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The U.S. “intelligence” agencies, by the way, deem ISIS no threat to the United States. Apart from trashing the Constitution and really the one thing its framers got right, President Obama is trashing the U.N. Charter and the Kellogg Briand Pact, laws that forbid war. |
4. The fact that it’s Obama doesn’t make it OK. A majority of you supported attacking Afghanistan and within a couple of years a majority of you said Afghanistan should not have been attacked. Why not? Not because there weren’t evil people in Afghanistan, but because bombing the country made everything worse, not better. You kept telling pollsters it was a bad idea for over another decade, but the war rolled on, and still rolls on. Iraq is a similar story, although you were even faster to change your mind. |
And the occupation ended when President Bush and Prime Minister Maliki signed an agreement for three more years of that war, and then the three years ran out. At that point, President Obama tried to win approval from the Iraqi government to keep U.S. troops in Iraq longer, but with immunity for any crimes they might commit. Failing at that, Obama withdrew the troops. Having won that concession now, he’s sending them back in. Does the fact that it’s Obama doing it, rather than Bush, make it OK? Remember the |
massive protests when Bush proposed a war on Iraq? Obama just put the band back together in Wales, and you’re squealing with delight that he visited Stonehenge, or you’re busy coloring in your “I’m Ready for Hillary” posters. |
The nation of Iraq was utterly destroyed last time. The place is in total chaos: violence, hatred, poverty, illness, desperation, fanaticism. Dumping gasoline on that fire is worse now than before, not better. And now we have NATO toying with a nuclear confrontation with Russia, drone wars generating violence and terrorism in Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia, the U.S. Navy poking China in the eye with a stick, troops heading into a dozen new parts of Africa — How is starting a war this time better than last |
time, which you came to view as a mistake by 2004, elected a Congress to end in 2006, thought you were voting against again in 2008, and cheered for the eventual ending of in 2011? Observers have called this the most dangerous moment since World War II. Please don’t tell me you trust Obama, believed the fraudulent threat to Benghazi and are now unaware of the disaster he created in Libya, where France has just proposed yet another war to fix the damage of the last war. Please don’t tell me you believed the |
disproven claims of evidence that Assad used chemical weapons or Russia shot down an airplane. This is a government that lies about possible grounds for war and possible outcomes of war, just like its predecessors. |
5. The enemy of your enemy is your other weapons customer. Public pressure was instrumental last year in halting proposed attacks on Syria, the plans for which involved massive death and destruction. But the White House and CIA went right ahead and armed and trained one side in that war, the ISIS side. ISIS now has weapons provided directly to it and indirectly to it by the United States, including those seized from the Iraqi government. ISIS has troops trained by the United States and “radicalized” |
(enraged) by the United States in its brutal prisons in Iraq, as well as troops previously in the Iraqi military who were thrown out of work in 2003 by the U.S. occupation. Last year, the evil to be confronted was Assad, at all costs. To your great credit you didn’t fall for it. Why not? Not because Assad doesn’t do evil things, but because you understood that more war would make things even worse. |
Now you’re being told that Assad’s enemies must be attacked at all cost, and you’re falling for it, to your great discredit. With supposed surgical precision the “moderate” beheaders will be spared, in order to blow up only the “extremist” beheaders. Don’t believe it. Six months ago the great Satan was Iran. Now you’re on Iran’s side. Were you aware of that? You’re stirring up trouble to the ultimate benefit of only one group: the weapons makers. You think of the Middle East as a violent place, but 80% of |
the weapons come from the United States. Imagine how much less violent the Middle East could be if it only had 20% of the weapons. We’re not talking about stockpiles. These weapons get used. |
