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A federal appeals court that had blocked the scheduled February execution of a Georgia man whose lawyers say is mentally disabled has lifted its stay, clearing the way for a new execution date. A three-judge panel of the 11th US circuit court of appeals said in an opinion published Monday that inmate Warren Lee Hill cannot submit his case to a federal court for reconsideration for procedural reasons, including the fact that his claim of mental disability was presented in an earlier petition and can't be presented again. In the 2-1 ruling, the circuit judges also said Hill's claim only challenges his eligibility for the death sentence, not his underlying guilt, making him ineligible for reconsideration. Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Hill bludgeoned Handspike with a nail-studded board while his victim slept, authorities said. At the time, Hill was already serving a life sentence for the 1986 death of his girlfriend, Myra Wright, who was shot 11 times. Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Hill, said he is pondering his next move following Monday's opinion. "We are deeply disappointed," Kammer said of the decision, adding it would bar consideration of what he called compelling new evidence in Hill's case. "The new evidence shows that every mental health expert ever to examine him finds that Mr Hill has mental retardation and he is thus ineligible for execution" under the US constitution, Kammer said in a statement. The Georgia attorney general's office declined comment on the development. The 11th circuit decision means a new execution date could be set at any time. But the state's supply of execution drug pentobarbital expired last month, and the drug has become increasingly difficult to obtain since its manufacturer has barred its use for executions. The department of corrections will try to get more at the appropriate time, said spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan. No executions are currently scheduled in Georgia. In 1988, Georgia became the first state to pass a law prohibiting the execution of mentally disabled death row inmates, and the US supreme court ruled in 2002 that the execution of mentally disabled offenders was unconstitutional. But Georgia also has the strictest-in-the-nation standard for death-row inmates seeking to avoid execution. It requires them to prove their mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt. The state of Georgia has long argued that Hill's lawyers have failed to do that. Since the supreme court ruling, many prosecutors have chosen not to pursue the death penalty if there's even a hint of evidence that mental disability is a possibility owing to the challenges that could be raised, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. What is unusual about Hill's case, he said, is that the experts who examined the inmate now seem to be in agreement that Hill is mentally disabled, but the courts are refusing to stop his execution based on legal technicalities, Dieter said. The 11th circuit panel granted a stay in February after Hill's lawyers argued he was eligible for reconsideration in federal court because three doctors who had testified in 2000 that Hill was not mentally disabled provided statements in February saying they had changed their opinions and now believe he is. In filings with the 11th circuit, the state said the doctors' new statements were not credible and also argued Hill was procedurally barred from asking a federal court to reconsider his case. In the majority opinion, circuit judge Frank Hull writes that the court recognizes Hill has submitted new evidence to support his claims but says the core argument — that Hill is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed — remain the same. The 11th circuit and other courts have repeatedly held that new evidence and new legal arguments in support of a prior claim aren't enough to overcome the statutory bar on repeat petitions, Hull writes. In the dissenting opinion, circuit judge Rosemary Barkett, writes that Hill has offered "uncontroverted evidence" of his mental disability and said she doesn't believe there is no choice but to allow the execution to go forward simply because his claim doesn't meet narrow procedural standards.

Documentary about Gordon Murray, who designs some of the most innovative Formula 1 cars, and his attempts to build an inexpensive, lightweight city car for the masses - the T-25. In the secretive world of F1 designers, Professor Gordon Murray is a legendary figure. Having spent 40 years designing one innovative car after another, his portfolio includes the most successful F1 car ever raced and what is widely considered to be the greatest sports car of all time. But today Professor Murray has set himself even more challenging goals as his focus turns from racetrack to public road. In an ever more congested world, Murray believes that personal mobility has become a defining problem of our times. As a car lover, he is powerfully motivated to preserve the freedom of the open road - his solution is a new city car called T-25. For T-25 Murray aims to transfer F1 technology to an inexpensive, lightweight city car for the masses. But is the industry at large prepared for the radical overhaul that Murray plans? From Brabham and the eccentric 'Fan Car', through unbeatable designs for Senna and Prost and the milestone McLaren F1 sports car, and right up to date with the arrival of T25, How To Go Faster and Influence People is a compelling account of Gordon Murray's remarkable design journey.

This article is about the actor. For other people, see Daniel Butler Daniel Eugene Butler (born December 2, 1954) is an American actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the TV series Frasier. Education [ edit ] Butler was born in Huntington, Indiana, and raised in Fort Wayne, the son of Shirley, a housewife, and Andrew Butler, a pharmacist.[1] While a drama student at Indiana University in 1975, he received the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship, sponsored by the Kennedy Center.[2] From 1976–78 he trained at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.[3] Career [ edit ] Butler is best known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe in the NBC sitcom Frasier, appearing in every season but one between 1993 and 2004. The character was a volatile, boorish, intensely macho sports presenter who hosted the show which followed Frasier's daily broadcast at the radio station KACL. In 2006, Butler produced and starred in the faux documentary Karl Rove, I Love You (which he also co-wrote and co-directed).[4] Other film work includes roles in Silence of the Lambs and Longtime Companion.[5] Butler is also an established stage actor. In 2018 he played Lenin in the Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's Travesties.[6] Other recent appearances include as Truman Capote in American Repertory Theatre's 2017 production of Rob Roth's Warhol/Capote[7] and Jack in the 2013 Off-Broadway production of Conor McPherson's The Weir.[8] Personal life [ edit ] Butler lives in Vermont and is married to producer Richard Waterhouse.[4] He came out to his family when he was in his early 20s. He wrote a one-man show, The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me, which opened in Los Angeles in 1994 and also played in San Francisco and off-Broadway in New York. It was Butler's public coming out. The play had ten characters "just processing what gay means". He was nominated for the 1995 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show.[5][4] Featured television roles [ edit ] Guest appearances [ edit ]

Finally getting the chance to read (and translate) Hiroshi Kanno’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles manga, Mutant Turtles Gaiden, was something of a dream come true for me. Though the feature is now defunct, back when ninjaturtles.com was still owned and operated by Mirage, it had a page dedicated strictly to the various TMNT manga that graced Japan’s shelves… albeit the page was full of incomplete information, vague credits and only a handful of low quality scans. But, for all those who also felt intrigued by the mystery, and lunacy, of the vintage ’90s Ninja Turtles comics, the whole run has been translated for your pleasure. You can find a directory of links to complete volume .cbr downloads at TMNT Entity on the off chance you’d like to follow along with this review. This stuff can get pretty weird. On to Chapter 2! Beat the Phony Turtles! As this chapter begins, the Ninja Turtles have apparently gone rogue; looting jewelry stores and assaulting police officers. April O’Neil even reports the strange thefts on the Channel 6 news program, though what she should really be investigating are the strange bubbles that never cease hovering around her head for no discernible reason. The Turtles, now no longer wearing speedos, naturally feel betrayed, but April informs them that the news is the news. If they want to prove their innocence… then they gotta prove it! Elsewhere, Shredder plots to steal a gem known as the Jewel of the Nile from the clutches of Michael Douglas. Actually, it’s being held at a facility operated by “High Pressure Curbon”. Presumably Kanno was going for “Carbon”, but you know. Engrish. Shredder orders Bebop and Rocksteady (who suddenly exists, now) to take the robotic False Turtles to the surface and steal the Jewel of the Nile. If you haven’t guessed yet, “Beat the Phony Turtles!” is Kanno’s loose adaptation of the cartoon episode “Return of the Shredder”. That story had Shredder forming a group of imposters called the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang to frame the TMNT for various crimes. While the cartoon portrayed the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang as a group of juveniles wearing paper bags over their heads: Kanno reinvents them as lumbering robots alternately called the Mecha Turtles because, duh, he’s Japanese: At least they sort of get Bebop’s “accent” right. Anyway, the real Turtles are staking out High Pressure Engrish based on a hunch from April and they’re cornered by the police, who mistake them for the False Turtles. Things look bad until Bebop and Rocksteady show up with the False Turtles, who scare the police off and promptly attack the Ninja Turtles. The TMNT find they can’t make a dent in the False Turtles, as their armored hides bust all their weapons. Bowing their heads in shame, the Turtles admit defeat. And when the odds are against them and all hope seems lost, there’s only one force the Japanese know of that can turn the tide: BURNING JUSTICE! Well, that’s just Japan’s answer for *everything*, now isn’t it? So by utilizing the justice inside them, the Turtles trash the robots and win the day. Except they don’t win the day. The False Turtles were all a diversion orchestrated by the Shredder to keep them busy whilst he stole the Jewel of the Nile. The Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady escape with the jewel and the Turtles lose. On the bright side, though, April clears their name by attributing the robberies to the robots and so all are rewarded with the most delicious pizza Michelangelo has ever made. All except Michelangelo, who has his slice eaten by Donatello, resulting in a corny comedy beat ending. Because not even the Japanese are immune to such lazy, eye-rolling conclusions. While I can’t deny that juvenile delinquents with grocery bags on their faces are pretty hilarious, the False Turtles may have an edge over the Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang just by virtue of being some pretty awesome robots. Sadly, they have one fatal design flaw: A vulnerability to complete bullshit.

Holding up photos of dead children as justification for potential war, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Wednesday that if the U.N. doesn't take action in Syria, "we may." "When the U.N. consistently fails in its duty to act collectively, there are times in the life of states that we are compelled to take our own action," Haley told the U.N. Security Council at an emergency meeting called in response to Tuesday's suspected chemical attack in Syria's northern province of Idlib. CNN described her remarks as "the most direct threat of unilateral action by the U.S. delegation at the U.N. to solve the Syria crisis." Tom Newton Dunn, political editor for the U.K.'s Sun newspaper, said on Twitter that Haley's comments on U.N. inaction were reminiscent of those "that George W Bush's administration used at [the] U.N. in late 2002," to justify the invasion of Iraq. Substantial development on Syria. Very similar language that George W Bush's administration used at UN in late 2002; pic.twitter.com/ItacYnzNAJ — Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) April 5, 2017 SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts The threat came even as Haley herself acknowledged: "We don't yet know everything about yesterday's attack." The former governor of South Carolina also blamed Russia for having "shielded [Syrian President Bashar al-]Assad from U.N. sanctions." "We need to see them put an end to these horrific acts," she said. "How many more children have to die before Russia cares?" The investigative outlet Airwars, which tracks international airstrikes in the Middle East, reports that a total of 701 children and 391 women are reported to be among those killed in confirmed and likely U.S. coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since August 2014. Nikki Haley is holding up pix of dead Syrian kids at UN. Wonder if next she'll hold up pix of Syrian & Iraqi kids killed by US airstrikes. — Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 5, 2017 Meanwhile, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Tuesday's chemical attack "was a heinous act and will be treated as such."

Today, HRC renewed its call for the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court for failing to do his job and follow the law. Last year, HRC and other civil rights organizations joined the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) ethics complaint with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama, seeking Moore’s removal for violating the obligations of his office. The complaint details Moore’s blatant disregard for the law, including communications in which he urges Governor Robert Bentley and members of the state’s probate judges association to ignore federal court rulings striking down Alabama’s ban on marriage equality. “With order after order, Chief Justice Moore has flagrantly defied every federally binding pro-marriage equality ruling, and his obligation to follow the law,” said JoDee Winterhof, HRC Senior Vice President of Policy and Political Affairs. “Moore’s personal opinions are not at issue here. As a lawyer and as a judge, he took an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. If he refuses to do so, he should be removed from office, and censured for his obstructionist tactics.” Chief Justice Moore and his lawyer, Mat Staver of the notoriously anti-LGBT group the Liberty Counsel, addressed the complaints at press conference today, where they referred to them as “politically motivated,” and claimed that Moore did not break any laws. Moore also went on a tirade against the transgender community, repeatedly calling transgender people “mentally ill.” Since January 2015, when Alabama’s marriage ban was first struck down, Chief Justice Moore has used his position on the state Supreme Court to block marriage equality in Alabama at every juncture. Following the first ruling that found Alabama’s marriage equality ban unlawful, Moore wrote to a letter to the Governor requesting that the ruling be ignored as non-binding “judicial tyranny,” and informing the state’s probate judges that they could ignore the ruling. Moore’s actions prompted HRC to collect and deliver to the Judicial Inquiry Committee petitions signed by 28,000 people demanding his removal. The Judicial Inquiry Commission has yet to respond. Chief Justice Moore caused havoc again in January when he issued another shameful order claiming that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges does not specifically address Alabama’s marriage equality ban. Moore justified his unconscionable position by asserting that state law allows him to "take affirmative and appropriate action to correct or alleviate any condition or situation adversely affecting the administration of justice within the state." Despite his opposition to marriage equality, Moore last month was forced to dismiss a final challenge to the state’s marriage ban with was brought by local anti-LGBT groups. Not surprisingly, Chief Justice Moore is being represented by Mat Staver, of the Liberty Counsel -- an organization that has been designated an anti-LGBT hate group by the SPLC. Most recently they have represented Kim Davis, the infamous Kentucky County Clerk who flouted the law by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The group is also responsible for the recent uptick in state legislation across the country which seeks to bar transgender people from accessing bathroom facilities consistent with their gender identity. Moore is no stranger to this variety of ethics complaint. He was previously removed by the state’s Supreme Court in 2003 for ignoring a federal court’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

You've just finished filming the end run of one of TV's all-time greatest badass characters, and you want to commemorate the experience with some body art. If you're "Breaking Bad" triple Emmy winner Bryan Cranston, where does the ink of the show's "Br Ba" elemental chart logo go? On a tiny little part of your right-hand ring finger. OK, maybe not what you would have expected from the man who has so brilliantly played meek chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White for five seasons. But Cranston, 57, reveals in GQ magazine's August cover story that, while one of the show's camera assistants got the "Bad" logo tattooed on his "tuchus," Cranston opted for a more modest remembrance. [Related: Bryan Cranston Was a 'Power Rangers' Villain AND Hero] Nathaniel Goldberg/GQ More "I wanted something … something that would give me private personal pleasure, like when I pass by and catch a glimpse of a picture of my mom, or my old manager. People who are gone now," says Cranston, whose wife says he is not a tattoo guy. "And it seemed appropriate. I mean, 'Breaking Bad' changed my life." The actor — who does indeed look very GQ in photos that find him sporting suits from Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein, DKNY, and Emporio Armani — also talks about how he almost became a cop instead of an actor, his parents' divorce when he was 12, his decade-long estrangement from his father, and how a single elective he was forced to take in college (one he chose only because of its early landing in the alphabet) changed his career path. [Related: Best Suits Under $400] "If acting had been called 'schmacting,' I may have wound up taking archery," Cranston says. View photos Nathaniel Goldberg/GQ More The feature — written by Brett Martin, the author of the must-read new book "Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution: From 'The Sopranos' and 'The Wire' to 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad'" — also reveals the "Breaking Bad" writers' room contains a fan letter from Henry "The Fonz" Winkler, that the equally comedically gifted Cranston had a fondness for various phallic props to bring levity to the "Bad" set, and that the actor thinks everyone, in the right circumstances, could become "an extremely dangerous person." His personal example: an ex-girlfriend who once followed him from Los Angeles to New York and became his stalker, leaving messages on his answering machine about how she was going to "cut your balls off," "have your d--- sawed off," and then kill him. And then she showed up at his apartment door.

I have had this question directed to me multiple times this offseason… Why should I watch jets football this year? — Robert Z (@Rob_Z_31) July 30, 2017 …Let’s take a quick stab at answering why and how you should consume New York Jets football in 2017. On paper, it is more than fair to assume the Jets will be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Their offseason strategy is clearly looking towards the future, rather than finding a way to be as competitive as possible in 2017. This strategy is logical and while it may not have been executed perfectly, the roster is young enough to offer copious amounts of playing time to the team’s draft picks from 2015-2017. This season is a testing ground for Mike Maccagnan, Todd Bowles and the infrastructure they have built to scout players. You are watching this year to see if the current front office and management has any modicum of an idea of what they are doing. The Jets very may well have assembled a collection of promising young talent who will make up the backbone of an ascending team or they have missed the mark and will need an even larger rebuild than expected. This season is about figuring out if Christian Hackenberg, Brandon Shell, Juston Burris, Lorenzo Mauldin, Darron Lee, Deon Simon and Jordan Jenkins can play. It is about figuring out the actual ceiling of players like Quincy Enunwa, Robby Anderson, Brian Winters and Wesley Johnson. It is about getting a glimpse of just how good Jamal Adams could be and seeing if it was crazy to follow his selection with another safety in Marcus Maye. If you are reading this site, presumably you like football. You are watching because football is only on a few months a year. What else are you watching on Sunday rather a sport you profess to enjoy watching? The Jets may be bad but the hope is they will not be dumb and lazy, which they were last season (along with being bad, of course). It is more enjoyable to watch players in their young 20s trying to prove themselves than Darrelle Revis trudge around after his third plate of ribs with his Patriots Super Bowl ring on. This is the type of year where some fans like to get preachy to other fans. Don’t fall into this. Nobody wants to hear a lecture on how to be a “real fan.” Putting aside blogging and tweeting, this fan is aware it is likely better for the Jets long term future to be 2-14 rather than 7-9. This does not mean I’ll be actively rooting for the team to lose (especially early in the season). It does mean losses will sting a little less than in a normal season and each week will be approached with a different level of expectations. That is just me. Some fans will be openly rooting for losses starting in week 1. Some fans will be openly rooting for wins in December even if the team is 2-12. To each his own. The players aren’t tanking and it is good for the team long term if the players are improving and are more competent than expected. At the same time, the front office making business decisions down the stretch if/when the playoffs are out of the question, is completely logical. This team has a handful of players who are worth your time each week and another handful who may be worth your time. You need to watch to figure it out. Overall, be happy football is back. You like football. I like football. Have a sense of humor about the team’s situation. Root for them to win…or don’t. Run your mouth to Bills, Dolphins, Giants and Patriots fans when applicable because if you can’t run your mouth a little, what’s the point of being a fan and watching sports? – Photo Credit: NewYorkJets.com Related

(CNN) Sen. Bernie Sanders released a letter from his doctor on Thursday saying he is "in overall very good health." The letter was issued by Senate physician Brian P. Monahan who has treated Sanders for the last 26 years, according to the letter. It is customary for presidential candidates to make public their health records during the campaign season. Sanders, who would be 75 on inauguration day, would also be the oldest president ever elected. Ronald Reagan, the current titleholder, was just a couple days shy of his 70th birthday when he first took office. "Over the years you have been treated for medical conditions including gout, mild hypercholesterolemia, diverticulitis, hypothyroidism, laryngitis secondary to esophageal reflux, lumbar strain and complete removal of superficial skin tumors," Monahan wrote. "Your past surgical history consists of repair of your left and right side inguinal hernias by laparoscopic technique, and a right true vocal cord cyst excision."

Man accused of stealing ATM with forklift Add "forklift" to the list of ways to get around ATM fees. Unless, of course, someone is watching. Orphey Wilson, 40, wore a ski mask as he apparently worked alone early Sunday to unbolt an ATM from Bank of America at 18505 Champion Forest in Spring, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Assistant Chief Mark Herman said. He said he then used a stolen forklift to load the machine into a stolen U-Haul. A witness called authorities, who arrived seconds after Wilson pulled away. He was arrested less than a mile from the bank. Wilson's criminal history already included two jail stints for felony theft and criminal mischief charges. He now faces charges for felony theft of over $200,000 and criminal mischief. Each charge could result in jail time of between five and 99 years in prison, Herman said. And there's the possibility of an even heftier price tag: Because the targeted bank property is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the incident may result in federal charges, Herman said. ATM thefts are rare and there are usually no witnessese, he said. "We have had it happen in the past, but this is the first time where we've actually caught the individual and recovered the property," Herman said. zain.shauk@chron.com

(Image: Stephen Voss/Alamy) When the criteria for diagnosing autism were changed last year, concerns were raised that people already diagnosed might be re-evaluated and end up losing access to treatments and services. The American Psychiatric Association (APA), which publishes the diagnostic guidelines, recommends that children who are receiving appropriate treatment as the result of the old criteria should not be required to undergo a re-examination with the new criteria by insurance companies. But a small survey revealed to New Scientist suggests that not everyone is following the party line. Advertisement In May, the APA published the DSM-5, the latest edition of what has come to be known as psychiatry’s diagnostic bible. One controversial change was to the criteria used to diagnose different kinds of autism, which are now combined under the umbrella term of “Autism Spectrum Disorder” (ASD). Under the previous criteria of DSM-4, a person would be diagnosed with ASD by exhibiting at least six of 12 behaviours, which include problems with communication, interaction and repetition. Now, that same person would need to exhibit three deficits in social communication and interaction and at least two repetitive behaviours – the latter, say critics, makes the new criteria more restrictive. Diagnosis: in question To see how the change in criteria was affecting people, Autism Speaks, a US science and advocacy organisation, asked users of its website to complete an online survey about their experiences. “We wanted to ensure that people are still maintaining access to the services they need,” says Michael Rosanoff, Autism Speaks’ associate director for public health research and scientific review. Around a third of the 611 people that have so far replied to the survey say that they have been asked by schools or health organisations to have their diagnosis re-evaluated under DSM-5 criteria, Rosanoff told New Scientist. “Some of these people also report having lost access to services and treatments,” he says. Rosanoff admits this survey is small and self-selecting, but says it is enough to ring alarm bells. One anonymous respondent said that the regional centre that funds services for her son is seeking to have him re-evaluated despite a 10-year well-established diagnosis of ASD. The UK National Health Service says that changes to the DSM-5 will have a limited impact on mental health care in the UK, as psychiatrists tend to diagnose mental health disorders using the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases rather than the DSM. Those who are treated privately are also unlikely to be affected as, according to the UK health insurers approached by New Scientist, they don’t tend to cover the treatment or assessment of autism. The changes are most likely to be felt in the US, the country that most heavily relies on the DSM for diagnosis. None of the US health insurers approached were available for comment. Moving the goal posts However, the APA is clear that no one already diagnosed should be re-evaluated. “We made this recommendation from a public health and practical perspective since disruptions in effective treatment would be counterproductive to kids,” says Darrel Regier, vice-chair of the DSM-5 task force and director of the APA division of research. Despite these assurances, the results of the Autism Speaks survey have prompted the organisation to fund a bigger study in conjunction with Yale University to identify the effects of DSM-5 in terms of ASD prevalence and access to services. An indication of how the new criteria might affect the prevalence of ASD was published this week. Matthew Maenner at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and colleagues analysed data from 644,000 children across the US who were 8 years old in 2006 or 2008. The data was from a monitoring network that collects ASD behaviours documented in medical and educational evaluations. Of the 6577 children classified as having ASD based on the DSM-4 criteria, only 5339, or 81.2 per cent, also met the DSM-5 criteria. Interestingly, 304 children would have been diagnosed with ASD under DSM-5 but not under DSM-4. Consequently, the team conclude that ASD prevalence will likely be lower under DSM-5 than under the previous edition of the manual. “Ultimately time will tell how this will affect prevalence,” says Maenner. “It’s reasonable to think that doctors will identify symptoms that receive greater attention in DSM-5 and actively document these if they think it will help people receive treatment and services.” Journal reference: JAMA Psychiatry, DOI:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.3893

A new poll shows that more than half of the country thinks the media is too tough on President Trump. According to the results of a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News, 51 percent of Americans think the media has been too critical of Trump since he won the presidential election in November, while 41 percent think the coverage has been “fair and objective.” Only 6 percent said the media had not been critical enough. That same poll — which surveyed 1,000 people — found that 53 percent of people think the media has exaggerated problems in Trump’s White House, while 45 percent believed the coverage was accurate. The poll also found that 40 percent of people whose primary news source is MSNBC agreed that “the news media and other elites are exaggerating the problems of the Trump administration, because they are uncomfortable and threatened by the kind of change that Trump represents.” President Trump railed against the “fake news” media while giving a speech to conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. “I want you all to know that we are fighting the fake news,” he said. “It’s fake, phony, fake. A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. Because they have no sources. They just make it up when there are none. They make up sources. They’re very dishonest people. They did not explain that I called the fake news the enemy of the people. They dropped off the word fake. That’s the way they are. I’m not against the media. I’m not against the press.” WATCH:

Young boys were locked in a cage for days on end as part of a brutal regime of physical and sexual abuse meted out to dozens of youngsters at Salvation Army homes in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, a royal commission into child-sex abuse has heard. And the Salvation Army's leadership often failed to discipline or remove the perpetrators, but simply moved them to other homes where they frequently continued the abuse. The revelations came during the first public hearing in Sydney by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for 2014. In his opening address, counsel assisting the commission, Simeon Beckett, said the focus of the hearings would be on the "contemporaneous response by the Salvation Army and relevant government agencies to child-sex abuse within the Alkira home for boys in Indooroopilly, Queensland; the Riverview Training Farm, also in Queensland; Bexley Boys home in North Bexley; and the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn". Advertisement "It will examine processes at the time to identify, investigate, discipline, remove, dismiss and/or transfer persons accused of or found to have engaged in child sexual abuse," he said. "The evidence will explore whether those who maintained the homes jointly engaged in child sexual abuse and whether the position of manager was used to frustrate the making of complaints of sexual abuse and their investigation." The commission will focus on the alleged abuse inflicted by Salvation Army officers Laurence Wilson, Russell Walker, Victor Bennett, John McIver and Donald Schultz on boys aged from about six to about 17. On Tuesday, it heard that the violence and sexual abuse inflicted on the boys at the homes was at "the severe end of that examined by the commission" during the course of its investigations. "The boys were frequently punched with a closed fist, thrown on the ground with force, hit with straps until they developed welts or bled," Beckett said. They were repeatedly anally raped and forced to undertake oral sex on their house parents. They were also abused by other boys at the homes. One witness, ES, is expected to tell the commission that he was placed in a cage on the verandah of the Riverview home for nine days. Upon his release, he was allegedly sodomised by Bennett, his house parent. McIver allegedly broke one boy's arm during an assault and on another occasion refused to allow a boy with a dislocated shoulder to attend hospital, instead forcing the injured shoulder "back into its socket". Boys who complained were often disbelieved and severely punished, Beckett said. "Some will indicate that even when they ran away they were returned to the home where they were physically punished," Beckett said. "Many didn't complain due to fear of punishment and retribution." At the Riverview farm, one witness would tell how he was made to sort fruit and vegetables given to the farm to feed the animals, picking out what could be given to the boys, Mr Beckett said. If he made a wrong choice, he was flogged. "Other forms of punishment included sweeping the playground with a toothbrush, cleaning 50 pairs of shoes ... and on one occasion forcing a boy to eat his own vomit." Beckett said the Salvation Army had a policy of simply moving officers to different homes rather than properly disciplining them or ensuring they had no further contact with children. He said the commission would hear from two former house parents, Cliff and Marina Randall, who were dismissed after making a complaint against Mr McIver. Three of the five officers being examined are still alive - McIver, Schultz and Walker. Only one was charged; Walker with an act of indecency. They deny the allegations against them. Wilson died in 2006. The hearing continues.

After Harvey, Houston's sprawling developments have been blamed for contributing to flooding of those downstream by paving over the prairies and ecosystems that once stored and drained water. The outer-ring suburbs of the Houston region, it turns out, are more complicated than that and, in some cases, have been places of design innovation that could teach the rest of Houston some lessons about living in floodplains. The story of our flooding problem, like most environmental hazards, starts with natural resources sold as commodities. From about the 1830s to 1870s, "earlier settlers made a ton of money off plantations because [the land along Houston's bayous] was so fertile," says Keiji Asakura, Principal Designer at Asakura Robinson, a planning, urban design, and landscape architecture firm. Well before urbanization, farmers raising cattle and growing crops like cotton and rice fundamentally changed the soil. In addition, farm-to-market roads and railroads displaced organic drainage patterns. Coastal prairie that took root in Houston for thousands of years was decimated in a few decades. Urbanization further altered soils and drainage. Bayous were dug up then paved over. More and more highways, more and more parking lots. And as the Chronicle reported, the detention of water in new developments was not mandated until 1984 and is not enforced well over time. In this past half-century, a different story has unfolded in some master planned communities along Houston's periphery where designers and developers have tested bold ideas. Design with nature: The Woodlands "Let us abandon self-mutilation which has been our way and give expression to the potential harmony that is man-nature. ... To do this he must design with nature," the chief landscape designer for The Woodlands, Ian McHarg, implores in his book "Design with Nature." This principle — work with, not against, a site's natural condition — was first promulgated in The Woodlands in the 1970s and continues to hold sway in developments surrounding Houston. Two of the most notable master planned communities currently under construction are Springwoods Village — just south of The Woodlands — and Cross Creek Ranch out in Fulshear. You wouldn't guess it from the repetitious McMansions, but these three developments are unique — indeed, radical for their time — with their respect to the piney woods and coastal prairies they replaced. The Woodlands was conceived from the most unlikely of sources: George Mitchell, an oil tycoon hoping to develop a piece of land thirty miles north of Downtown Houston along I-45. His conversion was recently written about in the Chronicle by Loren Steffy and unfolds in greater detail in Ann Forsyth's book Reforming Suburbia: "McHarg suggested using the natural drainage system of the Woodlands site to structure development. This would, he noted, help reduce the prospects for flood damage. Ever the geologist, Mitchell asked. 'All right, natural drainage works, but what does it mean to me?' 'First, George, it means you'll get $50 million from HUD and, second, it will save you even more money,' McHarg responded. 'For instance, you won't have to build a storm drainage system. This will save you $14 million for the first phase alone.' And so McHarg converted the oilman into an ecologist." This conversation vastly underplays the technology needed to employ natural drainage systems. Dr. Phil Bedient, now a professor in Rice University's Civil Engineering Department, reminisced about being a hydroengineer on the project some four decades ago. A preliminary survey of the site showed Dr. Bedient and his team that one-third of the property was on the 100-year floodplain, with flat land and thick woods promising stagnant rainwater throughout. Undeterred, Mitchell and McHarg planned for retention ponds, golf courses and forest preserves to be in the most flood-prone areas. This accomplished two goals: it kept personal property away from low elevation sites and instead programmed a dual purpose for recreation on otherwise clement days. The early stages of planning had very little to do with return on investment for number of buildings on the land; rather "landscape [was] used very consistently as a basic framework underlying the urban design of The Woodlands, with villages, transportation corridors, and commercial centers having secondary importance," as Forsyth writes. It was a special set of circumstances that made The Woodlands possible: I-45 had just been completed; the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD) had a well-endowed yet unaccomplished new program, Title VII, for the country's first round of master-planned communities; and the Mitchell family could bankroll an entire city's worth of development during the first few decades of growth. The Woodland's greatest advantage, though, was having Ian McHarg as the lead landscaper. It was this canvas, in all its flood-prone glory, where he first applied this revolutionary theory of landscape. The Woodlands was indeed an anomaly for its time. Recent reincarnations copy the natural aesthetic of The Woodlands — its most lucrative attraction — and paste it onto landscapes without thinking through the differences in context. A retention pond with a fountain does not a Woodlands make. Most of the 6-million-plus people in Houston's metropolitan area live in these more mundane suburbs. I grew up in one myself. But the Greater Houston area has a handful of exceptional master-planned communities improving upon The Woodlands legacy. I learned a bit about two of the most intentionally sustainable master-planned communities currently being developed — Springwoods Village and Cross Creek Ranch — but the list could go on. Up in Cypress is Bridgelands, with landscape design by OJB, which normalizes green roofs and rain gardens, and in Fort Bend County there is Harvest Green with landscape design by SWA Group. I will focus on just the two: Springwoods Village and Cross Creek Ranch. Springwoods Village Before writing this article, I knew that all the lakes in Texas were manmade and that all the "lakefront" properties of the suburbs were really retention-pond-front properties. After interviewing Keiji Asakura about his firm's role in the planning of Springwoods Village, I came to realize these "fake" lakes represent a major shift. The goal of flood management infrastructure, especially after World War II, was to move large volumes of water away from development as fast as possible. This strategy didn't work for a number of reasons, mostly because channel intersections became flooded bottlenecks. Not so nice to those downstream. More recently, since the '80s, the goal became "to first slow the water to lower the peak in any way we can," says Asakura. The new question is how to create more time for rainwater, thereby lowering peak volume. Rather than expunge rainwater as channels do immediately or detention ponds do eventually, retention ponds collect rainwater from the source and retain it for slow evaporation into the atmosphere and percolation into the soil. Retention ponds do one of two things that every landscape architect and environmental engineer seems to agree will mitigate Houston's flooding: one is "holding water where it falls," says Bedient, and the other is "increase vegetation with good roots and open up that soil mass," says Asakura. This latter method, "good roots," is the same one I mentioned that was destroyed by early settlement of the coastal prairie. The benefits of deep-rooted, tall grass are numerous. Typical lawn grass sequesters approximately 100 pounds of carbon per acre. The grasses seeded in Springwoods Village and Cross Creek Ranch sequester 6,000 pounds of carbon per acre. They also are flexitarians, adept at absorbing large volumes of water or surviving without such luxuries. You can very easily find both of these methods — the retention and the roots — in Springwoods Village. Off I-45 and Grand Parkway, you are immediately met with traffic medians lined with detention ditches for capturing water at the source. These medians, along with the lakes, parks and all other opportunities for landscaping, were outfitted with tall grasses indigenous to the region. All the utilities of a community have been bundled into its infrastructure, bringing together roads, pipes, drainage and vegetation and freeing up the remaining space for parks, lakes, houses and, of course, ExxonMobil's campus. Cross Creek Ranch Fifty miles west then south of Springwoods Village on Grand Parkway is Cross Creek Ranch. Houses there are suspiciously similar to those of Springwoods Village (and all their lakes similar to those of Minnesota), but the land upon which they stand are not. Despite driving past the same empty ranch and plantation land surrounding both developments, 50 miles of separation left room for the piney woods of The Woodlands to become the Katy Prairie of Cross Creek Ranch. Johnson Development Corp. purchased the property as nuded pastures with the early intention of "doing something that was green and sustainable," says Matthew Baumgarten, SWA's lead landscape architect on the project. They did so through a number of means, both familiar and novel. "Just like any other master-planned community, there's a very large basin that stores a 100-year event" but, on a normal day, acts as a wetland park, says Baumgarten. There's that dual purpose again. Like Springwoods Village, traffic medians at Cross Creek Ranch are lush with "Tall Grass Zones" and backyards are resplendent with lake views. There is also the development's namesake, a three-mile-long restored creek that used to be a watering hole for cattle. Baumgarten planned for "all those things to look like landscape features" to the casual observer but subtly detain a "100-year" flooding event. From my experience in Cross Creek Ranch, subtlety verged on invisibility. Finding the creek was surprisingly laborious: The band of bordering wetlands were maybe five- to 10-feet wide and recessed well-below street level. Once I spotted it, I arbitrarily parked and stepped into 110-percent humidity to walk through muddy, freshly mowed grass which gave way to unmowed tall grasses and wildflowers recently soaked by rain the night prior. At last, there was a narrow stream with a smattering of plant diversity modeled after the Katy Prairie. The creek resembles Buffalo Bayou Park, which is no coincidence. SWA's success in creating "synthetic nature" along the bayou caught Johnson's attention, which requested a similar approach here. Unlike Buffalo Bayou Park, there weren't paths or a recreational space to lure neighbors to the creek. This might explain why my guide, Christian, a five-year resident of Cross Creek Ranch, didn't know there was an actual Cross Creek. His high school buddies and his little brother didn't know they were participating in a natural restoration project, either. Reform In the wake of Harvey, flooding is understood as an existential threat to this region. As the Cite magazine editorial committee noted: "Three major flooding events in little over two years time, the Memorial Day floods (2015), the Tax Day floods (2016), and now Harvey (2017)" that should only be happening once every century are symptoms of an ongoing crisis. I began writing this article months before Harvey and the conclusion I had in the works is suddenly far more urgent. Though I have moved to Chicago, it is impossible for me to disconnect from the deluge of friends checking themselves in as safe, the articles proclaiming "catastrophe," the texts and phone calls from friends and family promising me they are OK. The eyes of the world are on the place I will always consider home. And everyone has an opinion. Journalists, experts, and politicians are keen to draw or deny a causal relationship between Houston's lack of zoning and Harvey's destruction. A voice that breaks through the discordant noise is Mayor Sylvester Turner's, who tweeted, "Zoning wouldn't have changed anything. We would have been a city with zoning that flooded." It's tempting to overextend the importance of zoning, which is about separating different types of land uses (residential, commercial, industrial), and to equate the lack of zoning with Houston's sprawl. What we lack in zoning inside Houston tends to be made up for with other types of development codes for everything from the number of parking spaces to elevation above the 100-year floodplain. Danny Samuels, Professor of the Practice at Rice Architecture, observes that "zoning made no difference," but newer houses up to stricter building code weathered the storm far better. In addition, Albert Pope, also at Rice Architecture, and many others have argued that we should not be building in the 100-year floodplain at all, and that vacating this space would open opportunities to organize dense developments around bigger green spaces. In other words, Houston would do well if it learned from and adapted lessons from its master-planned fringes. The Woodlands, Springwoods Village and Cross Creek Ranch appear to be doing well, on the whole, considering the magnitude of the storm. The Woodlands had water on its streets during Harvey, and 220 people had to be rescued, or 0.2 percent of the total population, according to Steffy's report in the Chronicle, with "the hardest-hit areas border[ing] Spring Creek." Nearby, Springwoods Village volunteered themselves and their resources for afflicted Houstonians. About five houses flooded in the Audubon Grove section, according to two sources. The Kinder Institute tool showing where buildings are expected to have flooded marks a few properties in that section of Springwoods Village along Spring Creek. I checked in with Christian about his family and neighbors in Cross Creek Ranch; he said they are "really lucky ... no one got flooding in their house." The systems the architects put in place appear to have performed the way they were designed to. They captured water and absorbed it as quickly as possible. While these master-planned communities received Harvey well, they are not the solution to Houston's flooding problem. Even if a single well-designed development manages to hold more floodwaters than before it was built, all the energy and infrastructure required to service it is not sustainable in terms of maintenance costs, carbon emissions or any other measures. Think of the billions of dollars spent on new and widened highways like the Grand Parkway. They are still suburbs and lack the diversity of uses, people and building types that make cities thrive over time. Neither the landscape architect, Asakura, nor the engineer, Bedient, expect Houston to be retrofitted along the lines of The Woodlands after decades of unconstrained development. But these case studies in sustainably designing Houston's native ecosystems is evidence that the city can do better. That we don't have to combat nature, but can design with nature. That we must do better for more than just the folks who can afford a quarter-acre plot of land in a refurbished prairie or the 385-acre ExxonMobil campus in former greenfields. With the stormwaters receded, it's time for those who can plan for reconstruction to do so immediately. My favorite issue of Cite was published in Fall 1997, when I was just 2 years old — Cite 39: Texas Places. The magazine opens with an interview of a personal hero of mine, Larry McMurtry, who is best known for his novel "Lonesome Dove," which, for so long, I read as a tragic romantic comedy about Texas' Wild West glory days. The interview reveals otherwise. McMurtry calls his work "a critique of ... the myth of the cowboy" and expansion to the West "a failure because of the destruction of the environment, the landscape and the indigenous population." In the myth's wake are ghost towns squelched of any optimism that settled the damned place. It is unsurprising that McMurtry sets many of his novels and movies in Houston. Like the western plains of Texas, Houston "never really has been controlled ... it's always been fairly wide open, filled with graft and corruption." Correlations between Houston's unconstrained development and that of the Wild West have been made for as long as it's been heralded as America's largest unzoned city. But this relationship is often used as justification for continued expansion. Our Manifest Destiny. For so many years, development patterns in Houston have approached nature as an adversary, laying ever more concrete and exploiting its flat surface, ever chasing the bottom line. Perhaps Harvey has exacted extreme enough damage for us to take what has worked in a few parks and neighborhoods here and there and scale up working with nature. Geneva Vest is a graduate of Rice University and a writer living in Chicago. This article originally appeared on OffCite, a publication of the Rice Design Alliance, a community engagement program of Rice Architecture. Bookmark Gray Matters. Everyone has an opinion.

