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Rosberg beat Hamilton to pole for a fifth consecutive time this weekend in Sao Paolo, before controlling the Brazilian Grand Prix to take his second win in a row.
According to Lauda, the swing in form is a clear indication that Rosberg is capable of matching his World Champion team-mate rather than a sign that Hamilton has backed off now he’s wrapped up the title.
“Suddenly [Robserg’s] brain switched and off he goes,” said Lauda.
“These things happen to drivers. Sometimes you fight with yourself, and suddenly you get free in your head and off you go – because he is as quick as Lewis. Everything going well for him, he can win.
“Nevertheless [Hamilton] is still fighting; you can see this every lap. But at the moment, Nico is better.”
Rosberg worked hard to turn form around
While unsure as to why he is suddenly beating Hamilton, Rosberg says he has worked hard to turn his form around after struggling against his team-mate for much of the middle part of the season.
“I don't have an exact explanation for why it is going so strongly now, but I want to keep it going,” said the German.
“I have been working hard because Lewis had an upper hand for most of the season, and I have turned it around. I am pleased with that. At the last race Abu Dhabi I want to go again for the win.”
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FiveThirtyEight’s NBA projection system, CARMELO, is back for a second season after a strong rookie campaign.
The basics of CARMELO are the same as last year. We’ve run projections for 485 veterans and 82 rookies. The system identifies historical comparables since the ABA-NBA merger in 1976 to project the career path of today’s players. LeBron James’s top comparable is Larry Bird, for instance, while the system likens Lakers rookie Brandon Ingram to Andrew Wiggins.
Like any sophomore, CARMELO has undergone a few changes around the margin — more about those in a moment. First, though, a quick review of how the system performed last year. Analyzing the projections for individual players is hard, because there aren’t really a lot of publicly available projection systems to compare CARMELO against. The list of players the system liked the most holds up pretty well, however, having been a little ahead of the curve in identifying the value of Kawhi Leonard and Draymond Green, and the breakout of Giannis Antetokounmpo, among other successes. On the flip side, there were CARMELO’s inexplicable crushes on Marcus Smart and Elfrid Payton, who will have to show significant improvement this season to live up to the system’s lofty expectations.
Another way to evaluate CARMELO’s performance is through its team-by-team projections, for which we can make some direct comparisons — namely, to projected team win totals from Las Vegas before last season. That comparison makes CARMELO look good. If you’d been betting on its projections, you’d have gone 18-11 against the Las Vegas spreads (skipping a bet on the Memphis Grizzlies because the CARMELO and Vegas projections were identical), or 13-4 if you restricted yourself to cases where the CARMELO and Vegas lines differed by at least two wins. CARMELO also had a higher correlation with actual win totals, and a lower root-mean-squared error, than Vegas did.
PROJECTED WINS TEAM CARMELO VEGAS ACTUAL WINS Philadelphia 76ers 22.0 21.5 10 Milwaukee Bucks 34.4 43.5 33 Chicago Bulls 47.8 49.5 42 Cleveland Cavaliers 63.2 56.5 57 Boston Celtics 49.2 42.5 48 Los Angeles Clippers 56.1 56.5 53 Memphis Grizzlies 50.5 50.5 42 Atlanta Hawks 45.7 49.5 48 Miami Heat 37.7 45.5 48 Charlotte Hornets 39.4 32.5 48 Utah Jazz 43.8 40.5 40 Sacramento Kings 38.3 30.5 33 New York Knicks 24.8 31.5 32 Los Angeles Lakers 22.1 29.5 17 Orlando Magic 36.1 32.5 35 Dallas Mavericks 38.0 38.5 42 Brooklyn Nets 21.7 28.5 21 Denver Nuggets 26.3 26.5 33 Indiana Pacers 37.7 42.5 45 New Orleans Pelicans 44.9 47.5 30 Detroit Pistons 36.6 33.5 44 Toronto Raptors 44.5 45.5 56 Houston Rockets 52.6 54.5 41 San Antonio Spurs 57.1 58.5 67 Phoenix Suns 38.2 36.5 23 Oklahoma City Thunder 58.0 57.5 55 Minnesota Timberwolves 24.9 25.5 29 Portland Trail Blazers 36.2 26.5 44 Golden State Warriors 61.3 60.5 73 Washington Wizards 41.0 45.5 41 Correlation with actual .82 .76 — Root-mean-square error 7.6 8.9 — CARMELO projections beat Vegas last season Source: Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook
And CARMELO correctly identified the best teams in each conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. It was somewhat too optimistic about the Cavaliers’ regular-season win total and too pessimistic about the Warriors’ but found some redemption when the Cavs beat the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
The most noticeable addition to this year’s version provides some context for all the record-setting contracts being signed under the league’s new salary cap. We’ve added a category called market value, which translates wins above replacement into a dollar figure for each player. (See here for a description of the thought process behind this calculation.) For the upcoming season — after a massive jump in the salary cap — we estimate that each win is worth about $5.2 million in market value. Next season, that dollars-per-win exchange rate will increase to $5.6 million.
Be aware, however, that CARMELO regards the best players in the league and the best rookies as being massively underpaid, and therefore most other players will appear to be overpaid. Essentially, these numbers reflect what salaries might look like if there were a team salary cap but no individual maximum salary. It projects stars like James to be worth $60 million a year or more, far more than the max.
Other changes are relatively technical. First, whereas last year CARMELO projections were based on a combination of Box Plus/Minus and Real Plus-Minus, they’re now based on BPM only. One problem with RPM is that it’s only available for recent seasons, whereas BPM can be calculated with standard player and team statistics dating to the 1970s. That poses a problem for a system that relies heavily on making historical comparisons. Although there are workarounds, we’ve decided — having had a year to review the system’s performance — that a BPM-only approach strikes a better balance between simplicity and accuracy. Frankly, we have designs on our own plus-minus metric that would eventually displace both BPM and RPM, but that’s something that will have to wait for a future incarnation of CARMELO.
The next change is even more technical. CARMELO projections are generated through a two-step process. First, the system produces a baseline projection for each player based on regression analysis. Then, it adjusts the forecast and generates a distribution of possible outcomes based on the comparable players. Although the second part of this process is almost exactly the same as last year, we’ve put more work into the first step, the baseline projection. The system is now a bit smarter about handling players with limited playing time. It also recognizes that different statistics have different amounts of predictive value. For instance, because shooting can be streaky, players who generated strong performances on the basis of good shooting seasons are more apt to regress to the mean than others. By contrast, generating shots, drawing fouls and taking 3-pointers are correlated with improved performance in future seasons. Rebounding, blocking shots and, especially, accumulating steals are also correlated with stronger future performance.
All in all, this year’s projections should be a little better than last year’s, and last year’s did OK for themselves.
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Preserving Content and Community
January 17, 2017
In the past year, I have participated in a number of discussions across the various outlets of the SC4 community–SC4 Devotion, Simtropolis, and /r/simcity4–about the current state of the custom content distribution. In any game modding community, there are two things that are required for that community to survive and perpetuate–ready access to available content, and the continued creation of new content. Both of these requirements become more difficult to meet as communities age–SimCity 4 is now 14 years out from its release date. If we want it to survive another 14 years in some semblance of the form we’ve come to know and love today, it is going to take some effort, and some hard decisions that will require a bit of a different mindset to make.
Many of the recent discussions on the subject have been prompted by various pieces of content going missing in some fashion, the most prominent example being Gobias’ popular terrain mods. Beyond this, we have also lost a number of individual creator sites in recent times, and things that were “soft-released” as forum attachments or via storage services. There’s also the “Accidental Mass Deletion of 2011”, when changes in Simtropolis’ file reporting system led to a number of files being purged from the STEX. The NAM, of all things, was purged from the STEX not once, but twice during this period, and we still don’t know the full extent of what was lost during that incident.
Beyond this, there’s also the regular complaints that the process of acquiring content and assembling it into a properly working Plugins folder is an arduous, arcane exercise, marked by clicking through installers and checking dependencies. While the existing order of things may have been serviceable back in the mid-00s, particularly for those who were slowly and cumulatively adding the latest buildings and mods as they were released, a decade has now passed. The way mod acquisition operates in other game communities has really cast the current arrangement we have in the SC4 world in a particularly harsh and unforgiving light.
When re-uploading or repackaging the work of another creator, the typical modus operandi that has been employed in the SC4 community up to this point has been to try to contact the creator to obtain permission. A lack of response was universally treated the same as a refusal. While this policy is a very nice courtesy that has helped keep our community exceptionally civil throughout most of its history, it is getting to be increasingly hard to follow from a practical standpoint.
SimCity 4 is 14 years old. While there are a few of us who have stuck around for an exceptionally long time, there’s been a lot of turnover over the years. Beyond that, as is the case with many internet communities, there’s a considerable degree of built-in anonymity. The only way for most to attempt contact is via private message on the main sites. That’s very unlikely to lead to any response at all if the member in question hasn’t logged on since 2009, or pops in once every two years to see if the lights are still on for them. Even if you are a site administrator and can see the email address they had on file, there’s a decent chance that address may no longer exist, or is a spare or throwaway account used only for registering on internet forums.
While I do believe that still attempting to establish contact and follow due process is the right thing to do, I believe the automatic assumption of refusal in every case of non-response will ultimately lead to the community’s demise. US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who made our modern computing world possible, once said that “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.” While I would not advocate suddenly turning the distribution paradigm into a total free-for-all–which would be counterproductive–I do believe that we should, at this point in time, take Hopper’s advice under more serious consideration. It is fairly clear to me there has to be a middle ground, that remains respectful of creator’s rights and the original spirit of the rules, without allowing the rigid adherence to those same rules to lead to the community’s extinction.
This, of course, begs the question–what is that next step? I am hoping to initiate a dialogue with many key stakeholders and interested parties over the coming months, bringing forward some proposals to streamline and secure our custom content ecosystem in a cooperative manner. I have outlined a few of these possibilities in my recent posts on the forums and Reddit, which include repackaging dependencies to better take advantage of new technology (improved internet speeds and LEX software upgrades), to establishing a new procedure for handling orphan files (codifying a reasonable waiting period), and dealing with files with modding issues.
I hope to make some progress on these efforts in the near term, and plan to keep readers here at SimTarkus and other outlets abreast of the latest developments. Stay tuned.
In the meanwhile, I welcome feedback and suggestions on how best to proceed here in the comments.
-Tarkus
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Image copyright AP
In Cuba's capital, armies of stray cats and dogs prowl the streets. The state does little to look after them, so responsibility lies with the public - as Will Grant found when he befriended a ginger tomcat.
My younger sister sometimes reminds me of the apparent indifference I showed when our family cat, Pippit, died in 1991. A slender tabby who lived well beyond her expected years, Pippit enjoyed a long and happy life with us. Finally, at the impressive age of 21, she died just as we returned from a family holiday.
Waking up to find that Pippit hadn't lasted the night, I took it upon myself to break the news to my sister. Sensitivity and tact weren't exactly high in my repertoire when I was 15 - I simply crashed into her room with the line: "Helen, the cat's dead!"
I don't know if you've ever seen anyone wake up and immediately burst into tears, but I should take this opportunity to apologise to Helen for what was probably the meanest thing I did to her when we were growing up.
So, given she has this image of me as callous when it comes to pets - unfair, I hasten to add - she was surprised, when she visited Havana recently, to find just how much Cuba has influenced my attitude towards animals.
There are no state-funded pet rescue organisations on this communist island, so caring for neighbourhood strays is down to local businesses or residents.
Around a dozen state institutions, from the Central Bank to the Museum of Metalwork, have adopted their own stray dogs. Under the scheme, the homeless hounds are named and duly issued with ID cards, which are placed on their collars to save them from the dog-catcher.
Image copyright AP Image caption Vladimir, a former street dog, with his ID collar in Havana
The adoption system operates under the premise that they are now officially considered the government buildings' guard dogs, although the ones I've seen are docile street mutts rather than fierce Rottweilers.
The city government does operate a programme for neutering and spaying strays in Old Havana, but the handful of voluntary animal protection organisations that exist simply can't deal with the sheer numbers across the island.
Cubans are by and large dog people. There is a pretty significant culture of dog ownership, even among those who are barely scraping by.
Cats, on the other hand get a raw deal. Especially stray ones.
Image copyright AP
So, since we arrived in Cuba, we've tried to do our bit. We've already taken in two kittens we found lost and half-drowned during a torrential downpour one night. My girlfriend's mother is now the proud owner of the uniquely named Honorato and Carilda.
But for my sister, on her recent visit, it was my relationship with Django which really stood out.
A ginger-and-white tomcat, he started life inside our building's parking garage. We would often hear a faint mewing after we parked the car.
Image caption Django
As a kitten, Django would hide deep inside the motor of some diplomat's SUV, seeking refuge by nestling near the carburettor.
Once he grew a bit and emerged from the darkness of the car park, he was almost instantly adopted by the building.
We would leave food out for him. As would some Russian neighbours. So, apparently, did Sindi, one of the doormen. He looks like he could find a second job as a nightclub bouncer, but fell for the scruffy, soot-stained Django as much as we did.
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Django was the name my Mum gave the kitten when she came to Havana and it stuck. We were smitten.
Evenings would be interrupted and conversations broken off mid-flow so we could go out and feed him a mixture of leftovers and expensive kibble specially brought in from Mexico.
The treatment Django received in our building was well above the experience of most alley cats in Cuba with food regularly provided - if not by one neighbour, then another. Sometimes, both.
That brought with it the inevitable interest of other local waifs and strays. At one time there were three or four more trying to get in on the act. Fair enough - it's a dog-eat-dog world out there for a Cuban cat.
Image copyright iStock
Image copyright Alamy
Still, we began to worry. There is a nasty habit in Cuba of angry neighbours removing a constantly barking dog or an unsightly stray cat by feeding it mince laced with rat-poison.
Alternatively - almost as cruelly - the witless pet might be shoved into the back of the car, driven out to the countryside and let out on the roadside, far from home. Noisy neighbourhood dog dealt with, even if the owners are now frantic with worry.
In the end, nothing like that befell poor Django. It was a far more inevitable fate, under the wheels of a car thundering down 70th Street.
The headlines of 2016 were full of high-profile deaths. But spare a thought for one of the year's final victims, taken on New Year's Eve in Havana - a much loved, slightly grubby, ginger-and-white street cat called Django.
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Follow Will Grant on Twitter @will__grant
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Apple cash on hand stood at $178 billion at the last count.
With the largest corporate cash pile, it might be surprising as to why Cupertino is raising debt
We explain why use of debt makes sense to Apple instead of using its cash pile.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) cash on hand has been a topic of debate among investors. Apple’s treasure chest swelled to $178 billion at the end of December 2014. With a net Cash (adjusted for debt) position of $145 billion at the end of December 2014, Apple added to its debt with a recent $6.5 billion bond issuance, per a Bloomberg report. And Apple's cash hoarding is only going to swell, driven by the record breaking iPhone revenues and strong MAC sales. Now, why would you borrow money when you have a hoard like Apple’s? Surprising, isn’t it?
Apple Cash On Hand Is Majorly Stashed Overseas
The geographical spread of Apple cash is the key to understanding these seemingly unusual developments at the Cupertino based technology innovator. 90% of Apple’s reported cash is stashed in international subsidiaries, leaving a mere $20 billion of it within the United States. Using the ‘Double Irish taxation’ structure, Apple has been able to avoid the hands of the US taxman, keeping its international cash outside the reach of Uncle Sam.
Apple Executing Massive Capital Return Program
Apple is executing a capital return program of over $130 billion, which requires it to spend billions of dollars every quarter. The capital return program consists of a share repurchase plan and dividend payouts to investors.
Quoting from Apple’s latest 10-Q filing,
“In April 2014, the Company’s Board of Directors increased the share repurchase program authorization from $60 billion to $90 billion of the Company’s common stock, of which $72.9 billion had been utilized as of December 27, 2014. The share repurchase program is expected to be completed by the end of December 2015.”
“The increase to the Company’s share repurchase program authorization resulted in a total capital return program of over $130 billion. The Company expects to complete the capital return program by the end of December 2015 by paying dividends and dividend equivalents, repurchasing shares and remitting withheld taxes related to net share settlement of restricted stock units. To assist in funding its capital return program, the Company expects to access the debt markets, both domestically and internationally.”
Apple’s capital return program, which was started in August 2012, has a target of returning $130 billion to shareholders by the end of December 2015. The capital returned to shareholders since the inception of this program is over $102 billion.
Source: Apple 10-Q
Apple also states that the capital return program will be financed by debt issues.
An obvious question to ask is why Apple can’t use its overseas cash to fund its requirements instead of repeatedly dipping into the bond markets. Repatriation of cash is subject to a 35% federal tax rate, which would mean an enormous tax bill for Apple, should it choose to repatriate its overseas cash. Based on the overseas cash at the end of December 2014, repatriation would lead to a tax bill of $55.2 billion for Apple, which would be a significant loss for shareholders. Hence, Apple has chosen to access debt markets in order to fund its capital return program as well as operating expenses of the United States based parent company.
Debt Issues Cost Apple Far Lesser Than Cost Of Cash Repatriation
Another major reason for raising debt lies in the cost of debt versus cost of repatriation. Apple has raised debt of varying maturities at costs (interest rates) ranging from 0.45% to 4.45%, as per its 10-Q filing. On the other hand, the 35% tax on repatriated funds can be viewed as the cost of repatriating overseas cash. Simple math tells us that Apple is better of raising debt than repatriating its cash.
Will Apple Repatriate Its Cash Ever?
Apple could indefinitely hold its overseas cash in foreign dollar denominated holding. However, a couple of tax reforms are being discussed, which will encourage US multinationals to repatriate cash by providing a tax break.
Option 1: President Obama’s proposal
President Barack Obama has suggested a one-time tax break to facilitate tax collection on $2.1 trillion cash stashed away by US multinationals in foreign countries. According to a post on theguardian.com, the US president’s plan could boost US GDP by 1.5%, raising at least $238 billion in taxes. The president’s proposal plans to levy a onetime 14% charge on cash held offshore followed by a 19% tax on future profits earnings.
in billions of $ Offshore cash reserves (Q1 2015) 157.80 Repatriation charge under current law 55.23 Repatriation charge under President's proposal 22.09 Savings for Apple 33.14
The president’s proposal could help Apple save $33 billion in repatriation charges. However, in reality, the tax bill would have a much lower impact on company’s financials as Apple has pro-actively made income tax provisions for part of its foreign cash holdings. Additionally the 19% tax on future tax repatriations could reduce Apple’s tax rate in future periods.
Option 2: Invest in transportation act of 2015
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) have proposed to introduce the ‘Invest in transportation Act’ which will encourage the MNC’s to repatriate foreign cash holdings at a 6.5% repatriation tax rate. However, the proposal comes with restrictions on the usage of the repatriated cash. Quoting from boxer.senate.gov website;
“The legislation would strengthen the U.S. economy and create jobs by allowing companies to voluntarily return their foreign earnings to the United States at a tax rate of 6.5 percent. The rate is only for repatriations that exceed each company’s average repatriations in recent years, and funds must have been earned in 2015 or earlier. Companies would have up to five years to complete the transfer.”
A pdf copy of the senators proposal is also available for viewing. However, the repatriated funds can only be used for increased hiring, wages and pensions, R&D, environmental improvements, public-private partnerships, capital improvements, and acquisitions. The funds cannot be used for spent on increases in executive compensation or on increases in shareholder dividends or stock buybacks for three years after the program ends. The restriction on use of repatriated cash for capital return program will hinder Apple’s ability to use the cash as it pleases. For example, Apple cannot plough in this $150 billion repatriated cash to R&D, Capex or acquisitions, limiting the benefits of the proposal for Cupertino.
Conclusion
Apple has consistently raised debt over the last couple of years to finance its capital return program. It is counter intuitive that a firm with the highest corporate cash hoarding would resort to debt. However, a deeper look into the geographical spread of this cash pile answers the question as to why Apple is raising debt. The bulk of Apple’s cash on hand is stashed in international subsidiaries, repatriation of which would cost Apple a huge 35% in taxes. On a comparative note, Apple is able to access the debt markets at a rate of less than 5%. Therein lies the answer as to Why Apple is raising debt to finance its capital return program.
For more on Apple, view our Apple stock analysis video.
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March 2, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon held V Live broadcast, through which she got to share what it was like making her first full studio album, “My Voice.”
She said the response from the people around her, including her fellow Girls’ Generation members, was really good.
Talking a bit about the album-making process, she revealed that recording for the song “Fine,” in particular, was taxing: “While recording ‘Fine,’ I went to get an IV. Rather than being sick, I felt I needed to recharge.”
Taeyeon continued, “I think it was a reflection of the pressure [we were] feeling. I forced my driver and songwriter to take an hour break, and I resumed recording after ‘recharging,'” saying that singing was much easier afterward.
When asked which song from the album is her favorite, she said, “How could I choose? I just ask people I know. Fans tell me that a title song is a title song [for a reason]. I think ‘Fine’ is great for any occasion or mood.”
Regarding a possible solo concert, Taeyeon said, “I think I’d have to [hold a concert], no?”
Source (1)
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A single sample of infant formula has tested positive for trace amounts of the toxic contaminant melamine, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday.
Worries over melamine in infant formula started in China and have spread across the globe to the United States.
Of 77 samples tested, one contained melamine, FDA spokeswoman Judy Leon told CNN. A trace amount is defined as less than 250 parts per billion, she said.
Last month, the FDA set the safety threshold for melamine at 2,500 parts per billion for foods other than infant formula. The agency said it did not have enough data to set a safety threshold for infants.
Leon on Tuesday would not disclose the maker of the formula that had trace melamine amounts.
The testing program was initiated after contaminated infant formula in China was linked to thousands of illnesses and a number of deaths among infants.
The FDA said it checked with all manufacturers licensed to distribute baby formula in the United States and determined that none of the components in U.S.-sold infant formula are from China.
Leon said the sample that tested positive most likely became contaminated through the manufacturing process or through contact with can liners. Learn more about melamine »
A spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based International Formula Council, a trade group, said she had not seen the data, but was encouraged that the quantity found was below levels deemed safe in infants by the governments of China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Canada and New Zealand.
"Apparently these trace levels can be found in lots of food," said spokeswoman Mardi Mountford.
The FDA also found trace levels of melamine in several samples of medical formula supplements for the elderly, but the amounts posed no health risk to adults, Leon said.
Though U.S.-based companies can import ingredients from China for nutritional supplements for adults, there is an import ban on dairy products and components, she said.
Melamine is an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of can liners, flame retardant, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides.
It does not occur naturally in food.
Because it contains nitrogen, its addition to food products can wrongly suggest an inflated protein content. Ingesting melamine in large doses over an extended period of time could cause kidney stones and other illnesses, though small amounts pose no such danger for adults, agriculture and health experts say.
Its presence in Chinese infant formula has led to the hospitalization of more than 12,000 children and the deaths of several in China, according to the FDA, which said it is not aware of any such illnesses in the United States.
This month, the FDA announced it was limiting the import of all dairy products from China until they have been proved free of melamine.
All About Food Safety • China • Food and Drug Administration
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Obama’s global Murder, Inc.
29 December 2011
The Obama administration has erected a vast apparatus of global assassination involving unmanned aerial drones operated by the CIA and the military. This network of “targeted killing” machines is run in secrecy, behind the backs of the American people and with virtually no congressional oversight.
The US drone program is the subject of an exposé published in the Washington Post on Wednesday, headlined “Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus of drone killing.” While restrained in its presentation, the Post article is a chilling account of a government that has asserted for itself the right to kill anyone, anywhere in the world, without even a pretense of legal proceedings. The lives of thousands of people have been wiped out in this manner.
The US drone program, according to the Post, “involves dozens of secret facilities, including two operational hubs on the East Coast, virtual Air Force cockpits in the Southwest and clandestine bases in six countries on two continents.”
A study by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that the US had 775 Predator and other drone aircraft, plus an unknown number operated by the CIA as part of covert operations. Not including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, assassinations have been carried out in at least three countries. The recent downing of a drone over Iran, however, points to much broader operations.
One of Obama’s first actions as president was to order a Predator drone attack on Pakistan. Since then, nearly 240 attacks have been carried out against the country, killing thousands, mostly civilians. Some 15 strikes have been launched against Yemen, and several others in Somalia.
The Post provides a description of competing “kill lists” drawn up by the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), with no publicly available information on the criteria used to select targets for assassination. The CIA’s list is apparently shorter than the military’s, which some in the drone program attribute to the fact that it has had less time to compile it. “Over time, officials said, the agency would catch up.”
Among those killed have been three US citizens, including Anwar Al-Awlaki by the CIA on September 30 and his 16-year old son by the JSOC a few weeks later, both in Yemen. In the latter attack, the Post claims, the young Awlaki was not the intended target. “A US citizen with no history of involvement with al-Qaeda,” he was, instead, “an unintended casualty.”
In explaining the increase in drone assassinations, the Post cites the official closure of CIA detention programs and an end to new transfers to Guantanamo Bay. This left “few options beyond drone strikes…” In other words, instead of locking alleged “terrorists” in prison camps and torture centers, the Obama administration decided it would be more efficient to simply kill them in secrecy.
Separate congressional panels supposedly have oversight over these two different programs. However, “Neither panel is in a position to compare the CIA and JSOC kill lists or even arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the rules by which each is assembled,” the newspaper reports.
Congressional leaders of both parties are entirely complicit, with leaders of intelligence and military committees submitting to restrictions on public discussion. “Senior Democrats barely blink at the idea that a president from their party has assembled such a highly efficient machine for targeted killing of suspected terrorists,” the Post comments.
President Lyndon Johnson, coming to power in the wake of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, famously acknowledged that the CIA had been operating a “damned Murder, Inc. in the Caribbean,” which included plots to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The Nixon administration was involved in many assassination plots, which contributed to the scandals and impeachment inquiries that eventually forced his resignation. Investigations by the US Senate’s Church Committee in the mid-1970s led up to an executive order officially barring the practice of assassination.
The actions of the Obama administration, and the vast growth in the secret powers of the CIA and the military, go far beyond these past crimes.
Extra-judicial state-sanctioned killing is a metastasis of the global “war on terror,” an escalation of international criminality that has included the launching of aggressive wars, indefinite detention, and torture. It has become a central component of US military policy, including the war in Libya, which was concluded with the US-backed assassination of Muammar Gaddafi. Obama has singled out the extra-legal killing of Osama bin Laden as a high point and defining moment of his administration.
Unbridled violence and the suppression of democracy are two sides of the same process. The revelations by the Post come less than two weeks after the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which for the first time provides an explicit congressional imprimatur on the indefinite military detention of US citizens and non-citizens alike, at the discretion of the president. The act effectively abolishes the writ of habeaus corpus and basic constitutional guarantees of due process.
The administration that is overseeing this assertion of quasi-dictatorial powers, headed by Obama, is essentially an alliance of powerful financial interests and the military-intelligence apparatus.
This government of extreme reaction has the crucial support of sections of the affluent middle class, which, on the basis of identity politics, has reconciled itself to policies that go beyond even those carried out by the Bush administration. Anything is acceptable, even “progressive,” so long as it is carried out by an African-American president.
The operation of a global assassination network receives at most a pro-forma rebuke from the likes of the Nation and other “left” backers of the Democratic Party. One liberal commentator, Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for the Atlantic magazine, blithely commented in response to the Post piece: “Drones are the perfect weapons of democracy. One gets all the credit for killing the country’s enemies, and none of the blame for military casualties. The occasional slaughter of a 16-year-old boy is surely regrettable, but of almost zero political import.”
The defense of democratic rights and the defeat of American imperialism, along with the struggle against social inequality, depend on the emergence of a mass political movement of the working class on the basis of a socialist program. This movement will come into direct conflict with the Obama administration, the Democratic Party and its “left” apologists.
Joseph Kishore
Joseph Kishore
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17-12-26-00038 D122 Danny Rescue Me ID: 17-12-26-00038
About Danny
Adoption Fee: $150
Pit Bull / American Bulldog Age: Puppy Sex: Male
Meet Danny! This sweet, loving Pittie boy was picked up by us on Thanksgiving Day when someone was trying to 'get rid of him'. He had a rough start to life, living outside on a heavy metal chain without proper shelter or care. A month later, Danny is thriving in his foster home and is ready to find his forever family! He has been working on basic commands and potty-training, both of which he is picking up quickly since he's so smart. Danny gets along very well with his furry foster sister, Lizzie, who has been teaching him how to play like a normal pup. About 2 weeks ago, Danny was neutered and he is recovering well from his surgery. Please reach out today if you are interested in meeting this handsome fella!
Franklin County
Columbus, Ohio
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In reading through the many critical comments in response to my occasional foray into issues political and economic, readers seem to think that there are two Michael Shermers: Mr. Rational Skeptic and Mr. Kooky Libertarian. I will respond to the specific comments, but let me say at the outset that I do appreciate your skepticism of my libertarian beliefs (hey, we should be skeptical of the skeptics, or else we’re not true skeptics, right?!). Perhaps if I provided some background to how I became a Libertarian you can see that there is just one Michael Shermer, and even if you still disagree with my economics, you’ll at least understand where I’m coming from. And do remember that we libertarians are social liberals just like you (I’m presuming that the vast majority of readers of Skeptic, eSkeptic, and Skepticblog are liberals, which itself is a troubling bias in our readership that I’ll address another time). In the meantime…
In the mid-1970s I was an undergraduate at Pepperdine University, a Church of Christ institution with a strong conservative bent at a time when liberals ruled academe. I matriculated there because I was an evangelical Christian who wanted to be a college professor, so theology seemed like the most appropriate field and Pepperdine had a strong theology department (it didn’t hurt that the campus is located in the majestic Malibu hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean). But I soon discovered that in order to earn a Ph.D. in theology one had to master four dead languages — Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Aramaic — and since I found even Spanish to be taxing, this made my career choice problematic. When my advisors also warned me about the questionable university job market for theologians, I switched to psychology, where I discovered the language of science, which I both enjoyed and mastered. Theology is based on logical analysis, philosophical disputation, and literary deconstruction. Science is founded on empirical data, statistical analysis, and theory building. To me, the latter seemed like a better method to tell the difference between what is real and what is not, what works and what doesn’t, and in any case meshed will with my cognitive style of thinking — for whatever reason, I can sort through data sets and scientific charts much better than I can logical syllogisms and thought experiments.
My introduction to economics came in my senior year when many of the students in the psychology department were reading a cinderblock of a book entitled Atlas Shrugged, by the novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. I had never heard of the book or the author, and the novel’s size was so intimidating that I refused to join the ranks of the enthused for months, until social pressure pushed me into taking the plunge. I trudged through the first hundred pages (patience was strongly advised) until the gripping mystery of the man who stopped the motor of the world swept me through the next thousand pages.
I found Atlas Shrugged to be a remarkable book, as so many have. In fact, in 1991 the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club surveyed readers about books that “made a difference” in their lives. Atlas Shrugged was rated second only to the Bible.1 What scientist or scholar wouldn’t find resonance with proclamations such as this: “Man cannot survive except by gaining knowledge, and reason is his only means to gain it. Reason is the faculty that perceives, identifies and integrates the material provided by his senses. The task of his senses is to give him the evidence of existence, but the task of identifying it belongs to his reason, his senses tell him only that something is, but what it is must be learned by his mind.”2 Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism was so compelling that it took me two decades to discover what I consider to be the shortcomings in its founding principles, which Rand once outlined (“while standing on one foot”) as: 1. Metaphysics: Objective Reality; 2. Epistemology: Reason; 3. Ethics: Self-interest; 4. Politics: Capitalism.3 I am most troubled by Rand’s theory of human nature as wholly selfish and competitive, defined in Atlas through the famous “oath” pronounced by the novel’s heroes: “I swear — by my life and my love of it — that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.” Science now shows us that, in fact, in addition to being selfish, competitive, and greedy, we also harbor a great capacity for altruism, cooperation, and charity, the evidence for which is now overwhelming from a variety of fields from anthropology to neuroscience. But reading Rand, and absorbing the logic of her case for economic freedom and political liberty (she called herself a “radical for capitalism”), led me to the extensive body of work on the science of markets and economies and the philosophy of liberty and freedom, all of which resonated deeply with my personality and temperament.
I cannot say for certain whether it was the merits of free market economics and fiscal conservatism (which are considerable) that convinced me of its veracity, or if it was my disposition that reverberated so well with its cognitive style. As it is for most belief systems we hold, it was probably a combination of both. I was raised by parents who could best be described as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, which today would be called libertarian, but there was no such label when they were coming of age in the 1940s and 1950s. Products of the depression and motivated by the fear of returning to abject poverty, my parents skipped college and worked full time well into their later years. Throughout my childhood I was inculcated with the fundamental principles of economic conservatism: hard work, personal responsibility, self-determination, financial autonomy, small government, and free markets. Even though they were not in the least religious (as so many conservatives are today), my parents were exceedingly generous to those who were less fortunate — greed is good, but so too is charity.
After Pepperdine, I began a graduate program in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton, by which time I had abandoned my religious faith and embraced in its stead the secular values of the Enlightenment and the rigorous methods and provisional truths of science.4 But after two years of enticing rats to press bars in proportion to the frequency and intensity of the reinforcements we gave them, my enthusiasm for practicing this type of science waned while my wonderlust for the real world waxed.5 I went to the campus career development office and inquired what I might do for a living with a Master’s degree. “What are you educated to do?” they inquired. “Train rats,” I replied sardonically. “What else can you do?” they persisted. “Well,” I searched, “I can research and write.” The employment book included a job description for research and writing at Bicycle Dealer Showcase, the trade magazine of the bicycle industry, about which I knew nothing. My first assignment was to attend a press conference hosted by Cycles Peugeot and Michelin Tires in honor of John Marino, a professional bicycle racer who broke the transcontinental record from Los Angeles to New York. I fell in love with the sport, entering my first race that weekend, and for the next two years I learned the business of publishing and the sport of cycling. I wrote articles, sold advertisements, and rode my bike as far and as fast as I could. At the end of 1981 I left the magazine to race full time, supported by corporate sponsors and an adjunct professor’s salary from teaching psychology at Glendale College.
One day in 1981, Marino and I were on a long training ride during which he told me about Andrew Galambos, a retired physicist teaching private courses through his own Free Enterprise Institute, under an umbrella field he called “Volitional Science.” The introductory course was called V-50. This was Econ 101 on free market steroids, an invigoratingly muscular black-and-white world where Adam Smith is good, Karl Marx bad; individualism is good, collectivism bad; free economies are good, mixed economies are bad. The course was popular in Orange County, California (labeled by our neighbors in L.A. County as the “Orange Curtain”), and the time was right with Ronald Reagan as President and conservatives on the ascendant. Where Rand advocated for limited government, Galambos proffered a theory in which everything in society would be privatized until government simply falls into disuse and disappears. Galambos defined freedom as “the societal condition that exists when every individual has full (i.e. 100%) control over his own property,” and a free society as one where “anyone may do anything that he pleases — with no exceptions — so long as his actions affect only his own property; he may do nothing which affects the property of another without obtaining consent of its owner.” Galambos identified three types of property: primordial (one’s life), primary (one’s thoughts and ideas), and secondary (derivatives of primordial and primary property, such as the utilization of land and material goods). Thus, Galambos defined capitalism as “that societal structure whose mechanism is capable of protecting all forms of private property completely.” To realize a truly free society, then, we have merely “to discover the proper means of creating a capitalist society.” In this free society, we are all capitalists.6
Galambos had a massive ego that propelled him to a successful career as a private lecturer, but led him to such ego-inflating pronouncements as his classification of all sciences into physical, biological, and his own “volitional sciences.” His towering intellect took him to great heights of interdisciplinary creativity, but often left him and his students tangled up in contradictions, as when we all had to sign a contract promising that we would not disclose his ideas to anyone, while we were also inveigled to solicit others to enroll. (“You’ve got to take this great course.” “What’s it about?” “I can’t tell you.”) And he had a remarkable ability to lecture for hours without notes in an entertainingly colloquial style, but when two hours stretched into three, and three hours dragged into four, his audiences were never left wanting for more. Most problematic, however, was any hope of translating theory into practice, which is where the rubber meets the road for any economic or political principle. Property definitions are all well and good, but what happens when we cannot agree on property rights infringements? The answer was inevitably something like this: “in a truly free society all such disputes will be peacefully resolved through private arbitration.” Sounds good in theory, but turning theory into practice is never as easy as it sounds in the theory stage.
Nevertheless, I stuck it out to the end, learning more in that one course than I learned in dozens of college courses, absorbing the principles and attempting to apply them in both the academic and business worlds, which I straddled for many years. Marino and I (and our cycling partner Lon Haldeman) turned our cycling passion into a business by founding Race Across America, Inc., with corporate sponsors and a contract from ABC Sports, as well as the nonprofit sanctioning body, Ultra-Marathon Cycling Association. Several appearances on Wide World of Sports gave me the additional recognition and confidence to open Shermer Cycles, a bicycle shop in Arcadia, California. Meanwhile, I expanded my teaching duties by creating new courses in evolutionary theory and the history of ideas at Glendale College.7
Galambos had a protégé named Jay Stuart Snelson, whom I met shortly after taking V-50. Snelson taught courses at the Free Enterprise Institute, but after a falling out with Galambos (a common occurrence in Galambos’ social sphere that also plagued Ayn Rand), Snelson founded his own Institute for Human Progress. To distance himself from Galambos, Snelson’s theory of a free market society was built on the shoulders of what is known as the Austrian School of Economics, most notably the work of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. Mises’ most important work was Human Action, and Snelson’s course was self-consciously built upon it, as gleaned from its title, Principles of Human Action. Snelson demonstrated through a series of scientific principles and historical examples that free market capitalism is unquestionably the most effective means of “optimizing peace, prosperity, and freedom.” As Snelson explained, outlining the countless and varied governmental actions that attenuate freedom: “Freedom exists where the individual’s discretion to choose is not confiscated by interventionism. The free market exists where people have the unrestricted freedom to buy and sell.” Although thieves, thugs, muggers, and murderers confiscate our freedoms, congressmen, senators, governors, and presidents restrict our freedoms on a scale orders of magnitude greater than all private criminals combined. And they do so, Snelson showed, with the best of intentions, because they believe that the “confiscation of the people’s freedom to choose will achieve the greatest satisfaction for the greatest number.” With such good intentions, and the political power to enforce them, states have intervened in business, education, transportation, communications, health services, environmental protection, crime prevention, free trade overseas, and countless other areas.
How these services could all be successfully privatized was the primary thrust of Snelson’s work. He believed that the social system that optimizes peace, prosperity, and freedom is one “where anyone at any time can choose to produce or provide any product or service, hire any employee, choose any production, distribution, or sales site, and offer to sell products or services at any price.” The only allowable restrictions are from the market itself. So employed, systematically throughout the world, a free market society would, as a plaque posted at the Panama Canal (that also served as the Institute’s motto) proclaims, Aperire Terram Gentibus, “to open the world to all people.”
These were heady words for a heady time in my life before formal commitments to career and family were congealed. For several years I taught Snelson’s principles course, along with my own courses on the history of science and the history of war. I also developed a monthly discussion group called the “Lunar Society” — after the famous 18th-century Lunar Society of Birmingham — centered on books such as Human Action. As a social scientist in search of a research project, I accepted Ludwig von Mises’ challenge: “One must study the laws of human action and social cooperation as the physicist studies the laws of nature.” We were going to build a new science, and out of that science we would build a new society. I even penned a “Declaration of Freedom” and a speech entitled “I have a Dream II.” What could be grander?!
Well, as Yogi Berra once said: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.” I soon discovered that Berra’s principle applies in spades to the economic sphere. We live in a world rather different from that envisioned by my visionary mentors, so I turned my attention to the writings of economists from the Austrian School, and their protégés at the University of Chicago, who were decidedly becoming more mainstream in the 1980s as the country began a systematic shift toward the right.
In 1987 I decided that if I wanted to make an impact on the world through ideas I was going to have to give up my competitive cycling career and complete my graduate studies. I switched fields from psychology to the history of science, and in 1991 I graduated from Claremont Graduate School with a Ph.D., the union card and entrée into academe and professional science. I began teaching at Occidental College, a prestigious four-year liberal arts college in Los Angeles, where I discovered that 1960’s-style liberalism was still thriving. As a young faculty member without tenure, I kept my libertarian mouth shut, and on the weekends joined Jay Snelson in teaching seminars on free market economics at his Institute.
Through Snelson’s institute, and the ideas proffered by the Austrian and Chicago schools, I found a scientific foundation for my economic and political preferences. The founders of the Austrian and Chicago schools of economics penned a number of books and essays whose ideas burned into my brain a clear understanding of right and wrong human action in the sphere of economics. One especially influential essay on my thinking was the wickedly raffish The Petition of the Candlemakers, by Frédéric Bastiat, in which the French economist and social commentator satirizes special interest groups, in this case candlemakers, who petition the government for special favors:
We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a foreign rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light, that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price…. This rival … is none other than the sun…. We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull’s-eyes, deadlights and blinds; in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures.
Bastiat also taught me the difference between what is seen and what is not seen when governments intervene in the marketplace. A public-works bridge, for example, is seen by all and appreciated by its users; what is not seen are all the products that would have been produced by the monies that were taxed out of private hands in order to finance the public project. It is not just that individual liberties are violated whenever governments interfere with freedom of choice in the economic realm, but that, in fact, the net result is a loss not just for the individuals, but for the collective for which the government action was originally intended.
I read Friedrich Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty and The Road to Serfdom, I absorbed Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson, an exceptional summary of free market economics, and I found Milton Friedman’s Free to Choose to be one of the clearest expositions of economic theory ever penned, and his PBS documentary series by the same name — introduced by the most muscular libertarian in history, Arnold Schwarzenegger — was so powerful that I purchased the series on video and watched the episodes over and over. And first among equals in the giants of libertarian thought who most shaped my thinking was Ludwig von Mises, the spiritus rector of the modern libertarian movement, most notably his magisterial work Human Action.8 Mises’ story is as instructive as it is inspirational. Mises was born in 1881 within the then powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire, and studied law and economics at the University of Vienna under Friedrich von Wieser and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, both followers of Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian School of Economics. After serving as an artillery officer on the Russian front in World War I, Mises earned international recognition for his first major book, Socialism, where he spelled out the problems with “economic calculation” in a planned socialist economy. In capitalism, prices are determined from below by individuals freely exchanging in the marketplace and are in constant flux; in socialism, prices are determined from above by government fiat and are slow to change. In fact, Mises demonstrated that socialist economies depend on capitalist economies to determine what prices should be assigned. And they do so cumbersomely.9
In March, 1938, Hitler marched into Vienna, and Mises promptly marched out to the United States, where he began his long and lonely struggle against economic and political tyranny, a lone advocate of freedom in an increasingly socialistic society. The problem, Mises argued, is that interventionism leads to more interventionism. If you can intervene to protect individuals from dangerous drugs, for example, what about dangerous ideas? The following passage resonated with me because his analogue from the physical to the ideological is so effective in conveying the central message of freedom and liberty:
Opium and morphine are certainly dangerous and habit forming drugs. But once a principle is admitted that it is the duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments. A good case could be made out in favor of the prohibition of alcohol and nicotine. And why limit the government’s benevolent providence to the protection of the individual’s body only? Is not the harm a man can inflict on his mind and soul even more disastrous than bodily evils? Why not prevent him from reading bad books and seeing bad plays, from looking at bad paintings and statues and from hearing bad music?10
At the end of almost 900 pages of mind-opening economic revelations, Mises concludes Human Action triumphantly:
The truth is that capitalism has not only multiplied population figures but at the same time improved the people’s standard of living in an unprecedented way. Neither economic thinking nor historical experience suggest that any other social system could be as beneficial to the masses as capitalism. The results speak for themselves. The market economy needs no apologists and propagandists. It can apply to itself the words of Sir Christopher Wren’s epitaph in St. Paul’s: Si monumentum requires, circumspice. [“If you seek his monument, look around.”]11
Although capitalism may not need apologists and propagandists, it does need a scientific foundation. In this sense, then, my entire career has been building toward this project, and my tenth book, The Mind of the Market, lays down a scientific foundation for capitalism through three new sciences: behavioral economics, neuroeconomics, and evolutionary economics. It is my goal now to continuing construction on the libertarian edifice, and perhaps one day even attempt to translate theory into practice through politics … libertarian politics of course.
Endnotes
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Abstract
Importance Case reports and series suggest hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) may benefit some patients with Crohn disease.
Objective To evaluate the effect of autologous HSCT on refractory Crohn disease.
Design, Setting, and Participants Parallel-group randomized clinical trial conducted in 11 European transplant units from July 2007 to September 2011, with follow-up through March 2013. Patients were aged 18 to 50 years with impaired quality of life from refractory Crohn disease not amenable to surgery despite treatment with 3 or more immunosuppressive or biologic agents and corticosteroids.
Interventions All patients underwent stem cell mobilization before 1:1 randomization to immunoablation and HSCT (n = 23) or control treatment (HSCT deferred for 1 year [n = 22]). All were given standard Crohn disease treatment as needed.
Main Outcomes and Measures Sustained disease remission at 1 year, a composite primary end point comprising clinical remission (Crohn Disease Activity Index (CDAI) <150 [range, 0-600]), no use of corticosteroids or immunosuppressive or biologic drugs for at least the last 3 months, and no endoscopic or radiological evidence of active (erosive) disease anywhere in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Secondary outcomes were individual components of the primary composite outcome and other measures of disease activity, laboratory results, quality of life and functional status, and GI tract imaging.
Results Twenty-three patients underwent HSCT and 22 received standard Crohn disease treatment (controls). Sustained disease remission was achieved in 2 patients undergoing HSCT (8.7%) vs 1 control patient (4.5%) (absolute difference, 4.2% [95% CI, −14.2% to 22.6%]; P = .60). Fourteen patients undergoing HSCT (61%) vs 5 control patients (23%) had discontinued immunosuppressive or biologic agents or corticosteroids for at least 3 months (difference, 38.1% [95% CI, 9.3% to 59.3%]; P = .01). Ten vs 2 patients had a CDAI less than 150 (remission) at the final evaluation, 8 (34.8%) vs 2 (9.1%) for 3 or more months (difference, 25.7% [95% CI, 1.1% to 47.1%]; P = .052). Eight (34.8%) vs 2 (9.1%) patients were adjudicated free of active disease on endoscopy and radiology at final assessment (difference, 25.7% [95% CI, 1.1% to 47.1%]; P = .054). There were 76 serious adverse events in patients undergoing HSCT vs 38 in controls. One patient undergoing HSCT died.
Conclusions and Relevance Among adult patients with refractory Crohn disease not amenable to surgery who had impaired quality of life, HSCT, compared with conventional therapy, did not result in a statistically significant improvement in sustained disease remission at 1 year and was associated with significant toxicity. These findings do not support the widespread use of HSCT for patients with refractory Crohn disease.
Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier:NCT00297193
Introduction
Quiz Ref IDCrohn disease is a chronic relapsing inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract that can result in lifelong ill health, impaired quality of life, and reduced life expectancy.1 Immunosuppressive drugs are standard of care for Crohn disease, but some patients do not respond or lose response to treatment.1-3 Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) might have a role to play in some of these treatment-resistant cases.4-10 Crohn disease has a strong polygenic immune component,1 even though it is not a classic autoimmune condition. Allogeneic HSCT resets the immune system at a genetic level,10,11 and autologous HSCT eliminates aberrant clones by immunoablation and replacement with uncommitted stem cells, leading to de novo generation of an altered T-cell repertoire.12 Case reports and series describe long-term treatment-free disease regression with autologous4-9 and allogeneic10,11 HSCT in some4-6,10 but not all patients7-9 with Crohn disease and in other patients with conditions that have autoimmune pathology, such as systemic sclerosis.13-15
To follow up on these promising but preliminary data, we conducted the Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation International Crohn Disease (ASTIC) trial to evaluate the effect of autologous HSCT on disease activity, mucosal healing, and quality of life in patients with resistant Crohn disease.
Methods
Study Design
The ASTIC trial is a parallel-group randomized clinical trial conducted in 6 European countries at 11 centers approved for allogeneic transplantation by the Joint Accreditation Committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (JACIE) and the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT).16,17 The trial was designed to evaluate the effects of autologous unselected HSCT compared with conventional therapy in patients with refractory Crohn disease, with the primary end point being assessed after 1 year. Because of the nature of the intervention, patients, clinicians, investigators, and coordinators were not blinded to treatment assignment. However, an adjudication committee that reviewed all radiology and endoscopy reports to determine the presence and activity of Crohn disease within the GI tract were blinded to time of assessment and treatment assignment. The trial protocol is available in Supplement 1.
Participants
Inclusion and exclusion criteria are reported in eAppendix 1 in Supplement 2. Briefly, we studied patients aged 18 to 50 years with an established diagnosis of Crohn disease18 who had continuing refractory disease not amenable to surgery and who had impaired function or quality of life (defined as Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire [IBDQ] score <170,19 European Quality of Life Visual Analogue Scale [EQ-VAS] Index20 <85, or a Karnofsky Performance Index21 <80) despite having tried at least 3 immunosuppressive or biological agents in addition to corticosteroids. Patients were excluded if they had organ failure or other severe comorbidities; active infection; infectious risk, including a history of tuberculosis; malnutrition; or if they were pregnant or unwilling to use contraception during the study.
Ethical Issues
All patients provided written informed consent following extensive counseling. The protocol was approved by the institutional review board at each site and complied with country-specific regulatory requirements. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki22 and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. An independent data and safety monitoring committee reviewed safety data after every 10 patients were randomized or in the event of death or other concerns.
Enrollment
Investigators identified potential patients from their own clinics or via tertiary referrals and nominated them for trial participation in a written submission to the trial steering committee (TSC). Patients provisionally approved by the TSC provided informed consent and then underwent baseline evaluations, including ileocolonoscopy, upper GI endoscopy, and small-bowel imaging. Baseline assessments were submitted to the trial coordinator, who confirmed eligibility before allowing the patient to proceed to stem cell mobilization and randomization. Patients gave blood for genotyping, were offered fertility advice, and underwent sperm, egg, embryo, or ovarian tissue storage as appropriate. The first patient was randomized on June 28, 2007, and the last on September 1, 2011; the final date of follow-up was March 2013.
Interventions and Randomization
All patients underwent stem cell mobilization using cyclophosphamide (2 g/m2, ×2 days) and nonglycosylated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (filgrastim; 10 μg/kg/d). To avoid undue immunosuppression during mobilization, corticosteroids and immunosuppressive drugs were reduced or stopped according to a standard protocol. Patients underwent leukapheresis when the CD34+ count exceeded 20 × 104/mL, to a target of 3 to 8 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg of body weight.
Patients who underwent successful mobilization were then randomized to undergo HSCT immediately or after a delay of 1 year. Randomization was centralized and used balanced nonstratified (1:1) electronically generated random number tables in permuted blocks of 4 patients prepared by the Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit. Investigators submitted information about the size of the stem cell harvest to the trial coordinator, who confirmed its adequacy before requesting the treatment assignment from the clinical trials unit; all parties, including the trial coordinator, were unaware of the randomization group until allocation.
Patients randomized to immediate HSCT transplantation received an EBMT-recommended intermediate-intensity conditioning regimen16 consisting of intravenous cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg/d, ×4 days) and, from day 3, rabbit antithymocyte globulin (Genzyme; 2.5 mg/kg/d) and methylprednisolone (1 mg/kg/d, ×3 days), with infusion of unselected stem cells (minimum, 3 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg) on day 7.
All patients during mobilization and patients undergoing HSCT during conditioning received general care as deemed necessary by investigators, including antibacterial, antimycotic, and antipneumocystis agents; hyperhydration; and mesna (for bladder protection) and alkalinization of urine according to local practice.
During follow-up, all patients in either trial group could receive standard care for Crohn disease, including corticosteroids, immunosuppressive agents, and biologic therapy, which was subsequently withdrawn according to local protocol if clinical improvement permitted. Enteral or parenteral nutritional support could be used according to local clinical protocol. If patients’ condition deteriorated (as judged by their local investigator) despite treatment intensification, an application could be made to the TSC to approve use of surgery or accelerated HSCT according to specified criteria (eAppendix 2 in Supplement 2).
Assessments
Every 6 weeks, patients in both groups underwent history and examination and laboratory testing and were assessed for disease activity (Crohn Disease Activity Index [CDAI]/Harvey-Bradshaw Index), adverse events, use of medication and medical services, and employment history; both groups also underwent electrocardiography and antimicrobial serology testing and were assessed for quality of life at 6 and 12 months.
End Points
We established a stringent primary end point, sustained disease remission 12 months after transplantation, to reflect the benefit we judged HSCT would need to yield to justify treatment toxicity. We defined SDR as a composite variable comprising 3 components: (1) CDAI23 less than 150 for at least the last 3 months (index based on number of liquid or soft stools, abdominal pain, general well-being, complications, use of antidiarrheal medication, abdominal mass, hematocrit <0.47 [men] or <0.42 [women], and % deviation from standard weight; lowest value, 0 for no symptoms; remission defined as <150, higher values [typically up to 600] indicate active disease); (2) no active treatment in the last 3 months; and (3) no mucosal erosion or ulceration anywhere in the GI tract as judged by a blinded adjudication committee (M.A., G.R., J.L.) using all upper and lower GI endoscopy and small-bowel imaging data (eAppendix 3 in Supplement 2). Quiz Ref IDPatients who did not meet these composite criteria, and those who died or who did not complete the year without surgery or (in the control group) accelerated transplantation were categorized as having failed treatment.
Secondary end points comprised a range of exploratory outcome measures, including but not limited to the individual items of the composite sustained disease remission outcome, and measures of clinical activity (change in CDAI and in Harvey-Bradshaw Index,24 the latter based on number of liquid or soft stools, abdominal pain, general well-being, complications, abdominal mass; remission defined as <5; higher values [typically up to 30] indicate active disease). Endoscopic disease activity was assessed by the change in Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn Disease (SES-CD) (a sum of scores for involvement, ulceration, ulcer size, and stricturing [each on a 3-point scale] of the ileum, ascending colon, transverse colon, left colon, and rectum; theoretical maximum, 60 [higher scores are worse]).25 Only segments examined both at baseline and 1 year were included in this analysis. Changes in functional status and generic and disease-specific quality of life were measured with the Karnovsky Index,21 IBDQ19 (32 questions in domains of bowel symptoms, emotional health, systemic systems, and social function [range, 32-224; higher scores indicate better quality of life and scores <170 indicate impaired quality]) and Euroqol20 scales (a visual analogue scale [range, 0-100; higher scores indicate better quality of life and scores <85 indicate impaired quality] and self-reported description of current health in 5 dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression [range, 0-1; higher scores indicate better quality of life]).
