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TORONTO - Danny Koevermans has Dec. 14 circled on his calendar. That's when the big forward takes his family back to the Netherlands. Koevermans doesn't want to go. In fact he desperately wants to stay at Toronto FC to take care of unfinished business. "I owe the franchise something. I owe the fans something," he said emotionally. "But it just didn't work out the way I wanted." Scroll to continue with content Ad The die has been cast. Let down by his left leg, the star striker is history here. After working 11 months to return from knee surgery, Koevermans has managed to play just 78 minutes this season. The knee has been fine. But he has been betrayed by a recurring calf injury. "It's not been what I've expected," he said. The bottom line for No. 14 in two-and-a-half seasons in Toronto? Seventeen goals on 43 shots on goal. He played in just 30 MLS games (22 starts) at a cost of something north of US$4 million. The team's record when he played was 7-12-11. And no one feels worse about it than Koevermans, who has said little publicly in recent weeks. In an extensive interview this week with The Canadian Press, a classy Koevermans was alternately proud, sad, happy and full of regret in discussing his time with Toronto. He hopes to play one more year in the Netherlands, keeping his fingers crossed that his body doesn't break down again. He knows time is against him. While he looks lean and buff, he turns 35 on Nov. 1. The injuries have been tearing him up. After yet another injury breakdown, he turned off his phone and left the training ground. "I was a mess," he said. Despite being "abandoned" by his left calf muscle, he has since tried to find some inner peace. "What can I do. I've done everything to come back — here," he said. Story continues On the record, club officials say all the right things about Koevermans' valiant efforts to return. But they have moved on. --- Koevermans, along with former German international Torsten Frings, was introduced June 29, 2011, by Toronto FC. "A massive step,'' Paul Mariner, then Toronto's director of player development, said at the time. Due to red tape, the two new designated players had to wait until July 20 to make their debut in a 1-0 loss to FC Dallas at BMO Field. Twenty-seven months later, only Koevermans, defender Doneil Henry and goalie Stefan Frei remain from Toronto's 18-man matchday squad that day. And Frei, whose contract is expiring like Koevermans', is also headed out the Toronto door. Frings, Danleigh Borman, Dan Gargan, Ty Harden, Andy Iro, Milos Kocic, Joao Plata, Ryan Johnson, Maicon Santos, Nick Soolsma, Matt Stinson, Nathan Sturgis, Eddy Viator, Mikael Yourassowsky and Gianluca Zavarise have all moved on. Koevermans initially said no when then-manager Aron Winter approached him in January 2011 about coming to MLS. A young Koevermans had played with Winter, then an aging star, a decade previously at Sparta Rotterdam. Winter called again in May, at the end of his season. Koevermans thought he had a deal with a club in Europe but it fell through. So he said yes to MLS. "Basically within nine days, it was done," he recalled. The contract was so lucrative even Koevermans was surprised when he finally saw it. It allowed him to hold onto the house he owned in the Netherlands, the home he is now returning to. Koevermans didn't even know what a designated player was until he heard he was one at the introductory news conference. While their relationship cooled in the wake of Winter's firing in 2012, Koevermans remains grateful to his fellow Dutchman for bringing him to Toronto. The striker also makes a point of thanking former assistant coach Bob de Klerk, (then MLSE COO) Tom Anselmi and Mariner, who followed Winter as coach. And he is quick to thank Toronto's training staff of Carmelo Lobue, Shawn Jeffers, Marcelo Casal and Nick Milonas for all the hours they invested in him. "We worked so many hours together. And in the end it just didn't work." --- Koevermans' job description in Toronto was simple from Day 1. "I'm here to score goals," he said. He potted eight in 10 games in his debut 2011 season, scoring goals from all angles and with every part of his body. Rather than a artist who ranked each goal by beauty, Koevermans was a production-line scorer. Having scored one, he looked for another. "I came here to prove something and to play soccer and to give this franchise something," he said. "And I started off great the first year. Awesome. "I saw the Wall of Honour (at BMO Field) and I wanted to be there, next to Jimmy (Brennan) and Danny Dichio, I wanted to be there, score so many goals for this team. But the ACL ruined everything. "And that's life. You don't know what's around the corner. That's unlucky. But I'm still healthy, I'm still breathing ... It's been a great experience for me. "At least I've proven to people here that I could do it, that I don't think it was a waste of money even though I haven't played for a year and a half." On and of the pitch, Koevermans has always been a straight shooter. He made headlines during the disastrous start to the 2102 season after Toronto slipped to 0-9-0 following a loss to D.C. United. "We're setting a record for the worst team in the world, man, and it's painful,'' Koevermans said at the time. "What can I say more? It's just the worst ever.'' Koevermans' previous teams had been winners. Playing for a loser was taking a toll. The Dutchman took matters in his own hands when he came off the bench the next game. He beat Chris Konopka (now a teammate at Toronto FC) to score in the 88th minute and end the record slump with a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union. Koevermans was troubled by minor injuries at the start of the 2012 campaign. When he regained his health, he went on a roll and had nine of the team's 19 goals when he went down. According to Opta, which tracks statistics, Toronto scored every 65.9 minutes during the 2012 season with the big Dutchman on the field. Over the same stretch of the season when he hadn't played, they scored every 130.8 minutes. His MLS career essentially lasted one calendar year, from July 2011 to July 2012 with 17 goals in 21 starts and 26 appearances. --- Koevermans has more than a few dates etched in his mind. There's July 14, 2012, when he wrecked his knee on the artificial turf at New England's Gillette Stadium. And June 29, 2013, when he played 55 minutes against Real Salt Lake in the first start of his comeback after two short appearances as a substitute. An ankle knock signalled the start of a string of niggling injuries. He played just five minutes as a substitute the next week, July 3, against Montreal. The Monday after, he pulled his calf in training. He has made it back to training twice with the team but each time his calf has flared up. He initially returned to action in a four-minute appearance as a substitute on June 1 against Philadelphia. "I will always remember that feeling — the standing ovation of the crowd," he said. "But that's basically my highlight of the season, because anything else has just been disastrous." And that moment was spoiled when Jack McInerney scored in stoppage time to give the Union a 1-1 tie. He made his comeback in a reserve game on May 16 and said he felt great for six weeks until the Real Salt Lake game. "Those were my finest hours," he said of the season. Adding to his pain this season was the fact that his best friend on the team, Canadian midfielder Terry Dunfield, was dumped for salary cap reasons. --- Koevermans' plan is to return home to his home near Eindhoven. "Hopefully I will remain fit,. And then hopefully a team picks me up in Holland. And I'll sign until the end of the season. And then we'll see from there. If I still feel OK, maybe another year. Otherwise I'm going to retire." "I can't finish like this," he added. "No chance." A native of Schiedam, he began his pro career in 2000 with Sparta Rotterdam for whom he scored 71 goals in 110 appearances. He moved to AZ Alkmaar after the 2005 season, scoring 31 goals in 52 appearances. He played from PSV Eindhoven from 2007 to 2011. Koevermans won four caps for the Dutch national team. He is trying to staying positive about his calf. "Because if I think it's not going to work, then it won't work." --- Toronto will always have a special place in his heart. Initially Koevermans and his family were put up in a condo but he quickly moved to the Beaches where he rented a house — a move he says was like "a winning lottery ticket." "For me the way in life in Toronto has been awesome for me, great. And I love it. Honestly I want to love here forever. Because where I live, the Beaches, it's such a great place for the kids, for myself, for my wife. "But sometimes decisions are made for you. And my calf made a decision for me the moment I pulled it again. After I did that, I just got home and said "Listen it's over. We're going back.'" He had hoped to get one more year in Toronto. Koevermans loves the fact that if leaves his house and turns south, he hits Lake Ontario, the beach and the boardwalks. If he goes north and east, he has his choice of the coffee shops, restaurants and stores on Queen Street. And he loves Toronto, "because there's always something going on downtown, somewhere in the city." At US$1,663,323.33 this season, Koevermans was one of eight MLS players making more than a million dollars. He admits the size of his paycheques has bothered him given the return on the dollar. He even went to team management to ask to return next season, understanding he would no longer be a DP and would have to play for a vastly reduced salary. But a fully guaranteed contract can be hard to come by in the league. Given his injury status, a semi-guaranteed deal was too uncertain for him. "I honestly hope that my wife (Marijke) will say in the future 'I miss it, let's go back.' She says that. We're coming back." His daughters, seven-year-old Esmee and five-year-old Isa also love Toronto. "When I see the kids saying goodbye at school and stuff, it's going to be devastating," he said. Neither girl spoke English prior to arriving — "only the colours, because I taught them, and the numbers one to 10," he said. Today their English is "better than mine," said Koevermans, whose English is excellent. The Dutchman will leave a fan of the Maple Leafs and Blue Jays and is already regretting the time difference between Europe and Toronto since it will make following such teams that much more difficult. --- Koevermans says he could write a book about his time at Toronto. In his 2 1/2 years, Koevermans says he has seen 54 players come and go. "That's an insane number. I think that says it all," he said. "And again, at the start of next season, probably what will happen is they will bring in maybe 12, 13 new players, maybe more. "Just hoping they are the right ones. And if it is not right again, it will just keep on going." Koevermans retains a soft spot for Frings and fellow forward Ryan Johnson, later shipped to Portland. "Ryan Johnson made my life easier on the pitch. Absolutely, I think we had a good partnership." Mariner, a former striker himself, also has a special place in Koevermans' heart. Koevermans will leave a fan of MLS, a league he says whose players are underestimated. "This is a good league with good players," he said. His wish list, however, would include getting rid of the salary cap or, at the least, increasing the minimum salary. Watching a player like Toronto fullback Ryan Richter put in the same hours and effort as him for $35,125 just isn't fair, he says. And while some bitch about travel in MLS, Koevermans gleefully recounts all the North American cities he has been able to visit. He has seen every MLS city with the exception of Salt lake City. --- While Koevermans isn't pointing any fingers, he says hopes Toronto FC can finally turn it around. "I remember in the pre-season, the gaffer said to a player 'How can you (only) win five games in a season? That's unbelievable. How can you win so few games.' Now we are one season later and again it's only five wins — with a last game coming, so hopefully it will be six." "I'm not here to blame it on everyone," he said . "The record shows we didn't do it right (this year). I just hope one year they do it right."
Hundreds of million of dollars in spending on day-to-day operations will be stripped from the budget of NSW's lead transport agency this year and an immediate freeze put on hiring new staff, sparking fears services will suffer. The transport agency is under pressure to cut its budget for existing operations amid record spending on multibillion-dollar projects such as a metro railway and light rail lines in Sydney's central business district and Parramatta. In a briefing note to staff obtained by Fairfax Media, Transport for NSW secretary Tim Reardon said his deputy secretaries had been told that operating budgets for all of the agency's divisions had been cut by 15 per cent this financial year. That amounts to a drop of hundreds of millions of dollars in operating expenses across the transport agency's divisions, based on the forecasts in the state budget in June. However, the cuts do not include longer term costs such as bus contracts.
I had so much fun reading the comments posted over the past few days in response to my piece on Billy Squier’s unbelievably bad video for “Rock Me Tonite” that I couldn’t resist sharing another video. This one I’ve actually posted on DM before. It features blue-eyed soulsters Hall and Oates singing “She’s Gone” while in what appears to be a shared drug-like stupor. Pre-dating MTV by almost a decade, this “promotional video” for the album Abandoned Luncheonette was made in 1973 and not released until years later. It’s a real jaw-dropper. The clothes, the glazed expressions, the parade of women passing in the foreground, the red-sequined devil costume, the guitar solo with flippers…it’s all so ridiculously strange that it had to be a parody, right? A punk-style “fuck you” to the music industry? When I originally shared this vid on DM a couple years ago, I didn’t know its history. As it turns out, the video was an elaborate joke with very little sub-text. A “fuck you” of sorts. In a 2009 interview with John Oates, the truth came out: Well, I’ll give you a little background about what happened with that “She’s Gone” thing. First of all, it was 1973. There was no MTV, there was no outlet for anything like this. You know, it might be one of the first music videos ever made. I really couldn’t say, honestly, but it definitely would be a contender. What happened was, we were asked to lip sync “She’s Gone” for a teenage TV dance show broadcast out of Atlantic City, New Jersey. And we really didn’t want to do that; we didn’t want to pretend to sing the song. It was supposed to be shot in a television studio in Philadelphia. So we thought, with the mindset that we were in at the time – and I won’t say more on that, either - We showed up at the television studio with a chair from our living room. The woman who’s walking through the picture – that’s Sarah… Oh, wow. And the devil who comes through was our road manager at the time. And we brought Monopoly money, and those weird instruments, and they thought we were nuts. They really thought that. My sister directed that video. They thought we were completely insane. They actually didn’t air it; they wouldn’t air it. But we had it this whole time, and eventually I leaked it out to the internet, ’cause I just thought the world should see it. Sounds kinda hip. You buying it?
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Mayor Bill Peduto likes to talk about creating a “superhighway.” Not another parkway. Not a new busway. A superhighway … for bicycles. Some of you are groaning already, wondering, “What is it with this mayor and the bikes?” The groaning began over the summer. Pavement that had always been the automobile’s exclusive domain was suddenly being cordoned off for bicycles. Protected bike lanes were installed in Oakland, on Downtown’s Penn Avenue and on the Warhol Bridge. While bicyclists and biking advocates applauded, others were less enthusiastic. “This has totally snarled traffic up,” said Penn Avenue business owner Greg Eide. Some called the bike lanes – little trafficked, at least at first – “ridiculous,” or “pointless.” Mayor Peduto – a big bike lane backer – was not shocked by the backlash – or – as calls it, “bikelash.” He says he knew there’d be bikelash in Pittsburgh because it seems to happen everywhere cities take steps to accommodate bicyclists. Peduto says it’s fueled by, among other things, talk radio. But he says it’s not permanent. “It goes away once people understand that the roads are there for everyone, not just the automobile. And if you make it safer for the cyclist, you’re also gonna make it safer for the motorist,” he said. KDKA’s Ken Rice invited the mayor to take a bike ride recently on Penn Avenue. Throughout the brief ride on a Saturday afternoon, they were the only bicyclists using the lane. Peduto said he was not troubled. “No, it would distress me, if on a Monday morning on the way to work, that it wasn’t being utilized,” said Peduto. (On a subsequent Monday morning, KDKA observed bike traffic on Penn and found the lane was being used.) But Peduto says for now, the city is not counting bicyclists. “Not until we get more infrastructure in place,” says Peduto. “Having one lane isn’t going to all of a sudden make people say, this is the way that I can be able to do it. Having a lane that connects to another that connects to another that allows you to be able to get safely around Downtown with only limited access to roads that you have to share with an automobile, that’s when you build the capacity.” That’s that bike “superhighway” the mayor envisions – a network of bike lanes on certain roads, connecting to our riverfront trails. And far more than an amenity – the mayor insists – it’s actually economic development. He points to Google as an example. Says Peduto, “They won’t tell me that they need lower taxes. They won’t tell me they need more parking. They’ll say I need to improve public transit and make biking safer. There’s a different economy that’s emerging in Pittsburgh and there’s a different set of requests coming from the people that are leading it. And what we’re trying to do right now is not just play a game of catch up with other cities around the country, but actually to become a leader.” Fast-growing Google says of its several hundred employees in East Liberty, 15 to 20 percent currently bike or walk to work. It offered no comment on whether additional bike lanes might make it more likely to continue expanding its Pittsburgh presence. The region’s largest employer, UPMC, estimates that of its more than 10,000 employees at its Shadyside, Presbyterian and Magee hospitals, about one percent bike to work, seasonally. The question remains: Is the mayor getting way out ahead of his city, annoying drivers to accommodate relatively few bikers? Or, has the city been way behind in giving people – and companies – what they want? Bikelash be damned – Mayor Peduto’s betting on the latter.
Grocery shopping is a mundane task at best and a stressful task at worst, yet for customers of Mike's Independent Grocer in Regina, paying for their groceries just might be the highlight of their day. "I just try and loosen the edge, tell them icebreakers, tell them jokes — you know something that might lighten their day," said 20-year-old Ethan Chatsis. Chatsis has been a cashier at Mike's Independent on Broadway Avenue for two years. It's his first paying job, but he doesn't just do it for the money. "I don't know what people go through — they might have horrible things going on — so I just try my best to make people feel welcome and happy." Meet Ethan Chatsis - Morning Edition's Employee of the Week 1:25 The young cashier is well-known and loved by many of the store's regulars. CBC spoke with one couple who said they always try whenever possible to go through Chatsis's till as he always makes them smile. Another shopper told CBC he usually hits up the grocery store after work as Chatsis brightens his day. I tell people I think you're great. I don't know how much that means to people. I'm just some schmuck who works at Mike's, but I like to pay it forward. - Ethan Chatsis Chatsis said it's a good feeling knowing he makes a difference in the lives of strangers. "I've had people come through and say 'I was having a rotten day and you made me feel better.' That's why I do it." He said it's about perspective and choosing to appreciate the good in life rather than focus on things he'd like to change. "I do this because I know there are people like me, especially this time of year — Christmas ... It's a lonely time of year for some people, so if I can help somebody, then I'd like to do that." He said he knows what it's like to feel angry or angst ridden or isolated, and he makes it his mission to have people leave in a better mood than when they came. "I tell people 'I think you're great.' I don't know how much that means to people. I'm just some schmuck who works at Mike's, but I like to pay it forward." Who's the next Morning Edition employee of the week? We are looking to show some love to folks who make Regina a better place just by being great at their jobs. Do you have a favourite gas attendant? Is it a lifeguard at the pool? A librarian or letter carrier? Call Talkback at 1-800-661-7540 and tell us who you think deserves to be the next Morning Edition Employee of the Week or email morningedition@cbc.ca.
Facebook posting ... Jamie Cavanough with party founder Bob Katter. Mr Cavanough's comments emerged a day after a Katter candidate in Victoria, Tess Corbett, sparked outrage by likening homosexuals to paedophiles, saying they should be kept out of the classroom. She was then backed up by potential Queensland candidate Bernard Gaynor. Ms Corbett has since quit her candidacy and Mr Gaynor has been sidelined. Mr Gaynor, who was suspended from the party on Thursday following comments about gay teachers and abortion, complained of double standards. He said on Friday he would fight his suspension as other candidates or nominees had expressed personal opinions and not faced consequences. ''I might add, I support these comments from Jamie Cavanough, as I know many in the party do,'' he said in a statement issued on Friday afternoon. ''More importantly, I support the freedom for all Australians to express their opinion.'' Mr Cavanough made his comments on Saturday, less than a fortnight after controversy in the Greenway community over plans for a supposed Muslim enclave, dubbed ''Halal housing'', in Riverstone. Mr Cavanough posted on the Riverstone Community Group forum, which has 732 members on Facebook: ''Can anyone advise me where I can buy Guaranteed NON halal lamb for Australia day.'' When a forum user suggested he might try a butcher, Mr Cavanough replied: ''have not asked yet, just wondering if anyone new [sic] of any, I would prefer to always buy non halal as proceeds of halal goes to the Muslim community.'' And in a separate post, Mr Cavanough called on people to sign a petition against a supposed plan by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, to scrap the name Australia Day in favour of Harmony Day, saying ''the Muslim church is in favour of this''. The Prime Minister's office confirmed there was no such proposal. Mr Cavanough told Fairfax Media he was simply looking for a better deal on meat and his comments were not racially motivated. ''In my view, and it's not the view of any party, I want to be able to purchase a product that has not been faced to a god that I don't believe in and blessed,'' he said. ''Every time something is deemed halal they pay for the right. I have no problem with Muslims; I breed sheep and cattle and sell them to Muslims. I don't care what they do with them, I was just simply asking where I can purchase [non-halal meat].'' With several controversies over recent days, Katter's Australian Party confirmed that candidates would be reminded of their responsibility towards the party's policies, as opposed to their own personal views. Mr McLindon said that he had spoken to Mr Cavanough on Friday morning. "Some may chose to interpret [his] comments as naive, others will [interpret them] as poor political judgment," he said. "It's up to the discretion of people where they want to put their money, but sometimes it is best to keep those things to yourself." Mr McLindon said that as a small business owner, Mr Cavanough dealt with Muslim people on a daily basis, and got along with them. On Thursday, party leader Bob Katter appeared on Channel Ten's The Project for a fiery interview, in which he refused to be drawn on his candidates' views about homosexuality. "A leader should concentrate on the important issues," he said. "I'm not talking about it.""These issues are not relevant to what I am about in politics." On Friday morning, Mr Katter again refused to answer questions on Canberra local radio about the controversial comments. Mr Katter hung up on 2CC's Pete Davidson during the on-air interview at 8.30am. During the fiery exchange, Mr Katter said Mr Davidson and the media generally insisted on focusing on "gutter issues" rather than important problems such as water security. "You are saying that somehow we are racist. There is not the slightest threat of that in our party and there never has been," Mr Katter said. "You're trying to label us with some sort of a label." Labor's Michelle Rowland, the sitting MP for Greenway, which covers parts of Blacktown, Seven Hills and Parklea, said ''my jaw has just dropped'' when told of Mr Cavanough's comments. ''I think those comments are bizarre, I think they are out of line and I think they are totally inappropriate for someone seeking to represent the seat of Greenway, which is a diverse part of Australia,'' she said. Mr Cavanough has been courting the conservative vote in the absence of a Liberal candidate in Greenway. Fairfax Media revealed recently that Liberal Party officials were waiting for Tony Abbott to give his blessing to one of a list of candidates in the must-win seat, with concern growing at the delay in choosing a candidate. Loading with Canberra Times, Judith Ireland, Daniel Hurst
Op-ed: Global LGBT Rights a Patchwork of Equality and Persecution This year saw some steps forward on global LGBT human rights, but many victories came in the form of harm reduction rather than 'clean' wins. After a triumphant 2013, the equality movement in the United States continued to make gains this year. Courts in several states struck down same-sex marriage bans and President Obama issued a nondiscrimination order covering LGBT employees of federal contractors. Internationally, though, the picture is less bright. Despite — or in part because of — strides in the United States, a host of governments on different continents are further restricting the freedom of LGBT people. That’s not to say our domestic victories weren’t important or hard-fought, but often our global victories came in the form of horrors averted rather than progress forged. As 2014 began, international human rights activists especially focused on two countries: Uganda and Russia. Outcomes in these countries would affect the human rights climate not just in these nations, but in their respective regions. At year’s outset, the world was watching to see what would happen during the Sochi Olympics. Russia’s "gay propaganda law," passed in 2013, was a target of international advocacy efforts. Activists in Russia and around the world pressured President Vladimir Putin, who found himself in the unhappy position of having to address LGBT issues. But he was largely undeterred from his antigay stance: During the opening ceremonies, the police rounded up LGBT activists in Moscow and St. Petersburg, drawing charges of brutality. The antigay law remains on the books and has inspired legislation in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Armenia. However, a victory that emerged from the Olympics did not come in the form of medals, at least not where LGBT rights are concerned. Prior to the Olympics, activists blasted the International Olympic Committee for its meekness in challenging Russia’s human rights record. In response the IOC took the positive step of affirming that Principle 6, the Olympic Charter’s anti-discrimination clause, covers sexual orientation. But that wasn’t good enough: equality advocates pressed for explicit language to that effect. And just this month, the IOC added sexual orientation to the list of characteristics in Principle 6. The remaining flaw is that IOC didn’t take the important step of including gender identity. And the real test will happen in the coming months, when we’ll see if the IOC respects Principle 6 as it decides the site of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Kazakhstan is in contention, but its record on equality, including new anti-LGBT legislation under consideration, makes it an unsuitable host. In February, Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni signed a bill heightening the criminalization of homosexuality. The infamous death penalty provision had been replaced by one allowing for “only” life in prison. Paired with a similar new law in Nigeria, it made LGBT advocates fear a wave of such legislation across the continent. Indeed, there were attempts at passing such laws, including a successful one in the Gambia and an ongoing one in Chad. On the positive side, a similar bill in Kenya failed to gain momentum due in great part to a robust civil society that refused to move backward on fundamental rights. But Uganda provided one of the most important victories of the year when its Constitutional Court struck down the Anti-Homosexuality Law just days before President Museveni traveled to Washington, D.C., for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. The ruling striking down Uganda's draconian antigay law followed the news that the United States, the World Bank, and several other Western countries would enact sanctions on Uganda. Activists there say the pressure played a key role in the court decision and its timing. The ruling overturning the law, however, was based on process, not substance. There’s already another bill circulating in Uganda's Parliament. But President Museveni recently urged caution in moving it forward, citing the potential impact on Uganda’s economy, a sign that U.S.-led global pressure can work. Advocates in the United States should bear this in mind as they fight to protect LGBT people in Uganda and elsewhere. In an important related move, the African Commission on People and Human Rights issued a resolution calling on member governments to ensure that human rights activists are free from reprisal and to combat violence targeting people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The resolution pointedly refers to legislation targeting LGBT people and calls on law enforcement to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. The year wasn’t without clean, unconditional victories — Scotland and Estonia passed laws legalizing same-sex marriage, for example. In Botswana a court ruled that the government must let an LGBT nongovernmental organization register with the government. A court in Malaysia overturned laws that denied transgender people the freedom to dress according to their true gender. But many victories came with conditions. On the other hand, that’s often the way of civil rights movements: As activists, you spend a great deal of energy focusing on harm reduction, and your wins are often murky. But the conditional wins lead eventually to breakthroughs. SHAWN M. GAYLORD is advocacy counsel at Human Rights First, leading its initiative to combat violence against LGBTI people globally. Shawn previously served as the deputy director for the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League and as an associate at Harmon, Curran, Spielberg and Eisenberg, LLP. In addition, Shawn has worked extensively on the intersection of LGBT rights and human rights through his work as a staff member and volunteer for Amnesty International’s OUTFront Program.
Image caption Polio is still a problem in Pakistan The World Health Organization has declared its South East Asia region polio-free. The certification is being hailed a "historic milestone" in the global fight to eradicate the deadly virus. It comes after India officially recorded three years without a new case of polio. The announcement means 80% of the world is now officially free of polio, although the disease is still endemic in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Other countries in the WHO South East Asia region, such as Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan, have been free of the virus for more than 15 years. Countries in WHO SE Asia region Bangladesh Bhutan Deomcratic People's Republic of Korea India Indonesia Maldives Myanmar Nepal Sri Lanka Thailand Timor-Leste However, despite the "huge global significance" of the announcement, the WHO admits there are still major challenges to overcome if the world is the reach the goal of eradicating polio everywhere by 2018. There have also been outbreaks in conflict-hit countries such as Syria, which had previously managed to stamp out the virus. Polio mainly affects children under five years old. The virus is transmitted through contaminated food and water, and multiplies in the intestine. It can then invade the nervous system, causing paralysis in one in every 200 infections. South East Asia is the fourth of six WHO regions to be declared polio-free after the Americas, Western Pacific and Europe regions. Eastern Mediterranean and Africa have yet to gain a similar status. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO South East Asia regional director, said: "This is very significant because before this region was certified polio-free, we had half the world's population polio free. "With the South East Asia region being added we now have 80% of the population polio free. "This was a problem the region was struggling with for a long time, but now finally, we are polio free." Rise in polio cases Many experts thought India would be the last country in the world to get rid of polio says Deepak Kapur, of Rotary International's India National Polio Plus Committee. He said India faced several enormous challenges including its large population. He said: "India has close to 170 million children under five who needed to be immunised. Image copyright AMI IMAGES/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption The polio virus can be deadly "Then there's the existence of insanitary conditions which helped the polio virus to proliferate - and impure drinking water because polio is a water borne disease." But he said the fact that India had managed it and now the whole of South East Asia could be declared polio free sent a powerful and optimistic message to the three remaining polio-endemic countries. The world signed up to eradicating polio in 1988. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched, which is a partnership between governments and organisations such as Unicef, the WHO and Rotary International. The aim was to banish polio once and for all. In 1988 there were 350,000 recorded cases. By 2012 cases had fallen to 223. But last year there was a rise in cases to 406 new infections. "Every child is still at risk" The increase is largely down to vaccination campaigns being interrupted by conflict. In October 2013, Syria reported its first case of polio since 1999. By March 2014 there were 25 cases. An outbreak in the Horn of Africa, which started in May 2013, has seen 217 new cases in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. Rise and fall in endemic countries Afghanistan: 2012, 37 cases 2013, 14 cases Nigeria: 2012, 122 cases. 2013, 53 cases Pakistan: 2012, 58 cases 2013, 93 cases Source: Global Polio Eradication Initiative While Thursday's announcement clearly marked an important milestone, there was still a long way to go, said Mr Kapur. "Every child in the world is at risk of contracting polio until such a time as the wild polio virus is completely eradicated from every part of the world," he said. "Until then no child - be it in North America or Europe - will be free of polio potentially hunting them down all over again. "The only way to ensure the wild polio virus no longer exists in any part of the world is to wipe it out of every community in the world. "It is not good enough to wipe it out on one continent and not the rest of the world because today the world is just one global village. "The only way to keep polio away is through immunisation." He said if every child on the planet were immunised, there would be nowhere for the virus to flourish and spread. "Today's a big occasion for the entire global polio eradication initiative because if India - which had the most difficult of situations - can do it, others around the world can do it too," Mr Kapur said. "So Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria need to replicate the example of India and go after this virus. "Global eradication could and should be achieved in the very near future." Crossing Continents: Syria: The Silent Enemy is broadcast on 27 March at 11:00 GMT and 31 March at 20:30 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Assignment: Syria: The Silent Enemy is broadcast on 27 March at 08:06 GMT, 14:32 GMT, 19:06 GMT, 23:32 GMT, and 28 March at 03:32 GMT on BBC World Service.
Washington DC – -(Ammoland.com)- Just as the passage of concealed carry laws benefit women immensely, so too the reverse is true–the passage of more gun control hurts women especially. Gun control makes the vulnerable more vulnerable, and those who are already prone to attack are rendered prone to more attacks. In the book More Guns, Less Crime, scholar John Lott showed that women were among the top beneficiaries from concealed carry laws. Conversely, where gun control is stringent, crimes against women rise. Take Chicago for example, the gun control capital of America, where the NYT reported approximately 1,400 sexual assaults in 2010 alone. Or consider Chicago's murder numbers–approximately 441 persons murdered in 2011. And according to Chicago Police Department, roughly 10 percent of these murder victims were women. That means over 40 women were murdered in 2011, and if the 10 percent rule applies to 2012 as well, it means over 50 may have been killed in 2012, as the number of murders in Chicago during 2012 was approximately 512. Might not many of these women be alive now had they not been denied the right to keep and bear arms? For a hint at the answer to this question, contrast the experience of women in Chicago with that of Melinda Herman in Loganville, GA. In January 2013, Mrs. Herman grabbed her kids and hid in the attic of her home as an intruder pushed through the front door of the house and eventually began trying to come through the door to the attic. Huddled behind that door with her children, Mrs. Herman unloaded a .38 Special revolver on the intruder, ending the attack. The ability to exercise her 2nd Amendment rights saved Mrs. Herman and her children. Why should women be denied the ability to protect themselves in this fashion? As I told CNN's Piers Morgan on August 13, gun control is a real war on women. In denying women the right to keep and bear arms, governments at all levels force them into an attic like Mrs. Herman crawled into, but without the benefit of a gun. Instead of shooting their would-be killer or attacker, they must sit behind a locked door and hope the hinges hold until the police arrive. Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. About: AWR Hawkins writes for all the BIG sites, for Pajamas Media, for RedCounty.com, for Townhall.com and now AmmoLand Shooting Sports News. His southern drawl is frequently heard discussing his take on current events on radio shows like America's Morning News, the G. Gordon Liddy Show, the Ken Pittman Show, and the NRA's Cam & Company, among others. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal (summer 2010), and he holds a PhD in military history from Texas Tech University. If you have questions or comments, email him at [email protected] You can find him on facebook at www.facebook.com/awr.hawkins.
Wildlife Education Home Contact Orphaned Wildlife I found baby Raccoons I found baby Squirrels I found baby Opossums I found baby Bunnies I found baby Birds I found baby Skunks Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Rehabilitation Jobs Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator Wall of Pain In the Classroom Published Wildlife Articles Facts about Rabies On TV CBS, Channel 11 In the Dallas Newspaper Site Authors Fred Bohler Birgit Sommer Kathrine McGill Lynn Dunlap Critter Corner Animal Shelter.org Leaf Akron Sporting Dog Pro Can I keep it??? Contact on Facebook No Dogs Book a veterinary appointment with Vetary and give back to a pet shelter in need! The Real Facts about Rabies by BIRGIT SOMMER, June 17, 2009, edited/updated June 2016 Getting the facts about rabies is not easy. Myths and misconceptions are as strong today as they were 4,000 years ago when rabies was first recognized. When the average person today thinks about rabies, they typically imagine dogs gone wild, foaming at the mouth, and painful shots. Ignorance about rabies can be hazardous to your personal health and well being, as well as the safety of family members, beloved pets and livestock. Understanding the facts about rabies, as provided in this article, can help prevent the spread of the disease, ease your concerns, or even save a life. Even though we enjoy the benefits of 21st Century medicine, and while rabies is not as prevalent or as easy to contract as some might believe, rabies is still dangerous and even deadly to its victims, both animal and human. Once the rabies virus travels through the nervous system and is established in the brain, a painful period of suffering leading to death is the prognosis for the vast majority of victims who do not receive treatment. There have been however a few known survivors. Fact – You cannot contract rabies from an animal held in quarantine for 10 days after a bite or scratch. If a land mammal that appears ill or acts different from its normal behavior happens to bite you, it is possible you could be infected with the rabies virus. The virus is typically spread through the saliva of an infected carrier in the final phase of the disease after it has reached the brain. From thousands of years of medical observation of rabies victims, it is known that 1-5 days after reaching the brain, the animal will show unmistakable symptoms of rabies. A few extra days of quarantine are added as a precaution. Fact – Until the rabies virus reaches the brain, a bite from an infected animal does not transmit the disease to its victim. The period between the time a victim is bitten by a rabid animal and the time it can spread the infection to others is called the incubation period. It can take a few weeks up to several months for the virus to transfer from muscle tissue, to a peripheral nerve, the central nervous system, the brain, and from there into the saliva. This incubation time can depend on age (shorter in children), the location of the bite (the farther away from the head, the better), and the severity of the bite. Fact – A person cannot contract rabies from the blood, feces or urine of an infected animal, or from handling a carcass that is dried or mummified. Only saliva or nerve tissue (brain, spinal cord) from a rabid animal can transmit the virus to another victim. It is possible to contract rabies through an open wound or mucous membrane. One possible scenario would be by contact with a water dish contaminated with saliva from a rabid dog. Humans receiving organ transplants who died of rabies infection have proven that nerve tissue transmits the virus, as well. Fact – Bats can bite a victim without leaving a visible trace and present a unique danger for rabies infection. Bats could also carry the rabies virus. People who are awake will feel a pinch when bitten by a bat. But, when asleep, the bat’s needle-like teeth may leave no noticeable wound. Because a few cases have proven rabies as the cause of death in individuals found asleep in a room with a bat, state governments have taken special steps to educate their residents. In Iowa, for example, the public health department presents a detailed decision tree for the public to use in diagnosing suspected cases of bat-infected rabies, and recommends administering the rabies post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in cases where a person who has fallen asleep in the same room as a bat cannot say with certainty “I know I wasn’t bitten.” In Colorado, based on the epidemiology of rabies, the primary rabies exposure risk for domestic pets is from bats. The Colorado Public Health Department recommends prompt treatment of pets for any direct exposure to bats, such as if direct physical contact was observed, the presence of puncture wounds on the bat or pet, or the presence of saliva or injuries on the bat. Fact – Rabies is rare in rodents, squirrels and almost non-existent in opossums. Small rodents (mice, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, chipmunks, squirrels) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving abnormally and rabies is a major problem in your vicinity. Opossums have naturally evolved their metabolism to resist many common infections, as well as having a robust immune system virtually impervious to the venom of rattlesnakes, vipers such as cottonmouth snakes, and spiders. Their extremely low body temperature of 94 to 97 degrees F is an inhospitable environment for survival of the rabies virus and other common wildlife diseases. There have been only 5 confirmed cases of a rabies infected opossum in Texas since 1962. Fact – Human-to-human transmission of rabies is possible, but very rare. There have been 8 confirmed cases of death due to human-to-human rabies transmission as the result of a corneal transplant operation. Fact – The signs of rabies in an infected animal are not easily recognized. Foaming at the mouth can be a symptom of many conditions more common than rabies, such as roundworms, ticks, poisoning, liver failure, allergies, distemper, and dehydration. It is important to remember it is the total package of symptoms that add up to a possible diagnosis of rabies. Be alert for changes in behavior. A dog that is normally friendly may avoid people. Dogs that are not normally sociable may act friendly to strangers. Animals may become aggressive, make strange noises or erratic movements, and attack other animals or humans, or self-mutilate. They may have trouble drinking, swallowing, or chewing. A direct fluorescent antibody test (dFA) is used to test the brain tissue of animals suspected to be rabid. However, the dFA test can only be performed after the animal has died. Fact – Thoroughly cleaning and treating the bite or wound area significantly reduces the chance of infection. Immediate treatment is required in order to prevent possible rabies infection. First, flush the area with water for at least one full minute. Follow up by washing with soap (or detergent if soap is not immediately available) to remove saliva containing the virus. Then apply a disinfectant such as alcohol, bleach, iodine tincture directly on the wound and under skin flaps to stop the rabies from being absorbed into the body tissue. Get to your doctor or an emergency room as soon as possible. Fact – The symptoms of rabies in humans are numerous and increases in severity as the disease progresses. Some of the symptoms identified in rabies victims include twitching or tingling around the area of the animal bite, fever, sore throat, difficulty in speaking, confusion, aggressiveness, nausea, abdominal pain, muscle aches and spasms, paralysis, seizures, hydrophobia (fear of drinking or swallowing water, painful spasms when trying to drink), diplopia (double vision), breathing difficulties. Fact – Treatment for rabies in humans who have been bitten by a rabid animal is 100% effective if given within 24 to 48 hours after the bite occurred. Post-exposure rabies anti-serum costs about $1,200. Patients in the US receive one dose of human rabies immunoglobulin, or HRIG, and five doses of rabies vaccine administered over a 28 day period, at day 0, day 3, day 7, day 14 and day 28. One half the dose of the HRIG is injected in the region of the bite, if possible, with the remainder injected into muscle tissue away from the bite. Previously, the immunoglobulin was injected through the abdominal wall with a large needle which was extremely painful. Modern post-exposure vaccinations are just shots around the wound, arm or buttocks and NO LONGER the painful stomach injections people scare each other with. Fact – Vaccination of animals and humans can greatly reduce the spread of rabies. Vaccination of wild animal reservoirs through food baited with rabies vaccine has controlled the spread the disease in Europe and the US. At one point the virus was almost completely eradicated in the regions treated before rabies started to reappear from wild and imported animals. Wild animals such as the red fox account for 4 times the number of rabies cases as domestic animals in France. Domestic animal vaccination programs are the law in many municipalities across America. Typically, a dog or cat that is not current with rabies vaccinations and has a wound of unknown origin must be quarantined at a veterinary hospital at the owner’s expense or at home under the supervision of the department of agriculture or public health. Some pet owners cannot afford the cost of quarantining and are required, by law, to euthanize their pet. States such as Pennsylvania have set up vaccination clinics costing $10 to encourage residents to obey the law requiring all domestic dogs and cats three months of age or older to be inoculated against rabies. Fact – New treatments and vaccines hold promise for eventually and permanently ending rabies everywhere. In over 4000 years, when the rabies virus was first recognized, slow but steady progress was made in the fight against rabies. It wasn’t until the late 19th Century when the original rabies vaccine, harvested from infected rabbits, was formulated by Louis Pasteur and Emile Roux, back in 1885. The modern vaccine, formulated in the late 1960s, uses purified and cultured cells grown and harvested in sterile labs. Biological research and advances in technology continue to bring the world closer to eliminating rabies completely and forever. Today, the vast majority of human deaths caused by rabies occur in Asia and India. The industrialized world, including countries such as New Zealand and Australia, much of Western Europe, and the United States, have much lower rates of death from rabies. Human vaccination is essential for animal care professionals, lab technicians and anyone who may come in contact with the rabies virus in the course of their work or hobby. The vaccination consists of a series of shots given in the arm or shoulder and must be renewed on a regular basis. Since the potential for exposure is high among certain individuals, vaccines are effective in preventing rabies infections. Overseas travel to locations known for high incidence of infection is another circumstance where administration of the human pre-exposure rabies vaccination series is highly recommended. Summary Provide your pets and livestock with rabies vaccine as advised by your family veterinarian. Keep rabies pet vaccines current. Keep pets away from wildlife and don’t let them wander loose through the neighborhood. Contact the proper authorities if you see changes in normal behavior in an animal such as a dog that is friendly starts to avoid people; animals may become aggressive, make strange noises or erratic movements, and attack other animals or humans or even heavy machinery. They may have trouble walking, drinking, swallowing, or chewing. An infected animal may not be able to close its mouth, and may appear to be choking or even act suicidal, very much ‘out of its mind’ type behavior”. Never attempt to catch or touch the animal unless you are trained. If your pet is bitten by an animal, call the animal authorities and take your pet to the vet. If a person is bitten by an animal (whether it is from a wild skunk caught foraging in the trash or a nip on the hand from a neighbor’s pet), clean the wound thoroughly and go to your doctor or medical clinic for treatment. Contact the authorities who will try to capture the animal for testing or quarantine. Keep contact information handy for notifying the proper authorities about a possible rabid animal in the neighborhood. Information and research provided by Birgit Sommer, licensed wildlife rehabilitator in the State of Texas and Director of the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue. Texas Department of State Health Services - Rabies Statistic When it comes to rabies, ignorance can kill. Not just you or your pets, but innocent and healthy wildlife. The Zoonosis Control Branch of the Texas Department of State Health Services published rabies summary by county for the year 2014 shows that a total of 12721 animals have been tested for rabies. Of those 8.9% or 1132 animals returned a positive test result while 88.23% or 11224 animals returned a negative test result. 11,224 animal lives were taken, likely for no reason other than spending close to an estimated 1 million of our tax dollars. They must pay with their lives because people have possibly been exposed to rabies by them. If these same people had taken precautions against possible exposure to rabies, these animals would still be alive. Don't be responsible for the death of an innocent animal. Learn the facts about rabies and how to protect yourself, your family, your pets and our wildlife. So now you know: rabies is in reality far more difficult to contract than is purported by media and agencies. Additional Information - FAQs about Rabies 1. What exactly is rabies? Answer: Rabies is a contagious virus that can cause death in people and certain animals and is nearly always fatal if not treated in a timely manner. 2. How is rabies transmitted? Answer: The rabies virus is usually transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal, most commonly through a bite. The virus can be transmitted from animal to animal, from animal to human, and on rare occasions, from human to human. Rabies is NOT airborne. Infected saliva does not sustain the virus live in the environment once it has dried up. Another way of transmitting the virus, even though highly uncommon, is for saliva or brain tissue from a rabid animal to get directly into the eyes, nose, mouth or open wound of a person or animal. However, contrary to common belief, you can’t get rabies from the blood, urine, or feces of an infected animal. During her survey, Ms. Sommer noted another misconception about rabies transmission. She stated it is not true that an animal can be just a carrier of the rabies virus and transmit it to another animal or humans for weeks, months or even years. According to the CDC, "No person in the United States has ever contracted rabies from a dog, cat or ferret held in quarantine for 10 days." Before the rabies virus reaches the brain, the animal does not show any symptoms, according to the CDC. The animal does not appear ill during this time, called the incubation period, which may last for weeks or months. During this incubation period the animal CAN NOT transmit the virus to another animal or person. This is the reason why animals that have bitten a human are held in quarantine for 10 days. As the CDC states, " Only late in the disease, after the virus has reached the brain and multiplied there to cause an encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) does the virus move from the brain to the salivary glands and saliva." 3. What animals are most likely to have rabies? Answer: All mammals can get rabies. It is most common in un-vaccinated household pets such as dogs, cats and ferrets as well as in livestock such as cattle, and wild animals like skunks, bats, raccoons, coyotes and foxes. Small animals like mice, rats, squirrels, and even opossums, are almost never found to be infected with rabies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving abnormally and rabies is a major problem in your vicinity. 4. How can I tell if an animal has rabies? Answer: The symptoms are not easily recognized because other diseases display similar symptoms. Pets infected with the rabies virus act in unusual ways. Be alert for changes in behavior. A dog that is friendly may avoid people. Mean dogs may act friendly to strangers. Animals may become aggressive, make strange noises or erratic movements, and attack other animals or humans or even heavy machinery. They may have trouble walking, drinking, swallowing, or chewing. Animal may not be able to close its mouth, and may appear to be choking. If you see an animal acting like this, call the local animal control agency right away. “Suicidal, very much ‘out of its mind’ type behavior” 5. What should I do if I had contact with a possibly rabid animal? Answer: Prompt treatment is required to prevent a rabies infection. First, flush the bite or wound area with water for at least one full minute. Follow up by washing with soap (or detergent if soap is not immediately available) to remove saliva containing the virus. Then apply a disinfectant such as rubbing alcohol, bleach, or iodine tincture directly on the wound and under skin flaps to stop the rabies from being absorbed into the body tissue. Then get to your doctor or an emergency room as soon as possible. 6. How is rabies diagnosed in animals and humans? Answer: A direct fluorescent antibody test (dFA) is used to test the brain tissue of animals suspected to be rabid. However, the dFA test can only be performed after the animal has died. For humans, several tests are required to diagnose rabies. Samples of body tissues and fluids - saliva, spinal fluid, serum, and hair follicles - are tested for signs of the rabies virus. Positive results from one test is not proof of rabies, all tests are required for diagnosis. 7. Can baby animals have rabies? Answer: Babies born to a healthy rabies-free mother will be rabies free at birth. Babies born to a rabid mother will most likely have rabies, because it (they) are exposed to the mother’s saliva but she has to have advanced into encephalitic phase first and POST birth! If the mother becomes symptomatic she’ll likely kill her babies, or leave and be dead within a week but may have infected babies before abandoning them, something a healthy mother never willingly does. These babies will probably not survive long enough to go out into the world. Teach your children to never touch wildlife. Call the authorities or your local wildlife rehabilitator if you find a wild baby animal that seems to be orphaned and in need of human intervention. 8. How do I protect myself and my pets from rabies? Answer: Have a veterinarian vaccinate your dogs and cats against rabies. By law, you need to do this every year, or every three years, depending on the type of vaccine used. County/ municipality ordinances dictate the 3 year recognition. It’s the same vaccine. Typically the first vaccine given is valid one year, and then each subsequent vaccine is now 3 years, however check with your local city ordinance to verify this information. Keeping your pets vaccinated protects you and them. Keep pets away from wildlife and don’t let them wander loose through the neighborhood. Avoid contact with wild animals and with dogs and cats you do not know. Do not try to hand-feed wild animals and do not keep them as pets. Do not touch sick or injured animals. Call and report them to the authorities. 9. How do I prevent the spread of rabies? Answer: Be a responsible pet owner and have all your pets vaccinated once a year. Keep your pets confined and supervised. Spay or neuter your pets to prevent unvaccinated animals straying through your neighborhood. Enjoy wild animals such as raccoons, skunks, and foxes from afar. Do not handle, feed, or attract wild animals with unsecured trash, bird feeders, fruit trees, fish ponds or grills. Do not leave pet food outside! Do not rescue wild animals or bring them into your home. Do not try to raise orphaned wildlife; do not presume their mother is not around. Contact a local wildlife rehabilitator for assistance Sources: http://www.cdc.gov/RABIES/qanda/general.html http://www.dshs.texas.gov/idcu/disease/rabies/cases/statistics/ http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/rabies/vaccfact.htm Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is the property of the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue. The RWR holds all copyright interests in such material, unless specifically indicated. Permission to reprint is given with credit to the Rainbow Wildlife Rescue and noted authors.
