text
stringlengths 1
100k
|
|---|
Muslim leaders were also among the gathering in Belfast. |
Earlier this month, police said they were reviewing the number of patrols in Belfast following a spate of hate crime attacks on homes and property in the city. |
Image caption Shoppers outside a Tesco branch in Belfast city centre made reference to the comments made by Mr Robinson |
In April, a senior police officer said said the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), had been orchestrating racist attacks in south and east Belfast. |
ACC Will Kerr told the Policing Board it had contributed to an overall 70% rise in hate crime in Belfast and had "a deeply unpleasant taste of a bit of ethnic cleansing". |
Saturday's anti-racism rally in Derry attracted about 100 supporters. |
Among the crowd was Environment Minister Mark H Durkan and Mayor of Derry Martin Reilly. |
The city centre rally was addressed by a member of the local Muslim community, Sameh Hassan. |
This story is about Published May. 2016 |
10 things to know about acting Baylor coach Jim Grobe, including multiple connections to the Bears Share This Story On... Twitter |
Facebook |
Email |
** FILE ** Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe walks off the field after their 21-14 win over Boston College in a college football game in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 4, 2006. The Demon Deacons are tied atop the ACC's Atlantic Division and ranked 18th nationally. They already have matched the school's single-season win record. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) ORG XMIT: NCCB204 |
By Shehan Jeyarajah , Special Contributor Contact Shehan Jeyarajah on Twitter: @ShehanJeyarajah |
Baylor football announced the hiring of Jim Grobe as acting head coach on Monday afternoon. The former Wake Forest coach has a 110-115-1 career record, including an ACC title. Here are 10 things to know about the interim Baylor coach: 1. Pristine reputation With what Baylor is going through right now, Grobe's impeccable character is perhaps the most important thing to know. In fact, Grobe's personal values were so important to his hiring, Baylor went as far as to include national input about his hiring in the press release. |
The quotes from Baylor's release on the hiring of Jim Grobe from media personalities are a great endorsement: pic.twitter.com/0Z74cHaeWc — Colt Barber (@Colt_247Sports) May 30, 2016 |
Grobe served as chair of the American Football Coaches Association ethics committee for eight seasons, from 2006 to 2013. Only three coaches have served in the role longer. Having a coach of such universal acclaim for the 2016 season will be essential as the Bears try to distance themselves from the scandal that rocked Waco. 2. Baylor connection Many Baylor fans will be familiar with the AFCA -- it is headquartered in Waco. Additionally, legendary Baylor coach Grant Teaff has presided over the organization since the 1993 season and developed a close relationship with Grobe. Teaff was consulted by Baylor on the decision. "[Grobe] is really what needed at this time," Teaff told The Dallas Morning News' Chuck Carlton. "He's one of the finest men I know." |
Former Baylor coach, AFCA head Grant Teaff says Jim Grobe "is really what Baylor needed at this time... He's one of the finest men I know." — Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) May 30, 2016 |
3. Beginnings and ends Grobe's hiring signals the end of Art Briles' tenure as Bears head coach. Ironically, Briles' career also started with Grobe. On Aug. 29, 2008, a speedy freshman named Robert Griffin III took his first steps onto Floyd Casey Stadium's turf, coached by Briles. On the other sideline was Grobe and his Wake Forest Demon Deacons, possessing a preseason ranking for the first time in school history. Wake quarterback Riley Skinner threw three touchdown passes to help catapult Wake Forest to a 41-13 win over the Bears. Griffin had 154 yards of total offense in the loss. 4. Previous interest Grobe was offered the job and accepted over the long Memorial Day weekend. However, this is not the first time he was reportedly offered a chance to coach Baylor football. According to Fox Sports, Grobe was offered the Baylor job nearly 15 years ago, after Kevin Steele was fired in 2002. Grobe had just finished a promising first season in Winston-Salem and opted to stick with his existing team. The Bears gave the position to Kentucky coach Guy Morriss, who went 18-40 in five seasons. In a funny way, Grobe coming on as interim coach says a lot about the direction both programs have gone. Grobe turned into an excellent coach, but left Wake in 2013 after a series of losing seasons. Baylor has quickly turned into a national brand under Briles. 5. Unique offense Baylor has been one of the most dynamic offenses in the nation over the past few seasons and sent a pair of highly-touted quarterbacks to the NFL. However, Grobe's background is contrary to the high-flying system. Grobe learned the Wishbone offense from Fisher DeBerry. The run-first option offense has a quarterback under center, a fullback lined up behind the QB and a pair of running backs winged off the back of the fullback. The quarterback, who also functions as a runner, makes decisions about which player to hand the ball to or whether to throw to any of the eligible receivers on the field. The misdirection allows less talented players to confuse talented defenses with discipline and decision-making. |
