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Big investor The investment was organised through Sequoia Capital India's Singapore-based office, and Mr Norton said other local start-ups should consider approaching big US VCs through their Asian operations, rather than their US-based and US-focused Silicon Valley operations. "To get an investor like Sequoia is a great thing for any technology company, regardless of the stage you are at," Mr Norton said. "The expertise they have got in managing these business models and the team structures you need is incredible … A lot of these big VCs had been investing in a US-centric manner not too long ago. They now have bases in Asia and are looking for global companies to come from anywhere … Singapore is a great place if you want to try and reach a company like Sequoia." Sequoia Capital vice-president Pieter Kemps said the company had been able to demonstrate a fast-growing and rapidly scaling business model. 90 Seconds is a cloud-based video production platform, allowing companies to purchase, plan, shoot, edit and review video anywhere in the world. Supplied "The 90 Seconds team has done a terrific job in building the leading global marketplace for video production. In the large and rapidly growing video market, they offer creative talent and agencies a unique workflow platform to work together on global projects." The company already has an impressive roll call of brands using the platform regularly, including Visa, PayPal, Sony, Samsung, Barclays and Microsoft. AirTree co-founder and managing partner Craig Blair said he saw no reason why its rapid growth rate could not continue for a number of years. Advertisement Growth plans Just less than 70 full-time staff are employed in operations in Singapore, London, Tokyo, Manila, Sydney and Auckland. Following funding that number will double, with offices opening in San Francisco, New York, Hong Kong and Berlin this year. "The video market is enormous today and is only going to grow … Of all the models we invest in, marketplaces can grow at extraordinary rates," Mr Blair said. AirTree Ventures co-founder Craig Blair says the deal is evidence the Australian venture capital sector is coming of age. Nic Walker "It is already a decent-sized business, so it doesn't need to keep that growth up for long before it is a serious global-sized marketplace." Mr Blair said dealings with Sequoia on earlier investments meant there was a good relationship already in place. But this deal was evidence the Australian venture capital sector is "coming of age". "Australian VCs co-investing with a top global VC like Sequoia, in a New Zealand business, serving a global audience, is true globalisation of VC," he said. "We have had that already with Canva ourselves, but there are others in the local market also doing it, and we will see it more and more as the relationships develop, and teams here get better track records of investing." Sequoia is the largest backer in the $US7.5 million round, followed by AirTree. The round also included investment from SKY Network Television, VC firm BEENEXT and entrepreneur and angel investor Oleg Tscheltzoff.

Video: Laser-controlled heart What makes your pulse quicken? For the millimetre-size hearts quail embryos, a laser does the trick. Experiments show that an infrared laser can control the pace of the tiny hearts – the first time that a laser has been shown to affect a whole heart in a living organism. We already knew that light can stimulate nerve activity, and two years ago Nicholas Smith at Osaka University, Japan, showed that 8-millisecond bursts of 80-femtosecond laser pulses could synchronise the pulsing of heart cells in culture. But now a team led by Andrew Rollins at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, has used a different type of laser to trigger beats across an entire vertebrate heart – albeit a tiny one – in a living organism. Advertisement Rollins’s group piped millisecond-long pulses of infrared laser light with a wavelength of 1.87 micrometres through an optical fibre, which ended just 500 micrometres from the embryo. Before they switched on the laser, the heart beat once every 1.5 seconds, but firing the laser twice a second quickened the heartbeat to match the laser rate as long as the laser fired (see video, above). “It worked beautifully: the heart rate was in lockstep with the laser pulse rate,” says Duco Jansen of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who collaborated with Rollins on the experiments. The team saw no sign of laser damage after hours of experiments – although prepping the heart for the experiment involved opening the egg, which ultimately killed the embryo. Jansen picked the 1.87-micrometre wavelength because water partly absorbs such light, warming cells but not cooking them. Somehow the temperature gradient triggers the changes in membrane potential that make the heart beat. Electricity off Early applications of the technique will be in studying the developing heart to illuminate cardiac disease – particularly in probing embryonic hearts that are too small to have electrodes inserted into them. “This is an alternative to electrical stimulation with higher spatial resolution,” says Jansen. “And since we’re stimulating in a domain different than the electrical domain in which we’re recording data, it avoids interference.” He adds that better understanding of the excitation mechanisms will be critical in building devices for use in clinical applications, which could include optical pacemakers. Smith, who was not involved in the research, is impressed, calling it “a significant advance in optical pacing and in using light to modify and control living systems that would not be thought to respond to light”. He hopes to see more work on heating and optical damage, and on optical control of other biological functions. Journal reference: Nature Photonics, DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2010.166

Eriksen has made an immediate impact since joining Tottenham for £11.5 million last month but the Premier League would have seen the Denmark international 12 months ago if Roberto Mancini, the former City manager, had been successful with an approach to Eriksen’s then employers, Ajax. Instead, after watching a host of stars arrive at City, Eriksen decided he was not willing to risk of sacrificing his development by leaving Ajax – a decision he insists has been vindicated. “It took me a while to get here because I said no a few times,” Eriksen revealed ahead of Spurs’ visit to Cardiff . “Last summer City really wanted to try to sign me, but it didn’t feel right for me. I didn’t feel ready for a league like the Premier League and now it looks like I moved at the right time. “Maybe I wouldn’t have played at City and I wouldn’t go to a club just to stay on the bench. A lot of players moved from Ajax in the last year and it gave me responsibility and made me grow. It made me better. It was exciting there, but you have to wait for the right club to come along.” Perhaps that is why Tottenham and Eriksen seem a perfect fit. In just two games for Spurs he has already made a major impression: he marked his debut against Norwich last weekend with an assist before he was on target for the first time in the midweek Europa League tie with Tromso with a superb long-range effort that crowned a 3-0 win. Tottenham fans, reared on a tradition of sublimely skilled attacking players, have quickly warmed to Eriksen’s flair, vision and quick feet, and the player himself is acutely aware of the standards expected of his new side. “I read about the history of the club and have seen games over the years. I know a bit about the club and that they like a bit of creativity. Maybe I started too good!” Eriksen is still living in a hotel while he searches for a more permanent home – his girlfriend is due to join him in London after she has finished her exams back in Holland – but he has quickly adapted to the frenetic pace of English football. “For such a young player he is extraordinary,” his manager Andre Villas-Boas said. “We all know adapting to the Premier League is difficult but the game against Norwich proved we have a mature player who can adapt very, very quickly.” If Eriksen had chosen City as his destination, he could have been turning out in the Manchester derby; instead he will be in Wales, aiming to help Spurs to their seventh win out of their first eight games and underline their potential as title contenders. “I’m here to try to win the title,” he said. “Everybody wants that. The most important thing is to make the Champions League next year and once you are in the top four you can start looking for first place. It’s an open league and it is going to be exciting.” While Eriksen is likely to start against Cardiff, fellow Spurs new boy Etienne Capoue will not feature against the club that were on the verge of signing him in the summer. Cardiff manager Malky Mackay got as far as agreeing a fee and personal terms with the France international and his then club Toulouse. But Capoue, who is out with injury, stalled over committing to Cardiff, and eventually chose to move to White Hart Lane. Mackay instead singed Chile international Gary Medel, for a club record £11 million, and the Scot is happy with his choice. “When one door closes another opens,” he said.“I have been pretty open in that we looked at Medel for most of last season. At one point we didn’t feel we would get anywhere near him because the season before AC Milan were involved. “I look at him every day in training and, like with Steven Caulker, we had two top players come into the football club. It has raised our standards again.”

Parents have complained that t-shirts featuring a character from the blockbuster movie Frozen are a bad influence on their children because she appears to be making an offensive gesture. They say that the £9.99 tops, which are for sale through H&M, show Elsa apparently making a V-sign, and are calling for the chain to pull the t-shirts because they say their children are copying the pose. The Disney character features on millions of items of merchandise, including clothes and stationery, and is supposed to be making snowflakes with her special powers. V-sign? Parents have complained that the Elsa character is making an offensive gesture on the H&M t-shirt The t-shirts are for sale in a pack of two in H&M stores and online - the fashion store would not comment today The £9.99 long-sleeved t-shirts are currently on sale in high street clothes store H&M and on their website. Mother of two Jacqui Williams, 40, from Warwick, said: 'I waited ages to get my hands on an Elsa top for my daughter Daisy but when she put it on I was shocked. 'From almost every angle you look at the t-shirt, Elsa is doing a V-sign. I'm sure it wasn't intentional but it is unfortunate. 'I didn't mind at first but then I saw Daisy copying the pose with her friends. I had to tell them to stop doing it because if they do it at school they might get into trouble. 'I've written to H&M raising my concerns but I haven't heard anything back yet.' Parents have also expressed their worries about the T-shirt online. On Mumsnet user Kathan16 said: 'I took my four-yr-old daughter to her friend's birthday party at the wkend and was shocked when all the kids were given Frozen T-shirts from H&M which made it look like Elsa was doing a rude v-sign. 'I wouldn't have minded but some of the kids started copying the pose and soon the room was full of kids flicking the Vs to their parents.' Elsa is the heroine in Frozen, the highest-grossing animated film of all time, which also won two Oscars Twitter user JoJo4 in Los Angeles added: 'Elsa seriously got bad, swearing at fans. That's cold. Let it go girl.' Disney would not comment today, but a spokesman for H&M said there were no plans to remove the top from shelves. They said: 'This is the first we have heard about this T-shirt upsetting anyone. It is a shame if it has caused offence. 'Clearly the character is holding her hand in that way in order to create a sparkly snowflake.' Frozen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen, overtook Toy Story 3 in March to become the highest grossing animated film of all time, raking in £644.5million at the box office. It was in the UK box office top 10 for more than three months and now ranks as the 10th highest grossing film in cinema history.

Hey everyone and welcome back to another Pokémon GO teardown. Like previous we are going to look into some of the exciting changes launching with version 0.57.2. Evolution Paths Some of the upcoming evolution paths to Generation II Pokémon will require some items. Like previously discovered in the 0.53.1 teardown, we noticed the actual assets this time around. You can tell with evolves such as with Eevee that the path for evolving may not be constant, thus a little question mark will be displayed. It’s possible this question mark may also represent evolve paths for Pokémon that require more than just candy. Pokémon_info_evolve_need_key_item Avatar Customization After hiding in the application for nearly 4 versions, the changes finally go live with a new Avatar customization process. You have the ability to now edit Hair Shirt Pants Hat Shoes Eyes Backpack Gloves Socks Belt Glasses Necklace Avatar item is purchasable, unowned, but not IAP item: {0} AVATAR_STYLE_UNLOCKED usage.avatarshop.show_quick_shop usage.avatarshop.purchase_item As we can see, the ability to purchase avatar related things is already in the application. However, it is not yet available in the app. Berries Berries! We saw the development of a few more berries – joining the Razz Berry is the Nanab & Pinap. Nabab Berry becomes more of a Banana, adding the ability to slow Pokémon movements while the Pinap Berry turns into more of a Pineapple and grants double candy if the next catch succeeds. Unown is near! We found the addition of badges for Unown, which is probably for obtaining all 28 forms. When Generation II officially launches later this week you can begin the quest to obtain them all. Store & Transfer Changes? Some interesting strings were found in relation to the Store & Transfer options. The strings found can be found below. Pokémon_info_multi_transfer_shiny_Pokémon_error Pokémon_shiny_info_transfer_to_professor_confirmation shop_quick_balls_get_them_here shop_quick_coins_get_them_here usage.quickshop.click_exchange Inferring from previous knowledge. Shiny Pokémon are rare rare rare. It would be a shame to accidentally transfer those to the professor, so maybe it is blocked or hidden behind an additional confirmation. Conclusion Lots of features went live that were in development for awhile, and trainers will enjoy the launch of most of Generation II. Most of these changes were announced on the Pokémon blog. We will be back with the next version! Until then enjoy the launch video for Generation II and check out our Pokédex which includes all Generation II Pokémon!

Story highlights The attorney general added that he views pot as "detrimental" Sessions holds the power over the federal enforcement arm of criminal laws Washington (CNN) Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday that the Justice Department is examining ways to work toward a "rational" marijuana policy, though he did not provide details, including whether the DOJ will crack down on states where the drug has been legalized. "We're looking very hard on that right now. In fact, we had meetings yesterday and talked about it at some length," Sessions said about the department's stance toward marijuana during an announcement on new funding and tools the agency will use to combat the opioid crisis. He did not elaborate further. The attorney general added that he views pot as "detrimental" and noted that consumption is still a federal violation. "I don't want to suggest in any way that this department in any way believes that marijuana is harmless ... people should avoid it," he said. Sessions holds the power over the federal enforcement arm of criminal laws, such as the Controlled Substances Act. Read More

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Lamborghini has filed paperwork to trademark the name “Deimos,” leading us to think this could find its way onto a future product. A son of Aphrodite in ancient Greek mythology, the god Deimos was the personification of terror and dread. What better name for a Lamborghini than the god of scaring the crap out of everyone? The rub is that Deimos isn’t connected to bulls or bullfighting in any way we can tell; perhaps a famous bullfight involved a bovine or matador with this nickname. Lamborghini’s Islero was named for a bull that killed famed matador “Manolete” in 1947. We know that Lambo is planning an SUV concept for this month’s Beijing auto show. The replacement for the Gallardo, which is currently in development, will also need a badge. Lamborghini has used nearly all of the trademarks it has filed for recently, so we expect to see Deimos on a concept or production vehicle at some point.

ECHO PARK –– If you don’t mind the narrow aisles and sometimes pungent aromas, a visit to A Grocery Warehouse reveals a wide variety of common and hard-to-find Asian foods, ranging from fresh lemon grass to Thai tea popsicles and chunks of tofu. But now the fate of the Asian grocery store is up in the air after the building and adjoining properties have been put up for sale for an undisclosed price, according toLoopNet. The offering includes only the property and buildings- not the existing businesses on Sunset Boulevard near Portia Street. But the listing says that “all buildings can be delivered vacant upon close of escrow.” (The adjacent buildings that house the bar Little Joy and Trencher restaurant are not included.) In addition to the A Grocery Warehouse building, the deal also includes a former Chinese BBQ restaurant space, parking lot and a nearby two-story building that once housed a video store. What can you do with an approximately 36,000-square-foot chunk of Echo Park along a “famous” stretch of Sunset? The listing plays up the potential for a multi-storied, mixed-use development: The site provides an exciting opportunity for a mixed-use project consisting of ground floor retail on Sunset Blvd. with 3-4 levels of condo or apartment units and parking stalls in the rear. Ingress/egress points are provided by McDuff Street and a back alley off Portia Street on the NE corner. Better start looking for a new place to buy some cheap bok choy. Update: Philip Poth, the listing agent for the property, said the $10 million price as stated in LoopNet was not correct. He provide more details about the listing:

Getty Defense Military leaders dubious of bigger war against ISIL Military officials worry that leaders in Washington haven't absorbed the lessons of America's last big wars. U.S. military leaders are skeptical about calls for escalating the war against the Islamic State, saying they have watched too many of their troops’ hard-won victories slip away amid civilian inattention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even as U.S. and allied aircraft step up their bombing campaign against the terrorist group after Friday’s attacks in Paris, senior military officials privately express worries that political leaders in Washington and foreign capitals still haven’t absorbed the lessons of America’s last two big wars. In both cases, the military defeated the Taliban, Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Iraqi insurgents, but civilian leadership failed to do the political, economic and diplomatic heavy-lifting needed to sustain those wins. Story Continued Below The same thing could happen again in the fight against ISIL, the military officials say, unless far more is done to train and arm local allies, beef up the State Department's capacity to assist foreign allies to improve governing structures, counter the terrorist group's message in mosques and in social media and employ much more international leverage to end the Syrian civil war. Otherwise, the growing pressure to strike back hard against ISIL will mean that guns and bombs once again get far more attention and resources than the other levers of power that would ultimately prove more consequential. The military officials say these concerns are behind President Barack Obama’s refusal to launch a more expansive military operation that includes American ground troops against the terrorists. “We can kill a lot of them, maybe all of them,” said one senior military official, who like most of the others who spoke to POLITICO was not authorized to speak publicly about the year-old U.S.-led campaign. “We can probably convince some to quit and embrace a more moderate view. But if that is all we do, we will be back here again.” Calls for stronger action against the terror group are coming from leading Republicans and some Democrats in Congress, as well as on the campaign trail. “We should declare war, and harness all of the power that the United States can bring to bear, both diplomatic and military, of course, to be able to take out ISIS,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said on NBC this weekend, calling for steps such as declaring a no-fly zone over Syria and embedding troops with the Iraqi military. Other GOP presidential hopefuls and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton have also advocated a no-fly zone. But when asked what more the U.S. can do to confront ISIL, several military officials instead spoke of limits — and noted that the Obama administration’s strategy contains nine "lines of effort," only two of which are led by the military. Other elements of the strategy call for disrupting the terror group's finances; enhancing intelligence gathering; getting other nations to choke the flow of foreign fighters from some 80 countries who look to take up arms with the Islamic State; persuading Muslim clerics around the world expose ISIL's "true nature;" helping people displaced by the Syrian civil war; and lining up the international community to help build better governments in the region, especially in Iraq. "There is a renewed sense among the more experienced players that after every decisive action comes the question, 'And then what?'" said Joseph J. Collins, director of the Center for Complex Operations at the Pentagon's National Defense University. While some people advocate sending in U.S. troops, “there is very few of them asking that question. But there are certainly a lot of people in the Pentagon and the State Department who are asking that question." One top Pentagon leader who has helped shape the current thinking is recently retired Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, who stepped down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier this fall. Unless the Iraqi government bridges the divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims and addresses the grievances of the Kurds, for example, "then nothing we do will last," he said in an interview published in the Pentagon's Joint Force Quarterly. "It will be painting over rust," added Dempsey, who commanded U.S. forces during the Iraq War. "The military lines of effort leap out in front — and I do mean leap. That is who we are, right? If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing. The military lines of effort will always be achieved. And that can be detrimental to the other lines of effort." Others with deep experience in the U.S. anti-terror effort expressed similar qualms. “Even if we somehow did obliterate ISIL — which would be extremely difficult — if we don’t end the civil wars we will have the son of ISIL tomorrow,” said Ken Pollack, a former CIA analyst and National Security Council official whose 2002 book, "The Threatening Storm," made the case for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam. "ISIL is itself is the son of Al Qaeda." Many experts attribute the lack of "unity of effort" that pushes the military option to the forefront to a lack of capability on the part of other arms of the government, such as the State Department. "Getting the whole of government on the same page — we have some real problems doing that," Collins said. "Part of that has to do with tradition, part of it has to do with institutional culture, part of it also has to do with authority. It's manpower and resources that is the measure." For example, when the United States was launching the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, the State Department budget was was 49 percent of the Pentagon budget. Today, "you can't get to 15 percent, never mind 50. ... That is a major limitation," Collins said in an interview. Veterans of the George W. Bush administration have also acknowledged these shortcomings. Stephen Hadley, who served as national security adviser from 2005 to 2009, recently blamed the U.S. government and international community's heavy focus on the military for the failure to adequately train local police forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to stabilize the countries after the end of combat operations. The State Department "never got it done, and at the end of the day we pulled the police training mission away and gave it to the military. Turns out the military is not the best police trainer, and so again it was a classic case where we gave it to the military by default because we don’t have the kind of civilian capacity in place to do it right," Hadley said. "So, I’m still not sure if we know how to do police training." The extent to which the leaders of the U.S. military have been grappling with the lessons of confronting Al Qaeda, ISIL, the Taliban and other militant groups is enshrined in a little-noticed but lengthy analysis— more than 400 pages in all — that was ordered up by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and unveiled at an event Tuesday. The marching orders for the group of military scholars who wrote the report was clear: "What did we gain? What did we lose? What costs did the United States pay for its response to 9/11, particularly from operations in Afghanistan and Iraq? How should the answers to these questions inform senior military leaders’ contributions to future national security and national military strategy?" And one of their big takeaways was that, in the end, not much was gained — in large part because while the military mostly did its job, the rest of the U.S. government and international community did not. "Senior military planners must pay more attention to the linkage between political and military objectives," says the report, "Lessons Encountered: Learning from the Long War." "Civil and military planning for post-conflict stability operations was inadequate. Poor post-conflict planning set back operations in Afghanistan and Iraq." The military, the study said, has a greater responsibility than ever to speak up when it believes military options are ill-advised absent a more rigorous and comprehensive strategy for what happens next. "While the civilian leadership remains firmly in charge of the policy process, senior military figures also have an obligation to provide their military expertise and, if necessary, their respectful dissent to help prevent strategic disaster," the volume asserted. In the wake of Paris, some voices on Capitol Hill are urging the Obama administration to beef up the non-military parts of the anti-ISIL strategy. "It’s time for a new Marshall Plan: A plan that includes the Middle East, which means modernizing schools and moderating curricula; that teaches children how to use their hands to put things together instead of blowing things up," said Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat and member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. "Not one penny of [U.S. Agency for International Development] funds should go to any nation that doesn’t commit to disallow the teaching of hatred in its classrooms." "We need to face the truth: We are in a new world war with enemies who don’t play by the traditional and historic rules of conventional warfare," he said.

I think this is a fair assessment. but you're also ignoring Trump's weak spot, which is also one of his strengths. Trump doesn't handling failure well. Oh, he's fine losing one or two while winning 10. But he's had a bad couple weeks and it is clearly showing. You can see it in his temperament. Looking back at the debates where Cruz and Rubio were ganging up on him he was clearly off-his game in the post debate interviews. When he's winning he appears to have a better grasp on what attacks to address and what attacks to ignore. When he isn't winning he appears to lose that ability and lash out at everything and everyone that says anything negative about him. A few people have asked me what is wrong with Trump lately, given his recent media missteps and his bigger-than-expected loss in Wisconsin. I think the answer is very simple. He's tired. This nomination campaign is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is an exhausting process. In every human endeavor, we see the pattern of ebb and flow, the fractal Elliott Wave pattern of 1-3-5 with the 2-4, the back-and-forth swing of the momentum pendulum.Trump has had two big surges, one that began in New Hampshire and carried through Super Tuesday, the other that carried him through big victories in Florida and Arizona. The question is if he can summon up the energy required for the final push to victory.The last two weeks have been what happens when a candidate who depends upon his high energy to carry his campaign through finds himself flagging. And, as usual, all the short-term linear thinkers who look only at the present assume that it's all over and his trajectory is downward.I suspect that being back home in New York will energize Trump and he'll roar back into aggressive action after he is remotivated by a landslide win over Cruz there. Whether that will be enough to carry him through California, I don't know, but remember, what he absolutely needs to win before the convention are: a big win in proportional New York, solid wins in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, a minor state win, and then a clinching victory in California.That's not certain, but it is far from being impossible, or even unlikely. April 26th looks to be an interesting day, as Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Delaware will vote and the finalists for the Hugo Awards will also be announced.UPDATE: Nate adds an important observation:This is an excellent point, and it is one reason why I've been saying New York is so important even though it's not winner-takes-all. Trump is a high-energy front-runner who feeds on momentum. He's a steamroller, he's not a counterpuncher who is energized by finding himself on the ropes, a die-hard who will fight until the bitter end, or a comeback kid who needs to be knocked down once or twice before he even starts to get serious. Labels: politics

If there's a genre of videogames today that diversifies players like no other, it's the walking simulator. Many examples have found favour, especially at Eurogamer, with Firewatch and, latterly, Virginia, both well-received. Yet for every praiseworthy voice, there are critics, keen to expose this style of game for being over-hyped, underwhelming and, frankly, boring. Like so much else in games, the walking simulator is not a new phenomenon, and its roots can be traced back to the 1980s. In a decade that saw its fair share of innovation, mixed with rampant cloning and bandwagon-jumping, freelance developer (ie bedroom coder) Graham Relf came up with the idea of a purely explorative game, a procedurally-generated terrain and countless locations to visit and search. Explorer had a suitably apt title but, despite its technological achievement, it was met with indifference in the gaming press of the time. However, Explorer's, and its author's, story began 15 or so years earlier. A break in the exploration to shoot arrows at a… thing. "Computers were very new when I was at school," begins Relf. "I didn't get near one until I was a physics student at Imperial College. There was a short course in FORTRAN in my second year and I took to it like a duck to water." The year was 1969; code was produced on punched cards which were then submitted into the College's IBM7904 mainframe. There were no terminals on desks, discs, or even cassettes. "We'd get the printed output the next day - if we were lucky - then, of course, it took many attempts to iron out the bugs." Despite this painstaking process, Relf gained employment with an R&D company in 1974, occasionally indulging in the immense luxury of actually being able to input code via a teletype terminal. Then, in 1978, the first home computers began to appear: "I bought a Tandy/Radio Shack TRS-80 because it had a massive 16 Kbytes of RAM..." On this primitive machine, Relf began to contemplate the idea of a program based upon terrain generation. "Having so little RAM made the idea seem natural to me; to generate terrain from mathematical functions rather than storing them in the memory. The program needed very few bytes to keep track of the player's co-ordinates, so why not calculate what would be at that location?" After an initial effort creating an impressive 3D maze, Relf wrote an article on the subject for Popular Computing Magazine and began working on his next project, this time on his new ZX Spectrum computer. Many of today's walking simulators involve exploration with a purpose of solving a mystery or puzzle of some type. Relf's idea was to combine one of his hobbies with his technique, thus creating a game based entirely around the concept of simply navigating using a map, and, err, walking about. A walking simulator in its purest form, The Forest boasted 37 square kilometres of varied terrain to explore: towns, lakes, moors and (obviously) wooded areas all required traversing, each type affecting the speed of travel. The purpose was to visit each checkpoint in sequence, using your navigation skills, in the quickest time possible. It was all about the journey. Explains Relf, "The Spectrum increased the available RAM from 16 to 48 kb and the full colour graphics were vastly superior to the Tandy's limited green on black display. I was always fascinated by maps, and with orienteering having arrived in the UK from Scandinavia in the 60s, I joined a club and got heavily involved in map-making for the sport. Making a game based around it seemed a natural progression." Shooting demons, Commodore 64 style. Orienteering simulation The Forest received a commercial release via small-time software house Phipps Associates. It was diverse enough at the time to receive praise for originality; adventure fans were encouraged to check out its considered and map-based gameplay. "I wrote a letter to John Phipps in March 1984 about potential successors," remembers Relf, "but around that time, he stopped trading." Meantime, Phipps's former colleague, Trevor Toms, had co-founded maverick developer RamJam Corporation, along with Max Headroom creator George Stone and, latterly, graphic artist Simon Dunstan. "It was those three who saw the potential uses of my techniques and got me to developing the Explorer idea further." That concept ran like this: approaching an Earth-like planet, the player's spacecraft malfunctions, crashing into the surface. Scattered all over the forested and seemingly abandoned planet are nine vital pieces that need to be found if the craft is to fly again. With some technological assistance such as a jetpack, echo sounder and signal beacons, the task at hand became easier, but conquering Explorer was no mean feat, especially given that the advertising bragged of a jaw-dropping 40 billion individual locations. With just nine screens holding the key to escape, the odds of completion must have looked daunting to even the most seasoned of gamers. Technically, Explorer worked along similar lines to The Forest. Apart from the program code, the computer's RAM only stored the player's properties (such as co-ordinates and inventory) along with a number of graphical components that were assembled ready for each location. Unsurprisingly, RamJam were keen to incorporate an element of arcade gameplay into Explorer; the planet was populated by ghost-like creatures with which the player had a supply of primitive arrows to shoot at. Relf himself devised a system where locations were also given a random name. "Just as a function of position can generate height and terrain type," he explains, "it can also generate strings of letters as place names. It was tricky though: it could accidentally produce something offensive." Explorer also employed a teleporter which used these randomly-generated names - a clear precursor to the fast-travel of many games today. Wandering around in the Forest. As a freelancer, Relf worked on Explorer from his home in the North East, occasionally popping down to Soho to visit RamJam's offices. "I don't remember how we worked together, except it was amicable. Actually, on looking through my files the other day I found a note containing handwritten instructions for using a modem to communicate so I think Simon must have sent it by that means. Either that or tapes through the post I suppose." Simon Dunstan was responsible for Explorer's graphics and brought his distinctive style to the game. "His work was excellent," says Relf. "It had never occurred to me to make such impressive and realistic shapes by line drawings rather than blocks of colour. I was delighted with his input." Alas, while the sheer technological achievement of Explorer was impressive, the game moved at a slow pace. This found favour with some; most were disappointed by what they viewed as more tech demo than game. "RamJam write some pretty weird and original programs, and this is their weirdest yet," mused Crash Magazine's Paul Sumner in its review. "Unfortunately, what could have been a good idea has been drowned by a massive play area with little variation." The Commodore 64 magazine, Zzap64! was even more savage, particularly Julian Rignall. "...unbelievably tedious, monotonous, pointless, fruitless and rubbish. If you really want to do some exploring, why not buy a rail or bus ticket?" A pitiful score of just 13% was harsh, even considering Explorer's obvious flaws. "I was a bit disappointed at the time," says Relf carefully when I ask him about the reviews. "But I did get satisfaction from the technical aspect of the game. If I'd been doing it as a full-time job, I'm sure it would have been different." Explorer was published by Activision's UK arm, Electric Dreams. In charge was the ex-Quicksilva man and industry veteran Rod Cousens, and he gave me his thoughts on what appeared from the outset to be a risky project. "It was an interesting subject matter but never translated well in development. We were always experimental, trying to push boundaries, and be different, because we felt that was our charter in being a games company. Not derivatives or more of the same. Sometimes it resonated, sometimes it didn't, but we tried different things." As some of today's walking simulators are discovering, a concept isn't always enough. As for Explorer's talented coder, Graham Relf soon became occupied by other projects and left games behind. Ultimately, history will mark Explorer (and to a lesser extent, The Forest) as a failure, regardless of its role as a progenitor of today's walking simulators. The game's ambition was never in doubt: its technical achievement in creating a massive, explorable, free-form world, marked it out considerably against a mass of generic shoot-'em-ups and arcade-style games. So, a failure, yes. But a glorious, ponderous and exhausting 40-billion screen failure.

Until this year, Stanford’s tuition-assistance program waived tuition contributions from parents making less than $100,000 a year. A waiver for both tuition and room and board went to families making less than $60,000 (the threshold has since been expanded to $65,000). As Karen Cooper, the associate dean and director of financial aid at Stanford, put it, "this expansion of the financial aid program is a demonstration of Stanford's commitment to access for outstanding students from all backgrounds." The movement to increase economic diversity at colleges has gained so much momentum in recent years that it now even comes with a prize. This week, Vassar College won the inaugural Jack Cooke Kent Prize for Economic Equity for its success in significantly increasing the number of students it admits who receive Pell Grants, which are typically granted to students whose household incomes are under $30,000. The New York Times' David Leonhardt reported that a recent The Times analysis of "The Most Economically Diverse Top Colleges" influenced the contest’s selection of Vassar, which topped the newspaper’s list, too. Stanford came in at No. 18 on the list. If this is 18, however, what would No. 50 or No. 100 look like? To put it simply, Stanford does not look like the rest of America—not when it comes to income. Like other elite schools on the The Times' list, it is more economically diverse than it was a decade ago, but it is hardly as diverse as it could or should be. According to Lisa Lapin, a spokeswoman at Stanford, approximately 30 percent of its undergraduates in recent years have benefitted from the under-$100,000 policy, and within that 30 percent are the roughly 18 percent of students who have received additional waivers for room-and-board fees. While Stanford is understandably proud of these numbers, I cannot help but notice the cloud attached to their silver lining: the flip side of that 30 percent. In other words, 70 percent of Stanford undergraduates come from families whose incomes are over $100,000, even though only a little more than 20 percent of Americans made that much in 2010, according to census data. Worse yet, less than 18 percent of the students have family incomes under $60,000, even though more than half of Americans did in 2013. According to Lapin, between 20 percent and 25 percent of Stanford families pay full tuition, room, and board—fees that this year add up to $58,388 at sticker price. That means that there are more students who pay full freight at Stanford than there are students from households earning less than roughly that same amount. What accounts for the discrepancy between the number of rich and poor students at Stanford and other elite schools? One reason, well reported by Leonhardt, is that elite schools have struggled to identify and recruit low-income students; indeed, a study he cites shows that selective schools do a poor job enrolling students from the bottom economic quartile. But it isn’t only the bottom that is being underrepresented: Lapin’s numbers suggest that Stanford’s undergraduates are overwhelmingly drawn from the top quartile.

Barack Obama's election win in 2008 was hailed by some as ushering in a post-racial age in the US. However, recent books and surveys have shown that black American progress has often either halted or declined. From increasing segregation in the workplace, to hundreds of thousands of young black men in prison, to stuttering levels of black voting and a black middle class sent into reverse by the recession, the election of America's first black president – and his fight to win a second term – seem to have had little impact on any of this. Some of the most shocking revelations are detailed in a new book called Invisible Men by sociology professor Becky Pettit from the University of Washington. Pettit realised that many surveys conducted by government agencies exclude people in the prison population from their research and findings. When Pettit added them in, she found that it dramatically altered the picture of the status of black America, as the number of black Americans in jail is disproportionately high. About half of the 2.3 million people in US prisons are black. The results of Pettit's work, some argue, have exploded what she calls "the myth of black progress" since the civil rights era of the 1960s. "This work dispels the notion that we live in a post-racial society. It not only deconstructs the myth of black progress, but also the myth of American progress overall," said Inimai Chettiar, a director at the Brennan Centre for Justice at New York University's school of law. For example, adding the prison population to the voting statistics shows that black voter turnout in 2008 – believed to have been a historic high as Obama was elected – was overestimated by 13%. A greater percentage of young black high school dropouts turned out to vote in the 1980 election, when Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan, than when Obama beat John McCain in 2008. When prisoners are included, the employment rate for young black men who have dropped out of school sinks from an already low 42% to 26%. Far from advancing over the past half-century since Martin Luther King championed the civil rights struggle, the picture being painted is one of troubled decline. "We have developed a distorted view of how black Americans are faring in our society," Pettit said. The reason given for this in Pettit's work is the high rate of incarceration of black Americans. The rate is so steep that government estimates suggest that eventually one in three of all black male adults will spend some time in prison if current trends continue. In the 1930s, blacks were three times more likely to be incarcerated than whites, but the figure now is seven times more likely. Some experts put this down to the "war on drugs", which has affected black communities far more than others, seeing increased arrests of blacks, often for non-violent offences. "There is no evidence that drug use is dramatically different by race or ethnicity, but the pattern of arrests is very different," said Ernest Drucker, author of a recent book, A Plague of Prisons. The recession, too, has taken a huge swipe at what gains the black middle class may have made. A swath of recent data has revealed a major reverse. The Pew Charitable Trust showed that 68% of middle-class Americans are predicted to see their economic status decline in the next generation. The National Urban League civil rights group also showed that from 2005 to 2009 the average black household's wealth fell by more than half. Nor has economic decline stopped. From 2009 to 2012, median annual household income for blacks fell by 11.1%, compared with a drop of 5.2% for whites and 4.1% for Hispanics. The current black unemployment rate of 14% is roughly double that of the white jobless. However, it is not just recent economic turmoil that has dampened black progress in America. Another new book, Documenting Desegregation, has examined racial equality in the workplace since the 1960s and found that progress largely halted in 1980 and has gone into reverse in some industries since then. Racial segregation between white and black men is increasing in one in six industries. In fact, far from painting a picture of black progress, the book's examination of more than five million private sector workplaces revealed that it is white men who have gained access to managerial jobs since the 1960s. Documenting Desegregation has a grim but simple conclusion that stands in stark contrast to the general perception of a racial breakthrough that accompanied the election of Obama as the country's first black president. "The United States is no longer on the path to equal employment opportunity," it says.

U.S. Army Soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard" and the Fife and Drum Corps perform during Twilight Tattoo and the Outstanding Civilian Service Award ceremony in Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Va., Oct. 11, 2012. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Teddy Wade) ARLINGTON, Va. — Lt. Gen. Timothy J. Kadavy, director, Army National Guard, has approved the wear of the tricorne "minuteman" hat with Mess Dress and Army Service (ASU-A) uniforms. "The tricorne hat has been the symbol of the Army National Guard since 1636," said Kadavy, motioning to the jaunty, navy blue felt headgear on his desk. "When people see the tricorne, they think about our heritage as Citizen Soldiers. I couldn't be prouder to wear this symbol of our history at parades, dining-ins and other formal activities." According to guidance forthcoming from the Army National Guard directorate, the tricorne hat will be an individually purchased item from the sutler of the Soldiers' choice. While Soldiers may purchase the model of tricorne used by the Army Fife and Drum Corps, the guidance encourages Soldiers to research their unit heritage to identify historically accurate tricornes. It also encourages each Soldier within a unit to create formations of mismatched hats consistent with the improvised traditions of the Minuteman. "This is some readiness headgear," said Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Kepner, "If it was good enough for Valley Forge, it's good enough for our modern fight." Kepner has created a motivational training video instructing small unit leaders in how to clean, shape, and attach elegant lace or feathers to their tricornes in line with the finest traditions of National Guard service. Through-hands on mentorship, Kepner hopes to prevent the dreaded "triangle sunburn" so often associated with wear of the tricorne in outdoor training events. Further guidance is pending, but "cockades and other such frippery" are to be avoided due to their association with Naval heritage. "We're part of the Total Army, but we are a separate service with a separate identity," said Kadavy. "Our Soldiers are excited about the opportunity to purchase optional headgear." The tricorne will not be authorized with the Army Combat Uniform (ACU), flight suits, or class B uniform, Kepner added, "Because that's just silly." The tricorne was adopted after a plan to authorize the carrying of both plow and sword at formal events was abandoned because it hindered the proper rendering of salutes. Also, added Kadavy, "April Fools."

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to backtrack Saturday on understandings reached with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a dramatic US-brokered phone call Friday on healing ties between Ankara and Jerusalem. Erdogan said Saturday it was too early to cancel legal steps against Israeli soldiers who took part in the raid on the Mavi Mamara. According to the Hurriyet daily, Erdogan also said the exchange of ambassadors between Israel and Turkey would not take place immediately. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up “We will see what will be put into practice during the process. If [the Israelis] move forward in a promising way, we will make our contribution. Then, there would be an exchange of ambassadors,” Erdogan was quoted as saying, in remarks at an opening ceremony for a high-speed railway line in the central Turkish province of Eskişehir. Erdogan said that, in the past, Israel had “expressed sorrow and regret several times, refusing to offer a formal apology” over the killings of nine Turkish citizens of the Marmara in 2010 — the incident that led to the freezing of Israeli-Turkish ties. However, Ankara had “insisted on an apology,” he said. That apology had finally been delivered by Netanyahu on Friday, he said. “All our demands have now been met with that apology which was offered the way we wanted,” Erdogan said in comments communicated by Today’s Zaman. The conditions now created represented a unique opportunity “for peace in the Middle East,” he also said. Netanyahu’s office had stated after the call Friday that “The two men agreed to restore normalization between Israel and Turkey, including the dispatch of ambassadors and the cancellation of legal steps against IDF soldiers.” Erdogan also announced plans to visit Gaza, possibly next month, and the West Bank too. Asked about an Erdogan visit to Gaza, Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser, Yaakov Amidror said late Saturday “Israel has nothing to be ashamed of” in Gaza, and that Erdogan would have to explain to the international community why he wanted good relations with “the terrorist organization” — Hamas — which controls the Strip. Hamas’s Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, calling Netanyahu’s apology “a diplomatic victory for Ankara,” confirmed Erdogan would visit “in the near future,” and said this trip would mark “a significant step to ending the political and economic blockade” of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Erdogan told reporters that it wasn’t yet time to talk about dropping the case in which four IDF generals stand accused of war crimes over the incident. The indictment, prepared last summer, sought ten aggravated life sentences for each officer ostensibly involved in the 2010 raid — including former chief of the IDF General Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and former head of military intelligence Amos Yadlin. The Marmara was part of a May 2010 flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza — imposed to prevent weapons imports by Hamas for use against Israel. Israeli naval commandos were attacked as they sought to commandeer the vessel on May 30 as it neared Gaza, and they killed nine Turkish citizens as they fought off attackers wielding clubs and iron bars. In November, IHH vice president Husein Oruch had told Today’s Zaman that “Turkey is the first country in the world that will take the unlawful Israeli actions to court,” adding that the trial was “a very significant case because today will mark the day that the untouchable image of Israel will be damaged.” Despite the formal apology issued by Netanyahu on Friday in the presence of US President Barack Obama, Erdogan’s Saturday statement indicated that Ankara was not entirely prepared to let bygones be bygones. He stressed that during his conversation with him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised to improve the humanitarian conditions in the Palestinian territories. “I accepted the apology in the name of the Turkish people,” Erdogan was quoted as saying, adding that he was planning to visit Gaza in April. “I may eventually visit Gaza and the West Bank in April. This visit would take place in the context of a general effort to contribute to the resolution process,” the Hurriyet daily quoted Erdogan as saying. Erdogan also reportedly said he had talks with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during the apology negotiation process with Israel.

Lawyers' alarming depression rates prompt efforts to boost mental health support Updated An alarming rate of depression among Australia's lawyers is finally starting to be addressed with support programs. Surveys have suggested one-in-three lawyers has suffered from the blues, prompting law firms and the judiciary in South Australia to consider ways to offer more mental health support. Senior law partners, some with personal experience of depression, are looking at how to create a more supportive work environment. Among them is managing partner at Adelaide law firm Wallmans Lawyers, Trevor Edmond, whose personal struggle saw him confront his mental health head-on and later help drive wider changes. I had got to the stage where there was a difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. There was a time when I'd be getting ready for work and I'd just start crying uncontrollably. Trevor Edmond "There was a time just after I was appointed managing partner in this firm, about three or so years ago," he recalled. "Stress levels are pretty high when you take on a new role. We had some issues within the firm but I also had outside issues - I had a very very close friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I had a family member who was diagnosed with terminal cancer and I realised, looking back, I was suffering from depression. "I had got to the stage where there was a difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. There was a time when I'd be getting ready for work and I'd just start crying uncontrollably." Mr Edmond hid his personal turmoil from family and colleagues as best he could, but now said that was a mistake. "Anything that you might see or allow the others to perceive as a sign of weakness is something you don't want to have, so we bottle it up, we hide it away, we don't want it to be seen out there by others, we don't want to talk about it and that has to change," he said. "[Now] I'm more than happy to say I had depression and I'm excited to see that there are others within the profession, others in senior roles in the profession, other managing partners particularly in the eastern seaboard and overseas who are saying the same: 'We've had depression and we need to acknowledge it so that others understand it is still possible to perform'." Mr Edmond said there was now overwhelming evidence of a high prevalence of depression in Australia's legal industry and abroad and the work culture had to change. "There have been a number of surveys undertaken to identify the level of depression, both in Australia and overseas, and the findings are constant in the case of solicitors - we see it's constantly on the mark of one-in-three, 33 per cent of solicitors at any one stage are suffering depression, high anxiety and stress," he said. "In the case of barristers it's 20 per cent so it is significantly higher at a rate of probably three times higher than the average population. "It's a massive problem for the legal profession to be looking at dealing with and, in my view, it's a problem the legal profession has to turn its mind to now. It can't be ignored, it can't be swept away." Yoga classes give a dose of tranquillity Gruelling case loads and work schedules, coupled with high expectations from clients, are among the pressures lawyers face daily. Wallmans Lawyers decided to offer health and wellbeing programs, having consulted its staff about work pressures. We are here trying to develop a position in our office where we actually have people asking you the question of whether you're okay, 'Are you alright?' rather than waiting for you to react. Trevor Edmond The boardroom is often turned over to staff yoga classes and they are encouraged to take time out of their demanding schedules to relax. The company also has a "quiet room", gets fresh fruit delivered and team camps are held. Mr Edmond was pleased to see a culture of support and care had evolved. "We are here trying to develop a position in our office where we actually have people asking you the question of whether you're okay, 'Are you alright?' rather than waiting for you to react," he said. "People here now have a level of comfort not only to talk about it themselves but actually feel comfortable to ask others whether something is wrong. "We all have those times when work piles up, files sit on your desk and things get on top of you. If we can deal with them all very, very early on as a group it's going to save a lot of issues for us in relation to depression." He said statistics had been compiled in the industry suggesting about 10 per cent of those in the legal profession contemplated suicide in any month. Judiciary slowly making workload changes Along with law firms, the judiciary is now tackling mental health concerns. South Australian Supreme Court Justice John Sulan said attitudes were starting to change. "I think we have to recognise that people need to have a work-life balance and I think the judiciary are also recognising it," he said. "In days gone by there was very little recognition of that, but we accept as judges now that there are times that lawyers need a break. "It's a very, very time-consuming profession and many say they've got two spouses - their husband or wife and the legal profession. "It's a very demanding profession and a lot of the work is done under pressure. That has its consequences." Justice Sulan started his legal career in 1969, in an era when mental health was not discussed in the workplace. He said many still found it hard to open up about their work stresses. "Clearly some cases are very emotionally draining and because you're dealing with human beings, you're dealing with real-life situations, you're dealing with some horrific situations both in the criminal court and in the civil courts," he said. "There are] very great demands on the lawyers ... so that does take its toll." Justice Sulan is involved in a men's health group and within the Supreme Court encourages other judges to confide in him confidentially about personal issues. There is also professional counselling now offered for judges and magistrates. "The Chief Justice, the Chief Judge and the Chief Magistrate are very attuned to the need to ensure that their judges maintain their health," Justice Sulan said. "If a judge or magistrate needs assistance then every effort will be given to assisting them and if they need to take some time off that will be given to them. "It is still difficult to get people to open up because I think that inherently people still do not want to talk about their mental health. I mean it's difficult enough to get people to talk about their physical health let alone their mental health, so I think we've still got a long way to go in that area but on the other hand we've gone a long way in the past 30 years." He hoped the attention to health issues would keep improving in workplaces. "There is a recognition of those pressures and I think over the years there will be greater recognition of it and it is important because we need to maintain the health of our professionals, because if they're going to do a good job they need to be healthy," he said. Resources concern for smaller law firms Lawyer Trevor Edmond said smaller law firms remained vulnerable to health worries because of a lack of resources and support services. "It's very difficult for those who are practicing on their own or practising in small groups, and barristers who are of course practicing on their own effectively," he said. "The majority of firms in this state [SA] are small firms that have less than five or six professionals, it's very hard for those people I think to deal with it. I can understand for a lot of the smaller practitioners [there] is a degree of difficulty." The Law Society of South Australia now has a mental health and wellness committee to support people in the field who are dealing with depression. A confidential counselling service, LawCare, started about 18 years ago and officials said 300 people had made use of the support. The Law Society said the biggest increase in new clients approaching LawCare came two years ago. It said work-related stress and depression were the biggest issues, closely followed by home-related stress. Mr Edmond hoped his own firm's proactive approach to mental health issues would become part of a pervasive culture in the legal field. "I know a number of firms who also run an employee assistance program [but] unfortunately I'm aware of other firms who still adopt the attitude that it's a tough life, if you can't handle it, don't expect any sympathy. That to me is an unfortunate attitude ... and it's something that won't be sustainable," he said. More on the story on 7.30 SA on Friday night on the ABC. Topics: mental-health, judges-and-legal-profession, law-crime-and-justice, depression, diseases-and-disorders, health, adelaide-5000, sa First posted

Oct.9 (GMM) Force India has not ruled out signing Kevin Magnussen for 2014. The young Dane, whose father Jan contested a race for McLaren in 1995, is being backed by the great British team as he closes on the Formula Renault 3.5 title. Germany's Auto Motor und Sport recently made the link between Magnussen and Force India, revealing that a debt owed by the Silverstone based team to McLaren could be forgiven if the 21-year-old is given his Grand Prix debut. The rumour would tie in with speculation Force India is considering a new teammate for Adrian Sutil next year, because Paul di Resta is under-performing. "We have a competitive pairing at the moment," insists team boss Vijay Mallya, "but it's unlikely we will make any decisions (about 2014) before the Indian Grand Prix." Asked specifically about Magnussen by Reuters, deputy boss Bob Fernley answered: "Vijay has always taken the best drivers that he could afford. And I don't think he'll change that philosophy. "So when it comes to actually determining the drivers, we can put our recommendations in. And if Kevin is in that mix then so be it," he added. But Fernley also said: "I think McLaren have to look at it themselves really. If Magnussen is a wonderful driver, why not take the chance?"

Mancini rejects Leicester? By Football Italia staff Reports in the UK echo those in Italy suggesting Roberto Mancini has turned down the chance to succeed Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City. It had already been reported by Tuttomercatoweb that the former Inter Coach had been approached by the Foxes, but turned down their advances. Now Sky Sports UK is also reporting that Mancio has no interest in replacing his compatriot at the King Power Stadium, despite being sounded out about the possibility. Ranieri guided Leicester to the Premier League title last season, but was sacked last night after a run of poor results. The decision drew widespread condemnation, with Roma Coach Luciano Spalletti lamenting “there is no gratitude in this sport… not even a tiny bit”. Juventus Coach Max Allegri and Inter’s Stefano Pioli also offered words of support for Ranieri, while Jose Mourinho came down firmly on the side of his fellow former-Inter boss. “I thought last season when I was sacked as a champion it was a giant negative thing, now I realise it was peanuts to what happened with Claudio,” the Manchester United manager said in his Press conference today. “[He is] somebody that deserves the Leicester stadium to be named Claudio Ranieri and he is sacked. “I don’t think he needs more homages because no-one can believe what he did. No one can do anything about it. No one can delete history.”

For the first time this season, Real Salt Lake Coach Jeff Cassar sounded like someone other than his normal upbeat self. After losing 2-1 to the Atlanta Silverbacks in US Open Cup play on Saturday night, he couldn't come up with much positive to say about his team or their performance. “I don't think anybody played well tonight,” he told reporters. “I don't think anybody at all played well. I got outcoached. We got outplayed. No, there's no positives at all from this game.” RSL opened strong for the first 10 minutes of the game in Atlanta and took a 1-0 lead, but were largely outplayed over the course of the game. Unfortunately for the Claret-and-Cobalt, it was par for the course in recent weeks: They have gone 0-2-3 in their last five MLS matches following a 12-game unbeaten start to the season. Cassar was clearly irked that for the seventh time in 2014, his team went ahead but failed to get a win, including five ties and two losses "Guys couldn't finish the game," he said after hte game. "We started great. And then we went away from what we were doing. They gained control of the game. And they played with more energy. More passion, like they were fighting for their jobs.” RSL midfielder Luke Mulholland said, “All the guys [are] in the locker room, heads down. Disappointed in themselves, disappointed in the team. We feel like we let Jeff [Cassar] down.” The squad Cassar took to Atlanta was missing a slew of familiar names, including Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman (both on duty with the USMNT at the World Cup in Brazil); Alvaro Saborio and Ned Grabavoy (both injured); and Nat Borchers, Javier Morales and Chris Schuler (rested and did not travel). The team now has a two-week break before returning to MLS play on June 28 at Chivas USA. And, given the string of injuries the team has suffered, that could be a good thing. But nobody in the Salt Lake locker room was looking at it that way. “I think it's going to be extremely beneficial,” Cassar said harshly. “We can go let this [expletive] soak in with everybody and just sit and stew on our break and realize the opportunity that we just blew. “Also, it gives a chance for some players to get back. And let's be fair. When we're missing eight starters from this game, it's not easy. This game was never going to be easy. And we made it really hard on ourselves.” It will make for a less-than-restful break. “If you ask all the players, I'm sure they feel right now they don't deserve that break,” Mulholland siad. “Especially with how the results of the last few games have turned out. “Jeff's told us to just go get away from the game, enjoy the time with our family and friends, clear our heads. Because when we come back, we've got a lot of work to do as a team to prepare for the rest of the season.”

