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A late-summer poll shows that the Vermont senator is gaining fast on Clinton in Iowa, and Sanders enthusiasts see evidence that he has appeal “beyond the liberal coasts and union strongholds,” according to Dan Roberts, the Washington bureau chief of The Guardian. The poll, conducted by The Des Moines Register, showed Sanders moving to within 7 percentage points of the former secretary of state — 30 percent to her 37 percent. These are tight numbers five months before voters nominate a candidate in the Iowa caucus Feb. 1. “[I]t is fair to say [Sanders’] success so far was not in the Democratic party script,” Roberts wrote. His views “go down surprisingly well with middle Americans, many of whom feel so badly left behind by the current economic recovery that only bold steps will do.” He continued: “More and more people are waking up to the fact that middle-class people are really struggling,” says Tom Gross, a 58-year-old former power plant worker from nearby Amana who travelled to the Grinnell rally. “This is the middle of the country, you’d think it would be hardcore conservative, but he’s turning out the people.” His partner, Carmen Grimm, a 57-year-old pharmacy technician, also sums up the Sanders appeal to millennials and their parents. “I have two sons and part of what Bernie speaks to me about is how concerned I am about their ability in today’s economy to pay off their student loans,” she says. “How they will ever – not even really get ahead – but just do a little more than stay afloat.” … “Bernie is Bernie, he’s down to earth and he’s not for special interests,” explains Chris Uhlenhopp, a 67-year-old former labourer at the nearby Maytag appliances factory, which once employed 2,000 people. “I won’t go from Bernie to Hillary,” he adds. “I’d stay in bed if we had Hillary [on general election day].” Read more here. — Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
Tough economic times have seen a lot of musicians aggregate into trios of one sort or another of late. Sonically the more minimalist sound has the upside that it is more easily reproduced live and avoids the logistical and financial difficulties of maintaining a large ensemble. The trouble is that it becomes more and more difficult for trios and other small ensembles to stand out from the crowd -fine if you have the postmodern verve of sayor the emotional pull of a, but these are relatively rare beasts.So what ofthen. They are a trio comprising brothers(keyboards) and Jordan Smart (saxophone) with Jesse Barrett on drums and tabla. The line up and the absence of bass in particular does differentiate their sound somewhat, rhythm coming from the repetitive minimalist Reichian keyboard patterns around which Jordan Smart weaves sax lines that sometimes recall Pharoah Sanders. This spiritual jazz element is perhaps further emphasised by Barrett's interest in Indian classical music adding another point of difference. Also in their favour is the Gondwana records seal of approval -produces and the recording was made at the 80 Hertz studio where he and the Gondwana Orchestra cut their masterful When the World Was One. This means that the Gondwana quality control kicks in providing assurance that the music is presented to best advantage in terms of sound quality, packaging and track sequencing.The album builds slowly, starting with "Mansions of Millions of Years" slow burn rhythmic ambience, and the more delicate "Snow Bough" that unaccountably reminds me of Paul McCartney's "Waterfalls." These tracks represent a gentle insinuation of the Mammal Hands sound world into your consciousness before the first of the stand out tracks "Kandaiki" notable for its use of looped melodies in different time signatures. This structural description belies the placid beauty of the piece and proves that it is the quality of the playing and underlying musical ideas that is paramount irrespective of the tools used to achieve the effect.The benefit of attention to sequencing is seen in the second half of the collection where the tempo lifts with a bunch of further striking pieces that allow the listener a different perspective on the band's abilities. The first of these "Bustle" is a pretty good case study in how to build and release tension with its light, bright horn riff that rides the Reichian keyboard rhythm extremely effectively giving space for the solos to spin out of. "Inuit Party" too maintains the tempo, as the pace of the collection builds to the absolute killer trackalbum closer "Tiny Crumb." Apparently taking inspiration from Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson the track starts with a chiming hypnotic piano line before the spiritual jazz saxophone theme cuts in. The Smart brothers swap back and forth trading solos, getting further and further out, Barrett's drumming rising to the challenge and introducing some effective tabla playing around the 5 minute mark as the band settle into a more spacious, mesmeric, groove for the final third of the piece. It is a tour de force and a real highlight of a fantastic debut.The overall effect is something like GoGo Penguin might have been had they grown up somewhere quieter, away from the temptations of clubland. As we have come to expect from Gondwana releases, Animalia is designed with the listener in mind both in terms of the simple good taste of the sleeve and the care in track selection and sequencing that allows the work to be displayed to best advantage. At 40 minutes long it doesn't outstay its welcome, feeling as if designed to maximize quality for the length of a vinyl LP rather than adding anything superfluous. In "Tiny Crumb" and "Kandaiki" there are a couple of tracks to rank alongside the years finest, that suggest a trio of huge potential with a bright future ahead. Animalia would be a cracking album for a band with a dozen releases to their name let alone a debut and as such is unhesitatingly recommended.
There are two good reasons I am writing this. First of all, you'll have to wait for another week until the game is released and this can be hell if there's nothing to read and no new screenies to watch.Secondly this AAR is, I think, the first with the final-build of the game (not a beta-version) and thus we will see some differences with the beta-AARs. The game has to be reviewed and what's a better way to do so then as an as-we-go review of the things I come across: how much fun is it, how easy is it to get into, can the automators be trusted, how is the game compared to V1 (you'll have to make that comparison yourself), how is the game speed and are there any bugs.There is a third reason as well. I always resented not liking Victoria 1, I just hope this time thing will be different and what better way to find out by writing an AAR about my experiences.Just like Jarkko Suvinen I bought Victoria1 on release anticipating yet another great Paradox-experience. Just like him, I was bored after quite soon and gave up. Mine is still standing the shelf together with all other Paradox games but in contrast, it is not installed on my pc. A good friend of mine occasionally bothered me with his experiences in V1: “I am going to conquere a good chunck of China and make the Chinese POP imigrate to the US Westcoast, more laborers for my factories.” I couldn't care less, Victoria 1 was a closed book for me.Two games were all I played, two games and then I gave up. The American Civil War-scenario was not to my liking (never is good enough actually) and I just didn't see the point of it all. Of course I got never into it and with no fond memories this experience, this first game, will be quite different then the first ones played with EU2 and HOI3 when I had these great memories of previous instalments. Thus, this will be quite different from my previous preview and review AARs, let's get this going.
Content advisory: The video above may contain language that is offensive to some. Tyler, The Creator's Tiny Desk performance was a first for many reasons. It was the Los Angeles rapper's first time performing at our offices, but moreover, it was the Tiny Desk's first nighttime performance, a special request from Tyler and his team in order to professionally light the "stage" themselves. Members of Tyler's lighting crew came to the office a day before to set it up, eventually bathing him and his band in shades of fuchsia, orange and blue — one for each song — during the early evening show. Flower Boy, Tyler's latest album, is much like this Tiny Desk performance; a surprising departure from the expected. Four albums in, he has matured as a producer, rapper and human being. Often equated to hip-hop's class clown, the 26-year-old peels back his own mask of immaturity to reveal a young adult grappling with anxiety, fear and uncertainty of self. After he was done, Tyler did something of a modified mic-drop, throwing his tambourine in celebration of what he and his band had accomplished. Always one to stay casually connected with his fans, Tyler made time — nearly an hour after the performance was done --- to pose for photos, sign merch and crack jokes with (and on) everyone around him. Set List "Boredom" "See You Again" "Glitter" Musicians Tyler Okonma (vocals, keys), Jaret Landon (MD/Keys) Dré Pinckney (Bass), Dalton Hodo (Drums), Kaye Fox (background vocals), Kiandra Richardson (background vocals) Credits Producers: Bob Boilen, Morgan Noelle Smith; Creative Director: Bob Boilen; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Lighting: Max McDougall; Videographers: Morgan Noelle Smith, Maia Stern, Beck Harlan, Alyse Young; Production Assistants: Paul Wichmann, Salvatore Maicki; Photo: Jennifer Kerrigan/NPR For more Tiny Desk concerts, subscribe to our podcast.
Looking Ahead: Chris Hedges On Poverty, Politics, U.S. Culture In the latest installment of our "Looking Ahead" series, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former New York Times Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges talks about the decisions that led him on his career path, and where he sees the country going in the next decade. NEAL CONAN, HOST: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Today as part of our Looking Ahead series, we'll talk with writer Chris Hedges, former New York Times foreign correspondent and old friend and colleague who's joined us many times over the years, going back to what's probably still his best-known book, "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." We'll talk politics and the future of America, I promise. We'll also talk about his evolution as a reporter and how some unusual choices affected his career. If you have a question for Chris Hedges about something he's written - be specific now - give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation at our website. That's at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Later in the program, how a study of suicide notes may help save lives. But first we look ahead. Chris Hedges joins us here in Studio 42. His most recent book, with Joe Sacco, is "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt." He has a weekly column on truthdig.com, and nice to have you back on TALK OF THE NATION. CHRIS HEDGES: Thanks, Neal. CONAN: We first met over the phone 31 years ago. HEDGES: That's right, oh my gosh. (LAUGHTER) CONAN: I was an editor here at the time. Argentina had just invaded the Falkland Islands. We needed a stringer in Buenos Aires, and this smart-aleck kid comes on the line. HEDGES: And that's right, and I have to pay credit to Bill Buzenberg. I guess I can tell a story that since he doesn't work here anymore won't get him in any trouble. But I had a - very green, as you pointed out, and Bill came down for three weeks. And every night in his hotel room he made me write a story, a mock kind of story for NPR; NPR has its own peculiar style. And he would rip it apart and put it back together. And when he left three weeks later, he gave me all his equipment and came back to NPR and said it had been stolen at the airport. (LAUGHTER) HEDGES: And that's how I became a radio reporter. (LAUGHTER) CONAN: I did not know that part. HEDGES: I kept that secret for a while. But it's really because of people like you and Bill, because I didn't go to journalism school as you know. Many of the correspondents - I went on to cover the war in El Salvador; these old Vietnam hands who, you know, would mix up a Scotch and take me up to their hotel room, and it was a kind of apprenticeship program. And I am forever, you know, deeply, deeply indebted because I wouldn't be here without those people. CONAN: I have to tell a story. There is a day during that, you were our stringer in Buenos Aires, I was back in Washington editing, and a submarine commander had been captured by the Brits after his submarine ran aground on New Georgia Island, I think. Alfredo Astiz was his name. HEDGES: Yes. CONAN: And it turned out that he was also known as the Angel of Death, one of the worst characters in Argentina's dirty war. And we needed our stringer in Buenos Aires to give us a story on Astiz. And I kept sitting there all day, where the hell is Hedges, why isn't Hedges - before the days of cell phones, calling frantically, and deadline's approaching, deadline's approaching. And then finally at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Chris Hedges finally calls and says I'm sorry I've been out of touch. I've been working on this story about Alfredo Astiz. You had the story I would've assigned six hours before. It was unbelievable. That was the day I knew you were going to make it. But you came back to the States, and before you went on to that career as a correspondent, you did not go to journalism school, you did not get - you know, become an apprentice journalist. You went to divinity school. HEDGES: Yeah, actually, you know, I had dropped out of divinity school and gone to Bolivia, where I had studied Spanish with the MaryKnoll Fathers, the Catholic missionary society, although a Protestant. They had given me a scholarship at their great language school in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Then I had freelanced for the Washington Post and NPR and others and gone back and finished my degree. I had one year left. And then I turned around and went to cover the war in El Salvador. CONAN: Why did you make each of those decisions? HEDGES: Well, I went into seminary planning to be an inner-city minister. My father was a minister. I had a church in Roxbury, in the inner city in Boston, for two and a half years. And over those two and a half years, I had a kind of rupture both with the church and I think with liberal institutions that like the poor but don't like the smell of the poor. And had left divinity school very focused on what was happening at the time in Latin America. This was the age of the dirty war in Argentina, Pinochet in Chile, the death squads in El Salvador, Rios Montt of course who was just convicted for genocide in a Guatemalan courtroom was carrying out that genocide in Guatemala. And I was very close, I had - I went to Harvard Divinity School and was very close to a guy named Bob Cox, who had been the editor of the Buenos Aires Herald during the dirty war. Bob was a remarkable man and the only newspaper that printed the names of the Desaparecidos, the disappeared, on the front page in a box above the fold every day until Bob was finally taken away and really saved only because he's a British citizen. He was later knighted. And it was through Bob that I began to see how I could, I think, marry that commitment that I had to people who are marginalized and don't have a voice with writing, which I always cared about. And I remember Bob, I finally decided to go to Latin America, and I was asking him because I was going with a backpack, and I asked him what books I should take, and he said take the collected letters, essays and journalism of George Orwell, that four-volume, which became my kind of Bible. And to this day, Orwell very much remains my model of what it means to be a journalist who at once is not afraid to care and yet is scrupulous about telling the truth because of course Orwell, even when he writes "Homage to Catalonia," will not cover up the Barcelona - the attacks against the POUM, the anarchists in Barcelona, which he was a member of. And the left roundly criticized him for hurting the war effort. And Orwell's great defense, that, you know, in the end we as journalists or writers, if you want to reduce it to its maybe crudest dimension are - the product we sell is credibility. And this is Orwell's words. And, you know, a lie works in the short term. But in the long term, you ultimately care, you destroy what you care about. And it's because people know that you will always tell the truth, and the lie of omission is of course still a lie, that it gives you the kind of power you have. So that, you know, it was Bob, it was Orwell. I finished - both my parents had graduated from seminary. So there was - you know, they were in absolute horror that I wouldn't finish my degree. But when I went back and finished it, I knew that I was going to go back and be a journalist, which I did. CONAN: We're talking with Chris Hedges. If you have a question for him about something he's written, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. Eric(ph) is on the line with us from Orangeburg in South Carolina. ERIC: Hi, I admire your work and your presentations. I've watched you through the years. I heard where you talked about where you worked with some at-risk youth when you were in divinity school in Boston. Whatever happened to those youth? And did you ever work with Mel King when you were there? And I'll leave it at that. HEDGES: I knew Mel. I was just a kid. I did meet Mel and liked him very much. Mel King was a great activist, ran for mayor of Boston, came pretty close to winning if I remember correctly, and then I think went on to teach after that at MIT. I - you know, when I left the United States, I was pretty much out of the country for 20 years. So I lost touch with many of those people that I had worked - and you're right, you're very right. Your caller is right, I primarily worked with youth in - although I ran a church, I primarily worked with youth in Roxbury, missed every class on Friday because I was always in juvenile court, which didn't please my professors at Harvard. But it's interesting, since I've come back to the United States, I teach in a prison and have been about to start again this fall and teach with inmates. And I think part of that is because as a writer who cares about voices - and I think this is really the mark of what journalism's golden function is within a society, giving a voice to those who otherwise, without us, would not have a voice. In the age of celebrity culture and business reporting, I think we've forgotten a lot of that, but that's really what journalism is supposed to do at its core. And I as a writer don't want to lose touch. I don't want the - those people who are suffering - and of course Joe Sacco and I in "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" spent two years in the poorest pockets of the country, I don't want these people to become abstractions to me. I don't want their issues to become abstractions to me. And I think I've learned as a reporter that we always carry assumptions that are often shattered when they come into contact with reality, and I never want that reality to become distant. CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Eric. ERIC: Sure. CONAN: Keeping in touch, there is - on your first story, your first big assignment, every reporter vows to keep in touch. These people mean so much, they're so vivid, they're such an important part of their education. And yet you move on, you move on to the next story, in your case El Salvador, and then you move on to the next country and the next part of the world. HEDGES: Yes, you know, I covered the war in El Salvador for five years, and by the end I was - and I write about this in "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," I was just breaking down. It was a very violent conflict, as you know. I think 22 journalists had been killed, including some journalists that I had worked very closely with. I had a nervous twitch in my face, had to be evacuated I think three times because the embassy had information that death squads were going to kill me. That wasn't uncommon, by the way. Journalists were often targeted. But I didn't want to leave Latin America, actually. I wanted to go to South America. I was working for the Dallas Morning News at the time. They didn't want to open a South America bureau. They offered me London, where you were; I turned it down, or Jerusalem. And so - I mean, I love England, I just didn't think the story was that compelling. And so I said OK, I'll go to the Middle East if I can take a sabbatical to study Arabic, which the Dallas Morning News gave me. It just makes all the difference when you have the language facility. And so yes, I went there, and although by choice I would have never left Latin America, I'm glad that I did because it was a kind of contact with another culture, another history, other forms of suffering, other ways of being, and I certainly grew both as a human being and as a reporter because of it. CONAN: The other aspect of that, though, is you go from war to war to war. HEDGES: Right. CONAN: This becomes your profession. You become an adrenaline junkie. HEDGES: Yeah, and I also addressed that, the poison of that, in "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." And you're very right. It's how you - you know, I ended up in Kosovo covering the war with people who I had covered the war with in El Salvador two decades before. Foreign, you know, war photographers, war correspondents are a small fraternity, and they tend to leap from conflict to conflict to conflict. And the longer you do that, the less able you are to fit in at home, in - or even in a society not at war. I think that, you know, soldiers call it a combat high. that's very real. Those adrenaline rushes become something you need. They pervert, deform you. And I think it is much - I've not used drugs, but I think it is much like an addiction, a drug addiction. And you go back to an environment where you can get those kinds of rushes, but as importantly where you're surrounded by people who have the same kind of pathology. CONAN: We're talking with Chris Hedges in our series Looking Ahead. We're going to look ahead, stay with us. If you have a question for him about something he's written, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email us, talk@npr.org. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan. Chris Hedges has covered Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He's written about a dozen books on everything from Iraq to atheism to war to the death of the liberal class. Over the years he's joined us several times here on TALK OF THE NATION to talk about all of that and more. Today he'll join us to look ahead at the future of America and back at his long and varied career. If you have a question for Chris about something he's written, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email talk@npr.org. You're going to find us on Twitter, @totn. And this, an email from Richard(ph): Chris Hedges, tell us about Larry Gibson. HEDGES: Larry Gibson. Larry Gibson was the character I open the chapter with, Joe and I open the chapter with, on southern West Virginia, one of these remarkable resistance figures who protected his family land, a small, I think it was roughly 40 acres, from coal companies who kept trying to buy him out. They bought everyone else around him out, so he was completely surrounded by these denuded hills that had been blown, the top 400 feet had been blown off to get the coal seams. And he just hung - he died not long after we wrote the book, but boy, those are inspiring people, and because the forces that they stand up against are so monolithic. Big coal in places like southern West Virginia, you know, they own the judges, they own the politicians, they own the press. There isn't anything they don't own. And it's a very lonely and heroic fight. And the other thing about Gibson, which - and Judy Bonds had this, she had died just when we got there, and Joe and I went to her memorial service - you know, these people are not necessarily formally educated. But their understanding of power and how it works and their ability to articulate it - and Larry was an example of that, and I think you see that in the long interview that we have as we're walking over his land - is really remarkable. I mean, there's - you know, he was a very moving figure. CONAN: Let's see if we can go next to Gina(ph), and Gina's on the line with us from Syracuse. GINA: Hello. CONAN: Hi Gina, you're on the air, go ahead please. GINA: Yes, I'd like to say thank you, Chris Hedges, I have been using your book "Days of Destruction" in my sociology classes at a community college since it was first aired on NPR. And it's caused so many of my students to become activists, to realize what is actually going on in the sacrifice zones and how it's legitimating rationales for power and corporate profits are harming people. And it's just such a pleasure to talk to you, and thank you so much for that book. It's done wonders in my classes. HEDGES: Well, thank you. CONAN: Sacrifice zones, you might have to explain that a little bit. HEDGES: Yeah, I mean, these are - and that's what we set out to look at with a kind of thesis that we live in an age of unfettered or unregulated capitalism. And so we went into these zones, these areas that were sacrificed first, where everything, the environment, communities, families, were all made to prostrate themselves before the dictates of corporate profit, corporate power. And now of course what's happening is that with the impediments to unfettered capitalism lifted, the destruction of regulations, the decimation of a legal system by which we once held these entities accountable, we're all being sacrificed. And, you know, I was saying to you, Neal, right before the show started, I mean, we reached this week a point of 400 parts per million... CONAN: Last Thursday, yeah. HEDGES: Yeah, last Thursday, and what is it that we're watching, you know, it's O.J. Simpson and Angelina Jolie. And, you know, this is - you know, this is on mainstream CNN. And it's kind of frightening for somebody who comes out of a world if we just lost all sense of proportion, all sense of priority. So, you know, and the domination of the media by roughly a half-dozen corporations, which really begun with - or was accelerated by Clinton's deregulation of the FCC, has meant that Viacom, General Electric, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorps, Disney, Clear Channel, control almost everything most Americans watch or listen to, and I think that... CONAN: But that's so much more available on the Web these days, including the place you write for. HEDGES: Yes, but you have to be proactive, and I think the other problem with that, and again I would go back to the traditional news organizations like the New York Times that I worked for, even NPR, there's a kind of egalitarian or democratic quality, let's say, to a newspaper because you get things that you may not agree with. You get things you're not necessarily looking for, whereas on the Web, and I think I'm guilty of this, and we're all - you tend to retreat to your own intellectual ghetto. And I think the other problem with the Web that worries me is that there isn't a lot of reporting on it. CONAN: Thanks very much for the call, Gina. GINA: Thank you. CONAN: And let's see if we can go next to - this is, if I can push the button properly, Shane(ph), Shane with us from Lynchburg, Virginia. SHANE: Hey, great to talk to you, Chris, I'm a big fan of yours, big fan of you, as well, Neal. I've been on this show once or twice before. I recently finished "American Fascists," and I know that was written during the Bush administration, and I really loved the book. Now that it's - you know, we're coming around on about 10 years after that book was written, it's seven or eight years, the theme of that book that I gathered was this push of, you know, this very conservative, almost fascism as you described it, in America. I wanted to know now that that's a thing of the past, what do you see as the present and the future of American politics and American political power? HEDGES: Well, the first chapter of that book is on despair and how, you know, when the walls close in on you, when there are no options, when life or the real world defeats you - and of course having spent two years writing that book, a lot of the people that went into the embrace of the Christian right struggled with, you know, drug addictions, alcoholism, you know, sexual abuse, family breakdown. And if you go back and look at all of the writers on totalitarianism, whether it's Hannah Arendt, Fritz Stern, Karl Popper, they all talk about that despair as essentially driving you into a non-reality-based belief system. And the despair is only growing. I think we have powerful proto-fascist movements in this country, and I look at the Tea Party, the militia, the Christian right, where they celebrate the language of violence, they celebrate the gun culture. And they channel what I would describe as a very legitimate rage and a legitimate sense of betrayal towards the vulnerable, towards Muslims, towards undocumented workers, towards homosexuals, intellectuals, feminists, liberals. They have a long list of people they don't like. And I think that is a very - remains a very frightening and powerful undercurrent within American society. My wife is Canadian. Canadian culture is different in many ways, but fundamentally it's different in that it doesn't have this kind of belief, which has been part of the American fabric from our inception, and that is regeneration through violence. We are a very violent nation. You can see it just in the numbers of shootings since Newtown. I think we're close to 2,000. Almost every day. And so yes, I think those forces, as we see an unraveling of the economy, continued sort of slow unraveling or certainly an inability to ameliorate the chronic unemployment or underemployment, a kind of chipping away at Head Start and Social Security and, you know, failure to prolong unemployment benefits, these are really throwing large sections of the United States into distress. And what you get when you enter that kind of ideological belief system is you no longer deal with reality. You believe that - you believe in magic. You believe that Jesus will intervene to protect you and promote you, and then it becomes impossible to have a kind of rational discussion, for instance with people who believe that, you know, everything - the Earth was created 6,000 years ago, and there were dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden. You know, I went, in "American Fascists," to the Creationist Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. And we're going on the tour, and they have the tour of the Garden of Eden and a fake waterfall and Adam and Eve, who are naked, but Eve's sort of turned, you know, so you can't see her plastic breasts or anything. And there's a T. rex there, and the guide is explaining to us, well, I'm sure you all wonder why the T. rex has such big teeth. Well, it's because Adam and Eve used T. rex to open the coconuts. And then we went into the next room, which was a replica of Noah's ark, and she's saying, well, I'm sure you all wonder how Noah got the dinosaurs on the ark. Well, Noah only put baby dinosaurs on the ark. I mean this kind of utter walking away from rational thought, from science, that's what totalitarian systems are. But it puts you in a kind of cocoon. The problem is that these systems always... CONAN: Aren't those pretty easy targets? HEDGES: You know, they're - you mean for those of us on the outside? CONAN: Yeah. HEDGES: You know, you go through... CONAN: Because it sounds a little patronizing. HEDGES: Yeah, but it's - you know, to go through it, I found it kind of frightening to see people believing it. And I think that an element to the Christian right, again, is this - this lust for apocalyptic violence. And I think that that - and I was with LaHaye in Detroit, at an End Times gathering weekend. And I think that - I mean, I - by reporting off the ground, I think that that apocalyptic violence is really a kind of celebration of destroying a world that almost destroyed them. I - and I begin that - that book with the stories of people who really fell into profound despair. You know, I think when I went into the book - and this is an example - I was patronizing. But I think by the end of the book, I had a great deal of empathy for the people within the movement, and a great deal of distaste for those who ran the movement who I felt were manipulative and, of course, people like Pat Robertson and others made tremendous fortunes off of these people's suffering. CONAN: Shane's question is about - was in part about what had happened in the 10 years since. And we have an Obama administration, which is, we're just learning, is seizing reporters' phone records... HEDGES: Yeah. CONAN: ...and, of course, conducting a drone war far more avidly than its predecessors. HEDGES: I think it's important that, you know - and Sheldon Wolin writes about this in "Democracy Incorporated" - that we have the facade of the democratic state, and yet what we've undergone is a kind of corporate coup d'etat in slow-motion, and Obama serves those centers of power. There's been no, not only reining in of Wall Street, but no real prosecutions of Wall Street for the activities, the clear fraud that they committed. The assault on civil liberties has been actually worse under the Obama administration than it was under the Bush administration. The... CONAN: And doesn't attract the same kind of criticism. HEDGES: Yes. And I think that's what - that's - and that, I think - again, I wrote a book, "Death of the Liberal Class," that, I think, talks about this, that - I actually believe in those values, and I think they're worth fighting for. And it - no matter who is in power. I mean, I think as a reporter, you learn power is the problem, and there should always be a kind of antagonism to power. And, unfortunately, the liberal class has forgotten this. So we have an executive branch that interprets the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act - and I think, you know, you read it - incorrectly as giving them the right to assassinate American citizens. You have the FISA Amendment Act: warrantless wiretapping, eavesdropping and monitoring of tens of millions of Americans. We now know that our personal information is stored in perpetuity out in supercomputers in Utah. You have the use of the Espionage Act six times, more times than - it was written in 1917. It's our foreign secrets act. It was never designed to shut down whistleblowers. Obama has used it. Between 1917 and when Obama came into power in 2009, it was used three times to shut down whistleblowers, the first time against Ellsberg. Obama's used it six times, and there's been a distinct chill, as any investigative reporter will tell you, with government officials being terrified to speak. You have the national - Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act. I sued the president in federal court, in the Southern District Court of New York, over that. And, of course, the recent case of the AP, seizure of the AP files. CONAN: Shane, thanks very much for the phone call. SHANE: Thank you. It's, like I said, it's really a pleasure to speak to you, Mr. Hedges. Keep up the good work. HEDGES: Thank you. CONAN: We're talking with Chris Hedges. He's got a weekly column at truthdig.com. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. And from all of that, Chris Hedges, a listener might come away with the feeling that you're feeling bleak about the future, that you're very pessimistic. HEDGES: Well, I think anyone who reads climate science reports is - must - you know, if you read them, you must be terrified. And the World Bank put out a report a few months ago that, of all institutions, was pretty stark - turning up the heat, I mean, talking about essentially reaching a point where human life, as we know it, is not sustainable. And yet, you know, how is the corporate state responding? Forty percent of the summer Arctic sea ice melts, and it's a business opportunity to drop half-billion-dollar drill bits, mine the last vestiges of fish and natural - it's insane. I mean, it makes Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick" the most prescient study of American character. We're all in the Pequod, which, of course, is named for an extinct Indian tribe. Ahab's in charge. All of us know on some level that it's a kind of suicidal trajectory, and we are - to steal a line from Neil Postman - amusing ourselves to death. And I think that it's clear that the formal mechanisms of power are not going to save us, either from the rise of the security and surveillance state, the degradation of the ecosystem, and the kind of fraying and destruction of what is left of our democracy. And that is why I was such a supporter of Occupy, and we - that's another show. I'm certainly well aware of the weaknesses of Occupy, but at least it began to respond. And, you know, having spent so much of my life around violence, I'm - you know, I am deeply, passionately nonviolent. And yet I understand that when human - I covered Yugoslavia - when human societies get pushed far enough, violence erupts, and that frightens me. I look at what's happening in the United States as having similarities to Yugoslavia. And the war in Yugoslavia was caused by the economic collapse of Yugoslavia, not by ancient ethnic hatreds. There you saw people retreating into a kind of faux mythology of ethnic glory, whether they were Serb, Croat, Muslim. There you saw the rise of demagogic figures as - I mean, in essence, we live in a system that's paralyzed, that isn't able to respond rationally to what's happening to us. And the longer that paralysis continues... CONAN: And do you see us breaking into those kind of tribal structures? HEDGES: I see when - the longer that paralysis goes on, then you inevitably empower the extremes. And the danger is that not only does that liberal center get washed away because it's ineffectual, but then there's a rejection of traditional liberal values. That's what happened in Yugoslavia. That's what happened in Weimar. And look at the - what's the approval rating for Congress? Nine percent? I mean, with justification. I'm not saying that - but that scares me. CONAN: It's just about the same for the media. HEDGES: Yeah. There you go. Except this show. (LAUGHTER) CONAN: One last question, point of privilege: You have the opportunity, you got one of those precious Nieman Fellowships when you were at The New York Times. I think your editors expected you to study political science or something. You chose something else. HEDGES: Classics. CONAN: Why? HEDGES: Boy, it was because of the great James Freedman, the former president of Dartmouth, who met with me that first week and, you know, I was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and 20 years of being a war correspondent, and he wisely steered me. And not only - I had done Greek in divinity school, but to do Latin, it - you stepped outside of your own culture. You freed yourself from the cant of contemporary culture, and you were able to look at another culture through the eyes of an Aristotle, through a Plato, through a Catullus, through a Virgil, through a Horace. And I think that that experience was one that gave you an ability to walk back into your own culture and see it with different eyes. I'm a huge believer in the classics. It was, you know, one of the great years of my life. CONAN: Chris Hedges, thanks very much for being with us. HEDGES: Thanks, Neal. CONAN: Up next, a look at what suicide notes can teach us about preventing future suicides. Stay with us. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
In 2011, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles publicly confirmed that they were going to assemble a new 2019 Jeep Grand Wagoneer which was supposed to arrive three years after that, but for some reason, we are still waiting for this model. In that same year, FCA created a new five-year plan, according to which, late 2018 is the date we were going to see the new Grand Wagoneer. Neither Grand Wagoneer nor the Dodge Dart SRT is coming our way, but there is a silver lining this time – FCA is just a little late with the production. We are not going to wait another five years for the new model, as it is supposed to arrive sometime in mid-2019, according to Automotive News. The new Jeep Grand Wagoneer is going to share the platform with the Ram 1500, as it climbs its way to be one of the most upscale models in the entire segment. This architecture will turn the luxurious Grand Wagoneer into a capable off-road vehicle with excellent towing capacity. Chevrolet Tahoe and Ford Expedition are going to challenge the base Wagoneer, whereas, in the luxury department, Grand Wagoneer will fight against the Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator, and GMC Yukon Denali. An additional info surfaced, and according to that report, FCA found that their plans to update the aging Grand Cherokee are useless, so they disregarded that idea. Instead of that, the American carmaker is going to launch a new, redesigned vehicle, thus improving the fuel economy of the car which is also going to shed some weight. Meanwhile, an upgraded Renegade model is expected to come in the second half of 2018, while FCA wants to add an entry-level A-segment model to the lineup, according to the report. This A-segment model is going to be “sold exclusively outside North America, where mini vehicles predominate.”
For the fourth straight day, Afghans protested in response to a US pastor burning a copy of the Quran in Florida. At least 22 people have died, including seven UN workers, as a result of the demonstrations across the country that began Friday. While the protests seem to be dying down, they’ve left a mark on Afghanistan. The protests brought a growing anti-foreigner sentiment to the surface that may increase support for the insurgency or, at the very least, put renewed pressure on foreign forces to reduce their presence here. Though the Taliban has definitely benefited from the ongoing fallout of the Quran burning incident, the violent reaction came from average Afghans who may or may not support the Taliban or other insurgent groups. In speaking with Afghans about the incident, it’s surprised me how many people support the spirit of the protests. No one I’ve talked to supports the killings of the UN workers. But even well-educated, informed Afghans tell me that it’s good that people are speaking out against the desecration of the Quran. Much of the support stems from the inability of many people here to contextualize the March 20 Quran burning. A translator who works for a fellow journalist here in Kabul did not know that Florida pastor Terry Jones was the same person who threatened to burn the Quran last September. This led to the perception that many Americans share his beliefs, even if he heads a small church of about 30 people who have so little support that they’ve had to sell their furniture on eBay to stay afloat. Mr. Jones is now trying to sell the church property. In a place like Afghanistan, where the vast majority of the populace is illiterate and many lack regular access to reliable news outlets, perception and rumors often become more important than facts. Now that the story of the Quran burning has spread, it almost does not matter how strongly US officials – from President Barack Obama to Gen. David Petraeus – condemn Jones’s actions. The damage has been done. After almost 10 years of foreign troops and international aid groups, the Taliban is still a serious threat and it’s difficult to see what tens of billions of dollars of foreign aid money has bought for the country. Patience is wearing thin among many Afghans, and incidents like the Quran burning provide a vehicle for their growing anger. Already the Taliban has shown an increasing willingness to attack soft targets, such as the Finest supermarket and the Safi Landmark which were both bombed about a month ago. Among the growing anti-foreigner sentiment, the Taliban and other insurgent groups may have an easier time getting the support of the community as they carry out these attacks, provided they direct their efforts against internationals and avoid Afghan civilian causalities.
A.J. Green is an excellent NFL wide receiver. In just five seasons he has accumulated 415 catches, 6171 yards, and 45 touchdowns. He is the undisputed number one receiving target on a Cincinnati Bengals’ team that is a threat to go to the Super Bowl. Green finished as a top-10 wide receiver in fantasy football last season, and is unanimously perceived as one of the NFL’s most consistent wide receivers. This is a fallacy. In fact, I am not drafting A.J. Green on any of my fantasy teams this season, because he is incredibly inconsistent. Elite Company A.J. Green is the fourth overall highest scoring wide receiver over the last three years. However, that only tells half the story. Consistency is the key to winning in fantasy football. Having a player score 22 fantasy points in one week and six the next is significantly worse than that same player scoring 14 points each week. Most of the fantasy leagues are based on biweekly battles, and each week the scoreboard then resets. A.J. Green is being drafted as the 5th to 7th wide receiver off the board on all fantasy platforms. This makes him either an early second round or late first round pick. Below is a list of the top cumulative fantasy football wide receivers over the last three seasons, as well as their current 2016 ADP: High Weekly Volatility One of the best measures for wide receiver fantasy effectiveness is Weekly Volatility. This measures the level of week-to-week fantasy point scoring variance. Players with numbers higher than 8.0 have significant weekly output oscillation, and values over 10.0 indicate an extreme boom/bust range of outcomes. Take a look at that same list with their Weekly Volatility from each season. A.J. Green is the only wide receiver that has a Weekly Volatility of ten or higher each of the last two seasons. He also has the highest combined rating for the past three seasons (29.1). You simply cannot rely on A.J. Green as a true WR1 on a week to week basis. Wide receivers like Demaryius Thomas (25.1), Julian Edelman (24.9), Jordy Nelson (17.2 over two years) and Brandon Marshall (23.8) all carry significantly less Weekly Volatility from the past three seasons. Yet, each of those players are currently being drafted after Green. In fact, the only two current wide receivers who had a higher Weekly Volatility than A.J. Green were Doug Baldwin and Antonio Brown. Baldwin’s variance is explained by a run heavy Seattle team that changed offensive philosophy mid season. Brown’s lowest game outputs (4 points, 4 points, 2 points) all occurred when Ben Roethlisberger was injured. A.J. Green’s situation is most concerning because his output variance occurred over multiple seasons and with his starting quarterback healthy. If we isolate his standard league point production from last season, the results are even clearer. Take a look at his production over an eight week stretch last season: From Week 4 until Week 11, A.J. Green produced one double digit fantasy week. Just one. Overall, he had nine single digit fantasy weeks out of 16. While Dalton was injured during those games, he showed from the earlier weeks that low single digit performances are not atypical results. In Week 14, which is a typical playoff week, he had a terrible performance scoring just three points on one reception. Your early round selections are players you rely on for the most important fantasy games of the season. In 2015, during a very successful Bengals’ season, A.J. Green was a huge fantasy disappointment for seven of eight weeks, and during a vitally important Week 14 in the fantasy playoffs. Is that the production you would expect from the first wide receiver you draft this season? Would you be happy with that production? I certainly would not. The Real Andy Dalton The other important factor in assessing an early round wide receiver selection is quarterback effectiveness. Andy Dalton played 13 games last season and had some of the best statistics of his career: 28 total touchdowns, only 7 interceptions, and finished 2nd in the NFL in passer rating (106.2). But those are the best numbers of his five seasons by far. The Bengals have finished 15th and 21st the last two seasons in passing yards per game, while ranking 13th and 6th the last two seasons in rushing yards per game. The Bengals prefer to run the ball, and that’s despite running back Jeremy Hill only averaging 3.6 yards per carry last season. The Bengals are at their best offensively when they are running the football. Andy Dalton is not known for his passing accuracy either. Here are the completion percentages each year of his career: 58.2-percent, 62.3-percent, 61.9-percent, 64.2-percent, and 66.1-percent. These results rank him annually around the middle of starting NFL quarterbacks. In addition, take a look at his red zone statistics over the past three seasons: Those are mediocre numbers, and not very encouraging if you are spending a first or second round pick on A.J. Green. Andy Dalton is not attempting many red zone passes, and when he does, he only completes them at an average rate. This means for the 2016 season, Green is often going to have to get his touchdowns on long pass plays outside of the red zone. This will be very difficult to do when your quarterback is not known for a strong arm or being highly accurate. Are we sure that the Andy Dalton we saw in 2015 is the real him? Or could that have just been his career year? If Andy Dalton regresses, this will further hurt A.J. Green‘s value. Offensive Philosophy With so many changes on offense, opposing defenses will be completely focused on stopping A.J. Green. The Bengals lost wide receiver Mohamed Sanu (Atlanta), wide receiver Marvin Jones (Detroit), and will start the season without starting tight end Tyler Eifert who is recovering from surgery. Many fantasy analysts think this means that Green will be peppered with targets, but I see defenses scheming to stop him every game. Given the lack of offensive weapons, Green is going to face many of the defensive challenges that Calvin Johnson often faced in Detroit. It should be no surprise that Calvin Johnson is the only wide receiver over the past three years with a higher combined volatility than Green (34.3). It is precisely why I never drafted Calvin Johnson. Ask the person who had Calvin Johnson in 2015 how they felt after he scored just three points at home in a Week One 33-28 shootout with San Diego. Or better yet, ask how they felt after he managed just one fantasy point in a 35-27 loss at New Orleans during Week 15. Teams always schemed to take Johnson out of the offensive game flow, and they will do the exact same thing to A.J. Green this season. More than likely, the Bengals will return to a run heavy offense, until Brandon LaFell and rookie Tyler Boyd show they can help support the passing offense in a similar way that Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones did. I expect a slow start for A.J. Green in 2016, especially until at least Tyler Eifert returns. Conclusion When you analyze A.J. Green‘s fantasy value, you should only compare him to his corresponding peer group. Those are the top 12-15 wide receivers that are currently being drafted in rounds one or two. If Green drops to round three, I would draft him in a heartbeat. But if you compare him to those peer group wide receivers, he is not going to be someone I will draft. His Weekly Volatility, unpredictable quarterback play, and overall outlook in the 2016 Bengals’ offense, leave me looking elsewhere for better top round fantasy options in the upcoming season. If you select A.J. Green early in a traditional league, you will enjoy the few 20+ scoring weeks he will have in 2016. However, don’t complain when you suffer through multiple disappointing single digit performances. A.J. Green is widely perceived to be one of the most consistent wide receivers in the NFL. The volatility metrics say otherwise. Green is highly inconsistent, and is therefore best deployed in best ball leagues that reward volatility. You have been warned. Follow @FtsyWarriorMike
A net house for vegetable production under VietGAP standards of a cooperative in Hoa Phu commune of Hoa Vang district, Da Nang city (Photo: VNA) - Each cooperative should itself improve competitiveness and mobilise synergistic resources, apply advanced technology as well as improve management effectiveness combined with branding and marketing. Deputy Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s (MPI’s) Cooperatives Department Bui Nghi made the statement during a seminar held by the ministry on August 18 in Hanoi. The cooperative sector needs to give priority to structural reform as well as stimulate renovation to improve operational efficiency, adapting to current market conditions and the international integration process, he said. Cooperatives were formed and developed in Vietnam long ago. However, the country’s socio-economic situation has changed, requiring them to renovate accordingly in order to operate more effectively. According to Nghi, the 2012 Law on Cooperatives facilitated cooperative development in line with the country’s economic development, associated with the process of international integration, he said. They should be restructured and transformed into modern models, expanding the scale of production and developing production toward specialisation and professionalism, generating products of high quality and added value, meeting domestic requirements as well as joining the global value chain, he added. Foreign experts said Vietnamese cooperatives should also learn from international practices, including a number of cooperative development models of developed countries such as Canada, the Netherlands and Germany. [Ben Tre: New cooperatives to form agricultural value chains] Cooperatives should be built on a voluntary basis, mobilising resources from each participant and distributing profits according to agreement reached between participants, they stated. Vietnam has more than 19,500 cooperatives operating in various fields, from agriculture, fisheries, forestry, transport, credit and handicrafts. However, only one third are assessed as operating efficiently. At the seminar, Tran Van Cung, Chairman of the Cooperative Alliance in the southern province of An Giang, gave examples of co-operation on rice production between farmers and businesses in the province. Cooperatives represented farming households, receiving seeds, chemicals and fertilisers from enterprises and then providing them to farming households, he said. They received commissions according to agreements reached with farmers. In addition, cooperatives and technical staff supervise and support farmers in the production process, he said.-VNA
Sony has just launched the Exmor RS IMX230 image sensor, its new flagship mobile snapper. The shipment date for the sensor is set to ship in April next year. This is important, because we’re expecting Sony to announce the Xperia Z4, its next flagship, at MWC 2015 in March. If all goes to plan then there’s a very good chance the IMX230 release date will coincide with the Xperia Z4, putting its own release date in April too. The IMX230 offers up 21-megapixels of sensor -like its predecessor – as well as boasting a compact form factor, boosted image quality, and improved functionality. It measures up at 1/2.4”, which is actually slightly teenier than the Xperia Z3’s 1/2.3” image sensor, but not so different that you’d notice any disparity in the final image. It’s also the ‘industry’s first’ CMOS image sensor built for smartphones that comes with a built-in image plane phase detection AF signal processing function – that’s fancy talk that means you’ll be able to focus track fast-moving subjects pretty well. The High Dynamic Range function of the new snapper also supports hi-res still images and 4K video recording now. HDR There’s also High Dynamic Range support for hi-res still images and 4K video-recording built-in. This means it’ll be much easier to get a good shot in high-contrast environments (read: outdoors) while filming in UHD. Sony also plans to extend the line-up and include a 16-megapixel version of the camera, which will still retain the high-speed autofocus and boosted HDR – that’s tipped to land by the end of 2015. Read More: Samsung Galaxy S6 release date Via: Sony
Posted on · Pizza was on the menu until I came across this 3 Meat Pizza Casserole Recipe. I didn’t feel like dealing with a crust, and this looked really good and it made a hit! This recipe has a excellent blend of flavors. This is a simple recipe-but there is some prep time involved. Graduation is right around the corner, this would make a great dish for a graduation party. The recipe says to let it set for 5 minutes before serving. My oldest boy took one look at it-it did not make the 5 minutes. Give this one a try you wont regret it. Enjoy 3 Meat Pizza Casserole Recipe Print Cook time 70 mins Total time 1 hour 10 mins Author: Larry Recipe type: Main Serves: 6-8 Ingredients 1 lb bow tie pasta 1 lb mild pork sausage 1 large onion, medium size chopped 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (I used Bertolli's Mushroom and Garlic) 1 lb cubed cooked ham ½-1 lb of sliced pepperoni 3 (8 ounce) bags of shredded mozzarella cheese 6 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese 2 tablespoons chopped garlic 1 teaspoon dried oregano Instructions Cook pasta in boiling water until al dent é. Cook sausage, garlic powder and oregano with onions until the juices run clear. In a lightly greased 9x13x3 inch pan, pour a small amount of sauce to lightly coat bottom. Layer ingredients in the order listed below. st layer-1/3 of the pasta, ⅓ remaining sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese, sausage and onions. nd layer-1/2 of the remaining pasta, ½ remaining sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese, ham. rd layer-all remaining pasta, all remaining sauce, 1 bag of mozzarella cheese, 2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese, all the pepperoni(completely covering the entire top with pepperoni). Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Serves 6 - 8 3.4.3177
I had heard a little about Ra's al Ghul before seeing him appear on Batman: The Animated Series, but I was not very familiar with him. So when he showed up in the cartoon, just walking into the Batcave, knowing Batman's secret identity and calling him "Detective", well, I was kinda blown away. I then found a reprint of his early comics appearances, and those stories were awesome. I loved how he was probably Batman's most formidable opponent, along with his League of Assassins, his bodyguard Ubu, and his lovely but equally dangerous daughter Talia. Anyway, I knew that Ra's would have to be in the first set of Bat-Villains that I'd have Ron draw for this series of Bat-commissions. And man did Ron deliver! Here we have a fierce-looking Ra's who has taken off his shirt, picked up his sword, and is ready to fight Batman to the death! I love the expression on Demon's Head's face, the billowing cape, and desert background with flames overhead. Ron continues to rock on these Bat-commissions and I couldn't be more grateful for his efforts! If you like this piece then please do go buy some books featuring Ron's work in either physical or digital format and/or go commission him yourself.