Adverse events were classified as nonserious or serious (SAEs); we defined SAEs as adverse events or reactions with or without a causal relationship to treatment that resulted in death, was life-threatening, required hospitalization or prolongation of existing hospitalization, or resulted in persistent or significant disability or incapacity. We assessed adverse events every 6 weeks at each trial visit.
Statistical Analysis
The study was designed to provide 90% power to detect a 65% vs 20% difference in the proportion of patients achieving 1-year sustained disease remission (2-sided α = .05) based on investigator consensus. Target trial enrollment was 48 patients, but in the context of treatment-related adverse events and after a transplant-related death, the trial was terminated after enrollment of 45 evaluable patients on recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee.
We summarize continuous variables as medians with interquartile ranges except where otherwise stated, and report findings based on intent-to-treat analyses using outcome data at 1 year or at treatment failure, as defined in the protocol and the statistical plan. We performed between-group comparisons of primary and secondary exploratory end points using generalized linear models including 2 factors: randomization arm as a fixed covariate and study center as a random effect to account for differences between transplant centers. We estimated 95% CIs using asymptotic CIs for differences in proportions and nonparametric CIs for differences of medians (percentile bootstrap, stratified by the grouping variable).
For secondary end points where appropriate, we used data at the time of loss to follow-up, surgery, or accelerated transplantation for patients who did not complete the study or who failed treatment. The potential effect of missing patient data on secondary outcomes was assessed with worst-case sensitivity analyses and with multiple imputation for quality-of-life parameters, imputing 5 data sets using chained regression under the missing-at-random assumption.26 After this calculation, each of the simulated complete data sets was independently analyzed using the same methods as complete case analysis to produce estimates and CIs that incorporate missing-data uncertainty, using the Rubin rules.
We used SPSS version 19 (IBM SPSS statistics) and R version 3.0.1 (R Development Core Team) for all analyses, using 2-sided testing with a significance threshold of P ≤ .05.
Results
Patients
Of 132 patients screened for eligibility, 99 were provisionally approved by the TSC, 62 signed consent forms, and 50 proceeded to be registered for trial inclusion, having met all criteria for inclusion (Figure). Forty-eight underwent mobilization (1 withdrew consent, and 2 had inadequate mobilization), and 45 were randomized to undergo immediate HSCT (n = 23) vs conventional therapy (n = 22) for 1 year (followed by delayed HSCT). There were no between-group differences in baseline characteristics, although patients undergoing HSCT tended to have a longer history of disease, were more likely to be smokers, and were more likely to report a family history of inflammatory bowel disease and have arthritis as part of their disease than controls (Table 1). All but 1 patient (who had esophageal disease only) had colonic or ileocolonic involvement. Baseline CDAI and SES-CD scores were similar across participating transplant centers.
Mobilization, Conditioning, and Transplantation
Mobilization yielded a median of 9.0 (range, 3.8-27.0) × 106/kg CD34+ cells in patients undergoing HSCT and 9.2 (range, 7.2-16.6) × 106/kg CD34+ cells in control patients from 1 (n = 39) or 2 (n = 6) leukapheresis. Conditioning of the HSCT group was started a median of 30 (range, 19-63) days after successful leukapheresis, with infusion of the unselected graft 6 days later. All patients achieved engraftment, with a sustained median neutrophil count of 0.5 × 109/L at a median of 16 (range, 8-30) days and a sustained median platelet count of 20 × 109/L at 18 (range, 8-30) days after graft infusion.
Follow-up Assessments
Of the 23 patients in the HSCT group, 1 died 20 days after the start of conditioning and 1 withdrew from follow-up at 26 weeks; these patients were included in analysis of primary but not secondary end points. Of the 22 control patients, one withdrew consent immediately after randomization and underwent out-of-trial HSCT; this patient was included in the analysis of primary but not secondary end points. A further 8 patients deteriorated clinically and ended as trial failures for the primary end point after a median of 183 (range, 109-259) days: 2 required urgent surgery, and 6 underwent accelerated transplantation (median CDAI score at withdrawal, 409 [range, 179-589]). Data at the time of withdrawal and treatment failure for these patients were included in analysis of both primary and secondary end points.
The remaining patients were assessed a median of 369 (range, 346-391) days after graft infusion (n = 21 patients in the HSCT group) and 363 (range, 328-417) days after mobilization assessment plus 6 days (n = 13 in the control group). Eleven of the 13 control patients assessed at 1 year proceeded to delayed HSCT; 1 of those patients improved enough to decline HSCT, and surgery was considered more appropriate in the other.
Sustained Disease Remission and Its Components
There was no statistically significant between-group difference in the proportion of patients who met the study definition of sustained disease remission (2 [8.7%] in the HSCT group vs 1 [4.5%] in the control group; absolute difference, 4.2% [95% CI, −14.2 to 22.6%] favoring HSCT; P = .60) (Table 2). There were statistically significant between-group differences in 1 of the 3 exploratory individual components (Table 2); compared with control patients, 38.1% (95% CI, 9.3% to 59.3%) (P = .01) more patients in the HSCT group were able to stop immunosuppressive drugs. Although 25.7% (95% CI, 1.08% to 47.1%) (P = .054) more patients in the HSCT group were free of active disease on imaging and 25.7% (95% CI, 1.08% to 47.1%) (P = .052) more had a CDAI less than 150 for the final 3 months, the differences did not reach the trial’s predefined threshold of statistical significance. There were no statistically or clinically significant differences between transplant centers in the composite or individual outcomes.
Exploratory Secondary End Points
The effects of HSCT on secondary end points are summarized in Table 2 and eTable 1 in Supplement 2. Differences in change in measures of disease activity (CDAI illustrated in the eFigure in Supplement 2) were statistically significant and favored HSCT (decrease in CDAI from baseline of 87.7 [95% CI, 13.5 to 155.0]) more in patients in the HSCT group compared with those in the control group (P = .04); decrease in Harvey-Bradshaw Index of 4 (95% CI, 1 to 9) more in patients undergoing HSCT than in control patients (P = .002) (Table 2), although in a sensitivity analysis imputing worst-case values for missing data, the differences in change lost statistical significance (decrease in CDAI, 81.8 [95% CI, −168.3 to 58.4]) more in patients undergoing HSCT than in control patients (P = .22), decrease in Harvey-Bradshaw Index of 5 (95% CI, 1 to 9.5) more in patients undergoing HSCT than in control patients (P = .06) (eTable 2 in Supplement 2). Among 21 patients in the HSCT group and 19 in the control group in whom colonoscopy data were obtained at baseline and final assessments, SES-CD scores between paired segments decreased by 7 (95% CI, 1 to 13) (P = .03) points more in patients undergoing HSCT than in control patients. Further sensitivity analyses that imputed best- and worst-case values for missing data did not qualitatively change other conclusions (eTable 2 and 3 in Supplement 2).
There were no statistically significant differences in change from baseline of any of the quality-of-life scores (European Quality of Life Visual Analogue Scale, EuroQoL 5 Dimensions Questionnaire, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, Karnofsky Index) using available data (Table 2) and in analyses accounting for missing data (eTable 3 in Supplement 2).
Platelets declined more in the HSCT group than in the control group, but there were otherwise no between-group differences in change in laboratory values (eTable 1 in Supplement 2).
Use of medical therapy was lower in the HSCT group compared with the control group; 8 patients undergoing HSCT were given corticosteroids (median, 16.3 weeks) vs 10 control patients (median, 31.4 weeks); 3 patients undergoing HSCT were given immunosuppressive drugs (median, 25.3 weeks) vs 6 control patients (median, 21 weeks); and 3 patients undergoing HSCT required biologic agents (median, 30.3 weeks) vs 7 control patients (median, 17.3 weeks).
Adverse Events
Serious adverse events were frequent (76 in 19 patients undergoing HSCT vs 38 in 15 control patients; median difference in number of events, 0 [95% CI, −1 to 4; P = .07]; percentage of patients, 14.4% [95% CI, −10.6% to 37.7%; P = .28]) (Table 3) and were more common among patients undergoing HSCT in the 100 days following conditioning and transplantation (34 SAEs in 13 patients undergoing HSCT vs 5 SAEs in 4 control patients [Table 3]; median difference, 1 [0 to 2] more SAE; P = .02; and 38.34% [95% CI, 10.02% to 59.24%] more patients [P = .01] with HSCT). There were no statistically significant between-group differences in number of SAEs during mobilization or in the 9-month postconditioning period.
Nearly all patients experienced nonserious adverse events (265 in 22 patients undergoing HSCT vs 134 in 20 control patients [eTable 4 in Supplement 2]; median difference, 4 [95% CI, −1 to 10] more adverse events with HSCT; P = .04), which were more common in the 100 days following conditioning and transplantation (117 adverse events in 19 patients receiving HSCT vs 27 adverse events in 11 control patients; median difference, 3.5 [95% CI, 0.5 to 8] more nonserious adverse events with HSCT) (eTable 4 in Supplement 2).
Infections were common in patients in the HSCT group and more common in the 100 days following conditioning and transplantation (13 SAEs attributable to infection in 8 patients in the HSCT group vs 0 in the control group; median difference, 0 [95% CI, 0 to 1] more infectious SAEs [P = .01] and 34.8% [95% CI, 13.0% to 55.1%] more patients [P = .002] with HSCT [Table 3]; 25 nonserious adverse events in 13 patients receiving HSCT vs 3 in 3 control patients) (eTable 4 in Supplement 2). Of the infections classified as an SAE, 9 were viral infections in 5 patients undergoing HSCT (vs 0 in control patients) comprising Epstein-Barr virus reactivation (n = 3), cytomegalovirus reactivation (n = 2), herpes zoster (n = 1), BK virus (n = 1), intestinal adenovirus (n = 1), and varicella zoster virus (n = 1); 8 were presumed neutropenic sepsis with an organism isolated on 1 occasion; 2 were pneumonia (Klebsiella [n = 1], pneumocystis [n = 1]), and 3 were anal or perianal abscesses (the latter 3 in a single patient). Gastrointestinal symptoms were common, including nausea and vomiting (n = 6), diarrhea (n = 1), and abdominal pain (n = 2). Worsening of Crohn disease was recorded as an adverse event or SAE in 6 patients undergoing HSCT and 8 control patients.
One patient randomized to HSCT died 20 days after the start of conditioning, with postmortem evidence of sinusoidal obstructive syndrome.27,28 He was taking no drugs at trial entry and had no antecedent risk factors for sinusoidal obstructive syndrome.27,28 He had been thought to have intraperitoneal sepsis and underwent (negative) laparotomy 2 days before death, when his liver appeared normal and results of liver function blood tests were normal. His condition then deteriorated, with clinical and biochemical evidence of acute liver failure. Tests for alternative causes of liver pathology were negative.
Delayed Transplantation
Of the 11 control patients who underwent delayed transplantation after 1 year, 12-month outcome data were available for 10 and 6-month data for 1. One of the patients experienced sustained disease remission; 3 experienced clinical remission (CDAI <150) (1 patient was missing CDAI data at 1 year [n = 10]); 2 experienced clinical remission and were not receiving medication; and 4 were free from ulceration on imaging.
Discussion
Quiz Ref IDIn this randomized trial of HSCT for patients with refractory Crohn disease not amenable to surgery with impaired function or quality of life, HSCT was not superior to standard therapy at inducing sustained disease remission, defined as clinical remission while not receiving medical therapy for 3 months, with no evidence of active disease on endoscopy and GI imaging at 1 year. Exploratory analyses suggest that more patients in the HSCT group were able to discontinue all immunosuppressive therapy and that clinically but not statistically significantly more patients in the HSCT group may have been in clinical remission and free of active disease on imaging in the months prior to assessment. Exploratory analyses also suggested that HSCT improved measures of clinical and endoscopic disease activity. Nevertheless, because very few patients achieved sustained disease remission, we conclude that HSCT is unlikely to alter the natural history of Crohn disease, and our findings argue against extension of HSCT to a wider group of patients outside of future additional trials.
The ASTIC study was prompted by a literature search (PubMed English language search of [Stem cell transplant and Haematopoietic] and [Colitis or Crohn* or IBD]) between 1985 and 2005 that identified reports of clinical and endoscopic improvement with HSCT in patients with Crohn disease,2-11 some4-6 but not all7-9 of which described apparent disease regression over many years after autologous HSCT. We sought to evaluate the benefits and toxicities of HSCT using a randomized design, blinded adjudication of detailed clinical, endoscopic, and quality-of-life assessments, and a composite primary end point more stringent than those previously used to determine how many patients experienced true sustained disease regression after HSCT. We updated our literature search to July 2015 after completion of the trial to identify additional reports in the literature. A further 29 cases of HSCT for refractory Crohn disease have been reported in case reports and case series,8,29,30 although several patients had been included in prior reports. Thus, to our knowledge, the ASTIC trial includes the largest cohort of patients undergoing HSCT for refractory Crohn disease and is the only report of a randomized clinical trial of this procedure.
Although we were unable to demonstrate superiority of HSCT over standard therapy for achieving sustained disease remission, the negative finding is based on a very small number of outcomes, and the confidence bounds surrounding the between-group difference in those outcomes are consistent with both large harm and large benefit of HSCT. That imprecision in our estimate of effect of HSCT is attributable to the premise underlying both our stringent primary end point definition and our sample size calculations, namely, that many more patients undergoing HSCT than standard treatment would have to realize a clearly defined benefit to justify the exposure of participants to the toxicity of HSCT. We found favorable effects of HSCT on end points used in other studies of Crohn disease, like clinical disease activity (CDAI) or endoscopic mucosal healing (SES-CD); and while those were exploratory end points in this trial, improvements falling short of sustained disease remission may still be clinically meaningful in this group of patients, who have no other therapeutic options and a markedly impaired quality of life. This is not the case for treatment-naive patients, for whom it is appropriate to prescribe therapies with reduced toxicity, even if they are less effective.2,3,31,32
Quiz Ref IDHSCT was associated with more adverse events than conventional therapy, most importantly proven or presumed infections associated with the pancytopenia induced by the conditioning regimen, and 1 patient died. The number of adverse effects likely contributes to our failure to show an unequivocal improvement in quality of life in the first year after HSCT. Whether the sinusoidal obstructive syndrome seen in the patient who died was a result of endothelial injury induced by chemotherapy or an agonal event in a septic patient is uncertain but raises the prospect that prophylaxis with defibrotide or possibly ursodeoxycholic acid33,34 might be considered in any future studies of HSCT for Crohn disease.
The study has limitations. The trial’s primary end point (sustained disease remission) has not been used before but is based on individual validated measures of disease.23-25 Our primary end point relied in part on CDAI, a symptom-based assessment of disease activity that might have captured noninflammatory symptoms relating to prior structural intestinal damage. More patients withdrew from the control group than the HSCT group before 1 year to receive salvage therapy, and the change in measures of disease activity lost statistical significance when data for these early withdrawals were imputed using worst-case sensitivity analyses. Also, we used different methods for small-bowel radiology in the course of the study, leading to possible inconsistency in assessment of disease activity on imaging, although only 1 patient with ulcerative ileal disease on barium follow-through at both baseline and follow-up was categorized exclusively on the basis of radiology.
Quiz Ref IDBased on these trial findings, further study of HSCT in patients with refractory Crohn disease may be warranted. It is possible that optimal sustained remission after HSCT may require maintenance immunosuppressive therapy. It is also possible that patients will regain responsiveness to treatments to which they were previously refractory. Therefore, future trials should assess the benefit of maintenance therapy. Toxicity will remain the most significant barrier to HSCT in patients with Crohn disease. Therefore, identification of factors that predict either the risk of adverse effects or response to treatment will enhance the utility of this treatment in clinical practice.
Conclusions
Among adult patients with refractory Crohn disease not amenable to surgery who had impaired quality of life, HSCT, compared with conventional therapy, did not result in a statistically significant improvement in sustained disease remission at 1 year and was associated with significant toxicity. These findings do not support the widespread use of HSCT for patients with refractory Crohn disease.
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Corresponding Author: Christopher J. Hawkey, FMedSci, Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, School of Clinical Sciences, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, United Kingdom (cj.hawkey@nottingham.ac.uk).
Author Contributions: Dr Hawkey had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Drs Allez, Labopin, Lindsay, Rogler, and Satsangi and Ms M. Clark are part of the Writing and Analytical Group and are coequal second authors.
Study concept and design: Hawkey, Lindsay, Danese, Larghero, Littlewood, Saccardi, Tyndall, Farge.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Hawkey, Allez, M. Clark, Labopin, Lindsay, Ricart, Rogler, Rovira, Satsangi, Danese, Russell, Gribben, Johnson, Larghero, Thieblemont, Ardizzone, Dierickx, Ibatici, Onida, Schanz, Vermeire, Colombel, Jouet, E. Clark, Travis, Farge.
Drafting of the manuscript: Hawkey, Allez, Lindsay, Rogler, Larghero, Farge.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Hawkey, Allez, M. Clark, Labopin, Lindsay, Ricart, Rogler, Rovira, Satsangi, Danese, Russell, Gribben, Johnson, Thieblemont, Ardizzone, Dierickx, Ibatici, Littlewood, Onida, Schanz, Vermeire, Colombel, Jouet, E. Clark, Saccardi, Tyndall, Travis.
Statistical analysis: Hawkey, Labopin.
Obtained funding: Hawkey, Jouet, Farge.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Hawkey, Allez, M. Clark, Lindsay, Ricart, Satsangi, Vermeire, E. Clark, Travis, Farge.
Study supervision: Hawkey, Allez, Ricart, Rogler, Rovira, Danese, Gribben, Johnson, Larghero, Dierickx, Onida, Saccardi, Tyndall, Farge.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: All authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Dr Hawkey reported receiving a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator Award and receiving funding from the University of Nottingham Medical School Dean’s Fund and the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust Research and Development Fund. No other authors reported disclosures.
Funding/Support: This study was sponsored by the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Autoimmune Diseases Working Party and the European Crohn and Colitis Organisation (ECCO).
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The Broad Foundation reviewed and evaluated the original grant application. Listed coauthors who were members of EBMT and ECCO contributed to the design and conduct of the study, collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Data and Safety Monitoring Committee: Chair: John Goldman (deceased) (Department of Haematology, Imperial College at Hammersmith Hospital, London, United Kingdom); Paul Pavli (Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, The Canberra Hospital, Woden, Australia); William J. Sandborn (Division of Gastroenterology, UCSD Center, UC San Diego Health System, La Jolla, California).
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Korean animation , or aeni (; Korean : 애니), has become an industry that produces characters for other countries' companies, exports its creations globally and generates billions of dollars in profits.
The word aeni comes from the English word "animation" as written in Hangeul , 애니메이션 (aenimeisyeon), similar to Japanese アニメーション (animēshon). Just like anime , aenimeisyeon was shorten to aeni and is the term generally used to refer to Korean animation both in Korea and outside of the country.
The Korean animation industry was in a period of crisis throughout the 2000s. Depression at the reality of being an industry that the West merely gave factory-type drawing to began to sink in. This followed the 1990s, a period of explosive growth for the industry when Korean studios made most of their profits from OEM, mostly from the United States.[citation needed]
In many ways, 2011 was a bright transitional year for Korean animation, with home-produced animated feature films finally finding box office success in South Korea, instead of facing the usual financial failure. As far as overseas export market is concerned, the likes of Rough Draft Korea (RDK) kept on landing new contracts, which have seen Rough Draft perform the manual work on over 45 popular Western cartoon titles over 16 years.[1]
Korean animation has boomed in popularity in Eastern Asia with the success of the series Pororo the Little Penguin and Origami Warriors in 2011, leaving fans wanting to discover more Korean animations. This success is due in part to perfecting the Korean animation technique, and financial returns being reinvested into new animated products.[citation needed]
Some Korean animators still blame the booming Korean game industry for draining the animation industry's talent pool, but the box office success of the Korean animated film Leafie[2] in 2011 in South Korea is inspiring a new generation.[citation needed]
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FILE - In this Feb. 28, 2006, file photo, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, left, and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt wait for the Urban Youth Academy opening ceremony to begin in Compton, Calif. Major League Baseball is taking over the Dodgers, a team financially paralyzed by the divorce of its owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt. Selig says in a release Wednesday, April 20, 2011, that he will appoint a representative to oversee the "business and the day-to-day operations of the Club." (AP Photo/Ric Francis, File)
The attorneys for Frank McCourt and MLB have agreed that McCourt can use the $150 million loan he obtained to continue to finance the Dodgers. The U.S. bankruptcy court will hold a hearing on July 20 where MLB will seek to replace the hedge fund financing for their own. The loan carried an interest rate of at least 10% with a $4.5 million fee while the MLB loan would only carry an interest rate of 7%.
MLB will also seek to reinstate monitor Tom Schieffer and will also request a trustee for the team in the coming days.
As many questions as there are that surrounds the Dodgers now, it is clear that MLB Commissioner Bud Selig wants McCourt ousted. But what happens if Selig doesn’t get his way?
Like the “death penalty” bomb that the NCAA can use against schools, MLB holds one of their own. Simply put, Selig can terminate the Dodgers and create a National League expansion team in Los Angeles with a new ownership group. This is the exact thing that Selig threatened to do last year if the bankruptcy court didn’t award the Texas Rangers to the ownership group of Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan. In a story by Richard Sandomir and Ken Belson in the New York Times on July 18, 2010:
One of Selig’s lawyers vowed profanely in a conference call that if the judge did not approve the team’s prepackaged bankruptcy plan, which would have sped approval of the Greenberg-Ryan bid, M.L.B. would terminate the franchise, according to a person on the call.
That didn’t happen because the Greenberg-Ryan group did eventually win the auction in bankruptcy court.
Because McCourt has separated every single asset, it is unknown if by folding the Dodgers all assets and companies associated with Dodgers would be part of the termination. If not, then there is a question where the new expansion team would play since I doubt that either McCourt or MLB would allow the team to play at Dodger Stadium.
Judging by how toxic things have become around the Dodgers, this scenario shouldn’t be overlooked. After all who would have thought the Dodgers would ever have to declare bankruptcy?
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The right-back was expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks after suffering a hamstring injury but trained on Tuesday ahead of Manchester City's fixture on Boxing Day
By Paul Clennam Pablo Zabaleta is in line to make a shock return for Manchester City’s fixture against Liverpool on Boxing Day after making a swift recovery from a hamstring injury.The 28-year-old was initially expected to be sidelined for up to six weeks after picking up the injury during City’s 3-1 win against Leicester City in the Capital One Cup on December 17.But the Argentina international took part in training on Tuesday morning and, providing he suffers no setbacks during a session on Christmas Day, will be part of the matchday squad that hosts Brendan Rodgers’ side at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday.Gael Clichy deputised at right-back for Zabaleta in City’s 4-2 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday.Manuel Pellegrini’s side are currently one point behind Liverpool in the table and have won all eight of their Premier League fixtures at home this season.City will be without Sergio Aguero for the match against Liverpool as the striker continues his recovery from a calf injury, while doubts remain over the fitness of Micah Richards, Matija Nastasic and Stevan Jovetic.
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Introduction to DevOps, Virtualization and Provisioning
DevOps has become more than just a buzzword among the innovators in software development and IT operations today. It’s as hot a topic as agile was a decade ago. Just like agile, no one was able to really lock down a good enough definition, or figure out the context in which the definition of agile actually existed (at first)…
What does DevOps have to do with all this?
Not unlike agile, DevOps focuses on simple concepts–such as automation, reusability and iterative improvement–built on a foundation of a shared culture that promotes collaboration. Here at ZeroTurnaround, we like to think of ourselves as “DevOps champions”; our products JRebel and LiveRebel are the fruits of our hard work, research and vision aimed at the entire software creation pipeline, from Dev to QA to Staging and Ops (and back again)
This report will make it easy for you get started with adopting aspects of DevOps practices, so let’s get on with it and take a look at two of the most important cornerstones: Virtualization and Provisioning
Why do we need Virtualization & Provisioning?
It’s important to recognize the value provided by virtualization and environment provisioning (especially when automated). In case you haven’t really given it very much thought, virtualization is especially useful in complex environments, i.e. when you want to have similar environments for Development, QA/Testing, and Production. Provisioning is something you may need to do frequently, so automating it, although possibly painful at first, will pay off when you can reuse the “scripts” between different environments and scale quickly if needed.
So if you want to set up and test anything in advance before running your apps in production blindly, then you need to configure suitable environment (virtualization) that has everything required for your application or project to run properly (provisioning). The term “infrastructure as code” references to using tools to automate infrastructure configuration with all the benefits that brings.
So how many teams configure their infrastructure with code? Sadly, not too many…
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CS:GO Danmark has announced that it will host a Counter-Strike tournament with almost $27,000 in cash prizes.
Limited to eight teams, the tournament, called CS:GO Danmark Mesterskab #1, will take place as part of Power-LAN, scheduled for August 26-28 at Marienlystcentret, in Odense.
Four teams will be directly invited by CS:GO Danmark, with two of the remaining spots being filled by the finalists of the CS:GO DK League Season 1. The final two places will be determined by a closed qualifier, on June 4.
Power-LAN to feature an eight-team tournament for Danish players
Information about May's open preliminary qualifier, which will see the top four sides advance to the closed qualifier, can be found here. All competing teams must have at least three Danish players on their roster.
Below you can find the prize breakdown for the tournament:
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How to make your own tokens for use in Roll20. So I love that Roll20 has got tons of free tokens. Devin's stuff looks incredible. However, sometimes I want a specific art style for my campaign to be consistent. However, there is a problem with just downloading pictures to use as tokens: transparency. We want to make sure that our token's background is transparent so we can see the our map underneath. Most artwork you find on the net is going to be in JPEG format, which does not support transparency. Luckily, fixing this to making your own tokens is actually incredibly easy. Things you will need: GIMP GIMP is a free open-source photo editing tool along the lines of Photoshop. (You can use Photoshop if you have it). Artwork you want to transform into a token. Step 1: Find some artwork you like: For this example, I am going to use some artwork from Pathfinder's Jade Regent Adventure Path. Here is a picture of one of main NPCs from the Adventure Path's cover. I want to use this picture as a token in my campaign: Step 2: Copy and Paste your artwork into GIMP Fortunately, this picture is actually selectable in the PDF and as you can see, I have done so. Now I copy and paste this picture into GIMP: Step 3: Clean up the background As you can see here, I have my image, but wait a minute! I have all this weird black space and white space that wasn't in the image above! This is because the image above was a PNG that was already transparent, but the copy and pasting function doesn't support transparency, so it's filled in the empty space. It's ok though, this is an easy fix. First, lets get rid of the black space. Go ahead and select the magic wand tool: Now select all that black space and hit Delete: Now you have a all while background. Sometimes you will have to do this multiple times and even get in with the eraser tool to get rid of some artifacts. Step 4: Add transparency Now we have to make this image transparent. Go to Layer>Transparency>Add Alpha Channel Now you can erase that white background in your image and make the parts you erase transparent. Go back and select the magic wand tool and select all the white parts of your image and delete them. It will end up looking like this: Now, I got very lucky here and had a high quality image with almost no artifacts. You will not probably be that lucky. You will probably have parts that the magic wand tool misses. It's very easy to fix however. Simply zoom in as much as you like and then carefully use the eraser tool to remove them. Remember that every time you click the mouse button and let go, GIMP saves that action in it's history, so if you screw up, you can undo it. Just go slowly and I guarantee you it will look great. Step 5: Save your image as a PNG file Now to save your image! Make sure that you save it as a PNG file or the transparency will not be preserved: Step 6: Upload your art to Roll20 Once you have your image saved, upload it to Roll20: And once it is in your library, just search for it's file name and drag it to the token layer like any other token. One of the things I love about Roll20 is that it will automatically resize giant, high quality images like the one I used into perfect token sizes: Advanced token making: If you don't have a image like the one I used where you can select it separately from the background, you will still be able to make a token, it will just take more work. You will have to copy and paste or open the whole image into GIMP. Then proceed to step 4 and add the transparency. Then zoom in as much as you need, and slowly start to erase the background around the edges of the picture you want to use as a token. Once you have gotten a buffer of empty space between your image and the background, set your eraser to a larger size and start erasing the rest of your background until you are happy with the results!
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'I never felt so alone, wandering in the shadows
Fading to the background, where no one can see
Then you came into my life, giving that spark of light
That's been missing inside of me...'
The day of the visit to the Westergaard's had arrived and Elsa was barely able to convince Anna that she would be alright on her own. It was also a challenge asking for her parents' permission; they had unlimited questions when she asked to borrow Marshall's car for that day. They hadn't known she could drive and it clearly surprised them.
Things were going well within the Dalton household. Even if it was far from perfect, it was a good start. There may be some lingering awkwardness from both sides and Elsa might not have found the courage to live with them again, but it was ultimately easier to be around each other.
Once, during dinner, there was a time her uncle asked how it was going.
"It's going well, I think," she said.
Kai graced her with an affectionate smile and resumed eating the roasted chicken she had set at the table, whereas Olaf jokingly asked, "Should I prepare myself for eating Dad's burnt dishes again?"
That earned him an offended glare from his father and stirred a thought on Elsa. She knew that Olaf was not telling her to move out. He was simply being thoughtful of the future. There would come a time when she would have to go back to her immediate family. Was she ready for that? Perhaps not. Maybe if this progress with her parents would continue, one day, she would be.
The lyrics for the song at the wedding of Hans were progressing as smoothly.
She was on her way to meet him. Again. Out of sheer will. A will that was beginning to crumble.
She wanted to run, to turn a corner and never return. She'd spent more than three hundred sixty-five days trying to avoid this very same guy she was about to see for the second time. The thought of Anna was the only thing stopping her from doing so. Anna had been honest with her from the very beginning. She couldn't lie to Anna anymore after everything that happened.
In the blink of an eye, there appeared a massive gate that stood in her way. It was the biggest gate she had ever seen. That made her panic and seek out her phone, rereading Anna's message to see if she was at the correct address. She was.
Should she send a text? Call? With the shock that came along seeing one property of the redhead, Elsa couldn't find the courage to do any of those. The previous week, she wondered how rich this family was. Now that the answer towered over her in the form of a massive gate, it intimidated her.
"You're already here," she muttered. "You told Anna you already left the house."
With a soft exhale, she shortened the last distance to the gate and looked around until she saw a device similar to a doorbell. It had a speaker. Frowning and spending a few seconds glaring at the thing, she opened the window and pushed the button.
"Yes?"
"Uhm... I-It's Elsa."
The distinct noise of kitchen utensils clattering on the floor was heard over the static. "Hey, wha- She's here! What are you doing?!"
"Liam! Put that down!"
The line ended abruptly after the outburst. Elsa couldn't recognize any of those voices. Although if she could judge with their reaction, she truly was in the right house- mansion?
There was a metallic clink that signaled the opening of the gates.
As soon as it was wide open, she drove towards the huge house for approximately ten minutes.
Her gut twisted in uncomfortable knots as she rounded a massive fountain. Six people standing on the stairs that led to the front doors welcomed her. There were five adults and one child that was around Alice's age. Elsa could feel the signs of hyperventilation coming and forced herself to breathe in and out in a slow and steady pace. The only comfort she had was Anna standing there, stressed as she was.
Aside from the orange-haired guy and the brunette lady who seemed the oldest, everyone was a redhead. The lady who wasn't a brunette had a hair closer to maroon which was a trait the little boy shared, Hans' was of auburn, and Anna's was of strawberry blonde.
Amidst the sea of redheads, Elsa felt out of place.
Had she known that she would be visiting a mansion way more luxurious than any imagination she could conjure up, she could have worn something fancier than the semi-casual outfit she picked out.
"Elsa! Glad you could come." Hans' grin was wide and made his face glow.
"Hans, you're scaring her," said the maroon-haired woman.
"What, I was just greeting her."
Elsa's stomach lurched. She thought she was prepared for this. Apparently, she was not.
"Elsie?" Alice was the only one who ever called her by that name and hearing it from another child surprised her. The boy had big violet eyes and was tugging at her hand, causing her to kneel until she was at his eye level. "Wow." His tiny hands cupped her cheeks. "Big sister, you have pretty eyes!"
"T-Thank you."
"Liam!" Anna gently pulled the boy to her side and nervously glanced at Elsa. "I'm so sorry!"
"No. It's... It's okay." Elsa stood stiffly and squirmed, desperate to avoid the pairs of eyes pinned on her.
"Guys!" Anna hissed.
"Oh wow! They are beautiful," said the orange-haired and muscular guy.
"I agree. I can't believe I didn't notice before! Must be the lighting," Hans murmured.
"Such a lovely color," said the brunette lady whom Elsa assumed was Anna's mother.
"It is! I see why Liam would want to see them from up close," said the woman who chided Hans earlier.
Her mind began to spin round and round, desperate to come up with anything to say. She didn't want to appear socially stunted in front of Anna's family. First impressions were always important!
"Can we go inside?!" Anna suggested, putting herself in front of Elsa and acting as a wall that blocked the upcoming barrage of embarrassing compliments. "You're scaring her!"
"Oh my. Anna's being protective." Anna's mother covered her mouth with a playful giggle.
"First things first. It's nice to meet you, Elsa. The name's Megara. My friends call me Meg and being Anna's girlfriend, you have the right to call me that." Anna gasped and opened her mouth, but was interrupted when Meg continued, "I'm Anna's older sister. This boy here is my son, William."
"I'm her husband, Hercules. Just call me Herc," said the muscular guy.
"And you already know me," Hans said. "But for formality, I'm Anna's one and only brother, Hans."
Before getting a chance to meet him at the studio, Elsa half-expected a scary and serious-looking guy. Someone who was intimidating. In a sense, he was. His first approach when he didn't know who she was was less than friendly. Aggressive, even. When Anna introduced her, that was when his approach changed.
"I'm Anna's mother, Idunn. You can call me Mom." Idunn's comment made Elsa and Anna blush.
"We're glad you were able to come," Meg noted, easing back on the teasing.
"T-Thank you."
"Why don't we come in? It's cozier in there than out here," Hans chuckled.
"I-Is it okay to leave my car there? It might be in the way."
"Anna," Idunn raised an eyebrow at her freckled daughter, "where did you find such a considerate young lady?"
"Mom!"
"We don't mind if you leave it there," Meg answered. "This day is reserved for you."
Elsa's thought process screeched to a halt.
Reserved.
For her.
What did I get myself into?!
She nearly squeaked when something touched her hand. It was Anna's. She was smiling, but the underlying worry in her eyes was clear as a crystal. That gesture forced Elsa to push down her fears. "M-Maybe I should p-park outside?" she asked, stumbling over her words.
"Now, now." Idunn shook her head. "We can't allow that."
"Don't be nervous, Elsa. We don't bite," Meg insisted.
"Let's park it in the garage," Anna offered before giving her family a pointed look. "I think you guys intimidated her with that blatant staring."
"It's not always we get to see that kind of blue in a pair of eyes." Hans' voice lacked the earlier tease, sincerity in its place. Elsa blushed at the comment, unused to having her eyes praised. She'd never thought they were anything special.
"Come on, guys! Let's leave the lovebirds alone," Herc suggested, laughing when Anna glared at him. "Okay, okay. I get it. Go park and we'll wait inside."
Before anyone could grab the chance to tease again, Elsa was dragged back to her brother's car. Anna opened the passenger seat and for a second, Elsa thought she was going to sit in it. To her surprise, Anna gestured for her to go in and insisted to drive.
After securing the car in their massive garage, the redhead sighed. "Sorry about them."
"No, uhm. I'm sorry f-for being awkward." Elsa groaned and covered her face with both hands. Her actions from earlier were starting to sink in and she realized that she made a fool out of herself.
"No, Elsa. They were acting too familiar. I'm sorry."
"Why didn't you tell me you live in a mansion? I-I could have worn something more presentable."
"You look great. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It's kind of complicated."
"What do you mean?"
Anna avoided her gaze and tapped a finger on the wheel. "I didn't want you to come here because of what I have. I know you said you wanted to meet them, and I believe you. It's just... old habits die hard."
The soft tone used to deliver the statement hit Elsa to the core. She knew since they'd met that Anna had trust issues. This was the first time she was told something close to reason, however, and she had enough emotional experience to piece problems together.
"I know what you see now is intimidating. But we're... we're people too, okay? You don't have to worry. And they love to tease me all the time. I think it's the age difference."
"Anna, your family is beautiful while I'm—"
"You are beautiful, Elsa. My mother and siblings can come off as playful, but they don't lie. When they say that your eyes are beautiful, they mean it. It's also the first thing I noticed when I... when I really looked at you."
The look on Anna's face as she said it stole Elsa's breath away.
Why?
Compliments weren't something Elsa craved for. In fact, she was terrible at receiving them. Ever since Cindy died, thinking that something bad was going to happen when someone complimented her was something she began subconsciously doing. Guilt and apprehension were the two things she tied with praise. But as she was locked on a pair of aquamarine eyes, Elsa wondered.
When was it that she started feeling embarrassed and... happy?
Anna had been panicking that morning and sending messages to Elsa, reminding her that it was absolutely alright if she wouldn't come. Elsa responded the same thing every time, promising that she would be there. When Marshall's car was in sight, Anna had her fingers crossed and prayed that her family wouldn't say anything that could trigger anything about Elsa's past. Or music. Or Frozen Fractals.
Even she knew that was a stretch.
They would ask Elsa questions. Her background, how they met, and how they became close. They were worried about Anna's social life ever since what happened with Vanessa. There was no doubt that questions would be asked. Anna only hoped it wouldn't lead to Hans figuring out that Elsa and Chelsea were one and the same.
"Elsie!" William jumped from his stool and wrapped his tiny arms around the blonde's waist.
The familiarity caught everybody by surprise. William wasn't the type to be comfortable around strangers, and even if Anna was happy he didn't treat Elsa as one, he had only met her.
"Hello again, William." Elsa patted the little boy's head gently.
"Elsie smells vanilla!"
Anna hunched over to be on her nephew's eye level. "Liam, why don't we sit down and eat?"
"Okay!" He let go of Elsa and went back to his seat beside Meg.
Grateful eyes met hers and she quirked a smile. Anna wanted to make Elsa as comfortable as she could. Wishing that her family wouldn't ask questions was useless. That was why, before things get complicated, she wanted to make Elsa feel at home as she had been when she was with the blonde's family.
Lunchtime came and pale hands trembled on tights-clad knees.
"Anna told us that your favorite is Italian cuisine," her mother said.
"Actually, she even helped with cooking these," Meg stated without beating around the bush. "Ariel might have already told you that Anna doesn't cook. It was a real surprise when she asked me a few months ago to teach her."
"Ugh," Anna rolled her eyes, knowing full well of the teasing that was about to come.
"T-That's..." Elsa stuttered.
"Oh, don't be shy, Elsa," Idunn giggled.
"You have no idea how much Mom and Meg wanted to teach Anna how to cook," Hans snorted.
"Then," Elsa's soft voice chimed, "you did a great job teaching her. That ziti she made was delicious."
"It should be. That was her fifth attempt," Meg quipped.
Heat rushed to Anna's cheeks when the blonde turned to her. That wasn't something she wanted Elsa to know.
"I tried to mix it myself, but she insisted on doing the whole thing," Meg smirked.
"Back then, we didn't know about you. We just came to the conclusion and agreed that there might be someone responsible for the sudden interest," Hans said.
"Ariel said you're amazing at it. We should cook together sometime!" The maroon haired woman scrunched her face. "Hmm. Why don't we do it later? I want to taste this food that our dearest cousin said was 'out of this world'."
"W-What?"
Feeling somewhat horrible when a darker shade of red spread over Elsa's normally pale skin, Anna explained, "Mom and Meg are chefs."
At the telltale signs of panic showing on the blonde's mannerisms, Anna realized her mistake. She knew it was possible for her sister to suggest cooking together but she didn't try to stop her. She was confident about Elsa's skills; she knew it wouldn't be a problem. But what if Elsa wasn't ready for something like that? She wasn't used to people praising and expecting something from her!
"We're not going to judge, Elsa," Idunn smiled. "We only want to know you. Maybe if we spend time cooking together, we'd understand each other better."
"P-Please don't expect. I-I'm not p-planning to be a c-chef," Elsa stuttered.
Anna silently thanked her mother and sister when they beamed at the indirect approval. It was a huge blessing that they didn't judge people based on their career choice.
"Hey, no sweat." Herc bit his Stromboli. "Chef or not, I say you're good. If Anna was bloated, I'd say you did a good job."
With the offhand comment, the poor redhead choked on the spaghetti. She grabbed a glass of water and drank, feeling a hand rubbing her back. Upon relaxing, she glanced around the table with her mouth hung agape.
"Ariel told us," Hans confirmed.
"Ugh. I swear I'll get her someday!"
Everyone laughed at her reaction. Hearing Elsa's lovely one, Anna couldn't find the mood to sulk over her cousin's meddling. She'd file that away for some other time. For now, she was contented to see Elsa laughing with her family and beginning to relax even if it was at her own expense.
It was strange to feel welcomed. In spite of the jittery nerves and the looming secret that Elsa had, even if they didn't know, Anna's family was accommodating and did their best to make her comfortable. It wasn't easy, but because they talked a lot, her reservations slowly faded.
"Okay." Hans slid his empty plate aside and placed his arms on the table. "If you don't want to be a chef, does that mean you already have plans for the future?"
About time.
She knew that questions would come one way or another. That was the point of being invited by a family member. When it was Anna who visited their house, her parents asked a deluge of questions, and that was only them assuming the redhead was a friend. Elsa was not clueless as to think that she wouldn't be questioned when Hans specifically said that he was curious about her.
She decided to keep it simple. "I'm into arts."
"Seriously? What kind?"
"Video and... and music," she added as an afterthought. If she was going to stop lying, she might as well start. "My cousin runs a photography studio. He influenced me on cinematography."
"Please tell me it's Frozen Fractals," he said. "You weren't manning the studio by chance, right?"
"Ye... Yes."
"Yes! That studio was the one that covered my proposal for my fiancée last year!"
"Hans is going to get married in three weeks," Idunn informed, and then she looked at her son. "The invitations aren't out yet."
"Oh right!" Hans snapped his fingers. "Elsa, I'd like you to come to my wedding."
"W-What?"
"You're Anna's girlfriend—"
"Friend!" Anna corrected.
"—and I want you to be there!"
"I-Isn't that random?" Elsa fiddled with her fingers underneath the table. "You already have everything planned and there're only three weeks left."
"That's not a problem." Meg grabbed a napkin to wipe his son's face with. "The venue is big and there will be people who'd come even if they're not invited."
People who aren't invited would come? Just who is he?!
"It will be their studio that'll cover my wedding." Hans' smile sent a shiver down her spine. It wasn't unkind, but it looked dangerous. As if he was telling her there was no point coming up with excuses. "The invitations will be done sometime this week. I'll give it to Anna, okay? I'll put in a word to add you to the first batch."
"Wait a sec," Herc piped in. "Your cousin runs Frozen Fractals? Who? Oliver Bjorgman or Senya Sunflower?"
It was then that Elsa remembered why there was a saying 'do not judge a book by its cover,' because as strange as it was, this muscle man was the first to ask the questions she dreaded answering. "Oliver."
"And you're a sophomore, right?" Elsa nodded affirmatively. "Isn't that Oliver's description of Chelsea?"
Hans' eyes widened along with Idunn's and Meg's. At that point, Elsa was already expecting them to ask her if she was the girl. The accusation never came.
Meg eyed Anna curiously. "Did you know?"
"I did," Anna confirmed. "Remember when I said she was hospitalized? I saw Oliver there and he said Elsa is his cousin from his father's side while Chelsea's from his mother."
"Oh."
Once again, Hans gave Elsa his full attention. "Elsa, I know you're not allowed to tell us anything, but we've been trying to track her for more than a year."
"I... do know her."
"Really?" Anna asked, and Elsa wasn't sure if she imagined the slight tremble in her voice.
"Do you mind telling us about her? Just a piece of small information, no matter how insignificant." It was Meg this time.
"Why?"
"Wait, let me," Hans grabbed a phone on top of a nearby table.
Elsa gulped. She knew what she was getting into when she agreed to come. This was it. If she could be honest, maybe the increasing amount of guilt that resulted from keeping this from Anna would subside. Maybe, just maybe, she would actually feel deserving of the girl's affections.
Olaf once told her she didn't need to hold back because her parents wouldn't be able to take this away from her. Even she could start to see that, what with the effort they were putting in to mend their nearly irreparable relationship. She loved music even until now. It would always be a part of her. She was having progress with the lyrics as well. But in her mind, performing, singing, and playing the piano were different things.
"Here."
The video during Hans' and a brunette's—the sister of Ms. Clara, the school nurse, if Elsa remembered correctly—engagement played on the phone that Hans offered. The music was, unsurprisingly, the first piece she ever finished digitally since Cindy's death. The video was edited by Olaf.
"Chelsea was the one who made the music for this." Hans hovered behind Elsa. "I heard it by chance and convinced Senya and Oliver to use it as the background. My fiancée, Belle, also loved it because it made the whole thing more memorable."
"It is," Elsa murmured, making everyone look at her. "C-Chelsea would... try to create something when she's feeling... emotional."
"Exactly!" Hans snapped his fingers in a way that made Elsa think she said something he agreed to wholeheartedly. "It's because she could convert her feelings well that I want to meet her!"
"W-What?"
"Hans is a music producer," Anna explained. "He's been interested in Chelsea ever since he heard that piece."
"Oliver said she was a fresh graduate in Junior High when she made it," Hans noted, and it set Elsa uneasy. How many times had this guy tried to get information about her? "Isn't that something? A junior high school kid who can make this kind of music!"
This was bad.
Hans' enthusiasm was making Elsa deflate and whatever resolve she had drifted away. Seeing his passion firsthand was intimidating and it was bad for her because she was holding a secret that they wanted to know. She didn't say anything wrong. It was the same as when the rumors about her and Anna dating circulated around the school. None of them confirmed or denied anything.
The difference was, this time, she felt awful for doing it.
In the end, the visit turned out better than Anna anticipated. She was glad that Elsa was able to calm down, at least until Herc asked the question that triggered the whole Chelsea business. Thankfully, the tension that fell on Elsa's shoulders was lifted when Meg and their mother invited her to bake. With Meg being the way she was, it didn't take long before Elsa was in her element.
"Not bad for a first try," Meg said then, flicking her wrist and gesturing to Elsa with the fork. "I can tell you're used to this."
"Thank you," the blonde smiled sheepishly. "I was taught by a childhood friend."
"Pastry chef?"
"Yes."
"You're from Corona, right? I've had a taste of numerous pies there. Blueberry, banana, strawberry... I haven't tried the pumpkin yet, which is a shame. I heard it was the best?"
"It depends on each person, I think. I prefer apple, but I can't do it as well as my friend."
"How good are we talking about?" Idunn wondered. "This is already delicious for your first attempt at Arendellian Red Velvet. Now I'm curious about this apple pie."
"We have the ingredients," Meg announced.
Elsa smiled apologetically and placed a saucer with another slice in front of Anna. "I'm sorry. The fruits that we use in our native pies are grown there."
"And I'm telling you, they're juicier than anything we have here," Anna added, taking a bite of her second serving. She had only watched the entire time they were baking and was endlessly teased by her mother and sister about it.
"That's a shame." Idunn pulled a face. "I'll ask our delivery guys to transport from there. You need to come over again and show us how to do it, okay?"
"Or we can make time and visit Corona," Meg suggested. "I can arrange it after Hans' wedding."
They made Elsa talk. About Corona, the places there, the customs, and the cuisine. Anna happily partook in the conversation, sharing her own opinions and experiences in the place. She could tell that it was a topic that Elsa was glad to have.
"Anna?" Elsa's voice cut through the tranquil silence outside the porch.
"Hmm?"
"You said... Olaf told you about Chelsea?"
Startled, Anna sipped on her mug to gather her thoughts. Were they seriously going to talk about this? "Mhm."
"Why?"
"Uhh... Ariel and I saw you in the library with Rapz before. You were watching a video with the Frozen Fractals logo. Back then, I didn't know that Rapz was working there."
"What does that have to do with Chelsea?"
"Olaf told me once that Chelsea is his cousin and that she was going to be a sophomore this school year," she explained carefully, mindful of her words because she didn't want to sound accusing. "Ariel was curious because you and Rapz fit the age description and were watching that video."
"And...?"
"I went to the studio. Rapz was there and Senya told me she's her sister... which leaves you. I didn't think about it until I saw him in the hospital when you were confined." Anna pressed her fingers firmly on the mug. "I thought you were her."
The questions made Anna apprehensive. This had been a topic she wanted to avoid ever since finding out the truth. To think that even if it was about her, it would be Elsa who would breach the topic.
"How long have you been looking for her?" Elsa asked.
How long... "Fourteen months, I think? To be honest, I forgot about it. The last few months have been eventful and I lost track."
"Do you regret it?" Huge pools of oceanic blues dropped and were followed by a soft murmur. "These last few months?"
"How can I? You were with me the entire time." Silence. "Do you?"
"No." It was a firm, immediate response and for a second, everything about them was fine. For a second. "Will you look for her again?"
Would she? Anna wanted to say that she didn't have to anymore because she already saw her. She already knew where Chelsea was, who she was, and why she was hiding.
Her mind didn't let her.
"Yes."
"Fourteen months," Elsa whispered. "Why were you looking for her that long? Didn't you get tired?"
"I did," Anna confessed. "I wanted to give up. We had no idea who she was even after a whole year. Olaf and Senya never cracked. The only things we knew about her was that she's in high school and Olaf's cousin."
"Then why are you going to continue? You said it yourself, you don't know her. Why are you willing to go that far?"
If only Elsa knew how much she hit the mark at that.
A shudder of air blew past her lips. "Hans is a workaholic and a perfectionist. He's always meticulous and ambitious. He'd rather work alone than to team up with people who could possibly ruin his projects. It's both good and bad for someone who's dealing with other musicians and business people as an everyday routine."
The blonde remained silent, listening to her explanation without any complaints. Anna truly wanted to stop. The only thing that made her think twice about doing it was because Elsa deserved answers. They had been making her life complicated for the past year; it was only fair to have a reason why. Half of her hoped that Elsa would put a stop to this. She didn't want to guilt trip her into admitting anything and, frankly, she didn't want Elsa to tell her anything either.
If that happened, the dreaded choice had to be made.
Elsa or Hans.
"He never asked for help, and when he came up to me after two months of being engaged, asking if I could help him look for this girl, I couldn't say no." Anna leaned her forearms on the railings. "My brother, whose pride was higher than Mount Everest, came to me and asked for help for the first time ever. I didn't want to disappoint him."
Please don't say anything.
"If... If you find her, what then?"
"I don't know." That was true on many levels. Anna wouldn't know what to do then. She kept silent this whole time because it was easier. "He wanted her to play in his wedding. If we can't find her then, he said it wouldn't stop him from keeping up the search."
Anna hoped that raised a huge warning flag that could prevent Elsa's swirling thoughts and drive to possibly tell her the truth. With the way this conversation flowed, she could only hope it took a detour from what she was already starting to see as the outcome.
The sleeve of her sweater was tugged hard and there, Elsa was, eyes hidden behind her fringes. "C-Can I be honest with you?"
No.
It was Anna's first instinct. To deny Elsa that right. The selfish side of her hoped this day would never come. How unfair was that? No, that wasn't right. It would be terrible for her to stop Elsa from saying anything when the only thing she wanted for the past few months was for the girl to open up.
"Elsa, you can always be honest with me." Anna nearly choked out the words. "What is it?"
Her heart broke into pieces when watery pearls rolled down those cheeks. The world around them blurred until only the two of them and their conflicting emotions intermingled. It was plain as day that this was difficult for the blonde, and Anna wanted her to stop because it was hurting them both. She wanted to tell Elsa it was alright, that she knew, and that she didn't need to say anything else.
But just like the other times that she noticed Elsa was having a difficult time, she remained tight-lipped.
"That's my song."
Because she was scared.
Merry Christmas to everybody! I hope you're enjoying this season, wherever you are! This is my last update for Silhouette this 2017 and I'll see you all next year! :D
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A South American fish with uncannily human-like chompers has been unexpectedly showing up on Michigan anglers' hooks.
The fish are red-bellied pacus (Piaractus brachypomus) and are piranha relatives, though their diet is mostly vegetarian. Pacus are popular with aquarium owners for their unusual square teeth that look remarkably human —rather disturbingly so, in fact. But recently, pacus have been sighted in places where they shouldn't be: Lake St. Clair and Port Huron in southeastern Michigan, where three pacus were caught during the month of July.
The pacus were almost certainly introduced into the lakes by former owners who kept them as pets, according to a statement released Aug. 9 by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR). [Photos: The Freakiest-Looking Fish]
Pacus are native to the Amazon and Orinoco river basins and flood plains. Their flattened bodies resemble those of their sharp-toothed piranha cousins, but their own distinctive teeth are used for crushing seeds and nuts. Pacus can grow to be about 35 inches in length, and pet owners may be dismayed to find that their exotic pet can outgrow its tank, which can prompt them to release the fish in the wild, according to the DNR.
Warm temperatures are vital to the pacus' survival, so they are unlikely to become established as an invasive species in Michigan's seasonally cold waters. However, releasing pets in the wild is not only harmful to the animals and likely to result in their death, but could have severe implications for native wildlife and ecosystems, DNR officials said in the statement.
Pacus have been found in Michigan waters before, but this is the first time that people have caught three of them in one week, according to Nick Popoff, a biologist with the Fisheries Division at the DNR. Popoff told Live Science that it's possible the three fish came from a single tank that was dumped in a public access site.
"Pacus' temperature requirements are tropical, and Michigan is not a tropical state," Popoff said. "They're not going to be able to survive our winters, so we don't consider them invasive. We're concerned with this because it highlights the issue of pet owners releasing their pets into the wild."
Goldfish have also been released into Michigan lakes by their owners, but unlike the pacu, they survive year-round and are successfully breeding.
"We have reproducing populations of goldfish in Lake Erie and Lake St. Claire." Popoff explained. "They're an example of an aquarium disposal over time that has created a naturally reproducing population of non-native fish."
In addition to Michigan, at least 26 other states in the U.S. have reported pacu captures in the wild, the DNR said.
"Invasive species are extremely damaging — to Michigan, the Great Lakes, even globally. But the message here is more about individual responsibility," Popoff told Live Science. "Releasing that fish into the wild — you're killing it, even if you don't think you are."