With new developments towards the promise of autonomous vehicles, the driving experience of tomorrow is quickly arriving. Karl Iagnemma is a Principal Research Scientist at MIT, where he directs the Robotic Mobility Group. His research has resulted in more than 150 technical papers and a dozen patents, and has found application in passenger vehicle safety systems, robotic surgery, and Mars surface exploration, among other domains. Karl is also co-founder and CEO of nuTonomy, a startup focused on the development of software for self-driving cars. Karl holds a BS degree from the University of Michigan, and MS and PhD degrees from MIT. Topics Connectivity What it means to be constantly connected with each other and vast sources of information. Intelligent Machines Artificial intelligence and robots are transforming how we work and live.
FBI Director James Comey being sworn to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 3. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images) It’s safe to assume that the first time many Americans ever heard of James Comey, former director of the FBI, was when he held a news conference announcing that his agency wasn’t recommending that charges be filed against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Or perhaps it was when he sent a letter to Congress shortly before the election in which he announced that emails had been found on former congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop that might be related to that investigation. Or, for those more out of the loop, it was probably when he was unceremoniously fired by President Trump last month, after Trump apparently pressured Comey to curtail his efforts at investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. All of which is to say that Comey’s public presence is intimately intertwined with partisan politics. It is therefore both very surprising and not surprising at all to learn from a new Post-ABC News poll that more than half of the country has only some or no trust in what Comey says about that Russian investigation — a critical point as his Thursday testimony before Congress looms. It’s impossible not to notice, though, that attitudes toward Comey fit a particular pattern. Here’s how the question of trust in his comments breaks out by party and by education among whites (one of the demographic splits that defined the 2016 election). Republicans are much more skeptical of Comey’s word than are Democrats. Whites without college degrees — a fundamental part of Trump’s 2016 base — are much more skeptical than those with degrees. A quarter of Americans overall say that they have absolutely no trust in what Comey has to say. More than half of that group are whites without college degrees. In a January poll from Quinnipiac University, more than a quarter of Americans didn’t know enough about Comey to have any opinion of his job performance. (At that point, post-Clinton announcements and pre-Trump firing, it was Democrats who were most skeptical of how Comey was doing.) It’s not that people don’t trust the FBI, as such. In March, a McClatchy-Marist survey found that more than half the country, including more than half of the members of each partisan group, had a good amount or a great deal of confidence in the intelligence community, including the CIA and FBI. Those numbers don’t look much like the numbers on those who do or don’t trust Comey’s testimony. But that McClatchy-Marist poll did ask another question, which looks almost exactly like Comey’s numbers on trust: Whether or not people trust the media. Republicans are much more skeptical of the media than are Democrats. Whites without college degrees are much more skeptical than those with degrees. Gallup has tracked the decline in trust in institutions for decades, including the media. But at this moment, it’s clear that there’s another factor at play. Both the media and Comey are presenting information that positions a partisan politician in a negative light. Therefore, that information is discarded as biased or untrue. It’s not as if most Americans have a robust sense of Comey’s honesty, after all! This is someone who, a year ago, most Americans hadn’t heard of. Less than a week before the election, 40 percent of poll respondents told NBC News and the Wall Street Journal that they didn’t have an opinion on Comey or didn’t know his name. Now half think he’s not trustworthy. But why? Comey has been the subject of a number of news articles since his firing which describe his interactions with the president, but those have quoted people close to Comey, not Comey himself. He’s testified under oath before Congress a few times this year, but only said one thing that was revealed to be inaccurate — about Clinton, not Trump. It’s pretty unlikely that most people are aware of that inaccuracy anyway, since it was reported the morning he got fired, which sort of buried the story. That inaccuracy makes a prominent appearance in this ad, though, sponsored by a pro-Trump super PAC. It will run on cable news this week. The ad makes three arguments against trusting Comey, with an obvious eye toward attacking someone seen as a threat to Trump. In addition to the point above, Comey is criticized for not reversing a small change to an FBI policy put in place in 2013 and for being “consumed” with election meddling as terrorist attacks were “on the rise” in 2016. That’s it. That’s the case against Comey. The real tell in that ad, though, is that it’s titled, “Showboat.” In his interview with NBC’s Lester Holt last month — the interview where the president said that he was thinking of the Russia investigation when he decided to fire Comey — Trump used that same word to describe the former FBI director. “He’s a showboat,” Trump said. “He’s a grandstander.” Trust in Comey’s word is low because he’s been attacked by the president and the president’s allies, even before that ad emerged. As with the media, when people are asked to side with either the partisan president they support or someone who may make that president look bad, a lot of Americans are going to side with the president. The real theme to that anti-Comey ad is “they’re all corrupt and untrustworthy,” tacitly looping Comey in with D.C. and “career politicians” and newspapers and anything in that murky swamp on the Potomac that people dislike. Trump won the presidency on the same argument, that everything was corrupt and bad and unworthy of trust. In a two-person contest between him and an opponent who was also distrusted, he emerged on top — albeit narrowly and with only a part of the country standing with him. In the battle that will unfold with Comey’s testimony this week, the president and his allies clearly hope that by burying the former FBI director in the mud, they can once again scramble to a narrow victory.
No. 11 Oregon looks to match a school record of 15 straight wins when it takes on California at Matthew Knight Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 19. The chase for history tips off at 6 p.m. PT, viewable on ESPN2. Week 11 — No. 11 Oregon Ducks (16-2, 5-0 Pac-12) vs. California Golden Bears (13-5, 4-2 Pac-12) Date: Thursday, January 19, 2017 Time: 6 p.m. PT Place: Matthew Knight Arena (Eugene, Ore.) TV: ESPN2 Follow Along: Live Stats; @AddictedToQuack Oregon's school record winning streak happened in 1913. Other things that happened in 1913 - Henry Ford sells 200,000 of his Model T autos. — Oregon Basketball (@OregonMBB) January 19, 2017 At A Glance No. 11 Oregon Ducks (16-2, 5-0 Pac-12) — In their most recent outing, the Ducks dismantled Oregon State on Saturday, 85-43, marking the largest scoring margin for the Ducks in a Civil War win. Led by Payton Pritchard’s 17 points, four Ducks reached double-digit scoring. The Ducks were generous with ball, generating 23 assists on 27 baskets. Defensively, they blocked 12 shots and chalked up a season-high 10 steals… With the win, the Ducks won their 14th straight for the first time since 1947; extended their home-game winning streak to 36, the second longest active streak in the country behind Kansas (49); and started conference play 5-0 for just the fourth time in school history #StreaksOnStreaksOnStreaks… Through 18 games, Oregon is first in the country with 187 blocks, thanks in large to big men Chris Boucher (47, 17th nationally) and Jordan Bell (39, 31st nationally). The Ducks also own the eight largest scoring margin in the country at 16.9. "We know we still have the winning streak, but we don't pay no mind to it," guard Tyler Dorsey said. "We want to keep winning. … You can't sleep on other teams. You've got to take one game at a time, and one step at a time. If we want to win the Pac-12, we can't let any games go. Your record can change in one week, so you can't take a week off. Every week is critical." Cal Golden Bears (13-5, 4-2 Pac-12) — Cal rides a three-game winning streak into Eugene, having beaten No. 25 USC (Jan. 5), Washington (Jan. 12) and Washington State (Jan. 14)… Ivan Raab was named the NCAA Player of the Week on Monday after notching a pair of double-doubles in the Evergreen State… Raab is averaging a double-double to lead the Golden Bears in points (15.6ppg) and rebounds (11.1rpg). Charlie Moore (14.6ppg, 21stl), Jabari Bird (13.4ppg, 4.8rpg) and Kingsley Okoroh (6.8rpg, 48blk) have also been productive for Cal… Bird became the 47th Golden Bear to join the 1,000-point club in memorable fashion, draining the go-ahead trey against WSU on Saturday, 58-54. #TopPlayTuesday No. 3: Bird Soars to 1,000 Jabari Bird hits the biggest shot of the WSU game and scores his 1,000th career point all in one pic.twitter.com/1JFVg605Mg — Cal Men's Basketball (@calmensbball) January 18, 2017 All-Time Series UO is 57-84 against Cal all-time, dating back to their first meeting in 1918-19. The Golden Bears have taken 13 of the past 15, most recently dropping the Ducks last season, 83-63, to even the series at one on the year. Film Session Below, you’ll find highlights from the Ducks’ and Golden Bears’ most recent outings. No. 13 Oregon whooped Oregon State in Eugene last Saturday, 85-43, while Cal eclipsed Washington State in Berkeley earlier that day, 58-54. No. 15 Oregon 85, Oregon State 43 Cal 58, Washington State 54
Hunt for those kitty kibbles! Step 1: Hide kibble in tubes. Step 2: Introduce cat to new bowl. Step 3: Profit! (From a healthier, happier kitteh.) The problem with housekittehs is that they tend to get lazy. And fat. Take a look at the itinerary for your average cat and you’ll find 16-18 hours of sleeping, interspersed with eating, grooming, and horking what was eaten/groomed out on to the carpet. Maybe, if there is some motivation to do so, exercise will happen, but probably not. Oh look, that really good sunny spot just appeared... Got a fat cat? Or maybe one that needs a little brainteaser? Stimulo is an interactive cat food dish that stimulates the intellect and entertains your cat (or small dog!) during his meal. Hide the bits of kibble in the bowl’s many tubes. When Kitteh wants food, all he needs to do is reach into the tubes with his paw and fish it out. Meals take longer to eat, which prevents weight gain and reduces digestive problems. Stimulo has also been known to bring back interest in food for older cats. It’s like the hunting and foraging that his ancestors did... but with less bloodshed. Product Specifications
A group of 15 alleged Islamist terrorists arrested in India yesterday included a trio of techies - one a principal engineer at Yahoo! Indian police alleged that the 15 were linked to recent bombing attacks in Ahmedabad and Surat, The Hindu reports. The paper described most of the men as criminals linked to a Pakistan-based crime lord. However, three were what the paper describes as “model citizens”, including 31-year-old Mohammed Mansoor Asghar Peerbhoy, who is reportedly a principal software engineer at Yahoo! India. Peerbhoy, from Pune, acted as the terror cell’s in-house spin doctor, and emailed Indian Mujahideen manifestos before and after the recent blasts, the authorities claim, apparently by hacking into unsecured Wi-Fi connections. His colleagues in the alleged terror cell included two other computer science grads, 24-year-old Mubin Kadar Shaikh (alias Salman) and 25-year-old Mohamed Atique Mohamed Iqbal (alias Musab), who was described by The Hindu as an “active member of an Indian Mujahideen module”. The Hindu reported that Peerbhoy had become radicalised during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2004 and before long was hanging out in radical Islamist internet chat rooms. Peerbhoy’s family rejected the government’s charges, telling The Times of India that, "He was earning a handsome salary and we know that he will not do anything wrong … Mohammed is a highly qualified person and we are a very respectable family". The arrests are being presented as a major coup in India, with The Times of India carrying plenty of detail of the interrogation of what it is already describing as “the techie terrorist”. Yahoo! was not available for comment, though The Hindu quoted the company saying it would give every assistance to the authorities. ®
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Montel Williams, the venerated talk show host and radio personality, descended on the Missouri Capitol today with a film crew in tow to encourage lawmakers to embrace legislation legalizing marijuana use for medical purposes. Williams suffers from multiple sclerosis, a disease of the nervous system that can be accompanied by a wide range of symptoms. Williams has been open with the public for more than 14 years about his diagnosis and how marijuana has helped relieve his symptoms. Williams’ daughter has also used medical marijuana to treat her lymphoma. Rep. Dave Hinson, R-St. Clair, is sponsoring HB 800, the “Missouri Compassionate Care Act,” which would permit and establish a regulatory framework for the growing and distribution of marijuana for qualifying medicial patients. It’s Hinson’s bill — the first full blown attempt to permit medical marijuana ever filed by a Republican — that drew Williams to the state. “I’ve been involved in over 14 of the states that have passed medical cannabis laws in this country in the last 14 years because I suffer from MS, it’s the only thing that has given me relief from some of my symptoms,” Williams said. “As I go around the country trying to lobby for medical cannabis, it’s honestly been — not hijacked — but turned into something else. It’s been turned into ‘selling weed’ around America.” Williams said that he viewed the issue at least in part as an equal rights fight. “I will continue to lobby every state in this country to implement a medical cannabis law and distribution system,” Williams said. “Because I have a right to the same level of efficacy of treatment of my medication as you do if you go get a Vicodin.” Williams arrived in the Capitol with a handful of lobbyists and legal experts and a small film crew. Williams told The Missouri Times that he intends to return to the state multiple times, including next Monday for Hinson’s hearing, with his film crew to produce a full-length documentary next fall about the efforts to legalize medical cannabis.
Reprinted with permission of Cornell Plantations , from Cornell Plantations Magazine, vol. 51 (1): 1-4, Spring/Summer 1996. Family Lives of the Uncommon American Crow KEVIN J. MCGOWAN If you asked people who claim not to know anything about birds for a list of birds they know, chances are that the crow would be on virtually every list. Crows are common, large, noncryptic birds that are easily identified. Here in central New York, they are among the few birds that are obvious in the depths of winter other than chickadees at a feeder. But for all their familiarity, most people don't have a clue about the complex and interesting lives that crows lead. I have been studying the two species of crows in Ithaca since I arrived at Cornell in 1988. The small fish crow (Corvus ossifragus) is an inconspicuous resident that has only a small population here. It is primarily a coastal inhabitant of the southeastern United States but has expanded its range dramatically in the last few decades, arriving in Ithaca in the mid-1960s. The second crow species, the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), is the one that is familiar to most people in the area and the main subject of my studies. A huge population of American crows is present in the area, with at least 200 families breeding in town and thousands in the surrounding countryside. I once counted 1,200 crows going to roost one winter night in Cayuga Heights. Approximately 20 families live on the main campus of Cornell and the Plantations. My research involves marking crows so that I can identify them later and know them as individuals. I mark primarily nestlings before they leave the nest and have climbed up to 120 feet to nests in some of the tallest trees in Ithaca. I then follow the progress of the young crows through subsequent years. By knowing the crows as individuals I can gather data on their survival, movement, associations, breeding success, and behavior. Most young birds leave their parents soon after leaving the nest, often being chased away, and never see the parents again. In contrast, American crows never chase away their offspring, and the young may remain at home for years. Some crows stay with their parents for up to five years or even longer. (This past year one six-year-old crow that was marked the first year of my study was still associating with its younger siblings and, it appeared, with its unmarked parents.) Probably no crow breeds before it is two years old, and most don't breed until later than that. While they wait for a breeding opportunity, most crows help their parents raise young. They help feed the incubating female, feed the nestlings and fledglings, defend the territory and the nest, and stand guard over other family members while they forage. Such cooperative breeding behavior is rare in birds. Only a handful of species in North America exhibit it, and none are as widespread as the American crow. A successful family may raise from one to six young from a nest; the average is three. Two of those three will be alive and with the parents the next year, when they may successfully raise another family. Those two will probably still be with the parents the next year, along with two of their younger siblings. Families quickly become large, with up to 15 crows moving around together. I have seen five adult crows at a single nest at once, all with their heads in the nest feeding young. Eventually some of the young die or disperse and the family size drops. Of the roughly 200 nests I observed over the first six years of the study, 80 percent were attended by three or more crows. Average family size is 3.5. Young crows do not spend all their time at home but may wander for a while. During the winter the nonbreeding offspring may spend hours, days, or even weeks away from the home territory. Outside the breeding season, even breeders around Ithaca may join large flocks of crows foraging in corn stubble in the countryside and congregate in large roosts at night, but usually they are on the territory for at least part of every day throughout the year. Young crows may disappear for days, then come back and associate with the parents, disappear again, then return. Membership in the large and obvious foraging flocks in the fields changes constantly; few individuals are present in the same flock for more than a few days. Young crows may visit several large congregation areas throughout the winter, stopping at home in between. One tagged crow from my study was sighted spending the winter in Pennsylvania while one of its nest mates was at the family territory all winter. At the beginning of the breeding season, the southern wanderer was back with its parents in Cayuga Heights and helped them in their nesting attempt. Family bonds may be retained for years even if the young do not remain at home. A two-year-old helper in one family I was observing disappeared. One day over a year later, it suddenly was back with its family, foraging amicably with the rest. The next day it was gone, and I have never seen it again. It appears that it just stopped in for a brief visit and was welcomed. Often a young crow can find a breeding spot near its natal territory or even take part of the large parental territory for its own. Several families in my study have grown large, then split into smaller fragments, each with a single breeding pair. One curious aspect of this territorial budding is that sometimes the division is complete, with no more amicable interactions, and at other times family members wander back and forth between the neighboring territories. Observation of a relatively small sample of known-sex dispersers suggests that the differences can be explained by the sex of the budding offspring. If the leaving crow is a female, the separation is complete, but if it is a male, friendly relations may be retained. The explanation involves dominance and defense of territory. Dominance appears to be related primarily to sex; all males are dominant over all females. Older brothers have higher rank in a family than younger brothers, but those younger brothers can displace older sisters and perhaps even their mother. If a female crow pairs with the male next door, that male crow can keep all visiting crows away. He will not tolerate strange males in his territory and may chase strange females away as well. If a son pairs with the girl next door, she can do little to chase away visiting brothers-in-law. She could keep out her mate's sisters but cannot drive away the males. In some instances crows will move freely back and forth from parents' to brother's territory, but often a male will choose to stay with its brother almost exclusively. Perhaps on the death of the breeding male the brother will take over its breeding spot and pair with the female that it knows already. Because crows delay breeding so long and can move so far away, I still do not have good estimates of how far they disperse from their natal territories to find breeding spots. A large number find breeding opportunities near their parents' territory, but of course these are the ones I am most likely to find. From the dispersals I have found, I know that a crow may make its first nest only 75 meters from the one in which it was hatched, or it might successfully find a breeding spot up to 65 kilometers ("as the crow flies"). I know that crows can disperse to at least 65 kilometers from Ithaca (a tagged crow was observed breeding in Geneva, New York). If I assume that crow densities are equivalent throughout a 65-kilometer circle around Ithaca, I calculate that crows from my study disperse into a population of at least 125,000 crows. Thus although I have marked more than 550 crows, I am never surprised when people tell me, "I see lots of crows, but I never see any of your tagged ones." The area is filled with devoted families of this large and interesting bird. Kevin McGowan is a senior research associate in the Section of Ecology and Systematics and is the curatorial associate in charge of the ornithology and mammalogy collections. Return to Kevin J. McGowan's publications page. Return to Kevin J. McGowan's home page. Return to Kevin's crow reference page.
Posted by Daniel in Design on February 23rd, 2011 with 1 Comment One of my favourite games on the Super Nintendo, had to be Street Fighter 2 Turbo, with its action packed fighting style and fantastic graphics (back in the day!) I would play for hours on end. As the Street Fighter series has evolved over the years, so has the art work the fans are creating. Following on from our second Street Fighter showcase, I bring you part three which features some of my favourite digital art from some extremely talented digital painters and line artists that have taken the characters created by Capcom and made them there own. If you missed the previous parts of this showcase, check out the below posts: Please note that clicking on the Street Fighter illustrations below will take you to the full sized version and will also give you the opportunity to visit the artists full portfolio. Street Fighter is copyright to © Capcom Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. Street Fighter 1 – 6 COVER by alvinlee Chun Li Cammy Street Fighter by kamillyonsiya Street Fighter by TinSalamunic Street Fighter: ChunLi Legends by deffectx Street Fighter – Makoto by GENZOMAN Street Fighter cover by diablo2003 Street Fighter IV 1 by Arnold Tsang Street Fighter II Turbo 8b by Omar Dogan Street Fighter Chun-Li by kazakami Street Fighter II 5 Cover by Alvin Lee & Espen Grundetjern Street Fighter II Turbo 4b by Joe Ng & Adam Vehige Juri Super Street Fighter IV by GJMattos FIGHT street fighter sagat by deffectx Street Fighter II 4 Cover by Alvin Lee & Espen Grundetjern Street Fighter II Turbo 5a by Jeff ‘Chamba’ Cruz Street Fighter II Turbo 5b by Joe Ng & Adam Vehige Street Fighter IV 1B by Joe Ng & Espen Grundetjern street fighter tribute by maskedriderkc Street Fighter by Gravanixx On a side note, we are looking for some of your contributions! Got something creative to share with the community? Now is the perfect time to get involved! Learn more about Contributing.
Police in New York City are shown arresting a man during the 2004 Republican National Convention. Wild protests and mass arrests are possible at the 2016 RNC in Cleveland. Mary Altaffer/AP If confrontations at Donald Trump rallies are any indication, the Republican National Convention in July may see some of the most exciting – and potentially violent – street protests in recent years, and reporters are being schooled on how to ride out the chaos. It's not cheap, but a group that usually prepares journalists and nonprofit workers for problems in sub-Saharan Africa or conflict zones in Syria and Afghanistan is finding convention concerns great enough for news outlets to justify special training. A two-day course from Global Journalist Security scheduled for early May will feature realistic simulations with “protesters” and “party militants" and already has signed up reporters from a major news wire and a prominent new media company, organizers say. With a price tag of $1,195, the convention training likely is beyond the reach of most student journalists, rent-overdue freelancers and people with their own low-traffic blogs. But it could help well-financed outfits avoid legal and medical costs, and spare PR departments from having to defend employee behavior. Frank Smyth, a press freedom advocate who founded the organization in 2011, worked more than a decade at the Committee to Protect Journalists and says reporters risk a variety of threats, be it a punch in the face or an arguably unjustified arrest. “If Mr. Trump doesn’t get the delegates it’s going to be intense, and there are also going to be protesters outside the convention of all kinds,” Smyth says. American political conventions routinely are magnets for activists, and the Cleveland event has an added question mark not only from a possibly contested nomination, but with Trump's campaign-trail rhetoric rountinely inspiring protests and scuffles. Smyth says he grew particularly alarmed this year as Trump consistently attacked cameramen for not showing crowds at mega-rallies. The GOP front-runner, who often calls reporters "the most dishonest people," has warned that his own supporters may riot if he is denied the nomination. Training for journalists will cover basic first aid, self-defense and a lesson on reporters' rights, and will emphasize practical tips for dealing with police and escaping confrontations, ideally with equipment intact and detention avoided. Frank Smyth is pictured with riot shields used for realistic training simulations. Courtesy Photo “You may have a right to be there, but your demeanor may dictate whether you’re getting arrested,” Smyth says. Smyth’s group is staffed with former military personnel and employs professional actors and reserve police for simulations. It specializes in teaching first-world professionals to respond to machine gun fire, kidnapping attempts and demands for bribes. Training on decision-making under stress often wins positive reviews, he says. The convention course is a modified version of the group's civil unrest training and intends to be equally applicable to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Unlike the nation’s capital, where police generally avoid confrontation with activists, allowing impromptu marches down city streets and, recently, a large marijuana-smoke-out at the White House, most U.S. cities – including Cleveland – enforce requirements for permits to protest. Cleveland recently took steps to soften its protest rules and refined mass arrest guidelines, requiring a timestamp sticker and prompt processing, but apparently anticipating problematic arrests and lawsuits, authorities are investing $1.5 million in a "protest insurance" policy. Though cable TV programs mostly focus on events within convention halls, on the streets outside there's generally intense boundary-testing by activists being trailed or blocked by police armed with riot gear. Baton-swinging police made the 1968 Democratic convention the most famous modern example of convention chaos, but large-scale confrontations and mass arrests are routine. Nearly 2,000 people were arrested at the 2004 GOP convention in New York City, and four years later in Minneapolis at least 19 journalists – including two from The Associated Press – were arrested covering a single protest. Days earlier, police arrested an AP photographer and three journalists from Democracy Now!, who later won a lawsuit settlement. Since 2000, anti-war protests have been a major draw, but with Trump’s potential nomination, activists incensed with proposals to deport illegal immigrants and temporarily ban Muslim immigration may outnumber peace advocates. “To suggest [the RNC] could see the worst acts of political violence at a convention since 1968 is no hyperbole,” Smyth says.
A new study, reported in the journal Functional Ecology and headed by Dr Ismael Galván from the Spanish National Research Council, is the first evidence that wild animals adapt to ionizing radiation and the first to show that birds have greatest problems coping with radiation exposure. The Chernobyl disaster, which occurred on 26 April 1986 in Ukraine, had catastrophic environmental consequences. However, because the region remains heavily contaminated by radiation, it represents an accidental ecological experiment to study the effects of ionizing radiation on wild animals. Ionizing radiation produces oxidative stress, but animals can adapt to their exposure with physiological adaptive responses. However, the role of radioadaptive responses in wild populations remains poorly known. Previous studies of the level of antioxidants and oxidative damage at Chernobyl are limited to humans, two bird species and one species of fish. Because different species vary widely in their susceptibility to radiation, this limited data has made it difficult to study how wild animals adapt to radiation exposure. At 8 sites inside and close to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Dr Galván and his colleagues used mist nets to capture 152 birds from 16 different species: red-backed shrike; great tit; barn swallow; wood warbler; blackcap; whitethroat; barred warbler; tree pipit; chaffinch; hawfinch; mistle thrush; song thrush; blackbird; black redstart; robin and thrush nightingale. The scientists measured background radiation levels at each site, and took feather and blood samples before releasing the birds. They then measured levels of glutathione, oxidative stress and DNA damage in the blood samples, and levels of melanin pigments in the feathers. Levels of radiation in the study area ranged from 0.02 to 92.90 micro Sieverts per hour. The findings show that with increasing background radiation, the birds’ body condition and glutathione levels increased and oxidative stress and DNA damage decreased. The birds which produce larger amounts of pheomelanin and lower amounts of eumelanin pay a cost in terms of poorer body condition, decreased glutathione and increased oxidative stress and DNA damage. “The findings are important because they tell us more about the different species’ ability to adapt to environmental challenges such as Chernobyl and Fukushima,” Dr Galván concluded. ______ Ismael Galván et al. Chronic exposure to low-dose radiation at Chernobyl favors adaptation to oxidative stress in birds. Functional Ecology, published online April 24, 2014; doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12283
Vanderbilt is headed back to the College World Series. The Commodores used a pair of big innings to fend off a pesky Stanford team and win the Nashville Super Regional with a 12-5 victory on Sunday. The Cardinal were able to chase Vandy starter Walker Buehler early, but Vandy's opportunistic batting was too much for the visiting underdogs to handle. Vanderbilt took advantage of Stanford's mistakes late in the game to turn a tight contest into a decisive win in front of a raucous home crowd. The victory sent the 'Dores and head coach Tim Corbin to their first College World Series since 2011. Next week's appearance will be the team's second trip to Omaha in school history. In a field that has been sapped by upsets, Corbin's team will be one of the favorites to take home the big trophy and bring the university its second NCAA championship. Vanderbilt got off to a hot start for the second time in three Super Regional games, scoring five runs in the opening inning to give the home crowd something to get hyped about. The 'Dores got aggressive on the basepaths, stealing three bases and chasing Stanford starter Logan James after just two-thirds of an inning. Just like on Friday, however, the Cardinal weren't willing to let Vandy run away with an uncontested lead. The Pac-12 team stormed back with four runs in the third to make Tim Corbin uncomfortable. Three straight hits and a costly error by second baseman Dansby Swanson made it a 5-4 game and ended Walker Buehler's day early. Both teams would add runs in the fourth as the Hawkins Field turned into a pressure cooker on a beautiful and breezy Nashville day. Stanford was primed to take the lead after they put runners on base in each of the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, but they failed to string run-scoring hits together against Vandy freshman reliever Hayden Stone. Stone's clutch pitching came up huge for the 'Dores and held the Cardinal back just long enough to give his team a chance to blow the game open in the seventh. He finished the day with a stellar six innings, eight strikeouts, and just five baserunners allowed. Stanford's bullpen, by comparison, burned through eight pitchers in the defeat. Vandy's bats and baserunners turned up big behind his inspiring effort. The 'Dores extended their lead with four runs in the seventh thanks to some clutch hitting by Vince Conde and John Norwood, but the team was also aided by a costly error that suggested the Cardinal couldn't rise to meet the pressure provided by the crowd at the Hawk. Those jitters returned in the eighth, where back-to-back errors led to a pair of Commodore runs and a commanding 12-5 lead for the boys in black and gold. That was enough to send the Commodores back to Omaha, even after an uneven season in Nashville.
Beer Store campaign bewilders Ontarians Storified by CBC News Community· Thu, Apr 17 2014 08:02:26 A new ad from lobby group Canada's National Brewers paints a bleak picture of what Ontario would look like if its convenience stores and other retailers were allowed to sell beer, wine and spirits. Just... just listen to the music! Ontario Beer Facts - Good KidsTNgNLtSeuN6oXkcbNMb0Vw The group, which lobbies on behalf of shareholders of The Beer Store, recently launched its Ontario Beer Facts campaign with TV ads and a Twitter account. Ads intended to raise awareness about real consequences: expanding alcohol sales to corner stores hurts communities: http://t.co/HOadYivOhfOntario Beer Facts You have right to know corner stores do a poor job keeping cigarettes from minors. Here's what @camhnews found: http://t.co/9u3zUya0WmOntario Beer Facts People on Twitter were nearly unanimous is their opinion of the ad and the campaign in general. Many responded directly to its Twitter account's posts to let them know. Dear @ONBeerFacts, I recall drinking a lot of beer as a teenager that I somehow acquired from your Beer Store. Your system isn't foolproof.Stuart Henderson @ONBeerFacts @mybeerstore I know many people who have bought alcohol under age at both the beer store and lcbo. This argument is invalid.Greg I always loved visiting The Beer Store (@mybeerstore) in high school. It was the only place that served us minors.kw And one pointed out that The Beer Store and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) already have agreements in place to sell alcohol within certain Ontario convenience stores. @ONBeerFacts then why do you sell BEER in them now if it is so dangerous to communities? @OntarioCStores http://t.co/LL6ivtAynBMichael Barnicke There was a lot of mockery of the ad going around. The Beer Store ad make me think of Helen Lovejoy from the Simpsons: WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?! #beerstore #onpoliBrandon Tozzo Twimg I heard the next @ONBeerFacts PSA is just thirty seconds of a pregnant woman and a toddler fighting over a keg.Matt Blair Go home, Beer Store, you're drunk.Alan Kors And many took the opportunity to point out an Ontario beer fact to Ontario Beer Facts neglected to mention in their ads. I assume everyone knows the Beer Stores in Ontario are owned by Molson & Labatt (and Sleemans, sorta). Don't like the ad? Don't buy the beerRob Silver I'm glad the Beer Store said what we were all thinking: Our children are only safe if they're in the arms of a foreign brewing cartel.Mike Moffatt #TheBeerStore's owners: Molson Coors (USA), Anheuser Busch Inbev (Belgium), Sapporo (Japan)OCSA #TheBeerStore is a privately owned cartel, NOT a gov't-run agency. Profits are shipped out of the province, not into gov't #OnPoliOCSA These anti-convenience store ads by The Beer Store make me hope deregulation puts The Beer Store out of business.Emmett Macfarlane Where to sell beer in Ontario? How about where every single other civilized jurisdiction does? Beer Store people think it's 1935. Hello-o-o!Peter Shurman Who should control where beer is sold?Is it time to end The Beer Store monopoly? Convenience store owners think so. So do some Ontario craft brewers. The Canada's National Brewers' assertion that selling beer in corner stores would lead to catastrophic results was especially bemusing to those familiar with the sale of alcoholic beverages outside of Ontario. Pretty sure the world has not collapsed in Quebec because you can buy beer at deps. This is why we laugh at you Ontario.Robin Sas Since Big Beer is so worried re:moral effects of alcohol in corner stores, must be pulling their products from QC dep shelves, no?Alex Usher A word of advice from Alberta to Ontario: Not driving half an hour to buy a 12-pack from a corporatist-government monopoly is awesome.Derek Fildebrandt What do you think? Should Ontario allow the sale of beer, wine and spirits in convenience stores? What do you think of the Ontario Beer Facts campaign? Let us know in the comments below.