Imperial researchers are collaborating with artists and designers on a public engagement project called The Heart and Lung Repair Shop. This July, medical researchers from the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), Imperial College London, artists and designers are collaborating on a science engagement project called The Heart and Lung Repair Shop, funded by the Wellcome Trust. The shop is located in an empty retail unit in King’s Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, and is aimed at bringing science to the local community. The design has been inspired by a mechanical repair shop and features a workshop bench where scientists will do mini experiments and dissections. The main installation is a heart and lung machine, which the audience will be able to pump and inflate themselves. The scientists will be really interested to hear what the audience think about their research and hopefully the audience will want to hear about the medical research – Ellen Dowell Public Engagement Officer The products in the shop are an impression of what might be sold if a heart and lung repair shop really did exist, for example, cans of fresh air, bottles of oxygenated blood and preserved stem cells. Rather than being for sale, the items’ labels will provide snippets of information to incite conversations between the scientists and the audience. “It’s about bringing together scientists and the community and enabling them to have conversations, share perspectives and connect,” says Ellen Dowell, Public Engagement Officer from the NHLI. “The scientists will be really interested to hear what the audience think about their research and hopefully the audience will want to hear about the medical research happening at nearby hospitals such as Charing Cross, Hammersmith, St Mary’s Paddington and Royal Brompton.” The shop will be open from the 7 – 20 July, and incorporates a variety of features to engage people of all ages. It will showcase bioengineered organs, broken hearts that can heal themselves and ways to stop cells from ageing. There will be the opportunity to meet and speak with NHLI scientists and take part in specially developed demonstrations, workshops and talks. There will also be a lung capacity competition and a ‘future challenges’ ballot where visitors can vote on their favourite area of potential future research, from developing healthy cigarettes to building a whole bioengineered heart. The Heart and Lung Repair Shop is free for all to attend and will be open 11.00 - 17.00 every day from 7-20 July 2014. Some workshops and talks are ticketed. Find out more information, tickets and programmes.
Foram Ruparel gets a new Audi A6 and Vikram Mishra a Skoda Superb. “We are satisfied with the compensation,” says Foram’s dad as they tell cops to drop charges.Christmas has brought cheer to two families involved in a nasty accident earlier this month.Owners of two cars smashed by a speeding Aston Martin Rapide owned by industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Group on December 8 have got spanking new cars as replacements.Foram Ruparel, 25, whose Audi A6 was damaged in the December 8 accident on Pedder Road, and senior pharma executive Vikram Mishra, whose Hyundai Elantra’s boot and bumper were knocked out of shape by the Aston Martin, received their new cars on Tuesday.While Ruparel got an identical A6, Mishra received an upgrade in Skoda Superb. On Monday, both Ruparel and Mishra had informed the Gamdevi police, who are investigating the accident, that they were not interested in pursuing the case any further.Tushar Ruparel, Foram’s father, claimed on Wednesday that people from Reliance were in touch with the two families over the last week to discuss a settlement.“On Monday we informed the investigating officer Assistant Police Inspector Ravindra Pawar that we want to withdraw the case and on Tuesday we received the new cars. We are satisfied with the compensation,” he said. Both Ruparel and Mishra get to retain their old cars that are undergoing repairs and are expected to be road-worthy soon. Mishra remained unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts by this newspaper to reach him on Wednesday.Deputy Commissioner of Police Nisar Tamboli, however, said that the victims’ desire to withdraw the case will not impact the investigation in any way. “An FIR has been registered and we will continue with our probe. The case will be committed to a court and it will be up to the court to decide whether to allow withdrawal of prosecution,” he said.While Bansilal Joshi, 55, a Reliance driver, presented himself at the Gamdevi police station the morning after the accident, he has not been arrested so far, indicating that the investigating team is not convinced that he was behind the speeding Aston Martin wheel at the time of the accident.Forensic teams found two finger-prints in the car. But since the car had been used by multiple drivers, finger-prints alone don’t prove anything.There were not fatalities in the accident, nor was anybody grievously injured.Of the two victims, only Foram Ruparel has recorded her statement before a magistrate, in which she identified Bansilal Joshi as the man who was behind the wheel of the Aston Martin. However, in her statements widely reported in the media a day after the accident, she had said the man driving the Aston Martin did not look like a driver.Vikram Mishra has not recorded his statement with the Gamdevi police till date despite repeated requests by the investigating team.Reliance has maintained that the car driven by Joshi was on a routine maintenance drive and it was being followed by two SUVs carrying security guards as is standard protocol for all vehicles used by the Ambani family.
Chickenhawk Sean Hannity Suggests The U.S. Invade Kuwait And “Take All Their Oil” For Sean Hannity, it seems you can never be too rich or have too many wars – for other people to fight. While basking in the luxury of his multimillion dollar waterfront mansion, chickenhawk Hannity is in a bullyboy pique over rising oil prices and is ready to rumble. Correction: he’s ready for other people to do the rumbling for him. Never mind that our troops are a bit occupied in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hannity has a new front for them in Kuwait – to make them pay for their liberation back in the early 90’s. Oh and those Iraqis? How ungrateful were they that after we invaded their country -under false pretenses and caused at least 100,000, possibly a million, Iraqi deaths - they didn’t turn over their oil? No word yet on whether we should put off Hannity's other pet war, attacking Iran, while we’re on this latest mission. (H/T Think Progress) During the Great American Panel segment of Hannity last night (1/14/11), Hannity said: There’s two things I’ve said. I said why isn’t Iraq paying us back with oil, and paying every American family and their soldiers that lost loved ones or have injured soldiers, and why didn’t they pay for their own liberation? For the Kuwait oil minister: how short his memory is. You know, we have every right to go in there and frankly take all their oil and make THEM pay for the liberation as these sheiks, etcetera, etcetera, you know were living in hotels in London and New York, as Trump pointed out, and now they’re gouging us. type="text/javascript"> Tweet
This week, we look more into thechemistry behind the Venus Fly Trap, and explore how it uses its methods to obtain key nutrients from insects that it catches. Previously, I wrote that due to the acidity of its soil, the Venus Fly Trap is forced to become carnivorous in order to adapt to its environment. Using its mouths to trap wandering prey as they unknowingly stroll into their impending doom. Slowly, the insect is digested for all its useful nutrients so that to plant may continue to thrive and grow. Although plants don’t have tendons that can grab, chew and swallow their food. This raises a question, how does it get food to its stomach? Well, the heads are infact both mouth and stomach in one. In truth, we aren’t totally sure how the process all works but the theory goes that cells may be compressed inside the mouth, this tension may actually hold the mouth open and its the insects weight and movement that break this tension and cause it to snap shut. Another hypothesis, mechanical movement in the trigger hairs changes water pressure within the cells, where the cells are expanded by water pressure and the trap closes as the cell tissue relaxes. So how does the plant break its food down? Just like our stomachs, the Venus Fly Trap uses acidic digestive fluids that dissolve soft tissues and cell membranes of the insect. Using enzymes it will digest DNA, amino acids and other cellular molecules into smell edible pieces that can be used for energy, growth and development. All that remains afterwards is an eerie exoskeleton of the insect! Advertisements
Rarely does a book come along, like Karl Marx's Das Kapital, that completely alters the paradigm through which we frame our worldview. Thomas Piketty's magisterial study of the structure of capitalism since the 18th century, Capital in the 21st Century, is such a book. In this important way, he is the Marx of our new age of inequality, albeit absent the historically misguided prescription of communism. This book is no off-the-cuff pamphlet. Piketty, a professor at the Paris School of Economics, spent 15 years mining all available data on economic growth and the accumulation of wealth since 1700. His conclusion is that the great virtue of capitalism is that its spreads around technology, knowledge and skills. But capitalism also inexorably generates ever more inequality. That is because the gap is always widening between those who only have their labor to sell and those whose "return on capital" - on the wealth they have accumulated -- grows faster than the overall economy. History shows that as economies mature, growth rates slow to a range of 1 to 1.5 percent annually while return on capital maintains at an average annual rate of 4 to 5 percent. Here is how he puts it: A market economy based on private property, if left to itself, contains powerful forces of convergence, associated in particular with the diffusion of knowledge and skills; but it also contains powerful forces of divergence, which are potentially threatening to democratic societies and to the values of social justice on which they are based. The principal destabilizing force has to do with the fact that the private rate of return on capital, r, can be significantly higher for long periods of time than that rate of growth of income and output, g. Wealth accumulated in the past grows more rapidly than output and wages. The inequality r > g implies that wealth accumulated in the past grows more rapidly than output and wages. This inequality expresses a fundamental logical contradiction. The entrepreneur inevitably tends to become a rentier, more and more dominant over those who own nothing but their labor. Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future. The consequences for the long-term dynamics of the wealth distribution are potentially terrifying, especially when one adds the return on capital varies directly with the size of the initial stake and that the divergence in the wealth distribution is occurring on a global scale. For Piketty, this is "the central contradiction of capitalism." Piketty points out that rapid growth in the 4 to 5 percent range or higher only occurs when economies are catching up, like China or the emerging economies today, or after devastating wars when assets have been destroyed and have to be rebuilt. Otherwise, the normal situation - which was the case up until World War I and from the 1970s on after Europe and the US rebuilt after World War II - is steady, low-level growth that is slower than the accelerating accumulation of wealth in the hands of those with capital assets. Looking exhaustively at the data, Piketty notes that the growing inequality generated by this contradiction only flattened in the US and Europe as a result of high marginal taxes on income in the wake of the two world wars. For example, between 1932 and 1980, the top federal income tax rate in the United States averaged a whopping 81 percent. Since 1980, those rates have plummeted not only in the US, but around most of the advanced economies such as France and even Germany. As a result, Piketty sees the return to a level of inequality in the 21st Century we have not seen since before World War I. Unlike Marx, of course, Piketty understands that state ownership or confiscatory taxes on entrepreneurs would kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. What he proposes instead is a progressive annual tax on capital that is quite small -- less than 1 percent on the low end of the wealth spectrum - so that incentives to innovative entrepreneurship are not stifled. But he proposes stiff marginal tax rates on the very high end on those with tens of millions to billions in assets who have moved beyond entrepreneurship to "rent seeking" simply by virtue of the quantity of wealth they own. Piketty makes a compelling, empirically-based case that there is little correlation between wealth at such levels and productivity increases in the overall economy. Such a system of taxation, Piketty readily acknowledges, is an uphill political battle everywhere. Moreover, in today's global economy where capital flows easily across national borders, only large regional political entities can impose such a tax that will meaningfully reduce inequality. China and the US may be large enough on their own to do so. Despite populist arguments for a return to narrow national sovereignty in Europe as a result of the euro-crisis, Piketty makes it clear that the only hope for social justice in Europe under the regime of globalization is full integration of Europe's states into the European Union. As leaders from Pope Francis to Barack Obama have proclaimed, growing inequality is the defining issue of our time. Much indeterminate discussion has swirled around its key causes, from job-displacing technologies to wage-deflating outsourcing of jobs. Capital in the 21st Century clears up all the confused thinking and presents us with the most compelling analysis to date of the key dynamic that drives ever-increasing inequality. This book is more than a must read. It is a manual for action that provides a fresh framework for the new politics of the 21st Century.
"Paul Ryan didn’t abandon Donald Trump. Donald Trump abandoned Paul Ryan. He left him with no good option and no reason to hold on. With little time and sinking poll numbers, congressional Republicans are now fending for themselves. This was inevitable. Paul Ryan is doing his job and that’s defending the House majority." On policy, Donald Trump is also making it more difficult for the speaker to retain his majority. This occurs both in actual policy positions and in rhetoric. For example, Donald Trump often calls for a wall along the Southern border. Many people support this policy and many others don't object, to it, even if it's not a priority for them. On policy, Trump has an acceptable position, even if I don't personally agree with it. But, insinuating that Mexicans coming into the country are criminals is offensive to a majority of the public. Both Whites and Hispanics. Sure, some are criminals. But, most are simply trying to find a better life for their families. The failure to acknowledge this is what rubs many voters the wrong way. Trade Promotion Authority and trade generally. Debt. Russia. Syria. Just to name a few. Donald Trump's positions are at odds with where the Republican Party has been for much of its history. Take trade, for example. A majority of economists would agree that free trade has been good for the American consumer. And, a significant number also believe American exports have increased the number of jobs in the U.S. making it a net plus for the American worker. Under President George W. Bush, free trade agreements went from three to 16. I worked for President Bush for eight years and in his second administration, I served as his political director. I can't remember a single phone call over eight years from someone complaining about his views on free trade (and I received many, many phone calls on a range of topics). Yet, listen to Donald Trump and one would believe free trade (along with immigration) is the cause of many of our country's ills. This has created a conflict for many Republicans and conservative Independents. Republicans aren't singing in tune. Then there are Donald Trump's odd views and fascination with Russia. He has praised Vladimir Putin, whose human rights violations are too numerous to state in one short op-ed. He encouraged the Russians to hack his opponent's email, and he's sloppily repeated false Russian claims. Russia also uses Donald Trump's claims to spread anti-American propaganda around the world. The Russian news service Sputnik sent a tweet claiming that Trump's claims were true — that President Obama and Secretary Clinton founded ISIS to oust President Assad of Syria. This is an absurd statement, but Donald Trump actually said the president and Mrs. Clinton founded ISIS. No Republican candidate has ever been so irresponsible when it comes to engaging with a dangerous foreign government. This may be OK for base Republicans, but it isn't attracting new people to the party. Politically speaking, Donald Trump isn't helping either. The hallmarks of a successful presidential campaign operation are raising over a billion dollars, building a strong ground game and advancing a robust data and analytics operation. Led by the presidential campaign, this infrastructure has historically benefited the entire ticket. Building a successful campaign is extremely difficult and it takes at least a year. It's like building a Fortune 500 company, only trying to do it overnight. There is little room for error and every day matters a great deal. It takes thousands of people, working in unison, to "pull" a party's candidates over the finish line in a close election. A strong campaign can turn out votes that wouldn't otherwise show up, sometimes as much as two or three percent. Three percent may not sound like a lot but it matters significantly to Republican congressional majorities. But, Donald Trump hasn't built this campaign. He certainly hasn't raised or spent the kind of personal money needed to win. He hasn't invested in field offices to the degree necessary and he's been very late to come around on data and analytics, once famously saying data were "overrated." If data were overrated, data scientists wouldn't be such a hot commodity in both business and politics. For nearly two years, the Clinton campaign has been meticulously building the kind of operation necessary to win. She's raised all the money she needs, so much so that her Super Pac, Priorities USA, is reported to be moving on to the U.S. Senate. So, what is Paul Ryan to do? Given Trump's inappropriate behavior, Paul Ryan doesn't have a personal reason to support him. There's been no real policy reason to support him either. And the one thing a House Speaker can usually count on — a robust campaign operation — doesn't exist. Paul Ryan didn't abandon Donald Trump. Donald Trump abandoned Paul Ryan. He left him with no good option and no reason to hold on. With little time and sinking poll numbers, congressional Republicans are now fending for themselves. This was inevitable. Paul Ryan is doing his job and that's defending the House majority. Commentary by Sara Taylor Fagen, a partner at DDC Advocacy and a former political director for President George W. Bush. Follow her on Twitter @sarafagen2. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Amazon has announced the availability of its premium ebook reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, in the Indian market, alongside the launch of its Kindle Fire HD range of tablets While the basic Kindle has been available for more than ten months through Croma retail's physical stores and online through Junglee.com, Amazon's product listing service, it's the first time the company has introduced the Kindle Paperwhite in India.The Wi-Fi version of of the Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader has been priced at Rs. 10,999, while its Wi-Fi plus 3G version costs Rs. 13,999. It will be available online at Amazon.in starting June 27. The ebook reader will also be available at over one hundred retail outlets including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone and Vijay Sales in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Pune.We believe that these will be ad-free models, as the Amazon.in website does not mention that they come with special offers (ads). Amazon sells the Kindle Paperwhite in ad-supported and ad free versions in the US market. While the ad-supported Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi+3G models cost $119 and $179, respectively, the ad-free Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi+3G models cost $139 and $199, respectively.Amazon has also revised the Kindle ebook reader's price in India. It is now available for Rs. 5,999, Rs.1,000 less than the Rs.6,999 price it was launched at originally, in August 2012.The Kindle Paperwhite, which was initially launched in October 2012, features a 6-inch Paperwhite display packing-in 212 pixels per inch and displaying 16 level grey scale. The Paperwhite display is essentially a front-lit display that guides light underneath an anti-glare layer and down toward the display, away from the reader's eyes, allowing readers to read with less eye fatigue and strain. Amazon claims that the e-reader offers 25 percent higher contrast for sharp, dark text and packs in 62 percent more pixels for higher resolution. The screen's brightness can be adjusted for reading in different light conditions. The Kindle Paperwhite sports a 2-point multi-touch display eliminating the need for physical buttons.It comes with 2GB of internal storage space out of which 1.25GB is available to the user, capable of holding around 1100 books. It also offers free cloud storage for all content (books and magazines) purchased from Amazon.The e-reader is light weight at 213 grams and promises a battery life of 8 weeks with the front-light on when Wi-Fi/ 3G connections are turned off. The Paperwhite's built-in Wi-Fi allows users to purchase and download books from the Kindle store directly through the e-reader. Amazon will also offer free 3G access with the 3G plus Wi-Fi version of Kindle Paperwhite. This essentially means that Amazon pays for the 3G connection on Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G, so customers pay no fees for data.The Kindle Paperwhite also features an experimental WebKit-based browser for casual web browsing.In addition to offering the new e-readers and Kindle Fire HD tablets, the Amazon.in website now also features the Kindle Store where users can buy ebooks. Although, it's worth pointing out that ebooks were even available earlier through Amazon.com with Indian Rupee pricing.To mark the occasion, starting today and for the next two weeks, amazon will offer one best-selling Kindle Book each day for free to customers in India."Indian customers are passionate about books and reading, and we're very excited to make the best-selling e-readers in the world--Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite--available to our Amazon.in customers," said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India. "We're also excited to make the Kindle Store available on Amazon.in, making it easier than ever for our customers to discover the largest e-bookstore in India."According to the company, the India Kindle Store offers over 1.7 million books priced in Indian Rupees. Amazon says Indian customers will also enjoy over 600,000 books priced Rs.200 or less and over 1.2 million priced Rs.600 or less. Readers will also find over 325,000 Kindle-exclusive titles available to download and read on Kindle.
Library leaders and critics agree that much of the public does not know what lies behind the 19th-century facade of the library’s historic McKim Building in Copley Square. Historical researcher Margo Burns was stunned three years ago when she discovered four handwritten records at the Boston Public Library from the case of a woman hanged in 1692 during the Salem witchcraft hysteria. The elation felt by Burns and two colleagues turned to panic only days later, when one returned and was told the documents could not be found. After a month of anxious, follow-up questions, the records were rediscovered. That episode preceded — and perhaps foreshadowed — the widely publicized disappearance of prints by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt, a case that launched a criminal investigation in April and led to the resignation of library president Amy Ryan. The prints — “simply misfiled,” said Ryan — were found June 4 just 80 feet from their proper place. Advertisement A report to be released this week will find that the library’s problems go deeper. Its 320,000 prints and drawings have been neglected for years and are in dire need of space, a massive reorganization, and a complete inventory, according to a draft copy of the consultant’s report obtained by the Globe. Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “The Print Department cannot be expected to function effectively without better oversight, specialized departmental leadership, additional staff, and adequate space for both storage and access,” wrote Martha Mahard, a Simmons College professor hired as a consultant by the library a year ago. Mahard also found that “the overall arrangement of the print stack defies logic,” making it difficult to locate some items. The library has started implementing some of her recommendations, Mahard said, but many of the suggestions will have to wait for funding and administrative decisions. “Benign neglect is no longer acceptable,” Mahard wrote. “Active engagement, informed leadership, and increased resources are called for.” Advertisement Critics have argued that library administration has been more focused on modern amenities, the digital future, and creating a robust presence in the neighborhoods than it has on keeping track of its invaluable treasures. As usual, money and resources are at issue. Bill Brett for The Boston Globe/File “They haven’t got enough people,” said David McCullough, the best-selling historian and a former library trustee. “I’ve never felt that there was adequate funding for adequate care of it all,” said David McCullough, the best-selling historian and a former library trustee. “I got very much involved in trying to rescue the national treasures that had ended up being allowed to deteriorate at an unconscionably fast rate.” Ryan has a radically different take. In her view, the library system has balanced a host of competing needs and moved aggressively to reach out to a broader, more digitally aware audience. And that includes Special Collections. “So our commitment, is it perfect? No,” Ryan said in a June 19 interview. “But as our services have expanded, actually our commitment to Special Collections has expanded.” Some of the increased resources called for in the consultant’s report should be used to restore city-paid jobs in Special Collections, according to current and former staffers, several of whom asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. But determining exactly how many Special Collections jobs have been lost in Ryan’s tenure is difficult. Advertisement One longtime member, who is a critic of the library administration, said the equivalent of six full-time jobs have been cut since 2009. Library spokeswoman Melina Schuler told the Globe that the number of jobs has not been reduced. However, in an e-mail response to a follow-up question, Schuler conceded that two full-time and two part-time jobs are currently funded through an independent group — the Associates of the Boston Public Library — and not by the city. ‘I’ve never felt that there was adequate funding for adequate care of it all.’ David McCullough, historian and former trustee of the Boston Public Library Environmental concerns, such as dramatic shifts in relative humidity, also are a serious problem, said Stuart Walker, who retired in 2013 as chief book conservator. “The conditions have gone from bad to worse,” Walker said, who added that mold grows on many rare books in summer. Ryan, who is stepping down July 3, said in the interview that she recognizes the personnel and physical needs of Special Collections, which contains nearly 3 million rare books, prints, manuscripts, photographs, and other items. She also acknowledged that her staff does not know exactly what is in the collections, a trove begun by idealistic Boston Brahmins that has become one of the world’s great library holdings. When she arrived as president in 2008, Ryan said, she found a library system reeling from the recession, with at least one foot in the past — as evidenced by its heavy reliance on antiquated card catalogs. In fiscal 2009, the library had 676 employees, full- and part-time; in fiscal 2015, the number was 535. In that time, the budget decreased to $36.6 million from $39.7 million. “We were engaged, I would say, in survival,” Ryan said. Ambitious exhibitions, Ryan said, are bringing the Special Collections into public view more often. A system of “digital stacks” will open up the library’s treasures — at least virtually — to even more patrons next year, said Beth Prindle, manager of programs and exhibitions. And the library’s treasures are being prioritized into dozens of Collections of Distinction. In addition, Ryan said, more attention is being paid to logging visits to Special Collections, where the disappearance of the Durer and Rembrandt prints exposed a glaring gap in protocol. The Print Department was not recording when an employee removed artwork from the stacks or when a particular print was viewed by a patron, library officials acknowledged. Instead, the library kept a calendar that listed individuals and groups who came to the rare books room to view prints. However, Schuler said, the records did not identify the items they viewed. Ryan said in the June 19 interview that she was unaware that the staff failed to keep a log. Sinclair Hitchings, keeper of prints for more than 43 years until his retirement in 2005, said the library failed to maintain the security protocols that he instituted in 1961 and were in place when he left. Hitchings said he kept a loose-leaf notebook to log the name, address, and telephone number of every patron who viewed a print, which often were described in general terms such as a “Rembrandt.” Hitchings said he told Ryan after she was hired that the Print Department urgently needed an inventory. Ryan said she did not recall that suggestion and added that if he had asked for one, she would have responded: “Why didn’t you do it? You’re the one that has been doing this for decades, and now it’s all dumped on my lap.” Hitchings’s job was eliminated after his retirement. Library leaders and critics agree that much of the public does not know what lies behind the 19th-century facade of the masterpiece McKim Building in Copley Square, nor what is needed to sustain the treasures. “The Boston Public Library deserves more attention and respect than it gets: from City Hall, the State House, and the citizens of Boston. This institution provides a public service — free, unlimited access to knowledge — that is every bit as important as those provided by our schools, police, and fire departments,” said Vivian Spiro, chairwoman of the Associates of the Boston Public Library. Spiro said she has been told that cataloging the Print Department alone would need five full-time catalogers working for five years. Without the help of outside groups such as the Associates, Ryan acknowledged, much important work in Special Collections would not be done. A fund in McCullough’s name and an Associates endowment fund have a combined $3.9 million dedicated to preserving the library’s treasures, according to the Associates. “The people trying to do the job are superb. There is nothing wrong in my view with their attitude or ability or their devotion to their jobs,” McCullough said. “They haven’t got enough people.” Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at brian.macquarrie@globe.com ; Shelley Murphy can be reached at shelley.murphy@globe.com
A federal appeals court issued a two-fold ruling against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday, overturning the CFPB’s action against a mortgage lender and ruling that the CFPB itself was set up improperly. According to the court’s majority, the independence of the CFPB’s director is unconstitutional and the agency should therefore be subject to more direct presidential oversight. (Certain other regulatory agencies are led by multiple-member boards or panels, rather than a single individual.) It was an unusual ruling, especially because it invoked the Constitution on an issue the Constitution doesn’t address directly: whether an agency should be run by a single individual or a committee. (Brian Simmonds Marshall, Policy Counsel for Americans for Financial Reform, explains in more detail here.) But, while the Constitution may be silent on that subject, conservatives have been claiming that presidential appointees have too much power ever since … well, ever since a Democrat named Obama began choosing those appointees in 2009. (Remember all the “czar” talk of a few years back?) By this author’s count, the word “tradition” and its variants (“traditional,” “traditionally,” etc.) appear 33 times in the court’s decision. The court’s majority leans heavily on past behavior – or, at least, its own characterization of past behavior – in order to challenge the CFPB’s management structure. “Tradition,” too, is a mainstay of conservative terminology. If this decision rings with right-wing rhetorical overtones, that should come as no surprise. The judge who wrote it is a former protégé of Kenneth Starr, the inquisitor who served as Inspector Javert to Bill Clinton’s Jean Valjean. In fact, Judge Brett Kavanaugh assisted Starr in his pursuit of Clinton. Sen. Ted Kennedy described Kavanaugh as a “political operative” when George W. Bush appointed him to the bench in 2006, adding: “I can say with confidence that Mr. Kavanaugh would be the youngest, least experienced and most partisan appointee to the court in decades.” This ruling appears to confirm that assessment. But it will come as good news to PHH, the mortgage lender that was hit with $109 million in fines after illegally taking kickbacks in return for steering customers to mortgage insurers. $103 million of those fines were vacated by Tuesday’s ruling. One major takeaway from this decision is: Judicial appointments matter. That’s why Republicans are so determined to prevent Democratic presidents from appointing judges – and why Republican appointees can no longer be counted upon to uphold the law in a fair and even-handed manner. From the Supreme Court on down, the nation is experiencing the fruits of a decades-long conservative assault on the concept of an independent judiciary. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is cited extensively in Tuesday’s ruling. She issued a response that is worth quoting in full: “This split decision — which bizarrely relies on a mischaracterization of my original proposal for a new consumer agency — will likely be appealed and overturned. But even if it stands, the ruling makes a small, technical tweak to Dodd-Frank and does not question the legality of any other past, present, or future actions of the CFPB. The CFPB has been, and will remain, highly accountable to both Congress and the President, and continued Republican efforts to transform the agency’s structure or funding should be seen for what they are: attempts fostered by big banks to cripple an agency that has already forced them to return over $11 billion to customers who have been cheated.” The two interconnected battles that are highlighted by this decision – the battles to rein in Wall Street fraud and resist the right-wing assault on an independent judiciary – are far from over. The upcoming election may prove to be decisive on both fronts. Voters, beware.
College football: Michigan State vs. Northwestern - October 15, 2016 Michigan State quarterback Brian Lewerke (14) throws a pass while warming up before their Big Ten football game against Northwestern at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, on Saturday, October 15, 2016. (Mike Mulholland \| MLive.com) Michigan State fans got an unexpected late Christmas present from the frontrunner to be its 2017 starting quarterback. David Lewerke, the father of Spartans' rising sophomore quarterback Brian Lewerke, posted a video on Twitter this week of his son dropping back and delivering a pass during a workout near their home in Arizona. The video comes just eight weeks after Lewerke during Michigan State's loss to Michigan on Oct. 29. In the short video, Lewerke plants on his left leg and delivers a short crossing route of about 10 yards. The throw is a small glimpse, but it provides further hope to Michigan State fans that Lewerke's season-ending injury in 2016 won't be a significant hindrance in preparations for 2017. Lewerke's injury didn't require surgery immediately after it happened. He spent six weeks in a walking boot, and Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said in his season-ending press conference on Dec. 15 that he had begun already walking uninhibited. Dantonio said then that he expected Lewerke to be "moving some" when the team reconvened following the holiday break and began its winter conditioning program. The fact that he's already making throws furthers the likelihood that Lewerke will be in good shape for spring football, when Michigan State's 2017 quarterback race will continue. Despite the broken leg, Dantonio has called Lewerke -- who played in four games this year with two starts -- "I think he's done enough to warrant him to be the guy to beat out." Dantonio said. Speaking to , Lewerke said he was buoyed by those comments. "I was pretty excited when he said that," Lewerke said. "It also made me made me motivated to prove that he is right in what he's saying."
Why isn’t Europe clannish? Ed West explains: The answer is the Catholic Church. Christianity in our minds is linked to “family values”, as Right-wing politicians used to say before an imminent sex scandal, but from the beginning it was almost anti-family, and Jesus told his disciples to leave theirs. Whereas Judaism had been heavily kinship-based, Christ voiced the view that the noblest thing was to lay down one’s life for a friend – a gigantic moral leap. This universal ideal was spread by St Paul who famously stated that there would be neither Jew nor Greek, “for ye are all one in Christ Jesus”. Although both large Abrahamic faiths are universalist, western Christianity was far more jealous of rival loyalties, such as could be found in the clan, and wanted to weaken them. St Augustine of Hippo and St Thomas Aquinas both encouraged marrying out as a way of widening social ties, and in Summa Theologica Aquinas objected to cousin marriages on the grounds that they “prevent people widening their circle of friends”. He wrote: “When a man takes a wife from another family he is joined in special friendship with her relations; they are to him as his own.” The influence of the Church caused Europeans to be less clannish and therefore made it easier for large territorial magnates to forge nation-states. Another consequence was the nuclear family, which developed in the North Sea region around the turn of the millennium. It was influenced by the western European manor system of agriculture, under which peasants managed their own farms let out to them by the lord of the manor, owing him obligations of work. This encouraged adult children to move out of the family home, whereas in most cultures three generations lived together under a paterfamilias. With the nuclear family came a move away from group identity and towards the western concept of individual rights and liberalism. It was a revolutionary idea and in parts of the world where the clan still rules it is still an alien one.
The opinions of people on the BMW i3 seem to be very divided. They either love the car or simply hate it. It is either good or bad. Black or white. Is that accurate though? Can it be placed in a box like that or is there more to this little EV? I think there is a lot more to this car than meets the eye. The i3 seems to be the only car over a long period of time where BMW actually took a risk and thought outside of the box. BMW went all out and built a car that was entirely new from the ground up. And when I say new, I don’t mean new, like the new 5 series is new. No, I mean new as in using a new approach with new materials, based on a new design and with a new way of propulsion, i.e. electric. BMW thought way outside of the box and built a very efficient and lightweight electric vehicle. I lease an electric-only i3 from 2015, and over the last so many months I have put more than 10,000 miles on it, driving it all over the NY metro area. I drove it during warm summer days, during torrential downpours and during the Stella snowstorm. By now, I think, I have enough miles under my belt to know (and share) what it is like to daily-drive the BMW i3. The last twelve months have changed the way I see this car and it is anything but simply black or white. Some features, I love and some others I don’t. Read on and find out what it’s like to drive in, and live with, the BMW i3. Reasons why people don’t like the BMW i3 This is fairly straightforward, most people do not like the exterior design and that’s probably an understatement. Especially from the front, the car looks weird. A mix between aggressively styled headlights and a sort of “high hat” design. From the back, things don’t look much better. Narrow tires and an aerodynamic design that makes the car look impossibly small. There is no way you’d comfortably fit four people inside or at least that is what many people think (our Dutch family of four tall people fits very well). Apart from the design, the limited range of the i3 is another major reason for people not to consider this car at all when they are shopping for a new vehicle. I think that is a shame because once you get inside an i3 and actually drive it, this little car may quickly change your mind. More after these photos. What I don’t like about the BMW i3 Exterior design: the design has grown on me somewhat and from certain angles, I think the car almost looks cool. However the look of the front and back of the car, I cannot get used to. I just don’t like it. Also, when I see another i3 driving on the U.S. roads, among much larger cars and SUV’s, the i3 looks ridiculously small. the design has grown on me somewhat and from certain angles, I think the car almost looks cool. However the look of the front and back of the car, I cannot get used to. I just don’t like it. Also, when I see another i3 driving on the U.S. roads, among much larger cars and SUV’s, the i3 looks ridiculously small. Limited range: this is probably the biggest downside of my version of the i3. The range is just too limited. Luckily there are quite a few good DC fast charge locations on my main routes so that I can get by, but another 40 or 50 miles of range would make a big difference. The newer version of the i3 would work much better, even though for many people that would still be too limited. this is probably the biggest downside of my version of the i3. The range is just too limited. Luckily there are quite a few good DC fast charge locations on my main routes so that I can get by, but another 40 or 50 miles of range would make a big difference. The newer version of the i3 would work much better, even though for many people that would still be too limited. Battery performance: the range that the batteries provide is very sensitive to your driving style, use of the heater, A/C, and the outside temperature. In perfect conditions, I can get close to 100 miles out of my fully charged i3, but I have to drive slowly without any enthusiastic sprints from traffic lights and not turn on any heating or cooling. On hot summers days or on blistering cold winter days, your actual range on the i3 may drop to about 60 miles. Of course, this makes the car a lot less practical for day-to-day usage. the range that the batteries provide is very sensitive to your driving style, use of the heater, A/C, and the outside temperature. In perfect conditions, I can get close to 100 miles out of my fully charged i3, but I have to drive slowly without any enthusiastic sprints from traffic lights and not turn on any heating or cooling. On hot summers days or on blistering cold winter days, your actual range on the i3 may drop to about 60 miles. Of course, this makes the car a lot less practical for day-to-day usage. Suspension: given the sporty nature of this car, the suspension seems to be a little too soft. It is comfortable enough but there is too much body roll in the turns. The short wheelbase can make the car feel unstable on bad roads and especially in turns. However, this is more of a feeling, because the car doesn’t really get upset. The weight of the battery pack, positioned low in the car, helps a long way in keeping the car sure-footed. given the sporty nature of this car, the suspension seems to be a little too soft. It is comfortable enough but there is too much body roll in the turns. The short wheelbase can make the car feel unstable on bad roads and especially in turns. However, this is more of a feeling, because the car doesn’t really get upset. The weight of the battery pack, positioned low in the car, helps a long way in keeping the car sure-footed. Narrow tires: the almost bike-like tires on the i3 reduce the rolling resistance and therefore increase the range, but they also limit the braking performance of the car. Under hard braking, you can feel that slightly wider tires would probably greatly reduce the distance to come to a full stop. the almost bike-like tires on the i3 reduce the rolling resistance and therefore increase the range, but they also limit the braking performance of the car. Under hard braking, you can feel that slightly wider tires would probably greatly reduce the distance to come to a full stop. Pricing: the car is priced too high to be very competitive with some of the other cars out there such as the Nissan Leaf or Chevy’s Bolt. However there have been really good promotions on the i3 in the past and if you are able to get one of those deals (I did), this car can become a financially very attractive option. What do I love about this car? Pricing: last year BMW ran a promotion on the 2015 i3 and I was able to pick one (electric only, 60 A-h, Giga world package) up for $196,50 per month for 36 months, 12,000 miles per year with no money out of pocket. This car was going to be our 2nd car next to our Honda Pilot. However, I ended up liking this car so much that it became my primary car. Driving the i3 instead of the Pilot saves me quite a bit of money on gas, but this was offset somewhat by our now higher electric bill. I am able to charge the car for free quite often at certain ChargePoint locations and through the BMW’s ChargeNow program. It is difficult to put an exact number on our total savings because of all the ever-changing variables that you’d have to take into consideration. However, based on my rough calculations, I save about $100 per month driving the i3 versus the Pilot. That means that for roughly $100 per month, we have a second car available to our family and one that is actually fun to drive. Not a bad deal in my mind (I’m Dutch, remember?). Please note, that I did not include things like insurance, interest and all that good stuff. I am just looking at the mileage on gas versus electric, the average gas price here in Westchester, NY and taking into account our higher electricity bill. last year BMW ran a promotion on the 2015 i3 and I was able to pick one (electric only, 60 A-h, Giga world package) up for $196,50 per month for 36 months, 12,000 miles per year with no money out of pocket. This car was going to be our 2nd car next to our Honda Pilot. However, I ended up liking this car so much that it became my primary car. Driving the i3 instead of the Pilot saves me quite a bit of money on gas, but this was offset somewhat by our now higher electric bill. I am able to charge the car for free quite often at certain ChargePoint locations and through the BMW’s ChargeNow program. It is difficult to put an exact number on our total savings because of all the ever-changing variables that you’d have to take into consideration. However, based on my rough calculations, I save about $100 per month driving the i3 versus the Pilot. That means that for roughly $100 per month, we have a second car available to our family and one that is actually fun to drive. Not a bad deal in my mind (I’m Dutch, remember?). Please note, that I did not include things like insurance, interest and all that good stuff. I am just looking at the mileage on gas versus electric, the average gas price here in Westchester, NY and taking into account our higher electricity bill. Lightweight: as Colin Chapman from Lotus said:”Simplify, and then add lightness“. This surely applies to the i3. BMW extensive use of carbon fiber, aluminum, and other lightweight materials create such a lightweight vehicle that it defines the way it drives. It is nimble, fast in its responses and very eager to change direction. The lack of weight is what makes the i3 fun to drive and what makes the first generation BMW M3 fun to drive as well. With all the modern safety features and luxury add-ons, cars have become so bigger and heavier that it is easy to forget how much better a lightweight car reacts. My BMW i3 only weighs 2,635 Lbs (1195 kg) and that is significantly less than the 330e (3,915 Lbs, 1776 kg) we drove last week. as Colin Chapman from Lotus said:”Simplify, and then add lightness“. This surely applies to the i3. BMW extensive use of carbon fiber, aluminum, and other lightweight materials create such a lightweight vehicle that it defines the way it drives. It is nimble, fast in its responses and very eager to change direction. The lack of weight is what makes the i3 fun to drive and what makes the first generation BMW M3 fun to drive as well. With all the modern safety features and luxury add-ons, cars have become so bigger and heavier that it is easy to forget how much better a lightweight car reacts. My BMW i3 only weighs 2,635 Lbs (1195 kg) and that is significantly less than the 330e (3,915 Lbs, 1776 kg) we drove last week. Instant torque: the electric engine in the i3 provides 184 lb-ft of instant torque effortlessly. This torque in combination with the lightweight, and not having to shift gears, make this the fastest BMW to date from 0-30 mph. Now, this statement may not sound very impressive, but let me tell you, in day-to-day driving, it makes all the difference in the world. The way this car accelerates from a standstill is simply astonishing and puts a smile on my face every time. Especially in urban environments with traffic lights, stop signs and traffic, this is the kind or performance that is actually meaningful. It allows you to effortlessly move in and out of traffic. To me, this means more than having the ability to go 150 miles per hour in 8th gear, like some of the other BMW’s. Simply put, the i3 is fast where it matters. the electric engine in the i3 provides 184 lb-ft of instant torque effortlessly. This torque in combination with the lightweight, and not having to shift gears, make this the fastest BMW to date from 0-30 mph. Now, this statement may not sound very impressive, but let me tell you, in day-to-day driving, it makes all the difference in the world. The way this car accelerates from a standstill is simply astonishing and puts a smile on my face every time. Especially in urban environments with traffic lights, stop signs and traffic, this is the kind or performance that is actually meaningful. It allows you to effortlessly move in and out of traffic. To me, this means more than having the ability to go 150 miles per hour in 8th gear, like some of the other BMW’s. Simply put, the i3 is fast where it matters. Turning radius: the i3 turns so quickly and the radius needed to turn 180 degrees is so small, that the car becomes very maneuverable in urban environments. Something that I never thought about until I experienced it in this car. Whenever I get back in the Pilot, that now feels like a semi-truck btw, I realize what a difference a small turning radius makes. the i3 turns so quickly and the radius needed to turn 180 degrees is so small, that the car becomes very maneuverable in urban environments. Something that I never thought about until I experienced it in this car. Whenever I get back in the Pilot, that now feels like a semi-truck btw, I realize what a difference a small turning radius makes. Rear wheel drive: like any real BMW, this i3 is rear wheel drive only. This adds to the sporty character of the car. The front wheels do not have to worry about anything else other than changing the direction. No torque steer like the Chevy Bolt. When you turn into a corner you can change the balance of the i3 with the throttle and this feeling is what makes the car sporty. Rear wheel drive may scare some people off when it comes to winter driving, but since the electric engine is positioned over the rear wheels, the i3 performs remarkably well with winter tires. like any real BMW, this i3 is rear wheel drive only. This adds to the sporty character of the car. The front wheels do not have to worry about anything else other than changing the direction. No torque steer like the Chevy Bolt. When you turn into a corner you can change the balance of the i3 with the throttle and this feeling is what makes the car sporty. Rear wheel drive may scare some people off when it comes to winter driving, but since the electric engine is positioned over the rear wheels, the i3 performs remarkably well with winter tires. Driver input: the feeling and feedback from the steering wheel, throttle, brake pedal are very good like you would expect from the makers of the Ultimate Driving Machine. The only thing to point out here is, that when you hit a pothole or bump in the road under braking, the regenerative braking stops and all of a sudden your car does not slow down as fast as you were expecting. I am not sure why this is but it can catch you by surprise at times. the feeling and feedback from the steering wheel, throttle, brake pedal are very good like you would expect from the makers of the Ultimate Driving Machine. The only thing to point out here is, that when you hit a pothole or bump in the road under braking, the regenerative braking stops and all of a sudden your car does not slow down as fast as you were expecting. I am not sure why this is but it can catch you by surprise at times. One pedal driving: the regenerative braking works so well that under most conditions you hardly need to use the brakes at all. Simply lifting your foot from the “gas pedal” slows the car down immediately. In the beginning, this takes a little getting used to, but now when I drive another car, I miss it. One pedal driving makes driving in the city very easy. the regenerative braking works so well that under most conditions you hardly need to use the brakes at all. Simply lifting your foot from the “gas pedal” slows the car down immediately. In the beginning, this takes a little getting used to, but now when I drive another car, I miss it. One pedal driving makes driving in the city very easy. Maintenance: I got the car in May of 2016. The first service is scheduled for September 2017. Thank you very much! I got the car in May of 2016. The first service is scheduled for September 2017. Thank you very much! Silent: there is hardly any noise and there are no vibrations caused by some ICE. The car is eerily silent when you drive it. Only at higher speeds (70 mph and up) do you get any significant wind noise around the A-pillar. there is hardly any noise and there are no vibrations caused by some ICE. The car is eerily silent when you drive it. Only at higher speeds (70 mph and up) do you get any significant wind noise around the A-pillar. Fast charging: my i3 comes with the fast charging option, which allows me to replenish an almost empty battery in about 20 to 30 minutes with a Level 3 fast charging station. Take risk. Get rewarded! Re-reading this article, it is almost funny how much I have become a fan of electric driving and driving in my award-winning i3 in particular. In the past, I have owned a Lancia Delta (2nd gen) and Factory 5 Roadster and I loved driving those cars. I thought that a powerful combustion engine was at the heart of the driving experience and I never thought electric cars would appeal to me. Until the day that I brought in my BMW 335i coupe in for service and got an i3 as a loaner. From that day on, I was sold on electric. The last thing I will say about this car is that unlike the 330e we drove last week, the i3 is a, albeit technically advanced, simple and honest BMW in nature that puts the FUN back in driving. Now, please BMW, think outside of the box again and bring us a fully electric 3 series sports sedan. There is a lot more interest than you think! Please let us know in the comments below if you too want BMW to offer a full-electric 3 series.
