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People always like to take a swing at those on top. Apple — the highest-ranked tech company in the Fortune 500 — faced more patent lawsuits in 2013 than any other company in the United States. Apple received 59 patent lawsuits last year — nine more than the next company, Amazon, according to a report by Lex Machina, a legal-analytics company in Menlo Park, California. It seems the entire tech industry is being chased by patent lawsuits. The top 10 most-sued companies for patents are tech giants, Lex Machina reports. AT&T, Google and HTC are next on the patent lawsuit rankings after Apple and Amazon. The number of patents doesn't fall sharply after the first few either. The tenth company, HP, was listed as the defendant in 34 patent lawsuits last year; Google, No. 4 on the list, had only five more lawsuits (39 in all). If you're not an expert on patent legislation, you might think California's district courts — where patent lawsuits are filed — are overwhelmed with cases. But the Northern District Court of California and the Central District Court of California actually saw decreases in the number of patent cases filed between 2012 and 2013, Lex Machina reported. Although many tech companies are geographically located in those districts, legally, they're in Delaware. Many corporations — not just technology-oriented businesses — incorporate in Delaware because the state has fairly low corporate tax laws and regulations. Apple, Amazon and Google are all incorporated in Delaware. Several corporations only have a P.O. box in a building in Delaware to avoid paying higher taxes in another state. Apple scored the most amount of patent lawsuits in the U.S. last year. Image: Statista The number of patent lawsuit cases in Delaware — including non-tech companies — increased 33% between 2012 and 2013, from 1,002 cases to 1,336, according to Lex Machina. The incorporation law silver lining for local consumers: because Delaware earns so much revenue from its corporate taxes, there's no sales tax in Delaware. You can shop till you drop and pay Uncle Sam nothing. As for Apple's legal travails, it turns out that at least one major patent dispute will be coming to an end. Apple and Google recently decided to end an ongoing legal dispute over an array of smartphone-related patents.
The year 2014 saw Nigerian militant sect Boko Haram intensify its five-year insurgency and target civilians in large numbers as it seized territory in the northeast. The kidnapping of nearly 300 schoolgirls in Chibok in April sparked global outrage, but failed to become the turning point against the sect that Nigeria’s president said it would be. The picture at year's end is one of devastation and uncertainty. Boko Haram released a video this week of gunmen massacring dozens of men identified only as “prisoners” and “infidels.” The floor of a school dormitory is filled with bodies. Shooters walk over them to finish off those still breathing. The video marks a gruesome end to the sect’s bloodiest year to date. Rights groups say militant Islamist sect Boko Haram killed more than 2,000 people in the first half of 2014 alone. That’s almost as many as were killed in the previous four years of the insurgency combined. In the northeast, Nigerians mourn the dead and the disappeared. The 219 Chibok schoolgirls are still missing. Boko Haram grabbed the girls from their dormitories in April. It woke the world up to terror in northeastern Nigeria. The twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended globally. The movement still holds daily rallies in Nigeria. Meanwhile, insurgents seized towns and villages in the northeast. They burned, looted and slaughtered. They conscripted young men and kept right on kidnapping women and girls for use as “wives” and servants. At year’s end, fighting had displaced more than one million Nigerians. In August, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared a “caliphate,” a designation analysts say is more aspirational than actual. Some analysts say the military seems to be “gaining,” but it's hard to measure. The military retakes some towns even as Boko Haram threatens others. It’s a “war of attrition,” according to Yola-based professor Kyari Mohammed, who studies the insurgency. “Even if the military were able to push them out of all the urban centers, it is still going to be difficult for them to secure lives and property in the several villages around those areas, so this is going to be a major problem. It’s like they will have to patrol and they will have to physically be present in every inch of the territory. That is going to be very difficult,” said Kyari Mohammed. Boko Haram continued bombing in 2014 as well. There were three major suicide attacks in the month of November alone. One was at a boy’s school in Potiskum. At least 47 students there were killed. Another was at a mosque in Kano. At least 120 people were killed there and twice as many more were wounded. And another attack at a market in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, killed at least 45 people. Borno state governor Kashim Shettima spoke at the scene. "What these lunatics are doing here is completely at variance with the teaching of Islam. They are plain raging lunatics, and I believe the hottest place in hell will be reserved for these mad men," he said. The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, called on citizens to arm themselves. "We should not wait for soldiers to come,” he said, “before they come, the carnage will have been done. Some of them,” he said, “drop their guns and flee.” Nigeria’s military showed signs of strain in 2014. In all, 66 soldiers were sentenced to death for mutiny in the northeast. Soldiers complained they were sent into battle without adequate equipment. Cameroon went on the offensive amid Boko Haram attacks on its side of the border. Nigeria met several times with its neighbors to try to put together a coordinated response. “This is the year where Boko Haram became the real major threat in a region,” said the CEO of the Berlin-based security firm MOSECON, Yan St. Pierre, who monitors Boko Haram. “They’ve evolved strategically. They’ve shown an inclination for ruthlessness that was unprecedented for them," he said. "It’s not just kidnapping and murders or statistics, if you want to put it that way. What they’ve demonstrated… they’ve become a full-fledged criminal organization with a good financial structure with a good tactical structure, and this is the most dangerous part.” Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is trying to get re-elected in February. The war grinding on in the northeast sets an ominous stage for that vote.
CALGARY – A Calgary school bus company is investigating the theft of hundreds of batteries from their buses. Southland Transportation says thieves broke into their 48th Avenue N.E. bus depot and stole batteries from 79 vehicles. Each bus contained multiple batteries. In total, the theft is pegged at $20,000. Southland Transportation says the theft happened sometime between 2 p.m. on Sunday and 5:30 a.m. on Monday. “We do have security that comes through here,” says Assistant General Manager Kyrie Guertz. “So whether [thieves] sat and watched, or whether they they knew the history of the comings and goings [of staff]… we just don’t know.” “It’s very unusual,” added Guertz. “I cannot even begin to decipher why this would have happened, why they would have chosen this volume of damage.” The incident caused Southland’s school buses to be late for over 100 bus routes on Monday, impacting thousands of families throughout Calgary. “We’re looking at about 60 families per bus,” explains Guertz. “And some of these buses actually do two school runs. The numbers are huge.”‘ Officials did have access to some extra buses, but it did little to ease their shortage. “We actually have spare buses all over the city. We did send drivers to other locations to pick up units.” Batteries have been replaced in the majority of the affected buses, and Guertz says their services will be back to normally by Monday afternoon.
The French are claiming some movement on the situation in eastern Ukraine following a summit in Paris. President Francois Hollande met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his Ukranian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is the first time the four had met since the Minsk II treaty had been signed in February. Francois Hollande expressed some optimism that locla elections in eastern Ukraine may go ahead before the end of the year:“The elections scheduled for October, cannot go ahead, since the conditions we expected are not in place. However elections are being organised and new electoral laws discussed.” Vladimir Putin has arrived in #Paris to take part in Normandy format talks on resolving the situation in #Ukrainepic.twitter.com/fgE5sGQwXS — MFA Russia (@mfa_russia) October 2, 2015 Things in eastern Ukraine have shown signs of improvement recently with tanks and weapons being withdrawn. “It was an important day, we had a very intense discussion about every step necessary to achieve peace. It is always like this you have to review the process. It was like this after Minsk and it will be like this after Paris. You get guarantees only when things are done.” Our correspondent in attended the summit in Paris and sent this report: “The summit of the Normandy Four has consolidated the progress of the settlement for eastern Ukraine. On the other hand there are some local election hurdles. Still Russia’s chances to have EU sanctions reviewed by the end of the year appear improved Andrei Beketov, euronews, Paris.”
By Andrea Pason & Billy Wharton, co-chairs Socialist Party USA January 9, 2011 -- On behalf of the Socialist Party USA, we send our sincerest condolences to the families of the people killed in the January 8 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. This was an attempt at political assassination as the shooter, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, reportedly shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (AZ, D.) in the head before turning his gun on the crowd. The dead include a 9 year child and five others, with twelve people wounded. Rep. Giffords remains in critical condition. As socialists, we say unequivocally that political assassination has no role inside of a democratic society or our movement. Throughout [US] history, assassination has been a tool primarily used by the right wing. The death by execution of strong leaders such as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr stand as testimony to the damage done to our cause. We are democratic socialists and we seek to make a democratic revolution. A revolution that places people in control of their own lives. Political assassination has no role in such a movement. The same cannot be said of the far right. Right-wing activists have consistently engaged in acts of assassination and in rhetoric that reinforces and encourages such acts. We can note the murder of abortion rights activists such as Dr Barnett Slepian as well as the violent and hyper-masculine language consistently promoted by the right-wing media. Loughner was reported to be heavily influenced by these ideas, motivated by the call to arms being issued by the far-right. And he did not have to look hard for motivation to attack Giffords. During the recent [November 2010] mid-term election, Sarah Palin’s Political Action Committee produced a chart that targeted Democrats. The chart employed crosshairs to identify the electoral opponents and utilised language like “We'll aim for these races”, “This is just the first salvo” and “join me in the fight”. While Sarah Palin did not pull the trigger, she certainly holds a significant amount of guilt for creating the conditions in which such as act was possible. Now is the time to reject such politics both here in the US and globally. A fitting tribute to the innocent victims from the Tucson shooting would be to end the US occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan and to end the bombings in Pakistan. The US military has, through targeted assassinations, extraordinary renditions and drone attacks, made political violence an everyday part of life in this region. As we learned in Tucson today, such violence creates real human tragedies. The lives of innocents lost in the Middle East to political violence are of equal value to Loughner’s victims. As socialists, we aim to create a non-violent world. A world where the great wealth of society is used to satisfy human needs. Ours will be a democratic revolution where the great majority of working people are finally able to express their desire for things like jobs, peace and freedom. There is no place in this process, in the transition to a democratic socialist society, for political assassination. This is the political tool of the right and only serves to re-enforce the presence of the repressive apparatus of the government. We want freedom and believe that mass non-violent political protests are the means to acquire it. We invite you to join us in this struggle for a better world. [Check out the Socialist Party USA website at http://www.socialistparty-usa.org/.]
December 6, 2017 — Eugene Antifa anti-hate group published an article that exposes the founders of one of Oregon’s top cannabis testing labs, OG Analytical, as associating with white supremacists. In the damning article they show Mathew Combs, the labs social media director, and Bethany Sherman, the labs CEO, have been involved in secretive white nationalist chat groups online, promoted white supremacy views on Twitter, and in the case of Mathew Combs, a main organizer of American Patriots Brigade (APB), a well known American Front (AF) neo-nazi “support” group. (Disclaimer: OG Analytical has been an advertiser in Oregon Cannabis Connection) The Eugene Antifa, in concert with other antifa groups in the Pacific Northwest, gained access to the logs of a Discord server commonly used by PNW fascist groups under the name “Cascadian Coffee Company” (CCC). Discord is a chat app that white supremacists often use for discreet communication. The PNW groups use the app a lot, according to the article, and it contains thousands of communications relating to their events and rallies. “Until now, Combs has operated fairly anonymously to the public eye as a neo-Nazi,” Eugene Antifa explain in their article. “He serves as Jimmy Marr’s left hand man and Jake Laskey’s right hand man; most notably, Matthew Combs is the American Patriots Brigade (APB) organizer, a support group for the neo-Nazi gang American Front (AF).” The article is full of screen shots showing Combs direct involvement in the AF and use of the CCC chat app to organize rallies, including a Holocaust denial rally in April 24, 2017 that occurred in Springfield, Oregon. Combs is one of the leaders of the local APB group. Eugene Antifa reports: “Matt Combs joined Jimmy Marr and numerous other neo-Nazis (who are also Cascadian Coffee Company Discord users) on April 24, 2017, in what can only be described as a Holocaust denial demonstration. At the event, which took place in front of Jimmy and Judy Marr’s residence at 1321 G Street in Springfield, Oregon, Matt Combs wears a balaclava and a green flight jacket with American Patriots Brigade and American Front Support 16 patches. He is seen armed with a mini baseball bat and a high powered laser. Combs feels quite comfortable sieg heiling alongside his other neo-Nazi associates.” Jimmy Marr is a notorious neo-nazi who lives in Springfield. His truck is often seen around the area covered in neo-nazi symbols and offensive terms and sayings to try and spread their message of hate and bigotry. Jake Laskey, as well, is a well known no-nazi that served 11 years for attacking the Temple Beth Israel Synagogue in Eugene, Oregon. Combs was also linked by Eugene Antifa to the twitter handle @basedMLC which he uses to spread white supremacist beliefs. He was previously known as “Blackhat16”, but has since been changed to the “odal rune” symbol, a symbol often used by neo-nazis. The article also indicates Combs runs the @16_supportAPB, a twitter account that directly represents the APB: Bethany Sherman issued a statement to Oregon Cannabis Connection (OCC) and a few other media outlets. She states in the letter that the article is a, “Very twisted in their portrayal of events.” She denies being a part of any “neo-nazi” group and says her family (which includes her boyfriend Mathew Combs) has been mischaracterized. She also calls Eugene Antifa “ a local chapter of an extremist, domestic terrorist organization.” Sherman’s statement said, in part: “My only crime is a thought crime, akin to 1984. I believe that the world is tapestry of beautiful colors, each one full of a wealth of cultural heritage, and that each culture has a right to be proud of their heritage, and an obligation to protect and preserve that culture. I believe that this tapestry is not exclusive of European Americans, and I find it extremely disconcerting that it is admired and revered to have “Gay Pride,” “Black Pride,” “Asian Pride,” or pride in any other cultural heritage, but if you have “White Pride,” it automatically makes you a Nazi, and you are ostracized, attacked, and lynched by your community. I admit, I am proud that I am white, and I’m not ashamed of my heritage.” But, Sherman also had a twitter account, Mrs.Blackhat (@14th_word), which has been pulled down. That account showed her support for nationalist white supremacist views. Her description on the account stated, “#nationalist Mommy. Our children deserve to be raised in a whoolesome environment free of oppression against whites. #Pride #Cascadia #14words” To be clear, the term 14th word is a white supremacist slogan that has been used for many years. The Anti-Defamation League explains on their website: “14 Words” is a reference to the most popular white supremacist slogan in the world: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The slogan was coined by David Lane, a member of the white supremacist terrorist group known as The Order (Lane died in prison in 2007). The term reflects the primary white supremacist worldview in the late 20th and early 21st centuries: that unless immediate action is taken, the white race is doomed to extinction by an alleged “rising tide of color” purportedly controlled and manipulated by Jews.” It seems to be a denial of reality to say her “family” is not associated with neo-nazis when her boyfriend, and father of her child, is participating in a Holocaust denial rally and making nazi salutes, all of which are documented with pictures in the article. Her hashtag “Pride”, which is referring to her own “white pride” stance, is a white supremacist slogan. Also, her “statement” (see below) was an attempt to play the victim, which seems apropos since she also believes whites are “victimized”. She even claims the companies employees are victims too, placing all the blame on Eugene Antifa for outing the couple publicly. It seems that the employees may well be victims, but as a result of her secret beliefs also shared by Combs, not the Antifa who simply shined light on reality. The article is half screen shots and lets the comments tell a large portion of the story. Regardless of her direct involvement in any of these groups, her mere association with them is enough to call into question her statement and its veracity. Indeed, Combs’ deep involvement makes her guilty by association … in every way. On December 5th, there was chatter of a staff walk-out, but Sherman said she sent them home. “My staff did not “walk out”, explained Sherman in an email to OCC. “I understandingly allowed them all to go home early to process after we have a company conversation.” That should be an interesting conversation, to be sure. As her explanation below indicates, she has resigned as CEO and offered the company for sale. Bethany Sherman’s statement to the media: December 6, 2017, An article was recently put out about me, my family, and my company by Eugene Antifa, a local chapter of an extremist, domestic terrorist organization. I would like to address these claims head-on. I am not, nor have I ever been, a “Neo-Nazi” or affiliated with any “Neo-Nazi” group or any other extremist organization. The accusations made against me and my family are very upsetting to me, and I want to make it clear that this is not who we are. The contents of this article are very twisted in their portrayal of events. My only crime is a thought crime, akin to 1984. I believe that the world is tapestry of beautiful colors, each one full of a wealth of cultural heritage, and that each culture has a right to be proud of their heritage, and an obligation to protect and preserve that culture. I believe that this tapestry is not exclusive of European Americans, and I find it extremely disconcerting that it is admired and revered to have “Gay Pride,” “Black Pride,” “Asian Pride,” or pride in any other cultural heritage, but if you have “White Pride,” it automatically makes you a Nazi, and you are ostracized, attacked, and lynched by your community. I admit, I am proud that I am white, and I’m not ashamed of my heritage. And I admit that I have been so conditioned to feel shame about this pride that I discreetly sought community where I could. Knowing the potential ramifications of my actions, I did my best to keep them incredibly discreet. I did not share this activity or my believes with anyone in my professional community. I further admit that I also quickly realized that this was not the supportive online community I had found was not the right community for me, and somewhere near half a year ago I withdrew all communication with that community. To be clear, this community was NOT any faction of ANY “Neo-Nazi” organization. The community I’m referring to is comprised of hard working, good-hearted people like you and like me, who are forced into secrecy because they share similar beliefs, which Eugene Antifa is now proving to be true: that being White and having pride in your cultural heritage will make you the victim of hate crimes. I learned a great deal from this experience, and have learned even more in the last 24 hours since this article was published. My hiring practices, my business partnerships, and my friendships should say enough about the fact that neither myself, nor my company has in any way acted in a discriminatory fashion against anyone for their race, religion, politics, gender identity, sexual orientation, social class, disability, or other. We just hosted our Company Christmas party and I gladly welcomed a wealth of diversity into the joyous occasion. I have donated thousands of dollars to support organizations like the Human Rights Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Red Cross, and The MS Society. I have created jobs for 15 people, I’ve volunteered hundreds of hours to organizations like Good Will, CALC, and The State of Oregon to help build and establish regulations. I have founded organizations whose aim to bring people together for the betterment of our communities. I am a human being, just like you, and I’ve worked very hard to give back and to create a safe and accessible industry for ALL Oregonians. I am the victim of a hate crime, perpetrated by an anonymous organization whose primary aim is to ruin other peoples’ lives. I have never made any such attempts at hurting any other human being, in any way (including via defamatory articles or social media posts) for any reason, nor have I EVER made any discriminatory overtures. Let’s be clear about this: Neither myself, nor my company, have ever, EVER practiced, preached, or recruited anyone to practice or preach hate or hateful rhetoric in ANY way. I hope that my community can find it within themselves to see beyond these hurtful claims at who I really am, at the work I’ve done in this community to help build it, and trust that these claims don’t fit me; that I am a good, loving person, committed to my community, and that this commitment has no shred of hate or discrimination in it. The remarks made in this article have had a devastating effect on not only me, but on each of my 14 hardworking employees who are completely unrelated to the contents of the aforementioned article. To be clear, I still have yet to receive a single dollar in profit from OG Analytical, instead diverting the company earnings to better support my employees for 4 years in a row. I am proud that we launched a full benefits program this year, including health, vision, dental, and vacation time, and have elected to payout employee bonuses each year instead of paying out profits to owners. My employees have been dedicated to our mission of building a sustainable cannabis testing industry, which, in odd contrast, requires that we remove all bias from the work we do. By boycotting OGA, you’re not hurting me, you’re hurting the 14 hardworking people unrelated to this accusation who rely on OGA for their living. This being said, the devastating impacts of this article are clear, regardless of any statement I could possibly make about them. Abhorrent racial epithets have covered our social media pages to the point that I took them down to save my employees and clients from further harassment. I find it difficult for me to find a path forward with the company while salvaging the hard work each of my employees has put into OG Analytical. Without these people, I could not have accomplished all the successes this company has seen in the last 4 years. In effort to save my team from further harm, I am resigning as CEO of OG Analytical effective immediately, and offering up the company for sale. If you have further questions about these allegations, I would urge you to take them up with me directly, instead of causing further harm to my employees. My email address is bsherman@oganalytical.com and I’m open to questions. Thank you, Bethany Sherman, Owner and CEO, OG Analytical.
Co-authored by Ignacio Rivera This weekend marks the seventh annual International Day of Action for Trans Depathologization, organized by trans activists and people around the globe who are working to confront gender injustice. The global trans movement has grown exponentially in the years since the campaign started, and the effort to move away from a pathology framework and toward one based on the affirmation of identity has been central to forging the path to liberation. The difference between these two ways of thinking is simple but critical. In the pathology model, being trans (having an internal sense of gendered self that is fully or partially at odds with our sex assigned at birth) is seen as a birth defect, a mental illness, or another kind of medical condition. By contrast, the identity model suggests that being trans is a part of who some people are. It isn't something that needs a medical diagnosis, because there's nothing wrong with being trans. There are many parts of our identity that we don't talk about medically, like our personalities, our interests, and our sexual orientations. Of course, it actually wasn't long ago that sexual orientation was caught in the same bind. The depathologization of homosexuality in 1973, when it was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association, and in 1990, when the same decision was made for the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), is now almost universally regarded as a turning point in the movement to change hearts and minds about the basic humanity of lesbians and gay men in the U.S. Today, lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men are no longer positioned as sick and thus in need of, at best, pity or treatment. Rather, we are seen as a group that has been marginalized because of who we are, and one that is struggling against a discriminatory, often violent system. But we also know that depathologization is fraught with obstacles. Within the U.S. context, where both basic rights and access to health care are often withheld based on gender identity, race, and income, the move toward depathologization threatens the most vulnerable trans and gender-nonconforming people in our communities. Securing basic health care and critical medications for all, but especially for incarcerated and impoverished trans people, is largely dependent on medical diagnoses that force the state into health care provision, irrespective of their views on trans identity. So, ironically, the most progressive forces within the U.S. movement for trans liberation often find ourselves stuck in ambivalence, unable to join fully with the radical activists around the globe who call for an immediate end to pathologizing diagnoses in the approach to trans identity and trans-affirming care. Here in the U.S., as in many places, pushing the state to cover essential costs of trans health can be a complex dance that requires nuanced navigations of what we know about ourselves and our communities as well as what we must accept to get what we need. This year's theme for the Day of Action is childhood diagnoses, and nowhere is this territory more contested than in the pathologization of transgender and gender-variant kids. Fervent advocates for children claim a need for retaining a "special" diagnosis for trans children. The "good guys" on the side of this debate are trans-affirming therapists and doctors who fear that the elimination of gender-incongruence diagnoses in children will leave trans kids to the vagaries of individual parents navigating a fraught, anti-trans culture. Unlike for adolescents and adults, for kids, getting a diagnosis does not grant access to otherwise often-out-of-reach trans-specific medical care. The "bad guys" are the usual suspects: anti-trans policy makers and medical personnel who are trying to block any affirmative path for trans children to grow into their genders. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), the largest existing data set on anti-trans discrimination, found good reason to be concerned about the welfare of gender-variant children. Originally created by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the survey found that of 6,456 respondents, 29 percent said they had presented as gender-variant in school settings from kindergarten through 12th grade. Within that group, 78 percent said they had been harassed, 35 percent said they had been physically assaulted, 12 percent said they had been sexually assaulted, and 6 percent said they had been expelled from their schools because of their gender identity/expression. Worse yet, many of these people experienced this abuse at the hands of their teachers. One of the most dramatic negative findings in the NTDS was the apparent correlation between teacher abuse in K-12 and the percentage of respondents who had attempted suicide. Of those who said they had been abused by their teachers for presenting as gender-variant in grade school, an astounding 76 percent reporting having tried to end their lives at some point. This finding attests to the urgency of the battle for depathologization. An end to the pathology framework can have a significant impact on stigma and violence in a variety of institutional settings, from schools to sports teams, churches to the workplace. And most importantly, a key learning from the lesbian and gay movement is that depathologization can have a major impact on family acceptance; there has been nothing short of a revolution in consciousness, acceptance and the integration of gay and lesbian children in mainstream U.S. family life since the removal of homosexuality from the DSM and the ICD. Participants in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey whose families accepted them reported better health outcomes and more affirming experiences in almost every setting, whether it be the doctor's office, the workplace, a taxi cab or an ambulance. Family acceptance appears to provide a powerful protective foundation against often-harsh exclusionary practices and conditions in the culture at large. Depathologization is often a first critical step for many non-trans people to reconsider and rethink their anti-trans assumptions about their children and their lives.
Hello and welcome to When’s Melee, your weekly source for Melee tournament stream information. If you have info on other events and their streams, please reach out on Twitter (linked below) or here in the comments. Also, If you missed last weekend’s Melee action, you can click here to see the results. CEO 2016 • 6/24 – 6/25 Region: Florida (EDT) Stream: VGBootcamp and PolarityGG (multistream link) Featuring: Mang0 , Hungrybox, Leffen , Mew2King, Plup, Westballz , Axe, Shroomed, Lucky, SFAT, PewPewU, MacD, S2J, Druggedfox, HugS, n0ne, Colbol, Wizzrobe, Laudandus, Alex19, Nintendude, The Moon, Zhu, Swedish Delight, Wobbles, Slox, Zoso, Chudat, MikeHaze, Gahtzu, Gravy, Kjh, Frootloop, and more! » smash.gg: Brackets, Attendees \| Schedule (small schedule update)\| Facebook \| Website Friday – 6/24 Man On A Ledge 113 Region: PGH (PA, EDT) Stream: PGHNEOHSmash » Challonge \| Schedule \| Facebook \| Smashboards \| Website \| NEOH/PGH Melee Aurora Smash Heroes @ WIT Region: Midwest (IL, CDT) Stream: AuroraSmash » Challonge \| Facebook Group Friday Night Turnip #8 Region: Socal (PDT) Stream: TheSoftReset » Challonge \| Facebook Melee at the MADE Redux #2 Region: NorCal (PDT) Stream: TheMADEOakland » Facebook Four Stock Friday @ SJSU #18 Region: Norcal (PDT) Stream: SJSUmelee » Challonge \| Facebook Saturday – 6/25 Sunshine out of Shield Region: PNW (OR, PDT) Stream: EndGameTV1 Featuring: Eggz, Fat Goku, Dr. Z, Balloon, Rustin, and good production value. » smash.gg: Attendees \| Facebook Nebulous Prime Melee #46 Region: Tri-State (NY, EDT) Stream: NebulousGaming (hitbox) » Challonge \| Facebook \| NYC Melee SMASHZILLA 4 Region: UK (GMT±0) Stream: (Asked) Featuring: Overtriforce » smash.gg: Brackets, Attendees \| Schedule \| Facebook Push More Buttons Region: Midwest (MN, CDT) Stream: DownB (after PM they will stream melee top 8) Featuring: Kels, ORLY, Slayer, Triple R, and more! » smash.gg: Attendees \| Schedule \| Facebook Raider Bowl VII Region: Tri-State (PA, EDT) Stream: VirtualWarfare » smash.gg: Attendees \| Schedule \| Facebook SMASH at TooManyGames • also on Sunday Region: Tri-State (PA, EDT) Stream: ClashTournaments » smash.gg: Attendees \| Schedule \| Facebook No Contest III Region: South (NC, EDT) Stream: FrameZeroGaming (Hitbox) » Facebook Sunday- 6/26 Orbit Region: British Columbia (PDT) Stream: Asked, waiting for response. » smash.gg: Brackets, Attendees \| Facebook Last Week’s Results MADD City 3 (North Carolina) 1. Redd 2. Twitch 3. Ja Momz 4. $Mike 5. Milkman / Sharkz 7. Slip N Slide / SmashDaddy Bracket , VODs: no vods 🙁1. Redd2. Twitch3. Ja Momz4. $Mike5. Milkman / Sharkz7. Slip N Slide / SmashDaddy To watch multiple streams at once in the most effective way, go to multistre.am or VGStreams.com For a list of weekly weekday streams, check this /r/ssbm post. Eventually we’ll make a more organized list to which people can add. Sam “NGtCEOBoPR” Greene can be found on Twitter @SSBMDingus. flwns can be reached on Twitter @flwns Logo by @FishWithIt
unrevoked3 is a tool to flash a custom recovery image to your Android phone. A custom recovery image allows you to perform advanced tasks on the system partition, such as flashing custom ROMs and taking a full backup of your phone (a “nandroid” backup). We recommend installing the custom recovery image for all users who want rooted phones. It can be obtained from http://www.unrevoked.com/recovery/. At this time, unrevoked3 works on all versions of the supported phones, thanks to work based on the exploit discovered by Sebastian Krahmer. Windows users, please download and install these HBOOT drivers. unrevoked comes with NO WARRANTY (express or implied), and NO GUARANTEE OF FITNESS for any particular task. Although we have attempted to minimize the risk the best we can, the authors disclaim any chance of damage to your phone. The entire risk of running unrevoked lies with you, the user.
periklisdeligiannis.wordpress.com Uncategorized Ancient warfare, Anglo-Saxons, Germanics, medieval warfare, Military history, Nordic, Norway, Scandinavia, Sweden, Valsgärde, Vendel, Viking, Viking Age, Viking history Helmet from Vendel Cemetery, burial XIV. Observe the nose-protector in the shape of the beak of a raven (a very important bird in the Scandinavian cosmology). Vendel helmet reconstruction by Ivor Lawton (copyright). . By Periklis Deligiannis . The Vendel period of the history of Sweden and essentially of the whole area of eastern and southern Scandinavia (of course including modern Denmark) is the era before the Viking Age (793 – early 11th century AD). It lasted from the mid-6th century AD to the end of the 8th century and is characterized by princely burials of warlords and powerful warriors with impressive weapons. This historical period and the homonym cultural conglomerate (Vendel culture) took their name from the site Vendel at the historical district Uppland in eastern Sweden, north of Old Uppsala, the ancient centre of the Svear kings. The most characteristic cemeteries were found there. It seems that Uppland (where later the important cities of the Viking age Uppsala and Sigtuna were developed) was very important politically during the Vendel period. The area was rather the political center of the tribe of the Svears (Latin Suiri and Suirones and according to Jordanes: Suehans, Nordic: Svear, Anglo-Saxon: Sweonas, modern Swedes) who had extended to it earlier coming from Svealand, their core territory in the south. Uppland means the upper land, the land in the north. Another very important archaeological site of the Vendel period is Valsgärde, a place about three kilometres north of Old Uppsala. The tombs excavated at Valsgärde gave findings of the same type as those of the Vendel archaeological site. Ulltuna is another important site of this period. The influence of the Vendel culture does not seem to have been strong in western Scandinavia, i.e. modern Norway (Iceland and the Faeroe Isles were not yet inhabited by Scandinavians). The later known Nordic kingdoms or ‘nations’ had not yet been developed during the Vendel age. Scandinavia was inhabited by numerous North Germanic tribes and clans who were almost in constant war with each other. Even the sub-tribes and clans of the larger tribes were politically independent from each other, constantly fighting one another. It seems that at times powerful warlords appeared establishing ephemeral principalities or kingdoms. This is the time and the societies described in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, an epic possibly of Jute or Gott/Gotar origins (see part II). The burials in the Vendel cemeteries contained rich weaponry from which the renowned helmets excavated there stand out. In this series of articles we present a collection of images of the original helmets and a series of modern reconstructions of them. We include the Sutton Hoo helmet in this presentation because several researchers consider the Sutton Hoo burial as a part of the Vendel general cultural conglomerate. A Vendel-type helmet from the Ulltuna cemetery Reconstruction of the helmet from the Ulltuna cemetery by Thorkil (copyright: Thorkil). Map of Vendel period eastern and southern Scandinavia. The tribes noted are the ones mentioned mainly in Beowulf. The main archaeological sites are also noted, including Vendel, Valsgärde and Old (Gamla) Uppsala in Uppland (top right). Helmet found in the Valsgärde cemetery. Detail of another helmet found at Valsgärde. A reenactment of a Nordic warrior wearing a reconstructed Vendel type helmet. Note the lamellar armor, an influence on the Scandinavian weaponry by the steppe peoples (Sarmatians, Alans and Huns) via the continental Germanics. The Vendel helmets had also design influences from the nomadic peoples. A Scandinavian horseman in an ornamental plate of the Vendel period, wearing a helmet of the homonym type. Note the crest of the helmet in the form of a raven. Helmet found at Vendel, grave I, 7th century. A fine reconstruction of a helmet found at Vendel, grave I. Detail of the skull of a Valsgärde helmet. . (I’m sorry for not mentioning all the reconstructors, reenactors or owners of the reconstructed and reproduced helmets in this series of articles but I neither know them nor have the needed time to find them. If someone knows who they are, please inform me but only by reference to the official site or other reliable source. Thank you in advance). . In the second and third part I will present more pictures of helmets and I shall deal in more detail with the tribes and the clans of Sweden, Denmark and Norway during the Vendel period. . Periklis Deligiannis . CONTINUE READING IN PART II . Advertisements
Bernie Sanders is the first primary candidate from either party to campaign in western Pennsylvania in the run-up to the Commonwealth's April 26 election. Sanders supporters were lining up outside the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh before dawn Thursday. Sanders hosted a news conference at 10 a.m. to speak about international trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement's impact on North America. Pittsburgh is a labor stronghold for decades, but less manufacturing has been occurring in western Pennsylvania through the past few decades. Sanders referenced several plant closures, including Hershey's closing of a Peppermint Patty plant in Reading, Allegheny Technologies Inc. closing two western PA plants, and others, as a result of the work moving to other countries, like Mexico. Sanders said 60,000 factories have been lost in the country since 2001, although not all of those factory losses have been caused by the labor agreements. Sanders said he will continue his work to change labor agreements and deals, and if elected president, will not send trade deals to Congress that will lose jobs, close plants or lead to deregulation of financial interests. The Vermont senator will hosted a rally at 11 a.m., before traveling to the Bronx for another rally on Thursday afternoon. Sanders is running for the Democratic nomination against former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who leads Sanders comfortably in polls of likely Pennsylvania voters. Sanders hit Clinton on her stance on trade deals. The primary contests have created unusually high interest in Pennsylvania, with sizable numbers of voters changing parties. Republican John Kasich campaigned near Philadelphia the day after winning the Ohio primary.
Usually on releases the first thing we do is tell you what’s new and why you should upgrade. If you are looking for this, scroll down. This release is different. What makes Etherpad such a great project is the number of contributors that can maintain the software. This means that should one maintainer be unable to maintain Etherpad others can step in. So the first thing we want to do on this release is hat tip the contributors between 1.4.1 and 1.5. Now you know who to hire for your next Etherpad project! Etherpad is mostly a British-German alliance. The majority of our funding comes through US organizations and Primary Technology. We’d like to see more funding arrive through donations and sponsorship. These donations have less strings attached so will keep us more independent and neutral. If you can help, please visit the donation section on Etherpad.org @webzwo0i, @marcelklehr, @Gared, @simong, @BjarniRunar, @luto, @l-y-n-x, @beaugunderson, @cristo-rabani, @prtksxna, @0ip, TranslateWiki team And finally Myself: @JohnMcLear TLDR; What’s new and why should I care? > Full Etherpad Pad Export and Import > Bug fixes, tests, UI/UX polishing & updates of dependencies > Speed improvements to all pages. Page load times improved by ~30%. > Support for instance Sharding (Scaling Etherpad to multiple servers) > Better documentation & more language support. Nice things for users: > Control 5 now does Strikethrough. > Better experience at higher DPI screens (use of icons instead of fonts) > 30% Faster page load > Full Pad Portability (Export/Import) While this release is mostly a bugfix & performance release we have updated about 20% of the overall Etherpad code since 1.4.1 so we have given it a major release number. Our release schedule is heating up as we get more and more commercial support ergo more active development. Some cool things Etherpad can do that it couldn’t before > curl HTTP POST files right to your Etherpad Instance > Export other HTTP block elements (Such as subscript/superscript) > Talk to your pad > Switch between pads without reloading the editor Demo Etherpad Demo Pad, have a play!
