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Space Marines are an iconic part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. These genetically engineered super-soldiers are the ultimate protectors of humanity in a grim, dark universe filled with terror, sorcery and endless, bloody warfare. They’re also all men, and the reason for that is a lot simpler than some people might think: it’s because I don’t want to confront my own sexism.
Feminist pop culture critics, or as they like to call themselves “I’m just a regular woman who wants to play this stupid hobby, why are you making this so hard for me?” like to make a big deal about the fact that Space Marines are all men, as if it’s somehow “representative” or “a clear indicator of the endemic sexism in the setting”. But they don’t understand the lore and the grim, dark fiction on the complex level that I do.
Right from the start, a candidate who wants to become a Space Marine must undergo a harsh and brutal series of tests designed to weed out the weak and infirm. This is identical to my own difficult life, where I needed to catch the bus to the Games Workshop store and the bus would sometimes be late. Also there was that one time I needed $60 to buy a new unit of Marines but I only had $50 and the manager wouldn’t let me have it no matter how I complained. This is something women could not possibly understand.
Once these brutal trials are passed, the organ implantation begins. Right here we have another insurmountable barrier for women: these highly scientific and complex organs are created in such a way that, as the Codex Astartes clearly states, they are only compatible with men. It’s written right there in the page of this fictional book!
These are serious science organs like the Omophagea, which allows a Space Marine to learn by eating genetic material, or the Betcher’s Gland which turns the Space Marine’s saliva corrosive and poisonous. This is hard science! Do women think they can come in and mess with this stuff just because it’s “entirely fictional” and “could be changed at any time”? Get real! It’s like they don’t even understand how upsetting it would be for me to have to admit that!
And here’s another thing — Space Marines aren’t even sexual! Their sex drive and desire to procreate is completely bred out of them, to turn them into sexless warrior golems who exist only to kill. So what are feminists complaining about it! It’s not like they’re ‘men’, they’re just all male, and they call each other ‘brother’, which doesn’t mean anything. Do words mean things? Clearly not??
Once a Space Marine has been fully implanted with their male-only organs, they, like me, are placed into a relentless years-long training programme of powerful hypnotic suggestions and psycho-conditioning routines. It’s this barrage of thought conditioning that gives Space Marines the strength to fight as merciless warriors, and me the strength to insist that only men could be one, without spending nights at my painting desk sobbing into my bitz box at how easily I’ve been manipulated.
Space Marines also have access to the finest arms and armour so that they can defend the Imperium against the mutant, the witch and the alien. This technology was invented by the Emperor himself, who is a psyker of incredible power and limitless knowledge, and — pay attention here, feminists — a MAN.
Is it possible for a psyker of incredible power and limitless knowledge to transcend the constraints of society and biology and to exist as a being of pure energy? NO. The being of pure energy needs to have a dick and use male pronouns, or how else am I supposed to respect them? If we open up that can of worms I’ll need to think about a lot of things I’m just not prepared to consider.
So there we have it. I hope I’ve made it pretty clear to all the social justice warriors out there that there’s absolutely no way a Space Marine could ever be a woman. Not only could the extremely serious scientific fiction not support it, but women just don’t have the upper-body strength required for all the mental gymnastics.
If women really want to play Warhammer 40,000 they should just collect a different faction, like the sexy BDSM space elves who wear revealing armour, or the dour and puritanical angry nuns that draw their power from worshipping the Emperor, who is a man. Or they could play the Imperial Guard, who are just regular human soldiers and have plenty of women (although Games Workshop don’t make any models for them).
It’s like, what are you even complaining about? |
This is the saddest day of my life. I can't even wrap my mind around the horror of what happened last night in Orlando, where 50 joyful dancing queers were murdered by a religious extremist. I'm sad -- devastated, in my soul -- about that; but I'm also sad that the events of Orlando have shattered my political beliefs, as I can no longer swear allegiance to a peace-love-and-unicorns progressive philosophy that only helps to get my fellow queers killed.
Yes, there is a war between religious fundamentalism and the spirit of love and tolerance. But we progressives here in America still labor under the delusion that the religion we need to combat is Christianity. But that's a strawman opponent, and has been so for decades. Since the 1990s, Christian extremists have essentially lost all their power, and are now toothless nonplayers in the "culture wars." Meanwhile, Muslim extremists, with guns, murder us, and on the left our only response is to bleat about "Islamophobia" and jump through hoops trying to explain away the self-evident religious motivation for the killings.
Oh sure, all year I've been playing the "Bernie or Hillary?" game with all the other default-Democrats in my social and professional circles. But this is no longer some kind of game. Our lives are on the line. Although I voted for Hillary in the primary, I now cringe inwardly with shame and embarrassment at having done so, and in November I will vote for Trump.
Why? Yes, I know that Trump is an a**hole, Trump is a clown, Trump is a motormouth buffoon. You don't have to convince me of that. But he's also the only person saying anything about putting the brakes on Islamic extremism, and in light of what happened last night in Orlando, suddenly that is the only issue that really matters when it comes to the health, well-being and safety of the queer community.
As an aside, Trump has never said anything homophobic, and has always gotten along well with the gay community in New York, so there's that in his favor as well.
I also now realize, with brutal clarity, that in the progressive hierarchy of identity groups, Muslims are above gays. Every pundit and politician -- and that includes President Obama and Hillary Clinton and half the talking heads on TV -- who today have said "We don't know what the shooter's motivation could possibly be!" have revealed to me their true priorities: appeasing Muslims is more important than defending the lives of gay people. Every progressive who runs interference for Islamic murderers is complicit in those murders, and I can no longer be a part of that team.
I'm just sick of it. Sick of the hypocrisy. Sick of the pandering. Sick of the deception.
And you know what makes me angrier still? The fact that I have to hide my identity and remain anonymous in writing this essay. If I outed myself as a Trump supporter, I would be harassed and doxxed and shunned by everyone I know and by the Twitter lynch mobs which up until yesterday I myself led.
I am ashamed. I am angry. And I am sad. I don't want to vote for Trump, but I must. And if you care about the safety of the gay community in America, so must you. |
By now, you've probably read at least a dozen different reviews of the D.J. Fluker pick, with some positive and some negative. There are plenty of valid arguments on either side, but nobody truly knows for sure how this pick will work out for the Chargers. You can argue that there were better players on the board, but how do we really know that? Just because it's somebody's opinion, or even the consensus opinion? If we learn anything from sports, it should be that predicting the future and speaking in absolutes is a fool's errand. If the talking heads were always right, San Diego would have a couple championships by now.
It's all opinion and guesswork at this point.
I'm here to offer something a little different, something based more in fact than conjecture. Maybe by investigating the past we can gain a little insight on the chance this pick will be remembered for its brilliance or for its ineptitude.
Let's explore the history of offensive tackles being selected 11th overall:
Cas Banaszek, 49ers, 1967-1977
First, Cas is short for Casimir - Casimir Joseph Banaszek. A name doesn't get much better than that, ladies and gentlemen.
Now, it was hard to find much information on him, probably because The San Francisco 49ers drafted Cas out of Northwestern over 40 years ago. He ended up starting 100 games for the 49ers over his 10 seasons in the NFL.
Although he won't ever be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Cas was inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, which puts him in the company of Walter Payton, so that must count for something.
This pick ended up being a solid one for the 49ers. I think the Chargers would be pretty elated if Fluker was to end up as their starting right tackle for the next decade.
Morris Towns, Oilers, 1977-1983
Morris Towns is one of the most decorated offensive lineman ever to grace the halls of Mizzou Tigers Football. He was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2006, but before that he helped transform a Houston Oilers team in the late-70s and early-80s into a championship contender.
Towns didn't need much time to adjust to the NFL-level, as he became the OIlers' starting right tackle in his second season - and there was no looking back. Towns made 66 starts over seven years in Houston. He paved the way for Earl Campbell to rack up three consecutive NFL rushing titles and 45 touchdowns between 1978 and 1980, which sparked Houston's run to two consecutive AFC Championship Games. Not bad, not bad at all.
The Chargers will, likewise, ask Fluker to make a similar quick transition and help them improve in run blocking. Now, Fluker won't transform Ryan Mathews into the second-coming of Earl Campbell, but the ground game in San Diego was abysmal at times last season - so any help will be welcomed.
Keith Van Horne, Bears, 1981-1993
Keith Van Horne played his college ball for the University of Southern Californian, where he collected first-team All-American honors after his senior season. The Bears selected Van Horne in 1981 with the plan to develop him, not to start him right away, but that all changed after starting tackles Dennis Lick and Ted Albrecht both succumbed to injury.
Van Horne would eventually find his way to the right side of the line, where he helped contribute to the Bears Super Bowl XX championship in 1985. He played all of his 13 seasons in the NFL for Chicago and started 169 games of his 186 games for them.
This is another success story, but Van Horne's story isn't a perfect parallel to Fluker. Mainly because Van Horne entered the NFL underweight for his position at 265 pounds. That's one less thing for the massive 339 pound D.J Fluker to worry about as he begins to write his NFL story.
Pat Harlow, Patriots, 1991-1995
Back-to-back Trojans on this list, as Harlow also played his college ball at the University of Southern California. I'm sure he has some interesting stories from the Todd Marinovich era. Maybe more interesting is that Harlow was recruited out of high school to be a defensive linemen and only made the switch to offense after he was buried on the Trojan depth chart.
Harlow started all 64 games of his Patriots career at right tackle before he was benched during the 1995 season and traded to the Raiders in 1996 for a second-round pick. The benching and trade wasn't really because Harlow lacked any ability, as he was regarded as an extremely reliable player, it was apparently made in response to the fallout from a tiff between him and Bill Parcells. (He sure picked the wrong coach to mess with).
Hopefully, D.J. Fluker won't follow in Harlow's footsteps in that regard, but there are similarities between the two. Like Fluker, Harlow wasn't ever regarded as the nimblest guy - but he was nasty. The Raiders, however, made the mistake of moving him to the left side, where he was never really the same guy again.
Leon Searcy, Steelers, 1992-1995
Leon Searcy is now a cautionary tale in the NFL - and not because he ended up being a bust. The Steelers drafted Searcy out of the University of Miami in 1992. Although he didn't start in his first season, Searcy became an anchor on the offensive line and helped Pittsburgh get to Super Bowl XXX, where they were defeated by the Cowboys. This is where the trouble began.
Searcy left the Steelers in free agency after the loss in the Super Bowl to sign a record-breaking contract with Jacksonville. He would prove to be well worth the money, but his body started to break down at the end of that contract and he wasn't ever able to reestablish himself.
Searcy spent his early years of retirement continuing to live like he was still the highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL. In 2002 and 2003, the bank foreclosed on two of his properties and he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government. He was broke. He has since recovered and now lives a modest life in the suburbs of Miami. I hope, for his own sake, that D.J. Fluker follows in the footsteps of Leon Searcy the football player, not the money manager.
The Eagles drafted Thomas out of Florida State in 1998. He became a fixture on the offensive line at left tackle from Day 1 for the Eagles. He started 165 of 166 games in his career with Philadelphia and made the Pro Bowl in the 2001, 2002 and 2004 seasons.
In case you have forgotten, Thomas is technically a former Charger, although he never played in a single regular-season game in 2010, his only season with the team. Nevertheless, he will be remembered for his days with the Eagles, where he proved to be every bit the player the Eagles hoped for, and then some.
If the Chargers just hit anywhere close to the jackpot the Eagles hit with Tra Thomas, Tom Telesco will be well on his way to getting a statue of his likeness outside that new Chargers stadium, with a San Diego area code as the mailing address, hopefully.
Anthony Davis, 49ers, 2010-Present
We've come full circle. We started with a 49er and we're going to end with one, a pretty good one at that.
The 49ers selected Davis in the 2010 draft and he has proven to be a stalwart at right tackle for them. Although he hasn't put together a Pro Bowl caliber season yet, Davis' time is coming - and it's coming soon.
The 49ers think so highly of him that they extended him in April to a new 5-year contract worth $37.3 million, which is on par with recent contracts for elite left tackles. That, right there, speaks volumes. I know I speak for every Chargers fan when I say that I hope I read about D.J. Fluker signing an extension in about two years; that will mean that Telesco and the Chargers hit this one out of the ballpark.
And we've reached the end without me mentioning a single player who was a bust. The Chargers hope D.J. Fluker won't be the first.
History seems to be with them. |
This is SO exciting!
First, just so everyone is clear, Silk parted ways with Dean Foods last May. When I went to the Natural Products Expo last April and told a Silk rep that people were still upset that Whitewave was sold to Dean Foods 10 years ago, I was told that the shareholders had just voted to separate – and that’s just what they did!
Dean Foods is the largest producer of dairy products in the entire country, and it’s understandable that many people were avoiding Silk because they didn’t want to support Dean Foods. I still purchased Silk products, and wrote a post on why, which you can read HERE. But for those of you who were holding out, rest assured, Silk is now owned by Whitewave Foods, a separate, publicly owned company – and it’s for the best!
As Steve Demos (a vegetarian who originally founded Whitewave with a $500 loan!) told the Denver Post, the separation “gives the company the freedom as a stand-alone entity to carve out its own destiny without the shadow of a parent company. When the parent company is a commodity business and the subsidiary is a value-creation business, the business practices and the business cultures will be different. Separating these two is sound.”
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way!! They just introduced Silk Cashew Milk at the Grocery Innovations show in Canada! YES! I love cashews and I’m always happy when there’s another plant based option out there for folks to enjoy. Especially with all the naysayers who seem to have something disconcerting to say about every vegan milk on the planet.
First they said drinking soy milk would give men boobs (but who cares about the cholesterol and saturated fat in their dairy milk, right?! Antibiotics and hormones anyone? Mmmm!). Then they said it takes a bagillion trillion gallons of water to produce one tiny almond (who cares that it takes several thousand gallons of water to produce one pound of meat, eh?). I wonder what they’ll say about cashew milk?! It’s really made from cow shoes? Who knows!!
All I know is Silk Cashew Milk has arrived on planet earth and as soon as I see it, I’m buying it! It’s GMO free too! And for those worried about carrageenan: there is NO carrageenan!! None! I’m not too worried about carrageenan – it’s made from seaweed – but I do understand why some folks are. To each her/his own on that one! And just like their almond milk, it has 50% more calcium than dairy milk! AND 50% of your daily recommended value for B12. HURRAY!
Now I just need to find some! And if you’ve already found it, consider me jealous!!!
See y’all on twitter, facebook and pinterest! Have a healthy day! And if you want some free silk almond milk, check out the link I posted on the MVJ coupons page! They’re giving away 700 a day!
*Always check the nutrition label of products for the most up to date ingredients – you never know when things will change, so it’s always good to be extra safe and read labels. |
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is resisting calls to sack George Brandis after the Attorney-General was accused of throwing former treasurer Joe Hockey "under a bus" to distance himself from a deepening legal scandal.
Senator Brandis was forced to deliver a statement in Parliament on Monday amid explosive reports he directed former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson, SC, not to raise an argument in the High Court that threatened an alleged secret deal with the Western Australian government.
The alleged deal, involving Alan Bond's failed Bell Group of companies, allowed the conservative WA government to leapfrog creditors including the Tax Office to claw back almost $1 billion from the companies.
Labor accused Senator Brandis of corruption after reports emerged that the Attorney-General directed Mr Gleeson not to point to legal flaws in the plan when it was challenged in the High Court by other creditors. |
By Ron Csillag
Religion News Service
TORONTO (RNS) A new poll shows that more than half of all Canadians distrust Muslims.
The nationwide survey indicates that as many as 52 percent of Canadians feel Muslims can be trusted "a little" or "not trusted at all." The poll showed that 48 percent of respondents said Muslims can be trusted "a lot" or "somewhat."
What's more, 42 percent of Canadians said discrimination against Muslims is "mainly their fault."
Muslims registered the lowest levels of trustworthiness of the religious groups asked about in the survey.
Overall, about 70 percent of respondents expressed high levels of trust in Protestants, Catholics and Jews, while 64 percent trusted aboriginal Canadians and 63 percent trusted immigrants.
Among French Canadians, only 30 percent said they trust Muslims, compared with 57 percent of English speakers who said they felt that way.
The online poll surveyed 1,522 Canadians on attitudes toward religions, multiculturalism and sources of racism. The survey was conducted for the Association for Canadian Studies in Montreal and the Toronto-based Canadian Race Relations Foundation as part of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on March 21.
Nearly half of those surveyed, 49 percent, listed the Internet as the number one source of racism and prejudice.
Sociologist Jack Jedwab, executive director of the Association for Canadian Studies, described the results as a "disturbing" sign that not only do Canadians hold discriminatory views, but they then say, "If we feel this way about you, it's your fault."
A 2007 poll conducted in 23 Western countries showed Canadians had the most tolerant attitudes toward Muslims. Only 6.5 percent of Canadians said they would not like to live next door to a Muslim, compared to 11 percent of Americans. |
YORK - It was a marriage that had been on the rocks for quite some time.
And by February of 2014, it was pretty much all over except for the divorce papers when Laurie Hess found an old friend on Facebook. After 25 years, she once again started talking to Chris Ward.
In the meantime, though, she kept on working with her husband, Gregory Hess, where she was an office manager at the business he owned - Keystone Restorations.
According to testimony Wednesday at Gregory Hess's trial in York County Court, Laurie Hess, who now goes by the last name of Keasey, tried to explain what was going on to her children.
"Did you tell them you needed to live your life?" defense attorney Suzanne Smith asked her on the stand, to which Keasey said "yes."
"And that you hadn't been able to when you were younger?"
Keasey didn't recall saying that, but she does remember receiving a text message from Ward saying, "you know I would kiss you so hard."
That message came through on Feb. 28, 2014. And by March, she was living with Ward as she waited for her own rental home -- apart from her husband -- to be finished and ready for her to move into.
She never told her husband she was staying with Ward, which is why, she testified, she was shocked to find a printed photo of him in the printer she and her husband shared at work.
That photo, York County prosecutors are arguing, ended up in the hands of Calvin Jones Jr. - a man Hess hired to kill Ward.
Jones didn't kill him, though. What he did, according to testimony Wednesday, was contact the police, which led the parties to trial this week.
Gregory Hess, 47, of Seven Valleys, is on trial in York County Court, facing charges of criminal solicitation to commit first-degree murder and criminal use of a communication facility.
Trooper Shawn Wolfe of the Pennsylvania State Police filed those charges, and he testified Wednesday got involved with the case as soon as Jones contacted him.
"He indicated to me he'd been solicited by another individual to have someone murdered. To have someone killed," Wolfe said.
He testified Jones gave the trooper two pieces of paper - one showing Ward's house, and the other an image of Ward.
The investigation moved quickly from there. Wolfe testified it unfolded like this:
As soon as Jones showed him the photos, Wolfe gathered two other police officers, and they went to Ward's Shiloh-area home.
Ward didn't believe them at first, but he eventually brought them upstairs where Keasey was sitting on the bed. It was in the room that Ward showed Wolfe something that disturbed the troopers, and gave the situation a greater sense of urgency. Out of a nightstand drawer, Ward pulled the photo of himself that Keasey had found in the printer at work.
It was the same as the photo Hess had given to Jones.
Fearful for their lives, Wolfe brought Ward and Keasey to a York County Drug Task Force location in York where they decided to do something Wolfe had never done in his career. Hess wanted proof that Ward was dead before paying Jones, so they were going to give him that proof.
Ward agreed to let the troopers bind his hands with duct tape. He got down on the ground in a gravel parking lot. Troopers squirted ketchup on his head and pooled it on the ground around him to mimic blood. They then took a photo and put the picture in Jones' phone.
Jones made a call to Hess, using "the dead guy's phone," Wolfe said, which was another one of Hess's demands. They were going to meet at Denny's that night for payment, but Hess never showed up. Another recorded phone call was made, making arrangements to do so the following morning on April 18, 2014.
Police had surveillance all around as Jones drove Ward's truck - another provision of the deal - to Denny's, where he met with Hess. Once Hess handed Jones his payment, police jumped in and arrested him.
Testimony ended there for the day. Trial will resume at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. |
Michael Herr, whose reporting during the Vietnam War culminated in the nonfiction novel Dispatches and later became known for his writing in the films Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, died in upstate New York. He was 76.
Publisher Alfred A Knopf, who released Dispatches in 1977, confirmed Herr’s 23 June death to the Associated Press.
Herr’s work in Dispatches has been heralded by critics as one of the greatest pieces of writing about the savagery of war. The book documents the reporter's time spent covering the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine between 1967 and 1969.
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Hunter S Thompson, the late gonzo journalist known for his experiential reportage, lauded the book. “We have all spent 10 years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived,” Thompson wrote of the work, “but Michael Herr’s Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade.”
Spy novelist John le Carré said the work was “the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time.”
Herr obsessed over the book during the 18-month writing process, which triggered an emotional breakdown, he revealed in an interview with The Observer.
Shape Created with Sketch. The Vietnam War 40 years on Show all 10 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The Vietnam War 40 years on 1/10 The Vietnam War A helicopter lifts off from the US embassy in Saigon, Vietnam during last minute evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians on 29 April 1975 2/10 The Vietnam War A cargo net lifts refugees from a barge onto the SS Pioneer Contender for evacuation from the fallen city of Da Nang, Vietnam on 1 April 1975 3/10 The Vietnam War Captain Donald R Brown crouches on the ground in Saigon, waiting for the order for attack across an open field against Vietcong positions 5 April 5 1965 4/10 The Vietnam War Orphans aboard the first 'Operation Babylift' flight at the end of the Vietnam War look through the windows of World Airways DC-8 jet as it flies them to the United States in April 1975 5/10 The Vietnam War Young demonstrators toss sticks and rocks at South Vietnamese riot police in Saigon in a brief confrontation after a rally sponsored by the mainly Catholic anti-corruption movement on 4 April 1975 6/10 The Vietnam War US Navy personnel aboard the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter into the sea off the coast of Vietnam in order to make room for more evacuation flights from Saigon in 29 April 1975 7/10 The Vietnam War South Vietnamese troops and western TV newsmen run for cover as a North Vietnamese mortar round explodes on Newport Bridge on the outskirts of Saigon in 28 April 1975 Hoanh/AP 8/10 The Vietnam War US sailors transfer a South Vietnamese boy from the USS Blue Ridge to a merchant vessel off the South Vietnam coast during evacuations from South Vietnam in 1 May 1975 9/10 The Vietnam War A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of South Vietnam. The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City 10/10 The Vietnam War A US Marine, who was wounded in the head as he fought against the Viet Cong from inside an amphibious tank, is led to evacuation helicopter landing zone at Van Tuong, Vietnam on 19 August 1965 1/10 The Vietnam War A helicopter lifts off from the US embassy in Saigon, Vietnam during last minute evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians on 29 April 1975 2/10 The Vietnam War A cargo net lifts refugees from a barge onto the SS Pioneer Contender for evacuation from the fallen city of Da Nang, Vietnam on 1 April 1975 3/10 The Vietnam War Captain Donald R Brown crouches on the ground in Saigon, waiting for the order for attack across an open field against Vietcong positions 5 April 5 1965 4/10 The Vietnam War Orphans aboard the first 'Operation Babylift' flight at the end of the Vietnam War look through the windows of World Airways DC-8 jet as it flies them to the United States in April 1975 5/10 The Vietnam War Young demonstrators toss sticks and rocks at South Vietnamese riot police in Saigon in a brief confrontation after a rally sponsored by the mainly Catholic anti-corruption movement on 4 April 1975 6/10 The Vietnam War US Navy personnel aboard the USS Blue Ridge push a helicopter into the sea off the coast of Vietnam in order to make room for more evacuation flights from Saigon in 29 April 1975 7/10 The Vietnam War South Vietnamese troops and western TV newsmen run for cover as a North Vietnamese mortar round explodes on Newport Bridge on the outskirts of Saigon in 28 April 1975 Hoanh/AP 8/10 The Vietnam War US sailors transfer a South Vietnamese boy from the USS Blue Ridge to a merchant vessel off the South Vietnam coast during evacuations from South Vietnam in 1 May 1975 9/10 The Vietnam War A North Vietnamese tank rolls through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, signifying the fall of South Vietnam. The war ended on April 30, 1975, with the fall of Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City 10/10 The Vietnam War A US Marine, who was wounded in the head as he fought against the Viet Cong from inside an amphibious tank, is led to evacuation helicopter landing zone at Van Tuong, Vietnam on 19 August 1965
“The problem with Vietnam is that if your body came back, your mind came back too,” he recalled in the 2000 interview. “Within 18 months of coming back, I was on the edge of a major breakdown.
“It hit in 1971 and it was very serious. Real despair for three or four years; deep paralysis. I split up with my wife for a year. I didn't see anybody because I didn't want anybody to see me.”
Herr revisited the Vietnam War in the almost hallucinogenic narration in Francis Ford Coppola’s epic 1979 film Apocalypse Now. He co-scripted Stanley Kubrick’s 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Herr was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 13 April 1940, and later grew up in Syracuse, New York. He attended Syracuse University, but ultimately dropped out in favour of wayward life of travel - akin to writers like Ernest Hemingway.
A private man, Herr told Los Angeles Times that the resounding success of Dispatches “blew [his] cover”, as reporters and television producers consistently attempted to get him to relive the harrowing details of the Vietnam War.
He fled to London after the book’s release, but finally returned to the States in 1990.
“The reception couldn't have been better, frankly – it couldn't have been more wonderful,” he said. “It totally changed my life. But it also blew my cover. It was great for a little while, but then I wanted to stop it, and you can't turn that tap off so easily, particularly in New York.”
He recalled turning down a lucrative offer to host a documentary commemorating the 10th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.
“I said I would rather observe this great anniversary in private,” Herr said. “The idea of going on television just fills me with dread and horror. But to go on and impersonate an old war correspondent returning seems really profane. Really profane.
“If they want to commemorate the Vietnam War, man, they can welcome the veterans home. Set up some apparatus to take the pain away.”
Michael Herr is survived by his wife of almost 40 years, Valerie Elliott; their two daughters, Claudia and Catherine Herr; and siblings Steven Herr and Judy Bleyer.
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Ashers refuses to make gay engagement cake BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Northern Ireland bakery Ashers has been slammed after it refused to make an engagement cake with a same-sex marriage slogan for a man and his partner. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/ashers-refuses-to-make-gay-engagement-cake-35669084.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article35669082.ece/0886a/AUTOCROP/h342/IMG_2780.jpg
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Northern Ireland bakery Ashers has been slammed after it refused to make an engagement cake with a same-sex marriage slogan for a man and his partner.
Joe Palmer, who is to wed long-term love Andy Wong this summer, says he’s hurt by the refusal to bake the cake ordered just weeks after a landmark Court of Appeal ruling against the firm run by Christian family the McArthurs.
In October judges upheld a finding that Ashers had discriminated against customer Gareth Lee due to his sexuality when it refused his order for a cake with a pro-gay marriage motto.
Joe’s friend Grainne McCann ordered and paid for the cake online, only to have the order rejected the next day.
London-based Grainne, who is from Northern Ireland, told Sunday Life: “The wording we requested was ‘Gay marriage rocks! Happy engagement, Andy and Joe! Lots of love xxx’. We were thrilled when Ashers accepted our online order, and full payment of £23.40 plus £20 P&P, but the next day they sent the cancellation note and a refund.
“My gut instinct told me the cake was refused because it celebrated gay marriage.”
To prove her point, Grainne then ordered a christening cake for her goddaughter Leila.
“Ashers couldn’t have been happier to make that cake,” she said.
“A woman from the company even offered to drive it to its destination in Dublin as a favour, because she was going that way.
“This was terribly kind, but I felt angry and sad that Ashers’ attitude to gay people is so different.”
Grainne managed to get a cake for her friends from a London bakery.
Joe said: “Thank God I live in London, where I can’t imagine something like this happening.
“I’m staggered that Ashers wouldn’t make the cake, but I’m glad that Londoncakes.com supplied it — the cake was delicious and made with love.”
Londoncakes.com owner Graham Brooks said: “Obviously, if someone wanted a racist cake for an English Defence League meeting, we’d say no, but I don’t have the right to judge others’ views unless they’re illegal.”
Grainne said: “In my view, by turning away business based on the sexual orientation of the consumer they risk being sued again.
“My friends and I don’t want to sue — Andy and Joe want to focus on their forthcoming happy day — but others might want to take action.”
Sunday Life contacted Ashers, but it refused to comment.
However, on the ‘build a cake’ section of its website the company outlines its terms and conditions.
It does not mention its stance on gay marriage, but states that people must not send content or images which contain any “threatening, defamatory, blasphemous or pornographic material”.
Also on the banned list are images and content portraying “any kind of child abuse, or are racially offensive or abusive of any religion, or likely to incite hatred against any person or group, or are otherwise criminal or offensive in the minds of reasonable people, or are obscene or menacing or harassing in any way, or breach any applicable law”.
Belfast Telegraph Digital |
AURORA | New rules being considered by Aurora City Council governing short-term rentals like Airbnb are proving controversial with some homeowners who use those services.
Beyond requiring a business license and collection of the city’s lodger’s tax, a measure awaiting council would also require homeowners renting their home via Airbnb to occupy 75 percent or more of a home — effectively banning any whole-home rentals.
One of the more than 120 Airbnb operators in Aurora was frustrated at the possibility of the new rule passing.
“It strikes me as (a) blatant disregard to my freedom of privacy,” said Paul, an Aurora resident who rents out part of his home using Airbnb and did not want to give his last name. “I should be able to let whoever I want to stay at my house stay freely without having to worry about city ordinances.”
Trevor Vaughn, manager of the city’s tax and licensing division, said other home-based businesses in the city must follow that requirement.
Aurora officials say the measure would not apply to rentals longer than 30 days. Those rentals are only required to be reported on a landlord’s tax returns.
Aurora’s Finance Department estimates there are between 120 and 170 Airbnb-style businesses in Aurora at any given time, and that 25 percent advertise their entire home for rent. City staff also estimate top-performing renters make between $15,000 and $48,000 in sales annually.
City officials say Aurora could make between $3,000 and $6,000 per year if these businesses were required to pay the city’s 8-percent lodger’s tax.
The measure would require all vacation rental hosts with an Aurora address to apply for a $38 Aurora business license and collect an 8-percent lodger’s tax from each guest they host.
Last year, Gary Wheat, President of Aurora’s tourism site Visit Aurora, said the city generated $7.5 million in lodger’s tax revenues. About 12.5 percent of the city’s lodger’s tax goes to Visit Aurora, while the rest goes into Aurora’s general fund. He said the city’s lodger’s tax has grown 20 percent over the last three years, with the addition of new hotels such as the Hyatt Regency this year and Woolley’s Classic Suites last year.
He said though the city has seen increases in lodger’s tax, it is still affected by Airbnb, especially when there are numerous listings.
“If we have 120 listings for Airbnb, that would equate to about 120 rooms. That would be an additional hotel,” he said. “Recommending the collection of lodger’s tax, it creates a level playing field for our hotels.”
Wheat said that by regulating Airbnb homes in Aurora, Visit Aurora could also begin working with the homeowners to promote them alongside local hotels.
“This allows Aurora to bring the Airbnb brand into our marketing system. They can get those quality visitors who come through our website,” he said. “They are one of our Aurora lodging partners. That’s why going forward, this is something that will enhance the homeowners’ experience as well.”
Bob LeGare, an at-large Aurora councilman and member of the Aurora City Council’s Planning and Economic Development Policy Committee, said the measure is also a way to protect the quality of life of Aurora residents.
“There are a lot of things you can’t use your house for that would be very lucrative for the owners,” he said. “The reality is we’re talking about a house becoming a hotel. I think there’s an impact there. The people that live next door to future hotels think it’s impactful to have potential people coming and living next door to them.”
He said that putting some restrictions on Airbnb rentals would also help the city ease a near zero-vacancy rental market.
“Every single one of those homeowners that wants a daily rental, any one could lease their house in a matter of days to a qualified occupant at a rent rate that’s historical,” he said.
Aurora officials are also looking to require residents to include a business license number as part of their Airbnb listing, or for the company to collect the tax at the point of sale. According to city documents, Airbnb may be willing to collect the tax, but city officials say the company will not share data that is necessary for enforcement.
Last November, the city issued its first vacation rental business license to Saurabh Chawla, an active Airbnb host who was barred from renting out his home after a neighbor complained about the amount of people frequently coming in and out of his east Aurora home.
Vaughn said five homes have been licensed for short-term rentals since then, but that the city has not been actively seeking out homeowners who use Airbnb and requiring them to obtain business licenses.
Denver City Council considered a similar measure this month and gave initial approval to a proposal that would allow short-term vacation rentals only in a resident’s primary home and not a second home, according to The Denver Post.
The measure is scheduled to be discussed at the June 6 Aurora City Council study session. |
Skip to comments.
Roosevelt Years (Serb that warned Hoover on possible attack on Pearl Harbour)
Posted on by kronos77
The British double agent Dusko Popov, who reputedly inspired Ian Fleming’s creation of James Bond, was approached by the Germans to become their spy. Popov did so, but reported everything he did to the British.
When the Germans sent Popov to set up a large spy ring in the U.S., he was asked to gather some very provocative information for the Japanese. The Japanese request, called the "Japanese questionnaire," involved a lot of extremely specific information about Hawaii and Pearl Harbor. British Intelligence and Popov came to the conclusion in August of 1941 that the Japanese were preparing an invasion of the United States at Pearl Harbor.
The FBI was very unfriendly to Popov. Hoover disliked double agents, especially wealthy playboys like Popov who showed up at Hoover’s favorite New York City nightclub, the Stork Club. Hoover added the "Japanese questionnaire" to other evidence he had that the Japanese were very interested in Hawaii, but he did nothing with the information from Popov or other sources.
Gentry claims that it is possible that with the thousands of reports that the Bureau received, it was difficult to determine which ones were legitimate. "Still, it is difficult to explain that Hoover...didn’t warn the president that two German agents had been ordered to study the defenses of Pearl Harbor for the Japanese, and that the last had been told it was ‘of the highest priority,’ indicating that a time factor was involved."
(Excerpt) Read more at crimelibrary.com ...
TOPICS:
Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:
fdr
history
hoover
jamesbond
pearharbour
pearlharbor
spy
wwii
To: joan; Smartass; zagor-te-nej; Lion in Winter; Honorary Serb; jb6; Incorrigible; DTA; ma bell; ...
by 2 posted onby kronos77 (-www.savekosovo.org- and -www.kosovo.net- Save Kosovo from Islam!)
To: marblehead17
ping
by 3 posted onby marblehead17 (I love it when a plan comes together.)
To: kronos77
Well, Pearl Harbor was but one of multiple spears hurled South by the Japanese in December 1941.
To: marblehead17
They don't show pictures of Dusko Popov. He's not as handsome as Sean Connery.
Dusko Popov
by 5 posted onby Stepan12 (Mark Steyn: "We are all spaniards now.")
To: Stepan12; tgambill
>>>>>>They don't show pictures of Dusko Popov. He's not as handsome as Sean Connery.<<<<<< Nor he was very bright either. Popov did not figure out that FDR is fully aware that Japs will attack Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor was no surprise - it was allowed to happen with full knowledge of FDR, as doccuments released after WWII show.
by 6 posted onby DTA (Mr. President, Condy is asleep at the wheel !)
To: DTA
"...Pearl Harbor was no surprise - it was allowed to happen with full knowledge of FDR..." Citation needed.
by 7 posted onby Eclectica (Ask your MD about Evolution. Please!)
To: kronos77
I've always thought that Roosevelt knew that Pearl Harbor was coming. As an old navy guy, he probably thought the battleships could withstand the attack; he had the carriers moved out of the way.
To: DTA
Pearl Harbor was no surprise - it was allowed to happen with full knowledge of FDR, as documents released after WWII show.<<<
Bingo!..we have a winner!....Now...something that has always bothered me about that, is the fact that despite the American peoples reluctance to enter the war (polls of that time were as much as 70+% against) had we not entered the war at that time...we would all be speaking German on this thread.....Is there such a thing as a Shadow Government??
To: Stepan12
but he looks more believable
by 10 posted onby ThanhPhero (di hanh huong den La Vang)
To: kronos77
The Popov-Hoover-FDR link has been in the historical background for at least 40 years.
I first read about it in the late 1960s/early 1970s while building up my private library on insurgent/counter insurgent operations.
The problem that Popov faced with Hoover was two fold. First, he had a demonstrated history of turning. While common in most of the world, Americans, even today, have a hard time dealing with people who switch sides. Second, Popov had a criminal background. Hoover who had completely revamped the FBI less than 20 years earlier wasnt going to deal with any one who had a criminal record unless he (Hoover) controlled him.
The in-born (in-bread?) American prejudice against people who change sides and have a criminal history hurt us in 1941 and continue to hurt us today. Will we ever learn?
by 11 posted onby Nip (SPECTRE - taking out the enemy one terrorist at a time; at night; without warning or mercy)
To: Eclectica
by 12 posted onby DTA (Mr. President, Condy is asleep at the wheel !)
To: DTA
History is not completely overturned over because one person wrote a book as Robert Stinnett has done with his Day Of Deceit.
Look, yes, the info and intercepts were there, but no one person had it all in one place to put it all together that the Japs were going to hit Pearl.
Consider this, if FDR did know about the attack and wanted to let it happen, what about the following? In the hours before dawn, U.S. Navy vessels spotted an unidentified submarine periscope near the entrance to Pearl Harbor. It was attacked and reported sunk by the destroyer USS Ward (DD-139) and a patrol plane. At 7:00 a.m., an alert operator of an Army radar station at Opana spotted the approaching first wave of the attack force. The officers to whom those reports were relayed did not consider them significant enough to take action. The report of the submarine sinking was handled slowly awaiting the request for further confirmation, and the radar sighting was passed off as an approaching group of American B-17s due to arrive that morning.
Now, did FDR order the Navy to slow down the Ward's attack report or the Army to disregard the radar reports?
Of course not! It was a long, long trail of many errors that gave the Japs their success at Pearl Harbor, but in the long run their sinking and damaging all the battleship there made it clear the aircraft carrier would win or lose the Pacific war. The Japs' carriers didn't, our did.
I am not a Roosevelt fan, but no US President... With the possible exception of Bill Clinton... would allow an attack on the US if he knew about it before hand.
by 13 posted onby Bender2 (Algore himself is an inconvenient truth...)
To: kronos77
Ah, Serbs, is there anything they can't do?
To: PAR35
FDR was just one of the boys, owned by Mandel House, Morgan, DuPont, et al. Col Mandel House, was described in Woodrow Wilson's own diary as his "Alter Ego"....
You are however, absolutely correct....They did move the carriers because the "planners" knew that the carriers would be needed for the war they instigated...and have been instigating since WWI.
by 15 posted onby tgambill (I would like to comment.....)
To: M-cubed
There is absolutely a Shadow Government that has been running things as far back, as you don't want to know. I've been studing this over the past 8 years and only recently have come to understand how it is organized and how it has functioned over the generations. It's an amazing agenda and using very complex strategy.
The Shadow Government does exist and works through the CFC and RIIA, for starters............
by 16 posted onby tgambill (I would like to comment.....)
To: Bender2
no US President... With the possible exception of Bill Clinton... would allow an attack on the US if he knew about it before hand.<<
Citation needed...
To: ozzymandus
>>>>Ah, Serbs, is there anything they can't do?<<<< Sure there is. When Nikola Tesla started working for Edison, Edison promised Tesla 50,000 dollars, which is about one million dollars in today's term, if he would make inventions for him. Tesla did, and then when he asked for his payment Edison laughed and told him that he "did not understand our American sense of humor". Dusko Popov also did not understand American sense of humor and he did not figure out that Edgar J. Hoover was perhaps the biggest American joke of the 20th century.
by 18 posted onby DTA (Mr. President, Condy is asleep at the wheel !)
To: M-cubed
Re My: "no US President... With the possible exception of Bill Clinton... would allow an attack on the US if he knew about it before hand.<< "
Your: "Citation needed..."
If anything needs to be certified, it is your sanity to believe any US President... Again with the possible exception of Bill Clinton... would allow an attack on the US if he knew about it before hand.
by 19 posted onby Bender2 (Algore himself is an inconvenient truth...)
To: DTA
You may choose to start digging from here: And you, here: http://www.answers.com/topic/pearl-harbor-advance-knowledge-debate We knew that attacks could come at Midway or Pearl. Evidence shows that FDR may have never seen more indicative reports. Author Stinnett had a book to write, which reads like a kind of "grassy knoll", designed to make money. At Pearl, we weren't altogether asleep: a mini-sub was sunk earlier that morning, and they were known to be launched from submarines. I'd call it Denial. BTW: I've traveled via the SS Lurline.
by 20 posted onby Eclectica (Ask your MD about Evolution. Please!)
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Nickname # Original Translation
1 弾幕アマノジャク 全てのシーンをクリアした！
おめでとう！ もう君に避けられない弾幕は無い！
ボタンを押すとコングラッチュレーション画面が出るよ Danmaku Amanojaku All scenes cleared!
Congratulations! There's no danmaku you can't avoid!
Hit the button to see the congratulations screen.
2 ひよっこアマノジャク ５シーンクリアした
まだまだ始まったばかりだ Fledgling Amanojaku 5 scenes cleared.
You've only just started.
3 慣れてきたアマノジャク １０シーンクリアした
アイテムの使い方が判ってきた頃だろうか Experienced Amanojaku 10 scenes cleared.
You're figuring out the items now, right?
4 一人前アマノジャク ２０シーンクリアした
ようやく一人前ってところかな Full-Fledged Amanojaku 20 scenes cleared.
Have you finally come into your own?
5 無敵のアマノジャク ３０シーンクリアした
使いやすいアイテムばっか使ってないかい？ Invincible Amanojaku 30 scenes cleared.
You're not just using the easy-to-use items, are you?
6 不滅のアマノジャク ４０シーンクリアした
ようやく折り返し地点
ここからが長いぞ Indestructible Amanojaku 40 scenes cleared.
You've finally reached the turning point.
It's a long way to go from here.
7 伝説のアマノジャク ５０シーンクリアした
やるねぇ、もう上級者といっても
過言では無いぞ Legendary Amanojaku 50 scenes cleared.
Way to go. It's not an exaggeration
to say you're an advanced player, now.
8 神話のアマノジャク ６０シーンクリアした
あと一息だ！
ここで諦めても誰も責めないけどね Mythical Amanojaku 60 scenes cleared.
Just a bit more!
Nobody would blame you if you quit here, though.
9 全てを敵に回した天邪鬼 ８－１をクリアした
彼女には仲間なんか要らなかったんだ
全てに敵対してこそ、真のアマノジャクだ Amanojaku, Enemy of All Clear 8-1.
She has no need for friends.
In fact, hostility towards everyone is the mark of a real amanojaku.
10 逃げ切ったアマノジャク 最終日のシーンをクリアした
よくここまで来たね
もうゴールしてもいいし、しなくてもいい Escapee Amanojaku Cleared a scene from the final day.
You've come a long way, huh?
It's okay to cross the finish line, and it's okay if you don't.
11 はじめてのアマノジャク １日目、シーン１をクリアした
これがクリア出来ないと始まらない First Amanojaku Cleared 1st Day, Scene 1.
If you can't clear this, you can't start.
12 新たなアイテム使い 新しいアイテムを手に入れた
六種類のアイテムを使いこなせ New Item User Received new items.
Master the six types of items.
13 ミラクル不思議道具使い 全てのアイテムを手に入れた
アイテムが増えてかえって面倒くさくなったかな？
世の中、えてしてこんなもんです Miraculous, Mysterious Tool User Received all items.
Having all these items is actually kind of annoying, isn't it?
So it goes in this world we live in.
14 おや、片手が空いていた サブ装備が使えるようになった
これで苦手だった道具もブーストできる？ Hey, You've Got a Free Hand Became able to use sub-equipment.
Can you use this to boost the items you're bad with?
15 そろそろお茶でも プレイ時間が１時間を超えたよ
結構疲れたでしょ？ 他のゲームと違って
弾幕避けのプレイ時間密度は非常に濃いのです How About Some Tea Passed 1 hour of play time.
You're pretty tired, aren't you? Unlike other games,
the play time in danmaku dodging is quite densely packed.