With the Tampa Bay region stalled on meaningful public transit investment, the city of Tampa is asking residents whether expanding an existing tourist-centric streetcar might help alleviate their transportation woes. Currently, the novelty line runs 2.7 miles between the Ybor City and Channel District neighborhoods, a short stretch that doesn’t reach downtown’s highest job concentrations, let alone the airport or the University of Tampa. It doesn’t even begin operation until noon on weekdays, and 11 a.m. on weekends, greatly diminishing its usefulness to commuters. Now, with $1 million from the Florida DOT, and another $677,390 from the city’s own coffers, Tampa is considering what an expanded streetcar system might look like, and engaging in a series of public feedback sessions. Despite a perception that the streetcar is for tourists, not residents, Christina Barker, special assistant to the mayor, says the public’s support for new transit options is high. “We’re hearing a lot of different opinions about how the streetcar can be used and where it could be going, but I think the overall theme is there is demand for this kind of transportation option, that people want more options, and they don’t want to need to get in their cars to go everywhere,” she says. Right now, that’s a Tampa resident’s best option: their own car if they can afford it, the free Downtowner circulator van if they can’t. According to an investigation by the Tampa Bay Times earlier this year, among the 30 largest U.S. metros, the Tampa Bay region ranks near the very bottom for transit coverage and usage, and spends far less on transit than any other major metro area. As a result, most people who can drive do so, leading to worsening congestion as other options like Lyft and Uber also clog the roads and surface parking slowly disappears, replaced by housing. Barker says congestion and transportation always rank among residents’ and potential businesses’ primary concerns. “But as a city we tend to have to rely heavily on our surrounding county for funding sources and different avenues to build these bigger projects, and they haven’t been panning out,” she says. “So we took a step back and started looking inward to, what is a project that the city can really champion that’s our own?” The streetcar wouldn’t solve regional transportation issues, then, but it might be able to connect dense Tampa neighborhoods where transit demand is high. At an April 4 meeting, consultant HDR presented six possible corridors to the public. Attendees were able to register their feedback and preferences in real time using software called Mentimeter. Of the 69 people in attendance, 55 said they primarily commuted by car. Most didn’t live in the downtown core, but about half commuted there for work. Their responses to specific corridors showed a clear preference for a north-south route, specifically one that would connect the downtown to the Marion Transit Center and the Tampa Heights neighborhood. A diagonal corridor slicing through downtown from northeast to southwest, passing through the University of Tampa, was the second most popular option. Three possible east-west corridors received about equal support. “To build a streetcar system that encompasses more of the city, it would have to be done in phases. So what we’re looking for right now is: What is the logical next step?” says Barker. Steve Schukraft of HDR says the city will focus on one route for now, while keeping the system flexible to introduce more service in the future. Based on feedback, Tampa and HDR will select two or three possible alignments to present to the Federal Transit Administration for approval. He also says the proposal is still mode neutral. This could be a traditional streetcar expansion, or the system could use rubber-tire vehicles or even be equipped to handle autonomous vehicles in the future. Whether or not traditional streetcar technology is utilized might depend on how far the system is expected to expand. For 5- to 6-mile downtown connections, a streetcar is just fine. Over longer distances, the system would need more power. In the public meetings, say Schukraft, while most people are open to the idea, “We are getting some skepticism about extending streetcar partly because of the concerns about current service. … Because of budget constraints, it hasn’t provided a consistent full-day service that’s close enough headways for people to make that a commute choice. So it’s a special purpose service and a special purpose trip now, so people are skeptical of investing more in that because they don’t believe it would address downtown’s transit concerns.” Barker hopes the public feedback process is changing how people think of the streetcar, but she too acknowledges that the streetcar’s current limits make some residents wary of expansion. Local station News Channel 8 recently took a skeptical look at the economics of it all, noting that no matter what, the streetcar, like most transit systems, won’t pay for itself. But it could do better than it does now, says Barker. “If it operated during commuting hours, if it connected to more jobs, I think you’d see a much bigger return on investment than we’re seeing right now,” Barker says. “Historically we haven’t necessarily funded operations of the streetcar that would demand the ridership that we’d like to see it have.” She also hopes the feedback sessions are informing the public on how other cities’ streetcar systems work. Unlike in D.C. or Seattle, Tampa’s streetcar does not run in the middle of the roadway but in its own right-of-way. Maintaining that design in an expansion could allow Tampa to avoid the slow speeds and traffic issues that have sometimes accompanied other streetcar projects. The final public meeting, at which HDR will present results from the first two sessions, will be held on May 2.
Sam Lutfi Britney OD'd on Amphetamines The Night She Was 5150'd Sam Lutfi: Britney Spears OD'd on Amphetamines the Night She Was Committed on a 5150 Breaking News took a huge amount of amphetamines the night she was strapped to a stretcher and placed on a 5150 hold -- so claims's lawyer in the opening statements of his defamation case.Lutfi's lawyer,, told the jury, on January 28, 2008, Britney had an amphetamine script filled. Schleimer says she took 6 to 8 pills early in the day, and several more later and went off the rails.Lutfi's lawyer also said he tried to get Britney to meet with a psychiatrist 2 days before she was 5150'd, but Brit refused.And there's this ... during Britney's disastrous appearance on the MTV Awards in 2007, Lutfi felt she was such a mess she shouldn't do it, because she was overweight and didn't rehearse, but Britney wouldn't hear it.
As young people migrate to cities in ever growing numbers, so grows the concern for the future of agriculture. Prototypes for urban/vertical farms have been developed and, considering projected urban growth, seem a likely forecast for our future. In the offices of Pasona, the future has already arrived. The Tokyo based recruitment agency has dedicated 20% of their 215,000 square foot office to growing fresh vegetables, making it the largest urban farm in Japan. The gardens utilize a mix of hydroponic and soil-based farming, and require very specific climate control within the building. This often means keeping these spaces warmer than is considered comfortable for office spaces, and is arguably the building’s greatest downfall. The food grown in the office isn’t meant to just feed the employees at Pasona. Kono Designs, the architecture firm behind the project, is hoping that this new type of office will inspire the young urbanites to reconsider agriculture and possibly even to reinvigorate rural areas. At the very least, the project seems poised to inspire other offices to embrace this new design trend. For more on urban farms, check out this series of articles published on ArchDaily last year:
College Republicans at Columbia have been targeted by Antifa but the school paper doesn’t seem to think that’s newsworthy. Campus Reform reports: Columbia newspaper silent after College Republicans doxing The Columbia University student newspaper has declined to cover Antifa harassment towards the school’s College Republicans chapter despite both negative and positive coverage of the group in the past. As Campus Reform previously reported, the NYC Antifa branch posted flyers of seven Columbia University College Republicans (CUCR) board members around campus, with each flyer containing their names, a photo, and a directive to readers that “if you see [name of board member], let him know what you think…” Although NYC Antifa claimed responsibility for posting the first round of flyers, it appears that at least some Columbia students were involved as well, since flyers have been spotted in areas of campus only accessible to students. “‘Let him know what you think…’ is a bit ambiguous and could reasonably be interpreted as ‘if you think this guy deserves to be beat-up, go for it,’” CUCR member Joey Siegel told Campus Reform, with CUCR President Ari Boosalis expressing similar sentiments. “We’re living targets on this campus,” Boosalis recently told Fox News. “The scary thing is that we don’t know what these people will do to us. If I walk outside I could get attacked by any person.” However, despite the concerns over potential Antifa violence, The Columbia Spectator has neglected to cover the doxing, a decision that CUCR president Boosalis argues is in line with the newspaper’s history of “biased coverage.”
Have you ever felt someone was preaching at you under the guise of praying to God? Did it turn you off? Make you feel manipulated? You were right. That We May What? Many dioceses are currently conducting their annual Catholic appeal for various diocesan needs. Fine. They need to do that. But the way this works out at the parish level can leave something to be desired. For example, at St. Nameless the Ambiguous’s Parish they’ve been having an entry in the prayers of the faithful which goes like this: Petition: That we may respond generously to the annual Catholic appeal . . . Response: Lord, hear our prayer. I cringe when I hear this—and other prayers like it “Preachy Prayers” The thing that makes me cringe is the fact that the petition isn’t really directed to God. It’s directed to those listening to the prayer. It’s encouraging them do to something, and only in the most implicit way does it envision God doing anything. We might call such petitions “preachy prayers,” because they are really preaching to the congregation under the guise of praying to God. To the extent preaching to the audience is the goal, that makes this a kind of sham prayer. Unfortunately, preachy prayers are common. Everybody Does It Catholics have no monopoly on this kind of prayer. They get made by all kinds of people on all kinds of subjects. For example, I remember people commenting on the phenomenon when I was an Evangelical. Sometimes an Evangelical minister—knowing that he was in front of people who weren’t religious (say, at a wedding or funeral)—would take the opportunity to preach the gospel at his audience in the form of a prayer. While making a rather lengthy oration—ostensibly to God—he would run through the high points of an evangelistic message (sin, judgment, Christ’s atoning death on the cross, grace, forgiveness, justification, eternal life, etc.) and conclude with something like: Lord, we turn to you—knowing that we have nothing of our own to bring, only to your Son’s cross we cling—and ask you to forgive our sins, so that though they be as scarlet, they may be made white as snow, and we trust only in you and your grace by faith alone, without any works on our part, that we may be with you forever in heaven. Amen. Or words to that effect. Preachy prayers can even turn up in formal, memorized prayers, like this mealtime prayer from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer: For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful. This one has an advantage over the first one I mentioned (about the annual appeal) in that it at least mentions God, but it’s fundamentally the same. The person who announces it to a group is telling the group what kind of attitude it should have (true thankfulness of food). If we don’t notice this, it is likely because we aren’t small British children who are about to be told, after the prayer, to stop being picky and eat what is on our plates. The kids notice it, though. Why It’s So Easy to Fall Into Preachy prayers frequently arise from good motives: people need to contribute to charitable causes, they need to find forgiveness and salvation, and they need to be thankful that God has provided for the needs of this life All those are good things. And it can be really tempting, when you’re praying in front of a group of people, to forget that you’re really talking to God and, instead, start directly encouraging your hearers toward what ever good is on your mind. The Problem The problem is that this isn’t what you’re supposed to be doing in a prayer. You’re supposed to be talking to God. What’s more, if you’re leading a group of people in prayer then you’re supposed to be representing their thoughts to God. At least for the moment, you’re acting as the group’s representative to God. And the group is meant to agree to what you are saying to God on their behalf. That’s why they are expected to say “Amen” or “Lord, hear our prayer” or whatever the local custom is as soon as you stop praying. This means that the group is giving you a sacred trust. They are letting you talk to God on their behalf. You thus have a responsibility to represent the group in a way they approve of and not go off promoting your agenda rather than theirs. There is some give an take here. After all, you’re not a mind reader, and you don’t know what everybody in the group thinks. But you do have a responsibility, as the group’s representative, to represent its petitions. Any time the representative of a group starts promoting his agenda over that of the group, it’s bound to cause resentment. Particularly when you have a captive audience. Captive Audiences There are certain social conventions that apply in prayer settings. One of them is that the person leading prayer gets to talk and the others stay quiet. If the prayer leader asks God for something one of the group disagrees with, it would be a serious breach of etiquette for that person to shout, “Hey! I don’t buy that! Don’t go asking God for that on my behalf!” Similarly, the group is expected to vocally express its assent at the end of the prayer. There is thus social pressure on the group both to let you speak to God for them and to publicly agree with what you said once you’ve finished. That means—due to the social dynamics of the situation—that you have something of a captive audience, which in turn means that you need to be extra respectful of their views and sensibilities. The Scandal of Preachy Prayers If you aren’t sensitive to the group in this way, you alienate them. Of course, prayer leaders aren’t perfect, and they sometimes say things that various people in the group don’t agree with—or fully agree with. To cover such possibilities, I have a standing intention whereby I ask God to accept whatever is good in a prayer being made by someone on my behalf. Even if I don’t fully agree, there’s always something good buried in the prayer leader’s intentions, and I ask God to accept that. However, if I get the sense that the prayer leader isn’t really talking to God—but to me—my attitude changes. “Hey! You’re supposed to be talking to God right now, not preaching at me,” I think. “If you want me to do something—donate, get saved, be thankful—then say it to me straight out, and I’ll be happy to consider it. But don’t go preaching at me under the guise of talking to God.” Even if they can’t articulate it, group members recognize that something phony is happening. It’s not sincere. It’s not authentic. And since it’s happening during prayer—which is sacred—it’s both phony and profane, a kind of holy hypocrisy. Preachy prayers thus come off as sanctimonious and, since they encourage good behavior on the part of the listeners, as moralizing. Also, since there is social pressure for the listeners to agree with what is being said, they come off as manipulative. Sanctimonious, moralizing, and manipulative. That’s a combination that will alienate people. Thus, despite the good intentions behind them, preachy prayers can actually push the listener away from the intended goods rather than drawing him closer to them. This makes them a scandal in the proper sense—something that pushes people away from the good. They Have Already Received Their Reward In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus has important things to say about how we should perform prayer and other acts of piety. Among them are these: Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward (Matt. 6:1-2, 5, 16). Here Jesus is concerned with one specific form of hypocrisy—performing an act of piety in a showy fashion in order to gain the approval of other people rather than of God. He indicates that the approval of others is all the reward that such people will get. The person may succeed in winning the approval of men, but God will not reward such actions, because they are not really directed to him. The same applies to preachy prayers. They may be done out of selfless motives (like encouraging people to seek God’s forgiveness) or they may be done out of selfish motives (like encouraging kids to stop complaining about their food), but don’t expect them to be further rewarded. Like self-aggrandizing acts of piety, they aren’t—at their core—directed to God but to men, so don’t expect God to reward them. Think Before You Pray All of this is a way of encourage prayer leaders—which most of us are at one time or another—to think about what they are saying. Put yourself in the position of those you are representing in prayer. Does what you are about to say really represent something they would have you say to God on their behalf? Or are you about to preach at them under the guise of praying to God? If it’s the latter, don’t say that prayer. If you want to encourage them toward some good, do them the courtesy of talking to them directly. Don’t wrap your exhortation in the holy cloak of prayer. You can pray for all kinds of goods, but some of them you may need to pray on your own rather than as a group prayer leader. Remember: These people are letting you perform a sacred task on their behalf, and you need to avoid abusing that role. You especially don’t need to come off as sanctimonious, moralizing, or manipulative. Most importantly, you need to remember what your real focus is when you’re praying: God. Just imagine how God must view such prayers: “Hey! If you’re going to talk to me then talk to me! Don’t sham talk at me while you’re really talking to someone else.” If you’re going to talk to God then talk to God—don’t preach at your listeners.
San Diego FILMAGE Premiere hosted by Mark Hoppus Hi My Name is Mark and Vannen Watches present FILMAGE: The Story of DESCENDENTS/ALL Plus: Filmmaker Q&As with Mark Hoppus and Mike Halloran Saturday, September 21st at Digiplex Mission Valley 7 / San Diego, CA Hi My Name is Mark and Vannen Watches are excited to bring FILMAGE: The Story of DESCENDENTS / ALL to San Diego for a special, one-day event of three back-to-back FILMAGE screenings on Saturday, September 21st, at the Digiplex Mission Valley 7 theater. The first FILMAGE screening kicks off at 11:00am, with a second following up at 1:50pm and a third closing out the day at 4:40pm. Each screening also features a special post-show Q&A session with the filmmakers, hosted by special guests Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and Mike Halloran of 91X-FM. See showtimes posted below for specific host info. We're expecting all three FILMAGE screenings to sell out quickly, so do not delay. Seating is extremely limited… and tickets are only $10 each! Tickets are available online HERE and at the Digiplex Mission Valley 7 box office. FILMAGE shirts and prints will be available at the theater as well as a super-limited HMNIM x DESCENDENTS t-shirt and the limited edition VANNEN + DESCENDENTS "Coffee Time" watch. For more information on these screenings, please visit HiMyNameisMark.com and VannenWatches.com for updates. ----------------------------------------------------- FILMAGE: The Story of DESCENDENTS / ALL San Diego screenings presented by Hi My Name is Mark and Vannen Watches When: Saturday, September 21, 2013 Tickets: $10 each Showtimes: 11:00am (post show Q&A with filmmakers hosted by Mark Hoppus of Blink-182) 1:50pm (post show Q&A with filmmakers hosted by Mark Hoppus and Mike Halloran of 91X-FM) 4:40pm (post show Q&A with filmmakers hosted by Mike Halloran) Location: Digiplex: Mission Valley 7 7510 Hazard Center Drive San Diego, CA 92108 Movie Info: (619) 685-2841 Box Office: (619) 574-8684
1961 Dutch Grand Prix (15 starters) Enlarge The field winds it's way through the dunes on lap one at the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. All 15 cars would still be running at the flag. © Sutton Motorsport Images Info Close Formula One’s visit to Zandvoort in 1961 has a remarkable place in the history books, as the only Grand Prix in which every car that started not only made it to the finish, but did so without stopping for a fuel top up or fresh tyres. There is a slight caveat: Masten Gregory and Ian Burgess were both on the reserve list, but didn’t end up starting the race. But of the 15 drivers who made the grid, all saw the chequered flag. Wolfgang von Trips won the race for Ferrari, with team mate Phil Hill following him home after a fierce fight with Lotus’s Jim Clark, who injected much of the action into the two-hour event. BRM’s Graham Hill, who started fifth, was the last man to finish on the lead lap in eighth; Porsche’s Hans Herrmann was three laps down at the flag, in 15th. It would be another 44 years before the feat was repeated… 2005 United States Grand Prix (6 starters) Enlarge The six Bridgestone runners line up on the grid at the start of the 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. © Sutton Motorsport Images Info Close Few remember the 2005 United States Grand Prix fondly - but the scenes that caused so much controversy and contention also helped the race secure a place on this list. All 20 cars entered for the event took part in the parade lap, but only six actually progressed onto the starting grid, with the remainder pouring back into the pit lane. Why? Because Michelin, concerned about the durability of their tyres following a fierce crash for Ralf Schumacher on the unforgiving Indianapolis banking during Friday practice, advised their teams not to compete, leaving the Bridgestone-shod runners to race on their own. What followed was one of the strangest starts in history, and one of the oddest races, with Michael Schumacher and Ferrari team mate Rubens Barrichello completing an easy one-two and Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro completing the podium as ‘best of the rest’. The other Jordan of Narain Karthikeyan and the Minardis of Christijan Albers and Patrick Friesacher completed the finishers as every car made it to the flag for only the second time in history, albeit in rather bizarre circumstances. 2005 Italian Grand Prix (20 starters) Enlarge Eventual winner Juan Pablo Montoya leads the 20-car pack through the chicane at the start of the 2005 Italian Grand Prix at Monza. © Sutton Motorsport Images Info Close After the controversy at Indianapolis, 2005 served up another ‘full house’ of classified finishers just two months later at Monza - and this time the entire 20-car grid made it to the end. That isn’t to say the race was without incident. Much of the drama came at the start - David Coulthard snagged Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and, as the Scot slowed, Williams’ Mark Webber was caught unaware and piled into the back of Coulthard’s Red Bull. All three were able to continue, though - Fisichella even managed to finish fifth. The race also featured a rare off late on for Michael Schumacher (who finished 10th as a result) and tyre concern at McLaren, which forced runaway leader Kimi Raikkonen to pit, and meant Juan Pablo Montoya faced a very nervous final lap as his rears were almost down to the carcass. The tyre held, and Montoya was victorious at the head of a 20-car field. 2011 European Grand Prix (24 starters) Enlarge Sebastian Vettel led all the way from lights to flag at the 2011 European Grand Prix in Valencia where every car finished. © © Sutton Motorsport Images Info Close The Valencia Street Circuit may only have been on the F1 calendar for five years, but in that time it managed to set a record that is still unsurpassed: the most classified finishers in any race in world championship history. It came during a relatively routine Grand Prix in 2011, which was won by polesitter Sebastian Vettel - the Red Bull driver’s sixth win from the opening eight races. Team mate Mark Webber finished third behind Fernando Alonso, but was in danger of falling out of the race entirely with gearbox issues, which prompted Red Bull to urge him to slow. Mercedes’ Michael Schumacher came close to retiring as well, although entirely through personal error - exiting the pits, he misjudged the distance to Vitaly Petrov, ploughing into the side of the Renault. Petrov was able to continue, while Schumacher limped back to the pits en route to finishing 17th, and one lap down, at the flag. 2015 Japanese Grand Prix (20 starters) Enlarge Despite some shenanigans at the start, all 20 cars were classified finishers at Japan in 2015. © Sutton Images Info Close
There’s a Cobra’s Curse Easter egg that you have to check out next time you’re at Busch Gardens Tampa, and it’s located inside the restrooms near the attraction in the Egypt area of the park. All you have to do is go to the bathroom by the sinks and find the mirror with a little pharaoh symbol at the bottom. When you press that button it will reveal that it’s a two way mirror and reveal King Tut himself with some enchanting music. This Easter egg secret can be found in the Men’s and Women’s bathroom in the new Cobra’s Curse area next to Montu. It’s a nod the former Busch Garden’s attraction King Tut’s Tomb, which was replaced by Cobra’s Curse. We also did get to ride Cobra’s Curse. Check out our Multi-camera angle Ride through of Cobra’s Curse here! Orlando, FL – 7/1/16 By: Alex Mateo
Academics gathered in Scotland on Friday to discuss hot literary topics including the racial politics of goblins, the canonisation of Neville Longbottom, and Beedle the Bard as mythopoesis in the Chaucerian tradition. Welcome to the UK's first conference on Harry Potter. Entitled A Brand of Fictional Magic: Reading Harry Potter as Literature, the conference brings together 60 scholars from around the world for a two-day event hosted by the University of St Andrews school of English. Billed as the world's first conference to discuss Harry Potter strictly as a literary text, almost 50 lectures are lined up, with academics taking on issues including paganism, magic and the influence on Rowling of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien and Shakespeare. Seminar titles range from "Moral development through Harry Potter in a post-9/11 world" to "Harry Potter and Lockean civil disobedience". Organiser John Pazdziora, a doctoral candidate in St Andrews' English department, is adamant Rowling's seven children's books merit an academic conference. "These are the most important, seminal texts for an entire generation of readers," he said. "In 100, 200 years' time, when scholars want to understand the early 21st century, when they want to understand the ethos and culture of the generation that's just breaking into adulthood, it's a safe bet that they'll be looking at the Harry Potter novels. As literary critics, as academics, why on Earth wouldn't we want to come to grips with these texts? There's so much here to talk about, culturally and critically, that a two-day conference really can only get the conversation started. People will be reading and writing and studying Harry Potter for years to come." JK Rowling's seven novels run to 4,100 pages, so the books will easily be able to sustain serious academic discussion over the two-day conference, added Pazdziora. "We've got nearly 50 serious academic critics talking about these texts, each of them is finding something different to talk about, and frankly, we're barely getting started. In any good literary text, there is so much depth and meaning to discover," he said. "As I said in my welcome today, in fact, the Harry Potter novels are their own Platform nine and three-quarters, as it were. Run into them, and there are countless fascinating worlds opening up in front of you. So, yes, we're talking for two days - and we've hardly scratched the surface of the richness and complexity of what is truly a significant children's literature text." John Mullan, professor of English at University College London, was less convinced. "I'm not against Harry Potter, my children loved it, [but] Harry Potter is for children, not for grownups," he said. "It's all the fault of cultural studies: anything that is consumed with any appearance of appetite by people becomes an object of academic study." Mullan speculated about whether the conference was a result of those who enjoyed Harry Potter as children now reaching an age where they could apply academic criticism to Rowling's work. "Perhaps that has happened," he said. "But why do universities have conferences? It's to attract attention to themselves as dynamic places. St Andrews has taken a bit of a gamble here. Is all publicity really good publicity? They will get attention for having a Harry Potter conference, but I don't think it's going to give them the reputation of cutting edge cultural analysis they might be hoping for." He professed himself "amazed" that the academics participating had time to do so. "They should be reading Milton and Tristram Shandy: that's what they're paid to do," he said.
The price of bitcoin is rallying once again, spiking abruptly by $16.50 across major exchanges on the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) over a 15-minute period yesterday. The movement began at 23:15 and ended at midnight UTC when the price hit a high of $418, with the largest movements taking place from 23:15 to 23:30. At press time, prices were once again on the rise, pushing the digital currency’s value to a one-month high of $421.83, its highest total since 5th November. Experts were less certain about the reason for the price escalation, with theories ranging from the continued influence of activity in the global Chinese Yuan (CNY) market to speculations that the potential unmasking of bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto had calmed investor concerns about the digital currency. Help from Satoshi? Market analysts so far seem split on the cause of bitcoin’s latest price increase, with the rise in value following reports by tech industry news outlets Wired and Gizmodo that published new evidence that bitcoin’s enigmatic creator may be a pseudonym for Australian businessman Craig Steven Wright and US forensic researcher Dave Kleiman. First published by Wired at 21:25 UTC, however, the news appeared online roughly two hours before the price increase. Still, some market observers believe that clarity on who is the owner of Satoshi’s roughly 1 million unspent bitcoins (worth approximately $465m at press time) could have had a psychological impact on the market. “I think it is the Satoshi news because the articles describes how the 1.1m BTC allegedly are cryptographically locked up, only to be released by January 2020,” editor in chief at Adamant Research Tuur Demeester told CoinDesk. “I think the market is acting on this news, placing a bullish bet on this story being true.” With 14.9m BTC in circulation according to data from Blockchain’s market data service Blockchain.info, Nakamoto’s estimated holdings would comprise roughly 7% of the total global market supply. According to Gizmodo, its sources provided the media outlet with a document of an unfinished legal contract that shows Kleiman, now deceased, would be given custody of the 1.1m BTC until 1st January 2020, at which point they would be repaid to Wright. Notably, it also provides clarity on the conditions under which coins could be sold. “The trust fund PDF signed by Wright’s late friend David Kleiman keeps those coins locked in place until 2020, yet gives Wright the freedom to borrow them for applications including ‘research into peer-to-peer systems’ and ‘commercial activities that enhance the value and position of bitcoin,” Demester added. The documents, though unconfirmed, would nonetheless give market observers a new understanding of when the holdings may be sold on the market, providing clarity to an issue that has long been a source of uncertainty for investors. China connection Wired and Gizmodo weren’t the only news sources that could have impacted price, however, as influential alternative finance blog Zero Hedge published a story showcasing the connection between the bitcoin price increase and a decrease in the offshore CNY market. The Zero Hedge piece correlated the $16.50 price increase with a 12 price interest point (PIP) decrease in the value of CNY against the US dollar. The blog suggested that it was seeing traders become increasingly interested in bitcoin and CNY and that they were moving against the US dollar. BTCVIX, an organizer of bitcoin trading collective Whale Club, indicated that he believes this is the primary instigator of the increase. “The rumors of continued devaluation have been ramping up in the wake of that IMF decision [to provide CNY special drawing rights],” he told CoinDesk. With the move, CNY joined currencies including the US dollar, euro, yen and British pound in the international financial organization’s benchmark reserve currency basket, a move that was widely hailed as a sign of the country’s growing economic influence. The view has been increasingly put forth by market observers, including former bitcoin derivatives exchange founder George Samman, who blogged about the potential price move as early as 30th November. Blocksize debate Other investors put forth the idea the price increase could have been connected to positive news from the latest Scaling Bitcoin conference. Held in Hong Kong this week, the two-day event saw key industry stakeholders including developers and miners move forward toward consensus on how the network could be altered to handle more transactions per second, and thus better compete with other financial processing systems. “I think the hard fork debate was weighing on the market,” Crypto Currency Fund manager Tim Enneking told CoinDesk. The price increase follows growing enthusiasm in the development community for one of two proposals on increasing the blocksize – a change to how block size is calculated in the protocol called segregated witness and a static increase to 2MB. Still, Enneking said it was likely the sum of factors as none of the possible options represented “radical news” events, concluding: “These movements are rarely due to a single event – or so us pundits claim.” Images via CoinDesk, Shutterstock
Maremma dogs have protected a colony of little penguins and conservationists hope their next mission will be as successful Teams of highly trained dogs will be deployed as “bodyguards” for bandicoots threatened by feral cats and foxes, in an initiative which could help reverse the precipitous decline in several other Australian native species. Zoos Victoria is to run an extensive trial to determine whether groups of Maremma dogs can become trusted allies to the eastern barred bandicoot, which has been virtually wiped out in Australia. The small marsupial is extinct in the wild on mainland Australia, with a modest population remaining in Tasmania. A captive population of around 400 bandicoots is spread across four breeding sites in Australia. Feral cats and foxes have preyed upon the bandicoots with disastrous results. Previous attempts to breed them in fenced areas have had limited success. Eastern barred bandicoots. The creature is extinct in the wild on mainland Australia, with a modest population remaining in Tasmania. Photograph: Zoos Victoria Zoos Victoria will take on a full-time dog trainer to work with seven Maremma puppies. The dogs, which like to work in pairs, will be sent to three different test sites in Victoria to see if they can effectively protect bandicoots without the need for fences. The spare Maremma puppy will be used by Zoos Victoria as a fundraising ambassador. Maremma dogs, a type of sheepdog that originated in Italy, have been used for centuries to guard livestock. But they have also recently been used in more unusual conservation efforts. In 2006, the dogs were introduced to Middle Island in Victoria, to help protect a colony of little penguins. Foxes had wreaked havoc on the island, reducing the 1,500-strong colony to less than 10 by killing swaths of the penguins. However, the introduction of Oddball, a Maremma dog that previously guarded chickens, provided the penguins with some canine muscle. Oddball, who was later joined by other dogs, chased away the foxes and penguin numbers subsequently revived. Maremma dogs are considered ideal for conservation work because they can bond to an array of other creatures while also viewing feral pests as mortal enemies. The dogs have formed friendships with sheep, goats, chickens and gannets in the past. In controlled experiments, sheep that heard dingo calls instinctively ran behind the dogs for protection. A group of Maremma dogs. Photograph: Beate Sexton In the first trial in Tiverton in western Victoria, bandicoots will be bred in a fenced area while a further 50 will be bred in an unfenced area guarded by a pair of dogs. Zoos Victoria will socialise the dogs with the bandicoots and teach them to guard the area, over an intensive two-year training period. If successful, further dogs will be dragooned to create the fighting extinction dog squad, which will bravely battle feral pests that threaten an array of native species. Animals that could benefit from this approach include wallabies, mice and even the kiwi in New Zealand. Rachel Lowry, director of wildlife conservation at Zoos Victoria, told Guardian Australia that the dogs could prove crucial in helping preserve bandicoot numbers. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maremmas like to guard in pairs and enjoy the company of a flock of livestock. Photograph: Beate Sexton “We really want to get the numbers up to 2,500 in the next five years and if this works we will well and truly be able to do that,” she said. “Maremmas are a beautiful dog breed, very intelligent. I’d expect them to protect the bandicoots as they did with the penguins. I think they will get on well, but I’ve been advised they like the company of a flock, so we’ll be putting in some sheep with them. Bandicoots are small, run fast and are active at night, so they aren’t as good company.” Lowry said there was an “endless list” of species that could benefit from guardian dogs if the trials proved fruitful. “We are desperate for apex predators in Australia because at the moment feral cats and foxes are dominant,” she said. “At the moment, if someone leaves a gate open or a fence is damaged by a kangaroo, foxes can get in and all our breeding work is lost. “But if you put in a dog, it puts fear into the feral predator because they sense the presence of another apex predator. The potential for this is really exciting. “The other benefit is that this apex predator is a dog, which we love and are used to having in our homes. It would be a bit more politically difficult to do this with dingoes.” Beate Sexton, a Maremma owner and dog trainer, said: ‘Maremma aren’t antagonistic to other animals at all. Predators will stalk an animal and fixate on it, whereas a Maremma will avert its gaze, even with people. “I think they can make a fantastic guardian for animals in need of their protection. This trial is a very good step, I think.” The initiative will cost $580,000 over five years, and Zoos Victoria is seeking external donations to help fully fund the project.
In the largest ever initial public offering on the Indian stock exchange, Coal India, a huge government-owned coal company, recently offered 10% of its shares to investors at home and abroad. What was at stake was essentially a $35bn (£21bn) bankrolling of enhanced global warming by the capital markets. Yet Coal India's prospectus, crafted with the help of a clutch of big-name investment banks, did not mention climate change once in 510 pages of exhortation to invest. And invest the fund managers did, unfettered by risk regulation or any meaningful requirement to place a value on the climate consequences of their scramble for short-term profit. The offering was oversubscribed 15 fold, and the stock soared on the first day of trading, 4 November, valuing Coal India at $49bn. Those ending up owning stock include 484 foreign funds, 195 mutual funds, 44 insurance companies, and many banks. Many of these investors were using ordinary citizens' money, and this would have included the nest eggs of people worried about global warming and its dire impact on the world by the time they retire. But those people are mostly allowed no say in where their pension funds, insurance premiums, and banking deposits are invested. In Cancún, later this year, the world's governments will return to their annual climate summit completely stymied on even the smallest cuts in greenhouse emissions. At the same time, investment bankers will be back in their casinos with barely a light slap on their wrists after nearly plunging the world into depression in 2008. They are permitted to gamble once again with the global economy in the course of their routine investment business, this time knowing that the citizenry will be there to bail them out again. They are also permitted – as the Coal India IPO shows – to gamble with the global climate in the course of their routine advisory business, bringing coal to the markets by the gigatonne, without the requirement for a single item of liability accounting on the global balance sheet. Indeed, in this case it is not so much a gamble as a known outcome, if you believe the vast majority of climate scientists. As floods and wildfires have shown Pakistanis and Russians this summer, a few extreme events can visit ruinous setbacks on economies. Keep burning coal at anything like the rate we do today, and such events will compound until they destroy wealth faster than it can be created. Whither even basic risk assessment? Whither fiduciary responsibility? So long as you are targeting high profits in the very short-term, you can feel free to fry our childrens' future and to use our citizens' money to bankroll the cooking fat. This in essence is the default licence that governments and regulators have handed to the financial-services sector. How much more suicidally dysfunctional can modern capitalism get? On the same day Coal India shares started trading so too did Enel Green Power's. Enel, the Italian energy giant, had floated its renewables arm at the same time as Coal India, but its IPO was a flop. Institutional shareholders were particularly unsupportive. Some cited long-term fears for the viability of renewables generally. Shares duly fell on the first day of trading. Again, this spectacle involved fund managers investing and trading for people who, given a say, might well have chosen to factor climate change into the decisions taken. In a civilisation intent on ensuring its own survival, much less prosperity, we would be using home-made sources of renewable energy, with great efficiency and fairness, and investing our own money to roll out ever more green infrastructure with which to build resilient local and national economies, so creating worthwhile jobs for our children. Opinion polls consistently show that this is the kind of world most of us would like to be living in, and the particularly galling thing is that we already have the technologies and strategies with which to deliver it. They involve things like zero-carbon homes, electric cars used as mobile energy storage plants, smart grids to optimise power use, and green bonds for financing the whole thing. But in the real world, today, such a vision can be glimpsed only in oases. Tomorrow might perhaps be different and better, given the growth rates of renewables industries, notwithstanding the languishing share prices of many renewables companies. But for now the Coal India IPO illustrates the enormity of the mountain we have to climb in order to arrive there. Read more at http://www.carbontracker.org/. Jeremy Leggett is executive chair of the solar power company Solarcentury, He also publishes a blog at www.jeremyleggett.net Become a GSB member to get more stories like this direct to your inbox
SAN JOSE — Hundreds more residents were cleared to return to their homes Friday, and city officials said they don’t believe any houses were damaged beyond repair after Coyote Creek overspilled its banks Tuesday in San Jose’s worst flooding in decades. City officials also confirmed no structural failure caused the sudden catastrophic flooding along Coyote Creek that forced thousands to flee their homes, raising further questions about why residents had no warning before rescuers evacuated them by boat. var _ndnq = _ndnq \|\| []; _ndnq.push([’embed’]); Officials from the city and the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which oversees flood control, have indicated there was miscommunication about the extent of the threat. The water district says it alerted the city overnight that waters were rising fast, but city officials said the district continued to indicate water flows were within the creek’s carrying capacity. Mayor Sam Liccardo said Friday he will ask the City Council next week to schedule a public discussion about the city’s response to the flooding to provide a “full accounting” of what happened. “The bureaucratic finger pointing stops today,” Liccardo said. “Regardless of what other agencies did, or didn’t do, these events happened in my city and I take responsibility for them.” David Sykes, director of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, said the number of homes under evacuation order fell from 1,100 Thursday to 765 Friday, and the number of displaced residents from 4,000 to 3,000. Tuesday’s flooding left 14,000 under mandatory evacuation orders. “We’re making a lot of progress,” Sykes told reporters Friday afternoon. “If we encounter homes that are completely un-occupiable we’ll have to figure out what the plan is. At this point we haven’t encountered that scenario.” The city is opening a new “local assistance center” for flood victims Saturday at the Shirakawa Community Center. It will be open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through next week, and will provide information about tenant assistance and help with various social services and public agencies. He added that “this is a safe place for affected residents regardless of immigration status.” An overnight shelter at James Lick High School’s gymnasium where 133 displaced residents have been sleeping on cots will remain open through Sunday. The city plans to find a replacement after that because school resumes at the campus on Monday, Sykes said. “Our plan right now is to maintain shelter operations until everyone can get back into their homes,” Sykes said. The city is providing commercial trash bins in all three of the areas that flooded Tuesday to collect furniture and other property ruined by the contaminated floodwaters, Sykes said, including the mobile home parks, William Street and Rock Springs areas. Owners of flood-damaged vehicles that have been towed away won’t be charged and can contact the police department’s “auto desk” at (408) 277-4263, Sykes said. While a sprinkling of rain is expected Sunday, followed by a week of clear skies, Sykes said it does not appear there is further near-term flooding danger. “I would say the risk is extremely low,” Sykes said, “but our emergency operations center will be open all weekend.” Reading this on your phone? Stay up to date with news alerts from our free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. City officials are asking for monetary donations to help flooding victims. By Friday afternoon, a relief fund set up by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation had reached $519,000. The money will be donated to nonprofits that provide food, clothing and shelter to victims. Tuesday’s flooding caught city officials and residents by surprise, something Liccardo has called a “failure.” Rachael Gibson, the water district’s emergency operations center spokeswoman, indicated to the city that flooding along Rock Springs Drive wouldn’t happen until water flows hit 7,400 cubic feet per second. Mayoral staffer Alex Wilson conveyed that to Liccardo in a 10:40 a.m. email Tuesday, but Liccardo wrote from his iPhone at 1:42 p.m.: “Alex, Rock Spring started flooding three hours ago. They’re all wrong.” Like our Facebook page for more conversation and news coverage from San Jose, the Bay Area and beyond. Yet Gibson on Friday noted that district spokesman Jim McCann emailed San Jose officials at 2:47 a.m. Tuesday alerting them that a Coyote Creek gauge showed water already flowing at 6,000 cubic feet per second and that it could reach Rock Springs about 6 a.m. Cheryl Wessling of the city’s Office of Emergency Operations emailed McCann back that she and others were going to get “a few hours sleep” and would check back at 5 a.m. whether to “further update outreach.” Sykes said Friday the emergency center remained staffed all night. For Janet Childs, a crisis counselor who lives in the South Bay Mobile Home Park, this is the second time she’s been flooded out. She was staying with friends after fleeing Tuesday with her two cats, Remy and Mystic, as floodwaters rose to the doors of her Subaru. Childs said she was flooded out in 1983 as well, and is familiar with the range of emotions flood victims go through. “You think it couldn’t possibly happen,” Childs said, adding she was heartened by the support from rescuers as well as the community. “What’s the meaning we can take from this? Even in midst of trauma, we rise together.” Staff writers Paul Rogers and Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.
On his January 10 program, pro-gun control Hardball host Chris Matthews was utterly perplexed at the very notion of gun shows themselves, going further than the call to close the so-called gun show loophole regarding background checks. " I'm a suburbanite city mouse. I generally have lived in urban -- suburban areas, but I don`t know why you need a gun show. I mean, if you want to buy a gun, you buy a car, you go to a dealer. Why do you have to have a show?" Matthews griped. Well, now it turns out that Matthews's employer, NBC Universal, is actually sponsoring a massive three-day-long gun show in Las Vegas. The Washington Free Beacon's C.J. Ciaramella reported shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern on Friday: The NBC Sports Network, a subsidiary of the communications giant Comcast, is helping to sponsor the largest gun trade show in the country despite anti-gun rhetoric on the NBC family of television networks, including a controversial monologue by one of its sports announcers. NBC Sports is listed as one of the primary sponsors of the 2013 SHOT Show, which takes place Jan. 15 to18 in Las Vegas and bills itself “the world’s premier exposition of combined firearms.” [...] Neither MSNBC nor Comcast responded to a request for comment. MSN Money's Aimee Picchi picked up on the story in a December 14 story, by which time NBC executives made sure they got their story straight for the media: Amid a nationwide debate about gun laws, Comcast's (CMCSA) NBC Sports is continuing to sponsor one of the biggest gun shows in the country. The SHOT Show, which runs in Las Vegas from Tuesday to Friday, last year attracted more than 57,000 attendees and 1,600 exhibitors. To be sure, not anyone can get into the show: It's not open to the public, and only commercial buyers and sellers of shooting, hunting and related trades are allowed, according to the show's website. The support of the show isn't new for NBC Sports. It's been involved "for several years as part of our commitment to our outdoor programming block," NBC Sports spokesman Greg Hughes tells MSN Money. While Hughes wouldn't disclose the amount of its sponsorship, he did note that the value is "very nominal." NBC Sports Network, which changed its name from the Versus network over a year ago, airs outdoor programming such as "Whitetail Diaries," which features "the best hunting stories from across the country that highlight North America's most popular game animal, the whitetail deer," according to the network's site. In fairness, the SHOT gun show is closed to the public, limited only to "shooting, hunting and outdoor trade professionals and commercial buyers and sellers of military, law enforcement and tactical products and services ONLY [emphasis SHOT's]." That being said, it is still a gun show, and it will almost certainly include the sort of "military-style" and "assault" weapons that the liberal media disdain:
UKIP: Farage - the €12 million man 19/10/2014 Follow @eureferendum We had an extremely good meeting in Rotherham yesterday, with some good, high quality people – most of them UKIP members. That reminds me of why I joined UKIP in the first place, and then how much the party has been let down by its current leadership. I will write further about the meeting, organised by local UKIP member John Wilkinson, but first need to address one particular issue pointed up earlier This was the collapse of Farage's "Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy" (EFDD) group, a "defeat" that is in fact extremely serious for UKIP in general, and Mr Farage in particular. And while it has been given some coverage in the British media, such as One suspects that some of the reason for this is that the media is completely missing is the scale of the defeat, with the BBC, for instance, wrongly pointing up that the groups are (only) paid €59.8m (£48m) from the European Parliament Budget. This they are taking from Chapter 4 of the However, they haven't realised that the group staff are paid from a different budget line, covered on p.17 over the staff budget of €936 million, and not separately identified. You can, though, see from page 72 that just over 1,000 staff members are employed by the EP on behalf of the groups, without the specific sum being identified. This equates to roughly 1.5 members of staff to every MEP. For technical reasons, it actually amounts to slightly more, which means that the UKIP delegation gets about 40 extra staff working for them in Brussels, off the books so to speak, paid for out of the European Parliament budget. There are also other budget lines which incorporate expenditure by political groups (for instance, see 3.042 on p.55) and when you add these and the staff costs in, the expenditure picture is very different from that portrayed by the BBC and other media. As the European Parliament itself As independent members, known in EP jargon as "non-inscrits" (NIs), they lose the group staff, and only have a small administrative staff to rely on, serving the whole NI – currently just over 50 MEPs. These are provided by the parliament. The 40 or so political staff that UKIP had working for them are lost (although a small number may be re-employed on administrative duties). To each of the NI MEPs, the residual budget is allocated individually, about €43,000 each, an effective loss of about €100,000 per MEP. Added up over the term, that means Farage's UKIP loses about €12 million, and Farage loses control over what was once a central budget. Each of the MEPs become responsible for spending their own budgets. This loss, of course, is on top of the privileges afforded to Farage himself, as president of the group: the personal chauffeur-driven limousine; the spacious office suite; membership of the Conference of Presidents; his front-row seat in the EP; and the first bite at the cherry when it comes to speaking allocations. These visible losses, though, pale into insignificance when it comes to the financial loss. It was group money in 1999 that kept the show on the road, an invisible dowry over which the national party had no control and scarcely knew existed. Basically, within the constraints of the EU rules, the group money was in the gift of the group president, which for this session would have given Farage €12-million-worth of leverage which he has now lost. Apart from weakening UKIP, it considerable weakens Farage's own personal power base, as he loses all that taxpayer-funded patronage. Why the group collapsed is another story, but one factor has been Farage's own behaviour. Angered by his posturing (even if it plays well to the domestic audience), the "colleagues" have been progressively tightening the group rules, and in such a way as quite obviously to discriminate against Farage's group. Now it has collapsed, you might say that this is Van Rompuy's revenge. It didn't have to be that way. When I joined the parliament in 1999 as group staff, I proposed that we should avoid fouling the nest in Brussels. Our battle was not with the "colleagues" but with our own government. Even if we were disliked, I averred, we should at least be respected. That line held until I left in 2003, but relations between UKIP and the EP have since deteriorated – largely because of a number of high profile YouTube videos. It is a matter of judgement as to whether they were worth it, but at least we are now able to put a price tag on them - €12 million. And, with Farage now consigned to the back of the hall, and his allocation of speaking time limited to such riveting subjects as the reform of the comitology system, and the CAP vegetable regime (the sort of thing we were getting in the 1999 term), his YouTube days are probably over. It was good while it lasted. But UKIP members may now wonder whether they have been well-served. Effectively, Farage has cost his own party €12 million. FORUM THREAD We had an extremely good meeting in Rotherham yesterday, with some good, high quality people – most of them UKIP members. That reminds me of why I joined UKIP in the first place, and then how much the party has been let down by its current leadership.I will write further about the meeting, organised by local UKIP member John Wilkinson, but first need to address one particular issue pointed up earlier on this blog and now raised by Deutsche Welle as representing a: "Bitter defeat for EU opponents in the European Parliament".This was the collapse of Farage's "Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy" (EFDD) group, a "defeat" that is in fact extremely serious for UKIP in general, and Mr Farage in particular. And while it has been given some coverage in the British media, such as here in the BBC, the event hasn't had a fraction of the coverage that it should have received.One suspects that some of the reason for this is that the media is completely missing is the scale of the defeat, with the BBC, for instance, wrongly pointing up that the groups are (only) paid €59.8m (£48m) from the European Parliament Budget.This they are taking from Chapter 4 of the budget (p.77), which covers "secretarial, administrative and operational expenditure", plus expenditure on "political and information activities conducted in connection with the Union's political activities".However, they haven't realised that the group staff are paid from a different budget line, covered on p.17 over the staff budget of €936 million, and not separately identified. You can, though, see from page 72 that just over 1,000 staff members are employed by the EP on behalf of the groups, without the specific sum being identified.This equates to roughly 1.5 members of staff to every MEP. For technical reasons, it actually amounts to slightly more, which means that the UKIP delegation gets about 40 extra staff working for them in Brussels, off the books so to speak, paid for out of the European Parliament budget.There are also other budget lines which incorporate expenditure by political groups (for instance, see 3.042 on p.55) and when you add these and the staff costs in, the expenditure picture is very different from that portrayed by the BBC and other media.As the European Parliament itself points out (and it should know), some six percent of the EP budget of € 1,756 billion is allocated for political group activities. This works out at roughly €105 million a year, or a "dowry" of €140,000 per MEP. For the five years of the coming parliamentary term, that means that UKIP – with its 24 MEPs – was due to get about €17 million (£13 million) in cash and kind.As independent members, known in EP jargon as "non-inscrits" (NIs), they lose the group staff, and only have a small administrative staff to rely on, serving the whole NI – currently just over 50 MEPs. These are provided by the parliament. The 40 or so political staff that UKIP had working for them are lost (although a small number may be re-employed on administrative duties).To each of the NI MEPs, the residual budget is allocated individually, about €43,000 each, an effective loss of about €100,000 per MEP. Added up over the term, that means Farage's UKIP loses about €12 million, and Farage loses control over what was once a central budget. Each of the MEPs become responsible for spending their own budgets.This loss, of course, is on top of the privileges afforded to Farage himself, as president of the group: the personal chauffeur-driven limousine; the spacious office suite; membership of the Conference of Presidents; his front-row seat in the EP; and the first bite at the cherry when it comes to speaking allocations.These visible losses, though, pale into insignificance when it comes to the financial loss. It was group money in 1999 that kept the show on the road, an invisible dowry over which the national party had no control and scarcely knew existed.Basically, within the constraints of the EU rules, the group money was in the gift of the group president, which for this session would have given Farage €12-million-worth of leverage which he has now lost. Apart from weakening UKIP, it considerable weakens Farage's own personal power base, as he loses all that taxpayer-funded patronage.Why the group collapsed is another story, but one factor has been Farage's own behaviour. Angered by his posturing (even if it plays well to the domestic audience), the "colleagues" have been progressively tightening the group rules, and in such a way as quite obviously to discriminate against Farage's group. Now it has collapsed, you might say that this is Van Rompuy's revenge.It didn't have to be that way. When I joined the parliament in 1999 as group staff, I proposed that we should avoid fouling the nest in Brussels. Our battle was not with the "colleagues" but with our own government. Even if we were disliked, I averred, we should at least be respected.That line held until I left in 2003, but relations between UKIP and the EP have since deteriorated – largely because of a number of high profile YouTube videos. It is a matter of judgement as to whether they were worth it, but at least we are now able to put a price tag on them - €12 million.And, with Farage now consigned to the back of the hall, and his allocation of speaking time limited to such riveting subjects as the reform of the comitology system, and the CAP vegetable regime (the sort of thing we were getting in the 1999 term), his YouTube days are probably over.It was good while it lasted. But UKIP members may now wonder whether they have been well-served. Effectively, Farage has cost his own party €12 million.