6. There are other options. Try telling a four-year-old he has only two choices: eat the broccoli or eat the lima beans. He’ll throw another 18 alternatives at you in less than a minute, beginning with eating ice cream. Try telling a non-American adult about the current state of disaster in Iraq, and they’ll begin by opposing making it worse, and then start discussing a variety of steps to make it better, from humanitarian aid to diplomacy to disarmament to emergency U.N. police forces, etc. But tell a U.S. |
adult that Iraq must be bombed or we must do nothing other than sit back and revel in our evil state of ISIS-loving, and your befuddled manipulated subject will shout “Bomb em! Bomb em!” Why? |
Last year we were told that we had to bomb Syria or love the poisoning of children with chemical weapons. We did not accept that those were the only two choices. Why not? Because we were thinking straight. We hadn’t been frightened into blind stupidity by high-quality videos of beheadings and threats that we might be next. Nobody thinks well when they’re scared. That’s why the government likes to scare you. That’s why your hearing all this nonsense about ISIS coming to your neighborhood. The more the U.S. |
keeps bombing people, the more some of those people will want to fight back. Did you ever wonder why nations that spend 2% what the U.S. does on its military feel so much safer than you do? Part of it is the reality that war generates enemies rather than removing them, but mostly it’s a culture of cowardice that we’re living in. Here are 15 things we could do about ISIS instead of bombing. |
7. We don’t have time for this barbaric insanity. War is sucking our resources and energy and attention away from where they are needed, namely on a massive campaign to protect the climate of the earth. Imagine a proposal to dump untold trillions of dollars and every ounce of energy into that project! Would Congress step aside and allow it? It would benefit even your short-term economic interests, but would you permit it? Would you demand it? Would you join with me in insisting that we stop the wars and |
save the climate? |
UPDATE: Newsweek says ISIS is intentionally manipulating you into attacking it. |
UPDATE 2: Matt Hoh Says the Beheadings Are Bait. |
Player of the Week can be awarded for many reason. Sometimes it is won when someone slings their flailing team on their back and drags them kicking and screaming to the finish line. Other times, it is the clean crisp execution that secures a team their LCS points. But this week, we award this honour tofor aquatic authority that ruled the game, securing GGU their upset over CLG and proving that Nami can really be be a man By Sunday, GGU was on the ropes once again. With two losses in two days, Week 5 seemed |
as if it could be another winless week for members of Good Game University. After falling to the ever-popular TSM and the off-kilter Dignitas, a victory against CLG appeared unlikely. In Champion Select, standard LCS NA picks came out across the board save one: the first-pick Nami for Bloodwater. As the game began, GGU made intelligent use of Nami's unwieldy yet powerful Aqua Prison for a first blood on Chauster before 1:00. The action didn't stop there, as Chauster stole GGU's Red buff for Doublelift and |
ganked GGU's duo in the top lane. To make the best of a bad situation, Bloodwater distracted CLG, forced them away from DontMashMe, and drew out three Flashes, the last of which was the only reason Bloodwater failed to secure an execution. Bloodwater's Nami mechanics emerged once again at 5:25, when Bloodwater snagged Aphromoo with another Aqua Prison, securing himself a kill on the opposing support. Throughout the laning phase, Bloodwater continued to impress with this use of Nami's unique kit, empowering |
his AD companion to consistently force Doublelift out of lane or kill him. The most impressive series of skills was at 14:55, when NintendudeX ganked bot to try and eliminate CLG's duo lane. A Tidecaller's Blessing on DontMashMe and Tidal Wave forced Doublelift to use both his Summoner Spells and receive a HSGG's Stand United. Bloodwater followed this up with two incredible Aqua Prisons: one to deny a counterattack from the three in bot and another to snag Doublelift near GGU's bot outer turret, eventually |
netting them two free kills. The full strength of Bloodwater’s Nami manifested in teamfights. At 17:15 GGU found themselves completely out of position as CLG emerged from the purple side tribrush to take down NintendudeX and ZionSpartan. Only Bloodwater's well-placed Tidal Wave and Aqua Prison kept his teammates alive while the rest of GGU reinforced, keeping CLG from gaining a huge advantage in the even game. GGU evened the kill count again at 24:00, partially owing to Bloodwater's ability to keep Chauster |
