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Let’s say you’ve had a great day adventuring in Minecraft and bagged yourself some sparkly emeralds. Lucky you! Now, where are you putting them for safe keeping? In a pool of lava? Er, please don’t try that. If you don’t want your treasures to get snatched you should try putting them behind a hidden door. I’m not talking about a dirt wall that has to be punched through and rebuilt every time. No, this is 2019, my friends, not 2009. We can do much better than getting muddy knuckles whenever we want to access our valuables! But first, if you’re new to the illusory world of theft prevention, it’s worth starting with the basics. We’ll go through five different methods of creating hidden doors in Minecraft, with the difficulty increasing each time, starting with beginner and working all the way up to magician. Just make sure there are no crooks peering over your shoulder as you read this. IT’S TOP SECRET. BEGINNER We start our journey into the world of concealment with a simple question. What do you see in the image below?

In letters sent today, three Senators criticized controversial research apps used by Facebook and Google. The letters questioned the companies on the scope of their research, and asked Apple questions about how the company polices its App Store. Last week, TechCrunch revealed that Facebook was paying people between the ages of 13 and 25 up to $20 a month to install an invasive research app that logged phone data. Soon after, the outlet noted similar activity from Google, and in response, Apple banned the internal iOS apps used by both companies until they came into compliance with Apple’s policies. The letters sent today come from Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Edward Markey (D-MA), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), and are addressed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google senior vice president of platforms and ecosystems Hiroshi Lockheimer, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. Letters say news stories “fit with longstanding concerns” about Facebook The letters say the news stories “fit with longstanding concerns that Facebook has used its products to deeply intrude into personal privacy,” and ask Facebook and Google for details on the research apps. In the letter to Zuckerberg, the senators ask when the project began, how many participants were under 18 years old, and exactly how data was collected and retained. The letters also question Google about its Google Play Store policies, as well as Apple on whether it has done a proactive search for similar apps. The three companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The senators are requesting answers by March 1st. The letters make clear the senators are looking at the potential for regulation in the future. “In light of recent invasions of children’s and teens’ privacy, including those described above,” the senators ask in their last question to Zuckerberg, “would Facebook support federal legislation to create new privacy safeguards for children and teens online?”

Hong Kong protesters are 'bloodied but not broken' in the wake of abusive policing tactics for which the authorities have yet to be held accountable, according to an annual report from Amnesty International. The report tracked a wave of youth-led protests across Asia which had defied "escalating repression and a continent-wide crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful assembly." "2019 was a year of repression in Asia, but also of resistance. As governments across the continent attempt to uproot fundamental freedoms, people are fighting back – and young people are at the forefront of the struggle," said Amnesty International's regional director for East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Nicholas Bequelin said. "From students in Hong Kong leading a mass movement against growing Chinese encroachment, to students in India protesting against anti-Muslim policies; from Thailand’s young voters flocking to a new opposition party to Taiwan’s pro LGBTI-equality demonstrators. Online and offline, youth-led popular protests are challenging the established order," he said. It said the Hong Kong protest movement, which began in with mass popular opposition to extradition to mainland China, had demanded accountability in spite of increasingly harsh treatment by the authorities. "Since June, Hong Kongers have regularly taken to the streets to demand accountability in the face of abusive policing tactics that have included the wanton use of tear gas, arbitrary arrests, physical assaults and abuses in detention," Amnesty International said in a statement launching the report. "Police deployed reckless and indiscriminate tactics to quell peaceful protests, including torture in detention," it said. "Demands for a proper investigation into the conduct of the security forces have yet to be met." It said governments in the region had tried to justify repression by demonizing their critics as pawns of "foreign forces." But it said protest had yielded some results, especially in Hong Kong, where the government was forced to withdraw planned changes to the city's extradition laws. "Yet, with no accountability for months of abuses against demonstrators, the fight goes on," the group said. 'Stifled, but not silenced' Bequelin added: "Protesters across Asia in 2019 were bloodied, but not broken. They were stifled, but not silenced." Amnesty International's Hong Kong director Man-kei Tam said the Hong Kong government had used violent means to suppress peaceful demonstrations from the outset. "They didn't pay any attention to the protesters' demands, and they brought the police on the pretext of maintaining public order," Tam said. "They cracked down on peaceful demonstrators and the general public, and on freedom of expression." Tam said the city's government had breached the mini-constitution, the Basic Law, as well as human rights obligations under international rights treaties. "They promised to protect Hongkongers' right to freedom of expression and association, but they are getting more and more like mainland China, using force to crack down on any kind of dissent," Tam said. Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor spokeswoman Claudia Yip said the Amnesty International report should be cause for concern. "[It shows] that the human rights situation has gotten worse very rapidly for the people of Hong Kong," she said. She warned that the authorities could step up the use of state security charges like sedition or subversion, possibly after enacting new legislation, to suppress people's freedom of speech and association. Reported by Lau Siu-fung and Tseng Yat-yiu for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Three naval craft were ordered to set sail for drills with the US and Italian navies off the Italian coast on Saturday night, only to be informed at dawn that their commander pranked them for April Fool’s Day. The ships’ officers labored all Saturday night to chart a course for the 10-day cruise, and the crew readied their gear and had their parents bring whatever they lacked. The ships were rigged and fueled and ready to sail, and the crew stood at attention on deck. Only then did Maj. Gen. Ram Rothberg inform them there was no drill and that the whole affair was a joke. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Some of the sailors and their parents were not amused, Israel Radio reported. The IDF spokesman’s office characterized the prank as “inappropriate” and said the incident would be investigated and lessons would be learned. The navy is currently conducting a real drill jointly with Greece and the US, however.

2015年10月にマイナンバー法が施行されました。いよいよマイナンバー（個人番号）が届くことになります。そして2016年1月のマイナンバー制度の本開始が迫る中、国が考える今後の利用シーンなどもいろいろと（ようやく？）明らかになってきました。同時に周辺で「本当に大丈夫？」の声も広がっています。 普段は企業の対策として何が危ないか、どうすべきかといった取材活動に取り組みつつ、個人としても、マイナンバー対策にはいくらかの危機感を持っています。というのも、個人事業主である私のようなフリーランスライターは、取引先の求めに応じて自分の「個人番号」を各取引先に通知することになります。おそらく、企業に勤める社会人以上にこの番号と深く付き合わなくてはなりません。 そこで今回は、個人事業主の視点で「企業のマイナンバー対策」がどうあってほしいかを考えてみたいと思います。 （*初出時、 全て通知 など、適切でない可能性のある記述がありました。上記の通り修正いたします） 企業のマイナンバー対策は進んでいるのでしょうか 2015年10月5日よりマイナンバーが付番され、順次「通知カード」の配布が始まります。こちらは2015年10月5日時点の住民票登録住所へ、書留で郵送される手はずとなっています。 この対応準備を踏まえ、多くの企業や調査会社がマイナンバー対応の現状を発表しています。例えばITソリューションベンダーのデジタルアーツが2015年8月28〜30日に実施した「マイナンバーのセキュリティに関する実態調査」の結果によると、アンケートに回答した912社のうち「“69％”が2015年12月末までにセキュリティ対策を終える」と回答していました。しかし、2015年8月末の調査段階で「すでに対策済み」だったのは“6.9％”に過ぎません。2015年10月時点ならばもっと“済み”の割合は増えていることを期待滲ますが、果たして本当に2015年末までに完了するのか、それは何ともいえません。 この状況を見ると、多くの企業は2015年末から2015年度末（2016年3月）を目安に、現取引先のマイナンバー（個人番号、法人番号）を取得（法人番号はWebで確認）する作業を始めると考えられます。個人事業主からすると、取引先からマイナンバー（個人番号）の通知依頼が来て、取引先へ通知するという作業です。 ちなみに個人事業主は、法人版のマイナンバーである「法人番号」は取得できないので、“個人のマイナンバー”をそのまま仕事でも使わざるを得ません。それだけに、企業のマイナンバー対応の遅れは、個人事業主に大きなリスクと考えているのです。個人事業主はビジネス上どうしても弱い立場ですので、「マイナンバー対応できていない会社とは、お仕事できません」などとは……よほどのことがない限り言えません。 ですので、個人事業主のマイナンバーは、残念ながら「漏えいする（してしまう）ことを前提にする」という点からスタートせざるを得ないと私は考えています。 あなたの会社は、「漏えいを前提とした仕組み」になっていますか？ 「漏えいを前提に」などというと、取引先のシステムや体制を信頼できないのか！ と怒られるかもしれません。しかし、現実的にどれだけ堅牢な仕組みを作ったとしても、ITセキュリティの世界で完全・完ぺきはありません。この観点から、漏えい自体を防ぐこともそうですが、「漏えいがあったときのフローが作られているか」が重要なポイントだと思っています。 内閣官房の「マイナンバー／よくある質問（FAQ）」コーナーには、下記のような文言が掲載されています。 Q2-5 マイナンバー（個人番号）は希望すれば自由に変更することができますか？ A2-5 マイナンバーは原則として生涯同じ番号を使い続けていただき、自由に変更することはできません。ただし、マイナンバーが漏えいして不正に用いられるおそれがあると認められる場合に限り、本人の申請又は市町村長の職権により変更することができます。（2014年6月回答） このように、マイナンバーは生涯、同じ番号を使い続けることが原則となっています。番号の並びが気にいらないから変えてヨ、というのは聞き入れられません。しかし、マイナンバーが漏えいし、不正に用いられる恐れがある場合は、本人の申請によって変更が可能であるとしています。マイナンバーの情報が漏えいした場合、おそらく何らかの方法で本人がその事実を知り、自身で切り替えの申請を市区町村へ行うことになるでしょう。 問題は、「ウチは大丈夫だろう」と思っている企業です。企業システムにおけるマイナンバー対応は、時間があまりない中、急ピッチで行われていると思います。このシステムで、収集、管理、利用、廃棄といったマイナンバー実務に関する基本機能はおそらくカバーできると思われます。 しかし、個人事業主から確認してほしい項目が他にあります。「“取引先のマイナンバーが新しい番号になった”場合の処理・対処も想定しているか」です。 もし、企業が漏えい事故を起こしてしまったら、こちらで示す対処は当然として、信頼して預けたのに漏えいされ、番号を変えざるを得なくなった個人事業主へのフォローも必要です。自社が事故を起こしたのではなくても、他社の漏えい事故で変えざるを得なくなった個人事業主から変更の依頼が来るかもしれません。業種や業態によって、例えば業務依頼先が似通いがちな同業他社となれば、変更の依頼が殺到する可能性もあります。 1|2|3 次のページへ Copyright © ITmedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Because the administration is backing terrorists in Syria Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com March 12, 2013 Since the Obama administration seems so keen to entrench its authority to kill Americans deemed “terrorists” on foreign soil, why has it failed to drone strike former US Army soldier Eric Harroun, who is now fighting with the Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria? The question is rhetorical because the answer is already known. Harroun will not be targeted because he is fighting on the same side as the terrorist-led FSA insurgents which the Obama administration has backed to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. “He’s a U.S.-trained soldier turned Muslim warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating terrorists while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos,” reports Fox News. When questioned as to how he feels about fighting alongside Al-Qaeda terrorists, Harroun responded, “the U.S. plays both sides, too.” 30-year-old Phoenix-born Harroun aided in the toppling of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before traveling to Syria to join an organization – Jabhat al-Nusra – that has been listed by the State Department as a terrorist group as a result of its involvement in numerous bloody attacks that have killed civilians. Back in December, 29 different US-backed Syrian opposition groups pledged their allegiance to Al Nusra, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group which, as the New York Times reported, “killed numerous American troops in Iraq.” Numerous reports confirm that Al Nusra is the leading front line fighting force in Syria and is commanding other rebel groups. Al Nusra is also closely tied with Al Qaeda in Iraq, recently responsible for the slaughter of US-trained troops in Iraq. If the Obama administration really believes in the necessity of killing Americans who are working alongside America’s enemies abroad, then why has there been no discussion whatsoever of targeting Harroun with a drone strike? Why is the US Army still providing a known terrorist with disability payments? Another American who fought alongside Al-Qaeda terrorists in both Libya and Syria, Matthew VanDyke, recently returned to the United States and is set to give lectures in Washington DC this weekend. VanDyke admitted that he originally wanted to join the CIA but later became a self-described “freedom fighter”. VanDyke fought with Libyan militants under the banner of the LIFG, a terrorist group which killed US troops in Iraq, yet he will not even be questioned by authorities when he visits the nation’s capital. On the other hand, the federal government is on the lookout for potential American terrorists who buy food in bulk or pay for a cup of coffee with cash. American citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed by a drone strike simply for producing propaganda videos and communicating with accused terrorists. His 16-year-old son was similarly slaughtered for merely sharing his father’s surname. Other American citizens like John Walker Lindh were imprisoned and tortured in Guantanamo Bay for fighting with the Taliban. Meanwhile, Harroun and VanDyke are free to fly around the world and re-enter the United States as and when they please despite committing the exact same crimes as the likes of fellow US citizens Lindh and Al-Awlaki. Eric Harroun’s presence in Syria serves as yet another reminder that US taxpayer dollars are being used to fund an insurrection led by Al-Qaeda terrorists who openly espouse their hatred for America as they ransack Christian churches, burn US flags, chant anti-American slogans and sing the praises of Osama Bin Laden while glorifying the 9/11 attacks. While Obama’s drone strikes will continue to kill 98% innocent people not even suspected of being “terrorists,” including hundreds of children, real terrorists like Harroun and his ilk will continue to be given free reign because their motive is directly in line with the west’s ongoing neo-colonial campaign to replace non-cooperative Middle Eastern leaders like Bashar Al-Assad with easy to manipulate extremist sock puppets. The Save Infowars Super Sale is now live! Get up to 60% off our most popular products today!

Mighty Avengers is getting a new #1 and a new title this November. At the Avengers NOW panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday, Marvel announced that the series will relaunch as Captain America & The Mighty Avengers -- with former Falcon Sam Wilson taking point as the new Captain America. That means a second title series for Wilson's Cap, and a second chance for readers to discover the book. Al Ewing continues as writer, with former Captain America artist Luke Ross taking over as regular series artist. ComicsAlliance spoke to Ewing to find out why the book is relaunching, how he plans to handle Sam's promotion, and what it means to write the only Avengers book with a predominantly non-white team. Luke Ross ComicsAlliance; Let's start by addressing an obvious question; it's been less than a year since the last version of Mighty Avengers launched. I'm glad Marvel continues to support the book and these heroes, but why relaunch it now? Al Ewing: I’ve had the first fourteen issues in my mind as a block for some time -- #14 was always going to be the big climax of the Deathwalkers story that's been building since issue #1. Issue #15 was going to be Falcon-centric even back before I heard the news about Sam's new role, I think -- when I heard he was taking over the Captain America spot, it became natural to make #15 about that. So it was already the start of 'Season 2' of the book, and very Cap-heavy -- so it didn't feel like a huge leap when Tom suggested we relaunch the book. CA: Having the new Captain America head the team should be a big boost to the book’s profile. How do you see Sam Wilson adjusting to his new role? AE: It's a big adjustment. Captain America is unique among the Marvel heroes in terms of his public profile -- I think I said somewhere else that I see it as the highest office in superherodom. So all eyes are going to be on Sam, and not all those eyes are going to be cheering him on. His every move is going to be scrutinized by the media, and he's going to have to learn to deal with that. But if anyone's up to new pressures and new challenges, Sam Wilson is -- I've been writing him as the consummate super hero from the beginning, and that's not going to change. CA: How much can you tell us about the rest of Sam's team? Are there going to be many changes? AE: Not many. I'm planning on making the distinction a little more concrete between the 'field team' and the 'support staff', so some of the current Mighty Avengers team might be falling back into support roles, but I don't think there's going to be a major shake-up. That said -- Spidey's back on the team! For the first time ever, given that it's Peter Parker in control now. I'm looking forward to writing him -- as fun as Otto was to write, I have a feeling Peter will be even more so. CA: Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, is both a relatively new addition to the Marvel Universe and, retrospectively, a pretty major figure. Can you talk about your vision of that character and what you’d like to achieve with him? AE: I don't know if 'vision' is the right word -- it feels a bit heavy for what's basically some ideas -- but when [editor] Tom [Brevoort] suggested him for the team, I did end up getting really into him. He struck me, when I read Kevin Grevioux' original series, as quite a sad, stoic figure -- someone who's suffered tragedy in his life, who doesn't know if he's always been in the right -- and that's what grabbed me, this character who has awesome levels of power and strength in both his civilian and superhero identities, and sometimes it's still not enough. Also -- I like weird science, and I wanted to play with how other genres fit into a superhero universe, and how easily you can be forgotten by history and science if your face doesn't fit. I suppose, really, I'd just like to see him get more use elsewhere. I feel like the Marvel Universe could really benefit from a bit more Adam Brashear. CA: The Mighty Avengers have been called the minority Avengers team. How do you feel about that label? AE: I’m glad we've got a reasonably diverse cast of characters -- although that feels like it should come as standard in a genre comic at this point. If we're bringing in and holding onto readers who've felt unrepresented by the superhero genre in the past, and giving our audience the best Avengers comic we can into the bargain, then we're doing okay -- but there's always more that can be achieved, both on and off the page. We can always do better, and we should be expected to. CA: I really like how you've tapped into some of the wilder corners of the Marvel Universe in your first run on Mighty Avengers, from arcane mysticism to weird science. Where are you’re taking the series next? What’s the vibe? AE: The vibe is... bigger. Louder. More. We're established now -- we can hit a little harder and go a little crazier. And once you read #13 and #14, you'll see we're already pretty crazy. It's a slam-bang finish for the ages, true believer. And I do want to actually have the Mighty Avengers answer the occasional hotline call this time round! That's my one regret -- that I set up this dynamic and we got through a whole 'season' without it seeing much use.

First total conversion mod for Sonic Generations released, after 1 year of development. Play eight stages completely readapted from Sonic Unleashed, with all the benefits of the PC version of Sonic Generations. Posted by Dario_ff on Mar 20th, 2013 A total conversion mod for Sonic Generations on PC. This unofficial project ports most of Sonic Unleashed's daytime levels from the Xbox 360 version into Sonic Generations on PC. It also includes any improvements that are deemed as necessary to accomodate to the better control scheme, higher resolution graphics, and much smoother framerate. Latest Video Trailer (Downloadable 60 FPS version - Mega - Rapidshare): Music used in trailer - "Unleashed Project - Release Trailer" PNG version of our logo if you'd like to use it for thumbnails or something. Important note for LP'ers and video recorders: You should make the effort to use the FxPipeline renderer as explained in the Installation section, if you intend to show off the mod. We've also provided several tips in the Screenshots & Videos section. Download Current version: 1.0 We're looking for as many hosts and mirrors as possible, so feel free to provide one of your own. Torrent Magnet Link (Torrent File) Mega Google Drive You'll need 7-Zip, WinRAR, or any .7z compatible software to extract this file. Any updates to the mod shall be done via the online updater provided in SonicGMI, or here on this page. NOTE: You don't need the previous Dragon Road demo at all to play the Unleashed Project. It's recommended that you delete it if you still have it, but it should not cause any conflict whatsoever as long as it's disabled. Features No console limitations. This means support for unlimited resolutions, high-quality texture filtering and 60 FPS gameplay as long as you have the hardware for it. Stages that had performance problems in the original game now work perfectly (with a proper setup). Just features you'd expect from a regular PC version! Eight Modern Sonic stages completely readapted from Sonic Unleashed. Lots of layout improvements, recreation of gimmicks, and fixing various bugs/glitches. The current list of included levels is: Windmill Isle (Acts 1/2) Savannah Citadel Rooftop Run Dragon Road Cool Edge Arid Sands Empire City (originally Skyscraper Scamper) Jungle Joyride Brand new White World Stage for level selection. Enjoy the new soundtrack arranged by Falk, which you can download here. Various High-Definition retextures by Lobotomy. Most of the horrible and stretched surfaces in the game got a new coat of paint to bring it up to standard (up to 16x more data than the original textures). A separate version with even better retextures will be released later by him for those with higher-end hardware, so be sure to subscribe to his channel to keep up with his progress. Few mods would tout lack of content as a feature, yet this one does. Sonic Unleashed was badly received due to the alternate gameplay style of the “Werehog” at nighttime, the mandatory RPG elements, and medal collection being necessary for story progression. This mod has none of that, and all collectibles are completely optional and not required to enjoy the core game. Being on the Sonic Generations engine alone is quite an improvement in most aspects such as control scheme, player speed, consistent camera control (no wildly changing FOVs or distances that would make a player nauseous and confused), support for various skills (such as Super Sonic), etc. Classic linear progression system for starting a new game. This new game won't overwrite your current save file (as long as you don't disable save redirection), so you can collect Red Rings and have new score and time records without conflicting with your original save. New Red Ring locations for each level. Score ranking tweaked and fixed from the very forgiving Sonic Generations' ranking; S Ranks will require you to speedrun and optimize your route as much as possible. Getting an S Rank is actually a challenge! Alternate and experimental FxPipeline renderer included within the game. This very much WIP renderer provides support for special effects from Sonic Unleashed, such as directional shadows, directional light shafts, better motion blur, and much more! (Recommended to use) Classic Sonic Adventures integrated! Once you beat the main game, you can play as Classic Sonic in the Modern stages! This feature is not really play-tested and just meant as an additional bonus to play around with. (You don't need to use a separate mod for this like CSA) Setup Installing the mod Simple Extract the contents of the file you downloaded to anywhere you want. Find where Sonic Generations is stored on your computer. For example: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\sonic generations" Simply copy the extracted files to the game's directory. Run SonicGMI.exe as Administrator* (should be located in the same folder where SonicGenerations.exe is). If your Sonic Generations exe is not modified yet to support mods, simply click the Install/Uninstall button on the bottom. *: Running as administrator is not a requirement, but it seems to have solved an issue for some people unable to create the FxPipeline renderer. Once that's sorted out, you can start configuring your available mods. Advanced It's recommended you update to the newest version of SonicGMI included. If you have a *mods* directory of your own instead of the regular game's folder, you can just copy the folders from this extracted file into your *mods* folder. CPK Repacking (Are you seriously still doing this?) Due to features needed from CPKREDIR's advanced mode, we do not support custom CPK repacking at the moment. Configuring mods Once your game is set up to support mods, all you need to do to play is enable them via SonicGMI. There's a bunch of other handy features you can use as well (and we recommend you to do so). To play the Unleashed Project, simply check the box next to its name on the mods list. If you intend to use the FxPipeline renderer, you should also enable the "Unleashed FxPipeline Shaders" mod the same way. Both configuration examples are shown here. Example of Unleashed Project Configuration with FxPipeline Example of Unleashed Project Configuration without FxPipeline If you want to use the FxPipeline renderer for the additional graphical effects, you will need to create an alternate executable with it. This is easily done by checking the "Enable FxPipeline Renderer" box as shown here, and clicking on the "Create alternate executable" button. Please note this is a one-time operation only, and it should only be done if you have never created it before. Once it's available, the Save and Play button will be enabled. (Keep in mind the FxPipeline renderer does have some issues, explained in the next section along with how to solve most of them.) The FxPipeline renderer .exe already comes enabled with CPKREDIR redirection enabled, so there's no need to hit the Install/Uninstall button if you're planning to use it. Optional There's an optional mod called "Unleashed Project Low End", which simply overrides various settings in the game to try to improve performance as much as possible, while sacrificing many graphical effects. To use it, simply enable it like the others. Notice this mod needs to be stacked on top of the Unleashed Project mod (or below, with Bottom To Top priority). You can use the arrows to the right of the mods list to change the order they're loaded in. Example of Unleashed Project Configuration with FxPipeline with Low End Mod Example of Unleashed Project Configuration without FxPipeline with Low End Mod This mod reduces draw distance greatly, disables effects like Motion Blur, DOF, HDR, and puts much less of a load on the hardware. Notice this is definitely not the intended way to play the mod, but is provided as an option for the ones who want to play it with lower-end hardware and just care about the gameplay. Ease of use As long as the Steam client is running, you can create shortcuts to SonicGMI or even to the FxPipeline renderer directly. SonicGMI is only necessary for configuring mods; they'll still work if you run the game manually from either of the two executables. We've also provided a nice custom Steam Banner for SonicGMI if you'd like to include it in your Steam Library. You can add SonicGMI.exe as a non-steam game easily with the button on your Steam library. Special Mod: Some people prefer to disable the Motion Blur on the game for video recording or screenshotting. You can download an optional mod (exclusive to the Unleashed Project only, not compatible at all with other level mods), that will disable Motion Blur, but won't disable any other effects or reduce the draw distance like the Low End Mod does. Unleashed Project No Motion Blur Mod To use this mod, copy it to your mods folder, enable it on SonicGMI, and stack it on top of the Unleashed Project depending on your priority order. Enhancing the visuals Sonic Generations on PC does not have as many configurable graphical options as most PC users would like. Here's some simple ways to enhance your visuals without destroying your framerate. Get the most out of your hardware! Anisotropic Texture Filtering: Surprisingly, this game doesn't let you choose AF from the configuration tool itself, yet it works perfectly in most GPUs if you just force it. You can enable AFx16 from your GPU's control panel, either for all applications or Sonic Generations only. It's totally recommended to force this, since it can improve the image quality drastically on all surfaces, with a minimal hit to the framerate. Here's a comparison screenshot showing the massive difference it can make on image quality. SMAA Injector: Best for using it to fix the FxPipeline renderer's lack of AA, and causing barely any hit on the framerate. Installing it is a very simple copy and paste to the game's folder. You can get the SMAA Injector ready for Sonic Generations from here. Or from the blog's author directly. Nvidia cards forcing AA: Another way to fix the FxPipeline renderer's lack of AA, but seems to only work on Nvidia cards at the moment. There's different options you can enable per game to force different types of AA, and most of them seem to work nicely. Keep in mind your framerate might take quite a bit of a hit if the method you pick is too taxing. All of these options should be easily accessible from the Nvidia Control Panel. Another way to fix the FxPipeline renderer's lack of AA, but seems to only work on Nvidia cards at the moment. There's different options you can enable per game to force different types of AA, and most of them seem to work nicely. Keep in mind your framerate might take quite a bit of a hit if the method you pick is too taxing. All of these options should be easily accessible from the Nvidia Control Panel. Downsampling: NeoGAF has a pretty good explanation on this. If you've got the hardware for it, you should try this to get much better visual quality in-game. Downgrading the visuals Your hardware can't keep up but you want to play? Just use the Low End mod. A lot of the graphical effects will be disabled, and the draw distance significantly reduced. You'll still get to enjoy the stages though, and have a reason to replay it later when you get better hardware. Read the previous section ("Configuring Mods") to learn how to enable it. Video Recording If you happen to be bottlenecked by your HDD for recording the game at a decent frame-rate, we recommend to set up a ramdisk if you have enough spare RAM. Since most of the levels consist of only a few minutes of gameplay, you should be able to fit enough footage on it with no problems. In case of longer-form LPs, you could always use a capture card to avoid any hit on the performance, but that will need a more complicated setup with your displays and such. A separate HDD dedicated to video recording will probably solve most of your issues. Unleashed 360 vs Unleashed Project comparison How much can a simple platform change and a couple of retextures improve the look of a game from 2008? Apparently quite a lot if you look at these comparisons. Makes you wonder why all that detail is there in the first place... Oh right, they never released that PC version.... Keep in mind the original game is running at 880x720 with a Blur filter on the Xbox 360. 4k Unleashed 360 vs 4k Unleashed Project Screenshot 1080p Unleashed 360 vs 1080p Unleashed Project Screenshot The difference is even more astounding when cropped(click for bigger size) Unleashed Project 1080p 60 FPS Direct Feed footage Melpontro has provided us with a great recording of Savannah Citadel. You can watch the 30 FPS footage on his YouTube channel or download the 60 FPS file directly from here. Unleashed Project 1080p Screenshots Click on the thumbnails for the full-resolution version. Enviroment 1080p Bullshots from 6k Some enviromental shots with objects disabled and downsampled from a ridiculous resolution. Maybe we'll get gameplay like this some day? Hey, that's what a PC version is for! FAQ My game's not loading/crashing after installing CPKREDIR support. Sonic Generations doesn't load mods Make sure the game's updated to the latest version. You can verify your game's cache on Steam or retry installing it. After that, simply try to reapply the patch with SonicGMI. You can unpatch SonicGenerations.exe at any time or use the backup SonicGMI created if you wish to roll back the changes. Pirated versions of the game won't be given any support whatsoever regarding the installation, as the most popular versions distributed around are outdated. Seriously, just buy the game. There's a lot of material glitches/weird shadowing/weird ice reflections when not using FxPipeline Most of these effects run properly on the FxPipeline renderer, which is why we recommend using it. Fixing some of these glitches requires removing graphical features from the FxPipeline version. We would rather not sacrifice these features just for consistency between both renderers. As for the shadowing, most of the Unleashed stages are designed for directional shadowing, not vertical. It's very inconsistent with the amount of dynamic objects it uses if the shadowing is vertical. The Ice Shader just doesn't work properly without FxPipeline. Don't expect to be able to run Cool Edge as intended without it. When I create the FxPipeline renderer and try to run it, the game just crashes Like with the previous one, verify that your game is updated first. Also try running SonicGMI as administrator(Right Click on the exe) and create the Alternate EXE. This is known to have fixed the issue for many users. The FxPipeline renderer has (visual glitch) The FxPipeline renderer currently has these known issues: No proper GUI support for non-widescreen aspect ratios. Motion Blur is tied to the framerate. That means that if you can't keep a stable 60 FPS, the motion blur on Sonic will be bugged and glitchy. (Can be disabled with the mod provided in the *Screenshots & Videos* section) Intel Mobile Cards currently have an issue with Motion Blur shader not working properly at all. Given the hardware, it would probably be better to play with the Low End version of the mod, which fixes this issue by disabling the effect altogether. Red tinted materials, black-tinted shadows, and missing effects. This is due to not enabling the Unleashed FxPipeline Shaders mod included. Simply enable this mod to fix this issue. Lack of anti-aliasing (FXAA), low-resolution shadowmaps, and low-resolution refraction maps. These issues cannot be fixed at the moment, sadly, but they're still being researched and likely to be updated later when solved. However, you can make up for the lack of anti-aliasing at the moment with some of the tips in the Screenshots & Videos section. Minor Loading Screen glitch where a random GUI texture will pop up and cover the screen. Trivial, but still annoying. Only happens when loading a level. The game crashes on (stage) when I did (something) When reporting crashes, you need to be very specific about the details of what you were doing, your hardware, and if the issue can be reproduced at all in the same situation. Since this is just a mod and we have no control whatsoever over the game's code, it's almost impossible to debug these issues properly. All we can do to help is mitigate the issue as much as possible. Try to make sure you have enough RAM/VRAM available at all times by closing other applications before playing. Also make sure your computer's running properly and not updating something and slowing the hard drive/CPU/GPU. Some crashes can also happen just due to the nature of the game. Even when unmodified it still crashes after extended periods of playtime or excessive level restarting. Simply move on and run the game again, it's very likely to work the next time. My save file is gone! SonicGMI enables save file redirection per mod by default. The Unleashed Project comes with a clean save file so you can start your new game with no worries of overwriting your vanilla save game. Unless you specifically disable save file redirection by SonicGMI (which actually has a warning in case you do so), your save file is untouched. Simply disable the mod and play the regular game. When I spindash with Classic Sonic in 3D the game crashes! Don't do it. No known fix for now. The level entrances for Classic Sonic's Windmill Isle acts are swapped/incorrect Due to some limitations with save file restrictions/level order requirements by the game itself, this is the only possible workaround at the moment to be able to play both versions of Windmill Isle as either Sonic. I used (unrelated mod) and now the game just screws up/crashes/weird stuff happens Mod compatibility can't be guaranteed. If changing up the stacking order of the mods on SonicGMI doesn't fix it, contact that mod's developer on how to fix it to make it work with the Unleashed Project. You'd be surprised at how much of this issue can just come from mod developers including pointless fluff that breaks compatibility. If these mod developers already distribute "lite" version of their mods to be compatible, make sure to use those instead! The framerate in Jungle Joyride is awful Jungle Joyride has a ridiculous difference in complexity compared to the other stages. It has 4x times the amount of nodes a regular stage has, and this is something very dependent on CPU rather than GPU sometimes. Given the game's only optimized for 2-core CPUs (instead of the three processors in the Xbox 360), and not exactly stellar PC porting (junk nodes remain unloaded in memory), you'll need better hardware to overpower it. Most CPUs from the last 3-4 years on a decent price range should be enough. If you're a regular PC Gamer chances are you'll be fine. If you're willing to sacrifice the graphics a bit, you can just use the Low End mod. The lag will be significantly reduced that way. I'm getting a lot of pop-in when using the regular mod after playing for a while This is a known issue with the game that also happens with Genereations' stages, although not as noticeable. Simply restarting the game and playing that level will fix it. I get an endless loading screen when quitting This seems to be a rather new and hard to debug issue, but apparently related to sound file modding. Some people never experience it, others keep getting it constantly. There's two things you can do to try to fix this if it ends up annoying you too much: Make sure you run the latest version of SonicGMI at least once, as it fixes a mistake in the INI file generation. This might be related. If the issues persist too much... Since apparently the issue is related to the mod file redirector and the sound middleware, deleting the Sound folder included within the folder of the mod itself (UnleashedProjectMod) can mitigate this issue. However, this means you'll have no custom music. For that reason, we've provided a pack of remade CPK files ready for your Sonic Generations folder, with backups of the originals as well. Note that this is completely optional in case the issue affects you too much and you're willing to swap around a few files. You can download this pack here. Remember that if you do use these files, you won't have the original songs in the regular game even if you disable the mod. That's why the original files are also provided. We've opted for this workaround for now because the original developer of CPKREDIR, the mod redirection DLL, is currently not available for contact, which prevents us from debugging this issue further. All this work for just a level port? This mod started all the research into cracking most of the game's formats, and it did most of the work to make Generations modding possible. There's a lot of technical issues and workarounds that had to be done for this mod. Sega's not openly against modding, nor do they officially support it; this is all the work of fans after the game's release. I will start writing a long series of posts about all the technical behind-the-scenes stuff a while after release. Either wait for that or go read the entire 200 page thread over at Sonic Retro! I'm sure you'll be wondering how we did all of that in such a small time frame on our free time. Is this free? Do I need to own Sonic Unleashed to play it? Yes, it is free. As for requirements, you don't need to own Sonic Unleashed to play this. Someone will likely ask if this is even legal then, but seeing as Sega has unlisted Sonic Unleashed due to a low MetaCritic score, and they haven't issued any sort of statement yet, we'll have to assume it's in the safe zone. The only requirement you need is Sonic Generations on Steam; no more, no less. Do I need a good PC to play this mod? Given our limited control over this engine and the poor optimization of the PC port, you're gonna need something better than the average requirements to play this smoothly the intended way. The reasons are that Sonic Unleashed pushes a lot more of stuff into the screen than Generations ever does, and it's not properly optimized for that. Some levels chug, some others will work better than Generations ever did, and Jungle Joyride will probably kill your framerate unless you have a decent CPU from the past 3 years. If you're already struggling with Generations, don't hope for much better performance on this. We've provided an additional mod for lowering draw distances/terrain streaming/turning off effects, which can MASSIVELY improve performance in most levels, but it sacrifices a lot of the visual appeal. Do I need to use the Unleashed/FxPipeline Renderer for playing this mod? As explained before, it's the preferred way to play it, but we won't prevent you from playing the mod with the regular renderer if most of FxPipeline's issues affect you. How will I be able to keep updated on this mod after release? I don't want to redownload nearly 3 GB. SonicGMI includes an online updater, you'll be able to keep up the mod up to date from there. We'll also upload any updates from the server to here in a mirror. How do I play this mod with all skills unlocked? Since it's currently impossible to unlock all skills with the Unleashed Project alone, the only way to do this is to unlock them in the regular game. We've provided a 100% completion save file with all skills unlocked, which you can use by simply clicking "Restore Save File" in SonicGMI while the Unleashed Project is selected. Alternatively, to play with your regular save file, simply disable save file redirection in SonicGMI. Keep in mind this will overwrite your regular save file, and you're responsible for anything you screw up in your records. Why is Sonic in Generations slower compared to Unleashed? This is a completely false statement, given that when compared in raw times in the same sections, Generations almost always turns out faster. This misconception is due to many factors: The FOV of the Camera in Unleashed tends to go from decent to a ridiculous fish-eye view where half of the screen is pretty much covered by the floor. You can notice this effect by simply comparing the footage of both. You can stop in certain parts of Unleashed and you'll notice the camera is completely disorienting with the high FOV. We've decided to not tweak the FOVs like this because one of the main complaints most people had with Unleashed in the first place was this kind of ridiculous camera work. It felt faster, but you could barely see where you were going. The camera work in our adapted versions of the levels is more consistent with the style Generations uses. All of our video footage is normally recorded without using skills in Generations, while most people compare it to speed runs done with his speed MAXED in Unleashed. (Yes, you had to level that up first, remember?) Some of these speed runs can't be performed first try either; some stages use a glitch done by restarting in certain spots that increase top speed/reduce air drag and allow for longer jumps. Unleashed Sonic's running animation is faster than Generations' running animation. Some speedruns of the original Dragon Road demo should show what I mean easily. Sonic Generations - Unleashed Project: Dragon Road (Modern) Speed Run (w/ skills) - 2:11.07 (With a glitch that's been fixed already) Sonic Generations Dragon Road Act2 speed run (w/ skills) 2:21.55 Will you port the extra acts? What about the DLC levels? What about the Hard Modes? What about Classic Sonic levels? Will you port Eggmanland? For the current version of the mod, no. In the future, we can't answer yet, but the answer is likely no due to most of us being busy with other IRL stuff in the coming months. On our first release of this mod, we wanted to provide quality over quantity. These stages have been polished a lot, and giving the same amount of attention to each mission and DLC/extra act from Sonic Unleashed would be very time-consuming, especially when we're just a group of hobbyists doing this on our free time. Can someone else do it? Yes, they can. But don't relate any of that stuff with our quality standard for this Project unless we acknowledge it. You'll see why when I do the technical breakdowns of the mod later. You can make any stage look impressive on video, but Unleashed Project is far more thorough in terms of acknowledging most of the things the player would want to try, not to mention excessive testing for glitches and such. As for Eggmanland, we don't want to disrespect the original work by Sonic Team. We can't just port it and adapt it to Sonic Generations easily without some massive level redesigns, and the amount of unique gimmicks in it just don't translate at all to Generations. The other suggestion that's been floating around for months was porting the Wii version instead, but since we don't believe it's up to quality standard either and would take a lot of time to rework into something decent, we've just decided to not do the stage. If we had decided to port every single thing from Unleashed, be it good or bad, you likely wouldn't be able to play this for a few years. Is there any way I can help? Do you guys accept donations? While we technically don't accept donations as a team, contact us at the main e-mail if you'd like to work something out. If you want to help us, here's some stuff that we currently need: Hosting: Some people have volunteered to host mirrors; you can do your part too and save everyone some time! ModDB can't currently host everything properly due to GameFront having regional restrictions, so we need a bunch of good, clean hosting solutions. Alternatively, get on the torrent and start sharing! Publicity: As a mod developer, what we're looking for is obviously not money. It's to have experience under our belt, and ultimately, bring some fun to people with our work. Publicity and acknowledgement is all we want in the end, so that's the best way you can help. Do you have any relations with the big guys? What about your favorite social networks? Even your friends that might be interested in it would surely like to know about it. Do your part and just share it! Follow our Feeds: Having an audience for anything you want to do is great; go to the Credits or the Contact & Feeds section and check out what we like to do! We all have interesting personal projects aside from this mod. Can I repackage this mod or make mods for it? Mods for a mod is completely possible, and we won't prevent it. However, it would be appreciated for you to not associate any of that with our mod "officially", and always give proper credit for who did what. That also means there's really no reason to repackage this entire mod just to include your character mod pack. Note: At the moment the Unleashed Project will have compatibility issues with the public version of SonicGLvl until the official database is updated. Wait for the technical posts for more information. Can I call this Sonic Unleashed PC? Why not extend it to be more like Sonic Unleashed PC? It's not Sonic Unleashed on PC and it never will be. There's no reason to port trivial fluff where it doesn't make sense, like cutscenes, bosses, sequences, etc. Sega's the only one that can release Sonic Unleashed officially on PC. This is simply a total conversion mod which brings our favourite levels and makes them better. This is not intended to be a replacement of Sonic Unleashed, but rather a new way to experience it and give the best parts of the game a second try, without having to deal with the worst parts of it. The original game got critically panned for having too much of that fat in the first place. This is as simple as the idea gets: what if Sonic Unleashed levels were playable in Sonic Generations at 60 FPS and higher resolutions, with much more polish? This is our answer, the Unleashed Project. Credits Dario ff: Main leader/developer of the mod and researcher of Sonic Generations modding. Developer of most of the current tools used in the project and SonicGMI, including reverse-engineering a lot of the file formats of the game. Handled most of the technical development, PR, workflow, level design, technical support, etc. Also did some terrible models and animations where needed. Chimera: Technical research into the game's mechanics/formats, modelling/texturing of enemy accessories, animating/modelling various additional objects. Trailer video editting. TwilightZoney: Technical research into various formats, modelling/texturing lots of assets, created a bunch of new Sonic animations for various levels. Those are the three main developers of this mod, and you'll know more in detail about the work each of us did in the upcoming technical posts. Lobotomy: Retextured a lot of the most horrible assets from Sonic Unleashed to bring them up to quality standard. Will puke at the thought of compression. He's handling his own, even bigger retexturing project as a separate mod, you can keep up with any updates he'll post for it on his YouTube channel. Melpontro: Recorded most of the footage used in our videos and playtested the mod extensively. Everyone wants him to work on everything. Unleashed Project won't be a part of Melponterations. Falk: Arrangement of the entire White World Medley used in the level selection, as well as the remix used in the release trailer. Also prepared the music files correctly for the game. You can check out more of his excellent work on his Soundcloud page. Also currently working on the soundtrack for other popular fangames such as Sonic BTS/ATS. JoeTE: Prepared the Unleashed music tracks to be imported into Generations. Also helped to change the content of some of the text files in the game. Korama: Developer of CPKREDIR and researcher of the FxPipeline renderer. Pretty much single-handedly enabled modding on a user-friendly level. Lucis7: Developed most of the concept art used for the White World stage. Dude: Partial development and a great deal of polishing on the White World stage's model. Also created some path splines used in some levels. Developer of the current MaxScript path exporter used for Stage modding. Paraxade0: Beta tester and lots of bug hunting. Fighting off the tyranny of invisible walls daily. Fixed all of Dario's horrid typos and awkwardly worded sentences in this post/the readme. KAKIPI1000: Beta tester with some of the most amusing video reports ever. ItsEasyActually (darkspines35): Lots of help with understanding some of the file formats in the game, technical MaxScript help necessary for the development of most of the current modding tools. Link: Original research and tool development into lots of Unleashed's file formats; most of the current specs/tools were heavily based off his work. MaxScript developer. Also the current host of the online updates. LinkSonic5: For dat Pickle. Polygon Jim: Was a tech member. Creamy moral support. brianuuuSonic: Fixed a sound file for us that was causing a bunch of trouble. Also parts of his Omochao Removal Mod were included. Special thanks to: Sega: For making one great game, and one other half-great game. For not preventing their fans from modding their games unlike many other companies are doing. For giving more attention to PC gamers lately with their ports, with great prices and sales to boot! Sonic Retro: For giving us a great place to work and share knowledge with others. For meeting with some of the best and most knowledgeable people from the community. For giving attention to the stuff that matters when it's needed. And also for some of the funniest random threads I've ever seen. We think Retro has influenced this whole thing coming to a reality a lot. Thanks for the constant support. We've decided to include their logo as our main splash screen for the project. Website - Sonicretro.org SSRG: For hosting the Hacking Contest last year and letting us participate with the Dragon Road demo. Fun event, and it actually helped us get a much better organization for developing the whole project. Website - Sonicresearch.org The Sonic Stadium: Before the whole place got rid of modding discussion due to moderation, there was lots of useful research/content going on there as well regarding Generations. So thanks for all the help and support from there. Website - Sonicstadium.org NeoGAF Sonic Community: Shout-out to the homies on the NeoGAF Community thread, your feedback was very useful and encouraging to read over all these months. Thread - Neogaf.com Contact Send us an e-mail regarding the Unleashed Project at wentos2013@gmail.com You can contact us there for any relevant questions, reports, issues, thanks, etc. We look forward to your findings too! For more Unleashed Project news, just follow Dario ff on YouTube/Twitter or track this page on ModDB. You should also check the credits section for more people to follow/contact if you're interested on their work.