Univision reporter Jorge Ramos was kicked out of a Donald Trump event Tuesday in Dubuque, Iowa, which was followed by a testy exchange over illegal immigration that put the Republican candidate's famously combative nature on full display. Ramos was forcibly removed by security early in the press conference after he tried to ask Trump a question even though he apparently had not been called on. The move hit a nerve with the Republican candidate, who repeatedly told him to sit back down even as Ramos insisted on asking the question. "I have the right to ask a question," Ramos said. "No you don't," Trump said. "Go back to Univision." With Ramos outside, another reporter brought the exchange back up with Trump, which prompted the candidate to dig the Univision reporter. Tense exchange between Univision's Jorge Ramos and Donald Trump. Trump tells him to sit down, gets security guard to remove Ramos. — Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) August 25, 2015 "He's obviously a very emotional person," Trump said about Ramos. However, Ramos was not gone for long. He was allowed to return minutes later, to which Trump responded, "Good to have you back." This time, Trump permitted Ramos to ask his question, but their spat was not over. The Univision reporter proceeded to ask the real estate mogul about illegal immigration. Ramos asking about immigration plan now. "It's full of empty promises" — Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) August 25, 2015 "We're going to do it in a very human fashion," Trump told Ramos. "I have a bigger heart than you." Trump defended his firm position to deport illegal immigrants, saying that he's "looked at some of the gangs" and they're made up of them. "Do you mind if I send them back to Mexico?" said Trump. "They'll be out so fast your head will spin." Ramos challenged Trump and his use of the term "illegal immigrant." "No human is illegal," he said. Ultimately, Trump dismissed Ramos' questions. "I can't deal with this," Trump said and turned his attention to another reporter. Trump has been at odds with Univision after the Spanish-language TV networked decided not to air his Miss USA and Miss Universe beauty pageants after Trump's remarks about Mexican immigrants during his campaign announcement June 16. In response, Trump is reportedly suing the network for $500 million.
Look, up in the sky! It’s … Claire Holt? Holt, who plays Rebekah on the CW’s “The Vampire Diaries” and its offshoot “The Originals,” is among those testing for the lead role in CBS’s upcoming comic-book adaptation “Supergirl,” an individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap. See photos: 13 Hollywood LGBT Stars Who Play Superheroes or Villains The one-hour drama project, which has received a series commitment from CBS, will follow the exploits of Kara Zor-El. Born on the planet Krypton, Kara Zor-El escaped amid its destruction years ago. Since arriving on Earth, she’s been hiding the powers she shares with her famous cousin (also known as Superman). But now at age 24, she decides to embrace her superhuman abilities and be the hero she was always meant to be. Gerg Berlanti (“Green Lantern.” “Arrow,” “The Flash”) and Ali Adler (“Chuck,” “No Ordinary Family”) are writing and executive producing the project, with Sarah Schechter (“Pan”) also executive producing. Also read: 19 Best and Worst Superheroes to Hit TV: What's Flown? What's Blown? (Photos) The “Supergirl” project is being produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Warner Bros. Television declined comment to TheWrap. Holt will also co-star alongside NBC’s upcoming series “Aquarius,” about a 1960s Los Angeles police sergeant who starts tracking a small-time criminal and aspiring cult leader who turns out to be infamous criminal mastermind Charles Manson.
By Linda Williams, Ph.D., and Monica Slabaugh, Invisible Disability Project 1. Canceling plans. It happens. Invisible disabilities may be unseen, but they aren’t unfelt or unreal. They are, however, unpredictable. One moment, our body tell us game on; and the next, it’s curled up on the sofa, and it’s not going anywhere today. Bodily diversity and neurodiversity need flexible structures, allies, and partnerships. Go with the flow. 2. Accessibility matters. Asking about accessibility may not always have been front and center on our minds. But now, it is. And if it’s not on yours, it should be. It is part of the everyday language we use, and exists in the social world around us. It’s not a formality. It’s not about following a rule. It’s equitable, and it’s the right thing to do. Public and social spaces may not be built for all bodies and all people. But all bodies and all people have a right to exist in the world as they are. So check in about accommodations often, OK? 3. Calling out ableism. We know able-bodied privilege is real, and it’s everywhere. Body privilege is strong and pervasive, and it can momentarily make someone forget (or ignore) the fact that they coexist with diverse bodies and minds. Intentional or not, ableism rears its ugly head all the time, and we’ve got to call it out. Our health and our identities are at stake, so be real with your allies. That’s how we shape a new culture. 4. Pause and ask. Sometimes that’s enough. When something just doesn’t seem right, it’s easy to jump for the low hanging fruit: the social biases like laziness, failure, lack of motivation or productivity, selfishness. Slow down. Pause, and ask, “is there something unseen going on?” When we pause, we release those biases, and we create a safe environment to have a conversation. This conversation is mutually consensual, and the person disclosing feels safe to say as much or as little as necessary to provide information, form a bond, or gain greater intimacy in the relationship. This article originally appeared in the San Diego Free Press on June 16, 2016.
This is the story of a guy who found a niche and stuck with it. The guy is a programmer named Nick who was worried about Apple’s wireless AirPods. He thought they looked stupid. “I didn’t have particularly high hopes when Apple first announced AirPods. I figured they would sound like their wired EarPods, which are fine but not particularly impressive. I was blown away when I first tried a pair of AirPods. Obviously, they can’t compete with a really nice set of over/on-ear headphones, but they’re astonishing when you take their form factor into consideration,” he said. Convinced that the product had legs, he looked at them more closely and began reading Apple forums. He confirmed his hunch: people didn’t want to look like Ben Stiller in that one scene in Something About Mary and, sadly, white wireless earbuds hanging out of your ears looked goofy. He decided to do something about it. He invented Blackpods. “After the announcement, there was a lot of chatter in the Apple ecosystem about how they looked (which I agree is a bit silly in their natural white color). The opportunity to create a more stylish, less obtrusive version that matches some of the other iPhone colors seemed obvious.” Nick bought a few pairs of AirPods and began the long, laborious process of figuring out how to paint them. After a bit of testing he figured it out and commercialized the process. “There are very few flat surfaces, optical sensors, and multiple acoustic openings (all of which are tiny, requiring millimeter precision). Coming up with a masking process that was not prohibitively expensive or time consuming was a huge challenge, but people seem to be very happy with the product overall,” he said. And now he wants to sell you some black AirPods. Each unit is painted by hand. Nick also paints AirPods that people send to him. You can have AirPods in any color as long as they’re black. It’s a perfect startup story: hunch leads to problem leads to customer assessment leads to solution leads to product. You guys got something like these? A post shared by John Biggs (@johnbiggs) on Aug 5, 2017 at 7:57pm PDT By carefully masking all of the little apertures – including two prominent light sensors – Nick was able to paint AirPods in glossy or matte black using a three-phase painting system. The glossy BlackPods cost $279 while the “Stealth” matte ones or $299. He can paint your AirPods for $99. And business is good. “We move approximately 300-500 units per month, and are mainly constrained by AirPod supply, not demand for Blackpods. Supply has been opening up recently, so we are able to fulfill more than we previously were able to,” said Nick. And thus a programmer named Nick schooled us all in proper startup design. Good job, Nick, and now we don’t need to look like Ben Stiller.
Labour leadership contender Owen Smith says Britain is a divided country and has vowed to tackle poverty and inequality. The former shadow work and pensions secretary said living standards have fallen under the conservatives and many people feel their hopes will not be realised. Speaking at the launch of his campaign to replace Jeremy Corbyn, he said he wanted to rewrite Clause IV of Labour's constitution. He repeatedly praised Mr Corbyn's influence on the party but spoke of the need to create a "radical but credible" movement. He told supporters in his Pontypridd constituency: "We know, Jeremy knows, he said it, it's a disgrace. Corbyn Welcomes Leadership Contest "We have a wider gap between the haves and have nots in this country than any of us have known in our lifetimes and it is for the Labour Party, our party, to fight to reduce that gap. "So I say it is time for us in words to commit ourselves by rewriting Clause IV of the Labour Party's constitution, the beating heart of our party. "I want to rewrite Clause IV to put tackling inequality right at the heart of everything that we do." Mr Smith pledged to make Labour the party of "investment, not cuts" and spend £200bn on Britain's "failing" infrastructure. Eagle Won't Be Drawn On Unity Candidate Earlier he suggested he would bow out of the leadership race if his rival Angela Eagle wins the backing of more MPs. Mr Smith said whoever has the most support in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) should become the unity candidate to take on Mr Corbyn. Ms Eagle, the MP for Wallasey, refused to be drawn on the issue when interviewed by Sky's Dermot Murnaghan. She told, him: "I don't want to be involved in a back room deal before nominations are open." Senior Labour MPs have called for a single unity candidate, warning that a protracted and divisive leadership battle would give new Prime Minister Theresa May a free hand. Labour Leadership Contest Explained Mr Corbyn, meanwhile, has urged supporters not to abuse his challengers during the leadership contest. He has posted a code of conduct on his campaign website saying he wants the election to be an example of "vibrant political discussion". He wrote: "As a candidate I will treat all with respect, behave with civility and expect all who support me to do the same." His call for fairness comes after the National Executive Committee suspended all local party meetings amid reports of intimidation, bullying and threatening behaviour. A few days earlier a brick was thrown through Ms Eagle's constituency office window.
When federal prosecutors accused three men of a loan-sharking scheme last week, the authorities vividly described how the men used threats of violence to ensure that they would be repaid. One debtor reported that someone fired a gun at his car as he was backing out of his driveway in Queens, according to court filings. Another debtor said two of the men, Daniel Hanley and his associate, would display firearms when he met with them to pay back a piece of what he owed. But the most tantalizing accusation was not of violence but of affiliation: prosecutors described Mr. Hanley, 47, as a member of the Westies, the Irish-American gang in Hell’s Kitchen that specialized in extortion and in dismembering their victims. When Mr. Hanley, who is in federal custody in the case charged with extortion, heard that he was being labeled a member of the Westies, “he was incredulous,” said his lawyer, Marion Seltzer. Advertisement Continue reading the main story She added, “It’s hard to be a member of an organization that no longer exists.” The federal authorities claimed in 1988 that they had vanquished the organization, so the government’s assertion that the gang was still a going concern has added a twist to a case that otherwise would most likely have attracted little notice.
Special Report: The U.S. government decries leaks, but the other side of the story is that key chapters of American history are hidden from the public for decades and maybe forever. The CIA has just admitted its 1953 Iran coup and may never acknowledge a role in ousting Jimmy Carter in 1980, Robert Parry reports. By Robert Parry It has taken six decades for the CIA to formally acknowledge that it undertook a coup against Iran’s elected government in 1953, but the spy agency might never concede that some of its officers joined in a political strike against a sitting U.S. president in 1980, yet that is what the evidence now indicates. As with the ouster of Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953, the motive for sabotaging the reelection of President Jimmy Carter in 1980 appears to have flowed from fears about the direction of the Cold War, with American hardliners justifying their actions based on an assessment that Carter, like Mossadegh, was a dangerous idealist. In 1953, the nationalistic Mossadegh was challenging America’s British allies over control of Iranian oil fields, prompting concerns that an armed confrontation between Great Britain and Iran might play to the Soviets’ advantage, according to a secret CIA document declassified last week. In 1980, Cold War hardliners, including disgruntled CIA officers, were warning that Carter’s decision to make human rights the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy was dangerously naive, inviting Soviet advances. But a key difference between the two episodes was that the ouster of Mossadegh, an operation codenamed TPAJAX, was carried out in 1953 “as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government,” the CIA report said, presumably meaning President Dwight Eisenhower himself. The apparent 1980 plot to undermine Carter by sabotaging his negotiations with Iran over the fate of 52 American hostages would have been pulled off by rogue CIA officers collaborating with the Republican presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan (and his running mate George H.W. Bush), without the knowledge of Carter and CIA Director Stansfield Turner. It would have been the work of what legendary CIA officer Miles Copeland described to me as “the CIA within the CIA,” the inner-most circle of powerful intelligence figures who felt they understood the strategic needs of the United States better than its elected leaders. These national security insiders believed Carter’s starry-eyed faith in American democratic ideals represented a grave threat to the nation. “Carter really believed in all the principles that we talk about in the West,” Copeland told me in an interview in 1990, several months before his death. “As smart as Carter is, he did believe in Mom, apple pie and the corner drug store. And those things that are good in America are good everywhere else. “Carter, I say, was not a stupid man.” But in Copeland’s view, Carter had an even worse flaw: “He was a principled man.” Copeland was one of the CIA officers who participated in the 1953 coup against Mossadegh, but he said he and other old CIA Iran hands were mostly on the outside looking in when Carter was targeted in 1980. The Case Against Carter The right-wing complaint against Carter, as enunciated by Ronald Reagan and other conservatives, was that the President had let the Shah of Iran fall, had allowed the Sandinistas to claim power in Nicaragua and had undermined anti-communist regimes in South America and elsewhere by criticizing their human rights records as they used “death squads” and torture to eliminate leftists. Meanwhile, Israel’s Likud government of Menachem Begin was livid with Carter over the Camp David Accords in which Israel had been pressured to return the Sinai to Egypt. Begin and his inner circle were alarmed at the prospect of a reelected Carter pressuring Israel to give up the West Bank, too. So, according to accounts from a variety of participants and witnesses, the 1980 “October Surprise” dirty trick against Carter represented a joint covert operation by senior Republicans (including former CIA Director George H.W. Bush, Reagan’s vice-presidential running mate), high-level CIA officers (though not its Carter-appointed leadership), politically well-connected private U.S. citizens and Israeli intelligence officers assigned by Prime Minister Begin. The idea was that by persuading the Iranians to hold the 52 American hostages until after the U.S. presidential election, Carter would be made to look weak and inept, essentially dooming his hopes for a second term. As with the 1953 overthrow of Mossadegh, there then were powerful motives to conceal the covert activity behind the ouster of Carter in 1980. Regarding the Mossadegh coup, any official U.S. disclosure would have undermined the legitimacy of the Shah, an important regional U.S. ally. Similarly, any admission that the Reagan campaign collaborated with Iranian radicals in 1980 aided by CIA personnel and the Israeli government to sabotage a sitting U.S. president could have dangerous repercussions for the Republican Party, the CIA and Israeli relations with the United States. Even today more than three decades later acceptance of the October Surprise case as true could badly damage the legacy of Reagan, whose iconic image remains central to the identity of America’s conservative movement. Removing Mossadegh Regarding the 1953 coup, the newly declassified CIA report emphasized that Operation TPAJAX was not casually undertaken, but rather was “a last resort” after less extreme measures had failed to deter Mossadegh from pressing Iran’s demands for control of its oil. Mossadegh, the CIA report said, “had become so committed to the ideals of nationalism that he did things that could not have conceivably helped his people,” such as resisting economic pressure from the United States and Great Britain to relent on his standoff over the oil. The Eisenhower administration, which was still engaged in a war with Soviet allies in Korea, believed that a possible British military assault on Iran could draw in the Soviet Union and end with the West losing access to Iranian oil and the Soviets gaining control of a warm-water port on the Persian Gulf. “It was the potential of those risks to leave Iran open to Soviet aggression at a time when the Cold War was at its height that compelled the United States [still redacted] in planning and executing TPAJAX,” the report said. The CIA-organized coup against Mossadegh put the Shah of Iran into power for the next quarter century. However, his repressive rule eventually gave rise to a broad popular movement seeking his ouster. Ill from cancer, the Shah fled Iran in early 1979. Over the next several months, the Shah’s American friends, including banker David Rockefeller and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, successfully lobbied Carter to admit the Shah to the United States for treatment. The Shah’s arrival touched off a political crisis inside Iran where student radicals seized the U.S. Embassy and captured scores of American diplomats, eventually holding 52 of them during the 1980 U.S. presidential campaign. Carter’s failure to gain their freedom doomed his reelection hopes. The hostages were only released on Jan. 20, 1981, as Ronald Reagan was being sworn in as president. Despite immediate suspicions about the curious timing, the fuller story has only gradually come into focus, kept blurry by what became a bipartisan consensus that the ugly October Surprise evidence should best be left unexamined or suppressed. Angry denials by Republicans and timid acquiescence by Democrats allowed the cover-up to prevail in the early 1990s, only unraveling in recent years amid new revelations that key evidence was hidden from investigators of a congressional task force and that internal doubts were suppressed. Still, Official Washington has been reluctant to confront the troubling impression that remains: that disgruntled elements of the CIA and Israel’s Likudniks teamed up with Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and other powerful Republicans to help remove a Democratic president from office. ‘CIA Within the CIA’ Perhaps the closest the public can expect of a CIA admission came from Miles Copeland in that 1990 interview with me and in his memoir, The Game Player, with his references to the “CIA within the CIA.” Copeland told me that “the way we saw Washington at that time was that the struggle was really not between the Left and the Right, the liberals and the conservatives, as between the Utopians and the realists, the pragmatists. “Carter was a Utopian. He believed, honestly, that you must do the right thing and take your chance on the consequences. He told me that. He literally believed that.” Copeland’s deep Southern accent spit out the words with a mixture of amazement and disgust. Copeland’s contacts regarding the Iran crisis included CIA veteran (and another Iran hand) Archibald Roosevelt and Kissinger both of whom were close to David Rockefeller whose Chase Manhattan Bank had handled billions of dollars in the Shah of Iran’s accounts, a fortune that the Iranian mullahs who ousted the Shah in 1979 wanted to lay their hands on. “There were many of us myself along with Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Archie Roosevelt in the CIA at the time we believed very strongly that we were showing a kind of weakness, which people in Iran and elsewhere in the world hold in great contempt,” Copeland said. As Copeland and his friends contemplated what to do regarding the Iran hostage crisis, he reached out to other of his old CIA buddies. According to The Game Player, Copeland turned to ex-CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angleton. The famed spy hunter “brought to lunch a Mossad chap who confided that his service had identified at least half of the [Iranian] ‘students,’ even to the extent of having their home addresses in Tehran,” Copeland wrote. “He gave me a rundown on what sort of kids they were. Most of them, he said, were just that, kids.” One of the young Israeli intelligence agents assigned to the task of figuring out who was who in the new Iranian power structure was Ari Ben-Menashe, who was born in Iran but emigrated to Israel as a teen-ager. Not only did he speak fluent Farsi, but he had school friends who were rising within the new revolutionary bureaucracy in Tehran. In his 1992 memoir, Profits of War, Ben-Menashe offered his own depiction of Copeland’s initiative. Though Copeland was generally regarded as a CIA “Arabist” who had opposed Israeli interests in the past, he was admired for his analytical skills, Ben-Menashe wrote. “A meeting between Miles Copeland and Israeli intelligence officers was held at a Georgetown house in Washington, D.C.,” Ben-Menashe wrote. “The Israelis were happy to deal with any initiative but Carter’s. David Kimche, chief of Tevel, the foreign relations unit of Mossad, was the senior Israeli at the meeting.” Despising Carter In his 1991 book, The Last Option, Kimche explained Begin’s motive for dreading Carter’s reelection. Kimche said Israeli officials had gotten wind of “collusion” between Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat “to force Israel to abandon her refusal to withdraw from territories occupied in 1967, including Jerusalem, and to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.” Kimche continued, “This plan prepared behind Israel’s back and without her knowledge must rank as a unique attempt in United States’s diplomatic history of short-changing a friend and ally by deceit and manipulation.” However, Begin recognized that the scheme required Carter winning a second term in 1980 when, Kimche wrote, “he would be free to compel Israel to accept a settlement of the Palestinian problem on his and Egyptian terms, without having to fear the backlash of the American Jewish lobby.” In Profits of War, Ben-Menashe also noted that Begin and other Likud leaders held Carter in contempt. “Begin loathed Carter for the peace agreement forced upon him at Camp David,” Ben-Menashe wrote. “As Begin saw it, the agreement took away Sinai from Israel, did not create a comprehensive peace, and left the Palestinian issue hanging on Israel’s back.” So, in order to buy time for Israel to “change the facts on the ground” by moving Jewish settlers into the West Bank, Begin felt Carter’s reelection had to be prevented. A different president also presumably would give Israel a freer hand to deal with problems on its northern border with Lebanon. Ben-Menashe has been among the October Surprise witnesses who has offered sworn testimony describing meetings between Republicans and Iranians in 1980 that were designed with the help of CIA personnel and Israeli intelligence to delay release of the 52 hostages until after Carter’s defeat. [For details on the case, see Robert Parry’s America’s Stolen Narrative and Secrecy & Privilege.] Crumbling Cover-up The “October Surprise” mystery represented what could be called the opening chapter of the Iran-Contra scandal and like that national security scandal, which erupted in 1986 and tainted President Reagan’s second term, the 1980 case was met with a fierce Republican cover-up when it came under examination in 1991-92. Though the twin cover-ups of October Surprise and Iran-Contra mostly succeeded in shielding President George H.W. Bush from severe political damage during Campaign 1992, he nonetheless lost to Bill Clinton. Only recently have new historical disclosures eroded the barriers that had protected the legacies of Bush and Reagan from the scandals. For instance, former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana, who headed a congressional task force that absolved Reagan and Bush of the October Surprise allegations in 1993, conceded last June that the probe might have reached a different conclusion if the Bush-41 administration had not withheld State Department evidence that Reagan’s campaign chief William Casey had traveled to Madrid in 1980, as some October Surprise witnesses had alleged. Casey’s trip to Madrid in 1980 was at the center of Hamilton’s inquiry into whether Reagan’s campaign went behind Carter’s back to frustrate his attempts to free 52 American hostages before the 1980 election. Hamilton’s task force dismissed those allegations after concluding that Casey had not traveled to Madrid. “We found no evidence to confirm Casey’s trip to Madrid,” Hamilton told me in an interview last June. “We couldn’t show that. The [Bush-41] White House did not notify us that he did make the trip. Should they have passed that on to us? They should have because they knew we were interested in that.” Asked if knowledge that Casey indeed had traveled to Madrid might have changed the task force’s dismissive October Surprise conclusion, Hamilton said yes, because the question of the Madrid trip was central to the task force’s investigation. “If the White House knew that Casey was there, they certainly should have shared it with us,” Hamilton said, adding that “you have to rely on people” in authority to comply with information requests. The document revealing White House knowledge of Casey’s Madrid trip was among records released to me by the archivists at the George H.W. Bush library in College Station, Texas. The U.S. Embassy’s confirmation of Casey’s trip was passed along by State Department legal adviser Edwin D. Williamson to Associate White House Counsel Chester Paul Beach Jr. in early November 1991, just as the congressional October Surprise inquiry was taking shape. Williamson said that among the State Department “material potentially relevant to the October Surprise allegations [was] a cable from the Madrid embassy indicating that Bill Casey was in town, for purposes unknown,” Beach noted in a “memorandum for record” dated Nov. 4, 1991. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Second Thoughts on October Surprise.”] The ‘Lost’ Russian Report Hamilton also told me that he was unaware of another confirmation of Casey’s Madrid trip that was contained in a report from Russian intelligence that was sent to Hamilton in early 1993. In that report, which was apparently never delivered to Hamilton, the Russians corroborated another key October Surprise claim: that Casey (who later became Reagan’s CIA director), former CIA Director George H.W. Bush and senior CIA officer Robert Gates were among a group of Americans meeting with Iranians in Paris in October 1980. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Key October Surprise Evidence Hidden.”] Even Lawrence Barcella, the chief counsel of Hamilton’s October Surprise investigation who authored the exonerating report, conceded in a series of e-mails to me before his death in 2010 that so much incriminating evidence against the Republicans arrived at the House task force in late 1992 that he asked Hamilton for a three-month extension so the material could be examined. However, Hamilton realized that any extension would mean a bitter fight with Republicans that could poison congressional relations at the start of a new Democratic administration, so he simply ordered the investigation brought to a conclusion with a finding of Republican innocence a decision that he now concedes was premature. Other material declassified by the Bush presidential library reveals how aggressively his White House battled against full disclosure regarding the October Surprise inquiry in 1991-92. A big part of the Bush-41 cover-up was to run out the clock on Hamilton’s investigation by slow-rolling requests for key documents, especially from the CIA, as well as testimony from a key CIA witness. For instance, on May 14, 1992, a CIA official ran proposed language past associate White House counsel Janet Rehnquist from then-CIA Director Robert Gates regarding the agency’s level of cooperation with Congress. By that point, the CIA, under Gates, was already months into a pattern of foot-dragging on congressional document requests. Bush had put Gates, who was himself implicated in the October Surprise case, at the CIA’s helm in fall 1991, meaning that Gates was well-positioned to stymie congressional requests for sensitive information about secret initiatives involving Bush, Gates and Donald Gregg, another CIA veteran who was linked to the scandal. The records at the Bush library revealed that Gates and Gregg, indeed, were targets of the congressional October Surprise probe. On May 26, 1992, Rep. Hamilton wrote to the CIA asking for records regarding the whereabouts of Gregg and Gates from Jan. 1, 1980, through Jan. 31, 1981, including travel plans and leaves of absence. The CIA’s persistent document-production delays finally drew a complaint from Barcella who wrote to the CIA on June 9, 1992, that the agency had not been responsive to three requests on Sept. 20, 1991; April 20, 1992; and May 26, 1992. A History of Lies Gregg and Gates also were implicated in the broader the Iran-Contra scandal. Both were suspected of lying about their knowledge of secret sales of military hardware to Iran in 1985-86 and clandestine delivery of weapons to Contra rebels in Nicaragua. A ex-CIA director himself, Bush also had been caught lying in the Iran-Contra scandal when he insisted that a plane shot down over Nicaragua in 1986 while dropping weapons to the Contras had no connection to the U.S. government (when the weapons delivery had been organized by operatives close to Bush’s vice presidential office where Gregg served as national security adviser). And, Bush falsely claimed that he was out of the “loop” on Iran-Contra decisions when later evidence showed that he was a major participant in the discussions. From the Bush library documents, it was apparent that the October Surprise cover-up was essentially an extension of the broader effort to contain the Iran-Contra scandal, with Bush personally involved in orchestrating both efforts to frustrate the investigations. For instance, Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh discovered in December 1992 that Bush’s White House counsel’s office had delayed production of Bush’s personal notes about the Iran-Contra arms shipments. Though the counsel’s office insisted that the delay was unintentional, Walsh didn’t buy it. Beyond dragging its heels on producing documents, the Bush administration maneuvered to keep key witnesses out of timely reach of the investigators. For instance, Gregg used his stationing as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea in 1992 to evade a congressional subpoena. Like Gates and Bush, Gregg had been linked to secret meetings with Iranians during the 1980 campaign. When asked about those allegations by FBI polygraph operators working for Iran-Contra prosecutor Walsh, Gregg was judged to be deceptive in his denials. [See Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, Vol. I, p. 501] Dodging a Subpoena And, when it came to answering questions from Congress about the October Surprise matter, Gregg found excuses not to accept service of a subpoena. In a June 18, 1992, cable from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul to the State Department in Washington, Gregg wrote that he had learned that Senate investigators had “attempted to subpoena me to appear on 24 June in connection with their so-called ‘October Surprise’ investigation. The subpoena was sent to my lawyer, Judah Best, who returned it to the committee since he had no authority to accept service of a subpoena. “If the October Surprise investigation contacts the [State] Department, I request that you tell them of my intention to cooperate fully when I return to the States, probably in September. Any other inquiries should be referred to my lawyer, Judah Best. Mr. Best asks that I specifically request you not to accept service of a subpoena if the committee attempts to deliver one to you.” That way Gregg ensured that he was not legally compelled to testify while running out the clock on a separate Senate inquiry and leaving little time for the House task force. His strategy of delay was endorsed by deputy White House counsel Janet Rehnquist (daughter of then-Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist) after a meeting with Gregg’s attorney Best and a State Department lawyer. In a June 24, 1992, letter to White House counsel Boyden Gray, Rehnquist wrote that “at your direction, I have looked into whether Don Gregg should return to Washington to testify before the Senate Subcommittee hearings next week. I believe we should NOT request that Gregg testify next week.” The failure to effect service of the subpoena gave the Bush team an advantage, Rehnquist noted, because the Senate investigators then relented and merely “submitted written questions to Gregg, through counsel, in lieu of an appearance. . This development provides us an opportunity to manage Gregg’s participation in October Surprise long distance.” Rehnquist added hopefully that by the end of September 1992 “the issue may, by that time, even be dead for all practical purposes.” Asked about this strategy of delay, Hamilton told me that “running out the clock is a very familiar tactic in any congressional investigation” since the Bush-41 administration would have known that the House task force’s authorization expired at the end of the session in early January 1993. The deadline came into play when the floodgates on evidence of Republican guilt belatedly opened in December 1992. But there was no time left to pursue those leads. However, in recent months, the collapse of the October Surprise cover-up and the emergence of new corroborating evidence have left a chasm between what Official Washington wants to believe about the controversy that it never happened and the evidentiary record that the sabotage of Carter’s hostage talks represents a dark but genuine chapter of American political history. Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
As jihad attacks on innocent civilians in Western countries are now a near-daily occurrence, this story about an “Islamophobic hate crime” in Britain is particularly obscene. A Muslim is asked to remove his “Islam” hoodie, and now those who made the request are under investigation by a ham-fisted and authoritarian British government that refuses to stop and consider the question of why, exactly, the hoodie made pub patrons uncomfortable in the first place: because of jihad terrorism, not “racism” or “bigotry.” This story also shows the reality behind “hate crime” statistics trumpeted in the US by the likes of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and in the UK by the discredited but nevertheless still powerful Tell Mama UK: this incident will almost certainly go into Tell Mama’s statistics, and will thus help create the impression that Muslims in the UK are routinely brutalized and discriminated against. That the reality was as innocuous as this will be obscured by the wide dissemination of the bald statistic that Muslims in the UK were the “victims of x number of hate crimes,” without explaining that most of them were nothing more than a few shouted insults (in which case I am the victim of multiple hate crimes) and, in this case, a polite request made by people rendered jittery about Islam by nothing more or less than the violent actions and declarations of imminent conquest made by Muslims themselves. Nurul Islam could have acknowledged those jitters as understandable, removed the hoodie, and gone about his business. Instead, he is now international news — which also demonstrates that the mainstream media is so avid to report “Islamophobic hate crimes” but has so little substantial to go on that it is reduced to lamenting about the dreaded hoodie removal of hate. Remember also that this is the BBC, which is so solicitous of Muslims that it removed the Munich shooter’s Muslim name from its reporting on that incident. That’s the reality, not “Islamophobia.” “Stevenage teacher asked to remove ‘Islam’ hoodie by pub,” BBC, July 20, 2016:
About We were asked to modify our electric scooter for a handicapped elderly gentleman who wanted to go on the golf courses to watch his grandson play. His mobility scooter could not make it up the hills and often got stuck when he went off the cart paths. We developed an electric scooter with 48volts, a 500 watt motor, an off road tire and a throttle that only allows a gradual increase in speed. The gradual increase in speed prevents the scooter from tearing up the grass and have the ability to make it up a 15% slope. Our prototype was successful after many expensive attempts to get the gradual acceleration and initial tire type correct. We are ready to have the molds built so be can begin to manufacture and market the scooter. However, we are running out of time and money to put the scooter on the market before August 2015. We are asking for assistance to help pay for the molds, manufacture our first 75 units and with show expenses to present this to the world Michael and Dennis
SALT LAKE CITY — An attorney for Mark Shurtleff said a man who saw himself as Shurtleff's “fixer” had no special access to the former Utah attorney general and was told to stop making untrue claims about his connection. “His access was no more than any other citizen,” attorney Max Wheeler said Friday. Timothy William Lawson, 49, has been described as a longtime friend of Shurtleff and John Swallow, who recently stepped down as attorney general amid investigations into his activities. Prosecutors allege Lawson used that friendship to influence others using intimidation and aggressive tactics, mostly behind the scenes. But Wheeler said Lawson was advised “multiple times” to stop making the claims, and said Shurtleff had no control over anybody who made a claim regarding purported influence. Lawson engaged in multiple instances of retaliating against witnesses, witness tampering, obstructing justice, bribery, falsifying tax information to hide income and failing to pay taxes, according to charges filed Thursday in 3rd District Court. Court documents stated Lawson and Swallow maintained a friendship since 2009, and from that time through September, they exchanged 680 calls or text messages. Swallow attorney Rod Snow disagreed Thursday with the characterization that Lawson and Swallow had a long association, and said Swallow had tried to “steer clear” of Lawson. Lawson was charged specifically with pattern of unlawful activity, a second-degree felony; two counts of tax violations, second- and third-degree felonies; retaliation against a witness, a third-degree felony; and two second-degree felony counts of obstruction of justice. Salt Lake City-based lawyer and legal analyst Clayton Simms said he believes prosecutors may try to file charges against Shurtleff and Swallow. “You charge their lower associate and in a tattle-tale system, you trade that little fish in for the bigger fish,” Simms said. “I think it’s a technique to move up the chain to ultimately go after Mark Shurtleff and Swallow.” Simms said prosecutors could continue their investigation for potentially several years with a long statute of limitations for felonies. “Is Lawson going to be convicted? Is he going to work with authorities? We don’t know what the next step is,” Simms said. “He has a high bail — $250,000. He’s under a lot of pressure, and again that pressure can mean he’ll talk about what else he knows.” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Thursday prosecutors were not currently “looking at anybody else.” He also said, though, that they would address other issues if necessary when the investigation is complete. Lawson was moved from the Utah County Jail to the Salt Lake County Jail on Friday. He was arrested Thursday at his home in Provo. His warrant included a $250,000 bail. Contributing: Pat Reavy × Photos Related Stories
In the weeks before President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, a federal investigation into potential collusion between Trump associates and the Russian government was heating up, as Mr. Comey became increasingly occupied with the probe. Mr. Comey started receiving daily instead of weekly updates on the investigation, beginning at least three weeks ago, according to people with knowledge of the matter and the progress of the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe. Mr. Comey was concerned by information showing possible evidence of collusion, according to these people. That’s quite a bombshell, actually. If the reporting is correct, Comey believed the investigation was advancing in important ways – right up until the president, whose campaign is accused of possible collusion with a foreign adversary, decided to fire the FBI chief.This suggests Comey wasn’t seeking additional resources because he was looking for something, but rather, because he’d found something.As Rachel noted on the show, the same WSJ report added that Comey “briefed lawmakers on his request to boost the investigation, people familiar with the discussions said. The lawmakers, who have been running their own probe of alleged meddling in the U.S. election by Russia, and possible Trump campaign links with it, asked Mr. Comey if he could accelerate the FBI investigation, said a person with knowledge of the conversations.”And he apparently would have done just that, had Trump not kicked him out of his office.Also keep in mind, whenever stories like these emerge, who’s in a position to share the information with reporters and why. In this case, it seems someone at the FBI wants us to know that the investigation the White House doesn’t like has advanced in ways that are likely to intensify Trump’s crisis.
Twitch, the Amazon-owned live game-broadcasting service, announced a deal to acquire privately held Curse, a company that provides news, information, guides, in-game chat and voice products, video and databases for some 30 million video-game fans each month. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Curse, based in Huntsville, Ala., had raised $58 million in funding from investors including GGV Capital, Idinvest Partners, Riot Games, SoftTech VC and Ventech, according to CrunchBase. Amazon acquired Twitch in 2014 for $970 million. Curse, founded in 2006, operates more than 65 gaming sites including the Gamepedia wiki, as well as websites with news, guides, tools and databases built around individual game titles. It also runs Union for Gamers, a multichannel network for YouTube creators to monetize their channels. “We’ve long been fans of Curse, which is an innovator in the games industry with a strong culture built around its offerings — from Curse Voice and Curse Client to Gamepedia,” Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said in a statement. “While it’s still early days for Twitch and Curse, we’re kindred spirits in many ways and are looking forward to working together to enhance our users’ gaming experience.” Hubert Thieblot, founder and CEO of Curse, commented, “I’m really excited to see how we can bring Curse services into the Twitch network, and provide an unparalleled experience to both Curse and Twitch users.” Twitch currently has more than 100 million members, who watch and chat about video-game broadcasts from more than 1.7 million streamers. Twitch also features Twitch Creative, a category devoted to artists and the creative process.
KarmaSec from Anonymous leaked a trove of data from Japanese Prefecture to raise voice against animal cruelty in the country. A group of Anonymous hackers calling itself KarmaSec came up with an interesting Tweet claiming to have breached into the server of Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture Tourism Promotion Division (visit-jy.com) and leaked a trove of data protesting in support of animal rights and brutality in the country. Yamaguchi Prefecture is located in the Chūgoku region of the main island of Honshu offering a wide range of tourism-related activities including the Akiyoshidai Safari Land – Natural Zoo which was the main target of Karma Sec. The hackers leaked the data on Ghostbin pastie site which includes a message demanding the immediate release of all animals from the zoo or face the consequences in the shape of more data leak. Release ALL of the animals! Warning you is to late. Your shit has been leaked to the public. If you do not release the animals we will continue. PS: Smile mother fuckers you have been exposed! [fullsquaread][/fullsquaread] HackRead got hold of the leaked data and after scanning, we have found it to be legit and never been leaked on the Internet before. The data contains site’s database, names, hundreds of emails, encrypted passwords, user comments, addresses, phone numbers and other data in the Japanese language. This is not the first time when Anonymous has targeted Japanese cyberspace against animal brutality. In September 2015, hacktivists took down the website of the town of Taiji in Wakayama Prefecture in protest of the town’s hunting of dolphins and storing them. Animal abuse in Japan In October, last year same Anonymous group had shut down Narita and Chubu International Airport websites against the slaughter of Dolphin and trade to aquariums. Anonymous has dedicated itself to protect animal rights around the world. In the past, the hacktivists went against X-Rated animal abuse websites and shut down world’s largest animal abuse forum.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A day after President Barack Obama apologized for a tragic U.S. airstrike that killed at least 22 people at a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in northern Afghanistan, the medical charity said Thursday it is continuing to press its demand for an independent investigation of the incident. The Oct. 3 airstrike took place as Afghan forces were fighting to retake the strategic northern city of Kunduz, which was overrun and briefly held last week by the Taliban. The insurgents, who have been massing around the city for months, launched a multi-pronged attack that took authorities by surprise. Obama on Wednesday apologized to the organization and said the U.S. would examine military procedures to look for better ways to prevent such incidents. But scarce details on the erroneous strike have only fueled growing condemnation by MSF, as the charity is known under its French acronym, and other aid groups. Along with a dozen hospital staffers, 10 patients were also killed. The airstrike will likely complicate delicate U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Kabul, MSF’s general director, Christopher Stokes, reiterated the group’s demand for the probe, saying it would be important and a precedent for non-government organizations working in conflict zones worldwide. Stokes said MSF wanted the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission “to get the facts of what happened, the truth.” The IHFFC is based in the Swiss capital, Bern. It is made up of diplomats, legal experts, doctors and some former military officials from nine European countries, including Britain and Russia. Created after the Gulf War in 1991, the commission has never deployed a fact-finding mission. MSF, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization that provides medical aid in conflict zones, is awaiting responses to letters it sent Tuesday to 76 countries that signed Article 90 of the additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions, seeking to mobilize the 15-member commission. The Conventions lay out rules on conduct in armed conflict, mostly on protecting noncombatants. For the commission to be mobilized, a single country would have to call for the fact-finding mission, and the U.S. and Afghanistan — which are not signatories — must also give their consent. MSF says it has had no response yet from any country. “It would show a distinct lack of courage if none of the 76 signatories come forward,” Stokes said. The MSF hospital in Kunduz is no longer operational, which has put severe burden on the city, MSF and Afghan officials have said. Of the 105 patients who were in the hospital at the time of the bombing, nine have yet to be accounted for; and of a total of 461 staff, 24 are still missing, said Guilhem Molinie, MSF’s representative in Afghanistan. The organization expects there are still 24 bodies in the debris of the building that was bombed, he added. Three children who were among the 10 patients who perished were members of the same family, admitted the night before the bombing after their car came under fire, Molinie said. Government forces continued to battle Thursday to clear insurgents from Kunduz areas. Humanitarian supplies were still not reaching the city in adequate quantities, according to Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a provincial police spokesman. Police were helping with some food distribution, he added. Some roads into Kunduz have reopened but the Taliban have been hijacking trucks delivering food and medicines, said civil society activist Zabihullah Majidi. He said medicines purchased with money raised by civil society groups have been destroyed by Taliban on the road from Balkh province, while 150 cartons had made it through. ___ Associated Press write Humayoon Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this story. Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Granite State Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed that 45 percent of residents said they were more likely to vote for a Senate candidate who supports legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. The poll showed that 24 percent of residents said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate. Another 26 percent said it would make no difference. [WMUR] This new poll from New Hampshire casts further doubt on the rapidly unraveling notion that politicians must support harsh marijuana policies to get votes:Clearly, supporting medical marijuana legalization is by far the safest choice for New Hampshire politicians. The margins are likely smaller in many states, but I bet you'd see a clear preference for pro-medical marijuana candidates throughout most of the country.It's exactly this type of data that matters at this stage in our efforts. We've crossed a threshold in terms of educating our political culture about this issue. They know who we are and what we want. Our biggest challenge is demonstrating that political trends in fact favor reform decisively on certain issues and that opposition to something like medical marijuana will fairly reliably get you in trouble at the polls.The numbers are already on our side, but I suspect we'll have to start being more aggressive to drive the point home. When we start launching vicious swiftboat-style attack ads accusing our opponents of wanting to arrest cancer patients, they'll suddenly become a lot more interested in what the polls say.
Released September 3rd, 2018 Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released July 17th, 2017 Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released January 11th, 2016 Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released August 17th, 2015 Changes to the Wii U Menu and HOME Menu: The Nintendo TVii icon has been removed from the Wii U Menu and HOME Menu. For more information regarding the end of this service, click here. Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released June 8th, 2015 Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released December 5th, 2014 Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released December 1st, 2014 Mario Kart 8 highlight reel upload fix: Resolved an issue that resulted in some users receiving error code 104-1852 while uploading a Mario Kart 8 highlight reel to YouTube Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released November 10th, 2014 Changes to System Settings: amiibo Settings has been added to System Settings. amiibo Settings allows users to register an amiibo owner and nickname, delete data written to an amiibo by supported software, or reset an amiibo Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released September 29th, 2014 Changes to the Wii U Menu: Folders can now be created in the Wii U Menu to hold and organize software icons A Download Management icon has been added to the Wii U Menu Changes to Quick Start Menu: The Quick Start Menu will now display when the Wii U is powered on from the Wii U GamePad TV Remote Options have been added to Power Settings that allow users to hide certain software from the Quick Start Menu Changes to the HOME Menu: The design and layout of the HOME Menu has been updated Changes to the Nintendo eShop: Disabled usage of characters not used when redeeming Nintendo eShop cards (O, I, Z, etc.) Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released August 18th, 2014 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released August 4th, 2014 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Release July 21st, 2014 New Features: Wii U to Wii U System Transfer Users can now transfer (move) all software and data from one Wii U to another A “System Transfer” option has been added within System Settings Click here for additional information on this feature Changes to Nintendo eShop: Users can now navigate the Nintendo eShop using a Wii Remote, Wii U Pro Controller, or Classic Controller Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released June 2nd, 2014 New Features: A Quick Start Menu is now displayed when users press the GamePad POWER Button or HOME Button to power on the Wii U Wii U GamePad Alerts (special notifications from Nintendo) can be displayed on the GamePad when the Wii U is powered down Changes to Standby Functions: System updates will now automatically install after download when the Wii U is in Standby Changes to the Wii U Menu: The User Settings screen now displays when users select their User Mii from the Wii U Menu The design and layout of the Users Settings screen has been updated Changes to System Settings: Quick Start Menu options have been added to Power Settings Changes to the HOME Menu A Notification icon is now available on the HOME Menu, allowing users to launch the Notifications feature from the HOME Menu Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released March 31, 2014 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released February 24, 2014 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released November 18th, 2013 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience. Released September 30th, 2013 New Features: A feature to output video and sound to the Wii U GamePad when using Wii Mode. A feature to automatically receive recommended software and demo titles from Nintendo using SpotPass. Support for USB keyboards. An option to disable use of a Nintendo Network ID on non-Nintendo hardware Support for Dolby® Pro Logic® II Surround Sound when playing Wii software. Changes to Wii U Menu Added a friend list icon to the Wii U Menu for easier access to the Friend List Changes to System Settings: An option to automatically receive recommended software is now available under "Internet" A setting to select which cable outputs sound is available through "TV" Users can choose to output sound through an HDMI cable, non-HDMI cable, or both cables at the same time. Click here for instructions A setting to adjust the hourly interval in which standby functions are performed is available under "Power Settings" when Standby Functions are enabled Changes to Wii U Chat: Added the option to view a friend's profile on Miiverse when sending or receiving a chat request Users can now chat using a headset connected to the Wii U GamePad Changes to Internet Browser: Pressing the R or L Buttons on the Wii U GamePad will skip video playback forward/back a small amount of time Holding the R Button will speed up video playback Ability to save username and passwords for websites that require login* Ability to launch the Internet Browser during gameplay and upload screenshots Added support for viewing PDF files* Added features intended for website developers that allow the user to enable developer tools and set user agent. Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released July 10th, 2013 Improvements to Standby Functions: The standby functions will now regularly connect to the Internet when the Wii U is powered down to check for available SpotPass data or software and system updates. Software updates will be installed while the Wii U is powered down, and system updates will be installed the next time the Wii U is powered on. For further detailed information, click here. Improvements to system stability and usability: Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience Released: May 20th, 2013 Further improvements to overall system stability and software compatibility Released: April 25th, 2013 New Features: A standby function to download and install software while the system is powered off Software purchased from the Nintendo eShop will automatically install in the background once the download is complete Holding down the B Button while the Wii U logo is displayed during startup will load the Wii Menu1 Changes to System Settings: An option to transfer and/or copy between two USB storage devices in "Data Management" The ability to select multiple software titles when transferring, copying, or deleting data in "Data Management" The option to adjust screen size is now available under "TV" 2 "Auto Power-Down" has been renamed "Power Settings" Changes to Miiverse Changes to Nintendo eShop Changes to the Internet Browser Changes to Download Management Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience 1 User selection may be necessary 2 A similar option has been removed from Nintendo eShop, Miiverse, and the Internet Browser Released: March 4th, 2013 Further improvements to overall system stability have been made.* Released: December 4, 2012 Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience. Released: November 18, 2012 Added new Network features Nintendo Network ID creation and linking feature "Miiverse" 1 "Nintendo eShop" 1 "Internet Browser" "Friends List" 1 "Wii U Chat" 1 "Notification List" "Download Management" "Wii System Transfer" 2 Software update feature 3 USB storage device feature 1 In order to use those features, you will need to register Nintendo Network ID. 2 You can use this feature in Wii Menu. *3 Update feature is available only for the software which has update data. Released: Launch This is the default system software version included with every Wii U at launch in the North American market. It is highly recommended that owners of Wii U consoles perform the latest system update to get the latest system software version.