locked down while his teammates blasted him to death (not to mention healing them and speeding them up throughout). Though it remained even until past 30:00, GGU managed to tip the scales in their favor again at 31:05. The extended teamfight began with a Rune Prison from Jintae, which, comboed with Bloodwater's immediate Aqua Prison, demanded LinK's Kha'zix retreat. Bloodwater’s followup ultimate then knocked up four members of CLG while forcing a Flash and Cleanse from Doublelift. This allowed GGU's |
bruisers to close in on CLG's heavy damage dealers while DontMashMe fell (unfortunately) to Chauster. However, GGU was now in such a good position that they secured kills on Aphromoo, LinK, and Doublelift before moving towards Baron. With Chauster harrassing around the pit, GGU decided to follow him, only catching him with an impressive Flash/Aqua Prison from Bloodwater, bringing that fight to a 4-1 trade. Bloodwater hit yet another incredible Tidal Wave at 33:35, sweeping across every member of CLG as they |
ran out of the Baron pit, keeping NintendudeX alive as GGU killed Hotshot. With a full (albeit injured) lineup, GGU was able to take an initial 2-0 advantage that led to a 5-2 GGU ace when CLG reinitiated (partially due to Bloodwater's help in CC'ing LinK). The final fight of the game (36:05) was also in the Baron pit where CLG already heavily injured Nashor. However, Bloodwater's Tidal Wave knocked up all of CLG once more, preventing them from finishing Baron off and allowing NintendudeX to get a clutch |
steal. The lead firmly in hand, GGU cleaned up the rest of CLG and pushed down the Nexus, getting a huge win in their last game of the weekend. Their victory over CLG would not have occurred if not for Bloodwater's incredible Nami play, play the likes of which had not been seen from any of NA's pro supports. Bloodwater's aquatic authority on the Tidecaller secured a GGU upset over CLG and proved Nami's competitive viability in NA, making him TL's Player of the Week. |
Keys to Victory Predictions for Week 6 |
[Day 1] March 21, 2013 |
dig vs MRN |
TSM vs coL |
CLG vs dig |
TSM vs MRN |
[Day 2] March 22, 2013 |
CLG vs TSM |
coL vs MRN |
Vul vs CLG |
dig vs coL |
Week 6 of the NA LCS is filled with quite a few high profile matches. CLG, TSM, and Dignitas all play three games with head-to-head match-ups featuring CLG v TSM and CLG v dig. The results of this week will have a huge impact on the standings as it will determine if Dignitas will further cement themselves above TSM and CLG or if the other two teams will gain ground on first and second place. compLexity also has three games this week and as always are in desperate need of wins. Going 3-0 would be ideal, but |
even just 2-1 would be enough to give them a slight boost in the standings.Despite their poor performance in Week 5, Dignitas should still be able to prevail against MRN. Not only was MRN an easy mark for Dignitas in early weeks, but now MRN must struggle through integrating Nientonsoh into their lineup, pitting their former duo laners against each other for the support role, and persevering through ecco's illness. With the odds so stacked against MRN, it's Dignitas' game to lose. Their best bet would be to |
send a 2v1 lane against MegaZero to undo the player who is now undoubtedly MRN's strongest link. Scarra should have an easy time against a sick ecco, and imaqtpie and patoy's incredible laning skills and coordination will be leagues ahead of what is established between Nien and whoever will be supporting him. MRN, on the other hand, will need some Dignitas throws to win, but they proved themselves more than capable of doing so this weekend. They'll need to focus heavily on getting MegaZero and Nien fed, |
since the two of them are more than capable of going toe-to-toe with Dignitas' big name players if they have a lead. Perhaps if ClakeyD camps the duo lane, MRN will be able to get Nien into the teamfighting phase with some relevance and he can show his impressive Ranged AD skills. It'll be a tough road for MRN, but not an impossible one.Last week, few would be that coL would come out of this match with a victory. However, compLexity illustrated they were more than capable of beating top tier teams in Week 5 |
and TSM recently swapped out Ranged AD mainstay, Chaox, for Cloud 9’s WildTurtle. With such favorable conditions, there’s no better time for coL to get another huge win. Top on their list of priorities should be capitalizing on TSM’s duo lane weakness while getting brunch U incredibly fed. If Lautemortis counterganks like he did against Dignitas, or even just camps WildTurtle and Xpecial, it should be enough to coax communication errors and other mistakes out of the new pair. Assuming coL gets a lead or at |