16 ドライアイにご注意 プレイ時間が５時間を越えたよ
メニュー画面やポーズ画面は時間に入らないから
５時間は結構長いんだよねー Watch Out For Dry Eyes Passed 5 hours of play time.
Time on the menu and pause screens doesn't count,
so 5 hours is a pretty long time!
17 悟りでも開けるよ プレイ時間が１０時間を超えたよ
ここまで遊んでくれて有難う
もうゴールしてもいいよ！ Achieve Enlightenment! Passed 10 hours of play time.
Thank you for playing for so long.
It's okay to cross the finish line!
18 もう痛みを感じない ミス回数が１００を超えたよ
君はもう、彼女を殺す事に痛みを覚えない I Don't Feel Pain Anymore Passed 100 total deaths.
You don't recognize the pain of killing her anymore.
19 もしかして、快感？ ミス回数が２００を超えたよ
だんだんと快感になってきてないかい？
まあ、それもまた良しだ。まだ社会復帰は出来る Could This Be Pleasure? Passed 200 total deaths.
Is this starting to feel good for you?
Well, that's okay. You can still be reintegrated into society.
20 彼女の屍を超えてゆけ [1] ミス回数が３００を超えたよ
ここまで痛み付けたからにはもう後戻りは出来ない
君は責任持って全てクリアしたまえ Over Her Dead Body Passed 300 total deaths.
Now that you've caused this much pain, there's no going back.
Take responsibility and clear everything.
21 初日マスター １日目をオールクリアした
まあ、この位はね First Day Master 1st day all clear.
Well, this level's not too bad.
22 ２日目マスター ２日目オールクリア
順番にクリアしているのだとしたら
どこかで行き詰まるかもよ 2nd Day Master 2nd day all clear.
If you're clearing them in order,
you might get stuck somewhere.
23 ３日目マスター ３日目オールクリア
急に難しくなった？
気のせいか 3rd Day Master 3rd day all clear.
Did it get tougher all of a sudden?
Maybe it's your imagination.
24 ４日目マスター ４日目オールクリア
そろそろ慣れてきたね
この辺はもう楽勝かな 4th Day Master 4th day all clear.
Now you're getting used to it.
This is still the easy stuff.
25 ５日目マスター ５日目オールクリア
使い道がよく判らないアイテムもあるかな？
気にしなくても良い 5th Day Master 5th day all clear.
You have some items whose purpose isn't really clear, huh?
You don't have to worry about them.
26 ６日目マスター ６日目オールクリア
ところで、アイテム使用無しでクリアすると
全てのアイテムがクリア済みになるって知ってた？ 6th Day Master 6th day all clear.
By the way, did you know that if you clear a scene
without using items, it counts as a clear for all items?
27 ７日目マスター ７日目オールクリア
人間ばっか！
何か人間の方が反則チックだよねぇ 7th Day Master 7th day all clear.
It's all humans on this day!
Humans somehow seem more cheat-ey, don't they?
28 ８日目マスター ８日目オールクリア
ここまで律儀に順番通りクリアしてきている人は
不器用だけど誠実な人だと想像します 8th Day Master 8th day all clear.
In my imagination, those of you who have been faithfully following the order
up to this point are awkward but earnest people.
29 ９日目マスター ９日目オールクリア
よく頑張りました
もうあと一息です（最終日を残していると仮定して） 9th Day Master 9th day all clear.
Well done.
You've only got a bit more to go (assuming you saved the final day until now).
30 最終日マスター 最終日オールクリア
素晴らしい！
あんたはエライ！ Last Day Master Last day all clear.
Spectacular!
You're amazing!
31 おひらりさん ひらり布を使って３シーンクリアした
ひらひひらりと躱しましてー Miss Nimble Cleared 3 scenes using the Nimble Cloth.
Evade flutteringly~
32 カメラ小僧 天狗のトイカメラを使って３シーンクリアした
まだまだひよっこカメラマン Camera Kid Cleared 3 scenes using the Tengu's Toy Camera.
You're still just a fledgling cameraman.
33 仕舞いっぱなしの傘 隙間の折りたたみ傘を使って３シーンクリアした
雨が降っても大丈夫 Closed Umbrella Cleared 3 scenes using the Gap Folding Umbrella.
You'll be fine even if it rains.
34 とおりすがりの亡霊さん 亡霊の送り提灯を使って３シーンクリアした
影が薄くなってきたね A Passing Spirit Cleared 3 scenes using the Ghastly Send-Off Lantern.
You don't have a lot of presence, huh?
35 たま使い 血に餓えた陰陽玉を使って３シーンクリアした
ボス目の前に現れる快感たるや…… Ball User Cleared 3 scenes using the Bloodthirsty Yin-Yang Orb.
Popping out right in front of the boss's face feels nice...
36 手持ち花火 四尺マジックボムを使って３シーンクリアした
花火の真ん中は危険です Handheld Fireworks Cleared 3 scenes using the Four-Foot Magic Bomb.
Being in the middle of fireworks is dangerous.
37 お地蔵さん 身代わり地蔵を使って３シーンクリアした
当たっても良いって精神的にらくちんだね Ojizou-san Cleared 3 scenes using the Substitute Jizou.
Knowing it's okay even if you get hit is mentally relaxing.
38 お人形屋さん 呪いのデコイ人形を使って３シーンクリアした
一見可愛いようだが、実は凄いんです Doll Shop Owner Cleared 3 scenes using the Cursed Decoy Doll.
At first glance, it looks cute, but it's actually amazing.
39 物理で殴れ 打ち出の小槌を使って３シーンクリアした
先手必勝だ！ レベルを上げなくても物理で殴れ！ Strike Physically Cleared 3 scenes using the Miracle Mallet.
Victory goes to the swift! Even if you don't raise your level, strike physically! [2]
40 反則嫌い アイテムを使用せずに３シーンクリアした
ま、当たらなければ反則アイテムを使う必要もないね Cheat Hater Cleared 3 scenes without using items.
Well, if you don't get hit, there's no need to use cheat items.
41 ひらりスター ひらり布を使って１０シーンクリアした
華麗にかわす姿はまるでマタドール？ Nimble-ster Cleared 10 scenes using the Nimble Cloth.
Does dodging so neatly make you look like a matador?
42 カメラ大人 天狗のトイカメラを使って１０シーンクリアした
少し成長したよ、でもカメラはトイカメラ Camera Adult Cleared 10 scenes using the Tengu's Toy Camera.
You've grown up a little! But the camera is still a toy.
43 お気に入りの傘 隙間の折りたたみ傘を使って１０シーンクリアした
お気に入りの傘は雨が降っても使わない Favorite Umbrella Cleared 10 scenes using the Gap Folding Umbrella.
Even if it's raining, you wouldn't use your favorite umbrella.
44 もしかして生霊さん？ 亡霊の送り提灯を使って１０シーンクリアした
亡霊の方が気楽そうでいいなぁ Perhaps a Vengeful Spirit? Cleared 10 scenes using the Ghastly Send-Off Lantern.
Being a ghost seems like more fun, huh?
45 たま職人 血に餓えた陰陽玉を使って１０シーンクリアした
玉の質量と主人公の質量が同じなのだと推測される Ball Craftsman Cleared 10 scenes using the Bloodthirsty Yin-Yang Orb.
There's a theory that the ball's weight and the protagonist's weight are the same.
46 スターマインさん 四尺マジックボムを使って１０シーンクリアした
花火の魅力は映像より音だよね Miss Starmine Cleared 10 scenes using the Four-Foot Magic Bomb.
The attraction of fireworks is more in the sound than the sight, huh?
47 地蔵菩薩 身代わり地蔵を使って１０シーンクリアした
当たる度に地蔵の顔が険しくなる気がする Ksitigarbha Cleared 10 scenes using the Substitute Jizou.
It feels like the jizou's face gets more stern every time you get hit.
48 人形蒐集家 呪いのデコイ人形を使って１０シーンクリアした
人形って呪われやすいから気を付けよう Doll Collector Cleared 10 scenes using the Cursed Decoy Doll.
Dolls are easily cursed, so be careful.
49 ピコピコハンマー 打ち出の小槌を使って１０シーンクリアした
ピコピコハンマーにはまだ改良の余地があると思う Pikopiko Hammer Cleared 10 scenes using the Miracle Mallet.
I think there's still room for improvement in the Pikopiko Hammer's design.
50 正々堂々屋さん アイテムを使用せずに１０シーンクリアした
正々堂々って、ある意味ひねくれてないかい？ Fair Player Cleared 10 scenes without using items.
If you always play above-board, isn't that kind of twisted in its own way?
51 ひらりマスター ひらり布を使って２０シーンクリアした
布の上を弾幕が通過する感覚はどうなのかな Nimble Master Cleared 20 scenes using the Nimble Cloth.
I wonder how it feels when danmaku flies over the cloth.
52 カメラ紳士 天狗のトイカメラを使って２０シーンクリアした
一億総勢携帯カメラマン時代
カメラは紳士的に使いましょう Camera Gentleman Cleared 20 scenes using the Tengu's Toy Camera.
A generation of a hundred million cell phone cameramen.
Let's use them in a gentlemanly way.
53 傘ハウス 隙間の折りたたみ傘を使って２０シーンクリアした
傘が溜り過ぎちゃってる家とかあるよねー Umbrella House Cleared 20 scenes using the Gap Folding Umbrella.
There's some houses where they've got too many umbrellas piled up.
54 りっぱな霊体 亡霊の送り提灯を使って２０シーンクリアした
霊体って憧れるよねー
最近腰や肩が痛くてさー Splendid Spirit Body Cleared 20 scenes using the Ghastly Send-Off Lantern.
I'd love to have a spirit body...
My back and shoulders have been hurting lately...
55 たま仙人 血に餓えた陰陽玉を使って２０シーンクリアした
陰陽玉って平面的なデザインだよね
割ってみるとどうなってるのやら Ball Hermit Cleared 20 scenes using the Bloodthirsty Yin-Yang Orb.
The yin-yang orb has kind of a flat design, huh?
I wonder what would happen if you split it.
56 クレイジーボマー 四尺マジックボムを使って２０シーンクリアした
花火って一発勝負だからロマンあるね
人混みが嫌いで花火大会に行くのはちょっとアレだけど Crazy Bomber Cleared 20 scenes using the Four-Foot Magic Bomb.
Fireworks are an all-in-one-shot thing, so they're pretty appealing.
Although I don't like crowds, so going to a fireworks festival is kind of...
57 まさに地蔵の様な人 身代わり地蔵を使って２０シーンクリアした
いくら喰らっても平然と構える心の出来た人 Just Like A Jizou Cleared 20 scenes using the Substitute Jizou.
A person who can stay cool, no matter how great the pressure.
58 人形原型師 呪いのデコイ人形を使って２０シーンクリアした
呪いの人形だって作った人が居るんだぞー Doll Prototyper Cleared 20 scenes using the Cursed Decoy Doll.
Even a cursed doll has a maker, you know!
59 小槌でスマッシュ！ 打ち出の小槌を使って２０シーンクリアした
この小槌……魔力も何もただの普通の武器なんじゃ…… Mallet Smash! Cleared 20 scenes using the Miracle Mallet.
This mallet... isn't magic or anything, it's just an ordinary weapon... |
AN anonymous donation of €400,000 to the University of Cyprus (UCY) will be given to the student welfare association.
Half the donation will be distributed to students within 2013 and the other half within 2014, UCY said.
“This noble and generous gesture shows a high sense of social responsibility,” a statement said.
It added that the particular donor said it was the duty of each Cypriot “to enhance our children’s education so we can hope for a better future for our country.”
The current financial situation in Cyprus has led to a substantial increase in the number of students who are facing financial difficulties and have applied to the student welfare association for help.
“The number of students who have applied for financial help during the current academic year has exceeded 800,” the announcement said.
It went on to thank the donor for his or her generosity as it would help many students continue their studies.
“Without this donation, the students would have had to, at least temporarily, stop studying because of their financial problems,” the announcement said.
The university’s rector Constantinos Christofides said: “The university is really blessed and proud to have people like the donor as a loyal friend, who selflessly offers support. The University of Cyprus’ motto is that no student should have to stop studying because of the economic crisis.” |
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union and several LGBT legal organizations said Thursday that a key religious exemption in new legislation banning anti-LGBT job discrimination "undermines the core goal" of the bill and should be removed.
In a statement released Thursday morning, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Transgender Law Center state they "stand united in expressing very grave concerns with the religious exemption" to the bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
Although the groups say they strongly support the underlying legislation, their decision to release a statement warning of "very grave concerns" with the religious exemption on the day of ENDA's reintroduction in the House and Senate certainly puts a damper on efforts to ramp up early support for the bill.
In the past, it's primarily been religious groups criticizing the religious exemption language, and the language has been made more broad over time in order to blunt opposition to the bill from religious groups. Now, it appears, some on the left are ready to fight back.
Lambda Legal attorney Greg Nevins, who has litigated some of the group's employment discrimination cases in the past, talked with BuzzFeed about the religious exemption.
"In Title VII, there's an exemption for certain religious-affiliated entities that says that they can basically engage in religious discrimination but they cannot engage in race, color, sex, or national origin discrimination. The words [religious-affiliated entities] have been sometimes interpreted very broadly," Nevins explained, noting, "For instance, a Presbyterian hospital might in some jurisdictions be considered to qualify, which is decidedly different than saying a church or a convent can do these things."
The religious exemption in ENDA "would say that sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination are not actionable against those entities as defined in Title VII," he added.
"It would be setting up a two-tiered system saying that race, color, sex, and national origin discrimination cannot be engaged in by one of these entities, but sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination can," Nevins said.
In the statement, the groups warn the religious exemption "gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT discrimination that our civil rights laws have never given to discrimination based on an individual's race, sex, national origin, age, or disability."
For some time now, the ACLU has expressed concerns that the religious exemptions in legislation to ban LGBT job discrimination were too broad, but this is the first time they've laid down a marker on such concerns so early in the legislative process. It also is the first time they've been joined early in the process by several LGBT legal groups — Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights and Transgender Law Center — in raising the concerns. Those LGBT organizations — along with Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders — had described their concerns with the provision in October 2007.
Although the ACLU and LGBT legal groups are pressing for a more narrow religious exemption, religiously affiliated organizations have raised their own concerns about the impact of passage of ENDA on religious liberty.
The National Religious Broadcasters warned in 2012 that ENDA "would assault the constitutional rights of faith-based organizations and lead to a 'chilling effect' in religious communities." The group's senior vice president and general counsel, Craig Parshall, testified against the bill before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in June 2012.
Peter Sprigg from the Family Research Council went further, recently writing that there might not be a religious exemption broad enough to meet with his approval. Writing for CNN, Sprigg stated, "Although ENDA contains a limited 'religious exemption,' there remain serious questions as to whether any exemption would be adequate to meet the concerns of people with religious and moral scruples against homosexual conduct."
[Update: The article was updated to include prior comments from the LGBT legal groups expressing concerns about the religious exemption. 4/25/13.] |
What are Superconducting Transactions?
Aphelion is looking to change the game with crypto asset trading. With superconducting transactions on the NEO platform as its keys to success.
When reviewing the landscape and history of crypto exchanges, one will see a landscape full of hacks, unexpected shutdowns and seizures. With hackers and thieves consistently targeting these exchanges, as well their users, centralized exchanges have proven to be a massive single point of failure for cryptocurrency. Decentralized solutions are needed for decentralized cryptocurrency. Superconducting transactions and Aphelion on the NEO blockchain are the gateway to this paradise. They are the key to unlock the potential of cryptocurrency and allow us, the users, to instantly exchange currency P2P on our terms and without the need for centralized exchanges to facilitate the transaction.
What is a Superconducting Transaction
In simple terms, this is the ability for two users to exchange cryptocurrency from different blockchains in a completely trustless manner via smart contract. Each user agrees to terms before the transaction, then both use private keys to sign a copy of the transaction itself. The exchange is performed instantly, with no transaction fees and removes the need for a centralized party or exchange service to complete the transfer on behalf of the buyer/seller. This allows a user holding NEO to exchange with another user for APH, as an example. NEO has built this ability into their platform calling this process superconducting transactions (more can be read in the NEO white paper section 8.1 ).
Aphelion and Superconducting Transactions
With the introduction of DEAL (Decentralized Exchange Asset Ledger), Aphelion is designing tokenized transactions using smart contracts on the NEO blockchain bypassing the need for centralized exchanges. Leveraging NEO’s superconducting transactions, this allows Aphelion to process exchanges P2P for any token they decide to support. Meaning, those with the highest trading volume can be traded directly using the Aphelion protocol from day one.
Utilizing the NEO blockchain and the dBFT algorithm, the challenges faced by Bitcoin and Ethereum’s PoW and subsequent PoS technologies are solved for. This allows Aphelion to be an Eco-friendly, open source and completely decentralized digital asset application. Users can transact a DEAL P2P for any coin, regardless of which blockchain it resides, decentralized and free of the threats centralized exchanges inherently carry. No need to place deposits on a server while allowing users to control their private keys at all times.
Why NEO
One clear advantage of Aphelion on the NEO blockchain is speed of transaction. Atomic swaps are being added to DEX’s on the Ethereum blockchain. Those DEX projects are already being met with traffic jams and network congestion. In contrast, the NEO blockchain, in its current form, supports up to 10,000 transactions per second versus Ethereum’s 20. There are plans to scale Ethereum, however NEO’s advancements hold the clear upper hand. NEO provides any DEX platform with a blockchain that is not congested and has bandwidth large enough to support heavy trading.
While Aphelion will launch their own ux/ui, being an open source project they encourage the development of new and custom ux/ui’s. This will allow others to build and design different interfaces to maximize the end-user experience leveraging the Aphelion protocol. Aphelion is unique in this sense, not only will Aphelion build and design a superior ui/ux, they encourage their community to build their own custom off chain interface. This results in a huge win for traders – we get choice.
Built on the NEO blockchain and leveraging superconducting transactions, Aphelion is launching the first DEX platform built for all coins. One that can support the heaviest trading traffic while being open source, allowing new and custom interfaces. A welcome addition to the crypto-trading community. Instant, secure and truly decentralized, Aphelion is a game changer. One that will change the way in which you buy and sell your coins, freeing us from the centralized exchanges and countless threats our cryptocurrency experience. Control is placed back into our hands, providing you and I with a decentralized exchange for our decentralized crypto.
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Telegram: https://t.me/apheliontoken
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/APH/
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LINCOLN PARK — One of Chicago's most expensive homes has sold.
A 14,000-square-foot mansion, 1955 N. Burling St., sold Tuesday for more than $13.3 million, according to Crain's, which first reported the news.
That makes it the second-highest price paid for a Chicago home this year, Crain's reports. An associate of filmmaker George Lucas paid the highest price for a Chicago home this year, spending $18.75 million on a Park Tower condo.
The asking price for the seven-bedroom Burling Street mansion, which covers five city lots, was $16.9 million.
Some of the home's amenities include a six-car garage, indoor swimming pool and spa and a home theater.
It also has a garden area south of the main residence that takes it design cues from the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Washington D.C., a listing agent previously told DNAinfo Chicago.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: |
Mr. Schumer, poised to be the incoming Senate Democratic leader, and the current leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, met with Mrs. Clinton’s top campaign aides in Washington last month and pressed them to offer financial support for the Senate races, according to a Democratic official briefed on the meeting. And Mr. Schumer has not been shy since about his hope that if Mrs. Clinton clearly appeared on her way to winning the race, she would redirect some money to congressional races.
“This is one of many things that the Clinton campaign is doing to help us win a majority in the Senate,” Mr. Schumer said through a spokesman.
While party strategists are glad to have the money that Mrs. Clinton is directing from the Democratic National Committee to voter-turnout efforts in Indiana and Missouri, they have little appetite for Mrs. Clinton to visit those states, where she is likely to lose, because that would make it easier for Republicans to tie Democratic Senate candidates to her.
Mrs. Clinton is also pouring money into two congressional districts, in Nebraska and Maine, that both apportion their own presidential electoral vote and have competitive House races. And she is sending an additional $6 million to seven presidential battleground states with hotly contested Senate and House campaigns.
Democrats are also attempting to unseat Senator John McCain of Arizona from the seat he was first elected to in 1986, but Mrs. Clinton’s late decision to swoop into that state is not related to his race, which few Democratic leaders believe they can win. Her incursion there is about her own campaign — and the Democrats’ desire to focus attention on the damage Mr. Trump has done to Republicans with Hispanics.
In particular, Democrats hope to make an example of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an ardent Trump supporter, by defeating the Phoenix lawman, whose incendiary comments about Hispanics and aggressive tactics with immigrants have garnered attention far beyond his jurisdiction in Maricopa County.
“If Democrats were going to win in Arizona in 2016, you’d need a Republican who turns off Republican women, who really energizes Latinos, and you’d need other races on the ground that can really drive engagement — and we have all that,” said Andrei Cherny, a former state Democratic chairman. |
The Australian monster icon is getting the ultimate HD treatment.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy, 1984 film Razorback centers on a vicious wild boar terrorizing the Australian outback, and we’ve just learned that it’s being given new life courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment. A brand new Blu-ray is on the way, transferred from a 4K master with all-new extras.
Cult of Monster reports that the Razorback Blu-ray is tentatively scheduled for release on November 1, and it will include a discussion featurette produced by Cinemaniacs. The new 4K scan and restoration was completed by Melbourne’s Roar Digital.
The site adds…
“Unfortunately the upcoming RAZORBACK Blu-ray release will not include the ‘grizzly’ extended shots/scenes featured on the old Aussie Roadshow Home Video VHS/Beta reinserted back into the film as those 35mm film elements are long lost however Umbrella will be including a standard definition VHS cut as a special feature!”
In the film, “Somewhere deep in the Australian outback there’s a marauding, indestructible creature that can rip a man in half and destroy a homestead in seconds. This giant freak of nature is nine hundred pounds of tusk and muscle – and it is hell bent on terrorizing the small isolated community of “Gamulla” – a town as violent and primitive as the beast that threatens it.” |
Surrey RCMP are investigating an alleged racist assault on an animal rights protester outside the Cloverdale Rodeo this weekend that was posted on YouTube.
Police say an animal rights protester was packing up to leave on Saturday, when she got into an argument with a woman who began yelling racial slurs at her.
In the video posted on YouTube, the protester yells back at the woman — who is dressed in a black hoodie and sunglasses — "Keep talking" and "Come here and hit me," a number of times.
The woman then approaches the protester, which is when the video ends with an apparent scuffle.
The protester alleges she was spat on, her hair was pulled to drag her to the ground, and she was kicked and punched by as many as two or three other people.
Police say the protester suffered minor injuries and they are looking for help from the public to locate the woman in the video.
RCMP Cpl. Bert Paquet said even though it appears the protester in the video is egging on the woman, that is no excuse for assaulting someone. |
The eShop Report #1 – 2012-2013
To kick off Jordan’s new monthly article discussing what comes to the Wii U’s eShop every month, he takes a look at the back catalogue up until now, and gives you a rundown on the games currently on the store worth purchasing.
Ah the Wii U. In some people’s eyes it is an abomination while in others it is a bastion for the older days of gaming and that Nintendo patented cuteness. Whatever your stance is, if you’re a gamer that has one you’ll want to be playing the best games and at the best value. This series will give you a monthly rundown on the newest titles that are added to the eShop each month – with a specific focus on the digital-only games. (Retail titles will be mentioned in passing, but are not the main focus). To kick this off, I’m going to take a look at at the titles that have graced the Wii U over it’s first year and a half – let’s do this! Along the way I’ll use a simple rating for each game – Ignore, Watch or Buy. Ignore are games that aren’t worth your time or money – give them a miss. Watch means to put this game down on your watch list, and pick it up when the price comes down to something you agree with, or you get some extra money in your pocket. Buy should be the things you head straight for!
Virtual Console – Prices SNES: £5.49, NES: £3.49
One of the neatest things about the Wii and Wii U is the virtual console. However, the Wii U’s virtual console is nowhere near the standard the Wii one was – whereas the Wii had a bonafide library, the Wii U’s is bordering on anaemic. There are currently just 57 virtual console titles available as of the time of writing. However, that’s not to say there is nothing worth your time. Some of the best games of all time are already on it – Super Mario World, Donkey Kong, Metroid, Megaman X, Street Fighter 2 and Gradius all make an appearance. However, if you’re looking for something new, you’re unlikely to find it here. The selection at the moment is just passable – useful for those perhaps too young to have ever played these titles before, but for those that have played these a million times already, this isn’t going to draw you in.
Wii Sports Club – Price: £8.99 each – Watch
Every gamer on the planet knows what Wii Sports is about, and this is a refresh on the series, updated with HD graphics and a pricing model that lets you pick what sports you want to pay for. The conversions are done well, and it does have some added features, however the core gameplay remains as simple as ever, so unless you really love the series, I’d say give it a miss for now.
Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara – Price: £11.99 – Watch
HD Re-masterings of classic arcade games are something I wholeheartedly approve of. This kind of button mashing arcade brawler was all the rage in the 90’s, and frankly I miss games like this. D&D:CoM adds to this formula by requiring you to perform certain combos and special moves to really progress in the game, and it is a welcome addition that helps keep it relevant in a more complex gaming world. There are almost no Wii U specific uses except – as usual – off-tv play, however that’s something to be expected in this kind of conversion. Overall, it’s a nice little compilation of two arcade classics that are great fun even today.
Spot the Differences: Party! – Price: £4.49 – Ignore
‘The most complete spot the difference game on Wii U’. Well, that’s certainly true! However, you can also get the same experience by going to any browser based game on the web. The only reason to get this, is if you are some kind of shovelware connoisseur.
TNT Racers – Nitro Machines Edition – Price: £6.99 – Watch
TNT Racers was originally a WiiWare game, that has been ported to the Wii U with some hiccups. It uses the same classic gameplay style Micro Machines uses – having to go fast enough to cause your opponent to fall off the bottom of the screen, using various weapons to help you accomplish this. There are other modes too, like missions which have you dodging cones and picking up items, as well as challenge and points events. However, in spite of being a game that is clearly far more fun as a multiplayer title, there is no online play, meaning that this game will be doing nothing if your friends aren’t over. The graphics and music are cute enough, however they are not going to blow you away. A fun little racer that is a laugh with friends, get this one depending on your situation.
Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams – Price: £12.99 – Watch
Giana sisters is known for the original being a knock-off of Super Mario, however in recent years it’s been carving out its own identity. It’s a platformer with tight and responsive controls, and a few neat features. Giana can transform into a fireball, spin in the air and switch between two different versions of herself which in turn change the world from vibrant and happy to dark and gloomy. One issue that does arise is that the world is actually a little bit too populated, often the background seems to get in the way of the platforming, making things a little confusing. However, for what it is it’s a fun platformer that you won’t be able to play on any other console.
DuckTales: Remastered – Price: £11.99 – Watch
Duck-tales, Woohoo! Who can forget that classic theme right? This game attempts to build on the NES game it is based on, however it isn’t quite as well done as some other retro game re-imaginings in the past few years. The first issue, is that its feet seem to be rested fully in nostalgia. If you loved this game when you were little then you’ll love it now, but a newcomer may be more wary. The graphics and sound are clearly beautiful, however it will not leave much of a mark on history due to its fun but average gameplay.
Pokemon Rumble U – Price: £13.49 – Ignore
Pokemon is such a powerful franchise that it’s presence is almost necessary for any Nintendo console. The Rumble series however is not one people would particularly clamour for, featuring wind-up toys battling each other. The combat is bland, mashing buttons and occasionally using a super-attack to mix things up a little bit. Four player co-op can however be a bit of a laugh, though it’s not worth the price. Interestingly, it’s one of the only games to use the GamePads built in NFC technology – the tech that powers the skylanders toys. So if you’re into that sort of thing, go wild.
Art Academy: SketchPad – Price £3.59 -Ignore/Buy (Depending on preference)
It’s an app that lets you make pictures using the GamePad and stylus with a range of tools. That’s literally all there is to say, if you enjoy making pictures then this app does it as well as you can imagine featuring many kinds of brushes and colours to use, and works well enough. If you’re not, then this isn’t for you.
Spin the Bottle: Bumpie’s Party – Price: £5.99 – Buy
Back in the days of the Gamecube, I thought WarioWare was the weirdest mini game compilation I would ever play. I was wrong. This is an absolute must-have if you plan on using the Wii U as a party console – the game has you doing some truly ridiculous stuff, and it mixes up the selection depending on the amount of controllers and players you have, but never once fails to give you a laugh. Definitely download this one for something different.
Cloudberry Kingdom – Price: £7.99 – Watch
A 2D sidescrolling platformer with a twist – it uses procedurally generated levels. This is a feature rarely seen in platformers due to the genre generally needing to be a more controlled and tighter experience than RPG’s which often use it, however here it works very well. You never get a broken or unplayable level, and most of the time wouldn’t know it’s been generated by an algorithm. Cloudberry can have some bloody hard levels, and includes a story mode with different characters that have different traits, such as one that can double-jump and one that can’t stop. It’s a fun, different platformer that is worth your money, but you’ll have to judge it up against the plethora of other platformers out there to see if it is worth your time.
Star Wars Pinball – Price: £7.99 – Buy
As far as pinball games, this is probably the cream of the crop. Not only are the physics spot on, the graphics are great and of course, it features Star Wars themed tables; any pinball fan would be mad not to pick this one up.
Kung Fu Rabbit – Price: £4.49 – Buy
Kung Fu Rabbit often takes two steps forward, one step back. On one hand, the controls are absolutely tight, which is very important in any platformer, and the graphics are very HD and smooth. On the other hand, it’s light on content, and the menus lack text making it feel like an ipad game most of the time, which really lets it down. As you progress in the game you collect carrots which can be used for upgrades, and you face various obstacles which do add variety. A bit more of a push could have made this game great – and I really hope the development team gets to expand on this premise in a sequel.
BIT.TRIP Presents: Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien – Price: £9.99 – Buy
Runner 2 is essentially a crazy hurdling event. You have a long course, having to slide under, jump over and break through obstacles, making it feel essentially like a rhythm game as the title suggests. However, the difference comes from being able to navigate the courses at this speed to try and find treasures, secret levels and alternative exits, and having 125 levels there are a lot to find. It features a bit of a learning curve which means you’ll constantly be discovering new elements of the gameplay, a truly excellent downloadable title. Of course, one of the main selling points for this series has always been the music, and Runner 2 does not dissapoint, the chiptune themes pulse through the game and will give you a real buzz.
Toki Tori 2+ Price: £12.99 – Buy
Toki Tori 2 does what few games seem to be able to do – reinvent the core gameplay from its prequel, but keep intact what made people love it. Toki Tori 2 is a puzzle game at its heart, and you go through the world with your little yellow bird solving some pretty tough challenges with naught but a whistle and a ground stomp. Your limited abilities however are put to great use, moving blocks and pounding on blocks and pegs, attracting/repelling the creatures, and trying to many of these different things all at once. Somehow Toki Tori 2 manages to breakthrough the repetition that so many puzzle games suffer from and each puzzle genuinely manages to feel different each time – if you are a stickler for a puzzle game that will truly test you, buy this now!
Fist of the North Star: Kens Rage 2 Price £39.99 – Ignore
It is rare for a game like this to be released as eShop only on the Wii U, however Tecmo Koei seem to have wanted this game to be played by as few people as possible, and rightly so. As a Dynasty Warriors fan myself, even I have to call this one lazy and repetitious. It tries nothing new, and instead of giving you large interesting maps filled with weird stories and elements like in the Warriors series, you are restricted to much smaller areas, far less enemy variety and a story mode that can’t even maintain a stable frame-rate. Warriors players are still waiting for a good entry in the series to be made on the Wii U – and this is no substitute.
Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive Edition – Price: £8.99 – Buy
A better version of the 3DS eShop title. Enhanced with HD visuals and remixed stages, this is the version of the game to pick-up. Great animation adds to the beautiful 2D action the game provides, and the tight controls make it wonderful to play. A must-have for 2D action game fans.
Mighty Switch Force! 2 – Price: £5.00 – Watch
Whilst MSF2 is just as fun on the Wii U as It was on the 3DS, it suffers from ‘more of the same’ syndrome. In fact, this version doesn’t look quite as good on the Wii U as the first one did, not receiving the same attention given to the original port. Despite this, the 16 bit nature of the game is still fun and frantic, and will give any action gamer a good pump.
Chasing Aurora – Price: £5.99 – Watch
Aurora is the type of game you play at six in the morning when you can’t sleep. It’s calm, serene, and often verges on beautiful – however it is very short and limited. You play as birdlike paper creatures and glide on the wind through the levels, however be warned that most of the game is cut-off to you unless you are playing in multiplayer mode, so try this one out with a mate.
Little Inferno – Price: £8.99 – Buy
Games that are both truly unique, and relatively obscure almost never come along, however Little Inferno seems to occupy that space. Half sandbox half game, you are set in front of a fireplace and charged with well, burning things. Burning things gets you coins, which you can use to get more things to burn from the charming catalogue the game provides. It does have a light puzzle element, in the form of needing certain combos to unlock more catalogues to burn more things. The real fun in this game comes from the physics engine and the sheer amount of things to burn, and the light narrative the evolves over the few hours of gameplay make this a game experience that will burn itself into your mind, occupying a space in it unlikely to be challenged by anything else for a while to come.
Nano Assault Neo – Price: £8.99 – Buy
Nano Assault Neo is one of those games that is perfect to be a digital game. It’s not very long, but it is well made, and is visceral action-based fun. You control your ship with the left analogue, and the direction you shoot with the right, and along the way pick up power-ups and ‘satellites’ which add smaller ships that accompany yours. You fight on weird shaped cells that are meant to be inside a body, and it works well enough. The only issue you’ll find is the camera tends to lag behind and not be able to keep up with the action – and in the heat of the moment this can be a problem. This is a pulse-pounding pick up and play game, that is somewhat let down by its length. Worth a pickup.
Puddle – Price: £8.99 – Watch
Ah, physics based game play! It’s a sub-genre that has exploded with the indie gaming market, and rightly so – the very basis of it means the game will play out slightly different every time. In Puddle, you control various liquid substances, and use the gyrometer on your Gamepad to guide you throughout the levels. As a physics game, it’s fairly run-of the mill, and whilst interesting at times, it’s not a must-have by any means. Pick this one up only if you’re especially in love with the genre, or have run out of other titles to try.
Trine 2: Directors Cut – Price: £13.99 – Buy
Trine is an Indie series that has gained a polish that puts it up there with triple-A releases – and for good reason. The colourful graphics, the tight gameplay and the interesting, funny characters make it worthwhile – and this is one of the best editions, only slightly outshined by the resolution in the PS4 edition, however content-wise it’s exactly the same. For a Wii U owner looking to jump on the eShop bandwagon, this should be your first port of call.
The Cave – Price: £9.99 – Watch
The Cave is a decent platform puzzle game, however its great presentation values often mask what is in actuality a fairly standard game. The use of character switching gameplay is much better done in Trine, and the frustrations with having to traipse around the levels back and forward often pull what could have been a great game down to simply adequate. You may get a kick out of it thanks to its look and atmosphere, but it is somewhat flawed at a gameplay level.
So that’s it! The eShop is currently not the paradise it should be, however with Nintendo’s latest efforts to push the console, we can only hope that it grows into the unique and innovative place it should be. Certain aspects such as generally higher pricing than we are accustomed to should with consumer pressure come down, and I personally think the future is bright. Catch the next eShop report on the 1st January, and expect it on the 1st of every month after that!
Article by Jordan Lloyd |
This is the moment Jeremy Clarkson talked himself out of a ticket after leaving his bright green Lamborghini parked on yellow lines.
Despite his recent woes, he was seen laughing with a traffic warden in London, who had tried to put a ticket on his borrowed supercar.
The warden recognized the former Top Gear host immediately and the pair chatted for a few minutes.
And the conversation must have been a good one - as the warden then appeared to walk away without leaving a ticket on the eye-catching Lamborghini.
Scroll down for video
Jeremy Clarkson talked himself out of a parking ticket in London today after leaving his green Lamborghini parked on yellow lines
After spending 15 minutes inspecting a black Ferrari, Clarkson drove off in his eye-catching supercar
Clarkson was also spotted at Stamford Bridge, cheering on Chelsea as they drew 0-0 with Arsenal
Clarkson had met up with two people who were showing him black Ferrari Pininfarina 275.
He was inspecting the car as if he may have had an interest in buying it.
After spending around 15 minutes looking at the car, he drove off in his Lamborghini, which has Italian number plates.
Clarkson, 55, was sensationally sacked from Top Gear by the BBC last month after a 'fracas' involving a producer during filming.
This week Richard Hammond, 45, joined James May in confirming he will not return to Top Gear following Clarkson's sacking, insisting on Friday he had no plan to 'quit my mates.'
Today, Hammond told reporters at a charity bike rally that the future will be 'exciting' but refused to speculate further on the future of Top Gear.
The former Top Gear presenter stopped for a chat with tennis coach Boris Becker after the full-time whistle
Clarkson did not seem to entertained by the match between the two London sides, which was a bore draw
Jeremy Clarkson (left) is seen with his Top Gear colleagues James May (centre) and Richard Hammond (right) outside his west London flat this week, in their first public appearance since he was sacked
He said: 'Everybody knows what's happened. That's all been in the news. The future, nobody knows yet do they?
'And I cannot and won't speculate further than that. So don't know, let's see. It'll be exciting whatever.'
Hammond's resignation marked another blow for the popular show, which has been marred by uncertainty since Clarkson was axed.
There is mounting speculation the men are working on a new motoring series to be aired by Netflix, Amazon or another British broadcaster.
Producer Olsin Tymon had his lip split by Clarkson in the March 4 assault and took himself to hospital with his injuries.
The incident led to the BBC deciding not to renew Clarkson's contract after the current Top Gear series of Top Gear finishes.
Police investigated the attack but Tymon told them he did not want to press charges and officers announced earlier this month they would 'not be pursuing the matter any further.' |
"Bright Side of Life" redirects here. For the album by Rebelution, see Bright Side of Life (album)
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" is a comedy song written by Monty Python member Eric Idle that was first featured in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian and has gone on to become a common singalong at public events such as football matches as well as funerals.[1][2]
The song touches on the British trait of stoicism with the "stiff upper lip" spirit in the face of adversity, and became immensely popular. It reached No.3 on the UK Singles Charts in 1991,[3] and the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London featured a live performance of the song by Idle.
History [ edit ]
Whilst trying to come up with a way of ending the film Monty Python's Life of Brian, Eric Idle wrote an original version of the song on a Gibson J-50 guitar using only jazz chords he learnt from a course by Mickey Baker.[4] Originally the song was sung in a more straight fashion,[4] which the other Python members eventually agreed would be good enough for the end of the film. However, Michael Palin noted in his diary for 16 June 1978 that during a script meeting, "Eric's two songs — 'Otto' and the 'Look on the Bright Side' crucifixion song — are rather coolly received before lunch."[5] Despite being initially underwhelmed, the group warmed to Idle's efforts and the song was retained. While practising during a break in filming, Idle found that it worked better if sung in a more cheeky manner by a character of his called "Mr Cheeky", which in turn was based on the film's cockney lighting crew. This new version was used in the film and became one of Monty Python's most famous compositions.[citation needed]
The song appears at the end of the film. The film's lead character Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman) has been sentenced to death by crucifixion for his part in a kidnap plot. After a succession of apparent rescue opportunities all come to nothing, a character on a nearby cross (played by Eric Idle) attempts to cheer him up by singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". As the song progresses, many of the other crucifixion victims (140 in all, according to the script, though twenty-three crosses are actually seen on screen) begin to dance in a very restricted way and join in with the song's whistled hook.[6] The song continues as the scene changes to a long-shot of the crosses and the credits begin to roll. An instrumental version plays over the second half of the credits. Its appearance at the end of the film, when the central character seems certain to die, is deliberately ironic.
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was arranged and conducted by John Altman and recorded at Chappell's Studio[4] with a full orchestra and the Fred Tomlinson Singers.[4] The song appeared on the film soundtrack album, listed as "Look on the Bright Side of Life (All Things Dull and Ugly)". The subtitle does not appear in the actual song, and is only used on the soundtrack album. "All Things Dull and Ugly" was also the title of an unrelated track on Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (released only a few months later), which is a parody of the popular hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful". The song was also released as a Double A side single with "Brian", the film's opening theme (performed by Sonia Jones).
The song touched a chord with the British trait of stoicism and the "stiff upper lip" in the face of disaster, and became immensely popular. When the destroyer HMS Sheffield was struck by an Exocet cruise missile on 4 May 1982 in the Falklands War, her crew sang it while waiting to be rescued from their sinking ship,[7] as did the crew of HMS Coventry,[8] with the line from the song "Worse things happen at sea, you know" being especially ironic.
When Chapman died on 4 October 1989, the five remaining Pythons, as well as Chapman's close friends and family, came together at his public memorial service to sing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" as part of Idle's eulogy. In 2005, a survey by Music Choice showed that it was the third most popular song Britons would like played at their funerals.[1] By 2014, it was the most popular.[9]
Alternate lyrics [ edit ]
When performing the song live in a (solo) sketch within special events, Idle re-wrote one verse of the song to fit the particular occasion. Two such examples follow.
We Are Most Amused version ( version ( Prince Charles 's 60th birthday party, 2008) [ edit ]
"If Spamalot is hot
And you like it, or per'aps not
A bunch of knights in search of Holy Grails;
When you're 60 years of age
And your mom won't leave the stage,
It's good to know you're still the Prince of Wales!"
"When you're stuck on the world's stage
With lots of loonies half your age,
And everything is starting to go wrong,
It’s too late to run away,
You might as well just stay,
Especially when they play your silly song!"
Note: On both of the above occasions, the line "Life's a piece of shit" was sung unchanged and was not censored during the live TV broadcasts of the events.
Single [ edit ]
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was first issued as a single as a double A-side with "Brian" in the UK on 16 November 1979 to promote Monty Python's Life of Brian and its soundtrack album, but did not chart. Nine years later when the film was released on VHS, the song was reissued on 21 November 1988 in an edited form to remove profanity, with a full version of "Brian" on the B-side. Once again it failed to chart.
The song became particularly popular in the early 1990s. The film had retained a cult status in the intervening years. Around 1990, BBC Radio 1 DJ Simon Mayo, whose breakfast show had a track record of reviving old novelty songs, began playing the original version on his show,[10] which led to Virgin re-issuing the track as a single on 23 September 1991.
The 7" single was backed with two tracks from Contractual Obligation, "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio" and "I'm So Worried", while the cassette and CD singles added a German-language version of "The Lumberjack Song" taken from the first Fliegender Zirkus episode. The single reached the top ten in October and prompted a deliberately chaotic performance by Idle on Top of the Pops. Despite some predictions, it did not manage to bring an end to Bryan Adams' unprecedented run at the top of the UK Singles Chart with "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", instead peaking at number 3 and leading to a re-promotion for the 1989 compilation Monty Python Sings, which the song opens. However, the single did get to Number 1 in Ireland on 13 October 1991, despite Life of Brian having been banned in Ireland, and the soundtrack on Warners withdrawn when released after protests. Following this attention, the song became more popular than ever. Two cover versions, by Tenor Fly (incorporating the piano riff from Nina Simone's "My Baby Just Cares for Me"), and the cast of Coronation Street, both reached the charts in 1995.
Eric Idle recorded alternate lyrics for the radio version, with the swearing censored, and the comments about the end of the film replaced with references to the end of the record, and continued rants about old people. This version was released on CD, cassette and vinyl via the compilation album Now 20 in November 1991 and as a b-side on a reissue of "Galaxy Song" (where it is billed as "1991 version") on 2 December 1991. For this radio version, the line "Life's a piece of shit" was altered to "Life's a piece of spit". In recognition of Simon Mayo's contribution to making the record a hit, a special version was also created exclusively for him in which Idle addresses him by name. Mayo still uses this version when the song is played on his show. This version is also included as the penultimate track on Now That's What I Call Music! 1991 – The Millennium Series, released in 1999.
On 14 July 2014 another version of the song was issued, this time as a 12" single where it was promoted as "The Unofficial England Football Anthem". The track featured a new vocal from Eric Idle and some alternate lyrics about the World Cup.