The parents of three French schoolchildren injured in the Westminster terror attack have flown into London where the teenage boys are being treated in hospital. Two of the three boys from Brittany are in serious condition but none are believed to have life-threatening injuries. The teenagers were walking along Westminster Bridge when they were hit by the speeding Hyundai car, travelling at up to 50 miles per hour. Twelve Britons were also among the injured, as well as two Romanians, four South Koreans and two Greeks as well as individuals from Germany, Poland, China and the US. The group’s teacher said: “Three of us were hit, we don’t know if they are dead or not. I cannot speak anymore, I don’t know what to say.” According to local newspaper Le Télégramme, the children were part of a group of 92 students from the "European" section of Saint-Joseph, a private sixth-form college. It emerged today they school has already suffered tragedy at the hands of terrorism, having lost a former pupil, 25-year-old Estelle Rouat, in the Bataclan massacre in Paris in 2015. The parents arrived in London last night on a Falcon jet that is part of the French government fleet. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault was expected to arrive in London to visit them at hospital, French media reported. Kilian, a classmate, told his mother via text message: "We saw the car hit the group. Twenty seconds more and it would have been us." He said his friend Clément, had been "brushed" by the "crazy car" but had come off unscathed.
I’m voting for Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016. Some say I’m wasting my vote. When people say this, they usually mean the candidate can’t win. Can Donald Trump win? Many increasingly say he can’t. They say the odds are overwhelming. Hillary Clinton is doing far better than expected in deep red Republican states. Even Trump is now acknowledging that he might not win. Related: See why the Libertarian presidential ticket says voting for Donald Trump might soon be a “waste” Gary Johnson’s running mate, former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld said Wednesday, jokingly, “It may get to the point where it looks like Donald Trump may not be able to win and you will hear from us that it is a wasted vote.” He added, “You better go with Johnson-Weld.” Does Gov. Weld have a point? If nothing changes, will a vote for Donald Trump become a wasted vote? If that means winning the election, the answer obviously becomes yes. But if Hillary Clinton is the only person who can mathematically win, is voting for her the only way to not waste your vote? I know few, if any, conservatives or libertarians who would say this. I would never vote for Hillary. There is no such thing as a perfect candidate. But I’m voting for Gary Johnson because as a libertarian conservative I would like to see that political philosophy and the issues I care about represented in this election. The national dialogue combined with Johnson potentially receiving a record-breaking share of the vote for a third party candidate could have implications for our politics and future elections. These things are important to me. It gives my vote value. There is now speculation that with former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes coming aboard Trump 2016 and Breitbart’s Stephen Bannon being put in charge of it, that the campaign is now more about creating a broad media platform dedicated to Trump-style populism after the election. Related: Trump campaign shakeup shows he isn’t going anywhere, even after he loses If you care about Trump-style populism, perhaps you see this as a good thing. It would give your vote value, even if Trump loses. But if votes only matter to the degree that your candidate wins, why bother? Right? This election is far from over. We still have twelve weeks to go. It will be a long twelve weeks. But unless something changes drastically for him, is voting for Donald Trump now a wasted vote?
Many of you have probably seen yesterday's XKCD comic about the laughably terrible state of volume controls on mobile devices. The issue is particularly bad in Android apps, and developers really need to do something about it. Quite honestly, it's embarrassing that this is still a problem in 2017. Android has three volume sliders: Ring, Media, and Alarm. Their functions aren't hard to understand: the first is for controlling your ringtone, the second for videos and games, and the third for how rudely you wish to be awakened from your beauty sleep. We don't really need to pay any attention to Alarm; that one stays out of the way for the most part, as alarm volume isn't often changed. It seems pretty logical that media volume should become the default in media-centric apps such as YouTube, or any app that has a video player at all. Funnily enough, the YouTube app actually does switch to media volume as the default, even when you're not playing a video. So YouTube gets that right, but it gets volume controls while buffering tragically wrong. For some reason, YouTube opts for the ringer volume slider while a video is buffering. You'd think it'd be easy to just code the app to use media controls whenever the video player is detected as being open, but apparently, the developers at the single largest video sharing site - and one that is owned by Google, mind you - can't do it. I've spotted the same issue in the Twitter app, but not in Facebook, Chrome, or Snapchat. It's ironic how Facebook and Snapchat, two apps frequently criticized for their poor Android apps, can get this right, while YouTube, an app that seems to have new UI tweaks every week, falls flat on its face in this regard. Twitter has this problem, too. On a related note, Google needs to implement a toggle in Android that enables you to choose media volume as the system-wide default when you press the volume buttons. Samsung's Galaxy S8 has this capability, as do ROMs like LineageOS, and it's very handy. If you don't have an S8 or LOS, an app on the Play Store called "Rocker Locker" (rhyming for the win!) can do this as well. After all, I'd imagine that most people leave their phone on either silent or vibrate for most of the time, rendering the default ringer slider rather useless. Consider these options if you're frustrated with YouTube's current behavior and want a quick fix. Developers at YouTube and Twitter (and any other apps with this problem), let's get this resolved, shall we?
A team of young French alpinists has climbed a major new mixed line in alpine style on the 2,100m south-west face of Latok II in Pakistan's Karakoram range. Due to unsettled weather Antoine Bletton, Pierre Labbre, Mathieu Maynadier and Sébastien Ratel were only able to acclimatize with one night at 5,800m, before receiving a text message that there would be a three-day weather window followed by 10 days of snow. Despite feeling three days was not enough, the four moved up to the base of the wall and bivouacked. On day one, after crossing a difficult rimaye, they moved quickly up the initial 500m snow slope. At its apex a crucial leftward slanting weakness would allow them to bypass a steep granite rock barrier. Snow, ice and mixed climbing on this ramp ended with spindrift-swept ice runnels and "Ben Nevis ambience", before they reached a poor bivouac site. After a cold and difficult night, two mixed pitches led to more snow ramps and eventually a hanging snowfield high on the face, where they made a more comfortable second bivouac. On day three they got up at 2am and reached the ridge at 2pm after some difficult and delicate mixed climbing. Two more mixed pitches on the crest led to the summit plateau at ca 6,700m. Leaving sacs and most of their technical gear, they arrived at a small "top" at ca 7,020m. This was not the main summit of Latok II (7,108m), still almost 100m above, but given the lateness of the hour, and the approaching storm, they dubbed it the Southwest summit and beat a hasty retreat, fearing large avalanches on the lower slopes, should they be caught there in bad weather. Just after midnight they regained their bivouac site, where they filled Thermos flasks and continued down. Despite falling asleep on belays, but taking care to constantly check each other's actions, they made it to the rimaye at 10am, picked up skis, and were back at base camp by 1pm. The route has been named Théorème de la Peine (ca 2,000m, ED1, M5). In 2010 Maynadier and Ratel were part of a team making the first ascent of 6,830m Lunag I Southeast, a climb nominated for a 2011 Piolet d'Or. Immediately left of their new line on Latok II, the west face is characterized by a huge central couloir. At around half height on the face, this couloir slants steeply up left below a precipitous rock headwall to reach the crest of the northwest ridge. In 1998 Franz Fendt and Christian Schlesener followed the couloir to make the first ascent, in alpine-style, of the upper northwest ridge, a route tried integrally over the years by several British parties, notably in 1987 when an expedition led by Joe Brown reached 6,800m. The 2,400m ridge was finally climbed throughout in 2009 by Spanish Alvaro Novellon and Oscar Perez, though sadly Perez perished during the descent. The huge headwall on the west face was also climbed in 1998. Conrad Anker, Toni Gutsch, Alex and Thomas Huber completed this 2,200m climb, capsule-style, at VII 5.10c A3, creating the hardest big wall route at altitude for the time. Alex Huber dubbed it a landmark ascent, but Anker was less happy with the amount of drilling that had been deemed necessary. « Back
Tollway approves $44 million software contract hello Daily Herald File PhotoThe tollway is replacing the firm that runs the brains of its I-PASS system. The Illinois tollway software system that processes all I-PASS transactions flies under the radar -- except if something goes wrong as it did in 2007 and 2008 when glitches caused numerous customers to receive late and costly violation notices. That's one reason a six-year, $44 million contract with Chicago-based Accenture LLP to operate the software for electronic tolling raised questions from tollway directors before they approved it Thursday. The other reason was skepticism from competitor Xerox, which was among four companies that were on the shortlist to be awarded the contract. Xerox has more firsthand experience operating software for electronic tolling systems in the United States, while Accenture's expertise lies mainly in Portugal, company officials said. Tollway administrators said they spent months reviewing proposals from firms and Accenture's flexibility to meet future needs made the difference. For example, during interviews with firms, technicians were asked to program a method to track colored transponders, which could be a new product down the line, Business Systems Chief Shauna Whitehead said. "Accenture could program the field right away ... others struggled," she said. Whitehead added that the firm's work in Portugal was with an open system that mirrors the Illinois tollway's. Accenture will use the business software SAP to handle about $1 billion in transactions yearly made by more than 1.4 million drivers a day. For I-PASS users, the change could lead to using Smartphones instead of transponders to pay tolls eventually, the introduction of kiosks in numerous locations where drivers could use cash to add value to their accounts, and a more interactive website, Whitehead said. "Does it have to be a six-year contract?" asked Director Mark Peterson of Libertyville. At least two years are necessary to transition from the current provider Electronic Transactions Consultants Corp. to Accenture, Whitehead replied. ETCC's contract with the tollway is expected to be renewed next year for about $5 million so it can update the new firm on the system. Administrative mixups and miscommunication between vendors caused delays in issuing violation notices when the tollway first rolled out the I-PASS system. It resulted in grief for multiple drivers who received exorbitant bills in the mid- to late-2000s. "Hopefully, we won't experience the same issues as when open road tolling started," Executive Director Kristi Lafleur said. Accenture's base contract proposal, minus a contingency fee, was $41 million and Xerox's was $35.4 million.
by As soon as I heard that the Sacramento Republic and the San Jose Earthquakes were going to be playing a pre-season match at the CSU Stanislaus campus in Turlock I knew that I had to go. I also knew that it was an excellent opportunity to report on the match to those who were not fortunate enough to go. What follows is my summary of the match and what I learned about both the Earthquakes and the Republic from their performances. Starting Lineups (going from Goalkeeper to Forward): San Jose Earthquakes: John Busch, Brandon Barklage, Jason Hernandez, Clarence Goodson, Jordan Stewart, Cordell Cato, Atiba Harris, Sam Cronin, Jean Baptiste Pierazzi, Adam Jahn, Chris Wondolowski. Sacramento Republic: Jake Gleeson, Mickey Daley, Harrison Delbridge, Nemanja Vukovic, Jose “Christian” Gonzalez, Rodrigo “RoRo” Lopez, Max Alvarez, Ivan Markovic, Octavio Guzman, Justin Braun, Dakota Collins. Game Summary The game itself started off as one would have expected going in, with the Earthquakes taking the game to Sacramento. However, the Republic’s defense held up to the pressure very well, allowing few dangerous opportunities for their opponents to turn into shots. Republic goalkeeper Jake Gleeson (on loan from the Portland Timbers) came up big for the Republic when it counted for the first half, making three saves. While the Earthquakes were certainly the better team they could not break through the Republic defense. They did however, do a good job at shutting down most of the forward thrusts by Sacramento before they got too dangerous. The second half saw an improvement in both the Republic and the Earthquakes, with both of the goals and the majority of scoring chances for each side coming in this half. From the start of the half the Republic were looking much better going forward. They were making smart, quick runs off of the ball and were combining nicely. Braun, Collins, Lopez, and Alvarez seemed to have a good understanding with one another which was shown through their clever combination play. There were a few instances in which the Republic threatened to score, including a brilliant volley from just outside the box which careened off the crossbar. Two promising chances came off of free kicks, including one where Justin Braun was about an inch or two away from heading the ball into the net before the San Jose keeper snatched it. But unfortunately for Sacramento Republic fans none of the chances their team created were put away and they finished with zero goals scored on the night. For the Earthquakes, the most memorable moment of the second half was an injury to John Busch that came on the play with the volley I mentioned above. While jumping up to try and save what looked to be a goal, he hit his head on the crossbar and came down looking like he was in pain. Long time deputy keeper David Bingham was brought on to finish out the game. With Busch out, it seemed like a Republic breakthrough would come eventually. That was of course, until both teams made some substitutions. The Earthquakes brought in (among others) Alan Gordon for Jahn, Billy Schuler for Wondolowski, and first round draft pick out of Stanford J.J. Koval. As soon as Gordon stepped onto the field the Earthquakes looked different. Just a few minutes after he entered the game, in the 85th minute, Gordon headed a cross from Walter Martinez (also a Quakes sub) across the goal for the rookie J.J. Koval to head in. He was also instrumental in setting up a disallowed goal for Billy Schuler soon after and the goal scored by Schuler off of a late corner kick. It was the first time the team I was rooting for had come up against the “Never Say Die” late game comebacks that the Quakes became known for in 2012. It was not too fun. The game ended 2-0 with the Earthquakes victorious. Observations Gordon’s almost immediate impact on the game illustrates an important tactical point concerning San Jose. They are much better when they have a big target forward like Gordon or Steven Lenhart that can use their size and strength to bring others into the game. Adam Jahn is the other option to fill that role but I do not think that he is ready to fill that roll just yet. Also, the central midfield for San Jose is pretty formidable. With both Sam Cronin and Pierazzi (a new signing fresh from France’s Ligue 1 team AC Ajaccio) in there the Quakes have a lot of bite in the middle of the field. I know that I wouldn’t want to be dribbling into that. Now, for all the Sacramento Republic fans reading this that couldn’t go to the game I have only one thing to say: get excited. This team, which hasn’t even started its first season, held an MLS team to a scoreless draw for 85 minutes if not for the clutch powerhouse that is Alan Gordon. Of course it would have been great to have held that draw or even to have won but the play was encouraging. There were spaces in the second half in which Sacramento had all the momentum and were putting together some wonderful attacking moves and to be honest they were generally playing the more “aesthetically pleasing” soccer out of the two teams (The Quakes fan in me reminds the Republic fan in me to look at the scoreboard, however). Well that does it, my first of (hopefully) many Sacramento Republic match reports. Hope you all enjoyed it! Joshua Beeman (DJ Josh) is a newer DJ on KSSU.com and is in second his semester in the station. If you enjoyed this post, leave a comment below. You could also check out some of my other work or the work of my fellow DJs. And be sure to listen in to Just Joshing You, Thursday mornings at 10 am for great music and more local soccer news (once the USL-PRO season starts anyway) on KSSU.com! Advertisements
Google has officially released the latest Android 5.0.1 (Build: LRX22C) software update for Asus Nexus 7, HTC Nexus 9 and Samsung Nexus 10 tablet devices running an old Android 5.0 Lollipop mobile OS for manual installation. The latest Android Lollipop 5.0.1 OTA Update is anticipated to be delivered shortly to general public. Android smartphone / tablet device users can Download Android v5.0.1 Lollipop (LRX22C) Update .TGZ File Manually for Nexus 7, Nexus 9 and Nexus 10 via Direct Download Links. Now, Android Lollipop 5.0.1 Software Update (Build: LRX22C) Factory Images and Android Lollipop 5.0.1 SDK is only available for HTC Nexus 9 (Wi-Fi), Asus Nexus 7 (2013) and Samsung Nexus 10 tablet devices. According to sources; Google will soon deliver an Android 5.0.1 Lollipop Update to other smartphones and tablets. Download and Install Android 5.0.1 Lollipop (LRX22C) Update:- Download Android v5.0.1 Lollipop for Nexus 9 (Wi-Fi) (Build: LRX22C) Download Android v5.0.1 Lollipop for Nexus 7 (2013 / Wi-Fi) (Build: LRX22C) Download Android v5.0.1 Lollipop for Nexus 10 (Build: LRX22C)
Cold, bland, indifferently prepared meals day after day – prison food is a punishment in itself. That’s why the idea of a collaboration between the Arthur Road jail and celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor to improve the quality and production of meals for inmates comes as appetising news. “We approached chef Kapoor because we felt the need to improve our cooking style and levels of hygiene,” says Rajvardhan Sinha, Inspector General of Police – Prisons. “We needed expert guidance in understanding how hygiene and food produced in large quantities can go hand-in-hand.” Kapoor and his team of 10 have been roped in to recommend ways in which the prison kitchens can turn out better food, while staying within the government’s budgets and conventions for feeding inmates. “Our priority is to improve current processes to serve better tasting and hot food,” says the chef. “In time, we will also look at mechanising some processes and train inmates to help.” Some solutions seem simple enough: solar energy for cooking, movable chafing dishes to keep food warm, and borrowing commercial kitchen practices to use resources better when organising meals for a large group. To help, Pune’s Symbiosis School of Culinary Arts has also been approached. Kapoor’s recommendation on menu changes will be subject to governmental approval. The state’s Home Department guidelines decree that prison meals must adhere to a specific calorie count and meal plans that offer adequate nutrition to inmates. At Arthur Road prison, inmates are currently subject to a fairly static menu. Breakfast is either poha or upma accompanied by 100ml of milk or a cup of tea. Prisoners are allowed 200 grams of food at lunch and another 200 grams at dinner. This constitutes dal, a vegetable preparation that rarely changes, two chapatis and some rice. But even behind bars, new menus come at a price. “To start off, we’ve suggested that the state’s Home Department offer aid, later the authorities could consider making prison food a part of Indian companies’ corporate social responsibility,” says Kapoor. READ Meet the people behind some of Mumbai’s iconic dishes First Published: Dec 22, 2016 10:26 IST
ARLINGTON, Va. (Reuters) - The Trump administration is demanding the use of North American-made steel, aluminum, copper and plastic resins in cars and trucks sold under North American Free Trade Agreement rules, as it seeks to give U.S. industry a boost. FILE PHOTO -- Steel coils at the ThyssenKrupp Steel USA factory are pictured in Calvert, Alabama November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Lyle Ratliff/File Photo People briefed on the matter said U.S. negotiators issued the proposal, which could force automakers to shift sourcing of some components to North America from Asia, during talks on Friday to overhaul NAFTA. It calls for the inclusion of steel, aluminum and other raw materials on a so-called NAFTA tracing list for auto parts, according to the sources, referring to the mechanism by which the regional content level of cars, trucks and large engines is monitored and verified under the trade agreement. The list would be greatly expanded under the U.S. proposal to cover a vast and complex web of automotive components, essentially eliminating the concept of “deemed originating,” under which parts not listed get a free pass to tariff-free NAFTA access, no matter their origin. In addition to the metals and plastics, the list would now include sophisticated automotive electronics, electric vehicle batteries and other parts not on the tracing list because they did not exist when NAFTA was negotiated by Canada, Mexico and the United States in the early 1990s. If Washington prevails, the components would now need to be sourced from North America to count toward proposed sharply higher content levels, or companies would need to pay U.S. tariffs of around 2.5 percent on them. People briefed on the U.S. proposal said it would lift the regional content threshold to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent, with a 50 percent minimum U.S. content level. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office declined to comment on the auto industry proposal. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has vowed to close “loopholes” in the parts list that he says allow too many cheap auto parts from Asia and other regions to enter the United States. Ross has already sought to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries from subsidized imports with national security reviews that could lead to import restrictions. Steel industry trade groups from all three NAFTA countries in June issued a joint statement calling for any renewal of the trade pact to require North American steel use in manufactured goods. However, two people briefed on the talks said the U.S. proposal stops short of labor unions’ call for “melted and poured” North American steel, which would have precluded the use of raw steel from elsewhere that has been rolled or otherwise processed on the continent. Automakers in North America largely already use North American steel but currently get no content value credit for it. Adding it to the tracing list would get a typical vehicle hundreds of dollars closer to meeting the goal. But any such gains would be offset largely by the higher overall content thresholds and the need to find other sources for electronics, said Kristin Dziczek, a trade and labor economist with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Dziczek and auto industry groups say that the U.S. content proposal was likely to backfire, with automakers and suppliers simply choosing to pay the 2.5 percent U.S. tariffs for passenger cars and many parts, sourcing more of them from China or other Asian countries. “That could be the preferred trading route if NAFTA becomes too strict,” she added.
Like a vignette of small-town life, a laid-back shopkeeper sits at a yellow table beside the unlocked bicycle leaning against the storefront, smiles, puts down his coffee mug and greets a customer by name. “Hey Fred, how ya doing?” Jeremy Jacob said to his visitor Thursday, welcoming his old friend into the shop. Jacob and his wife Andrea Dobbs run a family business in Kitsilano, a bright airy space where a loud waterfall rushes outside, dozens of cannabis products line the shelves inside, and a Pomeranian named Lego lounges on the ground. Jacob said it was “surreal” Thursday afternoon, to think that while we chatted at the shop, politicians gathered five minutes away were discussing the future of not only his family’s shop, but the whole industry of dispensaries, which, while illegal under federal law, have become the preferred place for many Canadians to shop and have proliferated across Canada, especially in Vancouver. In addition to running his own place, The Village Dispensary in Kitsilano, Jacob represents the national industry group, as president of the Canadian Association for Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. On Thursday, just a stoner’s throw away across the Granville Street Bridge, Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for justice and public safety met at a downtown hotel where cannabis legalization was a top agenda item. When Ottawa legalizes marijuana next July, it will be left to provincial governments to figure out to regulate its sale. “Obviously, the province holds our future,” Jacob said. He hopes Victoria will look south for examples, where some U.S. state governments brought the most established and responsible of the “grey area” operators into the fold when non-medicinal legalization came into effect. Jacob pointed to California, a jurisdiction which, like B.C., has a decades-long history of compassion clubs predating legalization. The chief of California’s Bureau of Cannabis, Lori Ajax, has emphasized in recent media interviews the importance of bringing as many of those existing operators as possible into the regulated market, “particularly those that are complying with their local jurisdiction.” That’s the kind of “inclusive” approach Jacob hopes to see. By contrast, Jacob said, he was discouraged by Ontario’s plan, released last week. The first province to unveil a framework for legal pot sales, Ottawa intends to close private dispensaries and open a small number of its own stores, run by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and carrying a limited number of products. Ontario’s plan was met with widespread criticism, and not only from the dispensary lobby. National Post columnist Andrew Coyne wrote this week: “The combination of increased demand and limits on supply is a sure way to sustain a flourishing black market, notwithstanding the government’s vows to suppress it. Ontario will get few of the promised benefits of legalization, but all of the costs of a state monopoly.” Similarly, Jacob said: “What Ontario’s done is ensure that there will be a thriving black market. … They picked the worst of the American models to follow.” Jacob said he’s still optimistic B.C. will take a different approach, noting the province’s “history of supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs.” He said he was encouraged by John Horgan’s comments earlier this week in an interview on CKNW, where the B.C. premier said he’d like to see a system “that benefits those who want to participate as entrepreneurs.” Jacob said: “We need a made-in-B. C. solution, because we have a very unique situation here.” On CKNW, Horgan alluded to B.C.’s unique situation too, when he chuckled as he said: “B.C. is a mature jurisdiction, I’d like to say, when it comes to marijuana, as everyone knows.” B.C.’s dispensaries, Jacob said, provide a wide range of products and a “level of care, compassion and service that you don’t see in pharmacies or liquor stores.” Dobbs, Jacob’s wife and partner, is hopeful B.C. will find a place for mom-and-pop boutique cannabis retailers in the age of commercialized, legal pot. “If I’m going to be corny, this is where the heart is,” she said. “I would be sad to see it become very sterile and basically to take the heart out of it. B.C. has had this history of 20 years of compassion clubs, but maybe that’s not an experience that resonates with other provinces.” Dobbs wasn’t sure how long the provincial justice ministers would stick around Vancouver, but she wanted to extend to them an open invitation to visit The Village if they have a free moment before leaving town — especially those from provinces without a long history of cannabis culture and dispensaries, such as Manitoba and Saskatchewan, whose leaders have appealed to Ottawa to delay legalization. “I really wish they would put boots to the ground and come and see it for themselves,” Dobbs said in the shop. “And this is a fantasy, but I wish they would try a product.” dfumano@postmedia.com twitter.com/fumano
Daily Dot Latest To 'Keep Conversation Moving Forward' By Not Letting Site Visitors Comment At All from the muted dept This trend is about more than just raw engagement. It’s also about what kind of engagement we want to have. We’re at an interesting point in the history of the Web. In the wake of Gamergate, Celebgate, and the Reddit Meltdown of 2015, both publishers and social networks are grappling with the same fundamental issue: how to foster engagement and dialogue without inadvertently feeding the trolls in the process. "The general consensus is that we need to detoxify the Web—to make it a cleaner, nicer, safer, and more inclusive place to live and work. Of course, at the Daily Dot, we would like to see a more civil, compassionate Web, but we want to be careful that in the name of fostering civility, we do not inadvertently kill all dissention. It’s a different route toward the same goal: to deliver the news to our readers, wherever they may live online, and to keep the conversation moving forward. There's a raging trend afoot for websites to shutter their news comment sections, then insisting that they're doing this because they careon the Internet. A steady parade of websites have now stopped letting site visitors give public feedback, almost-proudly informing these muted site communities that this was done for the greater good of mankind. Really, companies just don't want to spend the time or money to weed the troll garden (or may not like having their writers publicly fact checked on site), and are shoving these communities toward social media to bury the "problem" permanently.The name of the game is about being cheap and lazy withoutlike you're being cheap and lazy, and the justifications being flung about by editorial staffs are equal part absurd and fascinating. Popular Science, for example, declared that on site discussion of news articles is "bad for science." The Verge recently decided to shutter news story comments to help " build relationships ." Bloomberg recently killed news comments and insisted it wasn't a big deal because, hey, most people can't be bothered to comment and therefore news comments "don't represent our readership."Few of these sites seem particularly concerned about the fact that shuttering comments makes it very clear they don't really value truly local community, and lack the willpower to nurture and protect on-site (or in app) participation. Nor do they seem to realize that data has shown that toxic comment sections can often be dramatically improved simply by engaging a little with readers.The Daily Dot is the latest to put comments "on infinite hiatus," the site proclaiming it's basically giving up after a few of the bigger troll flare ups of the last few years:The solution: don't letsaypublicly on your actual website. Ingenious! The site continues:The notion that you can somehow bring managed civility to the entire Internet seems like a fool's errand. You can bring civility to your own comment section, but again that takes time, money and effort that it's abundantly clear many websites aren't willing to provide. So instead we get esoteric, disingenuous, incoherent musings on how being too lazy to engage with your own readership will somehow save the broader Internet from the menacing troll hordes. Like other sites, The Daily Dot proclaims that "hey, we're still on social media" before dropping the now all-too-common line about how this is all about improving the conversation:It's like putting duct tape on the mouths of everybody in town because of two jackasses at the pub, then proudly patting yourself on the back for spearheading an amazing revolution in kindness and communication. Obviously sites are free to insult and ignore on-site communities as they see fit, but it would be a notable improvement if they could do it without the nauseating hyperbolic claims that they're just trying to Filed Under: anonymity, comments, conversation, websites Companies: daily dot
I label myself as a proud feminist. For me, feminism means all people have the freedom to do whatever they want without question. Feminism isn’t about making people believe women are better than men, and it isn’t about women burning their bras. It’s about providing men and women of all races and sexual identities the equal opportunity and freedom to do whatever the hell they want to in their lives. Feminism is about equality for all. Because of my views, it seems only natural I would vote for Hillary Clinton in the coming primaries and 2016 presidential election. A woman as the president of the United States? I can’t think of anything more empowering. When I'm discussing politics with others, I always note our country is standing on the precipice of significant social reform, and we should choose a president who will help our nation progress in that realm. My viewpoint was validated when same-sex marriage was legalized on June 26, 2015. I want the next president of our nation to fix the in-house problems we’re experiencing. I want to experience the social change that will undoubtedly come with the election of a female president. At first glance, my vote would be for Hillary Clinton. But, Bernie Sanders is a game changer. And guess what? He’s a feminist, too. As the longest serving Independent senator in US history, Sanders has been fighting for his beliefs since before our generation was even born. He’s also tried running for president before, but to no avail. He wasn't successful in previous elections, probably due to the fact that the people who align with his beliefs (Millennials) haven’t been part of the presidential voting pool until recent years. Millennials are now the most populated generation in US history, which puts a lot of pressure on Gen-Y shoulders in the next election. It’s easy to see that Hillary's "Bernie problem" is only getting worse. He wants to take down big banks, create a constitutional amendment that will eliminate the super PACs, make public colleges tuition-free through taxing stock transactions and provide paid maternity leave, just to name a few. I don't know about you, but all of that sounds pretty f*cking ideal. I admit I was originally biased toward Hillary. I wanted a female president, and I wanted it now (typical Millennial mindset). When doing research on both candidates, however, I felt myself leaning more toward Sanders. I had a hard time accepting the fact that I was actively choosing to vote against electing the nation’s first ever female president. How could I go against feminism and vote for a man when an incredibly qualified woman was running? How could I deny my sex the validation and social change we deserve? Would voting for Sanders make me less of a feminist? The answer is no. Since Sanders and Clinton are both vying for the Democratic nomination, it’s not surprising they share some very similar views. Both candidates can be cited saying women’s and LGBT rights are human rights, and Sanders is intent on fixing the wage gap and providing parents with paid maternity leave. For Sanders, feminism is common sense. This is the mentality we need in the White House. Clinton has been a public advocate of women’s rights since her famous 1995 speech in Beijing, in which she said: “It is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.” Their stance on feminism isn't what makes me for or against either candidate, however. It just makes me confident I could be happy with either candidate because both support the plight of women's rights. But, there's a big problem with Clinton's campaign that officially locked in my vote for the Bern man. A graphic recently surfaced outlining the top 10 donor lists for each candidate. While it’s not clear who made the graphic, PolitiFact.com stated the names and numbers on each list match up with the information found in the Center of Responsive Politics database. It’s important to add that the graphic refers to cumulative donations made over the course of both candidate's careers, not just their current campaigns. According to the graphic, some of the donors on Clinton’s list consists of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, which are all huge corporations. Some of the donors on Sanders' list consists of the Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union, Teamsters Union and United Auto Workers, which are all labor unions. Sanders stated he wants elections to progress toward public funding, so billionaires can no longer buy elections. He is against the same super PACs Clinton has been utilizing to fund her campaign. On "Face the Nation," Sanders explained: “I understand where she is coming from. [But] I will not have a super PAC. I don't think we're going to outspend Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush or anybody else, but I think we are going to raise the kinds of money that we need to run a strong and winning campaign.” Clinton claims to be all for the middle-class families, and she is making the improvement of their everyday lives one of her biggest platform focuses. This graphic, paired with her open support of the use of super PACs, shows Clinton is saying one thing and doing another. During interviews and in speeches, Sanders has said time and time again, he will continue to fight to get money out of politics. He knows until this happens, we can't get anything done. In an interview with Katie Couric, Sanders says he's in this race because he believes the American people are tired of establishment politics and corporate greed. He says the people "want a candidate who will lead a mass movement in this country of millions of people who are centrally saying 'enough is enough,' the billionaire class can't have it all." Clinton, on the other hand, is using the money in politics to her advantage. Here are my questions for you, Hill: How you can you label yourself a representative of change if you’re funded by exactly what is holding our country back? How can you claim to be a massive advocate for the middle class when your campaign is entirely funded by corporate America and the wealthiest of the wealthy? How can you fix the massive problem of the distribution of wealth if you’re benefitting from the lack of it? While the creator of the graphic is unknown, it is still founded in fact. Looking at the list of donors for Clinton's and Sanders’ campaigns shines a spotlight on who the real advocate for the American people is. You might be a feminist, Hillary, but the fact that you say one thing and do another really kills my vibe. Come on, girl. I thought I could trust you. As I said before, feminism is about giving people the freedom to choose how they live their lives. Voting for a man when a woman is running does not make me any less of a feminist; it means I’m taking the very feminist route of expressing my right to choose. If Hillary Clinton is elected as the next president of the United States, I will run topless through the streets of Manhattan celebrating the fact that the ladies have finally won. I won't be happy about the fact that billionaires won yet again, but having a lady at the desk of the Oval Office is definitely cause for rampant celebration. Until (and if) that time comes, however, I’ll be feeling the Bern.
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir attends a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in the capital Juba, South Sudan Thursday, May 18, 2017. South Sudan's civil war has killed tens of thousands and driven out more than 1.5 million people in the past three years, creating the world's largest refugee crisis. (AP Photo/Bullen Chol) JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudanese pro-government forces killed 114 civilians in a single town last year and brutally raped girls and women in front of their families amid growing ethnic violence in the country’s civil war, a new United Nations report said Friday. The investigation released by the U.N. human rights office said those cases and other abuses in Yei between July and January may amount to crimes against humanity. Abuses included the indiscriminate shelling of civilians, attacks on funerals, looting and burning. Yei is where The Associated Press late last year witnessed bodies with their hands bound. Satellite images showed “widespread burning of homes and businesses,” the report said. The new report pointed out the “startling level of impunity in South Sudan” that has fed cycles of deadly ethnic violence. South Sudan government spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny rejected the report’s findings, saying the government is operating within the law. “It’s not true,” he told the AP. ”(Ethnic) Dinkas in that area were being targeted by rebels.” Ethnic Dinkas dominate the military and government of President Salva Kiir. Opposition forces also have been responsible for abuses in South Sudan’s conflict, now in its fourth year. “The extent of the abuses by armed opposition groups remains unclear due to lack of access to areas where these groups are active,” the report said. Until last year, Yei had been largely peaceful with 200,000 to 300,000 people from various tribes. But after deadly violence erupted in the capital, Juba, in July, fighting spread to parts of South Sudan that had been spared by the conflict. As rebel leader Riek Machar fled into neighboring Congo, fighting broke out in Yei and elsewhere along his path. Tens of thousands have been killed in the civil war. More than 1.8 million have fled the country in what has become the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis. The U.N. called on all sides to lay down their arms and for the government to investigate abuses and prosecute those responsible.
Deeply in debt, a man in Azerbaijan sets himself alight -- highlighting the human cost of the collapse of the country's currency. Alik Navruzov's self-immolation in front of his workplace on January 7 was said to be his response to the sudden crash of the manat, which has lost about a third of its value since Azerbaijan's Central Bank announced in December that it would no longer prop up the currency. According to colleagues at the school in Neftchala where he worked as a maintenance man, Navruzov complained of having bank loans he could no longer make payments on. The 63-year-old survived, and is now reportedly in stable condition at a hospital in the city, located in the eponymous oil-producing region some 130 kilometers south of the capital. But there appear to be no signs of relief for Navruzov's dire financial straits -- a situation that is all too familiar to a growing number of people in Azerbaijan. Less than a year after the Caspian Sea state hosted the first-ever European Games, an event President Ilham Aliyev had hoped would showcase his country's prosperity, it's evident that from the government to the people on the street, Azerbaijan is struggling financially. In announcing its decision to stop propping up the currency on December 21, the Central Bank argued that the practice had diminished foreign reserves by more than half. Falling global energy prices have hit hard in Azerbaijan, where energy exports account for about three-quarters of state revenues. To offset the envisioned budget hit, the Central Bank changed the way it values the manat nearly a year ago. But the move away from the dollar to a dollar-euro basket in February 2015 also caused a drop in the currency. Feeling The Pinch Currency devaluation always comes with the double whammy of falling spending power and rising prices, and Azerbaijan is no different. When news of the Central Bank's decision reached the streets, people across the country rushed to shops to scoop up whatever they could before prices adjusted to the new reality. With less money in their pockets, many people in Azerbaijan are forced to forego less essential items, but food is definitely not one of them. As a result, the cost of many items -- such as tomatoes and grapes -- has shot up, in some cases by as much as 100 percent. A shop owner in the capital, Baku, explained to RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service why he had to raise his prices. "I, too, pay rent. My landlord raised the rent. My suppliers also raised prices," Shamil Hasanov said. "What can I do? The prices for everything -- butter, rice, sugar -- all were raised, and I can no longer sell them for less." Even small expenditures are being weighed more carefully by average Azerbaijanis. Valikhan Karimov, a 68-year-old pensioner, explained why buying his grandson a ticket for an attraction on Baku's busy promenade requires sacrifice. "I paid two manats for this ride, which lasted two minutes. I made those two manats selling 10 kilos of apples," he said. "I come here once a year [eds. he lives in Quba] to take my grandchild out, and this is all I can afford." Others feeling the pinch are those people who took out bank loans, paid out, of course, in manats, but calculated in dollars. Abdul Akhundov, who works in the IT field, said he can't make a dent in paying down his loans from two banks worth some $3,000. "I took a loan a year ago, before the devaluation. I asked the bank for a loan in manats but the gave it to me in dollars," Akhundov lamented. "No matter how much I argued with the bank at the time telling them we did not live in America so why make me take a loan in dollars it didn't make any difference." Elnur Bayramov, who lives in Ganca, said he called his bank immediately after the manat plunged to tell them he couldn't make payments anymore. "My loan was in the amount of $2,000 and I haven't even bothered to figure out how much I owe now with the new exchange rate," Bayramov said. "I called the bank, too, telling them to stop calling me every minute and that I will pay when I have the money and if they are not happy about it they can take me to court." Looking For Funds To Help Aliyev's government, criticized in the West for its abysmal human rights record, appears ready to help those hardest hit by the increasing prices. Labor and Social Welfare Minister Salim Muslimov announced on January 6 that his ministry was working on ways to raise welfare payments, and should deliver proposals by the end of the month. He said his ministry was monitoring prices in six regions of the country -- Baku, Sumgait, Mingachevir, Ganca, Lankaran, Tovuz, and Agsu -- and, based on those observations, his ministry would calculate how much social-welfare payouts should rise. However, raising expenditures is something Aliyev's government is probably less than eager to do. Officials in his government now appear preoccupied with finding where and how to cut costs. The Foreign Ministry announced on January 5 that Baku was looking to make cuts to staffing and other costs at its foreign embassies, but denied reports in the Azerbaijani press that a number of embassies in South American countries would be closed. Meanwhile, ordinary Azerbaijanis are left to cope with the hardships amid growing disillusionment with the government. "I worked in three different places before manat died," wrote one respondent to a questionnaire by RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service. "I don't know in how many more places I will have to work now." Another respondent expected the manat to continue on its downward spiral. "Everybody knows the dollar will continue to get more expensive," the person wrote. "In this situation, you should take out bank credit in manats and then convert it into dollars and wait for the next devaluation. This way we will 'rob' the banks that usually 'rob' us."
Showtime's entertainment president David Nevins has said that Dexter could continue beyond season eight. The series, which just concluded its sixth season, was renewed in November for two more seasons. At the time, Nevins said that the show was likely to end after its eighth season. However, the Showtime president has now teased that the show could return for a ninth installment. "This is the likely endpoint, but I'm leaving open the possibility that plans could change," Nevins said while at the TCA press tour. "I think there's a very clear trajectory now of where they're going. I think it's going to help to write with that endgame in mind," he continued. "I've been pushing to shake up the formula a little bit. I think there should be fundamentally different dynamics now." Dexter stars Michael C Hall and Jennifer Carpenter recently finalized their divorce The couple, who play siblings on-screen, split in December 2010 after less than two years of marriage. Carpenter has since insisted that the pair put the show first, claiming their relationship history does not affect the series.