Original article on Live Science. Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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NEW DELHI: In just over three months, Delhiites will be able to travel in Delhi Metro’s first ‘driverless’ trains on the Magenta Line from Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden. The Magenta Line, which missed its June deadline and is going to miss its September deadline too, is going to be thrown partially open to the public in October this year, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said.Trial runs on two sections of the corridor of phase III, between Kalkaji and Botanical Garden (13 km) and Janakpuri West to Terminal 1 – IGI Airport Metro station (10 km) are in progress, a DMRC spokesperson said. “Both sections will be offered for safety inspection to CMRS (Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety) after successful signalling trials. The sections will be opened for public after all the clearances,” the spokesperson said."This line is planned to be opened in stages between October 2017 and March 2018,” the spokesperson said.By March 2018, DMRC plans to complete the phase-III expansion of its network with the commissioning of not only the Magenta Line but the Pink Line ( Majlis Park – Shiv Vihar) too.Last week, DMRC carried out the first trial run on the Pink Line between the Shakurpur and Mayapuri Metro stations. The Magenta and Pink Lines will be the first ones to have driverless trains.These trains have high levels of automation and run on the Unattended Train Operation (UTO) mode. While initially train operators will be present in the trains, gradually, DMRC will shift to the UTO mode.“During the trials, the interface of the Metro train is being checked to ensure that there is no physical infringement with civil infrastructure during the movement of the train on the track and also testing of various subsystems of coaches shall be done,” the DMRC spokesperson said.“As the new signalling technology to be implemented on this corridor, the Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) will also undergo rigorous testing. The response of the train at different speeds, braking of the train and the interconnection with the Operations Control Centre (OCC) will also be monitored during the trials,” the spokesperson said.“The behaviour of the track system and the Over Head Electrification (OHE) will be checked repeatedly,” the spokesperson said.Trial runs between the Kalindi Kunj and Kalkaji Mandir section of the Magenta Line were started in August 2016, followed soon by trial runs between Botanical Garden and Kalkaji Mandir section. As the corridor will witness the first operations of driverless trains, DMRC is not taking any chances and rigorous trials are being carried out.The Magenta Line will not only connect west Delhi to Noida in under an hour through a direct corridor but also bring many south Delhi areas on the metro map. Thanks to interchange stations at Hauz Khas, Kalkaji Mandir and Botanical Garden, the Magenta Line would also considerably reduce the travel time between Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida.At present, commuters have to change trains at Rajiv Chowk to travel between Gurgaon and Noida and at Central Secretariat to travel between Gurgaon and Faridabad.
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Boris Johnson will avoid discussing claims the UK's intelligence agency spied on Donald Trump when he visits Washington later, officials say.
Instead, the foreign secretary will focus on forging a UK-US free trade Brexit deal when he meets senior members of the president's team.
Britain is said to be ready to forget the spat after the US agreed not to repeat claims GCHQ wiretapped Mr Trump.
GCHQ said the claims made by the White House were "nonsense".
Mr Johnson will meet with congressional leaders and members of Mr Trump's team in Washington, including chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior adviser Kellyanne Conway.
'Utterly ridiculous'
Officials said he will not raise the diplomatic row which was sparked when White House press secretary Sean Spicer repeated allegations GCHQ spied on Mr Trump for Barack Obama.
The UK is said to be satisfied by reassurances from the US that the claims - described by GCHQ as being as "utterly ridiculous" - will not be repeated.
Officials hope Mr Johnson can carve out a role as a link-man between No 10 and the White House, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Landale.
On his three-day visit to the US, the foreign secretary will attend a summit of countries fighting so-called Islamic State and chair a meeting of the UN security council.
He will also host a UN event on female empowerment around the world, aimed at giving women better access to schools, jobs and democracy.
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Brad Shear, president of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, said t85 percent of the animals brought to his organization are adopted out. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) Brad Shear, president of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, said t85 percent of the animals brought to his organization are adopted out. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) Photo: Michael P. Farrell Photo: Michael P. Farrell Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pet deaths cause debate 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
The Capital Region euthanizes pets at twice the rate for the northeastern United States, an animal rights organization says in a report calling for a regional effort to change the practice.
Others argue those numbers are skewed, and the region is already taking steps to expand neutering and spaying services to prevent unwanted kittens and puppies.
The Humane Society of the Capital Region conducted a study of 11 counties including Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga. It found that the region puts animals to death at a greater rate per person than other areas of the state. The four shelters euthanize pets at a rate of 3.4 animals per 1,000 people, as compared to 1.3 per 1,000 for the northeastern United States.
More than 11,000 animals were euthanized between 2009 and 2011 at the four major animal shelters in the region, the report said. At the same time, nonprofit organizations dedicated to the animals raised more than $25 million.
"We were shocked by the number of animals euthanized," said Kathlene Thiel, president of the organization. "We were like 'Wow!' We knew it was happening. We just didn't know how many."
The Capital Region group formed in 2009 and said its mission was to put together comprehensive data on animal welfare in the region.
But Brad Shear, president of the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society, said those numbers may be skewed. His organization — which is not connected with Thiel's — runs a shelter in Menands and provides euthanasia, neutering and spaying services.
Eighty-five percent of the animals brought to his organization are adopted out, he said. Some of the animals euthanized there come from families whose animals are ill but who cannot afford to pay a private veterinarian.
"I don't know where they are getting this data from," Shear said. "Euthanasia numbers are only relevant compared to the numbers of animals coming in. Euthanasia numbers in a vacuum don't tell you anything."
Michael Daugherty, executive director of the Animal Protective Foundation in Scotia, said his agency, too, puts animals to sleep if the owners cannot afford to pay a vet.
"The whole area of euthanasia is a difficult one to measure," he said. "We try very hard to minimize that. Every animal that comes in here is thoroughly screened and behavior tested."
More Information Share your thoughts: Discuss this story in either our Dogs blog or Cats blog.
The new organization said too few animals are being spayed and neutered, leading to overpopulation. The Capital Region society says such services are inadequate in the region, with some counties providing no services to enable low-income residents to have their pets treated. About 50,000 dogs alone are not spayed or neutered, the society said.
Shear said there is always a need for more services, but his organization and others have been expanding services in recent years.
"In the last couple of years, there has been a tremendous expansion," he said.
His agency received a grant to offer spay and neuter services free to people on public assistance. The shelter also offers such services at a reduced cost for households with an income of $35,000 or less that are not on public assistance.
Saratoga County's shelter built a new building within the past couple of years, Shear said.
In Scotia, the Animal Protective Association will open a new building this spring to expand its spay and neuter services, Daugherty said.
"With every shelter, everybody is working so hard with so few resources," he said.
Also mentioned in the report was the Columbia Greene Humane Society/ASPCA.
Thiel said her group aims to bring together animal welfare organizations to share information and hopes to hold a forum for people to discuss these issues. Their report is not meant as a criticism of any organization, she emphasized.
"The first premise we're operating under is if you want to improve something, you need to set a goal and you need to know what you're starting from," she said. "Animal welfare is a lot of individuals working in various groups. The history has been not a lot of sharing. We don't want to disparage any of the organizations out there. They are all working hard. We are so appreciative of what everyone is out there doing on animal welfare. We don't think we can improve on it until people understand what the problem is."
But Shear said he has not heard from the organization, and he does regularly talk to others in his field.
"I had a conversation today with two other shelter directors," he said. "We all keep in touch. To my knowledge, this group hasn't really reached out to talk to us about what they are doing. I am always happy to talk to people who are interested in making lives better for animals."
tobrien@timesunion.com • 518-454-5092 • @timobrientu
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Peyton Manning watched the national championship game between Alabama and Clemson last week. He wasn’t scouting, was he? (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Just what is Jim Irsay thinking?
In the aftermath of the the Indianapolis Colts’ second straight disappointing season, the owner seemed poised to bring back Coach Chuck Pagano and General Manager Ryan Grigson despite going silent on Black Monday, the day owners traditionally make big changes. It was curious. Baffling. Weird, even.
Over the weekend, though, it became apparent that Irsay, like a duck paddling furiously, has a lot going on beneath the surface, reportedly courting Peyton Manning to return to Indy to head up football operations, a la John Elway in Denver, and wooing Jon Gruden as coach.
Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reported Saturday that Irsay had hoped to have Manning and Gruden working together. Although Gruden apparently is not interested, Irsay is still working on Manning, who won a Super Bowl and then tearfully left in 2012 when the team was ready to draft Andrew Luck. Perhaps Irsay was taking him at his word when, in his farewell news conference in Indianapolis, the quarterback tearfully said, “I’ll always be a Colt.”
Gruden has no such ties to the franchise and ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Gruden, the “Monday Night Football” analyst and Super Bowl-winning coach, turned down the job although he and Irsay met last weekend for 10 hours, per Indianapolis’s FOX 59 reporter Brian Bondus.
Gruden hasn’t coached since 2009 and he isn’t ready to leave the cushy life of a critic/analyst. “I know nothing,” he told Schefter. “I’ve told people, I’m not coaching. I’m a broadcaster. I’m not a coach.”
Jim Irsay’s run at Jon Gruden is another sign of state of his thinking. Irsay determined to do anything in his power to return Colts to SB. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 14, 2017
Gruden, who remains ESPN’s highest-paid broadcaster, raking in around $6.5 million per year, began his NFL coaching career in 1998 when he took a job with the Oakland Raiders. After sticking around for four seasons, he moved to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002 and led the team to a Super Bowl win that season. Gruden, whose brother Jay is the head coach of the Washington Redskins, remained with the Buccaneers until 2009 when he was fired after overseeing what’s been deemed one of the biggest collapses in NFL history. After starting the season 9-3, the team ended on a four-game skid, and missed the playoffs.
Gruden didn’t remain unemployed for long. By May 2009, ESPN scooped him up for its Monday Night Football broadcasts, where he’s remained ever since.
Pagano came to the Colts in 2012, and led the team to three straight 11-5 seasons, although he missed most of his first season while being treated for leukemia. The Colts went to the AFC championship game after the 2014 regular season, but since then, they’ve twice finished 8-8 and a great deal of the blame for that has gone to Grigson, who hasn’t stocked the team with much talent.
You can’t blame Irsay for wanting to bring in Manning, but why on earth would Manning want the job, given the roster deficiencies? And, like Gruden, the easy money that comes from TV (commercials, in Manning’s case) is awfully attractive.
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All hail the greatest secular conqueror after Genghis Khan himself: Taimur Lang! He ruled from Georgia to China and was the hero we all needed and deserved. He united the Muslim world under one banner of secularism. He conquered most part of North India, and sacked Delhi, peacefully. Historical evidence suggests he was peace loving, non discriminating ruler who had the heart of a lamb. He set forth a bright idea of a new secular world order for the first time. He positively influenced Renaissance, Sultanates, languages and culture. Even though he limped, he had love for all people of the world irrespective of their religion. He was a great social reformer, who tried to curb fascist Hindus from becoming too arrogant.
However the Hindus managed to survive that secular peaceful drive like they would continue to, for hundreds of years. No sane couple should name their kid after some saffron clad violent fascist bhagwa reformer like Vivekananda or Dayanand Saraswati.
Well, enough with the sarcasm. Factually, Taimur (Timur) is hailed as a hero in the Middle East today, officially in Uzbekistan where his statue stands replacing the statue of Karl Marx. Islamic scholars praise him for great leadership and military abilities. Nader Shah followed his footsteps years later, mimicking the military designs. He reunited the Muslim world, which only Genghis Khan could do before him. But why is he hated so much in India? Why are people so enraged at Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor for naming their child after him? What did Taimur Lang do to get so much hate?
History tells us that Taimur was a cruel, cold hearted conqueror with a lot of hate for the non Muslim ethnicity. Even though all conquerors have known to be great mass murderers, Taimur is known to have executed surrendered soldiers and civilians solely on the basis of religion. This did not happen after the siege of a Muslim populated area, but places like Multan and Delhi, witnessed horrors at his hand. Not just Hindus, he single-handedly exterminated the Church of the East and was very cruel towards the Christians as well. Basically, he was a staunch Muslim, wanted the entire world to be under Islamic rule and hated people of every other religion.
One great example of his cruelty is the siege of Delhi. After crossing Afghanistan, Taimur was told about Hindustan and its capital Delhi, which was very rich and prosperous. He decided to sack and loot, if possible, but not rule. As his army moved South East, it massacred every Hindu and Zoroastrian (Parsis) in its way, including places like Asampadi, Tughlaqpur and Multan. Panipat was demolished and burnt to ashes. Before reaching Delhi, it had gathered around one lakh Hindu prisoners. He executed them before attacking Delhi.
The army of Delhi Sultanate had a huge number of elephants which threatened a huge loss of his army. He ordered that all his camels be loaded with hay and set on fire, then prodded them with iron sticks making then run upfront. The elephants, afraid of the approaching fire, stampeded their own army, confirming an easy win for Taimur Lang. Taimur had no intentions of ruling this far East, and was here only for the loot. The biggest difference between Genghis Khan and him was that Genghis Khan had ordered his forces to refrain from looting, raping, pillaging and murdering while Taimur did the opposite. The city of Delhi was purposely destroyed, including all the temples and idols. There was an uprising by the civilians, which included Muslims and Hindus alike. It was a massacre. Days after the uprising, the city reeked of dead and decomposing body. The heads were cut off and was displayed as a message for the world to see. While returning from Delhi, he stopped at Meerut and had 30,000 Hindus executed.
For us Indians, a barbarian, with little to no humanity left in him, who invaded for the sole purpose of looting, pillaging and exterminating people of other religions cannot be a hero. A child cannot be named after him the destroyer of humanity. Yes, he was a conqueror, an emperor, a fan to the fire of Islam, even yet he cannot be, in any sense even slightly considered a role model, an inspiring entity, a great human being.
To the people trying to defend the celebrity couple stating the etymology of the name and that it is not necessary that the child must have been named after the emperor: Kareena Kapoor stated recently that Saif Ali Khan was a history buff and wanted to name the forthcoming child accordingly. To the people saying one should not indulge in a couple’s personal choices, we must remember, the celebrities are role models for many. Many people look upto them. Their personal life isn’t so personal like a common man, and this is one of the cons of being popular. The freedom of speech allows anyone to talk about their child’s name, and also how distasteful it is.
If Saif Ali Khan is actually a history buff and knows a little about the atrocities Taimur Lang committed on our ancestors, especially on the Hindus, then his disregard for the Hindus in this country, as well as disregard for humanity in general is astonishingly high.
It’s very similar to the names of Pakistani missiles, which has blatant disregard for their own history and humanity. As Saif Ali Khan himself is a Pathan, and not a descendant of the Indians who were converted to Islam years ago, the decision of naming their child Taimur after an Islamic conqueror is a symbol of many things, truth be told. But to the majority of Indians, a barbarian, a destroyer of humanity, an orchestrator of religious massacres cannot be a hero. Scholars estimate that his conquests caused the death of 17 million people, which makes about 5 percent of the then world population. Ashoka was a conqueror too, but this man, is not a hero, not an inspiring entity and not a role model at all.
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Photo by Christie Chisholm
One of the great literary mysteries in recent history was apparently solved on Sunday morning. In an article published in the New York Review of Books, Claudio Gatti, an Italian investigative reporter, claimed he had discovered the true identity of best-selling pseudonymous author Elena Ferrante.
Ferrante is best known for a quartet of books, the Neapolitan Novels, whose success has propelled her to great fame even as the author chose to remain anonymous. Gatti pieced together a persuasive case using financial records to point to Italian translator Anita Raja as the writer.
The revelation has been met with outrage–the overwhelming consensus being that the famously private Ferrante didn’t deserve to be outed.
Only criminals deserve to be unmasked, if they have consciously sought privacy. Badly done, @nybooks. — Jojo Moyes (@jojomoyes) October 2, 2016
Gatti told CJR his piece was, in part, a response to Ferrante’s latest book, Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey, which will be published in the US on November 1. In it, Ferrante recounts details about her life that Gatti claims are false. On Monday, Gatti defended his work, speaking to CJR from Rome. The conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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What drew you to this story, and what was the process you went about to investigate Ferrante’s identity?
I started as a reader. As an investigative journalist, I tend to read a lot of nonfiction, but I started reading the first of the quartet, and then I read the second the third, the fourth. I loved it.
Then in the last year and a half, every time somebody met me [in New York], and found out I was an investigative journalist, they didn’t ask me about the young prime minister of Italy or if the oldest bank in the world—the Monte dei Paschi de Siena—is going to survive the banking crisis, they asked me only one question: who is Elena Ferrante?
I really felt this is ridiculous. It can’t be that complicated to find out, so I decided to look into it. I became obsessed when I started reading the Italian version of Frantumaglia, which is coming out in November in the US. This was published after Sandra Ozzola, one of the two owners of the publishing company, wrote an open letter to Elena Ferrante [in 2003] in which she said readers deserve “a more general response, beyond the newspaper interviews [that Ferrante had conducted by email]…Out of a healthy desire on the part of your readers…to know you better.”
Now, I’m accused of violating the privacy of Elena Ferrante? But the first person who violated the privacy of Elena Ferrante was Elena Ferrante! [She] wrote a book that is supposed to be autobiographical and was full of false information.
What’s your response to those who say she’s entitled to her privacy? That she’s not a mafia boss or politician, but just a writer of fiction?
No, she’s not. But she’s a major public figure. Do you know who the Italian minister of the economy is?
No.
Do you know who the CEO of the Italian oil company is?
No.
But you do know who Elena Ferrante is. What I’m saying is, the biggest mystery about Italy from outside Italy is, “Who is Elena Ferrante?” It is a major issue, not that I made it such. When readers buy books by the millions, they have a legitimate desire to know more about who wrote the book. I’m not saying that; Sandra Ozzola said and wrote that.
On November 1st, you are going to have an entire book about her life. She writes about being the daughter of a seamstress from Naples, about having three sisters. Nothing of that is true. So my feeling is they violated the privacy, because you cannot have your cake and eat it too. You are fueling the frenzy, the curiosity about her personal life, by the pieces of information that you are giving, and then you complain when somebody finds the real information. Explain to me how that works?
This isn’t the first example of this sort of reporting. We’ve had mysteries about authors like Joe Klein, who wrote Primary Colors, and Thomas Pynchon. Why do you feel like the reaction to this has been different than in those cases?
I think there is an issue of female readers who saw this as a misogynistic attack. They feel, rightly so, that [Ferrante] is a champion of women’s issues and is a deeply intellectual feminist. They say that I attacked her by exposing her, because she is a woman.
If you know how investigative journalists work, we start with the mystery, not with a target. I wanted to know who Elena Ferrante is. The number-one suspect in Italy was Domenico Starnone [Raja’s husband and an author]. She was the number-two suspect. When I started working on this, I had no idea if Elena Ferrante was a man or a woman, so tell me how I could be misogynistic? I think it is defensive and ideological for many female readers to see a sign of what they experience in their life, which is a misogynistic world, but it has nothing to do with my work.
Do you have any regrets about doing this story?
Absolutely not. None whatsoever. I’m an investigative journalist. All the people that hate me for what I wrote [in my previous investigations] are bad people, and I don’t mind the fact that they hate me.* If Elena Ferrante ends up hating me, I would be sad because I respect her. I like her. I like her work. That’s the sad part, but I don’t regret anything.
I only wish that as much attention had been paid in social media to some of my other investigative pieces, like the one about the extraordinary rendition of an Italian citizen, or about the dominant players in the multibillion-dollar business of smuggling human beings from Africa, or the bribes and kickbacks paid by multinational corporations, or about the possible role of a CIA contractor in arming Islamists in Libya and Syria. But the people who criticize me for wasting my energy investigating a writer never paid any attention to these stories. Now they go crazy because I applied investigative journalism to a more popular issue.
In my second story [about Raja], I found incredible details about family members, about parents sent to the extermination camps. I’m convinced that by doing that, I enhanced the work of art that are the books of Elena Ferrante. You tell me what work of art, any art, has been ruined by knowing more about the author. I believe that normally it is enhanced by knowing who the author is, his or her background, his or her history, his or her cultural references.
My contribution was much larger than just saying it’s Anita Raja, but people only focus on that. I went to Anita Raja and her publishers and told them I found the evidence that she’s the biggest beneficiary of the commercial success of the books. I believe we should talk, because otherwise I will be forced to present the evidence in order to make my point. But she didn’t want to talk to me.
My interpretation is that it’s a male-female issue. I had a debate with a female professor of creative writing on the BBC, and she accused me of being misogynistic. I found it ridiculous because I had no idea who Elena Ferrante is when I started.
It seemed that you went to great lengths to show that the financial benefits with to Raja, and not her husband. Was that something you focused on?
In Italy, at least, many people thought that the two of them wrote the books together. I wanted to say that I’m sure there is a cooperation between them in whatever they do, but that the books were not formally co-authored.
What about her personal preference to remain private?
It is her personal preference; we know that. But then if it is, you don’t fuel the frenzy with Frantumaglia, you just say “I’m sorry, I’m not giving interviews.” But no, they talk, they give interviews, they write a fictional autobiographical book, and then they say, “I want to keep my privacy.”
Explain to me how knowing that Elena Ferrante is Anita Raja would change anything for readers. I really don’t get it. Why would it change anything? People read the books because they are fascinated by them. I don’t see what argument she could have to claim that she needed to be out of the public eye to write fiction. She had no reason to hide anything. I’ve proven that there is no autobiographical information in any of her books. How can the ability of Ferrante to capture the inner lives of women in any way require her to be shielded from the public sphere?
*The bracketed text was not part of the original interview. After publication, Gatti contacted CJR to explain that he had meant to refer to people who hated him for his past reporting; the words in brackets were added at his request.
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Pete Vernon is a CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
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Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought, according to researchers publishing their results in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience.
Their findings could change the way scientists model the movement of carbon among land, water and the atmosphere.
"Direct measurements of carbon dioxide concentrations and fluxes in streams and rivers are still extremely rare," said Henry Gholz, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.
"This study demonstrates that both are much higher than assumed. The research should enable more predictive and precise models of carbon cycling at regional to global scales."
The researchers found that a significant amount of carbon contained in land, which first is absorbed by plants and forests through the air, is leaking into streams and rivers and then released into the atmosphere before reaching coastal waterways.
"What we are able to show is that there is a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide from streams and rivers, and that it is significant enough for terrestrial modelers to take note of it," said David Butman, a co-author of the paper and scientist at the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
He and his co-author, ecologist Peter Raymond also of Yale, analyzed data from samples of more than 4,000 rivers and streams throughout the United States, and incorporated detailed geospatial data to model the flux of carbon dioxide from water.
This release is equal to a car burning 40 billion gallons of gasoline, enough to drive back and forth to the moon 3.4 million times.
"These rivers breathe a lot of carbon," said Butman. "They are a source of carbon dioxide, just like we breathe out carbon dioxide and like smokestacks emit carbon dioxide.
"This has never been systematically estimated from a region as large as the United States."
The paper, titled "Significant Efflux of Carbon Dioxide from Streams and Rivers in the United States," also indicates that as the climate heats up there will be more rain and snow, and that an increase in precipitation will result in even more terrestrial carbon flowing into rivers and streams and being released into the atmosphere.
Any accurate estimate of carbon uptake vs. carbon released must include the carbon in streams and rivers, Butman said.
The researchers note that currently it's difficult to determine how to include this flux in regional carbon budgets, because the influence of human activity on the release of carbon dioxide into streams and rivers is still unknown.
The research was also funded by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship, a NASA Carbon & Ecosystems Program grant, and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. -- Former New England Patriots receiver Randy Moss sees great things from quarterback Tom Brady in practice, but he also sees how Brady's ongoing battle with the NFL has affected him.
"One thing you all have to realize is that Tom is human," Moss said Thursday after the Patriots' joint practice with the New Orleans Saints, as he was a guest of the team. "I'm not going to sit up here and tell you it doesn't affect him. Not only does it affect him, it affects everybody in his circle. It's just something as a professional, you just have to live with it and just move on from it.
"We talk every month, but that's something we don't talk about. I told Tom, first and foremost, that I'm going to stand by him regardless of what happens."
Editor's Picks Munson: Deflategate wackiness all part of judge's plan That the Deflategate judge hearing the dispute between Tom Brady and the NFL asked the league to bring a team owner into the case to settle it adds yet another seemingly crazy twist to the saga.
Moss and Brady stood side by side on the practice field at one point Thursday. But mostly, Moss was admiring Brady's work, as Brady took all the practice reps and had only four incomplete passes.
"He looked good. It looks like the game has slowed down for him," said Moss, who played for the Patriots from 2007 to 2010. "Any time the game slows down for you, that's dangerous because that means he's able to think a little bit slower, to be able to make decisions for the offense. So it just looked good to me, from the outside looking in.
"He's making his throws, reading the defense, changing his 'mike' calls and things like that. I just told him that if the game has slowed down this much for you, only great things can happen."
Moss was one of a few notable visitors to Patriots-Saints practice Thursday, which included Bubba Watson of the PGA Tour and NBA legend Jerry West.
For Moss, a West Virginia native, meeting West was a personal highlight.
"Bill [Belichick]'s a legend. Tom's a legend. There are all kinds of legends on the field, but my legend growing up was Jerry West," Moss said. "That was my first time ever meeting Jerry West. It was definitely an honor. Felt like a kid looking up at the NBA logo. That's what I've always called him; never called him Jerry West.
"I've always called him 'the NBA logo' because I thought that was something special. He represents the same state I represent. By him being the NBA logo, and him being right across the river from me, I looked up to him growing up. I finally got to meet my childhood hero, so it was a special day for me."
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Select Page 1 - GTX 1080 Launch 2 - Founders Eating Paper Cake 3 - Ballyhoo for You
Date: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Author: Kyle Bennett
GeForce GTX 1080: Most Bizarre Secret Paper Launch Ever Didn't we get promised 2.1GHz on air? Did early adopters just get told to pound sand? Now we have a Paper Launch from NVIDIA that just flew under the radar with hardly a notice? The GTX 1080 has generated more than a little conversation in the last couple weeks. I still have a couple of stories to tell and some editorializing to do.
Introduction
There has been a lot of talk about the GTX 1080 announcement and subsequent reviews that were published yesterday. There are several topics I want to cover in this editorial because this whole Pascal thing has been a very strange ride for the last couple of weeks. We are going to talk about the Paper Launch, missing SLI, the Early Adopter's Tax, but first let me fill you in on where 2.1GHz came from.
The GTX 1080 2.1GHz Presentation
For any of you folks that watched the NVIDIA GTX 1080 and 1070 Announcement a couple weeks ago, you know that at times it seemed a bit unrehearsed, and boy would you be correct. The full presentation is embedded at the link above if you missed it. In that presentation you see it go fully off the rails during a Simultaneous MultiProjection (SMP) demonstration. I was sitting in the audience, and it was so bad, that I truly thought that the shenanigans had been possibly rehearsed. I asked as much of NVIDIA later, but I was assured that all the buffoonery was real time. I still found it very entertaining though. There was one other really big thing that went on that was not rehearsed however, and that was Jen-Hsun Huang showing off the new GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition card running at 2.1GHz at 67C during the Epic Games Paragon demo, and there is a bit of a story behind this.
This story was related to me by two different NVIDIA employees, at two different times, in two totally different contexts, by people I have known for years, and I take it to be the truth. As I alluded to above, these presentations are usually very well rehearsed. There is not a lot of what goes on, on stage, that has not been prepared for. Showing off the 2.1GHz GTX 1080 clock was not part of the previous rehearsals, at least not for two or three hours before the live stream started. As we know Tim Sweeney of Epic Games fame came up on stage to show off Epic's Paragon demo to the crowd. It was related to me that Tim had never seen this demo run without it being a slide show previously, and during that day's rehearsal, the demo was still not running as well as NVIDIA wanted. At that point NVIDIA began using the new OC Scanner tool to "auto-overclock" the GTX 1080. They were able to stretch the clocks enough to get the Paragon demo to run smoothly at 1080p, which is the resolution of the screen being used on stage.
To put it frankly, there were more than a few folks at NVIDIA that were very much surprised at this clock rate. While NVIDIA engineers have certainly been working hard to spin up the Pascal clocks, there were more than few people in the room surprised to see a Founders Edition card support 2.1GHz on stock air cooling. So once they tested the demo out a couple times, they ran with it during the live stream, and subsequently Jen-Hsun felt comfortable enough to show you, me, and the whole world the clock rate while it was running the demo live, albeit stationary camera-wise. NVIDIA has sworn to me that this was one of the first GTX 1080 Founders Edition cards that NVIDIA was using and there was not cherry picking going on. This was one of the questions that warranted me being told the backstory.
I personally looked at that 2.1GHz 1080 clock and had a "Holy shit!" moment, as did a few others in the audience. Then I thought to myself, there were a bunch of guys and gals in Austin, TX wearing red shirts that just had a "Holy shit!" moment too, but that is another story to be told soon. Once I got past the excitement of it all, I had a flashback sitting there thinking of Intel's promise of 5GHz on air a couple years ago. And while Jen-Hsun did not promise us anything, he certainly fueled our expectations.
We have seen some good and some bad results from GTX 1080 overclocking so far. I would say the jury is still very much out on what the GTX 1080 FE is capable of in terms of average performance. Brent is working today to dial our 1080 FE card in and find out exactly what its highest in-game stable boost and memory clocks are after 30 minutes of gameplay. We hope to have that published for your tomorrow if everything goes well during final testing today. (Yes, we test to make sure our results and data are repeatable, not good for just one quick run.) As we all know, many times it is easy to run a demo or benchmark once before a video cards cooling system becomes heatsoaked and keep clocks up. You can see exactly how our 1080 FE card's clocks responded under real world usage at fully stock settings on this page.
That all said, this backstory on the 2.1GHz 1080 clock is one I wanted to share with you. It was not a rehearsed bullet point that NVIDIA wanted to highlight to you, but rather a bunch of engineers getting excited about what their baby could do. You may choose to cut NVIDIA some slack on this, or berate NVIDIA for shoddy messaging, but I truly feel that no one was trying to intentionally mislead us.
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Netflix has a new global competitor: Amazon Prime Video.
At a media event in India, Amazon announced today its Prime Video service is now available in 242 countries. The company additionally is offering the on-demand video streaming service at discounted price in all of the new regions and costs $2.99 per month or is free in countries where Amazon has launched its Prime service.
Amazon Prime Video, which is available on mobile apps and web, includes Amazon Original Series as well as a bouquet of titles the company has added to its catalog over the years. In the run up to its global expansion, Amazon has been striking major deals with movie studios and distributors across the world.
“We are excited to announce that starting today, fans around the world have access to Prime Video,” said Tim Leslie, Vice President, International, Prime Video.
Check all the countries where Amazon Prime Video is available now here.
“The Grand Tour and other critically acclaimed Amazon Original Series like Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, and The Man in the High Castle, along with hundreds of popular Hollywood movies and TV shows, are now available at the introductory price of only 2.99 a month. And what’s really exciting is that we are just getting started.”
The global expansion of Prime Video comes nearly a year after Netflix announced it is making its streaming service available in 130 nations. Netflix is currently available in roughly 200 regions.
Amazon’s intention of making Prime Video available across the world was clear when Jeremy Clarkson announced last month that his new motoring show The Grand Tour would be available for streaming in over 200 nations in December. Clarkson’s new show is an Amazon Original Series.
We looked at the catalog of Amazon Prime Video for India and were pleasantly surprised to see Prime Video offering not only a ton of local content, but loads of English titles and foreign titles as well.
Interestingly, Amazon is not only fighting back Netflix on content, but it is using its money power to gain instant foothold worldwide. In India, for instance, Amazon Prime Video costs less than a dollar per month for access.
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Colbert says he fits the bill of | REUTERS Colbert to Haley: Pick me
Stephen Colbert has a message for South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and he’s asked his fans to send it to her: Appoint Colbert.
On Thursday night’s “Colbert Report,” the comedian asked viewers to send messages to the governor’s Twitter handle, @NikkiHaley, telling her to name the South Carolina native to the Senate seat of Republican Jim DeMint, who is leaving the upper chamber to run The Heritage Foundation.
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( PHOTOS: Jim DeMint’s career)
“Let’s see, you want somebody young, somebody conservative, somebody who’s from South Carolina, maybe somebody who had a super PAC,” Colbert said, pointing at himself.
Colbert pointed to a slew of headlines speculating he could either be appointed to, or run for, the South Carolina seat.
( Also on POLITICO: Colbert sees margin of error at PPP)
“When I look at the U.S. Senate, I say to myself: ‘You know what they could use? Another white guy,’” Colbert said.
Haley didn’t rule out the appointment in a Facebook post of her own on Friday, but indicated Colbert’s knowledge of the Palmetto State might be lagging.
“Stephen, thank you for your interest in South Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat and for the thousands of tweets you and your fans sent me,” Haley wrote. “But you forget one thing, my friend. You didn’t know our state drink. Big, big mistake.”
( PHOTOS: 10 stars who ran for office)
When Haley appeared on the “Colbert Report” in April, she and Colbert engaged in a South Carolina trivia contest. Colbert didn’t know the answer to Haley’s first question: “What is the state drink?”(The answer is milk.)
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TAIWAN, Hsinchu – July 15, 2014 – MediaTek today announced MT6795, the 64-bit True Octa-core™ LTE smartphone System on Chip (SoC) with the world’s first 2K display support. This is MediaTek’s flagship smartphone SoC designed to empower high-end device makers to leap into the Android™ 64-bit era.
The MT6795 is currently set to be the first 64-bit, LTE, True Octa-core SoC targeting the premium segment, with speed of up to 2.2GHz, to hit the market. The SoC features MediaTek’s CorePilot™
technology providing world-class multi-processor performance and thermal control, as well as dual-channel LPDDR3 clocked at 933MHz for top-end memory bandwidth in a smartphone.
The high-performance SoC also satisfies the multimedia requirements of even the most demanding users, featuring multimedia subsystems that support many technologies never before possible or seen in a smartphone, including support for 120Hz displays and the capability to create and playback 480 frames per second (fps) 1080p Full HD Super-Slow Motion videos.
With the launch of MT6795, MediaTek is accelerating the global transition to LTE and creating opportunities for device makers to gain first-mover advantage with top-of-the-line devices in the 64-bit Android device market. Coupled with 4G LTE support, MT6795 completes MediaTek’s 64-bit LTE SoC product portfolio: MT6795 for power users, MT6752 for mainstream users and MT6732 for entry level users. This extensive portfolio allows everyone to embrace the improved speed from 4G LTE and parallel computing capability from CorePilot and 64-bit processors.
Key features of MT6795:
64-bit True Octa-core LTE SoC with clock speed up to 2.2GHz
MediaTek CorePilot unlocks the full power of all eight cores
Dual-channel LPDDR3 memory clocked at 933MHz
2K on device display (2560x1600)
120Hz mobile display with Response Time Enhancement Technology and MediaTek ClearMotion™
480fps 1080p Full HD Super-Slow Motion video feature
Integrated, low-power hardware support for H.265 Ultra HD (4K2K) video record & playback, Ultra HD video playback support for H.264 & VP9, as well as for graphics-intensive games and apps
Support for Rel. 9, Category 4 FDD and TDD LTE (150Mbps/50Mbps), as well as modems for 2G/3G networks
Support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac/Bluetooth®/FM/GPS/Glonass/Beidou/ANT+
Multi-mode wireless charging supported by MediaTek’s companion multi-mode wireless power receiver IC
“MediaTek has once again demonstrated leading engineering capabilities by delivering breakthrough technology and time-to-market advantage that enable limitless opportunities for our partners and end users, while setting the bar even higher for our competition,” said Jeffrey Ju, General Manager of the MediaTek Smartphone Business Unit. “With a complete and inclusive 64-bit LTE SoC product portfolio, we are firmly on track to lead the industry in delivering premium mobile user experiences for years to come.”
MT6795-powered devices will be commercially available by the end of 2014.
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The study found a link between socioeconomic status and ill health caused by alcohol
The poorest in society are more likely to suffer the health repercussions of excessive drinking, according to a new study.
Researchers found that heavy drinkers from deprived areas are at a greater risk of dying or becoming ill due to alcohol consumption.
Lead author Dr Vittal Katikireddi said it suggests that poverty may reduce resilience to disease.
The University of Glasgow study is published in The Lancet journal.
Its authors found a "marked link" between socioeconomic status and the harm caused by drinking excessively.
Compared with light drinkers in advantaged areas, excessive drinkers were seven times at risk of an increase in alcohol harm.
Binge drinking
This contrasted with excessive drinkers in deprived areas, who were 11 times at risk of an increase.
Harmful impacts of alcohol are higher in socio-economically disadvantaged communities.
However, until now it was unclear whether those were as a result of differences in drinking or as a result of other factors.
Dr Katikireddi said: "Our study finds that the poorest in society are at greater risk of alcohol's harmful impacts on health, but this is not because they are drinking more or more often binge drinking.
"Experiencing poverty may impact on health, not only through leading an unhealthy lifestyle but also as a direct consequence of poor material circumstances and psychosocial stresses.
"Poverty may therefore reduce resilience to disease, predisposing people to greater health harms of alcohol."
The study looked at information from the Scottish Health Surveys and electronic health records, studying more than 50,000 people.
It defined harm from alcohol consumption based on deaths, hospitalisations and prescriptions that were attributable to alcohol.
And it suggested that even when other factors are accounted for, including smoking and obesity, living in deprived areas were consistently associated with higher alcohol-related health problems.
Co-author Dr Elise Whitley, said: "Heavier drinking is associated with greater alcohol-related harm in all individuals.
"However, our study suggests that the harm is greater in those living in poorer areas or who have a lower income, fewer qualifications, or a manual occupation."
Dave Roberts, director general of the Alcohol Information Partnership, said: "We know from official government statistics that the vast majority of people consume alcohol within the Chief Medical Officer's low-risk guidelines.
"The report shows that while consuming the least amount of alcohol, the poorest may suffer disproportionate levels of harm.
"It is therefore important to understand how alcohol interacts with other issues associated with lower socio-economic status.
"This will enable a sophisticated response that targets particular communities rather than heavy-handed interventions aimed at the whole population."
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A horde of protesters stood before him, a battalion of tie-dyed teachers, artists and activists, all marching against Dutch Boy Paint’s lead paint. Cries of “Fuck corporate fascists!” and “Lead paint killed our kids!” rang out from behind the vanguard of children who had been taken along so that passersby would follow the group out of shared outrage or curiosity. The children were too brain addled to make much distinction between the hazy mishmash of noise and plugged their ears. Those still young enough to be held were carried like bayonets over the shoulders of their mothers. Photos of the comatose like those at candlelight vigils were laminated onto picket signs, making them quasi-martyrs for the cause. The crowd broke into shuddering spasms like the epileptics among them, a chaotic flurry of violence and motion.
He had been on the force for a few years, having sworn off “that leftist pinko trash” after being trampled at a rally. He’d matured, he had told himself, he’d outgrown the idealistic radicalism of his youth, the mindless anti-authoritarianism, the immature egoism of thinking that if no one were around to tell him what to do, everything would be better. “Pinko” had been his nickname on the force ever since he’d told that story at the station. After Jeff Briggs remembered having been one of the officers there, everybody had a story to tell. They gathered round the photocopier to tell tales of keeping the peace as if they were war stories. Even Susan telling off two skaters for skating on the grass in her grandmotherly nagging way was treated like she had lost a leg in Vietnam. Every face had a story to tell, some advice or anecdote that gave character to each member of the previously indistinguishable force.
He turned to Susan, saying “I see my own kid there. Look, there’s Ms. Honeywell’s kindergarten class. Tommy’s right there.” as he pointed them out in the crowd. They held their permission slips for the field trip like riot shields. “What are we even doing here?” he asked.
“We’re here in case this turns violent and the crowd starts looting.”
These people aren’t looters. They’re just angry that a company would sell poison. I can’t imagine my son’s kindergarten class boosting TVs or burning down shops.”
She patted his arm reassuringly. “Everyone’s first time on the beat is hard. Yours is just a bit more personal.”
“There are people that I know out there…. And you expect me to ignore that? You want me to “disperse” those kids? He replied.
Ignoring him, Susan spoke calmly into the loudspeaker. “Please evacuate the area. There have been violent incidents involving Molotov cocktails during the protest. To keep the peace, we ask you to leave in an orderly fashion. If you do not comply, forceful measures will be used.” The loudspeaker’s blare was subsumed by the din of the crowd. The few who heard her ignored it. They had come with pickets and guitars and the moral high ground. They had come bearing their First Amendment rights as concerned parents, teachers, people he had invited over to dinner parties and people he would have exchanged small talk with while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. Susan fired off two tear gas canisters as serenely as a checkout clerk would scan your items. The thwps of the canisters being fired reminded him of a pneumatic mail chute as plumes of white gas, so concentrated and thick it seemed to be solid, formed great white clouds from which Jeff and the riot police emerged and began marching toward the crowd. He saw mothers cowering and children crying, unable to find each other in the fog of tear gas.
The next day, he walked into the chief’s office and announced his resignation. “I signed up to protect people, not to bully them.”
The chief thought to himself, flicking one of those executive ball toys as he mused on a response. “Everyone’s first time is hard on them. Click-clack. They’re not used to how ugly it can be on the streets. Now maybe this isn’t the right place for you, maybe you can’t handle the stress on the beat. Click-clack. Take a few days and think about whether you can overcome this.”
“I appreciate your concern, but it’s not nerves, Chief. Click-clack. Those people didn’t attack. It was just some hooligans looking for kicks that did it – and we were going to arrest them all?”
“Quit grandstanding, Pinko. Click-clack. You’re not a martyr and neither are they. We stopped a riot – click-clack- and saved the town from burning down.” He said, bored by his objections.
“There were children in that crowd. Click-clack. Were they criminals? Am I supposed to sit and watch while tear gas burns their skin off?” he screamed, lobbing the executive toy at the chief. A corner of the platform glanced off his forehead.
“We can’t go around checking every potential riot for innocents, we couldn’t stop them in time if we did. We have to make estimates: where the rioters are and what to do.” The chief said unfazed.
Pinko took off his badge and turned to leave. “If you don’t have time to protect the innocent, I don’t have time for you thugs.”
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The taskforce investigating Northern Colorado's shootings on June 23 released a sketch of a possible vehicle of interest, based on several interviews. (Photo: Courtesy of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office)
The task force investigating Northern Colorado's series of unsolved shootings announced Tuesday that it has identified a vehicle of interest in the Loveland case — information that followed vague details of a fourth shooting in the region.
Investigators are asking for the public's help in locating a 1970s full-size, single-cab Chevrolet or GMC pickup truck that is a faded single-orange color with black primer on the driver's side body. The pickup also has a full-size bed and round headlights.
Residents should pay special attention to the rendering's distinctive headlights, Larimer County Sheriff's Office spokesman David Moore said in a media briefing.
"Obviously, we want this picture out in as many ways as we can," Moore said. "Ultimately, we just need someone to call the task force about this vehicle."
The vehicle description followed the announcement that an individual has come forward saying they were shot at June 3, the same night 65-year-old William Connole was gunned down while walking near the intersection of East First Street and St. Louis Avenue in Loveland. The person, who was not injured, late last week reported to the task force that the incident happened near the intersection Denver Avenue and East Eisenhower Boulevard, about 2 miles from where Connole was killed.
Moore would not say whether the person was walking, cycling or driving, nor would he identify the person or pinpoint whether the shooting occurred near a vacant field to the north or closer to a busy shopping center to the south.
The person reported being shot at "shortly before" Connole was killed about 11 p.m., Moore told the Coloradoan after Tuesday's briefing.
Moore did not explain why the individual waited two weeks to report the incident.
"We're just thankful that this person did come forward," he said.
The announcement of the new details prompted more questions than answers, and residents by Tuesday evening were sharing photos through social media of friends' pickups — some of them similar to the artist's rendering and others drastically different.
It was not immediately known how many similar vehicles are registered in the Northern Colorado area. Investigators said the depiction of the vehicle of interest was based on several interviews and canvasses during the investigation.
"The vehicle of interest is a vehicle that is potentially involved in these incidents," Moore said, adding later that the task force has been working with "many differing agencies that could help narrow down the list."
Cameras dot the area where the newly publicized shooting reportedly happened. Surveillance cameras are also in the area where Connole was shot, though Moore would not say to what degree video is being reviewed.
"If there is video, the task force is aware and has obtained that video because that would be part of any normal criminal investigation," Moore said.
Tuesday's announcement was the first news conference the task force has held since June 4, when police announced the group would be investigating Connole's homicide.
The two Loveland cases are linked. However, Moore reiterated that the Loveland shootings have not been linked to two previous Northern Colorado shootings that left a woman injured and a man dead. The description of the orange pickup truck is exclusively for the Loveland cases at this point.
The other shootings include the slaying of John Jacoby, 47, on May 18 in Windsor and the nonfatal shooting of 21-year-old Cori Romero on April 22 near Harmony Road and Interstate 25.
Moore would not say what it would take for the task force to link the two pairs of shootings.
The task force last week — in some of its most definitive language to date — wrote in a letter that the region's spate of shattered vehicle windows are not likely related to the shootings. Officials also said the task force has moved from working out of a building in Windsor to an undisclosed building in Loveland, as the FBI has an office in that city. The task force comprises the FBI, Larimer County Sheriff's Office, Windsor Police Department, Loveland Police Department and Larimer and Weld district attorney's offices.
Previously, the task force announced it was looking for the driver of a white Ford SUV, believing that person "may have important witness information for the investigation" of the Jacoby shooting. It's not been made clear whether any tips panned out in that probe.
The FBI's reward remains set at $20,000 for information that leads to an arrest, prosecution and conviction. Larimer County Crime Stoppers on Tuesday also announced it would award $2,500 for information leading to an arrest.
Anyone with information about the shooting investigation is asked to call the task force tip line at 970-498-5595 or email taskforce@larimer.org.
Reporter Jason Pohl covers breaking news for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter: @pohl_jason.
MORE ON NORTHERN COLORADO SHOOTINGS
PD refuses to rule out Loveland shooting link
Post-shooting, Northern Colorado refuses to live in fear
Public left to speculate on Northern Colorado shootings
Read or Share this story: http://noconow.co/1LrtIqR
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Activists hold a rally to protest the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in front of the White House on February 3 in Washington, DC. | Getty GOP platform panel strikes references to TPP
CLEVELAND — A panel crafting the Republican Party’s platform on trade has removed all references to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, citing Donald Trump’s rejection of the deal and the difficult politics that Republican incumbents are navigating.
“I think we should take out TPP completely,” said Tracey Monroe-Winburn, an Ohio delegate. “We know that our presumptive nominee isn’t in favor of it, one … and we have some senators who are running across the country that were in support of it at one time.”
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The new language must still be vetted by the GOP’s full Platform Committee Monday afternoon.
Andy Puzder, one of the co-chairs of the GOP platform economic subcommittee, suggested that TPP has become too thorny of an issue to take a specific stand on. Trump has found flaws in the current version, he said. Rather than wade into the specific agreement, he suggested embracing a broad trade platform that discourages “massive trade deficits,” negotiating better trade deals and enforcing existing deals.
“Who can argue with we shouldn’t have such big deficits?” he wondered.
The language Puzder described would dovetail more completely with Trump’s language on trade.
The platform initially urged the Republican-led Congress to reject efforts to “rush” passage of the TPP, particularly during a lame-duck session of Congress, but now simply suggests that “significant” trade decisions shouldn’t be rushed. That was already a stark shift from the GOP’s platform adopted in 2012. That document encouraged a Republican president to “complete negotiations” for the TPP “to open rapidly developing Asian markets to U.S. products.”
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The Dolly Sods Wilderness, located in West Virginia, is an incredible area and is the best backpacking location I’ve encountered in the mid-Atlantic so far. Granted, my experience is limited but I enjoyed the weekend here much more than previous Appalachian Trail hikes in Maryland and Virginia. Dolly Sods offers sweeping vistas, meadows of tall grass, forests of both deciduous and evergreen trees, and most importantly, a sense of wilderness that is difficult to find on the AT.
Dolly Sods has been through some rough times in the last few centuries. Before early American settlers discovered the plethora of natural resources available, dense forests of ancient red spruce and eastern hemlock blanketed the Dolly Sods highlands. These trees were massive, towering 60-90 feet tall with some measuring as large as 12 feet in diameter. Elk, bison, and mountain lions all roamed those woods along with black bears, snowshoe hares, foxes, bobcats, and many other faunae.
Unfortunately, heavy logging activities destroyed much of the Dolly Sods ecosystem in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Loggers clear-cut large swaths of land and the topsoil dried out. Sparks from trains and loggers’ fires ignited the dry ground and caused extensive fires that destroyed the remaining trees and brush deemed unfit for logging. Thankfully, nature conservancy groups and concerned citizens fought to protect the area and purchased the land and mining rights from private owners. The Dolly Sods Wilderness and greater Monongahela National Forest are now maintained for everyone’s enjoyment.
Dolly Sods Wilderness Trip Planning
Because Dolly Sods is located within a National Forest and not a National Park, regulations are relatively lax. Of course, this does not mean we hikers and backpackers are off the hook when it comes to outdoor ethics. Always practice leave-no-trace and be considerate of others, both current and future; the Forest Service website lists some general rules and provides useful publications for trip planning, including a trail map. You do not need a permit to hike or backpack in the Dolly Sods Wilderness.
Most of the trailheads in the area are accessible from Forest Road 75, a wide, gravel lane that skirts the east and south sides of the wilderness area. Plenty of parking spots and gravel pullouts exist along the road, particularly near the trailheads. Dispersed camping is allowed in the wilderness (subject to some restrictions based on proximity to trails, water, and other campers), so enjoy the freedom! However, note that most of the area is very, very wet. Plan for campsites at high points in the topography.
A Night Hike
June 23, 2017 | 1.4 mi | +200′ / -280′ | View on Map
I meet Jen, a fellow DC ultralight (DCUL) backpacker, at a metro station and we carpool out to West Virginia. It’s a long drive, made even longer by evening rush hour traffic, but time flies by when you have someone new to get to know! I have yet to meet a backpacker that I haven’t gotten along with. After all, not everyone is willing to drive into the middle of nowhere, fend off mosquitos and bears, sleep on the ground, and carry all their necessities for miles.
The forecast calls for rain all night and into tomorrow morning, but we’re lucky and don’t encounter much en route to Dolly Sods. Jen and I are the last to arrive at 9:30 or so and meet a few group members that have kindly waited for us; others have already hiked into camp.
After double and triple checking that I have my keys, I lock the car, shoulder my pack, and we set off down the Bear Rocks Trail. This weekend marks a new moon and the skies are overcast, so we all rely on headlamps to illuminate the rocky path in front of us. We don’t have a long walk to camp – only a mile or two – and the miles slip away as I chat with some other group members.
We soon reach our campsite, a flat area near the trail and above the soggy meadows surrounding a nearby stream. I struggle a bit to find a campsite in the dark but one of the other group members who arrived earlier points out a nice saddle where I can set up my tent. As I’ve only set up my tent a few times, I make several attempts before finally arranging all of the pieces in the proper orientation. And none too soon! The soft patter of raindrops in the trees above announces the arrival of forecast showers. The rain and late hour are enough to drive me inside for the night.
A Soggy Slog to Lions Head Rock
June 24, 2017 | 9.2 mi | +940′ / -1115′ | View on Map
After a somewhat restless night, I wake up and stretch my legs. Extracting myself from my tent proves to be a bit of a challenge. Although the ground beneath my sleeping bag is level, I have to scramble up a slope to get out the door on the other side (the other door is blocked by a tree). The lack of friction between my socks and the thin nylon floor only exacerbates the issue.
Once I make it into the greater outdoors, I retrieve my bear canister (I’m prepping to hike the John Muir Trail on which bear canisters are required) and add some water to a bag of oatmeal. I love hot oatmeal, but I don’t mind eating it cold especially on days as warm as today. I join a few other group members and chat about this and that – mostly questions about each others’ gear and general introductory topics like, “what do you do?” Water is still falling from the sky, though it’s difficult to tell whether it is raining or if the wind in the canopy above is knocking down droplets from earlier showers. Regardless, we keep our rain gear on for now.
Breakfast in the Rain Breakfast in the Rain, Part 2
Since we arrived late last night, we break camp a little later than usual to give everyone a chance to catch enough z’s. The trail from camp winds up to the top of a grassy plateau. I get my first glimpse of Dolly Sods from this vantage point. Heath covers the surrounding hillsides and stands of trees dot the landscape. The entire area is wet from last night’s rainstorm, although others in the group that have visited before make it clear that Dolly Sods is always wet.
Plateau A Soggy Picnic Spot
Low-hanging clouds fly over our heads as we cross the plateau and descend to a large meadow area. At first, puddles dot the trail and we side-step them to keep our shoes and feet dry. Soon, however, it becomes apparent that the trail is going to be muddy and wet for the foreseeable future. After accidentally stepping in a few ankle-deep puddles, I give up on keeping my feet dry and just walk through the water.
I fall behind the group as I stop to take pictures every few minutes. One of the joys of visiting a new place is all the new photo opportunities! Of course, not every new sight is photo-worthy; I have to remind myself of this mantra to avoid ending up with a memory card full of uninspiring snapshots.
Group Backpacking Muddy Trail
Speaking of photography, I acquired another piece of gear for my John Muir Trail (JMT) hike since my last backpacking trip: the Fuji XF 10-24mm lens. The focal range of the lens is great for backpacking: it covers the ultra-wide end at 10mm and moderate zoom levels at the 24mm end. I prefer zoom lenses like this one for hiking because I don’t have to swap lenses to change the focal length. Exchanging lenses on the trail is not only time-consuming and a little tedious but it can also introduce dust and other contaminants onto the sensor.
During the next few miles, I stop a few times to photograph dense clumps of ferns, lovely pink mountain laurel, and a pair of mushrooms perched on a mossy stone. I’m impressed by the focus distance of the lens; I’m able to hold the lens inches from the mushrooms and zoom right in! I capture the shot and then hurry to catch up with the rest of the group.
Ferns Mushroom Macro Wildflowers
After several miles of muddy trails through meadows and dense pine thickets, the trail emerges out onto a rocky plateau. Make no mistake, the ground is still sopping wet, but it’s easier to walk through puddles on stone and gravel than through mud. The skies are still filled with fast-moving, dramatic clouds left over from last night’s storm. Thankfully, the rain has stopped and doesn’t seem to be coming back any time soon.
