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M. Night Shyamalan’s mysterious drama “Wayward Pines” is returning to Fox on Wednesday, May 25th at 8pm ET. So, to give fans a taste of what to expect, Fox has released a 30-second teaser that show’s strange characters, unsettling and uneasy moments, and haunting intrigue.
“A 10-episode, intense psychological thriller based on a best-selling novel and brought to life by executive producer and director M. Night Shyamalan, about a Secret Service agent on a mission to find two missing federal agents, whose investigation only turns up more questions.”
“Wayward Pines” stars Carla Gugino, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, and Jason Patric.
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journey.
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in's dual role that gave him and his corporation a virtual monopoly on what to photograph, and what to share with the public.
The bottom line? If you think getting a straight answer from NASA about what is "out there" is difficult, just wait until the space corporations have complete control. In that respect, perhaps the NASA study is a realization - perhaps to late - that contractors are just that, contractors, and that the government needs to reestablish control over its own space archive. Perhaps, in a sense, the study is an admission that things are being hidden, even from it, and its public space program. It's an admission, perhaps, that an essential component of any secret space program is an archive... a secret one.
See you on the flip side.
Sometimes, sh*t happens.
Recently released dash cam footage near the Altufyevo subway station in Moscow shows an extremely stinky situation.
The clip starts with a vehicle pulling up to a group of stopped traffic waiting for the light to change. Without warning, a sewage suction tanker in the middle of the stopped traffic explodes, spewing poop water in all directions.
A white car and a city bus parked on either side of the tanker suffered the worse damage during the accident. Luckily, it appears that their windows were rolled up.
As the cammer drives by the tanker, the cabin can be seem completely intact, suggesting that no one was physically injured in the ordeal. However, we're sure the accident scarred a few people for life.
River body believed to be missing student Jason Fyles Published duration 27 June 2013
image caption Jason Fyles was last seen on 16 May
A body found in the River Tyne is believed to be that of a missing Newcastle University student.
Jason Fyles was last seen in the Sandyford area of Newcastle early on 16 May after a night out with friends.
His disappearance was said to be out of character and his family appealed for the 19-year-old to get in touch.
The body found near the Millennium Bridge has not yet been formally identified, but police have confirmed they believe it to be Mr Fyles.
After he went missing Northumbria Police released CCTV images of the student, who was originally from Southport in Merseyside. | 2,681,950 |
Industrial control system operators running Rockwell MicroLogix 1400 PLCs have been warned about a vulnerability that exposes these devices in critical industries to attack.
An undocumented SNMP community string has been discovered in programmable logic controllers (PLCs) built by Allen-Bradley Rockwell Automation that exposes these devices deployed in a number of critical industries to remote attacks.
Researchers at Cisco Talos today said the vulnerability is in the default configuration of MicroLogix 1400 PLC systems. Rockwell Automation, meanwhile, said versions 1766-L32BWA, 1766-L32AWA, 1766-L32BXB, 1766-L32BWAA, 1766-L32AWAA, and 1766-L32BXBA are affected.
“This vulnerability is due to the presence of an undocumented SNMP community string that could be leveraged by an attacker to gain full control of affected devices and grants the ability to manipulate configuration settings, replace the firmware running on the device with attacker-controlled code, or otherwise disrupt device operations,” Cisco Talos wrote in an advisory. “Depending on the role of the affected PLC within an industrial control process, this could result in significant damages.”
According to an advisory published today by the Industrial Control System Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), these PLCs are used in industries such as chemical, manufacturing, food, water, wastewater and others across Europe, the United States and Asia.
Cisco Talos said it also found an undocumented “wheel” string that also enabled read/write capabilities and exposes devices to unauthorized settings changes or firmware updates. Cisco cautions that the wheel string could also allow access to other object identifiers.
SNMP is a protocol used by many products for remote device management; in this case, for the deployment of firmware updates.
“Due to the nature of this product’s firmware update process, this capability cannot be removed from the product,” ICS-CERT said in its advisory.
Rockwell Automation provided a number of mitigations, including the use of a RUN keyswitch to prevent unauthorized firmware updates, and firewall updates to ensure SNMP requests from unauthorized sources are blocked.
“While it is possible for operators to change the default SNMP community strings on affected devices, the fact that this SNMP string is not documented by the vendor drastically decreases the likelihood of this value being changed prior to production deployment of the PLCs, as most operators are not likely to even be aware of its existence,” Cisco Talos said. “Given the severity of this issue, and the fact that this functionality has not been removed from affected devices, it is recommended that mitigations be put in place to prevent the successful exploitation of this vulnerability in production environments.” | 466,956 |
is a team known to perform really well versus international teams that they don’t often match up with. Beating EG 2-0 in Kiev Major groupstage and OG 2-0 in TI6 playoffs come to mind. They proved that this is still the case at MDL Macau. They went 5-0 vs CN/NA/SA but were 0-3 against EU/CIS Teams.
They are set to compete in the Galaxy BattlesMajor where they got Direct Invites. They should perform well with the Filipino crowd cheering them on.
T7. Navi
Qualifying Points: 315
Notable Accomplishments:
4th at Dreamleague Major
3rd-4th at MDL Macau Minor
The most well-known and perhaps beloved team in Dota 2 is finally back. The roster changes with the reliable carry Crystallize and the space creating Rodjer have proven to be really good decisions. Their rise started when they placed 2nd at the EU/CIS qualifiers for the Dreamleague Major which included top teams such as Liquid, Secret and Virtus Pro.
Come playoff time, Navi had an unfortunate time matching up with VP and losing 1-2. Then they fell to the lower bracket where they defeated Fnatic 2-1 to face Newbee in the next round. Navi then proceeded to upset the best Chinese team, 2-1. Game 2 felt like such a TI7 draft for Newbee with their combo of Bloodseeker and Earth Spirit and the commonly picked Venomancer but this isn’t 7.06 anymore. With this win over Newbee, they secured themselves Top 4 and those precious qualifying points. They went on to lose to EG 0-2 in the next round.
They performed okay-ish at MDL with wins over the bottom 5 teams except for LFY but losses against the top teams in the group stage. They lost to OG 0-2 in the first round of the playoffs placing them 3rd-4th.
We won’t be seeing them in a while as they lost in the CIS qualifiers of the Galaxy Battles Major to Team Spirit. Although they will be playing the ESL One Genting Minor CIS Qualifiers.
T7. Mineski
Qualifying Points: 720
Notable Accomplishments:
1st at PGL Open Minor
2nd at SLi Minor
One of the hottest teams early on in the season ended the season opposite to how they started. They last appeared in the Perfect World minor where they placed 7-8th and got eliminated early on. They started struggling a bit when 7.07 came out and they started losing these minor and major qualifiers to TNC and Fnatic who got better in their own right. That’s pretty much it so far for Mineski.
They are set to compete at the Captain’s Draft Minor and the Galaxy Battles Major.
6. Vici Gaming
Qualifying Points: 540
Notable Accomplishments:
2nd at Dota Pit Minor
2nd at Perfect World Minor
The Chinese teams have not as strong as they were in TI7 with 4 of the top 6 coming from the Chinese region. Since the last power ranking, they have had one strong performance with a 2nd place finish at the Perfect World Masters in Shanghai. They beat the likes of Mineski, Team Secret, and LFY in the playoffs to get to the grand finals where they got swept by Newbee 0-3.
They are perhaps the 2nd best Chinese team behind Newbee although they do have occasional qualifier losses to LGD and LFY. Internationally, this team performs well against teams like Liquid, VP, and OG.
They are set to next compete in the Captains Draft Minor.
T5. OG
Qualifying Points: 540
Notable Accomplishments:
1st at MDL Macau Minor
3rd-4th at The Summit Minor
The four-time major winners have made their mark in the Dota Pro Circuit season. They were really struggling to qualify for some minors and majors early on in the season with losses to Secret, mousesports, and SFTe-sports. But with Secret getting really good which results to skipping minors, OG is finally showing up on these important minors to get some of them precious Qualifying Points.
Their first minor appearance was Dota Pit and it was a forgettable one. They placed 5th-6th and lost to Chinese teams Newbee and Vici Gaming to exit the tourney. Next was MDL and they decided to show up bigtime. They were top of the groups, going 6-2 with their only losses against Virtus Pro and Infamous.
“It feels amazing, I feel like we’re back. We had a rough start but we’re back | 104,902 |
Greek coalition proposes easing bailout terms Published duration 23 June 2012
media caption Mark Lowen reports from Athens on what the new government wants to do in Greece
Greece's new coalition government has proposed an extension to the deadline for it to reduce its budget deficit by at least two years, to 2016.
In a policy document, the government said its aim was for the fiscal target envisaged by the bailout deal to be met without further cuts to salaries and pensions.
Greece is under huge international pressure to fulfil bailout terms.
Polls last week ended a two-month deadlock over its implementation.
Pro-bailout parties gained a narrow majority in parliament, despite widespread public anger at austerity measures stipulated in the bailout.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is recovering after a successful eye operation on Saturday morning.
The routine surgery was to repair a damaged retina. Mr Samaras is expected to leave hospital on Sunday.
New Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos is also in hospital after apparently fainting on Friday. His condition is said to be "stable and improving".
He was originally due to be sworn in on Saturday.
'Avoiding layoffs'
The document was published following agreement on policy goals between the coalition partners New Democracy, Pasok and Democraftic Left, and precedes a confidence vote in parliament.
It includes provision for "an extension to the period for the fiscal adjustment by at least two years, so that the fiscal target is met without further cuts in salaries and pensions".
"The aim is to avoid layoffs of permanent staff, but to economise a serious amount through non-salary operational costs and less bureaucracy," it said, quoted by AFP.
Under the current bailout deal, Greece has agreed to take 150,000 civil servants off the payroll by 2015.
Other provisions include:
reviewing minimum wage cuts and measures to facilitate private-sector layoffs
employers and unions to be allowed to set a private sector minimum wage
rearranging taxpayers' arrears for the year so that they do not exceed 25% of income
reducing VAT in catering from 23% to 13%
extending unemployment benefits
Greece's new cabinet was announced two days ago.
All three parties have signed a agreement to fully support the coalition, giving it a majority of 29 in parliament.
However, the cabinet is dominated by the conservative New Democracy party, after its left-wing partners Pasok and Democratic Left barred their MPs from joining.
image caption Mr Samaras (L) and Mr Rapanos (R) are both in hospital
They are represented by two party officials each. It is believed that they may not want to be associated with austerity measures.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the test for the new government will be to win significant concessions from eurozone partners in the weeks ahead.
Inspectors from the troika of the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund are due in Greece on Monday to review Greece's progress in meeting bailout conditions.
And on Thursday EU leaders will discuss the crisis at a two-day summit.
Eurozone officials say the bailout should only be revised to reflect the deeper recession, and delays to implementation caused by inconclusive elections in April and the subsequent failure to form a government.
The country got an initial EU-IMF package worth 110bn euros (£89bn; $138bn) in 2010, then a follow-up this year worth 130bn euros. | 3,110,288 |
7 Korean Crypto Exchanges Pass Government Security Inspection
The South Korean government has released the results of its security inspection of cryptocurrency exchanges. Only seven of them passed all 85 of the inspection points. Fourteen previously-inspected exchanges still have not improved and 17 new crypto exchanges did not meet security standards.
Also read: Indian Supreme Court Moves Crypto Hearing, Community Calls for Positive Regulations
Only Seven Exchanges Passed
South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT announced the results of its security inspection of cryptocurrency exchanges on Thursday, according to local media.
In collaboration with the Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA), the ministry inspected a total of 38 exchanges between September and December last year. Twenty-one of them were previously inspected between January and March last year while 17 exchanges were inspected for the first time.
Following the previous inspection, recommendations were given to the 21 exchanges to improve certain security measures. Seven of them have since made the necessary improvements and met all 85 items on the inspectors’ checklist. The 85 items checked “include system security such as administrative security, network separation and account management … and virtual currency wallet management,” Money Today elaborated.
The seven exchanges that passed the inspection are Upbit, Bithumb, Gopax, Korbit, Coinone, Hanbitco, and Huobi Korea. An official of the Ministry of Science and ICT was quoted by Newsprime as saying:
Most of them have weak security except for the seven facilities that satisfy all 85 inspection items.
Most Exchanges Need to Improve
Most of the cryptocurrency exchanges inspected did not meet basic security standards. The 14 previously-inspected exchanges have not made the required improvements, government officials told reporters.
These 14 exchanges showed that they still need to improve on 51 security items on average, so they “could be exposed to the risk of hacking attacks at all times,” Zdnet Korea noted. As for the 17 new crypto exchanges, the news outlet added that their “overall security level was found to be weak.” Newsprime elaborated:
By examining 85 items of the basic security requirements for 17 newly identified exchanges, it has been confirmed that the security level [of these exchanges] is generally weak due to the lack of 61 [security] items on average.
The news outlet further detailed, “In particular, it has been confirmed that most of the dealers have a low level of security such as network separation and access control as well as the lack of establishment and management of security systems such as basic PC and network security.” The ministry said it will continue to review and inspect crypto exchanges for security flaws, with a focus on protecting investors from hacking incidents.
What do you think of only seven crypto exchanges passing the Korean government security inspection? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock and the Korean government.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section. | 1,153,556 |
Hillary Clinton celebrates greets the crowd after winning the New York state primary election on April 19. | AP Photo Clinton camp: Sanders is all but done The Democratic front-runner's aides say that Sanders' time has run out.
Hillary Clinton's top strategist on Wednesday suggested that Bernie Sanders' path to the Democratic nomination is virtually non-existent and will continue to shrink as the Democratic front-runner picks up delegates in the weeks to come.
Remarking that Sanders faces a "pretty daunting" deficit after the campaign's "resounding victory" in the New York primary, chief Clinton pollster and strategist Joel Benenson said the former secretary of state's lead grew "even more insurmountable."
Benenson also rejected the notion that Sanders has any path to catch Clinton, noting that the campaign has continued to add to its pledged delegate lead, "and the real estate is disappearing beneath his feet."
"Next Tuesday, these races are going to be closely contested, but more than 400 delegates come off the table," he continued. "He just doesn’t have enough left to make a credible case that he can do what he’s gotta do to get within striking distance of us even.”
The latest declaration comes as the race continues to take on a more vigorous, contentious and increasingly personal tone. In an interview with POLITICO's Glenn Thrush, a senior Clinton aide remarked of the rival campaign, "We kicked his ass tonight... I hope this convinces Bernie to tone it down. If not, f--- him.”
But the Sanders campaign showed no sign of backing down Wednesday.
"We still have a path to the nomination, and our plan is to win the pledged delegates in this primary," Sanders wrote in a fundraising email to supporters soliciting a $2.70 donation. "Next week five states vote, and there are A LOT of delegates up for grabs. I am going to keep fighting for every vote, for every delegate, because each is a statement of support for the values we share.
As that email hit inboxes, senior Sanders adviser Tad Devine appeared on CNN to extol his candidate's "very powerful message" on the economy going forward into states like California, which votes June 7.
“We lost more than we thought we would yesterday. We thought the race would be a little bit closer, we’d pick up some more delegates," Devine conceded. "But we can still do it."
Pointing to exit polls in New York that suggested voters saw Clinton running the more unfair campaign, Devine also noted that more people also said their campaign was energizing the Democratic Party.
“I think Bernie Sanders’ case was heard in New York. She succeeded in her home state, but I think more voters will respond to it all across this country, all the way through California and the District of Columbia [which holds its Democratic primary June 14],” Devine said.
Responding to a question about Sanders’ poor performance with African-American voters in New York, Devine again admitted that the campaign had to do better to win in a general election but noted that the Clintons have a “strong footprint there, and we congratulate them.”
“Yeah, but Tad, it’s like the end of April at this point," CNN's Kate Bolduan remarked. "I mean, what more reintroduction do you have time for?”
“Well, I think we have a lot of time. We’ve got over 1,400 delegates still to be picked. We’ve got huge states like California still and I think we’ll be able to demonstrate by the time we get to the end of this process that Bernie Sanders’ appeal is across the broad spectrum of the party," he said, adding that only Sanders can bring in young people and independents in a general election.
After next Tuesday's contests in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, Benenson said Sanders will have to win 60 percent of the remaining delegates. Sanders "will do really well" in those states, Devine remarked.
"He’s going to win not just states, he’s going to have to win massive landslides," Benenson claimed. "He’s only done that in two states, where he’s gotten 57 or 58 percent of the delegates: Vermont and New Hampshire. That happened months ago. All these states he’s been winning and adding on, he hasn’t been piling up net delegates at the 58-42 range that he would need. It’s just not doable for him. He can point to all the states on the map that he wants to, but he has no evidence."
After Clinton trounced Sanders in New York, she leads the Vermont senator 1,428 to 1,151 in pledged delegates. | 1,027,150 |
More than 40 dogs have vanished from a North Texas county over the past two months, leaving behind no clues in a mystery that's devastated their owners.
"I'm horrified," said Robin Lewis, whose family lost their black Lab, Jack, from their Decatur home in December.
"It's been really difficult trying to explain Jack's gone, and are we ever going to see him again?" said Lewis. "They're heartbroken. I'm heartbroken. My husband's heartbroken."
Jack is just one of dozens of dogs who have vanished in Wise County.
On the very same day Jack disappeared, Decatur Mayor Martin Woodruff lost his daughter's pit bull and Great Dane, who disappeared from Woodruff's fenced-in back yard.
"Police dispatch said after several hours that this is very unusual," said Woodruff.
Lewis agrees.
"I think it's very suspicious that three very large, friendly dogs disappear in the same neighborhood at the exact same time," she said.
Since November, 40 dogs have been reported missing, according to the Wise County sheriff. There's no physical evidence that proves the dogs were taken. Still, neighbors have a growing suspicion that all the missing dogs are not just a coincidence.
"It's really disheartening to think that there are people out here that would do this," said Woodruff.
"It begs the question of where are these dogs going? And who's taking them? And what are they doing with them?" said Lewis.
The Wise County sheriff said investigators don't have any descriptions of possible suspects or their cars. But he said people should be on the lookout for anything that looks unusual that might help bring forward answers.
CasinoCoin has announced an enhancement to its current technology, which is primarily designed for the regulated online gaming sector. Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency will launch a significant upgrade by expanding the current blockchain system which should increase its further growth and adoption.
The main reason for this technology advancement is the liquidity of the coin. By increasing it from 40 million to 40 billion, cryptocurrency users and operators will be given bigger freedom in regards to fractioning the coin. Furthermore, a newly established Ripple technology infrastructure gained support from dominant banking corporations due to improved functionality and faster transaction times.
Bitcoin will not be affected by the Foundation’s goals of becoming the number one currency in regulated gaming markets at large extent, considering its great distribution and awareness. Nonetheless, CSC has gathered a new team, whose main tasks will be to raise consciousness about the brand and implement further blockchain upgrades.
Migration to the new technology will be handled manually between November 25, 2017 and February 14, 2018 to ensure maximum security, while staying completely transparent. All users are advised to visit CSC’s homepage and get informed in detail about how the upgrade will be carried out. The team also agreed to answer questions on popular discussion websites, Reddit and Discord.
