.
In the brown box sits a brand new iPad, the other sparkly package contains a blank old notebook of the same weight. The child doesn’t know what each box contains. Which box will be chosen?
Plan Ahead
Before you create your presentation, RFP, website, etc. – know your target audience. According to Edan Gelt, if you don’t know your audience, you won’t know how to engage them. For example, my son would want something wrapped in blue where my daughter would immediately go for the sparkly wrapping.
Are you presenting your ideas to clients, partners, or colleagues? Do you want to encourage, inspire, or persuade them to take action? Knowing your audience and your goals will help you craft your content and presentation. What package do they want to open and what do they expect to find?
Content with a Kick
This involves gathering data and supporting information about your content and including visuals to make your message clear. Consider what your audience needs to remember after you deliver your message. Begin by removing all the information that isn’t important or may be confusing.Then add color, pictures, metaphors, examples or whatever it takes to make the content visually appealing and relatable
Designer Delivery
If you are emailing an RFP or delivering a speech – connecting with your audience doesn’t just depend on the presentation itself. The delivery is just as important – the introductory email, the passion that shines through when you talk, or the platform you use to introduce a new product.
If you are emailing your RFP, relate to the person you are emailing. Learn about them and express interest before adding the “attached, please find”.
If you are giving a speech, be dynamic, use body language and facial expressions to engross the crowd – show the passion behind the product.
If you’re promoting a website through an online platform – engage with the audience with information they find relevant that relates to your website.
Using snail mail? Consider packaging that entices the recipient to open the package.
Conclusion
While many professionals prioritize content, the presentation should never be neglected in lieu of great information. You may have the most relevant and groundbreaking information or product of all time, but an uninteresting delivery will bore your audience or may never reach them.
According to Edan Gelt, a fancy package or dynamic presentation might dazzle the audience but will achieve nothing if your content is lacking. This only proves that presentation and content are equally important to a successful end result.
Originally published at http://www.allperfectstories.com/author/edangelt/
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel says EU leaders have taken an "important step forward"
Twenty-five of the EU's 27 member states have agreed to join a fiscal treaty to enforce budget discipline.
The Czech Republic and the UK refused to sign up. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said his government would act if the treaty threatened UK interests.
He still has "legal concerns" about the use of EU institutions in enforcing the fiscal treaty, he said.
The Czechs cited "constitutional reasons" for their refusal, France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a Eurosceptic, may be reluctant to sign the treaty, analysts say.
The goal is much closer co-ordination of budget policy across the EU to prevent excessive debts accumulating.
Germany - the eurozone's biggest lender and most powerful economy - was particularly keen to get a binding treaty adopted to enforce budget rules.
The treaty will empower the European Court of Justice to monitor compliance and impose fines on rule-breakers.
The treaty also spells out the enhanced role of the European Commission in scrutinising national budgets.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption British PM David Cameron: "We will not be ratifying this treaty and it places no obligation on the UK"
The Czech Republic is not yet in the euro, but like the other new EU member states it is committed to joining.
European Union leaders also discussed ways to stimulate economic growth despite the stringent austerity budgets in many countries - and focused on how to reduce unemployment across the eurozone.
UK concerns
The UK and Denmark are the only states with explicit opt-outs from the euro.
Mr Cameron said "it's good that the new treaty is absolutely explicit and clear that it cannot encroach on the competences of the EU".
Analysis No-one believes that this treaty on its own will solve anything, and it could face an uncertain future. The Socialist candidate in the French presidential election Francois Hollande has promised to renegotiate it if he wins, and President Nicolas Sarkozy has now confirmed that the treaty will not be ratified in France before the election takes place. In fact given general agreement on the need for measures to promote growth, some critics have described the fiscal treaty as little more than a distraction. But Germany has pushed hard for its implementation - partly to persuade political opinion in Berlin that there really will be strict rules in place to ensure that another debt crisis can't happen in the future. Only then will Germany consider spending more money to help other countries which are struggling with their debts now. The fear is that if Germany doesn't act, the current crisis will only get worse. Q&A: Debt crisis deal What caused the crisis?
