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The proposed bill, inspired by outrage at the light sentencing of Brock Turner , would require mandatory prison time for similar attacks in the future This article is more than 4 years old This article is more than 4 years old The prosecutor in the Stanford sexual assault case is pushing to make prison a mandatory punishment for people who attack unconscious victims, proposing legislation inspired by the global outrage at the light sentencing of former student Brock Turner. Stanford sexual assault: records show judge's logic behind light sentence Read more The Santa Clara County district attorney’s office – which prosecuted the former Stanford swimmer, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus – announced on Wednesday a new bill that would prevent judges from allowing defendants like Turner to avoid prison. Speaking outside the courthouse in Palo Alto near Stanford’s campus, the district attorney Jeff Rosen read from the victim’s emotional impact statement, which went viral earlier this month and sparked widespread debates about sexual violence on college campuses. “We’ve read her letter. Now let’s give her back something beyond worldwide sympathy and anger” Rosen said. “Let’s give her a legacy that will send the next Brock Turner to prison.” The legislation, which multiple northern California lawmakers are co-sponsoring, would make the penalties for Turner’s offenses the same as the punishments for assault involving a conscious victim – a minimum of three years in state prison. “Sexually assaulting an unconscious person is as serious as sexually assaulting a conscious person and there should be no distinction,” Rosen said. Turner, a 20-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, was convicted of three felonies for the 18 January 2015 sexual assault outside a fraternity by a dumpster. Two witnesses biking by intervened after they saw Turner “thrusting” on top of the motionless woman, according to police. Brock Turner's statement blames sexual assault on Stanford ‘party culture’ Read more Turner was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brock Turner in court. Photograph: Karl Mondon/AP The minimum sentence Turner faced was two years in state prison, but the law allowed the judge, Aaron Persky, to give a lighter sentence if he believed it was an “unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served” by probation. Persky chose a sentence of probation and six months in county jail, and Turner will only have to spend three months behind bars. In his controversial decision, the judge cited Turner’s age and lack of criminal record and said there was “less moral culpability” because he was intoxicated at the time. Persky is now facing a recall campaign led by a Stanford professor, and lawmakers have called for an investigation. He was also removed from a similar sexual assault case, and a juror in the Turner case has since slammed Persky’s sentencing decision. Rosen said he is not supporting the recall campaign. “I believe in judicial independence. The judge got it wrong in this case, but he had the right to give that sentence.” Stanford sexual assault case: victim impact statement in full Read more In the wake of the backlash against Persky, public defenders have expressed support for him, arguing it is critical that judges have discretion to issue lighter sentences and that harsher penalties and mandatory punishments will only exacerbate mass incarceration. Sajid Khan, a deputy public defender in Santa Clara county who published a petition in support of Persky, said he opposed Rosen’s bill on Wednesday. “It’s disappointing, and it’s a slippery slope,” he said. “My concern is that it’s a one-size-fits-all type of punishment scheme that does not permit taking into account unique circumstances of a particular case and of a particular offender.” Khan said he worried the legislation could pave the way for new bills that would increase prison time for other offenses. “When we start to go down that path for mandatory minimums for any crime, we again perpetuate policies that result in mass incarceration.”

In an otherwise unremarkable case involving a homeowner's personal injury dispute, a Florida appeals court judge recently issued a remarkable dissent on the evils of mandatory binding arbitration. It opens with a somewhat sarcastic how-to guide for home manufacturers who want to deprive consumers of their judicial remedies and then launches into a critique of the state of the law. Here's an excerpt: What we have begun to see is that virtually all consumer transactions, no matter the size or type, now contain an arbitration clause. And with every reinforcing decision, these clauses become ever more brazenly loaded to the detriment of the consumer -- who gets to be the arbitrator; when, where, how much it costs; what claims are excluded; what damages are excluded; what statutory remedies are excluded; what discovery is allowed; what notice provisions are required; what shortened statutes of limitation apply; what prerequisites even to the right to arbitrate are thrown up -- not to mention the fairness or accuracy of the decision itself. The drafters have every incentive to load these arbitration clauses with such onerous provisions in favor of the seller because the worst that ever happens, if the consumer has the resources to go to court, is that the offending provisions are severed. The state courts, demoralized by the United States Supreme Court's disapproval, have too often allowed these overreaching provisions to succeed. Most consumers can't read them, won't read them, don't understand them, don't understand their implication and can't afford counsel to help them out. It is the role of the state courts to determine whether an arbitration provision is unconscionable and it is time that we take that responsibility seriously. This dissent doesn't say anything that hasn't been said many times before, but it does say it forcefully--and at a time when Congress is beginning to take notice. Ultimately, the question isn't whether state courts take their role seriously, but whether federal law should stand in the way, and only Congress can decide that question. (Thanks to Paul Bland for the tip.)

if you're nobody 'til somebody kills you isn't suicide making something of yourself? 1,976 shares

As soon as the last pick is drawn teams begin forging deals with prospects who did not hear their names called. Every team hopes to find the next Kurt Warner or Tony Romo. Players who were overlooked during the draft are then given a single opportunity to succeed. Teams are limited during the draft to the picks they have in each round, along with the picks acquired through trades and the compensatory system. As a result, NFL teams sign anywhere from 5 to over 20 undrafted free agents on top of their draft selections. Although the majority of these players fizzle out before the regular season, occasionally teams find a diamond in the rough. New York Giants signings In 2018, the New York Giants signed 11 total undrafted free agents, with 4 ultimately making the 53-man roster. This year, following their draft, the Giants have signed 13 undrafted free agents. Not all these selections will make it to the 53-man roster. So below are the players I believe have the best chance of proceeding. James O’Hagan, Center, Buffalo James O’Hagan earned the #1 pass blocking grade among draft-eligible centers in 2016 and 2017. Furthermore, he was ranked #4 in pass blocking, while also ranking #1 in run blocking among centers in 2018. With only 6 centers being drafted in this year’s draft, O’Hagan fell beyond the 7 rounds. O’Hagan was eruptive on the offensive line, but his struggles to finish blocks were exposed. Nevertheless, he finished tied for first with the lowest pressure rate allowed among draft-eligible centers. O’Hagan will compete against Evan Brown, who has yet to play in a regular season game. Considering O’Hagan has held his own during minicamp while being aligned against first-round pick Dexter Lawrence, I’d say he has the upper-hand so far. New UDFA signing and New York Giants center James O’Hagan finished tied last season with the draft class’ lowest pressure rate allowed among centers. pic.twitter.com/YvgjCIfciP — Pro Football Focus (@PFF) May 1, 2019 Paul Adams, Offensive Tackle, Missouri Looking for further depth on the offensive line, the Giants signed offensive tackle Paul Adams out of Missouri. Adams, a three-year starter at right tackle, was projected to be selected in the third day of the draft. Adams provides strong blocking and effective movement skills. However, inconsistencies in pass protection lead analysts to believe Adams should shift over to guard. While he battles for a roster position, look for Adams to give both spots a shot. With this flexibility, Adams can provide depth to two positions of need for the Giants. Josiah Tauaefa, Linebacker/Defensive End, UTSA This prospect could benefit from being in the right place at the right time. With only two defensive ends currently listed on the roster, look for the Giants to address this need in late free agency. However, if no top players sign, look for Josiah Tauaefa to compete for a roster spot at DE. Tauaefa has collegiate experience both at linebacker and DE, providing an asset to Bettcher’s 3-4 defense. Although Tauaefa was limited his sophomore season due to a knee injury things changed during his junior year. He earned Freshmen All-American Honors and was an honorable mention in the All-Conference USA. What the USTA linebacker lacks in discipline and confidence, he makes up for in physicality and movement. If he cleans up his game during minicamp, he can take advantage of a lack of depth on the roster. Look for him to at least make the practice squad. CJ Conrad, Tight End, Kentucky CJ Conrad was projected as an early day 3 draft pick prior to his health concerns. Doctors have cleared him. However, some teams preferred not to take the risk. As a receiver, Conrad had an 81% completion rate. However, Conrad struggled with runs after the catch, separation skills, and quickness down the field. Conrad could be effective as a #2 tight end, as well as in an H-back and fullback role. If Conrad can outperform current fullback Elihjaa Penny in the preseason, he could contend for a roster spot. Eric Dungey, Quarterback, Syracuse I can already hear the screeches of Giants fans freaking out if they spend another roster spot on a quarterback who may not be a proper successor to Eli Manning. But hear me out. Eric Dungey (NOT the son of Tony Dungey) was an effective mobile QB in Syracuse. Although he had 9 interceptions to go along with his 18 touchdowns his senior year, Dungey also had 15 rushing touchdowns. Furthermore, Dungey has drawn several comparisons to Taysom Hill out of the New Orleans Saints as a utility player. This idea is not very far-fetched once you consider the success of the Saints’ offense in recent years. While the Saints are using Hill in about 10% of their offensive plays, do not look for Dungey to have a similar presence. However, what if Head Coach Pat Shurmer wanted to bring in some offensive ingenuity? With the loss of Odell Beckham Jr., the Giants have to find other ways to spark their offense. In comes Dungey, who could fill that third QB roster spot. If Shurmer and Giants offensive coordinator Mike Shula decide to get creative, they could consider using Dungey for utility roles. Shula preaches not wanting to be predictable when calling offensive plays. If creativity is what he wants, Dungey could by a key source of ingenuity for the offense. Side Notes It should be noted UFAs Nate Harvey and Jacob Thieneman have been placed on the reserve/injured list. Both players suffered non-contact knee injuries during the rookie minicamp. I was a huge fan of Thieneman, especially considering he was effective while blitzing. With defensive coordinator James Bettcher often using his defensive backs for the blitz, he would have liked a defensive back with previous success in a system similar to his own. I hope he gets a chance to show the skills he has once he recovers from his injury. Both Reggie White Jr. and Alex Wesley are intriguing wide receiver prospects. However, considering the current depth at wide receiver, it’s hard to imagine either making the 53-man roster without the help of injuries. If that’s the case, I’d consider White Jr. first, due to the upper-hand, he has on Wesley in size and ball-handling skills. For a quick summary regarding the New York Giants’ undrafted free agents, check out TempTheRat’s recent podcast.

Showrunners tease mysterious plot: Why there are two ships, and their biggest Trek influences Star Trek type Movie You’ve seen the trailer. You’ve read our teases. But what is Star Trek: Discovery really about? And why are there two starships in this show, the U.S.S. Discovery and the Shenzhou? Showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg don’t want to give away too much of the plot. The CBS All Access drama is heavily serialized with plenty of twists and turns — particularly in the first few episodes — which makes the storyline difficult to discuss. But here’s some new intel the duo are ready to reveal about the series, which stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a Starfleet First Officer who was the first human to attend the Vulcan Science Academy. “Burnham [has] spent a lot of time on Vulcan, but she’s human,” Harberts says. “Sarek [Spock’s father, played by James Frain] plays an important role in her life, which has been completely planned until she makes a very difficult choice that sends her life on a very different path. When we meet her, she’s the First Officer on the Starship Shenzhou [captained by Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh]. And Burnham’s choice that we’re alluding to is most difficult choice you can make — it affects her, affects Starfleet, affects the Federation, it affects the entire universe. That choice leads her to a different ship, the Discovery [helmed by Captain Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs] and there we begin what Gretchen and I call our ‘second pilot.'” Burham is, of course, the first Trek lead who is not a captain,* so we asked the showrunners what that choice adds to the drama. “The joy is in the journey,” Berg replied. “The advantage to her not being in charge of the bridge right now is we get to tell stories from a very different point of view. It’s a fresh feeling because we’re not on the bridge all the time. We get access to more parts of the ship.” Also, the Klingons are heavily involved in the season … and they’re not very friendly. In addition, we asked the producers which Trek series or film has the biggest influence on the new series. “There’s a hint of all of them, but in the writers’ room people are so in love with The Original Series and Next Generation, and they talk about the family aspect of those cast members,” Berg said. Added Harberts: “I think Nicholas Myers’ film are a touchstone, and not just because he’s been on staff with us. His storytelling is complex and intellectual and yet there’s a lot of room for character voices and character work, he’s done such an incredible job with the franchise. In terms of scope and scale, there’s something about Star Trek: The Motion Picture that really speaks to us as well. CBS has allowed us to find a cinematic language that’s wider in scope — our aspect ratio is 2:1 — and it just lends itself to a very lyrical way of telling the story. And just visually speaking, there’s also a little hint in terms of what J.J. Abrams did, a little bit, in terms of some of the visuals.” Previous: The frustrating longtime guideline that Discovery will ditch. Previous: First look at a groovy new transporter room Previous: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green torpedos racist trolls Previous: First look at Jason Isaacs as Discovery’s Captain Lorca. Previous: Star Trek: Discovery star Sonequa Martin-Green breaks her silence on her mysterious character. Previous: Star Trek: Discovery producers explain the show’s delays. Previous: Star Trek: Discovery trailer and premiere date. Star Trek: Discovery will debut Sunday, Sept. 24 (first on CBS, then shifting to CBS All Access streaming service; Netflix internationally). EW has more to come, follow @jameshibberd for the latest. * Yes I know, Sisko in DS9 was also not technically a captain but that was only because the show was set on a space station and not on a ship; he was still the highest ranking officer, which amounted to the same thing. Episode Recaps Previous 10 best Star Trek moments from Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard By Nick Romano Star Trek: Discovery reveals 10 playful backstage photos By James Hibberd Captain Kirk’s Uniform and 16 More Star Trek Props Hitting the Auction Block By David Canfield Star Trek: Discovery Is Ready to Boldly Go in Premiere Photos By EW Staff Star Trek: Discovery Exclusive: 24 Photos of the New Series By James Hibberd 18 great pop culture trios By Mary Sollosi Next

GUWAHATI: At the stroke of midnight Sunday, the Assam government will release the first draft of the much-awaited National Register of Citizens (NRC) with names of 2.24 crore bona fide Indian citizens.Of the 3.28 crore people who had applied for inclusion in the registry, 2.24 crore have found a place in the first draft following verification of their documents. The rest will be considered in the next two drafts, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told mediapersons on Saturday."As per hon'ble Supreme Court 's order, there will be two more drafts of the NRC and the names of all genuine citizen claimants whose names do not feature in the first publication will be included in it after verification of the pending documents," Sonowal said.Dispelling apprehensions over security, Sonowal said no untoward situation is expected to arise as the district administrations have been conducting public meetings and campaigns to explain to the people the updation procedures.The chief minister also said the media have an important role to play in disseminating correct information to the public."Social media will be monitored closely for misinformation on the NRC draft and strict action will be taken against those attempting to create trouble," he said.Asked about a tentative date for release of the final draft, Sonowal said, "The Assam government is conducting the NRC updation process with the state government machinery, the district deputy commissioners' offices mobilised for it on the orders of the Supreme Court ... The complete draft will be published after verification of all documents of those who had applied for inclusion."The state coordinator for NRC, Prateek Hajela, asserted that "genuine" Indian citizens need not panic if their names have not appeared in the first draft as verification process is yet to be completed."If the name of any genuine Indian citizen does not appear in the first draft, it means the verification process of that person is yet to be completed," Hajela said, adding there will be scope for making claims after the final draft is published.Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba, during his visit to the state, had also said there will be an opportunity for claims and objections after the release of the third draft."Those who do not find their names in the first draft need not worry as there will be opportunities for subsequent investigation and document verification," Gauba had said after reviewing the NRC updation process in Assam.The office of the state coordinator for NRC has made elaborate arrangements for people to check their names in the first draft at NRC sewa kendras across the state from 8am on January 1. They can also check for information online and through SMS services.Assam, which faced influx from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only state having an NRC, first prepared in 1951.According to the Assam government's official website, "The NRC is a register containing names of Indian citizens. The only time that a National Register of Citizens (NRC) was prepared was in 1951 when after conduct of the Census of 1951."It was prepared by recording particulars of all the persons enumerated during that Census, the website said.The issue of updating the NRC of 1951 was first raised by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) more than three decades ago. The students' body had submitted a memorandum to the Centre on January 18, 1980, two months after launching the anti-illegal foreigners Assam Movement.On November 17, 1999, at an official-level tripartite meeting to review the implementation of the Assam Accord, a decision was taken that the NRC would be updated and the Centre sanctioned Rs 20 lakh for the purpose and released Rs 5 lakh of it to start the exercise.The final decision to update the NRC was taken on May 5, 2005 when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chaired a meeting to review the implementation of the accord.Thereafter, the government created a directorate for updating the NRC and the process of computerisation of the voters' list up to 1971 and the NRC of 1951 began.A pilot project that was launched in two revenue circles of Barpeta and Chaygaon was suspended after a violent protest by a few organisations. The state government then formed a group of ministers (GoM) to hold talks with different organisations to draft modalities for updating the NRC.The updation process finally gained momentum after the Supreme Court started monitoring its progress and set December 31 midnight as the date for publication of the first draft of the NRC.

TechRules, basé en Chine, a dévoilé les concepts de supercar AT96 et GT96 TREV au salon de Genève . La société chinoise de recherche et développement techrules présente son premier véhicule électrique sur le marché – le «TREV». Le nom, qui signifie ” véhicule électrique à recharge de turbine ”! promet de fournir une autonomie et une efficacité sans précédent avec un système de transmission hybride utilisant une turbogénératrice. Une micro-turbine pour générer de l’électricité Le concept utilise une micro-turbine pour générer de l’électricité qui charge les batteries embarquées! cela alimentent ensuite les moteurs. L’air aspiré dans la micro-turbine passe à travers un échangeur de chaleur où la chaleur de l’air d’échappement est_transférée à la prise froide après avoir été_comprimée. L’allumage du mélange air-combustible comprimé et chauffé génère de l’énergie qui est_canalisée vers des vitesses très élevées vers la turbine tournante. Les gaz d’échappement chauds sont_éjectés! ils traversent l’échangeur de chaleur pour assurer que la chaleur est récupérée et transférée à nouveau à l’air froid d’admission. Motorisation Les premiers chiffres semblent impressionnants avec une puissance de 768 kW et une autonomie de plus de 2000 km. Le système TREV est une combinaison parfaite des technologies des micro-turbines et des véhicules électriques! déclare William Jin, fondateur et PDG. Il est_très efficace, produit de très faibles émissions et fournit une solution de charge optimale pour les véhicules électriques. Nous pensons que cela pourrait_redéfinir la façon dont la prochaine génération de véhicules électriques est_alimentée. 1 044 ch, 8 600 Nm de couple aux roues, 2,5 s pour le 0 à 100 km/h (comme la Bugatti Chiron ou une F1), 350 km/h en pointe… le tout pour 0,18 l/100 km de consommation et plus de 2 000 kilomètres d’autonomie ! Au salon de l’automobile de Genève 2016, techrules a présenté les concepts avec deux modèles – les «AT96» et les «GT96». Chaque conception offre une configuration alternative du système «TREV» qui pourrait entrer en production en Chine. Galerie Photos / TechRules AT96 TREV Derniers contenus Partager : Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Reddit LinkedIn

DEPRAVED Parsons Green bomber Ahmed Hassan lied about his age so he could stay in the UK to exploit the "generosity" of the system. The Iraqi asylum seeker claimed he was just 16 when he entered the UK illegally via Calais in 2015 after telling officials he had been kidnapped by ISIS. 6 Asylum seeker Ahmed Hassan told a mentor that he was obliged to 'hate Britain' after his dad's death Credit: Duncan Gardham CCTV of moment Mother of Satan bomb exploded at Parsons Green tube station Caging him for at least 34 years yesterday over the bomb blast that injured 51 people, Mr Justice Haddon-Cave said he was satisfied the terrorist had lied about his age. He said: "I'm satisfied that you lied about your date of birth on your arrival to glean the special privileges accorded to children entering the UK. "I'm satisfied that you're older than 18 but sentence you on the basis you are no older than 21. "You cynically exploited to the full the generosity and naivety of the system and those looking after and helping you." 6 Ahmed Hassan plotted the terror attack Credit: PA:Press Association The full story of how the Parsons Green Tube explosion terror attack unfolded "Dangerous and devious" Hassan injured 51 people when he tried to blow up a packed Tube train with a Mother of Satan bomb in September. The jihadi left left the explosive device packed in a bucket with 2.2kg of screwdrivers, knives, nuts and bolts on the busy train. The teen wanted to cause "maximum carnage" to avenge the death of his father, who was blown up in Iraq more than 10 years before, and believed it was his "duty to hate Britain". He tried claiming he only wanted to make a fire to fulfil a "fugitive fantasy" to be chased across Europe by Interpol in a warped desire inspired by watching Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible films. 6 The 18-year-old was charged in connection with the Parsons Green Tube terror attack Credit: PA:Press Association But jurors saw through his lies and he was convicted of attempted murder of 93 people and using a chemical to cause the blast. Traumatised victims yesterday spoke of their "nightmares" ahead of the bomber's sentencing at the Old Bailey. Lucinda Glazebrook suffered superficial burns to her face and hands and has PTSD following the explosion. In a victim impact statement read to the Old Bailey, she said: "I view myself as a changed person. I believed I was going to die." Lucinda revealed she is plagued by disturbing images of the bomb exploding and the face of Hassan. She added: "When this happens I feel frightened and experience physical reactions including palpitations and breathlessness." 6 Hassan was taken in by foster parents Penny and Ron Jones MBE Credit: Facebook Others told how they now fear using public transport in a series of harrowing statements read to the court. Aimee Colville said: "This incident has impacted on me emotionally, I always think every day is the last day." Stephen Nash told how he has been unable to use the tube or visit London again adding: "I believed I was going to die." While Daniel Prieto revealed his life has been changed "completely" as he explained he hasn't been able to return to Parsons Green. The attack was a betrayal to the kind-hearted foster parents who had taken the teen in, with Penny and Ron Jones MBE on holiday in Blackpool as Hassan began to plot the attack. Mr and Mrs Jones, who did not give evidence, had contacted social services amid "significant concerns" for his mental health during that summer. But it was while they were away that teen Hassan assembled the ingredients for homemade explosives in his bedroom in Sunbury, Surrey. 6 Forensic officers at the scene of the attack at Parsons Green tube station on September 15 Credit: AFP The teen used his student of the year award of a £20 Amazon voucher to buy one of the key chemicals for his bomb online, leaving the explosive on the District Line train to Wimbledon. The teen then got off one stop before the bomb exploded. While the device failed to properly detonate, dozens of people were injured suffering facial burns after the explosion. Hassan meanwhile "calmly" boarded a bus, removed the sim card from his phone and put it in his mouth and chewed it before stuffing it down the side of the seat. He then binned the phone and fled to Dover, where he was arrested the next day. CCTV of Parsons Green bomb suspect Ahmed Hassan wearing Chelsea shirt 6 The attack took place in west London Parsons Green bomb accused Ahmed Hassan destroys mobile phone with chemicals, hammer and oven in homemade video released by Met Police The court heard Hassan told Home Office officials he was trained by Islamic State "to kill" after he arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry in 2015. It has since emerged he was referred to the ­Government’s anti-terror programme three times but its deradicalisation team failed to see him. Hassan was never assigned a mentor despite spending 20 months on Prevent’s radar. Commander Dean Haydon, head of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said Hassan kept his plans a secret from Prevent workers in Surrey. TIMELINE OF TERROR October 2015: Hassan arrives in the UK via the Channel Tunnel and applies for asylum with no documentation. January 18, 2016: He claims in an immigration interview he was "forced" to go with ISIS and that they had trained him to kill. A charity worker for Barnado's contacts Prevent, the government's anti-terrorism campaign, and the Counter Terrorism Unit. April 2016: Hassan is placed with his foster family in Sunbury and sent to Brooklands College by Surrey Social Services where begins a media course to be like "David Attenborough". August 2016: His lecturer Katie Cable contacts Prevent after seeing a WhatsApp message on his phone saying :"IS has accepted your donation." He also tells her it was his "duty to hate Britain". June 2017: Hassan is named student of the year at Brooklands College - winning a £20 Amazon voucher. August 26, 2017: He uses this to buy five litres of chemicals and later picks it up from a friend's house in a Lidl bag. September 3, 2017: Hassan's foster parents go away to Blackpool for the week and he uses the opportunity to plot his attack, buying another key ingredient for his bomb. September 14, 2017: Hassan goes to Asda in Feltham to buy nails for the bomb before visiting Katie Cable to give her a gift. September 15, 2017: The teen leaves home at 7am and travels to Wimbledon where he sets a timer for the device in a toilet. At 8.17am, he gets off the Tube at Putney Bridge station and the bomb partially detonates three minutes later with 93 people on board. September 16, 2017: Hassan is arrested at Dover port and admits planting the bomb that injured 51 people. March 16, 2018: The terrorist is convicted of attempted murder and using a chemical to cause and explosion likely to endanger life. March 23, 2018: Hassan is sentenced to life with a minimum of 34 years. The officer said: "I describe Hassan as an intelligent and articulate individual that is devious and cunning in equal measures. "On the one hand he was appearing to engage with the (Prevent) programme but he kept secret what he was planning and plotting. We describe him as a lone actor." On the bomb's potential, he said: "It was only through good fortune that it only partially exploded. If it had, without a doubt we would have been dealing with many fatalities." Hassan's foster parents have since apologised to victims and said they no idea" that their foster son was making the homemade explosive. MOST READ IN NEWS BAD NEWS AT 10 Boris to slap 10pm curfew on pubs from Thurs & order more working from home 'prank' horror Woman suffers miscarriage after being flung from car in 'practical joke' RAPE HELL Schoolgirl, 16, ‘gang-raped, killed and dumped to slowly die on building site’ BOGGED DOWN Shoppers fill trolleys with loo roll as stores urge Brits NOT to panic buy 'TOUGH S**T' Lawyer refuses to scrap 'offensive' LGOPNR number plate.. can you work it out? GRINCHES Mum reveals HUGE Xmas gift haul for daughter - but some parents brand kid 'spoilt' Penny, a retired prison worker who with Ron has fostered 269 children and nine refugees including Hassan, said: "He was a lovely young lad, very caring towards us. "When we went shopping he'd get the bags so I wouldn't have to unpack them, so I wouldn't have to bend down." She added: "They said he could have taken the whole block down, I feel so sorry for anyone who got hurt and especially those ladies who got burned. " We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.

Image copyright Getty Images Thousands of eight and nine-year-olds in England's primary schools will take a new times tables check this spring. Some 7,250 pupils in 290 primaries, are expected to take part in the trials of the new multiplication check. The five-minute test, taken by children in Year 4, will then be fully rolled out over the next two years. Ministers say the test will identify those struggling, but teaching unions have raised concerns about its benefits. Supporters have argued that it will help to ensure all children know their tables up to 12 off by heart, but opponents say primary school children are already heavily tested. Nick Brook, deputy general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said it was "hugely disappointing" that the Department for Education was still determined to bring in a multiplication tables test. "This test won't tell teachers and parents anything they don't already know about their children. Although school results won't be published, this government test will be scrutinised by Ofsted when they visit and will therefore become even more significant. "A pupil's primary school years are already cluttered with tests and checks. We want all children to succeed at school, but the answer isn't to test them more." Mike Ellicock, chief executive of National Numeracy, said: "While the introduction of this test is underpinned by good intentions, we need to be careful not to knock the joy out of children's early mathematical experiences or distract schools from building children's real understanding of numbers. "Knowing your tables is valuable - we all use them in everyday life - but what is more important is having a real feel for numbers and understanding the patterns behind times tables so children can use the knowledge flexibly in the real world. "The danger in putting so much emphasis on tables testing - effectively on rote learning - is that it becomes a box-ticking exercise, and hinders the development of practical number sense." The former Ofsted chief, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has welcomed the times table trial, saying he is sure it will "make a difference". "Good head teachers and good teachers never mind youngsters being tested. Nothing is taught unless it's learnt," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I think there's a place for rote learning, but any good teacher will say that's not the beginning and end of it. There has to be a deeper conceptual understanding." But the Department for Education said the test would last a maximum of five minutes and would allow teachers to monitor a child's progress. Schools can take part in the multiplication check voluntarily in June 2019 and it will be compulsory from 2020. School standards minister Nick Gibb said: "Just as the phonics screening check helps children who are learning to read, the multiplication tables check will help teachers identify those pupils who require extra support. "This will ensure that all pupils leave primary school knowing their times tables off by heart and able to start secondary school with a secure grasp of the fundamental mathematics they need to fulfil their potential."

For previous posts in the series, see the archive. Unlike some electric skateboards, the Onewheel is perfectly fine with riding in either direction. The end with the split footpad sensor is traditionally considered the front, and the end which naturally rests on the ground the rear, but the Onewheel doesn’t have to be ridden this way. Like most people, I’m used to riding with a particular end forward, and more importantly with a particular foot forward. But being able to ride both directions — in addition to just being cool — seems like it would be useful because it would increase my ability to maneuver the Onewheel in tight spaces without physically turning around or getting off. At least, until I learn this trick. So I decided to try it out today: riding switch. Or rather, technically riding fakie. Some explanation of skateboard terminology is in order. (And I just learned this from the Internet, so hopefully I’m getting it right.) When you ride a skateboard of any kind, including a Onewheel, you have a preferred front foot (just like you have a preferred hand to throw a ball with). For most people, including me, your preferred front foot is your left foot, and you’re said to ride “regular”. People who prefer right foot forwards instead are said to ride “goofy”. Either way, riding in your preferred stance — either regular or goofy — is called riding “normal”. The opposite of riding normal is riding “switch”; this is if you put your other foot forward. For me, riding goofy is riding switch, but for people who naturally ride goofy, riding regular is riding switch. All of these terms so far assume you’re still riding the board forwards and just switching your foot positions. Switching from riding normal to switch requires getting off the board and getting back on with your feet on the opposite footpads so you can still ride forwards. In contrast, riding “fakie” is just staying in your normal stance, but riding the board backwards. You’ll still end up leading with your wrong foot, but you don’t get off the board; instead, you’re riding with the other end of the board in front. Fakie seems to me to be more practical than switch, at least on a Onewheel, as it allows you to reverse direction in tight spaces without getting off. Regardless, with either switch or fakie stance, you’re leading with your wrong foot. Anyways, what I discovered is that riding switch (fakie) is actually really hard. I mean, I expected it to be uncomfortable at first — but I didn’t expect how hard even some of the basics were, or how unnatural it felt. For instance, even riding in a straight line (without curving) took a couple tries. And even though I’m developing some pretty good balance on the Onewheel in general, just mounting the board and then trying to ride backwards had me feeling like I was going to fall. Particularly hard was riding forwards, stopping, and then going backwards. For some reason, I found myself tipping onto my toeside as I tried to switch direction, and having to jump off. But as with everything, practice is the key. I spent a while doing the simple drill of going back and forth in a straight line — forwards, then stop and reverse, then stop and forwards, etc — and paying attention to how I was balancing (or not) as I did so. After a couple of tries, I realized what was happening and why switching direction was hard. I’m pretty sure I distribute my weight slightly differently depending on direction - I don’t just turn my head, but I actually swivel my whole torso somewhat to face a little bit more “forward”, whichever direction I happen to be going. The processing of just looking the other way and swiveling slightly to face that direction was causing me to lose my balance; instinctively I leaned onto my toeside to perform the transition. Once I was conscious of it, I was able to swivel between “facing” front and “facing” rear while thinking about keeping my weight centered heel-to-toe (which felt like I was leaning heelside while swiveling). Pretty soon I was getting the hang of my little drill and it didn’t take near as much concentration. I’ve definitely got a long ways to go before I’m as comfortable fakie as I am regular, but I can now reverse direction much more confidently.

In all of the media coverage since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, the Tory Eurosceptic press have scented the opportunity to highlight supposed divisions in our party over the EU referendum. Getting trapped inside that sort of media-driven frenzy is precisely the sort of ‘old politics’ which Jeremy and his supporters were campaigning to change, which perhaps explains the deliberate caution in responding to the accusations. It is not wrong for a new party leader in his first week in office to want to discuss issues with his new team and – on the Europe issue – that includes his Labour MEPs. But let us distinguish between what is said about Jeremy, with what he actually says himself. As a leadership candidate in July, Jeremy said: “We cannot be content with the state of the EU as it stands. But that does not mean walking away, but staying to fight together for a better Europe.” Now as Labour leader, last night he told the BBC that if Cameron did an EU deal in which social and environmental protections disappeared: “What I would do is oppose those policies, I would argue to stay in Europe but to bring in a manifesto commitment in 2020 to change those policies.” It comes at the end of a week when Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn has said Labour would campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union “in all circumstances;” and Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle said Labour’s commitment is about making Europe better. Even John McDonnell, who had openly speculated about a ‘wait and see’ strategy, in the same statement said “Jeremy said clearly he wants to remain in Europe.” So as Jeremy said himself last night: There is no problem. Labour MEPs have long argued that we should not defend the European ‘status quo’. Labour is the reform party in European as in British politics, not the Tories. And I hope Jeremy will not mind if I remind him that Labour MEPs were voting for ‘Social Europe’ on issues such as working time and on worker consultation, when these European proposals were actually being opposed by the party in Westminster at the time. Indeed the debate shouldn’t just be about reintroducing rights lost in any of Cameron’s reforms, but also exploring in which other ways Labour can campaign to extend fair social protections, working with our Socialist and Democrat colleagues across the rest of Europe? For party members, who can be forgiven for being confused by all of this, what are some of the political lessons? First, that the EU referendum campaign is well underway, and that anti-Europeans will waste no opportunity to try to ‘play up’ divisions in our party, in barely disguised efforts to blunt our pro-EU message. Next, even during the tumultuous changes that has seen the new membership influx which helped lead to Jeremy’s election, the new forces have now shown they remain as resolutely in favour of Britain’s membership of the EU as the rest of the party has consistently been over the past thirty years. This week’s statement on behalf of 100 Labour MPs re-affirming our pro-EU stance and the survey in ‘The Times’ showing our membership does the same, underline how far this remains true today. A further lesson, however, is that we cannot allow the political debate about EU reform within Britain to be between Conservative and ultra-Conservative positions. By further developing our own Labour reform agenda, Labour supporters within the country will see a vision of how Europe might be, not just how it is today. Ironically, Labour opposition on particular reforms might actually strengthen Cameron’s hand with his own backbenchers, that his ultimate proposals really are substantive. So on both the left and right of British politics, the emerging Labour position might actually strengthen electoral support for Britain’s EU membership. But the problem with a simple ‘wait and see’ position on the whole package – notwithstanding Labour’s principled pro-internationalist position – is that blanket party support at that point would allow too much political credit for Cameron himself, and obscure where the disagreement is genuine. That would precisely be the ultimate ‘blank cheque’ which Jeremy is rightly seeking to avoid. Or it would force Labour in to an anti-EU membership position, which the party would know to be wrong. We have to be pro-European for our own reasons, not for new ones which Cameron deigns to give us. The right time to say that is now, not later. Finally, party members should understand the difference between warning that a Cameron EU deal which is bad for workers would make it more difficult to persuade working people to vote in favour of remaining in the EU, and the different proposition that the party would actually campaign for an EU exit. That is precisely the debate that played out at the TUC in Brighton this week, in which the agreed General Council statement warned Cameron against taking the votes of millions of trade unions for granted. It did not say there would be a ‘no’ campaign if workers’ rights are threatened. “The Tories are doing this regardless of the EU. They are doing this because they want to and they won’t stop until we stop them,” said Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner in moving the statement to Congress. I hope this same distinction will be understood at Labour Party Conference too. But, most of all, I hope it is a warning heeded by David Cameron himself. After all, this issue appears to be principally about EU working time rules, from which Britain already has a substantial opt-out. The Prime Minister should think carefully about risking Britain’s EU membership further on this issue. I am sure Labour MEPs will maintain our stance that a European solution should be found to end the opt-out altogether. So, Jeremy was right to clarify his position on the BBC last night. I know he is hearing this message from Labour MEPs directly, but it is important that the wider party sees and hears the joint commitment of our whole party to our country’s European future. Richard Howitt MEP is Labour Member of the European Parliament for the East of England and Chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

Three-time World Cup winner Ricky Ponting says the axing of Shane Watson leaves Australia's batting line-up dangerously exposed heading into the business end of this World Cup. Watson was dropped for Australia's match against Afghanistan on Wednesday, with Steve Smith moving up the order to replace the allrounder at first drop and James Faulkner coming back into the side to bat at No.7. Quick Single: Clarke says Watson's career not over The new-look batting line-up flourished against the Associate nation in Perth, compiling 6-417 with opener David Warner, Smith and Glenn Maxwell the stand-out performers. But Ponting warns a middle order consisting of Maxwell at No.5, Mitchell Marsh at No.6 and Faulkner at No.7 could be exposed against the better nations later in the tournament. "Steve Smith is a brilliant batsman and there is no problem with him batting at No.3, but with the team they had against Afghanistan you are asking for problems," Ponting wrote in The Australian. "If you lose early wickets you have Maxwell coming in at No.5 and I am not comfortable with that. "I think it would make the selectors nervous too. "That's nothing against Maxwell. He is a terrific player but he is better in certain roles and positions. "If the team is 3-20 there is a lot of pressure on him and he has to play a different role. "Maxwell is an X-factor player and I just don’t know about him coming in at that spot, especially with Faulkner following. "Look, they are all terrific players and exciting talents and we have seen them save the side on occasions when the pressure has been put on them, but you can’t bank on that." Watson has conceded he only has himself to blame for his axing having passed 50 once in his past 12 ODI innings. Quick Single: Watson admits his form not good enough While the 33-year-old has been out of form, his overall career record of nine ODI centuries and an average in excess of 40 underlines his ability at the top of the order. His output with the ball has also been down in recent times; he hasn't taken a wicket in the past six matches in which he's bowled and hasn't taken two wickets or more in an innings since October 2013. But with a career record that includes 164 wickets at an economy rate of fewer than five runs an over, Ponting believes Watson is a better option than Marsh as one of three allrounders in the side. Ponting also suggested a lack of continuity may be behind Watson's drop in form. The allrounder missed Australia's ODI tours of Zimbabwe and the UAE last year due to a calf injury and he also missed three of Australia's five matches in the Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series that preceded the World Cup. Ponting says the XI that cruised to victory over Afghanistan could be exposed in the crucial clash against Sri Lanka at the SCG on Sunday, the winner of which will likely finish second in Pool A and avoid a quarter-final against the dangerous South Africa. And believes Watson is more than capable of again proving his worth to selectors. "Deep down he knows he is good enough and the selectors do too," Ponting wrote of Watson. "I hope he gets a chance to prove it and I bet he is spending a lot of time in the nets at the moment. People don’t realise how determined Watto is. "I can imagine they tossed a lot of things around in the selection meeting and would have agonised over the decision. "I think Watson brings more to the team than Marsh. The young bloke will prove to be a very good cricketer. "I thought that against Afghanistan they would play two quicks and leave Watson in and I was very surprised when they left him out. "That is not an option, however, against good batting line-ups and Sri Lanka are that."

State and national Republican Party officials are getting behind Rep. Allen B. West’s call for a recount of all early votes in St. Lucie County, Fla., saying it would be “unconscionable” not to answer lingering questions about the results, which show the outspoken GOP lawmaker trailing Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy. The latest count shows Mr. West about 1,900 votes behind Mr. Murphy, but the incumbent points to problems with St. Lucie, where officials have already recounted ballots from three days of early voting, but where Mr. West wants a full count. The race remains one of just a handful of House contests from the Nov. 6 vote that are not formally decided. The congressman has gone to court to ask for the full recount, and his case is slated for a hearing on Friday. “The supervisor of elections owes it to the people that elected her to count all of their votes that were cast early in the 2012 election cycle,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said in a statement Thursday. “She has already admitted there was a problem with the counting process and announced she would count all the votes. It makes no sense to arbitrarily cut off the counting process before it was finished.” Mr. West’s complaints about the race are beginning to gain broader attention, with Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner dispatching auditors to examine voting in St. Lucie. Mr. Curry’s statement came a day after Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus issued his own statement supporting Mr. West’s call for an early-ballot recount, saying that’s the best way to convince voters the election was fair. “This is not about any one candidate,” Mr. Priebus said. “It is about preserving and protecting the integrity of our democratic system. Regardless of the outcome, voters have the right to know the process was fair and that the results accurately reflect their will.” Mr. West’s lawyers sent a letter to Mr. Detzner on Thursday saying that they have questions relating to nearly 1,000 votes after looking at absentee and early-voting records. Several conservative leaders said they support Mr. West’s demand for a recount. “I agree with West,” said Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union and former chairman of the Florida GOP. “This is not just one candidate’s sour grapes. We need to get to the bottom of this, since the election results in Philadelphia, Cleveland, etc. smell rotten.” Gertrude Walker, supervisor of elections in St. Lucie, has acknowledged problems, but said last weekend’s partial recount set that straight. In court filings this week, she said she is following the procedures laid out in Florida law and doesn’t have the authority to order a full recount right now. She said Mr. West should wait until the results are certified, then challenge Mr. Murphy’s election. Mr. West, a onetime Army lieutenant colonel who emerged as a hero of the anti-tax tea party movement when he entered the House two years ago, held a lead in early vote counts on election night. But by the time all precincts reported, he was down by about 2,400 votes. On Sunday, election officials recounted some of St. Lucie’s early-voting ballots and subtracted 667 votes from Mr. Murphy and 132 from Mr. West, for a net gain of 535 votes for the incumbent. The new total still leaves Mr. West just outside the margin that under state law would trigger an automatic recount of all ballots across the entire district. The 18th Congressional District spans all or parts of three counties, but only St. Lucie’s early-voting ballots are in question. The county is scheduled to certify its results and send them on to the state, which will do a final certification on Tuesday. The Florida Democratic Party didn’t return a message seeking comment on the escalating situation. Mr. West has proved a stellar fundraiser, taking in millions of dollars for his re-election bid. Mr. Murphy, who attended a Capitol Hill orientation program for incoming freshmen this week, has sent out his own plea asking his supporters to contribute to what he said will likely be a long legal battle with Mr. West. Florida, whose vote-counting problems were famously highlighted in the presidential election of 2000, encountered more problems in this year’s voting. Gov. Rick Scott has asked Mr. Detzner to investigate this year’s glitches, including long lines on Election Day in which some voters reportedly waited eight hours or more to vote. Florida was the last state to report its presidential election totals, only officially announcing that President Obama narrowly won the state on Saturday, four days after the election. • Ralph Z. Hallow contributed to this report from Las Vegas. Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.