To keep its customers up-to-date, CasinoCoin will display transaction IDs of processed coins on the webpage, as part of its transparency operations. All coins which do not get processed and moved onto the new blockchain, will be donated to a non-profit Foundation as means of payment for future operations, brand marketing or further development. For this cause, CSC has appointed numerous senior industry professionals including Lee Fenton (Gamesys), Britt Boeskov (Kindred Group) and Sam Hobcraft, (OPL Gaming Group). | 936,213 |
LONDON -- Arizona Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer will have surgery to repair his broken left arm when the team returns home and could miss anywhere between eight weeks and the rest of the season, coach Bruce Arians said Sunday night after a 33-0 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
Drew Stanton, who finished 5-of-14 for 62 yards and an interception in place of Palmer, will take over as the Cardinals' starter beginning Nov. 5 at San Francisco after their bye this weekend, Arians confirmed.
"We played with Drew before, you know," Arians said. "We have lost [Palmer] long. Drew has played and won a lot of games for us.
"All the confidence, he and Blaine [Gabbert] stepped up to take over the quarterback job."
Arians said he won't consider playing Gabbert ahead of Stanton, who's 6-3 when starting in place of Palmer since they became teammates in 2013. Stanton was 5-3 in 2014, when Palmer missed 10 games with a shoulder and knee injury. Stanton missed the last two games that season with his own knee injury.
Gabbert has 40 career starts in his seven-year career, including three years with the Jacksonville Jaguars, who made him the 10th overall pick in 2011, and three with the San Francisco 49ers before he signed with Arizona in May. "He's our No. 2," Arians said of Stanton. "I don't skip two and go to three."
Carson Palmer is out at least eight weeks after suffering a broken arm in Sunday's loss. AP Photo/Matt Dunham
Palmer suffered the injury late in the second quarter as he was hit by Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald with 5:48 left in the first half on a pass that was intercepted by safety Lamarcus Joyner. Palmer tried to go back in on Arizona's next series, Stanton said, but wasn't allowed. He didn't return for the rest of the game.
Palmer was evaluated by team doctors on the sideline. He jogged around the field and to the locker room shortly after, making sure not to move his left arm while he ran. As Palmer tried to get back in the game, Stanton was unsure whether he was going in.
"Unfair to Drew because Drew hasn't had any practice," Arians said. "I thought he did as well as he could today. He'll do a lot better next week."
Stanton, who said he's developed a good studying system with Gabbert, feels ready to assume the starting role.
"I feel great," Stanton said. "That's why you put the time and effort in to be prepared. You never want to see something like this happen, especially to Carson. We've been together for five years. My heart goes out to him and really this team. Losing a guy like that that, [he's] a Pro Bowler, a potential Hall of Famer. It's tough. And losing a friend and a teammate.
"Unfortunately that's what happens in this league." | 585,264 |
Using Mail Drop allows you to send larger files over email than typically allowed by uploading the sent file to iCloud from Mail app in OS X, and then passing the link to download that file onto the recipient. The default MailDrop threshold for mail attachments is 20MB before kicking in and offering the service, but some email providers don’t allow files over even 10MB to be sent through their mail servers. Fortunately, with a little command line magic, you can change the file size limit before MailDrop is requested for transmitting a file.
If you’d like to adjust the minimum attachment file size threshold for sending files over MailDrop in the Mac Mail app, you can do so with a defaults command string in the OS X Terminal. If you make a change and decide you’d rather revert back to the default file size, you can do that too.
Changing the MailDrop Attachment Size Threshold for Mail App in OS X
Quit out of Mail app if it’s currently open Open the Terminal and enter the following defaults write command, changing the numbers on the end to represent the size in KB to become the new minimum attachment threshold (the setting below will be 10MB): defaults write com.apple.mail minSizeKB 10000 Hit return and then re-launch Mail app Send any file over 10MB and Mail app will prompt you to use MailDrop (iCloud must be enabled on the Mac)
MailDrop requires using the Mail app in OS X with iCloud and OS X 10.10.x or newer, the rest is quite simple and just a matter of attaching larger files to an email and selecting to use MailDrop as described here. One of the fastest ways to quickly initiate a Mail Drop is by dragging a file onto the Mail app icon in the Dock which is over the threshold.
If you want to revert back to the default MailDrop setting in OS X Mail, just use the following command string in the terminal:
defaults write com.apple.mail minSizeKB 20000
Relaunch Mail app for the change to take effect.
From the sending side of things, MailDrop is only available for use in Mail app, if you use something like web-based Gmail or another mail client as your default email client, you will not have the option to use the service when sending files out. For the recipient, however, it doesn’t matter what email service you use, you’ll get the same download link to get the attachment.
This handy defaults string was passed our way by a reader, heads up to AppleTips.nl for discovering the appropriate syntax. | 3,088,984 |
. Go Brad!
COMMENT #27 [Permalink]
... colinjames said on 5/28/2010 @ 9:00 pm PT...
SreeBee rocks, just had to say that; to the article... dang! why does Patterico hate the truth? What a total p#ssy not letting you link or comment on his site, while we're subject to his special brand of stupid on far too many an occasion (NOT suggesting you ban him; bravo for being the bigger man). However, I fear his toxic comments are polluting my brain. I've never seen a lawyer with such a poor grasp of logic- and the eagerness to display it! And as for the couple bright one's who don't seem to get this article- it's not even COMPLICATED for pete's sake, you're hopless. Anyways, there's two distinct and diametrically opposed aspects to this story- On one hand, it's just a typical example of rich and/or white and/or connected people getting a slap on the wrist for crimes if, committed by poorer, browner, anti-GOP groups of people- they would have received harsher treatment, severe punishment, and much more negative MSM coverage as well. ON THE OTHER HAND, we have a group that's possibly well-connected (and certainly they had numerous MEDIA connections) to GOP leadership on some level, illegally entering and planning to WIRETAP a Democratic U.S. Senator's phone, POST 9-11, post-ANTHRAX (remeber that?); there's possible involvement and/or training from a U.S. Intelligence Agency... and the whole thing is swept under the rug by MSM, while the CRIMINALS are fiercely defended by extreme reich-wing bloggers? Holy Bizarro-World Batman...
COMMENT #28 [Permalink]
... Chris Hooten said on 5/28/2010 @ 10:37 pm PT...
Hey floridiot, that chicken nugget guy did punch the guy in the face several times as he went out the door, so I don't feel so bad about him being arrested.
COMMENT #29 [Permalink]
... Chris Hooten said on 5/28/2010 @ 10:45 pm PT...
Also, colinjames, the FBI cleared them of trying to wiretap the actual phone system, wiretap is being used in a broader sense. They did not have equipment on them capable of setting up a phone wiretap. They were wiretapping in the more modern use of the word, pertaining to electronic surveillance. I have never heard that intelligence agencies might have been involved in training. Any links to that info?
COMMENT #30 [Permalink]
... tBoy said on 5/30/2010 @ 5:55 am PT...
The AP errors keep coming. As of 5/30/2010 the AP is still reporting he posed as a pimp in the video: http://www.dailyworld.co...s+video+deleted+by+court
COMMENT #31 [Permalink]
... lmk said on 5/30/2010 @ 6:17 am PT...
CNN is still also using the "dressed as a pimp" line. Maybe they were repeating the AP feed, maybe not.
COMMENT #32 [Permalink]
... colinjames said on 5/31/2010 @ 10:38 am PT...
#29, I did use 'possible', I'll try to find the links where I read about one of the arrestees having some kind of ties. It was speculation based on something I'll have to try and dig up later, no time now.
COMMENT #33 [Permalink]
... SreeBee said on 5/31/2010 @ 10:38 am PT...
Apparently James the Turd is going to attempt to circulate more of his (doctored) videos with the intention of taking down HUD... in Detroit of all places. I guess, as someone who kids himself about "standing up to power", he really does so by targeting impoverished communities in Detroit... such a "powerful" nemesis there James. THAT KID SPEWS OUT MORE NOXIOUS FILTH THAN THE BP OIL LEAK! (In my opinion, it’s no coincidence that he was in NOLA vomiting out his garbage at the same time that the tanker exploded and the oil began to leak. Outside of being a colorful analogy, the two events echo each other in an eerily poetic manner.) As someone originally from the Detroit metro area, and as someone who went to school in Detroit itself, I take such strong exception to the fact that this | 429,895 |
Investigative journalism created the conditions for Michael Flynn's resignation from his national security adviser post.
Journalists at The Washington Post, The New York Times and other outlets spoke with government officials who provided vital information about Flynn's contacts with Russia.
The sources insisted on anonymity, making it difficult to ascertain their agendas. But the sources caused journalists to dig for more and more details about Flynn's calls. One story became 10 stories, and 10 became a hundred.
"The only reason we're finding out about it now is because a patriot did leak this to The Washington Post, did get this information out there, or else we wouldn't even have known about it," Joe Scarborough said on MSNBC on Tuesday morning.
Evan Osnos of The New Yorker tweeted, "The Flynn story is a reminder of a big truth: Journalism lives. And principled public servants who got the story out are hidden heroes."
Another Trump administration critic, The Atlantic senior editor David Frum, wrote, "Tonight's resignation reminds both why patriots should cherish a free & independent press -- and why Donald Trump so fears & hates it."
Related: Flynn resigns amid controversy over Russian contacts
The tone on Fox News was strikingly different. Steve Doocy, co-host of the pro-Trump "Fox & Friends" morning show, asked, "Whatever happened to secrets in Washington?" Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham explicitly criticized the leakers.
Monday night's developments may further heighten tensions between the president and the press. Editors at outlets like The Post remain concerned about Trump's attacks on the media and the possibility of leak investigations and prosecutions.
Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, is slated to hold a briefing at 1 p.m. ET Tuesday. He will surely be asked about the Flynn controversy and who knew what when.
It all started more than a month ago, on January 12, when the Trump transition team was preparing to move into the White House.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius cited a single "senior U.S. government official" while reporting that "Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking."
Ignatius asked: "What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions?"
He said the Trump transition team did not respond to his request for comment.
Three days later, Vice President Mike Pence told John Dickerson on CBS' "Face the Nation" that Flynn and the ambassador had not discussed "anything having to do with the United States' decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia." Pence said he had spoken to Flynn directly about it.
There were a number of followup stories, joined by noisy speculation about Flynn's contacts. But further investigation was needed to get to the bottom of it.
Last Thursday, The Post cited "nine current and former officials" in a story headlined "National security adviser Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador, despite denials, officials say."
The New York Times quickly matched the story and said there was a transcript of the discussions.
The chronology suggests that some officials in the government sought to alert the public to Flynn's contacts by leaking to the press.
Toward the end of the day on Friday, President Trump surprised members of the press corps by saying he had not seen the Post's bombshell report.
Related: Flynn's resignation doesn't end controversy
While speaking with journalists on Air Force One, Trump was asked about it, and he said, "I don't know about that. I haven't seen it. What report is that? I haven't seen that. I'll look into that."
Some commentators found that very hard to believe.
Over the weekend and into Monday, pressure mounted, with inquiries from reporters and constant chatter from television commentators.
Trump aides found themselves without firm answers.
In a 4 p.m. interview on Monday, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said Flynn had the president's "full confidence." One hour later, Spicer said something much less confident -- that the president was "evaluating" Flynn.
On Tuesday's "Today" show, Matt Lauer asked Conway whether she was "out of the loop," and she said, "No, not at all. Both were true. The president is very loyal, he's a very loyal person, and by night's end Mike Flynn had decided it was best to resign. He knew he'd become a lightning rod."
On CNN's "New Day," Republican congressman Chris Collins of New York said Flynn "did what he thought was in the best interests of the country" by resigning, and "I think it's just time to move on."
Anchor Chris Cuomo responded: "Congressman, there is zero chance | 2,838,283 |
THE PORT ADELAIDE FOOTBALL CLUB has confirmed it will enter the ballot for the leadership of Australia.
After numerous changes of the nation's prime ministership since 2010, the club has decided enough is enough.
There’s going to be a new Power in Australia.
“Clearly there’s dissatisfaction with having one person leading government within the major parties, so we’re running our whole club on an inclusiveness campaign,” a club spokesperson told portadelaidefc.com.au.
“We know the key to a strong and successful government is about stability and good, sensible leadership.
“Historically we’ve had pretty strong leadership at the club – just four football department leaders - our coaches - since 1997, and a total of six since 1950; our off-field leadership has remained stable for some time.
“While we’re out of this year’s AFL finals race, we believe we’re well-placed to contest and win the leadership race for Australia.
“Our club's motto is that We Exist to Win Premierships and Make Our Community Proud.
“When it comes to national affairs, we exist to win elections to make the community proud.
“Certainly we’ve felt we’re a club for all Australians, and if successful, we’ll govern for all Australians.”
It's not the first time Port Adelaide has dipped into the public commentary on the nation's leadership. Back in 2013, it weighed in on the spill between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd with a jibe on its own leadership group.
The death of Daisy leaves the aquarium with only two cetaceans
Daisy the harbour porpoise was a month old when rescued by the aquarium in 2008
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The Vancouver Aquarium is mourning the loss of yet another high-profile marine animal.
Daisy, a harbour porpoise, died on Thursday.
She was just a month old when rescued by the aquarium in 2008.
The aquarium says there was a change in her behaviour earlier this month and because of that was receiving round the clock care.
Preliminary necropsy results indicate she had pulmonary disease. The harbour porpoise is a species of special concern on the BC coast. Latest estimates put their average lifespan at eight -12 years.
Qila and Aurora, a mother and daughter set of belugas, died within weeks of each other last fall.
The death of Daisy leaves the aquarium with only two cetaceans – Helen, a Pacific white-side dolphin and Chester, a false killer.
VIDEO: Another marine mammal has died at the Vancouver Aquarium @NEWS1130 @BT_Vancouver pic.twitter.com/YWeXOtlTLj — James Cybulski (@cballnews) June 16, 2017
Daisy was nine.
On Thursday, the aquarium announced it would legally challenge the park board for imposing a ban last month on the display of cetaceans.
The amendment means the cetaceans currently at the aquarium can remain there, but no others can be brought in.
The aquarium argues the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation did not have the legal authority to make the change. | 3,106,585 |
TAIPEI (REUTERS) - Taiwan reported 22 new coronavirus cases on Sunday (April 19), almost all of them sailors who had been on a friendly visit of Taiwanese navy ships to the small Pacific island state of Palau last month.
Taiwan has to date been relatively successful at controlling the coronavirus due to early prevention and detection, and last week celebrated three days in which no new cases were reported.
But on Saturday, Taiwan said that three cadets who had been part of the mission to Palau, one of only 15 countries to maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, had been infected, and that 700 sailors were being quarantined and tested.
The 21 sailors whose positive tests the government announced on Sunday bring the total cases in the navy to 24.
Speaking at a news conference, Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said the cases had so far only been discovered on one of the three ships that had visited Palau, but that further investigations were needed before they could say where exactly the sailors had contracted the virus.
Navy deputy commander Mei Chia-shu gave a deep bow in an expression of apology at the same news conference for the infections and not properly carrying out prevention measures.
"We will exert all efforts to look after our infected personnel and care for their family members," he said.
The sailors had all disembarked on Wednesday upon arriving back in Taiwan. The ships had docked at Palau from March 12 to 15.
Palau President Tommy Remengesau told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that his country of 20,000 people had not had a single case of the coronavirus and that he was going to close borders to keep the virus out.
Related Story Taiwan's medical staff voice concerns in spite of highly praised coronavirus outbreak prevention measures
Related Story Coronavirus explainers: What you should know to protect yourself
Related Story Coronavirus visual guide: Interactive graphics on the pandemic
Palau has received help from Taiwan to fight the virus, including testing suspected cases and receiving face masks from Taiwan.
Taiwan's presidential office said on Saturday that President Tsai Ing-wen had been at the ceremony to welcome back the ships but had only waved to the sailors from the shore and had not been exposed to the risk of infection.
These are the first coronavirus cases reported in Taiwan's military.
The new cases bring Taiwan's total to 420, six of whom have died. | 2,287,433 |
when the return of growth will take place. Nevertheless, it has the optimistic prediction that growth rates could be quite strong when the economy starts recovering (even if after such a long depression the ceiling itself may have been affected by years of underinvestment and an immense loss of human capital).
Can the plucking model explain the last European boom-bust-recovery cycle?
Let’s take a look at all European countries that entered recession around 2007-2009, and have made some gains towards recovery since then. Our sample contains all EU countries except the ones that didn’t experience a recession (Poland) or a recovery (Croatia and Greece), using annual GDP data from the AMECO database.
Source: Ameco, Bruegel calculations
As can be seen in Figure 3a above, our very simple regressions suggest that the size of the contraction is predictive of growth rates during the recovery (the P-value is 0.000). On the other hand, the size of the boom that precedes the recession – Figure 3b – is not predictive of the yearly average GDP contraction in a way that is statistically different from zero (P-value of 0.598).
These results appear to validate the plucking theory predictions made by Friedman. In other words, the strong recoveries observed in European countries like Latvia and Estonia seem to be directly proportional to the size of their GDP-losses during the crisis. If these quick recoveries are the natural counterpart of the previous recessions, it makes it difficult to infer anything on the success or failure of the policies implemented since the beginning of the crisis, and therefore to use these countries as role model in order to recommend similar policies to other European countries.
NASA is preparing to reveal a “major science finding” regarding Mars on Monday, with the agency planning a special news conference to announce the findings.
The event will take place at 11.30 a.m. EDT (4.30 p.m. BST) on Monday, and you will be able to watch it live on NASA TV, which we have handily embedded below. Reporters will be onsite and asking questions by phone, while the public can get involved via #AskNASA.
What will the announcement be about? Well, you’ll have to wait and see, as NASA won’t be releasing any more information to the public until then.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Taking part in the news conference will be Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters; Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters; graduate student Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology; and Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Such events for NASA are not unprecedented, but they do usually herald a major discovery. In July, NASA convened a similar conference to announce the discovery of Kepler-452b, the most Earth-like planet found outside the Solar System to date. While this latest event won’t be announcing life on Mars, its implications could be vital in understanding more about the Red Planet.
So tune in on Monday for a groundbreaking discovery about a world that we think was once rather similar to our own. | 364,647 |
Abstract
Context Recent increases in infectious disease mortality and concern about emerging infections warrant an examination of longer-term trends.
Objective To describe trends in infectious disease mortality in the United States during the 20th century.
Design and Setting Descriptive study of infectious disease mortality in the United States. Deaths due to infectious diseases from 1900 to 1996 were tallied by using mortality tables. Trends in age-specific infectious disease mortality were examined by using age-specific death rates for 9 common infectious causes of death.
Subjects Persons who died in the United States between 1900 and 1996.
Main Outcome Measures Crude and age-adjusted mortality rates.