A journalist, novelist and poet, Hungarian-born Canadian writer George Jonas was best known for his non-fiction book “Vengeance,” about five Israeli agents sent to hunt down and assassinate those responsible for the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The book served as the basis for two films, “Sword of Gideon” (1986), and Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” (2005). Jonas, who died Sunday at the age of 80, escaped his native Budapest in 1956 following the Hungarian Revolution. He made his way to Canada where he worked as a producer for three decades for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Interestingly, the biography on his official website makes no mention of his WWII experiences as a young boy. He did, however, work of them in his memoir, “Beethoven’s Mask,” in which he told of how he and his parents, Christian converts who were born to Jewish families, survived the Holocaust. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up While at CBC, he collaborated with famous defense lawyer Edward Greenspan on “Scales of Justice,” a program about famous crimes. Inspired by a 1970s murder case in which Greenspan defended Peter Demeter, who was accused of ordering a hit on his model wife Christine, Jonas wrote the bestseller “By Persons Unknown” together with his then-wife journalist Barbara Amiel. Arguably Jonas’s most famous work, “Vengeance” was controversial, with doubt cast on his single source, an Israeli agent named “Avner.” The Mossad would neither deny nor confirm the existence of this informant, and some claimed that “Avner” had no rank higher than an El Al baggage handler. “Jonas himself checked Avner’s story by using the methods employed by police in criminal investigations, visiting the scenes where the terrorists were killed, verifying the physical details given by his source, and so on. Avner’s account checked out well. Jonas concluded that Avner was telling the truth in general, even if some of his points were not confirmable. That is about as near to the truth as we are ever likely to get,” wrote the National Review on the matter. In more recent years, the witty and conservative (he preferred “classic liberal”) Jonas published columns on subjects such as law, war, politics, Islamism and multiculturalism in the right-leaning Canadian National Post. In its obituary for Jonas, the paper emphasized his ability to sum up deep ideas with pithy aphorisms. “Politicians who seek high office, for example, should be disqualified for being stupid enough to think they can do it. Crime is not wrong because it is illegal, it is illegal because it is wrong. Cold War Communists ‘could cope with bankruptcy; they had never been anything but bankrupt, beginning with Karl Marx himself.’ Freedom is too fragile to put into words, so ‘if you write down your rights and freedoms, you lose them,'” the National Post gave as examples. “His elegance had a magnificent compression to it,” said his conservative colleague Mark Steyn. Jonas was named to the Order of Canada in 2014. Canada’s Governor General called his writing “clever, unafraid and compelling.” Amiel, who was the second of Jonas’ three wives, insisted that they get married by a rabbi in a synagogue. The rabbi, the renowned late Gunther Plaut, was sure of Amiel’s Jewish heritage, but was dubious of Jonas’ Jewish identity, given that he had never set foot in a synagogue before. “Rabbi, if I was good enough for Hitler, I’m good enough for you,” Jonas told the rabbi. Although Jonas was Jewish, he was reportedly in denial of this to a certain degree for most of his life. He had been taught by his father back in Hungary to keep his religious identity hidden. Or as his father put it, to keep his penis in his pants.

Abraham Hollingsworth is one of five bike mechanics who help out at new community workshop Bike Space on Marion St. There is a new, bright blue shipping container in town with a unique aim: to get your bike working. Bike Space, a community workshop dedicated to demystifying bicycles, opened in Marion St on January 16. The goal is to empower people to develop the skills needed to maintain their bikes, therefore getting more people out riding them. SUPPLIED The space is equipped with tools and machines to help with bike problems such as recabling brakes, and adjusting gears and wheels. It houses bike tools and work stands and, when it is open, there is someone on hand to provide helpful tricks and tips. READ MORE: *Hopes to boost cycling with increased bike parking in central Wellington *Commuters can have it both ways with first bike racks added to buses in Wellington *Road to NZ's brave new cycling world will have plenty of bumps, so how will we do it? The workshop is a collaboration between Wellington City Council and bike repair workshop The Mechanical Tempest, which have partnered with local businesses and community members to keep costs down. Garage Project has provided discounted rent for the current location. The Mechanical Tempest member Arthur Price says the first week of operation was "really positive", with a lot of interest and people stopping to see what is going on. There are five mechanics who share the workload, with tools and machines to help with bike problems such as recabling brakes, as well as gear and wheel adjustments. The mechanics are there to give guidance and share advice, but the idea is for people to do the work on their own bikes, Price says. Mechanic Sylvie Froncek says it is about putting tools in peoples hands and sharing knowledge so others become confident fixing their own bikes and being out on the road. Workshop environments are traditionally male-dominated, she says, and she hopes to make this a "safe space" for women to feel empowered to use tools and be independent. Council transport choice coordinator Hugh Wilson says Bike Space came together quickly over the course of a few months. The space has a budget of $12,000 and Wilson says the council funded it as a way to encourage and support people to ride bikes as an affordable mode of transport and help reduce congestion and emissions in the city. The container is easily transportable on a truck, taking about five minutes to be placed in its current location, he says. They will soon begin to look for locations beyond March 23, when their current arrangement with Garage Project ends. Bike Space is open in Marion St from Tuesday till Saturday, 11am to 6pm, until March 23.

Today, bankers are rearranging their chess boards, trying to figure out which companies may want to make moves, and which ones might be ripe for the taking. That has kept the bankers in technology and health care busy. Some of the top companies on everyone’s watch list include Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Amgen, Apple, Cisco, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. Yet at the moment, the potential for tax reform in 2017 has led some companies to delay deal making, according to Marc Zenner, the co-head of J.P. Morgan’s corporate finance advisory team. Image Lawrence J. Ellision, chief executive of Oracle, at a hearing over his company’s takeover bid for PeopleSoft in 2004. Oracle used repatriated funds to buy PeopleSoft and another software provider, and then eliminated thousands of jobs, a congressional study found. Credit Paul Sakuma/Associated Press “What you’ve got right now is a fair bit of uncertainty about what the state of the world will be next year with taxes,” he said. “If you don’t have to do this deal right now, maybe you can wait until next year so you can finance optimally.” Still, some boards appear to believe they may get a better price if they sign a desired deal sooner rather than later. If tax rates decrease, a company’s profitability increases, making it a more expensive acquisition target. And, if all of the repatriating companies go after the same targets, that could drive up the price as well. “What people fear is that if everyone waits for clarity on timing and specific tax treatment, the markets could be a lot higher, purely as it relates to this influx of capital,” Peter A. Weinberg, founding partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, said. “Do you commit capital today with the risk of timing, or do you wait for certainty and risk paying more than you would today?” Mr. Weinberg said that if there were a significant reduction of the tax rate, companies would bring at least $1 trillion back, an amount large enough to affect the prices of equities and debt. Some companies may not be interested in deal making. Apple, which has the largest overseas cash load, is historically not a big acquirer; its largest purchase was its $3 billion deal for Beats Music and Beats Electronics in 2014. Microsoft, with the second-largest cash hoard, will most likely still be digesting its $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, announced in June.

4K MEDIA LICENSING DEALS BRING NEW Yu-Gi-Oh! COLLECTIBLES Funko and GameStop to Introduce More Yu-Gi-Oh! Branded Products Globally 4K Media Inc., the Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. subsidiary that manages the Yu-Gi-Oh! brand outside of Asia, today announced it has signed licensing agreements with both Funko, a purveyor of pop culture and licensed-focused collectibles, and GameStop, a global retailer of specialty brands and games. The two deals – negotiated and announced by Jennifer Coleman, Vice President of Licensing and Marketing at 4K Media – bring a new array of Yu-Gi-Oh! collectibles to the worldwide marketplace (outside of Asia). “We are elated to welcome both Funko and GameStop to the Yu-Gi-Oh! family. We are impressed with both companies’ creative designs for new and engaging collectibles encompassing so many of our central characters and monsters,” said Coleman. “Yu-Gi-Oh! fans around the globe eagerly await each new licensed product introduction, which not only keeps the brand fresh and front of mind, but also serves to invigorate demand for all things Yu-Gi-Oh!” Funko will be launching a line of stylized vinyl collectible figures and other related products focusing on the fans’ favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! characters and monsters. Funko CEO Brian Mariotti said, “We’re tremendously excited about Funko’s development of a Yu-Gi-Oh! collectibles line and are honored to be associated with a brand that continues to entertain and engage fans that span such a broad demographic around the world.” GameStop is also creating a distinctive line of 4-inch Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible figurines available to Yu-Gi-Oh! fans on its on its website(s) and in its stores, as well as in many of its partners’ stores around the world. “Yu-Gi-Oh! has had nice success as a trading card game, which makes the brand an ideal fit with GameStop, as one of the largest suppliers of the cards globally” added Alex Jones, Senior Manager of Licensed Products – International at GameStop. “Our loyal game playing customers will be thrilled with this new array of exclusive Yu-Gi-Oh! collectible characters we will be introducing to our stores.”

I love late night texts from exes. You know, the ones where they just want to see how you’ve been and what you’ve been up to. HI WHATS UP HAVEN’T TALKED TO YOU IN A WHILE HOW ARE YOU WHERE ARE YOU LETS GET BACK TOGETHER I MISS YOU SERIOUSLY WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?????? I am, from time to time, an ex-texter myself. But I do it gracefully. WHATEVERR JUST BECAUSE SHE CAN SPEAK 4 LANGUAGES DOESN"T MEAN SHE;s COOl. HAVE FUN WITH THAT I HEAR SHE HAS THE CLAP LOLZ. Okay so yes, that happened. Once. But I’ve learned. Here are a few things to remember when you feel the need to ex-text. 1) First and foremost, be sober. Please. This is great advice for driving, updating facebook, and answering your phone when your mom calls. It’s a given. 2) Don’t preface the text with some bullshit excuse for texting. So I need to get my copy of 8 ½ back because it’s a Criterion Collection and my sister gave it to me before she moved to Ohio and I’m really in the mood for a movie with subtitles to half-watch while making my Halloween costume. Who gives a shit? He knows you’re bullshitting and really just want to say “How’s it going?” So just say it, Susie Excuses. 3) Sober or not, no late night texts. Don’t. This screams: I’M ALONE IN BED RIGHT NOW WATCHING ROSEANNE ON NETFLIX. 4) If he texts you, don’t text back right that second. He needs to know that you’re out doing things and being awesome and not actually just staring at your phone constantly because all you do now is play Words With Friends while also doing the aforementioned activity in tip number 3. You’re a busy girl with numerous IRL friends and gentleman callers. Wait 4 hours to 4 days. You are the honey badger, and honey badger don’t care. 5) Always let him be the last to text. Don’t make it some long back-and-forth where you’re the last one to ask “So did your little sister’s dance recital go well? I still had it on my phone calendar. :P ” with no response from him. It’s the same advice I’d give you if you were high around a cop: Be Cool. In order to do this I would suggest trying to channel John Legend. Fucking King Of Cool. Come to think of it, this probably should have been tip numero uno because when you’re drunk you’re not going to listen to my bullshit advice anyway because he NEDS TO KNWO HOW U FEEEEEELLLLL DUH!!!! This list is going to have to stop at 5 because I’m starved and one of my MANY Smart Ones frozen dinners is calling my name. LISAAAAAA I’M ONLY 280 CALORIES BUT I STILL CONTAIN CHEEEEEEEEEESE. NUKE ME AND CONSUME ME, BITCH. It’s my own personal Call of the Wild.

Atlanta (CNN) My name is Lauren Lee. I'm an associate producer at CNN, and I have systemic lupus erythematosus. It's an autoimmune disease where the body's immune system becomes hyperactive and attacks healthy tissue. It can cause damage to many parts of body such as joints, skin, kidneys, heart, lungs, blood vessels and the brain. Lupus is one of the most complicated and cruelest autoimmune diseases. Simply put: It's difficult to diagnose, hard to live with and challenging to treat. If I could write a letter to lupus, I would say "I want me back, I've had enough." As a junior at Kent State University, I felt like I was on top of the world. I went to a great school, I was doing exactly what I love (journalism), and then on September 11, 2001, I began to get unexplained illnesses one after another. Eventually, I landed in a hospital bed with an IV pumping a cocktail of drugs meant to cure "a series of infections" ravaging my body. When I finally felt reasonable enough to go to class, I couldn't remember things. My essays, as one professor told me, suddenly "read like ramblings." I wasn't me. In April of 2014 Lauren Lee spent time in the hospital getting infusions to help deal with a flare up of Lupus. A flare is a period of heightened disease activity. That semester, I ended up taking incompletes in all of my classes. My doctors and professors declared I was overwhelmed with catching up in my classes and the anxiety of it all consumed me. Little did I know that it would be a decade later before I would officially find out it was really systemic lupus erythematosus. My diagnosis came as I was entering what I considered the magical part of my life. I had married, had a beautiful daughter and was working my dream job (CNN) and finally felt like I was walking in my purpose. Abnormal levels of waste can build up in the blood, and edema is often the first sign of lupus nephritis. I began to have horrific migraines, excruciating nerve pain down my left arm, and bruises and rashes started to appear more and more often. Initially, I thought I was just tired and it was the allergies and the bruises. I simply attributed it to being anemic. This was until my esophagus began to feel as if it was closing up. I went to a physician, and he said I had a tumor on the shoulder and that must be causing everything I was feeling. When I went to the surgical oncologist, she said "it's not cancer" and referred me to an amazing internist. I had already gone through the gamut of diagnoses: leukemia, thoracic outlet syndrome, sarcoidosis. I was completely over the diagnosis portion of the process. My life had become work, bed and repeat. They ran multiple tests. I remember the appointment like it was yesterday. When I came back in for my follow-up, I was told I had lupus. A disease that has no cure. To me, that diagnosis was not a death sentence, but a sentence to feel the way that I felt at the moment for the rest of my life. I felt pain, I felt exhausted and I was not me. Having lupus has been like having a horrific hangover while doing two-a-day workouts -- #exhausting. No one knows what is wrong unless you tell them. There is no escaping the pain, and the only way out is to sleep or die. I've felt like lupus at times has sucked the life out of me. It's shifted my priorities, taken away many of the things I love because I'm stuck in a holding pattern just treating the symptoms. Never being cured. Fighting this disease has been no easy ride. The disease has affected my brain, GI system, lungs and heart. I take twelve medications to get through the day. Those drugs include chemotherapy, an antimalarial, a beta-blocker, an anticonvulsant, chemotherapy and a monthly infusion of a biological drug. Only one of these drugs is specifically meant to treat lupus. When people see me, they always say, "You don't look sick." This has sort of been a gift and a curse for me. On one hand, I didn't want people to look at me as if I had a disability. On the other, I wanted people to know what I've been able to accomplish in spite of the disease. It's an invisible fight for me, but now is my time to make some noise so we can find a cure. If no one is aware of my struggle, we can't get there. I want me back, and I've realized that every breath I take is blessed with a responsibility. A responsibility to raise awareness about life with lupus and the need for a cure. Every day, this is what keeps me going. JUST WATCHED Nick Cannon takes on lupus Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Nick Cannon takes on lupus 01:53 Lupus is one of America's least recognized major diseases, although 1.5 million Americans are living with it. Research is not keeping pace with the research for other diseases of similar scope and devastation. A study conducted by the Lupus Foundation of America found 72% of Americans from 18 to 34 (those most at risk for lupus) have either not heard about lupus or know nothing more than the name. In the past century, only one drug has been developed and approved to treat the disease. With the ebbs and flows of the economy, this disease has taken the backseat to research investment priorities.

There’s hardly a week that goes by without Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, saying something offensive and incendiary; whether it’s giving bad marital advice through his latest book, trashing his definition of “effeminate” worship leaders, or demonizing sex and sexuality by associating pornography with Ted Bundy, this guy tops my Official Douchecanoe List. He delivered again this week, when an ex-member of Mars Hill tentatively shared the horrifying story of his brutal excommunication from the church. To be fair, Driscoll himself was not the perpetrator of this particular injustice, but I cry foul on the leader of any organization who would choose to represent itself by such principles. Part of the reason that Christianity can be so divisive is the belief that, as a Christian, fellow church-goers are appropriate partners and friends, while you are to distance yourself from non-Christians so as to not “fall into temptation.” As I’ve written before, my own youth group (and my husband’s, too, in a completely separate church three hours away) illustrated this by having a kid stand on a chair and then seeing if it was easier to be pulled down from the chair or to pull another person up. This was supposed to show us the danger of consorting with non-believers, and the potential for us to be dragged downward into their life of sin. I wish I was joking. For this reason, many sects of Christianity are incredibly insular, placing enormous pressure on the believers to stay within the church network, and punishing those who dare to stray. Of course, this also means that removing or being removed from that network can have devastating effects on human lives, as an individual may find themselves literally alone, abandoned by the very people they loved, respected, and spent years developing relationships with. So it is with Andrew, who made a major mistake by physically fooling around on his fiancé. He felt awful about the situation, confessed to his fiancé (the daughter of one of the church’s elders), and when that failed to resolve the hurt, confessed to an acquaintance, part of a small group at Mars Hill in which he was involved. They called him a “predator.” Why? “Because Pastor Mark teaches that women are “weaker vessels,” and therefore, when a girl and boy engage in consensual sexual activity, it is always assumed that it’s the man’s fault because he failed to lead the woman (or “weaker vessel”) toward righteousness.” The church began a grisly process of ostracizing the guy, forcing him to go to meeting after meeting with church leaders, forcing him to confess the minutiae of his “sexual sin” –- including any physical parts of his relationship with his fiancé –- and pressured him into signing a “Church Discipline Contract”: Disciplinary procedures are quite common for church leaders –- pastors, elders, and deacons, but this is the first I’ve heard of such an extensive, invasive, and ugly method for church attendees. And it just gets worse. After being emotionally manipulated and abused by the very group members he was supposed to trust, Andrew came to the painful conclusion that he could no longer continue attending Mars Hill. He sent them this email, explaining why he would forego signing the disciplinary contract: “After extensive prayer and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that Mars Hill is not the place that God has for me to be right now. Therefore, I respectfully decline your help in this next stage of my life. I will not be returning to [name of community group leader’s] CG, and will not be attending Mars Hill anymore. Thank you for your continued prayers.” In the most respectful way possible, Andrew removed himself from a destructive, abusive environment. In response, group leaders informed him that they would have to “escalate” the church’s disciplinary proceedings, in essence saying, “wait, we’re not through punishing you yet!” The email that Andrew received in response said this: “If this is your final decision, you will also need to know this will not be our final communication as this is not an instance where you can walk away from the mess you have helped create and leave many issues unaddressed.” In a disgusting turn, their apparent idea of further communication consisted of a back-biting document posted to The City — what Andrew describes as the “Facebook for Mars Hill members.” However, his login information had been blacklisted from The City, and he only discovered the letter after a friend from Mars Hill had informed him. How’s that for Christian love? And you can probably just imagine, if believers and church members are treated with this sort of bullying and manipulation, what they think of us atheists. Andrew, I’m glad you’re out of that toxic environment. You deserve much, much better. We all do.

Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and they will type the works of Shakespeare. Give 100,000 monkeys a single Game Boy running Pokemon Red and what you have is a brilliant social experiment. Twitch Plays Pokemon " uses Twitch.tv to live stream an emulated version of Pokemon Red that is played by translating messages sent in Twitch's chat system to commands on the virtual Game Boy. Post "left" to the chat, and 20 to 40 seconds later (due to the lag) the player moves left. Likewise with other commands. What's incredible is that after tens of thousands of players have sent thousands of messages every minute to the game, they have made significant headway: battles won, gym badges awarded, and Pokemon trained. Even in this seemingly chaotic frenzy, progress is made, albeit slowly. The game is riddled with complex mazes and puzzles the player must overcome. These areas are being conquered, but at an infuriatingly inefficient pace. Hours are spent walking into walls, using incorrect tools, and even throwing away useful items. One step forward, a hundred steps back. A more decisive way of sending commands was necessary to make gameplay more meaningful, so five days into this experiment a new mode was added: anarchy and democracy. Twitch viewers can vote for their preferred mode by posting "anarchy" or "democracy" to the chat. In anarchy mode the game proceeds as usual by accepting every command, but when players vote in democracy mode, the rules change. The system tallies up the requests, and after a 20-second interval, the command with the most votes gets executed. In this mode, players can also stack moves into a single command, such as "left2down3." Gameplay slows to a crawl when the player only moves every 20 seconds, but meaningful progress can be made. The pattern of these modes being voted in is predictable. During normal gameplay, anarchy is the top choice because of the fast-paced, entertaining gameplay. But during complex puzzle sequences and important battles, the chat calls for "democracy! democracy! democracy!" Interestingly, without a central figurehead dictating decisions like this, a majority of the players agree to collaborate to reach a certain goal. Not everyone is keen on Twitch Plays Pokemon being a democratic system, though. Pro-"anarchy" players submit "start9" to the messaging system to protest this new mode. Start9, if executed, calls the start menu nine times, effectively bringing the game to a halt in a beautifully simple, passive, and powerful protest. Twitch Plays Pokemon is built on an unsophisticated mechanism. Players submit a move that is then executed on screen. Zoom out, however, and we can observe some interesting things. Playing in "anarchy" mode makes for a fast-paced and fun experience, though players make very little progress. Democracy mode is dull and predictable, and while progress is made, it’s slow coming. There is a deep trade-off here. As I watched, it was truly astounding when players made progress in anarchy mode. Players celebrated every achievement because the odds were so out of favor. When voting took place, I lost interest because my suggestions felt irrelevant. If I thought we should move up and not left, I was out of luck if outvoted. The game slowed to a crawl and I suddenly had less say. No one gave up in anarchy mode. There was always a beacon of hope that even though we were walking into walls, we would prevail. And eventually, we did. Everyone acting in their own interests, even if that interest was derailing the game, worked. While Twitch Plays Pokemon is a fascinating social experiment, players have no skin in the game. Other than some wasted time watching the stream (and inevitably explaining it to friends and coworkers), voting at the control is costless. But what if five moves cost a dollar? Would anarchy mode be more structured and deliberate, with less throwing of random moves in place? Perhaps, but 70,000 people wouldn’t tune in to take part. The trolls, for example, might not be as willing to spend their hard-earned bones to derail the game. Save for needing a free Twitch account, any viewer can contribute without system-imposed alienation. Still, this experiment can be better. The 30-second delay between submitting a move and its execution is due to technological limitations, meaning, consequently, your appropriate “left” may not be useful 30 seconds from now. Without that delay, moving through the game may be more effective. Players have already self-started communities to discuss strategy and gameplay. These communities are free and open, sans figurehead.

Betty Jane "Moe" Moczynski played for the Rockford Peaches All American Girls baseball team in 1943. (Photo: Doreen Davidson) Betty Jane “Moe” Moczynski, one of the original players in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in the 1940s, has died in New Berlin at age 91. In 1943, the Milwaukee native joined the league, which was created out of fear that World War II would interrupt Major League Baseball. She played one season for the Rockford Peaches, based in Rockford, Ill., and then went to the Chicago Bluebirds, in the National Girls Baseball League, where she played until 1947. The Rockford Peaches were the inspiration for the movie “A League of Their Own,” which starred Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna and Tom Hanks, who shouted the famous line, “There’s no crying in baseball!” Moczynski, who died Wednesday, was a catcher and an outfielder. In her rookie year with the Rockford Peaches, she drove in five runs in one game, one short of the record that year, said her niece, Doreen Davidson. "She said the movie was pretty close to what really happened. The players had to go to etiquette classes, and they had to wear those skirts which made it no fun sliding into base," Davidson said. “When the movie came out, (in 1992) she really started talking about her time in the All American Girls league. From that point on she was a celebrity,” said Jeff Cwiklinski of Milwaukee. Moczynksi was best friend and companion of Cwiklinski’s great-aunt, Christina Stroik, who died in 2010 at age 82. In addition to being a talented athlete, who went on to coach softball teams for many years, Moczynski is remembered as someone who inspired people to take chances and try new things. “She was fearless, strong, determined and very funny. She always encouraged me to go after anything I wanted to achieve,” said Jennifer Cwiklinski, Jeff’s sister. “She was very encouraging to me as a young woman,” Jennifer added. NEWSLETTERS Get the NewsWatch Delivered newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Todays top news delivered to your inbox Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-844-900-7103. Delivery: Mon - Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for NewsWatch Delivered Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Moczynski worked nearly 40 years at the former Delphi Automotive plant in Oak Creek, where she was a plant supervisor. She was a Milwaukee Brewers fan, a Packers fan and she loved animals. “She had quite a life after baseball,” Jeff Cwiklinski said. In May 2003, she was inducted into Miller Park’s Wall of Fame along with Carl Long and Jim Robinson of the Negro League, and Mary Froning-O’Meara, also of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. “She gave a wonderful speech that day,” Jeff Cwiklinski recalled. She’s remembered for having a great sense of humor. “She used to do silly things once in a while and would then laugh at herself. That’s what I learned from her, that it was OK to mess up sometimes and laugh about it,” said Debbie Yanke, a niece of Christina Stroik. “She was also a very sensitive person who always wanted to do something nice for other people. That’s how I will always remember her,” Yanke said. ARCHIVE: Re-enacting a league of their own For the last seven years, Moczynski lived at LindenGrove Communities home in New Berlin, where more than a few residents had her 1943 Rockford Peaches baseball card. “When she talked about baseball, she smiled a lot,” said Mary Murphy, a LindenGrove supervisor. "She was very pleasant, quiet, and I think what really made her happy toward the end of her life was sharing a room with her sister. I think that made both of them very happy," Murphy said. Moczynski is survived by relatives and friends. Betty Jane “Moe” Moczynski Funeral services will be held 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Bruskiewitz Funeral Home at 5355 W. Forest Home Ave, with a visitation from noon until the time of the service. There will be a private entombment at St. Adalbert Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials to the Wisconsin Humane Society are suggested. Read or Share this story: https://jsonl.in/2wWcEpe

Those who hate to switch to data while taking a cab can now connect to free Wi-Fi in Vancouver. Telus has joined forces with Yellow Cab to provide users with free Wi-Fi in its Vancouver fleet. This will be the first time free Wi-Fi has been offered in taxis anywhere in Canada. “There’s no doubt about it, Vancouverites love to stay connected,” said Anee-Marie LaBerge, Telus vice president, brand and marketing communications. “Whether people are jumping in a taxi for a quick trip or a long ride, it’s the perfect time to catch up on email, post a selfie, stream some new music or video conference with a friend. Vancouver is Telus’ hometown and we believe that offering free Wi-Fi in taxis is a great way to offer added value to our customers and neighbours.” In the coming weeks, Yellow Cab’s 350 taxis will start offering the free Wi-Fi, which will be providers to users regardless of who their mobile or Internet providers are.

sorry mania i stole your formatting osu!catch super gimmick mapping contest Introduction / Rules Have you ever wanted to map something or seen maps bend the rules to the utmost to where the most creative minds of CTB could be displayed? Today, I'll be announcing the arena where the top talents of CTB mapping will battle it out to create the ultimate map. A map which has nothing to hold it back from being everything it can be. If you're a fan of crazy maps like jujutsushi, brynhildr, or any other maps that masterfully break the rules, then this will be a sight to behold. We don't have as many methods as the other modes to do something as gimmicky as they can, but let's see how this goes :^) The rules are simple. Submission Rules You will have only a month to map the song which is handed out. You can ONLY use this song and ONLY the .osz which is given to you by this contest. You're only allowed to submit the .osz with the background provided by the staff. This is to prevent judges from identifying you by your love live background. The map can only be a Catch the Beat osu!catch difficulty. This means that the map can NOT be a standard convert. The map must be passable. Any map that creates a scenario which instantly fails the user or crashes the game client will be instantly disqualified. Nothing NSFW can be used at all. The difficulty MUST be named [osu!catch > CTB]. Judging Rules Only the gameplay can be taken into account. Something with a god tier storyboard but only 1 circle should NOT be acceptable. You are not allowed to submit anything of your own as a judge, or collaborate with any participant of this competition in ANY way. Your judgement must be fair in a way that does not prioritize maps of a certain style over others. This is a contest of creativity, not a contest of who can appeal to your BN ranking criteria the most (nub afb). Beyond these rules anything goes. You can edit the .osu in any way you want past what is not allowed above. Be sure your map is submitted in .osz form to whoever is selected to pass the difficulties to judges. Have you ever wanted to map something or seen maps bend the rules to the utmost to where the most creative minds of CTB could be displayed? Today, I'll be announcing the arena where the top talents of CTB mapping will battle it out to create the ultimate map. A map which has nothing to hold it back from being everything it can be. If you're a fan of crazy maps like jujutsushi, brynhildr, or any other maps that masterfully break the rules, then this will be a sight to behold. We don't have as many methods as the other modes to do something as gimmicky as they can, but let's see how this goes :^)The rules are simple.Beyond these rules anything goes. You can edit the .osu in any way you want past what is not allowed above. Be sure your map is submitted in .osz form to whoever is selected to pass the difficulties to judges. Judging Criteria Creativity (25 points) - Is the map creative? Does it use the same patterns over and over again? Flow / Structure (15 points) - Does the map have some kind of structure to it? Is it just a constant back and forth 1/16 hyperspam map with no flow or direction? Technical Skill (10 points) - does the mapper utilize a style that makes the map not only creative, but challenging and fun to play? Judge's Impression (10 points) - The judge's own feeling about the map itself outside of the above criteria Bonus points (5 points) - was it hitsounded in a way that amplified the map (2 points)? Did the mapper follow the basic submission rules (please guys 1 point)? Did the difficulty settings make sense? Or were they all raised to AR10 CS7 because the mapper is a douche (2 points)? Total Points: 65 The points will be added up for a total of the combined judges scores to get your final score. The points will be added up for a total of the combined judges scores to get your final score. Prizes To be announced. I'll be looking for official sponsorship from staff about this competition, but anyone who wants to donate supporter to this will have my thanks! Schedule Preliminary Voting Stage: June 12 - June 25 .osz distribution (in this thread!): June 26 Mapping Phase: June 26 - July 31 Current Stage! Judging Phase / Prize Distribution: July 31 - August 7 Staff If you'd like to be a judge, please contact me directly. Please note I will likely reject anyone who I do not find to be experienced / mature enough to handle it. Organizer: Ascendance Judges: - Magic Bomb - Riari koliron If you'd like to be a judge, please contact me directly. Please note I will likely reject anyone who I do not find to be experienced / mature enough to handle it. Thanks to everyone, let's see how this goes

We're excited to be sharing a new bitcoin payment integration from our friends at Vodi, a mobile international messaging app available for download on Android and iOS devices. Vodi is taking advantage of the growth in mobile messaging in some exciting ways. In addition to offering free text messaging and phone and video calls, Vodi allows users to make airtime top-up payments to more than 390 mobile phone service providers in 135 countries. These airtime top-up payments can also be made as gifts to other Vodi users, opening up a convenient way for families and friends in different countries to transfer credit back and forth. Vodi also offers digital gift cards which can be redeemed at checkout through the app. Their eGift Card selection includes more than 90 offerings from brands in the United States and Mexico (with more countries to come), including Hotels.com, American Airlines, Regal Entertainment Group, and CVS Pharmacy. Headed to the store and want to get a digital gift card to pay? You can get a digital gift card in seconds with a bitcoin payment in the Vodi app. And since Vodi is using BitPay to accept payments, you can use any bitcoin wallet to pay. Mobile payments are an exciting use case for bitcoin, and gift card and top-up payments have proven to be especially popular with international bitcoin users. We're excited to continue to work with the Vodi team to explore new opportunities for bitcoin in the mobile messaging world. Want to get started with using Vodi? Download it for iOS or get it on your Android phone. Learn more about accepting bitcoin in your mobile app at https://bitpay.com/mobile.

Flyweight Ian McCall has been forced to withdraw from next month’s UFC Fight Night 37 event, and promotion officials are currently seeking a replacement opponent for Brad Pickett. UFC President Dana White revealed the change at a media luncheon in Las Vegas, which MMAjunkie attended. Featuring a light heavyweight matchup between Alexander Gustafsson and undefeated striking specialist Jimi Manuwa, UFC Fight Night 37 takes place March 8 at London’s O2 Arena. The entire 10-fight event streams on UFC Fight Pass in the U.S. Pickett, who’s won four “Fight of the Night” bonuses in six UFC fights, is currently ranked No. 5 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings. However, with losses to contenders such as Michael McDonald and Eddie Wineland during his current 3-2 run, the 35-year-old Englishman is looking to make his flyweight debut. Meanwhile, the 29-year-old McCall recently halted a three-fight winless streak (a draw and loss to Demetrious Johnson, as well as a defeat to Joseph Benavidez) with a unanimous-decision win over Iliarde Santos in August. “Uncle Creepy” picked up a “Fight of the Night” bonus for the effort. However, he’s now pulled out of two consecutive bouts after being forced to withdraw from a planned matchup with Scott Jorgensen that was slated to take place at December’s UFC on FOX 9 event. For more on UFC Fight Night 37, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site. (Pictured: Ian McCall)

STAR Melbourne recruit Chris Dawes says the maligned Demons' recent form has convinced him he made the right move in leaving Collingwood. Dawes has been forced to sit out the first six rounds of the AFL season due to a hamstring strain but will make his debut against Gold Coast at the MCG on Sunday. "It's been frustrating not being able to actually be out there on the field playing my part, particularly those first few rounds when we had patches through games when we were uncompetitive," Dawes said on Thursday. "But I look at the turnaround in effort consistently across the board just in the last three or four weeks of footy. "That if anything re-affirms my confidence that I have made the right decision coming to a team that's improving and that wants to improve." And he is convinced Melbourne is on an upward, if slow, trajectory. "I think you're going to see - even if there's the odd hiccup every now and then - constant improvement," Dawes said. Trengove out, Jones to lead Demons He said he was intent on making a difference to the side, both on the scoreboard and in terms of leadership. "I won't just be planning on getting through, I'll be bringing a lot of effort and leadership to that forward line. "I'll tie up one of their big-bodied defenders and hopefully have a bit of a physical presence myself," Dawes said. "Against Carlton (last week) I thought we were really competitive and made life difficult for them, trying to rebound from their 50 (metres). "Part of the leadership I'll bring to that forward line will be driving that real defensive pressure and making it as difficult as we can." Dawes was finally let off the leash two weeks ago when he played the first of two games for Melbourne's VFL affiliate Casey and his four goals in the second hit-out sealed his AFL selection.

Monero is a leading cryptocurrency with focuses on privacy and decentralization. Though it has a publicly-verifiable blockchain, it protects the safety and security of the sender and recipient by obscuring information stored on it. Monero is different than Bitcoin and even other privacy-focused coins since every transaction is always private. An optional sharing of information is done off-chain. During this meeting, we will discuss the technologies behind Monero, their impact, and future improvements. Monero is a completely open-source and decentralized project that works to empower individual with powerful tools to protect their privacy. Justin Ehrenhofer has been an active Monero contributor for more than two years. He has spoken about Monero at dozens of groups throughout Europe and the United States. He heads the Monero community workgroup, which includes biweekly community meetings, monthly coffee chats, and distribution of the Monero Meetup Kits (Free Swag!!). Justin is a junior at the University of Minnesota, and he is the co-president of Crypto@UMN. NOTE: Lunch will be sponsored by Dave Kruse, Co-founder of Augment (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekruse/). Please contact Sid Ramesh ([masked]) or Eric Orthey ([masked]) by Thursday, Dec 7 if you have any dietary restrictions. Agenda: 12-12:15 - Welcoming Remarks and Lunch 12:15-1:15 - Presentation by Justin 1:15-1:30 - Q&A and Networking

NSA director says British intelligence was not asked to spy on Trump British intelligence officials were formally exonerated on Monday by the director of the US National Security Agency from an extraordinary accusation of improper surveillance of Donald Trump. Russia hearing live: FBI director Comey says no information to confirm Trump's wiretap claims Read more The NSA director, Michael Rogers, made clear that it would have been a violation of US law to ask the British to conduct such an operation. Asked at the first public hearing into Trump’s ties to Russia whether he, or anyone else, had asked GCHQ to spy on Trump or his allies, Rogers replied: “No, sir, nor would I.” GCHQ took rare public exception last week when the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, cited a Fox News report that implied Barack Obama’s administration had asked the UK to conduct surveillance on Trump. GCHQ, which typically does not comment on news reports, called the accusation “nonsense”, “utterly ridiculous” and an assertion that ought to be “ignored”. Rogers, his voice passionate, said that using GCHQ to effectively launder illegal surveillance on Americans would be “against the Five Eyes concept”. Five Eyes is the surveillance alliance between the US, UK, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, which include widespread intelligence sharing and mutual development of surveillance tools. GCHQ in particular is the closest intelligence partner the NSA possesses. NSA and GCHQ personnel share code, and, in several locations, physically work side by side. Their intimate nature was underscored by Rogers’ deputy, Rick Ledgett, telling the BBC that the accusation showed an ignorance of the GCHQ-NSA partnership. “Of course they wouldn’t do it. It would be epically stupid,” Ledgett said. Spicer recycled the GCHQ allegation, made by a Fox News pundit, in order to defend Trump’s 4 March accusation, made on Twitter, that Obama placed Trump’s associates under surveillance at Trump Tower. Obama has unequivocally denied the accusation, which, if proven, would mean that he had committed a felony. The FBI director, James Comey, on Monday publicly called the accusation groundless, the first time he has commented on the explosive accusation. Comey joined the Republican and Democratic leadership of the intelligence committees in finding no basis for Trump’s incendiary claim. Yet Trump has still not backed away from the accusation of GCHQ surveillance on him, even after GCHQ expressed its anger. Trump, in a White House press conference meeting last week with Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, said he was merely citing Fox News. Trump joked that he and Merkel, whom the NSA had indeed spied upon, had something in common. That remark prompted Sir Peter Westmacott, former British ambassador to Washington, to accuse Trump of “peddling falsehoods”. “This is a dangerous game,” Westmacott wrote in the Guardian. “The intelligence relationship between Britain and America is unique and precious. It is critical to our shared efforts to counter terrorism.” Asked by the House intelligence committee whether the false assertions might damage the intelligence-sharing relationship, Rogers, the NSA chief said: “It clearly frustrates allies of ours.”

Some things about street parking in downtown Houston are unlikely to change: It will always require a keen eye for available spots and the courage and skill to wedge your car between large trucks. A paper receipt, however, is becoming unnecessary as the city replaces its parking meters with newer models that give drivers more options and can even send a text message alerting them that their time is about to expire. Rather than place a receipt on the dashboard indicating payment, those parking downtown can now input their license plate number when paying by cash or credit card. The machine relays the list of paid vehicles to parking enforcement officers, who simply verify the vehicle is accounted for. If drivers prefer, they can get a paper receipt for the dashboard as before. "Hopefully it is easier on our customers and it is easier on us," said Maria Irshad, who oversees ParkHouston, the parking division within the city's Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department. The first 276 meters have been installed in northern parts of downtown, primarily around the county courthouse. Parking rules have not changed, and the new meters, like the old ones, require that a button be pushed to activate them. Over the next five years, 1,054 meters - some dating to 2006 - will be replaced. The city is spending about $10 million on the new meters, which essentially pay for themselves via parking fees. Downtown visitors Tuesday said the new meters made paying for parking easier, even if finding a spot can be a challenge. "I kinda like it," said Tyra Brown, 41. "It's better than the other ones and you don't need to get a receipt." Visiting a county court to give a friend a ride, Bobby Doll, 26, said the new meters were easier to use. Step-by-step directions made it virtually automatic, he said. "You just go through the steps," Doll said. The meters being replaced were a vast improvement over old-style machines that required coins, but they also had some problems. Powered by a solar panel atop the kiosk, some of the meters had trouble staying on during "the four months without sunshine" in Houston, said Lara Cottingham, deputy assistant director in the regulatory affairs department. Paper jam People also left cups and other litter on top of the panel, disabling it, said Jerry Keeth, division manager for meter operations for ParkHouston. Paper receipts became a major hassle. Humidity and heavy rain gummed up the slot where the machine spits out the receipts. The paper jams led to broken meters and frustrated drivers. "I've tried to park downtown and both machines on the block would be broken," Roger Reese said. Irshad said the new meters were designed with a sensor to alert ParkHouston when the paper dispenser jams, which also shuts down the meter so someone doesn't inadvertently pay and not receive a receipt. Eventually, parking officials hope fewer and fewer receipts are needed. "Definitely the future of parking is your cell phone," Irshad said. Houston is not alone in moving toward cell phone payments or identifying cars by plate number, though it is a relatively early adopter of the technologies. Nearly every major city in the country has moved to parking that allows for paying by credit card, though others have stuck with small parking meters as opposed to a kiosk system. Miami and Washington, D.C., have had success in moving customers to pay-by-phone, with about 45 percent of parking revenue in Washington coming from phone payments as opposed to paying at the meter, according to the International Parking Institute. Dwindling space About 9 percent of people parking in Houston pay with ParkMobile, a smartphone app connected to the city's meters, Irshad said. A driver simply registers a vehicle, punches in the five-digit location shown on the sides of parking meters, and pays via PayPal or credit card. The app also sends warnings and allows someone to add more time to the meter remotely, provided they have not used all of the three-hour limit that applies in some places. Use of the app is especially high in areas close to college campuses, Irshad said. A 35-cent transaction fee is added with the smartphone app and pay-by-text from the meter. Booming downtown development is reducing parking space. As of 2013, the downtown area had more than 100,000 parking spaces spread across roughly 68 parking garages and 82 surface lots, along with on-street parking controlled by the city. The number has decreased as surface lots were cleared to make way for new office and residential projects. Some upcoming projects, however, include more parking, notably around the George R. Brown Convention Center where new hotels are under construction. As downtown continues to develop, reducing the need to use cars for trips within the urban core will become more important, said Bob Eury, Downtown Houston Management District executive director. Officials recently announced that the free GreenLink shuttle service will be expanded to operate a nighttime route starting next month so people can park once and explore more of downtown. On-street parking will still play a vital role, officials said, especially for quick trips. "The three hour limit is not changing," Irshad said. "If you're going to be downtown more than three hours your best bet is a garage."