A bomb has exploded outside the City of Culture offices in Londonderry. Police say they are not aware of any injuries and the damage to the building appears to be relatively minor. A warning with a recognised codeword is understood to have been given at around 22:00 BST - less than an hour before the explosion in Guildhall Square. Security sources say the attack had all the hallmarks of dissident republicans, who damaged a door of the same building with a pipe bomb in January. Witnesses to the latest bomb said it was a large blast which left smoke billowing out of the building. 'Extremely loud' Resident Karl Hamilton said the force shook his house across the river and woke most of his children up. "I had just finished putting my children in bed about 20 minutes beforehand when we suddenly felt the house shake," he told the BBC. "Windows and doors rattled, accompanied by an extremely loud bang. "Initially I thought it was fireworks before realising it was the bomb. The younger children still think it was a firework - that way they won't be worried. "The older ones, however, are immediately broadcasting the news on Facebook." He added: "I really don't understand why the perpetrators of such action actually think they represent the vast majority of people in our city when most of us just want a simple life." After receiving the warning, police cleared the immediate area including a number of bars and restaurants and called the Army bomb squad, but the device went off before they arrived. A large part of the city centre was cordoned off. 'Many challenges' Foyle MP Mark Durkan said: "Thankfully no-one has been injured but those graces are no thanks to those who are behind this attack. "They are out to destroy and they don't care if they injure or kill when they are at it. "Derry is a city with many challenges and with many difficulties. But the City of Culture is one of the opportunities we have." He added: "This callous and dangerous act flies in the face of the efforts made by so many people to improve life here." East Londonderry MP Gregory Campbell also condemned the bombing. "These people are merely trying to do what others have tried for 30 years before them, and failed," Mr Campbell said. "They simply do not get the picture, it doesn't matter how many times they try they will repeatedly fail as their predecessors in the Provisional IRA did before them."

Television takes risks. In the age of Peak TV, shows take you on a journey–and the best shows take you someplace you didn’t even know was on the map. People plot their lives around avoiding spoilers for shows like Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Stranger Things. Surprises are such a part of TV that they no longer exist solely in the domain of drama; The Good Place is a high-concept comedy that begs you to remain clueless, lest you ruin the show’s constant surprises. But this wasn’t always the case. Sure, TV has always been a surprising medium, and plot twists like “Who shot J.R.?” kept viewers on their toes before I was even born. But even the most daring shows still had a status quo to uphold. The X-Files pushed TV forward by incorporating a long-running conspiracy plotline, but the show still settled back into Mulder and Scully’s monster-of-the-week groove in-between mind-blowing reveals. Shows had a rhythm, characters had their roles, and deviations were not expected. And then viewers got a big surprise with an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer appropriately titled “Surprise.” I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that that episode, written by Buffy Hall-of-Famer Marti Noxon, and its companion piece “Innocence” (written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon) truly changed television when they first aired on back-to-back nights in late January, 1998. I remember what it felt like watching Buffy Season 2 as it aired, and how the season–really the entire series–was cleaved into halves by this two-parter. I’m not going to get into a beat-by-beat recap of “Surprise” and “Innocence,” because they’re episodes you really should watch if you have 90 minutes free this weekend. Watching them is watching a show not only kick into high gear, but redefine what a TV show is allowed to do. Before “Surprise,” Buffy was a low-budget, beloved cult fave on an upstart network, one that balanced monster-of-the-week episodes with villain-of-the-season ones not unlike The X-Files. After “Innocence,” however, the scope of what the show could do was blown out. That’s because, and I will now give a spoiler warning for two 20-year-old episodes, the show turned its love interest into the season’s main villain–and didn’t back away from that decision. By now I’m sure everyone knows that twist, so my spoiler warning was probably for nothing. But at the time, this was a major event made more major when Angel’s soul was not restored by the end of “Innocence.” Buffy’s main squeeze since the early days of the show, the tortured vampire with a soul played with swoonworthy broodiness by then-newcomer David Boreanaz, went from angel to devil with no warning and no quick fix. Angel was Buffy’s boyfriend! He was in the opening credits! Characters in the opening credits don’t turn evil! The change came through the best use of Buffy’s tried and true monster-as-teenage-angst storytelling device. After a lot of kissing, fretting, love, discussion, and drama, Buffy loses her virginity to Angel, the vampire with a soul that she reckons is her soulmate. And then, the next day, he’s changed. He’s distant. He’s flippant. He’s mean. He got what he wanted and he walks out the door with a thrown off “I’ll call you.” What Buffy doesn’t yet know is that Angel was cursed with a soul, a curse that was only maintained so long as he was in emotional torment. A second of pure happiness and BAM, curse rendered pointless. After a night of pure happiness, Angel returned to being the marauding and sadistic Angelus, the vampire he used to be. This leaves Buffy, played with such vulnerability and resolve by Sarah Michelle Gellar, wrecked. The metaphor is right there: Buffy has sex and the guy loses his soul in the morning, breaking her heart. In the world of Buffy, though, that metaphor becomes literal–and, in a true twist, it lasts. Angelus is not ensouled by the end of the two-parter, which was no doubt what viewers subconsciously expected to happen since that’s how TV worked at the time. Shows were cursed with maintaining a status quo, but Buffy broke the curse. Angelus’ arrival gave the show a true equal for Buffy, and it gave focus to the chaotic but meandering antics of Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) as the big bad vamp took charge. The show felt more dangerous than ever, as Angelus was once welcome in the heroes’ homes (a real problem with vampires). Angelus remained evil for the back half of Season 2, his reign of terror stretching from “Innocence” (where he tries to kill a department store full of people using a Smurf-on-steroids demon) to “Becoming, Part 2” (where he tries to send Earth to literal Hell). So no, “Innocence” didn’t end how viewers expected it to end, with Buffy and Angel’s love strained but healing. It ends with Buffy kicking Angelus in the balls, vowing that she will kill him. In pulling off this overhaul of the status quo, Buffy became the kind of show that viewers could not miss and it frequently delivered the goods. Slayers defected, eyes were gouged, heroes were shot, songs were sung, death always lurked around the corner from laughter–Buffy went from a quirky cult show to a weekly event. Pain even lingered on long after the deed was done, evidenced by the entire Scooby Gang’s reluctance to let a tortured (but soulful) Angel back into their ranks through Seasonout 3. Choices suddenly had intense, long-lasting ramifications on Buffy. From there, television evolved. The Sopranos, an HBO drama with unflinching commitment to being unpredictable, ushered in the idea of “prestige TV” in 1999. J.J. Abrams’ spy drama Alias debuted in 2001 and packed in “Surprise”-level surprises every season. The Buffy writers themselves went on to Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men–shows known for being unpredictable. Whether or not some or all of those shows were inspired by Buffy, who really knows. What’s clear, though, is that Buffy pulled off one of the greatest status quo shakeups in TV history and did not back down from the ensuing challenge of being the kind of show that did things like that. “Surprise” and “Innocence” gave TV the kick in the balls it needed. Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Surprise" on Hulu Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Innocence" on Hulu

Full-sized TARDIS-style Police Call Box. This is the Police Call Box that we built to win the Radio Shack Hackerspace Challenge. It is a full-scale replica of the call box used for the 1976 Doctor Who TARDIS. It measures 4 ft x 4 ft and is nearly 8 ft tall. The structure was built by a professional carpenter. The exterior is fully painted except for the roof (which nobody under 7’ tall can see). The inside sadly isn’t any bigger than the outside but it is finished with a small angled shelf and interior lighting. None of the Police Box Lander electronics or LED lighting are included but the light fixture on the roof is. This is a great reward for the exceptional Doctor Who fan with space for the box. We will work with the backer on delivery of the call box within a reasonable distance of the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) where the box is on display. Moving the box safely will likely require an enclosed truck and multiple people. We can help provide the people to load (and unload within the Tampa Bay area - Hillsborough and surrounding counties) but the backer must provide the truck. Less

Brussels has drawn up battle plans to punish countries it says violate the EU’s core values. The European Commission on Wednesday sought to hit back at national governments it accuses of undermining the rule of law. And it sought to do so with one of the few weapons in its arsenal — cold, hard cash. The plan was presented along with the Commission’s long-term budget proposal, but it would be a separate measure — one that bears all the signs of having been war-gamed to overcome the obstacles it is likely to face. Although Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker insisted the plan does not target any particular country, it was clearly designed to send a strong signal to Poland — which has clashed with Brussels over moves that gave the government more control over the judiciary — and Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stands accused of cracking down on independent institutions such as NGOs and the media. Orbán has championed the idea of an “illiberal democracy,” mounted a PR campaign against the European Commission with the slogan “Stop Brussels” and refused to accept EU-mandated migrant quotas. “A legal norm must be clear and it cannot be an object of political emotions” — Konrad Szymański, Poland’s Europe minister The Commission plan also sends a warning shot to other former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe that EU officials worry may be heading in the same direction as Poland and Hungary, such as Romania and Slovakia. The measure will be cheered by politicians in Western net-contributor countries who complain that net recipients in the east are taking large amounts of EU money while not subscribing to EU values. But it also risks worsening the very problem it seeks to solve — a deepening rift between the two halves of the Continent. “We are a bit uneasy with some proposals that suggest some political discretion, which is in stark contrast with the rule of law,” Konrad Szymański, Poland’s Europe minister, said in Warsaw in reaction to the budget announcement. “A legal norm must be clear and it cannot be an object of political emotions.” Central and Eastern European countries rely heavily on EU cohesion funds, which are meant to help bridge the gap between richer and poorer parts of the Continent. Such funding accounted for more than 60 percent of public investment in Poland and more than 55 percent in Hungary in 2015-2017, according to Commission figures. For months, Commission officials have been struggling to come up with a way to link EU funds to EU values while overcoming the various legal, political and procedural hurdles it would be likely to face. The first obstacle is that the EU’s seven-year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), has to be approved by all member countries. So any measure in the budget itself would simply be vetoed by any country that feels threatened by it. To get around that problem, the plan was presented as a separate measure that could be passed by EU member governments with a so-called qualified majority, representing 55 percent of member countries and 65 percent of the EU population. In other words, Poland and Hungary could vote against it but it would still pass into EU law. The EU could then apply the measure if it decides there is a deficiency of the rule of law or problem with financial management — and the targeted country would need a qualified majority vote to stop it. EU officials have also worried that cutting off funding would hurt those it does not wish to harm — farmers or construction workers dependent on EU cash, for example, rather than politicians. The measure tries to take that into account too — by requiring governments of affected countries to keep financing the relevant projects or programs. But although the measure will not formally be part of the long-term budget, which will run from 2021 to 2027, member countries who feel targeted could still threaten to veto the MFF over the plan. Even countries not in the firing line may be wary of giving Brussels such power to turn off the EU cash flow. Veterans of past EU budget battles have voiced skepticism about the prospects of the Commission being willing or able to impose financial sanctions on a member country. The measure, for example, resembles the fines and sanctions that the EU can levy under its economic governance rules — and a country has never been severely penalized under those rules. In an interview last week, Ingeborg Gräßle, the chair of the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee, said that even the current regulations governing the use of EU money are often not implemented. “Up to now [the Commission] has not been very firm, even when the legal position of the Commission is very clear,” she said, pointing to member countries that fail to pay back EU funds despite evidence of wrongdoing on projects. Michał Broniatowski contributed reporting from Warsaw. This article has been updated. This article is part of POLITICO’s new coverage of the EU budget, tracking the development of the seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework, and the first EU budget that will face a low or no contribution from the United Kingdom. This coverage includes the Budget Briefing newsletter every Monday afternoon. Email pro@politico.eu to request a complimentary trial.

We do our best to shield our readers from unwarranted spoilers for upcoming films in regular articles, which is why we’re going to issue a giant “Spoiler Warning!” right here. Marvel Studios sent out a series of interviews with the cast and crew of their upcoming film Iron Man 3 and they didn’t hold back on a lot of spoilers for the film. Since we know that some people are interested in reading these things, we’ve compiled the most revealing and interesting bits below. Again, Spoiler warning… Let’s recap: From the trailers, we know that Iron Man 3 will see Tony Stark going up against his greatest foe from the comic books, The Mandarin. Tony’s Malibu mansion and many of the suits of armor are destroyed in an attack and Marvel Studios producer Kevin Feige revealed that this happens in the first act of the film and sets up the rest of the movie. “You’ve seen in the trailers that there’s an attack on Tony’s house. So by the end of the first act of ‘Iron Man 3,’ his house is gone. His technology is gone. All he has is a barely functioning, prototype suit that, soon after he escapes from the house that’s destroyed, is not functioning at all. So Tony finds himself in the middle of the United States of America, in Rose Hill, Tennessee, completely out of his element. A guy who lives in Malibu and goes to Monaco and gallivants in Manhattan in the middle of Rose Hill, Tennessee, with a suit not working, doing an investigation about the villain known as the Mandarin, to try to figure out where he is. Tony believes there are clues here that are going to lead him to find where the Mandarin is, so he drags the broken suit into a shed that he finds and takes an axe and opens it up. It turns out that he is in the little workshop of this young boy named Harley.” Based on this and all the footage we’ve seen in the trailers, you can formulate a good guess about the structure of Iron Man 3 from this answer alone. Undoubtedly, there will be plenty of surprises left, but that this information has been revealed is pretty exciting. An element of Iron Man 3 that has long been rumored is that Gwyneth Paltrow’s character Pepper Potts would put on an Iron Man suit in the film, much like she did in the comic books. They confirm that this will in fact happen in the film. “There were talks of Pepper getting in the suit at the end of ‘Iron Man 2,’ but Marvel wasn’t ready to do it yet….I know Robert was really interested in having Pepper do more in this movie, and it was also a factor in me coming back and getting to do things that were a little bit more fun and different and a little bit more adventurous. It would’ve still been nice, but it would’ve been very much the same thing just to be buttoned-up Pepper, and in this movie there’s a whole different experience of her.” When asked what wearing the suit was like, Paltrow replied: “I didn’t mind wearing the suit at all. I thought it was light and perfectly comfortable and my children thought I was extremely cool. They were here on a day where I was in it, so they were trying it on and when my son saw me in the suit, he had the biggest eyes, so it was definitely worth it.” Another new suit that we’ve seen in the trailers is Don Cheadle’s brand new Iron Patriot armor. Kevin Feige spilled the beans on how that comes to pass in the film and Rhodey’s journey in the movie. “What we learn in the beginning of ‘Iron Man 3’ is that they’ve made an arrangement. Tony has let Rhodey have this suit; he’s using it in conjunction with the US Government. So, at the beginning of ‘Iron Man 3,’ we see that the President has asked Rhodey as War Machine to get a new paint job and take on the new moniker of the Iron Patriot in order to do American business and be the American hero as opposed to The Avengers or Iron Man himself, who is sort of a separate entity… In a way it becomes a buddy action film, in the third act, where they team up. Neither of them have a suit at a certain point in the movie and they really team up in a great, sort of old- fashioned action movie way and Don and Robert have such an amazing rapport.” Another little detail that fans have been wondering about is how the organization A.I.M. fits into the film, which was confirmed to be a part of the movie last summer, Feige mentions that Guy Pearce’s character Aldrich Killian is the head of the group in the movie. “Killian heads a brain-trust organization called AIM that is developing Extremis, which is something that taps into human DNA and is able to reprogram it and regenerate limbs and enhance strength and cure wounds. But it also could change the whole world, which is what Killian intends to do with it.” One thing many noticed about Kingsley’s Mardarin is his “Captain America” tattoo on his neck. This apparently is a running theme for the character, wherein he takes American propoganda and uses it to his own devices. “Shane Black had an idea of making him somebody whose background is unknown,” said Feige, “we don’t know where he’s from at first, but he seems to be some kind of military officer that has gone off the reservation. He is starting to pull all of this iconography and symbolism from other cultures to his own ends to use them as symbols to pervert the symbol of the United States. He utilizes the moniker of the Mandarin and robes with dragons on them and uses South American sort of guerilla tactics to create this aura of fear of his terror organization. The Mandarin is sort of a very frightening, modern-day terrorist who has taken terror motifs from all over the world to use to his own ends. It was a very cool and relevant and scary idea.” A final thing that has captured a lot of viewers attention from the latest trailer is when Air Force One is attacked and people are falling to the ground, if you want to know how Tony saves them, then read on. “Our writers had a great idea,” said Feige, “which played to the theme of putting Tony in a situation that you don’t know how he’s going to get out of. Shane and Drew’s idea was basically to throw 13 people out of an airplane and have Jarvis tell Tony he can only carry four of them. So how in the world, as they’re plummeting to their death, is Iron Man going to be able to save them all? “And they came up with this notion of Barrel of Monkeys, this Hasbro game, where you connect all the monkeys together and see how many of these little plastic monkeys you can latch together by their fingers. And Tony begins to fly down and begins to grab onto people and tells those people to grab onto the next person. And suddenly with this great show of teamwork you have 13 people all latched onto each other with Iron Man blowing his repulsors to stop their fall. “ Hitting 3D, 2D and IMAX theaters on May 3, the Shane Black-directed action adventure stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Stephanie Szostak, James Badge Dale, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley and Wang Xuequi.

>>> we're learning more tonight about some of the unintended consequences of the affordable care act which the president himself now calls obama care. some workers who thought it meant they would finally get health insurance are instead getting hit with a double whammy. no insurance, and a pay cut. we get the story tonight from our senior investigative correspondent lisa myers . >> luke has worked at a subway franchise in maine for a decade. but he recently was told his hours would be cut to 29 a week. >> it's very tough. i'm scratching by as it is with overtime. >> luke's boss, who owns 21 subway franchises says it's all because of the new health care law . employers must provide health insurance to anyone working 30 or more hours a week. goodrich says his small business can't afford that. >> losing five or six hours a week, that's 50, $60 a week or a couple hundred dollars a month, that's a car payment. >> reporter: we spoke to almost 20 small businesses and other entities around the country, all said because of the new law, they would be cutting back hours for some employees. >> any time you see a one, that's on. >> reporter: at st. petersburg college in florida, 250 part time professors have had their hours reduced. >> it's been the hardest decision i've had to make, and i hope that we can work our way through it to a better answer than we're able to give today. >> part time math professor tracy sullivan lost half her income. >> i never thought it would impact me directly. i was stunned when i got the e-mail. >> the white house dismisses these examples as anecdotal. the top economic adviser told us he sees no systematic evidence, the health care law is having an adverse impact on the number of hours the employees are working. >> this isn't a problem, it's not happening. >> it is happening. >> reporter: joseph hanson is president of the union that supports obama care. discount stores already are cutting workers to 29 hours. and that unionized grocery stores want to follow suit. >> wait a year, you'll see a tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced. >> reporter: the white house has delayed the employer mandate for a year, but many businesses are still preparing for the cuts. lisa myers , nbc news, kennebunk, maine.

Este 8M y siempre: el anarcofeminismo como punta de lanza en la lucha antifascista El sindicato CNT llama a luchar contra el patriarcado en todas sus formas, tanto en la calle como en los centros de trabajo. La Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) en este 8M, Día de la Mujer Trabajadora, pide unir fuerzas en torno a la lucha antifascista. El feminismo será la punta de lanza que acabe con esta arma de represión, desigualdad y odio, que cada vez tiene más fuerza en instituciones y en el discurso público. Frente a eso, el anarcosindicato reclama que la diversidad y transversalidad sea el motor de un feminismo de clase y combativo, que rompa el cerco de uniformalidad que pretenden el capitalismo, el patriarcado y el fascismo. Trabajadoras del hogar, mujeres migrantes, trans, racializadas, pensionistas, obreras, cualificadas o no… todas estamos llamadas a una lucha que es por los derechos de todas pero también por una sociedad mejor. El feminismo como muro contra el fascismo. Algo que siempre ha existido pero que, hoy más que nunca, es necesario recordar. No dejaremos de escuchar discursos sobre las prioridades de uno u otro movimiento, sobre lo que nos separa, lo que nos diferencia, pero debemos tener claro que el enemigo común es el que es. El que nos quiere represaliadas, precarias, sin derechos y aisladas. Por eso, este 8M, como en los anteriores, CNT sale a las calles para reclamar la equidad en los puestos de trabajo, la derogación de las reformas laborales que atentan especialmente contra las trabajadoras, denunciando la explotación y la vulneración de derechos especialmente en los sectores llamados ‘feminizados’, exigiendo el reconocimiento como enfermedad profesional de dolencias que se dan en esos sectores y que no son reconocidos por afectar a las mujeres en su mayoría, reclamando la incorporación del trabajo doméstico al mismo nivel que los demás trabajos, denunciando el paro salvaje que sufren las persona trans, la indefensión en la que la Ley de Extranjería deja a nuestras compañeras migrantes, la discriminación y estereotipación que sufren las personas racializadas en lo laboral y social, rechazando falacias como la del feminismo capitalista marca del Ibex 35 y apostando por jubilaciones dignas tanto para las mujeres que han contribuido económicamente, como las que trabajaron en el interior del hogar, dando la cara por quienes no tienen otra opción que subsistir en la economía sumergida. Seguiremos en la primera línea de acción y luchando mano a mano con el resto del movimiento feminista para que los cuidados o la maternidad no sea un freno para las mujeres. Creemos que ampliar el permiso de maternidad y paternidad, no es suficiente para lograr que el centro de la economía sea la vida y no el mercado . Por eso, exigimos que sea el mercado el que se adapte a la vida para construir una sociedad con valores. Queremos ayudas reales y eficaces por menores al cargo, lo mismo que para familiares o personas dependientes de las que nos responsabilizamos. Corresponsabilidad de cuidados con nuestros compañeros, más presencia de mujeres en puestos de representación dándonos visibilidad en organizaciones sociales, reivindicativas así como sindicatos. Empezando por el nuestro. Queremos ser la gota que desborde la marea que acabe con la violencia machista. Desde los puestos de trabajo, en casa y en la calle, contra el acoso de cualquier tipo o las amenazas que hagan peligrar los derechos humanos de más de la mitad de la población, con los que CNT está comprometida como organización anarcosindicalista, de clase, antimilitarista, antifascista y feminista que somos. Català | Euskera | Galego | Asturianu (más…)

Anglo Irish Bank and its successor Irish Bank Resolution Corporation overcharged customers by an estimated $1.6 billion (€1.2 billion) and continued to overcharge since the Government liquidated the bank in February, a forensic banking specialist has claimed in a US court. Expert witness The expert witness made the claim in a legal challenge taken against IBRC’s application for bankruptcy protection in a court in Delaware by developer John Flynn and related parties who claim they were overcharged $11 million on loans of about $200 million with the bank. Mr Flynn, who is best known for his involvement in the redevelopment of part of Smithfield in Dublin and his shareholding in the Blackrock Clinic, the private Dublin hospital, has taken a separate lawsuit against IBRC in a New York court over the overcharging. IBRC, formerly Anglo, is seeking “Chapter 15” protection from creditors under US bankruptcy law that allows foreign companies to have overseas liquidations recognised by the American courts. Protection In August the bank’s liquidators KPMG sought protection in Delaware to prevent creditors seizing about €1 billion in US assets. KPMG has been paid €5 million in fees on IBRC’s liquidation since February while the firm’s lawyers A&L Goodbody are earning an estimated €1 million a month, it was disclosed in court yesterday. Mr Flynn, who attended court yesterday, is challenging the bank’s petition as it would block his lawsuit in New York along with others taken by borrowers and creditors of IBRC in the US. Lawyers for the developer, a US resident, claimed that the liquidators were trying to stop Mr Flynn’s New York litigation “with unclean hands” because the overcharging had continued under their watch. Testifying by video-link from Belfast, Eddie Fitzpatrick who runs financial services company Bankcheck, told the court that he had analysed accounts for 16 customers of the bank and found that the overcharging continued after the bank’s liquidation in February – a claim denied by the liquidators. Mr Fitzpatrick, a witness for Mr Flynn, said the overcharging was “sophisticated,” “intentional” and a “fraud” on customers, saying that it continued “well past 2004” and “it continues to this very day.” He estimated that the bank was still overcharging Mr Flynn between €80,000 and €100,000 a month. One of IBRC’s two special liquidators, Kieran Wallace of KPMG, who travelled to the US to testify in court, acknowledged that the bank overcharged Mr Flynn interest “before 2004” but that the quantum was “up for debate.” He said that he was “very comfortable” that the bank was not still overcharging and that former IBRC management addressed the problem in 2012 when affected customers were contacted and refunded. Variable rate The liquidators said in a statement last night that the majority of Anglo’s “variable rate” customer loans in the Republic, Isle of Man and the US from January 1990 to July 2004 were overcharged, and that a quarter of “variable rate” loans in the UK were overcharged from September 1991 to June 2005. Mr Wallace told the court he was charging €295 an hour for work on the liquidation, while solicitor Mark Traynor of A&L Goodbody said he was charging €400 an hour. The court was told last month that former Anglo chief executive David Drumm, who moved to the US after resigning from Anglo in 2008, is willing to testify on Mr Flynn’s behalf.

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Baseball-Reference is happy to introduce a new Today's Batter vs. Pitcher Matchups page, which will display the top hitting matchups to look out for with the day's projected starting pitchers. You can find this right now by looking at the bottom of the Previews section on Baseball-Reference's front page. Our default sorting uses an internal weighting so that favorable hitting matchups with a larger sample size rise to the top, such as today's top matchup of Victor Martinez with a .400/.460/.644 line against Danny Duffy over 50 plate appearances, or a dominant .438/.550/1.063 line by Matt Carpenter versus Trevor Williams in just 20 plate appearances. However, if you're interested in raw numbers, like most home runs or lowest OPS and the like, all of the columns are sortable. We also have links to each matchup's individual plate appearances if you want to dive into more specifics, perhaps taking a look at just the most recent games a pitcher and batter have faced off. This feature was added thanks to a suggestion made during the making of our Stathead newsletter, which is in its first week of release. You can subscribe to our newsletter here. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact us through our feedback form. This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2018 at 9:44 am and is filed under Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

The wait is finally over. Super League XXII is here, with St Helens hosting Leeds tonight at the Totally Wicked Stadium. Can Wigan defend their title won at Old Trafford last year? Can Warrington end their decades of pain? Will Hull FC continue their march to silverware, after capturing the Challenge Cup in 2016? CASTLEFORD COACH: Daryl Powell LAST YEAR: 5th Fifth in 2016, fifth in 2015. Now its time for Cas to step up a gear and crack the top four. The Tigers secured one of the coups of the season, signing former Man of Steel Zak Hardaker, and Daryl Powell has a fully fit squad to choose from. Injuries crueled their chances last season but now Powell’s men have a real chance of success. The club is building nicely, Rangi Chase looks back to his best and there is a good feelng around the Jungle. There is depth across the board and growing optimism that Cas, one of the most entertaining attacking sides in the land, now have the defence to go with it. NEW SIGNINGS: Greg Eden (Brisbane), Tuoyo Egodo (London, loaned to Oldham), Zak Hardaker (Leeds loan), Daniel Igbinedion (Oxford), Larne Patrick (Huddersfield), Jesse Sene-Lefao (Cronulla), Jake Trueman (Bradford) PREDICTION: 4th CATALANS COACH: Laurent Frayssinous LAST YEAR: 6th It all went arse-up last year for the Dragons after a promising start. The mix of David Taylor, Todd Carney and Willie Mason didn’t work, as off-field fun started to impact on on-field results. So for this year a broom has been put through the squad and Greg Bird has arrived as a marquee man from the NRL. Catalans have recruited well, with the likes of Sam Moa and Luke Walsh, but it remans to be seen how quickly they can gel together. Pre-season results haven’t been great, but the real business starts on Saturday. Catalans will need to continue their impressive away form which they began last year. NEW SIGNINGS: Greg Bird (Gold Coast), Luke Burgess, Brayden Williame (both Manly), Sam Moa (Sydney Roosters), Mickael Simon (Wakefield), Iain Thornley (Hull KR), Luke Walsh (St Helens) PREDICTION: 8th HUDDERSFIELD COACH: Rick Stone LAST YEAR: 3rd Qualifiers A coach sacked, finishing bottom and almost relegation – it couldn’t have got much worse for Huddersfield in 2016. In that regard the only way is up for the Giants with Rick Stone starting to remake the side how he wants. Gone are long-standing members of the team like Eorl Crabtree and Joe Wardle, and in have come a clutch of players from Bradford and two from Australia. Huddersfield have been working hard on their fitness, but many have written them off already. Their recruitment has been low-key so can they prove the doubters wrong? NEW SIGNINGS: Paul Clough, Dale Ferguson, Lee Gaskell , Adam O’Brien, (all Bradford), Jake Mamo (Newcastle Knights), Shannon Wakeman (Illawarra Cutters) PREDICTION: 11th HULL FC COACH: Lee Radford LAST YEAR: 3rd Hull FC were one of the big movers and shakers of the last 12 months, winning the Challenge Cup and going close to more silverware. They have recruited strongly and have all the markings of another great season. Big Frank Pritchard may be gone but the Black and Whites still have an awesome pack and now great depth in the backline as well with the arrivals of Jake Connor, Josh Griffin and Albert Kelly. It should be another impressive season for the Airlie Birds. NEW SIGNINGS: Jake Connor (Huddersfield), Josh Griffin (Salford), Albert Kelly (Hull KR), Nick Rawsthorne (Halifax), Cameron Scott (Bradford) PREDICTION: 3rd LEEDS COACH: Brian McDermott LAST YEAR: 1st Qualifiers 2016 was a nightmare for Leeds, a huge fall from grace after their treble-winning campaign. The Rhinos suffered more drama when James Segeyaro, who was vital during the Middle 8s, walked out on them at the end of the year. Matt Parcell has come in from the NRL to take Segeyaro’s spot and Brian McDermott is hoping his key players stay fit, and his youngsters are up to the task, if Leeds are to make any title challenge. That potentially looks beyond them this season, but beware the wounded Rhinos as they still have plenty of class and experience to shock. NEW SIGNINGS: Cory Aston (Sheffield), Jack Ormondroyd (Featherstone), Matt Parcell (Manly) PREDICTION: 6th LEIGH COACH: Neil Jukes LAST YEAR: 2nd Qualifiers Promoted up from the Championship, Leigh are back in the big-time for the first time in 11 years. Packed with NRL and Super League experience, the Centurions look well balanced to stay up. Much will depend on how their discipline goes and whether the players who have spent the majority of their careers in the second-tier can adapt quickly to life in the top flight. There will be no easy games for Leigh this season. Whatever the result it will be a fun ride for Centurions fans. NEW SIGNINGS: Ben Crooks (Castleford, loan), James Green (Hull KR), Ryan Hampshire (Wigan), Eloi Pelissier, Glenn Stewart (both Catalans), Dave Thompson (Warrington), Atelea Vea (St Helens), Lachlan Burr (Bradford), Curtis Naughton (Hull, loan) PREDICTION: 10th SALFORD COACH: Ian Watson LAST YEAR: 5th Qualifiers After surviving a relegation scare in the Million Pound game, Salford will be looking to build further under Ian Watson. Apart from a points deduction the Red Devils would have been in the top eight last season and that will be their aim in 2017. With Rob Lui and Michael Dobson they have a brilliant halves partnership, while Todd Carney gives them that X-factor. Off the field they are getting their house in order under the leadership of CEO Ian Blease, a former club captain. If Salford and their colourful owner Marwan Koukash can steer clear of controversy, then it could be the club’s best season under the good Doctor’s ownership. NEW SIGNINGS: Kris Brining (York), Lee Mossop (Wigan), Daniel Murray (Warrington), Lama Tasi (St Helens), Todd Carney (Catalans), Kris Welham (Bradford) PREDICTION: 9th ST HELENS COACH: Keiron Cunningham LAST YEAR: 4th St Helens were tracking well until Matty Smith’s broken leg in pre-season. That has thrown a spanner in the works, with Keiron Cunningham having to decided to go with either youngster Danny Richardson, hooker Tommy Lee or forward Jon Wilkin to partner Theo Fages for the first few months. Saints’ strength is their pack and that has gotten even bigger with the captures of Scotland internationals Luke Douglas and Adam Walker. The Red V was one game away from two finals last year and will be firing to go better this year. Saints fans and their owner demand success. NEW SIGNINGS: Luke Douglas (Gold Coast), Tommy Lee (Salford), Ryan Morgan (Melbourne), Matty Smith (Wigan), Adam Walker (Hull KR) PREDICTION: 5th WAKEFIELD COACH: Chris Chester LAST YEAR: 8th Few would have predicted correctly Wakefield’s 2016. They started terribly, Brian Smith left, in came sacked Hull KR coach Chris Chester and Trinity went on an amazing run. They finished in the top eight and reached the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup. They also unearthed some young talent, like electric winger Tom Johnstone, and now Belle Vue seems headed in the right direction. The backroom signing of John Kear, combined with the signing of Canberra halfback Sam Williams, could be the buys of the season. NEW SIGNINGS: Mitch Allgood (Hull KR), Mason Caton-Brown (Salford), Scott Grix, Craig Huby, Kyle Wood (all Huddersfield), Keegan Hirst (Batley), Sam Williams (Canberra) PREDICTION: 7th WARRINGTON COACH: Tony Smith LAST YEAR: 1st Is it finally their year? 2016 certainly looked like it was, until a terrific Danny Houghton tackle at Wembley and the dogged second half resistance of Wigan after half-time at Old Trafford. After getting over the heartbreak of the Cup final and grand final, on paper Warrington look better than they did last year. Kevin Brown offers a calm presence in the halves and Mike Cooper grunt to the engine room. You throw in Dom Crosby and Andre Savelio and that is an impressive forward pack. Their youngtsers blooded in 2016 will have learnt from the experience. The Wire are well primed to finally end their long, long premiership drought. NEW SIGNINGS: Matty Blythe (Bradford), Kevin Brown (Widnes), Mike Cooper (St George), Dom Crosby (Wigan), Andre Savelio (St Helens) PREDICTION: 1st WIDNES COACH: Denis Betts LAST YEAR: 7th Until Easter last year Widnes were the Leicester City of Super League, upsetting opponents and leading the competition. Then injuries hit and the Vikings went on a slide. Denis Betts is one of the best coaches in the business but is the Vikings’ squad too thin for such a long campaign? With Brown’s exit and a current injury to Joe Mellor, fears are growing about Widnes chances. The club is quietly confident but Betts may need to work another miracle to keep the Chemics up this season. NEW SIGNINGS: Tom Armstrong (Leigh), Tom Olbison (Bradford) PREDICTION: 12th WIGAN COACH: Shaun Wane LAST YEAR: 2nd, Grand Final winners In 2016 Wigan did what it nearly always does – win. Despite tremendous adversity the Warriors prevailed in the grand final against Warrington. They weren’t the best side over the whole season, with the Wire and Hull FC more consistent, but Wigan got the job done at the end. With only a handful of players departing, new signings have been minimal. Joe Burgess and Thomas Leuluai have returned, and the French duo of Morgan Escare and Romaine Navarrete have arrived. Wigan will once again rely on their youth system and their structured style of play to challenge for silverware. Expect the Warriors to be at or near the top come October. NEW SIGNINGS: Joe Burgess (Sydney Roosters), Morgan Escare, Romain Navarrete (both Catalans), Liam Forsyth (Bath RUFC), Thomas Leuluai (New Zealand Warriors) PREDICTION: 2nd

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Next Match: vs. #5 Texas A&M 5/18/2018 | 6 p.m. CT TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – For only the fourth time in program history, the No. 42-ranked Alabama men's tennis team is headed to the Round of 16 after upsetting No. 11 Florida State, 4-2, in Tallahassee on Saturday night. The Crimson Tide (20-12) will head to Winston-Salem, N.C., and matchup against fellow SEC-foe, No. 5 Texas A&M on Friday, May 18 at 6 p.m. CT. "It feels incredible," head coach George Husack said. "It started with doubles, guys were confident, believed and were strong. Our guys battled. We had three rain delays, it's late and we finished under the lights, but there was no stopping them." "Before we went out (after each rain delay), we got in a big huddle and I think I said the same speech four times and they prevailed. So it's incredible. They did such an incredible job today." The No. 3-seeded Tide, handed the regional host and No. 1-seeded Seminoles (28-5) just their fifth loss of the season. The win over the No. 11-ranked Noles is the highest-ranked opponent UA has defeated since March 7, 2015, when Alabama bested No. 9 Ole Miss, 4-2, in Tuscaloosa. The Tide last advanced to the Round of 16 back in 2007 when UA defeated East Tennessee and Duke in the Athens Regional. Alabama is now 4-1 in postseason play in 2018, including nationally-ranked wins over No. 25 Kentucky, No. 23 Tulane and No. 11 Florida State. To begin the day, Alabama cruised through doubles play to earn the early 1-0 lead. For the second-straight match sophomore Zhe Zhou and freshman Patrick Kaukovalta finished first on court three with a 6-3 win over Gracia/Whitehurst. The sophomore combo of Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov clinched for the second time in two days after winning, 6-4, against No. 60 Iradukunda/Knaff. After multiple lengthy rain delays in singles play, Alabama struck first with sophomore Edson Ortiz taking care of Jose Gracia, 6-3, 7-5, to give the Tide the 2-0 advantage. Moments later, Florida State bounced back with back-to-back wins on court two and court three to knot the match at 2-2. Alabama was not to be outdone, as minutes after the Seminoles tied it, Nesterov gave the lead back to the Tide after downing Alex Knaff, 6-2, 6-4, to earn his fifth-straight victory in singles competition. With the match on the line, it was up to Zhou on court six to clinch the match and send the Crimson Tide the Sweet 16. After dominating Rana-Roop Bhallar in the first set, 6-0, Bhallar answered in the second set by winning 6-1. Zhou started off hot in the third set by going up 3-0, but Bhallar again had an answer, as he tied things up at 3-3. The Tianjin, China native, showed excellent poise, as he returned with three-straight games to clinch the match and extend the Tide's historic run. "When we were at the SEC Tournament and lost to Tennessee, you felt awful (for Zhou)." Husack added. "I told him, 'Hey you got to experience this to get stronger, and you'll get another shot at it.' And it came down to him again today, and for him to close it out, I'm so proud of him and how far he's come, he's grown into a man." Alabama will be back in action on Friday, May 18 at 6 p.m. CT when it takes on No. 5 Texas A&M in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Aggies won the regular season meeting against the Crimson Tide, 5-2, on March 25 in College Station. Alabama Results: Singles vs. FSU: No. 10 Mazen Osama vs. No. 25 Aziz Dougaz, 5-7, 7-5, 2-1, unf. No. 44 Guy Iradukunda def. Patrick Kaukovalta , 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) No. 35 Lucas Poullain def. Thibault Cancel , 6-3, 6-4 Edson Ortiz def. Jose Gracia, 6-3, 7-5 Alexey Nesterov def. Alex Knaff, 6-2, 6-4 Order of Finish: 4, 2, 3, 5, 6 Doubles vs. Tulane: No. 26 Osama/Ortiz vs. Dougaz/Poullain, 5-5, unf. Cancel/Nesterov def. No. 60 Iradukunda/Knaff, 6-4 Zhou/Kaukovalta def. Gracia/Whitehurst, 6-3 Order of Finish: 3, 2 Get all the latest information on the team by following AlabamaMTN on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.