Story highlights Donald Trump and Jeb Bush have been feuding since the billionaire businessman entered the race Trump calls Bush a loser, just a day after Bush called Trump a loser (CNN) Donald Trump returned to mocking Jeb Bush after the two clashed during ABC's Republican presidential debate on Saturday night, calling him a "loser" and saying "every time he attacks me he melts like butter." Appearing on "CBS This Morning" on Monday, Trump was dismissive of the contentious exchanges with Bush during the debate, and of Bush himself. "You look at Jeb -- Jeb's a loser," Trump said. "He's spent $110 million so far, he's at the bottom of the pack or toward the bottom of the pack. He's going nowhere. And the only thing he does is attack me." Trump and Bush have had a running war of words for most of the time Trump has been running for president. The two sharply attacked each other during Saturday's debate, and Bush called Trump a loser on the campaign trail Sunday. Trump responded Monday by calling Bush sad. Read More
The revelation last year of an unorthodox tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch set off a frenzied scramble at the FBI to track down the source, newly released documents show. Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which on Thursday released 29 pages of FBI emails related to the 2016 meeting, said the messages show officials were more concerned about the leak than the substance of the report. “These new FBI documents show the FBI was more concerned about a whistleblower who told the truth about the infamous Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting than the scandalous meeting itself,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. The FBI initially claimed it had no documents pertaining to the meeting, until uncovering the files later turned over to Judicial Watch. The watchdog group, in releasing the files, said FBI officials sent a flurry of emails after the meeting was reported in New York's Observer. One email sent from an unidentified FBI account on July 3, 2016 said, “We need to find that guy” and bring him or her before a supervisor. Another said the source should be banned from working security details. Officials speculated that the source of the leak was a Phoenix police officer. One official said they contacted the Phoenix office and would try to “stem any further damage.” One official, in a July 2 email, said the article represented a "breach in security protocol" and the Phoenix division would be pressured to "identify the source of the breach." Judicial Watch said all names on the emails were redacted and there is no documentation showing concern over the meeting itself. The tarmac meeting fueled Republican complaints at the time that Lynch had improperly met with the husband of an investigation subject, just before the probe into Hillary Clinton's personal email use was completed with no charges filed. Fired FBI Director James Comey, in Senate testimony, described the tarmac meeting as problematic. The tarmac meeting came days before Comey held a news conference informing the media that Hillary Clinton would not be charged. Comey in July 2016 said Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling classified and other emails on the servers but recommend no criminal charges -- a conclusion Lynch accepted. Lynch later expressed regret that she sat down with Bill Clinton while his wife was under federal criminal investigation, a chance encounter she acknowledged “cast a shadow” on the public’s perception of a case bound to influence the presidential campaign. “I certainly wouldn’t do it again,” Lynch said of the meeting.
In late October, TechCrunch editor-at-large John Biggs noticed a Facebook Messenger request from someone he didn’t know, a man named Varun Satyam. When Biggs accepted the request, Satyam introduced himself as a marketer for technology startups. He was looking for coverage of some clients, he said, and he was willing to pay Biggs to write about them. It was a bold opening move, and an unethical proposition for any journalist who wants to retain their credibility. But Biggs wasn’t surprised. He estimates that he receives two or three similar offers each month, and he doesn’t take them seriously. “They’re stupid,” said Biggs. “Organic press is far more effective and anyone with a brain can see through them.” But solicitations like Satyam’s may be more successful than Biggs is aware. Interviews with more than two dozen marketers, journalists, and others familiar with similar pay-for-play offers revealed a dubious corner of online publishing in which publicists, ranging from individuals like Satyam to medium-sized “digital marketing firms” that blur traditional lines between advertising and public relations, quietly pay off journalists to promote their clients in articles that make no mention of the financial arrangement. People involved with the payoffs are extremely reluctant to discuss them, but four contributing writers to prominent publications including Mashable, Inc, Business Insider, and Entrepreneur told me they have personally accepted payments in exchange for weaving promotional references to brands into their work on those sites. Two of the writers acknowledged they have taken part in the scheme for years, on behalf of many brands. Mario Ruiz, a spokesperson for Business Insider, said in an email that “Business Insider has a strict policy that prohibits any of our writers, whether full-time staffers or contributors, from accepting payment of any kind in exchange for coverage.” Jason Feifer, editor in chief of Entrepreneur, said in an email, “I often tell entrepreneurs that if they want to get the ear of an editor, there’s no better way than to do this: Find someone who’s selling coverage on a reputable site, and rat them out. I encourage people to do this right now—my inbox is always open, as our my colleagues'. We have a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of thing, our writer’s guidelines strictly prohibit it, and we take swift action. In the past, when alerted to people selling access on our site, I’ve even gone the extra step of alerting editors at other publications where that person writes, so that these bad actors have nowhere else to go. We value our readers’ trust above all, and will always work to ensure that they’re getting unbiased information from people who have their best interests in mind.” One of them, a contributor to Fast Company and other outlets who asked not to be identified by name, described how he had inserted references to a well-known startup that offers email marketing software into multiple online articles, in Fast Company and elsewhere, on behalf of a marketing agency he declined to name. To make the references seem natural, he said, he often links to case studies and how-to guides published by the startup on its own site. Other times, he’ll just praise a certain aspect of the company’s business to support a point in an otherwise unrelated story. Robert Safian, editor of Fast Company, sent a statement: “No editors or other leadership at Fast Company were ever contacted in regard to this story. We were unaware of this practice happening at Fast Company, and no proof has been provided by The Outline of specific instances of paid mentions in our editorial content.” The Outline reached out to Fast Company’s PR email address the day before publication with a detailed email inquiry. After publication, The Outline described to Safian specific examples of brand placements that appeared on Fast Company’s website between 2013 and 2016, which we are not publishing in order to protect the identity of sources. Safian’s statement continued, “It is a violation of our editorial policy and our rigorous journalistic standards. If we found any writer or contributor engaging in this practice, they would be terminated and their stories taken down. Any editor who might condone this practice would be fired.” Four contributing writers to prominent publications told me they have accepted payments in exchange for promotional references to brands. The Fast Company writer also defended the practice by arguing that it’s enabled by editors who are hungry for cheap or unpaid blog content. Many high-volume sites, including the Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, and Forbes, maintain networks of unpaid contributors who publish large amounts of material. Forbes, for instance, marks articles by contributors with a small disclaimer, but the Columbia Journalism Review has pointed out that those dubiously sourced articles are often cited as though they were normal stories written by Forbes staff. In reality, the editorial process that leads to those articles being published is opaque — a Forbes spokesperson declined to answer questions about how many contributors the site has, whether they’re ever paid, or whether an editor reviews their work before publication. One former Forbes contributor, Josh Steimle, has even offered a “masterclass” on how to get published on the site, an accomplishment he described as “rewarding for both my personal brand and my digital marketing agency.” For writers willing to accept payments in exchange for coverage, that’s an opportunity. “They're getting tons of free content from guys like us,” said the Fast Company writer of his editors, though he declined to say whether he was paid by Fast Company for his work or if he’d ever explicitly discussed the arrangement with any of his editors. “I would be shocked to find out that this was any sort of secret.” An email from a marketer offering payment to freelance journalist Yael Grauer. An email from a marketer to freelance journalist Yael Grauer, asking about payments for articles at Wired and Slate. An unpaid contributor to the Huffington Post, also speaking on condition of anonymity because, in his words, “I would be pretty fucked if my name got out there,” said that he has included sponsored references to brands in his articles for years, in articles on the Huffington Post and other sites, on behalf of six separate agencies. Some agencies pay him directly, he said, in amounts that can be as small as $50 or $175, but others pay him through an employee’s personal PayPal account in order to obfuscate the source of the funds. In a statement, Huffington Post said “Using the HuffPost Contributors Network to self-publish paid content violates our terms of use. Anyone we discover to be engaging in such abuse has their post removed from the site and is banned from future publication.” The Huffington Post writer also described specific brands he’d written about on behalf of one of the agencies, which ranged from a popular ride-hailing app, to a publicly-traded site for booking flights and hotels, to a large American cell phone service provider. “This is a classic example of payola,” he said of the brand mentions, invoking a term that’s been used to describe radio DJs who accept payments from record companies in order to play certain artists on the air. Sometimes, this writer said, the agency provides him with a pre-written article, complete with brand mentions, which he then publishes under his byline as though he wrote it himself. Other times, he uses alternate bylines on the same publications — including the Huffington Post — to push out even more content. After being propositioned through Facebook Messenger, Biggs goaded Satyam by quoting improbably high sums in exchange for coverage: $8,000, then $9,000, then $9,500. But that was too much, according to Satyam. A guy at Forbes, he told Biggs, took payments of just $1,100, though he didn’t specify for how long or involved a piece. Biggs asked Satyam who the Forbes writer was. Satyam — who responded to my questions about the exchange with Biggs by calling the offer a “social experiment” — told him it was a contributor named Chris Chong. It turns out that there is a Chris Chong who has written for Forbes. When I looked him up, his Forbes author biography told of an illustrious professional life: he sold his first company for $24 million in 2010, later worked for Groupon Singapore and as a social media editor for the South China Morning Post, and now runs a PR firm called SumoStory. When I first opened Chong’s author page on Forbes, it listed about a half dozen articles he’d contributed on the topics of PR, cryptocurrencies, and gaming. The next day, when I reloaded the page, all but two had disappeared. I emailed Chong to ask what had happened to the missing articles. His response was surprisingly candid: the articles had been removed, he said, because someone — he declined to say who — had notified Forbes that he had been promoting his own PR clients in his published work. ArticleHub’s price list for brand mentions in various publications. “To be fair I was in the wrong, but it really hurt to see that relationship come undone from an outside attack,” he said. “It was a huge setback and I've learnt my lesson.” Maybe the lesson was still setting in, though, because Chong then appeared to offer me a bribe of his own. “Is there any way we can set up a partnership together to distribute content?” he asked, in the same email. “Happy to explore remuneration.” When I told Chong that such an arrangement sounded unethical, he again became contrite. “Forbes did the right thing,” he lamented. “I am lucky that I got to learn my lesson early on in my career as a writer and as a PR practitioner.” Forbes senior vice president of global corporate communications Mia Carbonell declined to answer questions about why two of Chong’s articles remained online after he was reported, to disclose whether he had been paid by Forbes for his articles on the site, to provide information about the editorial process that led to him contributing to the site in the first place, or to say how many Forbes articles have been removed overall after being flagged for a conflict of interest. Around the time I first made contact with Carbonell in late October, Chong’s last two articles disappeared. His author page now returns a 404 error. There’s no question that Forbes is aware of the payoffs, at least in isolated incidents. Last year, it pledged to investigate after a British PR firm called out one of its writers for soliciting a £300 payment in exchange for coverage. In a followup statement, Forbes said it had identified the contributor and would not publish their work in the future, though neither it nor the PR firm identified them by name. Carbonell played down concerns about bribery among the site’s writers. Before contributors can write for Forbes, she said, they “sign a contract requiring them to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.” (Carbonell no longer works for Forbes, and another company spokesperson declined to provide further comment.) “Just to be clear, these would be subtle brand mentions in larger-form articles.” — Marc Duquette But Forbes seems to be a prime target for offers like Satyam’s, perhaps because of the high volume of stories it runs by members of its “contributor network.” The site publishes dozens of stories per day, many of them by contributors who, like Chong, are themselves publicists. A program called CommunityVoice, described in an editors’ note on certain articles, invites “senior-level technology executives” to pay an annual fee in exchange for being allowed to publish to the site. Yael Grauer, a freelancer who’s written for Forbes and many other outlets, says she’s gotten as many as 12 offers like Satyam’s in a single month, which she always rejects. Some are surprisingly straightforward, like a marketer who simply asked how much she charged for an article in Slate or Wired. Others are coy, like a representative of a firm called Co-Creative Marketing, who heaped praise on her writing before asking whether she could get content published in Forbes or Wired on behalf of a client. Another marketer offered Erik Sherman, a business journalist, $315 per article to mention her client’s landscaping products in Forbes, the Huffington Post, or the Wall Street Journal — though she cautioned that the mentions would need to “not look blatant.” Sherman declined, telling the marketer that the offer was “completely unethical.” Some of the would-be bribers proffer substantial sums of money. An agency called Profit Marketing said it would pay reporter Michelle Goodman $2 per word — about four times the upper bound on what online journalists usually make — in exchange for inserting its clients into articles for Forbes and Entrepreneur. The would-be bribe made Goodman angry. “I'd love to expose these dirtbags,” she told me. A number of nearly identical emails, sent between 2015 and 2016 to different reporters by representatives of a publicity firm called BlogDash, asked if the recipients could write articles that featured or quoted its clients and “get them published on top-tier online publications” like Forbes and the Huffington Post. Some of the writers working with BlogDash, the emails said, earned more than $10,000 per week. BlogDash, according to its website, is a company that “integrates a mention of your business and a link to your website in top media publications.” It can place these “brand mentions,” it says, into publications including Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Fast Company. The CEO of BlogDash, Marc Duquette, is also the CEO of a similar company called ArticleHub. An ArticleHub price list quotes charges for “brand mentions” in more than a hundred publications ranging from obscure tech blogs to BuzzFeed, the Denver Post, and even The New York Times. There’s a distinct financial hierarchy at play in the ArticleHub price list. A brand mention in The New York Times costs $5,000. TechCrunch costs $4,500, Business Insider costs $3,000, and Forbes costs $1,950. A mention in the Huffington Post costs $1,700, and brand mentions in lesser-known blogs like CafeMom cost as little as $500. An ArticleHub brochure touts the benefits of the brand mentions. After a publication writes about a brand, it says, the brand can add “the publisher logo to a ‘Featured on’ section of your site to boost credibility with consumers and help bring in sales.” Another document lists prices for “feature articles” in some of the same publications. A feature story in Forbes, according to the list, costs $4,000. More prominent publications like The New York Times are absent from the feature price list. It’s not clear whether ArticleHub and BlogDash can actually place brand mentions into articles in all the publications their marketing materials name, and both sites fall just short of stating outright that writers are paid for coverage. “This is a classic example of payola.” — A writer who has accepted payments from marketers But when I reached out to BlogDash, I got an email response from Duquette, the CEO of both BlogDash and ArticleHub, who seemed to have mistaken me for a writer looking to sell brand mentions in my own work. “How much would you charge for a brand mention?” he asked in the email. “Just to be clear, these would be subtle brand mentions in larger-form articles. For example, I'd like you to mention Miller's newest beer in a larger article about beer and not to write an article about Miller's newest beer.” Duquette did not respond to follow up questions after I clarified that I was working on a story about the payoffs rather than soliciting them. BlogDash didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story. According to Eric Ebert, the communications manager at a German startup called Zenkit, the come-ons to journalists are well known in the industry, and a source of embarrassment. The prices in the ArticleHub brochure — around $2,000 for a brand mention in Forbes or Entrepreneur, for instance — sounded similar to quotes Ebert had heard from other companies offering similar services. The payola “muddies the water between earned press and advertising,” Ebert said. “Press coverage should never be paid for unless it’s tagged as a sponsored post. These practices really diminish the work that PRs and journalists are doing everyday.” Ebert is correct that a brand paying a journalist — or hiring a PR firm which then pays journalists on its behalf — represents a total breakdown of journalistic independence. It abuses the trust the public holds in the media. It violates the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics. It’s a bribe, and it’s mortifying to talk with contributors who see it as the new normal. ”When I write for somebody like Fast Company, I gotta make that thing top notch,” said one of the writers who disclosed that he has accepted payments in exchange for coverage. “It really has to be legit. The links have to work, and the studies have to be there, and the insights need to be actually, you know, valuable. That is, hands down, what I care about.” In that journalistic netherworld, where business leaders can pay to write about their own industries and publicists are trusted to write about topics related to their own clients, it can feel as though a dark new media zeitgeist has swept away old norms of integrity and independence and replaced them with a racket that, depending on your perspective, is either very funny or very sad. Maybe it was that sense of shifting norms that led Steve Ollington, the head of content for a British marketing agency called agenda21 Digital, to message BuzzFeed senior editor Katie Notopoulos on Twitter with an offer much like Satyam’s. Ollington said that he could pay Notopoulos to write a BuzzFeed story about a product launch by Vodafone, a British telecom that operates mobile networks across the world. “So, you can’t pay me to write something for BuzzFeed,” Notopoulos wrote back, before screenshotting the exchange in a snarky tweet. Neither Ollington nor agenda21 Digital replied to requests for comment, but Vodafone spokesperson Matt Peacock expressed dismay at the offer, and said that the company had opened a formal investigation into the incident. He said that Vodafone believed that Notopoulos was the only journalist who had received an improper offer on its behalf, and repeatedly stressed the company’s commitment to anti-corruption measures. This is how journalism works FYI pic.twitter.com/HNbyrg5wp2 — Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) November 7, 2017 However, Peacock declined to say whether Vodafone had severed its relationship with agenda21 Digital, or to comment on specific journalists the company may have had contact with. “One of the challenges in this area is that lines are being blurred everywhere,” Peacock said in an email. “The difficulty arises if the wrongdoing becomes normalised by bloggers and journalists as well as agency intermediaries.” We need your help to learn more about “payola” in journalism. Tips: jonchristian at protonmail dot com. Update: This story has been updated with statements from Business Insider, Fast Company, Huffington Post, and Entrepreneur.
The second tranche of 25 secret files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will be released after the conclusion of Budget session of Parliament, Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said today. Advertising “There is lot of curiosity among people about the life of Netaji. We are ready with the set of 25 secret files on Netaji that will be released after Parliament session,” Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of an event to mark the culmination of 125th foundation year celebrations of National Archives of India (NAI) in New Delhi. The Budget session would conclude on May 13 subject to exigencies of business. As many as hundred secret files were made public by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Netaji’s 119th birth anniversary on January 23. [related-post] Advertising NAI Deputy Director Sanjay Garg said National Archives is converting the second set of files into digital form for the public. “We have received the second tranche of 25 files on Netaji from Culture Ministry. We are in the process of making their digitalised copy,” he said. The files, released last month, comprised over 16,600 pages of historic documents, ranging from those from the British Raj to as late as 2007, an official had said. NAI also opened a dedicated website to store all the declassified files related to Bose. In October last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met the family members of Netaji and announced that the government would declassify the files relating to the leader whose disappearance 70 years ago remains a mystery. While two commissions of inquiry had concluded that Netaji had died in a plane crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, a third probe panel, headed by Justice M K Mukherjee, had contested it and suggested that Bose was alive. Meanwhile, Sharma also launched the emblem of NAI, besides releasing its commemorative coin of Rs 125 and a circulating coin of Rs 10 during the event. Advertising A commemorative postal stamp of Rs 5 and a DVD containing private papers of Amiya Nath Bose, brother of Netaji, was also presented to the minister.
Donald Trump attacked Hillary Clinton’s “temperament” while boasting about his own during their first face-off in a presidential debate Monday night. The Republican presidential hopeful accused his Democratic rival of a recent moment in which she was “totally out of control” while apparently speaking to a member of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. “I have much better judgment than she does. There’s no question about that. I also have a much better temperament than she has,” Trump said. “I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament. I have a winning temperament. I know how to win. She does not.” The real estate mogul then brought up an unknown incident with the AFL-CIO behind a “blue screen” in which he said Clinton lost her cool. “You were totally out of control!” Trump said. “I said, there’s a person with a temperament that’s got a problem.” Clinton smiled throughout his comments. She then breathed a sigh of relief, saying “Woo! OK!” before shimmying her shoulders when it was her turn to respond. Her reaction garnered laughs and applause from the audience.
Disclaimer: This post was not endorsed by Pebble, nor I am affiliated with Pebble. About a year ago I’ve tried out almost all wearables Pebble had to offer at a time - the original, Pebble Time, and my favorite - Pebble Time Round. I wouldn’t call myself a fanboy, but Pebble watches are pretty damn great. Back then I was on a market for a smartwatch - something stylish, inexpensive, and durable, to show time and notifications. After some research I immediately ruled out all other wearables on the market: some were too much centered around fitness (not my market), and some tried to put a computer with a tiny screen on your hand (I’m looking at you, Apple and Google). I wasn’t interested in either, and I was charmed with simplicity of Pebble. First, I’ve gotten the original Pebble. I was blown away by the battery life which neared two weeks, beautiful minimalist design, and the absence of touch screen. The last one is probably the main reason why I’m still using Pebble. It’s a watch, it has a tiny screen the size of my thumb. How am I supposed to control it with gestures with 100% accuracy? Unlike with a phone, I interact with my watch often during more demanding activities - cycling, running, gym, meeting, etc. Having physical buttons doesn’t require me to look at a screen as I perform an action (quick glance to read a notification is enough - I can reply or dismiss without having to look at the watch again). After using the original pebble for a few weeks I was curious to try out Pebble Time. I enjoyed having colorful display, the battery life was almost as long, and the watch felt smaller than the original one. It was a decent choice, but still couldn’t help but feel like a square digital watch doesn’t fit my style. That’s when I decided to try out Pebble Time Round. It’s the smallest of the three, and definitely one of the thinnest smartwatches available (at only 7.5 mm). I went for a silver model with a 14 mm strap. Initially there was a lack of affordable straps, but after some time GadgetWraps filled in that niche. It’s been a year now, and it’s still going strong. Pebble Time Round (or PTR as people call it) doesn’t have the longest battery life, averaging at about 2 days until hitting the low power mode (when Pebble watches run low on juice they only display time). I usually charge it daily, since charging 56 mAh battery doesn’t take long (it gets a full day of use from 15 a minute charge). PTR is much more a watch than anything else: it looks good, and it shows time. All the necessary things are available at a glance - calendar, notifications, texts, weather, music controls, timers and alarms. I use voice dictation to send out an occasional text. I work in a corporate setting, with sometimes difficult to manage number of meetings, constant Hangouts pings, and a stream of emails. Pebble helps me easily navigate hectic daily routine without having to pull up my phone or my laptop to look up the next conference room, meeting attendees, or reply to a quick ping. Due to app marketplace similar to Google Play Store (with most if not all the apps and watchfaces free) I find it easy to customize Pebble based on a situation I’m in. I’m traveling and need to be able to pull up my flight? Check. Need to call an Uber from my wrist? Check. Get walking directions? Check. To my delight Pebble as a platform is rather close to Linux ideology. Pebble apps are modular and tend to focus on one thing and do one thing well. Recently a Kickstarter for Pebble 2 has been announced. It’s rather unfortunate PTR is not getting an updated version, but to be honest it doesn’t really need to. It’s a fantastic combination of hardware and software which fills in a specific niche: a stylish smartwatch for displaying relevant chunks of information.
Let me show you some bridge spam decks so that you know it’s a bridge spam when you face them: A bridge spam – Why is it a Meta? The bridge spam became a meta because of the core being of the cards that create such a strong push that becomes unbeatable. The core of a bridge spam is mainly the Battle Ram, the Bandit and Night Witch. The bridge spam decks are not easy to deal and you really need a strong deck to counter the deadly strong combos. Deck 1: The Meta here is the PEKKA, Battle Ram and Bandit Deck 2: The Meta you will be facing here is PEKKA, Executioner, Tornado, Battle Ram, and Bandit. Deck 3: Battle Ram and Bandit. See how strong the two cards are. It was not easy to devise a deck that would take down this Meta. But with quite some tries I ended up with two decks that always gave me perfect wins Bridge Spam Meta Counter Deck 1: This is a very strong deck as a counter to the Bridge Spam. The bridge spam will always have battle ram and the Counter Deck 1 has super counter to Battle Ram. The Tombstone, Ice Spirit, Electro-wizard while the Ice Golem takes good care of Bandit. When the core has handled the card like log, spells like poison makes a great support troop to be. Ice Golem: A cheap mini tank that uses goblins and spear goblins to deal huge damages. Goblins: These green colored units can take well the damage from Bandits and battle ram so work them for defense. They handle all the damage by Bandits and Battle Ram while Ice Golem, Tombstone keep marching ahead to opponent crown towers. Spear Goblin: The defense cards that absorb all the damage targeted towards your crown tower. They are good to lure the enemy troop away from the crown tower. Ice Spirit: An area damager that buys time for your deck. This supports Goblin, Spear Goblin untouched by any damage to the Crown tower. Tombstone: This card is a killer for Bandit and Battle Ram. The tombstone releases 18 skeletons in its lifetime. The skeletons don’t do huge damage but it’s the volume game that keeps the bandit and battle ram busy and renders them low health to be taken down easily. Log: With its 11.1 tile radius it one card that does not leave any opponent troop untouched by it damage. Leaving the troops in critically low health to be taken down my next single attack from your troops. Pair it with splash damages like goblins and spear goblins. The splash works together with log and creates an unparalleled counter push. Poison: A counter for both troops and buildings. The troops and building in its wide radius slowly lose health and die. A very good pair it makes with Ice Golem and takes down those opponents Ice Golem. Graveyard: A wide radius spell spawning 17 skeletons. With this deck combo it with Ice Golem. The Ice Golem as a tank takes the damage of opponent tower while you deploy Graveyard near the Crown tower. Keep the crown tower in the radius of the spell and it will keep spawning the skeletons and take down the tower. The Poison also is a great combo with Graveyard can counter Minions or other small troops but not against high health troops. Bridge Spam Meta Counter Counter Deck 2: An unbeatable deck where the small troop works together to do big damages and the strong hit point cards that handle the attacks and act as strong damage dealers too. Unique in its own way the deck is a very strong on each aspect of a splash, defense, offense, spawns. Lava Hound: It’s a slow but huge hit point taken making it a strong card. But don’t take the card for a stride if it’s supported by right troops of the deck it will do phenomenal damage to the Tower. And if the Lava Hound is killed it explodes into 6 pups that can do the complete damage to the Tower. Ice spirit: Pair your Ice spirit with the Electro-wizard. The Ice Spirit does a hard hit on the troops in way of electro wizard and carries it to the crown tower. Once at the crown tower the electro wizard single-handedly will take down the crown tower. Archer: The splash damager helps your graveyard. While the graveyard keeps spawning the skeletons the Archers add splash damage to the troops that are targeted by the skeletons. While the skeletons do the health damage and bring troops to low health the archers finally finish them off. Electro-Wizard: A short span double attacker leaves his target stunned with the sudden attack equal to two zaps. With a hit speed of 1.7 secs, it’s a fast unit targeting both the air and ground units. Stuns his target for 0.5 seconds and moves ahead for bigger damages. It’s a threat to both towers and troops. Keep it close to your Lava Hound and it will carry him t the opponent tower in best of the shape. The Electro-Wizard resets all charge attacks even the Elixir collectors. Also Check out: Best Royale Gaint Deck Night Witch: Works very well with Lava hound and the Poison spell. Gives a very strong push to the opponent’s troops. Save it from the poison spell it cannot deal its damage. It does both air and ground damage. The bats do the air damage and Night witch takes care of ground troops. Log: A unit that does enough damage to the entire area of the opponent. Log is a very good counter for a big push to slow moving troops like Giant and Mini Pekka. Poison and Graveyard works too good in conjunction and gives a strong push. The huge radius of poison and Graveyard deals a lot of damage to the spawners or spawner units. Graveyard is a super counter to some tough cards the Inferno Tower, Inferno Dragon, and Sparky. It can distract them for 10 long seconds while the defending troops take down the tower.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information from authorities regarding the guilty plea. WOODBURY -- A Greenwich Township police officer accused of having sex with a prostitute while on duty last year has pleaded guilty to a charge of lewdness, prosecutors said. William H. Dick III, 43, of Gibbstown, had faced a charge of fourth-degree obstruction, but that was amended to lewdness. The encounter occurred at a recreation area where the pair could have been seen by children, prompting the lewdness charge, GCPO spokesman Bernie Weisenfeld explained. He faces a sentence of probation. Sentencing is slated for next week. Still to be determined is whether he must forfeit his job as a police officer, authorities said. Dick was accused of committing misconduct on April 22 of last year, "by engaging in sexual acts with a prostitute while on duty," in exchange for money, prosecutors said. The prostitute reported the incident to police. Dick later called the woman and tried to get her to recant her report, authorities said. He was charged and released after posting $35,000 bail. The 13-year department veteran was also suspended without pay. Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com . Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT . Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook .
Image caption Concerns were raised about sterility and cleanliness at the pharmaceutical firm Investigators in the United States have raided the premises of a Massachusetts pharmaceutical company linked to a meningitis outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raised concerns about sterility and cleanliness at the New England Compounding Center (NECC). So far 16 people have died from a rare fungal form of meningitis, apparently after using contaminated drugs. More than 200 people in 15 US states have been affected. Steroids and heart drugs produced by the Boston-based NECC are under investigation and the FDA has warned doctors not to prescribe any of the company's products. Meningitis is an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. Symptoms include severe headache, nausea and fever as well as slurred speech and difficulty walking. Fungal meningitis is not contagious, according to US health officials. Compounding concerns Criminal investigators from the FDA searched the NECC premises on Tuesday as part of a broad state and federal investigation into the deadly outbreak. Paul Cirel, a lawyer for the pharmaceutical company, told Associated Press that it was "difficult to understand the purpose" of the FDA search. He said the company has made clear it would provide, and has provided, anything requested by investigators. They have been several calls by US congressmen for a full-scale criminal investigation into the NECC's practices. The outbreak has raised questions about the practice of drug compounding, where pharmacies prepare specialised doses of medication. Compounding is not regulated by the FDA, which generally oversees drug makers. Drug compounding Drug compounding is used to make unique drugs for individual patients when there are no existing licensed treatments It is common practice around the world to make medicines for rarer conditions and children, for example Individual pharmacists or specialist drug companies combine, mix, or alter ingredients to create medications to meet these specific needs In the US, compounded drugs are not approved by the regulator the FDA, which means their safety and efficacy are unverified In the UK, compounded drugs come under the same scrutiny as other drugs regulated by the MHRA Poor practices on the part of drug compounders can result in contamination or in products that don't possess the strength, quality and purity required NECC has suspended operations and recalled the steroid injection initially linked with the outbreak, methylprednisolone. The Food and Drug Administration says it is looking into reports of a patient with possible meningitis who received an injection of triamcinolone, a different steroid, from NECC. Two transplant patients also developed a fungal infection after receiving an unnamed heart drug made by the firm. The FDA has not confirmed that these three infections were caused by NECC products, and has said that it is very possible that the heart patients were infected by another source. On Monday, the drug regulator expanded its recommendation for doctors to warn anyone who received any injection made by the company, including drugs used in eye surgery. Last week, health officials said 12,000 of the roughly 14,000 people in 23 states who received the steroid shots had been contacted. The CDC has published a list of clinics that received shipments of the drug, which was recalled on 26 September.
Democrats are trying to stack the deck with female candidates for the 2020 presidential race, desperate for a do-over of Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 attempt to put a woman in the Oval Office for the first time. But if President Trump continues to have the kind of success for the American people in the next three years that he’s had in his first year in office, it’s doubtful that 2020 will see the first female president. In fact, it’s becoming more plausible that when our country does elect its first female president, that woman may very well be Republican Nikki Haley. As U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Haley’s handling of recent events set her apart as a rising star. Her performance has shown that she has what it takes on the international stage to represent America abroad. Like the president, she refuses to let the U.S. to be bullied by other countries. This week Haley announced a $285 million cut in the 2018-2019 U.N. operating budget. This comes after President Trump threatened to cut off U.S. funding to countries that voted in favor of a U.N. resolution that called on the U.S. to drop plans to move our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and condemned the U.S. for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The final vote was 128-9 in favor of the resolution. Another 35 nations abstained on the vote and 21 nations didn’t vote. Women had a pretty good year in 2017, but since President Trump is the president, our friends on the left would have their membership in the angry feminist club revoked if they ever admitted this truth. Haley said: “We will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.” Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz praised the budget cut saying: “It’s about time we sent a message to the U.N., which has become a place of hate when it comes to the U.S. and Israel.” Haley was a successful two-term governor of South Carolina. She especially won praise for bridging the racial divide in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, when nine black church members were gunned down by an avowed white supremacist. Last month Politico ran an article headlined “Why 2020 Will be the Year of the Woman,” noting: “In 2016, women composed nearly 60 percent of the Democratic presidential primary electorate, many of whom are understandably pining for the karmic justice of defeating Trump with shards from a glass ceiling that Hillary Clinton could not break.” Given Nikki Haley’s scorching speech at the U.N. last week standing up to Israel’s opponents and standing out as one of the more effective leaders in the Trump administration, a strong case can be made that 2017 is the real “Year of the Woman.” This year also saw the fear lifting for women to speak out when they’ve been victims of sexual misconduct, because now men in power are being held accountable for their behavior. Women had a pretty good year in 2017, but since President Trump is the president, our friends on the left would have their membership in the angry feminist club revoked if they ever admitted this truth. That aside, let’s not forget that 42 percent of women had no interest in voting to break the glass ceiling for Hillary Clinton in 2016. And we’re fooling ourselves if we think they’re going to vote to break it in 2020 just because another liberal woman shows up on the ballot. Nevertheless, the liberal feminists are persisting. Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of NewYork, Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are all being talked about as possible 2020 Democratic presidential contenders. There’s also been speculation about Oprah Winfrey and Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, though neither has shown any sign of planning to run. It seems as though the Democrats are just throwing whatever viable liberal female names they can out there, in hopes one of them will stick and that will be enough to make the glass come crashing down on Election Day. History has a way of repeating itself. It didn’t work in 2016 for Hillary and it won’t work in 2020. The first female president – the one who makes history and blasts through that glass ceiling – won’t be a token woman elected out of anger for past elections lost or past presidents despised. The first female president will be elected on her own merits – because of her accomplishments, her intelligence, her strength, her substance and her ability to lead our nation. She will stand out, not blend in. Nikki Haley has already set herself apart as one of the most effective leaders in this administration. She’s fearlessly stepped up, stood out and proven she's not afraid to make the tough calls. She does anything but blend in, which is why she is far more likely to see the Oval Office long before any of the liberal feminists taking a number and standing in line for 2020.
Vancouver Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller questioned the league's goal review process following a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night. Miller called out the replay officials for disallowing a pair of goals the netminder believed should have counted. "They both should have been goals," he said postgame. "They made a play in front of the net, the rebound's there and we're trying to battle for it, I mean, I don't know what this league's turning into." Canucks forward Jannik Hansen appeared to score early in the final frame, and it was ruled a goal on the ice, but the officials conferred and overturned the call due to what they deemed a distinct kicking motion. Then, with two seconds remaining in the game, Radim Vrbata's goal was taken away after the Maple Leafs successfully challenged that the Canucks went offside prior to the goal. "They changed the rule (to say) you can direct it with your skate as long as you don't kick, and (Hansen was) moving his skate backwards," Miller said. "I'm very confused. I don't think I know enough to make any more (comment) other than that. They both probably should have been goals, and we should have been one goal down with plenty of time left." Joffrey Lupul's insurance marker in the third period was challenged by the Canucks, who felt there was goaltender interference, but the officials ruled none took place. "I've having a tough week," Miller said. "Just not getting on the right side of things." He'll attempt to turn his fortunes around when the Canucks play the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Monday night. - With h/t to Sportsnet
With successful passing of the revised bill (unofficially called) that prohibits broadcasting companies from preventing celebrities' appearance on TV programs for no justifiable reason, JYJ will now be able show their faces once again on music and variety shows!�The�(KCSC) andassemblywomanwere among the representatives present at the November 30 plenary session that resulted in the approval of the revised bill.� Broadcasting companies are now prohibited from preventing certain parties from appearing on shows without any justifiable, specific reason and from blocking the appearances even after confirming that there are no legal issues with them going on TV.� If a company violates the new terms of the revised bill, then they will have to pay a penalty amounting to 2% of their sales and order corrective action through the KCSC.� Are you excited to see them on TV again?
“Can you imagine anyone celebrating a decline in the value of his or her assets?” M any Americans may not realize that some of today’s political leaders and mainstream media espouse ideas that were discredited and left for dead over two hundred years ago. As in any number of horror flicks, sometimes the dead don’t stay that way. When I studied economics in college, I learned that mercantilism supplanted feudalism to become the predominant economic doctrine through the late Middle Ages. Mercantilism, “economic nationalism for the purpose of building a wealthy and powerful state,” is based on this logic: “The richer the nation, the stronger the nation; the stronger the nation, the better for every member of that kingdom.” It wasn’t until the 17th century that mercantilism was seriously challenged, and Adam Smith finally drove a stake through its heart when he published The Wealth of Nations 235 years ago. Perhaps most economists hold this clean view of history, but it seems that the rest of the world never got the memo. Unfortunately, the archaic and counterproductive ideas of mercantilism are alive and kicking in 21st-century America. Mercantilism is a somewhat amorphous constellation of ideas specifying how the components of society should be organized. Mercantilist writers didn’t always agree with each other and were, ironically, often critical of the mercantilist system. Still, a few central themes emerged: Protectionist measures should be implemented to protect domestic producers; exports should be increased and imports reduced; employment should be fostered in the domestic market; and monetary policy should increase the quantity of money and precious metals. With regard to this last point, while consumable goods increase our quality of life, mercantilists believed that money was better than goods because money could always buy more goods, while goods might go unsold or even spoil. Plus, they reasoned, goods are consumed and, therefore, “lost,” while precious metals have lasting value. Mercantilism is an economic theory from the perspective of exporters, protectionists, politicians, and money hoarders, and its primary beneficiaries are big business and big government. Basically, the more goods you sell outside your country and the more gold and silver you bring in and store safely in your vaults, the better. The corollaries are that exports are good, imports are bad, a weak currency is wonderful, and trade surpluses are the bees’ knees. Whether they realize it or not, many modern politicians of various stripes are mercantilists. Just watch the news and you’ll see those in our government and in the media expressing predominantly mercantilist views: Our trading partners’ currencies are too cheap and the trade deficit is too high—together, these two factors reduce domestic employment. One mercantilist action available to a country like the United States is to devalue its currency, which simultaneously makes its exports cheaper and its imports more expensive. This may sound logical, but this tenet of mercantilism is counterproductive. If you have dollars in your wallet and I have yen, wouldn’t you be upset if your dollars became less valuable and you grew poorer relative to me? Can you imagine anyone celebrating a decline in the value of his or her assets? Do you have more dollars in your portfolio than yen or renminbi or euros? I do. Don’t you want your portfolio to increase in value? I do. Then why wish for the American dollar to decline in value? While I have nothing against gold and silver (I own some of each), they are a store of value—a means to an end—not an end in themselves. I hope to use my gold and silver (and dollars, yen, renminbi, and euros) to someday buy another house, another car, more education, and more vacations. It is these goods and services— not the intermediate stores of value that I use to purchase them—that improve and enrich my life. By focusing on stockpiling money and structurally impeding the market in the process, mercantilist actions ensure that I will get fewer of the goods and services I want. Other mercantilist actions available to the U.S. government include import restrictions and tariffs, which various politicians and pundits discuss and advocate regularly. By taking these actions, with the alleged goal of helping ordinary Americans, the U.S. government would make it harder and more expensive for us to buy what we want. For more about trade deficits, see International Capital Flows, by Mack Ott, in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (CEE) See also Balance of Payments, by Herbert Stein, in the CEE. Let’s directly address the much-maligned trade deficit. If I buy a made-in-Japan car from Toyota, what happens? Simple. I get a nice car and a Japanese company gets some dollars that it then pays to its suppliers, employees, and shareholders (the last of whom include me). What can these people do with the dollars that they don’t spend on American goods? Only five things: buy U.S. assets, including stocks, bonds, and land; engage in direct investment in the United States by building plants, etc.; buy U.S. services; exchange the dollars on the currency market; or keep them. By purchasing U.S. assets or services, the purchasers make individual Americans and American companies richer. After all, in any exchange, both sides gain or else they wouldn’t engage in the exchange. Direct investment in plant and equipment increases the productivity and, therefore, the wages of American workers. If these foreigners keep their dollars, then we get valuable cars and they get cheap pieces of paper that our government can print for pennies on the dollar. If they exchange their dollars on international currency exchanges, then the person or entity they exchange with has the same invest/buy products/buy services/exchange/keep decision to make. In the worst case, our dollars come back to buy American goods, services, or assets. In the best case, our dollars don’t come back and we get useful goods virtually for free. A trade deficit reflects the best case, while a trade surplus reflects the worst—but still good—case. Mercantilists argued for a strong nation with a strong military. With the importation of manufactured goods, some fear an atrophy of America’s manufacturing ability, and so it is the (largely mercantilist) hawks who offer the only modern argument for keeping domestic manufacturing strong at the expense of the rest of the economy. They ask, “What happens if we go to war and we have no ability to manufacture tanks and guns?” The simplest solution, of course, is to avoid starting any wars. (History shows that this is unlikely.) The U.S. military is perennially muscle-bound and U.S. manufacturing is persistently strong. While it is true that American manufacturing has shed seven million workers since the late 1970s, today’s workers produce three times as much as their 1972 counterparts. U.S. manufacturing hit an all-time record for output in 2007 —before the recession—and is virtually tied with China for the world’s largest. Consider that if the U.S. manufacturing sector were a separate economy, it would fit nicely between France and the United Kingdom as the world’s sixth-largest economy, enjoying an annual output of $2.155 trillion —hardly reason for hand-wringing. Modern mercantilists are saying that American consumers should suffer higher prices due to tariffs, import restrictions, and currency devaluations to support and protect American manufacturers, who can then hire workers, export goods, and bring in hard currency. Modern economists reply that this is a way to make a nation poorer, not richer. Trade benefits both parties, whether the parties reside in Germany or Germantown, Pennsylvania. The way to make the nation wealthy is to keep the currency stable and allow domestic and international trade to flourish. In doing so, we allow individuals and individual geographical areas to specialize and discover their comparative advantage—that area of production in which we are most productive and most efficiently create what others want. By finding and pursuing our comparative advantage, we get the most value for a given input, and the nation as a whole becomes richer. As Adam Smith pointed out, Protecting domestic industries has a certain appeal. By keeping out foreign competitors, the thinking goes, we can save jobs for Americans and give struggling industries the shelter they need to become strong. Unfortunately, the reality of protectionism is downright ugly. First, there is the effort put into lobbying Congress instead of making tough choices and creating a productive industry. Second is the direct cost of the protected jobs. For example, to save 226 American luggage manufacturing jobs, American consumers have been forced to pay an additional $290 million annually for their luggage, which translates to an outrageous $1.285 million for each job saved. (No one, especially the American consumer, would argue that those jobs are worth that much.) Third, more workers typically are employed in industries that use the output than in industries that make the protected output. Workers in steel-using industries, for instance, outnumber those in steel-producing industries by 57 to 1. Making steel more expensive hurts the 57 workers who use the steel, while only one steel-producing worker is helped, and that’s in addition to all the consumers who are hurt. Why, it is worth asking, should consumers be forced to support producers? Why not force producers to give a low price to consumers? One is just as arbitrary as the other. Indeed, most of us have heard of the friend (“the consumer”) buying a car from another friend (“the producer”) who leans on the friendship to ask for a lower price. Mercantilist policies make our nation and us poorer, not richer. But you would never know that by listening to most politicians or by reading most newspapers. Adam Smith saw the mercantile system as an enormous conspiracy by manufacturers and merchants against consumers, and in 1776, he wrote, “Nothing, however, can be more absurd than this whole doctrine of the balance of trade.” As economist Henry George pointed out, “What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies try to do to us in time of war.” That will never be good policy and will never make America strong. Isn’t it time to dispel anachronistic ideas and listen to the insightful masters of modern economics?