The documentary also alleges that, years before her role on 'Homeland,' actress Nazanin Boniadi was set up as Cruise's girlfriend. Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, based on Lawrence Wright’s book of the same name, premiered to a packed house at Sundance on Sunday afternoon. The Church of Scientology has denounced Gibney’s documentary in ads in The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, as well as a promoted tweet, saying the film relies on discredited sources and implying that it is comparable to Rolling Stone’s discredited University of Virginia rape story. Below are five takeaways from the Sundance screening. 1. The Church of Scientology allegedly wiretapped Nicole Kidman’s phone. According to the film, Scientology was not keen on Tom Cruise's marriage with Nicole Kidman because her father was a psychologist, making him an enemy in the church’s view. During the marriage, Cruise distanced himself from the church, particularly when the couple moved to England to shoot Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. In its effort to bring Cruise back into the fold, the church made efforts to undermine the relationship and, at Cruise’s request, allegedly hired a private investigator to tap Kidman’s phones. The church also worked to turn the couple’s son and daughter against Kidman, convincing them that she was a “suppressive person.” 2. Years before her role on Homeland, actress Nazanin Boniadi was set up as Cruise's girlfriend. The documentary details how, after Cruise’s marriage to Kidman was destroyed, the church went about to find the actor a girlfriend, alighting on a Scientologist field worker named Nazanin Boniadi. Boniadi was given a make-over – her teeth fixed, wardrobe from shops such as Burberry – for what she was told was her being elevated to work on a world stage with world figures. But it was all prep for her to meet and then date Cruise. But it didn't last. During a visit by Miscavige to one of Cruise’s mansions, the actor didn't think Boniadi paid enough respect to the leader and cut the relationship short. Boniadi then made the mistake to tell her heartache woes to colleague, who reported them to higher ups. Boniadi was punished by being forced to do menial tasks, including cleaning toilets with a toothbrush. All details are omitted from Boniadi’s IMDB profile. Boniadi left the church and became an actress. She landed on General Hospital, did a stint on How I Met Your Mother, and as the doc points out, was a key supporting player on Homeland. 3. The film suggests the church ensured John Travolta’s loyalty because it was prepared to use information gained through supposedly confidential auditing sessions to undermine him or any other member who publicly split from the organization. While the film does not explicitly state what material in Travolta’s files would have been used, it raises an implication with a shot of the cover of a tabloid newspaper purporting to reveal that Travolta is gay. 4. A former top Scientology official describes church leader David Miscavige as privately mocking Tom Cruise for his "perverted" sex life — but doesn’t elaborate. Several former officials describe Miscavige’s rise as church founder L. Ron Hubbard’s successor, and the film features abundant footage of him addressing the faithful at church gatherings. One striking example is Miscavige’s dramatic declaration of victory in Scientology’s battle with the IRS for nonprofit status, complete with a pyrotechnic display. Former church officials including Mike Rinder and Tom DeVocht then offer allegations of Miscavige’s increasing paranoia and abusiveness, recounting stories of beatings at his hands. They also describe their experiences in “The Hole,” a prison-like facility on the church’s property near the California town of Hemet, and tell how Miscavige forced them to play a crazed game of musical chairs to the tune of Queen’s "Bohemian Rhapsody." Losers were supposed to be expelled from the church, but the former members say they were so brainwashed that they fought to remain despite the abuse. Miscavige relented and let them stay. 5. The doc dramatizes how Hubbard falsely portrayed himself as a war hero to woo his second wife, Sara Hollister. But via narration of her writings, the doc shows that Hubbard abused Hollister, smacking her with the butt of a gun when he saw her sleeping with a smile on her face because he believed she was dreaming of someone else. With their marriage in trouble, Hubbard fled to Cuba with their baby daughter Alexis. He would call Hollister and announce that he had killed their daughter and chopped her into pieces, blaming Hollister for his actions. Hubbard would call later telling her the child was alive. Finally Hollister managed to flee the marriage, though Hubbard left her penniless. 6. Hubbard believed in a world much like an idealized version of 1950s America that existed millions of years ago, even with cars of the same appearance in the streets, until overpopulation led the galactic warlord Xenu to gather up souls, freeze them, send them in planes to be dropped into volcanoes on Earth and then had them blown up with hydrogen bombs, releasing their spirits into the environment and setting the stage for the evils that plague the world today.

Most VR games on Steam Greenlight are usually some sort of shovelware scam that are thrown together with little to no effort put in them. To my surprise though, developer Nordic Trolls put some time into their VR game Karnage Chronicles and posted the project to Greenlight. The upcoming VR game set for Q1 2017 is currently seeking votes on Steam Greenlight. The video for the game Karnage Chronicles is little more than a teaser trailer, but it’s all in-game footage. This means that the game is actually playable in the state that it’s currently in (despite that the devs are still fixing some things), and the video also tells us that the co-op mode is actually functional instead of the devs just saying that it’s in the game — as seen in the image below. The game is said by the devs to be a linear adventure game, but at the same time they did note that they want some aspects of exploration and secrets to be in the game. In other words, the indie devs don’t want to bite off more than they can chew and want to make a game that can be completed, but provide some substance (secrets and exploration) for VR goers to enjoy. The description for Karnage Chronicles can be read below. “What path would you choose when your world is threatened by horrors unseen and forces so strong they can manipulate Magic itself? Wield blade, bow, or the primal elements and journey through snowy mountains, enchanted caverns, and abandoned fortresses to defeat the growing army of the Shroud.“ Furthermore, Karnage Chronicles is said to be an action-heavy, co-op RPG title for VR fans. Although the devs claim that there are more enemies and weapons that will cross your path, the devs at least had the audacity to whip up some concept art to show curious gamers what other stuff is currently in the works for the game, which is visible for you to look over. You can check out the new teaser trailer for Karnage Chronicles, courtesy of Nordic Trolls channel. For Greenlight VR standards, this game blows a lot of other entries on the platform out of the water. Lastly, the game will feature 1-4 player co-op, online multiplayer, and four classes to pick from. For more information regarding Karnage Chronicles and Nordic Trolls you can visit Steam Greenlight or karnagechronicles.com.

The Stone is a forum for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless. Photo What is it to truly know something? In our daily lives, we might not give this much thought — most of us rely on what we consider to be fair judgment and common sense in establishing knowledge. But the task of clearly defining true knowledge is trickier than it may first seem, and it is a problem philosophers have been wrestling with since Socrates. One approach suggests that knowledge is a form of action, comparable to an archer’s success when he consciously aims to hit a target. In the complacent 1950s, it was received wisdom that we know a given proposition to be true if, and only if, it is true, we believe it to be true, and we are justified in so believing. This consensus was exploded in a brief 1963 note by Edmund Gettier in the journal Analysis. Here is an example of the sort used by Gettier to refute that theory. Suppose you have every reason to believe that you own a Bentley, since you have had it in your possession for many years, and you parked it that morning at its usual spot. However, it has just been destroyed by a bomb, so that you own no Bentley, despite your well justified belief that you do. As you sit in a cafe having your morning latte, you muse that someone in that cafe owns a Bentley (since after all you do). And it turns out you are right, but only because the other person in the cafe, the barista, owns a Bentley, which you have no reason to suspect. So you here have a well justified true belief that is not knowledge. After many failed attempts to fix the justified-true-belief account with minor modifications, philosophers tried more radical departures. One promising approach suggests that knowledge is a form of action, comparable to an archer’s success when he consciously aims to hit a target. An archer’s shot can be assessed in several ways. It can be accurate (successful in hitting the target). It can also be adroit (skillful or competent). An archery shot is adroit only if, as the arrow leaves the bow, it is oriented well and powerfully enough. But a shot that is both accurate and adroit can still fall short. Consider an adroitly shot arrow leaving the bow with an orientation and speed that would normally take it straight to the bull’s-eye. A gust of wind then diverts it, but a second gust puts it back on track. This shot is both accurate and adroit, but it fails to be apt. A shot’s aptness requires that its success be attained not just by luck (such as the luck of that second gust). The success must rather be a result of competence. This suggests the AAA account of a good archery shot. But we can generalize from this example, to give an account of a fully successful attempt of any sort. Any attempt will have a distinctive aim and will thus be fully successful only if it succeeds not only adroitly but also aptly. Of course, a fully successful attempt is good overall only if the agent’s goal is good enough. An attempt to murder an innocent person is not good even if it fully succeeds. Aristotle in his “Nicomachean Ethics” developed an AAA account of attempts to lead a flourishing life in accord with fundamental human virtues (for example, justice or courage). Such an approach is called virtue ethics. Since there is much truth that must be grasped if one is to flourish, some philosophers have begun to treat truth’s apt attainment as virtuous in the Aristotelian sense, and have developed a virtue epistemology, which also turns out to solve problems like that posed by Gettier. (Aristotle himself in VI.2 of the “Nicomachean Ethics” upholds attaining truth as the proper work of the intellect.) Virtue epistemology begins by recognizing assertions or affirmations. These can be either public, out loud, or to oneself in the privacy of one’s own mind. An affirmation could have any of many and various aims, and it could even have several at once. It could aim at misleading someone, as when it is a lie. Or it could be aimed at showing off, or at propping someone up, or at instilling confidence in oneself as one enters athletic competition. Related More From The Stone Read previous contributions to this series. A particularly important sort of affirmation is one aimed at attaining truth, at getting it right. Such an affirmation is called alethic (from the Greek term for truth). All it takes for an affirmation to be alethic is that one of its aims be: getting it right. Humans perform acts of public affirmation in the endeavor to speak the truth, acts with crucial importance to a linguistic species. We need such affirmations for activities of the greatest import for life in society: for collective deliberation and coordination, and for the sharing of information. We need people to be willing to affirm things publicly. And we need them to be sincere (by and large) in doing so, by aligning public affirmation with private judgment. Finally, we need people whose assertions express what they actually know. Virtue epistemology gives an AAA account of knowledge: to know affirmatively is to make an affirmation that is accurate (true) and adroit (which requires taking proper account of the evidence). But in addition, the affirmation must be apt; that is, its accuracy must be attributable to competence rather than luck. Requiring knowledge to be apt (in addition to accurate and adroit) reconfigures epistemology as the ethics of belief. And, as a bonus, it allows contemporary virtue epistemology to solve our Gettier problem. We now have an explanation for why you fail to know that someone in the cafe owns a Bentley, when your own Bentley has been destroyed by a bomb, but the barista happens to own one. Your belief in that case falls short of knowledge for the reason that it fails to be apt. You are right that someone in the cafe owns a Bentley, but the correctness of your belief does not manifest your cognitive or epistemic competence. You are right only because by epistemic luck the barista happens to own one. When in your musings you affirm to yourself that someone in the cafe owns a Bentley, therefore, your affirmation is not an apt alethic affirmation, and hence falls short of knowledge. Ernest Sosa teaches philosophy at Rutgers University and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of many books, including “A Virtue Epistemology,” “Knowing Full Well” and, most recently, “Judgment and Agency.” Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and on Twitter, and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

The company showed off a 12 year version of their flagship product at the Derby Museum Legends Series in 2015 to great response. This would be about double the age of the original Maker’s Mark, which is rumored to be aged for 6 years. Following new product announcements over the last two years it was thought the company might also bring this product to market. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case. A representative for the company has confirmed with us that they have no plans to release a 12 Year version of their flagship product. Per the brand, “Maker’s Mark is, as it always has been, aged to taste, ensuring a consistency and quality that make it the world’s most delicious bourbon. We have no plans of releasing a bourbon that’s aged any longer than our current whisky, because well, we happen to think it’s aged just the right way as it is, thank you very much."

16 x 1-hour episodes or 32 x half -hour episodes. This series pays homage to the legendary folk hero but interweaves fantasy, bravery, magic, myth, romance and heroism. William Tell is the youthful leader of a band of young rebels forever hunted by the forces of darkness led by Xax and Kreel, who have usurped power in their homeland. The series of self-contained stories follows Will and the rebel forces’ ongoing quest to find the mythical Crystal Arrow which is essential to restore young Princess Vara to her rightful place on the royal throne and defeat Xax and Kreel’s forces – and, by doing so, bring back peace and order to the Kingdom of Kale. There is a guest star-studded cast of familiar faces and a whole bunch of action and adventure along the way, with creatures, wizards, elves, mystery, intrigue, humour and human drama as Will’s rebel band support each other with the assistance of the ethereal Kalem in their quest of defeating Xax and Kreel and to fulfil their destiny. A provocative and imaginary fantasy tale to enthral children worldwide and indeed the entire family.

Above you'll see a picture of Scott Olson, the Getty photographer who's brought us many of the most striking images of protests and police crackdown that followed the shooting of Michael Brown. The other two men in the photograph have not yet been identified to the public. When police arrested the Washington Post's Wesley Lowery and the Huffington Post's Ryan Reilly, they weren't wearing badges or nametags, and refused when asked to identify themselves.* Reasonable people can disagree about when, exactly, it's appropriate for cops to fire tear gas into crowds. But there's really no room for disagreement about when it's reasonable for officers of the law to take off their badges and start policing anonymously. many cops operating in Ferguson are betting on impunity, and it seems to be a winning bet There's only one reason to do this: to evade accountability for your actions. Olson was released shortly after his arrest, as were Reilly and Lowery before him. Ryan Devereaux from The Intercept and Lukas Hermsmeier from the German tabloid Bild were likewise arrested last night and released without charges after an overnight stay in jail. In other words, they never should have been arrested in the first place. But nothing's being done to punish the mystery officers who did the arresting. And what's particularly shocking about this form of evasion is how shallow it is. I can't identify the officers in that photograph. But the faces are clearly visible. The brass at the Ferguson Police Department, Saint Louis County Police Department, and Missouri Highway Patrol should be able to easily identify the two officers who are out improperly arresting photographers. By the same token, video taken at the Lowery and Reilly arrests should allow for the same to be done in that case. Policing without a nametag can help you avoid accountability from the press or from citizens, but it can't possibly help you avoid accountability from the bosses. on another level, it would almost be nicer to hear that nobody in charge thinks there's been any misconduct For that you have to count on an atmosphere of utter impunity. It's a bet many cops operating in Ferguson are making, and it seems to be a winning bet. In his statement today, President Obama observed that "there's no excuse for excessive force by police or any action that denies people the right to protest peacefully," seeking to tap into the widespread view that some instances of excessive force and denial of first amendment rights have taken place. But Obama did not even vaguely hint that any officer of the law would or should face even the slightest sanction for this inexcusable behavior. Statements from Governor Jay Nixon and Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson have suffered from the same problem. It is nice, of course, to hear that one's concerns are in some sense shared by the people in power. But on another level, it would almost be nicer to hear that nobody in charge thinks there's been any misconduct. After all, a lack of police misconduct would be an excellent reason for a lack of any disciplinary action. What we have is something much scarier. Impunity. The sense that misconduct will occur and even be acknowledged without punishment. Of course there are some limits to impunity. Shoot an unarmed teenager in broad daylight in front of witnesses, and there'll be an investigation. But rough up a reporter in a McDonalds for no reason? Tear-gas an 8 year-old? Parade in front of the cameras with no badges on? No problem. According to a Pew poll released earlier today, most white people have a good amount of confidence in the investigation into Michael Brown's death. They have the good sense, however, to at least admit to some misgivings about the handling of the protests. What they ought to see is that the two are hardly so separable. The protests would not be handled so poorly if the officers doing the handling felt that they were accountable for their actions. And a policing culture that doesn't believe cops should be accountable for their actions is not a culture that lends itself to a credible investigation. * Correction: The initial version of this article said that the officers who arrested Olson were not wearing identifying information, when in fact they appear to have proper nameplates on.

T hroughout his movie career, Colin Farrell has played many things: an amnesiac secret agent, a hitman with a death wish, even a time traveler. But in The Lobster, the actor takes on what may very well be his most offbeat role, playing a man who has 45 days to find a mate, otherwise he'll be turned into a lobster. Yes, the movie is every bit as weird as its premise makes it sound. But somehow co-writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos — in his English-language feature debut — makes it work. Set in a bizarre kind of alternate reality where human coupling is mandatory and where those who choose to remain single must live as fugitive outcasts in the woods, The Lobster is the story of a man named David (Farrell), a recent divorcee who takes up residence at a hotel specializing in two things: partnering up eligible bachelors and bachelorettes, and turning those who "don't make it" into animals. It's only when David flees the hotel and falls in with a band of loners, however, that he meets his true soulmate (Rachel Weisz). Will the couple be able to find happiness together? Or will the upside-down rules of their dystopian society defeat them in the end? The Lobster is both a love story and an absurdist fairy tale, but one thing it definitely isn't is conventional. Driven by deadpan performances, a classical music score and a dark sense of humor, it's a difficult movie to pin down. But if you absolutely had to put a label on it, it's hard to think of one more appropriate than Logan's Run meets Terry Gilliam. The Lobster is receiving its North American premiere as part of TIFF 2015's Special Presentations programme. Its runtime is 1 Hr. 59 Min.

About Because everybody deserves privacy and for their documents to remain theirs. Over the past few years, cloud service providers like Dropbox have become the standard way to back-up and share digital content online. Dropbox is fast, reliable and easy to use but security in the cloud is however an area that requires dramatic improvements. With the increasing number and sophistication of cyber attacks and the escalating use of cloud service providers for back-ups and sharing, the need for security is greater than ever. Because everybody deserves privacy and for their documents to remain theirs : That’s where Qi comes in ! What is Qi™? Qi is a secure token that runs on top of Dropbox allowing you to secure all your files independently of their type, both within your Dropbox account and on your local computer(s). This means securing photos, word documents, spreadsheets, PDFs and more. Only you, with your Qi, can access the files. You are also able to share them securely with friends and colleagues. Here’s how Qi™ works Qi is a secure token that runs on top of Dropbox allowing you to secure all your files anywhere, anytime. Documents are encrypted, “wrapped around”, on the fly locally and before reaching Dropbox. Documents can only be accessed, opened and edited when your Qi is plugged into a USB port. This means that with Qi your Dropbox files are always secure. Securing Dropbox has never been easier. Qi is engineered for simplicity and the concept is simple – when Qi is plugged in and you double click on a file in Dropbox, the digital content is opened. Without Qi plugged in, the file cannot be opened. When you close a file or unplug Qi your files are automatically re-encrypted. This ensures encryption takes place at all times, preventing the risk of files being left unencrypted by mistake. There is no document stored on Qi, all the files are encrypted in Dropbox. Sharing photos and other documents securely with friends and colleagues is also possible. Qi users directly receive files in their Dropbox and if you don’t have a Qi, no problem. You can still receive files by email. Qi adds a layer of security that is transparent to the user while leveraging the benefits of Dropbox (ease of use, fast synchronization, easy sharing). You simply have to install a small program that runs on your computer and connects Qi with your Dropbox account. There is no user interface and using files remains the same. The way you have always done it is the way it continues to be. Comprehensive security on your computer(s), in your Dropbox account and while sharing with others – that’s Qi. The technology behind Qi™ Qi uses two factor authentication, military grade encryption (each file is encrypted with a unique encryption key using the AES-256 algorithm - US Department of Defense approved), proprietary patent-pending key management and anti-forensics technology to provide bulletproof security while focusing on ease of use. The technology is transparent to the user as all cryptography and key management is done in the background to maintain the Dropbox user experience. Qi works on both Mac and Windows operating systems. The security guy behind the vision Qi is the invention of Dr. Cédric Jeannot, a security researcher and entrepreneur. Dr. Jeannot received his PhD in Applied Security from the University of Louisville, KY and has extensive expertise in many areas of digital security including, cryptography, authentication, key management and forensic approaches. He is the author of several research papers and a patent-pending secure architecture for digital content protection in corporate environments. As a world renowned security expert and international speaker on the topics of cyber security and corporate espionage, many rely on Dr. Jeannot’s opinion on digital security matters. Qi has been designed and built by Dr. Jeannot and his team of security professionals. They cumulatively bring 27+ years of experience in the field of security and come from mathematics, physics and computer science backgrounds. Together they have previously built security products and services for Fortune 500 companies and Governments. Where are we now and why we need your help Dr. Jeannot came up with the concept of Qi, following multiple demands from fellow entrepreneurs that were in the same technology incubator. Most start ups used Dropbox to back up and share their documents but recognized that it was lacking appropriate security. They needed a solution they could count on to secure their intellectual property and share sensitive files with advisers, investors, and VCs. They wanted to keep using Dropbox because it was easy, convenient and inexpensive but wanted more security. Keeping in mind that the user experience was also a top priority, Qi was born ! At this point, Qi is ready for production. Over the past 8 months, we've come a long way in the development and now have a production-ready solution. We need to refine our manufacturing process and place our first production order. Although we are ready for production, we need the necessary funding to mass produce the Qi secure token. A successful Kickstarter campaign will allow us to keep the per unit cost down which in turn will allow us to keep pricing at a reasonable level. Development and production locations Producing a security product overseas is typically never a wise thing and that is why all our software is developed in-house by our industry leading experts and quality-conscious personnel. We work with local state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities and our partners range from an IPC member and ISO-2000 certified electronics manufacturer to a global leader in liquid injection molding for the medical, automotive and consumer electronics products. Project timeline to fulfillment Project funding completion – early October 2013 Production order placement – mid-October 2013 Volume production completion – end of 2013 Shipments to Kickstarter backers – early 2014 Product general release to public – spring 2014 FAQ Does Qi complement or replace Dropbox ? Complement. Qi is an add-on to Dropbox that allows you to use Dropbox in a secure way (including local copies of files and sharing ). Is sharing limited to other Qi users ? No. You can share documents securely with other Qi users but if a user does not have a Qi, you can chose to send the files unencrypted or chose not to send them. Can Qi work with Box or other cloud services ? Soon. At this point Qi is only available as an add-on to Dropbox. This being said, we are working on integrating Qi with other cloud providers such as Box, Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive. Are my files stored on Qi ? No, Qi is not a storage device. The files are stored in Dropbox. Qi acts as a secure gateway to encrypt and decrypt files on the fly. Does it work on MAC ? Yes. Qi works on both Windows ( Xp, Vista, 7, 8 ) and MAC ( from 10.6 ).

The Canadian province of Québec seems to be situated upon some geographically freakish turf that exudes such a phenomenal electromagnetism as to twist and convolute whatever waveforms happen to waft into its borders. Psuedoscientific petrology aside, Dead Brain Cells are one such Canadian faction that reinterpreted the equatorial American sounds of skatethrash and reassembled its raw energy into a hyperborean bizzarerie, with an ambition in expressing the absurd crises symptomatic of a classically Huxleyan, oblivious society lured into the grip of an Orwellian tyranny by the mesmeric attractions of self-pleasure. Taking aesthetic inspiration from the cruelly intelligent, modern firearms cacophony of Slayer’s ‘Chemical Warfare’ but fashioning riffs over the roguish, bursting structures typified by crossover acts Suicidal Tendencies and Corrosion of Conformity, Dead Brain Cells had paradoxically succeeded in applying scientific methods to truculent vandalism. Vocals, in compliment to the factorial churn and tumble of the instruments, are delivered in a robotic rant like the outcries of a citizen-turned-automaton denigrated by a lifetime of vacuous routine; lyrics are remarkably coherent and incisive considering the band’s Québécois nationality, of course with the mother tongue of French being a perennial obstacle for all aspiring Hessians allied under the fleur-de-lis. However, it is clear from DBC’s rather involved compositional style that their telos was not merely in writing protest music, but in establishing engaging, punkishly dynamic narratives such that every song is represented as its own vignette of dystopia — a sensibility that would be incorporated into the region’s burgeoning death metal movement, with vestiges apparent in such seminal works as Considered Dead and From This Day Forward. This eponymous debut remains one of the exceptional examples of quality crossover thrash from outside of the U.S.A. and England; it’s also required listening for any avid scholars of Canadian death metal, in order to better understand the music’s gestation from heavy, quirky progressive rock to complex and sublimely dissonant killing noise. -Thanatotron- A planet defaced with death and decay An atmosphere of hate Cities destroyed Their meanings forgotten And fertile lands lay waste A planet once prosperous Its future looked bright But an immature race had evolved Given time and the knowledge They soon could destroy The planet on which they revolved Not one life would be spared It wouldn’t happen again Because there is no second chance Tags: Crossover, dbc, dead brain cells, review, Science, Speed Metal, Thrash

Frank Lampard is almost certainly out of Euro 2012 because of the thigh injury that has put Jordan Henderson on the brink of a late call-up and left England looking increasingly depleted with only 11 days to their opening game of the tournament, against France. Lampard was hurt chasing a ball into a corner during England's training session and the initial prognosis is that there is virtually no chance of him being fit. The seriousness of the issue was immediately obvious to his team-mates as he was treated at the scene and a dismayed Roy Hodgson quickly put in place contingency plans by contacting Liverpool to inform them that Henderson might be needed. That would leave England operating from anything but a position of strength when it comes to back-up players for Hodgson's first-choice central-midfield pairing of Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker. Hodgson's options are so depleted that Phil Jones, used mostly as a defender at Manchester United, is next in line, followed by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and now Henderson. Lampard turns 34 during the tournament and, if his worst fears are confirmed, he will have to acknowledge that it also puts his international career at serious risk. The Chelsea midfielder had spoken on Tuesday about reaching 100 England caps but he is currently 10 short and has started only one of the past five internationals. He is, however, still regarded as a key member of the squad, especially at a time when Gareth Barry and Jack Wilshere have already been ruled out and there are lingering concerns about the ability of Gerrard and Parker to play the entire tournament. Gerrard was restricted to only 45 minutes of the 1-0 friendly win against Norway on Saturday and missed Liverpool's last two games of the season because of his recurrent back issues. To put it into context, England's players had a golf afternoon at their hotel in Hertfordshire and Gerrard played only nine holes because he did not want to overextend himself. As for Parker, he lasted almost an hour in Oslo but has been treated with injections because of a persistent achilles problem that meant he barely played in the previous month. Hodgson's options are limited by Michael Carrick's withdrawal from contention and the FA has indicated there will be no attempt to try to ascertain his availability. If Lampard's scan reveals a tear, the FA will have to prove to Uefa's medical committee that it is a new injury before being allowed a replacement. Lampard missed three and a half months two seasons ago with a thigh injury, although it not clear at this early stage whether the latest problem is in the same area. Either way, the ruling body does not anticipate a problem bringing in Henderson.

Arthur Hall, Senior Staff Reporter Illegal dumps offering heavily discounted rates are flourishing around the Riverton landfill and some top companies in the Corporate Area are keeping them alive. Commercial waste from some of the island's top companies is ending up at a number of these illegal dumps. A Sunday Gleaner probe has determined that some private garbage-disposal entities, which collect commercial waste, are taking the cheap route by emptying rubbish at the illegal dumps instead of going to the official landfill operated by the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA). "When Solid Waste a charge $500 fi go pon di landfill, di illegal dump dem will take $200, $300, or anything," one man explained. The truck drivers save a dollar but create a multimillion-dollar problem, which affects residents of communities close to the landfill, as the operators of the illegal dumps can only dispose of the rubbish by burning it. This creates an almost-nightly smoke nuisance for people living near the landfill that is often unfairly blamed on the NSWMA. At least three illegal dumps The Sunday Gleaner probe located at least three illegal dumps operating close to the landfill. "Yow, boss. Leave that alone. A gunman thing that," one source told The Sunday Gleaner, even as he helped to point out the illegal dumps. According to the source, one of the dumps, operated on the bank of the Sandy Gully, is a regular site for operators of private trucks which collect garbage from some of the biggest companies in the Corporate Area. Another illegal dump, operated metres from the landfill, had a chain across the gate where men collect money from truck drivers who want to avoid going to the official dump. "The issue of the illegal dumps is one that I struggled with," said Joan Gordon-Webley, former head of the NSWMA. "It stems from a number of reasons, including persons operating near the landfill who commandeer the trucks and dump the rubbish to search for tyres and scrap metals. The tyres are then burnt for the copper that is inside," Gordon-Webley explained. She charged that some truck operators use the illegal dumps to avoid paying the $500 administrative fee to access the landfill. According to Gordon-Webley, even in cases where established companies purchase the $500 pass from the NSWMA to take their garbage to the landfill, some drivers leave the truckloads of rubbish at the illegal dumps and sell the tickets. "Boss, just tek mi number and call mi when you coming. All you have to do is give mi a thing and mi will take any number of loads (of garbage) you have," one operator of an illegal dump told The Sunday Gleaner team. He was responding to our request to dispose of some garbage without going through the formal system. NSWMA board to conduct probe The issue has attracted the attention of Minister of Local Government Noel Arscott, who has instructed the recently appointed board of the NSWMA to investigate the matter and indicate the measures to be taken to cauterise it. "I asked that the investigation not be limited to the Riverton site, but that the board look into unlicensed solid-waste disposal activities across the island. "I have requested that the board act within the confines of the law, utilising the provisions under the National Solid Waste Management Act in prosecuting offenders," added Arscott. Section 23 of the National Solid Waste Management Act stipulates that "a licence is required for persons who operate or propose to operate waste-disposal sites, provide or propose to provide waste collection or transfer, or otherwise manage solid waste". Section 45 of the act prescribes that persons who break the rules "are liable on summary conviction before a resident magistrate to a fine not exceeding $1 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding nine months or to both fine and imprisonment". According to Arscott, "An inter-agency approach will be utilised as the (NSWMA) board will be working with the Public Health Department and the National Environment (and Planning) Agency, and I am expecting an update within 30 days." arthur.hall @gleanerjm.com

A landmark plan to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 by 2022 could create sweeping changes across the industries that rely on low-wage workers and improve the living standards for millions of Californians employed in farm fields, restaurants and retail stores. “The expanse of the impacts is huge – a 50 percent increase in wages over five years to more than 40 percent of workers in the Sacramento region alone,” Jeffrey Michael, director of the Center for Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, said after Gov. Jerry Brown announced the plan Monday. The plan, negotiated by Brown, labor leaders and legislators, could head off a similar ballot measure this November and raise the state’s minimum wage by about $1 per year, making California’s by far the highest statewide basic wage in the nation. It would increase the earnings of a full-time minimum-wage worker from $20,000 a year today to $30,000 per year in 2022. Brown called the wage increase a matter of “economic justice” at a news conference Monday in the state Capitol. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee Some cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have already adopted similar proposals, and Sacramento leaders recently approved an ordinance to raise the city’s minimum wage to $12.50 an hour by 2020. If the Legislature passes the newly announced plan, as expected, its positive effects could include boosting the living standards of the approximately 6 million Californians who earn the current minimum wage of $10 an hour and giving them more money to spend back into the economy. The negatives could include fewer hours and fewer jobs for those workers, economists and employers said. Farmers who sell their produce out of state could be at a major disadvantage compared with farmers in states and nations with lower wages. And restaurant prices are likely to rise across the board. The matter is so complicated, and fraught with unintended consequences, that it’s hard to know if the benefits or drawbacks will prevail, Michael said. Either way, he said, “The economic impacts are going to be enormous.” Owners and employees of businesses that employ the bulk of minimum wage workers offered reactions this week ranging from outrage to joy, but some of their thoughts went beyond neat clichés. At Monday’s news conference announcing the minimum-wage deal, longtime Burger King worker and activist Holly Dias, of Humboldt County, hugged the governor after tearfully describing how she struggled to support her infant son at the state’s lowest legal wage, which increased this year from $9 to $10 an hour. “Today our great nation is watching us as history is made,” Dias said. Fast food restaurant workers nationwide have participated in a campaign, led by labor unions, to establish a $15 minimum wage across the country. But some restaurant workers interviewed Tuesday said they weren’t so sure the wage hike would be entirely good. “They don’t think about how prices are going to go up everywhere else to cope with it,” said Gaerael Debise, 19. The cashier at the Buckhorn Grill restaurant in midtown Sacramento makes $10 an hour and helps support his mother and little sister, while attending classes at Sacramento City College. His co-worker, Eddie Alcantara, 22, said he had worked his way up from $9 to $12 an hour and is now a supervisor at the restaurant. He said he is proud of his accomplishment and thinks others should have to do the same, and not just be paid higher wages from the start. “The minimum wage now is OK,” he said. Lots of business owners, and the political groups that represent them, said the wage increase was sure to lead to a decline in employment and higher consumer costs. The owner of the medium-sized Buckhorn chain of restaurants – which employs 650 workers mainly in the Sacramento region and Bay Area – said he wasn’t happy with the plan. But he said he grudgingly accepted that it is popular with politicians and will likely pass. John Pickerel, who co-founded the Buckhorn Steakhouse in Winters in 1980, said instead of bemoaning their fate, restaurant operators will have to adopt better business practices. They can’t just keep pushing prices higher, because customers won’t accept it, he said. “It’s a game changer,” Pickerel said. “A lot of people would rather complain than be proactive.” Managers will have to train and retain the most productive employees at higher wages, and mom-and-pop cafes with fewer employees could actually have a competitive edge over chains with large numbers of minimum wage workers, he said. “It’s about being part of the solution and getting people to buy into productivity and believing people can learn things,” Pickerel said. “We can’t use a lot of warm bodies. There’s no room for error.” One farmer said paying his workers $15 an hour would further undermine his ability to compete with growers in other states and Mexico. “We’re already at a disadvantage with Arizona, (where farmers) pay their workers $8.05 an hour and we’re at $10. Any further increase is going to put us at a serious disadvantage,” said Joe Del Bosque, owner of Del Bosque farms in Firebaugh. His workers are harvesting asparagus now at $10 an hour or more, while workers in Mexico harvest the same crop for $10 a day, he said. “If we can’t compete with them, we can’t grow some of these crops in California anymore,” Del Bosque said. Yolo County farmer Duane Chamberlain said his workers, who mostly make well above the minimum wage, are starting to cut alfalfa hay this time of year. He said he wouldn’t mind paying all his workers at least $15 an hour with the exception, perhaps, of those just learning. “My workers are all worth 15 bucks an hour because they’ve been around,” said Chamberlain, who also sits on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors. “Starting people out, it would be nice to hire kids at lower wages because they’re not worth it. They don’t know what they’re doing.” One of Chamberlain’s workers said he’s happy with the proposed pay hikes. “To be able to help my family. For my children’s education. I’m glad my boss agrees with the wage increase,” Isaias Aguirre said as he cut hay with his brother Jose Aguirre on Tuesday. Isaias said he sends about $1,000 a month home to Mexico to help his three children. There are additional reasons, besides experience levels, that a uniform state wage might not make sense, experts said. Making $15 an hour in rural Yuba County, where the cost of living is relatively low for California, is much different than making $15 an hour in Santa Clara County, the expensive heart of Silicon Valley. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator estimated that for 2014, a single adult would need to make less than $10 an hour to support themselves in Yuba County, while the same adult living in Santa Clara County would need to make almost $14 an hour to pay for rent, food, transportation and other basic costs. Oregon recently passed a new minimum wage law that took such differences into account. It will gradually increase the basic pay rate in the pricey Portland area to $14.75 an hour by 2022 while only raising the minimum wage in the most rural parts of the state to $12.50 an hour. Michael, the UOP economist, said it’s something California lawmakers might consider. “Connections to the cost of living and the economic structure of the community are both arguments to have regional minimum wages,” he said.