Carlton: Ramifications of scandal continue to impact Baylor as AD Ian McCaw joins Briles, Starr in paying a price |
Will Baylor run any Wishbone? That is unclear. However, don't be surprised to see some additional running sets brought into the traditional Briles offense. 6. Championship pedigree Grobe took over Wake Forest in 2001, inheriting one of the nation's most difficult jobs. The Demon Deacons are a small private school with limited football success. After a tough start, Wake Forest saw unprecedented success under Grobe. During the 2006 season, everything fell right for Grobe and Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons finished the regular season 10-2, the first time Wake Forest had ever posted a double-digit win season. Wake Forest beat Georgia Tech to win the ACC championship and qualify for the Orange Bowl. The Demon Deacons were one of the ACC's founding members in 1953; 2006 was only the school's second conference championship. The other came in 1970. Grobe resigned in 2013 after five straight losing seasons, but his accomplishments should not be minimized. 7. Aggie inspiration Many fans might remember Texas A&M defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter, who turned the Aggie defense around under Mike Sherman after being hired in 2010. However, what many don't know is that DeRuyter would not be in the business if not for Grobe. In fact, he had accepted a job in medical device sales. Chuck Carlton detailed the story back in 2011. "DeRuyter had spent his second Air Force tour of duty as one of four special military coaches. After his tour expired and with no football staff openings at Air Force, he chose a civilian sales position. One day late in 1994, he was driving from Erie, Pa., to Pittsburgh when his car phone rang. On the other end was Jim Grobe, his old linebackers coach at Air Force. ... Grobe was a candidate for the head coaching job at downtrodden Ohio U. and wanted to know if DeRuyter would be his defensive coordinator. A job offer was a long shot, said Grobe, who wanted to be prepared just in case. DeRuyter signed on immediately before even talking to his wife. Surprisingly, Grobe got the job and invited DeRuyter down to Athens, Ohio." DeRuyter went on to be a defensive coordinator at many stops, including Air Force, Nevada and Texas A&M. He is currently the head coach at Fresno State, where he has won three conference division titles in four seasons. -- Click here to read DeRuyter's full story. -- 8. Humble beginnings After a year as a grad assistant and two as a high school football coach, Grobe took over as a linebackers coach at tiny Emory & Henry College. The school is a Division III liberal arts college with only 978 students. A year later he moved to Marshall, before getting his big break coaching at Air Force during the height of its power. The Winston-Salem Journal recounted how little immediate thought Grobe put into moving to Colorado and accepting the Air Force job. |
National reaction: Jim Grobe is 'polar opposite' of former Baylor head coach Art Briles, is a 'man of integrity' |
"Coach Fisher DeBerry of Air Force returned home from a recruiting trip and called Grobe in the middle of the night (2 a.m. Eastern time, midnight Mountain time). Grobe, half asleep, accepted the job offer on the spot. He asked when he should show up in Colorado Springs, then hung up the phone. Holly Grobe shook her head. 'Have you lost your mind?' she said. 'You don't even know where Colorado is.'" 9. Legendary tutelage Grobe arrived at Air Force right as college football Hall of Famer Fisher DeBerry took over the program. There, Grobe learned how to coach the Wishbone offense from one of the people to bring it back to college football's mainstream. Air Force went to seven bowl games in 11 chances while Grobe was at the program, including a 12-1 season and No. 8 postseason national ranking in 1985. Coaching at Air Force also gave him the opportunity to develop the importance of character in his philosophy. Grobe also had a head coaching job at Ohio before arriving at Wake Forest in 2001. 