Results Infectious disease mortality declined during the first 8 decades of the 20th century from 797 deaths per 100,000 in 1900 to 36 deaths per 100,000 in 1980. From 1981 to 1995, the mortality rate increased to a peak of 63 deaths per 100,000 in 1995 and declined to 59 deaths per 100,000 in 1996. The decline was interrupted by a sharp spike in mortality caused by the 1918 influenza epidemic. From 1938 to 1952, the decline was particularly rapid, with mortality decreasing 8.2% per year. Pneumonia and influenza were responsible for the largest number of infectious disease deaths throughout the century. Tuberculosis caused almost as many deaths as pneumonia and influenza early in the century, but tuberculosis mortality dropped off sharply after 1945. Infectious disease mortality increased in the 1980s and early 1990s in persons aged 25 years and older and was mainly due to the emergence of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in 25- to 64-year-olds and, to a lesser degree, to increases in pneumonia and influenza deaths among persons aged 65 years and older. There was considerable year-to-year variability in infectious disease mortality, especially for the youngest and oldest age groups.
Conclusions Although most of the 20th century has been marked by declining infectious disease mortality, substantial year-to-year variation as well as recent increases emphasize the dynamic nature of infectious diseases and the need for preparedness to address them.
Over the last 100 years, North America and Europe have experienced a substantial decline in mortality and an increase in life expectancy. The "theory of epidemiologic transition" attributes these trends to the transition from an "age of pestilence and famine," in which the mortality pattern was dominated by high rates of infectious disease deaths, especially in the young, to the current "age of degenerative and man-made diseases" in which mortality from chronic diseases predominates.1,2 According to estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study, infectious diseases now account for only 4.2% of all disability-adjusted life years lost (DALYs, a measure of the burden of diseases and injuries) in countries like the United States with established market economies, whereas chronic and neoplastic diseases account for 81.0%.3
Until recently, it was assumed that the epidemiologic transition had brought about a permanent reduction in infectious disease mortality in the United States. However, the emergence or reemergence in the 1980s of such diseases as the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and tuberculosis demonstrated that gains against infectious diseases cannot be taken for granted.4,5 An outbreak of avian influenza in Hong Kong in late 1997 by a strain (H5N1) not previously known to infect humans6 is a reminder that pandemic influenza continues to pose a threat.
In the United States, mortality due to infectious diseases increased 58% from 1980 to 1992,7 a trend that was unforeseen. To determine when this trend began and to characterize longer-term trends in the United States, we examined US mortality records since 1900, when the federal government first began to track mortality data annually.
Methods
Sources of Mortality Data
Data were obtained from yearly tabulations of causes of death on file at the Division of Vital Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and from public use mortality data tapes from 1962 through 1996.
The US federal government began publishing mortality statistics on an annual basis in 1900 after establishment of the death-registration system.8 Initially, data were gathered only from the "death-registration area," which included 10 states, the District of Columbia (collectively known as the "death-registration states"), and 153 cities outside these states. The system was gradually expanded to include all states by 1933. All registered deaths were entered into the system for every year except 1972, when a sample of half of all deaths was entered. Deaths occurring in military personnel outside the United States were not included.8
The cause or causes of death obtained from death certificates were coded according to the particular revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) that was in use at the time (successive revisions were implemented starting in 1900 [ICD-1], 1910 [ICD-2], 1921 [ICD-3], 1930 | 2,476,705 |
A computer or laptop is a machine or device that performs methods, calculations, and operations based on instructions given by a hardware or software program. A computer or laptop designed to run applications and create different solutions by combining integrated software and hardware components. Nowadays, both computers and laptops are very important in everyday work life. If the computer or laptop is repaired, our day-to-day work can also be disturbed. The computer has sensitive parts so if it is repaired don't try to fix it on our own. Contact the nearest computer repair service center, such as the Doorstep Hub.
Types of Repairs Doorstep Do
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Printer Repair: Software issues, hardware failures, overuse, consumer goods issues, and driver problems are common factors that prevent the printer from working properly. All of this will cause printer repair.
Software Installation: There are the most common problems when creating or expanding their software applications are Inadequate Communication amongst Teams, Poorly Scheduling of the Software Development Process, Lack of Software Testing. For these reasons, we do software installation.
System Up-gradation: By using the software up-gradation we fix bugs in the software and improve functionality, extend your equipment's usable life by allowing its maximum productivity, protect against new-found security risks, introduce new features in your software, improve battery depletion rate or performance speed, and fix bugs in the software and improve functionality.
Data Backup: Data loss can be caused by several things ranging from computer viruses to hardware failures to file corruption. Data backup is a copy of computer data so that it can be returned to you after the data is damaged.
Power Problems: The list of PC problems that often are related to the power supply is spontaneous rebooting or intermittent lockups during normal operation, intermittent parity check or other memory-type errors, hard disk, overheating due to fan failure, electric shocks felt on the system case or connectors, or any power-on or system startup failures or lockups.
AMC Services: Computer AMC services or annual maintenance contract services provide data recovery, assembly of computer systems, up-gradation of computer systems, removal of viruses, network issues, etc.
Hardware Issues: The hardware issue is very frustrating and breaks your day. Here are a few of the reasons why hardware failure occurs, they are power problems, user errors, extreme temperature changes, etc
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Doorstep Hub reasonable and trust-worthy services. We work according to your computer or laptop needs and our technician analyzes the best possible methods to provide you with issues. We at Doorstep Hub to provide you a satisfactory service at your place.
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30 days Warranty Service: We offer the warranty for 30 days after your services. It is a major principle of us. By analyzing the product we will provide the service warranty. Actually, the minimum warranty is 30 days for any product and maximum for 6 months.
Low-Cost Service: We resolve your computer or laptop repair with reasonable prices with high-quality services at your preferred places.
100% Trust-worthy Experienced Repairman: Need not to worry about the technicians. We were hired a high-potential and high-qualified computer service repairman.
Provide a Particular Brand Service Technician: Our ability to provide the technician of your preferred brand-wise computer or laptop. They are worthful candidates.
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Request Procedure Quote: Booking the service in Doorstep Hub is pretty easy just by downloading the mobile app or visiting the website and making the call to the reference number provided on the site. We are prettily here to receive your service in any possibility of your process. | 1,769,668 |
The World Cup Final is Sunday, and there are three areas which could tip the scales in favor of a Croatian upset or an expected French title.
[ MORE: PST’s World Cup roundtable ]
Kante and Pogba vs. Modric, Rakitic, Brozovic
Yes, Antoine Griezmann is a midfielder, but he’s a fourth forward if N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba are at their very best. Croatia’s midfield triangle has been responsible for much of its World Cup success, and will need to keep that up if it hopes to collect an upset.
Mandzukic renews acquaintances with La Liga CBs…
Two goals in the Champions League semifinals against Real Madrid, one the year before in the final, and an assist in that UCL run-up versus Barcelona.
So, yes, Real’s Raphael Varane and Barca’s Samuel Umtiti have tangled with him a time or two. And the big Croatian striker Mandzukic really seems to be rounding into form.
…And Giroud versus Lovren and Co.
Olivier Giroud has yet to score in the tournament, but sleeping on his industrious performance up top is a mistake. Dejan Lovren has branded himself “one of the best defenders in the world” based on this tournament and his Champions League run with Liverpool.
If France needs to whip crosses toward Giroud, we’d expect things could look a bit like the below highlight reel. Check around the 1:00 mark of this video:
Follow @NicholasMendola
The leaker who allegedly got hold of an Xbox One dev kit and released a slew of information to the Internet has warned that if he is arrested today, he’ll spill everything he knows.
The individual known as Superdae told Gizmodo that he expects to be charged today, after several months of investigation.
If he is arrested, and therefore can’t log into his FTP server this evening (Perth time) an automated system will give out its IP, user name and password via Twitter, offering read-only access to an alleged collection of top secret info.
Gizmodo says the server is packed with “juicy” files, and Superdae claims to have information about the Xbox One that Microsoft does not want leaked.
In a later report on Kotaku, the server was said to contain software development kits for the PlayStation 4; Xbox One and Wii U; information on the pulled from hacks of Epic Games; Blizzard; Unitied Front Games and THQ; and unfinished versions of unreleased games like Company of Heroes 2 and WWE 14, as well as mysterious Epic projects known only as Kilo, Lima and Orion.
Superdae gave out plenty of info regarding the console ahead of its reveal, much of which seems to have been correct.
Superdae’s attempt to sell a couple of Durango dev kits on eBay resulted in a visit from the FBI and West Australia police, which Microsoft has denied any involvement with.
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Thanks, Kotaku. | 133,306 |
NEWARK, NJ - Approval for an 8-story residential building near Lincoln Park was put on hold at a zoning board meeting Thursday to reassess parts of the project, including parking.
M&M Development, based in Newark, wants to add an additional four floors to a vacant warehouse at 84-94 Parkhurst St. The plan would create 58 one and two-bedroom apartments with 11 basement parking spots, 22 spaces for bikes and a jitney drop-off area that would take residents to Newark Penn Station.
The words “Goldsmith Lofts” appeared on site plans that were presented to board members at the meeting.
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Jennifer Carrillo-Perez, an attorney for the developer, said the project would be part of a new redevelopment plan that is slated for the city. It will be called either Gateway South or the Lincoln Park South Redevelopment Plan, but hasn’t been fully approved yet, she said.
“Part of that is a jitney service that's going to be provided to the residents,” Carillo-Perez said of the city’s slated redevelopment plan. “They're trying to create more density in those areas because there's some abandoned and open areas and warehouses that are under-utilized.”
Zoning board members had concerns over the number of spots that were available for the project and the building’s height. Carillo-Perez asked to adjourn the application after hearing those concerns.
“Eleven spots for 58 units just doesn’t add up for me,” said zoning board member Rosemarie Ruivo,
The project would technically be located in a zoning area that only allows low-rise buildings. It’s directly south of a different area that would allow taller buildings though, said the project’s planner, Christopher Kok. The 8-story building would also act as a sound buffer to traffic on McCarter Highway, he added.
The project’s location is over a mile away from Penn Station. Kok said parking lots for some nearby businesses on McCarter Highway are actually part of the public right of way, so residents would be able to utilize those spot.
"It's very unusual, but it's part of the public right of way,” Kok said of the parking lots.
The plan would also include affordable units, Kok added.
The zoning board agreed to adjourn the application at the request of the developer’s attorney. It’s scheduled to be heard in March 2019.
Find TAPinto Newark on Facebook and Twitter. Download the TAPinto mobile app for Android or iOS. | 124,978 |
Tech. The man who’d repeatedly talked about bringing a car company from China to America stood in Outer Mongolia, grinning about the 15 million square foot facility going up there. Neither Republican campaigns nor reporters had noticed it. America Rising found it buried on the GreenTech site. Other hits followed, all on this theme, but McAuliffe won anyway.
“McAuliffe was a better candidate, no doubt, than four years ago,” offers Miller. “He was on message. They knew their candidate’s weaknesses. He benefited by not being a new candidate—he goes off message and, oh, that’s just Terry, acting crazy! That’s just Terry, being folksy again. In 2013 a lot of the media felt that stuff had been asked and answered.”
“The campaign kept him from doing one-on-one interviews,” says Pounder.
“The one interview he did, the [Virginia political reporter] Ryan Nobles interview, we used in every ad! The ad that tested the best was from that interview.”
“Very few press gaggles after his events,” adds Pounder.
“But hiding a candidate is not a path to success in statewide races,” says Miller. “That’s not a path to success for [Kentucky Senate candidate] Alison Lundergan Grimes or [Georgia Senate candidate] Michelle Nunn. The hard questions are going to get asked and answered.”
America Rising is counting on candidates being questioned in states that have been voting Republican for president or where the local Democratic party has been losing elections: Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina.
“Think about where the battleground map is,” says Miller. “This or that remark might not be that damning in Massachusetts, but many of the competitive races are happening on turf that Romney won.”
Republicans need to win six Senate seats to take total control of Congress, and they realize they could have done this earlier if they hadn’t nominated losers in a few 2010 and 2012 races, or if millions of dollars hadn’t been blown on stupid ads. All their tracking can serve as a foundation for the 2014 contests.
“Something in a research file now that doesn’t seem relevant may be relevant six months from now,” says Pounder. “The benefit of working on this full time, through the cycle, is that you’ll stay aware of it.”
“I think there’s a misconception that this is happening in order to catch [Iowa Senate candidate] Bruce Braley saying he’s upset with the lack of towels in the House gym during the shutdown. That’s fun, that gets on Jimmy Kimmel, that’s not the point. Three months from now if there’s a controversy regarding some local official in Arkansas, we can go back and we know what Mark Pryor said about it. When the NSA thing popped last summer, probably nothing any of these candidates said about the NSA had ever raised a red flag. But now we’ve catalogued that information, so when the next NSA pops up, we know what they said.”
“If we were sitting here a year ago,” says Pounder, “nobody would have said ‘if you like your plan, you can keep your plan’ would be an issue. OK. Kay Hagan has said it numerous times. Mark Pryor has said it once or twice. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Then you go back to everything they’re starting to say since the debate started. They didn’t just say, ‘if you like your plan you can keep it.’ They said, if you like your doctor, you can keep him.’ They said, ‘I do like the public option.’ They said, ‘maybe Obamacare didn’t go far enough.’ They were intricate players in the debate, and most of that is on video.”
Why would support for a public option hurt a candidate? “It fits in because you ask: You thought Obamacare’s implementation was bad? They wanted to go even further.” America Rising is the freezer of the Republican party, storing messages and narratives are, that can be taken out at the right moment, microwaved, and served to voters. | 392,986 |
The body of an eight-year-old boy who had been missing for nearly two weeks has been found in his father's partner's car, police in Spain have said.
Gabriel Cruz was last seen alive in the small southeastern village of Las Hortichuelas on 27 February.
Hundreds of volunteers joined the search and his parents, Angel Cruz and Patricia Ramirez, who are separated, gave a series of emotional interviews.
Angel Cruz's partner, Ana Julia Quezada, was a regular presence during days of searching through local countryside.
Image: Gabriel's body was found in his father's partner's car. Pic: @ PCivilElEjido
People in Spain are now calling for the death penalty to be reinstated following the discovery of the little boy's remains.
Spain's Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido announced that they had been found in Ms Quezada's car on Sunday.
Later in the evening, a mob of protesters gathered at the police station in Almeria, where Ms Quezada is being held, clapping their hands and shouting "death penalty".
There were also calls for capital punishment on social media, with others calling for Ms Quezada to be given life in prison.
However, Gabriel's mother says she does not want to hear "words of hate" and that justice must "run its course".
She was in tears as she spoke to reporters, wearing a T-shirt with Gabriel's smiling face on it.
Image: Hundreds of people helped search for Gabriel. Pic: @ PCivilElEjido
Spain is currently debating whether to abolish the punishment of imprisonment without parole, or to widen it to include other offences. It was re-introduced in 2015 for rare cases including serious murders.
Several petitions have appeared online. One of them - signed by more than 220,000 people - requests Ms Quezada's extradition to her native Dominican Republic, so she will not enjoy "the comfort of Spanish jails".
But Gabriel's mother told Spanish radio: "Let justice run its course. What remains now is faith and all the good acts that took place and that brought out the best in people.
"It can't end with the image of this woman or with words of hate."
Her words were backed by famous Spanish film director JA Bayona, who tweeted: "What an extraordinary woman setting the example!
"No one can take another human being's life, and especially not the state.
"That must be an example for all. RIP little Gabriel." | 917,034 |
seen her before.
“In which case, I want to be all lady. So lady. As lady-like a lady as is humanly and Asguardianly possible. Not like, prissy? But way female.”
“Hrmm, yes, we'll want long skirts, some flowing pants, perhaps? Jewel tones will go well with your skin, maybe some embroidery, we want to stay away from any harsh geometry or anything too structured or suggestive of armor, though we also don't want to suggest sages' robes, either, so perhaps some tucked waists?” Pepper looks up, expecting Darcy's opinion on that.
Coulson clears his throat, just softly, barely even qualifies as a noise, but Darcy knows damned well he's laughing at her.
“Sounds great,” Darcy replies, with maybe a touch too much feeling.
“Tell me about standards of modesty, Thor,” Pepper commands.
Thor sends Darcy a pleading look.
“What bits of me shouldn't be hanging out if I don't want to get offered a pouch of gold in exchange for my company?” Darcy translates.
Thor, unbelievably, turns red. It's far too adorable, and Darcy makes a mental note to tease him about it for, oh, approximately forever. But later, when she doesn't need his dubious expertise to avoid making an ass of herself in front of royalty.
Other royalty. Maybe this won't be so bad? After all, Thor isn't so bad and he's -
“None would dare show you such disrespect,” Thor chokes out.
- an idiot. An idiot who sounds so uncomfortable that for a moment Darcy considers the possibility that he's swapped bodies with Steve.
“Pretend they would,” Pepper suggests dryly. “Pretend she was someone other than your guest. How should she dress to be considered respectable?”
“You should not bare your legs the way you do,” Thor tells Darcy miserably; he has the look of a little boy who expects his mother to pop out of the woodwork and smack him upside the head for talking to a woman about women's legs. “A woman may wear breeches, but unless she is a warrior, they should not... display.”
“Long skirts, loose and flowing pants.” Pepper is nodding.
“If she is a warrior, then it is fitting that she should be proud to display the strength of her body – you have seen the Lady Sif, and how she attires herself, of course,” Thor hastens to add; he's apparently spent enough time around Jane and her incendiary feminism to realize that what he's saying is possibly offensive by Midguardian standards.
“But since I don't have wicked thigh muscles to show off, the assumption is if I'm dangling my legs out there, it's to draw attention to what's -”
“Yes, we all understood that,” Pepper interrupts, while Thor turns purple, and Darcy just raises a brow at him. “What about arms?”
“Arms?” Thor all but whimpers.
“Are bare arms or tightly fitted sleeves acceptable?”
“.. yes?” Thor says, clearly utterly confused as to why they wouldn't be.
Pepper nods and keeps on with her electronic note-taking. “And necklines?”
Thor looks like he wants to jump out the window.
“How about high necklines, but a bit of emphasis on the girls, cut-wise?” Darcy suggests, which saves Thor from having to answer but doesn't really do much to make him stop looking nigh-suicidal. “Point out the womanly-ness, but keep it non-trashy. Good?”
“I think so, yes,” Pepper nods, and looks at Thor for approval.
“I will defer to the good Lady Pepper's wisdom,” Thor says carefully, at which Pepper looks annoyed, and Coulson has to clear his throat again.
“After this, you get to tell me about political history and genealogy and who wants to kill who and all that,” Darcy promises Thor, who looks only marginally relieved – well, that'd make her day. “What I've got to offer, dude,” she apologizes, shrugging. “You wanted somebody to bash heads with, you should have put in a good word for Steve. So, is it time to throw me to the wolves yet?� | 975,850 |
This week’s announcement by the federal government that it intends to sole-source the purchase of F-18 E/F Super Hornets to fill a perceived “capability gap” in Canada’s military commitments is spin-doctoring at best — and at least, a questionable use of defence dollars.
To begin with, the notion of an “urgent” capability gap is a fabrication, created by the Liberals to ensure that parochial party promises are kept. There is no pressing need to rush this decision. Canadians were given assurances by professionals in the Canadian Armed Forces that the CF-18 fleet could be kept fully operational until 2025, giving them plenty time to properly procure a replacement fighter. All the necessary work has been done already to run a competitive procurement process that meets commitments and requirements. We don’t need to take five years to run a competition and make a decision.