Track listing [ edit ]
1979 7"
"Brian"/"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (Double A side)
1988 7"
"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (Edited Version)/"Brian"
1991 7"
"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life"/"I'm So Worried";"I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio"
2014 12"
"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" (2014 Version)/"An Apology From Bernard"
Covers [ edit ]
Harry Nilsson performed "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" as the closing track on his 1980 album, Flash Harry. In 1997, the song was recorded by Art Garfunkel and included in the soundtrack of James L. Brooks' film As Good as It Gets. Jack Nicholson sings the song fleetingly in the film itself with the minor addition of "your" in "brighter side of [your] life". Garfunkel's version replaced the risqué phrase "Life's a piece of shit" with the more family-friendly "Life's a counterfeit" ("Life is hit or miss" has also replaced the lyric as with wedding bands and live radio). The song has also been performed by Bruce Cockburn and released on his 1990 live CD.
The Brobdingnagian Bards recorded the song for their CD A Faire to Remember. American musician Emilie Autumn performed a harpsichord cover of the song for her compilation album A Bit o' This & That. Heavens Gate recorded a metal cover of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" for the album Hell for Sale!. Green Day has used it in their rendition of "Shout" on their concert DVD Bullet in a Bible.
German fun metal band JBO made a version of the song with changed lyrics ("Always Look on the Dark Side of Life") for their album Sex Sex Sex. German fun punk band Heiter bis Wolkig also made a version with changed lyrics called "Versuch's mal von der breiten Seite zu seh'n". The British duo Amateur Transplants made a parody version of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" as well, with lyrics in which only the name and the chorus of the original song are retained.
Green Day did a short version of the song on their Revolution Radio tour in 2017 in Brisbane, Australia. They also covered "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" and "Hey Jude" after playing "King for a Day" and "Shout".
In popular culture [ edit ]
The song appears twice in the Broadway musical Spamalot, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail – once in Act II and again during the curtain call. It is one of two Monty Python songs in the musical not taken from the original movie, along with the song "Finland"; other songs were either from Holy Grail or were new creations.
The song was made popular as a football chant by Aston Villa F.C. supporters in the 1980s and adopted by other clubs.
The song is used at the end of Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy), the comedic oratorio written by Eric Idle and collaborator John Du Prez.
The 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London featured a live performance of the song by Idle.
English heavy metal band Iron Maiden play it over the PA system at the end of every concert.
The song is almost always played during the conclusion of the John DeBella Show on WMGK.
Charts [ edit ] |
Nowadays we have computers and phones equipped with multi-core processors. These computers can actually perform multiple computations in parallel. All the cores or processors share the same memory (RAM) and IO bus. The operating system is able to schedule work on different cores simultaneously. This is called symmetric multi processing (SMP). Programs take advantage of SMP. With the help of the operating system, the programs distribute computation to multiple cores, and bring down the overall execution time by a huge factor. The operating system, and programming language features play a huge role in making SMP available to programmers. The intension of this post is to delve deep and understand how the language features, operating system and hardware architecture enables use of SMP in applications. If one is already well versed in multi-threaded application programming, he/she may skip directly to “Understanding SMP hardware architecture“.
Multi-threaded applications
Each task that a process performs is a series of operations. The processing of these series of operations is called execution of a thread. A process can distribute tasks to multiple threads. It creates threads by calling a function exposed by the operating system. The operating system creates, manages and schedules threads. It does this for all the applications and services running on it. The operating system usually ends up creating a much larger number of threads than the number of cores on the computer. To be able to handle so many threads, each core has to serve multiple threads. The operating system assigns a thread to be executed on a core for some time, and then uses the same core for another thread. This process is called scheduling, and the duration for which a thread is assigned to a processor / core is called a time slice. When the time slice for a thread is over, it is pre-empted (taken off the processor) and put aside for scheduling. Whenever the thread gets another time slice for itself, it resumes from where it had been pre-empted in the last run.
This post will cover the issues related to a single process using multiple threads. Applications use multiple threads mainly to:
decrease effective time needed for huge computations
increase responsiveness to external events such as: user input messages from other systems
Such applications are called multi-threaded applications.
Programming multi-threaded applications is considered challenging and rightly so. Many language features and operating system facilities try to abstract the details to simplify writing multi-threaded applications. Though it has helped application programmers, it also has a flip side:
Due to improper use of these features and facilities, a large number of applications have turned out to perform worse than expected.
Quite often, lack of true understanding has led to: undefined behaviour (crashes / memory corruption) hung processes (due to deadlocks)
Sharing memory between threads
The main reason for all the complexity in multi-threaded applications is that, the same data / memory location gets shared between multiple threads. Let us take a very simple task of incrementing a counter. Whenever an event occurs, we need to increment the counter. A simplified series of operations needed for incrementing a counter is as follows:
Read the current value from the counter’s memory location Add 1 to the current value Write the new value to the counter’s memory location
Let us say two events happen, and they are processed by our application in parallel. The process being multi-threaded, schedules the task of incrementing the counters on two different threads. The threads run on different processors simultaneously. Both of the threads execute step 1 above and see the value, say 998. They then add 1 to it and the new value happens to be 999. Then both want to write 999 to the memory location. Regardless of who writes first, in the end it would be 999 in the counter’s memory location. So instead of having 1000, we have 999.
This is called a race, and it can be avoided using synchronisation features provided by the language or the operating system facilities.
Synchronisation
One of the synchronisation features is mutex (mutual exclusion). A thread locks a mutex, and until the thread unlocks it, no other thread can lock it. A mutex is typically used to protect a variable from data races. To avoid race in the counter example, lock a mutex before the read operation, and unlock after the write operation. Thus any one of the two threads gets to lock the mutex first. The other thread remains blocked. Once the counter is updated and written back, the first thread unlocks the mutex. This is when the second thread gets to lock the mutex and is able to proceed. By this time the counter is already updated by the first thread, hence the read by the second thread gets the incremented value. This provides the needed consistent behaviour. Programmers have to follow a discipline of using mutexes whenever they have to use variables that are shared between threads.
Due to the simplicity of the counter example, one may be led into believing that using mutexes around all shared variables will solve all multi-threading related issues. There are two kinds of problems that arise:
The process slows down. The process hangs.
Slow down:
If two threads are contending to get a lock on a mutex, the operating system or language makes sure that only one of them gets it. The other thread blocks. This causes only one thread to effectively proceed. In-spite of having multiple cores / processors on the system, it behaves as if it were single threaded. In fact if the application is single threaded, it could have avoided acquiring locks, and thus could have been faster! After all acquiring lock is some overhead even if there are no contending threads (it is an operation after all). Hence indiscriminately sharing all data between threads and thereby protecting it with mutexes would lead to slow down of the system.
The process hangs:
Let us say there are two variables which are protected using different mutexes. Now suppose there are two threads operating on the variables. The example below illustrates how two seemingly un-related functions get blocked indefinitely.
thread 1 (function trying a swap) lock obj1 lock obj2 ( blocked ) ... swap obj1 obj2 ... ... unlock obj2 unlock obj1 thread 2 (function incrementing objects) lock obj2 lock obj1 ( blocked ) ... obj1 = obj1 + 1 obj2 = obj2 + 1 ... unlock obj1 unlock obj2
This is called a deadlock. This is an over simplification of code causing deadlocks. Usually industrial code is very complex, and huge. It is becomes extremely difficult to find deadlocks until they actually occur!
Different synchronisation mechanisms
There are features like Mutexes, Semaphores and Condition Variables and even more higher level of synchronisation techniques provided by languages and operating systems.
A well written program will strive to improve through put of the program. It would parallelise functions using multiple threads. With locks being used while sharing memory between threads, it becomes important to acquire locks only when needed and unlock immediately after the need is over. Acquiring a lock is costly in a high performance system.
To further increase the performance of the system, a programmer can make use of hardware instructions exposed by languages like C/C++. The programmer avoids locking a mutex. This completely alters the design of the system. The technique is called lockless programming. It is considered very advanced, and is best avoided by application developers. This post attempts to explain the basics of lockless programming. Lockless programming techniques are used by device driver writers, compiler writers. It is also used in ultra low-latency systems and in a few operating system kernel modules. From an application developer’s perspective, the only benefit of lockless programming is that there is no chance of a deadlock!
Understanding SMP hardware architecture
Modern hardware architectures have multiple cores / processors and often 3 levels of caches. The sample image below is a 2 level cache taken from Intel’s website, just to illustrate.
To manipulate a variable in a thread running on say Core 0, it has to fetch the value of the variable from the system memory. The Core 0 actually manipulates the value in a register and stores the new value in the location of the variable. In essence the Core 0 is actually operating on a copy of the variable, not directly on the system memory.
The steps needed for incrementing a counter:
1. load counter from system memory in C2 (C2 is location in L2 Cache) 2. load C1 from C2 (C1 is location in L1 Cache) 3. load R1 from C1 (R1 is a register in the processor) 4. R1 = R1 + 1 5. store R1 to C1 6. store C1 to C2 7. store C2 to location of counter in system memory
The reason for these levels of caches is higher performance. It is much faster to load a value from L1 cache into the register compared to loading from L2 cache. Similarly the access to system memory is very slow compared to the L2 cache. Hence, the processors predict the data they might need, and pre-fetch those into the caches. Sometimes the predictions go wrong, so it has to drop the existing contents in the cache, and get the right ones. This is called a cache miss.
In the example above, R1 could be the register eax of the x86 architecture. This register is 32 bits. So even if the counter happened to be an unsigned char, that is, just one byte (8 bits), R1 would load 32 bits. The remaining unneeded 24 bits next to the counter therefore get loaded in the register. Please bear this in mind, as the implication of this is elaborated later on.
Optimisation by the processor
Consider the following multiple lines which are unrelated, eg:
1. x = x+1 2. y = 100 3. pi = 3.14
It would not matter in which order the lines are executed. The processor exploits this and depending upon the proximity of the variables in the caches, executes the one which are closer first. This is called memory ordering.
Quite often it even predicts conditional statements as well:
1. if(some_bool == true) 2. x = x+1 3. else 4. y = y+1
Whenever it predicts which direction the code is likely to flow, it would initiate executing based on the prediction even before the condition is evaluated. This is called branch prediction. This link provides the details: Intel processor’s branch prediction. There is a heavy cost associated with mis-prediction here, as a lot of work done by the processor needs to be thrown and other branch needs to be executed. This aspect is not being discussed / delved-into in this post.
Optimisations by the compiler
Even the compilers are intelligent enough to optimise the execution. The compilers quite often provide hints to CPU through instructions. Branch predictions can be influenced by developers by using appropriate macros in the code. The developer actually provides hints to the CPU on the likely result of a condition.
The compilers often optimise poorly written code to get faster executions. (The code could be stylistically good, however from the processors perspective it could be poor.) Various levels of optimisations can be turned on while building the code. Sometimes these optimisations can become very aggressive in reordering instructions and cause various kinds of issues.
Deeper understanding of data races
Let us consider the incrementing counter example from the processor’s point of view again. If two threads were running the same code simultaneously on two separate cores we could easily end up in a situation where thread1 is executing step 5 above, while thread 2 is executing step 4. Thread 2 would have taken an older value of counter in the register R1. Thus we end up with a race, similar in nature as “Sharing memory between threads” section above.
Another kind of race
Let us now consider two seemingly unrelated lines of code:
Thread 1: 1. x = result_of_this_function_call() 2. is_x_initialized = true
The line 2 above possibly has been added by the programmer as a variable capturing if the line 1 has already been executed. The processor does not know this, nor does the compiler. The intent is in the programmer’s mind, and has not been explicitly indicated. The compiler does not understand English, and hence does not interpret the variable name to understand the intent.
The memory ordering explained above will most likely reorder the above piece of code. If that happens, the variable is_x_initialized will be set to true even before x has the value from the function. If the two variables were used only in one thread, there would be no issues because of such reordering.
The impact of such optimisation becomes evident when there is another thread which is reading the value of is_x_initialized. Eg:
Thread 2: 1. while(!is_x_initialized) 2. do_something_else_and_wait_for_some_milliseconds() 3. do_something_with_x(x)
Due to the optimisations explained above, the variable is_x_initialized could be set to true in Thread1 even before the value of x is set. Meanwhile Thread2 would come out of the loop, and execute do_something_with_x() with an “uninitialized” x. This is undefined behaviour. We don’t know what could have been the value of x when do_something_with_x is called.
Apart from memory ordering optimisation of Thread1, there is another problem. For Thread2, the compiler can optimise as well! The compiler may optimise the code to look at is_x_initialized once, and decide not to look at it over and over again. This decision for such aggressive optimisation is justified as the loop is not modifying the value of is_x_initialized and we have not told the compiler that it can be modified by the processor or another thread. The aggressive optimisations happen when we turn on optimisations for release builds.
Two outcomes are therefore possible:
If is_x_initialized is true due to memory ordering of Thread1, the wait will never happen. If is_x_initialized is false, due to the compiler’s optimisation, it could never look for it again. Then the thread2 will loop indefinitely!
How to solve this problem is explained later in the post.
Language guarantees, compilers and processors
Lets reflect upon the note above. Consider the lines of code below:
1. unsigned char counter = 0 2. char x = 'A' 3. counter = counter+1
It might just happen that counter and x are adjacent in memory. The memory layout for such a code could be: (each column represents 8 bits)
counter x 0xFF 0xFF
The processor loads the memory location (32 bits) as shown above into its register. The counter will get incremented by operating on the register, and then the whole 32 bits will get written back to the memory location. However, if x was updated by some other thread, it would get overwritten right? Surprise! It does not! This is because the language states that two unrelated variables should behave independent of each other. The language guarantees, and the compilers help keep sanity in a programmers life.
Synchronisation through lockless programming
Locks cost performance. Locks are best avoided, when performance is of prime importance. If some form of synchronisation is needed in these high performance systems, programmers prefer atomic operations. Consider the counter example. The counter can be implemented as an atomic integer. Whenever an increment happens all other threads can see the effect of this increment. The complete set of operations needed for READ, MODIFY, WRITE happen as one unit. This seems ideal. The atomics are implemented by making use of the processor instructions. No lock/unlock call is done. Hence using atomic operations one can be sure that the thread will make progress, and deadlocks cannot happen. The atomics exploit hardware instructions only as long as the atomic object is of the size of a WORD or less, i.e. the object fits in a register. All other atomic objects use locks to get the atomic behaviour.
Also the memory ordering optimisations and compiler optimisations are prevented by using atomics. The atomic operations therefore prevent the problem of “is_x_initialized” being set before the actual initialisation of “x”. Simply make is_x_initialized an atomic variable to solve the above problem. Atomics are much faster than mutexes as they exploit hardware instructions.
Faster than atomics
Most of the modern hardware architecture support the notion of memory barriers. These memory barriers are used by C / C++ compilers to implement what are called the acquire and release semantics. These are not the same as the acquire and release of a mutex or semaphore.
acquire semantics
An acquire operation guarantees that the effect of that operation in a thread is seen by other processors before any subsequent operations in that thread. This means none of the subsequent operations in that thread will be optimised to be executed before the acquire operation.
This is sometimes referred as “load acquire”.
release semantics
A release operation guarantees that the effects of all the operations prior the release operation are seen by other processors before the release operation. This means that memory ordering will not delay the effect of a prior operation beyond the release operation.
This is sometimes referred as “store release”.
acquired_and_release semantics
This is a very strong fence. In this form, none of the operations before the acquire_and_release operation can be delayed beyond the acquire_and_release. Also none of the operations after the acquire_and_release operation can be ordered before this operation.
consume semantics
The consume is a weaker form of acquire, in which some of the subsequent operations can be performed before this operation. The operations which are inconsequential with regards to consume can be optimised to be performed before the consume!
Using hardware instructions, these semantics are implemented by the compiler. They are known as barriers or fences. Atomics are implemented using the barriers. Needless to say, if these are exploited, a programmer can get performance better than using atomic variables.
In a subsequent post, I will attempt to explain using these techniques for producer / consumer queues.
Conclusion
Under usual circumstances of application development, the techniques which exploit hardware instructions are rarely needed. For one or two modules in a huge system which demands very high performance do we ever need to exploit hardware instructions. In most cases of high performance systems, ensure that cache misses and acquiring locks is avoided. This yields satisfactory performance. The purpose of this article was to try to elaborate SMP, multithreading and advanced synchronisation techniques. Writing high performance software is a very huge subject, which is not covered by this post.
I hope this post was as enjoyable, and informative enough to create interest and curiosity in exploring the techniques further.
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From revelations about this week’s hasty, multibillion-dollar bank settlements to AIG’s brief threat to sue the federal government for its own $128-billion bailout (which the company contends wasn’t as generous as other bailouts), 2013 is already shaping up to be another year of government-backed wins for Wall Street.
As the New York Times’ Gretchen Morgenson wrote, “If you were hoping that things might be different in 2013 — you know, that bankers would be held responsible for bad behavior or that the government might actually assist troubled homeowners — you can forget it. A settlement reportedly in the works with big banks will soon end a review into foreclosure abuses, and it means more of the same: no accountability for financial institutions and little help for borrowers.”
This type of clear condemnation of Wall Street and its lack of accountability remains a rare voice in mainstream media, with few willing to join Morgenson and Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi on their crusades against banking abuses.
The lack of outrage or investigation by mainstream media comes in stark contrast to the public response to the settlement announcements. The comments sections of settlement-related articles are bursting with scathing comments–including demands for both criminal prosecution for bankers and more investigative journalism in the U.S. In an LA Times poll, 94 percent of respondents said that this latest settlement agreement lacked appropriate transparency.
So if readers are hungering for more information and outrage, why is the mainstream press so soft on Wall Street? Is it the last three decades' rampant media consolidation, which has put 90 percent of the nation's media in the hands of only six major corporations? (That's down from 50 companies in 1983.) What about the increasing magazine and newspaper ad revenue coming directly from Wall Street? Or perhaps it's even due to a redefinition of what constititues financial journalism?
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Dean Starkman, whose 2009 Columbia Journalism Review article “Power Problem” outlined just how badly the financial press failed in the lead-up to 2006, has some ideas.
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Laura Gottesdiener: Thanks, Dean, for taking the time to talk. To start simple: In your mind, what’s the role of the press–if it’s doing its job?
Dean Starkman: To me, journalism is particularly important because it is the oxygen of democracy. At its best, it is the main thing that is capable of explaining complex problems to a mass audience.That’s its most critical role–and its most difficult task.
Looking back over the 20th century, the great stories are the ones that pull the curtain back on things that are truly complex, baffling and dangerous problems. I’m thinking particularly of an iconic story that journalists stand up and salute: the Standard Oil series from 1902-1904. This knowledge allowed the public to participate in the question of trusts, and the rest is literally history. The government filed an anti-trust case, and Standard Oil was broken up in 1911. That’s the gold standard, the benchmark for journalism.
LG: So how does this relate to today’s financial press?
DS: The financial system is almost deliberately complex; there’s that famous quote by the head of Morgan Stanley, when he said something along the lines of, “We create things that people don’t understand on purpose.”
To me the business press is put on earth to help the public understand complex problems, and certainly the mortgage frenzy was one of them. And that’s where I have a bone to pick with the financial press.
LG: That’s a nice way of putting it. In your piece you call the lead-up to 2006 a “general system failure” for the media, and wrote that the post-crash reporting gave the “short shrift to the breathtaking corruption that overran the mortgage business.” You also diagnosed the financial press today with Stockholm Syndrome.
So what’s going on?
DS: It’s not fully appreciated that there’s been a big power shift between the big media and the institutions that it covers in the last 20 years. When you think of the 1990s, finance was a really powerful industry, but so was media. In the mid-1990s, Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, was almost the same size of Morgan Stanley. Now Morgan Stanley is literally 30 times larger than the New York Times company.
This power shift is almost an intangible thing, but you cannot discount it as part of the story of the rising sense of empowerment and entitlement on Wall Street and an increasing sense of deference from the business press. Also, you can’t deny that the collapse of financial regulation in the early Bush administration plays a role. The press relies, not to a fully appreciated degree, on a financial regulatory system because that generates a lot of paperwork.
LG: Still, sometimes it feels like mainstream media doesn’t only fail to investigate Wall Street’s crimes–they actually helped facilitate them. Is the business press itself an accomplice?
DS: The biggest problem during this period was this narrowing definition of what constitutes a business story. There are fights over what journalism is, and you can divide journalism into two great competing schools. One is the access school, and the other is the accountability school.
In the lead-up to 2006, the accountability school was increasingly marginalized and in retreat, while the access school–doing the profile and getting the scoop on deals–became much more prominent. And so the big missed story–the accountability story–was the radicalization of the financial system, particularly in mortgage lending and discussions of subprime and predatory lending.
Meanwhile, when I went back and reread some of the coverage by really good reporters from really good magazines, the coverage of Wall Street, even if it was well intended, actually helped to exacerbate the crisis and add flames to the frenzy. Things like positive profiles of Wall Street executives made things worse and made the world worse. Unwittingly maybe, but so what?

LG: That reminds me of Vanity Fair’s glowing profile of Jamie Dimon recently.
So what about today? Even now that the radicalization of Wall Street is obvious, it still seems like mainstream media oscillates between blaming borrowers and banks.
DS: In another debate between schools of journalism, right now it’s a jump ball between the structuralists and the behavioralists. In the case of the mortgage crisis, behavioralists argue that people lost their ability to understand and manage debt, while structuralists believe that people don’t change, that markets change–and that the market changed.
Of course, structuralists are right and behavioralists really don’t have a leg to stand on. The structuralists aren’t only right, all the evidence is on their side.
But the cultural argument of behavioralists still has a lot of saliency, and for lazy reporters it’s easy because all you have to do is make the assertion about human nature, and that’s the end of the discussion.
LG: So, what’s the effect of having the behavioral-based articles in mass media?
DS: What it really does is that it shifts the gaze entirely off the institutions that these papers are supposed to be covering and onto an amorphous public that can’t fight back. Put it this way: If you blame Goldman Sachs, you will hear from Goldman Sachs. But if you blame the public, no one is going to call you. No one is there to stick up for the borrowers.
LG: It’s well documented now that minorities were widely discriminated against by the mortgage industry, and continue to be abused by banks’ failures to upkeep real estate-owned property, just to name one current problem. But if mainstream media articles are using the behavioralist theory, how does this type of blame get allocated?
The behavioralists theory does align with racist attitudes. For example: the mortgage crisis was one of these huge generational setbacks for the black community, and that’s one of those things that was essentially dropped by the press. It’s very poorly understood and documented, and it’s one of the most under-covered aspects of this story.
LG: I understand you’re working on a new book that’s going to take the financial press to task. Can you give us a sneak preview?
DS: Sure. It’s called The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark, and it’s forthcoming from Columbia University Press. The book is going to be an argument for watchdog journalism and accountability reporting.
There’s a long tradition of accountability reporting in American business media, and I hope this book will be a revelation to people who think the financial press only reports on investor news, because it’s actually done things that are quite radical in the past. Starting in the early 20th century, we had an emerging business press covering the market, but it had a completely different gaze. It used this form to expose the monopolies and to set the country on the road to reform.
So, I’ll be talking about that particular line of journalism, the origins of business news and the things that impair business news today. In the past the financial press has taken on quite a robust watchdog function.
LG: Last question: It doesn’t seem like financial reporting today is all that much better than it was in the lead-up to the crisis. But what about the future?
DS: There’s no reason to think it’s going to get dramatically worse from here. What we went through was crazy. It was a near-death experience. |
Yokohama F. Marinos midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura was named J.League Player of the Year on Tuesday, three days after his team blew its chance to win the title on the final day of the season.
Former Celtic star Nakamura captained Marinos to a four-point lead over their nearest rivals with two games of the campaign remaining, only to lose both matches and allow defending champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima to come through and retain the title.
But Nakamura’s exceptional performances made him the outstanding candidate to win the player of the year award, becoming the first person to claim the prize for a second time having won it with Marinos in 2000.
“I am feeling two emotions right now,” said the 35-year-old. “One is happiness and the other is appreciation for what my teammates have done for me.
“Ten of my teammates were nominated for the J.League Best XI, and that just shows the quality of the players around me who have made it possible for me to win this award.”
Nakamura scored 10 goals in 33 league appearances this season, missing only one game — a 2-1 defeat to Nagoya Grampus — while suffering from a gallbladder inflammation.
Nakamura returned to Marinos in early 2010 after a 7 1/2-year spell in Europe with Reggina, Celtic and Espanyol, but has yet to win the J.League with his boyhood club, which last won the title in 2004.
“For me, Yuji Nakazawa should be the MVP,” Nakamura said of his Marinos defensive teammate. “He would be a fitting recipient of this award for all he has done over the years. He is a great person to be around every day in training, and he’s an example to all young players.”
Nakamura made the J.League Best XI along with Nakazawa, in a selection composed solely of Japanese players for the second time in league history.
Urawa Reds’ Daisuke Nasu and FC Tokyo’s Masato Morishige joined Nakazawa in defense in front of Sanfrecce goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa, while Cerezo Osaka pair Hotaru Yamaguchi and Yoichiro Kakitani were named in midfield alongside Nakamura and Sanfrecce’s Toshihiro Aoyama.
Kawasaki Frontale striker Yoshito Okubo, who was the league’s top scorer on 26 goals, Kashima Antlers’ Yuya Osako, who notched 19, and Albirex Niigata’s Kengo Kawamata, who scored 23, completed the lineup.
“I’m very grateful to my teammates and everyone who supported me,” said Kakitani, whose 21 goals helped Cerezo finish the season in fourth place.
“This year, Sanfrecce, Marinos and Frontale finished in the top three and took the Asian Champions League places, so I’ll be supporting them in the Emperor’s Cup at new year so that we can get a place in the ACL too.”
Cerezo Osaka’s 18-year-old midfielder Takumi Minamino was named Best Young Player, having scored five league goals and introduced himself to a global audience with a spectacular goal in Cerezo’s 2-2 friendly draw against Manchester United in July.
Sanfrecce’s Hajime Moriyasu was named Manager of the Year for the second time running, while Kakitani was awarded Goal of the Year for his outside-of-the-boot strike against Kashima on Nov. 30. |
Born to be his baby? Diane Lane dropped by Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Monday, May 8, and dished on once dating Jon Bon Jovi in the ’80s.
“Five months, I was 20,” the Paris Can Wait actress, now 52, said. “And I think every girl should have such a wonderful experience when she’s that young.”
Lane even saw off the musician, 55, before his Slippery When Wet shows. “I have some photos of him packing for the tour,” she recalled. “Just all the jockstraps were lined up on the floor for the whole band to get through the whole tour.”
Cohen, 48, and fellow guest Jim Parsons, 44, were shocked at the undergarment reveal. “You have to under those leather pants, sweating!” Lane explained.
Bon Jovi has been married to his high school sweetheart Dorothea Hurley Bongiovi since 1989, but according to a former tour manager, the reunion and marriage came after the singer broke up with Lane because she made him jealous by getting too close to guitarist Richie Sambora.
The Justice League star also spoke about her one-on-one time with the late Andy Warhol back in the day. “We had pizza,” she said. “He interviewed me for Interview magazine. It was very surreal.”
Years after her relationship with Bon Jovi, Lane tried out for the role of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman, which eventually went to Julia Roberts.
“Everybody in town went for that role. At that time, as I’ve said on other shows, it was a very different show,” Lane said on Monday night. “It turned out to be a feel-good movie and originally this crazy biatch was kicked out of a rolling limo at the end because she was delusional that she thought that this guy was really in love with her. She was only hired for the weekend. And we had such compassion for her. I think that movie needs to get made. I want to direct it. Let’s make it happen!”
When asked if she and Roberts, 49, ever spoke about the 1990 romantic comedy, she replied: “We didn’t actually ever have that conversation. It would be fun to do.”
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Timers are an essential part in the Javascript developer tool set. The timers API has been with us a long time, dating back to the days when Javascript was limited to the browser. This API provides us with the setTimeout , clearTimeout , setInterval and clearInterval methods which allows us to schedule code for later execution, either once or repeatedly.
Thanks to Node.js timer module, these methods (along with a few others, such as setImmediate and clearImmediate ) are also available natively in node code. On top of user code and 3rd-party libraries using timers, timers are also used internally by the Node.js platform itself. For example, a dedicated timer is used with each TCP connection to detect a possible connection timeout. It’s very possible that Node.js will have to manage a large number of timers, so it’s important that the implementation will be highly efficient. In this post I will look at the way Node.js manages these timers under the hood.
Before tackling the timers implementation, it’s worthwhile to examine Node.js implementation of linked lists; they play a large role in the timers implementation, and have some interesting parts to them as well.
Linked Lists
The relevant code is quite short, and contain all the methods you’d expect to find in a linked list implementation, such as create , append , remove , peek , shift , isEmpty .
One thing to note is that this is not a “Class”, and there is no constructor. Instead, these methods are in fact utility functions that operate on an existing object. Two fields are used to manage the links between the nodes: _idleNext and _idlePrev . Perhaps unintuitively, _idleNext points to the older item, while _idlePrev points to the newer item.
Let’s look at the init function:
function init ( list ) { list . _idleNext = list ; list . _idlePrev = list ; }
In the root object, _idleNext points to the head of the list (the oldest element) and _idlePrev points to the tail of the list (the newest element). Initially, both point to the list root itself.
Let’s continue and look at the append and remove functions. Notice that append first calls remove to ensure the list is unique.
function append ( list , item ) { if ( item . _idleNext || item . _idlePrev ) { remove ( item ); } item . _idleNext = list . _idleNext ; item . _idlePrev = list ; list . _idleNext . _idlePrev = item ; list . _idleNext = item ; } function remove ( item ) { if ( item . _idleNext ) { item . _idleNext . _idlePrev = item . _idlePrev ; } if ( item . _idlePrev ) { item . _idlePrev . _idleNext = item . _idleNext ; } item . _idleNext = null ; item . _idlePrev = null ; }
Notice that at no point we actually traverse the list. Thus, append and remove are very efficient, operations.
To make this a bit more concrete, lets initialize a new list and append two items. We’ll show the objects graph after initialization and after each append.
const list = { name : 'list' }; const A = { name : 'A' }; const B = { name : 'B' }; init ( list ); init ( A ); init ( B ); append ( list , A ); append ( list , B );
Here’s a diagram of the list right after initialization:
Here’s how it looks after a first append:
Here’s how it looks after a second append:
From this point, I think it’s quite clear how later appends will look. It is now time to look at timers in more detail.
Timers
Each Timer instance is initialized with msec argument which determines the delay (in millisecond) until timeout. It’s quite intuitive that if we initialized two timers with the same msec argument, then the second timer will timeout either with or after the first. Node.js uses this and organizes the Timers by indexing them according to their msec : all Timers with the same msec value will form a linked list, ordered by creation time (there are actually two indexes, one for refed timers and one for unrefed timers, but we’ll ignore this fact for now. See here to read about the difference).
In this example, we initialized 6 timers. T1 , T2 , T3 were initialized with 50 msec, T4 with 10 msec and T5,T6 with 200 msec.
Each Timers list is backed up by a TimerWrap , which is a wrapper over a uv_timer_t , a native libuv timer type. Since we know the timers in each list are ordered by non-decreasing timeout, a single TimerWrap is enough, as we can reuse it between timeouts.
In pseudo code, the (a bit simplified) strategy on timeout is as follows:
for each timer t in the list L ( msec ): diff : = now () - t . start_time if diff < msec : remaining : = max ( msec - diff , 0 ) t . start ( remaining ) return L . remove ( t )
Once the last timer in a list timeouts, we can remove the list’s msec key and free the backing native timer. Same as the append and remove operations on linked lists, the timeout operation runs in constant time, regardless the number of scheduled timers.
It follows that less than constant-time operations are limited to 2 places:
The native libuv timers implementation The lookup for certain list of timers based on a msec
However, according to the source code, these operations combined have shown to be trivial in comparison to other alternative timers architectures. |
It's one of those grandiose ideas that gets bandied about by Pentagon scientists and pops up in the press every few years. The "Face of Allah" weapon would beam a massive, lifelike hologram over a battlefield, projecting the image of some deity "to incite fear in soldiers on a battlefield," according to one researcher.
We last checked in on holographic weapons research two years ago, when the University of New Hampshire was working on some Pentagon-funded projects. Since then, another university team has turned holograms into a reality – but not as tools of war. Not yet, at least.
Optical scientist Nasser Peyghambarian and his teammates at the University of Arizona have demonstrated what The New York Times calls "actual moving holograms that are filmed in one spot and then projected and viewed in another spot." The Times likens the holograms to the tiny image of Princess Leia that R2D2 showed Luke Skywalker in the beginning of Star Wars, only "a lot more haltingly, as the display changes only every two seconds."
Peyghambarian's hologram is created by a suite of 16 cameras that use lasers to record data on "smart" plastic some distance away that, when hit by a special light, project the image in solid-looking 3D. A partner team at Columbia University is studying ways to beam the holo-data via the Internet, to allow 3D video chats or instantaneous transmission of holographic maps, blueprints or medical scans. Peyghambarian said it might take a decade for the technology to become affordable and widespread. Weaponization would be much further behind (though we wouldn't bet on today's cash-strapped military to invest in a Face-of-Allah gun). Cost aside, it's just not very PC.
Early holograms are already a fixture in military headquarters, according to the Times article. A company called Zebra Imaging in Texas has been selling 2-by-3-foot plastic holographic maps to the Pentagon – its "main customer" – for $1,000 to $3,000 a pop. The military "sends data in computer files to the company. Zebra then renders holographic displays of, for example, battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan." No goofy 3D glasses required, just a custom-made LED flashlight that "activates" the image encoded in the plastic.
Zebra's technology has other military applications, such as post-blast IED forensics, according to the company's Website. "Analysts trying to understand the nature and construction of an explosive device ... are able to understand the scene in 3D far better than the classic 2D 'bird's-eye view.'"
See Also: |
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Captain
HMS Captain was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse. She served during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars before being placed in harbour service in 1799. An accident caused her to burn and founder in 1813. Later that year she was raised and broken up.
French Revolutionary Wars [ edit ]
At the start of the French Revolutionary War, she was part of the Mediterranean fleet which occupied Toulon at the invitation of the Royalists in 1793 before being driven out by Revolutionary troops in an action where Napoleon Bonaparte made his name. During this operation Captain was deployed in the Raid on Genoa. In June 1796, Admiral Sir John Jervis transferred Captain Horatio Nelson from HMS Agamemnon into Captain. Jervis appointed Nelson commodore of a squadron that was first deployed off Livorno during Napoleon's march through northern Italy.
In September 1796, Gilbert Elliot, the British viceroy of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, decided that it was necessary to clear out Capraja, which belonged to the Genoese and which served as a base for privateers. He sent Nelson, in Captain, together with the transport Gorgon, Vanneau, the cutter Rose, and troops of the 51st Regiment of Foot to accomplish this task in September. On their way, Minerva joined them. The troops landed on 18 September and the island surrendered immediately. Later that month Nelson oversaw the British withdrawal from Corsica.
In February 1797, Nelson had rejoined Jervis's fleet 25 miles west of Cape St. Vincent at the southwest tip of Portugal, just before it intercepted a Spanish fleet on 14 February. The Battle of Cape St Vincent made both Jervis's and Nelson's names. Jervis was made Earl St Vincent and Nelson was knighted for his initiative and daring.
Nelson had realised that the leading Spanish ships were escaping and wore Captain to break out of the line of battle to attack the much larger Spanish ships. Captain exchanged fire with the Spanish flagship, Santísima Trinidad, which mounted 136 guns on four decks. Later Captain closely engaged the 80-gun San Nicolas, when the Spanish ship was disabled by a broadside from Excellent and ran into another ship, the San Josef of 112-guns. With Captain hardly manoeuvrable, Nelson ran his ship alongside San Nicolas, which he boarded. Nelson was preparing to order his men to board San Josef next when she signalled her intent to surrender. The boarding of San Nicolas, which resulted in the taking of the two larger ships was later immortalised as 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates.'
Captain was the most severely damaged of the British ships as she was in the thick of the action for longer than any other ship. She returned to service following repairs and on 6 May 1799 sailed for the Mediterranean, where she joined Captain John Markham's squadron.
After the Battle of Alexandria, the squadron under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée, consisting of the 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and the brig Alerte escaped to Genoa.[3]
On 17 June 1799 the French squadron, still under Perrée, was en route from Jaffa for Toulon when it encountered the British squadron under Markham in Centaur.[3] In the ensuing Action of 18 June 1799, the British captured the entire French squadron, with Captain capturing Alerte. Markham described Alerte as a brig of 14 guns and 120 men, under the command of Lieutenant Dumay.[4]
Napoleonic Wars [ edit ]
In 1807 it had been one of the escorts for the expedition leaving Falmouth that would eventually attack Buenos Aires. Turned back north once the expedition reached the Cape Verde Islands.
Captain shared with Amaranthe, Pompee, and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829.[5]
Captain took part in the capture of Martinique in 1809. In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Captain was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.[Note 1]
Fate [ edit ]
Later that year, Captain was put into harbour service.[7] On 22 March 1813, she was accidentally burned in the Hamoaze, off Plymouth, Devon.[8] At the time, she was undergoing conversion to a sheer hulk. When it was clear that the fire, which had begun in the forecastle, had taken hold, her securing lines were cut and she was towed a safe distance away from the other vessels so that she could burn herself out. Even so, orders were given that she be sunk. Ships' launches with carronades then commenced a one-hour bombardment. She finally foundered after having burned down to the waterline. Two men died in the accident.[7] The wreck was raised in July and broken up at Plymouth.[2]
Notes, citations, and references [ edit ]
Notes
^ [6] The prize agent for a number of the vessels involved, Henry Abbott, went bankrupt. In May 1835 there was a final payment of a dividend from his estate. A first-class share was worth 10s 2¾d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 1d. Seventh-class (landsmen) and eighth-class (boys) shares were fractions of a penny, too small to pay.
Citations;
References |
For the sake of discussion, let’s take a moment to consider the best series of 2012 between two of the best series currently airing that share a lot in common. Who would win in a fight? Let’s touch gloves and find out.
ROUND 1
How high are the stakes?
Breaking Bad
When the series began, family was everything to Walter White. Stemming from circumstances forcing compromise or total loss all throughout his life, Walt eventually seeks something he can reign supreme over. His cancer and understanding of advanced chemistry circumvent that talent for cooking the highest concentrated meth available anywhere on the market. Unfortunately a monopoly has the adverse effect of shattering any semblance of family, calling harsh scrutiny over the motivation behind Walt’s criminal activity. It’s physically draining just to watch the spiral. And when Walt wisely elects to shelf his operation for good, his brother in law, Hank, a DEA agent following the case since the series began years, discovers the identity of his ringleader. It’s clear Walter White has lost, but the scope of which is yet to be revealed with the final season airing next year.
Homeland
The fear of a major act of domestic terrorism became a permanent reality following September 11th, and no series echoes the psychological fallout of that tragedy better than Homeland. If Carrie Mathison’s crazy theories can be believed and not simply attributed to her perpetually unstable mental health, American POW Nicholas Brody is working closely with terrorist organizations to orchestrate a large scale attack of impossible proportions. Things get increasingly tense when Brody climbs the ranks of public office to become a viable candidate for vice president. It seems like a cheap hypothetical spurned only by the most disillusioned conspiracy theorist, yet Homeland presents it as something entirely plausible.
Winner: Homeland
ROUND 2
Most fascinatingly disturbing main character
Walter White
There’s perhaps no other show in existence that so expertly depicts one man’s genuine descent into darkness quite so well as Breaking Bad. It’s a slow burn effect the creators were only able to achieve over several engrossing seasons. Remember when we used to feel sorry for Walt? At his core, he was a family man – his decision to start cooking ice grounded in a wanton desire to be a capable provider to his family, something a teacher’s salary simply could not accomplish. The problem? Walter White never intended to beat his bleak diagnosis, his measured survival borrowing time to sell off his soul entirely. It’s a fascinating character study unlike anything else on television.
Carrie Mathison
The world kind of forgot how great Claire Danes was. It took about four hours for her to solidify her role as the most believably crazy protagonist on television. Watching Carrie flounder in a world that doesn’t understand her condition leaves users feeling hopelessly anxious, an uncomfortably addictive feeling reminiscent of watching chunks of 24. Why can’t Carrie just get her shit together? Who knew a genius way of playing that tiresome convention of ‘crazy person was right all along!’ could be heightened so well simply by making said person actually batshit insane.
Winner: Walter White
ROUND 3
Best refreshingly human supporting character
Jesse Pinkman
Hardcore fans of the show are well aware Jesse was never originally intended to live on much past the first season. It seems hard to believe, considering how important the elements of duality & contrast has been between Jesse and Mr. White – both men’s experience in trafficking drugs responsible for significant transformations. Originally amounting to little more than a dead head, Jesse quickly became the heart of the show as his compassion for others, children in particular, started to bleed through his corroding exterior.
Saul Berenson
Saul has a certain knack for losing credibility one moment by keeping Carrie at arm length due to her obsessive nature and then flipping the script entirely, rushing to her aid as she’s willingly strapped down to a hospital bed about to have her brain fried, urging her to think clearly despite the world around her crumbling to bits. There’s perhaps no person that knows Carrie’s true nature better than Saul, insight that transposes his relationship with her as more of a father figure. Like Jesse, Saul is best considered a reflection of the audience – a voice of reason in an otherwise irrational setting.
Winner: Jesse Pinkman
Conclusion
Breaking Bad, according to many, is still the best currently airing show on television. It’s had the advantage of additional seasons to further develop characters and craft a narrative. Homeland seems poised to grab the reins from Breaking Bad when the show ends in 2013. In a relatively short expanse of time, Homeland has established itself as a legitimate contender. It just remains to be seen whether or not a show setting the bar so high so early will be able to sustain itself. |
Forty-three U.S. states can suspend people’s driver’s licenses for failure to pay fines, regardless of their ability to pay, a policy that selectively punishes the poor, the Legal Aid Justice Center said in a report today.
This policy not only makes it more difficult for poor people to care for themselves and their children, but “paradoxically,” makes it more difficult to meet their financial obligations to the courts, the Justice Center says in the report, “Driven By Dollars.”
In five states alone, a total of more than 4.2 million drivers have had their licenses suspended or revoked for failure to pay court debt, be it traffic or criminal, the report found. Texas leads the nation with 1.8 million such suspensions.
Despite “the growing consensus that this kind of policy is unfair and counterproductive,” the report says, the policy is “ubiquitous.”
These “license-for-payment policies” especially affect poor Americans.
Related | Study: American Children Have A 43% Chance Of Being Born Into Poverty
“While wealthier drivers have little difficulty covering court debt, people living paycheck-to-paycheck with little or no savings and families to support may not be able to pay in a lump sum or consistently make payments on installment plans,” the report states.
It relates the story of Demetrice Moore, a nursing assistant from Virginia whose driver’s license was suspended when she was unable to pay court costs from a 2002 larceny conviction.
Moore’s job required her to drive to take care of patients in their homes, and she was jailed last year for driving with a suspended license.
“Having been stripped of her license for over a decade, Ms. Moore and the family she supports have been punished, far beyond the terms of her sentencing 15 years ago, because she is poor,” the report says.
Or the 43 states that suspend driver’s licenses for unpaid court debts, 19 have laws requiring suspension for unpaid debt.
“Most state statutes contain no safeguards to distinguish between people who intentionally refuse to pay and those who default due to poverty, punishing both groups equally harshly as if they were equally blameworthy,” the Justice Center says in the executive summary of the 20-page report.
Only four states require defendants to show ability to pay or a determination of “willfulness” before their licenses are taken away.
California this year banned the suspension of driver’s licenses for outstanding traffic fines, spurred by legal action from a number of civil rights groups.
And the Texas Legislature this year passed a bill requiring courts to ask defendants about their ability to pay fines and other tickets.
Related | What Trump Gets Wrong About ‘Inner Cities’ And Poverty In America
“We have to stop using our courts as revenue centers,” the report’s co-author Angela Ciolfi told Courthouse News.
“Funding the courts based on amounts they collect from individuals who come before them runs contrary to basic notions of justice and fairness. The needle is turning, but I think we are at the beginning of the conversation, not the end,” she said.