Robert Kubica has had two tests in two months Robert Kubica's comeback to Formula 1 from life-changing injuries moved a step closer after a second test for Renault on Wednesday. The test at France's Paul Ricard track was aimed at evaluating whether the Pole can make a comeback despite having only partial movement in his right arm. The 32-year-old completed 90 trouble-free laps, with a Renault spokesman saying that he performed "completely". Kubica told L'Equipe newspaper a return would present "physically, no problem". He added that it was too early to say whether he could make a full comeback from the injuries suffered in a rallying accident in February 2011. Kubica's run at the track in the south of France was his second test for Renault in two months. An initial test in Valencia last month was said to be a "one off" but he impressed sufficiently that the team scheduled a second run "to assess his capabilities to return to the highest level of competition". Kubica, who won the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix for BMW Sauber, was regarded as one of the fastest drivers in F1 before his career was cut short before his second season with Renault. "It is necessary to go step by step," he told L'Equipe, the only media outlet allowed into the test. "I have come a long way. Don't forget that. My doubts about my capacities have disappeared with these two days of tests. I am no longer afraid of not being at the level but there remains a way to go." Media playback is not supported on this device Kubica chasing 'impossible' F1 dream Is Kubica capable of returning to F1? The main questions over Kubica's ability to make a comeback surround whether he has sufficient movement in his right arm and hand. Can he negotiate the tightest corners? Do the atrophied muscles in the limb have enough strength? Kubica insisted his left hand could "compensate" for the weakness in his right and that his "physical limitations do not influence my driving". He added: "I am doing everything to maximise my chances. But I don't know what will happen in the future. I don't want to come back for nothing. I want to return at a high level. "I have not yet driven a current F1 car. I could not be ready for Silverstone [this weekend's British Grand Prix]. It would take me two days of tests in a current car. That would accelerate my chances 1,000%." Renault F1 managing director Cyril Abiteboul said it was "too early to say" and that plenty more testing would need to be done to assess Kubica's fitness. A run in a 2017 car could come in the official F1 two-day test at the Hungaroring on 1-2 August - the Tuesday and Wednesday after the Hungarian Grand Prix - but Abiteboul said it was "too early to say if Robert will be with us in Budapest". He added: "He has so far only driven an old car, with a detuned engine, with demonstration tyres. He has not been submitted to the stresses of a race nor run with other cars."

The official English dub for the “Aria the Animation” series is officially in the works as Nozomi Entertainment announces the success of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in reaching its initial goal of US$110,000 on Thursday. Originally an utopian science fantasy manga by Kozue Amano simply titled “Aria”, the series was adapted into an anime series in 2005 by Hal Film Maker and ran for a total of 13 episodes before ending in December 2015. For the story it tells of 15-year-old Akari Mizunashi and her beginning as a resident of Aqua, a sparkling planet covered in water which was once the planet of Mars before humans found a way to colonize it during the 24th century. Her reason for packing her bags and heading for the planet? To become an undine, a female gondolier who navigates the canals of the Aquan city of Neo-Venezia and gives tours for tourists. The company to which she joins is known as the Aria company, a company which aims to show tourists as many wonders of the city via gondola as possible. As she begins her training with the company she finds challenges in the path towards her dream. Followed after the end of the first anime series of the franchise another two series was created along with an OVA and Junichi Satou, who directed shoujo series “Pretear” and “Princess Tutu” was the director for all anime adaptations of the series. It was in 2006 that the second anime series was created and ran for a total 26 episodes. WIth a total of 13 episodes plus an additional episode found in the DVD bonus, the third anime series of the franchise was released in 2008. Lastly, before and after the third series, two OVAs were created. Just Tuesday, Crunchyroll made an announcement of adding the anime to its screening catalog and will be having all 13 episodes available for the United States, Canada, and Mexico. When the news of the campaign’s success came out, it was later revealed during press time that the number went up to US$111,221 due to 1,008 backers. Currently the campaign is running and will be ending on September 11. Included in the announcement of the campaigns increasing fund is that project’s staff will be including Michele Knotz and Jessica Calvello into the English dub cast and Headline Studios will be taking charge of the dub’s recording. Source: AnimeNewsNetwork

This article was written by a LIVEKINDLY contributor. If you wish to contact the author directly, please email us at hello@livekindly.co [et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.0.69″] Nevermind scouring the streets for a measly side-menu Sliver – why not just head straight to Glasgow where plant based food options are In Bloom! The UK’s most vegan friendly city is adding to its ever expanding list of sustainable eateries, but this one comes with a twist! Soon you will be able to Come As You Are to the new self proclaimed “cruelty free cafe” on Clarendon Street. “In Bloom” will offer both seated and take out options but whether or not the menu will be serving Pennyroyal Tea is yet to be revealed as information about this new joint is pretty scarce. All Apologies. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_social_media_follow _builder_version=”3.0.53″ saved_tabs=”all” link_shape=”circle” url_new_window=”on” follow_button=”on” background_layout=”light” global_module=”4820″] [et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”facebook” skype_action=”call” url=”https://www.facebook.com/livekindlyco/” bg_color=”#3b5998″] Facebook [/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”twitter” skype_action=”call” url=”https://twitter.com/livekindlyco” bg_color=”#00aced”] Twitter [/et_pb_social_media_follow_network][et_pb_social_media_follow_network social_network=”instagram” skype_action=”call” url=”https://www.instagram.com/livekindlyco/” bg_color=”#517fa4″] Instagram [/et_pb_social_media_follow_network] [/et_pb_social_media_follow][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Says Hillary Clinton "shows up in Broward County" and had a private meeting with elections supervisor Brenda Snipes. As early voters in Florida started casting votes, conservative websites buzzed about new evidence of crooked campaign tactics by Hillary Clinton to secure the crucial battleground state. The alleged scheme centered on left-leaning Broward County, already in the news for distributing some mail-in ballots without Amendment 2, a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. The claims originated from Roger Stone, a Donald Trump supporter and former campaign operative who talked of a "secret" meeting in an interview to conspiracy theorist and radio show host Alex Jones on Oct. 26. "Yesterday Hillary Clinton shows up in Broward County — slips into a private meeting with the woman who runs the board of elections," said Stone, who lives in Fort Lauderdale. It’s common for election supervisors to meet with party officials if they have questions about election procedures. But a meeting directly with a presidential candidate would be unusual. Broward has about 600,000 Democratic voters — the highest number in Florida — so it is a key county for Clinton. Jones has millions of followers. The claim about Clinton secretly meeting with Brenda Snipes took off on social media, and some suggested that it was part of a voter fraud scheme. We found no evidence that such a meeting took place — because it didn’t. Within days, Stone retracted his claim. (A retraction doesn’t allow a political figure to avoid the Truth-O-Meter, but we will explain what he initially said and then his latest explanation.) No meeting When we first heard the claim about a Snipes-Clinton meeting we were skeptical. Although Snipes is a Democrat, the former school administrator is not known for partisan or political involvement. In fact, a long list of politicians endorsed her opponent in the primary, although Snipes then won in a landslide. Snipes was first appointed to the position in 2003 by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush. In an Oct. 27 interview, Snipes told us she hadn’t met with Clinton. "She has not requested a meeting from me," Snipes said. "I haven’t met with anybody and neither has my staff. I don’t even know who the members of her staff are. Neither I nor my staff met with Hillary Clinton." Snipes told the Sun Sentinel that it was a "big fat lie" that she met with Clinton. A spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign in Florida also denied that such a meeting took place. Stone said he would post photos of the Clinton-Snipes meeting on Jones’ website Infowars "shortly" but never did. When we spoke to Stone on Oct. 28, he explained how he heard the allegation -- third-hand. He lacked even the most basic details, such as where this alleged meeting took place. He said information came from a coordinator for Citizens for Trump, a grassroots group. Stone said that the coordinator told him he spoke with two women from Citizens for Trump. The women said that they saw Clinton enter a meeting with Snipes. "They claim they were inadvertently in a secured area of a presidential candidate visit," when they spotted Clinton enter a meeting with Snipes. "Both admit they ran, they left the place in a hurry because they were shooed off by security." The women tried to take photos and video while they were dashing away, Stone said. The photos didn’t show anything, and Stone said he is waiting for video. "If Snipes denies it and there is no evidence to the contrary, I can say this is an incorrect report, but I’m not ready to conclude that yet," Stone said. After giving Stone a few more days to track down information, we circled back with him Oct. 31. That’s when he retracted his story -- or rather moved his story to a different county. Stone told PolitiFact Florida that he went back on Jones’ show Oct. 30 to say he was wrong about Snipes meeting with Clinton in Broward. "I was incorrect about that," he said on the radio show. "In fact, I was off by a county. The Clinton entourage pulled up behind the West Palm Beach office of the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections. Hillary Clinton was physically seen by at least three witnesses meeting with officials from the building. These observers were shooed away. ... Palm Beach is of course ground zero of the Democrats’ vote stealing operation." (We sought contact information from Stone for these alleged witnesses but Stone said they were too scared to talk.) Again, the Clinton campaign said no meeting took place -- and Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher also said she didn’t meet with Clinton. It is true that Clinton was in Broward and Palm Beach counties the week that Stone made these claims. She gave speeches at Broward College on Oct. 25 and Palm Beach State College on Oct. 26. During his interview with Jones, Stone tried to portray Snipes as incompetent and pointed to ballots missing the medical marijuana amendment. Stone said that Snipes announced that the amendment "isn’t going to be on the ballot in Broward County because of some kind of a screw up." That’s an exaggeration. The amendment is on the ballot in Broward, but four absentee ballots so far have turned up missing the amendment. A group supporting marijuana legalization sued Snipes over the ballots omitting Amendment 2. On Oct. 28, a Broward judge ruled in Snipes favor and concluded that she had taken appropriate steps to remedy the errors including providing replacement ballots. Our ruling Stone said Clinton showed up in Broward County and slipped into a private meeting with elections supervisor Brenda Snipes. Stone was wrong. He heard it third-hand from Trump supporters who claim they stumbled across such a meeting. Snipes and a spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign in Florida denied such a meeting took place and we found no evidence that it did. Days later, Stone admitted he was wrong but then claimed that Clinton met with elections officials in Palm Beach County. He lacks evidence for that claim, too -- and both the elections supervisor and the Clinton campaign deny it. We rate this claim Pants on Fire! https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/edc730e5-7273-47dd-ad0d-cdd1cbcbd9f2

How do cycle-influenced clothes from Ted Baker and Marks & Spencer measure up against those from more bike-oriented firms Vulpine and Rapha? It might have escaped your notice if your main exposure to cycling is packs of dayglo-bright road riders and anorak-ed commuters, but bikes and fashion are currently enjoying something of a love-in. Away from the specialist bike clothing, this means that the fashion world has decided cycling is trendy, even aspirational. At the intersection of this process is what you might call everyday cycle clothing – jeans, shirts, jackets and the like, given some bike-friendly features, as well as the cachet that an association with cycling currently brings. Within this realm you have companies coming at the designs from two different directions: largely cycling-based firms which take a strong interest in fashion; and mainstream fashion firms launching cycling-connected ranges. We’ve tried out both sorts. I’ve been entrusted with the men’s items, while my colleague, Rosie Swash – now of the news desk but formerly deputy fashion editor – takes on the women’s ranges. First, two very quick thoughts. To start with, are “everyday” bike clothes pointless? Well, that’s really for you to decide. There’s an argument that if you’re cycling a very long way then nothing beats traditional bike gear, whereas ordinary clothes are fine for most else. That said, a good, breathable rain jacket which doesn’t glow like a high-vis beacon can be useful. But either way, it’s a debate for another day. These clothes exist, and it’s interesting to see how well they work and how good they look. Also: prices. We’ve tried to get a range but this is, currently, quite an upmarket area. H&M did carry a cheap range of bike-influenced clothes last year, but that’s now gone. So Marks & Spencer are the most affordable. At the other end of the scale I did ask to try out a couple of items from Paul Smith’s vastly pricey 531 cycling collection but their PR people refused. Maybe they thought we wouldn’t give back the clothes (we do). We’ve given the usual list prices but it’s worth noting that some items are currently discounted in winter sales. Anyway, usual rules apply: if you believe a bin liner scavenged from a skip is sufficient waterproofing for all your cycling needs that’s well and good, but don’t get too antsy if others want to spend more. The men’s clothes Peter Walker Marks & Spencer cycling chinos. Photograph: Marks & Spencer Or in full, cotton-rich tapered fit water resistant cycling chinos with Stormwear™ – Stormwear is M&S’s own suposedly water-repelling fabric finish. The first thing to note is how thrilling it is for a high street mainstay like M&S to consider cycling of sufficient interest to bike-brand a pair of their ubiquitous chinos. But for all the extras, these are definitely M&S chinos, and thus a slightly, well, comfortable fit. If you do like that look, the extras are surprisingly well thought out. The rear pockets have zips, and there’s a small zipped front pocket with a discrete key tab above it. The cuffs have a neat little popper arrangement to pull them tight. I couldn’t vouch for the effect of the 2% elastene – there was far too much fabric for any stretching – or the supposed rain resistant powers as, miraculously, it stayed dry every time I wore them. Perhaps M&S can guarantee that as well. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vulpine men’s Harrington jacket. Photograph: Vulpine Loath as I am to single out an item for praise it seems only fair here. It’s not cheap, but the relatively new British cycling clothing company’s mainstay jacket is fantastic. As always the style aspect is personal. It’s quite tapered, almost militaristic in cut and I liked the subtle dark green of the one I tried out. But it’s beautifully made, with everything from the long cuffs to the high neck and range of discreet pockets showing considerable thought. The Harrington is made from what Vulpine grandly called “Epic” cotton, intended to be both breathable and, as far as possible, waterproof. It’s on this front that the jacket is not far short of a miracle. It manages to be snug and yet more or less completely avoid the dreaded boil-in-the-bag feeling. And while Vulpine stress it’s not completely waterproof, an hour-long trip in incessant, driving rain to drop my son at his nursery and then ride to work left my top half completely dry. Water just seemed to bead off the fabric. That’s quite a combination. Vulpine men’s rain trousers. Photograph: Vulpine As if to emphasise the hugely personal nature of all this, these trousers are equally well made and carefully thought-out... but I just didn’t take to them. It’s partly the style – as with the M&S chinos there just seemed more fabric than strictly necessary. But also the crinkly treated cotton just felt less welcome for me in a trouser than the jacket. But if you think differently, they’re cleverly designed, with high cut pockets to keep valuables safe, plus a neat mini zipped pocket and hidden key tab. In fact, some elements are so reminiscent of the (more recently-launched) M&S chinos it’s almost as if the M&S designers were, um, inspired. My lawyers advise I should stop now. Ted Baker Ohpant chinos. Photograph: Ted Baker These are part of the clothes firm’s link-up with online cycling behemoth Wiggle, titled “Raising the Handlebars” (surely if you’re a cycling hipster you lower your handlebars, before cutting them down to the width of a paperback book?) Shamefully, there are only men’s items for now, though Ted Baker say this could change. At a fairly hefty £95, come the oddly-named Ohpants, in essence fairly traditional chinos with a few bike-centric bells and whistles (not literally). As chinos they’re perfectly decent, the type that would blend seamlessly into the middle management of a tech company. Not completely my thing, but well made. The cotton is mixed with 3% elastene – that stretchy fabric known to 80s hair metal bands as Spandex – for some extra flex. Clever extra features include reflective trim under the fold-down rear pocket and inside the seams, plus some internal velcro mini-straps to narrow the ankle widths on demand. My one complaint? The gusset underhang is a touch on the generous side. Presumably it’s to make the cycling more comfy, but for me it’s in danger of edging into MC Hammer territory. Ted Baker Zipthru jersey. Photograph: Ted Baker Another crazy name but the garment itself – a fairly plain top – is pretty traditional-looking, almost retro. In fact, do up the copper-tinged zip and you could pass as an extra in a film about the glory days of the Haçienda. It’s not a look for everyone. When I first tried it on at home I remarked to my girlfriend, “Hmmm, not sure if I want to wear this out of the house.” She replied: “I’d rather you didn’t wear it inside.” And yet... I found myself using it quite a lot, albeit as an extra layer underneath something else. The fabric is nicely breathable, and the zipped side pockets useful. I did take it off as soon as I removed the outer layer, though. Ted Baker Wizard jacket. Photograph: Ted Baker A well-made item, as you’d expect from the price, so whether you like it depends very much on your view of the style. It’s quite high cut, with slightly fussy button side pockets and a fake patterned handkerchief edge in the top pocket, which can, thankfully, be folded down. The whole effect is half suburban hipster, half Victorian gent who’s mislaid his penny farthing (I’m aware these looks intersect). It wasn’t quite for me, but then I’m possibly a bit older and more sensible than the target market. That said, it’s light and breathable but surprisingly wind-proof, and has nice touches like a reflective band you can reveal by raising the collar. The women’s clothes Rosie Swash Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vulpine women’s original rain jacket. Photograph: Vulpine My usual cycling apparel involves nothing more than a pair of leggings in lieu of jeans and foam galoshes to place over my shoes to stop them getting scuffed. But I tested this navy blue jacket and trouser during a ride on a cold, sodden Sunday morning. I didn’t get soaked and I didn’t overheat. They do exactly what exercise clothing should do, in that I completely failed to notice them at all for the journey. But on an aesthetic level, the silhouette is too boxy. It’s hard to imagine opting for fortified rainwear when you can get far more fashionable parkas and anoraks on the high street that provide the same function. In terms of performance there are no complaints, but there already exists a wide range of cycling performance wear that is far more functional than fashionable, and for me, Vulpine’s selection fails to tick both boxes. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rapha women’s rain bomber jacket. Photograph: Rapha I’m not averse to paying a high price for a good pair of jeans if the quality is right - the last jeans I bought were £150 from J Crew and are still going strong four years later- and Rapha jeans are of exceptional quality. With an elastane count of 3%, they move with ease, they’re very comfortable, they keep their shape and they are exceedingly smart (if they weren’t exceedingly smart they’d be jeggings). Plus, the dark Indigo colour and the texture of the material make them feel smarter than your average jeans. They also come with reflective turn ups which is just the kind of discreet label-flash you get from high-end brands. Rapha also sent over a short, pinkish red rain bomber to wear with the jeans, and the effect of the entire outfit is transformative. The bike journey is eased by not having to carry a change of clothes in a pannier, which is what happens not only with my normal cycling clothes but would be the case with Vulpine’s rainwear. I feel sporty and spritely - the outfit literally puts a spring in my step. That’s the thing about good clothes – the subtlety of the design and the attention to details can make all the different, even if the wearer, or anyone else, can’t put their finger on why.

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Q. You made a debut as solo singer by releasing your first ever solo album “I Just Wanna Dance.” How do you feel? Q. So, what did you pay attention to most when you were preparing for your first solo album? Q. Tell me about the title track “I just wanna dance.” It’s notable that the song is a dance track. You know, your team mate Taeyeon sang ballad songs as a solo singer. Q. “What do I do” is your first ever own song, and your teammate Sooyoung wrote the lyrics of the song. I guess you’re filled with emotion. Tiffany: I’ve tried to write my own songs since 2014. However, as you might know, SM Entertainment has a rigorous system. It was really hard to be allowed to include my own song in my album. Before releasing the album, I composed a total of 6 songs and one of them was chosen. I felt really great about it. And various lyric writers wrote the lyrics of the song, while only two people were on the short list. Yeah, Sooyoung was one of them, and I preferred Sooyoung’s lyrics. She knows about me very well, and she also helped me a lot when I recorded the song. I hope I can have more chances to collaborate with the Girls’ Generation members. Q. Do you have a special reason for including the English version of “What do I do” in the album? Tiffany: Yeah, actually, I’m still not good at writing Korean lyrics. When I wrote the English lyrics of “What do I do,” I tried to use expressions that are easily understood. Q. You are the second Girls’ Generation member who debuted as a solo singer. And it seems that some people compare you with Taeyeon, who debuted as a solo singer about 7 months earlier than you. Didn’t you feel pressured about it? Tiffany: She’s my best friend of 12 years, and she helped me a lot when I was preparing for my solo debut. I learned a lot from her. And I think the reason why Girls’ Generation has been doing so well for more than 10 years is that each member has quite different characteristics. My music is different from Taeyeon’s. Q. The former Girls’ Generation member Jessica will release her solo album a week later. What do you think about it? Tiffany: You know, these days there are many singers who release their solo albums. I think all of them worked really hard, and some of them might have prepared for their albums longer than I did. I hope everybody will get a satisfactory result. Q. There are still many people who have a prejudice against idol singers. Tiffany: I want to ask why. Idol singers’ songs are music too. They question the veracity of idol music, but the Girls’ Generation members and I are earnest about our music. I’m doing now what I dreamed of a long time ago. Q. What do you want to achieve through your solo activity? Tiffany: I want to show a natural dance performance on the stage and leave a strong impression on the public as a dance singer. And I hope my solo album is worthy of Girls’ Generation’s reputation. Tiffany: You know, these days there are many singers who release their solo albums. I think all of them worked really hard, and some of them might have prepared for their albums longer than I did. I hope everybody will get a satisfactory result.Tiffany: I want to ask why. Idol singers’ songs are music too. They question the veracity of idol music, but the Girls’ Generation members and I are earnest about our music. I’m doing now what I dreamed of a long time ago.Tiffany: I want to show a natural dance performance on the stage and leave a strong impression on the public as a dance singer. And I hope my solo album is worthy of Girls’ Generation’s reputation. Tiffany: Well, I’m very nervous now because it’s my first ever solo album since I came to Korea 12 years ago.Tiffany: I’ve been hard at work on the album since last year. I wanted to show my own musical characteristics, and I cared more about music than visual or performance. I hope many people will really enjoy the album.Tiffany: Actually, there were many people who were surprised that I chose the dance music as the title track. Well, I like to dance and love cheerful music. And I feel free when I dance. I think it’s a great season to enjoy such an exciting song.

Photo via Twitter UPDATE (12:10 PM): You can read an official statement on King Reign's Facebook page here. In unfortunate news, Kunle Thomas, better known as King Reign of veteran Toronto rap group BrassMunk, has died. According to Exclaim, he passed away yesterday after having fallen into a coma following a heart attack last week. He was 40. BrassMunk was formed in 1997 by Reign, S-Roc, Clip, and DJ Agile. The group had hits with songs such as "Big" and "Oh Supaman" and were nominated for Juno awards in 2004 and 2007. Reign then went on to pursue solo work such as his Reign Music EP and Sincere, collaborating with artists like Saukrates, Boi-1da, Pharoahe Monch, and a then-rising Drake. Earlier this year, he contributed to the Black Lives Matter mixtape 'Black City' and was featured on k-os' Views from the Stix tape. He also had a role in Private Eyes. Donations to support Reign's memorial service and family can be made on his GoFundMe. This is a developing story. We'll update as more info comes in. RIP King Reign. Fuck man ... Im literally tearing up. That was my OG. — RICH KIDD | R-WAY (@richkiddbeats) June 29, 2016

Zero tolerance on diving won't get off the ground I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester, playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything. In that culture, in the north of England, it was drummed into us not to show anyone we were hurt. Dads and coaches on the touchline would shout at us to get up and play on. The game was about becoming a certain kind of man who did not show pain or cry when he was tackled. And in those days I would never have dreamt of diving or going to ground when I was challenged. I’d rather get hurt than be labelled soft. Playing at Albert Park in Salford you would probably have had to smash a boy in half to get him to go to ground. Then I went to Manchester United as a schoolboy, where my coaches were Nobby Stiles, Brian Kidd and Eric Harrison. Nobby’s reputation speaks for itself, while Eric had played 500 games for clubs such as Halifax, Hartlepool and Barrow, which tells you all you need to know about him. So that culture of acting tough was further ingrained into us. But as teenagers we started to travel to European tournaments and play against some of the great clubs: Inter, Barcelona, Ajax. The games would start out normally enough, then you’d make a normal tackle and your opponent would be writhing around on the ground in agony. Sometimes you didn’t even think you had touched him. But the next thing you knew, the Swiss referee would be marching over and giving you a yellow card, saying: ‘No more! No more!’ And you’d be left standing there thinking: ‘Are they taking the ****?’ European education: Manchester United learned much about playing on the continent before their incredible Champions League win in 1999 We had Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt in central midfield but you would have thought they were the Kray twins from the reaction of Italian or Spanish coaches and parents. Whenever they made a challenge, the whole bench and entourage would erupt in fury. We were all indignant. In your frustration, you would go to pick a lad up who was on the ground and then suddenly he would make out you had hit him. And instead of a yellow card it was a red one. The whole team would be outraged. Cheating, pure and simple. Or so we thought. But Eric, Brian and Nobby would simply say to us: ‘When are you going to learn?’ Quite soon we were all playing for United’s first team in Europe. And that’s when the real education began. Between 1995-1999, when we won our first Champions League, we learned tactical and technical lessons, but we also had an education in other aspects of the game: running the clock down, slowing the game down, tactical fouls and, yes, winning a free-kick. Slowly it dawned on us. This isn’t going to change. This is the way the game is played at a global level. It doesn’t matter what Gary Neville from Bury thinks. This is the game at the top level. So gradually your thinking changes. You might say your morality weakens. Certainly the value system you grew up with is challenged. And so in Europe, if you were fouled in the first 15 minutes, you would go down, get the physio on, give the team a break. If you felt the hand of a forward pressing down on you at the far post at a corner, you would go down to make sure you got the free-kick. And the forwards if fouled would make sure they went over so the referee noticed it. It gets into your thinking. So when Robert Pires is running at me, I start thinking: ‘Don’t stick out a leg because, if I do, he’ll find it somehow and fall down. And if that happens, when I get to the dressing room the manager won’t be saying, “Bad luck, Gary. You were stitched up there”. He’ll be calling me naïve, accusing me of making a ridiculous challenge.’ It got to the point where I, as a senior player, would have a go at younger players for trying to battle on when they were fouled in the box. That’s some transformation from the seven-year-old who would have died of shame if he had dived. So when I saw Andy Carroll dive against Newcastle, I just laughed. It was an example of a traditional English centre-forward who has been relatively sheltered from a culture of going to ground easily suddenly trying to be clever and making a complete mess of it. The fall guy: Andy Carroll's dive against Newcastle It sparked another debate about diving and PFA chairman Clarke Carlisle raised the prospect of a clampdown, saying there should be zero tolerance with referees cautioning and sending off offenders. I wish it were that simple. There is a complexity to it, which simple statements about clampdowns cannot address. The game we play in England has changed. It is now influenced by the global game and how it is played. Only around 35 per cent of players starting this weekend will be English. And just as those Italian parents would get so het up about Nicky Butt, we have to accept that different cultures have different value systems. I would speak to Cristiano Ronaldo about this and he believed that if a full-back was coming in at right angles to him and committed to tackle him, that was more objectionable than a dive. He would jump to save himself from injury and ride the tackle. He had a point. You can call it soft but in a Latin culture that kind of tackle is seen as the disgrace, not the dive. It’s not just Latin players. Gareth Bale, one of the most exciting players in the League, said recently: ‘If people want to say I’m diving then they can but I’m trying to get out of the way. You have people flying in at you and if you stand there, you’re going to get a whack.’ Going to ground: Gareth Bale is tackled by Craig Gardner in the 0-0 draw at Sunderland The culture has changed for ever. I reckon 75 per cent of fouls now committed result in players going to ground. By which I mean they could have stayed on their feet but want to show the referee they have been fouled. When Dimitar Berbatov pulled Chris Samba’s shirt at Old Trafford earlier in the season, Samba fell to the ground. But you’d need a 20-tonne truck to pull Samba to the ground by his shirt. But Samba is not a cheat — he was the one being fouled. So how do you implement a clampdown on diving in those situations? Last Sunday, when Swansea’s Neil Taylor drove into Tottenham’s penalty area, William Gallas put his hand on his shoulder momentarily to hold him back. Taylor kept going and didn’t get a penalty. But nowhere in the rules does it say you’re allowed to manhandle someone. It doesn’t say it’s OK if it’s only a brief touch or not very hard. It was a foul. Saving himself: Ronaldo At the end of it all I’m in a moral daze because I can see my values have changed so much. And, when I analyse it, I realise over time I’ve come to accept other people’s values. We live in a multi-cultural society far more open to international ideas. If you’d told me 20 years ago I’d drive through Bury and see someone sitting outside a café drinking a latte, I’d have laughed. In fact, I wouldn’t have even known what a latte was. In the same way our game has changed and the authorities are not going to accommodate English cultural attitudes into their refereeing. I do understand why we get so upset about diving. I’m sad that the innocence of the seven-year-old has been lost. In some ways I like the purity that game represented. But it’s not the game we play any more. I've got one message for City: Just stay in the game

UPDATED, with release: WME-IMG this morning confirmed the news that it has finalized a $4 billion deal to acquire UFC. The release is pasted below our original story. PREVIOUS: A consortium led by WME-IMG is finalizing a $4 billion deal to acquire UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), the world’s leading mixed martial arts (MMA) franchise. Other investors in the deal include Michael Dell’s MSD Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Silver Lake. The deal has been in the works for some time, with the final points believed to have been agreed over the weekend. A formal announcement is expected later today. UFC was bought by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta a quarter of a century ago. The brothers had controlled an 80% stake in the company. They will retain a minority stake moving forward under the terms of the new deal. Other minority shareholders with 10% each had been the Abu Dhabi government-owned Flash Entertainment as well as another 10% stake for UFC president Dana White. WME-IMG will serve now as the operating owner of UFC moving forward. The sports company, which has soared in popularity in recent years, has already provided a number of crossover stars, including former champion Ronda Rousey (Furious 7) and Randy Couture (Expendables 3). Private equity firm Silver Lake is the biggest shareholder in WME-IMG, having invested $200m for a 31% stake back in 2012. In 2014, WME co-toppers Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell bought leading sports agency IMG for $2.4 billion. While some analysts at the time commented that WME had overpaid for the company, synergies have begun to bear fruit for WME. In March, Japan’s Softbank invested $250 million in WME-IMG, valuing the talent and sports agency at $5.5 billion. WME-IMG last year acquired Professional Bull Riders for an estimated $100 million and the Miss Universe pageant. In June, WME-IMG and a consortium led by venture capital and private equity firm Sequoia Capital China unveiled a new China-based joint venture with the aim of accelerating the agency’s growth in the Middle Kingdom in its core fields of sports and entertainment. Tencent and FountainVest Partners also participated in the investment. UFC matches air on pay-per-view and on Fox Sports.

There are a bunch of approaches to commerce online today and the conversation starts with Amazon. But then there's discovery through visual platforms like Pinterest or Wanelo, through flash sales sites like Gilt, recommendation engines, and subscription services like Birchbox. A lot of people want to sell you stuff. But what about a site where you demand a discount on something you already want and see if you can get it? That's basically the premise of Massdrop, a "community commerce" service that's proven popular with audiophiles and Redditors--mostly male techies so far--but has some major Silicon Valley backing and early success so far. Massdrop's grown 15x in the past year, founder Steve El-Hage says, just on word of mouth, with over one million monthly active users. But its model could be one that savvy shoppers need try to enjoy while it lasts. That's because Massdrop combines early Internet message boards with even more time-tested economies of scale in an online interface, but basically through its own hustle and sweat. Users vote on products from keyboards to sunglasses in a category picked by a user, and users nominate individual products in the category that they'd like to buy at discount. Once 200 people have voted, Massdrop starts calling the manufacturer to try to negotiate a group deal, and keeps calling until one of the nominees can be made available. The more people who commit, the cheaper the price can get, like with these Sunski sunglasses, which started at $39.99 or $8 cheaper than market value, but with enough commitments ended up at $29.99 for 300+ buyers. But for other deals like for these handmade Red Cotton jeans, not enough interest means that no one's getting the deal unless more commitments flow in. Part of the issue is that Massdrop does its best to secure the top product but can only make a deal with its maker 1/3 of the time, meaning that most products actually for sale at discount were second or third choices. Sometimes that's fine, like when four times as many people actually bought the Sunksi shades as voted for them in third place. But look around the site (if you're willing to sign up and get email blasted) and you'll find plenty of second or third choices that simply fizzle out. "When people pick what they want, not everything will get discounted," El-Hage says. "Our users first wanted iPads. We said, 'You can't do iPads.' Then they said iPhones. Then Macbooks. I told them, 'You won't get a discount on Apple products,' they have no need for that. And I'm not kidding, the next winning product was a Samsung phone [also a non-starter]. What I've had to communicate is, this makes sense for some companies, but not others. But we try to be transparent." Massdrop did convince AKG, a high-end headphone maker, to take a chance on the company early, and the company took off with audiophiles. Much of the most concentrated voting still happens around headphones and computer accessories, driven by a largely male and tech-minded crowd. Many first found the site through a Reddit subreddit category, /r/Massdrop, which now feels a bit like a sad, mostly-empty chat room. But El-Hage says that Redditors are still going to Massdrop, they've just cut out the middle-man. 150,000 of them visit Massdrop each month, now mainly finding drops through more specific subreddits like /r/mechanicalkeyboards and /r/malefashionadvice (yep, those are real). The founder hopes to branch out from the techie, however, and to build separate communities around verticals that appeal to a wide range of groups. El-Hage says that Massdrop's crafting votes skew toward 40-something women, while its automotive ones attract an older male audience than the computer stuff. Two-thirds of users have voted across multiple categories, and almost 60% of first-time buyers come back a second time. "We aren't competing with visual product-driven sites," says El-Hage. "The motivating factor is on community, on your specific interest. On sites with beautiful pictures, you are missing the people like you." The big concern for Massdrop, however, is that its model is easy for its users, but it's labor intensive on the back-end. Twelve employees are currently covering all the site's needs, with buyers calling in potentially deals across all the company's verticals. That's multiple phone calls and negotiations for each drop, seemingly a major issue for the company as it grows. In the case of the sunglasses, for example, Sunski was a distant third place--getting just 78 out of 1,585 votes compared to 680 for Tmbr's bamboo pairs. That means someone at Massdrop called Tmbr and second-place Oliver Peoples and struck out before negotiating a deal with Sunski. If nobody then buys the pair, that's a lot of time and energy wasted and a potential future vendor burned. And all that hustle earns Massdrop what El-Hage says is a "marketplace take" comparable to EBay and Etsy's 9% or a bit less, unlike some company's 30% margins. The company doesn't disclose revenue and is starting to look for venture funding to raise a Series A round to expand. It's going to need money to scale, because Massdrop faces several key issues that could stunt its growth. First, the site is also too walled off for non-signups, keeping away anyone trying to get a measure of the site before passing it information. More importantly, the process of calling vendors to get a special deal is both painstaking and tough to automate, necessarily so or Amazon would surely be doing it by now for those very same products. That will push Massdrop towards smaller, niche vendors who are often discounting prices themselves to totals not much more than the drop value. If it's just a couple dollars saved, users will shy away from Massdrop's potentially long and expensive shipping, which typically takes up to 12 days. Slow shipping times and high international shipping are two consistent complaints both on Reddit and the company site. El-Hage says shipping times will be a top priority to address with the new funding. But Massdrop may figure that all out. One thing going for it is its top group of venture capitalists backers. The company incubated out of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers under partner Chi-Hua Chien and counts First Round Capital's Josh Koppelman and Cowboy Ventures' Aileen Lee as investors. They're confident El-Hage and cofounder Nelson Wu can figure out the way to keep the company's community happy while expanding it outside the Reddit army. "It will be a lot of work," El-Hage admits. "But there are millions of people on online forums who've been doing their own ad-hoc drops for 15 years, with one guy doing all the work. We thought, wouldn't it be cool to merge commerce with that experience and make it incredible." Follow Alex on Forbes, Twitter and Facebook for more tech coverage about startups, ad tech, enterprise software and venture capital.

In a few of my recent posts, I mentioned that I had issues with my weight when I was younger. While that’s true, it’s also not the whole story. If I’m being completely honest, my health and my body image are things I’ve struggled with my entire life, and to some degree still do to this day. I grew up as a fat kid. I always had an incredible appetite, and developed a lot of bad habits early in life. As I grew older and conscious of my weight, I made some effort to eat healthy, but my teenage years were right in the middle of the low-fat diet revolution. “Low-fat” and “fat-free” snacks were everywhere, and my mother was one of those for whom the marketing was extremely effective. My house was always full of Snackwell brand low-fat cookies and pretzels and the like, and I’d eat them by the bag. When I started high school, I weighed something like 240-250 lbs. I made some efforts to get in better shape when I went away to boarding school, like cutting out soda and spending time at the gym. The real transformation began between my sophomore and junior years. My sophomore year, I was pretty miserable at school. I’d drifted away from many of my friends, and had even gotten in trouble and almost gotten kicked out (which is a story that I shall tell in full another time). In the summer before my junior year, though, I had something of an epiphany. I decided that spending my time being upset about things was a waste, and that I should make the most of the time I had. I was fortunate enough to be at one of the best schools in the world, and it was ridiculous for me to squander that by moping. I resolved to take advantage of the opportunities that I had available, particularly those that would pass me by once I graduated. That’s how I started wrestling. I’d never been much of an athlete in my life. I played soccer and little league as a kid, but I was never very good at either. I’d gone out for the first day of football tryouts as a freshman, but I hated it and never went back. But when some of my friends on the wrestling team tried to convince me to join because they needed a heavyweight, I told myself that this was one of those opportunities I’d promised myself I would take, and joined up. While my friends had originally recruited me as a heavyweight (215+ weight class), once I actually joined the team and started practicing, my hyper competitive streak kicked in and I wanted to be the best I could be. I wrestled on the junior varsity squad that year in the 189 lb division, and ended up finishing in third place in the JV league tournament at the end of the year. After that, my coach told me that he wanted to see me come back next season ready to wrestle in the 171 weight class or bench pressing 300 lbs. I told him I would do both, and I did. I spent the summer between my junior and senior years of high school waking up at dawn to run five miles, working in a warehouse, and then going to the gym to work out. The next year I alternated between wrestling at 171 and 189, depending on the needs of my team in any particular meet. At the end of the season, I even wrestled at 189 in a meet on Wednesday, weighing in at 188 that morning, and then wrestled at 171 in the league tournament on Saturday. I took home a medal and helped my team win the championship for the first time in years. That was a long time ago, though. My fifteen year reunion is this summer, and it’s been that long since I have had to worry about making weight, or how I look in a singlet. I certainly haven’t been nearly as strict about what I eat, or spent nearly as much time and effort working out. When you don’t have explicit goals, it’s easy to fall out of good habits, and into bad ones. This is also true when your environment changes to one that values different things. When I went from the wrestling team in high school to my fraternity house in college, I woke up early to work out far less and stayed up late eating wings far more. Today I weigh in at around 205 lbs. While weight is too often used as a barometer for health and well-being by a lot of people these days, it’s certainly true that I could stand to shed some pounds, as well as shift my body composition more toward muscle. I don’t expect to drop down to my high school wrestling weight again – hell, I didn’t actually ever weigh 171 then except after running stairs in a sweatsuit for hours – but I can definitely drop to 185, or even 180. To that end, I’m going to be embarking on a fitness mission. And I’m inviting you to come with me. In my experience – and from the reading and research I have done on the topic – we’re most likely to succeed in matters of fitness when we set clear goals and hold ourselves accountable. “I’m going to get into better shape” is one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions, and while gyms are packed in the first week of January, they’re barren again by the end of the month. “Eat better” and “work out” are not clear goals. They are vague concepts that make them easy to cheat on, and eventually discard entirely. Gamers want concrete goals to strive toward, even just for the sake of accomplishing them. Why else would achievements be so popular? A few years back, I made a similar push to get back into shape, and I picked up a book called “The Four Hour Body” by Tim Ferris. If you’re serious about getting into shape, I suggest you pick it up. There’s some pretty outrageous stuff in there, but there’s also some great advice about nutrition and workout plans. The part of the book that appealed to me the most was the nutritional aspect, which Tim calls the “slow carb diet”, which focuses on eating primarily lean meats and vegetables and avoiding simple carbohydrates, like breads and pastas. As I mentioned earlier, I love food, and I have a huge appetite. It is much easier for me to change the kinds of things that I eat rather than the amount that I eat. I love pasta, and pizza, and dinner rolls, and the like, and I can easily sit and eat a mountain of tortilla chips while barely noticing it, and without even getting full. If I’m eating ground turkey and broccoli instead? Well, I get full a lot faster, and it’s a whole lot better for me. The diet also includes the idea of a cheat day each week. The most important thing about any nutritional plan (I sort of hate the term “diet”, because it’s evolved in our culture to mean some sort of short-term alteration in eating habits rather than a true shift in lifestyle) is that it’s something you can stick to. I know I certainly couldn’t go without eating pasta or cheese forever, and while I’m not a huge fan of sweets, I like the occasional dessert, and the more-than-occasional drink. A cheat day means that when you have a craving for something, instead of feeling deprived because you can’t have it, you can tell yourself that you’ll wait and eat it on Saturday (or whenever your cheat day may be). Similarly, it’s important to find a routine you can stick to on the fitness front. Perhaps most importantly is just getting into the habit of doing *something*. Much like with restrictive diets, people frequently try to adopt extreme fitness regimens and burn themselves out quickly. You’re much better off easing yourself into something that you can stick to than pushing yourself to the breaking point and quitting after a week. Perhaps even more important than a formal fitness plan to get into the habit of being active. Walk instead of driving. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. I can’t tell you how funny it is to me when I see people go to the gym and drive around looking for the closest spot rather than part in the first place they find and walk. Little things add up. Life isn’t all cutscenes and boss fights – killing boars here and there makes a difference. Speaking of gyms, perhaps the best advice I can give about joining a gym is to find the one most convenient for you. I fell out of the habit of going to the gym where I now have a membership because it’s a few exits away on the freeway, and on the average day I don’t get into my car. At my last job that I commuted to, I made a point of signing up for the gym that was down the street on my way home, even if it was smaller and more expensive than some of my other options, simply because I had to actively choose *not* to go because it was so convenient. The more barriers there are between you and building good habits, the less likely you’ll be to stick to them. And for both of these things – nutrition and fitness – it’s important to keep in mind that a slip-up is just that. A single setback isn’t failure, and you shouldn’t treat it as such. Overindulge on donuts at breakfast one day? Don’t write off the whole day as a loss and just gorge yourself on everything in sight. Miss a few workouts when you’re on the road? Get right back into your routine when you’re back home. You wouldn’t concede a game because you made one bad play, would you? You’d play on and make the best of it. So here’s my plan. I’m sharing it with you in part for my own sake – because publicaly committing to it gives me an extra level of accountability – and in part because I hope that perhaps I might inspire others out there to join me. I’m going to be sticking as strictly as I can to the slow-carb diet, eating primarily lean meats and vegetables. Thankfully, I was finally able to convince Natalie that this is something we should be doing now that summer is coming up and she’s worried about fitting into her EDC outfits and bathing suits, so our apartment is mostly free of off-limit foods. My cheat day is each Saturday, and as such that is the only day I’ll be indulging in off-limits food or alcohol. I’m resigned to the fact that I’m likely going to have to be flexible with these restrictions when I’m at tournaments, because it can be difficult to find reasonable food at events, but I’ve been at least somewhat successful in the past when I’ve tried. On the fitness side, I’m going to make a point to work out for at least 30 minutes every day, and more when I can find the time – and I’m going to do what I can to find the time. Recently, I’ve been waking up and doing 100 kettlebell swings every morning before I do anything else, and then Natalie and I take Shiro for a long walk. I’ve been adding in weight lifting with either my kettlebell or the adjustable dumbbell set we have at home, and I’m going to actually use the membership I have at the local gym for access to better equipment – even though I have to drive to get there. I’m going to share my own fitness progress with you all via Fitocracy, which is a great website and iOS app that you can use to track your activities. It’s totally free, and you can access it via browser or your phone. I’ve created a Fitocracy group called BMKFitness that I welcome anyone who wants to participate in my fitness challenge to join. You actually earn points and achievements for completing workouts and level up within the app – what more can a gamer want? I want to get in better shape not only because I want to look good if I ever have cause to get back into a singlet, but because I want to be stronger, I want to be healthier, and I want to have more energy. As I’ve gotten older, the long days of tournament play have been gotten tougher, and I’m better able to handle them and keep my focus when I’m in better shape. In fact, both my Austin and Honolulu wins came during periods that I was working out and eating well, which I’m sure isn’t just a coincidence. TLDR – get ripped and win pro tours. Who’s with me?

By Ryan Harkness, Uproxx Old-school movie producer Jerry Weintraub sounded like an interesting guy. His career spanned back to the ’70s where he made his name off of television specials featuring the hottest musical acts of the day. He went on to produce popular franchises like The Karate Kid and George Clooney’s Oceans films, but through it all, his greatest desire was to make a Tarzan movie. Related: Alexander Skarsgård Ate 7,000 Calories a Day to Get Into Shape for ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ That goal was realized this year with The Legend of Tarzan starring Alexander Skarsgård, but sad Weintraub died of heart failure while the film was still in post-production, a year almost to the day of the movie’s release. He never got to see his film in its final form, or enjoy the relative success it’s had at the box office, which is extra unfortunate considering all the time he spent pushing the film through development. It took seven years of rewrites and casting calls to get everything right, and along the way, Weintraub had some rather unique ideas on who might play Tarzan. From a great Vanity Fair profile on Tarzan’s Jane, Margot Robbie: For a moment Jerry believed he’d found Tarzan in Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. It was all Jerry talked about. “It’s going to be like Johnny Weissmuller,” Jerry told me. “All the reporters are going to say, ‘Weintraub found the new Johnny Weissmuller!’ ” At that point, Jerry had never seen Phelps do anything but get in and out of a pool. Then, as if arranged, the swimmer hosted Saturday Night Live. As this went on past Jerry’s bedtime, he asked his assistant to record it. … Two minutes in, Jerry turned to his assistant and shouted, “This isn’t Tarzan! This isn’t Johnny Weissmuller! He’s a goon! Why didn’t anyone tell me he’s a goon? Turn it off. Goddammit, turn it off.” For those who aren’t aware, Johnny Weissmuller was the original Tarzan in the 1930s films. He also happened to be one of the best competitive swimmers of all time, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and a bronze in water polo. So it starts to make a little sense why Weintraub thought the universe had aligned to give him his own superstar Olympic swimmer for the lead role of Tarzan. Related: ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ Points to a Rich Vein of Pulp Weirdness Hollywood Should Tap Then reality set in, and fortunately the decision was made to go with a more conventional choice in the True Blood star Skarsgård. But oh, what a movie it might have been if Phelps hadn’t done Saturday Night Live and apparently put off some kind of “goon” vibe. (Photo: Warner Bros./Getty)

Players' personal information exposed in U.S. Soccer's lawsuit The personal information of U.S. women's national team players was temporarily exposed in U.S. Soccer's lawsuit against those players' union this week. The home addresses and personal email accounts of 28 national team players were made public among exhibits accompanying the lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Chicago on Wednesday. The U.S. Soccer Federation is suing the players' union to "confirm the existence" of a collective bargaining agreement and head off a potential strike ahead of this summer's Olympics. The document had been posted on the court's website on Wednesday but was removed as of Thursday morning and later replaced with a redacted version. Midfielder Megan Rapinoe told The New York Times the players were upset to learn of the breach, as they came together to prepare for next week's Olympic qualifiers. Ding Xu/Xinhua Press/Corbis Megan Rapinoe, who hasn't played in a game for the United States since tearing the ACL in her right knee in December, was selected to the roster for the Rio Olympics. "Naturally we're upset," Rapinoe said. "The players are very, very upset. We feel disrespected. We feel that our personal information, our privacy and our safety was handled frivolously and with real negligence. I doubt it was purposeful, but it's an egregious error and one that's unacceptable. "We're public figures. There have been issues of privacy and hacking and stalkers -- it's very unsettling. We're upset. To know that someone could show up at your door? That's extremely unsettling, and it's something that you can't get back." The Times said the players' union -- the United States Women's National Soccer Team Players Association -- asked for the data to be removed, and U.S. Soccer apologized for the apparent mistake. The union's executive director, Richard Nichols, told The Times: "This morning in an email from me to their general counsel, on behalf of the players, all of whom are very upset about the public disclosure of their private information, we expressed our deep disappointment and outrage that players' personal email addresses and other private information was not redacted. "They subsequently responded with an apology and commitment to immediately retract and redact the exhibits to delete players' private information." In a statement to the Times, U.S. Soccer said it had replaced the revealing documents. "It was unintentional on the part of U.S. Soccer's counsel, and a redacted version of the complaint has already been filed," the federation said.

Lawmakers appear poised to have Georgia join a growing number of states with mandatory e-filing systems, in which lawyers can submit lawsuits and court motions with a click of a mouse on their computers. But First Amendment advocates are expressing concern that the new system could diminish the public’s access to court records and allow clerks and private vendors to gouge users for copies and downloads of documents. Court clerks disagree, saying the public will have just as much access as it has now. House Bill 15, which passed 168-5 in the House, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. It would mandate e-filing in civil cases at the start of next year in all Superior and State Courts. Only Fulton and DeKalb counties already have mandatory e-filing systems. “Its time has come,” said Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, the bill’s chief sponsor. “The benefit will be a lot easier access for those of us who practice law. We’ll no longer have to drive down to the courthouse to file our documents or pay couriers to do it. We’re at a point in time where the technology is there to make this happen.” Ideally, Georgia would have the same e-filing system — like the one used in all federal courts — in every court clerk’s office, Willard said. But because the state is unwilling to bear that cost, the bill calls for a piecemeal arrangement, allowing each county to choose its own system from the few private vendors available. Under HB 15, pro se plaintiffs — people who represent themselves because they can’t afford a lawyer — will not be charged fees that lawyers must pay when filing lawsuits and motions on behalf of their clients. Otherwise, the legislation sets the cost of each e-filed transaction at no more than $7. But it does not specify what people must pay to access and copy those records, said Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. “Without any limits in place, individual clerks and private e-filing vendors could charge the public exorbitant fees simply to access public court documents,” Manheimer wrote in a letter last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s deputy managing editor, Shawn McIntosh, is the foundation’s president, and AJC senior editor/investigations Ken Foskett sits on its board.) Hollie Manhemier, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. (Handout photo) Photo: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Mike Holiman, a lobbyist for the Superior Court Clerks’ Association, said this will not happen. Clerks are now supposed to charge 50 cents a page for copies of court documents, and that will continue to be the case under the new legislation, he said. The simplest way to avoid problems is to ensure that court documents can be accessed at no charge on a public terminal at the courthouse, Manheimer said. But there is no such provision in HB 15 requiring public access computers. Manheimer also noted the legislation says an e-filed court document will not be subject to public disclosure “until it has been physically accepted by the clerk.” This could delay the release of public records “anywhere from a few hours to several days,” she said. Forsyth County Superior Court Clerk Greg Allen. (Handout photo) Photo: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution That’s unlikely, said Forsyth County Superior Court Clerk Greg Allen. Under the paper system, it’s not unusual for a clerk to reject a suit because it was mistakenly filed in the wrong court, Allen said. But with e-filing, it should take “hours, if not minutes,” to make documents available after they’ve been filed, he predicted. Holiman agreed. “They’re going to be available as quickly or more quickly than they are now,” he said. “Clerks are about providing access to records.” First Amendment lawyer Peter Canfield said the legislation wrongly turns the dissemination of public records into “a money-making opportunity for clerks and private vendors.” “The law should make it easy to see court records,” said Canfield, who represents Courthouse News Service, which provides summaries of lawsuits filed in courts nationwide. “This bill would make it difficult and expensive.” An amendment approved by the Senate committee on Thursday says none of the fees charged for e-filing can be funneled to a clerk or the clerks’ cooperative authority. More than 20 states and the federal courts have mandatory e-filing systems, said Jim McMillen, a technology consultant for the National Center for State Courts. “Courts that have embraced e-filing have recognized this fact and have provided faster, easier and less costly service to the public and attorneys,” he said. “Now some might argue that e-filing fees add cost, but there have been many studies that show that the time and cost to produce and transport paper documents is three to five times more costly. Once the legal system uses e-filing, they don’t want to go back to the old paper.” Willard said he is aware of the concerns expressed by First Amendment advocates. “If there does turn out to be a problem,” he said, “I’ll take a look at it when the Legislature comes back next year.”