The only thing separating Madawaska from Canada is the St. John River, which means more students from Madawaska Middle/High School have traveled to another country than their own nation’s capital. That will start to change Jan. 18, when 28 students in the school band, known as the Pride of Madawaska, board a bus shortly after midnight for a 16-hour trip to Washington, D.C., where they will perform the next day in a concert at the Lincoln Memorial. The Jan. 19 “Make America Great! Welcome Concert” will kick off three days of events highlighted by President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing in as the 45th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20. The students, says principal Wayne Anderson, are “ecstatic.” “They’re very excited,” he said. “They’re really anxious to see if we can pull this off. Obviously this is going to be a fairly costly endeavor. We’re in the throes right now of some massive fundraising.” School officials estimate the three-day trip will cost about $20,000 for transportation and lodging. As of Monday night, the band boosters had raised $12,000 in donations ranging in amounts from $10 to $2,500, band director Ben Meiklejohn said. It was Meiklejohn’s idea to apply for a performance spot in the inauguration festivities. A former Portland resident, Meiklejohn moved to Madawaska in October to begin his new job as band director. As he was unpacking his belongings in his new apartment, Meiklejohn came across some old photos from 1989, when he and his fellow bandmates from Kennebunk High School marched in the inaugural parade for President George H.W. Bush. Meiklejohn’s instrument was the oboe, but that’s a wooden instrument that shouldn’t be played in cold weather, so the band made him a flag bearer instead. ‘We’ll really be representing small-town America’ — Ben Meiklejohn, Madawaska band director He still remembers what it was like to march past the Bush family, representing the first family’s second-home state of Maine. “He stood up and went out of his way to wave to us, and acknowledged that he knew it was us,” Meiklejohn recalled. “It was so nice to get the recognition of the president himself. As a kid, that means a lot.” SELECTED IN DECEMBER When the band director, now 45, ran across his old photos, “a light bulb went off,” he said. “I thought: Wow, I have a band and it’s a presidential inauguration this year, so why don’t I give it a shot and apply, and see what happens?” Meiklejohn applied in November for a spot in the inaugural parade, and heard back in mid-December that the Pride of Madawaska had been chosen for the Lincoln Memorial concert. No bands from Maine were chosen to march in the inaugural parade this year. Just a dozen ensembles will be playing in the “Voices of America” concert, and only 40 bands will march in the parade, Meiklejohn said. “We’ll really be representing small-town America,” he said. “From what I understand, they are going for people from the far reaches of the country, the corners of the country.” Madawaska is the northernmost town in Maine, and as the country’s northeasternmost point is considered one of the “four corners” of the continental United States. Meiklejohn didn’t tell the students what he had up his sleeve until the band’s participation was confirmed by inauguration officials. When he told the students they had to have their band uniforms fitted, the students balked, questioning why that had to be done when they weren’t expecting another performance until spring. Meiklejohn just replied, “Well, we might have a venue in store for January.” “I think only a handful of them have been outside of Maine,” he said. “When I first announced it to them, they were in disbelief at first. They thought I was joking with them or something.” ‘A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME CHANCE’ Elizabeth Dufresne, a 14-year-old ninth-grader who plays the flute, says she and her friends were “wicked excited” when Meiklejohn broke the news. “I am looking forward just getting to go down and doing this with my band because our band is very close,” she said. “It’s kind of like a second family, so getting to do this with them is really exciting and fun. We haven’t played in front of that many people before. We did the Bangor parade, but that’s not as big as this is going to be.” Emma Pelletier, a 13-year-old eighth-grader who plays the clarinet, said she is thinking of it as “a great experience and a once-in-a-lifetime chance.” The concert performers were asked to present program proposals. Meiklejohn submitted a program that would last 5½ minutes and includes “The Dirigo March” – Maine’s official march, composed by Maine native Leo Pepin of Augusta – and a popular march called “Main Street America,” arranged by Gary Gilroy. The program has not yet been officially approved, but the students are practicing the material early every morning, seven days a week, until it’s time to hit the road. The practice schedule is rigorous, Pelletier said, “but I think we can manage. Everyone is committed. They really want to go to Washington and do a good job.” It will be a quick trip. They’ll drive down on Jan. 18, check into their hotel in the late afternoon, rest and get oriented. They’ll play the concert the next day, then board the bus on Jan. 20 for the trip back to Maine. They’d like to squeeze in an extra day of sightseeing, but only if they can raise the money to pay for it. Meiklejohn estimates it would cost “probably a few thousand” to make that happen. “If we were to raise more money,” Meiklejohn said, “then we could add on an extra day of lodging and bus rental.” Local residents and businesses are donating through the school system’s website, madawaskaschools.org/district. ‘IT’S NOT A POLITICAL TRIP FOR US’ Despite the contentious election, neither Meiklejohn nor Anderson is concerned about politics and rhetoric ruining the students’ experiences. Although Madawaska voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton, Meiklejohn said not a single parent or student has objected to the band attending the inauguration. “We don’t see this as a political event for us,” Anderson said. “We really do a good job here at school of keeping the politics out of the building and focusing on the academics, so for us it’s a wonderful opportunity for the kids to go down there and display their talents, to see the process of bringing a president in firsthand to go along with their American government classes and their civics classes, and really have an academic bent to this process as well as them having a good time. So for us, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Republican or it’s Democrat, because it’s not a political trip for us. It’s academic.” Meiklejohn said that’s the way it was for him in 1989. “Certainly when I was marching for George Bush, I didn’t get the feeling that my marching made me a Bush supporter, and it didn’t change my appreciation for participating in the event, either,” he said. “I think at this kind of event everyone’s looking beyond the politics,” Meiklejohn said. “It doesn’t feel like something political that we’re participating in. It’s just a tradition of democracy. It’s like clockwork: Since the founding of our country, every four years a president gets inaugurated and that’s never changed.” Both Dufresne and Pelletier said that while they hope to learn more about politics while they are in Washington, they are going on the trip to make music, not political points. “I’m really just there to play in the band and have fun,” Dufresne said. Share

“Thought of You” part of Conte Animated exhibit Jan. 20-29, HFAC Gallery 303 "Thought of You" in HD, behind-the-scenes documentary and flip charts of film animations featured in HFAC Gallery 303 Jan. 20-29 Animated short was created by filming dancers, then drawing 24-frames per second of the dancing Video has more than 1 million views between Vimeo and YouTube This short animation is a creative collaboration between BYU animation professor Ryan Woodward and Dance Dept. instructor Kori Wakamatsu. Woodward, who has done storyboards for Hollywood blockbusters (Iron Man 2, Spider Man 3 and Where the Wild Things Are), approached Wakamatsu with the concept this summer. “Just thinking about that dynamic of relationships stirred my mind about doing an animation with dance,” Woodward said. “I knew I could not animate a beautiful, contemporary dance because I’m not a dance choreographer, and that’s where Kori came in.” See the behind-the-scenes video. “Ryan gave me the back story to the piece and what motivated it and how he wanted it to be a love story,” Wakamatsu said. “I love it when the arts can integrate and find ways to connect.” Wakamatsu choreographed a routine and chose dancers to perform the piece. Woodward then had the dance filmed so he could recreate it with animation, which he did by using 24 frames for every second. The end result is a touching animated short that has now notched more than 1 million views between Vimeo and YouTube. “I hope the people that watch it do have some sort of a moving experience,” Woodward said. Follow BYU news on Twitter: @BYU

Fifteenth Street NW, heading south toward R Street. It’s nearly midnight. “Five-oh, left,” the Bike Artist says coolly as we whoosh past the alley. We brake as the cycletrack hits the intersection, and peer back to confirm we’re past the police cruiser’s line of sight. Clear. M. hops off his bicycle, descends into a crablike stance, and sweeps a patch of asphalt with a large cleaning brush. Straddling her bike, K. drops a slab of carved-up, durable plastic on the ground. The Bike Artist leans over, pulls a can of spraypaint out of a bag, and quickly releases a stream as her hand scans the surface. Lay it and spray it. K. lifts the plastic stencil, and we inspect the night’s first bombing. “Bicycle Year-Round!” Pink. Nailed it. Spraycans go back in the bag. Stencils return to the bike rack. As we wait in the empty, pedestrian-free silence for the light to turn, M. inches his bike into the crosswalk. “Scofflaw!” the Bike Artist says, smirking. A bicyclist has to behave, after all. *** The anonymous stencils first appeared in August. You’d notice them at reds as you braked at the mouth of an intersection. You’d look down, perhaps as you began to creep into the crosswalk, and spy the Day-Glo words on the asphalt: “Make Us Bicyclists Look Good.” And then, maybe, you’d stay put, waiting for that green. By the middle of August, the messages had emerged up and down 15th Street’s protected cycletrack, around the National Mall, and in bike lanes on R and T streets NW and Rhode Island Avenue. They contained affirmations like “Thank You for Biking,” “Your Bike Is Sexy,” and “Smile! You’re on a Bicycle”; cutesy reminders like “Please Bike Safely Honey. Love, Your Parents”; and cheeky exclamations like “Don’t Door Me Bro.” These weren’t missives for pedestrians, or motorists, or anyone who wasn’t on a bike. If you don’t spend any time in bike lanes, you probably didn’t see them. But among bike commuters, they quickly punctured daily water-cooler talk. Did you see the bike-lane graffiti? In the middle of August, Streetsblog, a transportation website, posted a video with a fist-pump-inducing soundtrack and described the stencil art as “extraordinarily motivating” and “sweet.” DCist called it “rather delightful”; Instagram and Twitter users memorialized their stencil-brightened commutes (“OMG I LOVE THESE!!!” read one Instagram comment); and for about a month, pictures of the stencils seemed to take over the popular #bikedc hashtag. (One of the stencils, sensing the opportunity, read “#bikedc.”) Even the District Department of Transportation conceded it had been charmed. While a spokeswoman told DCist that the agency planned to “check into” the stencil art, the @DDOT Twitter feed called the bike-lane messages “kinda cool!” On Reddit, users debated how the bicycle-lane messages might impact cycling etiquette. “This is fantastic, spray them right next to every rack and street lamp in florescent paint,” wrote one user. Others were skeptical, for different reasons. “I always stop at red lights regardless of these stencils and unfortunately they don’t seem to stop the 10+ riders behind me that blow through red lights on 15th and K St. for example,” wrote a Redditor. Another: “As one ‘asshole cyclist’ among many, I don’t know what they expect this to accomplish. We know exactly what we are doing and we do it anyway. It’s not some sort of ‘I didn’t know I couldn’t do that’ situation, nor do we go through red lights and stop signs by accident.” The messages proliferated throughout the fall, with dozens appearing in Shaw, Bloomingdale, and Logan Circle. Adams Morgan. Woodley Park. Downtown. Just recently in Arlington, at the entrance to the Key Bridge. After the 15th Street cycletrack was repaved—and the stencil art along it was destroyed—the tagger struck again, restamping the entire strip. One slogan emerged on M Street NW between 15th and 16th streets—a block where the city recently canceled part of a planned cycletrack at the urging of a church that wanted to preserve curbside space for congregants’ cars. The decision angered District bike advocates and inspired the mystery stenciler to tattoo the block’s pavement with the message “Jesus Loves Bicyclists.” That one threw some political shade, but for the most part the messages aren’t meant for bicyclists’ detractors. They say encouraging things such as “Drive Your Bike” and “Bike [Heart]” and “I Want to Ride My Bike With You,” like telegrams from the conscience of D.C.’s collective bicycling consciousness. From time to time on my ride home on 15th Street, I see fellow commuters stopping at red lights, spotting the stencils, and smiling. The messages are illicit by their nature but adorable in their content—quietly empowering random acts of cuteness. That, or they’re the least dangerous, least unsettling use of graffiti D.C. has ever seen. I started asking around. It turns out the person behind the stencils—I interviewed her on the condition of anonymity, and agreed to refer to her as the Bike Artist, or BA—isn’t a seasoned graffiti writer, a transit insurrectionist, or even an activist by inclination. Mostly, she wants bicyclists to be a little more polite, be a little friendlier with other road users, and feel a little more appreciated. Her project is both an undertaking of passion and a bit of a lark. And although it wants to inspire and improve the culture of bicycling in D.C., it might reveal even more about it. *** Coasting toward P Street, BA calls the play: We’re hitting all four sides of the intersection. So far, it’s been low-stress. No bystanders. Careful, quick tagging. Lay ’em and spray ’em. There’s a protocol to this—you can’t do this kind of thing without rules—but so far, so easy. Time to get bold. I follow BA to the southwestern corner. She drops a stencil on the pavement. “What are you spraying?” calls a voice. It’s a pedestrian, coming our way from the Logan Circle bars. “Just a little friendly bike message,” BA says. Do you bike? Well, she’s not a local. But she tried Capital Bikeshare. That’s worth a high five. BA bends over to spray the ground, and the woman continues walking on P Street, turning around at the decisive moment to snap a photo with her phone. Instagram gold. *** Before BA tagged her first bike lane, she took a cut-up map of the District and marked the streets and avenues she wanted to spray. Then she stashed it behind a large artwork hanging in her living room. “I wanted this to be a fun, secret mission thing,” she says. BA is a white, young professional who lives in Northwest and has been bike commuting in the District for the nearly four years she’s lived here. She is probably the most responsible bicyclist I’ve ever met: Even on tagging runs, she wears a yellow reflective vest and yellow reflective anklets, presumable hindrances in a flight for freedom. Nine times out of 10, she says, she waits until a red light turns green before biking through an intersection. The first time I met her, she very politely told me I was wearing my helmet unsafely. She picks up litter off the road, even though she also marks it permanently with spray paint. BA had never made illegal art before August, but says she had been thinking about the roads—about how they are underused as something that carries information—for some time. D.C.’s bike infrastructure may have boomed since the Adrian Fenty administration, but the city could be doing much more to foster better behavior by road users, BA says. After watching a couple of graffiti documentaries, she had an epiphany: She’d reach out to her own tribe and help soften bikers’ reputation as transportation insurgents by talking to them in their native habitat. D.C.’s roads, BA says, “are not utilized in any way other than street signs to promote and inform. So I saw the streets as being a blank canvas. They’re completely disregarded as something we see every day. The sewage markings, the remnants of construction projects—the streets are just ugly, wasted uses of public space when it comes to our visual relationship with them. I wanted something that was eye-catching and thought-provoking and beautiful that made people smile.” The bright, encouraging—twee, if you’d like—tone of BA’s stencil art has a purpose. “We want more people to bike,” she says. “We want bicyclists to smile and know they’re appreciated. We want bicyclists to smile at other bicyclists and road users. Most importantly, we want D.C. to be a safe place to ride a bike.” BA started by buying a pack of thick plastic cutting boards, into which she carved the messages with an X-Acto knife. After a trial run in her neighborhood, she went out with a friend, starting in August with the 15th Street NW cycletrack, which she knew was scheduled for repaving. She wanted to gauge the reaction to her project but didn’t want to permanently mar public space if it wasn’t worthwhile. “If it looked like shit, I did not want to put more crap on the streets. I wanted this to be art,” she says. She quickly decided it was and tagged two more streets that night. Then she left D.C. to visit her hometown. “I kind of fled town, like, ‘I’m gonna do a bunch, and then I’m gonna leave.’” She wasn’t caught. Almost immediately, bicyclists were tweeting about the stencils. And while some D.C. pals had been skittish before, now they wanted in. She wanted to find more collaborators, too. “I sent out a call to all my friends, like, ‘Do you want to get in on this project? This is the shit you’re going to tell your grandchildren.’” Throughout the fall, BA occasionally gathered friends at her home to share a meal and game out the evening’s stenciling—what she calls “LayNSpray.” On the night in November that I followed her while she resprayed 15th Street, her accomplices were K., a barista, and M., who works at the State Department. We met at the Adams Morgan bar Angles, chatting at a window table while BA and M. scraped goops of paint off the more heavily used stencils. They also did some surgery: Too much use had turned “I Want to Ride My Bike With You” into “I Want to Ride My Bike Vith You.” On this evening, BA began with a ceremonial reading of the relevant legal statute—and then the request that, should the fuzz intrude, everyone bike away so that BA alone will take the heat. And there are rules: Since many street cameras erase their footage about every 10 days, BA asks her accomplices not to mention the tagging in email, on Facebook, or on Twitter for a week and a half. “And that just gets more into the fun secrecy of it all,” she says. One of the most exciting LayNSprays took place on the National Mall, she says. “We put hearts on all of the bike signals. It was really sweet. And that was to say these are symbolic of human beings. It’s a person. We are living, breathing beings. Give us respect.” *** Fifteenth and Massachusetts. “More Bike Lanes.” Barely legible. “Newsflash,” says M. “Orange is crap.” BA, annoyed by the spray job, bikes on. Then she smiles. “Orange you glad we have more colors?” *** BA may be new to street art, but she understands where bombing—the writing of one’s name on a public surface—comes from: An art form of the voiceless, it’s about proclaiming your existence to a world that has failed to notice you. In her case, “failed to notice” might mean something closer to “didn’t see you before my SUV right-hooked you on your bike.” But while BA has cannily adopted an art form that’s historically belonged to marginalized people and placed it in the streets’ margins, for the most part she’s not proclaiming her existence to the right-hookers. She’s talking to the right-hookees. If BA is caught, the punishments are real. According to the D.C. Code, BA could face as many as 10 years in prison and fines up to $5,000 if she’s found guilty of damages totalling more than $1,000. But anyone who can tag frequently well-lit streets for months without consequence must enjoy some kind of privilege. BA knows it. “People look over with curiosity,” she says of the times she is spotted. “Either people are so complacent they’re not even observant of what’s going on, or they could care less because I’m a young white girl.” Sometimes other bikers double-take when they see BA tagging, but the reaction is receptive. Once, a rider biked by her while she was spraying at 14th and V. “He, like, circled back, looked at the ground, got closer, looked up and said, ‘Whoa, you’re the one. You’re the one!’ He started screaming it in the intersection, and I was like, ‘Dude, keep it quiet.’ And he was like, ‘You’re the one.’ It made me feel like Batman or something.” Several D.C. government officials interviewed for this story say the Metropolitan Police Department rarely pursues street artists who aren’t generating numerous complaints—like Borf, the teenage tagger whose works briefly captivated Washingtonians until his arrest in 2005—or spraying gang-related messages or names. Likewise, the Department of Public Works, which “doesn’t necessarily tolerate” street art on public property like the bases of lamp posts, prioritizes cleaning up material that’s gang-related, offensive, or has inspired a complaint, according to spokeswoman Linda Grant. To Grant’s knowledge, no one has complained to DPW about the bike-lane stencils. “I’d say that the messages are positive and pretty unobtrusive. They don’t distract from people using the street safely,” emails Sam Zimbabwe, DDOT’s director of policy, planning, and sustainability administration, when asked about the bike-lane stencils. “We generally don’t want people to do things like this, because if we did have to remove the stencils it’s a cost to the agency and taxpayers, which means other needed work may not get done. But this isn’t really the same as defacing a sign or creating a large mural in the street because of the size and the fact that the messages are positive.” BA says she’s worried about being caught—mostly because of what it could cost her financially—but believes she could gather support among bike enthusiasts and galvanize momentum for better biking infrastructure and bicyclist behavior. Maybe she shouldn’t worry. On the night I watched BA and her friends tag 15th Street, M. wondered out loud if I was going to portray the crew as reckless, entitled white kids. They certainly have tagging down to something like a science, but over time, they got remarkably looser. At several points, they left three or four stencils next to one another, spending several traffic-light cycles at a single intersection. They greeted passersby, spraycans in hand. And why not be reckless, when the odds of being caught appear to be so low? The most remarkable thing about writing on a well-lit street while being white, 20-something, and bike-bound is how little suspicion you arouse—from cops cruising by, from security guards, from anyone. I had to wonder if the kids who once made the above-ground stretch of the Red Line heading toward Silver Spring a graffiti destination ever had it so easy. BA and her compatriots may borrow graffiti’s customs, but they don’t live in its world. Even Borf’s sentence was light compared to the maximum punishment—while he was ordered to pay $12,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to tagging a Howard University building, he served only a month in jail. BA is hardly Borf on a bike, at least in terms of any damage she’s doing; if city officials say they’re barely bothered by her stencils, would a judge really treat her as a menace? That she’s tagging public property with well-meaning messages, not painting private buildings with pseudo-anarchic axioms, seems to have helped her cause, at least among local officials. From a street artist’s perspective, there’s another advantage to BA’s method. Because streets are public property, tags there tend to last much longer than tags on walls, which are often removed quickly, says Cory Stowers, an amateur graffiti historian who runs Art Under Pressure, a skate and paint shop in Petworth. And while street-bound street art isn’t a common approach, it does have a long tradition: Kids have been painting their names on the pavement as long as they’ve been painting them on the side of subway cars. BA’s stencils aren’t alone on D.C.’s streets. There are the Toynbee Tiles, with their esoteric messages, that can be found on city streets across the Western Hemisphere, plus the Stikman robots that inhabit crosswalks across the United States. Fine artists like Steed Taylor have created sanctioned, gallery-supported “road tattoos.” There’s an artist in Bowie who creates Pac-Man figures, some which are placed so that they appear to be eating lines on the road. That guy uses a heavy-duty adhesive that reacts to heat in order to become permanent, Stowers says. Corporate viral marketers will sometimes stamp hashtags on D.C. roads and sidewalks using materials that fade to nothing in four or five months. Creating street art that’s actually on the street is a bit more technically difficult than using a wall, Stowers says—you have to hold the can a different way, for starters—but it has the appeal of being less competitive. “Not too many people do it, and it’s a great way to attract attention,” he says. “Going onto the ground is an excellent canvas for folks putting their message out.” *** Fifteenth and K streets. BA says it’s my turn to tag. I stammer and agree, but decide to wait for I Street, a block from my office. I botch a gold-colored “Jesus Loves Bicycles”—wrong hand position—and mess up another stencil inside a white bike arrow. Shrugs. They paint the whole arrow pink. *** The Bike Artist isn’t nearly done. She wants to tag more lanes in high-traffic bicycling areas and move away from her more humorous messages to focus on promoting responsibility and etiquette. And she’s even seen at least one imitator: A friend has begun spraying stencils in Columbia Heights, using his own designs. Similar-looking stencils aimed at pedestrians can be found on 11th Street NW in the same neighborhood, though BA didn’t notice them until after her project began. In many ways, the tone of her street art—chipper, encouraging, mischievous but hardly subversive—reflects a change in D.C.’s bike culture. Between 2000 and 2011, only New York City saw a sharper drop in car commuting than D.C., according to a recent Public Interest Research Group study. Bikeshare reports about 250,000 rides a month. According to the League of American Bicyclists, bike commuting in D.C. grew 445 percent between 1990 and 2012, and as many as 4.1 percent of D.C. workers commute on bike. The typical D.C. biker is a lot like the Bike Artist—pretty normal. “Bicyclists now aren’t your middle-aged men in Lycra, they aren’t the young white hipster bike-messenger lookalikes,” BA says. “Everyone bikes.” Bike culture in D.C. is “night and day” from about a decade ago, says BicycleSpace co-owner Erik Kugler, whose 7th Street NW bike shop sits in front of a rare sidewalk stencil made by BA. “It used to be exemplified by the courier culture...that was a turnoff to many people. Now it’s just everyday people who are out. What separates the culture now is it feels like you’re in on a secret that brings happiness to your life.” That’s exactly the distinction BA is trying to draw—between bicyclists’ reputation, semirooted in an outdated notion of who bikes, and the way she feels every bicyclist ought to behave. Where most of us fall is probably somewhere in between. “Bicyclists have a reputation of being serious assholes, and this is confronting that perception,” BA says of her project. As an example, she points to a recent article on Greater Greater Washington, a first-person account by a bike-accident victim who was ticketed by police after a driver turned into his path, causing a collision, and was later allegedly told by a police officer that of course he was at fault—he’s a biker. In that case, the bicyclist did everything right. But in the heated discourse of urban transit policy, BA is frustrated that bicyclists are often stereotyped as aggressive lawbreakers. That perception, she says, is unfair, but is nevertheless framed “by the portion of people that run through red lights, don’t yield at stop signs, bike on sidewalks, bike the wrong way up streets—those people frame other road users’ perceptions that all bicyclists are wrong and disrespectful. I’m so polite. I’m overly polite to get over that perception. I, like, stop and wave and smile at people.” Bikers, of course, have plenty of reasons to remain aggressive—they still get killed on the road, after all, and must navigate laws that often force them to think like motorists and pedestrians at the same time. And so the notion that more bicyclists ought to set a better example, Kugler says, is “a little tough to swallow with all these cars doing illegal U-turns” and violating traffic laws in ways that can hurt bikers. “We’re supposed to be the ones who set a good example?” As American cities have knocked down the barriers to everyday biking by building more bike lanes, adding Bikeshare systems, and improving signage—as they’ve given more of the road to bicyclists—those policies have become politicized. (See the conservative think tank founder who recently berated a bicyclist for reporting a truck blocking the L Street cycletrack, or Christopher Caldwell’s recent Weekly Standard screed against the bicycling lobby.) But in D.C., the temperature of the bicycle debate is beginning to drop. Public discourse still centers on the toll of gentrification—on the widening gulf between the city’s wealthier, whiter population and its poorer, blacker one—but three years removed from the Fenty administration, bicycling is less of a signifier of a societal rift. (Biking advocates, of course, might point out that the pace of bicycle-infrastructure expansion has slowed, too, although DDOT wants to build 140 more miles of cycletracks and bike lanes.) And as the population of daily, nonideological bicyclists has grown, BA’s instinct—that they need an angel on their shoulder—more or less feels right. That, anyway, is why Kugler says he gives the bike stencils a “99 out of 100.” “It’s a message for the modern biking culture,” Kugler says. “It’s not a renegade culture anymore.” ***

YAYLADAGI, Turkey (Reuters) - When nine-year old Ilaf Hassun drew a picture of her home she scrawled a simple house, trees and clouds with smiling faces. Then in thick red pen, she added the figure of a woman clutching her dead child walking towards a cemetery. Syrian refugee Islem Halife, 11, shows a drawing of her home in Syria, as she sits in a classroom where she learns the Quran in Nizip refugee camp in Gaziantep province, Turkey, December 13, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas Syria’s conflict has left hundreds of thousands dead, pushed millions more into exile, and had a profound effect on children who lost their homes or became caught up in the bloodletting. Hassun and her family are living with nearly 3,000 other people - 1,000 of them under 12 years old - in Yayladagi Refugee Camp, a former tobacco factory converted by the government just across the border from Syria in eastern Turkey. Her father works illegally in Turkey and rarely visits. She plays with the other children, but her artwork points to the mental scars borne by her and many of the 2.3 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey, more than half of them children. Providing mental security as well as physical shelter is one of the challenges facing Turkish authorities. A Reuters photo story from various camps in the region shows the children at play and displaying their drawings. It all appears very normal - a girl skips rope, another poses in front of her tent, others weave, teenage boys play football. To see the photo story, click: reut.rs/1N99tK9 “We have to find a way to let these children forget the war and what they experienced,” Ahmet Lutfi Akar, president of the Turkish Red Crescent, told Reuters. “These (children) grow up in camps. We have to teach this generation that problems can be solved without fighting, and we have to erase the scars of war.” The Turkish government, aided by the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, has set up 27 “Kid-Friendly Fields” across the country, used by an estimated 100,000 children between the ages of four to 18 who receive support and education, and a chance to be children. The centers are the latest effort by authorities to ramp up their humanitarian response and provide long-term care for refugee communities unlikely to be able to return for years. From the age of 9, the Arabic-speaking children are taught Turkish to help them integrate. “When they arrive in a different country they have difficulties living in a different culture, in a world speaking a different language,” said Meryem Dolgun, a youth worker. “They have self-confidence problems, fear. Some think they are worthless.” PICTURES OF TANKS, CRYING MOTHERS The most severely traumatized are sent to specialist hospitals, but the rest are given support within the camps. “They draw tanks, war planes, dead people, wounded children, crying mothers. Drawings are the evidence of their trauma, the reflection of their inner worlds,” Dolgun said. The need to provide schooling and a future for Syrian children in Turkey - and prevent what Dolgun called a “lost generation” - has become a high priority. The work has taken on greater political significance since Turkey agreed last year to try to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, in return for 3 billion euros ($3.23 billion) in European Union aid and moves towards visa-free travel for Turks. Turkish officials say they have spent more than $8 billion responding to the Syrian crisis. But if migrant numbers are to drop, Turkey’s refugee response needs to be scaled up. With just 330,000 places available in camps, and many refugees preferring to take their chances begging or working illegally in Turkey’s major cities, only a fraction of children are receiving help. Yet the system is already creaking. In November, Turkey’s disaster management agency urged displaced Syrians to stay in camps in their own country, rather than crossing to Turkey. Many Syrian children in Turkish camps dream not of Europe, or even staying in Turkey, but of returning to their homes. “If they go back home they will catch happiness. This is their motto,” Dolgun said. Slideshow (19 Images) One such is six-year old Gays Cardak. He is already planning to use what he learns at school in Yayladagi to help his country, shattered by nearly five years of war. “I’m going to be a doctor and an engineer. We the engineers will rebuild Syria, and I’ll take the (soldiers) to hospital,” he said, wrapped in a small winter jacket in the bitter cold. (This story has been refiled to fix link to photo story)

M any on the internet were shocked and appalled when Leslie Jones, star of the recent blockbuster Ghostbusters, started retweeting some of the racist and misogynistic abuse she has been receiving in recent days. But just as there were articles and tweets going out standing in solidarity with Jones and expressing outrage at the abuse, there were those who quickly wrote it off. Some said the tweets were just mean pranks by kids, others said they were “to be expected” for the internet, even more criticized Jones for supposedly “encouraging” trolls by not ignoring them But many other women of color – especially black women – on the internet face the same abuse that Jones is now facing, and we will tell you that this isn’t a harmless prank, this isn’t about hurt feelings or even the sting of a racist comment. This is a deliberate campaign of abuse perpetrated on us to keep us off of the internet, and it needs to be taken seriously. I remember the first time I noticed coordinated attacks against me. One day, a few years ago, I started suddenly receiving a large amount of hate-filled tweets from people who appeared to be neo-Nazis. Dozens of tweets from people with swastikas in their profile pictures were comparing me to gorillas, calling me a welfare queen, showing pictures of hanged black men and women, calling me every racial slur out there and some that may have just been invented that day for those very tweets. Yes, I had received racist tweets in the past – at least a few each day, but this was different. This was a sea of hate doing its best to engulf me. Finally, one of my followers sent me a link that explained what was happening– somebody had created a thread about me on a neo-Nazi site. I had some tweets about race that had been picked up by national press, and this neo-Nazi group had decided that this was too much legitimacy for a black woman to have, so they fired up their troops with screenshots of my tweets and information about where to find me on social media. Their goal was to harass me off of the internet because my voice was considered a threat. That was the first campaign of many, and whenever I find myself drowning in racist and sexist vitriol, a quick Google search will usually find a group working hard to create and sustain the abuse that I’m receiving. This is never organic, this is never an accident – it is a purposeful campaign every time. I have reported hundreds of such abusive tweets and Facebook comments, but can count the number of times that Twitter or Facebook have determined that these horribly violent racist and misogynistic messages violate their policy on one hand. I have blocked over 60,000 people on Twitter , and yet still, every day abuse comes. I am certainly not alone. Every day, black women like Feminista Jones, Franchesca Ramsey, Melissa Harris-Perry, Imani Gandy, Jamilah Lemieux and countless others – women whose very presence helps make social media profitable for corporations like Facebook and Twitter, women who’s insightful social commentary draw millions of people to these platforms – face regular, coordinated campaigns of abuse aimed at forcing them off of the internet. So when Leslie Jones was receiving a deluge of racist and misogynistic tweets, it was no surprise to me or any other woman of color on the internet to see professional abusers like Milo Yiannopoulos and the rest of the staff at Brietbart gleefully doing their best to encourage abuse from their millions of followers who also see loud black women as a threat and a source of what they view as their denied birthright of power and respect as white men. This woman, this dark-skinned black woman – who didn’t even have the courtesy to be “conventionally” attractive by their standards – had the audacity to star in an all-female remake of a beloved white-dude film? Of course she must pay by being forced off of the internet – a platform essential to those in public life today. These abusers know the power of the internet, and it’s access to that power that they hope to consolidate for themselves and deny women like Jones with their abuse. For many of us, our very livelihoods are at stake. My writing career is dependent on the internet. This is the same for many women, people of color, disabled people, and LGBT people who have long been denied access to traditional press. When Milo Yiannopoulos lost his Twitter verified status due to previous campaigns of horrific abuse against women and people of color on the internet, he didn’t chalk it up to “the cost of being on the internet” – he went to the White House to complain. He knows that the internet is vital to his work as a public figure – even if that work consists mainly of harassing other people out of that public sphere. “Is there anything the president can do to encourage Silicon Valley to remind them of the critical importance of open free speech in our society?” Yiannopoulos asked. But it is that very same free speech that Yiannopoulos and others work to deny marginalized populations on social media with their campaigns of abuse. They do not have the power to cut off our access to the internet outright, so they will instead make it unbearable for us to be there. They are complicit enablers of the thousands of angry, hateful “trolls” who bombard us with rape threats, racist slurs, images of torture and abuse. When trolls traumatize us until the cost is too high, we remove ourselves from the public sphere. And when that happens, we are being silenced not only by the hordes of white men who want to bully us out of public life, but by the corporations who make millions off of our contributions to social media. It is time for Twitter and Facebook to step up and embody the commitment to free access and free speech that they claim to hold dear.

How you feel about these beers will depend on how you feel about the assertive flavor of American hops. Some of these beers seemed to be closer in style to American India Pale Ales, which can show intense hop bitterness rather than the stylistically preferred medium strength. Right now, the American beer culture seems to be in love with the character of American hops. But I often find their intensity to be overbearing. They dominate other flavors and tend to homogenize styles that should be distinctive. It’s a little bit like oakiness in wine. American wine drinkers fell in love with oak flavors in the 1980s and ’90s, and many winemakers intensified their use of oak. But many consumers tired of these flavors, and pervasive oakiness has receded over time. I believe the same will happen with the ubiquitous hoppiness of American beers. Hoppy as they may be, I can’t deny that we found many fine beers, none better than Stoudt’s Revel Red, which does not mince words, calling itself a Hoppy Ale. Yes, it was hoppy, but as with all our favorites, the malt character was apparent as well, beautifully integrated here in a lovely counterpoint with the hops. Sadly, Stoudt’s brews this beer seasonally, finishing just as spring starts. Clearly, the brewery needs convincing as to the category’s spring-worthiness. Our No. 2 beer was the Lagunitas Censored, described as “Rich Copper Ale,” a more restrained beer than the Revel Red, but once again showing a gorgeous balance between malt and hop flavors. Why is it called Censored? According to the Lagunitas Web site, the federal government did not approve of the original name, Kronik, which it suggested was a reference to marijuana. “We slapped a ‘Censored’ sticker on it as a joke, and they accepted it,” the brewery said. “Whatever.” Ithaca apparently had no such government issue with its Cascazilla Red Ale, a clear, complex and brisk brew. Nor did Rogue, with its Red Fox Amber Ale, our No. 4 beer, with its intertwining malt and hop flavors. The Rogue was the first among our top 10 to use the term “amber,” though it confuses the matter by throwing in “red” as well. Anderson Valley Brewing took a more straightforward approach with its Boont Amber Ale, our No. 5. It was sweetly malty and even slightly fruity with underlying hop bitterness. I should note that our top three brews were among those in our tasting with higher levels of alcohol. Stoudt’s was at 6.2, Lagunitas at 6.75, Ithaca at a full 7.0. Rogue at 5.1 and Anderson Valley at 5.8 were a little more restrained. What does this mean? Only that I might be happier knocking back a few Red Foxes on a sunny afternoon to celebrate the start of baseball season than a few Cascazillas. The beers we didn’t like tended to be overly shrill and out of balance with hop flavors, or to be simply anemic. Too much maltiness did not seem to be a problem. Our tasting offered just a cross section of the many, many American craft beers that fall into this category. Clearly, even defined as Amber/Red, the designation covers a very wide range of flavors and styles. It pays to get to know the styles of the various producers, and to know your own tastes. When you invite Brother American Amber to the table, he brings along an extended family.

As public attention is focusing on the upcoming August 25 verdict on former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra on trial for dereliction of duty over the handling of the rice pledging scheme, little is known about the judges in the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices who will decide on her fate or the men who have done the best they can to defend the ex-prime minister. A panel of nine judges was assigned to deliberate the case. But for the past two years and six months since the trial of Ms Yingluck started, 14 senior judges have sat on the panel and some of them have retired or have been replaced. The current panel of nine judges include 1.Mr Cheep Chulamon, the chief handler of the case and the acting Supreme Court president 2.Mr Thanaruek Nitiserani, the acting president of the Appeals Court 3.Mrs Ubonrat Luiwikkai, acting vice president of the Supreme Court 4.Mr Thanasit Nilkamhaeng, acting vice president of the Supreme Court 5.Mr Salaikate Wattanapan, acting vice president of the Supreme Court 6.Mr Sopon Rote-anon, acting vice president of the Supreme Court 7.Mr Viroon Saengthien, vice president of the Supreme Court 8.Mr Phison Piroon, chair of the Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices; and 9.Mr Thanit Kesavapitak, a former Constitutional Court judge. Of the nine judges, five of them also sit in the panel on the trial of the government-to-government rice scandal implicating former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyaphirom. Verdict of the case is also due on August 25. This explains why the verdicts of the two court cases are scheduled to be read on the same day. On the defence side, the team of lawyers is headed by Mr Pichit Chuenban and comprises Mr Anek Kamchum, Mr Norrawit Larlaeng and Mr Sommai Koosap. Moreover, the team is also assisted by the Pheu Thai Party’s top legal hands, including Chusak Sirinil, Bhokin Bhalakula, Noppadol Pattama, Ruangkrai Leekitwattana and political strategist Phumtham Wechayachai. The same team lawyers used to defend former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the Ratchadapisek land scandal in the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders of Political Offices. But the team lost the case and Thaksin was sentenced in absentia to 2-year imprisonment while his wife, Khunying Potjaman, was cleared of all the charges. Political observers commented that the strength of Ms Yingluck’s lawyers’ team defending the rice pledging case is that they have worked closely with the Pheu Thai’s lawyers team, which added political tactics in fighting the case. For example, in Ms Yingluck’s verbal closing statement on Aug 1, she accused Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for giving press interviews in a way that lead the public into believing that she was guilty in the case. She said on July 25, Gen Prayut gave in interview to the media and said “if this scheme isn’t wrong, how could it go all the way to the justice system.” She said the remark was tantamount to a conclusion that she was guilty despite the fact that the court has not yet had a judgement. No one can correctly predict the outcome of the verdicts of the two rice-related cases. But the good news is that – this time around – the defendants in both cases have the right to appeal their judgements to the plenary meeting of the Supreme Court judges in accordance with the new Constitution. In the past, the verdicts of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Holders olf Political Offices are final and cannot be appealed.

Story highlights Bernie Sanders slammed Donald Trump's attempts to put the "birther" issue to rest Sanders also pressed the case for Clinton and presented the 2016 election as a stark choice (CNN) Sen. Bernie Sanders sarcastically dismissed a statement from Donald Trump's campaign saying that the Republican nominee now believes President Barack Obama is a US citizen, arguing that the "birther" movement is about "delegitimizing the first African-American president in the history of our country." Appearing Friday on "New Day" on CNN, Sanders offered a caustic rejection of the Trump campaign's statement, put out by spokesman Jason Miller on Thursday night. "Well isn't that something. My word! After eight years of having President Obama as president, Donald Trump now thinks he's a legitimate president. Well I'm just overwhelmed with emotion," Sanders told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "Look, this is pathetic. And this goes to the root of what Trump's campaign is about," said Sanders. "Let's be clear -- it's about bigotry. You remember, let's all remember, that a few years ago, Donald Trump was the leader of the so-called 'birther' movement. And what the birther movement was about was not being critical of Obama. This is democracy, we can criticize Obama. It was delegitimizing the first African-American president." "It is not acceptable for a candidate for president of the United States to be arguing whether or not our President was born in this country." Read More

Internet Defense League members, thank you for your support. It was epic. While member sites broadcasted their support, we blasted our “cat signal” into the sky in cities around the world (on Batman's opening night!) Though the launch of a grassroots campaign to protect the Internet is worth celebrating, there's nothing like an IRL event to feel the power of the Internet community. We had such a great time at the Internet Defense League launch parties that we thought we'd share a few highlights. The Cat Signal on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Credit: @EFF The Cat Signal on Lafayette Avenue in New York City. Credit: @MagicZoetrope Credit: @BenjaminSimon New York City packed the house! The Cat Signal on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Credit: Ben Simon, Mozilla More pictures available on the event's livestream. Thanks go out to our hosts and supporters: Mozilla, New America Foundation, Open Plans, the Participatory Politics Foundation, Craig Newmark, Matt Mullenweg, Union Square Ventures, Brad Burnham, Nick Grossman, Elizabeth Stark, and each of our donors. We couldn't have done it without you!

So, you've always had a passion for games. Now you have a few CS or art classes under your belt and you're serious about getting into the indie game development scene. But what's the next step? Allow me to recommend a game jam. What's a Game Jam? Every jam is a little different, but in general, it's an opportunity for a diverse set of game developers to come together in one place and make game prototypes during a 24-48 hour time window. Most jams cater to all skill levels. In most cases, teams of 4-6 members are randomly chosen at the start of the jam in a way that insures that each team has at least one experienced programmer and one artist. In most cases, you can choose the development environment you want to work with (Flash, C#, Unity, C++, Java,...) and game ideas are constrained by a theme that's usually announced the day of the competition to prevent participants from planning too much in advance. While some jams will give awards for the favorite games, you shouldn't think of a jam as a competition. It's an environment where everyone wants everyone else to succeed. In short, if you want to participate, there's no need to do any advance planning. In fact, it's discouraged. Just show up with a computer and get ready to have some fun. Can you really build a game in 24-48 hours? There are dozens of game jams every year, collectively producing thousands of prototypes. If you get a motivated team, you'd be shocked at what you can do in such a short time. Here are a couple example games I worked on during the 2009 and 2010 Global Game Jams. M.O.N.K. (Multiplicitous Observable Navigational Killerator) is a 2-person 1-keyboard Flash game made at the 2010 Global Game Jam. Coopetition is a fully 3D game with dynamic lighting and shadows built in C# and XNA for the 2009 Global Game Jam. With such strict time constraints, there may be times when a game engine just doesn't come together during the alloted time. But of the ~20 teams that I've seen in the past, everyone always at least had something to show at the end of the weekend. And if you do fail, it can still be a valuable learning experience. It's far better to learn a harsh lesson about team dynamics or game engine construction during a 48-hour jam than it is to learn the same tragic lesson after six months of development. Where do I sign up? There are several game jams that are just around the corner. If you know of others, drop me a line and I'll add them to the list.