The issue has received increasing attention since the violent protests after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Investigations showed that Ferguson and nearby towns collected a great part of their revenue from traffic fines, which disproportionately affected people of color. Several lawsuits resulted, and similar lawsuits have spread around the country, particularly in poor, minority-majority towns.
Ciolfi said, however, that reforms spreading as well. Colorado has reduced driving with a suspended license to a traffic infraction in cases where a driver’s license was suspended because of court debt.
“This is significant because in states like Virginia, driving on a suspended license carries a mandatory minimum 10 days in jail on the third conviction, regardless of whether your license was suspended for failure to pay, or for actually being dangerous behind the wheel,” Ciolfi said.
According to the report, 977,000 Virginians have had their licenses revoked or suspended for failing to pay fines.
In August, a settlement was reached in California in a lawsuit against Solano County Superior Court that challenged the court’s “license-for-payment” policy.
As part of the settlement, the court agreed to inform traffic defendants of their right to be heard about their ability to pay tickets.
In an appendix, the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center summarizes the “license-for-payment” laws of all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, which also suspends licenses for failure to pay fines.
Read the Legal Aid Justice Center’s report Driven by Dollars
Download the PDF file .
Top photo | In a Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 file photo, a man who did not wish to be identified, who lost his job two months ago after being hurt on the job, works to collect money for his family on a Miami street corner. (AP/J Pat Carter)
© Courthouse News Service |
I often wonder why riders who say they want to win or be better riders never utilize the one thing, the one FREE thing that is at their disposal all the time. Riding outside the ring.
I hear every excuse in the book, and I could care less what yours might be, but riding outside the ring is the of the most underutilized tools of becoming a stellar rider, and stellar horse, especially pertaining to the hunter rings. Yep—that “cross-country” term that brings people to firmly shake their heads, quiver in their boots, and refuse to even consider.
Yet, those who are keeping an open mind about progressing as a rider and actually do venture out into a field or woods, quite often have better equitation and better instincts in the actual show ring. And it costs absolutely nothing.
Your heels automatically go further down—those thousands of dollars you are tossing out the window to hear your instructor/trainer/coach to remind you to put your heels down 10,000 times a year is basically achieved after one month of going outside of the ring, up and down hills, and standing in two-point for a gallop (or brisk trot out, whatever).
Your body has reflexes, and when you don’t want to lose your stirrups as the horse you are on is jumping sideways from a bird, guess what? Permanent Heel Down Syndrome. It is a proven science, trust me. Walking a mile back home on your own two feet is not normally an appealing option.
Speaking of reflexes, your other body parts sharpen drastically as they learn natural movements of the horse outside of the ring. A horse going around in his natural element is friskier, livelier, more on the defense from predators such as bunny rabbits, and believe me, you start to read his mind at every shudder, shake and start. Once back in the ring, everything will seem so much easier, you will be able to control the spooking before it even happens, and know to turn your horse’s head away from whatever is catching his attention.
Position. If you didn’t understand the three types of seats you are supposed to learn before going cross-country, you will understand them by the time you get back. You need the two point for going up a steep incline, you need a half-seat when you cross tricky terrain or a water crossing, and you fully comprehend deep seat when starting down any descent.
Want to up the difficulty level? Drop your stirrups.
Have you ever been told you look down too much? Another 10K repeat from your trainer is my guess. I’ll give you a hint—looking down is kind of not a viable option for people riding outside the ring. Not only are you looking for every hazard known to man and beast, your life greatly benefits from you keeping a very keen relationship with the horizon. On the horizon could be lurking any potential suspect which might disrupt a perfectly sane outdoor experience. Your eyes will be up and in navigation mode. Permanently.
Confidence. This should be self-explanatory, but I can tell you about a hundred thousand stories of riders and horses gaining confidence merely by attempting a trek across a field, through the woods, over a log, and the giddiness that ensued. It has literally changed lives, and soaked up a fairly large portion of my monthly iPhone data with snaps, texts, and Facebook or Instagram tags.
Frankly, there is not much more rewarding than someone frantically trying to recap every thrilling moment in their 15-minute escape around the farm on one of their favorite borrowed horses. I don’t now, maybe it is just me, but those moments are priceless.
So why don’t Americans go ride outside? Ten million reasons. But what a waste.
The ultimate resource in advanced horsemanship and perfect position is completely accessible to thousands of young and old riders alike. No one seems to want to venture outside the gate, experiment with a trail ride, (or even hire trail horses), borrow friends ponies, sign up for an eventing clinic with Jimmy Wofford, or Dom Schramm, yet those same riders want to qualify for a medal final, win a derby, or compete at a league final.
It makes no sense. There are thousands of exercises with cavaletti, poles, gymnastics and other tools suggested or sold to riders to try and improve your balance, reflexes, and sense of timing, when all you need is to find a local hunter pace or cross-country course to school, and might cost at the most $20, if that.
Your trainer might frown upon your experiments, but I can guess why. Money. Maybe he or she cannot financially benefit from improvements you can make on your own. Whenever someone doesn’t want me to do something I always ask, why not?
It usually is about money. Or maybe time. Time. So many horses to be ridden in that busy stable before 5 o’clock, there just isn’t enough time. You have soccer practice to get to. Well, when you or your parent writes that check to the horse show, how much time and money goes into that weekend? Did you win? Did you want to? How much was that check written for?
I can see the backlash now, “Oh no, I couldn’t possibly allow my six-figure imported horse to take a step in grass. He might go lame.” He could go lame for any reason, but sure OK, whatever you want to believe.
I personally think it is fun to teach an imported horse how to go up and down hills for the first time. Most of them come from the very flat Holland or Belgium or the part of Germany without inclines or turnout, and it is highly entertaining when a young horse experiences one of our hills. One descent and climb at the walk usually leaves them completely winded! It is comical for them to figure out how to navigate hills at the walk, trot, or canter, and then eventually become masters of descent!
With the increase in derby classes I thought for sure I would see an increase in our hunter riders jumping cross-country, but instead I have only seen people build crazy spooky courses in an indoor or fenced-in arena where a horse is less likely to show his true colors. So what happens when the real derby asks the right questions? A whole lot of faults?
I don’t know actually, maybe this would answer my frustrations with the handy classes, when we are seeing horse after horse spooking at the trot jump. Instead of having a schooling jump, maybe the horses need to just school cross-country before showing at the most prestigious show of the year. Ugh, so many questions, so little opportunity for change.
Last year, while in Gulfport over the winter, I saw a couple of riders accessing the hill out by the trailer parking lot, and thought, “How smart!” There is only one hill on the show grounds, but this father/daughter team was taking full advantage of conditioning their horses on that slight incline during their six-week duration in Mississippi.
Stumble or trip every once in a while? Probably, but they were out there for a reason, and it probably had to do with the benefits for horse and rider. I would imagine they were able to teach the horses how to overcome the occasional trip or stumble by changing the balance and placing more focus on the hind end rather than the forehand. Genius really, but then again, they were from Maryland, maybe it was just born into them.
I know, I know, not everyone has access to the outdoors in an outdoor sport, but there are still loads of people NOT taking advantage of natural terrain even though they can, and that is a real shame for our sport. Not to mention the fun factor is literally being tossed out the window along with all those lesson dollars. #makesnosense. #bringbackfun
If you are fortunate enough to be exposed to fox chasing, take full advantage of it, those tools learned last a lifetime. ^^same kid both pics^^
By the way, for fun I used the Google for locating state parks that allowed trail riding? Guess what, every state has one.
Hunter/jumper trainer Deloise Noble-Strong runs her business out of her family farm in Upperco, Md. She follows in the footsteps of many generations of horsemen in her family. Deloise has spent time living in Belgium, Holland and Germany and imports, trains and sells many hunter prospects. She also speaks her mind on her personal blog, Deloise In America. |
Text & Audio by Jeffrey Kluger—Author of Apollo 13 & Apollo 8 All Photos Apollo VII—XVII/NASA
Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. There were the 842 pounds of moon rocks and the raft of scientific spinoffs and the deep thrills that every one of the 11 missions delivered. And then, perhaps more than anything, there were the pictures.
We are equal parts a questing species and a very visual one. We go places so that we can see what is there and we carry our cameras so we can bring home evidence of those sights. That’s especially important when the destination is one that only 24 human beings out of all of the billions who have ever lived have gotten to visit.
For that reason, NASA made photography a high priority during the Apollo missions, redesigning cameras that could operate in the punishing environment of space and inventing ultra-thin film that would allow a single roll to contain 200 exposures. Of the thousands of pictures taken, only a comparative few were chosen for the public to see. They were the best of the images, no surprise, and that made sense. But their very perfection sometimes made them seem almost sterile. It was the outtakes—the astronaut in the clumsy pose, the litter left on the lunar surface, the too-bright sun flaring off the lens—that revealed the missions to be the often unglamorous, often improvisational camping trips they were.
Now, a team of four European designers have chosen 225 of the least seen—and in some cases least polished—of the Apollo trove and released them in a dazzling book titled “Apollo VII – XVII.” The wonderfully imperfect collection provides an entirely new perspective on the flights we thought we knew.
listen
Apollo VII was the first test drive of the Apollo spacecraft, limited to Earth orbit, yet it offered glimpses of the more ambitious flights to come. The crews would get nowhere near the moon without the upper stage of the giant Saturn V rocket, which would blast them out of Earth orbit and would carry the lunar module like a kangaroo joey in an onboard compartment. On the way to the moon, the petals of that compartment would open and the lander would be extracted. Apollo VII practiced that maneuver in Earth orbit, with no LEM aboard. The close-to-home pantomime would play out for real just a few missions later.
From the high ground of space, it’s almost impossible to take a bad picture of the jewel box landscape below, but the Apollo VII crew managed that ignoble feat. The odd framing and poor sun control in this shot destined it for the discard pile. But that’s Florida below, with the north end of the state to the left and the south to the right and the embarkation point—Cape Canaveral—visible as a sharp projection along Atlantic coast. The red light on the Gulf of Mexico and the comparatively low angle of the sun create the mood of a tropical sundown—a little bit of beachfront bliss that was, at that moment, entirely out of the astronauts’ reach.
The Apollo IX mission test-flew the command module and lunar module together in Earth orbit. Dave Scott’s spacewalk was one of the most-photographed parts of the mission and one of the images—brilliantly lit, artfully composed, showing both spacecraft in a single frame—became a NASA icon. But the truth was closer to the outtake here, with Scott emerging as the spacecraft flow over the nighttime side of the Earth, a solitary man almost lost in shadow, venturing from the safety of the Apollo burrow into the killing cold of space.
Spaceflights were often reconnaissance missions and dirty portholes could make that job impossible. Gas trapped between layers of glass or moisture picked up on the way out of the atmosphere could make windows impossible to use, though the fogging or streaking would often clear up as the sun warmed the spacecraft skin. The public saw only the pretty pictures shot through clear windows, but here the Apollo 12 crew took a shot to show NASA the challenges they faced.
The cockpit of the LEM was supposed to be a bright and active place, but on Apollo XIII it became a darkened still lifeboat, as the crew shut down nearly all of its power and took refuge in the hope of getting home after an explosion disabled their command module. In the middle of the instrument panel a label that reads “lunar contact” is barely visible. A blue light beneath it was supposed to flash on the moment the lunar module made contact with the lunar surface. On Apollo XIII, it remained forever dark.
The Apollo program was a pencil-and-paper enterprise. The missions were conceived and flown in the era before calculators and touch screens and heads-up displays. Flight plans, which would today be loaded on a tablet, were similarly low-tech—printed on heavy fireproof paper bound in loose-leaf form. There’s nothing spacey or sexy about this shot from Apollo XVII, with one of the astronauts checking the schematics of the command module, which is why NASA saw no need to release it.
During all of the lunar flights except the last, crews surveyed the ground below to study future landing sites. Heavily cratered regions like these, photographed by the Apollo XVII crew, dominate the far side of the moon and frame the so-called seas on the near side. They were no-go zones for landings since the ground was so uneven. It was the seas—which are actually great plains that resulted from ancient lava bleeds—that were the first targets.
The ancient, desiccated moon that we see from a distance belies a certain fluidity that’s visible up close, as captured by the Apollo 15 crew. Like the volcano fields on the Hawaiian island Hilo, some regions of the moon have preserved the state of the landscape just as it was when the lava that flowed across it hardened. Snaking channels like the one that twists about a third of the way up the image from the bottom of the frame might have been lava riverbeds. Apollo missions never flew during a full moon, since the far side would have been blacked and on the near side, the overhead sun would have eliminated shadows, which, as in this image, can help highlight topography.
The lunar module was a whimsically ugly machine. That’s what happens when you can design a vehicle strictly for functionality with no concern for the aerodynamic sleekness that is necessary when you’re flying through the atmosphere. Here, the Apollo XI LEM has separated from the command module and hangs, seemingly upside down (though there is no upside down in space) before the camera of Michael Collins, left alone in the command module. The rods extending from the foot pads are contact probes. When one of them touched the lunar surface, the contact light would flash on in the cockpit, telling the commander to cut the engine.
From some angles, the irregularly shaped LEM could achieve a certain doily-like symmetry. Apollo XIV’s Stu Roosa captured this image of the top of the lander as it drifted away from the command module. The dark circle at the center of the roof is the docking port, where the nose of the command module would connect, allowing a tunnel to be opened between the two ships. On the LEM leg at the 2 o’clock position, the ladder that astronauts Al Shepard and Ed Mitchell would later climb down to the lunar surface is visible.
Apollo XV almost came to ruin the second it touched down. NASA had strict rules about how sharp an angle was safe for a LEM landing, and a 15-degree slope was the absolute maximum. Any steeper and liftoff could be compromised. The moon’s Hadley-Apennine region was treacherous, however, and the 10-degree incline of the landing spot was the best the crew was able to find. NASA was happy to release images of the Apollo XV LEM photographed from the front, but profile shots were kept under wraps.
On the last three landing missions, the country that led the world in the manufacture of cars also sent them to the moon. The lunar rovers never traveled faster than about 11 mph (18 km/h) though in the moon’s 1/6th gravity, that provided what felt like a light, speedy ride. Here, Apollo XVI’s John Young leans seemingly jauntily against his ride, with the overexposed top half of the image creating the overall effect of a casual vacation shot snapped during an off-road trip in the desert southwest—minus the can of beer that really ought to be perched on the fender.
The business of planting the American flag on the lunar surface never got old. The larger view was always the better one, of course: American astronauts were emissaries not of a nation, but of a species. But the 205 million members of that species who lived in the United States still thrilled to the image of the stars and stripes. On Apollo XII, it was Al Bean’s job to plant and position the flag—which was stiffened in the airlessness of the moon by a rod stitched into its top edge. Commander Pete Conrad, like generations of vacation photographers, is visible only as a long shadow.
The 12 men who walked on the moon had to reckon with a problem no photographers in history ever had before: how to manage sunlight that streams straight to the camera with no intervening atmosphere to soften and color it. Not every attempt was a success, as this shot by Apollo XII’s Pete Conrad shows. But there’s more to the image than the giant sunburst. There’s also a sense of the hard work that the lunar missions required, as Al Bean lugs scientific equipment into the field for placement on the surface.
There aren’t a lot of straight lines on the tumbledown surface of the moon—or at least there weren’t until humans arrived. Apollo 17—like Apollos XV and XVI—left tire tracks nearly everywhere they traveled. In the windless, rainless, erosion-free environment, the tracks endure, close to half-a-century on. This image, captured in a haunting black and white that was not at all in keeping with the kinds of images NASA liked to release, captures what a lonely business making those permanent marks could be.
It was often hard to tell the difference between the litter and the scientific experiments the Apollo astronauts left on the surface, as this image from Apollo XIV shows. In this case, the shot is of science; the gold, boxy object is the central station of what was known as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). The tarp-like circle of silver with the can-shaped object to the left is the seismograph, one of six instruments that made up the ALSEP. The last of the experiment packages left on the surface winked out on Sept. 30, 1977, close to five years after the final lunar landing.
The last three Apollo missions visited hilly and even mountainous terrain that the first three didn’t dare try. The Apollo XVI crew visited the Descartes Highlands, where mountainous uplift exposed geology that was not available on the flatter plains. Long shadows and black-and-white film convey a sense of how far-ranging the field expeditions became.
After the first of three lunar expeditions, the fender on the right rear wheel of the Apollo XVII lunar rover broke off. “Oh, there goes a fender. Oh shoot!” commander Gene Cernan could be heard exclaiming on the air-to-ground loop. That was a problem because lunar dust is finer than confectioner’s sugar and in the 1/6th gravity of the moon, it got kicked up easily by the rover’s tires, potentially fouling machinery and even the astronauts’ life support equipment. The solution: four lunar maps folded just so and fastened with what Cernan called “good old-fashioned American gray tape.”
If there was one sight that could make an Apollo astronaut nervous, it was this. The Earth in this image from Apollo XI looks dauntingly far away and the lunar module—which appears to have been stapled together from sheet metal—seems barely up to the task of making the trip off the surface. In fact it was more than capable, and its lightweight design was one of the thing that made it so flight-worthy. Only the top half of the lander—the silver section, here photographed from behind—would lift off from the moon. The bottom portion—the mostly gold colored struts and legs—would serve as a launch platform and remain behind.
The gray-white moon had nothing on the riot of color that is the Earth, and the astronauts felt the pull of the home planet throughout their trip. The closer they came on their return journey, the more the Earth loomed. In a striking image taken by Apollo 17, almost the entirety of Africa is visible, with the southern portion of the continent at the bottom of the frame and the vast expanse of the Sahara Desert at the top.
Taking good pictures is never easy. It’s harder when you’re mummified in a spacesuit that includes gloves that eliminate nearly all dexterity. And it’s harder still when you’re doing some of that photographic work while jouncing along in a lunar rover. For that reason, Apollo crews spent a lot of time practicing, as Apollo XVI’s John Young (right) and Charlie Duke did not long before their April 16, 1972 liftoff.
The full book Apollo VII – XVII by Simon Phillipson, Joel Meter, Delano Steenmeijer, & Floris Heyne is available now. Purchase it here.
Jeff Kluger’s latest book Apollo 8 will be released on May 16. It is available for pre-order here.
Correction: The original version of a photo caption accompanying this story misstated how long Apollo 17 tire tracks have endured on the surface of the moon. It is almost half-a-century, not almost half-a-decade. The original version of another photo caption misstated a label on an Apollo 13 instrument panel. It said “lunar contact,” not “contact light.” |
A man was horrifically doused with acid outside a cinema after a screening of NWA movie Straight Outta Compton.
The 27-year-old was leaving the Cineworld complex in Crawley, West Sussex, in the early hours of Sunday when the sickening attack took place.
Police said the incident took place after the movie which centres on hip hop group NWA had ended.
It was “nasty and unprovoked,” they added.
The victim, from Redhill in Surrey, was rushed to hospital with potential life-changing injuries to his face and head.
He was then taken to the Queen Victoria Hospital in nearby East Grinstead, which specialises in treatment for burns, according to the Standard.
Police are hunting two suspects, who allegedly squared up to the victim and his 29-year-old pal outside the venue.
The suspects are said to be white men in their late 20s or early 30s. One had short dark hair and beard and carried a bag across his shoulder.
The other wore a light-coloured hoody and jeans. Both left in a dark coloured Peugeot.
"This was an isolated but nevertheless nasty and unprovoked assault,” said Detective Sergeant Laura Diamond, of Crawley CID.
“We are keen to speak to anyone who may have seen an altercation either within the cinema or later in the car park outside.”
(Stock image of Crawley CineWorld by Joe Pepler/REX) |
North Goa
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Colonial elegance meets tropical languor in this exquisitely restored 350-year-old former Portuguese mansion turned boutique hotel, tucked away in the sleepy, picturesque village of Siolim, in the heart of north Goa.
Owner Varun Sood, a Zurich-based businessman, spent years scouting abandoned properties in the state before discovering this then derelict but stately mansion, which earlier belonged to the governer of Macau.
Over the next 3 years the property was restored in the Casa de Sobrado-style, modelled on the noble houses of Portugal, using materials and methods as true to the original period as possible.
Despite the numerous antiques on display in the rooms and common areas, Siolim House still manages to feel far more like a well-loved home than a museum, with a real lived-in atmosphere and an informal warmth and charm that belies its ‘heritage’ tag.
It helps that there are modern pleasures and luxuries too, with a beautiful pool and garden to laze in and some truly fantastic food options on offer, including items from the French patisserie Delicieux, which is run by Varun’s partner Lucie.
Siolim House is a truly unique boutique hotel that’s a real joy to stay in, brought alive by the energy and passion of its owner, in a stunning location that manages to remain sedate while still being close to all the best attractions of north Goa. |
With many student loan borrowers graduating right now, student loan companies are taking notice. With most Federal and private student loans, borrowers get a six month grace period before their first payment is due. It's during this time that scammers try to take advantage of unsuspecting student loan borrowers, and borrowers need to know what to expect.
Take note of these top student loan scams, and how you can protect yourself so you aren't victimized.
Student Loan Consolidation Scams
The most common student loan scam that has been hitting recent graduates is the student loan consolidation scam. This is a popular scam because many graduates have several student loans, and it sounds appealing to have them consolidated into one single loan and payment. Some scammers even tell you that you can lower your payments.
The student loan consolidation scam typically involves a company offering to consolidate your student loans for a fee (a processing fee, administrative fee, or consolidation fee). In exchange for paying the fee, the company will consolidate your loans.
This is a scam for three reasons:
1. Federal student loans can only be consolidated through the Federal Direct Consolidation Program. You can do this yourself in about 20 minutes of your time. The consolidation company scam involves you paying a fee for something you could do for free.
2. The consolidation company may move you into a private student loan that is worse for you than your original loans.
3. The consolidation company does nothing and takes your money.
If you want to consolidate your student loans, make sure you follow the correct process for consolidating your student loans.
Advanced Fee Scams
Advanced fee scams are another student loan scam victimizing borrowers across the country. This scam involves a company offering to lower the interest rate on your student loan in exchange for a fee up front. They will typically ask for the fee in exchange for them negotiating on your behalf with your student loan servicer.
To get you to sign up, they will typically highlight other clients that they were able to do this successfully with, and show you how much you could possibly save.
This is a scam because real lenders don't charge any fees up front. Instead, legitimate lenders will take a fee at closing of the loan, typically from the loan amount so you actually pay nothing out of pocket. If you are contacted by a company asking for a fee up front, avoid them - it is a scam.
Student Loan Elimination Scams
Finally, there are companies that are convincing student loan borrowers that they can help you eliminate your student loan debt. This is a complete scam, that is usually a sub-segment of the advanced fee scam. These companies will typically ask for money up front to help negotiate the settlement of your student loans (similar to what you see with credit card debt relief companies).
The trouble with these companies is that they will always fail you - making them a scam. Since student loans typically can't be discharged under any circumstance, lenders have no incentive to negotiate with these companies, and in turn, you get scammed because you are out the fees you paid.
Your best recourse is dealing directly with the lender yourself, and not a third-party company.
How To Protect Yourself From Student Loan Scams
It's important to remember that scammers prey on you when you're most vulnerable - likely buried in debt or simply uninformed. That's how they take advantage of you. However, there are some simple tricks that you can use to protect yourself.
First, never pay for anything up front. Real lenders and student loan companies take a percentage when everything is complete, and you don't pay out of pocket.
Second, simply call your lender if you have a problem. Your student loan servicing company has a lot of different ways to help you, and many of them only take a short phone call and a little paperwork to get done. You can usually get different repayment plans, forbearance, deferment, and more. So, before you go to another company, go with your current student loan lender.
Third, never sign any paperwork giving a third party company "Power of Attorney" or legal authority to negotiate on your behalf. These companies sometimes attempt to take control of your loans, and then hold you hostage if you don't pay.
Don't let anyone take away your financial power to deal with your student loan debt. You can deal with any student loan problem yourself with just a phone call and some paperwork. |
"Instructions Not Included," a Spanish-language film with English subtitles, generated $10 million in ticket sales over the four-day Labor Day weekend, a record for a Spanish film in the United States and a sign of the potential the Hispanic market represents for Hollywood.
The film, which stars 52-year-old Mexican TV star Eugenio Derbez as an Acapulco playboy forced to raise a baby girl left on his doorstep, ranked fifth among films in U.S. theaters, despite opening in scant 347 theaters, according to Hollywood.com.
As a result, it generated average ticket sales of $28,818 per screen, more than four times the average of "Lee Daniels' The Butler," the weekend's top film.
(Read more: Hollywood's summer rebound, revenue up 10%)
"No one saw this coming," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com. "A cute family-oriented concept with a terrific marketing campaign."
The movie is distributed by Pantelion, a joint venture of Hollywood studio Lionsgate Entertainment and Mexican media giant Televisa that intends to tap the Hispanic American moviegoing audience that last year bought 10.9 million tickets or 26 percent of all tickets sold, according to the industry group Motion Picture Association of America.
"Hispanics were the heaviest moviegoers, as they represent 18 percent of the moviegoing population but accounted for 25 percent of all movies seen," said media research company Nielsen in a separate study. "Hispanics were also the only demographic group that went to more movies in 2012 than in the prior year—9.5 movies on average compared with 8.5 in 2011."
To tap that market for "Instructions Not Included," Pantelion put ads on Univision, Telemundo and other Spanish-language channels as well as social media sites like Fandango, Facebook and Youtube that are heavily used by the Hispanic population. |
There are not many games out there that can boast to be as realistic and hard-hitting as SWAT 4 . But if you're looking for an experience that's one step closer to the real thing, then chances are that the Elite Force Mod is the way to go. Incidentally, the DRM-free version of SWAT 4 that just debuted on GOG.com is fully supported by this mod, so don't hesitate to take it for a spin!includes tons of bugfixes, gameplay tweaks, and strategic additions for the tactical enthusiast who doesn't mind the extra challenge, if it means all of their de-briefing praise and reprimands will feel truly earned. Some of the most noticeable changes made by modderinclude:- Additional equipment options- A greater variety in the suspects' and hostages' behavior- A brand-new Traps mechanic- Harsher penalties for your less-restrained actions- More realistic equipment that requires careful use- A secondary objective that lets you collect drug evidence on the scene- A unified campaign that includes all the main game's missions plus the ones from The Stetchkov Syndicate expansionThis is far from a finished project, however, and plans for the immediate future include an extra Mission taking place in a restaurant, as well as gameplay mechanics that will force you to think harder about your mission loadout and will change how body armor works. Keep an eye on its comprehensive Mod DB page to learn about all the exciting developments.So, are there any other SWAT 4 mods you guys would recommend? Feel free to let the rest of our precinct know! |
As of Thursday, the Pittsburgh Steelers needed to clear more than $8 million in cap space in order to comply with the salary cap. Part of that process apparently was to reduce the eight-figure franchise-tag number for linebacker LaMarr Woodley by giving him a long-term deal.
Woodley has announced via Twitter and Facebook (but apparently not “MyFace”) that he will retire in Pittsburgh and that he’s a Steeler “for life.”
He disclosed no details of the deal.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has said that he’s willing to restructure his contract to help create cap space, a process that can be done without reducing compensation.
UPDATE: Per a source with knowledge of the situation, it’s a six-year, $61.5 million deal. He’ll make $18.1 million in 2011 and $27 million over two years, making him the second highest-paid Steeler of all time, behind only Roethlisberger. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the move created $3.5 million in cap space, which means that they still need to cut more than $4.5 million by 4:00 p.m. ET today. |
When President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would name retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, one group was especially happy. The anti-Muslim group ACT for America sent an email to its supporters saying that they were “truly elated” by the pick, noting that Flynn still serves on the group’s board of advisers, which he seems to have joined this summer.
Along with his troubling record of anti-Muslim rhetoric, Flynn’s association with ACT for America indicates the kind of ideas that he’ll be funneling to Trump.
We summarized the mission of ACT and its president, Brigitte Gabriel, in a 2014 report:
The staple of Gabriel’s activism is conflating radical Islam with the Islam practiced by millions across the globe. In a 2007 speech, Gabriel argued that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in public office because a “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.” Gabriel claims that the U.S. government has already been “infiltrated on all levels by radicals who wish to harm America.” She has also warned that Muslim Students’ Associations are waging “a stealth jihad against America through the indoctrination of our youth on college campuses.” She alleges that Mexican drug cartels are working with Islamic terrorists, citing as evidence that beheadings are “strictfully [sic] an Islamic signature.” Gabriel has succeeded in building out a large grassroots organization, which she claims has 875 chapters and 279,000 members. She has done so with support from allies on the Christian Right, exemplified by her hiring of a former Christian Coalition official to build out her field operation. Gabriel and her group came to fame by pushing so-called “Sharia law bans” in conservative states – measures that hype a nonexistent problem (American courts adopting Islamic law) in order to push anti-Muslim sentiment and fear. In recent years, ACT has moved into the textbook wars, encouraging its members to launch challenges against history and social studies classes that the group deems insufficiently critical of Islam. In 2010, Gabriel set the stage for this effort by warning that public schools were secretly converting children to Islam and preparing them to turn against their country: “What they’re doing is literally brainwashing our students to prepare them to turn against our own soldiers and our own military and government by basically feeding them the talking points of al-Qaeda.”
Gabriel was an enthusiastic backer of Trump in his presidential campaign, warning that his election was necessary to save western civilization. When Trump picked a fight with Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of a slain Muslim-American soldier, Gabriel was there to back him up, claiming that the “liar” Khizr Khan couldn’t be both a devout Muslim and a Constitution-observing American.
At an ACT for America conference in Washington, D.C., this summer, Gabriel praised Trump’s proposals to radically restrict the immigration of Muslims to the U.S., claiming that “20 percent of Muslims are radicals.”
Like Trump, Gabriel has hinted at conspiracy theories that President Obama is secretly Muslim or sympathetic to radical Islam, saying last year that he grew up “praying just like Osama bin Laden prayed.”
ACT also seems to share Trump’s attitude on First Amendment freedoms for Muslims: A few years ago, the group tried to get UCLA to ban a campus chapter of the Muslim Students Association. |
Jürgen Klopp has insisted a much-improved Liverpool side will take to the field for Thursday's Europa League semi-final against Villarreal, as the Reds aim to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat at Swansea City.
The manager elected to make eight changes at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday, with several members of his regular team given a rest after an energy-sapping first-leg outing in Spain.
The Reds were subsequently beaten by the Swans but, while the German acknowledged the manner of defeat was self-inflicted, he vowed his team will be a different prospect next time out.
“We have to accept it [the result] because our performance wasn’t good enough,” Klopp told Liverpoolfc.com.
“I’m especially a little bit disappointed because if we had played our normal game for 90 minutes we could have won the game, but we didn’t play a normal game and that was the problem.
“We got it back to 2-1 but then we conceded again and the goals were too simple, too easy for Swansea. I’m not looking for an excuse and I think we could have played better but we didn’t.
“We played like we played and I saw it for the whole 90 minutes and there was not a lot I enjoyed, to be honest. We have to think about it and we have to recover, which is very important, and we will play much, much better than we did on Sunday.
“We have to accept the result, which is what we do, and then we work and we will be better on Thursday.” |
CHICAGO (STMW) — Police are questioning a “person of interest” in connection with an East Garfield Park shooting that critically wounded a woman early Tuesday.
The 27-year-old victim was shot in the head at 1:53 a.m. in the 300 block of South Mozart Street, police said. She was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in critical condition.
Police are questioning a 31-year-old man in relation to the shooting, News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said.
The woman did not appear to be the intended target. The shooter was in a fight with his cousin and fired shots, but missed his intended target and hit the woman instead, Mirabelli said.
Area North detectives are investigating.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2013. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) |
Bob Dylan
12/9/79,
Tucson, AZ
Download: FLAC/MP3
LB-7927
(70min+61min)
from lk 79 series
CD1
1-2 If I’ve Got My Ticket, Lord
3 It’s Gonna Rain
4 Do Lord, Remember Me
5 Look Up And Live By Faith
6 Oh Freedom
7 This Train
8 Gotta Serve Somebody
9 I Believe In You
10 When You Gonna Wake Up?
11 When He Returns
12 Man Gave Names To All The Animals
13 Precious Angel
14 Slow Train
CD2
1 Covenant Woman
2 put your hand in the hand of the man from galilee
3 Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
4 Do Right To Me, Baby (Do Unto Others)
5 Solid Rock
6 Saving Grace
7 Saved
8 What Can I Do For You?
9 In The Garden
10 Blessed Is The Name
11 Pressing On
bittorrent download 08/09; in spectral view it looks like noise redcution may have been used; in comparison to LB-4128 this has less hiss; (did not listen to all of this)
drop/discontinuity pop end of d1t1 |
Now playing: Watch this: Barnes & Noble adds Google Play to its tablets
Bowing to market pressures and customer demand for access to the full breadth of Android apps, Barnes & Noble has made the bold move of adding the Google Play store to its two latest tablets, the Nook HD and Nook HD+ . The free software update, which also includes the Chrome Web browser, doesn't turn the company's tablets into true "open" Android devices, but it does make them much more open than they were. It will be available today to download from bn.com and will be rolled out to devices in the coming days via an over-the-air Wi-Fi update.
Despite positive reviews for its tablets, in recent months Barnes & Noble has encountered fierce headwinds as Apple, Amazon, and Google released well-regarded tablets of their own in advance of the 2012 holiday selling season. From a hardware and price standpoint, not much separates the products, but Barnes & Noble's app offerings have lagged behind those of the competition, even as it worked hard to expand its app store. Such a drawback can give consumers a reason to pause before buying.
Sarah Tew/CNET
I got an early preview of the software update on a Nook HD+ and what's a little bit surprising is that Barnes & Noble hasn't held anything back from the Google Play store -- it's as you would expect it to appear on any open Android device, complete with apps, music, movies, games, and yes, even e-books.
Not often is it that you see a company place a direct competitor on its device after investing so much in its own store. But that's what Barnes & Noble has done, giving customers the option of buying apps, books, and movies from the Nook Store or the Google Play store a few swipes away.
Sarah Tew/CNET
If you're wondering whether you can add the Kindle app to the Nook, the answer is yes. Kobo, too. But more importantly, Nook owners can also grab the HBO Go app that has been missing from the Nook Store. Or any number of games and apps that also aren't there.
Barnes & Noble reps said that the Nook Store would continue to coexist side-by-side with the Google Play store and users will be able to import their bookmarks from the Nook's old browser to the new Chrome browser. With the Nook HD and HD+ you can also create separate profiles for different users, and parents will have the option of giving their kids access to the Google Play store -- or not.
To distinguish apps that you've bought in the Nook Store, a small "n" will appear as part of its icon in the navigational carousel at the top of the screen. Content bought in the Google Play store, such as movies, music, and e-books, will be accessible through Google's "players," not Barnes & Noble's.
Whether this best-of-both-worlds strategy will pay dividends isn't clear at this point, but it does seem apparent that Barnes & Noble's walled-garden approach wasn't working.
With the changes, the company is seeking more parity with Amazon, which has created a competitive advantage with its free video streaming and Kindle Lending Library e-book offerings for Prime members. Amazon has its own fairly expansive app store (Appstore for Android), though it doesn't offer the Google Play store on its Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 . Meanwhile, Google's Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 appeal to users who are looking for completely open Android tablets. The Nook HD and Nook HD+ offer an expansion slot of additional memory; the aforementioned competing products and Apple's iPads don't.
We'll be updating our reviews of the Nook HD and Nook HD+ in the coming days. In the meantime, let us know how much of a game changer the addition of Google Play will -- or won't -- be for Barnes & Noble's tablet line.
Editors' note: This Google Play store software update is only for Barnes & Noble's latest tablets, not earlier models. |
On Saturday night in Miami, a naked “zombie-like” man attacked another man, biting off parts of his face. The attack was halted only when police shot and killed the attacker, identified as 31-year old Rudy Eugene.
What would make someone attack another man like an animal? Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, suspects that the attacker was under the influence of drugs known as "bath salts."
These aren’t the same bath salts to make your tub water smell nice. “Bath salts” is just a fake name, but users know it’s not really for the bath.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse described bath salts as an "emerging and dangerous product" in February 2011, urging parents, teachers and the public to be aware of the potential dangers associated with these drugs, which had already been linked to numerous visits to the E.R. and calls to poison control centers in the U.S. In October 2011, these "bath salts" and its related products were put on schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which means that the drug has no legitimate use or safety in the U.S. and is highly addictive.
Bath salts contain amphetamine-like chemicals such as methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV), mephedrone, and pyrovalerone. They’re referred to as a “designer drug of the phenethylamine class” by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Other drugs in this class include amphetamines, mescaline, and ephedrine. MDPV comes in a powdered form that is inhaled, swallowed or shot into a vein. Bath Salts are sold as "cocaine substitutes" or "synthetic LSD".
When MDPV gets to the brain, the effects include producing feelings of empathy, stimulation, alertness, euphoria, sensory awareness and hallucinations. Other reported effects include rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, and sweating. According to the DEA, MDPV has been reported to cause intense panic attacks, psychosis, and a strong desire to use the drug again.
“Addictive substances, whether they are bath salts, alcohol or other drugs, can have horrific and costly consequences. Sometimes these consequences can result from only one use; other times they are a result of the complex brain disease of addiction," says Susan E. Foster, vice president and director of policy research and analysis at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.
"Together, risky use of addictive substances and addiction constitute our nation’s largest and most costly health problem. In the interest of health and public safety, Americans must begin to understand that substance use is a preventable public health problem and addiction is a treatable disease," she added.
In 2009, reports began surfacing about teens and young adults abusing synthetic stimulant products sold as Bath Salts, “plant fertilizer," energy-1, Ivory Wave, Red Dove, Purple Wave, Blue Silk, Zoom, Bloom, Cloud Nine, Ocean Snow, Lunar Wave, Vanilla Sky, White Lightning, Scarface, and Hurricane Charlie.
The Drug Enforcement Administration's forensic monitoring system found two reports of MDPV in 2009. In 2010 that figure jumped to 338 cases. Between January through September 2011, the numbers skyrocketed to 911 MDPV cases, spanning 34 states. |
HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” was the top original show among adults 18-49 on cable Friday.
The show — devoted largely to discussion of the previous week’s show in which Maher used the N-word — drew a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic, up from 0.4 the previous week.
Five shows — “Live PD,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” an NBA pregame show on ESPN, the midnight “SportsCenter” and “Williams Stream” on Adult Swim — tied for second among adults 18-49 at 0.4. “Maddow” was No. 1 in viewers for the day with 2.62 million.
Top 25 original cable shows among adults 18-49 for Friday, June 9, 2017
Show Net Time Total Viewers (000s) 18-49 rating REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER HBO 11:00 PM 1,760 0.5 LIVE PD: 43 A&E 9:00 PM 1,322 0.4 RACHEL MADDOW SHOW MSNBC 9:00 PM 2,620 0.4 NBA PRE-GAME ESPN 8:00 PM 868 0.4 SPORTSCENTER ESPN 12:00 AM 727 0.4 WILLIAMS STREAM ADULT SWIM 4:00 AM 742 0.4 RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE VH1 8:00 PM 637 0.3 WILLIAMS STREAM ADULT SWIM 4:15 AM 640 0.3 ANCIENT ALIENS HISTORY 9:00 PM 1,190 0.3 CNN NEWSROOM CNN 2:00 PM 1,277 0.3 CNN NEWSROOM CNN 3:00 PM 1,466 0.3 SPORTSCENTER ESPN 2:01 AM 519 0.3 NELLA THE PRINCESS KNIGHT NICK 12:00 PM 1,159 0.3 HOUSE HUNTERS INTL HGTV 10:30 PM 1,307 0.3 PARDON THE INTERRUPTION ESPN 5:30 PM 654 0.3 LAST WORD W/LAWRENCE O’DONNELL MSNBC 10:00 PM 1,932 0.3 MY LOTTERY DREAM HOME HGTV 9:00 PM 1,346 0.3 ANDI MACK DISNEY 8:30 PM 1,289 0.3 WOLF CNN 1:00 PM 1,125 0.3 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 10:00 PM 1,271 0.3 ALL IN W/CHRIS HAYES MSNBC 8:00 PM 1,958 0.2 TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT FOX NEWS 8:00 PM 2,613 0.2 INSIDE POLITICS CNN 12:00 PM 1,068 0.2 DINERS, DRIVE-INS & DIVES FOOD 9:00 PM 818 0.2 GINORMOUS FOOD FOOD 8:00 PM 810 0.2
Source: The Nielsen Company. |
The Chromecast Audio was announced with the ability to basically replicate the functionality of a high-end Sonos system, but at a much cheaper price of $35. An update rolling out starting today further fulfills that with multi-room and Hi-Res audio support…
Multi-room support was initially announced when the device was launched in September, with an end of the year launch date. It allows users to play the same audio through multiple Chromecast Audio devices that are hooked up to their Wi-Fi network. In the updated version of the Chromecast app, users will have the option to add their devices to a group. Through groups, users will be able to cast to speakers in just certain rooms or make a group that encompasses every speaker in their house. Casting to a group will be exactly the same as casting to a single device.
Today’s update also brings support for 96KHz/24bit lossless audio playback. Google calls this higher-than-CD quality audio and is certainly another shot at Sonos. The Chromecast Audio works with Android and iOS and speakers with 3.5mm, RCA, or Optical Audio. |
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com.
The depths to which “respected” journalists will stoop in seeking to create a narrative to sway elections and poll numbers defy comprehension. False allegations, slanderous innuendo and general hit-job reporting, which were once relegated to angry bloggers and unhinged writers, have been steadily creeping into what many regard as respectable news organizations.
The latest episode comes from an Associated Press story by Jay Reeves in the form of his June 30th piece celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Ku Klux Klan. Why any news organization, let alone the AP which claims to "abhor inaccuracies, carelessness, bias or distortions,” would spend so much time profiling an organization whose membership barely reaches 8,000 on a good day, is quizzical until readers see how Reeves’s piece seeks to advance the Hillary Clinton narrative and tar the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, alleging, “other Klan leaders say Donald Trump's ascendancy in the GOP is a sign things are going their way.”
Not surprisingly, the AP does not quote anybody saying any such thing, meaning nobody did. Had any reporter a direct quote from a Klansman invoking the name of Trump, it would doubtlessly be featured prominently. Instead, AP’s reference to ‘other Klan leaders,’ is, in all likelihood, ‘no Klan leaders.’
The AP’s bean-ball is feebly supported only by a Klansman who says his group has advocated a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico. Okay, fine. Trump wants to build a wall. But so did Hillary Clinton. As recently as November, she touted her record on the issue to voters in New Hampshire, saying she, “voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.”
If the AP was so hell bent on linking the Ku Klux Klan to the presidential race, it would have been closer to the truth to claim that Clinton’s support for a wall and her past unretracted support of profiling might be a sign that things are going the way of the Klan.
The history of the Ku Klux Klan and its inherent racism are inexorably linked to the Democratic Party. Apologists ferociously distance themselves from that fact, claiming the Democratic Party of today is nothing like the party of the second half of the 19th century. The truth, however, is that Democrats supported Klan-backed oppression and violence against blacks and Republicans for more than 100 years. It takes only a handful of examples over time to illustrate this ugly track record.
When the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was being debated in Congress in 1866, not one Democrat in the House or Senate voted for it. Not satisfied with opposing Republicans on congressional votes, the KKK murdered no fewer than a dozen South Carolina Republican state legislators in 1870.
By the 1924 presidential election, the Klan was so institutionalized within the Democratic Party it rallied enough convention delegates todefeat a party platform plank denouncing the Klan. Klansmen were so pleased with the results they conducted a notorious celebration that came to be known at The Klanbake.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who Bill Clinton said was the greatest president of the century, thought it best that we enter World War II with a segregated military despite calls from the GOP to integrate the armed services. While FDR didn’t have time for an executive order integrating the military, he did find time to order the internment of more than 100,000 Americans who had the bad luck of being born of Japanese ancestry.