In the best case scenario, wherein all of their best plans would be put to work, two engineers conscripted by Google to hunt down some way to reverse global warming say … “Even if that dream had come to pass, it still wouldn’t have solved climate change. This realization was frankly shocking: Not only had RE<C failed to reach its goal of creating energy cheaper than coal, but that goal had not been ambitious enough to reverse climate change.” Crap. Google engineers Ross Koningstein and David Fork recently wrote those despairing words in a post-mortem of the RE<C project, which was mothballed in 2011. The search-engine giant fired up the Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal or RE<C initiative in 2007. But … … not every Google moon shot leaves Earth orbit. In 2011, the company decided that RE<C was not on track to meet its target and shut down the initiative. The two of us, who worked as engineers on the internal RE<C projects, were then forced to reexamine our assumptions. Their essay or reexamination — What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change — was published in “IEEE Spectrum” last week. (IEEE is self-described as “the flagship magazine and website of the IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and the applied sciences.”) The gist of their post-mordum is that we’re screwed. Because CO2 producing energy is much cheaper to produce, dig up and use than any of the alternatives the two engineers could come up with even in the best-case scenarios, they despaired of any mass energy switch. And even if all those energy producing companies and mega-gazillion-watt power users making planes, trains, automobiles and smart phones switched to more expensive alternate energy … Even if every renewable energy technology advanced as quickly as imagined and they were all applied globally, atmospheric CO2 levels wouldn’t just remain above 350 ppm; they would continue to rise exponentially due to continued fossil fuel use. So our best-case scenario, which was based on our most optimistic forecasts for renewable energy, would still result in severe climate change, with all its dire consequences: shifting climatic zones, freshwater shortages, eroding coasts, and ocean acidification, among others. Our reckoning showed that reversing the trend would require both radical technological advances in cheap zero-carbon energy, as well as a method of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and sequestering the carbon. Trying to be optimists, Koningstein and Fork, however, say their dream turned out to be “a false hope—but that doesn’t mean the planet is doomed.” So, they trot out that one hope that has been pumped up by no less than Bill Gates (see below): The miracle solution. To be frank, their conclusion reminds me a little bit of the old joke about the mathematician who has this spot in his equation that reads “and then a miracle happens.” We’re hopeful, because sometimes engineers and scientists do achieve the impossible. Consider the space program, which required outlandish inventions for the rockets that brought astronauts to the moon. MIT engineers constructed the lightweight and compact Apollo Guidance Computer, for example, using some of the first integrated circuits, and did this in the vacuum-tube era when computers filled rooms. Their achievements pushed computer science forward and helped create today’s wonderful wired world. Now, R&D dollars must go to inventors who are tackling the daunting energy challenge so they can boldly try out their crazy ideas. We can’t yet imagine which of these technologies will ultimately work and usher in a new era of prosperity—but the people of this prosperous future won’t be able to imagine how we lived without them. Related story: Midterm elections prove global warming a myth Video by Jake Ellison Scariest conversation yet about global warming This is a video in which Dennis Hartmann, University of Washington scientist and a lead author of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, very calmly and with precision scares the bejesus out of us. Bill Gates and the need for a miracle The only hope of keeping our biosphere human friendly is to invent and fund new energy sources, says Bill Gates. We’re clearly not going to stop producing CO2 through reduction in energy use, we need instead to replace it. Gates wrote on his blog “Gatesnotes” this summer: I often talk about the miracle of vaccines: With just a few doses, they protect children from deadly diseases forever. When it comes to clean energy, we need breakthroughs that are just as miraculous. Just like vaccines, clean-energy miracles don’t just happen by chance. We have to make them happen, through long-term investments in research and development. Unfortunately, right now neither the private sector nor the U.S. government is making anywhere near the scale of investment it takes to produce these breakthroughs. Why are clean-energy breakthroughs so important? As I mentioned here, the world is going to need a lot more energy in the coming decades—an increase of 50 percent or more between 2010 and 2040, according to U.S. government estimates. But today our biggest sources of energy are also big sources of carbon dioxide, which is causing climate change. Video by Jake Ellison The problem is that neither the government nor private industry is investing in our future energy needs: The wealthy who want to make a difference in the long term survival of more than a handful of their peers, who may be able to escape the worst parts of warming in some version of “Elysium,” have to invest in risky new technology and energy science. Since the wealthy are in line for the next big round of tax breaks from the GOP Congresss, the federal government will not be able to meet this challenge. In other words, we’re going to have to invent our way out of this mess. Restriction policies work in America on specific bad products like plastic bags, but CO2 production as a result of energy production is nothing at all like plastic bags or DDT or any other specifically bad-for-the environment product. And we’ve got to start funding research, basic research, wild-eyed research … shoot-the-moon research … etc. Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8334 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/Jake_News. Also, swing by and *LIKE* his page on Facebook. If Google Plus is your thing, check out our science coverage here.

The New York Giants fired head coach Ben McAdoo on Monday amid a 2-10 season. But the Giants won't be the only team looking to hit the reset button as the 2017 season winds down. NFL Nation reporters took the temperature of the rest of the league, rating the job security of every head coach using the following scale: 5. Hot seat: Headed out if things don't turn around in the final four games 4. Warm seat: Not safe if the season ends up a disappointment 3. Lukewarm seat: Not under fire but not disaster-proof 2. Cool seat: Safe barring a total disaster 1. Cold seat: No way he'll get fired Rating 5: Hot seat John Fox (12-32) has the worst winning percentage (.273) in team history. There's a real chance he leaves town with fewer victories than his predecessor, Marc Trestman (13), who lasted just two years on the job. The Bears have never even been .500 under Fox, whose time in Chicago is drawing to a close. -- Jeff Dickerson The Bengals had yet another prime-time meltdown against the Steelers on Monday night, and their chances of making the playoffs are almost nonexistent now. They couldn't reach a contract agreement with Marvin Lewis before the season, essentially making him a lame-duck coach. A disappointing 2017 season could lead to a mutual parting of ways between the two sides. -- Katherine Terrell Hue Jackson is 1-27 leading the Browns, and it's tough to see a coach surviving that. He insists he hasn't lost the owners' confidence, and the owners are not talking about the situation. But Jimmy Haslam stood up strongly for Jackson before the season. An 0-12 record since, though, puts stresses on that stance -- except nobody could expect this season's team, as built, to win many games. Given Haslam's belief in Jackson, it would not be a surprise if he stayed. But given the record, it would not be a surprise if he left. -- Pat McManamon Chuck Pagano survived back-to-back 8-8 seasons, missing the playoffs both times. But the end is in sight after six seasons as the Colts' coach. Pagano was assured his first losing season at the helm in Indianapolis when the Colts lost to Jacksonville in Week 13. Last January, owner Jim Irsay would only guarantee that Pagano would coach this season, despite him being under contract in 2018 and 2019. Pagano has gone from leading the Colts to the playoffs in his first three seasons, to likely not making the postseason in his final three. -- Mike Wells The Bucs finished 9-7 last year in Dirk Koetter's first season as head coach, but at 4-8 and having been outscored 81-33 in three NFC South games, things aren't looking good. What's worse is that the Bucs have averaged less than 20 points a game in the three years Koetter has been calling plays and have averaged 18.5 points in 2017, despite being loaded with weapons. By comparison, when former Bucs offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford had to take a leave of absence in 2014, first-time coordinator Marcus Arroyo's offense was averaging 16 points a game. Does some of that fall on quarterback Jameis Winston's shoulder injury? Sure. But the previous coaching staff didn't get any rope when their defensive line was decimated by injuries, or when their best player on defense at the time, linebacker Kwon Alexander, was issued a four-game suspension. The Bucs lost all four of those remaining games. -- Jenna Laine Rating 4: Warm seat Jason Garrett was named Coach of the Year just a year ago after directing the Cowboys to a 13-3 finish with a rookie quarterback and rookie running back. But Dallas has been one of the bigger disappointments in 2017 with a 6-6 record. Losing Ezekiel Elliott to a six-game suspension hurts, but the Cowboys had months to prepare for his absence, and the offense fell apart during a three-game losing streak when the defense needed it most. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has publicly backed the coaches -- and not in a vote-of-confidence kind of way. In 2015, Garrett was able to withstand a 4-12 finish with then-quarterback Tony Romo missing 12 games. Every team every year loses players somehow, and the good ones answer the challenge. Will Jones be as kind if the Cowboys collapse in their final four games? -- Todd Archer The Broncos have never fired a coach who started and finished just one season with the team, so history says Vance Joseph would get a chance to help clean up the mess of 2017. But with nine losses in the past 10 games -- including eight in a row, and four by at least 20 points -- it's unclear how the organization would react if Joseph closed out the season with four losses. Part of the Broncos' issues right now is they have no clear plan regarding what kinds of players they want for what kinds of schemes they want, on either side of the ball. To change coaches again certainly wouldn't help clear up the vision, but public opinion has affected the team's thinking at times. Four more losses could put Broncos general manager John Elway and president/CEO Joe Ellis in a position where they feel like they "have to do" something. -- Jeff Legwold Bill O'Brien has one year left on his contract, so the Texans will likely sign him to an extension early in the offseason, or he and the team will part ways. O'Brien hasn't made injuries an excuse this season, but it would have been hard for the Texans to overcome losing quarterback Deshaun Watson, defensive end J.J. Watt, linebacker Whitney Mercilus and running back D'Onta Foreman, regardless of who the head coach was. O'Brien is on the warm seat, but I think general manager Rick Smith and owner Bob McNair will bring O'Brien back. -- Sarah Barshop Todd Bowles is hovering between 3 and 4. Despite already winning five games, he has continued to facilitate the team's move in the right direction in what began as a rebuilding year. The Jets have been competitive in all but one game, and many of their young players are showing signs of development. Bowles has changed the culture in the locker room, eliminating the stink from last year. Still, the job isn't done yet. Ownership is looking for an upbeat finish to the season. -- Rich Cimini Rating 3: Lukewarm seat Just two years ago, the Cardinals had the most prolific offense and were a game away from the Super Bowl. Since 2015, they've won just 12 games in the past two years while the offense has struggled not only to move the ball, but to score. It's not all Bruce Arians' fault. He's working without his starting quarterback, Carson Palmer, and star running back, David Johnson. However, if the Cardinals have a major meltdown in the last four games, the question of replacing Arians should be taken seriously. Otherwise, he'll be safe for at least another season, should he decide to return. -- Josh Weinfuss Dan Quinn guided the Falcons all the way to the Super Bowl in his second season a year ago. Although that early success certainly pleased owner Arthur Blank, Blank isn't content with being a runner-up. He wants a title, especially after the Falcons came so close before blowing a 28-3 lead against New England. If the Falcons miss the playoffs this season, it won't cost Quinn his job. But if things start to spiral down moving forward, he's not immune to Blank's wrath. -- Vaughn McClure Any perceived heat for John Harbaugh has been reduced since the Ravens put themselves in prime position for their seventh playoff berth in 10 seasons under him. Harbaugh has always had strong public support from owner Steve Bisciotti, even after Baltimore missed out on the postseason the past two years. "I'm lucky to have a leader like him," Bisciotti said in August. But there will be increased scrutiny surrounding Harbaugh if the Ravens fall apart in the final four games like they did in 2016. -- Jamison Hensley This is a tough question about Jim Caldwell, and it's something of a yearly ritual. This season is a bit more difficult to gauge, and if I could put it at a 3.5, I would. A playoff appearance should mean he's safe, and even a 10-6 record with no playoff appearance should mean he's fine. Without knowing the length of his contract extension, it's tough to say what a 9-7 record or worse would mean for his job status. He does not seem to be as safe as he was six weeks ago, though. -- Michael Rothstein On one hand, Jack Del Rio just signed a four-year contract extension in the offseason after leading the Raiders to a 12-4 record and their first playoff appearance since 2002. On the other, the Raiders are one of -- if not the most -- disappointing teams in the NFL this season. At 6-6, they're still in a three-way tie for first place in the AFC West, but owner Mark Davis -- while not as impetuous as his late father Al, who ran through nine head coaches from 1995 through 2011 -- is not exactly in a great mood. As Del Rio himself said after firing defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. two weeks ago, nobody in the organization should be comfortable. -- Paul Gutierrez Rating 2: Cool seat This could get bumped up a notch if Ted Thompson retires -- or is forced to retire -- but the 64-year-old GM still has more than a year left on his contract. The Packers are not a shake-it-up organization, and that comes from the top in team president Mark Murphy. And even if the Packers did hire a new GM, there's a decent chance it would come from in-house (or someone who once worked in-house), where Mike McCarthy has strong support. -- Rob Demovsky After opening the season 0-4, Anthony Lynn's Chargers have won six of their past eight games and are tied atop the AFC West. So even if the Chargers were to fall flat in the last four games, it would be hard to believe the front office would move on from the first-year head coach. Lynn's job should be safe heading into 2018. -- Eric D. Williams This was a "prove-it" year for Doug Pederson, and so far he has proven to be far better than most anticipated, even budding into a candidate for Coach of the Year. With the Eagles exceeding expectations and holding the league's best record for most of the season, Pederson has certainly earned at least another year barring total self-destruction down the stretch. -- Tim McManus The Titans are 17-11 since Mike Mularkey took over as full-time head coach before the 2016 season. That's tied with Philadelphia's Doug Pederson for the best record among the seven 2016 head coach hires. Mularkey is on his way to leading the Titans to their first playoff berth since 2008. The offense hasn't lived up to some of its high expectations, but barring a total collapse or aggressive desire for change, Mularkey should be safe. Currently in year two of a three-year deal, he's much more likely to get an extension than to be fired. -- Cameron Wolfe Jay Gruden signed a two-year extension last offseason, so he has three years remaining on his contract. More than anything, Washington's downfall this season is a product of injuries, with 11 projected starters or key backups on injured reserve. It's hard to blame coaching for the team's current situation. -- John Keim Rating 1: Cold seat Sean McDermott will be given two years at a minimum to turn things around in Buffalo, and most likely longer. His team has generally exceeded expectations in his first season. The Bills still have a chance to finish with what would be just their third winning record since 2000, so some level of respectability has returned to the franchise, which was owner Terry Pegula's goal for this season. -- Mike Rodak The Panthers are holding onto the No. 6 seed in the NFC. If they make the playoffs, it would be the third time in four years. That, a trip to Super Bowl 50, and two NFL Coach of the Year awards should make Ron Rivera a lock to be back next season. -- David Newton Doug Marrone has taken a franchise that won only 17 games over the past five seasons to the verge of the playoffs. He has done it by changing the culture around the team, with some significant help from executive vice president of football operations Tom Coughlin. That started with a mentally and physically exhausting training camp. Based on what this franchise has gone through over the past decade, especially the debacle that was the 2016 season, Marrone should be in the conversation for Coach of the Year. -- Mike DiRocco The Chiefs signed Andy Reid to a contract extension last summer. While the team's recent slump doesn't inspire confidence in Reid's coaching ability, it won't lead chairman Clark Hunt to regret his decision. He's not a reactionary owner and always takes the long view on this type of issue. In the bigger picture, even considering how the Chiefs have collapsed after their quick 5-0 start to the season, Reid is the best coach Kansas City has had in a long time. -- Adam Teicher The Rams hired Sean McVay when he was only 30 years old because they wanted to grow with him. And that belief has been strengthened considerably while witnessing the masterful job he has done with an organization coming off 10 consecutive losing seasons. McVay, the youngest head coach in modern NFL history, has the Rams sitting at 9-3, representing the team's best start since 2003. He has taken the controls of an offense that was among the NFL's worst for about a decade and has suddenly turned it into one of the league's best, while breathing life into franchise quarterback Jared Goff. But what has impressed the front office most about McVay has been his ability to lead and change the culture. -- Alden Gonzalez Adam Gase earned a lot of equity winning 10 games and taking the Dolphins to the playoffs in his first season as head coach in 2016. Miami is 5-7 in 2017, but Gase is playing with house money. He has the support of ownership and has remained steady through all the injury and distractions the Dolphins have faced this year. -- James Walker Mike Zimmer has a strong case for NFL Coach of the Year after taking a Vikings team that lost two starting quarterbacks and their top 2017 draft pick to injuries and turning them into Super Bowl contenders. A year after Minnesota slid to an 8-8 finish after a 5-0 start, Zimmer has had a handle on every complicated situation that has risen this season. Battling hardships on and off the field in 2016 -- he had eight surgeries on his eye since last season -- Zimmer has experienced tremendous growth in his fourth year as a head coach. He built an elite defense while allowing Pat Shurmur to install an offense that has yielded big improvements in every category. With a first-place team eyeing the No. 1 overall seed in the NFC playoff picture, Zimmer's seat is about as cold as it gets. -- Courtney Cronin If the Saints stuck by Sean Payton through three straight 7-9 seasons -- even giving him a lucrative extension in 2016 -- they're certainly not going to change course now after this breakthrough 9-3 season with a young, rebuilt roster. And when they eventually need to replace Drew Brees, there would be no better tutor for the next quarterback. The only wild card is that Payton could be in demand around the league, but it would be awfully hard to pry him away with things going so well in New Orleans and his contract running through 2020. -- Mike Triplett Mike Tomlin's seat couldn't be more chilled. In fact, 113 wins over 10-plus seasons gives Tomlin more security than any NFL coach outside of New England. Tomlin has never had a losing season and just ensured his eighth double-digit-win campaign in 2017. His .657 win percentage is among the game's best, and he coaches a franchise that's basically allergic to turnover. Some Steelers fans like to complain about Tomlin, but almost every other NFL franchise would take his record. -- Jeremy Fowler The Niners and CEO Jed York entered this season with no delusions about a quick turnaround for coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch. Shanahan has won the respect of the locker room and, despite all the losing, his team has showed no signs of friction or of giving up on him. Shanahan and Lynch signed six-year deals in the offseason, and York has said he will give them plenty of time to see their vision for the franchise realized. Shanahan isn't going anywhere. -- Nick Wagoner Outside of Bill Belichick, there might not be an NFL coach with more job security than Carroll. Consider this: The Seahawks (8-4) have a chance to win at least 10 games for the sixth straight season. Before Carroll arrived in 2010, they had only five seasons in franchise history with double-digit victories. Carroll has one Super Bowl title with the Seahawks, another Super Bowl appearance and a contract that runs through 2019. He's the league's oldest head coach at 66, so the question is how much longer Carroll will want to continue coaching. In all likelihood, he'll be in Seattle as long as he wants to be. -- Brady Henderson Bonus rating 0: The coldest seat of all ... again Bill Belichick is secure enough to break the 1-5 scale and introduce a new category of "he can coach as long as he wants." The saying in New England is "In Bill We Trust," and Belichick has earned that through 18 years of sustained success. Of the growing number of records being set or chased by the Patriots is this: With a 15th straight 10-win season, the Patriots are on the verge of tying the 49ers' record for most consecutive 10-win seasons (the 49ers had 16 straight from 1983 until 1998). -- Mike Reiss

Throughout 2014, financial traders around the world have been enthusiastically taking to bitcoin as a new area for speculation. Analysts, commentators and investors have all ensured that 2014, for investments at least, may well be remembered as the year of the bitcoin. There are two main reasons for bitcoin’s rise from a misunderstood market to a home for investors of all kinds. Firstly, its well-known meteoric rise in value. In 2013, a single bitcoin’s value in US dollars rose over 6000%, from around $53 to $681. At one point in the year, it surpassed $1,000 in value. The cryptocurrency’s cost dropped in 2014 and levelled at around the $350-400 mark; a significant loss to those who bought at the beginning of the year, but still a huge gain for earlier investors. The second reason is contained within that remarkable rise, then drop, for bitcoin. Volatility is hugely enticing for many traders, offering the chance for quick gains (counteracted, of course, by the possibility of quick losses) and short term trading. Traditionally, other markets have provided the best opportunity for risk traders: but in 2014, that picture changed. Bitcoin’s rise has come with huge swings in value. From February 5 to February 7 this year, the currency lost around $192.72 – or around 24% – in value. For traditional currencies, that is equivalent to the pound losing around 38 cents on the dollar almost overnight. Bitcoin vs GBP volatility against USD, 1-2 December 2014 Even in periods of extreme volatility, such major swings in established fiat currencies are practically unheard of. And much of 2014 was spent in a period of record calm for forex, further entreating traders to look elsewhere. From May to August, forex volatility was at a 20-year sustained low, as low interest rates from central banks crushed currency movement. Bitcoin’s similarities to gold have often been noted. Its role in 2014, as a haven for investments when central banks and governments are keeping excitement contained elsewhere provides an interesting counterpoint to the precious metal: so often turned to when markets got too unpredictable in the past. Traders should be wary to the comparison between bitcoin and gold, though. Yes, both are in limited supply, outside of the control of most central banks and require some form of ‘mining’ for demand to be met. But two key differences undermine the similarities: gold is not a currency, and gold does not have a uniformly steady production supply. Bitcoin is, primarily, an alternative online currency, and new merchants accepting Bitcoin are an indication of its use. As such, and in contrast to gold, bitcoin’s relative value is influenced by – and important to – a number of players outside of traditional financial spheres. There is also no scope for a bitcoin miner to ramp up production in an attempt to price out competitors by driving down the value of bitcoin, as is possible with gold. Instead, bitcoin is released at a steady rate until it reaches the defined maximum of 21 million bitcoins in circulation. The prospect of restricted money supply causing eventual deflation of bitcoin is perhaps why many traders in bitcoin have been so unwilling to let go of their currency. As Tim Swanson has noted, 70% of bitcoins currently in the public domain have not been traded for over 6 months, as investors hold onto their currency whilst the price is still low. This behaviour is similar to that of many longer term gold investors: keep hold of your assets until they are once again valuable. That strategy may work for traditional assets, but for bitcoin it could prove disastrous. Quashing liquidity and keeping the price low (by making the currency less attractive), investors who are reluctant to sell coins at a loss are hurting themselves in the short term. And in the longer term, bitcoin’s current performance makes the rise of another cryptocurrency –challengers, including Litecoin and Woodcoin, abound – all the more likely. Alongside the quelling of bitcoin’s value from hoarders, risk investors are exacerbating volatility and curtailing any attempts to drive the currency’s value upwards with profit taking. For more established currencies – with central banks factoring in the effects of zealous traders – such behaviours are expected. For fledgling bitcoin, which needs a measure of stability and enhanced liquidity to underline its legitimacy, it can be a real problem. So what next for Bitcoin? A rise in positive media coverage would be a big boon for the cryptocurrency, particularly if more major retailers can be convinced to take it as payment. In the larger battle of convincing businesses and consumers that bitcoin is legitimate, the problems brought about by financial traders are relatively minor. Pushing the rise of alternative investment methods in bitcoin –spread bets and CFDs that don’t actually see any coin changing hands, for instance – may well go some way to improving the cryptocurrency’s prospects in 2015. Are financial traders harming bitcoin? is republished with permission from IG.com Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged products and can result in losses that exceed your deposits. The value of shares, ETFs and ETCs bought through a stockbroking account can fall as well as rise, which could mean getting back less than you originally put in. This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. The material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. 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You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren’t alone. But almost everything in your life has been affected by his work. See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is in the National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American. So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer without hearing much about him? It certainly isn’t IBM’s doing. The mass media again are under the spotlight. Given all of the pressure they are under about negative portrayals of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean. Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn’t the first Black inventor to be overlooked…. Consider John Stanard, inventor of the refrigerator; George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer; Alexander Miles and his elevator; Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All of these inventors share two things: One,–they changed the landscape of our society; and, two–society relegated them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean won’t go away quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn’t. Dr. Dean helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Dell Computer’s Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in information technology can be traced back directly to Dr. Dean. More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean’s should serve as inspiration for African-American children. Already, victims of the “Digital Divide” and failing school systems, young, Black kids might embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like Dr. Dean was already leading the way. Although technically Dr. Dean can’t be credited with creating the computer– that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer science — Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we use today. The computer really wasn’t practical for home or small business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices, such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers. In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book. This article was written and published by Tyrone Taborn, CEO and Chief Content Officer of USBE magazine, in 2001, to mark the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer. Mark E Dean is now the John Fisher Distinguished Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Engineering. He was honored as Black Engineer of the Year in 2000.

The familiar smell of chlorinated water. The feeling of cool air against unclothed skin. The cacophony of laughter, splashes and sharp intakes of breath. And, the nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach as you take the plunge. The swimming pool is usually a place where the water makes you feel free and safe. Indeed, for a great deal of us, the act of going to a swimming pool is something that involves little thought or anxiety. But, what if the thought of going swimming filled you with fear? If the very idea of entering a changing room prevented you from exercising? This fear of what should be a safe public space is something that transgender and gender non-conforming people live with every day of their lives. One group of people is taking the fear out of swimming with the Transgender And Gender-Nonconforming Swimming group (TAGS).

The news first emerged mid afternoon, on 29 December 2015. Soon, it was all that prime time talk shows and newscasters in Pakistan could talk about. Two senior religious clerics, both bearded, both well-regarded among their followers, had used their fists rather than their words, to settle an argument during the 201 meeting of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Pakistan’s top Islamic advisory body. News outlets were salivating. Leaked videos of the brawl emerged. The incident was unusual; religious hardliners are more likely to face-off against liberals than one of their own. “I am stronger than him,” boasted the pot-bellied Maulana Tahir Ashrafi while talking to a television crew. He held back, he insisted, out of respect for his opponent, the 78-year-old Maulana Sheerani, also the chairman of the advisory body, who grabbed his collar and ripped out the buttons. The two came to blows after the council reopened debate for the legal status of the already persecuted Ahmadis—declared non-Muslims under a parliament amendment in 1974—on whether they should instead be categorised as murtads (those who renounce Islam and are punishable by death according to Sharia). It was a dangerous suggestion that could put the minority community more at risk of being hunted and killed. During the meeting, Ashrafi spoke first, and loudly. He challenged Sheerani’s decision to focus on topics which were controversial and could potentially lead to a bigger fall-out in society. “There is a dictatorship within the body,” a frazzled Ashrafi told us over the phone on 13 May. “The environment is such that no scope for dissent is left.” The new chairman, he argued, had made the body unnecessarily notorious. Ashrafi had a point. Since the death of military dictator General Zia ul-Haq in a plane crash in August 1988, the CII had remained mostly invisible. Its annual reports—over 100 in number—were gathering dust and cobwebs in a forgotten corner of the parliament. Here was a constitutional body no lawmaker seemed to want to talk about, until the current chairman Sheerani took over in 2010. Under him, the council began making headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. Consider this. In the last week of May, the council proposed a draft for a women’s protection bill. One clause stated that a Pakistani husband could “lightly” beat his wife if she defied his commands or refused to have intercourse with him. In April, the council argued that Pakistan should revoke the current economic system and paper currency and replace it with gold and silver coins. Earlier, in January, its members agreed that girls as young as nine-years-old were eligible to be married. Marvi Memon, a politician from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), who had called for a ban on child marriages, was bullied into withdrawing her bill, after the council dubbed it “unIslamic” and “blasphemous.” In fact, if previous declarations by the CII ever make it through the parliament, co-education would be banned in Pakistan, airhostesses would wear burqas and the government would sack civil servants who do not say their daily prayers. If the CII had its way, Pakistan would be a theological state like Saudi Arabia.

Defense Distributed, the pending non-profit that plans to make 3D-printed weaponry available for anyone with such a printer, will release the blueprints for a fully-working plastic firearm next week. Here at last – your own printed pistol The handgun, seen by Forbes, uses 16 printed parts that are clipped together and can be fitted with interchangeable barrels to fire different-caliber rounds. The only non-printed part needed to fire is a simple nail, which acts as the firing pin. Final testing for the firearm is still ongoing by the group's founder Cody Wilson, who said that the plans should be online next week. The Liberator is printed from ABS plastic using a Dimension SST printer from Stratasys – although that company has already refused Defense Distributed the use of one of its printers. "Everyone talks about the 3D printing revolution," Wilson said. "Well, what did you think would happen when everyone has the means of production? I'm interested to see what the potential for this tool really is. Can it print a gun?" Not the most deadly weapon available in the US Wilson is a legally certified firearms manufacturer after getting clearance in March, and in order to make the Liberator legal the group has added a six-ounce chunk of steel so that it can be picked up by metal detectors – a requirement for weaponry in the US under the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act. But if the plans do go public, there's going to be nothing in the design that makes the metal addition crucial, so potentially there could be people walking around with firearms that can get through airport scanners undetected. With its ultra-short barrel, the Liberator looks about as accurate as a Fox News daytime TV presenter, but politicians are already worried. "Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser," said Congressman Steve Israel (D-NY) in a statement. "When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago," Israel said, "I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms." Meanwhile, American consumers could be the able to build their own plastic armory a lot more easily after Staples announced it will be the first big retailer to stock a 3D printer for consumers. The Cube 3D Printer from 3D Systems costs $1,300 and its printing plastic cartridges (which are available in 12 colors) cost $50 apiece. ®

The U.S. media landscape has become so polarized that it can sometimes feel as if Fox News and MSNBC are reporting on different worlds. When discussing issues like the Affordable Care Act and Russia, these U.S. news outlets, and so many others like them on the left and right, appear to be working within completely unrelated intellectual frameworks ― frustrating independent-minded viewers who sometimes may not know what to believe. At CNN, meanwhile, the news has been transformed into something akin to sports ― a “Monday Night Football”–like affair that prioritizes storylines and pivots over reason and policy discussions. YouTube This combination of partisan and drama-fueled news has led to a growing distrust of media organizations among the people who are, ironically, supposed to be enticed by those two tactics: American viewers. A study by the American Press Institute last year found that only 6 percent of people have a great deal of trust in the press. People even have more faith in Congress. For years, people have called for more even-keeled news, but the cries grew louder in the months leading up to the presidential election, when fake news sites and hyper-partisan news sites together created a Facebook experience that led to anger, frustration and infighting among many friends and families. Now, people appear to be realizing that just such a news program exists. “PBS NewsHour,” which streams weeknights at 6 p.m. ET, has been on air for four decades. But it is gaining renewed interest at a time when desire for steady news has given it an advantage. Additionally, the show has seen a 63 percent spike in homepage traffic, a 75 spike in Facebook views and 181 percent in YouTube views in recent months. While that could be seen as a bump related to an overall increase in political interest, ratings are actually down at peer programs of “NewsHour” at ABC, CBS and NBC, who together have lost more than 1 million viewers in the last year (although their overall viewership remains much higher than that of “NewsHour”). “NewsHour” is not sexy. It is not filled with in-your-face excitement. What it is is what it has always been: A trustworthy and responsible look at the issues of the day. Last night, the show took on the Republicans’ newly proposed health care plan, WikiLeaks, Russia and a segment on “The Americans.” The segments were nothing snazzy. But they were informative and accurate. “We pride ourselves on delivering the news without the noise and allowing our audience to be presented with the facts to make informed decisions,” Sara Just, an executive producer for “NewsHour,” told AdWeek. “Our continued growth across platforms demonstrates there is a growing desire for in-depth, thoughtful reporting on the timely stories of the day.” The rating increase represents quite a shift for a news program that saw its audience drop precipitously in the preceding decade. In 2005, “PBS NewsHour” said it had 2.5 million viewers. Even with the most recent ratings bump, it still pulls in an average of 1.1 million viewers every night these days. That decline represents a shift to online consumption, in part, but also a move away from even-handed news and toward the drama available at CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Now, the question is: Will people keep shifting back?

Narcissus by thewknd published on 2013-06-06T14:36:29Z Track #2 from "Warkah Narcissus" by The Venopian Solitude Copyright (C) 2013 Bright Lights Production Sdn Bhd ---- stall whatever you can stall what you heard is purely weighted with christened calls of the minds who've grown to know us all Lord, let them go grace wherever you can gracefully pace through all the pinches of sins you've sipped through your mood and whoever would love to be under the pain of scrutiny please, please be me Narcissus forgive us we have no heart for taking the plunge so you can see beautifully so you can see flawlessly be damned those idiots who see not what I see even blunt reflections taint their every worry and dear, oh dear how you would give to be of glee like a bee, just like me score whatever you can score bore as many brains you can bore the gore will always grow loud and tall it will always grow fond of fear to fall Lord, let them fall! Narcissus dear forgive your own fear it hasn't a heart for giving you the plunge so you can now breathe choking on beauty so you can now see flaw comes to be stall whenever you can stall the storm tags along a string of downfalls and all life bows down to He who knows what goes beyond our woes

A new feature that has been a long time in coming is Teams! You can now choose one of four teams and communicate privately to only your teammates! This will make games that require teams much easier and more fun all around! Since our last update we’re happy to hear that most connection issues seem to be resolved. If you run into any issues connecting or hosting, be sure to enable the Proxy Server closest to your area to ensure you can connect or your friends can connect. Please post on our Tech Support Forum if you continue to have problems. Tabletop Simulator is also on sale at the Bundle Stars Store for 30% off for both the individual and 4-pack as part of their Simulator Weekend. If you wanted to pick up more copies or have friends and family who wanted the game, please spread the word around! The sale ends on Sunday, April 26th. Individual: http://www.bundlestars.com/store/tabletop-simulator 4-Pack: http://www.bundlestars.com/store/tabletop-simulator-4-pack Teams Added: Teams have been added to the game: Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades. Being on the same team means you can see into each others hiddens areas or hands. You can also text communicate just with your team using the ‘\’ key (above enter). Host can also force a player to join a team by clicking on them and selecting change team. Host Options Menu Revamped: Host Options menu has been redone to match latest UI with tabs. General options and player permissions have been separated into two tabs for easier browsing. 2 new player permissions added: Joints and Change Team. Mousing over each option will now provide a short summary. General Improvements: Improved error handling of failing to connect to the proxy when hosting. Direct connect input field will now trim whitespace, fixing potential copy & paste problems. Fixes:

Music Appreciation: Drone For many people, a drone wouldn't even be called music, just an irritating noise, like the buzzing of a refrigerator, the hum of traffic, the sound of bees in a hive. For others, it is OMMMM, the sound of the universe in Hindu cosmology, or, put in the language of modern physics, an expression of the fact that everything vibrates, everything is a wave. Yet a recent packaged-for-mainstream double CD compilation called Roots of Drone confirmed what I already suspected: that in the last decade or two, drone has become a musical genre. This may seem odd since after all, a drone is basically a tone, or set of tones that are sustained over time. And in a consumer marketplace driven by a craving for endless but often trivial kinds of novelty, making the same sound for a long time is a powerful gesture of refusal. Even so, there's now drone rock, drone metal, drone-based techno, drone within the classical tradition, drone-folk and so on. And now, the varieties of drone too are apparently inexhaustible. Here then is a sampling of drone's diversity... • La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela: "Sound and Light Environment" (Church Street, NYC) Whether or not he invented drones as a musical or artistic project, the work of New York based composer La Monte Young is still the best place to begin an exploration of drones, and the best place to hear his drone-music is not a recording (Young has been notoriously recalcitrant in issuing his recordings) but a visit to The Dream House, where his drone installation The Base 9:7:4 Symmetry in Prime Time When Centered above and below The Lowest Term Primes in The Range 288 to 224 ...has been resounding since 1991, accompanied by Marian Zazeela's shadow sculptures and light environment. As you enter the top floor loft on Church Street in New York's Tribeca, above the space where Young and Zazeela have lived for many years, you are hit by a wall of sound and a dense magenta visual field. It's loud, thick, and it immediately feels as though it's inside your skull, rather than outside. The dense sound is composed of a set of tones generated on a synthesizer that are tuned in just intonation according to certain ratios of prime numbers that are in accord with the natural harmonics of sound. Having said that, it is likely that the particular combination of tones that Young is working with have never been heard before, and if each tone combination in just intonation is also associated with a mood or feeling, Young can claim that his work is literally producing new states of feeling in those who listen. Some people sit and meditate in the room, focusing on particular tones which open up into further tone clusters as you focus; others move, exploring the way that different sets of overtones appear as you shift your head. It is like a sea of sound. • The Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage: "Blues Dhkir Al-Salam (Blues Al Maqam)" from Live at the Grimm Museum Vol. 1 (Important) Many of Young's proteges have developed their own varieties of drone sound. Jon Hassell and Terry Riley developed lush, sensuous forms of improvisation. His influence also echoes in drone masterworks like Eliane Radigue's Adnos, Pauline Oliveros' gorgeous accordion pieces, or Annea Lockwood's glittering compositions. More recently, Catherine Christer Hennix's 1976 drone masterpiece The Electric Harpsichord, a 25 minute pulsating sound field created on a Yamaha organ that is the equivalent of an abstract expressionist canvas, has finally been issued. Hennix, who lives in Berlin, now has a band called the Chora(s)san Time Court Mirage that plays remarkable four hour drone concerts that feature voice, brass and her mathematically composed computer drones. Hennix's work is uncanny and often profoundly disorienting: at times the tones stir up very deep, often barely recognizable feelings, at other times, the external world starts to melt around one. Philosophers in recent years have argued that Being itself is fundamentally mathematical. What this means, if true, is a matter of great dispute, but Hennix, a former professor of mathematics, amongst many other things, offers startling propositions as to what the deeper possibilities of a mathematically ordered sound are. • Ali Akbar Khan: "Raga Piloo" from Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas (Angel Records) One of the key sources for Young's drone fascination (as well as others in the classical tradition who use drone-like structures such as Debussy, Bartok and Lou Harrison) was the world of traditional music. In 1957, Young bought the first long playing Indian classical record to be released in the West, Ali Akbar Khan's Music of India: Morning and Evening Ragas and was struck not so much by Khan's virtuoso sarod playing but by the buzzing hum (almost buried in the mix) of the tambura that accompanied him. Tamburas provide a harmonic grid in which singers and musicians play -- you can hear something similar in Scottish bagpipe music or Laotian khaen or that other key traditional form, for the Japan obsessed US hipster of the late 1950s, the slow, stately court music called Gagaku. • Earth: "Like Gold and Faceted" from Earth II (Sub Pop) John Cale, who played in the Theater of Eternal Music with Young in the 1960s, famously brought his viola drone to the Velvet Underground and rock songs like "Heroin." Certain versions of the Blues, notably the north Mississippi style associated with Mississippi Fred McDowell and more recently Fat Possum Records, involve rapid repetitions of single chords or notes that effectively form a drone. From the Velvets through Krautrock favorites such as Can, to shoegazers like My Bloody Valentine, drones have been an important part of rock. Probably the heaviest rock drone can be found on Earth's classic Earth II. The thirty minute "Like Gold and Faceted" is pure, surging, barely contained but almost static electric power, the ur-drone or doom metal sound par excellence. Earth gave birth to giving birth to monstrous, progeny like Sunn O))), who have developed the raw blast of sustained metal guitar tones into something new and strange. • Sarah Peebles: "Bumble Domicile" from an installation at *new* Gallery, Toronto, 2008 Toronto based composer Sarah Peebles began exploring drones by studying, playing and composing for the Japanese sho, a just intonation tuned pipe, often using Max/MSP to process recordings of the pipes, producing warm, resonant pieces collected on two important CDs, Suspended In Amber and Insect Groove and her beautiful installation piece, "Music for Incandescent Events: Sunset" which uses light sensitive triggers to choreograph blocks of drone sound to the setting sun. Her recent work has focused increasingly on bee culture installations, that she sets up in galleries and other spaces, amplifying their sound, and transforming it digitally on occasion. The natural world is of course alive with drones, and there's an important history of sound art that engages and amplifies this hum, from Walter De Maria's recordings of insect sound, to Annea Lockwood's rivers, to various acoustic ecologists' explorations of seismic activity,. • Clams Casino: "Waterfalls" from Rainforest (Tri Angle) Digital technologies have transformed the production of drones. All kinds of looping software offers the ability to sustain a sound indefinitely, allowing the exploration of almost any combination of tones. Hiphop was a key laboratory of looping and one way to make a drone is simply to slow down a sound and stretch it out -- a practice perfected by Houston's late and lamented master of "chopped and screwed" beats, DJ Screw. In the last few years, New York's Tri Angle Records has emerged as key purveyors of dreamy drone pop, matching hip-hop style beats, subsonic bass with hazy synth drones and pitch-shifted heliumized female vocal samples, in a style similar to witch house. Again, even within this style, the moody ambient sound of Balam Acab's "See Birds", is different from the punchy hiphop drone combinations of Evian Christ's "Fuck It, None Of Y'all Don't Rap" or the remarkable Clams Casino, celebrated for providing the beats and sounds behind Lil B's classic "I'm God." Clams' "Waterfalls" has an incredibly melancholy punch to it. Some might argue that an endlessly looped melody is not a drone, even if it's slowed down, but a drone is after all nothing but sustained tones, and the gap between the end of a loop and its return doesn't change that, it just introduces the possibility of rhythmic breaks as an endless variable within the sustained tones. • Phill Niblock: "The Movement of People Working" (Extreme) While drones are a sonic staple in horror movies where they instantly evoke an atmosphere of brooding menace, there's an interesting history to be written about sonic drones and the cinematic avant garde. Michael Snow's beautiful single shot 45 minute film Wavelength is accompanied by a very slowly rising glissando. Another Theater of Eternal Music participant, Tony Conrad's film The Flicker is also built around a more abrasive shifting electronic drone sound. Phill Niblock has been composing and performing drones for decades: he has no grand tuning theory and prefers to experiment with pitch. The Movement of People Working is his masterpiece: a collection of films of ordinary people around the world, working at mostly physical tasks, juxtaposed with Niblock's drones. Often multiple films are shown at once while Niblock improvises particular tone clusters. The tension between the repetitive, meditative everyday movements of bodies, often close up, with the surging, ocean deep sound is enigmatic, going against the often Orientalist spirituality associated with drones, yet still evoking a profound sense of mystery concerning what work, time, the body are. • Laurel Halo: "Hour Logic" (Hippos in Tanks); "Floridian Void" from Hive Mind (Planet Mu) A trace of drone runs through disco and its various permutations, beginning with the synthesized hums of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", the "chicken-scratch" single chord guitar runs of James Brown's guitarist Jimmy Nolen, and Kraftwerk's minimalist synth excursions, feeding into electro, house, techno and other styles. The latest intensifications of the drone-disco continuum are coming from musicians associated with labels like Los Angeles' 100% Silk (and it's elder sister label Not Not Fun) and some of the proteges of Brooklyn based ambient noise drone master Oneohtrix Point Never, notably the amazing Laurel Halo. Ital, who has also recorded under the name Sex Worker, produces slowish, drawn out, hypnotic proto-house music , notably on his recent Hive Mind. It's sexy, throbbing in a non-gender specific kind of way, and harks back to Moroder and Sylvester producer Patrick Cowley . It's sensual, the drone here the drone of sexual energy, mental energy, building up to peaks, falling back and building again. Or, like a lot of drone music, it is facilitated, both for performer and listener, by the use of various psychoactive substances that facilitate state of sustained attention. Halo is something else again. Like Oneohtrix, she is fascinated by sounds that are half-noise, half recognizable pitch, and on Hour Logic and the newer Quarantine, she builds dance music out of these sounds, creating drones out of plateau-like blocks of sound and noise that lock into each other for varying periods of time and giving a startling experience of sonic density. • Windy and Carl: "The Dream House/Dedications to Flea" (Kranky) There's a lineage of drone music that comes out of punk (the minimalism of New York no wave and Wire's post-punk riffing) and runs through the alternative and independent music scenes to today. Sonic Youth's Lee Renaldo and Thurston Moore played with Glenn Branca, who mixed minimalist composition practices, including the use of sustained tones with rock guitar amplification. Groups like New Zealand's Dead C pioneered cavernous walls of improvised sonic sea-like squall in the 1990s. For the last decade, Chicago's Kranky Records has been the home of indie drone rock, from Tim Hecker's glacial samples on Ravedeath 1972, to Deerhunter's drone pop, to Keith Fullerton Whitman's stunning assemblages of analog and digital on tracks like the 41 minute Lisbon. Windy and Carl take a lofi approach, basically a keyboard and a guitar, weaving shimmering layers of warm, almost pastoral sound, accompanied on "Dedications to Flea", by recordings of the breath and movement of a departed pet. • Chandra X-ray Observatory: "Sound Waves from a Black Hole" (NASA) A press release from NASA dated Sept. 9, 2003 announces: NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory detected sound waves, for the first time, from a supermassive black hole. The "note" is the deepest ever detected from any object in our Universe. ... The black hole resides in the Perseus cluster of galaxies located 250 million light years from Earth. In 2002, astronomers obtained a deep Chandra observation that shows ripples in the gas filling the cluster. These ripples are evidence for sound waves that have traveled hundreds of thousands of light years away from the cluster's central black hole ... In musical terms, the pitch of the sound generated by the black hole translates into the note of B flat. But, a human would have no chance of hearing this cosmic performance because the note is 57 octaves lower than middle-C ... At a frequency over a million billion times deeper than the limits of human hearing, this is the deepest note ever detected from an object in the Universe." What does such a drone do? Given that sonic vibrations generate heat, the sound waves emanating from the Perseus black hole potentially contain "the combined energy from 100 million supernovas", enough, astrophysicists believe, to stop the gaseous matter around black holes from cooling and forming stars. It is thought that this sound wave has "remained roughly constant for about 2.5 billion years."

Some Chilean activists doubt Michelle Bachelet's commitment to the LGBT community, accusing her of failed promises from her first administration Michelle Bachelet has reaffirmed her support for same-sex marriage in Chile as she runs for president for the second time. In an interview Sunday with Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), Bachelet was asked: ‘In your previous campaign, you promised equal rights for homosexuals but you did not talk about gay marriage. ‘Now, eight years later, same-sex marriage, yes or no?’ Bachelet, who in 2006 became the first female president of Chile, responded: ‘Eight years ago I spoke about civil unions, and we made preparations in that direction. The world has progressed, I think Chile has progressed, and the family model has changed in our country.’ Bachelet continued to say that all family models should be considered, dancing around the host’s direction question of ‘same-sex marriage, yes or no?’ At the end of the interview Bachelet agreed: ‘Marriage equality, I believe we have to make happen.’ Despite two interviews in the past week where Bachelet directly and indirectly lent her support for legalizing gay marriage in Chile, some activists doubt the re-elect’s commitment to the LGBT community. Jaime Parada, spokesperson for Chile’s leading sexual rights group Movilh, told GSN that Bachelet failed on her promises to address gay marriage during her first presidency from 2006 to 2010. ‘Bachelet didn’t have the courage during her first administration to make good on four campaign promises that dealt with sexual diversity’ including an anti-discrimination law, a civil union law, anti-homophobic bullying legislation and modifications to the education system to include topics of sexual diversity. Parada asked: ‘Why should we believe her now when years ago she missed opportunities to make these changes? Parada explained that other presidential candidates, like Marco Enríquez Ominami and Andrés Velasco, have spoken out in direct support of same-sex marriage and adoption. ‘She [Bachelet] hasn’t even demonstrated her full commitment this time around. She’s only said “I will make an announcement on the topic in the next few weeks”’. In an interview last week with Chile’s social news website The Clinic Online, Bachelet was asked if she, like former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, supported gay marriage. ‘The fact that marriage equality is a today topic that can be discussed openly reflects on a country with less prejudice and a stronger sense of reality. I believe in a family model that is founded more on affection and support, and less on stereotypes. ‘That is why in the coming weeks I will make a proposal to country on this matter [gay marriage].’

Ever since there have been Vipers, John Hennessey has been tuning them. Sometimes, it seems like his tuned cars are on the street before the production cars, if that's at all possible. And they were always incredibly bonkers. And now, for the new SRT Viper, there are already two versions waiting in the wings: The Venom 700R and 1000 Twin Turbo. As you'd expect, they're packing a ton of powwwwwerrrrrrrrrrr. As of right now, Hennessey is planning two tunes of the 2013 Viper for his buyers. First is the relatively mild Venom 700R, which raises horsepower to 725 from the stock car's 640. But the package that is going to be getting the attention is the Venom 1000 TT, which will have a barnstorming 1,120 horsepower. The car isn't built yet, nor available to tuners so far as we know, but Hennessey is suggesting it will get to 60 in 2.7 seconds and run the quarter mile in 9.7 ticks Advertisement Both have special aero on the bodies, with the 1,000 getting all sorts of scoops and wings to keep it glued at what will certainly be an unreal top speed. John told us that his company is "very excited about the upcoming 2013 SRT Viper. And we look forward to giving the new Viper an even higher level of aggression and performance on both the street and the race track." And like any good Viper or Venom, hopefully it is ridiculous to drive around a corner.

(INTELLIHUB) — The science and technology branch is the most funded sector of the FBI, garnering a yearly budget of between $600M and $800M that is directly spent to target Americans both domestically and abroad. For FY2017, the FBI has put in requests to increase its technology division’s budget by another $100M, bringing it closer to $1B annually. And now the madmen at the bureau are trying to gain technological access, back door keys, to most encrypted platforms and devices, such as the Android, iPhone and others in an effort to ‘make America safe,” which is total B.S. as the FBI is known to have hatched more terror plots than any other agency. The Intercept reports just what the FBI has been up to and some of the challenges they claim to face: The bureau has also repeatedly stressed how challenging and expensive it is to develop capabilities to hack into devices rather than have a mandated access point in encryption. “Hacking devices, … of course we do it, but it is slow,” Baker said in his concluding remarks. “It’s expensive, it’s very fragile.” This goes to show the direction that the Deep State is headed. Soon there will be no more freedom or privacy. After all, the FBI is already using Stingrays to monitor your cell phone conversations, despite the unconstitutionality. #DeepState

Henry (Bud) Hebeler retired from The Boeing Company in 1989 where he was vice-president for corporate strategic and operational planning. Before that he was president of The Boeing Aerospace Company, a division which did all of Boeing’s space work and most of the military products. He now helps people with retirement planning personally and with articles and programs on Analyze Now , a site often referenced by The Wall Street Journal and many financial publications. He has three degrees from MIT, has been on advisory committees to the U.S. Congress, Departments of Interior, Commerce, Energy, and Defense, an economic advisor to the Washington State governor, a member of Washington's Economic Development Council and a member of several university boards. $1 million nest egg seems impossible for most these days. Years ago, the magic number for a retirement savings goal was $1 million. In the last several decades though, a more realistic goal may be $500,000. Even that will be a struggle considering how low the national savings rate has become. In fact, many people approaching retirement don't even have enough savings for an emergency fund and will have to use credit to buy automobiles and other expensive things including home repairs. Credit will drain savings considerably quicker than cash purchases. Also see: 5 Tips for retirement investors late to the game So let's look at a $500,000 goal and what that means both in terms of savings to get to that point and what you might be able to spend after retiring. Then we'll come back to the million dollar situation. Saving before retirement: Figure 1 shows the monthly savings needed to reach $500,000. It assumes moderate return and inflation turbulence resulting in nominal dollar-cost-averaging (DCA) of 0.5%. Past historical results including the years 1972-1982 had larger percentages. DCA helps those who save regularly because they buy more shares in down markets and less when investments are over-priced. Figure 1 also assumes that savings increase each year with inflation. The monthly savings are therefore in inflation-adjusted amounts to preserve perspective of the dollar values. The amount that has to go to retirement savings reduces both with the number of years to save and the real return. Those that wait to save for retirement until later in their life have a much tougher goal to reach. The real return is very important as well. The real return is the actual return after fees and investment costs minus inflation and minus taxes if in a taxable account. To get higher returns, professionals usually recommend a higher stock allocation percentage before retirement than after. Historically, an allocation of 60% stock and 40% bonds may have produced an average real (inflation-adjusted) return of 5% before any reduction for costs or fees which can reduce returns by 0.5% or less for an index fund investor or well above 2% for load funds and/or professional fees. Returns in taxable accounts will also be reduced by income taxes. The actual cumulative historical returns depend on the particular years selected from the past and vary widely, especially for a couple of decades that include the deadly 1972-1982 years. Before retiring, the adverse effects of some years with low returns and/or high inflation can be ameliorated by deciding either to work longer or save more. Those options are not available to a retiree who cannot seek part-time work to supplement savings. Most people with saving goal of $500,000 would have to save an inflation-adjusted amount near $700 per month for the next 30 years or $1,300 per month for about twenty years. Those who have only about 10 years left to save anything would have to put away roughly $4,000 per month — an impossible amount for most people. Affordable withdrawals during retirement: It's important to note, that people should not consider their total assets as savings for normal retirement budgeting. It's necessary to set aside some amount, perhaps 10% of total savings for emergencies. There is no magical number for this reduction. Many will find that family problems or catastrophic losses require seemingly impossible sums that will both reduce lifestyles and may force dependence on relatives, charity or welfare programs. We shouldn't completely ignore unknown future financial surprises, so it's wise to make some allowance for them such as with an arbitrary percent of total savings. There are other considerations too. If people consider their home or other real estate as part of their retirement savings, they have to realize that real estate is often not easy to sell and may fetch far less than imagined. If buying new automobiles or remodeling is in your future retirement, these are not the kind of normal expenses that most retirement programs consider. They only consider things that require constant inflation-adjusted withdrawals. Large singular expenses don't fit into that model, so it's prudent to subtract current estimates of large one-time retirement purchases in today's dollar values from total savings before entering retirement savings into a computer program that tells how long your money will last. If retirement savings are mostly in qualified accounts, then enough extra must be added to one-time purchases to cover the taxes due on withdrawals. In the retirement case results shown in Figure 2, the initial savings of $500,000 assumes that the costs of large singular purchases or provisions for emergencies are not included. The $500,000 is only for normal monthly retirement withdrawals that increase each year with inflation. The results also assume a nominal 0.5% REVERSE-DCA. Should we experience a repeat of the 1972-1982 economics, reverse-DCA would be much higher. Retirees do just the opposite of savers. They regularly make withdrawals, not deposits. Hence a withdrawal when investments are depressed requires more shares. That's why reverse- DCA reduces returns. Affordable monthly withdrawals are less when considering longer retirement periods and increase with higher returns. Retirees get more conservative and invest in less stock to reduce volatility and risk. A mix of 40% stock and 60% bonds may produce an average raw return of 7%, but after subtracting inflation, fees, investment costs, applicable income taxes and reverse DCA, the real return is more likely to be in the range of 2%. Many elderly retirees have difficulty getting returns much above inflation and so have 0% real returns. So, $500,000 of retirement savings (excluding one-time purchases and emergencies) mean affordable monthly withdrawals may be in the ball park of $1,500 to $2,000. It's important to make a new budget plan each year taking into account what has happened to actual returns, inflation and investment balances as well as a new estimate of life-expectancy. How about that $1 million goal? Those few who have an adequate COLA pension may not even have to pay attention to such a goal. The same thing may be true for those with substantial fixed pensions if the future has low inflation. Most of the rest may find it impossible to save $500,000 before retirement considering that they have been saving too little for too long. Simply double the values in Figures 1 and 2 above to get to $1 million results — but instead of focusing on getting $1 million, it's more important for low savers to maximize Social Security and build some emergency savings and savings for anticipated large one-time purchases. Then they can set goals based on what is needed in extra savings either relying on professional advice or use of a comprehensive Internet planning program that also accounts for known large one-time expenses.