We stop for a break, and to wait for group members to catch up, at a rocky area just north of the Breathed Mountain Trailhead on the west edge of the park. It’s only 11, but someone suggests lunch and nobody argues, so the short break becomes our lunch break. It’s a great spot to relax for a while. Visitors to his area have piled rocks into dozens of cairns just off the trail, which is sort of interesting. Normally cairns are used to mark particularly tricky sections, but they’re wholly unnecessary here. I, along with several others, take off my shoes and socks and let my wet feet dry out. The swift breeze and the sunshine feel great! I brought sunscreen just in case the sun came out, and I’m glad I have it now.
Break Time Lunch Break Shoes Off! Cairn City
After enjoying lunch (I ate hummus, dried fruit, and a tortilla), we don our wet shoes and socks and continue up the trail. The next several miles bring more of the same familiar experiences: trails turned into creeks, mud, mud, and more mud. The group spreads out as people settle into hiking paces they are comfortable with. Soon, I find myself walking alone through a pine forest. The trail (well, stream bed) is particularly beautiful here: the water cascades over roots and rocks and flows down a carved-out canyon in the dirt. Pine needles and bright green moss line the sides of the brook. Naturally, I stop to take a few photos before continuing on.
Typical Dolly Sods Trail Downstream Mud Evasion Flooded Trail
A little further down the trail, I round a bend and come face to face with a 10-foot wide section of Stonecoal Run. The trail has paralleled this creek for miles and, as tributaries join the main branch, the creek has transformed into a small river. On a drier trip, I would take the time to take off my shoes and socks before crossing. But my shoes and socks are already soaked and muddy, so why bother? If anything, walking through the water will only clean my shoes.
It’s been a long time since I’ve done a proper river crossing! There are almost always fallen logs or stepping stones across rivers and creeks in the backcountry. Most of the group has already crossed and are waiting on the other side, so I walk through the shin-deep water and wait on the opposite bank with the others for the rest of our group. We don’t have to wait long and are soon on our way again.
After the river crossing, the trail heads uphill a bit and we put a little distance between us and the soggy flatlands. The trail is – dare I say it – dry! Well, mostly dry. I particularly enjoy walking through several stands of tall pines. The biodiversity and number of different ecosystems here is incredible!
In the next mile or two, we cross Stonecoal Run two more times and each time the river grows larger. I’m not really sure why the trail crosses the waterway so many times. It would be much simpler to stay on the east side of the creek after the first crossing.
The final ford is particularly exciting with a fast current and knee deep water. I take a few minutes to package my camera in a gallon ziplock bag; I want my expensive toy protected if I slip and fall in. I’ve also been taught to undo the hip belt and chest strap for crossings like this. The idea is that in the event you fall in, you can quickly escape from your heavy, waterlogged pack and avoid becoming trapped under water. The risk here is low, but higher than I’m used to and I undo the extra straps anyway. Better safe than sorry!
We discover an impressive waterfall only a few hundred feet downstream of our last river crossing. We’re very close to camp for the night, so a few of us photography enthusiasts pause for a few minutes to capture the rushing water.
Just past the waterfall is a spur trail that leads to Lions Head. We climb the steep path up Breathed Mountain and soon level off in a beautiful stand of tall pine trees. There are campsites everywhere, and all of them are fantastic! The ground is almost perfectly flat and covered with pine needles, there are several stone fire rings, and previous visitors have constructed benches from fallen logs and slabs of stone. The pine trees are perfect for those sleeping in hammocks too! I set up a rope between trees and dry out all my gear before putting it in my tent. I leave my shoes and socks swinging in the wind and don Xero trail sandals for campsite activities.
We spend the next hour setting up camp and relaxing. Everyone is hungry after a day of hiking, and all manner of pots and stoves appear as folks prepare dinner. After eating, I and several others go in search of Lion’s Head, a rock formation that is supposed to look like a lion’s head. The small trail that leads out to the rock is marked by a small cairn near our campsite. The route winds through thick trees and brush and is occasionally difficult to follow. Cairns mark the way through the trickiest sections and we soon emerge from the dense woods onto a rocky area. Crevasses criss-cross the surface, some of them 10 – 15 feet deep, so careful footwork is required. Most of the cracks are not terribly wide, but a broken leg or ankle is easily within the realm of possibility.
Chow Time Food Prep
There are several other backpackers out soaking up the sun. A few of them direct us to the best place from which to view Lion’s Head. I can see the resemblance, but it’s no Mount Rushmore. In my opinion, the views of the surrounding countryside are much more impressive. Large, fluffy clouds punctuate the bright blue sky, and trees line the mountains as far as the eye can see. It’s a bit chilly with a stiff breeze, but the sun is shining! We all take a few minutes to admire the views. And I take pictures of people admiring the views, and of James taking pictures of people admiring the views – us photographers have to get some shots of each other!
Lions Head Overlook Lions Head What A View Photographer in Action
I wander back up to camp after taking in the views for a while. The summit of Breathed Mountain should be nearby and I go looking for it, but I’m unable to locate any significant summit. Oh well! I settle down in my tent and read John Muir’s My First Summer in the Sierra for a while. That man sure can write eloquently! His constant, unshakable awe of nature is inspiring. I finish the book in a few minutes (I didn’t have much left) and then drift off to sleep.
At 7:00, I wake up. The sun is beginning to creep down the horizon and I want to go take pictures so I put my shoes back on. They’re not quite dry, but are certainly not dripping anymore! It seems that just about everyone in the group fell asleep, so I wait for them to wake up and a bunch of us walk back down to the rocky ledge and settle down to watch the sunset. There are lots of clouds on the horizon, but I’m hopeful for a fiery display when the sun sinks just below the clouds. The sky does not disappoint and I snap a bunch of frames as the sun sets.
One of the lessons I’ve learned about sunsets is that the best light often occurs after the sun has sunk below the horizon. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked away after the sun sets and regretted it 10 minutes later when my gear is stowed and the sky is on fire. So I stay out with Jim until the skies are good and dark. We walk back to camp with headlamps on and join the rest of the group around a lively campfire.
To our collective annoyance, it begins to rain while we enjoy the fire. Luckily, the showers are partially blocked by the pines above and are not long-lived. Soon, the clouds clear and stars peek through. James and I return to the rocks and spend an hour or two taking pictures of the night sky. We’re both shooting with the same camera and lens and I very much enjoy chatting with him about photography. We head back to camp at about midnight and head to bed – we’re leaving camp early tomorrow morning!
Bogs and Mountain Meadows
June 25, 2017 | 8.7 mi | +1150′ / -890′ | View on Map
We leave camp early this morning and hike back down the spur trail to Rocky Point Trail. The path here is mostly shoe-sized rocks, many of which are loose. I lead the pack for a little while and then fall behind to take a few pictures. Despite the tricky footwork, it’s refreshing to hike on dry ground. With fresh socks on, my feet are dry for the first time in 24 hours!
Rocky Trail Watch Your Feet
The Rocky Point Trail winds around Breathed Mountain and the boulders we watched the sunset from last night. Lion’s Head isn’t visible from the trail because of heavy tree cover, but it isn’t far past the tree tops. Patches of mist obscure distant trees along some sections of the trail and create spectacular sights where the early morning sun streams through the foliage. I really enjoy this stretch of trail – it’s both flat and dry!
Of course, the dryness is too good to last and I’m soon hopping from one rock to another in an attempt to avoid stepping in muddy puddles. I’m moderately successful until I reach Red Creek; crossing in shoes and socks means sopping wet feet once more. Peter has already warned us that the trail today leads through an infamous stretch of deep mud, so I knew that the dryness wouldn’t last. It was nice for a while, though!
After fording Red Creek, the path begins to climb toward Blackbird Knob. One might think that only trails in the flatlands would be soggy, but that is not the case here. I walk upstream (or ‘up trail’) through murky ankle deep pools. Maintaining stability in the slippery mud puts extra strain on my knees and hips so I’m grateful for trekking poles to help relieve the stress. The poles are particularly useful on the final hundred yards of Red Creek Trail: the grade is steep, muddy, and slippery, and being able to maintain four points of contact with the ground keeps me from landing face first in the mud.
Despite the less than ideal muddy conditions, I really enjoy the hike. After climbing a few hundred feet, this stretch of Red Creek Trail emerges from the woods into a beautiful (and soggy) meadow. Bright sunlight streams from the sky, birds are singing, and a morning breeze rustles through the long grass. I’m reminded of hiking out west, particularly of the meadow near William’s Creek Trail.
I also relish the chance to hike alone. I know there are several group members behind me and several more in front, but I can’t see or hear any of them. While I really love backpacking with groups like this, I appreciate the chance to walk on my own and dwell in my own head space for a while. I also don’t feel guilty for holding others up when I stop to take pictures if the group is fluid like this.
I expect to meet the group members that are hiking in front of me at the junction of Red Creek Trail and Blackbird Knob Trail, but when I arrive nobody is there. Those in back of me arrive soon, and then we all continue together.
After a brief walk down the Blackbird Knob Trail, we turn north on Upper Red Creek Trail. At first, the route is incredibly muddy. I pause to tighten my shoelaces to avoid losing a shoe in the deep silt. However, as the trail trends uphill the wetness subsides a bit and walking becomes easier. The forest gives way once more to meadows and the occasional stand of aspens shivering in the wind. I’ve never seen aspens in this part of the country; I wonder how they got here? Or, perhaps, if they’ve always been here, where did all the other aspens go?
I pause to take a few pictures and my hiking companions continue on ahead. The next mile on Upper Red Creek Trail is my favorite of the entire trip. Cotton ball clouds drift lazily overhead and a breeze ripples through the tall grass in the meadows. The trail morphs from single-track into several tracks where hikers have chosen drier routes. The deep tracks through the soft ground remind me of alpine trails in the mountains; the surrounding pines and cool air only add to the illusion. I establish a rhythm on this dry stretch of trail and time slows down for a while.
I meet most of the rest of the group at the junction with Dobin Grade Trail. According to our resident Dolly Sods expert, the Dobin Grade Trail is built on the bed of an old railroad. So, while it is muddy and a “right of passage” for Dolly Sods hikers, if you remain on the trail you won’t sink in past your ankles! It’s the little things in life…
We cross Red Creek once more and then brave the bog. The first muddy section takes me by surprise when I step through what appears to be solid ground. Beneath the murky water, I can feel the gravel and rocks of what I imagine are the old railroad bed. I step off the trail once or twice and sink up to my knee! I use my trekking poles as feelers after that to make sure that suspicious puddles are not deeper than they appear.
The boggy section of trail is over much sooner than I expect and we make excellent time along dry, flat trail. The Dobbin Grade Trail eventually tees into Bear Rocks Trail and we make our way back toward the cars. I enjoy actually seeing the landscape this time; it was dark when we hiked through here on Friday. The heathland stretches for miles; pines and rock outcroppings punctuate the sea of green shrubs, and those cotton ball clouds are still hanging around.
Mountain Laurel Dolly Sods High Country Bear Rocks Trail
Before I know it we’ve reached the trailhead; the cars are just a hop, skip, and a jump away. I and several others wash off our feet and legs, change into sandals, and then sit and talk for a few minutes. However, with a 3.5-hour drive still to go, we say our goodbyes and drive away.
If you’re a hiker or backpacker in the mid-Atlantic, you need to visit Dolly Sods. I was skeptical at first, especially after learning about the infamous bogs and muddy trails. However, I’ve now seen the light. Yes, it is terribly muddy, but does anyone really get into backpacking because it’s comfortable and easy? The amount of diversity is awe-inspiring and the sense of wilderness is much stronger than on other trails on the east coast. I had a great time, made even greater by the fantastic people I got to know over the weekend.
Until next time, happy trails!
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You’ve probably already seen the trailer. It’s gotten 800,000 YouTube hits, it’s been shown on most major broadcast and cable news shows and its name — “Seven Minutes of Terror” — has become something of an Internet meme. But the producer of the video sensation it not one of the usual Hollywood suspects. It’s NASA — and if you think the five-minute web teaser the space agency has produced is cool, wait till you see the actual show, scheduled for Aug. 5.
(LIST: The 7 Most Adorkable Moments From The NASA Control Room)
That’s the day the Mars Curiosity rover — the $2.5 billion, six-wheeled lab that’s the latest brainchild of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena — is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet. While the mission of the SUV-sized rover is ambitious — employing a new suite of instruments to go rambling about Mars sniffing out signs of past or even present life — other rovers have done similar things before. The landing, however, will be like nothing NASA has ever attempted. If the engineers can pull this one off, their efforts will be counted a success even before the rover can move so much as an inch across the soil.
There are basically two ways to land on another world: parachutes if the planet or moon has a thick enough atmosphere, and rocket engines if it doesn’t. Right away, Mars presents problems. It’s wrapped in just enough atmosphere to slow an entering spacecraft down and give a parachute something to bite, but not enough to permit a soft and survivable landing. The previous three rovers — Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity — solved that problem with a combination of parachutes, descent rockets and, for the final plunge, a swaddling of air bags that allowed the vehicles to hit the surface and bounce across the landscape until they finally rolled to a stop and could shake off their padding. It was an ignominious way to arrive, but it got them there in one piece.
But Curiosity, at 5,293 lbs. (2,400 kg), is way too heavy for the airbag model, so JPL engineers had to dream up a new approach — and dream they did. When the blunt-bottomed, conical pod carrying Curiosity slams into the Martian atmosphere on its way to a touchdown in the planet’s Gale Crater, it will be traveling at a blistering 13,000 mph (21,000 k/h). The thin air will provide enough braking force to bleed off about 93% of the speed. When the ship is about 7 mi. (11 km) above the surface and traveling 900 mph (1,448 k/h), it will at last deploy its parachute — but not just any parachute. At 51 ft. (15.5 m) in diameter with 80 suspension lines, it’s the biggest chute ever used in an extraterrestrial landing. This will slow the spacecraft down to 190 mph (305 k/h).
(PHOTOS: NASA’s New Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’)
That, of course, is not a remotely safe landing speed. So after jettisoning the no-longer needed heat shield, the ship will fire retrorockets that will slow it a crawl that actually approaches a hover. At that point, the rover could just be set gently on the surface, right? Not quite. And here things take a decidedly Jetsonian twist.
Since the blasting retrorockets could stir up an instrument-damaging dust cloud as Curiosity closes in on the ground, the spacecraft will transform itself into — wait for it — a sky crane. As it reaches a 2 mph (3.2 k/h) descent speed, half of its eight engines will shut down and four nylon cords will spool out, lowering the rover the last 25 ft. (7.5 m) to the ground. Once the spacecraft senses touchdown, the descent stage will sever the cords and soar off in a flyaway maneuver. It will crash at least 500 ft. (152 m) away, sacrificing itself to make certain its rockets don’t damage the rover.
All together now: no way!
“It’s like a big long chain, and all of the links have to work in order for the thing to land properly,” says Tom Rivellini, the JPL engineer who provides much of the memorable, conversational narration for the “Seven Minutes” video. “One of my best friends said, ‘you guys are kind of playing up the drama a little bit,’ but to be honest we’re actually downplaying it. So much stuff has to go right in order for the thing to not crash and burn. I’ll take the coolness factor once it works properly.”
Working properly is by no means a sure thing. First of all, there are the numbers: Sixty percent of all Mars missions fail and “every landing is a first,” says Doug McQuiston, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. Then there’s another big number: two — as in the paired, redundant hardware that NASA typically designs into its ships so that if a primary system fails, a back-up can fill the breach.
Two computers will control the avionics as Curiosity descends. There will also be dual explosives firing when the heat shield and other systems separate from the craft, even though only one pyrotechnic is needed for the job. But duplication is expensive in both dollars and weight, so that’s where the redundancies end.
“With no humans on board we have the luxury of taking a little risk, so we turn that risk into more science and it’s a great return on investment,” Rivellini says. “But it does come at a potential cost which is, you might lose the mission because we have these single-string, complicated vehicles and things just have to go right.”
(VIDEO: 7 Minutes of Terror Over Mars: The Curiosity Rover)
Wild as the whole ideas sounds, the reality is that the landing system is actually just a next-generation version of its predecessors. Previous rovers used similar but more rudimentary radar to target the ground and simpler rockets that couldn’t be throttled. This time, JPL engineers upgraded the radar and borrowed a page from the 1970s Viking landers by adding thrust valves to the rocket motors on the descent stage. “Now we can control the velocity so well that we don’t have to make up the difference with airbags; we can just set the payload directly on the surface of Mars,” Rivellini says.
If the complicated landing sequence does play out as hoped, the work that follows could produce some amazement of its own. The science payload aboard Curiosity will be 10 times bigger than that carried by any previous rover. The most important of those instruments is the soil-sampling system that will look for signs of Martian biology. “We will have a big milestone when we put the first scooped sample into the analytical lab,” says Joy Crisp, the deputy project scientist. “That will reveal the minerals, and we’ve not been able to answer that before.” The rover’s other instruments will beam x-rays into powdered rock, sniff the atmosphere, and scan different wavelengths of light, all in hopes of finding water, carbon, methane, and other life-building elements. The results should inch researchers closer to definitive answers about whether the planet serves as a model for Earth’s own past — including its early biology. Says Crisp, “We’ll have a lot more clues to put the puzzle together.”
Oh, and while Hollywood may not have had a role in producing Curiosity’s celebrated web trailer the mission will still give us an action movie of sorts. An on-board camera will be recording full-color video of Curiosity’s landing, offering the first-ever view aboard a spacecraft landing on Mars. If all goes well, it seems “Seven Minutes of Terror” won’t be the last compelling video about Curiosity’s wild ride to Mars.
PHOTOS: Roving the Red Planet
MORE: Happy Birthday, Opportunity! Mars Rover Turns 8
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Health Canada will make public information it has kept secret regarding serious, sometimes fatal side-effects suspected to have been caused by unapproved “off-label” prescriptions. The announcement by the minister of health comes after an ongoing Star investigation exposed the federal regulator was scrubbing crucial information from public view.
Health Minister Rona Ambrose says Health Canada will reveal data regarding serious, and sometimes fatal, side-effects with suspected links to “off-label” use. ( Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo )
The information — which showed whether a drug involved in a side-effect case had been prescribed for an unapproved use — was removed from side-effect reports before Health Canada published those reports in its online public database. “I am committed to improve access to timely, useful and relevant health and safety information, including off-label use, so that Canadians can make informed choices,” Minister of Health Rona Ambrose told the Star in a statement. RELATED:
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• Health Canada must disclose information on off-label drug side-effects: Editorial • Star obtains list of red-flagged drugs Health Canada has collected the information for six years but blamed technical limitations with the database for preventing its public release. A spokeswoman said the regulator is upgrading its systems and will disclose the missing information once that is complete. Neither Ambrose’s office nor Health Canada provided a timeline for when the records will be publicly available. The Star had to go to the United States to find this crucial information about Canadian patients suffering suspected side-effects after they received unapproved treatments. We analyzed a massive trove of data found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s public side-effect report database, which accepts reports from Canada and around the world.
The Star’s analysis revealed nearly 400 Canadian cases from 2010 to 2013 that involved a wide and disturbing range of reported side-effects: deaths, heart attacks, strokes, birth defects, organ failures and “spontaneous” abortions. Ambrose said the decision to release the prescription information is part of a greater initiative to make Health Canada “more open and transparent and communicate information with Canadians.”
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“It is a step in the right direction,” said Sen. Art Eggleton, who was deputy chair of a Senate committee that recently investigated off-label prescribing and who wants Health Canada to do a better job of regulating drug safety. “I hope this will be a fulsome disclosure. I hope it will reduce adverse effects (of drugs),” he said. In April, Health Canada launched the Regulatory Transparency and Openness Framework following a Star investigation into the widespread off-label use of acne medication Diane-35. Health Canada said it will publish negative decisions it has issued for drugs seeking approval for new uses. This will allow doctors and patients to see whether an off-label treatment was in fact rejected by the regulator for safety concerns. Off-label means a drug is being used for a condition or age group for which it has not been approved. Doctors across Canada are routinely giving powerful drugs to vulnerable patients, often without strong scientific evidence that the drugs will be safe or effective, and sometimes despite warnings that such prescribing could cause serious harm. In one Canadian case that the Star found in the U.S. database, an 85-year-old man received the antipsychotic Seroquel to treat insomnia. He suffered diarrhea before dying from a heart attack, which a doctor suspected was caused by the drug. Neither the drug company nor Health Canada had enough scientific evidence to claim the pills could safely treat sleep disorders. The Star found another antipsychotic drug called olanzapine — narrowly approved for the treatment of adults with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, as well as bipolar disorder — was being blithely prescribed for an array of unapproved uses. In each case, there was no strong scientific evidence to justify the treatment. As well, the unapproved use was thought to have caused a side-effect. (Each side-effect report collected by health regulators is the opinion of the doctor, pharmacist or patient that a particular drug has caused a reaction.) In some cases, the Star found Health Canada is not even reviewing all the troubling data it collects. In its analysis of the U.S. public database, the Star found at least 20 cases of Canadian women who delivered babies with birth defects after they were given off-label prescriptions for the anti-nausea drug ondansetron to treat severe morning sickness. Health Canada, which has similar reports in its internal database, said it has not done any reviews of these cases and there are currently “no emerging safety issues requiring further assessment” of the drug’s use for morning sickness.
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Image copyright IHS Jane's Image caption Satellite images of Fiery Cross Reef were published last year (CNES 2015, Distribution Airbus DS / Spot Image / IHS)
China has landed a military aircraft on one of its manmade islands in the disputed South China Sea.
It is thought to be the first time China's military has publicly admitted to landing a plane on the artificial island, known as Fiery Cross Reef.
State media said the plane evacuated three injured workers from the reef.
China and several of its neighbours are locked in a territorial dispute over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety.
The military plane landed on Sunday morning to pick up three construction workers who were hurt, and flew them to Hainan island for treatment, state media said.
China has previously landed civilians planes on Fiery Cross Reef, sparking criticism from Vietnam, who also claims the territory, and the US.
Beijing says it is building artificial islands and structures on reefs for civilian purposes, but other countries have expressed concern over the possibility of the facilities being used for military purposes.
The US has said China's island-building aggravates regional tensions and prevents vessels from navigating freely though the area.
Q&A: South China Sea dispute
China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all claim areas within the South China Sea.
Image caption China's so-called "nine dash line" (here as a solid line) is the basis of all its South China Sea claims
China turned Fiery Cross Reef into an artificial island through a massive dredging operation, and constructed buildings and an air strip.
Rival countries have wrangled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries, but tension has steadily increased in recent years.
In February, Taiwan and the US said China had deployed surface-to-air missiles on another disputed island, called Woody or Yongxing Island, in the Paracels.
China responded by saying that the US was militarising the South China Sea through its air and naval patrols.
The US, which officially takes no position on the territorial disputes, describes the patrols as "freedom of navigation" operations to ensure access to key shipping and air routes.
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As promised, I present to you, the Lemon Cucumber. As you can see from this photo, it makes a great prop. Try that with you average, wax-encased supermarket variety. I know what you thinking, Jeff I don't need my cucumbers to be props, I need them them to crisp and tasty. Well I'm here to tell you the Lemon Cucumber is crisp and tasty, and it's beautiful. I challenge anyone to come up with a still life with the supermarket variety that has the grace and interest of what you see here.
They are susceptible to the bacterial wilt spread by the dreaded cucumber beetle, and like a lot heirlooms, the shelf life is relatively short. All the more reason to eat them fresh off the vine. There is something about the round shape that makes devouring one quite easy. Lighter than an apple, and about the size of one, one bite and you'll see why you should grow them. Most cucumbers have a delicate and subtle flavor, this one has a more pronounced flavor that makes for a satisfying and somewhat thirst-quenching snack.
According to Seeds of Change, the Lemon Cucumber has been charming gardeners since the 1890s. Allow it to charm you, and share in over a century of delight.
Check out my kickstarter.com project, a photo book of the buds of the 22 varities of tomatoes that I'm growing this year.
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For seven years, Worcester poet Nicholas Earl Davis has hosted the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show at Ralph�s Diner, 148 Grove St., alongside Alex Charalam- bides. The show takes place every Mon- day, and taking a seat by the side bar of the diner, under the dim lights and taxidermy, a large portion of Worcester�s poetry community performs their pieces in company with headlining acts. Some of the words are dark, some are hilarious, but all are real.
Much like Davis�s work.
One such piece, �Talking Worcester Blues,� has inspired an unusual collaboration between the poet, artist Eamon Gillen, Jessica Walsh of Worcester Wares and the restaurant staff of deadhorse hill.
�The poem isn�t a love letter to the city,� said Davis, sitting in the back corner of Ralph�s Diner beneath a large taxidermy deer head. The antlers make strange shadow shapes on the wall behind him. �It�s kind of like a pep talk. I�ve been frustrated with the city and wanted to leave and even tried to leave, actively. I did leave. I didn�t finish it, I wrote the second half when I came back. The inspiration is that our city is a tough mother [expletive deleted], and this is her advice.�
Walsh heard Davis read the poem months prior. She was familiar with the poet through the Dirty Gerund, but Davis read �Talking Worcester Blues� at The Sort of Late Show with Shaun Connolly one evening while Walsh was a guest. The poem � one line in particular � had a lasting effect on the Worcester Wares owner.
�What�s so great about the poem is that it�s so very Worcester,� she said. � It touches on the things that are so Worcester, but that line, �triple-decker decadent,� I feel like it�s such an amazing line, there is something to it. The three words themselves are just words I have never heard together, but part of what makes Worcester so awesome is that we�re both gritty � I know the word �gritty� is used too much � but we also have this industrial past and this ownership and pride over it. I don�t think �triple-decker decadent� is making fun of that, I think it�s owning that. People are so excited about this. People are proud to have grown up in a triple decker and this celebrates that.�
So, Walsh got the ball rolling for a line of items in Worcester Wares. She started with artist Gillen, who had crafted a chalkboard mural in her store previously and he began designs inspired by the concept of �triple decker decadence.�
�Living in Worcester most of my life, I�ve grown up in and rented enough three-decker homes to be able to draw them from memory very easily,� Gillen said. �Between this and the banners and lettering, I do often as a full-time tattooer I put it all together to try and make a unique readable image that could work on a shirt, pin, print or anything else it would be used for.�
Worcester Wares currently has several of Gillen�s designs on hand, with tee shirts, pins, stickers, totes and prints (of Gillen�s imagery as well as of the full Talking Worcester Blues poem) available in store. The collaboration didn�t end there however, as the group partnered with deadhorse hill,�who now have a cocktail and dessert inspired by the poem.
��Triple Decker� was a slam dunk,� said Sean Woods, beverage director and co-owner of the restaurant. �We could have made it into a burger, we could have taken a sandwich and called it a triple decker. I thought it was great, these community ideas and including more and more people. Because of this, a poet isn�t trapped in a coffee house, people can see this. It�s living in a restaurant. Everyone is mingling and the common denominator is Worcester.�
A copy of the poem comes with each of the restaurant�s menus, but can be overlooked. When the dessert is ordered, however, it comes on a vintage Worcester plate with a large version of the poem for guests to read.
�As a poet, specifically, and as an artist in general, it�s really easy to underestimate your own work,� said Davis. �It�s really easy to not think about it as a commercially-viable option. I�m not going to retire off a tee shirt, but just to have a way to buy a meal or two off of it is just incredible.�
Davis said he was ecstatic to be a part of the project, to have a line of items inspired by his words, but the deadhorse inclusion was particularly special.
�I�m a huge food nerd,� laughed Davis. �There are things on their menu that have been on my bucket list, that I�ve wanted to try and watched Youtube videos on. Getting published on their menu is bigger to me than if it was like Harvard Press. Being next to a three-year aged Spanish ham is a bigger honor than being next to the biggest author in the country. As a chubby food nerd, that�s a bigger honor.�
While Davis writes a lot, he said �Talking Worcester Blues� is his only Worcester-centric work to date, but it is obvious the city means a lot to him, and he describes his vision of the city in interesting terms.
�She is that patron at the bar,� he said. �That person at the bar, probably an older lady, she might buy you a shot or you might buy her a shot, but everyone else is giving her space. But for some reason you catch a glint in her eye and decide to go talk to her. She�s probably got at least one good thing to tell me. Then you realize that she�s the reason the bar was built. She�s the patron saint.�
So what, according to Davis, does the line all of this focuses on � �you need to be triple decker decadent� � mean?
�I�ve been there,� said Davis with his hands outstretched. �That�s every time you�re at a party in some rundown triple decker and you realize that you�re living better than any other mother[expletive deleted], no matter what�s in their pocket. That�s triple-decker decadence. Looking around and saying ,we�re drinking 30 racks of cheap shit, but I look around and I�m in love with everyone in this room, we�re all in love with each other and we�re all beautiful. It�s better than anything could be. It�s that feeling.�
The �Triple Decker Decadence� line of items is available at Worcester Wares, DCU Door 22. �Talking Worcester Blues� cocktail and dessert are available at deadhorse hill, 281 Main St. You can catch Davis every Monday at The Dirty Gerund Poetry Show at Ralph�s Rock Diner, 148 Grove St. Davis will hold a release show for his �Nicholas Earl Davis is Getting Drunk with Dead Stick and Hambone� record at Bull Mansion, 55 Pearl St., on Feb. 24. The album takes spoken word and slam poetry as an American art form and mashes it with American, bluegrass, folk and country music. This includes a Paula Abdul bluegrass remix with a poem about a one night stand.
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Ghostery has decided not to have its cake and eat it too.
On Wednesday, the company announced that it’s been acquired in an all-cash deal by Cliqz, a German privacy-focused browser that plans to use the ad-tracker tool to help expand its user base. The companies did not disclose a deal price.
Hubert Burda Media, one of the largest publishing houses in Germany, maintains a majority stake in Cliqz, which is also backed by Mozilla.
The Ghostery business will split along a clear seam: The consumer-facing privacy extension will go to Cliqz, while the B2B digital governance side of the business will function as a separate entity under Evidon, the company’s original name.
Balancing the two businesses had proven to be a little awkward for Ghostery over the years. There were some who accused it of functioning as an ad blocker while at the same time making the bulk of its money helping companies comply with the Digital Advertising Alliance’s AdChoices and self-regulatory programs across desktop, mobile and video.
But it wasn’t a conflict of interest that led to the sale, said Scott Meyer, Evidon’s CEO and co-founder. It was just good business and parallel interests, he said.
“The combination of how Ghostery empowers users to block trackers is in perfect alignment with the anonymization features built into Cliqz,” Meyer told AdExchanger. “The intention is to make a better user experience, not do anything that would make it harder to sell advertising.”
From Evidon’s perspective, the sale made sense in light of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – set to take effect next year – as well as increasing scrutiny from US regulatory agencies of cross-device tracking.
Companies are going to have a lot of compliance boxes to tick, and all of Evidon’s revenue comes from digital governance.
Ghostery once attempted to package and sell the anonymized browsing data it collected through its plug-in to help publishers and advertisers get a handle on data leakage, but the competitive intel product never took off.
Cliqz will keep the Ghostery plug-in running and current users won’t be impacted, although the data it collects will now be housed in Germany, a country known for having some of the strictest privacy laws in the world.
The Ghostery plug-in has more than 10 million monthly active users, roughly 20% of who opt in to allow Ghostery to anonymously track and aggregate their browsing history. Evidon will still be able to use some of that aggregated tracker data as part of enterprise digital governance business.
But over time the plug-in data contributed by Ghostery was becoming less important to the compliance product, said Meyer, who noted that Cliqz will be able to make better use of it as part of it own privacy-friendly tracking and blocking product.
What Evidon isn’t selling is its script library of more than 4,000 companies, which it will continue to license to publishers and advertisers. That IP allows Evidon to determine the provenance of specific tags, whether the tags are running in a secure environment and whether they’re causing latency. Cliqz will be able to access the script library through a long-term license as part of the Ghostery deal.
The Ghostery plug-in only provides a list of which companies have tags present on a site, which isn’t all that useful for an enterprise customer, Meyer said.
As they part ways, it now looks like Ghostery and Evidon both have more comfortable and less conflicting niches to inhabit: the worlds of anti-tracking tools and self-regulatory infrastructure and management.
“What’s happening with [Europe’s] GDPR and the growing focus on cross-device and privacy is an increased amount of attention from regulators into the complexities of the digital supply chain,” Meyer said. “Those two issues have come together to catalyze our business.”
Cliqz’s plans for Ghostery, on the other hand, center around what it calls the human web, a process by which users share probabilistic data fed into an algorithm that automatically detects and overwrites potential identifiers in the data submitted to trackers.
Algorithmic blocking complements Ghostery’s list-based approach of blocking tracking scripts, said Cliqz founder Jean-Paul Schmetz.
“For services such as search, anti-tracking and anti-phishing, you need a lot of data,” Schmetz said. “We get these data from the community of our users – Cliqz users and, in the near future, from Ghostery users – [who] can help to create a better web by voluntarily contributing statistical data. To assess the relevance and security of websites, we simply don’t need to know anything about you."
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Sprint's new CEO Marcelo Claure announced after he took over the company about how he plans on turning things around. The list consisted of price changes, network upgrades, and internal policy upgrades as well. However, the order of that list may have been a wrong move, according to analysts. One of the issues with price changes, is it favors new customers over current subscribers.
New customers headed to Sprint could get up to $350 in credit for switching to Sprint, as well as great deals on data plans. However, Sprint hasn't said anything yet about current subscribers and how they can switch to the new, cheaper plans. In fact, current subscribers seem to be stuck on the more expensive plans that they've had for some time. "The challenges for Sprint is that existing prices are still too high and they are slow to reprice the base because of the enormous financial impact it would have on a company with margins as low as theirs," Craig Moffett, analyst at Moffett Nathanson said "I think it is dawning on people just how hard this is going to be."
The failure to follow through with the acquisition of T-Mobile, has helped cause Sprint's shares to drop 50 percent just this year. The acquisition was thought by some to help the company strengthen their network, and make it easier to compete in the market with the top ranked Verizon and AT&T. Since that fell through, investors are very concerned about the future of the company. Not to mention the reaction Sprint has been getting from their new pricing options and lack of customer support for those who have stuck by Sprint through all of this. While Sprint may be more concerned about gaining customers, they may want to add keeping customers to their list of things to accomplish in the near future. Another analyst, Mark Stodden of Moody's Investor Service said, "They will have to match this effort with some type of retention effort," Continuing to say, "I don't think this plan itself is going to turn the company around, but the speed at which they have introduced this change following the new CEO is notable and suggests a more aggressive stance."
One of the ways Sprint has shown some aggressiveness and planning is how they have changed pricing. Instead of dropping the price on the same offerings, they have kept the same prices but offered more for them. This helps the company not lose revenue since data costs wireless providers very little to offer. "They are not taking existing products and pricing lower; they are giving away more data for the same price. When it comes to the economics of mobile data, there is no incremental cost for giving users more data," Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research said. Still, these new offerings are not keeping customers around. Sprint currently is number one in customer defections in the US wireless market.
During an interview with Reuters Claure said, "I think we were going the wrong way," Claure continued to say, "Its not a secret that we are losing more customers than we are gaining, but we believe if we put together good offers that deliver more value to consumers, customers are going to come to Sprint." While Claure sounds strong, he ends with the same problem that analysts are noticing. Sprint needs to worry less about gaining customers at this point, and focus on keeping the ones they have. One way to do this could be to skip step one on their to-do list and move straight to step two-upgrade the network. One person who has taken notice of this has been John Legere, CEO at T-Mobile.
Taking to Twitter, Legere has sent out tweet after tweet talking about different cities where T-Mobile's service is better than Sprint. Legere also sent out a trial ad using Claure's words against him, saying, "When your network is behind, unfortunately, you have to compete on value and price."
Let us know what you think of Sprint's new CEO thus far, and their new pricing. Do you think gaining customers will work long term, or do you think their network should be improved before talking price? Let us know down below or on our G+ page.
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Derrik Sweeney one of three American students accused of throwing molotov cocktails at Egyptian security forces
US student arrested in Tahrir Square not being held in prison, sister says
The sister of one of three US students arrested in Cairo and shown on state television said he was being held in an Egyptian courthouse, which she hoped was a good sign.
Nicole Sweeney told the Guardian that her parents knew very little, but had been told that 19-year-old Derrik Sweeney, who was arrested on Monday, was not being detained in prison.
Derrik, a Georgetown University student, is one of three US students who have been accused of throwing petrol bombs at security forces in Tahrir Square.
In an email, his sister said: "The response from the State Department has largely been one of 'We'll let you know when we know more', but the only contact has been that initiated by my parents."
"They do know that he's being detained at a courthouse, rather than a prison, which we assume is a good thing."
His family voiced their concern for their son's safe return. In a statement issued to the Georgetown Voice, they thanked the "Georgetown University community" for their help, and said: "Seeing the outpouring of love and concern from his friends at a school he cherishes has been valuable moral support for us. We are hopeful that Derrik will very soon be able to thank you himself."
They added: ""At present, we know very little about the situation, though we are in contact with the State Department."
Derrik's father, Kevin, from Jefferson City, Missouri, said his son was a "huge believer in American freedom". He said he had hoped his son's youth would stand him in good stead.
"I'm hoping the fact that he's 19 years old will be a mitigating factor, and hopefully they put him on a plane home," Kevin Sweeney said.
"I suspect what happened is … their government probably isn't absolutely free," he told the Washington Post. "I suspect it's a military government … and I suspect that being with a bunch of Egyptian students, he probably got caught up in something. Who knows?"
"I suppose thoughts of the American revolution were things that probably crossed his mind. He's a huge follower of US constitutional history and the Revolutionary war."
Asked about the molotov cocktail accusation, he said: "I have no idea."
Derrick, who is studying Arabic in the hope it would help a career in law and the military, worked on Barack Obama's election campaign in 2008, but switched allegiances and interned this year with Republican congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer in Washington.
Luetkemeyer's spokesman, Paul Sloca, said he had also been in contact with the State Department and was trying to find out more.
"Our primary concern is that he is safe and being treated fairly," Sloca said.
Sloco said Sweeney came highly recommended and was "very outgoing: a good intern."
The US embassy in Cairo is investigating the detention of Sweeney and two other students at the American University of Cairo: Luke Gates, 21, of Bloomington, Indiana, and Greg Porter, 19, of Glenside, Pennyslyvania.
The three were arrested during clashes outside the interior ministry on Monday, authorities said.
Adel Saeed, a spokesman for the Egyptian general prosecutor's office, told CNN: "The three boys were throwing molotov cocktails, and had no passports on them when they were picked up. They have been questioned by the police and will be further investigated by the Cairo prosecutor."
Egyptian state television showed footage of them standing against a wall, with pictures of their driving licences and ID cards spread out next to what it said were petrol bombs.
Further footage, allegedly taken in Tahrir Square, showed demonstrators – at least one of whom was wearing a mask – with caucasian features, including a young man with blond hair.
A spokesman for the State Department said that no-one from the US embassy had yet met with the students. He said: "Our embassy has been in contact with the Egyptian authorities throughout the day. We have requested consular access and we expect to have it tomorrow."
When asked if they had been charged he replied: "To my knowledge they have only been detained."
A Twitter account that appears to be from Gates – @lhgates – speaks of his experiences in Cairo and of "wanting to die" in Egypt.
On Monday, Gates wrote: "I think I am missing part of my ear" and, a day earlier, told of injuries to his knee and elbow. He wrote: "Back to Tahrir tonight as police set fires to everything, no doubt they will blame it on protesters."
Three days ago he wrote of "feeling reckless" and "honestly, hopefully I die here". Another read: "I just don't want to feel anymore" and one which said: "saw them hanging from the bridge, realise death is the only thing that's immortal."
On what appears to be his Facebook account, Gates changed the current city of residence to Cairo on 31 August this year.
A spokesman for the University of Indiana, where Luke Gates was double majoring in political science and near eastern languages and cultures, said that they had been in contact with his parents. The spokesman, Ryan Piurek, said: "The American University of Cairo and the US embassy are reaching out to him to provide him with any legal assistance he needs."
At Drexel University, where Porter is a student, a spokesman said: "Drexel administrators are in contact with Porter's parents and are working with authorities at the American University in Cairo and the US embassy to have Porter released and returned home safely."
Egypt's generals have claimed foreign intervention is behind some of the violence in Cairo. Foreign media has experienced difficulties attempting to work in Egypt.
Since the Egyptian revolution began at the start of the year, thousands of foreign activists have flocked to Cairo in solidarity with the aims of the Arab spring.
Occupy Wall Street and other Occupy movements, including in the UK, have issued statements of solidarity with Tahrir Square protesters. At a general assembly, Occupy Wall Street voted to send 20 election observers to Egypt at a cost of $29,000 (£18,000).
The arrest of the three students was announced as Egyptians began flowing to Tahrir Square for a fourth day of protests, despite a crackdown by police in which at least 29 people have been killed.
Activists hope to increase the number of protesters in the square, which was the centre of the revolt that ousted Hosni Mubarak in mid-February.
The violence continued, with security forces – backed by military troops – firing volleys of teargas and rubber bullets to block protesters, who responded by hurling stones and firebombs. The two sides have been engaged in intense clashes since the unrest began on Saturday.
State TV reported that three people were killed in the Suez canal city of Ismailia, east of Cairo, overnight.
Hundreds of protesters arrived early on Tuesday to join several thousand who have been camping on Tahrir Square. The crowds hoisted a giant Egyptian flag and chanted slogans demanding that the generals immediately step down in favour of a civilian presidential council.
One man held a sign reading "Ministry of Thuggery" with photos of Mubarak, Hussein Tantawi, the senior military ruler, the prime minister, Essam Sharaf and others.
A few hundred young men nearby chanted "Say it, don't fear, the council must go" and "The people want to execute the field marshal."
On Monday, the civilian cabinet of Sharaf submitted its resignation to the military council, a move that had been widely expected given the government's perceived inefficiency and its almost complete subordination to the generals.
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Undertaker Abdul Hakim has a unique role in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban and their fugitive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
He is the only man trusted by the militants to retrieve their dead fighters killed in battle with Nato and Afghan forces. He also returns the bodies of soldiers killed in Taliban-held territory.
Over the past six years, he has ferried scores and scores of corpses between the government and the militants as the war has worsened. And he has buried many others that went unclaimed.
Mr Hakim, with his long white beard, white turban and baggy shalwar kameez, knows what the waiting and grief is like for relatives of the dead - he too has experienced the despair of waiting to get bodies of loved ones back.
In total so far, I have retrieved 250 bodies Abdul Hakim
His two sons and a son-in-law were killed by Taliban insurgents and Mr Hakim had to wait 14 long, painful days to get their bodies.
Now he is first to hear from Taliban commanders looking for their dead.
Taxi hearse
To help him in his task, the Taliban have given him a letter allowing him to travel between government-controlled areas and Taliban-held territory.
After Mr Hakim gets a call from the Taliban, he visits the provincial morgue - if a dead Taliban fighter is there, he puts the body in a yellow taxi wagon and takes it to the insurgents.
Image caption With Mr Hakim's help, this man found his relative's grave, 18 months after his death
Mr Hakim, 65, says the local Taliban first asked him nearly six years ago to help retrieve the body of one of their comrades.
He showed the district authorities his volunteer member card for the Afghan Red Crescent - the local counterpart to the ICRC - and then he was given the body.
Soon after, local authorities in Kandahar's Zheray district asked him to retrieve the bodies of five pro-government forces who had been killed on the battle field. The Taliban let him do so.
After that, he became trusted by both sides.
"In total so far I have retrieved 250 bodies - 127 were Taliban, 28 civilians and the rest were on the government side," says Mr Hakim, who is also known as Malik Kako. Malik is the name traditionally given to an elder who has a great deal of autonomy in a village or district.
Image caption Mr Hakim tends to each grave with care
Mr Hakim says he is trusted by both sides, has letters from both and thus he can travel easily.
Both Nato-led troops and Afghan forces bring dead Taliban fighters to Mirwais public hospital in Kandahar. The bodies are kept in the morgue's refrigerator for up to two months.
"If no-one claims a body, then I bury it in a cemetery in Zheray district," says Mr Hakim.
But what if relatives of dead Taliban contact him months later?
Mr Hakim has a solution. He uses his mobile phone camera to take photos of the dead bodies before he buries them.
He says he is looking to record things like eye and hair colour, clothes, watches, rings. Scars or other distinctive marks on the face or body can also help relatives identify a body later on.
"If someone is looking for a missing person or a dead body, they contact me, I show them the photos I take on my mobile phone and compare it with the photo they have. If they match, then I take them right to the grave where they are buried," he says.
The ICRC now keeps a file for every dead body that goes unclaimed and employs a photographer to take photos of some of the bodies, he says.
On two occasions, photos he has taken have matched those held by families looking for a missing relative.
Abdul Hakim says he has buried nearly 35 Taliban who were killed in Kandahar city and had no families.
Mohammad Aslam, the man in charge of Mirwais hospital morgue, says only the Afghan police know which of the bodies at the morgue belong to the Taliban and which are civilians.
"The police tell us which bodies belong to Taliban. We don't know. We keep them in the refrigerator. If anyone brings a letter from the police headquarters, we hand over the body, be it a family member with a letter or anyone else," Mr Aslam said.
Image caption Mr Hakim's photos helped these men find their dead relative near Arghandab district on Sunday
Dead Taliban are kept in the same morgue as the bodies of Afghan forces or civilians killed by the Taliban. But the difference is in discharging the body from the hospital.
A family member of a civilian or a policeman or soldier has to sign before they are given the body, but for a Taliban body it is Abdul Hakim who signs.
He claims he was even once called by a district chief to help recover the bodies of three American soldiers from a Taliban-controlled area.
"I contacted the Taliban, they agreed and I went with them to a heavily mined area and collected the three American bodies, handed them over to the district chief and he later transferred the bodies to the foreign forces," he says.
Pain of waiting
Mr Hakim's own tale is tragic.
His two sons and a son in-law were driving a water tanker en route to Shawali Kot district when they were attacked by Taliban and killed.
He says he knows the pain of waiting and that is why he helps people to get to see the bodies of their loves who have died.
Mr Hakim says once he had to retrieve 14 Taliban bodies in a single day.
He says every dead body deserves a respectful burial. It is a religious duty of everybody to help families find their loved ones, dead or alive.
Afghanistan has experienced 35 years of war and conflict.
The country has many similar untold stories, stories that no one has written, no one has told, no one has heard.
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On the morning of September 11, 2001, photographer Lyle Owerko remembers being jetlagged and unable to sleep in his Tribeca apartment when he heard a sound that defied description. That sound was the impact of an American Airlines jet hitting the World Trade Center's north tower. Conjuring a scene from the film King Kong where the monster is terrorizing New York, Owerko recalls, “It sounded like a gorilla threw a city bus at a building. There is no way I can describe what it sounded like.”
Owerko’s camera bag with all of his gear was still packed and ready to go beside his door as he ran out of his apartment to investigate. On the way out, his building's superintendent told him that he saw a plane hit the tower. He ran down Broadway and then crossed over on Chambers Street and immediately started taking photos.
“Things were still normal at the moment,” he says. “I remember people chuckling at me and saying ‘where’s the fire buddy?’ as I ran with two cameras and a bag strapped around me.”
In a time right before most photographers switched to digital cameras, Owerko was equipped with a 35mm and a medium format Fuji 645zi film cameras. “There was kind of a beauty to working back then,” he says. “You were preconceiving your shots. And being judicious about what you shot and even being conservative.” Owerko quickly strategized his photos and carefully moved around the streets to find the best perspective. “There was a lull for a few minutes,” he remembers. “The reason I went to Vesey and Church streets was that it put the sun at my back and I was able to compose a story of the two towers – one that was obfuscated and one with no marring on it and at that point I thought: 'There’s your cover.' The one tower that’s smoking and the one that’s stoic and defiant.”
At that moment, people started screaming. "Someone said there’s people jumping and that’s when the temperature really changed and the crowd began reacting in horror," Owerko remembers. "Because [I had been to] Tanzania I had a 400mm lens in my bag and I switched my 35 and I started photographing these people in the last moments of their lives.”
Unknowingly the second plane began to approach the towers. “I heard the sound of this jet,” he says, “and I thought it was air traffic being redirected. I saw it off in the distance. The plane did this little shoulder shrug where it dipped its wing and when I saw it arc, then I knew its intention. It was a very predatory move and having just spent a month in Africa it was like watching a cheetah going into stalk mode."
In that horrific moment, Owerko shot two frames with his Fuji 645zi medium format camera in hand. “I waited until it hit,” he says, “and when it hit I had no idea, but I thought something would occur. And when it hit, again it made this incredible beyond movie theatre sound. And then nothing happened for a second until this fireball of heat and debris erupted out of the backside of the building and that’s when I caught the cover shot.”
Three consecutive frames of the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11 shot by photographer Lyle Owerko. Lyle Owerko
A split second later, he was composing the second shot. "And then the debris started raining down on us," he says. "I put my hands over my head as airplane parts and building parts started scattering around the police officers, the bystanders, and me. There were screams and an eruption of people’s voices in shock."
Now, Owerko can still conjure up that moment. "It's like every synapse in my body was firing," he says. "It was all beyond belief. It was like standing in the middle of a three dimensional Hollywood film.”
Convinced that he had the shot, Owerko started walking up Broadway toward a nearby lab. "That's when the first building fell," he says. “I started seeing these gusts of debris coming through the side canyons and I started taking shots of people running up Broadway.”
Once the lab processed his images, Owerko remembers the owner telling him: "You have the cover of TIME magazine.” And he did.
By early afternoon, his pictures were on the desk of the director of photography at TIME, MaryAnne Golon. "The minute I saw it," Golon recalls, "I walked to Jim Kelly's office with it and said ‘here's our cover’."
Two days later, Owerko went to his local newsstand. “When I first saw it on the cover I wasn’t sure if it was mine," he says. "It was so surreal because it was a weirdly intimate photo of my own experience, and I opened the cover and checked the byline and it was my image.”
Today, Owerko feels the photo is not his anymore. "It’s the world's photo," he says. "It belongs to history.”
Lyle Owerko is a photojournalist and commercial photographer based in San Francisco. You can see more of his images from 9/11 in the book The Day That No Bird Sang .
Follow TIME LightBox on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .
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Cheick Diallo is hinting that he is mighty close to announcing his college choice.
Diallo, a 6-foot-9 senior forward from Our Savior New American High in Centereach, New York, on Monday night released a statement on Twitter that had the recruiting world buzzing.
“It’s been a long 3 years. Just wanted to thank all the coaches who recruited me and stopped by my school … appreciate all the fans who followed my journey. All my teammates, my coaches, teachers who’s made me a better thanks and Love y’all,” he wrote in characters that filled not one, but two tweets.
The country’s No. 5-rated player (by Rivals.com) also attached a picture of himself with the logos of finalists KU, Iowa State, Kentucky, Pitt and St. John’s behind him.
It had many speculating that a Tweet announcing the winner for his services was imminent, but that tweet hadn’t appeared by late Monday night.
The only additional “news” revealed by Diallo’s Twitter account was the fact he “followed” KU’s Perry Ellis on the website an hour or so after his recruiting Tweets were posted.
White’s brother a prospect: Andrien White, the brother of former KU/current Nebraska guard Andrew White III is considering several mid-major schools.
White, a 6-3 senior point guard from Quality Education Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who received an offer from Hofstra on Monday, also is considering Charlotte, Western Kentucky, Stetson, Longwood, Austin Peay and others.
Juco player: A KU assistant coach Monday reportedly visited Tyrone Outlaw, a 6-6 sophomore guard from Lee College in Baytown, Texas.
Outlaw, who visited Virginia Tech last weekend, averaged 23.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game at Lee while hitting 55 percent of his shots and a sizzling 50.7 percent from three.
He’s also receiving interest from Arkansas, Oklahoma State, West Virginia, Oregon, South Florida, Missouri and others, according to jucorecruiting.com.
“He is a 6-6 wing who does an excellent job of mixing things up on the offensive end. His combination of size and shooting ability makes him extremely attractive to high-major programs, especially this late in the year,” writes Brad Winton of jucorecruiting.com.
TV show: ESPNU will air its annual signing-day special at 5 p.m. Central time today. There has been no word if any top players will commit or be interviewed on the show.
New name: KU coaches are expected to today visit Ebuka Izundu, a 6-10 senior forward from Victory Christian High in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Charlotte Observer reports. He has been granted a release from his Charlotte scholarship and reportedly also has heard from Kentucky, Tennessee, UConn, Miami and Cincinnati.
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Sherri Shepherd Ex-Hubby Wants Bigger Piece of Her Money Pie
Sherri Shepherd's Ex-Husband Wants More Dough
EXCLUSIVE
Sherri Shepherd's ex-husband and baby daddy says the comedian is making a lot more cash, and he's asking for a bigger chunk of that change for child support payments.
Lamar Sally -- who has a 2-year-old son with Shepherd -- just filed docs in L.A. saying Sherri's $4,100 a month just ain't cuttin' it. Sally says when their deal was first made, it was under the belief Sherri raked in just over $1 mil a year ... but now he says he believes her income's closer to $3 mil.
Lamar claims their son has a medical condition that requires plenty of expensive medical treatment. He claims Sherri's acting gigs, stand-up career and 3% profit grab in a wig company are her main money makers.
Sally's also asking for $75k to cover legal expenses from their nasty divorce.
You'll remember -- the two went back and forth for over a year regarding the surrogate child -- with Sherri asking to be broken of all ties to the kid.
Looks like that battle still ain't over yet.
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B/R
PITTSBURGH — If you're a Steelers fan, maybe you groaned and grumbled and threw your Terrible Towel across the room when Le'Veon Bell turned his contract offer down.
No penny-pinching season ticket holder wants to hear about a player, their player, saying "no" to a deal that would have made him the highest-paid at his position in the NFL.
But this was different. This time, you armchair quarterbacks with the salsa stains on your jerseys weren't alone. Contemporaries were also scratching their heads. LeSean McCoy told B/R in August that, sure, Bell wants to change the market, but "that would've changed the market."
McCoy would've signed that deal.
Sitting at his locker shortly after a herd of cameras has moved on, Bell is told just that. He looks ahead without blinking.
"I feel like it was a good number," the Steelers running back says. "It just wasn't my number."
Let Bell explain.
"I feel like there's more to football than fun," he says. "Don't get me wrong: I want to have fun. I enjoy it. I love it. At the same time, I want the value that I feel I should be valued at. Somewhere close. We didn't meet where I expected, so it didn't work out."
That's why Bell sat out all of training camp and the preseason before begrudgingly signing a franchise tender worth $12.1 million for one year.
Make no mistake: Le'Veon Bell still wants to spark a revolution.