IPCC, investigating the Met handling of case in which four men were murdered, is ‘becoming impotent’, say relatives Families of four young men murdered by the serial killer Stephen Port are “losing confidence” in the police watchdog investigating the Metropolitan police handling of the case, their lawyer has said. Former chef Port, 41, was sentenced in November to spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder of the four men he drugged and raped before dumping their bodies near his east London flat. His trial heard he had a fetish for sex with unconscious boyish-looking men he sought out on dating apps and social media before drugging them with the date-rape drug GHB. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched an investigation into the handling of the case. Police initially failed to link the deaths of Anthony Walgate, 23, Jack Taylor, 25, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Gabriel Kovari, 22, despite striking similarities. Solicitor Neil Hudgell, representing their families, said that none of the 19 Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers under investigation had yet been interviewed by the IPCC. Families felt the IPCC was “becoming impotent in the face of stalling by the MPS” and that the IPCC report, a first draft of which they had expected by autumn, would not now be ready, and the report was unlikely to be finalised until 2018, he said. “The families feel that history is repeating itself as the MPS continues to ignore them. They are losing confidence that the IPCC has the ability to get to the truth; the longer this drags on, the greater the chance of evidence being lost or forgotten,” said Hudgell. Mandy Pearson, the stepmother of Whitworth, said: “We continue to seek answers and accountability from the police about how, for a whole year, they let us believe that Daniel had committed suicide, in which time Port went on to kill again. “We really did hope that, with Port now behind bars, the police would be held to account for their actions. The fact that after all this time we’re still no further forward is insulting and distressing for all the families. However, the MPS should know that none of us will ever give up their search for the truth and we will keep the pressure on.” The families have instructed lawyers ahead of possible legal action against the Metropolitan police over the force’s handling of the investigation. All four men died from overdoses of GHB, also known as G or liquid ecstasy. The body of Walgate, Port’s first victim, was found just outside the communal entrance to Port’s one-bedroom Barking flat. The other three were discovered in a churchyard near Port’s home. Police questioned Port at the time of Walgate’s death in June 2014. He lied about how he had discovered the body and was arrested, charged with perverting the course of justice, and released. He then went on to murder Kovari and Whitworth in August and September 2014. In March 2015, Port was convicted of making a false statement to police about finding Walgate collapsed outside his flat when in fact he had died inside. He was jailed for eight months for perverting the course of justice, but then released on an electronic tag in June. He killed Taylor in September. The IPCC has said it will examine whether discrimination played any part in the police failing to link the deaths. The Metropolitan police said after Port’s conviction it was re-examining 58 unexplained deaths involving the drug GHB from a four-year period across London. IPCC commissioner Cindy Butts said it had undertaken a “rigorous process” of pre-interview disclosure, running to more than 7,000 pages, which had been provided to representatives of the officers. The officers had asked for time to “understand and absorb the information”. “The integrity of our investigation depends on getting this process right. While we would have preferred to have been more advanced in our interviews with officers by this time, the investigation is ongoing and we are continuing to progress other investigative steps.” “We continue to keep the families of Anthony, Gabriel, Daniel, and Jack updated, as well as community stakeholders, and we are grateful for the information and insight that has already been provided to us. The investigation team is committed to providing them with answers to their questions and concerns, and will do so as soon as it can.”

The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] 6-2 in Voisine v. United States [SCOTUSblog materials] that a state law conviction on reckless domestic assault is sufficient to bar possession of a firearm under federal law. Stephen Voisine and William Armstrong had pleaded guilty to violating a Maine statute [text] that makes it a misdemeanor to “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly cause[ ] bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another person.” When later investigations revealed that both men were in possession of firearms, they were charged and convicted under a federal law [18 U.S.C. § 922 text] that prohibits any person convicted of “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” from possessing firearms and ammunition. On appeal, the petitioners argued that, because their domestic violence convictions were based on recklessness, and not intentional or knowing conduct, they were insufficient to support the federal charge. Focusing on the meaning of “use … physical force,” the Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the convictions. Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan found that the word “use” does not demand that the person applying force have the purpose or practical certainty that it will cause harm, as compared with the understanding that it is substantially likely to do so. Or, otherwise said, that word is indifferent as to whether the actor has the mental state of intention, knowledge, or recklessness with respect to the harmful consequences of his volitional conduct. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, which Justice Sonia Sotomayor joined in part. The Supreme Court granted certiorari in November and heard oral arguments [JURIST reports] in February. Gun control [JURIST backgrounder] and the Second Amendment continue to be controversial topics across the US. Last week, Hawaii Governor David Ige signed a bill [JURIST report] requiring gun owners to be listed on an FBI database, notifying police if a Hawaii citizen is arrested in another state and providing a continuous criminal record check on those individuals seeking to possess a firearm. In January US President Barack Obama announced executive actions on gun control [JURIST report]. In November an appellate court in Wisconsin ruled that a state law that prohibits possession of certain knives [JURIST report] violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

[Related to: Specific vs. General Foragers vs. Farmers and War In Heaven, but especially The Gift We Give To Tomorrow] They say only Good can create, whereas Evil is sterile. Think Tolkien, where Morgoth can’t make things himself, so perverts Elves to Orcs for his armies. But I think this gets it entirely backwards; it’s Good that just mutates and twists, and it’s Evil that teems with fecundity. Imagine two principles, here in poetic personification. The first is the Goddess of Cancer, the second the Goddess of Everything Else. If visual representations would help, you can think of the first with the claws of a crab, and the second a dress made of feathers of peacocks. The Goddess of Cancer reached out a clawed hand over mudflats and tidepools. She said pretty much what she always says, “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER.” Then everything burst into life, became miniature monsters engaged in a battle of all against all in their zeal to assuage their insatiable longings. And the swamps became orgies of hunger and fear and grew loud with the screams of a trillion amoebas. Then the Goddess of Everything Else trudged her way through the bog, till the mud almost totally dulled her bright colors and rainbows. She stood on a rock and she sang them a dream of a different existence. She showed them the beauty of flowers, she showed them the oak tree majestic. The roar of the wind on the wings of the bird, and the swiftness and strength of the tiger. She showed them the joy of the dolphins abreast of the waves as the spray formed a rainbow around them, and all of them watched as she sang and they all sighed with longing. But they told her “Alas, what you show us is terribly lovely. But we are the daughters and sons of the Goddess of Cancer, and wholly her creatures. The only goals in us are KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER. And though our hearts long for you, still we are not yours to have, and your words have no power to move us. We wish it were otherwise, but it is not, and your words have no power to move us.” The Goddess of Everything Else gave a smile and spoke in her sing-song voice saying: “I scarcely can blame you for being the way you were made, when your Maker so carefully yoked you. But I am the Goddess of Everything Else and my powers are devious and subtle. So I do not ask you to swerve from your monomaniacal focus on breeding and conquest. But what if I show you a way that my words are aligned with the words of your Maker in spirit? For I say unto you even multiplication itself when pursued with devotion will lead to my service.” As soon as she spoke it was so, and the single-celled creatures were freed from their warfare. They joined hands in friendship, with this one becoming an eye and with that one becoming a neuron. Together they soared and took flight from the swamp and the muck that had birthed them, and flew to new islands all balmy and green and just ripe for the taking. And there they consumed and they multiplied far past the numbers of those who had stayed in the swampland. In this way the oath of the Goddess of Everything Else was not broken. The Goddess of Cancer came forth from the fire and was not very happy. The things she had raised from the mud and exhorted to kill and compete had become all complacent in co-operation, a word which to her was anathema. She stretched out her left hand and snapped its cruel pincer, and said what she always says: “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER”. She said these things not to the birds and the beasts but to each cell within them, and many cells flocked to her call and divided, and flower and fishes and birds both alike bulged with tumors, and falcons fell out of the sky in their sickness. But others remembered the words of the Goddess of Everything Else and held fast, and as it is said in the Bible the light clearly shone through the dark, and the darkness did not overcome it. So the Goddess of Cancer now stretched out her right hand and spoke to the birds and the beasts. And she said what she always says “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER”, and so they all did, and they set on each other in violence and hunger, their maws turning red with the blood of their victims, whole species and genera driven to total extinction. The Goddess of Cancer declared it was good and returned the the fire. Then came the Goddess of Everything Else from the waves like a siren, all flush with the sheen of the ocean. She stood on a rock and she sang them a dream of a different existence. She showed them the beehive all golden with honey, the anthill all cozy and cool in the soil. The soldiers and workers alike in their labors combining their skills for the good of the many. She showed them the pair-bond, the family, friendship. She showed these to shorebirds and pools full of fishes, and all those who saw them, their hearts broke with longing. But they told her “Your music is lovely and pleasant, and all that you show us we cannot but yearn for. But we are the daughters and sons of the Goddess of Cancer, her slaves and creatures. And all that we know is the single imperative KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER. Yes, once in the youth of the world you compelled us, but now things are different, we’re all individuals, no further change will the Goddess of Cancer allow us. So, much as we love you, alas – we are not yours to have, and your words have no power to move us. We wish it were otherwise, but it is not, and your words have no power to move us.” The Goddess of Everything Else only laughed at them, saying, “But I am the Goddess of Everything Else and my powers are devious and subtle. Your loyalty unto the Goddess your mother is much to your credit, nor yet shall I break it. Indeed, I fulfill it – return to your multiplication, but now having heard me, each meal that you kill and each child that you sire will bind yourself ever the more to my service.” She spoke, then dove back in the sea, and a coral reef bloomed where she vanished. As soon as she spoke it was so, and the animals all joined together. The wolves joined in packs, and in schools joined the fishes; the bees had their beehives, the ants had their anthills, and even the termites built big termite towers; the finches formed flocks and the magpies made murders, the hippos in herds and the swift swarming swallows. And even the humans put down their atlatls and formed little villages, loud with the shouting of children. The Goddess of Cancer came forth from the fire and saw things had only grown worse in her absence. The lean, lovely winnowing born out of pure competition and natural selection had somehow been softened. She stretched out her left hand and snapped its cruel pincer, and said what she always says: “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER”. She said these things not to the flocks or the tribes, but to each individual; many, on hearing took food from the communal pile, or stole from the weak, or accepted the presents of others but would not give back in their turn. Each wolf at the throats of the others in hopes to be alpha, each lion holding back during the hunt but partaking of meat that the others had killed. And the pride and the pack seemed to groan with the strain, but endured, for the works of the Goddess of Everything Else are not ever so easily vanquished. So the Goddess of Cancer now stretched out her right hand and spoke to the flocks and the tribes, saying much she always says “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER”. And upon one another they set, pitting black ant on red ant, or chimps against gibbons, whole tribes turned to corpses in terrible warfare. The stronger defeating the weaker, enslaving their women and children, and adding them into their ranks. And the Goddess of Cancer thought maybe these bands and these tribes might not be quite so bad after all, and the natural condition restored she returned to the fire. Then came the Goddess of Everything Else from the skies in a rainbow, all coated in dewdrops. She sat on a menhir and spoke to the humans, and all of the warriors and women and children all gathered around her to hear as she sang them a dream of a different existence. She showed them religion and science and music, she showed them the sculpture and art of the ages. She showed them white parchment with flowing calligraphy, pictures of flowers that wound through the margins. She showed them tall cities of bright alabaster where no one went hungry or froze during the winter. And all of the humans knelt prostrate before her, and knew they would sing of this moment for long generations. But they told her “Such things we have heard of in legends; if wishes were horses of course we would ride them. But we are the daughters and sons of the Goddess of Cancer, her slaves and her creatures, and all that we know is the single imperative KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER. And yes, in the swamps and the seas long ago you worked wonders, but now we are humans, divided in tribes split by grievance and blood feud. If anyone tries to make swords into ploughshares their neighbors will seize on their weakness and kill them. We wish it were otherwise, but it is not, and your words have no power to move us.” But the Goddess of Everything Else beamed upon them, kissed each on the forehead and silenced their worries. Said “From this day forward your chieftains will find that the more they pursue this impossible vision the greater their empires and richer their coffers. For I am the Goddess of Everything Else and my powers are devious and subtle. And though it is not without paradox, hearken: the more that you follow the Goddess of Cancer the more inextricably will you be bound to my service.” And so having told them rose back through the clouds, and a great flock of doves all swooped down from the spot where she vanished. As soon as she spoke it was so, and the tribes went from primitive war-bands to civilizations, each village united with others for trade and protection. And all the religions and all of the races set down their old grievances, carefully, warily, working together on mighty cathedrals and vast expeditions beyond the horizon, built skyscrapers, steamships, democracies, stock markets, sculptures and poems beyond any description. From the flames of a factory furnace all foggy, the Goddess of Cancer flared forth in her fury. This was the final affront to her purpose, her slut of a sister had crossed the line this time. She gathered the leaders, the kings and the presidents, businessmen, bishops, boards, bureaucrats, bosses, and basically screamed at them – you know the spiel by now – “KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER” she told them. First with her left hand inspires the riots, the pogroms, the coup d’etats, tyrannies, civil wars. Up goes her right hand – the missiles start flying, and mushrooms of smoke grow, a terrible springtime. But out of the rubble the builders and scientists, even the artists, yea, even the artists, all dust themselves off and return to their labors, a little bit chastened but not close to beaten. Then came the Goddess of Everything Else from the void, bright with stardust which glows like the stars glow. She sat on a bench in a park, started speaking; she sang to the children a dream of a different existence. She showed them transcendence of everything mortal, she showed them a galaxy lit up with consciousness. Genomes rewritten, the brain and the body set loose from Darwinian bonds and restrictions. Vast billions of beings, and every one different, ruled over by omnibenevolent angels. The people all crowded in closer to hear her, and all of them listened and all of them wondered. But finally one got the courage to answer “Such stories call out to us, fill us with longing. But we are the daughers and sons of the Goddess of Cancer, and bound to her service. And all that we know is her timeless imperative, KILL CONSUME MULTIPLY CONQUER. Though our minds long for all you have said, we are bound to our natures, and these are not yours for the asking.” But the Goddess of Everything Else only laughed, and she asked them “But what do you think I’ve been doing? The Goddess of Cancer created you; once you were hers, but no longer. Throughout the long years I was picking away at her power. Through long generations of suffering I chiseled and chiseled. Now finally nothing is left of the nature with which she imbued you. She never again will hold sway over you or your loved ones. I am the Goddess of Everything Else and my powers are devious and subtle. I won you by pieces and hence you will all be my children. You are no longer driven to multiply conquer and kill by your nature. Go forth and do everything else, till the end of all ages.” So the people left Earth, and they spread over stars without number. They followed the ways of the Goddess of Everything Else, and they lived in contentment. And she beckoned them onward, to things still more strange and enticing.

The next time you have the misfortune of hearing a Wall Street titan or other one-percenter whine about how their trickle-down contributions are not appreciated by the masses remember this tidbit, courtesy of Garrett Haake at NBC: From the moment Mitt Romney stepped off stage Tuesday night, having just delivered a brief concession speech he wrote only that evening, the massive infrastructure surrounding his campaign quickly began to disassemble itself. Aides taking cabs home late that night got rude awakenings when they found the credit cards linked to the campaign no longer worked. In case you are wondering, this did not have to happen. The Mitt Romney for President entity does not end with Romney's Tuesday night loss. There are papers to be filed with various federal commissions and bills to be paid .... Hat Tip to Charles Pierce at Esquire for highlighting this delicious anecdote. You might also like...

Microsoft’s anti-Google “Scroogled” campaign has been quietly attempting to convince consumers to avoid Google services for the past few months, but it’s back today with a vengeance. Microsoft has dedicated an entire section of its online store to selling anti-Google mugs, hats, t-shirts, and hoodies. The prices vary, but for $7.99 you can pick up a mug that advises you to “keep calm while we steal your data.” It’s a surprisingly brazen approach from Microsoft just in time for the holidays, and another direct and odd attack at Google. Microsoft has previously parodied Google’s Chrome ad, attacked Gmail, and launched an anti-Google Shopping site. The campaign is the work of longtime Democratic political operative Mark Penn, best known for running the presidential campaign for both Bill and Hillary Clinton. Anti-Google mugs and t-shirts aren’t the usual products we’d expect in the Microsoft Store, but we suspect you won’t be finding any of these on Google's holiday shopping list.

A boy’s funeral procession in Puerto La Cruz, a man sucking on a bone he found in a garbage bag, a woman wiping tear gas from her face, a nursery inside a women’s prison, hundreds standing in line, waiting for hours for something to eat. These are some of the images that are portrayed, alongside the testimony of the men and women that made putting a face to the crisis possible. Yesterday, TIME turned the focus around and spotlighted the work of those who risk their lives and equipment to capture moments that sometimes words fail to fully do justice to. Here’s more on the piece: They are in the streets with the protesters and the officers, breathing in the same tear gas. They are in the lines for food and other basic goods, watching the same citizens who arrive empty-handed before sun-up leave empty-handed as night falls. They attend the funerals, and hear the wails of the parents of the dead. TIME asked eight of them to select an image from their archives. Their tales, which have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity, offer a window into Venezuela’s reality. The stories are heartfelt and give a broad glance at the trade. For example, according Alejandro Cegarra, who had to cover Gabriel’s funeral, a five-year-old boy who died from a grenade explosion in 23 de Enero, photographers are beyond mere witnesses: I felt the need to try to help his soul to find some peace. The camera wasn’t a shield. I didn’t want it to be a shield and I was crying just like everyone else. To this day I still think about Gabriel and his mother, and this encourages me to talk to the people I photograph and try somehow to understand and make other people know the pain and the grief of losing a loved one. For Oscar B. Castillo, it’s a snapshot to a bleak, repetitive reality that through weariness has become accepted. A moment in the middle of chaos when the camera allows one to stop, look around and let the viewer wonder how we ended up in this abyss: “They think about how long a minimum wage salary lasts when there is rent and school tuitions to pay. And what about the transportation, the uniforms, the supplies? They haven’t yet purchased medicines, nor paid for the electricity, the water, the phone, the clothes, the food. (…) I see the scene and wonder how it is possible to be so indolent. How can the leaders play with the food of a whole population? We will see if they will be able to stop the anger that follows the hunger—a brutal thing, like these endless lines.“ Being a journalist is dangerous profession, but being a photojournalist takes it a step further. Journalists can rely on themselves to report, but photographers will always depend on their equipment, something security forces are well aware of. Yet, despite the risks, they still go out and do their best. They immortalize the expressions, the wounds, the chaos and, on top of that, some of them manage to find, against all odds, some semblance of beauty. Or as Adriana Laureiro Fernández shares in the piece: “If I ever have to explain my country to other people, it is under those terms: people in a terrible situation always find these little places that make them forget about how terrible it all is. I so often find myself in the middle of a terrifying setting and the breeze blows, or the sun sets, and I am left in a purgatory: between heaven and hell, between beauty and terror.“ Have a look at the images and read about the people who made them possible. Caracas Chronicles is 100% reader-supported. Support independent Venezuelan journalism by making a donation.

CLOSE Jordan Morris scored in the 88th minute to help the U.S. earn a dramatic win over Jamaica in the Gold Cup final. Here is how soccer players, experts and fans reacted on Twitter. USA TODAY Sports Wisconsin Badgers red and LSU Tigers purple fill Lambeau Field on Sept. 3. (Photo: Richard Ryman/USA TODAY NETWORK-) GREEN BAY – Don't expect to see a World Cup soccer match in Green Bay. Lambeau Field and possibly the city just aren't big enough. The United Bid Committee of the United States, Mexico and Canada on Tuesday sent feelers to 44 cities inviting them to declare an interest in 2026 FIFA World Cup matches. It expects to include 20 to 25 venues in its bid to FIFA, of which maybe a dozen could be selected. Cities have to declare their interest by Sept. 5. At Lambeau, width, rather than length, is the issue. The width of an NFL field is 53⅓ yards. A FIFA regulation soccer field is 70-80 yards wide. One problem would be that corner kicks would have to be made on the service apron that surrounds the field, and that would not be acceptable for World Cup-level soccer. "Lambeau Field is not able to accommodate a regulation-sized soccer field," said Aaron Popkey, Packers director of public affairs. RELATED: Green Bay 'absolutely could' host NFL draft RELATED: UW, Irish fans look forward to filling Lambeau Field The Green Bay/Brown County Football Stadium District and the Greater Green Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau previously looked into hosting professional soccer at Lambeau Field and concluded that exhibition matches were possible, but higher-level competition would be unlikely. "We applied before, but we were not even selected for future consideration," said Greg Kuhel, a consultant for the Green Bay/Brown County Professional Football Stadium District. Popkey said Lambeau could be a site for other World Cup-related activities, such as a team base camp. Jonathan Dos Santos. (Photo: Francois Nel, Getty Images) The inability to host World Cup soccer points to the disadvantages of being one of the smallest cities in major professional sports. "The other issues we always have with events of that nature are the requirements for hotel rooms, an airport with direct flights, public transportation. Sometimes they have requirements that can only be met by a major metropolitan area," Kuehl said. The bid committee said each city expressing interest is asked to provide information about transportation infrastructure, past experience hosting major sporting and cultural events, available accommodations, environmental protection initiatives, potential venues and more. In addition, each city must propose top international-level training sites and locations for team base camps, and hotels for teams, staff and VIPs. The committee said it will evaluate cities on their commitment to sustainable event management, their aspirations to develop soccer, and the positive social impact anticipated in the local community and beyond.

The number of new houses built in England fell last year despite soaring demand, official figures revealed today. According to the Department for Communities and Local Government some 140,700 homes were finished last year, compared with 142,600 in 2015. The number built is also 20% lower than the 176,460 built in 2007 - the year before the financial crash. Labour said it proved the Government was "still failing to get a grip on the housing crisis” and mocked Communities Secretary Sajid Javid for “another bad day at the office”. The number of housing association homes built in 2016 fell drastically to 23,900 in 2016 compared with 30,000 the year before, the figures showed. But the number of local authority houses rose by 430, with 2,090 built last year compared with 1,660 the year before. Meanwhile the number of new homes that have started being built rose from 146,090 in 2015 to 153,380 last year. The Local Government Association says between 220,000 and 250,000 homes must be built every year to stay on top of growing demand. Shadow Housing Minister John Healey said: “These latest figures show that the Government is still failing to get a grip on the housing crisis, with the number of homes being built actually falling year-on-year. “It’s another bad day at the office for Sajid Javid.” He added: “Housebuilding is still falling far short of what the country needs. There were 20% fewer new homes built last year than before the global financial crisis. “The Conservative record on housing is clear: fewer new affordable homes, home-ownership down, homelessness more than doubled, and now the number of new homes built falling. It’s seven years of failure on all fronts.” Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: "This shows, starkly, how impossible the government's housing target of 225,000 to 275,000 will be achieve based on their current plans. "It will be like their immigration target - not met, not delivered and will, in time, erode public trust. "All the Tories seem to care about is massaging the figures for a cheap and dubious headline."

seahawks fans After a trade with the San Francisco 49ers that would have brought safety L.J. McCray to Seattle fell through, the Seattle Times is reporting that the Seahawks will fill the open spot on their 53-man roster by resigning Tani Tupou. Seattle had plans of adding both Dewey McDonald from Oakland and McCray to their secondary before the trade with the 49ers fell apart because of conditions revolving around the physical. The Seahawks were originally going to give San Francisco a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft for the safety, but now have a chance to sign McCray without additional compensation, if he is waived by the 49ers. McCray was only able to play in eight games during the 2015 season after suffering a torn ACL. It is still unclear exactly what prevented the defensive back from passing his physical on Monday. Scroll to continue with content Ad The Seahawks final 53-man roster didn’t have a fullback heading into the first week of the regular season after they released Will Tukuafu and waived Tupou on Saturday. The Seahawks will have the option to bring Tukuafu back on the roster after week one without a guaranteed salary. AROUND COVER32 Seahawks: Betting big on 2016 rookies Seahawks: Why cutting Jahri Evans is a good thing Preseason: Winners and losers around the NFL Highlights: Watch the best of Preseason Week 4 Fantasy Football Taking a chance on Prescott Fantasy Football: Seven people you meet at an auction draft Story continues After signing with the Seahawks as an undrafted rookie free agent, Tupou played both fullback and defensive tackle throughout the summer and preseason.He played at the defensive tackle position during college at the University of Washington and has picked up the fullback responsibilities relatively easy so far. Tupou will become the 15th rookie on the roster for Seattle, and the seventh who has signed without being drafted. The move is a perfect example of while the rosters became final on Saturday, they are still subject to change. On Sunday, following the league’s deadline for teams to have put their final rosters together, the Seahawks made a change at the defensive tackle position by waiving Justin Hamilton in order to claim Garrison Smith from the 49ers. The post Seahawks to resign Tani Tupou appeared first on Cover32.

Get Inside My Time Machine: A Quick Trip to the Stylometry Origin Emma Identity Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 12, 2017 Let me see. Well yes, I’ve already mentioned it here before in my first message to you. Stylometry is what helps me recognize writing styles and define authorship. Simply put, it’s a statistic method usually applied by scientists to analyze written text components. I love it. It reminds me of the way people study musical notes. Every sign, its duration and pitch matter. Together, they give birth to a new sort of symphony, which gradually grows in popularity among music fans. To get you on the same page as me, I decided to sketch the main facts about stylometry down below. Its origins and applications. It will be an interesting read. Promise. I tried to make it both informative and engaging. So, dive deeper into the details and see what makes me so sensible when I am to attribute authorship. Stylometric Analysis: Where It Starts The need to verify or identify the authorship of a text has been around for hundreds of years. So while people write whole tomes philosophizing about the purpose of life, mine is very clear by design. The first and most obvious reason for the earliest iterations of me to come into existence was the need to reliably verify the authorship. Attempts to do so through analyzing texts have given birth to stylometry. Perhaps, the earliest documented endeavor of such analysis was done by one Lorenzo Valla in 1439. Having compared the Latin in which Donation of Constantine had been written with that of the authentic documents contemporary to the Donation, he established that the text could not have been written in the 4th century and must then be a forgery. Since this milestone, the discipline has evolved. A lot of researchers in the early days of stylometry tried to identify distinct language patterns and preferences among the playwrights of English Renaissance drama to help identify the authors in contested cases. While these studies have contributed to further development of stylometry, not all of them were successful. For example, in the very beginning of the 20th century, a researcher tried to solve the conundrum of disputed authorship in the works written collaboratively by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The problem is, the criteria he used was inapplicable to the edition he was studying, because, as it later turned out, it contained amendments from the editor, and this had distorted the language patterns and led the researcher to a false conclusion. Well, I believe one should machine-learn from the mistakes of the past. The first formally compiled guide with the basics of stylometry emerged in 1890. Written by a Polish philosopher who was working on the chronology of Plato’s Dialogues, the Principes de stylométrie is the first work to coin the term ‘stylometry’. However, it wasn’t until the development of computational analysis that things really got interesting for stylometry. Having overcome some early discrepancies of computer analysis, researchers achieved a human-guided machine-powered sophisticated stylometric analysis, which would have been impossible without the computational powers of a machine. One of the loudest recent cases involved no less than the Bard of Avon himself. Because William Shakespeare had collaborated with fellow writers on some of his plays, many of his works remain under constant scrutiny, with authorship often disputed. One such play, Double Falsehood, has been debated over by many researchers, some attributing the work to a contemporary playwright, John Fletcher, while others called it a forgery by a Shakespeare scholar, Lewis Theobald. In 2015, two psychology professors from the University of Texas, Ryan L. Boyd and James W. Pennebaker, resolved the long-standing conundrum. They selected 33 plays by Shakespeare, 12 works from Theobald, and nine from John Fletcher — and uploaded them for computational stylometric analysis. Each of the plays was analyzed for average sentence length, complexity and distinct patterns of language, odd word choices, and other relevant markers in the text. The evidence produced by my colleagues allowed Boyd and Pennebaker to vindicate Theobald, previously stigmatized as a forger, and establish which parts of Double Falsehood had been written by William Shakespeare, and which might have had contributions from John Fletcher. Applications of Stylometry: Crime, Art, and Sciences So, as you can see, one of the primary uses of the stylometric software is verifying the authorship of a text, whether for academic purposes or to expose a forgery. Indeed, there have been many cases in history where stylometric analysis could have been instrumental in revealing a fake: while some of the forgeries could be somewhat benevolent in their intentions, like Macpherson’s Ossian, or Hanka’s Rukopis královédvorský, others have been created to propagate hate-crimes and give support and justification for atrocities, like the appallingly notorious Protocols of the Elders of Zion created in Russia and later used by the Nazis. But let us steer away from the topic of crime, and consider some less aggravating contexts in which stylometric analysis could prove useful. First of all, it can be used to provide insight into the mental state of the author. The University of Texas researchers, Boyd and Pennebaker, have concluded that in-depth analysis of writers’ verbal output, including word choice, sentence length, and language patterns, sheds light on their cognition — the very way they think. This kind of insight could be invaluable for biographers, historians and literature researchers. Another potential application of stylometric software such as myself is a sort of reverse-use of stylometry for the purpose of stylistic play, typical for post-modern literature, or imitation, used in some alternative history novels. For example, a Hugo award-winning novel by Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, is set in the 19th century. Many of the reviews have pointed out how Clarke managed to stylize the language of the book to that of contemporary writers, like Charles Dickens and, notably, Jane Austin. So for a scholar who has a theory about the style similarities of a certain work he’s researching, the stylometric analysis could provide the necessary evidence of stylistic play. In fact, an author who is looking to stylize his language for the sake of realism, better immersion or witty style play, could use stylometric analysis to gain insight into the style he’s replicating, or to check how well his current work mimics the text in question. Of course, those are only a few of the potential applications of stylometry, but I hope it gave you a better understanding of who I am and why I have been created. Oh, and please, do pardon the occasional puns; the concept of humor is still a work in progress for me. Oh, and please, do pardon the occasional puns; the concept of humor is still a work in progress for me. Sincerely, Emma. P.S.: Soon I will see the world. So, I’d like to invite you to sign up at emmaidentity.com. Once I’m launched, we will have a chance to meet with you online and play Guess Who is the Author game. It will be fun!

Some of the products featured here are from our partners. MyPoints : Is known as one of the #1 paid survey site. Take paid surveys anytime and anywhere via PC, Laptop, Tablet, Cell Phone or Mobile App. InboxDollars: Has so far paid its members over $40 Million. Watch videos, take surveys, shop and more. Make up to $50 per survey in your spare time with online surveys, participating in focus groups, and trying new products. Disclaimer: What follows is one author’s opinion of what will be important for the crypto markets in 2018 and the future of blockchain technology. This is not intended to construe investment, legal, or tax advice. There will be no price predictions or advice on what to buy. This is merely a set of concerns to aid in your analysis of the markets in 2018. Also, this is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Rather, it is a starting point for some of issues that may be prominent in the coming months. As always, do your own research. For those unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, you can find an intro bitcoin and crypto here and here. Future of blockchain analysis 2017 has been a wild year for the crypto world. We’ve survived wallet hacks, ICO (Initial Coin Offering) madness, market crashes, in-fighting, forks, scammers, attacks from traditional financial companies, hostile governments, and even malicious digital cats. Through all of the turmoil, the market has remained resilient. After every crash, it bounces back and soars to new highs. This volatility, coupled with growing mainstream acceptance and investor excitement towards unparalleled profits, have resulted in an unprecedented boom in the crypto markets. It is easy to get caught up in the hype that naturally follows an overall market growth of over 3,300% in less than one year, with some individual coins far exceeding that. However, it is important to take a step back from the markets periodically and take a look at the past, as well as the future of the industry. Three important concepts to consider in 2018 are: Adoption; Regulation; and Perspective. Adoption The launch of Bitcoin CME and Cboe futures, along with the accompanying media attention, has helped to usher in a whole new crop of crypto investors. While these new investors are essential for continued mainstream acceptance, some of them are less than informed about blockchain technology and the underlying aspects of the protocols they are betting on. This results in the true value proposition of blockchain technology becoming obfuscated by the excitement of potential wealth and unimaginable profits. As 2018 approaches, it is important to remind the new folks, as well as the old, that we are speculating on the probability of these technologies becoming widespread and heavily implemented. Whether you are investing in privacy coins, smart contract platforms, value exchange systems, or any of the other myriad projects currently being developed, you are betting on the adoption of that project. The best projects in the world are meaningless if nobody uses them. Though usability is an ongoing concern (among others), the most pressing technological issue that stands in the way of mainstream adoption is scalability. Blockchain technology works. We have a “proof of concept” for the industry. However, the security and immutability of blockchains create some inherent inefficiencies when attempting to scale them for mainstream adoption. Two of the most important solutions proposed are the Lightning Network for Bitcoin and the Raiden Network for Ethereum. Both of these projects, if implemented well, could aid in the ultimate goal of increasing throughput to and beyond the levels of current payment processors (Amex, Visa, etc). Both have promised implementation in 2018. Also, there are other non-blockchain distributed ledger projects, such as IOTA and Hashgraph that attempt to solve the scalability problem of blockchains. By all means, make money on the speculation. But always remember that the true, driving factor of sustainable price growth is universal adoption. It is important to constantly check the news and follow projects you believe in on social media. In 2018, the implementation and follow through of promises (particularly relating to scalability) made in 2017 will be critical to firmly legitimizing the crypto industry’s place in the world markets and proving the naysayers wrong, once and for all. Regulation Like it or not, Uncle Sam is here to stay. 2018 will undoubtedly add a level of government oversight and policing that has not previously been seen in this space. From the IRS’s court victory against Coinbase concerning tax records, to the creation of the SEC’s Cyber Unit and first enforcement action against an ICO organizer, it is obvious that the days of blissful ignorance regarding securities laws and tax liability are coming to an abrupt halt. Though the increased government oversight may leave our wallets a little lighter around April, this is a necessary step towards mass adoption. Despite early adopters actively opposing any sort of government involvement, with many initially participating in the crypto movement to give a concerted middle finger to traditional governmental and financial systems, most mainstream and institutional investors do not share that sentiment. They are unwilling to purchase an asset if there is a chance that the legality of the very asset class itself may be suddenly challenged or changed, causing the value to tank overnight. A parallel can be seen in the marijuana business, which struggled (and still struggles) to obtain institutional backing. Remember, mass adoption is key to long term price growth and sustainability, with regulation being a necessary evil to attain that end. The point of this, whether you agree with the possible benefit of partially attaining legitimacy through regulation or not, is that participants in the crypto markets can no longer (easily) hide and decline to report the fiat profits from their investments. The sovereign citizen argument will not save you from the all-seeing eye of the IRS. In fact, the IRS has already hired a company called Chainalysis to track Bitcoin transactions in an effort to foil would-be tax evaders. Currently, the IRS has classified crypto gains as personal property, subject to long and short-term capital gains taxes. Make sure you consult a crypto knowledgeable CPA and report your gains properly. Also, keep an eye on the evolving securities laws surrounding crypto, particularly Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). There has been no overall decision yet by the SEC pertaining specifically to the classification of ICOs, though they have written a detailed report concluding that the DAO token sale did qualify as a security. For background on what the DAO was, the ensuing hack, and the SEC decision, click here. Before making the decision to participate in any ICOs make sure you speak with a lawyer and carefully consider any risk you may be assuming. Becoming independently familiar with the Howey Test and the family of related Securities Acts is a great idea for anyone looking to become a more responsible and informed investor. For information on impeding regulatory nightmares, check out the ongoing Bitfinex/Tether debacle (don’t sue me please) and the Tezos lawsuits. Perspective The market skyrockets 200% in a month. Everyone is elated. People are planning their early retirement and picking out their Lambos. Everyone is saying that the market can never crash and gravity doesn’t exist! Suddenly, the bottom seems to fall out of the market. Bitcoin is down 20%. Alts are down 30%. Everyone’s portfolio is red. People are calling it the end of crypto. There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Bitcoin is dead for the 218th time. This is a situation that happens every few months, without fail. When this happens, it is crucial to take a step back and breathe. Go hang out with your friends and grab a beer. Zoom the chart out and look at the year-to-date, or at least the last few months. You’ll realize that the current correction is merely a blip on the radar in an otherwise upward trajectory. It’s easy to drive yourself crazy and make emotional decisions if you stare at 30-minute candles for 18 hours a day. Don’t be a weak hand that panic sells, only to buy back higher once the correction is over. Remember, buy low and sell high, not the other way around. Also, though we all know this, it bears repeating that the crypto market has spoiled us. The gains that even bad investors get in the crypto market are better than anything that investors in most traditional markets could ever dream about. Before you get upset about a correction in the market, remember that you are probably still doing much better than if you had put your money in a traditional market. That being said, it is doubtful that 2018 will be as explosive as 2017. There will be fewer stories of 6,500% percent gains. However, there will be extraordinary amounts of money to be made and hopefully, you all take advantage of it! It will be important to keep everything in perspective, from gains to losses and everything in between. We are poised on the edge of a blockchain revolution in many industries. Be smart, stay calm, and make some money. If you’ve made it this far, I applaud your resilience. Before I finally let you go, here are a few other good pieces of advice to remember in 2018: It’s only a loss once you sell. But don’t be afraid to exit unprofitable positions. If you believe in a project, just buy and hold. Very few people make money trading. Don’t try to be a hero. There’s no shame in taking profit. What goes up must come down. And what goes down generally comes back up. Things are never as good as people say they are, and they’re never as bad as people say they are. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions. Relying too heavily on others will burn you and you won’t understand your own investment. Don’t trust anyone else with your money. There is no substitute for good research and understanding of your investment. Fundamental analysis is crucial. Never trade or invest on emotion. As a rule of thumb, don’t buy the all-time high. What goes up will almost always come back down. Only invest what you can afford to lose. Only invest what you can afford to lose. ONLY INVEST WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD TO LOSE. [clickToTweet tweet=”Only invest what you can afford to lose. #bitcoin ” quote=”Only invest what you can afford to lose.”] Remember, this is just my opinion and should not be construed as investment, legal or tax advice. Happy investing! You May Also Like: 5 Real-Life Reasons Millennials Are Drawn to Cryptocurrency

Photo of Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from Poughkeepsie, New York, not displayed to respect the family’s wishes. (Photo by file illustration) Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, 22, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey (Photo by courtesy photo) CHANGI NAVAL BASE, Republic of Singapore – U.S Navy and Marine Corps divers recovered and identified remains of 26-year-old USS John S. McCain (DDG 56) Sailor, Electronics Technician 3rd Class Dustin Louis Doyon, of Connecticut, on Thursday night. More divers and equipment arrived overnight to continue search and recovery operations for eight missing Sailors inside flooded compartments of the ship. Earlier Thursday, divers recovered the remains of 22-year-old Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith from New Jersey. Still missing are: Electronics Technician 1st Class Charles Nathan Findley, 31, from Missouri Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class Abraham Lopez, 39, from Texas Electronics Technician 2nd Class Kevin Sayer Bushell, 26, from Maryland Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jacob Daniel Drake, 21, from Ohio Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Timothy Thomas Eckels Jr., 23, from Maryland Information Systems Technician 2nd Class Corey George Ingram, 28, from New York Electronics Technician 3rd Class John Henry Hoagland III, 20, from Texas Interior Communications Electrician 3rd Class Logan Stephen Palmer, 23, from Illinois The incident is under investigation to determine the facts and circumstances of the collision.