The top phone vendors all had a good third quarter. Global sales of smartphones in the third quarter of 2017 increased 3 percent over the same period last year, according to Gartner, totaling 383 million units. The top five vendors all achieved double-digit growth, except for Apple, which experienced a 5.7 percent increase. Aloysius Low/CNET Samsung achieved an increase in smartphone sales of 19.3 percent. "Renewed pushes of the newly designed Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8 smartphones have brought back growing demand for Samsung smartphones, which helped it compete against Chinese manufacturers and deliver a solid performance in the quarter," Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner, said in a statement. He noted in the report that the last time the company had double-digit growth was in the fourth quarter of 2015. Xiaomi had the strongest growth, with an 80 percent increase in the third quarter. It's growth is coming more from markets outside of China, where it competes with Huawei, Oppo and Vivo. India was its highest-growth market beyond China, and there are also increasing sales in Latin America and Russia. Oppo, Huawei, Vivo and Xiaomi drove sales across emerging markets, thanks to their midprice and budget phones, which emphasize 4G connectivity and better cameras. The smartphone vendors with the highest number of sales to end users in the third quarter, in order, are Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi. Gupta said in the statement that Apple's new flagship phones arriving at the end of the third quarter delayed smartphone purchases into the fourth quarter, and the holiday season will likely boost smartphones sales. He added that Gartner expects smartphones sales will reach 1.57 billion units in 2017. The Smartest Stuff: Innovators are thinking up new ways to make you, and the things around you, smarter. Batteries Not Included: The CNET team reminds us why tech is cool.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Colombians who were living in Venezuela are crossing the river Tachira as the crisis worsens More than 1,000 Colombians who were living in Venezuela have crossed into Colombia as a border spat between the two neighbours intensifies. Last week, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered the closure of a border post near the city of Cucuta. He also announced that Colombians living illegally in Venezuela would be deported. The move followed an incident last Wednesday when smugglers injured three Venezuelan soldiers and a civilian. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez is due to meet her Colombian counterpart Maria Angela Holguin later on Wednesday to discuss the crisis. River crossing President Maduro at first said that the border would be closed for 72 hours. He has since extended the measure indefinitely. According to the Venezuelan authorities, more than 1,000 Colombians living illegally in Venezuela have been handed over to the Colombian authorities. Many others have crossed into Colombia over the river Tachira, which divides the two countries. Image copyright Natalio Cosoy Image caption Many Colombians are leaving Venezuela by crossing the Tachira river Image copyright NAtalio Cosoy Some accused the Venezuelan armed forces of forcing them out of their homes and destroying their houses. Referring to instances where Venezuelan security forces marked houses for demolition by spray painting them with the letter "D", Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said: "Marking houses to later demolish them is totally unacceptable and reminds one of bitter episodes in history which cannot be allowed to recur." Image copyright Reuters Image caption Homes were marked for demolition by spray painting the letter "D" on to their walls Image copyright Reuters Image caption Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the marking of houses reminded him of "bitter episodes" in history President Maduro says the expulsions are part of a crackdown on smuggling gangs. Generous government subsidies on staple foods and extremely cheap petrol in Venezuela mean smugglers can make handsome profits buying goods there and selling them in Colombia. The Venezuelan government estimates that 40% of subsidised good are lost to smugglers. It says the scarcity of staples such as corn flour, milk and basic cosmetic items is in large part due to this illegal trade. Critics of Mr Maduro's government, however, argue that the scarcity is down to mismanagement. President Maduro also declared a state of emergency in five border provinces, which allows the authorities to search homes and businesses without a warrant. An extra 1,500 troops have been deployed to search for smugglers and members of paramilitary groups which are active in the area. A suspect in last week's attack on the soldiers has been arrested. He is Venezuelan.
James Martin/CNET Governments want to have their cake and eat it too. Many support a concept called responsible encryption, which, the idea goes, would provide complete privacy and security for people while also letting law enforcement see encrypted messages to better protect you. Sounds fantastic, right? Unfortunately, security specialists say it's a paradox. Yet the concept continues to rear its head. The most recent responsible-encryption advocate is US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. During a speech to the US Naval Academy on Tuesday, Rosenstein called out tech companies for refusing to help with uncovering private messages. "Responsible encryption can protect privacy and promote security without forfeiting access for legitimate law enforcement needs supported by judicial approval," he said, according to a transcript. Rosenstein isn't alone. Officials in Australia and the UK have also called for responsible encryption, despite the fact that both governments have suffered major breaches that shatter the concept. Responsible encryption, according to the lawmakers who demand it, would require companies to create a secret key, or back door, that would make it possible to read coded data. Only the government could access the key, so that with the proper warrant or court order, law enforcement could read through messages. The key would be kept secret -- unless hackers stole it in a breach. Companies like Apple, WhatsApp and Signal provide end-to-end encryption, meaning people can chat privately, with their messages hidden even from the companies themselves. Such encryption means that only you and the person to whom you sent your messages can read them, since no one else has a key to unlock the code. End-to-end encryption provides security and privacy for people who want to make sure no one's spying on their messages -- a desire some would call modest in an age of mass surveillance. Governments around the world have a problem with that though. Rosenstein instead sees a future where companies keep their data encrypted, unless the government needs data to investigate a crime or a potential terrorist attack. It's the same rallying cry UK Prime Minister Theresa May made after a June 4 terrorist attack that took place on the London Bridge. May blamed encryption for providing a safe space for extremists. Rosenstein uses password recovery and email scanning as examples of responsible encryption. But neither of those involve end-to-end encryption. He references an unnamed "major hardware provider," which "maintains private keys it can use to sign software updates for each of its devices." And then he touches on a major problem with responsible encryption: Creating a back door for police also means creating an opening for hackers. "That would present a huge potential security problem, if those keys were to leak," Rosenstein said. "But they do not leak, because the company knows how to protect what is important." Except these important files have leaked on multiple occasions, including from the US government itself. Adobe accidentally released its private key on its security blog in September. In 2011, RSA's SecurID authentication tokens were stolen. The notorious malware Stuxnet used stolen encryption keys to install itself. The US National Security Agency has fallen victim to multiple breaches, from Russian spies stealing its secrets to the Shadow Brokers hacker group selling the agency's tools. "When the companies have the keys, they can be stolen," said security researcher Jake Williams, founder of cybersecurity provider Rendition Infosec. "Law enforcement calls [end-to-end encryption] 'warrant proof crypto,' but many companies will tell you they're not trying to dodge a warrant, they're just doing what's right for security." It's why Apple refused to create a back door for the FBI in 2016, when the agency wanted to crack into an iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino terror attack. Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year that the back door is "the equivalent of cancer," arguing that the master key could be stolen and abused by hackers, like it had been in previous cases. It's unclear why Rosenstein seems to think encryption keys can't be stolen. The Justice Department confirmed Rosenstein's comments and declined to elaborate. The call for encryption loopholes has alarmed the security community, which says it's experiencing deja vu. "I think it's extremely concerning that the man responsible for prosecuting crimes on the federal level would expect the invasion of everyone's privacy simply to make law enforcement's job easier," said Mike Spicer, an expert and founder of the security company Initec. The myth resurfaces nearly every year, said Eva Galperin, the cybersecurity director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights group. Every time, the EFF slams the demand, saying it's a "zombie argument." "Calling it responsible encryption is hypocritical," Galperin said. "Building insecurity in your encryption is irresponsible."
A Chapter 7 trustee aims to recover a gigantic sum while Weinstein responds by saying that it already has lost tens of millions on Genius Products. On Thursday, a trustee for a bankrupt home video company filed a complaint against The Weinstein Company, accusing the mini-major film and television studio of perpetrating a fraud and demanding the return of more than $130 million that was allegedly siphoned from the company since 2007. The lawsuit was lodged in California bankruptcy court as part of the ongoing strife of Genius Products, LLC, which has distributed works from ESPN, Discovery, IFC Films, Sesame Workshop and others through big box retailers like Target and Wal-Mart. Genius was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in 2011 by World Wrestling Entertainment and two other companies over $8.5 million in debt. But according to the new complaint from Chapter 7 trustee Alfred Siegel obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, by 2011 Genius was already insolvent thanks to "onerous and one-sided" agreements forced upon it by TWC. The lawsuit essentially accuses Harvey Weinstein's company of treating Genius as his personal piggy bank and transforming ESPN, Discovery and Genius' other licensors into unsecured creditors. "We think that the trustee's claims are gravely mistaken and will not succeed," responds Alan Friedman, attorney for The Weinstein Company, who says his client lost tens of millions of dollars on Genius. "The story the trustee tries to tell in the complaint does not square with what actually happened." Weinstein formed Genius in 2005, according to the bankruptcy papers. That year, it got the exclusive rights to distribute Weinstein home videos in the United States. In 2006, Genius would reform itself as an independent company, and pursuant to an operating agreement, TWC held onto 70 percent. The independence, though, was a "sham that was intended to and did mislead third parties," states the lawsuit, as Weinstein is said to have exercised complete control over Genius and dictated the terms of distribution agreements that created "no practical possibility" that Genius could operate profitably. As the litigation proceeds, the charge of "sham" independence will be challenged by the defendant. Friedman says the distribution terms "were approved by Genius' entirely independent board of directors before Genius and The Weinstein Company went into business together. They were also fully disclosed in a public SEC proxy statement that was sent to all of Genius' shareholders who then approved the very terms that the trustee is now challenging nine years later." Genius got a distribution fee of five percent of net receipts on Weinstein films, and according to the lawsuit, that fee paled in comparison to a market range of 15 to 17.5 percent for other distributors. If a Weinstein film title performed better than expected, Genius' fee was retroactively reduced to as low as three percent, adds the lawsuit. Friedman points again to what Genius' management touted to shareholders. According to a 2006 proxy statement, the company wrote, "We believe that the Distribution Agreement is a valuable and highly sought-after right and, when combined with our employees, management team and existing distribution business, will help transform the Distributor into a large and well-recognized entertainment distributor." If that statement was forced, it will surely be examined as the lawsuit moves forward. Genius was also allegedly disadvantaged in other ways in its relationship with TWC, like a requirement that it keep about 40 employees exclusively working on Weinstein titles at a cost of $2 million per year. The lawsuit also says that despite an exclusive right to distribute Weinstein titles, it wasn't permitted to distribute them in Blu-Ray and other new formats. Plus, Weinstein allegedly hamstrung the home video company's business by being allowed to review deals that Genius made made with others. According to the lawsuit, "TWC exercised its veto rights to require the Debtor to expend resources on unprofitable Weinstein titles instead of profitable third party titles." "In summary, through its control of both sides of the transaction, Weinstein dictated the terms of the Distribution Agreement so that substantially all of the revenue from the home video distribution of the titles was transferred to Weinstein, while substantially all of the expenses of the distribution were paid by the Debtor," states the complaint. "The effect of Weinstein’s scheme was to utilize the Distribution Agreement to transfer to Weinstein, as a result of Weinstein’s ownership of the Debtor, the Debtor’s cash by charging the Debtor above-market rates in the Distribution Agreement instead of the net revenues that could be obtained if the Distribution Agreement reflected market terms and industry norms." This is all said to have gone on for two years, until 2008 when Genius was running out of money. What happened next was a purchase agreement that transferred its majority ownership to the investment firm, Quadrant Management, Inc., allegedly so that Weinstein could "extricate itself from the relationship... at minimum cost to Weinstein." Genius also signed an "onerous" amended distribution deal, and later, a restructuring agreement that "no independent distributor would have entered into." During all this time, Genius was hemorrhaging money with nearly $20 million in reported net losses for 2006, nearly $19 million the following year, and nearly $90 million for the first nine months of 2008. At that point, it had $11 million in assets against $195 million in liabilities. Genius stopped operating in September 2009 when it sold its distribution rights to Vivendi Entertainment. Until then, according to the lawsuit, "in order for the Debtor to operate at a loss to facilitate the Weinstein scheme, the Debtor needed third parties to extend credit, which borrowed funds could be used to make transfers to Weinstein and pay overhead expenses." "To obtain such borrowed funds, the Debtor entered into distribution agreements with third party licensors at market terms," continues the lawsuit. "Pursuant to the distribution agreements, the Debtor was obligated to timely pay proceeds to the licensors after retention of the negotiated distribution fee. Instead, the Debtor used the proceeds to make transfers to Weinstein and pay overhead expenses, thereby turning the third party licensors into unsecured creditors who were not paid timely." Siegel, and his attorneys at Robins Kaplan, count $130,459,452 that was transferred by Genius to TWC after December 27, 2007. The plaintiffs are now claiming the allegedly fraudulent transfers are avoidable and recoverable. TWC is also facing claims for allegedly breaching fiduciary duties. Friedman says the reality is far from TWC using Genius as a piggy bank. "In fact, the Weinstein company was the biggest loser of all," he says. "It has written off tens of millions of dollars that were due to it from Genius under the distribution agreements. And the Weinstein Company had nothing to do with Genius' management for nearly three years before it went into bankruptcy and Quadrant Management was in control of Genius beginning of 2009."
Only in New York! A cell phone video that went viral Wednesday purportedly shows a woman in a wheelchair smoking a “blunt” on an M train and arguing with a young straphanger, just before being tossed off the subway — wheelchair and all. “Get the f–k off my train!” the enraged passenger says, before the clip cuts to a shot of the woman sprawled out on the ground of an unidentified subway station, her belongings strewn everywhere. The footage has been watched more than 800,000 times since first being posted Tuesday. As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, it had racked up over 700,000 views on World Star Hip Hop’s Instagram page, alone. The video — originally uploaded by a user named _liamweatherup_ — consists of several different clips, edited together as one. It opens with a close-up of the wheelchair-bound woman, as she rolls a cigar up on an empty bench on a southbound M train. Transit officials later told The Post that they received a report Tuesday at around 3:30 p.m from an MTA worker who was on the train — saying a female passenger in a wheelchair was smoking marijuana and possibly armed. But the contents were apparently a mystery to the male straphanger. “That s–t goofy,” he says, sparking a tirade from the woman. “If you smoke marijuana, why you don’t know what it is?” she asks. After the woman starts to yell incoherently, the man begins to make several physical threats towards her — even going so far as to say he would punch her if she didn’t get off the train. “I’ll smack you and that hat, and that blunt,” he says. “Everybody on this train, I’m decking that b—h…Word, gangsta.” As the drama unfolds on camera, an MTA worker can be seen in the background holding a radio, but it’s unclear if he’s the one who reported the incident. It’s also not clear whether the man seen arguing with the woman was the same person who, in fact, threw her off the train or if it was someone else. Transit officials told The Post that the incident was closed approximately ten minutes after it started, when they received a report saying the female passenger was removed. While smoking on the subway is a big no-no in New York, people on social media seemed to be more upset by the fact that the man was so rude to a woman in a wheelchair. “F–k that bama ass b—h n—a. Let her do her. She ain’t putting that s–t to his big ass lips,” fumed one Instagram user. “Disrespectful ignorant p.o.s. And I am not talking about the handicapped lady medicating,” another wrote. “I would of knocked that young man out. That video shows what is wrong with society. Young people are disrespectful and beyond ignorant.”
The West's recent initiatives at the United Nations over the situation in Syria are the "saddest images of diplomatic and political hypocrisy,” Syria's envoy to the UN tells Press TV. “All these initiatives are getting blind with regard to identifying the criminals and they are just seeking the distortion of the facts and the definition of the Syrian government and its allies and getting revenge for the triumph of the Syrian army and its allies over the terrorists in Aleppo,” Bashar Ja'afari told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Friday. The senior Syrian diplomat also stated that the main sponsors of terrorist activities in Syria, including Britain, France, and the United States, are getting “frantically hysterical” in the wake of the liberation of Aleppo from the clutches of foreign-backed militants. The Syrian ambassador's comments came a few hours after diplomats said France was drafting a UN Security Council resolution in a declared bid to ensure international observers for Aleppo evacuations and enable humanitarian aid to reach the city. Commenting on an evacuation deal for the former militant-held areas of the northwestern city, Ja'afari said the main problem affecting the process was the “non-respect” and “non-observation” of the agreement by the "most radical elements" within terrorist groups. Therefore, he said, Syria had no option but to halt the last part of the evacuation process until things are clarified and stronger guarantees are offered by the terrorists' foreign sponsors. The Syrian diplomat added that the terrorists’ "heinous" practices will definitely prevent thousands of civilians from returning to their homes which were used as the militants' "strongholds." Earlier in the day, evacuations of civilians and militants from eastern Aleppo was suspended after terrorists opened fire on the convoy at one of the crossing points, violating a truce deal brokered by Russia and Turkey stipulating the evacuations. The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the suspension, saying that terrorist groups such as Ahrar al-Sham “have prevented buses and ambulances from entering Fuaa and Kafraya, despite pledging… that they would let the evacuation go ahead.” The two government-held villages, situated in Idlib province, are under militant siege. Elsewhere in his remarks, Ja’afari argued that Syria is facing an international terrorist war on its soil. “It is a multi-faceted war taking place on the Syrian soil right now for too many different reasons, and each government is taking its own advantage over this mess taking place in Syria, and this is why we have no other choice but to combat terrorists and find out a political solution to our own problem by our own selves without any foreign interference, without any preconditions, and this is the only option we have,” he said in conclusion.
Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium In yet another display of the inexorable interdependence of Earth’s ecosystems, a bad summer for Midwestern farmland has turned out to be a good one for life in the Gulf of Mexico. Researchers from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium have found that this summer’s hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico – the oxygen-devoid area of water colloquially known as the dead zone – covers one of the smallest areas recorded since scientists began measuring the hypoxic zone in 1985. According to researchers who study hypoxia in the gulf, extra-dry weather in the corn belt is responsible for the small size of the hypoxic zone, which measures a little under 3,000 square miles – roughly two times the size of Long Island. “Because of the massive drought in the Midwest, there’s a whole lot less fertilizer being flushed into the rivers and whole lot less water being flushed into the gulf,” said Don Scavia, an aquatic ecologist with the University of Michigan. Dr. Scavia has been using data about nitrate levels in the Mississippi to predict the size of the gulf’s hypoxic zone for 11 years, and his prediction for this year (3,100 square miles) was more or less right on the mark. High levels of nitrates entering the gulf, mainly via the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, begin a series of biological processes that eventually lead to the creation of the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone. The nitrates find their way into the rivers after leaching off farmland, where farmers apply lots of nitrogen-rich fertilizer. When the nitrates collect in the gulf, they act as a nutrient surplus, allowing the algae living in the seawater to bloom prolifically in warm spring weather. Soon huge amounts of the short-lived algae die and sink to the bottom of the gulf, where their decomposition uses up all the oxygen in the water. Since nearly everything in the ocean needs oxygen to survive, creatures living in these oxygen-free areas must either move or die. The zone is reset, in a way, each winter, when seawater at the surface of the gulf gets cold and sinks, bringing oxygen-rich water back to the hypoxic bottom. But the following summer, the zone reforms. Its size varies from year to year, depending on how much nitrate-rich water is being funneled toward the sea from the Mississippi watershed, Dr. Scavia said. For example, because of last year’s Mississippi flooding, last summer’s hypoxic zone was one of the larger sizes recorded – more than two times this summer’s. Dr. Scavia said the small size of this year’s hypoxic zone was especially interesting because a reduction in the amount of nitrates entering the gulf has an immediate effect. “If we could find some way to stop all that nitrate from going down the river, the problem would be solved in a year or two,” he said. As people cannot control the amount of rain soaking the Midwest each year (and farmers and others are desperate for more of it), the best suggestions researchers and policymakers have for reducing the nitrate levels in the gulf are built around reducing the amount of nitrates entering gulf-bound rivers at the source. Building wetlands around the rivers would encourage the natural denitrification that occurs in such ecosystems, and buffering rivers with grasses to absorb the nitrates would help a lot as well, Dr. Scavia said.
Copyright by WANE - All rights reserved Environmental Protection Agency Copyright by WANE - All rights reserved Environmental Protection Agency Associated Press - EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to begin removing soil this weekend from northwestern Indiana residential properties contaminated with hazardous levels of lead and arsenic. The cleanup was scheduled to start Sunday at 19 homes in an area of East Chicago where soil tested for the highest concentrations of pollutants, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported (http://bit.ly/2dOEU74 ). Several hundred other yards will be addressed next year. The work is taking place in the easternmost section of the city's Calumet neighborhood, which has been designated zone 3 of a large EPA Superfund cleanup site. The area was contaminated by smelters and other industrial sites that operated for decades. Most of the recent attention related to the contamination has focused on a public housing complex built over a former lead facility in another part of the site where hundreds of low-income residents have been abruptly ordered to leave. Children there have tested positive for high levels of lead exposure, and many residents are angry the problem was overlooked for so many years. The EPA had been planning to also start hauling away tons of soil at the West Calumet Housing Complex, zone 1 of the Superfund site. But Mayor Anthony Copeland ordered the more than 1,000 residents to move this summer and announced plans to have the 40-year-old complex demolished, forcing the EPA to put its remediation plan there on hold. The work in zone 3 is expected to take several months. The EPA said in a news release Friday that residents should expect to see heavy trucks and equipment. So far, the EPA has sampled soil at 411 properties in zone 3. Results show about 60 percent have lead or arsenic concentrations, or both, above the agency's action levels for cleanup. ___ Information from: The Times, http://www.nwitimes.com Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
ROSTOCK, Germany (Reuters) - Renewable energy has created a “gold rush” atmosphere in Germany’s depressed north-east, giving the country’s poorhouse good jobs and great promise. The natural resources attracting investors and industry are of a simple variety: wind, sunshine, agricultural products and farm waste such as liquid manure. The rush to tap green resources in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state is reminiscent of the frenzies that came with gold or oil discoveries in past centuries. The buzz can be felt in towns and sparkling new factories across the Baltic shore state. “Renewable energy has become extremely valuable for our state,” said its premier, Erwin Selling, in an interview with Reuters. “It’s just a great opportunity — producing renewable energy and creating manufacturing jobs. “From an industrial point of view we’d been one of Germany’s weaker areas. But the country is abandoning nuclear power. That will work only if there’s a corresponding — and substantial — increase in renewables. It’ll be one of Germany’s most important sectors in the future. We want to be up there leading the way.” The federal government did an about-face on nuclear power after the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan, set off by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Germany shut eight nuclear plants and will close the other nine by 2022. Germany is a world leader in renewable energy and wants an even larger share of the $211 billion global market. A fifth of its electricity comes from renewables, up from 6 percent in 2000, and it aims to boost this to 35 percent in 2020. There are some clouds on the horizon. State-mandated incentives, which fueled a private investment boom, have been cut, squeezing margins in sectors such as solar energy. There have also been delays in expanding and upgrading the national grid of high-voltage transmission lines from sparsely populated coastal regions such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to areas where the power is needed in the west and south. The federal government is working to remove infrastructure bottlenecks, but if the grid is not expanded soon it could cause problems later when more off-shore wind power goes on line. ECLIPSING SHIPYARDS Renewables — especially wind energy — are injecting new optimism into Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, reflected in a word that often comes up in conversations with business and political leaders: “Reindustrialisierung” (re-industrialization). In a state with a sea-faring heritage, there are now more jobs in renewable energy than in shipyards: 6,000 jobs at 704 firms, expected to nearly quadruple to 22,000 by 2020. Companies are building, designing, maintaining and operating wind turbines and photovoltaic and biomass plants — for which farmers are growing crops and harvesting animal waste. There are more than 1,200 wind turbines on land, and a new push into off-shore wind energy in the Baltic will further fuel that growth. Many new jobs are at firms such as Nordex, which employs 1,000 in Rostock making lightweight wind turbine rotor blades up to 65 meters long. It has invested 100 million euros expanding its plant and exports some 95 percent of its output. These are sorely needed, highly skilled jobs in a sparsely populated state whose industrial base was devastated by the economic upheaval accompanying Germany’s reunification in 1990. There were 32,800 jobs in the once bustling shipyards around the port city of Rostock when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. But most were wiped out when the east German shipbuilding industry collapsed in the face of surging labor costs and fierce western competition. There are only 3,300 shipyard jobs left, and the industry’s demise epitomized the east’s decline. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern became one of Germany’s poorest regions. The jobless rate soared to 20 percent in 2004 — double the national average — and the population fell by 250,000 to 1.6 million as mostly young, well educated people moved to the more prosperous west in search of jobs. More than 8,000 left the state in 2008, but only 3,500 moved away in 2010. The prospect that some areas could turn into ghost towns was an explosive issue, but the gloom is lifting as unemployment has been nearly halved. The state with the worst jobless rate of Germany’s 16 states in 2007 is now ahead of Berlin and Bremen. “There’s a new sense of optimism thanks to sectors such as renewable energy, and the migration westwards was slowed if not completely stopped,” said Edeltraud Guenther, a professor for environmental management at Dresden’s Technical University. POWER EXPORTING STATE Juergen Trittin, a leader of the Greens in Berlin, said a renewables law drafted by his party in 2000 had proved unexpectedly successful in creating jobs across the east. “All of the east is benefiting from that,” he said. “The jobs growth is going to continue with the push into off-shore.” Germany’s first commercial off-shore wind park, ‘Baltic 1’ — a 48 million euro project with 21 turbines made by Siemens and operated by EnBW — began pumping enough power for 53,000 households into the grid in May from 16 km north of the coast. By 2013, utility EnBW aims to complete 80 more off-shore wind turbines in the ‘Baltic 2’ development, 32 km offshore. Germany expects to have some 25 megawatts of off-shore wind energy capacity by 2030, produced by 4,000 wind turbines. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern already gets half of its electricity from regenerative sources — nearly 4 gigawatt hours. That is a five-fold increase since 2000. It aims to cover its entire electricity needs by 2015 to 2017 and then export surpluses to other states. By 2020 it expects to have 12 gigawatt hours of renewable energy — enough for 3 million households. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will then produce enough power for itself and two neighboring states. “The natural conditions for renewable energy here are good,” said Sellering. “The first goal is to cover our own electricity requirements. Then we want to be an energy-exporting state.”
A threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant has been hacked and the attackers are claiming to have lurked on his computer for a year, collecting his login credentials for various sites and tracking his location. The hackers got their hands on some internal data about the clients Mandiant and its parent company FireEye protect, including the Israeli Defense Forces. Mandiant confirmed the data breach. Advertisement “We are aware of reports that a Mandiant employee’s social media accounts and personal laptop have been compromised. We are investigating this situation, and have taken steps to limit further exposure,” a FireEye spokesperson told Gizmodo. “While our investigation is ongoing, there is currently no evidence that FireEye or Mandiant corporate systems have been compromised. Our top priority is ensuring that our customer data is secure. To date, we have confirmed the exposure of business documents related to two separate customers in Israel, and have addressed this situation with those customers directly.” The investigation is ongoing, the spokesperson added. Mandiant’s employee, Adi Peretz, appears to have been targeted because of his work—a post apparently written by the hackers mentions that Peretz may have disrupted one of their breach plans. Here’s what they allegedly had to say: For a long time we - the 31337 hackers - tried to avoid these fancy ass “Analysts” whom trying to trace our attack footprints back to us and prove they are better than us. In the #LeakTheAnalyst operation we say fuck the consequence let’s track them on Facebook, Linked-in, Tweeter, etc. let’s go after everything they’ve got, let’s go after their countries, let’s trash their reputation in the field. If during your stealth operation you pwned an analyst, target him and leak his personal and professional data, as a side job of course ;). Advertisement Although it’s easy to laugh at a guy whose LinkedIn page got defaced with a picture of a hairy butt, the hack just goes to show that even security professionals can be vulnerable. Industry professionals are probably taking some time today for a security checkup, and you should, too. [The Next Web]
Last year's MotoGP World Championship saw a record nine different race winners, something many thought a freak occurrence due to the new single ECU, switch from Bridgestone to Michelin tyres and changeable race day weather. But halfway through this season and five different riders have already won races - one more than this time last year, despite dry races (rain spots at Assen aside) - with an unprecedented ten points covering the top four in the world championship. For Herve Poncharal, boss of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - the only satellite team to have both its riders, Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger, on the rostrum so far this season - the technical rules mean competition between the leading manufacturers is closer than ever, with Suzuki's decline the 'big question mark'. "This year we have three factories that are clearly almost at the same level - Yamaha, Honda and Ducati," Poncharal told Crash.net. "Last year Ducati was behind, they won two races, but one on a special circuit (Austria) and the other in the wet (Sepang). "This year the big disappointment and big question mark is Suzuki. Why? Is it because the bike is worse than last year, or because the riders can't use the bike... I'm not going to say which, because someone will kill me! "But to explain a little: Thanks to the technical rules we have, Yamaha, Honda and Ducati are all close this year. I am Yamaha so I can tell you there is not, from 2016 to 2017, a huge evolution. The bikes are almost the same as last year because of the frozen engine, more-or-less the same tyres, the same ECU, the aerodynamics are more or less blocked now etc etc. "So I don't think the Suzuki is less competitive than last year. I think Vinales is a special man. Some people also didn't understand the level of Aleix Espargaro because you can see what he is doing now on the Aprilia. So they had extremely good, motivated, fast riders last season. "This year, and I'm not blaming anyone, but Aleix is a rookie and has been injured. Iannone has been riding the Ducati which is a different bike and has been shocked not to be able to adapt. But look at Lorenzo, it's the same story in reverse. "The 'problem' is Ducati kept Dovi and Suzuki changed both riders. But if you had Lorenzo and 'X new rider' joining Ducati maybe their situation would be the same as Suzuki. Because if you take out Dovi from the results... Everyone expected Lorenzo to be stronger, like they were expecting Iannone to be better at Suzuki." While all of the victories this year have so far been by factory riders, four satellite riders have also finished on the podium. Last season saw the first Independent wins since 2006, courtesy of Jack Miller at Assen and then Cal Crutchlow at Brno and Phillip Island. "I'd like to see guys like Petrucci, Cal and eventually Zarco and Folger winning races on a regular basis: So far we've had the two factory Hondas, two factory Yamahas and one factory Ducati, but I think some satellite guys can win races," Poncharal declared. The Frenchman then explained that the single ECU, introduced at the start of 2016, has been the most important factor in making victory a realistic possibility for Independent teams: "This situation, where satellite riders have the chance to win, didn't happen overnight, but we always gave priority to the show when deciding on the technical rules. "For the show you need a battle, which means you need a competitive grid.The single tyre, frozen spec engine, maximum number of engines have all been important but the single ECU was the thing that helped most. In the past, that was the biggest difference between factory and satellite. "It's an incredible feeling for us to compete with the factory guys. Sure Vinales and Rossi will finish ahead of us in the championship, but it is more exciting for everyone that we can sometimes beat them. "And at the front of the championship, as Valentino was saying, after Catalunya he was almost out of the title chase and Pedrosa in the middle of it. One race later and Pedrosa is, some people think, out of it and Valentino right back in."
Theresa May must resign as Prime Minister following her poor performance in the general election, Tim Farron has said. Speaking on Friday morning after his party added four seats to its tally, the Liberal Democrat leader accused Ms May of being "arrogant and vain" and said if she had "an ounce of self respect" she would step down. "She should consider her future - and then, for once, she should consider the future of our country," he told activists at the party’s headquarters in London. We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Mr Farron said the Tory leader had laid out an “extreme” vision for Brexit which had been roundly rejected by the electorate. He said Brexit negotiations should be put on hold amid the confusion of a hung parliament. It was a bruising night for Ms May as voters shocked political pundits and pollsters by delivering a surge in support for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. While the Tories gained 5.5 per cent of the vote share, the party lost 12 seats, leaving the Prime Minister humiliated. The Lib Dems will now have 12 MPs in Parliament, up from eight before the election, although they dropped by half a percentage point on share of the vote. Labour saw its vote share climb almost 10 per cent, increasing the party's presence in the Commons by 29. Shape Created with Sketch. General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats 1/7 Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien 2/7 Gavin Barwell Getty 3/7 Angus Robertson 4/7 Nicola Blackwood PA 5/7 Alex Salmond PA 6/7 Rob Wilson Rex Features 7/7 Ben Gummer PA 1/7 Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien 2/7 Gavin Barwell Getty 3/7 Angus Robertson 4/7 Nicola Blackwood PA 5/7 Alex Salmond PA 6/7 Rob Wilson Rex Features 7/7 Ben Gummer PA Mr Farron said EU exit talks were "about to get very real" and warned the "consequences will be felt by every single person in this country". "It is simply inconceivable that the Prime Minister can begin the Brexit negotiations in just two weeks' time,” he added. "The negotiations should be put on hold until the Government has reassessed its priorities and set them out to the British public. "The British people have a right to expect that our Prime Minister will explain to them what it is that she seeks to achieve." Mr Farron also paid tribute to the former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who lost his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labour's Jared O Mara with a majority of 2,125. He continued: "The referendum showed us to be a dangerously divided country. "This election has highlighted those divisions in Technicolor: young against old, rich against poor, north against south, urban against rural. "If we are to have any chance at healing, at coming together, we must ask ourselves some tough questions." We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe now.
Who could have thought 5 years ago that Xiaomi would become one of the main players in the smartphone industry. Some of the analysts still call it a startup company as it is very young for electronics industry. However, the Xiaomi sits in the top 5 smartphone makers category and the company’s CEO Lei Jun does not see any slow-downs yet. As the Xiaomi’s Global Supplier Conference was held today, Lei Jun hit a stage and pointed out a few important facts to the suppliers. He made it clear that Xiaomi’s this year’s target is around 80-100 million units! Lei Jun said: “I hope you make sure to complete the production tasks, thus making it easier for the users to buy the phone.” The current official data shows that Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments in 2014 amounted to about 65 million. According to the predicted numbers, the company may see a 23-54% growth in sales this year. Knowing how Xiaomi’s phones are popular, we can say if the company is able to produce enough devices to supply the demand, it is really possible to reach this important milestone. What is more, Lei Jun stressed out that the company always strives for the high quality products and they put a lot of effort to ensure a quality control of its production lines. The result is a high quality device, which has an affordable price point. Summing up what has been said by the CEO of Xiaomi, we can say that there is a chance that the supply will be bigger soon, so it would become easier to purchase Xiaomi devices. Moreover, we can clearly see that the company keeps on growing at amazingly fast pace and has become a real threat to the main players in the market. We have to wait and see what happens when Xiaomi enters EU and US markets in the future.