Gov. Jerry Brown met with Southern California water managers Thursday to plan further responses to the state’s worst drought on record. The latest sign of its severity was this week’s announcement from California’s Department of Public Health that at least 17 of the state’s rural communities are in danger of running out of water within 100 days. Governor Brown declared a drought emergency two weeks ago and called for voluntary 20 percent conservation measures. On Thursday he dispensed tips to Los Angeles area residents: "Don't flush more than you have to, don't shower longer than you need to, and turn the water off when you're shaving or brushing your teeth.” But, say experts, this water emergency is just one more sign of more extreme water challenges to come and requires broader and more far-ranging strategies. The water emergency highlighted by the ticking clock on these 17 rural communities is “simultaneously painfully local and thoroughly global,” says David Cassuto, a professor at Pace Law School. “Each affected city will have to adapt its conservation measures to its particular geography. Some towns can drill extra wells, some can impose draconian conservation measures, and some have no easy answers at all and will have to seek emergency help from elsewhere,” he says via e-mail. These local emergencies underscore the national emergency of a worsening water shortage virtually everywhere, he says, and “the national emergency is but a microcosm of a looming global disaster.” California’s economy stands to suffer, points out Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis. A third of the nation’s crops are produced in California’s Central Valley, with some nine million acres under irrigation. “We might see half a million acres go fallow in this drought,” he says, with thousands of jobs lost as a result. We are currently seeing new droughts that stretch our ability to cope, given infrastructure that was built for a climate with fewer weather, and precipitation, extremes, says John Sabo, an ecologist and associate professor at Arizona State University who specializes in sustainability. As individuals, “we need to readjust our attitudes and refocus our lifestyle to embrace the reality of deep drought,” he says via e-mail. “This means changing how we vote to invest in water efficiency projects. Water reuse and desalinization projects should be more carefully considered as parts of an integrated solution. At home, every drop counts,” he writes, adding that government incentives to replace turf and water inefficient appliances are also valuable. Individuals cannot solve this problem alone, agrees Christiana Peppard, author of the recently published “Just Water” and a professor at Fordham University in New York. “It's a structural, systemic, societal issue – and so California has to get clear, fast, on what kinds of uses are renewable or not.” This must be done at a range of levels: local, municipal, county, state, and region, she says via e-mail, adding that “water is no respecter of boundaries or human desires.” In the 20th century, says Professor Peppard, “we made water work for us, partly on the assumption that supply was unending. In the 21st century, we have to focus on water as a finite, scarce resource – and learn to work with it.” Water determines the fate of civilizations, she says, adding, “not the reverse.” Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy “This drought is different both in degree and in kind,” she says. The implications are “clear, present, and unavoidable.” “Water wonks have known this for a long time,” she says, adding, “just as many Californians realized they were in a drought long before the governor declared it.”

This car was supposedly detailed 4 weeks ago by a detailer in Adelaide. It was left in worst condition then what it started with buffing trails, swirl marks, deep scratches and the detailer had marred the clear coat badly. A stage 2 paint correction returned the deep black with purple metallic and it was then protected with a permanent Opti-coat paint protection ˆCondition before ˆCondition before (front door) ˆCondition before (rear quarter panel) ˆCondition before ˆCondition before ˆCondition before ˆCondition before ˆCondition before ˆCondition before ˆ50/50 before and after rear quarter panel ˆ50/50 before and after rear quarter panel ˆ50/50 before and after boot ˆ50/50 before and after boot/spoiler ˆCondition before ˆ50/50 rear quarter ˆ50/50 boot ˆCondition before – rear door ˆCondition after – rear door ˆCondition before front door ˆCondition after front door After stage 2 paint correction and Opti-coat paint protection This process took 9 hours to complete. Back to Portfolio

New York police officers guard the entrance of Trump Tower as protesters gather against President Donald Trump on August 14 in New York. | Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images Justice Department: No evidence Obama wiretapped Trump Tower There is no evidence to support President Donald Trump's claim that President Barack Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department said in a new court filing. The DOJ made the statement in a motion for summary judgment filed Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the watchdog group American Oversight. Story Continued Below "Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets," the government said, referring to the Justice Department’s National Security Division. James Comey, who was FBI director at the time Trump made the statements, also said, in sworn testimony before Congress, that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department had information to support the tweets. Trump later fired Comey, a move that has come under increasing scrutiny amid federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. “The FBI and Department of Justice have now sided with former Director Comey and confirmed in writing that President Trump lied when he tweeted that former President Obama ‘wiretapped’ him at Trump Tower,” said Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight. The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. Trump has never produced any evidence to back up the explosive claim, which he made on Twitter in March, and which a spokesman for Obama promptly denied. "Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!" Trump wrote at the time. "How low has President Obama gone to tapp [sic] my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!" Trump added. In response to a question about the DOJ filing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Saturday, “This is not news,” and that the White House had responded to the matter weeks ago. The White House has argued that Trump's comments were merely alleging surveillance, which is why he put "wires tapped" in quotation marks in the initial tweet.

In a happy coincidence of the US judicial calendar, the Supreme Court on Halloween Monday is set to solemnly take up the subject of costumes and outfits. The eight justices have been asked to define copyright limits in an usual case that poses the question: Can the design of a cheerleader's outfit be protected by rights of authorship? The dispute is more substantive than it appears, pitting Star Athletica against Varsity Brands, both manufacturers of clothing for young athletes -- or in this case cheerleaders. A beloved feature of the US sporting scene, cheerleaders have been exciting fans at American football, baseball and other games for more than 120 years. Varsity, the market leader, accuses its smaller rival Star Athletica of copying certain of its cheerleader costumes. According to federal law, a design can be protected by copyright if it can be distinguished as separate from the article's function. In this case, Varsity insists that the chevron pattern on the tops and skirts of its cheerleading outfits is a conceptual creation separate from the uniform's function. Star Athletica maintains the opposite. The court's challenge will be to draw the line between the aesthetic and utilitarian, creating a framework for deciding whether a copyright for design is valid. - 'Cosplayers' worried - The decision could have broad repercussions with significant economic consequences. The dispute is particularly concerning to devotees of "cosplay," who dress up in costumes that borrow from characters in Japanese manga comics, video games and other spheres. Cosplayers often appropriate costume elements that could be legally protected: uniforms, military insignias, logos and so on. They fear the Supreme Court may squelch their creative freedom. Philip Gust, president of the International Costumers Guild, says costumers tap into design elements that are common to all kinds of genre -- sci-fi/fantasy, comics, anime and historical garments. "Suppose that Desilu Studios tried to protect the original Star Trek costumes by copyrighting every conceivable type and arrangement of sleeve braid and geometric insignia shapes on the three solid colors used for the shirts in the series," he said. "Every sci-fi space pilot from Buck Rogers to Battle Star Galactica has similar elements," he said. "Varsity is trying to treat arrangements of geometrical shapes that just happen to be the ones on cheerleading costumes as separable works of art, but in fact, they're no more separable than the elements of the Star Trek shirt," he said. "Mondrian must be rolling in his grave." - The Royal Manticoran Navy - Sudan Scafidi, founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University's law school, disagrees. For her, the real danger is that the Supreme Court will weaken "the little bit of copyright protection that US law offers to fashion." She notes that US copyright law protects fabric patterns but not the three-dimensional costumes themselves, and then only original creations. "There is zero possibility that this case -- or any proposed change in US copyright law -- would affect access to common elements of a fashion genre or to historical costumes, which are already in the public domain," she said. "A costume designer who wants to recreate a medieval knight or a 1920s flapper is and will remain free to do so, no matter what the Supreme Court decides." Supreme Court cases generally feature two antagonists, each backed up by their "amicis," from the Latin phrase for "friends of the court," who submit briefs arguing for or against one side or another. Among those submitting briefs in this case is The Royal Manticoran Navy (TRMN), a fan club inspired by David Webber's Honor Harrington science-fiction series. Members organize themselves in hierarchical fashion, dressing in a variety of nautical uniforms. "This issue is larger than just cheerleading uniforms, and can have an impact well beyond the main parties in the case," said the fan club's president and chairman Martin Lessem.

U.S. President Barack Obama said when it comes to the negotiations to secure an agreement ensuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, the U.S. has been briefing the U.S. Congress on developments as well as Israel and other partners around the world. Obama commented during a news conference Tuesday when asked about reports Israel spied on the nuclear talks in order to help build a case against any impending deal. On Monday, The Wall Street Journal said Israel had been spying on the closed-door talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, known as the P5+1. The newspaper said senior White House officials were aware of the spying and that Israel had been sharing confidential information from the talks with members of the U.S. Congress and other officials to discourage support of any agreement with Iran. President Obama said he would not “comment on intelligence matters in a big room full of reporters.” But in terms of any nuclear deal, he added, “there will be significant transparency on the whole process.” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it is an “absurd notion” that the U.S. Congress would have to rely on a “foreign government” to gain insight on the Iran nuclear talks. “We have briefed Congress on the nuclear talks as much as, or perhaps more than, any other issue since October 2013,” she said. Negotiators near deadline The spying allegations have surfaced at a critical time in Iran nuclear negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is returning to Switzerland to resume talks on Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The parties in the nuclear talks are trying to agree on the outline of an agreement by a self-imposed deadline of March 31. They hope to have a final deal by the end of June. If the allegations of Israeli spying are true, they are an indication of a breach in U.S.-Israeli relations, said Kelsey Davenport, the Director of Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association. “It demonstrates a lack of trust in the United States to negotiate a deal with Iran that is in the best interest of the security of the region and that includes Israel’s security.” Davenport added that what she found “most alarming” were the allegations that Israel has used information, obtained illicitly, to try to influence the U.S. Congress on the talks. Israel denied allegations of spying. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said "there is no way, was no way, that Israel spied on the Americans." Congress weighs in The top Republican in the U.S. Congress said he was “shocked” by the report of Israeli spying. House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, “there was no information revealed to me whatsoever.” Boehner upset the Obama administration earlier this year when he side-stepped the White House and invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress about his Iran nuclear concerns. Netanyahu’s address, earlier this month, raised tensions between the White House and Israel. He warned U.S. lawmakers against supporting any potential agreement. “It does not block Iran’s path to a bomb. It paves Iran’s path to a bomb,” Netanyahu said. Days after the Israeli prime minister’s speech, 47 Republican senators sent an open letter to Iran warning that any deal might last only until President Obama's term in office ends in 2017. Israel approaches European negotiators This week, Israel took its concerns about the potential deal to nuclear negotiators in Britain and France, two countries that are part of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. "We think it is a bad deal,” said Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz in Paris, adding, “we have reservations about the overall approach." Nuclear negotiators are searching for a deal that would limit Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons in exchange for relief from harsh economic sanctions. The two sides agreed to keep the details of their discussions private to try to prevent outside influences from affecting the outcome. Israeli officials have repeatedly made statements asserting that a potential deal would not go far enough to make sure Iran would be left unable to build nuclear weapons.

Let's get to the links... Pete Carroll asking NFL to clarify legality of hits on QBs on read-option handoffs, after Sam Bradford hit - The News Tribune "I have seen a couple of them and I really thought they were worthy of being noted as penalty plays," Carroll said of such hits on QBs, most recently by Suggs on Bradford. "Obviously we’re really tuned into that. "We’re counting on the league to do a really good job of doing that well so we take care of the QBs. You can force this thing about they’re a runner. When they don’t have the ball in their hands and the ball is already handed off and gone, guys need to make good decisions, hopefully. So we’ll be very much part of that discussion if things continue like it’s going, because it’s not right. Eagles locker room seating chart - PhillyVoice The Eagles turned over a large portion of their roster this offseason. Obviously, throughout training camp, we media types have been reporting on how the new guys are playing, and how they're fitting into the offense/defense. However, equally as important, where are they seated in the locker room?!? I took note today on our first day of locker room access. On the chart below, the players at the top of the chart are in the back of the locker room. View the chart below as if you're walking into the locker room from the bottom of the chart. Sam Bradford will find that quick release is key - Inquirer The best defense, of course, is getting rid of the ball before there is any chance of getting slaughtered. And for the most part that has been one area in which Bradford, comparatively speaking, has excelled. He just didn't on that throw to Agholor. He held on to the ball for approximately 3.6 seconds. Nearly every play is different, based on the call, the personnel, the defense, the down, the distance, the field position, and the clock, among other things. But generally, 3.6 seconds is too long. Key Plays: How They Happened - Birds 24/7 How it happened: Thurmond gets the credit on the stat sheet, but the real play was made by Nolan Carroll. The corner ran step-for-step with Aiken for 50 yards and then tipped the ball into the air for Thurmond to catch it. Jordan Hicks also gets credit for pressuring Flacco and flushing him out of the pocket to disrupt the quarterback's timing. Bird's-eye view: "When I saw the receiver bend in, I looked in and I saw Walt," Carroll said. "I knew he wasn't going to continue to run at Walt, so once he bent back out, I knew I had Walt at least behind me. When I looked up at the ball, I knew I had somebody there and I just tried to tip it up as high as I could." Sam Bradford: Every play out of the shotgun isn't a zone-read - CSN Philly "There was no chance of me keeping it," Bradford said Monday. On a read-option or zone-read, the quarterback reads the unblocked defender and either keeps the ball or hands it off depending on how the unlocked defender reacts. On the play in question, there was no unblocked defender. Bradford said the Eagles had a tight end on the backside there to cover him. "I think there's just probably just some gray area as far as what a zone-read is," Bradford said. "You running a play out of the shotgun doesn't mean it's a zone-read. We have a lot of plays in our offense where there are absolutely no reads for us, it's an automatic give. I think the league is probably just gonna have to clarify what a zone-read is." Eagles Lock Up Rising Star LB Kendricks - PE.com Mychal Kendricks doesn't want to hear about the "prototype" measurements for NFL linebackers -- the height, weight and all those other numbers. None of that stacks up to the whole of Kendricks: "I'm a baller ... Tebow Update - Iggles Blitz The one thing that bugs me as I consider Tebow for the roster is that Kelly explained recently that he wants his backups to look like the starters so that things won’t have to change much when there are injuries. Tebow looks more like Brent Celek or DeMeco Ryans than he does Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez or Barkley. That’s true of his appearance and his QB skill set. Things change drastically when he’s on the field. Matt Barkley doesn't think Eagles are trying to trade him - NJ.com Eagles quarterback Matt Barkley pushed back against a report that surfaced over the weekend that the team had made him available on the trade market. "What are they talking about?" Barkley said when asked by NJ Advance Media for his reaction to the report following Monday's practice at the NovaCare Complex. "What's their source? That's not what I'm worried about. "I know probably more than what an ESPN reporter knows. I'm just sticking to what I'm doing here and now and that's playing football for the Eagles." Vermeil Buys Into Arena League Team - The New York Times Dick Vermeil is returning to pro football, this time as an owner in the Arena Football League. Vermeil, who took the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl title in the 1999 season, joined the former N.F.L. quarterback Ron Jaworski and Marques Colston and Jahri Evans, who currently play for the New Orleans Saints, as owners of the Philadelphia Soul. Evan Mathis keeps going to Reddit to discuss his own free agency rumors - SB Nation Mathis told Reddit that rumors of the Kansas City Chiefs being a potential landing place are "completely wrong." Download the Eagles Almanac - $15 Social Media Information: BGN Facebook Page: BGN Twitter: Follow @BleedingGreen Philly sports attire: Check out Philly Phaithful! Manager: Brandon Lee Gowton Follow @BrandonGowton

Note: DD-size version of the map HERE. To compliment the wiener one from last week, this is the world map of average breast cup sizes. Now I know what you're wondering, "GW -- what's your favorite cup?" Thanks for asking, I'm really into fruit cups. JOKING -- pudding all the way, baby! Now -- before all you American men start high-fiving and motorboating your monitors, our average is a D because we're f***ing fat, not because our women have naturally large bazoongas. Shit, even I'm rockin' B-cups. *squeezing* No, B+ *trying to lick nipple* Interactive Version [targetmap] Thanks to MannaFromKevin, who threatened to tell everyone I wear two sports bras under a t-shirt to make my tits look flatter if I didn't post this. Whew, can't have that getting ou-- wait a minute.

April 10, 2017 Why Did Putin Get Stuck in Eastern Ukraine? By Peter Dickinson Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine is now entering its fourth year, but there was a time when few expected it to last even four weeks. The virtually bloodless seizure of Crimea, which fell to Russian troops in early 2014 without a fight, led most observers to conclude that Ukraine was effectively defenseless and at Moscow’s mercy.This was the consensus view in Moscow, where many of the bolder voices began speaking of celebrating the traditional May holidays in Kyiv itself. Such swagger seemed perfectly reasonable; Ukraine was still reeling from months of anti-government protests that had spread chaos across the country before culminating in the flight of President Viktor Yanukovych and the collapse of his entire administration. The interim Ukrainian government that hastily replaced Yanukovych’s administration lacked constitutional legitimacy and was in no position to risk a military confrontation with the mighty Russian Federation. A clear window of opportunity had opened for Moscow to reassert itself in mainland Ukraine. Encouraged by the stunning success of his initial gamble in Crimea, President Vladimir Putin decided to raise the stakes and take arguably the biggest risk of his entire career.The subsequent operation that unfolded in March and April 2014 envisaged the conquest of half of Ukraine through a series of localized uprisings supported by hybrid Russian forces. These newly acquired territories were to become Novorossiya, or “New Russia.” Leaked telephone conversations and hacked emails of senior Kremlin advisers, including Vladislav Surkov and Sergey Glazyev, have since provided considerable detail on Russia’s efforts to seize control of regional administrations in key Ukrainian cities throughout the south and east of the country, including Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Odesa. These leaks track closely with the events that took place on the ground in Ukraine during that turbulent spring.For a few precarious weeks, Ukraine’s chances of survival as an independent state appeared to be rapidly receding. However, the much-feared Russian march to the Dnipro never materialized. Instead, Russian uprisings were stifled across southeast Ukraine, and the Kremlin found itself restricted to a small bridgehead within the boundaries of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine’s easternmost borderlands. Three years on, they are still there, stuck in a quagmire of their own making. Why did Putin’s ambitious plans for a new empire in mainland Ukraine fall so dramatically short of expectations?Perhaps understandably, Russian planners underestimated Ukraine’s capacity to fight back. Ukraine had only 6,000 combat-ready troops available in spring 2014. This was a ridiculously threadbare force that was incapable of protecting the country’s borders, never mind defending its towns and cities. What Moscow failed to anticipate was the wave of patriotic emotion that surged across Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s hybrid assault. Thousands of Ukrainians took up arms in the spring of 2014, forming volunteer battalions that bolstered the country’s paper-thin defenses and stopped the Russian advance in its tracks. Behind them stood an army of civilian volunteers who provided improvised logistical support in the form of everything from food and uniforms to ammunition. This military miracle saved Ukraine and left the Kremlin in its current predicament.It is hardly surprising that Russia failed to predict the backlash its attack would provoke. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kremlin’s Ukraine policy had been driven by a toxic and self-defeating blend of wishful thinking and colonial condescension. This approach became increasingly entrenched during Putin’s reign; he made no secret of his desire to reassert Russian hegemony throughout the former Soviet Empire. In this revanchist worldview, Ukraine’s separation from Russia was artificial, while the entire settlement of 1991 was a grave historical injustice. In 2008, the Russian leader reportedly told US President George W. Bush that Ukraine was “not even a country.” Over the years, Putin also repeatedly stated that Ukrainians and Russians were “one people.”These beliefs were by no means limited to the upper echelons of the Kremlin. Many in Russia still struggle to accept the reality of Ukrainian independence, seeing the country as a core component of a greater “Russian world” that is centered on Moscow. Kyiv was the center of the Kyivan Rus civilization that today’s Russia and Ukraine both see as their predecessor, while the Russian Orthodox Church traces its origins to Kyiv and the tenth century conversion of the Eastern Slavs to Christianity. This makes many in Russia prone to blaming any manifestations of Ukrainian national identity on a radical nationalist minority. As a new generation emerged in Ukraine with no personal experience of the shared Soviet past, Russian policymakers consistently refused to acknowledge changing tides of opinion or recognize the growing importance of Ukrainian identity. Famously, they have attributed Ukraine’s two post-Soviet popular uprisings almost exclusively to insidious Western influences, despite the decisive role played by millions of ordinary Ukrainians in both the 2004 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Euromaidan.These comforting fictions led Russia to the disastrous miscalculations of the Novorossiya campaign. Based on its own carefully curated vision of Ukraine, there was every reason to expect a warm welcome when Kremlin agents seized control of entire regions and began calling for Russian military support. When this welcome did not materialize, Russia placed the blame on a motley crew of phantom fascists, CIA agents, and other international villains. In reality, the Kremlin had failed to appreciate the strength of the Ukrainian national spirit—especially among the country’s millions of Russian-speakers and those with no ethnic Ukrainian heritage. This failure was the direct result of decades of Russian denial about Ukraine.Russia’s Novorossiya project has plunged the world into a new Cold War and caused untold suffering to millions of Ukrainians, but it has also consolidated Ukraine’s sense of national identity and hastened the psychological split with Russia begun in 1991. Putin’s hybrid attack was supposed to end what many in Moscow continue to see as the aberration of Ukrainian independence. Instead, it has cemented Ukraine’s place on the European map after centuries in Russia’s shadow.Peter Dickinson is chief editor of the UATV English-language service and publisher of Business Ukraine and Lviv Today magazines.

More than 130,000 people have signed a petition to kick Melania Trump and her son Barron out of New York City, where they’ve lived since the election, or to require her to foot the bill for her protection herself. “The U.S. taxpayer is paying an exorbitant amount of money to protect the First Lady in Trump Tower, located in New York City,” states the Change.org petition which was started on March 18. “This expense yields no positive results for the nation and should be cut from being funded.” Estimates vary, but according to New York Police Department Commissioner James P. O’Neill, the security cost for the First Lady and her 10-year-old son Barron ranges from 127,000 to 146,000 dollars a day. That comes out to between 50 and 60 million dollars a year, depending on whether or not President Donald Trump comes back to New York City on the weekends. A spokesperson for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told Politifact that the total cost to protect Trump, Melania and Barron between election day and inauguration was $37 million. Many of the people who signed the petition said the security expenses were a waste of tax-payer dollars that could be allocated for social services. “I am outraged that the so-called first lady is totally oblivious to the financial hardship she is heaping on our great city,” one commenter wrote beneath the petition. “The tax money saved by eliminating these extra protection expenses can be used to feed senior citizens. Why is our tax money being spent on people who already have more than their fair share?” another wrote. In November, de Blasio said, “The number one imperative here is the safety and security” of the then president-elect and his family. He also said no president has ever stayed in the city long term, and protecting Trump and his family would require federal funding were they to stay in the city on a regular basis. As of February 22, the federal government reimbursed New York City around $7 million dollars.

Media Matters has documented numerous examples of Fox News hosts and correspondents cropping comments by progressives and Democratic political figures in a manner that misrepresents them. On three occasions from April 24 to May 1, Media Matters for America documented Fox News figures airing clips of progressives that were cropped in a way that misrepresented their statements. For example, White House correspondent Wendell Goler cropped a comment by President Obama and took it out of context to falsely suggest that he supports creating a health-care system "like the European countries." In fact, Obama was paraphrasing the town hall question he had been asked before explaining why he opposed such a system. These examples are not anomalous for Fox News -- while it purports to be "fair and balanced" and claims, "We report, you decide," Media Matters has documented dozens of similar examples over the years. Fox News has misleadingly cropped the comments of progressives such as Obama, former Vice President Al Gore, Vice President Joe Biden, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and former President Bill Clinton. Those comments dealt with a wide range of topics, including health care, earmarks, the financial crisis, the 2008 presidential campaign, and global warming. In 2006, Media Matters noted a pattern in which correspondents on Fox News' Special Report aired cropped clips of Democratic senators commenting on President Bush's warrantless wiretapping that did not include those senators' objections to the program's legality. Below, Media Matters presents a non-comprehensive list of the most misleading instances in which Fox News figures aired cropped clips of progressives that were taken out of context. During the May 1 edition of Special Report, saying it was a "description of how the president hopes his nominee will interpret the law," congressional correspondent Major Garrett aired a clip in which Obama stated: "I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes." Garrett then said: "That aggravates those who believe justices should follow the Constitution and legislative intent." But Garrett omitted the very next sentence, in which Obama stated: "I will seek somebody who is dedicated to the rule of law, who honors our constitutional traditions, who respects the integrity of the judicial process and the appropriate limits of the judicial role." On the May 1 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, during a segment suggesting that Gore has profited from his advocacy of renewable energy and climate change mitigation, guest host Laura Ingraham presented clips of Gore's April 24 congressional testimony that had been edited to remove his statements that he donates the money he makes from his climate-related work to a nonprofit organization. During the April 24 edition of Special Report, Goler claimed that Obama "doesn't want to do it halfway" on health care, and then aired a clip from a March 26 online town hall event of Obama saying, "If you're going to fix it, why not do a universal health-care system like the European countries?" Following the clip, Goler reported: "His critics worry universal health care would mean government-run health care." In fact, Obama actually said, "Now, the question is, if you're going to fix it, why not do a universal health-care system like the European countries?" [emphasis added] In doing so, Obama was paraphrasing the town hall question he had been asked -- "Why can we not have a universal health-care system, like many European countries, where people are treated based on needs rather than financial resources?" -- before explaining why he opposed such a system. On the April 3 edition of his television program, Sean Hannity played a clip of Obama saying in an April 3 speech in Strasbourg, France: "In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America's shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive." Hannity then said: "And the liberal tradition of blame America first, well, that's still alive." Hannity later asked: "Why is there this anti-Americanism in Europe?" In fact, immediately after the part of the speech Hannity played, Obama criticized anti-Americanism in Europe as well as Europeans who "choose to blame America for much of what's bad." During the March 16 edition of The Live Desk, co-host Martha MacCallum claimed that "after weeks of economic doom and gloom, the Obama administration is now singing a slightly different tune. Take a look at what was said in recent interviews this weekend." Fox News then aired clips of administration officials purportedly giving an optimistic view of the economy, which included a clip of Biden stating: "The fundamentals of the economy are strong." After the clips aired, MacCallum contrasted the administration's purported remarks from "this weekend" with what then-Sen. Obama said during the 2008 presidential campaign, when he criticized Sen. John McCain for stating that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times." However, Biden did not make his remarks during an "interview[]" over the past weekend; Biden made his remarks at a September 15, 2008, campaign event, and, like Obama, was criticizing McCain for his remarks -- not echoing McCain. On the next day's Live Desk, MacCallum apologized for "inadvertedly us[ing]" the clip. On April 7, 8, and 9, several Fox News personalities -- including Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Fox & Friends co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy -- aired cropped video of Frank's exchange with Harvard University student Joel Pollak, who asked Frank during an event at the Harvard School of Government, "[H]ow much, if any, responsibility do you think you bear" for the financial crisis. The Fox News personalities suggested or stated that Frank had refused to answer Pollak's question or had denied any responsibility for the crisis. In fact, in portions of the exchange not aired by the Fox News personalities, Frank said, "The answer is, yes, I do take responsibility for something." Frank later added that after filing "a bill in 2006, when I was still in the minority, to say hedge funds should be registered," in 2007, he "was approached by people who said, 'No. No. You can't do too much regulation,' and I backed off. I wish I hadn't." Frank also noted that he did, in fact, work on legislation to deal with mortgage lending, stating that in 2007, his committee passed restrictions on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and on subprime lending. On the March 6 edition of his Fox News program, Hannity falsely claimed that Obama made a "campaign promise" to allow "no earmarks." After purporting to "go to the videotape" and "show the audience at home" Obama's "campaign promise" of "no earmarks," Hannity aired a number of clips from the 2008 presidential campaign in order to claim that Obama was breaking his promise, when, in fact, in three of the clips, Obama was referring to reforming the earmark process, and in a fourth, he was asserting that an opponent was being hypocritical for taking earmarks and then advocating against them. In the fifth clip, which was actually taken from a January 6 media availability -- not during the presidential campaign, as Hannity suggested -- Obama stated: "We are gonna ban all earmarks -- the process by which individual members insert pet projects without review." However, Obama was referring to his desire to "ban all earmarks" from his "recovery and reinvestment plan," which he specifically distinguished from "the overall budget process." Like Hannity, O'Reilly aired Obama's statement, "We are going to ban all earmarks," and falsely characterized it as a promise to ban them from all legislation, not from the recovery plan. On the March 4 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, O'Reilly aired Obama's statement, then said, "President Obama pledging last January to end earmarks in federal spending." Later in the show, referring to earmarks included in the omnibus appropriations bill, O'Reilly stated, "But Obama's on record -- we just played the clip -- that he's going to do away with this. And then he takes 9,000 of them and signs it?" On the October 17, 2008, edition of Special Report, Washington correspondent James Rosen stated of Samuel Wurzelbacher -- commonly known as Joe the Plumber -- "Even Obama himself has gone to work on this working stiff," and aired a cropped quote of Obama saying, "How many plumbers you know making a quarter-million dollars a year?" In fact, the context of that remark makes clear that Obama was actually criticizing McCain, not Wurzelbacher, as Rosen falsely claimed. On the July 8, 2008, edition of Hannity & Colmes, Hannity aired a deceptively cropped statement from Clinton's July 5 remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival in asserting that Clinton was "obviously taking a shot at Senator McCain." In fact, as the full statement and context of Clinton's remarks make clear, Clinton was discussing what former South African president -- and political prisoner -- Nelson Mandela means to him. Hannity provided no evidence to support his assertion that Clinton's comments were a "shot at Senator McCain."

From Local Sources JASPER — An allegedly impaired Florida man who told police he did not remember anything after leaving JR’s Bar is charged with stealing a Bobcat front loader and causing $9,800 in damage early Thursday. The Jasper Police Department was contacted at 2:06 a.m. regarding a man driving a Bobcat front loader down Second Street from Clay Street, knocking down street signs and hitting light poles. Upon getting to the area, police located the Bobcat outside the Memorial Hospital clinic at 695 W. Second St. It had been used to break the glass door on the east side of the building to force entry. Jasper officers, Dubois County Sheriff’s Department deputies and an Indiana State Police trooper entered and located Korey D. Groover, 29, of Davenport, Fla., laying on the floor inside a suite of offices. Groover was taken into custody without incident and, when asked why he stole the Bobcat, replied he was really drunk and did not recall anything after leaving the 23 S. Clay St. bar. Police said Groover’s blood alcohol content tested .18 percent, he had marijuana in his system and a syringe in one of his pockets. The keys to the Bobcat were also in a pocket. Authorities booked Groover into the Dubois County Security Center on a Level 5 felony count of burglary, Level 6 felony counts of theft and illegal possession of a syringe, and misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and operating while intoxicated. Contact The Herald at news@dcherald.com.

CLOSE Charlie Wishman, secretary-treasurer of the Iowa Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, speaks in opposition to House File 295, which would require counties and cities to follow federal or state requirements for minimum wage. Kelsey Kremer/The Register Buy Photo A man carries the American flag during the annual Labor Day parade on Sept. 1, 2014, in Des Moines. (Photo: Register file photo)Buy Photo Labor Day is always a good time to take stock of the state of working Iowa. Patterns of employment, job creation, and wage and income growth across the Iowa economy are telling — and disappointing. This long-term economic pattern combines with the most disheartening legislative changes for working families in the lifetimes of most Iowans. The year 2017 poses great challenges to Iowans’ economic security, let alone opportunity for those coming to, serving in or retiring from the job market. The Iowa Policy Project’s upcoming State of Working Iowa review finds the following: Recovery is elusive: The Great Recession is over, but the national and Iowa economies are still struggling to recover. While Iowa regained its pre-recession threshold of jobs in June 2013, our economy and population have continued to grow — leaving us a jobs deficit of 34,000 jobs as of July. While the unemployment rate has come back down to a healthy 3.2 percent, the labor force participation rate is still well below its peak and rates of underemployment and long-term unemployment are still higher than they were before the financial crisis hit in 2007. Despite job gains, we have fewer good jobs. Counting jobs lost or added is important, but so is the quality of those jobs. Since the 1970s, Iowa has shed many good jobs in sectors like manufacturing, and replaced too many of them with lower-wage service jobs. But the real damage has been done by the collapse of security and job quality within sectors and occupations. We have traded good jobs for bad jobs, due to economic shifts, loss of union representation, lax enforcement of labor standards, and alarming growth in contingent work relationships. We are treading water. Wage growth is anemic for all but the highest earners, underscoring both low job quality and the slow recovery. In Iowa, the median wage in inflation-adjusted dollars inched up less than 1 percent, across the last generation (since 1979). The constraints on wage growth are mostly political: a weak commitment to full employment, the declining real value of the minimum wage, and loss of voice and bargaining power with the loss of union representation. We are choosing the wrong policies at the wrong time. The last year in state and national politics has only made things worse. The Trump Administration has moved to roll back both the substance and enforcement of key labor standards, and trade, tax, and financial policies have lavished the economy’s rewards on the highest earners. In Iowa, the legislative fusillade of the last session took aim at precisely the policies — including public-sector collective bargaining and local minimum-wage initiatives — that were helping to contain the damage. Collin Gordon (Photo: Special to the Register) Recent experience across the states offers us a good sense of what works and what doesn’t. A higher minimum wage lifts families out of poverty with no decrease in employment or economic growth. Union representation and collective bargaining offer a robust defense against income inequality and the erosion of job quality. Investments in education produce growth and productivity in local and state economies that tax cuts never deliver. When states ignore these facts — as Kansas and Wisconsin have — they undermine the prosperity, security and mobility of their citizens. The high road to economic growth and worker security is the better course for Iowa. COLIN GORDON is a professor of history at the University of Iowa and senior research consultant at the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City. He is the author of reports in IPP’s “State of Working Iowa” series. Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2exB7gw