Σειρά επιθέσεων σημειώθηκε σήμερα από φασιστικές ομάδες του εθνικιστικού «συλλαλητηρίου για τη Μακεδονία» σε δημοσιογράφους και φωτορεπόρτερ. Ομάδα φασιστών, φορώντας κουκούλες, επιτέθηκε στον δημοσιογράφο Θωμά Ιακόμπι. Στις 15:38, καθώς ο δημοσιογράφος κάλυπτε το συλλαλητήριο για ξένα μέσα ενημέρωσης στα οποία εργάζεται, μια οργανωμένη φασιστική ομάδα, τουλάχιστον 5 ατόμων, επί της οδού Πανεπιστημίου στη συμβολή με Κριεζώτου, αναγνώρισε τον Θ. Ιακόμπι ως συνεργάτη της Ανζελίκ Κουρούνης, φωνάζοντας: «εσύ δεν είσαι αυτός που έκανε το ντοκυμανταίρ για τη Χ.Α.;» και του επιτέθηκε χτυπώντας τον με γροθιές στο πρόσωπο. Κατόπιν οι φασίστες ανάγκασαν τον Θ. Ιακόμπι να διαγράψει αρχεία από το κινητό του και κατέστρεψαν το δημοσιογραφικό μαγνητόφωνό του. Ο Θωμάς Ιακόμπι συνέγραψε και συσκηνοθέτησε το ντοκυμανταίρ «Χρυσή Αυγή: Προσωπική Υπόθεση». [ενημέρωση 22:02] Ακούστε το ηχητικό ντοκουμέντο της επίθεσης που ανακτήθηκε από τον κατεστραμμένο εξοπλισμό του Θ. Ιακόμπι: Λίγη ώρα μετά, φασιστική ομάδα, άγνωστο μέχρι στιγμής αν πρόκειται για την ίδια, επιτέθηκε στον φωτορεπόρτερ Κωστή Νταντάμη, τραυματίζοντάς τον σοβαρά στο κεφάλι και ληστεύοντας τον εξοπλισμό του. Στο #συλλαλητηριο χτύπησαν και έδειραν φωτορεπόρτερ. Σοκάρει η μαρτυρία του για τους φασιστες που του επιτέθηκαν και τον έκλεψαν. Μ αυτούς συναγελαζεστε. Αυτή την δημοκρατία θέλετε κύριοι της #ΝΔ_ξεφτιλες που διοργανώσαμε αυτό το #συλλαλητήριο pic.twitter.com/maF5h1llvd — Marka (@Marka20963539) January 20, 2019 Οι φασιστικές ομάδες του «συλλαλητηρίου» επιτέθηκαν επίσης και χτύπησαν τον φωτορεπόρτερ Λευτέρη Παρτσάλη. Καταγγελία του Δ.Σ. της Ένωσης Φωτορεπόρτερ Ελλάδας […] ομάδες ανθρώπων, με μαύρα ρούχα, ελληνικές σημαίες και σήμα με τον δικέφαλο αετό στα ρούχα τους, που είχαν μαζί τους φωτογραφίες από φωτορεπόρτερ […] Το ΔΣ της Ένωσης Φωτορεπόρτερ Ελλάδας καταγγέλλει δολοφονική επίθεση «διαδηλωτών», στα πλαίσια του συλλαλητηρίου για το Μακεδονικό ζήτημα στο Σύνταγμα. Συγκεκριμένα, όπως προκύπτει μέσα από πλήρως διασταυρωμένες πληροφορίες, μια ομάδα μαυροντυμένων ατόμων με Ελληνικές σημαίες, που επιχείρησαν να ανέβουν στις σκάλες πέριξ του μνημείου του Άγνωστου Στρατιώτη για να εισέλθουν στον προαύλιο χώρο της Βουλής, επιτέθηκαν σε πέντε φωτορεπόρτερ. Τα στοιχεία των συναδέλφων είναι στην διάθεση του ΔΣ αλλά δεν αναφέρονται στην παρούσα καταγγελία για ευνόητους λόγους. Η επίθεση με ρόπαλα και με κατσαβίδι είχε ως αποτέλεσμα τον τραυματισμό ενός συναδέλφου, ο οποίος διακομίστηκε στο νοσοκομείο. Τον χτύπησαν στοχευμένα στο κεφάλι και σε άλλα σημεία του σώματος και του έκλεψαν τον εξοπλισμό. Οι υπόλοιποι συνάδελφοι γλίτωσαν με ελαφρά τραύματα από τα χτυπήματα, ωστόσο χάθηκε και εκλάπη μέρος του εξοπλισμού τους. Στην έρευνα των γεγονότων το ΔΣ της ΕΦΕ έλαβε γνώση για ομάδες ανθρώπων, με μαύρα ρούχα, ελληνικές σημαίες και σήμα με τον δικέφαλο αετό στα ρούχα τους, που είχαν μαζί τους φωτογραφίες από φωτορεπόρτερ. Προφανώς εγείρονται υποψίες ότι η σημερινή επίθεση μπορεί να είναι προσχεδιασμένη και οι συνάδελφοι φωτορεπόρτερ που καλύπτουν διαδηλώσεις να είναι στοχοποιημένοι. Το ΔΣ της ΕΦΕ εκφράζει τον αποτροπιασμό και την αγανάκτησή του για τέτοιες φασιστικές ενέργειες. Καλούμε όλες τις δημοκρατικές δυνάμεις του τόπου να καταδικάσουν την επίθεση και να αναλογιστούν κατά πόσο η δική τους ρητορική συμβάλει σε τέτοια συμβάντα και τέτοιου είδους φασιστικές επιθέσεις κατά ανθρώπων, της ελευθερίας του τύπου και φυσικά της ίδιας της δημοκρατίας. ΤΟ ΔΣ της ΕΦΕ

by | | A couple weeks back North Korea unveiled its Hwasong-12 missile. The big hulking vehicle used for the test launch was not a transporter-erector-launcher (TEL), but rather just a Transporter-Erector (TE)! A TE (or T/E) is neither a TEL nor a MEL. And since we’re big on the rectification of names here at Arms Control Wonk, it seems like a good time to run down the differences among the three. Prepare for the excitement that can only come from the pedantic definitions of missile support equipment, illustrated by the very useful declassified diagrams from old CIA reports. 1. Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) The most common term for a truck or vehicle lugging around a missile is “TEL”: Transporter-Erector-Launcher. This is the most common of the three and is an integrated single vehicle that transports the missile, erects it, and launches it. Used for everything from Scuds to the Topol-M to the Chinese DF-15 and DF-21D to almost all North Korean missiles, TELs are the easiest thing to find. From left to right: A declassified notional diagram of a TEL; a Russian RT-2PM2 Topol-M ICBM TEL; a flock of Chinese DF-21C TELs in their natural habitat. TELs are typically wheeled, but the DPRK has reintroduced tracked TELs into the mix after many decades of absence. Tracked TELs are effectively missiles mounted onto modified tank chassis, giving them different mobility options in regards to accessible terrain, though at the cost of maintenance and fuel consumption. From left to right: The DPRK tracked TEL (possible KN-17 ASBM); the Soviet R-11 TEL; a declassified diagram of the R-11’s firing table, pulled from CIA-RDP78T05439A000200370043-6 2. Mobile Erector Launcher (MEL) (Edited to include new data) The second is slightly less common: MEL, Mobile Erector Launcher. This terminology is not consistently applied, but generally refers to a non-integrated trailer-style carrier for a missile. Originally, this term specifically referred to an erector-launcher (technically an EL, though I have literally never seen EL used) that could be hooked onto a tractor or prime mover and moved around. The main purpose was not necessarily to be a platform capable of scoot-and-shoot operations (which is more the purpose of a TEL), but just to provide a platform that was not permanently locked to one location. MEL was used to describe the Pershing II missile system and Patriot anti-missile system. It has since been applied to various similar non-separable trailer-based launch systems and is sometimes used interchangeably with “non-integrated TEL,” “trailer-type TEL,” or, confusingly, sometimes just TEL. For example, the Chinese DF-21A and DF-31A both have trailer-based launch systems, but no imagery suggests that the trailer is (or is capable of) separating from the prime mover prior to launch, creating a pedantic grey area for whether non-separating trailer-based launch platforms are “articulated TELs”, “TEL AS A TRAILER”, or MELs. The terminology for tractor-trailer based missile systems is evolving, and both MEL and TEL have been applied to tractor-trailer systems. The main practical takeaway is that a given MEL is usually less rugged than an equivalently-sized TEL. TELs are usually somewhat faster and capable of tackling different kind of off-road terrain than MELs, though MELs definitely can be built to included limited off-road capabilities. From left to right: A declassified early diagram of what the CIA thought a future DF-21 launcher could look like; Chinese DF-21A MELs; North Korean MEL from the April 15 parade. Note that the diagram is labeled “TEL AS A TRAILER” not MEL. Because nothing can be easy. I still call the non-integrated/tractor-trailers for the DF-21 TELs — and nobody will stop me. 3. Transporter-Erector (TE) Then comes the TE or T/E, the transporter erector. The U.S. uses Transporter Erector to refer to the large vehicles used to insert Minutemen III ICBMs into silos, but the more salient usage here is in reference to a vehicle that backs away from the missile launch position after erecting the missile. TEs are usually much lighter and thus risk significant damage if exposed to the violence of a missile launch. An example of a Transporter Erector. Note lack of firing table, this TE carries only the missile and would need to be set up at a pre-established firing position to work Examples include the Chinese DF-3, one basing mode for the DF-4, and now the Hwasong-12’s test launch configuration. The DF-3 and DF-4 used very light trailers to move the unfueled missiles onto a pre-set firing table. You can see this in a video of a DF-4 launching. From left to right: A DF-4 is rolled out on a light trailer; a crane places a firing tableset on a very specific pre-surveyed point at a launch position; the DF-4 being elevated into position at a training site. Thanks to Xu Tianran for posting these images originally The Hwasong-12 is weird, as it appears to use something based on the same chassis as the Musudan’s TEL. And like the Musudan, it carries a firing table along with it. So far, so good. However, in the test footage released after the first successful Hwasong-12 test, the “TEL” is seen erecting the missile, ground crews attach the firing table to the ground, and then the vehicle pulls away! The Hwasong-12’s “TEL” actually is a TE with a detachable firing table, allowing for the vehicle to clear the area — avoiding any damage if the missile goes, as Jeffrey likes to say, kablooie. From left to right: The DPRK Hwasong-12 TE with elevating arm still up; the transporter-erector pulling away from the Hwasong-12; The Hwasong-12 a few seconds prior to launch, with TE nowhere to be seen. I’m not aware of this configuration existing in any other missile system, but as the Pukguksong-2 and the ASBM have shown, the DPRK has some pretty interesting ideas for how to build TEL configurations. It may be the case that this is just a testing configuration and eventually the missile is moved to a more traditional TEL set-up, or it could be the case that this TO SUM UP TEL: One big vehicle that transports, erects, and launches the missile. MEL: A tractor-trailer (two vehicles) in which the trailer erects and launches missile. TE: Either a tractor-trailer combination or single vehicle that transports and erects missile, but leaves the missile on a firing table and departs prior to launch. Possible DPRK TE: Modified TEL that drops firing table and missile at launch position. Possibly could be hardened (or the basis for a future hardened) TEL, but unclear. Analysts are inconsistent in their use of these terms, making them frustrating to explicitly and definitively differentiate. The Hwasong-12 deviates from typical TE designs, as typical TEs are very light trailers attached to (more or less) generic prime movers. The Hwasong-12 instead appears to use the same special heavy vehicle chassis as the Musudan. Unlike the Musudan, which fires with the actual vehicle still attached, the Hwasong-12’s prime mover detaches its firing table and clears the launch site. There are other combinations for non-ballistic missile systems (like the fancy TELARs that some SAMs have), but these are the three vehicle types most relevant for ballistic missiles. I’m sure that within the engineering and space launch community, where things are better formalized and standardized, there is a more rigorous set of definitions, but these are the ones used for decades by the analyst community on both the classified and open-source side. Almost any land-based mobile or transportable offensive ballistic missile system will be carried in one of these three configurations, with TEL being the most common and TE being the least.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Sunday that former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner was not offered immunity in exchange for her upcoming testimony about the targeting of Tea Party groups. When “ Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, why Lerner had decided to testify and whether she had been offered immunity, the California Republican responded decisively. “We did not,” Issa said. In May 2013, Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to avoid testifying before the panel. Last week, Lerner's attorneys said she would only return to Capitol Hill to testify if she was offered immunity. Issa said he didn't know what changed Lerner's mind about testifying. Lerner “retired” from the IRS last year amid the scandal. Update: Lerner's attorney now says Issa was wrong -- she will not testify and will continue to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.

Sunk How a Chinese billionaire’s dream of making an underwater fantasy blockbuster turned into a legendary movie fiasco. The script called for an epic battle. In the movie’s third act, the forces of the Eight Faery Kingdoms defend their aquatic empires from annihilation by the evil Demon Mage and his spectral legions. Five hundred extras would play the opposing armies. But in January 2010, when Jonathan Lawrence, the director of Empires of the Deep, showed up for the shoot, in Qinyu, a resort town in coastal China, he saw only about 20 extras, mostly ornery Russians complaining that they hadn’t been paid in weeks. How would he turn 20 people into 500? On top of that, their costumes—swamp green rubber suits decorated with scales, octopus suckers, and shells—looked like poorly made Halloween getups. Some of them had fins glued to their heads. Lawrence was in most ways a strange choice to be running a massive film set in China. A 40-something director from Los Angeles with just one feature-film credit, he made his living directing shorts, commercials, and music videos. But then again, ever since he saw Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark as a teenager in 1981, he had waited for this chance. The offer to direct a fantastical adventure movie was a dream come true. Empires of the Deep would be China’s Avatar—a reportedly $100 million production featuring mermaid sirens, Greek warriors, pirates, and sea monsters, complete with cutting-edge special effects and an international cast. The film’s producers hoped that it would break through the cultural barrier that had frustrated producers on both sides of the Pacific for years: a Hollywood-style blockbuster made in China that would captivate audiences around the world. But the offer came with strings attached. Massive strings. The film’s producer was Jon Jiang, a billionaire real estate mogul and film fanatic who had written Empires and put up much of the funding himself. On set he gave actors preposterous and contradictory directions. But mostly he deployed his assistants to watch Lawrence’s every move and report back to him. The beach location, which would stand in for Mermaid Island, home of an ancient race of mer-folk, had much of what Lawrence required—a long stretch of coast, endless ocean beyond it—but a few weeks earlier, when he inspected the location, he couldn’t help but notice the row of luxury resort buildings at the edge of the sand. A bit modern for Mermaid Island, he thought. Lawrence joked to the assistant director that they’d have to build a wall to hide the resort from view. Lawrence had already seen a lot of bizarre things on set. But the crew building a 15-foot wall based on an offhand joke was perhaps the strangest. The whole point of filming at the beach was to make the fight look realistic; now they’d have to supply the background with special effects. It would have been easier and cheaper to dump a bunch of sand in a studio parking lot and surround it with green screens. It was Lawrence’s third month in China, and nothing about shooting Empires had been easy. But Jiang called the shots, and his message to Lawrence was simple: Make it work. In 2007, as China’s economy was on the ascent, I moved to Beijing to cover the new era. When I first read about Empires of the Deep, it seemed like a project that captured China perfectly—the money and ambition, the chaos and audacity—with its Chinese billionaire, mermaids, and hope for global domination. China had become the Promised Land for American filmmakers, who were increasingly looking to overseas markets to help bolster flatlining profits at home. In China, ticket sales had ballooned to nearly a billion dollars a year and grew by more than 30 percent every year. Due to strict censorship, homegrown Chinese films tended to be bland historical and patriotic epics. The government imposed an import quota, and only around 20 foreign films, mostly Hollywood superhero movies, were allowed to screen in Chinese cinemas each year. A growing number of American studios and producers came to believe that the solution was coproductions. Filmmakers on both sides of the Pacific would combine forces and use Hollywood and Chinese talent to make movies in China that would capitalize on the mainland’s booming box office while circumventing the quota. But cultural differences plagued the sets, and filmmakers struggled to find a formula that appealed to both audiences while also appeasing the censors. There was Shanghai, with John Cusack; a remake of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan; and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, with Hugh Jackman. Coproductions tended to have wooden scripts, flat plots, and shoehorned celebrations of Chinese culture. Few achieved commercial or critical success. Empires of the Deep was supposed to be different. And yet, as of 2016—after nearly a decade and a reported $140 million—it still hadn’t seen the light of day. I wanted to find out why. Last fall, I met Jonathan Lawrence at a Starbucks in Burbank, California, and he offered to introduce me to some of the movie’s stars in L.A. On a patio over coffee, Lawrence showed me photos from the shoot on his laptop, his signature fedora casting a shadow onto his stubble. Lawrence has deep-set, stone gray eyes, animated hands, and a kindly demeanor. “Everything I’d done in my career I felt was leading to this,” he told me. He still seemed forlorn about Empires after all this time, adding, “We wanted to make a great movie.” It didn’t exactly work out that way. In November 2007, Jonathan Lawrence’s longtime friend Mark Byers told him about a potential project in China. Byers, who was working as Empires’ “Hollywood guy,” wrangling American talent, had arranged a meeting between Lawrence and the movie’s producer at a Chinese restaurant in Hollywood during the annual American Film Market, a major industry gathering. Byers gave Lawrence a brief summary of the project and its sponsor. Jiang Hongyu, a.k.a. Jon Jiang, had made a fortune in real estate when he was in his thirties by creating suburban developments for China’s new middle class. Jiang loved the movies: He admired George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Peter Jackson, and believed it was his life’s mission to make big-budget Hollywood blockbusters in China. He wrote television and film scripts just for fun—sci-fi and fantasy, mostly—and he claimed to have watched some 4,000 movies. Now, after several years of writing, he had completed the script for his first feature, which he originally called Mermaid Island. He envisioned a trilogy, with video games and theme parks in short order. Lawrence might have thought he’d found a kindred spirit. Spielberg was the reason he fell in love with movies; he even attended California State University at Long Beach, Spielberg’s alma mater. But after two decades in Hollywood, his only feature film, an independent sci-fi thriller called Dream Parlor, had never found an audience. His most recent gig was unpaid—three months in Europe filming an Indiana Jones fan film, which he’d accepted out of love for the franchise. Back in L.A., he was looking forward to spending more time with his daughter. When Byers called about Empires, Lawrence was intrigued. But at dinner, Jiang was distant; he wouldn’t make eye contact with Lawrence and spoke in short bursts of Chinese, which Hu translated into patchy English. Jiang’s tone and body language conveyed a very specific message, Lawrence thought: You’re here for me. I’m not here for you. Through Hu, Jiang described a fantastical undersea epic with world-class special effects and a poignant love story at the core. The plot would revolve around a Greek hero’s quest to rescue his father, who is abducted by soldiers from a mysterious mer-kingdom, imperiled by the rise of a demon warlord. A tale of good and evil, Empires would be a mix of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lord of the Rings, and Transformers—which had come out earlier that year and was enormously popular in China—with a dash of Shakespeare. Lawrence was skeptical but allowed himself a flicker of hope: This could be big. Jiang, for his part, was unconvinced of Lawrence’s bona fides. “Why would I want you if you haven’t done anything of note?” Lawrence remembers Jiang telling him. “If you can go out and make a scene that’s as big as Transformers, I’ll consider you.” Lawrence left the meeting thinking it was a wash; he had no intention of making a Transformers-like teaser on his own dime. But out of respect for Byers, he agreed to take a look at the script. He made it through the first act but found it bizarre and messy. Lawrence handed it off to his assistant to make a few notes, and they sent the feedback to Jiang. Lawrence never heard back from Jiang. The job had gone to someone else. Then, in September 2009, Byers called: Empires of the Deep needed a new director. Lawrence signed a five-month contract. During the flight, Lawrence began revising the script. As Jiang imagined it, Empires of the Deep would tell the story of Atlas, the son of the sea god Poseidon. Atlas is depicted as a pure-hearted young man who is restless and unsure of his own destiny. He has an alter ego, the swashbuckling Silver Eye (think Batman vis à vis Bruce Wayne), who appears during moments of peril. During a celebration in Atlas’s village in ancient Greece, an invading army of mermen knights riding on the backs of giant crabs captures Atlas’s adoptive father, General Damos. A 90-foot-tall lobster absconds with a holy temple—the Temple of Poseidon—in its claws. Atlas and his drunken, lusty sidekick, Trajin, then embark on a quest across the sea to find Damos and retrieve the temple. On the way they stumble onto Crab Island, where in a mysterious palace they encounter bewitching women, including the beautiful princess Aka, who lure men into bed and kill them after making love. From the script: Suddenly, the ground beneath their feet crumbles and the palace fills with water. As they thrash about, they see for first time that the palace is actually built atop a 450-foot-long fish. Just then mermen haul Atlas and Trajin into a “spiral-shelled vehicle” with windows made of transparent jellyfish skin. The vessel is pulled by harnessed sea monsters. The women turn into mermaids. The duo arrive on Mermaid Island, where the Eight Faery Kingdoms have gathered in preparation for an epic battle against the Demon Mage, who has risen after 1,000 years of banishment, spelling death and destruction for the mer-folk. The stolen temple, it turns out, holds magic powers that are needed to combat the “dark evil” that is about to emerge. The script describes Atlas and Trajin arriving at the kingdom: In the movie’s bloody third act, as the Faery Kingdoms fight for survival against the demon army, it is revealed that—gasp!—the Demon Mage has actually been Atlas, the hero, all along. After reading the script multiple times, I still don’t understand how one character simultaneously travels across the ocean to Mermaid Island as Atlas, fights gallantly as Silver Eye, and ushers in the apocalypse as the Demon Mage. But despite its many flaws, Lawrence told me that he was taken in by its childlike delight in its own fantasy world. Just maybe, he thought, Empires of the Deep could capture some of the magic that had excited him so much as a teenager watching Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lawrence could tell that the script had gone through a number of revisions. In fact, Empires of the Deep already had a long and tangled backstory that Lawrence was only partially aware of. It all started with the Wolf Witch. In the spring of 2007, the actress Cassandra Gava, who is best known for playing the Wolf Witch in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian, made inquires in Hollywood on behalf of a Chinese producer: Screenwriter wanted. Must like mermaids. Randall Frakes heard about the project from Gava and threw his hat in the ring. A longtime friend of James Cameron’s, Frakes had been a story consultant on Terminator and had penned a number of B movies, including the 1988 sci-fi comedy Hell Comes to Frogtown. Jiang offered him $25,000 to develop the story and rewrite the script. Frakes envisioned a campy adventure film like 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts. “It sounded kind of Disney, but I wanted to get my foot in China,” Frakes told me when I reached him by phone at his home in Los Angeles. “I thought, This could be fun.” In 2007, Frakes flew to Beijing to meet Jiang. The tycoon invited him to his office in the central business district. Seated behind a desk in his large suite, Jiang asked Frakes what he thought about the story. Frakes was honest: It needed a lot of work. “It was a theft, a bad quilting version of scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark, from some of the Star Wars films, from all the major films that had been successful in the eighties,” Frakes told me. “I recognized them immediately, and he admitted it.” In one part, Jiang described a chase through a mine with the characters riding mine carts. Frakes pointed out that the scene was cribbed directly from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Jiang insisted that it stay in. “He was arguing with me adamantly, like the thing he had written was Holy Scripture,” Frakes recalls. “I said, ‘Your story doesn’t make any sense. People will see it’s a grab bag of all these movies.’” Jiang didn’t debate; instead, Frakes says, he took Frakes down to the parking garage to show off his Lamborghini. Frakes spent three weeks in Beijing. At night he and Jiang met in Jiang’s office. Jiang told him that he planned to cast foreign actors in the lead roles and wanted to tailor the movie for international distribution. By the time Frakes got involved, Jiang had already been courting a director: Irvin Kershner, who was best known for directing The Empire Strikes Back and the James Bond film Never Say Never Again. Kershner was in his eighties, and his star had faded; Jiang’s movie offered him the opportunity to get back in the game. Back in Los Angeles, Frakes met with Kershner at Kershner’s plush mansion in Laurel Canyon. They agreed that the story didn’t work and instead cooked up a modern-day version about a group of characters looking for an alternative energy source who accidentally discover a lost underwater kingdom. “This is the movie I want to direct,” Frakes remembers Kershner telling him. Frakes sent the treatment to Jiang and argued that the modern setting would play better with Western audiences—namely, sci-fi obsessed teenage boys—and that the story would more naturally lead to video games, serialization, and theme parks. “What is at stake is not something that happened a long time ago, but like the first ‘Terminator’ movie, it is happening NOW, to people like ourselves,” Frakes wrote in the treatment. Frakes explained that Kershner offered Jiang the best chance for getting the movie made. And Kershner wanted to make the modern version of the movie. But Jiang refused, and both Kershner and Frakes jumped ship. (Kershner died in 2010. Frakes is still listed as the film’s cowriter, though when we spoke he was adamant that none of his ideas were ever used.) Next, Jiang courted Jean-Christophe Comar, a French director and visual-effects expert, who calls himself Pitof and directed the 2004 Halle Berry vehicle Catwoman. Jiang’s people sent Pitof the screenplay. “The script was just about impossible to read. It was basically a direct translation from Chinese into English,” Pitof told me. “I thought it was quite surreal.” But Jiang offered to pay Pitof $400,000 up front for a year’s work, and the French director agreed. Pitof believed that the original script was so bad that he would need to start from scratch. He hired Michael Ryan, who had worked on a number of television cartoon series, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers: Animated, to help him draft a new script. Pitof says the finished product was like an improved version of 2010’s Clash of the Titans, with strong visuals and dashes of humor. Jiang hated it and accused Ryan of being a “bad writer,” as Pitof recalls. After 12 months in Beijing, Pitof decided the project “was bullshit,” he says, and flew back to L.A. Jiang had cycled through two screenwriters and two directors, all of whom had tried and failed to steer him to some semblance of a coherent story. So now he turned back to Lawrence, the director he’d rejected as not Transformers enough. By the time Lawrence signed on, Jiang had appointed himself casting director and hired an agency in Los Angeles to find candidates for the leads. Lawrence attended the casting sessions and sent his picks to Jiang, who made the final decisions, sometimes based solely on their photographs or brief audition videos. The part of Aka, the mermaid princess, would be played by a young actress named Shi Yanfei, who had little acting experience and hardly spoke English but happened to be Jiang’s girlfriend. Irena Violette, a Romanian-born former model who’d had small roles opposite Jennifer Garner in 13 Going on 30 and Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon in Four Christmases, was cast as the mermaid Dada, Aka’s loyal bodyguard. Sharon Stone and Monica Bellucci were reportedly courted for the role of the Mermaid Queen. That role would later go to Olga Kurylenko, a Ukrainian-born actress and model who had starred with Daniel Craig in 2008’s Quantum of Solace and who was the movie’s only bona fide celebrity. She was reportedly paid $1 million. The role of Atlas went to Steve Polites, a handsome 29-year-old fresh out of theater school in Baltimore who had starred in a 2006 straight-to-DVD horror film called The Murder Game. He was signed on for the trilogy. Trajin, Atlas’s sidekick and the movie’s comic relief, described in the script as a “stocky, fun fellow,” would be played by a 27-year-old actor named Maxx Maulion, a cherubic redhead who had appeared in a few indie shorts and TV movies. Jonathan Kos-Read was cast as the menacing Ha Li King, an ally of the mermaid kingdom. Famous in China after a decade working in the country, Kos-Read was a rare Western actor who spoke fluent Chinese. Once the film was cast, Lawrence flew to Beijing. On the plane, he tried to reconcile the attempts of the previous writers. Somewhere in the blurry distance he began to see the outlines of a story. He needed to clean up the plot, flesh out the main characters, and bolster the comic elements. The 13-hour flight was too short. Around 2007, Jiang launched a special-effects company called Fontelysee Pictures to handle the production of Empires. (“Fontelysee” is a garbled transliteration of Champs-Élysées, the boulevard in Paris.) When Lawrence arrived in Beijing, he went straight to Fontelysee’s offices: All around he saw designers working on illustrations depicting finned and fanged sea monsters, phosphorescent mermen soldiers, and vast underwater kingdoms. Many of the drawings were reminiscent of H. R. Giger, the late Swiss surrealist who designed creatures for the Alien series. Artists drafted detailed maps of the kingdoms of Jiang’s imagination and produced CGI trailers to present to financiers, whose money would add to Jiang’s own considerable investment. Chen Peng, who worked in the Fontelysee art department and hired local staff for Empires, remembers the early days as exciting. Everybody bought into Jiang’s vision, Chen told me, which he described as “mysterious” and “unprecedented.” “It’s different from Chinese classical creations,” he said. On his first day, Lawrence met with Jiang in his office, with its view of downtown and specially designated nap room in the back. Lawrence hadn’t spoken to Jiang since their awkward first encounter in L.A. The real estate tycoon was friendlier and, through a translator, welcomed Lawrence to Beijing. That night, Jiang treated Lawrence and a few members of the crew to an extravagant meal, and Lawrence presented everyone with American-made gifts. Lawrence remembered how Jiang wouldn’t look him in the eye back in Los Angeles; this time he did. Over the next few days, Lawrence got to know the team. The movie’s assistant director was a stoic man in his early thirties named Hai Tao, and the coproducer, Harrison Liang, had lived in Los Angeles and spent the bulk of his days chain-smoking in the office between Lawrence’s and Jiang’s. Hai Tao and Liang both spoke fluent English and served as the director’s liaisons with the billionaire, struggling to translate directions so confusing that language often failed them entirely. Soon after he arrived, Lawrence toured a prop warehouse filled wall-to-wall with swords, suits of armor made with actual metal, and the Mermaid Queen’s lavish throne. These were the rejects; Jiang had already ordered all new props to be made. Outside Beijing was a complex of soundstages where sets for Act I were under construction. Lawrence went to see the set of an ancient prison. Walking down the hallway leading to the dank, dark cells, he noticed that it “looked like a hallway at a YMCA gymnasium”—clean, sterile, and freshly painted. He told the set crew that the hallway had to match the rest of the prison: dirty, decrepit, with roots coming out of the ground. “I need this to look like it was built a thousand years ago!” he commanded. The crew tore it down and started again. Lawrence also worked on casting extras. Jiang wanted to hire foreigners who lived in China: Those chosen would be paid 8,000 yuan (about $1,200) per month for four months of work. Men had to be at least six feet tall, women five-foot-seven. “European/North American origins are preferable,” one ad read. Some days the office was flooded with actors auditioning for bit parts. Many were Russians or foreign models living in Beijing who barely spoke English. “There wasn’t a large well of talent,” Lawrence told me. Once Lawrence had oriented himself at Fontelysee’s offices, he holed up in his hotel room, surrounded by storyboards, and turned his attention to the script. He wanted to put some soul into the characters and improve the pace of the plot, removing cumbersome dialogue and exposition. His inspiration was his favorite movie, Raiders. He envisioned Empires as an action comedy, epic and fun. In L.A., Lawrence’s assistant researched the mythology of Poseidon and old Germanic runes, which appear on Atlas/Silver Eye’s skin: Lawrence worried that audiences wouldn’t root for Atlas, the protagonist whose quest to retrieve his abducted father and the stolen temple propels the narrative forward. He created a romantic storyline involving Atlas and a village woman, as well as a subplot with a child from an orphanage with whom Atlas would develop a father-daughter relationship. Lawrence needed to make the universe of the movie consistent with itself and the plot sensible from beat to beat. But there were a lot of holes. In one scene, Atlas’s father figure, Damos, dies after a major battle in which thousands of mer-people are slaughtered by demon warriors. As the surviving characters mourn, one of the mermaids reveals a magic pill that brings Damos back to life. Lawrence laughed when he read it. If the mer-folk possessed magic pills that could restore life, why wouldn’t they revive all the others who had been killed? Lawrence rewrote it so that the mermaids revived Damos using a dangerous ancient spell, one that could have grave consequences to the mermaids: They risked their lives to save his. This solution, Lawrence thought, added a sense of jeopardy to the scene. After spending hours each night working on the script, Lawrence would meet with Jiang to talk about the revisions. Harrison Liang translated the meetings as the two men launched into heated but amicable debates over the script. Then one day, as Lawrence and Jiang were arguing over the magic-pill scene, Lawrence said to Liang: “Tell him ‘Your script is one of the worst pieces of fucking shit I’ve ever read.’” Liang refused to translate, but Lawrence insisted. Liang passed on some version of the message, although Lawrence doubted it was the literal translation. Jiang remained calm. “What makes you think you’re a writer?” he asked Lawrence. “You have no credits on IMDb as a writer.” “Neither do you,” Lawrence said. In November 2009, Lawrence greeted Steve Polites and Maxx Maulion at the Beijing airport. Lawrence warned them that the movie wouldn’t be like anything they’d ever experienced before. “Nothing is like it is in America,” he told them. “Everything changes here from moment to moment. What is true today will not be true tomorrow.” The actors drove straight to the Fontelysee offices. To prepare to play Atlas, the hero and the son of Poseidon, Polites had grown out his hair to match the concept art he’d been shown. But at the office, the hair stylists were alarmed by the state of Atlas’s mane. Polites tried to explain that he had hat head, but the term was lost in translation. “This is not how my hair looks normally,” he said. “Let me wash my hair.” The women spoke in rapid-fire Chinese. They pulled out a wig that looked like “a knock-off Lord of the Rings hobbit wig,” Polites recalls. He was then escorted across the street to a hair salon where stylists permed his hair and bleached it. Over the course of the next week, his hair changed from orange to green to black and finally to blond, styled in tight curls. He pleaded with Lawrence to step in, but it was too late. Polites looked like he’d had a bowl of instant noodles dropped over his head. Then he was handed over to the wardrobe department, which had fashioned his costume ahead of his arrival. At the fitting, he drowned in the immense armor that covered his torso, while his pteruges, a skirt worn by Greco-Roman warriors, seemed to reveal a daring amount of thigh; it fell six inches above his knee. Other characters’ costumes weren’t much better. Maxx Maulion’s Trajin outfit was a burlap toga. The merman costumes were full-body rubber outfits with nubs meant to look like coral. The actors’ faces would be painted green, with fins affixed to their heads. The suits were too loose and needed to be glued to the actors’ skin. (With actual glue. In a blog post, one merman extra recalled that his skin became irritated; when he checked the adhesive bottle, he noticed a warning label that read “AVOID CONTACT WITH SKIN” in large print.) For the mermaids, the hair department opted for purple skullcaps with what looked like cornrows on top and dreadlocks dangling from the back. The wardrobe team had envisioned the mermaids with plastic seashells covering their breasts, their bodies painted in shimmering blues and greens. But the tails presented a problem: Lawrence wanted to use pliable fins that would delicately wrap around the actors’ legs like a skirt, so they could get around the sets. Instead the costume department devised rigid appendages that would attach to the actors’ thighs. Walking would be a problem. Looking at the costumes and props, Maxx Maulion—Trajin—kept thinking, Oh man, this is going to be crazy. The Americans began mockingly referring to Empires as “the fish movie.” Meanwhile, Lawrence was still hard at work on the script, and he asked the actors to meet with him periodically to discuss how to enrich their characters. Polites and Maulion rehearsed their lines in their hotel rooms. The movie seemed only theoretical until the day the cast was invited into a screening room. The special-effects department had made a trailer featuring some of the movie’s early animation and CGI. The graphics looked low budget, but at least there was plenty of room for improvement. While the preproduction teams got ready to start shooting, Polites and Maulion became fast friends, wandering between the looming skyscrapers of their downtown neighborhood and watching DVDs in their hotel rooms. The pair were on a high; when locals discovered that they were actors from Hollywood, they would ask for autographs. Polites was new to the industry; he had moved to L.A. just a year before he was cast. He worked at a restaurant while he auditioned for acting roles, and Empires was by far his biggest booking. Maulion had had a few small roles in film and TV and only recently obtained his Screen Actors Guild card. Suddenly, he was cast in a leading role—with a paycheck of $70,000, more than he’d ever made. When I met Polites and Maulion over breakfast on a sunny Hollywood morning in November, they spoke of the optimism of those early days. True, there were things that seemed off—the uncertain schedule, the unfinished script, the weird costumes—but like Lawrence, they believed Empires could be their break. “This was a big deal for me,” Maulion explained. “To book something of this nature was like winning the lottery.” In December, Jiang ordered the production to begin shooting. Lawrence was frustrated. There hadn’t been time to rehearse or even to have the full cast do a read-through, but Jiang insisted. Plus, Lawrence was only about a third of the way through rewriting the script. He shared what he had so far with the cast, the draft peppered with emotional notes. After one scene, in which the characters are transported through an ocean portal to the South China Sea, where they encounter a group of Chinese characters—a scene included to accommodate government censors—Lawrence wrote: “Jiang – I don’t know what to do with this section – it does not fit or serve the story.” Finally, on page 45: The production moved to a small town outside Beijing and into a hotel with a karaoke bar and a restaurant that served shark fin soup. The soundstage lot—with sets for Atlas’s home village, a prison that housed captured pirates, and the city square, where the merman/crab invasion takes place—was located nearby. Before the first take, there was a ceremony at the city-square soundstage to bless the expensive Panavision cameras that had been rented for the picture. Red blankets were placed over them, and incense sticks were lit. A crew member made a brief speech in Chinese. The first scene Lawrence shot depicts Atlas and Trajin. Atlas picks up an apple and tosses it to Trajin. A horse crosses their path. It was a thrilling moment. “Here I am, a nobody in the scheme of things, an independent filmmaker, here on the set of this big movie,” Lawrence says. “We had a lot of hope at that point, because it was everything we’d ever wanted to do. Massive sets. Huge crew. Film cameras.” But something would go wrong during each take: the horse wouldn’t cross, an extra would fall down, Maulion would drop the apple. After a handful of tries, they wrapped the scene. Neither Polites nor Maulion thought they actually got the shot they needed, but they shrugged it off. Polites was still trying to make peace with his hair, and his skirt felt obscenely short, but he was living his dream. This is great, he thought. We’re doing it. Lawrence learned quickly how the style of filmmaking in China differed from the West. Whereas Hollywood sets are extremely hierarchical collaborative dictatorships, Chinese sets are decidedly unsystematic, improvised operations where problems are dealt with as they arise. Just like in Chinese society as a whole, the concept of guanxi—relations or connections—is enormously important. One’s loyalty depends on who it is one has the strongest relationship with. That might be the director or a cinematographer or a producer—but it’s rarely the audience or the movie’s bottom line, which are generally the two highest priorities for American movies. Empires’ original cinematographer left before shooting began, replaced with Rao Xiaobing, a veteran director of photography who split time between China and the U.S. Rao, Lawrence discovered early in the shoot, was talented and a respected professional who wielded a lot of influence with the crew, to whom he was fiercely loyal. At first the plan was to shoot the movie with two cutting-edge digital cameras, but Rao lobbied to shoot on film, an old-fashioned and more expensive option. Lawrence supported the choice—after all, his hero, Spielberg, once said he’d shoot on film until the last processing lab shut down. Because of the expense, Rao would shoot quickly and move on. The actors often had to complete a scene in three or four takes, whereas on a Hollywood set a director might film dozens. It became clear to Lawrence and others that Jiang had decided to get Empires on film fast. Despite all the money that had been invested in preproduction, the frantic shooting schedule and constant cutting of corners led to the first of many rumors that the budget for the movie was far smaller than the reported $100 million. Polites, the star, quickly lost the optimism of the early days. He felt the shoot was being rushed; they were rarely given the chance to rehearse a scene. Most of the actors’ time was spent sitting around in costume while shots were set up. As they waited, he and Maulion talked about their next career moves and chatted up the female translators. The actors had been brought to China on generous contracts that promised cushy amenities, most of which failed to materialize. American actors are used to trailers where they can hang out between takes. None were provided. Polites had asked for a gym so he could bulk up, as the role demanded, but his request was ignored. The Americans had expected a selection of food provided by on-set craft services, but the Chinese productions ate more simply. The cast and crew were given the same thing every day: bone-in chicken, a cup of broccoli, and rice. Maulion, whose character was supposed to be chubby, immediately began dropping pounds. Before bed he would eat peanut butter out of the jar and an entire sleeve of Oreo cookies to keep his weight up. He asked his mom to send him cans of tuna from the States. On set, tension between Lawrence and Rao began to simmer. Lawrence was a hands-on director when it came to lighting and lenses, and he asked the crew for complicated setups to get the shots he wanted. He had a grand vision for Empires. Rao, however, was more of a realist—this wasn’t a Hollywood movie, and he knew it. The communication problems meant that setting up a shot that would take 45 minutes on a Hollywood set would sometimes take four or five hours, with Rao shouting instructions to the Chinese crew. And then, after all that prep time, the actors would be rushed through the shot. Jiang did not attend the filming, but he called Harrison Liang frequently, asking for updates and sending instructions for Lawrence and the rest of the crew. Indeed, Lawrence rarely had a chance to talk face-to-face with the billionaire. When Jiang did show up, he would make unreasonable demands, like insisting that a smoke machine make more smoke—a time-consuming process—when the actors were ready to shoot. But there were moments of camaraderie. Once, Jiang approached Polites, placed his hand on his shoulder, and said, “I want to make you into a big star.” And Jiang was respectful of his director, even if he ignored most of his suggestions. “Mr. Jiang likes you,” Lawrence remembers Liang telling him one day. “He’s never given anybody as much respect as he’s given you.” In January, after a few weeks of shooting outside Beijing, the crew moved to coastal Fujian province, in southeast China. The weather was miserable, with day after day of rain. Fujian sits on a spectacular stretch of coast, with mountains, rivers, caves, and valleys nearby. The script included many scenes in such locations, but the sites were remote and in some cases dangerous. Lawrence began to grow seriously concerned about the state of the shoot. The script was ever changing and the schedule in disarray, and the challenges of the terrain exacerbated the strained relationships on set. Irena Violette, the mermaid Dada, joined the production in Fujian. Her boyfriend, Jerred Berg, an actor between jobs, came with her. Violette arrived ready to work and with a sense of humor. Oh well, this is China, she shrugged whenever problems arose. But soon her good humor wore thin, and she began describing herself as “the black sheep” on set because of her disagreements with the crew. The makeup to complete her costume required hours of preparation every day. But the shooting schedule was so haphazard that sometimes she would spend several hours getting ready and then never shoot a frame of film. Frustrated, she would voice her concerns to the crew. She was furious that the actors had to wake up so early and sit around for hours in makeup when it was obvious that the weather wasn’t going to cooperate. In particular, Violette and Rao didn’t get along. When Violette finally got in front of the camera, she wanted more takes. Rao refused, claiming that they didn’t have enough film. Other tensions arose. At one point, Lawrence saw a crew member being kicked in the head by a camera operator. He rushed to step in, but Hai Tao, the assistant director, held him back and told him not to get involved. The stunt team operated independently of Lawrence, and he wasn’t on hand for most of the stunt shoots. Lawrence had no power over the team, but he heard reports that the stuntmen’s safety was being compromised. There were regular accidents, and one stuntman, after hours of being pulled around on ropes, quit in tears because of the pain. And still, Lawrence had been looking forward to shooting on the beach. The script described a thrilling raid led by the Ha Li King, played by Jonathan Kos-Read wearing a tentacled crown on his head, who tries and fails to defend the Faery Kingdoms from the Demon Mage. When Lawrence discovered that the beach was flanked by a resort, and that the crew had subsequently built a giant wall to disguise it, it was too late to find another location. In the script, the Ha Li King’s forces are overwhelmed by the Demon Mage and he surrenders. Lawrence surrendered to the chaos and shot on the beach. Then a scene took the crew to a cave set, where the script called for Silver Eye, Atlas’s alter ego, to free Greek merchants captured by “Thracian Marauders”—pirates. The crew had prepared a massive, unruly horse for Polites: The cave was dark and cold. The crew wore hard hats; the actors did not. The horse was difficult. The script called for the animal to jump over a feasting table, but instead it reared around excitedly, frightening the extras, some of whom were chained to the cave’s wall. Then suddenly a chunk of rock the size of a manhole cover came crashing from the roof and crushed a spotlight. Meanwhile, based on Jiang’s frustrated missives, which Liang and Hai Tao transmitted to Lawrence, the billionaire seemed to be growing increasingly irked by the foreign cast and crew’s difficulties adapting to the Chinese way of doing things. Jiang believed the Americans were being soft. A few days after the cave scene, Lawrence, Polites, Maulion, Violette, and Berg, along with some of the Chinese crew members and translators, hiked out to scout a shooting location situated on a rocky riverbed. It had been raining for days, and the rocks were covered with wet, slimy moss. As a safety measure, the crew had laid carpet over the rocks and hired carpenters to build a handrail along a particularly difficult section. Still, there were spots so precarious that the group needed to get down on all fours and crawl.> The hike took an hour, and once they arrived the Americans debated with their translators and a few Chinese crew members about whether it was possible to shoot there at all: The costume and makeup tents had to be set up at a distance from the shooting location, and Irena Violette and the mermaid actors would need to walk over slippery rocks with fins attached to their legs. Violette was particularly concerned that she might get hurt. Nobody even knew how long it would take to get to the closest hospital. “If I slip and fall, is there a helicopter?” Violette said. Lawrence asked one of the translators if the movie had medical insurance. The translator said that it did but that there was no evacuation plan. “If somebody falls and breaks their neck or their skull, what’s the backup?” Lawrence asked. “They say they will take the fastest measure,” the translator said. Back at the hotel, Lawrence fought to scrap the location, and Rao agreed that it was unshootable. But Jiang, who was not on set, was unwavering; the rumor was that his girlfriend, Shi Yanfei, insisted on the spot. Lawrence appealed to Hai Tao, the assistant director. Could he explain to Jiang that Lawrence didn’t want to shoot under such dangerous conditions? Jiang asked Hai Tao to tell Lawrence that if he didn’t do his job, he’d be fired. He took back his threat, but Lawrence reluctantly went ahead with the shoot anyway. In the coming days, Chinese workers hauled the gear to the location, carrying it atop bamboo poles. Then the crew set up a tent where the actors could dress and get into makeup. On the day of the shoot, Violette hiked out at dawn. It was yet another cold and drizzly day. Inside the tent was dark, but there was a heater, so at least it was warm. The artists began applying makeup and affixing fins to her legs. A few hours later, Rao rushed over. “Come on,” he said, according to Violette, “let’s shoot.” The makeup artists explained that there wasn’t enough light in the tent. They asked Violette to move outside so they could finish more quickly. Violette objected: It was wet and cold, and she was half naked. She asked for someone to bring in another light and finish inside the tent. (When I reached out to Rao to discuss his experiences on Empires, he declined to participate in this article, writing in an email, “I have moved on.”) A translator told Rao that Violette would not cooperate, and Rao relayed the message to Jiang. Violette insists that wasn’t the case; she simply didn’t want to stand in the cold and risk getting sick. Violette began to cry. “This is bullshit,” she said, “I’m done.” She left the tent and walked across the rocks to tell Rao she was quitting. On the way, she ran into Lawrence, who told her that he’d heard that Jiang planned to fire her. “Good,” she said, “because I’m quitting anyway.” Lawrence told her to let Jiang fire her so she could keep her wages. Violette hiked back to the hotel to pack her bags. She called Harrison Liang; her contract stipulated that production owed her a ticket home, and she wanted one now. Two days later, no ticket had arrived. Liang told her that the production would not pay for her ticket and demanded that she repay all of the salary she’d earned so far. He threatened to sue her in a Chinese court. (Liang didn’t reply to requests for an interview.) Violette and Berg’s passports were at the production office, so Violette called an American consulate for help. The official on the phone advised them to make their way to the nearest U.S. consulate, either in Guangzhou or Shanghai. The couple met with Lawrence to plan an escape. They decided that in the evening Lawrence would call an all-hands production meeting in the hotel lobby. While the crew was distracted, Violette and Berg would slip out a window. That night, with the entire production gathered around the director, the couple scurried down a hallway unnoticed. They dumped their luggage out the window and crawled after it. Then they walked down to a riverbank beyond the hotel grounds and hiked along the river until they found a spot narrow enough to cross. They waded through the water, carrying their luggage above their heads, and then climbed up the steep embankment on the other side. The next morning, the couple reached a police station in a town called Fuding. The police gave them travel papers and drove them to a train station, where they caught the 11 a.m. to Shanghai. “Once we were on the train and the train moved, I felt I could exhale,” Violette says. That night they checked into the Ritz-Carlton in Shanghai. The American consulate provided them with temporary passports and obtained Chinese exit visas. A few days later, they were on a plane to Los Angeles. At the mountaintop hotel, Lawrence kept up a ruse that the couple were refusing to come out of their room. During mealtimes, he would take a tray of food into their room and dump it out the window. Eventually, the crew demanded that Violette return to the movie. Lawrence knocked on the door one last time. “Hey guys, it’s me,” he said. He went into the room and emerged moments later to face the Chinese crew with the truth. “They’re gone.” The casting director soon recruited Kerry Brogan, an American actress living in China, to replace Violette, and Lawrence resumed shooting the movie. But a few weeks later, he realized that he wanted out, too. His contract would end soon, and the movie wasn’t at all what he’d signed up for. Plus, he had another project offer, not to mention a young daughter waiting for him back in Los Angeles. Worse yet, the cast and crew, and Lawrence himself, had not been paid in weeks. He told Jiang that he would finish the picture—for a million dollars. Jiang accused him of extortion. Lawrence was off the movie. He went to Jiang’s Beijing office to arrange for his payment, refusing to leave until the money had been sent. The director and the billionaire said a cordial goodbye. They shook hands, and Lawrence bowed slightly. The experience on Empires was tough on Lawrence. He took a yearlong sabbatical, but the frustration lingered. “It knocked the wind out of me,” he told me when we met in Los Angeles. “I questioned what I’m doing in this industry.” He describes his time on the set of Empires as “a dark comedy.” Although Lawrence’s journey had ended, Jon Jiang still believed Empires was poised for global box-office domination. The cast and crew remained in China. Before Lawrence left Beijing, Jiang asked him, “Do you know any other Hollywood directors?” Last December, I met the director Michael French for coffee in Vancouver to find out what happened on the set of Empires after Lawrence left. French, a laid-back Canadian director of comedies, wore a half smile when we spoke about Empires that suggested I had no idea how much of a circus it was. A few years before Empires, French had become good friends with Rao Xiaobing on Heart of a Dragon, a biopic he had directed in China. The film chronicles the life of Rick Hansen, a Canadian paraplegic who circled the globe in his wheelchair, focusing on the days Hansen spent in China climbing a section of the Great Wall. The shoot was grueling, but French left with a valuable understanding about how Chinese movie sets operate. After Lawrence left, Rao reached out to French about the Empires job, and French agreed to take over the project in February 2009. He had one condition, however: He had a work commitment and had to be back in Canada at the end of April. Jiang agreed to the terms. French flew to Beijing and then onward to Fujian. The next day he went down to a beach where he found “a big wall, and mermaids, and people killing each other in the water,” he told me. Jiang’s team forbade French from speaking with Lawrence, so he wasn’t sure exactly how to envision the movie. But he found the script campy, so he decided to direct it as a comedy. French’s laid-back approach and good relationship with Rao improved the mood on set considerably. Filming was about a third completed when French arrived. He had roughly 100 days to shoot, and he planned to finish the script during that time. To speed things up, French cut big swaths of dialogue from the script; he figured his job was “to fix the leak in the pipe. All I cared about was making my days,” he told me. Olga Kurylenko, the Mermaid Queen, arrived in Beijing in April to film her scenes. She was well-liked on set, playing her character as a powerful leader preparing her kingdom for battle against the Demon Mage: Like his predecessors, French had to contend with a meddlesome billionaire. One day, Jiang interrupted filming to berate Jonathan Kos-Read, who was playing the Ha Li King. The character marries Princess Aka to secure a royal alliance between the mermaid and Ha Li kingdoms, combing forces to fight the Demon Mage. But Aka loves another. “My heart is weary and my spirit drifts like seaweed uprooted in a storm,” she laments. Kos-Read saw the king as a ghoulish and conniving figure and played it with a hunched posture. “You are like the boundless sea, my Queen—all who encounter you, high or low, lose themselves in your beauty and grace,” he rasped in a growly British accent. He had already filmed for ten days when Jiang scolded him for his acting. “Do it liked a prince in Shakespeare!” Jiang demanded. “OK,” Kos-Read replied, “but there won’t be much continuity.” Jiang didn’t care, and so Kos-Read tried the scene with an upright posture and a poncy British accent. “Yes! That’s the character,” Jiang said. French stood by watching. When Jiang left the set, French offered a solution: They would film each scene with both versions of the character—and forget about Jiang’s vision in the editing room. In April 2010, a little more than two months after French took over Empires of the Deep, the cast and director were asked to appear at a press conference in Beijing. Journalists were given 3-D glasses to watch a trailer that featured Kurylenko as the Mermaid Queen. Her words echoed over the auditorium: “The Demon Mage, so long imprisoned by our ancestors, can no longer be restrained!” The trailer looked half finished, the special effects as if they were from a nineties video game. Shi Yanfei, who plays the mermaid Aka, and Polites took the stage. Kos-Read, the event’s host, announced Kurylenko, who walked down a red carpet leading from backstage in a slim black dress. “Ni hao,” she said in stilted Chinese, “wo ai dajia”—I love everyone. Applause broke out across the theater. A few weeks later, Michael French’s contract expired. Most of the script had been put on film, but Jiang began adding extra scenes and demanded that French stay through the end, or else he wouldn’t be paid for the last of his work. French was exasperated. “The train was off-track. They couldn’t pay the crew. They couldn’t pay for the cameras. But they could add extra scenes?” he told me. He believed the producers had failed the movie. “There was nothing they could offer that would beat the prospect of going home.” He told his friend Rao that he was leaving and booked a plane ticket to Canada. On April 30, his birthday, Empires’ third director flew home. Throughout that spring, Jiang invited journalists to visit the set. “This is a Hollywood film made by Chinese,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’ll use our resources to market it so it will succeed. It has to.” To a reporter from The New York Times, he compared himself to George Lucas, James Cameron, and Peter Jackson. “Empires,” he said, was “a very serious love tragedy” that “is a combination of something mystical, something that satisfies your bloodlust, and something sensual.” Jiang boasted that the script went through 40 drafts with the help of ten Hollywood screenwriters, and he envisioned distributing his movie to 160 countries. In Jiang’s office, according to the Times, was a dry-erase board that read “Days until Monica Bellucci shows up on set,” “Days until the Cannes Film Festival,” and “Days until the grand premiere,” all left blank. The Times reporter also noted a problem that Lawrence had encountered during the earliest days of the film: People weren’t getting paid. At the beginning of the shoot, checks were a day or two late. But as the production stretched on and the budget ballooned by a reported $50 million, pay arrived weeks and even months behind, and in some cases not at all. Jiang admitted to the Times that some people were getting paid late because of “liquidity problems.” Once, according to French, a group of foreign extras who hadn’t been paid in weeks threatened to walk. Instead of paying them, the production team called the local police to come to the hotel and check their visas—a scare tactic. One day, China Film Group, the behemoth state-owned studio, locked the door to a soundstage because it hadn’t been paid for use of its gear. No one knows how much of his own money Jiang invested in the project. Some of the people I interviewed think he nearly bankrupted himself, but Peter Hu, a former Fontelysee executive, told me that he believes Jiang relied almost entirely on outside financing and that when it dried up, the payments to cast and crew stopped. By the time the movie was finished, the investors were furious. “It’s not a happy ending,” Hu says. “They lost a lot of money.” After Michael French left, Jonathan Lawrence heard from someone in Jiang’s office. Would he come back to the movie? No. In early 2016, I tracked down Empires’ fourth and final director, the man who saw the movie to wrap. Scott Miller is a Los Angeles–based filmmaker and the son of Warren Miller, the famed producer and director of over 750 sports documentaries. Miller got along well with Jiang, and unlike many of those involved, he has fond memories of the three months he worked on Empires. “It was a blast,” he told me when we spoke over the phone. “I enjoyed it immensely.” Miller had worked with Harrison Liang in the past and accepted the Empires job with enthusiasm. He saw Empires of the Deep as a love story between Atlas and Aka. It was epic and fun, yes, but what it was missing was emotion, and he added material to build up the romance. When he arrived in China, morale on set was abysmal. He tried to improve it by allocating more money for better food for the cast and crew. He slowed down the pace of shooting and worked closely with Steve Polites and Shi Yanfei to deepen their portrayals. He watched the footage of the previous few directors and lobbied to reshoot the whole thing to realize his vision. (Miller’s request was denied. The directors and actors disagree about how much each director shot. Most agree that the shoot was almost evenly divided between Lawrence, French, and Miller. But Miller says that he shot a full two-thirds of the movie. Maxx Maulion couldn’t imagine reshooting the film. By May 2010, he had been in China for six months and saw no end in sight. With three different directors, he had three different takes on his character. Was he a joker? A drunk? A sad sack? He hadn’t been paid in three months—he was owed more than $30,000. He noticed that the production was rushing his scenes and believed that they were trying to film him out of the movie to avoid paying him what he was owed. Maulion’s agent told him to walk off the set and come back to Los Angeles. He told his friend and costar Polites that he was leaving. He felt guilty, but Polites understood. While he was in the cab to the airport, his phone buzzed with texts: He was due on set in an hour. He didn’t respond. Polites wanted to stick it out: He was the star, and he was fighting sea monsters. Empires was what he’d always dreamed of doing. A few months later, Polites shot his final scene: a brief encounter in the mermaid palace that required him to get sopping wet. He was ready to go home. Before he departed, he asked the wardrobe department if he could take Atlas’s sword with him as a souvenir. They said no, so he settled for his cape. Back in L.A., still stinging from his experiences in China, Maulion wondered if Empires would ever be released—and whether his character would still be in the film. The movie was scheduled for a 2011 premiere. But the date came and went. In October 2012, two years after principal photography wrapped, a 3-D trailer appeared online. The website Den of Geek wrote that it looked “hurriedly put together for the Syfy Channel.… Clearly, this was not a film that would make James Cameron fear for his position as the king of the glossy blockbuster.” After Empires, Maulion wrote and starred in an indie comedy called Tony Tango. In 2012, he promoted the movie at the American Film Market at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. As he walked into the lobby, he noticed a banner for Empires of the Deep. He searched for the Empires booth and found it downstairs in the international section, where, in a dark, largely empty corner, he encountered Jon Jiang. Maulion greeted him, and the exchange was amiable. Maulion asked if he was still in the movie, and Jiang said through a translator that he was; they’d hired a chubby European man to shoot from behind for the remainder of Trajin’s scenes. There were no visitors to the booth, and Jiang appeared disheartened. Maulion figured he wasn’t having any luck finding a distributor. “No hard feelings?” Maulion said, shaking hands with Jiang. He still hadn’t been paid for his last three month’s work. In 2013, one of Jiang’s assistants called Steve Polites and invited him to the Cannes Film Festival to promote the movie. The producers bought Polites a ticket to France and rented him a tux. On the way to the airport, he got a call with news that the trip was canceled. “After that I was kind of like, OK, I’m washing my hands of this,” Polites says. But Empires wasn’t done with him. The next year he was invited to a screening of the movie at the Sony Pictures lot in Los Angeles. Jiang had reportedly hired Michael Kahn, Spielberg’s longtime editor, to cut the film, and it looked as if it was finally being geared up for release. Polites went to the theater with some trepidation; he was still trying to come to terms with his hair, among other things. He brought along his wife for emotional support. Although he was amazed to see himself on the big screen fighting sea monsters and demons, much of the film was outright ridiculous. The story was a mess, the plotline didn’t work, and the CGI looked cheap and unfinished. The best the movie could hope for, Polites figured, was to find a cult following. “It’s so kind of wonderfully weird in its own way. It’s so bad it’s good.” Two weeks later, in April 2014, almost four years after filming ended, he flew back to China for reshoots. Neither Scott Miller nor Rao Xiaobing was there; in fact, Polites didn’t recognize anyone from the original crew. He spent a week in China and did only one full day of shooting. By then Polites’s hair was short, so the wardrobe team picked up a wig for him to wear. He describes it as “Marilyn Monroe–esque.”