least keeps up with TSM’s generally superior laning, they should be able to execute their impressive teamfighting and objective prioritizing like they did over the weekend. Conversely, TSM should do their best to prioritize farm around Reginald and Dyrus while choosing their duo lane with an eye towards caution or utility. A Varus or Ashe pick would not go amiss, so long as WildTurtle’s pick can safely farm. TSM’s lategame experience will still win out in the long run, and it will have much more of an |
opportunity to be successful with massive mid and top damage and a few powerful teamfighting ultimates. TSM are still favored in this matchup, but they’d best be careful of the hidden threat that is compLexity.As CLG looks to gain ground on Curse and Dignitas, picking up a victory over either team is crucial to their advancement. A strategy they might want to implement in order to obtain victory over Dignitas is to employ a lane swap. Since they are on blue side this is a bit unusual, but it has it’s |
advantages. Most importantly it allowed Doublelift to free farm while also shutting down KiWiKiD. KiWiKiD has been a crucial role in Dignitas’ recent sucess to shutting him down is a nice bonus in addition to letting Doublelift farm. Also HotshotGG is probably be best NA Top laner when it comes to dealing with 2v1 lanes. If no one does a lane swap Dignitas should rely on KiWi to carry them to victory. HotshotGG is easily abusable and with some nice early ganks from Crumbzz they should be able so shut down |
HotshotGG so he is a non-factor for most of the game.The second on MRN’s list of huge upsets, TSM wants to prove that their loss to MRN last time was simply a fluke. Interestingly enough, both teams will be running new starting ADCs who were actually former teammates. Nientonsoh and WiildTurtle both played for Cloud 9, but this time they face each other as enemies. Everyone should keep their eye on Bot lane as both ADC/Support combos don’t have a lot of practice with one another so whoever adapts faster |
could easily be the deciding factor in this game. The other lane matchups will be worth watching too: Dyrus will need to keep Megazero’s heavy pressure contained, lest MRN control the game flow through Megazero, and the reverse is true for Heartbeatt against Reginald. This is really a game of lane match-ups and whoever wins lane will most likely win the game.One of the longest rivalries in competitive LoL continues as CLG takes on TSM for the second time in the LCS. CLG is up in the head-to-head match-up, |
but coming into Week 5 TSM is ahead in the standings. With teams focusing on shutting down Doublelift, the other members of CLG are going to have to step up their game. Since HotshotGG doesn't really play carry-based heroes the success of CLG relies heavily LiNk's performance Mid. Aphromoo will also need to play well and do his best to keep TSM from making Doublelift irrelevant. Aside from the standard advice of focusing Doublelife, TSM are going to want to abuse HotshotGG up in the Top lane. If they can |
put Dyrus on carry oriented hero he can abuse HotshotGG and presumably cripple CLG's front line making their overall teamfight really weak.While Team MRN was hot during the Super Week, compLexity found their own momentum in Week 5. Going 2-1 last week, compLexity needs to keep the pace going if they want to break into 6th place and avoid guaranteed relegation. Lautemortis was a key factor in carrying coL to victory over Dignitas and if he can replicate that same pressure coL should be able to keep MRN on |
their heels throughout the game. For MRN this is the first week Nientonsoh will debut as the starting ADC after subbing last week. Nien is known to be a very good ADC and if he can get fed he can not only lead MRN to victory, but also prove to fans he deserves the starting position. Also MegaZero should stick with aggressive champs where he can abuse his opponent in lane as his play on Shen and Cho'gath has been somewhat unimpressive.This match-up is very critical for Vulcun as CLG is the team that stands |
in their way of jumping up into the top four. CLG only has a two win advantage, but has four less losses than Vulcun. Grabbing the win here would mean closing the win gap while also adding to CLG's losses. Not to sound like a broken record, but if Vulcun wants to secure the win they are going to need to have Xmithe live in Bot lane. Getting Zuna a couple kills while setting Doublelift behind should be their main focus. Vulcun has proven they play their best when Zuna is ahead and leading teamfights with his |