Last January, Bell announced to the world that he is the Steph Curry of the NFL. Exactly how Curry's deep threes forever changed basketball to its core—from youth leagues to JV to varsity to the NCAA to the NBA—Bell believed his (borderline-nauseating) patience would forever change the running back position.
Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Either way, taking a five-year deal worth $12 million annually would have made him a revolutionary figure in the way running backs are paid.
Or underpaid, more accurately.
The average salary for an NFL running back is around $1.5 million, good for 18th of 20 positions as Spotrac divides them. Only fullbacks, those dinosaurs plodding in front of them, and long snappers make less. Kickers and punters average more dough. And whereas five running backs average $7 million per season, 19 left tackles, 25 cornerbacks and 14 tight ends make that much.
Fresh off a season with 1,884 total yards and nine touchdowns in 12 games, Bell may be the top-paid back in the league, but his annual salary ranks 54th among all players. McCoy is second among running backs and 116th overall.
Top-Paid RBs Player Cap hit Rank among RBs Rank in NFL Le'Veon Bell $12.12 million 1 54 LeSean McCoy $8.88 million 2 116 DeMarco Murray $6.95 million 3 185 Lamar Miller $6.50 million 4 205 Jonathan Stewart $6.18 million 5 222 Spotrac.com
So Bell sat out, fired off cryptic tweets, refused to budge. It's his mission to take a sledgehammer to this market.
And he'll do so the only way he knows how.
With that trademark patience.
"I know the things that I can do, versus other backs, and versus other players," Bell says. "When you're playing the game of football, there are certain things you can coach and certain things you can't really coach. You just have to kind of know it. There's a lot of tools that I have that weren't coached—I just know it.
"That's what separates me. … I'm different because there are things that I do that can't be coached."
Through three games, there were only flickers of such uncoachable greatness. On one 2nd-and-8 against Minnesota, Bell was met by Brian Robison three yards deep, planted north, hurdled a diving Linval Joseph and then toted 273-pound Everson Griffen on his back for a nine-yard gain. Offensive guard Ramon Foster helped him up, and Bell, with next-to-no emotion at all, signaled first down.
The next game, he was stuffed at the goal line and somehow plowed through a wall of Bears defenders for his first touchdown of the season.
Still, Le'Veon clearly was not Le'Veon. He was more Antoine Walker behind the arc than Steph Curry, averaging 3.5 yards per carry. Rust was expected and rust is obvious, but losing to the lowly Bears is not revolutionary.
While you may have seen a spinning wheel buffering above Bell's name on your fantasy lineup, Bell never did. Leading up to this second lethargic performance, he locked eyes and assured he can still perform the way he did last January.
Then sure enough, this past Sunday he bashed through the rival Ravens 39 times for 186 total yards and two scores.
He's back.
He never expected the recalibration with his offensive line to take too long.
That patience? "You can't coach that." Nobody else can do what he does.
Just ask him.
"People go out there and try to duplicate it and be patient, but they don't actually know what I'm doing or why I'm being patient," Bell says. "I can't even explain what I'm doing, because every run is like a snowflake. They're all different.
"We could call the same exact run versus the same exact defense, and the run will look different. That's just the way it's going to happen. Every run is a snowflake, and I don't think I can coach somebody how I run."
Granted, coming to a complete stop behind the line of scrimmage initially infuriated his offensive linemen.
Facing his locker, Foster thinks back to when he first blocked for Bell and rolls his eyes.
"In the beginning," Foster says, "it kind of pissed you off. I don't want to say, well, yeah, it did. Like, 'Dude, just hit the f--king hole!' … You get to the point where you say, 'So and so should have this run. This is a run for him.'"
Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
Yet after 1,000-plus carries, including the postseason, the Steelers linemen grew to realize Bell's style infuriated defenders much, much more than it did them. Foster points to one of Bell's runs against the Jets last season in which an overzealous Darron Lee shot frontside only for Bell to cut backside.
He saw Lee's face. The linebacker was visibly demoralized.
"He'll set us up to where we know if we hold and hold and hold our block, the 'backer will shoot right side and Le'Veon will cut backwards," Foster says. "We end up pinning 'em, and here he is for a 15-yard run. … He saves us more than anything. So as much as we may complain about it, it's one of those things where he's a mad scientist.
"I think I heard a story of Todd Gurley trying to do it one day in a game, and he got his ass blasted and it was like, 'No, that ain't for you.'"
The reason it seems these linemen have eyes on the backs of their heads is because they've learned how to read the eyes of linebackers. They can tell precisely when Bell is waiting and when he'll accelerate off their body language. The result? Poetry in motion last postseason. A 167-yard masterpiece against the Dolphins. A 170-yard mashing of the Chiefs.
Foster calls Bell "a joystick," a talent on par with Antonio Brown who can "win you games by himself," and "if you have a 2nd-and-6, he'll get you frickin' 35 yards. That's huge."
Across the locker room, Joe Haden remembers that other perspective. The longtime Brown admits Bell has juked him silly before and, no, he doesn't see anyone else even attempting to run the ball the way he does. What we're seeing right now, he believes, is something special. This is David Johnson. LeSean McCoy. Adrian Peterson in his prime.
"Those dudes are special," Haden says. "You just can't give them the ball and think someone else can do what they're doing."
With respect to Shady and AP, two potential Hall of Famers, Bell plans on leaving a more profound legacy. He plans on inherently changing the game. Star players so often freak into damage control after making the proclamation he did last winter—Bell's candor is refreshing.
Bell doesn't retreat, no, he doubles down. Months later, he repeats he's "definitely" having a Curry-like effect on his sport.
Steph is different, and so is he.
Steph "lives and dies" by the three, and Bell will live and die with his patience.
"Because it's something I can always adjust," Bell says. "If they're being patient to me, I can be even more patient. I've got the ball in my hands. I'm controlling the tempo. So I always feel like as patient as you think you are, I'm always going to be able to control the tempo."
Yet therein lies the problem. The tempo most teams seek is fast—is putting the ball in the air all game. Even Haden douses his praise of Bell with this cold reality.
Early on, coaches taught Haden to clutch receivers' jerseys out of their breaks. Grab low. Grab cloth. Now, there's no getting away with contact at all. Corners can only mirror receivers as, each year, officials clamp down more and more on defensive contact. So if it's harder than ever to cover receivers, why wouldn't NFL front offices pour more money into quarterbacks and receivers?
In 2010, nine quarterbacks attempted 500 passes. In 2016? Twenty.
In 2010, six backs averaged 20 carries per game. In 2016? Two.
Bell knows the numbers, but he also sees a different big picture.
At his locker, he dives into a passionate testimony.
"I want to be a guy who sets the market for running backs," Bell begins. "I feel like running backs don't get the value we deserve."
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Because one of the two teams with the 20-carry back was Dallas, which went 13-3. Because the other was Pittsburgh, which made the conference title game. Because Atlanta, with the league's fifth-best rushing attack, was a centimeter away from rings and immortality. All three valued the run; all three were rewarded.
Bell's voice gets louder, and louder, explaining that running the ball keeps your defense fresh and limits possessions. You're in control when you choose to win five…six…eight…17 yards at a time. Bell absolutely knows why the Falcons blew that 28-3 lead, too.
Their MVP quarterback, inexplicably, dropped back to pass when he shouldn't have.
Their defense, after 93 plays, was rendered a collection of 11 zombies.
Their lead, shockingly, disappeared.
"If they just run the game out, they can just run the time out," Bell says. "If you have a good running game, the time's gone! Tom Brady doesn't have the possessions to come back."
So, yes, Bell believes Pittsburgh would have beaten the Patriots in the AFC Championship if he didn't leave with a groin injury.
"I definitely think so," he says. "I bring another dimension to the game. Ben [Roethlisberger] would have another weapon, another guy he can just hand the ball off to. We got AB going downfield last year. I'm underneath. It's hard going up against that, against the guys in this locker room. We have a lot of playmakers and a great offensive line. So if I'm playing and part of the game, it'd make it that much more and we'd come out with the W."
The goal is to get that shot again.
To face the Patriots—or whomever—with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.
And if he plays, runs wild and pisses off defenders? Maybe then Le'Veon Bell gets that magic number he seeks and nobody views the running back position the same ever again.
Tyler Dunne covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @TyDunne.
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You’ve heard that a recent Supreme Court decision said that corporations can give unlimited funds to politicians.
But did you realize that it said that corporations can give unlimited money to judges?
As William K. Black – professor of economics and law, and the senior regulator during the S & L crisis – pointed out last week:
The fact that corporations are “investing” so heavily in getting pro-business judges elected demonstrates that their CEOs believe that the election of friendly judges will increase their incomes and decrease the risk that they will ever be sanctioned. It’s a business decision – not a decision based on which judicial candidate would be more qualified or better serve justice. CEOs want to win cases when doing so would be unjust and contrary to the law, which is why they hire top attorneys and make the contributions necessary to elect judges they believe will be allies. The empirical evidence in Texas shows that judicial elections and contributions produces perverse dynamics. One study showed that hiring the former law firm of a Texas Supreme Court justice markedly increased the chances that the Texas Supreme Court would exercise its discretion and hear your appeal from an adverse decision. Hiring the former law firm of the Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court produced an even greater chance of having one’s appeal heard.
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision allows businesses to make unlimited political contributions to judges and politicians. When judges are elected, the need for these contributions inherently turns judges into politicians. Sympathetic judges are corrupt businesses’ most valuable allies. Corporations and their senior officials can commit civil or criminal wrongs with impunity if their case is assigned to a friendly judge. The Robber Barons often had judges on their payrolls. Judges can serve a corporation as both a shield and a sword. They can declare statutes and regulations unlawful. They can issue favorable decisions when corporations sue their critics, which can intimidate, tie up, or even bankrupt the critics.
As Yves Smith noted recently:
A Mother Jones article, “Permission to Encroach the Bench,” (hat tip reader Francois T) discusses how already big ticket battles over state supreme court seats are likely to rocket to a new level of priciness:
For a down-ballot category that even well-intentioned voters pay little attention to, judicial races are astonishingly expensive. In 2004, $9.3 million was spent in the race for a single seat (pdf) on the Illinois Supreme Court. That’s higher than the price tag of more than half the US Senate races in the nation that year. In 2006, three candidates for chief justice in Alabama raised $8.2 million combined. But those sums could look paltry compared to the spending likely to be unleashed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. In all, 39 states elect judges—and with the stakes including everything from major class actions to zoning and contract cases to consumer protection, workplace, and environmental issues, corporations have always taken a major interest in those races. The US Chamber of Commerce, Forbes reported in 2003, has devoted at least $100 million to electing judges sympathetic to its agenda. “No organization has had more success in the past 10 years of judicial elections,” says James Sample, a professor at Hofstra University who studies judicial reform issues. “Its winning percentage would be the envy of any sports franchise.” Citizens United has essentially wiped out not just federal restrictions on campaign spending, but many state-level regulations as well, Sample notes, and that’s “going to increase the ability of corporations, and to a much lesser extent unions, to engage in electioneering that is basically aimed at winning particular cases.” And given the low profile of these races, it may not take that much to sway that outcome, notes Bert Brandenburg, executive director of the advocacy group Justice at Stake. “A judicial election is a better investment for anyone spending money” than, say, a congressional campaign.
Note the reference to Alabama, a state I know a wee bit about, and my local sources say the Mother Jones figures are greatly understated, and attorneys in the state who’ve turned over a few rocks put the price tag for a state supreme court seat at $12 million. I’ve had a quick look at a Supreme Court justice’s house. It is in an implausibly costly district for his income (and no, there’s no heiress wife to explain the discrepancy).
Why is Alabama such a valuable state to control? It used to be a favorite venue for class action lawyers, since juries often handed out multi-million-dollar awards. Getting business-friendly jurists in place at the highest court has meant that any verdict, no matter how egregious and damaging the violations, is cut to $1 million.
And the degree of banana republic behavior is reaching new levels. Consider: a once prominent corporate firm has been reduced to becoming primarily a foreclosure mill. However, because longevity counts in the South, and many of the firm’s senior partners still dine with judges, it has clout well in excess of its fallen standing.
On a case which is now being tried, this fading firm (we’ll call it Billem) has managed to get the case (which is being heard only by a judge) moved from the court before a decision has been rendered to a sympathetic appeal court judge. In addition, Billem is appending four other cases which that have already been decided and are past the time frame for appeal (in Alabama, you have 43 days in which to file an appeal). The rationale is that these cases present similar issues, but that still has the effect of reopening cases which under existing law are settled. For lay reader, if you miss the deadline for appeal, you can’t appeal…..except in when the right people in Alabama want it to occur.
So this isn’t merely having judges who will provide the opinions big business wants. We now have a court running roughshod over basic elements of procedure. The last bastion of defense of the individual is being gutted, to the point where even the forms of the law will be ignored if that’s what it takes to produce the outcome the big money interests need.
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People with similar skills and similar levels of education make a lot more money in New York and San Francisco than they do in St. Louis or Cleveland. You might expect these differences to even out over time, as workers relocate from low-income areas to high-income areas to take advantages of the opportunities there.
High housing costs make it hard for companies in high-cost areas to attract workers
But that hasn't been happening. Over the last half-century, income differences between metropolitan areas have actually been increasing. One study estimated that this effect is costing the country hundreds of billions of dollars in lost income every year.
It's not hard to figure out why people aren't moving. While the wage difference between St. Louis and San Francisco is large, the difference in housing costs is even bigger. A programmer in St. Louis might get a big raise by moving to San Francisco to take a job at a technology company there, but he might still be left worse off thanks to the much higher rents there. High housing costs make it hard for companies in high-cost areas to attract workers, stunting the growth of some of America's most dynamic industries.
Why lower housing costs could add billions to the economy
How much does this cost the economy? In a study released as a discussion draft last year, economists Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti tried to figure that out. They imagine a world where the housing markets in America's most productive cities became more elastic, meaning that increasing demand led to more construction rather than higher rents.
If housing wasn't so expensive in coastal cities, a lot more people would move to New York, Washington, Boston, Seattle, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The data suggests that — even after controlling for factors such as education — workers in these cities are more productive than in other metropolitan areas. The study doesn't try to explain these productivity differences, but possible explanations include better infrastructure, opportunities to learn new skills, and a culture that encourages entrepreneurship.
Hsieh and Moretti estimate that moving American workers to higher-productivity cities could increase the income of Americans by a stunning amount: more than $1 trillion. That amounts to a raise of several thousand dollars for every American worker.
America's biggest cities could get even bigger
That's a huge number, and unfortunately, achieving it would require drastic — and totally implausible — changes in where we work and live. Hsieh and Moretti envision the New York metropolitan area becoming 9 times its current size, meaning that more than half the country would live there. The Austin metropolitan area would quadruple in size, as would the San Francisco Bay Area. Half the cities in America would lose 80 percent or more of their population. The population of Flint, MI, would shrink from 102,000 people to fewer than 2000.
Housing restrictions cost the American economy tens of billions of dollars per year
Obviously, this won't — and shouldn't — happen. But the huge potential gains from this admittedly implausible thought experiment is a helpful reminder that less dramatic population changes could still produce significant economic gains. New York isn't going to get nine times bigger overnight, but it could double in size over the next generation. The Tokyo metropolitan area today has almost twice the population of the New York metropolitan area on a lot less land. Adding millions of people to the New York metro area would add tens of billions of dollars to the output of the US economy.
The same is true in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Boston region. Strict regulations limit the supply of housing in these areas, limiting the growth of some of America's most dynamic companies.
Hsieh and Moretti's analysis suggests that housing restrictions — and the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) activists who lobby for them — are costing the American economy tens — perhaps hundreds — of billions of dollars per year. If we want to ensure the American economy grows robustly in the coming decades, a high priority should be figuring out ways to allow more people to live in America's most productive metropolitan areas.
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WRU chief Roger Lewis and chairman David Pickering
The Welsh Rugby Union has written to all of its 320 member clubs to outline its position in the row with its four professional regions.
The regions refused to renew the WRU's existing participation agreement on New Year's Day.
The letter states it is designed to "answer and respond" to "the arguments posed" by the "current impasse".
The WRU and the regions are in dispute over funding, the exodus of Welsh players and an Anglo-Welsh league.
The letter is signed by the WRU's group chief executive Roger Lewis, chairman David Pickering and president Dennis Gethin.
The WRU has revealed it intends to present a new agreement to the regions and has already provided a timetable to discuss the deal.
The letter underlines the governing body's stance on a range of issues in the row and why it will not sanction an Anglo-Welsh league.
It also claims the new deal intends to ensure "Welsh player development and the retention of Welsh players is properly recognised".
Media playback is not supported on this device The Scrum V debate: The future of Wales' rugby regions
The letter confirms that the regions - Scarlets, Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and Newport Gwent Dragons - intend to break away from the WRU after 30 June, 2014 if no agreement is reached.
The three-page letter makes 50 bullet points to outline the current state of play between the two sides.
It says the WRU "will not agree to any Welsh club or regional organisation playing in competitions which have not been agreed by the International Rugby Board" and adds that "an Anglo-Welsh league or a non-sanctioned European tournament are not viable in the best interests of Welsh rugby or the games across Europe".
The Union also reiterates it is contracted to the Heineken Cup and the Pro12 and will not "countenance leaving Scotland, Ireland and Italy isolated from meaningful tournaments".
"Apart from the moral imperative such a move would inevitably lead to a spiral of decline for their national teams and consequently the demise of the Six Nations into a meaningless and unattractive sporting competition," it added.
The letter does acknowledge the attraction of an Anglo-Welsh league but says it is not realistic because of current contractual agreements.
It also addresses the financial deal at the heart of the participation agreement and claims the deal rejected by the regions would have seen them get £7.6m directly from the WRU in 2019.
But the WRU does admit Wales will never be able to compete with the "powerful commercial income streams" in England or France.
It says: "The growing salary levels for players in France and England cannot be matched by the constant distribution of cash from within WRU resources.
"Instead we have to encourage our regions to grow their own businesses by improving their structures and commercial synergies to build support and stability."
The letter confirms that the issues of central contracts was discussed with the regions in August 2012 and that in 2013 the governing body offered £1m to sign "six marquee players" nominated by the regions but that they did not respond to the offer.
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ONCE AGAIN, the practice of grazing on public lands is defended by the need to protect the livelihood of ranchers, most especially those whose families have been wreaking havoc on public lands for “five, going on six, generations.” The Journal article, “Of Mice and Men,” July 8, questions the value of protecting an endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse because the decades-old practice of public lands ranching may be affected. The article fails to address the well-documented negative impacts of public lands grazing in the West, and only grudgingly acknowledges that one little mouse species is in fact an indicator that our practices have had lasting, devastating consequences.
The justification that public lands grazing should continue – and continue with no changes despite the environmental impacts – to preserve traditional lifestyles is an idea whose time has passed.
We, as a society, feel no parallel need to protect other jobs that are no longer relevant or needed. We no longer support telephone operators or gas station attendants. Let’s drop the “cowboy mystique” and present a thoughtful, honest look at the cost of public lands grazing.
M.J. DAVIS
Albuquerque
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Even so, it is clear that the United States sees Sayada as a test of the concept before it is deployed in more contested zones. The United States Agency for International Development “awarded a three-year grant to the New America Foundation to make this platform available for adoption in Cuba,” said Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the agency, which recently stirred controversy by financing a Twitter-like social media site in Cuba. As for the mesh project, Mr. Herrick said, “We are reviewing the program, and it is not operational in Cuba at this time. No one has traveled to Cuba for this grant.”
Radio Free Asia, a United States government-financed nonprofit, has given $1 million to explore multiple overseas deployments. The countries involved have not been revealed, Mr. Meinrath said, adding, “I can’t talk about specific locations because lives could be at risk.”
The citizens of Sayada — population 14,000 — are more focused on using the mesh for local governance and community building than beating surveillance since President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in 2011, said Nizar Kerkeni, 39, a resident and professor of computer science at the nearby University of Monastir.
The mesh network blankets areas of town including the main street, the weekly market, the town hall and the train station, and users have access to a local server containing Wikipedia in French and Arabic, town street maps, 2,500 free books in French, and an app for secure chatting and file sharing.
The mesh is not linked to the wider Internet, Professor Kerkeni says — a point in his favor when he invites families to connect in this Muslim community. “Some parents ask me if it is safe to connect to the server,” he said. “They don’t allow their little children to connect to the Internet. I say, ‘I know it’s safe.’ ”
The mesh software, called Commotion, is a major redesign of systems that have been run for years by experts across Europe, said Mr. Meinrath, who is now director of the New America Foundation’s X-Lab. The idea, he said, was to take the technology out of what he calls “the geekosphere” and make it accessible to the public. (Commotion is available to download free from the project’s website.)
The open Internet is difficult to operate securely, in part because it acts as both a routing system for data and a sort of giant electronic phone book. The simplest action — say, calling up a website or sending an email — involves communicating with multiple servers and routers along numerous paths.
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Amidst the calls for Trump staffers to be harassed at restaurants, gas stations and department stores, we thought it a good time to look back at what Mark has said about the left's preference not for winning the debate but for shutting down the debate - by any means necessary. This was taped last year - just hours before the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others at a GOP team practice for the Congressional baseball game. Click below (or here) to watch: If you haven't yet experienced the delights of The Mark Steyn Club, you'll find more information here. And, don't forget to book now for the inaugural Mark Steyn Club Cruise from Montreal to Boston this September at the height of foliage season. We will have a grand time.
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Palestine given UNESCO membership
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Palestinians allowed into UN cultural body (ABC News)
The United Nations' top cultural body UNESCO has voted to grant full membership to the Palestinians.
The move could boost the chances of recognition for a Palestinian state at the wider UN and will give Palestinians the right to nominate ancient cultural sites for inclusion on the world heritage register.
But the vote in Paris has angered Israel and the United States and both countries consider the peace process is now more in danger than ever.
The motion, which specifically used the name 'Palestine', was passed by a substantial majority.
The vote was greeted with loud cheers of "Long Live Palestine", as nearly two thirds of UNESCO nations defied warnings from Israel and the US to vote in support of Palestinian membership.
Fourteen members voted against the bid - among them Australia, the US and Canada - and 107 voted in favour.
More than 40 countries abstained, including Britain and Japan.
The vote will give Palestinians the right to nominate archaeological sites for the World Heritage register - among them the Dead Sea, Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, where Jesus was supposedly born, ancient biblical sites near Hebron and Jerusalem, the ancient sea port in Gaza, and archaeological sites near Jericho and Nablus.
"The full membership will open doors for us", said Palestinian tourism minister Khouloud Daibes.
"Especially to face the deliberate destruction of the cultural heritage by the occupation, and start to preserve the Palestinian sites which are eligible to be on the world heritage list."
Palestinian leaders, including spokesman Ghassan Khattib, are now hoping the UNESCO vote will boost the bid for full membership at the UN itself.
"I think the success of the Palestinians to achieve membership in the UNESCO is important in terms of the Palestinian attempts to get recognition of Palestine as a state," he said.
"It's part of the build up in the Palestinian efforts towards achieving international recognition."
But the US has vowed to veto the bid for full UN membership and has announced it will stop financial contributions to UNESCO.
"We were to have made a $US60 million payment to UNESCO in November and we will not be making that payment," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
The US funding makes up 22 per cent of UNESCO's budget.
Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan, says the UNESCO vote will severely damage the prospects of Middle East peace negotiations resuming.
"We regret that the organisation of science has opted to adopt a resolution which is a resolution of science fiction," he said.
"Unfortunately, there is no Palestinian state and therefore one should not have been admitted today."
ABC/wires
Topics: world-politics, history, archaeology, palestinian-territory-occupied, france
First posted
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A scion of the Mellon banking dynasty has been appointed chairman of a new trade association for Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Matthew Taylor Mellon II, a sixth-gen of the family behind the predecessor bank to BNY Mellon, is the founder of two digital currency companies, Coin.co, which processes payments, and Coin Apex, an incubator for start ups in the industry.
Now, the New York-based heir, who is also a consultant to family offices, has been become executive chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce – an appointment that was announced this week.
Launched in July, the industry association aims to educate the public and policymakers about digital currencies. It will launch its first major public policy campaign in January.
The digital currency industry has an estimated value of $8 billion, and this is expected to grow to $1 trillion in the next six years, the Digital Chamber says. “Digital assets will soon be as important as email, web browsing, and e-commerce,” it said in a press release, at its launch.
However, digital currencies are currently viewed with a mixture of uncertainty and scepticism by policymakers.
Last year, US Treasury said congress and regulators continued their efforts to determine the legality, legitimacy, and regulatory framework for virtual currencies.
A report released by the European Central Bank in 2012 stated: “A virtual currency can be defined as a type of unregulated, digital money, which is issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community.”
Founded in 2009, Bitcoin is one of the most well known digital currencies, but its price has fluctuated significantly, reaching upwards of $1000 earlier this year, but worth almost a third of that today.
Earlier this year, Bitcoin Investment Trust chief executive Barry Silbert told CampdenFB that family offices accounted for a large number of the fund’s investors.
Silbert said family offices tended to come at Bitcoin from opposite ends of the risk-return spectrum – viewing the alternative asset either as either a substitute for gold, or as the equivalent of a high tech start up.
Outside Bitcoin, Mellon’s holdings include online art auction service Paddle 8, in which artist Damien Hirst and fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg also have a stake, and clothing line Hanley Mellon, which he started with his wife Nicole Hanley Mellon.
He is the former chairman of the New York Republican Party’s finance committee.
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Severe restrictions do not prevent abortion. They do not protect anyone. Instead they place women’s lives at risk. And it’s high time we put an end to that.
Last week, the activist group Centro Las Libres drew attention to six women serving 25 to 30 year prison sentences in the Mexican state of Guanajuanto. All six were charged, and convicted, of homicide. The reason? All six, in some form, terminated a pregnancy.
This situation is not unique to Mexico. All across Latin America and the Caribbean, countries have banned or criminalized the procedure with very few, and in some cases no exceptions.
Yet, Instead of reducing the number of abortions, these draconian laws are simply forcing the procedure underground, making it unsafe and all too often deadly.
Severe restrictions do not prevent abortion. They do not protect anyone. Instead they place women’s lives at risk. And it’s high time we put an end to that.
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Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have banned the procedure outright, even when an abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life. Other Latin American and Caribbean countries severely restrict the procedure with very limited exceptions, such as to preserve a woman’s life (Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela), health (Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay), or in cases of rape or incest. Only Cuba, Guyana and Puerto Rico have legalized the procedure completely.
Yet, according to the most recent data from the Guttmacher Institute, women in Latin America and the Caribbean are undergoing 4.1 million abortions each year, the majority of which – 3.9 million – are unsafe. So unsafe that, according to IPAS, the international women’s health organization, thousands of women in the region are dying each year from complications related to unsafe abortions.
No matter how you feel about abortion, the truth of the matter is that restrictions on abortion don’t change the reasons women have them.
Instead they make women feel isolated and alone, driving them to ever more desperate measures. The jailing of these six women in Guanajuanto sends a message: and that message is that should you find yourself pregnant and scared, don’t dare get caught.
How many more women will have to be jailed, or die before we realize that these strict policies aren’t working? For how much longer will we have to watch as unrealistic legislation is imposed on women’s lives and bodies – legislation that is dramatically out of touch with women’s realities? For each woman convicted to a 30 year jail sentence, imagine how many more will die as the result of taking unsafe medication or undergoing an dangerous procedure, all in the hopes of terminating a pregnancy?
For the sake of the women of Latin America and the Caribbean, we must work to reduce maternal deaths from unsafe abortion and advance women’s reproductive health and rights. We must promote a comprehensive abortion care approach that takes into account the various factors that influence a woman’s individual health needs—both physical and mental—as well as her personal circumstances and her ability to access services. We must work to end the criminalization of abortion in the region.
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LA Galaxy great Landon Donovan is reportedly part of a push to bring the USL -- and possibly MLS -- to San Diego.
According to Keaton Robbins of the Ottawa Sun, Donovan and FOX analyst Warren Barton are seeking to found a USL team in San Diego. The goal of the ownership is to bring an MLS side to a city that has been without top flight soccer for decades. Robbins reported back in December that Donovan and Barton had teamed up to buy the San Diego Flash.
Can confirm @landondonovan and @warrenbarton2's new #SanDiego soccer team will be pursuing #USL expansion team. Will NOT be in #NPSL in 2016 — Keaton Robbins (@Keaton_Robbins) January 10, 2016
Donovan and Barton might not be alone in the fight to bring MLS to San Diego, however. According to San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Mark Zeiger, San Diego Padres owner John Moores is also interested in funding a stadium plan that could see an MLS team come to the city.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated in December, MLS commissioner Don Garber stated that the league has had conversations with groups in San Diego, but according to a league source quoted in Zeiger's article, the talk is "very preliminary."
UPDATE: Landon Donovan denied the rumors that he is interested in buying a USL team via Twitter on Tuesday.
Donovan quote tweeted the report and stated, "This is an entertaining story and interesting idea but there's no truth to it. "
This is an entertaining story and interesting idea but there's no truth to it. https://t.co/XyVCvrYVeE — Landon Donovan (@landondonovan) January 12, 2016
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Do you think Landon Donovan will bring the USL to San Diego?
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Many parents say when their second child is born that their first child suddenly appears to have grown overnight. Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 16 have an explanation: until the birth of the new child, those parents were subject to a "baby illusion," routinely misperceiving their youngest child as smaller (and younger) than he or she really was.
"Contrary to what many may think, this isn't happening just because the older child just looks so big compared to a baby," says Jordy Kaufman of Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. "It actually happens because all along the parents were under an illusion that their first child was smaller than he or she really was. When the new baby is born, the spell is broken and parents now see their older child as he or she really is."
Kaufman and his colleagues made the discovery first by asking 747 mothers if they remembered experiencing a sudden shift in their first child's size after the birth of a new infant. The researchers found that 70% of the mothers did.
To further explore that perceptual shift, the researchers asked mothers to estimate the height of one of their young children (aged 2 to 6) by marking a blank wall. When the researchers compared those height estimations to the child's real height, they found something very interesting: mothers significantly underestimated the height of their youngest child by 7.5 cm on average. In contrast, height estimates for the eldest child were almost accurate.
"The key implication is that we may treat our youngest children as if they are actually younger than they really are," Kaufman says. "In other words, our research potentially explains why the 'baby of the family' never outgrows that label. To the parents, the baby of the family may always be 'the baby.'"
The findings are a useful reminder of just how filtered our own perceptions of the world around us can be.
"We cannot trust the accuracy of our perceptions," Kaufman says. "In this case, it shows that our feelings and knowledge of our children affect how we actually perceive them. But it's important to consider that this misperception may actually make it easier to quickly distinguish one's youngest child from the other children."
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Current Biology, Kaufman et al.: "Parental misperception of youngest child size"
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After you’ve configure a new Mac from scratch or reloaded macOS, installing a dozen or more apps is an overwhelming job. Visiting all the right websites and setting the apps up according to your needs is a hassle.
You can solve this problem with a package manager. Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that simplifies the installation of free Unix tools and GUI apps. We’ll show you how to install apps with Homebrew and keep them up-to-date without any trouble.
What Is Homebrew?
Homebrew a free and open source package manager that lets you easily install command line tools and GUI apps on macOS. With a single command, you can search, install, uninstall, or update free Unix tools. Before installing Homebrew, you’ll need the following:
Terminal, located in the /Application/Utilities folder.
folder. macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or higher.
Command Line Tools, or Xcode from the Mac App Store.
How to Install Homebrew on Mac
If you have Xcode installed, there’s no need to install Command Line Tools, since the package is already baked into Xcode. But if not, you don’t have to install Xcode just for Homebrew.
After installation, Xcode consumes around 10GB of disk space, which is no small amount. If you’re just getting started with these commands, then installing Command Line Tools (roughly 150MB) will get the job done.
Step 1: Install Command Line Tools
To install Command Line Tools, press Cmd + Space to launch Spotlight and search for Terminal. Then type:
xcode-select --install
As you type this command, a popup will appear with the message The “xcode-select” command requires the command line developer tools. Would you like to install these tools now? Click the Install button to proceed with the installation.
In my case, since the package is already installed, this shows an error message.
Step 2: Install Homebrew
To install Homebrew, copy and paste the following command into the Terminal:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
When you paste this command, you’ll see a series of lines about what the script will install and where. Press Return again to continue, or any other key to cancel.
Then enter the administrator password to begin the installation. Installation takes a bit of time, depending on the speed of your Mac and internet connection. On completion, you’ll see an Installation successful message.
Step 3: Verify the Homebrew Installation
Run this command to validate the Homebrew installation and check for any errors:
brew doctor
If you see any Warnings messages, you can safely ignore them, but you should check out common issues that might affect a Homebrew installation. In most cases, you won’t see any errors if your copy of macOS and Command Line Tools/Xcode are up to date.
You should this check for any pending updates in the App Store before you install Homebrew.
Installing Popular Unix Tools With Homebrew
Since Homebrew is a package manager, it automates the entire process of installing, updating, and removing apps from the system. It compiles packages and handles all the dependencies for you.
For example, one app might rely on two others to work properly. Rather than installing those other apps yourself, Homebrew installs them and configures them to work with your requested app without any issues.
Here are a few handy tools you can install with Homebrew:
youtube-dl : Lets you download videos from YouTube and other more sites.
: Lets you download videos from YouTube and other more sites. geoip : Gives you the geolocation data for a particular IP address. Useful for system administrators, security researchers, and web developers.
: Gives you the geolocation data for a particular IP address. Useful for system administrators, security researchers, and web developers. wget : Lets you download data from the web and FTP. You can download a file or even an entire website with this tool.
: Lets you download data from the web and FTP. You can download a file or even an entire website with this tool. cask : This one lets you install macOS apps with a GUI.
: This one lets you install macOS apps with a GUI. htop: Command line alternative of Activity Monitor. It gives you thorough information on CPU, memory, processes, and more.
Manage Unix Tools With Homebrew
Running these Homebrew formulas is easy. Just type:
brew install [formula name]
To install youtube-dl, for instance, type in:
brew install youtube-dl
Type the following to see the list of commands that Homebrew supports:
brew help
You can browse a big list of available commands on the Homebrew formulae page. And use the following commands for more options:
search: Search for a formula uninstall: Uninstall a formula list: List all the installed formulas upgrade: Fetch the newest version of Homebrew from Github upgrade [formula name]: Install updates for a particular formula
How to Install Homebrew Cask on Mac
Homebrew Cask extends Homebrew and lets you easily install macOS GUI apps directly from the command line. With this simple script, you can install and manage many apps without needing to download them individually and go through the typical drag-and-drop routine.
To install Cask, type this into Terminal:
brew tap caskroom/cask
Just after installing Cask, type this:
brew tap homebrew/cask-versions
The second Cask command is intended for installing alternate versions of Casks. For example, they include betas, development versions of browsers you might want to install, latest versions of legacy open source apps, and more.
With Cask installed, you can also enter this command:
brew cask
This syntax will tell you commands that Cask supports. Every time you use a command, don’t forget to prepend with brew cask. The most frequently used commands you need to remember are:
install: Installs the given cask uninstall: Uninstalls the given cask list: Lists installed casks outdated: List all outdated casks upgrade: Upgrades all outdated casks
You don’t have to remember the commands. If you ever forget a command, type in brew cask to see the list. You can also take a printout of the manual page and open it in the Preview app.
This syntax will export the man page output to Preview.
man -t [Command Goes Here]|open -f -a /Applications/Preview.app
For example, the below string will open the manual page for brew cask in Preview:
man -t brew-cask|open -f -a /Applications/Preview.app
Once the man page opens in the Preview app, choose File > Export As PDF to save the file as a PDF document for future reference.
Installing Mac Apps With Cask
You probably have a list of frequently used apps you install on every new Mac. Instead of doing so individually, you can install those apps through Cask. To search for an app, use this syntax:
brew search
Let’s see if there’s a Cask for Firefox. To do so, type this into Terminal:
brew search firefox
As you might know, Firefox supports many different release channels. Mozilla uses these channels to slowly roll out updates to users, starting with daily Nightly builds to more Stable builds. If you want to install Nightly build of Firefox, you would type:
brew cask install firefox-nightly
Or to install the Google Chrome Beta, try this:
brew search chrome
Once you get relevant matches, enter:
brew cask install google-chrome-beta
Sometimes, you might not remember a particular app name. Thankfully, you just need to enter some relevant keywords and Cask will search for apps that contain them. The below screenshot shows what happens when you enter this command:
brew search sync
Uninstalling Apps With Cask
To uninstall Chrome Beta, simply type:
brew cask uninstall google-chrome-beta
For uninstalling Firefox, use:
brew cask uninstall firefox-nightly
The app gets uninstalls completely with no traces left behind. Once you install an app with Cask, it’s fine to update the app even if Cask doesn’t show updates. Don’t forget to check for configuration issues to further mitigate any problems. You can do so with this command:
brew doctor
Before checking for any Cask upgrade, don’t forget to periodically update the Homebrew core and casks. To do this, type:
brew upgrade
GUI Versions of Homebrew and Casks
Although there is no GUI app to install Homebrew and Casks, there are third-party apps that lets you update Homebrew core, check configuration issues, install and update apps from Cask repository, and much more.
Cakebrew is a free, open source app that works in tandem with Homebrew. It lets you see the list of formulas you’ve installed, plus it can run a quick search and show the description of formulas you want to install. This is functionality the command line version doesn’t have.
If you like Homebrew, but don’t want to use the command line for every purpose, this app will prove useful to you. To install Cakebrew, type in:
brew cask install cakebrew
Homebrew and Cask Workflow for Alfred lets you easily install, uninstall, and manage Homebrew and casks in tandem. The script filters brew and cask with support for doctor, install, list, search, uninstall, and more.
Then launch Alfred, type in brew or cask, and you can manage your apps right there in Alfred. You need to have the Alfred Powerpack installed to use this and other workflows.
Install These Open Source Mac Apps
Homebrew is a great package manager to install free Unix tools and macOS apps. If you’re setting up a Mac from scratch or work in a company where you manage multiple Macs, Homebrew can save you a lot of time and energy.
It’s easy to get lost with all these commands, but you don’t have to hurry. Go slow with these steps and take notes frequently. You might also bookmark this guide to Mac Terminal A Beginner's Guide to Using the Mac Terminal A Beginner's Guide to Using the Mac Terminal The Terminal app on Mac lets you accomplish all sorts of tasks using the command line. Here's a guide for Terminal beginners. Read More for other commands and help down the road.
Although you might want to install common Mac apps at first, take a look at some lesser-known open source Mac apps 15 Free Open-Source Mac Apps You Must Install 15 Free Open-Source Mac Apps You Must Install Want to use some open source software on your Mac? These macOS apps are open-source, awesome, and best of all... free! Read More and install them with Homebrew Cask too.
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Instead of making a litany of excuses, the Democratic Party needs to take an in-depth look at why they were soundly defeated in November, Karl Rove argued today in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
The architect of George W. Bush's two presidential election victories said that whether it's FBI Director James Comey, white supremacy or the Electoral College, Democrats are refusing to face reality.
In the article, Rove debunked these arguments, including the idea that electors should choose Hillary Clinton because she won the popular vote.
It isn’t the Founders’ fault that the Clinton campaign failed to turn out African-American voters in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Milwaukee. The Electoral College didn’t force blue-collar voters and rural Democrats in the Midwest to defect from the Democratic Party.
What about the notion - most recently argued by the Clinton campaign's communications director Jennifer Palmieri - that Trump won the White House by giving "a platform to white supremacists"?
Rove wrote:
If Mr. Trump had appealed to white supremacy, it would have provoked a reaction in the form of a larger minority turnout for Democrats. Yet Mrs. Clinton received fewer African-American votes—and a smaller percentage of them—than Democrats did four years ago.
And of course, many Democrats believe that FBI Director James Comey is the biggest reason Clinton lost due to his October announcement about the FBI looking into additional emails from her private server.
Rove called that "baloney."
Mr. Comey’s real electoral intervention came in July, when he overstepped his bounds and decided in the Justice Department’s stead that Mrs. Clinton would not be charged over her private email server. The FBI director did more to help Mrs. Clinton in the election than to hurt her.
And on the hacked emails given to WikiLeaks, Rove said those disclosures "did not create any new questions about Mrs. Clinton’s character," as millions of American voters already held doubts about her honesty.
He concluded that, "Democrats refuse to face the truth: They lost the presidency principally because voters demanded change. Mr. Trump promised it in abundance, while Mrs. Clinton represented the status quo."
Rove joined Martha MacCallum this morning, advising Democrats to move off of their message of "big government" solutions and come up with a platform that works across the country, not just in coastal blue states.
Watch his comments above.
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Thiruvananthapuram: M.T. Ramesh, general secretary of the Kerala BJP, reportedly broke into tears in the state leadership meeting held at Thiruvananthapuram. He was demanding stringent action against some of his fellow leaders who “hatched a conspiracy to tarnish his image” by leaking an internal enquiry report about the Medical Council of India (MCI) scam involving certain party leaders. The inquiry committee, comprising senior leader K.P. Sreesan and minority cell leader A.K. Nazeer, was constituted by the party state president Kummanam Rajasekharan.
The meeting was held after Asianet News, a TV channel owned by NDA leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar, reported that the probe committee’s report found that R.S. Vinod, BJP cooperative cell convener, had accepted Rs 5.60 crore from R. Shaji, chairman of the Varkala-based S.R. Educational and Charitable Trust for securing MCI clearance for his medical college. The report indicated that this amount was routed through Delhi as a hawala transaction. Ramesh’s name was also mentioned in the report in connection with another medical college in Palakkad district, though he denied the link before the media. Stung by the media exposé and the subsequent discussions across the country, the BJP had to oust Vinod from the party.
The leaders who spoke to the media after the top-level meeting put forward an extremely strange defence. According to national executive member P.S. Sreedharan Pillai and state general secretary K. Surendran, what happened was a “clear case of cheating” by an individual (Vinod) and had nothing to do with the party. They kept mum about the leak of the committee report, saying that was an internal party matter. They stood behind Ramesh, denying his involvement in the alleged scam.
The state government has already initiated a vigilance inquiry into the matter, for which BJP leaders have pledged their wholehearted support. CPI(M) parliamentarian M.B. Rajesh raised this issue in the Lok Sabha as well, with Congress support, resulting in a ruckus and the House being adjourned. The opposition, who wanted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to respond to the allegations in the report, was denied permission to take up the issue in the House. “This scam involves not just the Kerala BJP leaders but also the national BJP leaders. This is a case where a bribe was paid for favours from the MCI and hence it has larger dimensions. Immediately after we raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, the parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar came to me in person and inquired about the whole matter, and asked me to provide a translated copy of the same, which means they know it is serious but they are not ready to discuss it in the parliament,” Rajesh said.
These graft charges against the BJP are coming from a state where the party is neither in power nor the main opposition. The party’s central leadership has reportedly directed the state unit to submit a detailed report on the matter.
Not the first scam for Kerala BJP
This is not the first time that Kerala BJP leaders have come under a cloud of allegations while their party rules at the Centre. During the Atal Bihari Vajpayee regime, BJP leaders had allegedly accepted crores of rupees as bribes to allocate petrol pumps. Then as well it was an internal probe report that resulted in the undoing of several leaders, including former organisational secretary P.P. Mukundan. The inquiry panel, after hearing the testimonies of various leaders, including former state president K. Raman Pillai, had come to the conclusion that the Kerala BJP leadership made Rs 18 crore in petrol pump-related bribes while Vajpayee was in power, but a coterie led by a top RSS nominee in the party pocketed a substantial part of that amount. The report had also indicated that the money had been used to fund ‘anti-party activities’. There was also a fixed scale for bribes to allocate petrol pumps during the 2003 scam, the report said. In 2006, the Indian Express, quoting a top BJP leader from the state, reported that the Kerala unit had been “allowed” by the national leadership to “accept donations” in return for allocating petrol pumps, but the party made the mistake of allowing a caucus to handle the exchange and keep the money themselves. They didn’t properly handover this money and obviously, given the nature of the exchange, the party did not have access to legal recourse.
A probe was ordered into these allegations after the dismal performance of the party in the Lok Sabha by-polls in Thiruvananthapuram in 2005, when its former state president C.K. Padmanabhan polled just 37,000 votes (the party got over a lakh votes in the elections before that).
The 2005 inquiry committee warned the party that the credibility and the vote base of the BJP in Kerala was at stake. The party in Kerala, however, survived the scare and thrived in the coming years, recording its first ever win in the previous assembly elections, thanks to the so-called ‘Modi wave’ across the country. Mukundan was stripped of his role as an RSS pracharak and was asked not to interfere in the Kerala matters, and Pillai drifted away from the BJP and formed his own regional party.
A history of factionalism
The 2006 report submitted by the committee comprising Mohan Shanker, Manjeri Narayanan and former state DGP and BJP state human rights cell chief R.P.C. Nair had clearly indicated towards the factionalism that had gripped the party, right from top to the bottom. Even though the party recorded significant growth in the last decade, factionalism, which had engulfed all Sangh parivar organisations, was thriving. There were always two or more rival groups within the party wanting to wrest power from each other. Every time the battle worsened, the RSS would crack the whip. Rajasekharan was a surprise appointment by Amit Shah when factional bickering was at its peak.
Rajasekharan is said to have told the national leadership that he had set up the MCI scam internal committee confidentially and was not expecting the report to be leaked. Many in the state party leadership feel that the leak was aimed at Ramesh, who is very close to expelled leader Vinod. There are still many lose ends relating to controversial middle man Satheesh Nair, who is still at large in the national capital. Nair, a former air force staffer from Thodupuzha, Kerala, allegedly has access to many top offices, including the prime minister’s office. He is known to be Rajasekharan’s right-hand man whenever he visits Delhi.
The MCI scam has opened a Pandora’s box for the Kerala BJP. It seems to be lost in a morass of allegations and explanations. Immediately after the medical college scam, a string of fresh allegations against party leaders of different strata have come up – massive irregularities in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi scheme being one of them. Local leaders have allegedly taken bribes amounting to Rs 4 lakh as ‘donations’ to sanction each Jan Aushadhi outlet. The PMO has initiated an inquiry into the issue. Several cases of unauthorised ‘donations’ in the name of party programmes are surfacing across the state. According to one such report, party leaders from Thrissur sent letters to businessmen asking them to donate up to Rs 5 lakh for implementing the prime minister’s projects.
After an impressive performance in the state assembly elections last year, nothing has been going right for the Hindu nationalist party in Kerala. Allegation after allegation have created much embarrassment for the BJP, which time and again calls other parties the ‘champions of corruption’ in the state.
The BJP has been on the backfoot after the police seized fake currency notes worth lakhs and a currency-minting machine from the house of two brothers, who were BJP Yuva Morcha leaders in the Thrissur district. They have subsequently been expelled from the party. The latest scam allegations have added insult to injury for the saffron party, which was already limping.
“You know the state of affairs in our party. It had been like this for long and I can’t see any immediate solution,” said a BJP leader who asked not to be named. “People like me expect a much more positive intervention from the sangham (RSS), which could patch the issues up to a certain extent,” he added.
Even though leaders say that the party has full confidence in Ramesh and it is “101% convinced of the young and vibrant leader’s innocence,” not all seems to be well within the state BJP.
Rajeev Ramachandran is an independent journalist based in Kochi.
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Share. Is a full update coming at E3? Is a full update coming at E3?
Exit Theatre Mode
BioWare has revealed development on the next Mass Effect title is progressing well, explaining that it's somewhere around the middle of development.
In a tweet, BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy responded to a fan asking whether the game was in the early or late stages of development to explain neither statement was technically accurate.
@Jackmayall5757 Too late for one, too early for the other... So I guess we're somewhere in the middle? :-) — Yanick Roy (@YanickRRoy) April 30, 2014
While we have no idea about when the game will be released, we do know that we're due an update sometime this year. So far all we've had are a few teaser images, word that it'll apparently be fresh but recognisable, and may not relate to Shepard at all.
BioWare has said in the past that it doesn't want the game to be viewed as Mass Effect 4, as such a title does it a disservice. Whatever it ends up being called, our money's on new info coming our way at E3. Not long now, folks.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.
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A Virginia winery owned by President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s son Eric has requested permission to bring in nearly two dozen foreign workers, according to a new report.
The Trump Winery in Virginia is seeking 23 workers from overseas to plant and harvest grapes there this spring, BuzzFeed reported Thursday.
The Department of Labor published a request from the winery, which is also known as Trump Vineyard Estates LLC, earlier that day.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thursday’s posting says potential workers will earn $11.27 hourly working at the 1,300-acre estate from April 3 to as late as Oct. 27.
The workers are being sought using the federal H-2A visa program, which permits U.S. employers to hire foreign agricultural laborers for temporary work as long as no qualified Americans want the jobs instead.
The H-2 visa program has brought more than 100,000 foreigners into the U.S. annually since 2003, BuzzFeed reported, and the initiative has benefited businesses relating to the Trumps.
BuzzFeed added that companies owned by President Trump or bearing his name have sought to hire at least 286 foreign workers since he launched his White House run in June 2015.
Many laborers now work as servers and housecleaners at Mar-a-Lago, the report said, Trump’s luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla., that Trump has dubbed "the winter White House."
Stores in the Washington, D.C., area have reportedly been selling out of bottles of wine that bear the president’s name since he entered office.
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Donald Trump Jr speaking at the 2016 RNC Convention in Cleveland that awarded his father the Republican Party nomination for President.
Donald Trump Jr.’s twitter account turned up an odd “like” Friday night.
The Twitter-bot @TrumpsAlerts posted that the son of the president liked a tweet from Mike Cernovich, who linked to a 2014 New York Times article by Rutgers School of Law assistant professor Margo Kaplan.
The op-ed makes the case that pedophilia is a mental illness that law enforcement should work to curb abuse through prevention rather than focusing on punishment. She cited research that revealed “about half of all child molesters are not sexually attracted to their victims.” Kaplan is obviously correct, pedophilia is the disorder while child molestation is the crime.
The conversation comes just after the Alabama special election in which Republican Roy Moore was accused of molesting multiple women when they were teens. Stories surfaced of Moore being banned from a mall for preying on teens.
It’s unclear why Trump Jr. liked the news story during a national conversation about child molestation. The “like” is just one of 7,852 that Trump Jr. has done since Twitter rolled out the “favorite” feature in 2009.
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Purdue Football Master Plan
2016 Purdue Football Schedule / Ticket Information / Buy Tickets Now
Football Spring Game Info
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Two more leadership-level gifts have pushed Purdue Athletics to $20.2 million in commitments to the Football Master Plan, as part of "Ever True: The Campaign for Purdue University."
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new football performance complex will take place Friday night at the Mollenkopf Athletic Center in conjunction with the football program's annual spring game reunion. Fans can follow the festivities beginning at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET via a live stream on the Purdue Athletics Facebook page.
The latest gifts are from Michael and Paula Klipsch and Greg and Kim Wasson. By virtue of their generosity, they join the executive committee of the Purdue National Leadership Circle, an exclusive group -- chaired by Drew and Brittany Brees -- whose goal is to back the Boilermaker football program both financially and by generating additional funding.
"These two Boilermaker couples love their alma mater and want to help in our quest to push the football program to the championship level," Purdue vice president and athletics director Morgan Burke said. "They understand the need for a facility that can both help develop student-athletes already on campus and be an attractive selling point to recruits. I thank them for their financial support and for sharing our aspirations for intercollegiate athletics."
A Purdue graduate and member of the Board of Trustees, Michael Klipsch was a founding partner of Grand Park Fieldhouse, LLC, a 100,000-square-foot multi-use sports facility, which opened in January of 2016 in Westfield, Indiana. He also is involved in several other entrepreneurial ventures. Klipsch recently retired from Klipsch Group, Inc., a loudspeaker company based in Indianapolis, after a 20-year career where he served as president of global operations, executive vice president and chief counsel. Paula (nee Wilczek) also is a Purdue alum and was a letterwinner in swimming in 1985 and 1986. The couple has three children: Ryan, a Purdue graduate; Matthew, a junior at IUPUI; and Erin, a freshman at Purdue. Michael and Paula have been John Purdue Club members since 1986.
"As alumni, Paula and I want to do our part by supporting the football program and Purdue through a leadership gift," Michael Klipsch said. "I grew up a Boilermaker and had the good fortune to earn a degree from Purdue and now have the privilege to serve on the Board of Trustees. Paula and I have been blessed in so many ways, including in no small part by the education and experiences provided during our years at Purdue. Needless to say, I love Purdue and know the value of supporting my team and my school. We are honored and thrilled to give back financially and with our time to our alma mater."
Greg Wasson is co-founder and president of Wasson Enterprise, a family-based investment firm in Chicago. He previously served as chief executive officer for Walgreens from 2009 until his retirement in 2014, after first working for the company as an intern in 1980 while he was a student earning his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Purdue. Wasson was recognized as a Pharmacy Distinguished Alumnus in 2009, an Old Master in 2013 and received the Career Achievement Award from the College of Pharmacy in 2016. Kim, co-founder and executive vice president of Wasson Enterprise, also worked for Walgreens and has served on the Pharmacy Women of Purdue Committee. She earned her bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Purdue and later went on to earn her doctorate in pharmacy. Their two daughters, Lindsay and Courtney, are Purdue graduates. Greg and Kim have enjoyed attending Boilermaker football games over the years.
"My family and I love Purdue, and we believe it is important to invest now in order to help the football program return to prominence," Greg Wasson said. "We see the football program as a major part of the front porch of the university and a key platform to tell the Purdue story. We are fortunate to support our alma mater in this way."
The Football Master Plan consists of six points: coaching and support staff, player development, academic support, recruiting, fan engagement, and contemporary facilities.
The football performance complex will be built adjacent to the north end of the Mollenkopf Athletic Center. The three-level structure will become the everyday home of the football program -- totaling 110,000 square feet -- and will include a locker room, team meeting room, position group meeting rooms, player development room, sports performance training area, sports medicine facility, fueling station and coaches' offices, as well as a grand entrance lobby that will highlight the Boilermakers' history and tradition.
The state-of-the-art football performance complex will significantly enhance the football student-athlete experience. In addition to the first-class amenities, having all of them located in one facility will result in more efficient use of the student-athletes' time. Currently, football-related facilities are housed in multiple buildings.
The football performance complex is slated to open in August of 2017 and will be a $65 million project. The complex is being designed by Populous, while the construction will be managed by the Hunt Construction Group.
No student fees or state support will be used for the project. It will be debt funded, with future media rights distributions targeted to pay the annual debt service. Purdue Athletics is a self-supporting auxiliary enterprise.