The 2014–15 FC Bayern Munich season was the 116th season in the club's history and the 50th consecutive season in the top flight of German football, the Bundesliga, since their promotion from the Regionalliga Süd in 1965. Bayern participated in the season's editions of the DFB-Pokal, DFL-Supercup and UEFA Champions League. It was the 10th season for Bayern in the Allianz Arena. Background [ edit ] Overview [ edit ] Context [ edit ] Bayern came into the 2014–15 season as the defending Bundesliga champions[2] and defending DFB-Pokal champions.[3] In the 2013–14 season, Bayern were knocked-out of Champions League by eventual winners Real Madrid in the semifinals, losing 5–0 on aggregate.[4] Bayern hired Michael Reschke as Technical Director.[5] This is a new position and will provide "support" for Matthias Sammer, the Sporting Director for Bayern.[5] Transfers [ edit ] Xabi Alonso joined Bayern in August 2014 Robert Lewandowski,[6] Sebastian Rode,[7] Juan Bernat, Pepe Reina,[9] Medhi Benatia,[10] Xabi Alonso,[11] and Sinan Kurt[12] transferred to Bayern. Lewandowski was the second "key" player within a year to move to Bayern from Borussia Dortmund.[13] Bayern bought Medhi Benatia from Roma for an undisclosed fee.[10] Pep Guardiola wanted to sign another player due to Javi Martínez's injury in the German Super Cup.[14] For this reason, Bayern brought Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid[11] for undisclosed fee. Lukas Raeder,[15] Alessandro Schöpf,[16] Mario Mandžukić,[17] Toni Kroos,[18] and Diego Contento[19] left the club. Contento had been at the club for 19 years.[20] Mandžukić wanted to leave Bayern because the "playing style of coach Pep Guardiola simply does not fit him."[21] Julian Green was loaned out to Hamburger SV[22] and Daniel Van Buyten retired.[23] He had been offered another role at Bayern.[24] Pre-season started on 9 July.[25] During pre-season, Bayern defeated Red Baroons Dietmannsried 3–0 on 18 July in its first friendly match of the season.[26] This was Holger Badstuber's first match in 594 days.[26] Badstuber injured his ACL against Borussia Dortmund on 1 December 2012.[27] and re-injured it on 19 May 2013.[28] He returned to first-team training on 5 May 2014.[29] Also in pre-season, Bayern faced MSV Duisburg on 21 July in a benefits match[30] which ended in a 1–1 draw.[31] Robert Lewandowski made his pre-season debut and scored his first goal for Bayern.[31] Pre-season continued with the 2014 Telekom Cup.[32] Bayern faced Borussia Mönchengladbach in the semifinal on 26 July which Bayern won in a shoot-out, after a 2–2 draw in sixty minutes.[32] Bayern defeated VfL Wolfsburg 3–0 in the final the following day and won the cup.[33] Bayern took a tour of the United States.[34] This is Bayern's first pre-season tour in the United States in a decade.[35] Bayern were in New York City for three days.[36] During the tour, on 31 July,[37] they defeated Chivas Guadalajara 1–0 at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey and won the Audi Football Summit Cup 2014.[38][39] Bayern were also in Portland, Oregon for four days.[36] While in Portland, on 6 August,[40] Bayern lost to the MLS All-Star team 2–1 on 6 August.[41] Pep Guardiola was angry because of "harsh challenges" and didn't shake Caleb Porter's hand after the game.[35][42] Two of the tackles came from Osvaldo Alonso and other tackle came from Will Johnson.[43] The tackle by Johnson injured Bastian Schweinsteiger.[43] During pre-season, Thiago "suffered a relapse" of his knee injury that he picked up in March 2014.[44] Prior to the winter break, Bayern signed Tom Starke to a contract extension and gave Gianluca Gaudino his first professional contract.[45] Bayern defeated Mainz 05 and immediately went on winter break.[46] During the winter break, Bayern signed Joshua Kimmich as their first transfer signing for the 2015–16 season.[47] Most of the players returned on 7 January.[46] David Alaba, Holger Badstuber, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Medhi Benatia, and Tom Starke had returned earlier.[48] Bayern loaned out Højbjerg for the remainder of the season[49] and sold Xherdan Shaqiri.[50] Højbjerg also received a contract extension.[51] Bayern left for a nine-day training camp in Doha, Qatar on 9 January.[52] Philipp Lahm and Thiago didn't go to Doha, Qatar.[53] While in the Middle East, Bayern played two friendlies.[52] In the first match in Qatar, Bayern defeated the Qatar Stars League XI 4–1.[54] In the second match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Bayern defeated Al-Hilal 4–1.[55] Bayern finished mid-season training with a 5–1 win against VfL Bochum on 23 January.[56] On 13 January, Allianz Arena increased capacity to 75,000 after the city of Munich approved the increase[57] which is for Bundesliga matches only.[57] The capacity for UEFA Champions League matches also increased.[57] Transfers and contracts [ edit ] In [ edit ] Out [ edit ] Contracts [ edit ] Friendly results [ edit ] Win Draw Loss Bundesliga [ edit ] Bundesliga review [ edit ] August [ edit ] Bayern defeated VfL Wolfsburg 2–1 on 22 August[61] in the opening match of the Bundesliga season.[62] Thomas Müller and Arjen Robben scored for Bayern and Ivica Olić scored for Wolfsburg.[61] Junior Malanda failed to convert an opportunity that would have equalised for Wolfsburg.[64] The original shot came off Manuel Neuer then off the crossbar.[64] Then after the ball hit the crossbar, Malanda missed from a yard out.[64] Bayern had chances to score more goals. Sebastian Rode had a goal wrongly ruled out[65] after the assistant referee flagged for offside and Arjen Robben hit the crossbar.[65] Bastian Schweinsteiger, Rafinha, Thiago, Franck Ribéry, and Javi Martínez were out injured.[61] Jérôme Boateng finished his two-match suspension which he received during the 2013–14 season.[66] Robert Lewandowski, Juan Bernat made their league debuts for Bayern.[61] Jérôme Boateng finished his two-match suspension which he received during the 2013–14 season.[66] 17 year-old Gianluca Gaudino made his first Bundesliga appearance of his career and 18-year-old Lucas Scholl was on the bench for the first team for the first time.[67] Bayern finished the matchday tied for third with Hannover 96.[68] Then, on matchday two on 30 August, Bayern finished August with a 1–1 draw against Schalke 04 on 30 August.[69] Robert Lewandowski scored for Bayern and Benedikt Höwedes scored for Schalke 04.[69] Lewandowski's goal was his first competitive goal for Bayern.[70] Bayern disputed Höwedes' goal after it came off his arm.[70][71][72] Bayern managed 10 shots on target, which was the worst total for Bayern since Pep Guardiola took over as head coach.[73] This was Schalke 04's first point against Bayern since 10 December 2010.[71] Xabi Alonso made his debut.[74] Bayern finished the matchday tied for fifth with Eintracht Frankfurt.[75] September [ edit ] Bayern started September with a 2–0 win against VfB Stuttgart on matchday three on 13 September.[76] Mario Götze and Franck Ribéry scored for Bayern.[77] Holger Badstuber left the match with a thigh injury.[78] Bayern finished the matchday in second place.[79] Then, on matchday four on 20 September, the match against Hamburger SV finished in a 0–0 draw.[80] Guardiola decided to rotate players[81] from their midweek Champions League match. Thomas Müller was on the substitutes bench, however, he replaced Arjen Robben in starting line-up after Robben was injured during the warm-up.[81] Bayern finished the matchday in fourth place.[82] On matchday five, on 23 September, Bayern defeated Paderborn 07 4–0[83] with two goals from Mario Götze and a goal each from Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller.[84] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[85] On matchday six, on 27 September, Bayern defeated 1. FC Köln 2–0[86] with a goal from Mario Götze and an own goal from Daniel Halfar.[87] Bayern were denied a penalty shot, again, after Arjen Robben went down.[88] Xabi Alonso broke the record for having the most touches on the ball in a single match.[89] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[90] October [ edit ] Bayern started October with a 4–0 win against Hannover 96 on matchday seven on 4 October.[91] Both Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben scored two goals each.[92] Xabi Alonso took a shot from just inside his own half, which was subsequently tipped over the crossbar.[93] With the win, Bayern got their 23rd win in 26 matches in Munich against Hannover.[91] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[94] Bayern then defeated Werder Bremen 6–0[95] on matchday eight on 18 October with two goals from Philipp Lahm, two goals from Mario Götze, and a goal each from Xabi Alonso and Thomas Müller.[96] Alonso's goal was his first goal since transferring to Bayern.[95] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[97] Then on 26 October, on matchday nine,[98] Borussia Mönchengladbach ended Bayern's six-match winning streak in all competitions[99] with a 0–0 draw.[100] Bayern had a chance to win four consecutive league matches for the first time in 47 years.[101] Borussia Mönchengladbach's tactics against Bayern was to crowd the penalty area and play counterattacking football.[102] Yann Sommer made a fingertip save from a David Alaba shot that hit the post.[99] Arjen Robben was injured for the match.[101] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[98] November [ edit ] Bayern started November with a 2–1 win against Borussia Dortmund,[103] on matchday 10, 1 November.[104] Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben scored for Bayern and Marco Reus for Borussia Dortmund.[104] A Marco Reus header[105] gave Dortmund the lead[106] in the 31st minute.[104] In the second half,[104] Neven Subotić stopped a through-ball from Franck Ribéry to Robben.[107] However, the ball went to Lewandowski[107] who scored the equaliser.[106] Robben scored the winning goal from the penalty spot[103] after Subotić fouled Ribéry.[107] Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller made several saves during the match.[105] Bayern finished the matchday in first place[108] and maintained their four-point lead.[105] Then on 8 November, on matchday 11, Bayern defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 4–0[109] with three goals from Thomas Müller and a goal from Xherdan Shaqiri.[110] Müller opened the scoring in the 23rd minute.[109] Müller hit the back of the net three minutes later, however, the referee called offside on the play.[111] Then he got his second goal in the 64th minute and completed his hattrick in the 67th minute.[109] This was Müller's second hattrick of his career.[112] Xherdan Shaqiri then scored in the 86th minute.[110] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[113] Then on 22 November, on matchday 12, Bayern defeated 1899 Hoffenheim 4–0 with goals from Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, and Sebastian Rode.[114] Götze opened the scoring in the 23rd minute.[115] Then five minutes before half-time, Lewandowski put Bayern up 2–0.[115] Robben put Bayern up 3–0 in the 83rd minute.[115] Four minutes later, Rode scored to put Bayern up 4–0.[115] Bastian Schweinsteiger made his first competitive match of the season[115][116] when he came on as a substitute in the 78th minute[114] 1899 Hoffenheim player Ádám Szalai was sent-off in the 90th minute[114] for a foul on Dante.[117] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[118] Bayern extended their lead to seven points[117] after Wolfsburg lost to Schalke 04.[119] On matchday 13, on 29 November,[120] Bayern defeated Hertha BSC 1–0 by a first-half goal from Arjen Robben.[121] Franck Ribéry tied Matthieu Delpierre record for most appearances for a French player.[122] With the cleansheet, Bayern tied VfB Stuttgart's record of only three goals conceded in the opening 13 Bundesliga matches.[123] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[124] December [ edit ] To start December, Bayern defeated Bayer Leverkusen 1–0[125] with Franck Ribéry's 100th goal for Bayern.[125][126][127] on matchday 14, on 6 December.[126] The goal came in the 51st minute.[126] Bayern had chances to score more goals after taking the lead, by failed to convert any of those chances.[128] Bayern finished the match in first place,[129] seven points over second place Wolfsburg.[128] Then on 13 December, on matchday 15,[130] Bayern defeated FC Augsburg 4–0[131] with two goals from Arjen Robben and a goal each from Medhi Benatia and Robert Lewandowski.[130] Benatia opened the scoring in the 58th minute.[132] Then a minute later, Robben scored his first goal of the match.[132] Lewandowski's goal came in the 68th minute before Robben got his second goal of the match three minutes later.[132] Manuel Neuer had touched the ball 64 times during the match and won a free kick "well outside of the box against Tobias Werner."[133] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[134] On 16 December, on matchday 16,[135] Bayern defeated SC Freiburg 2–0[136] with goals from Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller.[137] Robben scored in the 41st minute and Müller scored in the 48th minute.[135] Robben scored his 100th competitive goal for Bayern.[138] Bayern had a season record 81% possession.[139] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[140] On matchday 17, on 19 December, Bayern defeated 1. FSV Mainz 05 2–1.[141] Elkin Soto opened the scoring in the 21st minute.[142] However, three minutes later, Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the equaliser from a free kick.[142] Then Arjen Robben scored the winning goal with 30 seconds of normal time remaining.[143] Bayern finished the matchday in first place[144] and the first half of the season undefeated.[52] On matchday 18, on 30 January,[145] Bayern lost their first match of the Bundesliga season[146] and their first league match in 293 days[147] after losing 4–1 to Wolfsburg.[146] Bayern had only given up four league goals all season[148] and was the first league match where Bayern gave up four goals since 4 April 2009 when they lost to Wolfsburg 5–1.[147] Bas Dost and Kevin De Bruyne each scored two goals for Wolfsburg and Juan Bernat scored for Bayern.[145] Dost gave Wolfsburg a 1–0 league in the fourth minute and added a second in stoppage time in the first half.[147] Dost became the first player in 102 league matches to score two goals against Bayern.[149] De Bruyne added a third for Wolfsburg in the 53rd minute before Bernat scored two minutes later to give Bayern their only goal of the match.[147] De Bruyne scored his second goal of the match to put Wolfsburg up 4–1.[147] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[150] On matchday 19, on 3 February,[151] Bayern and Schalke 04 finished their match in a 1–1 draw.[152] Arjen Robben opened the scoring in the 67th minute for Bayern and Benedikt Höwedes equalised in the 72nd minute.[151] Jérôme Boateng was sent-off in the 17th minute.[153] Manuel Neuer saved the subsequent penalty shot.[152] Boateng received a three-match ban for the red card[154] which was later reduced to two matches.[155] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[156] On matchday 20, on 7 February,[157] Bayern defeated VfB Stuttgart 2–0 with goals from Arjen Robben and David Alaba[158] to win their first match of 2015.[159] Just before half-time, Robben scored the opening goal of the match.[160] Then in the 50th minute,[157] Alaba scored from a free kick from about 30 yards out from goal.[160] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[161] On matchday 21, on 14 February, Bayern defeated Hamburger SV 8–0 with two goals each from Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, and Arjen Robben and a goal each from Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribéry.[162] This was Bayern's biggest victory since their 9–0 win against Kickers Offenbach in March 1984.[163] In the 21st minute, Müller opened the scoring from the penalty mark.[164] two minutes later, Götze put Bayern up 2–0.[165] Robben scored the next two goals.[162] The first goal happened in the 36th minute[162] and the second goal happened in the 47th minute.[165] Bayern went up 5–0 after Müller's second goal of the match in the 55th minute.[165] Lewandowski made it 6–0 a minute later.[165] Ribéry scored in the 69th minute.[165] Götze finished the scoring in 88th minute.[165] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[166] On matchday 22, on 21 February,[167] Bayern defeated Paderborn 07 6–0 with two goals each from Robert Lewandoweski and Arjen Robben and a goal each from Franck Ribéry and Mitchell Weiser.[168] Lewandowski gave Bayern a 2–0 first-half lead when he scored in the 24th and 37th minutes.[169] Robben scored from a penalty kick in the 63rd minute.[169] Florian Hartherz was sent-off on the play that led to the penalty shot.[170] Ribéry scored in the 72nd minute[169] and Weiser scored his first Bundesliga goal[171] in the 78th minute before Robben got his second of the match in the 86th minute.[169] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[172] On matchday 23, on 27 February, Bayern defeated 1. FC Köln 4–1.[173] Bastian Schweinsteiger, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben, and Robert Lewandowski scored for Bayern and Anthony Ujah scored for Köln.[174] Bayern took a 2–0 lead inside the first 10 minutes when Schweinsteiger scored off of a corner kick in the third minute and Ribéry goal in the 10th minute.[175] Ujah pulled a goal back when he scored during stoppage time in the first half.[175] Robben and Lewandowski both scored in the second half to give Bayern the 4–1 lead.[175] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[176] March [ edit ] On matchday 24, on 7 March, Bayern defeated Hannover 96 3–1.[177] Bayern got two goals from Thomas Müller and a goal from Xabi Alonso and Hiroshi Kiyotake scored for Hannover.[178] Kiyotake Gave Hannover the lead in the 25th minute.[179] Then Xabi Alonso scored the equaliser from a free kick in the 28th minute.[179] Then Müller scored from a penalty kick in the 61st minute. He got his second goal of the match 11 minutes later to put Bayern up 3–1.[179] Dante came off in the 32nd minute and was replaced by Robert Lewandowski.[180] Bayern finished the matchday in first place[181] and took an 11-point lead after VfL Wolfsburg lost to FC Augsburg.[182] On matchday 25, on 14 March, Bayern defeated Werder Bremen 4–0 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski and a goal each from Thomas Müller and David Alaba.[183] Müller scored in the 24th minute and Alaba scored in stoppage time in the first half to give Bayern a 2–0 first half lead.[184] Lewandowski scored in the 76th minute and stoppage time in the second half to put Bayern up 4–0.[184] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[185] On matchday 26, on 22 March, Bayern lost to Borussia Mönchengladbach 2–0[186] with two goals, in 30th and 77th minutes, by Raffael.[187] The loss meant that Bayern's six-match winning streak came to an end[188] and they lost at Allianz Arena for the first time since losing to Real Madrid in April 2014.[189] Arjen Robben came off in the 24th minute after he tore an abdominal muscle.[189] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[190] April [ edit ] On matchday 27, on 4 April, Bayern defeated Borussia Dortmund 1–0 with a 36th-minute goal from Robert Lewandowski.[191] Lewandowski scored from a header after Roman Weidenfeller "parried" Thomas Müller's shot.[192] Bayern and Dortmund came into the match with a 31-point difference in the league table.[193] Four players for Bayern were out with various injuries.[193] Bastian Schweinsteiger was injured during the match.[194] However, Thiago made his first appearance since his injury and Philipp Lahm made his first start since his injury.[195] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[196] On matchday 28, on 11 April,[197] Bayern defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 3–0 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski and a goal from Thomas Müller.[198] Lewandowski gave Bayern a 1–0 lead in the 15th minute and put Bayern up 2–0 in the 66th minute.[197] Müller scored Bayern's third goal in the 82nd minute.[197] Seven players were out due to injury.[198] Bayern finished the match in first place.[199] On matchday 29, on 18 April,[200] Bayern defeated 1899 Hoffenheim 2–0 with a 38th-minute goal from Sebastian Rode and a second half stoppage time own goal from Andreas Beck. [201] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[202] On matchday 30, on 25 April,[203] Bayern defeated Hertha BSC 1–0 with a goal from Bastian Schweinsteiger.[204] Schweinsteiger scored in the 80th minute after Mitchell Weiser crossed the ball to him.[205] Javi Martínez was in the squad for the first time in 255 days.[203] Pep Guardiola made five changes to the starting 11 from the Champions League match against Porto in mid-week.[203] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[206] The following day, Bayern won their 25th German championship (24th Bundesliga championship), and 3rd consecutive championship, after Borussia Mönchengladbach defeated VfL Wolfsburg 1–0.[207] May [ edit ] On matchday 31, on 2 May, Bayern lost to Bayer Leverkusen 2–0 with goals from Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Julian Brandt.[208] Çalhanoğlu scored in the 55th minute from a free kick and Brandt scored in the 81st minute.[209] Pep Guardiola made seven changes from their mid-week German Cup match[209] including Rico Strieder,[209] who made his professional debut,[210] and Javi Martínez, who made his season debut in the Bundesliga.[208] Lukas Görtler, who came on in the 72nd minute, also made his professional debut.[210] On matchday 32, on 9 May, Bayern lost to FC Augsburg 1–0 with a 71st-minute goal from Raúl Bobadilla.[211] Pepe Reina received a red card in the 13th minute.[120] Paul Verhaegh hit the post in the subsequent penalty shot[212] and Reina eventually received a two-match suspension for the red card.[213] Dante also picked up a suspension after receiving his fifth yellow card of the season.[214] This was the first time since October 1991 that Bayern lost four in a row (in all competitions and including shoot-out losses).[212] On 16 May, on matchday 33, Bayern lost 2–1 to SC Freiburg.[215] Bastian Schweinsteiger, gave Bayern the lead in the 13th minute.[216] Admir Mehmedi equalized in the 33rd minute[216] and Nils Petersen scored the winner in the 89th minute.[217] This was Bayern's fifth loss in six matches in all competitions.[216] This was also the first time Freiburg beat Bayern since 9 March 1996.[215] On matchday 34, on 23 May, Bayern defeated Mainz 05 2–0 with a goal from the penalty mark from Robert Lewandowski in the 25th minute and a 48th-minute goal from Bastian Schweinsteiger.[218] Schweinsteiger played in his 500th match for Bayern.[219] Bundesliga table [ edit ] Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored (C) Champion. Notes: Source: DFB Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scoredChampion.Notes: ^ Since the winners of the 2014–15 DFB-Pokal , VfL Wolfsburg, qualified for the Champions League based on league position, the Europa League group stage spot was passed to the sixth-placed team, Schalke 04; and the Europa League third qualifying round spot was passed to the seventh-placed team, Borussia Dortmund. Bundesliga results summary [ edit ] Overall Home Away Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts W D L GF GA GD W D L GF GA GD 34 25 4 5 80 18 +62 79 14 1 2 46 7 +39 11 3 3 34 11 +23 Last updated: 23 May 2015. Source: Bundesliga Bundesliga results [ edit ] Win Draw Loss DFB-Pokal review [ edit ] The draw for the first round of the DFB-Pokal was held on 1 June.[251] Bayern were drawn against Preußen Münster.[251] The match took place on 17 August.[252] Bayern won 4–1 with goals from Mario Götze, Thomas Müller, David Alaba, and Claudio Pizarro.[252] Rogier Krohne scored for Preußen Münster.[252] Robert Lewandowski failed to convert from the penalty spot in the last minute of the match.[253] Holger Badstuber played his first competitive match since getting injured[254] on 1 December 2012 against Borussia Dortmund.[27] Bastian Schweinsteiger was unavailable for the match.[255] Bayern were drawn against Hamburger SV in the second round draw.[256] The match took place on 29 October with Bayern winning 3–1.[257] Robert Lewandowski, David Alaba, and Franck Ribéry scored for Bayern and Pierre-Michel Lasogga scored for Hamburg.[258] Jaroslav Drobný made several saves against Bayern.[259] Ribéry was hit by a spectator with a scarf[260] which Hamburg were eventually fined for.[261] Medhi Benatia was suspended for the match.[262] Bayern were drawn against Eintracht Braunschweig in the round of 16 draw.[263] The match took place on 4 March.[264] Bayern won 2–0 with two goals from David Alaba and Mario Götze.[265] Alaba scored in stoppage time in the first half[266] after Arjen Robben won a free kick[267] and Götze scored in the 57th minute.[266] In the quarterfinal draw, Bayern were drawn against Bayer Leverkusen.[268] The match took place on 8 April.[269] The match finished in a 0–0 draw with Bayern advancing after winning in a shoot-out 5–3.[270] Leverkusen's first kick was saved after Manuel Neuer "parried" Josip Drmić's shot.[270] Medhi Benatia left the match due to injury in the 34th minute.[271] In the semifinal draw, Bayern were drawn against Borussia Dortmund.[272] The match took place on 28 April.[273] The match finished in a 1–1 draw with Borussia Dortmund winning in a shoot-out.[274] Bayern missed all four of their shots in the shoot-out.[274] Borussia Dortmund converted two of their shots.[275][276] Robert Lewandowski scored in the 29th minute[273] and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored in the 75th minute for Borussia Dortmund,[275] three minutes after their first shot.[276] Prior to Borussia Dortmund scoring, referee Peter Gagelmann denied Bayern a penalty shot.[277] Borussia Dortmund went down a man after Kevin Kampl was sent–off after receiving a second yellow card.[276] Arjen Robben returned from injury, coming on as a substitute,[273] but left the match after 15 minutes with a calf injury, causing him to miss the rest of the season.[278] Thiago[279] and Lewandowski were also injured during the match.[278] Lewandowski.[279] Robben was "ruled out" for the remainder of the season.[280] Lewandowski sustained a concussion,[281] broken jaw,[280] and broken nose.[280] DFB-Pokal results [ edit ] Win Draw Loss DFL-Supercup review [ edit ] Bayern faced Borussia Dortmund in the DFL-Supercup on 13 August.[287] Borussia Dortmund won the match 2–0 with goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.[288] Javi Martínez left the match injured[289] after tearing his ACL.[290] This was the third consecutive year where Bayern has faced Borussia Dortmund in the competition.[291] Bayern won the super cup in 2012 2–1 and Borussia Dortmund won in 2013 4–2.[291] The match was originally scheduled for four days earlier.[291] Bayern was without Thiago,[44] Franck Ribéry,[292] and Rafinha.[292] Sebastian Rode, Gianluca Gaudino, Juan Bernat, and Robert Lewandowski made their debuts for Bayern.[289] DFL-Supercup result [ edit ] Win Draw Loss UEFA Champions League [ edit ] Group stage [ edit ] Group stage review [ edit ] Thomas Müller playing against CSKA Moscow Bayern were drawn into Group E with Manchester City, CSKA Moscow, and Roma.[293] Bayern started their Champions League campaign[294] on 17 September[295] with a 1–0 win against Manchester City.[296] Jérôme Boateng scored for Bayern[294] after a slight deflection from Mario Götze.[297] Medhi Benatia, made his official debut for Bayern, where he played for 85 minutes, completing 93% of his passes. During the match, Joe Hart "denied" Bayern with a "series of saves."[298] The goal was Bayern's 800th goal in all European competitions.[297] Bayern finished the matchday in second place.[295] On matchday two of the group stage, on 30 September, Bayern defeated CSKA Moscow 1–0[299] with a goal from a penalty shot from Thomas Müller[300] after Mario Götze was fouled by Mário Fernandes.[301] The match had no supporters in the stadium[302] because of racist behaviour of CSKA Moscow supporters.[303] However, several Bayern supporters who made the trip to Moscow for the match saw the match from a skyscraper.[304] This was the 100th win for Bayern in Champions League history.[300] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[305] Then Bayern defeated Roma 7–1[306] on matchday three on 21 October.[307] Bayern got two goals from Arjen Robben and a goal each from Mario Götze, Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller, Franck Ribéry, and Xherdan Shaqiri and Gervinho scored for Roma.[308] Gervinho's goal ended Bayern's streak of 813 minutes without conceding a goal.[309] The win was Bayern's biggest away win in Champions League history.[310] Bayern finished the matchday in first place.[311] In the return match against Roma, on matchday four, on 5 November, Bayern won 2–0[312] with goals from Franck Ribéry and Mario Götze.[312] Ribéry opened the scoring in the 38th minute.[313] Ribéry and David Alaba created a 2-on-1 situation on the left flank.[314] Alaba passed the ball back to Ribéry who scored from the edge of the box.[314] Götze scored the other goal in the 64th minute[313] after Lewandowski pulled away from his marker and crossed the ball to him.[314] Manuel Neuer had to pull off a "double save."[315] Alaba picked up a knee ligament injury in the match.[316] Bayern finished the matchday in first place,[317] and with the win, Bayern clinched top spot in Group E.[315] This was Bayern's quickest path to the knockout round to date.[313] Bayern also became the first German club to win the Group with two matches to spare.[314] Then on matchday five, on 25 November,[318] Manchester City defeated Bayern 3–2.[319] Xabi Alonso and Robert Lewandowski scored for Bayern and Sergio Agüero scored three goals from Manchester City.[318] Agüero scored the opening goal from the penalty spot.[318] Medhi Benatia was sent-off on the play that led up to the penalty shot.[320] The following day, he received a one-match ban for the red card.[321] Alonso equalised when he scored from a free kick in the 40th minute.[318] Five minutes later, Lewandowski scored to give Bayern a 2–1 lead.[318] Stevan Jovetić picked out an Alonso pass and then passed it to Agüero,[322] who scored in the 85th minute.[318] Then Agüero scored in stoppage time to give Manchester City a 3–2 lead.[318] On 10 December, Bayern finished the group stage with a 3–0 win against CSKA Moscow[323] with goals from Thomas Müller, Sebastian Rode and Mario Götze.[324] Müller opened the scoring in the 18th minute from the penalty spot.[324] This was his record-breaking 24th goal in UEFA Champions League for Bayern.[325] Rode and Götze rounded out the scoring in the 84th and 90th minutes.[324] Gianluca Gaudino played in his first UEFA Champions League match.[324] Group E table [ edit ] Group stage results summary [ edit ] Overall Home Away Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts W D L GF GA GD W D L GF GA GD 6 5 0 1 16 4 +12 15 3 0 0 6 0 +6 2 0 1 10 4 +6 Last updated: 15 December 2014. Source: Champions League Group Stage matches Group stage results [ edit ] Win Draw Loss Knockout phase [ edit ] Knockout phase review [ edit ] On 5 November, after beating A.S. Roma 2–0, Bayern Munich won the group and qualified for the knockout phase.[314] In the round of 16 draw, on 15 December, Bayern were drawn against Shakhtar Donetsk.[332] In the first leg, on 17 February, the match finished in a 0–0 draw.[333] The match was played in Lviv.[334] Xabi Alonso, who played in his 100th Champions League match,[334] was sent-off[333] after receiving a second yellow card.[334] Douglas Costa received a yellow card after he elbowed Franck Ribéry.[335] There was 35 fouls and eight yellow cards in the match.[335] The second leg took place on 11 March.[336] Bayern defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 7–0 with two goals from Thomas Müller and a goal each from Jérôme Boateng, Franck Ribéry, Holger Badstuber, Robert Lewandowski and Mario Götze.[337] Bayern won on aggregate by the same scoreline.[338] Müller gave Bayern the lead in the fourth minute from a penalty shot.[337] Oleksandr Kucher was sent-off on the play leading top the penalty shot.[337] This was the "quickest" red card to be shown in Champions League history.[338][339] Arjen Robben left the match injured in the 19th minute.[339] Boateng made it 2–0 in the 34th minute.[337] In the 49th minute, Ribéry scored to put Bayern up 3–0.[337] Bayern went up 4–0 when Müller got his second of the match in the 52nd minute.[337] Ribéry left the match in the 60th minute due to an ankle injury.[339] Badstuber scored in the 63rd minute to put Bayern up by 5.[337] This was his first goal since December 2009.[340] Lewandowski scored in the 75th minute to make it 6–0.[337] It was 7–0 when Götze scored in the 88th minute.[337] The scoreline tied for the biggest win in the club's Champions League history.[338] In the quarterfinal draw, Bayern were drawn against Porto.[341] This is Bayern's fourth straight quarterfinal.[342] The first leg took place on 15 April.[343] Porto won the first leg 3–1.[344] Thiago scored for Bayern and Porto got two goals from Ricardo Quaresma and a goal from Jackson Martínez.[343] Quaresma scored two goals in the first 10 minutes.[345] For the first goal, Quaresma scored from a penalty shot in the third minute after Manuel Neuer tripped Martínez inside the penalty area.[346] Neuer received a yellow card on the play.[344] For his second goal in the 10th minute, Quaresma "nicking the ball from Dante" to set-up the goal.[346] Then in the 28th minute, Thiago put Bayern on the scoreboard.[346] Martínez scored in the 65th minute to make it 3–1.[346] The loss finished Bayern's 11-match undefeated streak in Portugal.[346] The following day, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt,[347] along with three other members of the medical team,[348] resigned after the medical team was blamed for the loss.[347] The second leg took place on 21 April.[349] Bayern defeated Porto 6–1 and 7–4 on aggregate.[350] Bayern got two goals from Robert Lewandowski and a goal each from Thiago, Jérôme Boateng, Thomas Müller, and Xabi Alonso.[351] Jackson scored for Porto.[352] Bayern took a 2–0 lead within the first 22 minutes with goals from Thiago and Boateng.[352] Lewendowski put Bayern up by three in the 27th minute.[352] Bayern were up 4–0 after Müller scored in the 36th minute.[352] With the goal, he became the highest scoring German in the competition's history.[353] Lewandowski got his second goal of the match when he scored in the 40th minute.[352] Jackson scored for Porto in the 73rd minute and Alonso scored in the 88th minute from a free kick.[352] The free kick was given after Iván Marcano fouled Thiago, in which he was sent-off for a second yellow card for Porto.[353] The win sent Bayern to their fourth consecutive semifinal.[352] This was Pep Guardiola's 100th match as head coach.[349] In the semifinal draw, Bayern were drawn against Barcelona.[354] The match took place on 6 May.[355] Barcelona won the first leg 3–0 with two goals from Lionel Messi and a goal from Neymar.[356] The score remained 0–0 until the 77th minute when Messi scored.[357] Messi added his second of the match three minutes later.[357] Neymar added Barcelona's third goal in stoppage time.[355] Bayern failed to get a shot on target for the first time since October 2009 when they lost to Girondins de Bordeaux.[357] The second leg took place on 12 May.[358] Bayern won the match 3–2, however, Bayern lost 5–3 on aggregate.[359] Medhi Benatia, Robert Lewandowski, and Thomas Müller scored for Bayern and Neymar scored twice for Barcelona.[360] Benatia gave Bayern a 1–0 lead in the seventh minute.[360] Then Neymar scored in the 15th and 29th minutes.[360] Then Lewandowski and Müller scored in the second half.[360] The win ended Bayern's four match losing streak.[361] Knockout phase results [ edit ] Win Draw Loss Team record [ edit ] Competition First match Last match Starting round Final position / round Record M W D L GF GA GD Win % Ref. Bundesliga 22 August 23 May — Winners 7001340000000000000♠ 34 7001250000000000000♠ 25 7000400000000000000♠ 4 7000500000000000000♠ 5 7001800000000000000♠ 80 7001180000000000000♠ 18 +62 0 7001735300000000000♠ 73.53 [250] DFB-Pokal 17 August 28 April Round 1 Semifinals 7000500000000000000♠ 5 7000300000000000000♠ 3 7000200000000000000♠ 2 5000000000000000000♠ 0 7001100000000000000♠ 10 7000300000000000000♠ 3 +7 0 7001600000000000000♠ 60.00 DFB-Pokal results DFL-Supercup 13 August Final Runners-up 7000100000000000000♠ 1 5000000000000000000♠ 0 5000000000000000000♠ 0 7000100000000000000♠ 1 5000000000000000000♠ 0 7000200000000000000♠ 2 −2 00 5000000000000000000♠ 0.00 [287] Champions League 17 September 12 May Group stage Semifinals 7001120000000000000♠ 12 7000800000000000000♠ 8 7000100000000000000♠ 1 7000300000000000000♠ 3 7001330000000000000♠ 33 7001130000000000000♠ 13 +20 0 7001666700000000000♠ 66.67 Group stage results Knockout phase results Total 7001520000000000000♠ 52 7001360000000000000♠ 36 7000700000000000000♠ 7 7000900000000000000♠ 9 7002123000000000000♠ 123 7001360000000000000♠ 36 +87 0 7001692300000000000♠ 69.23 — Player information [ edit ] Squad and statistics [ edit ] Squad, appearances, and goals scored [ edit ] As of 12 May 2015 No. Pos Nat Player Total Bundesliga DFB-Pokal DFL-Supercup[287] Champions League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Players who left during the season. Top scorers [ edit ] As of 25 May 2015 Discipline [ edit ] Cards [ edit ] Suspensions [ edit ] The first suspension of the season was Jérôme Boateng when he was suspended for the last match of the 2013–14 season and the first match of the 2014–15 season.[66] The next Bayern suspension was Medhi Benatia which he had picked up in the 2013–14 Coppa Italia with Roma.[262] Benatia was again suspended after picking up a red card against Manchester City in Champions League.[321] He was given a one match ban.[321] Jérôme Boateng was suspended after picking up a red card against Schalke 04.[154] He was originally given a three-match ban.[154] However, after appeal,[394] the ban was reduced to two matches.[155] Xabi Alonso was sent off for two bookable offences[334] and missed the return leg on 11 March.[171] Alonso also picked up his fifth yellow card against Hannover 96 on 7 March[177] and was suspended[177] for the match against Werder Bremen on 14 March. During the match against Werder Bremen, Benatia picked up a fifth yellow card and was suspended for the match on 22 March against Borussia Mönchengladbach.[186] Pepe Reina received a two-match suspension after his red card against FC Augsburg.[213] Team kit [ edit ] Home Home alt. Home 2 Away Away alt. Away alt. 2 Third Third alt. Type Shirt Shorts Socks First appearance / info Home Red / Blue Red White Home alt. Red / Blue Red Red Bundesliga, 26 October against Borussia Mönchengladbach Home 2 Red Red Red Bundesliga, 9 May against Augsburg Away White White White Away alt. White Brown White Bundesliga, 30 August against Schalke Away alt. 2 White White Brown Bundesliga, 7 March against Hannover 96 Third Navy Navy Navy European kit Third alt. Navy Navy White Bundesliga, 20 September against Hamburg Awards [ edit ] Reserve team [ edit ] Summary [ edit ] Bayern Munich II play in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Bayern for a third consecutive season. They were coached by Erik ten Hag.[404] Squad [ edit ] Source:[405] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. No. Position Player No. Position Player Technical staff [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ Eight Bundesliga matches and two DFB-Pokal matches ^ Three UEFA Champions League group stage matches a b c d e f Times up until 25 October 2014 are in CEST UTC+02:00 ). Times from 26 October 2014 to 28 March 2015 are in CET UTC+01:00 ). Times on and after 29 March 2015 are in CEST UTC+02:00 ).

Greek neo-Nazi party believed to be in Nuremberg with aim of recruiting young Greeks flocking to Germany in search of work German and Greek rightwing extremists have been forging close contacts in Germany in an attempt to strengthen their power base in Europe, according to German officials. Members of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn are believed to have set up a cell in the southern German city of Nuremberg with the aim of recruiting young Greeks who have flocked to the country in search of work. Greek community leaders in Germany have condemned the arrival of the party, also known as Chrysi Avgi, and called on authorities to clamp down on a group that they said had shown its readiness to use violence in Greece and could attempt to do the same in Germany. Golden Dawn, which has close to 20 seats in the Greek parliament, has described the move on its website as the "answer of expat Greeks to the dirty hippies and the regime of democratic dictatorship in our homeland". In a statement, the Bavarian office for the protection of the constitution said: "We are keeping an eye on developments." It said Golden Dawn had "an international network of contacts, including contacts with neo-Nazis in Bavaria. These contacts are cultivated via mutual visits as well as at meetings at rightwing extremist events in Europe." It confirmed that members of Golden Dawn and far-right German groups had organised reciprocal visits to each other's countries as well as meeting at rightwing extremist meetings outside Germany and Greece. In Greece, Golden Dawn denied it had established links with neo-nazi groups in Germany. "All this [talk] about neo –nazis is nonsense," said Golden Dawn's spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris. But Kasidiaris, who shot to notoriety last year when he assaulted two leftwing MPS during a live TV debate, confirmed that the far rightists had set up a "local organisation" in Germany. "Simply there is a big community, a big colony of [ethnic] Greeks in Germany and for that reason the People's Association - Golden Dawn - decided to [set up] a local organisation in Germany too." Expat Greeks, he insisted, were showing "mass support for the efforts of Golden Dawn, not just in Germany but wherever there are diaspora Greeks". In an open letter, the Greek community of Nuremberg said it "condemned unanimously and categorically" the establishment of the Golden Dawn cell. "Racist slogans, messages of intolerance as well as the stoking of anti-foreigner sentiment, divisions and fears, have no place in the Greek community," the group wrote. It added that it believed Golden Dawn had chosen the southern German city because of its historical links with Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. Hitler chose to stage Nazi party rallies in the city due to its connections to the Holy Roman Empire and the Nuremberg laws, which stripped Jews of their German citizenship, were passed here. "The attempt of this party to bind itself to the history of this city is blasphemous and condemned to failure," it said.The leader of the Federation of Greek Communities in Germany, Sigrid Skarpelis-Sperk, told the Guardian: "The German authorities should be alarmed at this development and should be very thorough in monitoring them, to keep them in check.""A party that has shown itself willing and able in Greece to carry out aggressive attacks on people with dark skin and foreigners, to deliver blows to politicians in public, is capable of behaving the same way in Germany," she said. An estimated 380,000 Greeks live in Germany, mainly in the industrial Ruhr valley, though the actual figure, as – many do not register with the authorities – is believed to be nearer 900,000. Roughly-speaking in modern times they have come in three waves – after the second world war and then during the Greek dictatorship, when many Greek communists were given refuge, particularly in East Germany. The third wave is occurring now as many, particularly young Greeks, come to Germany looking for work and to escape unemployment at home.German neo-Nazi groups, such as the Bavarian-based Freies Netz Süd, have been following the political successes of Chrysi Avgi for some time, making open reference to the Greek party on their websites. The anti-Nazi organisation Nuremberg Union Nazi Stop said it would be monitoring Golden Dawn's activities in Germany. Over the past months Golden Dawn, which is widely considered to be racist and antisemitic, has been held responsible for numerous attacks on foreigners in Greece. The party, whose symbol resembles the swastika, won 18 parliamentary seats in last year's election. Its popularity currently stands at around 12%.