Как стало известно "Ъ", завершена техническая часть расследования катастрофы Ту-154Б-2 Минобороны, рухнувшего в Черное море 25 декабря 2016 года после взлета из аэропорта Адлера. Из выводов экспертов, по данным источников "Ъ", следует, что самолет вообще не падал, а сел на воду в контролируемом полете под управлением командира экипажа Романа Волкова. Причину столь странного поведения летчика сейчас ищут уже по административной линии: в Минобороны изучают медкарту погибшего пилота и результаты прохождения им психологических тестов, опрашивают инструкторов, учивших майора летать, а также выясняют, правильно ли был организован отдых экипажа перед рейсом. Отметим, что версия об ошибке экипажа стала доминирующей в расследовании еще в декабре прошлого года после опросов немногочисленных свидетелей ночной авиакатастрофы, заявивших экспертам: следовавший в Сирию Ту-154 не падал и не пикировал после взлета, а как бы приводнился на поверхность моря. Этот маневр оказался роковым для самолета и 92 находившихся на его борту человек: машина от удара развалилась на куски, которые сразу затонули. Однако доказать высказанные предположения быстро не удалось. Авиаэкспертам пришлось сначала аргументированно опровергнуть все остальные возможные версии аварии, включая внезапно возникшие на борту проблемы технического характера, обстрел самолета с моря и подрыв изнутри, попадание в двигатели птиц и пр. При этом даже после проведения всех необходимых исследований и экспертиз в причастность экипажа к катастрофе верили не все. Убедить скептиков помогли бы объективные данные с параметрического самописца Ту-154 , однако здесь возникли определенные проблемы. Прибор был найден, благополучно извлечен со дна Черного моря и не пострадал при аварии. Но лентопротяжный механизм самописца оказался прилично изношенным — он не обеспечивал постоянную скорость при прокрутке записи, а катушки имели люфт, который давал основания сомневаться в достоверности параметров. В итоге ремонт самописца и его расшифровку военные поручили более опытным гражданским экспертам Межгосударственного авиационного комитета (МАК). Там параметрический самописец фактически отремонтировали, заменив изношенные детали, получили с него необходимую информацию, а затем синхронизировали параметры полета с переговорами летчиков, которые, в свою очередь, были записаны на речевой магнитофон. Итогом работы МАК стала так называемая 3D-модель последнего полета Ту-154 — видеореконструкция движения машины в пространстве с наложенными на нее цифрами, отражающими высоту полета, скорость, режим работы двигателей и пр., а также с описанием всех произнесенных при этом слов и действий летчиков. Выводы по этим материалам делали уже эксперты военной технической комиссии. По данным близкого к комиссии источника "Ъ", они оказались без преувеличения шокирующими. Самолет, как показало 3D-моделивание, взлетел в абсолютно штатном режиме. После взлета экипаж тоже не совершил ни одной из традиционных в подобных случаях ошибок — машина не выходила на закритические углы атаки, не теряла скорость, не попадала в штопор и вообще не падала. Примерно через минуту после отрыва от земли Ту-154 набрал высоту около 250 м и скорость порядка 360-370 км/ч, а сразу после этого на борту, как выразился собеседник "Ъ", стала "стремительно развиваться нештатная ситуация". Выразилась она в том, что управляющий пилот — командир экипажа Роман Волков, который должен был дальше набирать высоту,— фактически перевел машину в режим посадки. Ту-154, как показало моделирование, в течение десяти секунд — до самого столкновения с водой — снижался в так называемом контролируемом полете под управлением летчика. По мнению экспертов, причиной трагедии могла стать дезориентация пилота в пространстве. Набирая высоту в темноте, над морем, пилот не контролировал визуально положение машины, поскольку не видел впереди никаких ориентиров и даже горизонта. Дезориентировать экипаж могли даже звезды, которые одновременно были как сверху, так и снизу — в виде отражений на поверхности воды. В этой сложной обстановке пилотирующий летчик, по словам экспертов, должен был полностью довериться приборам, показания которых командир Волков, видимо, проигнорировал, доверившись своему опыту и физиологическим ощущениям. Так, например, возникшая при ускорении машины перегрузка могла создать у летчика иллюзию набора высоты — в то время как на самом деле самолет снижался. Сейчас военные специалисты изучают всю профессиональную биографию погибшего пилота и в первую очередь его летную подготовку, в которой, возможно, обнаружатся какие-то пробелы. Однако "списать" катастрофу лишь на возможную ошибку командира Волкова, имеющего, кстати, 4 тыс. часов налета, по мнению собеседников "Ъ", было бы неправильно. Трагедия наверняка произошла из-за рокового сочетания сразу нескольких неблагоприятных факторов. В их числе — усталость экипажа и эмоциональная напряженность летчиков, у которых достаточно обычный полет в Сирию затянулся на целый день. Как уже сообщал "Ъ", экипажу пришлось сначала несколько часов ждать вылета из Москвы, а затем еще и садиться из-за погодных условий в плохо известный ему аэропорт Адлера вместо запланированного Моздока. В итоге рейс из дневного фактически превратился в ночной. Как отреагировал на все эти трудности командир, пока неясно — возможно, задержка рейса спровоцировала обострение у пилота каких-то хронических заболеваний или привела его в стрессовое состояние, с которым летчик не сумел быстро справиться. Сейчас специалисты изъяли в медучреждениях все документы Романа Волкова, а также результаты его психологических тестирований, которые предстоит тщательно изучить. Проведение "административного" расследования, по мнению источников "Ъ", поможет установить способствующие трагической ошибке военного летчика факторы, а после подведения его итогов командирам Романа Волкова, его летным инструкторам, психологам и врачам, возможно, придется разделить с погибшим ответственность за катастрофу. Стоит отметить, что в самом Минобороны версию о возможной ошибке экипажа отвергают. Во всех сообщениях ведомства многократно говорилось об опытности и безупречном послужном списке членов разбившегося экипажа. Во время прощания с командиром Волковым главнокомандующий воздушно-космическими силами РФ Виктор Бондарев, в частности, заявил, что подготовка майора Волкова "соответствовала всем требованиям, которые предъявляются нашими законами к выполнению полетного задания". Сергей Машкин

Share this infographic on your site! Source: BestPsychologyDegrees.com Hoaxes: We’ve all fallen for them at one time or another. There have always been hoaxes (even before the Internet): Classic All-Time Hoaxes 1.The Turk 1770: The Turk was said to be a chess-playing automaton. The machine consisted of a life-size model of an adult male, dressed in robes and a turban, as well as a cabinet measuring three feet long, two feet wide, and two and a half feet high, on top of the cabinet rested a chessboard. When activated, the machine would go on to play a game of chess against a human opponent, winning more often than not. Capitalizing on the success of the show at Schönbrunn Palace, the Turk went on a tour of Europe throughout the 1780’s, defeating numerous challengers, including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. It was a complete hoax, while one of the front facing doors held all clockwork gears, there was a hidden compartment in which a chess master would sit, playing and controlling the Turk from within. FACT: This ingenious hoax fooled the world for almost 100 years. 2. The Cardiff Giant In 1869, tobacconist and atheist George Hull, after an argument regarding the passage in Genesis 6:4 stating that there were giants who once lived on Earth, devised an elaborate scheme which would come to be regarded as one of the most famous hoaxes in American History. Hull hired masons to cut out a 10 foot block of gypsum which he claimed would be used for a monument to Abraham Lincoln. He transported the ‘giant’ to Cardiff, New York, where he had it buried . A year later Newell hired men to dig a well at a specific spot on his property, and on October 16, 1869 they found the stone giant. The giant quickly became an attraction, Newell charged 50 cents for each person that wanted to see it. Hull eventually sold his share of the find for the tidy sum of $23,000 (Roughly equivalent to $400,000 in 2013) FACT: The giant eventually drew the attention of P.T Barnum, who offered to buy it for $50,000. 3. The Surgeon’s Photograph of the Loch Ness Monster (Search “The Surgeon’s Photograph” for image) 1934: The most famous photograph of the Loch Ness Monster, the Surgeon’s Photograph was supposedly taken in 1934 by a respectable British surgeon, Colonel Robert Wilson. He claimed that while driving past the Loch, he saw something in the water, and just happening to have a camera on hand decided to take some pictures. FACT: For 60 years people debated over the photograph. 4. War of the Worlds 1938: On Oct. 38, Americans had their regularly scheduled radio broadcast interrupted by breaking news declaring that the Earth was under attack by Martians, many took it to be the truth. Hysteria ensued as thousands panicked, clogging roads, flooding police stations, newspaper offices, and radio stations with calls, or fleeing their homes entirely. In fact: At the beginning of the show it was stated that the following program would be an adaptation of H.G Wells’ classic, The War of the Worlds, narrated by Orson Welles. Unfortunately, a great many people missed the beginning and only tuned in once the show had begun. So what is arguably the greatest hoax in the history of the world, wasn’t really a hoax at all. Just a case of unfortunate timing. 5. Hitler’s Diaries 1983: Germany’s Stern magazine announced that one of their reporters, Gerd Heidemann, had uncovered possibly the greatest piece of Nazi memorabilia in the world, the diaries of Adolf Hitler. FACT: Stern paid 9.3 million German marks for the the sixty-two volumes. Within two weeks of Stern’s announcement, the German Federal Archives made an announcement of their own, that the diaries were fakes. Not just fakes, but terrible fakes, printed on modern paper and using modern ink. The editors of Stern resigned within hours. 5 infamous Internet hoaxes 1. Helicopter Shark 2001: This is the first true internet hoax. This image was passed around via email, along with the claim that it was National Geographic’s “Photo of the Year.” The truth: The image is a composite of two separate images—one of a helicopter performing a training maneuver in front of the Golden Gate Bridge and an image of a great white shark taken in South Africa. 2. Lonely girl 15 2006: a 16-year-old girl began posting video blogs about her everyday life under the YouTube username “lonelygirl15.” The videos began to gain more and more of a following as Bree’s parents supposedly went missing. The truth: It was outed as fictional four months after it began. 3. How to charge an iPod with an onion 2007: The mostly-joke how-to site Household Hacker hit the big time with their viral video that purportedly demonstrated how to charge an iPod using nothing but an onion and a glass of Gatorade. The got a ton of press and frustrated a lot of people who plugged their electronics into vegetables. The truth: Busted by the Mythbusters. 4. Bieber goes bald. 2012: A photoshopped image of Entertainment Tonight’s Twitter feed began making rounds on the Internet in fall of 2012. The image showed apparent confirmation that Justin Bieber had been diagnosed with cancer, along with the hashtag #baldforbieber. The hashtag soon appeared with images of fans who had shaved their heads in support. The truth: Bieber doesn’t have cancer. 5. Taylor Swift and the school for the deaf 2012, “VH1 Storytellers,” Papa John’s, and Chegg launched a competition saying Taylor Swift would perform at the school that received the most votes. Reddit and 4chan jumped at the opportunity to prank another celebrity, and it soon looked like the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing would win. The truth: After the overwhelming victory, Taylor Swift and her sponsors disqualified the school. Why people create hoaxes: To draw attention to your fraudulent skills. To gain financial benefits through deceit. Sociopathological hoaxers will either put their bait out and see who falls victim or target specific individuals to vilify or discredit, especially those who pose a threat (paranoia). To feed our secret prejudices and beliefs. This is one reason why many forged Old Masters look so ludicrous a generation or two after they were created. It’s fun to fool people. Sources: http://web.archive.org/web/ 20061010145636/mywebpages. comcast.net/scottandrewh/cg. htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Cardiff_Giant http://bibliodyssey.blogspot. com/2007/12/turk-chess- automaton-hoax.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Turk#Revealing_the_secrets http://www.newyorker.com/ online/blogs/books/2013/04/ diary-of-the-hitler-diary- hoax.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Hitler_Diaries#cite_note- McGrane-3 http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/ nessie.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Loch_Ness_Monster http://news. nationalgeographic.com/news/ 2005/06/0617_050617_warworlds_ 2.html http://www.howstuffworks.com/ science-vs-myth/everyday- myths/10-crazy-hoaxes.htm# page=1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_ drama) http://listverse.com/2013/09/ 06/10-internet-hoaxes-and- pranks/ http://mashable.com/2009/07/ 15/internet-hoaxes/ http://www.paranormalnation. com.au/the_psychology_of_ hoaxing.html

Einstein and Buddhism I have begun suspecting that Einstein had either studdied Buddhism, or independantly arrived at many Buddhist conclusions on his own, or most probably both (like me). The following quotes of his tend to lead me to believe this: A human being is part of the whole, called by us 'Universe'; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compasion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely but striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security. This is almost exactly the foundation of Buddhist thought. And of course: The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which is based on experience, which refuses dogmatism. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism�

Globally, one in nine people do not have access to clean and safe water. San Antonio is in a unique position to change that. Not by sharing our water, but sharing our knowledge of conservation. Around the world, San Antonio is considered a model for water conservation, according to Laura Huffman, Texas Director of The Nature Conservancy. Most San Antonians know that most of our water comes from the Edwards Aquifer, and most are aware of how vital it is to our quality of life. In a poll conducted in January of this year by the Conservancy, nearly 95% of San Antonians said that protecting drinking water was very important. The understanding in our community about the importance of the Edwards Aquifer means that we are willing to take the necessary measures to continue to protect it. In the same poll, 80% said they’d likely vote in favor of the ballot measure renewing an existing sales tax to fund watershed protection, and a proposition to fund continuing expansion of the city’s creekway hike and bike trails. Voters are at the polls now: Early voting continues through May 5. The Edwards Aquifer Protection Venue Project is Proposition No. 1, and extension of the Howard Peak Greenway Trails System is Proposition 2. Election Day is May 9. Click here for voting details. The strategy for conservation in Texas has three pillars: first, securing fresh water; second, coastal resilience because with more frequent storms and drought, the need to maintain the health of fresh water inflows is critical; third, the improvement of air quality. Ultimately, the strategy is simple: invest in nature to sustain a supply of clean water, clean oceans, and clean air, and use scientific evidence to support the practices, said Dr. Peter Kareiva, chief scientist for the The nature Conservancy. Kareiva and Huffman spoke during the 2015 San Antonio Conservation Luncheon at the Pearl Stable on Thursday. Huffman said the cheapest, most effective way to provide clean drinking water is to focus on conservation. That is, protecting what we already have is the most cost-effective option. While there has been much talk of desalination – 20 years ago Californians were talking about it to escape a severe drought – and that is a technology being pursued, it’s extremely expensive and requires expending energy resources we may not have. While it’s a long-term possibility, in the meantime, conserving the water we do have will be the key to continued access to safe water. The Nature Conservancy Chief Scientist Peter Kareiva and Texas Director Laura Huffman at the Pearl Stable on Thursday evening. Photo by Elisabel Balderrama. Despite the potential to politicize the environmental movement, the desire to protect the environment is non-partisan. Indeed, Texas voters have approved $27 million over the last 20 years for the state water plan. And while the Greenpeace-type activists of the world create the emotional energy which prompts many to respond, we also need organizations like The Nature Conservancy who can “inhabit the space” where the marriage of evidence-based practices of conservation and business strategies occurs. Among the many partners with whom the Conservancy collaborates throughout the world are corporations like Dow Chemical, for which they have been criticized. But Kareiva said that ultimately big corporations don’t want to harm the environment – even if their goals are profit, they need to protect it as well. Collaboration, communication, and education are keys to The Nature Conservancy’s long-term success. In Texas, property rights reign supreme. Yet, the Nature Conservancy has relied on conservation easements to preserve critical natural spaces. An easement places a restriction on the property, which means that the landowner agrees to sell or donate the property and its use is limited based on those restrictions. It’s not a stretch to imagine that property owners wouldn’t take kindly to easements. So how does The Nature Conservancy convince landowners to do this? Again, they use science to educate the population on the importance of protection. Coming up with the money is a critical component as well. For example, The Nature Conservancy recently teamed up with Bat Conservation International, the City of San Antonio, and other entities to raise $20.5 million to purchase land over the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone and under the Hill Country flight path of Bracken Cave’s 15-20 million bats. The purchase prevented the Crescent Hills development of 4,500-unit housing project and protected the world’s largest colony of Mexican free-tailed bats. (Read More: City Acts to Protect Bracken Cave’s Bat Colony) This slideshow requires JavaScript. The Edwards Aquifer is critical to maintaining the water supply of this extremely fast growing population. By relying on scientific studies, the Conservancy can determine which areas are most critical and focus their attention there, while allowing development in other areas. For the most part, this collaborative and cooperative effort means that the landowners have a stake in the conservation efforts and are willing to support it. Again, this is why San Antonio has been a global model for water conservation in this drought stricken land. Driving up Highway 281, it’s easy for nature lovers to wonder about the “damage to the watershed,” but Hoffman assured that, as far as it concerns the Edwards Aquifer, development has occurred in a balanced, cautious manner. San Antonio is one of the fastest growing communities in Texas and the nation. There will always be a need to balance growth with sustainability. Community support is critical, so apart from landowners in the watershed regions, getting people to understand the importance of conservation is a key to success. In San Antonio, election results in two weeks will finalize the story, but so far, residents are supportive of aquifer protections. Education programs in schools have helped to create a new generation of conservationists: my third grader can tell you all about our water resources. In other states, The Nature Conservancy has established the LEAF program, which hires student interns, mostly of lower socio-economic status, from inner city high schools to work for The Nature Conservancy. These kids learn the science of conservation, but they also learn how to apply it to practice. More than one-third of these students go on to major in science in college and become life-long conservationists. Significantly, not only did the program change the lives of these urban teens, but it changed the attitudes of the Conservancy’s staff; they began to realize that conservation wasn’t “just about elephants on the Serengeti but about experiencing nature in the city,” Kareiva said. A room with a view, in the city. From my desk in my urban Southtown home, I could look out a window at mature pecan trees, assorted flowers, birds, squirrels and other creatures. But recently I moved my desk to an interior hallway against a wall. Since then, I’ve had difficulty working at my desk and keep moving to other places near a window. I couldn’t explain it, but Dr. Kareiva did: we humans need nature. In a study conducted by Greg Bratman at Stanford University, researchers found that when participants took a walk in a nature preserve, their cognitive abilities improved dramatically compared to a similar walk in an urban setting. Trees, greenery, and birds all had an impact on their creativity, increased memory, and even their ability to solve math problems. San Antonio’s Museum and Mission reaches of the San Antonio River and the many greenway trails provide such an environment. Considering an earlier study showing a relationship between green spaces and test outcomes, Heather Tallis of The Nature Conservancy is piloting a study in California schools to determine whether greenspaces have an impact on learning. Students in Texas have just finished their STAAR exams, and perhaps schools need to re-consider nature in their design plans and incorporate The Nature Conservancy into their classrooms. *Featured/top image: (From left) Texas Director of The Nature Conservancy Laura Huffman, Councilmember Ron Nirenberg (D8), and Bat Conservation International Bracken Cave Preserve Director Fran Hutchins pose for a photo at the mouth of the cave. Photo by Jonathan Alonzo, courtesy of The Nature Conservancy. Related Stories: City Acts to Protect Bracken Cave’s Bat Colony Commentary: Charter Amendment Derails San Antonio’s Transportation Future Vote Early, Help Make History Voters, Your District’s Leadership is Contested Commentary: Sensible Pay for SA Brings City Into 21st Century

Like President George W. Bush before him, President Obama warned against linking all followers of Islam to terrorists. “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam — it is a gross distortion of Islam,” he rightly said. It is our tolerance of others, he said, “that quintessentially American creed,” that stands in contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001. We wish he hadn’t diluted the message the next day, telling reporters that he wasn’t commenting on “the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.” He would have done better if he had explained the wisdom of going ahead with the project, which developers said is intended to bring Muslims and non-Muslims together. In addition to a place of worship, it would have a pool and performing arts center. They also have said they want the board to include members from other faiths — a promise they should take care to keep. Too many Republican leaders are determined to whip up as much false controversy and anguish as they can, right through November. Some Democrats will cave. We were disturbed on Monday when a spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said that Mr. Reid “thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.” Mr. Obama and all people of conscience need to push back hard. Defending all Americans’ right to worship — and their right to build places to worship — is fundamental to who we are.

The Doctor and Leela respond to an alien distress call beamed direct from Victorian England. Fourth Doctor adventure starring Tom Baker and Louise Jameson. From May 2015. After saying their goodbyes to Professor Litefoot and Henry Gordon Jago, the Doctor and Leela respond to an alien distress call beamed direct from Victorian England. It's the beginning of a journey that will take them to the newly built Space Dock Nerva... where a long overdue homecoming is expected. A homecoming that could bring about the end of the human race. Tom Baker is the Fourth Doctor, with his ancient warrior companion, Leela, played by Louise Jameson. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs. A Big Finish production.