The Defence Policy Review was supposed to be released in early 2017. Surely this week’s replacement decision could have waited until then — particularly when National Defence Minster Harjit Sajjan admits that the Super Hornets will not be fully operational until the late 2020s. Meanwhile, Australia plans to phase out their Super Hornets in favour of F-35s. The U.S. Navy plans to phase out its Super Hornets by 2040, giving Canada roughly 10 years of common use before the Super Hornet becomes prohibitively expensive to maintain — and technically redundant.
By the time the first Canadian Super Hornet is operational, the U.S. Air Force will have transitioned to the F-35 for NORAD operations, which will require upgrades to NORAD infrastructure. This sole-source purchase is not a logical solution, especially when there will only be 18 Super Hornets to fill the “capability gap” that, according to the minister, 77 CF-18 Hornets cannot meet today.
The RCAF will need to support two platforms, two training systems, and two maintenance and logistics systems during the transition. That will be hugely expensive. The RCAF will need to support two platforms, two training systems, and two maintenance and logistics systems during the transition. That will beexpensive.
The Liberal government was elected on a platform of transparency and a promise to consult Canadians. It is evident that the Standing Committee on National Defence shaped the public discussion on fighter requirements to match the Liberal narrative — and then cherry-picked the responses to suit this replacement decision.
This puts the integrity of the current government in question on all issues of governance they put to the public. The government may appear to be consulting Canadians, but it’s becoming clear that they do not care to listen as experts from all areas clearly were of the opinion that an open competition would be the best means for selecting a replacement fighter.
Economically, the decision is also suspect. The CF-18 and the Super Hornet are two distinctly different airplanes both in size and content. The Super Hornet is physically 25 per cent larger and the two aircraft have no internal avionics systems in common. So the RCAF will need to support two platforms, two training systems, and two maintenance and logistics systems during the transition. That will be hugely expensive.
Using Australian and Kuwaiti purchases as indicators, Canadians will spend roughly US$5 billion to procure a marginal capability for the 2030s that will not meet current commitments, will be technologically inferior by then and will logistically expensive.
This simply isn’t a cost-effective path to take. The economic rationale for this decision rings hollow for a government not known to concern itself with military commitments.
Sole-sourcing of military equipment is warranted when there is full military support for the identified equipment and it provides clear value for the defence dollar. The C-17 and the C-130J purchases were good examples of this. But the Super Hornet decision meets neither of these criteria. It’s obvious that political gerrymandering in the military procurement process continues unabated.
The claim that this is an interim solution is nonsensical. The numbers of fighters involved, the full costs and the timeline do not add up. The rationale for sole-sourcing of the Super Hornet is ridiculous, wrong on so many levels — while the decision-making process itself is being driven by the same factor the Liberals criticized when the Conservatives were in power: parochial politics.
One must question whether it’s the intention of this government to emasculate the fighter force so future governments can’t simply “whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are” when we’re called upon to provide Canadian security to the international community.
The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics. | 2,119,613 |
Was he doing his Christmas shopping? Well-dressed monkey in a winter coat and diapers escapes car and heads to Ikea
An unaccompanied monkey wearing a stylish winter coat and a diaper surprised Sunday shoppers at a Toronto Ikea.
The fashionable rhesus macaque, sporting a miniature shearling jacket, was first spotted in the parking lot, before roaming around and eventually being cornered inside the store.
Police believe that the pet had been in a car before escaping from both a crate and the vehicle to look around Ikea. Canadian police said: 'It's a smart monkey.'
Scroll down for video
Warm and dry: The monkey that visited Ikea was wearing a thick winter coat and a diaper
Darwins law: The Ikea monkey is back in the news, this time as a court battle rages over who owns him
Shopper Bronwyn Page told Toronto CTVNews of when she spotted the unusual customer outside the store: 'We saw a crowd of people and a little animal and I was like ‘oh my gosh it’s a monkey.’
Page first believed that the seven-month-old animal was fake but discovered otherwise when the monkey showed signs of distress.
'It started darting all over the place. It was scared.'
She added: 'It was very bizarre to see a real live monkey there. It was really small and just funny dressed in the coat.'
Unusual customer: The monkey was first spotted in Ikea's parking lot. The trial, set to continue June 10 and 11 will determine who owns Darwin
Distress: Owner Nakhuda says authorities tricked her into giving up ownership of Darwin after he escaped into Ikea, though she knew it was illegal to have him in Toronto
Toronto animal services eventually caught the monkey inside the store.
The primate's owners, who had been shopping in Ikea, came forward after the incident. They now face $240 fine for having an illegal pet.
The rhesus macaque species is not endangered but it is against the law to keep the animal in Ontario.
The monkey remains in the care of animal services but is said to have recovered from its stressful shopping experience and is in good health.
News of a monkey in a coat visiting Ikea quickly went viral on social networks. On Twitter, #Ikeamonkey trended and there are least two parody accounts. There is also an Ikea Monkey page on Facebook.
A new internet meme also developed, with the warm and smart monkey being depicted in a range of unlikely situations.
Internet craze: The Ikea monkey was celebrated online and depicted in a range of different scenarios. Here he takes a trip to Toronto's CN Tower
Political adviser: On this occasion the famous macaque helps out Toronto's mayor Rob Ford
VIDEO: Dapper monkey shocks shoppers at IKEA | 2,525,049 |
explain how other factors in the climate system, such as dust particles, water vapour and clouds, can modify the effect on climate of rising levels of greenhouse gases – either decreasing or increasing the temperature rise. That helped cause the cooling from 1940-1975. Today, a consequence of this is that as dirty emissions from coal-fired power stations are cleaned up, the true greenhouse warming from our CO2 emissions is being unmasked. Credit: Thin Ice Climate
Uranium’s radioactive decay produces one form of the element thorium, called thorium-230. Uranium dissolves in the water corals take up, but thorium-230 doesn’t. That means there is no thorium-230 in corals when they first form, but the amount increases over time as uranium decays to form it. And uranium turns to thorium-230 much more slowly that carbon-14 to carbon-12, meaning the method can reach back further.
With some corals only growing near the sea surface, the method gave Wally’s team a chance to look at how sea levels rose and fell over the course of ice ages. Testing corals sent from Barbados, David saw ice ages 82,000, 105,000 and 124,000 years ago, matching the gaps Milutin’s theory predicts. “The often-discredited hypothesis of Milankovitch must be recognized as the number-one contender in the climatic sweepstakes,” Wally wrote in the journal Science.
Evidence grew quickly from ‘cores’, cylinders of ancient mud drilled from the sea bed, or ice from glaciers, confirming Milutin’s theory. Cores like the one collected at Camp Century in Greenland and analysed by Willi Dansgaard also backed Wally’s idea – still outrageous to many scientists – of rapid changes. Wally himself was quick to point out each ice age showed the same ‘sawtooth’ pattern: a spurt of rapid warming was followed by a gradual descent back to cold.
Finding this ice age timing prompted an obvious question: How long until the next one? The world was in the middle of a cooling period that seemingly belied earlier predictions from Guy Callendar about CO2-driven temperature rises. Though an ice age would be centuries or millennia away some scientists called it ‘an immediate concern’, writing in 1972 to then US president Richard Nixon to warn him.
But in 1975, as articles voicing this warning were appearing, Wally argued just the opposite. He wrote that warming produced by rising CO2 levels in the air documented by Dave Keeling could emerge in a ‘surprising’ and ‘dramatic’ way. “At that time the first Greenland ice core record came out, and Willi Dansgaard found that it had 80 and 180 year temperature cycles,” Wally told me. “I took his cycles and extrapolated them into the future, made the gigantic assumption that they were global and that a natural cooling was balancing out the warming. If that were true then the Dansgaard cycle would turn around and global warming would be enhanced by natural warming.” Though later data hasn’t supported the short-term cycles, the cooling trend did stop the same year. And looking back now, our adoption of a phrase originating from his Science paper’s title shows how timely it was. He called it: “Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?”
This is the first blog entry of two on Wally Broecker’s contributions to climate science. Now read the second part.
Further reading:
Spencer Weart’s book, ‘The Discovery of Global Warming’ has been the starting point for this series of blog posts on scientists who played leading roles in climate science.
Robert Kunzig and Wally Broecker’s book, ‘Fixing Climate’ does a much better job of explaining climate change through personal stories than this series of blog entries.
Wally Broecker (2012). The Carbon Cycle and Climate Change: Memoirs of my 60 years in Science Geochemical Perspectives DOI: 10.7185/geochempersp.1.2
Wallace S. Broecker (1965). Absolute Dating and the Astronomical Theory of Glaciation Science DOI: 10.1126/science.151.3708.299
Wallace S. Broecker, Jan van Donk (1970). Insolation changes, ice volumes, and the O18 record in deep-sea cores Reviews of Geophysics DOI: 10.1029/RG008i001p00169
Wallace S. Broecker (1975). Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming? Science DOI | 111,299 |
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
With nightmares plaguing Kaiyo throughout the night, it's clear that she's at her wit's end. How long will it take someone to snap...?
Chapter Text
“You really think escape is possible, don’t you?”
“No. You’re trapped here. Forever.”
“Well... you know how to leave. Just give in.”
“Stop trying to hide your true intentions, Kaiyo...”
“We’re always here.”
“You useless bitch.”
I awoke with a start, drenched in sweat, hyperventilating. Due to the darkness of the room, I had no idea what time it was, nor did I know what kind of scene I was making. I quickly got out of bed, panting for breath and falling to the floor.
I looked up at the door.
It was open, and standing there was... a shadow. I fell away from the door, scrambling backwards as it walked into the room and closed the door behind it. I got to my feet, shaking the still sleeping Ini.
“Ini... Ini, please wake up...”
No response. I sat next to her, putting my knees to my chest and looking around frantically at the room, wondering where the shadow had gone.
“You fear the unknown? Well, here I am.”
The voice felt like it was coming from inside my own head. I covered my ears, to no avail- whatever was assaulting me was internal.
“What’s wrong, Kaiyo? Scared?”
“T-This is a nightmare.” I closed my eyes, curling further into a ball. “This is just a nightmare... this isn’t happening.”
I opened one eye when I felt a hand grab my knee. In front of me was the shadowy figure, their gnarled hand almost threatening to tear into my flesh.
“This isn’t real enough for you, Kaiyo? I’m not real enough for you?”
Then, the figure leant in, revealing their face was...
I screamed, trying to move, but I was frozen in place. I struggled meaninglessly against their grip as they made a smile too wide for a normal person to be able to do.
“... It was real enough for your mother.”
That’s when I woke up for real. I screamed my lungs out, tossing the blanket off and collapsing to the floor, much to the surprise of Ini who bolted upright and away from me.
“No! No more! Please!” I begged, like begging was even necessary. “I don’t wanna... I don’t wanna!”
“H-Hey! Excuse me!” Ini was at my side in moments. “Hey... ma’am, who are you? What’s going on...?”
I didn’t even care that she didn’t remember me. I threw my arms around her, crying into her shoulder. Ini, with nothing better to do, hugged back, whispering comforting things into my ear.
“H-Hey... It’s okay... I guess you had a nightmare?” Ini patted my back. “I get them all the time. You just got to remember they aren’t real! That’s what Daddy says.”
I don’t know how long we held each other for. All I know is that by the time Ini finally let go- read, made me finally let go- A familiar chime was playing.
Familiar to them. Not for me.
Ding!
“Ladiesss and Gentlemen! It isss officially day time. You may now leave your roomsss and explore of your own accord.”
Ini got to her feet. “Well, stranger, looks like it’s time to go play! You coming with?”
“N-No. Not yet.” I got to my feet, a little carefully in case my back gave out. “I, uh... need to check something first.”
“Okay!” Ini skipped out of the room, whistling as she went. The second the door was closed, I threw myself back onto the bed and screamed into the pillow.
Then, with a heavy heart, I got back to it. I | 2,354,032 |
The former CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. will get a $9 million US severance payout, the company disclosed Tuesday in a U.S. regulatory filing.
The Laval, Que.-based company said Michael Pearson's last day with the company was May 2. It said he is due the severance payment within 60 days of that date.
Pearson is also eligible for a pro-rated performance bonus for the 2016 financial year.
The company also disclosed that Pearson has agreed to make himself available to consult with Valeant at a rate of $83,333 US per month plus expenses through the end of this year. After 2016, he will get $15,000 US for each month he provides consulting services to the company.
Pearson will also be eligible to get $3,750 US per day, plus expenses, to co-operate with Valeant on any material issues, including any federal, state or regulatory probes.
After joining Valeant in 2008, Pearson oversaw a period of growth that saw Valeant evolve into a stock market darling.
However, that growth brought with it a big debt load, and government scrutiny after the company jacked up the prices on some drugs.
Pearson was replaced as Valeant's top executive by Perrigo CEO Joseph Papa.
WASHINGTON--Florida Sen. Marco Rubio announced Tuesday that he had finally finished paying off his student loan debt this year using proceeds from sales of his autobiography.
Rubio was honored Tuesday night at the Jack Kemp Foundation Awards dinner, where he made a case for broad policy reform, including changes to the nation's education system.
"We need to reform our federal college grant and loan programs. To me college affordability is an issue that is very personal. Because the only reason why I was able to go to college--the only reason--was because of federal grants and loans. But when I graduated from law school, I had close to $150,000 in student debt," Rubio said after accepting the award. "That's a debt I just paid off just last year with the proceeds of my book 'An American Son,' the perfect holiday gift and available on Amazon for only $11.99."
As late as this summer, Rubio said he was one of the few members of Congress still paying off loans. The 41-year-old Republican senator graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in 1993 and received his law degree from the University of Miami in 1996.
According to his latest income disclosure form filed in 2010, Rubio still had between $100,001 to $250,000 in debt when he was elected.
PHILADELPHIA — Patrik Laine encountered a grand total of one boo when he stepped onto the ice Thursday for the first shift of his first game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The city’s rugged fans know hockey well enough to spot a powerful adversary worthy of their badgering. But Laine, the Winnipeg Jets’ 18-year-old right wing, got a reprieve.
That sort of oversight probably will not last. Entering the weekend, Laine had a league-leading 12 goals in his first 18 games, five of them on the power play, and had quickly established himself as a force.
Laine, the second pick in this year’s N.H.L. draft, had twice as many goals through Thursday’s games as the player taken first, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Matthews scored four goals in his first game but entering the weekend had gone 11 games without a goal. Not that Laine was paying much attention.
“It’s not my job to think about those things,” Laine, a Finn whose last name is pronounced Line-ay, said Thursday. “He’s going to focus on what he’s doing, and I’m focused on my job.” | 833,985 |
Saitek X-55 Rhino HOTAS System Review
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INTRODUCTION
If you were a teenager in the 90's then you probably know that compared to that time combat flight and space simulators are almost non-existent today mainly because this particular genre doesn't have as many fans as it used to (perhaps age has something to do with that). You see back then we had the joy of playing not one but several space simulators like the entire Wing Commander series (I/II/III/IV/V/Privateer), Frontier: Elite II and Frontier Wars, Tie Fighter, X-Wing, X-wing VS Tie Fighter, Starlancer, Freelancer and Decent: Freespace I/II along with many regular combat flight simulators like Strike Commander, F-14 Fleet Defender, Jane's ATF, Jane's IAF: Israeli Air Force and of course Falcon 4.0. Fortunately game developer legends like Chris Roberts (creator of the Wing Commander, Starlancer, Freelancer and Strike Commander games/series) and David Braben (creator of the Elite Frontier series) have returned and are currently working on two separate massive space simulators called Star Citizen and Elite Dangerous. Alone these two may not be just enough to "even" things between now and then but with the help of other upcoming and not as "known" space simulators like No Mans Sky gamers may actually have something to keep them busy for a long time to come. To enjoy these games however in all their glory gamers are not only required to own high-end systems but also need to have a Joystick capable of giving them the edge they need like the X-55 Rhino HOTAS system by Saitek.
Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. (“Mad Catz”) (NYSE MKT/TSX: MCZ) is a global provider of innovative interactive entertainment products marketed under its Mad Catz® (gaming), Tritton® (audio), and Saitek® (simulation) brands. Mad Catz products cater to passionate gamers across multiple platforms including in-home gaming consoles, handheld gaming consoles, Windows® PC and Mac® computers, smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices. Mad Catz distributes its products through its online store as well as distribution via many leading retailers around the globe. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mad Catz maintains offices in Europe and Asia. For additional information about Mad Catz and its products, please visit the Company’s website at www.madcatz.com
Roughly 5 years ago Saitek introduced the revolutionary X-65F, a very high quality HOTAS system which basically combined a force-sensing flight stick identical to the one used in the F-16 (although the force-sensitive technology is used in the F-22A and newer jets) with a dual throttle. Some small issues however along with its hefty price tag made the X-65F a weapon of choice mostly for flight enthusiasts thus "forcing" Saitek to do the next best thing which was to work on a brand new model placed closer to their very successful X-52 Pro HOTAS system. So just like the X-52 Pro (and unlike the X-65F) the X-55 Rhino makes use of a single spring to simulate the force needed to move the stick and since not every person has the same hands Saitek supplies not one but four different springs of varying resistance which the end user can quickly swap. The X-55 is also the first HOTAS system by Saitek to feature two individual USB connections so if you just want to use the flight stick or the dual throttle you can only use that and save space on your desk. Sounds interesting? We feel the same way so let's move forward with our review of the X-55 Rhino HOTAS System by Saitek. | 3,003,203 |
which incentivizes them to look after the health of the network. Dash was the first project to use masternodes, in Dash’s case they enable the InstandSend and PrivateSend features of the network and collect 45% of the block reward. There’s a list of masternode cryptocurrencies (geared towards investors/owners) here.
A cryptocurrency that uses Proof of Stake to achieve consensus gives power to holders of the currency. This means that to understand who has power within that network it is important to consider how coins are distributed (both the initial distribution and ongoing block rewards and transaction fees). Holders of the currency run, and in a sense own, the network.
Proof of Work miners have relatively high costs (the hardware they bought and the electricity to run it) and must therefore sell some proportion of the rewards they earn to cover those costs. This ensures a steady flow of the currency into the market. Proof of Stake nodes have very low operating costs, they aren’t using large amounts of energy (this is one of the attractions of PoS), and so can retain more of the rewards they receive. Stakers don’t have the same pressure to sell a portion of their rewards. In a system where all of the block rewards or inflation goes to stakers they could effortlessly retain their share of the currency while the holdings of non-stakers would be continuously diluted. An individual who owned 50% of the coins at the start could retain that 50% share and the associated power just by running some nodes — users of the currency that aren’t staking would effectively be paying rent to a landlord in the form of transaction fees.
14. Contemporary debates in blockchain governance
I will use the rest of this post to situate my perspective in relation to three seemingly widely read blog posts about blockchain governance, and on-chain governance specifically, that were published in November and December 2017. Each of these to provide compelling accounts from individuals who are influential in the blockchain space, they are well worth reading.