The artist’s impression of Taylor Swift (Picture: Getty) My sister has a theory. The theory is that Taylor Swift has a song for whatever moment of your life you are going through. What I Rent: Charlotte and Chloe, £648 each for a one-bedroom flat in Arnos Grove Happy? She’s got it. Sad? It’s there. Whether you’re newly in love or recently dumped, she will have something for you. The one sentiment that Taylor hasn’t ever covered for me, is the kind of low-level burning rage that sits inside you when you remember that many years ago, someone did something to you that they shouldn’t have done, that they’re not sorry in the least, and that you’re not ever going to be able to deal with it. I don’t really want to write about it, to be honest. I still feel stupid, and guilty, and like it was entirely my fault. Suffice to say, I was a teenager, it was late at night, I was terribly, terribly drunk in a very short white dress, with a man who was sober and fifteen years my senior. Advertisement Advertisement The man in question did things to me that I did not want to do, and was too drunk to consent to. When I was eventually sick, he stopped, and left me alone in the middle of central London with no idea how to get home. (Picture: Irene Palacio for Metro.co.uk) The next day, I text him to say sorry for being so drunk. I told myself I was being stupid, that I had probably wanted it, and if I hadn’t wanted it then I shouldn’t have worn that dress. I had my jeans in my handbag. I could have put them on. I didn’t. So it was my fault. And I didn’t want to make a fuss, or make it awkward in our friendship group, or spoil things for anyone. So I pretended it was fine, and I told myself it was fine, and I cringed when I saw him but internally repeated that it was fine. I was prissy. Messed up about sex. Being stupid. It was all my fault. Years later I learned about affirmative consent. I realised that a person who is so drunk that she is sick in her own hair isn’t able to consent. I realised that stone cold sober men who are almost old enough to be your father aren’t supposed to treat you that way. But it was too late. Once I tried to tell him. I saw him across a room. He smirked at me. I knew he had been talking about me to our mutual friends. He called me a liar. He said I was being manipulative. How could he possibly have done the things I was accusing him of, if I’d turned up at his parties afterwards? Advertisement Advertisement So I approached him. Taylor Swift (Picture: Getty) My brain froze. I couldn’t say any of it, the speech I had lain awake at night planning, the one which would make him realise what he had done and why he should be sorry. But it wouldn’t come. Not one single well chosen sentence from the speech. I flimsily told him he shouldn’t have done it. I half heartedly told him he should care. And with one last pathetic swipe at getting those feelings out from inside me, I asked him, ‘why don’t you care?’ He sniggered. My boyfriend lunged at him, he legged it, and everything I’ve ever wanted to ask him was left unsaid, and those feelings resettled in the back of my chest, resurfacing every time I read the account of someone else’s sexual assault, every time I heard of a man who was patently guilty walking free because convictions for sexual assault are so cripplingly difficult. I had a mouthful of cheese when I read the quotes from Taylor Swift’s assault trial this afternoon. Thank you, Taylor. (Picture: Twitter) Swift is embroiled in a legal dispute with a man who wants $3 million of damages because he was fired from his job when she accused him of grabbing her underneath her skirt while taking a picture with her. Taylor didn’t bring this in to a court room. He did. Perhaps like me, she was too young to realise what he did was wrong at the time, or perhaps also like me she felt that while it was cripplingly wrong, it wasn’t worthy of going to trial. Advertisement During the trail, the man in question’s lawyer asked Swift if she had any feelings about Mueller losing his job because of the incident. Taylor told him: ‘I’m not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault. Here we are years later, and I’m being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are the product of his decisions—not mine.’ I am horribly, horribly sad for Taylor that she had ended up in this situation. But I have to admit, a small part of me is glad. Because the things she said to the man who put his hand in a place he had no right to put it, are the closest I may ever come to closure. So many of us are blamed for events which are the products of someone else’s decisions. Taylor refuses to allow that to happen. Every single line she’s spoken in court is perfect. Each word could have been scripted. I wish beyond wish that I could have that, that I hadn’t screwed up my one and only opportunity to speak. (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk) Reading Taylor’s words is the closest I’ve come to feeling okay about what happened in years. I won’t ever be able to undo what happened to me, and I will probably never get the chance to give him the real speech. I can’t promise myself that if I saw him again I’d be able to get it out this time either. Advertisement But that’s why it matters that Taylor said the things she said. Because she did say them. And she didn’t just say them for herself. She said them for every single woman, who just like me and millions others, didn’t ever get the chance to say them. Thank you Taylor. You’ve seen me through getting hired, getting fired, meeting new boyfriends, losing new boyfriends, lonely nights and amazing parties. I should have known that eventually, some how, you’d have my back. Taylor Swift's comments McFarland (David Mueller’s lawyer) suggested Swift could’ve taken a break from her concert meet-and-greet if she was so shaken up by Mueller’s alleged assault. McFarland suggested Swift’s bodyguard, Greg Dent, could have intervened if a sexual assault did occur. Vogue reports the lawyer then asked Swift if she was critical of Dent for not preventing the alleged incident. Swift’s reply: ‘I’m critical of your client sticking his hand under my skirt and grabbing my ass.’ McFarland claimed that there isn’t anything visibly inappropriate happening in the photo of Swift and Mueller. Swift’s reply: ‘Gabe, this is a photo of him with his hand up my skirt—with his hand on my ass. You can ask me a million questions—I’m never going to say anything different. I never have said anything different.’ McFarland argued Swift’s skirt showed no signs of disruptment. Swift said: ‘Because my ass is located in the back of my body.’ Mueller himself once stated (according to Rolling Stone): ‘My hand came into contact with part of her body. I felt what appeared to be a ribcage or rib. … And it went behind her, and her hand, or arm, went behind my arm.’ Swift’s reply: ‘He did not touch my rib, he did not touch my hand, he grabbed my bare ass.’ McFarland questioned why no one witnessed Mueller grabbing Taylor. Taylor said: ‘The only person who would have a direct eye line is someone laying underneath my skirt and we didn’t have anyone positioned there.’ McFarland asked Swift if she thinks Mueller got what he deserved. He was fired from his job at KYGO shortly after the incident. Mueller claims Swift’s team is the reason why he lost his job. Swift’s reply: ‘I don’t feel anything about Mr. Mueller. I don’t know him.’ Taylor was asked if she is open to the possibility it wasn’t Mueller who supposedly grabbed her. Swift’s reply: ‘He had a handful of my ass. I know it was him.’ McFarland asked Swift if she had any feelings about Mueller losing his job because of the incident. Swift replied: ‘I’m not going to let you or your client make me feel in any way that this is my fault. Here we are years later, and I’m being blamed for the unfortunate events of his life that are the product of his decisions—not mine.’ MORE: Why the judge in Taylor Swift’s sexual assault trial will not reveal when she will take the stand MORE: Taylor Swift attends court over accusations a radio DJ sexually assaulted her Advertisement Advertisement
We’re sorry to have missed Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate — and the ensuing battle over Medicare — but we will try to make it up in the coming days with more detailed looks at the charges and countercharges about the old-age health-insurance program. Our standard rule applies: The more detailed and complex an issue is, the more susceptible it is to truth-twisting by politicians. Readers may recall that more than a year ago we offered this advice: “Mute the sound whenever a Medicare ad by either party comes on television.” In the meantime, we have added Ryan to our “Pinocchio Tracker,” which provides an average rating of all columns on his statements as well as links to every column written about a presidential or vice presidential candidate. Statements by Ryan—the chairman of the House Budget Committee-- have already been vetted seven times in past year and a half, and he starts out with a 1.86 average rating. This is largely because he once earned a rare “Geppetto” for a correct statement, which mitigated the effect of his other incorrect statements. (More on that below.) He’s also earned as high as Three Pinocchios for his claims. Here is a guide to the previous columns on Ryan, in the order in which they appeared. Ryan’s claims of trillions in new spending in the 2012 federal budget Ryan earned Two Pinocchios for claiming Obama’s 2012 budget had a ratio of spending increases to tax cuts of eight to one. We concluded he made this claim through some highly suspect accounting. Fact-checking the Ryan budget plan Ryan also earned Two Pinocchios for claiming the House GOP budget did not rely on any accounting tricks, but we found he had done little better than the White House: “As with President Obama’s budget, the Ryan budget plan relies on dubious assertions, questionable assumptions and fishy figures.” GOP lawmakers tout Medicare reform by stretching a comparison to the health benefits they receive This column looked in detail at the House GOP plan for Medicare, including Ryan’s claim that Republicans wanted to give Medicare recipients the same system that members of Congress have. Ryan earned Two Pinocchios for a claim that we determined gave “a false and misleading impression to ordinary people.” A rare Geppetto for Paul Ryan’s assertion on Obama’s hidden top marginal tax rate Ryan asserted that under President Obama’s tax plan, the marginal tax rate would rise to nearly 45 percent for some wealthy Americans. The marginal tax rate is the percentage of taxes that are paid on each additional dollar that is earned, and Ryan’s eyepopping figure was higher than the amount usually cited by the White House. But it turned out he was right, and so he earned a prized Geppetto. Paul Ryan’s misleading historical analogy in the debt limit talks During the debate over extending the debt limit, Ryan harkened back to the 1997 budget deal between President Clinton and congressional Republicans as a model for cooperation. But we awarded him One Pinocchio for getting his history wrong. Paul Ryan’s claim of ‘vindication’ by S&P After Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. government debt from its pristine AAA rating, Ryan asserted the House budget would have prevented “this downgrade from happening in the first place.” But we found that S&P did not say that, and in fact had said “it was the failure of Republicans and Democrats to demonstrate they could work together that led directly to the downgrade.” Ryan earned Three Pinocchios for his comments. Bogus claims that just keep getting repeated Ryan earned Three Pinocchios for claiming that there are 219 regulations being released by the Obama administration, at a cost of more than $100 million. We had already demonstrated there were serious problems with that figure, and urged Ryan to update his talking points. (About our rating scale) Check out our candidate Pinocchio Tracker Follow The Fact Checker on Twitter and friend us on Facebook . Track each presidential candidate's campaign ads Read our biggest Pinocchios
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CJ Perry, the ‘Ravishing Russian’ Lana, started her career in WWE as the manager/mouthpiece of the ‘Bulgarian Brute’ Rusev in 2013, but she quickly established herself as a star. Chants of “We want Lana!” echoed through stadiums across North America, and she more than held her own on the microphone against icons such John Cena and The Rock, making her perhaps the most popular manager in wrestling since Paul Heyman began representing Brock Lesnar. But Lana wasn’t satisfied as just the spokesperson for the man that would become her husband. She wanted to wrestle. When Rusev went out with injury for months, Lana used the opportunity to get back to training for in-ring competition, finally debuting this summer as a singles competitor. It was a long road to wrestling, one that she worked hard to achieve, in front of fans that don’t always have much patience for on-camera talent development. As much as Lana is determined to succeed on her own, fans certainly miss seeing the undeniable chemistry that exists between the husband and wife team—I know I sure do. Which is why, as I spoke to Lana ahead of WWE SummerSlam, the biggest professional wrestling event of this and every summer, I didn’t mind at all when Rusev wandered into our interview, and decided to stay. Behold, the full conversation below. Lana: Hello! I’m in interview right now! Talking about my wrestling. Rusev: Of course you are. She always talks about wrestling. Lana: Are you just going to join in? Rusev: Yeah, I’m jumping right in. Lana: He gets scared with my wrestling. Rusev: I do. I get nervous, not scared. Lana: He wants me to always do good. Rusev: Yeah. I’m just afraid that if you get hurt, I can’t do nothing about it. If it’s me and I get hurt, fine, I’ll get surgery. But with her, she’s like—she’s my wife. I don’t want her to be hurt. How encouraging were you? Lana: I was very discouraging. The whole time? Just—don’t do it? Rusev: I was like, no! Don’t do it! Let me fight! You just go and talk, you’re fine! But she wants to do whatever she wants to do, and she went over my head, of course, and she just started wrestling. Lana: Well he really wanted me to stay home and take care of him, and cook clean and listen, and bake some salmon, and massage his feet, and comb his hair. That’s really what he wanted me to do. But just like I helped take him to the top… Annd look—I obviously love being with him,, but at this time, I want to make sure that I make a name for myself in the women’s division. And when managing a man, unfortunately, even though I took him to the top, and I’m cutting promos with the Rock and John Cena, when they talk about the women’s revolution, my name isn’t heard anywhere. If I have to enter into the ring to fight, and to compete, and bring Tamina, or any other women to the top to establish my name, then that’s what I have to do. You seemed annoyed that she’s always asking about wrestling behind the scenes. [Rusev: To Lana] You said that? You just said that! Lana: No you just said that! Rusev: Oh. Do you bug him a lot for tips? Does he give them? Do you give her pointers? Rusev: Yes, she asks me, I give them, she doesn’t take them. Lana: That’s not true! Rusev: Always the case. Lana: No what have you ever said! Rusev: She’ll ask me, and say, oh yeah that’s good! She doesn’t do it. She’ll go ask somebody else, and she goes and does it. Lana: That is so not true. Rusev: That’s exactly true. Lana: No, what did you say before my first match. Rusev: it’s all the time! Lana: I did everything—at Money in the Bank, he gave me three tips, and I had them in my head the whole t--- Rusev: And she argues for months! Lana: That’s not true at all! While I was doing the match, those three things were going through my head. Rusev: Because I had to drill them. Lana: ‘Take your time!’ Rusev: I had to drill them in your head. Lana: ‘Aggression!’ ‘Facials!’ Rusev: I was saying that for months. I was trying to teach her suplexes, and she was like, no I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to do that! For months we argue! The finally, she goes out there, she does all the suplexes and says ‘thank you thank you!’ I’m like, you could have done that from day one! I don’t have to argue with you for three months! Lana: Everyone loved my suplexes too. But it was all him. What do you want to help her do next? Rusev: Stay home. Lana: Wow. Rusev: I want her to do…well she is going to be the best, because she’s just the hardest worker I know. So I can only be there to support her because she wouldn’t listen to me for one, and for two she doesn’t really need my support because she’s going to do it anyways. Is it harder to not be together on screen? You developed such chemistry in building that, and it’s one of the things that differentiated you to begin with. Rusev: It’s her time to do her own thing. We’ve been together for so long, and we’re going to come back together. But it’s time for her to establish her own name into the women’s division, because she hasn’t done it before. She has such a big name in the male’s division, that now she’s moving on to something that’s better. Lana: Wait you don’t want me to be champion? The first ravishing champion? Rusev: That’s what I just said! You’re establishing your name in your women’s division! Lana: But I thought you wanted me to become the first ravishing champion of all time! Rusev: But that’s going to happen! Lana: But you didn’t say those exact words. Rusev: [Robot voice] She is going to become a women’s champion. Lana: No, the first ravishing champion of all time! Rusev: [robot voice] The first ravishing champion. Lana: Of all time… Rusev: [robot voice] Of all time. Lana: Now say it with passion. Like ‘Machka’. Rusev: [rubbing body, sexy voice] she’s going to become…the first… Lana: You’re sick. Rusev: You said passion, so I’m trying to give you passion! Lana: That was not Machka, at all. Rusev: No she’s really is though. Because she works too hard not to succeed. She’s…too much. Lana: I would love for him to come out one day and say, Lana, MACHKA! Then I’d go like this, and put someone in an Accolade and go like GRRR and then I’d make history! That’s the Wrestlemania moment? Rusev: See, now you understand how she gets. Lana: This… can you imagine that? That’d be amazing. Lana: People would lose their minds! You have to get your own tank too. You’ve gotta bring back the tank. Lana: Oh my gosh, If I came out on a tank that would be the best. Rusev: We’ll get her a mini-tank. Next to your big tank? Rusev: A little mini tank. [Laughs] Rusev: Yeah, I’ll ride the big one, she’ll ride the mini one. Or maybe she’ll kick me out of my big one and she’ll take that and she’ll save me for the mini one. Lana: Perfect. Rusev: That sounds more like it. That sounds great. Rusev: Nobody takes the spotlight away from her. And I mean nobody! Lana: I mean he kind of took the spotlight away from me… Rusev: Oh stop. Lana: But it’s because he’s just so good. That’s true. Lana: He’s the best. Rusev: I do what I can. Lana: He’s the best. There’s no one as good as him. Truthfully, there’s no one. Rusev: Keep it coming. Lana: No but like, it’s true. There’s literally no one of his size that has his athletic ability. When I’m saying he’s the super athlete, I’m not saying it as a form of propaganda. He is the super athlete. And then he’s going to become champion, and he’s going to be like LANA MACHKA and then I’m going to become champion and then we’re going to be both champions! Is there anything you want him to do differently, in the ring? In the way that he’s portraying his character now in the WWE? Rusev: [Gesturing to Lana] Please... Lana: No… Rusev: Please do say! Lana: No, I think when it comes to wrestling, that’s the reason why I’m not managing… Rusev: Oh she doesn’t want me to yell too much. Lana: No that’s not true. One of the reasons why I don’t feel like I need to manage him right now is I feel like I’ve taught him everything I need to teach him, and helped him, and everything, and that’s why I have to go use my amazing ravishing ambition with other women to help bring them to the top. I think I had to help give him the ravishing ambition, and then… Rusev: She was giving me advice on how to speak better on the microphone. Lana: Yeah, I had to coach him on that. Rusev: Because I tend to yell a lot. Lana: He tends to scream too much. Rusev: But it’s just for passion, I hate these people, that’s why I yell! And she’s just trying to advise me not to do that. Lana: It’s… Rusev: That’s what she was advising me to do. Lana: Yeah, it’s more about promos. I think in wrestling and competing, he’s the best. With promos, I have to…we have to…I have to coach him. We have to go through, and I have to say, ok, let’s go through it like seven more times. Because when you have a conversation, and you talk, then when you yell, and scream, it means more. And people listen. True. Do you think doing things like Southpaw Regional Wrestling helps as well? Lana: Oh yeah! Rusev: We’re not in season two. You’re not in season two? Rusev: Yeah it was… Lana: He boycotted it. Rusev: Contract problems. Contract problems?! Rusev: I asked for too much money. Ugh! We had to find out what was going to happen! Lana: I know! I’m kind of upset… The “devil” was there! Lana: I know. Rusev: He was! The green monster! Lana: When they pay us more money. [Laughs] Lana: Actually he’s really really funny. He’s way funnier than me. Pretty much all my funny lines I have probably taken from him. Rusev: Yeah, she steals all my lines. But then she’s like, ’No I just borrowed them!’ she doesn’t steal, she just borrows them! So how do you argue with that! Lana: There’s so many funny promos we did. Like the cake one with Roman Reigns… That was amazing. Lana: But some of my favorite things with him was when we weren’t getting along and he had Summer as a girlfriend. So, but, you know, those were some of my favorite, when he’s yelling at me, our favorite moments. TMZ fixed that though. Lana: Yeah exactly. Rusev: We got past that. Lana: Exactly, now we’re back. Now love is back. - WWE airs on MBC Action - Last Update: Tuesday, 22 August 2017 KSA 20:43 - GMT 17:43
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi signed a new anti-terrorism law Sunday that calls for the death penalty and life sentences for some offenses while also threatening hefty fines for "false reporting" on terror attacks. Sissi promised in June to strengthen Egypt's anti-terror laws after a bomb killed the country's top prosecutor. At least two militant groups have claimed responsibility for the attack. But the president has blamed it on the Muslim Brotherhood, a group his government has labeled a terrorist organization and cracked down on since he led the ouster of Egypt's first freely elected civilian President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. Under the new law, those who form or lead a terror group face punishment up to death. Financing terrorism can bring a life sentence, while inciting a terrorist act or preparing to incite an attack are also subject to prison terms. For journalists, going against the official version of an attack can mean fines of between $25,000 and $64,000. The original draft of the law called for jailing journalists, but that portion was scrapped after an outcry from critics. Amnesty International called the law "draconian" and said it "represents a flagrant attack on the rights of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association." The Committee to Protect Journalists sent a letter to Sissi last month urging him not to sign the restrictions, and to set free all journalists being held in jail in connection with their work. The highest profile of those cases is due to come to a conclusion on August 29 with an Egyptian court delivering its verdict in the retrial of three Al-Jazeera journalists charged with supporting the Brotherhood. The verdict was originally expected earlier this month, but the court has repeatedly delayed the process since Canadian national Mohamed Fahmy, Egyptian Baher Mohamed and Australian Peter Greste were arrested in December 2013. The journalists, along with Al-Jazeera, have repeatedly insisted they were doing their jobs reporting the news. The crackdown against the Brotherhood included violent responses to the protests that followed Morsi being pushed from office, leaving more than 1,000 people dead. Authorities have also arrested much of the group's leadership, including Morsi, and put them on trial in mass proceedings that have included death sentences. Egypt has also seen a rise in militant attacks in the Sinai Peninsula in the past few years along with the emergence of attacks linked to the Islamic State group.
Getty Images Chiefs coach Todd Haley was upset with Ravens coach John Harbaugh after Friday night’s preseason game, telling Harbaugh that he didn’t appreciate the Ravens running up the score in their 31-13 win. Baltimore scored two touchdowns in the last two minutes of the game, including one with just five seconds left, and Haley thought Harbaugh should have had his quarterback taking a knee, not leading a touchdown drive. Harbaugh began his post-game press conference by addressing the issue. “I want to apologize to the Chiefs if they feel like we were not doing the right thing at the end of the game,” Harbaugh said. “That wasn’t the midset, OK? The mindset was – this is the preseason. If this had been the regular season, we would’ve been on a knee. The idea in that situation is to give those young guys who work hard and who are trying to make a football team – this football team or another football team – to play the whole 60 minutes and give them a chance to show what they can do. Offensive line, running backs, everybody.” In other words, Harbaugh would rather get his third-string offense some work than spare the feelings of the Chiefs’ players who didn’t want the score run up on them. “I know that’s debatable, I know there’s a point of view both ways, I understand that,” Harbaugh said. “But I just feel like that was the right thing to do for our players, to give them a chance to play the game out and see what they can do.” Harbaugh said Haley made it clear to him that he wasn’t happy about it, and Harbaugh made clear that he meant no offense. “I think he said something like, ‘I don’t know about that,'” Harbaugh said. “I understood, and I just said, ‘Preseason, preseason for the young guys.’ He said ‘OK.’ I’ve got a lot of respect for Todd Haley, and a lot of respect for the Chiefs.” Haley was involved in a similar incident last season, when he refused to shake the hand of Broncos coach Josh McDaniels after the Broncos blew out the Chiefs. Haley clearly doesn’t like it when opposing teams score a lot of points on his team. Maybe his anger would be better directed at his own defense than at opposing coaches.
We're merely three days away from the Moto X+1's big reveal in Chicago on September 4 and yet another tidbit about the rumored handset has leaked out. Another set of brand spanking new photos of the handset sent over to TK Tech News reveals the back Moto logo on the X+1's backside might actually be a button a la the LG G3. Supposedly this small recessed dimple houses the phone's power button, which could also be used for other functions within apps. There's a button on the back? (credit TK Tech News) Aside from the button it seems users can expect the Moto X+1 to arrive with an aluminum frame and a variety of finishes including wood, plastic, leather and denim. Later this holiday Verizon will purportedly release an exclusive carbon fiber version. Here's looking at you Can you spot the four cameras? (credit: TK Tech News) A close look at this new set of high-resolution image reveals four camera-esque sensors on the front face of the Moto X+1. These sensors purportedly will work in conjunction with a new software feature called Moto Aware. But, according to Phone Arena, Moto Aware has been all but removed on from all of Motorola's handsets due to an Apple lawsuit blocking the feature. Before it's removal, Moto Aware supposedly would have automatically adjusted phone settings on the fly. This includes security settings and the UI tweaks based on the user's location, as well as the lighting and ambient noise in the user's vicinity. Meanwhile, another TK Tech News source has explained these sensors will actually be used as part of the X+1's faux 3D interface. From the sounds of it, the shifting UI interface will be very similar to Dynamic Perspective on the Amazon Fire Phone. The price is right Along with the new details of the Moto X+1 it seems the Moto G2 has begun shipping internationally. Import codes picked up by Pricebaba reveal the Moto G2 with 16GB of storage space will ring up to $175 (about £105, AU$187). Previously, we heard some worrying figures, which placed a €250 (about $335, £200, AU$360) price tag on Motorola's affordable mid-range handset. With these latest reports we can breath a sigh of relief that the handset will still be priced within the same ballpark as the original Moto G. We expect the Moto G2 will be announced right alongside the Moto X+1. Check back in with TechRadar soon as we bring your more from Motorola's Chicago show this Thursday.
Manufacturers have found a new way to appeal to eco-friendly consumers: Brown it. The Wall Street Journal lays out the trend: Dunkin' Donuts, Cinnabon, and Target are swapping their white napkins for brown ones. Seventh Generation dyes its translucent diapers brown. Cascade has introduced a new, fiber-heavy beige toilet paper it's dubbed "Moka." When asked why they went brown, companies are transparent: The color "symbolizes" eco-friendliness. Brown paper products have been shown to make people "feel like they were doing something good for the environment." Consumers need "visual differentiation" to know which products are environmentally sound. It's not even so important that a product be brown, just "that it's not white." The Journal points out the obvious: Brown doesn't necessarily mean green. Today, "white paper can be made from 100% recycled fibers and whitened without chemical chlorine, traditionally the primary complaint against it." Seventh Generation actually adds a step to the production process—brown pigmentation—to make its diapers appear eco. It's not clear whether Target, Dunkin', and Cinnabon's new napkins are any better for the environment than the old ones were, they're just browner. And at this point, it doesn't really matter: Brown is firmly linked to green in the consumer's mind. Eco-minded consumers now reach for brown, flecked products because they assume less environmentally conscious paper companies would take pains to dye them white. In fact, they may be rushing to tint everything beige. Photo via (cc) Flickr user SixRevisions
Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday condemned a massive act of vandalism against a Jewish cemetery in Missouri. Speaking at the Fabick Cat distribution center in Fenton, Missouri, Pence opened his remarks by addressing the nearly 200 tombstones that were desecrated at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, Missouri over the weekend. “Before we get started, I’d like to address something that happened here in St. Louis over the weekend,” Pence said. “On Monday morning, America awoke to discover that nearly 200 tombstones were toppled in a nearby Jewish graveyard. Speaking just yesterday, President Trump called this a horrible and painful act. And so it was.” “That, along with other recent threats to Jewish community centers around the country, he declared it all a sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil. We condemn this vile act of vandalism, and those who perpetrate it, in the strongest possible terms,” he said. “Let me say, it’s been inspiring to people all across this country to see the way the people of Missouri have rallied around the Jewish community with compassion and support,” Pence added. “You have inspired this nation with your kindness.” Pence referenced his recent trip to Dachau, a concentration camp near Munich, Germany during World War II. He recalled a conversation with a Holocaust survivor who described the “hellish existence” in the camps near the end of the war, and then told Pence: “Then the Americans came.” “The American soldier fought to end the hatred and violence against Jewish people across Europe then. And as President Trump said yesterday, America will always, in his words, fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all its ugly forms, wherever it will arise. That’s the American way.” The statement was the Trump administration’s most direct stance against anti-Semitism yet, and followed President Trump’s acknowledgement of a series of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, and the cemetery vandalism, on Tuesday. The White House has not still not applied similar condemnation to a surge in anti-Muslim hate groups. Asked about that trend, documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer spoke instead about “radical Islamic terrorism.” Watch part of Pence’s remarks below via ABC News: Pence on vandalism of Jewish cemetery: “We condemn this vile act of vandalism and those who perpetrated it in the strongest possible terms” pic.twitter.com/opeoWo5voD — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 22, 2017 The Vice President later visited Chesed Shel Emeth to survey the damage. “There is no place in America for hatred or acts of prejudice or violence or anti-Semitism,” he told volunteers over a megaphone. “I must tell you, the people of Missouri are inspiring the nation by your love and care for this place, for the Jewish community in Missouri, and I want to thank you for that inspiration, for showing the world what America is really all about.” NOW: @vp is stopping by the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery– where graves were toppled, damaged this weekend pic.twitter.com/b45kfWCowo — Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) February 22, 2017 Breaking: @EricGreitens and @mike_pence make stop at Chesed Shel Emeth and talk about vandalism. Live stream on @FOX2now now. pic.twitter.com/SrUWinxy1F — FOX2now (@FOX2now) February 22, 2017 This post has been updated.
Photo: The Patriot-News “That’s a good boy… We wont let those mean old potheads talk to my good boy anymore, no we won’t…” A Florida man has been charged with striking a police animal for telling a drug dog to “sit.” The Gainesville Sun. Mario Duane Porter, 21, of Gainesville, was charged last week with “striking a police animal” (which supposedly includes “interfering with a working police animal”), disorderly conduct, possession of drug paraphernalia and refusing to sign a citation for violating the city’s noise and window tint ordinances, reports Karen Voyles of Alachua County Jail Porter was pulled over by the police because his car stereo was so loud that it was audible more than 25 feet beyond the vehicle, according to Gainesville Police Officer David Blizzard. In an arrest report, Blizzard noted that during the stop, Porter “was being belligerent and vulgar, yelling profanities.” A police drug dog was brought to the scene to check Porter’s car, trying to get “probable cause” to search the car for contraband. According to Officer Blizzard’s arrest report, Porter began shouting “loud commands to ‘sit’ … which interrupted the K9 from his duties. The K9 stopped twice while walking the vehicle and looking in the direction of [Porter] who was giving those commands.” Once Porter had been “quieted” and the dog resumed checking the vehicle, Officer Blizzard said it alerted on the car to indicate the possible presence of drugs. A small plastic bag containing “marijuana residue” was found under the front passenger seat, Blizzard claimed. Porter was put in the Alachua County Jail.
“Our noble country sees potential not only when we are at our best but when we are at our worst. When we are broken or inadequate or insufficient. When we fall short or do wrong or don’t measure up. When we suffer not because we are failures but because we are human. And because there is nothing more universal to our brief experience here on Earth than the fact that each of us will feel the sky fall. We offer mercy because at some point we will need it too. For generations this has been a higher calling that has united Americans across the aisle. It was the patriotic edict laid out by President George W. Bush in his first inaugural address saying, ‘I can pledge our nation to a goal: when we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.’ But today I tell you in no uncertain terms that this collective commitment to dignity is at risk. We cannot write it off, we cannot pretend it’s otherwise, we cannot relegate it to “politics” with an eye roll or a sign because it is infiltrating every inch of American life, and we know that. You and I feel it. Deep within us and all around us. This new guard in Washington isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us – they are targeting the very idea that we are all worth protecting.”
In 2002-03, the Bush administration coordinated with retired military officers who were acting as policy experts on CNN and elsewhere to whip up the Iraq War frenzy. Such military commentary can have a significant and dangerous impact on U.S. public opinion, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains. By Paul R. Pillar A recent study by Jim Golby, Kyle Dropp and Peter Feaver published by the Center for New American Security examines the effects that public statements by senior military officers have on public opinion about the use of force. The study is based on survey research in which respondents were presented with real and hypothetical questions about whether the United States should apply military force to certain situations overseas. Some respondents were told that U.S. military leaders favored the contemplated action, others were told that the same military leaders opposed the action, and still others were given no cues about what the military thinks. The main finding of the research is that publicly expressed military views do make a difference on public opinion, especially when such views oppose a military action. Military opposition reduced public support for the use of military force abroad by an average of seven percentage points, while military support increased public support by three percentage points. The surveyed sample was large enough that these were significant differences. The authors discuss some concerns suggested by these findings, especially the hazard of what they call “a problematic politicization of the military.” Their concerns are legitimate, but the study fails to make an important distinction between the sort of military opinions that ought to worry us (worry us, that is, because they are being expressed publicly) and the sort that ought not. The public (and policymakers in the Executive Branch and Congress) ought to pay careful attention to what senior military officers say on questions that are contained within the military’s area of expertise. That is where military officers can offer opinions that are more firmly grounded than what anyone else can offer. Such questions would include the costs and time required to accomplish a military mission, risks incurred in accomplishing it such as collateral damage to civilians, and the likelihood of being able to accomplish it at all. A military officer’s opinion ought not to be considered worth more than anyone else’s when it goes beyond the area of specifically military expertise. Outside that area would be questions such as political and diplomatic costs of an action, national priorities in the allocation of limited resources, and how important attainment of the military objective would be to the national interest. Because these sorts of questions are just as important in any decision to apply armed force overseas as are the ones on which military officers are specially qualified to speak, an overall judgment on whether any given application of force ought to be undertaken also goes beyond the area of military expertise. Thoughtful and intelligent military officers are going to have opinions about these things and are entitled to have them, but that is not the same as having a special claim on the public’s attention. If there is a norm to be cultivated here, it is that active-duty military officers ought to insist on being heard on military questions (which is not the same as the question of whether a particular military action ought to be undertaken), while being mindful of the politicization hazard that Golby, Dropp and Feaver mention and thereby not taking advantage of their prestige, their uniform and their credibility to offer publicly their opinions on other things. Unfortunately, too often military opinion gets handled in exactly the opposite way. On one hand, armchair generals sometimes do not defer to the military on military questions. A well known and egregious example is the public disparagement by civilian Pentagon leaders of the army chief of staff’s judgment about the U.S. troop presence that would be required in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. On the other hand, military officers’ opinions on questions that go beyond strictly military judgments sometimes are given excessive prominence, usually because politicians either want to shirk the responsibility for making a decision by pretending that a military opinion can be treated as a surrogate for a policy judgment, or want to use military officers as supporting props for promoting their own point of view. Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency’s top analysts. He is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The National Interest’s Web site. Reprinted with author’s permission.)
It's like Perfect Match – but for you and a city. You’ve decided you want to live abroad. Great! But where to? You’ve probably thought real hard about Berlin, and maybe considered London, Vancouver or Singapore, too. Wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a way to find a city that perfectly suited your needs? Well, you’re in luck. A computer algorithm called Teleport will match you with your perfect city. Teleport helps you explore the best city for you, based on your personal preferences. It starts with the basics – your budget, job, income, and where you currently live – and then dives deep into what’s really important to you. Things like housing, living costs, traffic, climate, language, safety, education, leisure and culture. You can decide whether having access to the great outdoors is important to you, or whether you’ll be able to find a job based on the current job market. Teleport even lets you filter cities in or out based on their travel connectivity, population size, pollution, internet access and their overall tolerance. Basically, it’s Perfect Match – but for you and a city. Once you’ve settled on your perfect place, Teleport will even help you get started on making the move. The site can search for prospective jobs and there’s even a check list of things to organise before you make the jump (anything from organising visas to choosing a neighbourhood). You can check out Teleport here to find the right city for you. What’re you waiting for? Check out Qantas flights and begin your next adventure.
There is a view among some social scientists that couples who share more housework have less sex. The idea is that sharing chores so challenges gender norms that couples can no longer turn each other on. Sex suffers. Fortunately, new research offers a different narrative. According to a new paper to be published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, couples who share more housework have more sex. “Nationally, internationally there’s a decline in sexual frequency,” said Sharon Sassler, a professor at Cornell University and a co-author of the paper. “The only ones [couples] that are having more sex are in egalitarian marriages. The sexual scripts have changed.” The authors, led by Daniel Carlson at the University of Utah, compared data from a 2006 marital satisfaction survey with older data from 1992-1994, which found that couples with more traditional set-ups—with women doing the bulk of the housework—have more sex. The new survey showed things are changing: couples who reported sharing housework equally had sex 6.8 times per month, on average, or about once more per month than those where the woman does more “routine housework,” defined as: preparing and cooking meals, washing dishes, cleaning around the house, shopping for groceries, and doing laundry. This is fantastic news for those of us who aspire to partnerships in which we share things like raising kids and cleaning toilets (hello 2016!). Having sex once more per month may seem measly, but something is better than nothing and it’s certainly an improvement on the view that sharing housework harms your sex life. Of course, it’s not all sun and roses. Women still do a disturbingly high percentage of the work in the house. According to the 2006 survey, about 63% reported that the female partner did the majority of the routine housework, compared to over 80% of respondents from the older one: Even in households where the female partner earns more than the male, is more educated, or works more hours per week, men do less routine housework than their partners. Annoying. And backed up by Pew research survey here. Of course there are things other than housework which affect a couples sex life, like kids and the quality of the relationship. But housework plays a big role (ask any married couple) and the authors tried to figure out how significant that role was, and how it is changing. A lot, it tuns out: egalitarian couples had the lowest sexual frequency and satisfaction in the early 1990s. Today, they have the most sex, though not much higher than conventional couples. They are the only group whose frequency is growing. Sassler says the popular storyline, captured in a 2014 New York Times magazine cover story, is that contemporary couples are stressed out and miserable. “It’s weird and exaggerated,” she said, adding: There’s been a lagged response to women’s transition into the workforce. Initially it was stressful. It affected relationships. We’ve had a few decades to educate each other about the stresses we went through, and we are coming out okay. There is a basic logic at work here. Couples who have more egalitarian relationships are happier, and happier couples tend to have more sex. Fairness matters, be it housework, child care, and just about everything else. The study had some not-so-great findings too. Couples in which the man does the bulk of the housework have significantly less sex than those in conventional or more egalitarian pairings (the study did not look at same-sex couples). And while sexual satisfaction varied little between conventional and egalitarian couples; counter-conventional couples, those in which he does the bulk of the housework, were more dissatisfied with their sex lives compared to those in other arrangements. Clearly something weird is going on that men cannot wash a lot of dishes without everyone’s libidos taking a hit (Sassler says the sample was small, and that some men might not be home by choice, but because they are unemployed). One thing that has not changed: Men in both surveys were more likely than women to say that routine housework was shared equally; women said it was more likely that they were doing the majority of the work. Some things never change.
Mozilla and other major technology companies, including Amazon, Apple, Google and Twitter, are joining together in an amicus brief filing that supports Facebook’s ability to challenge both a search warrant for nearly 400 Facebook users’ data, and an indefinite gag order which forbids Facebook from notifying users about government requests for their data. Mozilla is joining this brief because we believe this type of lengthy, never-ending gag order ultimately infringes on the ability to control one’s online experience. This is part of our fight to protect individual privacy and security online, and to improve internet health by promoting cybersecurity and increasing transparency. In this case, the government argued that Facebook has no legal right to even challenge the warrant’s scope or validity, and a lower court agreed. This would mean companies like Mozilla couldn’t challenge unlawful orders we receive. And, because gag orders would prevent us from notifying users, those users wouldn’t know to challenge them either. Unlawful warrants would never see the light of day or be apparent to users. This is staggering and unacceptable. While we have yet to receive a gag order that would prevent us from notifying a user about a request for data, we said in our transparency report earlier this year that we are committed to opposing any unlawful or overbroad requests for our users’ data and that’s exactly what we’re doing today. Mozilla also joined an amicus brief in September to fight back against indiscriminate use of permanent gag orders that prevent companies from ever notifying users about requests for their data. We will continue to look for opportunities like these to protect privacy and security online for all users and to improve the overall health of the internet.
A protein that helps worm sperm to fertilise an egg may be related to a human protein that plays a role in inherited forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease in the US, paralyses muscle cells that control movement. There is no cure or treatment, and no conclusive evidence of what causes it. Those with the condition almost always die within a few years. The new discovery, by Michael Miller at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, has highlighted a protein that may be a culprit. The protein, called MSP, was first found in male Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worms 11 years ago. It is secreted by sperm cells to prepare eggs for fertilisation. In 2004, a similar protein was discovered in a large human family with the inherited form of ALS. In humans it appears to be involved in signalling between cells, especially muscle cells. Advertisement Miller’s team has now found that if worms and fruit flies have a mutation that makes them produce less MSP, they suffer mitochondrial defects like those in people with ALS. This suggests that a lack of the protein might help trigger the disease. Every person with ALS studied so far also has less of the protein than healthy people, adds Miller. “The science is certainly interesting,” says Jeffrey Rothstein, director of the Robert Packard Center for the Study of ALS at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “But I don’t know that there is a therapy in there somewhere.” He says that although the protein may be involved in inherited forms of ALS, it is not yet clear that it is also relevant to the more common non-familial forms of the condition. Journal reference: Developmental Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.devcel.2011.12.009
In his first address to court staff soon after he took oath as the 12th Chief Justice of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Supreme Court on Saturday, Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Ibrahim Zia announced that the annual increment for court employees would be conditional on the regular offering of prayers, which he said will be secretly checked. The judge also announced that the offering of prayers would be mandatory for all employees and that there would be a designated court break for prayers. “There shall be two groups of employees for prayers. I will lead one group, and our regular prayer leader will lead the other group,” Justice Zia continued. In a more traditional vein, Justice Zia also encouraged government servants to discharge their duties with complete dedication, devotion, honesty, and sincerity. "In the discharge of duties, all public servants should rise above their personal likes and dislikes, regional or ethnic prejudices, besides doing away with negligence, or dereliction of duty," he added. AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, Legislative Assembly Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir, senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, outgoing chief justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, and several cabinet members, judges, lawyers and government officials attended the oath-taking ceremony. Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Ibrahim Zia The notification regarding Justice Zia's new appointment had been issued on Feb 13. Justice Zia was born in Kote village on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad on April 1, 1955. After completing his LLB from the University Law College, Punjab University in 1979, he started a legal practice in Muzaffarabad. He was enrolled as an advocate of the AJK High Court on in August 1982, and as an advocate of the AJK Supreme Court in May 1984. He also served as president general of the Central Bar Association Muzaffarabad, as well as member and vice chairman of the AJK Bar Council. He also served as the first chief prosecutor of the AJK Ehtesab Bureau in 2000. In December 2009, he was appointed as AJK’s Advocate General until April 2010. On April 2, 2010, he was inducted into the AJK apex court as an ad-hoc judge, an office he held till Dec 15, 2011, a day before his appointment as a permanent judge. Justice Zia will continue as the Chief Justice of Azad Jammu and Kashmir until 2020. The functioning of the AJK Supreme Court The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court comprises three judges, including the chief justice. Unlike elsewhere in the country, judges in the AJK Supreme Court can also be appointed directly, apart from being elevated from the AJK High Court. Judges in AJK's superior judiciary are appointed by the AJK president on the advice of the chairman of the AJK Council, which is headed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and after consultation with other chief justices.