This page aims to list community experiences with Tor and various Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world. Some ISPs are Tor-friendly, some are not. Some are competent and clueful about Tor or about security in general. Let us know! Be sure to provide useful information like how much bandwidth you pushed, whether you thought the deal was cheap or expensive, how hard you had to work to make them understand what's going on, how long your server has been running, and whether you'd recommend them to others. Also include dates. Since non-exits do not attract complaints, it should be fine to run them without contacting the hoster first. Make sure you understand their policies regarding bandwidth, especially on "unlimited" (fair use) contracts. For exit relays, you should read the fine TorExitGuidelines first. For network diversity and stronger anonymity, you should avoid providers and countries that already attract a lot of Tor capacity. ​compass is a great tool that allows you to group probabilities by country and AS (autonomous systems), so you can more easily identify networks you want to avoid. Note: This page is currently being revamped. If you would like to help out please see Ticket #13421 Proposed ISPs The table below contains some community-suggested ISPs which have yet to be contacted and/or evaluated on their policies towards Tor hosting of any kind. If you have seen a host and would like to suggest it to us, but do not have the time or confidence to reach out, please do leave their website information below. Company/ISP Website Language Tasked? Comments ​ Evolution Host VPS ​ Evolution Host English ​ https://evolution-host.com/tos.php No mention of Tor QuickPacket quickpacket.com English ToS prohibit "any activity" related to Tor as of 2015-03-31. See prohibited use 22 ​ http://quickpacket.com/tos.html Delimiter delimiter.com English ​ https://www.delimiter.com/terms-conditions/ Reliable Hosting reliablehosting.com English 2015-12-31 "Sorry, we don't allow Tor exit node on our servers" Dacentec dacentec.com English 2015-12-29 Dacentec Support: "Tor Nodes are prohibited by our terms of service and acceptable use policy. 2 sites were given ​ https://billing.dacentec.com/hostbill/aup.php and ​ https://billing.dacentec.com/hostbill/terms.php Joe's Datacenter joesdatacenter.com English "For abuse complaints, if we receive them while your account is still fairly new, we automatically terminate services." Wholesale Internet wholesaleinternet.com English 2015-12-29 Wholesale Internet sales:"We do not block traffic, but you must respond to all abuse reports within 24 hours." Core2Duo Dedi 100Mbit connection serves only ~ 35 Mbit (1/5/16) Datashack.net ASN: AS33387 datashack.net English 2015-11-21 DataShack Sales: "We do not appose TOR, but require to respond to all abuse reports within 24 hours." CrownCloud crowncloud.net English ToS dis-allow bridge, relay, or exit as of 2015-03-31. As of 2015-07-22, only exits are disallowed. Entry, bridge and middle are fine. See item 17 at ​ http://wiki.crowncloud.net/doku.php/vps_tos Deepnet Solutions deepnetsolutions.com English They specifically allow Tor relays (not exits) on their dedicated IPV4 VPSs NOT on any NAT or OHM packages. Some of their locations have a lot of consensus weight (AS12876 and AS16276), maybe not so good for diversity. Andrews & Arnold aa.net.uk English UK. IPv6. Note: Very very pro-privacy, has made public their net freedom and anti-surveillance stance. Zero censorship. Good experiences US Austria Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ UPC Austria GmbH Yes Yes (ISP) does not care what their customers do at all (unless you have a business connection), Cheap 100Mbit (down) 10Mbit (Up) connections (59EUR with VAT). william, 12/2011 ​ Silver Server GmbH Yes Yes Forwards abuse. Hosts already some big exit/entry nodes which seem to have no problems. Very expensive traffic. william, 12/2011 ​ Tele2 Austria GmbH Yes Yes Forwards abuse at business connections, good quality traffic, does not like "proxys" on private lines. Cheap synchronous (SDSL) connections. william, 12/2011 ​ A1 (former Telekom Austria) Yes No Does not like Abuse (in any form) at all. Seems to give out customer data at alleged abuse. Not recommended but cheap. william, 12/2011 ​ xpirio GmbH Yes ? In general rather relaxed at all services, but better get in touch with their (very understanding) support when you expect abuse. william, 12/2011 Bulgaria Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ https://www.vpsbg.eu/en/ Yes Yes Yes You can run anything you want as long (tor nodes are specifically allowed) as it's not a spam relay, botnet controller, they are pretty flexible regarding the packages they offer and will give a few days to test them before deciding. IPv6 is available (you have to ask) and the customer support is really helpful and will go the extra mile to help you. You will also be warned first if you do something wrong so you have a chance to fix it and warned again and again... The servers are pretty fast and there's usually discount codes available. They don't collect any personal info and you can pay in bitcoin. It's open vz so no new goodies like btrfs and there could be more ram and storage space, but overall I'm very pleased with them. Oh, and the bw limit is tx only. pekarnamismas, 01/11/2016 Germany Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ Weesly Yes Yes Yes Is very liberal and allows hosting Tor in any kind. Statement in German: "Bei mir kann man alles machen was nicht gegen das deutsche Recht verstößt", in English: "With me you can do anything that does not violate German laws". Note that you should let them know about your intention when ordering a server or in advance. (ch, 06/2013) q23p, 06/10/2011 ​ LeaseWeb Although its located in the Netherlands, Germans could try Leaseweb. They're hosting more than one *big* Tor-server and are quite tolerant. anonym, 4/2010 ​ EUServ Yes No See what they think ​ here). They have a bad support, but if you know how to maintain your server, this ISP is a good choice. --JensKubieziel? ( ​ http://identi.ca/notice/15888906) The AGB forbid Tor exit nodes. ​ IPX-Server Yes Yes IPX-Server has generous traffic limits (there are contracts including 1TB/Mo) and behaves as I'd expect it from good partners. Here ​ Keyweb Yes Yes Offers cheap and reliable Virtuals Servers with 2GB HDD-space and liberal policies. The cheapest VPS is around 8 Euros. Not useful for high traffic nodes, they limit heavily after 5TB Here ​ Afterburst Yes No Provides unmetered VPS on 1000mbps line. Fair usage applies. The Micro package fair usage is 1-2mbit a second which I gladly honor. Been hosting an exit relay since November 2011. As of March 2014 exit nodes are not allowed according to their acceptable use policy. Here ​ myLoc Managed IT AS31010, AS24961 Yes Yes No Leider müssen wir Ihnen mitteilen, dass sich diese Einstellung bei uns geändert hat und wir möglichst mit Kunden arbeiten möchten, die keine Abuse-Vorfälle bei uns verursachen. Dies ist ein massiver Mehraufwand für uns und wird seit mehreren Jahren nicht mehr geduldet. Hier bitten wir Sie um Verständnis, dass wir Ihre Anfrage daher ablehnen müssen. - Axxxx Kxxxx Here 2018-10-25 ​ linevast Yes Yes Yes Only allowed on dedicated servers (written in their ToS and outlined in the correspondence with their support team) 13/11/2015 ​ Server4You Yes Yes No Part of ​ Intergenia AG) hasn't complained about a Tor server (running on a non-virtual server) pushing 300GB/month for more than two years. They only block incoming port 6667. They are hosting more than a dozen Tor servers. -- SvenNeuhaus (2008/01) Server4You limits on virtual servers are ridiculous, actually. numtcpsock 288, tcpsndbuf/tcprcvbuf 3598712, lots of failcnt. Can't use them with Tor. (2010/02) I've asked Server4You support and they state servers with complaints about Tor will be canceled immediately (see the quote in the "Bad Experience" section) ​ Hetzner Yes No Offers good dedicated root servers for a good price. You can even install your own Windows Server license via KVM console. Since I've got such a root server hosted by hetzner, I asked them how the situation with TOR nodes is at the moment. Here is the answer (in german): "Das ist bei uns nicht direkt verboten, aber ich empfehle dies zu unterlassen. Es sei denn Sie wünschen explizit Besuch von der Kripo, Gericht usw. Das könnte Sie auch ins Gefängnis bringen. Denn Sie sind persönlich für alles verantwortlich, was über das Tor-Relay übertragen wird." This means they are allowing it but every hoster of a node should be aware that you might get some mail or visits from the police b/c you are responsible for every bit and byte that is transmitted via your relay server. But if you are looking for a hoster that is providing performance, good bandwith and much traffic. Some people in the past reported, that the technical support is really bad but my problems where solved immediately and quick. ​ Contabo Yes Yes Has no restriction for relays or exit nodes. However, possible abuse complaints will be forwarded to the owner and need to be addressed. "Bezüglich Ihrer Anfrage können wir Sie darüber informieren, dass Sie prinzipiell exit nodes (TOR) auf unseren VPS Modellen nutzen können. Sollten wir jedoch Beschwerden gegen Ihre IP Adresse erhalten, werden wir entsprechende Schritte einleiten müssen." -- Viktorio Z. (2018/06) ​ Strato Yes No Twitter support says non-Exit Relays are okay (as long as you don't harm their infrastructure), but Exit-Nodes are prohibited by their general terms and conditions "Solange Sie mit der Tor-Nutzung nicht unsere Infrastruktur beeinträchtigen und auch nicht gegen die AGB verstoßen, ist das kein Problem", "Non-Exit Nodes sind gestattet". ​ https://twitter.com/strato_hilft/status/552447913839050753 ​ PraHost Yes Yes Stated in November 2014 that they allow exit nodes if abuse complaints are handled. Suspends the server if no "valid" action (read: blocking) is taken within 24 hours of an abuse ticket. Their ticket system does not reliably handle email replies, use the web interface instead. 2017-10-31 ​ DomainFactory Yes No Are OK with non-exit relays, transfer is fair use, I run a ~50Mbit on a 100MBit port, never heard complaints. ​ NetCologne Yes Yes I asked them about running tor exit node on home network (high interent speed locally available). They allowed that. Full correspondence United Kingdom Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ Gigatux Yes Yes Yes Here relay [+] exit [+] ​ Clustered.net has nothing against Tor nodes in principle, but warned that they'd asked me to stop if a large number of abuse reports were received. My fast/stable exit node's been running there for three months now with no hassle. Clustered.net has nothing against Tor nodes in principle, but warned that they'd asked me to stop if a large number of abuse reports were received. My fast/stable exit node's been running there for three months now with no hassle. relay [+] exit [+] ​ Gigatux has graciously allowed me to run a Tor relay for over a year and a half with no problems. They actually run their own relay named 'gigatux'. Customer support has been very good as well, and they have helped me handle two abuse complaints admirably. They also offer servers in the US, Germany, and Israel. -Blackpaw Gigatux has graciously allowed me to run a Tor relay for over a year and a half with no problems. They actually run their own relay named 'gigatux'. Customer support has been very good as well, and they have helped me handle two abuse complaints admirably. They also offer servers in the US, Germany, and Israel. -Blackpaw relay [+] exit [+] ​ Bitfolk allows Tor exits and relays. They are very knowledgable and understand Tor and its uses. They are hot on spam and abuse so advise changing the default exit (good idea in the UK anyhow). Any DMCA notices received were simply forwarded on without agro. Bitfolk allows Tor exits and relays. They are very knowledgable and understand Tor and its uses. They are hot on spam and abuse so advise changing the default exit (good idea in the UK anyhow). Any DMCA notices received were simply forwarded on without agro. relay [+] exit [?] ​ RapidSwitch has nothing against relays. I'm running 2 servers with them without problems. (fusl, 07/2014) France Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ Online.net AS12876 Yes Yes Yes They accept every type of relay. The account holder is responsible for all the traffic going through theirs servers. Here 01/28/2019 ​ Gandi VPS Yes Yes Yes ​ Gandi VPS now accepting Tor relay but charge the bandwidth over 2TB per month. Gandi send some abuse complaints to Exit relays, but they do not stop the server, and when you tell them your server is a Tor Exit relay, they say it is OK. They ask Exit relays to use the standard Reduced Exit Policy. ​ OVH Kimsufi Yes Yes No ​ OVH Kimsufi changed their TOS in July 2013 and allow Tor as long as they don't notice illegal activities. Exit nodes would eventually be shut down, but relays are allowed. Octave Klaba, CEO of OVH said himself that the TOS have been changed to make them clearer about the use of Tor. Many relays are currently running on Kimsufi servers and my own relay has been running for a year without problem. ​ Digicube Yes Yes Yes It seems that ​ Digicube are accepting several Tor relays (including exit nodes) on their network since several month. ​ http://www.pulseservers.com/ Yes Yes Yes ​ http://www.pulseservers.com/ also provided France VPS(Western Europe). VPS uses OVH AS. You can build ANY kind tor relays. (Tor exits,Tor bridges and tor realys) (surveillance104, 05/01/2016) Finland Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ Creanova AS51765 Yes Yes No Here 12/19/2018 ​ TeliaSonera Finland AS1759 Yes Yes No Hosted a large 10 MB/s (80 Mbps) Tor exit (wubthecaptain1) from a residential connection on a dynamic IP-address between 2016-02-03 and 2016-07-12, until the ISP asked to remove the exit policy citing over 8200 abuse reports and violation of acceptable use policy. Smaller, low abuse exits may be fine. Outbound port 25 is blocked nationally. ​ Pyyntö merkitä Tor exit liittymään 346-850033 03/26/2016 Hungary Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Last Updated (YYYY-MM-DD) ​ ServerAstra AS56322 Yes Yes Yes ​ ServerAstra allows Tor exits. They only say you should answer abuse requests in 24h, so it seems Tor exit is ok for them as long as they don't get in trouble themselves. Same goes for Mixmaster nodes. ServerAstra has unmetered 100Mbit traffic for about EUR 20 per month. You can use the 100Mbit 24/7 and they won't complain or reduce the bandwidth. They have some security issues including plaintext-only admin panel and web console, and sometimes shut down servers that generate abuse complaints, even when they know that the host is a Tor exit. ISP has re-confirmed by e-mail that exit nodes are acceptable, with "strict" exit node policies. 2014-10-15 Iceland relay [+] exit [+] ​ 1984Hosting Has no problems with Tor, asked directly and was told they are fine with them. Fairly cheap as well. --Maquis196 1984Hosting Has no problems with Tor, asked directly and was told they are fine with them. Fairly cheap as well. --Maquis196 relay [+] exit [+] ​ FlokiNET (AS200651). Tor Nodes are welcome, also on VPS (be aware of the bandwith limit in Iceland) Sponsor enn.lu and saveyourprivacy exit nodes. FlokiNET (AS200651). Tor Nodes are welcome, also on VPS (be aware of the bandwith limit in Iceland) Sponsor enn.lu and saveyourprivacy exit nodes. relay [+] exit [+?] ​ orangewebsite - "Yes you're able to use ToR with VPS server(s). There is no restrictions for that." Italy relay [+] exit [+] ​ Fastweb (ISP, 2M customers) No issues experienced from 10/10 Mbps fiber connection. TOS say nothing, a certified email (PEC) notice that an exit node was being operated got no answer. Fastweb (ISP, 2M customers) No issues experienced from 10/10 Mbps fiber connection. TOS say nothing, a certified email (PEC) notice that an exit node was being operated got no answer. relay [+] exit [-] ​ Prometeus Middle relays are fine, exits are forbidden by TOS. "A relay only Tor node or similar software which only allows traffic to other nodes is OK. For example, Freenet is allowed." Prometeus Middle relays are fine, exits are forbidden by TOS. "A relay only Tor node or similar software which only allows traffic to other nodes is OK. For example, Freenet is allowed." relay [+] exit [+] ​ ArubaCloud by Aruba. They stated that you can install Tor on their machines since Tor does not violates thier terms. TOS generically indicate that the operator is responsible for all the activities on the machine. Running a middle relay was completely fine. It is possible to operate an exit but abuse complaint handling often involves being contacted by their call center (speaking Italian), so you need to provide your phone number. See a more ​ detailed account. ArubaCloud by Aruba. They stated that you can install Tor on their machines since Tor does not violates thier terms. TOS generically indicate that the operator is responsible for all the activities on the machine. Running a middle relay was completely fine. It is possible to operate an exit but abuse complaint handling often involves being contacted by their call center (speaking Italian), so you need to provide your phone number. See a more detailed account. relay [+] exit [+] ​ SelfServer by Enter. Cheap VPS, unconfortable due to old CentOS 6.10, NATed IPv4-only networking, ports other than the well-known are filtered. But performances are OK. Running middle relay is OK. Exit OK, aubse complaints need to go through their support service, and sometimes by temporary vps suspension, but everything can be handled by tickets, and they are helpful and ready. (null, 11/2018) Moldova Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ MivoCloud Yes Yes No KVM based. Accepts Bitcoin. 100Mbps link, unlimited bandwidth. Here 09/13/16 ​ Trabia Yes Yes Yes Dedicated Servers or KVM based VPS. Accepts Bitcoin. 100Mbps link, unlimited bandwidth. 08/13/17 relay [+] exit [+] ​ AlexHost Both exit and regular relays are allowed on their VPS/VDS packages (which are cheap and 100 Mb/s) as confirmed by e-mail. Currently testing speed so will add results later. (bbln, 07/21/2014) Netherlands Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ XS4ALL AS3265 Yes Yes Yes Abuse can still result in temporary blocks, therefore they recommend to use an dedicated IP address for exit nodes Here 06/16/15 ​ verelox AS12876 Yes Yes Yes "fair usage policy for dedicated servers, your server shouldn't exceed 200 Mbps more than 512 times per week, but if it does, we ask you to lower the bandwidth usage or throttle your network speed 24 hours after the notification if no response is received". I think verelox is a reseller from online.net, let's see how long it goes (12/13/15). Dedi with NanoU2250-CPU only able to push ~85Mbit max, average is ~76 Mbit, limit is the CPU not the network (1/5/16) "We don't generally have issues with tor exit relays" 1/5/16 ​ HostHatch AS42708 Yes Yes No Their provided both openvz and KVM type vps. Their VPS IPS and location is: AMS-IX, Equinix Telecity Southeast AMS 5. Openvz vps is 2TB Bandwidth per mo（4$/MO), and KVM vps is 1TB per mo（5$/MO). Here surveillance104,05/01/16 Ziggo AS9143 Yes Yes Yes No official documentation on this, they confirmed they allow it over the phone. A customer rep told me it's allowed on consumer broadband plans though Fair Use limits apply (these are unspecified). They seemed to be under the impression that running a TOR exit node is of dubious legality/depends on loopholes in the law and advised me to stay up-to-date on TOR-related legislation. 05/24/2016 ​ LiteServer AS60404 Yes Yes Yes They offer both KVM and OpenVZ. Also have a series of VPS with more bandwidth. Can pay with Bitcoin. While their AUP doesn't allow tor exit nodes, see here ​ here. They make an exception if your exit-node has a reduced exit policy. And you must leave a note to them that you are running a exit-node. We allow tor exit nodes as long you run a limited exit policy (block SMTP) to avoid abuse. 12/26/2018 ​ i3D Yes Yes Yes Dedicated Servers with true 100 mbit unmetered traffic. Allows also exits, if abuse is handled properly 08/13/2017 ​ KoDDoS AS206264 Yes Yes Yes They provide KVM, OpenVZ and Dedicated Servers. TOR friendly. Bitcoin accepted. 10/12/2017 ​ Worldstream AS49981 Yes Yes No They provide dedicated Servers with metered or unmetered traffic. We currently do not allow our customers to run TOR exit nodes. We are investigating the possibilities to make this happen. In the meantime you can run TOR bridges or non exit nodes. 02/06/2019 relay [+] exit [+] John Brooks ​ runs a 2TB node at ​ LeaseWeb. He would recommend them for running a relay. -- JensKubieziel. ​ In a mail to Tor-talk, a LeaseWeb employee (Alex de Joode) offered his help to sort out complaints regarding Tor. John Brooks runs a 2TB node at LeaseWeb. He would recommend them for running a relay. -- JensKubieziel. In a mail to Tor-talk, a LeaseWeb employee (Alex de Joode) offered his help to sort out complaints regarding Tor. relay [+] exit [+] ​ Novogara explicitly allows Tor exit nodes and forwards abuse/DCMA, but their network isn't the most stable. You need to email them for a custom offer. They also accept Bitcoin/UKash/CashU. Novogara explicitly allows Tor exit nodes and forwards abuse/DCMA, but their network isn't the most stable. You need to email them for a custom offer. They also accept Bitcoin/UKash/CashU. relay [+] exit [-] ​ Netrouting has no problems with Tor Update 2014-10-15 ISP has confirmed by e-mail that exit nodes are NOT acceptable. Netrouting has no problems with Tor Update 2014-10-15 ISP has confirmed by e-mail that exit nodes are NOT acceptable. relay [+] exit [?] ​ DirectVPS has no problems with Tor DirectVPS has no problems with Tor relay [+] exit [-] ​ Versio was said to have no problems with Tor, but they disabled my Cloudbox VPS anyway. Might have been because it was an exit node... I think they disabled it after an abuse report, but I don't know for sure. They just stated it was against their policy to run "a tor network" (sic), though I can't find anything on proxies or relays in their terms of service. I also went over the bandwidth limit, but that was not given as a reason for disabling the VPS. They even included a screenshot of the top command where tor was running, so it really doesn't seem to be about exceeding the bandwidth. I think as long as you go without abuse complaints (e.g. run an internal relay) and don't exceed the bandwidth limit, they won't notice. AuroraNet ran an exit with default exit policy on a Versio CloudBox for over 6 months without issue (2013) Versio was said to have no problems with Tor, but they disabled my Cloudbox VPS anyway. Might have been because it was an exit node... I think they disabled it after an abuse report, but I don't know for sure. They just stated it was against their policy to run "a tor network" (sic), though I can't find anything on proxies or relays in their terms of service. I also went over the bandwidth limit, but that was not given as a reason for disabling the VPS. They even included a screenshot of the top command where tor was running, so it really doesn't seem to be about exceeding the bandwidth. I think as long as you go without abuse complaints (e.g. run an internal relay) and don't exceed the bandwidth limit, they won't notice. AuroraNet ran an exit with default exit policy on a Versio CloudBox for over 6 months without issue (2013) relay [+] exit [+] anonymous ​ CyberBunker has no problems with almost anything you could think of (which would include tor) and customers can remain anonymous. CyberBunker has no problems with almost anything you could think of (which would include tor) and customers can remain anonymous. relay [+] exit [+] ​ SnelServer does not mention anything about Tor or similar software being run on their servers but after sending an email, they have said customers are welcome to run any software they wish on their servers which is legal in the Netherlands and abuse complaints must be responded to within 24 hours or the system automatically suspends your account until you do. Very reasonable pricing for dedicated servers and I personally run 5 exit nodes with them (350mbps +/- 100mbps) and have had no problems. I would recommend using Tor's boilerplate response for abuse notices. Very reliable network, great support staff, reasonable prices (79 Euro for 20TB out, unlimited traffic in on a dual core dedicated) and they also accept Bitcoin although you do need to submit ID documentation if you plan on purchasing more than 5 servers. (2014) SnelServer does not mention anything about Tor or similar software being run on their servers but after sending an email, they have said customers are welcome to run any software they wish on their servers which is legal in the Netherlands and abuse complaints must be responded to within 24 hours or the system automatically suspends your account until you do. Very reasonable pricing for dedicated servers and I personally run 5 exit nodes with them (350mbps +/- 100mbps) and have had no problems. I would recommend using Tor's boilerplate response for abuse notices. Very reliable network, great support staff, reasonable prices (79 Euro for 20TB out, unlimited traffic in on a dual core dedicated) and they also accept Bitcoin although you do need to submit ID documentation if you plan on purchasing more than 5 servers. (2014) relay [+] exit [+] anonymous ​ ChmuraNet allows anoymous users to run tor exits. We've been in close contact and they've started to allow tor exits. Abuse issues will be forwarded. We payed in BTC and remained completely anonymous. Their capacity is limited and we're causing 99% of abuse reports, so they can't handle too many tor exits. It's worth it to ask, though. Make sure to tell them that you're running an exit (obx, 09/14) ChmuraNet allows anoymous users to run tor exits. We've been in close contact and they've started to allow tor exits. Abuse issues will be forwarded. We payed in BTC and remained completely anonymous. Their capacity is limited and we're causing 99% of abuse reports, so they can't handle too many tor exits. It's worth it to ask, though. (obx, 09/14) relay [+] exit [+] ​ https://www.snelserver.com/Being with SnelServer I'm able to host any applications or software. All works fine with them. Romania ​ Voxility doesn't allow the hosting of "Anything than can result in Spamhaus listing". They wouldn't say if they allowed Tor exit node hosting explicitly. I didn't want to risk it. Placed in the "Romania" category as I was looking at hosting in Romania. -- December 2013 Voxility doesn't allow the hosting of "Anything than can result in Spamhaus listing". They wouldn't say if they allowed Tor exit node hosting explicitly. I didn't want to risk it. Placed in the "Romania" category as I was looking at hosting in Romania. -- December 2013 Several torservers.net partner orgs happily host exits with ​ Voxility, who recently passed over (some of its?) hosting to ​ Alistaro. Also see ​ 2015 tor-talk thread. -- April 2015 Voxility, who recently passed over (some of its?) hosting to Alistaro. Also see 2015 tor-talk thread. -- April 2015 relay [+] exit [+] ​ m247.ro TOS say nothing about TOR/proxies, customer support answered after explaining what TOR is "it should be fine" (10/25/15). I ran an exit with reduced exit policy for ~2 month without problems. VPS with 512 MB ram ~ 20 Mbit; VPS with 1 GB ram ~ 40 Mbit. (12/14/15) m247.ro TOS say nothing about TOR/proxies, customer support answered after explaining what TOR is "it should be fine" (10/25/15). I ran an exit with reduced exit policy for ~2 month without problems. VPS with 512 MB ram ~ 20 Mbit; VPS with 1 GB ram ~ 40 Mbit. (12/14/15) relay [+] exit [-] ​ JavaPipe offer 1Gbps unmetered VPS plans in Bucharest (Voxility data center). Nothing about TOR/proxies in their TOS or AUP. Running a relay on a VPS for about a month now and no issues so far, support says it's fine. (04/2016) JavaPipe offer 1Gbps unmetered VPS plans in Bucharest (Voxility data center). Nothing about TOR/proxies in their TOS or AUP. Running a relay on a VPS for about a month now and no issues so far, support says it's fine. (04/2016) relay [+] exit [-] ​ MilesWeb offers ​ managed VPS hosting plans in Romania and also have data centers in USA and UK with 24x7 free support. (03/2017) Sweden relay [+] exit [+] anonymous ​ Dataclub They said "We don't restrict use tor in our servers". And their support bitcoin payment and you just need email account to sing up. That means you can stay anonymous to build tor service on your vps. Don't use your tor service to illegal activities like DDos, child prom,etc. If you want to view ISP Correspondence about them, see this By the way,you should notice that they interested about copyrights,so you tor exit node must use ReduceExitpolicy (2016-06-30) Dataclub They said "We don't restrict use tor in our servers". And their support bitcoin payment and you just need email account to sing up. That means you can stay anonymous to build tor service on your vps. If you want to view ISP Correspondence about them, see this (2016-06-30) relay [+] exit [-] ​ HostHatch Allow Tor bridges and Tor relay. But don't allow Tor exits. Their ASN is AS42708. And their provide both OpenVZ and KVM VPS type. OpenVZ is 2TB bandwidth/mo ($4/mo) and KVM is 1TB bandwidth/mo ($5/mo). VPS's ISP is Portlane AB. (2016-05) HostHatch Allow Tor bridges and Tor relay. But don't allow Tor exits. Their ASN is AS42708. And their provide both OpenVZ and KVM VPS type. OpenVZ is 2TB bandwidth/mo ($4/mo) and KVM is 1TB bandwidth/mo ($5/mo). VPS's ISP is Portlane AB. (2016-05) relay [+] exit [?] TeliaSonera is also big in Sweden and deliver where other ISPs can't (They were previously the state monopoly, which they still are, but they now pretend it's free competition while they still own all the fiber). Blocks port 25 for all customers. Does not bother Tor-server operators. TeliaSonera is also big in Sweden and deliver where other ISPs can't (They were previously the state monopoly, which they still are, but they now pretend it's free competition while they still own all the fiber). Blocks port 25 for all customers. Does not bother Tor-server operators. relay [+] exit [+] ​ PRQ has no problems with Tor exits and abuse forwarding, but at a heavy price... PRQ has no problems with Tor exits and abuse forwarding, but at a heavy price... relay [+] exit [+] ​ Portlane handles abuse according to "Swedish praxis", and they've never bothered us for operating our colocated Tor exit ( partyvan1 ). They also had no issue setting the reverse DNS and reassigning WHOIS abuse-c contact to us for the assigned /29 IP-address space. Previously provided connectivity for ThePirateBay, OpenBitTorrent tracker et al. Portlane handles abuse according to "Swedish praxis", and they've never bothered us for operating our colocated Tor exit ( ). They also had no issue setting the reverse DNS and reassigning WHOIS contact to us for the assigned /29 IP-address space. Previously provided connectivity for ThePirateBay, OpenBitTorrent tracker et al. relay [+] exit [?] ​ Yourserver support team will allow relay/exit but TOR Traffic is throttled to 5Mbps speed once you are able to access the Knowledgebase and read the limitation (2014-10) Update 2014-10-15 ISP has re-confirmed by e-mail that exit nodes are acceptable, but with "strict" exit node policies. Update: 2015-03-06 If your Tor exit relay receive too much complaints, they will ask to you to stop, or otherwise they will suspend. Switzerland relay [+] exit [+] ​ fsit allows Exit Nodes on KVM-vServer, only 2 TB Transfer which is not upgradeable (Nov 2015). Latvia relay [+] exit [?] ​ Yourserver support team will allow relay/exit but TOR Traffic is throttled to 5Mbps speed once you are able to access the Knowledgebase and read the limitation (2014-10) Update: 2015-03-06 If your Tor exit relay receive too much complaints, they will ask to you to stop, or otherwise they will suspend. Canada relay [+] exit [?] ​ TekSavvy has a server-friendly Internet Use Policy (e.g., running a Tor relay) and has taken a stand in favor of net neutrality. (2008-12) TekSavvy has a server-friendly Internet Use Policy (e.g., running a Tor relay) and has taken a stand in favor of net neutrality. (2008-12) relay [+] exit [?] ​ CloudatCost.ca, operated by Fibernetics, has liberal abuse handling policies ​ AUP and does not monitor it's network, however Tor is not explicitly allowed. Seems to not enforce exit nodes, over 8+ exit nodes and 10+ non-exit relays currently in directory as of Feb 2015. CloudatCost.ca, operated by Fibernetics, has liberal abuse handling policies AUP and does not monitor it's network, however Tor is not explicitly allowed. Seems to not enforce exit nodes, over 8+ exit nodes and 10+ non-exit relays currently in directory as of Feb 2015. relay [+] exit [+] ​ oneprovider They are reselling dedicated servers in many locations around the world. They are "vpn firendly" and I'm running several exit realys for a couple of month. Abuse handling differs depending on the provider from which they resell. They are managing the budget deals of online.net which are really good value. (Mai 2016) Slovenia relay [+] exit [+] With ​ Tuš Hosting we had really good experience running a 5 MB/s full-exit Tor on a dedicated server on colocation. They said that they care just that we pay our bills and they just simply forward DMCA notices to us to handle (or ignore) them and forward police to our home doors to question us. I really recommend them and if anybody wants to put another Tor node/server there I am willing to help. Mitar (mitar@…) Ukraine Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ UrDN Yes Yes Yes 'free speech' hoster, allows anything but spam/scam. abuse always forwarded. 10/08/2015 relay [+] exit [+] ​ Colocall allows Tor exits Lithuania relay [+] exit [+] ​ Baltic Servers been running a Tor exit node for several months. All abuse mails they got yielded support tickets, and in each one I stated running a Tor exit node and having taken action when possible. Also not having taken action seems not to have been a problem yet (in cases where forumspam or port 80 SQL injection probers were involved). If I do get shut down I'll ask if they have a policy regarding Tor or a maximum of abuse reports. New Zealand and Australia relay [+] exit [-] ​ HostHatch Allow Tor bridges and Tor relay. But don't allow Tor exits. Their VPS location is: Sydney, AU - Equinix IBX SY3 Data Center.Their ISP is:SoftLayer network, which includes primary transit from Telstra and peering with Equinix, Pipe-IX, NSW-IX and Megaport. And their Openvz vps provide 2TB bandwidth/mo (4$/mo). Their ASN number is: AS36351. HostHatch Allow Tor bridges and Tor relay. But don't allow Tor exits. Their VPS location is: Sydney, AU - Equinix IBX SY3 Data Center.Their ISP is:SoftLayer network, which includes primary transit from Telstra and peering with Equinix, Pipe-IX, NSW-IX and Megaport. And their Openvz vps provide 2TB bandwidth/mo (4$/mo). Their ASN number is: AS36351. relay [+] exit [+] ​ http://rimuhosting.com/index.jsp Quite open to the proposition when approached. Have servers in N.Z.; Sydney; London; and Dallas. Locations may vary, but quite happy with the specific Oz/NZ query. No co-lo, but root access. "You can run anything you like, as long as it's legal." The moving goal-posts of legality are the only concern here. Hong Kong Company/ISP ASN Bridges Relay Exit Comments Tasked Correspondence Last Updated (MM/DD/YY) ​ hosthatch AS36351 Yes Yes No Their Hong Kong VPS type is OpenVZ,and ISP is SoftLayer. VPS locate in Pacnet's data centers, Hong Kong. Here surveillance104,05/01/16 Czech Republic relay [+] exit [?] ​ T-Systems has no problem with tor relays (don't know about exits). Poland Mexico Axtel: Currently some Guard / Middle nodes are running in Axtel network Bad experience US Netherlands ​ https://bytesized-hosting.com/ doesn't allow tor exit nodes https://bytesized-hosting.com/ doesn't allow tor exit nodes ​ https://cloudvps.com/ does not explicitly deny tor nodes in the Terms of Service, but abuse@ agressively demands removing. Terms include "If i find the service enabled once again we will stop the vps to prevent further problems for other customers" (from abuse@…) and "I hereby conclude that running Tor on our VPS services is not allowed, especially if this impacts our other customers as well." (from servicedesk@…). Precedent in June 2015. Phobos' research Notes: Unixshell/Tektonic are the same company. They nullroute you on the first abuse complaint. Middleman nodes are ok, but the abuse dept requests "SafeLogging 0" set in your torrc and wants full access to your logs on demand. Verizon FiOS officially does not allow any incoming traffic, they reserve the right to disconnect you at any time for violation of this policy. Users have run middleman nodes without any incidents from VZ. Exit nodes with abuse problems have resulted in legal threats and disconnection threats, but no disconnection as of yet. Australia ​ Exigent initially gave permission to run an exit node, but later cancelled. Austria Germany IMPORTANT UPDATE regarding "Amazon Web Services aka AWS" (23 February 2016) from www.grepmaster.eu: Mr. Christian Spicker (spickerc@…) wrote (via e-mail) "[sic!] Hallo Herr Kühl, ich habe für Sie Informationen zu TOR-Nodes eingeholt. Die Antwort bezieht sich auf offene Netzwerk Services, d.h. auch TOR. Nach unserer Auslegung der AWS Nutzungsbedingungen ist die Erstellung eines TOR-Netzwerks leider nicht gestattet, bzw. stellt einen Verstoß gegen unsere Nutzungsbedingungen dar. Hier die direkte Antwort in Englisch (AUP = acceptable use policy): Even assuming no Illegal content is accessed, noting the section of the AUP for "No Network Abuse" which says - Prohibited activities include: * Operation of Certain Network Services. Operating network services like open proxies, open mail relays, or open recursive domain name servers. ... I'd think that a Tor exit node is effectively an Open Proxy - anyone can connect via it (Open) and it then makes requests on their behalf (Proxy) ... and therefore would be in breach of the AUP. Ich hoffe, ich konnte Ihnen weiterhelfen. BG christianspicker Inside Account Manager | Amazon Web Services GmbH Domagkstr. 28 | D-80807 München email: spickerc@… Amazon Web Services Work Hard. Have Fun. Make History! Amazon Web Services Germany GmbH Krausenstr. 38 10117 Berlin Geschaeftsfuehrer: Ralf Herbrich, Jonathan Weiss Ust-ID: DE260996625 Eingetragen am Amtsgericht Charlottenburg HRB 114708 B" HostEurope: I learned today that anonymising services are not allowed anymore. I switched my Exit there to bridge mode. Hallo Zönobiarch! "... Die entsprechende Stelle, welche den Betrieb eines Tor Exit Nodes auf unseren Serverprodukten verbietet, finden Sie in unseren AGB unter §16 "Besondere Bedingungen für dedizierte und virtuelle Server, sowie WebPacks und Cloud Hosting" im Abschnitt 1. Dort finden Sie den nachfolgenden Text: "... §16 Besondere Bedingungen für dedizierte und virtuelle Server, sowie WebPacks und Cloud Hosting (1) Die Bereitstellung folgender Dienste ist dem Kunden untersagt: Internet Relay Chat (IRC)-Dienste Anonymisierungsdienste P2P-Tauschbörsen ..." Look here: ​https://www.hosteurope.de/AGB/Allgemeine-Geschaeftsbedingungen/ ​ netcup GmbH allowed hosting and does not restrict any Tor services at all but everybody should be aware that there can be huge legal consequences if laws are broken. I received this statement from the CEO Mr. Dipl.Ing. Felix Preuss today via mail (goose, 07.11.11) netcup changed their AGB (sometime around mid 2012) and disallow any tor service. They actively sweep their network for tor traffic and send you abuse notifications, if they find even a tor relay (nichrome, 07.08.2013) Me and a friend hosted Tor both on our own netcup server a year ago, and the consequences were fatal! They wanted more than 350 EUR for a special effort (disable my and my friends server). We responded with the official EFF statement about Tor. No response from netcup. 1. dun, 2. dun. We went to a lawyer. He wrote them. No response from netcup. 1. collection agency, 2. collection agency. Lawyer responded to them and to netcup. No response from netcup. Finally they gave up. But they NEVER responded to any action me or my friend took. I wouldn't recommend netcup as a Tor friendly provider. NEVER! I also had a _terrible_ experience with netcup: The service in it self was not very good. Being artificially limited to 400KB/s is extremely bad, especially when bandwidth was supposedly 'free'. Inability to cancel something via the internet that I was able to order via the internet. How can I legally enter an agreement over the internet but not exit an agreement? That is ludicrous. The german ISP dogado ended up killing the Tor server process and blocking the OR-port on my vServer. -- d00b ​ comsitec.de 2/2014 Unlimited data paid a year in advance but frequently off and slow. Ticket responses very poor. AVOID THEM comsitec.de 2/2014 Unlimited data paid a year in advance but frequently off and slow. Ticket responses very poor. AVOID THEM The german ISP EuServ / ISPro -- they just broke the contract, switching our Server off. -- padeluun EUServ VPS: They have a numtcpsock setting of max 600, not able to run Tor properly. They also exclude it from their TOS. -- August 2013, Torpids ​ Manitu forbids any anonymisation techniques in their AGBs --qbi (gamambel: I have asked and they made me an offer for 100mbit dedi at 1500 euro) Manitu forbids any anonymisation techniques in their AGBs --qbi (gamambel: I have asked and they made me an offer for 100mbit dedi at 1500 euro) ​ OVH (German ISP) offers root server with a high bandwidth (up to 5.000 kB/s). They changed their AGB and cancel "problematic" contracts very fast. -- qbi OVH (German ISP) offers root server with a high bandwidth (up to 5.000 kB/s). They changed their AGB and cancel "problematic" contracts very fast. -- qbi plusserver.de shut down h07onion due to gross incompetence. Look at ​ http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Mar-2005/msg00120.html for more details. http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Mar-2005/msg00120.html for more details. "I have recently checked ​ manitu because they advertise with internet without censorship and data retention. Unfortunately they explicitly forbid providing anonymization services in their ​ general terms and conditions. On inquiry they have justified this restriction with the enormous bandwidth consumption and the impossibility to achieve fair combined costing in this case. For the same reason they forbid running mirrors of public data such as open source software. So I believe their argument is no pretense." -- Alex, Dec 01 2009 via email. manitu because they advertise with internet without censorship and data retention. Unfortunately they explicitly forbid providing anonymization services in their general terms and conditions. On inquiry they have justified this restriction with the enormous bandwidth consumption and the impossibility to achieve fair combined costing in this case. For the same reason they forbid running mirrors of public data such as open source software. So I believe their argument is no pretense." -- Alex, Dec 01 2009 via email. netcup.de suspended one vserver running a Tor exit node, analyzed stuff, and charged 192€ for processing _one_ dmca-notice. - ari netdirekt.de "Leider unterstützen wir keine Tor Exits. Sofern diese in unserem Netzwerk sind gab es vermutlich noch keine Vorfälle." ​ Strato writes in their ​ AGB "Abschnitt III: Sonderregeln für dedizierte und virtuelle Server ... 1.1 Eine Nutzung der Server zur Bereitstellung folgender Dienste ist ausgeschlossen: ... Anonymisierungsdienste, z.B. Tor, JAP, Proxyserver" Strato writes in their AGB "Abschnitt III: Sonderregeln für dedizierte und virtuelle Server ... 1.1 Eine Nutzung der Server zur Bereitstellung folgender Dienste ist ausgeschlossen: ... Anonymisierungsdienste, z.B. Tor, JAP, Proxyserver" ​ netcup.de Running a tor relay node with 256 kB/s bandwidth and 600gb traffic limit configured in tor I was moved to a high traffic node after about 8 days or 400 GB traffic usage, at which point the average bandwidth dropped to less than 50 kB/s. I was not notified of this changed but its clearly noticable via vnstat -d and a different cpu usage pattern on the new server (as in 100% _all_ the time). netcup.de Running a tor relay node with 256 kB/s bandwidth and 600gb traffic limit configured in tor I was moved to a high traffic node after about 8 days or 400 GB traffic usage, at which point the average bandwidth dropped to less than 50 kB/s. I was not notified of this changed but its clearly noticable via vnstat -d and a different cpu usage pattern on the new server (as in 100% _all_ the time). ​ Server4You I asked support about Tor and they stated "Tor Dienste sind bei uns ebenfalls aufgrund der rechtlichen Graulage nicht gerne gesehen und werden bei Abuse Aufkommen direkt gekündigt." (March 2011). In April 2012 they turned off my server because "Tor ist illegal in Deutschland" ("Tor is illegal in Germany", according to their support). Server4You I asked support about Tor and they stated "Tor Dienste sind bei uns ebenfalls aufgrund der rechtlichen Graulage nicht gerne gesehen und werden bei Abuse Aufkommen direkt gekündigt." (March 2011). In April 2012 they turned off my server because "Tor ist illegal in Deutschland" ("Tor is illegal in Germany", according to their support). ​ Hetzner has some Tor Exits, but they send an abuse request for each BayTSP request, and you have to respond each. Now (today, 05.09.2011) they disconnected my Tor IP, because someone did a netscan on a /23 via Tor. They requested a statement via mail / fax now, which I sent, but didn't get a response yet. --morphium Same thing (disconnect b/c of netscan) happened to me sometime around March 2011 . Connection restored after a few hours (Fax & Phone call "plz look at it right away"). Stopped me from having an exit there. :/ -- Fusselwurm Same thing as Fusselwurm, disconnected because of a netscan done through Tor. It seems exit nodes aren't permitted with Hetzner. -- Naypam Hetzner has some Tor Exits, but they send an abuse request for each BayTSP request, and you have to respond each. Now (today, 05.09.2011) they disconnected my Tor IP, because someone did a netscan on a /23 via Tor. They requested a statement via mail / fax now, which I sent, but didn't get a response yet. --morphium ​ Alvotech doesn't allow Tor exit nodes: "unfortunately we had several problems in the past with tor exit nodes (police stuff, ddos, lawyers etc.), so we don't wish it in our network". -- Nyr Alvotech doesn't allow Tor exit nodes: "unfortunately we had several problems in the past with tor exit nodes (police stuff, ddos, lawyers etc.), so we don't wish it in our network". -- Nyr Netsys-online appears to offer unlimited 100MBit/s but disables the VPS even if you use only 20MBit/s (middle node) because of too much resource usage. ​ Unmetered.com does not allow Tor exits nodes. -- enn.lu Unmetered.com does not allow Tor exits nodes. -- enn.lu ​ Webtropia.com Doesn't tolerate any Tor nodes (entry/middle/exit). We got kicked even before we could setup Tor. The first month was charged and the m0ney wasn't paid back. -- juris/torservers.net. They claim 5100 € penalty for an exit node ( ​ see tor-relay list)- (12/13/15) Webtropia.com Doesn't tolerate any Tor nodes (entry/middle/exit). We got kicked even before we could setup Tor. The first month was charged and the m0ney wasn't paid back. -- juris/torservers.net. They claim 5100 € penalty for an exit node ( see tor-relay list)- (12/13/15) ​ Contabo.com doesn't explicitly disallow Tor exit nodes, but takes abuse complaints very seriously and doesn't see Tor exit nodes any differently to any other abuse. -- 1/13/17 Contabo.com doesn't explicitly disallow Tor exit nodes, but takes abuse complaints very seriously and doesn't see Tor exit nodes any differently to any other abuse. -- 1/13/17 ​ nbiserv doesn't allow Tor relay/exit. („Das installieren und betreiben eines TOR Relay oder Exit Node ist verboten.“ ( ​ AGB)) -- txt.file 2018-05-30 Denmark ​ Kviknet does not allow sharing of bandwidth with 3rd parties. This includes Tor relays and bridges. France The french hosting company ​ http://www.online.net/fr (member of ​ iliad) suspended without warning a bunch a machines that were running Tor after the police came down about creditcard fraud. (Also, any kind of relay is explicitely forbidden in their term of service.) http://www.online.net/fr (member of iliad) suspended without warning a bunch a machines that were running Tor after the police came down about creditcard fraud. (Also, any kind of relay is explicitely forbidden in their term of service.) online.net sends automated daily "abuse" mails and disables your server even if you are only running a middle node. -- August 2013, Torpids relay [?/-] exit [-] ​ FirstHeberg now accepting relay. The technical director of FirstHeberg has announced "What happens on your server does not concern me." However they recently terminated my exit node due to abuse complaints over supposed WordPress hacking attempts (HTTP traffic). Sam has also reported that Firstheberg is very unreliable, and that they attempted to ​ packetsniff his traffic with tcpdump as well as warping his network interface in order to investigate abuse. Finland ​ Tenue now seems to disallow Tor exits on their network. See ​ http://archives.seul.org/or/talk/Apr-2010/msg00158.html Canada Rogers has a no-servers clause in the TOS for their home internet service. If you are running an exit node and receive DMCA notices, you will have no legal recourse except to cancel service. (2008-03) Sweden Perspektiv bredband supposedly allows for running Tor nodes, but will disable your account due to spam. Glesys.se "Unfortunately you cant run a TOR exit relay in our infrastructure due to the amount of complaint we receive." from support@… (10/2015) United Kingdom I have asked and ​ Swiftway doesn't want Tor exits on their network. Swiftway doesn't want Tor exits on their network. ​ Memset do not allow Tor servers under their (rather vague) AUP. Memset do not allow Tor servers under their (rather vague) AUP. ​ UK Dedicated aka Colo.net informed me that I couldn't continue to run my Tor relay or in anyway effect, conduct or facilitate any activity involving: IRC or anonymous proxy services. UK Dedicated aka Colo.net informed me that I couldn't continue to run my Tor relay or in anyway effect, conduct or facilitate any activity involving: IRC or anonymous proxy services. I asked ​ OVH/Kimsufi about their policies regarding Tor exit nodes and was told that an exit node is classed as an open proxy which is against the TOS. I replied that I'll be running it in bridge mode then. No feedback on that so far. --Maquis196 OVH/Kimsufi about their policies regarding Tor exit nodes and was told that an exit node is classed as an open proxy which is against the TOS. I replied that I'll be running it in bridge mode then. No feedback on that so far. --Maquis196 ​ 123-reg found out I was running an Exit Node (received a notice regarding filesharing, someone downloading torrents using my Exit). I was asked to shut it down. I complied and asked if i could run a Relay node. They said no as that would violate their AUP. -- September 2012, vandal2 123-reg found out I was running an Exit Node (received a notice regarding filesharing, someone downloading torrents using my Exit). I was asked to shut it down. I complied and asked if i could run a Relay node. They said no as that would violate their AUP. -- September 2012, vandal2 I asked ​ Heart Internet and explained what Tor was. They replied they will not allow this on their networks. I cannot find anything in their terms that would exclude Tor, certainly not a relay, but there you are. Hungary ​ RendszerNET Kft. Asked by email to confirm whether running a non-exit relay, they reply "Unfortunately, Tor Network operation is not allowed on our servers. Kiss János". Previously on the good list as of 2017-04-20, removed from there because of this. (2017-12-25) Italy ​ SEFLOW Avoid it. they say it's against Italian law to have a Tor relay, asked which law, they said to contact a lawyer. (atrent: do you need a more articulate explanation? I'm the one who had the bad experience, I have all the emails exchanged and I can translate them); "i'm sorry but tor is not allowed in our service." (fusl, 02/2015). I confirm it, same situation nowadays with both the brands they sell, seflow and domflow (null, 11/2018) SEFLOW Avoid it. they say it's against Italian law to have a Tor relay, asked which law, they said to contact a lawyer. (atrent: do you need a more articulate explanation? I'm the one who had the bad experience, I have all the emails exchanged and I can translate them); "i'm sorry but tor is not allowed in our service." (fusl, 02/2015). I confirm it, same situation nowadays with both the brands they sell, seflow and domflow (null, 11/2018) ​ Garr ISP (connectivity provider) of italian universities, part of GÉANT: they do NOT allow exit nodes on their net (I had one, they obliged me to tear it down); ​ AUP prohibits «transito di dati e/o informazioni sulla Rete GARR tra due soggetti entrambi non autorizzati all'accesso sulla Rete GARR (third party routing)» Garr ISP (connectivity provider) of italian universities, part of GÉANT: they do NOT allow exit nodes on their net (I had one, they obliged me to tear it down); AUP prohibits «transito di dati e/o informazioni sulla Rete GARR tra due soggetti entrambi non autorizzati all'accesso sulla Rete GARR (third party routing)» ​ KeliWeb Ask the support if they allow Tor nodes and got this answer: "purtroppo questo genere di servizi non sono autorizzati nei nostri datacenter." (Eng. translation: "Unfortunately we do not allow this kind of services in our datacenter") KeliWeb Ask the support if they allow Tor nodes and got this answer: "purtroppo questo genere di servizi non sono autorizzati nei nostri datacenter." (Eng. translation: "Unfortunately we do not allow this kind of services in our datacenter") ​ VHosting Solution Ask the support if they allow Tor nodes and got this answer: "siamo spiacenti ma il tipo di servizio che lei richiede, non e' autorizzato sui nostri servizi." (Eng. translation: "We are sorry but the service you ask for is not allowed in our services") VHosting Solution Ask the support if they allow Tor nodes and got this answer: "siamo spiacenti ma il tipo di servizio che lei richiede, non e' autorizzato sui nostri servizi." (Eng. translation: "We are sorry but the service you ask for is not allowed in our services") ​ ARUBA Support contacted me about an abuse complaint regarding torrent activities, I have explained that I was not hosting any infringing material based on the DMCA template, they insisted I had to shutdown my servers and reinstall them sothat they can monitor them. They also asked a copy of my ID or Passport. They are Anti-Privacy champions, here's their e-mail "We confirm that running TOR on our Cloud platform is against our terms and conditions and, consequently, is forbidden." AVOID! (Seems to have softened up a bit, see above). ARUBA Support contacted me about an abuse complaint regarding torrent activities, I have explained that I was not hosting any infringing material based on the DMCA template, they insisted I had to shutdown my servers and reinstall them sothat they can monitor them. They also asked a copy of my ID or Passport. They are Anti-Privacy champions, here's their e-mail "We confirm that running TOR on our Cloud platform is against our terms and conditions and, consequently, is forbidden." AVOID! (Seems to have softened up a bit, see above). ​ TopHost by SeeWeb I warned them about the exit i was going to open, and they answered that it's not forbidden but that as far as the service is cheap they cannot provide a complex abuse handling, and suggested to buy more expensive services at SeeWeb. in fact at first abuse mail they filtered networking of the vps and forwarded me the mail so i could correct and ask to remove filtering. At second abuse email they refused to enable networking again on the VPS and wrote me that in case I activate new vps with "the same content" they will suspend the whole account with all my services (null, 11/2018). Slovenia ​ Domenca has crazy prices (10 EUR/Mbit/s + 300 EUR/U for dedicated server per month) and they require not just to respond to all complaints in one working day, but also to prevent them in the future. Just replying with explanation that it is an anonymous service and there is no way to prevent this, is not enough for them. So it seems impossible to really host Tor exit node there. Mitar (mitar@…) Netherlands ​ PCextreme does not allow hosting of a Tor relay node on their VPS. (Tue, 31 Jan 2012) PCextreme does not allow hosting of a Tor relay node on their VPS. (Tue, 31 Jan 2012) ​ Tilaa Instant shutdown when hosting an Exit node/Relay node. Does not allow you to host anonymous services for others in general. "hosting TOR exit and relay nodes, open proxy servers and anonymous VPN services is not allowed" -Tilaa (9-16-2014) Tilaa Instant shutdown when hosting an Exit node/Relay node. Does not allow you to host anonymous services for others in general. "hosting TOR exit and relay nodes, open proxy servers and anonymous VPN services is not allowed" -Tilaa (9-16-2014) ​ Seedmonster does not list Tor as being against their TOS, but they suspended a major tor node because of 4 web forum spam reports on a 1gbps exit. They will try to work with you, but their upstream provider is zero tolerance, so when it comes down to it, they will not back Tor exits. (Update:) They agreed to let it keep running after the exit policy was modified, but then came back a week later and said Tor had to be disabled completely. Three complaints were received out of approx. 10TB of traffic. Seedmonster does not list Tor as being against their TOS, but they suspended a major tor node because of 4 web forum spam reports on a 1gbps exit. They will try to work with you, but their upstream provider is zero tolerance, so when it comes down to it, they will not back Tor exits. (Update:) They agreed to let it keep running after the exit policy was modified, but then came back a week later and said Tor had to be disabled completely. Three complaints were received out of approx. 10TB of traffic. ​ NFOrce shuts down your services if you run an exit node. Middle relays are probably fine. Malaysia ​ Shinjiru is not allowing Tor since their new ​ policy (feb 2012), Even if all the exit ports are blocked, and even as relay : they are u-turning completely . (In the past they even ​ donated a server to the Tor project); traffic is expensive though Russia ​ Smile blocks any traffic, by redirecting to statis web page with message about that user is possibly providing access to third party. It does not like many simultaneous outbound HTTP-connections. Switzerland ​ Private Layer, Inc. does not allow hosting of a Tor relay node on their VPS (Thu, 02 Feb 2012) "Tor is not allowed to be ran on our containers. This is the reason why the process gets killer every minute. The reason why we do not allow Tor, is because over time we have seen that it consumes way too much CPU time, so we have decided not to allow it on our VPS. " ​ SolNet does not list Tor as being against their TOS, but they will ask you to shut it down if they receive complains via abuse (Fri, 15 Feb 2013). HostEurope Switzerland: Cant install Tor on Ubunut 10.04 LTS, but they wont give me an other OS-Template. ​ Serverbase Tor is not allowed by their TOS because they don't want services which cause too much traffic. After trying it out anyway they start to limit traffic after two weeks. Czech Republic ​ Nethost They don't allow running TOR exit node (July 2015). Nethost They don't allow running TOR exit node (July 2015). ​ flexiVPS They don't allow running TOR exit node (July 2015). flexiVPS They don't allow running TOR exit node (July 2015). ​ NQhost They don't allow running relays of any kind: "We don't allow to use our servers for tor exit nodes and/or relays" ​ Forpsi / ​ Aruba - they don't disallow exits, but require incident response for each incident. They regard sending packet to a known C&C as an incident, so expect several incidents per month (I assume they will get annoyed and cancel your service after a while). Some of the incidents are even reported by the Czech GovCERT. The relay should be OK. Forpsi / Aruba - they don't disallow exits, but require incident response for each incident. They regard sending packet to a known C&C as an incident, so expect several incidents per month (I assume they will get annoyed and cancel your service after a while). Some of the incidents are even reported by the Czech GovCERT. The relay should be OK. ​ Best-hosting They don't allow relay or exit nodes on their VMs or own HW in the datacenter (November 2017); "it can generally be said that, due to complications, we do not support this project" / "obecne lze rici, ze tento typ projektu z duvodu komplikaci nepodporujeme" Best-hosting They don't allow relay or exit nodes on their VMs or own HW in the datacenter (November 2017); "it can generally be said that, due to complications, we do not support this project" / "obecne lze rici, ze tento typ projektu z duvodu komplikaci nepodporujeme" relay [?] exit [-] ​ Wedos.CZ Update 2015-10-12 After running an Exit-Relay with a reduced exit policy for ~ 3.5 month they shut it down Here. There was ~ only one abuse complaint every second week. They refused WHOIS IP reassingnment. I switched to a non-exit-policy. Update 2016-06-21 They cut off my non-exit Tor server because it was causing their IP address range to appear on the ​ Sectoor Tor blacklist. In the following correspondence they said that Tor servers are not explicitly forbidden but they will not be happy if you get their IP address range on the blacklist. They did not confirm whether running a Tor server on a non-standard port is allowed. Ukraine Poland ​ vipower They don't allow running relays of any kind: "niestety nie ma takiej możliwości." vipower They don't allow running relays of any kind: "niestety nie ma takiej możliwości." ​ webh They don't allow running relays of any kind: "Zabraniamy TOR'a ze względu na fakt iż większość użytkowników nie wie z czym to się wiąże. Ogólnie zachęcamy klientów żeby nie korzystali z p2p itp. protokołów." Mexico

A couple weeks ago on John Stossel's show, I debated sex crimes with Wendy Murphy, the TV pundit and former assistant district attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts (where, like Scott Harshbarger and Martha Coakley, Murphy fought the release of Cheryl Amirault in the bogus Fells Acres sex crimes case). During the debate, Murphy threw out a statistic that only 2 percent of sex offenders are actually on sex offender registries. I'm still not sure where she got that figure. I'm also not sure what it's supposed to measure, or what conclusions we're supposed to draw from it. I still haven't been able to find any study that produces that statistic. Last night I saw another clip from Murphy in a segment from The Daily Show. This time she was discussing birthright citizenship and the "anchor baby" issue. The Daily Show's clip was so completely outrageous, I looked up the interview that the clip was pulled from to make sure Murphy wasn't taken out of context. She wasn't, but more on that in a bit. When I found the full interview (watch it here), I saw that Murphy again threw out a statistic that sounded preposterous on its face. At the two minute mark in the immigration debate Murphy says: In prisons, half—half—the prisoners in California are illegal aliens. She even pauses for effect. I can find no study, report, or government data to support that assertion. In January, the Sacramento Bee cited California state government data that put the number at 13 percent. This incoherent Fox News scare story (note that the final few graphs negate the entire premise of the article) puts the number at 12.4 percent (that figure is as of 2004, which the article says is the most recent year figures were available). The only support I can find for Murphy's claim is this passage from a 2005 Investors Business Daily editorial: Some estimates show illegals now make up half of California's prison population, creating a massive criminal subculture that strains state budgets and creates a nightmare for local police forces. It isn't clear what "some estimates" means. The claim is unsourced. My guess is that the figure comes from the same number crunchers who gave us Lou Dobbs' Mexicans-and-leprosy figures. This particular IBD passage was excerpted by Newsmax in 2006, and has since been cut-and-pasted by immigration opponents on message boards all over the Internet. (Murphy's underlying premise is wrong, too. The evidence increasingly shows that border cities and states have lower crime rates than the rest of the country.) So where did Murphy get her "half" figure? I'd hate to think an adjunct professor at the New England School of Law would carelessly pull a bogus statistic from Internet message boards, then repeat the figure to a television audience. But then, we're talking about the same woman who once said that disgraced North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong "deserves to be promoted and celebrated." Murphy's continuing saturation of the cable news airwaves is nauseating. Her punditry career should have ended with the Duke lacrosse case, when she appeared all over cable news to defend Nifong and to damn the falsely accused lacrosse players, first prematurely, then even as it became clear to the rest of the world that they were innocent. (As late as last year Murphy was still griping about the lacrosse case). K.C. Johnson wrote of Murphy at the time, "In addition to the outrageous quotes highlighted above, on at least 18 occasions over the past nine months, Murphy has made demonstrably untrue statements. She also has engaged in a pattern of wholly unfounded speculation and has routinely denigrated due process." Johnson ably shows his work in that post. Murphy never apologized for repeatedly slandering the Duke players (she once claimed, with no evidence, that they had "ripped open" the accuser's vagina). Yet her punditry career took off. She was rewarded with a book contract and dozens more TV appearances. William Anderson noted earlier this year that Murphy was recently invited onto the Today show to vouch for Catoosa County, Georgia's shameful sex abuse persecution of Tonya Craft. (Craft was acquitted on all counts.) In a 2007 interview with the American Journalism Review, here's how Murphy justified going on TV to publicly convict potentially innocent people in spite of the evidence against them: "Lots of folks who voiced the prosecution position in the beginning [of the Duke case] gave up because they faced a lot of criticism, and that's never my style." She notes that she's invited on cable shows to argue for a particular side. "You have to appreciate my role as a pundit is to draw inferences and make arguments on behalf of the side which I'm assigned," she says. "So of course it's going to sound like I'm arguing in favor of 'guilty.' That's the opposite of what the defense pundit is doing, which is arguing that they're innocent." It's all theater, you see. She's just playing a part. It's fine if she slanders some people, ruins some reputations, spouts flat falsehoods, and generally dumbs down the public discourse. Because it's just entertainment. It's what pundits do. The sad thing is, Murphy is mostly right. Cable news is about lining people up on either side and letting them go at it. There's no room for subtlety. There's certainly no time for fact-checking a guest's claims, even after the segment airs. Murphy is pretty, provocative, and confrontational. She's great TV. That she's inaccurate, slanderous, and hysterical is beside the point. Let's get back to that segment on immigration. Here's what Murphy had to say about birthright citizenship: I know we're talking about babies, and it's hard to be tough on babies, but let's remember, we're talking about illegal aliens coming to this country for the purpose of birthing a child, not because they love the kid, but because they want the child to provide them with the benefits of U.S. citizenship. In other words, that's not the kind of child who's going to be raised well and be a productive citizen. The child is barely loved. It's more like a thing and a commodity than a human being. At some point you have to wonder, is it even possible to be too shameless for cable news?

But there is a reason. It can be revealed that Minchin will play the disciple Judas in a major revival of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar. He will join the pop singer Nicole Scherzinger, playing Mary Magdalene, in an arena tour of the musical by Lord Lloyd Webber and Sir Tim Rice which will open at London’s O2 arena this summer. The character of Jesus will be cast via a television talent competition next month, where contestants will compete for the lead role in the musical telling the story of Christ’s final week. The television show has been criticised by Sir Tim, who wrote the musical’s lyrics and has described plans to ask a panel of celebrity judges and public voters to pick the “next Jesus” as “tasteless” and “tacky”. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs , Minchin selected Heaven on their Minds, a song from the musical, as one of his tracks and hinted at his desire to play Judas. He said: “I reckon I sang this song standing in my parents’ living room, to the vinyl original recording, about 500 times, and subsequently got to understudy the role of Judas in two separate Perth productions of JC Superstar but I never played the role and I keep thinking one day I’m going to play Judas. I just love it because it is just pain and rock.” The musical, which Sir Tim and Lord Lloyd Webber wrote in 1969, features Mary Magdalene expressing her desire for Jesus. In another scene, Jesus is shown being whipped by Roman soldiers and the musical ends with Judas committing suicide after his betrayal of Jesus and Christ’s crucifixion. Sir Tim said that the musical’s religious and political themes could become a source of ridicule in a television talent show, with the judges telling hopeful contestants: “You could be Jesus.” Minchin, who will appear at the Telegraph Hay Festival next month, may make an unconventional Judas with his long blonde hair and trademark kohl eyeliner. His musical talent was hailed last month when his production of Matilda the Musical, the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book for which he wrote the music and lyrics, won a record seven Olivier awards. Minchin’s desert island discs included Waterloo Sunset by The Kinks and I’m Alone by Deep Purple. His chosen book was Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Manufacturing weighed down industrial production German industrial production saw its biggest drop in two years in May, weighed down by sharp falls in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Industrial production fell 1.8% in May from April, according to the country's statistics agency Destatis. The fall was a surprise, with the majority of economists expecting industrial output to be unchanged. Destatis also cut April's industrial production figure slightly to -0.3%. Germany's statistics agency blamed the timing of May bank holidays and weakness in the construction sector for the fall, but said "geopolitical factors" may also have had an effect. German think tank Ifo said it thought both the Ukraine crisis and the impact on oil prices by the insurgency in Iraq were factors concerning German businesses. Dekabank economist Andreas Scheuerle said May's fall was a "massive disappointment". "Even if some of this is down to missing days at work... and might be recovered later, there was simply not the momentum in the second quarter," he added. In the first quarter, Germany's economy grew by 0.8% but it is expected to see a slowdown in the second quarter.

Is Chris Christie out of the running? This is the question everyone is asking. But it’s not the most important question. The most important question is a different and more subtle one: How, specifically and exactly, is Bridgegate hurting his presidential ambitions right now? The way to answer this question is to begin by imagining a Christie to whom Bridgegate didn’t happen. He was overwhelmingly reelected. Half the Latino vote. Approval ratings near 70 percent. Media swooning. Speeches all over the country as head of the Republican Governors’ Association, with audiences treating him like the rock star he was instead of the potential felon he is. You’ve thought of all that. But here’s what you may not have thought of. That Chris Christie could have spent the next six months meeting with every single big-money Republican in the country; every head of every important super PAC; every state chairman; and so on. He could have shown all of these people what the polling suggested—that he could beat Hillary Clinton. They all wouldn’t have backed him, of course. But a lot of them would have. Barring some strange development, he could have effectively ended the nomination fight before it even started. Enter that stranger development, and poof! All gone. The Bridgegate Christie can’t do any of that stuff. He can still try. But with a federal investigation hanging over him, he’s not going to be able to lock money people down. Super PACs and state chairs aren’t going to touch him. He still might have to resign, or be impeached. There’s an off chance he could be...indicted! So the race is on hold. And Christie, even if he is completely exonerated however many months from now, will still be hurt by it and have lost months of momentum. So who, in the interim, gains momentum? That’s hard to say. Everyone seems to think Jeb Bush. But I don’t know. Bush has the liabilities everyone knows—his last name, mostly, and that fire-in-the-belly business. But he has some other ones as well. It’s been a while now since he was in office—eight years. That’s a pretty long time. Especially when, in that time, conservatism and the Republican Party have undergone the radical transformations they have. He did some things as governor that conservatives like, particularly on school choice and other education questions, and they must have seemed pioneering to people on the right at the time; but now, after everything’s shifted so far rightward? Plus, there’s just something about having been out of the game for that long that makes you less interesting. Scott Walker may gain some speed. For one thing, he has to run for reelection this fall, which means he has to spend the next few months talking like a governor, not like a presidential candidate. He leads his potential Democratic opponents, but only by margins in the 47-42 range. That means, in a blue state, he can’t go around saying the crazy stuff that Republicans jockeying for presidential advantage are given to say. “He gets the big advantage, more than Bush, because he needs the race to start later,” says Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. So if Walker wins reelection, and Christie can’t string up commitments, then Walker may be looking strong by the end of the year. Who else? Of the Tea Party Troika here inside the Beltway—Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul—it’s starting to look clearer and clearer as if Paul is the most serious one. He has his dad’s national network, and while that didn’t exactly win Pops a ton of votes, it’s an infrastructure to build on. Rubio blew it with immigration, and as for Cruz, I think even most Republicans see that that would be a kamikaze mission. There are other governors besides Walker. Mike Pence of Indiana, Sam Brownback of Kansas. And don’t forget Rick Perry! And Mike Huckabee, too. But honestly, who are these people, in national terms? Pence and Brownback are really right wing, and the charisma isn’t exactly shooting out of them. Maybe Perry will speak something more closely to resembling English now that he’s off the pain pills, but he’s way out there ideologically, too. Walker a little less so. But he’s dull. They couldn’t recall him that time because most apolitical people decided a man that boring couldn’t have done something so controversial. Their problem, which I report to you with no sadness whatsoever, is that as the Republican Party has become more Southern and prairie and more and more right wing, it’s just quit producing plausible presidential candidates. Right-wing Texas may want someone like Rick Perry. Moderate America doesn’t. It’s telling in this regard what’s gone on in Jeb’s own Florida, a state that’s gone from Bush, who could conceivably win a national election under the right circumstances, to hard-right Rick Scott, who couldn’t win 200 Electoral Votes. They were so lucky to have Christie. He was an anomaly in so many ways. He represents the GOP of about 25 years ago, when it was clearly the dominant electoral party, back when the Reagan Democrats were reliably voting Republican (a lot of them have switched back) and Reagan and G.H.W. Bush were winning states like New Jersey. He’s from the Northeast. He’s got that Reagan Democrat aura. Appeal outside of the usual GOP area codes. Ability to talk to moderates and sound persuasive and common-sensical. Most of all, he’s got the ability to go toe-to-toe with Hillary C. The angels may come down and declare him innocent. But it doesn’t seem likely, and even if it does happen, he still won’t remotely be the candidate he was two months ago. He’s on the B-list now.

The Great American Beer Swap Send-Off Friday While we've suffered through a half-assed summer in Seattle so far (yet to break 90 degrees), the folks in Austin, Texas, have been setting some big records, including 22 consecutive days over 100 degrees and an all-time-record-tying 112 degree day. Fortunately for those over-tan Texans, a few (not-really-all-that-)pasty Seattleites will soon be taking a soothing balm to the Bat City in the form of Rainier Beer, then bringing back a little Texas heat bottled up and labeled Lone Star. The exchange is called the Great American Beer Swap, and it's 8 days of music, beer, and warm wishes (if not warm weather) flowing between Seattle and Austin—two of our favorite cities. Take a look: Beer Swap Meditation from Beer Swap on Vimeo. If the video doesn't make it clear, the Swap is simple: two dudes will take 100 cases of Rainier to Texas in a tricked-out hot rod horse trailer, hand out Rainier while listening to some music, load up 100 cases of Lone Star, and drive back. If you want in on the action, you can get a claim ticket to a case of Lone Star for a mere $20. To explain its mission, the Swap says: Why? Because you can't get Rainier Beer in Texas and you can't get Lone Star Beer in Washington. If that's not reason enough then I suggest you move along. We talked to Swap (co-)organizer Gabe Johnson about the event. He says that a big reason for doing the Swap is to show people that it's possible to do something for love instead of money. Johnson describes Swap participants as "Not ruled by money, career path... not part of the program," and the Swap itself seems to have carved out an interesting space for itself. This may be partly thanks to its alignment with Horses Cut Shop, an off-the-radar private event space that feels a little like a spot of Texas in Seattle—it's got afghans, taxidermy, belt buckles, dusty neon signs, and a dance floor well suited to cowboy boots. In short, it's a place you want to be, not a place you have to be. Though some corporate folk wanted to get involved in the Beer Swap, Johnson didn't want to compromise the grassroots nature of the beer-swapping endeavor. Dozens of people have contributed time, money, trailer-wiring expertise, beer-loading muscle, and even rooster-wrangling skills to get the Swap off the ground, making it a true community effort free of annoying corporate overtones. For Johnson, the Swap is "an exercise in following through" on the type of crazy-ass ideas we may ponder with our friends on gchat at work, over beers at night, and over hash browns the next morning, but never quite manage to execute in real life. The Swap is a tribute to the idea that we really can do what we want, even (especially?) if what we want is as simple as a nice cold Lone Star. The Great American Beer Swap launches this Friday, September 2, from the most Texas place in Seattle: the Tractor Tavern. The Maldives, Cissy Tolls, Knut Bell & The Blue Collars, and Davidson Hart Kingsbery will send off the Swap crew to go get us some Lone Star. The team must make it to Austin by Tuesday, September 6, to pass out Rainier at Scoot Inn before enjoying the sounds of Ian Moore, Jesse Dayton, the Moonlight Towers and Knut Bell, then returning our Lone Star by September 10. An old Rainier slogan held, "There's new vigor and strength in every drop." The Swap drivers and passengers will need every bit of this strength to get to Texas and back in 8 days. Even as we wish them the best of luck, we also want them to hurry back—we need a little more Lone Star in our lives. Great American Beer Swap // Friday, September 2 // 9pm // Tractor Tavern // $10

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” bowed on Christmas Day in India in the face of fierce competition from blockbuster holdovers “Dilwale” and “Bajirao Mastani.” Disney opened the film on 1,230 screens in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu language versions and it debuted in third place with collections of $1.51 million, with the bulk of earnings coming from the English release. As is typical of Hollywood releases in India, the movie only played in DCI-compliant theaters. Last week’s runner up “Bajirao Mastani” won the weekend, collecting $5.16 million, while last week’s winner “Dilwale” came second with $3.19 million. Historically, all six previous “Star Wars” films have released in India to decent, but unspectacular, box office. A nation that has plenty of native mythology dating back millennia, including the epics “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata,” appears not to need a new Hollywood one. Following a critical drubbing and poor word of mouth, business for Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer “Dilwale” in India showed a steady decline with the 10-day total for the Dec. 18 release standing at $18.7 million. “Bajirao Mastani”, starring Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, on the other hand rode ecstatic reviews and strong word of mouth to post 10-day collections of $18.2 million despite releasing on fewer screens than “Dilwale.” It is a different story overseas where Khan is the darling of non resident Indian and South Asian origin audiences. “Dilwale” has a 10-day overseas cumulative of $16.8 million. “Bajirao Mastani” is hovering near the $7 million mark.

President Donald Trump is, once again, picking a fight with Mexico. Our southern neighbor has absorbed no small amount of abuse from the president, who has repeatedly accused the Mexican government of exporting criminals to the United States and promised to strong-arm the country into paying for a multibillion-dollar border wall. Now Trump has provoked Mexico once again by proposing to use the country as a sort of refugee way station for undocumented immigrants whom he plans to deport. As I wrote earlier this week, Trump has cobbled together an especially aggressive plan for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants (even if the administration rejects the term "mass deportation"). The plan’s objective is to remove as many immigrants as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, while cutting corners on due process. One way the Trump administration wants to achieve this goal is to pre-emptively deport immigrants who are still waiting to have their cases heard by an immigration judge. Advertisement: In a memo laying out how Trump’s plan will be implemented, the Department of Homeland Security states that it can “return aliens arriving on land from a foreign territory contiguous to the United States, to the territory from which they arrived, pending a formal removal proceeding.” What this means is that if a migrant from Honduras or El Salvador or elsewhere in mainland Latin America enters the United States by unlawfully crossing the southern border and is later apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they can be sent to Mexico to await their formal deportation proceedings. Essentially, Trump wants to deport people while they wait to find out whether they’ll be deported. While in Mexico, the Homeland Security memo states, those migrants will be provided “a functional, interoperable video teleconference system to ensure maximum capability to conduct video teleconference removal hearings.” The agency argues that this policy will be applied to immigrants who “do not pose a risk of a subsequent illegal entry or attempted illegal entry,” and that this will free up resources so that it can focus on higher-priority deportation cases. The hitch in all this, of course, is Mexico, which does not want to serve as an ICE holding cell for non-Mexican nationals. After all the shabby treatment Mexico has absorbed from Trump and his administration, the Mexican government is clearly piqued at the White House for trying to dictate terms like this. Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson today and publicly voiced the country’s “irritation” with the White House’s posture toward Mexico while calling the administration’s deportation proposal a “legal impossibility.” Videgaray has also said that “the Mexican government and the people of Mexico do not have to accept measures unilaterally imposed on a government by another government.” Anonymous Mexican officials told CNN the country will not accept non-Mexican nationals deported from the U.S., and there’s nothing the U.S. can do to force the issue given that “there is no bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Mexico on having to take these immigrants.” It is, generally speaking, incredibly stupid to repeatedly start diplomatic fights with a neighbor, ally and critical trading partner. Concerning the more narrow issue of immigration, however, treating Mexico like garbage is counterproductive to the Trump administration’s supposed goal of reducing undocumented immigration to the United States. Advertisement: You might recall the child migrant crisis of 2014, when tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors came streaming over the U.S.-Mexico border in just a few short months. It spawned a nasty political fight as the GOP went full nativist and abandoned comprehensive immigration reform in favor of the maximum number of deportations. If you’re wondering why the child migrant crisis at our border abated and why it hasn’t repeated itself since, a big part of the answer is Mexico. At the request of the Obama administration, the Mexican government implemented a massive crackdown on Central American migrants passing through its country. The number of apprehensions and deportations of unaccompanied minors in Mexico spiked and the U.S. saw an attendant decline in the number of migrants detained at our border. To be clear: I’m not endorsing that policy. Many of those kids were trying to escape drug-fueled gang violence in their home countries, and the U.S. and Mexico teamed up to send them right back into it, often without proper inquiries about whether they qualified for asylum. But this example underscores the point that Mexico will be a critical player in whatever immigration policy the United States chooses to pursue. Donald Trump can’t keep on beating up Mexico politically and also expect the country to play a supporting role in his draconian immigration schemes.