Did you know that the average American household spends roughly $1,800 on clothing every year? Together, we purchase almost 20 billion items of clothing each year. However, out of all those 20 billion items, the percentage of clothing made in American is only two percent — that’s it. Of course, this wasn’t always the case. And it’s a much more recent development than you may think. For centuries, Americans bought clothing manufactured on our own shores. Most of us feel vaguely patriotic when we see that “Made With Pride in the USA” sticker or tag that adorns some of the clothing we buy. But the pieces that bear this label are rare. Most of us get the sense that this is bad, but not all of us know why. So, let’s find out why by talking about the history of how America’s clothing manufacturing industry moved overseas, how this hurts or helps us as a nation and how it affects you. The History of American-Made Clothes by Decades Throughout America’s early history, we produced our clothes. Once the 20th century began, however, that started to change, as demonstrated by the timeline below of American-made clothes: 1960 — In the year 1960, the average American household spent roughly $500 a year, equal to a little more than $4,300 in today’s money, on clothing and shoes. That was an average of 10.4 percent of the household’s annual budget. And how much of this was manufactured right here in the USA? A whopping 95 percent. 1970 — By 1970, the average household was spending just under $600 per year on clothing and shoes, or about $3,600 with inflation. That amount was about 7.8 percent of the average annual budget. And how much of this was manufactured in the U.S.? It was down to 75 percent. 1980 — In 1980, the average household clothing budget increased. It was now $1,319, which was more than double what it had been ten years earlier. However, today, that would be equivalent to about $2,955, which means the actual clothing spending percentage decreased. The amount spent was now about six percent of the average budget. American-made clothing manufacturing was now 70 percent. 1990 — By 1990, the average American household was spending $1,741 each year on apparel, which is equal to $2,583 in today’s money. That was now about 5.1 percent of the annual household budget. The amount of clothing manufactured in the U.S. had dropped by 20 percent and was now resting at 50 percent. 2000 — In 2000, the amount spent by the average household stayed almost the same as it had been in 1990. This amount was $1,749. This was equivalent to about $2,263 in today’s money. That was now 4.3 percent of the annual budget. The amount of clothing manufactured in the U.S. was now down to 29 percent. Today — The average household spending on clothing has reached a plateau and is roughly the same at $1,740. This number is now only 3.5 percent of the average household’s annual budget. However, the percentage of clothing manufactured in the U.S. has continued to plummet. Today, this number rests at two percent. The statistics are impossible to deny. The amount of clothing manufactured in the U.S. has dropped from 95 to two percent. That drastic change has taken place in only 57 years. And while at first glance the numbers might look like we’ve started spending far more on clothing, don’t be fooled. If you look at the figures for inflation, we — in fact — spend less on clothing today than we did in 1960. We’re spending about two and a half times less on clothing than we were in 1960. But how did this change come about? Why are our clothes made in other countries, anyway? The Rise of Overseas Textile Mills Shifts in manufacturing overseas took place during the 1970s, as huge textile mills started to emerge in developing countries in Latin America and Asia, particularly in China. These operations offered the benefits of cheap labor, plenty of raw materials and the ability to mass produce orders fast. By the 1980s, even though 70 percent of clothing was still produced at home, some major retail chains had caught on to the idea of outsourcing their manufacturing. They still designed and marketed their clothes, but they began to transition away from manufacturing them. Retail giants, like J.C. Penney and the Gap, were adopters of this new production approach. By transitioning their production overseas, these retailers could produce enormous quantities of products at only a fraction of the cost to produce them domestically. They began to perfect this process, learning which factories and which countries could complete each step of the manufacturing process for the least amount of money. That meant producing different items and parts of various products in an assortment of countries and factories — wherever they could do it at the lowest cost. Intricate global supply chains began to develop, funneling cheap, mass-produced clothing into the U.S. Another step in this process occurred in the 1990s when a succession of liberalized trade policies was set in motion, most notably by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994. These policies almost wiped out restrictions and duties on imports and foreign-manufactured clothing. With these barriers removed, American retailers started to rely even more on cheap, overseas production. When American Factories Couldn’t Compete It shouldn’t come as a surprise that domestic apparel manufacturers just couldn’t compete with this movement. Overseas manufacturing was too cheap and too convenient. What retailer would choose to pay an American worker when they could just employ a factory worker in China for a fraction of the cost? Because of this shift, 750,000 clothing manufacturing jobs disappeared from the U.S. between 1990 and 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Any retailers who were still choosing to manufacture in the U.S. were pushed to move their operations overseas, as skilled workers were disappearing in response to the job cuts and outsourcing. Looking Further Back in History Given our modern perspective, it might be easy to assume that our country has always been trending in this direction. It can be hard to imagine that we ever acted any other way. But if you just look back at our country's history, you’ll see that this trend towards outsourcing is recent. For most of our nation’s history, companies have been motivated to manufacture at home, and consumers have also been encouraged to buy products made here. So where does this trend towards domestic production have its roots? It turns out, this trend goes all the way back to the American Revolution. The American Revolution and the Birth of American-Made Clothes During the Revolution, America was trying to establish itself as an independent entity, separate from Great Britain and in no way dependent on it for any goods or services. To do this, it was important to become self-sufficient. Americans were encouraged to buy local products, instead of those imported from Britain. Even more so than buying American-made clothes, citizens were invited to make their own clothing, using raw materials from America. These actions were a statement of patriotism at the time, and a way to support the American cause for independence. Buying clothes and goods of the U.S. was a statement of resistance against the oppression and taxation by the British government. As American grew into an independent nation, one of its greatest points of pride was its self-sufficiency. It had access to an abundance of natural resources, and it had a nation full of people working as farmers, artisans and business-owners. Most of what Americans consumed was produced domestically. The Second World War and the Resurgence of American-Made Clothes World War II was a complicated era the history of American-made clothing. Apparel manufacturing became much more focused on domestic production for a few reasons: German occupation of France: The first reason was that Paris was the undisputed fashion capital of the world. As it was being occupied by German forces, American manufacturers were compelled to look elsewhere for fashion design. So, they focused inward. They turned to American designers, projects and sketches. As such, U.S. manufacturers became more popular. The first reason was that Paris was the undisputed fashion capital of the world. As it was being occupied by German forces, American manufacturers were compelled to look elsewhere for fashion design. So, they focused inward. They turned to American designers, projects and sketches. As such, U.S. manufacturers became more popular. S. involvement in World War II: The other reason was that America was at war. Citizens were being called upon to save money and support their country in every way possible. That meant writing letters to soldiers, sticking to allotted rations and collecting scrap metal. But it also meant something we don’t often hear as much about — buying American-made clothes. During these years, buying apparel designed and manufactured in the U.S. once again became a point of pride and patriotism for many U.S. citizens. The label, “Made in the USA,” was a way to bring people together and unite them in a common cause in support of the war and their country and troops, all through the power of consumer culture. Consuming American-made goods during World War II was a way Americans identified themselves. It was a way for them to feel good about themselves and their country. And it was a way for them to turn all the uncertainty and fear associated with the war into a patriotic movement. The Modern Times of Today and the Return of American-Made Clothes And that brings us to today. The relaxation of trade restrictions and the accessibility of cheap overseas labor have led to an overwhelming shift in apparel manufacturing and a decrease in American-made clothes. These cheaper production rates have led to the price of clothing falling, meaning we spend far less of our income on clothing. Major retailers, too, are getting a great deal out of this set-up. They can produce far more at a much faster rate, meaning they can sell more and, in theory, rake in a bigger profit. To make things even better for them, they’re also spending far less on manufacturing, making their profits even greater. How Do Foreign-Manufactured Clothes Hurt the Economy? While retailers and designers benefit from outsourcing their clothing’s manufacturing, they’re affecting their U.S. consumer base in four areas: Unemployment Unemployment is the single largest way foreign-made products hurt our country and is the consequence that most of us are aware of. The way it works is simple. Clothing companies need someone to produce their clothes. They have the option to an employ an American, or to pay a factory worker overseas. Most companies will choose the factory worker since this is far more cost effective. The result is that the American who would have done the job is now out of work. The unemployment rate in the U.S. reached 4.3 percent in July of 2017. Of course, many other causes of unemployment other than outsourcing exist, and not all outsourcing is in the clothing industry. But the fact remains that the American clothing market is the largest in the world at 28 percent, and thus comprises a significant portion of the problem. The challenge with outsourcing is that once these jobs move offshore, they often don’t return. For a company that employs underpaid factory workers overseas, to switch their production back to the U.S. boasts such a high cost that it would be almost impossible. The company would risk bankruptcy. Government Spending Because more people are unemployed, due in part to trends such as outsourcing, this means that more families are struggling to get by and meet the rent and mortgage payments, as well as buy groceries. These people often find themselves relying on government welfare to survive. That means that our government must increase its budget and spending to keep providing aid to help these people as they try to rejoin the working world. Cash Flow The natural consequence of unemployment is that there is less money flowing into the economy. As people lose their jobs, their budgets naturally constrict. They’re forced to conserve their money on things like food and rent. That means that these people can’t spend money on new clothes, movie tickets or vacation getaways. Thus, these industries experience a profit loss as their consumer base shrinks, which can impact their overall operation and even lead to the closing of small businesses. Closed Businesses With less money moving in the economy, and with most people’s disposable income being limited, many people can’t afford to contribute to their local and national economy. They can’t spend the afternoon at the mall or a day at an amusement park with their family. That hurts businesses. It means companies are no longer making the same amount of profits as before. In some cases, businesses aren’t even making enough to offset their cost of operation, meaning they’re forced to close. Of course, this sequence of events is more complicated as there are many more factors at play, such as the business’ services, product quality and even money management. But the negative impacts of foreign-made clothing on the U.S. economy can’t be dismissed or ignored. The Made-in-America Revival Based on all the things we’ve just mentioned, it might be easy to assume that the future is bleak. You may think that clothing will remain an import from foreign markets, and the cycle of economic downturn will continue. But you might be wrong. And that’s because the future of American-made clothes is looking up. Clothing manufacturing is slowly beginning to return to the U.S. Small, start-up businesses are announcing their commitment to manufacturing in the U.S. More companies are starting to produce clothes with the Made-in-the-USA label or sticker, with customers wearing the items with pride and patriotism. It’s not a wholesale movement yet, but it’s a start. In 2013, the number of garments produced in the U.S. was six percent higher than it was in 2012. This 2013 figure is almost 35 percent higher than it was in 2009. While it might be too soon to classify this as a landslide movement, it represents a small jump in a positive direction. What’s motivating companies to either return their manufacturing operations to the U.S. or to begin them here and commit to keeping them here? Three reasons are encouraging companies: It’s the Patriotic Thing to Do The cycle of damage caused by foreign-made clothing, as outlined above, is not a secret. It’s easy to see this cycle playing out all around us. More people now realize its disastrous effects and that a change needs to come and that, like all changes, it starts with one person at a time. Many people, including those behind small or new businesses, have experienced unemployment. Or they’ve had friends and family who’ve been unemployed. Certainly, they’ve all struggled to find a job at one point or another. While it isn’t the only problem, the outsourcing of manufacturing is a partial cause for a loss of job positions. Because of this, many small start-ups are committing to making their product right here in the U.S., where it will create jobs for people who otherwise might not have had them. It Means Better-Quality Products When something is being mass-produced in a factory, it’s often not high-quality. It will have been made as fast and at the lowest possible cost. No time is given to quality or details. The focus is on the numbers and producing as many clothes as possible. And it’s not that the people who make our clothes overseas don’t care about quality. They’re not given the opportunity to demonstrate their skill because the designer is only concerned with maximizing their profit and output. This lack of quality is what many companies who sell American-made clothes hope to combat. In almost every case, products manufactured in America are higher quality than those that come from mass-retailer factories in another country. These American-made products are given more time, care and individual attention, resulting in a product that is more beautiful and lasts longer. Manufacturing in the U.S. does mean paying a little bit more. But the benefits of this higher price tag are worth it. You’re receiving a superior product that will serve you better and last longer. And you’ll also be supporting a good cause — that is, manufacturing clothing in the U.S. Get Involved and Shop Goodwear Are you wondering how you can get involved in this growing trend? Are you curious how you can make your voice heard on this topic? It’s simple. By purchasing American-made clothes, you’re making a statement. That statement says loud and clear that you support American-made clothing. And that’s a powerful statement to make. If you’re looking for a company that is committed to selling high-quality American-made clothing, look no further than Goodwear. We’ve been producing clothing in the U.S. for more than 30 years, and we’re committed to creating comfortable, durable clothes that you’ll love to wear.

The Conservatives are facing a possible inquiry by the electoral authorities after it was claimed the party had overspent by thousands of pounds in three separate byelections. Channel 4 News reported on Monday that it has obtained hundreds of pages of receipts which show undeclared expenditure in 2014. The documents, its reporter Michael Crick said, appear to reveal a pattern of undisclosed spending and link directly to Conservative HQ and senior figures within the party. Campaign spending in each byelection is subject to a legal limit of £100,000 to ensure fairness, so contests are not skewed in favour of richer political parties. The party would appear to have flouted spending limits in all three byelections in Newark, Clacton, and Rochester & Strood during 2014, the programme claimed. All three byelections were seen as crucial battles to halt the then-growing popularity of Ukip, which was increasingly threatening to steal support from the Tories. Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP who won the byelection in Clacton, said last night he would ask the Electoral Commission if they have the powers to investigate, and if they do he would want them to take it further. “It’s shocking ... It’s simply intolerable. You have to have a law to make sure you don’t have unfair advantage,” he told the programme. “We need to look at whether Electoral Commission should have the right powers ... I will certainly be raising it (with them).” In a statement, a party spokesperson said: “All byelection spending has been correctly recorded in accordance with the law.” Channel 4 News claimed to have obtained copies of receipts for six hotels across the three byelection areas showing that large numbers of Conservative campaign workers stayed there, including senior party figures. In all, the hotel bills show 1,401 nights of accommodation, with the total cost of rooms, food and additional spending amounting to £113,030.63 across the three campaigns, it was claimed. Of this, 1,182 nights with costs of £94,112.19 fell within strict campaigning time limits, known as regulated periods, where spending must be declared by law, the programme said. This, the programme claimed, includes £56,866.75 undeclared hotel bills in Rochester, which would have taken them £53,659.83 over the £100,000 spending limit; £26,786.14 in Clacton, which would take them £10,835.36 over the limit; and £10,459.30 in Newark, which would mean a £6,650.28 overspend. In each of the three byelection campaigns, hotels were booked for Conservative campaign workers – one upmarket for senior staff and one budget Premier Inn for more junior campaign members, it was alleged. The programme named a number of Conservative party officials who booked rooms or stayed at the hotels. Receipts for the all of the six hotels do not appear to have been declared in the material submitted to the Electoral Commission. If staff were working on the byelection campaigns then the associated costs, including all hotel stays and salaries, should have been declared. Any party expenditure for campaigning during the regulated period should be declared to returning officers by law.

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Durata contractului este de 108 luni, din care 12 luni perioada de proiectare, 36 de luni perioada de execuție a lucrărilor și 60 de luni perioada de garanție. Aceeași sursă anunță că în prezent se află în curs de evaluare și cele 5 oferte depuse pentru contractul de supervizare pentru același lot. Foto: Secțiunile de pe Autostrada A1 Sibiu - Pitești Între timp, însă, Compania de Drumuri plănuiește să scoată la licitație pentru proiectare și execuție o mare parte din secțiunile montane din autostrada A1 Sibiu - Pitești, practic zonele cele mai grele, cu toate că vechile studii nu au fost refăcute, iar forajele geotehnice cerute de experții europeni lipsesc aproape cu desăvârșire. CNAIR susține însă că are o analiză nouă realizată de BEI, care îi sprijină, dar noi informații indică de fapt că aceasta a vizat doar tunelurile, nu întregul traseu. În schimb, experții critică lipsa forajelor geotehnice, iar într-un caz chiar discrepanța majoră între un foraj vechi și unul realizat recent în același punct. „Astăzi, 09.03.2020, Ministerul Transporturilor, Infrastructurii și Comunicațiilor a emis Autorizația de Construire pentru Secțiunea 1 a Autostrăzii Sibiu – Pitești, Lotul 1, Sibiu – Boița (km 0+000 – km 13+170)”, transmite CNAIR.Contractul de proiectare și execuție pentru Lotul 1 (km 0+000 – km 13+170), cu o valoare de 612.647.863,38 lei, fără TVA, a fost semnat în data de 14 aprilie 2019, între CNAIR și Compania Porr Construct SRL.„Studiile topografice, geotehnice, arheologice, hidrologice, precum și lucrările de asanare și deminare au fost finalizate, astfel încât, în prezent, se lucrează la drumurile tehnologice și la platformele pentru foraje piloți”, anunță Compania de Drumuri.În timp ce Lotul 1 e aproape gata pentru construcție, pe Lotul 5 (Pitești - Curtea de Argeș, 30,3 km) licitația lansată încă din iulie 2017 nu este finalizată nici până acum.„Riscurile să ne ducem în 20 de ani în ritmul ăsta sunt foarte mari. Dacă nu e studiată cum trebuie, autostrada nu se va face”, avertizează experții.

Ann F. Prompt delivery, great product - it is the sweetest bag. It was a gift for a 13 year old who adores it.

Netflix shares fell 3.4% today following a second major analyst downgrade in the past two days. Jefferies Equity Research’s John Janadis assumed coverage of the company and just dropped his firm’s recommendation to “underperform.” He slashed the target stock price by a third to $80 — well below today’s closing price of $94.60. The main problem, he says, is that rivals including Hulu and Amazon are becoming more potent. As a result, “it will take longer than expected for [Netflix] to reach the long term targets set for the U.S. streaming business.” With its plan to spend $5 billion on programming this year, and $6 billion in 2017, Janedis figures Netflix could burn $1 billion a year in cash. The risks of a flop also will rise as major content owners — fearful of Netflix’s growing clout — save their best shows for its rivals or their own platforms. Related Story Comcast Will Offer Netflix To Subscribers Using Its X1 Box Efforts to attract subscribers overseas also will be “more modest than consensus expectations” as Netflix grapples with “local players (which carry more local content), language barriers, underdeveloped infrastructure in emerging markets, and an expensive price point, among other cultural challenges specific to individual countries.” Janedis’ report comes a day after Needham & Co’s Laura Martin downgraded Netflix to “hold.” She fears that the company will be hurt by economic ripples through Europe following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union. “The European Commission (EC) is discussing whether to impose a 20% European content quota on [subscription video on demand] streaming sites like Netflix,” she says. “Worse yet, it is also discussing whether to set local content investment quotas. The French press reports that [Netflix] could be required to contribute 15-26% of its French revenue to support film and television production in France.” But Netflix still has plenty of fans on Wall Street. Yesterday, Guggenheim Securities added the company to its “Best Ideas” list with a $150 target price. Investors “under-appreciate the long-term domestic opportunity that is presented by an industry-low hourly consumption cost to the consumer,” he says. “We expect Netflix to continue to take usage share from traditional linear networks and as such see the company having greater potential for future domestic price increases than current consensus expectations imply.” Netflix was the Standard & Poor’s 500’s highest flying stock last year as its share price appreciated 134.4%. But the story changed in 2016: It’s down 17.4% since the new year began.

The most vexing thing about the Obamacare debate so many years ago was the emphasis on coverage. The administration rarely talked about reducing the cost of health care – which is the real problem – rather they pushed how much everyone needed insurance coverage. This, very much like the current insistence for “free college,” has moved the debate in the wrong direction. No one would need insurance for day-to-day care if it were affordable: check-ups, basic prescriptions, simple medical devices, and so forth. People should only need insurance in the event of a catastrophe, just like with auto insurance – we don’t ding our insurance every time we get an oil change. But the third-party payer system has contributed to health care costs ballooning so much that patients can’t get even basic treatment without insurance. And the people who have benefited the most from this are not patients but … insurance companies themselves, who have seen record profits under Obamacare, which makes one wonder who that particular agenda was really supposed to help. Obamacare has not made health care cheaper; it’s made insurance companies richer. (And the dark lining on that dark cloud is that it’s also driving doctors to leave medicine.) So, in the effort for the private sector to find cost-savings to keep doctors in practice and hospitals open, many hospitals are merging and consolidating to reduce costs. One analysis of this practice, studying mergers between 2009 and 2014, showed that merging hospitals’ annual operating expenses went down 2.5% and drove quality improvements through standardization, investments to upgrade facilities, and services at acquired hospitals. Mergers typically expand the scope of services available to patients, the study continued, and “build upon existing institutional strengths to provide more comprehensive and efficient care.” This practice is hardly the silver bullet needed to make American health care perfect – but every bit helps. Alas this practice tends to not help insurance companies, who don’t benefit from hospitals saving money. Furthermore, the larger a system of hospitals becomes, the stronger of a negotiation position they develop for working out costs with said insurance companies: negotiating prices with one united counter-party is worse for a large insurance company than lots of little ones it can bully. So some insurance companies are digging in their heels to prevent any mergers, and relying on the Golden Rule – that whoever has the gold makes the rules – they have mounted a public affairs and lobbying campaign. It’s depressingly more cost effective for insurance companies to spend millions of dollars to maintain the status quo rather than billions to make health care more affordable and accessible by their customers. And the tip of this particular spear is the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI), a leading voice for fighting hospital mergers, no matter the circumstances. PAI is a nonprofit organization originally (and ironically) started with funds from class-action settlements against for-profit health insurers. The group’s board is comprised of executives from nine state medical associations, which financially rely on donations from the very insurers who initially funded PAI through settlements, as well as other ties to anti-consolidation interests. This board is comprised of heads of groups that take millions in Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealth funds from all across the country. With so much money on the line, the health care system is a murky pit of individual and merging interests. Groups like PAI are a unique danger to the public debate surrounding high medical costs: they claim to advocate for patients but are dependent on the very private insurers who are driving up health care costs. Their name is something from George Orwell – though not quite as bad as the Democrats’ recent, horrifying, totalitarian “For the People” legislation. When companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield spread money around to non-profits with positive sounding names, they get a branded entity that doesn’t carry the stench of industry to advocate on their behalf. Insurance companies make easy bad guys for reporters, Hollywood screenwriters, or the parade of late-night Jon Stewart wannabes. But physician advocates – those sound like good guys! Of course, insurers don’t want to see pro-patient efforts, like hospital mergers, enacted, as they would see a direct hit to their financial bottom line. Insurance companies have made off like proverbial bandits in the last 10 years, getting a big boost from Obamacare. They’re flexing their legislative muscle to make sure it stays that way. A public interested in better medicine, healthier patients, and stronger hospitals would be well advised not to fall for this kind of inside-the-Beltway sleight of hand. Jared Whitley is a long-time DC politico who has also lived in Dubai and Berlin. He has an MBA from Hult International Business School. Issues & Insights is a new site formed by the seasoned journalists behind the legendary IBD Editorials page. We’re just getting started, and we’ll be adding new features as time permits. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe the nation needs the kind of cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that we can provide. Be sure to tell all your friends! And if you’d like to make a contribution to support our effort, feel free to click the Tip Jar over on the right sidebar. We Could Use Your Help Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists from the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to use our decades of experience to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day. We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we think our approach to commentary is sorely lacking both in today’s mainstream media and on the internet. You can help us keep our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends! You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free! Share this... Reddit Linkedin email

William Green, 46, of Wall Township, New Jersey, has been indicted in the state for allegedly, “operating an unlicensed money transmitting business through which he charged customers fees to convert more than $2 million in cash into the digital currency Bitcoin.” The indictment follows a criminal complaint alleging the same charges filed against Green on February 28, 2019. Green is facing a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment and a $250 000 fine. He is accused of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business involving a website called “Destination Bitcoin.” According to the Department of Justice release regarding the indictment, Green took cash from “Destination Bitcoin” customers and converted it into bitcoin cryptocurrency without first registering with the Secretary of the Treasury and obtaining a license to work as a money transmitter, which is required by federal law in the US. Special agents from the IRS- Criminal Investigation unit, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security all participated in the investigation of Green, and he is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Torntore of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Cybercrimes Unit in Newark and defended by Michael Gilberti, Esq. The State of New Jersey is also seeking forfeiture of alleged property and proceeds of crime, “all property, real and personal, involved in such offense, and all property traceable to such property.” In the event that these alleged proceeds or property have been sold or transferred, the prosecution will seek, “seek forfeiture of any other property of such defendant up to the value of the forfeitable property described above.” A number of LocalBitcoins sellers have been prosecuted in the US for unlicensed money transmitting. In February, Florida reinstated a case against a LocalBitcoins trader called Michell Espinosa. In 2013, Espinosa became the focus of a sting operation for “operating an unlicensed cash-for-Bitcoins business.” First presiding Judge Theresa May Pooler originally dismissed the case after determining that bitcoins were not legally defined as cash in the State of Florida at the time Espinosa was making in-person cash-for-bitcoins (and vice versa) transactions. But appeal documents submitted by Florida now include a lengthy definition of cryptocurrencies from the US Financial Action Task Force (FATF), whereby bitcoins are clearly defined as, “electronic currency.” This year, Finland-based LocalBitcoins, citing the need to comply with anti-money laundering regulations, began to crack down on in-person cash trades in the US and also banned customers in Iran from using the service.

News Image via Erick E Watson H&M are really playing the villain quite well of late. After some horrendous, racist design decisions in their youth campaign earlier this year, they’re now ripping off Australia’s own Harvey Sutherland. The global clothing franchise shared a new campaign to their social accounts that features the track ‘Bamboo’ by Harvey Sutherland in the background. The track actually works really well for the advert, I must admit, however this was news to Sutherland who took to Facebook today revealing that he had no idea this went down. The worst part? H&M somehow think the track was created purely for their campaign. Where is the communication at H&M? See Sutherland’s screenshots below, detailing this absurd occurrence. Be sure to head over to H&M’s Instagram post and let them know they’re in the wrong. The last thing anyone ever wants is big business ripping off the little guy. Compare the video to the original track below. They didn’t even try and tweak it.

Getty Images/iStockphoto It's been a doggone day. Have trouble dozing off at night after a stress-filled day? You're not alone. Our furry canine pals are also more likely to have a disturbed night's sleep after a day of anxiety, new research has shown. Hungarian researchers monitored the sleep patterns of pet dogs after "positive" experiences -- like being patted by their owner and playing games -- and "negative" experiences, such as being separated from their owner and approached threateningly by a stranger. Unsurprisingly, the dogs' personalities affected the way they responded, with more playful pooches less likely to be stressed out by being approached by a stranger than their shyer counterparts. Hungarian Academy of Sciences The dogs slept better when their human was nearby. But overall, the doggos who'd been exposed to stressful experiences didn't sleep as well, spent more time in REM sleep (the active sleep stage characterised by increased heart rate) and woke up more quickly. The findings were published on Wednesday in The Royal Society scientific journal. Interestingly, the anxious dogs actually fell asleep faster than their chilled-out counterparts, despite not sleeping as well. The researchers attributed this to something called stress-induced quiescence -- a protective sleep in response to stress. "(This is) a phenomenon that can be induced by several stressors, and that can also be observed as part of the human immune response during sickness," they wrote. So don't forget to say goodnight to your four-legged pal tonight -- it just might help them sleep tight. Hungarian Academy of Sciences The dogs' sleep patterns were monitored using non-invasive polysomnography to record their brain waves. Hungarian Academy of Sciences The happy and contented doggos slept better.

The pacifist-in-chief. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images Shortly before meeting with Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan for a sidebar at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, President Trump accused yet another esteemed organization of bias against him, claiming that he would have already won a Nobel Peace Prize if the selection committee weren’t rigged. “I would get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things if they give it out fairly, which they don’t,” Trump told Pakistani reporters as he discussed the conflict in Kashmir, calling himself an “extremely good arbitrator.” That may be true in the president’s mind, where saying a thing is done is equivalent to actually completing the task. But as far as real negotiations, grading the president’s performance as “extremely good” would require a serious curve. In North Korea, despite his “special bond” with dictator Kim Jong-un, there has been no real progress on a denuclearization deal, and Pyongyang is still dabbling in short-range-missile tests. In negotiations with Iran, Trump abandoned his predecessor’s deal and flirts with open conflict on a monthly basis — though he is still reportedly open to a $15 billion payment to entice Tehran to comply with the nuclear parameters of the 2015 agreement he unilaterally bailed on. And the advertised Israeli-Palestine “deal of the century” from Jared Kushner is so detached from reality that even GOP allies have urged the administration to scrap it. Despite this underwhelming report card, Trump has continually pushed for the high humanitarian honor. In February, the White House “informally” requested that Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in April, Trump allies began repeating the narrative that Trump should be a shoo-in for the award. By May, he had internalized that he was a statesman worthy of the prize — despite celebrating violence against journalists and inciting violence against sitting members of Congress: Does Pres. Trump deserve the Nobel Prize? "Everyone thinks so, but I would never say it," Pres. Trump says. "The prize I want is victory for the world." https://t.co/CFdzczE0fE pic.twitter.com/uqMlsth1UY — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) May 9, 2018 Like so many of the president’s actions — rescinding the Clean Power Plan, leaving the Paris climate agreement, ditching the Iran deal — Trump’s need for international humanitarian recognition is driven by the legacy of his predecessor. “They gave one to Obama immediately upon his ascent to the presidency,” Trump told reporters on Monday, referring to the largely symbolic and not-exactly-prescient Nobel Peace Prize given to 44 less than nine months into his term. “He had no idea why he got it,” Trump said. “You know what? That was the only thing I agreed with him on.”

Search engines have seen the same SEO mistakes countless times, and as Patrick Stox, SEO specialist at IBM, said during his Insights session at SMX Advanced, “Are you going to throw millions of dollars at a PR campaign to try to get us [SEOs] to convince developers to fix all this stuff? Or are you just going to fix it on your end? And the answer is they fix a ton of stuff on their end.” During his session, Stox outlined a number of common SEO responsibilities that Google is already correcting for us. You can listen to his entire discussion above, with the full transcript available below. For more Insights from SMX Advanced, listen to Amanda Milligan’s session on leveraging data storytelling to earn top-tier media coverage or Ashley Mo’s session on improving your YouTube ad performance. Can’t listen right now? Read the full transcript below Introduction by George Nguyen: Meta descriptions? There are best practices for that. Title tags? There are best practices for that. Redirects? There are — you guessed it — best practices for that. Welcome to the Search Engine Land podcast, I’m your host George Nguyen. As you’re probably already aware, the internet can be a messy place, SEOs only have so many hours a day and — as IBM SEO specialist Patrick Stox explains — Google may have already accounted for some of the more common lapses in best practices. Knowing which of these items a search engine can figure out on its own can save you time and allow you to focus on the best practices that will make the most impact. Here’s Patrick’s Insights session from SMX Advanced, in which he discusses a few of the things Google tries to correct for you. Patrick Stox: How’s it going? I get to kick off a brand new session type. This should be fun. We’re going to talk a little bit about things that Google and, some for Bing, try to correct for you. If you were in the session earlier with Barry [Schwartz] and Detlef [Johnson], they were discussing some of the things that, you know, the web is messy, people make mistakes and it’s the same mistakes over and over. And if you’re a search engine, what are you going to do? Are you going to throw millions of dollars at a PR campaign to try to get us to convince developers to fix all this stuff? Or are you just going to fix it on your end? And the answer is they fix a ton of stuff on their end. So the main thing here — I’m here as me. If I say something stupid or wrong, it’s me — not IBM. The importance of technical SEO may diminish over time. I am going to say “may,” I’m going to say this with a thousand caveats. The reason being, the more stuff that Google fixes, the more stuff that Bing fixes on their end, the less things we actually have to worry about or get right. So, a better way to say this might be, “it’ll change over time” — our job roles will change. Some of the things: index without being crawled. Everyone knows this. If a page gets linked to Google, sees the links, they’re like, here’s anchor texts. I know that the page is there. People are linking to it. It’s important they index it. Even if we’re blocked, you can’t actually see what’s on that page. They’re still going to do it. They’re still going to index it. This is something that happens on both Google and Bing: soft 404s. So what happens with a status code of 200, but there’s a message on the page, 200 says okay, there’s a message on the page that says something’s wrong. Like, this isn’t here or whatever. They treat it as a soft 404; this is for Google and Bing. There’s literally dozens of different types of messaging where they will look at the page that you just throw a 200 status code on and say, “that’s actually a 404 page, and they treat that as a soft 404.” They’re like, “we know there’s not actually anything useful there most of the time.” But this happens a lot with JavaScript frameworks because those aren’t typically made to fail. You actually have to do some hacky work arounds, like routing, like Detlef talked about, to a 404 page. So, you have thrown in a 200 but they’re like page not found. Search engines are like, “no, there’s nothing there.” With crawling, crawl delay can be ignored. Google typically will put as much load on the server as your server can handle, up to the point where they get the pages that they want. Pages may be folded together before being crawled. If you have duplicate sections, say like one on a sub domain or like HTTP, HTTPS, they recognize these patterns and say, I only want one version. I want this one source of truth. Consolidate all the signals there. So before, if they’ve seen it the same way in five different places, then they’re going to just treat that as one. They don’t even have to crawl the page at that point — they’re like, this repeated pattern is always the same. It kind of works that way with HTTPS, also. This is actually one of the duplicate issues, is that they will typically index HTTPS first over HTTP. So, if you have both and you don’t have a canonical — canonical, we could go either way, but typically they’re going to choose HTTPS when they can. 302 redirects: I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding with SEOs, so I’m actually going to explain how this works. 302s are meant to be temporary, but if you leave them in place long enough, they will become permanent. There’ll be treated exactly like 301s. When the 302 is in place, what happens is if I redirect this page to this page, it actually is like a reverse canonical: all the signals can go back to the original page. But if you leave that for a few weeks, a few months, Google was like, “Nah, that’s really still redirected after all this time. We should be indexing the new page instead.” And then all the signals get consolidated here, instead. Title tags: Anytime, you know, you don’t write a title tag or it’s not relevant, generic, too long; Google has the option to rewrite this. They’re going to do it a lot, actually. You know, if you just write “Home,” maybe they’re going to add a company name. They’re going to do this for a lot of different reasons, but the main reason I would say is that you know, people were really bad about writing their titles. They were bad about keyword stuffing their titles. And it’s the same with meta descriptions: they’re typically going to pull content from the page. If you don’t write a meta description, they’re going to write one for you. It’s not like, “Hey, that doesn’t exist.” Lastmod date and site maps — I believe Bing actually ignores this, too. The reason being the sitemap generators, the people making the site maps, this is never ever right. I would say this is one of the things that is probably most wrong, but who cares. They ignore it. Canonical tags: this is very common. This is like half of my job is trying to figure out how things got consolidated or is something actually a problem. In many cases, the canonical tags will be ignored. Could be other signals in play, like hreflang tags or any number of things. But basically if they think that something is wrong, they’re just going to say, “Nope, canonical is, you know, a suggestion.” It is not a directive. So anytime that they think that the webmaster, the developer, the SEO got it wrong, they’re going to make their best guess at what that should be. It’s kind of the same with duplicate content. Duplicate content exists on the web. It is everywhere. In Google’s mind, they’re trying to help people by folding the pages together. All these various versions become one. All the signals consolidate to that one page. They’re actually trying to help us by doing that. And they actually do a pretty good job with that. If you have multiple tags, they’re going to choose the most restrictive. I’ve seen this a thousand times with different CMS systems: in WordPress, you might have your theme adding a tag, plus Yoast adding a tag, plus any number of things can add tags, basically. And usually if there’s five tags that say index and one that’s noindex, they’re going to choose the most restrictive and that’s the noindex. With links, they’re typically going to ignore them. If you have bad links to your site — I think there was some discussion earlier — are you going to use the disavow file — or this might’ve been last night actually; Barry was talking about this. In general, the answer’s no. If you’re afraid you’re going to have a penalty, maybe, but for the most part you don’t have to worry about the links to your site anymore, which is great. Then if you’re in local, the NAP listings, a lot of local SEOs we’ll really focus on, like, these all have to be the exact same thing. Well, variations, you know street, spelled out versus “st,” or LLC versus limited liability corporation. There are certain variations where basically they’re going to consolidate. They know that this is another version of this other thing, so they’re going to say it’s the same, it’s fine. This actually came up earlier too with Barry or Detlef, I can’t remember which, but they were saying that Google only looks at HTTPS in the URL, not whether your certificate is actually valid or not. And that’s 100% true. If you ever crawl a page that has an expired certificate, they go right through. If you look in search console, all the links consolidate. They follow the redirect that’s there even though the user is going to get an error. And then hreflang, I think again, Barry had mentioned this, this is one of the most complicated things. This is, in my world, the most likely thing that’s going to go wrong a million different ways because it really does get complex. With duplicates, they’re typically going to show the right one anyway, even if you didn’t localize the page at all — like you have 30 versions, all English, as long as the signals are there, it’s going to be okay. It’s when the tags break and that kind of thing, you might end up with the wrong version showing, cause again, they’re folding the pages together; typically, if they’re duplicates, and they’re trying to show one main version. If everything’s right though, they will swap to show the right version for the right person. Within that tag, you know, it’s a best practice to use a dash instead of an underscore — doesn’t really matter; their crawlers are very lenient. Detlef was talking about like, “oh you got to get their semantic HTML right.” Their crawlers have seen this stuff wrong 50 billion different times and honestly they are very lenient on a lot of things. en-UK instead of en-GB: every hreflang article will tell you this is wrong, but it works. You will never see an error for this. Why? Because UK is not actually a country — it’s a reserved code and they’ve seen it wrong enough that they’re like, “Eh, it’s fine.” Same with self referencing. You don’t actually need that. Same with relative URLs versus absolute. There are best practices basically. But, then there’s kind of what works and I think where we have to get as an industry is let’s not waste people’s time. If Google, if Bing have fixed this on their end, why are we pushing for it? We’ve got other priorities, other things that we can have done. They’re even doing this in the browser, now. Most websites do not use lazy loading for their images. Google is going to take that on in the browser and I hope other browsers do this. I think this is the first step. I think they’re going to do a lot more with this, probably like preload directives and a bunch of things, but they’re going to, in the browser, take the strain off the server, off the websites, and they’re just going to be lazy loading images across the web. Now, a lot of people are thinking that they need this loading=“lazy” — that’s actually default. If you do nothing, you have lazy loading on your website as of Chrome 75. And that’s about it, thank you.

Is the same style than the EQG short where everyone is dressed up like cowgirls? Looks really great

Police are investigating after two people were found dead at a residential building in Scarborough Tuesday afternoon. Officers were called to a building in the area of Birchmount Rd., south of St. Clair Ave. E., in the Scarborough Junction neighbourhood at 2:17 p.m. for “unknown trouble.” They found two people dead with signs of “significant trauma” when they arrived. A woman was found inside the building and a man was found outside, Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook said. Police have not yet determined the relationship between the two. She said the deaths are considered suspicious, but investigators are still trying to determine if it’s a homicide case. Police said there is no threat to the public at this point and are not releasing any information on the victims or possible suspects. They are asking anyone with information to contact officers at 41 Division at 416-808-4100.

Updated, 3:40 p.m. As the White House ramps up its push to woo young voters by urging Congress to head off a scheduled increase in student loan interest rates, GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney struck back Monday, throwing his support behind an extension of the current rates at a campaign event outside Philadelphia. The former Massachusetts governor made the announcement at a press availability with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, the first joint appearance of Romney and the Florida Republican whose name is often floated as a top choice for his running mate. “There’s one thing that I wanted to mention, that I forgot to mention at the very beginning, and that was that particularly with the number of college graduates that can’t find work or that can only find work well beneath their skill level, I fully support the effort to extend the low interest rate on student loans,” Romney said at the end of a seven-minute joint news conference with Rubio. “There was some concern that that would expire halfway through the year, and I support extending the temporary relief on interest rates for students as a result of student loans, obviously, in part because of the extraordinarily poor conditions in the job market.” The announcement comes on the heels of an Associated Press report showing that half of recent college graduates are jobless or underemployed. Obama devoted his weekly address to the topic of federal student loans, pushing for a renewal by Congress of the 2007 law keeping rates at 3.4 percent. The rates will revert to 6.8 percent in July if Congress does not act. According to the White House, more than 7 million students would be affected by the rate increase. On Monday, the White House called Romney’s support of the extension inconsistent with past support for education cuts. “Mitt Romney continues to make promises that he can’t keep,” said Lis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign. “While he previously endorsed the Ryan budget, which would make deep cuts to Pell Grants and allow student loan rates to double, and last week said that he would gut the Department of Education to pay for his tax plan, today we heard yet another — and contradictory — position from Romney on student loans.” Also on Monday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the education committee, said he plans to introduce a bill later this week that would extend the lower interest rate for one year. He said lawmakers could then consider enacting a more permanent modification when the Higher Education Act comes up for renewal next year. “Unfortunately, the clock’s ticking,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “We need Republicans in Congress to work with us.” Harkin said he opposes using other cuts in education to pay for the extension, which is estimated to cost $6 billion, but he had not yet determined how to pay for it. Obama is slated to speak in Harkin’s home state on Wednesday about the rising cost of college education and mounting student debt. The office of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) responded to Romney’s move by noting that members of both parties on both sides of the Capitol “will be working on this issue in the coming months.” But the top House Republican also framed the expected rise in Stafford loan rates as the result of Democratic policies. “The rising cost of tuition is a serious problem for students and their families, so it’s unfortunate that Washington Democrats put in place a law that would double student loan rates,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), the No. 3 Senate Democrat and the party’s messaging chief in the upper chamber, said that “what Mitt Romney said — following the president’s lead — is a good thing, but the proof is in the pudding.” “It’s unclear if it’s simply a way to get on board a popular issue or an effort to actually get something done,” Schumer said. “We’ll see how it plays out over the next few weeks. If Mitt Romney says to the Senate and House Republican leadership, ‘Find a compromise pay-for,’ that would be very helpful. “But if they’re just going to say we’re for it — but not for paying for it any way that can pass and not for not paying for it — then it’s a game,” he added. Obama’s reelection campaign has been searching for ways to reignite young voters, who provided much of the enthusiasm that helped propel the president to victory four years ago. A poll last week by Georgetown University and the Public Religion Research Institute found that top issues for young voters are jobs and unemployment. Education was nearly tied with the federal deficit for second place. “We’re not particularly concerned by the president’s appeal to young voters. We think that he has the right vision and the right answers that are gonna appeal to those voters,” Obama’s campaign policy director, James Kvaal, said Monday. “The topic that we’ve been discussing today is a great example of why.” On Tuesday, Obama will travel to Colorado and North Carolina to continue his student-loan push with campaign events at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On Wednesday, he will visit the University of Iowa. Romney has often made the case along the trail that young people should support his campaign rather than Obama’s because of the country’s economic struggles. Romney renewed that argument Monday, contending that young voters “are questioning the support they gave to President Obama three-and-a-half years ago.” “I think young voters in this country have to vote for me if they’re really thinking of what’s in the best interest of the country and what’s in their personal best interest, because the president’s policies have led to extraordinary statistics,” Romney said.