For many years before I started blogging and editing full-time, I made my living as a freelance writer. One of the biggest pain points for me during that part of my professional life was the tedium of finding and landing gigs. Though freelance work is plentiful in many areas, especially creative professions like design and writing, actually finding jobs, writing proposals and negotiating with clients often took up more time than the actual work. Based on my own experience, plus that of three current freelance professionals, below are five tips for finding and landing freelance work. Are you a freelancer? How do you find gigs? Share your tips in the comments. 1. Network, Network, Network Though freelance job boards — Freelance Switch Krop are Sologig and more — the number one way freelancers we talked to found work was via networking. "The secret is networking, never stop doing it. Get it right once, the stream just keeps flowing," says freelance creative director Dann Petty. "Never stop networking, seriously, just don't stop. Don't talk about yourself at all and always ask questions about the other person," he advises. "I find my freelance work through a mixture of social networking, referrals and offline events," says Natalia Sylvester, a freelance writer and owner of Inky Clean, who recently made the move from Florida to Texas. With the move, she relied heavily on social networking to find a new client-base. "Getting my new business name out there as quickly as I did, not just locally but online, wouldn't have been possible without social networking through Twitter, Facebook and blogs." Bob Aycock, a CMO who does freelance marketing work, also uses social media as a key tool for networking and finding jobs. "A lot of my freelance work is from referrals. However, I've actually been able to get quite a bit from folks that I am connected to socially," he says. "Utilize your social networks. You are probably connected to a lot of people, whether it be through Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. And these people are connected to other people." 2. Be Precise Of course, the most creative proposal in the world won't land you a gig if it's not what the client is looking for. That's why it is important to be precise and include only the relevant information. "One thing that I'm continually surprised to find helps me stand out is the simple act of following instructions," says Sylvester. "If a job posting asks for two writing samples in the body of an email and a certain keyword in the subject line, then I include that. It turns out, not a lot of people do." Sylvester also advises freelancers to take some time to research potential clients before going after a job. "I don't apply to postings blindly, and I don't reply to everyone who calls for a freelance writer, because I know that my ideal client has a specific profile," she says. "If I do decide to contact them, I'll refer them to work samples that are more significant to their niche, and I'll try to somehow — even if just through an anecdote — make it clear that I've taken the time to learn about them." Petty takes being precise to another level and cuts out the minutiae that can weigh down a creative proposal. "If I've learned anything about proposals, it's 'the less you say the better you stand,'" he says. "Don't waste your time on the details of a proposal — keep it quick and simple. I always write my proposals as if they were to myself; how I would like to read them." 3. Sell Yourself According to Petty, "To sell yourself as a freelancer, you need to sell your own personal brand, not just your work." In the social media age, where everyone's voice has been amplified and personal branding has become paramount, that's actually quite prescient. Aycock similarly utilizes social media to sell himself and make sure his potential clients know who he is. "Whenever I reply to a job posting, I make sure I include a link to my About.me page. Most of the freelance work I do is for social media work, so I always want folks to be able to find me online and see what type of social networks I use on an everyday basis," he says. 4. Get Creative The freelance job market, like any area with available work, is extremely competitive. Standing out from the crowd is an imperative for landing work. According to Petty, that means getting creative and being willing to go the extra mile. "It's easy to be different and stand out when replying to a gig post, just don't do what the other guys will do — be creative. I tend to write my emails a little different and with a lot of my own personality [so that] if I didn't sign my name in the email, you'd [still] be able to tell it was me," he says. Petty also makes his proposals stand out by doing things his competition might not be willing to do. For example, for web design work, his proposals are entire web sites dedicated to helping him land the project. "My proposals not only stand out more than any others, but they show how determined I am by making something different than just a plain PDF," he says. 5. Show Passion Yet every point made in this post might ultimately be moot without exhibiting passion for your work. People who hire freelancers are looking for workers who are going to get the job done well and go above and beyond expectations. They want someone who shows a clear love for their craft and will positively create something jaw-dropping. For Petty, showing passion is about taking risks. He even offers to fly out to meet clients at their location when starting on a new job. "It's a tough job, but always remember: No risk, no reward," he says. "Clients usually find freelancers because they want more creativity, so be prepared to deliver more." "Get out there and let people know what you are passionate about," says Aycock. "If you aren't letting people know what you enjoy learning about or working on, they'll never think of you as someone to hire." Social Media Job Listings Every week we put out a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we post a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting! More Job Search Resources from Mashable: Image courtesy of iStockphoto, danwilton
That's why, despite expectations that global warming will make hurricanes stronger—as well as massive societal consequences if more powerful storms are slamming coastlines—scientific authorities like the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have demurred on the hurricane/climate question. Most recently, the IPCC earlier this year said it had " low confidence " that global warming is worsening hurricanes. For more than a decade, the question of how global warming is affecting the scariest storms on the planet—hurricanes—has been shot through with uncertainty. The chief reason is technological: In many parts of the world, storm strengths are estimated solely based on satellite images. Technologies and techniques for doing this have improved over time, meaning that there is always a problem with claiming that today's storms are stronger than yesterday's. After all, they might just be better observed. But just maybe, a new scientific paper has managed to get past this long-standing data problem. The study, just out in the Journal of Climate from hurricane and satellite expert Jim Kossin of the National Climatic Data Center and his colleagues, seeks to create a completely consistent database of hurricane satellite images that will finally allow for apples-to-apples comparisons. How? "We can't take bad data and make it good, because that's adding information that we don't have," explains Kossin. "But we can take the good information and make it worse." That's the surprising solution that the scientists implemented in their paper. Data that was too "good"—for instance, because the satellite images were too high in resolution—was degraded to what Kossin calls the "lowest common denominator": one satellite image of each storm taken every three hours, with a pixel size no greater than eight kilometers by eight kilometers. Using this technique, Kossin and his colleagues at NCDC created a 28-year record of storm images across the world's seven hurricane basins, from 1982 to 2009. Then they used a computer algorithm to compute each storm's maximum strength, removing human error and unpredictability from the equation. The result? The scientists found that globally, hurricane wind speeds are increasing at a rate of a little more than two miles per hour per decade, or just faster than six miles per hour over the entire period. There are some key caveats, though, the biggest being that the trend they found was not statistically significant at usually accepted levels. (For nerds: the p value was 0.1). But there were strong and significant trends in some hurricane basins of the world, especially the North Atlantic (the region encompassing the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and open Atlantic north of the equator), where storms have been strengthening at the rate of nearly nine miles per hour per decade (see chart above). But other basins offset that, including the western North Pacific, which showed a negative trend. The punch line, then, could hardly be called overwhelming. But as Kossin explains, that may be precisely what you expect to see once you're finally analyzing the troublesome hurricane data reliably. These results, after all, are quite consistent with the idea that the signal of hurricane intensification might be just now emerging from the "noise" of natural climate variability. "What we're observing could very easily fit into an assumption of this greenhouse gas forced trend in the tropics and the effect that it has on tropical cyclone intensity," says Kossin. Perhaps the best news is that if scientists continue adding to the new database of homogenized satellite images—starting with the years 2010-13, which were not part of this study—the chance of finding a significant trend (or showing that there just isn't one to be found) will increase. "I think every year, we'll get a little bit closer to the truth," says Kossin. At that point, perhaps we can finally can leave the sound and fury to the hurricanes themselves, rather than the debate over what's happening to them. Top image: A church standing above a flooded street during a storm surge raised by Superstorm Sandy on November 1, 2012. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)
Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now A mayonnaise factory manager has quit his job – to live as a NATIVE AMERICAN. He might not quite be sitting bull, but Les Atkins is going to follow his dreams and tour the country teaching people about the Native American way of life. The 65-year-old from Walsall, West Midlands retired from his job on July 31 after 15 years of service - but now plans to spend his days dressed as his alter-ego Native American. (Image: Caters) By day Les, a married father-of-two, was responsible for a labour force, but come the weekends he would dress up in traditional clothing including a head dress, which he made himself. He estimates he's spent at least £5,000 on his obsession over the years - but admits the total is probably much higher. Les said: "I've been obsessed with the Native American way of life ever since I started watching spaghetti westerns in the 50s. "They really got me interested so I started learning more. I've visited a few reserves in Arizona and Utah. (Image: Caters) "On one of my visits I was lucky enough to dance with one of the tribes – they called it to "shake a feather". "It's something I really enjoy but I'd say about 95 per cent of the people in work never knew."I've built up my collection of artefacts over the last 20 years, I've spent about £4,500 on that and hundreds more on costumes." Les has fully immersed himself in the culture, even learning traditional sign language and dances which he performs in his garden. His wife, Pamela, 59, said: "I think it's great. He used to be into it before but then circumstances changed and he lost interest. "I've encouraged him to get back into it. You only live once and it makes him happy. The more and more interested Les gets the more involved I get." His house is full of artefacts including war bonnets made out of eagle feathers and roaches – a smaller headdress used for hiding in tall grass. Some of his collection has been purchased but around 80 per cent he has made himself. He said: "One of the biggest parts of the Native American culture is to waste nothing. They would kill a buffalo for meat but then use its bones for a club or even medicine. "I don't go that far – I still take paracetamol – but I have made my own pipes and statues." The 65-year-old is hoping to take his talks to schools and museums to eradicate some misconceptions there are about Native Americans. (Image: Caters) He first started doing his own exhibitions in the 1970s and hopes his increased free time through retirement helps him spread his knowledge and passion. Les said: "Their way of life is not all about rain dances and scalping people's heads. I want to teach people how they helped the first wave of settlers by giving them gifts like food. "It's not something a lot of people know about and the homemade costumes and artefacts will grab their eye."
Refocused: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30, Miami Dolphins 20 By PFF Analysis Team • Nov 19, 2017 No Jameis Winston, no Ryan Tannehill and ultimately no Jay Cutler, a game that was supposed to be played in Week 1 of the season between the Miami Dolphins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a much different feel to it in Week 11, than it might have had earlier this season as injuries have taken it’s toll on each team. The Bucs were able to escape with a 30-20 victory over the Dolphins, even if the final score is not quite indicative of how close this game was at the end. Despite jumping out to a 20-7 lead at halftime, the Bucs watched their lead evaporate in the final quarter of play as backup QB Matt Moore, who was filling in for an injured Cutler, hit WR Kenny Stills for a 61-yard touchdown to tie the game at 20-20 with 3:09 left in the game. However, Tampa QB Ryan Fitzpatrick led an impressive game-winning drive in the final moments, capped by a 35-yard Patrick Murray field goal to give the Bucs a 23-20 lead with just 0:04 left. On the day after the anniversary of the Cal-Stanford infamous band-on-the-field-kick-return-lateral-extragavenza, the Dolphins last-ditch effort on their own take of laterals would not be nearly as successful. Bucs LB Adarius Glanton landed on the loose ball after a failed lateral attempt in the end zone on the game’s final play for a pad-the-score-touchdown to push the Bucs win to 30-20, with that, we give you our PFF exclusive takeaways from the contest for each team. Top 5 Grades: DI Gerald McCoy, 94.0 overall grade LB Kwon Alexander, 87.9 overall grade QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, 86.8 overall grade Edge Robert Ayers, 85.6 overall grade LB Lavonte David, 83.6 overall grade Performances of Note: QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, 86.8 overall grade Fitzpatrick finished the day 22-of-37 for 275 yards and two touchdowns, but was victimzed by two drops and sacked once. Fitzpatrick did a great job on deep shots, completing all four passes in the air of 20 yards or more and finished with 99 yards on these deep passes. Most of these completions were seam routes down the middle of the field. He also utilized play action well, throwing for 44 yards after a play fake. WR Mike Evans, 76.3 overall grade Evans finished with five catches for 92 yards while he hauled in a deep pass for 29 yards en route to catching all five catchable passes thrown his way. Evans had two of his catches working out of the slot, totaling 46 yards. DI Gerald McCoy, 94.0 overall grade McCoy has had an interesting season where he started it off on fire and cooled down Week 5-9, including two poor performances against Buffalo and Carolina but has arguably been the best interior defender in the NFL over the past two weeks. Virtually unblockable against Miami starters and backups, McCoy racked up a sack, two QB hits, and three hurries while also tacking on four run stops on just 16 run snaps resulting in a run stop pecentage of 25.0. Over the past two games, McCoy ranks second in pass-rushing productivity at 12.9 and run stop percentage at 20. Edge Robert Ayers, 85.6 overall grade Ayers has quietly had an excellent season and today was no different as he delivered with two QB hits and a hurry while performing well against the run as he clogged running lanes despite not litering the stat sheet with tackles. Ayers has just two sacks on the season but leads the NFL in QB hits at 14 and is sporting a very good 9.3 pass-rushing productivity. Top 5 Grades: S T.J. McDonald, 88.6 overall grade WR Kenny Stills, 86.1 overall grade LB Lawrence Timmons, 82.6 overall grade DI Davon Godchaux, 82.2 overall grade CB Cordrea Tankersley, 81.8 overall grade Performances of Note: QB Matt Moore, 77.1 overall grade Anyone watching this game saw the stark difference in the two Dolphins QBs where Jay Cutler’s 54.2 grade in the first half put the team into a major hole while Moore’s play brought them to a tie game before Fitzmagic happened to drive Tampa Bay down the field for a game-winning field goal. While Cutler struggled mightily under pressure with a passer rating of 29.2, Moore was poised with a very good 83.9 passer rating when under duress. Moore was excellent throwing deep as he completed two of his four passes for 106 yards, one touchdown and a passer rating of 135.4. WR Kenny Stills, 86.1 overall grade A monster game from Stills as he caught all but one of his aimed targets resulting in a perfect passing rating of 158.3 and his 4.5 yards per route run led all 1:00 PM kickoff games. No matter which way you slice it, seven catches for 180 yards and a touchdown is an excellent day, easily the best of his season and possibly his career. T.J. McDonald was a star for the Miami Defense contributing two stops in run defense while only yielding one catch on two passes thrown into his coverage and was generally all over the field for the Fins’ defense. DI Davon Godchaux, 82.2 overall grade Godchaux was a force inside for Miami’s defense against the Buccaneers blocking schemes. Godchaux totaled four defensive run stops and was fun to watch defeating Buccaneer blockers. Miami’s defense played well overall and seemed to be in control until Fitzgerald’s last minute drive to win the game. PFF Game Ball: Gerald McCoy, DI *Grades are subject to change upon review
Wayne Gretzky says he was doing Stephen Harper "a favour" when he appeared with him at a campaign event, and the Great One says he would do the same for any prime minister. Harper and Gretzky played table hockey with some children at an event in Toronto last month. The prime minister interviewed Gretzky in front of hundreds of supporters and the conversation mostly focused on hockey — until the end. The Hockey Hall of Famer told Harper he thought he had been an "unreal prime minister" who had been "wonderful to the whole country." Story continues below advertisement Harper's Conservatives were voted out of office when Justin Trudeau's Liberals won a majority government in Monday's federal election. Gretzky has backed Conservative politicians before. He came out in support of Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown in February during Brown's run for the party leadership. But in an interview Thursday, Gretzky said he always heeds a prime minister's call, and the Harper event was no different. "In 1981, I did a luncheon for prime minister (Pierre) Trudeau at the time. In 1986, Mr. (Brian) Mulroney and (his wife) Mila asked me to host an event for a charity of their choice, which I did," he said in an interview about his No. 99 Wayne Gretzky Collection fashion line. The 54-year-old Gretzky also recalled joining Jean Chretien in the Czech Republic in 2003 to help promote Canada's bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics. "When Mr. Harper reached out to me and asked me to do a Q&A with him it's simple: I can't vote in this country. But ... when the prime minister of Canada calls you, you say: 'OK, I'll do the favour for you.' So whoever is going to be the next prime minister, if they call me for the favour I'd reach out again." Gretzky is ineligible to vote because of a controversial law that prevents Canadians who have lived outside the country for more than five years from casting a ballot. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement "(Those are) the rules of the way the system is, and the Canadian people and the government passed those rules," he said. "And if (those are) the rules, you've got to live by the rules."
Following the departure of some of WhatCulture's key staff members, What Culture Pro Wrestling will also be undergoing some changes before the end of the year. The promotion announced today that they would be rebranding as Defiant Wrestling in December. The first show under the new name will be a live iPPV called "WeAreDefiant" on December 4th at the O2 Academy in Newcastle, which will air on their new Access Defiant on-demand service and will be available on the FITE app. Stu Bennett, who was formerly known as Wade Barrett in WWE, was revealed to be the promotion's new on-screen general manager after former authority figure Adam Blampied was among those to leave WhatCulture earlier this month. Bennett will open their Refuse to Lose iPPV broadcast on October 2nd, which will be the last show branded as a WCPW event. Refuse to Lose will also be the last show offered on the WhatCulture Extra service, with old WCPW events moving to Access Defiant on December 1st and WhatCulture Extra continuing with other WhatCulture website content. Tapings for their "Loaded" YouTube show will take place in Manchester on October 3rd as well. WCPW's Twitter account noted that Defiant Wrestling will continue to broadcast a free weekly show on YouTube and wrote that more details on the rebrand will be made available in the coming weeks. With backing from WhatCulture's website, WCPW entered into the UK wrestling scene last year and regularly brought over big international names. Dave Meltzer chronicled some of the problems they've faced with their business model and YouTube's demonetization of wrestling content in the September 25th edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Furious that state involvement in major terror attacks is being exposed to a wider audience than ever before via the Internet, a UK think tank closely affiliated with the Downing Street has called for authorities to infiltrate conspiracy websites in an effort to “increase trust in the government”. “A Demos report published today, The Power of Unreason, argues that secrecy surrounding the investigation of events such as the 9/11 New York attacks and the 7/7 bombings in London merely adds weight to unsubstantiated claims that they were “inside jobs,” reports the London Independent. In other words, the fact that the overwhelming amount of evidence indicates that both 7/7 and 9/11 were “inside jobs” of one form or another, and that huge numbers of people are now aware of this via the increasing influence of the Internet, is hampering efforts to commit more acts of terror, therefore the government needs to change its strategy. In the report, Demos, “Recommends the Government fight back by infiltrating internet sites to dispute these theories.” One of the tools Demos already employs to “fight back” against conspiracy theories is by labeling anyone who challenges the government’s official story as an extremist or a terrorist recruiter. The strategy mirrors that advocated by White House information czar Cass Sunstein, who in a 2008 white paper similarly called for conspiracy websites to be infiltrated and undermined in order to dilute their influence. In the same report, Sunstein also called for taxing conspiracy theories (any viewpoint that differs with the official version) and outright banning free speech that the authorities disapproved of.
FAIRFAX, VA: “No one should be sleeping comfortably at night,” Rear Adm. Dave Johnson warned Navy submariners and contractors today. For the fleet’s top priority program, the replacement for the aging Ohio-class nuclear missile submarine, fiscal 2015 “is a crucial year,” the Program Executive Officer for all submarine programs said this morning. “If we in this room don’t have butterflies in our stomachs each day… we’re kidding ourselves,” said Adm. John Richardson, who as head of Naval Nuclear Propulsion Systems, aka Naval Reactors, is responsible for the most complex (and literally radioactive) component of the new sub. “I just don’t want anybody to relax a moment,” he told the Naval Submarine League conference here. “I’ve got to admit I see all the ingredients for failure, and I’ll tell you why[:] The program is on track, [but saying] ‘green’ as opposed to ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ [is] too optimistic, and it gives rise potentially to a complacency that’s poisonous.” No less a figure than the Chief of Naval Operations, a submariner himself, said he had hard work ahead to sell the expensive program on Capitol Hill. Outside the New England delegation, for whom submarine-builder Electric Boat is a major employer, “we don’t have [enough] people who are our advocates that will say, ‘Listen, we’ve got to get this thing going,'” Adm. Jonathan Greenert said. “So I’ve got some work when they reconvene, I’ve got some folks that are helping me gather some members together.” The CNO’s chief aide for undersea warfare (aka OPNAV N97), Rear Adm. Joe Tofalo, told attendees they should “get that word out, and I am committed to help you do that. If anybody needs help in strategic messaging, then you call 1-800-N97 and let us know…. if you need trifolds, priority briefs, talking points to your Congressman, whatever.” So far, the Navy and a sympathetic Secretary of Defense have protected the Ohio Replacement Program from congressional vicissitudes. Even though the Hill has, as has become usual, passed a Continuing Resolution to keep the government running at last year’s spending levels until it decides to perform its most important Constitutional function and pass appropriations bills for 2015, the Ohio program has been able to keep stepping up its activity. “The Navy has been very good at supporting the cash flow requirements for the Ohio replacement, so we have the funding necessary to award the missile tubes [contract] next week” — the first major component of the sub to move from design to physical reality — “and keep up with the pace of design,” Johnson said. “[ORP program manager] Jack Evans is the master, and we’ve been able to convince the Pentagon we need to keep funding this thing despite the Continuing Resolution.” Design work alone has already more than doubled from 2013 to 2014, Johnson said, and it’s just going to keep accelerating. The Navy’s ambitious goal is to complete more than 80 percent of the detailed three-dimensional blueprints before construction begins in 2021. “We have to achieve a better than 80 percent design-complete because we have to build this thing in 84 months, two months shorter than the Virginia, and we have to deliver this thing in the water by 2028,” Johnson said. “That leaves us three years, a mere three years, to test, certify, do post-shakedown availability, get it to King’s Bay, load it out, and have it on patrol by 2031.” That will be hard to achieve even with full and uninterrupted funding, which remains in question. “We have a general commitment, a lot of folks saying we’ll figure out a way to get this done — but we haven’t figured out exactly how yet,” said Richardson. Any hiccup in funding can cause further delays the Navy can’t afford: “There is no slack in that schedule.” There’s no slack because the current Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines will reach the ragged end of their service life in the 2030s. Originally designed to serve 30 years, the Ohios are being extended to 42 to give the replacement program time. The Navy’s confident it can get to 42 — but no further. “There is no margin left,” said Rear Adm. Phil Sawyer, commander of Pacific submarine forces. “42 years is it.” 2031 is not far away considering the sheer complexity of the Ohio Replacement Program. The Navy needs to bring together the hull, based on the existing Virginia class but scaled up and with many new components; the nuclear reactor and propulsion system, Richardson’s responsibility at Naval Reactors, which is funded through the Energy Department; and a Common Missile Compartment (what those tubes are for) which will also be part of the Royal Navy’s new missile submarines. “We have two nations, the United Kingdom and the United States, sort of lashed at the hip on a critical part of this program. We have at least two departments, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, that have to stay synchronized to fund this,” said Richardson. “Lots of budget lines, lots of complexity…It’s like watching six buses moving down the highway, staying in formation, constantly staying even, and trying to paint those buses simultaneously as they go.” So, I kept asking speakers at the Submarine League conference, who herds all these high-ranking cats? After other officials gave ambiguous answers, OPNAV 97’s Tofalo took me on preemptively: “The first question I want to answer, since I know Sydney’s going to get to me anyway, is ORP oversight,” Tofalo said. “I want to make sure you clearly understand there is a very, very rigorous ORP oversight process, with a flag oversight board chaired by Adm. Johnson” and comprising Tofalo himself, new program manager Jack Evans, Naval Reactor’s Karen Henneberger, and VIce Adm. Terry Benedict, who runs the Navy’s nuclear missile program. “This group meets every Thursday.” As chairman, PEO-Subs Johnson “is the whip cracker,” Tofalo said. “You asked who cracks the whip. I think Mr. Mulherin and Mr. Geiger, the two presidents of the two shipbuilding companies, can show you their lashes.”
tsm overwatch update It’s no secret at this point that ConnorJ and I have been working with TSM over the past few months to put together an OW roster. Recently we had just closed in our final six after having trialed dozens of extremely talented players, but unfortunately (due to circumstances outside of our control) the team isn't going to come to fruition. After learning more information about the OWL ($$$), TSM decided that it'd be better for the organization to stay out of the competitive scene, at least for now. TSM and I have now mutually parted ways and I hope to be involved again in the scene very soon. I'm officially a free agent. :D P.S. Special shoutout to everyone who put in tons of hours this last month. Really enjoyed playing with you guys, i wish we could of made it work. Happy to see so many of you already join great teams! :D Reply · Report Post
by Ridge Mahoney @ridgemax, Dec 6, 2011 [BEST OF MLS 2011: Forwards] For a player whose production and determination are both unquestioned, San Jose's Chris Wondolowski always seems to be popping up in a different spot. His guile, range and mobility are primary reasons for his success, but he’s also played multiple positions for the Earthquakes: either of the two forward spots with a partner, alone up top, or in midfield. SA's Top 10 Forwards 1. Chris Wondolowski (San Jose) 2. Thierry Henry (New York) 3. Fredy Montero (Seattle) 4. Camilo (Vancouver) 5. Juan Pablo Angel (Chivas USA) 6. Fabian Espindola (Real Salt Lake) 7. Kei Kamara (Sporting KC) 8. Omar Bravo (Sporting KC) 9. Marvin Chavez (FC Dallas) 10. Emilio Renteria (Columbus) For the 2011 edition of these rankings, Wondo’s been classified as a forward, who plays underneath a partner – such as Steven Lenhart or Scott Sealy – if he’s not deployed up front by himself. He tallied 16 goals and tied for the league lead with Dwayne De Rosario of D.C. United one season after winning the 2010 Golden Boot with 18 goals. (DeRo is listed among the attacking midfielders in this year’s rankings.) Thierry Henry occasionally led the line by himself but more often had either Luke Rodgers (included in the striker rankings) or Juan Agudelo as his partner. During the season he had a few uncomplimentary things to say about MLS officials or other aspects of playing in MLS, but still he tallied 14 goals, logged four assists, and left opponents agog at the precision and poise of his prowess in the penalty area. A few of his best passes were squandered. The lack of a consistent partner plagued Fredy Montero during portions of the season and his solid numbers of 12 goals and nine assists indicated a sharper if not relentless focus on his duties. Camilo’s slick work in the attacking third (12 goals, 3 assists) proved one of bright spots in a rough debut campaign for Vancouver. Angel struggled mightily for the Galaxy, which rolled to the title after sending him down the Home Depot Center corridors to Chivas USA, but seven goals in nine post-trade matches burnished his reputation. Espindola’s hot-cold persona must be as maddening to RSL head coach Jason Kreis as his stats (10 goals, 3 assists) are rewarding. But he’s a handful. Kamara often played the right wing in SKC’s 4-3-3 and his aggressive yet heady play produced nine goals. His teammate on the left, Omar Bravo, relied more on skill and savvy while matching that goal total. Nobody on FCD’s roster, and probably in the entire league, could hope to replace an injured David Ferreira, yet Chavez unleashed his own blend of quickness and smarts to score six goals and set up four on a team that lacked a true finisher. Renteria played only 18 games (14 starts) yet finished second on the Crew with eight goals.
People choose to follow vegan diets for any number of reasons, but a few stand out. For some, it's due to animal welfare concerns; for others it's for the health benefits—numerous recent studies linking meat to cancer may be building concern. Then there are environmental factors—a diet without carbon-intensive meat is frequently argued to be better for the planet. But a new study suggests that if you're going vegan to try to save the world (and humanity), there may be a better way… and it doesn't require that you sacrifice Brie. According to the study—published in the journal Elementa, which studies the science of the anthropocene, or how humans affect the earth's climate—it turns out a vegan diet is more land-intensive than a vegetarian diet that include dairy, as well as vegetarian-leaning (but still omnivorous) diets. READ MORE: This Is Why Millennials Are All Turning Vegan In light of growing global populations, the study examined the amount of people that could be fed from US farmland depending on what types of diets they followed—in other words, what the "carrying capacity" of agricultural land was based on what people ate. Researchers looked at current farming practices and what land requirements would be necessary if everybody went vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous to various degrees. The omnivorous diets followed the USDA guidelines for healthy eating for a certain number of meals and went lacto-vegetarian (consuming dairy, but no eggs) for the rest. It turned out that the land could feed the most people if the population followed either a lacto-ovo vegetarian (dairy and eggs permitted) or simply lacto-vegetarian diet, or if they followed omnivorous diets that were omnivorous 40 or 20 percent of the time and vegetarian the rest. A vegan diet placed as the fifth-most efficient in terms of agricultural land carrying capacity. The discrepancies are due to how specific agricultural practices make use of land. The study examined the three types of land use that define modern agriculture: land used for growing crops, land used for perennial forage crops such as hay and grain that could be used to feed livestock, and grazing land. Perennial forage crops are necessary on all but the best agricultural land whether or not you plan on raising livestock—sustainable land management requires hay or pasture grown in rotation with annual crops to maintain quality arable land year-over-year. Grazing land—for example, non-arable grasslands or woodlands—isn't suitable for growing food. So in trying to maximize land use, a vegan diet doesn't make use of grazing or perennial cropland, whereas diets that allow for a degree of animal husbandry do. The best way to make the most of the land is to eat vegetarian and include dairy but not eggs; the second-best is a vegetarian diet with eggs and dairy, followed by omnivorous diets that are lacto-vegetarian (no eggs) 80 and 60 percent of the time. READ MORE: New Research Says Vegetarian Diets Could Actually Be Worse for the Planet The carrying capacities of these diets were massive improvements over the current land use that supplies our Western diet. Any of the aforementioned diets could increase the amount of food grown from the land by more than 200 percent, but it may come as a surprise to some that a vegan diet ranked so poorly. For some added perspective, just cutting discretionary calories from current diets would feed an additional 19 million people. Other recent research has suggested a vegan diet might be best for the planet in other ways, namely in reducing food-related greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 70 percent from current levels. But if we all plan on sharing this rock beyond our lifetimes, we'd better figure this whole thing out. For now, you'll find us by the cheese plate.
Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi has welcomed a call by the Grand Imam of the al-Azhar Mosque, Egypt’s top Muslim authority, for a unity meeting of leading Sunni and Shia scholars. Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi has sent a letter to al-Azhar’s Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, proposing a conference between top Shia and Sunni scholars “to review the most important obstacles in the way of Islamic unity” and “to set forth the most significant, necessary measures for reinforcing Islamic unity,” the Iranian cleric’s international affairs adviser Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Qazvini told reporters on Monday, without specifying the date the letter was sent. The call by Tayeb had been aired on Egypt’s state TV on July 22 at the end of a series of programs during the holy month of Ramadan. Grand Imam of Egypt’s al-Azhar Mosque Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb Stressing the necessity of “coexistence and peace” between Shia and Sunni Muslims, Tayeb had urged Sunni scholars to issue a fatwa (religious decree) prohibiting the killing of Shia Muslims. He had also called on Shia scholars to issue a similar fatwa banning the killing of Sunni Muslims. Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Qazvini said Ayatollah Shirazi had included principal issues in his letter and is awaiting Tayeb’s response.
The ratings may not be there on American Idol Season 12. But the talent is very much present. With Janelle Arthur being eliminated this week, we are down to the final four - and any one of Candice Glover, Amber Holcomb, Kree Harrison and Angie Miller could take the grand prize next week. Who do we think deserves it? Once again, THG presents our American Idol Power Poll below, ranking the finalists from fourth to first... 4. Amber Holcomb. While her performance of "What Are You Doing For The Rest of Your Life" was technically flawless, it was old and a sleepy way to end the night. Amber struggles with the up-tempo numbers and isn't as versatile as the other girls. 3. Kree Harrison. Kree falls to three this week after seeming disengaged during "She Talks To Angels." Something just seemed off about her this week and we can't quite put our finger on what it was. 2. Angie Miller. Angie behind the piano is a can't-lose and her cover of Beyonce's "Halo" had everything that Amber's (from the previous week) didn't. Energy, emotion, and excellence. This was a great week for Angie. 1. Candice Glover. Her arrangement of "Straight Up" made the song fresh and cool and "When You Believe"? Well, after that performance the song should be retired from the Idol catalog. It's unlikely anyone else will ever do it any better than Candice did. Unless we're talking about Mariah herself, of course.
[Editor’s note: Award-winning cartoonist Matt Bors is moving his irreverent comics publication, The Nib, to First Look Media, The Intercept’s parent company. He will also be a contributor to The Intercept.] A few months ago, I made a couple of drawings of little penises with Donald Trump hair and mailed them to friends. You know, for fun. Today, “Donald Trump defends size of his penis” is a real CNN headline on planet earth. We’ve come to the portion of the GOP primary where penis size is critical. It happens every cycle, but never so explicitly as this. Trump, who appears to be very psychologically injured about the whole small hands thing, assured America that it has no bearing on his penis, which is absolutely beautiful, tremendous, the best, he has some of the most brilliant people working on it, it’s very incredible, I mean really you oughta see this thing. Where do we go from here? It’s increasingly looking like it could be Hillary and Trump and I can only imagine what sexually profane insults and comparisons will be hurled her way, especially with Bill in tow, another man whose penis we’d heard quite enough about. Here’s a panel from my sketchbook that didn’t make the final cut:
North face of Mount Everest Mount Everest, at 8,848 metres (29,029 ft), is the world's highest mountain and a particularly desirable peak for mountaineers. More than 297 people have died trying to climb it. The last year without known deaths on the mountain was 1977, a year in which only two people reached the summit.[1] Most deaths have been attributed to avalanches, injury from fall, ice collapse, exposure, frostbite, or health problems related to conditions on the mountain. Not all bodies have been located, so details on those deaths are not available. The upper reaches of the mountain are in the death zone. The death zone is a mountaineering term for altitudes above a certain point – around 8,000 m (26,000 ft), or less than 356 millibars (5.16 psi) of atmospheric pressure – where the oxygen level is not sufficient to sustain human life.[2] Many deaths in high-altitude mountaineering have been caused by the effects of the death zone, either directly (loss of vital functions) or indirectly (unwise decisions made under stress or physical weakening leading to accidents). In the death zone, the human body cannot acclimatize, as it uses oxygen faster than it can be replenished. An extended stay in the zone without supplementary oxygen will result in deterioration of bodily functions, loss of consciousness and, ultimately, death.[3][4][5] Background [ edit ] Routes to Mount Everest's summit from the north (yellow) and south (orange). The most popular routes are the South Col route from the Nepalese side and the North Col route from the Tibetan side.[citation needed] The first recorded deaths on the mountain were the seven porters who perished in an avalanche in the 1922 British Mount Everest Expedition. George Mallory, who was present, blamed himself for the deaths.[6] During the initial 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition there were two deaths en route to the mountain – an unidentified porter as well as heart attack victim Dr. A. M. Kellas.[6][7] While dangerous for the novice climber, the mountain has also claimed the lives of some of the most experienced climbers. Babu Chiri Sherpa had climbed the mountain ten times, and in 1999 spent 20 hours on the summit of Everest, then a new record.[8] He also climbed to the summit twice in two weeks and held the record climbing time from Base Camp to summit of 16 hours and 56 minutes.[8] He died in 2001 from a fall near Camp II. Experienced guide Rob Hall died on Everest shortly after becoming the first non-Sherpa to have summitted five times (1996). One of the most infamous tragedies on the mountain was the 1996 Mount Everest disaster on May 11, 1996, during which eight people died while making summit attempts. In that entire season, 15 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in the mountain's history to that point. The disaster gained wide publicity and has been written about many times; both Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev were written by mountaineers who were on Mount Everest at the time, and they give conflicting accounts of the events. Curiously, 1996 was statistically a safe year for Everest climbers. Before 1996, one in four climbers had died making the ascent; 1996 saw huge numbers of people attempting the climb and the statistics for 1996 reveal that only one in seven died.[9] In the consecutive 2014 and 2015 seasons, tragedies each killed more than a dozen people. As a result, there were few summits from the South in 2014, and no summits at all in 2015. On April 18, 2014, 16 Sherpas were killed in an avalanche that struck Base Camp.[10][11][12] Just over a year later, on April 25, 2015, 19 people were killed in an avalanche at Base Camp following a powerful 7.8 earthquake, which killed at least 9,000 people and injured at least 23,000 in Nepal.[13][14][15] This is the worst single-day death toll ever in the history of Mount Everest, in modern incidents with accurate counts. Due to the difficulties and dangers in bringing bodies down, most of those who die on the mountain remain where they fall, although some are moved by winds and ice. Two Nepalese climbers died on October 24, 1984, while trying to recover the body of Hannelore Schmatz.[16] While searching for George Mallory's body in a "catchment basin" near the peak in 1999, searchers came across multiple bodies in the snow, including Mallory's.[17][18] Fatalities [ edit ] See also [ edit ] Annotations [ edit ] ^ Date of death not known exactly; this date was his last diary entry. ^ Also known as Zhao Ziqing ^ Also known as Wu Tsung-yue ^ Also known as Luo San ^ Also known as Nima Tashi Notes and references [ edit ] Notes [ edit ]
Students can start applying earlier for next years OSAP, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced Wednesday. The OSAP applications process are now open, four months earlier than usual. Almost every year, Ryerson students face long waits on their Ontario Student Assistance Program funding, and many don’t receive it in time to pay tuition before it’s due. Some students, like first-year urban planning student Adrienne Mariano, rely on their OSAP funding for textbooks and supplies. “I got my OSAP pretty late because I applied later on, so that was kind of my fault,” said Mariano. “The earlier application might help if people know they can apply now. I might consider applying early, because it seems really helpful.” Some students are hoping that the early application process will make it easier to apply for OSAP. “It might encourage more people to go for OSAP to begin with,” said first-year sociology student Natalie Scuderi. “I guess it could just be more convenient overall for people to get ahead and not feel frazzled about everything they have to do to prepare.” Scuderi also said that she will most likely take advantage of the early application. Ryerson’s Financial Aid office is also preparing for the earlier opening to OSAP applications. Their team is away on a two-day conference about the new process and will be available to assist students on campus after Nov. 14. This addition to OSAP’s process comes shortly after the launch of their ‘free tuition’ initiative. “Right now in Ontario there are 210,000 students who are at college or university and they are not having to pay tuition,” Wynne stated at the announcement Wednesday. For the 2017-18 school year, OSAP applications were up 20 per cent from last year. The provincial government hopes that the early start to the application period will give students and families more time to budget for the upcoming year.