Dr. Oz is America’s trusted television doctor. Though his expertise is cardiac surgery, the Dr. Oz Show covers myriad subjects and tops ratings, with millions tuning in daily to heed his advice. The man has charisma on his side; his demographic is composed largely of adoring women and young mothers. Though mainstream media has slammed him for espousing anti-science views, Oz continues to promote non evidence-based health advice. He’s truly earned the “Snake Oil Salesman” title, and continues to uphold the quackery that led to the label. Indeed, a recent study found that about half of the medical advice on the Dr. Oz show is baseless or downright wrong. In addition to baseless medical advice, Oz instills fear of genetically-engineered foods, though the world’s leading scientific organizations agree that GE techniques are inherently safe. On his March 10th episode, Dr. Oz aired a segment on the Arctic Apple. The United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration recently approved and deregulated the genetically engineered apple after years of field testing. Engineered with an enzyme “off-switch” using a technique called “RNA interference,” Arctic Apples don’t brown or bruise when cut, bitten, or bumped. The television doctor treated the topic with his usual anti-GE sentiment. I’m a 32-year-old mom of two, and I fit solidly into Dr. Oz’s target audience. But I’m not biting when it comes to his take on Arctic Apples, or most of his drivel in general. I took one for the team and watched that episode, titled ““The Non-Browning GMO Apple: Is It Safe?” I then co-authored a piece on the episode for Slate (check out the comments, lots of positive ones as well as a few typical cases of Shill Accusation Syndrome.) Following the relative success of our article, “Low-Hanging Fruit: Dr. Oz sows seeds of mistrust on genetic engineering” my co-author Dr. Henry Miller coordinated a letter from himself and fellow esteemed physicians to the dean of the medical school at Columbia University. Dr. Mehmet Oz holds a senior appointment there in the Department of Surgery. The letter reads as follows: Lee Goldman, M.D. Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine Columbia University Dear Dr. Goldman: I am writing to you on behalf of myself and the undersigned colleagues below, all of whom are distinguished physicians. We are surprised and dismayed that Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons would permit Dr. Mehmet Oz to occupy a faculty appointment, let alone a senior administrative position in the Department of Surgery. As described here and here, as well as in other publications, Dr. Oz has repeatedly shown disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine, as well as baseless and relentless opposition to the genetic engineering of food crops. Worst of all, he has manifested an egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments and cures in the interest of personal financial gain. Thus, Dr. Oz is guilty of either outrageous conflicts of interest or flawed judgements about what constitutes appropriate medical treatments, or both. Whatever the nature of his pathology, members of the public are being misled and endangered, which makes Dr. Oz’s presence on the faculty of a prestigious medical institution unacceptable. Sincerely yours, Henry I. Miller, M.D. Robert Wesson Fellow in Scientific Philosophy & Public Policy Hoover Institution Stanford University Stanford, CA Scott W. Atlas, M.D. David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow Hoover Institution Stanford University Stanford, CA Jack Fisher, M.D. Professor of Surgery (emeritus) University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA Shelley Fleet, M.D. Anesthesiologist Longwood, FL Gordon N. Gill, M.D. Dean (emeritus) of Translational Medicine University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA Michael H. Mellon, M.D. Pediatric Allergist San Diego, CA Gilbert Ross, M.D. President (Acting) and Executive Director American Council on Science and Health New York, NY Samuel Schneider, M.D. Psychiatrist Princeton, NJ Glenn Swogger Jr. M.D. Director of the Will Menninger Center for Applied Behavioral Sciences (retired) The Menninger Foundation Topeka, KS Joel E. Tepper, M.D. Hector MacLean Distinguished Professor of Cancer Research Dept of Radiation Oncology University of North Carolina School of Medicine Chapel Hill, NC

President Trump spent Christmas Eve touting tax reform and bashing “Fake News” — while U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders sounded off from the left in a holiday Twitter fight. “The Tax Cut/Reform Bill, including Massive Alaska Drilling and the Repeal of the highly unpopular Individual Mandate, brought it all together as to what an incredible year we had. Don’t let the Fake News convince you otherwise … and our insider Polls are strong!” Trump tweeted yesterday afternoon. Earlier, the president grumbled, “The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is. They show Fake Polls just like they report Fake News. Despite only negative reporting, we are doing well – nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” He also got in a dig at a favorite target, the deputy FBI director. “@FoxNews-FBI’s Andrew McCabe, ‘in addition to his wife getting all of this money from M (Clinton Puppet), he was using, allegedly, his FBI Official Email Account to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton.’ ” Sanders, in a reference to the tax reform bill passed by Congress last week, sniped on Twitter: “What we could do with $1.5 trillion: -Make college tuition-free -Provide universal preschool -Repair our crumbling infrastructure -Fund CHIP for 107 years -Rebuild Puerto Rico What Republicans did: -Give tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations.” Earlier, Sanders snarked, “At least Trump is finally telling the truth about his tax bill,” retweeting a CBS report, “ ‘You all just got a lot richer,’ President Trump told friends dining at Mar-a-Lago Friday night, hours after signing tax overhaul into law.” And Sanders added, referring to the upcoming midterm elections, “If I were the Republicans, I would worry very much about 2018.” Trump had tweeted Saturday, “Remember, the Republicans are 5-0 in Congressional races this year. In Senate, I said Roy M would lose in Alabama and supported Big Luther Strange – and Roy lost. Virginia candidate was not a ‘Trumper,’ and he lost. Good Republican candidates will win BIG!” Earlier, Trump crowed, “The Stock Market is setting record after record and unemployment is at a 17 year low. So many things accomplished by the Trump Administration, perhaps more than any other President in first year. Sadly, will never be reported correctly by the Fake News Media!”

Toronto's public schools are in rough shape, according to a recent report from the Toronto District School Board. The report — which was provided to school trustees late last month — says most of the TDSB's 550 operational schools are in need of immediate repair. The report assigned a percentage score to each building, using an industry standard which gives higher scores to those in greater need of repair. The scores are based on each school’s condition in 2012. Some schools scored far over 100 per cent, putting them well into what the report considers "critical" condition. The poorest-scored schools include the Seneca School in Etobicoke (170 per cent), the Metropolitan School for the Deaf (169 per cent), Oakwood Collegiate Institute (143 per cent) and Highcastle Public School (142 per cent). Only 114 schools scored "good" or "fair." The six best-scored schools were Carleton Village Public School, Givins/Shaw Junior Public School, North Toronto Collegiate Institute, the Claude Watson School for the Arts, Brookside Public School and the Thomas L. Wells Public School, all of which scored 0. School trustee Shelley Laskin has 15 schools in her ward that are in poor or critical condition. She wants to see a separate budget set up for maintenance. "We don’t have that money to do the regular maintenance. So we can’t inspect the roof. We have the cost of repairing the holes in the roof and that just escalates," Laskin told CBC News. So far this winter, the head of TDSB's facilities says there have been 66 schools with leaking roofs. Two were repaired at about $400,000. Seven boilers were replaced at about $1 million each. The report is included below.

One intersection in Denver has had 15 crashes this year. COLORADO, USA — In 2017, 939 people were killed in crashes where the driver ran a red light, according to new data by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Of those killed, AAA said 20 were from Colorado. The state has the sixth-highest rate per capita in the country, according to the AAA Foundation. Denver Police said the worst intersection drivers run red lights in the city is at Quebec and East 36th, where more than 5,000 tickets were issued to drivers through red-light cameras since January. That's an average of nearly 24 tickets a day. According to DPD, the same intersection had 15 crashes this year, making it one of the highest collision locations in the city. Skyler McKinney of AAA Colorado said drivers are not getting the message. “Not everyone fully intends to run a red. But they might see a green and be shuttling along at 35 or 45, but expect that green light to go stale," McKinney said. "You need to be cognizant of that, you also need to tap your breaks to alert other drivers behind you. So you don’t get pushed into traffic when you stop.” In the same study, AAA Colorado said 85% of drivers believe running a red light is "very dangerous" – yet one in three said they blew through a red light within the past month-- when they could have stopped. "While the fatality rate has dropped, we're seeing it start to go back up again for the first time in a generation. That’s largely the result of distraction and speeding and bad behavior," McKinney said. According to Denver Police, these are intersections, equipped with red-light cameras, that have had the most violations between January 1 and July 31. 36th & Quebec: 5,015 violations 6th & Lincoln: 3,748 violations 6th & Kalamath: 1,496 violations 8th & Speer: 509 violations "In 65% of the fatalities related to red-light running it's not the driver who dies," McKinney said. "It’s a passenger or a bicyclist or pedestrian, so you’re putting other peoples lives on the line when you do this. And you simply don’t have to." SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Local stories from 9NEWS

San Francisco’s bi-annual Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey vastly underrepresents the scope of family homelessness in the city, according to data gathered by Compass SF, an organization dedicated to providing family services for the homeless. “I can tell you without a doubt that the count for homeless families is often hugely under-represented,” Compass Program Director Kristin Keller said. After a count of people on the streets and in shelters, conducted one night in January, and a follow-up survey, the city report found just nine families, or a total of 26 individuals in families who are homeless. Moreover, 87 percent of them live in some sort of shelter. But between January and May, Compass recorded 319 homeless families — more than 35 times the number cited in the city’s report. And even that, Keller suggested, might be low. At Catholic Charities, an organization with a number of programs aimed specifically at ending family homelessness, demand for their family resources remains high, according to Director of Communications and Marketing Cailan Franz. “There has always been a need and waitlist for family shelter beds,” Franz wrote in an email. Compass recorded the number 319 over the course of five months, which might explain some of the discrepancy between its numbers and the numbers collected in the report’s single night sweep of the city. Another reason is that the Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey report is obligated to use a narrower definition of homelessness than Compass’s definition. That definition – living either in a supervised homeless shelter or in a public place – keeps its survey consistent with national surveys on homelessness. Families in these situations make up about 30 percent of the people in Compass’s data. What is also striking, though, is the disparity between their reports of how many families are living on the street, in tents, or in other places not meant as dwellings. The majority of the families in the Homeless Point-In-Time Count and Survey report are sheltered, and according to the report, those numbers have improved in recent years because of rapid re-housing programs, which subsidize rent for homeless families. But Compass said they saw a huge increase in the number of families living on the streets from 2016 to 2017. They found almost 94 families living in “places not meant for habitation,” which includes people living on the streets or in cars. This is an increase from 33 families in 2016. At the same time, they counted fewer homeless families overall. According to Compass Program Director Kristin Keller, it is hard to accurately capture the number of homeless families for two reasons. First, many homeless families “double up” in someone else’s home, couch surfing or otherwise moving quickly between temporary homes, so they will not be reflected in data collected on the streets. Second, Keller noted, because of safety concerns, families with young children living on the street are likely to stay hidden for safety reasons and so might be difficult to find and count. This is why the number of unsheltered individuals is likely underrepresented in the city’s data. Franz from Catholic Charities said that it has become increasingly difficult for families to find permanent housing and noted that in the last year, families have been taking longer to exit their shelters. When they do find housing, it is almost always outside of San Francisco. In the past year, only three of the 29 families they have served at St Joseph’s Family Center, at Guerrero and 21st, have found housing in San Francisco. The Point-In-Count Report states that the city will add 30 additional shelter units for families this year in order to provide resources to a larger population.

Story highlights Trump described Hillary Clinton's 2008 election defeat to then-Sen. Barack Obama in R-rated terms: "She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost, I mean she lost" Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) Donald Trump attacked Hillary Clinton in vulgar terms Monday night, saying that her bathroom break during the last Democratic debate was just too "disgusting" to talk about and then stating she "got schlonged" by Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race. "Even a race to Obama, she was gonna beat Obama. I don't know who would be worse, I don't know, how could it be worse? But she was going to beat -- she was favored to win -- and she got schlonged, she lost, I mean she lost," Trump said, using a vulgar Yiddish word for a man's penis. Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday, December 19. The candidates met for their third debate. Hide Caption 1 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Sanders speaks as Clinton looks on during the debate. Sanders, at the start of the debate, apologized to Clinton for his staff's exploitation of a Democratic National Committee computer vendor's glitch to access her campaign's proprietary voter files. Hide Caption 2 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire O'Malley speaks during the debate as Clinton looks on. Hide Caption 3 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Clinton speaks during the debate. Hide Caption 4 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Sanders speaks during the debate. Hide Caption 5 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire O'Malley speaks during the debate. Hide Caption 6 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Sanders takes the stage. Hide Caption 7 of 8 Photos: Democratic debate in New Hampshire Clinton waves to a member of the crowd as she arrives on stage. Hide Caption 8 of 8 Earlier, Trump started to criticize Clinton for not returning to the ABC News debate stage on Saturday night in time, but then said he didn't want to talk more about it because it was "disgusting." "I know where she went, it's disgusting, I don't want to talk about it," Trump said. "No, it's too disgusting. Don't say it, it's disgusting, let's not talk, we want to be very, very straight up."

La partición del ministerio de Economía y los cambios ocurridos a principios de enero tras la salida de Alfonso Prat Gay derivaron en la conversión del exsecretario Luis Caputo en ministro de Finanzas. Apenas 28 días después de su nombramiento, Nación, provincias y privados habían anunciado nueva deuda por u$s 11.142 millones, la cual a fines de febrero ascendía a u$s 24.141 millones. El monto es superior si se toma en cuenta las últimas colocaciones en marzo y abril, donde se encuentran u$s 4.260 millones en Letras y Bonos. Los números se desprenden de un preliminar del informe que esta semana publicará el Observatorio de la Deuda Externa. Arnaldo Bocco, director del organismo dependiente de la Universidad Metropolitana para la Educación y el Trabajo, en diálogo con ámbito.com sostuvo que "el total de deuda en 14 meses asciende a u$s 80 mil millones y actualmente está superando los u$s 260 mil millones en total, por lo que representa más de la mitad del PBI", incluyendo lo emitido para el pago a los "fondos buitres". "Es una cifra más que apreciable", aclaró Bocco, "pero a corto plazo es administrable y así lo ven los acreedores externos". El problema es la evolución analizada en el corto plazo ya que "hubo un crecimiento muy acelerado en muy poco tiempo y en apenas 14 meses el país se endeudó lo mismo que la dictadura entre el ´76 y el ´83", agregó. Para Andrés Asiain, economista y director del Centro de Estudios Económicos y Sociales Scalabrini Ortiz (CESO), se trata de una "política deliberada cuyo objetivo a corto plazo, coyuntural, económico y electoral, es sostener el valor del dólar y generar un descenso relativo de la inflación". Sin embargo, remarcó que "a mediano plazo apunta a facilitar la apertura importadora para presionar a los sectores productivos, sindicales y políticos hacia una agenda de reducción estructural de los costos internos, laborales, impositivos, de seguridad social y empresariales". Además, el analista evaluó a la política económica de Cambiemos como "insustentable" ya que no genera capacidad de repago al relegar la importancia de la producción: "A muy largo plazo condicionará la agenda económica de cualquier futuro gobierno y lo dejará a merced de las imposiciones de los acreedores externos para obtener refinanciamiento y evitar crisis". La palabra crisis rememora inevitablemente al período 2001-2002. Sin embargo, el contexto actual está lejos de aquella época, cuando al finalizar la convertibilidad la deuda pasó del 53% al 147% del PBI y había dependencia de organismos internacionales. "Estamos muy por debajo de los 90 o el 2001", explicó Bocco, "pero va a tener un impacto en el gasto fiscal muy importante y en 2018-2019 estaremos cercanos al 10% del gasto público para el servicio de la deuda". La posibilidad de reactivar la economía mediante inversión y deuda está lejos de representar una salida real. A propósito, Bocco señaló que "la economía en 100 años solamente se expandió cuando creció el consumo y apenas en el ´59-´60 la inversión traccionó el crecimiento productivo por la gran entrada de capital extranjero, el cual hoy va netamente a la esfera especulativa". En cuanto a que el Gobierno recurra al FMI, para Asiain es poco probable a corto plazo "a menos que haya un escenario fortuito para Cambiemos en las elecciones de medio término". Bocco, sin embargo, consideró que la administración Macri actuará este año "para preparar la economía y poder el año que viene lanzarse a financiar con el Fondo". • Situación de la deuda externa en la región La condición de los países regionales con respecto a la deuda con prestadores externos y su capacidad para hacerle frente muestra realidades diversas. En algunos casos, el sector privado compone la mayor parte del total emitido, relegando al Estado a una mínima porción. En Chile, por ejemplo, la deuda externa representa el 65,4% del PBI. Sin embargo, la mayor parte de las colocaciones corresponden a entidades privadas: u$s 68.364 millones de los u$s 163.789 millones totales, mientras que u$s 55.822 millones corresponden a inversión extranjera directa, u$s 24.232 a Bancos y u$s 11.159 al Ejecutivo nacional. En apenas cinco años, la deuda creció 60%. En el caso de Colombia, desde 2011 tanto el sector público como el privado crearon un ambiente que permitió el crecimiento de 58,7% de la deuda total. Actualmente, de los u$s 120.010 millones, u$s 48.702 millones son de privados y u$s 71.308 millones corresponden a la parte pública. Además, el nivel de deuda creció 20 puntos porcentuales y hoy representa el 41% de los u$s 282.376 millones que componen el PBI. En una condición extrema se encuentra Perú, donde la deuda externa alcanzó los u$s 184.774 millones representando el 90% del PBI: u$s 91.480 millones corresponden a inversión directa, el sector privado acumula u$s 40.328 millones mientras que el público u$s 29.683 millones. Brasil, la mayor economía de América Latina y una de las más grandes del mundo, posee una deuda externa cercana a u$s 315 mil millones, mientras que su PBI, en caída desde 2014, alcanzó los u$s 1.7 billones en 2016. Pese a la crisis política y económica actual y los recortes realizados por Gobierno, el financiamiento externo mostró un descenso desde diciembre de 2016 a febrero de 2017 de u$s 6 mil millones.

ADVERTISEMENT New Tag Team Championship Design Coming Soon The WWE recently debuted the Women’s Tag Team Championship, which were crowned last Sunday at Elimination Chamber. The WWE’s original plans for the titles were reportedly similar to the Men’s “penny” design, but was scrapped due to the company not liking the final product. When leaked designs of the Women’s Tag Team Titles were first revealed at the beginning of the year, Belt insider Belt Fan Dan revealed that the RAW and Smackdown Men’s Titles would receive a change as well. The initial thought was the change would only be removable side plates, but it now seems like a whole new design is coming. Dan recently stated that the Men’s Tag Team Titles are set to get receive a facelift , and the company has contracted world famous belt designs Dave McMillan to design new RAW and Smackdown Tag Team Titles. Dave McMillan designed the original “penny style” titles which debuted in 2010. The copper titles were eventually made brand specific for RAW and Smackdown following the brand split in 2016. Recently, Dash Wilder posted on Twitter that he would like to see the throwback tag team title design that was used by the company from 1983 – 2002. It is unknown if the company plans on re-introducing that design.

諏訪大社の大祝（おおほうり）をつかさどった諏訪氏は、代々諏訪大社の神官を務め、平安時代から武士としても活躍してきた。大祝とは、いわば神官のトップであり、現実社会でも権勢を誇った諏訪氏は、領主としてもこの地に長く君臨してきた。 諏訪頼忠（よりただ）は、少年時代にいとこであり諏訪氏の当主だった兄・頼重が武田信玄に謀殺されるという悲劇に見舞われた。父の満隣（みつちか）とともに、国を追われるように各地を転々と放浪した後、諏訪上社の大祝の地位につけられた。信玄は諏訪大社を崇拝しており、諏訪氏の血を引く頼忠を大祝につかせ、祭祀（さいし）を継続させたかったとみられている。 以降は信玄に仕える立場で、神官の務めを果たした頼忠だったが、心中ではひそかに権力者としての諏訪氏再興の野望を抱いていたらしい。ただ、全盛期の信玄に対して謀反を起こす暴挙はさすがにしなかった。やがて信玄が病に倒れ、後継者の勝頼も織田信長に敗れて武田氏が滅亡する。勝頼の母は諏訪頼重の母で、頼忠とも血縁関係にあったわけだが、頼忠にとっては雌伏４０年の時を経て、ついに訪れた諏訪氏再興のチャンスであった。 そして本能寺の変で織田信長が倒れると、頼忠は諏訪氏旧臣を集めて織田側の代官を追い払い、領主の座に復帰して高島城に入城した。だが、悲願を達成したのもつかの間、旧武田領を狙う徳川家康と北条氏政の軍勢が信濃を襲う。頼忠は、当初は北条方に属して徳川に対抗したが、大勢が徳川有利に傾くや家康に接近。本領安堵（あんど）を条件に家康の軍門に下ったのである。 その後の頼忠は家康に仕えて必死に戦った。徳川勢の中では新参者に過ぎないため、懸命にアピールするほかなかったのだ。戦場でも活躍したが、家康は秀吉によって関東への移封を命じられたのである。頼忠もまた、徳川の家臣として住み慣れた諏訪の地を離れ、武蔵国に１万２０００石を与えられた。 しかし、関ヶ原の戦いで、頼忠が江戸城の留守居役を務め、嫡男の頼水が上田城攻めに参戦すると、戦後に与えられたのは諏訪の高島城であった。家康は諏訪父子の忠誠心を試し、その期待に十分応えたとみて、旧領復帰という粋なプレゼントをしたのである。 その後、諏訪氏は代々譜代大名として徳川家に尽くした。９代藩主・忠誠の代には老中に任じられるという名誉も担っている。すべては、中興の祖として頑張った頼忠の功績だろう。その証拠に、諏訪家の通字として代々名乗った「頼」の字に変わり、その子孫は代々「忠」の字を名乗るようになっている。 （渡辺敏樹／原案・エクスナレッジ）

For Mari­ah Park­er, recent­ly elect­ed coun­ty com­mis­sion­er in Athens, Ga., being sworn into office on The Auto­bi­og­ra­phy of Mal­colm X was sim­ply a way of accu­rate­ly sig­nal­ing her world­view. It’s a view that’s ground­ed in a spe­cif­ic vision of what the world could be — one in which peo­ple of col­or, and black peo­ple in par­tic­u­lar, live free from the grip of racism and eco­nom­ic mis­ery. Of all the vol­umes in the rich tra­di­tion of Black Amer­i­cans’ quest for such a world, few are as deeply cher­ished as Malcolm’s tow­er­ing 20th-cen­tu­ry autobiography. Parker sees in black Americans’ story a struggle against oppression that is both uniquely their own and one patch in a larger quilt, one made up of tightly knit struggles on behalf of any community that has come under systemic fire. It’s a vision that’s increas­ing­ly gain­ing steam. Pro­gres­sive and social­ist can­di­dates of col­or, par­tic­u­lar­ly women with the wind of pop­u­lar move­ments at their backs, like New York’s Alexan­dria Oca­sio-Cortez, Michigan’s Rashi­da Tlaib and Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, are run­ning on pre­cise­ly these sorts of plat­forms. And they’re winning. Pho­tos of Parker’s swear­ing-in quick­ly went gang­busters. In wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed images, Parker’s afro is piled high and heav­en-bound (to bor­row a phrase from poet Hanif Abdur­raqib), and her right hand clenched in a fist rec­og­nized the world over as a sign of one’s com­mit­ment to stand along­side the oppressed. Her left hand rests atop the auto­bi­og­ra­phy, a book wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed through­out black Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ties, and one of the harsh­est indict­ments of the country’s long war against them. Though she had no idea this small act of sym­bol­ism would take the inter­net by storm, it’s hard­ly sur­pris­ing that it did. Park­er is smack-dab in the mid­dle of two of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party’s biggest crises. First, there’s the widen­ing gap between the pri­or­i­ties of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty high­er-ups and its pop­u­lar base. Sec­ond, there are the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party’s awk­ward strug­gles to deliv­er a con­vinc­ing mes­sage for address­ing the knot­ty rela­tion­ship between racial and eco­nom­ic oppres­sion. The view held from the com­mand­ing heights and man­age­r­i­al suites of the par­ty seems to be that, at best, race and class issues must be addressed sep­a­rate­ly, and at worst, that the two are at flat-out war with one anoth­er. Yet the avail­able evi­dence sug­gests black peo­ple feel dif­fer­ent­ly. It’s right there in years of sur­vey data, which con­sis­tent­ly finds black Amer­i­cans deeply con­cerned by both eco­nom­ic issues and the pow­er­ful role racism plays in suf­fo­cat­ing their chances at a bet­ter life. Unsur­pris­ing­ly, black vot­ers rank among the most eco­nom­i­cal­ly pro­gres­sive in the coun­try. It’s also been front and cen­ter in the clear-eyed pol­i­cy plat­forms of orga­ni­za­tions like BYP100 and the Move­ment for Black Lives. And it was there in Mari­ah Parker’s cam­paign for coun­ty commissioner. From Fer­gu­son to Bal­ti­more, and Philadel­phia to Chica­go, a fresh crop of black move­ment builders have issued a clear demand: the eman­ci­pa­tion of black peo­ple from the inter­wo­ven harms of racism and pover­ty. Groups like the Move­ment for Black Lives and the Black Youth Project have called for repa­ra­tions on the grounds that this com­bi­na­tion has made it eas­i­er to exploit and oppress black communities. After first tak­ing root in the streets, this gen­er­a­tions-span­ning strug­gle for racial and eco­nom­ic jus­tice is start­ing to sweep across cam­paigns for pub­lic office, Parker’s included. “Racial and eco­nom­ic injus­tice have been very inter­twined his­tor­i­cal­ly,” Park­er says. ​“There’s overt forms of vio­lence, like lynch­ing and police bru­tal­i­ty, but then there’s qui­et forms that are less easy to put your fin­ger on, like the inabil­i­ty to obtain cap­i­tal to open a busi­ness or own a home or the inabil­i­ty to union­ize.” Here, Park­er is drilling to the core of the black Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence, where both racism and eco­nom­ic exploita­tion have com­bined to increase the mis­ery index in black com­mu­ni­ties, in ways often sub­merged and thus hard­er to detect. ​“Tack­ling those things at once is so impor­tant because they are the hard­est things to see from the pub­lic per­spec­tive,” she says. The fact that Park­er, along with oth­er left-wing can­di­dates of col­or, such as Oca­sio-Cortez, find them­selves at this inter­sec­tion is sig­nif­i­cant. We rarely hear the voic­es of those most intense­ly impact­ed by pol­i­cy deci­sion. Women of col­or, giv­en their very notice­able near-total absence from estab­lished media, are the least seen and heard of all. Park­er, who co-found­ed Athens’ chap­ter of the pro­gres­sive Bernie Sanders-aligned Our Rev­o­lu­tion, is a 26-year-old rap­per, PhD stu­dent and open­ly queer black woman. She ran on a pro­gres­sive plat­form that put racial and eco­nom­ic jus­tice cen­ter stage, and won by a razor-thin mar­gin of 13 votes. Athens itself is a most­ly work­ing-class com­mu­ni­ty with a medi­an income that bare­ly ris­es above half the state of Georgia’s. This is even truer for Parker’s dis­trict, which the Atlanta Jour­nal-Con­sti­tu­tion describes as ​“an eco­nom­i­cal­ly strug­gling swath … that lacks some of the same ameni­ties that oth­er parts of town enjoyed.” On top of the district’s eco­nom­ic woes, it’s also ​“the most heav­i­ly pop­u­lat­ed black dis­trict in Athens,” Park­er tells In These Times. She goes on to argue that in a strug­gling com­mu­ni­ty with a high con­cen­tra­tion of black res­i­dents, peo­ple don’t view racism and pover­ty as dis­tinct evils with no con­nec­tion, but rather as twin giants that need to be knocked down simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. In speak­ing with Park­er, it’s clear that many of her wak­ing hours are spent con­tem­plat­ing the two, and that she sees a set of prin­ci­ples in Malcolm’s life and words that might help light the way to a bet­ter world. Park­er says that as an office­hold­er, she hopes to chan­nel Malcolm’s ​“capac­i­ty for being an out­spo­ken agi­ta­tor that pushed the con­ver­sa­tion in a rad­i­cal direc­tion.” Beyond his ser­mons of col­lec­tive black uplift and broad­er social change, Park­er is espe­cial­ly inspired by the fact that ​“in his lat­er life, he was will­ing to incor­po­rate new expe­ri­ences as a means of see­ing where the move­ment need­ed to go in order for the work to get done.” By this, Park­er is point­ing toward Malcolm’s per­son­al evo­lu­tion as a crit­ic of Amer­i­can pow­er. In his ear­li­est days, Mal­colm was a fierce but ide­o­log­i­cal­ly straight­jack­et­ed mouth­piece for the Nation of Islam. That all start­ed to change fol­low­ing his stormy split with the orga­ni­za­tion. In the months after, which now seem to have always been rac­ing toward his even­tu­al mur­der, Mal­colm became increas­ing­ly drawn to the moral force of social­ism and expressed a deep­en­ing belief in mul­ti­cul­tur­al, work­ing-class orga­niz­ing as the best weapon for con­fronting Amer­i­can pow­er. In a May 1964 Q&A host­ed by the Mil­i­tant Labor Forum, he went so far as to say, ​“It is impos­si­ble for a white per­son to believe in cap­i­tal­ism and not believe in racism. You can’t have cap­i­tal­ism with­out racism.” And toward the end of his life, he explained that ​“cap­i­tal­ism needs some blood to suck…and it can only suck the blood of the help­less.” The most help­less in Amer­i­ca would always be the com­mu­ni­ties most men­aced by those with pow­er and cheat­ed out of their fair share of it. That con­di­tion has defined the black Amer­i­can experience. Whether he knew it or not, Mal­colm was chan­nel­ing an idea with deep roots in black polit­i­cal life. From small-scale plan­ta­tion sab­o­tage under slav­ery to social­ist orga­niz­ing among share­crop­pers for work­place democ­ra­cy in the post-eman­ci­pa­tion south, his­to­ry offers a rich tapes­try of black resis­tance to a world where, as Dr. King once wrote, ​“the insep­a­ra­ble twin of racial injus­tice was eco­nom­ic injus­tice.” A half-cen­tu­ry after Malcolm’s assas­si­na­tion, the fight for that bet­ter world is still on. And the path­way to it, Park­er believes, runs through every­day peo­ple rec­og­niz­ing how America’s chart-top­ping inequal­i­ty, accord­ing to the World Eco­nom­ic Forum, hurts every­one but an elite few. ​“If we band togeth­er to fight against it,” Park­er says, ​“it is to everybody’s benefit.” Park­er sees in black Amer­i­cans’ sto­ry a strug­gle against oppres­sion that is both unique­ly their own and one patch in a larg­er quilt, one made up of tight­ly knit strug­gles on behalf of any com­mu­ni­ty that has come under sys­temic fire. It’s here that Malcolm’s abil­i­ty to trans­form, his abil­i­ty to stretch his imag­i­na­tion of what’s polit­i­cal­ly pos­si­ble when those who have been cast aside band togeth­er, echoes loud­est. ​“I do believe that cap­i­tal­ism relies upon social strat­i­fi­ca­tion. Be it in terms of abil­i­ty or gen­der or sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or immi­gra­tion sta­tus, it def­i­nite­ly relies upon oppres­sion of a kind,” Park­er adds. ​“In Amer­i­ca, that has fall­en par­tic­u­lar­ly along racial lines” but it’s impor­tant ​“to build sol­i­dar­i­ty across dif­fer­ent iden­ti­ty groups” to under­stand that ​“the sys­tem hurts everybody.”

Led by Professor Alfonso Jaramillo in the School of Life Sciences, new research has discovered that a common molecule -- ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is produced abundantly by humans, plants and animals -- can be genetically engineered to allow scientists to program the actions of a cell. As well as fighting disease and injury in humans, scientists could harness this technique to control plant cells and reverse environmental and agricultural issues, making plants more resilient to disease and pests. RNAs carry information between protein and DNA in cells, and Professor Jaramillo has proved that these molecules can be produced and organised into tailor-made sequences of commands -- similar to codes for computer software -- which feed specific instructions into cells, programming them to do what we want. Much like a classic Turing computer system, cells have the capacity to process and respond to instructions and codes inputted into their main system, argues Professor Jaramillo. Similar to software running on a computer, or apps on a mobile device, many different RNA sequences could be created to empower cells with a 'Virtual Machine', able to interpret a universal RNA language, and to perform specific actions to address different diseases or problems. This will allow a novel type of personalised and efficient healthcare, allowing us to 'download' a sequence of actions into cells, instructing them to execute complex decisions encoded in the RNA. The researchers made their invention by first modelling all possible RNA sequence interactions on a computer, and then constructing the DNA encoding the optimal RNA designs, to be validated on bacteria cells in the laboratory. After inducing the bacterial cells to produce the genetically engineered RNA sequences, the researchers observed that they had altered the gene expression of the cells according to the RNA program -- demonstrating that cells can be programmed with pre-defined RNA commands, in the manner of a computer's microprocessor. Professor Alfonso Jaramillo, who is part of the Warwick Integrative Synthetic Biology Centre, commented: "The capabilities of RNA molecules to interact in a predictable manner, and with alternative conformations, has allowed us to engineer networks of molecular switches that could be made to process arbitrary orders encoded in RNA. "Throughout the last year, my group has been developing methodologies to enable RNA sensing the environment, perform arithmetic computations and control gene expression without relying on proteins, which makes the system universal across all living kingdoms. "The cells could read the RNA 'software' to perform the encoded tasks, which could make the cells detect abnormal states, infections, or trigger developmental programs."

WITH its stout brick houses and wrought-iron balconies, as well as occasional tower blocks, Molenbeek would not be out of place in a multicultural corner of any western European capital. Residents can shop at the Marrakech baker, Islamic butcher, Halal Turkish Pizzas or the King of Saree. A rundown Islamic centre offers classes in rapid memorisation of the Koran around the corner from a main commercial street strung with municipal Christmas lights. In recent days, after the carnage in Paris, Molenbeek has changed in the public imagination from an edgy ethnic corner of Brussels into a nest of European jihadism. One of the Paris suicide-bombers, Brahim Abdeslam, was a French citizen who lived in the area. His younger brother, Salah, is believed to have fled back to Belgium after the carnage. Raids by armed Belgian police in Molenbeek on November 16th and 19th were intended to track him down. The presumed mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan descent, also grew up in Molenbeek. He had been assumed to be in Syria—Islamic State’s glossy magazine even “interviewed” him about his exploits in evading capture. But on November 18th French police fought their way into a flat in Paris where he was thought to be hiding. A woman blew herself up; Mr Abaaoud died, too. The public prosecutor said the raid had foiled another imminent plot to attack the Paris region. Molenbeek has a longer association with jihadism. Former residents of north African extraction include the killers of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the commander of Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, who was assassinated in 2001 as a prelude to al-Qaeda’s attacks on America on September 11th; a man involved in the Madrid train bombings in 2004; a man who killed four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in 2014; and a man who tried to kill passengers on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris in August. As Charles Michel, the Belgian prime minister, puts it, “Almost every time [there is an attack], there’s a link with Molenbeek.” The question of why some of Europe’s young Muslims become radicalised, fight in Syria and kill their own fellow-citizens is a conundrum that worries all governments—none more so than Belgium’s. France has more Muslim citizens than any other country in the European Union, and the largest number of foreign fighters in Syria; but Belgium has the highest proportion of those fighters as a share of its population (see chart 2). The causes are not only, and perhaps not mainly, Islamic puritanism and economic marginalisation—although Molenbeek, where locals complain of unemployment and discrimination, has its share of both. In June a French parliamentary report pointed to more personal factors: “an existential quest” for identity and belonging undertaken by those with “psychological and social malaise”. Those heading for Syria are often petty criminals. But there are also middle-class youngsters, young girls and converts, says Dounia Bouzar, who runs a French deradicalisation centre. Despite this variety, the fact that many of the attacks in Europe in recent years have been carried out by people tagged by security agencies as potential extremists suggests the spooks are at least looking in the right pool of suspects. But the numbers are so large that it is impossible even for the most generously funded agencies to monitor them all. It apparently takes from 20 to 60 people to follow a single suspect around the clock. Whether or not Belgium has a worse problem with radicalism than elsewhere, it is clearly struggling to cope with it. Its police and intelligence forces are, like most of the country’s institutions, fragmented and under-resourced. It has long had a reputation as the way-station for drug- and gun-smuggling between the Netherlands and France. Another problem is that Belgium lies at the heart of the Schengen zone area. Once a gun is smuggled across the external border of the free-travel area, typically from the Balkans, where they are plentiful, it can be taken freely across much of Europe. Black-market prices suggest that automatic weapons are cheapest in the Balkans and most expensive in Britain, which is outside Schengen. Some reports say that weapons used in the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January came from a specialist in Slovakia. If the Schengen zone is border-free for holidaymakers and terrorists, it is full of unseen barriers for police and intelligence agencies. Authorities have no means of monitoring passenger-name records for cross-border travellers, even those coming from outside Schengen. Where passports are looked at, eg, at airports, the identities of Schengen-area citizens are not systematically checked against databases of suspected criminals or terrorists. Too many of the supposed joint European databases contain little data, or cannot be properly searched. Even when a suspect’s name records a hit, all that comes back is the name and number of a police officer to be contacted for information. Despite fears that jihadists could be slipping into Europe with the flood of refugees, European police forces cannot gain access to the Eurodac database that records fingerprints and other details of asylum-seekers. Some, especially on the far right, are clamouring for the abolition of Schengen. But even if European voters were to put up with border controls, it would be impossible to check the roughly 200 road crossings between Belgium and France alone. Mr Abdeslam is said to have slipped past several police checkpoints as he fled Paris.

Baylor University said this week that a “miscommunication” between administration officials and tour guides led to the removal of a student newspaper that reported about an alleged rape on campus. Eyewitnesses said Baylor student tour guides removed issues of the Baylor Lariat earlier this month at certain places on campus. The Feb. 8 issue of the paper had a front-page story titled “Fifth alleged rape reported.” “Campus Visits has never given blanket instructions to campus tour guides to remove papers from newsstands or to shy away from answering any question honestly and factually from prospective students and their families about our campus today and past issues,” Jason Cook, Baylor’s vice president for marketing and communications, said in a statement to the Baylor Lariat on Thursday. “They were not asked to destroy or remove papers.” ADVERTISEMENT “We have learned there was a miscommunication at an event on Feb. 9, when an admissions staff member asked a few campus tour staff to move papers in the Penland Crossroads lobby and Foster,” Cook said. “Unfortunately, papers in the Penland lobby were thrown away while papers in Foster were moved within the newsstand or recycled.” Baylor did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. Students spoke to the student newspaper about the incident last month. “The girl who took the newspaper from our table, she told us her boss had told her to do it,” senior Ben Christie said. “Then they said it was something they didn’t want students to see.” “A female tour guide came up and grabbed my friend’s newspaper, I imagine to hide it from guests,” senior Hunter Meroney added. “After that, we saw her take the rest of the newspapers off the stands at Penland [Crossroads] and throw them away.” Feb. 9 was “Know Where You’re Going Day” at Baylor and reportedly saw an estimated 2,000 prospective students touring the campus.

Send this page to someone via email A local grocer isn’t taking any chances with what he calls a ‘ridiculous’ upward trend when it comes to shoplifting. Food Fare’s Munther Zeid told 680 CJOB he’s not prepared to lose product the way Liquor Marts have over the past year, so his staff take a proactive approach to tackling crime. “We don’t approach a shoplifter unless it’s a minimum of two people approaching,” he said. “It’s no secret. We approach them armed. We have baseball bats, and all we want is our product back. Tweet This “When they see a sign of force, they’re actually handing over the product with no issues.” READ MORE: Private security companies see boom in industry because of shoplifting Story continues below advertisement Liquor Mart thefts have been an ongoing problem in Winnipeg. According to numbers from Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, incidents of theft jumped from 658 thefts in Liquor Marts in 2017 to more than 2,600 last year. Five teens were arrested last week after what appeared to be an organized mob of suspects rushed into a Winnipeg liquor store, stealing hundreds of bottles of booze. Video of the brazen theft was later posted to social media. Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Rob Carver said its getting more common to see criminals working in groups to steal items from retail stores, and it’s not just happening at liquor stores. Zeid said meat and cheese have become high-target items at his stores, with between 25-30 shoplifters being caught in a week – at a single location. He said he and his employees will continue to confront shoplifters caught in the act. “Some people get mouthy and try to leave, but at the same time, we’re there to protect ourselves, our store, and our customers.” WATCH: ‘It’s quadrupled;’ Food Fare owner says brazen thefts not limited to Manitoba Liquor Marts 1:29 ‘It’s quadrupled;’ Food Fare owner says brazen thefts not limited to Manitoba Liquor Marts ‘It’s quadrupled;’ Food Fare owner says brazen thefts not limited to Manitoba Liquor Marts

Hard-line religious activists in Russia are really offended by Facebook's new same-sex marriage icons and want the social networking website banned from the country. Russian Orthodox activists in the southern city of Saratov claim the icons are "gay propaganda," and have told Facebook to stop "flirting with sodomites." The group sent Facebook a 24-hour ultimatum to the site's offices in Russia, which Facebook has reportedly ignored, according to news service RussiaToday. Undeterred, the activists have threatened to sue Internet service providers who provide access to Facebook. They've also begun a signature-signing campaign to reinstate a 1993 law that banned homosexuality. According to an Orthodox leader, the campaign has logged 34,000 signatures in three days. They hope to collect at least 1 million signatures and present the petition to the Russian parliament. Facebook "openly popularizes homosexuality among minors," according to orthodox activist Vladmiry Roslyakovsky, who is spearheading the campaign. He added that the movement has gained support from Muslim, Jewish and Catholic members. Roslyakovsky said the same-sex marriage icons could influence minors to turn gay because the United States's goal is for Russians to stop having children. He told a Saratov news organization that he is "confident that Russian laws and reasonable citizens will be able to protect their children from a fierce attack of sodomites." A pro-LGBT activist told Gay Star News that the activist's controversy-baiting comments is to "attract attention" because using gay topics in a negative light is a "very simple way to get popularity in Russia." The Daily Dot reached out to Facebook for comment but has not received a response. This article originally published at The Daily Dot here

Date School/Commentator Wed, Mar 8 Alabama Pro Day (live at noon ET) Studio: Peter Burns, Marcus Spears, Kevin Weidl Field analyst: Greg McElroy Kentucky Pro Day Tony Barnhart Fri, Mar 10 Auburn Pro Day Cole Cubelic Tue, Mar 14 South Carolina Pro Day* Tony Barnhart Wed, Mar 15 Arkansas Pro Day* Clint Stoerner Georgia Pro Day* Tony Barnhart Thu, Mar 16 Vanderbilt Pro Day Tony Barnhart Wed, Mar 22 Mississippi State Pro Day** Cole Cubelic Thu, Mar 23 Mizzou Pro Day Tony Barnhart Tue, Mar 28 Florida Pro Day Show (live at 10 a.m.) Studio: Tom Luginbill, Marcus Spears, Kevin Weidl Field Analyst: Booger Wed, Mar 29 Texas A&M Pro Day Show (live at 10 a.m.) Studio: Tom Luginbill, Marcus Spears, Kevin Weidl Field Analyst: Greg McElroy Fri, Mar 31 Tennessee Pro Day Tony Barnhart Mon, Apr 3 Ole Miss Pro Day Cole Cubelic Wed, Apr 5 LSU Pro Day Show (live at 10 a.m.) Studio: Peter Burns, Marcus Spears, Greg McElroy Field Analyst: Tom Luginbill GAINESVILLE, Fla. – SEC Network is sending reporters to all 14 SEC Football Pro Days this spring, broadcasting live from Florida's Pro Day on Tuesday, March 28. Commentators on-site are covering news and interviews from each event for SEC Network's evening news and information show SEC Now, and will begin with Kentucky and Alabama on Wednesday, March 8.In addition to SEC Now nightly news coverage, the network is also live from Alabama, Florida, LSU and Texas A&M Pro Days. Analysts Marcus Spears and Kevin Weidl will primarily be in studio, with Greg McElroy, Booger McFarland and Tom Luginbill on-campus.Pro Day events typically include weight room weigh-ins, bench press, vertical jump, broad jump as well as the 40-yard dash, 60-yard shuttle and position workouts for players entering the NFL Draft.

BANJUL (Reuters) - West African troops have extended their military mission in Gambia by one year after entering the country in January to force out longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh, regional bloc ECOWAS said on Monday. About 500 ECOWAS troops remain in Gambia of the original 7,000 that crossed over from neighboring Senegal to compel Jammeh to go into exile and leave the presidency to Adama Barrow, who defeated him in a December election. Soldiers from the mission, known as ECOMIG, came under attack last Friday by locals in Jammeh’s native village of Kanilai, Interior Minister Mai Ahmed Fatty said in a televised statement, underscoring unresolved tensions from Jammeh’s 22-year rule. One of the demonstrators demanding the departure of ECOMIG and state troops was killed in the clashes, and security forces made 22 arrests, Fatty said. The tiny country of 2 million people is trying to rebuild its economy and obtain justice for victims of Jammeh’s government, which is accused of torturing and killing perceived opponents. Separately, ECOWAS’s 15 member states gave preliminary approval to Morocco’s bid to join the bloc “because of (its) strong and multi-dimensional links of cooperation with West Africa”, ECOWAS said in a statement.