Focusing on three overarching priorities -- "Place Students First," "Build on Our Strengths," and "Champion Research and Innovation" -- Purdue's "Ever True" campaign was announced in October, with a goal of $2.019 billion raised by 2019, the 150th anniversary year of Purdue's founding and the 50th anniversary year of alumnus Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon. The overall goal includes $400 million to $500 million for student support, $400 million to $500 million for faculty support, $400 million to $500 million for research excellence, $300 million to $400 million for physical infrastructure, and $300 million to $400 million for unrestricted giving.
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Who will own Texas' largest utility and make sure the lights stay on? The Dallas-based Hunts, losers in a regulatory battle with the Texas Public Utility Commission in an attempt to buy Oncor, have filed an appeal in a state court in Travis County.
The demand for judicial review accuses the PUC of errors in an order it issued concerning the Hunt group's efforts to buy Oncor. While the order approved the purchase, it set conditions that the Hunts said would kill the deal. And a few weeks after the order was issued, the deal died, apparently for good.
At the time, the Hunt group said it would try to find another way to make the purchase work. The filing entered last week may mean the group sees a path forward. If so, it would likely need to be re-approved by a bankruptcy court in Delaware.
The PUC was served by papers Thursday notifying the agency of the appeal and asked the Texas Attorney General's office Thursday for legal representation.
The Hunt group offered only this explanation Thursday:
"Businesses often file appeals within the court system to preserve their legal rights going forward. That is the intent here."
Energy Future Holdings, the company that owns Oncor, Luminant and TXU Energy, went bankrupt over two years ago. A plan approved last year by a Delaware bankruptcy court to pull EFH out of bankruptcy included a specific Hunt-led purchase of Oncor in a deal worth more than $17 billion dollars.
Oncor owns about 119,000 miles of transmission and distribution lines that deliver power to more than 3 million homes and businesses in North and West Texas. And EFH's financial woes have never hurt Oncor's healthy bottom line.
For the Hunt plan to go forward, it had to get regulatory blessing from the PUC. The plan was opposed by a variety of groups, including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the PUC's own staff.
Much of the opposition had to do with the proposed corporate structure, called a real estate investment trust. Originally created to make it easier to assemble capital for big projects like apartments, hotels and shopping malls, the Hunts figured out how to use it for power lines. They wanted to turn one company into two. The REIT would own the assets, the other company would lease it. And if at least 90 percent of the profits of the REIT are paid to investors as dividends, there's no federal income tax.
The PUC is supposed to set rates based loosely on the company's cost of doing business. If the Hunt group could claim the potential tax as a cost, but never pay it, that would put about $250 million extra on the bottom line every year - and available to pay off investors.
The order did not approve the tax break and left the door open that the amount of the benefit could be reduced in a future rate setting process. The order also included a technical item -- defining the lease between the two REIT companies as a rate that the PUC would have to approve. That would delay the final approval of the plan.
On March 24, the PUC approved the Hunts' plan with those reservations and other special requirements. Those requirements broke some deadlines and conditions that had been set in the larger bankruptcy deal. The debtors -- some of the owners of EFH -- used their right to back out of the plan.
The appeal asks for the court to roll back the conditions the Hunts oppose or to have the original order simply dismissed. The Hunts had previously failed in a attempt to get the commission to take either step.
The appeal says the commission "made administrative findings, inferences, conclusions, and decisions that are: in violation of [the Public Utility Regulatory Act]; not reasonably supported by substantial evidence in the record; and arbitrary and capricious or characterized by abuse of discretion or clearly unwarranted exercise of discretion."
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It’s a Thursday night at the Midway Cafe in Jamaica Plain. The place is packed, as it is every week, for Queeraoke, a dance and karaoke night that caters to a young, LGBT-friendly crowd. A disco ball spins overhead, and the bar pulses with loud, sweaty, joyful noise.
On Friday evenings, the vibe is mellower, the crowd mostly middle-aged. The DJ console is replaced by a full band that crams onto the tiny stage for Hippie Hour, a weekly tribute to the music of the Grateful Dead.
Hippy Hour and Queeraoke are two of the Midway Cafe’s most popular nights, and they couldn’t be more different. But both have found a much needed home at the dingy little dive bar on Washington Street in Boston.
The line outside Midway Cafe on Washington Street in JP on a recent Thursday night. (Hadley Green for WBUR)
The club turns 30 this month, and its continued existence is, in a certain sense, remarkable. Recent years have seen the closing of several Boston music venues — most prominently T.T. the Bear’s Place and Johnny D’s — which prompted many to wonder if the era of independently owned clubs was over.
"I can’t believe it’s been 30 years," says Midway owner Jay Balerna. "Sometimes it seems like the blink of an eye."
Balerna has no plans to shut down the operation. (It certainly helps that his family owns the building where the bar is housed.) Balerna and his brother David, who is no longer involved in the business, took over the Midway in 1987 when the venue’s previous owners were looking to sell the liquor license.
“It was kind of an old man bar,” Balerna says of the dive they inherited. At the time, JP’s arts scene was flourishing, so the brothers figured, why not try music? They started out booking blues bands, and today the 100-capacity club offers everything from jazz and punk to comedy and burlesque.
The Midway Cafe's neon sign. (Hadley Green for WBUR)
Sitting in the empty bar on a weekday afternoon, Balerna recalls some of the Midway’s early performers. “I remember this guy, Racky Thomas,” he says. Like a lot of musicians, Thomas was short on cash — so Balerna hired him. “[Thomas] would bartend in the afternoon, and he’d bring an $800, $900 guitar in and he’d practice behind the bar. So my customers would come in and he’d just be noodling away, serving drinks and then playing them songs, which — that was pretty cool.”
Those days are long gone. But the Midway’s 30th anniversary celebration, which is already underway, features a lot of old faces, like local rock 'n' roll institution Chandler Travis and the rockabilly singer Roy Sludge, both of whom have performed at the Midway in countless projects over the years.
The two-week-long concert series is a reunion of sorts — but there’s something defiant about it, too. When the Midway started out, rent was cheap and artists were flocking to JP. Today the neighborhood is much more expensive — due in part to the buzz created by those very artists — and venues like the Midway are finding it tougher to survive.
“I’m kind of shocked I’m still alive, to tell you the truth,” Balerna says. “It’s been a grind, you know. It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love, I guess.”
Midway Cafe owner Jay Balerna serves drinks. (Hadley Green for WBUR)
So what makes it worth it? “I just think the bands,” Balerna says. “It’s so rewarding, some of this music. I would never be exposed to this stuff. But more than that, the friendships. The friendships that I’ve made, and the people that I’ve met.”
The Midway's anything-goes attitude, along with its relatively cheap rental price, makes it an ideal place for new musicians to cut their teeth. It also serves as an experimenting ground for more seasoned performers, like John Frazee, who started Hippie Hour five years ago on a lark.
“Because the Midway is such an inviting local music venue, it’s been the perfect fit. They realize we’ve been workshopping our thing out,” Frazee says of Hippie Hour’s devoted audience. “They give a cheer when we make mistakes, and they cheer even louder when we sound amazing.”
Andre Isaacs, a JP resident and Queeraoke regular, echoes that sentiment. “It’s the place where I feel the most at home,” he says, standing outside the club on a recent Thursday night while the muffled exclamations of buzzed karaoke-ers spill onto the street. Isaacs first came to the Midway for Queeraoke four years ago, right after moving to Boston. The series, which is more than a decade old, has made the Midway a haven for Boston’s LGBT community.
Andre Isaacs sings during Queeraoke night on Thursday, July 13. (Hadley Green for WBUR)
“Queeraoke is probably my favorite space in the entire Boston [area],” Isaacs says. “Everyone wants to make sure you’re having a good time, everyone’s willing to talk to you. You don’t really get that in public spaces and I feel like, for me, this is a place where I got that from the get-go. And I couldn’t stop coming back.”
One of Isaacs' favorite karaoke numbers is “Latch," the pop hit by Disclosure, featuring vocalist Sam Smith. It’s a song about attachment, and maybe possession, and the lyrics are a little ominous. But on the night I heard Isaacs sing it, it sounded euphoric. The song made sense at the Midway. After 30 years, no one has any intention of letting it go.
With additional reporting by Ian Coss and produced in partnership with the Talking Jukebox on WBCA in Roxbury
We asked for your favorite memories from the Midway, and you shared some great ones. Check them out here.
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I remember first hearing about transgender people when I was eleven years old. So-and-so's 'father' had undergone a 'sex-change' operation. This was related to me through hushed, smiling voices, spoken in a tone of ridicule. 'He' had a mental illness, and we weren't supposed to mention it. I implicitly understood that this was an underlying fissure contributing to a broken family.
I think I spent about ten years in the closet, if you measure from the first time "gender" entered into my internal vocabulary for describing what was wrong with me. When I finally came out to everyone, right in the middle of Pride month, the idea of pride felt distant and unfamiliar -- all I had was shame.
I didn't look in mirrors, I told people it was okay to misgender me (after all, I knew what I looked like), and I had resigned myself to transitioning purely for my own sake, without expectation of validation from the outside world.
I stayed at home during the parade.
"Another common word I've heard transgender people use to describe themselves is 'monster.'"
Too many people feel this way. Even in the queer community, being transgender can be like being one of those fake Christmas trees -- pulled out and celebrated once a year, but largely kept in a corner in the basement, and not really seen as good as the "real thing."
I knew that transitioning would be like that. I expected it. I knew about the radical feminists who would hate me, and the straight cis men who would only see me through their own ego.
You might know that the number one word associated with being transgender is "dysphoria," a vague medicalized word used ascribed to transgender people to describe how mirrors and people you thought were your friends now make you cry.
But another common word I've heard transgender people use to describe themselves is "monster."
As I said, I knew to expect all that pain before I told a single person. But what nobody had prepared me for was the joy.
"Have you ever completely altered the course of your life to improve it and be more true to yourself?"
The first time I met someone who completely validated who I was, regardless of what I thought I looked like, or was wearing, or was talking like, I had the fleeting thought, "Maybe if I had just one day where everyone treated me like this, it would be enough."
And then that day came, and I was surprised to find that yes, it actually was enough.
There comes a point that someone calls you beautiful (or handsome, my trans men brothers), and you can see in their eyes that they actually mean it.
Your life starts turning into science fiction as people forget your old name, start talking about the old you as if it was another person, and when you meet new people they only know the right pronouns. They only know the real person.
You start looking in mirrors again. One day you find that even on the days when you disdainfully think you look too much like the wrong gender, you know that you're not. That you're real.
For me, it became not only a transformation of the body, but of the spirit. In the beginning, I attended LGBTQ events feeling like an outsider. Over time, I began to be pushed forward by the voices of queer PoC I always should have listened to, by bearing witness to stories from the queer elders who had lived through the AIDS crisis, by drinking in the anger of someone reciting a poem who was born the right gender and in the right body, but still feels like a monster.
A small feeling grew in me, like a smooth round stone you run your thumb over when you're a kid, a special thing I didn't know I could feel: Community.
"For many, coming out as transgender means that you're choosing to live in a more dangerous world [...] and that you'll inevitably be exposed to people who view your body with disgust. But for me, it also represents community with other queer women and the ever growing love for people who have faced struggles and still pushed on."
There are countless transgender people like me, whose lives are not ancient Greek tragedies, but comedies, moving from isolation to community. I increasingly find myself in a place where people will act patronizing and greet me with, "Hey, gorgeous LADY," if they know about me, or offer me help, or tell me they can't imagine how difficult my life is, when almost every day my life is better than it has ever been.
After all, have you ever completely altered the course of your life to improve it and be more true to yourself?
There was some point where I reflected on the idea of pride, and it had crept up on me, growing like a flower from that smooth round stone I'd been cradling. Yes, for many, coming out as transgender means you'll always have tension with your family, that you're choosing to live in a more dangerous world, and that you'll inevitably be exposed to people who view your body with disgust.
But for me, it also represents community with other queer women and the ever growing love for people who have faced struggles and still pushed on.
A few days ago I had a conversation with a well-meaning ally (?) who told me that if no one had been thrown out of their houses by their parents, if no one was called slurs in washrooms, that there would be no need for a LGBTQ community -- the community would be integrated and accepted into society at large.
I wasn't sure how to express it at the time, but after some thought I know why I took issue with the idea: What many people don't seem to understand is that queer community is often better.
We want to integrate you into our society.
I know that there are problematic elements even in the queer community, but for me, and the lovely people I have been lucky enough to meet since I came out, "intersectional feminism" is not a dirty phrase.
It is okay for men to cry. If there is someone facing something you don't understand, you are supposed to listen to them, and not talk over them. And being true to yourself, as I am learning to, is seen as beautiful.
This year I will be attending pride. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll meet someone new and show them how beautiful they are too.
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After Ga In became involved in controversy on Instagram by alleging that a friend of her boyfriend Joo Ji Hoon offered her marijuana, the police have given an update as to their ongoing investigation into the matter.
Earlier this month, Ga In was questioned by the police about her posts. On June 25, a source from the police stated that the narcotics investigation department of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency had received a search warrant for the communications record of Mr. Park, the man who Ga In accused of offering her marijuana, and was looking into his calls. Previously Ga In had uploaded pictures of texts she said she received from Mr. Park on her personal Instagram. Both Ga In and Mr. Park were questioned by the police on separate days on June 6 and 8.
The police confirmed that Ga In is being treated as a testifier in the case and is not currently subject to any further investigations. The police also believe that there is credibility in her claim against Mr. Park and are looking into his calls to seek any suspicious behavior in his communications with friends and acquaintances.
A source from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency stated, “The situation between Ga In and Mr. Park is not yet a full-blown investigation. However, since we cannot say that there is no suspicion of criminal activity involved, we will continue to look into what happened.”
Source (1)
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The early half of 2017 is packed with tons of titles that RPG enthusiasts have their calendars circled for. Persona 5 is making perhaps the largest splash in April, Dragon Quest VIII is releasing on 3DS. You've got a new Kingdom Hearts and old Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Berseria, Platinum's take on Nier, Ni-Oh, Digimon, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and even a PC release for Disgaea 2. Phew.
But please don't sleep on Torment: Tides of Numenera. If you've got any space left. Or days on your calendar.
Perhaps you are like me and you've heard whisperings of a new game in the Torment now-franchise. Maybe you've played Planescape: Torment and you've been following the title since the initial Kickstarter campaign got funded in March 2013. (We'll forgive the estimated delivery date of December 2014) and have already made a pledge. Maybe you've played some of the stellar entries in the genre in recent years such as Larian's Divinity Original Sin, or Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity, or even the recently released Tyranny and you're looking for the next thing in line. Or maybe you have no idea at all what to think of Tides of Numenera. I'm here to help you get caught up.
What is Torment: Tides of Numenera, and Why Should You be Excited:
Torment: Tides of Numenera is set in Numenera, which is actually a table top RPG setting invented by Monte Cook. Just how like Planescape:Torment borrowed the universe from the Dungeon and Dragons campaign setting Planescape, Tides of Numenera also borrows from a similar, though far newer, fictionalized universe (Planescape was invented in 1994, Numenera was first published in 2013.) In this way, Tides of Numenera is not a direct sequel to Planescape:Torment, but is rather identified as a spiritual successor. Put succinctly, that means Tides of Numenera is advertised as:
A single-player, isometric role-playing game.
Story-driven game with a rich dialogue system.
A game where the player character develops his or her skills and personality from their interactions with the world, and interact with up to 8 possible companion characters that will join them in their journey.
Specifically, the player will take the role of the Last Castoff, who is a human that was once inhabited by some unknown powerful being, but was suddenly abandoned and left without memory of prior events.
Sounds pretty neat, all told. If that wasn't enough, lets take a look at the talent behind this game: Chris Avellone, Colin McComb, George Ziets, and Brian Fargo. That's over a cumulative 80 years of history producing similar games like Planescape Torment, Fallout, Fallout 2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights 2, Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords, Pillars of Eternity, and Fallout:New Vegas. That's quite the resume. With a portfolio like that, who wouldn't be eager to see what that talent could do with the freedom provided to them through avenues such as Kickstarter.
So, What is Torment?
While Tides of Numenera is being built on Unity, the same engine that powers Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny, Planescape: Torment was released in 1999 on Bioware's Infinity Engine. which is most widely known for being the backbone of the critically successful Baldur's Gate series of games. The Unity engine hasn't had a flawless track record, but games such as Pillars show that it can work alright for similar titles.
From the outset of Planescape: Torment's development, the designers at then Black Isle Studios intended to challenge what was typically expended in a fantasy RPG: that is, the game was not to feature dragons, orcs, elves, goblins, or many other fantasy races. In addition to that, Planescape:Torment was to stand in opposition to the tendency for RPGs to have a "correct" approach to undertaking the game's story and quests. Having the altruistic "moral" choice leading to generally the best possible outcome was thought to be far too predictable, a concern even many modern games struggle with sometimes, and the designers wished to make a game with greater moral ambiguity. So did the designers succeed?
Well, Planescape:Torment was named RPG of the Year for 1999 by GameSpot and Computer Gaming World, GameSpy added it to their Hall of Fame, and in 2005 GameSpot declared it one of the greatest games of all time. In addition, IGN recalled that playing Planescape: Torment "had their ideas of what an RPG is completely revamped after playing". Seems like it did pretty well.
If Tides of Numenara could come close to matching that sort of design philosophy and reception, then consider my calendar marked. A short preview of the game's progress was shared with Kotaku at Pax West this year, which seems to indicate that Tides of Numenera continues to walk its own path rather than fall into traditional RPG trappings. The designers mentioned in passing some of the crazy situations that Torment players could potentially find themselves in, such as: dying in order to interrogate the ghosts in the player's mind, entering someone’s else's memories to change their actual past, and helping a giant robot give birth. Wicked. So if Tides of Numenera is setting out to have a similar focus all while being helmed by much of the same talent, it's worth paying attention to.
But this is Numenera, Not Planescape?
Numenera is set roughly a billion years into the future. To put that into context, reminder that the dinosaurs died out only 65 million years ago. The world in Numenera is known as "The Ninth World", referencing that eight great civilizations have risen and fallen before the world of the current era. Specifically, Numenera refers to the leftover remains of technology that lies dormant from these past civilizations. The world is inhabited by "nanites" (believed to be some sort of divine presence) that some characters in this universe can communicate with and even control.
Numenera cleaned house at the 2014 ENnie Awards, which recognizes annual achievements for tabletop role playing games. Specifically, Numenera won Gold awards for best setting, writing, and product of the year.
Sounds like a pretty great universe for some great game creators to get creative in.
Sounds Cool, When and Where Can I Play It? (Answer: In Early Access Now!)
inXile Entertainment has stated that Torment: Tides of Numenera will release in "Early 2017", though they have not given a specific release date. The game will be available DRM-free at gog.com, and actually is available in Early Access over at Steam . Early access players will have access to the first chapter of the game, though it has not been decided if progress from the early access period will wipe or persist upon final release of the game, or how many chapters the full title will have. The precedent for this working well with similar titles is already in place with the success of Divinity: Original Sin, which won RPGSite's 2014 RPG of the Year , and is a tool Larian is returning to for that title's sequel. If Tides of Numenara ends up similar in quality, we may just have another award-winning title on our hands.
You can even purchase directly from the game's official site, with the opportunity to gain a lot of bonus digital and physical goods with purchase of the base game. There is also an interesting (though mildly confusing) method for paying what you want in order to select the features and extras you are interested in, a la carte, including physical products from the Numenera table top game. (Note that it seems like the official game website only accepts Paypal). Interestingly enough, the digital copy of the game here alone is 3,500 inXile points, or 35 dollars.
Is Torment: Tides of Numenera PC Exclusive?
Actually, no! While inXile Entertainment originally envisioned the game as a PC-only title, the partnership with Techland Publishing announced in August 2016 that Torment: Tides of Numenara will also be on Playstation 4 and Xbox One. With Wasteland 2 already on inXile's resume, it's safe to believe that the console port of Torment: Tides of Numenera will faithfully present the pc-rpg to that audience.
That announcement also came with a gameplay trailer along with some stellar music:
So whether you've always been interested in this successor to the 1999 cult classic or if your interest has only recently been piqued, stay tuned for more news and information as launch details become finalized.
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The Science of Hiking
Hiking is perhaps one of the most miserable sensations in sailing. It is absolutely necessary to hike in order to maintain good boat speed. The trade off is that to achieve decent boat speed you must endure a lot of pain. Over the years I have heard many explanations for this excruciating burning sensation in the legs. I have also heard many training methods to improve hiking endurance. Scattered throughout all this, there have been many inaccurate explanations and absurd suggestions on how to deal with hiking. Hopefully this article will clear up some confusion and give an insight into how our body deals with hiking.
Hiking involves several major muscle groups. Quadriceps, glutes, spinae erectors and abdominal muscles are all heavily involved. We often refer to hiking as an isometric contraction. This is a little inaccurate. Isometric contraction involves an application of force through the contraction of a muscle which is at a fixed length. In actual fact there are gradual and slight changes to the length of the muscles during hiking making it more quasi-isometric in nature. The process of fatigue however, remains the same.
When we contract our muscles the blood vessels are squeezed and blood flow is restricted. During dynamic contractions there is a relaxation phase during which the blood vessels are released again. This contraction relaxation process actually promotes bloodflow. This is absent in the case of hiking as we rarely have a full relaxation phase. The restriction of bloodflow forces our muscles to generate energy for contraction through anaerobic means as oxygen is in short supply. The primary anaerobic energy system is called glycolysis. The major by-product of this is lactate. Normally muscle is activated from its low fatigue, low power type to high fatigue, high power types. These are known as type one and type two muscle fibres. Each fibre type is reliant on a different energy system; type one Oxidative and type two glycolytic. In the absence of oxygen, type two fibres must become active. Normally as type one muscle fibres fatigue, type two begin to activate and take over some of the work. During hiking we don’t really have that option as most type 2 fibres activate very early. Fatigue of this type can be witnessed by assessing surface electrical signals in the muscles by Electromyograpic (EMG) analysis. The image below shows EMG during a hiking endurance test. EMG activity increase as more muscle fibres are activated to maintain power output.
There are several reasons why these muscle fibres fatigue. Firstly the production and accumulation of lactate can interfere with muscle contractions. Secondly, there must be an adequate supply of energy substrate ie. glucose or glycogen. Thirdly repeated high intensity contractions damage muscle cells causing a leakage and reduced chemical gradients essential for efficient contraction. These combine to cause a reduction in sustainable force output.
The question now is how to manage this. Generally speaking larger cross-sectional muscle areas generate larger isometric force. So bigger stronger muscles will cope with loads much more efficiently. Adequate strength training is essential in order to cope with the forces required for hiking. In addition to this we must improve our ability to deliver oxygen and promote bloodflow to the working muscle. Capillarization of the muscle occurs when it is subjected to long durations under mildly ischemic conditions. For most of us we achieve this through cycling. The problem is that this process occurs over a long period of time and is quite gradual. That is why there is a need to complete many long duration cycling sessions in the offseason. It cannot be accomplished during a short training camp.
Improving the aerobic system also helps us to remove lactate and reduce the effects it has on muscle contraction. The main issue with large volumes of aerobic type training is that it induces an adaptation which is not favorable to muscle growth or strength improvement. It is essential to find a balance between the two. If we rely too heavily on aerobic conditioning we inhibit strength. The stronger we are, the relatively easier hiking becomes. If we do not have a good strength base then we will struggle even if we are well conditioned.
In addition to land based training we can have a big influence by actually going sailing. While the physiological adaptations to sailing are probably a little more modest we can gain a huge amount of technical advantages. Learning to shift tension on and off the muscle can help prolong endurance. Holding more efficient energy saving postures can also buy us time in relation to fatigue. Our tolerance for hiking is also improved. The more we train and become accustomed to certain processes the better we cope. Inhibitory sensors within the muscle can be somewhat overridden with training. In short, hiking more allows us to manage the fatigue more effectively.
Hiking is a pretty complex process. The biggest mistake is to assume that it is purely a reflection of aerobic conditioning. While aerobic conditioning will help endurance, strength and experience also have an enormous influence. The stronger the knee extensors, the easier hiking becomes and the less reliant we are on conditioning. Do not neglect strength work and likewise do not neglect aerobic training. They are both essential to hiking endurance. Travelling and lack of facilities can be detrimental to progress and maintenance of endurance. One should make sure that organized and consistent training is maintained throughout the season.
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Man says management told him to "look into playing in the suburbs" after robbery. NBC 5's Natalie Martinez reports. (Published Tuesday, July 8, 2014)
A hockey player at the Chicago Blackhawks’ practice facility where three other hockey players were victims of an armed robbery said he was “shocked” when the facility’s general manager responded to his safety concerns by telling him to “look into playing in the suburbs."
The robbery happened at about 8 p.m. in the garage of Johnny's Ice House in the 2500 block of West Madison.
Police say three men -- two with guns -- approached the hockey players, struck one with a gun and demanded their belongings. The victims handed over their wallets and keys.
Hockey player Tim O'Shea says after he expressed concern to the facility's management about the incident, he received an email from general manager Kevin Rosenquist saying the facility is taking the matter "very seriously," and are "working hard with the police to help them apprehend these people." But O'Shea was perplexed by how the email ended:
"As far as your concerns with safety it is the city of Chicago and these things happen all over the place. It is unfortunate but true. If you or your friends are questioning your association with the league due to safety concerns then I would suggest that perhaps the city is not for you and you should look into playing in the suburbs."
"When I read it, I was a little shocked by the response," O'Shea said. "I think the biggest concern should be for the safety of those that play there. It's not just the men's league players, it's the youth organizations, like I said, the Blackhawks are there. If this would have happened to the Blackhawks I think the response would have been different."
Parents have heard about the incident and are worried as well.
"I actually asked at the front desk what precautions they are planning on taking," said Sara Leiebman, whose son plays at the rink.
Ray Lilja brings 30-40 kids to the rink from a inner city youth program.
"You can't watch every nook and cranny. It's hard. This is sort of a sign for everybody to look out for the other one, which is why I'm walking these guys to their car tonight," Lilja said.
Officials from Johnny's Ice House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The GM said in the email that they have turned over surveillance video to the police as well.
No arrests have been made in the case.
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Momentum received a major boost today when it agreed a formal tie-up with another influential trade union.
The Bakers’ Union will affiliate to Momentum after the two groups joined forces this autumn during the first strike at McDonald’s in British history.
Ian Hodson, president of the union, today hailed the Corbynista group as a “key component for changing politics and improving life chances”.
The workers’ group, which is already affiliated to Labour and formally known as the Bakers’, Food and Allied Workers’ Union, follows in the footsteps of the CWU, which agreed a formal link with Momentum in August.
It will come as a boost for Momentum, which this week was accused of leading a “purge of moderates” among Labour councillors, an allegation its chair Jon Lansman described as “an anti-Labour smear”.
Momentum’s deal with the Bakers’ Union comes after the two organisations collaborated during the McDonald’s dispute in September. A Momentum-produced video, which showed staff at the fast food chain describing their workplace injuries, went viral and was watched by more than a quarter of McDonald’s 97,000 workers in Britain, according to internal figures.
“The BFAWU has recognised that Momentum has proved itself to be a key component for changing politics and improving life chances for those our union represents and organises across are communities in the UK,” said Ian Hodson, union president.
“The recent Labour Party conference demonstrated its ability to connect the issues people have directly to the political establishment that has been out of reach to so many for far too long. Our decision to affiliate recognises that Momentum has given a real voice and opportunity to reconnect people and politics. We look forward to playing a full role and working to build a fairer more representative society that serves the interest of the many not the few.”
A spokesperson for Momentum said they were “very happy” over the affiliation.
“Our collaboration on the McDonald’s strike, where our viral video reached one in four UK McDonald’s workers in less than 48 hours, showed what a vibrant social movement working closely with a trade union can achieve.”
The Bakers’ Union backed Jeremy Corbyn in the last two Labour leadership elections.
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The passive aggressive feels they are treated unfairly. If you get upset because he or she is constantly late, they take offense because; in their mind, it was someone else's fault that they were late. The passive aggressive is always the victim of your unreasonable expectations, an over-bearing boss or that slow clerk at the convenience store.
Why Does the Passive Aggressive Play the Victim Role?
I find human behavior fascinating. Not only human behavior but the reasons behind the behavior. There is a pay-off for all of us when it comes to the way we conduct ourselves in life. If we weren’t getting something out of it, we wouldn’t be doing it. Simple huh? Simple until you become involved with a passive aggressive!
What is the pay-off for the passive aggressive who plays the victim? It is a ploy they use to turn the tables and make them appear to be the injured party. The passive aggressive knows something about the person they are intimately involved with. They know that most people involved with passive aggressives are empathetic, most are co-dependent and most don’t like the idea of others suffering…in other words, they are very easily manipulated. That is the pay-off, being in a relationship that enables them to have the upper hand.
In What Ways Does Playing the Victim Pay-Off?
If you are the “victim,” you don’t have to take responsibility for any problems in the relationship.
If you are the “victim,” you don’t have to take responsibility for any bad behaviors.
If you are the "victim" you can blame others for your failures.
If you are the "victim" your dissatisfaction is always someone else's fault.
If you are the "victim" you don't have to be responsible for your own life.
My sons have been exposed to their father’s victim mentality. A glaring example of the ploy used in his need to be the victim is how he dismisses them and then acts as if he is the injured party. For example, he refused their request for him to visit them. His response to them was, “you know where I am, you can come see me any time you wish.” In his skewed perception of reality, it was his son’s place to maintain a relationship with him and when they did not put any effort into that, he was the victim of their abandonment.
It did not occur to him that his refusal to visit, write, call, send Christmas gifts or show any interest in their life plainly showed him to be the victimizer, not the victim. His only concern was rebuilding his life and having an excuse for not including his sons in his life. What better excuse than being the victim of your son’s abandonment? His new circle of family and friends don’t know his sons, don’t know the issues surrounding his divorce and you can bet, being passive aggressive means he once again surrounded himself with people who didn’t like to see others suffer.
His friends and new family see him as the long-suffering man who “wishes” his relationship with his sons could be different.
He tells them that he will always be there for his sons if they ever seek him out for a relationship. Just imagine the outpouring of sympathy he gets? It keeps him from having to accept responsibility for his behavior toward his sons and helps him hold onto the wounded, good guy image that is important to many passive aggressives.
How do You Keep From Becoming the Victim of a Victimizer?
Get rid of self-doubt. If you are in a relationship with a passive aggressive the manipulation is meant to cause you to doubt what you do, what you hear, what you see and what you experience. If you give into the manipulative ploys of the passive aggressive, you will soon not know which end is up. Somewhere inside is the nagging voice that something isn’t right. Do not ignore that voice!
Don’t make excuses for bad behavior.
Don’t feel guilt if your passive aggressive doesn’t like the boundaries you’ve set.
Don’t allow anyone to disregard your emotional needs or doubt that you have a right to your needs being met.
Don’t accept a refusal to communicate marital problems.
Don’t settle for less than you want from your spouse emotionally or intimately.
Don’t make yourself responsible for his/her hurtful words and actions.
Don't take responsibility for their problems!
The passive aggressive rarely takes responsibility for being the sole owner of their choices in life. In fact, they become to addicted to playing the victim they make choices that allows them to continue that role. Don't let their need to be a victim rob you of the joy, laughter, and love that you've earned.
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149 Indian nationals were evacuated from the South Sudan's capital, Juba on Thursday
Highlights Over 500 Indians stuck in war-torn South Sudan Former Army chief VK Singh leads evacuation operation He flew to Juba with two C-17 Globemaster IAF aircraft today
Minister of State for External Affairs, General VK Singh, a former Army chief, flew to Juba early Thursday morning with two C-17 Globemaster Indian Air Force aircraft in what has been named Operation Sankat Mochan. He is leading the operation to evacuate more than 600 Indians stuck in the African country.
Operation #SankatMochan
Safely out of the danger zone. The first flight makes a technical halt at Entebbe, Uganda pic.twitter.com/VjnImTNfLv Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) 14 July 2016
Indian nationals - Pls move out of South Sudan. We hv sent two aircrafts. If situation deteriorates, we will not be able to evacuate u.Pl RT Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) July 14, 2016
At Least 149 Indian nationals were evacuated from the war-torn South Sudan's capital city Juba on Thursday.Those evacuated will reach Delhi on Friday morning after a halt in Thiruvananthapuram.Soon after the first flight was out of the danger zone, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted:However, the evacuation exercise faced a hurdle as many Indians, who had registered with the Foreign Ministry for leaving South Sudan, refused to return citing the ceasefire which has brought a break after a week of intense fighting.Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had earlier tweeted requesting Indian nationals to move out of the African country before the situation worsens."The evacuation has been meticulously planned in coordination with the local authorities as well as the support of the Indian peace keeping contingent in UNMISS," Mr Swarup told reporters on Thursday."This entire operation has been under the direct supervision of Sushma Swaraj who had formed a high-level task force to monitor the situation in South Sudan," Mr Swarup had said.There are around 600 Indians in South Sudan, of them 450 are in Juba, reported news agency PTI citing ministry sources.South Sudan is witnessing heavy fighting between former rebels and government soldiers in several parts of the city.South Sudan President Salva Kiir had on Monday evening ordered a ceasefire after days of heavy fighting between government troops and rebels loyal to Vice President Riek Machar. The UN has said 36,000 South Sudanese civilians have fled their homes due to the civil war. Embassies and aid organisations in South Sudan are moving to evacuate staff from Juba amid the tenuous ceasefire.
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*Terms and conditions apply. Applies only on events from the Talks category, and taking place in the one month period following the payment date. Advanced booking can be done for up to two/three upcoming events at one time, depending on chosen subscription. Additional charges may apply on talks over £25. Minimum membership period is 1 month (30 days), and renews automatically. Can be cancelled at any time, cancellation applies from the next billing period.
London is widely regarded by many people as a city of intellectuals, with some of the world’s most prominent scholars and scientists, such as Isaac Newton, having resided in the city. For those who are in constant pursuit of knowledge, Funzing is your “go to” place to find a range of interesting lectures in London. Expand your mind at one of Funzing talks in London. Psychology Lectures - Psychology lectures in London offer a fascinating view into the human mind. These Funzing talks will appeal to anyone interested in learning how the human mind works and the reasons why we behave in certain ways. Learn about Science - For those interested in the wonders of this world and how science helps understand life, we recommend checking out some science talks in London. Funzing will help you find talks on various different aspects of science, presented by great minds, professionals and scholars in their field.
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There has been a lot of talk about selfies in the . In fact, the word selfie was recently added to Oxford’s online dictionary. But psychologists know surprisingly little about the effects of selfies or about the people who post them. A new study appearing in an upcoming issue of and Individual Differences examined the relationship between selfie-posting, photo-editing and personality.1 Are people who post selfies on social media sites and psychopathic, or self-objectifying, or both?
In this study, the authors examined self-objectification, along with three personality traits, known as the “Dark Triad”: narcissism, , and machiavellianism.2 They’re called “dark” because they have an almost evil connotation and are associated with a callous and manipulative way of interacting with other people.3
Narcissism: Extreme self-centeredness and a grandiose view of oneself. Narcissists have an excessive need to be admired by others and have a sense of entitlement. They’re likely to agree with statements like: “I’m more capable than most people,” and “I will usually show off if I get the chance.”4
Psychopathy: Impulsivity and lack of empathy.5 Those high in psychopathy are likely to agree with statements like: “Payback needs to be quick and nasty."3
Machiavellianism: Manipulative-ness without regard for others’ needs. Those high on this trait tend to have little concern about morals.6
Self-objectification: This is a tendency to view your body as an object based on its sexual worth. Those high in self-objectification tend to see themselves in terms of their physical appearance and base their self-worth on their appearance.7
To examine the association between selfies and personality, Fox and Rooney used data from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 men between 18 and 40 years old.1 Participants completed personality questionnaires assessing the dark triad and self-objectification. They were asked how many selfies they had taken and posted on social media in the last week, as well as how many other photos they had posted and how much time they spent on social media sites. They were also asked to rate how often they used various methods to make themselves look better in pictures, such as cropping, filtering, and re-touching.
Results showed that both narcissism and self-objectification were associated with spending more time on sites, and with more photo-editing. Posting numerous selfies was related to both higher narcissism and psychopathy, controlling for the overall number of other types of photos posted. Machiavellianism was unrelated to photo behavior when taking these other variables into account.
This study suggests that narcissists are more likely to show off with selfies and make extra effort to look their best in these photos. Interestingly, psychopathic men posted more selfies, but didn’t tend to edit them more than their less psychopathic counterparts. The study’s authors speculated that this may be because they lack and don’t really filter what they put on Facebook—editing photos suggests a level of careful self-presentation that you would be unlikely to find among those high in psychopathy.
But these results also show that men who view their bodies as objects are more likely to edit their photos. Self-objectification tends to be associated with low 8—quite the opposite of narcissism, which is correlated with high self-esteem.9 But this is consistent with other findings that both narcissism and low self-esteem are related to greater Facebook use.10 It is also important to note that those high on self-objectification didn’t post more selfies—they were just more conscious about their appearance in the ones that they did post. Given the greater self-objectification tendencies of women, it would be interesting to examine these questions in a female sample as well.1
But before you start accusing all your selfie-posting Facebook of being self-obsessed narcissists and psychopaths, realize that these correlations (though statistically significant) were relatively small, and the sample studied didn’t include women.
Since I originally posted this article, new research has been conducted on selfies and narcissism, this time examining both men and women. Click here to read about the new findings.
Due to some misinterpretations of this research, I also want to reiterate that psychopathy, as measured in this study, is a personality trait and is not the same thing as being mentally ill.
References
1 Fox, J., & Rooney, M. C. (2015). The Dark Triad and trait self-objectification as predictors of men’s use and self-presentation behaviors on social networking sites. Personality & Individual Differences, 76, 161-165. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.12.017
2 Paulhus, D. L., & Williams, K. M. (2002). The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 36, 556–563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00505-6.
3 Jones, D. N., Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Differentiating the Dark Triad within the interpersonal circumplex. In Horowitz, L. M., Strack, S. N. Handbook of interpersonal theory and research. New York: Guilford. pp. 249–67
4 Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 54, 890–902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.5.890
5 Jonason, P. K., & Krause, L. (2013). The emotional deficits associated with the Dark Triad traits: empathy, affective empathy, and alexithymia. Personality & Individual Differences, 55, 532–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2013.04.027
6 Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970). Studies in machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.
7 Fredrickson, B. L., & Roberts, T. A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward women’s lived experienced and mental risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21, 173–206. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1997.tb00108.x
8 Strelan, P., Mehaffey, S. J., & Tiggemann, M. (2003). Self-objectification and esteem in young women: The mediating role of reasons for exercise. Roles, 48(1/2), 89-95.
9 Campbell, K. W., Rudich, E. A., Sedikides, C. (2002). Narcissism, self-esteem, and the positivity of self-views: Two portraits of self- . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 358-368. doi: 10.1177/0146167202286007
10 Mehdizadeh, S. (2010). Self-presentation 2.0: Narcissism and self-esteem on Facebook.Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 357-364. doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0257
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HARTFORD, Conn. – The Hartford Sports Group announced on Saturday it had submitted a proposal to the Capital Region Development Authority for the redevelopment of Dillon Stadium, in the Coltsville section of Hartford, which would become the home venue for a new USL club potentially for the 2019 season.
Led by local businessmen Bruce Mandell, Joseph A. Calafiore and Scott Schooley, HSG has been in discussions with the USL on bringing professional soccer to Connecticut’s capital for more than two years. During these discussions, the group conducted a survey of the region as to potential locations for a permanent home for the club. That survey concluded Dillon Stadium would be the best potential location for a Hartford franchise, should the renovation of the historic venue be approved.
“For HSG this project is about much more than soccer,” said Mandell, who serves as the President of Hartford Sports Group. “We see this as a chance to bring one of Hartford’s most historic venues back to life, help complete the turnaround of the Coltsville section of the city, bring our community together through the world’s game, and deliver a soccer experience that has quickly become among the most popular events for the young, urban populations Hartford is trying to attract and retain.”
The addition of Hartford to the USL would add to a strong contingent of teams in the Northeast of the United States, joining the likes of the Rochester Rhinos, Harrisburg City Islanders, Bethlehem Steel FC, Pittsburgh Riverhounds, Ottawa Fury FC and Toronto FC. With a metropolitan population of more than one million, the city is currently the home of the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack and MiLB’s Hartford Yard Goats.
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Humanitarian efforts in Aleppo have been suspended in protest against the lack of action from the international community to stop the unfolding massacre in the Syrian city.
The move, supported by a coalition of Syrian civil society organisations, comes as the UN reported civilians are being shot on the spot by pro-government forces entering homes in eastern Aleppo.
Multiple sources have told the UN that at least 82 civilians had been killed by troops loyal to President Assad as the rebels’ hold on the city crumbles.
Tens of thousands more remain trapped in the city without access to food, water, medical facilities or staff.
In a “message to the world”, the humanitarian organisations said: “In response to the atrocities committed by the regime against our people in Aleppo, and in Syria generally, we – Syrian civil society organisations – declare that we are suspending our operations in an outcry against the international community’s complicity in this massacre.
“This suspension will only be revoked if concrete and meaningful measures are taken to stop the regime violence, ensure protection of civilians, and facilitate their safe and dignified evacuation.
“In effect, the regime is besieging around 50,000 civilians in eastern Aleppo and is practicing forms of systematic violence such as the use of bunker buster bombs and summary executions, without discrimination between women, men and children.”
The message has been publicised by Christian Aid, which is calling for the UK government to step up diplomatic engagement to end the conflict and prevent the deaths of even more civilians.
Earlier this week, a worker for one of the charity’s partner organisations in the city was killed by shellfire.
Máiréad Collins, advocacy and programme officer for Syria at Christian Aid, said: “What we are witnessing in Aleppo right now is horrifying. We are seeing the massacre of innocent men, women and children in their homes and on the streets, while the world watches in a state of paralysis.
“We are witnessing the unravelling of humanity before our eyes. People are posting their final goodbyes on social media, expecting that they will now be killed by regime forces. This is unbearable.
“Christian Aid, like thousands of other NGOs and civil society organisations, call again for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access to civilians in besieged areas.”
Christian Aid is working with local organisations in Syria, and in Lebanon and Iraq, to provide vital assistance to thousands of families displaced by the crisis.
The charity is supporting especially vulnerable refugees, such as women and people with disabilities, to access much needed services.
To find out more, or to donate, visit the Christian Aid Syria Appeal webpage.
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A federal lawsuit by former Trump University students against the school’s founder, Donald J. Trump, will proceed toward trial, the judge in the case ruled on Tuesday.
In a written decision, Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel rejected a motion by Mr. Trump’s lawyers to dismiss the case, concluding that the aggrieved former students had raised a genuine question about whether Mr. Trump had “knowingly participated in a scheme to defraud.”
The case, in federal court in San Diego, has been a nagging concern for Mr. Trump’s Republican campaign for the presidency, as he pushes back against claims made by former students that his school cheated them out of their tuition by using high-pressure sales tactics and deceptive claims about what they would learn.
At one point, Mr. Trump publicly denounced the rulings of Judge Curiel, who was born in Indiana, and questioned whether he would be biased because of his Mexican heritage. Mr. Trump’s political opponents have repeatedly turned the case against him, including during the recent Democratic National Convention.
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Image copyright AFP
Tens of thousands of people are fleeing North Waziristan tribal region in north-west Pakistan after the army began an offensive against militants.
A camp for displaced people has been set up near Bannu but it lacks food, water and electricity, locals say.
Many displaced families are seeking shelter with friends and relatives.
A curfew has been lifted to allow people in North Waziristan to escape - and officials expect thousands more to flee to safety in the coming days.
"We have been locked inside our homes for the past four days ever since the curfew was imposed," Muhammad Niaz, from the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, told the BBC.
"The markets were closed and we ran out of food. I couldn't even take my child to the hospital. It was as if we were cut off from the world."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Families say they need more help from the government
Another man who had left his home, Khurshid Khan said: "I have come here with women and children. There was not a drop of water along the way. My son's face has gone yellow with thirst. And we still don't know where we are heading."
The army says at least 160 militants had been killed since it began air strikes on militant targets in Shawal and other areas of North Waziristan on Sunday.
There is no independent media access to the area and no way of confirming the casualty figures.
Tanks and troops are also being sent in for a full-scale operation to target Taliban and foreign militant networks based near the Afghan border, the military says.
Eyewitness: Riffatullah Orakzai, BBC Urdu, Bannu region
Displaced people are arriving carrying their few belongings and their children and trying to reach safety on foot, in the scorching heat.
They look tired and hungry. There are no places for them to stop and rest.
A few religious parties have now set up some relief camps along the way, with food and water, but not a single government camp could be seen.
Most of the families are choosing to stay with relatives and friends, because it is also considered culturally unacceptable to live as a displaced person in a camp.
On Monday, locals asked the government to allow them safe passage to leave the tribal agency.
The army had initially blocked all roads leading out of North Waziristan, ahead of the military operations.
Despite the lifting of the curfew, the government appears ill-prepared to accommodate the thousands who have been streaming out of the area since Wednesday.
Only one camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) has been set up in the semi-autonomous tribal area of Bakakhel near Bannu.
Only three or four families have settled there. They say they have not been provided adequate food or water supplies in scorching summer temperatures. The area also has a proliferation of snakes and scorpions, another discouraging factor for families trying to seek shelter there.
North Waziristan is thought to have a population of between 550,000 and 700,000. Officials say approximately 80% of the population is still living in the area as the military strikes escalate.
In its latest statement on the fighting, the government said 15 militants had been killed by helicopter gunships in mountain heights to the east of the main town in North Waziristan, Miranshah.
It also said eight Uzbeks had been killed by army snipers while planting improvised explosive devices on the road between Miranshah and the town of Mir Ali.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave the go-ahead for the offensive after a deadly attack earlier this month on Karachi airport, which was claimed by an Uzbek militant group and the Pakistani Taliban.
Analysis: Saba Eitizaz, BBC Urdu
This new mass migration will be a major burden on the country's resources. Pakistan is already struggling to cope with almost two million people displaced during the military operations against militants in Swat in 2009.
Many of them have still not been able to return to their homes and are living in makeshift camps or in slums in Karachi.
The government is also still in the process of resettling IDPs from the devastating floods of 2010 that swept across one-fifth of the country and affected 20 million people.
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Mr. Coppola noted a hillside in town that began to crack and slide under the weight of a new shale gas processing plant, which he contends was built without a permit. The town’s zoning powers allowed him, through a court, to compel the company to follow town regulations and allow town inspectors access to the site. The site was eventually stabilized. Losing those powers would leave local officials out of the equation, he said, even though they are responsible for protecting the health and safety of their citizens.
“I’m an unpaid, part-time elected official, and it’s been a nightmare,” he said. “The state is not capable of monitoring even the most basic parts of this industry.”
Local governments argue that drilling is an industrial activity, just like that of a gas station or a cement factory, that should be subject to zoning. Dozens of towns, cities and counties across the country have enacted rules on drilling noise, lighting and the distance from homes and, in some cases, outright bans. In New York State alone, there have been at least 70 such actions.
Companies say the rush to regulate has produced an overly burdensome set of demands that is denting their potential when the economy desperately needs a lift.
“It’s like having to get a different driver’s license in every town,” said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for Range Resources, a Texas drilling company that is active here.
The flurry of local rules comes as the federal government inches forward on a national study of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, the process used to extract previously inaccessible natural gas from shale deep underground.
The study is expected to shape the future of the industry, but progress has been slow. In the meantime, courts have become the next frontier.
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In New York in September, a Denver exploration company sued Dryden, a town near Ithaca , over a drilling ban. In Colorado , Gunnison County, which contains a ski resort, is fighting a drilling company’s court challenge to its zoning. In Texas, a restrictive gas drilling ordinance adopted by an affluent suburb of Dallas called Flower Mound has drawn several lawsuits charging that it amounts to an unconstitutional seizure of mineral rights.
Jordan Yeager, a Pennsylvania lawyer who represents municipalities, said litigation brought by gas companies had a chilling effect, discouraging towns and cities from enacting regulations because they cannot afford to defend them in court.
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Supporters of the Pennsylvania legislation argue that it would hold the industry to higher, more uniform environmental standards in addition to charging them fees.
“We substantially raised the bar of what we expect from natural gas operators,” said Representative Matthew Baker, a Republican who helped shape the legislation.
Emily A. Collins, a professor of environmental and oil and gas law at the University of Pittsburgh , said parts of the legislation would help the environment — for example, expanding the distance in which a driller could be presumed responsible for replacing a tainted water supply.
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She said the legislation seemed to anticipate litigation, calling for special judges to be added to the state Commonwealth Court, presumably to handle new flows of cases against local governments.
Companies have been ramping up shale gas drilling operations during the past decade in states like Texas and Colorado, and during the past several years in Pennsylvania, where the giant Marcellus Shale formation has set off a frenzy of activity.
The industry, however, has bumped up against affluent homeowners concerned about possible health effects and their property values. The median household income in Flower Mound, for example, is more than double the national median.
“It used to be that gas development happened ‘out there,’ ” said Gwen Lachelt, the director of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project for Earthworks, a national organization based in Colorado. “Now you see it in urban areas.”
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That was the case in South Fayette, a bedroom community of rolling hills and upscale developments in Allegheny County for professionals from Pittsburgh. In August, Range Resources lodged a formal complaint against a zoning ordinance that established distances that drilling pads had to be kept from buildings in residential areas, charging that it went further than state law allows. On Nov. 9, the town rejected that complaint, raising the stakes.
“I spent a lot of money and invested heavily in my home,” said Keith McDonough, a resident who is an executive at a clothing company. “I don’t want to see it go up in smoke on a fracking site.”
Mr. McDonough, who described himself as a die-hard Republican, said he was finding himself doing things he had never done before, like knocking on doors and circulating petitions.
William Sray, a farmer who has signed a lease with a gas company, argued that by delaying drilling, opponents were denying his right to fulfill his contract and collect royalties. “Everybody has property rights, but they’re not respecting mine,” he said.
Mr. Pitzarella, of Range Resources, said that only a small minority of towns in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale area — about 80 of approximately 1,800 — had, or were developing, regulations and that most of them were affluent. A strong set of state standards that people agree on would protect all communities, he said.
“It’s about having predictable and enforceable regulation that works for everyone,” he said.
But local regulation of oil and gas development is very strong in Texas, Professor Collins said, and has not seemed to hamper the industry’s growth. Fort Worth , for example, issues its own permits for drilling, something that states typically do.
Mr. Coppola argued that the most immediate risk in Pennsylvania was the possibility that companies, which are not required to share infrastructure like pipelines and compressor stations, could erect multiple sets, driving away developers and affluent residents and reducing the tax base.
Mr. McDonough was hopeful. He said towns would not make the same mistake they did with the coal industry. A river in town still runs orange, even though the industry is long gone.
“We’re at a turning point,” he said. “If this is not done with common sense, we will have lost an entire way of life.”
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Can Liverpool make a last-minute run for the top four?
The Reds thrashed their local rivals Everton in the Merseyside derby on Wednesday evening and are now unbeaten in April during the Premier League, winning the last three games and drawing one.
Throw in an incredible comeback performance against Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League and Jurgen Klopp's men - currently six points off fourth place but with a game in hand over some of their rivals - look to have hit a fine vein of form at a crucial time.
West Ham and Manchester United kept up their charge with respective wins over Watford and Crystal Palace, while Arsenal leapfrogged Manchester City into third with a win over West Brom on Thursday.
Who's got the toughest run-in? And could European competition prove a distraction? We assess the chances of the top-four chasers...
Premier League table PL position Team Games played Goal difference Points 3rd Arsenal 34 24 63 4th Man City 34 28 61 5th Man Utd 34 12 59 6th West Ham 34 14 56 7th Liverpool 33 13 54
Form
Liverpool have scored four goals in two of their last three Premier League games against Everton and Stoke, now going unbeaten in the last month, but they do have a Europa League semi-final on the cards before the end of the season.
After a comfortable 3-0 win against Chelsea on Saturday Night Football, Manchester City were held to a 1-1 draw by relegation-threatened Newcastle on Tuesday.
They might be Champions League semi-finalists but City cannot afford to keeping slipping up at home, with United cutting the gap between the sides to just two points following their 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Wednesday evening.
Man City were held to a 1-1 draw with Newcastle on Tuesday
The Eagles had another hand in the race for the top four as they held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw on Saturday, but the Gunners - who had been frustrated by successive draws - won their game in hand over West Brom on Thursday night to go four clear of United.
West Ham broke their run of four consecutive Premier League draws with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Watford on Wednesday and sit three points behind Man United in the Europa League spot.
Remaining fixtures
Remaining fixtures for teams in race for fourth Man City Arsenal Man Utd West Ham Liverpool Stoke (h) Sunderland (a) Leicester (h) West Brom (a) Newcastle (h) Southampton (a) Norwich (h) Norwich (a) Swansea (h) Swansea (a) Arsenal (h) Man City (a) West Ham (a) Man Utd (h) Watford (h) Swansea (a) Aston Villa (h) Bournemouth (h) Stoke (a) Chelsea (h) West Brom (a)
Man City welcome Stoke to the Etihad on Saturday following their 4-0 defeat by Spurs on Monday Night Football and, looking at their run-in, they'll be optimistic of a strong finish to the domestic campaign, regardless of their European commitments.
Southampton (a), and Swansea (a) should offer opportunities to take maximum points, while City's penultimate fixture, at home to Arsenal, offers the ideal stage for Pellegrini's men to strike a direct blow against a top-four rival.
Sunday, May 8 will no doubt be circled in Arsene Wenger's diary, too. Like City, Arsenal will hope to win their other remaining games - against Sunderland (a), Norwich (h) and Aston Villa (a) - but that trip to the Etihad could be key.
Matteo Darmian scored his first Man Utd goal on Wednesday to keep the pressure on the top four.
Manchester United - who beat both City and Arsenal in their previous meetings with them - are aiming to put themselves in a position to capitalise on any slip-up and will be favourites to win at least four of their five remaining games. The other comes against leaders Leicester.
Liverpool face a big test on Saturday as Rafa Benitez returns to Anfield with his battling Newcastle team, with Chelsea in their penultimate game of the season the pick of their remaining fixtures.
As for West Ham, they play United on Tuesday, May 10 and will need to win that final fixture at Upton Park, plus the majority of their other four remaining games to spring a surprise.
Andy Carroll has scored five goals in three games to boost West Ham's top four hopes.