Several years ago rhythm action videogames like Rock Band and Guitar Hero were all the rage, with gamers eager to jam away on plastic guitars to their favourite pop and rock songs from the last few decades. That interest waned however as the genre struggled to offer anything new and improved. Then in comes virtual reality (VR) with an entirely new way of immersing players, and so Oculus supported Harmonix in creating a newly updated version for the technology, Rock Band VR, which has hit all the right notes. First and foremost, Rock Band VR isn’t the experience you may remember from the original titles. Over the course of development Harmonix has learned that while staring at a confined area on a TV works for normal consoles that methodology wouldn’t (or couldn’t) transfer into a VR experience, it’s just too ridged. And so the studio has built a far more open, free-playing system that allows you go for 5-star highscores or just rock out anyway you dam please. And this new system has certainly benefited Rock Band VR. You now find yourself on a proper stage, with band mates, pedals, and swappable stage locations to make that feeling of immersion evermore apparent and grounding. When playing a song, you’re no longer fixed to the exact chords and changes of the actual tune – you still play it of course but there’s no failing it as such. Instead the studio gives you a bar that floats above the crowd with certain areas highlighted with particular notes to play to maximise your score, if you wish to adhere to it. By that reasoning you may think you can just thrash anything out and it’ll sound ok – which it kind of does – but to delve into the rich sound variations takes time, with much more to master than the original versions. It’s a much more easy going videogame than its forebears, the pedals let you tweak the sound how you wish, and with the more modern guitar (this was a Fender Stratocaster) with its higher note buttons, let you chop and change the sound so the same song can be played multiple ways. But there is something missing. This style of gameplay feels like the saying ‘winning doesn’t matter it’s the taking part that counts’. There’s no direct difficulty to it, you won’t get booted if you can’t keep up or just play rubbish. When you perfectly completed a song on the original title at the hardest difficulty there’s a sense of elation that comes with it, whether you managed to repeat the performance never mattered, the score always stayed as a reminder of the hours of practice put in. Whereas the core Rock Band VR experience doesn’t have that, it wants you to feel good no matter how bad you play. There is a flip side to this, Harmonix has added a classic mode which brings back the traditional scrolling neck for those that want it. Seriously though don’t bother. The addition perfectly illustrates why the studio veered away from this design in the first place. It just doesn’t do VR justice in anyway shape or form – the videogame would have got a 1-star if it had stuck to that. Rock Band VR is definitely built around having as much fun with the experience as possible. There’s no right way or wrong way to any of it, just the sheer enjoyment of playing some classic tunes in a far more relaxed manner. Does it sometimes feel a bit much having to wear a headset, strap a guitar to you and have an Oculus Touch in the mix as well? Yes, yes it does, but quite frankly you probably won’t care when thrashing out some Bon Jovi.
Officer John Downs Metro police shot and killed a robbery suspect Sunday night in Nashboro Village after police say the armed teenager opened fire, shooting one officer in the leg. Police have identified the gunman as 16 year-old Xavier McDonald. Officer John Downs, the 18-year department veteran who was shot in the upper leg, is in stable condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Here is what happened, according to a release from Metro Police: Hermitage Precinct officers had come to 825 Long Hunter Court in furtherance of a robbery investigation. A citizen reported that he was robbed while in his parked car earlier in the afternoon. Officers were checking on information that the persons responsible were at 825 Long Hunter Court. After receiving consent to enter the condo, officers observed the robbery victim’s debit card inside. McDonald emerged from a room inside the condo and locked himself inside a bathroom. Negotiators and Special Response Team officers were then called. After emerging from the bathroom and coming to the front entrance of the condo, officers to the right of the porch attempted to use a Taser to take McDonald into custody. The effort was unsuccessful, after which officers saw McDonald draw a pistol and open fire. Downs was hit. At the time of Sunday night’s incident, McDonald was listed as a runaway by the police department. His mother reported scuffling with him over a box of bullets on the night of December 7th. She said he threatened to shoot her. She also reported that he was carrying a gun in his waistband on the 7th, but did not draw it. Police also say that Lieutenant Ken Spencer, Sergeant Robert Nielsen, Sergeant Brian Gottschall and Officer Brandon Vance, who fired their weapons Sunday night, are "on routine administrative assignment while the investigation continues".
Introducing Phantom and Premium Pandora runs Welcome to a new era, an era full of rewards for the most passionate of you! We are continuously tweaking the Pandora experience and today we are very proud to announce the introduction of Phantom and Premium Runs. With Faeria, we want you to feel at home. We want you to be able to choose which mode you like the most and play it as much as you want. But at the same time, you should have the opportunity to feel the thrill and gamble to win big! This is why we are introducing two different type runs that are intended to fullfil the needs of our players: Phantom Runs Phantom runs have been designed to allow you to experience Pandora once a day, for free. At your first login, each day, you will receive a free Phantom Coin that will grant you acccess to a Phantom Run (if you don't have a free coin from a previous day already). Phantom runs can be finished through either 6 wins or 2 losses. If you wish to play extra Phantom runs, they cost 50 Gold. The rewards are as follow: 0 Victories: 0 Gold 1 Victory: 15 Gold 2 Victories: 30 Gold 3 Victories: 50 Gold 4 Victories: 75 Gold 5 Victories: 100 Gold 6 Victories: 100 Gold + 1 Pandora Coin Pandora Runs Pandora runs have been designed to maximise the thrill and the rewards. A Pandora run costs 250 Gold or $1.49 and can be finished through, either 12 wins or 3 losses. By choosing to play a Pandora Run, you are guaranteed to win one Booster Pack, Gold and Memoria! But that's not it, for the most worthy out there (6 wins and more), you will have the chance to win Mythical Cards, such as the mighty Krog below. Ladder Season Reset As announced last month (Ladder Seasons are coming), we have finished the first Ladder Season and it's been a blast! By now, if you were ranked 15 or below, you should have a gorgeous new Card Back. For the Gods among you, your version is golden! Faeria Monthly Cup: Community votes are now open As introduced with the Faeria Monthly Cups, one of the cool ways to get into the Finals is to get voted by the community. We are pleased to announce that those votes are now open! Reminder: Answer the Survey and win 400 Gold! As mentioned last week (Faeria Friday 06/03), we have a community survey running where you have a chance to win 400 Gold! Your feedback is very valuable for us :) Balancing General: Sagami Elder: Costs 1 less Forest Crumbling Golem: Now loses life when your opponent summons a creature (instead of when they play any card). Axe Grinder: Now a 4/3 that gets +1/+1. Lord of Terror: Now a 1/5 Flame Burst: Now costs 3f and 2M and deals 3 damage Earthcraft (previously Breath of Life): Now costs 2f and 1F with the following ability "Draw a card and choose one: Create a desert, Create a lake, Create a mountain, Create a Desert" Malevolent Spirit: Now drains 2 life Outcast Tower (previously Outcast Cemetery): Now costs 0f with the following abilities "Empty all Faeria wells" and "Production - Deal 1 damage to this structure" Pandora specifics: Removal of Orosei's Mustache and Noodle Bowl from the Pandora Artifacts Addition of the Pandora Artifact "Necklace of the Damned": Add a 1f Plague Bearer to each player's hand Echo (Created by the Conch Horn artifact): Costs 1f more Charge (Created by the Jeweled Boots artifact): Costs 1f more Garudan's Scale: Now deals 2 damage instead of 3 The Complete Changelog Introduction of the Phantom and Premium Pandora Runs (and their respectives rewards) You'll now receive a Phantom Coin each day, for free and forever You can now craft and disenchant Mythic Cards Fixed the old avatar that was sometimes displayed in the lobby Fixed the "zZz" that appears when a creature is evolved Previous effects and triggers for cards that are drawn (example: Imperial Guards drawn by Hold the Line will have +2/+2 if Eredon's Drums artifact (gives +2/+2 to ALL creatures) was played) "Rank Up" won't be shown anymore when you lose New card art: Court Jester, Defender of the Homeland, Master Swordsman, Demon Wing and Cannon Carrier Fixed draw that was keeping players stuck in the game in Pandora Season Reset is now effective and you should have received your rewards based on your Ranking Interface improvements Sagami Elder: Costs 1 less Forest Crumbling Golem: Now loses life when your opponent summons a creature (instead of when they play any card). Axe Grinder: Now a 4/3 that gets +1/+1. Lord of Terror: Now a 1/5 Flame Burst: Now costs 3f and 2M and deals 3 damage Earthcraft (previously Breath of Life): Now costs 2f and 1F with the following ability "Draw a card and choose one: Create a desert, Create a lake, Create a mountain, Create a Desert" Malevolent Spirit: Now drains 2 life Outcast Tower (preivously Outcast Cemetery): Now costs 0f with the following abilities "Empty all Faeria well" and "Production - Deal 1 damage to this structure" Removal of Orosei's Mustache and Noodle Bowl from the Pandora Artifacts Addition of the Pandora Artifact Necklace of the Damned: Add a 1f Plague Bearer to each player's hand Echo (Created by the Conch Horn artifact): Costs 1f more Charge (Created by the Jeweled Boots artifact): Costs 1f more Garudan's Scale: Now deals 2 damage instead of 3 It's time to jump into Faeria and test it out!
A top official in charge of rooting out misconduct at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was removed from his post on Wednesday, as he is under investigation regarding an extramarital affair with a subordinate. Col. Mark Sojourner Col. Mark Sojourner, who oversaw the Inspector General’s Office for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, repeatedly professed his love for the woman who is not his wife in a series of emails between 2012 and early this year. U-T Watchdog obtained scores of the emails, along with “selfie” photographs — some of which show Sojourner undressed — that appear to confirm the fraternization. Adultery is seen as conduct unbecoming an officer, and fraternization between officers and enlisted personnel is forbidden by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The idea is to guard the integrity of the command structure and protect officers from being compromised. Sojourner’s relationship apparently began when reservist Alice Conner served as a subordinate to Sojourner at a station in Germany. Conner is a subject of the investigation as well, because fraternization is prohibited for superiors and subordinates alike. One measure of the seriousness of adultery in the military is whether it affects the duties of the office. In an email in July 2012, Sojourner said he was stressed trying to do his job and maintain the affair. In November 2013, he wrote to her that he was mentally drained. By February of this year, Sojourner was complaining that the woman was still communicating with him, even though she had agreed not to. He suggested moving on. Sojourner, who is 47 and co-owns an Oceanside home with his wife, did not respond to questions from the Watchdog. Miramar has 11,000 active duty Marines, a reserve force of 900 and 300 civilian employees. Officials there declined to discuss the relationship. A military source with knowledge of the investigation said Marine Corps leaders in Washington are taking the matter seriously. “We are aware of the allegations and we are looking into them,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly. Sojourner is an accomplished helicopter pilot and career Marine who has risen steadily up the Corps command staff. He was promoted in late 2012 to the rank of colonel, just below brigadier general, amid the affair. Col. Mark Sojouner At Miramar, Sojourner oversaw the office in charge of investigating misconduct by officers and enlistees. The military source said allegations of adultery or fraternization typically are investigated at the local Inspector General’s level but that is not possible in this case. The Marine Corps investigation could take weeks or longer, depending on additional evidence and testimony from any corroborating witnesses, the source said. Any discipline would be enforced following the conclusion of the case, and may or may not be made public. Sojourner was in his post at the beginning of this week. The Watchdog began making inquiries on Tuesday. He was removed from his post on Wednesday, officials said, in response to the U-T inquiry. He retains his rank pending completion of the investigation.
Batch 76 voting is now open. The following polls are currently open: Batch 76 Batch 75 Batch 74 Batch 73 Batch 72 Batch 71 Batch 70 Batch 69 results will be up soon. The full list of matchups for today is: Dragonscale General vs Breaking Wave Revenant vs Wandering Ones Mistbind Clique vs Guardian’s Magemark Goblin Mountaineer vs Emerald Charm Axelrod Gunnarson vs Spreading Plague Hallow vs Insist Blinding Spray vs Auriok Steelshaper Mana Echoes vs Scourgemark Lucent Liminid vs Cho-Arrim Bruiser Geralf’s Messenger vs Molten Disaster Vandalize vs Dragon Blood Nature’s Will vs Return to the Earth Lumengrid Gargoyle vs Marble Chalice Otarian Juggernaut vs Dredge Delif’s Cube vs Confirm Suspicions Balshan Griffin vs Gaea’s Skyfolk Restoration Gearsmith vs Killer Instinct Mindless Null vs Canyon Wildcat Fissure Vent vs Cloudblazer Cloudskate vs Lightning Prowess Wrecking Ogre vs Goblin General Phyrexian Walker vs Searing Flesh Turtleshell Changeling vs Clip Wings Runeclaw Bear vs Tenza, Godo’s Maul Boon Satyr vs Exalted Angel Quietus Spike vs Stomp and Howl Riot Devils vs Village Bell-Ringer Static Orb vs Ironclaw Orcs Seasoned Tactician vs Legacy Weapon Darting Merfolk vs Skywinder Drake Kor Sky Climber vs Oracle en-Vec Syncopate vs Volition Reins
The most interesting scientific projects are those that surprise, when the mathematics, or the code, tells us something we didn’t expect. In our study of US wealth dynamics that’s what happened. We wrote it up in a paper, but that’s only the end product not the curious route by which we got there. Hence this post. The equation of life We started thinking about wealth dynamics some time in 2010 or 2011. We had been studying ensembles of growth processes, and that naturally led to thinking about ensembles of people and their growing wealths. Here’s what we did (“we” being Yonatan Berman, Alex Adamou, and I): we started with a ridiculously simple model for personal wealth, namely geometric Brownian motion (GBM). (1) I like to call this the equation of life. Why? Because life can be (and has been) defined as the thing that self-reproduces, and that’s what the equation describes. A quantity that produces more of itself in a noisy way. It describes what happens to the biomass of an embryo in its early stages of development, or to the population of some species growing in a rich environment. Once we’ve got self-reproduction in an environment with some fluctuations, evolution gets going, and beautiful structures like the ones we see around us follow sooner or later. Equation (1) doesn’t just model biomass or populations but is also quite good at describing stock price dynamics. So we thought that it may be good at describing personal wealth too. After all, in one way or another both the stock market and our monetary fortunes reflect something that is happening in the economy. Let’s actually name the thing: we’re talking about capitalism. The genius of capitalism is precisely its multiplicative nature. Unused resources — capital — can be deployed to produce more of themselves. In this way a capitalist economy resembles the basic dynamic of evolution. Our model does resemble wealth in a capitalist structure, but we were aware of its simplifying assumptions. It pretends that any changes in wealth are proportional to current wealth, whereas I could be poor and nonetheless boost my wealth through earned income. We treat everyone the same and pretend that differences in skill or earnings potential are random and not persistent etc. Nonetheless, we were curious about what would happen in a world where people’s wealth simply followed GBM. Re-allocation: stability, Pareto tail, middle class The first observation is this: under GBM the distribution of wealth never stabilizes, not even relative wealth stabilizes (that’s personal wealth divided by total population wealth). If we wait for long enough, essentially one person ends up with all the wealth. That struck us as unrealistic: we don’t live under feudalism. But we used to live under feudalism, so the real dynamic must be less extreme than GBM. That makes some sense — after all, the government collects taxes, and there are institutions that fund all sorts of social programs. We decided to make the model a little more realistic and included re-allocation of wealth. Surely the poor are helped by the rich in some way. So we changed the equation to (2) . The new terms say this: every year everyone in the economy contributes a proportion of his wealth to a central pot, and then the pot is split evenly across the population ( is per-capita wealth). Again, this is very simplistic — represents a lot of different effects: collective investment in infrastructure, education, social programs, taxation, rents paid, private profits made… The equation can be re-written, which is very neat. (3) . This shows that it’s just like GBM (the first term) plus a mean-reversion process that attracts wealth to the population average. If I’m richer than the average, I’m likely to become a little poorer (relative to the average — my wealth can still grow); if I’m poorer I’m likely to become a little richer. The strength of the reversion is , which can be thought of as a social cohesion parameter. This equation is great! Whereas GBM leads to a diverging (unstable) log-normal distribution of relative wealth, equation (3) leads to a stationary inverse-gamma distribution. I mean if you let the equation run for a while, the number of people with a given wealth will follow an inverse gamma distribution. That distribution has a power-law tail, similar to what has been observed many times since Pareto‘s first studies. So it’s already pretty good, on a coarse-grained level. What else did we know? Under GBM, wealth cannot become negative. Since the poor are always better off under equation (2), this is also true here. Enter the computer Thanks to tremendous efforts by many authors, including Tony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Gabriel Zucman, Wojciech Kopcuk, Jesse Bricker, Alice Henriques, Jacob Krimmel, and John Sabelhaus, we have a fairly good idea of the US wealth distribution over the past 100 years. So we took those observed distributions, created 100,000,000 individuals on a computer, fixed directly from the wealth data and set roughly to the values observed in the stock market, and let the computer tune each year so as to reproduce the real distributions. Just for fun, we then looked at the individual wealths that had been produced by this procedure, and we noticed something strange. Many of them were negative. So back to the code, what did we do wrong? An error in the discretization scheme? Some other bug? No, the effect was real. Negative re-allocation Here’s what happened: in order to reproduce the data, towards the end of the analyzed period the algorithm had to make negative, see figure 2 below. But what happens under those conditions to equation (3)? Well, it describes negative re-allocation. Everyone pays the same dollar amount into a central pot, and then everyone receives from the pot an amount in proportion to how much he already has. That means if I have nothing, then I receive nothing but I still have to pay. That can make my wealth negative. Look at equation (3) again, imagining to be negative. The second term now describes mean repulsion. Whereas before wealth was attracted to the population mean, which generates a middle class, now wealth is repelled from it. If I’m a bit richer than the average, I’ll be boosted up even further; if I’m a little poorer, I’ll be pushed down even further. Run this equation for a little while and a large class of negative-wealth individuals arises. At is turns out, something like that exists in reality. The cumulative wealth of the poorer half of the American population is roughly zero, meaning there must be a large class of negative-wealth individuals. Falling interest rates This is a blog post, so let me be speculative and push the story a little further than in the paper. How do those who have less than nothing keep giving to the rich? Simple: they go deeper into debt, deeper into negative wealth. But how can that be sustained over a long time? Debts don’t need to be paid off, but they do need to be serviced. To service growing debt with stagnant income (the situation in the US roughly since 1980), we need to lower interest rates. Interest rates have been falling since about 1980, see Figure 4, precisely the time when the re-allocation rate became negative (c.f. Figure 1). What if there’s a causal link? Now it gets interesting: interest rates have hit zero. What do we do? How can the poor keep paying the rich? Sure, let’s have some quantitative easing, but can that go on forever? Or will it break at some point? Is redistribution from poor to rich a threat to our monetary system? Is it a threat to our democracy? Where does the system go from here? Let’s be clear about what we’ve done. We built a simple model and fitted its one main parameter. This wraps everything that’s actually happening into this one parameter. There are loose ends — the model may be fooling us, but we’re certainly not in a regime where we can comfortably rely on stabilization. We don’t claim that the world really works like equation 2, but that’s not the point of the exercise. Instead we say “pretend that equation 2 describes the dynamics of wealth; what parameter values would then best resemble what really happens?” The model is no more than a model and as such brushes over many details. For example, we don’t explicitly treat inheritance or income tax or some specific welfare program. Rather, this is all treated implicitly: our summarizes everything that affects the wealth distribution beyond the null model of GBM. It reflects the overall trend in the complete economic system. Ergodicity That the model produced behavior beyond our (initial) imagination is encouraging. It means we didn’t accidentally constrain our study to confirm our beliefs. We wanted to know by how much we need to slow down the increase in wealth inequality implied by GBM to get to a realistic model. The model said: no, you’re asking the wrong question. GBM actually understates the increase in wealth inequality, and you need to correct the other way. Under GBM relative wealth is non-ergodic. The ergodic hypothesis as it is made in studies of wealth inequality thus excludes GBM as too extreme. Now it turns out that real wealth dynamics are better described by correcting GBM to make it even more strongly non-ergodic. None of us had expected that. We should have written down our guesses for before we started the study. We didn’t do this, but we certainly thought we would find a positive value. In a private correspondence, from the time before we looked at the data, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud set p.a. in an example calculation, and we all felt that was the right order of magnitude. It could be 2% but obviously not as small as 0% (which would be GBM, equation 1). Time scales The connection to interest rates is speculative, but here’s one rock solid message about time scales that may hint at how we got here. A change in the effective re-allocation rate, , takes decades to feed through. These processes operate on time scales of generations, not election cycles. That means it’s easy to oversteer because the consequences of policy changes only become visible after 30 or 50 years, long after whoever made the policy changes has left office, and at a time when the reasons for making the changes may no longer be valid. We certainly mustn’t assume rapid equilibration. However, rapid equilibration — the ergodic hypothesis — is a standard assumption in studies of wealth distributions. The basic dynamic of a multiplicative-wealth economy — capitalism — seems underappreciated to me. If we “do nothing” ( ), inequality increases indefinitely. If we re-distribute fast enough ( ), inequality will stabilize at some level. If we actively destabilize ( ) as we seem to have done in recent decades, the middle class vanishes and we create a division between rich and poor — a poor person behaving reasonably is as unlikely to become middle class as a rich person behaving reasonably. —— p.s. we can make the model arbitrarily complex. One aspect we later singled out is the effect of earnings, by including observed earnings in equation (2). Usually earnings have a stabilizing effect (meaning the process that describes only wealth must be less stable when earnings are treated explicitly). In the last 10 years or so, that stabilizing effect has been absent because of earnings inequality. Consequently, the values we find for with this version of the model are smaller (more negative) up until about 2000 and then unchanged, see figure 5 below.
When you use HTTPS or SSL, your web browsing traffic is encrypted. When you use a VPN, all of your traffic is encrypted (usually). Sometimes even with HTTPS and VPNs in play, DNS requests—or the way your computer translates "lifehacker.com" into numbers that your computer understands, like "199.27.72.192," are completely unencrypted, leaving you open to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks. DNSCrypt can lock that down. Here's how. Advertisement Why You Might Want to Encrypt Your DNS There are a couple of reasons why an everyday user might want to encrypt their DNS. First, if you think you've been secure and you've still gotten security alerts or warnings from your ISP or struggled with hacks or phishing attempts, it's possible that your security tools aren't as airtight as they claim to be. For example, many VPN providers promise end-to-end security, but "leak" DNS requests left and right. Second, DNS snooping and poorly configured DNS servers have become popular attack vectors recently (see the Kaminsky Vulnerability), as a way to spy on people (or companies) and collect sensitive data. Advertisement "DNS Leaking" happens when your system, even after you've connected to a a VPN or anonymity network like Tor, continues to query your ISP's DNS servers every time you visit a new website, connect to a new server, or fire up a new internet-connected application. Ultimately, it means that even though your traffic is encrypted, your ISP—or worse, anyone snooping on the "last mile" of your internet connection (aka, the network between your computer and your ISP)—can clearly see everything you connect to you're going on the internet and every site you visit on the web. Some hackers will just collect that information, but the worst actually collect it and then use it to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks, where the attacker just sits in between you and your eventual destination and collects data along the way—passwords, cookies, and even enough encrypted data to eventually crack your encryption (if it's weak). In some cases, the attacker will actually pose as the service you're connecting to in order to collect whatever data they can before you figure out something's not right. To read more on DNS leaks, check out this explaination by DNSLeakTest.com, and if you'd like to find out if your VPN is leaking DNS requests, you can test it on the same site. DNSLeakTest.com also has some other fixes you can try for a leaky VPN. To be fair, encrypting your DNS is a level of security that many people may not need to aspire to. However, if you do regularly work with sensitive material, work remotely and need to make sure all of your traffic is secure, or travel to places where you may be snooped on, encrypting your DNS is a good idea. If you need true anonymity or privacy, even from your ISP, you may want to consider it. If you're just surfing the web from the comfort of your home, it may not be an issue for you. Combined with a good, trustworthy VPN and desktop tools to protect your privacy, encrypted DNS can take your security to the next level, especially when you need privacy, anonymity, and security. Advertisement How DNSCrypt Protects You DNSCrypt is a side-project from the folks at OpenDNS, which we've mentioned before as a way to protect yourself, speed up your browsing experience, filter content, and even correct mistyped URLs. It's simple software that you can install on your Mac, Windows, or Linux system that, when used in conjunction with OpenDNS for DNS resolution at home, will make even the leakiest VPN a bit more secure. Advertisement OpenDNS Offers DNS Vulnerability Protection Tech site Webmonkey advises users not sure whether or not their DNS servers are patched against a… Read more Read OpenDNS's approach is that DNS encryption is just as essential a part of using the internet safely as HTTPS is to surfing the web. They explain: In the same way the SSL turns HTTP web traffic into HTTPS encrypted Web traffic, DNSCrypt turns regular DNS traffic into encrypted DNS traffic that is secure from eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks. It doesn't require any changes to domain names or how they work, it simply provides a method for securely encrypting communication between our customers and our DNS servers in our data centers. We know that claims alone don't work in the security world, however, so we've opened up the source to our DNSCrypt code base and it's available on GitHub. DNSCrypt has the potential to be the most impactful advancement in Internet security since SSL, significantly improving every single Internet user's online security and privacy. Advertisement By encrypting DNS requests, DNSCrypt make sure that every part of your internet connection is secure, even if it's already secured by a VPN. For more information about the app and the nitty gritty about how it works, check out OpenDNS's DNSCrypt page. Where to Get DNSCrypt DNSCrypt is open source, and install packages are available to download directly from OpenDNS. The project is maintained at GItHub, so if you have trouble finding downloads, you can always get them there. Officially, only OS X and Windows are supported, but the development community at DNSCrypt.org has installation instructions for more operating systems, including Linux and BSD-based systems, jailbroken iOS devices, and rooted Android devices. Advertisement The official Windows and Mac DNSCrypt apps both work similar to VPN services that you can toggle on and off when you want the added security. You can install them as services that run on startup, but we'd suggest you try them this way first before you decide to leave them on all the time, just in case you run into problems or performance issues. Once installed (and you'll have to reboot after installation, since the apps are making network-level changes to your system), using DNSCrypt should be as simple as checking the box that says "Enable DNSCrypt" and "Always use OpenDNS." Doing this will configure your system to use OpenDNS for all DNS requests if it's not already and encrypt those requests. If you're using OpenDNS on your router and you have all of the computers in your house pointed to your router for DNS, you can still use DNSCrypt. If your router is running recent versions of the DD-WRT or Tomato open firmwares (both of which we've shown you how to install), or if your router supports OpenDNS out of the box, DNSCrypt may already be there, buried in the DNS settings. Enable it, and you're all set. If it's not there, or your versions of DD-WRT or Tomato are old, this forum thread will help you install it. Advertisement It's important to keep in mind that DNS encryption is just another way to secure your internet connection from threats. Most attacks that use DNS as an attack vector have been aimed at organizations and businesses, or individuals with useful data or creative enemies. Even if that's not you, it's a great way to add an extra layer of security to your computer or home network. It's easy to install, transparent to you, and useful if you're really serious about your security.
As we move into a world where audiences want content now, but TV stations are too slow, we are seeing the explosive growth of on demand Internet TV such as Netflix, which just launched recently in Singapore. For those who might not be interested in English content but are looking for Korean, Chinese or Hong Kong TV content, there are plenty of alternative Internet TV, and VIU, is one of them. VIU, a video streaming service focusing on Korean content, has just announced that it is now launched to all users in Singapore, shortly after Netflix’s launch in Singapore. Here’s how the website looks: VIU is based on a freemium model, and it offers Singapore users instant access to premium content sourced from Korea, Japan, Mainland China and Taiwan on multi-platforms and devices. These content includes the latest popular Korean drama series and variety shows offered with subtitling 8 hours after Korea telecast. There are over 10,000 hours of premium Asian content on VIU, including popular variety shows, Running Man and The Return of Superman, as well as newly released dramas Remember, Moorim School, and soon-to-be released Descendants of the Sun starring Song Hye Kyo and Song Joong Ki. According to the website, it is free to be a member and as a registered member, you can stream the videos online with VIU. Members can also download the VIU Singapore app to watch the videos online using mobile devices or download the videos to watch offline. If you are not a registered member, you are also able to stream the videos but you would not be able to download them. Since its launch in Hong Kong, Viu has attracted more than 500,000 downloads in less than three months. Singaporeans Really Love Their Drama Janice Lee, Managing Director of PCCW Media Group said in the press release that according to a recent research they conducted on online viewing of drama across multiple Asian markets, Korean content to be amongst the most popular content category for Asian viewers. “53% to 80% of viewers surveyed across Singapore, Malaysia and other markets like Jakarta, watches Korean drama on a regular basis.” You can stream movies on VIU.com, or download the apps from App Store or Play Store. Update 13th January 11:45am: 1) How much content can available on Viu OTT and what’s the cost to customers? In Singapore, Viu has a catalogue of almost 10,000 content hours with around 4,000 hours of the latest Korean drama and variety shows from KBS, MBC, SBS and CJ E&M – which account for approximately 95% of the telecast dramas from them in addition to other premium Asian programs. At launch, there will already be an extensive choice for users on the latest primetime Korean dramas and variety shows, which includes crowd favorites such as Running Man and The Return of Superman, the newest Korean drama series Descendants of the Sun and Cheese in the Trap, and music show Inkigayo for the K-Pop fans. As for the cost to customers, Viu operates a freemium model – the service is free at launch and supported by advertising. We will be introducing a premium layer at a later date, details of which will be announced in due course. 2) Thoughts about Netflix’s launch in Singapore? More players in the OTT market is a clear indication of the business opportunity emerging from the rising demand from users, especially the Millennial Generation, who increasingly want to access their video entertainment on mobile devices. It reaffirms that Viu OTT is in the right business, launched in the right market and at the right time. In Asia alone, there are over 500 million OTT users. In Singapore, where internet penetration is among the highest in Asia (second only to S. Korea), we see Singaporeans regularly watching video on the internet (42%) and they spend twice as much time on the Internet vs. traditional TV and 66% of them stream/download content. 3) Is Viki a major competitor for Viu OTT in Singapore? We don’t consider Viki a major competitor. With around 10,000 hours of Korean and premium Asian content of which 4,000 hours are the latest current telecast Korean content which are localized with English and Simplified Chinese subtitles in 8 hours for some selected Korean content andwithin 24 hours for others. Our offering to consumers is very appealing. Viu OTT is launched on a freemium basis, with free download options, multi device synchronization with viewing history and user friendly search tags. 4) Who’s the target audience of Viu OTT? General mass who have interest in video, especially Korean and Asian content, and those who are interested in viewing them online either through streaming or downloads for easy access 5) How big is the team in Singapore and are there any plans to introduce local content? We can’t disclose the size of the team but yes, we definitely have plans for local production and also in giving a platform for local production talent to showcase their ability in the Asian and Global stage. 6) What are the marketing plans for Viu OTT? Ad buys / organic growth / influencers? We are committed to supporting Viu in the regional expansion with all-out 360 marketing approach. Digital is indispensable but we want to engage with consumers in most of the touch points. 7) How important is the Singapore market to Viu OTT and why so? Singapore has one of the highest internet penetration in Asia at 84% second only to South Korea across Asia with high smartphone penetration.Almost half, 42%, to be exact, of Singapore netizens watch TV content and movies on the Internet and 66% of them stream and/or download video content each month. (We are Social Nov 2015). We offer Singapore users the content they love on their mobile devices with localisation of 8 hour English and Simplified Chinese subtitling for selected programs and within 24 hours for others; multiscreen multi device synchronisation with viewing history, free download options, user friendly search tags, etc. which I am sure will be very appealing to Singaporean fans as they can now enjoy access to their favourite video programs anytime, anywhere. Time spent on the internet is around 2.3 hours per day according to We are Social Global Digital Mobile Survey (Jan 2015). Singaporeans spend on average 25 hours on the Internet vs. 12 hours on TV. If you do the math, Singapore netizens spend over 25 million hours each month watching online video that equates to a staggering 32,500 years of online video watching in one year – making this a key market for Viu.
Spectators know Anthrocon for the colorful characters it brings to Downtown Pittsburgh, but they might not know how much those furry friends actually help the city. "The relationship we have with Pittsburgh is beyond your standard business relationship," said Anthrocon chairman Samuel Conway. "There's a genuine affection on both sides for the city, its businesses, its people, and then for Anthrocon. We have been embraced. We've become a city institution, whether we wanted to or not." This year, the convention is sponsoring free HIV testing at Planned Parenthood and at the convention center as well as raising money for a local charity. In addition, organizers worked with local businesses to establish fursuit-friendly cruises on the Gateway Clipper and coupons for meals at Downtown restaurants. The convention brings millions of dollars to the local economy each year. Organizers are able to pursue public outreach efforts partly thanks to some "supersponsors" who help foot part of the convention bill. "Many conventions have different sponsorship levels, exactly the same as public television does," Conway said. "The supersponsors pay, I believe $200 above and beyond the regular membership fee. Now, the nice thing is, just like your public television sponsors, they know full well they're not getting a $200 Versace bag. They know they're doing it to help the convention." Supersponsor funds fully covered the rental fees for the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. As a thank you, they received a luncheon with speakers including this year's guest of honor: voice actor Charlie Adler. "Most people aren't seeing some the other pieces of the convention that are staples for us, and we know they exist, we just don't talk about them," said board member John Cole. "It's special for those that are doing it." Every year since Anthrocon's inception, the convention has raised money for a local charity through raffles, auctions and events. Since coming to Pittsburgh in 2006, they have raised more than $200,000. Charity director Brian Harris said they look for animal-oriented charities no more than 60 miles from the city so they can bring animals to the convention. They have a running list of options, but also receive requests from interested nonprofits. That is exactly what Karen Phillips, founder of Hope Haven Farm Sanctuary, did to earn the honor this year. "We started in 2013," she said. "I had been applying to Anthrocon since I started Hope Haven. It was amazing to get that response, to get an acceptance after several years where they selected other charities. It was awesome. I freaked out." Phillips said all animal shelters cost a lot to run, but farm sanctuaries are in a different class because of the particular needs of their animals. Food and space requirements are much different for horses than cats, for example. She plans to use the money on a pond for the sanctuary's waterfowl, more fencing and a horse trailer, as well as pack some away in a savings account to help in the future. "We've already raised more money than probably Hope Haven has ever raised since it opened," she said. "It's hard. We don't have any other farm sanctuaries in Pittsburgh. They're still kind of up-and-coming, a lot of people don't know what they are." That exposure is another benefit of having space at Anthrocon. Phillips brought her dog, two turkeys and a chicken to draw in visitors and explain the process of saving farm animals from neglect, abandonment and slaughter. And at the world's largest furry convention, her message is sure to resonate with at least some guests. Attendance numbers are not yet available for the 2017 convention, but 7,308 people came to Anthrocon last year. See more Pittsburgh coverage on PennLive.