In numerical analysis, the Kahan summation algorithm (also known as compensated summation[1]) significantly reduces the numerical error in the total obtained by adding a sequence of finite precision floating point numbers, compared to the obvious approach. This is done by keeping a separate running compensation (a variable to accumulate small errors). In particular, simply summing n numbers in sequence has a worst-case error that grows proportional to n, and a root mean square error that grows as n {\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}} for random inputs (the roundoff errors form a random walk).[2] With compensated summation, the worst-case error bound is independent of n, so a large number of values can be summed with an error that only depends on the floating-point precision.[2] The algorithm is attributed to William Kahan.[3] Similar, earlier techniques are, for example, Bresenham's line algorithm, keeping track of the accumulated error in integer operations (although first documented around the same time[4]) and the delta-sigma modulation[5] (integrating, not just summing the error). The algorithm [ edit ] In pseudocode, the algorithm is: function KahanSum(input) var sum = 0.0 var c = 0.0 // A running compensation for lost low-order bits. for i = 1 to input.length do var y = input[i] - c // So far, so good: c is zero. var t = sum + y // Alas, sum is big, y small, so low-order digits of y are lost. c = (t - sum) - y // (t - sum) cancels the high-order part of y; subtracting y recovers negative (low part of y) sum = t // Algebraically, c should always be zero. Beware overly-aggressive optimizing compilers! next i // Next time around, the lost low part will be added to y in a fresh attempt. return sum Worked example [ edit ] This example will be given in decimal. Computers typically use binary arithmetic, but the principle being illustrated is the same. Suppose we are using six-digit decimal floating point arithmetic, sum has attained the value 10000.0, and the next two values of input[i] are 3.14159 and 2.71828. The exact result is 10005.85987, which rounds to 10005.9. With a plain summation, each incoming value would be aligned with sum and many low order digits lost (by truncation or rounding). The first result, after rounding, would be 10003.1. The second result would be 10005.81828 before rounding, and 10005.8 after rounding. This is not correct. However, with compensated summation, we get the correct rounded result of 10005.9. Assume that c has the initial value zero. y = 3.14159 - 0 y = input[i] - c t = 10000.0 + 3.14159 = 10003.14159 But only six digits are retained. = 10003.1 Many digits have been lost! c = (10003.1 - 10000.0) - 3.14159 This must be evaluated as written! = 3.10000 - 3.14159 The assimilated part of y recovered, vs. the original full y. = -.0415900 Trailing zeros shown because this is six-digit arithmetic. sum = 10003.1 Thus, few digits from input(i) met those of sum. The sum is so large that only the high-order digits of the input numbers are being accumulated. But on the next step, c gives the error. y = 2.71828 - (-.0415900) The shortfall from the previous stage gets included. = 2.75987 It is of a size similar to y: most digits meet. t = 10003.1 + 2.75987 But few meet the digits of sum. = 10005.85987 And the result is rounded = 10005.9 To six digits. c = (10005.9 - 10003.1) - 2.75987 This extracts whatever went in. = 2.80000 - 2.75987 In this case, too much. = .040130 But no matter, the excess would be subtracted off next time. sum = 10005.9 Exact result is 10005.85987, this is correctly rounded to 6 digits. So the summation is performed with two accumulators: sum holds the sum, and c accumulates the parts not assimilated into sum , to nudge the low-order part of sum the next time around. Thus the summation proceeds with "guard digits" in c which is better than not having any but is not as good as performing the calculations with double the precision of the input. However, simply increasing the precision of the calculations is not practical in general; if input is already double precision, few systems supply quadruple precision, and if they did, input could then be quadruple precision. Accuracy [ edit ] A careful analysis of the errors in compensated summation is needed to appreciate its accuracy characteristics. While it is more accurate than naive summation, it can still give large relative errors for ill-conditioned sums. Suppose that one is summing n values x i , for i=1,...,n. The exact sum is: S n = ∑ i = 1 n x i {\displaystyle S_{n}=\sum _{i=1}^{n}x_{i}} With compensated summation, one instead obtains S n + E n {\displaystyle S_{n}+E_{n}} , where the error E n {\displaystyle E_{n}} is bounded by:[2] \| E n \| ≤ [ 2 ε + O ( n ε 2 ) ] ∑ i = 1 n \| x i \| {\displaystyle \|E_{n}\|\leq \left[2\varepsilon +O(n\varepsilon ^{2})\right]\sum _{i=1}^{n}\|x_{i}\|} where ε is the machine precision of the arithmetic being employed (e.g. ε≈10−16 for IEEE standard double precision floating point). Usually, the quantity of interest is the relative error \| E n \| / \| S n \| {\displaystyle \|E_{n}\|/\|S_{n}\|} , which is therefore bounded above by: \| E n \| \| S n \| ≤ [ 2 ε + O ( n ε 2 ) ] ∑ i = 1 n \| x i \| \| ∑ i = 1 n x i \| . {\displaystyle {\frac {\|E_{n}\|}{\|S_{n}\|}}\leq \left[2\varepsilon +O(n\varepsilon ^{2})\right]{\frac {\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}\|x_{i}\|}{\left\|\sum \limits _{i=1}^{n}x_{i}\right\|}}.} In the expression for the relative error bound, the fraction Σ\|x i \|/\|Σx i \| is the condition number of the summation problem. Essentially, the condition number represents the intrinsic sensitivity of the summation problem to errors, regardless of how it is computed.[6] The relative error bound of every (backwards stable) summation method by a fixed algorithm in fixed precision (i.e. not those that use arbitrary precision arithmetic, nor algorithms whose memory and time requirements change based on the data), is proportional to this condition number.[2] An ill-conditioned summation problem is one in which this ratio is large, and in this case even compensated summation can have a large relative error. For example, if the summands x i are uncorrelated random numbers with zero mean, the sum is a random walk and the condition number will grow proportional to n {\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}} . On the other hand, for random inputs with nonzero mean the condition number asymptotes to a finite constant as n → ∞ {\displaystyle n\to \infty } . If the inputs are all non-negative, then the condition number is 1. Given a condition number, the relative error of compensated summation is effectively independent of n. In principle, there is the O(nε2) that grows linearly with n, but in practice this term is effectively zero: since the final result is rounded to a precision ε, the nε2 term rounds to zero unless n is roughly 1/ε or larger.[2] In double precision, this corresponds to an n of roughly 1016, much larger than most sums. So, for a fixed condition number, the errors of compensated summation are effectively O(ε), independent of n. In comparison, the relative error bound for naive summation (simply adding the numbers in sequence, rounding at each step) grows as O ( ε n ) {\displaystyle O(\varepsilon n)} multiplied by the condition number.[2] This worst-case error is rarely observed in practice, however, because it only occurs if the rounding errors are all in the same direction. In practice, it is much more likely that the rounding errors have a random sign, with zero mean, so that they form a random walk; in this case, naive summation has a root mean square relative error that grows as O ( ε n ) {\displaystyle O(\varepsilon {\sqrt {n}})} multiplied by the condition number.[7] This is still much worse than compensated summation, however. Note, however, that if the sum can be performed in twice the precision, then ε is replaced by ε2 and naive summation has a worst-case error comparable to the O(nε2) term in compensated summation at the original precision. By the same token, the Σ\|x i \| that appears in E n {\displaystyle E_{n}} above is a worst-case bound that occurs only if all the rounding errors have the same sign (and are of maximum possible magnitude).[2] In practice, it is more likely that the errors have random sign, in which case terms in Σ\|x i \| are replaced by a random walk—in this case, even for random inputs with zero mean, the error E n {\displaystyle E_{n}} grows only as O ( ε n ) {\displaystyle O(\varepsilon {\sqrt {n}})} (ignoring the nε2 term), the same rate the sum S n {\displaystyle S_{n}} grows, canceling the n {\displaystyle {\sqrt {n}}} factors when the relative error is computed. So, even for asymptotically ill-conditioned sums, the relative error for compensated summation can often be much smaller than a worst-case analysis might suggest. Further enhancements [ edit ] Neumaier[8] introduced a slight modification of Kahan's algorithm that also covers the case when the next term to be added is larger in absolute value than the running sum, effectively swapping the role of what is large and what is small. In pseudocode, the algorithm is: function NeumaierSum(input) var sum = 0.0 var c = 0.0 // A running compensation for lost low-order bits. for i = 1 to input.length do var t = sum + input[i] if \|sum\| >= \|input[i]\| then c += (sum - t) + input[i] // If sum is bigger, low-order digits of input[i] are lost. else c += (input[i] - t) + sum // Else low-order digits of sum are lost endif sum = t next i return sum + c // Correction only applied once in the very end For many sequences of numbers, both algorithms agree but a simple example due to Peters[9] shows how they can differ. For summing [ 1.0 , + 10 100 , 1.0 , − 10 100 ] {\displaystyle [1.0,+10^{100},1.0,-10^{100}]} in double precision, Kahan's algorithm yields 0.0 whereas Neumaier's algorithm yields the correct value 2.0. Alternatives [ edit ] Although Kahan's algorithm achieves O ( 1 ) {\displaystyle O(1)} error growth for summing n numbers, only slightly worse O ( log ⁡ n ) {\displaystyle O(\log n)} growth can be achieved by pairwise summation: one recursively divides the set of numbers into two halves, sums each half, and then adds the two sums.[2] This has the advantage of requiring the same number of arithmetic operations as the naive summation (unlike Kahan's algorithm, which requires four times the arithmetic and has a latency of four times a simple summation) and can be calculated in parallel. The base case of the recursion could in principle be the sum of only one (or zero) numbers, but to amortize the overhead of recursion one would normally use a larger base case. The equivalent of pairwise summation is used in many fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms, and is responsible for the logarithmic growth of roundoff errors in those FFTs.[10] In practice, with roundoff errors of random signs, the root mean square errors of pairwise summation actually grow as O ( log ⁡ n ) {\displaystyle O({\sqrt {\log n}})} .[7] Another alternative is to use arbitrary precision arithmetic, which in principle need no rounding at all with a cost of much greater computational effort. A way of performing exactly rounded sums using arbitrary precision is to extend adaptively using multiple floating-point components. This will minimize computational cost in common cases where high precision is not needed.[11][9] Another method that uses only integer arithmetic, but a large accumulator was described by Kirchner and Kulisch;[12] a hardware implementation was described by Müller, Rüb and Rülling.[13] Possible invalidation by compiler optimization [ edit ] In principle, a sufficiently aggressive optimizing compiler could destroy the effectiveness of Kahan summation: for example, if the compiler simplified expressions according to the associativity rules of real arithmetic, it might "simplify" the second step in the sequence t = sum + y; c = (t - sum) - y; to ((sum + y) - sum) - y; then to c = 0; , eliminating the error compensation.[14] In practice, many compilers do not use associativity rules (which are only approximate in floating-point arithmetic) in simplifications unless explicitly directed to do so by compiler options enabling "unsafe" optimizations,[15][16][17][18] although the Intel C++ Compiler is one example that allows associativity-based transformations by default.[19] The original K&R C version of the C programming language allowed the compiler to re-order floating-point expressions according to real-arithmetic associativity rules, but the subsequent ANSI C standard prohibited re-ordering in order to make C better suited for numerical applications (and more similar to Fortran, which also prohibits re-ordering),[20] although in practice compiler options can re-enable re-ordering as mentioned above. Support by libraries [ edit ] In general, built-in "sum" functions in computer languages typically provide no guarantees that a particular summation algorithm will be employed, much less Kahan summation.[citation needed] The BLAS standard for linear algebra subroutines explicitly avoids mandating any particular computational order of operations for performance reasons,[21] and BLAS implementations typically do not use Kahan summation. The standard library of the Python computer language specifies an fsum function for exactly rounded summation, using the Shewchuk algorithm[9] to track multiple partial sums. In the Julia language, the default implementation of the sum function does pairwise summation for high accuracy with good performance,[22] but the standard library also has an implementation of Neumaier's variant named sum_kbn for the cases when the highest accuracy is needed.[23] See also [ edit ] Algorithms for calculating variance, which includes stable summation
In Parts I, II & III we discussed the important link between human biology, psychology and social learning (bio-psycho-social) and how we learn to communicate emotion. The key factor in all of this (if it can be drawn down to only one strategic factor) is the influence individual belief has on the expression of emotion. Our individual belief systems, our personal construct for knowing right from wrong, good from bad, evil from virtuous, moral from immoral, when examined properly, can result in overwhelming emotional intelligence (EI) improvement. What do you believe to be true? What should, ought, must, has to or needs to exist in the world in order for you to be in balance – to be content? Are there any exceptions? What happens when the world is not meeting your unwavering demands? Your beliefs, your current schema for perceiving, thinking and emoting in your social world, hold sway over improvement to your emotional intelligence. Your beliefs trigger those biological responses (otherwise known as the stress or freeze, fight or flee response) placing you in the position of solving a precarious physical and emotional puzzle. I don’t like this person’s behavior; shall I freeze, fight or flee? Your beliefs, when challenged by others, trigger a neurochemical-hormonal protective response that can interfere not only with your thinking and reasoning, but your physical health, as well. When you are facing adversity, hardship and misfortune, your brain will react to protect you from it, just as it would protect you from a rampaging emu or a hungry black bear. Your brain takes what you tell it and determines that there is trouble and you need protection from it. It’s all quite automatic. Your brain has a mind of its own. In order to change this response, making the experiences in your life more manageable, you will have to change what you believe must, should and ought to be in order for your to be content. You might also examine quite closely what you think you need in order to achieve emotional balance. Make room for error. I once worked with an employee and his manager to resolve a matter between them: “Your behavior is unprofessional.” “What does unprofessional mean?” “Don’t give me that. You know what I mean. Even the tone of your emails is rude.” “How will I know that I am writing something with a bad tone? I don’t write tone into my email? I think you read tone into my email.” “I guess I will have to tell you when you are being inappropriate.” “Sounds good.” “That doesn’t mean I won’t be writing you up after I explain it to you.” Regardless of your individual EI goal, understanding the power of your beliefs, and the impact they have on your behavior, can open up a whole new world of emotional awareness for you. Your first eye-opening experience should be that there is no way for people to know what expectation you have for them unless you tell them and they tell you how willing they are to abide by your social rules. (And even then, as in the above case, that is not enough.) No matter how much wisdom is gained from knowing where our emotions live, unless you are willing to accept that your way is not the only way, your beliefs are not the only beliefs, and that there are other perspectives to consider, you cannot grow. This is a necessary truth in EI theory and will likely lead, if fully appreciated, toward improvement. Often, people will forcefully, vehemently hold on to their beliefs, even if they result in more anger, depression, isolation and physical illness. It may be that they fear compromise, because compromise may mean that they will have to give up some part of what they believe, leaving them somehow changed: “I will never accept that my son is gay.” “But he is gay.” “I don’t have to accept it.” “What other alternative is there? You don’t have to accept that it’s daylight, but that doesn’t make it untrue.” “If I accept it, he will think it’s OK.” “I think he already thinks it’s OK.” “He can’t come around here anymore.” “He is still your son.” “I’m not changing my beliefs.” Even from the very people who are actually seeking EI improvement, some level of resistance is predictable: “I don’t want to think this way anymore. I want to change my beliefs.” “How is it a problem for you that your son is gay?” “People will make fun of our family.” “Anything else?” “He won’t give me any grandchildren. I wanted grandchildren.” “What else?” “Someone will hurt him.” “And?” “I won’t know how to act around him, if he brings someone over for dinner.” “Anything else?” “I’m scared.” “Ah, so that’s what the problem has been all along?” “I think so.” It may be that many of our beliefs are so intimately connected to our other beliefs that to compromise one of them would mean making some adjustment to others. It will take the force of will to recognize these connections. Related articles 37.747857 -84.294653
Our shoppers don’t care if meat is halal, claim supermarkets: Retailers face backlash after saying that it is ‘unnecessary’ to label meats A Consumer Rights Bill amendment will be debated next week Opposed by retailers, David Cameron says there's no need to change law Pizza Express, KFC and Subway selling halal meat, it has been revealed H alal and kosher slaughter involve a religious ritual in which throat is cut Supermarkets were facing a backlash last night after claiming that it was ‘unnecessary’ to spell out on labels whether meat comes from animals killed by religious slaughter. Religious groups from all faiths, vets and animal welfare groups joined calls for new labels to identify halal or kosher meat. But retailers claimed that shoppers do not care – and even argued that there is not enough room on packs for new labels. Production line: Chickens after ritual slaughter in a halal abattoir in Burgundy, France. Supermarkets were facing a backlash last night after claiming it was 'unnecessary' to spell out on labels whether meat comes from animals killed by religious slaughter Tory MPs have tabled an amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill, which is to be debated next week, that would require a move to clearer labels. However, the idea is opposed by most retailers and David Cameron, the Prime Minister, believes that there is no need to change the law. Demands for more informative labels follow widespread outrage over the disclosure in yesterday’s Daily Mail that millions of people are being sold halal and kosher meat without being told. All the major supermarkets are selling New Zealand lamb killed according to halal ritual without providing labels. Separately, many restaurants such as Pizza Express, KFC and Subway are selling halal meat – mainly chicken – without printing the information on menus. Both halal and kosher slaughter involve a religious ritual in which the throat is cut. But some animals are not stunned beforehand, leaving them in pain. The Conservative MP Philip Davies, who is leading calls for a new labelling law, said: ‘There is overwhelming public support for this change. People should be able to make an informed choice about what they are buying.’ Mr Davies has the support of a large number of Tory MPs, while the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said that consumers should be given more information. Asda has confirmed it stocks some branded halal and kosher meat However, Mr Cameron last night ruled out the need for a new national labelling system, insisting that it was up to the food industry to act if consumers demanded more transparency. ‘I would hope it will be dealt with by restaurants and businesses,’ he told ITV West Country. ‘We should start from the approach that the greater the transparency the better and I think we can achieve this without necessarily having a full-on national labelling scheme.’ The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which speaks for most supermarkets, responded to the criticism by saying a change to labels is unnecessary. Andrew Opie, the food director at the BRC, said: ‘We have not seen evidence that this is what people want to see. Labels are very tight in terms of the space and what we can put on them. This has to be driven by evidence to show that people want to see it alongside the things that are already on it like durability, country of origin and price.’ By contrast, Morrisons, Waitrose and the Co-op broke ranks to say that it is time for the Government to take a lead to develop clear and consistent guidance for the food industry. The desire for improved labels is supported by groups from all religious faiths.
Matt Gross for The New York Times In Venice, a city of odd spaces, Gianni Colombo’s walk-in art installation “Spazio Elastico” (1967-68) at the Palazzo Grassi contemporary art museum, is one of the oddest. A nearly lightless room subdivided into rectangles by thin elastic cords that glow white in the dark and ever so slowly shift position, it’s as disorienting as a hall of mirrors, only without the mirrors. And so, when my cellphone began to ring as I stood lost in Colombo’s funhouse, I almost chalked it up to art-induced hallucination. I realized the sound was real, and hurried out of the artwork and over to an isolated corner to answer it. It was my uncle, Gary, calling from Connecticut just to see how my daughter, Sasha, was doing on her first trip abroad. We chatted (even though I hate talking on a cellphone in a place like a museum), and four minutes and six seconds later we hung up. Throughout the call, neither Gary nor I was particularly worried about the cost of the conversation. That’s because, over the past few years of traveling internationally, I’ve developed a system that not only lets me make inexpensive local calls but also allows friends and family back home to reach me cheaply. It’s a little complicated, but bear with me and I’ll explain. The first thing you’ll need is an unlocked mobile phone — that is, a phone that’s not tied to one particular carrier. (In the United States, some carriers will unlock your phone if you ask; abroad, most phones come already unlocked.) Then, whenever you arrive in a new country, you can buy a local SIM card (the tiny, interchangeable chip inside the phone that actually lets you connect to a particular carrier; they’re sold at mobile phone stores and kiosks for $2 to $25, depending on the country) and make phone calls and send text messages without paying exorbitant international roaming fees. Simple enough. But for folks back home to reach you, you’ll need Skype. In the last few years, Skype has revolutionized how global nomads like myself keep in touch. Install its software on your Mac or PC, and as long as you’ve got an Internet connection, you can make high-quality audio and video calls to other Skype users almost anywhere on earth. (A few countries, like the United Arab Emirates, unfortunately block the service.) Skype, however, also lets you call out to mobile phones and land lines (a service called SkypeOut) and enables you to have your own phone number in any of 23 countries, including the United States, Hong Kong, France and Italy (this is called SkypeIn). Both SkypeOut and SkypeIn carry a relatively low fee. SkypeOut calls to land lines can be as little as 2 cents a minute, while calls to mobile phones are usually a bit more. In Italy, for example, Gary’s call cost me (not him) 30.8 cents a minute (not including tax). A SkypeIn subscription, meanwhile, costs $60 a year or $18 for three months. All I have to do before I leave home is set my American cellphone (an older-generation iPhone) to forward to my SkypeIn number, and all I have to do when I arrive in a new country is get a SIM card, go online and set the Skype software’s preferences to forward all calls to the new number. So, here’s how Gary’s call to me worked: He dialed my regular American cellphone number, which forwarded to my SkypeIn number, which, in turn, forwarded (via SkypeOut) to my Italian cellphone number. Cost to him: zero. Cost to me: about $1.58, plus some small fraction of the 15 euros of Vodafone credit I’d put on my phone. (In two weeks in Italy, I never managed to use up that credit.) Certainly, the call could have been made for less — if, for example, Gary had bought an Italy-specific calling card. But when I travel, I can’t expect everyone to buy such calling cards and learn my new number. This system lets anyone, anywhere, reach me, at a minimal cost to myself. If I wanted to call home and let my parents know how their granddaughter was doing, however, I had to use a slightly different system — one that made use of my iPhone. Ideally, this wouldn’t require much explanation. I’d just tell you to download Skype for the iPhone, and that would be that. Unfortunately, Skype does not exist for the iPhone. Instead, I use a free third-party application called Fring, which functions as a kind of Skype-to-cellphone phone gateway, letting me access my Skype account wherever I have a Wi-Fi signal. (Fring also works on many other smartphones, and lets you connect to a host of other Internet communications services, like AIM, MSN Messenger, Twitter and Last.fm.) Just open a Fring account, give Fring your Skype account details, and you’re set to make SkypeOut calls to anyone you wish. Which is exactly what I did, one evening, as I stood on Corso Como in Milan, watching beautiful people strut by, I turned on my iPhone, found an open Wi-Fi network and called home. My dad and I spoke for eight minutes and two seconds — a chat well worth the 22.8 cents it cost me. This well-honed (if complicated) system has served me very well in the last four years, but it may change in the near future. Two weeks ago, Google announced a new service called Google Voice that operates much like Skype — only cheaper! According to a New York Times article about Google Voice, “calls to international mobile phones are as much as a third cheaper than Skype’s.” Google says the service will be open at first only to users of GrandCentral (a startup Google bought almost two years ago); it will be available to the general public in a few weeks. If Google’s new service does indeed simplify international calling at a lower price, I may find myself switching over in the near future — and then letting you know how to do the same.
Vanity Fair’s subscriptions soar after troll-y Trump tweet Vanity Fair is the latest news organization to profit from President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter ire. The Condé Nast magazine has seen its subscriptions rise 100 fold Thursday after Donald Trump tweeted that the publication was “way down, big trouble, dead.” Within 24 hours, Vanity Fair added 13,000 subscribers. This is the highest number of subscriptions sold in a single day ever at Condé Nast, according to a spokesperson. Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead! Graydon Carter, no talent, will be out! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2016 Trump’s wrath might have stemmed from an unflattering review of the Trump Grill titled “Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America.” Among other things, it called the Trump Tower restaurant “a cheap version of rich” and called the dumplings “flaccid.” That story has garnered nearly 1 million unique visitors since Trump’s tweet, according to a spokesperson. The Hive, Vanity Fair’s business, media and tech vertical, has seen more than 330,000 unique visitors to other Trump-related stories since the tweet. The magazine smartly capitalized on the attention by rolling out a subscription ad that proclaimed Vanity Fair “the magazine Trump doesn’t want you to read.” Trump has inadvertently bestowed readership and revenue on several publications by abusing them online in recent months. Subscriptions to The New York Times surged after the election and donations to many nonprofit news organizations also saw a dramatic increase. Share this: Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn Reddit Email Print
The Government is being urged to take urgent action on pesticides after laboratory tests, published today (Thursday 13 June 2013) by Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze found traces of the weed killer glyphosate in the bodies of people across numerous European countries, including Britain. Urine tests of 182 volunteers in 18 countries across Europe, found that on average 44 per cent of samples contained traces of glyphosate. Of the ten samples taken in the UK, seven had weed killer traces. All the volunteers who gave samples live in cities, and none had handled or used glyphosate products in the run up to the tests. This is the first time monitoring has been carried out across Europe for the presence of the weed killer in humans. Glyphosate is one of the most widely-used weed killers in the world, used by farmers, local government and gardeners, as well as sprayed extensively on some genetically modified crops which are then imported into Europe for use as animal feed. The biggest producer is Monsanto which sells it under the brand name Roundup. Despite its widespread use, its presence in food, animal feed or surface and ground water is rarely monitored by governments. Friends of the Earth Food and Farming campaigner Vicki Hird said: “It’s alarming that so many people have traces of weed killer in their bodies – we need to find out how it got there and what effect it is having. “Governments must take urgent action to reduce the use of pesticides and immediately step-up monitoring programmes to ensure people and wildlife, such as bees, are not put at risk.” Pete Riley Campaign Director GM Freeze said: "We want to know why GM soya and maize imported into Europe for animal feed is not tested for glyphosate. These GM crops are treated with the chemical and are more likely to contain residues. Is this where the weed killer is coming from? “Given the growing health concerns about glyphosate this lack of vigilance is unacceptable. The European Commission needs to sort this out immediately and improve monitoring. We need to know how this weed killer is getting into our bodies and what it is doing to us and our environment." Comment Here! comments
For 19 years, Gerard Richardson sat in prison in New Jersey wondering how forensics experts had got his case so wrong. His conviction for a 1994 murder was based on a bite mark on the victim’s body that seemed to match his own teeth; it was the main physical evidence linking him to the crime. Last year, he was exonerated when DNA taken from the same bite mark turned out not to be his. According to the Innocence Project in New York, which tracks wrongful convictions, more than half of DNA exonerations involve faulty forensic evidence from crime labs and unreliable methods such as bite-mark analysis. Cases such as Richardson’s are one reason why the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have now created the first US national commission on forensic science. The panel of 37 scientists, lawyers, forensics practitioners and law-enforcement officials met for the first time this week in Washington DC, and aims to advise on government policies such as training and certification standards. In March, NIST will begin to set up a parallel panel, a forensic-science standards board that will set specific standards for the methods used in crime labs. For many scientists, this hard look at forensic science comes none too soon. “The broad objective is to put the science into forensic science so it can legitimately have the name,” says commission member Stephen Fienberg, a statistician at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn. In 2009, the National Research Council (NRC) released a damning report criticizing U.S. forensics practices. According to the report, nearly every analytical technique, from hair-sampling methods to those used in arson investigation, is unreliable, with too much variability in test results. Only DNA evidence escaped condemnation. In addition, the NRC was concerned about forensics lab training. In 2009, only 60 percent of publicly funded crime labs employed a certified examiner. And the report called for standards to ensure that all labs evaluate evidence in the same way. Very often, it said, two labs analyzing evidence from a crime scene will come up with different results using the same method. The NRC offered a list of fixes, including the creation of a government agency with regulatory power and a research budget. Much like the NRC, the commission is only an advisory body that will offer expert opinions. But by having the ear of the U.S. Attorney General, who can order changes in federal-agency practices, the national commission could be influential, says John Butler, a forensic geneticist at NIST and the commission’s vice-chair. The commission will meet and produce recommendations until April 2015, although Butler says that its remit may be extended. The two panels’ recommendations will not directly affect practices in state and local labs, which handle more than 90% of forensics needs. But their visibility could cause recommended standards to trickle down. If that does not work, the federal government could withhold grants to labs that do not conform to new standards, or limit access to federal DNA databases. Even in DNA collection, there are discrepancies between standard practices in federal, state and individual labs. The FBI, for instance, records 13 specific base-pair locations, or loci, from DNA samples in its national database, to ensure that false matches do not occur. But in 2008, the San Francisco Police Department in California used a 30-year-old, low-quality DNA sample from a murder case to convict a 70-year-old man who was listed in its state database—even though only five loci were matched. In a database the size of California’s, matching based on these five loci would identify an innocent person one-third of the time. Even good standards and best practices do not mean that a technique is solid, says Fienberg. Trained polygraph operators, for instance, can obtain consistent test results, but whether the machines accurately detect lies is highly uncertain. Many law-enforcement agencies still use the technique, even though a 2003 NRC report found it to be unreliable. “The fundamental issues with forensic science can be solved by fixing the science,” says Suzanne Bell, a forensic chemist at West Virginia University in Morgantown. Bell says that the field needs more research funding. In 2012, the National Institute of Justice funded just US$5 million in basic forensic-science research. The value of certain techniques is often overstated in court cases, says Simon Cole, who studies the history of science in the criminal justice system at the University of California, Irvine. Fingerprint comparison, for instance, is often presented as an exact science, but researchers have only recently begun to study just how well people can do the matching. A 2011 study found that professional examiners matched two fingerprints incorrectly once in every 1,000 times, and missed a correct match 7.5 percent of the time (B. T. Ulery et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 7733–7738; 2011). Cole would like the standards board to define a "match" precisely, and to assess the extent to which different methods yield different results. The standards board could also question how widely some of the more dubious techniques should be used. Mary Bush, a forensic dentist at the State University of New York in Buffalo, says that there is little evidence that bite marks left in skin can reliably identify perpetrators. In her lab, moulds of different sets of teeth were clamped into the skin of cadavers. Digital images of the marks were then analysed. Often, the marks could not be used to identify the teeth responsible. Gregory Golden, president of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, argues that the method is useful for eliminating suspects or determining whether a bite mark is human. According to the Innocence Project, however, at least 15 people whose convictions involved bite marks and who served time in prison have been exonerated through DNA evidence since 1993. That alone suggests that the method should be investigated, says Bush. “We’re fighting 30 years of precedent.” This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on February 4, 2014. Nature 506 13 doi: 10.1038/506013a
Adani accused of paying people to stack its meeting on crucial mine deal Updated Adani is accused of discreetly paying thousands of dollars to recruit people to vote on a crucial mining deal with traditional owners, including Aboriginal people with no link to its Queensland mine site. A Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) representative said he was paid $2,000 by Adani to boost numbers at the meeting, where he said many who were "not part of my mob" voted on the compensation deal. Another W&J woman said her family of eight voted against the deal but the official vote recorded just one person against and 294 people in favour. What's the deal with the Adani deal? Traditional owners need to sign off on a deal for compensation Adani can't get finance until the deal is done The deal has divided the W&J group A traditional owners meeting signed off on the deal last year A trial next year will decide whether the meeting was legitimate The claims are made in sworn statements filed in the Federal Court, ahead of a trial in March to decide whether the meeting legitimately endorsed the Adani deal, which has bitterly divided the W&J. Adani and its supporters in the W&J greeted the overwhelming vote as a ringing endorsement of the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) but opponents who boycotted the meeting say it is invalid. Patrick Malone, a W&J representative who supports the deal, rejected the claims about the meeting as "nonsense". The W&J's 12-person native title representative group is split down the middle on the mine deal, which was revived last year after traditional owners rejected Adani twice before. Craig Dallen, a fellow representative who has withdrawn his support for Adani, said the meeting on the deal drew about 300 people, or "twice the size of any previous meeting of the claim group". "I was paid approximately $2,000 by Adani to get people to the meeting. The more people I brought the more I was paid," he said in an affidavit. Mr Dallen said "several other" representatives told him Adani also paid them to recruit people. He said on top of this Adani paid him and others "generously" to show up, including $400 for him and $250 for each of his children for travel expenses. Mr Dallen named members of at least eight other Aboriginal nations who were counted as W&J supporters of the mine. "Some people I did recognise and knew them not to be part of my mob. I saw that they were given arm bands to allow them to vote and participate in the meeting," he said. Carmel Gyemore named her cousin as another W&J representative who was "getting paid by Adani for every member of our family who turned up", including three who were absent. She also named non-W&J people who "should not have been at our meeting". Both said the meeting did not include the usual resolution on who could rightly attend. Jasmin Broome said her family of eight were "seated together [and] we all voted against accepting the ILUA". Ms Broome said she also recognised non-W&J people and filed in court a social media post from members of another family with a picture and the words: "Only come meeting for money." Security guards at the meeting were allegedly told to refuse entry to Adrian Burragubba, a W&J man who is an outspoken opponent of the Carmichael mine, "because Adani did not want him at the meeting". Mr Malone said votes were counted by scrutineers from a native title legal service and he was not aware of anyone being paid to recruit attendees. He said W&J representatives "sat with an anthropologist and marked off people and made sure they were W&J". "The people who weren't part of W&J, were given a different-coloured wristband so they could be observers and they could not vote." Adani has previously defended the legitimacy of the meeting but a spokesman could not be reached on Friday. Topics: mining-industry, industry, business-economics-and-finance, indigenous-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander, community-and-society, qld, mackay-4740, townsville-4810, rockhampton-4700, brisbane-4000, australia First posted
Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights - Albion Rovers v Rangers Rangers strolled into the Scottish Cup semi-final with a one-sided replay win over Albion Rovers. It was an improved performance from the League One champions after the first game, with their part-time League Two opponents rarely threatening. Fraser Aird got the visitors off the mark with a sweet first-half volley. It remained one-way traffic, but Jon Daly's second-half header was the only other reward for Rangers as they set up a semi-final against Dundee United. Ally McCoist's men needed a late equaliser to force a replay when the sides first met eight days ago in a 1-1 draw. Rovers worked hard in a replay switched to Hamilton Academical's New Douglas Park, and could have equalised when Cammy Bell saved well from David Crawford. Fraser Aird's opening goal eased the pressure on Ally McCoist and his side But, in truth, the Coatbridge side struggled to get out of their own half for much of the game. Forward Calum Gallagher was handed his first start for Rangers after scoring on his debut in Saturday's league win over Dunfermline Athletic - and the teenager made an instant impact. He picked out Aird in the box with a fine cross and his fellow 19-year-old met the ball with a brilliant first-time volley to put the Glasgow side into the lead. Any notion that Rovers would fold after losing the early goal were dispelled as Bell was forced into a fine, parried save after Crawford collected the ball inside the area and cracked a vicious shot at the Rangers goalkeeper. Rangers upped the pressure after that scare as Bilel Mohsni shot wide before Daly had a header take a nick off a defender and deflect past the post. Mark McGuigan deflected another effort from Aird over the bar, Gallagher tested goalkeeper Neil Parry with a low effort and Ian Black drilled wide, but Rangers had to settle for a one-goal advantage at half-time. With Rovers camped in their own half, Rangers' main joy was coming from crosses and Mohsni headed wide before Daly finally doubled Rangers' advantage, leaping to meet Richard Foster's cross and nodding in from close range. It should have been 3-0 minutes later when Lee McCulloch played in Gallagher, but the steam was taken off his shot by team-mate Nicky Law's heel and it trundled into the hands of Parry. Parry still had more to do, though, when Ross Dunlop's attempted clearance rebounded off Law and almost caught the keeper out, but he reacted brilliantly to palm the ball over the bar. The game then settled into a lull, with Rovers not keen to expose themselves and the visitors realising the game was already won. Alan Reid had to clear off the line in the dying seconds after a chip from Law, but the game meandered to an uneventful finish. By then, Rangers had the job done and can now look forward to an Ibrox semi-final against Jackie McNamara's Scottish Premiership side. Rovers, meanwhile, must settle for making about £300,000 from the two ties - an amount their chairman reckons would normally take them about 20 years to earn.
The Telltale apocalypse is truly upon us, because the company's no longer content with inundating us with episodic outings – it's now going to publish external projects as well. The first of those, as teased on social media earlier in the week, appears to be 7 Days to Die – one of those outlast-'em-ups that streamers enjoy screaming over these days. Our friends at Pure Xbox spotted that the title has been rated by German classification board USK, with the PlayStation 4 being one of the platforms. This game's proven extremely popular on the PC, fusing first-person shooting, crafting, tower defence, and all of the other bullet points that you'd expect to find on a 'Hot Game' checklist. Expect an official announcement to stumble out of an irate Telltale HQ later today. Update (15:30PM BST): The leaks won't stop, it seems. 7 Days to Die will launch on 14th June for the PS4, according to an Amazon listing. Update (19:45PM BST): This is now confirmed. You can watch the official trailer below.