With the 2015 Wales Rally GB starting, photographically this means two things; dramatic scenery and dramatic photos of cars speeding through that scenery. We’ve had a look back through the archives to bring you a selection of the best photos taken over the years

In this March 20, 2017 photo, President Donald Trump awaits the arrival of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House in Washington. Trump campaigned as an outsider, celebrating his lack of political experience by selling himself as a dealmaker willing to buck Republican orthodoxy and his own party’s leadership. He alone would reshape Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) In this March 20, 2017 photo, President Donald Trump awaits the arrival of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House in Washington. Trump campaigned as an outsider, celebrating his lack of political experience by selling himself as a dealmaker willing to buck Republican orthodoxy and his own party’s leadership. He alone would reshape Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump campaigned as an outsider — celebrating his lack of political experience by selling himself as a dealmaker willing to buck Republican orthodoxy and his own party’s leadership. He alone would reshape Washington. He’s tried governing the same way. His actions are a blitz. He rarely consults old Washington hands. And he hangs the threat of retribution over anyone who challenges him. And now he and his party have been dealt a stinging defeat on a signature campaign promise, a defeat that further weakens a president whose approval rating has hovered under 40 percent and humiliates Republicans who have pledged for seven long years to undo President Barack Obama’s health care law. ADVERTISEMENT Trump’s haphazard approach on Friday to the health care bill — first demanding a House vote despite an uncertain result, then suddenly suggesting he’d support a future bipartisan solution — underscored Trump’s political identity: He is an independent, seemingly uninterested in leading a political party or unifying the federal government. The failed vote — despite Republican control of the White House and both houses of Congress — highlighted severe cracks within the GOP that Trump’s presidency won’t easily mend. Trump now wants to turn to tax reform, an ambitious, complicated plan at the center of his agenda, and he does so wounded by the health care collapse as well as the uncertain legal status of his travel ban and an ongoing federal investigation into possible contacts and coordination between his campaign aides and Russian officials. The loss exposed a limit to Trump’s go-it-alone style, one forged over decades in the business world and seemingly proven effective by his improbable win. The novice campaigner used the sheer force of his celebrity and personality to draw loyal supporters and frequently bend the Republican Party to his whims. He defied the party leadership repeatedly, skipped a debate, refused to sign a loyalty pledge and turned the scathing power of his Twitter account on fellow Republicans even after he clinched the nomination and the party pined for unity. “This is who he is. He’s a dealmaker. He knows how to do deals and there’s no deal here,” said Ed Cox, chairman of New York state’s Republican party, who has known Trump for decades, sometimes as friend, sometimes as foe. “He always wants to move on to the next thing, even going it alone.” But experts say that maverick style has hurt his ability to govern effectively. “Donald Trump’s ‘Art of the Deal’ doesn’t work in Washington. Politics is a profession and you have to know how to collect votes,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University. “Trump is a salesperson and he oversold what he can get done.” ADVERTISEMENT Brinkley said Trump’s failure stood in stark contrast to the master negotiations conducted by presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, who enjoyed majorities in both houses of Congress and achieved sweeping legislative accomplishments. Instead, Trump’s initial struggles were reminiscent of the problems Jimmy Carter faced when he declared that his fellow Democrats were “an albatross around my neck” while facing intraparty rebellion. More than two dozen members of the House Freedom Caucus oppose the health care plan because they say it doesn’t go far enough to undo Obamacare. Some moderate Republicans, meanwhile, were turned off by a recent Congressional Budget Office analysis predicting 24 million people would lose coverage in a decade. Republicans seemed willing to risk Trump’s wrath, taking comfort in the political safety their deep-red home districts provide against his possible attacks. Trump was once a Democrat. He favored abortion rights most of his adult life, has shown little stomach for fighting over social issues and espoused views on trade similar to those of liberal Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He often doesn’t work in specifics, allowing supporters to read in what they want, and he’s been frequently mercurial, abruptly shifting stances — like when he abandoned his vow to send Hillary Clinton to prison — yet rarely losing support of his loyal backers. That degree of unpredictability gave some credibility to his ultimatum to force a Friday vote or keep Obamacare in place, despite his years-long crusade against it. Trump’s commitment to the bill seemed wavering. He said Friday “there were things in this bill that I didn’t particularly like” and, for the first time, suggested that he would support a bipartisan health care measure. He also claimed that “I’ve never said repeal and replace Obamacare within 64 days,” a surprising statement considering he vowed to do so “on day one” nearly every night on the campaign trail. “He’s left everything on the field when it comes to this bill,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said before the vote was pulled. “He pulled out every stop, he has called every member, he has tweeted every tweet, he has done every single thing he can.” Though Trump publicly abstained from blaming House Speaker Paul Ryan, the White House suggested some fault lay with members who opposed the measure, with Spicer declaring “they would have go to back and answer to their constituents.” That act of political defiance should seem familiar to the occupant of the White House, according to one longtime Trump ally. “The people who are defeating this are the ones most like Trump — ones willing to break from the pack,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who also questioned the wisdom of setting a hard deadline to pass the legislation. “If it was a negotiating tactic, it wasn’t a good one,” said Gingrich, who suggested that relations between Trump and Ryan, always strained, would get worse. “The president feels burned. I suspect you’ll see him far more engaged on matters like tax reform, which he is passionate about. But it will be more complicated now.” The failure to get the health plan through the House, a task considered easier than in the Senate, may portend even greater difficulty in passing complicated tax reform and the rest of Trump’s ambitious agenda. “Doing big things is hard,” said Ryan. ___ Associated Press Writer Jonathan Lemire has covered The White House and politics for The Associated Press since 2013. ___ Follow Lemire on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

LinkedIn Report: Blockchain Developer Leads List of Most Rapidly Growing Jobs The role of blockchain developer is the most rapidly growing emerging job in the United States, according to the 2018 U.S. Emerging Jobs report by LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) released on Dec. 13. In the course of preparing the report, LinkedIn used data from its Economic Graph to analyze the positions that companies are hastily hiring for, as well as skills related to those positions and roles that have emerged over the past five years. Continue Reading on Coin Telegraph Like this: Like Loading...

סרטון מזעזע שפירסם אתמול (א') עיתונאי פלסטיני ברשתות החברתיות חולל סערה ברשות הפלסטינית. הסרטון צולם בזמן לא ידוע באזור חברון ומתועדים בו כמה גברים פלסטינים שסוקלים למוות צבוע מפוספס. בסרטון נראה הצבוע רץ בשול הכביש כשמכוניות רבות חולפות מנגד. בסרטון נראים הגברים מצלמים מתוך מכוניתם הנוסעת את הצבוע צועד בשולי הדרך. בשלב מסוים ממליץ הצלם ליידות אבנים על הצבוע אבל נהג מכונית אחרת שנסע לידם החליט לדרוס את הצבוע ולנסות למחוץ אותו למעקה ההפרדה שבצד הכביש. בניסיון הדריסה השלישי הם מצליחים להפיל את הצבוע אל הקרקע ולהמם אותו. הוא נראה כשהוא צועד באיטיות רבה עקב הפציעה. אז מתועדים הפלסטינים כשהם יוצאים מהרכבים ומתחילים להשליך אבנים וסלעים גדולים על ראשו של הצבוע הפצוע תוך כדי שהם מעודדים אחד את השני לפגוע לו בראש כדי להרוג אותו. כמה שניות אחר כך הם מצליחים להרוג את הצבוע. 1. מרדף אחרי הצבוע באמצעות רכב. 2. אחד הרכבים פוגע בצבוע. 3. אבנים גדולות הושלכו לעבר הצבוע במהלך המרדף. 4. סקילת הצבוע למוות באמצעות אבנים וסלעים זעם ברשת: הפשע מנוגד להלכה האיסלאמית תיעוד הריגת הצבוע עוררה זעם רב בקרב גולשים בישראל ובקרב הפלסטינים שמרביתם המכריע הביע שאט נפש מהמעשים המזעזעים. גולשים פלסטינים אמרו כי מדובר בפשע שמנוגד להלכה האיסלאמית. חלק מהמגיבים השוו את הסקילה לרציחות המתועדות של ארגון המדינה האיסלאמית ("דאעש") ואף הביעו תקווה שהסוקלים למוות ימצאו את מותם באותה דרך אכזרית. עימאד אטרש, מנהל ארגון "Palestine Wildlife Society", אמר ל-ynet לאחר פרסום הסרטון, כי באגודה "מתנגדים בתוקף לאירוע שהתרחש עם הצבוע. זה מעשה רע מאוד לטבע שלנו ואנחנו מנסים לעזור לחיות הבר בדרכים רבות, בין היתר באמצעות חינוך האנשים בכל הגילאים". "בתרבות הפלסטינית, הצבוע ידוע בעבר כבעל חיים מסוכן ביותר לבני האדם. אני צפיתי וסייעתי לצבועים בשנה שעברה וראיתי חיית בר שלווה. למעשה, הצבוע בחברון ניסה לברוח מבני האדם ולא תקף אף אחד". צבוע מפוספס בטבע (צילום: ערן היימס) טורף תחת איום בטבע צבוע מפוספס (Hyaene hyaena) הוא אחד הטורפים הגדולים האחרונים שנותרו עוד בשטחי ישראל ומצוי בסכנת הכחדה. על פי הערכות שונות אוכלוסיית הצבועים מוערכת במאות פרטים ובשנים האחרונות ישנן תצפיות רבות של צבועים ברחבי הארץ. הצבוע נתון תחת איום בגלל ציד לא חוקי, דריסות, הרעלות וגם לכידה למטרות סחר והימורים לקרבות עם כלבים. הצבוע המפוספס ניחן באחת הלסתות החזקות ביותר בעולם החי, המסוגלות לפצח בקלות עצמות ולגרור פגרים כבדים למרחקים. הוא אמנם צד חיות בר אחרות, ואפילו יונקים גדולים כמו צבאים אך חלק לא מבוטל ממזונו מורכב מאכילת נבלות ופסולת מזון בשרית המצוייה בעיקר בסמוך ליישובים, משקים ומזבלות. אשתקד נתפסו בערב יום כיפור נתפסו שני פלסטינים ע"י כוח צה"ל, המשטרה ורשות הטבע והגנים כשבידיהם צבוע פצוע הקשור בשרשרת ברזל. סרטון שהעלו לרשת הביא למעצרם ל-16 יום והוגש נגדם כתב אישום. הצבוע שזכה לשם "עמוס1" סבל מפציעות בפיו וברגלו בעקבות ההתעללות. לאחר שיקום מוצלח הושב הצבוע בחזרה לטבע. ברשות עוקבים אחריו באמצעות משדר לווייני. בבית הדין הצבאי במחנה "עופר" מתנהל בחודשים האחרונים משפטם של השניים ובית המשפט אמור לגזור את עונשם בעוד כשלושה חודשים. ברשות הטבע והגנים מסרו ל-ynet כי נפתחה חקירה בנושא.

NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan — The current global health crisis is causing many people to reflect deeply on the future of their society. In Kazakhstan last week, the Baha’i community convened an online discussion with academics, government officials, social actors, and religious representatives to explore how their collaborative efforts under the current circumstances are strengthening societal unity. “During these difficult times we as a nation have had to look beyond the present, setting aside any historical feelings of disunity, to imagine what our country could look like when we emerge from this crisis,” said Timur Chekparbayev, a representative of the country’s Baha’i Office of Public Affairs. The Office held the discussion as part of its efforts to contribute to the discourse on social cohesion. “In response to this crisis,” said Serik Tokbolat, a representative of the Baha’i Office of Public Affairs, “we are not giving up hope but are turning our eyes to the possibilities for a degree of social unity we have never seen before.” Participants considered that one of the signs of a harmonious society is the ability of its citizens, communities, and institutions to act in concert and make decisions for the well-being of all. “Institutions, both public and government, will need to go deeper into understanding how to make collective decisions and explore related principles,” said Zaira Koishinova, a historian. “In these circumstances, the importance of mutual trust becomes clear,” remarked Arman Kozhakhmetov, a member of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, “Promoting trust requires open and clear decision-making. When people see that mistakes are recognized and corrected, trust is born and issues can quickly be solved.” Offering a perspective from the Hindu community, Askhat Adilbayev said that “people are increasingly talking about the spiritual and finding many answers in religious scriptures. Trust is born in faith. We have an opportunity before us to become closer to the sublime spiritual values that foster our development.” Participants shared a strong sentiment that the past does not have to define the future. “Governments, organizations, and communities are building the way forward together. Many who previously interacted as rivals are now extending a helping hand to one another,” said Karlygash Kalilakhanova, of the N. Nazarbayev Center for the Development of Inter-religious Dialogue. Reflecting on the event, Lyazzat Yangaliyeva, member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Kazakhstan, says that “an idea that has been central to the organization of public life and considered as the engine of progress is competition. But it’s now becoming clear to many that this idea is outdated. Overcoming the difficulties we face today requires high degrees of unity and the participation of all.”

The Documentary Features Never-Before-Seen Interviews with Jackson Revealing His Personal Thoughts About Work and Relationships “The Last Days of Michael Jackson” Airs on Thursday, May 24 (8:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET) on ABC ABC News presents a two-hour primetime television event about Michael Jackson exploring the King of Pop’s life and legacy, from his complicated childhood to the record-breaking comeback concerts, “This Is It,” that he didn’t live to perform. Ahead of the 10th anniversary of Jackson’s untimely passing, ABC News profiles one of the most influential artists of all time through interviews with the people he knew alongside never-before-seen video from interviews he did with ABC News Anchors Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. The special also includes new interviews with Derek “Cooley” Jaxson, one of the dancers who taught Jackson how to moonwalk; Navi, the world-famous Jackson impersonator, who was hired as his decoy at public events; and Lisa Staub, the tour operator who was in front of his house on the day he died. “The Last Days of Michael Jackson” airs on Thursday, May 24 (8:00 – 10:00 p.m. ET) on ABC. Jackson evolved from the shy, chubby-cheeked boy fronting the Jackson 5 band to become a solo music superstar, captivating the world with his otherworldly dance moves and unique style of showmanship. He would create the biggest-selling album of all time, breaking records and racial barriers throughout his career. Rising to greatness during the height of the MTV era, Jackson was an avatar of the celebrity age. While he was beloved by a cadre of super fans, Jackson’s private and public life became a spectacle. It was said that he existed in an isolated state of loneliness, surrounded by a revolving door of managers, advisors and lawyers. His desire for normalcy existed amid news and gossip stories of his changing physical appearance, his abusive childhood, ongoing lawsuits, erratic behavior and molestation accusations. In his later days Jackson turned into a doting father of three children he adored. While some say he wanted to perform again for them, others insisted he needed to tour because of his immense fiscal challenges – a result perhaps of uncontrolled spending, legal woes and complicated and convoluted financial dealings. On March 5, 2009 Jackson announced “This Is It” - a series of ten, “final curtain call” performances that the singer said would be the last time the world would see the man who had touched the hearts of millions. Tickets quickly sold out and soon the number of concert dates ballooned to 50. But behind the scenes the stress of a comeback was taking a toll on Jackson, and many of those involved in the production grew concerned about his health and ability to perform that many shows. As the start date was pushed back, few knew just how addicted he had become to drugs. Just 18 days before the first performance Jackson passed away due to a combination of drugs in his system, most notably propofol. The special is produced by ABC News. David Sloan is senior executive producer. Muriel Pearson is executive producer. – ABC –

by Chris Ford and Daksha Devani May 21, 2019 (theepochtimes.com) • Is the Black Knight satellite one of several satellites orbiting the Earth from the distant past? Or is it just a thermal blanket lost from the Endeavour space shuttle during the development of International Space Station as the deep state debunkers now claim? As to what this enigmatic black satellite is – what it does and where it came from – to this day, there are no definitive conclusions. (see 9:14 minute video on the ‘Black Knight’ enigma below) • Some say that Nikola Tesla discovered the Black Knight satellite when he began receiving strange “timed” signals while he was testing a high-voltage, magnifying transmitter device in 1899. Tesla was shocked by the discovery and deduced that they were coming from extraterrestrials, either from Mars or from elsewhere in outer space. • Soon after Tesla’s discovery, other inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi reported that Morse code signals sent from transmitters were being sent back to them from an unknown source after a delay of several seconds. The returned signals were dubbed as “long delayed echos,” (LDEs), which some thought were of extraterrestrial origin. Experiments were conducted from 1928 through the 1930’s, which verified the existence but not the explanation of LDEs. To this day, scientists do not have a conclusive explanation for their existence. • In 1954, both the St. Louis Dispatch and the San Francisco Examiner reported that several of these strange, artificial satellites had been spotted. Soon there were an untold number of sightings of these mysterious artificial satellites orbiting Earth in very abnormal patterns during the 1950’s and 60’s. • In March 1960, a huge black object weighing 15 tons was tracked in a “polar orbit” around the Earth, traveling at twice the speed of normal satellites. Neither the U.S. nor the Russians had the capability to put a satellite this heavy into polar orbit at the time. The object was dubbed “Black Knight” after a rocket developed by the British in the 1950’s. • When the Black Knight satellite made front page headlines in numerous newspapers, the Pentagon stepped in and stated that the objects were merely asteroids. But many did not buy this explanation, believing them to be of either Russian or alien origin. • In 1972, science writer and astronomer Duncan Lunan deciphered a code from the previously documented LDEs which revealed an extraterrestrial message: “Start here. Our home is epsilon bootis. Which is a double star. We live on the 6th planet of 7–Check that, 6th of 7 – Counting outwards from the sun, which is the larger of the two. Our planet has one moon, our 4th planet has three, our 1st and 3rd planets each have one. Our probe is in the orbit of your moon. This updates the position of Arcturus shown on our maps.” • Lunan charted the LDE signals and discovered that they formed a pattern, which matched the Epsilon Boötis Constellation as it had looked 13,000 years ago. Based on this, he surmised that the Black Knight probe was at least 13,000 years old. • After the 1970’s the world lost interest in the Black Knight until 1998 when high-resolution images of the Black Knight satellite were captured by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Endeavour while in space (see image above), and public interest was rekindled. Astronomers began tracking these satellites (reports suggested there were several), which were said to appear and disappear, sometimes for years at a time, before reappearing again. The objects were also reported to change directions, making 90 or 180 degree turns while in mid-flight. • The director of the Adler Planetarium, Robert L. Johnson, said: “The object doesn’t even have the decency to maintain a regular schedule, like any other heavenly or man-made object … we don’t know when to watch for it.” For more than a century, there have been signals and sightings of an “alien” satellite orbiting our planet. In 1998, for the first time ever, high-resolution images of this “non-terrestrial” satellite were captured by astronauts from the Space Shuttle Endeavour while in space. This inexplicable satellite is known to us only as “the Black Knight.” From the famous inventor Nikola Tesla’s early discovery of strange signals coming from outer space, to the untold number of sightings of mysterious artificial satellites during the 1950s and 60s, evidence suggests that there are one or more alien satellites orbiting Earth in very abnormal patterns. This satellite was dubbed “the Black Knight” after a rocket developed by the British in the 1950s. After the Pentagon dismissed the object as an “asteroid,” people eventually began to believe that’s what it was … that is, until it was caught on camera in the late 90s. When visual evidence from the Space Shuttle Endeavour finally captured images of what was believed to be the Black Knight in 1998, public interest on the topic was rekindled, along with interest in stories from decades past, of Tesla’s discovery, strange signals from space, countless sightings, and decoded messages, which made the object the stuff of legend throughout the 20th century. As to what this enigmatic black satellite is—what it does and where it came from—to this day, there are no definitive conclusions. Some say that Nikola Tesla discovered it when he began receiving strange “timed” signals while he was testing a high-voltage, magnifying transmitter device in 1899. Tesla was shocked by the discovery and deduced that they were coming from extraterrestrials, either from Mars or from elsewhere in outer space. Some speculate that Tesla had been in contact with aliens, who assisted him in creating his electrical inventions, and that he was receiving ideas through telepathic communications sent to him from extraterrestrials, which helped him realize groundbreaking new technology. Soon, other inventors such as Guglielmo Marconi started reporting similar strange phenomena. They found that Morse code signals sent from their transmitters were being sent back to them from an unknown source after an unusual delay of several seconds. The returned signals were dubbed as “long delayed echos,” (LDEs), which some thought were of extraterrestrial origin. The occurrence of these unexplained signals caused a commotion in the press, and many experiments were conducted from 1928 through the 1930s, which verified the existence of LDEs though could not explain them. To this day, scientists do not have a conclusive explanation for their existence. 9:14 minute video on the ‘Black Knight’ enigma (‘Beyond Science’ YouTube channel) READ ENTIRE ARTICLE FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

American actress Scarlett Johansson has been criticized as naïve and irresponsible for endorsing SodaStream, an Israeli company that operates a factory in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim – to the detriment of Palestinian rights, say critics. The Jewish actress's promotion of the company in a Superbowl ad has propelled an international campaign to boycott the home sodamaker and today forced the actress to step down as a global ambassador for the humanitarian agency Oxfam. But those most familiar with the factory – Palestinians who work there – largely side with Ms. Johansson. “Before boycotting, they should think of the workers who are going to suffer,” says a young man shivering in the pre-dawn darkness in Azzariah, a West Bank town cut off from work opportunities in Jerusalem by the concrete Israeli separation wall. Previously, he earned 20 shekels ($6) a day plucking and cleaning chickens; now he makes nearly 10 times that at SodaStream, which also provides transportation, breakfast, and lunch. As a few dozen men in hoodies and work coats trickle out of the alleys to the makeshift bus stop where they wait for their ride to the factory, another adds, “If SodaStream closes, we would be sitting in the streets doing nothing.” The SodaStream controversy is part of the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign, which Palestinians launched in July 2005 as an effort to force Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories, recognize Israeli Arab's full rights, and promote the Palestinian right of return. Speaking anonymously on a largely deserted street, with no Israeli SodaStream employees present, all but one of those interviewed said they opposed the boycott, given the lack of alternative job opportunities in the West Bank. That underscores Israeli claims that a boycott would be counterproductive, undermining the cooperation and prosperity that could boost peace prospects in the region. However, lawyers and labor activists say the picture is not that clear. While Palestinians earn roughly twice as much working at Israeli businesses in the West Bank, they lack labor rights and undermine Palestinian national aspirations. But many have little option; the Palestinian Authority has failed to leverage billions of dollars of aid to create more job opportunities. "There has been little effort, whether on the part of the Palestinian Authority (PA) or the international community, to shut down Israeli factories and provide Palestinians with humane, dignified work," says Diana Buttu, an international human rights lawyer and former adviser to the Palestinian negotiations team. Why Palestinians work at Israeli companies By any measure, Israel’s economy dwarfs the Palestinian economy, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $252 billion compared to $8 billion, due in part to Israeli restrictions on Palestinian travel and trade that thwarts business. Every port, border crossing, and airport accessible from the Palestinian territories is controlled by Israel with the exception of a pedestrian-only crossing at Rafah, Gaza, which is controlled by Egypt. Per capita GDP in Israel is more than 10 times that of Palestinians, while Palestinian unemployment (23 percent) is more than triple the Israeli rate (7 percent), according to figures provided to the Monitor by the Manufacturers Association of Israel. That has prompted about 69,000 Palestinian workers – 10 percent of the Palestinian labor force – to work in the Israeli economy, where those who manage to secure a permit or risk working illegally earn an average daily wage of 164 shekels ($47), compared to 84 shekels ($24) in the PA economy. Omar Jibarat of Azzariah, the father of a newborn, is one of those who works in Israel, leaving home well before 6 a.m. for a construction job in Tel Aviv. Though he makes good money, he spends four hours in transit every day and would rather work at the SodaStream factory 15 minutes away. “I would love to work for SodaStream. They’re quite privileged. People look up to them,” Mr. Jibarat says. “It’s not the people who want to boycott, it’s the officials.” That’s a common refrain among the SodaStream workers who show up after Jibarat catches his ride. Leaning up against the cement half-walls of the bus stop, jackets pulled up over their cold hands and faces and cigarette butts glowing in the dark, they blame the PA for failing to create jobs while taking a political stand against Israeli business that do. “The PA can say anything it wants and no one will listen because it’s not providing an alternative,” says one man, a 2006 political science graduate of Al Quds University bundled in a jacket bearing the SodaStream logo. As for reports that the company doesn’t honor labor rights, that’s “propaganda,” he says. “Daniel [Birnbaum, the CEO of SodaStream,] is a peacemaker.” Mr. Birnbaum told the Jewish Forward this week that the West Bank factory has been a “pain” due to all the criticism. But he says he’s committed to his Palestinian employees, and sees the company as providing a haven of coexistence that can boost prosperity and prospects for peace. “I’m not going to throw them to the street. I have an obligation to these people,” he said in a video made by the company last year. “My hope, my prayer, my belief, and my responsibility at SodaStream is that we will fulfill the prophecy from the book of Isaiah: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore. Instead of learning war, let them learn how to make a sodamaker.” What’s behind the boycott movement But many supporters of peace on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides insist that even if companies like SodaStream enable individual Palestinians to earn a better livelihood, they are part of a broader settlement enterprise that is detrimental to individual rights and national aspirations. Today more than half a million Israelis live in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were conquered in Israel’s 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. The United Nations has declared settlement of these areas to be in "flagrant violation" of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which governs the treatment of civilians in occupied territory. One of the workers waiting for the SodaStream bus this morning says he hates the fact that he’s working in an Israeli settlement, and lies to people when they inquire about his work. “I’m ashamed I’m working there,” he says. “I feel this is our land, there should be no [Israeli] factory on this land.” He feels like a “slave,” working 12 hours a day assembling parts – drilling in 12,000 screws a day, he adds. While Israeli labor laws technically apply in the settlements, labor rights organization Kav LaOved says it is poorly enforced. Inspections, which are considered the essence of labor law enforcement, are reportedly sparse. Abed Dari, the organization’s field coordinator in the Jordan Valley and Mishor Adumim, the industrial zone where SodaStream’s factory is located, estimates that 95 percent of Palestinian employees of Israeli businesses in those areas do not earn the minimum wage of 4,300 shekels ($1,230). Dari says SodaStream is one of the few companies in Mishor Adumim that does pay minimum wage, but adds that his organization’s worker hotline received a complaint about some 100 workers being fired recently, due to “seasonal” hiring practices. Workers in Azzariah mentioned that some fellow workers had recently been let go, which they attributed to boycott pressure. As one of Israel’s largest food and beverage exporters, which ships to 45 countries, SodaStream indeed has international reach – and thus is potentially more vulnerable to international opinion. But Yonah Lloyd, president of SodaStream, says the company does not act in response to boycott pressure. “The Palestinian employee base in the last five years has grown from 100 to 500,” Mr. Lloyd says. “And it will continue to grow.” Debate in Israel In a country where families can include everyone from left-wing peaceniks to strongly ideological settlers, the SodaStream issue has generated debate among relatives and friends. It has also led to heated Facebook conversations over the relative importance of Palestinian prosperity and freedom – and the best way to achieve both. “I think it’s a really tough thing, and we’re weighing two different important values,” says Elisheva Goldberg, a writer in Jerusalem who says it’s critical to remember the limitations facing Palestinians working in Area C under Israeli occupation. “If their other option is to go and pluck chickens, what does that say about the space they’re living in, the barriers they’re facing?” Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy But for the Palestinian workers in Azzariah, their main priority is feeding their families – or preparing to start one. “SodaStream is my hope, to enable me to get married, to get everything,” says the former chicken worker, as the sun rises over the littered street. Then he steps on the bus to go to work.

NEW DELHI: Concept of marital rape cannot be applied in India as marriage is treated as a sacrament or sacred as per mindset of the Indian society, government said on Wednesday."It is considered that the concept of marital rape, as understood internationally, cannot be suitably applied in the Indian context due to various factors, including level of education, illiteracy, poverty, myriad social customs and values, religious beliefs, mindset of the society to treat the marriage as a sacrament," minister of state for home, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary said.He was replying to a written question of DMK MP Kanimozhi in Rajya Sabha.Kanimozhi had asked the home ministry whether government will bring a bill to amend the IPC to remove the exception of marital rape from the definition of rape; and whether it is a fact that UN committee on elimination of discrimination against women has recommended to India to criminalise marital rape.She had also said that according to United Nations Population Fund that 75 per cent of the married women in India were subjected to marital rape and whether government has taken cognizance of the fact.Chaudhary said the ministry of external affairs and ministry of women and child development have reported that UN committee on elimination of discrimination against women has recommended to India to criminalize marital rape."The Law Commission of India, while making its 172nd Report on Review of Rape Laws did not recommend criminalization of marital rape by amending the exception to Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code and hence presently there is no proposal to bring any amendment to the IPC in this regard," the minister said.

Bacchus: The Orgiastic Ritual Game Bacchus is a multiplayer dancing game with a religious theme. The selling point is its ability to evoke intense emotions. Imagine if you will, a decrepit theater filled with writhing, dancing people. The lights flare and swoop in time and the people chant in unison. A massive screen shows a mirror image of the hall like some surrealistic portal into an alternate universe. Instead of blokes and lasses in street clothes, the onscreen spirits are clad in ornate ritualistic garb. The movements on each side of screen are eerily synchronized. The pitch of the chant rises. The screen zooms in on a girl in the center of the room. The crowd, as one, turns and watches her figure on the screen. She begins to dance. At first her movement is controlled and intricate. The screen pulsates and she yells to its beat. The room takes up her words and amplifies them, giving them god-like resonance. Bass mixed with reverb mixed with primal, guttural passion. Her dance becomes wild. The pace increases and she begins to confess. The theater reacts. Each word she utters shimmers on screen, merging with ghostly photos from her past. In a beat, the entire room witnesses her sorrow over the death of her mother, her time alone in an empty apartment, and her first kiss. An inhumanly beautiful electronic chorus rises, matches and turns her words into a song. Her movements become a blur. Her glowing eyes are ecstatic. At the peak, her spirit on the large screen explodes in light and the girl collapses to the floor in fervent religious swoon. The crowd goes wild. The screen zooms out and the next god dancer is chosen. Later, the girl writes to her online friends that the night she danced was the single most powerful spiritual and emotional experience in her entire life. It was the night she was touched by a higher power while playing a video game. William-Adolphe Bouguereau - The Youth of Bacchus (1884) Bacchus: The Gedankenexperiment The game Bacchus is a thought experiment, not a real game. It exists merely to explore, in one design, several effective, yet rarely-used techniques for inducing emotion through gameplay. It happens to have a religious theme, but I’m primarily interested in exploring how designed experiences can yield intense player emotions. The game designer’s palette of emotion has traditionally been limited to boredom, frustration, and triumphant mastery. There is very little published research on how to evoke a broader range of emotions and designers have very few practical or theoretical tools at their disposal in the quest to create meaningful, emotional experiences for their players. Designers interested in evoking emotion fall back on: Stealing techniques from non-game media. “And then we show a movie of the faithful heroine being stabbed by the evil villain!” Copious handwaving. “See, this pink pulsating blob represents ‘Feelings’”, explains the designer to the confused player. The resulting experiences are far more emotionally simplistic than we might dream of creating. To expand beyond the present constraints, I set forth a personal challenge. What if you wanted to create a game that pushes the player through a sequence of emotions, from joy to sorrow, to perhaps even religious ecstasy? What current or future techniques would you use? Is it even possible for a game to evoke a rich palette of emotions? In order to build a game that induces such a complex emotional spectrum, we need to dig into the fundamentals of evoking emotions in games. It turns out that many folks in the scientific community have been studying tangentially related problems for quite some time. What Is Covered In This Essay This essay has five parts Two factor theory of emotion : First, we’ll look at the psychology behind our emotions. I’ll lean on this to explore four pragmatic techniques that are demonstrated in Bacchus. : First, we’ll look at the psychology behind our emotions. I’ll lean on this to explore four pragmatic techniques that are demonstrated in Bacchus. Technique 1: Tapping existing emotional memories. Technique 2: Using relevant stimuli in order to evoke an emotional response. Technique 3: Biofeedback for controlling physical state . . Technique 4: Social norm setting for seeding appropriate cognitive labels. With each technique, we’ll cover the theory, how you can put the theory to use, how technology can help, and some of the limitations.

Domestic firms incorporated on or after October 1, 2019 that want to make fresh investment in manufacturing will have an option to pay income tax at 15 per cent, Ms Sitharaman said at a press briefing in Goa. She said the new effective tax rate will be reduced from 35 per cent to 25.2 per cent, which includes all surcharges and is applicable on those companies that aren't availing any incentives. If calculated without the charges, the tax rate cut works out to 22 per cent from 30 per cent. The new tax structure is effective from April 1, 2019. This change will be made through an ordinance to amend the Income Tax Act, 1961, she said. The centre will have to bear a cost of Rs 1.45 lakh crore this fiscal to support its decision to reduce corporate tax, Ms Sitharaman said. The government had estimated tax revenue of Rs 16.5 lakh crore in the year to March. "We are conscious of the impact all this will have on our fiscal deficit," said Ms Sitharaman, who's targeted to narrow budget gap to 3.3 per cent of the GDP this year. Any advance tax paid will be adjusted, the Finance Minister said. The new companies won't have to pay minimum alternate tax (MAT), the Finance Minister said. MAT targets "zero-tax companies" that do not pay any tax due to concessions and incentives despite having earned substantial profits and paid high dividends. The higher surcharge on the 'super rich' announced in the Union Budget this year will not apply on capital gains on sale of equity shares in a company that is liable to pay securities transaction tax (STT), Ms Sitharaman said. The measures are in addition to a series of steps announced by the government to boost demand and investments as economic growth slowed to a six-year low of 5 per cent in the quarter ended June. The automobile sector that drives the manufacturing sector and is one of the biggest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product has been hit by several storms, from credit freeze for customers to falling demand. Many car-makers have temporarily stopped production and some have cut jobs. Banks are also more reluctant to lend owing to a liquidity crunch caused by the near-collapse a year ago of IL&FS, one of India's biggest shadow banks - finance houses responsible for significant consumer lending.

Coronavirus in San Angelo: 2nd drive-thru testing site opens SAN ANGELO — Drive thru coronavirus testing for patients screened by a medical provider and recommended for further testing began Thursday in San Angelo at Shannon Medical Center. The drive thru site is an effort by Shannon to make testing and screening more accessible amidst a growing international public health crisis, said Lyndy Stone, Shannon Medical Center director of marketing. "Shannon wanted to provide an easier resource for patients," Stone said. "This was established so we can make testing more efficient for patients and reduce exposure for potential patients within our buildings and keep safety as the highest priority for our patients and our staff." More: San Angelo hospitals restrict visits due to coronavirus concerns, here are the details As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, the city of San Angelo reported there was one confirmed case in San Angelo. The testing site is the first of its kind in San Angelo in response to the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the U.S. The testing site, located in a parking lot at the intersection of E. Beauregard Ave. and S. Oakes St., is only for patients previously screened and on Friday was not open to anyone without a physician identified need to be tested for coronavirus. Starting Monday, March 23, the site will open to the public for screening, and if a medical professional believes testing is warranted that will be done on site. Patients screen at another location also may visit the drive-thru site with a provider's order. A second site opened Tuesday in the Foster Field baseball stadium parking lot at South Jackson and University on the Angelo State University campus. Both sites are available from 9 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday. The cost is $25 for the screening and $55 for a COVID-19 test if required. Shannon will bill the patient’s medical insurance. "This is an evolving process," Stone said. "Monday we will open it up to screening and testing. So we will have a medical professional on the site to screen people and, according to the criteria if they think that person needs a test, we can also test them at the site. The hours for the testing site will be 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Friday. The test involves a nasal swab and then a recommendation that the patient self-quarantine until notified by their medical provider about the results of the test. Results can take up to seven days, officials said. In addition to expanding the site's services to screening for coronavirus, there are plans to open a second site, Stone said. "We are hoping to provide a second screening and testing location sometime next week," Stone said. Colin Murphey is a photojournalist covering all things in West Texas for the San Angelo Standard-Times. Send him a news tip at CMurphey@gannett.com. Consider supporting West Texas journalism with a subscription to GoSanAngelo.com.

Never enough ring dishes! Seriously, you should see where I keep my jewelry. It’s just a whole row of little dishes and containers with rings and bracelets and trinkets strewn everywhere. I can’t help it, okay?! I love tchotchkes. Anyway, a cactus is the perfect shape to hold all of your rings, so you should probably make one. 😉 You can find the full tutorial for this little beauty right here! Happy making! xoxo SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Update: The Ministry of Manpower has replied with the following statement: “We have received Mr Dzar Ismail’s email and are looking into his complaint. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will take appropriate actions based on the facts and circumstances of this case. Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) are important members of many Singaporean households and in an FDW-employer relationship, neither party should exploit the trust given. FDWs found to be unsuitable for employment, such as those who have contravened the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act or committed criminal offences, will be barred from working in Singapore. If an FDW has behaved irresponsibly, employers can consider providing their contact details through MOM to serve as a reference check for prospective employers intending to employ the same individual. Employers can do so by writing to MOM at [email protected].” A lot of Singaporeans manage to live their hectic daily lives with the help of a domestic helper in their household. For most of us, living with helpers who are practically strangers yields few issues of consequence. But a fraction of us are not as lucky. On Dec. 26, Dzar Ismail, a deejay for local Malay radio station Ria 89.7FM, shared a Facebook live audio post detailing what he alleges to be a nightmarish experience with his former domestic helper. Dzar, who has two young children, had engaged the help of an Indonesian helper in 2016 to ease his household responsibilities since both he and his wife work long hours. He said prior to hiring her, the couple had a Skype interview with her and found her to be a suitable candidate because she sounded nice and seemed keen to work in Singapore after mentioning that she wanted to help her farmer parents. Living in a Muslim household Trying his best to be an understanding employer, he says he didn't impose any "draconian" guidelines or curfews on his helper, except to don a hijab and dress decently since she is going to live in a Muslim household. He allowed her not only the free use of her handphone, but also gave her a tablet to watch videos on YouTube and Netflix, as well as unlimited usage of his home's wifi as long as it didn't interfere with her daily work. He also said he gave her an air-conditioned room to herself, since his children sleep with him and his wife. But all the niceties were allegedly in vain. Suspecting something was off, Dzar said his wife set up a fake Instagram account to follow their helper's account anonymously. Posing in employers' clothing The photos on her Instagram account proved their suspicions to be true. The helper had uploaded photographs of herself wearing Dzar's wife's clothing and posing with her (his wife's) guitar. It seems she felt his clothes were worth wearing too: The helper even brazenly uploaded a photo of herself using his wife's MAC lipstick in a musical.ly lip sync video. Drinking in the house Contrary to her professional appearance of being fully covered and wearing a hijab, the helper, Dzar also asserted, was revealed to have uploaded photos of herself in sleeveless tops and appeared in them with coloured hair and shaved sides. Bad as it is, especially viewed with a Muslim lens, all that was less of a problem to Dzar compared with this photo of his helper in her room holding a bottle of breezer (which is an alcoholic drink, by the way): When Dzar's mother asked her why she was drinking alcohol in the Muslim-owned house she was working in, the helper allegedly responded in Bahasa Indonesia: "You cannot judge me for the lifestyle that I live." Suggestive Facebook posts According to Dzar, his family also found her Facebook account. He said he was okay with some of the more personal posts she had — including, he claims, rants about Dzar's and his wife's mothers — but one Facebook post truly was the last straw for him: Dzar said he interpreted the Facebook post written in Bahasa Indonesia to mean, and here we quote from what he said in the broadcast: "If you have any problem, just come to my house. Everything will be better in 60 minutes." However, Facebook users then pointed out that the post could actually have been referring to an Indonesian reality show called "Rumah Uya". "What soliciting... in this post is about the TV program in Indonesia... Rumah Uya... Iya (sic) is the host of the program... Just try to let you know about this one." "Sorry Dzar Ismail, I may have to disagree with this part. Rumah Uya is an Indonesian reality show from Trans7 channel. You may misunderstood the whole statement." [related_story] Children's well-being Of course, the main concern for Dzar had to be his young children, since they were under her care while he and his wife were working. An Instagram post he found from her account shows an image of the road outside on Nov. 2, 2017 at 9.37pm: According to Dzar, he was in the hospital with his then-pregnant wife, while the helper was supposed to be at home caring for his two-year-old daughter. To add to his disappointment, Dzar found an Instagram post of his daughter in the nude while the helper was giving her a bath. She even allegedly tagged the family's address on her posts: Thinking enough was enough, the family decided to confiscate her phone. Dzar said that while going through her Google browser, they found pornographic search terms on her phone. Then he remembered his mother's and wife's accounts that recently, they had been noticing his daughter spreading her legs while pointing to her private parts whenever she was given a shower. Listeners' reactions The Facebook live audio broadcast he put out explaining all these incidents garnered over 1,000 reactions and more than 800 shares. Many empathised with Dzar and gave him some parting advice: "Having a maid is like a gamble. Just an employer looking for employees. Yes, treat them well but boundaries have to be set." "You treated her the correct way, but she abused your trust. Don't be a bad employer because of one bad employee. She was the wrong employee." Although one Facebook user might perhaps have been missing the point: "In Islamic (sic) best practice is for the wife to stay home to take care of the household. That should be the focus now for you." Sending her back Scarred by the unpleasant revelations, Dzar said has reported the case to Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and even wrote a public Facebook post to have her blacklisted, and have her returned to the agency they hired her from to be sent back to Indonesia. "Trust is something really tough... (I'm) really taken aback and I hope I'm doing the right thing by reporting to MOM... hopefully she gets blacklisted and none of you have to go through the horrible experience I've had to face." Speaking to Mothership, an MOM spokesperson replied the following: "We have received Mr Dzar Ismail’s email and are looking into his complaint. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will take appropriate actions based on the facts and circumstances of this case. Foreign domestic workers (FDWs) are important members of many Singaporean households and in an FDW-employer relationship, neither party should exploit the trust given. FDWs found to be unsuitable for employment, such as those who have contravened the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act or committed criminal offences, will be barred from working in Singapore. If an FDW has behaved irresponsibly, employers can consider providing their contact details through MOM to serve as a reference check for prospective employers intending to employ the same individual. Employers can do so by writing to MOM at [email protected]." Here's a Facebook post he uploaded, with the evidence he found, on Thursday: Here are some unrelated articles you should check out next: My Mom went on a day out with a film camera. Here’s how she views the world Why you should reignite that kampong spirit with your neighbours Top image via Dzar Ismail's Facebook page