Our City Forest is happy to present an alternative to tree cutting or PVC trees. We rent out living, potted holiday trees that you return to us at the end of the season. Once they’re returned they’re re-planted and are allowed to continue to grow. If you rent the same tree year after year the tree can grow with your family. Once the tree is too large to retain in the home it is used as reforestation stock or planted as a member of our urban forest. Redwoods and other drought-intolerant trees are brought to suitable planting sites where water is more readily available. If I had grown up in an area that offered rental trees I would have insisted on getting them. I might have even insisted on planting one in my back yard after the holidays so I could continue to enjoy it year round. It makes no sense for holiday cheer to be a death sentence for the tree at the heart of the festivities and far more sense for the tree to be a living reminder of holidays past. So please, rent your holiday tree today. Click here to rent today---> Holiday Rent-A-Tree Store
Every day a new story comes out about something awful a police officer has done. And 99% of the time, nobody seems to care. The death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland is just the latest in a constant barrage of public atrocities committed by men in government uniforms. It is not an isolated incident, nor are its circumstances unique, yet much of the public has again been polarized into their usual political factions – the dusty "obey the law and you won't get hurt" conservatives and the chronically offended "check your riot-shaming privilege" progressives. But for anyone serious about stopping cops from shooting unarmed men in the back, throwing grenades into baby cribs, tasering eight-year-olds and punching women, including a 9-month pregnant Air Force veteran, the common thread in all of these tragedies should be examined at its roots. It is not racism, patriarchy, lack of funding, or poor training. No, the source of all this brutality is a massively invasive police state. Since Ronald Reagan re-declared a "War on Drugs" in 1982, police have steadily become more militarized and intrusive. Every traffic stop is a pretext for a potential search for banned contraband, and an increasing number of stops do not even require particularized reasonable suspicion. There are more than 100 SWAT team raids every single day. The judicial branch has facilitated this evolution, with Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens lamenting in 1991 that "this Court has become a loyal foot soldier" in the War on Drugs. This trend of police aggressiveness has only intensified following 9/11. Unending foreign wars armed policymakers with endless justifications to continue their assault on civil liberties. With the passage of the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretapping and domestic spying became the norm, ushering in an age of unprecedented police presence to accompany a citizenry already hamstrung by little recourse. As Bush said in 2006, "The Patriot Act is vital to the war on terror….[and] will allow our law enforcement officials to continue to use the same tools against terrorists that are already used against drug dealers and other criminals." On New Year's Eve in 2011, Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into law, defining the entire United States as a "battleground" in the war on terror and providing the president the power to capture and indefinitely detain any American citizen deemed a suspected "belligerent" without a trial or even evidence. Once you put the current issue of killer cops into context, it becomes clear: Racism did not kill Freddie Gray or Michael Brown or Eric Garner. The policies of a smothering police state did. An agent of the state, acting on the state's behalf, using state-granted police privileges to enforce state-created laws, killed each of these men. The same story with Kelly Thomas. And Andrew Lopez. And the thousands of forgotten others deemed 'justifiable homicides' over the years – over 377 in 2015 already. It is wholly predictable that when a country has ceded liberty for "security," the entire relationship a society will have with its law enforcers will fundamentally become adversarial. No longer is a cop's job to "protect and serve." Rather, as Radley Balko writes, "When you arm a cop like a soldier, when you dress 'em like a soldier, when you tell 'em to fight in a war and then send 'em out into a neighborhood that he has no stake in and doesn't consider himself a part of, you get a very antagonistic, us-versus-them relationship between the officer and that community." This 'us-versus-them' relationship undoubtedly has had its worst effects on the poorest and most vulnerable communities. Without a doubt, police antagonize black men disproportionately, and that's inexcusable. But the root question should be why police are antagonizing anyone in the first place. Decades of police militarization, the wars on drugs and terror and an ongoing reduction in privacy and freedom has made America a nation of suspects. The rampant unaccountability of cops is not primarily a race problem – more white people are killed by police than black – it's an authority problem. It has been exactly 23 years since the Rodney King riots, but the underlying issues have only intensified, with mob violence and racial division used to further polarize Americans. Don't fall for the partisan trap. It's a distraction from the real issue: the state's monopoly on force versus the individual. When you put the issue of out-of-control police into its proper perspective, it becomes clear that the real war is not on drugs, terror, or even crime – it's on you, regardless of how much melanin you have in your skin. Will Tippens is a third-year law student at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and plans to take the Tennessee Bar in July 2015 and enter general private practice. A passionate student of libertarianism and Austrian economics, Will has worked as a research associate with the Nashville based Beacon Center of Tennessee, volunteered for the Ron Paul 2012 campaign and was the president of the Memphis chapter of Young Americans for Liberty from 2012-2013. Follow him on Twitter @willtippens You don’t have to play by the rules of the corrupt politicians, manipulative media, and brainwashed peers. When you subscribe to The Daily Bell, you also get a free guide: How to Craft a Two Year Plan to Reclaim 3 Specific Freedoms. This guide will show you exactly how to plan your next two years to build the free life of your dreams. It’s not as hard as you think… Identify. Plan. Execute. Yes, deliver THE DAILY BELL to my inbox!
A tiny scrap of land might not catch your eye. But to Japanese architect Yasuhiro Yamashita of Atelier Tekuto, there's nothing more beautiful. A veteran designer of kyosho jutaku -- or micro homes -- Yamashita has built more than 300 houses, each uniquely shaped and packed full of personality. All starkly different, the only thing these homes have in common is their size -- Yamashita's projects start at just 182 square feet. Demand for small homes in Japan results partly from land scarcity, property prices and taxes, as well as the impending danger posed by the country's regular earthquakes and typhoons. But some residents simply prefer a smaller home, seeking a minimalist lifestyle. "In Japan, there's a saying ('tatte hanjo nete ichijo') that you don't need more than half a tatami mat to stand and a full mat to sleep," says Yamashita. "The idea comes from Zen -- and a belief that we don't need more than the fundamentals." Of course, the beauty of a well-designed micro home is that it doesn't appear 'fundamental' at all. Below, Yamashita divulges 10 strategies to make petite properties feel more spacious. Embrace the awkward "Asymmetrical pieces of land can often be obtained cheaper than others. And it is an architect's job to work with the land and fulfill the client's request," says Yamashita. "'Lucky Drops' -- a house in downtown Tokyo -- is a good example. It was a leftover scrap of land that was less expensive because of its irregular trapezoid shape. We had to be creative, but the result is beautiful. There's a saying in Japanese, that the last drop of wine is considered to be lucky. That's the inspiration." Purchased by a couple on a limited budget, Lucky Drops sits on an irregular piece of land. The long, thin site is just 2.5 feet wide as its narrowest, making it a challenging project for Atelier Tekuto. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida This triangular plot of land sat at the intersection of two streets. Atelier Tekuto turned it into a spacious workshop and private home, with strategically placed windows to balance privacy and natural light. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida Build towards the sky "When you look at an area in 2D, it might seem very small -- perhaps the plot is just a few meters wide. But thinking in terms of volume, you can build the home higher and create more space. I try to make the house feel like it's extending upwards into the sky, so it's almost like the sky is part of the house. I also build high ceilings, so you don't feel cramped." This Tokyo home, designed by Atelier Tekuto, takes the shape of a polyhedron in order to provide an enormous skylight above the living room. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Toshihiro Sobajima Aptly named "Framing the Sky," this Atelier Tekuto home was built on a polygon-shaped site. The architects focused on the relationship between nature and people, by incorporating a large skylight to make the home feel like it was extending upwards into the sky. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Toshihiro Sobajima Incorporate nature "In Japan, about 70% is mountains and forest and 30% of the land is rather flat, making it more suitable for residences and rice farms. Even so, we are not trying to fight against nature -- we're trying to live along with it. You can see this in the homes we design. Most of our homes incorporate natural materials and large windows to let in lots of natural light." Home to 16 skylights, Boundary House directly connects its owners with nature. Inside, Atelier Tekuto used cedar wood and natural stone, as well as a few surprising alfresco spaces. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Toshihiro Sobajima A combination of a shop and private home, Wakka incorporates lots of natural touches, such as a small stone garden and a series of sliding doors that offer more alfresco space. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida Think outside the box "Instead of traditional square corners, I often cut the edges of the house into triangular shapes. This creates more surface area and more room for windows. There's always a corner open to the sky. That way, as the sun moves, the home is always filled with natural light." Designed by Atelier Tekuto for a family of five, Iron Mask is steel-based house with a unique curving facade that made the most of the site's shape. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Takeshi Taira Go monochrome "What you see informs 60% of your perception of a space. Imagine that you're inside an eggshell, with the same color and texture all over. There's no real start or finish, no real corners. It is a visual effect that will make the space expand. I think that the color white makes spaces look larger, but I prefer to use the natural colors of materials rather than painting." With a curvaceous exterior that looks like a penguin, this Tekuto Atelier home continues to cut the corners inside. This "eggshell" effect makes it difficult to see where the room starts and ends. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Takeshi Taira The color white can make spaces look larger, but any consistent palette can create a similar effect. Atelier Tekuto often incorporates natural materials and textures rather than painting. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Takao Sakai Use reflective materials "To trick the eye, I use polished stainless steel features. They reflect light and make an area seem larger. In 'Reflection of Mineral,' for example, I used stainless steel in the kitchen and in the bathroom to make the space feel more expansive." An industrial-style home designed by Atelier Tekuto, Wafers makes use of reinforced concrete, steel and highly reflective windows. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida Hide Storage "People tend to accumulate a lot of things over time. I want it all to be hidden away, out of sight, so I build a lot of invisible storage inside the house. If you keep the area wide open and uncluttered, then it's hard for people to really comprehend the size of the space." Inside Atelier Tekuto's M House, everything has its place. The uncluttered space feels spacious and large, an effect that's accentuated by floor-to-ceiling windows. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida The owner of Cell Bricks, also a designer, requested an "out of the norm" home and Atelier Tekuto delivered. The house has lots of natural storage thanks to the stacked steel-box design, making it functional as well as visually engaging. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida Stay close to home "In the 20th century, architecture was meant for the masses, for the general public. Designs and buildings were constructed quickly and economically -- all with the same materials and same appearance. We were in an era of globalization and everyone wanted the same thing. But now, people are looking to their own regions, their own local traditions for inspiration. That's where design is moving -- closer to home." Using natural materials such as cedar wood and terrazzo floors, Atelier Tekuto created a nature-inspired abode for a Japanese family. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Toshihiro Sobajima Invent new solutions "I spend a lot of time developing new materials from what other people consider to be 'waste.' I'm like a garbage man. If I find materials that are not commonly used or have been discarded, then I get really excited. If I can't find the materials that go along with the structure, then I invent a new one. For example, I was unhappy with the cement used for homes in Japan, so I worked with Tokyo University to develop a new type. Our recyclable Shirasu Cement is made from volcanic ash deposits." Two chemists own R Torso C and they specifically requested a concrete design with an eco-friendly approach. Atelier Tekuto set out out to develop a new type of environmentally friendly cement, called Shirashu. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Jérémie Souteyrat Personalize your home "A few factors affect my designs -- the specificities of the land, the way the light hits the property, the neighborhood, and the client's personal requests. A home is very personal. In 'Reflection of Mineral,' the clients wanted a strong, sharp-looking design. From there, I choose materials based on the design, depending on what would be best for the space." Atelier Tekuto approached Reflection of Mineral with an open mind. The clients requested a strong design that would be a memorable piece of architecture while providing the maximum amount of livable space. Credit: Atelier Tekuto / Makoto Yoshida
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. June 15, 2016, 12:31 PM GMT / Updated June 15, 2016, 3:25 PM GMT By Shamar Walters A woman has been charged with murder nearly a year after her boss was fatally poisoned, officials said. Kaitlyn Conley, 23, of Sauquoit, New York, is accused of second-degree murder. Oneida County Sheriff's Office Kaitlyn Conley, 23, of Sauquoit, New York, is accused of second-degree murder in connection with the death of Dr. Mary Yoder, according to the Oneida County Sheriff's Office. Conley worked for the 60-year-old victim and her husband Dr. William Yoder at their chiropractic clinic in Whitesboro, New York. Dr. Mary Yoder died in July 2015. Detectives launched an investigation in November after a family member expressed suspicions about the death, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. A medical examiner later determined that she had died after being poisoned with colchicine, which is sometimes used to treat gout, NBC affiliate WKTV reported. Conley was arrested on Monday. Authorities have also charged her with forgery, falsifying business records, and petit larceny.
A CHILD, 15, who was at the centre of a landmark court ruling two years ago, has been allowed to make her own decision to start estrogen treatment to “feminise” her body. “Jamie”, who was born a boy but identified as a girl before she turned three, wants to start stage two treatment for gender dysphoria. PREVIOUSLY: Boy, 10, youngest to have sex change SEX CHANGE: Kids as young as 12 seek surgery The estrogen treatment would induce breast growth, decrease facial and body hair, soften her skin, decrease libido and change fat distribution, the Family Court heard. But it comes with risks, including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, type 2 diabetes and long-term infertility. In early 2011 Jamie started stage one puberty-suppressing hormonal treatment, after her parents were given consent by the Family Court. Jamie’s parents then challenged the need for the court to give permission. In a 2013 decision, the court’s full bench ruled court permission was not needed for children to have stage-one treatment. Caitlyn Jenner Speaks with LGBT Youth 0:55 Caitlyn Jenner is already doing good in the world. The reality star took time to speak with other transgender people. Caitlyn Jenner Speaks with LGBT Youth In the latest Family Court case Jamie wrote to the judge: “I am a normal, cheerful, confident girl and I know who I am. “I want my body to develop alongside my peers and I want my body to match who I really am: a girl.” Jamie implored the judge to let her start stage-two treatment. As a result of puberty-blocking drugs since the age of 10, Jamie, who appeared in court with her brother, looks like a prepubescent girl. But Jamie said she had experienced much anxiety about almost going into male puberty four years after starting puberty blockers. Jamie has asked to undergo testicular biopsy for storage of testicular tissue to maximise her ability to produce a biological child in the future. Justice Christine Thornton found Jamie understood the consequences of the treatment, ruling she could make her own decision.
Yorkshire County Cricket Club can confirm that Jason Gillespie will leave his position as 1st XI coach at the end of the 2016 season. The Club would like to place on record its thanks to Jason, who led Yorkshire from the second division to consecutive Championship titles, along the way suffering just five defeats in 76 Championship fixtures since his appointment in November 2011. His wife Anna and their four children have recently returned to Australia and, with the 41-year-old’s existing commitments to coaching the Adelaide Strikers in Australia’s Big Bash, Jason feels the close season is an appropriate time to part company. There will be opportunities to speak to both Jason and Director of Cricket Martyn Moxon in the coming days. However, the focus will now be very much on the remaining four Specsavers County Championship fixtures, beginning with Wednesday’s trip to the Ageas Bowl to face Hampshire, and on securing the first Championship treble seen at Headingley since the 1960s. Martyn Moxon will not begin the search for a new 1st XI coach until the end of the current season and the Club will provide further updates when the time is appropriate.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (; from Greek ὕπνος hýpnos 'sleep', ἔρως érōs 'love', and μάχη máchē 'fight'), called in English Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream or The Dream of Poliphilus, is a romance said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an Incunable (a work of early printing). The work was first published in 1499 in Venice. This first edition has an elegant page layout, with refined woodcut illustrations in an Early Renaissance style. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili presents a mysterious arcane allegory in which the main protagonist, Poliphilo pursues his love, Polia, through a dreamlike landscape. In the end, he is reconciled with her by the "Fountain of Venus". History [ edit ] The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili was printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice in December 1499. The author of the book is anonymous. However, an acrostic formed by the first, elaborately decorated letter in each chapter in the original Italian reads "POLIAM FRATER FRANCISCVS COLVMNA PERAMAVIT", which means "Brother Francesco Colonna has dearly loved Polia". Despite this clue, the book has also been attributed to Leon Battista Alberti, and earlier, to Lorenzo de Medici. Manutius himself claimed[citation needed] that the author was a different Francesco Colonna, a wealthy Roman governor. The identity of the illustrator is less certain than that of the author. The subject matter of the book lies within the tradition (or genre) of the Romance. It follows the conventions of courtly love, which in 1499 continued to provide engaging thematic matter for the Quattrocento aristocrats. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili also draws from Renaissance humanism where arcane writings are a demonstration of classical thought. The text of the book is written in a bizarre Latinate Italian. Without explanation, the text is full of words based on Latin and Greek roots. The book, however, also includes words from the Italian language and illustrations which include Arabic and Hebrew words. Moreover, Colonna would invent new forms of language when those available to him were inaccurate. The book also contains some uses of Egyptian hieroglyphs, but they are not authentic. Most of them have been drawn from a medieval text of dubious origin called Hieroglyphica. The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, set in 1467, consists of a series of precious and elaborate scenes involving the title character, Poliphilo ("friend of many things" from the Greek words polloi meaning "many" and philos meaning "friend"). In these scenes, Poliphilo wanders a bucolic-classical dreamland in search of his love, Polia ("many things"). The author's style is elaborately descriptive and unsparing in its use of superlatives. The text makes frequent references to classical geography and mythology, mostly by way of comparison. The book has long been sought after as one of the most beautiful incunabula ever printed.[1] The typography is famous for its quality and clarity. Its roman typeface, cut by Francesco Griffo, is a revised version of a type which Aldus had first used in 1496 for the De Aetna of Pietro Bembo. The type is thought to be one of the first examples of the italic typeface, and in incunabula, it is unique to the Aldine Press. The type was revived by the Monotype Corporation in 1923 as "Poliphilus".[2] In 1929, Stanley Morison directed another revival of the earlier version of Griffo's type. It was called "Bembo". The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili is illustrated with 168 exquisite woodcuts showing the scenery, architectural settings, and some of the characters Poliphilo encounters in his dreams. They depict scenes from Poliphilo's adventures and the architectural features over which the author rhapsodizes, in a simultaneously stark and ornate line art style. This integrates perfectly with the type, an example of typographic art. The illustrations are interesting because they shed light on Renaissance man's taste in the æsthetic qualities of Greek and Roman antiquities. In the United States, a book on the life and works of Aldus Manutius by Helen Barolini was set within pages that reproduce all the illustrations and many of the full pages from the original work, reconstructing the original layout.[3] The psychologist Carl Jung admired the book, believing the dream images presaged his theory of archetypes. The style of the woodcut illustrations had a great influence on late nineteenth century English illustrators, such as Aubrey Beardsley, Walter Crane, and Robert Anning Bell. In 1592, in a London edition, "R. D." (who is believed to be Robert Dallington) partially translated the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Here, it was given its best known English title, The Strife of Love in a Dream.[4] In 1999, a first complete English translation by musicologist Joscelyn Godwin was published.[5] However his translation uses standard, modern language, rather than following the original text's pattern of coining and borrowing words. Since the 500th anniversary in 1999, several other modern translations have been published. These include a translation into modern Italian as part of the (volume 1: fac-simile; volume 2: translation, introductory essays and more than 700 pages of commentary) edition by Marco Ariani and Mino Gabriele;[6] into Spanish by Pilar Pedraza Martínez;[7] into Dutch with one volume of commentary by Ike Cialona;[8] into German, with commentary inserted into the text, by Thomas Reiser;[9] and partly into Polish by Anna Klimkiewicz.[10] A complete Russian translation by the art historian, Boris Sokolov is now in progress, of which the "Cythera Island" part was published in 2005 and is available online. The book is planned as a precise reconstruction of the original layout, with Cyrillic types and typography by Sergei Egorov.[citation needed] Ten of the monuments described in the Hypnerotomachia were reconstructed with computer graphics and were first published by Esteban A. Cruz in 2006[11] and in 2012.[12] In 2007, Cruz established a full, design-study project Formas Imaginisque Poliphili, an ongoing independent research project with the objective of reconstructing the content of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, through a multi-disciplinary approach, and with the aid of virtual and traditional reconstruction technology and methods. Plot summary [ edit ] Hypnerotomachia Poliphili Poliphilo from a page of the The book begins with Poliphilo, who is spending a restless dream filled night because his beloved, Polia, has shunned him. Poliphilo is transported into a wild forest, where he becomes lost, encounters dragons, wolves and maidens and a large variety of architectural forms. He escapes, and falls asleep once more. He then awakens in a second dream, a dream within the first. He is taken by nymphs to meet their queen, and there he is asked to declare his love for Polia, which he does. He is then directed by two nymphs to three gates. He chooses the third, and there he discovers his beloved. They are taken by some more nymphs to a temple to be engaged. Along the way they come across five triumphal processions celebrating their union. They are then taken to the island of Cythera by barge, on which Cupid is the boatswain. On Cythera, they see another triumphal procession celebrating their union. The narrative is interrupted, and assumed by a second voice, as Polia describes Poliphilo's erotomania from her own point of view. Polia kisses Poliphilo back to life Poliphilo then resumes his narrative (from one-fifth of the way through the book). Polia rejects Poliphilo, but Cupid appears to her in a vision and compels her to return and kiss Poliphilo, who has fallen into a deathlike swoon at her feet. Her kiss revives him. Venus blesses their love, and Poliphilo and Polia are united at last. As Poliphilo is about to take Polia into his arms, Polia vanishes into thin air and Poliphilo wakes up. Gallery [ edit ] Allusions/references in other works [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] Blunt, Anthony, "The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili in Seventeenth Century France", Journal of Warburg and Courtauld, October 1937 Fiertz-David, Linda. The Dream of Poliphilo: The Soul in Love , Spring Publications, Dallas, 1987 (Bollingen Lectures). , Spring Publications, Dallas, 1987 (Bollingen Lectures). Gombrich, E.H., Symbolic Images , Phaidon, Oxford, 1975, "Hypnerotomachiana". , Phaidon, Oxford, 1975, "Hypnerotomachiana". Lefaivre, Liane. Leon Battista Alberti's Hypnerotomachia Poliphili : Re-cognizing the architectural body in the early Italian Renaissance . Cambridge, Massachusetts [u.a.]: MIT Press 1997. ISBN 0-262-12204-9. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili . Cambridge, Massachusetts [u.a.]: MIT Press 1997. ISBN 0-262-12204-9. Pérez-Gómez, Alberto. Polyphilo or The Dark Forest Revisited: An Erotic Epiphany of Architecture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 1992. ISBN 0-262-16129-X, Introduction by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press 1992. ISBN 0-262-16129-X, Introduction by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Schmeiser, Leonhard. Das Werk des Druckers. Untersuchungen zum Buch Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Maria Enzersdorf: Edition Roesner 2003. ISBN 3-902300-10-8, Austrian philosopher argues for Aldus Manutius' authorship. Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Maria Enzersdorf: Edition Roesner 2003. ISBN 3-902300-10-8, Austrian philosopher argues for Aldus Manutius' authorship. Tufte, Edward. Chapter in Beautiful Evidence Cruz, Esteban Alejandro, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: Re-discovering Antiquity Through the Dreams of Poliphilus Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-4120-5324-2. Artist reconstructions of the architecture and landscapes described by Poliphilus during his amorous quest through Antiquity. Victoria: Trafford Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-4120-5324-2. Artist reconstructions of the architecture and landscapes described by Poliphilus during his amorous quest through Antiquity. Cruz, Esteban Alejandro, "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: An Architectural Vision from the First Renaissance" London: Xlibris Publishing, 2012. VOL 1: 978-1-4628-7247-3, VOL 2: 978-1-4771-0069-1. A second book of what seems to become a series of publications on the subject.[ self-published source ] The original 1499 edition [ edit ] The 1592 English edition [ edit ] The French editions [ edit ] The Russian edition [ edit ] Background and interpretation [ edit ] Research Projects [ edit ]
The Grand Chief of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations is pleased with the Alberta government’s commitment to ensure all First Nations across the province have access to safe drinking water. “I’m very, very encouraged. I think it’s a very important step in terms of providing access to clean water,” Willie Littlechild said Thursday. “We shouldn’t have had to wait this long to have access to clean water.” READ MORE: First Nations ‘living in Third World conditions’ as communities endure water advisories In Thursday’s provincial budget, Finance Minister Joe Ceci announced the province will spend $100 million over the next four years to integrate drinking-water systems with federally supported water systems. The goal is to bring clean, reliable drinking water to all First Nations across the province. “By building these links between communities, we can end the long-standing and shameful number of boil water advisories on First Nations,” Ceci said. READ MORE: Alberta Budget 2017: What’s in it for Edmonton? New hospital, 4 schools There are currently 13 Alberta First Nations under boil water advisories and one under a do not consume advisory. Littlechild, who lives in Maskwacis, said he’s had to buy water for 20 years. “We’ve got arsenic in our water. So it’s a very important issue in terms of the positive impact it’ll have in our communities,” he said. “The issue of clean drinking water has moved far beyond being a mere topic of discussion to a critical problem for our First Nations.” READ MORE: Alberta NDP tables fingers-crossed budget, projects $10.3-billion deficit Indigenous Affairs Minister Richard Feehan said too many First Nations communities have waited far too long for access to dependable, clean drinking water. The provincial funding is part of a partnership with the federal government. In 2016, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government committed to end long-term water advisories on reserves across Canada within five years. Follow @CaleyRamsay
WASHINGTON — Democrats forced delays Tuesday in planned Senate committee votes on President Donald Trump’s picks for Health and Treasury secretaries and attorney general, amid growing Democratic surliness over the administration’s aggressive early moves against refugees and an expected bitter battle over filling the Supreme Court vacancy. Democrats abruptly boycotted a Senate Finance Committee meeting called to vote on Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., the Health nominee and Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s Treasury selection, saying both had misled Congress about their financial backgrounds. The Democrats’ action prevented the Finance panel from acting because under committee rules, 13 of its members — including at least one Democrat — must be present for votes. It was unclear when the panel would reschedule to votes. At the Senate Judiciary Committee, a meeting considering Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be attorney general lasted so long — chiefly because of lengthy Democratic speeches — that Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the panel would meet again Wednesday. The meeting on Sessions’ nomination was coming with Democrats and demonstrators around the country in an uproar over Trump’s executive order temporarily blocking refugees. Even some Republicans were warning it could hinder anti-terrorism efforts. Not everything ground to a halt. The Senate education committee voted 12-11 to send Trump’s pick to head the Education Department, Betsy DeVos, to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee quickly approved former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as Energy secretary by 16-7, and Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., to head Interior by 16-6. And the full Senate easily confirmed Elaine Chao to become transportation secretary by a 93-6 vote. Chao was labor secretary under President George W. Bush, and is wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Just before the Finance committee was scheduled to vote on Price and Mnuchin, Democrats called a briefing for reporters and announced their plan to force a delay. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said Price and Mnuchin would hold positions “that directly affect peoples’ lives every day. The truth matters.” Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, accused Democrats of “a lack of desire to fulfill their constitutional responsibilities.” “They ought to stop posturing and acting like idiots,” he said. In 2013 when Democrats controlled the Senate, Republicans boycotted a committee vote on Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, temporarily stalling it. Democrats cited one report in The Wall Street Journal that Price received a special, discounted offer to buy stock in a biomedical company, which contradicted his testimony to Congress. They said another report in The Columbus Dispatch showed documents revealing that Mnuchin had not been truthful with the Senate in the confirmation process in comments about how his bank OneWest had handled home foreclosures. Republicans have supported both men, and both have strongly defended their actions. Democrats have opposed Price, a seven-term congressional veteran, for his staunch backing of his party’s drive to scuttle Obama’s health care law and to reshape Medicare and Medicaid, which help older and low-income people afford medical care. They’ve also assailed Price for buying stocks of health care firms, accusing him of using insider information and conflicts of interest for backing legislation that could help his investments. Price says his trades were largely managed by brokers and that he’s followed congressional ethics rules. Democrats have criticized Mnuchin for not initially revealing nearly $100 million in assets, and were expected to vote against both nominees. They’ve also accused him of failing to protect homeowners from foreclosures and criticized him for not initially disclosing all his assets. DeVos, a wealthy GOP donor and conservative activist, has long supported charter schools and allowing school choice. That’s prompted opposition from Democrats and teachers’ unions who view her stance as a threat to federal dollars that support public education. Critics have also mocked her for suggesting that guns could be justified in schools to protect students from grizzly bears. Two prominent Republicans on the education committee, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said they remained uncertain if they will vote for her on the Senate floor. Murkowski said DeVos has yet to prove that she deeply cares about America’s struggling schools and its children. Associated Press reporter Alan Fram wrote this report.
Biggest bust in South Africa’s history lands 1600 kg’s. It’s time to cancel that trip to South Africa kids. Why? Because all those preferred nutrients you like to choke up your nose wont be there this weekend or maybe for a few to come… iolnews: Five men, including two Capetonians, appeared briefly in the Knysna Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in connection with what local police have now confirmed is the biggest cocaine bust in South African history. The men were arrested two weeks ago after southern Cape police found about 1600kg of pure cocaine stashed in a cabin cruiser moored at the Knysna Waterfront. The haul has been valued at R420 million. Valued at R420 million but fetching up to R8 billion on the streets. Which has us wondering how did the assailants managed to get caught on this one? Surely if you are hauling large amounts like this, you are hauling them regularly and without too much bother. Until one day it does become too much bother… The massive bust followed a tip-off to police, who found the men at an upmarket Waterfront flat they were renting opposite where the cruiser was moored. Police initially found 48 bags of cocaine compressed into solid bricks and a subsequent more thorough search revealed another nine bags, each containing about 30kg of the drug. Pojie said the R1.5-million cabin cruiser had been confiscated and would be moved to either Mossel Bay or Cape Town for further forensic investigation. Tip off? Someone suddenly had a conscience or did a deal go down badly or was it simply a case of the syndicate deciding to drop double cross this faction for undisclosed reasons? Either way the good shit wont be circulating in South Africa too freely this weekend and if you do end up finding it, it probably be at a marked up price. Which leads us to wonder who would benefit, and if they had anything to do with the tip off? Who of course can expect an eternity behind closed bars include: The accused are Yuwei You, 30, from Hong Kong, Chen Cuo, 57, and Zhi Liu, 51, both apparently Chinese but living in Johannesburg, and Capetonians Beverley Jones, 47, and Mogamat Adams, 41. Who can expect to face an eternity looking for the good shit this weekend in South Africa: you.
Which baseball players have had the most surprisingly bad and surprisingly good seasons in recent years? I wondered about this while researching an article on whether spring training performance foreshadows regular-season production. I calculated the uncertainty in the Marcel forecasting system projection for batting wOBA — a measure of a hitter’s overall offensive production per plate appearance — based on the reliability of the forecast. This gives us a range of expected results and allows us to look at which players’ regular-season performances were the least likely going into the year. It’s a nice way of quantifying unexpectedly good and bad campaigns. First, the most surprising strong seasons in the dataset I used in my article, which extends back to 2006 (minimum 200 plate appearances): Player Year Age Proj. wOBA Actual wOBA Percentile Hanley Ramirez 2013 30 .346 .444 99.9 Luke Scott 2006 28 .316 .437 99.9 Mike Napoli 2011 30 .346 .444 99.9 Jose Bautista 2010 30 .325 .421 99.9 Ben Zobrist 2009 28 .311 .413 99.8 Brandon Moss 2012 29 .296 .402 99.8 Jermaine Dye 2006 32 .338 .425 99.7 Jerry Hairston 2008 32 .290 .384 99.7 Justin Morneau 2010 29 .358 .436 99.5 Josh Hamilton 2010 29 .360 .441 99.4 Magglio Ordonez 2007 33 .354 .435 99.4 Justin Ruggiano 2012 30 .311 .409 99.3 Mike Trout 2012 21 .330 .427 99.3 Ryan Raburn 2013 32 .305 .387 99.3 Jacoby Ellsbury 2011 28 .337 .413 99.1 Carlos Quentin 2008 26 .334 .419 99.1 Josh Bard 2006 28 .311 .398 99.1 Jim Thome 2010 40 .359 .430 98.8 Aaron Hill 2012 30 .309 .380 98.8 Jose Bautista 2011 31 .359 .430 98.8 Dioner Navarro 2013 29 .289 .372 98.8 Chris Davis 2013 27 .337 .411 98.7 Melky Cabrera 2012 28 .326 .395 98.7 Carlos Gonzalez 2010 25 .342 .418 98.6 Jason Bartlett 2009 30 .325 .394 98.5 Carlos Ruiz 2012 33 .327 .396 98.4 Scott Spiezio 2006 34 .301 .372 98.2 Ian Desmond 2012 27 .308 .375 98.2 Garrett Atkins 2006 27 .339 .411 98.2 Brent Lillibridge 2011 28 .297 .375 98.1 Before the 2013 season, we would have expected there to be a 50 percent chance that Hanley Ramirez’s wOBA would be above .346. If you’d asked us what the odds were that Ramirez’s wOBA would reach or beat .444, we would have said practically zero — 0.1 percent, to be exact. The fact that Ramirez’s wOBA was .444 was an outcome in the 99.9th percentile of his preseason wOBA distribution. Flipping things around, here are the most disappointing seasons of the past eight years: Player Year Age Proj. wOBA Actual wOBA Percentile Travis Hafner 2008 31 .387 .270 0.0 Andruw Jones 2008 31 .350 .238 0.0 Tyler Colvin 2011 26 .343 .213 0.0 Tony Pena 2008 27 .299 .175 0.0 Wily Mo Pena 2008 26 .350 .231 0.0 Ryan Raburn 2012 31 .334 .219 0.0 Nick Hundley 2012 29 .326 .209 0.0 Brandon Wood 2010 25 .300 .167 0.0 Reid Brignac 2011 25 .320 .203 0.1 Brian Giles 2009 38 .346 .247 0.1 Chone Figgins 2011 33 .329 .232 0.1 Adam Dunn 2011 32 .364 .269 0.1 Justin Morneau 2011 30 .367 .274 0.2 Alexi Casilla 2007 23 .354 .240 0.2 Adam Moore 2010 26 .340 .226 0.2 Pete Kozma 2013 25 .350 .239 0.2 Rob Brantly 2013 24 .347 .237 0.3 Jeff Francoeur 2013 29 .320 .235 0.3 Martin Maldonado 2013 27 .327 .228 0.4 Tommy Manzella 2010 27 .339 .236 0.4 Jason Bay 2012 34 .331 .247 0.4 B.J. Upton 2013 29 .341 .260 0.4 Andy LaRoche 2008 25 .335 .232 0.5 Mark Kotsay 2007 32 .333 .253 0.5 Adam Kennedy 2007 31 .335 .253 0.5 Ruben Tejada 2013 24 .321 .238 0.5 Mike Lamb 2008 33 .336 .253 0.6 Milton Bradley 2010 32 .372 .290 0.6 J.D. Drew 2011 36 .355 .275 0.6 Clint Barmes 2006 27 .340 .251 0.6 Travis Hafner, if you’ll recall, had been one of the best hitters in baseball in the four years leading up to 2008, which was one of the big reasons why another statistical system for forecasting player performance, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver’s PECOTA, called for the Cleveland Indians to win 91 games that year. Instead, the Indians went 81-81 as Hafner’s wOBA sunk to .270 — an outcome that seemed almost impossible (hence, the 0.0 percentile score). Keep in mind that this method is based on the Marcel reliability score, which essentially measures how much of a given projection is made up of the league mean and how much belongs to the player’s statistical record. It employs a generic age adjustment, but it does not look at similar players at similar ages, as Silver did with PECOTA. Hafner, Andruw Jones, Chone Figgins, Adam Dunn and others on the second list hit their early 30s and, rather than declining gradually, completely fell apart. Marcel has no way to determine whether players with certain tendencies or body types are more likely to completely crater, which would affect our confidence intervals. Cleaning up projections on the margins like that is one of the ways a system such as PECOTA is superior to Marcel, even though the returns diminish sharply with extra complexity.