Democrat antics accelerated during the civil rights era with Governors George Wallace and Orval Faubus refusing to integrate schools. In Washington, DC, former Klansman and U.S. Senator Robert Byrd was busy filibustering the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
This is a smattering of the hundreds - probably thousands - of ways in which Democrat Klansmen, with the support of their party, spent more than a century terrorizing and oppressing black Americans. The intimidation of the past continues today; just ask any African-American who has been viciously attacked as an Uncle Tom or an Oreo simply for disagreeing with liberal orthodoxy. Yet the Associated Press, in publishing its KKK retrospective, stomps and spits upon the values of which they purport to hold so dear as they go out of their way to taint the Republican Party and the Trump campaign.
Small wonder that GOP presidential candidates hover in the high single digits when it comes to winning the black vote. Between the lies of Democrats running for office and a supposedly unbiased media ready to promote such fallacies, it’s a wonder Republicans receive even that many African-American votes.
Donald Trump has an opportunity in 2016 to shift this dynamic. It won’t be easy but then again, we weren’t supposed to be even talking about Trump at this stage of the electoral process. Anything is possible in this election cycle—save an accurate detailing of racism in the Democrat Party. |
Delaware Senate passes indoor e-cigarette ban
Senate lawmakers passed legislation Thursday that adds e-cigarette devices to Delaware's Clean Indoor Air Act, but would exempt vape shops from such a ban.
"It is a good day for the public's health," said Sen. Bethany Hall-Long, D-Middletown, the bill's sponsor in the Senate. "This provides another level of protection for the public."
The measure, which passed 13-7, with one not voting, saw several amendments defeated. One would have exempted cigar shops from the ban, and another would have exempted taprooms and taverns.
The measure now heads to Gov. Jack Markell, who has said he will sign the bill.
House lawmakers defeated similar amendments when they passed the legislation in early May. The only amendment they did pass was the one that exempts vape shops, stores where people buy their e-cigarette devices and flavoring. Stores would be exempt if 80 percent of revenue came from the sale of e-cigarettes and the shop does not share space with other establishments.
The measure also requires that minors are prohibited from entering the vape shops and requires the stores to post signs that anyone under 18 is not allowed inside.
E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that produce an odorless vapor that typically contains nicotine and flavorings. Supporters of the bill say e-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals. The devices are not yet regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of Delaware Public Health, said during Thursday's hearing that the devices contain more than just water vapor. They contain many chemicals that can be toxic to humans, including nicotine, she said.
Opponents to the bill have said there has not been enough research done on e-cigarettes and banning them indoors could deter people from using the devices for smoking cessation.
A year ago, the Food and Drug Administration proposed regulating e-cigarettes, including banning sales to minors. Delaware banned the sale to minors last year.
Four states, including New Jersey, ban smoking e-cigarettes indoors.
Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1JIDIeY |
PHILADELPHIA--When it comes to your likelihood of receiving bystander CPR if you experience a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) in public, it turns out your gender may play a lifesaving role. According to a new study from researchers in the Center for Resuscitation Science at Penn Medicine, which is being presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2017, men are more likely to receive bystander CPR in public than women.
"By uncovering this disparity, we'll be able to think about new ways to train and educate the public on when, why, and how to administer bystander CPR, in order to help save more lives - of both men and women," said lead author, Audrey Blewer, MPH, assistant director for Educational Programs at the Center for Resuscitation Science at Penn Medicine.
Researchers evaluated 19,331 cardiac events using data from the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, a network of regional clinical centers in the United States and Canada which study out-of-hospital treatments of cardiac arrest and trauma, and found that 45 percent of men received bystander CPR in public compared to 39 percent of women. While bystander CPR is still a relatively rare, occurring in only about 37 percent of all cardiac events that happen in public locations, men were 1.23 times more likely to receive it. Men were also found to be nearly two times more likely to survive a cardiac event after bystander CPR, and they had 23 percent increased odds of survival without it, compared to women.
"The key take away from these data is that we need to find better and more effective ways to educate the general public on the importance of providing bystander CPR, and the importance of being comfortable delivering it regardless of the factors like the gender, age, or even the weight of the person in need," said senior author Benjamin Abella, MD, MPhil, director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science and a professor of Emergency Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. "This study and other investigations from our team are only just beginning to peel back the layers on CPR rates and training disparities, cardiac arrest survival, and the public's understanding of the importance of rapid intervention during a cardiac emergency."
In addition to bystander CPR rates in public locations, the team also looked at possible disparities of in-home CPR. Interestingly, there was no significant difference based on gender--35 percent of women and 36 percent of men received CPR in the home. While more research would be needed, this finding could point to the idea that people may be less comfortable delivering CPR to a woman they do not know, rather than a man because of the physical barriers. "Regardless of someone's gender or how their body is shaped, delivering bystander CPR during cardiac arrest is absolutely critical, as it has been proven to double and even triple a victim's chance of survival," said Blewer.
###
This study was funded by an American Heart Association Mentored Clinical Research Project Award. Shaun K McGovern, Clinical Research Coordinator in the Center for Resuscitation Science, is an additional Penn author on this study.
Editor's Note: This study will be presented at 3:15 p.m. PT, on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017 in room 151 (ACC North).
Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.
The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.
Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community. |
When is a record not always a record? When it's twinned with the word "debt". To have a hope of knowing what's happening with the economy, you need to learn the rules of a childish game, says Michael Blastland. Here's a game that's all the rage with politicians and the media. Take any number of pounds that's bigger than it was before: the price of a hotel room, the size of the health budget, whatever, but particularly at the moment, government borrowing. Shout: "It's a record!" Apportion blame or praise, as desired. The game is fatuous, but don't let that stop you. After all, it doesn't stop them. Here are some examples. The numbers are all correct. 1. In 17 years of power up to 1997, the Conservatives made net debt repayments in four years, totalling nearly £17bn. Since coming to power in 1997, Labour made net repayments in three years, totalling about £41bn. (A record!)
Praise be to Labour prudence, the Conservatives were rubbish. 2. In 1993, during the last recession, the Conservative government borrowed about £51bn. This year, Labour is expected to borrow about £64bn. (A record!)
All hail Conservative prudence, Labour are rubbish. 3. After World War II, the national debt was about £24bn. In September this year, after repeated Labour and Conservative governments, public sector net debt had reached about £645bn. (A record!)
They are all rubbish. Getting a taste for it? Try these top tips: Don't try to inform or enlighten - just generate as much heat as possible (with extra points at a time of public anxiety)
Ignore inflation - this makes it impossible to say how any quantity of pounds genuinely compares with another some years apart, but does allow many absurd, baseless comparisons
Assume that wealth doesn't matter, as if £10,000 owed by someone earning £5,000 a year is as serious a debt as it would be to Roman Abramovich And it's game on! Although, there are problems. One is that it treats the public like fools. Another is it soon becomes boring. Both are clear when we play the game with the national debt since the war, which would have allowed us to shout "record!" in the following years: 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Records of this type come round almost like the calendar because economies grow, and there's almost always some inflation. We might as well report that the date, 2008, is a record number of recorded years. More than in any other year since records began 2008 years ago. Beating by one the record held only last year, of 2007. And that if the trend continues we will see another record number of years recorded in the year as early as next year. Stating the obvious In short, our media and politicians on both sides have been talking a good deal of rubbish. What's the alternative? We could look at debt and borrowing in context. This is admittedly less easy to shout about. If we do, cash records can be seen for what they are: often misleading. "Labour triples spending on the NHS"
"Labour borrowing hits record" Such boasts and criticisms - and both of these have appeared frequently - tell us little. To many, this will be obvious. So how do we work out if the numbers are genuinely better or worse than in the past, and by how much? First, we compare them with the size of the economy in pounds (or what's called "money GDP"). This takes account of the combination of inflation and how well off we are, and is the method used by statistical authorities worldwide. The first chart plays the game, and shows the government deficit now and in 1993 (the former "record"). If we talk only in pounds - and also chop off the bottom of the graph so it doesn't start at zero - we can make things look terrible. Here are the same numbers with a little context. This time, they are also compared with the size of the economy. Now we see rising inflation and economic growth have more than doubled the size of the economy in pounds. But have they also doubled the deficit in pounds? Not even nearly. If we updated the 1993 deficit to a 2008-sized economy after 15 years of inflation, it would be over £110bn, compared with this year's projected deficit of about £64bn. So is borrowing already a record, as recent wild headlines have suggested? Evidently not, at least not in any meaningful sense, or certainly not yet, however many zeros there are on the end of the figure (and that is also true in the US). In 1993 in the UK, borrowing reached 7% of GDP; today it is about half that. Does this mean Labour's borrowing is actually lower in this downturn than Conservative borrowing at the last? No. These are early days - and it will rise. So we can't compare the peaks in borrowing, but we can compare borrowing at the point that each recession began. We can also say that we don't expect borrowing to be as high in good times as in bad. If we take all this into account, and look at how much each government was borrowing just before the storm hit, we find no meaningful difference. Adjusted for the economic cycle, Conservative borrowing then was about 2.6% of GDP. Labour borrowing now is about 2.7% of GDP. But the best analysis - from the Institute for Fiscal Studies - suggests that borrowing is beginning to rise more quickly this time. That's borrowing from month to month. What about the total stock of all debt still outstanding - what was once called the National Debt but is now referred to (and measured differently) as public sector net debt? Labour did reduce it from the level inherited in 1997, relative to GDP (as did the Tories in 1979) but it soon started to rise again (as it did with the Tories). It's still lower than some other big, rich countries like France, Italy, or Japan, but higher than most countries in the OECD. Here's another chart. It shows the UK's public sector net debt, as a proportion of GDP, of course. (Why do we show the debt without the cost of Northern Rock? Because unlike ordinary government debt, Northern Rock is also worth something, an asset that we can probably cash in one day. If we include it, today's line would be at about the level of 1997). So how do they compare overall? Arguably, Labour's plight is worse because it is starting a recession from a higher net debt position than the start of the recession in the early 1990s. Borrowing also seems to be beginning to rise faster. But things are not yet remotely as bad as they have been on many previous occasions. Claims the country is in a better debt position than it was in 1997 are true, but less relevant than the comparison with the start of the last recession in the early 90s, by which measure today's debt is higher. Context takes only a moment. A good and simple start would be to present figures as a percentage of GDP, whether for spending, taxation or borrowing. Of course, there's the small matter of what the government actually does with the money. But when it comes to how much money we're talking about, handle records with care. Michael Blastland is the author, with Andrew Dilnot, of The Tiger That Isn't. Below is a selection of your comments: Good article. About time we saw some balance and rationality from a journalist. I am fed up with journalistic sensationalism, even if it does sell papers, how are we able to have any sense of objectivity if the information is constantly twisted. As for politicians, their self serving has turned most of the people off the whole subject.
Chris, London Michael Blastland is to be congratulated on providing a balanced and informative article - head and shoulders above the attempts of his colleagues! This is what journalism SHOULD be about. Why do we not get this kind of insight in other pieces? Particularly with climate change, where so much rubbish is presented as if it were true.
T Massingham, Gloucester - UK I agree entirely with the need for context, but as soon as anyone starts qualifying the numbers most people either stop listening, accuse them of "fiddling" or just don't understand. Dumbed down populist news means anything more than a mono-syllabic sentence (with just one number in it) is too much for most people. Try explaining to people that 10% growth in house prices followed by a 10% loss is actually an overall 1% loss, and you might as well be trying to tell them the moon really is made of cheese.
Alan Marson, Aberdeen, Scotland But isn't the Beeb just as guilty of hype as the politicians? How often is % used in news items to sex up the figures? Statistics are sprayed round by the media and politicians generally, usually generating more heat than light. Look at the present BBC coverage of the recession-plunging graphs, doom laden pronouncements, - those facing unemployment or wrecked pensions must feel like slitting their wrists! Less reputation burnishing, more truth please!
Gordon Thompson, Crich, Derbyshire U.K. This article is the longest on the BBC News website today ... a record!
Jon D, huddersfield 2008 is not a record number of recorded years The Mayan calendar extends back over 5000 years (a record) - check your facts!
Oz, Cambridge, UK Inspired Article. At last someone at the BBC reporting with an element of common sense! Bravo Michael!!
Nick Pollins, Brighton What happens if you include PFI obligations, unfunded public sector pension liabilities and state pension liabilities. I suspect the result would be terrifying.
Dave, London Very enlightening - and something that I have often suspected! Why isn't there any regulation on this when newspapers etc report these matters? Equally, why doesn't the accused stand up and ask for the beans to be re-counted? BBC, we expect you to lead the way!
Allan, Surrey I knew it! Anything can be made witty and entertaining with the judicious application of sarcasm. Thank you, I feel both well informed and vindicated.
Kat Murphy, Coventry Another record where inflation is ignored appears to be box-office takings. Every year sees a new film smashing the previous record for box-office takings, but it's not a surprise as inflation isn't taken into account. So as the price of a cinema ticket rises, so the amount of sales required to beat the previous record falls. However, as Michael Blastland points out, people like reading about records being broken. Even if they would have been broken merely by the passing of time.
DS, Croydon, England
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NSW Transport Minister announces inner-west bus region tender
Updated
After a deluge of complaints about buses in Sydney's Inner West, the Government has decided to put the service out to private tender.
The Government said bus region six, which services suburbs from the city west to Strathfield and Olympic Park, the worst on-time running results in 2016.
"I think the people of the inner-west deserve better," Transport Minister Andrew Constance said.
"If you consider that the private sector's had 19,000 complaints statewide verse 12,000 in this one region alone something had to give, and when it's complaints about buses not turning up, poor performance, we need to take action for our customers."
Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said other states had successfully used bus franchises.
"By franchising the inner-west bus services what you'll end up with is significant savings for government and much better service for consumers," she said.
"With a complete franchising of the bus service here in New South Wales, on the basis of research we did at the end of last year, it could mean up to a billion dollars over a five-year period for the NSW Government, which they could then invest in other public transport or other outcomes."
Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional secretary Chris Preston said the Government had reneged on a promise made in December 2016 that existing contracts would continue for five years.
"This betrayal that Minister Constance has bestowed on these 1,200 workers and the travelling community will not be taken lightly," he said.
Shadow transport minister Jodi McKay challenged the Government to release evidence justifying the decision.
"This excuse about complaints, I think, is a red herring and I challenge the Minister to release those figures.
"These are heavily congested, heavily populated areas of Sydney and I think the Minister needs to be honest with the community about why this has occurred and when this decision was made by Government," she said.
Ms McKay described the tender announcement as "another Berejiklian Government sell-off".
"This is a government that is rapidly getting out of the business of running public services. Buses should be run for the public benefit, not for private profit."
Buses and depots would still be owned by the Government and they would continue to regulate timetables and fares.
Topics: road-transport, transport, urban-development-and-planning, state-parliament, homebush-2140, strathfield-2135
First posted |
A parade float representing the Northeast. (Photo supplied)
Bangkok motorists are advised to avoid Rama I and Ratchadamri roads on Wednesday evening, when a tourism promotion procession will make its way from Pathumwan intersection to Lumpini Park.
The outbound lane of Rama I road (next to Siam Discovery) from Pathumwan intersection to Chaloem Phao Junction will be close from 5pm to 9pm. The procession will go along Rama 1 Road and turn right at Ratchaprasong intersection, then along Ratchadamri Road to Lumpini Park.
A signpost near Khlong Toey market on Rama IV Road advises motorists to avoid some intersections in Bangkok during the tourism promotion procession on Wednesday. (Photo by Nittaya Nattayai)
Pol Maj Gen Jirapat Phumjit, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) who oversees traffic in the city, said motorists from Charoen Phon intersection heading to Pathumwan intersection on Rama I will be forced to either turn left to Phaya Thai Road or right to Sam Yan area during this time.
Motorists from Phloenchit can go through the inbound lane of Rama 1 road, he said. After the procession moves to Ratchadamri road, it will occupy only the far left lane of the road. Other lanes can be used by motorists.
The MPB,wants drivers to avoid the route to ease traffic problems. Spectators are advised to use t public transport to attend the event.
Traffic information is available at hotline 1197 of the Traffic Control and Command Centre, Pol Maj Gen Jirapat said.
The procession marks the government’s “Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018” campaign, which runs from Nov 1 to Jan 1, 2019.
The procession is in six parts -- the symbol of “Amazing Thailand Tourism Year 2018”, traditions from the five regions of Thailand, Thai gastronomy, colourful festivals, sport tourism and good hosts. |
Raising a child who doesn't conform to gender roles is a minefield, for even the most supportive parents. How do you let your children be themselves while also protecting them from bullies? That question led a number of parents to organize an annual four-day camp in the wilderness for their kids.
The result was an annual long-weekend camp that serves nearly 30 families, many of whom met several years ago through a therapy group for gender-nonconforming children in Washington, D.C. It started in a few hotel rooms in D.C. and evolved into a real camp usually held at religious retreats in various rural settings around the country. The children, ages 6 to 12, attend with their parents and siblings.
In 2007, Sag Harbor photographer Lindsay Morris began attending camp. She took pictures of the children and their families to document their camp experience. But as the years passed and her photo library grew, Morris thought about doing something more with the pictures. In 2012, thanks to the courage of some of the families, Morris’ photographs appeared in a cover story for the New York Times Magazine . The book, titled You Are You , is an expansion of that project.
At camp, the children do all the typical camp things. They canoe, they craft, they roast marshmallows. Almost all of the children are biological boys who like to wear girl’s clothing. The weekend culminates in a fashion show with the works: red carpets, a runway, and fans to blow the kids' hair back. "We try to make them feel fabulous,” says Morris, “I think it helps carry them through the year — the memory of their parents and siblings in the audience clapping for them."
The kids in Morris' photographs fall across the gender spectrum. But they are too young to know which category they will grow into — if they fit into a category at all. Some will grow up to be transgender, others will be gender-conforming adults. Still more may decide to embrace a more fluid concept of gender. “Living with ambiguity can be very hard," writes one of the parents in a reflection in the book. The beauty of the camp is that it allows the kids to live comfortably in the middle, a difficult space to occupy during the rest of the year.
Morris had many goals with the book. She wanted to illustrate gender-creative children in a joyful, supportive setting to counteract the painful things we associate with children who don’t conform. She wanted gender-variant kids and the adults who advocate for them to see that they are not alone. Along with the images and reflections, she has included a list of helpful books and support organizations available to families.
But her work's greatest value may be in teaching us to see the potential joy of children who are allowed the freedom to be themselves.
For more information about the project and events, visit lindsaycmorris.com and youareyouproject.com . |
Merida, 27th November 2013 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – 30,000 security cameras will be installed across Venezuela under a scheme inaugurated by President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday, amid ongoing efforts to tackle street crime.
“We're establishing a support system at the highest technological level,” Maduro stated during the inauguration of the Integrated Monitoring and Assistance System (SIMA).
Aimed at reducing crime though the installation of security cameras in public places, SIMA will be rolled out nationwide, “town by town” according to Maduro. For now, however, the system has only been implemented in Miranda state, where it's currently headquartered. Within two years the system will be functioning in 16 Venezuelan cities, interior and justice minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said during the opening of the Miranda facility on Tuesday. The minister stated that each city would have a SIMA operational hub, linked to a “situation room” in Caracas.
SIMA has a price tag of over US$1.2 billion, and the technology behind the project has been provided by the China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC) under a deal with the interior ministry. Maduro said his government also intends to incorporate unmanned surveillance drones into the system.
“We must serve not only for safety but also for the general assistance of the community,” Maduro said. According to the president, the system will not only be used to prevent crime, but also assist in national emergencies including natural disasters.
SIMA is also part of the Safe Homeland plan, and has been hailed by the government as part of a shift towards preventive policing – a model of law enforcement advocated by Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
During the inauguration, Maduro also stated that his government should “work with both hands” to tackle street crime by focusing on rehabilitation and crime prevention, rather than punishment. He cited the government's recent sponsorship of a group of 30 Venezuelan youth who are now studying sports education in Cuba as an example of his commitment to addressing crime through the new model.
The 30 young Venezuelans all voluntarily surrendered firearms to the national government, according to the president. Venezuela has one of the world's highest homicide rates and most murders are gun related. In 2011, 94% of homicides involved firearms, according to figures from the national government. The commercial sale of firearms to the general public is illegal in Venezuela, and authorities have publicly called for Venezuelans to voluntarily hand over guns for destruction.
Since 2003, over 355,000 guns have been obtained and destroyed by authorities, Deputy Minister of Criminal Investigation, Maria Martinez told state news agency AVN on Tuesday. Over 17,000 more weapons were added to that figure on Tuesday during an event broadcast by state media from the National Iron and Steel Complex in Barquisimeto, Lara state.
It's a very important number of weapons to be destroyed this day, part of the whole process that has been taking place in the country,” Martinez told VTV.
The arms ranging from hunting rifles to handguns would be smelted, and the metal used as construction material for Mision Vivienda according to the minister. The mission provides free housing to Venezuelans.
More Police Graduate from UNES
On the same day in Caracas, 5,660 new police officers graduated from the National Experimental University of Security (UNES). The UNES was established following the recommendation of the 2006 National Commission for Police Reform, which called for police training to be taken out of the hands of the military. The university is staffed by a number of human rights advocates, and according to supporters its curriculum has a strong focus on human rights education.
Maduro announced that he would mark the graduation by approving a pay rise for around 6,600 municipal and state police officers. According to the president, the salary adjustments will bring these officers in line with national standards. Last month, Maduro stated he planned on further standardising Venezuela's various regional police forces.
The new pay adjustments will come into effect on 1 January, 2014. |
(JTA) — Cuba said it will release nearly 3,000 prisoners on humanitarian grounds, but did not include Jewish-American Alan Gross on the list.
Gross, a U.S. subcontractor jailed in Cuba for the last two years for "crimes against the state," is in ill health.
The prisoner amnesty, which Cuban leader Raul Castro called a humanitarian gesture, was announced late Friday.
“To receive news in the middle of Hanukkah that the Cuban authorities have once again overlooked an opportunity to release Alan on humanitarian grounds is devastating," Gross’ wife, Judy, said in a statement, CNN reported. "Our family is simply heartbroken.”
The U.S. State Department also condemned Gross’ exclusion from the list.
"If this is correct, we are deeply disappointed and deplore the fact that the Cuban government has decided not to take this opportunity to extend this humanitarian release to Mr. Gross this holiday season, especially in light of his deteriorating health, and to put an end to the Gross family’s long plight," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Saturday.
Gross, 62, is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for distributing laptop computers and connecting Cuban Jews to the Internet. He was arrested in 2009 as he was leaving Cuba.
Gross’ family and U.S. State Department officials say that Gross was in the country on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to help the country’s 1,500 Jews communicate with other Jewish communities using the Internet. The main Jewish groups in Cuba have denied any contact with or knowledge of Gross or the program. |
UFC is ready to make a third trip to New York in the last five months as the company heads to Buffalo, New York, to host its third pay-per-view event of the year. Light heavyweight champion Daniel “DC” Cormier will put his title on the line against heavy-handed knockout artist Anthony “Rumble” Johnson. But outside of the main and co-main events, there aren’t a ton of names fight fans are used to seeing. Here are 10 things you should know ahead of UFC 210 on Saturday.
Title fight is a rematch. Cormier and Rumble battled two years ago for the vacant light heavyweight title. While Johnson was able to do some damage, Cormier’s expertise on the ground proved to be the difference with DC scoring the submission victory in the third round. It will be interesting to see how Johnson has expanded his game over the last two years to prepare for this because his last three wins have all come via knockout. Both fighters riding winning streaks. Cormier and Johnson are both riding three-fight win streaks into their rematch. Since losing his first professional MMA fight ever to Jon Jones in 2015, Cormier has rattled off wins against Johnson, Alexander Gustafsson via split decision and Anderson Silva via unanimous decision. Johnson, meanwhile, has knocked out Jimi Manuwa in the second round, Ryan Bader in the first and Glover Teixeira in just 13 seconds. Johnson a slight betting favorite. The odds are nearly dead even, but in most places where you could put a wager down, Rumble is a slight favorite (-115) over Cormier (-105). I have to think that has more to do with how Johnson has won those three fights versus how Cormier looked, even though Cormier did win their last match up. Chris Weidman’s rebound? The former middleweight champion is on a bit of a downward spiral. Since knocking out Anderson Silva to end UFC’s longest championship reign ever, Weidman lost to Luke Rockhold to lose the belt. Then, after battling a neck injury for most of 2016, Weidman was dropped by a crazy flying knee from Yoel Romero in December. Now, he gets one of the hottest fighters at 185 pounds in Gegard Mousasi, riding a four-fight winning streak with three straight KO/TKOs. Weidman desperately needs a win to remind fans that he wasn’t a one-hit wonder who caught a vulnerable champion at the right time. Log-jam at 185 pounds. Speaking of Mousasi, a win over Weidman would definitely start to draw attention for the former Strikeforce champion to get a title shot. The problem is everyone is stuck waiting on what champion Michael Bisping is doing. UFC gave his next title defense to legend Georges St-Pierre, who has been out of action since 2014, and never fought at middleweight. And while they have agreed to a bout, a date and location remains up in the air. Romero, Jacare Souza and Mousasi all believe they deserve a title shot, but have been forced to play the waiting game. It would truly be a disappointment if one of those three fighters doesn’t get a title shot before the end of 2017. Return of the phenom. Women’s strawweight Cynthia Calvillo is back in the octagon for UFC 210 and will face relative unknown Pearl Gonzalez. Calvillo (4-0) is slowly working her way up the 115-pound rankings after scoring her first victory in UFC at UFC 209 last month. It’s a quick turnaround for the 29-year old, but she took virtually no damage in that fight against Amanda Cooper. If she’s successful in that same way on Saturday, it’s only a matter of time before we see her against the top competitors in the division. Will Brooks’ return. The former Bellator lightweight champion was expected to come in and set the UFC on fire. Then, he ran into Alex Oliveira last October. Brooks (18-2) was coming off a unanimous decision win over Ross Pearson and looking to continue his march toward the 155-pound title, but Oliveira caught Brooks in the third round and finished things off with a TKO. Now, Brooks will face another Oliveira -- Charles -- who happens to be the No. 9 ranked lightweight. A win -- and a decisive one at that -- will quickly make people forget about that loss. A final ride for the Pitbull? Thiago Alves has had an incredible run with UFC. He peaked with a title shot against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 100 in 2009. But since then, Alves has gone just 5-4 in nine bouts, including a failed attempt to cut down to lightweight in his last fight when he missed 155 by seven pounds. Now, he faces Patrick Cote, who is 3-1 in his last four but coming of a TKO loss to Donald Cerrone. If Alves is unable to beat Cote, it may be time for Alves to ride off into the sunset. Only five ranked fighters on main card. It’s crazy to look at, but only Cormier, Johnson, Weidman, Mousasi and Oliveira are ranked fighters heading into UFC 210. Now, most think Calvillo will be ranked shortly, but it speaks to a bit of the depth issues that fans have been concerned with on these pay-per-view card of late. If UFC wants fans to keep buying these cards, they need more ranked fighters on them. A letdown brewing? This will be UFC’s third pay-per-view event of the year. The first two did little to keep fans engaged throughout the card. Plus, both main events (Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie and Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson) were brutal to watch. With a heavy striker like Rumble in the mix, the hope is he can provide some fireworks. Cormier even said early on in the leadup to this fight that he would stand and trade with him if necessary, but nobody believes him. The smart way for Cormier to win is to make this a boring fight to watch, which would lead to more criticism of UFC’s new management and match-making coordination. |
About
**CURRENT PRODUCTION PROTOTYPE**
100% of mom's agree... Raspberry Pi tastes best in a PiCrust!
"The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. The Raspberry Pi Foundation's goal is to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming." **
The Raspberry Pi is a great little micro computer... but it does have one flaw: They all ship without a case.
This project's goal is to design, develop and mass produce a case to get the cost as low as possible.
Version 1.0 of my Raspberry Pi Case, with Fan Mount (This is the 3d printable model, **Not the final production model**:
Printed Prototype (Notice the lack of curves...):
I've custom built my own 3D printer, and have been turning out print after print of my prototype case design; but this process is slow... Very Slow. Every case takes me an hour and a half to print. Which means I have to keep the costs high to keep demand low.
I'd like to reverse that, and get lower priced cases (like, very low priced), into the hands of anyone who wants one.
To get the price low, the answer is simple: bulk.
I need to get enough people interested to get funding to do a mass production run through an injection molder. This is the only way to drop the price low enough to make it feasible to offer them at this price.
** Injection Molded prototype rendered in black, showing GPIO Port (and how the case fits together)
**Old Injection Molded Prototype (Still Changing)
If I don't get enough orders to cover the cost of injection molding; I'll still continue making cases on my 3d printers... I'll just make a lot less of them.
So... what do you think? Are you in?
** RaspberryPi.org |
There are some exciting changes in today's Steam client beta update!
First off, SteamVR (formerly known as OpenVR), Valve's alternate reality SDK, has been officially shipped. Hopefully we'll see some developer documentation pop up soon so developers can integrate it into their games.
SteamVR also brings VR support inside Steam's Big Picture. Read this if you want to try it out.
And if a fancy VR mode isn't enough, the In-Home Streaming client has been shipped as well!
It wasn't mentioned in the changelog, probably because it is currently undergoing a limited invite-only beta test.
Update: The first batch of invites have been sent out!
Going off the Known Issues list from the below FAQ page and the fact there are streaming client binaries for Windows, OSX and Linux you'll be able to stream from and to any supported Steam platform.
Steam In-Home Streaming will allow you to play a game on one computer when the game itself is actually running on another computer somewhere else in your home network. Through Steam, game audio and video is captured on the remote computer (server) and sent to the players computer (client). The game input (keyboard, mouse or gamepad) is sent from the players computer (client) to the actual game on the remote computer (server). – In-Home Streaming FAQ page
Codecs
These codecs seem to be implemented, we're not sure until we have an invite but it looks like a promising start.
Video
Raw
H.264
VP8
Audio
Raw
Opus
Ogg Vorbis
These codecs are referenced in the internals of the streaming client, and might or might not pop up at one point.
HuffYUV
ULY0
H.265
VP9
ORBX
Launch arguments
These are internally called upon by the Steam Client, but do give a nice overview of the capabilities.
Usage: %s [--windowed] [--novsync] [--nohwaccel] [--captureres WxH] [--framerate N] [--bitrate N (Kbit/s)] [--debug] [--testlocallatency] accountname |
(CNN) Romance isn't dead yet -- at least not in waters off the western coast of Australia.
Scientists have recently observed humpback male dolphins in the region presenting females with large marine sponges in the hope of impressing them.
They also observed male humpback dolphins acting as "wingmen" for each other-- this type of male cooperation is unusual in dolphins given that paternity can't be shared.
This is the first time this level of social complexity has been observed in dolphins.
Not just foraging
While previous research has shown bottle-nose dolphins using sponges and sometimes shells as foraging tools, this was clearly different.
"This is a sexual display involving object carrying by humpback dolphins," said Simon Allen, the lead author of a study on the phenomenon that was released last month.
The research was carried out across the north-western Australian coastline, with sites in Coral Bay, the North West Cape, Dampier Archipelago, Cygnet Bay and Cone Bay.
"This is incredibly rare in mammals, except of course, in our own species," Allen, from the University of Western Australia, told CNN.
There are three possible reasons for this behavior, he said: "It's gift giving, it's a signal of his fitness (so) quality as a mate, or it's a threat to coerce her into mating with him."
Big boys only
Leaping humpback dolphin
Only the big male dolphins put on this show, and almost always, it's for the benefit of the female dolphins.
In their decade long study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Western Australia, the University of Zurich and Murdoch University recorded sponge presentation, and sometimes, tossing the sponge towards the female.
Some male dolphins even adopt the "banana pose," whereby a big male will lie at the water surface with his head and tail arched up -- almost as if he is flexing his muscles.
An essential for any good first date, the male dolphin might also provide music: a kind of trumpeting "toot!" sound out of his blowhole.
Friendship first
Some big males will even pair up with a friend, acting as a wingman of sorts, helping each other out when it comes to social interactions.
The pairing might try to secure the affections of the female, to prevent her from escaping their attentions, beat up on other males, or even defend the female against a potential attack from other males.
"The formation of alliances between adult males for the purposes of coercing females is uncommon, since mating success cannot be shared," said co-author Stephanie King, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia. The only other species that form alliances for mating purposes are lions and a few other primates.
Previous research conducted on the bottle-nose dolphins of Shark Bay indicates "these male alliances are generally very tight units, and even when they are following a female, they spend most of their time petting and touching each other, reinforcing that love is love, no matter what the sex or the species," said Allen. This is the first time a similar bond was seen between humpback males as well.
Less is known about such behavior in humpback dolphins, but the team hopes to research this further.
Allen also said the team would next like to collect biopsy samples in order to assess paternity success, to partly answer the question of whether courting behavior by male dolphins actually works. |
You don't often see someone call out an injured fighter coming off a loss, but UFC welterweight Tyron Woodley believes a matchup with Matt Brown is exactly what the fans want.
"Granted it's one of the toughest fights, but it's a good match-up, people love [Brown], he was a fight away from a title shot, ranked fifth, and fans would flip," Woodley told MMA Fighting Tuesday. "I feel like he will bring the best out of me and test my limits. I respect him as a fighter and feel fighting him makes the most since for my career."
Brown, rehabbing the right hand he injured in a decision loss to Robbie Lawler at UFC on FOX 12, isn't so sure. If he had his way, he'd much rather be re-booked against former WEC champion Carlos Condit.
"I just went to the doctor this morning for my hand so it's going to be four weeks before I'm even cleared to spar, punch pads, do any hard core grappling," Brown told FOX Sports. "I can do some light drills and stuff but my hand is still messed up so between now and then is when I'm really going to decide what happens. I feel like it's fairly irrelevant at this point but I think Woodley or [Carlos] Condit it probably going to be along the same line I would think. Me and Condit were supposed to fight once before and I think that's the fight everyone wants to see. I think out styles, the way they match up, is probably the most interesting fight out there. I'm open to whatever."
Brown was set to face Condit last December at UFC on FOX 9, but was forced to withdraw after herniating two discs in his lower back the week of the fight. Condit was then booked against Woodley at UFC 171 in March, suffering a TKO loss after tearing both his ACL and meniscus.
"You never know how a fight's going to go, but I would anticipate not a f**kin' barnburner war," Brown said of a matchup with Woodley. "That's probably not what the fans would anticipate. Whether it is or not, god only knows. Condit is probably a f**kin' barnburner. I can't imagine it going any other way."
Brown isn't confident fans would buzz over the Woodley matchup, whereas a booking with Condit would create a frenzy.
"Strategy is whatever," said Brown. "I don't give a f**k. I don't see the fans anticipating a war [with Woodley]. I don't anticipate anything in a fight. A lot of them are probably going to expect [Woodley] to knock me out real quick or he's going to take me down, grind me out real quick, or that I'm going to slowly beat him up and that it'd be a good war. Those are three basic options for Woodley where I think Condit you have, most likely, no matter how this fight goes, we're f**king each other up. We're going to be bloody and beat up at the end."
5 MUST-READ STORIES
'In breach.' The UFC announced Tuesday that UFC President Dana White was found to be in breach of the promotion's regulatory protocol after he removed judge Howard Hughes from officiating at UFC Fight Night: Bisping vs. Le. White later apologized and said he was wrong. 'Hopefully it's the last time I'll ever do that.'
'It's pretty much life and death for me.' Chad Mendes talks head games with Jose Aldo, the rivalry between Team Alpha Male and Nova Uniao and more.
Wonderful. Phil Davis explains his approach to fighting Glover Teixeira, helping Daniel Cormier train for Jon Jones and his concerns over the judging in Brazil.
Numbers. Saturday's FOX Sports 1 event in Tulsa averaged 689,000 viewers, the third-lowest for a Saturday night Fight Night to date, while the debut episode of TUF Latin America peaked at 7.2 million viewers on Televisa.
Heading south. UFC announces a stacked card for their debut in Mexico on Nov. 15.
MEDIA STEW
UFC 177 embedded episode 2.
Jose Aldo shoves Chad Mendes at UFC 179 media day.
Fight Motion: Henderson vs. dos Anjos.
Dan Hardy previews UFC 177 and teaches you how to gamble like a degenerate.
Highlights from PANCRASE 260.
TTTHS.
Wow. Fighter wins a title fight by TKO after his opponent pukes in the cage. (Gross-ish)
Long watches.
UFC 180: Ticket On-Sale Press Conference
...
WEC Wrekcage: Faber vs. Pearson
TWEETS
Sounds good.
Shit got heated today. Can't wait to punch this dude right in his mouth. @torque1net @thememorytag... http://t.co/sDVsGCE9A8 — chad mendes (@chadmendes) August 26, 2014
Things got out of control at the @ufc 179 media day in brazil. Good thing I was there to keep the... http://t.co/fqStqa5Sq1 — Phil Davis (@PhilMrWonderful) August 26, 2014
Ready.
@DiegoSanchezUFC @ufc Melendez beat you, Gomi beat you, jury smashed you, pearson beat you.. Use your brains cells and you have a chance!! — STORMIN NORMAN PARKE (@norman_parke) August 26, 2014
Got a fight?
Finally the day I've been waiting for is here. Thank God — Anthony Johnson (@Anthony_Rumble) August 26, 2014
Get well soon.
Thanks for the support everyone. I'm sorry I won't be able to fight next week. I can't wait to be back to 100% and fight for you guys. — Andre Fili (@TouchyFili) August 27, 2014
This is how you escape throws ;) #judo
Cool.
The struggle.
Waiting for someone to call me out — Hector Lombard (@HectorLombard) August 27, 2014
@danawhite @ufc @seanshelby I'm confident I can beat any BW and FLYW. You signed guys who ducked me 4 times. Give me a chance too. — Leandro Higo (@LeandroHigoMMA) August 26, 2014
@danawhite @seanshelby I work hard every day. I'm ready to fight at any time. I beat @ufc veterans. I'll do anything to be a UFC fighter. — Leandro Higo (@LeandroHigoMMA) August 26, 2014
I have to laugh at the way my mother keeps referring to my time on TUF as when I was 'on my holidays'. It sure wasn't any holiday :) #tuf20 — Aisling Daly (@aisydaly) August 26, 2014
I was carded at a bar for trying to buy orange juice. :D lol RT @lastcall155 @holdsworth135 I was just denied kombucha for not having I.D. — Roxanne Modafferi (@Roxyfighter) August 26, 2014
Why?
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Aug. 26 2014)
cancelled Akira Corassani vs. Chan Sung Jung at UFC Fight Night: Nelson vs. Story
Dustin Jacoby vs. Muhammed Lawal at Bellator 123
Jake Ellenberger vs. Kelvin Gastelum at UFC 180
Norman Parke vs. Diego Sanchez at UFC 180
Dennis Bermudez vs. Ricardo Lamas at UFC 180
Marcus Brimage vs. Erik Perez at UFC 180
Kailin Curran vs. Paige VanZant moved from UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine to UFC Fight Night: Austin
Joseph Benavidez vs. Dustin Ortiz at UFC Fight Night: Austin
Andre Fili out, Chas Skelly vs. Sean Soriano at UFC Fight Night: Mousasi vs. Souza
Found something you'd like to see in the Morning Report? Just hit me up on Twitter @SaintMMA and we'll include it in tomorrow's column. |
Prospect of the Day: Leonys Martin, OF, Texas Rangers
While all of the baseball world's attention is drawn to the 2011 draft, remember that teams have other sources of talent, too, namely the international market. The Texas Rangers made a splash this spring by signing Cuban defector Leonys Martin to a five-year, $15.5 million free agent contact.
A 23-year-old center fielder, Martin is a left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower. With the bat, he is a line drive hitter with a good feel for the strike zone and strong contact abilities. Although he's not a huge home run hitter, he has significant pop to the gaps, will hit plenty of doubles, and could hit 10-15 homers a year in time. His running speed isn't spectacular but rates as above average, and he has the instincts to use it well. Likewise, both his throwing arm and outfield defense rate as above average, and he is a fine defender in center field.
Martin has played well in his first 20 minor league games, hitting .338/.419/.538 in 80 at-bats for Double-A Frisco in the Texas League. He's drawn 11 walks with just six strikeouts so far. While the sample is small, this does match the scouting reports about his contact/discipline style of hitting. He's stolen eight bases but has also been caught four times, but scouts don't expect stealing efficiency to be a long-term problem.
The Rangers expect Martin to be ready for the majors within a year, and the early returns from Frisco do nothing to dispute this. He could move up to Triple-A by mid-summer, and a September promotion is possible if the Rangers want to get a look at their big investment before 2012. I would rate him as a solid Grade B prospect right now, with a B+ by the end of the year if he maintains this level of performance. |
As he made clear in his announcement speech, Donald Trump has taken an interest in crimes happening along the U.S.-Mexico border. Making the case for the construction of a “great wall” between the two countries, he complained that Mexican immigrants are “bringing drugs” and “crime” to the United States as a part of the ongoing Mexican Drug War, a conflict which is largely the result of the War on Drugs waged in the United States. Despite this, Donald Trump continues to support drug war policies at home and oppose reforms that could attenuate the conflict in the area.
Donald Trump knows the War on Drugs doesn’t work. In 1990, he spoke boldly about what needed to be done to put an end to drug-related crime:
Billionaire New York developer Donald Trump says that legalizing drugs is the only way to win the war against what he considers one of America’s most serious problems. Trump blamed the country’s drug problems on politicians who “don’t have any guts” and enforcement efforts that are “a joke.” “We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” Trump told 700 people at a luncheon Friday. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars.” “What I’d like to do maybe by bringing it up is cause enough controversy that you get into a dialogue on the issue of drugs so people will start to realize that this is the only answer; there is no other answer,” Trump said. (via Herald Journal)
Since the 1990s, our prohibitionist policies have remained in place and violence related to the illegal drug trade has skyrocketed. The Mexican Drug War alone has claimed the lives of over 100,000 people in eight years and displaced over a million people as a result of the cartel violence. As Donald Trump surely knows, many of those displaced from their homes in Mexico migrate north to the United States. Meanwhile, drug cartels reap huge profits from the illegal drug trade, which fuels the lawlessness that Trump is calling attention to.
As Anthony Johnson points out, Donald Trump was right when he said legalization is the answer to these problems. On top of raising tax revenue and saving millions on law enforcement, marijuana legalization has shown to be an effective policy to reduce the profits of drug cartels:
“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” [retired federal agent] Nelson said, “They aren’t able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.” In 2012, a study by the Mexican Competitiveness Institute found that US state legalization would cut into cartel business and take over about 30 percent of their market. (via Vice News)
Despite knowing that legalization is, in his own words, “the only way to win” the War on Drugs, Trump no longer favors this position, arguing instead that marijuana legalization is causing problems in states like Colorado. “I think it’s bad, and I feel strongly about that,” he said this year. While he suggests he would allow states to enforce their own marijuana laws should they choose to legalize, Donald Trump stated multiple times that he does not support ending marijuana prohibition “unless it’s medical marijuana.”
According to Donald Trump, the United States needs a president “who thinks like a winner;” but while he knows that the War on Drugs can only be won with legalization, he opposes this position and provides no viable alternative. In this way, Trump has come to resemble the gutless politicians he denounced earlier in his career. Rather than leading the way towards peace in the Mexican Drug War, Trump seems satisfied merely complaining about it, and that’s about as far as one can get from thinking like a “winner.” |
Washington (CNN) Two weeks from today, Iowans will gather at caucus sites around the state in the first formal balloting of the 2016 presidential election. As the candidates make their final pitches, voters in the early states will solidify their choices -- if they haven't already -- and the rest of us will finally be able to point to real results when assessing a candidate's appeal.
Heading into these crucial final weeks, here's a look at where things stand according to the polls.
Martin O'Malley delivered a dig at the GOP candidates, recounting a voter asking him to not refer to her son, who serves in the military, as a pair of boots on the ground. O'Malley said Republicans use, "boots on the ground," when they're "trying to look all bravado and macho sending other peoples' kids into combat."
Martin O'Malley delivered a dig at the GOP candidates, recounting a voter asking him to not refer to her son, who serves in the military, as a pair of boots on the ground. O'Malley said Republicans use, "boots on the ground," when they're "trying to look all bravado and macho sending other peoples' kids into combat."
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll on Sunday showed Clinton leading Sanders 59% to 34%, with the third candidate in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, at 2%.
A new NBC/Wall Street Journal national poll on Sunday showed Clinton leading Sanders 59% to 34%, with the third candidate in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, at 2%.