10. Senior strategy It shouldn't come as any surprise, but Wake Forest was not exactly a recruiting hot spot. Rivals' team recruiting rankings only go back to 2003, two years into Grobe's run, but the Demon Deacons had the No. 57 recruiting class. That mark had them narrowly ahead of SMU, UAB and Arkansas State. Just two years later, those same players were ACC champions. Grobe focused on keeping players for their full eligibility to get the most out of them. "We played too many freshmen when we were at Ohio," Grobe told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "Some of our very best players were fourth-year seniors, and we always wondered what it would be like to have those guys as fifth-year seniors. ... I think we're just better if we play older players." He instituted those changes and saw results. The Demon Deacons won the ACC with one of Grobe's first five-year classes that he recruited to the school. |
This Topic is Missing Your Voice. |
Carl Ferrer, Backpage.com’s CEO, was arrested by Texas authorities on Thursday. They say he enabled human trafficking by letting certain classified sex ads onto his website. |
“Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement obtained by LawNewz.com. “I intend to use every resource my office has to make sure those who profit from the exploitation and trafficking of persons are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” |
Alleged victims of the trafficking include adults and children, he said. |
Backpage is basically Craiglist’s shadier little brother. Both companies let you post classifieds for pretty much anything, but Ferrer’s has a reputation for loose rules: various sex trafficking and drug trafficking allegations have originated from their ads. |
Update – October 8, 10:37 a.m.: Backpage.com’s General Counsel Liz McDougall sent a statement to Law Newz.com, calling the arrest “illegal” and “an election year stunt.” |
The raid of Backpage.com’s Dallas office and the arrest of its CEO is an election year stunt, not a good-faith action by law enforcement. The complaint and search warrant make clear that (1) prostitution ads violate Backpage.com’s policies against the posting of illegal content, (2) the company blocked the posting of ads using terms that violated those policies, and (3) Backpage.com removed ads when contacted by law enforcement. The actions of the California and Texas Attorneys General are flatly illegal. They ignore the holdings of numerous federal courts that the First Amendment protects the ads on Backpage.com. The actions of the Attorneys General also violate Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act preempting state actions such as this one and immunizing web hosts of third-party created content. Backpage.com will take all steps necessary to end this frivolous prosecution and will pursue its full remedies under federal law against the state actors who chose to ignore the law, as it has done successfully in other cases. |
– |
Follow Alberto Luperon on Twitter (@Alberto Luperon) |
The Fall of the House of Assad |
"Selmiyyeh, selmiyyeh" — "peaceful, peaceful" — was one of the Tunisian revolution’s most contagious slogans. It was chanted in Egypt, where in some remarkable cases protesters defused state violence simply by telling policemen to calm down and not be scared. In both countries, largely nonviolent demonstrations and strikes succeeded in splitting the military high command from the ruling family and its cronies, and civil war was avoided. In both countries, state institutions proved themselves stronger than the regimes that had hijacked them. Although protesters unashamedly fought back (with rocks, not guns) when attacked, the success of their largely peaceful mass movements seemed an Arab vindication of Gandhian nonviolent resistance strategies. But then came the much more difficult uprisings in Bahrain, Libya, and Syria. |
Even after at least 1,300 deaths and more than 10,000 detentions, according to human rights groups, "selmiyyeh" still resounds on Syrian streets. It’s obvious why protest organizers want to keep it that way. Controlling the big guns and fielding the best-trained fighters, the regime would emerge victorious from any pitched battle. Oppositional violence, moreover, would alienate those constituencies the uprising is working so hard to win over: the upper-middle class, religious minorities, the stability-firsters. It would push the uprising off the moral high ground and thereby relieve international pressure against the regime. It would also serve regime propaganda, which against all evidence portrays the unarmed protesters as highly organized groups of armed infiltrators and Salafi terrorists. |
The regime is exaggerating the numbers, but soldiers are undoubtedly being killed. Firm evidence is lost in the fog, but there are reliable and consistent reports, backed by YouTube videos, of mutinous soldiers being shot by security forces. Defecting soldiers have reported mukhabarat lined up behind them as they fire on civilians, watching for any soldier’s disobedience. A tank battle and aerial bombardment were reported after a small-scale mutiny in the Homs region. Tensions within the military are expanding. |