Year Artist Album Producer 2011 Arctic Monkeys Suck It And See James Ford, eng: James Brown 2011 Everclear Return to Santa Monica Nathaniel Kunkel/Art Alexakis 2011 Mastodon The Hunter Mike Elizondo, eng: Adam Hawkins 2010 Deathcab For Cutie Codes and Keys Chris Walla/Deathcab 2010 Josh Groban Illuminations Rick Rubin 2009 Wolfmother Cosmic Egg Alan Moulder 2009 Kid Rock Born Free Rick Rubin 2008 Elvis Costello Momo Fuku Elvis Costello/Jason Lader 2008 Nine Inch Nails The Slip Trent Reznor 2008 Metallica Death Magnetic Rick Rubin 2007 Mavis Staples We Will Never Turn Back Ry Cooder 2005 Ry Cooder Chavez Ravine Ry Cooder 2005 Nine Inch Nails With Teeth Trent Reznor 2005 Wolfmother Wolfmother Dave Sardy 2005 Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze Joe Barresi 2004 Bad Religion Empire Strikes First Brett Gurewitz 2003 Matchbook Romance West For Wishing Brett Gurewitz 2001 Slipknot Iowa Ross Robinson 2000 Queens of the Stone Age Rated R Chris Goss 2000 A Perfect Circle Mer De Noms Maynard James Keenan 1998 Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age Joe Barresi 1998 Foo Fighters Godzilla (SDTRK) Foo Fighters 1996 Tonic Lemon Parade Jack Joseph Puig 1996 Weezer Pinkerton Joe Barresi 1996 Johhny Cash Unchained Rick Rubin 1996 Carl Perkins Go Cat Go Various/Eddie Kramer 1996 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers She’s the One (SDTRK) Tom Petty 1995 Kyus And the Circus Leaves Town Chris Goss 1995 Red Hot Chili Peppers One Red Hot Minute Rick Rubin 1994 The Black Crowes America Jack Joseph Puig 1994 Tom Petty Wild Flowers Rick Rubin 1993 Tom Petty Greatest Hits 1993 Rancid Rancid Brett Gurewitz 1993 Tool Undertow Sylvia Massey 1992 Green Jelly Cereal Killer Sylvia Massey/ C.J Buscaglia 1992 Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine Garth Richardson 1992 Masters of Reality Sunrise on the Sufferbus Chris Goss, Ginger Baker 1992 Blind Melon Blind Melon Rick Parashar/Blind Melon 1991 Nirvana Nevermind Butch Vig 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits 1985 Loudness Thunder in the East 1985 Tom Petty Southern Accents Tom Petty/Jimmy Iovine 1984 Rick Springfield Hard to Hold Bill Drescher 1984 Ratt Out of the Cellar Beau Hill 1983 Ronnie James Dio Holy Diver Ronnie James Dio 1982 Rick Springfield Living in Oz Bill Drescher 1982 Barry Manilow Here Comes the Night Bill Drescher 1982 REO Speedwagon Good Trouble Kevin Beamish 1982 Pat Benatar Precious Time Keith Olsen 1981 Santana Zebop Keith Olsen 1981 Tom Petty Hard Promises Tom Petty/Jimmy Iovine 1981 Rick Springfield Working Class Dog Keith Olsen, Bill Drescher 1980 Pat Benatar Crimes of Passion Keith Olsen 1979 Tom Petty Damn the Torpedos Jimmy Iovine 1978 Foreigner Double Vision Keith Olsen 1978 Walter Eagan Not Shy Lindsay Buckingham, Richard Dashut 1978 Cheap Trick Heaven Tonight Tom Werman 1977 REO Speedwagon You Can Tune a Piano But John Boylan 1977 Fleetwood Mac Rumors Ken Caillat/ Richard Dashut 1977 Grateful Dead Terrapin Station Keith Olsen 1975 Nils Lofgren Nils Lofgren David Briggs 1975 War Why Can’t We Be Friends Jerry Goldstein 1975 Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac Keith Olsen 1974 Bill Cosby At Last Bill Cosby Really Sings Stu Gardner 1974 Bachman Turner Overdrive Not Fragile Randy Bachman 1974 Elton John Caribou Gus Dudgeon 1974 Evel Knievel Snake River Canyon Jump 1973 Buckingham Nicks Buckingham Nicks Keith Olsen 1972 Dr. John Dr. John’s Gumbo Jerry Wexler 1970 Neil Young After the Gold Rush Neil Young, David Briggs, Kendall Pacios
We hope you love the products we recommend! Just so you know, Ranker may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. Oh, and FYI — prices are accurate and items in stock as of time of publication. Editor's Note: Voting and Reranking have been closed. List of predictions for the highest-grossing movies of 2012. In March of 2012, the film adaptation of the popular young adult novel "The Hunger Games" earned $152.5 million in its opening weekend. This was the third-highest opening weekend ever, and the largest March film opening in history. It set off speculation that "Hunger Games" may end up being 2012's highest-grossing film. However, a number of very high-profile releases scheduled for the remainder of the year challenged this assertion. Marvel's long-awaited comic book series "The Avengers" - featuring a cavalcade of stars from the previous films in the franchise, such as Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and Samuel L. Jackson - arrives during the summer. (The company is also debuting a new "Spider-Man" franchise starring Andrew Garfield.) Additionally, that OTHER massively popular young adult franchise - "Twilight" - will see the final film in the cycle released in 2012, "Breaking Dawn: Part 2." And as if this weren't enough, 2012 also brings with it Christopher Nolan's final Batman film, "The Dark Knight Rises," and the first chapter of Peter Jackson's return to the world of Middle-Earth, "The Hobbit." So what will eventually be 2012's highest-grossing film? Vote below for the movie you think is the most likely to take the title! And also check out Ranker users' picks for The Most Anticipated 2012 Films to see how well expectations have met up with box office success!
ial to the Town Crier Sulfur Buckwheat attracts many pollinators and adds a cheerful splash of bright yellow to the garden all summer. For dramatic contrast, grow it with blue-flowered penstemons or Wayne Roderick Seaside Daisy. Native buckwheats buzz with activity and come in a range of colors and sizes, so you could have an interesting garden with only buckwheats. After all, you have approximately 500 varieties and cultivars to choose from. The plants generally have a mounding form, and the sizes of the most common varieties range from foot-wide cushions to imposing 7-foot-tall shrubs. Whitish and grayish leaf colors predominate, though a range of greens also occurs, often with leaf edges outlined in silvery-white and felted undersides. Flower colors run the gamut from white to pinkish-white (often aging to russet tones), deep pinks, reds and yellows. Leaf shapes can be needlelike, like rosemary, but are more often cupped ovals ranging from a fraction of 1-3 inches long. But you’ll need to choose other plants to get sagey aromas, blue flowers, spring blooms and plants that tolerate overspray or regular watering. In the wild, many other natives grow with buckwheats. Following are some natives that like the same conditions as buckwheats and grow well with them. Pete Veilleux, whose East Bay Wilds Native Plant Nursery stocks a dazzling variety of buckwheats, offered these recommendations at a recent talk sponsored by the Gardening with Natives group of the California Native Plant Society. • Woolly Blue Curls likes the same dry conditions as buckwheats and offers a delightful leaf fragrance, blue-purple flowers and a long bloom time. Foothill Penstemons also contribute blue-purple to the palette. • Wayne Roderick Seaside Daisy, a drought-tolerant variety, is an easy-to-grow plant whose lavender flowers complement many varieties of native buckwheats. • Conejo Buckwheat, with yellow flowers and soft, white velvety leaves, pairs well with fluffy mounds of Mendocino Reed Grass. • In a hot, dry garden, use buckwheats with Golden Fleece and other goldenbushes. • The large-scale St. Catherine’s Lace looks good with the tall, red-flowered Catalina cultivar of California Fuchsia. • The pom-pom flowers of Rosy Buckwheat combine nicely with the silvery leaves of Canyon Prince Wild Rye, and with native grasses in general. Deergrass makes a nice background for a variety of native buckwheats. • You can plant low-growing manzanita or ceanothus varieties with buckwheats next to them or growing up through them. The sturdier stems of the ground covers keep the more brittle buckwheat stems from being broken by passersby. Anchor Bay Ceanothus, for instance, is a neat-looking, deer-tolerant ground cover. Bert Johnson Manzanita is a choice ground cover with dense foliage that stays a foot tall. • Low-growing natives such as Prostrate Coyote Brush or Canyon Gray Coastal Sage can also protect buckwheats in a mixed planting and provide an attractive contrast. • The silvery foliage of David’s Choice Sandhill Sage blends well with many of the smaller buckwheats, and its feathery texture contrasts with the leaf shapes of buckwheats. • Prostrate Coastal Goldenbush grows with Coast Buckwheat in the wild and flowers at the same time. Tanya Kucak gardens organically. Email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . ◆
‘Doctor Strange’ To Be Marvel’s ‘Fantasia’ According To Cinematographer Marvel Studios films are more than just superhero films, they’re subgenres. Guardians of the Galaxy is a space opera, Thor is fantastical, Iron Man a buddy cop movie, and Ant-Man is clearly a heist comedy, while Captain America is a political thriller. Of all those films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we still don’t know much about which subgenres Marvel intends to put Doctor Strange, Black Panther, The Inhumans, and Captain Marvel in, though based on the heroes in question, we have may have a slight idea. We know that there will be some sort of magical and fantastical element when it comes to Doctor Strange, given the character is called the Sorcerer Supreme. But new details are being revealed about Scott Derrickson‘s upcoming film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. According to a cinematographer for the film, Doctor Strange will be “Marvel’s Fantasia.” Check out the full quote below. Speaking to Screen Daily, cinematographer Ben Davis says that Doctor Strange isn’t the typical Marvel movie, with the film exploring other dimensions. Here’s what he told the site, “It has a very psychedelic grounding, and it’s not your typical Marvel action movie … Most of the work within it is about other dimensions. And I described it, I think, when I was talking to Marvel as Marvel’s Fantasia, in a way, because it’s so sort of out there and different to everything else that they’ve done.” Fans got a taste of other dimensions and realms when Ant-Man entered the quantum realm after tampering with his regulator to defeat Yellowjacket. But the strangest (no pun intended) thing about that quote is that he is using psychedelic and grounding in the same sentence, so it will be fun to see how Marvel defines that for us. “There’s a lot of previsualisation, and there’s a lot of work which is very hard – you look at it and you see the imagery that they’ve created for it and you think, ‘well how the hell do we shoot that!?’ because it’s all sort of Escher stuff.” [M.C.] Escher stuff will be so much fun to look at in 3D, so I’m wondering how all of this will be accomplished, without the giant headaches. But, and if you are familiar with some of Escher’s work, I’m sure it will look very cool. Of course the cinematographer couldn’t give out specific details about the film, which is currently in the early pre-production stage. But from what we know based on some of the previous films and reports, Doctor Strange may be an already established hero, who is on HYDRA’s radar. There have been rumors that the film may not even be an origins story, which may explain the Captain America: The Winter Soldier Easter Egg. But from what we do know from the comics at least, Doctor Stephen Strange is regarded as one of the best surgeons in the world, but is very egotistical and cares about only his wealth from his career. However, a horrific car accident crushes his hands taking his career away from him. Unable to cope with the inability to use his hands, Strange seeks out mystic help from the Ancient One (who is actually the Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme), who denies him at first because of his selfishness. But after Strange thwarts the evil deeds of Baron Mordo, a student of the Ancient One, the Ancient One takes him on as his disciple, and he eventually becomes the title hero Doctor Strange. Written by Jon Spahits, Doctor Strange also stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Baron Mordo and Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One. The film is scheduled to begin shooting in November 2015 at Pinewood-Shepperton studios in the UK, and will be released in theaters on November 4, 2016.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne announced Tuesday that head football coach Nick Saban and the University have agreed to a long-term contract extension. The new agreement will extend his current contract to eight years and keep him in charge of the Crimson Tide football program through the 2024 season. The base salary and talent fee will remain the same. There will be a contract extension signing incentive of $4 million with an additional $4 million spread out through the 2020 (10 percent), 2021 (10 percent) and 2022 (80 percent) years of the contract. "Terry and I are pleased and happy to agree to the contract extension The University of Alabama has offered us, ensuring our time here in Tuscaloosa will continue for many more years," Saban said. "This has become our home and we are looking forward to finishing our career at Alabama. I want to thank President Bell, Greg Byrne , our athletic administration, football staff and the entire University community for all of their support, which has been instrumental in the success of our organization. We are extremely proud of the young men who have represented the Crimson Tide on the football field, and more importantly, what they have been able to accomplish in their lives off the field because of their involvement in our program." Saban is entering his 11th season and he has led his Alabama teams to four National Championships over the last decade. He has coached five Southeastern Conference Championship teams at UA, including each of the last three years. Saban has won 10 or more games for nine straight seasons and led the Crimson Tide to appearances in each of the first three College Football Playoffs. A total of 36 players have won 40 first team All-America honors during his tenure while 65 players have been selected in the NFL Draft since 2009, including 22 first round picks. Those numbers are all the best in the nation during that span. "It is an exciting day when we can announce that the best football coach in the country has agreed to a contract extension," said Byrne. "Before I came to Alabama, I was always impressed with Coach Saban and how he ran his program. After being here and seeing first-hand the job that he does, I've come away even more impressed. Coach Saban has obviously won a lot of football games and championships, but he has also done an outstanding job when it comes to academics and community service. I don't think you can measure the positive impact he and Ms. Terry have made over the last decade. We look forward to working with them for many years to come." Over the past 10 seasons, Saban's teams have also excelled in the classroom with a graduation success rate of 80 that ranked fifth among Associated Press top 25 teams and was the highest in the SEC a season ago. The Crimson Tide had 22 players compete in the most recent CFP National Championship Game in January after already earning their degree. A total of 101 players have competed in postseason play with a degree in hand over the last four seasons, which is the most in the country. "It is truly remarkable when you look at what Coach Saban has accomplished here over the last decade and how the success of the football program has raised the overall profile of our institution," said University of Alabama President Stuart R. Bell. "Those accomplishments are not just on the field, as he has also done an outstanding job emphasizing academics and character development with our student-athletes." Beyond the success on the field and the in the classroom, the Sabans have been very involved in community initiatives. Since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2007, Nick and Terry Saban have raised nearly $6 million for charitable causes through their Nicks' Kids Foundation. Following the devastating 2011 tornado, they teamed up with Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild a total of 16 homes. The Sabans have personally donated $1 million to UA's first-generation scholarship fund and most recently spearheaded fundraising efforts for the new St. Francis Catholic Church student center, which is named in their honor.
Paraphrasing Piers Cawley talking about why to give up Ruby for Perl (paraphrased): This is assembly language for calling a function: push address of RETURN on stack push $argument on stack get address of FUNC goto FUNC RETURN: pop return value off of stack This is Perl 5 for calling a function: func($argument); That's all well and good. This is assembly language for entering a function: pop parameter from stack verify parameter type constraints ... This is Perl 5 for entering a function: sub func { my $parameter = shift; die 'Wrong type' unless $parameter->isa( 'Whatever' ); ... } ... but wouldn't it be nice if: sub func(Whatever $parameter) { ... } (No new insight here, but directly prior to this talk, Damian Conway and I talked about how Perl 6 signatures simplify much, much more code than this simple example illustrates. Lots of code goes away.
Sanders pledges his campaign to save Democratic Party By Patrick Martin 31 August 2015 In a speech Friday afternoon to the Democratic National Committee, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders portrayed his presidential campaign as the only way to rebuild popular support for the Democratic Party and save its electoral prospects in 2016. It was the first time that Sanders, a nominal independent through a quarter century in Congress, has appeared before the leading body of the Democratic Party. The occasion was a summer session of the DNC addressed by four of the five declared candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. Sanders pointed to the indications of popular support for his campaign, including large crowds at rallies, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and small contributors, and especially “many young people who have not previously been involved in the political process.” Then he told his audience, consisting largely of members of the DNC and elected officials, that they needed this infusion of political energy to revive the political fortunes of the Democratic Party. “The Republicans did not win the mid-term election in November,” he argued. “The Democrats lost that election because voter turnout was abysmally low, and millions of working people, minorities and young people gave up on ‘politics as usual’ and stayed home.” This is certainly true: the right-wing policies of the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress, on war, government spying, cuts in social programs, and attacks on the jobs and living standards of working people, dashed the illusions of those who had turned out to elect Obama in 2008 and re-elect him in 2012. Sanders continued: “In my view, Democrats will not retain the White House, will not regain the Senate, will not gain the House and will not be successful in dozens of governor’s races unless we run a campaign which generates excitement and momentum and which produces a huge voter turnout. With all due respect, and I do not mean to insult anyone here, that will not happen with politics as usual. The same old, same old will not be successful.” Referring to the growth of economic inequality, he declared, “We need a political movement which is prepared to take on the billionaire class and create a government which represents all Americans, and not just corporate America and wealthy campaign donors. In other words, we need a movement which takes on the economic and political establishment, not one which is part of it.” Given that Sanders was addressing an audience consisting entirely of the political establishment, or at least its Democratic half, political operatives beholden to and controlled by “corporate America and wealthy campaign donors,” his appeal might seem peculiarly misdirected. Sanders was not, however, suggesting an actual change in course by the Democratic Party. He was merely proposing that the Democrats adopt a different kind of political packaging to better conceal the right-wing character of this corrupt, pro-corporate organization, and he offered himself as the packager-in-chief. How else to interpret his suggestion that the Democratic Party embrace a “political revolution” against a political establishment of which it is a core institution? Sanders’ concern about the declining support for the Democratic Party is not motivated solely by worries over its electoral prospects in 2016. The enormous pent-up anger among workers and young people threatens to develop independently of and in opposition to the entire political establishment and the capitalist system that it defends. Sanders and his supporters among the organizations that orbit around the Democratic Party are seeking to prevent this from taking place. The completely phony character of Sanders’s populist rhetoric was underscored by his appearance Sunday on the ABC News interview program “This Week.” He was asked by host Martha Raddatz about his silence on issues of foreign policy and national security, for which he had only the lame explanation that his campaign has only been up and running for three and a half months. Raddatz noted that Sanders had voted against the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2002 Iraq war resolution, but for the 2001 resolution after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which the Bush administration used as authorization for the US attack on Afghanistan. She then asked him, “Is that only when we’re attacked?” Sanders answered, “No, not at all. You know, I think using our military is an option, obviously, that we will always have under certain circumstances, but it is the last option.” He added that in the case of the war with Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, “the United States cannot do it alone. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has the third largest military budget in the entire world. They’re going to have to get in and take on ISIS as well as other countries in that region. The United States should be supportive. We should be working with other countries. But the United States cannot always be the only country involved in these wars.” In other words, the civil war that is destroying Iraq and Syria should be expanded through the involvement of other Arab countries, especially the ultra-reactionary Saudi monarchy, whose medieval policies include the persecution of religious minorities, frequent public beheadings of individuals judged to have violated Islamic law, and complete suppression of democratic rights. Raddatz then asked Sanders whether Iran or Russia might take his record as indicating a reluctance to use force. The candidate replied, “Well, I think they would be making a very, very big mistake. I believe that the United States should have the strongest military in the world.” He went on, in response to a further question about the use of drone-fired missiles, to say, “You can argue that there are times and places where drone attacks have been effective, there are times and places where they have been absolutely counter-effective and have caused more problems than they have solved. When you kill innocent people, what the end result is that people in the region become anti-American who otherwise would not have been. So, I think we have to use drones very, very selectively and effectively.” These remarks are the most extensive comments that Sanders has made on the military operations of American imperialism since he launched his campaign to become its “commander-in-chief.” The Democratic candidate was seeking to reassure the military-intelligence apparatus that a President Sanders would be just as much its puppet as Barack Obama. ABC News was in no doubt about the significance of the interview, headlining its report, “Sanders Says He Would Be Prepared to Use Military Force.” This clear declaration of loyalty to American imperialism and its machinery of endless warfare makes nonsense of all Sanders’s populist rhetoric about taking on Wall Street and the billionaire class. His declaration of support for the interests of the American ruling class abroad is at the same time a declaration of support for its policies within the United States. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Overview (3) Mini Bio (1) J.D. Williams was born on May 22, 1978 in Newark, New Jersey, USA as Darnell Williams. He is an actor, known for Pootie Tang (2001), Oz (1997) and The Kill Point (2007). Trade Mark (1) Often plays violent, troubled drug dealers or street level characters Trivia (4) Goes by "J.D." to avoid confusion with Darnell Williams To prepare for his role in "The Wire", Williams walked around Baltimore's inner city at night. Has appeared in multiple advertisements, including some for Pizza Hut, Doritos, and Fedex. Attended Newark Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey. Personal Quotes (2) [on his character Bodie Broadus in "The Wire"] Bodie is Baltimore, Baltimore is Bodie. He loves his environment, and I know that he believes his environment loves him. And that's why he is the way he is. [on the fourth season of "The Wire"] Now we have young kids, fresh starts, you know, infinite possibilities. And, you know, now we have to look at the decisions and the choices that they make.
More Users Contemplating Cutting the Cord Than Ever Before Not only are customers actively leaving traditional cable at a faster rate than ever before, more people than ever are considering giving up on cable in the next few years. That's according to new data from research firm Magid, which notes that 9% of pay TV subscribers surveyed by the firm said they are "extremely likely" to cut the traditional television cord sometime in the next year. That's a 3% jump from the 6% that said the same thing last year, the highest bump in the company's history of polling on this question. The spike in interested cord cutters comes, not coincidentally, with the rise of a flurry of new streaming competitors from the likes of AT&T, Dish, Hulu, Google, and eventually companies like Amazon. Analysts estimate that the pay TV sector lost a record 762,000 pay-TV subscribers last quarter -- roughly five times more than the total number of lost subscribers during the same quarter last year. Dish Network lost 143,000 subscribers, even when the company's Sling TV additions were figured in. AT&T lost 266,000 subscribers during the same period, again not offset by additions to its DirecTV Now streaming service. Charter was also hard hit, itself losing around 100,000 subscribers during the first quarter. Comcast eeked out a 42,000 subscriber net gain -- in large part thanks to the company's growing cable broadband monopoly. "For the better part of 15 years, pundits have predicted that cord-cutting was the future," an apocalyptic Craig Moffett wrote in a recent research note to investors. "Well, the future has arrived." And Moffett, it should be noted, used to downplay cord cutting at every conceivable opportunity. He's no longer laughing. And he notes that rate of cord cutting isn't the only metric now highlighting the growing phenomenon. "The litany of worsts is largely the same when one considers the data from the perspective of programmers," Moffett added, turning to sinking ratings. "Worst-ever first quarter sub losses (495,000); worst ever rate of decline (-1.3%); worst ever acceleration in the rate of decline (50 basis points). … It is the nature of skinny bundles that each includes a different subset of cable networks. Most individual cable nets, therefore, did materially worse." Of course cable providers can still do something about this before bloodshed gets too bad. It's called actually competing on price. Of course cable providers can still do something about this before bloodshed getsbad. It's called actually competing on price. News Jump Tuesday Morning Links Monday Morning Links TGI Friday Morning Links Thursday Morning Links Wednesday Morning Links Tuesday Morning Links Friday Morning Links Thursday Morning Links - Valentines Edition Wednesday Morning Links Tuesday Morning Links ---------------------- this week last week most discussed Most recommended from 56 comments maartena Elmo Premium Member join:2002-05-10 Orange, CA ·AT&T FTTP (Software) pfSense 9 recommendations maartena Premium Member People are asking questions.... It's a often recurring question on several Facebook groups I am in, in particular a local city group, and it comes up more in the first 3 months of the year, when they have received their yearly price increase and sticker shock ensues. People are serious about wanting to drop cable or satellite due to the price. They aren't always willing to give up on the 20th century "channels" concept, and that is where services like DirecTV Now, and Sling TV come in handy. People are getting fed up with high cable prices. And not surprisingly if you look at my numbers: In Feb 2014 DirecTV raised our bill from $107 to about $115, so me and the wife decided enough was enough..... Now, that number is television ONLY, I always had a separate internet bill, not combo. At the time it was around $80 including the modem rental fee, and ironically when I upgraded to Gigapower my price went to $80 without the need of equipment, so not much has changed there in the last few years. That $115 went up to around $135-ish in 2017 based on current price increases, with of course taking the price increases of 2015 and 2016 into account. My "entertainment" bill is currently $32 a month, with $12 for the commercial free Hulu, $12 for the 4-screen, 4k Netflix, and $8 (amortized over the year) for Amazon Prime, bringing the total to $32. My entertainment budget for a month has been set to $50 by us, so that leaves $18 wiggle room for a 4th streaming service (such as Showtime, HBO, CBS, when we need it for certain shows), or buying a season of a show on Amazon Prime or something like that. So far, we haven't needed to do that, but I will likely sign up for CBS All Access once Star Trek Discovery launches. Since we cancelled in 2014, we saved about $1,000 that year, and with current cable/satellite prices its now over $1200 a year in savings. In the three years without cable I have pocketed somewhere around the $3,500 mark in hard cold cash that I didn't have to spend on cable. That's a downpayment on a car! Or in my case, it was half the budget for a bathroom remodel I completed earlier in the year. So, unless you are addicted to sports, and you would pay $300 a month to keep watching your favorite team, and therefore it doesn't matter how much they raise their bills..... because sports addiction and you will pay it either way.... are the current 150 or so channels you get really worth over a THOUSAND dollars a year to have? jspaldin join:2001-12-05 Tallahassee, FL 6 recommendations jspaldin Member The other part of the reason for cord cutting is the programming itself. We got so sick and tired of 90% of the programming on cable being some form of reality programming that we had absolutely no desire to watch. Almost all of the Discovery, History, and Nat Geo programming we liked in the past has been dropped for formulaic reality TV programming. And that is true for pretty much every other cable network, including the Weather Channel of all things. The great thing with the streaming programming (whether on-demand or traditional chrono programming) is I can find niche interests and add them easily. The other thing was all the sports programming being dumped into our cable, whether through the bundles we had to buy to get one channel we like or the add on 'regional sports networks fees'. All the sports programming I need (my favorite football team) I can get OTA and I DVR it as well. And the OTA programming we use Tablo and now watch next day so we can DVR it and skip over the commercials. davidc502 join:2002-03-06 Mount Juliet, TN 611.7 364.7 ·TDS 4 recommendations davidc502 Member Prices are just too high I know several people who are paying more than 200 per month, and are just acclimated to the expense, and don't think much about it. However, when you tell them that's 2,400 dollars for the entire year, to which they may only watch 10 channels or so, they start to contemplate if they really need it or not. For most people, in the US, 2400 dollars is still a good chunk of money. When you can simply go over to Hulu and Netflix, which will cover 75% of a persons viewing needs... If they are willing to wait a week or perhaps the next season, there is still significant savings. Also, it's still easy to install an attic antenna that can simply plug into a TV tuner card on the PC... Those ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox shows can simply be recorded, commercials stripped, and served to any DLNA device in the home which connects to the TV.. It's a bit of a hassle to set up, but once done, it's smooth sailing and costs nothing monthly. However, not everyone has antenna coverage in the US as it depends on terrain an distance from the transmitter. I'm rolling up on 3 years as a cord cutter, and absolutely love the flexibility and low costs of watching pretty much commercial free TV. The only downside is certain sports events, and certain TV shows where one sometimes has to get inventive to pull it in. Roadkill Premium Member join:2008-06-17 united state 4 recommendations Roadkill Premium Member Cutting the Cord Here is my gripe: Cut cable TV for OTA television, that is fine. I nearly hate watching seven minute segments of a TV show between commercial breaks. Regular TV (not cable TV) frustrates the hell out of me due to the breaks in the show. OTA TV is turning into advertisers wasteland where the TV show doesn't seem to be the main point of viewing any particular show. I'll cut the cord this summer, but it won't be to watch OTA TV or the cable-like bundles from the streaming services. I'm cutting commercials and that is the end of it. I have Netflix and maybe I'll pick up Hulu to watch ad-free if that can actually be done. Television OTA and Cable needs a paradigm shift away from milking money as much as possible. scott2020 join:2008-07-20 MO 3 recommendations scott2020 Member Re-Cutter I am a cord re-cutter. I cut the cord around 2006 or something and re-connected it a couple if years later. About a year ago after constant price increases I cut it again, at least for TV. I didn't see the point when all I have time to watch are a few network shows. With streaming becoming more popular, it won't take long for the cable monopolies to start raising internet rates and overages to make up the difference. Since there is next to no competition in most areas and more consolidation happening, it is a perfect situation for the cable co's. mlcarson join:2001-09-20 Santa Maria, CA 2 recommendations mlcarson Member Not viable That cord is most people's Internet access since cable is the primary ISP for most people. The cable companies then put bandwidth caps on that Internet connection to dissuade cord cutters and create the pricing structure so that you aren't saving much if you try to avoid their TV service packages. There might still be some savings but then you get into the inconvenience factor of not having a common media center with recording capabilities. For example, if you are lucky enough to get your local networks OTA - now you need a way of recording them for time shifting. Whatever method you use to do time shifting will now be different than what you are using of your "cord cutting" service for the non-OTA channels/services. Most people would save more money by weaning themselves off from their cell phone usage rather than their TV service. Those are the bills that are the easiest to reduce or eliminate since most people don't need to be online everywhere they go. If you think you do and it's not job related, you have a problem that's a lot larger than cord cutting. zod5000 join:2003-10-21 Victoria, BC ·TELUS 2 recommendations zod5000 Member My cableco keeps offering me sweet deals not to cancel: At this point the only reason I keep cable is for the odd local news broadcast and sports. Regular price on that is about $45 through my telco (roughly the same if i used the cableco). Everytime I call to cancel they sell me the same package for $23 so I keep it rolling. The moment they don't I'll cut the cord. It's not worth $45 for the handful of tv content I watch on cable. The funny thing is broadcasters are trying to simply move the model to streaming. Making their channels even more expensive via streaming than cable. I don't think they get it's not really the platform, it's that they're pricing themselves to a point where demand is really low.
Image caption Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw, Joan from Mad Men and Bridget Jones would not exist without Sex and the Single Girl Half a century after the publication of the influential book Sex and the Single Girl, frank assessments of sexual mores are everywhere - in films, fiction and myriad magazine columns. It wasn't always that way, writes Karen Krizanovich. Helen Gurley Brown didn't invent the single girl. History is paved with unmarried women, among them Elizabeth I, Emily and Anne Bronte, Susan B Anthony and Jane Austen. But before Brown's landmark Sex and the Single Girl, a woman who was unmarried and childless was an oddball. Compared with superhero spinsters like Florence Nightingale and Dorothy Parker, an ordinary unmarried woman had the whiff of something wrong with her - some obstacle or horrible personal flaw that stopped her from the exalted roles of wife and mother. What Brown and her landmark book Sex And The Single Girl did was to show how spinsterhood actually was and to furnish a lively, hilarious chapter-by-chapter guide to its nuances and pitfalls. With chapter titles such as Women Alone? Oh Come Now!, The Availables: The Men in Your Life and The Affair: From Beginning to End, the book was a runaway hit, selling two million copies in three weeks and making many bestseller lists, including the New York Times's. Karen Krizanovich presents Sex and the Single Girl on BBC Radio 4, Thursday 22 December, 11:30 GMT. Or catch up on iPlayer Critically, Sex And The Single Girl was either loved or hated - and surprisingly lambasted by some feminists such as Betty Friedan. A feminist with different views from the first wave of more militant activists, Brown knew from her own experience the needs of this new generation of women. A female workforce flooded cities like New York, where cheap secretarial power was needed. Along with the invention of the contraceptive pill (the subject of which, along with abortion and lesbianism, was edited from the book's final version), this was the beginning of women competing with men as co-workers and sexual entities. Brown didn't see men as the enemy - nor was she necessarily against marriage and children. She agreed that men and children were wonderful, but she emphasised that women must have a life of their own. Brown's "single girl" became a kind of female James Bond armed with powerful social, vocational and sexual know-how. Brown once said: "Bad girls go everywhere." She meant her single girl was someone men wanted and women wanted to be. Brown also knew, as a self-confessed shy girl, or "mouseburger", that many women didn't want a radical feminist manifesto - they wanted a softer, more alluring role model who could nevertheless deliver Machiavellian tips. Sex and the Single Girl chapters Women Alone? Oh Come Now! The Availables: The Men in Your Life Where to Meet Them How to be Sexy Nine to Five Money Money Money The Apartment The Care and Feeding of Everybody The Shape You're In. The Wardrobe Kisses and Make-Up The Affair: From the Beginning to End The Rich, Full Life Sex And The Single Girl (and later on, Cosmopolitan magazine) showed women how to get what they wanted by working within the male-dominated society rather than at odds with it and in that way, her approach shows the cunning of "female thinking". She encouraged single women to use everything at their disposal to survive and succeed - including sex. On that count, Brown can still shock - she said women could have sex with anyone, even married men. Once she suggested that women utter specific words during their partner's orgasm, a Pavlovian technique to associate her goals with his pleasure. Brown's wildly imaginative advice suggested a whole new world of possibilities, many of which were made to sound plausible by Brown's unique delivery. As the director of promotion and publicity at Bernard Geis Associates which promoted Sex and the Single Girl, Letty Cottin Pogrebin says: "[Brown] has a way of saying the most outrageous things in the sweetest, most polite voice. She is really preaching equality of a sort that was not seen or heard about." Sex and the Single Girl's message remains controversial. As Observer columnist Katharine Whitehorn says, "the thing that was absolutely staggering was that there isn't a single word in [the book] of any of this having any moral consequence at all." At the time, no-one knew the moral consequences of the 1960s, which until much later in that decade, retained much of the conservatism of the 1950s. Brown was merely highlighting a social phenomenon as it happened. The reach of Sex and the Single Girl is wide and long. Bridget Jones would not exist without Helen Gurley Brown, ditto TV's Mad Men. Helen Gurley Brown told Vanity Fair magazine in 2007 that her greatest achievement was "editing Cosmopolitan successfully so Hearst didn't have to close it down in 1965, when it was losing tons of money". There are now 59 editions of Cosmopolitan all over the world. Helen Gurley Brown interviewed in Vanity Fair Mad Men's creator and executive producer Matthew Weiner admits Sex and the Single Girl directly influenced Mad Men - particularly the character of Joan (played by Christina Hendricks). "The style and thoughts in this book have not disappeared," says Weiner. "They are still part of the culture. The fact that it is Sex and the Single Girl, that retro concept of the powerlessness of some innocent going into the office, I don't think that's changed. "It's still a primary issue: how do I not become a man. Why do I have to become a man to succeed? And when I do become a man, it doesn't get me where I need to go because men don't respond to it." Three years after the book's publication, Brown went on to edit the ground-breaking Cosmopolitan magazine, for which she remained US editor until 1997. She continued to court controversy. Today, Brown, born in 1922, no longer wishes to be in the public eye but she was still named by Slate as the 13th most powerful American over 80. Sex and the Single Girl was never meant as a hardcore political tome. It is a saucy, knowing guidebook to the pleasures of being a single young woman. The original version of "girl power", it didn't envisage the ladette but it did open the world's eyes to what had been very private before - sex and its social dynamic. What Brown wrote was shocking because it was the awful truth as summed up by Erica Jong. "Men and women, women and men. It will never work," she said. And yet it does.
Left: "Anitra's Dance" by Alexis Boyar. Right: Alexis Boyar with his owner, Julie McDonald. Left: "Anitra's Dance" by Alexis Boyar. Right: Alexis Boyar with his owner, Julie McDonald. Elliott McDonald and Alexis Elliott McDonald and Alexis An Art Show for Dogs Alexis Boyar at the Dog Art Show Alexis Boyar at the Dog Art Show Links and References "Dog chews out art prize" (Oct 24, 1974). The Southeast Missourian. Mobley, C.T. (Apr 15, 1975). "Black poodle walks off with top dog art prize," Mt. Vernon Register News. "Pup Art: Dog's old mitten wins top prize" (Oct 25, 1974). The Milwaukee Journal. "Some artists miffed by dog winning prize" (Oct 26, 1974). The Times Standard: 16. The 12th Annual Mid-Mississippi Art Competition, hosted by the Davenport Art Museum (now known as the Figge Art Museum ), was open to any adult artist living within a 100-mile radius of the Quad-Cities . The museum received 786 entries, which were judged in various categories by an independent panel of jurors brought in from outside the region.But at the award ceremony, held in October 1974, there were gasps and cries of surprise when artist Alexis Boyar walked up to the stage to receive the blue ribbon and $50 cash prize he had won for his entry in the weaving category.The shock wasn't caused by the art. Alexis's piece, titled "Anitra's Dance," was described as a "small fiber wall hanging in off-white, with a range of interesting textures and a central phallic shape." Rather, the shock was caused by the artist himself, since he didn't seem to fit the entrance criteria. Specifically, he wasn't human. He was, in fact, a 6-year-old Afghan hound dog.Alexis was led up to the stage by his owners, Elliott and Julie McDonald. Elliott was a Davenport lawyer, and his wife Julie was a writer and former chairman of the Iowa Arts Council. (See books by Julie McDonald on abebooks.com.)After accepting the award for Alexis, Julie McDonald explained that the piece of weaving had originally been an old mitten Alexis found during a walk in the park the previous winter. She noted, "He chewed it into a rather interesting shape. We thought it was interesting enough to enter in competition, but we were surprised when it won a prize.""Elliott McDonald added, "This certainly affirms my faith in the integrity of the jurors. They didn't know the artist, where he went to school, where he had exhibited, or who his friends were. It proves that art is where you find it."The award of the prize to Alexis caused some controversy. Two area artists told the McDonalds that entering a chewed mitten into the competition was "the all-time low in good taste." The McDonalds responded that they were "sorry anyone has been made unhappy by a dog's artistic accomplishment."The McDonalds returned the $50 award to the museum, explaining, "We've awarded Alexis something more to his liking. We've given him an entire sofa all his own. It's an old one and he can chew on it all he wants to. But I don't think we will enter any more of his chewings in any art competition. Alexis will be able to retire as a winner."The canine art of Alexis Boyar recalled the work of the monkey artist Pierre Brassau , exhibited at a Swedish art show in 1964.Alexis Boyar's victory in the Mid-Mississippi Art Competition inspired the Quad Cities Dog Obedience Club to hold an art competition of its own the following April — open only to canine artists. Entries were judged in categories that included "Fiber, Warp and Woof" (well-chewed scarves, sweaters and gloves), "Rubber or Plastic Destruction" (balls, hoses, overshoes, with tooth filigree), "Wood Wonders" (chewed or clawed door panels and ball bats), "Metal Messes" (mangled wire objects), and "Found Objects" (anything the dog drags home and 'improves').The entries were judged by Iowa state representative Robert F. Bina (who was also head of the Palmer Junior College art department).Alexis served as an honorary judge, and his chewed mitten was displayed under glass during the show. However, Alexis didn't submit a work. Julie McDonald said, "now that he's won a blue ribbon against humans, he can't be bothered competing against dogs."Predictably, there were many entries in the fiber category, as well as quote a few chewed plastic bottles.The Best-of-Show award went to a black poodle named Kelly for a well-chewed quilt. A malamute named Adam won two awards, for a plastic planter with nibbled edges and a hoe handle with dental pointillism.The Dog Club admitted it had been worried that a human artist might try to sneak a work into the competition, but that didn't happen. Or, at least, no human artist won a prize.
Berrin. 'We see every day how soldiers… look at these people not as human beings, not as someone who is equal, but someone who is less than them.' Courtesy of the Berrin family “What makes a country good isn’t whether it is happy or not, it’s the ethics and morality of the country. When soldiers are conditioned and persuaded on a daily basis to subjugate and humiliate people and consider other human beings as less than human, I think that seeps in, and I think that when the soldiers go home they bring that back with them.” Those words – precise, pained, obvious – are from Cpl. Shachar Berrin, 19, a lone soldier who wears a knitted skullcap and serves as a combat soldier in the Home Front Command rescue unit in the Jordan Valley. They were said about 10 days ago in Jerusalem during the recording of “The New Arab Debates,” a show for the German TV channel Deutsche Welle, as Gideon Levy reported in Friday’s Haaretz. The program, moderated by former BBC journalist Tim Sebastian, dealt with the proposition that “the occupation is destroying Israel.” The panel included settler activist Dani Dayan and Meretz activist Uri Zaki. After Dayan said that Israel had been ranked 11th in the World Happiness Report, and thus the occupation is not destroying it, Berrin, who was in the audience, stood up and told of his personal experience. “Just the other week, when some Border Police soldiers were rough with Christian tourists, another soldier, a colleague, said she couldn’t believe what they were doing: ‘I mean, come on, they are people, not Palestinians’ ... I think that once you are conditioned to think something, you bring it back with you and that it deeply affects Israeli society and causes it, as our president says, to be more racist.” Instead of listening to the content of Berrin’s words and appreciating the courage and morality he showed, his commander charged him with “participating as a soldier in a political meeting, in uniform and in the presence of the media, against army regulations.” The fact that this was not a political meeting – and that Berrin had not really been interviewed – did not deter the army. When the supreme goal is to shut critics up, discretion gives way with dizzying speed to procedures of silencing and punishment. The Israel Defense Forces probably doesn’t recognize the irony in the story: that same damage from the occupation, against which Berrin warned, pursued him to a conference hall in Jerusalem and then sent him to prison for a week. In the words of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, “The soldier was tried for speaking to the media without authorization and approval, as required by army orders.” Or, put more simply, the soldier was tried and jailed for telling the truth, contrary to the army’s orders.
Nyom to miss Derby FA Cup tie, Evans also a doubt ALLAN Nyom will report to Cameroon this week to discuss his role in his nation's Africa Cup of Nations campaign this month. Nyom will miss the FA Cup tie against Derby but his future absence will depend upon talks with the Cameroon FA, the Albion defender having indicated he would prefer to stay with his Club. Head Coach Tony Pulis has made it clear he intends on selecting a strong team for Saturday's third-round contest against the Championship promotion-chasers at The Hawthorns (ko 3pm). But defender Jonny Evans, who limped out of the 3-1 victory over Hull City in the first half, will be a doubt after suffering a recurrence of his calf problem. Pulis said: "Jonny felt it during the warm-up but was eager to play. We won't know the extent of the injury until we have had a good look at it."