now famous yells. CLG should pay close attention to Mancloud in the Mid lane. If they let him have Nidalee or Lux they are in for a world of hurt as he's proven he can single handily win games with clutch snipes.After compLexity handed them a surprise loss last week, Dignitas is going to take special care that something similar doesn't happen again. In order to come out ahead this time Dignitas needs to temper some of their early aggression and make sure they don't make the same mistakes twice, like getting |
Barrier baited into two deaths. Dignitas is the better team and if they just play smarter they should be able to pick up the win. Aside from praying Dignitas makes the same mistakes as last time, compLexity needs to gain an advantage by taking the fight to their enemy. Crumbzz has been a monster in the Jungle providing tons of pressure for dig and Lautemortis in the Jungle is going to have to match that by visiting every lane while also setting up counter-gank opportunities. |
Study Claiming Benefits from Sorting Students |
Is Far Too Weak to Offer Guidance |
Contact: |
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, wmathis@sover.net |
Carol Corbett Burris, (516) 255-8820, burriscarol@gmail.com |
URL for this press release: h ttp://tinyurl.com/dyv3fm2 |
BOULDER, CO (April 2, 2013) – Does “tracking” elementary school students by how well they score on standardized tests improve student achievement? |
The vast majority of research into so-called tracking or ability grouping of students has reached a definite conclusion: it’s harmful. Students placed in low-track classes fall further behind. Yet a recent working paper published on the website of the National Bureau of Economic Research reaches a different conclusion, purporting to find evidence from a study of young children in Texas that sorting students based on their test scores improves outcomes for low-achieving and high-achieving students alike. |
A review of the NBER study, though, finds flaws in its methods so severe as to render it unreliable in guiding policy. |
The paper, Does Sorting Students Improve Scores? An Analysis of Class Composition, was written for NBER by Courtney A. Collins and Lin Gan. |
It was reviewed for the Think Twice think tank review project by Carol Corbett Burris, the principal of South Side High School in Rockeville Centre, New York, and Katherine E. Allison, a doctoral student in research and methodology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Dr. Burris is the co-author of two books on tracking and equity as well as numerous articles regarding these issues in peer-reviewed and popular journals. The review is published by the National Education Policy Center, housed at the |
University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. |
Does Sorting Students Improve Scores? is based on a review of data involving students in Texas. Using standardized Texas state test scores, the report compares scores of third- and fourth-grade students. It concludes that sorting students by scores is associated with significant learning gains for both lower- and higher-achieving students, although it does not find similar effects for gifted, special education, or Limited English Proficient students. |
Burris and Allison identify several methodological problems in the paper. First, it simply assumes, based on test score distributions, that the schools tracked students between classes – and this assumption is highly questionable. Second, it provides no criteria by which students were classified as high or low achievers. Finally, while it purports to be based on a measure of learning growth, it’s not. The measure is only of relative standing of students on two proficiency tests given in different years. |
Consequently, they conclude, the paper is too weak to offer any reliable conclusions, and thus should not be used to inform policy regarding tracking or grouping of students. |
Find the review by Carol Corbett Burris and Katherine Allison on the NEPC website at: |
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-does-sorting-students |
Find Does Sorting Students Improve Scores? An Analysis of Class Composition, by Courtney A. Collins and Lin Gan, on the web at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18848. |
The Think Twice think tank review project (http://thinktankreview.org) of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) provides the public, policy makers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC is housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. The Think Twice think tank review project is made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice. |