And a small minority of protesters does now seem to be taking up arms. Syrians — regime supporters and the apolitical as much as anyone else — have been furiously buying smuggled weapons since the crisis began. Last week for the first time, anti-regime activists reported that people in Rastan and Talbiseh were meeting tanks with rocket-propelled grenades. Some of the conflicting reports from Jisr al-Shaghour, the besieged town near the northwestern border with Turkey, describe a gun battle between townsmen and the army. And a mukhabarat man was lynched by a grieving crowd in Hama. |
The turn toward violence is inadvisable but perhaps inevitable. When residential areas are subjected to military attack, when children are tortured to death, when young men are randomly rounded up and beaten, electrocuted, and humiliated, some Syrians will seek to defend themselves. Violence has its own momentum, and Syria appears to be slipping toward war. |
There are two potential civil-war scenarios. The first begins with Turkish intervention. Since Syrian independence in 1946, tensions have bubbled over into Turkey’s Hatay province, known to Syrians as Wilayat Iskenderoon, the Arab region unjustly gifted to Kemal Ataturk by the French. War almost broke out in 1998 over Syria’s hosting of Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan, who now sits in a Turkish prison. Yet since the ascension of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey and Bashar al-Assad’s inheritance of the Syrian presidency, relations have dramatically improved. Turkey invested enormous financial and political capital in Syria, establishing a Levantine free trade zone and distancing itself from Israel. |
Erdogan extracted promises of reform from Bashar at the onset of the protests and then watched with increasingly visible consternation as the promises were broken. He warned Syria repeatedly against massacres and their consequences (on June 9, he described the crackdown as "savagery"). Syria’s response is reminiscent of Israel’s after last year’s Mavi Marmara killings: slandering its second-most important ally with petulant self-destructiveness. |
Turkish military intervention remains unlikely, but if the estimated 4,000 refugees who have crossed the border thus far swell to a greater flood, particularly if Kurds begin crossing in large numbers, Turkey may decide to create a safe haven in north or northeastern Syria. This territory could become Syria’s Benghazi, potentially a home for a more local and credible opposition than the exile-dominated one that recently met in Antalya, Turkey, and a destination to which soldiers and their families could defect. A council of defected officers might then organize attacks on the regime from the safe haven, adding military to economic and diplomatic pressure. |
The second scenario is sectarian war, as seen in neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon. Although most people choose their friends from all communities, sectarianism remains a real problem in Syria. The ruling family was born into the historically oppressed Alawi community. The Ottomans regarded Alawis as heretics rather than as "people of the book," and Alawis — unlike Christians, Jews, and mainstream Shiite Muslims — were therefore deprived of all legal rights. Before the rise of the Baath and the social revolution it presided over, Alawi girls served as housemaids in Sunni cities. Some Alawis fear those times are returning and will fight to prevent change. The social stagnation of dictatorship has made it difficult to discuss sectarian prejudice in public, which has sometimes kept hatreds bottled up. Some in the Sunni majority perceive the Assads as representatives of their sect and resent the entire community by extension. |
None of this makes sectarian conflict inevitable. Class and regional cleavages are perhaps more salient than sect in Syria today. Sunni business families have been co-opted into the power structure while disfavored Alawis have suffered as much as anyone else. The protesters, aware of the dangers, have consistently chanted slogans of national unity. And in Lebanon and Iraq the catalysts for civil war were external interventions, not internal upheaval. |
The catalyst in Syria may be the regime itself. Simulating sectarian war is one of the regime’s preferred tactics. In March, Syrian friends have told me, its shabiha militia tried to spark social breakdown in Latakia by pretending to be a Sunni mob while it shot up Alawi areas and an Alawi mob as it terrorized Sunni neighborhoods. Syrians say the regime is arming Alawi villages and wishfully thinking of a repeat of the 1980s, when it faced a genuinely violent sectarian challenge in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood, which it defeated at the Hama massacre in 1982. |