Current injuries Team Number of injuries (According to physioroom.com) Liverpool 8 Man United 4 Man City 4 West Ham 1 Arsenal 1
Liverpool have a eight first-team players on the injury table at the moment with Divock Origi the latest name on the list from Wednesday evening. Martin Skrtel, Emre Can, Jordan Henderson, Christian Benteke and Jordan Rossiter are also sidelined along with long-term absentee's Joe Gomez and Danny Ings.
Manchester United are currently hampered by four injuries with Adnan Januzaj, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Luke Shaw and Will Keane all unavailable.
Man City are also without four players, although Samir Nasri has returned. Gael Clichy, David Silva and Bacary Sagna are also suffering.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is still sidelined for Arsenal but Jack Wilshere is close to a return, while long-term absentee Carl Jenkinson is West Ham's only player in the treatment room.
Are they confident?
Louis van Gaal pulled no punches when he was asked about United's hopes for the top four, saying after the win over Crystal Palace: "We are putting pressure on them (Arsenal and Man City) throughout the season. At the end of the season it counts much more... We have four matches to go and we must win them all. Then we have a chance."
Slaven Bilic is also ready for a top-four fight and said after the win over Watford: "This is not over... We will give everything in this last four games to win all of them. Where that will take us we don't know but we are going to give everything and if we play like this or even better we have a chance against every team."
Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker was in a similarly fighting mood, telling Sky Sports News HQ before the West Brom game: "I think as long as the team is still hungry, still wants to go for it, that's going to be the key. As long as we keep that, we have the opportunity to get 15 points out of the five games. Then let's see what the outcome is." It's one down, four to go for the Gunners.
Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United's latest win over Crystal Palace keeps them in with a chance of clinching a top four spot. Louis van Gaal believes Manchester United's latest win over Crystal Palace keeps them in with a chance of clinching a top four spot.
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has pinpointed the two games that cost his side, but says he is pleased with how they have reacted heading towards the end of the season.
"For different reasons, we lost important games in February against Leicester and Tottenham," he said. "For me, they're the two games that don't allow us now to be involved in the title... Now I think we are stable again and I'm very happy to finish the way we are doing in these last games."
Jurgen Klopp was also in a positive mood after the Merseyside derby victory, telling Sky Sports: "We are in a good moment... Beating Everton is a special thing in our situation in the table where we want to take what we can get."
Conclusion
Arsenal's clash with Man City in the penultimate round of fixtures could be key.
With just four points separating third and fifth - and considering West Ham are only five points out of the picture - the race for the top four is far from over. It's tough to call, too.
West Ham bounced back from their late draw with Leicester with a positive performance against Watford, but Manchester United will also be optimistic of reeling in the two teams above them.
A win for either Man City or Arsenal when they meet in the penultimate round of fixtures could send the loser crashing out of the Champions League qualifying spots.
City's involvement in the Champions League semi-finals cannot be discounted, either. Pellegrini's side face a trip to Southampton and that home game with Arsenal immediately after their ties with Real Madrid. Could their exertions in Europe damage their domestic ambitions?
How City and the other teams in contention deal with the pressure of the run-in will be key.
Who do you think has the toughest run-in? Let us know using the message boards or by tweeting @SkyFootball
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Iraqi forces begun their operation to retake the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced.
“The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started,” Abadi said, in an address broadcast on state television. “Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh [Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL].”
READ MORE: Offensive on ISIS ‘capital’ Mosul could start Monday, Red Cross warns of 1mn refugees
An offensive to retake Iraq’s second largest city has been planned for months, since Iraqi forces and loyal government militia surrounded Mosul, in the country's north. The city fell to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in June 2014, when the terrorists conducted their offensive on Iraq, overrunning nearly a third of the country.
Before the offensive began, dozens of ambulances were lined up at the frontline ready to ferry out casualties, as thousands of Iraqi troops moved into battle positions, The Washington Post reported.
Ahead of the offensive, the country's air force allegedly dropped leaflets warning the residents of the IS stronghold of the looming US-supported offensive. Iraqi forces have also cut off any escape routes for ISIS fighters.
Not all people in #Mosul are #ISIS members , be careful where you targeting , alot of wounded between civilians pic.twitter.com/GpjHZ4yDeS — Sound and Picture (@soundandpic) October 17, 2016
A day before the offensive, the US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, Brett McGurk, warned of the unpredictability of the Mosul battle.
"This will be a very unpredictable, very dynamic, very uncertain operation," McGurk said, NBC reported. "We do not know what Daesh is going to do in Mosul."
Just ahead of the operation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), warned of the humanitarian catastrophe that the offense could cause, saying that the battle could create a million refugees.
Godspeed to the heroic Iraqi forces, Kurdish #Peshmerga, and #Ninewa volunteers. We are proud to stand with you in this historic operation. — Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) October 16, 2016
Some 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish forces are now up against an estimated 3,000 to 4,500 IS militants in Mosul, where approximately 1 million civilians are now caught in the crosshairs.
UN emergency relief coordinator Stephen O’Brien issued a statement expressing his concern for the civilian population in Mosul.
“I am extremely concerned for the safety of up to 1.5 million people living in Mosul who may be impacted by military operations to retake the city from ISIL. Families are at extreme risk of being caught in cross-fire or targeted by snipers. Tens of thousands of Iraqi girls, boys, women and men may be under siege or held as human shields,” O’Brian said in a statement.
READ MORE: US, Saudis to grant 9,000 ISIS fighters free passage from Iraqi Mosul to Syria – source
The UN fears that thousands may be forcibly trapped between the fighting lines, warning that “children, women, the elderly, and disabled will be particularly vulnerable.”
“Depending on the intensity and scope of the fighting, as many as one million people may be forced to flee their homes in a worst-case scenario,” the UN official stressed, calling on the warring parties to respect international law and spare civilian lives.
In addition to Iraqi and militia forces, it is widely believed that US troops could also participate in the offensive. Late last month, President Obama authorized the dispatch of an additional 600 American troops to Iraq to assist with the Mosul operation. Before the announcement, the US had 4,500 troops in Iraq, years after the Obama administration officially withdrew all American troops from the country.
Meanwhile, US Defense Chief Ash Carter has welcomed the offensive on Mosul, calling it a "decisive moment” in the campaign to defeat Islamic State.
“We are confident our Iraqi partners will prevail against our common enemy and free Mosul and the rest of Iraq from ISIL's hatred and brutality,” he said in a statement. “The United States and the rest of the international coalition stand ready to support Iraqi Security Forces, Peshmerga fighters and the people of Iraq in the difficult fight ahead.”
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The former Liverpool midfielder was highly rated by Mourinho at Real and has just one year left on his contract, having not responded to Real’s offer of a two-year extension.
Alonso underwent groin surgery in Munich last week but hopes to be fit for next season. The 31-year-old has claimed to have made his peace with Chelsea's Frank Lampard after the pair clashed several times when the Spaniard was at Liverpool.
Chelsea have opened negotiations with Napoli to acquire Cavani, which will be of concern to City , who have reached an agreement with the Uruguayan but have so far baulked at paying his £53 million buy-out clause,
a sum Chelsea are also reluctant to match. If Chelsea fail to sign Cavani or Jovetic they could move for City’s Edin Dzeko. All are moves which will raise questions over the future of Fernando Torres and possibly even Juan Mata.
Mourinho is also set to keep Romelu Lukaku next season, rather than send the Belgian striker on loan, although Kevin de Bruyne is set to be loaned out again. Chelsea want De Bruyne to go to Bayer Leverkusen as part of the £15 million deal for André Schürrle. Chelsea are also in pole position to sign Porto defender Eliaquim Mangala, a
22-year-old Frenchman, but will not meet the £30 million buy-out clause and will bid under £20 million.
Mourinho has discussed a move for Benfica’s Ezequiel Garay, who has interested Manchester United, and would be a slightly cheaper option. Chelsea will have to sell to help make room for new arrivals, with the futures of defenders David Luiz and John Terry in doubt. Luiz is wanted by Paris St-Germain, Barcelona and Real Madrid, while Monaco want Terry.
Mourinho, Chelsea and Manchester City were all criticised yesterday by Barcelona’s Xavi over a lack of flair. He said: “It can’t be that a rich and powerful club plays a final of the Champions League like Chelsea did or like Manchester City have played this season or the way Mourinho’s Real played."
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Sometimes life seems hard here — the crowds, the expense, the 24-hour-living-and-working lifestyle…But then there are days, like yesterday, when we’re ever so glad we live in New York City. Like when much of the rest of the nation goes a reddish color of Tea Party, and we stick to coffee and stay (largely) blue. Like when Andrew Cuomo wins against Carl Paladino. And like when the Aeropostale at Times Square institutes an “AERO Dance Cam” to keep the young folks away from the East Village on weekends and allow us to mock them via the Internet…
As R.L. Stine put it last night,
Amen. Here are 50 other reasons to be blissfully happy that you live in New York City today — and every day — that you live here. May it be a very long time. Unless you want to leave, in which case, get the fuck out, and can we have your apartment?
50. Sending your laundry out for someone else to wash and dry it is not only convenient, it’s just good business. Especially since you will probably never own a washer and dryer. Which means you never have to feel guilty about not doing your own laundry. Next.
49. Drinking coffee four times a day, every day, isn’t the exception, it’s the rule.
48. The secret Chick Fil-A at the NYU dining hall.
47. There is always someone crazier than you. ALWAYS.
46. The view from the Brooklyn Bridge.
45. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge.
44. The epic feeling you get running to catch a train and succeeding…just before the doors close.
43. Bored to Death. 30 Rock. SNL. And a million other things that film here and we love. RIP Law and Order.
42. Manhattan-Brooklyn/Brooklyn-Manhattan wars never cease to entertain. Nor do hipster-Hasid wars. Or hipsters in general.
41. We get the inside jokes. Because, actually, we made them up in the first place.
40. That horrified look on our parents’ friends’ faces when we tell them we live in “Hell’s Kitchen.”
39. Sure, we work out next to Alec Baldwin, Padma Lakshmi, and Bridget Moynahan, and walk the streets with Willem Dafoe, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Tina Fey, but, really, we’re kinda too busy with our own lives to notice.
38. Drinking is like breathing. Or slightly more acceptable.
37. Because it’s not enough to just love New York. New York needs to love you back, too. Hey, we have high standards.
36. Whatever you need, whenever you need it, there is someone who will bring it to you for a price, which may or may not be negotiable. (Or legal.)
35. By the time the rest of the nation has bedbugs, we’ll have figured out how to get rid of them. In the meantime, we’ll mock them by dressing our dogs up as bedbugs for Halloween. Laugh in the face of fear, New Yorker!
34. There are almost 200 bars in the East Village alone.
33. There’s no shortage of stupid rich people to make fun of.
32. The endless delights of the New York Post.
31. You don’t even need a passport, or a license, to partake in goat-eyeball tacos.
30. The fact that one-bedroom apartments cost an average minimum of a half-million dollars means we think nothing of spending $12 on lunch.
29. Restaurants are as common as single men and women. And equally diverse. And you never have to see either of them again after the initial awkward encounter.
28. The omnipresent opportunity to Gaga-ify yourself. And the chance that it will seem, just, normal.
27. Runnin’ Scared lives here! (And so does the Village Voice.)
26. Smart people are the norm, not the exception. (Which doesn’t mean they’re sane, but at least no one’s boring.)
25. Except in select ‘hoods like Park Slope and perhaps the Upper West Side, children are viewed as mysterious beings, rarely sighted and only occasionally understood, like pixies or magical small butlers. Until they scream, in which case, they are banished from the palace.
Update Our response to the NYC haters.
24. When you fly back into the city after a vacation or business trip, no matter how long you’ve lived here, you get that butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling.
23. Efficiency in a drugstore checkout line.
22. How easy it is to find doughnuts, pizza, Chinese food, or any other snack your drunken self desires at 4 a.m. Or to continue to drink. Responsibly!
21. Broadway. Museums. CULTCH-AH. Even if you never actually go to see anything (though you should, at least once).
20. Yelling “fuck” is just a mild obscenity.
19. There’s no shame in sticking your fingers in your ears like an anal weirdo when an ambulance goes by screeching.
18. Summer concerts at the Williamsburg Waterfront.
17. So many Missed Connections, so little time.
16. Other places have dog and cat people. We have ferret people.
15. The splendor of the Union Square Greenmarket.
14. A bagel with cream cheese and lox from Russ and Daughters.
13. There is an insane Korean day spa (Spa Castle) waiting for you in Flushing. And Russian and Turkish baths in the East Village.
12. One of our bars has 100-year-old urinals.
11. Complain about the MTA, but you can get anywhere in the city for just $2.25. Or $2.50 single ride, come 2011. Still pretty damn cheap.
10. Subway rage. Bike-lane rage. Walking rage. Random rage. These are our therapy. Although we all go to therapy, too. No judgments! We bitch, therefore we are.
9. Jaywalking is an art form.
8. The free Ikea ferry to Red Hook on weekends! Plus, Red Hook in general. Can you say “Lobster pound”?
7. Subway “prewalking,” in which you walk to the exact right spot on the platform to board the train car that will save you the most time upon exit, exists and has a name. Gotta respect.
6. You can be alone, but never feel lonely. And vice versa. But if you die and aren’t found until a year later, you won’t be the first.
5. We are, as a group, anti-fanny-pack as much as we are pro-gay-marriage. Hetero marriage, on the other hand, we can pretty much take or leave.
4. 35 is the new 26. Or is it 45? Whatever, age ain’t nuthin’ but a number, and as long as you’re younger than your IQ score, no harm, no foul.
3. Finding your “local” is that much better here.
2. There is absolutely no reason to ever drink and drive. Added bonus: Spontaneous, fascinating conversations with cab drivers.
1. If you can make it here, you really can make it anywhere. But why would you bother to go anywhere else?
Let us know what we missed.
ALSO: Our response to the NYC haters.
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At Gitmo, even acquittal may not set you free Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday February 20, 2008
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Print This Email This On February 11, the Pentagon announced it would be trying six Guantanamo detainees for war crimes and seeking the death penalty. However, according to Russ Tuttle of The Nation, "the trials are rigged from the start." Tuttle interviewed Col. Morris Davis, the former chief prosecutor for the military commissions, who resigned last fall, calling the system "deeply politicized." Davis has suggested that the cases are being tried in 2008 purely because of the presidential election. Davis told Tuttle that in 2005, Pentagon general counsel William Haynes said to him, "We can't have acquittals. If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions." The Nuremburg trials after World War II, which offer the main precedent for any Guantanamo proceedings, resulted in a number of acquittals, and this was important to the perception that justice had been done. Davis and others fear that with the possibility of acquittals ruled out, any Gitmo trials will be seen as a sham. However, it seems likely that even if any of the defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence, they would not be released. At a March 21, 2002 Defense Department briefing describing the plans for military commissions, Haynes was asked, "Do these procedures guarantee that if a defendant is acquitted, that the defendant will be set free?" Haynes responded, "If we had a trial right this minute, it is conceivable that somebody could be tried and acquitted of that charge, but may not necessarily automatically be released. The people that we are detaining, for example, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are enemy combatants that we captured on the battlefield seeking to harm U.S. soldiers or allies, and they're dangerous people. ... The people that we now hold in Guantanamo are held for a specific reason that is not tied specifically to any particular crime." In response to a follow-up question, Haynes further explained, "The people we're holding in Guantanamo we're holding because we found them to be enemy combatants. ... We are within our rights, and I don't think anyone disputes it, that we may hold enemy combatants for the duration of the conflict. And the conflict is still going and we don't see an end in sight right now." Haynes, who is a Bush administration appointee, stands in the unusual position of overseeing both the prosecution and the defense for the military commissions. It was when Haynes was placed above him in the chain of command that Davis resigned. Haynes has also been associated with the approval of torture and, according to writer Scott Horton, has tried to either politicize or sidestep the Judge Advocate General's corps, which is charged with implementing the military commissions. Ross Tuttle and Scott Horton both appeared on Democracy Now! to further discuss the charges in Tuttle's article. Tuttle explained that he had called Col. Davis for comment on a story about one particular detainee and simply asked him if he thought the detainees could get a fair trial. He wasn't surprised by Davis's answer, but when he realized that "this really seems to be the first time that somebody at such a high level has made such a statement," he concluded it was important to get it into print. "Jim Haynes is not just anybody," Horton emphasized. "As the general counsel of the Department of Defense, he's the person who stands near the apex of this process. The prosecutors report to him. The defense counsels report to him. The judges report to him. ... And he already has an established back record of intervening in these cases for political purposes." Scott Horton added that Davis is highly respected in the military and that his attitudes about military justice are normally extremely conservative, making his resignation and speaking out all the more extraordinary. The JAG corps itself is highly professional and wary of any politicization of its proceedings and has repeatedly come into conflict with Haynes, especially over the torture memos. The use of confessions obtained through torture will be of central concern when it comes to potential trials of detainees. The Defense Department has disputed Davis's previous assertions. Transcript of Democracy Now! interview can be read at this link
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With the Friday the 13th December deadline for a federal budget deal, the cries of “we’re broke,” and “we can’t afford to keep spending,” are ringing again. But we’re not broke and acting like we are is making us poorer.
One of the biggest common misunderstandings is that governments are like households, which need to tighten their spending when times are tough. Actually, governments and households work in opposite ways.
Governments can and should spend more when times are tough. Government spending makes up for lack of spending by families and businesses, and it helps get the economy moving by getting people back to work, putting money in their pockets, and contracting with businesses.
If we needed a reminder of that, the recent government shutdown gave us one. Journalists reported story after story about how business was down, as federal workers were laid off and national parks closed. The estimates are that even though the shut down only lasted 16 days, it cost the economy $24 billion.
We need government spending and investment to get the entire economy moving forward. When families are back at work with decent wages, government tax revenues will rise and spending on social supports will fall. That’s when government can reduce spending without slowing down the economy.
During the past two years we’ve reduced the deficit by half, close to 2008 levels. That may sound like it’s a good thing, but it’s really the biggest reason the economy is so lackluster for the vast majority of Americans with a near-record-high in unemployment, stagnant wages, and a smaller proportion of Americans working than any time in the past 30 years.
We’ve also cut all the wrong things: spending that puts money in people’s pockets today and investments in our economic future. We’ve cut spending on education, unemployment insurance, environmental protection, and scientific research. Our public investment, which includes annual government programs and spending on roads, bridges, transit, research, and development is actually the lowest it’s been as a share of the economy in 60 years.
What if we’d taken a different course during the recession? How about rather than cutting spending after an initial stimulus, which avoided a second great depression by saving three million jobs, the government had kept at it?
History shows that if we have continued the levels of spending normally done after recessions, we would have spent some $800 billion more than we did, and the overall economy (and not just the stock market) would be back to the same level today that it was before the recession hit.
In short, the argument that the government must live within its means to protect our children’s future is backwards. Averting deficit spending now means starving our children’s present and their future. More parents will have to struggle to get by, fewer good jobs will be created, education will suffer, and today’s college students will stumble into their careers saddled with huge debt loads.
And our infrastructure will keep crumbling and research will dwindle, making it harder for our businesses to compete in the global marketplace.
There are ways we can reduce the deficit without slowing down the economy very much, if at all. That is by looking at the other truth about the cry that “we’re broke.” In fact, we have been robbed.
When Uncle Sam gives big corporations tax breaks to move jobs overseas, we’ve been robbed. When Washington taxes billionaires at a lower rate than their secretaries, we’ve been robbed.
To get the country moving again, Congress needs to reverse direction and increase spending on vital services and investment.
That means reversing the budget cuts on domestic spending already in place and stopping any more sequestration cuts on vital services for our families. And raising taxes on the wealthy and huge corporations, which have been gaming the system at our expense.
Instead of obsessing about the “need” to cut government spending, our leaders should be figuring out how best to stimulate the economy to provide both a better today and future for our children.
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PESHAWAR: At least 19 people were killed and 42 others injured when a bomb exploded on a bus carrying government employees on Peshawar’s Charsadda Road, DawnNews reported.
Peshawar SSP (operations) Najeeb-ur-Rehman said the bomb planted in the rear portion of the bus went off when it reached Gulbela area, about 15km northwest of Peshawar.
The blast damaged a number of nearby shops and doors and windows of several buildings. Some people working in nearby fields were hit by shrapnels.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IG Nasir Durrani told reporters that the bus was taking employees of civil secretariat to their villages in Charsadda district and was targeted by a remotely-detonated bomb.
Durrani further said that it was a planned sabotage activity and the police was assessing the situation.
Bomb Disposal Unit chief AIG Shafqat Malik said the high quality explosives weighing 12 to 15 kilograms had been packed in a bag.
Lady Reading Hospital’s spokesperson Syed Jamil Shah said that 10 bodies and 27 injured had been brought to the hospital where two of the injured died.
The rest of the bodies and the injured were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital in Charsadda. A woman was among the dead. Four of the injured were in critical condition.
Eyewitness said the blast was so powerful it threw victims' bodies clear of the vehicle and onto the roadside.
“The sound of the blast is still ringing in my head, I cannot explain it in words,” Lal Zada, 40, a government employee whose right leg was severely wounded, told AFP.
Lal Zada lost his brother-in-law, also a government employee in the blast.
“All of a sudden, there was a huge explosion. The bus shattered and something hit me in my leg and I fell to the floor. It was horrible,” he said.
Footage showed the back of the bus reduced to a tangle of twisted metal by the force of the explosion.
Horrific scenes were seen in Peshawar's main Lady Reading hospital.
The injured screamed for help in the emergency unit while doctors and medics were seen rushing in and outside the wards, providing medical treatment and wheeling the critically injured to the operating theatre.
The target was government employees, Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, the commissioner of Peshawar, told AFP. The bus was heading to the town of Charsadda when the bomb went off.
Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, lies on the edge of Pakistan's tribal areas, labelled by Washington as the main sanctuary for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the country. The city has seen frequent attacks by militants in the past few years, with targets ranging from civilians to policemen and other law enforcement personnel.
— With additional reporting by Zahir Shah Sherazi
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After Coming Out, Gay Mormon Finds Support At Home
After Coming Out, Gay Mormon Finds Support At Home Listen · 7:58 7:58
toggle caption Courtesy Jamison Manwaring
Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.
Jamison Manwaring came out to extended family and his church community last spring in a YouTube video. More than 20,000 people have watched it since.
Coming out wasn't easy, because Manwaring is a Mormon. According to the church, having homosexual feelings is not a sin, but acting upon them is.
When NPR's Rachel Martin spoke to Manwaring for a Sunday Conversation in March, his immediate family had known he was gay for several years. Now Manwaring, a resident of Salt Lake City, is finding a measure of support within his own church, but he speculates that he might not feel as welcome further out in the suburbs or in smaller Utah towns.
"I live right in the city," he says. "I need my church community, and so I'm glad I can be fully gay, fully out at church."
A federal court in Utah ruled Friday that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. Gay couples inundated the Salt Lake City County Clerk's office, seeking marriage licenses.
Thinking about going back in the closet would be something I can't even imagine, because of how different it is being out.
Manwaring says if he had seen images such as those in the news Friday — of gay Utah couples marrying in the lobby and hallways — when he was younger, it would have helped him feel less alone. But he doesn't think changing the law will completely solve the problem for others.
"The bigger issue for me was not knowing anybody who was gay who was happy, healthy, ambitious and looked up to by the community," he told NPR's Rachel Martin. "That's something that changes by the culture, not by law. I think that this change helps with that, but I hope that the hearts of people change with it."
His parents have given him lots of love, even if they haven't fully supported his gay lifestyle, Manwaring says. But his siblings have been very supportive. His brother Jonathan and his wife Rachel, who have become advocates for gay Mormons since Manwaring came out, also spoke to NPR from their home in Tempe, Ariz.
Interview Highlights
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy Jamison Manwaring Courtesy Jamison Manwaring
Jonathan on learning that Jamison was gay
It was definitely a shock and definitely changed my worldview in a lot of ways. I guess I never conceptualized the lonely paths people walk. ... Now I feel like just being able to do that has just opened my mind and my ability to reach out to others.
What Rachel tells her five young children about their uncle
I was so grateful, when Jamison came out, that we could be so open with our children. They have a gay uncle, and that doesn't change anything. We grew up with this idea of just this deviant lifestyle, and just kind of unknown. For my kids, gay is not scary. It's not strange, it's not gross: It's very normal.
Jamison's hopes for a long-term relationship
The idea of living by myself for the rest of my life is very depressing, and I do want a long-term committed relationship, with a man, and to have a family with him. That is outside of what the church would want me to do and what they say to do, but that is what is best for me so that I can live a full, fulfilling life.
What Jonathan wants for his brother
I would want him to experience being able to share his gifts, his talents, his love with somebody else and to have a family. I would want that for him, for his happiness. I think our church community would be better off if we would allow our church members who are homosexual to stay with us.
Join Our Sunday Conversation
Have you had to reconcile a loved one's sexuality with your own beliefs? Tell us your story on the Weekend Edition Facebook page, or in the comments section below.
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(ANTIMEDIA) German newspaper Bild has emphatically apologized for an article it ran claiming women had been sexually assaulted in Frankfurt on New Year’s Eve by a “rioting sex mob” of Arab refugees. According to Bild, the accusations are baseless, and neither police reports from that night nor an investigation following the report turned up any evidence to support the claims made by alleged “victims.”
“The editorial staff of Bild emphatically apologizes for this untrue report and the allegations that it made against those concerned. This reporting in no way reflects the journalistic standards of Bild,” the paper said.
In the February 6th article, Jan Mai, owner of a cafe in Frankfurt, was quoted as saying she witnessed 50 “Arab-looking men” assault women the night of December 31st. A 27-year old waitress, identified as Irina A., claimed to have been one of the women attacked, saying “they grabbed me under my skirt, between the legs and on my breast – Their hands were everywhere.” According to Nadja Niesen, a spokeswoman for prosecutors in Frankfurt, officials opened an investigation into the women’s claims, and authorities searched the waitress’ apartment.
When the Bild story started to spread on social media, other media outlets attempted to corroborate the story but were told by several restaurant owners and regular customers who insisted they had seen no such “sex mob.”
According to police:
“Masses of refugees were not responsible for any sexual assaults in the Fressgass over New Year. The accusations are completely baseless. Interviews with alleged witnesses, guests and employees led to major doubts with the version of events that had been presented … One of the alleged victims was not even in Frankfurt at the time the allegations are said to have taken place.”
Bild removed the article more than a week later, saying the attacks “did not take place.” Bild’s editor for digital news, Julian Reeichelt, tweeted “We apologise for our own work. I’ll shortly announce what Bild will do about it.”
Creative Commons / Anti-Media / Report a typo
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Earlier today Microsoft pulled the switch on Lumia Denim, making it available in more regions and areas; stating:
While we’re on the subject of Lumia Denim, you will no doubt be pleased to hear that the roll-out began as of 6pm GMT yesterday. Features such as Cortana, Live Folders, a Glance Screen update, improved IE and Consumer VPN should all be with you soon. Owners of the Lumia Icon, 1520, 930 and 830 will also be receiving a Lumia camera update with innovations such as Moment and Rich capture. More info here. For a Lumia Denim software update guide click here.
Lumia Denim will roll-out in addition to the Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1, which brings live folders and improved browsing performances. However since the latest surge of Denim updates doesn’t include the UK country variant (for my 930) among other various regions we contacted Microsoft asking when we can expect a wider release of the software:
Currently it’s rolling out on limited number of devices in selected regions. A wider rollout of Lumia Denim to all Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to begin this month following partner testing and approvals.
Hopefully that means that most of us will have Denim running on our devices by the 21st, before Microsoft’s Windows 10 event.
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Seven Reasons to Own Your Own Missal
Since the allowance of the vernacular in the Mass following Vatican II, the idea of people having their own Roman Missal has fallen into relative obscurity. The erroneous thinking that the Roman Missal was simply there to help one follow the Latin has, sadly, resulted in a temporal and eternal disconnect with the liturgical and spiritual heartbeat of the Church. The liturgical year of the Catholic Church is far more than an artificial collection of feasts and seasons. It is a profound and soul-altering spiritual rhythm that provides a veracity as real as cosmic time. The Roman Missal provides us with a vital navigational tool for the spiritual reality of our glorious faith.
Praying the Mass
“The Mass is the most perfect form of prayer.” – Pope Paul VI
When most of us call to mind a Roman Missal, we think of the Order of the Mass, which presents the basic liturgical structures and rhythm of our worship. The Order of the Mass grants us the foundation for understanding the Holy Sacrifice of Christ and our timeless participation in his death and resurrection. When we attend Mass, we are entering into a moment where time and eternity meet. Reception of the Eucharist is a real participation in Christ’s historic sacrifice, and that deeply intimate experience with Christ in the Eucharist orientates us toward the glory of Christ’s eternal kingdom. It is past, present and future all coming together in the Eucharist, which is then wrapped in prayers, Scriptures and the solemnity proper to it. In this understanding, the Roman Missal aids the Catholic in engaging heart and soul in the most perfect prayer more perfectly.
A Treasury of Catholic Prayers
Beyond Sunday, the Roman Missal is a wealth of wisdom that offers the individual Catholic a myriad of sacred prayers. Life is turbulent — at times a challenging path where feelings of being lost or overwhelmed are all too common. Other times, life is a resounding joy and a blessed event filled with miracles, daily needs, friends, family and the charity of Christ. For all of these circumstances, our forefathers of the faith have composed prayers to help Catholics communicate with God and express their hearts in wondrous lucidity. The Roman Missal is a tome of these wise expressions and should be an at-hand resource for any Catholic and their family.
Daily Structuring
We are well aware that our Catholicism cannot be isolated to one day a week — that the faith must be a habitual and daily event that colors the very expression of our lives. However, the daily discipline necessary and the proper actions to accomplish this spiritual necessity can be very difficult. The Roman Missal presents the structure of the liturgical year for every day of the week, offering the readings and prayers to help the individual Catholic participate in the daily expression of the divine reality of our faith.
The Missal and the Home Altar
Home altars are important focal points for any Catholic family striving for holiness. Often set aside in bedrooms or even closets, home altars are domestic sanctuaries that provide Catholics with a quiet place of prayer and meditation. Among the crucifix, the icons and the candles, the Roman Missal is a vital part of the home altar, as it brings into a place of family prayer the liturgical guide gifted to us by the Church.
A Personal Bond
Catholics dedicated to praying the Rosary can witness to the intimate bonds they develop with their own rosaries. Each bead in each mystery is a witness to God’s faithfulness, whether it is an answered prayer or a comfort in mourning. Each decade of the Rosary comes to be a memorial for the divine events in our lives. The Roman Missal is no different. Holding it in your hand each week at Mass, turning to its prayers in times of need, and having it serve as a spiritual guide is likewise a divine bonding experience. In time, as with the rosary, the pages and prayers begin to call to mind the divine actions we have witnessed, and grant us the endurance and joy to live the good life.
Proper of Saints
We are not the first — or last — ones to strive after a life of holiness. The Roman Missal can be a constant source of spiritual direction, and the proper of the saints serves to reinforce that reality through brief accounts of their lives and enriching prayers related to each. The study of our forefathers, the celebration of their fidelity, and the acceptance of their present reality and intercession all serve to bind together the family of God. As the Church militant, we must look back to the lives of the Church triumphant and look forward to receiving the eternal prize they now embrace.
Ritual, Votive and Requiem Masses
The Roman Missal also includes special Masses and rituals for various occasions. Votive Masses and Masses for the dead are unique circumstances in our lives, circumstances that can be difficult for our families. Again, like the rosary, having in your hand your Roman Missal that has consistently been a source of guidance and comfort is invaluable in the most arduous of times.
Are you looking to draw closer to the heartbeat of the Church? The Roman Missal will provide you with blessings for decades to come. If you have never owned one, the new translation of the Mass provides a great opportunity to make a purchase (Christmas is coming!). And if you have an old one, it’s a perfect time to update. Which one? I am not an expert, but I own a beautiful and faithful compilation provided by Midwest Theological Forum that you can find here. Many blessings on your journey …
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Aggressive Girls - Female Violence
Health Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) - Family Violence Revention Unit
français
Aggressive Girls - Overview Paper
Introduction
Until recently, males were believed to be Read More ..gressive and violent than females, and therefore few studies of aggression and violence included girls and women. Lately, however, Read More ..olescent girls have been charged with violent crimes than before,1 which has led to increased research on girls who use violent strategies. Nevertheless, prevention programs and intervention services often rely on research based on explanations of male behaviour. However, Read More ..cent research addresses how best to prevent and intervene in girls' use of aggression and violence.2-5
The rate of violent crime reflected in official reports increased steadily among both male and female youth during the late 1980s and the 1990s: the rate among male youth nearly doubled, and the rate among female youth almost tripled.6,7 For example, the violent crime rate among female youth rose from 2.2 per 1,000 in 1988 to a peak of 5.6 per 1,000 in 1996, and began to decline in 1999. Two key points must be noted. First, the number of charges laid against boys is still three to four times greater than the number against girls. Second, the actual number of girls charged is small, so that a small increase in the number of charges results in a large percentage increase.8
Some researchers suggest that the increase can be partly explained by the stricter approach to schoolyard fights and bullying in recent years, which has led educators, parents and police to label as "assaults" behaviours once viewed as
unfortunate or "bad," but not criminal.9 In fact, the self-reported rates of aggressive behaviour of 10 and 11 year olds in the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth were similar in the 1994/95 and 1996/97 cycles (38% and 34% respectively).10 In both cycles, girls between the ages of 12 and 13 were less likely than boys to display aggressive behaviour (29% and 56% respectively).11
Terms and Definitions
Numbers by themselves do not provide insight into the dynamics of girls' participation in aggression and violence. It is helpful to start by defining the terms used to discuss the issue of aggression and violence in girls.
Aggression
Aggression can be defined as "a class of behaviours that have in common an intrusive, demanding, and aversive effect on others."12 In other words, aggressive behaviours are those that are hurtful and/ or harmful to others. Aggression that is outwardly observable, as in name-calling, taunting, or physical intimidation and threat, is overt. Aggression that is not observable, as in lying or stealing, is covert. Aggression can also be direct (threatening, yelling, insulting, name-calling, teasing, hitting, shoving, pushing, kicking or destroying personal property) or indirect (also known as "social" or "relational" aggression, as in shunning, excluding, ignoring, gossiping, spreading false rumours or disclosing another person's secrets). Canadian reports indicate that girls demonstrate a higher level of indirect aggression at every age than do boys and that indirect aggression increases with age for both boys and girls.13,14
Violence
Violence is distinguished from aggression by the presence of acts that involve the overt and observable use of physical force.15,16 Typically, males' aggression is overt and direct (physical), which contributes to the assumption that violence is a male behaviour. However, recent studies provide evidence of females employing both direct violence and indirect violence (using males to commit violent acts for them).17,18 If violence were assumed to be a male behaviour, female violence would be overlooked or denied. Consequently, we would fail to develop ways to prevent or intervene in violence by girls.
Bullying
Bullies use power to control others. Usually, a "dominant individual (the bully) repeatedly exhibits aggressive behaviour intended to cause distress to a less dominant individual (the victim)."19 Girl bullies tend to manipulate social groups by name-calling, verbal abuse and spreading rumours to damage friendships among others or to exclude selected girls from social interaction.20 Thus, girl bullies tend to use non-physical aggression Read More ..an physical violence.21 Most recently, girls are reported to be using the Internet to harass their peers.22 Recent research indicates that 9% of Canadian girls between the ages of 4 and 11 participate in bullying other children, and 7% are victimized by bullies; 68% of children have been observed in both roles (bully and victim).23 Without intervention, bullying behaviours in young children tend to persist throughout adolescence. Girls who are bullied are Read More ..kely to feel sad or miserable than to feel angry. They Read More ..ten discuss their distress with their friends than with a teacher or another adult.24
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Conduct Disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV),25 to be diagnosed with conduct disorder a young person must have committed at least three violations in four categories of aggression (aggression toward people and animals, aggression toward property, deceit/theft and serious violations of rules) in the previous 12 months, the latest within the previous 6 months.26 Girls who frequently use aggression and violence may be diagnosed as "conduct disordered". These girls display a pattern of repetitive behaviours that involve violating the rights of others and other socially destructive behaviours.27 Only a qualified DSM-IV-trained practitioner can make a diagnosis of conduct disorder, which represents an underlying dysfunction within the individual and is distinct from behaviours that reflect reactions to social or contextual situations.28 Being labelled with a mental disorder represents a permanent condition and may not allow a girl to change or develop new behaviours. Therefore, labelling should be taken very seriously by anyone working with children and youth, and used only after careful consideration of its appropriateness and impact.29 Some research suggests that biological, genetic and medical factors are related to the occurrence of conduct disorder in some children.30 Environmental factors such as family, education and peer relationships also influence the development and maintenance of conduct disorder. Conduct disorder is not "oppositional disorder." Girls with oppositional disorder display patterns of negative, hostile and defiant behaviour, but their behaviours do not involve violating the rights of others.
Why Do Girls Engage in Aggression and Violence?
Some researchers think that girls resort to aggression and violence for different reasons than boys. No single factor can predict aggressive and violent behaviour.31 The factors that contribute to the risk of aggressive and violent behaviour among girls include both systemic (family, community and social context) and individual (personal) variables.32 Usually, many factors act in combination.
Family Dynamics and Parental Relationships
Evidence suggests that aggressive and violent behaviour in children is linked to family and social factors, such as social and financial deprivation; harsh and inconsistent parenting; parents' marital problems; family violence, whether between parents, by parents toward children or between siblings; poor parental mental health; physical and sexual abuse; and alcoholism, drug dependency or other substance misuse by parents or other family members.33 In addition, many aggressive and violent girls have poorly developed connections to their mothers.34,35
School Difficulties
Girls who experience difficulties at school, like social rejection by peers and low connectedness to school, are often Read More ..kely to be absent and to drop out eventually. These girls are also Read More ..kely to use aggression and violence.36-39 Problems at home and learning disabilities are also interconnected with difficulties at school.
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Gender Issues
Aggressive and violent girls often see male control and domination over females as normal. They may hold views similar to those that support male violence towards females in that they tend to believe girls and women have less value and importance than boys and men. Aggressive and violent girls tend to attack other girls who are perceived as competing with them for male attention, and they tend to maintain social connections with peers who are perceived as helping them win in that competition.40
Boredom and Attention-seeking Behaviour
Girls who engage in relational aggression and bullying suggest that they often do so to alleviate boredom, by creating excitement, finding out gossip, seeking attention/importance41 and seeking validation from a group that excludes others.42
Connections to Delinquent Peers
Girls are Read More ..kely than boys to be rejected by their peers for engaging in outward (overt and direct) aggression and violence.43 However, gang membership can appeal to girls when they are seeking to escape economically disadvantaged homes, improve their self-esteem, increase their feelings of belonging, or seek revenge and protection.44 Association with delinquent peers increases girls' opportunities to engage in aggressive and violent behaviours.
Experiences with Abuse
Aggressive and violent girls often report having been victimized by others.45 These girls are Read More ..kely than non-violent girls and both violent and non-violent boys to have been attacked while going to or from school, physically abused at home, sexually abused or coerced into sexual relations.46 In their relationships with adults, aggressive and violent girls have often learned that relationships involve one person dominating and abusing another.47
Drug Involvement
The abuse of alcohol and drugs contributes to aggression and violence in both adolescent girls and boys.48 However, chronic use of drugs seems to be especially strongly related to girls' ongoing participation in violence.49
Atypical Physiological Responses
Girls who externalize (openly show) aggression and anger very often have family histories that involved repeated exposure to negative events during which they could neither fight nor flee (e.g. being abused as a child or being exposed to the abuse of a parent and/or sibling).50 As a result, these girls tend to be less responsive than other girls when exposed to threatening or stressful situations. They tend not to avoid situations that others would deem risky or dangerous and so are Read More ..kely to become involved with violence.51
Personality Factors and Mental Illness
Although conduct disorder occurs in only 2% of the female youth population,52 close to 90% of aggressive and violent girls are given a diagnosis of conduct disorder, and 31% have a diagnosis of major depression.53,54 Aggressive and violent girls are also known to suffer from anxiety and attachment disorders (difficulties creating and sustaining affectionate social and personal bonds).55 With the onset of puberty, girls are typically three times as likely as boys to suffer from depression due to low self-esteem, negative body image, feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, and stress.56 If they are also exposed to abuse or neglect at home, they are at increased risk of becoming involved with violence.57
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Delayed Cognitive, Moral and Social Development
The use of aggression and violence may be Read More ..kely if girls believe that other people's attitudes toward them are negative.58 Aggressive and violent girls may also have poor self-representations or self-images, based on negative beliefs about themselves or on negative perceptions they believe parents and peers have of them.59 Girls who experience delayed cognitive, moral or social development are Read More ..kely to experience school difficulties and social rejection, and are therefore at an increased risk of resorting to aggressive and violent behaviour.60
Myths and Realities About Violent Girls
Myths abound about the reasons for aggression and violence in girls. The reality about what drives girls to become aggressive or violent becomes clear when we examine their experiences and beliefs. Table 1 outlines the myths and realities of what contributes to aggressive and violent behaviour in girls.61,62
What Factors Can Prevent Girls From Engaging in Aggression and Violence?
Various protective factors can help girls at risk to avoid exhibiting aggressive and violent behaviour.63
Individual protective factors: An intelligent girl with solid self-esteem, who believes that she is a capable person and who is able to take on age-appropriate social and personal responsibilities, is not likely to become aggressive or violent.
Family protective factors: Within the family, variables that support girls' use of assertive rather than aggressive behaviour include positive exposure to social situations; the presence of at least one caring and supportive adult; positive relationships with parents, especially mothers; and effective, non-authoritarian parenting.
School/community protective factors: At the school and neighbourhood level, variables that help to prevent or counter aggression and violence in girls include opportunities for education, achievement, personal growth and employment, as well as feelings of connectedness to the local community.
Efforts to prevent or counter girls' aggression and violence should be directed toward individual, family and community levels.
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Table 1
Myths and Realities About Aggressive and Violent Girls
Myth Reality Aggressive and violent girls … Aggressive and violent girls … - Do not care about others. - Endorse respect and concern for others, politeness, forgiveness and generosity to the same degree as non-violent girls; they value honesty less than non-violent girls do, but not less than boys. - Beat up people for no reason or for fun. - Rationalize their aggression and violence toward others by blaming someone else, as in "she made me do it" or "I never beat up anyone I didn't have to." - Are trying to show that females - Do not recognize the value or power of females are equal to males. and believe that females are inferior to males; they believe the only way they can attain power is by attracting dominant males. - Are an outcome of women's - Are Read More ..kely to seek validation from men liberation. than to compete with them. - Have never been adequately - Have been harshly disciplined and received disciplined. Read More ..use than non-violent girls and both violent and non-violent boys. - Get high on being involved in - Often act out aggressively to secure social dangerous activities. dominance or to avoid being controlled or victimized by others.
Individual level: Prevention programs and intervention services should address the unique ways in which girls respond to initiatives to prevent violence.64 Initiatives should
counter girls' low self-esteem as they approach adolescence;
focus on early intervention for girls who have witnessed or experienced violence, with an emphasis on strengthening and valuing the roles of women;
provide experiences that instill a sense of "mattering" ( i.e., a sense of being valued and belonging) not based on sexual currency;
involve girls in social skills and assertiveness training programs; 65-67 and
and resist programs that focus solely on anger management, since they ignore the ways in which aggression and violence can be adaptations in the struggle to survive (e.g. for self-protection).
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Family level: Including parents in interventions is essential. Aggressive girls benefit from a long-term relationship with at least one adult who provides them with a sense of acceptance, safety and prosocial values.68 In some cases, this adult may be someone outside of the family.
School/community level: Early involvement in proactive, prosocial programs in elementary schools has demonstrated positive effects on reducing aggression and violence in girls.69 Children (both boys and girls) should be engaged in discussions about sexism and taught to hold broader and less restrictive views of the roles of girls and boys.70 The best prevention efforts tend to be community-driven, use multiple strategies and adopt a holistic approach that incorporates involvement of parents, students, community-based agencies and community members. Programs should also include a plan for ongoing evaluation and follow-up.
Resources
Canadian risk assessment tools, prevention programs and intervention services are listed below to assist parents, teachers and youth workers.
Earlscourt Child and Family Centre
46 St. Clair Gardens Toronto, ON M6E 3V4 Telephone: (416) 654-8981 Fax: (416) 654-8996 E-mail: mailus@earlscourt.on.ca Internet: www.earlscourt.on.ca
Girls Connection Program and the EARL-21G Early Assessment Risk List for Girls, Consultation Edition - 2001.
Department of Justice Canada
284 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0H8
Internet: canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/yj
- Shaw, M. and Jané, F. Family Group Conferencing with Children Under Twelve: A Discussion Paper, 1999. Available on Internet: <http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/yj/ rp/doc/Paper107.PDF> - Goldberg, K., Augimeri, L.K., Koegl, C.J. and Webster, C.D. Canadian Children Under 12 Committing Offences: Legislative and Treatment Approaches, 1999. Available on Internet: <http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/yj/ rp/doc/Paper102.PDF> - Artz, S. A Community-Based Approach for Dealing with Chronically-Violent Under Twelve Year Old Children, 2001. Available on Internet: <http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/yj/ rp/doc/Paper104.PDF>
Men for Change
Box 33005, Quinpool Postal Outlet Halifax, NS B3L 4T6 Telephone: (902) 457-4351 Fax: (902) 457-4597 E-mail: info@m4c.ns.ca or aa116@chebucto.ns.ca or mailto:healthy@fox.nstn.ca Internet: www.m4c.ns.ca or www.chebucto.ns.ca/Community Support/Men4Change
Safer, A. Healthy Relationships: A Violence-prevention Curriculum, 1996.
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British Columbia Health Research Foundation
#710-4720 Kingsway Burnaby BC V5H 4N2
Telephone: 1-800-565-1994 or (604) 436-3573 Fax: (604) 436-2573 Internet: http://www.bchrf.org
- Artz, S., Riecken, T., MacIntyre, B., Lam, E. and Maczewski, M. A Community-based Violence Prevention Project: Final Report, 1999.
School of Child and Youth Care
University of Victoria Victoria, BC and
National Crime Prevention Centre Ottawa, ON
Internet: http://web.uvic.ca/cyc or http://www.crime-prevention.org
Gender-Sensitive Guide for Needs Assessment for Youth. Available on Internet: http://web.uvic.ca/cyc/naty
BC Institute Against Family Violence
Vancouver, BC
Telephone: (604) 255-5147 Internet: http://www.bcifv.org/
SAFE TEEN: A life skills and violence prevention program. Available on Internet: http://www.bcifv.org/resources/newsletter/ 1998/fall/safeteen.html
Suggested Reading
Artz, S. Sex, Power, and the Violent School Girl. Toronto, ON: Trifolium, 1998.
Cameron, C.A. and the Creating Peaceful Learning Environments School's Research Team. Violence Prevention in the Socialization of the Girl Child. Girls and Boys: Apart … and Together. Fredericton, NB: Muriel McQueen Fergusson Family Violence Research Centre, 2000.
Carrington, P. and Moyer, S. A Statistical Profile of Female Young Offenders. Ottawa: Justice Canada, 1998. Available on Internet: <http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/rs/rep/ tr98-4a-e.html>
Cavell, T. Working with Parents of Aggressive Children: A Practitioner's Guide. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000.
Lamb, S. The Secret Lives of Girls: What Good Girls Really Do - Sex Play, Aggression, and Their Guilt. New York, NY: Free Press, 2002.
Pollack, W. Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 1998.
Simmons, R. Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace, 2002.
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References
1. T. Gabor, "Trends in Youth Crime: Some Evidence Pointing to Increases in the Severity and Volume of Violence on the Part of Young People," Canadian Journal of Criminology, 41, 4 (1999): 385-92. 2. S. Artz, Sex, Power, and the Violent School Girl (Toronto, ON: Trifolium, 1998). 3. M. Bains and C. Alder, "Are Girls Read More ..fficult to Work With? Youth Workers' Perspectives in Juvenile Justice and Related Areas," Crime & Delinquency, 42, 3 (1996): 467-85. 4. M. Chesney-Lind, What to Do About Girls? Thinking About Programs for Young Women (Paper presented at the International Community Corrections Annual Research Conference, Washington, DC, September 1998). 5. R. Corrado, I. Cohen and C. Odgers, "Teen Violence in Canada." In Teen Violence: A global perspective, edited by R. Sommers and A. Hoffman (San Diego, CA: Greenwood, 1998). 6. Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, Criminal Justice Indicators: Graphical Overview (Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada, 2000). 7. BC Police Services Branch, "Youth Crime," BC Crime Trends, Issue # 2 (Victoria, BC: Ministry of Attorney General, 1998). 8. BC Police Services Branch, 1998. 9. W. DeKeseredy, Women, Crime and the Canadian Criminal Justice System (Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, 2000).
10. J.B. Sprott, A.N. Doob and J.M. Jenkins, Problem Behaviour and Delinquency in Children and Youth (Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada, 2001): 5. 11. Sprott, Doob and Jenkins: 3. 12. T. Cavell, Working with Parents of Aggressive Children: A Practitioner's Guide (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2000): 8. 13. R. Tremblay, "The Origins of Youth Violence," Isuma, 1, 2 (2000): 19-24. 14. Human Resources Development Canada, Growing Up in Canada: National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Ottawa, ON: 1998). 15. Artz, 1998. 16. Corrado, Cohen and Odgers, 1998. 17. Artz, 1998. 18. S. Artz, M. Blais and D. Nicholson, Developing Girls' Custody Units (Report to Justice Canada, 2000). 19. W. Craig and D. Pepler, Naturalistic Observations of Bullying and Victimization on the Playground (Unpublished Report. Toronto, ON: LaMarsh Research Centre on Violence and Conflict Resolution, York University, 1997). 20. W. Craig, R. Peters and R. Konarski, Bullying and Victimization Among Canadian School Children (Paper presented at Investing in Children: A National Research Conference, Ottawa, 1998): 1. 21. Craig and Pepler, 1997.
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22. C. Jones, New-age Bullies Use Cyberspace to Harass Peers, 1998. [Online]. [ accessed November 6, 2000]. Available on Internet: < http://www.theage.com.au/daily/ 981006/news/news15.html>. 23. D. Pepler and F. Sedighdeilami, Aggressive Girls in Canada (Ottawa, ON: Human Resources Development Canada, 1998). 24. L. Owens, "Sticks and Stones and Sugar and Spice: Girls' and Boys' Aggression in Schools," Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 6 (1996): 45-55. 25. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1994). 26. Health Central, "Conduct Disorder" In General Health Encyclopedia. [Online]. [accessed November 6, 2000]. Available on Internet: http://www.healthcentral.com/mhc/top/ 000919.cfm#Alternative%20names 27. Craig, Peters and Konarski, 1998. 28. W. Borst, A Review of Conduct Disorder. [Online]. [accessed April 3, 2001]. Available on Internet: < http://www.ldl.net/~bill/conduct.htm>. 29. M. Clark, "Influencing Positive Behavior Change: Increasing the Therapeutic Approach of Juvenile Courts," Federal Probation, 65, 1 (2001): 18-28.
30. M. Conner, Understanding and Dealing with Conduct and Oppositional Disorders. [Online]. [accessed November 6, 2000]. Available on Internet: http://www.oregoncounseling.org/ Handouts/ConductOppositional.htm 31. Cavell, 2000. 32. D. Andrews and J. Bonta, The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, 2nd ed. (Cincinnati, OH: Anderson, 1998). 33. A. Leschied, A. Cummings, M. Van Brunschot, A. Cunningham and A. Saunders, Female Adolescent Aggression: A Review of the Literature and the Correlates of Aggression (Ottawa, ON: Solicitor General Canada, 2000), User Report No. 2000-04. 34. Artz, 1998. 35. J. Wright, C.A. Cameron and E. Susman, Cortisol Stress Responses of Angry Girls (under review). 36. R. Flowers, The Adolescent Criminal: An Examination of Today's Juvenile Offender (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1990). 37. J. Whithecomb, "Causes of Violence in Children," Journal of Mental Health, 6, 5 (1997): 433-42. 38. L. Augimeri, K. Webster, C. Koegl and K. Levene, EARL-20B: Early Assessment Risk List for Boys, Version 1, Consultation Edition (Toronto, ON: Earlscourt Family Centre, 1998). 39. K. Levene, K. Madsen and D. Pepler, "Girls Growing Up Angry: A Qualitative Study." In Girlhood Aggression, edited by D. Pepler, K. Madsen, K.Levene and C. Webster (Toronto, ON: Erlebaum, in press).
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40. S. Artz, "Considering Adolescent Girls' Use of Violence: A Researcher's Reflections on Her Inquiry," The B.C. Counsellor, 22, 1 (2000): 44-54. 41. L. Owens, Teenage Girls: Voices of Aggression (20th International School Psychology Colloquium, Melbourne, Australia, July 15-19, 1997): 219-22. 42. M. Ashford, "Adolescent Boredom: A Conceptual Analysis," The B.C. Counsellor, 22, 1 (2000): 55-70. 43. Leschied et al., 2000. 44. K. Joe and M. Chesney-Lind, "Just Every Mother's Angel: An Analysis of Gender and Ethnic Variations in Youth Gang Membership," Gender & Society, 9 (1995): 408-31. 45. Leschied et al., 2000. 46. Pepler and Sedighdeilami, 1998. 47. Artz, 1998. 48. Wright, Cameron and Susman, under review. 49. Auditor General of BC, Fostering a Safe Learning Environment: How the British Columbia Public School System Is Doing (Victoria, BC: Office of the Auditor General, 2000). 50. M. Read More ..i, R. Holland and S. McKay, "Self-other Representations and Relational and Overt Aggression in Adolescent Girls and Boys," Behavioural Science and the Law, 19, 1 (2000): 109-126. 51. Read More ..i, Holland and McKay, 2000. 52. Borst, 2001. 53. Leschied et al., 2000. 54. Auditor General of BC, 2000. 55. M. Zoccolillo and K. Rogers, "Characteristics and Outcome of Hospitalized Adolescent Girls with Conduct Disorder," Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30 (1991): 973-81. 56. Leschied et al., 2000. 57. Leschied et al., 2000. 58. M. Sadker and D. Sadker, Failing at Fairness: How Our Schools Cheat Girls (New York, NY: Touchstone, 1994). 59. N. Crick and K. Dodge, "A Review and Reformulation of Social Information-processing Mechanisms in Children's Social Maladjustment," Psychological Bulletin, 115 (1994): 74-101. 60. Leschied et al., 2000. 61. The Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence, Violence Prevention and the Girl Child, Final Report (Ottawa, ON: Status of Women Canada, 1997). 62. Artz, 1998. 63. H. Maier, "A Developmental Perspective for Child and Youth Care Work." In Perspectives in Professional Child and Youth Care, edited by James P. Anglin, Carey J. Denholm, Roy V. Ferguson and Alan R. Pence (Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 1999). 64. Sadker and Sadker, 1994. 65. S. Artz, T. Riecken, B. MacIntyre, E. Lam and M. Maczewski, A Community-Based Violence Prevention Project (Vancouver, BC: B.C. Health Research Foundation, 1999).