A weird theoretical cousin of the Higgs boson, one that inspired the decades-long hunt for the elusive particle, has been properly observed for the first time. The discovery bookends one of the most exciting eras in modern physics. The Higgs field, which gives rise to its namesake boson, is credited with giving other particles mass by slowing their movement through the vacuum of space. First proposed in the 1960s, the particle finally appeared at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, in 2012, and some of the theorists behind it received the 2013 Nobel prize in physics. But the idea was actually borrowed from the behaviour of photons in superconductors, metals that, when cooled to very low temperatures, allow electrons to move without resistance. Near zero degrees kelvin, vibrations are set up in the superconducting material that slow down pairs of photons travelling through, making light act as though it has a mass. Advertisement This effect is closely linked to the idea of the Higgs – “the mother of it actually,” says Raymond Volkas at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Those vibrations are the mathematical equivalent of Higgs particles, says Ryo Shimano at the University of Tokyo, who led the team that made the new discovery. The superconductor version explains the virtual mass of light in a superconductor, while the particle physics Higgs field explains the mass of W and Z bosons in the vacuum. Double trouble Physicists had expected the Higgs-like effect to appear in all superconductors because it is also responsible for their characteristic property – zero electrical resistance. But it had only been seen before by imposing a different kind of vibration on the material. To find it in a superconductor in its normal state, Shimano and colleagues violently shook the superconductor with a very brief pulse of light. Shimano says it is similar to how particle physicists create the real Higgs boson with energetic particle collisions. They first created the superconducting Higgs last year, and have now studied its properties to show that, mathematically speaking, it behaves almost exactly like the particle physics Higgs. Noting the similarities between the two systems could be useful in studying the real Higgs boson. “One can prepare various types of ‘vacuum’ in condensed matter systems, which are not able to be realized in particle physics experiments,” Shimano says. “One can really do the experiments in a table-top manner, which would definitely reveal new physics and hopefully provide some useful feedbacks to particle physics.” Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1254697
[1] This is called 2nd-resonance technology.[2] Diagram of the most basic resonant inductive coupling wireless power transfer system.This is called 2nd-resonance technology. [3][4] Diagram of the "WiTricity" resonant inductive wireless power system demonstrated by Marin Soljačić 's MIT team in 2007. The resonant circuits were coils of copper wire which resonated with their internal capacitance (dotted capacitors) at 10 MHz. Power was coupled into the transmitter resonator, and out of the receiver resonator into the rectifier, by small coils which also served for impedance matching . In this regard, MIT researchers believe they discovered a new way to wirelessly transfer power using non-radiative electromagnetic energy resonant tunneling. Resonant inductive coupling or magnetic phase synchronous coupling[5][6] is a phenomenon with inductive coupling where the coupling becomes stronger when the "secondary" (load-bearing) side of the loosely coupled coil resonates.[6] A resonant transformer of this type is often used in analog circuitry as a bandpass filter. Resonant inductive coupling is also being used in wireless power systems for portable computers, phones, and vehicles. WiTricity type magnetic resonance coupling systems add another set of resonant coils on the "primary" (power source) side which pair with the coils on the secondary (load bearing) side. Applications [ edit ] Various resonant coupling systems in use or are under development for short range (up to 2 meters)[7] wireless electricity systems to power laptops, tablets, smartphones, robot vacuums, implanted medical devices, and vehicles like electric cars, SCMaglev trains[8] and automated guided vehicles.[9] Specific technologies include: Other applications include: The Tesla coil is a resonant transformer circuit used to generate very high voltages, and is able to provide much higher current than high voltage electrostatic machines such as the Van de Graaff generator.[11] However, this type of system radiates most of its energy into empty space, unlike modern wireless power systems which waste very little energy. Resonant transformers are widely used in radio circuits as bandpass filters, and in switching power supplies. History [ edit ] In 1894 Nikola Tesla used resonant inductive coupling, also known as "electro-dynamic induction" to wirelessly light up phosphorescent and incandescent lamps at the 35 South Fifth Avenue laboratory, and later at the 46 E. Houston Street laboratory in New York City.[12][13][14] In 1897 he patented a device[15] called the high-voltage, resonant transformer or "Tesla coil." Transferring electrical energy from the primary coil to the secondary coil by resonant induction, a Tesla coil is capable of producing very high voltages at high frequency. The improved design allowed for the safe production and utilization of high-potential electrical currents, "without serious liability of the destruction of the apparatus itself and danger to persons approaching or handling it." In the early 1960s resonant inductive wireless energy transfer was used successfully in implantable medical devices[16] including such devices as pacemakers and artificial hearts. While the early systems used a resonant receiver coil, later systems[17] implemented resonant transmitter coils as well. These medical devices are designed for high efficiency using low power electronics while efficiently accommodating some misalignment and dynamic twisting of the coils. The separation between the coils in implantable applications is commonly less than 20 cm. Today resonant inductive energy transfer is regularly used for providing electric power in many commercially available medical implantable devices.[18] Wireless electric energy transfer for experimentally powering electric automobiles and buses is a higher power application (>10 kW) of resonant inductive energy transfer. High power levels are required for rapid recharging and high energy transfer efficiency is required both for operational economy and to avoid negative environmental impact of the system. An experimental electrified roadway test track built circa 1990 achieved just above 60% energy efficiency while recharging the battery of a prototype bus at a specially equipped bus stop.[19][20] The bus could be outfitted with a retractable receiving coil for greater coil clearance when moving. The gap between the transmit and receive coils was designed to be less than 10 cm when powered. In addition to buses the use of wireless transfer has been investigated for recharging electric automobiles in parking spots and garages as well. Some of these wireless resonant inductive devices operate at low milliwatt power levels and are battery powered. Others operate at higher kilowatt power levels. Current implantable medical and road electrification device designs achieve more than 75% transfer efficiency at an operating distance between the transmit and receive coils of less than 10 cm. In 1993, Professor John Boys and Professor Grant Covic, of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, developed systems to transfer large amounts of energy across small air gaps.[5][6] [21] It was putting into practical use as the moving crane and the AGV non-contact power supply in Japan.[9] In 1998, RFID tags were patented that were powered in this way.[22] In November 2006, Marin Soljačić and other researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology applied this near field behavior, well known in electromagnetic theory, the wireless power transmission concept based on strongly-coupled resonators.[23][24][25] In a theoretical analysis,[26] they demonstrate that, by designing electromagnetic resonators that suffer minimal loss due to radiation and absorption and have a near field with mid-range extent (namely a few times the resonator size), mid-range efficient wireless energy-transfer is possible. The reason is that, if two such resonant circuits tuned to the same frequency are within a fraction of a wavelength, their near fields (consisting of 'evanescent waves') couple by means of evanescent wave coupling. Oscillating waves develop between the inductors, which can allow the energy to transfer from one object to the other within times much shorter than all loss times, which were designed to be long, and thus with the maximum possible energy-transfer efficiency. Since the resonant wavelength is much larger than the resonators, the field can circumvent extraneous objects in the vicinity and thus this mid-range energy-transfer scheme does not require line-of-sight. By utilizing in particular the magnetic field to achieve the coupling, this method can be safe, since magnetic fields interact weakly with living organisms. Apple Inc. applied for a patent on the technology in 2010, after WiPower did so in 2008.[27] In the past, the power source used on the JR Tokai SCMaglev car was generating with a gas turbine generator. In 2011, they succeeded in powering while driving (CWD:charge while driving) across a large gap by the JR Tokai proprietary 9.8 kHz phase synchronization technology developed based on technology similar to AGV's wireless power scheme. And the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation evaluated the technology as all the problems for practical use were cleared.[28] Construction of SCMaglev begin and commercial use will start in 2027.[29] Comparison with other technologies [ edit ] Type p-p basic transmitter and receiver circuits, Rs and Rr are the resistances and losses in the associated capacitors and inductors. Ls and Lr are coupled by small coupling coefficient, k, usually below 0.2 basic transmitter and receiver circuits, Rs and Rr are the resistances and losses in the associated capacitors and inductors. Ls and Lr are coupled by small coupling coefficient, k, usually below 0.2 Non-resonant coupled inductors, such as typical transformers, work on the principle of a primary coil generating a magnetic field and a secondary coil subtending as much as possible of that field so that the power passing through the secondary is as close as possible to that of the primary. This requirement that the field be covered by the secondary results in very short range and usually requires a magnetic core. Over greater distances the non-resonant induction method is highly inefficient and wastes the vast majority of the energy in resistive losses of the primary coil. Using resonance can help improve efficiency dramatically. If resonant coupling is used, the secondary coil is capacitive loaded so as to form a tuned LC circuit. If the primary coil is driven at the secondary side resonant frequency, it turns out that significant power may be transmitted between the coils over a range of a few times the coil diameters at reasonable efficiency.[30] It is often explained as increasing the coupling coefficient when the system is resonating, but that is not correct. Compared to inductive transfer in conventional transformers, except when the coils are well within a diameter of each other, the efficiency is somewhat lower (around 80% at short range) whereas tightly coupled conventional transformers may achieve greater efficiency (around 98-99%) and for this reason it cannot be used where high energy transfer is required at greater distances.[citation needed][clarification needed] However, compared to the costs associated with batteries, particularly non-rechargeable batteries, the costs of the batteries are hundreds of times higher. In situations where a source of power is available nearby, it can be a cheaper solution.[31] In addition, whereas batteries need periodic maintenance and replacement, resonant energy transfer can be used instead. Batteries additionally generate pollution during their construction and their disposal which is largely avoided. Regulations and safety [ edit ] Unlike mains-wired equipment, no direct electrical connection is needed and hence equipment can be sealed to minimize the possibility of electric shock. Because the coupling is achieved using predominantly magnetic fields; the technology may be relatively safe. Safety standards and guidelines do exist in most countries for electromagnetic field exposures (e.g. ICNIRP [32][33]) Whether the system can meet the guidelines or the less stringent legal requirements depends on the delivered power and range from the transmitter. Maximum recommended B-field is a complicated function of frequency, the ICNIRP guidelines for example permit RMS fields of tens of microteslas below 100 kHz, falling with frequency to 200 nanoteslas in the VHF, and lower levels above 400 MHz, where body parts can sustain current loops comparable to a wavelength in diameter, and deep tissue energy absorption reaches a maximum. Deployed systems already generate magnetic fields, for example induction cookers in the tens of kHz where high fields are permitted, and contactless smart card readers, where higher frequency is possible as the required energies are lower. Mechanism details [ edit ] Overview [ edit ] Two resonances as a pair are observed This process occurs in a resonant transformer, an electrical component which consists of high Q coil wound on the same core with capacitors connected across the coils to make a coupled LC circuit. The most basic resonant inductive coupling consists of one drive coil on the primary side and one resonance circuit on the secondary side.[34][6][2] In this case, when the resonant state on the secondary side is observed from the primary side, two resonances as a pair are observed.[35][6] One of them is called the antiresonant frequency (parallel resonant frequency 1), and the other is called the resonant frequency (serial resonant frequency 1').[6] The short-circuit inductance and resonant capacitor of the secondary coil are combined into a resonant circuit.[36][6] When the primary coil is driven with a resonant frequency (serial resonant frequency) of the secondary side, the phases of the magnetic fields of the primary coil and the secondary coil are synchronized.[6] As a result, the maximum voltage is generated on the secondary coil due to the increase of the mutual flux, and the copper loss of the primary coil is reduced, the heat generation is reduced, and the efficiency is relatively improved.[2] The resonant inductive coupling is the near field wireless transmission of electrical energy between magnetically coupled coils, which is part of a resonant circuit tuned to resonate at the same frequency as the driving frequency. Coupling coefficient in the resonance state [ edit ] In the transformer, only part of the flux generated by current through the primary coil is coupled to the secondary coil and vice versa. The part that couples is called mutual flux and the part that does not couple is called leakage flux.[37] When the system is not in the resonance state, this leads to the open-circuit voltage appearing at the secondary being less than predicted by the turns ratio of the coils. The degree of coupling is captured by a parameter called coupling coefficient. The coupling coefficient, k, is defined as the ratio of transformer open-circuit voltage ratio to the ratio that would be obtained if all the flux coupled from one coil to the other. The value of k lies between 0 and ±1. Each coil inductance can be notionally divided into two parts in the proportions k:(1−k). These are respectively an inductance producing the mutual flux and an inductance producing the leakage flux. Coupling coefficient is a function of the geometry of the system. It is fixed by the positional relationship between the two coils. The coupling coefficient does not change between when the system is in the resonance state and when it is not in the resonance state, or even if the system is in resonance state and a secondary voltage larger than the turns ratio is generated. Resonant systems are said to be tightly coupled, loosely coupled, critically coupled or overcoupled. Tight coupling is when the coupling coefficient is around 1 as with conventional iron-core transformers. Overcoupling is when the secondary coil is so close and the formation of mutual flux is hindered by the effect of antiresonance, and critical coupling is when the transfer in the passband is optimal. Loose coupling is when the coils are distant from each other, so that most of the flux misses the secondary. In Tesla coils around 0.2 is used, and at greater distances, for example for inductive wireless power transmission, it may be lower than 0.01. Voltage gain (Type P-P) [ edit ] Generally the voltage gain of non resonantly coupled coils is directly proportional to the square root of the ratio of secondary and primary inductances. A = k L 2 L 1 {\displaystyle A=k{\sqrt {\frac {L_{2}}{L_{1}}}}\,} However, if in the state of resonant coupling, higher voltage is generated. The short-circuit inductance L sc2 on the secondary side can be obtained by the following formula. L s c 2 = ( 1 − k 2 ) ⋅ L 2 {\displaystyle L_{sc2}=(1-k^{2})\cdot {L_{2}}} The short-circuit inductance L sc2 and the resonance capacitor Cr on the secondary side resonate. The resonance frequency ω 2 is as follows. ω 2 = 1 L s c 2 C r = 1 ( 1 − k 2 ) ⋅ L 2 C r {\displaystyle \omega _{2}={1 \over {\sqrt {L_{sc2}C_{r}}}}={1 \over {\sqrt {(1-k^{2})\cdot {L_{2}}C_{r}}}}} Assuming that the load resistance is Rl, the Q value of the secondary resonance circuit is as follows. Q 2 = R l C r L s c 2 {\displaystyle Q_{2}=R_{l}{\sqrt {\frac {C_{r}}{L_{sc2}}}}\,} The voltage generated in the resonance capacitor Cr at the peak of the resonance frequency is proportional to the Q value. Therefore, the voltage gain Ar of the secondary coil with respect to the primary coil when the system is resonating, A r = k Q 2 L 2 L 1 {\displaystyle A_{r}=kQ_{2}{\sqrt {\frac {L_{2}}{L_{1}}}}\,} In the case of the Type P-P, Q1 does not contribute to the voltage gain. WiTricity type resonant inductive coupling system [ edit ] The WiTricity type magnetic resonance is characterized in that the resonant coils on the primary side and the resonant coils on the secondary side are paired. The primary resonator increases the primary driving coil current and increases the generated magnetic flux around the primary resonator. This is equivalent to driving the primary coil at high voltage. In the case of the type on the left figure, the general principle is that if a given oscillating amount of energy (for example a pulse or a series of pulses) is placed into a primary coil which is capacitively loaded, the coil will 'ring', and form an oscillating magnetic field. Resonant transfer works by making a coil ring with an oscillating current. This generates an oscillating magnetic field. Because the coil is highly resonant, any energy placed in the coil dies away relatively slowly over very many cycles; but if a second coil is brought near it, the coil can pick up most of the energy before it is lost, even if it is some distance away. The fields used are predominantly non-radiative, near fields (sometimes called evanescent waves), as all hardware is kept well within the 1/4 wavelength distance they radiate little energy from the transmitter to infinity. The energy will transfer back and forth between the magnetic field in the inductor and the electric field across the capacitor at the resonant frequency. This oscillation will die away at a rate determined by the gain-bandwidth (Q factor), mainly due to resistive and radiative losses. However, provided the secondary coil cuts enough of the field that it absorbs more energy than is lost in each cycle of the primary, then most of the energy can still be transferred. Because the Q factor can be very high, (experimentally around a thousand has been demonstrated[38] with air cored coils) only a small percentage of the field has to be coupled from one coil to the other to achieve high efficiency, even though the field dies quickly with distance from a coil, the primary and secondary can be several diameters apart. It can be shown that a figure of merit for the efficiency is:[39] U = k Q 1 Q 2 {\displaystyle U=k{\sqrt {Q_{1}Q_{2}}}} Where Q 1 and Q 2 are the Q factors of the source and receiver coils respectively, and k is the coupling coefficient described above. And the maximum achievable efficiency is:[39] η o p t = U 2 ( 1 + 1 + U 2 ) 2 {\displaystyle \eta _{opt}={\frac {U^{2}}{(1+{\sqrt {1+U^{2}}})^{2}}}} Power transfer [ edit ] Because the Q can be very high, even when low power is fed into the transmitter coil, a relatively intense field builds up over multiple cycles, which increases the power that can be received—at resonance far more power is in the oscillating field than is being fed into the coil, and the receiver coil receives a percentage of that. Transmitter coils and circuitry [ edit ] Unlike the multiple-layer secondary of a non-resonant transformer, coils for this purpose are often single layer solenoids (to minimise skin effect and give improved Q) in parallel with a suitable capacitor, or they may be other shapes such as wave-wound litz wire. Insulation is either absent, with spacers, or low permittivity, low loss materials such as silk to minimise dielectric losses. To progressively feed energy/power into the primary coil with each cycle, different circuits can be used. One circuit employs a Colpitts oscillator.[38] In Tesla coils an intermittent switching system, a "circuit controller" or "break," is used to inject an impulsive signal into the primary coil; the secondary coil then rings and decays. Receiver coils and circuitry [ edit ] The receiver of a smart card has a coil connected to a chip which provides capacitance to give resonance as well as regulators to provide a suitable voltage The secondary receiver coils are similar designs to the primary sending coils. Running the secondary at the same resonant frequency as the primary ensures that the secondary has a low impedance at the transmitter's frequency and that the energy is optimally absorbed. Example receiver coil. The coil is loaded with a capacitor and two LEDs. The coil and the capacitor form a series LC circuit which is tuned to a resonant frequency that matches the transmission coil located inside of the brown matt. Power is transmitted over a distance of thirteen inches. To remove energy from the secondary coil, different methods can be used, the AC can be used directly or rectified and a regulator circuit can be used to generate DC voltage. See also [ edit ]
Recently, there have been a plethora of stories about folks looking for a simpler life. For some, that simpler life is a tiny house where the upkeep and costs are low, and you strip your residence down to the bare essentials. For others, it’s the allure of travel and living life in an RV, always a moment away from adventure. One of the common questions among those who seek the RV lifestyle has to do with the tax implications of living in a recreational vehicle full time. If you’ve wondering that yourself, wonder no more! You most definitely can claim your RV (or houseboat or any other structure that qualifies) as a primary residence, and here’s how. Is it a Residence? When it comes to claiming your home, or your “primary residence,”, the type of home is less important than the series of tests you must pass for it to count as your primary home. According to IRS Publication 523, a “single-family home, condominium, cooperative apartment, mobile home, or houseboat can all count as a residence.” For it to count as a residence, it must have on-board permanently mounted sleeping, cooking, and bathroom facilities. A houseboat with those facilities would count. A rowboat would not. If the physical structure itself is relatively unimportant beyond the three facilities, what other rules must we follow for it to be considered a primary residence? Is it your Primary Residence? Once you’ve satisfied the rules regarding the residence, you now have to pass the rules regarding which residence is your primary residence. This is important because there are tax implications, such as the ability to deduct certain homeowner’s deductions such as loan interest. If you purchased a houseboat with a loan and that houseboat is your primary residence, the interest paid is tax deductible. It might surprise you but the IRS Publications don’t define “primary residence.” They instead call it your “main home.” The publication lists a series of tests, called the “facts and circumstance” test. The facts and circumstances test itself isn’t clearly defined, but they suggest that you show your main home listed as your U.S. Postal Service address, Voter Registration Card address, tax return address, and your Driver’s license and car registration. The point of the definition appears to be one of common sense. If you own an RV and it’s parked on your driveway outside of your house, it would be hard to argue your RV is your main home. It could be a second home, which for interest deductions is all that matters, but it wouldn’t be your main home. If you own an RV that you live in and it’s parked on your brother’s driveway, then you could probably safely claim it as your main home. What are the major tax implications? If you sell your main home for a gain, you could qualify for the $250,000 capital gains exclusion as long as you satisfied the eligibility rules of that particular tax benefit. While it’s unlikely you’d be able to sell an RV for a gain, certainly other structures can appreciate. Even if your RV isn’t considered a primary residence, it could be a second home. In either case, the interest payments on a loan could be tax deductible. The RV or boat would have to be the collateral on the loan for the interest to be tax deductible. Any sales tax or vehicle registration fees paid could be tax deductible as well. Unfortunately, repairs and maintenance are not tax deductible. If you want to live life on the road or moored to a dock, you certainly could. You could also claim it as your main home, get a few extra deductions, and keep a little more of your cash in your pocket. There’s no need to know these rules, though, TurboTax will ask you simple questions and give you the tax deductions and credits you’re eligible for based on your answers. Get your maximum tax refund with TurboTax today Start for free Sign In Related
A conference organized by the UC Berkeley Black Student Union this weekend will include a speech by religious leader Louis Farrakhan — an appearance that has sparked outcry from members of the campus Jewish community because of Farrakhan’s allegedly anti-Semitic comments. The Afrikan Black Coalition Conference, which will be held at UC Berkeley Friday through Sunday, includes workshops, keynote speakers and social activities that students from across the university will participate in. But it is the appearance of Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, that has some members of the campus community concerned. Students from the Jewish community in particular oppose his visit due to anti-Semitic, homophobic and other controversial statements they say Farrakhan has made. “Farrakhan consistently espouses antisemitic conspiracy theories while negating the Jewish people’s right to their religion and their land,” said Jacob Lewis, co-president of the campus Jewish student group Tikvah, in a blog post. “Farrakhan’s hatred cannot be tolerated. It is unfathomable that the BSU has no issue in inviting such an abjectly offensive speaker to campus.” The Anti-Defamation League, a prominent civil rights group that works to combat anti-Semitism, has also criticized various comments made by Farrakhan in the past. Salih Muhammad, chair of the campus Black Student Union, said the speakers for the conference were chosen based on who the union felt would provide “a sense of self-determination” to conference attendees. “It’s not about any individual speaker,” Muhammad said. He added that the conference is limited to students who register beforehand and that Farrakhan will therefore not be addressing the entire campus community but only a particular group of students. “Those students are well in their right to subject themselves to anything he says,” Muhammad said. The issue was discussed at last week’s ASUC Senate meeting when SQUELCH! Senator Noah Ickowitz pulled a bill supporting funding the conference. Ickowitz read several quotes from Farrakhan and said they were “hate speech in its most raw form.” However, members of the Black Student Union and some of the senators pointed out that the bill itself did not mention Farrakhan’s name. “This bill is strictly a funding bill,” said CalSERVE Senator Kevin Williams at the meeting. Despite concerns, the senate passed the bill unanimously to provide $1,340 in funding for the conference. According to Jewish Student Union President Arielle Gabai, the union hopes to meet with members of the Black Student Union and Dean of Students Jonathan Poullard to have a dialogue this week about the issue. “Louis Farrakhan is someone who will make people on this campus feel isolated, hated, demeaned and silenced,” Ickowitz said, though he chose to vote for the bill because he did not want to deprive the entire conference of funding. Courtney Moulds covers student government. Correction(s): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Afrikan Black Coalition Conference would be funded $1,500 by the ASUC Senate. In fact, the conference was funded $1,340 by the senate.
Khia shading Beyonce & her Lemonade film 1/2 pic.twitter.com/8AnAtpFA24 — EXPOSED (@Exposing_celebz) April 29, 2016 Khia Calls Beyonce ‘BeHoeSay’ And Serena Williams A Slave For ‘Lemonade’ Video “Harpo who is this blonde hair blue eyed hoe walking thru Nigeria?” Soooo… Khia isn’t a fan of Beyonce’s Lemonade. Like, AT ALL! On her little radio show recently, the thug misses called out Bey for wearing blonde hair throughout the short film. Fck her. The video was tired and through and long and it just made Black people look bad as hell. Btch you walking around with this blonde long hair but you want African kings and queens in your video. Btch you the only one walking around with blonde hair and blue eyes lookin like a creole and then she got all this African art and she kicking up dirt and all this stuff. She also goes in on Bey for using Serena Williams as a twerking prop. Hell, even Serena caught shade for agreeing to be in the video. You black hoes kill me wanting to be like light skinned hoes. You let this hoe put you on the floor in front of her and twerking your booty and popping your body like all black women do. And here you is…black as a black juicy berry. And you here…you have this hoe with her legs up in her chair while you twerking for her like the slave masters had us doing. Btch you channel that too? Do you agree with Khia’s points or is she just being a messy bish who lives for drama?
Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash A minimal UX strategy for side-projects Himanshu Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 17, 2017 As a product & experience designer, I get to work with many clients. Many of them are super early stage products. These ventures are usually at an early stage. They don’t have many resources or the luxury of going through lengthy UX processes & practices. However, that is no reason to completely omit the UX design process. The same applies to side-projects and smaller products on tight deadlines. After learning and refining from several projects. I created a simple 3 step process to embed the user experience and user-centric design into any product. Following is a simple 3 step process I advise for people with little to no resources dedicated to UX design. NOTE: This is not a UX guide or the right way to do UX design. It’s just a very small subset of UX design practices, organized to speed-up the product life-cycle. Step 1: Product Story What are stories? Stories are a simple way of determining how a product fits into its user’s life. A story should include actors (users), agents (products) and usually a before and after scenario. All these components combined in a narrative gives you a clear idea of how your product fits into the user’s life. How to write a product story? This article is all about finding actionable insight with minimum time/resource investment. Emma Coats shared a great way of creating the story for early stages of storyboarding at Pixar. It goes like this: Once upon a time there was ______. Every day_______. One day ______. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______. Until finally ______. You fill in the blanks with data relevant to the product you’re making. I am working on a product for designers, here is what the story looks like: Once upon a time there was a graphics designer. Everyday he used to create new stuff and share it on many showcase websites. One day he found a product called limelight, which allowed him to share & keep track of how much attention his work in getting from a single place. Because of that, he was able to share on many sites in an instant and learn about how each platform is getting him views, likes and comments. Because of that, he was able to improve his work and produce more quality work. Until finally his work got acknowledged by a large design firm and he received an offer letter from them. It’s not perfect, but it tells you a lot about the concept without using too many words. I never found a better way to explain my idea to someone. What are the advantages of creating a story around product? It forces you to stay in the right direction. It helps to avoid the feature-trap (ie. features gets priority over the core product) It makes it very easy to explain the concept to everyone (especially new people who will be working on your product at a later stage) Reinforces why you are creating something in first place. Step 2: Personas what are personas? You probably know about personas already. They’re used widely in design and sales. In this framework, we make personas very simple and intuitive. How? think of personas as actors in the story you wrote earlier. Personas have two core requirements: Each persona should fit well in the story as an actor. Each persona should represent a group (or simply type) of a user. How to create a persona? Usually, we include a lot of information about a persona and give it a visual identity. For this framework, we use a simple template to create our personas. Make sure you talk with a few target users before filling in personas, don’t assume Most of the fields are pretty self-describing. We don’t need to be too detailed about the information we put in here. It’s more about quality of data than the quantity — make sure you talk with real users before creating personas. You can also include a numeric index of what percent of total user base each type of personas cover (or any other index that gives you a sense of priority of each persona). What are the advantages of creating personas? It gives you a prioritized list of your target audience. It embeds empathy in the process by including users in the process. personas can be used to put yourself in shoes of your customers. Step 3: User stories/Epics What are user stories? At this point, we have a story and a few personas to go with the story. The next step is to do a walk-through the product using our personas. This time the focus should be on the interaction with our users and our product. How to create user stories? Here is what a single case looks like As a ______ , I want to _______. So that ______ … We start with actions/features that will be common for all our user types first, eg. Onboarding, checkout etc. After that, we can get into more details and create cases specific to certain personas. All this can be summarized into a good ol’ spreadsheet like following: Just some sample data, notes are for any additional stuff you want to remember Unlike the first two sections, I ask founders/team to spend a little extra time on creating these epics and be thorough about all interactions. If created with keeping all possible user actions in mind, this single document can function as entire development roadmap for your product. What are the advantages of creating user journeys? Gives you an actionable roadmap of all things to be done in a product. Can be broken down into tasks/to-dos for development. Provides you a single document with all the user interaction in one place. With this document, you can start wireframing and exploring possible solutions. Going in high-fidelity and development, these epics can directly translate into tasks (work to be done) and it plays really well with agile development and development sprints as well. I have recommended this flow to many founders, side-project makers as well as few startups with teams as well. They saw good results from this approach in a short timespan. Some startups are using this very same method with their own twists at a feature level. I’d love to talk about it in a post sometime later.
Seen from our planet, the view of Saturn’s rings during its equinox is extremely foreshortened and limited. But in orbit around Saturn, Cassini had no such problems in Aug. 2009. In this mosaic of images taken on Aug. 12, the shadows of the planet's expansive rings are compressed into a single, narrow band cast onto the planet. Stunningnew views of Saturn from a NASA spacecraft have revealed odd formations in theplanet's trademark rings, including ripples as tall as the Rocky Mountains. The newimages taken by NASA?s Cassini spacecraft show that Saturn?s icy rings -once thought to be relatively thin - can be miles thick in some points andinclude weird, bright streaks from clouds kicked up by the cosmic clash betweenring particles and interloping space debris. "It'slike putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the firsttime," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini's project scientist at NASA's JetPropulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a statement. "This is amongthe most important events Cassinihas shown us." Cassinirecorded the new images of Saturn in the week surrounding the planet?s Aug. 11 equinox, a time when its bright bands of rings are edgeon to the sun and nearly invisible as seen from Earth. The raresight only occurs twice during Saturn?s long orbit, which takes nearly 30 yearsto complete. Earth also has two equinoxes a year (vernal and autumnal), withthe autumnal equinox to occur Tuesday. Saturn?srings are made up of individual chunks of ice that reach out nearly 85,000 miles(140,000 km) from the center of the planet. In some spots they are only 30feet (about 10 meters) thick, while others can reach towering heights, thenew images revealed. The unique lighting conditions brought on by Saturn?sequinox and the sun illuminated the odd ripples and bumps among the planet?srings, whichCassini spied with its camera eyes. The staggering heights of someformations could be discerned by the shadows they cast, researchers said. "Wethought the plane of the rings was no taller than two stories of a modern-daybuilding and instead we've come across walls more than 2 miles [3 kilometers]high," said Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porco at the Space ScienceInstitute in Boulder, Colo. "Isn't that the most outrageous thing you couldimagine? It truly is like something out of science fiction." One ripplerises nearly 2 1/2 miles (4 km) above the plane of Saturn?s rings. The big blipis caused by the gravitational tug of the planet?s moon Daphnis. It is thehighest peak among the rings, mission managers said. Scientistsestimate that there are about 35 trillion-trillion tons of ice, dust and rock locked upin Saturn?s rings. Cassini has been studying Saturn and its rings since it arrivedat the planet in 2004 and is currently in the middle of an extended missionto observe the gas giant?s equinox period. "Tounderstand what we are seeing will take more time, but the images and data willhelp develop a more complete understanding of how old the rings might be andhow they are evolving," said Linda Spilker, Cassini?s deputy projectscientist at JPL.
CSI Sydney: Crime scene investigators use lasers and 3D goggles to map inside of Lindt Cafe Updated Advances in laser and 3D technologies are allowing police to reconstruct entire crime scenes and pieces of evidence. The technology is being used in the inquest into last year's Lindt Cafe siege in Sydney, and it is hoped that it will help in counter-terrorism activities. Forensic crime scene officer Domenic Raneri says the days of measuring crime scenes with a piece of string are over. "The laser sweeps out 270 degrees which means it's capturing everything except for a very small area immediately below the scanner," he said. He said each scan takes about five minutes to complete. "We can move through the crime scene taking these scans and overlaying them with photography to create a colour photo-realistic rendering of the environment," he said. Warning: This story contains graphic imagery "Once we go back to the office and we reconstruct the scene on the computer we can actually then look at the scene from a number of different angles. "We can take a measurement from any point that we've captured in the scan and do a number of different types of analysis." Hand-held scanners are also being used to get up close to capture higher resolution images of things like blood splatters. "From that point you can then go on to measure the droplets and perform an analysis of the trajectory," Mr Raneri explained. "The handheld scanner has a certified accuracy to about 0.1 of a millimetre. "So we're starting to see this evidence reaching our courts and going through the process of admission into evidence." Mr Raneri said police could also use 3D printers to recreate pieces of evidence, such as weapons, enabling them to be handled by a jury. "For cases where there may be complex evidence that needs to be looked at in a very tangible way, some types of evidence can't actually be handled by a jury, so we might take that scan and data and then print a model of it," he said. The Police Association's Scott Weber said the technology had been used to rebuild the entire Lindt Cafe in 3D, and would be key to the current inquest. "All of a sudden we're back at the crime scene, where people were, where the projectiles where, looking at the explosions, looking at ballistics," he said. He said counter-terrorism police were keen to use the technology to map out potential targets. "It means we have that diagram that we can go through training scenarios and be better prepared if an incident does occur," he said. Police say there is no limit to what technology can do to fight crime, and the CSIRO has now started developing 3D scanning drones. The CSIRO's Thomas Lowe said the technology would have a number of uses. "It's sort of a multi-pronged approach. On the one hand, developing it for unmanned aerial vehicles for aerial mapping of areas," he said. "We're also making use of it in real time, not only for autonomous navigation of aerial vehicles, but also to give you a three-dimensional map as you move around a building." Topics: police, police-sieges, law-crime-and-justice, science-and-technology, sydney-2000, australia, nsw First posted
Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Model Paulina Porizkova — who was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in ’84 and ’85 — says that, at the time, sexual harassment was such an ingrained part of the business, it was viewed as a “compliment.” “Here is the funny thing about sexual harassment with us as models: It was seen as a compliment,” she told us at the Bloomberg 50 gala at Gotham Hall. “As a matter of fact, you almost got offended if you did not get harassed. Like, if this photographer is known for hitting on [models] — or goes for all the brunettes — and you show up at the studio and you are a brunette and he does not hit on you . . . it is like, ‘What is wrong with me?’ So it is messed up. It makes you think that sexual harassment is what you need.”
Bobsled teammate Nick Cunningham tweeted this photo of Johnny Quinn trying to open a jammed elevator door Monday. Two days earlier, Quinn broke through a jammed bathroom door in Sochi. Team USA bobsledder Johnny Quinn, recently famous for breaking through a jammed bathroom door in the Olympic Village Saturday, had to break out of yet another one Monday morning - an elevator door. We're not kidding. Quinn and bobsled teammate Nick Cunningham were in an elevator in Sochi when the elevator stopped and the door refused to open. It had to be pried open. Cunningham was the first to tweet the bizarrely coincidental imprisonment, writing, "Of course I'm with @JohnnyQuinnUSA when the elevator door breaks and we get stuck! Good thing I'm with him!" The tweet was accompanied by a photo of Quinn trying to pry the door open. Not long after they freed themselves, Quinn tweeted out, "No one is going to believe this but we just got stuck in an elevator." In response to people's disbelief and the question of whether or not he was kidding, Cunningham tweeted another photo of Quinn struggling with the door, writing: "Not at all!" Quinn's bathroom breakout Saturday earned him quite a few fans, including the actor William Shatner. Shatner tweeted Quinn Sunday, saying, "You've certainly made your mark. As I told Mr. Cunningham, take a piece of the door to tell your kids." On Monday morning, not long before Quinn tore open yet another door, Shatner gave him these instructions: "No more shenanigans until you win a medal ;) Bill." No word yet if Shatner approved of the most recent "shananigans." UPDATE: Shatner tweets reaction to the most recent door debacle:
Hy-Brasil was said to be a phantom island off the south west coast of Ireland. The island's lore contains such accounts as more advanced yet opulent inhabitants, an unusually round geographical layout, and a strange attribute of only being visible every 7 years. To further add to the island's mystique it is widely speculated to be the geographic coordinate included in an alien binary code that is also thought to include the phrase 'EXPLORATION [of ] HUMANITY'. Such multifaceted myth seems to be the perfect name sake the band Lights Out Asia's multifaceted 5th album.For Hy-Brasil the band is now back to the core duo of Mike Ystad and Chris Schafer. The absence of Mike Rush's guitars have left a bit of space for the duo to explore more visceral sometimes 'Vangelian' synthwork, warm emotive cello passages and more dexterous electronic beat workouts. From the opening track onward each composition on Hy-Brasil twists and turns through the organic and synthetic seamlessly while yielding what we think is their most dynamic, expansive and universally accessible album to date. The sense of urgency so prevalent on their previous album In The Days Of Jupiter has given way to an underlying mood that seems to reflect moments of transition or exhausting post-catharsis. Maybe even an 'exploration' [of] the duo's own 'humanity' while looking outward, questioning what truly "is". [52 09'42.532" N 13 13'12.69" W] Learn more about Lights Out Asia
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement By Peter Greste BBC News, Ethiopia Deep in the gorge country that falls off the Ethiopian plateau, workers in boots and hard hats are hammering, drilling, blasting and digging their way into the mountainside for the foundations of the vast wall that will, when finished, create the second largest hydroelectricity dam in sub-Saharan Africa. Teams of workers are blasting out the "keyhole" - the slot in the side of the valley that will hold the dam wall in place. Others are finishing the concrete lining to the last of three 1,000m long tunnels that have already begun diverting the Omo River waters around the main construction site. Africa is in the dark. Give us a choice. Should we stay in darkness? Mihert Debeba, Ethiopia Electricity Corporation According to the engineers, they are now about a third of the way through the project, and on schedule to finish the Gilgel Gibe III hydroelectricity project sometime in 2012. By then, the wall will soar 240 metres high - the tallest of its type anywhere in the world; holding back a reservoir 150 kilometres long. The dam will provide 1,800 megawatts of electricity. That will more than double the country's current generating capacity in one hit, and according to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, solve a national energy crisis. "We cannot afford not to have Gilgel Gibe III," he said. "We need that type of mega-project given the increased domestic demand and the requirements of export. "And secondly, it enables us to store water and regulate the flooding [downstream in the Omo River]." He rejects fears that some 500,000 people could see their livelihoods destroyed by the dam. Tall order The dam will also produce far more electricity than the country is capable of consuming. The vast bulk of it has been earmarked for export to neighbours like Sudan and Kenya. "That would provide us with valuable foreign currency that will help with our balance of payments," said the prime minister. The Environmental Impact Assessment... is fatally flawed Richard Leakey Turning Turkana's tap off Dam 'could spark water wars' So urgent was the need to get the dam built quickly that the government short-circuited the usual internationally accepted procedures for these kinds of massive infrastructure projects. Usually, a government will first conduct a feasibility study followed by an environmental and social impact assessment to decide whether it really is wise to go ahead with the plan. Then, it will raise the finance, call for competitive tenders and award the construction contract. Instead, the government first negotiated the contract directly with Italian civil engineering giant Salini Costruttori. It then went looking for the finance - a procedure that has left the government with a massive hole in its budget. The two financial institutions that the government had hoped would back the project - the World Bank and the European Investment Bank - have both refused to get involved because the government broke international and domestic transparency rules by dealing directly with Salini. "I think quite rightly, we have an obligation not only to do the right thing but to demonstrate very clearly that we are doing the right thing," said Greg Toulmin, the World Bank's country director for Ethiopia. "In order to do that, we have to go through all these very meticulous processes to check all the aspects of any operation that we provide loan or guarantee to. That's something that takes time." Standing firm It's a luxury that Mihert Debeba, head of the Electricity Corporation, said Ethiopia simply can't afford. He said: "Africa is in the dark. If we have to use very luxurious preconditions we wouldn't develop any hydro-power. Some fear the dam could destroy traditional ways of life "Give us a choice. Should we stay in darkness? Should we avoid all this development?" The corporation also short-circuited the environmental and social impact assessment (EIA) process. Instead the study - which gave the project a clean bill of health - was published two years after construction began. One of the project's staunchest critics, Kenyan ecologist Richard Leakey, suspects the study was produced with one aim in mind. He said: "The scientists that I've shown [the EIA] to - some of whom have worked in Ethiopia for years and may have even advised the Ethiopian government at some point - suggest it is fatally flawed in terms of its logic, in terms of its thoroughness, in terms of its conclusions. "And it looks like an inside job that has come up with the results that they were looking for to get the initial funding for this dam." FLOODING EFFECT OF DAM ON OMO RIVER Choose a view: At present With dam built 1. At present 2. With dam built Before any large project can go ahead, Ethiopia's Environmental Protection Agency first has to give its approval. Twolde Berhan Gebre heads the agency, and he dismisses critics like Mr Leakey as misguided. "Leakey's a big name but I don't know what he's based his arguments on. I don't think he's right," he said. "My experts have also examined it. They have studied the environmental impact statements. They have visited the site and I know them. "I don't know you. I trust them and I don't care for what you say." Science disputed Still, Mr Leakey's criticism echoes that of another collection of European, American and East African academics calling themselves the "African Resources Working Group", headed by University of Montana Geography Professor Jeff Gritzner. The group has released a commentary on the environmental research, which asserts: "The document rests on a series of faulty premises and it is further compromised by pervasive omissions, distortions and obfuscation. The dam, visualised above, will begin producing power in 2011 "The downstream EIA is laced with tables and figures with multiple types of 'quantitative data', creating the illusion of a scientific work. "While this practice is well known to increase the likelihood of approval by development, finance and oversight agencies, it is fully unacceptable. "The quantitative [and qualitative] data included in virtually all major sections of the report were clearly selected for their consistence with the predetermined objective of validating the completion of the Gibe III hydro-dam." The commentary goes on to insist that rather than being beneficial to the river valley as the government insists, the dam will "produce a broad range of negative effects, some of which would be catastrophic" to both the environment and the indigenous communities living downstream. The science is still very much in dispute - a factor that Mr Leakey believes is reason enough to invoke the precautionary principle and stop the project before it is too late. For if the Ethiopian government is wrong, those communities living along the lower Omo River Valley all the way down into neighbouring Kenya will pay a heavy price. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Mary Poppins star feared death after apparently falling asleep on his surfboard but friendly sea creatures pushed him to shore On screen, Dick Van Dyke has been rescued from untimely death by flying cars and magical nannies. Off screen, the veteran star of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins had to rely on the help of a pod of porpoises after apparently dozing off aboard his surfboard. “I’m not kidding,” he said afterwards. Van Dyke’s ordeal began during an ill-fated trip to his local beach. “I woke up out of sight of land,” the 84-year-old actor told Craig Ferguson on his TV chat show. “I started paddling with the swells and I started seeing fins swimming around me and I thought ‘I’m dead!’” Van Dyke was wrong. “They turned out to be porpoises,” he said. “And they pushed me all the way to shore.” The porpoises were unavailable for comment. Van Dyke made his screen debut on the Phil Silvers Show before bagging his own TV sitcom in 1961. His film credits include Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Dick Tracy, while his TV drama Diagnosis: Murder ran from 1993 to 2001. In recent years he has appeared on screen in Night at the Museum and its 2009 sequel. • This article was amended on 15 November when more facts became available
The Quebec government plans to table a bill next month regulating online home-sharing services such as Airbnb, making it the first province in the country to crack down on the practice of renting rooms without a permit. Renting out private houses and apartments has become increasingly popular, thanks to fast-growing websites like Airbnb that help tourists find short-term accommodation in homes and apartments around the world. Online rental websites allow people to book a room in another person's home at a fraction of the price of a hotel room. Quebec Tourism Minister Dominique Vien tabled her bill in the National Assembly today. (Radio-Canada) "What is not permitted is that some people promote a product that does not adhere to our law. That's the problem," said Minister of Tourism Dominique Vien. In Quebec, residents are not allowed to advertise online or rent out their apartment on a regular basis — for fewer than 31 days — without registering and paying a $250 fee. The government says it's time to regulate the online industry. "The whole issue of illegal accommodation — we cannot ignore the situation or pretend it doesn't exist.… It will lead me to table legislation," said Vien. Imposing a tax According to information obtained by Radio-Canada, the Quebec government plans to introduce legislation that would impose an accommodation tax. Also, there would be a fee equivalent to what hotels pay to the Quebec Tourism Industry Corporation for the classification of their establishment. Quebec is also reportedly considering modelling itself after a practice used in other cities, such as San Francisco, where users are also charged a fee. Quebec's tourism minister confirmed to Radio-Canada that its goal is to ensure fairness in the industry. Over the last few years, Quebec's hotel industry has said the new trend is cutting into its members' profits. The government says its other goal is to ensure that hotels are not the only ones pitching in to pay for the promotion of tourism. Quebec will also further explore the penalty fees for offenders. Currently, anyone renting out a room without a permit faces a fine ranging from $750 to $2,250. Repeat offenders could be fined as much as $6,750. 'A step in the right direction' The Quebec Hotel Association says it is delighted, but remains cautious. "This is a step in the right direction," said Patrick Thevenard, vice-president of the Quebec Hotel Association. "What we want is fairness." Aaron Zifkin, the director of Airbnb Canada — the most popular website for this type of accommodation and which is accessible in 190 countries — told Radio-Canada he is collaborating with Quebec. "What must be determined is: at what point is someone who occasionally rents his residence considered a business, and therefore taxed accordingly?" said Zifkin. Vien said online home rentals must be legislated because the trend is here to stay. She said she would like to see her bill come into effect in 2016.
Over the past couple of days, we've highlighted a couple of the mass protests that are being planned by disaffected Hillary supporters in an effort to disrupt the various Trump inaugural events that get kicked off tomorrow evening. Perhaps the most aggressive "disruptions" have been planned by groups called "DisruptJ20" and the "DC Anti-Fascist Coalition" and include plans to "paralyze the city" with "clusterfuck blockades" of bridges and tunnels, "stink bombs" in ventilation systems and chaining metro trains to station platforms to shut down rail traffic. Unfortunately for them, all of their plans were caught on tape by Project Veritas (see "New Video Exposes Anti-Trump Groups Plotting Criminal Acts To Disrupt Inauguration") so we suspect police will be well prepared. As Reuters points out this morning, efforts to disrupt the inaugural process will have to evade a massive force of 28,000 security personnel and miles of fencing and roadblocks fortified by sand-laden dump trucks and other heavy equipment. Washington will turn into a virtual fortress ahead of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration on Friday, as the U.S. capital braces for more than a quarter-million protesters expected during the Republican's swearing-in. About 28,000 security personnel, miles (kilometers) of fencing, roadblocks, street barricades and dump trucks laden with sand will be part of the security cordon clamped around 3 square miles (almost 8 square km) of central Washington. "If we do have a mass arrest, we'll be able to get people processed very quickly," he said in an interview with Washington's NBC 4 television station. And, if America's millennial snowflakes are able to break through rhe police fortress they will undoubtedly be met by the "Wall of Meat" recently promised by the "Bikers for Trump" group which has vowed to go "toe-to-toe with anyone that is going to break through any police barriers." Overall, the inauguration is expected to draw a crowd of 900,000 with 250,000 of those guests showing up to protest the new President-elect. Police have forecast that some 900,000 people, both supporters and opponents, will flood Washington for the inauguration ceremony, which includes the swearing-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and a parade to the White House along streets thronged with onlookers. About 30 groups that organizers claim will draw about 270,000 protesters or Trump backers have received permits for rallies or marches before, during and after the swearing-in. More protests are expected without permits. By far the biggest protest will be the Women's March on Washington on Saturday, which organizers expect to draw 250,000 people. Luckily, at least one helpful protest group will be on hand with plans to calm down the rowdy masses by passing out 4,200 doobies. One Washington inaugural protest will come amid a haze of pot smoke as pro-marijuana protesters show their opposition to Trump's choice for attorney general, Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, a critic of pot legalization. The group plans to distribute 4,200 joints at the inauguration and urge attendees to light up. Possession of small amounts of marijuana is legal in Washington, but public consumption is not. As we've said before, we wish all the protesters the best of luck...we're sure your dreams of disrupting the democratic process will be well rewarded with a free night's stay at a local DC jail.