Genie (born 1957) is the pseudonym of an American feral child who was a victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation. Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child psychology.[3] When she was a baby, her father concluded that she was severely mentally retarded, a view which intensified as she got older, causing him to dislike her and withhold care and attention. At approximately the time she reached the age of 20 months, he decided to keep her as socially isolated as possible as a result of this belief, so he kept her locked alone in a room from that time until she reached the age of 13 years and 7 months. During this time, he almost always kept her strapped to a child's toilet or bound her in a crib with her arms and legs completely immobilized, forbade anyone from interacting with her, provided her with almost no stimulation of any kind, and left her severely malnourished.[5][6] The extent of her isolation prevented her from being exposed to any significant amount of speech, and she did not acquire language during her childhood as a result. Her abuse came to the attention of Los Angeles child welfare authorities on November 4, 1970.[5] In the first several years after Genie's early life and circumstances came to light, psychologists, linguists, and other scientists focused a great deal of attention on Genie's case, seeing in her near-total isolation a unique chance to study many aspects of human development. Upon determining that Genie had not yet learned language, linguists saw Genie as providing an opportunity to gain further insight into the processes controlling language acquisition skills and to test theories and hypotheses identifying critical periods during which humans learn to understand and use language. Throughout the time scientists studied Genie, she made substantial advances in her overall mental and psychological development. Within months of being discovered, Genie had developed exceptional nonverbal communication skills and gradually learned some basic social skills, but even by the end of their case study, she still exhibited many behavioral traits characteristic of an unsocialized person. She also continued to learn and use new language skills throughout the time they tested her, but ultimately remained unable to fully acquire a first language.[10][11] Authorities initially arranged for Genie's admission to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where a team of physicians and psychologists managed her care for several months, and her subsequent living arrangements became the subject of rancorous and protracted debate. In late June 1971, she left the hospital to live with her teacher from the hospital, but a month and a half later, authorities placed her with the family of the scientist heading the research team, with whom she lived for almost four years. Soon after turning 18 in mid-1975, Genie returned to live with her mother, who decided after only a few months that she could not adequately care for her. Authorities then moved her into the first of what would become a series of institutions for disabled adults, and the people running it cut her off from almost everyone she knew and subjected her to extreme physical and emotional abuse.[5][6] As a result, her physical and mental health severely deteriorated, and her newly acquired language and behavioral skills very rapidly regressed.[5][6] In January 1978, Genie's mother suddenly forbade all scientific observations and testing of Genie, and since that time little is known of her circumstances. As of July 2016 , her whereabouts were uncertain, although she is believed to be living in the care of the state of California.[5][13][1] Psychologists and linguists continue to discuss her, and there is considerable academic and media interest in her development and the research team's methods. In particular, scientists have compared Genie to Victor of Aveyron, a 19th-century French child who was also the subject of a case study in delayed psychological development and late language acquisition.[6][15] Family background [ edit ] Genie was the last, and second surviving, of four children born to parents living in Arcadia, California. Her father worked in a factory as a flight mechanic during World War II and continued in aviation afterward, and her mother, who was around 20 years younger and from an Oklahoma farming family, had come to southern California as a teenager with family friends fleeing the Dust Bowl.[13][17] During her early childhood, Genie's mother sustained a severe head injury in an accident, giving her lingering neurological damage that caused degenerative vision problems in one eye. Genie's father mostly grew up in orphanages in the American Pacific Northwest. His father died as the result of a lightning strike and his mother ran a brothel while only infrequently seeing him. Additionally, his mother gave him a feminine first name, which made him the target of constant derision. As a result, he harbored extreme resentment toward his mother during childhood, which Genie's brother and the scientists who studied Genie believed was the root cause of his subsequent anger problems.[17] When Genie's father reached adulthood, he changed his first name to one which was more typically masculine, and his mother began to spend as much time with him as she could. He became almost singularly fixated on his mother, despite their relentless arguments about her attempts to convince him to adopt a less rigid lifestyle, and treated all other relationships as secondary at best.[17] Although Genie's parents initially seemed happy to those who knew them, soon after they married he prevented his wife from leaving home and beat her with increasing frequency and severity.[22] Her eyesight steadily deteriorated due to lingering effects from her existing neurological damage, the onset of severe cataracts, and a detached retina in one eye, leaving her increasingly dependent on her husband. Genie's father disliked children and wanted none of his own, finding them noisy, but, around five years into their marriage, his wife became pregnant. This child, an apparently healthy daughter, caught pneumonia after her father found her cries disturbing and placed her in the garage, and died at the age of ten weeks.[13] Their second child, born approximately a year later, was a boy diagnosed with Rh incompatibility who died at two days of age, either from complications of Rh incompatibility or from choking on his own mucus. Three years later, they had another son, who doctors described as healthy despite also having Rh incompatibility. His father forced his wife to keep him quiet, causing significant physical and linguistic developmental delays. When he reached the age of four his maternal grandmother took over his care for several months, and he made good progress with her before she eventually returned him to his parents.[13][17] Early life [ edit ] Genie was born about five years after her brother, around the time that her father began to isolate himself and his family from all other people. At birth, she was in the 50th percentile for weight. The following day she showed signs of Rh incompatibility and required a blood transfusion, but had no sequelae and was otherwise described as healthy. A medical appointment at three months showed that she was gaining weight normally, but found a congenital hip dislocation, which required her to wear a highly restrictive Frejka splint from the age of 4½ to 11 months. The splint caused Genie to be late to walk, and researchers believed this led her father to start speculating that she was mentally retarded. As a result, he made a concentrated effort not to talk to or pay attention to her, and strongly discouraged his wife and son from doing so as well.[10] There is little information about Genie's early life, but available records indicate that for her first months she displayed relatively normal development. Genie's mother later recalled that Genie was not a cuddly baby, did not babble much, and resisted solid food.[10] At times she said that at some unspecified point Genie spoke individual words, but could not recall them, but at other times she said that Genie had never produced speech of any kind. Researchers never determined which was the truth.[10] At the age of 11 months, Genie was still in overall good health and had no noted mental abnormalities, but had fallen to the 11th percentile for weight. The people who later studied her believed this was a sign that she was starting to suffer some degree of malnutrition. When Genie was 14 months old, she came down with a fever and pneumonitis and her parents took her to a pediatrician who had not previously seen her. The pediatrician said that, although her illness prevented a definitive diagnosis, there was a possibility that she was mentally retarded and that the brain dysfunction kernicterus might be present, further amplifying her father's conclusion that she was severely retarded.[11] Six months later, when Genie was 20 months old, her paternal grandmother died in a hit-and-run traffic accident. Her death affected Genie's father far beyond normal levels of grief, and, because his son had been walking with her, he held his son responsible, further heightening his anger.[13] When the truck's driver received only a probationary sentence for both manslaughter and drunk driving, Genie's father became delusional with rage. Scientists believed these events made him feel society had failed him and convinced him he would need to protect his family from the outside world, and that in doing so he lacked the self-awareness to recognize the destruction his actions caused. Because he believed Genie was severely retarded, he thought she would require additional protection from him, and he, therefore, decided he needed to entirely hide her existence.[13] He immediately quit his job and moved his family into his mother's two-bedroom house, where he demanded his late mother's car and bedroom be left completely untouched as shrines to her, and further isolated his family.[17] Childhood [ edit ] Upon moving, Genie's father increasingly confined Genie to the second bedroom in the back of the house while the rest of the family slept in the living room. During the daytime, for approximately 13 hours, Genie's father tied her to a child's toilet in a makeshift harness designed to function as a straitjacket. While in the harness, she wore only diapers and could only move her extremities.[17] At night, he usually tied her into a sleeping bag and placed her in a crib with a metal-screen cover, keeping her arms and legs immobilized, and researchers believed that he sometimes left her on the child's toilet overnight.[41] Researchers concluded that, if Genie vocalized or made any other noise, her father beat her with a large plank that he kept in her room.[11] To keep her quiet, he bared his teeth and barked and growled at her like a wild dog, and grew his fingernails out to scratch her. If he suspected her of doing something he did not like, he made these noises outside the door and beat her if he believed she had continued to do it, instilling an intense and persistent fear of cats and dogs in Genie. No one definitively discerned the exact reason for his dog-like behavior, although at least one scientist speculated he may have viewed himself as a guard dog and was acting out the role. As a result, Genie learned to make as little sound as possible and to otherwise give no outward expressions. Genie developed a tendency to masturbate in socially inappropriate contexts, which led doctors to seriously consider the possibility that Genie's father subjected her to sexual abuse or forced her brother to do so, although they never uncovered any definite evidence. Genie's father fed Genie as little as possible and refused to give her solid food, feeding her only baby food, cereal, Pablum, an occasional soft-boiled egg, and liquids. Her father, or when coerced, her brother, spooned food into her mouth as quickly as possible, and if she choked or could not swallow fast enough the person feeding her rubbed her face in her food.[13] These were normally the only times he allowed his wife to be with Genie, although she could not feed Genie herself. Genie's mother claimed her husband always fed Genie three times a day but also said that Genie sometimes risked a beating by making noise when hungry, leading researchers to believe he often refused to feed her.[10] In early 1972 Genie's mother told researchers that, whenever possible, at around 11:00 at night she would surreptitiously try to give Genie additional food, causing Genie to develop an abnormal sleep pattern in which she slept from 7 to 11 PM, woke up for a few minutes, and fell back asleep for an additional 6½ hours. This pattern continued for several months after removal from captivity.[41] Genie's father had an extremely low tolerance for noise, to the point of refusing to have a working television or radio in the house. He almost never allowed his wife or son to talk and viciously beat them if they did so without permission, particularly forbidding them to speak to or around Genie. Any conversation between them was therefore very quiet and out of Genie's earshot, preventing her from hearing any meaningful amount of language.[5][13] Her father kept Genie's room extremely dark, and the only available stimuli were the crib, the chair, curtains on each of the windows, three pieces of furniture, and two plastic rain jackets hanging on the wall. On rare occasions her father allowed her to play with plastic food containers, old spools of thread, TV Guides with many of the illustrations cut out, and the raincoats.[22] The room had two almost entirely blacked-out windows, one which her father left slightly open; although the house was well away from the street and other houses, she could see the side of a neighboring house and a few inches of sky, and occasionally heard environmental sounds or a neighboring child practicing the piano.[10] Throughout this time, Genie's father almost never permitted anyone else to leave the house, only allowing his son to go to and from school and requiring him to prove his identity through various means before entering, and to discourage disobedience he frequently sat in the living room with a shotgun in his lap. He did not allow anyone else in or near the house, and kept his gun nearby in case someone did come.[13] No one in the neighborhood knew about the abuse Genie's father carried out on his family or was aware that Genie's parents ever had a child besides their son.[22] Throughout this time, Genie's father kept detailed notes chronicling his mistreatment of his family and his efforts to conceal it.[a][13][22] Genie's mother was passive by nature and almost completely blind throughout this time. Her husband continued to beat her and threatened to kill her if she attempted to contact her parents, close friends who lived nearby, or the police.[10] Genie's father also forced his son into silence, giving him instructions on how to keep his father's actions secret and beating him with increasing frequency and severity, and as he got older his father forced him to carry out progressively more of his abuse of Genie in the same manner.[5][13] He felt completely powerless to do anything to stop it and feared severe retribution for attempting to intervene, and on multiple occasions tried to run away from the house.[5][13][17] Genie's father was convinced Genie would die by age 12 and promised that, if she survived past that age, he would allow his wife to seek outside assistance for her, but he reneged when Genie turned 12 and her mother took no action for another year and a half. Rescue [ edit ] In October 1970, when Genie was approximately 13 years and 6 months old, Genie's parents had a violent argument in which her mother threatened to walk out if she could not call her own parents. Her husband eventually relented, and later that day she left with Genie when he was out of the house and went to her parents in Monterey Park; Genie's brother, by then 18, had already run away from home and was living with friends.[13][22] Around three weeks later, on November 4, Genie's mother decided to apply for disability benefits for the blind in nearby Temple City, California and brought Genie with her, but on account of her near-blindness, Genie's mother accidentally entered the general social services office next door.[5] The social worker who greeted them instantly sensed something was wrong when she saw Genie and was shocked to learn her true age, having estimated from her appearance and demeanor that she was around 6 or 7 and possibly autistic, and after she and her supervisor questioned Genie's mother and confirmed Genie's age they immediately contacted the police. Genie's parents were arrested and Genie became a ward of the court, and due to her physical condition and near-total unsocialized state, a court order was immediately issued for Genie to be taken to the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Upon Genie's admission to Children's Hospital, David Rigler, a therapist and University of Southern California psychology professor who was the chief psychologist at the hospital, and Howard Hansen, then the head of the psychiatry division and an early expert on child abuse, took direct control of Genie's care. The following day they assigned physician James Kent, another early advocate for child abuse awareness, to conduct the first examinations of her. Most of the information doctors received on Genie's early life came from the police investigation into Genie's parents. Even after its conclusion, there were a large number of unresolved questions about Genie's childhood that subsequent research never answered. News of Genie reached major media outlets on November 17, receiving a great deal of local and national attention, and the one photograph authorities released of Genie significantly fueled public interest in her.[6] Although Genie's father refused to speak to police or the media, large crowds subsequently went to try to see him, which he reportedly found extremely difficult to handle. On November 20, the morning before a scheduled court appearance on child abuse charges, he committed suicide by gunshot.[22] Police found two suicide notes, one intended for his son which in part said, "Be a good boy, I love you", and one directed at police. One note—sources conflict as to which—contained the declaration, "The world will never understand."[13] After Genie's father committed suicide authorities and hospital staff exclusively focused on Genie and her mother; Genie's brother said his mother soon began dedicating all of her love and attention to Genie, and he left Los Angeles.[13][17] At the request of Hansen, attorney John Miner, an acquaintance of Hansen, represented Genie's mother in court. She told the court that the beatings from her husband and her near-total blindness had left her unable to protect her children. Charges against her were dropped, and she received counseling from Children's Hospital; Hansen was her therapist's direct supervisor. Characteristics and personality [ edit ] Genie in the Children's Hospital yard a few weeks after her admission, displaying her characteristic "bunny walk". James Kent stated that his initial examinations of Genie revealed by far the most severe case of child abuse he would ever encounter, and he came away extremely pessimistic about Genie's prognosis. Genie was extremely pale and grossly malnourished, standing 4 ft 6 in (1.37 m) and weighing only 59 pounds (27 kg), and had two nearly full sets of teeth in her mouth and a distended abdomen.[10] The restraining harness her father used had caused a thick callus and heavy black bruising on her buttocks, which took several weeks to heal. A series of X-rays found Genie had moderate coxa valga in both hips and an undersized ribcage, and doctors determined her bone age to be that of an 11-year-old.[10] Despite early tests confirming she had normal vision in both eyes she could not focus them on anything more than 10 feet (3 m) away, corresponding to the dimensions of the room her father kept her in. Genie's gross motor skills were extremely weak; she could neither stand up straight nor fully straighten any of her limbs, and had very little endurance. Her movements were very hesitant and unsteady and her characteristic "bunny walk", in which she held her hands in front of her like claws while ambulating, suggested extreme difficulty with sensory processing and an inability to integrate visual and tactile information. Kent was somewhat surprised to find her fine motor skills were significantly better, determining they were at approximately the level of a two-year-old. She could not chew and had very severe dysphagia, totally incapable of swallowing solid or even soft food and barely able to swallow liquids. When eating she held anything she could not swallow in her mouth until her saliva broke it down, and if this took too long she spat it out and mashed it with her fingers. She was also completely incontinent, and did not respond to extreme temperatures. Doctors found it extremely difficult to test or estimate Genie's mental age or any of her cognitive abilities, but on two attempts they found Genie scored at the level of a 13-month-old. To the surprise of doctors she was intensely interested in exploring new environmental stimuli, although objects seemed to intrigue her much more than people. She seemed especially curious about unfamiliar sounds, and Kent noted how intently she searched for their sources.[10] Doctors noticed her extreme fear of cats and dogs very early during her stay, but initially thought this was due to her being incapable of rational thinking; they did not discern its actual origin until years later. From the start Genie showed interest in many hospital staff members, often approaching and walking with complete strangers, but Kent said she did not seem to distinguish between people and showed no signs of attachment to anybody, including her mother and brother. At first she would not allow anyone to touch her, quickly shying away from any physical contact, and while she sat on her mother's lap when requested she remained very tense and got up as quickly as possible; hospital staff wrote that her mother seemed entirely oblivious to Genie's emotions and actions. Genie's behavior was typically highly antisocial and proved extremely difficult for others to control. Regardless of where she was she constantly salivated and spat, and continually sniffed and blew her nose on anything that happened to be nearby. She had no sense of personal property, frequently pointing to or taking something she wanted from someone else, or situational awareness. Doctors wrote that she acted on impulse irrespective of the setting, especially noting that she frequently engaged in open masturbation and would sometimes attempt to involve older men in it. From the start Genie showed a small amount of responsiveness to nonverbal information, including gestures and facial expressions from other people, and made reasonably good eye contact. However, her demeanor was completely devoid of any expressions or discernible body language, and she could only nonverbally get across a few very basic needs. She clearly distinguished speaking from other sounds but remained almost completely silent and unresponsive to speech, and any responses she gave were to accompanying nonverbal signals.[10] When upset Genie would wildly attack herself, but remained completely expressionless and never cried or vocalized; some accounts said she could not cry at all. To make noise, she would push chairs or other similar objects. Her outbursts initially occurred very often and had no discernible trigger—Kent wrote that she never tried to indicate the source of her anger—and continued until someone diverted her attention or she physically tired herself out, at which point she would again become silent and non-expressive. Linguists later discerned that, in January 1971, Genie showed understanding of only her own name, the names of a few others, and about 15–20 words, and her active vocabulary at the time consisted of two phrases, "stop it" and "no more". They could not determine the extent of her expressive or receptive vocabulary at any point before January 1971, and therefore did not know whether she had acquired any or all of these words during the preceding two months.[10] After observing Genie for some time they concluded that she was not selectively mute, and tests found no physiological or psychological explanation for her lack of language.[10][92] Because her existing medical records also contained no clear indications of mental disabilities researchers determined that, due to her extreme isolation and lack of exposure to language during childhood, she had not acquired a first language.[10] Preliminary assessment [ edit ] Within a month after Genie's admission to Children's Hospital, Jay Shurley, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Oklahoma and a specialist in extreme social isolation, took an interest in her case. Shurley noted that Genie's was the most severe case of isolation he had ever studied or heard about, which he maintained more than 20 years later.[41] Over the next year and a half he came on three three-day visits to conduct daily observations and to carry out a sleep study, hoping to determine if Genie was autistic, whether or not she had sustained any brain damage, and whether or not she was born mentally retarded.[10][41] Shurley concluded she was not autistic, with which later researchers concurred; he noted that she had a high level of emotional disturbance, but wrote that her eagerness for new stimuli and lack of behavioral defense mechanisms were uncharacteristic of autism.[b][10][41] Shurley found no signs of brain damage but observed a few persistent abnormalities in Genie's sleep, including a significantly reduced amount (and much larger than average variance in duration) of REM sleep and an unusually high number of sleep spindles.[10][41] He eventually concluded Genie had been mentally retarded from birth, specifically citing her significantly elevated number of sleep spindles.[6] The other scientists following the case remained divided on this issue. Much later, for example, Susan Curtiss emphatically argued that, though Genie clearly had serious emotional difficulties, she could not have been retarded. She pointed out that Genie made a year's developmental progress for every calendar year after her rescue, which would not be expected if her condition was congenital, and that some aspects of language Genie acquired were uncharacteristic of mentally retarded people.[6][22] She instead believed that Genie was born with at least average intelligence and that the abuse and isolation of her childhood had left her functionally retarded.[6] Hospital stay [ edit ] In his first meeting with Genie, James Kent initially observed no reactions from her but eventually drew a small amount of nonverbal and verbal responsiveness with a small puppet. Playing with this and similar puppets quickly became her favorite activity and, apart from her tantrums, accounted for most of the few times she expressed any emotion during the early part of her stay.[10] Within a few days she started learning to dress herself and began voluntarily using the toilet, but she continued to suffer from nighttime and daytime incontinence which only slowly improved.[41] Kent quickly realized there would be a large number of people working with Genie, and was concerned that she would not learn to form a normal relationship unless somebody was a steady presence in her life, so he decided to accompany her on walks and to all of her appointments.[6] Genie quickly began growing and putting on weight and steadily became more confident in her movements, and by December she had good eye–hand coordination and was much better at focusing her eyes.[10] She rapidly developed a sense of possession, hoarding objects to which she took a liking for reasons doctors did not know, and became extremely upset if someone touched or moved anything she collected.[6] She took all kinds of items but particularly sought colorful plastic objects, which doctors speculated was due to these having been the items she had access to as a child, and she did not seem to care whether they were toys or ordinary containers but especially sought out beach pails. During the first few months of her stay, giving her one of these objects could bring her out of a tantrum. After a few weeks Genie became much more responsive to other people, and shortly afterward began paying attention to people speaking, but at first, she remained mostly unexpressive and it was unclear whether she responded more to verbal or nonverbal stimuli.[10] Shortly afterwards Genie showed clear responses to nonverbal signals, and her nonverbal communication skills quickly became exceptional.[6][92] A month into her stay Genie started becoming sociable with familiar adults, first with Kent and soon after with other hospital staff. She was clearly happy when someone she knew visited and sometimes worked very hard to get a person to stay, expressing disappointment if she failed; for no discernible reason, her greetings were far more energetic than her relatively mild unhappiness when people left. After the state dropped charges against Genie's mother she began visiting Genie twice a week, and over the course of a few months they steadily grew better at interacting with each other. Around the same time it was noted that Genie took pleasure in intentionally dropping or destroying small objects, and enjoyed watching someone else do the same to something she had been playing with. Kent wrote that she did the same series of actions several times over and that it appeared to ease some internal tension for her, and therefore thought she did this to gain control of traumatic childhood experiences. She also showed a deep fascination with classical piano music played in front of her, which researchers believed was because she could hear some piano music during her childhood. She did not have the same reaction to recordings, and if someone played anything other than classical music she would change the sheet music to a book which she knew had pieces she liked. By December 1970, Kent and the other hospital staff working with Genie saw her as a potential case study subject. That month David Rigler obtained a small grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to do preliminary studies on her, and began organizing a research team to submit a larger request. In January 1971 doctors administered a Gesell Developmental Evaluation and found Genie to be at the developmental level of a 1- to 3-year-old, noting she already showed substantial developmental disparities.[10] The following month psychologists Jeanne Block and her husband Jack Block evaluated Genie, and her scores ranged from below a 2- to 3-year-old level to, on a few components, a normal 12- to 13-year-old level. Around the same time, doctors noted that she was very interested in people speaking and that she attempted to mimic some speech sounds.[92] By April and May 1971, Genie's scores on the Leiter International Performance Scale tests had dramatically increased, with her overall mental age at the level of a typical 4-year-9-month-old, but on individual components she still showed a very high level of scatter.[92] Her progress with language accelerated, and doctors noticed that the words she used indicated a fairly advanced mental categorization of objects and situations and focused on objective properties to a degree not normally found in children.[92] Around that time, when a minor earthquake struck Los Angeles, she ran frightened into the kitchen and rapidly verbalized to some of the hospital cooks she had befriended, marking the first time she sought out comfort from another person and the first time she was so readily verbal. However, she still had a hard time being with large crowds of people; at her birthday party, she became so anxious at all the guests present that she had to go outside with Rigler to calm down. During the later part of Genie's stay at the hospital, she also started engaging in physical play with adults, and eventually began to enjoy giving and receiving hugs. She continued to exhibit frustration and have tantrums, but in response to situations that would have elicited similar reactions in most young children, and she could sulk for a long time despite receiving an object she liked. In April 1971, to the great surprise of doctors, she began attacking another girl because she felt she owned the hospital dress the other girl had on. This was both her first exhibition of a sense of possession over items she thought were hers but was otherwise impartial towards and the first time she directed her anger outwards, but she did not entirely stop harming herself when angry. Brain testing [ edit ] The Salk Institute, where researchers analyzed the data from the first of several brain exams on Genie. Beginning in January 1971 scientists conducted a series of neurolinguistic tests on Genie to determine and monitor the course and extent of her mental development, making her the first language-deprived child to undergo any detailed study of her brain.[10][92] Genie's entire brain was physically intact and Shurley's sleep-studies found sleep patterns typical of a left-hemisphere dominant person, leading scientists to believe she was most likely right-handed. Over the following years multiple tests of her handedness supported this conclusion, as did observations of her in everyday situations.[41][128] Based on their early tests, doctors suspected Genie's brain was extremely right-hemisphere dominant.[92][128] In early March of that year, neuroscientists Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima came from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to administer their own series of brain exams on Genie. Audiometry tests confirmed that she had normal hearing in both ears, but on a series of dichotic listening tests Bellugi and Klima found that she identified language sounds with 100% accuracy in her left ear while correctly answering at only a chance level in her right ear. Such an extreme level of asymmetry on these tests had previously only been documented in patients with either split-brain or who had undergone a hemispherectomy as an adult.[128] When they gave her monaural tests for both language and non-language sounds she answered with 100% accuracy in both ears, which was normal. On non-language dichotic listening tests she showed a slight preference for identifying non-language sounds in her left ear, which was typical for a right-handed person and helped rule out the possibility of her brain only being reversed in dominance for language.[10][128] Based on these results, Bellugi and Klima believed that Genie had been developing as a typical right-handed person until the time her father began isolating her. They attributed the imbalance between Genie's hemispheres to the fact that Genie's sensory input as a child was almost exclusively visual and tactile, stimulating functions which are predominantly controlled in the right hemisphere of a right-handed person, and although this input had been extremely minimal it was sufficient to cause their lateralization to the right hemisphere.[10][11] They, therefore, believed that because Genie had no linguistic input during her childhood, it underwent no specialization whatsoever and as a result, her language functions never lateralized to it. Since Genie accurately distinguished speech sounds with her right hemisphere, they thought her language functions had lateralized there instead.[10] Interest as a case study and grant funding [ edit ] Victor of Aveyron c. 1800. At the time of Genie's admission to Children's Hospital there was wide discussion in both lay and academic circles about the hypotheses of Noam Chomsky, who had first suggested that language was innate to humans and distinguished humans from all other animals, and Eric Lenneberg, who in 1967 hypothesized that humans have a critical period for language acquisition and defined its end as the onset of puberty.[6] Despite the interest in these hypotheses, prior to Genie's discovery there had been no way to test them. Though ancient and medieval texts made several references to language deprivation experiments modern researchers labeled such ideas "The Forbidden Experiment", impossible to carry out for ethical reasons.[92] Coincidentally the François Truffaut film The Wild Child, which chronicled the life of Victor of Aveyron in the years immediately after his discovery and the efforts of Jean Marc Gaspard Itard to teach him language and integrate him into society, also premiered in the United States only a week after Genie's rescue. The movie was a major success, and further heightened public interest in cases of children subjected to extreme abuse or isolation.[6] Prompted by this coincidence of timing, David Rigler led a team of scientists who sought and obtained a three-year grant from the NIMH to study Genie in May 1971. At the suggestion of Jean Butler, Genie's special education teacher at the hospital, they screened The Wild Child during their first meeting, and the scientists later said the film had an immediate and profound impact.[6] The huge variety of suggestions for how to work with Genie made it extremely difficult for researchers to give the proposal a coherent direction. To the surprise of several scientists involved in the grant meetings, Rigler decided the primary focus of the study would be to test Chomsky and Lenneberg's hypotheses and selected UCLA linguistics professor Victoria Fromkin to head linguistic evaluation.[c][6] The research team also planned to continue periodic evaluations of Genie's psychological development in various aspects of her life. From the time of her admission to Children's Hospital researchers had tried to keep her identity concealed, and it was around this time that they adopted the pseudonym Genie for her, referencing similarities between a genie coming out of a lamp without having a childhood and Genie's sudden emergence into society past childhood.[6] Early research [ edit ] Soon after the NIMH accepted the grant proposal, in late May 1971, Susan Curtiss began her work on Genie's case as a graduate student in linguistics under Victoria Fromkin, and for the remainder of Genie's stay at Children's Hospital Curtiss met with Genie almost every day.[142] Curtiss quickly recognized Genie's powerful nonverbal communication abilities, writing that complete strangers would frequently buy something for her because they sensed she wanted it and that these gifts were always the types of objects she most enjoyed.[6] Curtiss concluded that Genie had learned a significant amount of language but that it was not yet at a usefully testable level, so she decided to dedicate the next few months to getting to know Genie and gaining her friendship. Over the following month, she and Genie very quickly bonded with each other. At around the same time Curtiss began her work, doctors reevaluated Genie on the Leiter scale and measured her on the Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale, which placed her estimated mental age between a 5- and 8-year-old with a very high degree of scatter.[10] Doctors believed Genie had learned to use her gestalt perception to determine the number of objects in a group, and by the start of the case study she could accurately discern the correct number of up to 7 objects via gestalt perception. Child psychologist David Elkind, who was involved in the grant meetings, evaluated Genie in May 1971 and reported that she was in the concrete operational stage of development, noting that she understood object permanence and could engage in deferred imitation. Genie's physical health also continued to improve, and by this time her endurance had dramatically increased. Her social behavior was still highly abnormal, and doctors were especially concerned that she almost never interacted with people her age, but evaluations from the time expressed some optimism about her prognosis.[92] First foster home [ edit ] In June 1971, Jean Butler obtained permission to take Genie on day trips to her home in Country Club Park, Los Angeles. Near the end of that month, after one of these trips, Butler told the hospital that she (Butler) might have contracted rubella, to which Genie would have been exposed. Hospital staff were reluctant to give foster custody to Butler and were very skeptical of her story, strongly suspecting she had concocted it as part of a bid to take over as Genie's guardian and primary caretaker, but decided that placing Genie in an isolation ward at the hospital could potentially be highly damaging to her social and psychological development, so they agreed to temporarily quarantine her in Butler's home.[6] Butler, who was childless, unmarried, and at the time living alone, subsequently petitioned for foster custody of Genie, and despite the hospital's objections authorities extended Genie's stay while they considered the matter. Butler's observations [ edit ] Soon after moving in with Butler, Genie started showing the first signs of reaching puberty, marking a dramatic improvement in her overall physical health and definitively putting her past Lenneberg's proposed critical period for language acquisition.[92] Butler continued to observe and document Genie's hoarding, in particular noting that Genie collected and kept dozens of containers of liquid in her room.[6] Although she could not discern the reason for Genie's intense fear of cats and dogs, after witnessing it firsthand Butler and the man she was dating—who was a retired University of Southern California professor and psychologist—tried to help her overcome it by watching episodes of the television series Lassie with her and giving her a battery-powered toy dog. Butler wrote that Genie could eventually tolerate fenced dogs, but that there was no progress with cats.[6] In her journal, Butler wrote that she had gotten Genie to stop attacking herself when angry and had taught Genie to instead express her anger through words or by hitting objects. Butler also claimed that, shortly after moving in with her, Genie had become noticeably more talkative and that she had made substantial progress with her language acquisition. In an early August letter to Jay Shurley, she wrote that the man she was dating had also noticed and commented on the improvement in her language. Genie's incontinence gradually improved until, by the end of her stay, she was almost entirely continent. Custody dispute [ edit ] Genie's mother continued to visit Genie, and around the time Genie moved in with Butler, Genie's mother received corrective cataract surgery which restored much of her vision. During Genie's stay Butler had the man she was dating move in with her, believing that authorities would view her pending foster application more favorably if she offered a two-parent home. However, Butler began to strenuously resist visits from the researchers, who she felt overtaxed Genie, and began disparagingly referring to them as the "Genie team", a nickname which stuck.[6] Butler particularly seemed to dislike James Kent and Susan Curtiss, preventing both from visiting during the latter part of Genie's stay, and also had several disagreements with Rigler, although he said their disputes were never as personal or as heated as she portrayed them. Researchers believed Butler had good intentions for Genie, but criticized Butler's unwillingness to work with them and thought she negatively affected Genie's care and the case study. They strongly contested Butler's claims of pushing Genie too hard, contending that she enjoyed the tests and could take breaks at will, and both Curtiss and Kent emphatically denied Butler's accusations towards them.[160] The research team viewed Butler as personally troubled, noting her longstanding and widely known reputation for combativeness among coworkers and superiors. Several of the scientists, including Curtiss and Howard Hansen, recalled Butler openly stating that she hoped Genie would make her famous, and Curtiss especially remembered Butler repeatedly proclaiming her intent to be "the next Anne Sullivan".[6] In mid-August, California authorities informed Butler they had rejected her application for foster custody.[6] The extent, if any, to which Children's Hospital influenced the decision is unclear. Rigler maintained several times that despite the scientists' objections neither the hospital nor any of its staff had intervened, and said the authorities' decision surprised him.[160] The Nova documentary on Genie, however, states the rejection of Butler came partially on the hospital's recommendation; there is evidence many hospital authorities, including Hansen, felt Butler's ability to care for Genie was inadequate, and hospital policy forbade its staff members from becoming foster parents of its patients.[6] Butler herself believed the hospital had opposed her application so Genie could be moved somewhere more conducive to research, and wrote that Genie, upon being told of the decision, was extremely upset and had said, "No, no, no." Second foster home [ edit ] Genie while working with Marilyn Rigler In early August, Hansen suggested to Rigler that he take custody of Genie if authorities rejected Butler's application, and Rigler initially balked at the idea but decided to talk it over with his wife, Marilyn; Marilyn had graduate training as a social worker and had just completed a graduate degree in human development, and had previously worked in nursery schools and Head Start Programs. The Riglers had three adolescent children of their own, which Jay Shurley said made them consider themselves more suitable guardians for Genie than Butler.[160] They ultimately decided that, if no one else would, they were willing to temporarily care for Genie until another suitable foster home became available. Rigler acknowledged the proposed arrangement would clearly put him in a dual relationship with her, but Children's Hospital and authorities decided that, in the absence of other adequate options, they would consent to making the Riglers Genie's temporary foster parents.[6][160] On the same day Genie went back to the hospital, the Riglers had Genie transferred to their home in Los Feliz. David Rigler said that he and Marilyn initially intended the arrangement to last for a maximum of three months, but Genie ultimately stayed with them for almost four years.[6] When Genie moved in with the Riglers, Marilyn became her teacher, David Rigler decided to take over the role of Genie's primary therapist from James Kent, and the research team immediately resumed observations and evaluations.[6] The Riglers remained Genie's primary caretakers throughout this time, but with the consent of Genie's mother and her psychologists authorities designated John Miner as Genie's uncompensated legal guardian in 1972. Relationship with her mother [ edit ] While Genie lived with the Riglers her mother usually met with her once a week at a park or restaurant, and their relationship continued to grow stronger.[160] Although the Riglers never expressed antipathy towards Genie's mother their efforts to be polite to her inadvertently came off as condescension, and years later Marilyn said she was uncomfortable acting as a mother to Genie in her house with Genie's real mother present. With the exception of Jay Shurley, who felt the other scientists did not treat her as an equal, Genie's mother did not get along well with the other researchers, some of whom disliked her due to her apathy during Genie's childhood. The scientists speculated Genie's mother gave them a mostly cool reception because they reminded her of her earlier inaction on behalf of her children, and David Rigler also thought she was in denial about Genie's condition and the hand she had in causing it. Curtiss wrote that Genie's mother often gave conflicting statements about her married life and Genie's childhood, seemingly saying what she thought people wanted to hear, which the research team believed was out of fear of reprobation or ostracism for telling the truth. Jean Butler, who married shortly after authorities removed Genie from her house and began using her married name, Ruch, stayed in touch with Genie's mother. Although Genie's mother later recalled that most of their conversations during this time were shallow in nature, they continued to get along very well. Throughout Genie's stay with the Riglers, Ruch persistently accused researchers of conducting harmful tests, deliberately forcing her mother out of her life, and misusing the available grant money, all of which the research team consistently and emphatically denied. Genie's mother steadily began listening more to Ruch, and eventually came to feel the research team was marginalizing her.[160] Research team testing and observations [ edit ] Behavior [ edit ] Without any obvious cause, Genie's incontinence immediately resurfaced, and was especially severe for the first few weeks after she moved in but persisted at a lower level for several months. In contrast to Butler's writings, the Riglers observed Genie still acted out her anger on herself and noted that certain situations in particular, such as spilling containers of liquid, sent her into tantrum behavior, which doctors attributed to her having been beaten for these actions as a child. They also wrote that Genie was extremely frightened of their dog, and upon seeing it immediately ran and hid. The research team recorded her speech being much more halting and hesitant than Ruch had described, writing that Genie very rarely spoke and that, for the first three months of her stay, almost always used one-word utterances. Unless she saw something which frightened her both her speech and behavior exhibited a great deal of latency, often several minutes delayed, for no clear reason, and she still had no reaction to temperature. She continued to have a very difficult time controlling her impulses, frequently engaging in highly anti-social and destructive behavior.[6] Shortly after Genie moved in, Marilyn taught her to direct her frustrations outward by generally "having a fit."[6] Because Genie sought compliments on her appearance Marilyn began to paint Genie's fingernails and told her she did not look good when she scratched herself, and when situations came up which especially upset Genie Marilyn tried to verbally de-escalate her. Genie gradually gained more control over her responses and with prompting could verbally express frustration, although she never entirely ceased to have tantrums or engage in self-harm, and on occasion could indicate her level of anger; depending on whether she was very angry or merely frustrated, she either vigorously shook one finger or loosely waved her hand.[6] Although the scientists did not yet know the reason for Genie's fear of cats and dogs the Riglers used their puppy in an effort to acclimate her, and after approximately two weeks she entirely overcame her fear of their dog but continued to be extremely afraid of unfamiliar cats and dogs. Marilyn worked with Genie to help overcome her ongoing difficulty with chewing and swallowing, which took approximately four months. She also tried to help Genie become more attuned to her body's sensations, and in late 1973 Curtiss recorded the first instance of Genie showing sensitivity to temperature.[6] Although Genie deliberately did the least she possibly could in both Curtiss' and the Riglers' estimation, throughout her stay her physical health substantially improved.[22] At first, Genie usually did not listen to anyone unless someone directly addressed her or if Curtiss played classical music on the piano, and if someone spoke to her she almost never acknowledged the other person and usually walked away after a while. In an effort to get Genie to listen to other people Curtiss began reading children's stories to her, and at first she did not seem to engage, but one day in mid-October 1971 Curtiss saw that Genie was clearly listening and responding to her. After that, she paid attention to people even when they were not speaking directly to or about her. She became somewhat more sociable in her interactions with people and became somewhat more responsive, although she still frequently showed no obvious signs that she heard someone.[92] Her reactions to most stimuli became more rapid, but even by the end of her stay she sometimes took several minutes before giving a response to somebody. After several months living with the Riglers, Genie's behavior and social skills improved to the point that she started going to first a nursery school and then a public school for mentally retarded children her age.[10] The Riglers also taught her some basic self-help skills, including simple chores such as ironing, using a sewing machine, and preparing simple meals for herself. She made substantial progress with controlling herself both at home and in public, and although it was extremely hard to prevent her socially inappropriate masturbation she had almost entirely ceased it by the end of her stay. In February 1973 Curtiss recorded the first time Genie shared something with her, and while she continued to take things from other people her responses clearly indicated that she knew she was not supposed to. During the time Genie lived with the Riglers, everyone who worked with her reported that her mood significantly improved and she was clearly content with her life.[6][160] As late as June 1975, David Rigler wrote that Genie continued to make significant strides in every field which the scientists were testing, and Curtiss' contemporaneous accounts expressed some optimism about Genie's social development.[142] Nonetheless, even by mid-1975 most social interactions with her remained abnormal in quality. The scientists wrote that, while her overall demeanor and interactions with others had significantly improved, many aspects of her behavior remained characteristic of an unsocialized person. Language [ edit ] Curtiss began thorough, active testing of Genie's language in October 1971, when she and Fromkin decided that her linguistic abilities were sufficient to yield usable results. Linguists designed their tests to measure both Genie's vocabulary and her acquisition of various aspects of grammar, including syntax, phonology, and morphology. They also continued to observe her in everyday conversations to gauge what pragmatics of language she acquired. The research team considered her language acquisition to be a substantial part of their larger goal of helping her to integrate herself into society, so although they wanted to observe what vocabulary and grammar Genie could learn on her own, out of a sense of obligation they sometimes stepped in to assist her.[10][92] Throughout linguists' testing, the size of Genie's vocabulary and the speed with which she expanded it continued to outstrip all anticipations. By mid-1975 she could accurately name most objects she encountered, and clearly knew more words than she regularly used.[11] By contrast, Genie had far more difficulty with learning and using basic grammar. She clearly mastered certain principles of grammar, and her receptive comprehension consistently remained significantly ahead of her production, but the rate of her grammar acquisition was far slower than normal and resulted in an unusually large disparity between her vocabulary and grammar.[92][206] In everyday conversations Genie typically spoke only in short utterances and inconsistently used what grammar she knew, although her use of grammar remained significantly better in imitation, and her conversational competence markedly improved during her stay but remained very low, which the scientists found unsurprising and suggested was evidence that the ability to engage in conversation was a separate skill from knowing language.[92] In many cases, the scientists used Genie's language development to help them gauge her overall psychological state. For instance, Genie consistently confused the pronouns you and me, often saying, "Mama love you" while pointing to herself, which Curtiss attributed to a manifestation of Genie's inability to distinguish who she was from who someone else was.[92] The scientists especially noted that she often understood conceptual information even if she lacked the grammar to express it, which they wrote demonstrated that she had greater cognitive abilities than most children in congruous phases of language acquisition. In some instances, learning a new aspect of language played a direct role in furthering her development. At the time Genie learned to say "May I have [example]" as a ritual phrase she was also learning how to use money, and Curtiss wrote that this phrase gave Genie the ability to ask for payment and fueled her desire to make money, causing her to take a more active role in performing activities which would lead to a reward. At the start of testing Genie's voice was still extremely high-pitched and soft, which linguists believed accounted for some of her abnormal expressive language, and the scientists worked very hard to improve it. Her voice gradually became moderately lower and louder, although it remained unusually high and soft, and she began to better articulate words. Despite this she consistently deleted or substituted sounds, making her extremely difficult to understand. The scientists believed Genie was often unaware of her pronunciation, but on other occasions she produced haplologies which were clearly intentional and would only speak more clearly if firmly, explicitly requested to; Curtiss attributed the latter to Genie trying to say as little as possible and still be understood.[92] Eventually Curtiss and Marilyn convinced Genie to stop attempting her most extreme haplologies, but she continued to delete sounds when possible, causing linguists following the case to refer to Genie as "the Great Abbreviator". Papers contemporaneous with the case study indicated that Genie was learning new vocabulary and grammar throughout her entire stay with the Riglers, and were optimistic about her potential to varying degrees.[10][92] Nonetheless, even by mid-1975, there were still many pieces of language which she had not acquired. Furthermore, although she could understand and produce longer utterances, she still primarily spoke in short phrases such as "Ball belong hospital".[142][218] Despite the clear increase in Genie's conversational competence, the scientists wrote that it remained very low compared to normal people. Curtiss and Fromkin ultimately concluded that because Genie had not learned a first language before the critical period had ended, she was unable to fully acquire a language.[218] Recalling past events [ edit ] Sometime during early to mid-1972 the Riglers overheard Genie saying, "Father hit big stick. Father is angry." to herself, demonstrating that she could talk about her life before she had started to learn language.[206] During the rest of her stay with the Riglers she would constantly repeat, "Father hit" to herself, and before the Riglers worked with Genie to understand the concept of death she often asked them where her father was, afraid that he would come to get her.[6] Although she did not speak to others about her childhood often she gave researchers valuable new information when she did, and the scientists tried to get Genie to tell them as much as possible.[92][206] As she learned more language, she gradually began to speak about her father and his treatment of her in greater detail.[6] Father hit arm. Big wood. Genie cry ... Not spit. Father. Hit face—spit. Father hit big stick. Father is angry. Father hit Genie big stick. Father take piece wood hit. Cry. Father make me cry. Father is dead. Nonverbal communication [ edit ] In contrast to her linguistic abilities, Genie's nonverbal communication continued to excel. She invented her own system of gestures and pantomimed certain words as she said them, and also acted out events which she could not express in language.[92] Initially she would only draw pictures if someone asked her to, but during her stay with the Riglers she began to use drawings to communicate if she could not explain something in words.[206] In addition to her own drawings she often used pictures from magazines to relate to daily experiences, and for reasons the scientists never determined especially did so after encountering things that frightened her. Sometime during mid-1972, Marilyn observed that a magazine picture of a wolf sent Genie into a terror, after which the Riglers asked Genie's mother if she knew a possible cause for this reaction; she then informed them that her husband had acted like a dog to intimidate Genie, making the underlying reason for her fear apparent to the scientists for the first time. Throughout Genie's stay the scientists saw how frequently and effectively she used her nonverbal skills, and never determined what she did to elicit such strong reactions from other people. David Rigler vividly remembered an occasion when he and Genie passed a father and a young boy carrying a toy firetruck without speaking to each other and said the boy suddenly turned around and gave the firetruck to Genie. Curtiss also recalled one time when, while she and Genie were walking and had stopped at a busy intersection, she unexpectedly heard a purse emptying; she turned to see a woman stop at the intersection and exit her car to give Genie a plastic purse, even though Genie had not said anything.[6] To take full advantage of her nonverbal communication abilities, in 1974 the Riglers arranged for her to learn a form of sign language.[6] Continued brain exams [ edit ] Language tests [ edit ] Starting in the fall of 1971, under the direction of Curtiss, Victoria Fromkin, and Stephen Krashen—who was then also one of Fromkin's graduate students—linguists continued to administer regular dichotic listening tests to Genie until 1973. Their results consistently corroborated the initial findings of Ursula Bellugi and Edward Klima.[128][206] Researchers therefore concluded that Genie was acquiring language in the right hemisphere of her brain, and definitively ruled out the possibility that Genie's language lateralization was only reversed.[92][128] Due to the lack of physiological problems with Genie's left hemisphere, they believed abnormal neurological activity in her left hemisphere—which they speculated came from her atrophied language center—blocked all language reception in her right ear but did not obstruct non-language sounds.[11] Linguists also administered several brain exams specifically geared towards measuring Genie's language comprehension. On one such test, she had no difficulty giving the correct meaning of sentences containing familiar homophones, demonstrating that her receptive comprehension was significantly better than her expressive language. Genie also did very well at identifying rhymes, both tasks that adult split-brain and left hemispherectomy patients had previously been recorded performing well on.[11] During these tests an EEG consistently picked up more activity from the two electrodes over the right hemisphere of her brain than from those over the normal locations of the Broca's area and Wernicke's area, and found especially high involvement from her right anterior cerebral cortex, lending further support to the researchers' conclusion that Genie was using her right hemisphere to acquire language.[11] Additional tests [ edit ] Curtiss, Fromkin, and Krashen continued to measure Genie's mental age through a variety of measures, and she consistently showed an extremely high degree of scatter. She measured significantly higher on tests which did not require language, such as the Leiter Scale, than on tests with any kind of language component, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. In addition, throughout Genie's stay with the Riglers, they tested a variety of her brain functions and her performance on different tasks. For these they primarily used tachistoscopic tests, and during 1974 and 1975 they also gave her a series of evoked response tests.[128] As early as 1972 Genie scored between the level an 8-year-old and an adult on all right-hemisphere tasks the scientists tested her on and showed extraordinarily rapid improvement on them. Her ability to piece together objects solely from tactile information was exceptionally good, and on spatial awareness tests her scores were reportedly the highest ever recorded.