A memorable but disappointing first season. Dear Overwatch fans, I'd like to share my experience from the inaugural season of Overwatch League and tell the story of the ups and downs of being a player in SF Shock. First things first, I would really like to thank all of my teammates (sinatraa, super, nomy, babybay, moth, architect, iddqd, sleepy, danteh, nevix, choihyobin) for being supportive and helping me become a better player just by being awesome human beings. Next, I would like to thank every single staff member (Andy, Brett, Harsha, Jamie, Sephy, Legit, Junk, Crusty, NineK, Chris, Pizzas, David, JB, Derrick) for tolerating and helping us develop as players and individuals. Finally, a huge thanks to each OWL staff member, every fan that showed support in any way, the shock squad, Tyler, etc, etc, etc... without your help and support, it would have been infinitely harder. As the start of OWL season 1 approached, it was very evident that mercy/zen was going to be meta. In a team with a limited eligible roster of 6 players and pretty much zero experience playing mercy in scrims, I had to grind really hard to learn the hero as quickly as possible to not let my teammates down. The players and staff members that were with us during our Vegas phase know how hard I tried. Unfortunately, the conditions were not ideal for me to learn the role at the required speed. The evolution of a new dive and anti-dive meta with the lack of a comfortable projectile player made it particularly hard for me to figure out what my job was at all times. It wasn't until the end of stage one, with that match against Florida Mayhem where I got my first player of the match that I finally understood why my Mercy play was so lackluster. It was at that time when I realized the necessity of being a selfish player whenever I was on Mercy. See, the thing is, with pretty much all other support heroes in Overwatch, you have to try to remain alive while healing and supporting your teammates as much as possible. However, Mercy requires someone who cares about himself first, above all others, Zenyatta after, and then and only then, if able to bring teammates back to life, resurrect. If you ever play Mercy, and see teammates taking damage out of line of sight, and your body itches for you to go help your teammates, you are doing it wrong. Needless to say, this was against every single instinct I have as a player, those who have played with me at all know how good a teammate I can be in-game. And... that was it. With the introduction of Moth to the team, I was moved to a substitute position where my only goal was to learn from what moth did better than me (such as feed less and ult track) and try to incorporate said skills to my game. By far my biggest disappointment of season one is not having played a single minute on stage with sinatraa. I don't think I will ever find natural synergy with a player like I have with sinatraa, it's like we have the same mind, scary in a good way. Even at a time when sinatraa, babybay and me were playing internal scrims on team B and stomping team A, I still didn't get to play a single minute with him on stage. Even during our Vegas prep, it was fairly obvious our team would look a lot different once sinatraa and super could play stage 3 and after. It was a shame not to ever share the stage with those two. Not everything was bad about season one though. I learned a lot from spectating scrims and watching top-tier support player's point of view and top-down perspectives of team fights. It helped me to understand the game at a deeper level. I got to play against the best of the best during scrims and stage matches. I helped teammates and got helped from teammates and coaches countless times to improve each other as players and individuals. I shared great memories with every single member of the Shock family, we laughed and we got mad together. It was definitely an enlightening ride and I would do it again in a heartbeat. For those of you that not know, I've been playing video games since I was 3 years old until I was 17 - competing in cs since I was 9 until I was 17. At the age of 18, I picked up poker and became a professional poker player. Every time I would watch a cs major, my body would itch, telling me to go back to gaming. When I tried Overwatch for the first time, it was a wrap. Competing at the highest level of Overwatch is all I dreamed of. And I haven't shown the world what I'm capable of, so I'm not done yet. My biggest accomplishment this season was earning the respect of OWL season 1 champions ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNaV-5KuODs ) as a Lucio player. I do not think many Lucio players in the world can do stuff like this ( contest point because no one else can, evade dragonblade, build and turn the fight with a beat - https://plays.tv/video/5a9b3aedc833e60d2c/nasty-wr ) while being able to play Ana and other supports at a high level. I'm confident I can be an asset to any OWL team and look forward to keep doing what I love. My only focus right now is helping Team Spain do good in the World Cup. Looking forward to what the future has to offer, dhaK. Reply · Report Post

We started our podcast this year and we found this tool called My Podcast Reviews created by Daniel J. Lewis. It has saved us a ton of time and it’s been so helpful to us out. It’s so important to be visible in Apple and to be aware of the reviews there, but we’re Android users, so we were finding it difficult to tap into all the Apple Podcasts stores around the world to collect the reviews, in a timely manner. My Podcast Reviews is the perfect solution, because it sends us all of the reviews right to our email. It’s so important to get the feedback on our show and the various episodes, so we know what our listeners like and what our audience is looking for. So, a big thank you to Daniel for this very helpful tool. Paul & Jennifer Henczel The Inspiring Show

By Jake Donovan The proposed middleweight title eliminator between Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Jack Culcay might not head to Germany after all. Lou DiBella, Derevyanchenko’s promoter secured the rights to the International Boxing Federation (IBF)-ordered final eliminator during a purse bid hearing held Tuesday afternoon at the sanctioning body’s New Jersey headquarters. The New York-based promoter offering a winning bid of $425,515 to secure the rights to the forthcoming bout. The lone other bidder during Tuesday’s session was AGON Sports, Culcay’s promoter who talked a good game beforehand of bringing the bout to Germany. However, the Berlin-based outfit left the fate of its fighter in the hands of the enemy after falling well short with its $397,713 offering. Assuming both parties sign off, the middleweight clash is tentatively due to take place in early spring somewhere in the U.S. The winner will become the mandatory challenger to current titlist Daniel Jacobs, who won the vacant crown in a 12-round split decision win over Derevyanchenko—his training stablemate—last October at Hulu Theatre in New York City. The vacant title fight left the first two contender slots open in the 160-pound division, a traditional practice by the IBF who will not rank a number-one contender through any other means than resolution from a final elimination bout. Culcay (25-3, 13KOs)—who represented Germany in the 2008 Olympics—became the highest rated contender to such a bout on the heels of three straight victories at middleweight following back-to-back losses in the super welterweight division. His most recent win came last September, a 10th round knockout of Rafael Bejeran in an IBF regional title fight which was taken with the intention of next fighting in a title eliminator. In making the happen, a promise was kept by AGON Sports, which was formed in October 2017 and added Culcay as one of its first boxing clients last February. The entirety of Culcay’s three-fight win streak has come while fighting under the AGON banner. Derevyanchenko (12-1, 10KOs) has not fought since the aforementioned loss to Jacobs. A member of the 2008 Ukraine Olympic team, the squat middleweight relocated to Brooklyn prior to the start of his pro career, where he shares a head trainer with Jacobs in noted New York City coach Andre Rozier. An aggressive push to the title stage led him to an Aug. ’17 final eliminator with Tureano Johnson, whom Derevyanchenko handled en route to a 12th round knockout to become the mandatory contender to then-champ Gennady Golovkin. A stay-busy win over Dashon Johnson last March came about only because of Golovkin’s plans changing in the wake of a planned voluntary defense—a rematch with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez—stalled after the Mexican tested positive for clenbuterol. The IBF granted Golovkin a replacement for the voluntary defense, with the condition that he next face Derevyanchenko who was permitted an interim bout for the sake of remaining active. Golovkin went on to crush miserably overmatched Vanes Martirosyan in two rounds but vacated his IBF title in favor of a Sept. rematch with Alvarez, losing the fight and all of his remaining titles. The final eliminator between Culcay and Derevyanchenko was initially ordered by the IBF on December 8. Culcay’s side was apparently a bit too overconfident in believing they could secure the rights to the event, as negotiations never really got off the ground and the two sides forced to wait out the January 15 purse bid hearing as a result. A win of sorts for Culcay comes in the final purse split. Thanks a new rule instituted by the IBF, the higher-rated challenger for any sanctioned eliminator is entitled to the favorable end of a 65/35 purse split. Culcay is the IBF’s #2 contender, one spot ahead of Derevyanchenko.

There is a major anti-golden rice smear and disinformation campaign underway, spearheaded by Greenpeace with other anti-GMO activists on board. They themselves consider golden rice to be a “Trojan horse” for GM technology in general, so they essentially admit that their motivation is to oppose GM technology, even if that means opposing a technology that can save the sight and lives of poor children. Golden rice is a genetically modified rice variety with enhanced production of beta carotene, the pro-vitamin of Vitamin A. The name derives from its golden color, provided by the beta carotene, the same thing that makes carrots orange. Carrots, by the way, were originally white and were modified through breeding to produce beta carotene, which was a very successful biofortified campaign in Europe that effectively combated vitamin A deficiency. In response to my post from last week on biofortified GM crops, one commenter did a large “cut and paste” into the comments (generally considered a comment etiquette no-no, but I let it through because the topic is so important) with essentially the full anti-golden rice propaganda. The commenter seemed to think this constituted a “convincing” argument. Let’s see. *GR IS STILL NOT READY While there have been long delays in the development of GR since it was “invented” in 2000 (1), this has not been due to the activities of anti-GMO activists, but to basic R&D problems. This is confirmed in a statement by the International Rice Research Institute, the main body working on the GR project (2). According to the Institute, the time frame for developing a new product is about 13 years, and GR is “still under development and evaluation”. In September 2013 the IRRI expected GR to take another two years before it was ready. While this point is essentially correct, it is not an argument against the adoption of golden rice. Golden rice (GR) development began in the 1980s. By 2000 the first GR variety was ready, but it produced too little beta carotene to be effective. GR2, using different genes, was ready by 2005 and contained 23 times as much beta carotene as GR 1. This is enough to effectively combat vitamin A deficiency in cultures that consume rice as their primary staple. So why has GR2 not been implemented 10 years later? This is a complex question, but after reading multiple sources it does seem that the primary reason is that further development is necessary. GR2 was developed from an American rice strain, and is not well adapted to the Asian countries that can most benefit from it. What is happening now is that GR2 is being bred with local varieties that are locally adapted (a process called introgression). The goal is to produce a strain with the beta carotene but also with local traits so that is can match existing cultivars in yield and disease resistance. This will be necessary for widespread acceptance by farmers. This process is time consuming, partly because there are multiple strains of GR2 (representing different locations in which the new genes were inserted), and researchers don’t know which one will make the best cross with the local rice varieties. This is why field testing is so important. But the story is not just that the scientific process of development takes time. Vandalizing of field trials in the Philippines, motivated by anti-GMO sentiments, has caused a delay in the research. Some also argue that the regulatory burden in many countries is excessive, and is motivated by public opposition to GM. This is a good example of the circular nature of many anti-GMO arguments – anti-GMO activism is slowing the development process for new GM varieties, which is then criticized as being slow. In any case, by all accounts we are in the final stages of developing commercially viable strains of GR2 for Asian markets where they are most needed. *GR IS NOT NEEDED GR is an expensive and unproven ‘solution’ to a problem for which better solutions exist. It has swallowed millions in development money and yet is still not ready. In contrast, World Health Organisation programs to combat vitamin A deficiency are cheap, already available – and proven to work. They focus on methods such as educating people to grow green leafy vegetables in kitchen gardens, encouraging breastfeeding of babies, and giving supplements and fortified foods when necessary.(3) Research by Dr Vandana Shiva’s organization Navdanya in India has calculated that green leafy vegetables are up to 3500% richer in beta-carotene than GR.(4) These programs only need modest funding to roll out more widely. They have the additional advantage of simultaneously treating other nutritional deficiencies, as these do not occur in isolation. For example, beta-carotene can only be absorbed by the body if the person eats enough fat. Will GR proponents give out dietary fat with the GR to those who need it? This is an absurd and factually challenged version of the Nirvana fallacy. Sure – if we fixed the problems of poverty, food distribution, and poor education we would solve malnutrition in general. Of course we should be working toward these broader goals, but they are obviously not going to be fixed any time soon (even if every dime spent on GR development were instead devoted to these underlying problems). GR is also not expensive. It’s hard to come up with a single figure, but at the low end estimates are that $2.6 million has been spent on development so far. One study estimated that the total cost of bringing GR to market in India would be $21-$28 million for the next 30 years. This is less than $1 million per year, and most of those costs are for promotion and marketing. By all accounts GR would be a highly cost effective solution to vitamin A deficiency, even more cost effective than the alternatives promoted by anti-GMO activists. Of course, we should continue to pursue other solutions as well, such as supplementation and introducing more crop varieties to local farmers. These efforts are under way, and they have an effect, it’s just not enough. These objections sound very similar to those by anti-fluoridationists – we don’t need fluoride in the water because brushing with toothpaste and other dental hygiene interventions are effective. This is the same fallacy – universal public health measures have the advantage of being universal and automatic. Historically they are therefore much more effective. They are particularly effective for the target populations, such as the poor. Other problems with GR include: 1. Hidden Information on GR’s Genetic Makeup There has been no adequate characterisation of GR in the peer-reviewed literature (5). Where there is secrecy, there is mistrust. No information is hidden. GR development programs are open source. Here is a detailed description of the metabolic pathways altered in GR. The genes inserted and their locations are known. This is simply a false accusation. 2. Breeding Problems The early varieties of Golden Rice were GR1 and GR2 — both bred from Japonica rice varieties because of severe difficulties with breeding from Indica varieties. In the areas which are being initially targeted – India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines – the vast majority of the population eats Indica, not Japonica varieties. Testing of a GR Indica variety did not start until 2010 and outdoor trials appear to be confined to the Philippines. There is still no published data available as to the stability, uniformity, yields or beta-carotene levels of either the older or newer versions of GR. There are no breeding “problems” with GR. The researchers used the rice varieties that are commonly used in research, and are therefore well understood, and now are crossing the GR varieties with locally adapted varieties. Field trials were initially in the US, because of regulatory red tape elsewhere, and now are taking place in the Philippines, which is more appropriate. Essentially the argument here is that – science is taking time, and regulatory hurdles are slowing the process. None of this has anything to do with the safety, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness of GR. 3. Beta-carotene Persistence No one knows how much beta-carotene will remain in GR over time when stored in normal domestic conditions. When some GR1 was sent in 2001 to scientists in Germany, they found that the level of beta-carotene was less than 1% of what it should have been. After cooking the level declined further, by 50%. This finding set back the project by many years. Persistence of beta carotene over time is certainly an issue that needs to be monitored. However, researchers at the International Rice Research Institute have found that the beta carotene levels remain high in rice stored for three months. There is no reason to think they will drop off dramatically after that. Like most of the other objections, this is not a known issue with GR. Opponents are simply raising every possible thing that could theoretically go wrong with a new technology as if it is a deal-breaker. If this becomes an issue, then scientists will address it. Right now it is not known to be a problem. 4. Bioavailability No one knows how “bioavailable” the beta-carotene in GR will prove. Only two published human feeding studies have been conducted to test this – a controversial child-feeding study published in 2012 and an earlier feeding study involving adults, published in 2009 (see point 7 below). Both these “proof of principle” studies fail to give information on whether GR would work in a real-life situation. For example, the GR samples were stored at -80 degrees C and -70 degrees C respectively, prior to their use in the trials. This was to delay any decline in beta-carotene levels. The studies gave no information as to the usefulness of GR in real domestic situations and in a typical diet. Also, the adult feeding study was designed to maximise the absorption of beta-carotene through the addition of 10% butter to the test diet – an unrealistic scenario with respect to the poor people of Asia. There are currently two published studies looking at bioavailability of vitamin A from GR. The first was a test in 5 healthy adults and showed good absorption. The second study was in 68 children aged 6-8 and compared GR to spinach to oil-based vitamin A capsules. They fount that the GR was as effective as the supplements, and more effective than spinach at increasing vitamin A levels. While these studies are limited and preliminary, they do indicate great bioavailability for vitamin A from GR. There is also no reason to suspect otherwise. The objections above are not convincing. The child study, the larger and more definitive of the two, did involve real world situation, with only the addition of GR. The fact that the rice was refrigerated has nothing to do with bioavailability – that is just repeating the concern of persistence of beta carotene with storage, which again is likely not an issue. Also, just a correction, in the adult study the rice was given with 10 g of butter, not “10%” butter. 5. Biofortification is Risky GR is a “biofortified” product. But there are issues with “nutritional enhancement” and fortification. Due to differences between individuals (old and young, healthy and ill, male and female, overweight and undernourished), some people in the population will get too little of the nutrient and others too much. Overdosing on vitamin A has been linked to an increased risk of birth defects, and in the case of smokers to an increased cancer risk. (6) This, again, is the same objection that anti-fluoridationists use. Biofortification is not inherently risky. Such programs have a long history of safety and effectiveness, from iodine in salt to calcium and vitamin D in milk. It would be nearly impossible to consume so much GR that it results in vitamin A toxicity. Some people might not get enough, but no one is claiming that this one intervention will end vitamin A deficiency. It is simply one additional tool among several to address this serious problem. 6. No Proof that GR is Safe to Eat Genetic modification can result in novel toxins or allergens being created in plants, or changes in nutritional value. New toxins or allergens can appear even if the gene of interest is taken from a non-toxic source, since changes can happen after the gene is inserted into the new host plant. Such unexpected changes are difficult to detect without dedicated animal feeding safety trials. One potential hazard, as pointed out by Prof David Schubert of the Salk Institute in the USA, is associated with retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative which can damage human fetuses and cause birth defects. (7) The study above in 68 children showed no adverse effects from eating GR, so that is evidence of safety. Sure, there are potential unforeseen consequences from any new cultivar, whether from breeding, mutation breeding, or GM technology. That is why testing is appropriate. So far there hasn’t been a single case of allergic reaction to a GM variety, nor has there been any adverse health outcomes. This is the core of anti-GMO fearmongering, an absurd application of the precautionary principle. Any potential fear is exaggerated, rather than taking a rational risk vs benefit analysis. There is no such thing as zero risk, but the science and history of GM technology has shown the risks to be very low. Compare this to the known morbidity and mortality of vitamin A deficiency. 7. Unethical Trials on Humans Even though GR has not been tested for unexpected toxins or allergens in animal feeding trials, the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board, in conjunction with Tufts University, has conducted three feeding experiments on humans. One included the use of children “without adequate vitamin A nutrition” (10). In 2009 a group of 32 scientists (11) complained to Tufts about this breach of medical ethics and the Nuremburg Code. When the research resulted in the publication of two papers (in 2009 and 2012), there was a furore in China due to the use of children in one experiment without informed consent. The revelation led to the sacking of three Chinese officials and the forced retirement of the lead researcher at Tufts. This is an excellent example of generating controversy in order to demonize a safe and effective technology. The real story here is that the Chinese trial was thoroughly reviewed by Tufts, and as reported by Science: The reviews found no evidence of health or safety problems in the children fed golden rice; they also concluded that the study’s data were scientifically accurate and valid. Indeed, Souvaine’s letter to the USDA stresses that the results “have important public health and nutrition implications, for China and other parts of the world.” However, there were issues with the informed consent and Chinese oversight of the study. While this is unfortunate, it has absolutely nothing to do with the scientific validity of the study. Nor is this an indictment of GR research in general. The 32 scientists were anti-GMO activists, but their objections are presented in a way to make it seem like the scientific community objected to the study. This is all an attempt to distract from the actual results of the study, which show that GR is an effective method of increasing vitamin A levels. Conclusion It is easy to raise objections to any new scientific research or technology. There are always many potential problems, research is never perfect, individuals make mistakes, and new technologies always seem to take more time than initially promised or that it seems like they should. Any new technology or proposed solution can therefore be made to seem like a boondoggle if you obsess over the problems and make every effort to exaggerate them. You can make vaccines seem unsafe, fluoride in public water to be irresponsible, evolution to be uncertain, global warming to be a hoax, psychiatry to be a crime against humanity, or whatever suits your ideological agenda. We are best served, however, not by ideological attacks but by a fair and thorough assessment of risks and benefits and cost effectiveness. The available science and assessments indicate that GR is an extremely promising technology that gives every indication of being safe, effective, and cost-effective. It has the potential to save millions of children from going blind and thousands from dying . Rather than opposing this technology, we should be providing public funding to support the corporate and charitable funding already being used. Field trials should be accelerated and GR should be fast-tracked, while conducting the extensive studies necessary to address every potential aspect of the technology. The potential humanitarian benefit is huge and worth the investment. The misinformation campaign by anti-GMO groups serves only to slow the development and adoption of golden rice. In this case there is a measurable body count and human cost associated with their ideological opposition.

Buddhist moral psychology represents a distinctive contribution to contemporary moral discourses. Most Western ethicists neglect to problematize perception at all, and few suggest that ethical engagement begins with perception. But this is a central idea in Buddhist moral theory. Human perception is always perception-as. We see someone as a friend or as an enemy; as a stranger or as an acquaintance. We see objects as desirable or as repulsive. We see ourselves as helpers or as competitors, and our cognitive and action sets follow in train. We can explain or express this in the Buddhist language of sparsa (contact), vedanā (hedonic tone), samjña (ascertainment), chanda (action selection) and cetanā (intention). Every perceptual episode, while it might begin with sensory contact, has some hedonic tone. We experience the object with which we have contact on a continuum from pleasurable to distasteful. Perception involves ascertainment–the representation of the object perceived as of a kind. This ascertainment and hedonic tone lead us to ready action appropriate to the object and its affective valence, and as we do so, we form an intention to act, perhaps before we even become aware that we do so. Perception is always part of a contact-cognition-action cycle in which there is no bare awareness of an object disjoint from our interests or affect. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that perception itself is morally charged. If I see women as tools, or Latinos as fools, the damage is done. That perception involves the formation of intentions that are morally problematic on their face, and that lead to harms of all kinds. Perceiving in that way makes me a morally reduced person. If, on the other hand, I perceive people as opportunities to cooperate, or to provide benefit, I perceive in a way that involves the construction of morally salutary intentions, good on their face, and productive of human goods. For this reason, much Buddhist ethical discourse eschews the articulation of duties, rules or virtues, and aims at the transformation of our mode of perceptual engagement with the world. Moral cultivation, on this view, is the cultivation of a way of seeing, not in the first a instance a way of acting. The importance of moral perception is well-illustrated by the phenomenon of implicit bias. Since Greenawald et al. (1998) a raft of evidence has demonstrated both the omnipresence and the pernicious effects of implicit bias. Implicit bias—the subliminal association of negative traits with members of groups that are the victims of bias and positive traits with dominant groups—is evident in the implicit bias association task, in experiments asking professionals to evaluate resumés with stereotypical names, in salary decisions regarding candidates of opposite genders, in tasks asking participants to identify objects carried by individuals in rapid presentation, in medical decisionmaking, etc. It is far too widespread, and far too robust a finding to be dismissed. While it is possible to reduce the effect of implicit bias through training, that training must be regular, and must be regularly repeated if the effects are to be significant or lasting, and the most effective methods in reducing implicit bias are affective, not cognitive. Changing people’s explicit beliefs or attitudes, and even making them aware of their own implicit bias has no real effect. Only training that involves changing the immediate affective valence of the perception of others has any lasting effect. Implicit bias demonstrates that the roots of virtue and vice, or of good and evil lie not in what we do, but in how we see. The fact that in the moment we have no control over our implicit bias may excuse us from culpability of that bias in the moment, but it does not excuse us from responsibility to transform ourselves so as to eliminate that bias. Involuntariness, that is, may excuse the act, but it does not absolve us of moral blameworthiness. The same goes, mutatis mutandis, for morally salutary perceptual sets. We have an obligation, once we recognize our implicit biases, to remediate them. We cannot reflectively endorse being the kind of person who perceives the world in this way. Implicit bias is only the tip of the moral iceberg of our perceptual lives. The very processes that are salient when we investigate racial or gender bias in these disturbing studies are ubiquitous in our psychology. It is not only racial stereotyping that is problematic; the representation of Maseratis as desirable, or of insect protein as undesirable may be just as morally charged, and just as deeply implicated in perceptual processes. And the powerful effects not merely of implicit social pressures at work in the cases of racial stereotyping, but also the deliberate efforts of advertisers, demagogues, preachers and moral philosophers to distort our perception must be morally scrutinized, for just as implicit bias demonstrably distorts our explicit reasoning and judgments in invidious ways, the panoply of subliminal processes to which it is kin have the same effect across the domains in which agency is manifest. A Buddhist moral psychology shows us just how and why our moral lives begin with perception, and Buddhist meditative practices provide an avenue to eradicate the vices of perception and to encourage more virtuous ways of seeing the world. Featured image credit: Prayer Wheel, by Brandon. CC-BY-2.0 via Flickr.

The best-selling author behind The Shining has returned to its central character, 36 years after the book was first published, for his latest novel. Doctor Sleep begins a year after the events at the end of The Shining, and follows Danny Torrance to adulthood. He spoke to the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz about why Jack Torrance is his most autobiographical character and why he hated Stanley Kubrick's film version.

A federal judge in Hawaii extended his previous order blocking President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE's travel ban until the state's lawsuit over the executive action is resolved. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson, a President Obama appointee, ruled earlier this month that the state of Hawaii and a Muslim leader showed a "strong" likelihood to succeed in their lawsuit against the ban. They argue that the policy violates the Establishment Clause and proved that "irreparable harm" is likely if temporary relief is not granted, leading Watson to grant them a temporary restraining order that put the ban on ice. On Wednesday, he extended that temporary restraining order, issuing a longer-lasting preliminary injunction, which will continue to prevent the implementation of Trump's order. Watson issued the written ruling after hearing arguments Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Trump's order seeks to temporarily halt the refugee resettlement program and block nationals from six predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The policy, which Trump argues is necessary to protect national security, was set to go into effect on March 16. The government had argued that an injunction should only apply to the visa component of the ban and claimed the refugee aspect does not effect Hawaii. Watson rejected that argument. Trump has said he is ready to challenge the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court.

Four men found living in "deplorable conditions" in a Houston garage on Friday told police that they were being held captive after being lured by promises of food and cigarettes so that their captor could cash their public-assistance cheques, authorities said. Three of the men were malnourished and taken to a hospital after being discovered by officers responding to a 911 call about the home, Houston police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. Sgt. Steven Murdock described the living conditions as like a "dungeon." Investigators were still trying to determine how long the men lived there, but they said it may have been weeks Men 'kept against their will' Silva said the men told investigators they were forced to live in the garage — which included just one chair, no bed and a possibly malfunctioning air conditioner — so their captor could cash their assistance cheques. She said the men were "given scraps to eat." "They clearly stated to us they were being kept against their will," Silva said. Silva said one person has been detained but no charges have been filed. He apparently did not live in the house, she said. Four women were also found living in the house, three of whom appeared to have mental disabilities, Silva said. She described the other woman as a caretaker. Unlike the garage, she described the living conditions inside the home as more normal. A neighbour called authorities Friday morning expressing concern about men in the house in North Houston. Murdock, the police sergeant, said at least one of the men is a military veteran. He described them as malnourished and "almost invalids," saying they lived in "deplorable conditions." Alberta Ewing, whose brother lives next door, said the men looked "very weak" and were hauled out on stretchers by paramedics. She said one of the men had approached her asking for help just weeks earlier during a Fourth of July gathering, but that she didn't take him seriously because he wasn't crying and she couldn't get him to explain further. "He said, `Could you help me?"' Ewing recalled. "I said, `What's the problem?" Neighbours said they occasionally saw the men sitting outside. Virginia Rogers, who lives five houses away, said she greeted them with a wave when she drove by. "I'm shocked," Rogers said. "I'm baffled. I didn't have a clue." The men were found in a working-class, residential neighbourhood of one-storey, brick homes. Harris County property records show the home was built in 1969 and is about 1,400 square feet. Police were going in and out of the house's bright purple door and black gate Friday afternoon, removing evidence as neighbors stood outside watching. A portion of the block was cordoned off with police tape. CBC had earlier reported that eight people were held captive in the home, based on reports by the local CNN affiliate. Comes 2 months after Cleveland case of captives The Houston report comes two months after three women were released from a home in Cleveland after being held for a decade. Earlier this month, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight took to YouTube to thank the public for the encouragement and financial support that have helped them restart their lives since they were released in May. The women had gone missing separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16, and 20 years old, respectively. Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former bus driver, has pleaded not guilty to a 329-count indictment alleging he kidnapped the three off the streets and held them captive in his two-storey home. Castro is said to have fathered the six-year-old daughter with Berry.

A Wisconsin couple's act of compassion could end up costing them big time. Throughout the past year and a half, Brenda Konkel and Robert Bloch of Madison have been allowing homeless people to store belongings in lockers on their front porch and letting those without shelter sleep there, too, according to the Madison Capital Times. But after a neighbor complained to the City of Madison that Konkel and Bloch were providing such services, local authorities concluded the couple was breaking the law. If Konkel and Bloch don't get rid of the lockers and stop allowing guests to sleep on their front porch this week, they'll be facing a $300 daily fine. Matt Tucker, the city's zoning administrator, said legal occupants are the only ones who can use storage facilities on a residential property, and only those who share the space within a given home can choose to sleep outside of it. But to Konkel -- who wrote on Facebook that at least 60 people have taken advantage of the services she and Bloch provide -- the couple is simply providing a resource that others are not. "These are human beings," she told the Capital Times. "If the city and the county aren’t doing this, why prevent us from doing it?" Konkel and Bloch have taken up a cause affecting a growing number of Madison residents. A point-in-time survey showed that 831 individuals were unsheltered in Dane County (the county in which Madison falls) in January of last year -- up from 566 in 2010. Local legislation limiting individual efforts helping the homeless is not as uncommon as some may think. In fact, in about the last year alone, 33 U.S. cities have passed measures that restrict feeding the homeless in public locations. Some of those advocating on behalf of the homeless have also pointed to a rise in laws that have made it harder for the poorest Americans to find or create their own affordable housing. While current city law has hindered Konkel and Bloch's ability to help the homeless in Madison, however, many in the community have expressed support for the couple's efforts.

Growth is essential to any business's success. For most entrepreneurs, growth is gradual and a little slow at first. But with the right tools and techniques, some can make their sales skyrocket quickly and sustainably. Continue Reading Below This was the case for Bill Reilly, a Milwaukee-based entrepreneur and co-founder of auto repair facility Hands-on Garage. Reilly was one of 12 local business owners to participate in the first Scalerator, a program sponsored by Scale Up Milwaukee. The multiyear project is supported by the state of Wisconsin, Milwaukee's mayor, American Express OPEN and private-sector leaders, and aims to drive entrepreneurial and economic growth in the city. "The goal of Scalerator is to help existing businesses like ours get the tools and techniques to scale up quickly," Reilly said. "Our participation helped us achieve an additional 15 percent increase in revenues in the last two months of 2013." To help ambitious businesses accelerate their growth, Reilly shared five lessons he learned from his Scalerator experience: Highlight your best asset. Your business may be great at a number of things, but if you're like most businesses, it can truly be the best in one area. To differentiate yourself and poise your business for growth, it's important to refine your brand message to emphasize your best asset. Put yourself in your lender's shoes. You may have plans for what you want your business to look like years into the future. This is great to tell your business partners and customers, but when you're pitching sources of capital, they want to hear about your business's potential for return on investment right now. "In the past, we would highlight our business goal to become a franchise, which didn't resonate with banks," Reilly said. "We learned to emphasize that there is a large market for what we do. This would pique a banker's interest because he or she cares about the return on investment more than your business aspirations." Focus on established revenue sources. Rather than trying to acquire new customers, direct your attention to the core customers you already have. You can do this by implementing a referral or customer loyalty program, or trying out marketing strategies based on previous purchase behaviors to encourage repeat business. [MORE: How to Use Big Data for Customer Retention] Make sales your top priority. As the company founder or leader, you are the person who can best sell your business to customers. Reilly said that his company used to outsource its sales force, but he quickly discovered that his customers preferred talking to the founders rather than a salesperson. Adjust your workflow to prioritize selling in-house, since sales are what keep your business going and growing. Keep it local. Growing ventures make things happen in any market. Moving toward growth will also benefit the community: 92 percent of new jobs come from the expansion of existing businesses, according to the National Establishment Time Series, a database of regional industries and economies. By growing your business, hiring local people and working with local vendors, you can help your community thrive. Originally published on Business News Daily.

Where to begin. Tammy Bruce is an oft-contributor to Fox News’ various propaganda shows. She claims to be a lesbian. She’s also an arch-conservative, who is highly critical of gays, and who penned a book called “The Gay Gestapo.” Not surprisingly, she has routinely taken the anti-gay side of the various segments I’ve seen her on on Fox, including one in which she debated me on the O’Reilly Factor about my “DearMary.com” campaign, calling on Mary Cheney to stand up to her father and help stop the anti-gay constitutional amendment back in 2004 (naturally, Bruce defended Cheney against the evil gays). And here’s another Fox segment in which Tammy Bruce defends that anti-gay beauty queen bimbo a few years ago who was in trouble for opposing marriage equality – Tammy outright called use “the gay gestapo” in that segment. Bruce is the go-to-girl when Fox needs someone to provide cover on an anti-gay issue. I mean, if a lesbian is saying it, how can it be anti-gay? So, what to do with the news that Bruce is now on the receiving end of Fox’s anti-gay bigotry that she herself has enabled all these years? I won’t rejoice over Bruce being on the receiving end of anti-gay discrimination. I will however say that she made her bed. She got all cozy with an anti-gay activist organization, helped it thrive, and even helped it promote its anti-gay agenda and message, and now she’s surprised that the organization she helped build, in her own little way, is anti-gay. Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! [a croupier hands Renault a pile of money] Croupier: Your winnings, sir. Your winnings, Tammy. (Follow us on Twitter at @AMERICAblogGay)

[Editor's Note: Here's a post by Chris Mullen, one of our frequent Facebook group posters.] Not too long ago I purchased a cheaply priced, used copy of Vico's The New Science, which I recently started to read (there are two things in life that I can always find justification for spending money on: beer and books). While doing some research on Vico, I came across an interesting lecture given by Timothy Brennan of University of Minnesota called "Vico, Spinoza and the Imperial Past." Embedded video from Cornell University Watch at CornelCast. While my initial interest in Brennan's lecture centered on his use of Vico, I grew interested in his critique of Spinoza or, to be more pointed, the use that "French and Italian Communist intellectuals of the 1960's and 1970's" made of him. According to Brennan, 10 to 15 years ago Spinoza was "a topic without public appeal." But, given the rise of the "commercial viability of Antonio Negri and the "modest appeal of Deleuzian Theory in the academic market, this is no longer the case." Brennan labels Louis Althusser as one of the principle culprits in presenting an "alternative Spinoza" or, as he puts it "Spinoza in quotations." He sees the use of Spinoza by "Althusserian Post-Marxism" as the basis for many of the "fads and tendencies" found in contemporary post-colonialism, as well as in other academic fields. "The very thinker who stood for an airtight and enclosed system of inflexible laws is envoked by the best philosophers as the champion of the open-ended productive force and positive potential of the human to develop outside of any social force." Brennan then turns to Edward Said who "polemically embraced" Vico as a "counter to the philosophical strands found in Descates and Spinoza that were then asserting themselves in literary and cultural theory, then being the mid-1970's." The rest of the lecture is Brennan's attempt to offer, what he sees, as an "explicit riposte to Decartes and his philophical offspring, which includes Spinoza" by offering Vico as a contrast. Brennan sees these interpretations of Spinoza as "antipathetic to Vichian theories of language, history, agency, and foreign cultures." (Vico stood opposed to the Cartesian and analytical worldviews of his contemporaries and it was only later recognized the Vico had formulated the most "enlightened alternative to Cartesian rationalism." Descartes v. Vico) Even if the internal debates of "Post-colonial theory" bore the hell out of you (a sentiment for which you will receive no condemnation from me), i think that Brennan's general discussion contrasting Vico and Spinoza is worth your time. Many of the ideas that come to "blossom in Hegel" are here presented as being anticipated by Vico. The discussion also sheds light on some of the contemporary radical Left's "invented use" of Spinoza (a critique i found useful having read very little of Spinoza myself).

This is what happens when you send Ditto out in a double battle with Greninja and Lickitun.

An anxiety-ridden dog is stranded in Germany after being twice yanked off flights back home because he was too nervous to fly. Joey, a 9-year-old beagle-Australian shepherd mix was set to fly home Wednesday to owners John and Dawn MacEnulty, who’ve waited a week and spent more than $1,800 in trying to get the skittish pooch returned from the Fatherland. But on Tuesday, John said he received an email from Gradlyn Petshipping, the company handling Joey, saying he was too worked up to fly. “They said he’s too agitated in there [his kennel] to fly and in fact too agitated for them to keep him, so I needed to come and get him,” John told The Post en route to O’Hare International Airport. “So right now, I’m on my way to O’Hare to catch a flight to Frankfurt and in the morning German time, I’m going to go pick up my dog from Gradlyn.” The dog debacle unfolded last week when the MacEnultys, who are from St. Louis, Missouri, flew home to the US following the sudden death of John’s mother. The couple and their 20-year-old daughter had been living in Germany for a year. The family booked their flight home for Last Thursday on United Airlines and tried to arrange the return of their 70-pound dog and cat, Molly, through the airline’s PetSafe system. But the embattled airline — which recently apologized for the death a dog that was stored in an overhead bin — suspended PetSafe reservations beginning March 20. United recommended that they use Gradlyn to fly the pets instead, John said. Joey and Molly were about to fly to Chicago on a Lufthansa flight departing 30 minutes after the MacEnultys. Molly arrived at O’Hare Thursday with no problem. Joey, however, was left behind in Frankfurt – which the family learned just after landing. “I turned my phone back on and an urgent email pops up from Gradlyn saying Joey was pulled off the Lufthansa flight,” John said. “They said it was because he was acting anxious in the kennel.” A second attempt to fly Joey home was scheduled for Wednesday, March 28 – but again, the pup was given the no-go because of anxiety. Gradlyn CEO Kay Wissenbach emailed John Wednesday saying Joey damaged two airline-approved crates and that the dog was exhibiting “dramatic behaver [sic].” “… No airline will fly Joey back to USA. All person at Frankfurt tried the best that Joey could fly, but it is too danger and high risk to fly him, as you probably know and understand,” she wrote. John said Joey suffers from separation anxiety. “He’s an anxious dog to begin with. He hates being in the kennel, he hates being separated from his people,” said John. “The problem is is that, that’s a situation that doesn’t improve the longer you keep him away — it can only get worse.” John said once he arrives in Germany, he’s unsure what his options are to get the dog home. Joey was given Xanax to initially fly to Germany a year ago but veterinarians there don’t want to medicate the dog. “I just want my dog back,” John said. “And I just want some help instead of everyone saying it’s not our problem.” A United spokesman said the MacEnultys didn’t have a confirmed reservation to fly their pets via PetSafe. A spokeswoman for Lufthansa said Joey is being housed in a private pet hotel near the airport – though John said he’s gotten “conflicting” information as to the dog’s whereabouts. “The No. 1 priority is the health and safety for our passengers – and this includes animals,” the spokeswoman said. “[Joey] was causing himself great harm and we can’t have that situation. We want to bring him home very much, so we must make sure he’s calm and fit to fly.” In an email, Wissenbach expressed sympathy over Joey’s situation but said “in this case nobody is guilty.” She also suggested hiring TV dog trainer Cesar Milan to train the dog to tolerate the crate —and charter him back to the US.

Advertising Read more Tokyo (AFP) Tokyo stocks snapped a three-day winning streak Monday with profit-takers reversing early gains ahead of the release of key economic data in the US and China this week. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.24 percent, or 54.86 points, to close at 22,495.99 while the broader Topix index fell 0.22 percent, or 3.83 points, at 1,776.73. "Tokyo shares opened higher on the back of gains on Wall Street but they sank into negative territory due to selling" to lock in profits, Yoshihiro Ito, chief strategist at Okasan Online Securities, said in a commentary. "Major shares which were bought last week took a breather," he said. On Wall Street the S&P 500 and Nasdaq each ended at records last week. The dollar was changing hands at 111.33 yen, down from 111.55 yen in New York late Friday, and well off the 112 yen levels earlier last week. Mitsubishi Materials dropped 1.99 percent to 3,685 yen after plunging more than eight percent on Friday as it admitted to falsifying product data. Electronics parts giant Murata Manufacturing fell 1.43 percent to 15,830 yen while chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron lost 1.77 percent to 22,930 yen. Sony was up 0.75 percent to 5,363 yen while Toyota edged up 0.04 percent to 7,026 yen. © 2017 AFP

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The 23-year-old man linked to the deadly bombings that rocked Austin, Texas, and surrounding areas over the past month had a "target list" of future locations he wanted to strike, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Thursday. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said that authorities have discovered that Mark Anthony Conditt, 23, had a "target list of future targets" including residences and addresses discovered by authorities. "I think he had pulled these addresses, these were his future targets. It was a target list." he said on "America's Newsroom." McCaul added that based on the data authorities were able to retrieve from Conditt, they were able to go the homes and "clear them" from any suspicious packages. "We were also able to use technology to find a digital footprint of where his cellphone had been, so that the key evidence was getting his cellphone number so that when he turned his cellphone immediately the SWAT teams descended on him at about 3 o’clock in the morning so we got close to him before he blew himself up," he said. McCaul told Fox News that authorities are now looking at those addresses that Conditt pulled to try to find a link between them. "That is what we are looking at right now. What is the common denominator between all these victims, or is it just completely random?" he said. McCaul said law enforcement conducted a search of the home in Pflugerville, located northeast of Austin on Wednesday and have "a lot of computer data, hard drives." "Those things will be very telling along with social media about what was motivating him to do this, and also was there any connectivity between all these victims or was it just a completely random event," he told Fox News. AUSTIN BOMBER KNOWN AS 'COMPUTER GEEK,' PERSON WHO WAS 'ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES' Conditt also used "exotic batteries" to make his weapons that terrorized Austin this month, according to McCaul, who added that because he used "very unique" battery packs ordered off the internet from Asia, authorities were able to see all of the devices were from the same bomb maker. The 23-year-old had also used nails purchased at a Home Depot, according to the congressman. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Conditt's purchases at the Home Depot also included five "CHILDREN AT PLAY" signs, one of which was used to rig a tripwire that was set off by two men Sunday in a southwest Austin neighborhood. One of them was walking and the other was riding a bike. AUSTIN BOMBER RECORDED 25-MINUTE 'CONFESSION' TO HIS DEADLY CRIMES, POLICE SAY McCaul said that that Conditt's 25-minute-long "confession" to his crimes before detonating a bomb in his sport utility vehicle as officers moved in for an arrest near Austin was a sign of a "disturbed young man." "I think it's clear from his confession that this is not terror-related, although he terrorized the city of Austin," he said. Officers located the recording, in which Conditt described creating seven devices, including one he blew up during the conflict with police, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley said at a news conference. The recording was made on a phone, which was found in the suspect's possession following the confrontation. In the recording, Manley said the message is rather "the outcry of a very challenged young man talking about challenges in his personal life."