The danger of the simulacrum is that it could become reality. If the regime doesn’t disintegrate quickly, the state will disintegrate gradually, and then the initiative could be seized by the kind of tough men who command local loyalty by providing the basics and avenging the dead. If violence continues at this pitch for much longer, it’s easy to imagine local and sectarian militias forming, with the Sunnis receiving funding from the Persian Gulf. |
Such a scenario would be a disaster for Syrians of all backgrounds. The ripple effects would be felt in Lebanon (which would likely be sucked into the fray), Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, and beyond. It could also give a second life to the Wahhabi-nihilist groups currently relegated to irrelevance by the new democratic mood in the region. |
Let’s hope the boil bursts before either of these wars occurs. The economy may collapse catastrophically, at which point almost every Syrian would have to choose between revolution and starvation. Under continued pressure, the regime may destroy itself through internecine conflict, or it may surrender when mass desertions make the military option unfeasible. The manner of bringing the boil to eruption remains obscure. What seems certain is that the regime will not be able to bring Syria back under its heel. |
Levi’s brings us denim made in India, with the launch of the Levi’s Khadi Collection due in stores, and only in stores, on August 15, Independence Day. |
The denim powerhouse has produced three essential pieces: the 5-pocket jean, the Trucker jacket, and the Barstow Western shirt using khadi. |
Made from cotton yarn, khadi is a type of cloth that is spun and woven by hand, so no one piece is the same. Every garment in the collection displays the name of the weaver and the location in which it was produced. |
Levi’s is not the only brand to work normcore the Indian way. Designer Rajesh Pratap Singh’s collection of bespoke denims , made in his looms in Rajasthan, are also hand spun, hand stitched and hand dyed with natural indigo. |
Here’s to working normcore the Indian way! |
1 / 5 Levi's launches it's new Khadi collection. 2 / 5 The denim powerhouse has produced its three essential pieces: the 5-pocket jean, the Trucker jacket, and the Barstow Western shirt using Khadi. 3 / 5 Made from cotton yarn, Khadi is a type of cloth that is spun and woven by hand. 4 / 5 Due to the nature of Khadi, no one piece is the same. 5 / 5 Every garment in the collection displays the name of the weaver and the location in which it was produced. |
Last time I was at Huddart park was when I ran the Woodside Ramble 35K earlier this April. I haven’t been back there since and as part of my Bay Area Trail Running series this summer, figured was a good time to go check it out. I also have the Crystal Springs Trail Run 50K coming up there this weekend. |
Huddart Park |
Before his death in 1935, James Huddart, a wealthy San Francisco lumberman and a long-time resident of Woodside, deeded 900 acres of his property to be developed as a public park. In the hundred years since Huddart Park was logged, a new forest of redwoods and other trees have grown. With madrones, coastal live oak and douglas fir, this is an amazing place for a trail run. With the fantastic redwoods providing almost constant shade, the trails at Huddart Park are easily 10 degrees cooler than outside. |
This particular route follows the initial segment of the Crystal Springs Trail Run 50K and is a 12.8 mile loop with a short out and back along the Skyline Trail. About 5.2 miles of Skyline Trail further connects up with Wunderlich Park, which is on my TODO list of places to run in the Bay Area. With a total elevation gain of 2,613 ft, this is a great run, almost completely shaded and taking you through amazing redwood forests at every turn. |
Here’s the route that I took: |
Start from the Werder Shelter |
Bay Tree Trail |
Richards Road Trail (left) |
Chaparral Trail (left) |
Crystal Springs Trail (right) |
Summit Springs Trail (left) |
Out and back on Skyline Trail |
Chinquapin Trail (right) |
Dean Trail (left) |
Crystal Springs Trail (right) |
Follow signs to Zwierlein Picnic Area |
The Crystal Springs Trail is almost all uphill all the way up to Skyline Trail, but that makes the return trip that much easier. You can decide how much of the Skyline Trail out-and-back you want to run. If you simply turn back on Chinquapin Trail, it’s about a 10-mile round trip. I decided to turn around when my Nathan 22oz hand-held was about half empty, which was a good thing. I ran out of water about half mile before getting back to the car! |
Have you run in Huddart Park? What’s your favorite route? |
Integrating existing home security sensors with MQTT |