There has been much publicity involving the successful treatment for breast cancer. At the same time little is written about the risks of various medical treatments and procedures which can lead to breast cancer. The purpose of this article is to examine the pathophysiology of breast cancer associated with several unreported means of prevention. The primary sources for this article are the results of research of Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, M.D. a specialist in breast surgery and Joel Brind, Ph.D. a professor of Human Biology and Endocrinology. They have founded the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute: (www.bcpinstitute.org) Please visit their web site for further details and literature. It is fairly well known that women who have had full term pregnancies or who have breast fed their babies have less risk of breast cancer. It is also accepted medical knowledge that woman who have never been pregnant and woman who have a family history of breast cancer or a genetic predisposition such as the BRCA gene have an increased risk of breast cancer. In the last thirty years, the incidence of breast cancer has increased by 40% in the United States primarily in younger woman. The question as to why is a focus of recent research. It is reported in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and National Vital Statistics System mortality data (available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm) that breast cancer rates by age, race, and cancer stage at diagnosis in the United States during the years 2005 to 2009 among women of all races, occurred at a rate of 205,246 breast cancers each year. Those statistics represent 121 women per 100,000. It was also reported that since 1973, invasive breast cancer has increased by 40% and non-invasive (in-situ) breast cancer has increased by 400%, (Breast Cancer Prevention Institute: The Why’s of Breast Cancer) Dr. Lanfranchi has reviewed the scientific literature in order to provide an explanation of the causes of the increase rate of breast cancer. The following information is taken from: Normal Beast Physiology, The reasons Hormonal Contraceptives and Induced abortion Increase Breast-Cancer Risk, Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., F.A.C.S., The Linacre Quarterly August 2009: 236-249 and from www.bcpinstitute.org. According to the studies cited above, there are three major causes of breast cancer. The first cause is damaged genes resulting from mutations caused by radiation or a chemically induced injury to the gene. Secondly there can be an inherited predisposition to breast cancer such as the presence of BRCA genes. This cause involves the normal maturation of breast lobules. The third risk factor involves accumulative lifetime exposure to estrogen. I will review each one of these risk factors. Ten percent of breast cancer arises from DNA mutations in breast cells. DNA mutations can be caused by heredity, radiation, chemicals, or spontaneous errors during DNA duplication. When there is an increased number of immature breast lobules present for random mutations, this condition exacerbates the occurrence of cancer. To understand the significance of this phenomenon, it is important to understand the normal maturation of breast lobules. Type 1 breast lobules are immature breast lobules which exist in abundance prior to pregnancy. Once pregnancy occurs, Type 1 lobules begin to increase the number of ductules which become mammary glands from an average of 11 ductules per lobule to 47 ductules per lobule. This marks a change of type 1 lobules into type 2 lobules. Type 1 lobules have a greater number of estrogen and progesterone receptors in their cells and are the sites where about 80% of all breast cancers arise. While Type 2 lobules are more mature, they still are the sites where about 10% of breast cancers start. Type 2 lobules eventually mature still more fully into Type 3 lobules which have very few estrogen/progesterone receptors. These cells do not quickly copy their DNA, which decreases the possibility of mutations and carcinogenesis. By thirty-two weeks Type 3 lobules start to produce colostrum, becoming Type 4 lobules which are resistant to cancer. This explains why women are generally resistant to cancer after their first full term pregnancy. The breast maturation process that protects a woman from breast cancer happens because the baby in her womb produces the hormones hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) and hPL (human placental lactogen). HCG stimulates estrogen and progesterone levels in the early pregnancy to increase the number of Type 1 and Type 2 lobules. In the latter half of the pregnancy hPL levels which are three times higher than the mother’s prolactin levels enables full differentiation to Type 4 lobules. When a woman’s breasts mature to Type 4 lobules she has a lifelong reduction in breast cancer risk. A woman is most protected from breast cancer when her baby comes to full term. A pregnancy ending between thirty-two and thirty-six weeks has about 90% of the protective effect of a full term pregnancy. On the other hand premature delivery before thirty-two weeks is known to result in more than double breast cancer risk because it leaves the breasts with an increase of number of type 1 and type 2 lobules which have a higher risk of spontaneous mutations. In other words there are more places for cancer to start. Premature delivery and induced abortion have the same breast cancer risk. There is a 3% increase in breast cancer risk for each week of gestation before an abortion. When a woman has an abortion after a full term pregnancy she will have the lifelong breast cancer protection from the first full term pregnancy. When she has had an abortion prior to her first full term pregnancy, the risk for breast cancer is far greater. This is because the hormones of pregnancy stimulate breast proliferation of type 1 and 2 lobules which increase the probability of random mutations to cancer cells and if there has already been a cancer mutation, the estrogen levels in pregnancy stimulate the proliferation of the cancer cells. What about a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage? Does that have the same risk factors? Research shows that a first trimester miscarriage does not increase the risk of breast cancer because pregnancy hormones are lower than in a normal pregnancy. Because of this, the breasts do not increase the number of type 1 and type 2 lobules, and there is not an increased risk of breast cancer in miscarriages. The third factor for increased risk of breast cancer is the lifelong exposure to estrogen. Estrogen is a natural hormone produced primarily in the ovaries which is necessary for normal breast development and fertility. However, estrogen has also long been known to be associated with breast cancers. Before there were effective chemotherapy drugs physicians would remove a breast cancer patient’s ovaries reducing the patient’s estrogen levels in order to slow the growth of her breast cancer. Too much estrogen can cause cancer in two ways. Estrogen stimulates cell division, mitosis, which can cause random mutation of normal cells to cancer cells and then it can stimulates growth of the cancer cells. Estrogen or its metabolite can also act as a carcinogen by directly damaging DNA, thereby causing cancer cells to form. Drugs such as Tamoxifen which block estrogen from attaching to breast cell receptors are used to treat breast cancer. In August 2010 the World Health Organization listed combined estrogen/progesterone birth control pills as a Group 1 carcinogen. This is the group of carcinogens which also includes substances such as arsenic, asbestos, and plutonium. In 2006 a meta-analysis published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed a 44% increase risk of breast cancer in woman who took combination birth control pills before their first pregnancy. (Kahlenborn C, et al. “Oral Contraceptive Use as a Risk Factor for Premenopausal Breast Cancer: a Meta-analysis”, 2006 Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2006: 81 (10):1290-1302.) Yet doctors continue to write these prescriptions for women without informing them of their increased risk of breast cancer. In summary, it is standard medical practice to inform patients of the risk or benefit of a medication or treatment. The current research data indicates that there is an increased risk of breast cancer in woman who have had an induced abortion before their first full term pregnancy. In August 2010 the World Health Organization listed combined estrogen/progesterone birth control pills as a Group 1 carcinogen. The WHI study terminated early in 2002 partially because of increase in breast cancer with the use of post-menopausal Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and partially because of increased cardiovascular risks. The current scientific literature indicates that an increase in lifelong estrogen exposure from birth control pills or HRT increases the risk of breast cancer. It is important that this information becomes public knowledge and a standard part of informed consent documentation in the medical profession. There was a time when the tobacco industry prevented the labeling of cigarettes as potential causes of lung cancer. This is now common knowledge and all cigarette packages have a warning. The hope is that the risks of breast cancer as discussed above will be a requirement of informed consent and package labeling. Women have a right to know the risks of any medication or medical procedure. Download PDF: The Unspoken Breast Cancer Risks
“I couldn’t afford not to eat it,” he said. “That’s why I rushed. I had it for dinner that night and it was wonderful.” Later, among his teachers and fellow students, he realized that his larkish culinary impulse had paid off: everyone was swooning over that steak painting. “It just seemed to click,” he said. After that breakthrough, Mr. Geno, who sells most of his paintings online (for $300 to $900) and could pass for Pee-wee Herman’s boho brother, developed something of a mission statement. “I only paint things that I find attractive and appetizing,” he said. “I like to translate what I find the most seductive about my subject. And cheese, it turns out, is the absolute perfect match for the way I paint. I get hungry looking at cheese.” Visitors to his studio can’t help having a similar response, seeing as how one wall is practically fragrant with beckoning portraits of Gouda, Manchego, Morbier, Shropshire Blue, Cheddar and mimolette. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. “His paintings are seductions,” said Tenaya Darlington, 40, who blogs about cheese under the moniker Madame Fromage. “They make me want to reach out with a hunk of baguette and swipe the paint right off the canvas.” Mr. Geno’s cheese quest began with his 40th birthday. A friend gave him a gift certificate for Di Bruno Bros., an award-winning cheesemonger in Philadelphia. “I said, ‘I’m going to buy something I would never spend money on,’ ” he recalled. He scored a slab of Gorwydd Caerphilly. He became mesmerized. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It was too beautiful just to eat,” he said. After painting it, he sent a message and a snapshot to Ms. Darlington asking for her perspective on it. She wound up becoming his cheese mentor (“the painting was stunning,” she said), and together they set out to explore cheeses from around the world. Now on Friday mornings they often meet for curd-driven tours of Philadelphia shops, she said, “to gaze in the windows and sample anything that’s new.” “I feel Mike approaches cheese almost like a cheesemaker himself, which is to say, he wants to bring out the beauty of the milk,” Ms. Darlington said. “His paintings capture every eye, every pudgy bulge, every nub on the rind.” That attention to detail means that he has to work fast when he’s painting an especially gooey selection, otherwise it will shape-shift as it lingers on a plate in his studio. “It’s a race,” he said. Then again, waiting often helps usher the cheese to the perfect temperature for consumption. Mr. Geno, an adjunct faculty member at the Moore College of Art and Design, will find himself drooling with desire as the hours go by — and then plunging in with a knife when a painting is done. “I don’t know another way of having such restraint,” he said. Other food products do entice him. He recently converted a sexy bacon still life into a shower curtain that he uses. But like Picasso with the color blue, Monet with haystacks or Wayne Thiebaud — an obvious food-art forerunner — with his vast array of cakes, Mr. Geno just keeps going back to the aromatic source of his obsession. “I’ve learned one thing,” he said. “I’m never going to run out of cheese.”
At least five people have died of pneumonic plague in Madagascar, public health officials said Friday. Twenty two others, with suspected cases, are receiving treatment. "Two people died in the seaport of Toamasina. One of them was a university student," said Dr Raymond Rakotoarimanana, head of public health in the eastern region. The two had been in contact with a passenger in a public service vehicle who died of the plague en route to Toamasina last month. Two more people died in the province of Antananarivo. Madagascar witnesses an outbreak nearly every year since 1980. In the recent outbreak, some 349 people have been treated for the plague, the health ministry said. There has been widespread panic in the southeastern Africa island nation especially its eastern region. People have been spotted lining up at pharmacies for antibiotic drugs with doctors warning of abuse of the medicines. A resident in Fenoarivo Atsinanana, a city in the eastern region about 100km north of Toamasina, said antibiotics were quickly running out of stock. "People are queuing at pharmacies to buy Cotrim (an antibiotic used to treat a variety of bacterial infections)," said Ms Marthe Ravonindranto, adding that "the stock is running out". But Dr Mahery Rarsitorahana, the director of Heath Monitoring and Epidemiologic Surveillance, warned that the drugs should only be used by people receiving treatment. "They were not for prevention but for treatment," said Dr Rarsitorahana. Pneumonic plague is a contagious bacterial disease characterised by fever and delirium and sometimes lung infections. It can be fatal if left untreated within 24 hours. The health ministry, however, assured citizens that the outbreak was under control. "No death, caused by the infectious disease, has been reported since September 11. However, we have to remain constantly cautious," said Dr Manitra Rakotoarivony, the director of Health Promotion. The health ministry said beside the eastern region where the plague has been reported, it is also closely monitoring Analamanga - which includes the capital Antananarivo and Vakinankaratra in central Madagascar, as well as Alaotra-Mangoro, Sava and Boeny in the north. Plagues in the country are attributed to multiple factors including rats fleeing forest fires, poor hygiene and inadequate healthcare.
The number of migrants illegally entering the United States from Mexico jumped more than 16 percent in October, US officials said on Thursday. The US department of homeland security said it detained 46,195 people in October, up from 39,501 in September and 37,048 in August. “There are currently about 41,000 individuals in our immigration detention facilities — typically, the number in immigration detention fluctuates between 31,000 and 34,000,” DHS secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. “I have authorized US immigration and customs enforcement to acquire additional detention space for single adults so that those apprehended at the border can be returned to their home countries as soon as possible,” he said. Immigration officials have said that most of the undocumented arrivals are actually Central Americans making the arduous journey through Mexico to seek work and safety in the United States — amid poverty and a surge in gang-related violence at home. US officials have “engaged with a number of countries to repatriate their citizens more quickly, and they have agreed to do so,” Johnson said, noting that many of the new arrivals have been asylum seekers and young children. “Our borders cannot be open to illegal migration. We must, therefore, enforce the immigration laws consistent with our priorities,” he added. “We prioritize the deportation of undocumented immigrants who are convicted of serious crimes and those apprehended at the border attempting to enter the country illegally.” The latest immigration figures come two days after the November 8 presidential election that closed a campaign in which immigration has loomed large. The immigration issue has been central in the candidacy of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to build a wall along the south-western border and make Mexico pay for it. Trump met for an hour Thursday with the head of the US Senate Mitch McConnell, and again stressed his plans to highlight immigration during his presidency which starts in January “We’re going to look very strongly at immigration,” the billionaire businessman said. First Published: Nov 11, 2016 08:45 IST
10 Shows To See at the NY Fringe Festival From futuristic transsexuals to Shakespearean verse to the librettos of Gertrude Stein—the New York International Fringe Festival embraces the serious, the hilarious, and the very avant garde. Inspired by the Edinburgh Festival Fringe created in Scotland in 1947, the New York Fringe has become the largest performing arts festival in North America. Approaching its 17th year, FringeNYC runs Aug. 9-25, and will bring more than 200 theater companies together for a 16-day theater spree in more than 20 venues throughout lower Manhattan. There is something for everyone at this massive celebration of theater of all kinds. Click below to check out the ten shows you have to catch before the fest is over and visit www.fringenyc.org to learn more! CLICK HERE TO VIEW SLIDESHOW
Authorities in National City attempt to free a teenager who got his arm stuck inside a vending machine after trying to steal a soda. A 17-year-old boy got in way over his head when he tried to steal a soda from a vending machine and became stuck in the machine’s receiving slot. Police said the incident happened around 5 a.m. Saturday morning at the trolley station on the west end of 22nd Street in National City. The teen – who police said is a student at Sweetwater High School -- stuck his arm into the receiving slot of a vending machine in an attempt to steal a soda and got wedged inside the slot, according to authorities. A trolley rider spotted the trapped teen and called police. Firefighters, police, paramedics and trolley security all showed up at the scene to assist in getting the high school student out of the Coke machine. After a failed attempt to get the keys for the soda machine, authorities determined they had to take the rescue up a notch and began using axes to chop at the sides of the vending machine. When that method failed, rescuers tried using crowbars – also to no avail. Authorities then requested a fire engine with saws and hydraulic tools. They used a rotary saw and air chisel to dismantle the vending machine and eventually, the teen was extricated from the tight opening. The entire rescue took about an hour, police said. Medics at the scene treated the teen for scrapes and soreness to his arm caused by numerous attempts to free himself. The teen was then taken into custody by police who said he may face charges for petty theft. Authorities said the teen might also have to foot the bill for fire and medical services, as well as damages to the soda machine. In the end, the teenager never got his soda. Follow NBCSanDiego for the latest news, weather, and events:iPad App \| iPhone App \| Android App \| Facebook\| Twitter \| Google+ \| Instagram \| RSS \| Text Alerts \| Email Alerts
New numbers confirm what the sweaty brows of Northeasterners have been saying for months: The summer of 2010 was a record-breaking scorcher. Preliminary figures provided by the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University on Friday show 28 cities from Washington, D.C., to Caribou, Maine, set record highs for average temperature from March through August. A large swath of the country sweltered in early August, when scorching temperatures and high humidity made it feel like at least 100 degrees in many places and prompted heat advisories for 18 states. While unrelenting heat is the norm in the Deep South, it’s unusual in places like Burlington, Vt., and Portland, Maine, which saw their hottest spring and summer in more than a century. The temperatures are consistent with a global pattern of severe heat-related weather this summer. Meteorologists say 17 nations have recorded all-time-high temperatures this year, more than in any other year. FULL AP STORY FOLLOWS BELOW
- Stevie J, Rory Lobb return as Giants load up for finals - Cats bring in Tom Hawkins and Mark Blicavs for big clash - Farewells for Lachie Hansen, Dennis Armfield, Matthew Boyd GEELONG and Greater Western Sydney have been boosted by key inclusions ahead of Saturday's vital clash at Simonds Stadium, with the winner to seal a home qualifying final. In other major team news for the final round of the home and away season, Gold Coast recalled Gary Ablett and then withdrew him, Jack Watts is back for the Demons, Fremantle has dropped Cam McCarthy, and a host of veterans are in for potential farewells. Having confirmed their place in the top-four last week, the Cats are going all out to host a home final in week one of September, bringing back Mark Blicavs from an ankle injury alongside the returning Tom Hawkins from suspension. Youngster Brandan Parfitt will also face the Giants. Jackson Thurlow, Zach Guthrie and Sam Simpson have been dropped. Check out the full round 23 teams The Giants have also been bolstered, with Rory Lobb selected and former Cat Steve Johnson coming into their forward line. Matt de Boer and Harrison Himmelberg have made way for the pair. Sydney has received a blow in its bid to snatch a top-four spot, losing vital midfielder Dan Hannebery (hip) and Tom Papley (knee) for Saturday's meeting with the Blues. Nic Newman and Harry Cunningham have been brought in. A shoulder problem will mean Jack Silvagni will miss the SCG clash for Carlton, but his injury has opened the door for Dennis Armfield to return for a final game before retiring. The Western Bulldogs will blood debutant Patrick Lipinski in Friday night's clash with Hawthorn, and have also picked the retiring Matthew Boyd for a likely farewell game. Ruckman Tom Campbell is also in, with Travis Cloke (general soreness), Jake Stringer (hamstring) and Tory Dickson (omitted) making way. Hawthorn loses NAB AFL Rising Star fancy Ryan Burton (foot) and Ricky Henderson (back) to injury, while Liam Shiels and debutant Harry Morrison are in. The Brisbane Lions will go in unchanged for Saturday's battle of the wooden spoon at the Gabba, despite some fitness doubts on star midfielder Dayne Zorko. However, their opponents North Melbourne have made five changes, with skipper Jack Ziebell (foot) among the outs. Taylor Garner (foot), Daniel Nielson (concussion) and Braydon Preuss (shoulder) are the other forced changes, while Cam Zurhaar has been cut. Lachie Hansen has been recalled for what is likely to be his final game for the club, while fellow veteran Lindsay Thomas, Aaron Mullett, Jed Anderson and first-gamer Ben McKay are also in as the Roos attempt to avoid claiming their first ever No.1 pick. Watts and Christian Salem are back for the Demons after being recently sent to the VFL to find form and will line-up against Collingwood on Saturday. Josh Wagner and Billy Stretch have been omitted. As expected, Tyson Goldsack and Brodie Grundy are the only inclusions for the Magpies, who have dropped premiership forward Jarryd Blair and youngster Josh Smith. Ablett was originally named as one of four inclusions for the Suns ahead of Saturday night's clash with Port Adelaide after missing the past two weeks with a hamstring injury. But the Suns later withdrew the dual Brownlow medallist after he failed a fitness test. Jack Bowes was also withdrawn after initially being named in the squad with the Suns eventually settling on three changes. Jarryd Lyons returns, while youngsters Will Brodie and Brad Scheer have also been inlcuded in place of Jesse Lonergan, Jack Leslie and Josh Schoenfeld have all been cut. Jasper Pittard returns to take the place of suspended defender Tom Jonas as the only change for Port Adelaide. Richmond has added Jayden Short, Sam Lloyd and Connor Menadue to its extended squad to face St Kilda at the MCG on Sunday as Damien Hardwick's men aim to seal their top-four position. An abdominal strain has ruled out Saint Sam Gilbert in Nick Riewoldt's likely final game, but St Kilda has brought in Daniel McKenzie, Jack Lonie, Brandon White and Bailey Rice in their 25-man squad. It would be a debut for Rice, whose father Dean played with the Saints and Carlton, if he gets selected in the final 22. All of the inclusions have been named on the extended bench. Jobe Watson is set to return for what could be his final game in Melbourne as Essendon prepares to confirm its return to the finals with a win over Fremantle on Sunday. Watson missed last week's win over Gold Coast with soreness, while Heath Hocking, Shaun McKernan, Travis Colyer and Kyle Langford are in the Bombers' extended squad, with all five inclusions on the extended bench. Josh Green will miss the rest of the season with his foot fracture while Craig Bird has been dropped. For Fremantle, McCarthy has paid a price for his poor form by being left out for the Dockers' final game, while Ryan Nyhuis (omitted) and Sean Darcy (suspended) are also out. The returning Lachie Neale provides a big boost to Fremantle's midfield, with he, Jon Griffin and Shane Kersten named in the 18, and Danyle Pearce, Tom Sheridan and Sam Collins in the extended squad. The Eagles have recalled Mark LeCras for their final hurrah against Adelaide, where a win could see them finish in the top-eight. Will Schofield, Jackson Nelson and Jake Waterman are also in the squad of 25, while Josh Hill has been dropped. Only LeCras is in the starting lineup. Adelaide has added Kyle Hartigan, Paul Seedsman and Wayne Milera to its squad in the final game of the home and away season, with the trio named on the extended bench. Friday, August 25 Hawthorn v Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium, 7.50pm AEST HAWTHORN In: L.Shiels, H.Morrison Out: R.Henderson (back), R.Burton (foot) New: Harry Morrison (Murray U18) WESTERN BULLDOGS In: P.Lipinski, T.Campbell, M.Boyd Out: T.Cloke (general soreness), J.Stringer (hamstring), T.Dickson New: Patrick Lipinski (Northern U18) Saturday, August 26 Collingwood v Melbourne at the MCG, 1.45pm AEST COLLINGWOOD In: T.Goldsack, B.Grundy Out: J.Blair, J.Smith MELBOURNE In:J.Watts, C.Salem Out: J.Wagner, B.Stretch Brisbane Lions v North Melbourne at the Gabba, 2.10pm AEST BRISBANE LIONS No change NORTH MELBOURNE In: L.Hansen, L.Thomas, A.Mullett, J.Anderson, B.McKay Out: J.Ziebell (foot), T.Garner (foot), D.Nielson (concussion), B.Preuss (shoulder), C.Zurhaar New: Ben McKay (Gippsland U18) Sydney v Carlton at the SCG, 4.35pm AEST SYDNEY In: N.Newman, H.Cunningham Out: D.Hannebery (hip), T.Papley (knee) CARLTON In: D.Armfield Out: J.Silvagni (shoulder) Geelong v Greater Western Sydney at Simonds Stadium, 7.25pm AEST GEELONG In: T.Hawkins, M.Blicavs, B.Parfitt Out: J.Thurlow, Z.Guthrie, S.Simpson GREATER WESTERN SYDNEY In: S.Johnson, R.Lobb Out: M.de Boer, H.Himmelberg Port Adelaide v Gold Coast at Adelaide Oval, 7.10pm ACST PORT ADELAIDE In: J.Pittard Out: T.Jonas (suspended) GOLD COAST In: B.Scheer, J.Lyons, W.Brodie Out: J.Lonergan, J.Leslie, J.Schoenfeld Sunday, August 27 Essendon v Fremantle at Etihad Stadium, 1.10pm AEST ESSENDON In: J.Watson, H.Hocking, S.McKernan, T.Colyer, K.Langford Out: C.Bird, J.Green (foot) FREMANTLE In: D.Pearce, J.Griffin, T.Sheridan, S.Kersten, L.Neale, S.Collins Out: R.Nyhuis, C.McCarthy, S.Darcy (suspension) Richmond v St Kilda at the MCG, 3.20pm AEST RICHMOND In: J.Short, S.Lloyd, C.Menadue Out: - ST KILDA In: D.McKenzie, J.Lonie, B.White, B.Rice Out: S.Gilbert (abdominal strain) New: Bailey Rice (Dandenong U18) West Coast v Adelaide at Domain Stadium, 2.20pm AWST WEST COAST In: M.LeCras, W.Schofield, J.Nelson, J.Waterman Out: J.Hill New: Jake Waterman (Claremont) ADELAIDE In: K.Hartigan, P.Seedsman, W.Milera Out: -
In the fall of 1991, the Jerry Garcia Band embarked on their extensive first Fall Tour since 1984. The previous year, the iconic guitarist and bandleader hadn’t taken his band off of the West Coast. The Warfield in San Francisco stood as their home turf. While 1990 and 1991 are both revered as phenomenal performance years for both the Grateful Dead and Garcia Band, they are shrouded in loss, with the untimely deaths of keyboardist/vocalist Brent Mydland and legendary promoter Bill Graham. If Garcia was deeply grieving, which most accounts point toward, he was healing by playing his heart out. 1991 was a massive touring year for Garcia, who played one hundred and twelve shows total, including Grateful Dead, Garcia Band, and with David Grisman. Thirty-seven of those shows were with The Jerry Garcia Band, whose tight formation was intact since 1984. Keyboard/Organ player Melvin Seals was an integral creative force in what he commonly refers to as Garcia’s “Magic Band.” Drummer David Kemper, stalwart bassist John Kahn, and vocalists Jackie LaBranch & Gloria Jones elevated Garcia’s desire to deeply explore the roots of soul, gospel, jazz, folk, and rock. By the time November 23rd rolled around, the Garcia Band had been on a hot tour, highlighted by a powerhouse sit-in from pianist (and then Grateful Dead member) Bruce Hornsby at Hampton Coliseum. While much of Garcia Band’s repertoire was covers, they were always heartfelt soulful arrangements. That night in Milwaukee, which was certainly Deadhead country, the band performed four originals penned by Robert Hunter. “Cats Under the Stars” opened the show, which any studied Deadhead knows is similar to a full-bodied wine, it grew better with age. Though the song was powerful in 1978 when premiered and recorded for Garcia’s album of the same name, the Magic Band had tuned into a headier channel, displaying especially pleasing envelope effects courtesy of Jerry’s Rosebud MIDI equipped guitar-axe. Out of the gates with the energy surging high, Kemper, Garcia, and Seals, laid down a familiar groove. Indeed in this era, “They Love Each Other” fared stronger with the Garcia Band than Grateful Dead. While many covers had been with Garcia since his days with Merl Saunders in the early 1970s, he had widened the catalogue in the later 80s/early 90s. “Lay Down Sally,” a hit off of Eric Clapton’s 1977 Slowhand album became a sincerely distinct cover of Garcia’s. LaBranch & Jones’ background as church singers often presented “common” covers in a totally different vein. A song that had been with Garcia and his many bands was The Band’s masterful “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” In his later years, Jerry’s ponderous presentation of this tune paired with the desperation of his vocals, brought back an intent not highlighted this powerfully since Levon Helm’s quintessential Last Waltz performance. 1991 was a kind year to “Reuben and Cherise,” which had been performed by the Grateful Dead a handful of times, a historic first (and last.) While the quintessential Garcia/Hunter collaboration had been part of Jerry’s bands over the years, it was testament to his commitment of continually tackling his challenging and most engaging originals. Another favorite classic cover of came next with “Money Honey,” displaying Garcia’s affinity toward R&B and the origins of rock. The gospel standard (and by then Garcia Band sing-along,) “My Sisters and Brothers” continually rung true to Deadheads, with its message of comradery through whatever perils and trials. As they often did in that era, Garcia Band closed the set with a show-stopping “Deal.” It was the perfect bookend to a set that began and continued blazing hot. The second set sustained that diverse journey, beginning with the band’s final performance of Van Morrison’s spirited “Bright Side of the Road.” Jerry clearly enjoyed Morrison’s catalogue, with a number of his greatest songs sprinkled throughout over the years. It’s curious that he would retire it, considering he only played the tune a handful of times, all in 1991. Bruce Cockburn’s “Waiting for a Miracle” made its way into steady performance proper in the late 1980s. It was one of the tunes that The Magic Band did justice every time (with especially noteworthy zealous organ work from Seals.) A bluesy rendition of Jimmy McCracklin’s “Think,” further displayed the pipes of Jackie & Gloria, whose entire professional performance career had been with Jerry Garcia. One of the most celebrated covers of Garcia Band’s later years was “Shining Star,” originally by The Manhattans. The thirteen-minute dreamscape rendition at the Bradley Center is the epitomic spirit of Deadheads at their finest. Unconditional love is embraced through verse and music, moving blissfully through at their own pace. Norton Buffalo’s “Ain’t No Bread in the Breadbox,” proved to be another favorite of Jerry’s later years. That evening’s outstanding rendition was speedy and a jam-worthy display of a veteran band with a big range. The canonical spiritual “That Lucky Old Sun,” sewed an unusual musical past between Seals and Garcia. They were from very different musical backgrounds but the spirituals were quintessential to both of their backbone. While initially it may prove cumbersome to some, that understated connection revealed the evening’s most prevailing sentimental moments. The familiar chords of “Tangled Up In Blue” were the perfect follow-up to the former tune, a glimmer of hope looking toward the future. That ultimately optimistic outlook, shrouded within a world of troubles, bonded Jerry and his brother in music Bob Dylan. The climactic jam featured the wildest playing and heaviest crescendos of the entire performance. Indeed Jerry and his Magic Band had poured their hearts into the music that evening. This recording, available to all on March 10th from Round Records, will likely reunite many Deadheads who witnessed this standout night from Fall 91’ JGB tour with memories and feelings from long ago. It will be equally enjoyed by all fans of Garcia looking for an outstanding addition to their ever-growing collection.
The story of this lady is unique and quite shocking. She is a single mom in her 30s. At the time she joined one peculiar website, she had financial struggles, but in just a few years a sugar daddy gave her 2 million dollars! Here is what happened. This site offers rich men to date hottest women if they pay them for each outing. He pays for the food, but to ask a girl out he also has to pay her some money. Ladies put a price on dates. It’s not about sex, at least not right away. Men just pay to find awesome looking girls to go out with them and have fun. Samantha started at 100 dollars per date. She got rather popular on the site, and eventually her price rose up to 5 000 dollars! That’s pretty good. Men pay for your things, food and give you money for just hanging out with them. However, the woman had a business plan in mind and needed money to fund it. One of the sugar daddies decided that this sugar babe is worth it. She wanted to start a cab service with hot women drivers. And he invested $2 million into her project. Moreover, she has been hanging out with many wealthy and smart men. She listened carefully to their life stories and asked them for advice. It worked pretty much like a business school for her. However, not all the sugar daddy stories end well. In Africa, these men become the primary sources of HIV infection and in Uganda they even carry out an ad campaign against such a thing. So, before you decided to get a sugar daddy, think what consequences it may bring into your life.
Saudi King Gives Women Right To Vote Saudi King Abdullah said Sunday women in his country will be allowed to vote for the first time ever in nationwide elections scheduled four years from now. The king in a televised speech to his advisory council said women will be able to run as candidates and cast ballots in the next municipal elections scheduled for 2015. He also pledged to appoint women to his advisory council. "We refuse to marginalize the role of women in Saudi society and in every aspect, within the rules of Sharia," Abdullah said, referring to the Islamic law that governs many aspects of life in the kingdom. The right to vote is by far the biggest change introduced by Abdullah, considered a reformer, since he became the country's de facto ruler in 1995 during the illness of King Fahd. Abdullah formally ascended to the throne upon Fahd's death in August 2005. But the pledge falls short of what many Saudi women were asking for. Many Saudi women and their supporters had urged Abdullah to allow them to vote in municipal elections being held Thursday. The government earlier had said that would happen, but then in recent months, refused to allow women to register as candidates or voters. Officials explained it will take more time to create the right atmosphere for women to be able to take part, separate polling stations for men and women are needed to adhere to Saudi's strict Islamic code that calls for segregation of the sexes in public. Abdullah said the changes would also allow women to be appointed to the Shura Council selected by the king that is currently all-male. The council, established in 1993, offers opinions on general policies in the kingdom and debates economic and social development plans and agreements signed between the kingdom and other nations. In announcing the reforms, Abdullah sought to ground his decision in religion. "Muslim women in our Islamic history have demonstrated positions that expressed correct opinions and advice," he said, citing examples from the era of Islam's Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. He said the members of Saudi Arabia's clerical council, or Ulema, praised and supported his decision. He also acknowledged the yearning for greater social freedoms in the kingdom. "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson contributed to this report, which includes material from The Associated Press
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Oct. 1, 2015, 7:49 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 1, 2015, 6:04 PM GMT By Bill Karins and Jose Dieppa Hurricane Joaquin was upgraded to an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm Thursday afternoon, even as the East Coast was already preparing for potentially historic rainfall and flooding from another storm front. Virginia, North Carolina and New Jersey were the latest states to declare emergencies, warning residents that the severe weather already predicted could be significantly worse if Joaquin whips northwestward. The hurricane was packing 130 mph winds as it battered the central Bahamas, moving about 6 mph as of 2 p.m. ET "We are not quite sure if this is going to be a single punch or a double punch," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told reporters Thursday. But no matter which way Joaquin heads, an area of low pressure in the Southeast and a front stalled over the East Coast will pull moisture from the Atlantic Ocean, causing rain Thursday through at least Saturday, said Bruce Terry, lead forecaster for the government's Weather Prediction Center. The National Weather Service predicts as much as 10 inches for some areas. Different forecast models predict Joaquin will either ram into Virginia, Maryland or North Carolina this weekend, or skirt the East Coast entirely as it takes a more easterly track up the Atlantic. Overnight, the American model trended toward the European model in predicting that the storm would not make landfall in the United States. Still, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia appear in line to be soaked by a separate storm pulling tropical air into the region. Between 10 and 15 inches of rain has been forecast over a 72-hour period from Friday through Sunday — with as much as 20 inches in some places. Parts of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey are also expected to be drenched this weekend. Heavy rain was already falling late Wednesday, and at least one person died in flash floods in Spartanburg, South Carolina, officials said. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Wednesday declared a state of emergency, while North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory ordered state agencies to prepare for flooding. He also declared a state of emergency on Thursday. "I cannot stress enough the imperative for Virginians to focus on the rainstorms that are headed our way [Thursday] and Friday, well before Hurricane Joaquin could potentially impact Virginia," McAuliffe said. "The forecast of up to 10 inches of rain in areas across Virginia could result in floods, power outages and a serious threat to life and property." In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, officials were hoping sandbags protect the town if the hurricane strikes the Outer Banks. "It could be some resemblance of what Sandy [in 2012] offered us, and we've learned some lessons from that," Kitty Hawk Mayor Gary Perry told NBC affiliate WAVY. Gov. Christie on Thursday also declared a state of emergency in New Jersey, warning that he will order evacuations if necessary. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters that emergency operations centers are staffing up and government departments will begin monitoring areas that have been prone to problems from severe weather. Low-lying areas in New York and New Jersey were ravaged by Superstorm Sandy. "I have learned the hard way that it is better to prepare for the worst, and in the past, we were not. We did not take worst-case scenario into full consideration and we paid the price," Cuomo said. Disney Cruise Line rerouted a ship headed toward Nassau in anticipation of the hurricane, and said the vessel would go to Key West instead. Another Disney ship out of Port Canaveral will have its itinerary rerouted. Carnival Cruise Lines also modified the routes of two cruises, the company said. Authorities in the Bahamas fear storm surges, coastal flooding and up to 10 to 15 inches of rain, said Geoffrey Greene, a senior forecaster with the Bahamas Meteorology Department. Capt. Stephen Russell, director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency, said there were no major issues at 10:30 a.m. ET but some homes had flooded. Isolated downpours of up to 15 inches are possible over San Salvador and Rum Cay through Friday, the agency warned overnight.
So the Republicans are all in a flurry to redefine, adjust or refocus their message, since the past week showed them to be out of step with both their normally conservative brethren on the Supreme Court and American public opinion. It wasn't just a matter of Obamacare, gay marriage or public anxiety over corporate sponsored trade agreements; it was a confluence of a whole host of data points that made them look out of step and quite silly. Just to string together a few of the threads: These were all sidebar issues to the main attraction of the Republican Party leadership's bluster and indignation expressed as being shut down on healthcare and gay marriage, and the demonstration of their decidedly pro-business chops in passing fast-track legislation over Democratic Party objections. ADVERTISEMENT The lead articles are now appearing across the major news outlets that the week's events may force the Republicans to change opinions. According to The Washington Post, the Republicans need to "evolve" their positions to keep up with public opinion, and The New York Times says that they have lost the culture war. The suggestions are coming fast and furious: change intransigence on immigration reform to appeal to Hispanics; support transit services like Uber against unions to appeal to millennials; enact limitations on repayment of student debt to appeal to younger voters; and shift the focus of the national debate to support for the military and a more robust foreign policy as a means of deflecting a weak domestic agenda. This evolution started before this past week, when we were treated to candidates like Sens. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid \| Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration \| New malicious cyber tool found \| Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Key senators say administration should ban Huawei tech in US electric grid Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 MORE (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzTrump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Trump endorses Cornyn for reelection as O'Rourke mulls challenge MORE (R-Texas), who started talking about income inequality, and Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (R-Ky.), who questions the need for the interference in the private lives of Americans. However, what appeared to be cracks in the litany of the past decade of "tax breaks for the job creators," or the "abomination of ObamaCare" or "get the government off our backs and out of our lives" has sounded increasingly hollow to the frustration expressed repeatedly in the general population that a "just say no" policy has hamstrung Congress and destroyed public confidence in government. Like all mood changes that take place in a mass society, it takes a great deal of groundswell for there to be any uprising that forces government to change. The cycle we are in has been 40 years in the making. The Republican Party has been masterful in using culture war wedge issues as a means of attracting and distracting voters, while they used their time in office to repeatedly pass legislation that favored business over workers and downshifted costs to individuals, which accelerated the erosion of stagnant wages. They have smugly gone about the business of enriching themselves and their sponsors, comfortable in the knowledge that Americans are largely uninformed and do not pay attention to the details of the legislative process. This time around, however, the evolution of the Republicans will come too late for them to maintain the control they have had over their base. As the party is forced to shift away from cultural issues, it will become increasingly clear that the Republican stance on economics has not benefitted small business, as they claim; it has not benefited American families, as they claim; it has not benefitted students; and it has not benefitted workers. However, the Republican stance has uniformly and consistently disadvantaged the working American under the guise of "unwarranted government welfare," "freedom to chose," and "liberty from government interference." As that reality is broadcast by an increasingly progressive Democratic Party, combined with a president who only recently realized that he could display his liberal side, economic issues will continue to erode the Republican Party's control over the public it seeks to attract. The internal disputes within the Republican Party have further indicated that a more isolationist approach to foreign policy as articulated by Paul has been throttled by the knee-jerk emphasis on "terrorist" threats, military might, American hegemony and tough-guy posturing. These policy positions will undoubtedly prevail as we move toward the election, and the probability is that they, too, will ring hollow to an increasing number of Americans who are simply sick of war and sick of American leaders who misguidedly pursue policies promoting American solutions, an American political model or American exceptionalism at the expense of its domestic economy. Americans are increasingly coming to the opinion that military leadership cannot be the reason for impoverishing its citizens. It is clear that circumstances have changed in this country. The good news for progressives is that the trends favor them. The bad news for the Republican Party is that, in retreat, it simply has to change, and the likelihood is that it cannot — or will not — do so quickly enough. This piece originally stated that the bill to end net neutrality was "sponsored by Comcast"; the company has not endorsed any such legislation. Russell is managing director of Cove Hill Advisory Services.