The Russian Armed Forces are working on the Mig-41, a new supersonic fighter based on the Mig-31 Foxhound. According to the famous experimental pilot Anatoliy Kvochur, the MiG-41 is to be capable of reaching speeds above Mach 4, even Mach 4,3. That would make the plane faster than the (now retired) American SR-71 Blackbird. Currently, the Foxhound is capable of flying at speeds of Mach 2.8. Nevertheless, while developing a Mach 4+ replacement for the Foxhound, the Russians will to continue the modernization program of the Foxhounds, overhauling over 100 aircraft. MiG-31 is an interceptor based on MiG-25 Foxbat, with a combat radius of 720 km. A group of four Foxhounds is able to control an area that is 1000km wide; 190 MiG-31s are currently in service within the Russian Air Force, 100 of those are still flyable. Jacek Siminski for TheAviationist Image credit: oboudna.org Related articles

Thank you for supporting Public Advocate of the United States. It's vital we mobilize millions of Americans to prove we are serious about defending our families -- and to prove the Radical Homosexuals wrong. You can help Public Advocate of the United States defend against the damage the Radical Homosexuals will do by making a secure donation today. For the Family, Hon. Eugene Delgaudio President, Public Advocate of the U.S.

We have talked extensively on the blog about how society has constructed a gender binary system of male and female, we are each expected to fit the roles of our biological sex. For the majority of people this is a non-issue and they conform well or closely to their aligned role. Some people who are intersexual do not have a clear biological sex, they are to some degree male and female internally, externally or both, and this can pose a dilemna for how they self-identify with regards to gender identity. The other group of people are transgender, they are biologically male or female but their identity does not match their body parts and so they seek to bring harmony between their mind and body through either living as or having elective surgery/hormones to bring their mind/body closer to their gender identity. This brings us to the subject of Genderqueer AKA Third Gendered/Intergender, which has been gaining steam as a movement but also as an alternative label for self-identification. These are individuals who don't want to self-identify as male or female. Some identify more with one gender than the other but live a line of blurred gender. For example a muscular biological male who is athletic but feels comfortable putting make up on, would be an example of someone who is blurring the gender roles, or a womyn who seeks to wear a dress yet also take testosterone to develop more masculine features. Individuals who self-identify as gender queer may consider themselves to be both male and female, androgynous, being neither male or female, or falling completely outside of the gender binary spectrum. Queer is a broad terminology that encompasses different identities and thus genderqueer can be a range of different gender identities in which people experience. How do I deal with someone who is Genderqueer? Please never presuppose someones gender if you are uncertain, it is better to ask how they feel comfortable with you referring to them as opposed to you putting a label on them. It can be a simple question of asking name and what pronouns they feel comfortable with. Genderqueer Pronouns Some genderqueer people may feel more comfortable being referred to by a more prominent gender role they seek such as he/his/him, or she/her, hers. Others however may prefer a gender neutral terminology such as "ze", "per", "zir", "sie" and "hir", "zhe", "hir", "zes" or singular "they" instead of her/his. Other individuals feel comfortable alternating between the masculine/feminine pronouns. There is not one clear cut answer since genderqueers as a group comprise of several gender identities and each person has their own unique variation. What is their sexual orientation? This is a common question. First, its important to note that sexual orientation and gender identity are completely seperate. You can be a butch female and be heterosexual, or an adrogynous bisexual. The way we express our gender is seperate from our sexual orientation, ex: take Ru Paul a famous drag queen who self-identifies as heterosexual. Intergender people may be straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, or asexual. Some genderqueer people prefer to see themselves as pansexuals which means they are open to all genders sexually. Thus someone who is pansexual would have no problem being in a relationship with someone who is male, female, genderqueer, or transgender. Thank you for your openness on gender variant people and please seek to spread knowledge and love on the subject matter and on other issues of importance to the broader Queer community. Below are some helpful links on/for the Genderqueer community: http://www.genderqueerrevolution.com/ http://unitedgenders.org/ http://androgyne.0catch.com/ http://www.t-vox.org/index.php?title=Main_Page Some YouTube videos on the subject:

Mystery group blankets Michigan seeking ballots from 2016 election Beth LeBlanc | The Detroit News Clerks around the state are getting blanketed with requests to turn over every ballot cast in the 2016 election, as they try to recover from record turnouts in the August primary and prepare for November. The new challenge comes compliments of a woman named "Emily" with no last name. Nearly every clerk in Michigan has received Freedom of Information Act requests signed by Emily asking for copies of every ballot cast in the 2016 presidential election — whether at the polls or by absentee ballot. Voter signature cards have even been sought. “It’s unnerved a lot of the clerks, rightfully so,” Michigan Director of Elections Sally Williams said Friday. Ballots do not contain identifying information and, as such, are subject to disclosure under a public records request, Williams said. The Michigan Secretary of State's office has cautioned the numerous clerks who have called for advice to obtain a deposit for the request and to make sure the check doesn’t bounce, Williams said. The requests, originally reported by the subscription news service Michigan Information and Research Services, were sent from an Astoria, New York, post office box from the “United Impact Group.” The group did not respond to a call and email seeking comment. The requests ask for all election day, absentee and provisional ballots from the 2016 presidential election; ballots that were not counted and the reason they weren’t counted; and accompanying materials such as the envelopes in which the absentee ballots were sent. Some precincts were asked for the polling books listing the names of those who voted, Williams said. President Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes over Democrat Hillary Clinton in an election in which about 4.8 million votes were cast. The courts ended up stopping a recount requested by Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein since she had no shot of winning and thus wasn't an aggrieved candidate under state law. Williams said, to her knowledge, Michigan is the only state to have received the recent ballot requests. Ballot retention requirement State law requires local clerks to keep their ballots on hand for 22 months after an election — a retention schedule that would expire in September, Williams said. She has advised clerks to keep the ballots even after that date because of Emily's public records requests. The pending expiration of the retention period may be what's driving the timing of the sudden record request onslaught, said Mark Grebner, an attorney at Practical Political Consulting in East Lansing. In the past 40 years, Grebner has filed more than 10,000 public records requests and litigated dozens of cases resulting from those requests in an effort to collect, collate and analyze voter information for clients. The records request from the United Impact Group, he said, is "ham-handed" and could cost the group millions of dollars to complete. "You could actually do this and have it be more usable for much less money," Grebner said. A couple of teams could travel from city to city with scanners to make digital copies, or the requester could make an arrangement with clerks to just take the ballots before they're scheduled for the shredder in September, he noted. Grebner guessed the requester could be a conspiracy theorist who felt the 2016 election was stolen, Nonetheless, he said, such a request could provide interesting information about voter behavior — whether someone votes only for women or only for people with Irish names or votes a straight Democratic ticket until it comes to judicial picks. "By actually looking at the individual markings on the ballot, you could find out a lot about the patterns by which people vote," Grebner said. "That could be very useful politically.” Requests carry large costs The city of Detroit estimates it would take about a year to process the request, given the city’s hundreds of precincts and the fact that the ballot two years ago was two pages long, said Clerk Janice Winfrey. The city’s lawyers are reviewing the request. “It would be very, very costly to the city of Detroit,” Winfrey said. The request sent to Lansing asked for 11 items and will take roughly 275 hours of staff time to complete, Clerk Chris Swope said. He estimated the request would cost roughly $12,000 and the city wouldn’t be able to complete it until January. “It’s a pretty expansive request,” Swope said, noting he’s never received a public records request similar to the one he received Monday. “I’m trying to figure out exactly what their goal is,” he said. The Pontiac clerk’s office is in the process of calculating how much it would cost to process the request, “but we are nowhere near done,” election specialist Annette Wesley said. The Pontiac clerk’s office has never have received such a request before, noting the request asked for signatures for all of the voters and information on the voters’ information cards. “Everything about the request was unusual,” Wesley said. In the west Michigan community of Kentwood, Clerk Dan Kasunic responded to the United Impact Group request Friday by asking for a deposit of roughly half of the estimated $7,500 cost and for clarification on the request. He asked whether the group would be satisfied with a report on how many absentee ballots were requested and returned rather than the actual ballots, which would have some information in need of redaction. Kasunic said he can't remember ever receiving a request "so onerous." "I’m not sure what they're trying to figure out," Kasunic said. "It's not going to change the results.” eleblanc@detroitnews.com (517) 371-3661

The drive along the Pacific coast is one of the most scenic in the U.S., but that's of little comfort to Los Angeles drivers stuck in traffic. The average rush hour delay per 30-minute journey is 24 minutes. That adds up to 92 extra hours behind the wheel each year due to jams. L.A. is the worst U.S. city on TomTom's list of top 100 for rush hour traffic, followed by Seattle (18), Houston (27), San Francisco (28) and New York (62).

1 SHARES Share Tweet NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 16 – Pangani Police Station has become the centre of activity for the past 48 hours after lawmakers were detained there in an ongoing hate speech probe. On Wednesday morning, Esther Muthama arrived at the police station at 6am oblivious of the fact that she may not be able to see her brother, Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama. “I left this place at 2am last night and by 6am, I was here,” a teary Esther told Capital FM News. It is only the spouses, security detail and lawyers to the six CORD and Jubilee lawmakers who were given access to the cells, while the rest – Esther included – waited outside the police station, metres away from their loved ones. “The condition of that place is horrible and no one is being allowed to give them anything, not even food or something to keep them warm,” a visibly angry Esther said. After pausing for a few minutes, “they are just the way they were after Milimani (Courts). They have not even changed clothes,” she added. To her, ‘special treatment’ should be given to the six legislators since, “they are leaders and they belong to people. They must be taken care of.” Since Monday, Muthama’s family and that of other leaders have been preparing special food for them but ended taking it back home. An aide to one of the leaders confirmed to Capital FM News that they are using one cell with other suspects of various crimes. Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading. “Hawa watu ni bure kabisa (These people are fake), they have put them in there with other suspects,” the aide said. He however pointed out that “the (rival) leaders have been talking. You see, they are in one cell, so they have to talk.” Another relative of one of the Jubilee leaders shared Esther’s sentiments, saying, “The leaders need to be taken care of.” The relatives displayed a rare sense of unity; the purpose being to ‘secure’ the freedom of the leaders. Their bodyguards were seen taking tea and bread inside the expensive cars of their bosses, a luxury that the legislators cannot afford, in their current state. “I have to be here though my boss is locked inside there,” one of the bodyguards said. CORD leaders Raila Odinga, Moses Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka, who visited the station were not spared either. They left without seeing the leaders.

French Jews increasingly question their future By Hugh Schofield BBC News, Paris Published duration 9 March 2015 image copyright AFP image caption Tombstones were vandalised in a Jewish cemetery last month "From your holy dwelling-place, look with kindness on this our country, the French Republic. And bless the French people. Amen." Every Saturday in synagogues across France these words are intoned - in French or in Hebrew - as part of the Shabbat service. The Prayer for the French Republic goes back to 1808, when the Jewish community was formally recognised by Napoleon as one of France's three official religions. It enshrines in holy language the special debt that French Jews have always felt to France, as the first country in Europe in which they were proclaimed full citizens. Today that special link is once again under terrible strain, as more and more French Jews question where their future lies. Anti-Semitism has rich roots in France. Twice in little over a century - first in the Dreyfus affair (when a Jewish officer was wrongly accused of treason) and then under Vichy in World War Two - Jews have been victims of a national quest for ideological or ethnic purity. Today anti-Jewishness is back, but in a different guise. And many Jews feel betrayed by the slowness of the French response. They feel that for more than a decade the source of most anti-Jewish violence has been deliberately masked in order not to antagonise French Muslims. image copyright AP image caption Jewish sites received military protection after the January attacks Instead of saying explicitly that the new anti-Semitism came from elements in the Muslim community, it was more expedient for politicians and journalists to lump it all together as part of a historical phenomenon for which the whole of France could be held responsible. So goes the argument. Thus when Mohamed Merah began his murder spree in Toulouse in 2012, the theory that it was a far-rightist who was killing soldiers was nurtured in the media far longer than was plausible. "We have been saying this for years, and only now have people begun to listen: the danger to Jews here no longer comes from the far-right," says Michel Zerbib, editor-in-chief at the Jewish radio station RadioJ. Old prejudices Vestiges of old European anti-Semitism remain. Last month, former Socialist foreign minister Roland Dumas used language straight from the 1930s when he said that Prime Minister Manuel Valls was probably "under the influence" of his Jewish wife. And the recent vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in Alsace was the work of local yobs, with some inarticulate folk-memory giving edge to their teenage destructive urges. Jews in France: France has a Jewish population of 600,000. It is the third largest community after Israel and the United States. The number of Muslims in France is estimated at around 6,000,000. Most French Jews are Sephardi Jews whose families emigrated from North Africa when Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco won independence. In 2014 more than 7,000 French Jews emigrated to Israel. For the first time France led the table of countries contributing to aliyah. The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) reported 851 anti-Semitic acts in 2014, up from 423 in 2013. But after the attacks in Paris and Copenhagen, obfuscation is no longer an option. The real threat to Jews - the mortal threat - is the Islamist one. Many French Jews hope that the outpouring of national unity that followed the January attacks at Charlie-Hebdo and Hyper Cacher will now act as a bulwark. "The legacy of these terrible events could be to end the feeling of solitude among French Jews," says Sacha Reingewitz, head of the Union of Jewish Students. "Up till now the political and national mobilisation against anti-Semitic violence has been very weak. No way would there have been so many people demonstrating on 11 January, had the Jewish supermarket been the only target of the attacks." Today the French state is indeed mobilised like never before in defence of the Jewish community, with hard-hitting pronouncements from President Hollande and soldiers posted at Jewish schools, community centres and places of worship. For some Jews, it is still not enough. Last year saw a big increase in the numbers emigrating to Israel - more than 7,000 - and 2015 will probably see the trend continue. "Today it is an act of heroism just to wear a kippah on the street or to send your children to a Jewish school. This in Paris in the 21st Century! It really hurts," says Paris rabbi Mikael Journo. Growing insecurity According to Roger Cukierman, who heads the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), the increase in aliyah from France is directly attributable to the growing insecurity. "Jews have had the feeling they are the pariahs of the nation," he says. In Jewish households across the country, there has been the same conversation. It is one that Jews have had many times in history. How to react to the violence? Is it safe? Should we leave? But just as it is undeniable that more French Jews today are susceptible to the call to emigrate, it is equally true that the vast majority are not. Many Jewish leaders - especially those of a left-wing tendency - are angry with Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for (as they see it) playing up their insecurity and implying that France cannot protect them. image copyright Reuters image caption Mohamed Merah murdered seven people in south-west France They also accuse him of cynically encouraging the notion of their dual allegiance (to France and to Israel) - even though he knows this feeds into anti-Semitism. Like Jews everywhere, French Jews do feel a strong attachment to Israel. But they also have a strong attachment to France - and the vast majority have no intention of leaving. In the vandalised Jewish cemetery at Sarre-Union in Alsace, one of the grave-stones that was overturned was nearly two centuries old. It belonged to a Jewish "grognard", one of the die-hard soldiers who followed Napoleon through his European campaigns. "That says it all," says Alain Jakobowitz, Jewish head of the anti-racist group LICRA. "Jews have a future here, because they have a past."

There are growing concerns over a controversial sentencing for sexual assault. David Becker, 18, was sentenced to two years of probation last week for sexually assaulting two women sleeping at a Massachusetts house party. Becker said he didn’t know one of the women was asleep during the April assault and denied having physical contact with the other. Becker was originally charged with two counts of rape, but a judge decided to give him two years of probation, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. In court during a plea deal, Becker’s attorney argued that the teenager had already suffered from the consequences of his actions. Earlier this month, his attorney had painted Becker as a good kid. “He’s been a model citizen. He’s a great student,” the attorney said. According to court documents, the victims said they slept in a bed with Becker after a night of drinking and that Becker sexually assaulted them without their consent. One victim told authorities that when she awoke, “David had pulled her pants and underwear down to her thighs.” Shortly after the incident, Becker texted the victim multiple times to apologize. “Just wanted you to know that I really am sorry,” he said in one of the messages. The victim replied, “Don’t even worry about it it’s all good.” She later told investigators she “did not know what else to say.” While the prosecution recommended Becker serve two years in jail, at least one of the victims said she didn’t want Becker to be incarcerated. “The victim’s wishes are very, very powerful,” CBS News legal analyst Rikki Klieman said. “If you have a victim that says she does not want to see a defendant do jail time, we shouldn’t think that sexual assault equals jail time,” Klieman added. “Does the punishment fit the crime?” Miller asked Becker’s former classmate, Karla Martin. “No, it doesn’t,” Martin said. “This whole sentencing shows other people, other victims of sexual assault that if they say something, no justice is going to happen.” Earlier this month, a Colorado judge gave Austin James Wilkerson a two-year work leave jail sentence for sexually assaulting a drunk woman at a party. In June, former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner received a six-month sentence for assaulting a woman behind a dumpster outside a party on the university’s campus. “There are no two sexual assault cases that are in fact the same. So it’s easy for us to say that these three cases are exactly alike when they’re really not,” Klieman said. If Becker completes his probation, he will not be registered as a lifelong sex offender. The 18-year-old was accepted to the University of Dayton for college. The school tells us that he will not be attending this year.

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Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Tod Machover smiles during an interview on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, in Detroit. The DSO has teamed up with the international composer to create an original musical work designed to answer the question: “What does Detroit sound like?” The result is “Symphony in D,” a blend of melodies played by traditional orchestral instruments combined with everyday Detroit sounds collected, digitized, and translated into music via software developed by Machover. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Tod Machover smiles during an interview on Thursday, Nov. 19, 2015, in Detroit. The DSO has teamed up with the international composer to create an original musical work designed to answer the question: “What does Detroit sound like?” The result is “Symphony in D,” a blend of melodies played by traditional orchestral instruments combined with everyday Detroit sounds collected, digitized, and translated into music via software developed by Machover. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A symphony debuting this week both captures and celebrates the distinctive sounds and sizzle of Philadelphia, from veteran radio announcer Merrill Reese’s call of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory to a cook chopping steak on the grill at one of this city’s iconic cheesesteak joints. Composer Tod Machover listened to hundreds of hours of recordings and used about a third of all the sounds he received. He selected those he said had “strong personalities” and conveyed some important aspect of the city. Screaming is even a part of the vocal material. ADVERTISEMENT The Philadelphia Orchestra , accompanied by a 250-person choir, will perform “Philadelphia Voices” on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at its main performance hall and on April 10 at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin said it’s “a large-scale work that pairs The Philadelphia Orchestra with all of the talent of the city — of various origins, ages, and backgrounds.” This is Machover’s sixth city symphony and the second to feature an American city. He recorded the sounds of Detroit in 2015, creating a symphony that included the sound of Henry Ford’s first engine. The project was detailed in the documentary “Symphony in D.” “I definitely want to celebrate the cities I go into,” said Machover, an MIT professor and electronic music innovator who was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music. “For me, the real interest in doing this project is to get ordinary people thinking about something they care about and everybody cares about where they live.” This is the first of his symphonies to focus on and incorporate voice. Often the instruments, choruses and city sounds are interwoven, sometimes blending together and other times clashing. There were certain iconic places (like Love Park and inside the giant, walk-through model heart at The Franklin Institute) and themes (the nation’s founding in Philadelphia, its status as the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection) that Machover felt obliged to represent in the work. The 30-minute-long symphony’s two prominent sound solos were also an easy fit: a “cheesesteak interlude” drawn from the kitchen of Pat’s King of Steaks, with percussion accompaniment, and a collage of Reese’s announcement of the final seconds of the Super Bowl. “With the steaks sizzling and the chopping and the spatula moving and the chef talking about how many cheesesteaks people ate per day, how many people (who work) there ate per day and what cheesesteaks mean to Philadelphia, it’s just a great combination of sounds everybody will recognize,” Machover said. After getting the NFL’s permission to use Eagles’ announcer Reese’s triumphant end-of-game call, Machover wrote a loud chord for the orchestra to play as the rival New England Patriots’ tried to score a final time. “Then the orchestra stops, the chorus stops, and it’s just the game,” Machover said. “It goes into Merrill Reese screaming, all by itself, and it’s kind of special.” Reese has been the Eagles play-by-play announcer for over 40 years, and his voice is instantly recognizable to any city sports fan. For a full 30 seconds, he is heard shouting: “The game is over! The Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl champions! Eagles fans everywhere, this is for you! Let the celebration begin!” Machover asked some students what words defined Philadelphia and teenage writers their thoughts on democracy. He recorded lively bird songs at the Philadelphia Zoo and a music historian talking about jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. A trip to the Museum of the American Revolution resulted in the sounds of children training on drums and shouting “Huzzah!” At the National Constitution Center, newly sworn-in citizens were asked their thoughts on the state of the country. Philadelphia resident and poet Jacob Winterstein helped connect Machover with other local artists. He also took Machover on a bike tour through Center City, which was recorded for the project. “He tried to go deeper than the classical things Philadelphia is associated with — American history, sports teams, sandwiches — and beyond the most easy narrative of Philadelphia,” Winterstein said. His Philadelphia-inspired poem “Block Party” is featured in the symphony. These individual neighborhood celebrations happen in all corners of the city, wealthy and struggling, and are enjoyed by residents of all colors and beliefs. “Even in our separateness, the fact that we do something in a similar way shows our collectiveness,” he said.

‘The Book of Mormon’ is still good Touring production continues to mine the laughs Aaron R. Conklin by Aaron R. Conklin Copyright 2019 Julieta Cervantes/Courtesy of Overture Center for the Arts Joseph Smith did what?!? Elder Cunningham (Jordan Matthew Brown) embellishes the story in ‘The Book of Mormon." “The Book of Mormon” began its life eight years ago as a crass gate-crasher, a gleeful and profane foray by a couple of arrested-development auteurs into a medium that was ripe for a good pantsing. Nearly a decade later, it’s entered the rarified air of “Broadway Shows That Can Reliably Tour Every Couple of Years,” a running list that includes “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” and, the world’s most slam-dunk automatic bid, “Hamilton,” Overture Center for the Arts’ November tour offering. And while Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez’s broad-as-the African-desert satire isn’t nearly as subversive as it was in 2011, the current touring production (playing through this weekend in the Overture Center) is still extraordinarily funny. As the pair of mismatched, but eager, Mormon Elders who get dispatched to the villages of Uganda, there to baptize the natives into the wonders of Mormonism, Liam Tobin and Jordan Matthew Brown do a great job of embodying their odd-couple vibe as Elder Price and Elder Cunningham. Tobin’s got the chiseled-chin confidence to own “You and Me (But Mostly Me),” his early show vanity vehicle. Brown rocks the nebbish vibe in ways both big and small, and it’s fun to see him shake off his shyness and use his catalogue of pop culture references to, um, inspire the villagers. His scenes with Alyah Chanelle Scott’s Nabulungi are sweet and affecting—in ‘Baptize Me,” you almost have to believe that the double entendre could lead somewhere. This production relies far more on malapropisms, props and strong singing and dancing to win the audience than fancy pyrotechnics and elaborate set pieces—with the exception, naturally, of “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,” which thrusts us into the only Broadway dance number set in what looks like a fiery human intestine. On the heels of a show like “Anastasia,” that leaned heavily on CGI and projection effects, the meat-and-potatoes approach feels almost like callback to another era—even if that era still exists within this decade. The group of actual Mormons camped outside the Overture Center, politely handing out capital-B books and answering questions (look, ma, no doorbell ringing!) brought to mind last spring’s disastrous Overture touring production of “Miss Saigon,” which also featured people standing outside the building trying to give the audience some perspective. Although, ironically, “The Book of Mormon’s” biggest sin remains its borderline racist portrayal of Africans, not its skewering of the starched-white-shirt and-black-tie crowd. And honestly, it’s still impossible not to lose it when Tobin’s Elder Brice belts out that he believes the Garden of Eden is in Jackson County, Missouri. Underneath all the f-bombs and scatological souffle, “The Book of Mormon’s” message still resonates, and its central point—that religion tends to ask its followers to believe in some ridiculous and illogical things, but if it inspires them to become better people and doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s okay—is still difficult to refute. COPYRIGHT 2020 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.

According to a new study by Pew Research, religiously unaffiliated adults now outnumber Catholics by two percent in the United States. The study also found that the number of adults who describe themselves as Christians has dropped nearly eight percent over the past seven years. What could cause such a drop in the Christian population of the US? The study suggests: The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007. As for Catholics, they have remained somewhat steady for past seven years but have seen a drop of almost three million Americans since 2007. But since 2007, religiously unaffiliated adults has grown by 19 million (a 19.2 percent increase), bring their estimates totals to 56 million Americans, as compared to 51 million Catholic adults. With many factors coming into play to account for the drop in Christian numbers and the rise of the non-religious, Pew says: As the Millennial generation enters adulthood, its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation, including less connection with Christian churches, than older generations. Fully 36% of young Millennials (those between the ages of 18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated, as are 34% of older Millennials (ages 25-33). And fewer than six-in-ten Millennials identify with any branch of Christianity, compared with seven-in-ten or more among older generations, including Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. Just 16% of Millennials are Catholic, and only 11% identify with mainline Protestantism. Roughly one-in-five are evangelical Protestants. Now, atheists reading this should not jump with immediate joy that there are now 56 million atheists in the US, though as of 2007 roughly 25% of “nones” identified as atheist and now the study shows those numbers have increased to 31% showing that the trend is definitely moving in that direction. The religiously unaffiliated have historically still claimed to believe in some form of God, but it cause for celebration because there is a bigger trend of non-religious (or “nones”) to identify with a more secular government and often find religion to be harmful to society. The study also showed that nearly 18 percent of “nones” were raised in a religious household and left that religion as they entered adulthood, or even more common, after graduating college. “The percentage of college graduates who identify with Christianity has declined by nine percentage points since 2007 (from 73% to 64%),” the study highlights. Yet the study did show that non-religiously affiliated adults share a common problem with the atheist community in general and that is diversity, but while white males continue to dominate both spheres, there are signs of change. Whites continue to be more likely than both blacks and Hispanics to identify as religiously unaffiliated; 24% of whites say they have no religion, compared with 20% of Hispanics and 18% of blacks. But the religiously unaffiliated have grown (and Christians have declined) as a share of the population within all three of these racial and ethnic groups. … More than a quarter of men (27%) now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up from 20% in 2007. Fewer women are religious “nones,” but the religiously unaffiliated are growing among women at about the same rate as among men. Nearly one-in-five women (19%) now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, up from 13% in 2007. The tides are slowly turning in the US. While Christians are without a doubt the majority in the US, roughly seven-in-ten still identify as Christian, they are losing important ground and single religions that held a massive majority is slipping with only Evangelical Christians holding the top spot above “nones.” (Image: Gerry Dincher / Flickr / Creative Commons)

Delta Force, the U.S. Army’s elite counter-terrorism unit, have killed a top ISIS commander in an unprecedented hand-to-hand combat fight in Syria. The commando-style raid occurred behind ISIS lines in Syria which resulted in the death of Abu Sayyaf, ISIL’s top finance chief in charge of the illegal oil and gas production that funds the group’s activities. The destruction of ISIS’ main source of income comes just days after ISIS leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, was captured on day one of airstrikes ordered by President Trump. Conservativetribune.com reports: The Delta Force operators left at least a dozen dead radical Islamic terrorists in a combination of an intense firefight, culminating with a hand-to-hand combat situation that left no chance of victory for the terrorists. All Delta Force personnel were reportedly able to insert behind enemy lines, complete their mission and get out without incident, indicating just how amazing this group truly is. Fox News foreign correspondent John Cuddy reported that along with killing Sayyaf, the Delta Force team was able to capture his wife, Umm Sayyaf. She was widely believed to be in charge of a human trafficking ring that brought in another source of revenue for their terrorist organization (H/T BizPac Review). The members of Delta Force are the U.S. Army’s most elite soldiers — often being recruited out of Army Special Forces and in some cases, the Army Rangers. The grueling process to become a Delta Force operator is only completed by a slim percentage of men, but the results are epic. Though the militants of the Islamic State were clamoring for a fight with U.S. troops, after this deadly encounter, we’re betting that they’re not exactly lining up for round two.

Tresa Baldas Detroit Free Press Curled up on a bunk in his broken-down truck, waiting three hours for help in sub-zero temperatures, Detroiter Alphonse Maddin feared death was near. He had zero feeling in his feet. His torso was going numb. And a burning feeling took over as he started to fade in the 14-below meat truck. Maddin said he could have died that night but one man didn’t care: U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, a federal judge who ruled against Maddin in a legal case that has landed the Detroit man at the vortex of a debate about whether Gorsuch is a man of the people or big business as he is poised to be appointed to the nation's highest court. In an interview with the Free Press, Maddin, an avid trumpet player and skilled artist who grew up on the city's west side and once designed products for the Detroit Three automakers, said Gorsuch is out of touch with working-class people and shouldn't sit on the high court after ruling against him last year. Gorsuch sided with the employer who fired Maddin for abandoning his trailer so that he could get to safety. Read more: Senate's top Democrat opposes Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch Neil Gorsuch sails through Supreme Court confirmation hearing The trucking company has long argued that it did nothing wrong, disputing claims that the truck's heater didn’t work and noting that Maddin filed an initial complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but that the agency ruled against him. Yet out of seven judges who had heard the case over the years, Gorsuch was the only judge to rule in favor of the trucking company. And how he did it was numbing, said Maddin. “He referred to me simply as a trucker,” Maddin said. “I’m a human being who has a name … but he followed the company’s argument to get the world to ignore the magnitude of the circumstances, to forget that a man was about to freeze to death.” And that man, he stressed, is a lot more than a trucker. Maddin, 48, is a proud Detroiter who overcame the hurdle of growing up without a father, who was shot to death when Maddin was 5. Maddin's refuge became music, art and drawing. He took up the trumpet in third grade and earned a scholarship to study jazz at Langston University in Oklahoma. He would go on to earn two college degrees and make a living designing products for the automotive industry until the 2008 recession hit, landing him in the truck driving business. But Gorsuch couldn't identify with a man like him, Maddin said. To the judge, he said, he was only a trucker. “The general sentiment that’s out there right now … that he has a propensity to favor the corporate world versus the people – I think it’s valid,” Maddin said. A look at the case It has been eight years since Maddin was fired from his truck driving job, though he didn't get closure until last year. After years of administrative hearings and legal feuding, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last year ruled 2-1 in his favor and ordered the trucking company to rehire Maddin, who instead took back pay. The judge who ruled against him was Gorsuch, though Maddin wouldn't read his dissent until months later, when President Donald Trump announced his nominee to the Supreme Court, and before long, the case about the Michigan truck driver who almost froze to death made national news. Maddin discovered all the buzz while Googling his name. He was applying for a job one day and decided to search his name on the Internet. Articles popped up linking his name to Trump, Gorsuch and the U.S. Supreme Court. He opened up the stories and discovered all the controversy: Gorsuch was getting drilled for ruling against him. So he decided to read the full dissent for himself. "I was like, '"Whoa! ... Wait a minute, he said all this stuff?" recalled Maddin. In writing his opinion, Gorsuch stressed that he had to determine whether the employer's decision to fire Maddin was legal, not "wise or kind." Maddin had sued under a law known as the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, which prohibits companies from firing a driver who "refuses to operate" an unsafe truck. Gorsuch concluded that the law didn't apply to Maddin because — he reasoned — he didn't refuse to operate the truck, but rather drove off in it. "A trucker was stranded on the side of the road, late at night, in cold weather, and his trailer brakes were stuck," Gorsuch wrote in his dissent. "He called his company for help and someone there gave him two options. He could drag the trailer carrying the company's goods to its destination (an illegal and maybe sarcastically offered option). Or he could sit and wait for help to arrive (a legal if unpleasant option). The trucker chose None of the Above, deciding instead to unhook the trailer and drive his truck to a gas station. In response, his employer, TransAm, fired him for disobeying orders and abandoning its trailer and goods." The dissent has since dogged Gorsuch, who has maintained that he followed the law. "My job is to apply the law as written," Gorsuch said during Senate confirmation hearings, while being grilled by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "The law said he would be protected if he refused to operate. By any plain understanding, he operated the vehicle. And if Congress wishes to revise the law — I wrote this: I said it was an unkind decision, it might have been a wrong decision, a bad decision, but my job isn't to write the law ... it's to apply the law." In a March 22 editorial, the Chicago Tribune supported Gorsuch. "Some of Gorsuch's critics think judges should be creative and expansive depending on the political climate — to treat laws differently on a cold night than a warm one. Those critics suggest that they fear Gorsuch won't follow the law, but the opposite is more true: They fear he will. Gorsuch should be confirmed." He's not 'folksy' Attorney Robert Fetter, who represented Maddin in his lawsuit, said Gorsuch's "folksy" and "pleasant" demeanor in the confirmation hearings contrast sharply to the judge he saw on the bench. "I did not detect any of this pleasant disposition or folksiness. He was hostile. As a matter of fact, he was quite hostile," said Fetter, claiming Gorsuch went out of his way to "cherry-pick" the law to uphold firing Maddin. "He went quite a length, in my opinion, to find a way to rule against him," Fetter said. "It shows something about his judicial philosophy or perhaps his bias being pro business or pro corporation. It's just bias." Maddin agrees, though he still can't fathom why or how a judge could rule against him given what he went through. Here, according to his account, is what happened: Maddin was hauling a truck of meat across the country when he noticed he was running low on fuel, so he pulled over on a toll road in Illinois to call his company and ask what station he should fill up at, as was protocol. When he pulled over, his brakes froze up, so he called roadside service for help. While stranded, he decided to lay down in a bunk and wait. He presumed help would arrive within an hour. Three hours later, his cell phone rang and woke him up. It was a relative checking on him. Maddin could barely talk. His feet and torso were numb. He struggled to breathe. The temperature gauge read minus 14. "I felt myself fading, and at a rapid pace.That's when I realized I could possibly die," Maddin said. "I thought about me arriving back home in a casket, and I was thinking, 'that's not going to happen without me fighting for my life.' " Maddin called the company's roadside service again. They told him to wait, 'just try to hang in there,' " he recalled. Instead, Maddin put on his boots and climbed out of the truck to unhitch the trailer. It was the only thing keeping him from getting to safety. "I remember thinking that if I fell, that would probably be it. I wouldn't have the strength to stand back up," he recalled. But he managed. He unhitched the 50-foot-long trailer, drove to a station and warmed up and fueled up. Eventually, he drove back to the trailer, which got repaired, hooked it back up and made his meat deliveries, as required. When he returned to the company's headquarters in Kansas, three people were sitting in a room waiting for him. "They fired me," he recalled. And then they blackballed him, he said, claiming his employer notified the trucking industry through a reporting system that Maddin had broken a cardinal sin: he abandoned a truck on the side of the road,even though staying meant he could die. He would later discover that the truck was not rated to produce heat in the frigid temps that he was in. Today, Maddin is unemployed, living with family and friends until he can land on his feet. He's somewhat optimistic. While his case played out in the courts, he took the initiative to go back to school, earning a bachelor's of applied science from the University of Michigan in Dearborn and then a master's degree in 2016. He walked across the stage in April. Four months later came the favorable court ruling. He had finally won his case with the trucking company. It was an emotional win for Maddin, especially because of where he came from. When he first went to trucking school, he said, he felt stigmatized because he was from Detroit, noting he heard snide remarks about Detroiters during training. That weighed heavily on his mind, he said, especially when he got fired. "I felt like I wasn't only standing up for myself, but I felt like I was standing up for my city," Maddin said. "I was hell-bent on winning." Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com

politics Spotted: Shark on the Prowl at City Hall SPOTTED BY: City councillors Mike Layton (left) and Shelley Carroll (right) WHERE: City Hall council chamber WHEN: 2:20 p.m. WHAT: Glenn de Baeremaeker (Ward 38, Scarborough Centre) is known for his creative approach to debating at City Hall. There was that one time he showed up with the toilet, for instance. And that other time, with the showering. These are nice breaks in what are often tedious days, and today, perhaps topping all previous showings, de Baeremaeker did not disappoint. As council was about to start debating a proposed ban on shark fins in Toronto: behold the radio shark, high above! (Debate is ongoing, though this particular shark has since been dispensed with.) UPDATE: October 25, 5:15 p.m. 680 News reports that council voted in favour of the ban. Spotted features interesting things our readers discover in their journeys across Toronto. If you spot something interesting, send a photo and pertinent details to [email protected].

A popular narrative today is that we live in a country which is deeply divided. And the Democratic Party, we are told, is nearly as split as the nation itself. But chatter in the press and social media may overlook some fundamental points of agreement about changes we need to make in our economy. That’s the premise behind a new pledge, the “Agenda for Good Jobs, Sustainable Prosperity, and Economic Justice,” that has been signed by more than 70 prominent progressives. It declares “both major political parties have allowed the wealthy and the giant corporations to exercise far too much influence in American life” before laying out an 11-point agenda to rebuild a human-centered economy, and remove the corrupting influence of big money from the political process. “Resistance” to Donald Trump is a vital effort. But resistance is reactive; it only defines what we’re against. If today’s resistance is to become a lasting movement, we must decide what we’re for. Otherwise, the Resistance will fail to motivate the 38 percent of Americans who didn’t vote in the last election. Run the Numbers In what may be a chilling portent of things to come in November, the latest Politico/Morning Consult poll shows the “generic Republican” congressional candidate edging ahead of the generic Democrat for the first time since April of last year. All signs indicate that it will be hard for Democrats to win in November without a clear and positive agenda, and all but impossible for them to claim a real mandate if and when they do. The agenda’s 11 points address: Jobs for all, with an emphasis on rebuilding U.S. infrastructure; Build a green economy by retooling the U.S. energy system; Reduce inequality through worker empowerment and labor rights, with better wages and benefits and an end to perverse CEO incentives and compensation; Complement full-employment initiatives with targeted support for communities and populations harmed by racism and sexism; Free public education from pre-K through tuition-free public colleges and universities, together with cancellation of all currently outstanding student debt; Medicare For All, and a strengthening of our social insurance safety net; Fairer tax rates for the wealthy individuals and corporations that have reaped the benefits of recent growth; An end to Wall Street exploitation — by breaking up the big banks, levying a speculation tax, protecting working families, and using the post office system to provide a safe and inexpensive alternative to current banking services; And, an end to oligarchy politics through publicly-financed elections, bans on corporate and big-donor campaign funding, and other electoral reform; and, a change in party nominating processes to ensure that outsider candidates get a fair chance. What Voters Want These are the kind of reforms rank-and-file Democrats want, according to polling data. In a recent Harvard-Harris poll, Democratic base voters were asked: “Do you support or oppose movements within the Democratic Party to take it even further to the left and oppose the current Democratic leaders?” 52 percent of those polled said they support them. In a telling sign for the party’s future, 69 percent of voters aged 18 to 34 agreed. As we wrote in October 2017, this desire is not limited to the “Bernie Bro” stereotype promoted by political insiders. This position has greater support among female voters (55 percent), Hispanic voters (65 percent), and African-American voters (55 percent) than it does among whites (46 percent) and men (49 percent). But support for this agenda is not limited to Democratic voters. 75 percent of Americans support more federal spending on infrastructure, according to Gallup, while 73 percent want the US to place more emphasis on alternative energy. in another poll, 75 percent of Trump voters supported “taking action to accelerate the development and use of clean energy” by funding community upgrades and community renewable projects. Other polls show strong support for labor unions, increasing the minimum wage, reducing inequality, getting big money out of politics, and other key elements of this agenda – and that’s without advocacy and support from either political party. The report’s agenda is also buttressed by a recent economic growth from the Levy Institute showing that the cancellation of all student debt in this country would lead to significant growth and the creation of more than 1 million jobs. Working for Change If the resistance remains focused on Trump to the exclusion of other issues, Trump will continue to dominate the media conversation as he has done for the past year. The debate also needs to address people’s lives and needs. Otherwise, voters may believe Democrats are uninterested in stagnating wages, soaring out-of-pocket health care costs, or the grim reality that the American majority – 80 percent, according to one survey – lives paycheck to paycheck. Voters want leaders who will work for change. While this agenda was not designed as a litmus test, it certainly represents a platform that activists can use to assess political candidates. Conversely, candidates can use it to drum up support, knowing that it is backed by strong policy analysis and good politics. It’s also backed by an impressive and diverse group of initial signers. It includes leading activists like Nina Turner, Jane Fonda, James Zogby, and Gloria Steinem; labor leaders like Larry Cohen, Randi Weingarten, and Leo Gerard; environmentalists Annie Leonard and Bill McKibben; political thinkers like Naomi Klein and Zephyr Teachout; and leading economic thinkers like Robert Reich, James K. Galbraith, and Dean Baker. (I genuinely regret not listing them all, since I’ve had to leave out so many terrific people. You can see them all here.) There are many ways to look at this agenda: as a political statement, as an organizing tool, and as a unifying statement. I also think of it as “11 ways we can make our own lives better” — as individuals, as members of our communities, and as citizens. You can read it in full, and sign your own name to it, here.