Sanders angrily rejected Clinton's claims that his plans would result in the gutting of Obamacare, saying that he wanted to build on the achievements of the current president, not overturn them. "No one is tearing this up, we are going to go forward," Sanders said, his voice rising in anger. "That is nonsense."
Sanders angrily rejected Clinton's claims that his plans would result in the gutting of Obamacare, saying that he wanted to build on the achievements of the current president, not overturn them. "No one is tearing this up, we are going to go forward," Sanders said, his voice rising in anger. "That is nonsense."
Clinton and Sanders also argued over health care. "We finally have a path to universal health care, we have accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it and I don't want us to start all over again with a contentious debate," said Clinton.
Clinton and Sanders also argued over health care. "We finally have a path to universal health care, we have accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the Republicans repeal it and I don't want us to start all over again with a contentious debate," said Clinton.
Clinton and Sanders began the evening trading barbs on gun control. Clinton slammed Sanders for voting "with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times." Sanders hit back, arguing that he had a D-minus voting rating from the National Rifle Association and rejected her list of charges.
Clinton and Sanders began the evening trading barbs on gun control. Clinton slammed Sanders for voting "with the NRA, with the gun lobby numerous times." Sanders hit back, arguing that he had a D-minus voting rating from the National Rifle Association and rejected her list of charges.
In Iowa, new CNN Poll of Polls averages find no clear leader on either the Democratic or Republican side, while nationally, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump continue to hold solid leads over their top competitors.
Those figures reflect the state of the race over the last few weeks, but much can change in the final weeks of a campaign. Even in Iowa, where the campaign has been a focus for longer than almost anywhere else in the country, the latest Bloomberg/Des Moines Register poll shows 4-in-10 people likely to attend the Democratic caucuses say they could still change their minds before they cast a ballot, as do a majority of Republican likely caucusgoers.
The tightening Democratic race
The Democratic race, long expected to be less competitive than the GOP race, is tightening in the home stretch, both nationally and in Iowa.
The Iowa CNN Poll of Polls, which incorporates the first polling conducted in 2016, finds Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders running dead even, with 45% each, while former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley languishes in single digits. The same analysis conducted using polling released in December yields an average of 52% support for Clinton to 37% for Sanders.
The O'Malley factor
Despite O'Malley's slim support, the Democratic Party's rules for allocating delegates mean his backers could ultimately sway the contest in favor of one of the two front-runners.
The caucus process for Democrats is a two-stage affair: After an initial count of each candidate's support in the room, those whose chosen candidate has the backing of less than 15% of those in the room must either choose someone else to support or elect to remain uncommitted.
Given his low support statewide, it seems unlikely O'Malley will hit the 15% threshold in many caucus locations, making his supporters a potential source of an edge for either Clinton or Sanders.
While polling among O'Malley's backers has too small a sample size to get a read on which side they would choose, the numbers from the latest Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll suggest O'Malley's backers are more open to reconsidering their choice than are those behind Clinton or Sanders.
When likely caucusgoers were asked if they "could still be persuaded to support another candidate," 40% overall said they could be swayed, compared with only about 3-in-10 of those behind Clinton and Sanders, suggesting O'Malley's backers were a bit more apt to say their minds could be changed.
The national picture and the long game
Nationally, Clinton continues to maintain a significant lead over Sanders, yet here too, the contest has tightened, though not as dramatically as in Iowa. Overall, Clinton tops Sanders 54% to 36% across polls conducted between mid-December and now. Conducting the same analysis on polling released earlier in December, Clinton topped Sanders 56% to 31%.
For Clinton and her campaign, the continuing breadth of her lead nationally has to be reassuring. Should Sanders top Clinton in Iowa, he would likely take both of the first two contests.
Most recent polling in New Hampshire has found him well ahead of Clinton there, a neighbor state to his home state of Vermont. But after that contest on February 9, the race shifts to South Carolina, Nevada and a wide swath of southern states that vote on March 1.
Looking ahead to those contests, the demographic makeup of Clinton's national support -- including a massive lead among the non-white voters who will make up large chunks of the vote in many of those states -- suggests defeat in the first two states to vote may not guarantee the demise of the former secretary of state's campaign.
GOP deadlocked in Iowa
On the Republican side, national front-runner Donald Trump has maintained a strong advantage overall as the campaign rolls toward its final days, yet he faces stiff competition for the hearts of Iowa caucusgoers from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
The CNN Poll of Polls average in Iowa finds Cruz with 27%, just ahead of Trump at 25%, with Marco Rubio at 14% and Ben Carson at 10%. The rest of the field stands at 5% or less. That's less of a change since December than the averages suggest on the Democratic side. Averaging polls of Republican likely caucusgoers released in December, 26% said they backed Cruz, 25% Trump, virtually the same as the January figures.
The turnout factor
What could break the tie? Those backing Trump would argue his enthusiastic supporters will be certain to show up, just as they do to hear him speak, packing arenas across the country.
The Quinnipiac poll in Iowa found that 66% of Trump's supporters say they are more enthusiastic about this caucus than they have been in the past, a little above the 57% of Cruz's supporters who say the same. And the businessman-turned-politician has won over Republican voters looking for a strong leader on their most important issues: Quinipiac's poll in Iowa found Trump broadly ahead of his competitors as more trusted to handle the economy, immigration and terrorism. And 81% said they consider him a strong leader.
Cruz's best bet in Iowa rests on reliable turnout. His support comes more strongly among the groups who have tended to be more reliable voters in the past -- evangelicals, those with more formal education, and those who describe themselves as "very conservative."
The big picture for the Republicans
Nationally, Trump's lead stands at 14 points in the Poll of Polls, with Trump at 34%, Cruz at 20%, Rubio at 12%, Carson at 10% and the rest of the field at 4% or less. Compared with averages from earlier in December, before the final GOP debate of 2015, Trump has held steady while Cruz has gained a few points over that time. Cruz averaged 17% across five national polls conducted just before that debate, held on December 14.
Looking ahead, there's been little polling elsewhere that's found anything other than a Trump lead, and in New Hampshire, Trump's support in recent polls has been among the highest of the cycle. |
Washington (AFP) - Israel faced increasing pressure Monday, including from the United States, after saying it plans to expropriate 400 hectares (988 acres) of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem area in the south of the occupied West Bank.
Ally Washington, the United Nations and Egypt all called for an urgent rethink after Sunday's announcement, which angered the Palestinians and alarmed Israeli peace campaigners, and comes days after a long-term ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians took hold.
According to the Israeli military, the land move was a political decision made after the June killing of three Israeli teenagers snatched in the same area, known to Israelis as the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.
"This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve, and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians," a US State Department official said.
"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of settlement expansion on land the Palestinians claim for a future state is deemed illegal by the European Union and an "obstacle to peace" by the United States.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was "alarmed" by Israel's plans, his spokesman said.
"The seizure of such a large swathe of land risks paving the way for further settlement activity, which -– as the United Nations has reiterated on many occasions -– is illegal under international law and runs totally counter to the pursuit of a two-state solution," the spokesman said.
"The secretary-general calls on Israel to heed the calls of the international community to refrain from settlement activity and abide by its commitments under international law..."
Egypt -- which last week mediated a permanent truce between Israel and the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip to end a 50-day war -- denounced Israel's move.
"This is not a positive step -- it contradicts international law and will have negative consequences on the peace process," a foreign ministry statement in Cairo said.
The foreign ministry did not mention the Gaza truce talks, but insisted that Israel's planned West Bank land grab would be "an obstacle" to a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International similarly denounced the Israeli plans, saying that it "appears to be the largest land grab in the occupied Palestinian territories since 1980."
"Israel’s strategy of illegally confiscating land for settlements in the West Bank must stop once and for all," said Amnesty's Philip Luther.
The Palestinians have called for diplomatic action against Israel, while Israeli peace campaigners said the land expropriation is the biggest of its kind in three decades. |
Update November 25 at 2:15 p.m.: Equibit issued a clarification to their previous press release to clarifying that McAfee would be only an adviser to the company’s board and not an actual employee. See details below.
The epic and unpredictable adventures of John McAfee have taken their most startling turn yet: He’s accepted a job working for someone else.
Toronto-based Equibit Development Corporation said in a press release today that McAfee has been hired as the company’s chief security officer. In a somewhat unusual arrangement, however, McAfee will be reporting to the board and not the CEO.
“We’re honored and thrilled to be working with John McAfee,” said Equibit CEO Chris Horlacher in a statement. “With his input and ongoing guidance, EDC will continue to set the security standard for blockchain services. We share his unwavering commitment to IT security and, with his help, will continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in this industry.”
Equibit is a security service for safely issuing shares in companies and protecting trades from hacks, using decentralized blockchain technology. The platform will also handle other shareholder services, like voting and registering new stock owners.
“Equibit Development Corporation has positioned itself to become a major player in the blockchain development field focused on the financial sector,” said McAfee in a statement.“With my guidance and advice, I anticipate the company to experience stellar growth and achievements.”
McAfee founded McAfee Associates in 1987 but left in 1994. The company was eventually sold to Intel in 2011 for more than $7.68 billion.
In recent years, McAfee has led a somewhat colorful existence, as chronicled in numerous news stories. He fled Belize after it appeared he was being investigated in connection with a murder several years ago. No charges were ever brought, and the case appears to have been put to rest. He’s also not been shy about discussing his decadent, gun-toting life in Central America with journalists.
Last year, he became a presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party but lost the nomination to Gary Johnson.
He’s also continued his work in tech, launching a company called QuorumEx in 2010 to develop new types of antibiotics. In 2013, he started Future Tense Central, to create “D-Central,” a security network device. That was followed in 2014 by Cognizant, an app that helps smartphone users understand what permissions they’ve granted to other apps. And, in addition to running an incubator, he still currently holds the titles of CEO and executive chairman at an investment fund called John McAfee Global Technologies.
UPDATE: “After a cordial discussion with John, we jointly reaffirmed our agreement to work together. McAfee will not be EDC’s chief security officer but a senior advisor in the company’s newly created Security Advisory Committee, starting immediately,” said Horlacher in a statement.
In an email statement given to the company which was included in the press release, McAfee said: “I regret the confusion…As we had discussed, I advise multiple boards of directors for companies in the cybersecurity field. I do this because the World’s cyber defense systems lag far behind existing weaponized software and if we do not all pull together then I fear that mankind’s future is uncertain at best. After our phone discussion this morning I have relented and will continue to advise and assist your board in any manner that my time allows. Please give me no title.” |
Donald Trump Jr. is interviewed by Sean Hannity for his Fox News Channel television program on Tuesday in New York. (Richard Drew/Associated Press)
As I noted Wednesday, some people are arguing that Donald Trump Jr. committed a crime by expressing willingness to accept unspecified information that came from the Russian government and that was offered as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” (The incident happened before the hack of the Democratic National Committee was revealed, so there’s no indication that Trump Jr. thought that the offered information had been obtained illegally.) The theory is this:
A federal statute makes it a crime for “a foreign national, directly or indirectly, to make … a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value … in connection with a Federal, State, or local election.” Politically damaging information, especially deliberately assembled opposition-research-style information, is a “thing of value.” Therefore, when someone offered the unspecified information to Trump Jr., saying it was “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” and Trump Jr. responded, “if it’s what you say I love it,” Trump Jr. was soliciting the commission of a crime — the crime of a foreign national making a contribution of a thing of value in connection with a federal election — and such solicitation was itself a crime.
As I argued Wednesday, though, reading “thing of value” to include such politically damaging information would outlaw a broad range of constitutionally protected opposition research. Such a reading would therefore make the statute unconstitutionally overbroad, in violation of the First Amendment; the statute must therefore be read to avoid such an unconstitutional result, by interpreting “thing of value” to exclude such information. Even if a narrower statute — for instance, one focused on speech by foreign governments and not just by foreign nationals — could forbid such communications (and I doubt that it can), this statute cannot be constitutionally read to do so.
But, thinking further about the case, I think there’s still more reason to reject the broad reading of “thing of value.”
1. First, the same statute bans not just foreigners’ “contributions” directly to campaigns, but also “expenditure[s]” of money or “thing[s] of value” by foreigners. Indeed, when it comes to foreigners spending money to buy ads, print leaflets and the like, that equation of contributions and expenditures is well settled: Foreigners can neither contribute money to a candidate nor spend their money to support or oppose a candidate.
And “expenditure” is defined to mean “any purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit, or gift of money or anything of value, made by any person for the purpose of influencing any election for Federal office” (emphasis added). There’s that phrase “thing of value” again — if “thing of value” for the purposes of the contribution ban includes giving valuable damaging political information to a campaign, then “anything of value” for purposes of the expenditure ban includes giving such information to anyone else, so long as the gift is intended to influence a federal election.
The Post's Ruth Marcus explains why Donald Trump Jr. is in legal jeopardy. Hint: stupidity is not a legal defense. (Adriana Usero,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)
So, imagine that a foreigner — say, a Turkish businessman — thinks that President Trump did something bad (say, in building a Trump hotel in Turkey). Maybe the bad thing was criminal but not something the Turkish government wants to prosecute, or maybe it was just unsavory even if not criminal. In any case, the Turk assembles the evidence. It’s important evidence, which would be valuable for American voters to consider.
Under the “information as thing of value” theory, it would be a crime for the Turk to give the information to the Clinton campaign, since that would be an illegal contribution. (That’s the very premise of the argument against Trump Jr. that I’m discussing.)
So instead, he decides to give it to the New York Times, hoping the Times writes about this and gives Trump the comeuppance that (in the Turkish businessman’s mind) Trump deserves. Yet that, too, is a crime (again, accepting the thing-of-value theory): The gift of the “thing of value” to the New York Times, done, “for the purpose of influencing [an] election for Federal office” is itself an illegal expenditure.
2. But wait: This doesn’t just risk criminal punishment for the foreign businessman. What if a New York Times reporter is approached by the Turk, who wants to set up a meeting, and the reporter says, “if it’s what you say I love it”? Then, by the same logic being applied to Trump Jr.’s response, that reporter is committing the crime of soliciting the illegal expenditure — he’s encouraging the businessman to illegally give a gift of something of value (information).
It’s possible that the reporter could avoid criminality by insisting on paying money for the information (which presumably would have to be the market value of the information, however one calculates this). That would presumably make the transfer not a gift and thus not an expenditure. But checkbook journalism is usually frowned on — yet the no-gifts-of-information reading of the statute would actually require such checkbook journalism.
There is a media exception to the ban on expenditures; that provision defines “any news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication” as being not an “expenditure” (even though money is spent to publish such material). But, as I read it, that frees media outlets (even foreign-owned ones) to spend their money in speaking about candidates and frees domestic corporate-owned media outlets to speak to candidates about coverage (which might otherwise be an illegal corporate-coordinated expenditure). The media exception doesn’t let media outlets solicit “expenditures” by third parties.
3. Relatedly, say that a New York Times reporter calls highly placed people he knows in a foreign government and asks them to pass along any files they have on an American political candidate, assuming they can do so without violating any obligations to their own government. (Say, for instance, that the candidate had been an ambassador, or a secretary of state, and dealt extensively with foreign officials; and the foreign government is willing to report on the candidate’s performance.) That, too, would be soliciting the criminal gift of a thing of value (again, accepting the information-about-candidate-as-thing-of-value theory), and thus itself a crime.
4. Now let’s turn from foreigners to corporations. Though Citizens United held that corporations are free to make independent expenditures, corporations remain barred from making contributions to federal political candidates. And that prohibition applies — you guessed it — to “anything of value.” That means that if the Clinton campaign staff heard that some corporation had assembled information that showed misconduct on Trump’s part, and was willing to share it (maybe the corporation was involved in a business relationship gone sour), the staff would be committing a crime by asking for the information: It would be illegally soliciting an illegal campaign contribution of valuable information.
Again, perhaps I’m wrong in my reading of the statutes; please do let me know if that’s so. But as I see it, the implications of viewing politically damaging information about a candidate as a “thing of value” regulated by federal campaign finance laws would be extremely broad. Such a reading would end up suppressing a wide range of speech, not just to and by campaigns, but also speech by foreigners to American media outlets or advocacy groups.
It would certainly not be limited to solicitation of hacked material from foreign governments (since, again, there’s no evidence that Trump Jr. thought this material was hacked). It wouldn’t even be limited to solicitation of any material from foreign governments, since the statute applies equally to all foreigners (except those who are also U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents). As I noted, it wouldn’t be limited to solicitation of material by campaigns. If read this way, the statute would be unconstitutionally overbroad — so, as a legal matter, the statute ought to be read as not covering such distribution or solicitation of damaging information about a candidate. |
The bottle opener sunglasses are a pair of sunglasses that have a bottle opener built right into the frame and are great for people who enjoy drinking bottled beverages while in direct sunlight.
Theses sunglasses are made from plastic and will most likely break after a while, so you may want to purchase a higher quality pair of bottle opener sunglasses such as these that are made out of Titanium, which a meteor could smash into with the power of a thousand suns and they would still not even be scratched.
But we all know you are a cheap bastard and will just purchase the plastic pair. The sunglasses bottle opener has a plastic frame, with plastic lenses, and measures 6.2 inches x 2.6 inches x 1.2 inches. |
We're sad to report that 'The Bachelor' and 'Bachelor Pad' alum Gia Allemand is dead, according to a report from TMZ .
It's unclear what the cause of death was for the model and reality star, but she was on life support and in critical condition in a hospital since Monday (Aug. 12).
"Gia Allemand was taken to University Hospital, New Orleans last night following a serious emergency medical event, the details of which are currently not known," her rep said when news of Allemand's hospitalization broke. "She is listed in critical condition."
"Ms. Allemand’s mother is with her, along with her long-term boyfriend, NBA basketball player Ryan Anderson of the New Orleans Pelicans. On behalf of the family, we kindly ask for privacy at this time."
Allemand was 29 years old. Our thoughts are with her loved ones during this difficult time.
UPDATE: Gia Allemand has committed suicide. More details here . |
Mitt Romney has endorsed Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell after her upset win in last night’s GOP Senate primary in Delaware.“Now is the time for Republicans to rally behind their nominee, Christine O’Donnell. She ran an impressive campaign. I believe it is important we support her so we can win back the U.S. Senate this fall,” Romney said in a statement released through his Free & Strong America PAC. The PAC is sending her a $5,000 contribution.
O’Donnell’s win has been met with ambivalence from the party establishment. NRSC chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) announced today that the committee is sending her $42,000, after much talk last night that it would give up on the race. Meanwhile, conservatives have been pummeling Karl Rove for saying that the general election in Delaware “is not a race we’re going to be able to win.”
The latest PPP poll shows Democrat Chris Coons leading O’Donnell 50-34. |
SANTA CRUZ – Rescuers retrieved a naked man’s tattooed body from immense surf off Mitchell’s Cove Beach near Merced Avenue about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
A rescue swimmer helped to retrieve the body.
Sgt. Chris Clark of Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said responders found the man in the surf line and investigators have been able to identify the body but are working to notify relatives before releasing that information.
The man had large tattoos on his torso and his body was visible from West Cliff Drive until responders covered it. Rescuers also used a personal watercraft to retrieve the body.
He anticipated release of the man’s identity Thursday morning.
“Our coroner’s unit responded,” Clark said. “An autopsy will be done.”
He also said it was Santa Cruz Police Department’s investigation.
He deferred to them questions about whether foul play was apparent.
Santa Cruz Police Department spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke confirmed that agency is investigating.
Santa Cruz police ask anyone with information to call investigations at 831-420-5820, the anonymous tip line at 831-420-5995 or leave a tip at santacruzpolice.com or the mobile application at m.santacruzpolice.com. |
Tardis is correct. Your brake is not working properly and needs to be fixed.
Every car I have ever owned has been able to completely lock the rear tires by applying the parking/emergency brake. This is how it ought to be. If you pull the handle all the way up, the tires should be totally unable to turn. Period. They should skid on the pavement before turning. When you performed your test and pulled the parking brake at 25MPH on a flat road, there should have been people running out of their houses to see the squealing tires and burned rubber.
Granted, you need to really man-handle that thing to get the wheels to lock. But if you reach the end of the handle’s range of motion and those rear wheels are still turning, that is a problem and should be fixed.
There’s clearly a widespread myth out there that this brake is somehow only supposed to be used when the car is already parked. Yes, you’d normally never ever use this brake to actually stop the car, and yes, you primarily use it to hold the car in position while it is parked. But think about it, if it doesn’t bring the car to a stop while it is moving, then how can it possibly have enough holding power to keep the car from rolling down a hill? Simple answer: It doesn’t!
Lots of peoples’ parking/emergency brake is in poor repair because of several factors: 1) Steel cables are used to operate the parking brake, instead of hydraulic lines. Steel will stretch and rust over time, giving you less effective braking power. 2) Rear drums have an auto-adjuster which is supposed to keep the pads near the drum surface. But this auto-adjuster can freeze and no longer extend the pad to make up for wear. 3) Automatic transmissions with a prawl on the output shaft have made many think that the parking brake is redundant. (which is true to some extent, but does not eliminate the need)
So, yeah - take your car into a shop and have them tighten up the cable. As long as other stuff is in good repair this should be a simple fix. |
On March 18, one of India’s most celebrated startups received a huge blow.
Alibaba Group Holding, promoted by Jack Ma, China’s third-richest man, backed off from buying a stake in Snapdeal, one of India’s largest online marketplaces. This would have been the Chinese e-commerce giant’s first direct investment in India.
The deal stalled after Snapdeal apparently sought a valuation of between $6 billion and $7 billion (Rs37,500 crore-Rs43,800 crore) while Alibaba was looking at valuing the company at under $5 billion (Rs31,200 crore).
The breakdown in negotiations has raised questions about the huge valuations of India’s e-commerce giants—essentially, are these massive numbers justified and sustainable?
Alongside that, there is an even bigger question: Why exactly are investors still drawn to these firms?
“Of recent, the valuation game has turned into a ‘black magic art’ more than a science,” Ravi Gururaj, chairman of India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) product council, told Quartz. Nasscom is a trade association representing the Indian software industry.
Founders and investors, felt Gururaj, are rationalising and defending these extraordinary valuations by arguing that they see some exceptional promise in these startups. “The more grounded among us read that as ample evidence of a frothy bubble-like environment,” he said.
High, higher, highest
In all, the Indian startup sector received more than $5 billion (Rs25,000 crore) in funding in 2014, compared to $1.6 billion (Rs10,000 crore) in 2013 and $760 million (Rs4,755 crore) in 2012.
Of this, in 2014, Flipkart raised some $1.9 billion(Rs11,900 crore), while Snapdeal found about $1 billion (Rs6,257 crore) in funding, including a deal with SoftBank for $627 million. And most of this money came from a few big investors including Accel Partners, Tiger Global, SoftBank and Helion Venture Partners.
Now, as these firms head out to raise even more money, valuations are going through the roof. Flipkart, for instance, is valued at about $11 billion, and Snapdeal could be at least worth $5 billion.
Together, these two online shopping firms are now valued much, much higher than the total market capitalisation of India’s major brick-and-mortar retailers, which have dozens or even hundreds of physical shops.
The phenomenal valuations for India’s e-commerce companies are based on the premise that Asia’s third-largest economy presents a vast opportunity for online retailers. Economic growth looks to be back, the country’s middle-class is steadily expanding and, powered by a smartphone revolution, the number of internet users is skyrocketing.
“The e-commerce sector has created new markets, and since many of these are addressing a large untapped potential, investors think they can grow at a rapid pace,” Ashish Basil, partner at consulting firm EY, told Quartz.
Some argue that offline retailers in India do not have the bandwidth to expand as much—and as quickly—as online retailers. And this in itself is a huge opportunity for online companies to reach areas that modern retailers cannot. Brick-and-mortar retail chains have also been facing stiff competition from the local kirana, or mom-and-pop stores, especially in the hinterland.
“Due to fragmentation, infrastructure challenges and high real estate costs, offline retail will never be able to achieve the scale that e-commerce can,” explained Sandeep Murthy, a partner at Lightbox Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund. ”Entrepreneurs and investors have recognised this and believe that they are playing in a game with a massive prize for the winner.”
Investor trap
Still, the prospects of a massive, unexplored marketplace doesn’t quite explain the hyper valuations that Indian e-commerce companies are landing.
After all, India’s e-tail channels are forecast to account for about 10% of the overall retail market in 2025.
“I frankly do not understand the basis of these valuations,” Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak, a retail consultancy, said last year. ”It defies logic. Looking at potential is fine, but valuations have to be sane.”
There are two big reasons for this seeming insanity.
One, investors are lining up before e-commerce firms influenced by their competitors; and two, fundamental problems in the business models of these companies are being overshadowed as the industry blindly chases growth.
“Investors tend to behave like a herd and since e-commerce is the flavour of the day, many investors are rushing there,” Santosh Kanekar, an independent consultant who advises financial firms on investing in Indian companies, said last year.
Most of the e-commerce valuations in India, argued Kanekar, are driven by investor demand rather than by a significant improvement in the e-tailer’s financial performance. ”The reality is that there’s a lot of froth in the global M&A (mergers and acquisitions) market in general, and emerging markets, particularly India, are no different,” he said.
And he isn’t alone.
“Nobody looks at the fundamentals of valuations anymore,” Karthik Reddy, managing partner of Blume Ventures, a venture capital firm, told Quartz. “Three or four big players have emerged in India and most of the other startups now feed off that eco-system. But there is an inflexion point that is going to come soon.”
Where’s the money?
Although these are early days for a fast-growing industry, the combined losses of India’s e-tailing companies now stand at almost (pdf) Rs1,000 crore.
Much of this is because of the discounting strategies that these firms use to lure consumers. These discounts—along with massive advertising and marketing campaigns—are bank-rolled by the investors, who are now beginning to worry.
Since the last year, there is growing pressure on Indian e-commerce companies to to cut down on discounts—and concentrate on making profits. But this isn’t going to be easy.
“E-commerce has not reached a stable level where it can become sustainable by itself,” Praveen Sinha, founder of Jabong, an online fashion retailer, said earlier this month. ”So, if the whole margin is 10% and the market operates at 15% discount, e-commerce companies can never become profitable.”
In the past, industry observers like venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy had also publicly expressed their disapproval about the business models.
“I don’t hate Flipkart,” Murthy wrote in 2013. ”I just don’t think it’s the right way to build a business. My preference is always for a new business to start with a clear, sustainable competitive benefit to consumers, differentiate sharply, grow organically from the ground up, take money if needed to grow—not survive, and build a real business, that makes more money than it spends.”
Murthy is not the only one to complain about the business models of Indian e-commerce companies.
“If a company is losing money on every transaction, then the business model is not sustainable,” Devangshu Dutta, chief executive of Third Eyesight, a retail consulting firm, told Quartz.
And it doesn’t help that companies aren’t putting out strong statements on their business models, Dutta added, because there is a need to bolster confidence about these business eventually turning profitable.
Perception and sentiment aside, India’s e-commerce firms have to stop bleeding money for other reasons. In the next five years, the industry will need to spend anywhere between $950 million and $1.9 billion on logistics and warehousing as it expands.
Sure, that isn’t a lot of money compared to what the likes of Flipkart and Snapdeal are being able raise currently, but the fight for funds is also likely to get tougher. By 2020, India’s tech startup ecosystem will have some 11,000 firms, more than three times the current number.
The focus, therefore, needs to shift from rapid expansion and capturing market share to building a sustainable businesses.
And while that may take some time, for now everybody seems happy about the massive amounts of money pouring into India’s e-commerce industry. |
Remember when a bunch of weirdos remade Alejandro Jodorowsky's acid head classic The Holy Mountain entirely with footage of dogs? This Japanese remake of The Life of Pablo is kind of like that, if said weirdos had thrown away the screenplay and built a robotic chihuahua from scratch and programmed it to improvise entire Murakami novels, Google translated to Icelandic and then translated back, in the dead of night.
Japanese producer TOYOMU, frustrated by the lack of Pablo in Japan due to the unavailability of streaming services like TIDAL and Spotify, took matters into his own hands and just straight up remade it himself—without hearing it first. In 印象III : なんとなく、パブロ (Imagining The Life of Pablo), TOYOMU uses sample credits from WhoSampled and lyrics from Genius to recreate a supremely Dali-esque version of Pablo, in which a robotic voice insists Taylor Swift would have sex with it and "I Love Kanye" becomes "I still love K.A.N.Y.E." recited entirely in Japanese. The Pablo-deprived producer also demonstrates a very wry grasp of American pop culture by replacing "FML" with "BTI (Break The Internet)" and "No More Parties in LA" with "nikeezy." The kids will try to tell you it's vaporwave, but it's not.
And by the way, TOYOMU still hasn't heard Pablo, even though it's now out on Apple Music. "I haven't listened yet, this is no reason and meanings," he told Pigeons and Planes. "It's just a kind of feeling."
Yeah. Sure. Same.
Listen to this beautiful dark twisted fantasy of a remake below:
[h/t Dazed |
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, following the lead of President Trump, has now threatened recalcitrant Republicans who oppose health care legislation offered by the GOP to replace Obamacare.
Speaking to the Associated Press, McConnell warned, "I would hate to be a Republican whose vote prevented us from keeping the commitment we've made to the American people for almost 10 years now" to repeal and replace Obamacare. He added, "I think the American people would be deeply disappointed that we were prevented from keeping our commitment by Republicans who in the end, in effect, voted for the status quo." He said unctuously, "I'm optimistic that none of my members in the end want to be responsible for the status quo on Obamacare."
McConnell admitted that once the legislation passed in the House, the Senate would change the bill, as he doesn’t have the requisite votes to pass the bill as it stands.
McConnell cited Trump’s support for the GOP replacement bill, asserting, "The president has been very effective in helping in the House with the health care bill. And we intend, once it comes over from the House, to have the president weigh in with our folks as well."
My, how times have changed. Remember McConnell in 2011? Here’s how he sounded then while speaking of Obamacare: "The importance of a repeal vote becomes more evident every day. Americans view it as an important decision point – a marker that shows we're serious about a return to limited government. On that point, it should be clear where Republicans stand. Every one of us voted against the bill. Every one of us voted for repeal after that. And this week, every Republican reaffirmed his or her commitment to doing it again."
As late as 2014, when the GOP won back the Senate, McConnell stated, “We certainly will have a vote on proceeding to a bill to repeal Obamacare. … It was a very large issue in the campaign. We’re certainly gonna keep our commitment to the American people to make every effort we can to repeal it.” Then he backed off a little: “It is a statement to the obvious, however, that Obama — of Obamacare — is the president of the United States, so I don’t want people to have [unrealistic] expectations about what may actually become law with Obama — of Obamacare — in the White House. But we intend to keep our commitment to the American people.”
"I would hate to be a Republican whose vote prevented us from keeping the commitment we've made to the American people for almost 10 years now ..." Mitch McConnell
Some Republican senators who oppose the bill include Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah. Since the Senate is split 52-48, McConnell has to strong-arm senators for the bill to pass. |
In 1967 Martin Luther King gave a speech called The Other America in which he set out the reason for riots. King argued that riots do not develop out of thin air but are caused by certain “intolerable social conditions”. In the final analysis, he said, disorder is a consequence not only of irresponsibility, but inequality.
In some ways that explains the 2011 riots in England too. At the time I called them an “uprising of the working class” and I stick to that assessment today. The riots were brought about not only by irresponsibility, but also inequality: by a sense of revulsion at denied opportunity, poverty and injustice. England is one of the richest countries on earth, but it is also one of the most polarised.
I was one of the London rioters. In 2011 we didn’t know how to express our anger | Bryn Phillips Read more
Away from the towers that soar above the City of London, there is another England. It is an ugly place. In this England, a million young people have their hopes blasted every day. In this England, thousands of work-starved youngsters search for jobs that do not exist. In this England, legions of kids find themselves crowded into sink estates that tower over streets absent of power and absent of hope. They are the England left behind by globalisation. And they are the England who, in 2011, took to the streets and smashed up their neighbourhoods.
Take a look at most riots in the 20th century: the one underlying similarity is unemployment and poverty among people who are keenly aware of the sharp inequality between themselves and their country’s wealthy elite. Distracted by the flames and the looting, many of us easily forgot that riots are almost always protests against social conditions that have become intolerable. In the panic of 2011, however, the majority of us swept any rational explanation of the disorder under the carpet and swallowed up simplistic lies. Consumerism. Greed. New tracksuits. New trainers. We missed an opportunity to do something constructive about the great social crisis of our time.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A building burns in Tottenham, north London, during the 2011 riots. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA
When recklessness and greed shattered the economy in 2008, young people were destroyed. Those aged between 18 and 24 have accounted for almost 30% of the total rise in the unemployment rate brought about by the “great recession”. As a consequence, by the time 2011 arrived the UK was marked by the most unequal distribution of wealth and income since the 1930s. Inequality, unemployment, and absolute powerlessness had become the dominant issues facing England’s young. As millions were slashed from youth services, troubled experts started making stark predictions, falling over themselves to warn how Britain’s young people were in danger of becoming a “lost generation”.
The Police Federation summoned the home secretary, Theresa May, to conference and warned her to prepare for unrest. From the beginning of the financial crisis, we lost businesses and banks, and it seemed we were losing an entire generation. So when disorder fired up in Tottenham, north London, that summer, no one should have been surprised when that “Other England” rose up in revolt.
Oliver Letwin’s memo on race is not ancient history. It’s current Tory policy | Joseph Harker Read more
The argument is certainly not that material hardship necessarily leads to unruly behaviour. The vast majority of youngsters affected by the crisis behaved like responsible citizens and stayed at home when trouble flared. But since we know that inequality and resentment against the authorities are always factors in a riot, why should it have been any different this time around? The prizewinning Reading The Riots report, put together by the Guardian, supports this idea – that most people who took part in 2011’s disorder were part of this “lost generation” of the young: kids from the poorest families, from the most hopeless places. The Other England.
Britons today remain beset by complex, intractable problems: technological change displaces workers; globalisation destabilises communities; family structures are disintegrating.
But for the young there is all this and worse. Ostensibly, the youth unemployment rate has improved since 2011, but in reality it is nowhere near pre-crisis levels and stagnates at a staggering 18% – more than three times the rate for adults. Social mobility for the young has ground to a halt. The housing crisis singles out young adults for extra punishment. Young people’s faith in politics has evaporated. The government, they say, is in the pocket of the rich. The economy, they say, is rigged. It seems eminently reasonable to ask the question: how long before it all kicks off again?
Far from disappearing, the ranks of that ugly Other England, where the riots have their roots, have been swelling. With inequality spiralling out of control and more than a million 16- to 24-year-olds with neither work nor full-time education, the economic exclusion of the young is a crisis that policymakers can no longer afford to ignore. Instead of carrying the miserable burden of mass unemployment, instead of watching the crumbling of our education system, instead of allowing our society to become diminished by the violence and dishonesty of crime, we must start to put our energies into building strong communities capable of providing security and prosperity for every citizen.
In the aftermath of 2011 we had a chance to put our heads together, to use the riots to help think of ways to repair our world. How maddening that we chose to put our heads in the sand. |
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Ponytail Ponytail Narrow Results Ponytail is a human-grade horse grooming collection inspired by a passion for horses and an appreciation of timeless equestrian style. A line of products formulated with the highest quality of ingredients delivered in exquisite packaging. Ponytail’s unique formulations clean, soften, condition and shine; providing a range of products both horse and owner will love. Equestrians invest so much love in the care of their horses; they should have the choice to use only the most exceptional products for their equine grooming needs. Shine with Style! Ponytail is a participating sponsor of the Hollywood Charity Horse Show. 10% of Ponytail’s net proceeds will be donated.
Shipping to the 48 Contiguous U.S. states Method Under $75 Over $75 Details Low Weight Economy Shipping $4.95 FREE Order arrives 7-9 business days from shipment date depending on receipt location (in the 48 states and does not include oversized items). In stock orders typically ship within 24-48 hours of the order being placed. This option is only available on orders which weigh less than 0.9 lbs. Standard $7.95 FREE Order arrives 6-7 business days from shipment date depending on receipt location (in the 48 states and does not include oversized items). In stock orders typically ship within 24-48 hours of the order being placed. Guaranteed 3-business day $19.95 $12.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive within 3 business days if the order is placed by 1pm ET. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes. Guaranteed 2-business day $24.95 $17.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive within 2 business days if the order is placed by 1pm ET. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes. Guaranteed Next business day $34.95 $27.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive on the next business day if the order is placed by 1pm ET. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes. Guaranteed Next Day Saturday $49.95 $42.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive on Saturday if the order is placed by 1pm ET on Friday. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes. Over-sized Items: Free standard shipping to the contiguous 48 states, applies to items UPS deems “normal & customary” in size and weight. Large, bulky, or odd-shaped items may be subject to UPS Oversize/Overweight charges.
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When calculating shipping time, please use the next business day to start the clock for all orders received AFTER 1p ET. Shipping to AK, HI, PR and VI Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands ship via UPS® where service is available. Now offering 2 Business Day and Next Business Day shipping options. For questions please call or email us for a shipping quote. Ship Method Under $75 Over $75 Details Standard $24.95 $17.00 Order arrives 6-7 business days (Monday-Friday) from shipment date depending on receipt location. These orders typically ship within 24-48 hours of the order being placed. Guaranteed 2 Business Days $44.95 $37.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive within 2 business days (Monday-Friday) if the order is placed by 1pm ET. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes. Guaranteed Next Business Day $54.95 $47.00 Orders are prioritized to arrive on the next business day (Monday-Friday) if the order is placed by 1pm ET. Not available for shipments to P.O. Boxes.
Description Style Regular order of initials (example Emily Jane Smith = EJS) A, B, G Traditional monogram order of initials (example Emily Jane Smith = ESJ) C, DD, F, H, K, BB, CC, EE, FF, KK, LL First and Last Initial (example Emily Smith = ES) L, M, Y Single Initial (example Emily Smith = E) D, AA, J, GG, N, P, Q, V, X, W, Z Spelt out Name (example Emily Smith = Emily) E, R, S, T Please allow extra delivery time for monogrammed products.
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Shop with 100% confidence at Dover Saddlery. If something doesn’t fit you or your horse, return your original purchase within a year, and we’ll make it right with a refund, exchange or replacement.
Our experience as riders and horse owners ourselves is that in most situations a year’s time is fair enough to evaluate proper fit and function. PLUS: For manufacturer’s defects, we’ll extend the manufacturer’s warranty to a maximum of 24 months, regardless of their individual policies. (AND: Manufacturer warranties longer than 24 months will be honored and supported by us as well up to the length of those warranties).
Exceptions: Safety items such as helmets and protective vests may only be returned within 30 days, with their original tags intact. Saddles and riding boots may be returned within the one year period, but are subject to a prorated refund based on usage. Used saddles may be returned for 30 days only. For everyone’s protection, treats and vet meds which have been opened are not returnable, and returned blankets must clean and free of debris. Click here for our full Return Policy.
Your e-gift card will be delivered via email within 24 hours regardless of shipping method selected. If your purchase contains other items, select the ship method you would like the remainder of your order to use and it will arrive in the identified time frame.
[] [] [] Ponytail Sub-sub-category B128 Ponytail Ponytail Ponytail
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WATCH: Patrons in a south Edmonton lounge were treated to some holiday cheer Monday, but it’s not what you might think.
EDMONTON – It was an anonymous gift that had diners flabbergasted. A stranger, dining at a restaurant in south Edmonton, covered the bill for everyone in the lounge.
It was lunchtime on Monday and the Moxie’s lounge was bustling. But, when patrons from about eight or nine tables went to settle their tabs, they were told an anonymous stranger already paid.
“A man came up to me and I had been serving him, and he said to me, ‘is there any way to combine bills together of the entire lounge?’ I was taken off guard at first, but I did it for him,” recalls lounge server Brittany Anderson.
“He did it right away. A random act of kindness and left as if nothing happened. It was impressive.”
READ MORE: Random acts of Christmas kindness
“One of my lounge servers went and grabbed me from the back and just said ‘could you help me out?’,” recalls Moxie’s manager Matthew Russo.
“There was a man who just whispered – kept it pretty quiet – he said ‘I’d just like to pay for the lounge’s bill, if that’s possible, if we could do that.’ At first I was taken aback by it, but I was like, ‘I think we can make that happen.’
“He paid the bill and left very quietly. It was incredibly generous.”
“The way he did it – very low-key – I think he made a lot of people’s day today,” added Russo.
He says the bill for the eight tables was substantial.
“I’ve never seen it before… in all my time working in the restaurant industry,” he says.
Russo says the gesture quickly put patrons and staff alike in a good mood.
“I think it’s blown everyone away.
“Holiday spirit: if you didn’t have it before, you have it now.”
And, if he could say one thing to the stranger who spread so much cheer?
“Thank you for kind of just giving that Christmas spirit,” says Russo. “It was incredibly generous and kind and much appreciated.”
Follow @Emily_Mertz |
On Dec. 18, the Fed announced that in January it would start tapering its purchases of treasury bonds and mortgage-related securities by $10 billion a month, down from $85 to $75 billion per month. It also hinted that it would keep on tapering, possibly at a rate of $10 billion per meeting of the Federal Open Markets Operations Committee. The Fed also said that interest rates are unlikely to increase before the unemployment rate declines below 6.5%.
The new policy mix seems to have accelerated the outflows of capital from the emerging markets (see here and here). Yet, the initial response of the domestic markets was anti-climatic. The S&P 500 ended the week at record highs. The real economy (that is, Main Street) does not seem to have taken notice of the announcement.
Is that strange? People who supported quantitative easing would argue that nothing is happening because the program has been quite successful. In their minds, this is similar to what happens when, after a successful recovery from a surgery, the patient walks happily away while the physicians dismount the equipment that has kept him alive. Before coming to this conclusion, however, we must ask ourselves, what did quantitative easing do for Main Street? Did it actually help to keep the patient alive?
Unless you believe in Voodoo, you will want to identify the means through which quantitative easing transmitted its possibly beneficial impact to Main Street. We can think of two ways. One is increased availability of credit. The other is lower long-term interest rates. Common sense and economic theory suggest that the two are linked. Larger amounts of credit lead to lower interest rates and lower rates lead to larger amounts of credit. On this basis, we should look only to one of the two variables. Yet, Fed distinguished between the two in its rhetoric, even if the open market operations are based on the supposition that they are linked as the Fed buys credit instruments to lower interest rates. The reason for this distinction seems to be that the Fed controls the short-term interest rates, not the long-term ones, through its conventional open market operations. When the crisis exploded, the Fed was able to lower the short-term rates to practically zero, but the long-term ones remained aloft. Quantitative easing increased the purchases well beyond what was needed to keep the short-term rates close to zero. It also aimed at reducing the long-term rates by purchasing long-term instruments in the market, including agency mortgage-backed securities ($600 billion between 2008 and 2009 and $40 billion per month since September 2012.)
Thus, we can look at volumes of credit and interest rates separately.
First, we can look at the volumes of credit. The next chart suggests that the help provided by quantitative easing to Main Street in this dimension must have been very scant. Most of the money created by the Fed since the September 2008 crisis through quantitative easing and otherwise has been turned into excess reserves of the banking system (excess reserves is cash that the banks can use to create credit but chose not to and instead deposited it back in the Fed). That is, the cash created by quantitative easing did not become additional credit but, instead, it became excess reserves of the banks deposited in the Fed.
The next chart shows in a more dramatic way that the money created by quantitative easing has been sitting idly in the Fed. The curves plot the 12-month differences of the monetary base (the money created by the Fed) and the excess reserves of the banking system since September 2009 (12 months after the beginning of the crisis). They demonstrate that quantitative easing has worked as a merry-go-round. The Fed created the money only to see it returning as deposits of the commercial banks in the Fed itself.
Thus, we have seen that the money created by quantitative easing did not go to increase credit to the private sector. It had a neutral effect because what the Fed created came back to the Fed. But, what happened to credit? Did it stay put, at the same level?
The next graph shows that one major category of commercial banks’ credit increased since the crisis began: net credit to the central government (net of deposits of the government in the banks). However, total commercial banks’ credit went down substantially. By the end of the second quarter of 2013 it still had not recovered the level it had when quantitative easing began. Moreover, credit to the private sector (Main Street) declined and is still $600 billion below its level in 2008. Credit to other financial institutions also went down. Not a nice chart to see.