Fred Ersham’s blog post — Blockchain Governance: Programming Our Future
Vlad Zamfir’s blog post — Against on-chain governance — Refuting (and rebuking) Fred Ehrsam’s governance blog
Vitalik Buterin’s blog post — Notes on Blockchain Governance
On-chain governance means that the protocol includes a formal process for adopting changes to the consensus rules. Off-chain governance is the norm for blockchains. There is some process (this post has so far considered Bitcoin and Ethereum’s process) through which the various actors agree to make a change and download a new version of the software which implements the new rules at a certain block height — or, some actors reject the change and the blockchain splits.
Decred is the only project I know of that has functioning on-chain governance of protocol changes, so I will describe this in some detail. Decred is the project I’m most interested in, because it relies on voting to govern the protocol (and soon, the project development subsidy). In fact, one of the reasons I started writing this post was because the three posts above which speak to on-chain governance of protocol changes don’t mention the only project that’s actually doing it.
15. Decred
Decred uses both Proof of Work and Proof of Stake to enforce the consensus rules. PoW miners receive the largest share of the block reward (60%), they have the same role as in Bitcoin. Proof of Stake miners/validators/voters receive 30% of the block reward, their role is to vote on changes to consensus rules and to check that miners are enforcing these rules properly. The remaining 10% goes into a project subsidy fund.
Decred holders can buy tickets by locking up some amount of DCR until their ticket is called to vote. For every new block that is mined, five tickets are drawn pseudo-randomly from the pool of live tickets. At least three of these tickets must vote to approve the block or the PoW miner will not receive their reward. When a ticket votes successfully the ticket price is returned to its owner plus a reward. Tickets vote after an average of 28 days. If a ticket has not voted after 142 days it expires and can be revoked, returning the locked DCR to the ticket owner — around 0.5% of tickets expire before they are called to vote. The target size of the live ticket pool is 40,960 tickets, the price of a ticket goes up or down depending on whether the ticket pool is above or below this target.
Locking funds for an unknown duration of up to four months to buy tickets is Decred’s mechanism for incentivizing voters to look after the health of the network. To have significant influence one must lock a considerable amount of DCR, if your voting choices cause DC | 2,725,812 |
, she is unlikely to go in that direction. Instead, in a speech on Feb. 26, 2007, she called for an Apollo Project for energy that would end "tax breaks for big oil" and subsidize research and development of clean fuels.
Hillary on energy is a disaster, but so has been every administration for a long time. U.S. energy policy is a huge and stupid tragedy, and Hillary will play a lead role in continuing it.
Hillary hasn’t moved an inch on HillaryCare. The Congress, with benighted public support, has moved in her direction, enacting universal health care piece by piece. Hillary will extend health care benefits and introduce price controls on insurers. She wants full and universal coverage for all Americans. On paper everyone will have health care. In reality, there will be rationing and price controls. American health care will deteriorate even further. Will Americans care? Will they fly to India or Thailand where they can get better, faster, and cleaner health care? Hardly likely. Unlike Canadians suffering with their national health care system who have been coming here, where will Americans turn? They will wait, suffer, and die before their time. The only bright side is that this will provide a background for those who see some advantage in running against the system and drastically changing it. Nothing less will suffice at this point than completely dismantling the health care monstrosity.
Hillary on health care is a continuing disaster. George Bush II played his role in this tragedy by introducing the prescription drug benefit and failing to reform the system in any way.
In another sign that she does not understand economics and/or wants to make political hay, Hillary wants women by law to be paid the same as men are. This sounds good to untutored American ears, who think this is a matter of simple justice. However, if women were systematically being underpaid for no good reasons, wouldn’t those same businessmen who are supposed to be so greedy rush in and hire them at $0.75 on the dollar? Shawn Ritenour explains some of those good reasons for men-women pay differentials here, and Thomas E. Woods, Jr. explains that "never-married women of comparable education and experience and who work full time have the same incomes as their male counterparts" here. Raising women’s pay above the market level that takes into account compensating differentials (related to such factors as on-the-job training, length of tenure, job interruption, and time spent with family) will put women out of work.
In an interesting pair of contradictory statements from the Hillary campaign site from which I draw her positions, we are told that "Hillary has stood firm as an advocate for a woman’s right to choose." Hillary favors Roe v Wade. She is in favor of abortion. But a few sentences later we read this: "As president, Hillary will continue her lifelong fight to ensure that all Americans are treated with respect and dignity." Apparently, babies in the womb do not count as Americans. Moreover, Hillary is known as a champion of children: "America is ready for a president who fights for our children." She has a long slate of legislation relating to children, including a new proposal to extend pre-kindergarten schools to all 4-year-olds. Why then does she not favor the babies who would be born? Maybe it’s because they can’t vote.
Hillary on the American family is yet another continuing disaster. In the Clinton II realm, the government will step up its invasion of the family. The State long ago crossed the boundary into American family life in a largely unnoticed and unheralded stealth invasion. Hillary will extend the State’s victory over the American family and consolidate that control.
Like all presidents, Hillary can be counted on to push for a number of favorite hobby-horses. Hers are many. They include public schools in overseas countries, support of Israel, government reform, voting reform (including same-day registration and an Election Day holiday), and working with the U.N.
Political government under Hillary will grow larger, just as it has under just about every president ever elected. This process can go on for some time as there is a lot of ruin in a country. When major American establishment figures start talking different games than the ones we’ve been hearing for the last 100 years, then we’ll know that some real change is in the air. This has not happened yet. In the meantime, the only consolation is that the State is running into diminishing returns. We can see this in the projected deficits to fund the government’s programs. We can see it in the difficulties and cutbacks in countries overseas. Economics is a constraint on how far the State can go. Clinton II will be operating under constraints. Unfortunately, they are not yet tight enough to prevent her from continuing the tragic policies of her predecessors and placing her own personal stamp | 2,941,570 |
The Government has been dealt a huge blow as the High Court ruled its benefit cap is unlawful and illegally discriminates against single parents with young children.
Conservative ministers are now likely to be forced to change or scrap one of their flagship welfare policies, which limits the total amount of benefits a household can receive to £23,000 a year in London and £20,000 elsewhere.
The ruling was made in response to a judicial review brought by four lone parent families who said the cap would have a severe and disproportionate impact on them.
Ministers had attempted to have the case thrown out but were rejected by the court, which ruled earlier this year that the case must be heard as a matter of urgency. The Government said it was “disappointed” with the latest ruling and will appeal against the decision.
Delivering his verdict, High Court judge Mr Justice Collins said the benefit cap was causing “real damage” to lone parent families, and, in a further blow to ministers, said “real misery is being caused to no good purpose”.
“Those in need of welfare benefits fall within the poorest families with children”, he said. “It seems that some 3.7 million children live in poverty and, as must be obvious, the cap cannot but exacerbate this. The need for alternative benefits to make up shortfalls is hardly conducive to the desire to incentivise work and so not provide benefits. There is powerful evidence that very young children are particularly sensitive to environmental influences. Poverty can have a very damaging effect on children under the age of five.”
“The cap is capable of real damage to such as the claimants. They are not workshy but find it, because of the care difficulties, impossible to comply with the work requirement. Most lone parents with children under two are not the sort of households the cap was intended to cover... Real misery is being caused to no good purpose.”
The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned Show all 16 1 /16 The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "One case where the claimant’s wife went into premature labour and had to go to hospital. This caused the claimant to miss an appointment. No leeway given" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "It’s Christmas Day and you don’t fill in your job search evidence form to show that you’ve looked for all the new jobs that are advertised on Christmas Day. You are sanctioned. Merry Christmas" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "You apply for three jobs one week and three jobs the following Sunday and Monday. Because the job centre week starts on a Tuesday it treats this as applying for six jobs in one week and none the following week. You are sanctioned for 13 weeks for failing to apply for three jobs each week" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A London man missed his Jobcentre appointments for two weeks because he was in hospital after being hit by a car. He was sanctioned" 2011 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "You’ve been unemployed for seven months and are forced onto a workfare scheme in a shop miles away, but can’t afford to travel. You offer to work in a nearer branch but are refused and get sanctioned for not attending your placement" 2013 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "You are a mum of two, and are five minutes late for your job centre appointment. You show the advisor the clock on your phone, which is running late. You are sanctioned for a month" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man with heart problems who was on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) had a heart attack during a work capability assessment. He was then sanctioned for failing to complete the assessment" Rex The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man who had gotten a job that was scheduled to begin in two weeks’ time was sanctioned for not looking for work as he waited for the role to start" The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Army veteran Stephen Taylor, 60, whose Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) was stopped after he sold poppies in memory of fallen soldiers" 2014 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man had to miss his regular appointment at the job centre to attend his father’s funeral. He was sanctioned even though he told DWP staff in advance" 2014 Getty Images The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "Ceri Padley, 26, had her benefits sanctioned after she missed an appointment at the jobcentre - because she was at a job interview" Jason Doiy Photography The most ridiculous reasons people had their benefits sanctioned "A man got sanctioned for missing his slot to sign on - as he was attending a work programme interview. He was then sanctioned as he could not afford to travel | 2,285,650 |
Clarification: Well, that was a dumb headline. Of course it's been available on PC. We meant to say it is available on Steam.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D, the spacecraft combat game loved by Nintendo 64 and PC gamers nearly two decades ago, has finally made it onto Steam.
The game appeared on GOG last year and gave some users difficulty in getting it to run properly, and it appears the Steam edition may take some wrangling as well, if the topics in this forum thread are any indication. Still, it does offer partial joystick support, with Xbox One controllers being the best bet.
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D is $9.99.
Star Wars Battlefront gameplay
Warner Bros. just sent out their 2017 movie preview press kit, and it includes a bit of new Justice League information. Or at the very least, official confirmation on some rumors.
For one, Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor will in fact be back. Eisenberg had said he would appear, but now it’s official in a Warner Bros. press release. Also appearing in Justice League will be Connie Nielsen, who plays Queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman. That’s definitely new information!
The last thing worth noting… Justice League writer Chris Terrio has an executive producer credit. Justice League will be released in 3D and 2D in select theaters and IMAX on November 17, 2017.
We flew out to visit From Software in Tokyo for our new cover story on Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. While we were there, we interviewed lead game designer Masaru Yamamura and learned all about the process of designing the game's combat. As you'll see in the video above featuring some new gameplay footage, not all of your muscle memory and tricks from Dark Souls and Bloodborne will carry over into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Watch the interview to learn what Yamamura sees as the biggest changes to From Software's combat formula, the difficulty of designing Sekiro, and how the game was originally inspired by the Tenchu series.
Click on the banner below to learn even more about Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice throughout the month.
guide is complete without an awesome gift card program!
What if you want to buy a Glorious product for someone else? What if you are in the mood for some Glorious gifts, but don't know what to get? Don't worry, as we got you covered yet again! :)
Our Glorious gift cards are the PERFECT gift for any PC gamer. Buying a gift card, you take out all the guesswork and get a guarantee that you'll deliver the perfect present to your friends and family. We got 4 different options: $10, $25, $50 and $100 cards. Can't get a more complete gift guide for gamers than this, can you (inb4 Odin comments)?
A light earthquake has shaken Southern California, and authorities say there have been no reports of damage or injury.
The United States Geological Survey reports that the quake with a preliminary magnitude of 4.0 occurred just after 2 a.m. Thursday. It was centered about eight miles (12 kilometers) northeast of Trabuco Canyon, California, which is located 31 miles (49 kilometers) southeast of Anaheim. The quake had a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers).
The Orange County Sheriff's Office tells The Associated Press that there have been no reports of damage or injury.
The Southern California earthquake comes two days after a magnitude 7.9 quake in the Gulf of Alaska triggered a tsunami warning for Alaska's coastal communities.
is, I don’t know why anyone should fight to lose. But I also know that I’m not willing to accept that this is my only option and neither should you. No one ever said we could only shift one Overton window at a time. So let’s pack this Court.
A longer version of this essay was published on our website on October 10, 2018.
If you appreciate our work, please consider making a donation, purchasing a subscription, or supporting our podcast on Patreon. Current Affairs is not for profit and carries no outside advertising. We are an independent media institution funded entirely by subscribers and small donors, and we depend on you in order to continue to produce high-quality work. | 1,759,593 |
...
far!
In terms of band size, this isn't much different from my other Fantasie bras, but somehow the band feels a bit firmer. The wing height is the same, so perhaps the elastic used here is wider, or the solid powermesh might have more retention than the printed versions. It is a little large but stays in place. I will probably alter it eventually since the leotard back should be pretty easy to shorten.
The cups of Susanna remind me of a slightly deeper, more rounded version of the Elsie/Camilla/Frances cut I like. The bottom 3 piece cup is firm single layer tricot, the upper cup is single layer mesh, and the entire cup has a sheer floral lace overlay. The silky fabric used on Fantasie printed bras is very thin but firm, and I feel that this tricot/lace combo has a little more give. The cup depth is also a little bit deeper, so overall the shape looks nice and rounded. The side support panel has some give, and there is some natural stretch along the seams that makes it fit more flexibly than in the more rigid styles. The upper cup edge is this same type of seam, which is firm but has a bit of yield from natural stretch. It isn't as elastic as the top edge of Elsie/Camilla/Frances, but not totally rigid like Caroline/Harriet/Estelle. It gives me a great natural shape on both sides, which can be kind of tricky to fit due to my asymmetry. It also looks great with foam pads to wear as more of a t-shirt bra!
The only real complaint I have about the fit is that I feel the wires are a bit narrow on me. They have a nice gentle curve like the Elsie/Camilla/Frances ones, but I feel that the ends of the wires are a bit more vertical. Since Fantasie wires are very firm, any wire shape that's a little off can feel noticeable. I could use slightly wider wires that are a touch more open at the top, though this isn't close to pinching like the ones on the Caroline Plunge.
Styling-wise, this has a full lace covered cradle, lace trim fabric topped on textured satin straps, and small lace bows. The edging of the elastic along the band and cradle looks a bit like scallop shells, so it overall gives the bra a more frilly appearance than many other styles. I am so happy that I ended up with Petal, since the other colorways didn't appeal to me much, though I like the fit so much that I'm trying to pick up more!
The shape of this bra seems to be the most universally flexible and should suit most breast shapes except tall roots, as most Fantasie bras are pretty closed at the top and will cut into tall roots. | 924,594 |
The vinyl editions of Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein’s “Stranger Things 2” soundtrack have been revealed. One version—an “Upside Down Inter-dimensional Blue Vinyl”—is out December 22 in North America (via Lakeshore). Then, on January 12, Invada is releasing three versions for the rest of the world. There is a standard 180 gram black vinyl, a “Crystal Clear Vinyl” (with blue and white splatter), and a “Purple Crystal Vinyl” (with white splatter), which is a mail-order exclusive. They all have cover artwork by Kyle Lambert, as well as a gatefold design with a piece called “Hopper in the Pumpkin Patch.” Check out Lakeshore’s vinyl and Invada’s mail-order exclusive below.
The “Stranger Things” composers recently made an appearance on the “Song Exploder” podcast to talk about show’s theme music. Millie Bobby Brown (who plays Eleven) showed off her rapping skills as a guest on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
Butternut squash info
This collection of butternut squash recipes showcases this wonderfully versatile ingredient. It is a remarkable star in soups, roasts, pasta, risotto, salads and even desserts, due to its sweet, rich flavour and its wonderful texture.
Marcello Tully's spicy butternut squash soup will warm the cockles during the winter months, as will Dominic Chapman's brilliantly simple soup recipe.
A popular ingredient in vegetarian recipes, Andrew McKenzie's uses it as the filling for his elegant squash and truffle ravioli. The richness of the squash also stands up well to many meats and fish, as with Galton Blackiston's pairings of roast cod with ratatouille and roast duck with squash mousse.
Silky and sweet, squash is an excellent addition to dessert recipes. Robert Thompson's bavarois of butternut squash is served with a refreshing quince sorbet, while Simon Hulstone's makes an ice cream to serve with his delicate rose and almond tansy pudding.
Have a read of our article on how to cook butternut squash to ensure you get it right every time.
Detroit — Police have arrested a second suspect Wednesday and are searching for two others in connection to a nonfatal triple shooting in the city's Greektown district.
Delano Ward, 26, of Farmington Hills was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon in Oak Park, police said.
He is one of four men allegedly involved in a shooting that took place at 11:55 p.m. Sunday in Greektown.
The four were walking east on Monroe when one of them pulled a weapon and fired multiple shots into a crowd, police said. Injured were three men, ages 23, 24 and 32.
After the shooting, the suspects fled the location.
All three victims received treatment at a hospital for non-life threatening injuries and were listed in temporary serious or stable condition.
On Monday, Detroit police arrested one suspect, a 23-year-old, at his home in Livonia.
Police continue to search for the two other suspects involved in the shooting.
"We will find you and we will arrest you," Chief James Craig said.
srahal@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @SarahRahal_
, "Not bad for 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I like it."
"There are 10 press and 10 protesters, so basically 20 protesters," he added.
The first arrival at the event, more than three hours before it began, was Doug Milyiori, who manages a Bed, Bath & Beyond store in Wichita Falls. He brought his three sons — Dominic, 17, Nicolas, 14, and Gabriel, 13 — whom he took out of school for the occasion.
“It's a very important election,” Milyiori said. “I don't want to talk bad about people, but the left has just gone crazy, violencewise, yelling at people all the time.”
As an example, he cited the folks who recently chased Cruz and his wife, Heidi, out of a Washington restaurant, upset with the senator’s support for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court.
“Man, that’s family time, just leave the guy alone,” Milyiori said. “You don’t see Republican protesters doing that to Democrats.” | 1,884,119 |
�t all horror movies. Sam Peckinpah appealed the original rating of his ultraviolent epic western, winning the case.
Zentropa Entertainments/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Photo by Zentropa Entertainments/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Nymphomaniac
Lars von Trier laughs in the face of your NC-17 rating. He founded the first mainstream film company to produce hardcore porn, after all. For Nymphomaniac, the director digitally edited the genitals of porn stars onto his A-list actor’s bodies for unsimulated sex scenes. The film was given an NC-17 rating, but Von Trier opted to go unrated, like many of his graphic movies.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
We have Pedro Almodóvar’s lusty kidnapping tale to thank for inspiring the implementation of the NC-17 rating, which helped countless films from being unfairly categorized as porn. But the case wasn’t won without controversy and a legal battle. Studio Miramax filed a suit against the MPAA about the movie’s original X-rating, inspiring debates about censorship. They lost, and the film was released unrated. But when Henry & June was released, the ratings overlords decided to join civilization and introduced NC-17.
L.A. Zombie
Queer cinema icon Bruce LaBruce’s hardcore zombie flick stars well-known porn stars like François Sagat and Wolf Hudson, and doesn’t give a damn (see: a gory circle jerk). Read our recent interview with the director.
Wild at Heart
Bob’s Big Boy lookalike and Americana-obsessed director David Lynch saw his ‘50s facade shattered when the MPAA tried to brand Wild at Heart with an X rating. A few edits later, the film became the second Oscar-nominated movie to receive an NC-17 rating (along with Henry & June).