A wonderfully simple and effective piece of ultralight gear ‘Sleep outdoors, comfortably,’ is the tagline for the Sestrals Quilt by As Tucas – a simple, ultralight, synthetic quilt optimised for three-season conditions. As Tucas gear is made by hand in the Pyrenees by an experienced long-distance walker who knows a lot about materials (and also about keeping his pack light). The Sestrals is not a conventional sleeping bag – it’s an open quilt with a closed footbox and a blanket-like upper section that can be laid over the user loosely or wrapped around for maximum insulation. One key benefit of quilts is that they’re lighter than sleeping bags, because they don’t have a hood, and your sleeping pad takes the place of insulation that would otherwise be crushed under your body. Another key benefit is that they’re far less constricting and more versatile – they can be used opened out in warmer conditions, closed tight when it gets cold, and there’s no zip to break or wear out. Synthetic quilts are typically a bit heavier than down quilts, but they stand up to damp trail conditions better, and can be easily washed in a washing machine without special treatment. Quilts have been around for a long time, but the Sestrals has a few interesting qualities: Climashield Apex insulation in a variety of weights from 100 to 200 g/m2. This insulation is widely regarded as one of the better synthetic fills around – highly compressible and lofty. Lightweight 12D Schoeller face fabric: lightweight, soft to the touch, and resistant to both water splashes and dirt. A simple and easy-to-use design. It’s just a quilt with a closed footbox and a few snaps so you can close it tight about you. The Sestrals is longer than some competing quilts, with an extended ‘bib’ at the head end that can be drooped over the face in cold conditions. In February 2017, I ordered a quilt with the following specifications: Size: Medium Width: Wide Insulation: Apex 167 (rated by As Tucas to 0˚C) Extras: adjustable straps (I asked for these to give me greater scope for layering the Sestrals over another quilt in winter conditions) Colour: lime green outer, black inner A wide variety of sizes, lengths, insulation types, colours and other options are available. Marco at As Tucas was responsive and helpful during the process of creating my order, and advised me on the materials and options that would be best for my needs. I paid €250 for my Sestrals and received it in about three weeks. First impressions First impressions were entirely positive. The quilt came in a simple cotton storage bag (it’s a good idea to store quilts and sleeping bags uncompressed). The fabric felt amazingly soft – far more comfortable against the skin than other sleeping bag materials I’ve experienced – and a quick droplet test showed impressive beading. This is no guarantee of long-term water resistance, of course, but a good thing to see. I was particularly impressed with how well the quilt lofted. It seemed almost as fluffy as a down bag – nothing like the flat, heavy synthetic bags I’ve used in the past! Stitching and overall quality are spot on. On my scale, the quilt weighs 669g, which is very good for a synthetic quilt rated to freezing. Did you know that I send out weekly newsletters on adventure, writing, and adventure writing? Subscribe here to receive my Pinnacle Newsletter On the trail Since March 2017, I’ve used the Sestrals Quilt for virtually all of my backpacking and camping, including over 400 miles of long-distance trail through Scotland and Scandinavia, for a total of roughly 50 nights of use. I’ve used it in a range of overnight temperatures from roughly 15˚ to -2˚C, including some truly abysmal soaking-wet Scottish weather. I believe this is sufficient to get a good idea of the quilt’s capabilities. To put it simply, the Sestrals Quilt lived up to all my expectations, and just does its job without fuss or any need for maintenance. I don’t use a stuffsack, and just shove the quilt into the bottom of my rucksack liner. It compresses quite well and always lofts quickly again when I unpack it, although I am wary of compressing it too often or too much – synthetic fillings aren’t as durable as down, and can ‘wear out’ by over-compression. Nevertheless, I’ve been happy by how well the quilt has compacted down in my pack, and I haven’t noticed any degradation in the quilt’s ability to loft again after being squashed. It’s a simple, reliable, durable piece of gear that just gets on with it and doesn’t get in your way In use, the quilt is gloriously comfortable and cosy. The 0˚C rating seems to be just right for a wide range of three-season conditions, and the Sestrals was one of my favourite items of gear on my Ardgour-Mull Trail last year, because I knew it would be a haven of warmth regardless of what the weather was doing outside. I have never managed to get it wet. I’ve camped in cloud for days during torrential rain, and it just doesn’t seem to absorb any ambient dampness. Water droplets still bead and roll off the surface. It obviously isn’t waterproof, but it’s far more reassuringly water-resistant than any other sleeping bag or quilt I’ve used. The interior fabric feels good against bare skin, too, even when you haven’t washed for days! I believe the temperature rating of 0˚C is roughly accurate for the way I use the quilt, with a torso-length foam pad and some additional clothing (long johns and light base layer). With the addition of a down pullover I’ve pushed it a couple of degrees lower and have felt warm. I’d be quite happy using this quilt down to -5˚C or so with some leg insulation, woolly socks, and maybe a balaclava. For me, the sizing is just right. I’m glad I asked for the adjustable straps so I can layer it over another quilt in colder conditions (although I haven’t actually needed to do this yet). The ‘bib’ section at the head end is really useful – in colder weather I often droop it over my face, which takes the place of a hood. Even though I’m breathing into the quilt, I’ve never experienced any dampness or condensation. That’s about all there is to say about the Sestrals Quilt. It’s a simple, reliable, durable piece of gear that just gets on with it and doesn’t get in your way. It’s one of the standout new items I tested last year, and something I will continue to use for many years to come. The Sestrals Quilt has earned a place in my pack for virtually every Scottish and Scandinavian outing, because I know I can depend upon it in foul weather. See also Hendrik Morkel’s review of the Sestrals Quilt over on Hiking in Finland

What is Politics? A translation of Qu’est-ce que la politique? By: Julien Freund Translated from the French by Luke Wolf Biographical Note: Dr. Julien Freund was the preeminent disciple of Carl Schmitt and Max Weber. Little of his work on politics and warfare has been translated into English. Freund operates in the tradition of real politics, following the schools of Machiavelli and Juan Donoso Cortes. His L’Essence du Politique is an exhaustive philosophical treatment of the purpose, tools and philosophy of politics. His major findings were later condensed into What is Politics?. Preface In our day everyone conspires to mask the true nature of politics. The Platonic tradition, the prestige of science, the apparent authority of intellectuals, the ubiquitous, everyday hold of technocrats or even the fashions of certain schools of political science and political sociology who tend to believe that politics is now become a pure object of knowledge and that its future development depends on analysis and scientific research. No one disputes the increase and diffusion of knowledge, both in the physical sciences and also in the economic and social sciences, has produced considerable modifications in the political universe. These transformations have not fundamentally altered politics. On the contrary, politics was driven, like religion, art or morality, by the general upheaval which fundamentally changed the world and the landscape of ordinary men. To fulfill its task and to respect as faithfully as possible its own field of activity, politics is obliged to take the measure of these transformations, and must venture forth to dominate science, the authority of intellectuals and the rule of technocrats in order to put them to the service of the common good, put simply: politics must ensure security from external threats and the interior harmony of various political units. Accordingly, the goal of politics cannot be pure knowledge. Politics remains what politics always has been: action. This is the only way we can understand politics. The fundamental relation of every action is a means to an end, a goal. This relationship between concepts can be seen in politics from various points of view, three of which are essential for our discussion of politics. First, we can consider politics through the lens of the moral categories of good and evil, a view which is regarded as the most honorable and dignified, which explains why it is the most common view of politics – although it is a poor view of political reality and causes a lot of confusion and ambiguity. It goes without saying we are not trying to subtract politics from moral judgement or isolate morality and politics from each other. However, we have to recognize that politics and morality are not identical. Indeed, politics and morality do not have the same goal. Morality responds to a personal inner requirement and concerns the appropriateness of people’s personal actions according to the standard of duty or obligation. Politics, on the other hand, responds to the necessary requirements of social life and a person who commits himself in this political way, participates in taking care of the overall destiny of a collective community. Aristotle made the distinction between the moral virtues of a good man, which defines individual perfection, that is to say self-fulfillment, and the civic virtues of the citizen, which is about the ability to command and to obey and the salvation of the community as a whole. Even though it would be desirable for the politician to always be a good man, he may not be, especially since in one state not all citizens are good and virtuous men. In other words, politics is the responsibility of the community as such, irrespective or the moral quality and personal vocation of the members. So it is “possible to be a good citizen without possessing the virtue that makes us a good man” (Aristotle, n.d., p.180). This classic distinction remains valid today, despite the ideologies that seek to enslave individuals to the epiphanies of justice, social equality, or the moral order they promise for an indeterminate future. The identification of morality and politics is one of the sources of despotism and dictatorship. The result is that morality is neither conceptually nor logically inherent in political activity, that is to say, to act politically is not the same thing as to act morally and vice versa. Here we find another classic distinction, that between morality and legality. The moral law is autonomous, which means we obey and we impose obligations on ourselves, while political law is heteronomous, which means that we submit to a rule imposed on us from outside ourselves, by a legislative power that can be called government, parliament or municipal council. In short, morality is a matter of discipline, politics is a matter of constraint. If politics and morality are two distinct activities by nature because their goals are different, it is clear that it can only be the same in terms of their respective means. Pure ethical conviction can not be a guarantee of political effectiveness. This is the basis of the opposition Max Weber sees between the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility. It shows in particular that sincerity, generosity, and goodness can jeopardize the attainment of political ends, if one believes that only good generates good and evil unjustly generates evil. All experience and history contradicts this opinion, for it very often happens that moral ideals leads to frightful, if not disastrous, consequences, and that a morally reprehensible decision may have happy or favorable consequences. Whoever considers the relation of the means to the goal in politics only from a moral point of view is condemned to inaction, and consequently to impotence, because he is led to shut himself up in perpetual questioning of his actions. He can only hide from the world or curse it, and ultimately, can lead the world into the apocalypse called “revolution” (note 1). Secondly, one can consider the relationship of means to a goal in politics in a practical way, from the point of view of “recipes,” advice, procedures and techniques that must be done to attain power, exercise command, to make a revolution, or even to maintain power once it has been taken. You can look at politics from the directly pragmatic point of view of the contribution of science and research to the concrete case of a specific enterprise, in the sense that, since the objective is fixed, the political man consults specialists to know what are the most appropriate means to achieve the objective. Looking at politics with the pragmatic method requires an uncommon political sense, but it is full of risks, because in this area we ceaselessly rub shoulders with cynicism or ridicule, because this type of method does not acknowledge platitudes nor pretentious banality or affection. Nevertheless, great minds have viewed politics in this way and have distinguished themselves and left some of the most outstanding works of political literature like Machieveli’s The Prince, Gabriel Naudé’s Considérations politiques sur les coups d’Etat, Lenin’s What is to be Done? and Charles De Gaulle’s le Fil de l’épée. The reading of these books, coupled with an analysis or the actions of men of the state, like Pericles, Richelieu, Cromwell, Churchill and others, allows us to see that politics is an art and not just a profession. One can make a living from politics like others do from cooking or building roads. Although it would be wrong to despise those who do their job well, it remains true that in politics, given its purpose, mediocrity is more detrimental than in any other career. Here we mean art in the ordinary sense of the term – which emphasizes the relationship of means to a goal – like ordering the most appropriate processes to achieve a desired objective. The political art is essentially an art of decision, which means you have to have intuition to measure what seems appropriate in a given situation and you have to have a sense of responsibility for the cause you defend. The political art is not at all opportunistic; it is not an empty enthusiasm coupled with a lack of confidence in the cause one claims to serve. Nothing is more contrary to the political art of decision and responsibility than vanity, as Max Weber shows, because vanity turns to the excitement of sensationalism and profit-sharing, which lacks the necessary distance that allows a man to act properly, with contemplation, on the disordered events that he must precisely dominate. The second aspect of this practical evaluation of the relationship of means to goals is very modest, because it consists in making proposals and not deciding, although today the technocratic elite is characterized by the desire to definitively influence political decisions, without taking responsibility: the technocratic elite is a middleman. As in the past, the king surrounded himself with “private advisers,” the modern political leader consults specialists or experts, to give as rational a basis as possible to his projects, given the conditions, the available means, or the implementation, and to foresee consequences and the general scope of the project. Indeed, regardless of the relationship of means to an end in politics, nothing develops according to strict compliance with provisions and calculations, because we must deal with emergencies all the time, unexpected obstacles and surprises, and these have subsidiary consequences which may, where appropriate, lead us to question the whole or to resort to means that have been dismissed at first, because of certain values ​​or problems which inevitably arise while bringing a project to the end. The flaws of an action are revealed only in the action itself. This aspect of practical evaluation of the means-to-a-goal relationship is therefore critical, since it is a question of defining within the limits of the objective, the possibilities and the technical impossibilities, the ultimate values that are at stake, as well as the possible consequences of the project. Indeed, in politics, any relationship of means to a goal implies, in addition to the desired goal, unwanted consequences that must be dealt with, under penalty of cowardice. The true political responsibility is therefore confidence without assurance, risk without guarantee, a determination without certainty. The experts are also often wrong; it would be too tedious to draw up a list of errors they have made. Lastly we can consider this relationship from a phenomenological point of view. If politics is an autonomous activity, in the same way science, art, economics, religion and morality operate as autonomous spheres, and if it is true politics cannot be reduced to any of these spheres, then we must ask: what are the specific means and ends in the political sphere? This is a difficult task, because it is necessary to overcome many obstacles that block our understanding, which are all trying to hijack the purpose of politics – for example: communism, socialism, liberalism, progressivism, despotism, federalism and parliamentarianism, democracies, aristocracies, plutocracies and theocracies, monarchies, anarchies and oligarchies, ideologies, apologetics, pleadings and heresies, declarations, proclamations, declamations, affirmations, refutations, negations and denigrations. According to all these theories, doctrines and regimes, sayings and writings, the goal of the political sphere could have the most diverse and contradictory purposes: liberty, equality, justice or social equality, fraternity, the end of class warfare, the prestige of a nation, the purity of a race, the rule of law, solidarity, peace, etc. There are even groups who manage to reconcile the irreconcilable in black and white programs, able to satisfy everyone without satisfying anyone. Each generation starts over with new charges laid to it, and so politics becomes a catch-all. In the same way we must examine the means of politics: conflict, negotiations, violence, terror, subversion, war, law, etc.; the means are thought-up and as varied as the goals are disparate. Demagogy is the same way – it is used for many different end-goals. Depending on the circumstances, the demagogue recovers theology or denigrates it, demagogues invoke the great principles or makes fun of them; he glorifies psychology, sociology, demography, thermo-nuclear arms or he condemns them all; he invokes legality against legitimacy or the inverse; he exalts tolerance or recommends rapid fanaticism; he stands up for freedom of the press, information and conscience or he reviles them all; he says art is divine or he denigrates it. We present politics as the liberation of man, but science, religion, art and economics have the same pretension. We do not know if politics is morality, science, art or economics. Politics is everything and nothing. In a certain senses, politics can serve any purpose and use any means. The problem nevertheless, is to know if, like science, art, or religion, politics has a goal and means of its own. In the following pages, I intend to break open the purpose of politics, by making a clear distinction between eschatology, technology and teleology. To clarify my approach, let me give two examples: the examples of “freedom” and “peace.” It is not only politics that proposes to contribute to the development of freedom in the world; politics can also take freedom away. In any case, science, art, religion and morality all have the same liberating ambition. Therefore, it cannot be established that freedom is a specific goal for any of these activities; liberty is actually an ultimate goal, eschatologically speaking, of all human activities. Each of these activities promotes freedom in its own sphere without ever achieving ultimate, definitive freedom, either working on its own or in concert with other spheres of activity. Politics participates in this common work in its own sphere of activity, within the limits of its own purposes, namely the external security and internal concord of a political unit, using its own means which is constraint and force. Since this is true, it is clear that political freedom cannot be established in a state of free actions, that is to say in a departure from general rule or in the violation of the law, but in accordance with rules and law, as long as rules and laws do not victimize other activities such as art, morality or science. In fact, the profound meaning of political activity is is to enable each individual to obey his vocation within his community without causing irreparable injury to other members of the community. In other words, the regulating rule is the political condition of freedom of the individual. This regulating rule is different from the other spheres of activity, which pursue their own meaning of “freedom.” This does not mean that political freedom would require the suppression of enemies; it would be contrary to the political sphere’s essence, since it lives on enmity, the opposition between parties and ideologies, the antagonistic adversity of opinions, values ​​and ends, and the competition of possible solutions to the problem of what is in the common good for all. Political freedom understood in this way, inevitably raises the question of the concept of “peace” in politics. The belief that a denial of an enemy’s existence leads to the promotion of peace does not actually lead to peace, but is a falsification, a lie (this is actually popular in some religious circles who engage in politics). It consists in believing that tolerance is a relationship between ideas whereas tolerance is really a relationship between men – a problem of behavior. Indeed, no idea is liberal, not even the idea of liberalism, because by its very nature every idea affirms something and denies something else. From this point of view the promotion of peace through tolerance is more than a failure of judgment, it is its absence. Since we are fighting against an enemy, it is also with an enemy that we must make peace, which means that, politically, there is no peace without an enemy. An order without peace with an actual enemy could not maintain itself without using force or violence, in other words by only the use of the virtues of law, justice or solidarity, but an order that makes peace with an actual enemy depends on a concrete political will embodied in agreements or a treaty. The idea of ​​peace without a peace treaty, that is, without regulations and without assurances, is politically nonsense. What is called the “peace of souls” or “religious peace” can only have a religious meaning. In fact, as long as peace defines, like war, a relation between nation-states, it is chiefly a political affair; peace cannot be assimilated into a total end of struggle or to a complete absence of conflicts and antagonisms. What characterizes peace, unlike war, is that it does not seek to conquer, defeat or crush the enemy, but recognizes him, that is, political peace accepts the enemy as he is, on a footing of equality, with all his differences and his otherness. In short, political peace does not exclude the enemy, in any form whatsoever, but political peace is a disguised or camouflaged declaration of war. In this sense, peace is not, like freedom, an ultimate end, of an eschatological order, but it constitutes a concrete objective of politics, an achievable goal with the means that are specific to politics, within the limits set by the security of each nation-state. It must be understood that peace is one phase of the specific goal of politics and that it can not be the end of other activities, such as religion, science, or morality, though given the interrelationships between the various human activities, politics must consider, in order to firmly establish peace, the economic, religious and morals aspects of agreement between nation-states. It does not take a long explanation to realise that this phenomenological analysis of the relationship of means to the goal of politics presupposes that political activity has its own means and goal only if one admits that the other human activities: such as morality, economics, science, art and religion also have their own proper means and goals. That is to say, each of the other spheres of human activity, is also autonomous, despite the inevitable reciprocal or dialectical relations between them; conflict and friendship make the backbone of human history. This means we cannot reduce politics to morality, economics or science and inversely, nor can it be deduced from one sphere of human activity as the infrastructure of which the other spheres would be superstructures. It is with good reason that Marx accuses Bruno Bauer in The German Ideology of having asserted, without proving, that politics, art, or economics are reduced “in the last analysis” to religion. But Marx’s own argument works against him, because he does not provide strong enough evidence to show that all human activities are reduced “in the last analysis” to the economy. Julien Freund Notes: Note 1: In a number of lectures on my work The Essence of Politics I was asked to make a number of philosophical critiques of the doctrines or political theories of J.P. Sartre. This, in my opinion, is a useless and impossible task, because Sartre has no political doctrine and only manifests moral reactions to a succession of political events. References Aristotle, n.d. Politique, III, 43, 1276 b 34-35, trad. Tricot, Paris, Vrin, t. I, p. 180.

In late October, TechCrunch editor-at-large John Biggs noticed a Facebook Messenger request from someone he didn’t know, a man named Varun Satyam. When Biggs accepted the request, Satyam introduced himself as a marketer for technology startups. He was looking for coverage of some clients, he said, and he was willing to pay Biggs to write about them. It was a bold opening move, and an unethical proposition for any journalist who wants to retain their credibility. But Biggs wasn’t surprised. He estimates that he receives two or three similar offers each month, and he doesn’t take them seriously. “They’re stupid,” said Biggs. “Organic press is far more effective and anyone with a brain can see through them.” But solicitations like Satyam’s may be more successful than Biggs is aware. Interviews with more than two dozen marketers, journalists, and others familiar with similar pay-for-play offers revealed a dubious corner of online publishing in which publicists, ranging from individuals like Satyam to medium-sized “digital marketing firms” that blur traditional lines between advertising and public relations, quietly pay off journalists to promote their clients in articles that make no mention of the financial arrangement. People involved with the payoffs are extremely reluctant to discuss them, but four contributing writers to prominent publications including Mashable, Inc, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur told me they have personally accepted payments in exchange for weaving promotional references to brands into their work on those sites. Two of the writers acknowledged they have taken part in the scheme for years, on behalf of many brands. Mario Ruiz, a spokesperson for Business Insider, said in an email that “Business Insider has a strict policy that prohibits any of our writers, whether full-time staffers or contributors, from accepting payment of any kind in exchange for coverage.” Jason Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur, said in an email, “I often tell entrepreneurs that if they want to get the ear of an editor, there’s no better way than to do this: Find someone who’s selling coverage on a reputable site, and rat them out. I encourage people to do this right now—my inbox is always open, as our my colleagues'. We have a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of thing, our writer’s guidelines strictly prohibit it, and we take swift action. In the past, when alerted to people selling access on our site, I’ve even gone the extra step of alerting editors at other publications where that person writes, so that these bad actors have nowhere else to go. We value our readers’ trust above all, and will always work to ensure that they’re getting unbiased information from people who have their best interests in mind.” One of them, a contributor to Fast Company and other outlets who asked not to be identified by name, described how he had inserted references to a well-known startup that offers email marketing software into multiple online articles, in Fast Company and elsewhere, on behalf of a marketing agency he declined to name. To make the references seem natural, he said, he often links to case studies and how-to guides published by the startup on its own site. Other times, he’ll just praise a certain aspect of the company’s business to support a point in an otherwise unrelated story. Robert Safian, editor of Fast Company, sent a statement: “No editors or other leadership at Fast Company were ever contacted in regard to this story. We were unaware of this practice happening at Fast Company, and no proof has been provided by The Outline of specific instances of paid mentions in our editorial content.” The Outline reached out to Fast Company’s PR email address the day before publication with a detailed email inquiry. After publication, The Outline described to Safian specific examples of brand placements that appeared on Fast Company’s website between 2013 and 2016, which we are not publishing in order to protect the identity of sources. Safian’s statement continued, “It is a violation of our editorial policy and our rigorous journalistic standards. If we found any writer or contributor engaging in this practice, they would be terminated and their stories taken down. Any editor who might condone this practice would be fired.” Four contributing writers to prominent publications told me they have accepted payments in exchange for promotional references to brands. The Fast Company writer also defended the practice by arguing that it’s enabled by editors who are hungry for cheap or unpaid blog content. Many high-volume sites, including the Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, maintain networks of unpaid contributors who publish large amounts of material. Forbes, for instance, marks articles by contributors with a small disclaimer, but the Columbia Journalism Review has pointed out that those dubiously sourced articles are often cited as though they were normal stories written by Forbes staff. In reality, the editorial process that leads to those articles being published is opaque — a Forbes spokesperson declined to answer questions about how many contributors the site has, whether they’re ever paid, or whether an editor reviews their work before publication. One former Forbes contributor, Josh Steimle, has even offered a “masterclass” on how to get published on the site, an accomplishment he described as “rewarding for both my personal brand and my digital marketing agency.” For writers willing to accept payments in exchange for coverage, that’s an opportunity. “They're getting tons of free content from guys like us,” said the Fast Company writer of his editors, though he declined to say whether he was paid by Fast Company for his work or if he’d ever explicitly discussed the arrangement with any of his editors. “I would be shocked to find out that this was any sort of secret.” An email from a marketer offering payment to freelance journalist Yael Grauer. An email from a marketer to freelance journalist Yael Grauer, asking about payments for articles at Wired and Slate. An unpaid contributor to the Huffington Post, also speaking on condition of anonymity because, in his words, “I would be pretty fucked if my name got out there,” said that he has included sponsored references to brands in his articles for years, in articles on the Huffington Post and other sites, on behalf of six separate agencies. Some agencies pay him directly, he said, in amounts that can be as small as $50 or $175, but others pay him through an employee’s personal PayPal account in order to obfuscate the source of the funds. In a statement, Huffington Post said “Using the HuffPost Contributors Network to self-publish paid content violates our terms of use. Anyone we discover to be engaging in such abuse has their post removed from the site and is banned from future publication.” The Huffington Post writer also described specific brands he’d written about on behalf of one of the agencies, which ranged from a popular ride-hailing app, to a publicly-traded site for booking flights and hotels, to a large American cell phone service provider. “This is a classic example of payola,” he said of the brand mentions, invoking a term that’s been used to describe radio DJs who accept payments from record companies in order to play certain artists on the air. Sometimes, this writer said, the agency provides him with a pre-written article, complete with brand mentions, which he then publishes under his byline as though he wrote it himself. Other times, he uses alternate bylines on the same publications — including the Huffington Post — to push out even more content. After being propositioned through Facebook Messenger, Biggs goaded Satyam by quoting improbably high sums in exchange for coverage: $8,000, then $9,000, then $9,500. But that was too much, according to Satyam. A guy at Forbes, he told Biggs, took payments of just $1,100, though he didn’t specify for how long or involved a piece. Biggs asked Satyam who the Forbes writer was. Satyam — who responded to my questions about the exchange with Biggs by calling the offer a “social experiment” — told him it was a contributor named Chris Chong. It turns out that there is a Chris Chong who has written for Forbes. When I looked him up, his Forbes author biography told of an illustrious professional life: he sold his first company for $24 million in 2010, later worked for Groupon Singapore and as a social media editor for the South China Morning Post, and now runs a PR firm called SumoStory. When I first opened Chong’s author page on Forbes, it listed about a half dozen articles he’d contributed on the topics of PR, cryptocurrencies, and gaming. The next day, when I reloaded the page, all but two had disappeared. I emailed Chong to ask what had happened to the missing articles. His response was surprisingly candid: the articles had been removed, he said, because someone — he declined to say who — had notified Forbes that he had been promoting his own PR clients in his published work. ArticleHub’s price list for brand mentions in various publications. “To be fair I was in the wrong, but it really hurt to see that relationship come undone from an outside attack,” he said. “It was a huge setback and I've learnt my lesson.” Maybe the lesson was still setting in, though, because Chong then appeared to offer me a bribe of his own. “Is there any way we can set up a partnership together to distribute content?” he asked, in the same email. “Happy to explore remuneration.” When I told Chong that such an arrangement sounded unethical, he again became contrite. “Forbes did the right thing,” he lamented. “I am lucky that I got to learn my lesson early on in my career as a writer and as a PR practitioner.” Forbes senior vice president of global corporate communications Mia Carbonell declined to answer questions about why two of Chong’s articles remained online after he was reported, to disclose whether he had been paid by Forbes for his articles on the site, to provide information about the editorial process that led to him contributing to the site in the first place, or to say how many Forbes articles have been removed overall after being flagged for a conflict of interest. Around the time I first made contact with Carbonell in late October, Chong’s last two articles disappeared. His author page now returns a 404 error. There’s no question that Forbes is aware of the payoffs, at least in isolated incidents. Last year, it pledged to investigate after a British PR firm called out one of its writers for soliciting a £300 payment in exchange for coverage. In a followup statement, Forbes said it had identified the contributor and would not publish their work in the future, though neither it nor the PR firm identified them by name. Carbonell played down concerns about bribery among the site’s writers. Before contributors can write for Forbes, she said, they “sign a contract requiring them to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.” (Carbonell no longer works for Forbes, and another company spokesperson declined to provide further comment.) “Just to be clear, these would be subtle brand mentions in larger-form articles.” — Marc Duquette But Forbes seems to be a prime target for offers like Satyam’s, perhaps because of the high volume of stories it runs by members of its “contributor network.” The site publishes dozens of stories per day, many of them by contributors who, like Chong, are themselves publicists. A program called CommunityVoice, described in an editors’ note on certain articles, invites “senior-level technology executives” to pay an annual fee in exchange for being allowed to publish to the site. Yael Grauer, a freelancer who’s written for Forbes and many other outlets, says she’s gotten as many as 12 offers like Satyam’s in a single month, which she always rejects. Some are surprisingly straightforward, like a marketer who simply asked how much she charged for an article in Slate or Wired. Others are coy, like a representative of a firm called Co-Creative Marketing, who heaped praise on her writing before asking whether she could get content published in Forbes or Wired on behalf of a client. Another marketer offered Erik Sherman, a business journalist, $315 per article to mention her client’s landscaping products in Forbes, the Huffington Post, or the Wall Street Journal — though she cautioned that the mentions would need to “not look blatant.” Sherman declined, telling the marketer that the offer was “completely unethical.” Some of the would-be bribers proffer substantial sums of money. An agency called Profit Marketing said it would pay reporter Michelle Goodman $2 per word — about four times the upper bound on what online journalists usually make — in exchange for inserting its clients into articles for Forbes and Entrepreneur. The would-be bribe made Goodman angry. “I'd love to expose these dirtbags,” she told me. A number of nearly identical emails, sent between 2015 and 2016 to different reporters by representatives of a publicity firm called BlogDash, asked if the recipients could write articles that featured or quoted its clients and “get them published on top-tier online publications” like Forbes and the Huffington Post. Some of the writers working with BlogDash, the emails said, earned more than $10,000 per week. BlogDash, according to its website, is a company that “integrates a mention of your business and a link to your website in top media publications.” It can place these “brand mentions,” it says, into publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. The CEO of BlogDash, Marc Duquette, is also the CEO of a similar company called ArticleHub. An ArticleHub price list quotes charges for “brand mentions” in more than a hundred publications ranging from obscure tech blogs to BuzzFeed, the Denver Post, and even The New York Times. There’s a distinct financial hierarchy at play in the ArticleHub price list. A brand mention in The New York Times costs $5,000. TechCrunch costs $4,500, Business Insider costs $3,000, and Forbes costs $1,950. A mention in the Huffington Post costs $1,700, and brand mentions in lesser-known blogs like CafeMom cost as little as $500. An ArticleHub brochure touts the benefits of the brand mentions. After a publication writes about a brand, it says, the brand can add “the publisher logo to a ‘Featured on’ section of your site to boost credibility with consumers and help bring in sales.” Another document lists prices for “feature articles” in some of the same publications. A feature story in Forbes, according to the list, costs $4,000. More prominent publications like The New York Times are absent from the feature price list. It’s not clear whether ArticleHub and BlogDash can actually place brand mentions into articles in all the publications their marketing materials name, and both sites fall just short of stating outright that writers are paid for coverage. “This is a classic example of payola.” — A writer who has accepted payments from marketers But when I reached out to BlogDash, I got an email response from Duquette, the CEO of both BlogDash and ArticleHub, who seemed to have mistaken me for a writer looking to sell brand mentions in my own work. “How much would you charge for a brand mention?” he asked in the email. “Just to be clear, these would be subtle brand mentions in larger-form articles. For example, I'd like you to mention Miller's newest beer in a larger article about beer and not to write an article about Miller's newest beer.” Duquette did not respond to follow up questions after I clarified that I was working on a story about the payoffs rather than soliciting them. BlogDash didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. According to Eric Ebert, the communications manager at a German startup called Zenkit, the come-ons to journalists are well known in the industry, and a source of embarrassment. The prices in the ArticleHub brochure — around $2,000 for a brand mention in Forbes or Entrepreneur, for instance — sounded similar to quotes Ebert had heard from other companies offering similar services. The payola “muddies the water between earned press and advertising,” Ebert said. “Press coverage should never be paid for unless it’s tagged as a sponsored post. These practices really diminish the work that PRs and journalists are doing everyday.” Ebert is correct that a brand paying a journalist — or hiring a PR firm which then pays journalists on its behalf — represents a total breakdown of journalistic independence. It abuses the trust the public holds in the media. It violates the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics. It’s a bribe, and it’s mortifying to talk with contributors who see it as the new normal. ”When I write for somebody like Fast Company, I gotta make that thing top notch,” said one of the writers who disclosed that he has accepted payments in exchange for coverage. “It really has to be legit. The links have to work, and the studies have to be there, and the insights need to be actually, you know, valuable. That is, hands down, what I care about.” In that journalistic netherworld, where business leaders can pay to write about their own industries and publicists are trusted to write about topics related to their own clients, it can feel as though a dark new media zeitgeist has swept away old norms of integrity and independence and replaced them with a racket that, depending on your perspective, is either very funny or very sad. Maybe it was that sense of shifting norms that led Steve Ollington, the head of content for a British marketing agency called agenda21 Digital, to message BuzzFeed senior editor Katie Notopoulos on Twitter with an offer much like Satyam’s. Ollington said that he could pay Notopoulos to write a BuzzFeed story about a product launch by Vodafone, a British telecom that operates mobile networks across the world. “So, you can’t pay me to write something for BuzzFeed,” Notopoulos wrote back, before screenshotting the exchange in a snarky tweet. Neither Ollington nor agenda21 Digital replied to requests for comment, but Vodafone spokesperson Matt Peacock expressed dismay at the offer, and said that the company had opened a formal investigation into the incident. He said that Vodafone believed that Notopoulos was the only journalist who had received an improper offer on its behalf, and repeatedly stressed the company’s commitment to anti-corruption measures. This is how journalism works FYI pic.twitter.com/HNbyrg5wp2 — Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) November 7, 2017 However, Peacock declined to say whether Vodafone had severed its relationship with agenda21 Digital, or to comment on specific journalists the company may have had contact with. “One of the challenges in this area is that lines are being blurred everywhere,” Peacock said in an email. “The difficulty arises if the wrongdoing becomes normalised by bloggers and journalists as well as agency intermediaries.” We need your help to learn more about “payola” in journalism. Tips: jonchristian at protonmail dot com. Update: This story has been updated with statements from Business Insider, Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur.

Hiraeth. It’s a word with a complicated translation, more feeling than vocabulary. The kind of homesickness you feel for a home you cannot return to, that no longer exists, and, most likely, was never there in the first place. It’s longing and nostalgia for a different timeline, a different existence — an imagining of belonging that extends beyond what you already know. The word itself is Welsh in origin, but I’ve never seen a more succinct explanation of what it means to be a child of diaspora. For those of us who are in the black diaspora, imagining and re-imaging our connection to Africa has been something of a cultural tradition spanning centuries. However, as director Ava DuVernay aptly put it, our reverent dreams are less often focused on place than they are using place to explore feeling, questioning “What if they didn’t come? And what if they didn’t take us? What would that have been?” These are the dreams of Wakanda, the underlying question that lead flocks of black audiences to track the development of Black Panther for years, creating grassroots hashtags from the first cast announcement, and becoming a driving force behind the film’s astonishing record breaking debut last weekend. Wakanda, a small country roughly the size of New Jersey, hidden in Central-East Africa, has never been colonized. They’re the most technologically advanced and richest country in the world. They are unapologetically proud and steeped in their blackness. And sure, Wakanda is fictional, but it’s rooted in very real dreams of liberation. It’s built out of the same stardust that to lead slave rebellions in Haiti, and the founding of rebel maroon communities in the mountains of Jamaica. The stardust of the 1970s Black Panther Party proclaiming “Black Power” (the organization has no direct relation to the movie or the comic, though Black Panther director Ryan Coogler knowingly includes a poster of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton in the film’s opening scene). It’s a daring, brave whisper; a hope, a glimmer that there are worlds for ourselves beyond the limitations of how white people see us. To get the basics out of the way, Marvel’s Black Panther was originally conceived in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, before being passed down and reimagined by a variety of black writers and illustrators over the last 50 years. The titular hero, who’s given name is T’Challa, was first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. In that movie T’Challa’s father, King T’Chaka is killed during an attack on the United Nations in Geneva. This year’s Black Panther takes place roughly one week later in that timeline. T’Challa has donned the Black Panther suit in order to protect his people. For centuries, Wakanda has been the sole proprietor of vibranium, a natural alien element that produces a virtually indestructible metal (most famously known for being the material of Captain America’s shield). Wakanda’s rulers have wisely kept their homeland and its riches hidden from the world in order to protect themselves from the west. In their isolation, the nation has grown spectacularly powerful. T’Challa, charismatically and soulfully portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, wants to uphold the isolationism that has always kept his kingdom and its unvanquished people safe. Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger, the movie’s antagonist, raised in the United States and haunted by the horrors black people have endured on this continent, wants to use the Wakanda’s power in an arms race that he envisions will bring about global revolution. ADVERTISEMENT With no disrespect to the many detailed, deeply memorable performances given by the men of Black Panther’s cast, it’s the women of Wakanda who I couldn’t tear my eyes away from. Angela Basset stuns as Queen Ramonda, who provides guidance to her son as he grapples with his new responsibilities. Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright, already the instant fan favorite among the Autostraddle writers), is a teenager who’s engineering brilliance rivals only that of Tony Stark. She’s quick witted, bright, loving, and terribly brave. She spends the first half of the movie presiding over her tech lab, but when the time calls, she isn’t afraid to put her life on the line to defend her country. Okoye (The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira) walked away with my heart. She’s the head of the Dora Milaje, the royal family’s all-women bodyguard team, akin to our Secret Service. She’s tough and fearless and her hard femme aesthetic was not like anything I’ve seen on screen in this capacity. Her fight scenes left my mouth physically ajar more than once. Lupita Nyong’o stars as Nakia, T’Challa’s ex-girlfriend and a valued intelligence spy for Wakanda. If Marvel designed a James Bond-esque spin off featuring her character, I’d give them all of my money starting NOW. In Wakanda, there are no meek damsels in distress waiting to be saved. Nyong’o, Gurira, and Wright each spent weeks in combat training with the film’s stunt team. They’re equal partners in the fight to protect their home. They also have full fledged, varied, personalities. They are funny, or serious, wise, sneaky, nerdy, and geeky. Black Panther gives us more women, in more speaking parts, kicking more ass than any other Marvel film. More than the previous 17 Marvel films combined. In many ways, they are everything I could’ve hope for. Multiple times throughout the movie, I could clearly imagine all the little girls who will now play “Black Panther” in their backyards or their living room. They will toss pillows in the air pretending they are shooting Shuri’s hand cannons, or climb trees like Nakia. They will corner their brothers with pretend spears like Okoye. They will make makeshift chemistry labs in their bedrooms and get dirty with grass stains on their knees. The thought alone, it left me teary. Behind the scenes, there’s an even greater story to the “Women of Wakanda.” The textures, sights, and vibrant colors of the country were brought forth thanks to costume designer Ruth E. Carter, cinematographer Rachel Morrison, and production designer Hannah Beachler. Carter is twice Academy Award nominated for her work on Malcolm X and Amistad; she also worked on Ava DuVernay’s Selma. Rachel Morrison recently made history, becoming the first woman to be nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar for her work on 2017’s Mudbound, directed by out director Dee Rees. With Black Panther Morrison also becomes the first woman to shoot a film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hannah Beachler joined the Black Panther team after working on designs for Beyoncé’s Lemonade and last year’s Best Picture winner, Moonlight. Working together, these women stitched together a Wakanda that pulled its aesthetics from across the continent. Their visual cues give a sense of rooted home and geography; creating a pan-African dreamscape that honors and uplifts, rather than demeans or belittles, real life African nations and tribes. Theirs is a breathtaking love letter to black beauty. If it feels like I’m spending too much careful attention on what essentially amounts to a blockbuster superhero flick, even if an exceptionally executed one, I’d like you to think about this: Comic book heroes are some of the most American, home grown, mythos that we have. They are the stories we tell each other, starting from the youngest age. They help us explain to children right from wrong. They reinforce the image of what we like most about ourselves, or the evils we want to dispel. These stories, they shape culture. And in the United States, those stories have largely been focused on blue-eyed Captains of America, Kansas-bred Kryptonian saviors, rich billionaire vigilantes, and the multi-generational space opera dramas of white fathers and their sons. They have focused on western values of individualism, and righteous manifest destiny. Black Panther is about more than stunning CGI set pieces and slick fight choreography, though it has more than plenty of both. Set in an explicitly black context, it grapples with new questions of morality that uplift community over the individual, explores the roles we play in each other’s salvation. It wants to know, what are the obligations of those who have been granted freedom to those who remain without? Asking questions that hinge on the lived reality of systematic oppression is not something that Superman had to deal with, that’s for sure. Many critics have pointed to Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger when analyzing these themes of community responsibility and the black diaspora, but I don’t believe that the answer to this particular morality tale comes from his war mongering. Instead, I’d highlight Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia. Within the first 15 minutes of the movie, she confronts a team of Boko-Haram inspired Nigerian kidnappers. She tells T’Challa that she can never remain tied to Wakanda and its isolated wealth as long as so many others are in pain. Her desire for social change remains her character’s truest quality, right through the very end of the film. Wakanda may be fictional, but the worlds that both Killmonger and Nakia inhabit as black people outside of the nation’s borders are very real. Using fantasy to imagine new solutions of black survival and social order is key to Afrofuturism, a word often associated with Black Panther. There’s a danger of thinking Afrofruturism simply mean “black people in a sci-fi.” To be truly considered Afrofutrist, a film or text must marry blackness, and mysticism or technology, within a social justice context. This tradition is part of what makes Black Panther stand out from its peers; its designed by its very nature to dig deeper than shiny spaceships and electronic communicators. In looking for answers of black liberation, Afrofuturism is often closely tied with black feminist art, and queer black feminist art in particular — ranging from the literature of Octavia Butler to the music of Janelle Monáe. Maybe you already see the bridge I’m about to take here — I bring up Afrofuturism’s queer feminist ties, because, as much as I loved Black Panther, and my goodness I really loved this movie, I cannot in good faith write a glowing review and just ignore the deliberate queer erasure of their production. I don’t know how else to do this, so I am going to lay bare and be honest with you: I’m fighting my every instinct in talking about this publicly. As a black person walking around in this world, the last thing I want to do is bring negative attention onto what is such a massively important moment for black representation. But, as much as I want to turn a blind eye, I can’t minimize, ignore, or explain away these storytelling choices. We have to talk about this. Let’s start at the beginning and walk through it together slowly: In 2016, Ta-Nehisi Coates began his tenure as head writer of Marvel’s Black Panther comic series, revamping the main character and Wakanda for new audiences. In Coates’ version of the series, two prominent members of the Dora Milaje, Ayo and Aneka, are in a romantic relationship. They run away together, founding a rebel feminist colony where they teach Wakandan women how to defend themselves against sexual predators. Later that same year, the Yona Harvey and out bisexual author Roxane Gay penned spin-off, entitled World of Wakanda, began its publishing cycle. The new series was designed as a prequel to Coate’s run, focusing on the Dora Milaje, particularly Ayo and Aneka’s love story. In 2017, early clips of the Black Panther movie were screened for members of the press. In Vanity Fair, Joana Robinson gave a first hand account of a scene where: We see Gurira’s Okoye and Kasumba’s Ayo swaying rhythmically back in formation with the rest of their team. Okoye eyes Ayo flirtatiously for a long time as the camera pans in on them. Eventually, she says, appreciatively and appraisingly, “You look good.” Ayo responds in kind. Okoye grins and replies, “I know.” This scene was also independently reported at Vulture by Kyle Buchanan, who was in attendance for the screening. It’s the smallest flirtation, barely a minute of screen time. Still, reports spread quickly that perhaps the Black Panther movie, building from the most recent run of the comics, was going to introduce Marvel’s first on screen queer romance — this time with Okoye filling Aneka’s role as Ayo’s potential lover. Within a few days, Marvel issued a correction that “the relationship between Danai Gurira’s Okoye and Florence Kasumba’s Ayo in Black Panther is not a romantic one and that specific love storyline from the comic World of Wakanda was not used as a source.” I’ll admit that as queer fan following the film’s production, I was pretty disappointed. Still, there was a year to adjust expectations. This January, when early reviews of the completed film came about with reports that the small scene in question had been cut altogether, I didn’t think much of it. Then Screen Crush interviewed Black Panther co-screen writer Joe Robert Cole about the incident, and I felt a creeping unease. When asked directly if there was an original intention of including World of Wakanda’s queer love story in the film, Cole said yes. While he couldn’t remember the specific flirtation mentioned in Vanity Fair a year prior, he could confirm that the filmmakers toyed with Ayo and Okoye in a variety of relationship dynamics, telling the reporter “We thought, ‘Well, maybe we’ll work it this way with an arc or work it that way with an arc.'” If the film had just decided to drop its queer storyline, I could have looked the other way. I don’t believe that the romantic subplot was necessary for the film. I would have been perfectly happy to imagine Okoye and Ayo in a queer relationship on my own time. Unfortunately, they didn’t leave it alone. Instead, Okoye is saddled into a heterosexual relationship with W’Kabi, the head of Wakanda’s border patrol. What bothered me most about this relationship, the reason I couldn’t let it aside, is not just that it’s a straight relationship put upon a character who was originally imagined as queer. It’s that the relationship in question was not necessary. W’Kabi and Okoye spend little time together on screen. They are never shown to be physically affectionate. Their romantic relationship is the basis for an important confrontation in the film’s third act battle, but I’d argue that this final scene would have been equally poignant if W’Kabi and Okoye had been best friends or siblings as opposed to lovers — and absolutely nothing else about their relationship would have changed. So, in a movie that was this clearly and carefully crafted, what exactly was the point of their relationship? What does their relationship really contribute to the narrative put forth by Black Panther other than to straightwash a queer coded character? That’s the question that I couldn’t put down. Yet another small reminder of the ways that queer blackness means settling for conditional acceptance. The very premise of Wakanda is based on imagining new black realities. Creating new legends, tales of heroics that aren’t predicated on whiteness. Stories of community and strength. Liberation and stardust. Discussing the movie last weekend, one of the black writers at Autostraddle described Okoye and Ayo’s erasure as “feeling like someone kicked my knees from under me.” Another told me she felt disheartened and frustrated. A friend called it the “pebble in my shoe; I walk and walk, but I just can’t shake it out .”We all seemed to be waiting, wondering in hurried, hushed tones if we could even mention these bad feelings out loud. This was a time for black joy, for reclamation. Who are we to take up space and ask: Is there room in the promised land of Wakanda for us, too? I’m not singling out Black Panther. This is the second time in less than a year that Marvel Studios had the opportunity to include the queer women from their comics, but made the production decision to straightwash them instead. Last fall, Tessa Thompson revealed that her Thor: Ragnarok character, Valkryie, shared a morning-after scene with a female lover that was cut from the final film. She clarified on Twitter, “Val is Bi in the comics & I was faithful to that in her depiction. But her sexuality isn’t explicitly addressed in Thor: Ragnarok.” Including Valkryie makes three potentially queer black women whose romantic screen time were cut from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with little-to-no fanfare. When asked about her character, Ayo’s, queer erasure and lack of romantic attachment in Black Panther, actress Florence Kasumba told Vulture, “I’d love to [explore that], at some point. Not now, because it’s too soon.” Too soon. That’s something that black queer folks and black women have heard a lot in our lives. Change is incremental. Wait. First we need to make room for the broader success. Then, next time it can be your turn. Always, next time. I want us to love on Black Panther, bravely and openly. But, we cannot forget the asterisk. We cannot forget that a significant achievement for black representation once again came on the back of forced black queer silence. It’s not the first time, and unfortunately it won’t be the last. We can embrace and celebrate Black Panther without losing track of that fact. This weekend Black Panther made $242 million dollars domestically, and over $426 million worldwide. In all of cinema history, Black Panther’s debut only comes second to Star Wars: A Force Awakens. If we can dream of a black movie that can soar to these heights, then surely we can imagine a world where it can do so without sidelining its queer characters. In Wakanda, they say: “Tell Them Who You Are.” Well, this is who I am. Marvel better make room.