Patrick Easters Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 27, 2017 |
When my wife and I bought a house a couple years back, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I started getting into home automation. My house, like many built in the late 90s, was pre-wired for an alarm system. While I had no desire to revive a 20-year-old alarm panel, it did mean all my exterior doors were pre-wired with inconspicuous sensors. |
I already run Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi, so I was looking for a way to integrate these hard-wired door sensors with what I already have. I had read about these cheap WiFi-enabled ESP8266 boards, so I decided this would be a simple project to try it out with. |
Breaking into the existing alarm system |
The brains of my old alarm system were tucked away in a wall-mounted cabinet in my laundry room. |
The old alarm system (with bonus lead-acid battery that I need to get rid of) |
All the sensor wires were cut back, meaning I had to strip each one and trace what they did. It was decently quick work with my multimeter and a wife to open/close doors for me. Since the existing sensors were just simple reed switches, the two wires from each door would short when the door was closed, and open when the door opened. |
I guessed correctly that the small 2-conductor wires went to my three exterior doors, but honestly, I’m still not sure where the rest of them go. |
While I typically don’t use wire nuts in my projects, it made the most sense here since I was dealing with pre-existing structured wiring from the old security system. |
Making it work on a breadboard |
Now the fun part: building it. This is a super simple circuit, with just a microcontroller and 3 switches. I used 3 of the GPIO pins to connect to the 3 door switches and connected the other side of the switches to ground. One nice feature of this board was that most of the pins had a built-in weak pull-up resistor. This meant that when a switch was open, the pin would be pulled high (3.3V). |
The components labeled S1-S3 represent the reed switches already installed in the doors. When a door opens, the magnet in the door causes the switch to open (or disconnect). |
Adding some code |
All of my source code is on GitHub, so feel free to check out that repo and see how it works there. This is my first time using Lua, so I’m sure there are things that can be optimized in this code. Feel free to submit an issue or PR if you find anything that stands out! |
init.lua : the simple startup script. Best practice is to keep this file relatively simple and give yourself an opportunity to break out of the boot cycle should your app have an issue. |
: the simple startup script. Best practice is to keep this file relatively simple and give yourself an opportunity to break out of the boot cycle should your app have an issue. secrets.lua : secret variables such as WiFi credentials |
: secret variables such as WiFi credentials config.lua : just some simple configuration variables |
: just some simple configuration variables sensor.lua: the brains of the project. All of the real logic lives in this file. |
I won’t get too detailed here, but after establishing the initial WiFi and MQTT connections, the application code is triggered asynchronously by an interrupt when a change on one of the door sensors is detected. |
Preparing the NodeMCU board |
Before I could run my code on the NodeMCU board, I needed to flash it with updated firmware that contained the modules I needed. I used this handy Cloud Build Service to build a firmware image. For my needs, I simply needed the following modules: file, gpio, mqtt, net, node, tmr, uart, wifi. |
To actually flash the firmware, I used an open-source Python tool called nodemcu-pyflasher. It worked great on my Mac and should on most other platforms as well. |
Now that I was ready to upload my code, I used a tool called ESPlorer to handle that portion. It provides a pretty handy console that lets you run commands ad-hoc as well as edit your code. I personally found it easiest to just use my usual text editor and the “Upload” button in the left pane. |
Integrating with Home Assistant |
Like I mentioned before, my home automation platform of choice is an open-source app called Home Assistant. It has a strong community backing and the maintainers are constantly pushing new releases. |
While I could have used the built-in REST API, I opted to use the MQTT protocol for a couple of reasons: first, MQTT is super lightweight and perfect for the modest compute resources of the NodeMCU board; and second, it’s a more universal protocol that can be used outside of the Home Assistant ecosystem without changes. |
If you use Home Assistant, I configured my door sensors as binary_sensors. The snippet for one sensor is below, but you can look at the rest of them in the Github repo for my config. |
- platform: mqtt |