The Gore Gore Girls
Don’t expect anything G-rated from Herschell Gordon Lewis, the director nicknamed the “Godfather of Gore.”
Inside
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s home invasion shocker is brutally violent and involves a pregnant woman, so naturally it received an NC-17 rating upon release.
Hunting Lane Films/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Photo by Hunting Lane Films/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock
Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance’s 2010 film resurrected the eternal NC-17 debates about sexual double standards when it was given an NC-17 rating for a scene featuring cunnilingus between a husband and wife. Star Ryan Gosling joined the fight against the MPAA, calling the ruling sexist. The studio appealed the decision and won.
Ichi the Killer
With a reputation for horrific violence, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike’s story of feuding yakuza gangs features a villainous lunatic with sadomasochistic tendencies. The creep even slices off his own tongue. NC-17? Duh.
La grande bouffe
Four friends venture to a remote villa where they gorge on sex and food, hoping to eat themselves to death.
Tropic of Cancer
Mostly because we want to force you to watch Rip Torn play horny Henry Miller.
Bad Education
But of course any film from provocateur Pedro Almodóvar involving transsexuality and Catholicism would be given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA.
Basic Instinct
It’s amazing what can happen when a woman crosses and uncrosses her legs. Paul Verhoeven’s sexual thriller was originally given an NC-17 rating, but the director cut several seconds of footage due to pressure from the studio. “Actually, I didn’t have to cut many things, but I replaced things from different angles, made it a little more elliptical, a bit less direct,” he said in a 1992 interview.
Young Adam
From Variety on this Tilda Swinton and Ewan McGregor-starring British drama:
Though [the film is] set in the socially and sexually hidebound Britain of the early ’50s, sex is the defining force in all the characters’ lives. From the opening shot of a young woman’s body, naked except for a petticoat, pulled from the waters around Glasgow, film has an undercurrent of charged sexuality in which copulation is portrayed devoid of romance and as a purely physical release from social or emotional frustrations.
Delta of Venus
See it to complete your tour of the Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller-inspired erotic cinema canon. | 2,471,559 |
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Bayer, a company completely given over to Sustainable Development, is making its entry into the intelligence world by investing in a geospatial innovation center in St. Louis. GEOINT means real-time tracking of everything that moves. ⁃ TN Editor
Sledgehammers breaking through a mock wall signaled the construction start of the new “Geosaurus, Powered by Bayer” Innovation Resource Center at T-REX, a St. Louis based advanced technology incubator. Geosaurus will serve as the latest pillar in St. Louis’ efforts to become the global leader in geospatial intelligence, excellence and expertise.
Last year, T-REX was awarded a $500,000 grant from Bayer to support the creation of a new geospatial innovation space that would be located inside the nonprofit’s downtown St. Louis building. To accommodate “Geosaurus, Powered by Bayer”, crews are renovating T-REX’s entire 14,760-square-foot fourth floor.
With an emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation, workforce development, partnerships with area universities and training programs, Geosaurus will provide collaborative content and programming for advancing the geospatial industry. It will also become a talent pipeline for companies like Bayer and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, which is relocating its Washington, D.C. headquarters to a site that is less than two miles away from T-REX. By 2026, it’s estimated that companies operating within the “Geosaurus, Powered by Bayer” Innovation Resource Center will create more than five thousand new geospatial industry jobs and generate more than $500 million in economic growth for the St. Louis region.
“St. Louis has so many incredible geospatial resources across the region, and Geosaurus will be the thread that connects them,” said Patricia Hagen, President and Executive Director of T-REX. “This is where innovations will be fostered; talent will be cultivated and partnerships will be formed.”
T-REX is home to more than 200 companies, including those focused on geospatial intelligence such as Geodata IT, SAIC, Optimal Geo, UNCOMN and Boundless, which Bayer began a collaborative relationship with in 2017 to coordinate open source geospatial code to the Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS 4 G) community.
“Geospatial intelligence is becoming a high priority for agriculture as well as other industries that rely on highly technical and precise mapping data,” said Al Mitchell, Vice President of Corporate Engagement for Bayer. “Bayer is excited to partner with T-REX in the development of Geosaurus, which will help to further define St. Louis as an innovation and technology hub.”
One of the first companies moving into Geosaurus will be the Combatting Wildlife Trafficking Geo-Analytic Hub, which is working to harness geospatial analytics and predictive modeling for efforts to stop global poaching.
Joining Mitchell and Hagen at today’s “wall smashing” ceremony were St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, Downtown STL, Inc. CEO Missy Kelley and St. Louis Development Corp. Executive Director Otis Williams. St. Louis architectural firm Remiger is designing the “Geosaurus, Powered by Bayer” space. Construction of the new center is expected to be completed in August 2019.
Read full story here… | 1,166,816 |
Even today, arguments abound on the nature of video games as art, expression, and on the impact their content has on society and people. Since the earliest advent of video games, people have argued they may negatively impact young people and the world as a whole. Of those arguments the most common was and continues to be that violence in games makes children, and even adults, more aggressive and criminal. Studies are done regularly attempting to demonstrate this, and even the American Psychological Association continues to hold that this is the case. However, many experts in the field claim that the research proving it is flawed and that there is just as much if not more potential for games to have a positive influence. These arguments found their ultimate battle ground in the Supreme Court of the United States in 2011, the case of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (or Brown v EMA for short). This trial is well-known by many politically savvy gamers as the case that finally set the precedent that video games are protected speech, in the same way other forms of art and entertainment media are. But what else did it accomplish for video games and free speech as a whole?
A History of Accusations
Long before Brown v EMA, there were numerous attempts by organizations and states to restrict the sale of violent video games, both generally and specifically to minors. In the mid-2000s, there was a surge of legislation and cries for legal enforcement, following a string of particularly violent mass shootings, such as Columbine. Pro-family groups and individuals, as well as politicians, figures in the media, and parts of the academic community, argued that perpetrators of mass shootings may have been inspired or influenced by violent images in video games.
Findings from the FTC show that the voluntary ESRB prevented a vast majority of Mature sales to minors.
The Entertainment Software Association, or ESA, was among several organizations representing the video game industry who fought against such attempts at legislation. Among these is a 2005 Michigan bill to make the sale of Mature and Adult Only games to minors illegal, a 2006 Illinois bill of the same nature, and a 2008 Minnesota law that would have fined minors themselves for attempting to purchase Mature games. Minnesota appealed to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals, but the court reaffirmed that the law was unconstitutional. There was also a federal bill presented in 2005, titled the Family Entertainment Protection Act, which was presented by now Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. That legislation died in committee.
The onslaught of legislation is what resulted in the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. Gamers are very familiar with the simple ratings that can be found on virtually every game they purchase. The ESRB is a voluntary body that developers and distributors can join of their own volition. The vast majority of the industry in the United States uses the ESRB, with most distributors enforcing their own rules about selling games to minors. An investigation by the Federal Trade Commission into the enforcement of ratings and selling of mature content, found that video game distributors were the most efficient at enforcing their voluntary ratings, beating out every other entertainment industry, with an 87% success rate in 2010.
Pro-industry groups have consistently argued that video games are correlated with a decrease in violent crime, likely because it acts as a distraction for youth who may otherwise engage in more reckless or violent activities. Critics of organizations like the American Psychological Association's stance on video game violence say that the culture of academia is skewed against research that demonstrates no correlation. Two researchers offered the opinion piece, A Hornet’s Nest Over Violent Video Games, alleging that the academic community treated those who didn't believe in the correlation between video games and violence akin to climate change deniers, and that distortion of findings were rampant. An article in the British Journal of Psychiatry says that "moral panic" following intense tragedies may have significant biases on video game violence research.
California's Attempt
Former California Senator Leland Yee.
In 2005, Senator Leland Yee introduced AB 1179 to the California Assembly. The bill would have made sale of games the state determines as violent to minors illegal, punishable by a fine of up to $1000 and would have required clear labeling on the front of game boxes, marking mature games for players 18 and over. The language of the bill defined violent content based on five descriptors of violence: "cruel," "depraved," "heinous," "serious physical abuse," and "torture." Oddly enough, AB 1179 was originally introduced not having anything to do with video games but was actually a bill allowing foster care workers to administer life saving injections for diabetes and other medical issues. However, after it had already passed the Assembly, and had been amended twice in the Senate, Lee completely gutted the original purpose of the bill, replacing it with the video game restriction law. The law determined the limits of free speech using an alternative version of the Miller test, a Supreme Court standard used to identify obscenity of a sexual nature | 3,394,997 |
A commercial satellite captured images of the Wise Honest being loaded with coal at Nampo, a seaport in western North Korea, on March 14, 2018, U.S. officials said.
United Nations investigators said it was intercepted by Indonesian maritime authorities in the East China Sea about two weeks later hauling 25,500 tons of coal worth nearly $3 million. U.S. officials said the ship previously was used to import dump trucks, spare parts, cranes, tires and mining machinery to North Korea.
The crew sought to conceal the ship’s nationality and cargo, prosecutors said. Documents falsely claimed the Wise Honest’s home port was in the West African nation of Sierra Leone.
The vessel also turned off an automatic identification system intended to alert other ships of its course and location. The AIS signals, which are required for international voyages, had not been used since August 2017, U.S. officials said.
The ship’s captain was charged in Indonesia with violating its maritime laws and convicted, according to the U.S. complaint. The fate of the rest of the crew, originally about two dozen North Koreans, was not disclosed.
On July 17, 2018, a U.S. judge issued a warrant to seize the ship. Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, would not say when U.S. officials took custody, saying only that it happened recently.
North Korea does not have diplomatic relations with the United States, but its representatives can challenge the civil forfeiture in federal court in New York. If they do not or are not successful, U.S. authorities can sell the ship at auction.
Staff writers Wilkinson and Megerian reported from Washington and Kim from Seoul. Staff writer Eli Stokols inWashington contributed this report.
to-wear dresses, shawls, scarves and rebozos, and her mobile fashion laboratory Taller Flora rolls from one indigenous people to another and results in a demi-couture line. In 2013 she published her book, The Barefoot Designer: a passion for Radical Design and Community, in which she declares the future is handmade. It’s accompanied by an exhibition on the process of making, which has recently travelled to museums in LA and Asia.
Between them, the couple has an impressive collection of textiles and art. Fernández is drawn to fine cottons from the town of Xochistlahuaca in Guerrero that are dyed with mud, cochineal, indigo and snails and loves the thick, rough wools from the highlands of Chiapas, Puebla and Tlaxcala. Her tablecloths are embroidered with fantastical animals by shamans from Hidalgo. Reyes swaps works with contemporaries such as Spanish artist Santiago Sierra while collecting Mexican works from the likes of Ernesto Mallard and the late Mathias Goeritz.
Between the master bedroom and the two children’s bedrooms is space for one of ‘the best hammocks in Mexico’. These are woven by women from cooperatives in Izamal in Yucatán and Calkiní in Campeche, take two months to make and can sleep a family of four. So hectic are the couple’s schedules that finding the time to curl up in their hammock is a fantasy rather than a reality. Time for that later. Right now, their unique version of mexicanidad is in hot demand, and it’s their mission to provide it.
As originally featured in the December 2015 issue of Wallpaper* (W*201) | 27,257 |
bad was it? As for nuking India, when the nukes start flying, I want you to be under one. Then you would feel what nuclear holocaust is like.
P.S. I hope I don't get sued for contributing to the death of an idiot.
Name: Coolguy
Website: blah
Referred By: Just Surfed On In
From: somewhere
Time: 1999-01-01 04:17:20
Comments: Let me tell you something. IF you can sit and take the time to respond to every bad message that was written to you then YOU must be the dork, a loser with no life. What lame brain idiot takes the time to point out such things as misspelled words, etc.. You might think you are funny when making fun of those people by telling them how to use a gun and stuff but trust me when I tell you this... YOU AREN'T!! You are such a moron yourself! You stoop down to their level when you do such stupid things. WHy don't you accept criticism and GET OVER IT!!! No one cares about your stupid negative comments. You must have no life. Also... Your flight fiction is terrible. The plots suck, especially the one with that psycho guy. You have a corny sense of humor and I wish that you would lighten up and GET A LIFE, LOSER!
Editorial Comment: Now "Coolguy", let me comment on your idiocy. You tell me that I have no life. Why don't you look at YOURSELF. If you have time to write a composition about this page at 4:17 in the MORNING on New Year's Day, then there is something severely wrong with you. And you say you're from "somewhere". Why not say "from around Monroe-Woodbury, New York with the ISP of Frontier." That's where your IP tracked down to. And maybe you should read this quote from your ISP:
It is not acceptable to use Frontier services or facilities for any purposes which violate U.S. or state laws or to transmit any communication which would likely be highly offensive to any recipients. Illegal activities include, but are not limited to:
-sending, receiving, transferring, or storing highly offensive files
When Frontier Internet becomes aware of possible illegal activities, Frontier Internet may turn any information over to appropriate law enforcement agencies. Frontier Internet will review alleged violations of the Acceptable Use Policy on a case by case basis. Clear violations of the policy which are not promptly remedied by the relevant customer may result in appropriate action by Frontier including termination of Frontier services without refund of fees paid.
So you see Coolguy? Not so cool now huh? And if one more thing pops up in my guestbook from you, it will be cruising down to Frontier. Got it? And you tell me my fiction sucks. Let's see some of YOUR writing. I'd be glad to read it. Oh, but then I forgot. You spend so much time writing nasty messages in guestbooks that you don't have time to write anything intelligent. And since you left NO e-mail and NO website, I assume you're just a wimp hiding behind the Internet. And you tell me to get a life? You mean like yours? I rather create websites than leave nasty messages in guestbooks. Leaving nasty messages isn't my idea of a life. And tell me this- WHAT THE H*LL DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!?!
Website:
Referred By: Just Surfed On In
From:
Time: 1999-01-01 21:07:28
Comments: i don't know you, but already i can tell that you are a couple condoms short of an orgy. first of all, why bother in allowing people to sign your guestbook if you don't respect people's opinion and plan to belittle them for all to see. i'm willing to bet that you will look up this message and you will put it in your little feedback page, and try to weasel your way to pity. well, feed on this. thank you for your time. THE WORLD IS A LESBIAN!
Editorial Comment: Now what is this? Now that this section is open, every idiot on the Internet is commenting on it! This is no exception. By reading the first sentence of this entry, I can already tell that this person is a total moron. If your'e going to leave an intelligent message, write something INTELLIGENT. Obviously this message (which was written by another Frontier Internet customer [refer to the previous entry]) was written by a person with an I.Q. of 1 point. "Coolguy", I'm looking at you. There is heavy suspicion that it is you. And if it isn't, would the writer refer to the previous citation from the Frontier Acceptable Use | 3,182,668 |
that she would need him again, very shortly in the future.
Still. It was a little disappointing to not be included with the actual retrieval part of the mission. I could understand why, objectively, you wouldn't want to send a Special Jounin and a Chunin to do an ANBU's job but… we'd been the ones who found it and worked it out.
"You can always help with the paperwork," Aoba commented, under his breath.
"This seal is very important," I said solemnly. I wasn't that disappointed.
And yeah, I was pretty eager to get my hands on those notes. I'd hand over a hundred interesting missions to ANBU if it meant I got to study them. Even limited access to anything about Edo Tensei was priceless. No one else knew just how much.
I was scheduled in to look at them the next day, and since it was late and no one else had anything for me to do… I went home.
I scavenged some food for dinner out of the fridge and settled into the lounge where dad and Shikamaru were playing shogi. Shikamaru was wearing the Shadow Hand, using it to carefully but dexterously pick up the small wood shogi pieces and move them. I tried not to feel too pleased about it.
"Did your mission go well?" Shikamaru asked, with a kind of forced neutrality and levity.
"Exceptionally," I answered. Then waved my chopsticks in dads direction. "Sorry about that."
"I haven't been called in, so I assume it's not an emergency," he said, with a touch of resignation.
"Nah," I said, shrugging a shoulder. "I'm sure you'll hear all about it tomorrow, anyway."
"Something to look forward to," he said dryly.
"What happened?" Shikamaru interrupted. "What went wrong?"
"Nothing went wrong," I said, though that was a matter of interpretation. "It was a search and rescue. We searched. We rescued. There was just… some additional stuff."
Actually, that was pretty much the theme of my Sensor Squad missions. Complete but extra.
I wasn't exactly sure I could talk about it anyway. Certainly the 'extra' was classified, just because it wasn't finished. Also ANBU were involved. That tended to mean classified.
Shikamaru gave me a searching look, full of hesitancy. "You seem happy about it."
"Well, yeah," I said, a little surprised. "We saved a couple of kids. Nobody got hurt. It was a good mission."
A long one, maybe, but one long day wasn't the same as weeks of them in a row. And it was a different kind of tired, when you knew you were accomplishing something.
"How were things here?" I asked, instead of following that thought.
"It's fine but Kofuku-oba wants you back in R&D," Shikamaru said. As if I had been gone longer than a day.
"Mmm," I said, vaguely. "Can't. Have to do some sealwork for Tsunade."
There was silence and the click-clack of shogi pieces on the board.
"Have you thought about trying to teach some of the researchers about fuuinjutsu?" Dad asked, casually but carefully.
I blinked at him. "Uh. I don't actually know that much about it," I said. "I mostly just make it up as I go along."
But I could see why he was suggesting it – if they were going to have a hand in regulating seals and such, then it would be better if they actually knew what they were working with. And also… there'd be much less pressure on me to go and do it for them.
I chewed on my lip, thoughtfully. "I did mean to submit some stuff to the clan archives. I could clean it up a little and give it to you." It was nowhere near good but I could strip out the worst of the egregious errors.
"That would be a good start," Dad acknowledged. "But its difficult subject matter to learn without a teacher, isn't it?"
It wasn't like I'd never complained about that. And I'd only started getting really good at seals after Jiraiya had given me pointers. And I'd stumbled across access to information most people didn't have access to, as well.
"It's not that easy," I deflected, though it was a weak defense. "I could talk about it for a whole week and only cover exploding notes."
His lips quirked into a smirk. "Then start there."
It wasn | 3,379,850 |
. In the video, Tiny announces that Patriot Prayer will begin a campaign to “Demask Antifa.”
Gibson later claimed that the vandalism was a false flag:
But the right-wing groups who have been targeting the IWW house for a week called the vandalism a “false flag,” despite repeated threats posted by Patriot Prayer supporters in videos on social media targeting antifascists and the Democratic Socialists of America. (At least one of the far-right videos also names Portland mayor Ted Wheeler as a target of the group’s malice.) Gibson posted on Facebook less than two hours after IWW made photos of the damage public, accusing antifascist activists of trying to frame his group. “Antifa came up to the Democratic Socialist of America house (their own house) yesterday and put graffiti on it pretending that we did it,” he wrote on Facebook. “Wait this graffiti looks very similar doesn’t it?”