Most of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth we saw on the news in 2011 were dead. Last fall, media outlets around the country reported on the death of Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi. After that, it seemed like everywhere we looked, another teenager was making headlines for ending his or her life. Just this week, we lost another, 19-year-old filmmaker and activist Eric James Borges. The New York Times reported on five known suicides by LGBTQ youth in September 2011 alone. The number of these stories far outpaces any other representation of these youth in broader circulation. This focus on the contemporary scourge of teen suicides belies a troubling truth: it is far easier to talk about the tragedy of LGBTQ youth suicide than it is to find ways to comprehend and address the complexity of their lives and identities. By most accounts, it is tremendously difficult to be a gender-nonconforming or queer young person today. A 2010 study piloted by the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University concluded that the persistent bullying and harassment experienced by students perceived by their peers to be LGBTQ (many of who may not even identify with those labels) led directly to lower levels of life satisfaction and higher rates of depression in young adulthood. A 2009 article in the journal Pediatrics reported that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults who experienced high levels of rejection from family members were 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide. They were also more likely to experience depression and to attempt to self-medicate with alcohol and illegal drugs. And rejection isn't only verbal and physical abuse; it even includes hearing family members make disparaging comments about other LGBT people, being asked to remain silent about their identities, or being blamed for the bullying and harassment they receive from peers. In short, all the things adults say or do not say affect how these kids feel about themselves and what they believe their chances are for living a happy life. Where are the stories of the youth who face these damaging threats on a daily basis and the culpability of adults in their suffering? LGBTQ youth also face pernicious structural and institutional forms of violence. Yale sociologists Katherine Himmelstein and Hannah Bruckner use surveys from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to demonstrate that nonheterosexual youth are no more likely than heterosexual youth to engage in violent behavior. They are, however, far more likely to be detained and arrested by police, more likely to be convicted of crimes, and are, each year, expelled from school in greater numbers. Individual-level prejudice translates into systematic deprivations of liberty and a persistent sense that there are few adults in whom they can trust. Where are the stories of these injustices? Where is our collective outrage at the systems that perpetuate them? These stories make neglect by school administrators, parents, and peers seem like universal reactions to sexual and gender difference in youth. They aren't. The Family Acceptance Project research also shows that youth with supportive family members do better in school, feel more content with their lives, make better decisions, and have healthier bodies and minds. Support means more than merely "tolerating" difference. Parents must show affection and love, even if their child's identity makes them uncomfortable. They must intervene and prevent other adults and children from victimizing their child. And they must provide their child with connections to other LGBTQ youth and adults. They must actively foster positive, healthy, and accessible queer role models. Wouldn't it be great if the media did the same? Don't get me wrong: LGBTQ teen suicide is a very serious problem. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center estimates that between 30 and 40 percent of LGB youth attempt suicide -- roughly 4 times the rate of their heterosexual peers. There's no question, given these statistics, that the struggles and recent deaths of so many youth deserve our attention, discussion, and deep grief. We need to hear these stories and acknowledge these losses. However the media's singular focus on them, to the exclusion of any positive coverage of LGBTQ youth, creates a deadly echo chamber. The repetitive tale about the inevitability of our collective failure to address the pain felt by many LGBTQ youth may translate into high readership rates, but it doesn't translate into inspiration for the kids who are still here. More than 50 research studies show that persistent and prominent news coverage of suicides can lead to an increase in the likelihood that other vulnerable individuals might attempt it themselves. Given the unrelenting discrimination they face, LGBTQ youth may be particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon, called suicide contagion, or so says Christopher Gandin Le, a former staff member of the National Suicide Prevention Hotline who founded a company that promotes mental health through online social networks. "These youth need the media to create messages of resilience, not messages of desperation," he says. The frequency and ardor with which we report on LGBTQ suicide has begun to make it seem as if these deaths are unavoidable, even normative responses to homophobia in our culture. They aren't. In the face of tremendous overt hostility and covert neglect, still, most LGBTQ teenagers do not wish to end their lives. The Trevor Project, a national crisis and suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ youth, has fielded over 200,000 calls since its inception in 2008, calls from youth reaching out for affirmation and support. They survived. Some of them even thrived. Where are their stories? In August, 14-year-old Jonah Mowry posted a video on YouTube describing on a series of written notecards the daily harassment he faces as a gay youth. With tears rolling down his face, he tells us that suicide was an option for him many times. In the end, he takes a deep breath and displays his final cards. He says, "I'm not going anywhere, because I'm STRONGER than that... and... I have a million reasons to be here." As it turns out, Mowry has 7.6 million reasons to be here -- that's how many people have viewed his video in the handful of months it has been online. Since then, he has appeared on television with his family. Some of the bullies who initially targeted him have apologized. He says a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. "I'm more confident, and I feel stronger every day." To put this in perspective, the 2,000 videos submitted to Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign have received, collectively, about 10 million views from around the world. Knowing that a positive life as an adult awaits them does precious little for the youth who remain trapped in the immediacy of their need. They need stories of teenagers just like them who are safe and happy now. They need images of peers like Johnny Robinson, a 17-year-old, gay homecoming king from Limerick, Pa., who made his own video for Jonah, to reassure him that there are others just like him who survived experiences of bullying, who thrived. In it, he smiles into the camera and holds up his own set of note cards, which read, "Being different... is what helps you stand out. It's what makes you you. Love who you are... because we believe in you." He tells Jonah, "You have already changed the world."

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Clearly, with the nerf you'll need greater amount of general damage (affecting both fire and burn) to make up for the nerf. As the numbers will also show, the more burn only increase you have, the more general damage increase you need to make up for the nerf (obviously). And just as obviously, "more" is more effective than "increased" for general damage and having both is best. If I'm not mistaken, burn-only buffs are "increased" only and don't have "more". I've laid out 3 simple scenarios for you on how much damage your ignite is impacted by based on these changes. - Scenario 1, you only have "increased" buffs for general damage - Scenario 2, you only have "more" buffs for general damage - Scenario 3, you have both "increased" and "more" buffs for general damage. I've fixed "increased" at 50% just so it's easier to see on the data table EDIT: Per Daniel_GGG's response in the thread, my initial ignite-related conclusion given the above: 1. Fire trappers still kick ass (burning ground FTW) 2. Fireball / burning arrow builds are painfully painfully impacted by the multiple projectiles double dip (personal opinion is this needs to be fixed) 3. Dischargers on first glance look like they've been nerfed. But the inclusion of concentrated effect could potentially buff ignite to INSANE levels, leading to super high damage in a smaller area of burn proliferation 4. Melee ele builds are also painfully impacted as weapon elemental damage confers no bonus to the ignite. However, concentrated effect would again cover the shortfall more than sufficiently. But the smaller area for melee builds is potentially harder to manage compared to dischargers Quite some QQ going on about the ignite nerf saying they got maths and all. They can't beat math!Clearly, with the nerf you'll need greater amount of general damage (affecting both fire and burn) to make up for the nerf. As the numbers will also show, the more burn only increase you have, the more general damage increase you need to make up for the nerf (obviously).And just as obviously, "more" is more effective than "increased" for general damage and having both is best. If I'm not mistaken, burn-only buffs are "increased" only and don't have "more".I've laid out 3 simple scenarios for you on how much damage your ignite is impacted by based on these changes.- Scenario 1, you only have "increased" buffs for general damage- Scenario 2, you only have "more" buffs for general damage- Scenario 3, you have both "increased" and "more" buffs for general damage. I've fixed "increased" at 50% just so it's easier to see on the data tableEDIT: Per Daniel_GGG's response in the thread, my initial ignite-related conclusion given the above:1. Fire trappers still kick ass (burning ground FTW)2. Fireball / burning arrow builds are painfully painfully impacted by the multiple projectiles double dip (personal opinion is this needs to be fixed)3. Dischargers on first glance look like they've been nerfed. But the inclusion of concentrated effect could potentially buff ignite to INSANE levels, leading to super high damage in a smaller area of burn proliferation4. Melee ele builds are also painfully impacted as weapon elemental damage confers no bonus to the ignite. However, concentrated effect would again cover the shortfall more than sufficiently. But the smaller area for melee builds is potentially harder to manage compared to dischargers Last edited by dlrr on Dec 2, 2013, 8:49:58 AM

SAN FRANCISCO — In the wake of last month’s near-collision at San Francisco International Airport, federal officials have made significant changes to how pilots land at the airport and how many air traffic controllers must be working in the tower during nighttime hours, the Bay Area News Group has learned. The Federal Aviation Administration also plans to begin testing modified radar systems in a few months at its Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City — and possibly also at the San Francisco airport — to allow the facility’s ground surveillance systems to alert air traffic controllers when an aircraft is attempting to land on a taxiway rather than a runway, as happened in the SFO incident. Those systems were originally designed, according to the FAA, to prevent runway incursions and runway collisions, not taxiway mishaps. “Just about every safety improvement in aviation was written in blood or the aftermath of an egregious mistake or a screw-up,” retired United Airlines Capt. Ross Aimer, an aviation safety consultant, wrote in an email. “I think all three improvements (by the FAA) are a welcome sight and long time to come. Too bad it took a near disaster for them to finally happen!” On July 7, Air Canada Flight 759 flew as low as 59 feet off the ground before the pilot aborted his landing, flying dangerously close to four other aircraft awaiting takeoff with an estimated 1,000 passengers on board all the planes, according to an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation. Federal investigators determined that the Air Canada plane dropped off the air traffic controller’s ground surveillance system radar during its final 12 seconds on approach. Aviation experts have said the near-miss could have triggered one of the worst aviation disasters ever and have criticized the delayed notice of the incident, which allowed the cockpit voice recorder to be overwritten. Since the close call, the FAA no longer allows visual approaches for aircraft approaching SFO at night with an adjacent parallel runway closed, according to spokesman Ian Gregor. On July 7, Runway 28-Left was closed and darkened, and the Air Canada flight crew told investigators that they shifted their sight-line to the right, causing them to believe Taxiway C was their approved runway Runway 28-Right. Taxiway C runs parallel to 28-right. “When these conditions prevail, our controllers (will) issue pilots Instrument Landing System approaches or satellite-based approaches, which help pilots line up for the correct runway,” Gregor said. Sources have said the Air Canada pilot did not use his computer guidance instruments on the July 7 errant approach, which is not uncommon. Shem Malmquist, a Boeing 777 pilot who has landed many times at SFO, said the new requirements are a positive step as instrument approach would provide precise guidance and clear indications if a pilot veers off course. “Our human visual systems evolved for land-based creatures that moved only as fast as their legs could carry them,” Malmquist wrote in an email. “We adapt pretty well, but flight with its combination of height, weather and speed, can fool them. The use of an instrument approach keeps the pilots closely aligned with the runway threshold.” Malmquist said challenges at SFO under such conditions are largely the result of noise-abatement requirements that keep planes at higher altitudes than normal and farther east over the bay. Pilots must take an angled approach, settling into the normal straight-on landing path when they are closer to landing. In the tower, the FAA will now require two controllers to remain in position during busy late-night hours, Gregor said. Two controllers were working at the time of the SFO incident, he said, but only one was in the tower, and that individual was busy talking to another facility in the final seconds of Air Canada’s botched approach. “Following the event, SFO tower management adopted a policy requiring two controllers to be on position working traffic until the late-night arrival rush is over,” Gregor said. Malmquist said that change is good but, as other sources have said, it’s difficult for an air traffic controller at the SFO tower to determine whether an incoming plane is lined up with the runway or adjacent taxiway. “So reliance on the (air traffic controller) radar becomes more critical — which means it has to work!” Malmquist said. “That said, more eyes are always better as they would offset bias, distraction and other factors.” Taxiway confusion is not unheard of. In a Dec. 8 FAA memo, the agency reminded pilots that aircraft landing or departing on the wrong runway, taxiway or airport are “among the highest-profile and most dangerous events in aviation.” Those events average about 24 per year, according to the report, but increased to more than 60 in 2016. “The common denominator for most wrong surface landings/departures was the lack of situational awareness, with closely spaced parallel runways, off set parallel runways, or taxiways which run parallel with runway,” according to the FAA. The agency provided an example of when a Boeing 737 landed on a parallel taxiway that ran between two parallel runways at Seattle-Tacoma International airport. The FAA also said controller workload or radar limitations that preclude timely intervention by air traffic controllers could contribute to such incidents — both played roles in the SFO incident. Staff writer Dan Borenstein contributed to this report.

To see the federal government’s inconsistent oversight of nursing homes, one needs only to look at what happened after two residents died — one in Texas, one in South Carolina. At a nursing home in the East Texas town of Hughes Springs earlier this year, a resident approached the nurses’ station gagging on a cookie. Attempts to clear his airway failed, and he died. Government inspectors determined that staff at the home were not trained for emergencies and did not immediately call 911. Months earlier, in North Augusta, S.C., a resident pulled out her breathing tube and died. Inspectors faulted the home for failing to take appropriate steps to keep the resident from harming herself, even though she had pulled out the tube multiple times in the two months before she died. In each state, inspectors working on behalf of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services cited the homes for their failure to operate “in an acceptable way that maintains the well-being of each resident.” Both homes posed an “immediate jeopardy” to residents’ health and safety, inspectors determined. But the consequences were starkly different. In the Texas case, at the recommendation of state officials, CMS imposed a fine against The Springs nursing home of $9,500. In the other, acting at the suggestion of South Carolina officials, CMS required Unihealth Post-Acute Care-North Augusta to pay a fine of $305,370. These disparities aren’t unusual, it turns out. But they are now much easier to spot using ProPublica’s expanded Nursing Home Inspect tool. We’ve mapped the differences among states in finding serious violations and parceling out fines. Here's more on how to use our updated tool. The results support what auditors and researchers have maintained for years: Federal fines vary widely by state. Homes in some states pay a steep price for misconduct while those in neighboring states don’t. See our state-by-state breakdown here. The average fine paid by a South Carolina nursing home in the past three years was $40,507. The average fine in Texas: $6,933. A Balkanized System CMS pays states to inspect nursing homes on its behalf. It gives states guidelines on when and how to impose penalties, and states recommend actions to CMS regional offices. Those regional offices must approve sanctions before they are imposed, but CMS almost always accepts the states’ recommendations. The federal government and states share the fine money. Despite its authority, some experts say, the federal government has not done enough to standardize punishments. “The enforcement system is broken,” said Charlene Harrington, a nursing home expert and emeritus professor of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. “If you don’t go after these really bad violations and try to force these nursing homes to improve quality, they’re going to continue to cause harm and jeopardy.” Harrington was the lead author of a 2008 study that found enforcement disparities and encouraged the government to “re-examine” the system of imposing fines, called civil monetary penalties (CMPs) in bureaucratic parlance. Federal officials acknowledged inconsistencies identified by ProPublica and said they are working to reduce them. Years ago, CMS came up with guidelines to advise states and its own regional offices on when and how much to fine homes. But the guidelines give them wide latitude. States can choose penalties either by incident, capped at $10,000, or on a per-day basis, which can quickly add up to a much higher number. Beginning next year, CMS will test a new program that provides more specific guidance. “Our new tool reduces that latitude by a fair degree,” said Alice Bonner, director of CMS’ division of nursing homes. Bonner said some flexibility is warranted because not every situation is the same. Factors affecting the size of a fine could include a home’s past record of deficiencies, the speed with which it corrects problems and whether too large a penalty could force a facility to close, a hardship on residents, she said. Some states also have the authority to impose fines against homes under state law, but CMS does not centrally collect and report them. Tim Thornton, administrator at The Springs in Texas, said his nursing home has retrained staff since the resident choked on a cookie and died. “With this specific case, the nurse on duty showed a lack of leadership ... There was kind of a breakdown and maybe a little panic in the situation, and the nurse took it all upon herself and didn’t ask for assistance from the others.” The $9,500 fine against the home is not yet listed on the CMS website because it has not been paid, officials said. Calls to Unihealth-North Augusta were referred to the home’s parent company, UHS-Pruitt Corp. in Norcross, Ga. Spokesman Nick Williams declined to comment. Unihealth-North Augusta has received more federal fines than any other home in the nation, $736,580, in the past three years, according to government data. Another of the chain’s homes, in North Carolina, was fined $372,970 during the same period. Fines vs. Deficiencies, a Disconnect To demonstrate variation in enforcement, ProPublica mapped states based on their average fine, the number of serious deficiencies per home, and on how often they penalized homes with payment suspensions for new admissions – another form of sanction that is less common than fines. Officials in several states — those with high fines and low ones — said they had not compared themselves to others and were unaware where they stood. The officials said that if CMS wanted to raise or lower their recommended penalties, it has the authority to do so. Texas has the second highest number of nursing homes in the nation, behind only California. While it had the most serious deficiencies of any state and imposed more payment suspensions, its average fine placed it near the middle. Cecilia Cavuto, a spokeswoman for Texas’ Department of Aging and Disability Services, defended the state’s approach. Texas chooses its actions based on “the nature of the deficiencies identified, prior success or failure of previous remedies, and staff’s professional judgment regarding what remedy might best encourage a facility to come back into compliance with Medicare/Medicaid requirements,” she wrote in a statement. A South Carolina spokesman said the state simply follows federal guidelines in issuing fines and that “there has been no change in the philosophy for enforcement.” Michigan has 426 nursing homes, the 11th highest in the nation. Yet, over the past three years, Michigan homes paid more fines than any other state, nearly $10 million, and regulators meted out 175 payment suspensions, second only to Texas. Officials at the Health Care Association of Michigan, the nursing home trade group, said the figures show that Michigan regulators have been unreasonably harsh. “We just don’t have any indication that we’re performing worse than other states” in terms of the number of problems cited by inspectors, said David LaLumia, the association’s president and CEO. “The latitude that states have to impose civil monetary penalties is very subjective.” Kimberly Gaedeke, assistant deputy director for Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, defended the state’s use of penalties. She said the state has seen an increase in the number of serious deficiencies. Like other states, she noted, the final decision ultimately rests with CMS. In a written statement, Graedeke said the state is re-examining its penalty system to make “positive changes” so that penalties don’t impede a home’s ability to provide quality care for residents. Are States Too Soft? Advocates for nursing home residents said they do not accept the argument that some states are being too tough. If anything, they said, many states are going too easy on homes. “This is not an easy issue to deal with,” said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition in New York City. “The states themselves are subject to a lot of political pressure (from nursing homes). They have not been subject to a lot of pressure from CMS to do a good job.” CMS officials asked Minnesota to “step up our fines” a couple of years ago, Darcy Miner, director of the health department’s Compliance Monitoring Division, wrote in an email. The state’s average fine of $2,147 is one of the lowest in the nation. “I would have to say that I haven’t seen CMS modifying most of our recommendations, so I have assumed that we are within the appropriate range,” she wrote. Since CMS asked the state to increase its fines, it has tried to do so, she wrote. Brian Lee, executive director of Families for Better Care in Florida, said residents and their families should care about how well the government oversees the quality of care in nursing homes. “This is affecting all of us. It’s affecting our families,” Lee said. “We’re relying upon the regulators to ensure safety and quality care for our parents and grandparents.” -- Jennifer LaFleur, ProPublica’s director of computer-assisted reporting, contributed to this report.

В Луганске восемь вооруженных неизвестных угнали инкассаторский автомобиль, в котором находилось порядка 1 млн грн. (3,1 млн руб.), передает корреспондент «Газеты.Ru» со ссылкой на пресс-службу милиции. Как отмечается, восемь вооруженных автоматическим оружием человек, одетых в камуфляжную форму, угрожая применением оружия, захватили служебный автомобиль ГАИ. На блокпосту, расположенном на мосту через реку Северский Донец, эти же неизвестные, угрожая оружием, остановили инкассаторский автомобиль. Работникам службы безопасности банка приказали покинуть машину. Далее, как сообщается, вооруженные люди на инкассаторской машине приехали во двор областной госадминистрации в сопровождении угнанного автомобиля ГАИ.

Germany has retained the top spot in an annual ranking of countries according to the travel freedom that their citizens enjoy. It is the fifth year in a row Germany has topped the 2018 Henley & Partners Passport Index, with its citizens enjoying visa-free access to 177 countries, while Ireland moves up one place from joint sixth to joint fifth. Irish citizens have visa-free access to 173 countries, along with Portugal, the United States and South Korea. The rankings are compiled by using data from the Air Transport Association (IATA). A record 779,000 Irish passports were issued in 2017, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In an annual report, the department said one in five passport applications were received from Irish citizens living in Northern Ireland and Britain. Dr Christian H Kalin, group chairman of Henley & Partners, said the need for visa-free access was “greater than ever”. “Across the economic spectrum individuals want to transcend the constraints imposed on them by their country of origin and access business, financial, career and lifestyle opportunities on a global scale,” he said. “The Henley Passport Index shows individuals where they lie on the spectrum of global mobility, revealing the strength that their passport has in relation to other passports.” For the second year in a row, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan sit at the bottom of the index, with citizens of each able to access 30 or fewer countries without a visa. Of the 199 countries featured on the index, 143 improved their rank over the past year and 41 countries maintained their position. The biggest movers in this year’s index were Georgia and Ukraine, which completed the visa-liberalisation process with the EU in 2017 and gained access to 30 and 32 new countries respectively. Of all the continents, Africa has suffered the most dramatic decline in travel freedom with African countries accounting for 19 of the 27 biggest fallers over the past decade. 1. Germany (177 countries can be visited without a visa) 2. Singapore (176) 3. Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, UK (175) 4. Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland (174) 5. Ireland, Portugal, United States, South Korea (173) 6. Canada (172) 7. Australia, Greece, New Zealand (171) 8. Czech Republic, Iceland (170) 9. Malta (169) 10. Hungary (168)

Tape lies. Numbers lie. Both are true, though at PFF, quantifying the tape is our approach to gathering the biggest sample size possible in player evaluation. Especially with quarterbacks, the play-by-play evaluation is crucial, and then it’s all about diving into the PFF database to find the proper context for the player’s grade. West Virginia QB Will Grier is one of the most polarizing prospects in the draft; the numbers love his game, but those more reliant on the eye test are not convinced he’s an NFL starter. I can see both sides of the argument as Grier’s numbers have been excellent over the last two seasons and he’s excelled in the right areas on a snap-to-snap basis, moving the chains with accurate passes down the field. However, it doesn’t always look pretty for Grier, who will flutter passes and look completely confused on certain plays, all while playing in the Big 12 where defenses provide easier passing windows than he’s likely to see at the next level. Let’s take a look at the numbers and the film to diagnose Grier’s true skillset. The Good Starting with the short game, Grier missed the lowest percentage of passes on throws up to 20 yards last season, edging the other top quarterback prospects. Many of his throws come on easy play-action passes with an open middle of the field, but as we’ve shown at PFF, hitting open throws is one of the prerequisites for NFL success, and Grier ticks that box. He has a good, quick release when coming out of play action and run-pass options, aiding in this part of his game. Over the last two seasons, only Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield did a better job of throwing catchable passes than Grier on passes thrown up to 20 yards. Grier tied for the lead in big-time throws a season ago with 33, showing his ability to throw the ball accurately down the field. He has fantastic touch on the deep ball, and he had plenty of opportunities to show it off in West Virginia’s offense. Over the last three draft classes, Grier has the highest PFF grade on “over-the-shoulder” passes, and that’s where we saw a big chunk of his big-time throws. One of the best throws from any quarterback in the country last season, Grier shows off pinpoint accuracy for this game-winner against Texas, dropping the ball right in the back of the end zone for the touchdown. We’ve highlighted the red-zone accuracy of both Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins in their individual breakdowns, and Grier has shown that he can make the necessary tight-window throws in in the red zone as well. Here, he squeezes the pass in with little margin of error against Tennessee. Grier is as good as it gets in the draft class at executing big-time throws, whether dropping them in a bucket or throwing up the seam. I’ll have more on this in a bit, as there still a few concerns with Grier and his big-time throw profile projecting to the next level. The Bad There are certain quarterbacks who can execute a good game plan at a high level, hitting all of the necessary throws and giving his team a chance to win. Grier is certainly capable of doing that, but when the defense shows something different post-snap, things can get ugly. Take the play against Kansas, for instance, as Grier thinks he’s getting his usual clean read to hit the open post route against single coverage, but Kansas gives him a fuzzy post-snap read, and he throws the pass right into the coverage. Beyond the scheme dependency, Grier struggles to create opportunities outside of the structure, and he posted a poor overall grade of 31.5 when he was forced to move off his spot in the pocket. Grier also overrates his athleticism while maneuvering the pocket as he tries to create plays late in the down, but there were too many instances where he simply could not shake a defender, and he was taken down for a sack. He must eliminate these plays in order to increase his efficiency at the next level. OK, let’s circle back to the over-the-shoulder throws. 62.9% of Grier’s big-time throws were of the over-the-shoulder variety, much higher than the NFL average of 41.2%. On the other hand, Grier did not have any big-time throws on “horizontal leads,” which includes deep outs, crossers and digs, all common NFL-style throws. This doesn’t mean that Grier can’t execute these passes, it’s just that we haven’t seen him do it. For further context, NFL quarterbacks throw 8.2% more horizontal leads than college quarterbacks and 3.0% fewer over-the-shoulder throws than their college counterparts. Essentially, Grier has excelled at executing throws that are far more common at the college level, so that must be accounted for in his projection. Final Word There’s a lot to like about Grier’s game and certainly a few question marks. The differences in the evaluation are justified, as the numbers paint an impressive picture but the decision-making and scheme dependency are potential red flags. When watching Grier throw for throw, there are some similarities to Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr as they’ve both showed the touch and the feel to creatively throw receivers open down the field, but there is also a healthy dosage of careless decision-making and questionable feel in the pocket. It’s never a perfect comparison, but there are some similarities in their respective games. When you add it up, Grier is a prospect that the data likes more than any quarterback in the class not named “Murray,” but the system and style in which he got there has raised enough red flags that our confidence level is not nearly as strong as its been for fellow Big 12 quarterbacks, Mayfield, Murray, or even Mahomes from recent years.

Does your dog love to bury himself under your covers to sleep? Many dogs do. It is fun to think about why they might do this seemingly very human thing. If we consider the way a dog sees life, it is easy to imagine why he tucks himself in at night. Animals depend on the concept of resources. Resources are things like food, water, and shelter. Your bed represents a shelter or den to your dog. Since the bed is a place where he regularly goes, it is marked with his scent and it is part of his routine. He instinctively crawls into his den as a happy and safe zone. Under the covers may feel like the inner sanctum of his den to him- the safest of the safe. When your dog is tucked away under the sheets, she feels surrounded, even swaddled and feeling firm pressure has been suggested to improve brain chemistry for anxious dogs.1 Certain breeds of dogs will even seem to prefer to burrow for entertainment. Think of the terrier type dog and the Dachshund whose long body was originally an advantage for climbing in tight burrows. The pressure of the sheets snug around your dog probably makes her brain release happy chemicals that give her a sense of security and well-being and maybe even fun. Your presence also gives your dog that feeling of support which he craves as an animal evolved to function in a pack or family unit. He knows that you feel safe enough to retreat there for sleep and you are a valued friend, family member, and mentor. You have marked the area as a safe zone and you spend a good portion of your time there. As members of a pack, you share responsibility for raising an alarm and protecting each other. Being near you when you sleep is very natural to your dog. Pack animals, like dogs, know that their choice of sleeping quarters can be a matter of life or death. Their den is one of their most values resources. The snugness of the sheets can promote feelings of safety and refuge as well. Most of all, our dogs want to be under the sheets because that is where WE are and the safest place is always with your family. Do you love dogs? Find me on Facebook to learn more. Click here.

GMOインターネットは6月5日、同社が開発したビットコイン向けマイニングコンピュータ（マイニングマシン）「GMO miner B2」と専用電源ユニットのセットを1999ドル（税込約22万円、送料別）で発売すると発表した。初回出荷は10月末の見込み。電力性能・計算性能で「世界トップの性能を実現した」という。 GMOのマイニングマシン「GMO miner B2」 GMO miner B2は、ビットコインなどがマイニングアルゴリズムに採用している「SHA256」の計算に特化したASIC（特定用途向け集積回路）で、1秒間で24兆回の計算（24テラハッシュ／秒）が可能に。消費電力は1950ワット。 7ナノメートルプロセスのマイニングチップを世界に先駆けて導入したことにより、台当たりの計算性能や電力性能で他社製品を上回るという。 ビットコイン向けASICでは中国BITMAIN社などが先行しているが、BITMAIN社の代表的なマイニングマシン「Antminer S9i」は消費電力1320ワット、14テラハッシュ／秒で、1テラハッシュ／秒当たりの消費電力は約94ワット。 GMO miner B2の1テラハッシュ／秒当たり消費電力は約81ワットと、電力性能でも計算性能でもAntminer S9iを上回る世界トップの性能を実現した。なお、24テラハッシュ／秒で稼働するためには約200Vの入力が必要としており、100Vでは24テラハッシュ／秒の速度は出ないという。 また、他社製品がマイニングマシン1台に1台のネットワーク機器を必要とするのに対し、本製品は1台のネットワーク機器に最大32台まで接続できるため、ネットワーク機器のコスト削減も見込めるという。 機材管理用のAPIも提供する。遠隔で稼働状況を確認できる他、万が一盗難に遭った場合でも、犯人がネットワークにつないだ際に稼働を検知する仕組みを導入した。 保証期間は180日で、以後の修理は有料。保証期間内であっても、送料はユーザー負担だ。 6月の価格は1999ドルとしているが、需要など状況に応じて毎月価格は変動する。出荷量は非公開だが、注文が出荷量を上回った場合は抽選方式で販売。毎月10日（6月は11日）正午に抽選を締め切り、同日午後6時に結果を発表する。 同月15日を支払い期限とし、初回出荷を10月末に始める流れ。支払い方法はビットコイン、ビットコインキャッシュ、米ドルの3種類に対応する。 同社の熊谷正寿社長（兼会長）は、「ロシアからアフリカまで、世界中から問い合わせが殺到している」と需要の高さを説明した上で、「ビットコイン創始者であるサトシ・ナカモトの『非中央集権』の思想に基づき、さまざまな地域の人に買っていただきたい。そのために抽選方式とした」と説明する。 GMO-Z.com Switzerland AGの奥村真史代表取締役（左）とGMOインターネットの熊谷正寿社長（兼会長）（右） GMOのマイニングセンター 5月の収益は3.9億円 GMOインターネットはマイニング事業に特化した子会社「GMO-Z.com Switzerland AG」を設立しており、同子会社がマイニングマシンの販売や、北欧に設置したマイニングセンターの運営を行う。 17年12月から稼働しているマイニングセンターの5月分のマイニング報酬も、GMOインターネットは5日午後3時30分に公開している。5月分の収益は472BTCと37BCHと、合わせて約3.9億円を得たという。 2018年5月 仮想通貨マイニング事業の月次報告 同マイニングセンターが保持するハッシュパワー（計算能力）は5月時点で299ペタハッシュ／秒。「稼働台数の増加に伴い、計画通り上昇している」とし、18年度内に3000ペタハッシュ／秒の実現を目標に掲げている。 GMO miner B2の在庫については、販売はもちろん、自社のマイニングセンターにも取り入れていく考えだ。

Washington (CNN) The number of coronavirus cases in Michigan has skyrocketed to nearly 3,000 from less than 350 a week ago, but the state is still struggling to obtain supplies behind the states where the pandemic has hit the hardest. For weeks, the scenes of coronavirus outbreaks in New York, Washington and California have captured the nation's attention as the epicenters of the crisis in the United States. But as the pandemic takes hold elsewhere, the finite number of live-saving equipment like ventilators, face masks and personal protective equipment -- as well as the inability of the national stockpile to make up for all of the shortages -- is coming into clear view, leaving a gap between states that encountered outbreaks early and those that are seeing their numbers ramp up now. Michigan, the site of one of the country's fastest growing outbreaks, has found itself unable to get an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, with lawmakers telling CNN that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had placed an order only to be told by the company later the federal government had placed an order that would take priority. And now Whitmer finds herself being criticized by President Donald Trump for her pleas for the federal government to do more to help the Great Lakes State. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, Trump first referred to Whitmer as "the young, a woman governor, you know who I'm talking about, from Michigan" and said that "all she does is sit there and blame the federal government." The famously transactional Trump followed that criticism by noting that Michigan has asked for an emergency declaration "and we'll have to make a decision on that." He also called Michigan an "important state" and professed his fondness for its residents. Whitmer responded on Twitter after the interview, saying, "Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me. I've asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it." Whitmer's struggle to get supplies is not unique. When even New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the US, says it isn't getting enough supplies, states that have seen less spread worry they will miss out as the federal government doles out the limited resources it has at its disposal. "We are seeing numbers that look a lot like the numbers those states were seeing 10 days ago," said Rep. Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat. "There is real urgency that we don't want to miss the opportunity to stop this in order to slow it down." Michigan lawmakers are also reporting the state has received just a fraction of the materials they've requested from the national stockpile. Kildee said the state's entire congressional delegation sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the coronavirus task force, urging the federal government to intervene. "Confusion has arisen as both states and the federal government attempt to rapidly secure (personal protective equipment) and testing supplies," the lawmakers wrote. "In the midst of this challenge, the federal government must ensure it communicates a clear chain of command to the states and utilize a data-driven prioritization process to address states' needs." Detroit and Chicago are demonstrating concerning spread of coronavirus, Dr. Deborah Birx said at Thursday's White House briefing. "We are concerned about certain counties" that have seen increased spreading of the virus, Birx said, naming Wayne County, Michigan (home to Detroit), and Cook County, Illinois (home of Chicago), as examples. She said those locations were showing a "more rapid increase" of spread. Pence said Wednesday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be playing a greater role in helping states get what they need, saying he had spoken to Whitmer, a Democrat, about Michigan's issues. "As I told Gov. Whitmer today, who's leading her state through all this with great energy, we want to partner with her, want to partner with every governor and make sure the left hand knows what the right hand is doing in terms of acquiring resources," Pence said. But state officials and members of Congress say the federal government remains slow to help states as Trump is unwilling to fully embrace the powers of the Defense Production Act to ramp up and allocate nationwide production. There's simply not enough supply to go around right now -- and even if Trump used the DPA to allow the federal government to intervene in factory production and force companies to make more ventilators, masks and respirators, the effort could still take weeks or months to ramp up. Trump and Pence held a conference call with governors on Thursday, where the tension over the Defense Production Act arose once again. Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee urged Trump and Pence to nationalize supply and manufacturing under the 1950 law, specifically referencing the shortage in swabs used for testing, according to two sources familiar with the call. Inslee encouraged Trump to be a "quarterback" and use the authority at his disposal. Trump said that the federal government would not nationalize supply and manufacturing, one of the sources said, but another Trump administration official said there was new guidance from the Federal Drug Administration allowing for easier use of swabs in testing. "I think it would be very, very helpful if the federal government could be more assertive and aggressive and more organized in helping all of us to obtain these systems," Inslee said at a Thursday press conference. Meanwhile, states may be looking to take things into their own hands. Earlier this week in Michigan, the bipartisan delegation and Whitmer discussed whether the state could create its own supply chain to make up for shortages from the federal government. Still, there is recognition that even if it could be done, it would take weeks or months. "We're working with manufacturers to work on their supply chains. We're getting our own manufacturers involved like Ford, GM and Chrysler," said Rep. Andy Levin, a Michigan Democrat. But he contended it was "a distant second place to having the President of the United States use the power of the Defense Production Act." Outside of Michigan And it is not just Michigan. Other states -- where outbreaks may be less severe than New York but where the situation is nevertheless escalating -- are growing uneasy sharing their hard fought resources, knowing it could be hard to get more later. On Thursday, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb rejected the idea of sending PPE and ventilators to New York right now even though there are only 645 cases of coronavirus in Indiana, according to CNN Health's most recent tally. "We're not in a position right now as much as we want to be focused outside of our borders," Holcomb, a Republican, said. "And we realize that there are hotspots in the country, Los Angeles, or New York City or Seattle, others are growing... but right now we're focused on Hoosier needs so when we get to that happy day where we can start to help the rest of the other country recover, we will." In Pennsylvania, where cases have grown to more than 1,600, there is more evidence that the federal government has injected uncertainty. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said a hospital in her state had paid for 80,000 N95 respirator masks, only to learn that FEMA had diverted its order. "Not only isn't the federal government helping streamline the supply chain and helping to get supplies into the supply chain, it's now disrupting it," Scanlon said in an interview. "These are unusual times and require extraordinary measures. People working very, very hard at local level -- we're running into roadblocks because we don't have interstate coordination." Two Florida Democrats, Reps. Ted Deutch and Lois Frankel, wrote a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar warning Florida needs more swabs for testing, but that the state has received its orders in "'drips and drabs' leaving much of the testing capacity unused." In some areas, the competition for equipment is happening even at the county level. Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, where there are nearly 7,000 cases, said in his own district, he's seen mayors and county officials competing with each other for goods. In one county he represents, officials were able to quickly establish a drive-thru testing site that has been running efficiently and with adequate resources. Meanwhile, a FEMA drive-thru in a neighboring county has experienced a number of shortages, he said. "It is crazy that your ability to get tested depends on how quickly your county officials acted to tap into a limited supply chain," Malinowski said. In Massachusetts, where there are more than 1,800 cases, officials say they "continue to try and work the supply chain hard" to increase supplies of personal protective equipment, but to date, the state has only received approximately 17% of its requests from the Strategic National Stockpile, with another shipment still to arrive. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said Thursday the state has submitted a request through FEMA for federal disaster assistance. "We hope to see the feds move on this quickly," he said at a press conference. Rep. Joe Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said matters were made worse for the states when they received supplies from the federal government's stockpile because they weren't inventoried, and workers in his state had to spend a full day creating one so they could be sent out across the state. Kennedy called the competition on bids for supplies between the states as well as the federal government "completely detrimental to this process." "You couldn't come up with a dumber way of doing this," Kennedy said.

289 Shares Pin Trainers, we’ve managed to record how the updated Sunset period will look in Pokémon GO. This is not a leak, this is an actual, officially confirmed animation from the upcoming version of the game. The animation was shown on the GDC 2017 conference, in a talk named ‘Pokemon GO’ & Designing Interactive Games for the Real World given by Dennis Hwang of Niantic, Inc. We’ve also noticed some curious wind animations and the leaf animations looking slightly different than before. In our opinion, Niantic landed a slam dunk with this one! As Hwang explained, the sunset visuals were scrapped for the initial release due to time constraints and size of the team. In their minds, it made sense to have only Day and Night cycle, especially given their small team size. Now, they are looking forward to expand further the visuals of Pokémon GO as their team size has increased and they’re more experienced with the mobile platform. The entire talk is very interesting, as it features a lot of screenshots from the early days of Pokémon GO development, making it an interesting watch for any true fan of the game. You can watch the full talk here.

The ever-increasing journal subscriptions have seen many universities and research institutions failing to provide access to the much-needed scholarship for propagation of research and development due to dwindling budget allocations. Hence, the adoption of open access (OA) institutional repositories (IR) by the institutions to increase access, availability and visibility of their research output to a wider readership. Institutional repository (IR) technologies have transformed the traditional academic library practice, thus upsetting the work culture of librarians. Though studies there have been studies on the impact of IRs on academic librarians elsewhere in the world, none have been done on the Zimbabwean context. This study draws from a wider study which explored utilisation of institutional repositories in Zimbabwe's public universities. The study sought to answer the question: What is the role of the academic librarian in promoting the institutional repository? The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of technology (UTAUT) informed the study, while a mixed methods approach was employed using document analysis, questionnaires and interviews to collect data from librarians in eight public universities. Findings revealed that in some instances IR responsibilities were added to existing duties for incumbent staff while in others, staff were reassigned to IR roles resulting in diverse staff categories maintaining the IRs across the universities. Recommendations for effective and efficient management of the repositories by the universities are made. The study is relevant to other academic libraries in developing countries and Africa particularly countries whose economies are crumbling.