You can argue that this chart does not portray the complete picture because banks are not the only source of credit. Right. The next chart shows that recently the financial system’s credit to the private sector did increase over the level it had at the end of June 2008 (the financial system includes the banks plus all other financial institutions, such as insurance companies).
However, as shown in the next chart, the main source of this credit was not deposits but, instead, the insurance companies’ technical reserves and the financial institutions’ shares and other equities. To believe that quantitative easing helped to increase credit to the private sector you would have to believe that enormous amounts of money sitting idly in the Fed help increasing the technical reserves of insurance companies or lead to larger equity issues by financial institutions. Not very probable.
Now we can look at the interest rate side of our puzzle. You can say that maybe quantitative easing worked not because the money it created became credit to the private sector but because it helped the long-term interest rates to decline and remain low. Certainly, low interest rates, even if they have not increased the volume of credit, may have had a substitution effect in the allocation of financial resources—that is, people who had invested in something not very attractive today (like housing) may have decided to move their resources to invest in equity shares. This lowered the cost of issuing shares to finance companies, including financial institutions (the price-to-earnings ratio has gone up substantially if, as suggested by Nobel laureate Robert Shiller, the earnings are estimated as the average of the last decade).
This seems to have happened. The stock exchange has been in a frenzy of booms since the policies of artificially low interest rates have been applied. The low interest rates did not create new credit to Main Street but diverted resources toward the stock exchange, including the shares of financial institutions that used them to grant credit.
The effectiveness of the Fed in keeping low the long-term rates seems to be waning, however. As shown in the next chart, the long-term interest rates have been increasing as of late (those of the US bonds since June 2012 and those of mortgages since February 2013) even if the short-term rates have been flat and close to zero. The mortgage rate has gone up from 3.4% to 4.5%, and the 10-year US Treasury bond rates from 1.6% to 2.9% since those dates, reversing the trend these rates had shown since the beginning of quantitative easing at the end of 2008. That was embarrassing. Quantitative easing was not able to keep the long-term interest rates low. Maybe it was time to quit before this became too obvious.
But, why did the long-term interest rates increase while the short-term ones remain so low, particularly at a time when the banks are full of liquidity and could increase the supply of credit at a snap? One obvious answer is that the long-term market is expecting an increase in inflation rates. That is a good reason to stop quantitative easing, maybe better than the assertions of its complete success.
Thus, perhaps nothing has happened after the Fed announced the end of quantitative easing because the program didn’t do anything except unnecessarily increase the liquidity reserves of commercial banks and help to keep the long-term interest rate low in the first few years of the program—something that recent evidence suggests it can no longer do.
Of course, the fact that to this date nothing has happened does not necessarily mean that nothing will happen in the longer run. The problem will not come from the amount of money in circulation. The banks have enough excess reserves to submerge the world in currency. Yet, if the interest rates keep on increasing, and everything suggests that they will keep on doing it, many activities that have been profitable at the low interest rates will fail, and this will negatively affect the financial system. Depending on the magnitude of the adjustment, the coming event will be just financial turmoil or a full fledged financial crisis.
Now, you can ask yourself, why getting into all this, risking inflation and financial turmoil just to have money parked in the Fed? Well, keeping the banks artificially liquid may be useful to keep insolvent banks artificially alive. Maybe this was the secret purpose of quantitative easing. Maybe the idea was to keep them liquid while they cleansed their bad loan and investment portfolios. However, for most of the life of the program, the monetary authorities have insisted that the banks were quite solvent.
Were they? Are they? We are going to know the answers to these questions now that tapering seems to have started in earnest. The end of quantitative easing is like the end of Neverland. Only those who learned to live in the real world of free interest rates, as opposed to the fictional lands of artificially low interest rates, will survive. As Warren Buffett said, “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
This article is part of Quartz Ideas, our home for bold arguments and big thinkers. |
The late April news was impressive and divisive: Google would spend €150 million on a new Digital News Initiative (DNI) partnership with European news publishers (“Google to launch $150 million partnership with publishers”). The amount of money caught the eye, even if it was a tiny fraction of Google’s $14.4 billion profit in 2014. Still, to newspaper publishers now counting every dime, it appeared to be a significant pot of funds. What kind of initiatives might be included in such a “partnership”? Given all the damage, most of it collateral, done to the news industry by digital disruption over many years, was there anything that could be done now to reverse the seemingly permanent spiral downward?
We now have a sense of what’s on the horizon — and how significant an impact may be possible. Next week, the eight founding DNI publishers — the Financial Times, The Guardian, Italy’s La Stampa, France’s Les Echoes, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine and Zeit, Spain’s El País and the Netherlands’ NRC — will meet for a couple of days with top Googlers on its Mountain View campus to form the agenda of partnership.
The Guardian led the development of DNI, and departing Guardian CEO Andrew Miller made it clear what’s atop his wish list when we talked about a month ago: bettering advertising monetization. “Newsonomics: The Guardian is trying to swing Google’s pendulum back to publishers” ). That prospect should probably be Job No. 1 for the initiative; all else pales beyond the money question for publishers worldwide.
“What could I do to affect this number?” says David Gehring, pointing to newspapers’ ad revenues. “There is lots of press on advertisers complaining about being able to target quality audience at scale. What we need is demand-side targeting that does that.” Gehring finds himself uniquely situated in this partnership. A veteran of almost four years with Google in international partnerships, he has been advising The Guardian on partnerships since last fall. Consequently, he carries an almost unique portfolio — someone working in the interests of publishers, but with deep and wide knowledge of how Google actually works.
Gehring recognizes the organizational complexity of Google. Like any big company, its parts often align uneasily; people understandably want to get their own work done. So, with that knowledge, he believes that tinkering with Google’s plumbing could make a big difference in publishers’ moneymaking.
How might it work?
The proposition is simple: News publishers want to match their higher-quality news origination with higher advertising rates. That’s the “premium” term you hear slung around the industry — “premium” meaning original and trustworthy, as opposed to aggregated, lightly “curated,” or pirated. When publishers sell direct to advertisers, they sell “premium” and get rates from $8 to $50 per one thousand ad impressions (or CPM), with national/global news companies at the highest end. When they sell “programmatic” advertising, though, there’s no such thing as “premium.” Programmatic — the huge, overarching shift in ad buying — algorithmically matches available ad inventory with audiences (by age, gender, geography, and more). But it doesn’t distinguish between original content producers and the legions of repurposers out there. Top publishers may get a buck or two CPM for programmatic advertising — the same as anyone else.
Programmatic, along with digital video, is the fastest growing digital ad format today. Fully 63 percent of digital display ads will be purchased programmatically this year, according to one estimate. That’s almost $15 billion worth in the U.S., with retail, consumer packaged goods, financial, and telecom leading the way. Another way to think about programmatic: It’s hard to think of much advertising buying that won’t be soon influenced by it. Any buyer of advertising will want the best data available to improve its targeting of audience and to measure the efficiency of its performance.
So, to Dave Gehring’s point: What could Google do to allow advertisers to distinguish the audiences they can buy, to differentiate between premium and non-premium brands?
One answer looks deceptively simple at this point.
How Google could advantage real news — fairly
Google maintains a news index of more than 60,000 news publishers worldwide. Google essentially acts as certifier, vetting news sources as legitimate ones, and then including them in the index. Among the attributes required, from its directions to those who want to apply: “1) Sites included in Google News should offer timely reporting on matters that are important or interesting to our audience. 2) Original reporting and honest attribution are longstanding journalistic values. If your site publishes aggregated content, you will need to separate it from your original work, or restrict our access to those aggregated articles via your robots.txt file.” (Good Frédéric Filloux Monday Note explainer here.)
What if Google provided a persistent tag to be associated with any article originating with one of those 60,000 publishers? Those include thousands of legacy newspaper and magazine brands, but also the digital news startups that emphasize original content creation as well. As programmatic trading systems matched targetable content with advertisers, that apparatus could differentiate “premium” from “non-premium” audiences. Further, such premium content could still be found by category, like tech, sports, or health, increasing its value. Importantly, such tags wouldn’t only accompany articles in Google News itself, but on all news found throughout Google, including web search.
No new technology would be needed to make the addition; its cost of implementation miniscule.
What might it yield?
The arithmetic could be compelling. Gehring estimates that publishers worldwide now take in about $480 million a year in programmatic advertising. It’s hard to estimate how much the ad tag change could boost ad rates. We can put some arithmetic to them, though. As Gehring notes, a 25 percent increase in rate could have a big impact. That would amount to $120 million. The stakes, of course, would grow markedly if the theory proves out. If ad buyers really do want the “signal” of premium content via tagging, it’s foreseeable that programmatic could grow from $1 CPM to $2.
Gehring is reluctant to forecast, but my own numbers would show an additional $500 million in global programmatic income — again, if the program is successful.
How much of a difference might that make? At the beginning of the year, I calculated that the U.S. newspaper industry alone would need an additional $1.4 billion in revenue per year to escape its eight-year stretch of non-growth ( “Newsonomics: How deep is the newspaper industry’s money hole?” ) A boost in programmatic income would go a long way in meeting that number.
Further, that’s not money Google would need to pay news companies. It’s money advertisers pay publishers so that they can better reach the audiences they want.
Numerous big publishers have built “private exchanges” over the past couple of years. These enable continued direct selling to advertisers, but add in programmatic features, allowing more efficient targeting for big advertisers at slightly reduced prices. The notion of a bigger, or collective, private exchange built on a new Google news tag system may also then make sense. Pangaea’s recent entry into the marketplace marks this kind of movement and could be expanded.
This notion, in part, is one of reclaiming the publishers’ old friend: scarcity. Yes, ad inventory may be close to infinite on the web, but the high-quality premium audience is — somewhat — limited and can be priced, and sold, accordingly.
Why is Google doing this now?
It’s true, but facile, to note the convergence of Google’s numerous problems with European publishers and legal systems and the announcement of the Digital News Initiative. The great upswell of opposition to Google’s incredible European reach indeed pushed Google to a bargaining table. That’s not the only force at work here, though.
Consider the dogfight among giants in which Google is now engaged. While it used to drive as much as a third, more or less, of many news companies’ traffic, its share is in decline. Facebook is killing it, in social referrals, as Twitter and LinkedIn pile on. While Google News has always been a so-so player in news referral, Google web search long had the biggest bark; now it’s just one of several key “partners” of news companies. It needs to reestablish its primacy. Part of that may lie in better cooperation with publishers — in the form of other plumbing, like news tools, but also in data, video, and mobile. Further, Google must continue to better its own reader experience, so it can compete better; when Facebook told the world it wanted to host news content to create a better user experience for its users, it meant it.
Just since the start of the year, Google’s news competition has grown greatly, with the announcements of Facebook Instant Articles, Snapchat Discover, and Apple News. In this new world of distribution, publishers provide full content as never before, intending to reap the ad results. Google has hosted full Associated Press content, under terms of an earlier deal — is it game to do what its competitors are doing and become more of a destination for full news reading? And if so, on what terms?
As Google execs meet with those European publishers in California, a logical question also arises: Given that the same issues affect all news publishers, why is it only one continent’s publishers at the table?
What do publishers need and want?
Some in the industry privately labeled the Digital News Initiative publishers traitors for collaborating with Google. Given the pain of disruption, that’s understandable, but also fairly useless as a response. European legal actions have raised good questions, but they won’t get the news industry reborn for the digital age. There’s a fairly unintended good cop/bad cop act taking the stage: Google nemesis Axel Springer can play the tough guy, and fellow European publishers can press Google to live up to the kind of publisher-friendly, news-loving, democracy-supporting firm many within the company say it wants to be.
So now words must turn to deeds. In addition to the big tagging idea, what else might Google do?
The list here would be a what’s-what of the biggest challenges and opportunities confronting publishers today:
Mobile : With mobile now at more than 50 percent of usage, publishers are struggling with ad formats on the smartphone. How can the Android champion help there?
: With mobile now at more than 50 percent of usage, publishers are struggling with ad formats on the smartphone. How can the Android champion help there? RELATED ARTICLE Google and Storyful are launching YouTube Newswire, a feed of verified user-generated videos Joseph Lichterman Video : Publishers see ad riches in digital video, but they struggle with its costs and presentation. Further, Google’s YouTube isn’t the greatest environment for news video. The company could find ways to align interests. Take what it announced today, its new YouTube News Service, powered by Storyful. YouTube is a great service, but its sheer disorderliness has drained its full potential. YouTube have moved forward with channels in part to address the chaos. Now, the YouTube News Service takes that gangly world of user-generated news video, from Middle East actions to exploding volcanoes, and makes a little order of it. Storyful, smartly bought for $25 million by News Corp in 2013, will showcase five to 15 videos each day, each vetted for authenticity, the core of the Storyful proposition. That attention to editorial quality, as well as quantity, should be a wider Google goal.
: Publishers see ad riches in digital video, but they struggle with its costs and presentation. Further, Google’s YouTube isn’t the greatest environment for news video. The company could find ways to align interests. Take what it announced today, its new YouTube News Service, powered by Storyful. YouTube is a great service, but its sheer disorderliness has drained its full potential. YouTube have moved forward with channels in part to address the chaos. Now, the YouTube News Service takes that gangly world of user-generated news video, from Middle East actions to exploding volcanoes, and makes a little order of it. Storyful, smartly bought for $25 million by News Corp in 2013, will showcase five to 15 videos each day, each vetted for authenticity, the core of the Storyful proposition. That attention to editorial quality, as well as quantity, should be a wider Google goal. Reader revenue: Whatever publishers can do to increase digital ad revenue looms large. But it’s reader revenue that’s been the star of recent years. Paywalls have worked — terrifically at the biggest publications, somewhat for the regionals. As most publishers tighten the number of free articles available to non-subscribers, what could Google do to help publishers grow this essential revenue source?
For one, Google might be able to do some integration with publishers to personalize search results for their digital subscribers. Secondly, Google might make more flexible its longstanding “First Click Free” policy. That policy, seemingly an anachronism at this point, mandates that publishers using paywalls extend five free articles per device to Google users before hitting a paywall — despite any other restrictions publishers may otherwise use. “FCF” made some elemental sense when it rolled out in 2008, aimed at bettering user experience so that they wouldn’t bump their noses on harder paywalls. Now, though, Google could look at simply labeling paywalled content, as it already does for “mobile-optimized” sites. Here, the world has gotten more complicated as social traffic has mounted in importance compared to search. Publishers can exercise great (and increasingly nuanced) control over social access. It makes sense, in 2015, for Google to figure out how to loosen its reins, allowing publishers to run their own business strategies without interference.
How much value does Google get from news? How much value do newspaper companies get from Google, mostly in the form of traffic? We could use many calculations to get there, based on an array of assumptions, but let’s not go there now.
As intriguing as those value assumptions might be, I think they shouldn’t be the focus of the negotiation. It’s 2015, and there’s so much digital disruption water under the bridge, with more floodwaters on the way. Reparations aren’t the point. The point — for all those who value the role of a free and vibrant press in democracy — is how the increasingly digital world can fairly aid those creating original news content. I don’t really care whether Google might step up to the plate here — with the ad tagging idea, or something else — out of benevolence, or out of fear of further European legal action, or in order to to better compete with Facebook and Apple. What counts is to get beyond all the babble of the last decade — and to find ways forward.
Photo of an illuminated Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany, April 17, 2007, by AP/Jens Meyer. |
The Maranello-based outfit went into 2016 determined to fight for the title and win races from the off, but a mixture of strategy calls, poor reliability and lack of update progress hurt its chances against Mercedes.
In the end, as Red Bull hit peak form towards the end of the campaign, Ferrari even slipped to third place in the constructors' championship, exactly 70 points behind its Milton Keynes-based rival.
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has singled out its lack of development during the season as its biggest fault this year, and says the matter must be addressed for 2017 if the outfit is going to achieve its target.
Speaking at the Ferrari Mondiali 2016 races in Daytona, Marchionne was pretty clear about the weaknesses his team had to sort.
"The most important recognition that the team has made during this season is a clear identification of the gaps we have in terms of two things: one is honestly performance on track, but, more importantly, I think about the rate of change of the other teams," he explained.
"I think we have seen a Red Bull at the start of the 2016 season that did not have, at least on paper, the attributes to try to take on Ferrari. And by the end of the season, Red Bull did effectively become a viable competitor.
"And it was not due to the power unit side, it was down to the work that was done on both aero and chassis.
"And it's pointed out probably one of the most significant holes in the strategic development of Ferrari in the last few years.
"We will try to remedy that problem. That's not to say we don't consider the power unit to be crucial, work continues on both fronts. But I think the biggest issue is that we need to recognise from the '16 findings is the gap that exists on aero development and I think we are trying to close it as quickly as we can."
It is Red Bull rather than Ferrari that is being tipped by many to be Mercedes' main threat for the championship in 2017, and Marchionne thinks it impossible to be too confident about how his team will go next season.
"I think it is impossible to make any prognostication for the 2017 season," he said. "The only thing I can guarantee you is that we are leaving no stones unturned.
"And we're also preparing for in-season development of the car, which is crucial to maintain the competitiveness of whatever goes on to the track in Australia in March." |
“Here we are again.”
That was Rev. Janie Spahr’s reaction as the Presbyterian Church (USA) lodged new charges against her for performing same-sex marriages. Spahr has been in this hot seat before. She’s been in and out of trouble for presiding over ceremonies for same-sex couples since 2006. The worst punishment she has received was a rebuke in 2008… “the lightest possible punishment.”
Church authorities decided that since the marriages were “not marriages, she did not violate the church’s constitution.”
This time, things are a little different. The 16 same-sex marriages she’s accused of presiding over in the new charges were legal since they were performed “during the five-month period in 2008 when same-sex marriage was legal in California.”
Spahr’s defender in the case, Scott Clark, said the church is “trying to sanction a minister for performing legal marriages. This is unprecedented.”
JoAn Blackstone, who is the prosecutor, said the distinction is immaterial. The marriages may well have been legal under state law, she said, but were “expressly prohibited” by the same ruling that acquitted Spahr in 2008. Blackstone said the case hinges on “a narrow issue of church law” and is unrelated to the public debate over same-sex marriage.
Unfortunately for the church, the public debate over same-sex marriage is precisely the issue. For a clergy person to be forbidden from performing a wedding ceremony that is legal, then to be brought up on charges after performing a legal ceremony is outrageous. It is another example of the conflict between church and state—and the impossible, and seemingly immoral, positions the church continues to put its clergy into.
While it is true that church law considers marriage as “a civil contract between a woman and a man,” at the time Spahr married these 16 couples, the state of California considered marriage a “civil contract” between a couple made up of opposite or same genders. The key here is that marriage is a “civil contract”—under the legal auspices of the state and not the church. For the church to claim they “have no wiggle room” on the charges pending against Spahr is disingenuous at best, and sad at worst. Either the church is, once again, exerting its conservative muscle to make an example of one of its own as a warning to other clergy who may step out of line, or the church is in such a sad state that it feels it has no choice but to defend a law that continues to exclude and harm a segment of God’s children.
The law Spahr is accused of violating is unjust and as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” To Spahr’s credit, she has no trouble following that advice, telling the Press Democrat: “It’s a real faith issue for me,” she said. “I think I would be in jeopardy if I didn’t do it.”
Spahr will go on trial sometime in August or September. |
As the draft creeps ever closer, it’s been hard to miss the steady drumbeat growing among film watchers for Texas A&M receiver Josh Reynolds. Lauded for his ability to high-point the ball and make the spectacular grab, even a cursory glance at his game provides an easy piece of evidence for why he has so many fans.
Reception Perception aims to do what is a challenge for just the average note-taker: place all portions of a wide receiver’s performance in context and congruence with each other. Through the number of metrics provided by the charting methodology, we can observe which players exist in a limited or narrow role, while also noting their strengths and proficiency in that assignment. Most importantly, the success rates in the series help show whether that player in question can ever hope to function outside of their collegiate role.
Josh Reynolds is a fascinating case, as his evaluation brought on a healthy mix of questions and answers. After questioning whether some of the anecdotes of his strongest traits hold up, we may have stumbled on how he truly stands out among players incubated in similar collegiate environments.
Alignment and Target Data
Games Sampled: South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State, LSU, Kansas State
Throughout the 2017 Reception Perception draft series we’ve placed little emphasis on the wide receivers who primarily stuck to one side of the field, as fully explained in JuJu Smith-Schuster’s profile. With players like Laquon Treadwell, Kevin White and Dorial Green-Beckham primarily playing one side of the field in college and also getting off to slow starts in the NFL, we might be seeing the beginning of a trend developing. With such a limited collegiate assignment that does not replicate a pro receiver’s deployment, perhaps these players are naturally predisposed to a steeper learning curve.
Josh Reynolds becomes the latest among a group of prospects charted the last three years to operate almost exclusively from one position on over 70 percent of their charted snaps. Of these players, Green-Beckham posted the highest yardage total in his NFL rookie season with just 549.
The former Aggies receiver took 84.2 percent of his snaps at right wide receiver over the six games charted for Reception Perception. Over 66 percent of them came with Reynolds attached to the line of scrimmage playing the X-receiver spot. He gained some experience playing in the slot, traveling there on 5.3 percent of his snaps, 24 in total.
Texas A&M plays a wide-open spread passing offense much like the offense Chad Hansen operated in at Cal-Berkeley. Unlike his Cal counterpart, Reynolds wasn’t the target hog of the Aggies’ offense in 2016, drawing a target on 26 percent of his charted routes. Reynolds only caught a pass on 14.7 percent of his patterns, the second-lowest rate among 2017 draft prospects with only Josh Malone’s 13.1 percent trailing him.
One of the issues sure to stick with other analysts, though they tend to be overstated in general, is his propensity for drops. Reynolds checked in with a 9.4 drop rate in his sampled games, one of three highest in this class. Drops are often overweighed by fans because the negative effect they have on us tends to overwhelm our perspective and casts a shadow over positive traits. On the other hand, spectacular catches can have the inverse effect and cause us to extrapolate those high moments to the rest of our takeaways.
Ancillary Metrics
Before digging into his route running, it’s important to note the attributes that most often draw analyst’s affection. Simply put: Josh Reynolds makes some of the most spectacular catches among the wide receiver prospects in this draft. His highlight clips and cutups are littered with impressive, leap-driven catches where Reynolds plucks the ball with strong hands in midair. Yet, in the inverse effect of the overpowering negative visceral reaction to drops, observing a few of those awe-inspiring catches can leave a stamp of positive reaction that’s tough to wash away.
Given some of the sterling catches he makes in the air, it was disappointing to see Reynolds check in with a 64.3 percent contested catch conversion rate in Reception Perception. Now, for context, that’s far from a poor score. It is above the two-year prospect average. However, it falls just above the 58th percentile. Reynolds is certainly capable of winning this brand of difficult reception, but his ability in the air is far from a dominant trait on the level of a Chris Godwin, and even falls below some smaller receivers like Carlos Henderson or Taywan Taylor.
One area where Reynolds did live up to the hype was after the catch, going down on first contact on just 35.7 percent of his “in space” attempts. He was proficient in making the first defender miss, breaking a single tackle on 50 percent of his in space attempts, and at busting out big plays, shown by breaking two or more tackles on the remaining 14.3 percent. Both of those scores checked in above the two-year prospect average.
In this area, Reynolds compared to a similarly built current NFL player in Marvin Jones. During his final season with the Bengals, Jones broke a single tackle on 62.5 percent of his in space attempts and multiple tackles on 12.5 percent. Of course, Jones still holds the Reception Perception record with a 90 percent contested catch conversion rate from that 2015 campaign. Should Reynolds soon hone that skill in the air as Jones has, he could enjoy a similar career to the now Lions wideout. He certainly has the potential route-running acumen to do so.
Success Rate vs. Coverage
In his work as a separator, Josh Reynolds shows his true value and placement among the receivers in this year’s class. Despite his tall and lanky frame at 6-foot-3, 194 pounds and propensity to high-point passes in high-leverage situations, Reynolds showed well in all layers of success rate vs. coverage.
With a 71.1 percent success rate vs. man coverage, Reynolds scored at the 67th percentile among prospects charted for Reception Perception. He also showed well when asked to defeat jams at the line of scrimmage, with a 67.3 percent success rate vs. press coverage. That score put him above the two-year prospect average, but only by a few percentage points.
Reynolds’ best work came against zone coverage, with a success rate (83.9 percent) above the 94th percentile. He showed a strong ability to sift through traffic in the middle of the field, as well as diagnosing coverage at or above the level of his quarterback. It should be noted, however, that Reynolds only faced 56 attempts against zones, compared to 149 in man coverage.
Route Data
We noted that Reynolds comes from a similar college offense to that of Chad Hansen or Ishmael Zamora, who came with limited assignments as route-runners. Not only did Reynolds primarily play just one receiver position, he also was not responsible for a wide array of patterns.
Essentially, Reynolds’ deployment portfolio primarily contained just three routes, with 75 percent of his charted patterns being slants, curls or nines. Those were the only routes he ran at a rate above the prospect average. He did check in at the average for out route percentage and mixed in some posts and digs at a mild level, but by in large, his work was done on just those three routes.
Reynolds’ deployment on just one side of the field in conjunction with a narrow usage pattern on the route tree simply cannot be ignored. It would not be surprising to see this player struggle to make an early impact in the NFL, given his overall lack of a diverse set of assignment experiences. However, his route success rate scores give optimism that with the proper seasoning, there is something to be mined with Reynolds’ potential.
Among those three routes Reynolds ran at a high rate, the only one that did not come with an above average success rate was the nine. His 80.8 percent success rate on slants, and especially his 85.7 percent success rate on curls were some of the best scores in the 2017 draft class.
With his ability to play the ball in the air, Reynolds makes sense as a threat on curl routes in breaking back to the quarterback. It helps that he demonstrates an understanding of deceptive routes running, not tipping off his intent when cutting off a vertical stem. Similarly, as he’s a quantifiable threat to break tackles in the open field, his NFL team will likely make use of him on slants to get him into space.
Though he was not asked to run many other routes at a high frequency, Reynolds largely passed any and all tests in limited showings by scoring above the average on all routes outside of the nine and post. It may take time, but Reception Perception indicates the senior wideout could develop into a more complete player as his career goes on.
Unlike the litany of other receivers who will likely face a steep learning curve due to their college offense and limited roles, Josh Reynolds shows the route-running acumen and separation to potentially eschew those worries. With strong success rates across the route tree and overall marks against man and zone, Reynolds passed the Reception Perception test.
With verifiable strengths in the air in the contested catch game and more notably on the ground after the catch, Reynolds has abilities to lean on while he marinates in the technical portions of the wide receiver craft. Of all the developmental receivers who need to overcome limitations brought on by their college role, take Josh Reynolds as the one to see his ability shine through over his assignment. The ceiling might not be tremendous in his future outlook, with a lack of spectacular scores across the board, but don’t be surprised if by 2019 or earlier, Reynolds is competing for or locked down a prominent complementary spot in a passing game.
If you’re interested in more Reception Perception analysis, make sure to visit our Reception Perception pages for college prospect evaluations and pre-order The Ultimate Draft Kit for access to 50 NFL players’ full data this summer. You can keep up with all of the work using the #ReceptionPerception hashtag on Twitter. |
Stanford men beat Cal at home, 69-59 STANFORD 69, CAL 59
Thanks mainly to deadeye shooting from John Gage, Stanford had a 26-3 advantage over Cal in bench scoring Saturday.
The Cardinal also had a lopsided advantage at the foul line, shooting more than twice as many free throws as the Bears.
It added up to a badly needed 69-59 win for Stanford at Maples Pavilion. A fourth conference loss would have put the Cardinal in a very deep hole as they hit the road this week to Colorado and Utah.
Gage, a 6-10 junior known mainly for his long-range scoring, hadn't hit a three in the previous two games. He swished all four of his tries from beyond the arc and scored 14 points as Stanford (11-7, 2-3 Pac-12) dealt short-handed Cal (10-7, 2-3) its fourth loss in its past six games.
"I'd like to have 26 points off the bench," Bears coach Mike Montgomery said of his injury-depleted roster. "We can't make excuses, but we don't have a lot of flexibility."
Dwight Powell, who was 9-for-9 at the foul line, scored a game-high 17 points. Stanford made 25 of its 31 free throws, while Cal was only 11-for-15.
Stanford's Chasson Randle launches a second-half shot against Cal's Richard Solomon. Stanford's Chasson Randle launches a second-half shot against Cal's Richard Solomon. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Stanford men beat Cal at home, 69-59 1 / 19 Back to Gallery
"It's the way you're able to get the free throws," Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. "Our kids did a good job of playing with aggression. I thought we attacked the basket well. We got the ball inside and put ourselves in a position to be fouled."
They also attacked the Pac-10's leading scorer, Allen Crabbe. With Andy Brown having the primary defensive responsibility, Stanford held Crabbe to 14 points, six under his average. He took just four shots in the first half and made one of them.
Neither team shot well. The Cardinal won despite shooting 36 percent and making one field goal in the final seven minutes. Cal shot 35 percent.
"We came out with a defensive-minded game and tried to be as tough as we can and make the plays down the stretch," Powell said.
It was a one-point game (43-42) with 13 minutes left. Stanford's Chasson Randle stole a pass and drove for a layup, Gage hit a three, and Powell sank two free throws for a 50-42 lead. Justin Cobbs (13 points) hit back-to-back shots to cut the lead to four, but Stanford steadily pulled away.
"Any time you play Cal it's always one of those grind-it-out games, where it's physical and guys are playing their hearts out," said Randle, who scored 15 points.
Cal's Richard Solomon committed an ill-advised foul as Powell prepared to launch a three-pointer with the shot clock about to expire. Powell sank all three foul shots, and Stanford led 57-47.
"I tried to get him off his feet with a pump fake," Powell said. "He's a great shot blocker, so I knew it would be a tricky shot. ... Fortunately for me, he jumped."
Josh Huestis grabbed 12 rebounds and hit a 17-footer for the only Stanford basket of the final seven minutes.
The game drew an announced crowd of 5,877, easily Stanford's best of the season. The crowd, however, fell short of the 5,931 at last weekend's women's game between the two schools. |
Commanders,
Knowing what fun it is to drive heavy weight-class vehicles and hear the sound of enemy vehicles being crushed beneath your tracks, we have decided to improve the experience even further by providing additional bonuses and discounts. That is why we are inviting you to relive the much-appreciated Heavy Steel Weekend and rule the battlefields with your sturdy heavy tanks! This is what you can expect:
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Mission
Heavy Steel Weekend
Goal
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Reward
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Conditions
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Crush everything in your path, Commanders! |
GT Walsheim Medium “I never properly
learned typography,
I just draw letters
for my posters.” “I never properly
learned typography,
I just draw letters
for my posters.” Swiss poster artist Otto Baumberger
GT Walsheim is inspired by the poster lettering of Otto Baumberger (1889–1961). He was a Swiss painter, stage designer, lithographer, and poster artist who created over 200 posters during his career. This website introduces the refreshed GT Walsheim typeface family and highlights Baumberger’s beautiful poster designs. You can tap on most images to reveal sketches, animations, and more.
Zürich Metropolis
1929 • 100×64cm Zürich Metropolis
2017 • 00:07 Walsheim Weisse
1930 • 110×70.5cm Walsheim Weisse
2017 • 00:06 Zürichsee
1935 • 100×70cm Zürichsee
2017 • 00:10
His work is fascinating for many reasons. Like most designers of his time, Baumberger created a lot of tourism posters with the Swiss Alps in the starring role. His career was marked by the ascendancy of branding and consumer products in society. At times Baumberger’s work leaves the aesthetics of landscape painting behind for a more abstract, geometric look that was so characteristic of the later Swiss Style. All those posters have in common that they allow Baumberger’s geometric lettering to take center stage.
Forster Ausverkauf
2017 • 00:06 Forster Ausverkauf
1928 • 128×90cm Balatum
2017 • 00:03 Balatum
1928 • 128×90cm Forster
2017 • 00:03 Forster
1930 • 127×90cm Brak Liqueur
2017 • 00:04 Brak Liqueur
1937 • 127×90cm |
It happens all the time. Someone cut you in the line at a Tel Avivi market, just stepped right in front. What do you say to put them back in their place? That is, back behind you in the queue. Let’s learn what Israelis say in this situation, paying special attention to delicate intonations that make all the difference.
Words and expressions discussed:
Ze rak she’ela – It’s just a question – זה רק שאלה
Slicha – Sorry / Excuse me – סליחה
Ani hayiti kodem – I was (here) before – אני הייתי קודם
Chutspa – Nerve – חוצפה
Halo-halo! – Hey! – הלו-הלו
Halo, ma niya? – What’s going on? – ?הלו, מה נהיה
Lo lo lo / Lo lo lo lo lo – No, no, no – לא לא לא / לא לא לא לא לא
Achshav ani – Now it’s my turn – עכשיו אני
Achi / Haver / Gever / Adoni – Dude / mate / man / Sir – אחי / חבר / גבר / אדוני
Hayita po? – Were you here? – ?היית פה
Gvirti slicha, ani kodem – Ma’am excuse me, I am first – גבירתי סליחה, אני קודם
Episode 144 on ‘nihya’
Music:
Matti Caspi – Slicha (lyrics)
Amir Benayoun – Mehila (lyrics)
George Bar – Halo, halo
Shotei Ha-nevu’a – Yefehfiya (lyrics)
Rivka Michaeli & Ran Eliran – Lo Lo Lo (lyrics)
Ha-haverim shel Natasha – Achshav Ani (lyrics)
Tsipi Shavit – Gveret Shokolada (lyrics)
Looking to support the show? Learn how on Patreon.
Want to see more Hebrew gems? Like Streetwise Hebrew on Facebook and Instagram.
Want Guy to talk about a pressing Hebrew issue? Find him at StreetWiseHebrew.com or follow him on Twitter. |
Judging by this satisfyingly scandalous new memoir, Frank Langella has slept with, been propositioned by, or at least swapped dirty jokes with a breathtaking swath of stars over his illustrious half-century career. Each of the 65 chapters in “Dropped Names” offers a no-holds-barred eulogy somewhere between mash note and carpet-bombing. The collection paints Hollywood and Broadway as teeming with vulgar, neurotic and irresistible company, and Langella as relentlessly affable in the face of nonstop groping by famous people in far-flung locations. He ambles into history and falls into notable beds like some kind of sexy Forrest Gump or beefcake Zelig.
On Cape Cod, Noël Coward hits on him in the presence of President and Mrs. Kennedy. In Arizona, filming a TV remake of “The Mark of Zorro,” Yvonne De Carlo (better known as Lily Munster) plays Langella’s mother by day, and by night treats him “like a pretty girl in the back seat of a convertible on a hot summer night.” In the south of England, on location for “Dracula,” Langella flashes Laurence Olivier through the doorway of their adjoining suites, calling, “Oh professor, see anything you like?” He and Jill Clayburgh come “dangerously close to a tumble,” and backstage they and Raul Julia become “a pulsating Oreo cookie with nothing remotely chaste about where our hands and mouths wandered.” The book’s subtitle should be “Bad Girls Go Everywhere,” although Langella is no girl — as Anthony Perkins rather bluntly attempts to verify one night in a dressing room.
Photo
Aside from a little coyness about his intimate relationship with Jackie Onassis, Langella pulls very few punches. Richard Burton is “a crashing bore”; Yul Brynner is paranoid and imperious; Rex Harrison, a “son of a bitch”; Lee Strasberg, “arrogant and insufferable.” Langella is “flattered and somewhat perversely titillated” when Elia Kazan makes a pass at his girlfriend in an effort to break him down, but of Kazan’s other bad behavior, before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he says, “I have always felt that talent such as his doesn’t give you rights.” Langella recalls sitting with his hands folded when Kazan received a standing ovation at the Oscars.
Luckily for others, Langella is as enthusiastic as he is vicious. He celebrates Robert Mitchum’s “carefree, rangy masculinity,” Roger Vadim’s “devotion to physical pleasure,” and Paul Newman’s “original and mesmerizing” beauty (although he does call him “dull” and note that he didn’t have “much of a behind”). Langella saves his highest praise for women of a certain age — that age entitling one to a discount at the movies. Loretta Young in her late 70s was “breathtaking . . . very attractive.” Brooke Astor in her late 90s was “ultrafeminine and alluring” — and in Langella’s company not shy about relating how she lost her virginity. He waxes philosophical about his on-set affair with Rita Hayworth when he was 34. It was her last film. She was 20 years older and suffering from alcoholism and early Alzheimer’s, yet, “in the candle’s light and fire’s glow,” Hayworth “once again becomes the Goddess.” If this memoir doesn’t make the book club of every seniors’ home in America, then there’s something wrong with the Greatest Generation.
Video
While never boring, “Dropped Names” is in places more sketch than oil painting. The ode to Princess Diana, whom Langella never met, is a weak link, as is his opening chapter on Marilyn Monroe, which leads with the generic: “Remember when everything meant so much?” There are a few distracting repetitions, including at least 10 variations on the phrase “minimal makeup.” (Perhaps he’s spent so much time surrounded by stars in greasepaint that whenever he sees a woman’s pores, he exults.) But the book’s stylistic imperfections add to the sense that you’re reading the uncensored diary of an indefatigably social and curious man, a modern-entertainment-industry Samuel Pepys. Narcissistic? Sure. He grants that he was especially “selfish and obstreperous” in his youth. But he’s inspiringly game.
The word “slut” has been invoked in the public discourse as an ugly slur. But Langella’s book celebrates sluttiness as a worthy — even noble — way of life. When Bette Davis wants to have “racy phone conversations . . . rife with foreplay,” he agrees, because how could you not? When Elizabeth Taylor says, “Come on up, baby, and put me to sleep,” who is he to resist? (He does make her chase him first.) By his cheerful debauchery, Langella reveals something certain commentators have obscured: sluts are the best — hungry for experience and generous with themselves in its pursuit. He talks about how joyful it was in his 20s to “throw some scripts, jeans and a few packs of condoms into a bag,” and head out to do plays and bed theater apprentices.
There is so much happy sexuality in this book that reading it is like being flirted with for a whole party by the hottest person in the room. It’s no wonder Langella was invited everywhere. |
Reading Dimitri’s piece on the Sedin twins made me think about the most under-appreciated aspect of a hockey player’s existence.
Henrik Sedin’s key value as a hockey player isn’t that he’s a moderately good possession centreman after you correct for zone starts or that he’s a scoring champion. His key value is that he was the only forward to play 82 games each season between both the 2005 and 2012 lockouts. He last missed a game on March 16, 2004, a 4-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks (to any Chicago readers, yes, the Blackhawks did exist before 2010).
A great player who only plays 60 games can be downgraded to being a good player. Since so few players get on ironman streaks that last seasons in a row, being a good player for all of these games elevates a player to being great. From Sedin, to Brendan Morrison to Andrew Cassels, it’s been about a decade since the Canucks had to hold their top centreman out of the lineup.
Here’s something Mike Gillis said:
We’re trying to define fatigue levels in those circumstances and as you know, a player usually gets hit twice when he gets hit once. He gets hit by the player and then hits the boards. How you can attribute that to success and how you attribute that to fatigue levels is instrumental in finding out when a player in the third period makes a mistake. And something happens and I think that as we’ve found, in a dynamic, competitive contact sport that fatigue levels are really a lot of the determining factor in success or failure.
It doesn’t deviate too far from the conclusions found by Eric T. at NHL Numbers about older players playing a lot of games. I think the players who make it to 36, 37 years old in the NHL have bodies developed enough to continuously handle the grind of a season. You can think of a few players (the most prominent being Kyle Wellwood, but I made an argument for Cody Hodgson last season) who are fairly effective until they hit a certain minute threshold and they fall off the wagon.
Wellwood, for instance, is a first-line player when he plays below 14:10 per game. He’s a moderate second line player when he climbs above 15:34:
Avg. TOI Goals/82 Points/82 Above 15:34 17:16 18.5 42.3 Above 14:10 14:56 15.9 50.9 14:10 and Below 12:39 21.7 54.1
(The Goals/82 and Points/82 are based on 14:46 of ice time per game)
Henrik Sedin played just two games under Wellwood’s “maximum” threshold of 15:34 (he recorded eight points in those games, giving him a per 82 average of 212 points in those games) but the real value of what Henrik provides in those games over 15:34, or what certain centremen can’t play, or just aren’t good enough to play.
If a player has excellent hands and shot, it doesn’t mean anything if they can’t wield that for more than 16 minutes regularly.
This can also apply to goaltenders.
Two goaltenders, both alike in dignity, talent and statistics. We can call these hypothetical goalies “Cory Schneider” and “Roberto Luongo”. Somebody pointed out to me on Twitter that they were looking over this page on statistics and noticed Schneider had a higher quality start rate and a higher save percentage, even at even strength.
There’s this:
EV SV% Luongo 0.929 Schneider 0.931
That’s just even strength save percentage. On the surface, it appears that Schneider is the better goaltender. It just isn’t the case when you tally up the player’s value over the course of a long season. Over a full season, that 2-point difference in save percentage is worth a little under two goals against in value, which is close enough to be affected by randomness when you have in excess of 1500 attempted shots flying at you.
The top 30 goaltenders in goalie starts this season combined for an EV SV% of .923. The next 30 in starts combined for .916. The rest, the “replacements” combined for .913. When you celebrate a goaltender’s save percentage, you need to look at it in terms of marginal value versus a replacement.
You also need to figure out how many shots a goaltender stopped compared to said replacement, presumably the guy you can just find on the farm. The list includes players like Jeff Deslauriers, Brad Thiessen, Curtis McElhinny and Jussi Rynnas. Some guys fared well in their few NHL appearances. Some fared worse, and, on average, they all fared just marginally worse than backups. Those numbers add up:
EV SV% Replacement Shots Faced SAR Luongo 0.929 0.913 1288 21.4 Schneider 0.931 0.913 750 13.4
The SAR stands for Save Above Replacement. I used to calculate this against the average goaltender, but even average players have some value. By facing more shots and playing more games, to use a poker analogy, Luongo had his chips on the table more often than Schneider. He showed, for a longer period of time that he was elite, and he was eight goals better than Schneider over the course of a season.
Statistics comparing a player to a replacement aren’t rate statistics: They’re cumulative. Luongo helped the Canucks win about four games versus a replacement goaltender and Schneider was about 2.5 over the course of the season.
Schneider was pretty great this past year. His SAR was 18th in the NHL, good enough to be a starter, despite having just 28 games under his belt. That was better than starting goalies like Ryan Miller, Craig Anderson, Cam Ward and Carey Price. As far as everyday performance, he wasn’t as good as Luongo, who performed at a similar level, but did it longer.
Luongo has started 50 games, a good benchmark for an everyday goalie since the 2000-01 season. The most concerning statistic about Luongo is that he’s dipped in starts from 67 to 60 to 54 over the course of three seasons. He’s managed to be near the top of the league in save percentage throughout. Go through year-to-year and you’ll find that consistency is a tough thing to gauge among goaltenders. Mike Smith and Brian Elliott had very strong years this past season (helped along by coaching) but haven’t been great beforehand, so it’s easier to write off their good performances from last year.
I think the general idea is that you’d rather have a good player for very long than a flash-in-the-pan great player. That Henrik Sedin guy is very good. That Luongo guy is pretty good too. It’s been no coincidence that the Canucks have had some very good years since those two became the Canucks’ go-to guys. |
Congressional Republicans are once again holding the government hostage against a budget authorization bill, this time threatening to put the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into furlough. Maybe it’s time to call them on their bluff and go one step further: Let’s shut down the DHS. The agency is no longer relevant in an age where cyberterrorism may be the new normal, and it’s doing the United States more harm than good.
As Ashley Parker at the New York Times reports, obstructionist Republicans are so determined to get their way on immigration policy that they’re willing to let the agency’s funding lapse rather than authorize a bill that includes immigration provisions. “Some House Republicans,” she wrote, “have expressed a willingness to let the agency run out of money.”
And maybe we should. Permanently.
1) It was a terrible kneejerk reaction to Sept. 11
In the chaotic days after the horrific terrorist attacks of 2001, President George W. Bush and Congress were both desperate and swift to act. Under heavy demands from the U.S. public, they wanted to demonstrate that they were doing something to protect the security of the nation. The DHS, along with the PATRIOT Act, were the result. Both had a chilling effect on the U.S. public, becoming the building blocks of our 21st century security culture.