According to SPLC, Gibson announced later that night:
Gibson announced Thursday that Patriot Prayer plans to attend all upcoming meetings of local socialist organizations. After finding a scheduled meeting of the International Socialist Organization had been cancelled, he and several of his associates went to the IWW building and recorded a video calling for socialists to engage in dialogue with their group. “Death to antifa,” a Facebook user commented.
https://twitter.com/DJ_Tw34k/status/1089270147368374272
On Friday, January 25th, Gibson continued to stoke the fires online. On Facebook, he issued threats against local bar and music venue Cider Riot for hosting an antifascist musical event over the weekend, and encouraged his supporters to stake out the venue and photograph people going inside and outside of the building. The same day, it is revealed in the media that a local socialist event on campus has been cancelled due to threats of violence from Patriot Prayer.
As Katie Shepard wrote:
Portland Community College cancelled an on-campus event planned by the Portland Democratic Socialists of America after right-wing agitators threatened to show up and disrupt the teach-in. [A]n email from PCC public safety officials shows that the college cancelled the event after threats. “PCC Public Safety was made aware of a possible planned disruption to tonight’s event that may have had an impact on the safety of the academic community and event attendees,” writes campus safety officer Lt. Erik Hargrove in an email to Green. “To ensure the event could be held safely, and successfully, a mutual agreement between Public Safety and the organizers was made to accommodate the event at a date/time that sufficient pre-planning could take place.” DSA co-chairwoman Olivia Katbi Smith says the cancellation was not mutually agreed upon. “Portland DSA is extremely disappointed to announce that Portland Community College’s campus security department has cancelled this evening’s teach-in for economic rights and climate justice because of threats from the right-wing street gang Patriot Prayer,” she said in a statement. “A handful of Patriot Prayer members have suggested on social media that they planned to attend the event, and PCC’s security has deemed themselves unable to respond appropriately. We strongly disagree with this decision, which was made without consulting our organizers or our dedicated safety team.”
https://twitter.com/Kherman112/status/1090401629679976448
The next day on January 26th, Joey Gibson and goons arrived at a small anti-ICE protest and proceed to look for “ANTIFA” that had masks on. Finding only one underage protester with a mask, they surround him and proceeded to pull his bandana off. Ironically, many Patriot Prayer members also had masks wrapped around their necks.
https://twitter.com/Kherman112/status/1089739476417503232
Later, Gibson and friends were taped running after people on the street, with one Patriot Prayer member engaging in the chasing visibly wearing a large knife. Someone dressed in all black associated with Patriot Prayer also attempted to infiltrate the anti-ICE protest and film people, but was quickly found out and confronted. The person then made a hasty retreat, and ran down the street, only to be seen talking to police before leaving the area.
Joey Gibson and Russell Shultz appear to ride in style – in the back of a police car. Local activists contend that Joey and Shultz are receiving a ride to an anti-ICE protest in which they harassed and assaulted someone.
At the ICE rally, Gibson states on a livestream that everyone, from the “Left to the Right” will not be allowed to wear masks anymore and that he will remove them at demonstrations. This is ridiculous, as many people wear masks at | 669,659 |
, curves, uh, sliders…you just need practice. And unfortunately, Badarrow’s pretty good. Hey Badarrow! Don’t throw splitters for game one! It’s not fair!”
Badarrow looked up. He grimaced at Erin, but nodded reluctantly. The next ball he threw was a curve. This time Wesle connected with it though. The man was so surprised that he barely got to first base before the Cave Goblins got the ball. The players cheered, and Jasi went up to bat.
“Fastballs! It’s just game one!”
The Hob pitcher was clearly put upon, but he obliged Erin by tossing a fastball…nice and slow. Jasi was so surprised she missed the first ball. Erin slapped her forehead, but Badarrow’s antics had amused the crowd. And more importantly, the Players of Celum were now competing to get a hit.
Jasi managed to bunt to first, but she got tagged out. Wesle ran to second, and then all the way to third as Emme smashed a ball straight past Badarrow. The next actor struck out, and it was Kilkran, the former [Blacksmith] who took up the bat next.
Badarrow threw a deceptively easy pitch. Kilkran smashed the ball out to left field. Wesle charged home and scored. The Players cheered as Emme ran for second. The Cave Goblins had a ball, but they fumbled it getting it to Numbtongue. Emme ran to third. And then Numbtongue threw.
The ball snapped into Rabbiteater’s glove as Emme was two-thirds of the way to his base. She turned to run, but the Hob sprinted at her. He tagged her out instantly.
“Alright! That’s three outs! Switch sides!”
The Players groaned and the ones who hadn’t had a chance to bat groaned as they put them down. But they seemed pleased. Quite a few slapped Wesle’s back and they took to the field with good nature. But Erin wasn’t fooled. Her eyes were on the Goblins as they meekly took up position at bat. She saw them glancing at each other and making covert signs she could half-understand.
“Hey Jelaqua. What do you think of the game?”
The Selphid was sitting with the adventurers, taking turns combing Mrsha’s fur. She looked up from the pampered Gnoll. Her mouth was full of popcorn. Dipped in fish sauce. Apparently it was better that way, according to her and Seborn at least. She shrugged.
“Looks fun. The Players can hit the ball. Unlike Moore.”
“Are you trying to hurt my feelings, Jelaqua?”
“I’m just saying…we should get that Wesle guy on our team. When can we play?”
“After five points. But the Goblins—well, just watch them, would you?”
“For what?”
“Just watch.”
The adventurers sat up a bit as Erin went back to the game. She looked hard at Headscratcher. The Hob smiled at her. Innocently. Erin looked at Rabbiteater, Shorthilt, Badarrow, and Numbtongue. She narrowed her eyes. They looked a bit too eager. And she had a funny thought.
“You guys take it easy, okay?”
The Hobs nodded obediently. Headscratcher squared up to bat as Wesle took the pitcher’s mound, which was in fact, more grass. The [Actor] was clearly keen to get his own back and he threw a ball into the mitt that Emme held twice. Both times it dropped. He met Headscratcher’s eyes as Erin shouted.
“Play ball!”
The first pitch came in hard and fast and dropped. Headscratcher swung and missed. Wide. The Players laughed as the Hob stared at the ball in Emme’s mitt. Wesle grinned and threw a second pitch. This one was a fastball and went right over Headscratcher’s bat. The Humans cheered. Erin just watched Emme throw the ball back. She saw Headscratcher glance at his fellow Hobs. They gave him a tiny nod. The Hob turned back as Wesle wound up for a throw.
The third pitch was a curve. Headscratcher watched it come. He drew back his bat, took a breath and roared | 2,928,208 |
Margaret Atwood's latest novel is set some time in our post-apocalyptic future. But, it turns out, that future might not be that far off.
"The Heart Goes Last" tells the story of couple Stan and Charmaine who give up their freedom for security in the planned community of Consilience — subjects of the Positron Project. Inside Consilience they live for one month in a normal home with normal jobs; and the next month they serve time in the Positron private prison, trading places with another couple that move into their normal home.
Credit: Courtesy of Random House
Atwood took umbrage at the word apocalyptic when describing the novel.
“[It’s] not apocalyptic, just financial meltdown — like the one we just had,” she says.
The beginnings of the novel are uncomfortably reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis. Stan loses his job. He Charmaine are forced to leave their foreclosed house and live in their car. The only job that Charmaine can find is a shift at a once fancy night club that has become a de facto brothel.
“I would call it a twisted version of our current reality, which is also in itself rather twisted,” says Atwood, “Housing shortages for all kinds of people, especially young people, that’s with us now.
For-profit prisons are also a current reality in the United States, Atwood points out. In a particularly chilling passage in the book, Atwood describes her dystopic view of the evolution of the prison system. "Prisons used to be about punishment, and then reform and penitence, and then keeping dangerous offenders inside. Then, for quite a few decades, they were about crowd control — penning up the young, aggressive, marginalized guys to keep them off the streets. And then, when they started to be run as private businesses, they were about the profit margins for the prepackaged jail-meal suppliers and the hired guards and so forth."
But the fiction isn’t far off from the reality she says emphatically. “It is unconstitutional to have slavery and forced labor [in the United States], but not if you’re a convicted criminal. So some of that is going on now,” says Atwood.
Before they sign on to the Positron Project, Stan and Charmaine tour the utopian Consilience. But they have nagging concerns about how it runs. In fact, Stan's brother Connor even warns them that there's something fishy going on here. But, in the end it's the luxury of clean bath towels that clinches the deal.
“You know when you don’t have a good set of bath towels, [Consilience] could be pretty darn appealing,” quips Atwood.
But it’s not really a good set of bath towels that coaxes Stan and Charmaine to trade their freedom for security. It's fear, says Atwood.
“When people are really, really scared, they will trade what we fondly think of as civil liberties and freedom. They will trade aspects of that for being told that they are protected and safe,” says Atwood.
Lately there has been a surge of dystopic literature, according to Atwood.
“[Dystopic fiction] comes in waves. In the literary landscape, I would say with The Handmaid’s Tale in 1995, nobody was really doing it at that time. They had in the ‘30s and ‘40s, so we had Brave New World and George Orwell,” says Atwood. “In the 19th century it was all utopias. It was all wonderful versions of the future, because that’s what they believed. They believed that things were going to get better and better. “
In the 1930s and ‘40s the dystopia was the present state of affairs and the utopia was in the future.
“But after the first world war, the second world war, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., we have trouble believing in utopias,” says Atwood.
Today's current view of a dystopic future is a product of people’s uncertainty about the future — especially amongst young people, says Atwood.
“[Young people] are writing and reading a lot of fictions like that. Some are just beleaguered fantasias such as the Hunger Games, but other are climate-based fictions. People are worried, quite rightly so, about a changing planet and also a changing and unstable financial landscape,” says Atwood. | 1,772,573 |
The Twins are “closely monitoring” the market for catchers, including the likes of A.J. Pierzynski, Derek Norris, Jonathan Lucroy and Alex Avila, reports Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
It’s not certain at this time how available each of those names might be, but Berardino writes that the Braves are open to trading Pierzynski, which comes as no surprise when considering that he’s a 38-year-old veteran playing on a one-year deal for a club that is seven games back in its division. One can imagine that the Tigers, who as of last night are reportedly planning to be sellers at the trade deadline, would be open to moving free-agent-to-be Avila.
Pierzynski has a $2MM base salary in 2015, of which roughly $841K remains. His contract also contains incentives based on games started behind the plate. To this point, he’s already earned $100K for reaching 60 starts, and he’ll earn an additional $50K for his 65th, 70th, 75th and 80th starts at catcher. He’ll earn $100K every fifth start from 80 through 100, allowing him to max out at $2.7MM. He’s hitting.280/.316/.432 with six homers this season, and it’s also worth noting (as Berardino points out) that the Twins reportedly made Pierzynski a two-year offer to return to Minnesota prior to the 2014 season. He instead chose to sign with Boston.
Minnesota’s plenty familiar with Avila, whom they’ve watched behind the plate for the Tigers dating back to 2009. However, he’s earning a not-insignificant $5.4MM this season and has played in only 34 games, hitting.192/.333/.293. Avila’s career behind the plate has been threatened by concussions, and as a club that is more than familiar with the ill effects of concussions (see: Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Corey Koskie), the Twins may desire more certainty.
Both Norris and Lucroy would represent long-term upgrades over incumbent Kurt Suzuki as opposed to mere rentals. Norris is under club control through 2018 and is eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, but he’s also struggled in his transition from Oakland to San Diego. Norris has followed up a.270/.361/.403 line in 2014 with a.231/.278./.401 line in 2015. He’s certainly hitting for more power — he has a 38 point increase in his ISO, and his 11 homers already top last year’s 10 — but his walk rate and average have plummeted. Norris’ line-drive rate is down from 18.7 percent to 12.9 percent, which, paired with an increased strikeout rate, helps to explain the dip in his average.
Lucroy could very well be the prize of the catching market. He’s a premium defender in terms of both controlling the running game and pitch framing, and he’s also produced a.291/.353/.455 batting line dating back to 2012. His production has been slowed this season, in part by a fractured toe sustained earlier in the year. However, he’s hitting.274/.335/.382 dating back to June 1, and two of his three homers this season have come in the past eight games. Lucroy’s contract, though, is perhaps the most appealing part about a potential acquisition; he’s earning $3MM in 2015 before a $4MM payday in 2016 and a $5.25MM club option for the 2017 season.
That Minnesota is seeking an upgrade behind the plate is reasonable, considering the difficulty that Suzuki has had at the plate since signing a two-year, $12MM extension on July 31 last year. Suzuki had an excellent first half in Minnesota, but it was largely BABIP driven, and he closed out the year hitting.248/.290/.366. This year’s been even worse for the former A’s/Nats backstop, as he’s hitting just.227/.283/.303, making him one of the least effective bats in baseball. He’s also caught just 19 percent of attempted base stealers — 13 percent below the league average. The Twins, though, value the comfort that the pitching staff has with Suzuki, his clubhouse presence and his durability.Those positive traits, of course, would still be in play were he to transition to a backup role, even if only for the remainder of the 2015 season. | 1,427,114 |
Hello, friends, let us immediately dispense with the pleasantries. Today I shall review several theological tomes. As a reminder to the female members of my audience, I remain steadfastly married.
Book #1: The Poky Little Puppy
MY FRIENDS, THE BLASPHEMY PRESENT IN THIS SO-CALLED CHILDREN’S BOOK WOULD CURDLE THE BLOOD OF MARTIN LUTHER. NOT SINCE THE HEYDAY OF AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON HAVE I WITNESSED SUCH BLATANT HERESY UNLEASHED UPON THE SIMPLE MINDED METHODIST RABBLE. HERE WE SEE THE PROTAGONIST, THE TITULAR LAZY CANINE, EXHIBITING CLEAR DISREGARD FOR SCRIPTURES IN HIS SLUGGARDLY WAYS….FOR WHAT? TO EAT HIS BROTHERS’ AND SISTERS’ DESSERT? THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE PART OF THE BOOK IS THE END, WHERE THE PUPPY IS GIVEN RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE AND HAS HIS STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE TAKEN AWAY. DISCIPLINE: THE SWEETEST DESSERT OF ALL, I’M AFRAID.
ONE OUT OF FIVE STARS
Book #2: Mr. Bell’s Fix it Shop
MY FRIENDS, THIS LECHEROUS BOOK DOES NOT EVEN ATTEMPT TO HIDE ITS HERESY, BUT BRAZENLY FLAUNTS IT: THAT MR. BELL CAN INDEED FIX BROKEN HEARTS! THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT THAT THIS BOOK IS A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH. MY FRIENDS, IF MR. BELL CAN FIX OUR BROKEN HEARTS THEN WHY DO WE NEED JESUS? FALLACY! LET US RETURN MR. BELL TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL WHERE HE AND SATAN CAN DINE ON AS MUCH CABBAGE SOUP AND ROAST BEEF AS THEY PLEASE.
ZERO OUT OF FIVE STARS
Book #3: Scuffy the Tugboat
MY FRIENDS, I SHALL NOT SIT IDLY BY AS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST IS DEFILED BY THE RAMPANT OCCULTISM OF SCUFFY THE TUGBOAT. HOW MANY OF OUR CHURCH NURSERIES CONTAIN A COPY OF THIS TREATISE ON PAGAN ANIMISM? THERE EXISTS NO SCRIPTURAL EVIDENCE TO SUGGEST THAT CHILDREN’S TOYS POSSESS A SOUL! TO CLAIM, EVEN IN JEST, THAT A TOY CAN THINK AND SPEAK IS TANTAMOUNT TO APOSTASY. MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, I HAVE NOT SEEN SUCH UTTER DISREGARD FOR ORTHODOXY SINCE THE SHAMEFUL WORKS OF THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA.
ZERO OUT OF FIVE STARS
*****
*****
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***** | 1,165,476 |
ased attribution of 20th century warming [and] Climate models are not useful on decadal time scales
So, the Stadium Wave model goes a long way to explain recent surface temperature trends, and seriously calls into question the viability of climate models that show a strong human influence on global warming and that predict future catastrophic warming. For this reason, the Stadium Wave hypothesis brings up key questions, and if there is evidence either supporting it or falsifying it, that would be of utmost importance.
The paper under consideration here, “On Forced Temperature Changes, Internal Variability and the AMO” by Michael Mann, Byron Steinman, and Sonya Miller, addresses the Stadium Wave issue (and other matters). This is a very complicated study and if you really want to understand it I recommend getting at least a Masters Degree in Atmospheric Science then sitting down with it for a long time. The way I got through the paper was asking the lead author a bunch of questions. Here, I mainly want to address the Stadium Wave issue. The short version of the story is this: Curry’s Stadium Wave is an artifact of her methods. A second and probably more important finding is that the AMO, previously thought to have contributed to warming surface temperatures over the last ten years, is now thought, based on this new analysis, to have contributed to a relative flattening out of the warming, and thus may account for the so-called “hiatus” in part.
Previous work, including that done by Curry but also others, treated the AMO as a long term change in sea surface temperature that could be identified by removing other signals using some standard statistical techniques, most notably “detrending.” Detrending is where you have a known (or presumed) signal that imposes a certain pull on the system over time. This is then numerically removed from the signal as a linear adjustment. For example, if I want to know the average heart beat rate of a set of people, I could just hook them up to a monitor and collect data and get an average. But say I don’t want my signal to be messed up by certain factors, such as caffeine intake, aerobic exercise, or watching episodes of exciting TV shows. So, I estimate the effects of these other activities on heart rate using some independent information and come up with a linear fudge factor. Then, I record when my subjects are drinking their Latte, engaged in their Cardio-Kick class, or watching The Walking Dead. For those periods of time I adjust the heart rate data based my numerical model of those effects, and the result is the detrended heart rate.
A more straight forward use is found in climate studies. We know that there is long term global warming caused by the release of fossil Carbon (mainly as Carbon Dioxide) into the atmosphere. So if we want to observe something like the AMO all by itself, we take the long term temperature record of sea surface in the Atlantic, subtract a numerical value representing anthropogenic global warming over time, and what is left should be the AMO.
But there is a problem with that technique.
The relationship between different variables in a complicated system has to be known or assumed to do this kind of adjustment. For example, let’s say that drinking a latte before Cardio-Kick makes the effects of Cardio-Kick five times more intense on the heart rate. If you didn’t know that, than your detrending of heart rate would get messed up. If you knew about this non-linear relationship, you could adjust for it, but if you don’t know about it, or assume it to be not significant and thus ignore it, than your results will be wrong.
Here’s another analogy that may help. Let’s say you know how to drive a car. That includes how to steer the car through a turn. This involves turning the wheel in a certain direction a certain amount as the car goes through the curve, then straightening out the wheel to go straight after the curve. Now, lets say you get a job flying a high performance fighter jet. But, you slept through flight school. Now, you are flying the jet and you want to make a small turn, so you turn the “wheel” of the plane a bit, then straighten it out to continue in a straight line after the turn.
If you did that, you would actually tilt the plane with your first turn of the wheel, and it would stay tilted indefinitely thereafter, continuing with the turn. To properly turn the jet you have to tilt it, let it start flying in the new direction, then untilt it. In other words, if you fly a jet fighter like you drive a car, you will fly it wrong because you made incorrect assumptions about the relationships between the key variables leading to the final outcome (the direction you are going in). I recommend that you don� | 652,128 |
Weightlifting Technique Problems: When You’ve Tried Everything & Nothing Works
There's one inspirational quote I've seen a million times. You've probably seen it too. It's the one that says, "If you can DREAM it, you can ACHIEVE it!"