"They must not take measures that in any way undermine the EU single market," he said, adding: "we'll be watching like a hawk".
He insisted that the treaty would impose "no obligations on the UK".
Mr Cameron used his veto last month to opt out of the treaty, arguing that the UK needed to keep its authority over financial services in the City of London.
The eurozone crisis dominated Monday's summit, with debt-laden Greece still at risk of defaulting.
A general strike in Belgium, paralysing transport, reminded EU leaders of public discontent with austerity as they arrived for the summit.
The talks also concentrated on reducing unemployment, which is averaging 10% across the eurozone, though youth unemployment is often much higher.
There are fears that wide-ranging budget cuts will harm enterprise and training.
The leaders discussed measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), many of which complain of excessive administrative costs imposed by Brussels.
In a joint statement on economic growth they noted that cutting budget deficits was "not in itself sufficient".
"We have to modernise our economies and strengthen our competitiveness to secure sustainable growth," the statement said.
The EU will help to fund schemes to get young people into work or training in member states with the highest youth unemployment levels.
They pledged to speed up measures to develop the EU single market, including:
agreement on a common EU patent system by July;
better targeting of EU funds towards SMEs;
national legislation to create a functioning single market in services and energy.
The European Commission says 82bn euros (£69bn; $107bn) of EU money is available for countries to spend on projects to boost jobs and growth. |
Longtime radio personality DJ Mister Cee is resigning from Hot 97 for the second time in a year according to colleague and friend, Funkmaster Flex. Flex posted the above photo on his Instagram account with the caption, "Resignation Alert!!! Today will be @djmistercee last day on @hot97 !!! Tune in and wish him well!!!! @djfunkflex " This is the third major loss Hot 97 has had this year as longtime host Angie Martinez left for rival Power 105.1 and Karlie Hustle, the station's former Music Director, left to pursue new business ventures.
Cee, who is known for his popular "Throwback At Noon" mix on the station, has been in the press over the past few years for his sexual escapades. On numerous occasions, Cee has been caught engaging in sexual activities with transexual prostitutes and opened up to GQ about his sexuality earlier this year. The DJ left the station back in 2013 but quickly returned. There has been no word from Cee at this time but you can tune into Hot 97 tonight from 8-10 P.M. EST to hear what he has to say. |
Would you call your baby Khaleesi? How the Game of Thrones-inspired name is now more common in the U.S. than Betsy
The name Khaleesi has become more popular than Imogen, Susannah and Betsy, according to new data from the Social Security Administration.
The moniker, which shot to prominence thanks to the character played by actress Emilia Clarke in the hit HBO series Game of Thrones, was given to 146 baby girls in 2012.
In contrast, just 111 were named Imogen, 137 were named Betsy and 138 were named Nadine.
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Strange but true: Khaleesi is fast-becoming a hit with new parents thanks to the popularity of Game of Thrones - in the TV series the character is played by British actress, Emilia Clarke (pictured)
The name Khaleesi was invented by author George R. R. Martin for the Mother of Dragons character in his epic fantasy fiction series.
Game of Thrones was first published in 1996 and went on to become a New York Times bestseller in 2011, the same year it launched on HBO.
In 2010, less than five newborns were named Khaleesi, this then rose to 28 in 2011 and then more than quintupled the following year.
According to BabyNameWizard.com Khaleesi means for 'queen' or ‘ruler’ in the Game of Thones' fictional language, Dothraki.
Trending high: In 2012, new data released by the Social Security Administration reveals that 146 babies in the U.S. were given the offbeat moniker, surpassing more traditional names such as Betsy and Nadine
But this is not the first Game of Thrones-inspired baby name to become popular.
In 2012, the website Nameberry reported that the names Arya and Theon leapt in popularity.
Arya, the name of a lord’s daughter who is fiercely independent and loves learning skills like archery, became the site’s most popular girl’s name that July.
Meanwhile Theon, a character torn between his birth and foster family, was at number eight on boys’ names at that time.
However, according to the Social Security Administration findings they failed to trend like Khaleesi. |
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