Share. The promo appears to have gone live prematurely. The promo appears to have gone live prematurely. Update: Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has confirmed the existence of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection with a tweet, suggesting more information will be coming very soon indeed. Well... that hit a few hours too early. See you in the AM. G'night y'all. — Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) June 4, 2015 Original story follows. Original story: A banner for Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection has popped up on the PlayStation Store mobile site. The below banner appears in a cover carousel at number eight out of ten. Right now it's only appearing on the mobile site, and only in the United States. Click onto the art, and you'll receive the below error message, which suggests the promo has been posted prematurely: The collection of the first three Uncharted games has been long rumored, but yet-to-be-verified. Right now the art is all we have to go by, but it makes sense for Sony to bring the adventure thus far to the PlayStation 4 in anticipation of the upcoming Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Big thanks to IGN users Brosephstanley, CrypticFrog and George Loftus for their help with this story. Lucy O'Brien is Entertainment Editor at IGN’s AU office. Follow her ramblings on Twitter.
Local, Regional and National IC Specialists Local Care Providers Many patients struggling with bladder or pelvic pain start with their LOCAL primary care providers who, after excluding UTI, usually refer patients to local board certified urologists and/or urogynecologists. Don’t be surprised if: they don’t believe that IC or pelvic pain is real they offer old, outdated therapies they treat IC out of a textbook that’s ten years old (i.e. using Elmiron or DMSO as the only therapies) they are reluctant to provide pain medication they are unaware of the role of the pelvic floor in bladder/pelvic pain conditions they may not perform pelvic floor assessments nor offer referrals to physical therapy The challenge with local providers is that few have an interest in treating pelvic pain, which requires more patience and more training. Due to limited budgets, local providers may rarely attend conferences such as the AUA which provide the latest courses on pelvic pain treatment strategies, including IC. Your best defense is an educated offense. You should walk into those clinics thoroughly knowledgeable about your treatment options. Don’t forget that the AUA Guidelines has a six step treatment protocol with more than a dozen treatment possibilities. You can, of course, bring them some information such as our Treatment Checklist but fair warning, some simply don’t have an interest or may have an ego so large they won’t read the materials you provide. You are truly blessed if you have a local provider who is passionate about treating IC and/or pelvic pain. Treat them kindly and bring cookies at least once a year! Regional Specialists If you have not responded to therapy at a local clinic, you can ask for a referral (or second opinion) to a regional specialist and/or university health center. These tertiary care centers often have a much better depth of experience diagnosing and treating IC and/or pelvic pain. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, patients from nine counties are often referred to Stanford or UCSF Hospitals. The good news is that many, but not all, regional centers with large urology clinics have more knowledge and experience working with complex bladder and pelvic pain. They should be doing a diagnostic assessment that follows the AUA Guidelines, INCLUDING a pelvic floor assessment. They should be utilizing treatments that are current, such as rescue instillations, etc. Many of these larger hospitals may also perform IC research and have their own team of professionals including: nurse practitioners, physical therapists, dietitians and psychologists. Fair Warning – Some of the best hospitals in the country still may not be that interested in treating chronic pelvic or bladder pain. A good example is the Mayo Clinic (Minneapolis) which is excellent working with cancer patients, but not so much with chronic pain disorders. National Specialists Patients with the most challenging cases often seek a national or even international specialists. These providers have decades long experience working with IC/BPS, prostatitis and pelvic pain and are veritable masters at diagnosing more complex cases and providing care. They frequently participate in national clinical trials, provide training on IC/BPS to other medical care professionals and are featured speakers at urology conferences and patient events. There are roughly about a dozen clinics of national reputation, including: If a national center is near you, such as within a three or four hour drive, please make an effort to visit their clinic. That longer drive early in your treatment could save you years of struggle to find a physician who really, truly believes that you are suffering and wants to help!
It’s been a bad week for the Heartland Institute — the US lobby group recently shown to have funded New Zealand climate denialists. Documents leaked this week expose Heartland’s fund-raising and climate strategies to the cold light of day, and a major new piece of research by John Mashey demonstrates that Heartland has been acting outside of the rules governing the tax-exempt status it claims for itself. Documents relating to a Heartland board meeting held in January were sent to a number of bloggers earlier this week, and have been made available by DeSmogBlog. The papers give a very full account of Heartland’s budget and plans for 2012, right down to individual staff salaries, and provide details of funding streams from players big and small. The largest — described as the “anonymous donor” — provided Heartland with $8.6 million over 2007-11 for its climate campaigns (see pps 20 and 21 of this document). Key points from the documents: Heartland plans to create a “Global Warming Curriculum for K-12 Schools” that “isn’t alarmist or overtly political”, and plans to pay Dr David Wojick $25,000 a quarter to develop the materials. Heartland is planning to fund Fred Singer’s Not the IPCC project to the tune of $1.5 million over 2010-13, and is budgeting monthly payments of $11,600 to Craig Idso, $5,000 to Singer and $1,667 to Bob Carter during 2012. Anthony Watts (of µWatts fame) is being funded to the tune of $88,000 to develop a web site featuring US temperature data. Current funders include tobacco companies, fossil fuel interests, and even Microsoft. Heartland claims the documents were stolen, and that one — relating to their strategy on climate denial — was faked, even though the main points in that “confidential memo” are corroborated by the other documents. The Heartland response includes threats of legal action against web sites and media carrying stories based on the documents, and says: …honest disagreement should never be used to justify the criminal acts and fraud that occurred in the past 24 hours. As a matter of common decency and journalistic ethics, we ask everyone in the climate change debate to sit back and think about what just happened. Those persons who posted these documents and wrote about them before we had a chance to comment on their authenticity should be ashamed of their deeds, and their bad behavior should be taken into account when judging their credibility now and in the future. Back in 2009, when the emails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia first hit the web, Heartland president Joseph Bast wrote: The release of these documents creates an opportunity for reporters, academics, politicians, and others who relied on the IPCC to form their opinions about global warming to stop and reconsider their position. The experts they trusted and quoted in the past have been caught red-handed plotting to conceal data, hide temperature trends that contradict their predictions, and keep critics from appearing in peer-reviewed journals. This is new and real evidence that they should examine and then comment on publicly. The hypocrisy burns… Meanwhile, the news that Bob Carter is retained by Heartland to undermine the work of mainstream science through the NIPCC is making waves in Australia (Graham Readfearn, SMH), but hasn’t yet been picked up in New Zealand. Carter’s role as a “science advisor” to the Heartland funded NZ Climate Science Coalition and its ICSC spin-off, as well as to Nigel Lawson’s secretive Global Warming Policy Foundation raises serious questions about just how lucrative denial can be, as well as illuminating the international web of climate denial. See also: Richard Black at the BBC New York Times LA Times And [List updated17/2 – courtesy of Adam Seigel]… Like this: Like Loading...
Published 24.05.2014 11:23 GMT+3 \| Author Martin Merk The 2014 IIHF Annual Congress has accepted the Oman Ice Sports Committee as its 73rd member. Oman becomes the fourth IIHF member country from the Gulf region after the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. Oman was granted associate member status. The sport of ice hockey in the sultanate of over three million inhabitants dates back to 2002. “Hockey came into existence thanks to the personal effort of a few individuals who built the Omani ice hockey team almost 12 years ago,” said Anad Al-Balushi, the President of the Oman Ice Sports Committee. “The team practised once a week at the Al Khuwair ice skating rink,” said Al-Balushi, who also became the team’s coach in 2009. The team has participated at several invitational events in the Gulf region. The team now plays at a newer rink in the Qurum area of the Omani capital of Muscat sized 44.9 on 24.64 metres. There are currently 24 senior and 15 junior players registered in Oman and 12 female players who are interested in playing hockey. “We at the Oman Ice Sports Committee are thrilled and excited to be part of the IIHF and part of the world ice hockey community. Every hockey player in Oman had this dream of our country being a member of IIHF,” Al-Balushi said. “This opportunity gives us the key to strive to appear outside Oman and get exposure of ice hockey around the globe in addition to competing and showing our skills and ability in IIHF-affiliated tournaments. We are happy by this news and willing to go beyond expectations with the help of the IIHF." Click here for the Oman page on IIHF.com. In other news, Georgia’s membership status was upgraded from associate member to full member. Back to Overview
Last November, Justin gave a talk at DotJS all about JavaScript Project Checklists. Here's our checklist and its Github repository. Feel free to use it or customize it. We use this checklist in all of our projects, and we think you should too. This is the first in a three part series of articles all about using checklists in your projects: why its important, creating a checklist you can start using, and what lessons we learned from our checklist. Why Use a Checklist? Checklists have helped transform a wide range of industries. A checklist is ideal in situations where the complexity of the system exceeds the ability of even a single expert to remember all of the steps needed. Using a checklist forces best practices to be followed, even if they seem obvious, preventing costly mistakes. Here are two examples: An Aviation Checklist The B-17 is the famous airplane from Boeing that was used extensively in World War 2. During its development, it was competing with other companies for a major government contract. It was expected to win the contract easily, since this plane was faster, could fly further, and could carry more bombs than any competitor. However, on its final flight test, it tragically crashed, killing the pilot and several other men. It turns out the crash was due to human error. The captain had left an elevator lock on, which made certain needed controls not function. Because of this incident, the plane was deemed unsafe to fly. Boeing was facing bankruptcy at the prospect of losing this contract. They determined the aircraft was too complex for a pilot’s memory, and the solution they proposed was the first use of the now standard pre-flight checklist. Boeing test engineers flew 1.8 million hours with 18 B-17s without incident, using this checklist to verify every step of the flight was carried out safely, proved to the government they were safe, and the government bought nearly 13,000, which were put into use for WW2. The creation and use of this checklist saved this airplane, launched Boeing, helped the US win World War 2, and spawned the use of checklists for flights and pilots worldwide. A Surgical Checklist In his New Yorker column, Atul Gawande tells the story of a three year old girl in a small town in the Alps who fell in a frozen pond and wasn’t discovered for 30 minutes. When she was found, she was lifeless and her heart was stopped. An amazing team of doctors did a series of incredibly complex surgeries to restart her heart, then her lungs, and then reduce swelling in her brain. Amazingly, she survived and completely recovered. A passage from his article helps summarize the astounding complexity: To save this one child, scores of people had to carry out thousands of steps correctly: placing the heart-pump tubing into her without letting in air bubbles; maintaining the sterility of her lines, her open chest, the burr hole in her skull; keeping a temperamental battery of machines up and running. The degree of difficulty in any one of these steps is substantial. Then you must add the difficulties of orchestrating them in the right sequence, with nothing dropped, leaving some room for improvisation, but not too much. How did they orchestrate this and save her? Checklists. Doctors at this hospital had a checklist prepared for what to do in the case of a frozen patient, from the moment they are found all the way through every complex surgery. They followed it exactly, never forgetting a critical step or wasting time to think, saving precious moments. A 2009 study showed that by simply using a checklist, surgery mortality is reduced by 50%. Checklists have pervaded the medical industry. They are staples in hospitals for everything from avoiding infections while inserting an IV to using mechanical ventilators. Applying this to software While not quite as life or death as performing surgery or flying a plane, software projects are exceedingly complex. On the technical side, there are many steps needed to build something that works, and on the non-technical side, many steps are necessary to make something people need and want to use. It would be rare for any one person to know all those steps, memorize them, and apply them to every project. That’s why a checklist is so useful. Here's a few ways checklists can help in software: The number of steps required for success is too complex for memory - Most developers know what it takes to make a successful application. But, even the most qualified and experienced people are are incapable of keeping every task in memory, especially while they are performing those tasks. - Most developers know what it takes to make a successful application. But, even the most qualified and experienced people are are incapable of keeping every task in memory, especially while they are performing those tasks. Learn from other's experience - There are best practices on any checklist that others have learned from painful experience are necessary. Rather than learn everything the hard way, it's better to compile a list of industry best practices and follow them. - There are best practices on any checklist that others have learned from painful experience are necessary. Rather than learn everything the hard way, it's better to compile a list of industry best practices and follow them. Force yourself to remember the "not so fun" stuff - Its easier to spend time on the parts of software you enjoy rather than the parts that are important. A checklist forces you to remember what is important and give it some attention. - Its easier to spend time on the parts of software you enjoy rather than the parts that are important. A checklist forces you to remember what is important and give it some attention. Guide awkward but important conversations - You'll see in the next article in this series that part of our software checklist involves hard questions for the management. A checklist based on previous project success will help guide conversations with management by providing some context and structure. Keep reading Why use a checklist? Part 1 in this series, "Why You Need a JavaScript Project Checklist", talks about the power of checklists to transform industries. What is in our checklist and how did we create it? Part 2 in this series, "Creating A JavaScript Project Checklist", provides an overview of our simple JavaScript project checklist that you can use in your own projects. When we applied this checklist to our previous 9 years of projects at Bitovi, surprising lessons did we learn about how to make a project succeed? Part 3 of this series, "Your JavaScript Framework Doesn’t Matter – The Real Reasons Why Projects Fail", interprets the results from Bitovi's checklist experiment and highlights the key lessons we learned about making projects successful. Happy checklisting!
Spoiler Helios is a map i'm currently working on for 2v2 - 4v4 slayer and CTF. it's a more bridgeworks vertical type map with the main idea being overlapping paths or bridges so if you were to fall off you're more likely to land on a lower part of the map instead of dying and verticality to offer the power positions and segment areas of the map within a tight space. this is the first time i've ever attempted a map like this before so it's mostly for learning. from the few games i've had so far it's looking alright, main issue that seems to be prevelant which is probably somewhat based on personal preference as well is being able to get around corners too quickly causing obstruction to combat so i'm also messing around with scaling on another version to alleviate this issue to some degree which is going to be called Complexion. video preview, not my video but UMEKID decided to feature it then after realized it wasn't finished.
With signing day around the corner, this week we're going to be breaking down where Big 12 teams have a need on their rosters. Then ESPN recruiting guru Jeremy Crabtree is going to reveal how those teams are addressing those holes in recruiting. We begin this series with the Baylor Bears. Position of need: Offensive line Who they're losing: Spencer Drango will be remembered as one of the finest offensive linemen in Baylor history. He did it all during his stint in Waco: 48 starts, two Big 12 championships, unanimous All-American, Academic All-American and Outland Trophy finalist. Considering he suffered a season-ending back injury in the middle of his college career, that’s one remarkable résumé. If Drango were the only guy leaving, the Bears would be in fine shape. But they’re also losing seniors Blake Muir, Jarell Broxton, Pat Colbert and Desmine Hilliard. Those five departing linemen combined for 132 career starts and (along with junior Kyle Fuller) formed one of the nation’s most effective offensive lines in 2014 and again in 2015. Baylor offensive line coach Randy Clements is quietly one of the best in the business and should develop some quality successors in 2016. But this was a special group of veterans, one that will be difficult to replicate. -- Olson Who they're getting: Those in the know understand how important offensive linemen are in Baylor’s offense, so it’s no surprise to see the line as the top priority in the Bears’ 2016 class. It’s also not a surprise to see Baylor load up with some of the best line prospects in the Big 12. The Bears are counting on recruits such as four-star guard Patrick Hudson to fill the holes on their offensive line. Miller Safrit/ESPN The Bears’ class is headlined by Patrick Hudson, the massive 6-foot-5, 300-pound offensive guard from Silsbee (Texas) High School. Hudson is ranked as the top offensive guard in the country and was a major recruiting 'W' for Briles, and it’s important for him to stay on board all the way to signing day. Baylor also secured a pledge from Branton Autry, the No. 1 junior-college guard in the country out of Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College, and ESPN 300 offensive tackle J.P. Urquidez. With all the success the Bears have had, you could make an argument no other team filled their needs better with elite talent than Baylor. -- Crabtree
Fitbits are popular devices among people who like to track their steps and exercise. But new research reveals that a Fitbit device is unprotected against simple malware attacks. More importantly, the malicious code that can be sent to a Fitbit device without the user’s knowledge can then infect a computer used to sync data collected by the wearable. DON’T MISS: I wish the iPhone had copied HTC instead UPDATE: Statements from Fitbit and more tweets from the researcher who first mentioned the issue are available at the end of this post, revealing the issue isn’t as dangerous to users as initially believed. Fortinet researcher Axelle Apvrille has discovered the hack, The Register reports. The initial attack occurs over Bluetooth and needs just 10 seconds to be delivered. A hacker only has to be in the proximity of the target to send the code and then wait for the target to connect his or her Fitbit to a PC. After it’s transmitted to the Fitbit device, the code can survive even after a Fitbit is restarted. Once that’s done, the second phase of the attack commences, as the malicious code can infect the computer with a backdoor, trojan or any other malicious program. “An attacker sends an infected packet to a fitness tracker nearby at Bluetooth distance then the rest of the attack occurs by itself, without any special need for the attacker being near,” Apvrille said. “[When] the victim wishes to synchronize his or her fitness data with Fitbit servers to update their profile … the fitness tracker responds to the query, but in addition to the standard message, the response is tainted with the infected code.” He continued, “From there, it can deliver a specific malicious payload on the laptop, that is, start a backdoor, or have the machine crash [and] can propagate the infection to other trackers (Fitbits).” Fitbit was informed about the problem in March, but the company sees it as a bug that will be squashed at some point; it’s not clear whether anyone is currently using this particular technique to target Fitbit users. Apvrille will offer a proof-of-concept demonstration video at the Hack.Lu conference in Luxembourg. UPDATE: Fitbit issued the following statement on the hack, denying the threat is real. As the market leader in connected health and fitness, Fitbit is focused on protecting consumer privacy and keeping data safe. We believe that security issues reported today are false, and that Fitbit devices can’t be used to infect users with malware. We will continue to monitor this issue. Fortinet first contacted us in March to report a low-severity issue unrelated to malicious software. Since that time we’ve maintained an open channel of communication with Fortinet. We have not seen any data to indicate that it is currently possible to use a tracker to distribute malware. We have a history of working closely with the security research community and always welcome their thoughts and feedback. The trust of our customers is paramount. We carefully design security measures for new products, monitor for new threats, and rapidly respond to identified issues. We encourage individuals to report any security concerns with Fitbit’s products or online services to security@fitbit.com. More information about reporting security issues can be found online at https://www.fitbit.com/security/. UPDATE 2: Fitbit revised its statement after Apvrille confirmed to the company this is only a theoretical scenario and it can’t be used to infect user devices with malware: On Wednesday October 21, 2015, reports began circulating in the media based on claims from security vendor, Fortinet, that Fitbit devices could be used to distribute malware. These reports are false. In fact, the Fortinet researcher, Axelle Apvrille who originally made these claims has confirmed to Fitbit that this was only a theoretical scenario and is not possible. Fitbit trackers cannot be used to infect users’ devices with malware. We want to reassure our users that it remains safe to use their Fitbit devices and no action is required. As background, Fortinet first contacted us in March to report a low-severity issue unrelated to malicious software. Since that time we’ve maintained an open channel of communication with Fortinet. We have not seen any data to indicate that it is possible to use a tracker to distribute malware. We have a history of working closely with the security research community and always welcome their thoughts and feedback. The trust of our customers is paramount. We carefully design security measures for new products, monitor for new threats, and rapidly respond to identified issues. We encourage individuals to report any security concerns with Fitbit’s products or online services to security@fitbit.com. More information about reporting security issues can be found online at https://www.fitbit.com/security/.” A series of tweets from Apvrille seem to further detail the matter, insisting this is a proof of concept that requires a second exploit to work. @zittrain note however the scenario where a small virus propagates is – I believe – possible but not yet demoed. Need exploit on sync host. — Axelle Ap. (@cryptax) October 21, 2015 concerning that scenario of infecting a fitness tracker, it's important to read the slide on limitations 1/ it's a PoC, no malicious code — Axelle Ap. (@cryptax) October 21, 2015 2/ to complete the scenario you'd need to execute the malicious code on the victim's host. This is yet to do (requires an exploit?) — Axelle Ap. (@cryptax) October 21, 2015
Is a virtual reality headset a platform or a peripheral? It’s an ideological war that’s tearing apart the once-unified VR community, with no end in sight. On one side, you’ve got Oculus saying “We’re a platform.” On the other, HTC, Valve, Razer, Leap Motion, and others are essentially saying “It’s a fancy monitor.” Here’s the key difference: If every VR headset is a platform, then companies can justify holding back “exclusive” content to entice consumers into their ecosystem. If, on the other hand, a head-mounted display is just a fancy monitor you strap to your eyes—equivalent in status to a mouse or a keyboard or a pair of headphones—then exclusive content makes no sense. You wouldn’t buy a monitor just so you could play the new Doom, for instance. And it’s a conflict that’s come to a head this week, in probably the most confusing way possible. First, put down your pitchfork. Then, let’s lay out the chronology of events. Things started when, frustrated by a bunch of games going Rift-exclusive during E3, a Reddit user posted a thread complaining about Oculus’s tactics. Typical day on the Vive subreddit, really—except Croteam’s Mario Kotlar jumped into the thread and alleged something people long-suspected but couldn’t confirm: Oculus is buying exclusive rights to third-party games. Said Kotlar: “They tried to buy Serious Sam VR as well. It wasn’t easy, but we turned down a shitton of money, as we believe that truly good games will sell by themselves and make profit in the long run regardless. And also because we hate exclusives as much as you do.” Would that be surprising? No. But it does fly directly in the face of what Palmer Luckey has said in the past. Last year, Luckey took to Reddit to say: “What we are doing is working with external devs to make VR games. These are games that have been 100% funded by Oculus from the start, co-designed and co-developed by our own internal game dev teams. The majority of these games would not even exist were we not funding them, it is not like we just paid for exclusivity on existing games.” Again: “It is not like we just paid for exclusivity on existing games.” But if what Kotlar says is true, then that’s exactly what’s happening now, so I got in touch with Oculus to see what’s going on. And then everything really went to hell, and Croteam CTO Alen Ladavac waded into the fray with a comment and his own Reddit thread. First, Ladavac comments: “I want to clarify some of the inaccuracies about our relationship with Oculus. Oculus did approach us with an offer to help fund the completion of Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope in exchange for launching first on the Oculus Store and keeping it time-limited exclusive. Their offer was to help us accelerate development of our game, with the expectation that it would eventually support all PC VR platforms. We looked at the offer and decided it wasn’t right for our team. At no time did Oculus ask for, or did we discuss total exclusivity or buyout of support from Vive. We look forward to supporting Rift and Vive.” And then here’s Oculus: “We regularly offer developers financial grants to help fund early development of new titles to accelerate development or expand the scope of the game. In some cases, we exchange funding in return for launching on the Oculus Store first, with the expectation that the game will go on to launch on other platforms. In the case of Croteam, at no time did we request that they stop development for other platforms, and we look forward to seeing Serious Sam be successful across the entire VR ecosystem.” So, assuming Oculus and Croteam are on the up-and-up and this isn’t just damage control, then Kotlar was only half wrong. Oculus didn’t try to “buy” Serious Sam VR. Not entirely, anyway. Instead, I assume we’re looking at a deal similar to the one struck with CCP to keep EVE Valkyrie exclusive to the Oculus for six months. If you still have an ideological aversion to those tactics, I can’t blame you—I too have more fondness for the old “If one succeeds, we all succeed” attitude the VR community used to pay lip service to—but I can’t fault Oculus (as a business) for trying to get something for its money. I just can’t really applaud them for it, either. The most you can do is try to support companies that are more magnanimous. Companies like Razer, believe it or not—the company announced yesterday it’s donating five million dollars to help kickstart VR development for games across all platforms, not just its HDK2. Maybe it’s time we look to other leaders in VR and stop treating Oculus like it’s the be-all-end-all, lest they actually become the be-all-end-all.
This week, the Internet exploded with rage when the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. This decision also came on the heels of a decision regarding a Massachusetts law that put a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics where protestors could not be. If your Facebook feeds were anything like ours, after the Hobby Lobby decision, it exploded with rage from left-leaning feminists who claimed that the SCOTUS had placed religious freedom over women’s freedom—not just once, but twice. In one of the few times that the TOL authors have all been on the same side of an issue, we’re here to tell you why that is wrong: Aunt Merryweather The amount of sheer derpitude coming out of the uberLeft’s reproductive rights movement is only matched by the knee-jerk crassness coming in response from the reactionary Right. No, the Supreme Court did not favor religion over women’s rights, or make birth control illegal, or make it inaccessible. Stop sharing those inflammatory NARAL Facebook image macros. Stop whining about “corporate personhood over female personhood.” Just stop breathing. Likewise, Conservative America, if I have to listen to one more smarmy male pundit disapprovingly utter the phrase “consequence-free sex,” I’m going to lose my freaking mind. /micdrop. Gina O’Neill-Santiago Dear Jezebel: not paying for certain types of birth control is not tantamount to blocking access to birth control or denying the personhood of women. The Greens themselves do not care if their employees, individually and of their own volition, obtain the four, so-called “abortifacients.” They are free to do so on their own dime (so much for #notmybossbusiness being apropos). I do understand where you are coming from, though. If you think that x,y, and z are public goods (or positive rights on par with a social security, education, and food stamps) then a third party’s refusal to foot the bill is kind of like obstructing access to x,y, and z. But that brings us to a broader debate that has been the staple of political discourse (and screaming matches) since forever. The Burwell vs Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. case and the ongoing debate about the contraception “mandate” are among the latest incarnations of a long-standing clash between two concepts of liberty: negative vs. positive. In my view, that’s what the disagreement really boils down to and it is why people seem to be “talking”…I mean, screaming past each other. SCOTUS does not hate women. Actually, I am not a mind-reader, so I do not know for sure 😉 Addie Hollis I am part of that percentage of women who use the lady pill for reasons other than “recreational use.” But at the end of the day, my entire thought on this issue is “meh.” The outrage and dumb comments (from both sides as Aunt Merryweather pointed out) has me “lalala-ing” with my ears covered. Although Hobby Lobby’s reasoning is quite shady, if they want to opt out of certain contraceptives, then let them. I wouldn’t want to work for Hobby Lobby anyway. Avens O’Brien If this were Facebook, I’d be hitting “Like” on all the comments above mine. Particularly Aunt Merryweather’s. My morality tells me I neither want to work for or shop at Hobby Lobby. Thankfully I’m not forced to. Let’s stop creating wide-sweeping legal obligations which put people’s differing moral obligations at odds and cause these expensive and problematic legal battles. The Supreme Court did what it was supposed to do in this case, but let’s not pretend this was a win for liberty – it was simply better than the alternative. Rachel Burger From what I’ve been reading on my Facebook feed, the hyperbole surrounding the Hobby Lobby case is astounding (the most egregious coming from a recent political science graduate who claims, “Business and the economy is regulated by the government, so compliance with public policy is a state matter. I also don’t agree that business owners should impose their religious beliefs on their employees because it breaks the doctrine of separation of church and state established in our Bill of Rights.”) I can’t even handle the stupidity. Since when do “business” and “state” equate? I think that we’re looking at the Hobby Lobby case all wrong. The court decision literally placed zero, zip, zilch restrictions on buying birth control. It does not force women to work for companies who will not cover birth control—in fact, if a woman’s first priority is “free” birth control, she can always get it through Obamacare OR through a different employer. But Hobby Lobby v. Sebelius also offers women the opportunity to work somewhere that does not directly contradict her beliefs should she be pro-life. That should be a win for women everywhere: non-hostile work environments have been at the core of the left’s movement for 45 years. They should be getting on board, not demanding their vision of the future that excludes conservative women. Caroline Gorman First of all, the Supreme Court has left a mechanism by which the government can step in and provide the contraceptives. This is because the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) makes clear that government can incur expenses on itself in order to avoid burdening religious liberties, in order to avoid putting a ‘substantial burden’ on religious beliefs. This is not an issue about contraceptives being denied or banned. 16 of 20 types of contraceptives are covered; women are still able to purchase the remaining four on their own; and it is likely that an addendum to the ACA will push the government to step in and cover the remaining four. The real issue is about religious freedom. It is possible that a religion (or at least some adherents of a religion) are misogynist. I believe the argument can be made that certain wings of Christianity are profoundly misogynist. Certainly the history of witch-hunts and barring of female leaders suggests it. However, people are allowed to follow misogynistic religions. It is up to you to advocate for change of those beliefs, either from within the church, as is occurring in the Mormon church, or from outside, by sharing your thoughts and encouraging discussion. Since the contraceptives have not been ‘banned’ in any way, this is clearly an argument about which beliefs are ‘allowed.’ Unfortunately, all beliefs are allowed. That’s the point of the First Amendment. Gina Luttrell The burden of going last in the roundtable is that most everyone says what you’re going to say. I will say that watching the reaction to this ruling pissed me off enough to make an uncharacteristic grumpy Facebook status: “If you didn’t want your birth control coverage subject to the whims of government, you should have never demanded that the government intervene in the healthcare industry in the first place.” But, of course, as others have pointed out, the ruling doesn’t actually keep people from getting birth control. I do, however, want to remind people of something. Religious tolerance—indeed, tolerance in general—is essential to America functioning as a pluralistic society. You cannot have people who believe different things living in the same space if the government takes sides. As Alito said in his opinion: “Among the reasons the United States is so open, so tolerant, and so free is that no person may be restricted or demeaned by government in exercising his or her religion. Yet neither may that same exercise unduly restrict other persons, such as employees, in protecting their own interests, interests the law deems compelling.” The government will likely foot the bill for your IUDs and Plan B’s, so stop whining—the government hasn’t taken a side here. Not everyone believes the same thing you do, and getting the government to enforce what you believe over what they believe is a recipe for disaster.
NEW DELHI: India's manufacturing sector needs to grow at 12-14 per cent for the country's overall growth rate to touch 8 per cent, NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat said today.Speaking a seminar on modernisation of Indian Navy , the former DRDO chief said the country's current share of Gross domestic product GDP ) expenditure for research in the defence sector was inadequate."If we have to touch the overall GDP growth of eight per cent, we need to have manufacturing growth at almost 12-14 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR)," he said.As per official data released yesterday, India's economic growth dipped in the January-March quarter to 6.1 per cent. The growth of manufacturing sector was recorded at 7.9 per cent in 2016-17.Saraswat said India intended to achieve a 25 per cent contribution by the manufacturing sector to its GDP by 2022.In 2015, the manufacturing sector's contribution to the GDP was 15 per cent -- almost USD 270 billion in a GDP of USD 1.8 trillion."We expect that the GDP grow to almost USD 2.7 trillion to USD 3 trillion by 2022, so the manufacturing contribution to the GDP will be almost 25 per cent. We are thus aiming at USD 670 billion, almost adding about 100 million jobs in that direction," he said.Citing the cutting-edge developments in defence sector globally, Saraswat said India could not omit the defence and aerospace sectors if it intended to inject a higher level of input from the manufacturing sector to its economy.He said there were opportunities galore, especially in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), to innovate, saying the ' Make in India ' initiative was aimed at increasing indigenous defence manufacturing and becoming self-reliant."There is a tremendous amount of push under the Make in India programme. I think that's the opportunity which will lead us to world-class defence manufacturing," he said."When you look at the opportunities in the next five years, that means businesses worth almost USD 150 billion dollar are available and those who are really trying to step up in this direction, will become a part of the Make in India programme in a big way," he added.Saraswat said the country needed to pump in more investments in research and development to compete with global giants in defence."We are still spending 0.9 per cent of the GDP in research and development (R&D) and if we compare to the top five (defence spenders in world), we are way down," he said.President and MD of Airbus Group India Pierre de Bausset , who also attended the event, congratulated the government for the rollout of the much-awaited strategic partnership (SP) model for defence production.Under the policy, select private firms will be roped in to build military platforms such as submarines and fighter jets in India in partnership with foreign entities."It actually revives our enthusiasm and our trust that defence procurement can accelerate and investment in an efficient defence industrial way can gain pace and that the government has considered incentives for the Indian private players to take long-term risk and to meet sustainable success," he said."That is the recipe for self-reliance in defence for this country," he added.Even then, original equipment manufacturers (OEM) like Airbus would be concerned about fine-prints, such as management control in the SP model, de Bausset said.
“ At the moment, ZOE is only good for engaging targets that aren't shooting back, such as mid to long range AV, or the off-chance you sneak up on a lone infantry. The vulnerability to damage is silly and makes it not worth it unless the benefits are over the top, like the sprint-level movement speed of old. Yes I was there on both ends, and it was broken. Never again. I say remove the damage vulnerability and give a large number of small buffs: +5% damage (enough to shave 1 bullet off of TTK without making it any good for AV) A small RoF boost is a possible alternative (or addition) to a damage buff Movement speed is hard to make useful without causing the speedy radioactive lobster problem again. Keep it in the 10-15% range. Bonus to muzzle velocity depending on the weapon Bonus to reload speed depending on the weapon There are alternative debuffs we could think of, like showing up on radar when it's active, or having all of the buffs start out as even higher values but degrade based on how much charge is left. ”
Amidst all the critiques and analysis of the Modi Government – one important thing is clear. The last 3 years have brought into spotlight a new work culture and ethic in Government. A hard charging, a hard-working culture that is slowly but surely dismantling the 6-decade old culture of corruption and apathy that had come to represent Government. Even the bitterest critic of PM Modi will admit to this change. In the light of the current momentum and determination shown by the Narendra Modi government, it is worth reviving the conversation around concrete and systemic policy solutions to address the challenges our nation is facing. In 2010, the then BJP president Nitin Gadkari had formed a Study Group to prepare a document that would draw the contours of the BJP’s “vision” of national development. Among the group’s members were current Union Ministers J P Nadda, Piyush Goyal and Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar. This document “Vision 2025: Transforming India” – the first of its type prepared by a national political party – had put forth the contours of BJP’s vision of national development with all its dimensions. This document had set out fresh development and governance ideas that meet the rising aspirations of our people. It looked into the gaps in our development model and offered innovative, meaningful and outcome oriented solutions to the challenges our country faces. - Advertisement - - Article resumes - The document says, “We believe in enterprise and aspiration. We assure a radical change in the relationship between our people and Government. Individual aspiration should be set as high as humanly possible, with no barriers put in its way by the Government. People are creative and enterprising. They are capable of changing their lives, given an enabling environment. We believe the Government‟s job is to provide that enabling environment, without thwarting individual enterprise or subverting it with handouts. We believe that Government is a trustee of national assets, resources and money, and will always use transparent, equitable and prudent means, like auctions, when dealing with scarce, natural resources being given to private companies. We believe in responsibility. Government must be responsible with public money and national assets, and be fiscally prudent. Corporates must be responsible for ethical business and will not be allowed to make gains at the expense of the people they serve. Local communities must be responsible towards each other. Individuals must be responsible for their actions. Most important, we must be collectively responsible for enhancing and improving the lives of all those who are disadvantaged.” The new approach introduced by the Government as part of its Maximum Governance – JAM, Mudra Bank, Make in India, Digital India, Startup India, Standup India along with insurance and pensioning for the poor – are programs which use a combination of capital, enterprise, direct benefits/subsidies and job creation, designed to decisively and sustainably tackle poverty. Many decisions taken in past 3 years will make their impact felt in the people’s lives in coming months and years. Nonetheless, there are many reforms still to be implemented and the Government should continue to take bold decisions. Reform the banking sector The Indian economy’s Achilles heel continues to be the public-sector banking (PSB) system and its high NPAs. The implementation of seven-pronged strategy of ‘Indradhanush’ to revive PSBs, covering appointments, bank board bureaus, capitalisation, de-stressing PSBs, empowerment, framework of accountability and governance reforms needs to be speeded up. The revival of PSB banking system is critical to sustainable growth of our economy, especially given its important role in servicing underbanked sectors of our population. Revive public private partnerships One way to get private capital flows to restart is the PPP model. In the past, PPPs had become a camouflage for private profiteering. A new framework based on transparency and equitable returns to public and private players is needed soon. The Kelkar Committee report on reviving PPPs makes comprehensive recommendations to overhaul the PPP model and emphasises the need for strong and independent regulators. This needs to be finalised at the earliest so that PPPs can boom in a sounder, more transparent framework. A clear and transparent contractual framework is essential for genuine investors who do not need to face the risk of future reviews and pressures as governments change. The government must quickly implement the recommendations made in the Kelkar Committee report. Strengthen independent regulatory institutions If India aims to feature among the top 50 in the Ease of doing Business Ranking, this is an important signalling requirement for investors that seek to invest in projects that will have life spans across various government terms. New India cannot be realized with old corroded institutions. To allow a nation with majority of young citizens to truly tap into the vibrancy, deep changes in traditional highly opinionated, command and control regulation and administration is required. We need reasoned, high quality, consultative economic and technology regulation for entrepreneurship and Industry to thrive and for jobs to be created. It is understandable that building such institutions with powers, capability, and talent within the government sector is not easy but it’s a must. — PM Modi has been steadfast focused on transforming India, and the real transformation underway is the one from deal-based governance of old India to rule-based governance of “New India” – to create an Economy and people where transparency, competitiveness, efficiency, creativeness, innovation and merit thrive – creating opportunities and livelihoods for all. PHD in Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Start-ups, Governance and Environment. India and Hinduism. Share This Post and Support:
Interest in giving Ukraine's divided regions more control over their financial and political destiny is gaining traction in both Kiev and the Russian-speaking east, possibly deterring separatist movements and offering common ground between Moscow and Ukraine. Regional leaders in the volatile east were loyal to former President Viktor Yanukovych – and dismissive of Kiev’s new central government. But in recent days they have said that greater fiscal and legal autonomy could appease those who want closer ties to Russia but are not necessarily keen to break off from Ukraine entirely. “I’m not talking about separation. I mean decentralization of powers that would result in giving us control over budgets and resources, general prosecutors, and security services,” says Sergei Bogachov, the secretary of the Donetsk City Council and a member of Mr. Yanukovych’s Party of Regions political bloc. “Kiev needs to understand and support regional demands. This is a big country, and it can’t be ruled from the center as it is now.” Mr. Bogachov is careful to note that decentralization was not the same as the federalization of Ukraine. “It would be more like what you have in the United States,” he says. Decentralization in the cards This week, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk indicated that Kiev might be amenable to decentralization as a way to stem the tide of separatism threatening the country. The eastern cities of Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk have seen violent clashes between pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine demonstrators, and separatist sentiments have risen here since Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed Crimea as a Russian territory. In a speech delivered in Russian, Mr. Yatsenyuk tried to appeal to eastern voters by promising that the parliament was discussing reforms that would lessen Kiev’s centralized control over “authority and financial resources.” Ukrainians in the Donbass, the eastern industrial heartland ( yellow section of this map ), have been offended by the Ukrainian parliament's nationalistic slogans. They don’t understand the direction Kiev is taking, Bogachov says, explaining that some fear the interim government will neglect their regional concerns about language and ties with Russia. Many eastern Ukrainian businesses depend on trade with Russia and rely on close ties for their economic stability. The newly appointed regional governor of Donetsk, Serhiy Taruta, said in an interview with Reuters Thursday that he supported Kiev’s moves for decentralization. He did not advocate full-fledged federalization, however. That move would face strong opposition, he said, because many Ukrainians would see it as creating potentially insurmountable divisions between the Moscow-leaning east and the Brussels-leaning west. The central government currently appoints governors for the country’s regions. Yanukovych centralized power even further by adopting a presidential-parliamentary system, giving the lion's share of authority to the president's administration. One of the first moves made by Kiev's interim government was to revert to a parliamentary republic, which put the power back into the hands of elected deputies representing the entire country. The change was hailed as the first step toward breaking down the “power vertical” created by Yanukovych. The only way forward? Today, the regions have very little control over their revenues, which are for the most part sent to Kiev, says Volodymyr Panchenko, the director of the International Center for Policy Studies in Kiev. “If we make the management better and leave the regions up to 70 percent of their financial profits, and combine it with some elements of self-governing within the framework of a united state, [decentralization] might work,” Mr. Panchenko says. For the Kremlin, federalization or decentralization is a matter of semantics, with many Russian officials apparently seeing little practical difference between the two. The Russian Interior Ministry listed federalization as one of the key points in its statement this week about the roadmap for Ukraine. “Federalization is the only way out to let Ukraine be integral country,” said Alexander Konovalov, the president of the Institute of Strategic Assessment in Moscow. “If the decision is taken on principle, it will calm down the situation inside Ukraine and make the tension in the south and east less.” Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy In Donetsk, however, there are still some who just want to quit Ukraine altogether and are tired of discussions about federalization. Yanina Yanovskaya, a young business owner in Donetsk, says a split between eastern and western Ukraine is inevitable, with the east joining Russia and the west going at it alone. "I’m personally ready for a referendum for separation to be called sooner rather than later,” Ms. Yanovskaya said. “I see a federation scenario [as] trying to force all these different cultures and countries together into one, and I don’t think it can work any longer.”

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