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66. S. Artz and M. Blais, An Evaluation of an Awareness and Violence Prevention Pilot Project Directed at Sexual Harassment, Abuse and Date Rape among Teens (Report to Ministry of Education, Victoria, BC, 1998). 67. J. Fairholm, Dating Violence Prevention: Overview and Response, Part III (Vancouver, BC: The Canadian Red Cross, BC/Yukon Division, 1993). 68. Cavell, 2000.
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69. S. Artz and T. Riecken, A Study of Violence Among Adolescent Female Students in a Suburban School District (Unpublished report to the B.C. Ministry of Education, Victoria, BC, 1994). 70. W. Pollack, Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the Myths of Boyhood (New York, NY: Henry Holt, 1998).
Our mission is to help the people of Canada maintain and improve their health.
Health Canada
Aggressive Girls was prepared by Sibylle Artz and Diana Nicholson for the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada.
Également disponible en français sous le titre: Les filles agressives
The opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Health Canada.
Contents may not be reproduced for commercial purposes, but any other reproduction, with acknowledgements, is encouraged.
This publication can be made available in alternative formats upon request.
For Read More ..formation:
National Clearinghouse on Family Violence
Family Violence Prevention Unit Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) Health Canada (Address Locator: 1909D1)
9th Floor, Jeanne Mance Bldg., Tunney's Pasture Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1B4
Telephone: 1-800-267-1291 or (613) 957-2938 Fax: (613) 941-8930 TTY: 1-800-561-5643 or (613) 952-6396 Web Site: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/nc-cn E-mail: ncfv-cnivf@phac-aspc.gc.ca
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2002 Cat. N° H72-22/24-2002E
ISBN 0-662-33312-8
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Innocent teen George Stinney was tried, convicted and executed in 83 days in Jim Crow south of 1944: ‘a truly unfortunate episode in our history’
More than seven decades after South Carolina executed 14-year-old George Stinney, a judge has thrown out his conviction and cleared his name.
Stinney was accused of killing two white girls, Betty June Binnicker, 11, and Mary Emma Thames, seven, who were found dead in a ditch on the black side of the racially segregated town of Alcolu, South Carolina, in March 1944. In the Jim Crow era of the South, Stinney was tried, convicted and executed within 83 days in the small mill town.
The case has cast a long shadow over South Carolina. Stinney’s surviving family, including two sisters and a brother, have long believed he was forced into a confession and made a scapegoat for a white community seeking vengeance for the violent murders of two white girls, found beaten in the head with an iron spike. In January, they launched a legal bid to overturn the verdict and testified at a two-day hearing.
In a judgment delivered on Wednesday, Judge Carmen Mullen described Stinney’s tragic case as “a truly unfortunate episode in our history”.
Vacating his conviction, Mullen said that “violation of the defendant’s procedural due process rights tainted his prosecution”.
Citing testimony by Dr Amanda Salas, Mullen said it was “highly likely that the defendant was coerced into confessing to the crimes due to the power differential between his position as a 14-year-old black male apprehended by white, uniformed law enforcement in a small segregated mill town in South Carolina”.
“The confession simply cannot be said to be known and voluntary, given the facts and circumstances of this case highlighting the defendant’s age and suggestibility,” she said.
Stinney was the youngest person ever to be executed in the US in the 20th century. Mullen said it was improbable that Stinney’s confession, delivered without a lawyer or his parents present, would stand up under the fifth or 14th amendments.
“Based on the facts presented to this court, methods employed by law enforcement in their questioning of the defendant may have been unduly suggestive, unrestrained and noncompliant with the standards of criminal procedure as required by the first and fourteenth amendments,” she said.
The judge also chided Stinney’s appointed attorney, Charles Plowde, who she said “did little to nothing in defending Stinney”.
George’s sister, Aime Ruffner, told the hearing in January she was with him when the murders occurred, an alibi that was never presented at his trial.
Mullen said Plowde made no independent investigation, did not request a change of venue or additional time to prepare the case, asked “little or no questions” on cross-examination of state witnesses and presented “few or no witnesses” on behalf of his client.
In addition, he “failed to file an appeal or stay of execution. That is the essence of being effective and for these reasons the conviction cannot stand.”
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With the FIFA Club World Cup fast approaching, the official squad lists have been released for six of the seven clubs competing in Japan. *FIFA.com *takes a look at some of the stars who are set to shine in Osaka and Yokohama.
Japan’s club champion is still to be determined with Gamba Osaka and Sanfrecce Hiroshima locked in a play-off, with the full list of 161 players on the official competition list to be revealed on 7 December once the tournament hosts have been determined.
2015 has been another busy year for international football, with 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia 2018™ qualifiers kicking off, USA winning the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, Serbia claiming their inaugural FIFA U-20 World Cup, Nigeria collecting their second consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cup and hosts Portugal securing the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup on home sand. And now, Japan will host the best of the best to determine the world’s top club team.
Oceania’s representative, Auckland City, are returning to the Club World Cup for a seventh time after their remarkable run at Morocco 2014 where they finished third. Returning to Japan are stars such as defender Mario Bilen and forward Ryan De Vries. However, Ramon Tribulietx’s side will be without club standouts Ivan Vicelich and goalkeeper Tamati Williams when they begin their Club World Cup campaign against the Japanese hosts on 10 December in the play-off for the quarter-finals.
Club America meet AFC Champions League holders Guangzhou Evergrande in the first quarter-final on 13 December. The CONCACAF champions boast an impressive array of Mexican internationals, such as Oribe Peralta, Moises Munoz and Paul Aguilar, along with USA defender Ventura Alvarado and Ecuador attacking midfielder Michael Arroyo.
Meanwhile, the Asian champions have an arsenal of China PR talent, including Zheng Zhi, Gao Lin and Zhang Linpeng. Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is also bringing some fellow Brazilians to Japan, with Paulinho and Robinho both making the trip. Perhaps the jewel in the crown, however, is Brazilian striker Ricardo Goulart who was recently named AFC Foreign Player of the Year after finishing as the AFC Champions League top-scorer.
TP Mazembe, Africa’s reigning champions, will square off in the other quarter-final against the winner of the play-off between the tournament hosts and Auckland City. The Congo DR side have a diverse squad with players from around Africa, such as Côte d’Ivoire’s Roger Assale, Tanzania striker Mbwana Samatta, Zambia midfielder Rainford Kalaba and Congo DR goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba.
Copa Libertadores champions River Plate will take a selection of South American stars into their semi-final on 16 December featuring the likes of Javier Saviola, Rodrigo Mora, Lucho Gonzalez and goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero.
And last, but certainly not least, UEFA Champions League holders Barcelona await their semi-final showdown on 17 December. Lining up for the Spanish La Liga and European champions are none other than FIFA Ballon d’Or shortlisted candidates Lionel Messi and Neymar. Joining the duo in Japan in Luis Enrique’s squad is fellow striker Luis Suarez, defenders Girard Pique and Dani Alves, along with Spanish great Andres Iniesta, Argentina’s Javier Mascherano and goalkeeper Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, to name a few.
Die-hard supporters and casual fans alike will be in for a treat when the Club World Cup kicks off on 10 December and no matter which two teams reach the final in Yokohama ten days later, there will be plenty of stars on display to dazzle those watching in Japan and around the world.
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This article is about the college admission test in the United States of America. For the exams in England colloquially known as SATs, see National Curriculum assessment
SAT Type Paper-based standardized test Developer / administrator College Board, Educational Testing Service. Knowledge / skills tested Writing, critical reading, mathematics. Purpose Admission to undergraduate programs of universities or colleges. Year started 1926 ( ) Duration 3 hours (without the essay) or 3 hours 50 minutes (with the essay) Score / grade range Test scored on scale of 200–800, (in 10-point increments), on each of two sections (total 400–1600).
Essay scored on scale of 2–8, in 1-point increments, on each of three criteria (total 6–24). Offered 4 times annually outside USA and 7 times annually within USA Countries / regions Worldwide Languages English Annual number of test takers Over 2.1 million high school graduates in the class of 2018[1] Prerequisites / eligibility criteria No official prerequisite. Intended for high school students. Fluency in English assumed. Fee US$52.50 to US$101.50, depending on country.[2] Scores / grades used by Most universities and colleges offering undergraduate programs in the U.S. Website sat .collegeboard .org
The SAT ( ess-ay-TEE) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since it was first debuted by the College Board in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Scholastic Assessment Test, then the SAT I: Reasoning Test, then the SAT Reasoning Test, and now, simply the SAT.
The SAT is wholly owned, developed, and published by the College Board, a private, non-profit organization in the United States. It is administered on behalf of the College Board by the Educational Testing Service,[3] which until recently developed the SAT as well.[4] The test is intended to assess students' readiness for college. The SAT was originally designed not to be aligned with high school curricula,[5] but several adjustments were made for the version of the SAT introduced in 2016, and College Board president, David Coleman, has said that he also wanted to make the test reflect more closely what students learn in high school with the new Common Core standards.[6]
On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced that a redesigned version of the SAT would be administered for the first time in 2016.[7] The current SAT, introduced in 2016, takes three hours to finish, plus 50 minutes for the SAT with essay, and as of 2017 costs US$45 (US$57 with the optional essay), excluding late fees, with additional processing fees if the SAT is taken outside the United States.[8] Scores on the SAT range from 400 to 1600, combining test results from two 800-point sections: mathematics, and critical reading and writing. Although taking the SAT, or its competitor the ACT, is required for freshman entry to many colleges and universities in the United States[9] many colleges and universities are experimenting with test-optional admission requirements and alternatives to the SAT and ACT.[10] Starting with the 2015–16 school year, the College Board began working with Khan Academy to provide free SAT preparation.[11]
Function [ edit ]
The SAT is typically taken by high school juniors and seniors.[12] The College Board states that the SAT measures literacy, numeracy and writing skills that are needed for academic success in college. They state that the SAT assesses how well the test takers analyze and solve problems—skills they learned in school that they will need in college[citation needed]. However, the test is administered under a tight time limit (speeded) to help produce a range of scores.[13]
The College Board also states that use of the SAT in combination with high school grade point average (GPA) provides a better indicator of success in college than high school grades alone, as measured by college freshman GPA. Various studies conducted over the lifetime of the SAT show a statistically significant increase in correlation of high school grades and college freshman grades when the SAT is factored in.[14] A large independent validity study on the SAT's ability to predict college freshman GPA was performed by the University of California. The results of this study found how well various predictor variables could explain the variance in college freshman GPA. It found that independently high school GPA could explain 15.4% of the variance in college freshman GPA, SAT I (the SAT Math and Verbal sections) could explain 13.3% of the variance in college freshman GPA, and SAT II (also known as the SAT subject tests—in the UC's case specifically Writing, Mathematics IC or IIC, plus a third subject test of the student's choice) could explain 16% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT I were combined, they explained 20.8% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When high school GPA and the SAT II were combined, they explained 22.2% of the variance in college freshman GPA. When SAT I was added to the combination of high school GPA and SAT II, it added a .1 percentage point increase in explaining the variance in college freshman GPA for a total of 22.3%.[15]
There are substantial differences in funding, curricula, grading, and difficulty among U.S. secondary schools due to U.S. federalism, local control, and the prevalence of private, distance, and home schooled students. SAT (and ACT) scores are intended to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data—such as course work, grades, and class rank—in a national perspective.[16] However, independent research has shown that high school GPA is better than the SAT at predicting college grades regardless of high school type or quality.[17]
This map of the United States shows the states in which (blue color) more seniors in the class of 2006 took the SAT than the ACT , and the states in which (red color) more seniors took the ACT than the SAT.
This map of the United States shows the states in which (blue color) more seniors in the class of 2018 took the SAT than the ACT , and the states in which (red color) more seniors took the ACT than the SAT.
Historically, the SAT was more widely used by students living in coastal states and the ACT was more widely used by students in the Midwest and South; in recent years, however, an increasing number of students on the East and West coasts have been taking the ACT.[18][19] Since 2007, all four-year colleges and universities in the United States that require a test as part of an application for admission will accept either the SAT or ACT, and over 950 four-year colleges and universities do not require any standardized test scores at all for admission.[20][21]
Structure [ edit ]
The SAT has four sections: Reading, Writing and Language, Math (no calculator), and Math (calculator allowed). The test taker may optionally write an essay which, in that case, is the fifth test section. The total time for the scored portion of the SAT is three hours (or three hours and fifty minutes if the optional essay section is taken). Some test takers who are not taking the essay may also have a fifth section, which is used, at least in part, for the pretesting of questions that may appear on future administrations of the SAT. (These questions are not included in the computation of the SAT score.) Two section scores result from taking the SAT: Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, and Math. Section scores are reported on a scale of 200 to 800, and each section score is a multiple of ten. A total score for the SAT is calculated by adding the two section scores, resulting in total scores that range from 400 to 1600. There is no penalty for guessing on the SAT: scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. In addition to the two section scores, three "test" scores on a scale of 10 to 40 are reported, one for each of Reading, Writing and Language, and Math. The essay, if taken, is scored separately from the two section scores.[22]
Reading Test [ edit ]
The Reading Test of the SAT is made up of one section with 52 questions and a time limit of 65 minutes.[22] All questions are multiple-choice and based on reading passages. Tables, graphs, and charts may accompany some passages, but no math is required to correctly answer the corresponding questions. There are five passages (up to two of which may be a pair of smaller passages) on the Reading Test and 10-11 questions per passage or passage pair. SAT Reading passages draw from three main fields: history, social studies, and science. Each SAT Reading Test always includes: one passage from U.S. or world literature; one passage from either a U.S. founding document or a related text; one passage about economics, psychology, sociology, or another social science; and, two science passages. Answers to all of the questions are based only on the content stated in or implied by the passage or passage pair.[23]
Writing and Language Test [ edit ]
The Writing and Language Test of the SAT is made up of one section with 44 multiple-choice questions and a time limit of 35 minutes.[22] As with the Reading Test, all questions are based on reading passages which may be accompanied by tables, graphs, and charts. The test taker will be asked to read the passages, find mistakes or weaknesses in writing, and to provide corrections or improvements. Reading passages on this test range in content from topic arguments to nonfiction narratives in a variety of subjects. The skills being evaluated include: increasing the clarity of argument; improving word choice; improving analysis of topics in social studies and science; changing sentence or word structure to increase organizational quality and impact of writing; and, fixing or improving sentence structure, word usage, and punctuation.[24]
Mathematics [ edit ]
An example of an SAT "grid-in" math question and the correctly gridded answer.
The mathematics portion of the SAT is divided into two sections: Math Test – Calculator and Math Test – No Calculator. In total, the SAT math test is 80 minutes long and includes 58 questions: 45 multiple choice questions and 13 grid-in questions.[25] The multiple choice questions have four possible answers; the grid-in questions are free response and require the test taker to provide an answer.
The Math Test – No Calculator section has 20 questions (15 multiple choice and 5 grid-in) and lasts 25 minutes.
The Math Test – Calculator section has 38 questions (30 multiple choice and 8 grid-in) and lasts 55 minutes.
Several scores are provided to the test taker for the math test. A subscore (on a scale of 1 to 15) is reported for each of three categories of math content: "Heart of Algebra" (linear equations, systems of linear equations, and linear functions), "Problem Solving and Data Analysis" (statistics, modeling, and problem-solving skills), and "Passport to Advanced Math" (non-linear expressions, radicals, exponentials and other topics that form the basis of more advanced math). A test score for the math test is reported on a scale of 10 to 40, and a section score (equal to the test score multiplied by 20) is reported on a scale of 200 to 800. [26][27][28]
Calculator use [ edit ]
All scientific and most graphing calculators, including Computer Algebra System (CAS) calculators, are permitted on the SAT Math – Calculator section only. All four-function calculators are allowed as well; however, these devices are not recommended. All mobile phone and smartphone calculators, calculators with typewriter-like (QWERTY) keyboards, laptops and other portable computers, and calculators capable of accessing the Internet are not permitted.[29]
Research was conducted by the College Board to study the effect of calculator use on SAT I: Reasoning Test math scores. The study found that performance on the math section was associated with the extent of calculator use: those using calculators on about one third to one half of the items averaged higher scores than those using calculators more or less frequently. However, the effect was "more likely to have been the result of able students using calculators differently than less able students rather than calculator use per se."[30] There is some evidence that the frequent use of a calculator in school outside of the testing situation has a positive effect on test performance compared to those who do not use calculators in school.[31]
Style of questions [ edit ]
Most of the questions on the SAT, except for the optional essay and the grid-in math responses, are multiple choice; all multiple-choice questions have four answer choices, one of which is correct. Thirteen of the questions on the math portion of the SAT (about 22% of all the math questions) are not multiple choice.[32] They instead require the test taker to bubble in a number in a four-column grid.
All questions on each section of the SAT are weighted equally. For each correct answer, one raw point is added.[33] No points are deducted for incorrect answers. The final score is derived from the raw score; the precise conversion chart varies between test administrations.
Section Average Score[1] Time (Minutes) Content Mathematics 531 80 Number and operations; algebra and functions; geometry; statistics, probability, and data analysis Evidence-Based Reading and Writing 536 100 Vocabulary, Critical reading, sentence-level reading, Grammar, usage, and diction.
Logistics [ edit ]
Frequency [ edit ]
The SAT is offered seven times a year in the United States: in August, October, November, December, March, May, and June. For international students SAT is offered four times a year out of USA: in October, December, March and May. The test is typically offered on the first Saturday of the month for the October, November, December, May, and June administrations.[34][35] The test was taken by 2,136,539 high school graduates in the class of 2018.[1]
Candidates wishing to take the test may register online at the College Board's website or by mail at least three weeks before the test date.
Fees [ edit ]
The SAT costs $47.50 ($64.50 with the optional essay), plus additional fees if testing outside the United States) as of 2018 .[8] The College Board makes fee waivers available for low income students. Additional fees apply for late registration, standby testing, registration changes, scores by telephone, and extra score reports (beyond the four provided for free).
Students with verifiable disabilities, including physical and learning disabilities, are eligible to take the SAT with accommodations. The standard time increase for students requiring additional time due to learning disabilities or physical handicaps is time + 50%; time + 100% is also offered.
Raw scores, scaled scores, and percentiles [ edit ]
Students receive their online score reports approximately three weeks after test administration (six weeks for mailed, paper scores), with each section graded on a scale of 200–800 and two sub scores for the writing section: the essay score and the multiple choice sub score. In addition to their score, students receive their percentile (the percentage of other test takers with lower scores). The raw score, or the number of points gained from correct answers and lost from incorrect answers is also included.[36] Students may also receive, for an additional fee, the Question and Answer Service, which provides the student's answer, the correct answer to each question, and online resources explaining each question.
The corresponding percentile of each scaled score varies from test to test—for example, in 2003, a scaled score of 800 in both sections of the SAT Reasoning Test corresponded to a percentile of 99.9, while a scaled score of 800 in the SAT Physics Test corresponded to the 94th percentile. The differences in what scores mean with regard to percentiles are due to the content of the exam and the caliber of students choosing to take each exam. Subject Tests are subject to intensive study (often in the form of an AP, which is relatively more difficult), and only those who know they will perform well tend to take these tests, creating a skewed distribution of scores.
The percentiles that various SAT scores for college-bound seniors correspond to are summarized in the following chart:[37][38]
Percentile Score, 1600 Scale
(official, 2006) Score, 2400 Scale
(official, 2006) 99.93/99.98* 1600 2400 99.5 ≥1540 ≥2280 99 ≥1480 ≥2200 98 ≥1450 ≥2140 97 ≥1420 ≥2100 93 ≥1340 ≥1990 88 ≥1280 ≥1900 81 ≥1220 ≥1800 72 ≥1150 ≥1700 61 ≥1090 ≥1600 48 ≥1010 ≥1500 36 ≥950 ≥1400 24 ≥870 ≥1300 15 ≥810 ≥1200 8 ≥730 ≥1090 4 ≥650 ≥990 2 ≥590 ≥890 * The percentile of the perfect score was 99.98 on the 2400 scale and 99.93 on the 1600 scale.
Percentiles for Total Scores (2018)
Percentiles for Total Scores (2018)[39] Score (2018) Nationally Representative Sample
SAT User
1600 99+ 99+ 1550 99+ 99+ 1500 99 99 1450 99 99 1400 99 97 1350 94 91 1300 91 87 1250 86 81 1200 81 74 1150 74 67 1100 67 58 1050 58 49 1000 48 39 950 38 31 900 29 23 850 21 15 800 14 10
The older SAT (before 1995) had a very high ceiling. In any given year, only seven of the million test-takers scored above 1580. A score above 1580 was equivalent to the 99.9995 percentile.[40]
In 2015 the average score for the Class of 2015 was 1490 out of a maximum 2400. That was down 7 points from the previous class’s mark and was the lowest composite score of the past decade.[41]
SAT-ACT score comparisons [ edit ]
The College Board and ACT, Inc. conducted a joint study of students who took both the SAT and the ACT between September 2004 (for the ACT) or March 2005 (for the SAT) and June 2006. Tables were provided to concord scores for students taking the SAT after January 2005 and before March 2016. [42][43]
In May, 2016, the College Board released concordance tables to concord scores on the SAT used from March 2005 through January 2016 to the SAT used since March 2016, as well as tables to concord scores on the SAT used since March 2016 to the ACT.[44]
History [ edit ]
Mean SAT Scores by year[45] Year of
exam Reading
/Verbal
Score Math
Score 1972 530 509 1973 523 506 1974 521 505 1975 512 498 1976 509 497 1977 507 496 1978 507 494 1979 505 493 1980 502 492 1981 502 492 1982 504 493 1983 503 494 1984 504 497 1985 509 500 1986 509 500 1987 507 501 1988 505 501 1989 504 502 1990 500 501 1991 499 500 1992 500 501 1993 500 503 1994 499 504 1995 504 506 1996 505 508 1997 505 511 1998 505 512 1999 505 511 2000 505 514 2001 506 514 2002 504 516 2003 507 519 2004 508 518 2005 508 520 2006 503 518 2007 502 515 2008 502 515 2009 501 515 2010 501 516 2011 497 514 2012 496 514 2013 496 514 2014 497 513 2015 495 511 2016 494 508 2017 533 527 2018 536 531
Historical average SAT scores of college-bound seniors.
Many college entrance exams in the early 1900s were specific to each school and required candidates to travel to the school to take the tests. The College Board, a consortium of colleges in the northeastern United States, was formed in 1900 to establish a nationally administered, uniform set of essay tests based on the curricula of the boarding schools that typically provided graduates to the colleges of the Ivy League and Seven Sisters, among others.[46][47]
In the same time period, Lewis Terman and others began to promote the use of tests such as Alfred Binet's in American schools. Terman in particular thought that such tests could identify an innate "intelligence quotient" (IQ) in a person. The results of an IQ test could then be used to find an elite group of students who would be given the chance to finish high school and go on to college.[46] By the mid-1920s, the increasing use of IQ tests, such as the Army Alpha test administered to recruits in World War I, led the College Board to commission the development of the SAT. The commission, headed by Carl Brigham, argued that the test predicted success in higher education by identifying candidates primarily on the basis of intellectual promise rather than on specific accomplishment in high school subjects.[47] In 1934, James Conant and Henry Chauncey used the SAT as a means to identify recipients for scholarships to Harvard University. Specifically, Conant wanted to find students, other than those from the traditional northeastern private schools, that could do well at Harvard. The success of the scholarship program and the advent of World War II led to the end of the College Board essay exams and to the SAT being used as the only admissions test for College Board member colleges.[46]
The SAT rose in prominence after World War II due to several factors. Machine-based scoring of multiple-choice tests taken by pencil had made it possible to rapidly process the exams.[48] The G.I. Bill produced an influx of millions of veterans into higher education.[48][49] The formation of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) also played a significant role in the expansion of the SAT beyond the roughly fifty colleges that made up the College Board at the time.[50] The ETS was formed in 1947 by the College Board, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the American Council on Education, to consolidate respectively the operations of the SAT, the GRE, and the achievement tests developed by Ben Wood for use with Conant's scholarship exams.[48] The new organization was to be philosophically grounded in the concepts of open-minded, scientific research in testing with no doctrine to sell and with an eye toward public service.[51] The ETS was chartered after the death of Brigham, who had opposed the creation of such an entity. Brigham felt that the interests of a consolidated testing agency would be more aligned with sales or marketing than with research into the science of testing.[48] It has been argued that the interest of the ETS in expanding the SAT in order to support its operations aligned with the desire of public college and university faculties to have smaller, diversified, and more academic student bodies as a means to increase research activities.[46] In 1951, about 80,000 SATs were taken; in 1961, about 800,000; and by 1971, about 1.5 million SATs were being taken each year.[52]
A timeline of notable events in the history of the SAT follows.
1901 essay exams [ edit ]
On June 17, 1901, the first exams of the College Board were administered to 973 students across 67 locations in the United States, and two in Europe. Although those taking the test came from a variety of backgrounds, approximately one third were from New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. The majority of those taking the test were from private schools, academies, or endowed schools. About 60% of those taking the test applied to Columbia University. The test contained sections on English, French, German, Latin, Greek, history, mathematics, chemistry, and physics. The test was not multiple choice, but instead was evaluated based on essay responses as "excellent", "good", "doubtful", "poor" or "very poor".[53]
1926 test [ edit ]
The first administration of the SAT occurred on June 23, 1926, when it was known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.[54][55] This test, prepared by a committee headed by Princeton psychologist Carl Campbell Brigham, had sections of definitions, arithmetic, classification, artificial language, antonyms, number series, analogies, logical inference, and paragraph reading. It was administered to over 8,000 students at over 300 test centers. Men composed 60% of the test-takers. Slightly over a quarter of males and females applied to Yale University and Smith College.[55] The test was paced rather quickly, test-takers being given only a little over 90 minutes to answer 315 questions.[54] The raw score of each participating student was converted to a score scale with a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 100. This scale was effectively equivalent to a 200 to 800 scale, although students could score more than 800 and less than 200.[48]
1928 and 1929 tests [ edit ]
In 1928, the number of sections on the SAT was reduced to seven, and the time limit was increased to slightly under two hours. In 1929, the number of sections was again reduced, this time to six. These changes were designed in part to give test-takers more time per question. For these two years, all of the sections tested verbal ability: math was eliminated entirely from the SAT.[54]
1930 test and 1936 changes [ edit ]
In 1930 the SAT was first split into the verbal and math sections, a structure that would continue through 2004. The verbal section of the 1930 test covered a more narrow range of content than its predecessors, examining only antonyms, double definitions (somewhat similar to sentence completions), and paragraph reading. In 1936, analogies were re-added. Between 1936 and 1946, students had between 80 and 115 minutes to answer 250 verbal questions (over a third of which were on antonyms). The mathematics test introduced in 1930 contained 100 free response questions to be answered in 80 minutes, and focused primarily on speed. From 1936 to 1941, like the 1928 and 1929 tests, the mathematics section was eliminated entirely. When the mathematics portion of the test was re-added in 1942, it consisted of multiple choice questions.[54]
1941 and 1942 score scales [ edit ]
Until 1941, the scores on all SATs had been scaled to a mean of 500 with a standard deviation of 100. Although one test-taker could be compared to another for a given test date, comparisons from one year to another could not be made. For example, a score of 500 achieved on an SAT taken in one year could reflect a different ability level than a score of 500 achieved in another year. By 1940, it had become clear that setting the mean SAT score to 500 every year was unfair to those students who happened to take the SAT with a group of higher average ability.[56]
In order to make cross-year score comparisons possible, in April 1941 the SAT verbal section was scaled to a mean of 500, and a standard deviation of 100, and the June 1941 SAT verbal section was equated (linked) to the April 1941 test. All SAT verbal sections after 1941 were equated to previous tests so that the same scores on different SATs would be comparable. Similarly, in June 1942 the SAT math section was equated to the April 1942 math section, which itself was linked to the 1942 SAT verbal section, and all SAT math sections after 1942 would be equated to previous tests. From this point forward, SAT mean scores could change over time, depending on the average ability of the group taking the test compared to the roughly 10,600 students taking the SAT in April 1941. The 1941 and 1942 score scales would remain in use until 1995. [56] [57]
1946 test and associated changes [ edit ]
Paragraph reading was eliminated from the verbal portion of the SAT in 1946, and replaced with reading comprehension, and "double definition" questions were replaced with sentence completions. Between 1946 and 1957, students were given 90 to 100 minutes to complete 107 to 170 verbal questions. Starting in 1958, time limits became more stable, and for 17 years, until 1975, students had 75 minutes to answer 90 questions. In 1959, questions on data sufficiency were introduced to the mathematics section, and then replaced with quantitative comparisons in 1974. In 1974, both verbal and math sections were reduced from 75 minutes to 60 minutes each, with changes in test composition compensating for the decreased time.[54]
1960s and 1970s score declines [ edit ]
From 1926 to 1941, scores on the SAT were scaled to make 500 the mean score on each section. In 1941 and 1942, SAT scores were standardized via test equating, and as a consequence, average verbal and math scores could vary from that time forward.[56] In 1952, mean verbal and math scores were 476 and 494, respectively, and scores were generally stable in the 1950s and early 1960s. However, starting in the mid-1960s and continuing until the early 1980s, SAT scores declined: the average verbal score dropped by about 50 points, and the average math score fell by about 30 points. By the late 1970s, only the upper third of test takers were doing as well as the upper half of those taking the SAT in 1963. From 1961 to 1977, the number of SATs taken per year doubled, suggesting that the decline could be explained by demographic changes in the group of students taking the SAT. Commissioned by the College Board, an independent study of the decline found that most (up to about 75%) of the test decline in the 1960s could be explained by compositional changes in the group of students taking the test; however, only about 25 percent of the 1970s decrease in test scores could similarly be explained.[52] Later analyses suggested that up to 40 percent of the 1970s decline in scores could be explained by demographic changes, leaving unknown at least some of the reasons for the decline.[58]
1994 changes [ edit ]
In early 1994, substantial changes were made to the SAT.[59] Antonyms were removed from the verbal section in order to make rote memorization of vocabulary less useful. Also, the fraction of verbal questions devoted to passage-based reading material was increased from about 30% to about 50%, and the passages were chosen to be more like typical college-level reading material, compared to previous SAT reading passages. The changes for increased emphasis on analytical reading were made in response to a 1990 report issued by a commission established by the College Board. The commission recommended that the SAT should, among other things, "approximate more closely the skills used in college and high school work".[54] A mandatory essay had been considered as well for the new version of the SAT; however, criticism from minority groups as well as a concomitant increase in the cost of the test necessary to grade the essay led the College Board to drop it from the planned changes.[60]
Major changes were also made to the SAT mathematics section at this time, due in part to the influence of suggestions made by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Test-takers were now permitted to use calculators on the math sections of the SAT. Also, for the first time since 1935, the SAT would now include some math questions that were not multiple choice, instead requiring students to supply the answers. Additionally, some of these "student-produced response" questions could have more than one correct answer. The tested mathematics content on the SAT was expanded to include concepts of slope of a line, probability, elementary statistics including median and mode, and problems involving counting.[54]
1995 recentering (raising mean score back to 500) [ edit ]
By the early 1990s, average combined SAT scores were around 900 (typically, 425 on the verbal and 475 on the math). The average scores on the 1994 modification of the SAT I were similar: 428 on the verbal and 482 on the math.[61] SAT scores for admitted applicants to highly selective colleges in the United States were typically much higher. For example, the score ranges of the middle 50% of admitted applicants to Princeton University in 1985 were 600 to 720 (verbal) and 660 to 750 (math).[62] Similarly, median scores on the modified 1994 SAT for freshmen entering Yale University in the fall of 1995 were 670 (verbal) and 720 (math).[63] For the majority of SAT takers, however, verbal and math scores were below 500: In 1992, half of the college-bound seniors taking the SAT were scoring between 340 and 500 on the verbal section and between 380 and 560 on the math section, with corresponding median scores of 420 and 470, respectively.[64]
The drop in SAT verbal scores, in particular, meant that the usefulness of the SAT score scale (200 to 800) had become degraded. At the top end of the verbal scale, significant gaps were occurring between raw scores and uncorrected scaled scores: a perfect raw score no longer corresponded to an 800, and a single omission out of 85 questions could lead to a drop of 30 or 40 points in the scaled score. Corrections to scores above 700 had been necessary to reduce the size of the gaps and to make a perfect raw score result in an 800. At the other end of the scale, about 1.5 percent of test takers would have scored below 200 on the verbal section if that had not been the reported minimum score. Although the math score averages were closer to the center of the scale (500) than the verbal scores, the distribution of math scores was no longer well approximated by a normal distribution. These problems, among others, suggested that the original score scale and its reference group of about 10,000 students taking the SAT in 1941 needed to be replaced.[56]
Beginning with the test administered in April 1995, the SAT score scale was recentered to return the average math and verbal scores close to 500. Although only 25 students had received perfect scores of 1600 in all of 1994, 137 students taking the April test scored a 1600.[65] The new scale used a reference group of about one million seniors in the class of 1990: the scale was designed so that the SAT scores of this cohort would have a mean of 500 and a standard deviation of 110. Because the new scale would not be directly comparable to the old scale, scores awarded on April 1995 and later were officially reported with an "R" (for example, "560R") to reflect the change in scale, a practice that was continued until 2001.[56] Scores awarded before April 1995 may be compared to those on the recentered scale by using official College Board tables. For example, verbal and math scores of 500 received before 1995 correspond to scores of 580 and 520, respectively, on the 1995 scale.[66]
1995 re-centering controversy [ edit ]
Certain educational organizations viewed the SAT re-centering initiative as an attempt to stave off international embarrassment in regards to continuously declining test scores, even among top students. As evidence, it was presented that the number of pupils who scored above 600 on the verbal portion of the test had fallen from a peak of 112,530 in 1972 to 73,080 in 1993, a 36% backslide, despite the fact that the total number of test-takers had risen by over 500,000.[67] Other authors have argued that the evidence for a decline in student quality is mixed, citing that the reduced use of the SAT by elite colleges has decreased the number of high scorers on that test, that top scorers on the ACT have shown little change in the same period, and that the proportion of 17-year-olds scoring at the highest performance level on the NAEP long-term trend assessment has been roughly stable for decades.[68]
2002 changes – Score Choice [ edit ]
Since 1993, using a policy referred to as "Score Choice", students taking the SAT-II subject exams were able to choose whether or not to report the resulting scores to a college to which the student was applying. In October 2002, the College Board dropped the Score Choice option for SAT-II exams, matching the score policy for the traditional SAT tests that required students to release all scores to colleges.[69] The College Board said that, under the old score policy, many students who waited to release scores would forget to do so and miss admissions deadlines. It was also suggested that the old policy of allowing students the option of which scores to report favored students who could afford to retake the tests.[70]
2005 changes, including a new 2400-point score [ edit ]
In 2005, the test was changed again, largely in response to criticism by the University of California system.[71] In order to have the SAT more closely reflect high school curricula, certain types of questions were eliminated, including analogies from the verbal section and quantitative comparison items from the math section.[54] A new writing section, with an essay, based on the former SAT II Writing Subject Test, was added,[72] in part to increase the chances of closing the opening gap between the highest and midrange scores. Other factors included the desire to test the writing ability of each student; hence the essay. The essay section added an additional maximum 800 points to the score, which increased the new maximum score to 2400.[73] The "New SAT" was first offered on March 12, 2005, after the last administration of the "old" SAT in January 2005. The mathematics section was expanded to cover three years of high school mathematics. To emphasize the importance of reading, the verbal section's name was changed to the Critical Reading section.[54]
Scoring problems of October 2005 tests [ edit ]
In March 2006, it was announced that a small percentage of the SATs taken in October 2005 had been scored incorrectly due to the test papers' being moist and not scanning properly, and that some students had received erroneous scores.[74] The College Board announced they would change the scores for the students who were given a lower score than they earned, but at this point many of those students had already applied to colleges using their original scores. The College Board decided not to change the scores for the students who were given a higher score than they earned. A lawsuit was filed in 2006 on behalf of the 4,411 students who received an incorrect score on the SAT.[75] The class-action suit was settled in August 2007, when the College Board and Pearson Educational Measurement, the company that scored the SATs, announced they would pay $2.85 million into a settlement fund. Under the agreement, each student could either elect to receive $275 or submit a claim for more money if he or she felt the damage was greater.[76] A similar scoring error occurred on a secondary school admission test in 2010–2011, when the ERB (Educational Records Bureau) announced, after the admission process was over, that an error had been made in the scoring of the tests of 2010 students (17%), who had taken the Independent School Entrance Examination for admission to private secondary schools for 2011. Commenting on the effect of the error on students' school applications in The New York Times, David Clune, President of the ERB stated "It is a lesson we all learn at some point—that life isn't fair."[77]
2008 changes [ edit ]
As part of an effort to “reduce student stress and improve the test-day experience", in late 2008 the College Board announced that the Score Choice option, recently dropped for SAT subject exams, would be available for both the SAT subject tests and the SAT starting in March, 2009. At the time, some college admissions officials agreed that the new policy would help to alleviate student test anxiety, while others questioned whether the change was primarily an attempt to make the SAT more competitive with the ACT, which had long had a comparable score choice policy.[78] Recognizing that some colleges would want to see the scores from all tests taken by a student, under this new policy, the College Board would encourage but not force students to follow the requirements of each college to which scores would be sent.[79] A number of highly selective colleges and universities, including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, and Stanford, rejected the Score Choice option at the time[80] and continue to require applicants to submit all scores.[81] Others, such as MIT and Harvard, allow students to choose which scores they submit, and use only the highest score from each section when making admission decisions. Still others, such as Oregon State University and University of Iowa, allow students to choose which scores they submit, considering only the test date with the highest combined score when making admission decisions.[81]
2012 changes [ edit ]
Beginning in the fall of 2012, test takers were required to submit a current, recognizable photo during registration. In order to be admitted to their designated test center, students were required to present their photo admission ticket – or another acceptable form of photo ID – for comparison to the one submitted by the student at the time of registration. The changes were made in response to a series of cheating incidents, primarily at high schools in Long Island, New York, in which high-scoring test takers were using fake photo IDs to take the SAT for other students.[82] In addition to the registration photo stipulation, test takers were required to identify their high school, to which their scores as well as the submitted photos would be sent. In the event of an investigation involving the validity of a student’s test scores, his or her photo may be made available to institutions to which they have sent scores. Any college that is granted access to a student’s photo is first required to certify that they are all admitted students.[83]
2016 changes, including the return to a 1600-point score [ edit ]
On March 5, 2014, the College Board announced its plan to redesign the SAT in order to link the exam more closely to the work high school students encounter in the classroom.[7] The new exam was administered for the first time in March 2016.[84] Some of the major changes are: an emphasis on the use of evidence to support answers, a shift away from obscure vocabulary to words that students are more likely to encounter in college and career, a math section that is focused on fewer areas, a return to the 1600-point score scale, an optional essay, and the removal of penalty for wrong answers (rights-only scoring).[85] To combat the perceived advantage of costly test preparation courses, the College Board announced a new partnership with Khan Academy to offer free online practice problems and instructional videos.[7]
Name changes [ edit ]
The SAT has been renamed several times since its introduction in 1926. It was originally known as the Scholastic Aptitude Test.[86][54] In 1990, a commission set up by the College Board to review the proposed changes to the SAT program recommended that the meaning of the initialism SAT be changed to "Scholastic Assessment Test" because a "test that integrates measures of achievement as well as developed ability can no longer be accurately described as a test of aptitude".[87][88] In 1993, the College Board changed the name of the test to SAT I: Reasoning Test; at the same time, the name of the Achievement Tests was changed to SAT II: Subject Tests.[86] The Reasoning Test and Subject Tests were to be collectively known as the Scholastic Assessment Tests. According to the president of the College Board at the time, the name change was meant "to correct the impression among some people that the SAT measures something that is innate and impervious to change regardless of effort or instruction."[89] The new SAT debuted in March 1994, and was referred to as the Scholastic Assessment Test by major news organizations.[59][90] However, in 1997, the College Board announced that the SAT could not properly be called the Scholastic Assessment Test, and that the letters SAT did not stand for anything.[91] In 2004, the Roman numeral in SAT I: Reasoning Test was dropped, making SAT Reasoning Test the new name of the SAT.[86]
Math–verbal achievement gap [ edit ]
In 2002, Richard Rothstein (education scholar and columnist) wrote in The New York Times that the U.S. math averages on the SAT and ACT continued their decade-long rise over national verbal averages on the tests.[92]
Reuse of old SAT exams [ edit ]
The College Board has been accused of completely reusing old SAT papers previously given in the United States.[93] The recycling of questions from previous exams has been exploited to allow for cheating on exams and impugned the validity of some students' test scores, according to college officials. Test preparation companies in Asia have been found to provide test questions to students within hours of a new SAT exam's administration.[94][95]
On August 25, 2018, the SAT test given in America was discovered to be a recycled October 2017 international SAT test given in China. The leaked PDF file was on the internet before the August 25, 2018 exam. [96]
Elucidation [ edit ]
Association with culture [ edit ]
For decades many critics have accused designers of the verbal SAT of cultural bias as an explanation for the disparity in scores between poorer and wealthier test-takers.[97] A famous (and long past) example of this bias in the SAT I was the oarsman–regatta analogy question. The object of the question was to find the pair of terms that had the relationship most similar to the relationship between "runner" and "marathon". The correct answer was "oarsman" and "regatta". The choice of the correct answer was thought to have presupposed students' familiarity with rowing, a sport popular with the wealthy. However, according to Murray and Herrnstein, the black-white gap is smaller in culture-loaded questions like this one than in questions that appear to be culturally neutral.[98] Analogy questions have since been replaced by short reading passages.
Association with family income [ edit ]
A report from The New York Times stated that family income can explain much of the variance in SAT scores.[99] In response, Lisa Wade, contributor at the website The Society Pages, commented that those with higher family income, “tend to have better teachers, more resource-rich educational environments, more educated parents who can help them with school and, sometimes, expensive SAT tutoring.”[100] However, University of California system research found that after controlling for family income and parental education, the already low ability of the SAT to measure aptitude and college readiness fell sharply while the more substantial aptitude and college readiness measuring abilities of high school GPA and the SAT II each remained undiminished (and even slightly increased). The University of California system required both the SAT and the SAT II from applicants to the UC system during the four years included in the study. They further found that, after controlling for family income and parental education, the so-called achievement tests known as the SAT II measure aptitude and college readiness 10 times higher than the SAT.[101] As with racial bias, correlation with income could also be due to the social class of the makers of the test, although according to the authors of The Bell Curve, empirical research suggests that poorer students actually perform worse on questions the authors believed to be "neutral" compared to the ones they termed as "privileged."[102]
Association with gender [ edit ]
The largest association with gender on the SAT is found in the math section, where male students, on average, score higher than female students by approximately 30 points.[103] In 2013, the American College Testing Board released a report stating that boys outperformed girls on the mathematics section of the test.[104]
Some researchers believe that the difference in scores for both race and gender is closely related to psychological phenomenon known as stereotype threat. Stereotype threat happens when an individual who identifies themselves within a subgroup of people, is taking a test and comes across a stereotype (usually of American origin) regarding their subgroup. This along with additional test anxiety, will usually cause a low test performance for that individual or group affected. This is because the individual is under increased pressure to overcome the stereotype threat and prove it wrong.This form of stereotype can be translated into a form of gender or race bias and is found in numerous SAT tests spanning throughout the years it has existed. Gender bias of the SAT tests can happen within certain sections which include the questions or passages themselves. This bias itself is usually for that against females. Specific examples of this can be seen in the demographics, verbal/reading and mathematics portions of the SAT tests. [105][106]. Other researchers question this assertion, and point to evidence in support of greater male variability in spatial ability and mathematics. Greater male variability has been found in both body weight, height, and cognitive abilities across cultures, leading to a larger number of males in the lowest and highest distributions of testing [107] [108]. This results in a higher number of males scoring in the upper extremes of mathematics tests such as the SAT, resulting in the gender discrepancy [109].
For the demographics example, students are often asked to identify their race or gender before taking the exam, just this alone is enough to create the threat since this puts the issues regarding their gender or race in front and center of their mind.[110]
For the mathematics example, a question in the May 2016 SAT test involved a chart which identified more boys than girls in mathematics classes overall. Due to this, the girls taking the test might feel that mathematics is not for them and may even feel as if they are not intelligent enough to complete to engage in mathematics and/or the question itself. This is also based on the common stereotype that "men are better at math than women," [106]
For the verbal/reading example, a question in the May 2016 SAT test asked students to analyze and interpret a 19th century polemic arguing that women’s place was at home. The reading passage itself was paired with 1837’s “Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism” by Catherine E. Beecher with an 1838 reply from Angelina E Grimké, who was an abolitionist at the time. The Beecher essays argued that women have a lower stature than men and are able to be their best when in domestic situations while Grimké argue that no one’s right’s should be crippled just because of their gender. The questions regarding the passages are considered by critics to be of mutual ground but it’s the placement of these passages that may have been the real issue. Since the passages were in the beginning it may have allowed this new information to linger in the minds of the test takers for the rest of their test taking time, especially the females who may now have the new thought as to not being intellectually competent of doing things other than house work and chores. [106]
Studies suggest that teaching about stereotype threat might offer a practical means of reducing its detrimental effects. It can be shown when women were informed about stereotype threat problems in standardized tests, they tend to achieve higher scores. Thus, informing women about stereotype threat may be a useful intervention to improve their performance in a threatening testing situation. This is also known as a stereotype threat mitigation. The main study that supports these findings comes from two well-known professionals on Education known as Claude Steele and Steve Spencer. For their study, they created a test which was a close replication to the math portion on SAT or GRE exams. With this test, one group from each gender would be given the test with an intro sentence.The other group within each gender would not be given this sentence. The sentence itself stated: you may have heard that women don't do as well as men on difficult standardized math tests, but that's not true for the particular standardized math test; on this particular test, women always do as well as men. The results were as follows: among participants who weren’t given the intro sentence, where the women could still feel the threat of stigma confirmation, women did worse than equally skilled men. But among participants who were given the intro sentence that stated the test did not show gender differences, where the women were free of confirming anything about being a woman, woman performed at the same high level as equally skilled men. Their under-performance was eliminated. [110] In another study, researchers created a similar mock SAT math section exam which had both men and women complete difficult math problems described either as a problem-solving task or as a math test. In a third (teaching-intervention) condition, the test was also described as a math test, but participants were additionally informed that stereotype threat could interfere with women's math performance and that the threat itself shouldn’t be considered to be true for any woman. Results showed that women performed worse than men when the problems were described as a math test (where the stereotype threat was not discussed), but did not differ from men in the problem-solving condition or the men that learned about stereotype threat. For the women in the teaching-intervention condition in which they learned about the threat, they indeed had a greater overall performance than the women without this treatment. [111]
Although aspects of testing such as stereotype are a concern, research on the predictive validity of the SAT has demonstrated that it tends to be a more accurate predictor of female GPA in university as compared to male GPA [112].
Association with race and ethnicity [ edit ]
African American, Hispanic, and Native American students, on average, perform an order of one standard deviation lower on the SAT than white and Asian students.[113][114][115][116]
Researchers believe that the difference in scores is closely related to the overall achievement gap in American society between students of different racial groups. This gap may be explainable in part by the fact that students of disadvantaged racial groups tend to go to schools that provide lower educational quality. This view is supported by evidence that the black-white gap is higher in cities and neighborhoods that are more racially segregated.[117] It has also been suggested that stereotype threat has a significant effect on lowering achievement of minority students. For example, African Americans perform worse on a test when they are told that the test measures "verbal reasoning ability", than when no mention of the test subject is made.[118] Other research cites poorer minority proficiency in key coursework relevant to the SAT (English and math), as well as peer pressure against students who try to focus on their schoolwork ("acting white").[119] Cultural issues are also evident among black students in wealthier households, with high achieving parents. John Ogbu, a Nigerian-American professor of anthropology, found that instead of looking to their parents as role models, black youth chose other models like rappers and did not put forth the effort to be good students.[120]
One set of studies has reported differential item functioning – namely, some test questions function differently based on the racial group of the test taker, reflecting some kind of systematic difference in a groups ability to understand certain test questions or to acquire the knowledge required to answer them. In 2003 Freedle published data showing that Black students have had a slight advantage on the verbal questions that are labeled as difficult on the SAT, whereas white and Asian students tended to have a slight advantage on questions labeled as easy. Freedle argued that these findings suggest that "easy" test items use vocabulary that is easier to understand for white middle class students than for minorities, who often use a different language in the home environment, whereas the difficult items use complex language learned only through lectures and textbooks, giving both student groups equal opportunities to acquiring it.[121][122] [123] The study was severely criticized by the ETS board, but the findings were replicated in a subsequent study by Santelices and Wilson in 2010.[124][125]
There is no evidence that SAT scores systematically underestimate future performance of minority students. However, the predictive validity of the SAT has been shown to depend on the dominant ethnic and racial composition of the college.[126] Some studies have also shown that African American students under-perform in college relative to their white peers with the same SAT scores; researchers have argued that this is likely because white students tend to benefit from social advantages outside of the educational environment (for example, high parental involvement in their education, inclusion in campus academic activities, positive bias from same-race teachers and peers) which result in better grades.[118]
Christopher Jencks concludes that as a group, African Americans have been harmed by the introduction of standardized entrance exams such as the SAT. This, according to him, is not because the tests themselves are flawed, but because of labeling bias and selection bias; the tests measure the skills that African Americans are less likely to develop in their socialization, rather than the skills they are more likely to develop. Furthermore, standardized entrance exams are often labeled as tests of general ability, rather than of certain aspects of ability. Thus, a situation is produced in which African American ability is consistently underestimated within the education and workplace environments, contributing in turn to selection bias against them which exacerbates underachievement.[118]
Perception [ edit ]
Optional SAT [ edit ]
In the 1960s and 1970s there was a movement to drop achievement scores. After a period of time, the countries, states and provinces that reintroduced them agreed that academic standards had dropped, students had studied less, and had taken their studying less seriously. They reintroduced the tests after studies and research concluded that the high-stakes tests produced benefits that outweighed the costs.[127]
In a 2001 speech to the American Council on Education, Richard C. Atkinson, the president of the University of California, urged dropping the SAT as a college admissions requirement:
Anyone involved in education should be concerned about how overemphasis on the SAT is distorting educational priorities and practices, how the test is perceived by many as unfair, and how it can have a devastating impact on the self-esteem and aspirations of young students. There is widespread agreement that overemphasis on the SAT harms American education.[128]
Even now, no firm conclusions can be reached regarding the SAT's usefulness in the admissions process. It may or may not be biased, and it may or may not serve as a check on grade inflation in secondary schools.[129]
IQ studies [ edit ]
Frey and Detterman (2003) investigated associations of SAT scores with intelligence test scores. Using an estimate of general mental ability, or g, based on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which can be best thought of as representing crystallized intelligence (learned abilities), they found SAT scores to be highly correlated with g (r=.82 in their sample, .857 when adjusted for non-linearity) in their sample taken from a 1979 national probability survey. Additionally, they investigated the correlation between SAT results, using the revised and recentered form of the test, and scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices, a test of fluid intelligence (reasoning), this time using a non-random sample. They found that the correlation of SAT results with scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices was .483. They estimated that this latter correlation would have been about 0.72 were it not for the restriction of ability range in the sample. They also noted that there appeared to be a ceiling effect on the Raven’s scores which may have suppressed the correlation.[130] Beaujean and colleagues (2006) have reached similar conclusions to those reached by Frey and Detterman.[131]
Preparation [ edit ]
SAT preparation is a highly lucrative field.[132] The field was pioneered by Stanley Kaplan, whose SAT preparation course began in 1946 as a 64-hour course.[133] Many companies and organizations offer test preparation in the form of books, classes, online courses, and tutoring. The test preparation industry began almost simultaneously with the introduction of university entrance exams in the U.S. and flourished from the start.[134]
The College Board maintains that the SAT is essentially uncoachable and research by the College Board and the National Association of College Admission Counseling suggests that tutoring courses result in an average increase of about 20 points on the math section and 10 points on the verbal section.[135] Other studies have shown significantly different results. A longitudinal study from Ohio State showed that taking private SAT prep classes correlated with scores higher by ~60 points.[136] A study from Oxford showed that coaching courses boosted scores by an average of 56 points.[134]
Montgomery and Lilly (2012) performed a systematic literature review of all published SAT coaching research in search of high quality studies (defined as those with randomized controlled trials). They found that the randomized treatments resulted in V/M gains of +23/32 points for a total of +56; the high quality study that showed the highest score increase was Johnson (1984; San Francisco) which was based on a 30-hour prep course that showed an average increase of 178 points. The Johnson San Francisco study was also the only high quality study found on a prep course of 30 hours or more in length, although validity of this outlier study is uncertain due to the attrition of half the participants.[134]
Use by high-IQ societies [ edit ]
Certain high IQ societies, like Mensa, the Prometheus Society and the Triple Nine Society, use scores from certain years as one of their admission tests. For instance, the Triple Nine Society accepts scores (verbal and math combined) of 1450 or greater on SAT tests taken before April 1995, and scores of at least 1520 on tests taken between April 1995 and February 2005.[137]
The SAT is sometimes given to students younger than 13 by organizations such as the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, Duke TIP, and other organizations who use the results to select, study and mentor students of exceptional ability.
Writing section [ edit ]
In 2005, MIT Writing Director Pavan Sreekireddy plotted essay length versus essay score on the new SAT from released essays and found a high correlation between them. After studying over 50 graded essays, he found that longer essays consistently produced higher scores. In fact, he argues that by simply gauging the length of an essay without reading it, the given score of an essay could likely be determined correctly over 90% of the time. He also discovered that several of these essays were full of factual errors; the College Board does not claim to grade for factual accuracy.
Perelman, along with the National Council of Teachers of English also criticized the 25-minute writing section of the test for damaging standards of writing teaching in the classroom. They say that writing teachers training their students for the SAT will not focus on revision, depth, accuracy, but will instead produce long, formulaic, and wordy pieces.[138] "You're getting teachers to train students to be bad writers", concluded Perelman.[139]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
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