Olivia Roffle was only a teenager when she first thought about what it would mean to be in a union. It was five years ago, and she and her mother were riding in Angela’s silver Ford Focus from their home in St. Louis to visit an ailing family member in Kansas City, Mo. Angela was telling her daughter about the time in the late ’60s when a crane threw Angela’s uncle Pete from the roof of the Ralston-Purina factory in St. Louis, where he worked as a carpenter. The fall crushed his hip and put him out of work for most of the rest of his life. But Pete was in the carpenters’ union, and because of that, his health care was paid for, his pension left intact. It supported him and his wife for decades. “Without the union, he would have been in abject poverty,” Angela says now. “It changes sometimes depending how she tells it,” Olivia says of the story, which she had heard before. But that time, on the drive, she says, “I remember thinking about how important that is — to have those things my uncle had at work. Where I work, we don’t have any of that.” Olivia, who’s 23 now, has worked a string of fast-food jobs since she was a teenager, most recently at Papa John’s Pizza. She’s gone in to work sick on many occasions herself, and seen co-workers get injured on the job; with no paid sick days or disposable income, they would sometimes arrive at work the next day in a sling. For years, she says, she’s wanted to do something to change that, so one day in May, Olivia followed in the footsteps of her relatives. Instead of going to work at Papa John’s, she threw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and joined other workers from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and other chains in a daylong strike. The first of three walkouts in St. Louis and one of dozens across the country, the national fast-food workers’ strikes came to a head on Aug. 29, when community groups and national unions pulled off a 60-city strike of several thousand workers. Their demand: the right to organize a union without retaliation and an increase in the median industry wage, from $9 an hour to $15. “This kind of organizing is new to us, people my age, but we know where we come from,” Olivia says. In that feeling, she’s not alone. For the largely African-American fast-food workforce in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit and other centers of the old industrial heartland, today’s organizing is often grounded in the stories and struggles of older relatives who, a generation or two ago, fought for access to manufacturing work and, later, to public-sector employment, which at least for a time made possible a tenuous economic stability. Angela Roffle, who is 53, works as an instructor at St. Louis Community College and is a member of the National Education Association, a teachers’ union. She explains why she tells Olivia these stories: “My parents and uncles were really the first generation of black workers who were making a living in doing these jobs,” she says of industrial employment. “They fought to be in those unions … I want my kids to know their history.” Angela’s mother was a union member and worked for the better part of a decade at the Bendix plant in Kansas City, helping produce automotive and aircraft brakes. When Angela was born, her mother hadn’t yet finished high school, but the union job provided enough income to put her mother through college, and, later, an economic base for Angela to do the same. Now Angela helps her daughter pay for social work classes at the community college. But even with the support, Olivia’s education is taking longer than she’d like. On the wages she makes at Papa John’s, she can afford to go to school only part time. “It’s harder to get ahead for people (Olivia’s) age than it has been for generations,” says Angela. The house his granddad built Jonathan Lamb is a 24-year-old Detroit native raising a 9-month-old baby with his girlfriend in a small one-bedroom apartment. When the couple pools their $7.50 hourly wages from the Checkers Drive-In a few miles away, they are just able to pay their $425 monthly rent plus utilities. They rely on food stamps for groceries — one in five families relying on fast-food jobs earns less than the poverty level — but those don’t cover diapers and other household basics, so by the last week of the month, they rarely have any money left and have to rely on relatives for help. “I need to support my kid, and I can’t really do that on this pay,” Lamb says one recent evening in a telephone call. His voice is hushed so he won’t wake the baby. He’s tried to get more hours at Checkers, but his manager won’t give them to him, and his 20 or 30 hours per week are scheduled too unpredictably for him to get a second job. So when he saw a friend’s Facebook post about a strike in May by several hundred fast-food workers, Lamb decided to get involved. On July 29, he and his girlfriend, plus two other Checkers employees, took part in a second strike in Detroit. A month later, on the day of the nationwide strike, he manned the picket line again. Though he says his decision to strike was primarily about his family’s economic straits, Lamb might not have been so quick to take part if he had been raised in a different family. “My grandfather worked at the Ford Motor Co.,” he says. “He moved from the South” — one of millions of African-Americans who fled Jim Crow and traveled north in the so-called Great Migration — “and he was one of the people on the line putting the cars together. He had a coat with (“United Auto Workers”) on the back. He would wear that around all the time. It was a pride thing for him. “My grandfather didn’t have much at first,” Lamb says. But with earnings from the Ford job, “he bought a house for him and my grandmother before she died. They lived there, and my grandfather still has that house.” After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, black workers finally were able to get a leg into big industrial employment. Many of those jobs were unionized, and black workers were able to get them. It changed the landscape for that generation. For the Lamb family and others like them, scoring a union manufacturing job meant the prospect of building a nest egg — something that would have been inconceivable even a decade or two earlier. Black workers’ inclusion in these jobs did not come without a fight. Labor unions have a complicated racial history; white union member anxiety over competition from black workers and a dearth of legal protections against hiring discrimination created a bifurcated manufacturing sector in the early part of the last century. But “black workers demanded inclusion, and ’60s civil rights legislation created hiring protections,” explains Dorian Warren, a Columbia University political scientist who studies labor and race. “After the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, black workers finally were able to get a leg into big industrial employment, where they’d been excluded in the past,” Warren says. “Many of those jobs were unionized, and black workers were able to get them. It changed the landscape for that generation.” But the gains would quickly dissipate. United Auto Workers membership has fallen by nearly 75 percent in the last 35 years, and in Detroit, factories long ago fled city limits. Now the recession has hastened Detroit’s long decline, and black residents, who make up more than 80 percent of the city’s population, are left with little access to the good jobs, or any jobs at all; official unemployment in Detroit remains around 18 percent. Even as the city’s economy declined, Lamb figured he, like his grandfather, would find work at one of the remaining plants, or he’d follow his postal-worker father into another sort of union job. And though auto manufacturers are hiring again, announcing thousands of new hires across the Rust Belt this year, Lamb says he doubts he’ll land at General Motors or Chrysler. “I’ve applied and applied, but the only places that are always hiring are fast food,” he says. “It’s like you’re locked in once you start here.” Nationally, as the economy creeps back into gear, nearly 60 percent of post-recession job growth has been in service and retail jobs, according to a 2012 report from the National Employment Law Project. Those sectors are populated disproportionately by black and Latino workers — about 40 percent — and though there’s little in the way of official data on the racial breakdown of the workforce in the fast-food industry, those who hold jobs in Detriot, St. Louis and other cities say nearly all their co-workers are young and black. Factory decline hits hard Milwaukee provides a stark example of the impact of manufacturing’s decline on black workers. In 1970, when that city still boasted a thriving industrial sector — made up of A.O. Smith, Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson and Miller Brewing, to name a few — 54.3 percent of working black men held production jobs, more than double the rate of white male employment in the sector, according to a report from the University of Wisconsin. “You can’t throw a rock without finding someone in the African-American community who worked” at A.O. Smith, says Jennifer Epps, executive director of Wisconsin Jobs Now, which helped organize the fast-food strikes in the city. More than a third of those production jobs were unionized, according to the report’s author, Marc Levine, and they generally paid a wage that could support a family. But these jobs were in retreat, and by the time the recession hit, just 14 percent of black male workers held factory jobs, about the same percentage as white male workers. Coupled with rising rates of incarceration and an increase in overall unemployment, the diminishing manufacturing sector has pushed black household income down by nearly 30 percent over the last 30 years, according to Levine. In fact, the average African-American household in Milwaukee now earns 45 percent of what white households earn. Elvis Bradley, 64, makes $5 an hour plus tips as a delivery driver for Domino’s Pizza on Milwaukee’s south side. He is the oldest person working there and is surrounded by people who never really knew the old Milwaukee. From 1965 to about 1980, Bradley worked his way up at the Briggs & Stratton small-engine plant. According to United Steelworkers, at the company’s peak in the early ’80s, the Briggs factories employed 11,000 Milwaukee workers. By the time he was laid off from the job several years later, Bradley says, he was making more than $11 an hour, which translates to an hourly wage of more than $30 today, adjusted for inflation. That is four times what his young co-workers earn at Domino’s. He still lives in the home he bought for himself and his family. Reflecting on his young co-workers, Bradley says, “There’s no way you can raise up your kids making these wages.” Looking back to go forward

Agent: ‘Why won’t Italy call Giovinco?’ By Football Italia staff Sebastian Giovinco’s agent can’t understand why the Toronto FC forward hasn’t been called-up for Italy - “I find it absurd”. Giampiero Ventura named his squad for the games with Spain and Israel on Saturday, but ‘The Atomic Ant’ wasn’t among the names called. Last night Giovinco scored twice in a 3-1 win over Montreal Impact, taking his record for the MLS franchise to 63 goals in 97 games. “It’s true that things are going great, but Giovinco isn’t a novelty,” Andrea D’Amico told Tuttomercatoweb. “He’s scored over 60 goals in the last two-and-a-half years, an extraordinary return no matter what the competition is. “Why doesn’t he get called for Italy? I find it absurd. It’s a shame that a player with his skill, with his characteristics and his eye for goal isn’t called. “Giovinco knows how to score in every way, even from free-kicks, he’s a starter for his club and an absolute star in MLS. “I don’t understand why players on the bench for Italian teams are getting called-up instead, but sadly the story is always the same lately.” Watch Serie A live in the UK on Premier Sports for just £9.99 per month including live LaLiga, Eredivisie, Scottish Cup Football and more. Visit: https://www.premiersports.com/subscribenow

Birthday close to more popular friend's birthday everyone celebrates theirs, forgets about yours 105 shares

Michael Corsetto: Michael Corsetto: Hi Nick, Can I ask how you know the performance is identical? Have you done a Dyno test of the RedLine? I was under the impression that WCP custom-designed the 775pro as an improvement upon existing 775 motors on the market. To the best of my knowledge, the style of 775 didn’t exist until the 775pro. Is the RedLine a similar custom-design developed by AndyMark, independent of the work done by WCP? If this is an identical motor, why not just sell the 775pro instead? Having two 100% identical motors on the FRC market seems redundant. -Mike AdamHeard: AdamHeard: Does that mean they are identical in hardware too? Guys, Thanks for the insightful and well-informed comments and questions. I’ll answer them and give some history with regard to how this motor came about. AndyMark currently buys motors from 3 different Chinese motor manufacturers. One of them is CCL, which we have been buying CIM motors for about 10 years. We have been seeking out a high-powered standard 550 or 775 motor from one of our manufacturers for over a year. We have also sought out new (to us) motor manufacturers during our search. We had developed a spec as we searched for this motor. At the same time, we did seek out to opportunity of distributing the 775pro motor from VEX, but could not come together on an agreement with VEX in order to sell the 775pro. As we continued our search for a 550 and/or 775 motor, CCL offered us a standard motor which met our specs. We got some samples and liked the motor. The specs were close enough to that of a 775pro motor that we believe it could be the same motor. We asked the manufacturer again if this was a standard, off-the-shelf motor. Multiple times, they said yes, and also said that anyone can purchase this motor from their company. I decided to move forward with this purchase, and made sure that the motor appeared strikingly different than the 775pro motor or any other 775 motors (hence, the red and zinc). When we received samples in recently, we took apart the RedLine motor and it appears to have the same hardware as the 775pro. We have not commissioned a dyno test on this motor yet (we’re working on this). The performance specs we are posting are from the supplier. We’re not 100% sure it’s identical, but the RedLine is probably the same model motor as the 775pro. There are variations with how these motors are made from batch to batch, so the performance specs may not match up exactly. i stand by my decision for AndyMark to provide the RedLine motor to the FIRST community. Please, if you have issue with this, direct it at me, not other AndyMark staff. Sincerely, Andy B.

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett says Darius Boyd (pic) is on track for a remarkable return from injury. Brisbane coach Wayne Bennett says Darius Boyd is on track for a "remarkable" ahead-of-schedule NRL return from injury. The Broncos recruit has ramped up his involvement at training in recent weeks and is likely to be available for selection inside the six-month timeframe initially laid down when he suffered a serious Achilles injury in pre-season. Bennett was full of praise for Boyd and his application to his rehab program, saying his dedication levels were on par with the greatest players he has ever coached. "He's been remarkable," Bennett said on Thursday. "He's such a dedicated athlete and it's a credit to him. "He's on track to come back before the six months at the moment and that'll be a miracle in itself. "It's just a case of when. He's doing everything now and it's just a bit more time." Boyd and the Broncos had circled the round 13 clash with Manly as the Queensland Origin star's return date, but his comeback is now likely to be brought forward. But nothing about the 27-year-old's progress comes as a surprise to Bennett, who believes Boyd's teenage years spent at the Broncos around the likes of Darren Lockyer have clearly rubbed off on him. "He's as good a player as I've ever coached in his application to everything," Bennett said. "Locky was outstanding in that regard as well. "You've got to understand, Darius came here as a young man and was influenced by all that. "He was 18 and Locky and them were at the heights of their playing (career). He's smart, he always learns off people." In more pressing injury matters for Bennett, three Brisbane players - returning skipper Justin Hodges, the in-form Ben Hunt and fullback Lachlan Maranta - failed to complete Thursday's session at Red Hill. However, an unfazed Bennett said all three are still expected to play in Friday night's clash with St George Illawarra. "We've just got guys with some niggles, we're trying to get them off their feet today and make sure they can play tomorrow," he said. "We're seven weeks into the season, it kind of goes with the territory. "There's a few players with viruses too, it's that time of year. It's all starting to happen."

The Mirror (London) November 17, 2009 Ritual [actually, non-therapeutic] circumcisions 'illegal' Exclusive by Stephen Moyes (stephen.moyes@mirror.co.uk) DOCTORS performing ritual circumcisions on children face financial ruin, disciplinary action and even jail. A test-case being brought by a 20-year-old man circumcised as a baby could, if successful, open the floodgates to claimants. The unnamed man is to sue a GP still practising in Greater London for physical and psychological damage. He will argue that circumcision on a child without a medical requirement is mutilation. His father took him to be circumcised shortly after birth in accordance with his own religious beliefs. Now the father is mortified at the mental and physical state of his adult son, and is supporting the case. The father has documents that prove which GP carried out the circumcision. Performing surgery on a person without adequate consent constitutes battery in law, which can be prosecuted in the civil courts. But given the lack of consent the surgery also constitutes an assault which can be prosecuted under criminal law - meaning a guilty verdict could lead to a prison term. The test-case is being supported by a legal firm, leading urologist, child protection agency and circumcision awareness body The National Organisation of Restoring Men (Norm). [actually NORM-UK] Norm spokesman David Smith said: "Surgery is defined as 'manual or instrumental treatment of injuries or disorders of the body'. If no injury or disorder is present, then it can't be surgery. "Circumcision is a mutilation, which is defined as 'to injure, to make imperfect by the removal of a part'. It is shocking that the NHS is responsible for mutilating children. "We support a man's right to choose a ritual circumcision for himself, but not for anyone else. "Adult circumcision is a straight-foward operation which can be undertaken in under 30 minutes under local anaesthetic. There is no excuse for forcing it on children. "There is growing belief by many people that the only way to make doctors put their scalpels down is to take legal action. This is not about money, it's about protecting the next generation." Some doctors privately charge up to s350 [sic £350?] for 'forced circumcision' of a baby brought to them by their parents. Legal action can only be brought when the child reaches 18. There is then a three-year legal window in which they can take action against the GP. Circumcision is a surgical procedure that can be performed on men and women and is done for a variety of reasons, some of them cultural or religious. The General Medical Council does not have a public position on the issue of ritual male circumcision on children who cannot give informed consent. A spokeswoman said: "We do not have general authority to determine public policy on issues that arise within medical practice - these are matters for society as a whole to determine, through the parliamentary process." Katy Swaine, legal director of Child Rights Alliance for England, told the Mirror: "The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has made clear that female genital mutilation violates childrens rights and this position has been reflected in the banning of such procedures under UK legislation. "The carrying out of circumcision procedures on young male children must also be examined in the context of childrens rights under the treaty - not least given the requirement for non-discrimination in the application of treaty rights. "A body of medical opinion has for some time supported the view that most male circumcision procedures do not have a medical basis. As such, given the invasiveness of the procedure and the negative consequences suffered by some individuals, there is a strong argument that it should not be carried out without informed consent from the individual who is to undergo the procedure. "It is only a matter of time before these issues are raised in the courts by those who have undergone the procedure as children and have suffered negative consequences. In the meantime it behoves the NHS, Department of Health, professional medical bodies and communities to examine this issue seriously, acknowledging and addressing its implications for childrens rights. " The individual bringing the test-case is collating evidence and financial and legal support and will launch it next year. A solicitor close to the case said: "The action being brought against the doctor is more likely to lead to financial damage rather than prosecution, but it is complicated and nothing can be ruled out. "Doctors performing 'forced circumcision' on a small minority of children are acting in defiance of general medical council and are effectively medical rebels. "Most urologists will only perform a circumcision on someone who needs it, just like any form of amputation. "This is not a straightforward case. Parents have the right to give consent but only when in the best interests of a child. I don't think any act involving cutting off half of a child's penis is in their best interests ." The litigant gave up, reportedly because he could not afford the case; it would have cost £10,000 [$US 15,600] just to do the research and the lawyer held out little hope of success. A urologist also discouraged him, pointing out that "anything goes with circumcision", so it's hard to prove negligence or botching.

For those not in the know, Amiibos are special figures that can grant certain bonuses when scanned into various Nintendo games that support them. In the case of this particular version of Link (there's a few different versions of him on the market), scanning him into the latest Zelda title, Breath of the Wild, will often give you some of the stronger bows in the game as well as bundles of arrows. These aren't absolutely needed to complete the game, but they are a nice, quick freebie when you're trying to save rupees. As for the figure itself, it's pretty nice, showing Link in a dynamic pose that's been shown many times in promotional material for this game. I especially like how instead of a somewhat-distracting pole to keep him in a midair pose, the design has a puff of dust acting as support, feeling more in-context with the action being portrayed. The colors are nice, too, and will help it to stand out of a sea of mostly green-clad Links in your collection. Even if you don't own the game that this currently supports, I'd say pick this figure up if you're a fan of the series in general.

SECAUCUS — The neuroscientist who would have overseen a controversial therapy for children with autism has been fired by Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus and, in a separate action, his nomination to a state commission on brain research has been delayed. Philip DeFina was part of an ambitious plan by Meadowlands to offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy to children diagnosed with autism. The therapy, typically used to treat burns and other wounds by energizing dying tissue, required approval from the state Department of Health and Senior Services. Meadowlands would have been the first hospital in the state to offer the experimental treatment. But the application ran into strong opposition, and questions were raised in a Nov. 27 Star-Ledger article in which traditional medical and psychological experts said the treatment offers families false hope while draining bank accounts because the experimental therapy is not covered by insurance. Some families say it has helped their children, and argued that if a method is safe and seems to be effective, it should be given a chance even if it hasn't been thoroughly vetted through research. The article also described DeFina’s doctorate in clinical psychology from Fielding Graduate University. The school, a mainly online university with monthly in-person sessions, is the only one to receive national accreditation from the American Psychological Association. DeFina’s experimental treatments with neurologist Jonathan Fellus for coma and brain injury have fetched as much as $100,000 from the families of patients who have not improved using traditional means. Fellus remains at Meadowlands. Meadowlands withdrew the application to treat autism using hyperbarics on Nov. 30. Without elaborating, hospital spokesman Bill Maer confirmed last week that DeFina was terminated Dec. 2.DeFina was vice president for rehabilitation at Meadowlands and the scientific adviser for its Rehabilitation Institute and Neuroscience Center. RELATED COVERAGE: • Questions, risks surround hyperbaric chamber treatments for autistic children • Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center pulls out of request to use controversial autism treatment DeFina’s troubles continued last week when a state Senate panel poised to vote on his nomination to the New Jersey Commission for Brain Injury Research was delayed by its chairman, as well as Gov. Chris Christie’s administration, which tapped him for the unpaid post. DeFina said he was unaware his nomination to the commission was put on hold. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Nicholas Scutari said he delayed the vote on DeFina’s nomination to the brain injury research commissioner last week because he was "concerned about the information in the article. I want to delve into it more." Scutari said a Christie official requested the nomination be pulled from the agenda. The governor’s office did not return a call or an e-mail seeking comment. The commission reviews and funds research funded by a $1 surcharge on motor vehicle offenses. Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), vice chairman of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Services Committee, said he had no knowledge of DeFina’s dismissal. But he questioned why the administration asked to table its own appointment. "Who nominated him, and why?" Vitale said. Meadowlands needed a license from the state Department of Health and Senior Services to use two hyperbaric chambers it bought last year, and would have needed state permission to use it to treat autism, a use not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In rescinding its application to treat autism, Meadowlands "felt that it was more appropriate to focus on receiving approval for hyperbaric chambers for the use as part of the creation of a wound care center," Maer said, noting its service area "has one of the highest prevalence of diabetes and peripheral vascular disease in New Jersey."

Image caption The bright dots, or sparkles, seen by Hi-C are calculated to release huge amounts of energy Scientists have obtained the sharpest view yet of features in the Sun's atmosphere using an experimental camera launched on a short-lived rocket. The system returned just five minutes of data, but this was enough to identify a fascinating new phenomenon the researchers refer to as "sparkles". These are bright points that appear along magnetic field lines where huge amounts of energy are released. The discovery is being reported at the UK National Astronomy Meeting. It may help to explain how the Sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, is so much hotter than the star's surface, its photosphere. "The corona is millions of degrees hotter, and this has been a decades' long puzzle," said Prof Robert Walsh from the University of Central Lancashire. "The sparkles - we actually call them extreme ultraviolet dots - we believe are evidence of very localised but frequent energy release that could build up and heat the corona very easily," he told BBC News. Video of the scene, built from a series of images, can be seen on YouTube. Pictures of the dots were acquired using Nasa's High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C). This is a next-generation instrument that was tested briefly on a sounding rocket, a small vehicle that takes a payload into space for just a few minutes before falling back down. The intention was to validate the design concept and performance of Hi-C so that it can be put forward for a future orbital mission. The instrument was directed to look at an active region in the middle of the Sun. As well as the sparkles, it saw huge clumps of charged gas (plasma) racing along "highways" sculpted by the star's magnetic field. This speeding material was moving inside a so-called solar filament, a prominence of dense plasma that can on occasions erupt outwards from the Sun. "The plasma was moving in opposite directions, back and fore, like on a motorway," said Prof Walsh "We've never seen that before and that gives us an idea about the fundamental scale in the filaments." The sparkles themselves were off to the left of the filament in a region of twisted magnetic field lines. The dots were sporadic - they typically lasted about 25 seconds - and although they appeared small on the scale of the Sun, they were immense - equivalent in width to the UK. But it is the energy released by the sparkles that is really impressive. The team calculates it to be at least one million, million, million, million Joules in each dot. "Consider the consumption of energy in the UK in an entire year - it gets released in one of these dots in about 20-30 seconds," explained Prof Walsh. "When you add that up all over the surface of the Sun you are talking about something that could easily tackle the coronal heating problem. But to pin this down we'd have to fly Hi-C on a satellite." Nasa's Marshall Space Flight Center led the Hi-C launch with partners that included the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Lockheed Martin's Solar Astrophysical Laboratory, UClan, and the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The UK NAM runs all week at the University of St Andrews. Image caption The "highways" in the solar filament are seen in the right-hand box. The sparkles are in the left-hand box Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

KABA.ちゃん、性別適合手術完了の目標は2020年 2015年8月17日 20時26分 診断書を受け取った喜びを語ったKABA.ちゃん タレントのKABA.ちゃんが17日、都内で行われた映画『ピース オブ ケイク』の女性限定イベントに出席。以前から公表している性別適合手術について、「（2020年の）新国立競技場ができるより先には……」と展望を語った。 【写真】KABA.ちゃん、綾野剛のキスシーンに歓喜！ 「女性になりたい。戸籍もなるべく変えられたら変えたい」と語っているKABA.ちゃんは、性別適合手術に向かって順調に歩んでおり、「無事にファーストドクターとセカンドドクターの診断書をいただきました」と報告。これらがないと手術を受けられないそうで、受け取ったときのことを振り返ったKABA.ちゃんは、「今までの自分とさようならという気持ちと、これから新しい道を歩んでいくんだという気持ちで、不思議な感覚になりました」としみじみ。 [PR] ところが、手術の申し込みをしてから承認が下りるまで4～6か月、また、「1年8か月待ち」という人もいるそうで、KABA.ちゃんは「その間に直せるところは直そうかな」とコメント。戸籍も変えて完全に性転換を終えるには、長い道のりになりそうだが、「（2020年の）新国立競技場ができるより先には……」と期待を込めた。 ジョージ朝倉の人気漫画を実写化した本作は、キレイごとだけではない本当の恋をリアルに描いたラブストーリー。志乃（多部未華子）と京志郎（綾野剛）の甘く切ない恋模様を、個性豊かな仲間たちとの日常を交えて映し出す。 この日は、新生オネエアイドルのゆしんも出席し、ガールズトークを展開。本作では松坂桃李がキャリア初のオネエを演じており、先日行われた完成披露試写会では、エステや美顔パックなどを実践し、女子力を上げて役に臨んでいたことを告白。KABA.ちゃんは、「松坂さんみたいなオカマキャラが出たら、わたしたち太刀打ちできない」と渋い顔。また、京志郎がタイプだそうで、「綾野さんのキスシーンがヤバイ。口開いちゃいますよ」とうれしそうに見どころを紹介した。（取材・文：鶴見菜美子） 映画『ピース オブ ケイク』は9月5日より全国公開

Nigeria has been ranked third of the 162 countries of the world that have been worst hit by terrorist attacks, according to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index. The country, Africa’s largest oil producer, was ranked fourth in 2014. Going by the latest ranking, Nigeria is only better than two largely Islamic countries – Iraq and Afghanistan – who were ranked first and second respectively. Pakistan and Syria are ranked fourth and fifth to complete the top five most terrorised countries. The only African countries closer in ranking to Nigeria are Somalia and Libya which are in the eighth and ninth positions respectively. France, which recently experienced deadly terrorist attacks that killed about 160 people in Paris, is ranked 36th, same as the United States of America. “Terrorist attacks are much more lethal in Nigeria than any other country,” the GTI report said. The report, released on November 16, 2015 by the Institute for Economics and Peace, said the Islamist terror group in Nigeria, Boko Haram, overtook ISIL in 2014 to become the most deadly terrorist group in the world. The Institute for Economics and Peace is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank with offices in Sydney, New York and Mexico City. The 2015 GTI report said Boko Haram, in 2014, was also able to spread outside Nigeria to launch two deadly attacks in neighbouring Cameroon, killing 530 people. Cameroon, the report said, didn’t record any death from terrorism between 2000 and 2013 until Boko Haram struck in 2014. Although published in November 2015, the GTI report was produced from data gathered in 2014. In 2014, Nigeria experienced the biggest yearly deterioration in terrorism on record, the report said. “There were 5,662 more people killed (in Nigeria) from terrorism in 2014 than in 2013, an increase of almost 300 per cent,” it says. ADVERTISEMENT The number of people killed in Nigeria by terrorist attack in 2014 was 6,118, compared to the 1,595 killed in 2013. According to the report, “Nigeria has moved from the country with the fifth highest levels of fatalities in 2013 to the second highest in 2014.” In summary, Nigeria recorded 662 terrorist attacks in 2014, with 7,512 people killed, 2,246 injured and 1,512 properties destroyed. But then, Boko Haram isn’t the only terror group in Nigeria that kills; the Fulani militants in the northern part of Nigeria is recorded to have killed as many as 1,229 people in the country in 2014, which is an incredible leap from 63 recorded in 2013. Unlike religious fanaticism which drives Boko Haram, the Fulani militants are driven by conflict over access and control of land between the semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen and farmers in north-eastern Nigeria, the report said. Nigeria, alongside four other countries – Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria – accounted for 78 per cent of lives lost globally in 2014 through terrorist attacks. Of 20 most fatal terrorist attacks in the world in 2014, nine of them took place in Nigeria. Boko Haram was responsible for eight of those nine attacks, while the Fulani militants were responsible for one which took place at Galadima where 200 people were reportedly killed. The worst terrorist attack in Nigeria in 2014, according to the 2015 GTI report, was in Kano city on November 28, 2014 when two suicide bombers and roadside bomb detonated at the Grand Mosque in the city. Boko Haram terrorists reportedly opened fire on worshippers fleeing the explosions. One hundred and twenty-two (122) people were killed, while 270 were injured. Nigeria for several years now has been battling Boko Haram insurgency which is responsible for thousands of deaths in the northeast of the country. PREMIUM TIMES has extensively reported on the insurgency. “The nature of terrorism in Nigeria is different to Iraq and Afghanistan,” the report said. “Terrorist activity in Nigeria has more in common with the tactics of organised crime and gangs, focusing more on armed assaults using firearms and knives than on the bombings of other large terrorist groups. “Firearms were used in over half of all attacks in Nigeria and were responsible for 67 per cent of all deaths by Boko Haram and 92 per cent of deaths from Fulani militants. “Whilst previously the use of suicide attacks by Boko Haram was rare, in 2014 they were responsible for 31 suicide attacks with an average of nearly 15 deaths per attack. “The majority of these attacks were against private citizens and education and religious institutions. No other group in Nigeria conducted suicide attacks in 2014,” the report said. The number of people killed by terrorism around the world increased from 18,111 in 2013 to 32,658 in 2014. The increase is said to be the largest ever recorded. The report put the global cost of terrorism in 2014 at US$52.9 billion, compared to US$32.9 billion in 2013. The GTI, which is currently in its third edition, is “based on data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) which is collected and collated by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism”. The GTI score for a country in a given year is said to be based on unique scoring system to account for the relative impact of terrorism incidents in the year. “The four factors counted in each country’s yearly score, are: total number of terrorist incidents in a given year; total number of fatalities caused by terrorists in a given year; total number of injuries caused by terrorists in a given year; a measure of the total property damage from terrorist incidents in a given year.” Related

Today a 2-1 Ninth Circuit panel held that Hawaii's near-total prohibition on the carrying of handguns for lawful self-defense violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Under binding precedent from a previous case, Peruta v. San Diego (Peruta II), concealed carry is not a Second Amendment right. However, Hawaii requires a license for either concealed or open carry, and almost never issues licenses for either. Under today's ruling, Hawaii may not limit open carry licenses only to persons who are security guards. The opinion is here. Background: Hawaii's restrictions on firearms carry are perhaps the most extreme of any state. Carrying or transporting a loaded firearm outside of one's property is generally forbidden. Unloaded and cased firearms may be transported while going to or from a gunsmith, a hunting ground, and a few other places. Carrying a loaded handgun in public, either openly or concealed, requires a permit. Concealed carry permits are close to nil (4 permits issued in the last 18 years), and only a few dozen open carry permits exist, and they are only for security guards while on the job. After being denied a permit, George K. Young, Jr., brought a lawsuit in the federal district court for the district of Hawaii. His attorneys included Stefan Stamboulieh, whom I had the pleasure of meeting over a decade ago, when he invited me give a speech to the Federalist Society at the Mississippi College of Law. The district court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss, and Young appealed. For procedural reasons, defendant State of Hawaii was out of the case by the appellate stage, but the County of Hawaii (the Big Island) remained as a defendant. The State nevertheless filed an amicus brief. The majority opinion for the Ninth Circuit was written by Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain (appointed 1986 by President Reagan) and joined by Judge Sandra S. Ikuta (appointed 2006 by President G.W. Bush). A dissent was filed by Judge Richard Clifton (appointed 2001 by President G.W. Bush, now on senior status). Precedents: An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit had previously ruled that the Second Amendment does not protect any right to concealed carry. Peruta v. County of San Diego (Peruta II), 824 F.3d 919 (2016) (en banc). But this did not foreclose Young's challenge to Hawaii's open carry laws, since open carry is a matter of first impression in the Ninth Circuit. As explicated by the Supreme Court cases District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. City of Chicago, the textual right to "keep" arms is distinct from the right to "bear" arms. The latter includes the right to bear arms for self-defense outside the home, but (as Heller said and McDonald reaffirmed), the exercise of the right may be excluded from "sensitive places, such as schools and government buildings." In Young, the state's "brief asks us to stretch this list of presumptively lawful measures to allow all laws 'preserving public safety.' This argument borders on the absurd. Surely not all areas of the public are as sensitive as schools or government buildings, nor is it, as the State suggests, a 'very small and reasonable step to view virtually the entire public sphere as a 'sensitive place."" Early history: Expressly following the methodology used by the Supreme Court in Heller and McDonald, the Young court carefully examined history and tradition. Early sources such as Blackstone considered the right to bear arms for self-defense to be a natural right. So did the first major American treatise on constitutional law, St. George Tucker's 1803 annotated American edition of Blackstone. The Heller Court relied heavily on Tucker, and so did the Ninth Circuit: "And in advocating for the prerogative of the Judiciary to strike down unconstitutional statutes, Tucker wrote: 'If, for example, congress were to pass a law prohibiting any person from bearing arms, as a means of preventing insurrections, the judicial courts, . . . would be able to pronounce decidedly upon the constitutionality of these means.' see also Michael P. O'Shea, Modeling the Second Amendment Right to Carry Arms (I): Judicial Tradition and the Scope of "Bearing Arms" for Self-Defense, 61 Am. U. L. Rev. 585, 637–38 (2012)." [Prof. O'Shea is one of my co-authors on the law school textbook Firearms Law and the Second Amendment.] Also included in the natural rights discussion is Leonard W. Levy's Origins of the Bill of Rights (quoting a prominent colonial newspaper on the right to arms as "a natural right") and my article The Natural Right of Self-Defense: Heller's Lesson for the World, 59 Syracuse L. Rev. 235 (2008), which closely examines the natural rights language in Heller and explores its implications. (The article has previously been cited in Seventh and Tenth Circuit opinions.) Nineteenth Century cases: Like Heller, the Ninth Circuit studied nineteenth century cases on the right to arms, especially cases from before the Civil War. The large majority of the cases–including the cases that Heller said were correct explications of the right–held that there is not a right to carry concealed, and there is a right to open carry. During the nineteenth century, the South was the region the most enthusiastic about gun control, and some Southern controls were based on racial animus. Adopting a theory propounded by historian Saul Cornell, The dissent faults our reliance on decisions from the South, implying that the thorough analysis found in such opinions must have been the product of a "culture where slavery, honor, violence, and the public carrying of weapons were intertwined."… To say the least, we are puzzled. The dissent overlooks the fact that the Southern cases on which we rely only arose because the legislatures in those states had enacted restrictions on the public carry of firearms. Indeed, were it the case that the Southern culture of slavery animated concerns to protect the right to open carry, why would the Georgia legislature have sought to ban open carry in the first place? As a more fundamental matter, too, we cannot agree with the dissent's choice to cast aside Southern cases. Heller placed great emphasis on cases from the South, and Nunn in particular. [An 1846 Georgia case striking a ban on most handguns, striking a ban on open carry, and upholding a ban on concealed carry; Heller quotes and lauds Nunn more than any other case.] We are an inferior court. Can we really, while keeping a straight face, now say that such cases have little persuasive effect in analyzing the contours of the Second Amendment? We think not. As the Young majority acknowledges, a minority of nineteenth century cases did deny that there is right to defensive carry; these cases start with Arkansas's 1842 State v. Buzzard. These cases are explicitly based on the assumption that the right to keep and bear arms is solely to foster the militia. "Yet, with Heller on the books, cases in Buzzard's flock furnish us with little instructive value. That's because Heller made clear that the Second Amendment is, and always has been, an individual right centered on self-defense; it has never been a right only to be exercised in connection with a militia….And bound as the inferior court that we are, we may only assess whether the right to bear arms extends outside the home on the understanding that the right is an individual one centered on self-defense. Thus, Heller knocks out the load-bearing bricks in the foundation of cases like Buzzard, for those courts only approved broad limitations on the public carry of weapons because such limitations in no way detracted from the common defense of the state." Surety of the peace statutes: An 1830s Massachusetts statute provided a model adopted by several other states. According to the statute, if person A provided well-founded evidence to a court that person B threatened "injury or a breach of the peace," then the court could issue an order presenting B with two choices: 1. Stop carrying arms in public, or 2. If you want to continue carrying arms, then you must post a bond for good behavior ("surety of the peace"). Despite the court order, person B could continue carrying arms, without need for posting a bond, under two circumstances: 1. militia service, or 2. if B had "good cause" to fear for his safety. Prof. Cornell and the dissent characterize these statutes as broad bans on public carrying. This is contrary to the text. The statutes only applied to persons who were identified in court by specific evidence as being particularly dangerous. Even then, they could still carry if they posted a bond. Presuming that Cornell's mischaracterization of the statute was made in good faith, his error shows the limits of historians attempting to opine on legal history, yet unable to understand a straightforward statute. Early English history and its influence in America: In 1328, English King Edward II created the Statute of Northampton, which forbade subjects "to go nor ride armed by night nor by day, in Fairs, Markets, nor in the presence of the Justices or other Ministers, nor in no part elsewhere." There was an exception for the king's servants. It is possible to read the statute as a comprehensive ban on carry. The dissent adopts the argument of scholar Patrick J. Charles, who contends that the Statute of Northampton was part of the common law and was adopted in America, and therefore there is no right to carry arms. A problem with this argument is that it was not interpreted in England as a carry ban–at least not by the time the American colonies were on the scene. William Hawkins' 1716 treatise explained that "no wearing of Arms is within the meaning of this Statute, unless it be accompanied with such Circumstances as are apt to terrify the People." (Hawkins, by the way, is the main source for Heller's statement that "dangerous and unusual" weapons are not within the protection of the right to arms.) Hawkins' view is consistent with the result of a famous trial from 1686, Sir John Knight's Case. The Chief Justice of the King's Bench explained that the Statute of Northampton only applies to "people who go armed to terrify the King's subjects." Knight, who was a political opponent of King James II, had carried a blunderbuss to church because some Irish Catholics had made credible threats to assassinate him. (King James II was pro-Catholic, while Knight was an enthusiast for persecution of Catholics.) As one observer of the trial recounted, the jury acquitted Knight "not thinking he did it with any ill design." (For more on the Statute of Northampton and Knight's Case see my 2015 post, my D.C. Circuit amicus brief, and pages 91-101 of Firearms Law and the Second Amendment.) "More fundamentally," wrote the Young majority, "we respectfully decline the County's and the State's invitation to import English law wholesale into our Second Amendment jurisprudence….Indeed, there is a scholarly consensus that the 1689 English right to have arms was less protective than its American counterpart." For example, at St. George Tucker noted, English law defined as "treason" any gathering of a certain number of armed men without prior government approval, but such gatherings were a protected right under the American Constitution. Early American commentators interpreted common law limits on arms carrying as only applying to persons who carried "offensively" or in a "terrifying" manner or who carried "dangerous and unusual" weapons. The 1843 North Carolina State v. Huntley explained "the carrying of a gun per se constitutes no offence. For any lawful purpose–either of business or amusement–the citizen is at perfect liberty to carry his gun. It is the wicked purpose—and the mischievous result—which essentially constitute the crime." [The phrase "business or amusement" was a legal term of art, to encompass all peaceable activity. See, e.g., The Schooner Exchange v. Mcfaddon & Others, 11 U.S. 116 (1812) (Marshall, C.J.) ("[T]he ports of a nation are open to the private and public ships of a friendly power, whose subjects have also liberty without special license, to enter the country for business or amusement. . . .").] According to Cornell, Charles, and the Young dissent, all carrying (except when mandated by the government) was considered inherently "terrifying." The majority answers: What an odd way it would be to write a criminal statute!….For instance, Maine's 1821 Northampton analogue authorized the arrest of "all affrayers, rioters, disturbers or breakers of the peace, and such as shall ride or go armed offensively, to the fear or terror of the good citizens of this State, or such others as may utter any menaces or threatening speeches." 1821 Me. Laws 285. If riding armed were itself unlawful because it terrorized the good citizens of Maine, it strains credulity to suggest that Maine drafters would have felt the need to clarify such reasoning right in the middle of the statute's operative provisions. Indeed, why only clarify the consequences of riding armed, and no other prohibited conduct? The "odd" reading of early American state statutes would conflict with "neighboring criminal provisions." For example, Delaware allowed a slave to "go armed with any dangerous weapon" if the master gave permission. Yet by the Cornell et al. theory, nobody in Delaware could carry any weapon, except when mandated by government. Likewise, Tennessee authorized sheriffs to arrest anyone "armed with the intention of committing a riot or affray." But according to Cornell, carrying an arm at all was a serious crime. So why limit arrest powers only to "riot and affray"? "Why on earth would Tennessee have so limited a sheriff's authorization to arrest if going armed was itself unlawful?" In all, then, the various Northampton analogues found in states across the United States confirm that, "whatever Northampton banned on the shores of England," the American right to carry common weapons openly for self-defense "was not hemmed in by longstanding bans on carrying." Wrenn, 864 F.3d at 660–61. [Upholding right to bear arms in District of Columbia.] Standard of review: Because text, history, and tradition show that peaceable carrying of common arms is part of the Second Amendment, the next question was the standard of judicial review. Bearing arms is part of the core of the Second Amendment. "While the Amendment's guarantee of a right to 'keep' arms effectuates the core purpose of self-defense within the home, the separate right to 'bear' arms protects that core purpose outside the home." Under Ninth Circuit precedent, "We next ask whether section 134-9 [open carry permits issued only to security professionals] 'amounts to a destruction' of the core Second Amendment right to carry a firearm openly for self-defense. Silvester, 843 F.3d at 821. If so, the law is 'unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny.'" [Silvester upheld California's 10-day waiting period for firearms sales or loans.] As counsel for Hawaii County had admitted at oral argument, "no one other than a security guard–or someone similarly employed–had ever been issued an open carry license." Thus: Restrictions challenged under the Second Amendment must be analyzed with regard to their effect on the typical, law-abiding citizen….An individual right that does not apply to the ordinary citizen would be a contradiction in terms….Just as the Second Amendment does not protect a right to bear arms only in connection with a militia, it surely does not protect a right to bear arms only as a security guard. The typical, law-abiding citizen in the State of Hawaii is therefore entirely foreclosed from exercising the core Second Amendment right to bear arms for self-defense. It follows that section 134-9 "amounts to a destruction" of a core right, and as such, it is infirm "[u]nder any of the standards of scrutiny." Result: The Hawaii portion of the statute limiting open carry to security professionals is unconstitutional. The decision below was reversed and remanded. Notably, the plaintiffs did not challenge a separate requirement in Hawaii: that carry permits be issued only "Where the urgency or the need has been sufficiently indicated." With no information in the record "showing the stringency of the requirement," the court did not address "whether such requirement violates the Second Amendment." Next steps: Hawaii County could issue Mr. Young an open carry permit and end the case. But then the County might then have to start issuing permits to other applicants who are equally qualified. Instead, Hawaii County could deny the permit on the grounds that Mr. Young has not demonstrated sufficient "need." The denial would probably start a new case, on the permissible stringency of Hawaii's definition of "need." Or the County could appeal to the entire Ninth Circuit for rehearing en banc. In recent years, the Ninth Circuit en banc has been willing to overturn pro-Second Amendment decisions issued by three-judge panels. In particular, Peruta II (upholding sheriffs' policy of issuing concealed carry persons only to persons subject to specific threats) and Teixeira v. County of Alameda (upholding county's ban on all new gun stores).