Windows (.zip version available) Mac OSX Linux (32-bit only) "Wait, Nieuwe Aarde? What's going on? Didn't we already see this game?" Well, yeah. You did. And you'll be seeing more of it, too! I've decided to turn Nieuwe Aarde, along with one other game yet to be announced, into a longer-term project. I've got ideas on how to improve it considerably. This isn't really an improved version – this is just a re-release of the version you've played before – but it does have a few improvements. First off, and most noticably, it has music! I've been collaborating with Robert Seaton with music for a few of my games (and I'll be posting them with music as well, though they won't be getting a long-term treatment.) We did a really neat thing with the music in this game. I'm not going to spoil it, but you should go play it to find out. Seriously it's pretty dang cool. Second, a common complaint was that increasing your metal and magic in the lategame took far too long. I've added +1000/-1000 buttons as a small hack fix for that. Third, the rendering engine is far more efficient – the original renderer was quite shockingly bad. Sometimes that's just what happens when you have 48 hours to write a game in. I regret nothing. Overall, this is the same game . . . but keep an eye on this journal, because I'm going to be making some major changes to it.

On Tuesday morning, Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) took to the House with a poster of the moon. But she wasn’t there to talk about space. Astronomy had been reeling since famous exoplanet hunter Geoff Marcy resigned in disgrace from UC Berkeley for repeatedly sexually harassing students. Speier was on the floor to talk about yet another case in astronomy, this time at the University of Arizona. Hours after she quoted the university’s investigation on the House floor, Mashable published a Science BuzzFeed followed up with another Hours after she quoted the university’s investigation on the House floor,Mashablepublished a long investigation into the professor, who now holds an endowed chair at another university. And the stories kept pouring out.Science named a Caltech astronomy professor who had been suspended for sexual harassment.BuzzFeedfollowed up with another in-depth investigation into the Caltech professor, who had retaliated against a student he professed to falling in love with. Speier talked with WIRED about why she spoke on sexual harassment in science and how she plans to craft legislation to deal with it. WIRED: How did your office first become aware of the University of Arizona report, which is actually from 2004? Speier: It was leaked to us. When I was made aware of it, I was astonished and disgusted. It is consistent with what I have seen in science for a long time. When I was in the state legislature, I chaired an oversight committee that looked at the repercussions of Prop 209 [which banned affirmative action in California] passing. The University of California went from hiring over 30 percent of its professors who are women to it dropping down. In particular in the sciences it was egregious. Then the Then the MIT study came out where they took tape measures and measured the lab space for professors and found out that female professors always had smaller lab space. So that started my interest in wanting to make sure there was both accountability and equality. At the end of your remarks yesterday, you asked people who have experienced sexual harassment in science to contact your office. Have you been hearing from them? There have been probably six or seven calls that we received yesterday. It’s hard to come forward because of the fear of reprisal and retribution. The potential risk of having your career stymied. That’s unacceptable that out of fear women who are sexually harassed and assaulted are unwilling to come forward. We have got to make sure that not only are they protected but that the perpetrators get the kind of justice they deserve, which is prosecution in my view. Do you mean prosecution in the criminal justice system? To the extent that there’s rape. For sexual harassment, it means what happens in the private sector: When someone in a superior position sexually harasses others, they’re fired. We’ve got to stay very clear eyed about one thing. Students go to college to study and advance professionally in academia. They do not go to college to be sexually harassed. One of the most remarkable parts to the backstory of the investigation into Geoff Marcy at Berkeley is how the victims found out about each other. Astronomer Joan Schmelz wrote a blog post about her experience with sexual harassment, and so many victims wrote to her that she saw a pattern and put it all together. In my work on sexual assault in the military and sexual assault on college campuses, the pattern is there. Typically predators are in environments where there is a closed institution, where they have their own code of conduct—whether the military code of justice or the code of conduct at a university. Often times these cases are not handled appropriately. They sweep them under the rug. It allow sexual predators to reoffend. Often times it’s six or seven times before they are actually caught because everyone believes it’s a one off situation. So the legislation you want to craft will make it easier to share information. We’re developing legislation that would first require that any investigation at one university where the professor either resigns or is fired, that information would follow them. In the case with Professor Timothy Slater at the University of Arizona, as egregious as his behavior was, it was kept confidential, and he moved on to the University of Wyoming. That investigation should follow the individual. In a way, requiring universities to share information seems like the least we can do. Part of the reason this happens and students are reluctant to come forward is that graduate students are so reliant on their advisors, and breaking ties with your advisor can wreck your career. Should we also be thinking about how the academic system is set up? That’s a very good question, but we’re talking about adults who are professionals who should conduct themselves consistent with their professional status. If we have to redouble efforts for sexual harassment training, then so be it. You’ve introduced legislation before on sexual assault and harassment on campus and in the military. This is a larger problem in the world and the workplace. Why the focus on on science now? It’s focused on justice and equality wherever it is not being pursued appropriately. Right now, I think the case of Professor Marcy has opened the floodgates in astronomy. I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s going on in other areas of science. One It’s focused on justice and equality wherever it is not being pursued appropriately. Right now, I think the case of Professor Marcy has opened the floodgates in astronomy. I don’t think there’s any doubt it’s going on in other areas of science. One peer-reviewed study found that 26 percent of women surveyed and 6 percent men were sexually assaulted doing field work. I think this has a great deal to do with why women hold less than a third of the faculty positions in science and engineering. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Garhshankar (Hoshiarpur, Punjab): As pre-monsoon showers hit Garhshankar town in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, Shingara Ram Shahunggra and his family start looking for tarpaulin sheets to cover their belongings lying by the side of the road. As the family settles down under the sheets on iron cots put on wet earth, it is difficult to imagine that Shahunggra had been a BSP MLA from Punjab, not one but twice!The family had been living illegally in an irrigation department house for the past few years. The government finally decided to evict him on Sunday, making him perhaps the only ex-MLA in a rich state like Punjab who never built a fancy house for himself in all these years.“I am looking for a place to rent with my meagre MLA pension of Rs 20,000 a month, but till then I will be living under the skies,” he says, even as his wife starts making chapattis on the footpath, her kitchen for the time being. Their two sons help out in the cooking. The family uses the washrooms of one of their neighbours.Interestingly, Shahunggra was MLA in 1992 and 1997 from the Garhshankar general category seat while he belongs to the scheduled caste. “I was thrown out of BSP after I sided with Kanshi Ram’s family when they were trying to reach him in his last days,” Shahungra says.Kandhi Canal executive engineer Vijay Gill said that the department had earlier got a decree for his eviction and then orders from a civil court in 2005. “Our attempts to get the house vacated were foiled but we got it vacated with a magisterial order and police help,” he said.“I entered politics to participate in Kanshi Ram’s mission to empower the lower castes and I never tried to make money during my two stints,” Shahunggra insists. “If I am seeing these days it is because of my refusal to indulge in corruption.When I was MLA, the salary was not enough to build a house and now I survive on my pension. I never thought of starting a business.” Ironically, his elder brother builds houses as a dailywage mason and younger brother is a labourer in Greece.

+1 2 6K Shares Over the weekend, a Facebook group called Marines United was exposed for sharing thousands of images of nude photos of female Marines, many of which were taken or shared without their knowledge. The male-exclusive group, which had nearly 30,000 members before Facebook shut it down at the request of the USMC Monday morning, did not accept females or anyone who was not a Marine, a Fleet Navy Corpsman, or a British Royal Marine to join. The community also reportedly shared a communal database on a Google Drive account which categorized women in the Marines by name, rank, and branch of service. While the subject of sexual assault in the military is nothing new, the latest scandal coming to light has brought the conversation back to the forefront and has inspired some victims to rise up and speak out about the ongoing sexual harassment they’ve been subjected to while serving. American Military News spoke to some of these women who now feel compelled to vocalize their opinions and share their stories. Erika Butner is a 23-year-old former Radio Operator who left the service in 2015. “Surely, this scandal has never been a new incident within the military, but I am glad it is finally getting the recognition it deserves,” Butner told American Military News. “As a rape survivor, I can tell you that this exact behavior of sexualizing and objectifying women is why so much sexual harassment runs unchecked in the Corps. It’s become so normalized in the military that women just have to deal with it alone.” She went on to say while the latest news has implored some victimized women to speak out, those who do are subjected to backlash. ADVERTISEMENT “The multiple people speaking out about it are receiving threats and backlash about it, and that’s why victims won’t come forward, to begin with. I think the ‘boys will be boys’ excuse needs to stop, along with the victim blaming because it normalizes aggression and gives these people an excuse to justify their behavior. I applaud everyone who was a part of bringing this scandal to light, because now some young female lance corporal will see this and know she can speak up for herself.” Butner reinforced the fact that she would not back down from speaking out, regardless of negative response she might experience. “I will never stop speaking out against this for as long as I live,” she continued. “Even if they had naked photos of me, the only thing I would be shameful about is being silent.” American Military News also spoke to a second woman, who is currently on active duty and wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from her unit. “The sexual harassment is a large part of the many reason I have chosen not to extend my career with the Marines,” she told American Military News. “My father was a Marine, and I was always taught that there was this brotherhood, this sisterhood that would protect you from this kind of thing. But it isn’t true, and I feel betrayed.” When asked if she felt that there was a real possibility that she would be sexually assaulted she said there was. “Yes, I do think so,” she said. “It’s scary that this is a reality for women. I know so many women who spoke out and used their real name, and the threats they are getting are scary. They’re worried.” ADVERTISEMENT The woman added that her image has been shared across the Marine United Facebook community and that it has yet to stop. “I was posted multiple times on Marines United,” she continued. “I was posted as recently as last week. It still hasn’t stopped. I have urged other women to come forward, to speak to NCIS, and to make sure the guys perpetrating these acts are held accountable by the military.” American Military News reached out to HQ Marine Corps for comment, but they did not respond in time for publication. Editor’s Note: This piece has been edited to reflect American Military News’ current editorial standards.

The same utopian principle of the Internet — it allows people to communicate freely around the globe — makes it an appealing target not just for government surveillance but also for corporate surveillance in the form of brand insights mining. In all of that free and open communication, corporations want to know what’s being said about their brands. And a picture is worth a thousand words. Images continue to pose a greater challenge to the artificial intelligence systems than text, but with more than half a billion images shared online every day, corporations really want to know what users are conveying about their brands. Ditto Labs, a Boston-based social analytics company, is using emerging computer vision technologies to give them answers. It uses computer vision to identify logos in the photos shared on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumbler. The system also recognizes some telltale patterns, such as a Burberry plaid. If a product is anything more than an unwitting backdrop for the photo, the service then uses emotion recognition algorithms to report what the people in the photograph are most likely feeling. Emotion recognition is an emerging area of artificial intelligence. Some of the basic techniques emerged from research designed to teach children with autism to recognize others’ feelings. Several companies now offer the service as an SDK for other companies to build into their apps and services. Using metadata and basic facial recognition, Ditto Labs can also tell companies when and where people use their products, what race and roughly how old they are, what they’re doing in photos before and after using the products are all available for corporate marketers. Although readers who use social media may well feel violated by this kind of reporting, the terms of service of most sites make photos public. Those who post photos to Twitter and Pinterest must share publicly. Instagram defaults to public settings for photos, but users can limit them to approved followers. Facebook is the most private in this regard; users must opt into the Ditto app. With strong demand for this kind of information, it seems likely the photos we share will be subject to more AI applications like this one in the months ahead. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Facebook launch its own platform, given recent investment in AI and the controversial changes it made to Instagram’s privacy policy allowing brands to display users’ photos. Images: Ditto Labs

NYT Pick Keynes Florida 1 day ago In macroeconomic terms, an increase in taxes followed by an equivalent increase in spending (and that therefore does not increase the deficit) increases the GDP. It is called “the balanced budget multiplier” (you can Google it!), BBM. Conversely, a reduction in taxes followed by a reduction in spending reduces the GDP, and therefore increases unemployment. In this particular case (repeal of the ACA), the reduction in taxes benefits higher income people who have a relatively low “marginal propensity to consume” (Google it!), MPC, and negatively affects lower income people, who have a relatively higher MPC. The net effect is that a reduction in taxes and an equal reduction in spending will decrease the GDP by an amount larger than the reduction in taxes. The effect on the unemployment rate will be larger than predicted by the BBM. Will the repeal of the ACA be the trigger for the next recession/depression? How long will it take for the country to be plunged into a depression? (a) two years (b) four years (c) eight years. It will depend on how large are the tax and spending cuts. GWB managed to do it in eight years, but he started with a stronger economy and made no significant spending cuts. Flag Flag 931 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick PeterS Boston, MA 1 day ago Mr. Krugman is right that Mr. Obama has left the country in near top shape for Mr. Trump and it is unlikely that expansion will last forever. Incidentally, things getting worse may not even be Mr. Trump's doing. While we liberals are not cheering for the success of most Trump's policies, all conscientious citizens should be extra vigilant when economic turns bad and lives get tough. History has repeatedly told us that tough times were the breeding group for authoritarians and fascists. Demagogues never had solutions but they had risen by channeling the anger of the people against chosen minorities. I hope that America will stay prosperous despite Trump and his regressive policies will be reversed over time. I hope that if bad economic times will come, we will choose a wise and compassionate leader next time to take us out of it. However, history should have taught us to be watchful; this election has shown that the wisdom of, we, the American people is not infallible. Flag Flag 768 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick michael kittle vaison la romaine, france 1 day ago It's now clear that the Trump agenda is to spend the next four years dismantling every social program that is designed to help people in need. This includes, medicaid, medicare, social security, public schools as they currently exist, food stamps, rent support, Obamacare, etc. Voters will be told that a privatized version of these programs is cheaper and will reach more people. These are lies. In fact, we appear to have arrived at the age of the big lie which will be repeated over and over whenever someone objects to a Trump at right program. With majorities in both houses, nothing will stop this overhall of safety net programs short of a new administration and a new president. My personal belief is that we Americans have a puritanical streak that runs throughout our national psyche that has been suppressed by liberal leaning democrats over the years. This suppression has now broke through to the surface in the name of overthrowing political correctness. The women's March was a powerful and healthy reaction to Trump. Americans can now channel that same energy in replacing Trump's agenda both now and in the next presidential election! Flag Flag 1390 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick ghandler new jersey 1 day ago You are right that we are "better than that". Unemployment is down, crime is low, health coverage is high, wages are up. But the reality is that the opposition can't run a campaign on that. You can't just praise the incumbent and the potential successor from his party. So DT chose to address his campaign to a set of people for whom this was not all true- the ones who lost jobs to automation and other environmental changes; To the ones whose work was exported to cheaper labor sites. And it is true, that if he tries to change those accomplishments then things will get worse. It is also true that if he does not satisfy his base then they will be on his case and perhaps he will accomplish nothing. So, he has the famous gordian know- what now? It is also true that he is making things worse by acting like a child, and saying NAH-AH. To say his base has to live with the consequences is short sighted- we all have to live with the consequences. For the rest of us, a good slogan is "we are better than that, and always will be". Focus on not letting the government undo 50 years of progress. If they defund Planned Parenthood, let's all donate. If a company is not producing goods and services that enhances our lives, that violates the environment for us all, that is acting against our values, then divest their stocks, stop buying their goods. He is the president for now, we can't just say we are doomed- ACT; not just complain about the what has happened- let's work on the future. Flag Flag 746 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Bruce Rozenblit is a trusted commenter Kansas City, MO 1 day ago Everything Trump says in regard to populist policy is meaningless. He will enact an extreme right agenda. Paul Ryan is experiencing heaven on earth. Yesterday, the chief propagandist and truth destroyer, Kellyanne, queen of the house of alternate facts and post truth America, stated that Medicaid will go to a block grant system. This is just the beginning of the dismantling of the New Deal and Great Society. The reasoning is that doing so will put control closer to the people. Baloney! The people don't need more control, they need money. Medicare is an open ended system. If it goes to block grants, that puts a hard limit on federal participation. It will then start running out of money and have to deny coverage. The states will have to make up the deficits, but they wont. They are controlled by Republicans who will not raise taxes no mater what. In fact, Republicans are cutting states taxes left and right, causing massive problems all over the land. The result will be rapid reduction in services. Many, if not most, people in nursing homes are on Medicaid. That costs about $100,000/yr. What about them? Physician residents are largely financed by Medicaid and Medicare. The money will dry up for doctor training. It is underfunded already. But with these cuts in spending, the deficit will explode because Trump will enact huge tax cuts for the super rich and big business. The populism act was just an act. It was an alternate fact. Flag Flag 516 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Victor Cambridge 1 day ago The incoming administration has already begun the process of hiding (possibly destroying) climate data that it does not like; any economic data that the administration does not like may well suffer the same fate. Climate scientists and others have already taken the step of making backup copies of crucial data stored on government web sites. If there is raw economic/census data of interest to economists that is currently stored on servers operated by the federal government, they should urgently consider doing the same. We need to be prepared for the likely scenario that over the next four years we will be fed a steady stream of "alternative facts" (otherwise known as falsehoods) about the state of the economy that conform to the administration's fantasies. It is incumbent on those of us who still have a fact-based worldview to be able to counter these "alternative facts" with actual facts. I hope that public-facing economists like Paul Krugman will continue to use their position to focus attention on this issue and urge economists to prepare for the eventuality that many government statistics on which they rely may soon become unavailable and/or unreliable. The starting point of any useful rational debate is (true) data. For all its incompetence, the new administration knows this well and is likely to do everything it can to make such data unavailable. Flag Flag 1198 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Jeremy Saks Pelham, New York 1 day ago Well said, Dr. Krugman. Much of the federal government's function is to gather, analyze and report to lawmakers on facts relevant to their decision-making. For most of President Obama's administration, Congress has seen a rising tide of anti-government members intent on discrediting the information coming out of government agencies for the purpose of discounting the role of government in improving the lives of Americans. Those of us to the left (and center) have comforted ourselves that the deep unpopularity of Congress indicates that the bulk of the American people don't buy this anti-science, anti-government agenda, but are stymied by structural impediments (gerrymandering) that will fall with the inevitable leftward march of demographics. A key danger of the Trump presidency is that, by pitting his administration against the facts and analysis produced by agencies it controls, the executive branch will legitimize deniers of fact and may suppress analysis normally used to make government work more efficiently and to the benefit of Americans. Will the pain we're likely to feel as a nation under the Trump Administration finally motivate us to wrest away power from those who believe the only good use of government is in its dismantling? Or will Trump's campaign against the truth (and against truth's champions in the press) poison the well so much that we willingly turn away from our most cherished institutions and, ultimately, from each other? Flag Flag 535 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Klord American Expat 1 day ago I am an American expat living in Canada. When then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted to restrict the flow of information, he abolished the long form census, muzzled scientists working for the federal government, and scoured climate data from government websites. As private individuals, we even had to print out information ourselves for our eighth-grader doing a science project because we had the sneaking suspicion that the relevant data were about to be removed -- and we were right. The information was deleted several weeks before the project was judged. With all due respect to felines (and to Harper's unstinting service on behalf of the same) and with awareness of DJT's comments about women, Harper is a pussycat in comparison with what we Americans are about to experience. Flag Flag In Reply to Victor 438 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick KKPA New Hope, PA 1 day ago We have one possible source of salvation: top Trump aides and appointees and courageous Senators and Congressmen and women who are prepared to stand up to President Trump. But is this a case like the famous fairy tale, The Emperor Has No Clothes? In that story, the Emperor was naked but his aides were told that if they did not "see" the clothes, that meant they were unfit and incompetent. So they all kept silent till one child blurted out "The Emperor is naked". Trump does not trust the media or the intelligence community. President Trump's closest, trusted associates must tell him the truth or we are doomed. Flag Flag 229 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick George Mandanis San Rafael, CA 1 day ago During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump castigated American companies selling goods in the U.S. produced by them in other countries. First, he committed himself to erect new barriers with a 15 percent tax on companies for outsourcing jobs and a 20 percent tax for importing goods. Later on in the campaign, he said, again and again, that he would impose a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports. Both were wrongheaded ideas because (1) they would start trade wars and (2) the main cause of domestic unemployment in recent years has been labor-displacing technology, not outsourcing. As projected in this article, unemployment will start rising again but President Trump won’t be able to do contain it. Heavy import tariffs, never a cure, would indeed start a destructive trade war. Fighting innovation would be as nonsensical for many reasons including the growing trend of technology to produce more jobs than it kills. Would the erecting of high walls around Continental U.S., including along our coastal areas facing the Atlantic and pacific, be his answer? Welcome to the tough realities of actually serving as President, Mr. Trump. Flag Flag 108 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick joanne Pennsylvania 1 day ago I'm married to an investment broker. It's always about the global market. The fear and risk of Trump is a big populist reaction in Europe and aspects still related to China. Their falling economies and ultimate depressions may well come before, then prompt our next depression. No one is thrilled about a trillion dollar spending plan that Trump doesn't comprehend could adversely impact us. And a roll back in regulations and monitoring of brokers could bring on the bubbles again. His impulsive vindictive maneuvers on trade while being inexperienced could backfire. Health care could be particularly turbulent as medical services providers suffer from the hapless "repeal and replace." We're in a bad place. Flag Flag 231 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Michael Boston 1 day ago I am actually heartened by his rant to the CIA over the weekend. To say that it is critical to get America's intelligence agencies on his side is a vast understatement for reasons that I think are obvious. He failed in such a complete, public, and absurd way that I am now convinced that he is his own worst enemy. This is not to say that he is not a threat to our country. His boundless incompetence will hurt this country, but, I do not fear his propaganda machine. Surely they will spend most of their time covering for Trump's personal failings. Flag Flag 172 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick David Sproat Allison Park, PA 1 day ago Professor Krugman, Sean Hannity claims that there are 95 million people unemployed or under employed in the United States today. You say that unemployment is at 5% or less. How can we substantiate either? Thanks Flag Flag 43 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Fred NYC 1 day ago Paul, For once you got it completely wrong. There is carnage in America. We are unemployed, we have too much regulation and our country is unsafe - hordes of illegal immigrant criminals and chaos and dysfunction in our cities not to mention bad trade deals and a press which is out to get our President. Paul, you need to gather and cite the facts. The alternative facts. Flag Flag 53 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick robert s marrakech 1 day ago As Kellyann says , he has an alternate truth........ We are doomed. Flag Flag 102 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter NYT Pick Kev NY 1 day ago How can we have critical thinking skills when those 50% believe in fake news. They don't even bother to look up what was said. Sorrowful state we live in when fake news wins the critical thinking skills of the populace. Flag Flag In Reply to Geof 161 Recommend Recommend Share this comment on Facebook Share this comment on Twitter Loading...

There’s a Margaret Atwood quote that I can’t get out of my head these days: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Last Friday, a young man from Washington state walked into his high school cafeteria and shot five people, killing one young woman. Early reports from other students indicate that the shooter, who reportedly shot himself, was upset over a girl. In early October, Mary Spears was shot to death in Detroit, allegedly by a man whose advances she rejected at a social club. In April, a Connecticut teen stabbed his classmate to death when she rejected his prom invitation. Turning men down is a risky business. But the madness doesn’t stop there. From Gamergate to mass shootings to domestic violence and the NFL – the common denominator is male rage. Women are not committing most acts of mass and individual violence, nor are women lobbing out most death threats online or raping most college students. Violence – and the threat of it – remains a decidedly male domain. But why are men so violently angry? According to Harvard researcher Ronald Kessler, explosive anger – defined as a response “grossly out of proportion to the situation” – is two to three times more likely to occur in male teens, and twice as likely in adult men. Men are more likely to kill and be killed than women, and more likely to commit suicide: men’s anger hurts men, too. Jackson Katz, author of The Macho Paradox, wrote that for men, “anger is much less treacherous emotional terrain than other emotions – and much more socially acceptable.” [C]ountless men deal with their vulnerability by transferring vulnerable feelings to feelings of anger. The anger then serves to ‘prove’ that they are not, in fact, vulnerable, which would imply they are not man enough to take the pressure. Women do get angry, but experts say we just handle the emotion differently. Psychologist Sandra Thomas, who conducted a large-scale study on women’s anger in 1993, told the American Psychological Association 10 years later, “Men have been encouraged to be more overt with their anger,” while women direct it inwards. Little has changed since then: we’ve still taught to be “nice”, that lying is often preferable to open conflict and that anger is unattractive and unfeminine. But it’s hard to look at the continued violence and violent speech directed at women by men and not wonder: what is it about women that makes some men so angry? Is it the fear that women’s progress means a loss of all that shiny male privilege? That our society is a zero sum game and power can’t be shared? Maybe some men’s anger stems from good old-fashioned misogyny, which is then stoked by political, social and cultural forces that say there’s nothing lower in this world than a woman so how dare she ... well, anything. Or perhaps that anger at women comes from straight-up entitlement: the men who believe that women are meant to be there for them, whether it’s to wash their toilets or warm their beds, and that denying them access to us is an unthinkable affront. But it’s no coincidence that anti-feminist backlash happens most often when women’s rights are on an upswing. And male anger towards women isn’t going anywhere – if anything, it’s gaining steam. Online forums that provide anonymity are creating spaces for men to say the things they no longer can in “real life”, police and courts that disbelieve and blame women for the violence done to them give men the impression their bad behavior is acceptable and a conservative movement that refuses to let go of traditional gender roles teaches our children that being a man is synonymous with being “tough”, having guns and, yes, being violent. If we want to put a dent in male anger and the chaos it creates, we need to stop looking at problems like sexual assault, harassment, domestic violence and even violent threats online and assigning their solutions to feminists. We need to stop calling them “just women’s issues”. We have to address men and men’s behavior together - not just their direct violence against women, but their propensity to protect their own. Not the outcomes of their rage, but the causes. Because, until we do, we’ll continue to be afraid. All of us.

Michael "Frosti" Zernow is a contestant from Survivor: China. Frosti was one of the strongest challenge competitors on the ill-fated Zhan Hu tribe. After a Tribe Switch, he managed to ingratiate himself with the dominant Fei Long Alliance, which protected him for the first two post-merge Tribal Councils. However, the Fei Long Alliance soon identified him as a major threat, and hastily voted him out at the final 8. Contents show] Profile Retrieved from CBS.com Originally from Traverse City, Michigan (he attended Central High School there), Michael "Frosti" Zernow is currently a film student at Columbia College in Chicago (he's in his junior year). Half Japanese/half Russian, Zernow has been practicing Parkour and free-running for over five years and has been hired as a traceur (a practitioner of Parkour) and free-runner in television, advertisements and corporate events, including one of Madonna's world tours. (Parkour is essentially making the environment into an obstacle course. Through running jumping, or climbing, all obstacles can be overcome and all destinations are reachable. Free-running takes the movements of Parkour and adds style and flair. Think along the lines of urban gymnastics and building break dancing). In high school, Zernow was captain of the wrestling and track teams. In addition, he practiced Aikido, a form of martial art that both his parents teach. While still in high school, he was suspended for a day because he dressed up like a Ninja and climbed on the roof of the school. Zernow describes himself as creative, dynamic and determined. His hobbies include art, social philosophy and skateboarding. He recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong, where he hiked up a mountain with friends wearing three-dollar sandals. Zernow currently resides in Chicago. His birth date is February 15, 1987.[1] Survivor Frosti started on the Zhan Hu tribe. When Zhan Hu lost the first two Immunity Challenges he joined his tribe in voting out Chicken Morris and Ashley Massaro. On Day 12, he voted with the majority of his tribe in ousting Dave Cruser. After the tribe switch on Day 13, Frosti and fellow Zhan Hu tribe mate Sherea Lloyd were switched to Fei Long. When he caught Todd Herzog and Amanda Kimmel finding the Fei Long Hidden Immunity Idol he joined the Fei Long Alliance and helped them vote out his Zhan Hu tribemate, Sherea, on Day 18. Even though he was an original Zhan Hu member Frosti decided to stay with the Fei Long alliance at the merge. He won the first Individual Immunity Challenge and voted with his alliance to eliminate former tribe mate Jamie. He continued to vote with his alliance to blindside Jean-Robert Bellande. Despite members of the opposite alliance still being in the game, Frosti was voted out on Day 27 due to his closeness with Courtney Yates. At Final Tribal Council, as a juror he cast his vote for Todd to win. Voting History Frosti's Voting History Episode Frosti's Votes Voted Against Frosti 1 Chicken - 2 Ashley - 3 Zhan Hu Tribe Immune 4 Dave - 5 Fei Long Tribe Immune 6 Sherea - 7 Jaime Individual Immunity 8 Jean-Robert - 9 Erik Amanda, Courtney, Denise, Erik, James, Peih-Gee, Todd Voted Out, Day 27 Voted for Sole Survivor Todd Post-Survivor Competing in G4's A merican Ninja Warrior 3 , he qualified, unlike Ozzy Lusth who did not qualify in a previous season. He managed to qualify in the top 15 in semi finals giving him a spot for Boot Camp. However, he had to forfeit his spot in the Boot Camp round due to an injury during practice sessions. , he qualified, unlike Ozzy Lusth who did not qualify in a previous season. He managed to qualify in the top 15 in semi finals giving him a spot for Boot Camp. However, he had to forfeit his spot in the Boot Camp round due to an injury during practice sessions. He later appeared in G4's Jump City: Seattle . . He then competed in American Ninja Warrior 4 in the south west region and made it to Las Vegas where he failed on the jumping spider. in the south west region and made it to Las Vegas where he failed on the jumping spider. In 2014, Frosti was hired by Ubisoft to be a part of the team of the Assasin's Creed game. [2] game. In 2016, Frosti was in a Mountain Dew commercial with NBA stars Jimmy Butler, Julius Randle, and Russell Westbrook.[3] Trivia Frosti is the youngest contestant on Survivor: China . Frosti is the first contestant under the age of 21 years to compete on Survivor . . Frosti and James Clement are the only castaways of Survivor: China to reach the merged tribe and participate in a Tribe Switch.

Janet C. Phelan Activist Post Reichel Everhart, the Deputy Director of the California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), has declined to respond to questions as to the functioning of the Professional Fiduciaries Bureau, which is housed in the DCA. Nor will she respond to written requests to direct the Bureau to respond to public records act requests in a manner which would be considered legal. The two records requests in question, one made to the PFB in January of 2012 and the other made in April of 2012, produced email responses which were highly problematic. The proper format to respond to a public records act request is by letter, as emails may not be considered legal tender. In fact, if there were a legal challenge to the content of the responses, the emails might not be admissable in a court of law. In an email dated January 27, 2012, DCA Press Officer Russ Heimerich replied to a public records act request for the policies and procedures manual in use by the PFB, admitting there were no such written records. Clearly, for a government agency to be operating in a vacuum of written guidelines is unheard of. The terminology used for such an absence of written procedures is “underground guidelines,” which, according to attorney Bruce Ebert, are simply illegal. The request was made due to the mounting evidence that the PFB has gone rogue. Top of the list of concerns is the fact that the agency is closing complaints with no legal basis to do so. The tiny PFB, staffed by only one analyst, Angela Bigelow, and a part-time bureau chief, Gil DeLuna, serves the critical function of overseeing and licensing professional conservators and fiduciaries. The complaints which have been closed by the Bureau include allegations of theft, embezzlement and profound physical and medical abuse. A number of the complaints have alleged that the abuse of the elderly or disabled person resulted in death. Queries made as to the reason for complaint closure have met with silence. Guardianship abuse is admittedly a hot button item. The abuses being committed against these vulnerable citizens has reached a critical point, and grassroots groups have sprung up across the country in an effort to address this. Activists, such as Bonnie Reiter and Dr. Robert Sarhan, each of whom allege that a conservator caused the untimely death of a parent, have visited D.C., met with Congressmen, written letters to the media, made reports to the FBI, all with no ostensible results. Another public records request tendered in April asked for interagency memos advising the Bureau that they would be protected for failing to investigate or prosecute claims of conservator crimes. PFB Chief Gil Deluna replied—via email– that there were no such records. DeLuna was repeatedly contacted asking if he would put his reply in the form of a letter and has not replied. Download Your First Issue Free! Do You Want to Learn How to Become Financially Independent, Make a Living Without a Traditional Job & Finally Live Free? Download Your Free Copy of Counter Markets The record of the DCA in prosecuting complaints speaks for itself. The most recent available annual report — for 2010 — lists, under the Conviction/Arrest notification category, that there were zero arrests made, zero pending and zero referred for investigation. Zero inspections were conducted and zero citations were issued. There were zero referrals for criminal action made and zero for civil. The report states that, in terms of cost recovery to complainants, zero dollars had been ordered and zero dollars had been collected. In a conversation several months ago, DCA Deputy Director Reichel Everhart sounded shocked to learn that the PFB had no written guidelines. She promised to speak with PFB Chief DeLuna and get back to this reporter promptly. Since then, Everhart has been unavailable for comment and has not fulfilled her promise. The Bureau appears to be operating under a cloak of secrecy and provides little transparency as to its functioning. Issues of concern include that agency’s negligence in advising complainants that their complaints were closed. Several complainants, including Joe Quattrochi and Gina Rilke, were surprised to learn that their complaints were closed over a year ago as they were never so informed. Nor will the agency provide the file of the complaint, including any scrap of work product, to the complainant upon request. It’s all hush-hush. American Natural Superfood - Free Sample The Professional Fiduciaries Bureau was created by an act of the Legislature in 2006, following an investigative series into conservatorship abuse, published in the Los Angeles Times. The abuses detailed in the series, “Guardians for Profit—When a Family Matter becomes a Business,” produced a public outcry and the Legislature swung into action, passing the Omnibus Conservatorship Reform Act of 2006.The Bureau’s funding was subsequently line item vetoed for two years in a row by Governor Schwarzenegger, and thus only opened its doors for business in late 2008. The Bureau is tasked with holding public meetings four times a year. Per its own website, there have been no public meetings in eight months, since October of last year. Activists and conservatorship abuse victims became interested in these public meetings and started to attend them last year. The meetings were then apparently discontinued. Former Assemblyman Dave Jones was a primary author of the legislation which created the Bureau. Jones, now California Insurance Commissioner, has declined to reply to questions as to what has happened to his brainchild. Speaking under conditions of anonymity, Jones’ staffer angrily suggested that such questions were inappropriate. Read other articles by Janet Phelan HERE. Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The San Bernardino County Sentinel, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications. Janet specializes in issues pertaining to legal corruption and addresses the heated subject of adult conservatorship, revealing shocking information about the relationships between courts and shady financial consultants. She also covers issues relating to international bioweapons treaties. Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. Her first book, The Hitler Poems, was published in 2005. She currently resides abroad. You may browse through her articles (and poetry) at janetphelan.com

Hands-on with Google’s Visual Search for Android With so much information out there in the world, Internet search engines are crucial for acquiring knowledge. Accessible through the web browser on your desktop or laptop PC, a dedicated app on your smartphone or tablet, or through your voice on a smartwatch or home assistant device – you have so many options available to find the information you’re looking for. The vast majority of web searches are still performed via text queries, though the advent of Google Goggles was a promising start at bringing visual search to the masses. Sadly, Goggles has fallen by the wayside due to a lack of updates, but the recent announcement of Google Lens at I/O seems to be reviving the concept. We were able to get a hands on with the Google App’s new Visual Search feature, though we can’t confirm if this is the same feature as Google Lens. Google’s Visual Search From what little we know of how Google Lens actually works, it appears to be Google Goggles on steroids. Google’s image recognition is already incredibly powerful, but thanks to Google’s growing AI prowess Google Lens will not only be able to identify all different kinds of objects but it will also be able to provide contextual results. Lens will be able to interface with other Google services to provide more personalized feedback. In theory, anyways. Besides a quick demonstration at Google I/O showcasing WiFi network connecting, there’s a lot of specifics about Google Lens that we don’t know of. But at the very least, we can take a look at what its interface may look like within the Google App. Please note that the following screenshots may not be representative of the final Google Visual Search product. The feature is clearly marked as “BETA”, so our issues with the service (detailed below) may be resolved by the final release. Furthermore, this means that the interface may be subject to change. As you can see, the interface consists of a large camera viewfinder in the top half of the screen along with a list of categories at the bottom. The image recognition categories consist of: All Clothing Shoes Handbags Sunglasses Barcodes Products Places Cats Dogs Flowers When you select a category, we suspect that Visual Search narrows its database to complete the query much more quickly. In any case, once you’ve selected a category (or stick with “all”), then to start searching you simply tap anywhere in the camera viewfinder. If the surrounding area is too dark, you can enable the camera flash by tapping on the flash icon in the top left-hand corner. Performing a search will bring up a card view list of results. You can swipe left and right to view all of the results. Tapping on a result will open up a Google search page related to that object or product, though you can easily opt to go through the search page on another result by scrolling through the mini card view on top of the search page. Opening the three-dot menu on any visual search result also brings up the ability to directly access the image source, much like Google’s desktop image search. We tested Visual Search on both static images sourced from the web as well as live pictures. As you would expect, visual search performs admirably on static images, but we were unable to get this beta version working with live pictures. I tried to get it to recognize a DualShock 4 wireless controller for the PlayStation 4 as well as my own Google Home, but in neither cases was it able to recognize it. Given the fact that this is a beta testing version that we get our hands on, we can’t say that this is a fault of the product. I would honestly be shocked if the live version of Visual Search would be unable to recognize something like a Google Home (though a part of me hopes it would hilariously mistake it as an air freshener). Is Visual Search the same as Google Lens? None of the searches we performed showed any signs of the intelligence that Google Lens demonstrated on stage at Google I/O. However, several strings within the latest Google App APK file do show a connection between the two. Within the search_widget.xml layout file is a line that mentions that the Google search widget may add a button to launch Visual Search. But what’s most interesting is the fact that the drawable that will visually identify this feature to the user is named “google_lens.” <ImageButton android:orientation="horizontal" android:id="@id/search_widget_visual_search" android:background="@drawable/search_box_click_on_transparent" android:paddingLeft="8.0dip" android:paddingTop="8.0dip" android:paddingBottom="8.0dip" android:visibility="gone" android:layout_width="56.0dip" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:src="@drawable/google_lens" android:scaleType="centerInside" android:contentDescription="@string/accessibility_visual_search_button" android:layoutDirection="locale" /> This icon, shown above, is the exact same logo that was shown during the Google Lens announcement at Google I/O. In addition, this same icon shows up in another file, called navigation_menu.xml. This file defines what elements will show up in the sidebar menu of the Google App. The name of this new feature will be called Visual Search but its icon is from Lens. <com.google.android.apps.gsa.shared.ui.drawer.DrawerEntry android:id="@id/visual_search" android:tag="ve=37333;track:click" android:visibility="gone" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" thegoogle:imageSrc="@drawable/quantum_ic_google_lens_grey600_24" thegoogle:text="@string/visual_search" /> Thus, it’s not too hard to put two-and-two together. It’s very likely that Google’s Visual Search is in fact Google Lens, though what makes me a bit hesitant is the fact that this is accessed from the Google App rather than within Google Assistant which is what was promised at Google I/O. Plus, since I was unable to get any of the smart features working (and the interface didn’t resemble the one shown at Google I/O), I can’t definitively claim that what I played around with is Google Lens. Still, we’re excited to see how well Google Lens works in practice, especially given the rather disappointing effort on the part of Samsung’s Bixby Vision. Google’s I/O demonstration was neat, but I would personally hold off until we can try it out for ourselves. What do you think of Google Lens? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The Annual Coal Report (ACR) provides annual data on U.S. coal production, number of mines, productive capacity, recoverable reserves, employment, productivity, consumption, stocks, and prices. All data for 2017 and previous years are final. Highlights for 2017: U.S. coal production increased 6.4% year over year to 774.6 million short tons (MMst). The total productive capacity of U.S. coal mines was 1,058.6 MMst, a decrease of 0.9% from the 2016 level. The average number of employees at U.S. coal mines increased 2.4% from the 2016 level to 53,051 employees. U.S. coal mining productivity, as measured by average production per employee hour, decreased 0.9% from the 2016 level to 6.55 short tons per employee hour. U.S. coal consumption decreased 1.9% from the 2016 level to 716.9 MMst. The electric power sector accounted for about 92.8% of the total U.S. coal consumed in 2017. Average sales price of bituminous coal was $55.60 per short ton, a 14.9% increase from the 2016 level. The average sales price of subbituminous coal was $14.29 per short ton, a 3.6% decrease from the 2016 level. The average sales price of thermal coal decreased by 3.0% from the 2016 level to $26.53 per short ton., The average sales price of metallurgical coal increased 61.76% from the 2016 level to $132.82 per short ton. Total U.S. coal stocks ended at 167.0 MMst, 13.7% lower than at the same time in 2016. Electric power coal stocks decrease by 24.8 MMst to 137.7 MMst at the end of 2017. Contact: Coal Data Contacts

As the fallout from the Sony hack continues, who is to blame for the leak of movies including Fury, which has been downloaded a million times? According to the UK Prime Minister's former IP advisor, as "facilitators" web-hosts and ISPs must step up and take some blame. Last week’s massive hack of Sony Pictures could hardly have been more high-profile and if reports thus far are to be believed, damage to the company could be significant. Rather than dropping away, this week momentum is building. In addition to the early leaks, available on BitTorrent networks right now is a 25.87GB data dump featuring the personal details of Sony staff including their names, addresses, salaries and social security numbers. Not only is this file damaging (it reveals rather healthy executive remuneration packages) it’s also adding to the already considerable mystery surrounding the case. Early in the torrent’s life, dozens of Sony-linked Amazon IP addresses were observed on the torrent provoking theories ranging from honey-pots to hijacked servers. Another mysterious element emerging now involves the torrent’s unique hash. Search for 957DC0A8 04EB8C28 2F33988E B9096974 FC3761C9 using Google or Bing and there are zero results (at least before publication of this article) which is extremely unusual indeed. Whichever way this torrent made its way online, it almost certainly wasn’t via any conventional route. As the drama continues, finding someone to blame for the whole debacle is at the forefront. Speculation is rife, with accusatory fingers being pointed as far away as North Korea and as close to home as current Sony employees. It comes as no surprise, however, that picking on easier targets has already slipped onto the agenda. As first reported here on TF, following the hacks last week several unreleased Sony movies leaked online. Fury, featuring Brad Pitt, was by far the highest profile and today we can confirm that the title has been downloaded by BitTorrent users more than a million times. Fury – Now downloaded more than a million times But with Kim Jong Un beyond Western justice and millions of torrent users too much of a headache to round up, the middle men are yet again being drawn into the fight. Mike Weatherley MP, the recent IP advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron, has published several piracy reports including one earlier in the year examining the advertising revenue on pirate sites. He believes that companies with no direct connection to the hack or subsequent leaks should shoulder some blame. “Piracy is a huge international problem. The recent cyber-attack on Sony and subsequent release of films to illegal websites is just one high-profile example of how criminals exploit others’ Intellectual Property,” Weatherley writes in an email to TF. “Unfortunately, the theft of these films – and their subsequent downloads – has been facilitated by web-hosting companies and, ultimately, ISPs who do have to step-up and take some responsibility.” Weatherley doesn’t provide detail on precisely why web-hosts and ISPs should take responsibility for the work of malicious hackers (possibly state-sponsored) and all subsequent fall out from attacks. The theory is that “something” should be done, but precisely what remains elusive. In the UK, on Weatherley’s home turf, almost every major torrent site is already blocked by ISPs. The latest wave arrived in the past few days but with proxy sites appearing even more quickly, progress is limited. Overall, it’s clear that forcing technology companies into shouldering blame for the actions of others is a difficult game and one that has yet to make any noticeable dent in piracy volumes. Still, that won’t stop rightsholders pursuing claims against them and influential characters like Weatherley pushing for reform.

As a backdrop to this very serious situation, I take you to the September 27, 2017 archives of Darin Damme’s show, Reality Check, in which he interviewed Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) regarding the possibillity of a North Korean EMP attack upon the United States. Congressman Franks is quite clear in his admonition of the Obama administration that refused to spend one dime to harden America’s infrastructure. Trents has repeatedly expressed the belief that America is ill-prepared for what the North Koreans could bring to the table. The interview that Franks had with Damme, on Arizona’s largest new/talk state station, was simultaneously stunning and frightening at the same time. The interview between Damme and Franks can be accessed at this link. Franks pretty much repeated what I heard him say at my former church back in 2008. In the interview, Franks identified a number of concerns with regard to the United States being hit by an EMP. First, please allow me to state that any EMP launched against the United States will be sanctioned not only by China by the American Deep State as well. This explains why Obama never moved to protect the grid, despite Trent Franks calls to do so. It is looking more and more as if the establishment, as some call them, have had enough of the rising tide of American populism and the time for the takedown of America and the archaic notions of liberty have their course. It is time for the global elite to put the hammer down. Is Trent Franks alone in his assertion that an EMP attack is a matter of when and not if? Warnings From On High From the Former “Big Sis” Some top officials in government and in business have taken notice of the threat posed to America by an EMP attack. In January of 2013, and again in her August 2013 farewell address as the outgoing Director of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano made it clear that it was a matter of when, not if the grid was taken down by a “cyber 911”. Paul Singer’s Warning Joining the former DHS director in her concerns about an impending EMP attack is billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer who has issued a very dire warning for investors in which he calls the threat of a widespread blackout from an electromagnetic surge the “most significant danger ”in the world.” Singer wrote to clients of his $24.8 billion Elliott Management on in a standard investment update letter stated“Even horrendous nuclear war, except in its most extreme form, can

While the New York fundraiser for Catholic charities always includes the two candidates getting laughs at their rival’s expense, Trump’s lines stuck closely to his campaign’s antagonistic rhetoric after an initially positive start. ADVERTISEMENT “Hillary is so corrupt that she got kicked off the Watergate Commission,” he said. "She got kicked off the Watergate Commission. How corrupt do you have to be to get kicked off the Watergate Commission? Pretty corrupt." The boos first began when Trump made a joke based on the debunked theory that Clinton had been fired from the Watergate Commission. And they deepened when he pivoted to the hacked emails of her top aides. “We’ve learned so much from WikiLeaks,” Trump said. “For example, Hillary believes that it’s vital to deceive the people by having one public policy and a totally different policy in private.” The remark drew loud cries from the audience, to which Trump responded, “That’s okay. I don’t know who they’re angry at, Hillary, you or I.” He prompted another round of booing when he referenced comments from those same leaked emails in which aides wrote dismissively about prominent Christian conservatives in the media. “Here she is in public pretending not to hate Catholics,” Trump said, pressing on through his prepared remarks. At that line, Clinton turned to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan with her eyebrows raised. Trump leaned in once more on the emails, chiding Clinton for an email in which then-Democratic Party vice-chair Donna Brazile appeared to send her campaign a town hall question in advance. “If some of you haven’t noticed, Hillary isn’t laughing as much as all of us,” Trump said. “That’s because she knows the jokes — all of the jokes were given to her in advance by Donna Brazile.” That’s not to say the jokes were all contentious. Trump drew rounds of laughter at the start of his speech with more light-hearted barbs. At the top of his remarks, he acknowledged that the dinner traditionally includes a healthy mixture of self-deprecating jokes from the nominees as well as jabs at their opponents. "They say when you do this kind of event, you always start out with a self-deprecating joke," he said. "Some people think this would be tough for me, but the truth is I'm actually a modest person. In fact, many people tell me modesty is perhaps my best quality, even better than my temperament." Trump joked that the dinner shows that the two candidates can be cordial to each other even after a rough debate. “Hillary accidentally bumped into me and she very civilly said: ‘Pardon me,'" he said. "And I very politely replied, ‘Let me talk to you about that once I get into office.’” “The president told me to stop whining, but I have to say the media is more biased this year than ever before,” he said. “You want the proof? Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it, it’s fantastic, they think she’s absolutely great. My wife Melania gives the exact same speech and people get on her case. I don’t get it, I don’t know why.”

Penny stocks are the lost cost investments giving you a chance to earn thousands of bucks within days. These investments are highly risky, which means that either you can earn good money from it or you may lose all your investments. Your wise decision matters the most in making the selection of most promising stocks and getting profitable results. Which will be the most popular stocks in 2017 and 2018? Some people are thinking it will be oil stocks other are thinking it will be coal stock. There are also lots of people that are excited about bitcoin! I would keep a close eye on marijuana stocks though. Penny stocks can give you millions, but it is not as easy as it seems. This kind of trading requires consistent efforts and hard work only after a long time. Stock traders hear a lot of things from everyone and there are many myths floating about penny stock trading. We’ve shared some of the most common myths about penny stock trading and how you can beat them as an investor: Buy Low Sell High to make Money Most of us would believe on this fact. Stock trading is always about earning by purchasing stocks at low prices and selling them at higher rates. The traders accumulate a lot of stock companies, which they feel can get on the rocket prices in future. Most of the stocks stay at constant prices or immediately drop down the rates. When you buy the stocks on right time, it would go further up. Bottom finishing has never helped anyone and it is barely important in penny stocks. You need good luck for Penny stock trading Trading on stocks and making profits would be more than a dumb luck. You have to do intensive research for trading the right stocks. Selecting the stock before thinking is never going to help you. Penny oil stocks investments can get gain by hard work and constant efforts in making the right selection. Penny stocks can be picked by the expert advice, but your intensive research is important to guarantee the better results. You need to be an expert to make money Trading penny stocks require professional approach, but it is not true that beginners can’t make money out of these investments. The people who pick right stocks at the right time will be able to make good money from these stocks. You don’t have to be born professional for this purpose. Penny stock assistant will pick the right stocks for you and give you amazing profits. Penny stocks can give you every day gains and if you’re not choosing them; you might miss out high profits. There are many software applications available for choosing the most profitable penny stocks to purchase. You can make the best moves by selecting the stocks having a probability for higher gains. Penny stock investments are risky, but these are beneficial too. It is important for the investors to make the well-informed moves. Don’t become greedy to earn money in the shortest time. Instead, spend adequate time on the right stocks and make the desired move to invest wisely. Penny stock investments are highly suspicious and require time and efforts for understanding them well. You can get a lot of information about these stocks online.…

If you haven’t been following our twitter (which you totally should, we’re @AlienworksDev) then you might have missed that our last couple character redesigns are complete! But fret not – that’s what blog posts are for. Senri is the most recent of the new updates, and also the last to be completed. While we’re all sad to see her painfully out-of-season crop top go, the new jacket that she’s sporting is both warmer and a little more memorable. Aside from Senri, recently, Myuto also finished Setsuna’s new look. Hers wasn’t so much a redesign as it was a modernization – her coat was tailored a bit, and she’s just been updated to fit the new style. Aside from just generally looking better, it’s our hope that this new look will be an easier match for the CG artists, too. While there will probably still be a bit of disconnect between the sprite and the CG style, we’re trying to minimize that as much as we can. To the best of her knowledge, these should be the final designs moving forward for the rest of the game. You can see all the girls below, also scaled for appropriate relative heights. Did you know that Setsuna’s tall? We should probably mention that in the demo somewhere.