Former President Barack Obama has been called for Cook County jury duty — and plans to serve next month, the county’s chief judge said Friday. Chief Judge Tim Evans told county commissioners during a budget hearing that Obama, who owns homes in Washington, D.C., and Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood, will serve next month. Evans later told the Tribune that adjustments would be made to accommodate Obama’s security detail, but he could not say the date or courthouse location where the former president is expected to report. “Obviously we will make certain that he has all the accouterments that accompany a former president,” Evans said. “His safety will be uppermost in our minds.” “He made it crystal-clear to me through his representative that he would carry out his public duty as a citizen and resident of this community,” Evans said. While Obama would likely be the highest-profile person ever to appear for jury duty in Cook County, other famous people, including Oprah Winfrey and Mr. T, have served, as have politicians including governors and mayors. Jurors can be called for civil or criminal pools — which are used to select jurors for trials — and they can be called to any of the county’s city or suburban courthouses. All jurors watch a decades-old video narrated by a mustachioed Lester Holt, once a local news anchor, about their duties. “Although it’s not a place where the public can earn a lot of money, it is highly appreciated,” Evans said of Obama’s decision to serve. “It’s crucial that our society get the benefit of that kind of commitment.” An Obama spokesman could not immediately be reached Friday evening. sschmadeke@chicagotribune.com
Yesterday California Attorney General Kamala Harris urged state legislators to clarify the rules for growing and distributing medical marijuana. In a letter (PDF) to the leaders of the state Assembly and Senate, she notes that California law exempts patients and their primary caregivers from criminal penalties when they "associate...collectively or cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes." While "strict constructionists" argue that "any interpretation under which group members are not physically involved in cultivation is too broad," she says, others read this provision "expansively" to allow "large-scale cultivation and transportation of marijuana, memberships in multiple collectives, and the sale of marijuana through dispensaries." Harris says she planned to revise the medical marijuana guidelines (PDF) that her predecessor, Jerry Brown (now the governor), issued in 2008 but concluded that new legislation was necessary to clarify the law. "Without a substantive change to exiting law," she writes, "these irreconcilable interpretations of the law, and the resulting uncertainty for law enforcement and seriously ill patients, will persist." Harris says the legislature also should address the issue of medical marijuana profits. "Nothing in Proposition 215 or the Medical Marijuana Program Act authorizes any individual or group to cultivate or distribute marijuana for profit," she writes. "Thus, distribution and sales for profit of marijuana—medical or otherwise—are criminal under California law." Brown took a similar position, but I don't see how this follows. Current law may or may not authorize dispensaries, but either way it says nothing about the relationship between a dispensary's revenue and its expenses. In any case, a "nonprofit" dispensary that pays salaries to its operators is hard to distinguish from a for-profit store, as Harris implicitly concedes: It would be helpful if the Legislature could clarify what it means for a collective or cooperative to operate as a "nonprofit." The issues here are defining the term "profit" and determining what costs are reasonable for a collective or cooperative to incur. This is linked to the issue of what compensation paid by a collective or cooperative to members who perform work for the enterprise is reasonable. A.P. reports that Harris also sent a letter to California's U.S. attorneys, who recently launched a conspicuous crackdown on dispensaries, informing them of her support for new legislation. "The federal government is ill-equipped to be the sole arbiter of whether an individual or group is acting within the bounds of California's medical marijuana laws when cultivating marijuana for medical purposes," she wrote. Harris has previously criticized the federal crackdown, saying "an overly broad federal enforcement campaign will make it more difficult for legitimate patients to access physician-recommended medicine." Reflecting the Obama administration's inconsistent, shifting, self-contradictory, and deliberately ambiguous policy in this area, the version of Harris' letter to legislators that she posted on her website includes this sentence: "The California-based United States Attorneys have stated (parphrase Cole memo re: hands off approach to those clearly complying with relevant state medical marijuana laws)." Someone in Harris' office clearly was supposed to summarize the Justice Department's position on medical marijuana, but I guess that proved to be too big a challenge. I sympathize. Meanwhile, Americans for Safe Access and other medical marijuana supporters are backing a ballot initiative that aims to do what Harris says she wants: specify where the marijuana that patients are allowed to use is supposed to come from. A.P. reports that the initiative, which was submitted to California's secretary of state last week for approval prior to signature collection, "would create an appointed Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement charged with overseeing businesses and nonprofits that grow, distribute, sell and test pot both in its raw state and in finished products like food items." A.P. says "the envisioned regulatory scheme would be financed through application and registration fees, as well as through a 2.5 percent retail sales tax on marijuana and pot-infused products." Depending on the details, this approach might conflict with an October 4 state appeals court ruling that said Long Beach's dispensary licensing system conflicted with the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) because it went "beyond decriminalization into authorization." In her letter to legislators, Harris says that decision could still be overturned by the California Supreme Court, but "for now it is binding law" and "may limit the ways in which the State can regulate dispensaries and related activities." Specifically, the decision suggests that the CSA bars state or local governments from issuing dispensary permits, requiring license or registration fees, or mandating testing of marijuana. [Thanks to Richard Cowan for the tip.]
Surface crochet, surface slip stitch or surface chain–the name pretty much explains itself. This technique involves slip stitches made through crocheted fabric, to make designs directly onto crocheted pieces. It is also used to smooth out the outlines when the design involves color changes. It’s a little like drawing, except we use yarn and hook instead of pen and paper–ain’t that cool? Here’s a step-by-step tutorial for surface crochet, or surface slip stitch. Mousing over the images will show the photos for the left-handed tutorial. Before starting surface crochet, it is best to have an idea of what design to “draw.” You can even draw up charts to help you with where to place the stitches. Or use up existing charts for tapestry crochet, filet crochet, or even embroidery templates and cross stitch patterns. Surface crochet is easiest when working on a crochet piece with mostly single crochet stitches–and that is what we use in this tutorial. As with all crochet work, start by making a slip knot. And having your crochet project to embellish on standby. Attach the slip knot to the back of the work where you want to start your surface crochet design, by making a slip stitch into one of the stitches. Make sure that the stitch doesn’t show in front! One slip stitch in the back of the work made. Take your hook off the working loop. From the front of the work, insert hook into a stitch near the working loop in the back. Insert hook into working loop and pull up the loop through to the front of the work. You should have something like this in the front of the work at this point. Now we start making slip stitches on the surface, with the yarn feeding from the back of the work. Insert hook into next stitch. From the back of the work, yarn over. Draw yarn through loop–one surface slip stitch made! Continue working like so according to the design in mind. This photo shows five (5) surface slip stitches in a straight line. Finishing Surface crochet was easy! Say we already finished working on the design. Here’s how to finish off surface crochet work. After making the last stitch in your design, remove hook from working loop. Inserting hook from the back of the work, pick up the working loop and bring it to the back of the work. From the back of the work, yarn over, pull yarn through loop. Finish off and weave in ends. These two photos show how surface crochet looks from the front and the back. The front stitches (left) look like chain stitches or a thin braid, while they look like a basic running stitch from the back (right). I hope that was helpful. If you need any help just leave a comment below. Happy hooking!
It was the giant chicken alongside the road that started it. A handful of people attending the weekly Tuesday protest outside Rep. Darrell Issa’s Vista office found tickets on their cars for infractions — including five with no front license plate. There were a total of seven tickets issued, six for parking and one moving violation. One woman found herself pulled over and cited for honking her horn in support as she drove past the crowd of roughly 300 protesters. And the sole President Trump supporter at the event also got a ticket, a $56 citation for parking his motorcycle the wrong way, with the nose pointed to the curb instead of to the street. The citations ruffled feathers, and a few protesters said the sight of the deputy double parked while writing a ticket was far more distracting for drivers than the giant chicken. “They were creating an incredible traffic problem themselves,” said Ellen Montanari, who has emerged as the rally organizer. She said such aggressive ticketing “has never happened before, ever” during the event. Authorities said the citations were not intended to be harassment, nor did politics come into play. (Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune) A deptuty speaks with a driver he pulled over Tuesday during the weekly rally outside Rep. Darrell Issa's office. A deptuty speaks with a driver he pulled over Tuesday during the weekly rally outside Rep. Darrell Issa's office. ((Nelvin C. Cepeda/San Diego Union-Tribune)) The problem Tuesday seems to have started with a 20-foot-tall inflatable chicken with orange-gold hair, a new addition to the attention-seeking protests held just about every week since the inauguration. The chicken was on the dirt, not in the road. The sheriff’s lieutenant who monitors the rallies said he was concerned the big bird was a safety problem and a traffic hazard, including a distraction for drivers passing by, so he took action to address the matter. “It wasn’t targeting anybody in particular,” Lt. Mike Munsey said. “It’s a traffic and parking citation. It doesn’t have anything to do with a political issue.” First, he said, he contacted city code enforcement officers, and sent them a picture to ask if the inflatable fowl violated any city codes. He said he was told it did not. Vista spokeswoman Andrea McCullough said the City Attorney determined the chicken was linked to the protest, and thus protected by free speech rights — unless it had obstructed traffic. Munsey said he then called for a traffic enforcement deputy. At some point, the deputy ran out of tickets, and had to have more brought out to him. Capt. Chuck Cinnamo, who runs the Sheriff’s station in Vista, said the deputy was called to the area to look for traffic violators. Once out there, authorities spotted and cited other parking violations. “(They were) out there to make sure that some of the safety concerns were addressed, but it doesn’t mean we are not going to enforce the law when we are out there,” Cinnamo said. He said that his department has fielded complaints about all the cars parked on the street, including from people who live in a gated community near Issa’s office. “I could see if you said it was harassment if we were out there repeatedly doing petty enforcement,” he said. “This is in response to safety concerns raised and brought to us.” Since the rallies started, it has been commonplace for passing motorists to hit the horn and wave support as they drive by the gathering. There is usually at least one deputy at the event, sometimes more. According to sheriff’s officials, there has been one other person cited (in June) for honking their horn in the hour before, during or after the weekly rallies since the start of the year. One driver was ticketed in February for illegally stopping, and two others were cited in March for parking in a red zone. Since Dec. 20, 2016, the sheriff’s department has received 18 calls for service — including traffic hazards and illegal parking — on the block in question on Tuesday mornings. The rallies, which routinely draw 200 to 300 people, including many retirees, have themselves drawn controversy, because of noise, high turnout and safety concerns. The protesters have since instituted rules, from running a yellow rope to keep people on the sidewalk and out of the street, to establishing crossing guards of sorts. Oceanside resident Susan Porter was the motorist ticketed Tuesday for honking her horn. She had been in the crowd, but went to move her car, fearing that she may have parked too close to a fire hydrant (although the curb is not painted red in front of it). The 63-year-old said she gave two beeps, three times — “and my horn is the wimpiest in the world” — as she drove by the crowd to find a new spot. That, she said, is when a deputy pulled a U-turn and pulled her over. “If nobody had ever blown their horn in front of the rally before, I wouldn’t have blown my horn,” Porter said. Porter said she plans to fight the ticket, and called the citations “harassment and intimidation.” “It’s not so much the ticket that’s the bummer for me,” Porter said. “The bummer for me is that I have a lot of respect for police — they have a tough job — and this has just diminished that (good feeling).” Issa was not even in the country. A senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Issa has been in the Middle East as a part of a congressional delegation mission. teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com (760) 529-4945 Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUT
Cannabis May Offer Safe, Effective Autism Treatment Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects information processing in the brain. It is often characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, as well as “stereotyped” behavior. It is estimated that 1 in 88 children are diagnosed with autism. Further, it is even more prevalent when you only consider boys, effecting 1 in 54. Despite its high rate of occurrence, little is known about autism and how it should be treated. With that said, a number of parents with autistic children have turned to medical marijuana. Surprisingly, cannabis has had profound effects in multiple cases. Seeing its benefits in action even caused one California mother to found the Unconventional Foundation for Autism (UF4A.org)– an informational website for families with autistic children that advocates for cannabis research. The Story Of Joey & Mieko Hester-Perez Mieko Hester-Perez founded the Unconventional Foundation for Autism after her own struggles as a parent. Her son, Joey, was diagnosed with a severe form of autism at 16 months old. During an interview, Mieko explained that it has been a tough road since Joey’s diagnosis. “It was a lot of trial and error, but you get through it the best way you can,” she said. “Joey gained 15 lbs over the course of a few months and soon began to make eye contact.” Joey was prescribed as many as 13 pharmaceutical drugs at one point – all but two of them were experimental. After years of exposure to these medications, Joey – 10 at the time – weighed as little as 46 lbs in 2009. He was diagnosed with malnutrition and anorexia. “They were killing him,” she exclaimed. Further, Mieko explained that Joey expressed self-injurious behaviors, in addition to being a danger to those around him. After doing some research and consulting with experts, Mieko decided to see if Joey would benefit from medical marijuana. She baked a few batches of gluten-free cannabis-infused edibles for him, and within a matter of weeks witnessed a notable improvement. Joey gained 15 lbs over the course of a few months and soon began to make eye contact on a much more consistent basis. Also, Mieko noted that medical cannabis helped stimulate Joey’s appetite, replenishing nutrients that he hadn’t received for 8 years. Because of this, he started to grow. Mieko believes that medical marijuana saved her son’s life. Mieko’s experience with cannabis led her to speak with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America in 2009. She launched the Unconventional Foundation for Autism website on the same day that her interview (below) aired. What Is The Unconventional Foundation For Autism? As mentioned, the Unconventional Foundation for Autism (UF4A.org) is an informational website that is intended to “raise awareness and support for families afflicted with this mysterious and misunderstood condition known as autism.” They also strive to raise funds for medical research and clinical trials, while providing functional support for families in need. “Joey’s strain helps with his eye coordination and anxiety, among other symptoms.” Mieko has built a network of professionals that includes, among others, Jeffrey Raber (The Werc Shop), Aaron Justis (Buds & Roses Collective), Dr. Robert Melamede, and Kyle Kushman. Given the information from inquiring families, Mieko and her colleagues help decide the best course of action for each individual case. For instance, families of children who contact the Unconventional Foundation for Autism are likely to receive a consultation from the likes of Kushman and Justis in order to find the right strain and method of delivery. For Joey, it’s brownies made from a strain all his own – “Joey’s strain,” courtesy of Buds and Roses. Mieko explained that Joey’s strain helps with his eye coordination and anxiety, among other symptoms. More importantly, it seems to have brought out his personality. Of course, nothing is concrete in autism spectrum and the results are likely to vary from case to case. Nonetheless, Mieko says she will only suggest veganic-grown cannabis for children, regardless of the strain. She feels that it is easier on their digestive and inflammatory systems. Mieko Hester-Perez Calls Herself An ‘Urban Myth’ Mieko says that she would never have predicted the amount of recognition that she has received since her interview with Diane Sawyer aired on Good Morning America. Not only has she helped numerous families find the right course of treatment for their child, but her and Joey’s story seems to offer a glimmer of hope for a vast audience. Of course her foundation gets inundated with e-mails from inquiring families. Less expected, however, is the reaction that arises when Mieko encounters various health professionals. She recalls one visit to the pediatrician with Joey. Recognizing her from TV, the doctor proceeded to ask Mieko a number of questions regarding cannabis and autism. Similarly, Mieko routinely receives calls from healthcare providers representing families who have “exhausted all other options.” They come to her for help, often considering her a cannabis expert. Nonetheless, Mieko insists that she is nothing of the sort. She gives credit to the team of experts at her disposal. UF4A Helps Families Find The Treatment They Need These days, Mieko can often be found making appearances on various events and international television shows. Her family’s story was recently featured on Telemundo and Univision, as well as a Colombian news network that was shown to roughly 8,000,000 Latin Americans. Media appearances aside, Mieko holds a schedule that includes her work with California Corporate & Attorney Services – a public records firm. She has been a professional in the industry for 15 years. Nonetheless, she finds time to balance work and motherhood while managing the Unconventional Foundation for Autism. “Joey is probably the only advocate who has never said a word.”– Mieko Hester-Perez According to Mieko, she completely dedicates two days per week to conference calls with families in search of assistance. Not before relaying the seriousness of their inquiry however. The mother stresses the importance of protecting your families well-being through discreteness. “Until new (federal) laws are passed,” Mieko explained, “you could be putting your family in the line of fire.” Joey, now 14, has continued on his personal journey as well. He is currently recovering from surgery, but Mieko says that he is making progress. Overall, she calls Joey a happy, healthy kid. “He is probably the only advocate who has never said a word,” Mieko said. She explained that small victories seem sweeter when raising a child with special needs. “We don’t expect as much, but when he is able to give you a high five… that’s special,” she said. Legal Notice: Mieko Hester-Perez specifically invokes the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and of the press without prejudice. The products discussed are not intended to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat any disease, but are proven useful for the promotion of health and life extension. UF4A.ORG recommends that licensed local healthcare professionals are consulted.
Do Americans hate football? Not regular football, of course. Not football as in first and ten, going long, late hits, special teams, pneumatic cheerleaders in abbreviated costumes, serial brain concussions—the game that every American loves, apart from a few, uh, soreheads. Not that one. The other one. The one whose basic principle of play is the kicking of a ball by a foot. The one that the rest of the world calls “football,” except when it’s called (for example) futbal, futball, fútbol, futebol, fotball, fótbolti, fußball, or (as in Finland) jalkapallo, which translates literally as “football.” That one. The question arises now—as it has arisen periodically for eight decades—on account of the World Cup, the quadrennial global tournament of the sport that goes here by the name of soccer. “Soccer,” by the way, is not some Yankee neologism but a word of impeccably British origin. It owes its coinage to a domestic rival, rugby, whose proponents were fighting a losing battle over the football brand around the time that we were preoccupied with a more sanguinary civil war. Rugby’s nickname was (and is) rugger, and its players are called ruggers—a bit of upper-class twittery, as in “champers,” for champagne, or “preggers,” for enceinte. “Soccer” is rugger’s equivalent in Oxbridge-speak. The “soc” part is short for “assoc,” which is short for “association,” as in “association football,” the rules of which were codified in 1863 by the all-powerful Football Association, or FA—the FA being to the U.K. what the NFL, the NBA, and MLB are to the U.S. But where were we? Ah, yes. Do Americans hate it? Soccer, that is? Here’s one plausible answer: we don’t. The non-haters include the nearly twenty million of us who stayed indoors on a balmy Saturday afternoon to watch Ghana join England, Slovenia, and Algeria on this year’s list of countries beaten or tied by the United States in the World Cup. We were disappointed—Ghana won, 2-1, sending our team home from South Africa. Still, 19.4 million, the number registered by the Nielsen ratings service, is a lot of people. It’s not just more people than had ever watched a soccer game on American television before. It’s also more people than, on average, watched last year’s World Series games, which had the advantage of being broadcast live in prime time. It’s millions more than watched the Kentucky Derby or the final round of the Masters golf tournament or the Daytona 500, the jewel in NASCAR’s crown. And we don’t just watch. We do. An estimated five million grownups play soccer in these United States on a regular basis. Kids are mad for it, especially little ones. More American children play it, informally and in organized leagues, than any other team sport. Soccer may be an import, as is our entire nonaboriginal population, but it’s well on its way to becoming as American as pizza, tacos, and French fries. (And motherhood: Sarah Palin notwithstanding, “soccer moms”—a term introduced to the political world in 1996, by a Republican consultant—are the proverbial key demographic.) Of course, soccer has its challenges here, many of them owing to its relative newness in the arena of American commerce. The enthusiasm of toddlers and post-toddlers is all very well, but, if that were enough to do the trick, Nike would have a division devoted to dodgeball. Compared with its established rivals, big-time soccer is ill suited to televisual exploitation. The game’s continuous, almost uninterrupted flow of action denies it a steady supply of intervals for the advertising of beer and the fetching of same from the refrigerator. The expedient of selling space on the players’ bodies—plastering their uniforms with corporate logos from neck to navel—is less than fully satisfactory. Also, the soccer pitch is vaster than the gridiron or the diamond, and the choreography of the game demands the widest of angles. On TV, the players are tiny—a problem for those as yet unequipped with enormous high-def flat screens. Do Americans hate soccer? Well, some of us dislike it immoderately—not so much the game itself as what it is taken to represent. This spring, anti-soccer grumbling on the political right spiked as sharply as the sale of those great big TVs. Back in 1986, Jack Kemp, the former Buffalo Bills quarterback turned Republican congressman, took the House floor to oppose a resolution supporting America’s (ultimately successful) bid to host the 1994 World Cup. Our football, he declared, embodies “democratic capitalism”; their football is “European socialist.” Kemp, though, was kidding; he was sending himself up. Today’s conservative soccer scolds are not so good-natured. Their complaints are variations on the theme of un-Americanness. “I hate it so much, probably because the rest of the world likes it so much,” Glenn Beck, the Fox News star, proclaimed. (Also, “Barack Obama’s policies are the World Cup.”) What really bugs “silly leftist critics,” the Washington Times editorialized, is that “the most popular sports in America—football, baseball, and basketball—originated here in the Land of the Free.” At the Web site of the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush, wrote, “Soccer is a socialist sport.” Also, “Soccer is collectivist.” Also, “Perhaps in the age of President Obama, soccer will finally catch on in America. But I suspect that socializing Americans’ taste in sports may be a tougher task than socializing our healthcare system.” And then there’s G. Gordon Liddy. Soccer, Liddy informed his radio listeners, comes from Latin America, and first we have to get into this term, the Hispanics. That would indicate Spanish language, and yes, these people in Latin America speak Spanish. That is because conquistadores who came over from Spain—you know, tall Caucasians, not very many of them—conquered the Indians, and the Indians adopted the language of their conquerors. But what we call Hispanics now really are South American Indians. And this game, I think, originated with the South American Indians, and instead of a ball they used to use the head, the decapitated head, of an enemy warrior. Liddy’s guest, a conservative “media critic” named Dan Gainor, responded cautiously (“soccer is such a basic game, you can probably trace its origins back a couple of different ways”), while allowing that “the whole Hispanic issue” is among the reasons “the left” is “pushing it in schools around the country.” Do we hate soccer? That depends on who we think “we” are. One of the things that Franklin Foer’s charming book “How Soccer Explains the World” explains is how soccer, along with its globalizing, unifying effects, provides plenty of opportunities for expressions of nationalism, which need not be illiberal, and for tribalism, which almost always is. The soccerphobia of the right is tribalism masquerading as nationalism. One in four of those twenty million viewers of the U.S.-Ghana match was watching it on Univision, America’s leading Spanish-language network. The three others were—well, who knows. Liberals, probably, or worse. Enough. A yellow card is in order here, maybe a red one. Soccer may never be “America’s game” (though it’s already one of them), but America is game for soccer. We’re the Land of the Free, aren’t we? Can’t we be the land of the free kick, too?
CLOSE Republic reporter Megan Cassidy talks about Sheriff Joe Arpaio in contempt in federal court. Mark Henle/azcentral.com Joe Arpaio (Photo: Jack Kurtz/The Republic) Six months after arguments concluded in a case against “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow broke his silence on Friday, filing a series of withering findings with one big conclusion: Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in civil contempt of federal court. Snow ruled that the Maricopa County lawman and three of his top aides violated an order meant to curtail racial profiling in his agency, according to the ruling issued Friday. The ruling held Arpaio in contempt on all three potential counts, ending a lengthy proceeding that started a year ago when Snow convened a series of hearings in downtown Phoenix to determine whether Arpaio and his commanders defied Snow's court orders. Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan was found in contempt on two counts, and retired Chief Brian Sands and Lt. Joe Sousa each were found in contempt of one. The ruling set the stage for reforms, costly sanctions and a potential referral for criminal prosecution, although the judge refrained from making any official decisions on those matters yet. "In short, the Court finds that the Defendants have engaged in multiple acts of misconduct, dishonesty, and bad faith with respect to the Plaintiff class and the protection of its rights," Snow wrote in the 162-page ruling. While a milestone, the ruling is largely a formality given the case’s history. Arpaio and Sheridan admitted to violating the judge’s orders before the hearings’ start date but repeatedly insisted that it was due to miscommunication and confusion rather than willful defiance. The distinction could mean the difference between civil contempt and criminal contempt — or “fix it” remedies compared with outright punishment. The judge set a May 31 date for a hearing for attorneys to discuss penalties. Shortly thereafter, Snow said, he would issue an order on sanctions and whether he would refer the case for a criminal contempt trial. 3 violations came under judge's scrutiny The contempt proceedings were based on three violations that occurred throughout the history of the underlying racial-profiling case: that the Sheriff's Office failed to turn over video evidence that was required before the trial; that officials continued to enforce immigration law after Snow barred the practice; and that Sheridan failed to quietly collect evidence after the trial, as Snow had ordered him to do. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and Covington & Burling represented plaintiffs both in the initial racial-profiling case and contempt hearings. Arpaio’s “state of mind” served as the primary topic for debate throughout the contempt proceedings, as the evidence left little doubt that his agency failed each order. The hearings, which started with four days of testimony in April 2015 and resumed with 16 days in the fall, often turned into a much broader discussion focused on the sheriff’s enforcement priorities and whether he was more interested in settling political scores than rooting out the racial profiling that Snow had found in the Sheriff’s Office. Arpaio’s acknowledgment in April that his attorneys had hired a private detective to investigate Snow’s wife was among the most bizarre moments in the lengthy proceeding. It set the tone for exchanges among Snow and Arpaio, his aides and attorneys that were occasionally pointed and personal. Two other large topics developed out of the proceedings: what plaintiffs’ attorneys said were worthless internal investigations; and whether the sheriff employed a Seattle-based computer programmer to concoct a conspiracy that would free Arpaio of his legal woes. NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters In exhaustive detail, Snow agreed with each of the plaintiffs’ allegations, often bolstering his findings with Arpaio’s own words. In reference to his December 2011 preliminary injunction that banned deputies from detaining individuals because of their immigration status and without state charges, Snow noted that Arpaio was fully aware of the order yet flaunted his decision to defy it. He cites Arpaio’s reaction in fall 2012, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it no longer would accept undocumented immigrants from the Sheriff’s Office. At that point, the sheriff announced his “backup plan” to drop off the individuals at Border Patrol facilities instead and boasted that deputies had recently done so for two “suspects.” Snow found that deputies had detained and turned over to federal authorities at least 157 individuals who had not committed state crimes, in violation of his order. Snow said both Arpaio and Sheridan made numerous misstatements under oath. In particular, he noted Arpaio’s testimony about the “Seattle Operation,” a catchall used to refer to the sheriff’s many covert dealings with Seattle-based computer programmer Dennis Montgomery. Arpaio maintained Montgomery was employed to investigate illegal CIA harvesting of citizens’ financial information, but some of the programmer’s work product indicated another goal. Montgomery compiled timelines and flow charts that seemed to allege an elaborate conspiracy against the sheriff involving Snow, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and various other federal officials. In his testimony April 23, 2015, Arpaio said he never had been involved in an investigation into Snow. Internal-affairs office in the spotlight Throughout the proceedings, plaintiffs asserted that the primary function of the Sheriff Office’s internal investigations was to absolve the accused of any wrongdoing. Snow agreed. The judge highlighted an internal-affairs case in which deputies had been accused of “pocketing” items from investigations. Although Sheridan initiated a probe into the matter, Snow said, there was a tacit understanding that it would go nowhere. Sheridan testified that he believed there was no basis for a criminal investigation, that he felt sorry for the human-smuggling unit members and only ordered the investigation to deflect scrutiny from the plaintiffs. “In short, Sergeant Tennyson’s investigation ended up being what he and Chief Deputy Sheridan intended it to be: a perfunctory whitewash,” Snow concluded. Snow also found Sheridan had ignored his own conflicts of interest by overseeing a probe into Detective Brian Mackiewicz, who was accused of padding his timesheet and having an inappropriate relationship with the victim of a domestic-violence incident he investigated. Sheridan was close with Mackiewicz, Snow found, and Sheridan’s wife stood to make $100,000 in commission from a home sale to one of Mackiewicz’s female friends. Mackiewicz was also Arpaio’s point person in the “Seattle Investigation.” In sum, Sheridan maintained control of the investigations to ensure “nothing became of them,” Snow said. Sheriff's attorneys, ACLU weigh in on the ruling The Arizona Republic was unable to reach Arpaio’s attorneys for comment Friday, but in a statement they said they have begun reading and analyzing the lengthy document. “Despite disagreeing with some of the Court’s findings, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with the court appointed Monitor, the ACLU and Plaintiffs to comply with the Court’s Orders, as it has since January 2014,” it said. Cecillia Wang, a plaintiffs’ attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants' Rights Project, called the ruling “careful” and abundantly supported by evidence and the defendants’ admissions. “Based on that evidence, it’s a damning finding — that they intentionally and repeatedly flouted the court’s orders,” she said. Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo said in a statement the ruling was the “first step in achieving justice for those whose civil rights were intentionally violated by Sheriff Arpaio.” Gallardo, a longtime Arpaio critic, noted that the taxpayers would be picking up the tab for millions of dollars to ensure the Sheriff’s Office would be in compliance with the court’s orders. “The irony is, while citizens pay the bill for the sheriff’s violation of the previous court orders, they are the only ones who can remove Arpaio from office and restore professionalism to our law enforcement agency.” Arpaio is running for his seventh term as Maricopa County sheriff this year. Next steps: A response to the judge, a hearing Snow has asked all parties, including the U.S. Department of Justice, to file a response to his rulings by May 27. The Justice Department settled a separate racial-profiling case against Arpaio last year and has since joined this case. Snow said he will discuss sanctions when the hearings pick back up May 31. Shortly thereafter, he said, he would issue orders on remedies and decide whether to refer the case for criminal contempt. Snow betrayed little about either upcoming decision in his Friday ruling, although he repeatedly asserted that Arpaio and his aides’ violations were “intentional.” It’s the key word that could be used to refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for criminal contempt charges. Snow also has said his decision will be based on whether he feels civil penalties are adequate. Civil penalties are largely used to force a defendant’s hand in fixing a problem, while criminal contempt signals punishment. Both can include financial sanctions, but only criminal contempt could lead to jail time. Snow did signal in his ruling that reforms over the office’s internal investigations are necessary. And plaintiffs say the parties are already working on a system where victims of the office’s racial profiling could be compensated. “We are hoping for the court to issue an order that would authorize some type of mechanism whereby victims could come forward and make claims for some type of compensation that stems from the violations of the preliminary injunction,” said Lauren Pedley, a litigation associate for Covington & Burling. Offshoot of racial-profiling case The contempt ruling is the latest development in a case that began when Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a Mexican tourist legally in the United States, was stopped outside a church in Cave Creek where day laborers were known to gather. Melendres, the passenger in a car driven by a white driver, claimed that deputies detained him for nine hours and that the detention was unlawful. Eventually, the case grew to include complaints from two Hispanic siblings from Chicago who felt they were profiled by sheriff's deputies, and an assistant to former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon whose Hispanic husband claims he was detained and cited while white motorists nearby were treated differently. Snow issued a preliminary injunction in December 2011 that prohibited sheriff’s deputies from engaging in law-enforcement practices that unfairly targeted Latinos, and he followed it up in 2013 with an order that included a court-appointed monitor to oversee reforms in the agency. The costs associated with the racial-profiling case now exceed $60 million, including at least $8.2 million in tax money tied to the outside attorneys required to represent all the parties in the ongoing legal proceedings. Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/27kvfIE
Sometimes you’ll get home, turn on the television, and start watching a film halfway through. But even if you don’t know the title, director, or any of the actors involved, there are several very easy ways to tell at a glance whether the movie in question is from the 80s or not. So with this in mind, here’s our handy list of ten tell-tale signs... Plasma effects If you wanted to make your audience believe that your movie’s protagonist was travelling back in time, encountering something supernatural or being reduced in size by a miniaturisation ray, there was one special effect to cover any eventuality. Perhaps mimicking those strange plasma globe things that became a popular novelty in the 80s, the animated lightning effect was among the most ubiquitous of the decade, appearing in almost every sci-fi, fantasy and horror movie you could care to name. Achieved by compositing hand-drawn cels over live-action, variations on this lightning or plasma effect can be traced back to Forbidden Planet’s remarkable Id Monster (animated by Disney’s Joshua Meador), but brought firmly back into vogue by ILM’s lightsaber effects work on the Star Wars movies. Thereafter, the composite lightning effect appeared everywhere, from electricity bolts hitting the DeLorean in Back To The Future, energy-sucking space vampires in Lifeforce, the sparks on an injured extraterrestrial bounty hunter in Predator, flying missiles on a computer screen in Wargames, and Christopher Lambert receiving the Prize in Highlander (which, now I think about it, wasn’t much of a prize at all). Although similar effects have been used in the movies since, never have they been quite so prominent as they were in the 80s - and to be fair, they still look really cool. Montage with upbeat music An 80s movie just wouldn’t be the same without a montage. Whether it’s Danny LaRusso awaiting his big fight in The Karate Kid (cut to Joe Esposito’s You’re The Best Around), the teenagers of Ferris Bueller exploring a Chicago art museum (to The Smiths), or Balboa training in the Rocky movies (Rocky IV was almost exclusively made up from musical montages), these sequences are quintessentially 80s. Musical montage sequences weren’t merely the preserve of teen comedies and lowest-common-denominator action flicks, either - even the classic Scarface had one, which saw ruthless anti-hero Tony Montana’s rapid rise to the top of the pharmaceutical distribution profession condensed into three minutes of Giorgio Moroder’s hideous Push It To The Limit. You don’t see stuff like this in gangster movies these days: Arcades It’ll probably seem inconceivable to youngsters in another few years that, back in the 80s, people used to play games on computers housed in gigantic slabs of chipboard. And although amusement arcades were still occasionally seen in 90s movies, their golden era had already passed. No, if you’re watching a movie that sees a youngster wrestling with an arcade machine - whether it’s Galaga in Wargames, or a kid getting beaten by Bad Dudes Vs Dragonninja as Steve Martin looks on in Parenthood, it’s more than likely that it’s from the 80s. One of Den of Geek’s favourites, The Last Starfighter, saw an arcade cabinet used as an interstellar pilot training tool by a race of aliens, which is about as 80s a fantasy film concept as you can get. A remake would presumably see the hero download an alien combat training app to his iPhone. Teenagers have interesting adventures If the 80s has taught us nothing else, it’s that teenagers got into all kind of entertaining and strange scrapes. If you thought Katniss Everdeen was unlucky for having to spend two hours up a tree to avoid a bunch of violent teen gladiators in The Hunger Games, the teenagers of Red Dawn managed to help fend off a full-scale communist invasion – and not a conveniently situated wasps’ nest in sight. Other youths enjoyed fun days out in a stolen Ferrari (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), got lost with a bunch of little kids in Chicago (Adventures In Babysitting, actually shot in Toronto), got lost in time (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure), and even rescued their army parents from a Korean prison (The Rescue). There’s an easy way to tell if the movie you’re watching is from the 80s, therefore: if it involves teens going on adventures, getting into fights or generally causing trouble, it’s probably from the shoulderpad decade. If the teenagers spend their spare time mooning over effete, pale young boys covered in glitter, it’s probably one of those new-fangled Twilight movies, or a recent episode of Home & Away. Evil, conniving rich people The arrival of the 2008 financial crisis has seen the subject of this entry make a return appearance in movies, but the evil rich are still a particularly prominent figure in 80s cinema. From Belloq, the ‘champagne villain’ of Raiders Of The Lost Ark near the start of the decade, via the smug Duke and Duke of Trading Places, to the conniving Burke of Aliens, white collar villains were the big-screen, cartoonishly villainous analogues of the 80s yuppie phenomenon. John Carpenter’s They Live revealed yuppies to not just be different from ordinary working mortals in terms of wealth, but actually from a whole other planet - a satirical characterisation that is easily as satisfying and memorable as Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko in Wall Street, who summed up the entire decade of excess with the immortal line, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” Although about the 80s rather than written in the 80s, Brett Easton Ellis created another evil yuppie in 1991’s American Psycho - Patrick Bateman, a sociopath whose love for Whitney Houston and Phil Collins was matched only by his appetite for murder and dismemberment. It's worth mentioning, though, that this brutal, satirical prodding at the ruthless nature of moneymaking and big business was, of course, anticipated by the mighty RoboCop, which saw suit-wearing corporate types murdering each other to stay ahead of the deal-making pack. And finally, we come to the ultimate 80s yuppie slimeball - Die Hard’s Harry Ellis. Clad in yards of expensive suit material, prepacked in a perfectly clipped beard, addicted to coke of the illegal variety and afflicted with one of the most infuriating laughs in movie history, it's a mild relief that his smarmy utterance, “Hans. Bubbie. I’m your white knight” quickly becomes his epitaph. Gratuitous sex scenes Now here’s one movie trapping we don’t see very often these days. Apparently killed off in the quest for a PG-13 certificate in modern films, the gratuitous sex scene reached its zenith in the 80s. A good example of this can be found in the 80s thriller No Mercy, in which Richard Gere’s tough Chicago cop went on the run from a crime lord with Kim Basinger in tow. Even though the spectre of death hangs over them, they still find time to stop off at a motel somewhere to engage in a raunchy, low-lit sex scene. If a thriller didn’t have a sequence like the one described above (and if it was an erotic thriller, like Sea Of Love, it might have a couple), then it would at least have the following: during either a pursuit or a fight, someone would kick a door down, and there’d be either a couple having sex, or at least a topless woman waiting to be discovered. For examples, see Commando, Red Heat, Die Hard (it’s brief, but it’s there), and too many others to count. And then there are all those 80s slasher movies and bawdy teen comedies, which were forced to include gratuitous scenes of sex and nudity by law... A steel mill/factory/warehouse sequence Sooner or later, characters in 80s movies always found themselves in some sort of industrial building. The Terminator concluded with a tense chase through a factory. RoboCop appeared to take place almost entirely in disused steel mills and warehouses. Schwarzenegger was stuck in a futuristic prison that looked more like an old factory than Wormwood Scrubs in 1987’s The Running Man. The conclusion of Sly Stallone’s Cobra took place in some sort of hellish smelting facility. Even the decade’s best dancers worked in steel mills - just look at Flashdance. The reason for the number of these scenes is two-fold, perhaps. The production of steel, cars and other heavy industries, once a big part of the US economy, were in decline in the 70s and 80s, and this was reflected - whether consciously or not - by the era’s filmmakers. Certainly, the period’s decline in manufacturing provided directors with plenty of cheap, run-down places in which to shoot their movies, resulting in an entire decade of sequences set in industrial locations. Dodgy nightclub sequences Running close behind those steel mill sequences came the ones set in nightclubs. It became something of a legal requirement, it seemed, for 80s movies to have at least one scene set in the deafeningly noisy, blue-hued environs of a nightclub, with dozens of extras swaying awkwardly in huge shoulderpadded suits while desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the roving camera. Examples? The fabulously 80s teen horror flick Fright Night featured a great nightclub sequence featuring a predatory Chris Sarandon. Sly Stallone stalked Rutger Hauer through a noisy nightspot in Night Hawks, while Arnie killed an entire discotheque full of revellers in The Terminator. If the movie you’re watching doesn’t feature a night club, it’s likely that it’ll contain its seedier counterpart, the strip joint - these are often the dens of bad guys or a stopping-off point for cops on the hunt for clues. See Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop and its sequel, Clint Eastwood thriller Tightrope, sci-fi flick The Hidden, and many, many more. 1986 horror movie Vamp was set exclusively in a strip club, if memory serves. It seems that, in the 80s, every adult male on their planet spent an inordinate amount of time frequenting bars where women took their clothes off - presumably to kill time until someone invented broadband. Look - even Beetlejuice was in on the craze: Helpless female bystanders A somewhat strange trapping of 80s movies and TV, this phenomenon is best exemplified in Sly Stallone’s cop movie effort, Cobra. During the climactic fight sequence, in which Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti engages in hand-to-hand combat with a villain called Night Slasher (the hulking Brian Thompson), love interest Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) simply stands around in the distance and watches the brawl unfold. Admittedly, this sort of thing went on in entertainment long before the decade that taste forgot (Olive Oyl used to stand around shouting encouragement while Popeye and Bluto punched each other in the face, for example), but by the 80s, portraying women as hopeless sufferers of the bystander effect was beginning to look rather absurd. In the example cited above, the fact that Brigitte Nielsen is notably taller and broader than Sly Stallone, and kicked all kinds of backside in Red Sonja, makes the sequence look even more ridiculous. Presumably, the bit where Sly walks away when the fight’s over and says to Brigitte, “You were bloody useless, by the way. Useless. Where were you? Reading a book or something? Look at the size of your hands. You could have crushed his head like a quail's egg” didn’t make the final edit. There was a similar scene in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gun fantasy, Commando, in which love interest Rae Dawn Chong watches Arnie punch Bill Duke in a hotel room. Hiding behind a wall, she emits the occasional squeal when a bullet flies in her direction, and is heard to remark, “I don't believe this macho bullshit,” and the horrifying “These guys eat too much red meat.” Sigh. It ends on a freezeframe If you’re watching a movie and it suddenly stops approximately 100 minutes in, don’t worry - your Blu-ray player hasn’t crashed. It probably just means the movie you’ve been watching was made in the 80s. Used to singularly dramatic effect at the conclusion of the 1969 classic, Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, the freezeframe ending became mysteriously popular among filmmakers a little over a decade later. Stallone loved the technique, and presumably nicked it from John G Alvidsen, who later ended his Rocky remake, The Karate Kid, with a shot of Mr Miyagi looking sage and, if we’re being honest, a little bit smug. At any rate, almost every Rocky movie ended on a freezeframe of Rocky Balboa’s face looking battered yet relieved, and usually draped in the stars and stripes. 1984‘s Against All Odds ended with an extended freezeframe of Rachel Ward’s face, streaked with tears - tears provoked, no doubt, by the Phil Collins music playing in the background. Similarly, The Breakfast Club concluded with a still shot of a young Judd Nelson punching the air in jubilation, probably at the thought of the glittering Hollywood acting career which lay ahead. Like many of the other 80s trappings on this list, freezeframes have still appeared occasionally since (quite memorably in The Full Monty), but never as frequently as they did in that decade. And lest we forget, 80s comedy series Police Squad did freezeframes better than any other show on Earth... Follow Den Of Geek on Twitter right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
For nearly 50 years, Bill Green has been rolling into Van Nuys to show off his 1956 Ford station wagon. Green began cruising Van Nuys Boulevard in the 1960s after he snagged his driver’s license and purchased his first car. Over the years, thanks to his passion, he was able to meet new friends and witness how the familiar neighborhood has changed. “Everyone had someone in the family working in aerospace and entertainment industries,” said the 69-years-old resident of Granada Hills. “But they all moved to other places. It’s all different now.” Vintage cars and trucks once again cruise Van Nuys Boulevard every third Wednesday of the month. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Lamar Hart watches the cruisers roll down Van Nuys Boulevard Wednesday evening from the trunk of his 1964 Chevy. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Sound The gallery will resume in seconds Chris Mills 1956 custom Chevy Implala is one of the hottest cars on the Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Bill Greene first cruised Van Nuys Blvd in the 60’s in his very first car, a 1956 two-door Ford station wagon. Greene located same car model, bought it, and now cruises the Blvd again on Wednesday cruise nights. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Vintage cars and trucks are stacked up along Van Nuys Blvd every 3rd Wednesday of the month. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Vintage cars and trucks are lined up along side new cars for sale along Van Nuys Blvd on Wednesday cruise night. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Peter Becerra of Palmdale in his 1974 Caprice convertable. Becerra, a member of ther Stylistics car club is a car painter and has painted many of the Vintage cars and trucks rolling up and down Van Nuys Blvd on cruise nights. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Vintage cars and trucks once again cruise Van Nuys Boulevard every third Wednesday of the month. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG A vintage Ford Fairlane mixes with new cars on Wednesday along Van Nuys Blvd. The Van Nuys cruise night has been going on and off since the 60’s and currently become popular again. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Vintage cars and trucks line Van Nuys Blvd on Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. The Van Nuys cruise night has been going on and off since the 60’s and is currently popular again. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Hugo Gardado in his 1957 Ford Fairlane on Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. Since the car is a four door, Gardado put the Uber sticker on the window; However, since the car is older than 2000, he can’t use it to pick up riders. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG After cruising Van Nuys Blvd, vintage car enthusiasts gather near new car lots along the Blvd to talk cars. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Old and new come together as cruisers line Van Nuys Blvd with thier classic cars in front of new car dealers. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Chris Mills 1956 custom Chevy Implala is one of the hottest cars on the Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Chris Mills 1956 custom Chevy Implala is one of the hottest cars on the Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Chris Mills 1956 custom Chevy Implala is one of the hottest cars on the Wednesday cruise night in Van Nuys. (Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News-SCNG Teenagers cruise Van Nuys Blvd. on a Wednesday night in 1977. (Los Angeles Daily News file photo) On a recent night, Green parked his car on a lot near a car dealership on Van Nuys Boulevard and sat in a camping chair to witness the parade on wheels. The latest edition of Van Nuys Cruise Night, a San Fernando Valley tradition reborn on the third Wednesday of every month, drew several dozen vintage cars and many spectators last week. Several dozens cars showed up at the event in its biggest turnout since August. After cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, some drivers pulled over in their cars and posed for photos with friends. Some cars hopped a few feet in the air as they rode along the boulevard. A yellow Volkswagen bus, parked along the road, drew smiles and waves from the the spectators. The cruise nights became popular in the 1950s as the cruising culture emerged in Van Nuys, spurred by low-priced cars and gasoline. In 1979, William Sachs shot the movie “Van Nuys Blvd.” with actress Cynthia Wood about cruising the famous boulevard. Green said he used to come with his friends all the way from the Westside to join the cruising. “We didn’t have rivals back then,” he said. “We just came here because we loved cars and cruising. We also wanted to meet girls. You come here and have a date for the rest of the week.” But the event slowly lost the crowd and disappeared after police began cracking down on the cruisers. Then in 2009, a group of car enthusiasts decided to revive the event, promoting it on social media and spreading the word among friends. Former NBA player Chris Mills sat next to his 1959 Chevy. “This is like a therapy for me,” Mills said, adding that he was not looking for to sell the car. But if he was willing to let it go, its price tag could reach over $200,000. “You get in a car, turn on old-school music and meet people.” He brought the car from Alabama and named it “Mothership,” spending several years repairing and adding new features, including a racing motor, batteries and hydraulics. “It’s the mothership of all cars,” he said. “This car is a dream come true.” Lavar Burkhart said some people come to get attention instead of looking to connect with other car lovers, turning the event into “a competition.” Hugo Guardado sat in a camping chair next to his 1957 Ford Fairlane. His 11-year-old daughter attended the show with him. He purchased the car from his cousin a few years ago and “put a lot of work in to it,” repainted it and posted an Uber sign on it, just to “get people talking.” He said Cruise Night has been a way to meet people who share the same passion. “I get to see old car friends and cars that I haven’t seen before,” said the 37-year-old resident of Panorama City, adding that he has been attending the event for the last five years. “I come here to show off my car. A lot of hard work was put into it to be sitting at home.” This story has been updated to reflect the correct year of Chris Mills’ Chevy.