Great little motto, right?
When I was a teenager, I used to dream about winning an Olympic gold medal someday. Now I'm 42, and it never happened. I dreamed it, but I didn’t achieve it. Kinda kicks that quote right in the testicles, doesn’t it?
I've thought about making my own poster that says, "You can DREAM it, but you're NOT necessarily going to ACHIEVE it!"
Actually, I could market a whole line of these things. We could call them “Reality-Based Motivational Messages.” Here are a few more ideas we could use:
“At some point in YOUR LIFE, you might realize that you are a MID-LEVEL ACHIEVER.”
“It’s hard to be a GOOD COACH and TEAMMATE when you HATE ALMOST EVERYBODY.”
“BEING GOOD AT STUFF might NOT be within YOUR CAPABILITY.”
“You might need to MODIFY YOUR EXPECTATIONS about how ATTRACTIVE YOUR SPOUSE will be.”
You might think this stuff has nothing to do with weightlifting. And you would be wrong, damn you! DEAD WRONG!
Just follow me on this, okay? Let’s say you’re a coach, and one of your athletes has a technical problem. In fact, let’s pick an example to work with. Let’s say this athlete has a habit of jumping forward in the snatch.
Ooohhh, I’m probably hitting close to home with this one, right? Jumping forward is fairly common, especially in the snatch. The longer you coach, the more you’ll see it. It’s generally regarded as a problem, for several reasons. It creates difficulties with the receiving position, it can potentially increase the risk of injury, and it’s a pretty strong indicator that the athlete is making some mistakes in the way they’re pulling the bar to the finish. I don’t want to belabor the point, so let’s just go with the understanding that it’s a glitch and it needs to be fixed.
Now, you’re the coach in this situation. You see the lifter jumping forward. You know it’s wrong, so you try to fix it. Most likely, you try a variety of verbal cues and corrective exercises to do this. Basically, you can see the athlete doing something wrong and you know multiple methods to solve the problem. You implement these methods, and guess what?
They don’t work. The athlete keeps jumping forward.
At some point, this starts to get frustrating because the athletes simply can’t do what you’re trying to get them to do. You know they’re doing something wrong. They know they’re doing something wrong. You know it needs to get fixed. They know it needs to get fixed. You know how to fix it. They try to do what you’re telling them to do.
And the end result is…they’re still jumping forward.
Listen, this is a rough predicament. You feel like you’re not a good coach because you know what “perfect” looks like and you’re trying to get your athletes there…and it’s not happening. On top of that, the athletes are getting discouraged. They know they’re doing something wrong, and it’s driving them nuts that they can’t change it. They might feel like they’re letting you down. Or they might start to question you because your solutions don’t seem to be helping.
Want to make this even more maddening? Let’s say you’ve been working with an athlete for two or three years trying to fix the problem, and it still hasn’t happened.
This, my friends, is one of the REALITIES of coaching. It’s a lot like the motivational posters we talked about. The phrase “If you can DREAM it, you can ACHIEVE it!” is a description of things functioning in a perfect world. It sounds wonderful, but what the hell are we supposed to do when we find out we’re not living in a perfect world? How can we deal with a situation where we’ve got | 903,091 |
Writing on Facebook, two prominent Russian environmentalists have taken Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein to task for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin without criticism, saying her silence “silences our struggle.”
In a video posted to YouTube (see below) last year, Stein thanked her supporters for making her trip to Russia possible as part of a conference sponsored by Russia Today, where she sat at a table with the Russian strongman.
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Speaking about “basic human values, human rights, around the need for international law,” Stein criticized a “U.S. policy of domination” without once mentioning life under Putin.
This did not sit well with Yevgenia Chirikova and Nadezhda Kutepova who took to Facebook to express their displeasure with Stein for ignoring their plight, reports Radio Free Europe.
“After your visit to Moscow and your meeting with Vladimir Putin you said that ‘the world deserve[s] a new commitment to collaborative dialogue between our governments to avert disastrous wars for geopolitical domination, destruction of the climate, and cascading injustices that promote violence and terrorism.'” they wrote. “We agree with you. But how can this new “collaborative dialogue” be possible when Mr. Putin has deliberately built a system based on corruption, injustice, falsification of elections, and violation of human rights and international law?”
“How is it possible to have a discussion with Mr. Putin and not mention, not even once, the fate of Russian political prisoners, or the attacks against Russian journalists, artists, and environmentalis ts?” the letter continued. “Is it fair to speak with him about ‘geopolitics’ and not mention new Russian laws against freedom of speech, restrictions on NGOs and activists, or the shameful law that forbids ‘homosexual propaganda?'”
“By silencing Putin’s crimes you are silencing our struggle. By shaking his hand and failing to criticize his regime you are becoming his accomplice. By forgetting what international solidarity means you are insulting the Russian environmental movement,” they concluded, before asking for Stein to address their situation, saying they hoped, “our questions will not go unanswered,” by the Green Party presidential nominee.
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According to the Green Party, the plea has been forwarded to Stein, with spokesperson Scott McLarty saying, “I think the letter exaggerates Dr. Stein’s alleged deference to President Putin.”
Watch the Stein video — posted on YouTube last December — below: | 3,202,326 |
and turning on the lights and Tom walking past me. He sits down in my living room and asks for drinks. I got two glasses of tap water and set them down on the table.
He started bragging about himself and particularly bragging about how he was such close friends with Bob Redford. I’m baffled that the anchor of NBC Nightly News is boasting about his movie star friends.
He pats the sofa. As I sit, reluctantly again, I look down at his hands and I made a mental note of how swollen his knuckles were, a reminder of just how much older than me he was.
In the same exact way as in 1994, he reached behind my neck and tried to force my head toward him and force me to kiss him. I broke away again. I said, “You need to go.” And incredibly, he said, “Can you walk me to a taxi?” I thought, “You just tried to assault me, but you expect me to walk you to a taxi?”
Even though I know I was not in any way at fault in what happened to me with Brokaw, I still suffered years of humiliation and isolation. I really do hope that by me telling my story and by shining this light, Comcast will understand why it’s so essential to hire outside counsel to investigate this deeply rooted problem.
The quest to maintain our teacher certification is endless. We graduate with our Bachelor’s, take exactly 3 deep, freeing breaths…and start on our Master’s Degree. Or our National Boards. Or an additional certification area.
And, aside from the money that I’m continually shelling out for these classes, qualification tests, and reprints of my certificate that don’t equate to commensurate pay raises, I’m ok with that. I’m a lover of learning, as they say.
I don’t mind reading the research (once I can actually find it). I don’t even mind writing the papers (if I can ever find a day I’m not writing lesson plans). But OH MY GOSH. Citing the $!#@ sources takes me just as long as writing the whole thing. A comma here, two spaces and then a period there…and do you use the whole author’s name or just the initials?
And doing it wrong knocks off ten points. Because you wrote the long date instead of the short.
Oh…No more.
You guys, I think Google is on our side. It’s like they hired teachers and asked, “What can we do to make your life easier?” And then they did it.
Check it out.
A double daily bonus event for Dragon Trials and The Imperial Onslaught started at Jan 24 22:00, 2019(PT).
Use this event to power up your teams!
■Event details
During this event, the amount of rewards you can receive from daily bonuses in Dragon Trials and The Imperial Onslaught will be doubled (2x)!
Additionally, if you have a 7-Day Pack (Double Bonus) active, the rewards for Dragon Trials and The Imperial Onslaught bonus will be quadrupled (4x)!
This is your chance to upgrade your adventurers and dragons! Here are the daily bonuses for Dragon Trials:
・Dragonfruit and Ripe Dragonfruit
・Windwyrm's Scale, Waterwyrm's Scale, and other types of dragon scales
Get dojo facilities and powerful wyrmprints from Treasure Trade! Here are the daily bonuses for The Imperial Onslaught:
・Dyrenell Aes, Dyrenell Argenteus, and Dyrenell Aureus
・Vermilion Insignia, Azure Insignia, and other types of insignia
■Availability Period
Jan 24 22:00, 2019(PT) to Jan 30 21:59, 2019(PT)
■Note
The event schedule and content may change without warning.
Thank you for playing Dragalia Lost. | 1,411,779 |
There was a time, not so long ago, when it was widely considered suicidal for an American politician to pay hush money to porn stars, cosy up to Russian leaders, or use national security dollars to buy foreign interference at election time.
In those quaint days of yore, an experienced politician might have steered well clear of anything that smacked of being on the wrong side of civil rights.
Once a point of pride, Trump name reportedly scrubbed from New York ice rinks Read more
At some point over the last generation, even the conservatives who hate today’s civil rights came to love yesterday’s civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr was no longer a Commie revolutionary but a beloved national icon. Segregation and the Klan’s reign of terror was as obviously, stunningly immoral as Nazism.
Until today, and until Donald Trump. You may not have known this, but Trump is himself a victim, no different from the poor souls who were publicly tortured and murdered by the Klan and its mobs. Despite his German roots, and his family’s business history of race discrimination, Trump thinks he’s suffering just as much.
“So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights,” tweeted the president who has no recollection of a predecessor called Bill Clinton.
“All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here – a lynching. But we will WIN!”
Trump is strange, but he’s not a strange fruit. And so it came to pass that the only people who can stop Trump’s conviction at his forthcoming impeachment trial were forced to spend the day talking about lynching.
To do so, you need to suspend a little reality and a lot of self-respect. You need to become a human shell that blurts out words with no meaning, that sparks thoughts with no intelligence. To wit: one Hogan Gidley, who holds the hallucinatory role of deputy press secretary in Trump’s West Wing.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘“The president’s not comparing what’s happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history. He’s just not,’ Hogan Gidley told reporters.’ Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA
“The president’s not comparing what’s happened to him with one of our darkest moments in American history. He’s just not,” Gidley told reporters, ignoring Exhibit A in the day’s proceedings: the president’s tweet that did just that.
“I understand there are many people in the media who don’t agree with his language. He has used many words to describe the way he has been relentlessly attacked.”
He has indeed used so many words, to such remarkable effect. Much like the hapless Hogan himself. They flow like endless rain into a paper cup.
As a defence of the president’s position, Hogan’s explanation is the equivalent of going back to bed to pull the covers over your head. There’s a reason why there are no White House press briefings any more: because you literally can’t make sense of the boss without getting fired, indicted, or shamed into permanent unemployment.
Other Republicans not employed by the White House found it easier to express what they thought. Both Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leaders in the Senate and House, said they disagreed with Trump’s choice of words.
Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican, went even further by saying that Trump should retract his comments immediately. “May God help us return to a better way,” he tweeted.
The almighty ought to be busy in Syria right now, so this unusually orange challenge rightly falls into the lap of Republicans like Kinzinger himself.
Like a fatberg blocking the sewers of Capitol Hill, Trump’s sense of victimhood and love of lying is creating unbearable pressure in a system designed to flush away an extraordinary volume of political waste material.
So Republicans were talking about Trump’s self-styled lynching instead of defending Trump from the blockbuster impeachment evidence of his current ambassador to Ukraine.
Until now, Trump has drawn what he might call a “red line in the sand” around the notion that there was no quid pro quo in Ukraine – no withholding of military aid in exchange for political dirt on the Biden family.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters
But ambassador William Taylor flatly contradicted Trump’s defence, much like his chief of staff Mick Mulvaney did last week – | 428,700 |
At the beginning, we'll require the namespaces that contain functions for GPU programming. Functions that work with OpenCL are in the uncomplicate.clojurecl.core namespace of the ClojureCL library.
( require'[ uncomplicate.clojurecl.core :refer :all ]'[ uncomplicate.clojurecl.info :refer :all ] )
nil
Although most concepts of OpenCL are similar to what we've seen with CUDA, the environment setup is a bit more detailed. That's because OpenCL does not support only GPU's, and only from one vendor, but multiple hardware devices from multiple vendors. It has to offer a choice of drivers and supported versions, at the same time.
The entry point is the concept of platform. The platforms function returns a sequence of platforms available on the system:
( map name-info ( platforms ) )
AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
My machine reports one platform: AMD.
( def amd-platform ( first ( platforms ) ) )
#'user/amd-platform
Different platforms support different versions of OpenCL standard, and some additional vendor-specific extensions. Each platform can be used to access the appropriate hardware. What devices do I have on AMD's platform?
( map name-info ( devices amd-platform ) )
Hawaii Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Now I know that there is one Hawaii GPU's (R9 290X) and one CPU that can be accessed through AMD's platform. Let's grab the handle of the first device:
( def my-amd-gpu ( first ( devices amd-platform ) ) )
What is the type of this object and how does it look like?
my-amd-gpu
#object[uncomplicate.clojurecl.internal.impl.CLDevice 0x3f393c1e "#CLDevice[0x7f34a472bfb0]"]
Having the handle of the device, we can proceed in a fashion similar to the Hello CUDA tutorial.
Comedian Steve Rossi of Allen & Rossi Dies at 82
UPDATE: He worked with Marty Allen in the 1960s in the popular stand-up act; they appeared with The Beatles three times on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.'
Steve Rossi, the handsome straight man who teamed with bushy-haired Marty Allen to form the popular comedy act Allen & Rossi of the 1960s, died Sunday in Las Vegas. He was 82.
Rossi "has left the stage," his website reported, surrounded by friends and family that included his wife, Karma. He had cancer and died at a hospice, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
Allen and Rossi joined forces in 1957 and appeared dozens of times on The Ed Sullivan Show, including three times with The Beatles.
“I spoke to John [Lennon] and to Paul [McCartney], and they had a terrific sense of humor," Rossi recalled. "They knew who we were. It was, ‘Mr. Rossi, what a pleasure to meet you.’ I said, ‘We really are the stars of this show, whether you want to believe it or not. That’s why 76 million people are tuning in!’ They laughed. We only had about 9 million on our other appearances.”
Steady performers in comedy clubs and Vegas casinos, they released a string of comedy albums, appeared on game shows and were regulars on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Merv Griffin Show before splitting up in 1968.
They starred as American tourists in France in the 1966 Paramount film The Last of the Secret Agents?
A native of New York, Rossi at age 16 received a scholarship to Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles and earned his bachelor's degree. He sang and toured with Mae West before teaming with Allen.
Handsome, tall and lean, Rossi made for a funny visual counterpoint to the short, round Allen.
“We had a lot of great years together. He was a wonderful straight man, he was a wonderful talent and a wonderful man,” Allen, 92, told the Sun.
Twitter: @mikebarnes4 | 389,004 |
EMV CVM Database Show all cards
Search for a card Network:
American Express Debit Discover JCB MasterCard UnionPay V PAY Visa Issuer:
Alliant Credit Union Ally Bank American Express Andrews Federal Credit Union Bank of America Barclaycard BBVA Compass Bank BMO Harris Bank California Coast Credit Union Capital One Charles Schwab Bank Chase Citibank City National Bank Discover First National Bank of Omaha First Premier Bank First Tech Federal Credit Union Goldman Sachs Harvard University Employees Credit Union HSBC ICBC Library of Congress Federal Credit Union Navy Federal Credit Union Nusenda Credit Union Old Second National Bank Patelco Credit Union PayPal Pentagon Federal Credit Union PNC Bank Provident Bank San Francisco Federal Credit Union Santander Bank SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union Service Credit Union SF Fire Credit Union Square State Department Federal Credit Union State Employees Credit Union (North Carolina) STCU SunTrust Bank Synchrony Bank TD Bank Titonka Savings Bank Transferwise U.S. Bank United Nations Federal Credit Union USAA Venmo Veridian Credit Union Wells Fargo Bank Rewards Program:
None Cash Rebate Mortgage Rebate Statement Credit/Purchase Eraser Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Alliant Rewards American Airlines AAdvantage American Express Membership Rewards Apple Rewards Asiana Club Miles Avios Bank of America WorldPoints Barnes & Noble Gift Card Carnival FunPoints Chase Ultimate Rewards Choice Privileges Citi ThankYou Rewards City National Rewards Club Carlson CURewards Delta Air Lines SkyMiles Diamond Plus Points Diners Club Rewards Disney Rewards Expedia+ Rewards Extra Awards First Tech Rewards Flexpoints Rewards Frontier Airlines EarlyReturns Gap Rewards Go Far Rewards Harvard Alumni Card Rewards Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles Hilton Honors Holland America Line Rewards HSBC Rewards Hyatt Gold Passport IHG Rewards JetBlue Airways TrueBlue Korean Air SKYPASS Lowe's Business Rewards Marriott Bonvoy Miles & More MyCruise Rewards Navy Federal Rewards Nordstrom Rewards Nusenda Rewards O2 Rewards Patelco Rewards PenFed Pathfinder Rewards PenFed Platinum Rewards PenFed Premium Rewards Plenti Princess Cruises Rewards RCI Elite Rewards Santander Rewards SchoolsFirst FCU Member Rewards Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Spirit Airlines Free Spirit STCU Rewards SunTrust Rewards The Ritz-Carlton Rewards U.S. Bank Altitude Points U.S. Bank FlexPerks U.S. Bank Perks+ Uber Cash UNFCU Rewards United Airlines MileagePlus United TravelBank USAA Rewards Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Wyndham Rewards Features: No Annual Fee
No Foreign Transaction Fee
Contactless Offline PIN
Online PIN
Signature
No CVM Priority: No Preference PIN Signature Card Type: Credit Debit Prepaid
For over a year now, banks in the United States have been rolling out credit cards with chips. These cards are known as EMV cards. These cards are sometimes called "Chip and PIN" credit cards, but in fact many of them will ask for a signature rather than a PIN. Some cards will ask for a signature in some cases and PIN in others. It all depends on what Cardholder Verification Methods, or "CVMs", the card supports, and in what priority order they are listed on the card.
Why does this matter? In the United States, most people today are used to swiping their card, then signing a receipt or digital pad. As such, most EMV credit cards being issued in the US are primarily Chip and Signature, so it's not a big deal. However, in other countries, EMV credit cards have been in use for several years and in many of them, Chip and PIN is standard. Most people there are used to entering a PIN rather than signing, and some merchants refuse to accept a card when the customer is prompted to sign. In addition, there are some places, particularly unattended locations like gas pumps and public transit ticket machines, that are set up to require a PIN. So Americans travelling to other countries may wish to obtain a credit card that supports a PIN.
Unfortunately, most banks do not advertise what CVMs their cards support. And different people have different things they care about, so there's no one "best" card. Instead, this site aims to collect basic data about EMV credit cards being issued in the United States and allow visitors to search based on that data to find the card that suits their needs.
The operators of this site wish to express their thanks to the members of the FlyerTalk discussion board, through which they've learned a lot about EMV and from which much of the data from this site was extracted.
Regarding Debit cards: Most debit cards are listed twice, once for the CVM list that applies if you select "debit" at checkout (when you'd normally enter a PIN with a magstripe debit card) and a second time for the CVM list that applies if you select "credit" at checkout (when you'd normally sign with a magstripe debit card). The "debit" CVM list is shown with the "Deb | 1,593,530 |