[128] Similarly, on a Mooney Face Test in May 1975 she had the highest score in medical literature at that time, and on a separate gestalt perception test her extrapolated score was in the 95th percentile for adults.[d] On several other tests involving right-hemisphere tasks, her results were markedly better than other people in equivalent phases of mental development; in 1977 the scientists measured her capacity for stereognosis at approximately the level of a typical 10-year-old, significantly higher than her estimated mental age.[10][218] The scientists also noted in 1974 that Genie seemed to be able to recognize the location she was in and was good at getting from one place to another, an ability which primarily involves the right hemisphere.[10] Genie's performance on these tests led the scientists to believe that her brain had lateralized and that her right hemisphere had undergone specialization. Because Genie's performance was so high on such a wide variety of tasks predominantly utilizing the right hemisphere of her brain, they concluded her exceptional abilities extended to typical right-hemisphere functions in general and were not specific to any individual task.[11] They attributed her extreme right hemisphere dominance to the fact that what very little cognitive stimulation she did receive was almost entirely visual and tactile. While even this had been extremely minimal it had been enough to commence lateralization in her right hemisphere, and the severe imbalance in stimulation caused her right hemisphere to become extraordinarily developed.[11] By contrast, Genie performed significantly below average and showed much slower progress on all tests measuring predominantly left-hemisphere tasks. Stephen Krashen wrote that by 2 years after the first examinations on her mental age Genie's scores on left-hemisphere tasks consistently fell into the 21⁄ 2 - to 3-year-old range, only showing an improvement of 11⁄ 2 years.[128] On sequential order tests she consistently scored well below average for someone with a fully intact brain, although she did somewhat better on visual than on auditory tests.[206] The scientists especially noted that she did not start to count until late 1972, and then only in an extremely deliberate and laborious manner.[92] In January 1972 the scientists measured her in the 50th percentile for an 81⁄ 2 - to 9-year-old on Raven's Progressive Matrices, although they noted she was outside of the age range of the test's design.[e] Similarly, when the scientists administered Knox Cubes tests in 1973 and 1975 Genie's score improved from the level of a 6-year-old to a 71⁄ 2 -year-old, more rapid than her progress with language but significantly slower than that of right hemisphere tasks. There were a few primarily right hemisphere tasks Genie did not perform well on. On one memory for design test, she scored at a "borderline" level in October 1975, although she did not make the mistakes typical of patients with brain damage. In addition, on a Benton Visual Retention Test and an associated facial recognition test Genie's scores were far lower than any average scores for people without brain damage.[11] Although these contrasted with observations of Genie in everyday situations, researchers wrote that they anticipated these results.[11][206] Curtiss' explanation was that these tasks likely require use of both hemispheres, noting that previous results on the memory for design test found a negative impact from abnormal brain function in either hemisphere and that these would, therefore, be very difficult for Genie since she exclusively used her right hemisphere.[11][206] Loss of funding and research interest [ edit ] On several occasions during the course of the case study, the NIMH voiced misgivings about the lack of scientific data researchers generated from the case study and the disorganized state of project records. Outside of the linguistics aspect of research David Rigler did not clearly define any parameters for the scope of the study, and both the extremely high volume and incoherence of the research team's data left the scientists unable to determine the importance of much of the information they collected.[6] After the initial grant and a one-year extension Rigler proposed an additional three-year extension, and the NIMH's grants committee acknowledged that the study had clearly benefited Genie but concluded that the research team had not adequately addressed their concerns. In a unanimous decision, the committee denied the extension request, cutting off further funding.[6][142] Early adulthood [ edit ] In 1975, when Genie turned 18, her mother stated that she wished to care for her, and in mid-1975 the Riglers decided to end their foster parenting and agreed to let Genie move back in with her mother at her childhood home.[160] John Miner remained Genie's legal guardian and the Riglers offered to continue assisting with Genie's care, and despite the NIMH grant ending Curtiss continued to conduct regular testing and observations.[11][142] While living together Genie's mother found many of Genie's behaviors, especially her lack of self-control, very distressing, and after a few months the task of caring for Genie by herself quickly overwhelmed her. She then contacted the California Department of Health to find care for Genie, which David Rigler said she did without his or Marilyn's knowledge, and in the latter part of 1975 authorities transferred Genie to the first of what would become a succession of foster homes.[160] The environment in Genie's new placement was extremely rigid and gave her far less access to her favorite objects and activities, and her caretakers rarely allowed her mother to visit. Soon after she moved in they began to subject her to extreme physical and emotional abuse, resulting in both incontinence and constipation resurfacing and causing her to revert to her coping mechanism of silence. The incident with the strongest impact occurred when they severely beat her for vomiting and told her that if she did it again they would never let her see her mother, making her terrified of opening her mouth for fear of vomiting and facing more punishment. As a result, she was extremely frightened of eating or speaking, and she became extremely withdrawn and almost exclusively relied on sign language for communication.[6][142] During this time Curtiss was the only person who had worked with Genie to have regular contact with her, continuing to conduct weekly meetings to continue her testing, and she noted the extreme deterioration in Genie's condition. She quickly started petitioning to have Genie taken out of the home, but Curtiss said that both she and social services had a difficult time contacting John Miner, only succeeding after several months. In late April 1977, with assistance from David Rigler, Miner removed her from this location. Because of Genie's previous treatment Miner and David Rigler arranged for her to stay at Children's Hospital for two weeks, where her condition moderately improved. Authorities then placed Genie in another foster home, where she did fairly well, but in mid-December 1977 the arrangement very suddenly ended. Through the end of that month into early January Genie lived in a temporary setting, after which authorities put her in another foster home.[142] During this time Curtiss wrote to Miner that Genie did not understand the reasons she was moving and believed it was her fault for not being a good enough person, and said the frequency with which her living arrangements changed further traumatized her and caused continued developmental regression. Lawsuit [ edit ] In 1976 Curtiss finished and presented her dissertation, entitled Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day "Wild Child", and Academic Press published it the following year. Prior to this time, Genie's mother had reportedly thought of Genie and Curtiss as friends, but in early 1978 she wrote that she was very offended at the title and some of the contents of Curtiss' dissertation. She decided to sue Children's Hospital, her therapists, their supervisors, and several of the researchers, including Curtiss, Rigler, James Kent, and Howard Hansen.[6] Privately she disputed some details of the family's treatment during Genie's childhood, but her official complaint did not; instead she asserted a violation of patient confidentiality, and accused the research team of giving testing priority over Genie's welfare, invading Genie's privacy, and severely overworking Genie. Regional media immediately picked up the lawsuit, and members of the research team were shocked when they found out about it. All of the scientists named in the suit were adamant that they never coerced Genie, maintaining that Genie's mother and her lawyers grossly exaggerated the length and nature of their testing, and denied any breach of confidentiality.[6][160] While David Rigler was giving his deposition he discovered that Jean Butler Ruch had goaded Genie's mother into suing, and in an interview several years later the lawyers who worked with Genie's mother confirmed Ruch heavily influenced the actions of Genie's mother throughout the course of the lawsuit. According to author Russ Rymer, the suit was settled in 1984.[5] However, in 1993 David Rigler wrote, "[T]he case never came to trial. It was dismissed by the Superior Court of the State of California 'with prejudice,' meaning that because it was without substance it can never again be refiled."[160] Susan Curtiss said that in late December 1977 she had been asked if she could be Genie's legal guardian but that, after she met with Genie on January 3, 1978, Genie's mother suddenly stopped allowing her and the rest of the research team to see Genie again, immediately ending all testing and observations.[22] In early 1978 authorities discovered that, after Genie turned 18, John Miner had failed to update his status as Genie's legal guardian as a minor to that of her legal guardian as an adult incapable of caring for herself. Without consulting Miner, on March 30 of that year authorities officially transferred guardianship to her mother, who subsequently forbade all of the scientists except Jay Shurley from seeing her or Genie.[142] Jean Butler Ruch remained in contact with Genie's mother and continued to spread negative rumors about Genie's condition, especially targeting Curtiss, until 1986, when a stroke left Ruch with aphasia. Ruch died in 1988 following another stroke.[6] From January 1978 until the early 1990s Genie moved through a series of at least four additional foster homes and institutions, some of which subjected her to extreme physical abuse and harassment.[6] Shurley saw her at her 27th birthday party in 1984, and again two years later, and in an interview years later he said that both times she was very depressed and uncommunicative. In 1992, Curtiss told Russ Rymer that the only two updates she had heard on Genie indicated she barely spoke and was depressed and withdrawn. When Rymer published a two-part magazine article on Genie in The New Yorker in April of that year he wrote that she lived in an institution and only saw her mother one weekend every month, as did the first edition of his 1993 book, entitled Genie: A Scientific Tragedy.[f][268] The afterword of the 1994 edition of Rymer's book on Genie, written in November 1993, detailed conversations he had with Genie's mother—who had since gone blind again due to glaucoma—just before and after the publication of his magazine articles. At that time she told him that Genie had recently moved into a more supportive foster home which permitted regular visits, and said that Genie was happy and, although hard to understand, was significantly more verbal. Several people who worked with Genie, including Curtiss and James Kent, harshly criticized Rymer's works.[5] A late April 1993 New York Times review of Rymer's book from scientific reporter Natalie Angier, which took an extremely negative view of the research team, prompted David Rigler to write his first public account of his involvement in Genie's case.[160][271] In his letter to the Times, published in mid-June 1993, Rigler wrote that Genie was doing well in a small, private facility where her mother regularly visited her.[160][271] He also stated that he and Marilyn were in contact with Genie's mother and had recently reestablished contact with Genie, writing that Genie was happy and that on their first visit she immediately greeted him and Marilyn by name, and said that "my wife and I have resumed our (now infrequent) visits with Genie and her mother."[160] As of 2000, Genie was a ward of the state of California living in an undisclosed location in Los Angeles.[5][22] In May 2008, ABC News reported that someone who spoke to them under condition of anonymity had hired a private investigator who located Genie in 2000. According to the investigator she was living a simple lifestyle in a small private facility for mentally underdeveloped adults and appeared to be happy, and reportedly only spoke a few words but could still communicate fairly well in sign language.[5] The news stories also stated that Genie's mother died of unspecified natural causes at the age of 87, in 2003, and featured the only public interview that Genie's brother, who was living in Ohio, gave about either his or Genie's lives; he told reporters that since leaving the Los Angeles area he had visited Genie and their mother only once, in 1982, and had refused to watch or read anything about Genie's life until just prior to the interview, but said he had recently heard Genie was doing well.[5][13][17] A story by journalist Rory Carroll in The Guardian, published in July 2016, reported that Genie still lived in state care and that her brother died in 2011, and said that despite repeated efforts Susan Curtiss had been unable to renew contact with Genie.[1] Impact [ edit ] Genie's is one of the best-known case studies of language acquisition in a child with delayed linguistic development outside of studies on deaf children.[3][15] Susan Curtiss argued that, even if humans possess the innate ability to acquire language, Genie demonstrated the necessity of early language stimulation in the left hemisphere of the brain to start.[10][218] Since Genie never fully acquired grammar, Curtiss submitted that Genie provided evidence for a weaker variation of the critical period hypothesis.[206] Genie's nonverbal skills were exceptionally good, which demonstrated that even nonverbal communication was fundamentally different from language. Because Genie's language acquisition occurred in the right hemisphere of her brain, its course also aided linguists in refining existing hypotheses on the capacity for right-hemisphere language acquisition in people after the critical period.[218] Since the publication of Curtiss' findings, her arguments have become widely accepted in the field of linguistics. Many linguistics books have used Genie's case study as an example to illustrate principles of language acquisition, frequently citing it as support of Chomsky's hypothesis of language being innate to humans and of a modified version of Lenneberg's critical period hypothesis, and her work with Genie provided the impetus for several additional case studies.[206] In addition, the disparity between Curtiss' pre and post-1977 analyses of Genie's language has sparked debate among other linguists regarding how much grammar Genie acquired and whether she could have acquired more. To date, no one directly involved in Genie's case has responded to this controversy.[142][278] The study of Genie's brain aided scientists in refining several existing hypotheses regarding brain lateralization, especially its effect on language development. In particular, the disparity between Genie's linguistic abilities and her competence in other aspects of human development strongly suggested there was a separation of cognition and language acquisition, a new concept at the time.[218] The unevenness of her ability to learn right-hemisphere versus left-hemisphere tasks gave the scientists valuable information about the manner in which certain brain functions develop, as well as the way lateralization affects a person's ability to improve upon them.[11][128] Genie's difficulty with certain tasks which had been described as predominantly controlled in the right hemisphere also gave neuroscientists more insight into the processes controlling these functions.[11][206] Comparisons to other cases [ edit ] In several of their publications, the scientists acknowledged the influence that Jean Marc Gaspard Itard's study of Victor of Aveyron had on their research and testing.[10] Genie's development has also influenced perceptions of Victor and the case study on him.[15] Both researchers working with Genie and outside writers noted the influence of the historical reports of language deprivation experiments, including accounts of the language deprivation experiments of Psamtik I, King James IV of Scotland, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.[10][92] The two ABC News stories on Genie compared her case to the Fritzl case, especially pointing out similarities between Genie's father and Josef Fritzl and the mental states of Genie and Fritzl's captive three grandchildren upon entering into society.[5][13][17] The research team and outside scientists also contrasted Genie with a case in the 1950s of a girl, known by the name Isabella, whose first exposure to anyone besides her deaf non-speaking mother came at the age of 6 but who successfully acquired language and developed fully normal social skills within a year.[10][278] Ethical dispute [ edit ] During the grant meetings in May 1971 some of the scientists, including Jay Shurley and David Elkind, voiced concern that the prevailing methods of research pursued scientific study at the expense of Genie's well-being and could cause love and attention to be contingent on her language acquisition. Shurley said that there was strong disagreement during the initial grant meetings and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense and bitter, especially noting that the later meetings excluded many of the people who had worked most closely with Genie.[6] After May 1971 Elkind declined to participate in the study further, despite having personally known both the Riglers for several years, and in an interview years later he cited a desire not to be involved in a case which, in his view, prioritized scientific research over Genie's care. While Shurley acknowledged that the scientists at the center of the case were in a completely unprecedented situation, he also decided to minimize his involvement over these concerns and felt that by the conclusion of the study all of the scientists, including himself, had been guilty to varying degrees of using Genie as an object and putting themselves and their goals ahead of her and her mother's best interests. Kent, Howard Hansen, the Riglers, and Curtiss readily acknowledged that it had been extremely difficult to determine the course of the study, but maintained that all disputes during the meetings were impersonal and typical of scientific discourse.[6][160] After the case study ended David Rigler said that, despite his disagreements with Shurley, Shurley's early recommendations were the only useful advice he received on handling Genie and he attempted to follow them as much as possible.[6][160] The Riglers and Curtiss further stated that everyone involved in Genie's life, with the exception of Jean Butler Ruch, worked together as best they could to rehabilitate Genie and never fought with each other, and independently denied allegations of factionalism. Ruch never stated a motive for her actions, but members of the research team believed they were due to her anger over her foster custody rejection and her perception that Children's Hospital staff influenced the decision.[160] The role of the scientists in Genie's case has become the source of debate within the scientific community.[15] Several people have also emphasized the lack of distinction between Genie's caretakers and her therapists. Shurley thought that Ruch would have been the best guardian for Genie, and felt the Riglers gave her adequate care but viewed her as a test subject first. Russ Rymer contended that the roles of everyone involved in Genie's life became progressively clear, citing the starting point as the appointment of John Miner as legal counsel for Genie's mother, and that personal friendships prevented them from recognizing it. He argued that this interfered with providing Genie the best possible care and compromised their objectivity, which in turn contributed to the case study's lack of coherence, and both he and Harlan Lane emphasized that making David Rigler a foster parent accelerated this breakdown.[6] Several independent reviews of Genie's case also accused the Riglers and the other scientists of abandoning Genie after the case study concluded.[5] On several occasions, the Riglers maintained that their home had been the best available option for Genie at the time, and said that both they and everyone who worked with her thought she was doing well.[6][160] They also said they genuinely loved Genie and always provided her the best care possible, pointing out that she had made substantial progress in every aspect of her development while living with them, and they and Curtiss both said Genie's mother had prevented them from continuing to work with Genie as they had wanted.[5][15] While representing the Riglers in court in 1977 and 1978 John Miner went out of his way to give them credit for acting as foster parents to Genie for four years, and when Curtiss spoke to Rymer in the early 1990s she praised their work with Genie and their willingness to take her into their home, although she also felt they had not done enough when she told them about Genie's abuse in foster care. Justin Leiber argued that the scientists' inability to do more for Genie was largely out of their control, and primarily the result of legal and institutional processes surrounding her placement.[15] Media [ edit ] Several books about feral or abused children contain chapters on Genie, and many books on linguistics and psychology also discuss Genie's case at length. In 1994, Nova made a documentary about Genie titled Secret of the Wild Child, based on Russ Rymer's book, and narrated by Stacy Keach.[g] It won multiple Emmy Awards.[6][297] The scientists' footage Nova used from the case study archives had significantly deteriorated, and required restoration for use in the documentary.[142] In 2002, an episode of the television series Body Shock on feral children entitled "Wild Child" included a segment on Genie.[h][22] In addition to Rymer's magazine articles and book about Genie, he said that he drew on Genie's life for the theme of his 2013 novel Paris Twilight.[1] The award-winning independent film Mockingbird Don't Sing, released in 2001, is about Genie's case, primarily from the perspective of Susan Curtiss. For legal reasons, all of the names in the film were changed.[298] See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ In her dissertation on Genie, Susan Curtiss alluded to knowledge of additional details regarding Genie's childhood, which she did not discuss. ^ [3] Psychologist and autism specialist Mitzi Waltz noted in 2013 that, although psychologist Ole Ivar Lovaas was conducting autism research at UCLA during the time of Genie's case, no one who worked with Genie attempted to involve him in the case or sought his opinion on whether or not Genie was autistic. Years after the case study on Genie had ended, when somebody asked Susan Curtiss why they had not done so, Curtiss said she and the other scientists felt Lovaas' methods of aversion therapy would have unduly limited Genie's freedom and prevented her access to a nurturing environment. ^ Lenneberg stated that he did not have any desire to study Genie and declined to participate, saying no definite conclusions could be drawn because the level of trauma associated with Genie's childhood would be impossible to discern. ^ As all of Genie's incorrect answers on the Mooney Face Test were pictures of either masks or caricatures of faces, Curtiss thought Genie may not have understood that she was only supposed to select the realistic looking faces and therefore may have been able to score even higher. ^ Since she did very well on some individual parts of the test, and because previous results had shown indications of utilizing both hemispheres, Curtiss believed Genie could have used her gestalt perception for some elements and was forced to use her analytic skills on others. ^ Also published as Genie: An Abused Child's Flight From Silence and Genie: Escape From A Silent Childhood. ^ Broadcast as Genie: A Deprived Child in the United Kingdom. ^ Broadcast as Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children in the United States. Citations [ edit ] Sources and further reading [ edit ]
Energy titan Harold Hamm reiterated his concerns about the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) oil production forecasts Nov. 16, this time on the federal agency’s own webinar. “We believe that the unrealistic growth projection that EIA has made disadvantages U.S. markets,” said Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR), who spoke in his role as chairman of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance (DEPA). That disadvantage is brought out in the current spread on global markets between Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil. Related Story: Harold Hamm's Thoughts On Exports “Brent trades at a premium to WTI at about 10%—a 10% advantage that puts America last, not first,” he said. “That 10% can mean the margin of profit or loss for many wells in America and many DEPA members.” Hamm said he and others from DEPA met with EIA officials in August following the markets’ response in July to crude export increases from Libya and Nigeria. The surprise addition of 400,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) pulled down the WTI price of oil from $53/bbl to $43/bbl from April to June. The industry responded to the lower prices by curtailing production, but the EIA nevertheless held to its previous lofty forecast for the year. After meeting with DEPA, the agency trimmed its exit rates for 2017 in September from 9.92 million bbl/d to 9.69 million bbl/d. It was progress, but Hamm and DEPA weren’t entirely satisfied. The “EIA still remains on the high side by about 220,000 barrels or more, we believe,” he said. “Actual production from April to August was very flat, and activity level and drilling has continued downward through much of November.” Given the total volume of U.S. crude oil output, the 220,000 bbl/d could be overlooked as a rounding error, except for the ultimate impact. The combination of that figure with the barrels that the EIA already cut from its projection is roughly equivalent to the added output from Libya and Nigeria early in the year—the sum of 400,000 bbl/d of oil that roiled global markets and delivered an almost 20% hit to the price of WTI. The overestimate, Hamm said, has been calculated by DEPA to have cost $4 billion in revenue, royalties and tax dollars. “The EIA forecast is very important,” he said. “It moves markets, and it impacts our industry greatly. Within 72 hours after the November 2017 Short-Term Energy Outlook was released, EIA data was referenced by more than 155 analysts. Another 25 articles appeared in major media publications. Right or wrong, no other agency provides data with greater impact.” This could explain why DEPA was eager to engage with the EIA to help it produce the most accurate numbers. In the second quarter, DEPA representatives sought out public reporting companies to check on whether its suspicions about production estimates were correct. The organization learned that overall output by public companies—those responsible for about 75% of U.S. production—had dropped by 0.78%. In the third quarter, output slipped again by about 0.5%. But to accurately gauge what oil companies are doing, the EIA must be aware of the changing dynamics of the industry, Hamm said. “The capital markets have changed,” he said. “Shareholders want return on capital employed. Growth at any cost … no longer applies. They rightly are demanding decent returns.” At this point in mid-November, Hamm said, it is mathematically difficult if not impossible for U.S. producers to match the EIA’s forecast for the 2017 exit rate without raising the average output by 130,000 bbl/d. The actual growth rate, dating to September 2016, has been about 59,000 bbl/d. While those in the industry may be awareof those figures, markets rely heavily on the EIA to do the math. “It is crucial for EIA to provide the most accurate energy supply and demand data possible,” Hamm said, “particularly during this new era of energy in America.” Joseph Markman can be reached at jmarkman@hartenergy.com and @JHMarkman.
This is a list of 25 Java Machine learning tools & libraries. Weka has a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks. The algorithms can either be applied directly to a dataset or called from your own Java code. Weka contains tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization. Massive Online Analysis (MOA) is a popular open source framework for data stream mining, with a very active growing community. It includes a collection of machine learning algorithms (classification, regression, clustering, outlier detection, concept drift detection and recommender systems) and tools for evaluation. Related to the WEKA project, MOA is also written in Java, while scaling to more demanding problems. The MEKA project provides an open source implementation of methods for multi-label learning and evaluation. In multi-label classification, we want to predict multiple output variables for each input instance. This different from the 'standard' case which involves only a single target variable. MEKA is based on the WEKA Machine Learning Toolkit. The Advanced Data mining And Machine learning System (ADAMS) is a novel, flexible workflow engine aimed at quickly building and maintaining real-world, complex knowledge workflows, released under GPLv3. Environment for Developing KDD-Applications Supported by Index-Structure (ELKI) is an open source (AGPLv3) data mining software written in Java. The focus of ELKI is research in algorithms, with an emphasis on unsupervised methods in cluster analysis and outlier detection. Mallet is a java machine learning toolkit for textual document. Mallet supports classification algorithms like maximum entropy, naive bayes and decision tree for classification. Encog is an advanced machine learning framework which supports Support Vector Machines,Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic Programming, Bayesian Networks, Hidden Markov Models, Genetic Programming and Genetic Algorithms are supported. The Datumbox Machine Learning Framework is an open-source framework written in Java which allows the rapid development Machine Learning and Statistical applications. The main focus of the framework is to include a large number of machine learning algorithms & statistical tests and being able to handle medium-large sized datasets. Deeplearning4j is the first commercial-grade, open-source, distributed deep-learning library written for Java and Scala. It is designed to be used in business environments, rather than as a research tool. Mahout is a machine learning framework with built in algorithms. Mahout-Samsara helps people create their own math while providing some off-the-shelf algorithm implementations. Rapid Miner was developed at Technical University of Dortmund, Germany. It provides a GUI and a Java API for developing your own applications. It provides data handling, visualization and modeling with machine learning algorithms. Apache SAMOA is a machine learning (ML) framework that contains a programing abstraction for distributed streaming ML algorithms and enables development of new ML algorithms without directly dealing with the complexity of underlying distributed stream processing engines (DSPEe, such as Apache Storm, Apache S4, and Apache Samza). Its users can develop distributed streaming ML algorithms once and execute them on multiple DSPEs. Neuroph simplifies the development of neural networks by providing Java neural network library and GUI tool that supports creating, training and saving neural networks. Oryx 2 is a realization of the lambda architecture built on Apache Spark and Apache Kafka, but with specialization for real-time large scale machine learning. It is a framework for building applications, but also includes packaged, end-to-end applications for collaborative filtering, classification, regression and clustering. Stanford Classifier is a machine learning tool that will take data items and place them into one of k classes. A probabilistic classifier, like this one, can also give a probability distribution over the class assignment for a data item. This software is a Java implementation of a maximum entropy classifier. Cortical.io is a Retina API fast, precise and brain like algorithm that enables NLP. JSAT is a library for quickly getting started with Machine Learning problems. It is developed in my free time, and made available for use under the GPL 3. Part of the library is for self education, as such - all code is self contained. JSAT has no external dependencies, and is pure Java. N-Dimensional Arrays for Java (ND4J) is a scientific computing libraries for the JVM. They are meant to be used in production environments, which means routines are designed to run fast with minimum RAM requirements. The Java Machine Learning Library is a set of reference implementations of machine learning algorithms. These algorithms are well documented, both in the source code as on the documentation site.It is mostly written in Java. Java-ML is a Java API with a collection of machine learning algorithms implemented in Java. It only provides a standard interface for algorithms. MLlib (Spark) is Apache Spark's scalable machine learning library. Although Java, the library and the platform support Java, Scala and Python bindings. The library is new and the list of algorithms is long. H2O is a machine learning API for smarter applications. It scales statistics, machine learning, and math over big data. H2O is extensible and individual can build blocks using simple math legos in the core. WalnutiQ is a object oriented model of partial human brain with 1 theorized common learning algorithm (work in progress towards a simplistic model of a strong emotional A.I.) RankLib is a library of learning to rank algorithms. Currently eight popular algorithms have been implemented.
Apple will fight a federal magistrate's order to help the Obama administration break into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in last December's deadly San Bernardino terror attack. In a statement posted on Apple's website early Wednesday, CEO Tim Cook said the order by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym "has implications far beyond the legal case at hand." "We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good," Cook's statement read in part. "Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone." Cook's statement was published hours after Pym's first-of-its kind ruling, a significant victory for the Justice Department in a technology policy debate that pits digital privacy against national security interests. “Nobody can build a phone that we cannot get in under unique circumstances. Why should Apple be allowed to build a phone that does that?” a federal agent involved in the San Bernardino terror investigation told Fox News. “The right should not supersede our ability to keep people safe. It’s why we are not finding others, encryption, and, specifically in this case, we cannot connect the dots.” The agent said the phone’s carrier, Verizon, wouldn’t be able to provide authorities with the necessary information. “The information we need is on that phone and cannot be accessed by Verizon,” the agent said. FBI Director James Comey told members of Congress last week that encryption is a major problem for law enforcement who "find a device that can't be opened even when a judge says there's probable cause to open it." The ruling Tuesday tied the problem to the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a Dec. 2 shooting at a holiday luncheon for Farook's co-workers. The couple later died in a gun battle with police. Federal prosecutors told the judge in Tuesday's court proceeding — which was conducted without Apple being allowed to participate — that investigators can't access a work phone used by Farook because they don't know his passcode and Apple has not cooperated. Under U.S. law, a work phone is generally the property of a person's employer. The judge told Apple to provide an estimate of its cost to comply with her order, suggesting that the government will be expected to pay for the work. In his statement, Cook said, "this moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake." Apple has provided default encryption on its iPhones since 2014, allowing any device's contents to be accessed only by the user who knows the phone's passcode. Previously, the company could use an extraction tool that would physically plug into the phone and allow it to respond to search warrant requests from the government. The ruling by Pym, a former federal prosecutor, requires Apple to supply highly specialized software the FBI can load onto the county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature, which erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. The FBI wants to be able to try different combinations in rapid sequence until it finds the right one. "The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake," Cook wrote. "Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control." It was not immediately clear what investigators believe they might find on Farook's work phone or why the information would not be available from third-party service providers, such as Google or Facebook, though investigators think the device may hold clues about whom the couple communicated with and where they may have traveled. The couple took pains to physically destroy two personally owned cellphones, crushing them beyond the FBI's ability to recover information from them. They also removed a hard drive from their computer; it has not been found despite investigators diving for days for potential electronic evidence in a nearby lake. Farook was not carrying his work iPhone during the attack. It was discovered after a subsequent search. It was not known whether Farook forgot about the iPhone or did not care whether investigators found it. The phone was running the newest version of Apple's iPhone operating system, which requires a passcode and cannot be accessed by Apple, unlike earlier operating systems or older phone models. San Bernardino County provided Farook with an iPhone configured to erase data after 10 consecutive unsuccessful unlocking attempts. The FBI said that feature appeared to be active on Farook's iPhone as of the last time he performed a backup. The judge didn't spell out her rationale in her three-page order, but the ruling comes amid a similar case in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Investigators are still working to piece together a missing 18 minutes in Farook and Malik's timeline from Dec. 2. Investigators have concluded they were at least partly inspired by the Islamic State group; Malik's Facebook page included a note pledging allegiance to the group's leader around the time of the attack. Fox News' Adam Housley and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Professor Peter Kinderman, Institute of Psychology, Health and Society: “People do a lot of unwise things at New Year. They drink too much, kiss people their better judgment would tell them to avoid, and stay out way past their bed-time. They also make New Year’s resolutions. “About half of us apparently make New Year’s resolutions each year. These usually concern things such as weight loss, exercise, quitting smoking, excessive spending, working towards a qualification or addressing problems that were causing problems in relationships. Businesses know this. At the right time (just around the turn of the year) we’re bombarded with adverts designed to attract people who’ve just resolved to change something important in their lives. Fail to stick to our resolutions “Unfortunately, it’s pretty likely that most of us will fail to stick to our resolutions – at least if failure is judged in an absolute sense. In one study, 78% of people failed to stick to their New Year’s resolutions. So why does this happen, and what can we do about it? “One problem with New Year’s resolutions is that they’re at New Year. People want to have an external reason – perhaps even an excuse – to reinvent themselves. It’s hard to change, so it’s tempting to use an external factor – the turn of the year – as a focus for our desire to change. But the very fact that we’re using the New Year to spur us into action might indicate that we’re not really able to do the hard work of changing. Indeed, the hype surrounding the New Year might mean that we’re over-ambitious and unrealistic. Over-ambitious and unrealistic “So perhaps the first two pieces of advice would be: if you want to do something, don’t wait until New Year; and don’t be over-ambitious or unrealistic. “Richard Wiseman (a professor of psychology who has studied New Year’s resolutions, and offered sound advice on how to stick to them), found the people who failed to stick to their resolutions tended to rely on will power and suppressing their cravings, fantasised about how great it would be if they were able to be successful, and thought about the down-side of failure. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to work. “Willpower just isn’t very helpful, and thinking about the down-side of failure could well merely make people despondent (especially if we aren’t perfect all of the time). On the other hand, Wiseman found people tended to be a bit more successful if they set achievable goals, broke them down into doable steps, told their friends about their plans, and rewarded themselves for successes. It’s also very important to be aware that we all occasionally make mistakes. People who are successful in achieving their resolutions tend to accept this fact. Failed “This all makes perfect sense. You can imagine the recipe for a disastrous New Year’s resolution. You’ve been trying to lose weight for years. You’ve always failed. So this year, you’re going to wait until the 31st of December and hope that the cultural connotations will help you get it right this time. You resolve to give up, and try really, really hard. You imagine what it would be like to be fit and healthy, and punish yourself with images of obesity. “You might even buy a month’s supply of fat-free rice-cakes, running kit, gym membership, and set an ambitious target. You are almost guaranteed to fail. “Better – and I am aware that giving advice is dangerous – would be to start looking after your health as soon as you have the idea to make a resolution. There’s no particular reason to wait. Achievable goals – cutting out biscuits and reducing your weight by a realistic amount – would help. We often make promises in public, because we tend to be slightly more likely to stick to public commitments. So tell your friends that you’ve decided to cut out biscuits and go to the gym. When you’ve been to the gym for a week, reward yourself. OK, don’t buy yourself an ice-cream as a reward, but perhaps a new pair of shoes. “Most importantly, perhaps, remember that we all occasionally lapse in our resolutions. If we respond to minor set-backs with inappropriate despondency, we may well be inclined to give up. And if we’re relying on will power, we’re in serious trouble. But if you remember that you’re making good progress towards your goals, and that – on average – you’re progressing well, you’re much more likely to succeed. “Which means New Year’s resolutions are probably over-hyped. Sensible plans to address important issues in your life can be made any time of the year, and may be more successful for that. There are tips that will probably help you succeed, but the best advice to avoid breaking a New Year’s resolution may be just not to make one.” This article was originally published in The Conversation. The University of Liverpool is a founding partner of The Conversation.
Super Producer Mike WiLL Made-It LeBron Got Kendrick's Album Early ... Out Of Respect Mike WiLL Made-It Says LeBron Got Kendrick Lamar's Album Early Out Of Respect EXCLUSIVE One of the biggest producers in rap says it's no accident LeBron James got Kendrick Lamar's album early ... telling TMZ Sports he's done the same thing for 'Bron ... out of respect for his hip-hop ear. We got Mike WilLL Made-It out at LAX -- who produced some tracks on Kendrick's new collection -- and asked him how is it LeBron got his hands on it earlier in the week, when we all had to wait until Friday? FYI -- we know this is true because LeBron posted a video listening to it ... rubbing it in our faces. Mike told our guy LeBron is "a real fan of music" and a trusted ear ... that's why Kendrick laced him early, and why Mike did the same thing with his album, "Ransom." Man, it's soooooo good to be LeBron.
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her party won't defeat the Liberal budget after Premier Dalton McGuinty agreed to implement a surtax on the rich, in a move that will avert a second election in seven months. Horwath told reporters Monday afternoon that although she still has concerns about the budget, "we have made the budget fairer for Ontarians." "I feel that we serve the public better by getting to work here in this legislature than chasing votes in an election," she said. "And that's why I can say that our caucus does not intend to defeat the government over the budget motion tomorrow in the house." She made the comments shortly after McGuinty announced his minority Liberal government would apply a two per cent surtax to those making over $500,000, as requested by the NDP. The funds raised from the surtax would be dedicated to paying down the $15.3-billion provincial deficit, McGuinty told reporters after a 40-minute meeting with Horwath. The surtax, which could generate between $440 million and $570 million, will be eliminated when the budget is balanced in five years, he said. "They wanted a tax on the rich. I want to pay down the deficit faster," said McGuinty. 'More spending, more taxing' The Progressive Conservatives have vowed to vote against the budget, so the Liberals needed the NDP's help to avoid an election. "I would like to say I am surprised by this deal, but I'm not. What I am concerned about is the direction of Ontario," said PC Leader Tim Hudak in a statement Monday. "This is the path of more spending, more taxing, and no plan to create a better climate for private sector jobs." Horwath, meanwhile, said she was happy with the spirit behind the tax. "I wouldn't have prioritized that new revenue stream in the way that the government has, but we thought it was a good principle of fairness in terms of those high-income earners paying a little bit more in tough times," she said. Horwath left the door open to her party offering additional tweaks to the budget in future readings and amendments in committee. "We're not talking about that today, but we're certainly committed to not have this government fall on the budget motion," she said. Under the deal with the NDP, the Liberals have agreed to increase funding for Ontario Works, the provincial social assistance program. He has also agreed to $20 million in funding to help rural and northern hospitals achieve efficiencies. The agreement comes after a flurry of negotiations between the two parties. Talks heated up in recent days, with the NDP agreeing to drop their call to exempt home heating bills from the harmonized sales tax. The Liberals at the time called the concession "significant" and said they would work with the NDP on a deal.
Turkish Airlines released a clever commercial that features Kobe Bryant and soccer great Lionel Messi competing for a kid's attention. The ad --which was released to mark the appointment of Messi being named a "brand ambassador" for the airlines-- shows a pint-sized, autograph-seeking sports fan being lured back and forth on an airplane as Bryant and Messi each try to outdo each other with increasingly impressive tricks. Messi uses fancy footwork to kick the ball in place. Bryant one-ups him by passing the ball through his legs over and over, while sitting in his seat. There are also feats with cards and balloons. We won't tell you how it ends, but you can watch it here. [youtube ruav0KvQOOg] The commercial will air worldwide late this year. Messi, the Barcelona soccer legend, joins Bryant and tennis player Caroline Wozniacki as official ambassadors for Turkish Airlines. If this doesn't boost sale for the carrier, a potential deal with Lufthansa might. There's speculation that Turkish Airlines may deepen business ties with the Germany airline, which could mean increased access for both carriers into the lucrative Middle East and European markets.
The endless pursuit of economic growth is making us unhappy and risks destroying the Earth’s capacity to sustain us. The good news is that taking steps to make our lives more sustainable will also make us happier and healthier. Would you like a four day weekend – every week? I’ve been to two conferences over the last year with similar basic premises. The first was at the Australian National University on ecological economics and the second, just last week, was on steady state economics at the University of New South Wales. The premise sitting behind both of these conferences is simple and undeniably true yet undermines so much that is fundamental to our current way of life: We live on a finite planet. That’s it. How, you might wonder, can such a simple statement of obvious fact undermine the tenets of modern society? The earth is a giant rock, hurtling through inhospitable space surrounded by a very thin film of life sustaining atmosphere. Earth’s life support systems are self-sustaining and self-regulating. However, we humans are slowly and steadily pulling this life support system to pieces. Our planet is very large and can absorb a lot of tinkering with its systems, but there are now over 7 billion of us and the amount of energy and resources we are each using is growing fast. That’s a lot of tinkering. There’s plenty of evidence that we are pushing up against and exceeding several critical boundaries of global sustainability: by which I don’t mean some tree hugging idea of sustainability, I mean we are taking actions that cannot be supported by the earth’s systems in the long term. We’re already exceeding the earth’s adaptive capacity with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and the nitrogen cycle and we’re approaching critical limits in both the phosphorous cycle and ocean acidification. Our use of fresh water is also approaching or exceeding sustainable limits in many parts of the world and we’re systematically destroying our arable land. These are critical life sustaining global processes that cannot be ignored without severe consequences. The Living Planet Report illustrates what we know about our impact on global processes. Photograph: living planet report Economists, like the nobel prize winning Paul Krugman, will counter this line of thought by pointing out that, theoretically, we can have endless economic growth because of continuous efficiency increases. If you believe human creativity is endless then you can argue that economic growth can be endless. However, in this case, like in so many, reality clashes violently with economic theory. We are showing no signs of decoupling economic growth from physical resource use. Unless that decoupling starts now and happens in a hurry, continued economic growth will push the planet beyond its capacity to sustain us – on several fronts. You may be surprised to hear that there’s really good news in all this. None of the stuff we’re doing that’s destroying the biosphere is making us happy. By contrast, changing to a more sustainable way of living will also bring us greater happiness and general wellbeing. Seem too good to be true? That’s because we’ve all been so effectively sold the line that endless growth is essential to maintain and improve our quality of life. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Material prosperity has diminishing returns when it comes to happiness and wellbeing. Once we have good access to food, shelter, healthcare and other basic material things, the nature of the community in which you live and the quality of your relationships is the best predictor of wellbeing. More stuff only makes a very marginal difference. Money can’t buy happiness. When rich countries get richer their subjective wellbeing (SWB) doesn’t necessarily rise. Photograph: Development, Freedom, and Rising Happiness: A Global Perspective (1981–2007 So, the good news is that the public policy settings for saving the planet align very well with the policy settings for saving your marriage and your relationship with your children, friends and neighbours and therefore with serving your happiness and wellbeing. First we have to do something about the price of housing. People cannot be freed from the earth destroying and soul destroying rat race when simply securing a place to live means a lifetime of debt peonage to the banks (or paying absurd rents to somebody else so that they can give it to the banks). Once this is done, we need to understand and promote the value of leisure and the lack of benefit we get from material consumption. Retail therapy only ever works in the very short term. Real friendships work for life. How about a three day work week with a four day weekend? It can be done. Productivity improvements can be directed into allowing people to work less for the same pay instead of into corporate profits and expansion. It’s not written in stone that you always have to work as hard as you can for as long as you can so that some senior executive can get his million dollar bonus. Instead, work for or set up a not-for-profit cooperative where the workers own the business and can spread the benefits any way they see fit. It’s true that if we work less and buy less the economy may shrink but we’ll all be happier and healthier. Here’s something you won’t hear from many politicians or economists: the economy should serve us, not the other way around. Think about that three day work week. It is possible and the only reason we don’t do it is because it doesn’t suit the ambitions of the empire builders, the 1% who control so much of the wealth and the political power. Their system requires our consent and participation. They can be beaten if we simply stop believing their bullshit and prioritise our own wellbeing and that of the planet. It’s both that simple and that difficult.
My wife and I officially cut the cable TV cord last April, so we're coming up on a year without traditional cable TV. Overall, we've saved close to $2,000. And, until now, it's been relatively painless. But now, with the election still heavily tied to mainstream TV coverage, we've come to realize just how mired in the last century election coverage can be. Other than the news, almost anything we've wanted to watch has been available online in some form or another. Even programs that you can't get on Netflix or Hulu can be bought by the episode or as a season pass from the iTunes store. I can't think of a single program either my wife or I have wanted to watch on cable that we can't legally stream in some way or another. Until you get to the election. I've been writing about politics for years. I started writing about the lack of online live election coverage in August, when the 2016 US presidential campaign started to pick up some momentum. I wrote about my attempt to watch the first GOP debate on Fox News and -- even though we were using a legitimate stream -- Fox couldn't keep the stream going. Why TV is doomed: HBO Now and the new cord-cutting economics The entire old-school television distribution system has been rocked by a quake of epic magnitude. Now I can watch whatever I want -- and save hundreds of dollars a year. Read More It could have been too much demand. It could have been a lack of real resource commitment on the part of Fox. It could have been the gods of the Internet having a bad day. But the result was a very unpleasant experience, which would prove to be a harbinger of election watching frustration over the following months. Throughout the summer and fall, some of the debates were available online to everyone, while others were not. Some were only available if you had cable TV service that would grant you equivalent online access to the relevant channels. Fortunately, there was always someone who captured the debate and illicitly posted it to YouTube, so even those debates that weren't viewable in real-time were watchable the next morning. But now we are entering primary season, where real-time election coverage is a must. As most of you know, I'm a bit of a politics sports fan. Primary election nights are like the playoffs to me. Sure, I can read the score the next morning, but I like watching the play-by-play. I wait four years to see maps with precinct results. I live for the slightly growing every hour bar chart. I am completely transfixed by the time-killing-until-new-results pundit commentary. It does it for me. If you want to watch our own CBS News for election coverage, you're in luck. CBSN (the online version of CBS News) is available online for free. I like CBSN -- I often provide analysis and commentary for their news reports, and they're colleagues. But CBSN isn't enough. I have been watching CNN election coverage since the very first election CNN covered back in the 1980s. Without Wolf being Wolf and John King's increasingly-not-new tech Surface touch wall, I feel I'm missing something. I wrote for CNN for a few years, so I also know many of the people who are the time-killing pundits. An election to me just isn't an election sportscast without watching CNN. I also like watching Fox News coverage. It's a good way to get an idea of what the majority of news watchers in the United States are seeing, and because Fox has its own style of news that's compelling in it's own way. I've been a guest on Fox News as well, so I feel like I'm among friends when watching. But here's the thing. If you want to watch election night coverage on Fox News, live, you need a cable TV account. Period. If you have cable TV service, you can -- with marginal success -- watch a stream over the Internet. But as I mentioned in August, it's unreliable at best. As for CNN, you can get CNN as part of the terrible Sling TV service. For those who don't know, Sling TV (as distinguished from the Sling box) is a service from Dish Network that provides live, online access to about 20 mainstream TV channels for $20/month. So far, Sling TV is terrible. It is live TV in the worst sense of the word, because you can't time-shift, even by a half hour. There are a few limited bits of Sling TV that you can watch in delayed mode, but, for CNN in particular, not only can't you time-shift it, you also can't even pause it to grab a snack. As it turns out, the Sling TV service supports pausing streams, but CNN disallows it. So if your spouse wants to make a comment about Donald Trump's hair, or Hillary Clinton's yellow rain slicker, or even how the heck Bernie plans to pay for it all, there's no way to pause, listen politely, and pick up where you left off. This means that Sling TV is strictly appointment TV. If you want to watch a History Channel program, you actually have to show up in front of the video window at the time the History Channel is broadcasting it, like some primitive human from the 1980s. Hillary Clinton takes shadow IT mainstream Hillary Rodham Clinton is in one big email mess, but if you zoom out and look at her as any other employee you have a leading example of shadow IT at play. Read More But what makes Sling truly unbearable is that it can't seem to sustain the streams. I have epic download capacity here at Camp David, but Sling constantly fails. Saturday night, attempting to watch the South Carolina primary returns, I spent an inordinate amount of time watching the little orange spinning circle. It started to seem almost futile. I thought of giving up a few times. When the Sling feed finally went black and never recovered, I quit in disgust. I want to point out that it's entirely unlikely that the streaming problems are at my end. We've been able to watch programs on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and HBO Now without the slightest glitch. It's only been Sling TV and Fox News (basically the live news programming) that can't seem to keep up. We had a fine time watching the first episode of Stephen King's 11.22.63 on Hulu, for example. Ninety minutes and not a missed frame. Sling also only allows one stream at a time. So when the PC application crashes and you want to pick it up on your iPhone, you can't -- because Sling thinks you're still running the PC application. So there's no way you can take your non-pauseable live TV, and walk with it into another room on another device. You know some team of $500-an-hour lawyers were incredibly proud of themselves for forcing that limitation into the service. Look, election night is always supposed to be about yelling at the TV. In fact, the way I knew I could be a political commentator was when my wife said, "Of course you can, honey. You've been yelling at the TV for years." But we're supposed to be yelling at the TV over politics, not because the screen has gone black for the tenth time in a night. I mentioned this in August, but I'll repeat it now. If politicians want to reach new generations of Americans, they're going to have to find some way to convince networks to make election coverage smoothly available online. Roughly a quarter of the 18-30 demographic don't get their TV via traditional cable TV. That's only going to get more extreme. Many kids who will be the next cycle's most sought-after voters have never, ever watched cable TV -- and if politicians want to reach these prime voters, they're going to have to cut the cord themselves. I need my fix of live election night coverage, but I'm not willing to endure hooking up cable TV service again. I like saving thousands of dollars. I, and the legion of other online-only voters, believe it is reasonable to expect The Online to enter the modern era to help us be the informed electorate this country needs and deserves by delivering us the last, crucially important bit of television we want: live election coverage. After all, if we can have Game of Thrones online, we should be able to watch the real game of real thrones online. So, over the next ten months or so, I'll continue to suffer through Sling TV -- although if Fox News and CNN are smart, they'll offer a way to buy their service like CBS All Access or HBO Now do today. Make it on-demand. Make it all you can eat. Make it a reasonable price. Make it possible to pause. If they do that, I'll be first in line to sign up to their services. I'll bet there are millions of other cord-cutting patriots who would do so as well. Otherwise, I'll promise you hold-out networks this one fact: you will continue to lose your audiences, year after year, as more and more people will demand online only. If you can't provide it, other services will. It's ironic. CNN is known for its innovative (and sometimes wacky) ways of presenting election night coverage, including technologies like holographic versions of reporters, and weird life-size bar charts. But if CNN really wants to showcase new technology, they can figure out how to take our five bucks a month for an online subscription. It's 2016, people. Let's act like it. The politicians can keep invoking Ronald Reagan all they want, but don't expect to get away with running your news network like you did when he was in office. You can't just close your eyes and hope the Internet goes away. By the way, I'm doing more updates on Twitter and Facebook than ever before. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz and on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz.