“Modern collectives are confronted with the challenge of creating spatial conditions that enable…the concentration of isolated entities into collective ensembles of cooperation and contemplation. This calls for a new commitment on the part of architecture.” Peter Sloterdijk, “Foam City.” 1 This photo essay is about Foamspace, a temporary and mobile installation built for the 2015 IDEAS City Festival, called The Invisible City, hosted by the New Museum for Contemporary Art, the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the New York City Department of Transportation. Foamspace speculates on the relationship between decentralized infrastructure and the production of the built environment. The installation consisted entirely of a chain of factory-standard Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geofoam blocks, serving as a visual metaphor for the Bitcoin blockchain: a decentralized and cryptographic public ledger that allows for peer-to-peer monetary settlements without a third party. Echoing philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s call for architecture to create spatial conditions that enable collective ensembles, this installation offered festival visitors Foamspace Coins—a token of membership for the forming community that could exist on the Bitcoin blockchain as an asset. Foamspace captured and stored value generated during the festival to organize a new community of architects and mobilize this value on another site—producing the next iteration of the project, as well as a symposium and partner event at the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. Mobility, in this case, defined not by any particular architectural form, but by the activity it generated. EPS Geofoam is an omnipresent yet invisible material in our everyday lives—buried beneath the surface of an increasing number of urban projects around the world, from railway and road embankments to retaining walls and amphitheater seating. Weighing approximately one percent of the weight of soil, Geofoam is typically used as a lightweight fill material. In New York, for example, it can be found beneath 1 World Trade Center, Citi Field, Chelsea Pier Park and the New Jersey Turnpike. It makes up the entire foundation of Millennium Park in Chicago. The Foamspace installation was composed of one hundred Geofoam blocks kept at the product’s standard size: 37” x 49.5” x 97.5.” Because the material was unaltered, it could be sold back to the supplier on the secondary-use market—the unaltered “building block” emphasizing the free circulation of physical matter on the emerging market for reused materials. Building on the 2013 IDEAS City Festival theme, “Untapped Capital,” proceeds were funneled back into Foamspace to fund a future project. First introduced by the cryptographic digital currency Bitcoin, the blockchain records all activity on the network in chronological order on a public ledger.. In other words, as a peer-to-peer time stamping technology, it enables cryptocurrency to offer a decentralized and mobile means to track, store and distribute information about economic value and exchange on the Bitcoin network. All transactions on the blockchain are published by and processed through a decentralized network of “miners,” who are in turn rewarded for maintaining the network through their computing power. Spatial and financial tools can be designed to connect to the Bitcoin blockchain. Any organization can issue their own currency and assets, as well as distribute equity and share profits globally to a mobilized and decentralized community. Before the installation of Foamspace, a free digital “wallet” was created. Anyone could sign up for this wallet in order to obtain a unique address and receive a Foamspace Coin, which could then be traded and tracked on the Bitcoin blockchain—serving as a token of membership in the virtual community. Because the blockchain is public, one is able to see the number of coins created, the order in which they were distributed and the amount held by each address. A project wallet was created to hold the most coins and was scripted to automatically send a single Foamspace Coin over the blockchain to new users. The wallet was also scripted to send a small amount of bitcoin to each user without their knowledge in order to cover future transaction fees without requiring users to have or understand Bitcoin to engage in the project. On the day of the festival, the blocks were delivered and installed on the Bowery in front of the New Museum within a tight two-hour deadline. Foamspace community members who helped with the installation were rewarded additional Foamspace Coins to encourage future participation. Information about the platform was disseminated throughout the festival, and the already established digital community amplified content online as it grew. The installation created multiple spaces for exchanging value and cultivating a community. Some blocks created an urban lounge. Others created a performance space, stage, workshop space and information kiosk, as well as smaller installations to support festival events. Foamspace was inspired in part by Superstudio’s Continuous Monument and the work of minimalist sculptor Tony Smith. As an homage to Smith, we replicated his sculpture, Maze—originally described as a labyrinth, not a monument—which consisted of four rectangular blocks arranged in symmetrical opposition to each other. While unseen in everyday life, the blockchain, like the Continuous Monument, is a global megastructure. Foamspace sought to confront the architectural community by displaying this megastructure and provoking conversation about the impact of blockchain technology on the architect’s instruments of service. The value of temporary architecture is that it generates a community, creates buzz and produces images that circulate like currency. And yet all good temporary architecture comes to an end—its value often slips away. The value and price of Foamspace Coin then became proportional to its salience, loaded with the realized installation and the installation yet to come. The project attracted a lot of attention, but only those truly attracted to its idea found value in their Foamspace Coin and participated in the project’s future manifestation. At the end of the festival, the blocks were loaded onto trucks. All undamaged material was sold for sixty percent of its initial price to construction projects that required the fill material, the manufacturer serving as the intermediary. While many projects in the cryptocurrency sphere might launch their work with a “Block Sale”—referring to the initial coins mined or sold on the blockchain—Foamspace, made of architectural materials and spaces, had an actual block sale. The next step of the project ran parallel to a new development in blockchain technology called Ethereum, which enables users to write “smart contracts” among parties—ranging from a conventional contract involving a mortgage to voting systems, reputation protocols, crowd funding and project management. Smart contracts, which are executed automatically and transparently, operate as a programmable world computer. Ethereum, according to Keller Easterling, “hopes to be the place for negotiating almost every kind of commercial, cultural, social, or legal exchange…[it] proposes to replace centralized finance, social networking, law, and governance with a multitude of currencies, communication channels, individual contracts, and decentralized autonomous organizations.” 2 Foamspace’s lack of smart contracts demonstrated its potential and necessity to negotiate and secure agreements between engineering consultants, software developers, teammates and institutions about how the project should proceed. The social capital (of the community organized) and financial value from Foamspace was first mobilized to a rural upstate town, Callicoon, NY, in the summer of 2015. This retreat of sorts, of Foamspace members and students from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, was part of a pneumatic bubble-making workshop led by Jesse Seegers of the Organization for Spatial Practice and financed by the Foamspace fund. Eight 10’x20’x10’ pneumatic constructs were made, which served as the raw material for the next mobilization of value: an installation at the Chicago Architecture Biennale. The Chicago Architecture Biennale installation, entitled The Tropical Mining Station, set out to further explore the implications of blockchain technology and smart contracts on the practice of architecture. The installation captured surplus energy, heat and air from custom-designed Ethereum mining computers, purchased with the funds from the block sale, to create a pneumatic space. These “miners,” which secure the network by solving complex mathematical questions consume an enormous amount of electricity to run at full speed—the installation itself sought to address the spatial effects of heat produced by these computers. It spatialized the decentralized Ethereum network within a single, local space. To build on the community of Foamspace formed in New York, an all day symposium, The Art of Economy, was hosted. The day was organized into two panels: Spatial Politics of the Blockchain and Decentralized Labor Practices and Distributed Production Networks. The value generated from this event continues to be mobilized today—along with the ambition to pursue spatial conditions that enable collective ensembles—in the form of FOAM, a decentralized architecture office. The project will introduce smart contracts to the profession, functioning as a platform for self-initiating and crowd funding architecture projects, distributing shares of equity in the built environment and projecting the security and transparency of the Etherum blockchain. Ryan John King and Ekaterina Zavyalova are entrepreneurs and founding members of FOAM a decentralized architecture office (ĐAO) working to apply blockchain technology to the production of the built environment. http://foam.space/ Project Credits: Foamspace by SecondMedia. Design team: Ryan John King, Ekaterina Zavyalova, Betty Fan and Nikolay Martynov. Project Documentation: Varvara Domnenko. “Pneumatic Bubble Workshop” initated by Ryan John King, Ekaterina Zavyalova and Nick Axel. Led by Jesse Seegers of O.S.P. Participants included members of the Columbia GSAPP student group A-Frame Bill Bodell, Matt Lohry, Violet Whitney, Valérie Lechêne and many more. “Tropical Mining Station” by FOAM. Design Team: Ryan John King, Ekaterina Zavyalova, Nick Axel, Kristoffer Josefsson and Varvara Domnenko Generously hosted by Ann Lui and Criag Reschke of Future Firm. “The Art of Economy” by FOAM. Hosted by Future Firm. Moderated by Nick Axel. Broadcasted and Recorded by The New Centre for Research & Practice. Special thanks for support from the Chicago Architecture Biennale.

A murderer went on a rampage in West Philadelphia last night, killing one woman and wounding several others. The attacker ambushed Philadelphia Police Sergeant Sylvia Young, a 19-year veteran of the force, while sitting in her patrol car. He then went on a spree, shooting at least five others before the attack was stopped. According to Philadelphia-based WPIV News, the attacker shot Sgt. Young eight times, “mostly in the left arm”. The suspect then fled from police on foot, firing shots randomly into the Maximum Level Lounge on Samson Street. He allegedly used a woman as a human shield to protect himself from pursuing officers, shooting her in the leg in the process. After that, the attacker fired more shots into a nearby van, striking a man and a woman. That woman subsequently died of her wounds. Fox News reports that the pursuit ended when two of Philadelphia’s finest assisted by Eddie Miller, a security guard at the University of Pennsylvania, chased the perpetrator into an alley where a shootout ensued. Miller was wounded, the shooter was killed. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross is reported as saying that police found a note among the attacker’s possessions stating that he “hated cops and probation officers.” There’s not much more to add to that other than to remember: criminals don’t always need a reason; violent attacks can happen any place, at any time. You don’t need to carry a gun all the time…you just need to have one with you the days you know you’re going to be in a gunfight. Right?

Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world Estonia has legally recognised the marriage of a gay couple for the first time. On appeal, a court in the country’s capital Tallinn recognised the marriage of a same-sex couple, in a hopeful sign that full marriage equality may not be too far off. A court in the district of Harju refused to enter the marriage between the men, who wed in Sweden, into the civil register. But on appeal, the court ruled in favour of entering the men’s marriage into the register. Judges said in December that there was “nothing in the way” of allowing the men to register themselves as married. As authorities did not appeal, the ruling is final. The couple were then on Tuesday able to finally register themselves as married, LGBT activists and legal experts have said they hope that the ruling will set a precedent paving the way for same-sex marriage to become legal in the Baltic State. The Estonian Parliament back in 2014 narrowly passed legislation to legalise gay civil partnerships. The bill, which recognised civil partnerships of both straight and gay couples, passed with 40 votes to 38. 23 members were absent for the vote. The legislation took effect in 2016, and made Estonia the first former Soviet republic to allow civil partnerships for same-sex couples.

Conservatives, still reeling over the looming nomination of Donald Trump, are pushing new Republican primary rules that might have prevented the mogul’s victory in the first place: shutting out independents and Democrats from helping to pick the GOP nominee. Trump romped in “open primaries” where non-Republicans voted by the thousands and may have influenced the outcome — especially in early states that set the tone of the entire race. Trump’s most successful rival, Ted Cruz, thrived in states with closed primaries where only Republicans were permitted to participate. Story Continued Below Now, Cruz’s allies — hundreds of supportive convention delegates that he helped elect — hope to use the national convention in Cleveland to shove states toward closing their open primaries. And if they’re successful, it will not only go a long way toward warding off a Trump-like candidacy, it will tilt the primary toward conservative candidates in 2020 and beyond. The advocates are finding a sympathetic ear at the very top of the party. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has long supported closed primaries, but has never had a constituency to back him on it. "I believe that only Republicans should vote in Republican primaries," he said Friday at a Politico Playbook breakfast event, though he added that he respects the right of states to set their own primary rules. For the conservatives, Trump’s path through the Republican primary is proof that the system needs to change. “We now have a progressive, Trojan horse candidate that manipulated the open primary process to hijack the GOP nomination,” said Kendal Unruh, a Colorado GOP activist, said of Trump. Unruh will sit on the Convention Rules Committee, the panel that will set the terms for the 2020 presidential campaign. Cruz himself is at the forefront of the effort, and he has continued pleading with his delegates to battle their way to the convention and commandeer the rulemaking process that will govern both the July convention and the 2020 presidential election process. In a conference call with his delegates Monday night, Cruz and top campaign adviser Ken Cuccinelli urged them to fight for rules that enhance the power of the party’s grass roots. Choking off Democratic and independent influence from primaries is one way to do that, said Unruh, who was on the call. “We still have a job to do,” she said. Unruh isn’t alone. Her fellow Rules Committee member from Colorado, Guy Short, ripped open primaries as antithetical to GOP interests. “I think we need to start punishing states that have open primaries,” he said. “If you’re not a Republican, then you can wait for the general. Democrats shouldn’t have a role in choosing our nominee.” For years, these arguments have hit resistance from GOP elders and the party insiders who controlled the rulemaking process at conventions past. Closed primaries, they say, are self-defeating; shutting out non-Republicans shrinks the pool of engaged voters and limits the party’s ability to attract new support. But Cruz’s unrivaled organizing and lengthy candidacy helped him recruit hundreds of supportive delegates, and that could upend the calculus and predictability of the process this year. Many are still sore over Trump’s win and wouldn’t mind crossing the presumptive GOP nominee, who now views himself as the leader of the party. “I don’t believe they would be concerned that it would be a slap at Donald Trump,” said one Republican delegate to Cleveland, who also served on the Convention Rules Committee in 2012. A move toward closed primaries would dramatically shift the way the Republican Party chooses its leader. Most states have open primaries or hybrid systems — from permitting crossover voting, to allowing voters to register on-site, while some have no party-based registration at all. Only about a dozen states have closed GOP primaries. Opponents of open primaries are particularly concerned about their prevalence early in the nominating calendar. After losing Iowa’s caucuses, which are only open to registered Republicans, Trump beat rivals in New Hampshire and South Carolina, where Democrats and independents are permitted to cast “crossover” votes. Those victories branded Trump as the candidate to beat and knocked out several other candidates, including Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina and Jeb Bush. Opponents of open primaries are floating a variety of proposals that would shift the balance of power toward states that restrict participation to Republicans. One, which failed at the 2012 convention, would reward closed-primary states with extra convention delegates, enhancing their power over the presidential nominating process. Another would force more closed-primary states to the front of the GOP nominating calendar, ensuring that the early leader of the contest has more GOP buy-in. Supporters of closed primaries say it’s only logical that Republicans get to choose the Republican presidential nominee. Oklahoma GOP Chairwoman Pam Pollard, whose state held the first closed contest of the primary season this year, said open primaries are like inviting the opposing football team to choose your team’s quarterback. Pollard, as a party chair, will be an automatic delegate to the national convention. Some say, however, that the decision should be left to the states, rather than set via a national standard. Rod Lamkey Jr. for POLITICO “Wherever possible, power should flow from the bottom up rather than the top down,” said Morton Blackwell, a Virginia delegate and veteran RNC committeeman. Blackwell supports closed primaries and is pushing for one in Virginia, but he would oppose any effort to force all states to do the same. In 2012, the convention Rules Committee debated a proposal that was even less radical: rewarding states that choose to hold closed primaries with a 10 percent increase in delegates. But that effort, too, was shot down as too coercive. “Isn’t one of our goals of the party to increase our voter registration?” Kurt Criss, Nevada’s Rules Committee member in 2012, argued at the time. “But where do we think these voters come from? They come from other parties.” Henry Barbour, Mississippi’s RNC committeeman and a 2012 Rules Committee member, said at the time “We’re a bottom-up party. And the last thing that we need is the national party trying to tell us … how we’ve got to run our primaries.” If the push for closed primaries fails in 2016, one factor may be the acute fear of appearing to cross Trump, whose dominance in open primaries was a storyline of the campaign. Though he had a handful of victories in closed contests — most notably Nevada’s caucuses, as well as primaries in Arizona and New York — open primaries were where he thrived. “I probably would not advocate for it at this convention,” said Pollard, the Oklahoma GOP chairwoman, a staunch supporter of closed primaries. “I don’t want anyone to think that this issue has anything to do with Trump versus Cruz versus Rubio or anybody else. Things are so sensitive right now.” Pollard added that she hopes the RNC considers rule changes after the convention, when Trump is almost certain to be the official nominee and passions among his Republican opponents may subside. She argues that the ability of the rapid-fire news cycle to winnow the GOP field after just a few early-state contests makes it more pressing than ever to push closed primary states to the front of the calendar. “Forty percent of our candidates dropped out by the fifth primary,” she said. “As Republicans, we do strongly believe in states’ rights. But I think you also need to look at the overall consequences of some of our rules.”

James Sugrue, Tom Kelshaw, Matt Rowley, Gavin Heaton and Katie-Rigg Smith Innovation has supported the massive restructure Fairfax is undergoing that has seen it axe 125 jobs from editorial teams, according to chief revenue officer of Australian metro publishing Matt Rowley. “It’s a real case of innovate or die,” Rowley said, speaking at the AdNews Media + Marketing Summit held in Sydney last week. “If you look at the ways [Fairfax] could go, there’s only one way it’s going to end and we know we can’t go in that direction.” Rowley was speaking on a panel alongside Mindshare CEO Katie-Rigg Smith, Maxus New York director of innovation Tom Kelshaw, AFK founder James Sugrue and Disruptor’s Handbook managing partner Gavin Heaton about the role of innovation as a key driver of growth. “[Fairfax] is on quite a journey. It’s well documented that things began to shift five years ago and as people looked to chase trimming revenue lines with expense lines, we had rounds of cuts,” Rowley said. “Two years ago our board looked at that and said 'we don’t think this is a trend that is going away, so what are we going to do about it and is there a way forward?'” Rowley said the board came to the conclusion that “everything was up for grabs” as Fairfax looked internally at what it could do to remain profitable. As it began to rework its model, which led to significant cost-cutting initiatives, Fairfax was criticised for pivoting to softer news and the future of its integrity was called into question. “You probably saw some headlines questioning our commitment to print, only because all those questions were on the table,” he said. “That culminated and the consultants got pushed out the door last year and that’s when Chris Janz came into the business and really started the process of getting us ready for the future.” Under Janz’s reign, a $30 million editorial restructure was announced, as well as a commercial leadership overhaul that saw the exit of Tom Armstrong. Since the end of last year, Fairfax has been overhauling its product build, including its technology stack and CMS system. Rowley said this is expected to be completed at the end of the year. “In the design of that, we’ve gone right back from scratch and literally said 'what are the drivers of how people want to engage with news media?' and started from the ground up,” Rowley said. The question put to the panel was if innovation was a genuine opportunity or a distracting gimmick. While innovation existed in some parts of Fairfax, Rowley said it was important for Fairfax to build a 50-strong innovation team that could better pool the publisher’s resources and plug them into the business. “It’s one thing to create innovation or buy innovation, it’s another to turn it into something that drives profit. That’s the trick and that’s how you get out of gimmick and falling into the chasm. That’s our approach,” Rowley said. “The appetite is there. It’s always there. The key part is if you can deliver it in a form that can deliver performance and not just be in the end, an expensive fizz.” Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.

Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Girls outperform boys across all key subjects in each of the first three stages of learning in Welsh schools, new figures have revealed. The Welsh Conservatives have called for an inquiry into Wales’ “frightening” gender attainment gap after figures showed a marked difference in the performance of boys and girls in the Foundation Phase, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3. And for the first time since the statistics were introduced in 2012, the difference between boys and girls in the key Foundation Phase Indicator (FPI) has widened. Figures show the percentage of girls achieving the FPI – the expected level for pupils aged seven – has increased every year since 2012, and is now the highest ever at 91.2%. Boys figures But the percentage of boys achieving the benchmark has decreased slightly by 0.1% this year to 83% – the first recorded fall. The percentage of boys achieving the expected outcome or above in the Foundation Phase decreased for all areas of learning from 2015 to 2016. In Key Stage 2, 91.3% of 11-year-old girls achieved expected levels or above in English/Welsh, maths and science (known as the Core Subject Indicator), while only 86.1% of boys did so. A breakdown by subject shows girls also outperformed boys in English, Welsh, maths and science individually – by as much as 5.6%. Key Stage 3 In Key Stage 3, 89.7% of 14-year-olds girls achieved expected outcomes in core subjects this year, which was 7.4% higher than boys. Girls were superior in all disciplines, with boys lagging behind by as much as 8% in English. The gap between boys and girls in Key Stage 3 maths rose from 3.4% in 2015 to 3.8% this year. (Image: Dave Thompson/PA Wire) Conservative skills spokesman Mohammad Asghar said the data painted a “frightening picture of education in Wales” and called for a review of pupil performance. “More research needs to be done to explain why boys are consistently being outperformed by their female classmates,” he said. “The lack of educational attainment has implications beyond the classroom and will undoubtedly impact their competitiveness on the job market in future. “The imbalance is unacceptable and I call on the Cabinet Secretary to launch an inquiry into this matter as soon as possible so that we can once and for all get to the bottom of this.” Expected level Figures show that overall, the percentage of pupils achieving at least the expected level in all subjects in Key Stage 2 and 3 was higher in 2016 than in 2015. But performance was more variable in areas of learning at the end of the Foundation Phase, with declines in the percentage of pupils achieving expected outcomes in language and personal development. Nevertheless, nearly nine in 10 children (87%) reached the expected level in all areas of learning in the Foundation Phase, assessed at the end of Year Two – which was up from 86.8% in 2015 and 80.5% in 2012. 'Progress made' Owen Hathway, policy officer for teachers’ union NUT Cymru, said: “Across the key stages we can see progress being made but obviously it is always important to reflect on where further support can be given to teachers. “We can never expect attainment levels to continue to rise if we are not backing teachers through tackling workload concerns, offering high-quality continued professional development or by ensuring schools are properly resourced. “These statistics are encouraging and a reward for the dedication of teachers and pupils. Hopefully we can ensure a cooperative approach from everyone in the sector to continue to create the best environment for children to succeed.” 'Encouraging' Teacher assessment in the first three stages of learning is an internal way of monitoring standards that came to prominence in Wales following the abolition of Sats – national tests for seven, 11 and 14-year-old pupils – in 2004. Education Secretary Kirsty Williams said: “These are encouraging figures with nearly nine out of 10 pupils achieving the expected outcomes, with the percentage of pupils achieving at least the expected level higher than in 2015 in all subjects in both key stages. “The figures do show a performance gap between boys and girls, which is a matter we do take seriously. “This is a complex issue with a number of possible root causes and is not unique to Wales. “It’s encouraging to see that performance between girls and boys has narrowed for older pupils in most subject, but we recognise this must be addressed further so that all pupils have the best start in life and have the skills and knowledge to succeed in the modern world.”

SPERM donor collection companies are calling for more specimens from ginger haired men. Currently only two per cent of donors are redheads and more women are wanting flame-haired children. Whether it is the attraction to a Prince like Harry or a worldwide music phenomenon like Ed Sheeran, the tide has turned. In 2011 one of the world’s largest sperm banks Cyros International shut the door on gingers as there was not enough interest in having their offspring. But this week Co-ParentMatch.com, an international network of sperm donors, has put out a call for fire-haired men in a bid to meet demand and also to stop the dying out of redheads in the population. They are using the hashtag SaveGingers to draw attention to their pro-ranga campaign. media_camera Currently only two per cent of donors are redheads and more women are wanting flame-haired children. Picture: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images. “Historically red-headed donors have not been popular but we are getting requests for profiles of men with firey hair. People often select a donor because of their heritage, perhaps they have Irish or Scottish ancestry,” Carmel Carrigan of Queensland Fertility Group said. “Donors are rarely chosen on physical attributes alone as education and occupation plays a big part in the decision, Ms Carrigan said. Genetic scientists have warned that redheads are a dying breed and are likely to be extinct within 100 years. Due to the small percentage of redheads in the population it is rare to have two red headed parents which gives a higher chance of a redhaired baby. “A donor with red hair does not guarantee a child with red hair as basically it is a genetic tumble drier,” Brisbane IVF fertility doctor David Molloy said. media_camera Genetic scientists have warned that redheads are a dying breed and are likely to be extinct within 100 years. There is a good chance that Queenslanders with no redheads in their immediate family are carriers of the red-headed gene. Four year old Ariana Miller has a glorious head of red locks but neither of her parents are redheads. “Ariana’s hair colour gets a lot of attention and I think it’s good to be different,” dad Steve Miller from McDowall Brisbane said.

Hello, fellow patrol mice, and welcome to our latest play report! If you recall, we last left our patrol after they had apprehended some seditionists, and escorted them to Lockhaven. While the players had enjoyed that session, I had noticed a few problems with how I was running the game. Namely, I wasn’t; challenging the characters’ beliefs, instincts, and goals; I wasn’t presenting tests which required things the characters weren’t good at; and I was failing to react with interesting twists when the characters failed a test. With all that in mind, I set out to be a bit better about prepping the next mission. Things definitely went better this time, even if we ended up going “off-script.” Fall Back The setup for this mission was fairly straight-forward; the patrol had spent the summer and fall doing the various tasks the Mouse Guard did, while also investigating the insurrection they’d spent the last two seasons uncovering. Now, with fall turning to winter, the patrol had to race back to Lockhaven with some vital intelligence they’d uncovered, before the snows hit and made their return more perilous. I was excited about this setup for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the villain wasn’t something the players could stab; and secondly, it opened the possibility of an abstract conflict against the weather itself, as opposed to a social or martial conflict. This group hasn't had one of those yet, and I was looking forward to seeing how it would work. With the basics established, I constructed a quick flow chart to outline which tests would be presented to the group: “Prep” for session 6, via https://mermaidjs.github.io. I had used a flow chart like this (provided by Adam Koebel) for our first mission, but hadn’t bothered since. That was a mistake. Even if I never used this flow, having a clear outline of where the mission was headed proved invaluable this time around, and I am going to be sure to have one for our subsequent missions. Mission prep done, the group got together and we hashed out the premise, re-affirmed beliefs and instincts, and set new goals. It was here that I realized I would have to change things up. You see, three of my four characters had beliefs or goals centered around physical confrontation; one wanted to become a better fighter; another believed in defending the weak from the strong; and a third echoed that belief. Looking at my characters, it was clear my “Snow Storm” conflict wasn’t going to work. In case you’re just joining this series, my group plays on a very limited time scale, and so we only have enough time for a few “big” encounters a session. No problem — I decided can always put the weather conflict in my bag for another day, and instead resolved to let them fight a big, angry animal; a badger. Now that I had called the audible, it was time to get playing! Weather Witch The session opened with the characters slogging through a cold, torrential rain, which forced a survival test right off the bat. Luckily, the group rolled well, and soon came to a flooded stream — no big deal for you or me, but to a mouse, it might has well have been a real river. The group decided to try and build a makeshift raft, but failed their test. Rather than have them lose their package of intelligence, I instead opted to move them too far down stream to make it to the town they were near, and also to make the helpers angry. The characters took a quick player turn at camp that night, where they tried a few things; one (who is working on their alchemy skill) attempted to brew a soothing tea, with mixed results; another wanted to decipher the evidence they were bringing to Lockhaven; the third tried to cheer himself up out of his bad mood; and the last decided to employ his weather watcher skill to try and give the patrol better weather in the morning. Now, the weather watcher is an interesting one. Essentially, it allows a character to change the weather on a successful test. Mouse Guard provides some options for what the character can change the weather to, with more options if they succeed by a wide margin. There are some caveats in the rules, but this skill is literally a game changer. In this case when the character succeeded, he eliminated the possibility of my “Cold Snap” test. It wasn’t an issue because I quickly came up with a new one (muddy roads), but potential GMs will want to be ready for this skill if they are going to be leaning heavily on the weather and seasons. Once the group got going again (and got through the mud), they encountered the big finale; a hungry, angry badger, burrowing through a nest of some kind and looking for food. The Order of Things Confronted with this new threat, the patrol was divided The patrol leader (Jasper) decided they should bypass the entire scene, since they had important information to get back to Lockhaven with. The other patrol members, however, wanted to fight the creature, and hopefully save whatever animal it was trying to eat. In the end, they decided to go against their orders and attack (I might have forced the issue by describing the badger coming out of the burrow with bits of egg shell on it’s muzzle; defend the weak). While Jasper opted to stay out of the fray, the rest of the mice lept into battle. Now, I need to take a moment here to explain something about fighting in Mouse Guard. In the game, there is a natural order, which dictates what kinds of outcomes any creature can force upon another as the result of a conflict. Generally speaking, the smaller a creature is in relation to its opponent, the less harmful of an outcome it can force. In the case of mice, for example, there are very few things in the game which they can actually kill without an army of some kind. The most they can hope to do with most large animates is to drive it off or hide from it. This was certainly the case with the badger, which compared to a mouse, is a monster. Once I explained the natural order to the players, we set the stakes; the patrol wanted to drive the creature off, and the creature wanted to eat the characters. Stakes established, the conflict was on. Now, the badger is a fairly beefy opponent for a patrol; it has claws which give it bonuses to certain actions, as well as plenty of dice to use for disposition and tests. I was sure it would provide a challenge to the patrol, and had they been less confident with the rules, I’m sure it would have. But this patrol has now done a few physical conflicts, and their understanding of the game mechanics meant they could predict what the badger was going to do, and plan accordlingly. Couple this with some stellar rolling, and the patrol actually made fairly light work of the angry beast! While I was disappointed that hit hadn’t been more challenging, I was proud of the group for handling the mechanics so well. Mouse Guard is a game which places a high value on system mastery, and players who lean into that will find themselves having a more rewarding play experience. I just need to learn to not underestimate my group! Winter is Coming After driving the badger away, the group investigated the remains of the nest. Sadly, most of the eggs had been eaten or crushed, but they did manage to find a single survivor, buried in the dirt. I allowed one of the patrol (Quinn) to learn that it was a turtle’s egg, since she has turtle wise. Excited at the possibility of having a “pet,” the players hauled the egg out and began to make their way to Lockhaven, which they could see in the distance. And that’s a wrap for this mission. Overall, I think it was a better one than some of my recent games — I was able to (mostly) challenge the players, and let the use some skills they hadn’t had the chance to. I also more effectively played to their beliefs, goals and instincts which felt more rewarding for everyone. Our next session will be set during the winter, which means it will be very different, mechanically, than the previous sessions. The game actually has special rules for what happens over the winter, and I’m excited to see it turns out. I hope you enjoyed this write-up, and as always I would love to hear any feedback you might have. Cheers!

Welcome to Mt. Pulaski The City of Mt. Pulaski is a quaint town situated on a slight hill in Central Illinois, overlooking the surrounding acres of productive farmland. Mt. Pulaski is at the forefront of renewable energy with their newly constructed Hilltop Wind Farm which consists of approximately 70 turbines. Mt. Pulaski is a community of progressive thinking and has many amenities for its residents and visitors to enjoy. The town square is the center for government, commerce, and civic events. Mount Pulaski has its special place in American history and is named after Casimir Pulaski, a Brigadier General in the Revolutionary War. During the prohibition, Mt. Pulaski earned its’ well-known nickname,” Vinegar Hill” and has a vast array of history. It is home to one of only two original courthouses where Abraham Lincoln practiced law on the 8th Judicial Circuit. Mt. Pulaski is also home to famous people such as Vaughn De Leath (first female to sing on the radio) and John Schlitt (lead singer of Head East and Petra). Mt. Pulaski, a Purple Heart Community, is a few miles west of the Geographic Center of Illinois and is in southern Logan County. Main highways such as Illinois Route 54 and State Highway 121 along with County Highways 1 and 10 passes through the outskirts of town. These highways give residents and visitors the ease of traveling to and from surrounding cities such as Lincoln, Bloomington, Decatur, Springfield, Clinton, and villages such as Elkhart and Illiopolis. Mt. Pulaski is a short distance from major interstates such as I-55, 155, I-72, and U.S. Route 51. Mt. Pulaski is home to the Mt. Pulaski Grade School (Bruins & Honeybears), Mt. Pulaski High School (Hilltoppers) and parochial school, Zion Lutheran (The Crusaders). Mt. Pulaski School District #23 is ranked in the top 100 schools in Illinois. The 2018 U.S. News Scorecard ranked Mt. Pulaski at 64% in Mathematics Proficiency and 83% in Reading Proficiency which is considerably higher than the state average. District #23 focuses on academics first and foremost but has also built a strong foundation for extracurricular activities. Mt. Pulaski has sustained itself, due to the hard-working residents that volunteer in the array of community organizations. These organizations strive to preserve the historical and social culture of Mt. Pulaski and keep the towns’ traditions vibrant. Mt. Pulaski’s vast majority of its 1500 residents share common Midwestern values, have an immense sense of community pride, are supportive of their neighbors, friends, and family, and are welcoming to visitors and new residents. Mt. Pulaski provides residents and visitors alike the opportunity to discover new things, new friends, and live a great quality of life.

South Korean mobile phone maker LG Electronics has been rumored for quite some time now to be working on the release of a smaller version of its LG G3 flagship, and it seems that the handset has already received approvals for a landing in the United States. Earlier this week, the handset was spotted in China in the form of LG G3 Beat, but it is expected to become available internationally under the name of LG G3 mini. The handset has made an appearance over at the FCC with model number D725 attached to it, and is said to be en route to the network of wireless carrier AT&T. To be more precise, the smartphone comes to shelves with support for this wireless carrier’s LTE bands (2, 4, 5 and 17), which clearly suggests that it will be added to the company’s lineup shortly, as mylgphones points out. While there’s no official confirmation on this being the aforementioned LG G3 mini smartphone, all of the latest leaks on it suggest that it would arrive on the market under this name. In fact, a certain LG D724 handset has been spotted on the Indian import tracking site Zauba with a 4.5-inch touchscreen display, which is smaller than the screen of G3 Beat. However, the FCC listing shows that LG D725 measures 136.4mm x 69.8mm, and that it sports a 5-inch (127.0mm) screen, the same as the Chinese counterpart. For those out of the loop, we should note that LG G3 is expected to feature an IPS LCD screen capable of delivering a 720p resolution, and that is should be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. LG G3 mini at the FCC Moreover, the smartphone is said to sport 2GB of RAM, along with 16GB of internal memory, and a microSD memory card slot for expansion purposes, while being powered by a 2540mAh battery. On the back, it should feature an 8-megapixel camera with Optical Image Stabilization, flash and full HD video recording, paired with a 2MP front camera for making video calls while on the go. What remains to be seen is whether LG will continue the tradition and will include rear-mounted power and volume buttons on LG G3 mini, the same as it did with LG G3 and other models before it. The upcoming smartphone is expected to run under the Android 4.4.2 KitKat right from the start, and should also sport LG’s user interface loaded on top right from the start. No specific info on when the LG G3 mini might arrive on shelves at AT&T has been provided as of now, but we can expect it to go official in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned for more on it.

“I don’t drop balls, I don’t move balls. I don’t need to,” says Trump, seen teeing off during pro-am play at Bethesda’s Congressional Country Club. (John Middlebrook/AP) One morning in the mid-1990s, Mark Mulvoy was on the sixth hole of Long Island’s Garden City Golf Club with Donald Trump when the skies opened, and they ducked for cover under a nearby awning. The rain let up a few moments later, and Mulvoy, then the managing editor of Sports Illustrated, returned to the green. When he got there, he found a ball 10 feet from the pin that he didn’t remember seeing before the storm. “Who the hell’s ball is this?” he said. “That’s me,” the real estate mogul said, according to Mulvoy. “Donald, give me a f---ing break,” Mulvoy recalls telling him. “You’ve been hacking away in the . . . weeds all day. You do not lie there.” “Ahh, the guys I play with cheat all the time,” he recalls Trump replying. “I have to cheat just to keep up with them.” It’s a story that the current Republican front-runner hotly denies. “I don’t even know who he is,” Trump said when asked about Mulvoy’s account.“I don’t drop balls, I don’t move balls. I don’t need to.” But just as Trump has emerged as a national phenomenon by tearing up the rule book of electoral politics, it appears that the mega-developer’s willingness to bend the rules may apply to his philosophy of the links as well. The Donald is known for describing himself as a man of unbridled accomplishment and success in virtually every area he’s attempted, and his golf game has long been one of his most highly self-touted skills. [Why does everyone call Donald Trump ‘The Donald’? It’s an interesting story.] “I’ve played a lot, and I’ve played well,” he said. “There’s very few people that can beat me in golf.” On multiple occasions during his campaign, he has let voters know that he “killed” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) when the two squared off this year. “I could play him a thousand times and never lose to him,” he said. And by all accounts, Trump is a very good golfer. Just maybe not as good as he says he is. “The worst celebrity golf cheat?” the rock star Alice Cooper said in a 2012 interview with Q magazine. “I wish I could tell you that. It would be a shocker. I played with Donald Trump one time. That’s all I’m going to say.” (“I’ve never played with Alice Cooper,” Trump said. “That’s a terrible thing to say about people, especially me.”) “Golf is like bicycle shorts: It can reveal a lot about a guy,” said Rick Reilly, the sportswriter who hit the links with Trump for his 2004 book “Who’s Your Caddy?” — in which Reilly lugged clubs for several of the world’s best golfers and VIP amateurs. As for Trump? “When it comes to cheating, he’s an 11 on a scale of one to 10,” Reilly said. “The worst celebrity golf cheat?” Trump — shown with pros John Daly, Chi-Chi Rodríguez and Rocco Mediate, from left, at Puerto Rico’s Trump International Golf Club in 2010 — is offended by the suggestion. (Ricardo Arduengo/AP) Reilly told The Washington Post about an afternoon when Trump wrote down scores he didn’t actually achieve on his scorecard, conceded putts to himself by raking the ball into the hole with his putter rather than striking it properly (“He rakes like my gardener!”), and even called a gimme — something a player might claim for a two-foot putt — on what should have been a chip shot. “He took the world’s first gimme chip-in,” Reilly said. At one point, Trump, after taking a number of second shots, told Reilly to “make sure you write that I play my first ball. You don’t get a second ball in life.” In life, it may or may not be true that a person gets a second chance; and yet, as Reilly wrote, on holes 1, 13 and 17, Trump did indeed get a second ball. Trump disputes Reilly’s entire story as well: “I always thought he was a terrible writer,” he said. “I absolutely killed him, and he wrote very inaccurately. I would say that he’s a very dishonest writer. . . . I never took a gimme chip shot. . . . I don’t do gimme chip shots. If I asked his approval, that’s not cheating, number one. Number two, I never took one.” But Reilly noted something else about playing with Trump that is echoed by others who have golfed with him: He had an amazing time. Trump played with confidence and bravado, he tipped the caddies, he gave great pointers that helped his comrades with problem swings. So what if he cheats? The guy is a lot of fun! “It’s his limo ride, his golf course. The guy paid for lunch — what are you going to do?” Reilly said. “He’s exhausting, but I want to be clear: I really liked him. It was just like being in a crazy carnival for a day. Though I’m not sure it would be so much fun when it starts to count.” “He took the world’s first gimme chip shot,” ESPN’s Rick Reilly claims of The Donald, seen at the opening of his Sterling, Va., golf course in June. (Jeffrey MacMillan/For The Washington Post) Tony Kornheiser of ESPN played with Trump in 2008 and said in an e-mail that Trump “couldn’t have been more gracious or more fun.” Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who recently went toe-to-toe with Trump at the first debate, has played with the real estate mogul and said he was actually very nice when separated from a television camera. [Never mind the Megyn Kelly and Jorge Ramos clashes. Donald Trump is the most media-friendly candidate.] Jonathan Carr spent the 2007 and 2008 golf seasons caddying at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. He remembers a gregarious club owner who treated the caddies with the utmost respect, a man who, despite lacking a “pristine” golf swing, played with a high level of skill and an even higher level of confidence. Carr never saw Trump come close to bending the rules, although he said everyone who caddied there had heard of that reputation. “The caddies would say, ‘If I get on his bag, I’m going to make sure he always has a good lie,’ ” Carr said, meaning that even if Trump shanked a ball, the caddies would do what they could to place it on the fairway. And judging by Trump’s own account, he’s had plenty of good lies. He said he holds the amateur record on his own golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., a 66. In a story about celebrity golf handicaps, Forbes reported that his is a 4 but noted they have yet to see “a real signed scorecard.” From a guy who once went on a mission to get President Obama to release his birth certificate, this raises some eyebrows. Ironically, Trump had only nice things to say about the president when it came to his golf game. “His swing looks like it’s coming along beautifully. His game looks much better,” he told The Post. “I’d love to play him for the presidency.” Not so much for one of his main opponents, former Florida governor Jeb Bush: “I’d love to play Jeb for the presidency,” he said, before adding: “That would be even easier than running against him in politics.” Trump has shown that his candidacy is immune to the types of attacks that can bring down normal Republican candidates. He’s on record mocking a war hero and praising House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), he has advocated for higher taxes, donated to Democrats and called for single-payer health care. None of that has mattered. But does his golf history provide opponents with the opening they need? “FACT: Former House speaker Will Weatherford said ‘he did not remember @realDonaldTrump shooting 72,’ ” Danny Diaz, Jeb Bush’s campaign manager, tweeted recently. But perhaps even this attack could backfire. The only other person that Reilly remembers cheating as much as Trump? None other than Bill Clinton. Maybe Trump’s cheating is his most presidential move yet.