By Brad McElhinny in News | August 31, 2017 at 9:59AM CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On the heels of Gov. Jim Justice’s party switch, more West Virginians now disapprove of the governor than approve of him, according to the latest MetroNews West Virginia Poll. The latest version of the poll, released today, shows that 34 percent approve of Justice as governor while 44 percent disapprove. Twenty-two percent of those who responded are not sure. “You do have reaction to the party change that creates negativity potentially,” said professional pollster Rex Repass, who constructed the questions for the West Virginia Poll. “So I think he’s in transition from being an ultra successful business person to a governmental leader.” The popularity of Justice, a billionaire businessman before being elected governor last year, is one of several assessments of political figures through interviews with 400 likely voters in West Virginia conducted between August 11-20. This version of the poll showed that in that snapshot, President Donald Trump’s popularity remains high in West Virginia compared to the rest of the nation — although not as high as some other polls have indicated. The poll also shows support more split than usual for Senator Shelley Moore Capito with support remaining solid for Senator Joe Manchin leading into a competitive race for the seat he holds. Governor Jim Justice It was Justice who fared the worst in the poll’s results among registered Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian, Mountain Party and unaffiliated or independent voters. Likely voters in all 55 West Virginia counties were represented in the survey, modeled to the number of registered voters based on data from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office. Justice, who won office convincingly last November as a Democrat, switched parties to Republican on August. 3 at a rally in Huntington for President Donald Trump. The governor cited his close relationship with the Trump family as well as his disappointment with Democratic lawmakers during this past legislative session. The polling period occurred during the fallout of Justice’s staff, such as his firing of Democratic chief of staff Nick Casey. The period also included Justice’s absence from the Capitol to recover from an infection. The deeper statistics within the poll results show party affiliation with a major effect on Justice’s overall popularity. Of those who described themselves as Democrats, 27 percent said they approve of Justice with 51 percent disapproving. Of those who described themselves as liberals, 23.8 percent approve and 56.4 percent disapprove. But support remains lukewarm among those in his new party. Of those who describe themselves as Republicans, 45.4 percent approve and 35.5 percent disapprove. Of those who describe themselves as conservative, 39.5 percent approve and 37.7 percent disapprove. Those who said they aren’t sure about Justice one way or another ranged between about 20 and 30 percent in all categories. “There are two stories going on, which is how upset the Democrats are and the reluctance of the Republicans. So in a sense he’s jumped to the other side but they haven’t totally accepted him,” said political science professor Robert Rupp of West Virginia Wesleyan College, who was asked to draw conclusions from the West Virginia Poll results. “That has understandable context. It’s OK to fight a one-front war, but you can’t fight a two-front war.” The governor’s relatively low popularity could make big issues like the statewide road bond vote coming up October 8 a difficult sell. “It’s not only in trouble for the governor himself as executive leader when he has trouble with both parties, including his newly adopted one, but it also signals trouble for the upcoming road bond issue that he has basically staked his legislative success on,” Rupp said. “This is not good news for him, particularly given the timing and late mobilization of the pro-bond effort. It was thought he could be an asset because he was thought to be highly popular when he was elected. But he has lost popularity.” Speaking to state leaders on Wednesday at the Business Summit at The Greenbrier, which his family owns, Justice was critical of politics for politics’ sake. “I’ve got to have one thing from you and one thing alone,” Justice told the crowd. “I’ve got to have your support, wholeheartedly naturally. But we’ve got to stop the political garbage. We’ve got to stop the political games. We’ve got to all be one and that is West Virginians, wanting to do something other than to be dead last.” President Donald Trump Trump shows solid support in the West Virginia Poll, although it’s actually less than other national polls have shown as his support here. The West Virginia Poll shows 48 percent approval for Trump along with 39 percent disapproval. “Realistically, I think the president is popular here,” Repass said, acknowledging different results and different methodologies among polls may still lead to the same overall conclusion. “He has a strong core of support here.” A Gallup Poll that showed results between Jan. 20 and June 30 reflected 60 percent popularity for Trump in West Virginia. That was highest in the nation. Trump’s most recent national approval ratings as measured by Gallup were at 35 percent. Fifty-nine percent nationally said they disapprove of his performance as president. The most recent results, based on a three-day rolling average, were posted August 29. Trump won West Virginia last November with 67.9 percent of the vote. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won 26.2 percent of the vote here. So, reacting to the numbers, Rupp was surprised that the West Virginia Poll results showed Trump’s popularity lower here than he would have thought. “I’m skeptical of that,” Rupp said. “That’s not the West Virginia I’ve been seeing. Everybody slips, but he has such a special relationship with West Virginia, I would think more than half would approve of him.” Trump’s popularity in West Virginia varies significantly based on party affiliation. Those who identified as Democrats showed 24.7 percent approval and 67.1 percent disapproval. Those who identified as Republicans showed 80.1 percent approval and 9.2 percent disapproval. Self-described moderates were more evenly divided on Trump. Of those, 38.7 percent said they approve of Trump and 45.3 percent said they disapprove. Senator Shelley Moore Capito Capito, a longtime Republican leader in West Virginia, has had to perform a balancing act during the Trump administration and the numbers might reflect that. Forty percent of those responding said they approve of Capito while 38 percent say they disapprove. Even though Capito has held political office in West Virginia since her election to the state Legislature in 1996 leading all the way to her election to Senate in 2014, 22 percent of those responding said they’re “not sure” about Capito. “I think she is trying to balance the interests of her political experience and also balance the Republican policies of a Donald Trump and the mood of West Virginians,” Repass said. “It is a tough balancing act. I think it has had an impact where Trump is popular.” The polling took place on the heels of contentious debate over repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act in the Senate. Capito expressed deep concerns about the possible effects of rolling back Medicaid expansion in West Virginia. But she also was among those voting affirmatively for “skinny repeal” on federal healthcare that could have pushed the matter to conference committee negotiations with the House of Representatives. Threading the political needle on contentious policy in a state where Trump is at his most popular has been tricky. “This is the lowest she’s been since she’s been in political office,” Rupp said of the West Virginia Poll results. “This is a person who has run a popular and successful political career. What we’re finding here is a number of issues from the Trump administration have undermined her support within the voting.” Those who describe themselves as conservative expressed 49.4 percent approval and 29 percent disapproval for Capito. Liberals expressed 54.5 percent disapproval and 28.7 percent approval. Moderates expressed 38 percent approval, 35.8 percent disapproval and 26.3 percent “not sure.” “She’s kind of caught in the crossfire of what’s happening in the administration. It’s alienating some – not many or all – of her support and mobilizing some of her opposition that has usually not been that enthusiastic about defeating her,” Rupp said. “Successful politicians are getting crossfire not just from the party opposition but from within the party itself. This is probably happening across the nation if we looked at it.” Senator Joe Manchin Manchin, coming up on a competitive re-election bid that seems likely to draw national attention, showed firm support in the West Virginia Poll. Of those responding, 51 percent said they approve of Manchin with 34 percent expressing disapproval. Manchin has been a mainstay as a statewide officeholder in West Virginia dating back to his election as Secretary of State in 2001. But he’s West Virginia’s lone remaining Democrat in Congress, causing some pundits to describe 2018 as the toughest election of his career. Two prominent Republicans — Congressman Evan Jenkins and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey — are vying to take on Manchin. “Manchin fighting for his life — the last Blue Dog, the last Democratic senator,” Rupp said. “This is filled with drama because he’s going against the tide. What do you do when your’re Democrat running in a state that seems to adore a Republican president?” Manchin shows 62.7 percent approval and 24.1 percent disapproval among the Democrats in the poll. Respondents who described themselves as liberals expressed 55.4 percent approval and 24.8 percent disapproval. Among Republicans, he shows 44 percent approval and 40.4 percent disapproval. Those who described themselves as conservatives expressed 44.4 percent approval and 41.4 percent disapproval. “I think what you can see is that liberal Democrats who have always distrusted him are coming around now that he’s under siege,” Rupp said. “So I would expect that the Democratic numbers of his support are only going to go up as the election comes closer.” Like Capito, Manchin has been performing a balancing act during the Trump administration — except from the other side of the aisle — embracing some of the administration’s nominations and policies when it’s a fit and rejecting others. He was the subject of a recent article in “The Atlantic” called “What Joe Manchin can teach Democrats.” “I think Senator Manchin does have the flexibility to align with very conservative West Virginia voters and also to support some of the more moderate Democratic policies and be credible,” Repass said. There’s still a majority registration in this state, even though it’s a more conservative state, of more Democrats. I think he understands that and balances the interest of his constituents and his party in a very positive way.” Tomorrow How Manchin may fare against Jenkins and Morrisey. Plus the relative popularity of football and basketball coaches at West Virginia and Marshall universities. Methodology Results of this edition of MetroNews West Virginia Poll are based on interviews conducted between August 11-20, 2017 with a sample of 400 likely voters in West Virginia including registered Democrats, Republicans, Libertarian, Mountain Party, and unaffiliated or independent voters. Data collection methods used included landline phone, cell phone, and opt-in Internet panel. Each data collection method has inherent strengths and weakness. Likely voters in all 55 West Virginia counties were represented in the survey modeled to the number of registered voters based on data from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s office. When using multiple data collection methods, it is not appropriate to apply a probability-based margin of error to interviews completed. However, applying statistical tests of significance to each question asked at the 95 percent confidence interval yields an overall statistical error of +/- 4.9 percentage points based on the 400 interviews. The 95 percent confidence interval varies by question. The purpose of the MetroNews West Virginia Poll is to provide a snapshot of opinion and timely voter views in the Mountain State. The media sponsor of the West Virginia Poll is MetroNews, the statewide radio network owned by West Virginia Radio Corporation. Rex Repass is director of the West Virginia Poll and president of Research America Inc. Repass is responsible for questionnaire design, the respondent screening and selection process, data tabulation, statistical analysis, and reporting of results. The MetroNews West Virginia Poll is a non-partisan survey of public opinion conducted by the Repass and Research America Inc. The West Virginia Poll has been directed by Mr. Repass and conducted periodically since January 21, 1980. The name The West Virginia Poll is a registered trademark Research America Inc., all rights reserved. For more information, see www.wvpoll.com.

The United States — already seeing an alarming wave of deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicides — could be on the verge of a sharp increase in that carnage, a new analysis warns. The report projects that fatalities related to drugs, booze and suicide, if recent trends hold, could spike to 1.6 million over the next decade. That would represent a 60 percent increase from the number seen in the previous 10 years. And it might be even worse, according to the "Pain in the Nation" report from the Trust for America's Health and the Well Being Trust. The analysis found that if the U.S. continues along the trend indicated by most recent federal data about drug overdoses, the rate of deaths from substance abuse and suicides could double over a 10-year span to 2 million by 2025. The report, with projections based on data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted the rapid increase recently in the use of heroin, as well as other opioids fentanyl and carfentanil.

The photo shows the architectural rendering for the nuclear power station to be built in Nanyang in Henan Province. [File photo] Central China's Henan Province has planned to build four nuclear power stations to ease the populous province's pressing demand for electricity and to continue optimizing the structure of local energy consumption during the country's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). The four nuclear power stations will be set up in Nanyang, Xinyang, Luoyang and Pingdingshan. But construction can only start when the country lifts the ban on new inland nuclear power facilities due to safety concerns. Under the province's plan for energy development (2016-20), nuclear power, wind power and distributed solar power will join natural gas and non-fossil energies to reduce the percentage of coal in the local energy consumption structure. As per the plan's requirements, by 2020 consumption of non-fossil energies will account for at least 7 percent and natural gas for 7.5 percent in the province's total energy consumption. While urging the continued optimization of the local energy structure, the plan also requires the total installed capacity for power generation to increase to 87,000 megawatts by 2020, a 30 percent increase over that of 2015.

The DK-12 is available for $899.99 USD The DK-16 will be available for $1099.99 USD Lian-Li Industrial Co. Ltd is excited to launch its DK-12 and DK-16 motorized standing desks. Following the success of the DK-04 and earlier computer desk chassis, Lian Li adds a pair of more conventional standing desks to its repertoire. The DK-12 and DK-16 provide health-conscious users a stylish workspace designed with PC workstations in mind. Who better to make a desk for a PC than a case maker.It is true that people sit for most of their day, increasing the risk of diabetes and heart disease. With manifold health benefits discovered by prevailing studies these past few years, standing desks are a vogue choice for employers and office workers seeking to improve their habits and lifestyle. Many vaunt standing desks not only for health benefits, but even boosting productivity. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, why not start standing.Like the DK-04, the DK-12 and DK-16 are both height-adjustable desks with an automated electric motor. Users can save up to four height settings from 69.5cm to 118.5cm using a small control console on the front of the desks. The robust motor lifts up to 120kg on the DK-12, while the heavier DK-16 is rated to lift up to 80kg. The DK-12 is the smaller of the two desks, stretching 140cm long and tapering 70-75cm wide, while the DK-16 is a longer 210cm and 75-80cm wide. Each desktop is 3cm thick.The DK-12 and DK-16 have convenient features for organizing the inevitable mess of cables that clutters everyone's desk. Two circular cable pass-throughs with metal covers help route and manage cords. A shelf under the desk can hide and store cables and power bricks. The shelf does not obstruct mounting monitor arms with clamps - the DK-12 and DK-16 are compatible with most monitor mounts and support multiple-display setups.Each desk uses a leather-like waterproof surface on a wooden frame mounted to an aluminum base. The desktop is contoured to better surround the user while standing or sitting close to the front edge. The exceptionally sturdy legs are made from high-quality steel, reliably supporting heavy hardware and elaborate configurations.For more information, visit the product pages of the DK-12 and DK-16

The carefully cultivated socially liberal image of Ben & Jerry's ice cream has suffered a knock with a decision by the Vermont-based manufacturer to stop calling its food "all natural" following pressure from a watchdog that questioned whether ingredients such as partially hydrogenated soya bean oil fitted the billing. Founded by two college friends who set up a "scoop shop" at a dilapidated petrol station in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has been owned by the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever since 2000 and has become a popular premium ice cream on both sides of the Atlantic. Its founders are renowned for their activism on causes ranging from global warming to poverty reduction, liveable wages and free-range eggs. Ben & Jerry's mission statement trumpets an aim to make "the finest quality, all-natural ice-cream and euphoric concoctions" and to promote business practices that "respect the earth and the environment". But the firm has come under fire from the Washington-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which took issue with ingredients such as alkalised cocoa and corn syrup as well as partially hydrogenated soya bean oil. The pressure group contended that the ingredients had either been chemically modified or did not exist in nature: "Calling products with unnatural ingredients 'natural' is a false and misleading use of the term." In an abrupt about-turn, Ben & Jerry's has agreed to remove the term from its product descriptions. In a letter to the CSPI, the ice-cream company's chief executive, Jostein Solheim, said that although he believed "reasonable customers" would still consider Ben & Jerry's food to be natural, he did not want any further questions over the issue. "We have decided to remove these claims and focus more strongly on our other core values," wrote Solheim, citing endeavours to use fair-trade suppliers, cage-free eggs and milk from family farms that do not use bovine growth hormones. Ben & Jerry's is renowned for its wide range of quirky flavourings and punning names, ranging from Cherry Garcia (named after the Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia) to Chunky Monkey and Phish Food. Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have had an occasionally prickly relationship with Unilever – Cohen once described the day the business was bought by the multinational as "just about the worst day of my life". Ben & Jerry's is left facing unfortunate comparisons with its US rival Häagen-Dazs, which last year made a great fanfare about a new range called "five", which contained just five ingredients: cream, skimmed milk, sugar, egg yolks and a natural flavouring such as vanilla or strawberry.

As the passage below from a Reddit post below illustrates, many seek collapse, doom and gloom, or reset – to change the ‘game of life’ that they perceive as rigged or unfair, seeing Trump as a ‘messianic’ figure who will reshuffle the deck, with frustrated voters hoping they will get a better ‘hand’ under a Trump presidency: If there’s a global emotional illness related to economic decline, my suspicion would be that it’s a form of collapse-impatience. The bottom fifty percent of America (as well as most of the developed world) is gradually being pressed into a corner, with rising student debts, rising rents, declining real wages and a general decline in their standard of living. They’re reaching a point where they’ve had enough and just want to see the house burned down. People don’t complain or riot, because they feel too backed into a corner to do that. Related: The Millennial Backlash Against The Baby Boomers Which seems to echo what I wrote in a 2014 post, Our New Era: …Because it speaks about the New Era which we’re all living in – a reality that is unmovable and omnipresent. It’s indifferent to our wants, needs or desires. Either you adapt, thrive, or fall between the cracks. The rest of the world is being molded in the likeness of Stanford, rather than Stanford resembling the rest of the world. In an era of economic abundance, scarcity is prevalent – by design. This may seem unfair, but in a hyper-meritocracy like we have today, not everyone can reap the fruits of prosperity. Some will be left behind. Others think it’s a phase that will pass- that once a threshold of inequality is breached everything will come crashing down and the game will be reset, the deck reshuffled, and the cards re-dealt. …and from Ross Douthat about the rise of Trump: That rise has four building blocks. First, his strongest supporters have entirely legitimate grievances. The core of that support is a white working class that the Democratic Party has half-abandoned and the Republican Party has poorly served — a cohort facing social breakdown and economic stagnation, and stuck with a liberal party offering condescension and open borders and a conservative party offering foreign quagmires and capital gains tax cuts. Trump’s support is broader than just these voters, but they’re the reason he’s a phenomenon, a force. Ross Douthat is like that savant who can draw a cityscape from a single helicopter ride. There is so much detail in his articles. He seems to have his pulse on society, politics, and economics better than any other pundit. This part is also interesting: Others, especially in the intelligentsia, have a kind of highbrow nihilism about our politics, a sense that American democracy’s decadence — or the Republican Party’s decadence, in particular — is so advanced that a cleansing Trumpian fire might be just the thing we need. I have also noticed a trend of smart, well-read people (the opposite of the stereotypical Trump supporter) supporting Trump or rebuking childish leftist criticisms against him. [1] Trump represents an honesty, rawness, and purity that is missing from politics, even if the intelligentsia don’t agree with most of his policies. It’s also interesting how we’re all taking about the same stuff even though communication is limited to some forums and blogs, with distances between individuals. It’s kinda fascinating how converging ideas spring into existence from disparate sources, whether it’s Reddit, New York Times, or blogs. The game likely won’t be reset, sorry. Economically, Europe (except Eastern Europe) has been circling the drain since 2008, and will likely collapse economically and socially before America does. It just keep getting worse and worse there. But same for Brasil and other emerging economies. [1] An example is given here discussing a blog post by he Archdruid Report. A second example, on Salon, is a professor who is a Sanders supporter, rebuking the media lies about Trump that ‘all Mexicans are rapists’ when Trump clearly didn’t mean that. You might well dislike Trump’s words. I did. But let’s not make it worse. He did not say that all Mexicans are rapists. Yet that’s what many commentators did. For example, Politico misquoted Trump by omitting his phrase about “good people.” They said he was “demonizing Mexicans as rapists.” They argued that Mexicans do not really commit more rapes in the U.S. than whites. But that’s not what Trump claimed. Third, Camille Paglia, professor of University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a Clinton Democrat and libertarian who opposes laws against prostitution, pornography, drugs, and abortion, prefers Trump over Hillary. This fiery endorsement blew me away because it demonstrated how Trump was directly engaging with a diverse coalition in ways that the mainstream media had completely missed. I felt, and still do, that Trump is far too impetuous and thin-skinned in his amusingly rambling, improvisational style. The American president, who can spook markets or spark a war with a rash phrase, must be more coolly circumspect.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Lake Michigan's water level has officially rebounded from its historic low in January 2013. According to the National Weather Service, the average water level reached just over 579 feet in March. That's the highest the lake has been since 1998. Higher lake levels could cause more beach erosion, but lower water levels tend to be of more concern in terms of economic impact. "The predictions are that the lake levels in general should be lower, maybe two to three feet lower on average. But again, the big issue is just the fluctuations around that average. Those look like they may be larger than in the past," Paul Roebber with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences said. Experts say the likely cause of the rebound is the average and above-average snowfall in the Great Lakes region the past couple years.

Tony Abbott says ETS a 'market in an invisible substance'; Labor denies scrapping carbon price will leave $6bn budget hole Updated The Government has seized on the Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's remarks that an emissions trading scheme is a market of an "invisible substance". The Government has confirmed it wants to move from a fixed carbon price of $24.15 a tonne to a floating price of about $6 by July 2014, a year earlier than planned. It is a political fix designed to neutralise the poisonous carbon tax issue, but it has created a new budget problem and sparked a war of words. Today Mr Abbott was asked to explain why he objects to the Government's scheme, when the Coalition has previously backed the idea of a market-led solution to greenhouse gas emissions. "This is not a true market. Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about," he told reporters. "It's a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one. "Ever since Copenhagen, it's been absolutely obvious that the world is not moving towards taxes - whether they're fixed taxes or floating taxes. "The world is moving towards the kind of direct action measures to improve the environment which the Coalition has long championed." Just ask yourself what an emissions trading scheme is all about. It's a so-called market in the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one. Tony Abbott The Coalition has previously backed the idea of a market-led solution to greenhouse gas emissions. Finance Minister Penny Wong has mocked Mr Abbott's comments, saying they show he is not fit to lead the country. "Just pause for a minute and imagine Tony Abbott at an international meeting talking to Barak Obama and David Cameron, both of whom believe in action on climate change, and telling them that 'look this this is just about the non-delivery of an invisible substance to no-one'," she said. "This is an absolute joke and confirms yet again that Tony Abbott is simply not up being the leader of the nation. "A man who thinks that climate change is, in his words, absolute crap, is now mocking the very design that John Howard himself put forward to deal with climate change." Coalition claims ETS will leave $6bn budget hole A key challenge of Labor's carbon pricing overhaul is the cost to the budget bottom line. The change means a drop in revenue, though the Government is not yet saying just how much. Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt says the change will leave a $6 billion budget revenue shortfall. Mr Hunt argues the floating carbon price will rise in line with market movements, meaning any financial benefit from the switch from a fixed price will be lost. "This is a classic Kevin Rudd con, because whether it's called a carbon tax or whether it's called an ETS, it's still a carbon tax and it's still intended to go up to $38 over the coming years," he said. "Mr Rudd has finally conceded that it's destroying jobs and hurting families, but all he's doing is changing the name." Senator Wong says the lower carbon price will mean lower household power bills, and a windfall for householders, because the Government's domestic compensation package will not be wound back. But she is not saying the same for industry compensation and she will not say how the Government will claw back the lost revenue. "We will make further announcements about savings associated with the floating price when we announce the floating price," she said. "What I can say to you as Finance Minister, as with all other policy areas, we will approach this change in a fiscally responsible manner and we will find offsetting savings." Households may be better off under ETS Mr Abbott has frequently promised to scrap the carbon tax. He says while the move to an ETS may bring some financial relief, greater benefit would stem from the abolition of carbon pricing. "Whether it's a fixed tax or a floating tax, it's still a tax, it still hurts," he said. "Abolishing the carbon tax will take $5,000 off the price of the average new home," he said, adding that cost benefits would stretch across the construction industry. But Treasury modelling seen by the ABC's AM program shows families could be better off after the decision. A single-income couple with two young children earning around $75,000 a year would be $380 better off in 2014-15, while pensioners would save between $140 and $180 and a dual-income two-child family on about $100,000 a year would save more than $400. "We're responding to two things, and we're responding to the change in the Australian economy, the rapid transition away from the mining boom and the need to stimulate non-mining investment," Mr Bowen said. "We're responding to that and we're responding to people's concerns about costs of living." Bringing in a floating carbon price a year early would require the Parliament to pass changes. The Government's yet to say when that would happen and any change would not have the support of the Greens. Some business groups have welcomed the decision, but the Minerals Council of Australia believes the architecture of the ETS must be examined. The council says methane emissions from coal mining are excluded from the Europe emissions trading scheme and it is urging the Government to do the same. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says the Government should abandon the carbon price altogether. ACCI chief economist Greg Evans says moving to a market price one year early is simply a political gesture. "It will still impose a multi-billion-dollar cost on Australian business that our competitors around the world don't have to pay, and will continue to impede Australia's competitiveness and productivity," he said. Topics: emissions-trading, federal-government, environmental-policy, environmental-impact, federal-elections, business-economics-and-finance, australia, parliament-house-2600 First posted

By Kevin McLoughlin “If you fight you might lose, if you don’t you have already lost.” It is meaningless to oppose to the water charges, but then to pay them. Your “protest” will be ignored and the government will have successfully robbed you of more of your money, and you will have made it easy for them. Refuse to pay If a large majority pay, the political parties and the big business interests who are waiting to profiteer from water will see that as acceptance of the charge and you can forget about the “promises” to get rid of them. Once it’s in, it is much easier for the establishment to pressure the parties to keep water charges. But now after 7 years of unrelenting austerity we, ordinary working class people, have within our own hands the power to defeat this austerity charge and to challenge the gross inequality in this country. If those who are opposed to the charge; to Irish Water; to the privatisation of a vital natural resource; to the incompetence, intimidation, bullying and bonuses that have characterised this policy over the last year and a half; all refused to pay, undoubtedly that would be a clear majority of the population. Boycott will pressure any new government Mass non-payment will deny Irish Water of the oxygen of cash and capital. But crucially it would also make it politically impossible for the parties who are facing a general election within the next year, to stand over the charge. We can tip the balance against this charge. It would be near impossible to see how any new government could even consider imposing a charge that a majority are already not paying. People have nothing to fear but fear itself. The government’s bluster and threats against those who don’t pay are empty, like the Emperor with no clothes, there is nothing there. There are no penalties for not paying the first four quarterly bills. That means that everyone can refuse to pay a cent for at least a year and help establish majority non-payment by the general election, when the parties are most vulnerable, without incurring any penalties. Reject the threats and bullying The bills are going out and they say that people have two weeks to pay. That’s why the Anti Austerity Alliance and the Socialist Party are trying to get the idea of a protest boycott out there nationally as soon as possible, as well as the info that no penalties can be incurred until after the election. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that many who make a big point of their opposition to water charges such as some unions, Sinn Fein and even Right2Water will not now advocate non-payment. Regardless, if ordinary people in the communities get organised we can get the word out there and when people hear the facts they will see the sense and purpose of not paying. This can be done, it has already been shown. All we need is a new version of the movement that erupted last year from below against water metering. We need people to come together to spread the word and give confidence to those in the communities who are still fearful because of the government’s threats and bullying. Turn the tide against austerity Defeating the water charges would change the whole political and social dynamic in this country. It would make any new government, of whatever combination of parties, nervous and uncertain in continuing with the austerity that their system demands is imposed. It would give working class people a sense of their own power and a chance to turn the tables and could translate into struggles on other issues, including on the issue of pay, as people still can’t make ends meet. A victory, organised by a movement in the communities, must also be the signal for the pulling together of a new party or political movement that really organises the working class and challenges the capitalist system. One hundred and thirty five years ago an organised protest movement from below against a land agent in Mayo made history. Now is the time to once again spread the “Boycott” tactic against water charges and in so doing sink Captain Kenny, his good ship Irish Water and begin to turn the tide for the working class in this country.

panzerzwei 3 years ago Hey I played two games with you about a month ago while you were using this bot. I was impressed with it so I took some screenshots and copied the gun and EP placements exactly. I couldn't see the chassis so I imagine ours are somewhat different inside. Mine's only 1360 CPU so it must be. It's a handful as is, I've had a lot of fun playing with it. I saw somebody else using one so I googled today and found this. Hey I played two games with you about a month ago while you were using this bot. I was impressed with it so I took some screenshots and copied the gun and EP placements exactly. I couldn't see the chassis so I imagine ours are somewhat different inside. Mine's only 1360 CPU so it must be. It's a handful as is, I've had a lot of fun playing with it. I saw somebody else using one so I googled today and found this.

For other people named Roger Williams, see Roger Williams (disambiguation) Roger Williams (c. 21 December 1603 – between 27 January and 15 March 1683)[1] was a Puritan minister, theologian, and author who founded the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was a staunch advocate for religious freedom, separation of church and state, and fair dealings with American Indians, and he was one of the first abolitionists.[2][3] Williams was expelled by the Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for spreading "new and dangerous ideas", and he established the Providence Plantations in 1636 as a refuge offering what he called "liberty of conscience". In 1638, he founded the First Baptist Church in America, also known as the First Baptist Church of Providence.[4][5] He studied the Indian languages and wrote the first book on the Narragansett language, and he organized the first attempt to prohibit slavery in any of the American colonies.[3] Early life [ edit ] Roger Williams was born in London around 1603, though the exact date is unknown because his birth records were destroyed when St. Sepulchre's Church was burned during the Great Fire of London in 1666.[6][7][8][9] His father James Williams (1562–1620) was a merchant tailor in Smithfield, London, and his mother was Alice Pemberton (1564–1635). Williams had a spiritual conversion at an early age, of which his father disapproved. He was apprenticed as a teen under Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) the famous jurist, and he was educated at Charterhouse School under Coke's patronage, and also at Pembroke College, Cambridge (Bachelor of Arts, 1627).[10] He seemed to have a gift for languages and early acquired familiarity with Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Dutch, and French. Years later, he tutored John Milton in Dutch and American Indian languages in exchange for refresher lessons in Hebrew.[11] Williams took holy orders in the Church of England in connection with his studies, but he became a Puritan at Cambridge and thus ruined his chance for preferment in the Anglican church. After graduating from Cambridge, he became the chaplain to Sir William Masham. In April, 1629, he proposed marriage to Jane Whalley, the niece of Lady Joan (Cromwell) Barrington, but she declined.[12] Later that year, he married Mary Bernard (1609–76), the daughter of Rev. Richard Bernard, a notable Puritan preacher and author, at the Church of High Laver, Essex, England.[13] They had six children, all born in America: Mary, Freeborn, Providence, Mercy, Daniel, and Joseph. Williams knew that Puritan leaders planned to migrate to the New World. He did not join the first wave, but he decided before the year ended that he could not remain in England under Archbishop William Laud's rigorous administration. He regarded the Church of England as corrupt and false, and he had arrived at the Separatist position by the time that he and his wife boarded the Lyon in early December, 1630.[14] Life in America [ edit ] The Boston church offered Williams a post in 1631 filling in for Rev. John Wilson[3] while Wilson returned to England to fetch his wife. However, Williams declined the position on grounds that it was "an unseparated church". In addition, he asserted that civil magistrates must not punish any sort of "breach of the first table" of the Ten Commandments such as idolatry, Sabbath-breaking, false worship, and blasphemy, and that individuals should be free to follow their own convictions in religious matters. These three principles became central to his teachings and writings: separatism, liberty of conscience, and separation of church and state. Salem and Plymouth [ edit ] As a Separatist, Williams considered the Church of England irredeemably corrupt and believed that one must completely separate from it to establish a new church for the true and pure worship of God. The Salem church was also inclined to Separatism, and they invited him to become their teacher. The leaders in Boston vigorously protested, and Salem withdrew its offer. As the summer of 1631 ended, Williams moved to Plymouth Colony where he was welcomed, and he informally assisted the minister there. He regularly preached and, according to Governor William Bradford, "his teachings were well approved". After a time, Williams decided that the Plymouth church was not sufficiently separated from the Church of England. Furthermore, his contact with the Narragansett Indians had caused him to question the validity of the colonial charters that did not include legitimate purchase of Indian land. Governor Bradford later wrote that Williams fell "into some strange opinions which caused some controversy between the church and him".[15] In December 1632, Williams wrote a lengthy tract that openly condemned the King's charters and questioned the right of Plymouth to the land without first buying it from the Indians. He even charged that King James had uttered a "solemn lie" in claiming that he was the first Christian monarch to have discovered the land. Williams moved back to Salem by the fall of 1633 and was welcomed by Rev. Samuel Skelton as an unofficial assistant. Litigation and exile [ edit ] Statue of Massasoit in Plymouth, overlooking the site of Plymouth Rock The Massachusetts Bay authorities were not pleased at Williams' return. In December 1633, they summoned him to appear before the General Court in Boston to defend his tract attacking the King and the charter. The issue was smoothed out, and the tract disappeared forever, probably burned. In August 1634, Williams became acting pastor of the Salem church, the Rev. Skelton having died. In March 1635, he was again ordered to appear before the General Court, and he was summoned yet again for the Court's July term to answer for "erroneous" and "dangerous opinions". The Court finally ordered that he be removed from his church position. This latest controversy welled up as the town of Salem petitioned the General Court to annex some land on Marblehead Neck. The Court refused to consider the request unless the church in Salem removed Williams. The church felt that this order violated their independence, and sent a letter of protest to the other churches. However, the letter was not read publicly in those churches, and the General Court refused to seat the delegates from Salem at the next session. Support for Williams began to wane under this pressure, and he withdrew from the church and began meeting with a few of his most devoted followers in his home. Finally, in October 1635, the General Court tried Williams and convicted him of sedition and heresy. They declared that he was spreading "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions" [16] and ordered that he be banished. The execution of the order was delayed because Williams was ill and winter was approaching, so he was allowed to stay temporarily, provided that he ceased publicly teaching his opinions. He failed to do so, and the sheriff came in January 1636, only to discover that he had slipped away three days earlier during a blizzard. He traveled 55 miles through the deep snow, from Salem to Raynham, Massachusetts where the local Wampanoags offered him shelter at their winter camp. Their Sachem Massasoit hosted Williams for the three months until spring. Settlement at Providence [ edit ] Narragansett Indians receiving Roger Williams In the spring of 1636, Williams and a number of others from Salem began a new settlement on land which he had bought from Massasoit in Rumford, Rhode Island. However, Plymouth authorities asserted that he was within their land grant and were concerned that his presence there might anger the leaders of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Williams and his friends had already planted their crops, but they decided to move across the Seekonk River just the same, as that territory lay beyond any charter. They rowed across and encountered Narragansett Indians who greeted them with the phrase, "What cheer, Neetop" (hello, friend). Williams acquired land from Canonicus and Miantonomi, chief sachems of the Narragansetts. He and 12 "loving friends" then established a new settlement which Williams called "Providence" because he felt that God's Providence had brought them there.[17] Williams named his third child Providence, the first to be born in the new settlement. Williams wanted his settlement to be a haven for those "distressed of conscience", and it soon attracted a collection of dissenters and otherwise-minded individuals. From the beginning, a majority vote of the heads of households governed the new settlement, but only in civil things. Newcomers could also be admitted to full citizenship by a majority vote. In August 1637, a new town agreement again restricted the government to civil things. In 1640, 39 freemen (men who had full citizenship and voting rights) signed another agreement which declared their determination "still to hold forth liberty of conscience". Thus, Williams founded the first place in modern history where citizenship and religion were separate, providing religious liberty and separation of church and state. This was combined with the principle of majoritarian democracy. In November 1637, the General Court of Massachusetts disarmed, disenfranchised, and forced into exile some of the Antinomians, including the followers of Anne Hutchinson. John Clarke was among them, and he learned from Williams that Rhode Island might be purchased from the Narragansetts; Williams helped him to make the purchase, along with William Coddington and others, and they established the settlement of Portsmouth. In spring 1638, some of those settlers split away and founded the nearby settlement of Newport, also situated on Rhode Island (which is today called Aquidneck Island). Pequot War and relations with Indians [ edit ] In the meantime, the Pequot War had broken out. Massachusetts Bay asked for Williams' help, which he gave despite his exile, and he became the Bay colony's eyes and ears, and also dissuaded the Narragansetts from joining with the Pequots. Instead, the Narragansetts allied themselves with the Colonists and helped to crush the Pequots in 1637–38. The Narragansetts thus became the most powerful Indian tribe in southern New England. Williams formed firm friendships and developed deep trust among the Indian tribes, especially the Narragansetts. He was able to keep the peace between the Indians and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations for nearly 40 years by his constant mediation and negotiation. He twice surrendered himself as a hostage to the Indians to guarantee the safe return of a great sachem from a summons to a court: Pessicus in 1645 and Metacom ("King Philip") in 1671. Williams was trusted by the Indians more than any other Colonist, and he proved trustworthy. However, the other New England colonies began to fear and mistrust the Narragansetts, and soon came to regard the Rhode Island colony as a common enemy. In the next three decades, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Plymouth exerted pressure to destroy both Rhode Island and the Narragansetts. In 1643, the neighboring colonies formed a military alliance called the United Colonies which pointedly excluded the towns around Narragansett Bay. The object was to put an end to the heretic settlements, which they considered an infection. In response, Williams traveled to England to secure a charter for the colony. Return to England and charter matters [ edit ] Williams arrived in London in the midst of the English Civil War. Puritans held power in London, and he was able to obtain a charter through the offices of Sir Henry Vane the Younger, despite strenuous opposition from Massachusetts' agents. His first published book A Key into the Language of America (1643) proved crucial to the success of his charter, albeit indirectly.[18][19] It combined a phrase-book with observations about life and culture as an aid to communicate with the Indians of New England, covering everything from salutations to death and burial. Williams also sought to correct English attitudes of superiority toward the American Indians: Boast not proud English, of thy birth & blood; Thy brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee and All, As wise, as fair, as strong, as personal. Key was the first dictionary of any Indian language, and it fed the great curiosity of English people about the American Indians. It was printed by John Milton's publisher Gregory Dexter who had become a resident of Providence Plantations, and it quickly became a bestseller and provided Williams with a large and favorable reputation. Return of Roger Williams from England with the First Charter from Parliament for Providence Plantations in July 1644 Williams secured his charter from Parliament for Providence Plantations in July 1644, after which he published his most famous book The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. This produced a great uproar, and Parliament responded in August by ordering the public hangman to burn all copies—but Williams himself was already on his way back to New England. It took Williams several years to get the four towns around Narragansett Bay to unite under a single government because of William Coddington's opposition on Aquidneck Island (which they called Rhode Island at the time), but the four settlements finally united in 1647 into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Freedom of conscience was again proclaimed, and the colony became a safe haven for people who were persecuted for their beliefs, including Baptists, Quakers, and Jews. Still, the divisions between the towns and among powerful personalities did not bode well for the colony. Coddington never liked Williams, nor did he like being subordinated to the new charter government. He sailed to England and returned to Rhode Island in 1651 with his own patent making him "Governor for Life" over Aquidneck Island and Conanicut Island. As a result, Providence, Warwick, and Coddington's opponents on Aquidneck dispatched Roger Williams and John Clarke to England to get Coddington's commission canceled. Williams sold his trading post at Cocumscussec (near Wickford, Rhode Island) to pay for his journey even though it was his main source of income. He and Clarke succeeded in getting Coddington's patent rescinded, and Clarke remained in England for the next decade to protect the colonists' interests and secure a new charter. Williams returned to America in 1654 and was immediately elected the colony's President. He subsequently served in many offices in town and colonial governments. In 1641, Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the first laws to make slavery legal in the colonies, and these laws were applied in Plymouth and Connecticut with the creation of the United Colonies in 1643. Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton both opposed slavery, and Providence Plantations (Providence and Warwick) passed a law on 18 May 1652 intended to prevent slavery in the colony during the time when Coddington's followers had separated from Providence. However, when the four towns of the colony were reunited, the Aquidneck towns refused to accept this law, making it a dead letter.[20] For the next century, Newport was the economic and political center of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and that town disregarded the anti-slavery law. Instead, Newport entered the African slave trade in 1700, after Williams' death, and became the leading port for American ships carrying slaves in the colonial American triangular trade until the American Revolutionary War.[21] Relations with the Baptists [ edit ] Ezekiel Holliman baptized Williams in late 1638. A few years later, Dr. John Clarke established the First Baptist Church in Newport, Rhode Island, and both Roger Williams and John Clarke became the founders of the Baptist faith in America.[22] Williams did not affiliate himself with any church, but he remained interested in the Baptists, agreeing with their rejection of infant baptism and most other matters. Both enemies and admirers sometimes called him a "Seeker", associating him with a heretical movement that accepted Socinianism and Universal Reconciliation, but Williams rejected both of these ideas.[23] King Philip's War and death [ edit ] The "Roger Williams Root" in the collection of the Rhode Island Historical Society King Philip's War (1675–1676) pitted the colonists against Indians with whom Williams had good relations in the past. Williams, although in his 70s, was elected captain of Providence's militia. That war proved to be one of the bitterest events in his life, as his efforts ended with the burning of Providence in March 1676, including his own house. Williams died sometime between January and March in 1683 and was buried on his own property. Fifty years later, his house collapsed into the cellar and the location of his grave was forgotten. According to the National Park Service, in 1860, Providence residents determined to raise a monument in his honor "dug up the spot where they believed the remains to be, they found only nails, teeth, and bone fragments. They also found an apple tree root", which they thought followed the shape of a human body; the root followed the shape of a spine, split at the hips, bent at the knees, and turned up at the feet.[24] The Rhode Island Historical Society has cared for this tree root since 1860 as representative of Rhode Island's founder, and has had it on display in the John Brown House since 2007.[25] Separation of church and state [ edit ] Williams was a staunch advocate of separation of church and state. He was convinced that there was no scriptural basis for a state church, and historian Timothy Hall suggests that Williams had arrived at this conclusion before landing in Boston in 1631.[26] He declared that the state should concern itself only with matters of civil order, not with religious belief, and he rejected any attempt to enforce the "first Table" of the Ten Commandments, those commandments that dealt with the relationship between God and individuals. Instead, Williams believed that the state must confine itself to the commandments dealing with the relations between people: murder, theft, adultery, lying, and honoring parents.[27] He employed the metaphor of a "wall of separation" between church and state, which was later used by Thomas Jefferson in his Letter to Danbury Baptists (1801).[28][29] Williams considered it "forced worship" if the state attempted to promote any particular religious idea or practice, and he declared, "Forced worship stinks in God's nostrils."[30] He considered Constantine the Great to be a worse enemy to Christianity than Nero because the subsequent state support corrupted Christianity and led to the death of the Christian church. He described the attempt to compel belief as "rape of the soul" and spoke of the "oceans of blood" shed as a result of trying to command conformity.[31] The moral principles in the Scriptures ought to inform the civil magistrates, he believed, but he observed that well-ordered, just, and civil governments existed even where Christianity was not present. Thus, all governments had to maintain civil order and justice, but Williams decided that none had a warrant to promote or repress any religion. Most of his contemporaries criticized his ideas as a prescription for chaos and anarchy, and the vast majority believed that each nation must have its national church and could require that dissenters conform. Writings [ edit ] Williams's career as an author began with A Key into the Language of America (London, 1643), written during his first voyage to England. His next publication was Mr. Cotton's Letter lately Printed, Examined and Answered (London, 1644; reprinted in Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. ii, along with John Cotton's letter which it answered). His most famous work is The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience (published in 1644), considered by some to be one of the best defenses of liberty of conscience.[32] An anonymous pamphlet was published in London in 1644 entitled Queries of Highest Consideration Proposed to Mr. Tho. Goodwin, Mr. Phillip Nye, Mr. Wil. Bridges, Mr. Jer. Burroughs, Mr. Sidr. Simpson, all Independents, etc. which is now ascribed to Williams. These "Independents" were members of the Westminster Assembly; their Apologetical Narration sought a way between extreme Separatism and Presbyterianism, and their prescription was to accept the state church model of Massachusetts Bay. Williams published The Bloody Tenent yet more Bloudy: by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb; of whose precious Blood, spilt in the Bloud of his Servants; and of the Blood of Millions spilt in former and later Wars for Conscience sake, that most Bloody Tenent of Persecution for cause of Conscience, upon, a second Tryal is found more apparently and more notoriously guilty, etc. (London, 1652) during his second visit to England. This work reiterated and amplified the arguments in Bloudy Tenent, but it has the advantage of being written in answer to Cotton's A Reply to Mr. Williams his Examination (Publications of the Narragansett Club, vol. ii.). Other works by Williams include: The Hireling Ministry None of Christ's (London, 1652) (London, 1652) Experiments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preservatives (London, 1652; reprinted Providence, 1863) (London, 1652; reprinted Providence, 1863) George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes (Boston, 1676) (discusses Quakerism with its different belief in the "inner light," which Williams considered heretical) A volume of his letters is included in the Narragansett Club edition of Williams' Works (7 vols., Providence, 1866–74), and a volume was edited by J. R. Bartlett (1882). The Correspondence of Roger Williams, 2 vols., Rhode Island Historical Society, 1988, edited by Glenn W. LaFantasie. Brown University's John Carter Brown Library has long housed a 234-page volume referred to as the "Roger Williams Mystery Book".[33] The margins of this book are filled with notations in handwritten code, believed to be the work of Roger Williams. In 2012, Brown University undergraduate Lucas Mason-Brown cracked the code and uncovered conclusive historical evidence attributing its authorship to Williams.[34] Translations are revealing transcriptions of a geographical text, a medical text, and 20 pages of original notes addressing the issue of infant baptism.[35] Mason-Brown has since discovered more writings by Williams employing a separate code in the margins of a rare edition of Eliot's Indian Bible.[36] Legacy [ edit ] The statue of Williams at Prospect Terrace Park overlooks the city that he founded Williams' defense of American Indians, his accusations that Puritans had reproduced the "evils" of the Anglican Church, and his insistence that England pay the Indians for their land all put him at the center of many political debates during his life. He was considered an important historical figure of religious liberty at the time of American independence, and he was a key influence on the thinking of the Founding Fathers. Tributes [ edit ] Tributes to Williams include: See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Further reading [ edit ] Barry, John, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul (New York: Viking Press, 2012). (New York: Viking Press, 2012). Bejan, Teresa, Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). Addresses Roger Williams' ideas in dialogue with Hobbes and Locke, and suggests lessons from Williams for how to disagree well in the modern public sphere. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017). Addresses Roger Williams' ideas in dialogue with Hobbes and Locke, and suggests lessons from Williams for how to disagree well in the modern public sphere. Brockunier, Samuel. The Irrepressible Democrat, Roger Williams , (1940), popular biography , (1940), popular biography Burrage, Henry S. "Why Was Roger Williams Banished?" American Journal of Theology 5 (January 1901): 1–17. 5 (January 1901): 1–17. Byrd, James P., Jr. The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible (2002). 286 pp. (2002). 286 pp. Davis. Jack L. "Roger Williams among the Narragansett Indians", New England Quarterly , Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec. 1970), pp. 593–604 in JSTOR , Vol. 43, No. 4 (Dec. 1970), pp. 593–604 in JSTOR Field, Jonathan Beecher. "A Key for the Gate: Roger Williams, Parliament, and Providence", New England Quarterly 2007 80(3): 353–382 2007 80(3): 353–382 Goodman, Nan. "Banishment, Jurisdiction, and Identity in Seventeenth-Century New England: The Case of Roger Williams", Early American Studies, An Interdisciplinary Journal Spring 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, pp 109–39. Spring 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, pp 109–39. Gaustad, Edwin, S. Roger Williams (Oxford University Press, 2005). 140 pp. short scholarly biography stressing religion (Oxford University Press, 2005). 140 pp. short scholarly biography stressing religion Gaustad, Edwin, S., Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America . (Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1999). . (Judson Press, Valley Forge, 1999). Hall, Timothy L. Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty (1998). 206 pp. (1998). 206 pp. Johnson, Alan E. The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience (Pittsburgh, PA: Philosophia Publications, 2015). In-depth discussion of Roger Williams's life and work and his influence on the US Founders and later American history. (Pittsburgh, PA: Philosophia Publications, 2015). In-depth discussion of Roger Williams's life and work and his influence on the US Founders and later American history. Miller, Perry, Roger Williams, A Contribution to the American Tradition , (1953). much debated study; Miller argues that Williams thought was primarily religious, not political as so many of the historians of the 1930s and 1940s had argued. , (1953). much debated study; Miller argues that Williams thought was primarily religious, not political as so many of the historians of the 1930s and 1940s had argued. Morgan, Edmund S. Roger Williams: the church and the state (1967) 170 pages; short biography by leading scholar (1967) 170 pages; short biography by leading scholar Neff, Jimmy D. "Roger Williams: Pious Puritan and Strict Separationist", Journal of Church and State 1996 38(3): 529–546 in EBSCO 1996 38(3): 529–546 in EBSCO Phillips, Stephen. "Roger Williams and the Two Tables of the Law", Journal of Church and State 1996 38(3): 547–568 in EBSCO 1996 38(3): 547–568 in EBSCO Skaggs, Donald. Roger Williams' Dream for America (1993). 240 pp. (1993). 240 pp. Stanley, Alison. "'To Speak With Other Tongues': Linguistics, Colonialism and Identity in 17th Century New England", Comparative American Studies March 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p1, 17p March 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p1, 17p Winslow, Ola Elizabeth, Master Roger Williams, A Biography . (1957) standard biography . (1957) standard biography Wood, Timothy L. "Kingdom Expectations: The Native American in the Puritan Missiology of John Winthrop and Roger Williams", Fides et Historia 2000 32(1): 39–49 Historiography [ edit ] Carlino, Anthony O. "Roger Williams and his Place in History: The Background and the Last Quarter Century", Rhode Island History 2000 58(2): 34–71, historiography 2000 58(2): 34–71, historiography Irwin, Raymond D. "A Man for all Eras: The Changing Historical Image of Roger Williams, 1630–1993", Fides Et Historia 1994 26(3): 6–23, historiography 1994 26(3): 6–23, historiography Morgan, Edmund S. " Miller's Williams", New England Quarterly , Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec. 1965), pp. 513–523 in JSTOR , Vol. 38, No. 4 (Dec. 1965), pp. 513–523 in JSTOR Moore, Leroy, Jr. "Roger Williams and the Historians", Church History 1963 32(4): 432–451 in JSTOR 1963 32(4): 432–451 in JSTOR Peace, Nancy E. "Roger Williams: A Historiographical Essay", Rhode Island History 1976 35(4): 103–113, Primary sources [ edit ] Williams, Roger. The Complete Writings of Roger Williams , 7 vols. 1963 , 7 vols. 1963 Williams, Roger. The Correspondence of Roger Williams, 2 vols. ed. by Glenn W. LaFantasie, 1988 Fiction [ edit ]

I’ve moved to Chrome and Safari as my primary browsers, but nothing compares to Firefox when it comes to functionality and plugin support. Shown below are the information security related plugins I recommend any infosec professional (or enthusiast) install upon spinning up a new Firefox instance. XSS Me This plugin discovers all the fields on the current page, and gives you the option to launch targeted attacks on each field, or to launch all of its attacks against all fields. SQL Inject Me From the same group as XSS Me, this plugin finds all fields on the page you’re on and let’s you launch the most common SQL injection attacks against them. Live HTTP Headers See exactly what your browser is sending and receiving in real-time. User Agent Switcher Change your user-agent on the fly. So, you can make it look like you’re coming from Lynx running on AIX, or like you’re the GoogleBot. Web Developer Modify all sorts of options related to the site you’re viewing. Disable scripting, modify forms, etc., etc. Trust me–good stuff. Tamper Data Lets you view the data that’s being passed back and forth between you and the web server…and let’s you mess with it. Think “WebScarab”, but far simpler, and as a Firefox plugin. ASnumber Find the Autonomous System Number (ASN) of the network that your current site is served from. Simple. Useful. DT Whois Do a domaintools.com lookup of the site you’re currently visiting. If you haven’t used domaintools.com yet, you’ll be even more impressed. Firebug Gives you a developer’s view into the page you’re viewing, showing exactly what scripts are running, what the stylesheet is, etc. Oh, and let’s you change them and see what the result would be. Not really a security thing, but strong enough to be included in a list of musts. SwitchProxy Tool Allows you to quickly switch back and forth between multiple proxies, or between using your main proxy and going straight out to the Internet. My configuration always includes at least one proxy: localhost:8008 for WebScarab. Hackbar This tool, added on Zach’s (@quine’s) request, is kind of interesting. It allows a lot of functionality from a very simple interface. Essentially, it presents you with the ability to modify the current URL in a number of interesting ways, including giving access to a number of simple tools for translating data formats. Worth adding to the list of essentials. So there they are. If you have any I should add to this list of essentials, do let me know in the comments or via email. :: (Thanks to those who helped me build this list including Johannes Ulrich and Steve Crapo) Related [ Information Security Posts | danielmiessler.com ]

Was the website a hoax all along? Fans of Daft Punk are reacting as today marks when a website allegedly set to announce their 2017 world tour was set to launch. Earlier this month, a new website appeared online which many believed was set up by the robot duo to announce their return next year. The website ‘Alive 2017’ led fans to believe that a world tour from the ‘Get Lucky’ stars was imminent. Daft Punk have two live albums called ‘Alive 1997’ and ‘Alive 2007’ named after their two tours, which seem to happen once a decade – adding to the theory that they’ll continue the tradition and tour in 2017. Looking at the source code of the website, fans found the code “WAKE DATE 2016-10-27” – suggesting that there would either be an announcement or new music on 27 October. The code also showed numbers that appear to be coordinates for the locations of Paris, Los Angeles, London, New York, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Ibiza and Indio – locations for a 2017 world tour? However, the website it yet to update – and it’s left many fans either disappointed or anxious: Sharethrough (Mobile) When the website launched, Daft Punk representatives told NME that they would not be commenting. Meanwhile, despite ‘well-sourced’ information claiming that Daft Punk would be joining Radiohead as Glastonbury 2017 headliners alongside Stone Roses, Glasto organiser Emily Eavis told NME that they would definitely not be playing.