According to James Comey, the US President ” attacks the FBI and undermines the rule of law in the country”. The US President Donald Trump is undermining the rule of law in the country by spreading lies about the FBI. This opinion was expressed by the former Director of the Federal Bureau of investigation James Comey on Monday after closed hearings in the legal Committee and the oversight Committee of the House of Representatives of Congress, his words were quoted by Reuters. As Comey said, at the hearing, the legislators again asked him about the use of the presidential candidate in the 2016 elections, Hillary Clinton’s personal e-mail address while she was working as the Us Secretary of state. The so-called dossier on Trump was also discussed. He complained that at the same time, “the President of the United States is spreading lies about the FBI, attacking the FBI and undermining the rule of law in the country.” When asked if he felt responsible for the FBI’s damage, Comey replied that the Agency’s reputation “came under a big blow because the President of the United States and his henchmen constantly lied about it.” On December 9, Trump said that Komi deceived members of the legal Committee and the oversight Committee of the House of Representatives at a closed hearing on December 7. During the meeting, Komi reported that in the investigation of Russia’s alleged interference in the American elections of 2016, four citizens of the United States initially appeared, and Donald Trump, who at that time was a candidate for the US President, was not among them. Legislators after a conversation with Komi said that he refused to answer a number of questions on the recommendation of legal advisers from the Ministry of justice. Trump was outraged by the refusal of Komi and urged to force him to testify under oath. On July 2016 Comey, who at that time was as Director of the FBI, the outcome of the investigation related with Clinton’s correspondence announced that his office didn’t found grounds for the presentation of her accusations. However, in October of the same year, he reported that the proceedings were resumed in the light of newly discovered circumstances. On November 6, 2016, two days before the US presidential election, Comey issued a notice that the audit is over and the conclusion about the lack of jurisdiction of Clinton remains in force. Trump sent Comey into retirement last May, saying he was not satisfied with his work. Subsequently, this step was considered by the Democrats as “an attempt to create obstacles to justice.” They have repeatedly raised the issue of the investigation of this episode by the relevant committees of the Congress

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that “there’s no good answer to Syria right now.” Cruz said, “[T]he honest answer is, there’s no good answer to Syria right now. And after eight years of Obama broken red lines and weakness, we’ve seen Syria turned into a war zone that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of refugees, of chemical weapons, it is a bad situation.” He added that a no-fly zone in Syria “can be very dangerous. I think that invites conflicts with other nations.” He further stated that while Assad is “a monster.” “[I]t would be even worse if those chemical weapons fall into the hands of radical Islamic terrorists, if they fall into the hands of ISIS or al Qaeda, or al Nusra.” Cruz concluded that he was “encouraged” by the Trump administration’s foreign policy and national security. Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mixed her metaphors this week while trying to argue for free speech restrictions. During an interview with San Francisco TV station KRON4, Pelosi was asked whether the National Park Service (NPS) should deny a permit to a group of "alt-right" activists who plan to hold a demonstration Saturday in Crissy Field, a federally controlled park along San Francisco Bay. The NPS issued the permit to the Patriot Prayer group, but only after organizers agreed to ban guns and tiki torches from the rally, the A.P. reported. But Pelosi, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee have criticized that decision, calling for the NPS to police not just parks, but the speech of individuals within those parks. Pelosi thinks the government has the authority to do that, and here's why: "The Constitution does not say that a person can yell 'wolf' in a crowded theater," Pelosi told KRON4's Pam Moore. "If you are endangering people, you don't have a constitutional right to do that." It would appear that Pelosi is confused about the distinction between the infamous cliché "shouting fire in a crowded theater," a line from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the 1919 Supreme Court case Schenck v. United States, and the clichéd parable of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," which warns about not overreacting to imaginary threats. The whole thing is even better because, in this case, Pelosi is playing the role of the boy (or congresswoman) who cried wolf. She's calling for a reaction against a threat that hasn't materialized yet. That's what all prior restraints on speech are, of course, but she's calling for a very specific action to be taken against a very specific group of people who haven't even gathered yet, much less done anything that could be rightfully called "endangering people." But whether we're talking about shouting "fire" in a theater or "wolf" in a park, the real issue here is that Pelosi seems to misunderstand the very metaphor she's mangling in an attempt to justify limiting speech. Start with Schenck. That ruling doesn't mean what many people—including, apparently, one of the highest-ranking elected officials in the U.S. government—think it does. Here's the full line: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." Holmes is ruminating on the the limits of constitutional protections in a theoretical way, not laying down a bright line for when the First Amendment doesn't apply. Holmes was trying to justify the conviction of two Socialist Party members who had done nothing more heinous than distributing flyers that opposed the military draft. The two claimed a First Amendment right to distribute those flyers, so Holmes concocted a limit to the First Amendment. That ruling, including the "falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater" bit, is bad law. It's been almost universally recognized as such in the century since Holmes wrote the ruling, and the Supreme Court has taken steps to roll back its limits on free speech. The only people who trot out the "shouting fire in a crowded theater" line these days are authoritarians grasping for excuses to censor people. That includes Pelosi, yes, but also Feinstein, who has used it to justify keeping conservative speakers off college campuses. New York City Councilman Peter Vallone tried to use it to get Twitter accounts shut down during Hurricane Sandy. Feinstein has used it as an argument for shutting down WikiLeaks; pundits have invoked it when calling for prosecuting the maker of anti-Muslim YouTube videos. "Holmes' quote is the most famous and pervasive lazy cheat in American dialogue about free speech," attorney Ken White, a.k.a. Popehat, wrote in a must-read takedown of the Schenck case. The modern standard for free speech comes from the 1969 case Brandenburg v. Ohio, in which court ruled that free speech cannot be restricted "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action." It's true that the alt-right group gathering in San Francisco is likely to espouse some hateful, noxious speech. When they do, they should be criticized and condemned for it, as their friends in Charlottesville were. But even if you assume they're up to no good, it's pretty clear that their asking for a permit does not rise to the level of "imminent lawless action." The National Park Service was right to award the permit. Doing otherwise would have been a violation of the First Amendment, wolves and fires notwithstanding.

Former England rugby captain Mike Tindall has finally had his broken nose straightened out after an operation. The sports star has fought off the Royals' requests for treatment for years since marrying Zara Phillips in 2011. At the time, Princess Anne reportedly offered to pay for the surgery after she became worried about the wedding photographs. The former Bath and Gloucester centre broke his nose at least eight times during his career and his face was cruelly mocked by teammates as "a relief map of the Pennines" due to its twisted bridge. He appeared at an endurance competition at Pippingford Park in East Sussex over the weekend with fellow ex-internationals Neil Back and Will Greenwood. A source close to the Spring Wolf Run event said he was told the rugby star underwent surgery the previous week to fine-tune his already improved nose, it was reported. Three months before marrying into royalty, Tindall told the panel on sports quiz show A League Of Their Own: "Princess Anne asked me if I'd have the surgery," referring to a potential operation to straighten his nose. But with a Rugby World Cup around the corner that year and a high probability his famous nose would be broken again, he turned the offer down.

We talk to Emily from the swinger site "Kasidie". She explains her travels thru the swinging lifestyle and her experiences on Playboy TV, in the "Swing" show with Scott and Nicoletta. We explain the basic principles: How to pick a swinger site that works for you How to look for sexy events in your neighborhood Picking a good username/profile/handle Getting certified as a real member The importance of pictures (not just of your junk) Which pictures should be public and which should be kept private Clean your room before taking pictures! Yes, get rid of the laundry! Selfies or not? Contacting people: How many emails should you send? The girls ponder sweaty naked yoga, and the merits of yoga pants, and coming out as non-monogamous to you parents or (as in Jon's case) have your parent come out to you. Mistress SinD announces the new fitness & health section on Bliss Bringers and her own "Girls Uncorked" chapter. For more information on that, check out Kasidie or our calendar. We are getting ready for another "Fetish & Fantasy" event, which is bound to be awesome. Check out our podcast of last year if you don't believe us. 🙂 Cameo appearances of "Beyond the Love" and "Swingland" (who will be in one of the upcoming episodes).

About This Game Test your wits and reflexes in spell-filled multiplayer combat, either alone or in teams - supports up to 8 players. Choose your loadout across 5 different disciplines - Offensive, Defensive, Area, Utility, and Travel. Engage in battle across 3 unique arenas, each with their own dangers and demands. Gain experience through battle, earning skins, weapons and more as you level up. Inspired by arena and player vs. player classics, such as League of Legends, Super Smash Brothers, and the Warcraft 3 Mod, Warlocks, Spellsworn is a PvP arena game in which you must use magic and quick reflexes to outsmart and obliterate your opponent. Set in a world gripped by a war of magic, you and other spellcasters fight for control over 5 rounds of battle in areas of power.Using a limited amount of currency that increases throughout the game, you must determine the best spells for the job from your varied arsenal and defeat your enemies by reducing their health to 0. Will you focus on Offensive spells such asand, or will youyour way through your opponent’s attacks andtheir spells back at them? With an ever-changing environment that poses as much of a threat as your opponent, adaptation is just as important as a quick hand and mind. In such a brutal and chaotic world, only the skilled and strong will be victorious.So, don your robes, banish your summoned Rock Pillars, and prepare to do battle in the arena of Spellsworn!

Commonwealth Heads of Government have expressed full support for the UN Secretary General to choose the means of a settlement of Guyana’s border controversy with Venezuela. The Commonwealth position was contained in the Communique issued today following the Heads of Government meeting in Malta which began on Friday. The Commonwealth statement in today’s communique is seen as important as Guyana has been lobbying for a juridical settlement to the controversy and only the UN Secretary General can make this determination. Venezuela on the other hand wants to continue with the UN Good Office process which has yielded no result over several decades. The border controversy escalated in May this year when Venezuela issued a maritime decree claiming most of Guyana’s Atlantic waters. Since then Guyana has mounted an intense international campaign to rebuff Venezuela’s claims and to articulate the position that a juridical settlement was now necessary. After May, Guyana had written to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seeking a juridical settlement to the controversy. The Secretary-General has since dispatched several missions to both Guyana and Venezuela to discuss the way forward. The excerpt in the communique on Guyana follows: Heads noted that the Geneva Agreement of 1966 between the Parties provides a range of mechanisms for an expeditious solution to the controversy arising from Venezuela’s contention of invalidity of the 1899 Arbitral Award, which definitively settled the land boundary between Co-operative Republic of Guyana and Venezuela. Heads expressed their full support for the United Nations Secretary General to choose a means of settlement in keeping with the provisions of the Geneva Agreement of 1966, to bring the controversy to a definitive end. Heads endorsed the outcome statement of the Commonwealth Ministerial Group on Guyana following its meeting in September 2015, and reaffirmed their unequivocal support for the maintenance and safeguarding of Guyana’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Garden of Eden Devi Dutta Sharma knew his customers inside out. Seated at his desk in Jhochhen, he’d spend a large part of his day peering out the window, observing the steady stream of customers arriving at his shop. They came from all corners of the world but were looking for the same thing: an exotic, mystical Kathmandu, preferably with a side of cheap, quality hashish. And Sharma knew how to sell both and how to sell them well.

Knapp einen Monat nach der Veröffentlichung einer rund 600-seitigen Zusammenfassung der offiziellen Untersuchung der CIA-Foltermethoden durch den US-Senat gibt es nun eine deutsche Übersetzung. Als Herausgeber für diese deutsche Fassung verantwortlich zeichnet sich der ehemalige Richter am Bundesgerichtshof und Ex-Bundestagsabgeordnete Wolfgang Nešković. Er hat dem Buch außerdem zwei Texte vorangestellt, in denen er die Bedeutung des Berichts einordnet und ausführt, welche Konsequenzen er nun in Deutschland erwartet. In dem Bericht wird detailliert nachvollzogen, wie die CIA Terrorverdächtige folterte und angesichts wenig brauchbarer Ergebnisse die politischen Kontrolleure über die Effektivität der Folter belog. Weltweit hatten die Schilderungen einen Aufschrei zur Folge, aber in den USA scheinen Konsequenzen für die Verantwortlichen und die Folterer ausgeschlossen. Umso wichtiger ist es für Nešković, dass andere Staaten deutlich machen, hier sei ein nicht hinzunehmender Rechtsbruch erfolgt. Folter sei völkerrechtswidrig und hierzulande juristisch verfolgbar, auch wenn sie von Ausländern gegen Ausländer angewandt wurde. Deswegen sei der Bericht auch eine "Bewährungsprobe für die Wahrhaftigkeit und Funktionsfähigkeit unseres Rechtssystems." (mho)

A few hours ago, we shared the latest version of the Super Turbo Lighting Mod for The Witcher 3. Well The Witcher 3 fans, here is something extra for you today. Modder ‘Halk Hogan PL’ has released a new version for his HD Reworked Project mod for The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project aims to improve the graphics by reworking models and textures to better quality and this latest version reworks Thatched roofs, improves the LOD for Novigrad’s walls, reworks bear furs, crates, scroll stacks, grain textures, hay textures, square braziers, simple wooden tables, moss textures and sacks, and adds experimental displacement to checkered floor tiles in circle near passiflora. Do note that this mod is compatible with the Super Turbo Lighting Mod, so we strongly suggest using these two mods in order to improve The Witcher 3’s visuals. Those interested can download The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project 4.1 from here. Enjoy!

The most recent college champions are Ohio State and Florida State on the gridiron, Connecticut and Louisville on the men’s hardwood. Of these only one, Ohio State, graduated more than 50% of scholarship athletes in the relevant sport in the title year. The schools’ profit for NCAA play in these two sports averaged $30 million last year. That’s before donations inspired by athletics. If you ran a college and knew there was substantial money to be had from sports but no requirement to educate athletes, you might cut corners....

Breakthrough Listen: SETI Data Release On Monday I was talking about the rise of open access scientific journals, using the European Space Agency’s Acta Futura as just one example. The phenomenal arXiv service, not itself a journal but a repository for preprints of upcoming papers, is already well known in these pages. Now we have the largest public release of SETI data in the history of the field, a heartening follow-through on a trend that broadens the audience for scientific research. Breakthrough Listen is presenting two publications in the scientific literature (available as full text, citation below) describing the results of three years of radio and optical observations, along with the availability of a petabyte of data from its work at the Green Bank instrument in West Virginia and the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia. This covers a sample of 1327 nearby stars (within 160 light years from Earth) and builds on the team’s results on 692 stars as presented in 2017. No signs of extraterrestrial civilizations turn up in the analysis, says Parkes project scientist Danny Price, who emphasizes that the search will continue: “This data release is a tremendous milestone for the Breakthrough Listen team. We scoured thousands of hours of observations of nearby stars, across billions of frequency channels. We found no evidence of artificial signals from beyond Earth, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t intelligent life out there: we may just not have looked in the right place yet, or peered deep enough to detect faint signals.” Image: The Green Bank site in West Virginia, where Breakthrough Listen observations continue. Credit: NRAO/AUI. There are reasons why making such data public benefits the SETI effort. Both within the public and the astronomical community, those interested can now download the results of these observations and examine them independently. Those with programming skills may well develop algorithms for the detection of signals and filtering out of background noise that improve on the current model. And there may be information within the datasets that will prove useful in the investigation of unrelated astrophysical phenomena. The existing tools developed by the Breakthrough Listen science team at the Berkeley SETI Research Center (BSRC) include both radio frequency searches as well as optical scans and algorithms designed to flag unexplained astrophysical phenomena. Go to this UC-Berkeley page for the overview, including the two just released papers. Likewise available to the public are software tools used in the analysis such as blimpy (for loading raw format data files), and turboSETI (for running Doppler drift searches). The datasets are examined in the analysis paper by Dr. Price and made available at the Breakthrough Listen Open Data Archive and via BSRC (more search options available at the latter). For those wanting to get into data crunching themselves, the second paper (lead author Matt Lebofsky at Berkeley) goes into the intricacies of the current analysis, the tools used, the data formats and the archival systems now in play. “While we have been making smaller subsets of data public before in varying forms and contexts,” says Lebofsky, “we are excited and proud to offer this first cohesive collection along with an instruction manual, so everybody can dig in and help us search. And we’re just getting started – there’s much more to come!” Considering the complexities involved in creating a search ‘pipeline’ that can scan through billions of radio channels, the more eyes on search algorithms and filtering techniques, the better. Thus far the detected signals have come from human technologies, with the Breakthrough Listen team filtering for narrow-band signals showing a Doppler drift, meaning they change in frequency with time because of their motion with respect to the telescope. A second filter in the pipeline removes signals that do not appear to originate from a fixed point on the sky. The application of both techniques reduces millions of signals down to a comparative few, all of which have been examined and found to be human-generated frequency interference. From the Price paper, which notes that in its search for narrowband signals showing Doppler drift, 51 million hits emerged, with 6154 that cleared the automated filtering process, leading to a final round of manual inspection and cross-referencing against known sources of interference: …these observations constitute the most comprehensive survey for radio evidence of advanced life around nearby stars ever undertaken, improving on the results of Enriquez et al. (2017) in both sensitivity and number of stars. Together with other recent work from the resurgent SETI community, we are beginning to put rigorous and clearly defined limits on the behavior of advanced life in the universe. We note that significant additional observational and theoretical work remains to be done before we are able to make general statements about the prevalence of technologically capable species. Be aware that the archive also includes data from Breakthrough Listen observations of the first repeating fast radio burst ever detected, FRB 121102, as well as scans of the ‘Oumuamua object, along with optical data from the Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory. The search of nearby stars continues while also being expanded into the galactic disk at Parkes, and a one-million star sample with the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa is forthcoming. The papers are Price et al., “The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Observations of 1327 Nearby Stars over 1.1-3.4 GHz,” submitted to The Astrophysical Journal (preprint) and Lebofsky et al., “The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Public Data, Formats, Reduction and Archiving,” submitted to Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (preprint).

Two men who claim to be members of Anonymous have been arrested for allegedly hacking websites. Two men who claim to be from online group Anonymous have been arrested in Perth and Sydney for allegedly hacking into Australian and international websites. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the men were arrested after searches of their homes in Penrith, NSW and Scarborough, Western Australia. Several computer hard drives and other equipment were seized, and it is expected that it will take several months to analyse the items due to the amount of information stored on them. The AFP said it would be alleged in court that the men knew each other online and targeted organisations including a large internet service provider and web servers hosting Australian and Indonesian government websites. The 40-year-old Scarborough man was charged with aiding the unauthorised modification of Melbourne IT Ltd's computer network in Brisbane to cause impairment and unauthorised modification of Indonesian government web servers to cause impairment. He is scheduled to appear in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday. The 18-year-old Penrith man was charged with unauthorised modification of data to Netspeed ISP in Canberra to cause impairment, and unauthorised access to and modification of restricted data belonging to the ACT Long Service Leave Board in Canberra. He is due to appear in Sydney Central Local Court on Thursday. The AFP said people claiming to be members of Anonymous had targeted Australian government and corporate networks for the past two years. The attacks had resulted in theft of personal data, defacement of websites and distributed denial of service attacks, causing websites to drop offline, the AFP said. A distributed denial of service attacks is one in which a multitude of compromised systems attack a single target. "These acts can cause serious disruption to government and business networks, which in turn can be catastrophic for people who rely on these networks to run their small business or administer their entitlements or personal finances," AFP national manager of high tech crime operations Tim Morris said. "The impairment or disruption of communications to or from computer networks is a criminal act and can have serious consequences - it is not harmless fun."

MANILA, Philippines—A 12-year-old girl and her younger brother drowned Wednesday afternoon while playing in an uncovered pit filled with rainwater at the National Hydraulic Research Center at the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City, police said Thursday. Ilyssa Denise Garcia, 12, and her brother Ernest Miguel, 9, were rushed to a hospital after rescuers pulled them out of the pit but they were beyond help, police said. ADVERTISEMENT A passing woman saw the kids’ arms flailing in the water and called for help, police investigator Police Officer 2 Julius Balbuena said. He said the children lived at the UP Arboretum area. Ilyssa was a first year high school student at the Flora High School while Ernest was a third grade pupil at the Mines Elementary School. The Garcia siblings were seen playing in the water but at around 4 p.m. a woman noticed that the kids seemed to be in trouble, Balbuena said. She then asked for help from teenaged boys in the area. The two were plucked out of the water and were rushed by Barangay UP Campus rescuers to the East Avenue Medical Center, but it was too late. Read Next EDITORS' PICK MOST READ

Cyclist, 91, killed in time trial 'excelled with age' Published duration 29 July 2017 image copyright Colin Derrick image caption Ray Dare had been attempting to set a new national record for a 91-year-old A 91-year-old cyclist killed on a dual carriageway while trying to set a new record "came into his own as he grew older", his club said. Ray Dare died in a crash involving a van on the A41 Aston Clinton bypass, near Aylesbury, on 19 July. The Kingston Phoenix Road Club said at the time he was attempting to ride 10 miles in under 29 minutes and 43 seconds and it had been "going well". Thames Valley Police has appealed for witnesses. No arrests have been made. 'Barely slowing down' The Surrey-based club, where Mr Dare had been a member for 65 years, said it was "devastated" by his death. A spokesman said he was a good rider in his younger years but "came into his own as he grew older, barely slowing down as his contemporaries did". His specialist event was time trialling, where a cyclist rides alone between two time keepers against the watch. image copyright Joe Picton image caption Ray Dare "came into his own as he grew older", his club said Mr Dare was taken to the Buckinghamshire time trial event by club mate John Beer, and they drove round the course before the trial to familiarise themselves with it. When he died, he was trying to break the 2003 record held by Jack Brownhill of the Abbotsford Park Road Club. A few weeks ago he recorded a time of 29:59, and "knew that he could meet the challenge", the club said. "Ray was excited for the event and knew that he could break the record. "By all accounts he was going well and would have achieved his goal. Sadly his ride only lasted eight of the ten miles before tragedy struck." Mr Dare held eight national Veterans Time Trials Association (VTTA) records including at the age of 88, riding 50 miles in 2:52:01 and 10 miles in 27:57. National secretary Rachael Elliott said that while the VTTA has a number of members aged over 90, she believed Mr Dare had been the oldest person actively racing in the UK Time Trials when he died.

Scientists have discovered signs of unusual muscles on the arms of a new species of dinosaur that once fished in the swamps and bayous of what is now southern Alberta. The dinosaur, named Apatoraptor pennatus, didn't use those muscles for brawling or lifting heavy weights, but for moving its feathers, University of Alberta paleontologists report in a new paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Apatoraptor was a bird-like dinosaur that walked on two legs and had a long neck and a long tail. It was related to other dinosaurs that were known to have feathers all over their bodies, including long tail feathers and head crests. It was already known that the dinosaurs had feathers on their arms and most of their bodies. "But what we didn't know was that they actually could move those feathers," said Greg Funston, the lead author of the study. What wasn't bird-like was the dinosaur's size — it was about two metres long and 180 kilograms, making it quite a bit larger than a human. "'Cause these animals are way too big to fly, they're probably using their feathers for display," added Funston, who studied the dinosaur as part of his PhD. Those displays would likely have been used to impress potential mates. Funston said Apatoraptor lived about 70 million years ago — four million years before dinosaurs went extinct — in a swampy, coastal environment that would have looked something like the Mississippi River Delta in Louisiana. The area was home to a variety of dinosaurs, including duck-billed dinosaurs like Edmontosaurs, tyrannosaurs, horned dinosaurs like triceratops, and relatives of velociraptor. Apatoraptor likely would have waded through the water like a heron, catching small prey with its beak and fingers. It may have also grazed on aquatic plants. The Apatoraptor's skeleton, which was very complete and almost fully assembled or "articulated" when it was found, was collected near Drumheller in 1993. At that time, it was mistaken for a common dinosaur called an ornithomimid. By the time Funston started studying the skeleton, it had been re-identified as another type of dinosaur called Epichirostenotes — a dinosaur he had already studied and was familiar with. But this specimen didn't seem to match up. "Some of the proportions of the finger bones were off and some shapes of the finger bones were different." There were also some features of its lower jaw that "really just didn't look right." Funston realized it was a new species. Further studies showed that it was related to Epichirostenotes, but its closest known relatives actually lived in Mongolia. He discovered the telltale signs of its unusual arm muscles after CT scanning the dinosaur's arm bones. They had tiny scars like those left by the feather-moving muscles of birds. Funston named the new dinosaur for its mistaken identity and its feathers — Apato means "deceptive" and pennatus means "winged."

A bill in the Ohio House of Representatives would require school workers, psychologists, and social workers to report to parents if their child is trans, and if they don’t they could be charged with a felony. The bill, introduced in May by Republican officials Rep. Tom Brinkman and Rep. Paul Zeltwanger, would grant parents broad unprecedented rights to withhold any kind of treatment regarding gender dysphoria, or, in the bill’s own words, “treatment or activities that are designed and intended to form a child’s conception of sex and gender.” The language is purposefully broad, potentially allowing therapists to be prosecuted for answering a child’s questions about gender identity, or teachers to be prosecuted for using a student’s new name and pronouns. The law would require that before any such “activity” or treatment is started they obtain, “the written, informed consent of each of the child’s parents and the child’s guardian or custodian.” It puts any professional who wants to help trans children between a moral rock and a legal hard place, forcing them by law to out the child to their parents, regardless of how this may impact the child’s safety or well-being. The need for a signature from each of the child’s parents, regardless of the family situation, means that if everyone is following the letter of the law, a child could be waiting indefinitely for something as simple as an answer to a question about their own gender. All of that is pernicious enough, but the heart of the bill is actually legally protecting parents who refuse to accept that their child is trans and withhold treatment from them. Brinkman says the bill was inspired by the case in Cincinnati in February when grandparents gained custody of their 17-year-old trans grandson after his parents refused to accept his gender identity and tried instead to get him into “Christian counseling,” also known as conversion therapy. Brinkman believes it is a parent’s right to do this, even though the American Psychological Association has stated that such “therapy” does not work and often causes immense psychological harm. If this bill is passed, courts in Ohio would no longer be able to deny custody to parents who deny their child’s gender identity or withhold treatment. For a trans child without access to the treatment they need, puberty can be torture, not to mention the psychological trauma of having your gender identity denied and rejected. Brinkman either doesn’t care, or doesn’t care to understand this, saying in an interview with WOSU Public Media, “if somebody doesn’t like it, you’re emancipated at age 18 and you can go do whatever the heck you want.” H/T them.

Just over a month after the private Facebook group for Hillary Clinton supporters exploded into a massive national support group, Pantsuit Nation has a book deal. The group’s founder, Libby Chamberlain, shared the news in a Facebook post on Monday night, writing, “The book will further our mission and the premise that stories give meaning to action and that meaningful action leads to long-term, sustainable change.” Founded not long before the 2016 election, the group originally was intended to encourage people to wear Clinton’s trademark outfit to the polls. In the days since, the Pantsuit Nation group became a space where Clinton voters retreated to bolster each other and share stories of their experiences with post-Nov. 8 shock, encounters with bigotry, and more ― some stories inspiring, some heartbreaking. In her announcement, posted to the private group’s public page, Chamberlain emphasized that the book would be drawn from the group and would be a comfort object of sorts: A Pantsuit Nation book. A book of YOU. A book BY YOU. A permanent, beautiful, holdable, snuggle-in-bed-able, dogear-able, shareable, tearstainable book. Your voices. Your stories. Our community. Our project. Our message of hope and change. The post quickly sparked reaction ― but despite the cheery tone of Chamberlain’s original revelation, much of the response was outraged. Some members castigated her for capitalizing on the experiences of marginalized women and minorities, while others expressed frustration that the private, safe space of the Pantsuit Nation group would be mined for public content. Still, others expressed excitement, including Refinery29, which deemed it a modern Chicken Soup for the Soul in advance. On Twitter, critics of the project aired their skepticism: When you hear there's going to be a Pantsuit Nation book pic.twitter.com/PSgBjWdBh8 — Gabriella Paiella (@GMPaiella) December 20, 2016 rolled my eyes so hard at the pantsuit nation book news I think I pulled some muscles in my neck — Erin 🎶Gloria🎶 Ryan (@morninggloria) December 20, 2016 Empowerment(TM) is the sand rich women buy to bury their heads in as less privileged women have their rights trampled 💁 — Erin 🎶Gloria🎶 Ryan (@morninggloria) December 20, 2016 Pantsuit Nation is a hustle and his most Bigly Cheeto is really about to become the POTUS. Strange shit. — Shay Stewart Bouley (@blackgirlinmain) December 20, 2016 In her Facebook post, Chamberlain also announced that she had “filed the paperwork to establish Pantsuit Nation as 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations. These organizations will support the advocacy, education, and political action efforts we have already seen grow out of Pantsuit Nation.” More information on the plans for these nonprofit efforts were not included, nor did the announcement include details as to where proceeds from the book would be channeled. A query to Pantsuit Nation’s press contact had not been answered as of publication time. “You are a force, Pantsuit Nation,” Chamberlain concluded. “Let’s see if we can harness that force within the pages of a book and see it on nightstands and coffee tables all around the world.” As powerful as books can be, channeling a large, politically motivated group into a coffee table anthology might seem to be aiming a little low.

MC Mary Kom, the Olympic medallist, who returned to her preferred 48kg weight category after five years of competing in 51kg, was bidding for her first Asian gold medal in the category. (Photo: PTI) Hanoi: Indian boxer MC Mary Kom on Wednesday defeated North Korea’s Kim Hyang Mi 5-0 in the 48 kg category final of the Asian Women's Boxing Championships held here. Up against North Korea's Kim Hyang Mi, the five-time world champion and Olympic bronze-medallist Indian prevailed in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to add another accolade to her already crowded cabinet. .@MangteC (48kg) punches her way to a fifth gold medal at the Asian Women's Championship, taking Hyang Mi Kim (PRK) in her stride. #ASBC2017Women #PunchMeinHaiDum pic.twitter.com/T0cMzAOJ1C — Boxing Federation (@BFI_official) November 8, 2017 This is Mary Kom's first international gold medal since the 2014 Asian Games and her first medal in over a year. In Hyang Mi, the 34-year-old Mary Kom found her most aggressive opponent so far in the tournament but she was up for the task. Unlike her previous bouts, in which the opening three minutes were invariably spent measuring up the rival, both the boxers were lunging at each other within seconds of the bell going off. 5th time Asian champion @MangteC on podium . Congrats 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/eCtoQ9L9Rh — Sports India (@SportsIndia3) November 8, 2017 Matched quite evenly in speed and precision, Mary Kom scored for her ringcraft, which included some fine footwork to outpace Hyang Mi at crucial junctures. There was hardly any power-hitting on display but the contest was made engaging by the boxers' fast-paced exchange of punches. The North Korean was relentless with her left hooks but the Manipuri did not allow herself to be rattled and scored on counter-attack with her combination blows. The star Indian boxer had booked her place in the finals of Asian Women's Boxing Championships after sweeping aside Japan's Tsubasa Komura in the light-flyweight category in the Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday. The 34-year-old proved that she still has fuel left in her tank as she defeated Komura in a unanimous 5-0 verdict to make it to the summit showdown for the fifth time in her six appearances at the event. Mary’s North Korean opponent had made it to the final after beating Mongolia’s Jargalan Ochirbat in the semifinals. The Olympic medallist, who returned to her preferred 48kg weight category after five years of competing in 51kg, was bidding for her first Asian gold medal in the category. Earlier, Mary had hammered Chinese Taipei's Meng-Chieh Pin in a split verdict in the quarterfinals to make it to the last-four stage of the event and assure India of a bronze medal. It should be noted that Mary had won four gold and a silver in her five previous appearances at the event.

MLS mirroring the trend in other leagues around the world. Miami, FL (Wednesday, January 23, 2019) by Kenneth Russo – Major European leagues have it. The trend has been adopted in North America by the NBA. And now, your local Major League Soccer club will have a new look with the 2020 season. In an announcement last October 23, 2018, the league approved clubs to add a sponsored sleeve patch on team uniforms. In addition to the sponsor on the front of a kit (jersey), clubs will be able to place a second sponsor on the right sleeve of the game shirt. The league’s badge will remain on the left sleeve, tailored to match the club colours. The size of the sponsored sleeve patch will replace and be roughly the same size as the existing MLS logo on the right jersey sleeve, which is roughly 2.5 by 2.5 inches (6.35 x 6.35 cm). The league badge will remain on the left side. The league will allow clubs to create their own sales strategies. Clubs can also decide whether the sleeve sponsor patch will be sold on shirts sold at retail. There are currently restrictions on some categories, such as alcohol and gambling, but those are under review by the league. There are also restrictions aimed at providing protection for some current league partners. For example, Nike cannot negotiate a sleeve sponsor deal, as the league has an apparel supplier contract with Adidas to supply all uniforms. (see Official Apparel Supplier) Securing a sleeve sponsor is also only available to those clubs that have already secured a primary kit sponsor. The sleeve sponsor initiative will be for a four-year term to begin with, though given the additional revenue it will generate (Sleeve Sponsorships), I foresee the program being extended. “The sleeve patch is a premium opportunity for brands to be connected with our League and clubs in mutually beneficial ways,” said Gary Stevenson, president and managing director, MLS Business Ventures. “As our League continues to expand, and with more fans in the U.S. and Canada viewing our matches, attending our games, and engaging on social media, the visibility of the sleeve patches will be substantial.” Creating space for additional corporate sponsors is a growing trend that has only recently been embraced by some North American sports leagues. Last season (2017-18), the NBA allowed jersey ads for the first time, and now all but three of the league’s 30 teams have sold the space, driving a wide range of revenue. The defending champion Golden State Warriors have a three-year, $60 million USD deal with Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, Inc., also the kit sponsors of FC Barcelona, while the Utah Jazz have a deal with Qualtrics LLC’s cancer charity for $4 million USD per year. The Miami Heat have a sponsor patch deal with Weston, FL based Ultimate Software. Heat partner with Ultimate Software The basketball league’s 21 patch deals in place last season generated $493 million worth of media awareness, according to valuation firm GumGum Sports. According to Forbes and GumGum Sports, the 2.5 by 2.5-inch patches are generating over $350 million worth of value just through exposure on social media (75 percent of the value), with 25 percent of value coming from TV broadcasts.. The only other signage in the NBA that generates that much revenue is the Nike logo stitched on NBA jerseys. Many sponsorship deals for the NBA patches started as low as $5 million over three years, yielding a return on investment of 70 percent for the sponsors. Others have paid between $20–60 million for these sponsorship spaces and still see an ROI of over 5 percent. In contrast, the NFL, NHL, and MLB have all resisted the trend, thus far. Related: Bloomberg article – 2018-10-24/major-league-soccer-lets-teams-sell-more-ad-space-on-jerseys

Torrential downpours are hammering North Wales, raising the risk potential of flooding in parts of the region. Both a weather warning and flood alerts remain in place in some areas today as forecasters warn of stormy conditions. The Met Office earlier issued a yellow weather warning for rain in Wrexham, which came into force at around 3pm and remains in place until midnight. We'll bring you the latest updates on the weather from across the region. If you have some information you can contact us by following our Twitter feed @northwaleslive - the official North Wales Live account - real news in real time. Or like facebook.com/northwaleslive/ - your must-see news, features, videos and pictures throughout the day from the North Wales Live. Don't forget you can also keep up to date with the latest via the free North Wales Live app. Download it for Apple devices ​here​ and Android devices ​here​