When Ken Bone took the mic at Sunday night’s election, it was clear he would become a national phenomenon. The Guess Who-looking gent—who somehow, mysteriously, is still undecided—quickly landed an interview on just about every television show on the air, an invite from Snoop Dogg to smoke weed, and an @Midnight fueled hashtag game, because it’s 2016 and that’s what we do now. Advertisement Of course, there has also been a flurry of Ken Bone Halloween costume ideas, because we as a nation are nothing if not lazy and extremely topical when it comes to our dumb Halloween celebrations. While some people opted to purchase Bone’s actual sweater from Kohl’s, making it quickly sell out on the store’s site, others may be choosing to go a more pre-fab (and ab-friendly) route, thanks to the fine, cleavage-loving people at Yandy. Advertisement The site, which specializes in lingerie and sexy Halloween costumes, is selling a “sexy undecided voter costume,” complete with an “iconic red crop top,” a “must-have mustache,” and, “of course, a microphone.” Thus, for a mere $99.95, women—and men, because why not?—can go as a “sexy” Ken Bone this October 31. Because nothing’s sexier than a slightly awkward looking guy from southern Illinois who clearly doesn’t know what he wants. If there’s one problem with this costume other than its tenuous handle on 21st century gender norms, it’s that, as The A.V. Club’s own Erik Adams pointed out on Twitter, adding “sexy” to Ken Bone’s name is just plain overkill. Just ask his hot wife: Dude’s sexy enough already. Advertisement [via Betsy Woodruff on Twitter]
Each of these Panamanian 20 Balboa Silver Coins contains 92.5% Pure Silver and has an Actual Silver Weight of 3.8544 Troy Ounces! Coins will arrive in the Original plastic capsules in Proof or Brilliant Uncirculated Condition. Produced by the Franklin Mint, the Panama 20 Balboas Silver Coin commemorates Simon Bolivar, a South American politician and war hero. Each coin is composed of 3.85 ounces of .925 fine silver. The reverse features a profile portrait of Bolivar. SIMON BOLIVAR along with his years of birth and death are engraved. The obverse design features Panama’s coat of arms with REPUBLICA DE PANAMA inscribed above. The denomination, silver content and year of mintage are engraved. Add to your collection of foreign coins with the Panama 20 Balboas Silver Coin, now available through Provident Metals. Call us, or use our safe and secure online ordering system to get yours today.
Chennai is growing and is too often overlooked in evaluating India’s startup economy The bulk of the Indian economy is generated in three central locations: the capital Delhi, the financial hub of Mumbai, and the undisputed technology center in Bengaluru. But innovation is pervasive across India and venture capital has been mroe than ready to oblige every industry. The capital of Tamil Nadu, the city of Chennai is often overshadowed by country’s bigger cities. The city ranked 5th in India for venture capital with $43 million raised in the first half of 2016 across 16 deals according to Your Story, right behind Pune and the big three, just falling short of 2014 numbers for the entire year ($58 million). IIT Madras, the Madras Institute of Technology, the College of Engineering at Anna University, and Velammal Engineering College rank among the top engineering schools in the city. The Chennai Angels (TCA) are prominent early investors, while the Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Mumbai Angels are also influential. In short, Chennai is poised to grow more and can compete with larger economies across India. A non-exhaustive map of the local ecosystem counts 439 startups, though Angelist catalogs nearly 1,000 (Angelist tends to be inaccurate and often contains defunct companies). This list can go on, but here are five of the companies that are off to a running start and showing true promise to grow and influence the Chennai startup ecosystem: 1. Wandertrails Wandertrails raised $1 million at the beginning of March for its traveltech business that builds itineraries based on very individualized interests that always tries to include something unique in the schedule. They have five founders: Hari Gangadharan Nair, Sruti Ramesh Chander, Vishnu Menon, Narayan Menon and Pranav Kumar Suresh. “Not everyone is lucky to know a local to set up such an experience for them,” Vishnu told New Indian Express. “We wanted to become the blindly trusted Alfred (Bruce Wayne’s caretaker) for the new age traveller!” 2. Karomi Technologies Starting the month of March off with a half-million-dollar seed round from Ideaspring Capital, Karomi wants to augment digital art for the digital age. “In the next 12 months, we plan to make a dent in the US market and have reference clients in the Pharma and FMCG industry in the US,” Karomi Founder and CEO Vilva Natarajan told Inc42. “We have some exciting new technology that we will introduce in the next 12 months which will help the customer cut-down on the time to market dramatically.” 3. Energyly Energyly is one of dozens of startups that helps building managers and businesses reduce their utility bills by better managing (and sometimes automating) energy use. Founded by Dayal Nathan and Dilip Rajendran, Energyly can connect up to 10 devices to monitor via its analytics dashboard. “Around 70% of domestic consumers come within the 450 to 520 units consumption slab. The problem is most of them do not know when they cross from 500 to 501 and end up paying Rs 800 extra”, said Energyly Founder Dayal Nathan, recently claimed. The company just released a new feature called TariffAlarm that warns Indian customers when they have reached the threshold for electricity usage. 4. Pipecandy A sales prospecting program that raised $1.1 million just last week, attracting investors curious about how they hunt for “nuances” among sales leads that hint at a higher likelihood for a deal. “At the end of the day, sales is primarily a data problem. If you fix data, you fix authenticity or rather the lack of it,” Pipecandy Co-Founder Murali Vivekanandan said earlier in March. He and his co-founders — Shrikanth Jagannathan and Ashwin Ramasamy — are backed by Axilor Ventures, IDG Ventures, the Indian Angel Network, and Emergent Ventures India. 5. Acumenist Analytics (Lawbot.ai) At the intersection of new automated legal services and chat bots, Acumenist has developed the simply-dubbed Lawbot that checks for legal loopholes, grammatical errors (such as missing Oxford commas, which have massive bearing on case law in any country), and other elements of contracts. Founders Manaswani Krishna and Krishna Sundaresan have self-funded their business thus far.
Kerala Spices have been known across the world for several millennia. Traders from Arabian countries and Europe came to Kerala to trade in spices. The story of Kerala’s spices dates back to many thousands of years into the past and Kerala’s rise to fame in the ancient world was mainly because of these rich and aromatic spices. Realizing this, McDonald’s plans on presenting a whole new contemporary set of menu with a desi touch to it. Be it the chicken wings or the Piri Piri mix, (which was introduced as a temporary offering but was re-introduced in the menu on popular demand), they are all sourced from Kerala. When it comes to spices, Kerala sure takes the crown being the biggest supplier of exotic spices for McDonald’s throughout country. And this spicy, rich flavor Kerala offers, has been a favorite in McDonald’s menu for the locals. The Piri Piri mix, an add-on to the McDonald’s menu in south was an instant hit with the customers here in India and worldwide. Each Piri Piri spice mix comprises of spices cinnamon, ground ginger, paprika, cayenne/Piri Piri pepper, hot pepper flakes, garlic powder and oregano with sugar and salt. This exotic blend of spices is what gives it such a scrumptious taste. McDonald’s India plans on investing more time and resources on discovering such unique yet local blends of spices to help it secure an advantage in the fast food market.
City center to city center in each case, with up to a dozen or more entry/exit elevators in each city Elon Musk has announced via Twitter that he received verbal approval for this plan to build an underground Hyperloop between New York and Washington — which would also stop at Philadelphia and Baltimore. As a result, one could get from New York to D.C. in just 29 minutes. It’s worth noting that the approval is only verbal at this point. Which means that it isn’t set in stone. Musk will likely still have to deal with regulatory concerns, and some red tape. He did note, however, that “support would be much appreciated,” in the meantime. Musk also did not reveal who the permission came from or give any details concerning when the project will start and finish — although he did later reveal that he also plans to build a Hyperloop in Texas and the west coast.
Billboard giant can’t stand the heat Lamar Outdoor, which is among the nation’s largest outdoor advertising companies with over 325,000 billboards in the U.S., ordered the removal of an atheist organization’s billboard in response to local complaints. The billboard in Tupelo, Miss., featured an Uncle Sam caricature with the message: “God Fixation Won’t Fix This Nation.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation, describing the takedown of its billboard as censorship, said the company admitted its removal was dictated by “backlash from the community.” U.S. trade deficit grew in May The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the U.S. sold $182.4 billion in goods and services to foreign countries during the month of May; and, purchased $223.5 billion worth of goods and services from foreign countries. It resulted in a $41.1 billion trade deficit for the month. Trade deficits were recorded in May with China ($28.3 billion), European Union ($11.9 billion), Germany ($5.5 billion), Mexico ($5.5 billion) and Japan ($5.0 billion). $5.8 million fine for raiding small business set-aside En Pointe Gov. Inc. of Gardena, Calif., and its affiliated information technology companies will pay $5.8 million because it masqueraded as a small business to win small business set-aside contracts, the Department of Justice said. The companies, now known as Dinco Inc., were also accused of underreporting sales under a General Services Administration contract to avoid payment of fees. The settlement is the result of a False Claims Act whistleblower suit brought by a rival information technology firm, Minburn Technology Group LLC of Great Falls, Va. Terrorist plotted to kill federal judge Yahya Mohammad, 37, of the United Arab Emirates, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges he plotted to kill a federal judge, the Department of Justice said. Mohammad was being held in an Ohio jail on charges of conspiring to travel to Yemen to deliver money to Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. born al-Qaeda imam who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2011, when he told a fellow inmate that he would pay $15,000 to have someone kidnap and murder the federal judge in his terrorism case. Mohammad enlisted an undercover FBI employee to carry out his murder-for-hire plan. Teacher-pastor faces child porn charges Matthew Keller, 24, of Watauga, Tex., was arrested for receiving child pornography, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. His arrest capped a month-long investigation that began when the parents of a 15-year-old boy told police they discovered a relationship between their son and Keller, who they described as a high school teacher and a youth pastor. Agents seize ammo from Mexico-bound car A 22-year-old woman from Nogales, Ariz., was arrested when border patrol agents discovered 10,000 rounds of tactical ammunition hidden in her vehicle’s trunk, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. The woman was stopped at the Nogales West Mariposa crossing before entering Mexico. Visa fraud brought illegal aliens from Israel Omer Gur, 36, of Raleigh, N.C., pleaded guilty to charges of visa fraud that enabled 140 Israeli citizens to illegally enter the U.S. Gur admitted that he induced Israelis to enter the U.S. with B-2 visitor visas when, in fact, Gur put them to work selling Dead Sea salt products through kiosks set up in shopping malls in several states. Over a three-year period, Gur’s business earned over $14 million from kiosk-based sales, the Department of Justice said. Rip ‘N’ Read is a daily compilation of press releases found on hundreds of websites that are maintained by the federal government, think tanks, watchdog groups and other national advocacy organizations. Press releases selected for this feature are, in the opinion of the editor, exceptionally newsworthy, interesting or just plain curious. #
456 SHARES Facebook Twitter Denis Villeneuve is recovering from the long production process on the critically acclaimed “Blade Runner 2049” not by taking a vacation, but working on the script of his upcoming adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel “Dune.” While Villeneuve is still a potential Best Director nominee for his incredible work on the unexpected Sci-Fi sequel, the biggest unanswered question of the day remains whether he’s potentially directing the next James Bond film. In September, a report claimed Daniel Craig’s first choice for the follow up to “Spectre” was Villeneuve. The Canadian filmmaker was also listed as one of the producer’s top three picks. When I asked him about whether he’d be directing the new 007 flick Villeneuve kept the door open, but seemed to infer his priority was “Dune.” READ MORE: ‘Blade Runner 2049’ To Lose $80 Million “The thing is I don’t now about that, but listen,” Villeneuve says. “Daniel Craig is a very inspiring actor and I had some contact and the thing is that I’m busy right now doing ‘Dune.’ But, I will say to have the privilege to work with him it would be a dream. I would love to work with Daniel and a Bond movie for me would be a treat. It’s a matter of timing, I guess.” During our conversation, Villeneuve went in-depth on how the film’s biggest secret remained one, his feeling about reviews, the passion Harrison Ford still has for acting and details of the extremely complicated hologram lounge fight, among other topics. You can listen to this episode in the Soundcloud embed below or on iTunes. If you do listen on iTunes please rate, subscribe and share it with your friends! Look for upcoming podcast episodes featuring “Darkest Hour” screenwriter Anthony McCraten and two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz, among others. And check out previous episodes with “Thor: Ragnarok’s” Taika Waititi, “The Florida Project’s” Sean Baker, “Detroit’s” John Boyega, get behind the scenes T with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers and more on Soundcloud or on iTunes. For more movie and Oscar insight follow me on Twitter @TheGregoryE.
Individual differences in the motivation to engage in or to avoid aggressive social interaction (bullying) are mediated by the basal forebrain, lateral habenula circuit in the brain, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published June 30 in the journal Nature. The Mount Sinai study focuses on identifying the mechanisms by which specific brain reward regions interact to modulate the motivational or rewarding component of aggressive behavior using a mouse model. Maladaptive aggressive behavior is associated with a number of psychiatric disorders and is thought to partly result from inappropriate activation of brain reward systems in response to aggressive or violent social stimuli. While previous research has implicated the basal forebrain as a potentially important brain reward region for aggression-related behaviors, there had been limited functional evidence that the basal forebrain, or its projections to other brain regions, directly controls the rewarding aspects of aggression. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that bullying behavior activates a primary brain reward circuit that makes it pleasurable to a subset of individuals," says Scott Russo, PhD, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Furthermore, we show that manipulating activity in this circuit alters the activity of brain cells and ultimately, aggression behavior." To study individual differences in aggressive behavior, the current team established a mouse behavioral model that exposed adult males to a younger subordinate mouse for three minutes each day for three consecutive days, and found that 70 percent of mice exhibited aggressive behavior (AGGs) while 30 percent of mice show no aggression at all (NONs). Using conditioned place preference, a technique commonly used in animal studies to evaluate preferences for environmental stimuli that have been associated with a positive or negative reward, study investigators research found that AGGs mice bullied/attacked the subordinate mouse and subsequently developed a conditioned place preference for the intruder-paired context, suggesting that the aggressive mice found the ability to subordinate another mouse rewarding. Conversely, NONs mice did not bully/attack the intruder mouse and subsequently developed a conditioned place aversion. All sensations, movements, thoughts, memories and feelings are the result of signals that pass through nerve cells (neurons), the primary functional unit of the brain and central nervous system. When a signal passes from the cell body to the end of the cell axon that stretches away from the cell body, chemicals known as neurotransmitters are released into the synapse, the place where signals are exchanged between cells. The neurotransmitters then cross the synapse and attach to receptors on the neighboring cell, which can change the properties of the receiving cell. Found throughout the brain and produced by neurons, gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that binds to GABA receptors, making the neighboring neuron less excitable. The current study team investigated GABA projection neurons that can send long-range connections to inhibit neurons in other brain regions. Specifically, using electrophysiological and histological techniques, the research team found that when exposed to the opportunity to bully another individual, AGGs mice exhibit increased activity of the basal forebrain GABA projection neurons that reduce activity in the lateral habenula, an area of the brain that would normally encode an aversion to aggressive stimuli. Conversely, they found NONs exhibit reduced basal forebrain activation and a subsequent increase in lateral habenula neuronal firing, which makes the aggression stimuli aversive. While previous research has found the lateral habenula to play a role in negative moods states and aversion across a broad range of species, including mice and humans, little was previously known about the neural mechanisms that directly regulate the motivational component of aggressive behavior. Researchers then used optogenetic tools to directly manipulate the activity of GABA between the basal forebrain and the lateral habenula, demonstrating that stimulation or inhibition of BF-lHb projections is both sufficient and necessary to alter the inclination to engage in or avoid the opportunity to bully. "When we artificially induced the rapid GABA neuron activation between the basal forebrain and lateral habenula, we watched in real time as the aggressive mice became docile and no longer showed bullying behavior," says Dr. Russo. "Our study is unique in that we took information about the basal forebrain, lateral habenula projections and then actually went back and manipulated these connections within animals to conclusively show that the circuits bi-directionally control aggression behavior." The study findings demonstrate a previously unidentified functional role for the lateral habenula and its inputs from the basal forebrain in mediating the rewarding component of aggression and suggest that targeting shared underlying deficits in motivational circuitry may provide useful information for the development of novel therapeutic drugs for treating aggression-related neuropsychiatric disorders.
DAVID Beckham’s £200million US football dream is in tatters after his biggest backer pulled his support. Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez has championed the former England skipper’s plans to build a new team and stadium in the city. But yesterday he turned on Goldenballs by blasting his idea as nowhere near good enough to launch the franchise. “If we don’t have the right stadium, we’re not going to Miami” Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber Hitting out at the lack of progress, he said: “They haven’t really told me where and what their plans are. “I told them: ‘Why don’t you go and do your due diligence and come back when you’re ready’. “That hasn’t happened yet.” Reports have claimed Becks, 39, is being wooed by other potential new clubs in California and Nevada. And Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber has warned him this lack of progress “can’t go on forever”. He added: “If we don’t have the right stadium, we’re not going to Miami, nor should we go to any market without the right stadium.” The ex-Manchester United ace has been frustrated in his efforts to build a 40,000-seater stadium, entertainment and hotel complex as local businesses and politicians slammed his development plans.
Tim founded GeeklyInc with Michael DiMauro way back in 2013 when they realized they had two podcasts and needed a place to stick them. Since then, Geekly has grown and taken off in ways Tim could have never imagined. We are super excited to announce our very first episode of a brand new GeeklyInc podcast – Pope Zone: The Young Pope Podcast! Now, Young Pope has not been released to the American audiences yet, so your hosts got together to try and piece together just what it is this new show featuring the Young Pope is about. Also to get our feed set up. But we will say that content and entertainment are the real reasons. We do love you. The iTunes feed is still getting set up but you can listen right here on the if you want. All the kinks should be worked out by the time the show based on Young Pope, Lenny, airs. Your Young Pope Hosts are Tim Lanning, Jennifer Cheek and Ben Gibb. We are thankful for your listenership. The music in the episode comes is “Beat the Clock” by Max Cameron from the Young Pope trailer. Both the trailer and music are amazing, but for different reasons.
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\| by Jack Landau \| The Entertainment District remains a bustling hive of new development, and right now the epicentre of all this work is the intersection of Richmond and Peter Streets, with three high-rise developments now on the way up within spitting distance of each other. What was once one of the most important intersections for Toronto nightlife is now transforming with new condominiums and offices. Tableau (left) QRC West (center) and Picasso (hoist visible on the right), image by anonymous0024 On the southeast corner of the intersection, UrbanCapital Property Group, Malibu Investments and ALIT Developments' Tableau Condominiums is beginning to make an impact on the surrounding neighbourhood. Designed by Wallman Architects, the 36-storey condominium tower will feature a tall colonnade, sheltering a public plaza housing a sculpture by artist Shayne Dark called "Nova". A large scaffold has surrounded the columns of the colonnade for the past several months. The scaffold has now been removed at the east end to reveal the massive colonnade, hinting at the commanding presence it will eventually have on Richmond Street. Scaffold coming down at Tableau's colonnade, image by Red Mars With an impressive volume of condominium construction proceeding throughout the area, the desirability of office space in the Entertainment District is also on the rise. The northwest corner of the Richmond and Peter intersection is home to the construction site for Allied Properties' daring Queen Richmond Centre West (QRC West). Construction of Allied's QRC West, image by Jimmy Wu Designed by Sweeney &Co Architects and engineered by Stephenson Engineering, QRC West will provide a much needed 300,000 square feet of office space in the heart of a sea of condominium towers. Glazing is now being applied to the tower floors of the office building, and the reflective curtainwall glass will certainly provide a nice contrast to the textured exteriors of both Tableau and Picasso. Detail shot of glazing on QRC West, image by Dumitru Onceanu QRC West's defining signature of course is the dramatic lobby underneath the new tower. The tower is being held aloft by three X-shaped delta frames which will allow the atrium lobby to flow around the existing heritage structure onsite. One of QRC West's "delta frames" peeking out from around the heritage commercial building, image by Marcanadian To the east, construction is gaining momentum at the site of Monarch Group and Goldman Group's Picasso. The first tower floors of the 39-storey, Teeple Architects-designed condominium tower are now rising on the north side of Richmond Street. Picasso Condos with QRC West in the background, image by Jack Landau While it is difficult to see it now, Picasso will be quite the unconventional building, with its massing arranged into shifted protruding blocks as the tower rises. Dramatically tinted recesses between the blocks will make this building unmistakable on the local skyline. Picasso Condos as seen on July 29, 2014, image by Jack Landau Finally, another addition to this corner that will make a difference can be seen in the image above: the triangular wedge of pavement that is currently all sidewalk is going to get a makeover courtesy of Section 37 funding; those are the public benefits monies that developers pay in return for density increases. In this case, the builders of Tableau have hired renowned Montreal-based landscape architect Claude Cormier to give the corner a major boost. Claude Cormier's reworked triangular park space with Shayne Dark's sculpture at Tableau, image courtesy of UrbanCapital Additional information and renderings for these three developments can be found in their respective dataBase files, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided at the bottom of this page.
City police are investigating the death of a third-grade student. The Gwynns Falls Elementary School student was found in some kind of distress outside the school gym by a school administrator and taken to the school's office around 1 p.m. on Sept. 24. The school system said he became ill and fell inside the school. Advertisement Baltimore third-grade student dies after fall at school Poice: Child's death ruled accidental Share Shares Copy Link Copy City police said the death of a third-grade student has been ruled accidental.The Gwynns Falls Elementary School student was found in some kind of distress outside the school gym by a school administrator and taken to the school's office around 1 p.m. on Sept. 24.The school system said he became ill and fell inside the school.The boy, identified as Darius Clark, was taken to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Hospital. He died Tuesday night after spending five days in the hospital.Family members tell 11 News they have concerns about how the incident was handled by the school and they question whether an ambulance was called in a timely fashion.The lawyer for the child’s mother said when she arrived minutes after being called by the school, Darius was slumped in a chair and lifeless.City fire officials tell 11 News they got a call for an ambulance at 1:34 p.m. Thursday and arrived at the school at 1:41 p.m., but it’s not known how much time passed between an administrator finding the child and the call to 911.Other parents would also like answers."No (information), just that a kid fell," parent Sharon Muse said."It makes me a little worried about what's going on up there and, you know, I'm sorry for the parents. That's a hard pill to swallow," Gwynns Falls parent Aaron Burnett-Turner said."Like, when did it happen? What were they doing? Was it instructional play that just didn't go they expected it too? Just whatever it was, could it happen to my child," said another parent, who did not want to be identified.A letter sent home to parents Wednesday said that the child, "became ill and fell at the school."The school scheduled a parent meeting Thursday to discuss safety procedures. City schools do have video cameras. It is not known if a camera captured the incident that caused the fatal injury.City schools released the following statement Wednesday afternoon:"A third-grade student at Gwynns Falls Elementary School fell in a hallway, was taken to the school’s health suite, and ultimately transported by ambulance to Johns Hopkins Hospital after a 911 call was placed. We are deeply saddened to learn that late last evening, our student passed away. Our deepest thoughts and concerns are with the family and the entire Gwynns Falls school community at this time."Counselors are at the school to help children and staff members process the emotions they may be feeling and will remain there as long as necessary."Baltimore City schools officials and Baltimore police are looking into the incident.The Baltimore Police Department said its homicide unit is investigating the child's death.According to investigators, the student suffered a traumatic head injury as a result of a fall. The Medical Examiner's Office on Thursday ruled the child's death an accident.Stay with WBALTV.com and 11 News for more on this developing story.11 News reporters Jayne Miller and Kai Reed contributed to this story.
(Haaretz) — When 50 members of the grassroots protest group If Not Now arrived at UJA-Federation of New York in the late afternoon gloom last Monday, they were met by a scrum of police and security officers barring their entry into the building. Holding a banner bearing the IfNotNow logo and #JewishResistance, the young demonstrators had marched down 59th Street to demand that the Jewish federation publicly denounce what they view as the white supremacist views of Steve Bannon, president-elect Donald Trump’s adviser appointee. The march was part of a coalescing of various groups of progressive young Jews, moved to action by Trump’s election and his subsequent appointments of Bannon and others criticized for racist views. The developing movement calls itself the Jewish Resistance, and targets both Trump and his cronies as well as what it says is silence on the part of the American Jewish establishment in the face of dangerous racism and bigotry. “This has absolutely been a galvanizing moment for young Jews,” said Stosh Cotler, CEO of Bend the Arc, a group which works on issues like voting rights and criminal justice reform, and has nearly doubled in size just since the presidential election. Some 40,000 new people have joined as members and hundreds have offered to volunteer significant time to Bend the Arc’s effort to counter what Cotler says may be “a slide toward fascism” on the part of the president-elect and his appointees and nominees. It is happening at a time when studies and reports show that federations and other establishment Jewish organizations are struggling to engage significant numbers of young adults in their work. Hundreds of IfNotNow members — mostly young, millennial Jews — marched this week in five cities making the point. In Philadelphia a line of police officers on bikes blocked their way into the Jewish federation building, said Yonah Lieberman, an IfNotNow organizer. In Chicago, federation staff locked the doors as soon as IfNotNow members approached, Lieberman told Haaretz, leaving the crowd out in below-freezing weather. At the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish federation, protesters were ignored, he said. And in Washington D.C. they held a press conference in the lobby of the Jewish Federations of North America building there, before being forced out by security guards. The new opposition is also spurring ad-hoc efforts by synagogues and individuals to ally with immigrant, Muslim and other vulnerable groups, and actively lobby against some of Trump’s nominees and promised policies. Jewish federations, which exist in most Jewish communities to provide social services and raise money for Jewish education and Israel, are the focus of IfNotNow’s efforts. The federations “are the most powerful and largest Jewish institution in this country. They have a responsibility to be our leaders in this time of moral crisis,” said Lieberman. The concern: Racism in the mainstream Before joining Trump’s campaign Bannon chaired Breitbart News, which publishes articles described as “racist,” “race-baiting,” anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The concern, say Lieberman and allies in this Jewish Resistance, is that Bannon and other Trump nominees and appointees are bringing racism into the mainstream. And that by not naming and opposing it, Jewish organizations are providing a kind of kosher seal of approval even as “Bannon is a direct threat to the Jewish and other marginalized communities,” said Lieberman. Spokespeople for both the New York Jewish federation and the federation umbrella group, JFNA, declined to comment. Some take issue with the young movement’s adoption of the term “Jewish Resistance,” which hearkens back to efforts of Jews against Nazi oppressors during the Holocaust. “It’s an abuse of the terms Jewish and resistance,” said Abe Foxman, a child survivor and ADL national director emeritus. “We’re not at war. This is not an underground movement. It’s nonsense. Respectfully, it’s nonsense,” he said. Foxman also took issue with their focus on federations. It is “misplaced, misdirected energy,” he told Haaretz. “This is not about Trump. It’s about America. America needs to be fixed – we need to fix civility, strengthen our democracy. It’s not a Jewish issue, it’s an American issue. Yeah, he had a role in the election in that he legitimized some of the ugliness that exists, but he didn’t create it. We need to enlist him in the fight, not fight him. To resist him and fight him is immature.” Mother-daughter pair takes on Bannon and Sessions Immediately after the election and Bannon’s appointment a mother-daughter pair from Seattle began an online petition asking the federation umbrella organization, Jewish Federations of North America, to denounce Bannon’s appointment. Phone calls and negotiations ensued between Robin Boehler — a past president of the Seattle Jewish federation — working with her daughter, Lindsay O’Neil, and JFNA’s heads. O’Neil, 35, has been involved in the Seattle federation for several years. Boehler, 60, is a longtime lay leader of a variety of Jewish organizations. O’Neil helped set up the Seattle federation’s program for Jews in their 30s and 40s, helped lead the organization’s largest women’s event and is on her Jewish community center’s diversity and inclusion committee. In short, O’Neil is a poster child for Generation X and millennial involvement with the Jewish establishment. The Seattle federation thinks so, too, and honored her with its young Jewish leadership award two years ago. Soon after Trump was elected president she, with her mother, sisters and a handful of others started a Facebook group called Jewish Community of Action Against Hate. It has close to 3,300 members and posts daily action items. This week they asked members to urge their senators to oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general. Sessions is the Alabama Republican senator on record as opposing civil rights legislation enforcement. The mother-daughter pair also reached out to every large and midsize Jewish federation in the country to try to get them to issue a statement about Bannon, O’Neil said, with mixed results. The number of Jewish federations and other Jewish agencies to call out Bannon’s appointment by name can be counted on a few fingers. A few in statements more broadly condemned the rash of hatred and violence against Jews and other minorities that has ballooned since the election. One group they haven’t heard back from is the Museum of Tolerance, whose leader, Rabbi Marvin Heir, will offer blessings to Trump at his inauguration. This week, two months after the petition started (it now has more than 4,100 signatures), JFNA Board Chair Richard Sandler and JFNA CEO Jerry Silverman issued a statement calling on American Jews to “work together to fight hate” and “educate by teaching diversity, tolerance and empathy.” The statement notes recent anti-Semitic attacks on the Jews of Whitefish, Montana, on Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and on the 16 JCCs that received recent bomb threats. But it doesn’t name Bannon or Trump. JFNA’s original statement after Trump’s election, in which it congratulated the president-elect and offered its assistance, “was wildly out of step with where the majority of the Jewish community is in general and radically out of step with where younger Jews are,” said Bend the Arc’s Cotler. “If any of these legacy organizations want to remain or become relevant to young Jews, this approach is going to be a complete turnoff and a symbol of how out of sync these organizations are with young Jews,” Cotler said. “It exposes such a major generation gap.” “The Jewish community is being uncharacteristically silent on some of the hate out of Trump’s associates, and uncharacteristically quiet on instances of anti-Semitism. It’s a shonda,” said Ben Murane, using the Yiddish word for shame. Murane is a senior editor at Jewschool, which is the Jewish Resistance’s unofficial organ. “I am baffled often why they are so vocal on other issues like U.N. resolutions and yet so silent on Bannon, the architect of Breitbart,” he said. “Federations are stuck in an old model, they’re not touching young people,” Murane told Haaretz. “These are the kids who joined federation young adult groups. Then they wanted their institution to reflect their voices. But when they mobilized and reached out they were immediately rebuffed,” said Murane, who lives in Toronto. Bend the Arc’s Cotler said, “We have a moral obligation to take action and ensure that no community, including our own, becomes scapegoated during this Trump administration. This feels like a critical moment where our community cannot remain silent.” This story "Is Fight Against Donald Trump Sparking New Movement of #JewishResistance?" was written by Debra Nussbaum Cohen.
SHARE By of the Madison - Documents were deleted from state redistricting computers last year even after a lawyer for the Legislature told lawmakers' aides to preserve all records on the computers, according to documents filed Wednesday in federal court. Nine hard drives were recently given to groups suing the state because of questions about whether legislators and their attorneys had turned over all the documents they had been ordered to provide. One of the nine hard drives was unreadable and the outside of it was dented and scratched, which suggested its metal housing had been removed, according to affidavits in the case. In addition, some of the hard drives had a program installed on them that could remove electronic data and hide the fact that files had been deleted, according to the filing. So far, however, a computer expert has not been able to determine if the program was actually used. A lawyer representing the law firm that helped lawmakers with redistricting called the new allegations premature and unproven. Left unanswered so far is who was responsible for the deletion of any documents. The technician reviewing the computers hopes to recover at least some documents. The filings are the latest sign of legal difficulties for Republicans who control the Legislature and their backers. It raises the possibility officials or their lawyers could face sanctions from the panel of three federal judges or the state Office of Lawyer Regulation. The case holds high stakes for Republican lawmakers and Michael Best & Friedrich, the firm they hired help draw the new lines. The court has been critical of the way the firm handled the case, at one point ordering lawyers there to pay about $17,500 because they had filed frivolous motions in attempts to block the release of documents. Every 10 years, states must draw new maps for legislative and congressional districts to account for population changes. Republicans controlled all of Wisconsin's government in 2011, and they used their power to draw lines that were greatly beneficial to their party. A group of Democrats and the immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera sued, and the panel of federal judges ruled last year that two Assembly maps on Milwaukee's south side violated the voting rights of Latinos. The court put in place new maps for those districts but not others, meaning the Republican-friendly maps were largely preserved. But after the ruling, the plaintiffs identified documents - 55 so far - that should have been turned over to them but never were. Last month the court ordered the state to turn over the computers so the plaintiffs could forensically examine them because the judges found "some form of 'fraud, misrepresentation, or misconduct' likely occurred." In the two weeks the plaintiffs have had hard drives, forensic examiner Mark Lanterman has determined documents were deleted in June, July and November. He also found some of them contained "wiping" software meant to delete files so that they cannot be recovered. The internal and external hard drives come from the three computers that legislative aides, lawyers and consultants used to draw the maps. One of the nine hard drives had a stripped screw, dents and scratches and is unreadable. Lanterman did not tell the court how many documents had been deleted from the hard drives, but a lawyer for the plaintiffs called the number "substantial." Lanterman said he would need at least eight weeks to fully review the computers and determine whether they contained records that should have been turned over but were not. Wednesday's filings came as the plaintiffs asked the court to extend a Friday deadline to report their findings. The Legislature hired Michael Best to help draw the maps, and the three state computers were housed in the law firm's Madison office to do that work. The computers were returned to the state around March, according to a recent deposition by Eric McLeod, the attorney who was in charge of the work for Michael Best. The deletion of files began a few months later, according to Wednesday's filings. McLeod left Michael Best in July, and the firm later stopped representing the Legislature. But in his deposition, McLeod said he told legislative aides numerous times to preserve all redistricting documents, and he said he "clearly communicated" that directive again after the trial was completed. But the Legislature's new attorney, Tom Pyper of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, wrote in a recent letter to the plaintiffs that the computers were put back on the state network in May or June. "Information deletion would have taken place in the normal course of usage of state computers," Pyper wrote in the letter. He argued the Legislature was not required to preserve documents after June, if not sooner. That's when an appeal of the court's findings on the maps was dropped. The plaintiffs dispute that, saying the Legislature was obligated to retain all documents under court rules. The computers were used by legislative aides Tad Ottman and Adam Foltz and consultant Joe Handrick. Ottman and Foltz work for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), though Foltz worked for then-Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) at the time of redistricting. Handrick worked for lobbying and law firm Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren at the time he served as a redistricting consultant for the Legislature. Handrick, a former GOP representative, now works at the state Department of Workforce Development. Scott Fitzgerald's office referred questions to Pyper, but Pyper did not respond to questions. Handrick said he stopped working on redistricting well before any files were deleted and didn't know anything about it.
The painful realities of Hyena sex When a mother does her best, she expects a well-behaved child. But for top-dog hyena moms, a hell-raiser is preferred. Alpha females give a hormone boost to their developing cubs, making them more aggressive when fighting for food and increasing their chances of survival, according to a study in the April 27 issue of the journal Nature. The extra hormones also inspire young males to mount females early and often, giving them a better shot at performing their tricky mating dance correctly down the road. You won't believe how hard the act is, and why. Hormone surge Unlike most mammalian societies, female spotted hyenas run the show and are significantly more muscular and aggressive than males. After studying hyenas in Kenya for nearly two decades, researchers discovered that in the final stages of pregnancy, high-ranking females provide their developing offspring with higher levels of androgena male sex hormone associated with aggressionthan lower-ranking mothers provide to their developing young. This is the first study to show that a mother's social status, and not just her genetic makeup, can directly affect her offspring's observable physical characteristics. Aggressiveness is a good attribute for a creature living in a society where 40 to 60 individuals scrap over food, and especially for females requiring extra energy for developing offspring. By infusing her developing young with androgen, the mother increases the likelihood that her genetic information will survive. 'Imagine giving birth through a penis' But providing the extra hormones takes a toll on the mother. The dose of androgen that she received from her own alpha mother damages her ovaries, making it difficult to conceive. It also causes female reproductive organs to grow. A lot. Her clitoris, which contains the birthing canal, protrudes 7 inches from her body. "Imagine giving birth through a penis," said study co-author Kay Holekamp of Michigan State University. "It's really weird genitalia, but it seems to work. Although giving birth through a 'penis' isn't a trivial problem." The clitoris' birth canal is only an inch in diameter, and the tissue often tears as a 2-pound cub squeezes through the narrow opening. The rip can be fatal, as evidenced by the high death rate for first-time mothers. Practice makes perfect Because of the female's awkward genitalia, successful mating for hyenas is tricky to pull off. It takes careful positioning for the male to crouch behind her and somehow get his penis to point up and backwards to enter her clitoris. "Males need practice. After a couple of months of practicing, they get it lined up just right," Holekamp told LiveScience. Since the sons of alpha females are born hyper-aggressive, they start trying to mount females at just a few months old, giving them a better shot at sealing the deal later in life. Quote: Originally Posted by liam2me the one i started was a key fob kinda thing, was complicated as feck i must admit, the whole thing lit up like a motherfucker. __________________
UPDATE June 22, 2015: Maryland CPS Clears “Free-Range” Parents in Neglect Case From Danielle Meitiv Facebook Page: (Washington, DC)—Maryland Child Protective Services (CPS) has dropped all allegations of child neglect made against Danielle and Alexander Meitiv, the Silver Spring, Maryland, parents at the center of the high-profile “free-range” children case. The decision affirms what the Meitivs have maintained all along: that they are responsible parents who have never neglected their children. The Meitivs said they are pleased with the result but concerned that CPS’s decision still leaves unnecessary confusion for their family and others. The agency’s decision provides no explanation why CPS instituted its investigation, why it made a “Ruled Out” determination or why the agency took two months to issue its decision. Prior to receiving this decision, CPS announced new guidelines on June 11 attempting to clarify how the agency will apply child neglect laws, particularly with respect to school-aged children who are walking in their neighborhoods or playing at local parks. Under the new policy, CPS said it would not intervene unless there is evidence the child “has been harmed or is at substantial risk of harm if they continue to be unsupervised.” In dropping the investigation into the Meitiv case, CPS did not indicate whether the agency applied its new or old policy. “Our family is happy that the investigations are closed, but more needs to be done,” Danielle Meitiv said. “The guidelines contain too much ambiguity and fail to acknowledge the parents’ right to allow their children age-appropriate independence. The guidelines also overlook that the parents should be the first adults contacted if there is any question about children who are playing among themselves in their neighborhood. I look forward to working with parents, as well county and state legislators, to ensure that parents’ choices for raising their children are respected.” Matthew J. Dowd, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Andrews Kurth, is the lead attorney representing the Maryland family on a pro bono basis. Mr. Dowd is working closely with former Maryland Assistant State’s Attorney Thomas DeGonia of Ethridge Quinn Kemp McAuliffe Rowan & Hartinger in Rockville, Maryland, and David DeLugas, Executive Director of the National Association of Parents. “We are not surprised that CPS has dropped its frivolous allegations,” said Mr. Dowd. “But its decision does not remedy the harm caused to the children when they were illegally detained by police and then CPS for over five hours. There were clear constitutional violations that need to be investigated and remedied.” (Source.) UPDATE April 16, 2015: UPDATE Apr 13, 2015: Washington Post Excerpts: Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect…. in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children. On Dec. 20, Alexander agreed to let the children, Rafi and Dvora (ages 10 and 6), walk from Woodside Park to their home, a mile south, in an area the family says the children know well. The children made it about halfway. Police picked up the children near the Discovery building, the family said, after someone reported seeing them. Danielle said she and her husband give parenting a lot of thought. “Parenthood is an exercise in risk management,” she said. “Every day, we decide: Are we going to let our kids play football? Are we going to let them do a sleepover? Are we going to let them climb a tree? We’re not saying parents should abandon all caution. We’re saying parents should pay attention to risks that are dangerous and likely to happen.” She added: “Abductions are extremely rare. Car accidents are not. The number one cause of death for children of their age is a car accident.” Danielle is a climate-science consultant, and Alexander is a physicist at the National Institutes of Health. The Meitivs say that on Dec. 20, a CPS worker required Alexander to sign a safety plan pledging he would not leave his children unsupervised until the following Monday, when CPS would follow up. At first he refused, saying he needed to talk to a lawyer, his wife said, but changed his mind when he was told his children would be removed if he did not comply. Read the Full Story at The Washington Post.
Launch Gallery Expand Libyan rebel fighters celebrate as they drive through Tripoli's Qarqarsh district on August 22, 2011. © 2011 Reuters (New York) – As fighting reaches the Libyan capital, Tripoli, all sides to the conflict – forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, forces of the National Transitional Council, and the NATO allies – need to ensure that they take all feasible steps to avoid harming civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The National Transitional Council (NTC) should instruct its forces not to engage in acts of revenge, Human Rights Watch said. “The pro-Gaddafi forces, fighters of the National Transitional Council, and NATO must do everything feasible to protect civilians caught in the fighting,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “NTC forces should not carry out reprisals against those who fought for or supported the Gaddafi government.” Internally displaced persons in areas now controlled by NTC forces need immediate protection, Human Rights Watch said. Dark-skinned Libyans face particular risks, Human Rights Watch said, because they have frequently been accused of fighting as pro-Gaddafi mercenaries from other African countries. Human Rights Watch also called on NTC forces to protect state institutions such as police stations, security offices, courts, prisons, and other facilities that could come under attack from NTC fighters or angry Tripoli residents. Arms depots and military facilities that may be vulnerable to looting should also be secured. All those detained by rebel forces, including pro-Gaddafi fighters and Gaddafi supporters as well as members of the Gaddafi family, should be treated humanely in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law standards, Human Rights Watch said. According to the NTC, on August 21, 2011, its forces arrested Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader, who is among those sought on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. The ICC Office of the Prosecutor said that Seif al-Islam was reportedly detained by “rebel special forces.” Seif al-Islam and others wanted by the ICC should be handed over to the courtfor fair trial, Human Rights Watch said. In April the NTC sent a letter to the ICC prosecutor promising to cooperate with the court. On June 27, the ICC judges issued warrants for Muammar Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam, and Libya's intelligence chief, Abdullah Sanussi. They are wanted on charges of crimes against humanity for their roles in attacks on civilians, including peaceful demonstrators, in Tripoli, Benghazi, Misrata, and other Libyan cities and towns after the start of anti-government protests in eastern Libya on February 15. From August 4 to 11 Human Rights Watch sent a four-person team in Tripoli and other government-held parts of western Libya. The team engaged senior Libyan officials about human rights violations during the conflict and visited sites of NATO airstrikes where civilians are alleged to have died. It conducted brief visits to two prisons in Tripoli. Since anti-government protests erupted in mid-February 2011, followed by armed clashes, government forces have committed numerous violations of the laws of war, including indiscriminate attacks in places with civilians such as Misrata and towns in the Western Mountains. Rebel forces have carried out some acts of revenge in areas they captured that supported the government, including looting, arson, and some beatings of civilians. Opposition leaders have condemned such attacks and in speeches and television broadcasts over the past 24 hours have urged their fighters not to engage in retaliatory violence. “The NTC has made welcome statements against revenge, but the danger of these attacks still exists,” Stork said. “Opposition leaders and the governments supporting them should keep pressing to avoid atrocities motivated by revenge.” NATO forces should also take all feasible measures to avoid civilian casualties in their airstrikes, as required by international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch. Some airstrikes in western Libya recently inspected by Human Rights Watch apparently caused civilian deaths. “Libya is facing the possibility of a new state that respects fundamental rights,” said Stork. “But what happens in the next few days will set the tone for all that lies ahead.”
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email The killers of a man gunned down outside a petrol station in a Traveller feud must be convicted for the “brutal, cold-blooded murder”, his wife has said. Owen Maughan was targeted outside a garage in Co Mayo just seven days before Christmas. He was taken to hospital but died a short time later and now his wife Anne Maughan has revealed her ongoing pain at the loss. She tells RTE’s CrimeCall tonight: “He was the love of my life – he still is the love of my live. “To know that the person that you loved, that you cannot see them no more – until the day God takes me himself. “And he was my life. Owen actually was my life. He still is my life.” Owen was filling up a water canister outside the garage on Moneen Road in Castlebar at around 3.30pm on December 18 when he was shot a number of times. The bullets were fired from a BMW estate which then sped off in the direction of Claremorris. Owen is the third member of his family to be targeted by gunmen as part of a feud with a Ballina-based family. His brother Jack, 22, was shot twice in a drive-by attack at the same Top Oil Service Station in January 2012 but has since made a full recovery. Owen lived with his family at the nearby Moneen campsite. And Anne revealed she spoke to him just moments before the shooting. She said: “We always did everything together. We are a very close couple. “He said to me, ‘Anne, will you put on a bit of food?’ So I put it on. “And then he said to me, ‘Anne I’m just going down to the shop to fill the cans with water and I’ll be back in a few minutes’. “I had the food on and there was no sign of Owen coming back so I rang his phone and his phone was ringing out. “So my brother-in-law went down to the garage because obviously they thought something was wrong. And they saw Owen on the ground and they came back and told me Owen had been shot. I didn’t believe it. “When I got to the hospital then I went into the A&E and I just saw him lying on the bed and I just tried to talk to him.” Anne added she “cannot accept that he is dead” and regularly thinks Owen is going to return home. She said: “When I’m walking I look over my shoulder to see is it Owen. “You know, I cannot accept he is dead. He was never involved in anything that went on but still to be taken from me – just goes to show, how it was brutal.” In a heartfelt appeal Anne has begged anyone with information about the murder to come forward. She added: “In my heart I do think people know who did this. “And I would just love it if someone could come forward with any information. “Because the people who done this to my husband, they not only took my husband, they took my best friend in a matter of minutes. “They need to be convicted for this brutal, cold-blooded murder.” CrimeCall is on RTE1 tonight at 9.35pm. cathal.mcmahon@irishmirror.ie
Mayor Sadiq Khan has approved the closure of dozens of Metropolitan police stations, further reducing the number of public access points operated by the force. The closures will leave boroughs with just one 24/7 station each and follow the axing of more than 60 stations and front counters by former mayor Boris Johnson. City Hall says the latest closures, which include the stations at Holborn, Southall, Fulham, Kilburn, Holloway, Brick Lane and Wimbledon, will save £8m and help the Met absorb the latest government cuts to its budget. The number of visits to police stations has fallen in recent years, thanks to a rise in reporting crimes and incidents by phone and online and these channels will get further investment to ensure Londoners can always contact the Met. Announcing his closures, Mayor Khan said: “Keeping Londoners safe is my number-one priority, and supporting officers out on the beat in our communities is more important than keeping open buildings that are simply not used by the vast majority of the public, and where just eight per cent of crimes are reported. “Nevertheless, I understand and share some of the very legitimate concerns of Londoners about these closures. That is why we held the widest possible consultation with public meetings in every London borough and we have listened very carefully to the feedback “I am confident that these final plans maintain the best possible service for Londoners, and will provide the access to the police that they need – especially in an emergency.” Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said: “I am confident that these changes will not impact on our ability to deliver this. We know that the ways in which the public want to contact us have changed, so we absolutely must continue to transform, focusing on serving the public as best we can. “Of course we know there will be some people who need to speak to a police officer face to face, and there are still many ways in which they can do that.” The Commissioner added: “We must be a modern forward looking organisation, with better, more effective technology so we can equip our staff to do their jobs whilst on the beat. “This is not simply about the constraints on our budget, but future proofing how we deliver front line policing and the difficult choices we face.”

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