The Lakers are looking to their new era now. Brandon Ingram will start tonight against the New York Knicks in place of small forward Luol Deng, according to two sources. In the past, Ingram has started only in case of injuries. He has made starts at point guard, shooting guard and small forward this season. The Lakers have placed an emphasis on developing their young players this season. The plan for Ingram, the second overall pick this summer, was that he back up Deng until he was ready for more responsibility. It’s unclear whether Ingram will start the rest of the season, or if this move is simply on a trial basis. Ingram is averaging eight points and 4.1 rebounds per game. Against the Boston Celtics on Friday, Ingram scored 14 points, making five of 10 field goals. The game broke him from a recent slump. tania.ganguli@latimes.com Follow Tania Ganguli on Twitter @TaniaGanguli

There's a distressing feeling in the Node.js community that apps without up-to-date dependencies are somehow not as good, or stable, as apps that always keep their dependencies up to date. So we see things like greenkeeper.io and badges that show whether the project's dependencies are up to date (and, implicitly, shame anyone whose dependencies aren't green). I'm not talking about updating dependencies for a good reason (covered below); I'm talking about the practice of updating dependencies for the sake of keeping the dependencies updated. In the best possible case, a dependency update does nothing. The application keeps running exactly as it was. In the worst case, your servers crash, millions of dollars of business value are affected, state is compromised, or worse. One day at Twilio we tried to deploy code that had a defect in it. The deployment tool noticed the errors and tried to rollback the deployment by putting the old nodes in the load balancer and taking the new ones out. Except... when it went to take the new nodes out, the worker process crashed. So we ended up with both the new (faulty) nodes and the old nodes in the load balancer, and our most reliable tool for cluster management couldn't pull the bad nodes out. We did some investigation and it turns out one of our dependencies had updated. Well, it wasn't a direct dependency - we locked down all of those - it was a dependency of a dependency, which upgraded to version 3, and introduced an incompatibility. Fundamentally, updating dependencies is a dangerous operation. Most people would never deploy changes to production without having them go through code review, but I have observed that many feel comfortable bumping a package.json number without looking at the diff of what changed in the dependency. New releases of dependencies are usually less tested in the wild than older versions. We know the best predictor of the number of errors in code is the number of lines written. The current version of your dependency (which you know works) has 0 lines of diff when compared with itself, but the newest release has a greater-than-0 number of lines of code changed. Code changes are risky, and so are dependency updates. Errors and crashes introduced by dependency updates are difficult to debug. Generally, the errors are not in your code; they're deep in a node_modules or site-packages folder or similar. You are probably more familiar with your application code than the intricacies of your third party tools. Tracking down the error usually involves figuring out what version of the code used to be running (not easy!) and staring at a diff between the two. But my tests will catch any dependency errors, you say. Maybe you have great coverage around your application. But do the dependencies you're pulling in have good test coverage? Are the interactions between your dependencies tested? How about the interactions between the dependency and every possible version of a subdependency? Do your tests cover every external interface? But the dependencies I'm pulling in use semver, so I'll know if things break. This only saves you if you actually read the CHANGELOG, or the package author correctly realizes a breaking change. Otherwise you get situations like this. Which just seems sad; the reporter must have taken time to update the package, then gotten an error report, then had to figure out what change crashed the servers, then mitigated the issue. A lot of downside there - wasted time and the business fallout of a crashing application, and I'm struggling to figure out what benefit the reporter got from updating to the latest possible version. When to Update Dependencies Generally I think you should lock down the exact versions of every dependency and sub-dependency that you use. However, there are a few cases where it makes sense to pull in the latest and greatest thing. In every case, at the very least I read the CHANGELOG and scan the package diff before pulling in the update. Security Upgrades An application issues a new release to patch a security vulnerability, and you need to get the latest version of the app to patch the same hole. Even here, you want to ensure that the vulnerability actually affects your application, and that the changed software does not break your application. You may not want to grab the entire upstream changeset, but only port in the patch that fixes the security issue. Performance Improvement Recently we noticed our web framework was sleeping for 50ms on every POST and PUT request. Of course you would want to upgrade to avoid this (although we actually fixed it by removing the dependency). You Need a Hot New Feature We updated mocha recently because it wouldn't print out stack traces for things that weren't Error objects. We submitted a patch and upgraded mocha to get that feature. You Need a Bug Fix Your version of the dependency may have a defect, and upgrading will fix the issue. Ensure that the fix was actually coded correctly. A Final Warning Updated dependencies introduce a lot of risk and instability into your project. There are valid reasons to update and you'll need to weigh the benefit against the risk. But updating dependencies just for the sake of updating them is just going to run you into trouble. You can avoid all of these problems by not adding a dependency in the first place. Think really, really hard before reaching for a package to solve your problem. Actually read the code and figure out if you need all of it or just a subset. Maybe if you need to pluralize your application's model names, it's okay to just add an 's' on the end, instead of adding the pluralize library. Sure, the Volcano model will be Volcanos instead of Volcanoes but maybe that's okay for your system. Unfortunately my desired solution for adding dependencies - fork a library, rip out the parts you aren't using, and copy the rest directly into your source tree - isn't too popular. But I think it would help a lot with enforcing the idea that you own your dependencies and the code changes inside. Liked what you read? I am available for hire.

The man was beaten to death in Khedi Kemru village, police said. (Representational image) Shamli police have arrested a woman, her lover and two others for allegedly beating her husband to death in the district's Khedi Kemru village, officials said on Monday. The body of Harish alias Sonu (31), was found in a drain on May 15, they said. Earlier, based on a complaint lodged by Harish's mother, police had arrested his brother-in-law, Shivam, and another relative, Mohit, for the murder. Harish's wife, Shivani, had also been named in the complaint. It was found during investigation that Shivani was in a relationship with another man, Shibbu, and Harish objected to it, following which they decided to eliminate him, station house officer, Kotwali police station, Subhash Rathore said. Shibbu roped in two others -- Himanshu and Lakhmir, to execute the plan, he said. Shivani has confessed to the crime, he added. Police have given a clean chit to Shivam and Mohit.

The Seahawk stepped off the plane, stubbing his cigarette out on the tarmac. “Pittsburgh,” he growled. “I hate this town.” Was it the loss in Super Bowl XL that made him feel this way? Despite not technically occurring in Pittsburgh, it may as well have, a moment in life that stuck in his beak. It was a loss that kept him from finally reaching the pinnacle of success after years of moribund drifting. He shuddered when he remembered, for example, the delirium tremens of ‘93 that led him to believe in the power of Rick Mirer, so desperate was he to taste success. Dark times. Then it all came together for one magical season, ended by a bus, some zebras, some unfortunate luck. Few believed his story, which only made him stick to it all the more tightly. That he had eventually claimed the prize eight years later did little to assuage his feelings on the Super Bowl. The failures have a habit of dragging you down more than the successes lift you up. Adjusting his hat, the Seahawk passed through the airport to ready himself for game time. He’d returned here, after the loss, in 2007 and again in 2011. In the former, he had wanted some measure of vengeance. He was instead shutout, an embarrassing display that only served to dig his wounds deeper. In 2011, he was again flailing, lost in the weeds, and the unforgiving Steeler men in their cursed ketchup field pulled no punches. Another shutout. Two full games, no points, no revenge. The old wound stayed fresh. It could not heal. But the Seahawk had acquired a new secret weapon. Nurtured him, watched him flourish. Russell Wilson, his best friend in the years since defeat. Others had come and gone, with parting shots both deserved and undeserved. Russell had stuck with him. Four years ago, the Steeler men had come to Seattle and lost. It was something. But now Russell was coming with him to Pittsburgh. He dared, just a little, to feel confident. He went to his department head, Ol’ Pete, whose energy belied his advanced years. “What do you think?” the Seahawk asked, as the manager turned down an offer of whiskey before kickoff. “These zebras don’t understand pass interference,” said Pete. He grinned like a wolf about to descend into a field of blissfully unaware sheep. “I’m happy to teach them. I’ll challenge them a couple of times and they’ll see it my way by the end.” The Seahawk left him to it. He’d put a lot of faith in Ol’ Pete, and had mostly been rewarded for it. Putting away his whiskey in a single gulp, he moved through the locker room. Some new faces worried him, others intrigued him. DK Metcalf, the receiver built like the USS Monitor, they said, but with softer hands. Jadeveon Clowney, the Texan, with a deep loathing of opposing quarterbacks. But in the middle of it all: Russell. From across the room, Wilson saw the Seahawk looking over at him. Russell simply nodded and went back to his preparations. The Seahawk was temporarily relieved. He felt the wound. Maybe. Contrary to his pre-game confidence, the Seahawk was a nervous wreck as a small lead turned into a slightly bigger lead, then settled into a back-and-forth pinball match. As Ol’ Pete had promised, he challenged the zebras on pass interference twice. They stood up to him the first time, but lost their nerve the second and were cowed into agreement. When the Seahawk looked over to Pete, the wily manager wore but the barest of smirks on his face. The battleship Metcalf displaced a cornerback and cruised into the endzone to temporarily relieve the Seahawk, but he fell into a panic after Chris Carson coughed up the football and the Steeler men pulled within two. “Are we going to get out of this one?” he muttered, not meaning to be overheard. “Or am I meant to suffer in this town, to these Steeler men, yet again?” An arm went around the Seahawk. “I’m on the case,” Russell said. He went over to Ol’ Pete. “Put this in my hands. We got this, but you have to trust me.” The manager considered for a moment. He wanted to run the ball, let his Australian man punt the ball down the field, and lean on his defense to finish it out. It was the Ol’ Pete way. But there was something in Russell’s demeanor, a gleam in his eye. It made Pete grunt, “Fine, then. Win it for us, right here.” And Russell did so. The Seahawk gazed in awe as Wilson earned first down after first down. The Steeler men began to panic as they frantically watched the clock drain away. They even attempted to injure Russell with their uncivilized and poorly maintained field that was not fit for grazing cattle, let alone hosting professional sporting events. Their efforts failed. Wilson’s knee survived, and the game was won. As Russell, Ol’ Pete, and the rest of the team celebrated jubilantly, the Seahawk felt for the old wound. Still there, sure. It could never really go away. But it was a little less painful. The Seahawk felt good. Maybe there was hope for him in this town after all, but he was happy to leave Pittsburgh a winner for the first time in so long.

Morning Dew, Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven > Turn On Your Love Light > Drums > Turn On Your Love Light, Cryptical Envelopment > Drums > The Other One > Cryptical Envelopment > Feedback > And We Bid You Good Night Sound Forge was used to adjust the pitch for portions of the recording and to remove several small pops. plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews Reviewer: c-freedom - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 6, 2015 Subject: in ice petal flowers revolving... Not much concern about Iron Butterfly really an Apples and Oranges type comparison. It sounds like this was an undersold show with the band calling for folks to gather upfront. I do believe the Kiel was a larger sized venue. Somebody from IB organization probably thought both bands names together would look good out on the marque. My personal take is when the DEAD hit the DARK STAR 2nd song into a set and they are firing on all cylinders then I am not sure anyone could play after the Dead. Not a long Dark Star on the recording (possibly a cut?) but very psychedelic. There are points in the ELEVEN that are scorching hot. The LOVELIGHT is very high energy. Some nights Pigpen has to coax it out of the band but everyone seems primed this night. "Get your hands out of your pocket, My Mother told me that would make you crazy" Love the final crescendo for LOVELIGHT! IRON BUTTERFLY WILL BE ON IN A MINUTE... and then someone tells Garcia probably the coolest thing you could tell Garcia when he was in your establishment, so Jerry tells the crowd- "We have some more time, we are going to play a little more"-JERRY GARCIA Yes, if the Butterfly was on the fence about playing then the rawness of the Other One probably convinced them that their heated tour bus was the only bus they were looking to get on this night. - February 6, 2015in ice petal flowers revolving... Reviewer: chris phillips - favorite favorite favorite - April 15, 2014 Subject: the real thing In the winter of '69 the Grateful Dead's performances really do the trick. - April 15, 2014the real thing Reviewer: njpg - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 6, 2012 Subject: Yes indeed! Some great shows in this season, and this one and the night before are maybe the craziest. - February 6, 2012Yes indeed! Reviewer: clementinescaboose - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 21, 2011 Subject: Out of Control With the exception of the Dew opener, this is just absolutely dripping with goo from start to finish. Dark Star, The Other One>Cryptical, Eleven>Lovelight all too good to be true! There is nothing like February 1969!! - July 21, 2011Out of Control Reviewer: rschwz28 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 2, 2010 Subject: Iron who? Just for experimental purposes, I tried looking at some IB concerts on You Tube last night. The music? Zero. The lyrics? Less than zero. The drum solo? A joke. I'm sure Keith Moon did not feel threatened! You frequently hear these bands talked about together: Beatles, Stones, Dead, Airplane, Hendrix, Cream, Who, Zeppelin, CSN&Y. I've never heard IB mentioned in the same breath. They're not in the same league. - July 2, 2010Iron who? Reviewer: Darrylizer - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 30, 2008 Subject: Now I'm pissed off Sorry but Iron Butterfly aren't half the musicians the Dead were. Speaking only about rhythm IB only wrote songs in 4/4 or common time, the Dead wrote songs in much more adventurous time signatures such as ten and ELEVEN, hence the songs title. Jesus get a frigging clue. The Dead were creative improvising musicians, IB were pop guys who played their songs the same way in the same order every night. Yeah they were tight, who wouldn't be if you played the same set every night? They were also, with the exception of their one hit, an average heavy 60's group and very dated. To call them master musicians is quite a stretch and to imply they knew more about music than Jerry and company is laughable at best and at worst ignorant. Oh yeah, this show smokes. - July 30, 2008Now I'm pissed off Reviewer: golfmann - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 27, 2008 Subject: I was there! And believe me.... Iron Butterfly was put to shame that night. I don't know HOW many IB fans became deadheads that night (whether they knew it or not) :) And to prove the point, how many Iron Butterfly TRIBUTE bands do YOU know of? It was the second time I saw them and sure as hell not the last! THANK you for having this for my memory. - February 27, 2008I was there! Reviewer: iggybur - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 4, 2007 Subject: :-P weeeellll, my pops has been to an IB show and noyz sounds about right, they were pretty good but nothin special really. I can totally understand your reasoning, sure, they were a band that did not allow taping. Buuut, not many ever made the effort anyway. I doubt the dead immediately allowed taping to go on in the very beginning too. 3.5 quality 4.8 playing nice show. - April 4, 2007:-P Reviewer: Ssag - favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 29, 2006 Subject: here it comes Alright why is it always the Dead are the best,they blew this band away and that band away blah blah blah? Faulty logic = why do you think there are thousands of Dead boots and no IB boots?...........Gheez I dont know maybe because the Dead were the only ones that allowed it and had a group of very dedicated people who did tape the shows illegally when it wasn't allowed. Huh? Gee oh yeah. Ummmm almost every band out there does not allow for taping live shows nor do they allow it to show up on a archive like this. And that my friends is why IB shows are not up here and circulating around, it is not because they sucked anr the Dead rule the music world. The Dead are great band don't get me wrong but this constant "they are the best" w/o proof or blind ranting how they are the greatest thing thats ever picked up guitars by Heads frustrates me. And yes they did have a hard time keeping their instruments in tune back then. That happens after playing hours w/o stopping for a break. Give this thinking a rest and just enjoy whats out there because there is ton of great music out there that doesnt have Jerry Garcia attached to it. That being said that is one super smoking Other One. - December 29, 2006here it comes Reviewer: noyz - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 28, 2006 Subject: wha? First off, amazing show. Second, its hard to call IB amazing since people who went to their shows just wanted to hear inagaddadavida. I'd know, I have ONE boot of theirs from '71 and the crowd screams for it after nearly every song (they finally do it as an encore). Do you see thousands of dead shows/boots available or IB's? There is a reason for that. - December 28, 2006wha? Reviewer: Young Blood - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 22, 2006 Subject: What? Who the hell is this guy below? What a dumbass 4.5 stars for the show. 4.5 stars for the sound adjusted for the period. I'm correcting for the Iron Butterfly guy. - September 22, 2006What? Reviewer: nips - favorite favorite favorite - April 5, 2006 Subject: Saucey Sorry folks but I'm gonna have to disagree with ya on one point. From a musical standpoint, Iron Butterfly is a much tighter, more educated group of players with brilliant songwriting skills throughout a three album period.(minus the tune 'In a Gadda Da Vida' which is probably the simplest and most cliche of their tunes) Just listen to an album entiteld "Ball" and the rest of "In a Gadda da Vida" and judge accordingly. They are actually a quite phenomenal and unique group and I advise you to at least check out their other stuff out before you discredit them entirely. I love the Dead also, I just wish they would spend more time tuning their guitars! - April 5, 2006Saucey Reviewer: capn doubledose - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 10, 2006 Subject: '69 Gold Standard They are playing for their lives on this and I can see how Iron Butterly felt upstaged - They crush anything after that. Remember at the time, IB had inna gadda da vida which was huge and GD just came out and rolled em. Billy is nuts on the drums and Pig blows the door off Lovelight. Sound is slacking but musically this is really hot. They come out with this over the top Other One which to me deserves 5 stars for the attitude alone - So funny they were this cocky in St. Louis and then crapped out at Woodstock 6 months later. How different would history have been if they played this set there... Moral of the story: guys dont eat the brown acid. - February 10, 2006'69 Gold Standard Reviewer: cool_breeze - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 27, 2005 Subject: They opened for Iron Butterfly at this gig... ...and the set was supposed to end with Lovelight. But (and I have this information from a person who was backstage at the show), after listening to the Dead burn the house down, Iron Butterfly didn't want to come out. So, the Dead came back on to play a "few more minutes" and proceeded to add insult to IB's injury with the Cryptical sandwich, Feedback, and AWBYG. I only saw IB once, at a little place here in Belleville called The Palace. The opening act for them that night was a band called the Hour Glass, which happened to have a couple of brothers named Allman playing in it. Being a no-talent, one-hit wonder does have its perils, one of which seems to be finding opening acts worse than you. This show gets five brass balls for the Dead totally upstaging Iron Butterfly. - May 27, 2005They opened for Iron Butterfly at this gig...

KYODO NEWS - Feb 26, 2020 - 19:40 | Arts, All, Japan A new manga plotted and designed by artificial intelligence that learned the artistic style of "Astro Boy" manga creator Osamu Tezuka will be published this week, a project sponsor said Wednesday. The manga "Paidon" to be released Thursday in weekly comic magazine "Morning" has been created by AI, which analyzed 65 works by Tezuka, including such classics as "Phoenix" and "Black Jack," according to Kioxia Holdings Corp., a memory chip maker that launched the project. By analyzing Tezuka's works, AI generated character designs and basic storylines before professional creators added such elements as clothing and dialogue to complete the work. "I always felt sad whenever Osamu Tezuka fans said they could no longer enjoy his new work. AI creating his new work...that's exactly the kind of (technologically advanced) world depicted in Tezuka's manga," the late author's son and video creator Makoto Tezuka, who contributed to the project, told a press conference in Tokyo. (Makoto Tezuka (L)) "I hope this technology will be applied to the training of young manga artists and also contribute to spreading the unique culture of Japanese manga to the world," he said. The new manga is about a homeless philosopher who together with a bird robot called Apollo tries to solve criminal cases in Tokyo in 2030. Magazine publisher Kodansha Ltd. said a sequel of the comic is currently in production. Tezuka Productions Co. and Keio University professor Satoshi Kurihara, who specializes in AI and computing, also cooperated in the project launched around July 2019. Kioxia changed its company name in October from Toshiba Memory Holdings Corp., a chip company spun off from Toshiba Corp. Related coverage: Manga on Uyghur woman's testimony of torture in China goes viral Tokyo manga hotel makes virtue of sleepless nights Hatsune Miku affirms global star status with second Europe tour

The United Nations (UN) is often a theater of the absurd, where events take place that represent the exact opposite of reality. So it was with the Palestinians and the G-77 last week. Palestinian Authority Chairman and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Mahmoud Abbas assumed the presidency Tuesday of the largest United Nationa bloc – the Group of 77 plus China — as the “President” of “the State of Palestine.” The G-77 has 134 member nations. On the face of things, electoral victory at the G-77 is a stunning victory for Abbas and a scathing defeat for Israel. The most stunning aspect of the Palestinian presidency is that “the State of Palestine,” which was elected to lead the group of developing nations, doesn’t exist. Whereas Israel – an actual state that “Palestine” seeks to destroy – is excited when it can pass a completely uncontroversial and effectively meaningless resolution in a minor UN agency encouraging business entrepreneurship, the Palestinians run a 24/7 campaign against the only democracy in the Middle East and have a lock on success in every UN agency and committee – large and small – except for the Security Council. Due to this state of affairs, Israel is condemned more than all other UN member states put together. The UN has a special day set aside each year bemoaning Israel’s very existence. Condemning Israel is a permanent agenda item at the UN Human Rights Council. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) devotes its energy to erasing Jewish history from the history books and condemning Israel for refusing to get with the program. All this, as every tin pot dictatorship wins senior positions on the most illustrious – and progressive – committees. All this, as the Palestinians have done nothing but reject peace and work for Israel’s destruction for the past hundred years. And now, by elevating the non-existent State of Palestine to lead them for the next year, the G-77 has given the Palestinians their greatest victory yet. Palestine may not be a state in the real world. But at the UN, it is a superpower. Yet at the end of the day, facts on the ground actually matter. And on the ground, Palestine isn’t a state. Abbas isn’t a president, and he isn’t legitimate. The roster of the members of the G-77 points clearly to the disparity between actual policies of governments and their support for the UN superpower “Palestine.” Over the past several years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vastly improved and expanded Israel’s relations with governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia — all members of the G-77. But even as newly-inaugurated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has pledged to move the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and made strengthening Brazilian ties with Israel a major goal of his administration, as a member of the G77, Brazil accepts non-existent “Palestine, “which seeks to destroy Israel, as the leader of the bloc. The same goes for India and Kenya and dozens of other G-77 member states with massively expanding bilateral ties with Israel. In other words, their embrace of “Palestine” at the UN doesn’t block them from embracing “Palestine’s” real-world nemesis. Then there is the issue of Abbas’s legitimacy on the ground. Currently, Netanyahu is standing for reelection. He will likely win a fifth term as prime minister and fourth consecutive term in office on April 9. In contrast, Abbas – the “President” of “Palestine” — ended his legal term in office ten years ago. He lost control over the Gaza Strip to Hamas twelve years ago. His continued survival in office owes to his brutal repression of his critics and opponents on the one hand, and to the fact that Israel controls security in Judea and Samaria, and so prevents his opponents from unseating or assassinating him, on the other. Making Abbas’s illegitimate claim to leadership all the more difficult to uphold, the Jerusalem Post reported that on Tuesday — the day Abbas took over the G-77 — “80 civil society institutions in the Gaza Strip sent a letter to the Group 77 and China in which they said that Abbas was not authorized to represent or speak on behalf of the Palestinians because his four-year term in office had expired in 2009.” The groups blamed Abbas for the humanitarian crisis in claiming that his decision to impose sanctions on the Hamas terror state had raised unemployment to 46 percent and the poverty rate to 65 percent. They also criticized Abbas’s violation of human rights in Judea and Samaria, accusing him of “cracking down on university lecturers and students, lawyers, physicians, engineers, journalists and human rights activists.” The group finally asked the G-77 to withdraw its recognition of Abbas as “President of the State of Palestine.” The letter from the Palestinian organizations is in line with survey data among the Palestinians, which show that they overwhelmingly view Abbas as illegitimate. In a December 2017 survey carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey research, 70 percent of Palestinians wanted Abbas to resign. Word of the terror attack in Kenya came during the G-77 meeting. And during his speech, Abbas condemned terrorism. “Terrorism,” Abbas said, “takes place worldwide on a daily basis. It is an epidemic and I therefore call on all countries of the world to cooperate, to put an end to terrorism, to uproot it.” He added, “The State of Palestine has adopted 83 protocols with 83 countries throughout the world to put an end to this scourge and to fight against terrorism and I call on all states to work with us to combat terrorism.” While Abbas was giving his speech, some 200 protesters were standing outside the UN building condemning the G-77 for electing Abbas and “Palestine” in light of his direct sponsorship of terrorism. As he condemned terrorism, Abbas failed to mention that he devotes 7 percent of the Palestinian Authority’s budget, and nearly half of the foreign aid the PA receives, to incentivizing terrorism. In 2018, Abbas spent $340 million of the PA’s $5 billion overall budget on paying salaries to terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons, and on transfer payments to the families of terrorists wounded and killed in the course of carrying out terror attacks against Israel. The protest outside the UN was organized by New York City Councilman Bruce Blakeman and Stuart Force, whose son Taylor Force, a U.S. army veteran, was murdered in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian terrorist in 2016. Last year, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act, which bars the U.S. from funding the Palestinian Authority so long as it maintains it maintains its payments to terrorists and their families. The disconnect between the events in the hall and the outside world – in terms of the member states’ bilateral relations with Israel; the Palestinian public’s rejection of Abbas; and Abbas’s role as terror sponsor and financier – points to a basic truth about the Palestinians and the nature of international relations. International support for the Palestinians grows with the level of abstraction. The more concrete one’s relations are with the Palestinian Authority – whether as Palestinians who live under its jackboot, or Israelis who are the target of its aggression – the less legitimate Abbas is, and the smaller the octogenarian with no legitimate claim to power appears. The more symbolic one’s relations with the Palestinians, the more fervent support for “Palestine” becomes. The G-77 isn’t elevating the “State of Palestine” because it cares about the Palestinians. The G-77 is elevating the “State of Palestine” because it doesn’t care about the Palestinians. Although India, for example, rarely votes against the “State of Palestine” at the UN, its bilateral ties with Israel have expanded exponentially in recent years. Netanyahu has worked assiduously to leverage the ties he has developed with states like Kenya, Rwanda, Brazil, and India into diminished support for the Palestinians at the UN. His efforts have brought about only a marginal change in behavior. By and large, the Palestinians can continue to expect support from the vast majority of UN member states for any initiative they launch against Israel. Indeed, long after Abbas, his successors and their PLO are ousted from power, they will remain in senior leadership positions at the UN. But as the recent massive growth of Israel’s bilateral ties to the nations of the world makes clear, there is often little connection between support for “Palestine” at the UN and animosity for Israel. Caroline Glick is a world-renowned journalist and commentator on the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, and the author of The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. She is running for Israel’s Knesset as a member of the Yamin Hahadash (New Right) party in Israel’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 9. Read more at www.CarolineGlick.com.

In July we released the first Ujo artist badge with the purchase of RAC’s Ego. The concept of that release was to do something different in order to truly show the potential what we’re doing at Ujo and what blockchains are capable of. Although the transfer was not automatic at the time, when you purchased Ego, you received 1 EGO token. There have been 138 tokens issued so far and we plan to keep issuing tokens as long as the album is for sale. If you purchased the album, check your MetaMask account and you’ll see this token in action. You may be asking yourself, “what does this mean? Is this token even worth anything?” The short answer is no, 1 EGO token has no monetary value at this time. To RAC this token means quite a bit. It means you supported RAC in testing new technologies, supported his work, and were willing to jump through a few hoops to get an album you could have streamed through your favorite music service. At the moment it doesn’t do anything but it does let RAC know that 138 of his fans were willing to go one step further than anyone else. In the future, this could mean a lot more than it does today.

Jil Sander and Raf Simons | Source: InStyle and Grazia Daily MILAN, Italy — The ongoing musical chairs amongst creative directors at major European fashion houses took an interesting, unexpected turn on Thursday, as Jil Sander announced that Raf Simons' would leave Jil Sander, while rumours swirled that Jil Sander herself, the founder of the brand, was set to return after having fallen out with previous management twice in the past. Mr. Simons, the rumour mill said, was set to replace John Galliano at Dior — which has not had a creative director since Mr. Galliano was summarily dismissed by the French couture house one year ago — or was headed to Yves Saint Laurent, where it is said that creative director Stefano Pilati is not particularly favoured by management. Not surprisingly, buyers and editors in Milan for fashion week were in a tizzy, and Raf Simons was trending on Twitter as news sources confirmed the longstanding rumours of his impending departure. As for the rest of the speculation, next steps for Simons and Sander have not yet been confirmed, though Suzy Menkes reported in a story for the Friday edition of the International Herald Tribune that Ms. Sander's return to her namesake label was all but a foregone conclusion. In the meantime, we wait for official news from Yves Saint Laurent or Christian Dior to see if Mr Simons will indeed continue to make fashion magic at one of the two storied Parisian houses. Imran Amed is founder and editor of The Business of Fashion

In 2016 alone, online gambling generated over $44 billion in revenue, most of the revenue coming from mobile devices. With a projected 5 billion mobile devices and rapid increase in mobile gaming adoption rate, the gambling industry is projected to be worth well over $80 billion by year 2022 and that is for official numbers, we expect a large underground bigger market. Online gambling industry does come with many challenges. Main challenges being consumer fears of not getting paid or being cheated during game play. Since its inception, online gambling has gone through several dubious practices in 2008 and 2011 specifically around world of online poker. Traditional online casinos are under constant scrutiny for running off with player’s funds or installing “God Mode” features which allows inside players to see other people’s cards or manipulate the game outcomes in their own favors. This brings us to an exciting opportunity of emergent blockchain technology that address all of the consumer concerns and makes online gambling transparent, safe and secure. Introducing Unilot Platform Unilot is a next-generation, Blockchain and Peer 2 Peer based gaming platform which brings power of transparency and accountability of blockchain technology while permanently resolving “not getting paid” concerns. To address concerns of player payouts, Unilot utilizes Escrow through Smart Contracts to avoid funds handling, all of the funds sit safely in escrow and funds get distributed upon completion of each game. Unilot solved the issue of “God Mode” by introducing an innovative approach to using Peer 2 Peer communication and Mental Poker Algorithm which allows Players involved in games that require card decks, to shuffle cards cryptographically without having Unilot systems having a preview of what the deck is. Unilot gaming platform will offer games like Lottery, Poker, Auction, Bingo and betting. What makes Unilot unique is that unlike traditional online gambling platforms, it will offer Unilot players ability to setup their own private games and act like a “house” by specifying what their cut of the winning is. For example, Unilot users will be able to easily setup their own private poker tournaments with push of a button and without needing to be tech savvy. This will allow players to generate their own income without having to setup any special equipment or go through all the headaches of white labeling and source code customization. The Token Sale What makes Unilot different from other startups, is that it already has a functional Unilot Mobile App available to download in iOS and Android app stores. To facilitate further development of the platform, Unilot has instituted a token sale. Scheduled to launch on January 10th 2018, the token presale which features an instant 40% bonus and 5 tier affiliate program. Unilot team is comprised of experienced developers and management team from online gambling industry. Unilot advisors have many successful ICOs under their belt. Unilot has already undergone through a private funding round in July of 2017. Join the token sale: https://unilot.io Read about Unilot game-changing platform: https://unilot.io/en-us/white-paper.html Join the conversation: https://t.me/Uniloteng Get in Early and Take Advantages of Discounts/Bonuses.

A swarm of hundreds of earthquakes that has been striking a corner of the Nevada desert near the Oregon border for months has intensified in recent days, prompting new warnings from seismologists. About 750 earthquakes, mostly magnitude 2.0 to 3.0, have struck the area about 50 miles southeast of Lakeview, Ore., since the swarm started in July, said Ian Madin, chief scientist for Oregon's Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. The temblors have been growing steadily stronger with time. Six earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater have struck the area since Tuesday and about 40 have struck in the last 24 hours, Madin said. "This week it has just gone crazy," Madin said. The swarm is beneath an uninhabited part of the Nevada desert near the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge, but officials are telling the public, especially the almost 2,300 residents of Lakeview, to develop earthquake plans if they haven't already. "If you are not ready for an earthquake, now is an awfully good time to get ready for an earthquake," said Alison Ryan, a spokeswoman for the department. Scientists believe groundwater is slowly percolating along the faults and building up pressure, making movement on the faults much easier, said John Vidale, director of the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington.

Archons of the Crucible, A dark cloud rose in the west, and its specter has hung over the KeyForge community for some days. There is only one knight who can dispell this dark force, a chosen one... a Key Man. Could it be that this true hero is the one, who himself is most afflicted by this darkness? Welcome, this knight, Sir Kirkman the Keyman (Justin Kirkman) into the castle for the first time. Therein he will join forces with our sanctified co-hosts to reflect on this trying time so that we might move forward together into a brighter tomorrow. Today, Archons, we call on you to be the force that moves this land towards good and not evil. To open doors, not close them. And to do that, you'll need keys, so start forging them! Support Sanctumonius on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sanctumonius Join the Sanctumonius Discord: https://discord.gg/2YDDRRZ New Sanctumonius Playmats: https://www.inkedgaming.com/pages/search-results-page?q=sanctumonius Sanctumonius Communi-Team Website: https://sites.google.com/view/sanctumonius Aurore's Blog: https://timeshapers.com/2019/10/15/investigating-holding-cards/ Alex Slotnick's Blog: https://proclamation346eakeyforgeblog.wordpress.com/

The title of this post refers to F.A. Hayek’s essay ‘Why I am Not a Conservative’, which can be found as an appendix to his 1960 book The Constitution of Liberty. What this post is really about is the deficiencies of American conservatism and the general idea of liberal conservatism or a natural alliance between classical liberals and conservatives. However, first a few words about Hayek’s essay as Hayek is an important figure for liberty advocates. The essay in question is well known and particularly easy to find online. Hayek’s criticism of conservatism overestimates the extent to which it is just a limiting position, slowing down change. The relation of conservatism to tradition is seem too much as conservatism being too slow to accept changes to tradition. Traditionalist conservatism, however, has been a much more active and dangerous force than that. ‘Traditionalism’ as far as I know is a 20th century term used particularly in France (René Guénon) and Italy (Julius Evola) to refer to a spiritual based for politics of an extreme conservative kind which found natural alliance with fascism. It seems clear enough that it has precedents in late 18th and 19th century conservative monarchist thinkers like Joseph de Maistre, Louis de Bonald, and Juan Donosó Cortes. Carl Schmitt, who was maybe the greatest 20th century admirer of those thinkers, joined the Nazi Party in 1933, though found himself purged as not properly Nazi from his post as head of a jurists’ association in 1936. Not only did Schmitt admire the French and Spanish thinkers mentioned, he was a great admirer of Edmund Burke. Burke is a favourite of those claiming a conservative-liberty affinity. It would be unfair to suggest that Burke would have welcomed National Socialism (though the same applies to de Bonald, de Maiste, and Donosó Cortes). It is a fact that a large part of conservative thinking of the time of the rise of Fascism, and allied forms of illiberal government such as corporatism, regarded it as a legitimate counter to Bolshevism and disorder. Even Ludwig von Mises defiled his own 1927 book Liberalism with generous words about Fascism as a counter to Bolshevism. The reality is that at the time such regimes came to power there was no immediate risk of Communist take over and this is a horrifying position, which cannot be justified by suggesting that Mises was writing in the heat of the moment as Bolsheviks stalked power in any particular country. Winston Churchill welcomed Fascism in Italy and even initially welcomed Hitler’s rise in Germany, before becoming acquainted with the reality of his regime. It is of course the case that Fascism and National Socialism had socialist roots as well as traditionalist conservative roots, but then a liaison between socialism and traditionalist conservatism as a counter to liberal individualism has a history going well back into the 19th century. We can see right now in Europe the growing force of conservatism with a populist-nationalist emphasis targeting abnormals (as in everyone who does not fit their assumptions of a normal person in their country). This is not some new addition to the repertoire of the right. The strong man of the Northern League in Italy, Metteo Salvini, has aligned himself with Mussolini recently by tweeting a variation of Mussolini’s slogan ‘many enemies, much honour’ on Mussolini’s birthday. The Hungarian equivalent of Salvini, the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has rehabilitated the pre-war authoritarian leader Miklós Horthy. The Legue, Orbán’s Fidesz party, the Bannonite wing of the Republican Party and the like are stuffed with Vladimir Putin apologists, or at least as in Bannon’s case slippery arguments according to which he does not like Putin, but we should ally with him. In any case, Bannon is very active supporting the pro-Putin parties in Europe. These parties draw on long traditions of conservative populism, monarchist anti-liberalism, and the like. The appeal to conservative love of monarchy, state church, and social conformity was a major weapon of monarchist conservative forces after the 1848 Springtime of the Peoples in Europe, helped by violent Russian intervention in the Austrian Empire to ‘restore order’. We see something like this now in the growing strength of a brand of conservatism which does not just limit change but fosters change in the direction of illiberalism, nationalism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, Christian identity, free trade, liberal protections of the individual from state power, the rights of civil society organisations to stand up to the state, and economic protection, seeking inspiration from the kleptomaniac nationalist authoritarian regime in Russia. Enthusiasm for Recep Tayyıp Erdoğan is less obvious, but Orbán has put him on his list of ‘illiberal democracy’ heroes, and we can reasonably say that the rhetoric and methods of Erdoğan have been an inspiration for the populist right throughout Europe, even as, like Órban, it puts Islamophobia at the centre. The role of Donald Trump and Steven Bannon as friends of, and models for, European populists should give reason to wonder whether Hayek misunderstood US conservatism. More on this in the next post.

Depuis sa poussée dans les sondages, le candidat de la « France insoumise » fait l’objet de toutes les attentions et de toutes les critiques, et pas seulement de ses concurrents. Son projet économique, mais également ses positions à l'international sont pointées du doigt par les médias. Un « bad buzz » qui ressemble fort à un « buzz » tout court, offert à 10 jours du premier tour. Et si la surprise de la présidentielle 2017, c'était lui? La question semble sévèrement travailler les rédactions françaises et mêmes internationales depuis moins d'une semaine. Dimanche 9 avril, un sondage Kantar Sofres — Onepoint pour LCI, RTL et Le Figaro est venu chambouler le podium établi jusque-là par les pronostiqueurs, en donnant pour la première fois Jean-Luc Mélenchon devant François Fillon, à respectivement 18 % et 17 %. Une surprise qui a fait réagir François Hollande, lui qui s'était pourtant promis de ne pas sortir de son devoir de réserve jusqu'au premier tour. Mais peut-on lui reprocher, maintenant, d'être à une contradiction près? Dans une interview accordée à l'hebdomadaire Le Point et publiée jeudi 13 avril, François Hollande en appelle ainsi «à l'intelligence des Français » lorsqu'il dénonce « le péril » consistant à regarder « le spectacle du tribun plutôt que le contenu de son texte », une allusion claire à Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Une surprise de taille, d'autant plus que jusqu'à présent, le candidat de la « France insoumise » n'était pas vraiment pris au sérieux par les médias. Preuve en est certainement le fait que depuis plusieurs jours, les journalistes semblent découvrir le programme de Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Pour le politologue Thomas Guénolé, auteur de « La Mondialisation malheureuse » (Ed. First, 2016), il est d'ailleurs rarissime qu'un journaliste lise en intégralité le programme d'un candidat, d'autant plus dans une campagne où onze prétendants s'affrontent: ​ « Il faut mettre un terme à une légende: la plupart des journalistes, la plupart des éditorialistes et la plupart des électeurs prétendent lire les programmes, mais ne les lisent pas ou les lisent en diagonale ou les lisent de manière bâclée. » Le politologue souligne ainsi le risque pour les journalistes de « répéter des rumeurs, des clichés ou des raccourcis », faute de temps pour approfondir les choses. Sans oublier, bien sûr, le risque de se retrouver dans des situations pour le moins cocasses… Être journaliste ne dispense pas de savoir lire (ni de savoir-vivre envers son invité…) https://t.co/vnNXjMBgDJ — Jacques Sapir (@russeurope) 23 марта 2017 г. ​Dans la presse, ce sont principalement Les Échos et Le Figaro qui concentrent les tirs, le premier titrant sur le « risque » Mélenchon, le second sur le « projet dévastateur » du candidat d'extrême-gauche, qualifié au passage de « Chavez français ». Plus modérés, BFM et RMC se sont contentés de revenir sur les craintes de certains Français, prêts à quitter la France si Marine Le Pen ou Jean-Luc Mélenchon venait à être élu. Des critiques de la presse qui donnent échos aux piques adressées cette semaine à Jean-Luc Mélenchon par ces principaux opposants, tels qu'Emmanuel Macron et François Fillon. Un phénomène rationnel, sur lequel revient Thomas Guénolé, ce phénomène s'explique de manière tout à fait rationnelle: Cependant, si on pouvait s'attendre à des critiques sur le programme économique du candidat de la part de ses opposants ou de journaux de ligne éditoriale libérale ou conservatrice, la critique prend une toute autre dimension lorsque le programme international du candidat est évoqué. Dans C à vous, Patrick Cohen, brandit fièrement le programme du candidat de la France insoumise devant l'un de ses porte-parole, Alexis Corbière, invoquant le « chapitre » 62 (points 15 et 62 de son programme) et la fameuse alliance bolivarienne, qui depuis ne cesse de faire parler d'elle. Cela vire presque au Mélenchon-bashing, lorsque Clémentine Autin, autre porte-parole de la France insoumise, est prise au dépourvu sur cette même alliance bolivarienne, cette fois-ci sur le plateau de France Info. Pour le politologue, le tableau n'est pourtant pas si noir pour le candidat de la France insoumise, rappelant qu'« un vieil adage de marketing dit qu'il n'y a pas de publicité négative ».insiste-t-il, faisant remarquer que Jean Luc Mélenchon a depuis occulté tous les autres sujets, notamment les campagnes des autres candidats. En somme, un « bad buzz » certes, mais un « buzz » quand même, offert au candidat, tout cela à un peu plus d'une semaine du premier tour. Une volée de critiques qui ne fait que légitimer le candidat d'extrême-gauche dans son rôle de candidat antisystème. Phénomène ne pouvant que conforter son assise dans les sondages. Thomas Guénolé revient sur la part considérable des Français qui ont basculé ces dernières années dans une situation de relative précarité économique, d'instabilité professionnelle, nourrissant le vote contestataire, tant dans sa frange « raciste et xénophobe », selon ses termes, que dans son pendant « altermondialiste », évoquant le travail de l'économiste britannique Guy Standing, auteur « Le précariat, les dangers d'une nouvelle classe » (Editions de l'Opportun, 2017): « Le précariat, c'est la France qui a des débuts de mois difficiles et qui ne sait pas où elle en sera économiquement et socialement le mois prochain. Cette France-là, c'est la majorité des français. » Pour le politologue, face à cette « conséquence d'une politique économique pro-mondialisation », la question centrale pour Jean Luc Mélenchon dans cette campagne demeure la suivante: « à quel point peut-il réussir à fédérer un maximum de révoltés contre ce qu'on pourrait appeler la mondialisation malheureuse? » Ainsi, si certains de ces opposants, comme Bernard-Henri Lévy — soutien d'Emmanuel Macron — se satisfont publiquement de cette polémique qui enflait sur l'alliance bolivarienne, Rejouissant embarras des lieutenants de #Mélenchon face à cette affaire d'alliance #bolivarienne: "Europe non; Iran, Syrie, Cuba, oui!" — Bernard-Henri Lévy (@BHL) 13 апреля 2017 г. ​Celle-ci n'est peut-être pas forcément tant à l'avantage des détracteurs du candidat. Tout comme le souligne d'ailleurs Eugénie Bastié, journaliste du Figaro. Les gens s'en foutent, il monte encore. https://t.co/QsDwxhDzvl — Eugénie Bastié (@EugenieBastie) 14 апреля 2017 г. ​Reste à savoir à quel candidat cela profite « Jean-Luc Mélenchon est devenu l'allié inespéré de François Fillon » relevait ce matin sur Europe 1, le chroniqueur Antonin André. Il relève un paradoxe: celui, pour le candidat Républicain et celui d' « En Marche! », de placer Jean-Luc Mélenchon au centre du jeu en agitant ainsi « la peur du bolchévique » afin de fédérer leur électorat. « L'arme Mélenchon est à double tranchant, elle peut très bien se retourner contre ceux qui l'agitent » conclut-il.