With the war in Afghanistan now in its 17th year, the U.S. military is engaged in the longest stretch of armed conflict in its history. And yet its leaders are keeping the American public in the dark about its operations around the world, while seeking to obscure what little information is available. Secrecy surrounding the U.S. military isn’t new: under President Barack Obama, the Department of Defense (DOD) used creative accounting strategies, such as excluding temporary deployments from official tallies, to keep reported troop levels beneath caps set by the White House. And no president has been capable of publicly confirming the total number and cost of military personnel, civilians, and contractors necessary to support U.S. operations overseas. Still, recent administrations have understood that the public relies on troop levels as an imperfect marker of American strategy, commitment, and even success, and have shared force management levels as planning tools and contributions to public dialogue. But President Donald Trump has stepped back from this precedent, making evasiveness a focal point of his administration’s security strategy. “We no longer tell our enemies our plans,” the president bragged during his January State of the Union, recalling his campaign promise to keep his strategy to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) a secret so that no enemies could benefit from it. Trump’s commitment to secrecy, once a punchline among policy elites, has been widely embraced throughout the national security establishment. The secrets, moreover, are kept not only from Washington’s enemies but also from the American public. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, for instance, has carefully curtailed his public communication (partly to avoid contradicting his boss) and has held very few on-camera press conferences. Both Mattis and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made a point to reduce the number of journalists accompanying them on trips abroad. And the DOD has issued severe warnings to its staff about dealing with the press—in the most recent case, the Air Force ordered officials to freeze their engagement with the media until they had completed new operational security training, a justification that many analysts questioned. But perhaps the most consequential change has been an unstated decision to offer significantly less information to the American people on where, and for what purpose, U.S. troops are in combat overseas. With Trump’s encouragement, the Pentagon has transitioned from its Obama-era policy of applying public caps on deployed forces, set by the White House, to quietly controlling its own force management levels. The DOD has welcomed this newfound autonomy, using it to ramp up operations without requesting permission from the White House. And in the absence of any public fanfare surrounding its moves, it has generally kept information on troop movements close to the vest. As a result, official U.S. troop levels are no longer a poor but still useful proxy for Washington’s strategy and commitment—and no alternative has yet filled in the void. U.S. Army soldiers fire artillery in Afghanistan's Kandahar province, June 2011. Baz Ratner / Reuters FOG OF WAR Troop levels in operational theaters are complex. Simple tallies of U.S. personnel in a wartime theater have never been immediately accessible, an astonishing gap to anyone who’s never worked with the Pentagon. Nevertheless, Americans have usually been able to gain an understanding of U.S. military commitments through force management levels set by the executive branch. These levels are set for a number of reasons: to accord with host nation agreements for how many U.S. troops may operate in a country; to incentivize or govern multilateral commitments (as when U.S. troops were limited to 15 percent of the overall NATO force in Kosovo); to indicate priorities (as in the Iraq and Afghanistan surges); to serve as a ceiling on U.S. commitment; or to serve as a set of milestones for withdrawal. The Obama administration’s first major national security debates were over Afghanistan, where force management levels became a strategic shorthand. Particularly after the beginning of the surge in 2009, force management levels were used to shape the drawdown of U.S. forces, first in Iraq and later in Afghanistan, setting public guideposts and making real Obama’s promise that the “tide of war is receding.” Nearly all were accompanied by a coordinated series of speeches, talking points, or fact sheets to affirm the president’s intentions and to establish a target for his critics. But any defense nerd will tell you that such troop caps are made to be manipulated. The military despises the use of personnel limits to constrain security objectives, and force planners have become quite artful at working around these caps. Short-term deployments such as those frequently done by special forces were not counted under the Obama administration’s caps, nor was the use of contractors. Consequently, when Mattis came into office in early 2017, he inherited a system that did not track the actual level of U.S. forces in operational theaters abroad. This, combined with the new freedom from White House force management levels and presidentially encouraged secrecy, meant that for much of 2017 the Pentagon did not and, by its own accounting, could not give thorough assessments of its force levels in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Syria. Mattis, confronted regularly by the press about the DOD’s lack of transparency and inconsistent reporting, claimed that he had set out to change this, for his own purposes and for public consumption. In December 2017, the Pentagon did eventually announce that the United States had 2,000 troops in Syria. This followed months, however, in which it claimed that only 500 U.S. troops were in the country, even as the DOD’s own bureaucratic data source, the Defense Manpower Data Center (which publicly reports on all kinds of personnel data), had long indicated a far higher number. The disconnect was baffling. And the absence of a public reckoning about the United States’ commitments in Syria was not merely a data problem. U.S. forces lacked guidance on their mission as ISIS neared defeat and geopolitical dynamics in the country became more complex; in one remarkable hour this spring, President Trump announced a likely withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria just as his senior commander for the region suggested a long-term American commitment to the mission. Senior defense officials may enjoy their newfound autonomy, but they are exercising it at the cost of openness with the American people. Afghanistan has a similar story. After months of rumors, last fall the public belatedly learned that official troop levels in the country had increased from around 8,500 to over 15,000, following Trump’s vague strategy announcement in August promising a stronger U.S. military presence in the country. This data, too, was part of a Pentagon attempt at more accurate accounting. Yet neither the Pentagon nor the White House has since formally explained what this new strategy would mean in terms of additional American blood and treasure, nor what Washington’s objectives are. General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has referred to the administration’s Afghanistan mission as “a fundamentally different approach” from anything previous, but no official has taken the podium to lay out precisely what those differences are. And the White House seems fine with that. Other theaters have also seen troop buildups without much strategic fanfare. In Somalia, the number of U.S. troops grew from 50 to around 500 in 2017. Indeed, estimates of U.S. deployments across Africa have also recently crept upward. In October 2017, Dunford stated that approximately 6,000 U.S. personnel were deployed to the continent. But in March, Thomas Waldhauser, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, put the number at 7,200. These increases were generally not publicly announced, bypassing any dialogue about adjustments in strategy, focus, or risk. BACKSLIDING ON TRANSPARENCY These are just a few examples. But they suggest a larger pattern: after years of purported micromanagement by the Obama White House, the DOD is now taking full advantage of its freedom to manage deployments as it sees fit without drawing attention to the process. In this, the Pentagon is supported by Trump, who has said “I defer to my generals” on more than one occasion and has been happy to delegate decisions and responsibility to top military officials. But the president is not the only one to whom the Pentagon is accountable. Senior defense officials may enjoy their newfound autonomy, but they are exercising it at the cost of openness with the American people. What, where, and how the U.S. military is operating overseas does tend to come out, if grudgingly. But despite Mattis himself pledging better access and to fix continued discrepancies of force levels that began in the Obama administration, such reforms have been slow, and they have been delinked from the strategic choices that such levels imperfectly represent. Under Trump, the Pentagon has at best belatedly or reactively come forward with some approximation of troop levels and mission changes in relevant theaters. And the Pentagon’s stubborn refusal to confirm regularly leaked troop increases lends an air of absurdity to the institution while diminishing the credibility of the men and women tasked with speaking for the military. Even workarounds are limited: after years of being able to generally rely on the Defense Manpower Data Center to offer a glimpse into deployment statistics when Pentagon spokespeople were tight-lipped, last month DOD stripped out Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria numbers from its quarterly reports. Trump has also walked back transparency measures introduced under his predecessor. Data on air strikes and civilian casualties, which the Obama administration took slow and painful steps to publicize, have become harder to find for a number of theaters, despite the fact that, as former Obama administration counterterrorism officials Luke Hartig and Joshua Geltzer argue, such transparency “went a long way toward meaningfully building at least some trust with the local population and a modicum of tolerance for the operations.” Hartig and Geltzer further reveal that the Trump administration is now only releasing aggregate data on air strikes in Yemen, which have substantially increased in frequency, and has offered no public justification as to why the tempo of operations is ramping up. Similarly, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has shown that strikes in Afghanistan, once a model for operational transparency, also receive less acknowledgement and detail. Trump (L) and Mattis in Norfolk, Virginia, July 2017. Jonathan Ernst / Reuters In another break from its predecessors, in 2016 the Obama White House released a report on the legal and policy frameworks guiding U.S. military operations—a practice that is now required by the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Yet Trump’s first transparency report, although unclassified, was not released to the public, which learned about it only after a leaked version was reported in The New York Times. Over a year of administration reticence to discuss its military operations overseas has sent a message to defense officials to deprioritize transparency and the dialogue that typically accompanies it. The DOD’s actions have, as a result, fallen short of the engagement necessary to inform public debate. In general, Trump administration military operations are not the subject of signature and commitment-laden national security speeches or announcements of changes in strategy as usually seen in prior administrations; rather, they trickle out after the fact via responses to query, occasional public reports, or, at worst, leaks. PEOPLE POWER Votel, Mattis, and other defense officials seem to believe that their secrecy is justified. Mattis has suggested that operational security limits his ability to publicize troop buildups and missions, saying that he would avoid doing so “if it involves telling the enemy something that will help them.” There is a reasonable argument to be made that this lack of transparency increases military effectiveness. The less adversaries know about the U.S. force structure in a given theater, the less they can threaten U.S. troops. Moreover, public discussions of troop numbers can be misconstrued as caps, which can in turn be interpreted as a limited U.S. commitment. For the United States’ enemies in Afghanistan and the Middle East, it is not hard to test Washington’s will to fight: one need merely tune in to public discussions about the American people’s tolerance for boots on the ground. Military commanders and civilian defense leaders alike tend to believe that when it comes to details about deployments, less is more. The problem with this approach, however, is that it assumes that domestic support for U.S. military engagements can be sustained in an information vacuum. It draws on a reservoir of public faith in the military while also limiting the public’s ability to make an informed decision. This is a losing gamble, as it will eventually wear away the public’s sense of investment in either the nation’s wars or its military, decoupling the use of force from domestic politics. Separating government action from public preferences in this way is undemocratic. Military operations should serve domestic politics, not vice versa. Worse, in a news market saturated with excellent reporting on the one hand and inaccurate, misleading, or partisan news stories on the other, there is no such thing as a true information vacuum. If the military is not open about what it is doing, other parties will fill the void. And some of those parties will be the very adversaries U.S. secrecy is meant to undermine. From a policy perspective, moreover, force levels are a lousy way to conduct a conversation that should be about strategy. Neither troop numbers nor missions explain much of anything. But they do start a conversation. And from the perspective of domestic politics, troop levels are indeed a litmus test for the scope and scale of the American public’s commitment to a particular conflict, and one of civilians’ best windows into the operations of their country’s military. Transparency can create some operational vulnerability. But it can also communicate what political scientists call a credible commitment—doing something less advantageous to oneself to indicate seriousness about an agreement or strategy. The political scientist Kenneth Schultz has shown that when a democracy goes through public discussions about the use of force and rallies behind a military action, it communicates its commitment especially clearly. Whatever the Pentagon’s intent, by all appearances the United States now has a DOD that is reluctant to explain coherently, and to audiences that matter, where it is deploying U.S. troops overseas, what they are doing there, why they are doing it, and what the legal basis for their actions is. From the Pentagon’s perspective, there is little reason to change—as long as it meets its mandated reporting requirements, faces no legal challenges to its interpretation of the 2001 Authorization of the Use of Military Force, and continues to receive its operational budgets, nothing stands in its way. And with a president willing to constantly defer to his generals, nothing is likely to.

Gastbeitrag von Marilla Slominski (JouWatch) Für eine holländische Antidiskriminierungsstelle ist es völlig in Ordnung, wenn Muslime Homosexuelle „verbrennen, köpfen und schlachten“ wollen! Laut holländischen Medienberichten habe das Anti-Diskriminierungsbüro MiND gesagt, dass die Verunglimpfung von Homosexuellen zwar normalerweise strafbar sei, bei einem Moslem aber durch die Religionsfreiheit gedeckt sei. Die Todesdrohungen müssten im Zusammenhang mit dem islamischen Glauben gesehen werden. So gäbe es Muslime, die den Koran so auslegten, dass Homosexuelle getötet werden dürften. Das sei durch die Meinungsfreiheit in den Niederlanden gedeckt, so die Antidiskriminierungsstelle MiND weiter. Dieser Skandal wurde öffentlich, weil in einem Online-Forum im Kommentarbereich nach der Veröffentlichung eines Artikels über die holländisch-marokkanische Schwulengemeinschaft offen gefordert wurde, dass Homosexuelle „verbrannt, geköpft und geschlachtet“ werden sollen. Hollands Premier reagierte schockiert auf die Veröffentlichung. Wütend fordert er nun eine öffentliche Untersuchung der Anti-Diskriminierungorganisation MiND und den sofortigen Stopp der staatliche finanziellen Unterstützung. Der Fall schlägt hohe Wellen und erste Politiker fordern eine Stellungnahme des Justizministers vor dem Parlament. Dazu passt ein Beitrag in der “Welt”, in dem uns eine neue Partei vorgestellt wird, die sich vorgenommen hat, bei den nächsten Wahlen in den Niederlande den Holländern den Migrantenknüppel zwischen die Beine zu werfen: „Gewöhn dich dran!“ – so lautet der trotzige Schlachtruf der ersten europäischen Migrantenpartei. „Denk“ tritt im kommenden März bei den niederländischen Wahlen an, ist bereits seit zwei Jahren mit zwei früheren Sozialdemokraten im Parlament vertreten und konnte seither mehrere Tausend Mitglieder werben, vorzugsweise mit Migrationshintergrund… Die Forderungen haben es in sich: Islamische Schulen, die oft den Koran auf Arabisch lehren und strenge Geschlechtertrennung vorschreiben, sollen per Federstrich den niederländischen Schulen gleichgestellt werden. Die Sprachen der Herkunftsländer sollen vermehrt in Hollands Schulen auf dem Lehrplan stehen. In Krankenhäusern und Altersheimen wird es nach dem Willen der neuen Partei „kultursensibel“ zugehen, was bedeutet: Anpassung an islamischen Verhaltenskodex und an religiöse Speiseverbote. Denk fordert eine gesetzliche Migrantenquote von zehn Prozent in allen Betrieben, Behörden und auch in Vorständen von Konzernen. Ein neu geschaffenes „Ministerium für gegenseitige Akzeptanz“ soll streng darüber wachen, dass den Hinzugekommenen nicht zu viel abverlangt wird. In den Schulen soll die Erziehung zum Multikulturalismus verpflichtend warden. Eine „Rassismuspolizei“ mit 1000 Beamten soll darüber wachen, dass es nirgendwo zu Diskriminierungen kommt. Überführte Täter sollen gerichtlich bestraft und vom Staatsdienst ausgeschlossen werden. Auch sollen Richter Verurteilte zu Sozialdiensten bei Zuwanderern verpflichten können; in jedem Fall werden sie in einem staatlichen „Rassismusregister“ als dubiose Staatsbürger verzeichnet. Alle Namen von historischen Seefahrern und Kolonisatoren sollen aus dem öffentlichen Leben verschwinden… So dreist kann wirklich nur jemand sein, für den vollständige Übernahme bereits in greifbare Nähe gerückt ist. Hier geht es zur äußerst lesenswerten Seite der Erstveröffentlichung des Beitrags: Journalistenwatch

Volgens Hakim Ziyech is de ideale vervolgclub voor hem nog niet voorbij gekomen. Dat de Marokkaan mogelijk een mooie stap zou willen maken is nog steeds zo, maar vooralsnog is het nog wachten op de juiste aanbieding, zo meldt hij tegenover FOX Sports. 'Het moet wel een club zijn waar ik Ajax voor wil inruilen', aldus Ziyech, die stelt dat de juiste club nog niet is langsgekomen. Onder meer Sevilla toonde serieuze interesse, maar die wimpelde de international van zich af. 'Tot die tijd speel ik lekker voor Ajax en doe ik mijn best. Ik voel mij thuis en speel veel.' Dat Ziyech mogelijk nog een seizoen in Amsterdam blijft, heeft ook met de positieve groepsdynamiek te maken. 'Iedereen kan hier goed met elkaar opschieten, het is een leuk team. We hebben plezier, dan moet je niet vertrekken om het vertrekken. Het moet iets zijn waar je helemaal achter staat en waar het plaatje compleet is. Zolang ik dat gevoel niet heb, ga ik niet weg.'

While plenty of other sequels at J.C. Staff are falling apart to different degrees, DanMachi has managed to return (mostly) unscathed. And so it’s time to explain how it’s survived turbulent times at the studio, how they’ve tackled the new production, and most importantly, what the strengths of the franchise were in the first place! In the season preview we urged Danmachi fans not to worry too much about the fate of the production, despite the widespread panic – in some ways justified – regarding J.C. Staff sequels at the moment. And, rather than betray our expectations by falling apart, the first few episodes have been so solid that they’ve encouraged us to write this follow-up piece we hadn’t planned. But for starters, let’s get into what is Is it Wrong to Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon, apart from a very unwieldy title. Even if you don’t consider yourself to be above light novels altogether, Danmachi has enough dubious flags on display that I can’t blame anyone who skipped it without giving it a chance. The title itself sounds like something a male chauvinist would come up with, and the one thing that immediately went viral was Suzuhito Yasuda’s most questionable fashion decision. On top of that, it appeared to star yet another protagonist mocked for his weakness yet secretly blessed with unique abilities with the potential to make him the strongest. That’s explained by gamified mechanics that such series often use as a shortcut to avoid coming up with unique abilities and systems of their own. So surely, the reason we chose to feature the series here must have been exceptional production values alone, right? Well, no. For starters, the original series was a respectable animation effort, but nothing truly outside the norm – its attractive, fluid effects work thanks to animators like Hiroshi Tomioka and the cathartic visceral fight in episode #08 being its greatest accomplishments, as many fans will remember. The setting, thought-out enough to feature architecture that accounts for the possibility of monsters suddenly rampaging around, was beautifully depicted by the artists at studio Moon Flower; a job first led by Toshiharu Mizutani of Yuri on ICE and Banana Fish fame, then replaced by Flying Witch’s Yasuhiro Okumura. Though the production values took a hit around the end of the first season that made it impossible to reach its previous peaks, the overall package was a comfortably above-average labor of love. And while that’s all nice, the truth is that I personally wouldn’t have kept up with the series for so long if it weren’t offering way more than that. For all those negative-sounding things I said, Danmachi’s actually a lovely show about a group of misfits forming a family and finding their place in a fantasy world. A story about turning a selfish, superficial understanding of heroism into a more selfless means of self-improvement, naive as it may be. It’s got one of the strongest central relationships I’ve encountered in this genre space, and nothing about it is less subtle than making familia the core concept of its narrative and mythos. It is a wish-fulfillment series that’s not free from genre trappings, but if anything, its quality only shows that there’s nothing inherently wrong with that! It likely won’t change your mind regarding light novels of this kind, but rather make you wish they were all this genuine and pleasant. If only all protagonists were as charming as Bell Cranell, the cutest hero in the making according to the latest survey I held among myself. Now that we’ve established that there’s more than meets the eye to Danmachi, taking a quick look at the directorial lineup feels quite relevant; as you’ll see, that same theme applies to the individuals who have led the project as well. After all, the first season was directed by Yoshinobu Yamakawa, known for KEY adaptations that never stood a chance to live up to preceding productions and a comedy series that only reached memetic status after people – including its official accounts – joked about its low sales for long enough. That doesn’t paint the full picture, though. For one, Yamakawa’s actual directorial and writing debut was HELLS, a radically stylish theatrical project worthy of admiration… even if you happen to believe its latter half collapsed upon its own ambition, which I do, but you can take my admiration for the project in spite of that harsh assessment as proof of how unique it was. After a few commercially-minded projects that didn’t manage to make it big and a wildly idiosyncratic movie that didn’t manage to earn a reputation of cult classic, Danmachi’s major success felt like some well-earned acknowledgment for Yamakawa. A series with much stronger foundations than you might expect from what it presents on a surface level might have been the perfect breakout hit for him – a director with a good grasp of many aspects that go into creating an animated work, even if quickly skimming his resume might not give you that impression. Besides being the project leader, the reason we’ve put emphasis on Yamakawa’s role is that… he left. Danmachi was a hit, but no level of success will change how much time you need to produce a sequel, especially if you have to wait for enough source material to accumulate. While they found ways to keep the interest in the property alive via other animated entries, even those took long enough that Yamakawa had already moved on by then. The Danmachi OVA (2016) and Sword Oratoria spinoff (2017), arguably the least inspired parts of this extended universe, were directed by Youhei Suzuki, who can only do so much considering how many projects he’s burdened with. Albeit ultimately inconsequential, the original movie that premiered earlier this year was luckier; better managed as a project and directed by the quietly brilliant Katsushi Sakurabi, who matured during the studio’s golden age circa Utena and recently directed some of their most overlooked gems ala Flying Witch and Alice & Zoroku. After finding another skilled director who fit the understated qualities of Danmachi in Sakurabi – non-orthodox family bonds are also his forte after all – you’d think the constant changes would stop. And you’d be wrong. Before you panic, let me add that I believe the studio made a very smart choice when it comes to production management: since the movie and the TV series were due to be released just a few months apart, they were handed to two fundamentally different teams. Two directors leading their own projects, as well as two animation producers to gather their crews without the big overlap you’d normally expect. The upside of that is already appreciable now. Though the results were far from theatrical anime highs, and it required a fair share of assistance from studio L-a-unch Box, the movie was a decent realization of bigger setpieces than the TV series featured; the effects work by specialists like Ryuta Yanagi, plus the reappearance of OPM2’s hero Kenichiro Aoki and the master of articulate acting Kosuke Yoshida are some of its best treats for animation fans. Due to that arrangement, the production of the second season was able to advance concurrently without taking much of a hit – if anything it’s started comfortably above expectations, hence the existence of this article. If it finds some stability, which is something that chief supervisor Shigeki Kimoto is known to be able to provide, then Danmachi fans won’t have much to worry about. When it comes to the production values, that is. The least encouraging side to the studio’s strategy to divide the teams is that the TV show’s new director is Hideki Tachibana. And no matter how positive I try to be in a post celebrating a franchise that’s been faring surprisingly well for years, it’d be dishonest to sell that as great news; he’s got enough massive duds as a project leader that I don’t believe it can all be excused with explanations like unfitting material and inherent lack of potential. What I can do, though, is assuage some worries about that. Based on what we’ve seen, I believe Danmachi‘s identity was too well-established for Tachibana to even try to rock the boat, so I’d expect something comfortably similar to the first season. The storyboarding might not be equally on point since some key players are busy, and the flavor of the bigger action moments might change since that’s what Tachibana specializes in, but expect no fundamental reimagination of a formula that already worked. As a bit of a side note, it’s also worth pointing out that despite the constant changes in the production team after the first season, Danmachi has always been a franchise that J.C. Staff has kept close to its chest. The studio is overwhelmed by its own workload to the point of having to subcontract entire projects against their original plans, while others get shipped in a clear half-baked state. On this very season, two of their series have outsourced the production of every episode so far. And yet Bell and Hestia prevail, quite healthily at that. Danmachi fans, be happy about what you’ve got! That’s been more than enough talk about the series as a whole and how it’s managed to survive the current chaos at J.C. Staff, so how about a proper look at these first few episodes? Truth to be told, the premiere wasn’t going to surprise surprise any viewer. Amidst all the setup for the new arc, the clear standout moment was once again the honest bond between Hestia and Bell; the former’s jealous fits and exaggerated romcom shenanigans might be one weaker parts of the series, but she’ll always wholeheartedly support her family member when it matters. Upon hearing that he got badly hurt defending her honor, rather than loudly squeeing, Hestia kindly convinced him to laugh it off next time, because the joy of seeing Bell stand up for her could never offset the sadness of watching him get hurt. A perfect sample of what makes their relationship, and Danmachi as a whole, feel so gentle. With no unexpected developments – in a good way – and with Tachibana’s workman-like storyboards, the most noteworthy events in the first episode were in the animation department. You’ll notice that as early as the high-octane introductory scene, key animated by Hayato Kurosaki, a fairly overlooked effects specialist; you can tell I’m not kidding when I say that he’s a 2DFX enthusiast because the wolves they’re fighting are quite literally made of fire shapes. Kurosaki, whom you can find this season over at Symphogear as well, is the kind of artist many TV anime directors love to have in their team: capable of adapting to the scope of the project, and likely to deliver something eye-catching even in dubious circumstances. He’s got a history with J.C. Staff and Danmachi in particular, having worked regularly on Sword Oratoria, but his first appearance in the sequel was a step above his previous contributions to the franchise. Kurosaki’s at his best when he can get more adventurous with the shapes of effects than standard explosions allow, and we did get a bit of a glimpse of that in this scene. His real forte, though, is using sparks and dispersion of particles to depict clashes, even when they involve magical beams that are tricky to attribute weight to. Certainly made the monster’s fire attack pack a punch! That said, the premiere’s real animation highlight came after that. The brawl at the bar was exceptional before any punch even landed – you might have noticed that the production switched gears as soon as the first cut, with the careful shifting of posture. The gesture work is on the authentic side, as is the attention to weight conveyed with subtle secondary motion (be it hair swaying or bodies bouncing when people get tossed around), and yet it’s impossible to say animation with loose finishing touches like this is truly realistic. Don’t take that as criticism, though: authenticity is a spectrum and there’s no inherent requirement to adhere to a single register when animating, and if anything, this ability to combine them shows that the animator who drew it had a wide skillset. I suspect the culprit worked uncredited, but whoever it was, they hit it out of the park. Animation-wise, the final nod in the first episode has to go to the ballroom dance scene. It’s fairly economical all things considered, but the way a couple of layouts conveyed spaciousness by making the characters move towards the camera stood out as some of the most skillful work in the whole episode too. Aiz’s flowing hair and the implied motion even in the still shots – thanks to talented artists like Hyein – left a strong impression as well. No adaptation of Yasuda’s designs will ever come close to ryochimo reinventing them for his Yozakura Quartet anime, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find a handful of drawings there to be unexpectedly gorgeous. Another pleasant surprise to add to Danmachi‘s collection! As if to reinforce the positive vibes with some minor gripes that we’ve been talking about, the next episodes have continued to offer a mostly solid experience. While the narrative might be moving forward a bit too fast for all the important character beats to have the gravitas they deserve, they still maintain that same familiar, sweet taste; sure it’d have been nice for Lili’s arc to have had more breathing room, but everyone’s decision to formally join Hestia’s familia still felt heartfelt since everyone’s bonds had already grown to be believably family-like. Even the goddess’ profession of love for Bell in the second episode, framed half-jokingly, came across as more genuine than other title’s serious efforts, simply because Danmachi‘s emotional groundwork is impeccable. At this point, positive inertia alone can do so much for this series. But while Danmachi‘s pleasant character work is almost a given now, J.C. Staff’s delicate state meant that we couldn’t take the first episode’s strong production values so granted, so it’s important to note that so far all episodes have also maintained a more than reasonable level that never gets in the way of the enjoyment. The usual post-premiere dip did happen and the storyboards admittedly got sloppier here and there – especially in the second episode that forced Tachibana to stray further from the pure action environments that he’s comfortable with – but every one of those minor issues was made up for and then some with some more by other excellent scenes. Kurosaki’s quick reappearance to supervise the short but intense sparring in episode #3 is worthy of note, but it’s the second episode’s action that caught everyone’s eye, and for good reason at that. For starters, it was an outlet for one of Danmachi‘s most striking aesthetic tricks. Whenever Bell finds himself in particularly dire situations that can be presented with uniform lighting conditions without breaking the immersion too much, the series has shown to be fond of ditching shading altogether and make those scenes stand out with kagenashi art… which is actually more like zenkage in this case since it’s all set in the shadows, but getting too fancy with the terms will only detract from the main point: Bell’s desperate struggle is deliberately presented in different fashion, and also it looks goddamn neat. Though of course, it helps that animators of the caliber of J.C. Staff’s Tanaka-style ace Hiroshi Tomioka participated in Bell’s fight against Hyakinthos. If the action highlight of the first episode had the illusion of weight as its greatest achievement, an artist like him is bound to put emphasis on fluidity instead, even if the scene isn’t as highly kinetic as you might expect from him. Although I’ve criticized Tachibana’s storyboard, a few cuts during this scene also show an interesting quality of his: like we’d already seen during the first episode’s dancing sequence, he’ll often come up with deceitfully tricky fixed camera shots that convey depth by having objects and characters move towards our POV. And again, having excellent animators like the aforementioned Tomioka, veteran Shinya Hasegawa, and action supervisor Hiroyasu Oda available to interpret his ideas is a good way to ensure they’re executed properly. So, will that team be able to continue dodging writing pitfalls, dangerous staff reshuffling, increasing production fatigue, and the entire studio sort of collapsing? As it turns out, adventuring in the dungeon is no joke, but there are still enough reasons to believe that Bell’s adventure will continue to be more pleasant than it has any right to be. Become a Patron! Episode 01 Storyboard, Episode Direction: Hideki Tachibana Chief Animation Director, Animation Direction: Shigeki Kimoto Assistant Animation Director: Haruka Sano, Yukie Hiyamizu Cooking Animation Director: Hiroshi Yakou Key Animation: Hayato Kurosaki, Mai Furuki, Shunya Sato, Manami Ito, Teppei Okuda, Shigeki Kimoto, Ikuma Fujibe, Yusuke Kurinishi, Tetsuya Sakamoto, Asumi Kato, Isamu Fukushima, TOMATO, Shoichiro Nishimi, Shiho Nagasaki, Yu Murakami, Wataru Hasegawa Yutaka Kunimoto, Yukie Yoshioka, Mineko Ueda, Saori Hosoda, Hyein, Nana Mori, 楊烈駿, Haruka Sano, Yukie Hiyamizu Episode 02 Storyboard: Hideki Tachibana Episode Direction: Kouzou Kaiho Episode Supervisor: Youhei Suzuki Chief Animation Director: Shigeki Kimoto Animation Direction: Yukie Hiyamizu, Yu Murakami, Haruka Sano, Shouko Yasuda, Mineko Ueda, Assistant Animation Director: Isamu Fukushima, Katsuhiro Kumagai Action Supervisor: Hiroyasu Oda Key Animation: Yu Murakami, Haruka Sano, Tetsuya Sakamoto, Mai Furuki, Shiho Nagasaki, Yukie Hiyamizu, Hiroshi Tomioka, Hiroshi Yakou, Shinya Hasegawa, Yousuke Obuchi, Ikuma Fujibe, Teppei Okuda, Mineko Ueda, Hiroyasu Oda, Shunya Sato, Hiroyuki Sugawara, Takuya Nishimichi, Yuuya Uetake, Masumi Hattori, Manami Ito, Chinami Shibata, Tomoko Kitagawa, Ryouko Kawamura, Naoko Hayashi Episode 03 Storyboard, Episode Direction: Toshikazu Hashimoto Chief Animation Director: Shigeki Kimoto Animation Direction: Tetsuya Sakamoto, Mai Furuki, Ikuma Fujibe, Teppei Okuda, Yochiko Saitou Action Supervisor: Hayato Kurosaki Key Animation: Shiho Nagasaki, Ikuma Fujibe, Teppei Okuda, Shouta Tsutsumi, Hiroshi Yakou, Yuuko Kamiyama, Ai Nakanishi, Wataru Hasegawa, Satomi Kitahara, Kaoru Nakagawa, Beom Seok Hong, Matsumi Hattori, Shintarou Kurata, Hodaka Hashimoto, Hibiki Yamaguchi, Manami Ito, Shigeki Awai, Kanako Baba, Takuya Ihara, Hideo Amemiya, Takumi Onuki, Yutaka Kunimoto Revival, I&S Factory Support us on Patreon to help us reach our new goal to sustain the animation archive at Sakugabooru, Sakuga Video on Youtube, as well as this Sakuga Blog. Thanks to everyone who’s helped out so far!

The United States and its allies conducted 27 strikes against ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force overseeing the operations said in a statement. In Iraq, 25 attacks were carried out near nine cities, six of them near Ramadi, striking ISIS tactical units and destroying ISIS staging areas, fighting positions and assembly areas. Near Mosul, 12 strikes hit two separate tactical units and other targets and destroyed 12 fighting positions and a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. In Syria, one strike near Al Hawl and another near Al Hasakah struck tactical units and destroyed a tunnel and a building used by the group. Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:46 - GMT 06:46

地味に困ります。 もはやiPhoneユーザーにとって、なくてはならない顔認証機能｢Face ID｣。しかしサンフランシスコ市では、一時的にですが市職員に対してFace IDを搭載したiPhoneの利用が禁止されてしまいました。 これは、今年5月に可決された規制が原因で、市の職員への顔認証機能を利用する機器の使用を禁止する、というものです。これは、たとえFace IDの機能をオフにしていても、規制の対象になります。 しかしこれはあまりにも不便だと、サンフランシスコ市では今週｢他の機能が必要で、代替手段がない場合｣に限り、Face IDを搭載したiPhoneの使用を認める法律が可決されています。しかし、依然としてFace IDの使用は制限されており、職員はパスコードを入力する必要があるそうです。 このような顔認証機能の使用を制限する法律は、アメリカの他の都市でも可決されています。ただし、iPhoneは除外されているケースもあるそうです。またこの規制の理由として、FacebookにおけるFace IDとタグ付けへの懸念をあげている都市もあります。 普段使用しているiPhoneやその機能が使えなくなるというのは、なんとも困りものです。個人的には、市のシステムよりもFace IDのほうがずっと安全なのでは、なんて思ってしまいますが…。

The hardware is designed to minimize damage if there's ever an accident. It's built out of foam, flexible plastic and caged propellers that protect the human audience below. Shooting Star can fly in light rain, as well, so that big night won't be ruined by less-than-perfect weather. Intel hasn't said how much Shooting Star costs or whether or not you'll get to buy one yourself, although that's not completely surprising. This is a machine you buy by the dozens or hundreds, and Intel had to get FAA approval to make its one-pilot drone swarms legal in the US. If you're just flying solo, there are likely better options available that can fly longer than the Shooting Star's 20 minutes, and at higher speeds. However, there's no question that the technology could be very useful for entertainers. While it was a big deal when Intel flew 100 drones in a swarm early in 2016 (enough to set a Guinness World Record), Intel successfully flew 500 Shooting Star drones together in October. That's enough to create truly complex patterns that are more likely to awe crowds.

Johannes Mehserle was arrested in Nevada today in connection with the shooting and killing of Oscar Grant on New Year's Day. According the Chronicle, "Mehserle, 27, was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nevada, said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums." (Due to death threats, Mehserle stashed himself in Nevada.) It seems an Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant today, and Mehserle surrendered with no fuss or muss. A surprising update to this case for sure. We will update with more when more details of the arrest are made public on Wednesday.

We’ve partnered with Lifelike Studios to give away keys to Rogue Heist’s beta test. Note: These keys will not give access to the full game when it launches. There is no confirmed end to this test as of now. Launch is TBD, based on beta feedback. This test will be ongoing, but the servers will likely only be up on the weekends. For the most up-to-date information, join their Discord. This code will give you access to all Beta Tests, and the next one will begin on July 4th, 2019 at 11 am PDT. Redemption Instructions: Open Steam – Click Add Game, Activate Product on Steam Enter the Key Provided Install the Game Giveaway is no longer active.

The United States on Tuesday announced it was adding billions of dollars to an ambitious Mexican development project for that country’s southern region and Central America as a way to deter migration. But neither Washington nor Mexico City announced any headway in the Trump administration’s goal of keeping Central American asylum seekers in Mexico and out of the United States. In simultaneous announcements in the U.S. and Mexican capitals, the U.S. State Department and Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said the United States has committed to $5.8 billion in public and private money for Central America and an additional $2 billion for southern Mexico. Most of the money was already in the pipeline, allotted by the Obama administration and in the early months of the current government, or requested for the upcoming fiscal year 2019. About $2 billion is new money potentially available through the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the government’s financial development arm. The funds, including loans, are distributed based on the “commercial viability” of projects, State Department officials said. “We are committed to promote strong regional economic growth, better-paying jobs and greater opportunities for all of our citizens,” Ebrard said in Mexico City. Last week, the new Mexican government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced plans to spend $30 billion over five years for development in southern Mexico. Mexico is under enormous pressure from the Trump administration to curb illegal migration from Central America, and the U.S.-Mexico projects are aimed at fighting the poverty and joblessness that push thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Hondurans, as well as Mexicans from country’s impoverished southern states, north to the United States. The U.S. money announced Tuesday is also designed in part to be an incentive to the Mexican government to go along with President Trump’s demands that Central American asylum-seekers be kept in Mexico and not allowed to cross the U.S. southern border. In talks with Ebrard and other senior Mexican officials, the Trump administration has pushed for a “remain in Mexico” program where those headed north would stay in Mexico while their asylum claims were processed, something that can drag on for years. Immigrant advocates in the United States have denounced the plan as illegal, and Mexico has so far refused to go along. Any mention of the idea was conspicuously absent from Tuesday’s announcements. State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in Washington that the money announced Tuesday was part of a “holistic, coordinated approach” by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and the new Mexican government to stem illegal immigration. The financial pledges stood in sharp contrast to Trump’s repeated threats to cut off aid, not increase it, to Mexico and Central American countries if they did not prevent their citizens from migrating to the United States. Palladino said the administration still expects the recipients of U.S. aid to “hold up their end of the bargain” and to “show results.” Mexico has pushed economic development as an alternative to Washington’s hard-line enforcement approach, and Tuesday’s joint announcements appear to indicate U.S. officials are willing to accept some of the Mexican philosophy, at least for now. That contrasts with some of the heated electoral rhetoric from Trump and his supporters on the so-called caravans of migrants that made their way across Mexico in recent months. Honduran migrant Oscar Hernandez, 22, carries his 11-month-old daughter, Daniela, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Oct. 30. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press) “The idea is that people would not have the need to migrate,” Lopez Obrador, who took office on Dec. 1, told reporters in Mexico City last week. Lopez Obrador, a left-wing populist, has maintained a cordial relationship with Trump, despite the two leaders’ divergent ideological pedigrees. Tuesday’s joint announcement was yet another sign of how Mexico’s new leadership has sought to accommodate Trump without compromising Lopez Obrador’s oft-stated commitment to respect the “human rights” of migrants. “This declaration reflects the importance that both countries place on our bilateral relationship,” Ebrard said. “The spirit of cooperation between our countries is strong as seen in institutional, economic, family and cultural links that unite Mexico and the United States.” The topic of international migration is a sensitive one in Mexico, which has long been the major source of immigrants — both legal and illegal — to the United States. But in recent years the U.S.-bound flow of undocumented Mexicans has dwindled as the numbers of Central Americans detained along the southwestern U.S. border have increased. In their Tuesday announcement, the U.S. and Mexico also agreed to a series of cabinet-level meetings starting in January, a business summit and creation of a task force to “address the root causes of migration.” Most of U.S. aid for the region is earmarked for projects that promote good governance, institutional reform, human rights and job creation. Experts say those projects have had spotty success in a region still devastated by violence and official corruption. Wilkinson reported from Washington and McDonnell from Mexico City. tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT

Last week I went through just some of the highlights as to why Russia is becoming a destination for global capital. For years it’s been a little lonely out here banging on about how well the Russian state headed by Vladimir Putin has navigated an immense campaign by the West to marginalize and/or isolate Russia from the world economy. But that is changing rapidly. And 2020 will likely be the year the New Cold War begins to end. And it starts with Europe. In recent weeks there have been a number of moves made on both sides to end the economic isolation of Russia by Europe. As always, however, it begins politically. French President Emmanuel Macron speaking at a press conference before 70th Anniversary NATO Summit in London no less, made it clear that he no longer wants the EU positioning itself as an adversary of Russia or China. Standing next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Macron put a further down payment that he is looking to replace German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the person setting the tone for European Foreign Policy. “NATO is a collective defense organization, but against what or against who? Who is our common enemy? We need to clarify that. And it is a very strategic question,” he told reporters at a press conference in Paris on Nov. 28. “Sometimes I hear some saying that it is Russia or China, our enemy. Is it the purpose of the Atlantic Alliance to identify one or the other as our enemies? I don’t think so. Our joint enemy, clearly within the Alliance, is terrorism that’s struck our countries.” Macron said that NATO needs “a common definition of terrorism, of who the terrorist groups are and how to act in coordination against them.” He said that “the absence of dialogue with Russia” did not make the European continent safer and that he wants to “clarify our relationship with Russia.” “We want a lucid, robust, and demanding dialogue with Russia, with neither naivety nor complacency,” he said. Macron’s full remarks can be found here. The big shift here is Macron signaling out that NATO needs to shift its focus away from Russia and China and focus on threat of terrorism. There are at least two reasons for him doing this. First, this aligns Macron with Putin on where the focus of security concerns should be. Putin has been banging this drum for years, certainly since his game-changing speech at the 2015 U.N. General Assembly two days before he sent Russian troops into Syria. These words more than the others are music to Putin’s ears and a complete needle-scratch for the foreign policy orthodoxy on K Street and in Vauxhall. As they have been the architects of this new Cold War with Russia which has altered the landscape of EU economic progress for the past five years. At some point the ‘frozen conflicts’ that Macron mentions in his remarks have to thaw because, as he rightly points out, it has been Europe that has been made less safe by U.S. foreign policy imperatives — ending the INF Treaty, freezing all diplomacy with Russia, etc. So, Macron is prepping the table for his upcoming Normandy format talks with Germany, Russia and Ukraine on how to end the conflict in Ukraine. Reality has seen in that Crimea is now off the table for NATO and so are the eastern breakaway provinces of the Donbass. I’ve maintained for years that Russia was always playing the game of attrition in Ukraine, winning by waiting for the EU and Ukrainians to tire of the war and eventually sue for peace. Moreover, the economic defense of Russia that Putin mounted supported this policy. By doing the unthinkable in 2014, floating the ruble and allowing it to fall, he laid the foundation for today’s victory. Make no mistake, this speech by Macron is a victory for Russia and, by extension, the world. Because Macron, Merkel and Putin have all the tools in their grasp to now push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to fully implement Ukraine’s responsibilities under the Minsk agreements. This would never happen under former President Petro Poroshenko, who is a long-standing U.S. asset and who openly bankrupted Ukraine during his tenure even more than his predecessor Viktor Yanukovich, no mean feat that. Secondly, Macron’s comments underscore his desire to raise a transnational EU army and his comments are a direct statement that he wants the two security infrastructures to have separate mandates. It’s clear Macron doesn’t want Europe’s security to depend on the U.S. any longer. And I’m sure that this idea gets a sympathetic ear from President Trump. The problem, of course, is that that idea isn’t popular with anyone else in the U.S. Deep State. Hence the push to create a chimeric impeachment process to remove him from power, or, at least, neuter him completely. On the latter point they’ve nearly succeeded. To Macron, NATO should deal with terrorism, downgrading its importance and paving the way for ending it in the future, while the EU army is under the control of the European Commission, which to a globalist like Macron is the epitome of ‘sovereignty.’ Macron, with these remarks as a prologue of what he will argue for at the NATO Summit, is telling the world Europe is done paying the price for the U.S.’s Cold War with Russia. He’s also letting everyone know that 2020 will see the end of the sanctions in exchange for ending the conflict in Ukraine and re-opening the floodgates of European investment into Russia. This puts paid everything I talked about in last week’s blog and which was also picked up by Alexander Mercouris at The Duran who is one of the very few analysts who understood Russia’s strategy and what the end-game would look like. This is welcome news in Germany who absolutely want the sanctions lifted which will put Merkel under even more pressure to lift them. Putin has already made the moves necessary for Merkel to save face here — offering a new gas transit contract for Ukraine, handing back the ships seized in the Kerch Strait incident, prisoner exchange, etc. A lot will ride on Putin’s upcoming meeting with Zelensky. There is so much coming together for the first half of December that by year-end we could be staring a very different geopolitical landscape in Europe. Join my Patreon if you want unvarnished analysis of European Politics Install the Brave Browser if you want to continue speaking freely about it outside of Google’s prying eyes. Share this: Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Pinterest Tumblr Skype More Print Email Reddit

To blame for resistance in summer? Digital Vision/Getty It is now the year of the chicken in China – in more ways than we knew. The first systematic study of bacterial resistance to last-resort antibiotics on farms and hospitals in China has revealed far more resistance than standard tests had previously suggested, especially on chicken farms and meat. Worse, the study reveals for the first time that the genes that give bacteria their resistance are being spread by flies. Antibiotics of last resort constitute our final weapons against bacterial infections that have resisted all other drugs. Carbapenems are often used as such drugs, but bacteria with genes for resisting carbapenems are spreading. When carbapenems fail, one of the few options left is the antibiotic colistin, but in 2015, colistin resistance was discovered in China. The genes for both types of resistance can spread between different types of bacteria. The colistin resistance gene, mrc-1, has now been found in 25 countries, on four continents. It was first detected in China, though it is not known if it evolved there. It could well have, however: unlike in western countries, in China colistin is not used as an antibiotic in people, but 8000 tonnes of the drug is given to animals as a growth promoter every year, mainly to pigs and chickens. In April, this practice will be banned in China, and colistin will begin to be used to treat people instead. But it may be too late. Carried by flies In a systematic search for colistin and carbapenem resistance in several regions of China, Tim Walsh at Cardiff University, UK and colleagues found colistin resistance in around one per cent of hospital patients in two large cities – even though the drug has not been used to treat people there. Their results were published last week (The Lancet, 10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30527-8). Now we know that the resistance genes probably came from a farm. In a related study, published today, the same team reports that a third of the Escherichia coli bacteria sampled from chicken farms and meat in grocery stores resisted carbapenems, and a quarter of those also resisted colistin. What’s more, the genes have wings. The team found high rates of bacteria with colistin and carbapenem resistance genes in dog faeces from chicken farms, and in the flies at these farms. This is the first time such a result has been reported, and suggests that flies could be spreading resistance from farm animals. “Their ability to contaminate the environment has immense public health concerns,” the team concludes. It may be why hospital patients who lived far away from farms were not less likely to have a resistant infection during summer, says Walsh. “In the summer flies will carry those bacteria everywhere.” Spread by swallows Unexpectedly, when the team sequenced the entire genomes of the bacteria, far more turned out to be silently carrying those resistance genes than actively using them. Nearly all the bacteria sampled on chicken farms had mrc-1, though only half resisted colistin. This means the potential for antibiotic resistance is likely vastly underestimated by standard tests. The team concluded that the DNA sequences of bacteria from chicken farms, slaughterhouses, supermarkets and people were so similar that colistin and carbapenem resistance must have spread first in the poultry sector and then to people. It’s compelling evidence, to add to previous studies, that antibiotic resistance in agriculture affects people, says Lance Price at George Washington University, Washington D.C., who has found resistant bacteria on supermarket meat in the US. “It worries me that Chinese officials are going to start using colistin in human medicine,” says Price, saying that this could cause an explosion of human infections that are already silently carrying mcr-1 from chickens. The problem could spread. Walsh’s team also found resistant bacteria in faeces from swallows on farms in China. These birds will likely carry this resistance with them as they migrate to southeast Asia. Walsh fears that, when antibiotic manufacturers can no longer sell tonnes of colistin to farmers in China, they will export it countries like Vietnam and Thailand, laying the foundations for an explosion in resistance there too. Journal reference: Nature Microbiology, DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.260 Read more: Antibiotic resistance will hit a terrible tipping point in 2017