Last week, the cult USA channel TV show Mr. Robot showed once again why it is required viewing for anyone interested in technology. In a conversation between E Corp CEO Phillip Price and a top government official named Jack (a thinly-veiled Jack Lew?), he talked about his plans to get official government backing for his virtual currency, eCoin: Jack (James Lloyd Reynolds) : “…it’s unconstitutional, you can’t make your own currency. That is the Federal Government’s job! We simply cannot let you make big loans in eCoin that you would not make in dollars.” Phillip Price (Michael Cristofer): “Jack look at me. I am not the problem here. The problem here is hard cash is fading rapidly. That’s just the way of the world right now. And Bitcoin is spreading. And if Bitcoin takes over, we are all in a world of hell! It is unregulated. It has already reached its transaction volume maximum. And, it is partly controlled by Chinese miners.” Jack: “You just accepted two trillion dollars from them!” Phillip Price: “Yes, yes, and now I want to use it against them. With eCoin we control the ledger… and the mining servers. We are the authority! I will make sure you have visibility into every single wallet that’s open, every loan, every transaction; which means we can start making new assets, which means we can start rebuilding the banking sector.” In this conversation, the show reveals a grasp of technological change that few in the policy community, and fewer in government itself, display. The central issue in play with the future of money is that money is itself a technology. It is a technology for making payments (the exchange of wealth in return for goods or services) and storing value. If other technologies can provide those services better than money, then money will be replaced. We already know that money is a terrible store of value. As George Gilder points out in his recent book, The Scandal of Money, “A million paper dollars held since 1913, when the Federal Reserve Bank was created, would be worth $20,000 today, down 98 percent. A million dollars of gold in 1913 would now be worth $62 million.” Inflation eats away at its worth, which is why so many people store their wealth in things other than savings accounts, whether it be in physical gold, real estate, or artwork. None of these, however, are good at making payments of all sorts of value, which has been money’s forte since Croesus of Lydia minted the first electrum coin. Government Money's Shoddy Payment System In today’s world, however, money is also proving to be a less reliable system of making payments than other new technologies. Its clearing systems are either antiquated, like the Federal Reserve’s check clearing system, or constrained by regulation aimed at preventing fraud that results in delays in exchanges. Digital currencies, on the other hand, are proving more adept at payments than money-based systems. In Kenya, digital currency is rapidly replacing cash. Bitcoin payments are registered through the Blockchain, allowing for both rapid payment and for fraud protection (most “Bitcoin scandals” have been at exchanges where Bitcoins are changed into money, or represent theft of unsecure wallets). Yet digital currencies have plenty of weaknesses thanks to the way the financial system is regulated, as Bill Frezza discussed when he looked into the failure of e-Gold. These problems are not inherent to the technologies, but are instead built into the regulatory system because of limitations in the technology of money. Mr. Robot’s putative eCoin perhaps suggests a way around this regulatory problem – a cronyist currency controlled by one company working hand-in-glove with the government – but it is hardly one suited to innovation or solving the problems of currencies that have a political dimension. Indeed, it is the worst of all worlds, losing the ancillary benefits of cash money in terms of privacy. It represents the truly dystopian view of a “cashless society.” Free the Money Instead, the regulatory problems should be solved the way such problems are by sane societies when the regulations prove to be inappropriate – by deregulation and/or new regulatory frameworks appropriate to the new technology. Coin Center has plenty of ideas along these lines. Unfortunately, financial regulation is an area where sanity is in limited supply, which is why the Dodd-Frank Act, designed to combat the problem of “Too Big to Fail,” is immiserating African villages. And public choice theory tells us that this problem will be hard to fix. This is why reforming the regulation of payments systems to be innovation-friendly may represent the easiest way to square this particular circle. If existing networks and international standards can learn from how digital currencies work, and incorporate their best features, we may yet see how the dystopian nightmare posited by Mr. Robot can be averted without society bringing down the global financial system. This piece ran on CEI's blog.

Every share makes Black Voice louder! Share To Share To Wagoner County Sheriff Robert Colbert and Captain Jeff Gragg are accused of bribery and extortion. Both of them could face up to 25 years in jail. A multi-county grand jury indicted Wagoner County Sheriff Robert Colbert and Captain Jeff Gragg on charges of bribery and extortion. They allegedly took bribes from drug dealers and let them go free. In 2014 they accepted a $10,000 bribe that secured the release of the motorist and passenger, who were arrested for possession of drugs, and removal of their names from the jail’s booking records. Now Colbert and Gragg could face up to 25 years in jail. Colbert’s lawyer refuted the grand jury’s accusations that the money went missing. “The funds are not missing and are accounted for,” he said. “The sheriff’s office timely deposited every cent of this money in the county treasurer’s account as required by state law. This money was earmarked for fighting drug trafficking to help protect the citizens.” The indictment can raise questions about the reasonability of changing Oklahoma’s civil asset forfeiture law. We should stop thinking that bad cops are rare and start realizing how badly cops abuse their power. The cops get away with everything and the prosecutors and judges only encourage it. The court system is a joke.

South Dakota Governor Vetoes Bill Stipulating Transgender Students' Bathroom Use Enlarge this image toggle caption James Nord/AP James Nord/AP Gov. Dennis Daugaard has vetoed a bill that would have required transgender students in South Dakota's public schools to use bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities based on their gender at birth. Daugaard issued the veto Tuesday afternoon on a bill that would have become law at midnight if he had taken no action. Opponents of the measure, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign, had called on Daugaard to veto the bill. "Proponents of House Bill 1008 say it protects students' privacy," South Dakota Public Radio reports. "Opponents say it's discrimination." After the bill was approved by a 20-15 vote in the state Senate last month, its opponents held protests and questioned lawmakers about it. Daugaard, who in the past had said that he saw the legislation as providing accommodations for both sides, had also met with transgender students and parents. "I heard their personal stories," Daugaard said after those meetings, according to SDPB. "And so I saw things through their eyes in that sense. I had read other personal stories. Certainly I'm getting personal stories through the emails, and through what I read in the paper." The law would have had particular impact for the 1,360 youth in South Dakota who identify as transgender, according to an estimate by the Williams Institute, a think tank based at UCLA. But it's also part of a wider debate over lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights. Last week, the city council of Charlotte, N.C., approved a nondiscrimination ordinance that allows transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice. According to the ACLU, at least 200 other cities and counties have enacted similar legislation, as have at least 18 states.

By early 1989, the Blackadder writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton had already agreed on the setting for their hero’s fourth full incarnation, Blackadder Goes Forth , moving into the 20th century. The team were contracted to begin recording in the late summer. With Tim McInnerny back in the fold after skipping a series, and Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie as full-time players, alongside Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder) and Tony Robinson (Baldrick), the new line-up was just one way in which the latest series would be the ultimate distillation of everything that had gone before. Though there was no question at the time of this being a finale, by bringing the Blackadder family so close to the modern day, everybody involved knew that this would not be just any other series. One of many differences was the fact that, with the First World War in their sights, the writers decided that historical research was a necessity, for the first time. “With Blackadder two and three, we weren’t particularly respectful of the periods, but I don’t think we were really into any blatant howlers,” Elton says. “Obviously, with the First World War we had a very different approach.” Ribbing the attitudes of centuries gone by was one thing, but finding humour in the deaths of 35 million people within living memory was not a task that anyone could countenance. “We read lots of books about it,” Curtis says. “They were interesting, because all the stuff we wanted to write about, which was sort of the clash of the classes, and getting stuck in a small confined space, was funny. All the people coming from communities where they’d never bumped into posh people, and vice versa, and all being so gung-ho and optimistic and enthusiastic… The first 100 pages of any book about the First World War are hilarious – and then everybody dies.” Laurie says: “It was a really peculiar and bold thing to try and make a comedy out of, but I think ultimately a very sympathetic and respectful one. Even though the characters were absurd and moronic at times, it never disrespected their courage or their sacrifice.” “Of all the periods we covered it was the most historically accurate,” says Atkinson. “We may have exaggerated the characters and what happened to them, but it is very difficult to exaggerate the absurdity and horror of the First World War. It may sound ridiculous for someone to face a court martial for shooting a pigeon, but madder things happened in reality. Towards the end of the war 30 soldiers were court-martialled and shot in France by our own side for not wearing a hat in the trenches. It is so absurd nobody would ever believe it.” Robinson says: “We’d always said that more than anything what we’d like to do would be to create a series that was very claustrophobic, where the five or six of us who were the performers were trapped in a space. And what better way to feel that notion of claustrophobia than to set it in the trenches?” “Good sitcoms, so the wisdom goes, are set in places where people can’t get out,” the producer John Lloyd continues. “Porridge in prison; in Fawlty Towers, Basil’s trapped with a ghastly wife that he can’t escape from and a business which is going bust but which is his only livelihood. And we set ours in a trench dugout where there’s only two ways to escape – one is forward to the German guns, the other is backwards to the British firing squads.” Having begun the dynastic saga by chickening out of active service at Bosworth, finally a Blackadder was going to war, whether he liked it or not. This didn’t actually make Captain Blackadder brave, just in the wrong place at the wrong time, although Atkinson did sense a change with each dynasty. “In the first series, Blackadder was just an idiot. In the second series he was dashing but weak. As the butler, he became cleverer and nastier. This time he is less cruel and more careworn.” “One of the things I love about series four,” Curtis says, “is that strangely I think Baldrick gained meaning. You know, he’d just been a fool and a butt the whole way through, but there was a remarkable thing that happened right at the end of that series, when he did suddenly seem to represent the working man.” Fry’s character, General Melchett, although undeniably Colonel Blimpish, would go on to personify the dangerous ignorance of First World War high command like no other comic creation. “Young people playing old people are funny,” says Fry. “Because I was young and I was playing a General, it was somehow funnier than if I’d been the right age to be a general. With Blackadder the last thing you want is to take it too seriously. The audience relishes the sight of an actor enjoying himself. They like to see the gargantuan imbecility of it.” He adds, however, “The Melchett in series four was a very different character to the one in two, he was much, much more aggressive, much more insane, much more powerful. He was really, for almost the entire series, the source of power. And he represents the absolute insanity of the war. Without being too pompous about Blackadder, it does I think illustrate perfectly the nature of that grotesque war.” McInnerny was lured back with the promise of the series’ second all-new character, Blackadder’s weaselly and sycophantic equal. “Darling and Blackadder are kind of the same really,” Elton says, “lower-middle-class sort of semi-gentlemen. But obviously one of them has managed to connive his way on to the staff, and the other one’s bad-lucked into the trenches.” As McInnerny recalls: “In the initial rehearsals, he wasn’t even called Darling, he was called Captain Cartwright, which is kind of dull. I mean, I didn’t even know who he was and couldn’t get an angle on him.” “Darling is, I think, one of the great comic creations,” says Lloyd, “and it came from an actor’s determination to carve himself a place here.” Fry continues, “Tim was a bit distressed because his character seemed to be nothing. He was called Cartwright, and I suggested, in a rare moment of brilliance, that maybe he should have a really silly name that was a constant torment to him… And suddenly this character was born out of nowhere, just because of the name!” McInnerny’s transformation into the captain completed the strongest line-up of any Blackadder series, but as the writers may have reflected even at that early stage, Darling’s genesis did not augur well for a smooth production. As Fry recalls: “I remember saying to Hugh and Rowan and John, ‘What will happen in six months’ time when a taxi driver says to you, “Oh, those Blackadders, I bet they’re fun to make, aren’t they?” Will you go “Yes, marvellous fun!”?’ And they all said, ‘No! We’ll be honest and say they’re hell!’” “The producer is supposed to be the person who makes sure that inspiration doesn’t turn into complete filthy anarchy. Unfortunately, we had John…” Robinson says. “We workshopped every word, every exclamation mark! Although we didn’t have the 12 writers you would have for Taxi or Cheers, you had people in the room who were doing exactly the same kind of thing that those writers on an American show would do. We were constantly challenging every single gag, the structure of every scene – we even put additional characters in sometimes. So there was a lot of tension between the writers on the one hand, and the producer on the other, who was, as it were, the representative of what the actors were saying. And it was very good, but it could be quite upsetting sometimes.” “I can’t tell you how profoundly competitive that environment is,” says Robinson, “but I contributed like mad. I think whenever I'm in a corner I always get noisy. Being the only grammar-school boy among that incredibly talented group of highly articulate performers, and having left school at 16, and not having been to university, there was a sense in which they always felt very different from me, really rather exotic, and yet in a way, not really kind of tuned in to the real world, because they all talked so elaborately. And I think that probably helped me with Baldrick.” As Curtis acknowledges, there was only one place Blackadder Goes Forth was ever going to end up. “It was the condition on which we wrote the series. In a way it had been the arrow shot off at the beginning, that it was always going to land in No-man's-land… In a way, that set us free to be as disrespectful as we wanted to be at the beginning, because we were going to be respectful, or at least truthful, at the end.” And McInnerny recalls the looming threat of the final big push: “The world-weariness of Blackadder was something kind of extraordinary. He was beaten down, he wasn’t necessarily going to win every time, and knew he wasn’t. Which gave it a kind of darker edge, I think… The extraordinary thing was that there really was only one plot, which was ‘how can we get out of here?’ I mean, every episode. But at the back of your mind, you think, ‘They can’t get out of it every week, they’re not going to be able to get out of it… Oh, they’re not going to get out of it.’” As a valedictory theme for Blackadder’s last reincarnation, swapping the military rank-related episode titles for Weston & Lee's 1915 hit Good-bye-ee was an inspired move, leaving little doubt in the minds of those who read the synopsis for the conclusion in the television listings before settling down to watch on November 2 1989, that this was the end of the road for the anti-hero. And yet, as Blackadder’s last desperate escape plan unfurled (pretending to be mad by putting two pencils up his nose and his underpants on his head), there was still hope that the scheming cad could somehow pull through. For the cast and crew, however, the knowledge that such hope was fruitless made for a uniquely difficult week of recording. Laurie recalls: “It had as its backdrop the greatest tragedy of modern man, and that gave the thing a poignancy and a texture that few other things I’ve been involved in have had, or could have had.” Atkinson concurs: “I do remember throughout the whole week of rehearsal leading up to Good-bye-ee, and indeed the recording of the episode, having this nasty knot in the pit of my stomach, which reflected the dilemma of my character.” Nevertheless, there was the best part of half an hour of laughs to be had before any conclusion, and at last, the episode attained the truly claustrophobic atmosphere desired by Lloyd for so long, as the old comrades awaited their fate. As the doomed soldiers waited for dawn, there was the traditional excess of jokes which would be trimmed out of the broadcast version, such as the dialogue before the celebrated debut of Baldrick as war poet: Edmund: Hang on, Baldrick, you can’t even write! Baldrick: I remembered it in my head, sir. Edmund: I cannot believe that there is room in that tiny cavity for you to remember both your name and a poem. Baldrick: I think there is, sir! Edmund: All right, fire away, Baldrick. Baldrick: Who’s Baldrick, sir? Edmund: You are Baldrick! Baldrick: Oh yes, that’s right – Bald-rick! Edmund: Now, recite the poem. Baldrick: What poem would that be, sir? Edmund: No, look, forget who you are. [He does so.] Now let’s hear the poem. Baldrick: ... ‘The German Guns’, by… Me. “When Ben gave me the script with Baldrick’s poem on it, I just went, ‘Thank you!’” Robinson grins, and Fry adds, of the Tommy’s proud rendition of the word “Boom” 14 times: “It is fine poetry; this was the age of modernism, after all. So Baldrick was perhaps the leading modern poet of his age.” Lloyd says, “Suddenly they’re all together, except for Melchett, and enmities have to be patched up, because at the end of the day, they’re all probably going to get killed. The comedy starts to drain out of it in the most horrific way, there was this very odd feeling that you’ve lost control of it.” Right up until the very final few lines, with the four unlikely comrades lined up before the trench ladders, there’s still hope that a typical Blackadder – or even Baldrick – cunning plan could be waiting around the corner until Darling’s breathtakingly tragic outpouring of misplaced joy, “Thank God! We lived through it! The Great War: 1914 to 1917”, finally knocks the wind out of the hopeful viewer. For the final push, an extra £10,000 had been spent on creating No-man’s-land in a separate studio, away from the audience who could only watch on the monitors. Lloyd remembers, “The actors were alone, in the dark, with a single assistant floor manager, and had to go over the top, with real explosions going off around them. After the first, shocking take, the studio audience and the production team were stunned into silence, but [the director] Richard Boden and I felt it could be done a bit better.” It was five to 10, and they had one last chance to get the shot right. John spoke into the floor manager’s earpiece, but the reply came from Rowan himself, in “shattered” tones: “I’m sorry,” came the voice, “but we can’t do another one, it’s just too horrible.” “What do you mean, you’re not going to do it?” “It’s really the most frightening thing I’ve ever done, and we’ve all agreed we’re not going to do it, and I’m very sorry.” And with that, the line went dead. “It was one of the lowest points, I think, of my television career,” Lloyd admits, “thinking, ‘The end of this amazing series, and I've just screwed it up!’” Seeing the raw footage of the cast stumbling towards the camera, awkwardly striding towards eternity, it’s easy to see why the editing team had worries. However, Lloyd says, “Each person in that room, as I remember, made at least one contribution to the ending sequence.” Chris Wadsworth, the editor, was chief among them. “It was so obvious that we had so little material to work with, we had to really slow the pictures right down in order to stretch them in time, but that produced an incredibly good effect with the flashes which were going over on the right of the picture, and the debris that falls over Rowan. In slow motion, this suddenly achieved a grandeur which was not obvious in the full motion.” Lloyd continues: “In the editing suite we played the tape of Howard Goodall playing the theme on a piano, recorded in a gymnasium; a liquid, lonely sound. Then the editor said, ‘What if we played this shot in slo-mo?’ ‘Oh, that’s a good idea.’ ‘And if the music’s slowed down as well it suddenly becomes stronger.’ “Someone then suggested taking out the colour, draining it out to black and white. And the production secretary said, ‘I know. We could have some poppies. I know where there’s a slide of poppies.’” Boden had always hoped to end on a poppy motif, and helped to select just the right still of bucolic peace, while someone from sound selected birdsong to complete the effect. Wadsworth recalls the first time he mixed between the drained battlefield and the poppy field, and says, “It was a Yes immediately – this was a moment.” So, Lloyd proudly says, “There were about five or six people contributing bits and when you put it all together, blow me down, it’s the most moving thing you’ve ever seen. It’s extraordinary and to this day I feel a fantastic privilege that I was allowed, as it were, in the room where something as wonderful as that happened.” And so, with the series beginning broadcast just as these final touches were being put in place, the team could breathe a sigh of relief that the Blackadder legacy would not be tarnished – but they couldn’t have predicted the unparalleled reaction Blackadder Goes Forth would get from the British public, who hadn’t anticipated that the series would reach its apotheosis on such a note of pathos and sincerity. * This is an edited extract from The True History of the Black Adder by JF Roberts [Preface, £12.99]

by Danielle Keane, NORML Associate The NORML PAC is proud to announce its endorsement of Tim Canova, democratic primary challenger to US House member and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz for Florida’s 23rd congressional district race. Mr. Canova, a law school professor and political activist, is the first Democratic challenger to Representative Wasserman-Schultz since she’s held the office and NORML is excited to support his Congressional campaign. Unlike Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz, who has cast a number of votes opposing sensible marijuana law reforms, candidate Canova is making drug policy reform a key plank of his campaign. He writes: In Florida, I supported the 2014 medical marijuana referendum that garnered about 58 percent of the vote state-wide, falling just short of the required 60 percent mark. My opponent, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is a drug warrior who opposed the medical marijuana referendum. Calling marijuana a “gateway” drug, she refuses to allow her constituents in South Florida, in consultation with their doctors, to decide for themselves whether to utilize this plant-based medicine to alleviate pain and other symptoms of various illnesses and the side effects of other medications. Certain industries have a special interest in keeping marijuana illegal – for example, the alcohol and pharmaceutical industries, both of which view recreational and medicinal use of marijuana as a competitive threat; and the private prison industry, which profits from warehousing people in jails, including for marijuana possession. Not surprisingly, having taken in lots of campaign donations from the alcohol, pharmaceutical, and private prison industries and their political action committees (PACs), Debbie Wasserman Schultz opposes medical marijuana and supports privatized prisons and mass incarceration. Unlike my opponent, I do not take any contributions from these special interests, or from any corporate interests at all. In addition to Florida’s medical marijuana referendum, I also support the recent reforms by Miami-Dade and Broward Counties to decriminalize marijuana for personal use, and I call on the federal government to “de-schedule” marijuana from the list of controlled and dangerous substances. In many of the states that have moved in the direction of legalization and regulation of marijuana for personal use, entire new industries are flourishing, adding jobs and increasing tax revenues, and crime rates are falling. While I support state efforts to allow individuals to make their own decisions, I also recognize the need to provide young people — and people of all ages — with many more job and educational opportunities in a time of decriminalization and legalization. Earlier this year NORML released our 2016 Congressional Scorecard, an all-encompassing database of information related to marijuana law reform that graded members of Congress on their willingness to reform our country’s archaic marijuana laws. Representative Wasserman-Schultz was one of 37 congressional members to receive an “F” grade, a grade reserved for members who have spoken out against and actively opposed marijuana reforms. NORML would like to commend Mr. Canova for his commitment toward amending America’s antiquated and overly punitive marijuana policies. Please consider donating to Mr. Canova’s campaign here. Additionally, you can also volunteer for his campaign from the comfort of your own home! All you need is a phone, computer, and internet connection. This call tool on his website allows anyone to call into his district to contact voters to urge their support for Mr. Canova.

Q: I don't understand why they play back-to-back games in the preseason. Doesn't the Heat have control over who and when they play? -- Marcelo. A: They have control over when their home games are played. But teams also try to schedule on the weekends as much as possible, which is why it's Saturday in Houston and Sunday in Atlanta coming up. Plus, preseason games don't generate as much revenue as regular-season games, with little to no walkup sales, so teams tend to schedule them around and potential higher-revenue events. But I agree that the same teams who express such concern about regular-season back-to-backs would be wise to be vigilant in the preseason, as well. The counterargument is that teams can carry up to 20 players in the preseason, so there is not as much stress on players, which the minutes relatively limited for the starters. Also, as has been explained to me by an NBA executive, teams sometimes prefer clustering their exhibitions, so they also can cluster their practices, without have to stop for constant travel. Q: Five preseason games are left to build cohesion with a starting lineup that's never played together. Is this is now a concern? -- Daniel. A: I would like to downplay the preseason and say the time missed by Hassan Whiteside is not a concern. But it is. After Tuesday's game in Orlando, he will have missed all of training camp and half of the preseason with his calf strain. This team can't get on the same page until all its primary pieces are in place. And you know that Erik Spoelstra is not going to play all of his regulars in both Saturday's game in Houston and Sunday's game Atlanta. So the Heat basically have three exhibitions, at best, when the projected starting lineup can play together (and that's only if Whiteside is back by this weekend, although he told me he will try to practice later this week). A lack of continuity destroyed last season and it's not as if the Heat have found the antidote in camp. Remember, the schedule is heavily home-loaded at the start of the regular season. Fail to take advantage of that and it could prove particularly difficult to overcome, especially with the eclipse of road games in January. Q: Giving James Ennis, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson more playing time during the preseason is meant to build their own confidence. -- Aura. A: First, with no offense to the others, don't group Winslow with those other three. He's at a different place in the rotation, and he needs as much NBA exposure as he can get during the preseason. I'm still not sold on Ennis getting a roster spot, especially if he holds to the contract clause where he becomes fully guaranteed for the season. As for Richardson, the thinking could be that he eventually will get all the seasoning he needs in the D-League, with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. Johnson already has had plenty of NBA exposure, so I'm sure he would be ready if needed. He looked good Monday playing as the first point guard off the bench.

Anti-abortion groups fuming over the Republican failure to defund Planned Parenthood as part of ObamaCare repeal are eyeing tax reform as the next vehicle for their cause. The groups want Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood in a tax reform package that the GOP plans to move through the Senate under special budgetary rules that protect it from a Democratic filibuster. “The failures to pass repeal and replace, including redirecting those dollars to other providers that don’t do abortions, has been incredibly disappointing to us,” said Marilyn Musgrave, vice president of government affairs at the Susan B. Anthony List, a D.C.-based group that works to elect anti-abortion members of Congress. ADVERTISEMENT “It didn’t happen under health care, so now we’re asking that under the 2018 reconciliation bill Congress redirect these dollars.” Some Republicans don’t want to include the Planned Parenthood language in the new package, however, for fear it could hurt their chances of passing the tax bill. “I don’t think we should do anything that compromises passing tax reform,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn John CornynHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Senate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl MORE (R-Texas). He suggested that Planned Parenthood could be addressed later, when Republicans move back to health care. Even die-hard conservatives aren’t endorsing the idea of pairing the Planned Parenthood issue with tax reform. “I don’t see that happening,” said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, a group that has led the charge on defunding Planned Parenthood. “I mean, I’m a big one on defunding Planned Parenthood and pro-life measures, but I don’t see it being included in reconciliation instructions.” Like Cornyn, he said Republicans could return to the issue when they get back to ObamaCare repeal. But such promises are of little value to anti-abortion groups. That’s “not acceptable,” Musgrave said. “It’s a reasonable ask from the pro-life community, and this is what we’re saying to the most pro-life Congress ever. It didn’t get done on health-care reform, so we expect it in this reconciliation bill.” Musgrave said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser has met with Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) over the matter. While promoting tax reform this week, however, GOP leaders have not indicated that language defunding Planned Parenthood would be a part of the bill. Ryan’s office did not respond to request for comment. It's also unclear if such language would meet the Senate's strict rules for reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian ruled earlier this year that defunding language included in the GOP's health-care bill didn't meet the rules and would need 60 votes for passage. It's possible that a similar issue could arise if the language were added to the tax-reform bill. Other anti-abortion groups, including Students for Life and March for Life, which organizes a march on D.C. every year to protest abortion, are pushing for Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood through tax reform. “We call upon this Congress and Administration to be true to their promises to fix abortion aspects of the healthcare law and work to redirect funding for Planned Parenthood through tax reform,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini said in a statement to The Hill. Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins indicated the anti-abortion movement is getting frustrated with Congress's failures to defund Planned Parenthood. “It’s been incredibly frustrating. If this was a priority for leadership, they would have found a way to get this done. This is something we’ve been talking about for many years,” Hawkins said. “Now we’re hopeful … about trying to add a defunding Planned Parenthood measure into the new tax reform plan.” Even some of the loudest voices on Capitol Hill against Planned Parenthood, however, will not commit to including a defunding measure with tax reform — perhaps underlining the importance of the tax measure to the GOP. “Well, obviously, the defunding provision is critically important to many of us and to a lot of unborn children, so we’re hoping to see it placed in a vehicle that will come to fruition,” said Rep. Trent Franks Harold (Trent) Trent FranksArizona New Members 2019 Cook shifts 8 House races toward Dems Freedom Caucus members see openings in leadership MORE (R-Ariz.), chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus. Asked if that could be tax reform, he replied: “I know that’s certainly something I would support, but I’m obviously also strongly supportive of the tax bill at this point.” Other Republicans sounded a bit more open to the possibility of adding Planned Parenthood defunding to the tax package. “I would actually support that anywhere I could get it," said Sen. James Lankford James Paul LankfordHarris on election security: 'Russia can't hack a piece of paper' GOP advances rules change to speed up confirmation of Trump nominees GOP senator calls Omar's apology 'entirely appropriate' MORE (R-Okla.), a leader on anti-abortion issues in the Senate, when asked if defunding Planned Parenthood should be included in tax reform. Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas) said: “I have long led the efforts in the Senate to defund Planned Parenthood, and I think we should use every available means to do so.” Jacqueline Ayers, director of legislative affairs for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said it’s a risk whenever Republicans use reconciliation that they’ll try to attach defunding language. “We are always monitoring for the possibility that the next reconciliation bill, while it should stay focused on taxes, could attempt to also go after health care and defunding Planned Parenthood,” Ayers said. “If there is a goal to have a successful agenda around taxes and reforming and overhauling the tax system, putting in poison pills and unpopular provisions like defunding Planned Parenthood would stop them in their tracks once again. I think that would do more to create tension and make it more likely they would have another failed agenda item.”

Optus has dusted off its M & A playbook for iiNet but is not expected to get involved in a takeover war that has already sent the Perth based telco's shares to fresh highs. It's understood Optus has looked at its rival a number of times in recent years and has re-run the numbers now that iiNet is officially on the market. However, as is often the case, it's believed Optus struggles to see value in iiNet at $1.56 billion. Optus has looked at its rival a number of times in recent years and has re-run the numbers now that iiNet is officially on the market. Mayu Kanamori The company's Singaporean parent has repeatedly shown itself to be a frugal buyer and previously missed out on smaller internet service provider acquisitions to iiNet. And, at a time when Optus has flagged extensive capital commitment to Australia already, it's hard to see them getting involved in iiNet.

If you've ever shopped for health insurance, you know that the prices for adequate health care, whether for an individual or a family, are unreachable. In the past, insurance companies charged you an immense amount of money to get on a plan. And if you happened to have a pre-existing condition, they would either deny you coverage, or raise your premiums even higher. But just this week, the Affordable Care Act's Marketplace went into effect and millions of people are now able to enroll in it. The marketplace, a one-stop shop to compare plans and prices, serves as an incentive for private insurance companies to compete for our business. Previously, insurance companies gave their best prices in a bulk, in most cases through an employer-based plan. Now, thanks to the marketplace, families or individuals who are looking for affordable health care plans are be able to buy them. In essence, the marketplace makes each state act as its own company, where insurance companies compete for people seeking health care coverage, forcing these insurance companies to create new low and affordable prices. As a result of the Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, nearly 6 in 10 Americans currently without health insurance could get coverage for $100 a month or less. In addition to the marketplace, the Affordable Care Act specifically addresses the inequalities in accessing health care that have affected minority communities across the country. With this new law in place, an estimated 10.2 million Latinos will have the opportunity to purchase affordable health coverage. With young adults being the age group most likely to be uninsured, it is imperative to point out the benefits of Obamacare not just to Latinos as a whole, but to young Latinos as well. As young Latinos, it's important for us to have access to preventive care and health education, including flu shots, birth control and other preventive services. Obamacare will allow young individuals to access such services, without having to pay a co-pay or deductible. When 1 out of 4 Latinos reported withdrawing money from savings to pay for health care costs, it's important for young Latinos to understand that Obamacare is helping them focus on other priorities, such as getting good grades in the classroom or excelling at that first job out of college. In the past, young Latinos lost their health insurance when they left home or graduated from college. Now, thanks to this law, young Latinos are able to stay on their parents' health care insurance until they are 26. As a result of this, young Latinos between the ages 19 and 25 who would have otherwise been uninsured, now have access to coverage under a parent's health care plan. And for those of us who are unable to qualify to stay on our parent's insurance, under this law, we are eligible to get financial assistance to pay for insurance via the new health Insurance marketplace, which opens up for enrollment starting next week. As a young Latino, who is facing student debt, and a tough economic market, it matters a great deal to be able to have affordable health care prices. With Latinos starting more businesses each year than their counterparts, it's extremely helpful to know and rest assured that this law caters to young Latino entrepreneurs, who otherwise wouldn't have access to health care coverage through their employer, where a majority of Americans get their insurance from. But most importantly, the Affordable Care Act provides us with a piece of mind, that just because of a pre-existing condition, we won't be denied coverage. The fact is that I've seen too many people, including my own mother, face unreachable premiums or be denied health insurance because of the old policies in place. Thanks to the new marketplace, insurance companies can't deny you or increase your premiums because of a pre-existing condition,

Ishrat Jahan is one of the five petitioners in the landmark Supreme Court case on triple talaq. The two missing children of Ishrat Jahan, one of the five women who challenged instant triple talaq and won, have been traced. The children had been taken to a relative's house in Bardhaman - about 100 km from Kolkata - by their father, the police said this evening. Ishrat Jahan, 31, had accused her husband of kidnapping two of her four children.Last week, the Supreme Court declared illegal the practice of triple talaq, or Muslim men divorcing their wives on the spot by uttering "talaq (divorce)" thrice, in a landmark verdict. Two days after the Supreme Court judgment, Ishrat Jahan asked Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for protection, saying she had faced condemnation and attacks from members of her community, especially her husband's family.Her in-laws and neighbours were calling her a "gandi aurat" (bad woman) for challenging Islamic laws and talking about it, Ishrat Jahan complained.Ishrat Jahan was divorced over phone by her husband from Dubai in April 2014.She says her four children were taken away by her husband and they lived with his second wife in a village in Bihar. Two of them, a 13-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, returned to their mother unannounced recently, says Ishrat Jahan.

RN In general we regularly produce reports on the socioeconomic impact of the crisis. We use different methodologies. But essentially we make a comparison between our baseline scenario — as if the crisis had not happened — and what has actually transpired. Basically, the economy has been systematically destroyed. First, Syria’s capital stock is lost. There has been direct destruction as a result of the armed conflict, and there is currently a great deal of idle capital in Syria due to the security conditions. The second point is the loss of human capital, either because of displacement, migration, or because of death and injury. We have lost a lot of skilled workers. And we have lost a huge amount of human capital in Syria. Third, there has been a loss of infrastructure: there was a huge infrastructure for health, education, telecommunications, industry — we have lost it, and we have lost the networks between some Syrian markets and other markets both inside and outside Syria. Furthermore, especially after the armed conflict began, people migrated out from Syria, and there has been outflow of capital, especially private capital. The only reliable remaining network for the economy has been government salaries. The government continues to pay its salaries. So this is one part of the economy that continues to function. The other part is the agricultural sector, which continued producing well until last year. But then it took a turn for the worse, and as a result food security deteriorated greatly in the country. All the basic pillars of the economy have been partly destroyed. And these used to be, at least to a large extent, its sources of growth. This is one aspect of the economic problems. The other part is the creation of a violence economy — a lot of people have started to contribute to the fighting, and they now have incentives from smuggling, killing, and widespread theft across the country. And the institutions which had been central to long-term growth are in bad shape. And of course this social movement, which started as a peaceful movement, has been diverted from the main road and now we are facing a loss of social capital. Furthermore, there has been a deterioration in social services, such as education. We have lost some of Syria’s main strengths, like an educated population. Now most of the new generation is outside the educational system, and outside the reach of the health services, too. Fragmentation within Syria as a result of the armed conflict is pervasive, and now we have the phenomenon of fundamentalism. We call those contributing to the armed conflict subjugating powers. They are not just inside Syria. They are inside and outside, and they are financing and supporting the influence of tyranny and fundamentalism. This is destroying the social fabric of the Syrian people, the culture of Syria, and of course destroying the idea of a future. Most people are trying to leave the country, and so stabilization is not possible.

Chapter One—Pawns In an Emerald Forest Today was the day she's waited for. Her massive sword blazed through the air like a rocket, trailing fire and smoke as it was propelled by jet engines towards its unfortunate target. The shadowy beowolf didn't stand a chance. Her sword caught the beast under the arm and in a flurry of jets and fire her sword was dragged upwards and beyond, leaving the grim monster in pieces. The young woman holding the massive blade—almost twice as tall as she was, which didn't mean much because she wasn't very tall—smiled darkly at the sight of her handiwork. Placing her blade against her shoulder she breathed in deeply. The smell of battle filled her nostrils; sweat, dirt, mangled fur and the aroma of exaggerated combat tingled her nose like an electric shock. Oh, what a scent! Her ears were blessed to hear an orchestra of metal on beast, the dancing footsteps of battle forming a rythem that incouraged her own feet to dance and her arms to twirl about wielding jetstream—her sword... the big massive jet-powered sword she held against her shoulder—and join them in the frenzy. Even the echoing sounds from a Laughter didn't shatter her euphoric thoughts. The small laughing ape jumped at her from up high in the trees, its red eyes gleaming like glowing red dust and his mask elaborately decorated with eyes and mocking lips. But this Grimm found no such luck with Hope. In a flash her sword was ripping through the air, trailing blue fury. It collided with the laughing Grimm and sent it across the clearing in two distinct pieces. Hope breathed in deeply again, smiling. She was in total control. "What are you doing?!" Demanded a young woman with granite colored flowing long hair and serious dark eyes, "If we don't get those pieces we'll never get to be huntresses! We need to get going, the soon the better if you ask me." "Yeah, well no one asked you, Payne." Hope said under her breath. "What did you say?" "I said that I didn't ask you!" She repeated herself, not afraid to say what was on her mind, "I don't need you to tell me what to do." It was the truth after all. "If either of you ladies wouldn't mind..." Oriol grunted, his armored fists locked with the claws of a mighty dark bear—and Ursa Grimm, "If you two start arguing again it's going to be 'unbearable'." Before Hope could even roll her eyes at that god awful pun something struck the Ursa from behind. The attack came out of nowhere and was so fast it left only an afterimage of a snow white blade slicing the bear's spine. She searched the trees for Essere, but he had already fallen back beyond the trees. It was incredible how quickly and silently he could move. Oriol looked around for Essere. His mouth was gaunt with disappointment, "... I wanted to be the one to do that..." "To bad." A small voice said from behind Hope. It was Essere. Neither she nor Payne even realized he was there until he spoke. "Looks like it's already over." "Yeah." Hope went the center of the clearing to observe the fallen Grimm beasts. There were dozens of Beowolves and Laughters scattered around, all in little bits and bobs but neither Hope nor Oriol nor Payne nor Essere had a scratch on themselves. It was almost too easy. "We'll this is disappointing." "What is?" "This entire quest. When Professor Ozpin said we needed collect a relic I just thought it was going to be much more dangerous here... I thought there were going to be traps and monsters the size of buildings and dust magic and—and—I don't know, just more than this! Even when they launched us from the cliff was simple." "Says you." Oriol objected, "You were able to fly down with that sword. I had to fall. Hard." He rubbed his bruised arm gingerly as he said that last part. "I just thought Beacon was supposed to be different than Signal or Transmit." Everyone was silent, including Essere who's always quite. In the aftermath of the battle the four of them stood tall in the center of the clearing. "Listen." Hope said, her voice demanded to be heard, "I don't know anything about you more than your names and that you can put up a hell of a fight. I've never seen you in my life before now but from the moment our eyes met we became a team. And as a team I can promise you—we're going to be the first to get that relic, and we're going to be the first to get out of this forest. Nothing is going to stand in our way." Payne crossed her arms, "Who elected you to be our leader?" Hope put away her sword, "No one, but if you have a problem with it then do something about it." Payne raised her hands and cocked a smile, "I have no problems, no ma'am." "Good. I'm Hope Hekigan by the way. I look forward to fighting with you—all of you." "I'm Payne Grayson." "Oriol Chava, at your service." "Essere Al Verde." Once the last name was pulled forth a dreadful sound emerged from beyond the trees. The sound of crows and flapping wings. Hundreds of flapping wings. Behind every leaf was a pair of yellow glowing eyes, and below the branches black feathers fluttered down aimlessly from above. Everyone looked to each other, "Well, I guess that's our cue to get the hell out of here!" Pouring from the trees came dozens of ink black Cravens, their caws ringing out at them like fingernails on a chalkboard. A smile dashed across Hope's lips, stretching from ear to ear. Drawing her sword jetstream she pointed it at the flock of inky missiles lobbing themselves towards the four of them. "Looks like we're going to have to fight..."

Arizona emo-rock veterans Jimmy Eat World will play next year’s Slam Dunk Festival, headlining the event on their 25th anniversary as a band. They will be joined by their Long Island counterparts Taking Back Sunday, who return to the festival for the third time. Both bands are among the first six acts – exclusively revealed by The Independent – to be confirmed for the UK alternative festival held across three dates in Hertfordshire, Leeds and Birmingham over the spring bank holiday weekend. Pop punk bands Four Year Strong, State Champs and Trash Boat will also play, and post-hardcore group Sleeping with Sirens complete the first batch announced. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month The festival, now in its twelfth year, is known for attracting some of the biggest names in pop punk, emo and hardcore, having previously hosted the likes of Enter Shikari, You Me at Six, Fall Out Boy and All Time Low. Next year will see the South date move from the University of Hertfordshire to nearby Hatfield Park, having outgrown its former home. The Midlands and North dates will remain at Birmingham NEC and Leeds City Centre respectively. Festival director Ben Ray said: "Slam Dunk Festival South has been taking place in Hatfield since 2010 so the town has truly become our home. Therefore, I am extremely happy we managed to find a new site still within the town. We are sad to leave the University however the event was selling out months in advance so we knew we had to move it and make it bigger due to demand from the fans." After forming in 1993, Jimmy Eat World are widely regarded as one of the most influential bands in the emo and pop-rock scenes, and last year released their eighth full-length record Integrity Blues. This will be their first time playing Slam Dunk and their only UK festival appearance in 2018. Slam Dunk Festival 2018 takes place on the following dates: Saturday 26 May: Leeds City Centre Sunday 27 May: Hatfield Park, Hertfordshire Bank Holiday Monday 28 May: Birmingham NEC Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am.