Thanks to the DHS, Americans have faced a substantial abridgement of their civil liberties and have come to view law enforcement activity that would have been unthinkable 20 years ago as routine. In the name of security, the DHS has created greater latitude for search and seizure, increased the number of people in prison—particularly people of color, with the number of black men in prison now exceeding the number of slaves kept in the United States in 1850—and attracted substantial criticism.
2) $39.3 billion is a huge waste of federal funds
DHS funding last year amounted to $39.3 billion. Split between divisions like Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), agricultural inspection, and the Coast Guard, the funding sucked into the DHS wasn’t used efficiently. As is common with large government agencies, significant problems with both funding use and accountability have been a recurrent issue at the DHS, where large amounts of money are disbursed without notable returns.
In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security was unable to pass even basic auditing because its accounting system was such a mess. In its first five years, the agency oversaw $15 billion in failed contracts, including an assortment of poorly conceived and controlled ideas, ranging from overhauling ships for the Coast Guard to developing better airport screening. Writing about the DHS funding crisis, Anne Applebaum at Slate says:
Since their hurried and heavily politicized creation, the fact is that neither the priorities nor the spending patterns of the Department of Homeland Security and its junior partner, the Transportation Security Administration, has ever been subject to serious scrutiny. They have never been forced to make hard choices. On the contrary, both have been encouraged, by their congressional funders, to spend money on more elaborate equipment every year in reaction to every perceived new threat, real or otherwise.
3) Its disaster preparedness and response are abysmal
Hurricane Katrina showed us in 2005 that the United States is not prepared to deal with severe disasters, and that was underscored with Superstorm Sandy. We have the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and parent agency DHS to thank for that. One of the agency’s key missions is to improve disaster preparation and response, yet it has been categorically unable to do so.
Issues like these are going to repeat themselves and may, in fact, become more severe with climate change. As yet another polar vortex holds the East Coast and some parts of the South in lockdown, the United States needs to seriously invest in developing a coherent and comprehensive disaster prevention and response system. It’s time to address deferred maintenance on levees, subways, and related systems and to create an effective rapid response plan for natural disasters. FEMA hasn’t done it, and clearly the DHS is not up to the job.
4) Our law enforcement agencies are too militarized
Growing militarization of law enforcement agencies is a significant problem in a country where police departments should be concerned with protecting public safety, not in making war on the public. As seen in Ferguson, Mo., and across the country last year, police departments are now heavily armed with military-grade equipment provided and partially funded by the DHS. Law enforcement culture is changing in the U.S., and not for the better.
Meanwhile, law enforcement under direct DHS supervision, like the Border Patrol and ICE, is also becoming highly militarized. While these agencies are ostensibly in place to help the United States monitor the movement of people across borders to protect the welfare of the nation and prevent illegal immigration, their function also appears to be in a state of rapid revolution. Both are investing heavily in arrests, the use of detention facilities with deplorable conditions, and aggressive policing on the border—a departure from law enforcement and into military-style treatment of civilians.
5) It’s time to end the war on immigrants
The DHS is an active participant in the war on immigrants in the United States—the very same issue that the president and the House are trying to tackle. Undocumented immigrants of all stripes are being treated like base criminals, from housekeepers trying to send money home to their families to hardened criminals with extensive records. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reports 315,943 “removals” for 2014, including those of people without criminal records.
Meanwhile, close to 450,000 immigrants are held annually across the United States, with many living in substandard, terrible conditions in crowded facilities while waiting for their day in immigration court. It can take months or even years to get to court, and because undocumented immigrants are not citizens, they are not entitled to the legal rights that would make such gross delays in justice a civil rights violation under the law. ICE and related agencies have created a logistical nightmare for the government and a terrifying reality for immigrants, not to mention a wildly expensive immigration tangle; the U.S. spent a reported two billion dollars on immigration detention in 2014.
6) Surveillance culture in the U.S. gets bigger every year
Prior to 2001, Americans placed a high value on civil rights, including freedom from excessive surveillance. Now, Americans are living in a world of warrantless wiretapping, extensive CCTV usage, drones overhead, and the curtailment of privacy in a variety of settings. The DHS is only partially responsible for these moves—the PATRIOT Act certainly played a role, as did other government agencies and acts of Congress—but it has been a large player in the creation and enforcement of policies that abridge the right to privacy.
Charles Kenney at Bloomberg commented about the consequences of surveillance culture: “Beyond the waste of money and the overregulation, the expansion of the homeland security state has created unnecessary fear among a population that should be able to trust its government to send accurate signals about risk.”
Putting an end to the DHS would create a radical shift in the world of surveillance, raising questions about how and when Americans should be subjected to government monitoring. It could become the first step in dismantling a legal system in which civilians have become the enemy, instead of the terrorists from whom we are ostensibly protecting ourselves.
7) We need to focus on internal problems
The Department’s heavy focus on external threats has come at a high internal cost. Acts of domestic terrorism, like the assassination of Dr. Tiller in 2009, mass shootings in numerous venues, the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013, and attacks on religious minorities illustrate that the DHS has failed spectacularly on the issue of protecting Americans from terrorist threats. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, indicates that hate groups in the United States are on the rise and pose a significant risk of terrorism, yet the DHS has taken little to no moves to address them, an ominous and troubling sign.
In a particularly stark example of the failings at the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service is in a state of crisis. Multiple assassination attempts against President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have shown that the Secret Service, now under DHS purview, is unable to provide adequate protection at the White House, another extremely troubling development. When a government agency supposedly dedicated to extinguishing the threat of terrorism in the United States can barely protect one of the nation’s most valued assets, it’s hard not to wonder where else the agency is failing.
The DHS never should have been established in the first place, as hasty, immediate reactions to crises tend to leave large messes that need to be cleaned up later. The United States is facing that cleanup, and this funding crisis provides a perfect reason to simply close the agency, split its various departments into relevant agencies that can better manage their own affairs, and focus on real and immediate threats to American health, safety, and well-being.
Screengrab via Showtime/YouTube |
What do women fantasize about sexually? Super Fella reveals the top ten female fantasies and unveils the straight fact. Sexual fantasies for women are actually quite similar to what men fantasize about!
The sweet damsels are more on the dreamy and romantic side of things, but they do have their own share of sexual fantasies for women.
And quite surprisingly, the top female fantasies are not very different from what men want in bed.
[Read: Top 10 sexual fantasies for men]
If men and women share similar interests in sexual fantasies, why do we really have to hide it and pretend like we’re all clean as a whistle.
After asking a lot of women, and of course, through my own personal experience, here are the top ten sexual fantasies for women.
The top ten female fantasies
Women may say what they want, but most women at least indulge in a few of these fantasies, if not all.
I’m really confused about a lesbian fantasy which many girls think is a hot one, but a few others were totally against it. But what the hell, I like it, so here goes the top fantasies for women.
#1 The rape fantasy
This might sound like something women aren’t really into. But many women do dream about getting molested by a man, or fantasize about a man walking in, carrying her onto a haystack and nailing her. Aww, come on, not literally! [Read: Date rape facts]
Women like dreaming about a man who rips their Versace overcoat, and her D&G tee, and her Victoria’s Secret lingerie and ravages her. But for all the men out there, don’t ever try doing this in reality, she’d snip your ding dong off before you can get past her Versace. But a woman wouldn’t really mind if her own man does that to her, of course, minus the ripping of her expensive clothes.
#2 Being a stripper
Which woman doesn’t want to be a stripper? Give her a few shots of Absolut, and she’d be all over the table, flinging clothes off one after the other. But most women don’t do that, even after they down an entire bottle. They’re just way too inhibitive.
So the next best thing, they dream about stripping for an audience. They especially love it when a man takes out a few notes and dangles them down her G-strings. Women do feel a tad awkward to talk about it with their man, but I really think they should. That would be two fantasies with one stone.
#3 Role reversals
Women wonder what it would be like to be in a man’s shoes. Or more precisely put, they wonder what it would be like to be in a man’s boxers. They dream about stories where they could wear his long trench coat and a cap with nothing inside and take the man in the front or back. [Read: Sexual roleplay tips]
The man’s obviously painfully playing the girl here in this female fantasy, and he may not really like this much unless he’s got some gay-like tendencies, or if he’s willing to walk around with a sore ass the next morning.
But what’s the one statement a couple who wants to make this female fantasy a reality has to use? ‘Medic! Lubes. We’re going to need a lot of lubes!’
#4 Group sex
This is a one of the bigger fantasies for women and men. Men love to dream about a good threesome when there’s a great looking exotic Asian or a Latina girl involved.
Surprisingly, women like to dream about the same thing too! But they don’t want an Asian or some far-fetched demigod (they might), they just want their man’s friend! Yep, most women would love to play the pony with their boyfriend’s or husband’s good friend. [Read: How to start swinging]
# 5 A gorgeous woman
Not all women accept this controversial fantasy for women. But many women secretly fantasize about having a physical affair with someone like Angelina Jolie or some other hot bombshell who always talks like she loves to have sex with women. Can you believe that?! Gasp!
Women fantasize about what it would be like to be with someone of the same sex, someone who knows just how she wants to be touched and what will make her orgasm. [Read: Girls kissing each other]
And just in case you haven’t thought about making love to Angelina, girlie, she’s stated that she finds a woman’s body to be the most attractive thing in the whole world (all men second that) and she loves to make out with women! Now, even if women haven’t given girl sex a thought, they might just change their mind.
#6 Exhibitionism
Many fantasies for women include showing off. A lot! They dream about walking down a beach and by the time they reach the waters, they’ve got almost all their clothes off. If not that, a woman fantasizes about having sex in public where people can see her performing her act. [Read: Public flashing girls confessions]
The closest thing that women do to get familiar with this female fantasy is flashing to unsuspecting loners walking along on a highway. Exhibitionism fantasies can be a great boost for sizzling sex, and can also have a woman talking about really, really dirty things in bed. Which does turn on both partners. Life is good! [Read: How to talk dirty in bed]
#7 Submissive mate
Women do like getting kinky once in a while. Men are usually the ones who are on top, but at times a woman fantasizes about a man doing more than just showing off his balancing act on top of her.
She fantasizes about being told what to do in bed. She wonders how it would feel to be called a slut or a whore in bed. It may even turn her on. Even though it sounds like a guy’s fantasy, what the woman does during this act is her fantasy. Some women say they would listen to their partner, while some girls said they would do the opposite of what their master orders and wait to be punished. Freaky lil’ minxes!
#8 Dominatrix
This is a role reversal of the submissive lover. Some women like to dominate men, instead of getting dominated all the time. They imagine what it could be like if they could indulge in all kinds of crazy acts with their men.
This includes tying him up and doing whatever she wishes to her man. Telling him to perform sexual acts on her as well as making him beg for what he wants, are just a few things that run along in a woman’s mind in this fantasy for women. And trust me, some acts are just way too crude to be put here. The least of it’s got something to do with peeing! Omigawd! [Read: Sexual fetishes]
#9 A stranger in the bedroom
Women may cringe when an unknown male touches them, but they do love it inside their head! The thought of meeting a stranger for one night of great sex, where she can do anything and everything she wants is just what can turn her on like a light bulb.
She could do whatever she wants, talk dirty, ask the guy to take her from the back, talk about another woman, whatever she wants. Many women want to talk about a lot of things in bed, but worry too much about what their man might think of their female fantasy. A meeting with a stranger, at least in her head takes away a lot of those inhibitions. [Read: How to start fantasizing about someone else with your lover]
#10 Come and get me, boys!
This fantasy is all about having several men touch a woman at the same time. She may even dream about being surrounded by several men kissing, touching and seducing her at the same time.
Every woman has her own favorite number in mind, varying from three to around ten men groping her! There’s something about just sitting back and being overwhelmed by sexual male attention that turns on women. Women don’t really dream of this all the time and hope it would come true someday, but they just can’t help but sit back and wonder, how it could feel like!
Of course, there are plenty more female fantasies and there are always unique fantasies for women that may turn some women on more than the others. But as long as you’re having fun and so is your man, go on and explore your mind.
[Read: 20 things about girls that turn a guy on sexually]
You may think your man doesn’t enjoy these female fantasies, but you’ll never know until you hint a few ideas to him. And in any case, the fantasies for women and men aren’t really very different, are they? |
Dogfish Head
It turns out the moon doesn't taste like cheese, it tastes like a malty Oktoberfest brew in a frosty pint glass. Delaware brewery Dogfish Head released a seasonal beer with a twist. The Celest-jewel-ale includes a bit of moon dust along with the hops and malt.
The brewery obtained lunar meteorites with an assist from ILC Dover, the company known for creating and manufacturing the Apollo space suit. The meteorite was crushed into dust and steeped in the mixture as it brewed.
Dogfish Head describes the taste of Celest-jewel-ale as "doughy malt, toasted bread, subtle caramel, and a light herbal bitterness." Moon dirt never sounded so delicious. The brewery notes that the dust is made up mainly of minerals and salts, so no worries about accidentally ingesting alien eggs that will later pop out of your stomach.
Unfortunately, you can't go out and buy a six-pack of moon brew. It is only available on the menu at the company's Rehoboth Beach brewpub. The lucky few who get to drink it are served their pints in space-suit koozies, made from (you guessed it) the same material as ILC Dover's space suits.
Those are some pretty valuable koozies, considering they're made with layers of Kevlar, Nomex, Gore-Tex, and Mylar. Only 10 koozies were made, so drinkers have to hand over their licenses as an assurance that the koozies will be returned to the bar after the moon beer goes down the hatch.
Dogfish Head
(Via Geekosystem) |
An expedition to Christmas Island has found that this past year’s record El Niño has had a devastating effect on coral reefs near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean.
READ MORE: New images illustrate devastating coral bleaching in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
Coral is actually an animal. The coral we see is made up of hundreds to thousands of small creatures called polyps which are extremely sensitive to temperatures. A warming of just 1 C to 1.5 C can cause the coral to undergo stress. Microscopic algae called zooxanthellae live inside the coral’s tissue and are responsible for providing coral with their colour. They also provide them with 90 per cent of the energy needed to grow as well as reproduce.
Coral bleaching occurs when the relationship between the coral and the zooxanthellae breaks down, revealing the white “skeleton” of the host coral.
The research team of marine scientists from the University of Victoria and the Georgia Institute of Technology visited Kiritimati Island, known best as Christmas Island, and were shocked to find how extreme the bleaching event was off the coast.
Last November the team visited the reef and found that 50 to 90 per cent of the coral was bleached and as many as 30 per cent were dead. After returning in March, at least 80 per cent were dead and 15 per cent bleached.
GALLERY: Before and after photos of coral bleaching off Christmas Island
“Christmas Island’s coral reefs are like ghost towns — the structures are all still there, but no one is home,” said University of Victoria biologist Julia Baum. “To see the reefs change this dramatically in just a few months is shocking.
“We were bracing ourselves for the worst, but seeing it with our own eyes was surreal.”
Over the past 10 months, temperatures on Christmas Island have been between 1.5 C and 3 C higher than normal.
“This intense heat stress has transformed some of the world’s healthiest coral reefs into graveyards,” Baum said.
“To our knowledge, this is the greatest coral mass mortality event at a single location on record.”
The effects of the bleaching extends beyond that of the ocean floor.
“Christmas Island’s people rely on the reefs for their food and their livelihoods, so they’ll be profoundly affected by this event,” Baum said.
The team will continue to monitor the reef over the years to see how the reef recovers, which they say could take a decade or more.
In March, new video was released of the dramatic bleaching along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority reported that 50 per cent of the coral deaths were due to sustained above-average sea surface temperatures.
WATCH: New footage of Great Barrier Reef’s coral bleaching
Follow @NebulousNikki |
on October 20, 2017 —
We all know that most small businesses fail. It’s one of the toughest things to attempt: create a small company out of nothing that competes with 800lb gorillas who have all the advantages: economies of scale, cosy access to the corridors of power, and if the worst happens for Big Business, they get bailed out with our tax dollars.
If the worst happens for a small business, it’s game over.
The role of small business in Canada’s economy
According to Industry Canada’s 2016 report “Key Small Business Statistics”
Small businesses in Canada, defined as companies that have up to 99 employees aside from the founder are responsible for:
70% of all jobs in Canada
87.7% of all new jobs
Usually make the greatest contribution to net employment change.
Yet being a small business owner is not all accolades, groupies and bling. The number of small businesses that die in each sector annually is pretty close to the number that enter those sectors. This goes back to the old adage that “most small businesses will fail within 5 years”.
Almost half of all small businesses launch without external funding. These owners put their own money where their mouth is.
The time my small business almost died
Those who know me may be familiar with my company, easyDNS Technologies, which has been operating out of Toronto’s Liberty Village tech hub since before it was “the Liberty Village tech hub”. We have been operating since 1998 and usually employ somewhere between 15 and 20 FTEs. Currently we’re at 18.
Without boring you with our life story, things mostly went well for the first 13 or 14 years. We had challenges, but they were things like hacking attempts and never ending Denial-Of-Service Attacks. Financially we did well. We were able to pile up “cash on the sidelines” for a rainy day. It was a good thing we did too, because we ended up needing it.
The cash drove the bank nuts. They used to call me, practically begging me to do something with that cash but I always just “kept my powder dry”, as my lawyer liked to phrase it.
Eventually I did invest some of it, putting it into another small business that was struggling, but they had a great product and I sensed a lot of potential. My investment kept them, and their 4 FTEs running for another couple years but in the end they liquidated and I lost my entire investment. That represented about 25% of my saved capital at the time.
Concurrent with that, and reminiscent of the plot line from “Merchant of Venice” where everything went wrong for the guy at the same time, my main business began to face headwinds too.
Competition from south of the border, companies like Godaddy, who had deep pockets were blanketing Toronto with ads and were undercutting everybody. Even though they were losing money like crazy, they were succeeding in cannibalizing the entire market; then their backers cleaned up via an IPO.
It took a few years for us to pull out of the nosedive and we burned through the remainder of that aforementioned war chest. I remember it all too well. Lying in bed at night with that tightness in my chest, my breathing shallow, sweating out the next payroll. One Christmas (Christmas is brutal because in our sector revenues plunge while your payroll goes up), we had three payrolls in December. I was cashing out investments and ended up skipping my own salary for about 6 weeks.
Long story short, we pulled out and now we’re enjoying a nice run of all-time high revenue years and we’re back to profitable. But nothing like “The Golden Age” in terms of earnings. Our margins have been compressed from currency fluctuations (most of our COGs are in USD) and cross-border competition (in addition to Godaddy, both Amazon and Google have entered our space as direct competitors. How many 800lb gorillas does Morneau Sheppell have to compete with? Probably less than we do.)
Justin Trudeau excoriates small businesses as “tax cheats”
So when 2015 came along and Justin Trudeau uttered his unforgettable remarks on how “most small businesses were mainly vehicles for tax cheats” I really couldn’t believe a major politician would actually say that.
Every politician in history, all sides of the spectrum, usually hold up “small business” as “the backbone of the economy” – because it is. It’s a way to appeal to both working class and affluent voters because small business owners spend a lot of their lives as working class, and if they’re fortunate, some of their lives as moderately affluent. But even then, we’re all viscerally aware how fast our fortunes can change. Especially when we don’t enjoy special protections from the political caste.
Had Trudeau instead come out and said “most rich people use numbered companies to shelter assets [ like how Bill Morneau & I do ]”, it would be a lot more understandable. But when pushed on his original comment and given the opportunity to clarify, he instead doubled down.
Trudeau is now pushing a “tax reform” which aims to put small business owners “on the same footing” as employees from a taxation perspective. They will do this by “super-taxing” what they call “extra income in the business” at the nominal rate of income tax, as opposed to treating it as capital gains on any investments made.
The risk profile of the owners is completely different from the employees
But this overlooks the fact that business owners are not on the same footing as their employees for many reasons, which became very clear to me during my own company’s near-death-experience:
The small business owner assumes all the operational risk. The employees get paid whether or not the business makes money, as long as there is a business to pay them.
The employees get paid whether or not the business makes money, as long as there is a business to pay them. The owners form the capital , either they put in their own money, or that of their “friends and family” or they take on debt. When they take on debt, a small business owner is almost always required to put up personal guarantees: the house, the savings, the spouses assets, everything. The big boys, not so much. I doubt very much that the Morneau family has to put up one of their houses (or yachts) whenever Morneau Sheppell does a bond issuance. Something tells me they just sail through the compliance process too…
, either they put in their own money, or that of their “friends and family” or they take on debt. When they take on debt, a small business owner is almost always required to put up personal guarantees: the house, the savings, the spouses assets, everything. The big boys, not so much. I doubt very much that the Morneau family has to put up one of their houses (or yachts) whenever Morneau Sheppell does a bond issuance. Something tells me they just sail through the compliance process too… Small businesses don’t get bailed out. We are not “too big to fail” or “too big to jail”. We are “too little to care” and “too small to matter”. The more small businesses fail, the more their assets and market share can get swept off the table into the deep pockets of politically ensconced conglomerates and mega-corps.
Speaking of cheats
While Justin Trudeau is riding his high horse about small business owner tax cheats, he keeps his “family fortune” in a number of numbered companies which are not affected by the proposed tax changes.
Morneau for his part, didn’t put his assets into a blind trust when he became FM. His personal holdings in Morneau Sheppell (the ones he has tucked away in more numbered companies and it bears repeating, unaffected by the new tax proposal) have increased by over $12,000,000 since he became FM.
Morneau Sheppell also obtained a contract renewal worth $8 million dollars from The Bank of Canada in February. At renewal time Bill Morneau oversaw the Bank of Canada and still owned over 2 million shares of Morneau Sheppell. He seems to be taken aback that anybody would deign to question the conflict-of-interest issues around that.
I’ve busted my ass for 20 years, nearly didn’t make it, finally had some success at it while employing nearly 20 people, with families, kids, homes, and I get reviled for it by none other than the goddamn Prime Minister – a guy who was born into the very bosom of elite society and became a millionaire through inheritance.
Meanwhile, his right-hand man (also born rich and took over a company his dad founded) flagrantly revels in conflicts, got even richer over the course of his term as FM.
Small biz owners’ retirements in peril
Maybe someday I’ll retire, and my plan has been, for nearly my entire working career, to fund my retirement through some type of business exit.
With Trudeau and the Liberals in power, this now looks precarious.
I can see lifetime capital gains exemptions going out the window. I can see business exits taxed at the nominal rate of income, hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of windfall tax on a small business exit down the road. These political elite parasites are utterly shameless.
Every small business owner in Canada and those who work for one need understand what the ramifications would be if we are at the beginning of a dynastic reign that is overtly hostile to the ethos and spirit of hard work, entrepreneurship and the economic contributions of small business.
Justin Trudeau and his wingman Morneau are openly signaling that this is the direction they are taking this country (but they seem to be just A-OK with already super-rich fat cats).
If the climate gets much more hostile then the calculus is whether it makes any sense to start a small business in Canada. Yes, we all know the tax laws here go by residency, so there is no “running companies remotely out of the Caribbean” (unless maybe, you’re a plugged in career politician, Morneau does have that subsidiary in Bahamas) but I already know a few tech entrepreneurs who already said “f*** it” and now live elsewhere, where they are starting their new companies.
People who know me remember that I ran as a candidate for the Libertarian Party of Canada in the last election, garnering 1% of the vote in an NDP stronghold riding. Next election I may run in Etobicoke Central (my home riding) and maybe I’m going to swing more than 1% of the vote this time. Shoot me an email or follow me on Twitter @Stuntpope if you have any thoughts around that. |
Fans are being urged to boycott Arsenal Football Club after its owner launched a 'sickening' bloodsport channel in the UK.
Billionaire Stan Kroenke was today slammed by animal rights campaigners for launching what is billed as the Netflix of the hunting world.
Online Streaming Service My Outdoor TV (MOTV) features 'big game' — everything from elephants to antelopes — killed for sport and was launched in the UK at Game Fair in Hertfordshire last weekend.
Despite a furious backlash on social media from the likes of Ben Fogle and Robert Peston, the channel's spokesman Simon Barr told The Times: 'MOTV will present ethical, fair chase hunting and as long as it's legal it will be on there.
Mr Kroenke's online-based video streaming service is already up and running in the US and was launched in the UK at Game Fair in Hertfordshire over the weekend
Kroenke was slammed by animal rights groups. The channel claims to show 'ethical, fair chase and legal' hunting. Phillipa King, chief operating officer of the League Against Cruel Sports said: 'Most people won't agree that trophy hunting is in any way ethical'
Jana Waller, a presenter of one of the shows on the channel, regularly posts pictures of herself posing with animals she has hunted
Ms Waller is pictured posing with a black bear that was shot dead during a hunting expedition. She is pictured right alongside another hunter posing with another hunted bear
'I'm sure people won't like all the content on MOTV, but it won't be censored.
'On every film there's an explanation of what hunting does for the local community.'
But animal rights groups, charities and celebrities have slammed MOTV and Mr Kroenke, who owns LA Rams NFL team, and have called for fans to boycott his football club.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, himself an Arsenal fan, said: 'I’m appalled at the glorification of killing wild and rare animals on this TV channel.
Jeremy Corbyn said: 'As an Arsenal fan I’m disgusted that Stan Kroenke is involved in such a brutal, unethical and unnecessary activity'
The Labour leader is pictured with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside the Barclays Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium, London
'As an Arsenal fan I’m disgusted that Stan Kroenke is involved in such a brutal, unethical and unnecessary activity
'This is not sport. Kroenke should stick to football if he wants to be involved in sport.
'In my mind "blood sport" is a contradiction and there should be no place on television or anywhere else for it.'
Taking to Twitter, ITV political editor Robert Peston commented: 'As an #Arsenal supporter I have to pay money to this person. I feel sick.'
Presenter Ben Fogle added: 'Boycott Arsenal for these comments.'
Robert Peston and Ben Fogle were among those who called for Arsenal fans to boycott the club
Dozens of other users have also voiced their objection to the channel's UK launch.
One wrote: 'I'm absolutely horrified. As a wildlife & nature photographer & supporter of @Arsenal this news is nothing short of shocking and sickening.'
Amie Christie added: 'How can this happen? What is wrong with people!?'
Another said: 'Despicable human beings.'
MOTV is part of the Outdoor Sportsman Group, which is owned by Kroenke Sports Entertainment.
Some of the shows feature big game hunting and see huntsmen shoot dead bears, lions and even an endangered African elephant.
In one episode titled Dark Continent Quest, presenter Jana Waller uses a bow and arrow to take down a hartebeest in South Africa.
'It's a good shot. Definitely, some liver and some lungs hit,' comments Waller's professional guide as they wait for the creature to bleed out.
Waller says: 'The shot was a little far back for me, but one shot did it,' says Miss Waller before holding up the animal's horns.
'Shoot it!: An overly excited guide is heard encouraging the hunter to take the shot as he lines the lion up in his sights in one of the channel's shows
While some big game hunters also call themselves conservationists as well, animal charities say studies have debunked the claim that 'blood money' goes towards supporting conservation
The hunters are seen congratulating one another and even shaking hands after shooting the lion dead
Those in favour of big game hunting claim the controversial bloodsports raise huge sums of cash for conversation. They say it draws in tourists to areas where wildlife is otherwise scarce.
While MOTV insist the bloodsports are legal, animal rights and conservations groups branded the channel 'sickening'.
Phillipa King, chief operating officer of the League Against Cruel Sports, said the Arsenal boss scored a 'massive own goal'.
'We're living in a world now where most people can see how brutal and shameful trophy hunting is, yet the Arsenal boss is choosing to launch his sick TV channel in the UK.
'The channel claims to show 'ethical, fair chase and legal' hunting.
'Most people won't agree that trophy hunting is in any way ethical, and studies have debunked claims that most of the blood money goes towards supporting conservation.'
In this clip which hunters can be seen releasing dogs from the rear of a truck as they pursue a bear which is hiding up a tree
Some of the shows' presenters described themselves as both hunters and conservationists. But the channel has been slammed by animal rights campaigners
A bear hides up a tree as it tries to evade advancing hunters and their dogs. The channel claims to show 'ethical, fair chase and legal' hunting
'I'm not sure in what way an idiot with a gun against an elephant is a fair chase.
'And yes, the hunting they show might be legal – though if they start showing hunting in the UK they'll have to tread very carefully.
'Hunts claim to be trail hunting when they chase foxes, stags and hares, but we've shown that the vast majority of trail hunting is just a false alibi for the actual hunting and killing of animals.
'If this channel starts showing trail hunting, they'll be on very rocky ground.
'Mr Kroenke could do the world a great favour by stopping pedalling this kind of sickening TV and turning his focus on helping the animals he apparently likes to see killed.'
Other people expressed their outrage on Twitter and said the boss should retract his statement
Fiona Pereira, campaign manager at Animal Aid, commented: ‘There’s nothing sporting or ethical about killing animals for pleasure.
'Every animal, regardless of species, values his or her life as much as you or I value ours.
'The notion of spending time and money in the pursuit of destroying another animal’s life, is warped beyond belief.
'If people want to contribute to conservation schemes – ether financially or by volunteering, then they should do just that – and not expect to be able to exercise their blood lust in return.’
Mr Kroenke, whose estimated worth is £5.6billion, also owns the Los Angeles Rams American football team
'An RSPCA spokesman added: 'We do not condone trophy hunting or hunting animals for "sport".
'There is strong opposition around the world to the needless killing of these animals.
'We hope people across the globe will continue to support animal welfare work internationally, as well as domestically in England and Wales where the RSPCA continues to help animals in need and protect them from cruelty and suffering.'
Mr Kroenke, whose estimated worth is £5.6billion, also owns the Los Angeles Rams American football team.
Under Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, the billionaire also owns the Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL, Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer and Colorado Mammoth of the National Lacrosse League.
A PETA spokesman added: 'Unlike footballers, who spend years mastering their sport, there's no skill required to kill an animal who's simply trying to survive: it involves only the movement of a finger.
'Except for those dead in heart and head, everyone understands that lions, elephants, deer, and other animals are feeling individuals, not simply bodies waiting for their heads to be shot off and displayed on a wall.
'Stan Kroenke's attempt to profit from crude bloodlust will no doubt disgust Arsenal fans and players.'
In a statement Jim Liberatore, President and CEO Outdoor Sportsman Group said: ' MyOutdoorTV is a subscription, video-on-demand service that caters to viewers that enjoy outdoor lifestyle content.
'We advocate and televise only legal, ethical and fair-chase hunting, while also educating viewers about conservation practices and game management that are underlying elements of the programming.
'We want to assure animal rights activists and hunting enthusiasts alike that we will continue to adhere to these standards.' |
A woman has reportedly asked to divorce her husband of six years because he doesn’t share her love of the movie Frozen.
An unnamed 31-year-old man wrote on the Japanese marriage advice forum Kikonsha no Hakaba (”The Gravesite of Married People”) that his wife has recently become obsessed with the Disney hit and made him watch it, according to Rocket News 24.
“It’s an okay movie, I guess, but I didn’t really care for it personally,” the man told his wife, according to the unverified post.
“Do you really think it’s that good?”
“If you can’t understand what makes this movie great, there’s something wrong with you as a human being!” she responded.
The man claims there were no preexisting issues in the marriage, with the couple apparently living comfortably, child free, and without financial worries.
He said his wife has since moved in with her parents and refuses to speak to him. |
Ishmael Jones is the pseudonymous former CIA case officer and author of The Human Factor: Inside the CIA’s Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture. He has forwarded his comments on certain aspects of the CIA’s vulnerability. He advises that his comments have been reviewed and approved by the CIA’s publications review board. Mr. Jones writes:
CIA secrets were once typed on paper and stored in safes. Even the typewriter ribbons were removed at the end of the day and locked away. Secrets could still be exposed but it was harder. A traitor like Aldrich Ames had to ferret his way into offices at CIA Headquarters to gain physical access to documents written on paper. Then he had to smuggle those documents out of the building.
Today a clever software engineer who is not even located within the Headquarters building can have access to it all and can download it all. Tens of thousands of intelligence agency employees sit in front of tens of thousands of linked computers sown throughout the Washington, D.C. area.
The people who have sold the software driving this system will insist there are firewalls between these computers, but the massive, relentless leaking, the Wikileaks CIA dump as well as the recent NSA dump and the resulting worldwide hack –- with no ability to find out who did it — say otherwise.
Our modern software-based technical espionage often produces amazing intelligence, but this product appears to be a side effect. The fundamental design of these systems is insecure because they are based upon the needs of Deep State bureaucracy, which has its own priorities.
The CIA doesn’t get to buy expensive fighter jets, it buys software. This software is produced at huge profit by companies that use former CIA employees as frontmen.
When former CIA chief John Brennan sat down in front of the TV with a tasty beverage and a plate of nachos on November 8 to enjoy Hillary’s victory, the disappointment he felt later in the evening must have been all the more bitter because a Trump victory would make it harder for him and his pals to embark on lucrative careers selling software to the CIA.
The billions spent on the CIA’s information and software systems have created a Swamp of different kinds of software created by thousands of different software engineers using unknown and contradictory styles. It’s a witch’s brew of software, slapped together, each incompatible with the other. No one knows what’s in all this stuff. It is easy to hack. There is no incentive for a contractor to write software that will be easy for a competing contractor to use.
The Swamp’s software companies differ from Silicon Valley’s. Steve Jobs was entranced by technology at a young age. He was brusque and single-minded. By contrast, recently I met a tech CEO in the Swamp who sells software to the CIA. His career had been as CEO of a Democrat think tank. He’s a nice guy, well-connected, and an expert at schmoozing government employees and selling them questionable software. He doesn’t understand what he’s selling, but he knows the profit margin is huge. “None of my friends can believe I’m a tech CEO!” he said.
The recent Wikileaks dump of what it describes as the entire hacking capacity of the CIA indicates our intelligence agencies are unable to keep secrets. The CIA has responded with harsh words for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. But Assange is merely a symptom. The Deep State bureaucracy is the disease. When foreign governments examine the Wikileaks dump, they’ll be perplexed: some of the software will be superb, but so much will be nonsense that they’ll wonder if they’re the victim of a disinformation campaign.
The solution is to get control of the software systems and the contractors who sell them. Congressman Darrell Issa has recognized and sought to attack this problem with the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. Strengthening this Act and forcing intelligence agencies to obey is important.
All of our nation’s intelligence secrets, including the identities of our people and our foreign agents, are at risk. Get the Swamp’s software salesmen out of the building. |
It may sound counterintuitive, but a free mind is a controlled mind. Having no control over our own mind is the same as having no choice in our thoughts. If we cannot choose what to think at any given moment, we automatically default to our habits and react with thoughts that we don’t even like half the time, such as attachment, envy, aversion, bitter disappointment, non-faith, unkindness, impatience, or whatever.
Freedom is the ability to choose any thought we want whenever we want it, regardless of what or who is going on around us.
Thoughts are just that — thoughts. They don’t have arms or legs. They are not physical. They only exert dominion over us because we have always let them. It is like the sky letting the clouds run the show, not realizing its own vast and profound power.
We all want to be happy, and we all have the limitless potential for happiness and even bliss – so why is it so darned hard to stay happy?! For example, when people first start to meditate, they often complain that they cannot even get their mind to stay still and peaceful for a few seconds, for three rounds of breathing meditation, let alone for an hour, a day, a week, a month, a lifetime. If we simply cannot stay happy, even when external conditions are going our way, does this not mean, effectively, that we don’t have enough control over our mind?
So, our usual response is to try to bypass this by controlling our world and other people rather than trying to control our thoughts, and look where that gets us.
Wild elephant mind
Buddha described our mind as a rampaging wild elephant, stomping around creating havoc much of the time. As mentioned in this article, Buddha called unpeaceful and uncontrolled minds delusions. I remember first hearing a teaching on the so-called six causes of delusions at Madhyamaka Centre and how much I appreciated having this very practical, seemingly fool-proof way of making headway in taming and overcoming my uncontrolled and unpeaceful states of mind. I realized I could start to think the thoughts I wanted to think whenever I wanted to think them. I could choose to be kind, loving, blissful, faithful, contented, cool, and wise whenever I wanted once I had control over my own mind. No one could stop me doing this, regardless of what they do, or say, or think!
In fact, the more obstacles put in our way, the more of an enjoyable challenge it can become to react in the way we WANT to as opposed to the usual, boring, choiceless, instinctive, negative way we’ve always responded in the past. To me, that is real freedom, and I want it more than anything else.
The first three causes of delusion are the main causes—if we have these three, we automatically have a delusion arising in our mind. The last three are conditions that make it easy for the causes to come together. Our temporary states of mind are like clouds in the sky — if the right causes and conditions come together clouds manifest, otherwise they don’t. Knowing these causes and conditions means knowing the techniques for controlling our mind.
(1) The seed of delusion
The seed of a delusion is the potentiality for that delusion to arise; it is the substantial cause of the delusion. ~ Understanding the Mind
We have at the moment potentials for irritation, attachment, ignorance, and so on. According to Buddhism, these are like seeds in our formless mental continuum, which we’ve had since beginningless time. For example, I have the seed of anger within my mind even right now, while I’m feeling peaceful, but it won’t arise without other conditions, such as an annoying object and inappropriate attention. We also have potentials for almost unimaginable bliss, goodness, love, compassion, wisdom, and so on – also like seeds. Which ones are sprouting in our mind right now depends on other factors, but right now we have the potentials for the dark side and the good side.
The result of spiritual practice is to dig out the seeds for delusions once and for all from our mental continuum. So-called Foe Destroyers have done this and as a result cannot develop delusions regardless of what is going on in their lives. We can imagine what it’d be like to be permanently freed from anger, attachment, ignorance, pride, selfishness, and so on – just imagining it feels like a relief, and starts bringing it on.
Interestingly and luckily enough, we can never destroy the seeds of our positive minds because they’re part of our Buddha nature, whom we really are, and are also based on a realistic, unexaggerated view of the world, not on inappropriate attention.
Ignorant, not evil
All ordinary beings have these potentialities in their mind, and they can be eradicated only by attaining the wisdom directly realizing emptiness and meditating on this for a long time. ~ Understanding the Mind
Our root delusion, from which all the others grow, is ignorance. Living beings are not evil — we engage in evil actions, we can have evil states of mind, but we ourselves are not evil. We suffer from an inner sickness or inner poison – our delusions — and all these are rooted not in evil, but in ignorance. We just do not know how things exist, and we think that things exist in a way that they don’t exist, in fact contradictory to how they exist — namely independent of the mind, having nothing to do with our perceiving consciousness, solid, real, inherently existent, “out there”, existing from their own side. There seems to be a gap between us and everyone else, between our mind and our world, whereas the truth is that everything depends entirely upon our mind, just like objects in a dream.
Just a dream!
In a dream everything feels real and vivid, it seems to exist out there, independent of our mind. Yet when we wake up, we realize it was made up by our mind. “Ah! I made this up! It’s just a dream! I projected the whole thing, it’s gone! It just came from my mind and then I thought it was out there, and I got really het up about all these things, and hmm, what was all that about?”
We’ve been doing this for years and years already, just in this life, every time we fall asleep at night. We still haven’t got it, have we?! We wake up every morning, “Ah, that was just a dream!” We fall asleep again at night, “Hey, what’s going on here?” Panic. Falling in love with people. Running away from other people. We wake up, “Oh, it’s just a dream.”
We’ve done this thousands of times, and still it hasn’t alerted us to the fact that, every time we dream, everything that appears to us is a projection of our mind that we are grasping at as real.
When I have a problem that seems intractable I imagine having it in a dream. I was talking to a good friend the other day who has just been through divorce. Not un-understandably, he felt disappointed and let down, like a victim, like it had nothing to do with him. This made him feel helpless and angry, with no clear way forward. He has a good understanding of Buddhism so I asked him: “If you had divorced in a dream, who would have been responsible for that?” If we understand that everything is a mere projection of our own mind, like a dream, we can see how we are responsible for what appears to our mind, for what happens to us. Knowing this always gives us a way to move forward, by changing our mind rather than bashing our head against an intractable brick wall. And when we change our mind, the situation itself changes – the brick wall does come down. He didn’t become undivorced, but the situation no longer appeared dire, and he got his mojo back.
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The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) warned yesterday that new memberships of Maghreb countries to African economic unions might lead to the dissolution of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Anadolu reported.
In a report issued in Morocco the UNECA said that the North African region has recently signed several trade deals.
The AMU was established on 17 February 1989 in Marrakesh and included five countries: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania.
It aimed to open the borders between the five countries to facilitate the movement of people and goods and establish security cooperation.
According to the UNECA report Morocco and Mauritania have recently joined West Africa’s economic bloc.
Read: Morocco expands Africa policy, opens Africa-Atlantis business school
Tunisia is been preparing to join the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which is a free-trade area with 20 member states stretching from Libya to Swaziland and is set to sign the deal later this month.
The UN report also stated that Algeria has already started talks to join COMESA too.
“It is impossible to deny that these deals open attractive economic horizons for the Arab Maghreb countries,” the report stressed, noting that these deals could replace the AMU.
It also said that these developments raise doubts about the intention of the AMU members about finding a solution to ongoing hardships.
Since 1994 the AMU has not convened due to differences between Algeria and Morocco over the Western Sahara. Algeria closed its borders to Morocco in 1994. |
The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon, VT, is leaking radioactive tritium. Photo via nrc.gov.
Guest blogger Cara Smusiak is a journalist and regular contributor to NaturallySavvy.com's Naturally Green section.
UPDATE: This post has been updated from its original version on 2/04/10.
Would you like a little radioactive tritium with your water?
As far fetched as it sounds, the Associated Press recently reported that at least 27 of 104 nuclear reactors across the United States are leaking potentially dangerous levels of tritium into the groundwater around the plants.
The scope of the problem surfaced after the recent discovery of a leak at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. According to the AP, new tests have shown that the levels of tritium in the wells at the Vernon, Vermont site are more than three-and-a-half times the federal safety standard.This comes hot on the heels of President Obama's interest in nuclear power, which included a call for "building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants" in last week's State of the Union address, plus $54.5 billion earmarked for nuclear power projects.
Vermont Yankee isn't the first case of a U.S. nuclear power plant leaking tritium, the AP article reveals. In the 1990s, leaks from the Braidwood nuclear station in Illinois contaminated local wells, and owner Exelon Corp. had to provide a new municipal water system. The Oyster Creek nuclear plant in Ocean County, New Jersey, was found to be leaking tritium just last year -- "just days after Exelon won NRC approval for a 20-year license extension there," the AP reports. And there have been more.
The source of the leaks can be any number of things, including corroded underground pipes, and leaks in the spent fuel storage pools.
So is it as bad as it sounds? That's up for debate.
Information on the Tritium page of Idaho State University's physics department, there is no risk via skin contact because it can't get past the outer layer of dead skin cells--which is why Tritium is used in so many products. But, as the webpage states:
...the main hazard associated with tritium is internal exposure from inhalation or ingestion. In addition, due to the relatively long half life and short biological half life, an intake of tritium must be in large amounts to pose a significant health risk. Although, in keeping with the philosophy of ALARA [As Low As Reasonably Achievable], internal exposure should be kept as low as practical.
The National Academy of Sciences takes a stronger stance, concluding that any amount of ionizing radiation increases cancer risk, but radiation biologist Jacqueline Williams, who works at University of Rochester Medical Center, told the AP the risk is minimal:
Somebody would have to be drinking a lot of water and it would have to be really concentrated in there for it to do any harm at all.
These are industrial facilities, and any industrial facility from time to time is going to have equipment problems or challenges. Not every operational issue rises to the level of being a safety issue.
Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Steve Kerekes also told the AP there may be little cause for concern:
It may be an operational issue, but it's one that is causing radioactive material to enter the groundwater at levels far in excess of safety standards. And while human health is a concern in any case involving radioactive contamination, let's not forget that any leaks will also effect the local ecosystems, impacting the health of local wildlife, particularly vulnerable aquatic species.
More on Nuclear Power
Will The New Decade Bring the US New Nuclear Energy?
Portable Backyard Nuclear Reactors Ready to be Installed by 2013
New Generation of Nuclear Power Plants More Expensive than Expected |