VIDEO: Cosby Arrives at Court for Arraignment on Sexual Assault Charges CAUGHT ON TAPE: Hoverboard Explodes in Middle of TX Mall An Ohio man was arrested after posting video of himself drinking and driving to Facebook. The video led to his arrest hours later after a tipster reported it to Franklin County authorities. A copy of the 12-second video provided by the sheriff's office shows 28-year-old Dustin Rittgers sitting in a vehicle, looking into the camera and taking a swig from a partially covered bottle. As the clip ends, the camera is flipped around to show a hand with only one finger raised to guide the steering wheel. The Franklin County Sheriff's office said: "This situation shows the power of social media. Social media led us straight to this suspect to stop him before he was able to hurt himself or others. Social media is another crime fighting tool we use to keep Franklin County residents safe." His Facebook Video Leads to OVI Arrest: On 12/28/15, Sheriff Zach Scott and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office... Posted by Franklin County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 Proud NYPD Dad Watches All 3 of His Sons Join Him on the Force No Arrests Made After Rioting Teens Force KY Mall to Close This Baby Tasted Bacon for the First Time and His Life Was Complete
Russians React To Western Food Ban With Pride, Resignation Enlarge this image toggle caption Karoun Demirjian Karoun Demirjian In Moscow, apples are starting to look a little worse for wear. Soft cheeses are in shorter supply. And if you want fresh fish from the market — well, you're going to be paying a premium for it. But one month into the food ban Russia imposed on most Western imports of produce, meat, fish and dairy, the city's grocery shelves are still stocked. And average Russians don't seem particularly perturbed about the ban, an answer to sanctions over Russia's involvement in Ukraine. "Things [under the ban] will change, but then they'll return back," says Alexandra Aksheva, 27, a shopper outside the Danilovsky Market in Moscow. "It's not better for Russia, but it's temporary." Another shopper took a more patriotic view. "The West doesn't have to feed Russia; Russia can grow food for itself," says Ivan Alexeyevich, 65, who gave only his first name and patronymic (a customary Russian middle name). "Take the Soviet times: Everything was Soviet, everyone ate Soviet, Russia didn't depend on the West — so there's nothing to worry about." The one-year food ban is a near across-the-board measure preventing the import of products from the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Australia and Norway. Ordinary Muscovites have cultivated a bumper crop of food jokes about everything from how Belarus could become a paradise for repackaged European products to myriad recommendations for dressing up grechka, a homegrown buckwheat grain and trade-ban-proof staple. Yet as Europe readies a new round of sanctions that Russia has already promised to answer, a look at the food ban's immediate legacy could be telling of what more is to come. When the West began targeting Russia's financial, defense and oil and gas industries with sanctions, Russia opted for a gastronomic retort. This summer, Moscow's quality control agencies started reporting a glut of food safety violations in various shipments of European fruit, Ukrainian cheese and American chicken. Russia's main consumer watchdog agency sued McDonald's — a symbol of Americanism in Russia since the first restaurant opened in Moscow in the waning years of the Soviet Union — over bacteria and underreported nutritional content in certain menu items, and eventually shut down several restaurants. Even a few American booze manufacturers, like Jack Daniel's, faced Russia's regulatory wrath. Officials deny charges that the scrutiny was politically motivated despite a historical pattern of practice suggesting the contrary. Russia blocked Ukrainian cheese and chocolate imports around the time the country decided to pursue closer ties with Europe; when Georgia did the same in the mid-2000s, regulators found microbes in its wine exports, which stayed off of Russian shelves for seven years. Since the Kremlin ordered an all-out ban, normally food import-dependent Russia has been trying to build up capacity and confidence in its own agricultural sector. Russian state television stations trumpet stepped-up production in national farms and food factories. Meanwhile the Russian government has announced a host of new trade arrangements to replace Western fresh food imports with products from Turkey, China, Iran and Brazil. As Russia pulls in substitute imports from far corners of the globe, shipping costs alone could drive up the prices of food, already in the throes of a national 7.5 percent inflation rate, even farther — despite government promises to prevent price gouging and keep costs in check. Authorities are serious about enforcing the ban, reserving the right to conduct compliance checks in stores, and turning back shipments from neighboring countries discovered to contain prohibited goods. Despite that dedication, even the Russian government has acknowledged there are limits to what it can do. In late August, Russian officials announced they would take a select number of items off the blacklist, such as lactose-free dairy products, because those products aren't produced in Russia. Onions, frequently subject to price shocks, will also be allowed in. Thus far, the system seems to be working: Supermarket shelves are stocked, and popular support for the ban is strong. According to a recent Levada Center poll, about three-quarters of Russians back the prohibition on Western fruit. But cooling temperatures in Moscow are a reminder that the true test of the food ban will come during the long Russian winter, when the frozen ground makes imports more vital. "We know what it will be — and it will be unpleasant," says Tania Yazikova, 26, who will pine for Finnish yogurt. "But worried? No, we aren't worried about it." Karoun Demirjian is based in Moscow, where she writes for the Washington Post. Once upon a time, she was an intern for NPR's All Things Considered.
Electric Old Timers Fact Sheet Here is some information about 'Electric Old Timers' a facet of our hobby that the AEFA is actively developing and promoting. A 'Fact Sheet' covering this material can be accessed here . ‘Old Timers’ come in all shapes and sizes but note the term describes a particular variety of model aircraft, not their pilots. In essence they are vintage models, based on designs published or available as kits during the “golden era of model aviation”, the decade of the thirties to the beginning of WWII. The Society of Antique Modelers (SAM), recognized as a world wide authority and advocate of these aircraft, calls models prior to 1939,“antique”, and before 1942, “old timer”. Aircraft up to 1956 are in the “nostalgia” category. There are ‘chapters’ of SAM throughout Australia, encouraging all age groups to experience the pleasure of building and flying these character filled models. Competition among ‘old timer’ flyers has led to the development of rules and regulations that make sure the models look like their vintage counterparts while allowing modern building materials and structural improvements. Replacing ignition or glow motors with electric power is now also an option. ‘Old Timer’s were originally free flight models powered by ignition engines or rubber motors. In that era, there were two types of competition, one for a limited motor run, the other for a limited fuel allowance. Current competition rules emulate those concepts. Rules for events currently flown by the AEFA are in the Rules section of this website (here) or downloadable here . In broad terms they are: Texaco - limited battery (fuel) allowance based on aircraft weight Duration - limited motor runs, battery based on wing area Height Limited - single, limited motor run to a capped ceiling 1/2A Texaco - the same idea as Texaco but aircraft are limited in size and battery options are reduced Vintage Glider - 7 minute flight. Single motor run with an electronic plug-in device limiting motor run time and aircraft height under power. Starting out with ‘old timers’ might seem a challenge but selecting a good design, and appropriate power package can be very simple if we look at what currently works for others Here are some tables describing some of the models currently competing in AEFA events.They show that one or two designs dominate and that mid to low price range motors give good results. DURATION Model Wingspan Weight Motor Prop Battery/Current Playboy 80” 2030mm 49oz 1390g 2848-4800 in-runner Astro gear Bolly 12” 2200-3S 100A Sunduster 88” 2235mm 60oz 1720g Scorpion HK4015-1050 12x6 1800-6S 89A Airborne 114” 2895mm 67oz 1900g Scorpion 3026-890 13x8 2200-4S 70A Playboy Cabin 102% 79.5” 2020mm 47oz 1332g Hyperion ZS3025-10 12x6 1800-4S 50A Record Hound 68” 1727mm 50oz 1470g MVVS 13x10 1800-4S 53A Lanzo Bomber86% 78” 2000mm 59oz 1417g Scorpion 4020-12 13x6 1800-6S 50A Playboy 80” 2030mm Axi 12x6 2200-3S Cumulus 79” 1778mm 56oz 1588g Neu 1509 14x10 2200-4S 140A HEIGHT LIMITED Model Wingspan Weight Motor Prop Battery /Current Record Hound 68” 1727mm 50oz 1417g MVVS 4.6/840 13x10 1800-4S 53A Playboy 80” 2030mm 49oz 1390g 2848-4800 in-runner Astro gear Bolly 12” 1750-3S 70A Airborne 114” 2895mm 67 oz 1900g Scorpion 3026-890 13x8 2200-4S 60A Airborne 48” 1220mm 22oz 624g Hyperion 2218-10 12x6 1300-3S 18A Lanzo Bomber70% 67” 1710m 35oz 992g Hyperion 3025-8 11x5.5 1200-3S 28A Lanzo Bomber70% 70” 1780mm 31oz 880g Eflite Power 15 10x8 2200-2S 20A Sunduster 88” 2235mm 60oz 1720g Scoprion HK4015-1050 13x6 1800-3S 70A Dallaire Sportster 108” 2740mm 88oz 2495g Turnigy 3648-850 14x7 2600-3S 63A TEXACO Model Wingspan Weight Motor Prop Battery/Current Lanzo Bomber 70% 70” 1780mm 31oz 879g Eflite Power 15 13x6 920-2S 18A Airborne 114” 2895mm 67 oz 1900g Scorpion 3026-890 13x8 900-4S 55A Lanzo Bomber70% 70” 1780mm 26oz 750g 400 size Turnigy outrunner 10x6 800-2S 12A Lanzo Bomber70% 67” 1710mm 34oz 964g Hyperion 3025-8 11x5.5 900-2S 20A Nimbus 123” 3125mm 154oz 4365g Turnigy 5065-400 16x8 2200-4S 35A Dallaire Sportster 108” 2740mm 88oz 2495g Turnigy 3648-850 12x6 1600-3S 32A
Deporting All Illegal Aliens, Rather Than Granting Amnesty, Would Save America At Least $599 Billion A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies found that deporting illegal immigrants, despite the heavy up-front cost, is far cheaper in the long run. Deportation makes economic sense. The average cost of deportation, as reported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was $10,854 in the fiscal year 2016. Furthermore, the costs can be scaled—ICE deported 71% more aliens in 2012 at roughly the same cost per head. Compare this to the lifetime net fiscal costs of the average illegal immigrant of $65,292 for each illegal immigrant. This number is derived from a report penned by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on the subject. Some points to note: this number excludes costs associated with the decedents of illegal immigrants, and is therefore low. Schooling is the single-greatest cost of illegal immigration, and it is not included in this figure. This number is a bare-bones estimate of the cost of illegal immigrants. Given these figures, we can calculate the total savings that deportation (assuming everyone only needed to be deported once) entails, as opposed to granting amnesty to illegal aliens. First, there are at minimum 11.1 million illegal immigrants in America. This is the “official” figure, but it likely underestimates the true number of illegal aliens by a factor of three. That is, there are probably over 30 million illegal aliens residing in the USA. Using the low estimate (so as not to offend our more liberal readers), the total cost of deporting 11.1 million illegal aliens works out to $119 billion. This is a large figure, no question. However, the cost of allow illegal aliens to reside in the USA works out to some $718 billion—roughly six-times as expensive. This means that deporting illegal aliens, as opposed to granting them amnesty, would save America a net $599 billion—money that should be going to repairing our crumbling infrastructure, investing in science, education etc. Of course, it can be argued that these costs are incomplete. For example, it does not factor in the costs of the wall, or other immigration reforms needed to ensure we deny illegals re-entry into America. However, it also does not include many of the other costs associated with illegal immigration, like welfare for displaced citizen workers, or education. All things equal, the estimate is relatively fair. Amnesty would cost America much more than deportation. Period.
Heurelho Gomes: Linked with move away from Tottenham this month Gomes has found himself well down the pecking order at White Hart Lane this season and has yet to feature for Andre Villas-Boas' side. The Brazilian is keen to move on in this month's transfer window and Spurs are unlikely to stand in his way if they receive a suitable offer. The news has alerted a number of clubs across Europe to Gomes' possible availability either on loan or in a permanent deal. Italian giants AC Milan are thought to be interested in signing Gomes as they look to bring a new goalkeeper to the San Siro. A couple of unnamed Dutch clubs are also believed to be monitoring Gomes' situation, with the 31-year-old enjoying a successful spell in Holland with PSV Eindhoven prior to his move to Tottenham.
Everyone knows the crankiness, puffy eyes and excessive yawning that follow a bad night's sleep. Those chronically sleep-deprived also have increased risks of heart disease, obesity and early death. Because sleep patterns are difficult to monitor in large populations, researchers do not know what causes many sleep problems or how exactly these problems affect us. Till Roenneberg, a chronobiologist at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, thinks a global “human sleep project” could finally solve some of these mysteries. A common way to collect sleep data is through retrospective surveys of sleep habits, but they are unreliable because people tend to overestimate how much sleep they get. Laboratory studies are accurate but do not reproduce real-life behaviors. A global sleep project, proposed in a June issue of Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group), would outfit people with a variety of sensors to track their sleep patterns in real-time and, as a bonus, provide detailed feedback to the subjects. “If people can actually see their own data on their own Internet-based platform, I think we will not get 100 or 1,000 but a million people who will participate,” Roenneberg says. With all those data, researchers could tease out the lifestyle factors that ensure healthy sleep. “Much like satellite studies of weather, it is the larger view that will reveal global patterns, limits and interactions between factors we typically hold constant in the lab,” says Max Hirshkowitz, a spokesperson for the National Sleep Foundation. He believes a global sleep project would also illuminate how culture, occupation and geography all influence sleep patterns. A project on this scale would cost about $30 million, Roenneberg says, which is a lot for a field that is, like sleep itself, chronically undervalued. “Sleep is unconscious and not apparently productive—it's not like making money or making children—so people think that they can neglect it,” he says. His hoped-for global data could be a wake-up call on the importance of shut-eye.
When chatter in the mainstream media and in the blogosphere intersects with scientific discourse, I’m always interested in the ways that citations do, or don’t, cross the border between those domains. In 2006, for example, while checking references for a podcast with Steve Burbeck about multicellular computing, I traced a meme about how we humans are really a hybrid of human and bacterial cells. The mainstream vector was a New York Times magazine story on obesity. It got to the blogosophere by way of a Wired News story. But the original Nature Biotechnology article mentioned in the Wired story was linked nowhere that I could find. A comment from Gordon Mohr on yesterday’s item about Many Eyes prompted a similar analysis. Gordon asks: …do the Many Eyes founders consider the statistical paradox that when testing large numbers of hypotheses, most recognized ’statistically significant’ results may in fact be false? A good discussion of the issue is here: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/09/why_most_publis.html To answer Gordon’s question, I don’t know, it didn’t come up in our conversation. But lets look at the conversation surrounding the PloS Medicine article cited in the blog entry to which Gordon points. The blog entry itself was widely noticed, it has 31 del.icio.us bookmarks. What about the PloS Medicine article cited in this popular blog entry? It has only 6 del.icio.us bookmarks. This is the URL cited by the marginalrevolution blog: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=16060722 It’s not the most canonical form of the article’s URL. A more canonical form would be the base PubMed record: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16060722 That URL has 0 del.icio.us citations. However, now we cross over into the realm of scientific discourse. When you visit that PubMed URL, you’ll discover citations in the PubMed domain: There’s another canonical form for the PloS Medicine article, by the way. It has a Digital Oject Identifier (DOI): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124 Interestingly, there is 1 del.icio.us citation for that DOI. So, what did the PloS Medicine folks have to say about the claim in the cited August 2005 PloS Medicine article? Here’s an April 2007 reaction: The mathematical proof offered for this in the PLoS Medicine paper shows merely that the more studies published on any subject, the higher the absolute number of false positive (and false negative) studies. It does not show what the papers’ graphs and text claim, viz, that the number of false claims will be a higher proportion of the total number of studies published (i.e., that the positive predictive value of each study decreases with increasing number of studies). I’m not interested here in the claim and counterclaim. I’m interested in the process of discourse, in citation as the engine of that discourse, in the role that canonical identifiers play in citation, and in the disconnect between scientific and mainstream discourse. It’s all happening on the web, but it’s happening in isolated ghettoes with few points of actual contact. How could we bring those worlds into closer contact? Here’s one approach that could help. When the citation engines in the blogosphere find references in blog entries to scientific articles on the web, they could resolve those to their most canonical forms: DOIs, PubMed records. And they could make equivalences among those forms. That way, conversation in the blogosophere about a scientific article, and scientific conversation about the same article, would tend to hang together and would be discoverable in the same contexts. Why does this matter? Well, the marginalrevolution blog is influential, widely cited in the blogosphere. The entry that cited the PLoS Medicine article was itself widely cited. But the PLoS Medicine reaction to the article is not part of the blog conversation. I had to work really hard to find it, and to include it here. The conversation-tracking tools used by bloggers should discover scientific discourse related to a scientific article as easily as they discover blog discourse. Conversely, the conversation-tracking tools used by scientists should discover blog discourse as readily as scientific discourse. Public understanding of science would improve, and so would scientific understanding of the public.
Sure, other “music-related” sites bring you premieres of new tracks every other day. Even NPR has been known to throw a metal album on the interweb for your consumption. But you know where to go for the really good shit, right? That’s right, some to the killingest, trooest labels in all of metaldom entrust us to tantalize the metal world with these pre-release sneak peeks, so when their album drops the people who matter will know they gotta go out and git some of this shit. And in that spirit we humbly subject treat you to the latest aural dust-up from Old Man Gloom. Some of these other show-off sites that premiere tracks from a really good group that everyone loves have nothing on us, because we are streaming a track from a Supergroup (yeah, I totally capitalized that, motherfucker) that includes dudes from six other really good groups. Which is kind of weird, because there are only four people in the group. We suppose they must all be such good musicians that they’re each in several of the best bands in the world. For instance, have you heard of Converge, ISIS, Cave In, Zozobra, Doomriders and Mamiffer? Don’t be ridiculous, of course you have. Well, some of those guys are in OMG. You know what we say to that? O.M.G. Yeah, we’re that stoked for our own premiere. We’ve actually the heard the song, so it’s more of a premiere for you than it is for us. Not bragging or anything, but suffice it to say that the smug, self-satisfied feeling we have comes from knowing that we’ve been listening to a really cool song called “To Carry the Flame” from the album NO for a good couple weeks, and you still probably haven’t even bothered to skip down and click play yet. You should probably do that now. You can come back up and read the rest of the wisdom we’re about to drop while you’re getting a spinal readjustment from the sonic pressure OMG exerts on your fucking head, neck and shoulders. Hurts so good. Actually we don’t really have any more wisdom to drop and if we’re being completely honest, none of the above qualifies as much more than idiotic rambling. So, enjoy the fourth track on the fifth album from Old Man Gloom. You can purchase this album when it is released next Tuesday, June 26, by Hydra Head Records. Or you can pre-order seven different ways here.
"Previously I have interviewed Frank Zindler, Richard Carrier, David Fitzgerald and Robert Price, all of whom are ‘mythicists'; they don’t think there was ever anyone alive whom we could recognize as either Jesus or Moses. Of the lot of them, I would have thought that Price was the foremost expert, but he referred me to D.M. Murdock, also known as Acharya S, author of Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Israelite Lawgiver, an impressive piece of work. It’s definitive.” —Aron Ra, president, American Atheists-TX “There are no words that can adequately thank you enough. You are a sensitive soul whose presence enlightens the world. I hope your readers realize what an incredible lady (human being) you are. I am proud to call you my friend. I send best wishes.” —Amil Imani, Iranian democracy activist and writer “I have seen your site – smart, thoughtful, savvy! Great video! You put a lot of work into this, Acharya.” —Deven Green, creator of Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian “Your scholarship is relentless! …the research conducted by D.M. Murdock concerning the myth of Jesus Christ is certainly both valuable and worthy of consideration.” —Dr. Kenneth L. Feder, Professor of Archaeology, Central Connecticut State University, Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience In Archaeology “I find myself in full agreement with Acharya S/D.M. Murdock… I find it undeniable that…many, many of the epic heroes and ancient patriarchs and matriarchs of the Old Testament were personified stars, planets, and constellations…” —Dr. Robert M. Price, The Pre-Nicene New Testament “I can recommend your work whole-heartedly!” —Dr. Robert Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus and The New Testament Code, RobertEisenman.com “Well-referenced, with numerous quotations from renowned Egyptologists and classical scholars, Acharya’s penetrating research clearly lays out the very ancient pre-Christian basis of modern Christianity. Those who espouse Christianity beware! After digesting the evidence, you will never again view your religion in the same light.” —Dr. Robert M. Schoch, Professor of Natural Science College of General Studies at Boston University; Author, Pyramid Quest, Voyages of the Pyramid Builders and Voices of the Rocks “Acharya S deserves to be recognized as a leading researcher and an expert in the field of comparative mythology, on a par with James Frazer or Robert Graves—indeed, superior to those forerunners in the frankness of her conclusions and the volume of her evidence.” —Barbara Walker, The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets and Man Made God “I’ve known people with triple Ph.D’s who haven’t come close to the scholarship in Who Was Jesus?” —Pastor David Bruce, M.Div, North Park Seminary, Chicago, HollywoodJesus.com “Thirty years ago, when in divinity school, I might have had second thoughts about becoming an Episcopal priest if a book like D. M. Murdock’s Who Was Jesus? had been available to me.” —Bob Semes, Retired university professor of History and Religion, Founder and Executive Director of The Jefferson Center “In addition to presenting in Suns of God the troubling history of religious wars in an easily followed narrative, Acharya goes a step further, explaining as only she can how a once-simplistic idea has been carried into our modern world with terrible and nearly unimaginable results.” —Rev. Dr. W. Sumner Davis, Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society; Member, American Geophysical Union; Affiliate, New York Academy of Science “Ms. Murdock is one of only a tiny number of scholars with the richly diverse academic background (and the necessary courage) to adequately address the question of whether Jesus Christ truly existed as a walking-talking figure in first-century Palestine.” —David Mills, Atheist Universe “Thank you, Acharya, for the important work you are doing. Who Was Jesus? Fingerprints of the Christ just might be the best short introduction to Biblical scholarship yet.” —David Bergland, 1984 Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, Libertarianism In One Lesson “…I have found her scholarship, research, knowledge of the original languages, and creative linkages to be breathtaking and highly stimulating.” — Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham, Pastor, Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX “Acharya S has done a superb job in bringing together the rich panoply of ancient world mythology and culture, and presenting it in a comprehensive and compelling fashion.” —Earl Doherty, The Jesus Puzzle “Acharya S is a shining light of truth in a sea of deceit.” —Rob McConnell, X Zone Radio/TV, Ontario, Canada “The Christ Conspiracy—very, very scholarly and wholly researched—is a book for today…” Rev. B. Strauss, ex-Catholic Priest, Chicago, IL “Amidst the global chaos of George Bush’s War on Terror, largely founded on religious intolerance and simplistic notions of good and evil, Acharya S is the voice of reason.” —Joan D’Arc, Paranoia “D.M. Murdock could well be the most brilliant, insightful and rigorous theologian writing today.” —Robert Tulip “Acharya S is the ranking religious philosopher of our era.” —John K. “Acharya S/Murdock deserves an award for her hard work and courage. She is the Galileo of our day!” —Charles Johnson “Acharya S knows more about the ancient Mysteries than any living scholar.” —Christopher Knowles “Acharya S is an amazing researcher with a tremendous amount of energy and appetite for constant discovery of newer horizons. ” —Dr. O.P. Sudrania “D.M. Murdock is a genius. Her scholarship on this subject is impeccable and has conducted the most thorough research I’ve ever read.” —David Kim “Acharya Murdock’s work is so important, so clear and so timely!” —Theresa Weiss, PowerPlaces.com “I am Hindu, and I read the Bhaagavatham in which the life of Krishna is detailed. I also read your works, and I endorse you. Keep up the good work.” —Murali Chemuturi “Sooooooo glad you continue to spread your messages! Having had the privilege to meet with you face-to-face and share lunch some years back, I certainly can vouch for you to be a sincere, warm, caring and highly engaging individual, and this world is all the better because of you. “Having known Acharya for quite some time, and although our life’s paths have diverged, she is never far from mind, and all thoughts are positive. She is a solid driving force for all things wise, good and useful that make this earth a tad bit better. We could use millions more like her.” —Robert W.Morgan
On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015 MSNBC mischaracterizes Romney remarks MSNBC aired footage today that inaccurately portrayed Mitt Romney's remarks at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. Discussing how the public sector suffers from a lack of competition, Romney told the audience about an optometrist who wanted to change his address and subsequently received 33 pages of paperwork from the federal government, which begat a months-long bureaucratic nightmare during which the optometrist in question wasn't receiving his checks. "That's how government works," Romney said. Then, to illustrate the advantages of competition in the private sector, Romney shared an anecdote from his visit to the local WaWa chain store. "I was at WaWas, I went in to order a sandwich. You press a little touchtone keypad -- you touch this, touch this, go pay the cashier -- there’s your sandwich. It’s amazing. People in the private sector have learned how to compete. It's time to bring some competition to the federal government." (Also on POLITICO: Brown to debate if MSNBC drops out) But in the MSNBC clip, which aired on Andrea Mitchell Reports, Romney's remarks begin with the WaWa anecdote and end at "It's amazing," an edit -- first noted by conservative blogger Sooper Mexican -- that makes it seem as though Romney was expressing amazement at the advent of touchtone screens. The MSNBC clip feeds into the narrative, beloved by some on the left, that Romney is a 1950's throwback. After the clip cut, Mitchell and MSNBC contributor Chris Cillizza broke out into laughter -- which is understandable, given that they both had been led to believe that Romney was wowed by a simple machine. In fact, what Romney found so "amazing" was the discord between private sector innovation and public sector bureaucracy. A spokesperson with MSNBC said she is looking into the matter. I will update here if and when I hear back. (UPDATE: Andrea Mitchell to address 'WaWa' clip) Here is a full-length video of Romney's remarks. The quotes in question come in the second half: The title of this post has been tweaked, after I came to terms with the fact that misportray is not a word. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that the edited video first appeared on Andrea Mitchell Reports. In fact, it aired earlier in the day on MSNBC's Way Too Early with Willie Geist.
Melisandre of Asshai from George R R Maritn's "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series.I always wanted to make my own version of the character, she's awesome. I like the actress that plays her in Game of Thrones, Carice van Houten, but she's not as I imagined Melisandre while reading the books. I also couldn't help but to to make her beautiful, although she may just be red (and terrible, and red).The painting sort of just happened, I didn't plan to do the sketch, I just did. Then after a few days I thought it might be fun to render it a bit. And then some morevery relaxing, and fun. I hope you like it.Commissions/Contact: ludvikskp@gmail.comBlog: ludvikskp.blogspot.com/ Tumblr for likes and re-blogs: darkkkart.tumblr.com/ Tumblr with my own stuff: ludvikskp.tumblr.com/ Artstation: www.artstation.com/artist/ludv… Ps: the night is dark and full of terrors. and 666kb Png files. apparently.
Rational Spam — When does it make sense to spam the Bitcoin network? David R. Sterry Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 23, 2017 Over the past year, transaction spam has become a fixture in Bitcoin. Users have encountered delays and paid higher fees as a result. Often spam is thought of an attack, but this need not be the case. Below, profit-based reasons to generate spam will be explored along with some possible mitigations. Let us assume that there is a miner (or a cabal of cooperating miners) working to increase fees and then look at costs and revenue opportunities available to them. Revenue comes in the form of inflated fees that miners are able to collect. These increase with the number and average fee of confirmed transactions which are not spam. On the other hand, miners lose money whenever spam transactions are mined by other (non-cooperating) miners. This cost goes up with the fee rate on spam itself, the number of spam transactions that are confirmed, and the percentage of hash rate that is non-cooperative. Comparing revenue and cost yields an equilibrium for confirmed transactions: n * Fn = (1-p) * s * Fs n, number of non-spam transactions Fn, average fee included with non-spam transactions p, fraction of hashrate available to the spammer s, # of confirmed spam transactions confirmed Fs, average fee of confirmed spam If the left side of this expression is bigger, participating miners profit and the Bitcoin network should see spam. If the right side is bigger, participating miners lose money and spam should stop. Next, we’ll look at this situation from user and spammer perspectives. User perspective Users care about spam because they want to pay lower fees, have their transactions confirmed quickly, and insofar as they value the ability to run a fully validating node, they wish for there not to be waste in the blockchain. What can users do to save money? Either send fewer transactions or get better at setting fees. With better tools, it should be possible to ignore attempted fee manipulation and set fees based on actual confirmation times, or only what’s required to be confirmed by miners who are not participating. How can users make spam more costly for the spammer? Develop tools to help others identify spam on the network, social media, or otherwise. Ignore spam when doing fee setting calculations and highlight miners who are themselves ignoring spam (i.e. not mining in a profit-maximizing fashion). Spammer perspective In order to maximize revenue, spammers can: Encourage block size increase since bigger blocks allow miners to confirm more non-spam. Pursuade non-participating miners that bigger blocks are coming that it pays to participate. Increase visibility of high fees through social media, news outlets, reddit, etc. Encourage users to spend more to get confirmed right away. Prop up the importance of speed when transacting. Support services that help users pay high fees. To minimize costs, miners can: Recruit more participating miners. If a miner agrees not to mine each other’s spam or to return the revenue collected, that means less is paid to the other miners. Send as few spam transactions as possible. Every transaction that is in the mempool, represents money at risk. If they’re cleared out quickly, their effect is minimized and it costs to replace them. Real-world effects Having looked a bit at the theory, what have we seen? Miners expressing desire for a bigger block, but not Segwit. 80% of miners have signed onto Segwit2x which seems like an extraordinarily high participation rate when segwit itself is only at ~30%. Social media spam when fee rates go up and transaction times are high. Outputs being split up and recombined. Fee walls. What do you think? Would it make sense to spam for profit today? Is this behavior affecting protocol development, agreements and the Bitcoin economy? Thank you for reading. Please share, comment, and follow if you’d like others to see this and more like it in the future.
Father James Chesney's involvment in a lethal IRA attack may have been exceptional, but it is a reminder of the extent to which religion was bound up in the politics of 1970s Northern Ireland. And there are echoes of this in almost every conflict that has occured where religion is still an important part of the social fabric: in the Philippines, Lebanon, in Latin America and elsewhere. Where religion is a focus of commuinity organisation and identity, it seems natural that it would be drawn into the sometimes brutal business of politics, even into violence. So is political religion an inevtiability, or an aberration? Should faith always be above the fray? Monday's response Mary Kenny: Personal faith can be separate from politics, but, in the public realm, there will often be an overlapping Wednesday's response Nathan Schneider: The apolitical heresy takes two forms: jihadi extremism and blissed-out spirituality. Both disregard other human beings Friday's response Hugh O'Shaughnessy: Religion cannot afford to be 'above the fray'. The hardest part is deciding how to intervene, as the experience of Cuba shows

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