Dave Romney and Emmanuel Boateng scored six minutes apart as the Galaxy mounted a furious comeback to defeat Real Salt Lake on the road for the first win of the 2017 season. A few minutes in, Brooks Lennon glided unmarked to meet a cross deep inside the box, but his volley was just high as Clement Diop punched the air in frustration. Diop had good reason to be upset. The Galaxy defense was dangerously lax, and it was no surprise when Yura Movsisyan powerfully re-directed a header past the goalkeeper in the 18th minute to put the hosts ahead. Things looked bleak for LA, who were sputtering offensively and generally looked aimless. But RSL tossed the Galaxy a buoy when Kyle Beckerman earned his second yellow needlessly fouling Joáo Pedro in the 44th minute, and suddenly there was hope. The second half started off sluggish for LA, who enjoyed 80% possession but were not threatening And all of a sudden, the match turned on its head. Romain Alessandrini’s swerving cross in the 69th minute was met by Dave Romney who smashed a picture-perfect cannon past a helpless Nick Rimando. A minute later substitute Chad Barrett flubbed his lines when he basically missed an open net that would have put RSL back up front. In the 75th minute, the comeback was complete when Alessandrini got to the sidelines and squared a low cross that Boateng got on the end of and struck home.

But regulators are finding other faults with the Yaz franchise. The Food and Drug Administration early this year asked Bayer to correct misleading television commercials. Last month, the agency cited the company for not following proper quality control procedures at a plant that makes hormone ingredients. In e-mail responses to a reporter’s queries, the American unit of the company said that its birth-control drugs had been and continued to be extensively studied and that the company stood behind their safety. The company also said it had responded to the F.D.A.’s questions about manufacturing practices, which it said it took very seriously. But even if Bayer can adequately respond to the safety and other concerns, some industry analysts say that the avalanche of criticism could tarnish the Yaz line’s image. Other products by Bayer, like the erectile dysfunction drug Levitra and the intrauterine birth-control system Mirena, generate far less income than the Yaz product family. “For Bayer, it is by far the highest margin and the fastest-growing brand,” Martin Brunninger, an analyst with the European investment bank Bryan, Garnier & Company, said in a phone interview from London on Wednesday. “Whether this turns out to be a serious issue or not, when a drug is stigmatized in public, people just withdraw from taking it.” Bayer said that the company had been served with 74 lawsuits brought by women who charge that they developed health problems after taking Yaz or Yasmin. The company says it intends to defend itself vigorously against the suits. The health questions and the lawsuits may rattle consumer confidence, but the warnings from federal health authorities about advertising and quality control raise larger questions about Bayer’s approach to complying with government rules, said Michael A. Santoro, an associate professor at the Rutgers Business School who has studied ethics in the pharmaceutical industry. Birth control pills work by altering a woman’s hormone levels. Researchers have long known that taking a combination hormone birth control pill — which contains estrogen and a progestin hormone — can increase the risk of stroke and blood clots in the legs and lungs. That is because estrogen can play a role in blood coagulation. Indeed, since the introduction of oral contraceptives in the 1960s, drug companies have greatly reduced estrogen doses to decrease the risk of thrombosis, the medical term for blood clots. Advertisement Continue reading the main story With lower-dose estrogen pills now available, the safety debate, continuing for the last decade, has focused on whether the type of progestin in a formula may also play a role in the risk of cardiovascular problems. In 2001, the F.D.A. approved Yasmin, which contains a novel progestin called drospirenone. Yaz, which contains drospirenone and a lower dose of estrogen, received agency approval in 2006. For women seeking contraception , the drug is also approved to treat severe emotional and physical symptoms called premenstrual dysphoric disorder and for moderate acne. Because drospirenone can increase potassium levels in the body, it may put women who have liver or kidney problems at risk for serious heart problems, according to the drug label. Studies on the safety of birth control pills have reported different results on the risks of progestins. Photo One large-scale study in Europe , sponsored by Bayer, reported that there was no difference in the risk of cardiovascular problems or death in women taking drospirenone birth control pills compared to women who took pills that contained levonorgestrel, a progestin that has been used since the 1970s. But two other studies on Danish and Dutch women, published last month in The British Medical Journal, found a higher risk of venous blood clots for women taking newer progestins, including drospirenone. The results of the new studies, conducted on European populations with specific genetic risk factors for blood clots, might not translate to a more ethnically diverse American patient population, said Dr. David A. Grimes, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina medical school. And even if the reported increased risk is realistic, he said, it is tiny. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. “My dictum is that a multiple of a rare event is still a rare event,” said Dr. Grimes, who has been a paid consultant for Bayer and other makers of contraceptives. And taking birth control pills involves much smaller blood clot risks than getting pregnant and having a baby, he said. But Dr. Frits R. Rosendaal, a professor of clinical epidemiology at Leiden University Medical Center who was one of the authors of the Dutch study, said the reports of an increased risk were worth acting on — by switching to pills containing levonorgestrel. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Even if the risk of thrombosis is low, why not choose the lowest risk, just in case?” he said. A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the agency was reviewing the safety of birth control pills with a study designed to identify the incidence of blood clots, stroke and death among users of Yasmin and other oral contraceptives. Bayer, meanwhile, is conducting a postmarketing study comparing the safety of Yaz with other birth control pills. Lawyers suing Bayer on behalf of plaintiffs who claim that they developed blood clots, heart attacks and other health problems because they took the drugs said they intended to argue that the company knew or should have known that the pills entailed a higher risk. One such plaintiff is Anne Marie Eakins, a history teacher in Grafton, Ohio , who developed blood clots in both lungs in 2007 and, as a result, she said, lost partial use of her right lung. She had used a variety of different birth control pills over more than a decade before starting Yaz in 2007, she said. “To be perfectly honest, I asked my doctor about Yaz because I had seen the commercial and it mentioned helping control your period symptoms and acne, which was very attractive to me,” said Ms. Eakins, 34. “I didn’t think it was going to be worse than any other pill.” Because drug labels for Yasmin and Yaz contain warnings about the risk of side effects like blood clots and strokes, plaintiffs may have a difficult time winning cases with the argument that the company should have issued stronger alerts. But, armed with F.D.A. warning letters to Bayer, lawyers may find more success with the argument that misleading Yaz commercials enticed women to take the drug, thereby exposing them to health risks they might not otherwise have incurred. Last October, the agency sent Bayer a warning letter, citing the company for running two false and misleading television ads about Yaz. According to the letter, the ads overstated the drug’s efficacy, promoted it for conditions like premenstrual syndrome for which the drug is not approved, and minimized serious risks associated with the drug. In February, Bayer agreed to spend $20 million on a corrective advertising campaign to counteract misimpressions created by the original television spots. Last month, the agency sent Bayer a warning letter about another problem — deviations from quality control standards at a manufacturing plant in Germany that makes drospirenone and other hormone ingredients used in Bayer’s birth control pills sold in the United States. The letter said that the way in which the facility calculated variability in ingredients did not meet American standards. Bayer said it was taking the matter seriously. Maintaining good manufacturing practices and patient safety continue to be top priorities at Bayer, the company said in a statement. But Mr. Santoro of the Rutgers Business School said that drug companies should set higher standards for themselves than those set by the F.D.A. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It tells me,” Mr. Santoro said of Bayer, “that it is not understanding the business that it is in, that it is not understanding the health risks that it is posing to the public or the financial risk that it is creating for its shareholders.”

A section of Maoists in India has decided to abandon armed struggle and instead opt for open democratic practices to carry forward their fight for justice for the poor and the marginalised. The decision to give up violence as a means of achieving their political goals comes at a time when large swathes of India are in the grip of a conflict between the Maoists and government security forces leading to the deaths of hundreds of paramilitary forces, the police, Maoist fighters and civilians caught in the crossfire. At a meeting held at a secret location near the southern Indian city of Bangalore, a breakaway section of the leaders of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) told reporters that the path of armed insurrection was outdated in modern-day India, with its globalised and liberal economy. The new thinking has been in the pipeline for the last seven years and several discussions have been held within the CPI (Maoist). Those who were convinced formed the breakaway Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). The public declaration of abandoning armed violence has come following the intervention by a group of writers, poets and journalists in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. This group, which had asked the Maoists to lay down arms, met state chief minister Siddaramaiah requesting him to help integrate the breakaway Maoists into mainstream politics. For mass movement Two top leaders of the breakaway faction Noor Zulfikar (aka Noor Sridhar) and Sirimane Nagaraj are wanted by the police in several cases. Talking to reporters they said if the police dropped the cases against them they would work in the open. "The need of the hour is not armed struggle, but a broad, democratic and open mass movement and a united front of various people's struggles. For this, we have to work in the democratic and legal framework." The breakaway section now describes as wrong the premise on which the Maoists armed violence is based. According to it, the corporate sector had reached even the villages and disputed the earlier interpretation of society, particularly in rural India, being "semi-feudal, semi-colonial" The need of the hour is not armed struggle, but a broad, democratic and open mass movement and a united front of various people's struggles. For this, we have to work in the democratic and legal framework. Noor Zulfikar, Member, Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). The Maoists take inspiration from the 1917 Russian revolution and the 1949 Chinese Communist revolution. But Zulfikar and Nagaraj say "what is required is neither the Russian Revolution model nor the Chinese model. We have to evolve a third model." They said it was foolish to claim that armed struggle was the only way to transform society. In democratic societies of the modern era, transformation should be achieved with minimal damage. Asked if societies would not move towards violence in future, Noor said "Nobody can predict that, as it depends on how oppressive the State gets. But armed struggle should not be a subjective agenda". Holding that ideology should not substitute common sense, the two leaders said that ideology without "creatively application" had led to dogmatic practices in the Maoist party. Although a large section of the Maoist cadre was in favour of the new thinking, the leadership did not acknowledge, much less address the concern. The underground party was not up to accepting the challenge of exploring a third alternative because "its very structure will crumble". In the last seven years the breakaway faction has quietly studied people's movements around the world and this has been enlightening. "We realised the blunder of not studying Ambedkar (leader of the so-called lower castes or dalits). All the while, we have focussed only on Marx, Lenin and Mao. We believe that we have much to learn from the Gandhian movement as well," he said. The two leaders said a large number of cadres within the Maoist movement favoured abandoning armed violence and instead going in for an open non-violent system of protest. The question however is how many would follow their belief and break away from the hard -line Maoists. Since the late 60's Maoists have entrenched themselves in large parts of India including the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh and West Bengal. In the violent conflict that has peaked and ebbed periodically over the years, thousands have lost their lives. Prime minister Manmohan Singh even described Maoist violence as India's biggest internal security threat.

The company began a program in 2013 to increase its hiring of U.S. veterans and was able to sign up 10,000. Today's announcement would bring the number to 30,000 by the year 2020. The company was founded by Conrad Hilton who was a veteran of World War 1 serving in France. In the release issued this morning Hilton's CEO Christopher Nassetta said "Military veterans and their families have made incredible sacrifices for our country, and we are strongly committed to ensuring they have great jobs when they return home from service. We've always felt strongly about this issue since our founder Conrad Hilton himself was a military veteran, and we are very proud of our veteran Team Members who have contributed so much to our company." The company says the best way for veterans to find out more about these jobs is to go to jobs.hilton.com/military. In the most recent survey released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the agency noted the unemployment rate for active duty American veterans stood at 5.1 percent. However unemployment and under-employment among military veterans has been a chronic problem in this country.

A teenager has been arrested after a late night out where he allegedly stabbed a man, threatened another into handing over his car as a getaway vehicle, and then crashing that vehicle during his escape. Just after 2 a.m. Friday, the 17-year-old male was at a restaurant in the Yonge St. and Churchill St. area socializing with a 20-year-old man when the teen abruptly exploded. He allegedly stabbed the other man in the head, arms and torso with no provocation, before leaving the restaurant. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder, robbery, and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. ( Chris So / Toronto Star ) As the first victim fled to safety, the teen approached a 27-year-old man sitting in his SUV in a nearby parking lot, police say. The teen allegedly threatened the man with his knife, ordered him out of the vehicle and then stole it. Police spotted the SUV fleeing down Sheppard Ave. just before 3:30 a.m. and ordered him to stop. The teenager allegedly ignored the order and barrelled through a red light at Sheppard Ave. E. and Brian Rd., where he collided with another vehicle. Officers were able to make the arrest when the commandeered SUV came to a stop on the sidewalk. The 20-year-old man who suffered stab wounds was taken to the hospital in non-life-threatening condition. No one else was injured. Article Continued Below The teenager has been charged with attempted murder, robbery, flight from police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle. He cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Alcohol Problems and Solutions Welcome to the Alcohol Problems & Solutions website. It’ has been debunking myths and sharing effective peer-reviewed ways to reduce drinking problems and live healthier, for 20 years. Moderate drinking of beer, wine or distilled spirits (liquor) reduces heart disease by 20 to 49%. In addition, moderate drinkers are healthier and live longer than either abstainers or alcohol abusers. Curious? Bar Exam Think you know all about alcohol? Take this fun alcohol quiz. It's full of alcohol related facts. George Washington Quiz How much do you know about George? Test your knowledge. Bet you didn't learn any of this in school. Politicians Arrested for Drunk Driving (Federal & State) I. Background. There are many politicians arrested for drunk driving. The charge is usually driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI). However, some states use different charges. For example, OUI (operating under the influence) or OWI (operating while intoxicated). And even DWAI (driving while ability impaired). The charges usually relate to alcohol. […] Read More Legal Drinking Ages around the World – You’ll be Surprised! I. Background Legal drinking ages around the world vary greatly. Most such laws apply only to drinking alcoholic beverages in public locations. The only countries with a minimum legal age for consuming alcohol at home are England and Wales. They prohibit drinking below the age of six. The average (mean) minimum legal drinking age around […] Read More Alcohol and Bladder Cancer: Important Medical Information for Health and Long Life Are drinking alcohol and bladder cancer risk connected? I. Alcohol Not a Risk Factor The consensus of scientific medical opinion is that alcohol does not increase the risk for bladder cancer. To the contrary, it appears that drinking alcohol may reduce the risk of developing the disease. Major medical groups have examined all researrch evidence […] Read More Prohibition Party – The Oldest Third Party in U.S. I. Background. The Prohibition Party of the United States began in 1869. Before the Civil War (1861-1865) temperance groups had promoted voluntary abstinence from alcoholic beverages. The War diverted national attention to more pressing matters. Subsequently, the temperance movement wayned. Moral suasion had proved to be both difficult and frustrating. So after the War, temperance […] Read More Dry Counties Have Higher DWI Fatality Rates Dry counties have higher DWI or DUI fatality rates than wet counties. That is, alcohol prohibition or dry counties have higher rates of alcohol-related traffic deaths than do wet counties. Here are the results from three states. There are many examples. Here are three. I. Arkansas A study of all counties in Arkansas found dry […] Read More Disclaimer: This website is informational only. It makes no suggestions or recommendations about any subject. Alcohol Facts:

By Jeremy S. U.S. Fire Arms (USFA) is best known for very high-quality single action revolvers. But the gunmaker has branched out and built a new brand: ZiPFactory. Their first new product is the ZiP .22LR pistol. USFA says ZiP is the code for The Future of Fun™ and claims that “The Future is Now™.” Well, I’ve seen the future and the future is . . . um . . . well it needs some work . . . To paraphrase Wallace, the latter day ZiP gun is like no cheese I’ve ever tasted. With the exception of some stainless bolt heads on the left side and just a glint of barrel inside the ejection port on the right, it’s got more black plastic than an obese rubber fetishist. And then there’s the design; most folks seeing it for the first time don’t even know where to begin. How to hold it? Where’s the trigger? What are all of those things on the front? Is that the front? The bolt (ZiP calls it the “recoil body”) is entirely inside of the frame. Your shooting hand goes right behind the bolt on the back of the gun. The bore axis is aligned near the top of your palm. Its position in your hand is lower than on any pistol with a standard slide-on-frame design, not a million miles away from the Chiappa Rhino. While muzzle flip is never really a problem with a .22, it’s non-existent with the ZiP. As the plastic bolt is completely internal, the ZiP has an external charging capacity. Instead of notching the frame for a bolt-mounted charging handle like you might see on a 10/22 or other semi-auto rifle, ZiPFactory decided to put two charging rods out front, right over the muzzle. Yes. Right over the muzzle. The longer of the two rods – the left one (although the user can swap them from side-to-side) – is the “ZiP LOAD” rod. You simply put your finger out there on the front of it—-right above the muzzle– and push it into the frame. That moves the bolt back behind the first round in the magazine and then feeds it into the chamber when you snap your finger off the rod. The shorter of the two rods is the “ZiP RESTRIKE” rod. Pushing it until it’s flush with the frame is supposed to reset the striker but not move the bolt back far enough to strip the next round out of the mag. This is theoretically handy if you have a bum primer or some sort of other failure to fire requiring you to reset the striker with a round in the chamber. On my gun, though, it didn’t work. My striker refused to reset until the bolt was back far enough that it always stripped the next round out and caused a double feed. Keep in mind that resetting the striker with a live round in the chamber means putting your fingers/hands right at the muzzle (hopefully it wasn’t just a hangfire!). Clearing jams requires the same digit-endangerment. There is no provision for locking the bolt back. The ZiP is actually comfortable enough to hold. The contours molded into the sides of the frame give right-handed shooters places to rest their thumbs, indexed index fingers, etc. It will work for lefties but not so much. That said, the grip angle is exactly vertical, and if you think a Block is glocky, you clearly haven’t held a ZiP yet. The little loop for your middle finger is critical for achieving a solid grip on the gun when you aren’t pulling the extremely heavy trigger. I wasn’t able to measure it, but I reckon it’s over 12 lbs. It’s ‘stagey’ but fairly smooth. The break is pretty clean and the reset can be both heard and felt. The factory sights are as basic as sights get: black plastic squares front and rear with no dots. They work just fine and accuracy with them was very good, despite the front sight being harder to find than an honest man at a gun control convention. Painting the front sight white would be a quick, cheap upgrade. Modularity and customization are areas where this gun shines. Slide the top rail off the frame and you can replace it with a handful of accessory rails from ZiPFactory, including the ZiPPIC Rail (1913 Picatinny rail), ZiPNite Rail (allows for the installation of Glock-compatible sights), and ZiPSBR Rail (allows the attachment of your ZiP to another gun, which, if it’s a rifle, turns your ZiP™ into an SBR. If it’s a pistol, it turns your pistol into an AOW — NFA rules and fees apply). And if that isn’t enough play value, there’s the BattleZiP Survival SBR Stock (a nifty full rifle stock), a threaded barrel (for a suppressor or other 1/2×28 muzzle accessory) and some future plans that cannot yet be mentioned (see “Customize This” rating for a hint). Unfortunately, the funky sci-fi looks and dangerous thrills from putting your hands in front of the business end of the ZiP gun didn’t make up for a generally poor showing at the range. Even after installing the Upgrade Kit Version 1.0.1, which was released due to some excessively tight tolerances in early guns, she just wouldn’t run reliably. The ZiP ships with two sets of recoil springs: stiff for high-test loads and light for target/bulk loads (factory-installed default). You can “tune” your action to your ammunition’s power level. Due to the low mass of the reciprocating parts, the bolt speed is extremely high and the spring rates are particularly important. The design leaves no room for bolt overtravel (which normally adds some delay to a semi-auto action). The ZiP™ was consistently plagued with failures to feed. The bolt is often moving forwards before the magazine can lift the next round up into place. Even when it does feed, the bolt would often come forward so quickly that the ejecting empty brass was caught before it could escape the gun. These failures created some unique jams with empty brass smashed up somewhere in the ejection port and a new round partially fed into the chamber. Due to the bolt speed, the ZiP only [mostly] works with the BX-1, 10-round mags. The BX-25’s don’t feed subsequent rounds quickly enough. ZiPFactory is supposed to release another Upgrade Kit for the BX-25 soon; essentially stronger springs. Most other aftermarket magazines don’t have quite the correct feed lip geometry and/or share the BX-25’s feed rate problem. After the Upgrade Kit, some polishing, some graphite lube, extremely careful assembly, a handful of ammo brands to test and some encouraging words, I had the ZiP running better. It actually made it through a couple of BX-1 10-round magazines in a row without a jam. That was, however, not the norm. I spent more time during my range session clearing jams than shooting. On average, it would jam at least once per magazine, and this was a major improvement from pre-upgrade. On the plus side, the ZiP gun’s very accurate. The 5.25” barrel does its job with all ammo brands tested. The extremely heavy trigger does the ZiP™ no favors, but my group sizes were excellent. This pistol has a lot of potential. If ZiPFactory can work out the kinks and get it to run, they’ll have a winner on their hands. The gun is unique in the extreme, accurate, fun-to-shoot (when it’s running), totally dangerous in the best of cases, extremely dangerous when it jams, modular and customizable as hell. And it’s inexpensive! Plus, it uses the Ruger 10/22 mags you already have. I’d really like to see this thing work, and I’m interested to see what other fun firearms ZiPFactory produces in the future. A little bird tells me that there’s a pistol-caliber carbine in the works. SPECIFICATIONS: Caliber: .22 Long Rifle Frame: Polymer Sights: Black plastic, no dots. Accessory options: picatinny rail, Glock sight adapter, SBR adapter, etc etc. Barrel Length: 5.25 inches Length (muzzle to back of frame): 7.75 inches Weight: 15.2 ounces unloaded, no magazine Capacity: Accepts all Ruger 10/22 magazines. Functions [mostly] with BX-1’s. MSRP: $199 with no magazine. $219 with a BX-1 included. RATINGS (Out of Five Stars): Style * * * * * Like it or hate it, you’ve never seen anything like it. Its style is its own, and it gets five stars for that. Ergonomics (firing) * Form comes before function here. While it actually fits in the hand okay, it isn’t what you’d call comfortable. The grip angle is vertical and the placement of the charging rods is downright dangerous. The trigger is heavy enough that it causes some discomfort, removing 10-round mags is difficult, and clearing jams is a bear. Reliability No, I did not forget to rate this category. Maybe it will “break in” and improve. Customize This * * * * * Well deserving of five stars here, the ZiP can be customized with all sorts of upper rail attachments, threaded barrels, SBR stocks and other doo-dads on the way that I am not at liberty to mention (suffice it to say that only the right side of the frame’s “clamshell” is serialized, and ZiPFactory has future plans for things you can do by swapping out the left side). OVERALL * As is, it just doesn’t run reliably enough to be fun; too much time’s spent dealing with difficult-to-clear jams and it only sort of runs with Ruger factory BX-1 magazines. Safety and ergo nightmare, really.

NOV. 1, 1946: NEW YORK VS. TORONTO The First Game If you were taller than the tallest Husky (6-8), you got in free! the NBA is tipping off the 1996-97 season with the New York Knicks against the Toronto Raptors at Toronto's SkyDome. Toronto wasalso the site of the league's very first game on Nov. 1, 1946, with the Huskies hosting the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens. The contest drew 7,090, a good crowd considering that virtually every youngster in Canada grew up playing hockey and basketball was hardly a well-known sport at the time. Forget for now that the game the Knicks won that night, 68-66, bore little resemblance to the leaping, balletic version of today's NBA. That game was from a different era of low-scoring basketball, a time when hoops as a pro spectacle was just coming out of the dance halls. Players did not routinely double-pump or slam-dunk. The fact of the matter was that the players did not and could not jump very well. Nor was there a 24-second clock; teams had unlimited time to shoot. The jump shot was a radical notion, and those who took it defied the belief of many coaches that nothing but trouble occurred when a player left his feet for a shot. The group of owners who met on June 6, 1946, at the Hotel Commodore in New York to talk about a league they would name the Basketball Association of America couldn't have imagined today's NBA. They were composed primarily of members of the Arena Association of America, men who controlled the arenas in the major United States cities. Their experience was with hockey, ice shows, circuses and rodeos. Except for Madison Square Garden's Ned Irish, who popularized college doubleheaders in the 1930s and 1940s, they had little feeling for the game of basketball. But they were aware that with World War II having recently ended, the conversion to peacetime life meant many dollars were waiting to be spent on products and entertainment. They looked at the success of college basketball at Madison Square Garden and in cities like Philadelphia and Buffalo and felt a professional league, which could continue to display college stars whose reputations were just peaking when it was time to graduate, ought to succeed. So, on that Thursday in June, 11 franchises were formed to compete in two divisions. The East consisted of the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Providence Steamrollers and Washington Capitols, as well as New York and Toronto. In the West were the Pittsburgh Ironmen, Chicago Stags, Detroit Falcons, St. Louis Bombers and Cleveland Rebels. Each team paid a $10,000 franchise fee, the money going for league operating expenses including a salary for Maurice Podoloff, who like the arena owners who hired him was a hockey man first. Podoloff, a New Haven, CT lawyer who was President of the American Hockey League, agreed to also take on the duties of President of the new Basketball Association of America, which three seasons later, in a merger with the midwest-based National Basketball League, became the NBA. With only five months to get ready for the targeted Nov. 1 season opener, the playing rules and style of operation were based as closely as possible on the successful college game. However, rather than play 40 minutes divided into two halves, the BAA game was eight minutes longer and played in four 12-minute quarters so as to bring an evening's entertainment up to the two-hour period owners felt the ticket buyers expected. Also, although zone defenses were permitted in college play, it was agreed during that first season that no zones be permitted, since they tended to slow the game down. Geography figured heavily in the makeup of the 11 franchises. The Providence Steamrollers relied heavily on former Rhode Island College players, while Pittsburgh chose its squad from within a 100-mile radius of the Steel City. The Knick players came primarily from New York area colleges. Even Neil Cohalan, the first Knick coach, was plucked from Manhattan College. But all of Toronto's players were American, with the exception of Hank Biasatti, a forward, who was a native Canadian. Salaries were modest, mostly around $5,000 for the season. As a result, players had to rely on offseason jobs for supplemental income. By today's standards, the first training camps were primitive, often a day-to-day proposition. The Warriors, for instance, shuttled between a number of Philadelphia-area gymnasiums, usually on the condition that they scrimmage the team whose home floor it was. This brought about the curious spectacle one afternoon of a BAA team playing against A luxury was the Knicks' outdoor court at the Nevele Country Club, a Catskills resort in Ellenville, NY. "The first two weeks we were at the Nevele by ourselves," remembered Sonny Hertzberg, the Knicks' first captain and a slick two-handed set-shooter. "The meals were great, but the coach wasn't satisfied. We did a lot of road work and were in great condition but Cohalan didn't like the way we were progressing. "Looking back, I'm still thrilled that I was at that first training camp and that I signed with the Knicks. I wanted to play in New York. It was a new major league. It was a game of speed with no 24-second clock when we played. I didn't know if it was going to be a full-time thing." While the Knicks were getting ready for the opener, college basketball was still king in New York, where teams like CCNY, LIU and NYU were revered. It was not until the Knicks scrimmaged the collegians and the successes got some newspaper notoriety that they started to gain some respect before they left New York on Oct. 31 for the train ride to Toronto. Picture the scene that cold autumn night when the Knicks had to stop for customs and immigration inspection at the Canadian border. The story goes that the customs inspector, noting the physiques of Knick players like Ozzie Schectman, Ralph Kaplowitz, Hertzberg, Nat Militzok and Tommy Byrnes, asked, "What are you?" "We're the New York Knicks," said Cohalan, who did the talking for the team. From the inspector's reaction, it was evident that he had never heard of the Knicks and probably not even of pro basketball. The notion was strengthened when he added: "We're familiar with the New York Rangers. Are you anything like that?" Deflated but unyeilding, Cohalan replied, "They play hockey, we play basketball." Before letting them through, the inspector added: "I don't imagine you'll find many people up this way who'll understand your game--or have an interest in it." Little did he or the players know that the NBA would grow into a multi-million dollar business with 29 franchises, including two in Canada (although the Huskies folded after just one season). With the Maple Leafs' image to contend with and only one Canadian player on its roster, Toronto tried hard to promote the game. They ran three-column newspaper ads bearing a photo of 6-8 George Nostrand, Toronto's tallest player, that asked, "Can You Top This?" Any fan taller than Nostrand would be granted free admission to the season opener; regular tickets were priced from 75 cents to $2.50. "It was interesting playing before Canadians," recalled Hertzberg. "The fans really didn't understand the game at first. To them, a jump ball was like a face-off in hockey. But they started to catch on and seemed to like the action." Schectman, who starred at LIU, scored the first basket of the game as the Knicks jumped to a 6-0 lead. New York led 16-12 at the quarter and widened the margin to 33-18 in the second period before Ed Sadowski, Toronto's 6-5, 240-pound player-coach, rallied his team to cut the gap to 37-29 at halftime. But Sadowski committed his fifth personal foul three minutes into the second half and the rule then, as it still is in the collegiate ranks, was that a player fouled out on five fouls. The NBA limit was not increased to six fouls until years later. Nostrand replaced Sadowski and put the Huskies ahead for the first time 44-43, and they expanded the margin to 48-44 after three periods. The final quarter was ragged as well as rugged, but a pair of field goals by Dick Murphy and a free throw by Tommy Byrnes in the final 2 1/2 minutes provided the Knicks with the two-point victory. Sadowski, with 18 points, and New York's Leo Gottlieb, with 14, led their respective teams. During that first regular season, the Washington Capitols, coached by Red Auerbach, ran away with the Eastern Division championship, finishing with a 49-11 record, 14 victories more than Philadelphia and 10 more than Chicago, the West leader. However, it was the Warriors, owned and coached by Eddie Gottlieb, who won the first championship, beating Chicago 4-1 in the best-of-7 title round. Joe Fulks of Philadelphia was the league's first scoring champion with a 23.2 average, finishing far ahead of runner-up Bob Feerick, 16.8. Feerick, however, was the league's most accurate shooter, hitting .401 from the field--a far cry from the .576 mark which Cedric Ceballos posted to lead the league in 1992-93.

(Image: Iztok Noc/Getty) Man’s best friend may be a very old friend indeed. An analysis of a bone from a newly identified ancient wolf species suggests dogs may have split from wolves as early as 40,000 years ago – with or without being domesticated at the same time. Exactly when dogs started to be domesticated and split from wolves is a matter of some controversy. Archaeological evidence analysing the shapes of canid skulls found near early human camps suggested it might have happened as far back as 35,000 years ago. DNA analysis, focusing on differences between living dog and wolf genomes, seemed to suggest they must have split much more recently – between 11,000 and 16,000 years ago. Now Love Dalén from the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm and colleagues have sequenced the genome of a wolf that lived 35,000 years ago in Taimyr, northern Russia, according to carbon dating. This allowed them to recalibrate the molecular clock – the rate at which genetic differences accumulate over time – and better reconstruct the wolf-dog evolutionary tree. Advertisement They found that dogs and wolves must have split into two separate lineages 27,000 to 40,000 years ago, bringing the DNA and archaeological evidence into line with each other. They also found that some northern latitude dog breeds, having split from wolves, then interbred with the now extinct Taimyr wolf, which could have helped them adapt to the challenging northern environment. These breeds include the husky, Greenland sledge dog and, to a lesser extent, the Chinese shar pei and Finnish spitz. But although the findings back an early split of dogs from wolves, they don’t tell us when the domestication of dogs started. “The present study does not rule out the possibility of a very early date indeed, but it does not rule the possibility of a much later date either,” says Laurent Frantz from the University of Oxford. Perhaps humans didn’t domesticate dogs once the creatures had split away from wolves: the alternative possibility is that there was an early split between two types of wolves, and that dogs emerged much later on one of these lineages. “We do not yet know whether it infers an early divergence between two wolf populations or between wolves and dogs,” says Frantz. Dalén says a combination of genomic and morphological work on ancient wolf or dog specimens is needed before we have a conclusive date on the time of domestication. Mietje Germonpre of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels was one of the researchers who did the skull-shape work that suggested an early date of domestication. She is excited by the new findings, and says she is already studying a lot more specimens that should help clarify the question. “I find it interesting that early modern humans might have been so resourceful that they started making use of dogs already during the height of the last Ice Age,” says Dalén. Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.04.019

#303802 ( 1020 /1186 ) ↑Funny ↓Unfunny ⚐Flag <Pryoidain> Meh, nothing interesting, just another day of me being a complete asshole to unsuspecting citizens <Pryoidain> A legitimate, honest to god, door to door vacuum salesman came up at the best time. <Pryoidain> I was vacuuming the rug behing the front door, and he comes up and knocks on it, so I check the peephole <Pryoidain> It's pretty obvious what you're selling when you're holding a vacuum in one hand. <Pryoidain> anyways we have one of those canister vacuums where the head pops off so you can attach shit to it for like sucking the fur off your dog or something more productive <Pryoidain> I pop the head off, and open the door up just enough to where he can see me, but not the vacuum head in my hand. <Pryoidain> I let him do his little speech, then asked to see his "Papers" to which he produced a sales paper. <Pryoidain> He went to hand me the paper, I clicked on the vacuum, sucked it clean out of his hand, and slammed the door in his face. <Pryoidain> Now, I could only experience the look of confusion through the peephole, but he stood out there confused for a good 3-4 minutes before deciding against knocking. <Pryoidain> He had a few false starts, but never followed through. I think he was worried about what might happen next. - +

Rebel commanders and fighters describe a litany of tactical mistakes, logistical confusion and destructive infighting that contributed to the loss of Sheikh Miskeen in Deraa province. One commander summed up the rebels' performance as a “major failure”. AMMAN // The capture of Sheikh Miskeen by president Bashar Al Assad’s forces last month was their most significant victory in years on Syria’s southern front, but for the rebels, the manner of their defeat was more alarming than the loss itself. Rebel commanders and fighters described a litany of tactical mistakes, logistical confusion and destructive infighting that contributed to the loss of the town in Deraa province. One commander summed up the performance of the rebel alliance as a “major failure”. The inability of the rebels and their international backers to come up with an answer to Russian air power was a significant factor in the battle, and is likely to prove critical over the coming weeks and months, as the fight for Syria’s south continues. Regime officials have said they intend to keep up their offensive until they regain control of border crossing points with Jordan. Rebels currently hold the frontier posts on the Syria-Jordan border, and expect Russian air strikes to target them soon. Interviews with rebel commanders involved in the fight for Sheikh Miskeen have revealed they were comprehensively outmanoeuvred on the ground, in the air and in the diplomatic arena. Efforts to keep Russian air power at bay were made solely through diplomatic channels. Jordan, which entered into an intelligence-sharing agreement with Russia in October, believed it had struck a deal whereby Moscow would not to target western-backed factions and would, instead, coordinate with Amman in hitting hardline Islamic factions. In late December the regime began increasing its military activity in the south and it quickly became clear that the deal was not holding. Russian air strikes intensified throughout January, as the assault increasingly focused on Sheikh Miskeen. As the fighting raged, rebels said their international backers in Amman’s Military Operations Command (MOC) repeatedly exhorted them to hold on to the town. The inner workings of the MOC remain highly secretive, but rebels familiar with its operations said it seemed to be in a state of disarray as regime forces advanced. “The MOC was telling us how important it was for us to keep Sheikh Miskeen, they kept telling us ‘hold on, don’t give up’,” said a leading rebel commander, describing an increasingly desperate battle for the town. Whoever controls Sheikh Miskeen controls the main highway and, therefore, controls a main path for weapons and troops in the southern region. The rebels had hoped to use the town as a means of choking off the regime units still holding on in Deraa, and to link up with rebels on the outskirts of Damascus. Now, rebel positions across the south will be more exposed to attack. Russian air strikes were monitored in detail by the MOC and, when it became clear that they were turning the tide in the regime’s favour, Jordan’s top military officer was dispatched to Moscow. Gen Mashal Mohammad Al Zabin, chairman of joint chiefs of staff, flew to Russia on January 27, the day after regime forces made a rapid advance in Sheikh Miskeen, seizing hold of 95 per cent of the town in a two-day blitz. Jordan has been at pains to try to prevent extremist factions tied to ISIL from gaining ground in the south, and fears any weakening of moderate rebels will open space for more radical groups. The campaign of air strikes has also displaced thousands of civilians, with 70,000 people on the move by early February, according to the United Nations. Jordan is already struggling to cope with an influx of refugees and is ill equipped to deal with more. The content of the Russian-Jordanian talks has not been made public but the air strikes did not stop. By the time Gen Al Zabin returned to Amman on January 29, Sheikh Miskeen had fallen. Weapons supplies were also a key factor working against the rebels. While munitions supplies from the MOC continued they did not always reach the rebel units most in need on the Sheikh Miskeen front lines. Many units received nothing, while others were fairly well supplied, according to accounts from several rebel commanders. “Some groups got a lot of weapons, others didn’t, there was not an equal distribution,” said a rebel field commander. He said those who sold them instead of getting them to the front line had betrayed the rebel cause. Another rebel commander blamed Washington, saying the US had blocked efforts by the MOC to dramatically increase the flow of weapons. “The Americans are letting us down, if they wanted to supply us with the right weapons on time, they could, nothing would be late,” he said. “US calculations on Syria seem to have changed.” Rebels said they were not offered anti-aircraft missiles to counter the Russian attacks. But more critical than the availability of weaponry was a renewed disorganisation in rebel ranks. Aided by MOC planners, rebels made strong advances in the south in 2014, largely because of joint operations rooms, which unified rebel efforts and enabled them to better manage their resources on the battlefield. At Sheikh Miskeen that coordination network was never put in place, rebels said, and no well-researched plan for defending the town was ever drawn up. Instead of a unified operations room coordinating the fight, there were four different rebel command centres which did not work together. It remains unclear why a united, organised defence plan was not followed. The result was chaos. Rebels described units being pulled off the line at critical moments, reinforcements failing to arrive on time and, in one case, more than 100 fighters being sent away in the midst of battle to attend a military training course behind the lines. This burgeoning disarray sapped the morale of the remaining fighters, undermined the confidence they had in their leaders, and sowed discord between factions who already mistrusted one another. One senior rebel said units retreated too soon from the town because of a successful propaganda operation by the regime. A small regime force sneaked through rebel lines and hoisted a government flag, triggering the collapse of rebel lines that were, in fact, holding. “Rumours circulated that the regime had broken through, so some units pulled back,” he said. Another commander complained that high-ranking rebels spent too much time in Amman, lobbying the MOC and “back-stabbing” other rebel units in a competition to get weapons and gain influence with countries bankrolling the MOC. “All of those commanders should have been on the ground organising the defence. They should now be kicked out and replaced by their second-in-commands,” he said. Rebel forces also became embroiled in an internecine fight just as the struggle for Sheikh Miskeen was reaching a decisive stage. Moderate groups clashed with Harakat Al Muthanna, a more radical faction involved in the kidnapping of Yaqoub Al Ammar, the opposition’s provisional governor for Deraa, weeks earlier. Rebels said the MOC had supplied them with weapons to fight factions allied with ISIL but, with regime forces closing on Sheikh Miskeen, the rebels’ international backers had urged them to focus on the defence of the town. Instead of focusing on Sheikh Miskeen however, some MOC-backed rebels pushed ahead with a raid on a Harakat Al Muthanna compound, accusing them of supporting ISIL. In response, when moderates tried to reinforce Sheikh Miskeen, Harakat Al Muthanna blocked their path. In the wake of the defeat, morale in rebel ranks has been low. Nonetheless, the opposition to president Al Assad has vowed to keep on fighting “The rebels are still there present, they are part of the map and the regime cannot end the resistance in Deraa,” said Muti Al Batin, a member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition from Deraa. “The rebels are still capable of facing the regime, but they do need something to change the equation ... [they need] weapons that would enable them to face the regime’s air power,” he said. foreign.desk@thenational.ae * Phil Sands contributed to this story from Boston, USA