The mission of the National Education Policy Center is to produce and disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed research to inform education policy discussions. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence. For more information on the NEPC, please visit http://nepc.colorado.edu/. |
This review is also found on the GLC website at http://www.greatlakescenter.org/ |
Data protection bill would cripple researchers uncovering abuses of personal data while doing nothing to stop the spread of poorly anonymised data |
A new law proposed to protect the privacy of British internet users could end up criminalising the only people working to uncover abuses of personal data, a leading privacy researcher has warned. |
The new data protection bill will contain a clause making it a criminal offence to “intentionally or recklessly re-identify individuals from anonymised or pseudonymised data”. The maximum penalty under the new law would be an unlimited fine. |
De-anonymisation of data is a real problem for individuals, who may find their privacy violated over a number of different areas. |
For instance, in 2006 anonymised data released by AOL revealed affairs, illnesses and criminal activity when it was deanonymised by cross-referencing with phonebook listings. Netflix was hit with a lawsuit in 2006 by a mother whose sexual preference was revealed by anonymised data, while the porn habits of a German judge, drug prescriptions of a politician and operation details of active cybercrime cases were reveals by anonymised marketing data sold by the popular “Web of Trust” plugin. |
But Lukasz Olejnik, a cybersecurity and privacy researcher, part of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, warns that the government’s proposed data protection bill may criminalise the research that highlights these problems, while doing nothing to stop the spread and release of poorly anonymised data. |
Olejnik said: “It’s a justified risk. Security and privacy research requires assessing system strength, including trying to break de-identification and anonymisation systems. |
“This can be done by demonstrating re-identification. When faced with ‘unlimited fines’ and unspecified provisions, I cannot imagine anyone risking conducting research for public good.” |
A similar proposal in Australia also led to concerns from security researchers there. Melbourne University researchers argued that a ban on re-identification “could inhibit open investigation, which could mean that fewer Australian security researchers find problems and notify the government”. As a result, “criminals and foreign spy agencies will be more likely to find them first”, they wrote. |
The UK bill will allow for exemptions for journalists and whistleblowers, but not researchers, as planned. Olejnik says that’s not enough: “Any re-identification ban would need strong provisions guaranteeing that researchers acting in good faith are on the safe side. |
“I worry that if re-identification is simply banned, there might be no incentive for sane security and privacy engineering designs. It’s a paradox, but re-identification ban might end up leading into overall weaker systems.” |
But a better-drafted bill would be a net positive, he argues, saying that re-identification when done for financial or other gain is usually covert. |
“It’s not like an organisation receiving “protected data” and attempting to reverse its anonymisation would be interested in speaking about it in the open. So in many cases it would be pretty challenging to learn that it’s actually the case,” said Olejnik. “That said, the risk of ‘unlimited fines’ would definitely make the cost-benefit and risk assessment of malicious actors much more clear for the potential abusers.” |
Digital minister Matt Hancock said: “The new data protection bill will give us one of the most robust, yet dynamic, sets of data laws in the world. It will give people more control over their data, require more consent for its use, and prepare Britain for Brexit.” |
The data protection bill will not be published in full until the end of the summer recess, and is expected to be voted on in the current parliamentary term. |
Schack + FÖLJ |
Bekräftar: Klar för Manchester United |
avPatrik Brenning , Emil Larsson |
FOTBOLL 30 juni 2016 17:02 |
Zlatans egna ord om flytten |
1 av 3 |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic är klar för Manchester United. |
Det bekräftar 34-åringen själv på Instagram. |
”Det är dags att världen får veta”, skriver svensken. |